
Strollin' Pettifoggers - A True Story-
The Hedges Farm
by Robert Hedges
Greetings to the Hedges Farm | An old areial photo | Four generations gather | The old log house | demolition of the 1880 wing | the yard from the road | tobacco barn and grain bin, garden hillroad | the west hill (called ridge) at the 100acre partition tract | more roadbed landclearing | east hill (called the east ridge) views | land clearing on the river | The fraud field | logs for production | the story of the farm machines | The salt river bridge | The culverts for roads | The Hedges Farm spring house | Hedges Farm old plat | Hedges Farm log barn | The old Hedges Farm story |
Partition 100 acres | The grain bin story | The grain bin | The work list | Auction land | Hedges Farm new plat | The horse barn pond | The new farm house | The new farm house2 | The new farm house3 | The new farm house4 |The horse barn | The horse barn again | The D-4 Cat dozer pictures | Robert Hedges VII | The next generation | three generations | The old farm scenes | The old farmers |The big house down by the river |Horses | The creek and fieldstone improvements
The truck and later tractor | The tombstones |
THE HEDGES FARM
The year of 1972 opened with the demise of the Hedges Dairy operation. The understanding of the farm operation requires examining the history of tenantry there. The Hedges Farm was 355 acres in this year.
A man named Curtsinger first moved on tothe farm in 1947 to milk cows, and farm generally. He was not ambitious enough to use the land up its full production potential, and the result was the establishment of scrub growth on land which Joshua Hedges had kept mowed for his sheep herd to graze upon. Robert Hedges was the first farmer to again tackle the task of reclaiming all of these acres for some steady production. Ed Dailey had refused to pasture some of these acres even after Robert Hedges fenced them. The Hedges Farm was over 400 acres at the time.
The Commonwealth of Kentucky built a new road through the Hedges Farm in 1948, and returned the old Lilly path to the condemnees in that year. They did not pay for the land condemned for the new road. The new road required changes to the old dairy. The milkhouse was moved from the spring near the little barn, to a new cite over a drilled well near the horse barn. The horse barn was then converted into a cow barn. The larger barn allowed expansion of the dairy. The loan to set this dairy up as a 30-40 cow dairy was a loan from Prudential Insurance Co., at 6%. Prudential called in all their farm loans about 1956, although there is some dispute as to the legality of calling a loan not in default. This required Houston Hedges to get alternative financing at the Federal Land Bank, now called the Farm Credit Bank, at a higher interest rate.
Shelby Dailey arrived in 1948, with his wife and three sons. They all moved into the "big house down by the river" as the Hedges house was called. Taylor G. Hedges still lived there, and the Daileys were paid $200. per month for his care. This $50. per week is comparable with a job at General Electric during that same time era, except that staying at home and doing usual household chores simultaneously was very efficient, and this extra income was the basis for Shelby Daily's success within ten years. Shelby Dailey's son James Ray, [Pete] joined the service, and a second son moved to Jeffersontown. Edward Dailey stayed on the farm. Shelby Dailey purchased a small farm of his own and installed a tenant there within a few years. This increased his nest egg, and within a few years he was able to sell that small farm and buy a larger farm where he moved to in 1958. Houston Hedges helped him make the improvements on his "new" farm house before he and his wife moved into it. Shelby Dailey's dairy herd was the result of the calves that are a by-product of a freshened cow. Breeding of good blood lines are a method of building capital assets without enormous capital investment, and for more than twenty years, the Hedges dairy herd was stable and producing more cows.
Ed Dailey married a local girl, Mildred McDonald, and moved into a tenant house on the west side of the road. Ed had a son first, followed closely by two daughters. Ed took over the farm in 1958 when Shelby Dailey moved to Shelby County to the new farm He had purchased there. The "big house" was improved with indoor plumbing in a pantry next to the kitchen and Ed moved from the tenant house into the "big house." This type of closed business turnover where auctions do not dissipate assets keeps losses and waste at a minimum. The dairy herd remained intact.
Ed Dailey was seeking land for himself and was asking to purchase land by 1962. Houston Hedges sold a 38.28 acre tract to him on the west side of the Lilly pike. This tract had a tobacco base, tobacco barn, and the tenant house in which he had originally lived. This purchase was seller-financed, with an initial low price of $6500. recorded on 2 Jan. 1963. Ed Dailey also purchased 12.46 acres in 1965 surveyed from a 43 acre tract on the edge of the river. Several years later, in 1968, Ed Dailey said he would leave if he could not buy more land, and Houston Hedges sold 14.61 for a total of 27.07 river acres, the total price being $5311.50. This computes to $169.80 @ acre for the first purchase and $196.21 @ acre for the second tract, with the seller carrying the note. This 43 acre field was the lowest of all the fields and most prone to the danger of flooding. The Taylorsville Lake, a flood control reservoir, located just six miles upriver, ended the local floods in 1980. Ed Dailey frequently chopped silage from this field early in the season, or harvested hay, which withstands a flood well. He was not in danger each season by his purchase of 27 acres of this field. The flood-land frequently received a sediment from the backwater of the river, which is always rich in fertilizer and lime value.
Ed Dailey decided to quit the Hedges dairy in 1968, and he had set up his own dairy on his 38 acre tract, and moved into his small new brick house, also on the 38 acre tract. Ed left the "big house" vacant, but still milked the Hedges herd in the horse barn on the east side of the road for a time. Ed had given the Hedges notice that he was working for himself. Ed Dailey became an independent farmer by this act, and partnerships only work when both parties mutually benefit from identical actions. The partnership arrangement between Ed and Houston Hedges would never work fairly again.
Ed worked with the cows and calves on a daily basis, whereas Houston Hedges rarely looked at them, and Ed had been choosing calves from the partnership herd for ten years, and this allowed him to develop his herd at a low cost. Without examination of the issue of whether the dividing of the calves from the partnership herd was mutually beneficial, or prejudicial to the less knowledgeable partner, we must recognize that separate dairies were not equally beneficial by any stretch of the imagination. Ed's dairy could not be sustained by his sixty-five acres, however, and he had to rent additional pasture land adjacent to him. Every new farmer who farmed Hedges acres would be a threat to Ed's independence, and he would quietly undermine, openly criticize or verbally clash with them. His business interest required the use of the Hedges capital assets, and he could make higher profits if the rent he paid was low. Competition among several farmers for the use of the Hedges assets would have driven up the price and this would reduce Ed's profits. Improvements, clean-up or additional construction on the Hedges Farm would increase its usability, production, profits, and appearance, and this did not always suit Ed Dailey. Shelby Dailey had told Ed that he would be able to buy the Hedges Farm if he played his cards right, and Ed had remarked to Houston in the late 1960's that he was gonna burn that old log house down when he owned it, and build a new home right there. This was to revenge himself on the place which oppressed him, . . . the home he rented. Houston was appalled that his historic old log house was the recipient of such undeserved hatred. Ed planned to purchase the land he wanted, little-by-little, with low or no interest, because the run-down, non-modernized, low-production dairy farm wasn't making any return to capital. Ed later offered $1000. per acre for adjoining acres in the early 1980s. He once told Robert Hedges in a fit of anger " if ya can't make no money ya outta sell it." Ed Dailey's offer to buy was a standing offer. Ed controlled production and cash flow. His goal was to buy depreciated and run-down capital assets cheaply.
Charlie Green was one of the old bachelor farm-hands who lived in the big house and worked for the Daileys. When he died a few years ago in Taylorsville, his years of work were remembered by only a few.
Arch and Viney Formen were a black family who lived and worked on the Hedges Farm. Houston Hedges sold them the dwelling they lived in during the 1950's, and Arch tore it down and moved it away. It stood three-quarters of a mile south of the river. Living quarters were not a problem on the farm.
Mary Gimbert Hedges died leaving two young daughters, and Taylor Hedges used these children as leverage against his widower son, Houston Hedges. Houston Hedges had beendeeded one-half the Hedges Brothers and Son Farm back in 1922 by his uncle Joshua. However,Taylor Hedges half of the farm was a point of contention. Houston Hedges married Mary Gimbert's sister Catherine as his second wife. They were both Taylor and Joshua Hedges'grandnieces, and Houston's first cousins once removed. Joshua and Taylor were grandsons ofRobert Hedges VII, the original owner.
Taylor had first made a will leaving half of the farm to Houston Hedges. Then he made a second similar will. Then he made a third will leaving half of the farm to the five grandchildren living when the will was written. Then he made a fourth will leaving half of the farm to the two oldest children, the daughters of Mary Gimbert Hedges. Finally he made a fifth and final will leaving his half of the farm to Edgar Sullivan Esq, as guardian of the two daughters of Mary G. Hedges, who were Mary Annette and Ella Catherine. Mary and Ella grew up receiving together an income equivalent to the income of Houston Hedges. They each had substantial savings' accounts in the bank as a result of this income. All business had to be conducted through the guardian, Edgar Sullivan, Atty. Edgar Sullivan received a fee and controlled a business in which he had no investment. It is alleged that Sullivan either discouraged the leaving of the remaining half of the Hedges farm to all his grandchildren, or encouraged the aged Taylor Hedges to leave his property to the Old Masons Home in Shelbyville, Ky. Robert does not know all the facts of this allegation because he was not present at the time, and no extant will mentions a bequest to the Mason's Home.
The eldest daughter and heir, Mary Annette Hedges was going to marry a boy she knew, but before she did she changed her mind suddenly and decided to marry a different young man, who had just returned from four years in the Navy. Shirley Ray Cook was not accepted immediately as being free of suspicious principle. His parents had not set a good example for him, and there was the matter of the property which Mary owned. Mary and Ray married, and were ready to sell their 25% of the farm by 1960. They moved to Florida, and Ray applied a Navy skill, electronics, in a repair shop in Orlando. By some interesting coincidence, Mary and Ray sold their undivided 25% of the Hedges Farm back to Houston Hedges for $10,000. cash, [which is $102.56 @acre, every type acre]. Houston Hedges then sold about 18% of the flat [best acres] land with buildings, and a tobacco base to Ed Dailey, for $11,811.50, which is a comparable sum. The purchase required Houston Hedges to get long term credit from the Farm Credit Bank, because he had to finance Ed Dailey.
Larry Goode arrived back in Spencer County
after a stint in the US Army. His brother and father have a
dairy
on the Lilly Rd five miles from the river. He and his wife
moved
into the Hedges "big house" and he became the new partner in the
Hedges dairy.
This change in 1970 only lasted one year, and the turnover of
equipment, supplies, dairy stock and incidentals was expensive
and wasteful. Larry Goode's arrival had required a pipeline
milking system, to save labor of carrying milk in milk buckets
to
the milk cooler. Larry Goode had trouble staying on the Grade A
and was selling much of milk under the cheaper Grade C rating to
the cheese factory. Milk inspections were very frequent, and
deficiencies were constant. Larry claimed that Ed Dailey was
part
of his trouble, and that "no one will ever make this farm work
with Ed Dailey across the road." There is more about Larry Goode
in the 1975 file.
Ed Dailey could have commented about deficiencies to the
Inspector that he had noticed as he used portions of the Hedges
property. He could never be entirely weaned from the use of
Hedges acres. Ed needed the implement shed, or the tobacco barn,
or the horse barn loft, or the adjoining shed, or the corn crib,
or all the above. Robert Hedges was hauling Ed's left-over
property to him as late as 1977 .
Bobby Davis moved onto the Hedges farm from a
Shelby County farm where he was a tenant. He and his sizable
family lived in the "big house" from 1971 to early 1972. Bobby
likewise had
trouble remaining on Grade A. He bought his half the dairy herd
from several sources, and financed the cows both through the
Farmers Home Administration and the local sellers. It was said
that Bobby also hauled equipment away and hid it before he was
finally caught. Houston Hedges was too trusting with a tenant
who
had not really given proper references. Stock was discovered
missing on 15 Jan. 1972, and Bobby Davis refused to give an
accounting but instead gave notice that he would not stay the
year of 1972. The FMHA prosecuted Bobby Davis, and he was sent
to
farm at La Grange Reformatory for several months.
Donna Sue, Ed Dailey's youngest daughter & Gussy Husband,
her spouse, moved into the "big house" [rent free] soon after
this, and were quickly asked to move out by Catherine Hedges.
The
farm was vacant, and the production ceased. Dairy regulations
were getting tougher each year, and the Grade A dairy that had
been virtually "grandfathered" was just too old to continue. The
lower income level of Grade C, cheese milk, was one reason that
these two tenants lasted only one year each.
The Hedges dairy stock was virtually gone as a result of
this theft, and there were only eight cows which Ed could
identify as having been raised on the Hedges farm, and these had
to be milked continually, or they would be ruined. The FMHA
took
all the rest of the stock, equipment and supplies and auctioned
all of these items off. This two years of losses and final major
setback was the basis for the
hardship discharge
request
of Robert Hedges to be released from the US Army. There was
still
a loan outstanding at the Farm Credit Bank at this time,
although
the balance of this mortgage resulted from the house in Fern
Creek, and the purchased of the Cook part of the farm.
Robert agreed to study it and manage each acre and plan the
future of each acre, based upon the
promise made in 1975 that he
was to own at least a third of it, and that it was not to be
sold. The duties, labors, management, and skills applied are
listed in his resume.
Production on a farm with woodlands calls for silvaculture
and
log management. The Hedges had
taken great pride in their woods for many years, and in fact
since 1838 it is believed. Houston loved to walk in the woods
each spring and point out trees to Robert. Every individual
tree was a source of joy. The three hundred year old oaks are
sight to see, and PROTECT. John couldn't see well, and if he
were
left alone in the woods would not know which direction to
stumble
to find humanity again.
Taylor Hedges hadhauledlumber to
Buechel, KY to sell from
his farm there around 1900. Logging has been relatively
continuous over the years. The Foreman's had a crew log their
woods in 1948, and this crew crossed the property line and took
about 40 big oaks from the Hedges side of the east property
line.
A survey was required then to determine the line, and this
survey
was just one streight shot from the north to the south line. It
was made without a correction for the movement of actual
north/south since the original survey of 1825 or so, and is
wrong
by a few degrees and about 1.5 acres. The Foreman's did give
Robert three poplar trees from their woods when he was logging
nearby in 1976. The property line dispute is still unsettled.
Robert's logging came about in a strange way.
Lloyd Tichenor is a neighboring farmer who had logged walnut for
his house, and Houston was impressed with the real walnut
paneling which Lloyd's
new
house had in the library. Houston came home talking about how he
admired it, and how large his walnut trees were getting. He was
formulating his plans to build and lumber from the woods was an
integral part of the plan. He intended to have weatherboard
sawed
as he had done when he added a wing on the house in Fern Creek.
A Mr Higgs had a mill at Poplar Level Rd and Indian Trail, and
had owed lumber to Houston since 1948, for logs taken from the
Hedges woods.
Robert began with a small chain saw and be began land
clearing in 1974. He got a larger saw in
1975 and he dumped
selected walnut trees on the ground. He believed that he
couldn't
go wrong with the walnut, because even the smallest tops would
saw out a 4x4 or 3x3 turney square.
Curved limbs can yield a chair rocker. Robert located and
purchased the the bulldozer without a
blade. He had to clear the old roads and cut paths in the woods
for access to the logs since it was without a blade to push
brush
and trees aside. The walnut logs are hauled and sawed, rather
than the walnut logs being sold in 1975. A veneer company only
offered 80cents per bd ft for the best veneer logs. Lumber
prices were higher than that offer even then. Ed Dailey was
willing to show off his new loader on his modern tractor, and he
loaded the walnut logs. The C-30 truck hauled both the logs and
the lumber. C.L. Holt had his saw mill at High
Grove, and he sawed the logs for Robert. Robert went to the mill
to personally oversee each log's sawing.The records indicates
Clarence sawed 5000 bd ft of walnut that year for the Hedges.
There was more logging of the oak, cherry,
poplar, ash, beech, sycamore, and big cedar. Clarence Holt loaded and hauled these for
a fee. Winter was the time to get the logs ready when the sap
was the lowest, and spring was the time to go into the woods and
haul them to the mill. There was at least 2000 bd ft sawed in
1976, 15,000 bd ft sawed in 1977, about 3500 bd ft sawed in
1978,
and the last of the logs, about 3700 bd ft, sawed in 1979.
Robert
helped saw, and he loaded, hauled, unloaded and stacked all of
this lumber for almost a total of 30,000 bd ft. It was
excellent
exercise.
Ella used some in her house and in her yard. John used some in
his projects. Lumber was used in the new house, in the barns,
and in the outbuildings. Where is Robert's house.?
The three crop areas of this farm were
the west ridge, the east ridge and the bottoms. The bottoms
stretch from the river's edge to the hills a half mile away.
There is also the west ridge
pasture, in three separate parts. Ed wanted to purchase one of
the first two west ridge parts; he rented two west ridge parts,
and refused to use the third west ridge part even after Robert
Hedges fenced it, bush-hogged, "liberated" [tree cutting and
clearing] and bulldozed some of it.
Early in 1972, while the discharge was in progress, Ed
Dailey had a D.R. Rice's dozer with Larry Puckett operator,
clear
a road to the top of the west ridge, and clear a couple of acres
of brush to open a hill field for cropping corn. This land was
not land that Ed Dailey wanted to buy particularly, and it
suffered erosion due to its slope, but Ed wanted to raise
partnership corn on it, and he did continuously crop it until
1979. Robert Hedges planted clover, timothy and fescue on it for
a good hay crop in 1979. It was not productive in 1980, and was
leased to Allen Wells who plowed it again in 1981. This ended
the
long-term soil-conservation plan for those acres.
The river field of 43 acres, from which Ed Dailey's 27 acre
purchase came, also contained five acres that had grown up in
brush since it was last plowed prior to 1947. The remaining 13
acres had lost crops several years in a row due to flooding by
the Salt river. The chart of profits and losses which Robert
Hedges created to change the farm business indicated that this
field should be left out of production, because costs and losses
exceeding gains. Marty Johnson offered to plant the river field
in partnership soybeans as soon as he heard that it might be
fallow for a year. Several farmers believed that the decision to
not plant was not a sound business decision. This was 1976.
Bernard Cheek was introduced to
Robert by the Johnsons, and he agreed to no-tilled the fallow
pasture land for the Hedges, which was non-flooding bottom land.
Ed Dailey had
originally rented these as pasture land acres for about the
fixed
cost of the taxes and insurance allocated to them. Crop
production requires buildings which require insurance. Therefore
it is possible to allocate the fixed cost of insurance to the
productive acres. A woodland acre would not be allocated the
fixed cost of insurance because it did not require a building.
Increasing production required the rented flat acres to produce
a
grain crop, especially since some acres cannot ever be plowed
safely due to steep slope and erosion danger, and must remain in
pasture-land uses. He no-tilled 48 acres of corn in 1978.
Robert
began to prepare to harvest that corn. Harvest required the
purchase of a grain-storage facility, a combine and a truck.
Other farmers were not going to do the harvest work until after
their own harvest responsibilities were completed.
Fuzzy Greer was a farmer who worker at General
Electric, and
farmed at Little Mount, KY, next door to Bernard Cheek. Fuzzy
share-cropped soybeans in 1977 on a 12 acre tract behind the
tobacco barn, which was then non-flooding bottom. Robert Hedges
determined to change crops and oust Ed Dailey from this field
because the year before Ed Dailey had raised a free wheat silage
crop on it that resulted in a double-cropped late corn. Ed
chopped his half of the late corn crop for silage, and the high
moisture didn't hurt his purpose. The Hedges half of the corn
molded and had to be sold for $1. per bushel. Ed refused to
raise
soybeans, and said "ain't got no use for no soybeans." "I'm
gonna show you how powerful I am."
Leon Bentley came
along to raise the tobacco after Ed Dailey decided that he could
not handle it in 1974. Ed had continued to
raise the tobacco for several years after he quit the
partnership
dairy to milk only his own dairy. Leon Bentley was introduced
to
Houston Hedges by Pete Dailey, who lived next door to him and
his
family at Waterford. Leon Bentley along with his wife and sons
Mitchell, Curtis, and Wendell began to grow the tobacco in 1974.
They had several years of slight crops to catch up, and they
soon
did catch up. They saved every leaf, weeded the crop, filled the
barn and required extra tier rails in the barn to contain the
excess. Robert installed the tier rails in the shed. They were
leftover rafters from the old house, and new 2x6s from the
sawmill. The Bentleys were partners with one another, and so any
act to hinder Robert Hedges by one partner which benefitted
another partner would also benefit the hinderer. There was
contention with the Bentleys in later years which will be
described in this volume at an appropriate juncture.
Pete Dailey wanted to build in the Salt river
valley, on the
Lilly Rd., and he originally asked to be sold a wedge on the
south-east corner of the Hedges Farm with road frontage. He
asked during 1975. He later purchased 11 acres or so from Mr
Bodine. What he purchased was a triangular wedge lying in front
of the north end of the Hedges farm, adjacent to the river, also
having road frontage. He intended to build upon it, and asked
if the Hedges would sell some land adjoining his which was not
prone to flood, as his tract was flood plane land. But the
Hedges were not selling land.
Soon after the dozer was purchased Pete drained the water one
cold weekend when Robert was on a church retreat. He looked
forward to a fence-row clearing agreement, and was not opposed
to
the planned land clearing at that time. During mid-summer of
1978, a tenant farmer from the Foreman place was
turtle trapping and frog gigging in the Hedges ponds. Upon
discovery by Robert, he invited Robert to Pete Dailey's for a
turtle and frog dinner. Robert politely attended, but declined
to swim in the Dailey's backyard excavate pond, which had
yielded
the dirt for the mound upon which their house was constructed.
"Little" Pat Bennett led Robert into the Dailey house later in
the evening and Robert was sitting in the living room, where he
admired a 357 magnum lying on the counter.
Without known provocation Eleanor Glen Dailey jammed the pistol
up his nose and backed him out the front door. She was saying
something about waiting for an engraved invitation. Pat Bennett
jr said " this is too
much for me, . . I'm leaving". and departed also. Robert never
again entered this Dailey property. Gunplay can be dangerous or
deadly, particularly when mixed with alcohol.
On one occasion in 1981, Robert was clearing the trash
trees
from the swampy area behind Pete's 11 acres, and Pete arrived to
dispute this work. There was no possible disagreement about the
location of the straight property line, but Pete was claiming
that Robert was cutting trees in "his aviary". [which means
enclosed
bird sanctuary]. A large ash tree was taken from the Hedges
land
behind the Pete Dailey tract on another occasion after 1982, and
there was no possible access at the time the tree was sawed down
to reach it through the Hedges property. Crops and mud were in
the
way. This tree has a value as a mature shade tree also, which
far
exceeds the mill value. The well-beaten path led directly
through
the Dailey property. Whoever had stolen the $200. ash log [a
felony at the time it occurred] had noticeably trespassed upon
the Daileys to get into the Hedges swamp, which implies
knowledge
or cooperation on the part of the Daileys.
A complaint about this to the State Police yielded no
result at all. In fact, no crime in recent years which occurred
on this farm was ever solved, except by Robert Hedges.
Ralph Edwards was a partner with Mike Driscoll in D&E Grain
Systems, supplied by Ed Bickett of Vine Grove. Robert decided to
put in grain storage because, statistically, stored grain there
will make a profit nine years in ten, while in the one remaining
year the a maximum price will be offered at harvest time.
Robert
contracted to purchase from D&E despite well-meaning local
advice
that they were dilatory. Robert applied for Commodities Credit
Corp. credit through the Spencer County Agricultural
Stabilization & Conservation Service. The approval was only
valid
for three months, is only approval to the
individual vendor (D&E) rather than an open loan offer, and D&E
promised to finish Robert's grain bin before any later
purchases.
D&E then sold a small bin (18 ft) to Elvie Keeling, and
eventually began to work on his first. Elvie decided to sell his
crop land and failed to ever finish his bin. The construction of
the Hedges' bin was delayed as a result. While D&E were letting
the time run out to construct the grain bin, and were placing
the
corn crop in dire jeopardy of poor weather, they were also
making
remarks as recorded below, which still remain unexplained. The
net loss as a result of the lost corn has been computed at
$11,136.00. plus interest which accrued on debt not amortized by
these funds.
78/10/ = Again during harvest season of 1978, Ralph Edwards,
on his farm across the river, in the same time period said " we
cut hogs out here " This remark merely implies cruelty, rather
than
interference,
and may be the result of Robert's aversion to the brutal
practice. Any
other explanation will have to originate in the more
knowledgeable mind
of the reader/viewer.
78/10/ = Ralph Edwards " a nephew has to come in for some "
Is
Ralph Edwards meddling here for some ulterior motive, or just
stirring
up something. ? Whose nephew does he mean ? Someone else's, or a
nephew
of Robert Hedges ?
78/10/ = Mike Driscoll on various occasions and at varying
locations..." I'm joining the Catholics " [later] " you'll need
a
tank to stay out here . . [later] I'm Charles ".[drummers stick
together?]
"You can't hire Cootes, he's Ed Dailey's attorney " . . . .
R.M.
Cootes is J.D. Dale's law partner, and sometimes Spencer County
attorney, as well as the PCA Attorney in 1981. This is just as
mysterious as the statements by Ralph Edwards. Meddling and
contract
failure by these partners have damaged Robert.
78/11/ = Ralph Edwards " you took Ed's corn land . . .that's
what
ya done " This seems to be Ralph meddling again. In light of his
failure in the matter of the grain bin, this statement mixed
with
his actions equals intentional failure to carry out a contract.
It
is unfortunate, that a case against D&E was prevented by the
Hedges
v Hedges case of 1981. Robert could only stretch his legal
dollars so far.
78/12/18 = Mike Driscoll..."I held'um while they knocked their
teeth out
. . . I hope you still want them . . . " after delivering the
transport
auger from the Vine Grove area. Robert walked off in a daze,
wondering
what had happened.
79/1/ Ed Bickett said" better
luck next
time" . . . "we got the best
with the worst before" Obviously someone has said something to
Ed Bickett about this situation before Robert's arrival. [" I am
the
best and you didn't get me "] was Robert's angry response. Ed
Bickett's secretary mentioned a phrase Robert had said to a girl
{Aa} and upon his reaction she responded with a not unkind
comment
" you like her ?" Ed Bickett's laborer said " we were just about
to
get in with them." Robert had gone to Vine Grove KY to try to
get
Ed Bickett to pressure D&E to complete their late contractual
obligation to build the grain storage facility, before it was
too
late.
78/12/30= Cary Edwards. Ralph's son arrived to work on the grain
bin,
as was required by the contract. " I'll help you, I heard what
happened . . . I'll help you . . . " This is still unexplained.
79/1/ Ralph later said," It was Ed Dailey, it was Ed Dailey, he
put
it in your water jug, now
we're all gonna get killed " " I'm
gonna
go home and tell ".....[on the old salt river bridge] Early
1979.........
There has been very little communication between Robert and
Ralph
or Mike Driscoll since this contract breach and various
harangues.
There has been no further communication with Ed Bickett.
78/10/= "stole that dozer didn't you" - Elvie Keeling was a
local
farmer, whose grain bin was begun before Robert's despite
Elvie's
later purchase, and promises by D&E to begin Robert's before
later
purchases. Elvie's project was abandoned, and eventually
relocated
3 miles, after Elvie sold his flat cropland that same winter.
The Production Credit Association threatened to
foreclose
on a farm business with about a 9% debt to capital asset ratio
in
early 1981. The Hedges cropland supplying the crops which made
grain
storage necessary was leased to Bernard Cheek, after he offered
$80. @
acre lease which tempted Houston & Catherine Hedges. The elderly
couple
were retired and were not well informed or
capable.
Attorney J.D.Dale advised Houston and Catherine to sue
Robert Hedges. Judge Harold Y. Saunders presiding in the 53rd
Judicial District from Shelby County granted injunctive relief
in
Spencer Circuit Case 81-CI-024, to prevent the removal or use of
the
machinery which was PCA financed. The
restraining
order served no
useful purpose, except wasteful legal fees. The "Plaintiff"
Houston & Catherine Hedges, deceased, parents of Robert Hedges
believed they had a "case" against a sound inexpensive business
which Robert had painstakingly built. Their lawyer did not
advise
a case against D&E Grain Systems.
The Court hearing of Spencer Circuit 81-CI-024 was
carried
out in October 1981, without benefit of Council for defendant
Robert
Hedges. The patent attorney initially retained by Robert had
filed
his version of a defense, agreed upon a trial date with
Plaintiff
Council J.D. Dale, and then withdrew, leaving an unskilled and
untrained client, Robert Hedges to represent himself.
Judge Saunders in Circuit Court took the grain business
from Robert Hedges, defendant, and gave control unto Houston &
Catherine Hedges.
John Hedges, a handicapped
unemployed younger brother, had interfered with Robert Hedges
during the harvest of 1981,
when 220vac current was needed to operate the grain bin, which
had been leased to Bernard Cheek for the
1981 harvest year [3]
John had Robert arrested on a felony assault warrant. District
Judge Bond recused. District Judge Ollie Bohen failed to settle
the matter of the missing electrical supplies, and the matter
remained unsettled in 1981.
The ASCS sold the Grain Bin and the portable transport
auger without competitive bids for $3525. based upon the
reasoning that the grain storage facility was needed on the
Hedges Farm to allow efficient production, and Bernard Cheek had
the temporary lease on those acres, so he would be allowed to
buy
it.
The Auctioneer H. Barry Smith took bids
on the grain bin on 15 March 1991. He rejected all bids. The
unaccepted bids for the grain bin of 15 March 1991 exceeded
twice
the bid accepted by the ASCS, without regard for the separate
transport auger, which is easily moved during a season from farm
to farm. There had been interim wear and tear from subsequent
use
by Bernard Cheek, yet offers were much higher than cost basis.
These facts raise a
serious question of the actions of the ASCS. [3]
The control of the grain business had been placed in
other hands by the Court and the Court failed to prevent
physical
interference in the management by Robert Hedges, which led to
very excessive loss due to mismanagement by the local
Agriculture
committee in its sale methods.
1) Bernard Cheek reduced the lease rate he was
willing to pay as soon as Robert was no longer competitive. This
tactic is a well known illegal monopolistic practice. Driving
the
competition out of business with unbusiness-like charges or
payments was outlawed during the John D. Rockefeller era.
Kentucky even has a statute
about monopoly. But who will enforce it.?
2) All law states that injunctive relief comes
only
from the equity
court which must requires proof of impending irreparable damage
before injunctive relief can be issued. Irreparable damage is
defined
as damage for which monetary settlement will not compensate.
Judge
Saunders required no proof of irreparable damage from his friend
John
D. Dale, and in-fact money can compensate for any business loss
involving the buying or selling of fungibles, which are non-rare
or
non-individualistic market items.
3) The grain bin was practically unused in 1978,
not used at all
in 1979, and had been filled less than half way with beans in
1980,
which represents little total use. All later use was by Bernard
Cheek.
The value of the grain storage was 6 cents per bushel per month
which
was 8900 bushels * .06 = $534.00 * 4 months = $2136.00. per
season,
This figure could go higher if storage was required for more
time.
The transport auger, a mobile accessory to the grain storage
facility
was an $1800.00 investment, and was not used to the extent of
noticeable
wear. The loss would be a deductible loss, but income is
required
to
offset these losses, and Houston Hedges received all the income.
This is but one part of the circumstances which are only
partially
the direct results of the acts of Judges. The Civil Servants of
the ASCS are also responsible for this. Robert believed that the
neighborhood would prosper if business were kept in the
neighborhood.
The neighbors seemed to be grinding their own axes. There are
huge
lists of quotes for the upcoming book/movie of this situation.
Robert had acquired 105 ft of 5.5 ft of steel-reinforced
concrete
culverts for the Hedges Farm. He
planned to install them in the
branch (Hedges Run) which drains the watershed within the two
miles
south of the Salt River. These culverts would have been
installed
along a half-mile of the Lilly Rd (Hwy 623), and would have made
82.18
rolling acres more directly accessible. The survey of this 82.18
acres
in five or ten acre tracts would have created very nice building
lots
with mature trees, privacy, low noise filtration, and the higher
price
per acre than the two tracts which the surveyors planned for
this
area.
Leroy Williams had a farm which he built a lake upon, and
he wanted those culverts to make his lots accessible and thus
raise
the value of his property. He approached Robert and tried to
buy
those culverts. Robert refused to sell, because to remove those
improvements would have materially reduced the value of the
farm.
Leroy Williams went to some other person and tried to buy
those culverts.Leroy's land development has those culverts
installed
today. A 25 year old dogwood tree was uprooted when those
culverts
were moved. There has been no hearing to determine who thought
that
they had title to this construction material, or how Leroy
Williams
believes he got title to this personal property.
Allen Wells leased the hayfield which
Robert Hedges had just sowed in clover, fescue and timothy after
years of abuse on the west ridge in 1981.
Allen Wells had been
farming on the Foreman farm next-door also, and Wells took
culverts from the side of the road belonging to Robert Hedges
and
installed them in the Foreman Farm.
Doug Wearren leased the Foreman
Farm and subleased to Allen Wells .
TheForeman Brothers said that
the
responsibility for the cost of the culverts was to be upon Doug
Wearren. Doug Wearren was so upset that Robert Hedges wished to
be paid for his
culverts, that Wearren accused Robert of being a Corvette thief.
That allegation about Robert's antique 1957 Corvette show car
was
the reason that Robert approached the FBI originally. Slander
has faster feet than fact.
Doug Wearren then had said that he would pay for the culverts
if Allen Wells would contact him with the particulars of their
location. Allen Wells didn't do this, and instead appeared in
small claims court. Robert received an insufficient settlement
of
$20.00 in the Judge Ollie Bowen District Court. The long
distance
calls alone cost $35. and were a bone of contention between
Robert and his depression-era parents, whose idea of the value
of
a dollar was as antique as the farm.
Robert Hedges had other culverts stored on these acres.
There were other concrete culverts on the real estate -
(5)20 in x 48 in, (2)18 in x 72 in, (2)28 in x 108 in,
(1) 40 in x 64 in, (1)16 in x 48 in, (5)28 in x 48 in,
(2)36 in x 96 in, and 66 ft of 2.5 ft oval culverts. The
purchasers seem to have installed this construction material.
The developer, Robert Hedges has not been reimbursed for the
out-of-pocket expense, let alone for the value of the
development work.
The 100 acre tract which is the subject
of
the
partitioning case also was effected by the removal of the
biggest
culverts. There were 24 ft of the large culverts on that 100
acres, for installation thereon. That real property case had
never been heard when the culverts disappeared in January 1991,
and that tract was devalued also, although the actions of the
Judges in that case have made it impossible to have a legitimate
hearing in the partitioning matter.
Larry Foreman, son of CT, is the buyer of
the 100 acre partitioning tract in December 1991. He got the
best
access route to the Foreman Woods by buying the Hedges Woods.
This
made the Foremans very likely bidders for part if not all of the
100
acre partitioning tract.
Larry Foreman called Robert on the phone about the 27th
of
December and offered to partition the 100 acres, for a price.
Larry asked $15,000. for about 33 acres of the 100 acres. He had
paid $290. per acre and asked $454.54, but only for the least
valuable of all the acres within the 100. He was not selling
the $1200. acres included in the 100 acre tract. Profits in
real estate can be swift. He communicated this offer to JD Dale
jr,
who sent a letter making the partitioning offer to Robert.
The Foremans together bought 205.49
acres
of the 355 acre
Hedges Farm, which is 57% of the total sales.
There is no doubt that the removal of the
culverts reduced the value of the Hedges Farm. There has been no
hearing
to determine the damage to the estate resulting from the taking
of this
improvement from the Hedges Farm. The value of the 82.18 acres
involved,
and the bids which would have been reasonable for the five and
ten acre
tracts would have prevented one buyer from buying all of that
82.18
acres.
The 82.18 acres averaged only $839. @ acre at the
auction
by
H Barry Smith Company. The Foreman's Realtor, Ronnie Snyder,
brother of former US Senator Gene Snyder has asked a vague
"about" $1500. for
those acres. The figures on the four listed small building
tracts gives an idea of the price difference which smaller
tracts demand.
The report of the theft of these culverts has not gotten
any response from the Commonwealth Attorney in Shelbyville, KY.
The theft was noticed and reported on 2 Feb., 1991 by Robert
Hedges, who had legal title to these culverts. Robert has
complained more recently also.
The threat of foreclosure
The H Barry Smith Auction on the Hedges Farm recorded bids
on 16 March 1991 of: