Duval Commissioner reported murdered

The Duval County Commissioners Court, meeting in regular session on Nov. 3, 1879, approved a resolution introduced by P. W. Toklas to appoint a committee to draft a resolution for the court to consider on the untimely death of ex county commissioner Rafael Salinas who was found murdered near Concepcion the previous month of October 1879.

Named to the committee were Judge James O. Luby, Commissioner Pct. 1 Charles K. Gravis and County Clerk A. R. Vales. The court later deferred consideration of the resolution until its next regular term. No record appears that the matter was ever brought back before the court.

Salinas was a longtime public servant, first being selected for an office in 1861 when he was elected Justice of the Peace Pct. 9 in Nueces County. He served as the first postmaster at Concepcion when a Post Office opened at that place on February 6, 1873. Salinas was elected the first county commissioner of Pct. 3 in the county’s organizational election held in 1876. He served as commissioner for the Concepcion area until November 1878 when E. N. Gray was elected commissioner for Pct. 3.

The Duval County Commissioners Court met in special session on Oct. 31, 1879 to receive a report from its building committee on the building of the county courthouse. After hearing the report the court approved issuing a warrant for $3,690 to H. Heldenfells in payment for the new courthouse.

The court then authorized Sheriff E. A. Glover to purchase three dozen chairs for the courtroom and one chair for the judge’s chamber. At a regular meeting the following week, the court also authorized the sheriff to purchase a bulletin board to be placed on the courthouse door where public notices would be tacked. Commissioners also approved an order making the commissioners court the final arbiter on what would be proper and necessary furniture and stationary for the various county offices.

Commissioner Toklas asked that his name be removed from the bond for Don Alejo Perez, Justice of the Peace for Pct. 2. The court approved the action and directed Vales to so inform Justice Perez. At the same meeting the court found Perez’s financial report incorrect and ordered that it be returned to him for correcting.

In other resignations, Rufus B. Glover quit as road overseer for Pct. 2 and county physician J. S. Kuepfer also quit his post.

The court ordered all streets and avenues in the town of San Diego designated as public roads and highways of the first class. The designation applied to the map of San Diego as subdivided by R. Hollub in 1875.