Dirt Farmer's Son. Terry A. Maurer
again. Was real green until I brought it in the house but guess it’ll make the grade. Here is one of Pauline’s flowers she wore at the wedding. Not much else to say for this time. Save the piece about the wedding for Pauline wants to keep it.
Will sign off.
As ever,
Bernard
I remember my mother crying in the old farm kitchen in 1948. My dad had just told her he’d been charged by the State of Michigan for shooting deer out of season, something Doc Godfroy and Uncle Mose did a lot of. He said he had to either pay $5,000 in fines or go to jail for six months. My dad said, “I don’t have $5,000, so I guess it’s jail.”
My mother was pleading, “Who’s going to feed the chickens and milk the cows?”
Just then, Doc Godfroy walked in. He said, “Don’t worry, Bernard, we’ll get you a good Jewish attorney.”
My dad said, “Where are we going to find a Jewish attorney up here in Crawford County, Northern Michigan?”
Doc said, “Well, you have a cousin who is a monsignor and lives in Mt. Clemens near Detroit. He must know a rabbi and the rabbi would surely know a Jewish attorney.”
The call was made to the cousin in Mt. Clemens, and the rest is history. My dad did not serve time nor pay the $5,000. Dad’s attorney countersued the State of Michigan for crop damages, suing for the same $5,000, saying that “if the deer belong to the state, then it was the state’s responsibility to keep their deer out of Mr. Maurer’s crops.” The trial took three years, ending essentially in a draw. My dad and Doc Godfroy were ultimately fined six cents. I was in the courtroom when the judge pronounced “guilty” and “The fine is six cents.”
Uncle Doc said, “We are not going to pay it.”
I then said, “I can pay it. I’ve got six cents in my pocket left over from my school milk allowance.”
My uncle slapped my hand with the nickel and penny, saying, “I said we’re not paying it.” The change flew across the floor. Somebody must have paid, maybe the attorney, because no one went to jail. I was five years old.
In preparation for the final days of the trial, the conservation department, under the direction of Officer Clarence Roberts and Mr. Wright of the Crawford County field office, staged a twenty-man raid on the Godfroy farm, where we lived. My mother told me later that the “bad” conservation officers searched every inch of the farmhouse, including under the bed where Tony and I were sleeping, looking for canned venison. All the canned venison had already been buried in wooden wine barrels under the apple trees in the orchard. The officers did collect as evidence many horns nailed to the rafters in the new tractor barn.
Here now is a portion of the write-up in the Bay City paper, first laying out the pending case against my dad for shooting deer and then the article on the six-cent judgment.
Two Pending Cases
The Bay City paper
October 1947
The pending cases involve the alleged killing of a vast number of fish in the Kalamazoo river by the spot dumping therein, a deadly poison in the form of industrial waste (filed weeks ago at Albion but not yet tried) and last week’s filing of a $5,000 damage suit in the Crawford county immediately followed the sentencing of Bernard Maurer, a farmer, in justice court, on a jury finding of guilty on two counts of illegal possession of venison. The suit is directed at Maurer and at Dr. Bernard M. Godfroy of Traverse City, owner of the farm where conservation officers, during the recent deer season, searched a barn and said they found portions of the remains of 55 animals both does and bucks. The penalty imposed of Maurer for the purported game law violation itself was 60 days in jail plus $19.85.
Scalps Put in Evidence
Specifically involved in the trial were scalps and other remnants of 49 animals which officers said they found tacked up on inside walls of a barn at the Godfroy-Maurer place. They were exhibited in court.
The defense contended all the deer were killed from May 20 to Sept. 30, a period covered by a permit, which required Dr. Godfroy and Maurer to turn the slaughtered deer over to proper authorities within the meaning of the permit provision. At one point Attorney Nicholas V. Olds for the state told the court the purpose of certain testimony was to show a studied intent on the part of these defendants not to comply with the provisions of the permits issued in 1947 and subsequent years. Crux of the defense case as presented by Attorney Fred Van Fleteren was that the deer were doing tremendous damage at the Godfroy-Maurer place, that Dr. Godfroy had to fight through two months of delay and red tape to get a permit, that the deer were “turned over” even though not immediately and that wording of the permit did not specify immediate notification or any obligation whatever to deliver the slaughtered deer to Conservation Officer Clarence Roberts. Over objections of the state, the defense was permitted to enter as evidence copies of deer killing permits for years after 1947, showing a change in terminology that put more definite obligation on permittees.
Used for Fertilizer
Meat value of the animals was the basis for damages claimed. The state sought to impress the court with the point that deer meat is edible at all times of year and that, had terms of the permit been complied with, the meat could have been put to good use. The defense clung to the point that most of the deer were killed in early June, that they were not in good condition and that the meat had spoiled in the time it would have taken officers to pick it up. Maurer testified deer were plowed under for fertilizer. He was then confronted with testimony he had given at the criminal trial in which he was acquitted of illegal possession of deer after Dr. Godfroy took full responsibility for the killings. He and Maurer denied any of the deer being utilized as food, and both insisted throughout long questioning that the bulk of the deer involved had been killed in June. The state displayed numerous scalps from its exhibit, and expert witnesses said that deer with antlers and hair like these were not June condition deer.
Admitted slaughter
Supporting his contentions of “studied intent” not to comply, Olds presented testimony that Dr. Godfroy and Maurer had gone to conservation headquarters in June 1947, after several nights in which many deer were killed, and that Godfroy there told a conservation official not to bother about the deer at his place because “I have killed them all off.” What happened under a permit issued in 1949 also went into the trial record. The plaintiff presented a series of handwritten demands for damages from the conservation department, each stating that a certain deer which had been killed under the permit would be held until settlement had been made of $100 damages, and in one case $200. Each such notice, some signed by Maurer and by Dr. Godfroy, specified that no physical resistance would be offered an officer removing the deer, but that if the deer was removed it was done under protest. The defense introduced a witness, Elroy Milliken, Crawford County farmer, who also has killed deer under permit. He testified he did not believe deer killed by him left in the field overnight would be fit for human use next day.
State Wins 6-cent damages
in Crawford Deer-Kill trial
by Jim McKenna
Grayling—A six cent judgment was awarded to the conservation against Dr. Bernard M. Godfroy of Traverse City in the deer-killing civil trial which ended Friday. Judge John C. Shaffer excluded the codefendant, Bernard Maurer. It is the first case in which the state has ever sued for recovery of damages on game animals. Two full days of testimony had been taken in the department’s suit against Dr. Godfroy and Maurer, tenant of Godfroy’s Crawford county farm where, in the spring of 1947, Dr. Godfroy admittedly made a mass killing of deer which he contended were ruining the crops.
Tony Maurer with ten-point mount in 1999.
The Laurence Maurer family in 1946, Bernard Maurer, center fifth from right, and Pauline Maurer holding Terry Maurer, front far left.