USA > Iowa > Jackson County > Annals of Jackson county, Iowa, Vol 1-6 > Part 31
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In regard to Lamotte, I mention D. O. Montague, George Belknap, Merrick and John Chamberlain, as being among the first settlers. D. O. Montague was first postmaster. In order to fix upon a name for the post- office he consulted with W. A. Warren, who at that time had a friend of his visiting him by the name of Lamotte. He had been in former years a lieutenant in the French army and his name was given the postoffice. Among others who came to that neighborhood were Alex, George and John- athan McDowell. Jonathan started the first hotel. Caleb McDowell, son of George, started a good wagon and blacksmith shop William Wright, G. W. Wilson, David Stover (blacksmith), R F. Morse. John Van Horn, John McQueen, Andrew Noble and family, Ashley Griffin, Benjamin Hutchins, several Potter families. You will observe that I mention names principally without any remarks to character or peculiarities. My memory does not justify entering into particulars, and I must not record any false impress- ions. Yet I think it is well enough to have the names if nothing else of some of our first settlers
Before closing these few and hurriedly written lines. let me here express my heartv and high appreciation of the work that some of your officers are doing in founding and building up the historical structure of Jackson coun- ty's historical association. From letters I have seen from Mr. Harvey Reid enquiring after early settlers, some of whom are dead and some of whom have moved to distant portions of our country, shows with what industry he is laboring for the best and most exact information in regard to the historical
incidents of such families. This to my mind shows that the annals of the Historical association may be considered correct and reliable, judging from the exhaustive character of the articles published in the Annals from the pen of your Curator J. W. Ellis, and knowing a little of his worth as an in- defatigable collector, of rare and valuable articles, as witness the wealth and worth of the material he has gathered together in his museum. I have often wondered if such a grand display is still contined to improper and in- adequate quarters.
Remember me kindly to friends, Ed. Hunter, John Wright. H. Reid. Walter Gregory and others. With every wish for your prosperity, I am,
Yours truly, JOHN WILSON.
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Address of Hon. Wm. Graham at Old Settlers' Meeting, August 22nd, 1906.
As it is just a week over tifty years since I tirst landed in Iowa, I sup- Pose I have a right to be called an Old Settler. As three days later I be- came a citizen of this county, I believe I have a right to be counted one of the "Old Settlers of Jackson County." As it lacks but three weeks of a half century since I was enrolled as a member of the bar of Iowa, it may be assumed that by association and observation I know something of its courts and that I am not unfamiliar with some of the legends handed down by tradition of the days that antedated my arrival. Had it been left to myself I would have preferred to speak of my eariler associations and my earlier recollections of this county, and of those who are my early contemporaries at the bar. But my text has been assigned to me and I must stick to it.
I have been requested to prepare a short paper on the early courts of Jackson county. While all the terms of courts in Iowa have been held with- in the period covered by my own life, still as I have only had personal knowl- edge of what happened within the past fifty years. whatI have to say will not be reminiscences, but for the most part what I have gathered in the course of my practice from the records of the courts, or from conversations with members of the bar whose advent into lowa antedated my own.
The first court of record held within the limits of Jackson county was held June 1st. 1838, while Jackson county was part of the Territory of Wis- consin, by Hon. Chas. Dunn, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of that territory, by whom Wm. A. Warren was appointed Crier, and W. H. Brown, district Attorney, and Edwin Reeves, Attorney for the Territory. Beside these two lawyers, the only other attorneys present were Thomas S. Wil- son, who a month later became one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Iowa: and T. P. Bennett, Hon. Thomas Drumond, who for about forty years was the able and accomplished judge of the district court of the United States at Chicago, was admitted to practice at this term of the court. The Territorial Legislature of Wisconsin had made pro- . vision for hiolding court in Iowa, and the Hon. David Irwin was assigned the duty of holding these terms of court, but by reason of illness was prevent- ed for over a year and a half from attending at any term, and his failure to discharge his judicial duties was made one ground of the application to con- gress to organize the Territory of Iowa. When Iowa Territory was organ- ized, Hon. Charles Mason, Hon. Joseph Williams and Hon. Thomas S. Wil- son were appointed by President Van Buren, Judges of its supreme court. On Sept. 24th, 1838, Hon. Charles Mason, the Chief Justice, presided at the
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first session of the District Court of Iowa Territory in and for Jackson County, J. K. Moss was appointed clerk, and the first case in which a jury was empaneled was an appeal from a justice court, wherein Charles Bilts was plaintiff and Matthew Ringer was defendant. Some of the early set- tlers may recall the owners of these names.
The next term was held in April, 1839, with Hon. Thomas S. Wilson on the bench and Morris S. Allen, afterward for many years sheriff of this county, was foreman of the grand jury. All the subsequent terms of court while Iowa was a territory were held by Judge Wilson. I think Judge Wil- liams never held any term in this county. I think that Judge Mason held only one term, that in September, 1838. He was a fine lawyer and resigned his seat as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to become Commisioner of Patents to which he was appointed by President Polk. He had graduated from the military academy at West Piont before he entered upon the study of law. and was an accomplished gentleman and scholar. I had the pleasure of entertaining him at my house in Bellevue when he was a candidate for the supreme court in 1589, and he told me that he had not been in Bellevue since he had held court there twenty-one years before.
Jackson county had the honor of furnishing the first Federal Judge from Iowa in the person of Hon. Jonh J. Dyer, who was appointed by President Polk in 1846, District Judge of the District of Iowa, and held that office until his death in 1855. He was a Virginian and settled in An- drew a year or two before his appointment as judge.
At the first election after the admission of Iowa as a state, James Grant of Davenport was elected judge of the district court of the second judicial district which included Jackson county. A man of ability, prompt in the discharge of his duty, and impatient of delay, he hurried through the busi- ness of his court, and hurried back to his home in a manner that gave great dissatisfaction to the members of the bar. The writer has heard the late Judge Kelso relate how at one of his terms he called Kelso up on a case in which he was interested and before he sat down again Judge Grant had tried and decided eighteen writs of error in which Kelso appeared on one side or the other. A writ of error was the favorite way in those days of taking up a case from the justice courts.
The late Captain Warren, of Bellevue, used to tell of Judge Grant's last appearance as judge in Jackson county. On the morning of the second day he took his carpet bag to the court room with him, and about half past . ten o'clock he took up a writ of error in which Judge Sparr appeared on one side and Bangs on the other. They had barely stated the case when the judge, hearing the whistle of a steamboat going down the river, sustained the writ, reversed the case, adjourned court sine die, grabbed his carpet bag and started on a run for the river bank. While the boat was rounding to, he espied Captain Warren and recalling that he had left the grand jury pur- suing their investigations, told him to go over to the court house and tell the grand jury to go home. Judge Grant afterward returned to his practice, and before his death accumulated a larger fortune out of the practice of law than any other lawyer in lowa.
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The story is told of Judge Grant that after he had retired from practice, he and his wife went to California to spend the winter, accompan- ied by his wife's moher. While sojourning there the old lady sickened and died. As soon as the necessary preparations could be made, the judge and his wife took their sorrowful way home. In order that they might be re- lieved of care and responsibility on their journey, the precious casket was put in the care of the express company, whose general agent was a friend of the judge and who took special pains to arrange matters so that the mourn- ers should be relieved of all trouble until their arrival at Davenport. He failed however to tell the Judge that his company did not ship over the Rock Island road but over the Burlington, and that the casket would go from Omaha via Galesburg and Rock Island. On reaching Davenport Judge Grant, after securing a carriage for his wife, went to the express car, but to his surprise and vexation no casket was on board nor did any of the agents know anything about it. The judge impulsively rushed to the tele- graph office and sent a dispatch to his friend at San Francisco-"Where in Hell is my mother-in-law." And it was not until after he received a curt reply, "We don't know, " that some of the agents about the depot thought of suggesting that the remains had gone by way of Burlington.
Judge Grant was succeeded in 1852, by Hon. Thomas S. Wilson of Du- buque, who had been one of the first territorial judges appointed for Iowa, and who had held the first terms of court in Jackson County. His district like that of his predecessor, embraced all the counties from Muscatine to the Minnesota line, including those north of Linn County and was called the Second Judicial District. In January 1853 the legislature organized the eighth judicial district and at the April election of that year, Hon. William E. Lefflangwell, who was president of the state senate, was chosen judge of this district, which comprised the countries of Jackson, Jones, Cedar, Clinton, Scott and Muscatine. Judge Leffiingwell did not find the judicial duties suited to his taste and resigned after serving about a year. Hon. John B. Booth of Belleve, was appointed by Gov. Hempstead to all the vacancy, and he too resigned after a year's service. At the April election in 1855 Hon. Aylett R. Cotton, then county judge of Clinton county, was the demo- cratic candidate, but Hon. William H. Tuthill of Tipton, who was nominat- ed by the republicans and "Know Nothings" defeated him and served until the district was divided in 1857, (and then served as judge of that part of the district embracing the counties of Muscatine, Cedar and Jones) but held no term in Jackson county until September, 1855. Judge Samuel Mur- dock of Clinton, held a term here in November, 1855. Judge Tuthill was not a success as a judge, and after his term expired he engaged in banking and in that business passed the remainder of his life.
Judge Tuthill was a man of considerable literary ability and like Silas Wegg occasionally "dropped into poetry." The story is told that during one term of court he called up a case in which it appeared that both plain- tiff and defendant had died after the case had been appealed from the jus- tice. Judge Tuthill passed the case and after empaneling a jury in anoth- er case, was observed to be writing something, and after court adjourned for dinner the following effusion was found lying on the docket, a travesty
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on "Jordan am a hard road to trabble," which was the most popular "coon song" of those days:
"This here case was brought to the Cedar district court,
And was passed over by the Judge 'awardin,'
That as death had claimed his right, it was fittin' that the fight Should be tit on the other side of Jordan.
If the lawyers who were feed in the case to proceed,
Have received enough to pay for their boardin',
To finish up their task they should change of venue ask,
And take it to the other side of Jordan.
When the beater and the beat, and their councel all meet,
They can then try their action accordin'
To the "Higher Law' in force, for better or for worse,
In the courts on the other side of Jordan. "
In the winter of 1857, the business of the district was badly in arrears. Owing to the criminal cases, not a civil case had been tried in Clinton county for more than a year. and the docket in Scott county was also over loaded. So in 1857, the lawyers pursuaded the legislature to divide the district and Scott. Clinton Jackson counties were made the fourteenth judicial district.
The republicans nominated for judge S. J. Mills, who was then engaged in the lumber business in Lyons, but who had been admitted to the bar of New York, and about the first of March, a convention of the members of the bar of the district was held at Lyons, which put in nomination Hon. G. C. R. Mitchell of Davenport. This was the first bar convention ever held in the district, if not in the state.
At the April election( which by the way was the last spring election held in Iowa) Judge Mitchell was triumphantly elected and his opponent soon after entered the ministry, retiring permanenty from the practice of la w.
Judge Mitchell held but one term in Jackson county. He resigned in Sep- tember, 1857, and Hon. A. H. Bennett was appointed in his place and served until Dec. 31, 1858.
The constitution of 1857 required an election of judges of the district court in 1858, and the legislature organized the Seventh Judicial District com- prising the counties of Muscatine, Scott, Clinton and Jackson, and the dis- trict has remained unchanged until the present time. At the October election 18 8, Judge Bennett was a candidate for re-election, having been nominated at a bar convention. The republicans nominated Hon. John F. Dilon of Davenport, and although Judge Bennett carried both Scott and Jackson counties, Judge Dillon was elected by the large majority he re- ceived in Clinton and Muscatine counties, and in January following began his service as judge, in which he gained such distinguished honor, serving first as district judge, then as judge and chief justice of the supreme court of Iowa, and then for twelve years as circuit judge of the federal court of the eighth district from which he resigned to resume practice in the city of New York, where he is still in active practice and working as hard
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as he did when he began his distinguished career as judge in this district forty-seven years ago.
Judge Dillon was re-elected without opposition in 1862, the democratic members of the bar of Jackson, having so manipulated their own judicial convention as to leave the way clear for him. He resigned at the close of 1863 to take his place in the supreme bench. Hon. J. Scott Richman. of Muscatine, was appointed in his place and was elected in 1864 and re-elect- ed in 1866 and 1870, the last two times without a dissenting vote. He was an admirable judge, disposing of business rapidly and without apparent effort and with such accuracy and impartialty that he was seldom reversed. He was admitted to the bar while Iowa was still a territory and is still in the practice of his profession, after sixty years at work. His career has had no paralel in Iowa.
After his resignation in 1871, Hon. William F. Brannan was appointed his successor and was elected in 1872, re-elected in 1874, but resigned . in 1878 and was succeeded by Hon. Walter I. Hayes, who held the position continuously until December 1, 1886, having been elected to congress at the preceding election; and a new reorganization of our judicial system was again effected by the legislature. Judge Brannan was again chosen at that election and had he not voluntarily declined a re-election- two years, ago would have been still on the bench. His genial manners made him a favor- ite with all, and every person in the entire district had an abiding faith in his ability as a lawyer and his integrity and impartiality as a judge. The people and the bar both parted with him with genuine regret.
Walter I. Hayes possessed many of the highest qualifications of a law- yer and few judges in Iowa were capable of transacting the duties of the office as rapidly and as accurately as he. His uncommon grasp of a case pre- sented to him was possessed by very few lawyers, and unless he had been requested to give a written opinion after taking it under advisement, his de- cision was rendered within five minutes after the closing argument had been delivered, and it was seldom that his judgments were reversed in the appellate court. After his service in congress was ended he returned to the practice of law, and his sudden death was a distinct loss to the profess- ion.
The courts as established under the judiciary act of 1886 could hardly be classed as among the "Early Courts of Iowa" and therefore do not fall with- in the scope of the subject assigned to me ..
The courts which I have spoken of, the supreme and district of terri- torial early state days, were courts of general jurisdiction. We had also a probate court both while a part of Wisconsin Territory and also of Iowa Ter- ritory. While Iowa was a part of Michigan there was also a probate court of that territory but Jackson county was not then organized.
The first record of the probate court in Jackson county was signed March 12th, 1838, by J. K. Moss as probate judge. Those of Iowa Territory by Anson Harringotn, W. L. Brown, Joseph Palmer and R. B. Wyckoff. Un- der the code of 1851, county courts were established and the single judge which presided therein, possessed the powers and performed the duties now
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reposed in the board of supervisors and county auditor in addition to the probate jurisdiction now exercised by the district court, as well as others. These duties were onerous and powers great. They were so exercised in some counties as to work great disaster and inflict heavy losses on the tax- payers and its jurisdiction was not curbed any too soon by the transfer of nearly all its jurisdiction to the board of supervisors in 1860, leaving it little more than a probate court. Dan F. Spurr was county judge for six years. Joseph Kelso for two years and Joseph H. Smith, Philip B. Brad- ley, A. L. Palmer and Joseph S. Darling were the county judges for Jack- son county, until its jurisdiction was merged with that of the circuit court in 1868.
The circuit court was established in 1868 to relieve the district court. Its jurisdiction was wholly civil, and the circuit judges in Jackson county were George B. Young, Daniel W. Ellis, Charles W. Chase and A. J. Leffing- well, and by the judiciary act of 1886 its business was transferred to the dis- trict court, which under that act possesses all the original jurisdiction exer- cised by the probate court and the circuit court and all the jurisdiction ex- ercised by the county court in judicial cases, being just what it was sixty years ago with the addition of the probate business.
To discharge rightly the duties of a county judge under the law of 1851. it was requisite that the occupant of the position should be a good lawyer, a careful and industrious business man and an accurate accountant and possessed of the strictest integrity. Judge Spurr possessed the first quali- fication, but lacked all the others. Judge Kelso performed his official du- ties with credit to himself and with profit to his constituents. Judge Smith was elected for the express purpose of ordering an election of the county seat between Bellevue and Andrew. and discharged that duty, but possessed no other qualification for the place. The duties of Judges Bradley, Palmer and Darling were those of attending to probate business, and granting and refusing writs of injunction and habeas corpus; and during the second year of Judge Darling's term he was merely clerk of the board of supervisors.
A good many comical stories are told of the early terms of court. One occurracne which took place at the first term which Judge Wilson held in Bellevue, I have heard related by both the judge and sheriff. There was no court house, and it was the duty of the sheriff to provide a room for holding court. L. J. Hefly had built a frame house on Front street (still standing and used as a saloon) and Sheriff Warren persuaded him to allow the use of it for a court room and postpone the arranging of his gro- ceries on the shelves until court had adjourned. So Hefly placed his boxes and barrels on one side of the store room, and the sheriff extemporized seats out of some planks which he borrowed and procured some chairs and two or three tables for the judge, clerk and lawyers. He also appointed a Swede by the name of Petersen (who afterward fell a victim to cholera when it first visited Bellevue) as crier of the court. Very proud was Pertersen of his position, and busied himself in walking around the room and occasion- ally shouting "Order in Court;" exhibiing himself and enjoying his official dignity. Quite a number of the early settlers were in attendance and found the plank seats rather uncomfortable, and as the case on trial the
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second morning involved only a dry question of law, lost interest in court proceedings and strolled out and sat down on the river bank opposite the extemporary court house, and engaged in more agreeable occupation of swapping lies, and steers and shotguns. The lawyers arguing the case were Churchmen of Dubuque and Grant of Davenport, and when the former had finished his argument Grant rose to reply. He had a very sharp voice and as he always commenced on a high key, his "Your Honor" sounded singu- larly like the yelp of a terrier, and the idlers on the river bank thought a dog fight was in progress in court, and rushed in pell-mell to see the fun. Petersen did his best to maintain order, but as it was almost as "tall across as he was up and down" he could hardly make himself seen much less heard. So he climbed upon Hefly's boxes and then on a hogshead, shouting with all his lung power "Order in Court, " and stamping his foot by way of emphasis, he knocked in the head of the hogshead and let himself into mo- lasses up to his shoulders. The court summariy adjourned, while the sheriff Summoned the posse comitatus, to rescue the subsmerged bailiff and tow him up and down the river until the current had dissolved out his superfluous sweetness.
The same judicial officers were responsible for the narration of another story about the same Churchman, who was in reality a good. lawyer which he afterwards demonistrated by his career in California in the early pioneer days, but who never obeyed the injunction of Solomon "look not upon the wine when it is red," and who was never known to decline the offer of a glass of bourbon. At one of the early terms in this county, Judge Wilson had overruled him on several questions which nettled him greatly. A jury case in which he appeared for the plaintiff, had progressed so far that when court adjourned at noon nothing remained but the closing argument by Churchman. During the noon recess, the defendant, who knew Churchman's failing, invited him to irrigate and succeeded in getting him on the outside of several glasses of spirituous frumenti and when court opened it was apparent to Judge Wilson that plaintiff's counsel was not in condition to present his case to the jury and so took up some other business to dispose of. The counsel was probably the only person in the court room who was oblivious of his condition and made several announcements of his readiness to proceed but the court put him off. After an hour or more he became very insistent, and Judge Wilson said "I will not take up that case at present, for the court does not think you are in condition to properly take care of your client's interest." Huh, perhaps the court thinks I am drunk" Yes, Mr. Churchman, you are very drunk" said the court. With that Churchman dropped into his chair, remarking sotto voice. "First correct decision the court has made this term."
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