Common Council resolutions and reports began to be organized by a numbering system in Dec. 1932. Before that time the resolutions were kept folded up in chronological order, roughly by subject or Council committee (such as Parks, Judiciary, Fire, Police, etc.). This set of pre-1932 resolutions represents those labeled as Judiciary, and date from the beginning of city government in 1856.

The resolutions consist generally of tax redemptions (personal property, real estate, assessments, special assessments), claims against the city, some citizen petitions calling for new or rewritten ordinances, and the like. Coverage before 1870 is scarce, and the period of 1907-1910 is sparse.