USA > Iowa > Butler County > History of Butler County, Iowa: a record of settlement., Volume 1 > Part 9
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THE COUNTY COURT
At the time of the first organization of Butler county all legal matters were in the hands of the county court, consisting of the county judge, the prosecuting attorney, clerk of the courts and the sheriff. The jurisdiction of this court was complete. In addition, many of the powers now vested in the board of supervisors, were exercised by the county judge. He had juris- diction in all probate matters, issued marriage licenses and attended to the financial affairs of the county except in the dis- posal of the school fund, the supervision of which was in the hands of an officer called school fund commissioner. The first county judge elected was George W. Poisal, who, however, failed to qualify, as noted previously. The first judge who qualified was John Palmer, who assumed the duties of this office in 1854. Some account of the records of Judge Palmer's first court has already been given. The judge was a native of Ohio and for his
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time, possessed an education somewhat above the average. He was a millwright by trade. In character, while not distinctively aggressive, he was firm in his attitude and handled the manifold duties and responsibilities of this office in a manner to meet with general approval. He served for one term and was succeeded by Aaron Van Dorn, a lawyer of considerable ability.
The third election resulted in a controversy which caused considerable feeling. Alonzo Converse and George W. Poisal were the opposing candidates in the August election of 1857, the former receiving a majority of eight votes. Under the law as in force at that time, it was provided that in case the judge elected did not qualify within twenty days after the election, the office was vacant. It appears that Mr. Converse did not qualify within the twenty day limit, the last day coming on Sunday. On the following Monday he arrived but Judge Van Dorn refused to allow him to qualify and issued a call for a special election to fill the vacancy. In this election, D. W. Miller received a ma- jority of 54 over Converse. Mr. Converse contested this elec- tion and carried his case to the district court, where it was tried before Hon. J. D. Thompson, who decided the contest in favor of Mr. Converse. The office and all papers and books pertaining thereto were turned over to him and he assumed control of the position. Judge Converse served two terms as county judge, until 1861. He occupied the office throughout the trying period already referred to, during which the county seat was removed from Clarksville to Butler Center. It was inevitable that he would in his capacity as chief executive and judicial officer of the county incur much enmity, no matter what position he took upon this much mooted question. However, he came through it with honor and left the bench with the respect of even most of his antago- nists.
C. A. Bannon succeeded to the office of county judge in 1861 and served for two years. During his term a new system of county government, through a board of sixteen supervisors, was instituted, thus greatly reducing the importance and the work of the office. The county judge, however, retained within his jurisdiction probate matters and the issuance of marriage licenses. The immediate successor in this office was J. R. Fletcher, 1863-5. He was succeeded by Ancel Durand, who served for one term, when A. J. Thompkins was elected. During Judge Thomp- kins' second term in office the circuit court was established, which
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took control of all probate matters, while the issuance of mar- riage licenses was placed in the hands of the clerk of the courts. The duties of the office of county judge having thus devolved upon other officials, the county judge was made ex-officio county auditor, a detailed account of which office is given in connection with the account of the county government.
THE CIRCUIT COURT
On the first Monday in January, 1869, Butler county became a part of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit, embracing the counties of Butler, Bremer, Mitchell, Worth, Cerro Gordo and Hancock, with boundaries identical with those of the Twelfth Judicial District. The first circuit judge was George W. Ruddick, of Waverly, who served from 1869 until 1870. He was then, as noted above, elected district judge.
The second circuit judge was Robert G. Reiniger, of Floyd county, who served in this capacity for fourteen years. He was succeeded by John B. Cleland, of Mitchell county, who served one year until the circuit court was abolished by act of the General Assembly. Thereafter the duties and functions of this court were performed by the district court, an additional judge having been provided this court in order to take care of the added duties.
THE BAR
Perhaps no body of men, not excepting the clergy, may exer- cise a greater influence for good in a community than those who follow the profession of the law, and it must be admitted that to no other body, not even to the so-called criminal classes, are com- mitted greater possibilities for an influence for evil. What that influence shall be depends upon the character of the men who con- stitute the bar of the community-not merely on their ability or learning but on their character. If the standard of morality among the members of the bar is high, the whole community learns to look at questions of right and wrong from a higher plane. If the bar, consciously or unconsciously, adopts a low standard of morality, it almost inevitably contaminates the conscience of the community. And this is true not only in the practice of the pro- fession itself, not only because of the influence of members of the bar as men rather than lawyers, but in the effects upon other pro-
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fessions and occupations to which the bar acts as a feeder. The members of the Legislature are recruited largely from the legal profession. How can legislation, designed solely for the welfare of the public, be expected from one whose honor as a lawyer has not been above suspicion? And since lawyers, outside of the Legis- lature, have a great influence in shaping the law, how can the peo- ple expect that influence to be exerted in their behalf when the bar itself is unworthy? Still more does the character of the bar affect the judiciary, which is supplied from its ranks. It is not always, perhaps not generally, the case that members of the bench are chosen from those lawyers who have attained the highest rank in their profession. If a judge be industrious and honest but not of great ability, or if he be able and honest, though lacking indus- try, the rights of the litigants are not likely to suffer seriously at his hands. But there have been instances where judicial office was bestowed solely as a reward for political service; and while it is sometimes realized that one who has been a strenuous and not too scrupulous politician up to the moment of his elevation to the bench, has thereafter forgotten that there was such a trade as politics and has administered justice without fear or favor, the experiment is a dangerous one. No one need be surprised if in such a case the old maxim holds true: "He who buys the office of judge, must of necessity sell justice." Let our judges be men who are subject to other influences than those of the facts sub- mitted to them and the law applicable to those facts, let them lack that independence which is an imperative requisite to one who holds the scales of justice, let a well founded suspicion arise that their decisions are dictated by something outside of their own minds and consciences, and the confidence of the people in the maintenance of their rights through the agency of the courts is destroyed.
It has been the good fortune of the county of Butler that the members of the bar here have been, for the most part, men of high character as well as of ability and learning, so that its bar has won a high and honorable reputation throughout the rest of the state, and because of the high character of the bar it has followed that those of its members who have been elevated to the bench have enjoyed the confidence and respect of the public and have been honored not only in their own locality but in many cases, throughout the state and in other states.
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Yet the preparation of a history of the bar, so far at least as that part of it which lies back of one's own generation is con- cerned, is attended with considerable difficulty. Probably few men who in their time play important parts in the community or even in the state or nation, leave so transient a reputation as law- yers do. A writer on this subject who took for his text, "The Law- yers of Fifty Years Ago," said: "In thinking over the names of these distinguished men of whom I have been speaking, the thought has come to me how evanescent and limited is the law- yer's reputation, both in time and space. I doubt very much if a lawyer, whatever his standing, is much known to the profession outside of his own state." Those who attain high rank in the pro- fession must realize that with rare exceptions, their names are "writ in water." One may turn over the leaves of old reports and find repeated again and again as counsel in different cases the name of some lawyer who must have been in his time a power in the courts, only to wonder if he has ever seen that name outside of the covers of the dusty reports in which it appears. Hamilton, in the conventions, in the Federalist and in the treasury, and Web- ster, in the senate and in public orations, have perpetuated and increased the fame of Lawyers Hamilton and Webster; but were it not for their services outside the strict limits of their profession, one might come upon their names at this date with much the same lack of recognition as that with which one finds in a reported case the names of some counsel, great perhaps in his own time, but long since forgotten.
And there is another difficulty in preparing such a history as this, brief, and therefore necessarily limited to a few names, and that is that some may be omitted who are quite as worthy of men- tion as those whose names appear. It is not often that any one man stands as a lawyer head and shoulders above the other mem- bers of the profession; and the same may be said of any half dozen men. In many cases the most careful measurement would fail to disclose a difference of more than a fraction of an inch, if any. Lives of eminent men who have at some period been practicing lawyers, have contained the assertion that while they were en- gaged in the practice of their profession they were the "leaders of the bar," but there is almost always room for doubt as to whether the title is not a brevet bestowed by the biographer alone. Therefore the mention in this article of certain lawyers must not be taken as any disparagement of those who are not mentioned, Vol. 1-7
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and finally, it is to be observed that this article, so far as the bar is concerned, will treat not only of those who are past and gone, but will make mention of some of those now in the flesh.
The first person to settle in Butler county and take up the practice of law, was Matthew M. Trumbull, a man of great ability and acumen. He was a native of England. When a young man he crossed the sea, set out westward upon touching American soil and chose Linn county, Iowa, as an abiding place. While here he read law and was admitted to the bar in 1852. Two years later found him located at Clarksville, where he hung out his modest shingle, which notified the people of the pioneer town that a law- yer had settled among them. Mr. Trumbull was a man of educa- tion, well fortified with the principles and practice of the law and ambitious to win a foremost place at the bar. It is needless to say his aspirations were in a great measure gratified; and during the years of his residence here he was the foremost lawyer in this section of Iowa. When the Civil war broke out Mr. Trumbull offered his services to his country, which were accepted and he went to the front as captain of Company I, Third Iowa Infantry; he was mustered out with the brevet of brigadier-general. Leav- ing the service General Trumbull returned to Iowa and located at Waterloo, where he resumed the practice and held a high place at that bar. He then spent a few years at Dubuque, where his splendid intellect and legal learning had a wider and more lucrative range for their employment. Still a greater and more concen- trated practice awaited him in the wonderful metropolis of the West, Chicago, and to that city he took his way and with him a splendid library, where he soon gained recognition at that noted bar. General Trumbull had the distinction of being the first per- son returned to the Iowa Legislature from Butler county.
Capt. C. A. L. Roszell, who engaged in the practice of law at Clarksville about 1858, came to Clarksville from Independence, Iowa. A native of New York, he was graduated from the colle- giate and law departments of Harvard College. He was captain of Company G, Thirty-second Iowa Volunteer Infantry, in the Civil war from 1862 to the close of the war. He was a brilliant scholar and soldier. During his lifetime he was considered the dean of the bar of northern Iowa. His public addresses and argu- ments to courts and juries were models of scholarly versatility and of forensic eloquence. He died at his home in Clarksville about ten years ago, at the close of a successful and honorable
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career. He devoted the whole of his time to the practice of law.
J. R. Fletcher came to Clarksville, Iowa, in the year 1856. He was a native of the state of Pennsylvania. He engaged in the practice of law and supplemented his work at an early day by public surveying. Mr. Fletcher was well educated and was a man of fine attainments. He did not give the whole of his time to the practice of law but during many years of his life paid much atten- tion to his farming interests. He was an honored member of the bar during his lifetime and practiced his profession successfully. At the time of his death he was the oldest living member of the earlier members of the bar of Butler county. He died at his home in Clarksville in the year 1913.
John Palmer, an early resident of Clarksville, was also one of the pioneer members of the bar of this county, although not ac- tively engaged in the practice of his profession. He was county treasurer during one or more terms. He left this county about 1884, going to Minnesota, where he established his home and where he died. His was an honored career and successful in that he merited and received the high esteem of all who knew him.
J. R. Jamison, now deceased, was one of the pioneer residents of the county and a member of the bar. He did not maintain an office in any town of the county but had his home on his farm at Jamison's Grove, west of Bristow, where he lived for a great many years and where he died. Mr. Jamison was not active in the practice of his profession but gave much of his time for the benefit of his neighbors, who called upon him for counsel and advice, and handled many of their disputes in the justice courts, and occasion- ally appeared in trial cases in the district court and circuit courts of the county. He lived a useful and active life.
Judge Alonzo Converse, an early pioneer resident of Beaver township, was also a member of this bar and at one time county judge. Judge Converse was a finely educated man and was well versed in the literature of law although not active in its practice. He, like Mr. Jamison, gave much of his time and efforts for the benefit of his neighbors who called upon him for advice and coun- sel. He removed from this county many years ago, going to South Dakota, where his life closed after a very successful career.
M. T. Johnson, Mike Downey, John Beemer and W. H. Bur- dick were pioneer residents of Parkersburg and members of the bar of this county prior to 1883. Hon. O. B. Courtright, now of Waterloo, succeeded the last of the gentlemen above named. Mr.
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Courtright after a successful career as a lawyer in this county, removed to Waterloo, Iowa, ten or twelve years ago, where he has since continued in the active practice of his profession. He is a lawyer of high standing and merits the reputation which he has earned by his earnest efforts and honorable fidelity to his pro- fession, the public and his clients. At the time Mr. Courtright left this county he was a member of the firm of Courtright & Arbuckle. The other member of the firm is also a resident of Waterloo, Iowa, at the present time. Mr. Arbuckle was admitted to the practice of the law in this state about the year 1889 and has continued in the profession up to the present time. Mr. Arbuckle left this county a few years ago and continued his con- nection with the firm of Courtright & Arbuckle of Waterloo. He is a brilliant attorney and his success has been all that an attorney can desire. He is now connected with several of the banks of Waterloo as stockholder and officer and has a large clientage among the business men of Waterloo.
George M. Craig, J. W. Davis and Willis A. Lathrop were among the pioneer residents and lawyers of old Butler Center and later of Allison. Of the three, George Craig is the only one living. Mr. Craig came to this county about the year 1866 and was soon thereafter elected county recorder. After his term of office closed he engaged in the abstract business until he retired from business one year ago and removed from this county to California, where he hopes to end his days. Mr. Craig was suc- cessful as a lawyer in every sense of the word, his career honest and honorable. He represented this senatorial district in the State Legislature for two successive terms. His work in the Legislature was of a high order. Every position of public trust committed to him was honored by him.
J. W. Davis was a pioneer resident of the county and was clerk of the courts of the county for over sixteen years. He was not active in the practice of law. His legal learning was exten- sive and he was qualified in every way to discharge the duties of a successful lawyer. Pages might be written recounting the good ยท deeds done by Mr. Davis during his lifetime. He is well remem- bered by all of the older citizens of the county and his memory is revered by them. Many of his relatives and descendants are still living in the community or near-by towns.
Willis A. Lathrop was a friend and neighbor of Mr. Davis and Mr. Craig during their long residence in old Butler Center
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and Allison. Mr. Lathrop was one of the pioneer lawyers of the county. His general education was broad. He filled the office of county superintendent of schools of this county successfully. For many years he was active in the practice of law, held the office of county attorney and by his brethren of the bar was known to be a lawyer of good attainments, honorable and always faithful to his clients. His word was as good as law among his brethren. He died at Allison some years ago at the close of a long and suc- cessful life.
John W. Gilger was one of the early lawyers engaging in the business at the comparatively new town of Greene in this county. After practicing law at Greene for a few years Mr. Gilger removed to Hampton, where he remained a while and from there went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he is still engaged in practice. Mr. Gilger was a soldier in the Civil war. He is now hale and hearty and gives but little evidence of the hardships he endured during that struggle. He was in the cavalry service and relates that at one time he was on picket duty and riding a mule. The mule got scared and instead of having sense enough to retreat, went the other way and not only carried Mr. Gilger through the rebel lines without accident but got through himself. Mr. Gilger says that was the only time he knew a "reb" shot at him. He knew that time. Mr. Gilger is a man of fine legal attain- ments and was successful in the practice of his profession from the beginning. Since moving to Minneapolis he has had among his clientage many of the largest firms and corporations of the city. At one time he was a member of the firm of Gilger & Har- rison, Judge Harrison, his partner, having formerly been a mem- ber of the firm of Starr, Patterson & Harrison, of Charles City, Iowa. While it is no longer necessary for Mr. Gilger to work to live, still he loves his profession and can be found at his office regularly every day.
S. W. and E. W. Soesbe, brothers, were also pioneer lawyers and bankers of Greene. They are both now deceased, the death of S. W. preceding that of his brother E. W. They were men of good character, energy and ability and did much to build up the town of Greene, and many of the improvements now seen are due to the efforts of these two men. Soon after engaging in the practice of law they engaged in the banking business, which necessarily required much of their time and prevented them from taking an active part in the practice of law. They were, how-
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ever, recognized as good lawyers, honorable in every particular, and respected members of the bar. S. W. Soesbe was a member of the State Legislature from this county and was an honored member of that body.
So far as known, C. R. Failing was the first lawyer to locate in Greene and after a few months' residence there he removed from the new town.
Frank Lingenfelder, now a practicing attorney of Charles City, Iowa, engaged in the practice of law at Greene about the year 1883, having come from Allison to Greene. Mr. Lingen- felder was one of a family of lawyers and has demonstrated by his ability and successful work as a lawyer that he was not the runt of the family. He continued in the practice of his profes- sion at Greene until the year 1893. During the last year he was a member of the firm of Lingenfelder & Hartness. Mr. Lingen- felder is regarded as one of the strongest members of the bar in this district and his practice has been characterized by ability, honesty and the faithful discharge of every trust committed to him. He is the father of one of the present district court report- ers of this district, Walter L. Lingenfelder.
Frank D. Jackson came to Greene from Independence, Iowa, about the year 1878 and engaged in the practice of law. He con- tinued in active practice until elected secretary of state of the State of Iowa, which office he held for three successive terms and later filled the office of Governor of the State of Iowa. Frank D. Jackson's life is as an open book to the people of the State of Iowa and nothing can be said here which will add to the informa- tion the public generally possess. In his home town in Greene he was held in the highest esteem by those who knew him best. He was faithful to his friends, a good neighbor and loved by all who knew him.
A. I. Smith was in partnership with George Craig in Allison, in the law and abstract business for a number of years, and after leaving Allison went to Kansas City, where he resumed the prac- tice of his profession. His career there as a lawyer has been highly successful.
Charles A. Bannon was educated in Pennsylvania and admitted to practice law, at Bedford, a town in the Keystone state. He came to Butler county with J. R. Fletcher, in 1856, and they formed a partnership and opened a law office at Clarks- ville. Mr. Bannon was of Irish extraction and was not lacking
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in the wit always attributed to sons of the Emerald isle. He was also a good lawyer and "with the gift of gab," he made a most interesting and delightful orator, especially when on the hustings. When the Civil war came on to distract the country, young Ban- non enlisted in Company G, Thirty-second Iowa Infantry, of which C. A. L. Roszell was captain, and was commissioned first lieutenant. He served until the close of hostilities, came back to Clarksville with health shattered and in a short while answered the last rally call. Thus was cut short the life of one who would have made a high place for himself among men, had not death overtaken him almost at the beginning of his career.
Orson Rice was not, per se, a lawyer while a resident of But- ler county, but he practiced at this bar, with more or less success. He was, in a way, what is termed "a character"; but effrontery and determination won him a fair measure of success as a "law- yer" and hence, when the bar of Butler county is upon the tapis, no one who is familiar with its history fails to mention Orson Rice. Therefore, his name will be handed down to the next his- torian, in these pages, and to that end it may be well to state that Orson Rice came to Butler county from Illinois, in 1854, when about twenty-eight years of age and located at Clarksville. If he had any schooling at all his manner of speech failed to indicate it. He was very illiterate, but notwithstanding this handicap he suc- ceeded in being admitted to the bar in 1857 and engaged in the practice of law and attracted to himself a no inconsiderable clien- tele. Many are the laughable stories told of blunders in his plead- ings and the haphazard manner in which he examined a witness. Situations often arose in court that were embarrassing to him- self, the court and his fellow members of the bar; more often they were hilariously amusing to the latter. But these things made no difference to Rice. He continued his course serenely, at times morosely and desperately, and in the end, he was to be found at Spirit Lake, where he located in 1865, enjoying a good practice, after having served the county as district attorney. His further ambition, to reach the circuit judgeship, seemed to be beyond the range of his abilities, but not his yearnings. He sought the office, and to give him his dues it should be said he came very near being elevated to the position.
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