Thomas David Harp was a California State senator representing Merced, Tuolumne and Stanislaus counties in the late 19th Century.
Harp was nominated on August 28, 1890, by the Democratic convention of the 30th Senate District to represent Merced, Tuolumne and Stanislauscounties. The next year he came under suspicion of taking a bribe for his vote in "the division ofColusa County" and the creation of Glenn County. When the time came for him to testify before a San Francisco-based grand jury, "it was found that he was absent." Other witnesses, though, spoke against him, and he was indicted for malfeasanceon October 30, 1891, but he quickly left the state for Missouri, and a bench warrant could not be served.
Later it was reported that Harp was indicted by the grand jury "for bribery in connection with the bill for reassessment of the railroad company's property for the several years in which it escaped taxation by the decision declaring the assessment illegal." SenatorW.H. Williams of San Francisco was also indicted.
- Genealogy Connections
- Cal Data Nook at sfgenealogy.com
- "Death of a Stanislaus Pioneer," San Francisco Chronicle, May 24, 1900, page 4
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