History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I, Part 49

Author: Downer, Harry E
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1042

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James Thorington was born on the 7th of May, 1816, in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was a graduate of the State University of Alabama and studied law with his father. He located at Davenport, Iowa, in 1839, where he began practice. In 1842 he was chosen mayor of the city, serving four years. He was one of the leaders in the free soil movement and in 1854 was nominated for rep- resentative in congress for the second district by the antislavery elements of the various parties. The district embraced all of the northern half of the state and few expected the free soil candidate to be elected. Several prominent men de- clined the nomination and it was offered to Mr. Thorington. He said, "Gentle- men, I am not anxious to take the chances, but if you chose to nominate me I will make an aggressive canvass and shall expect to be elected." His response aroused enthusiasm, he was nominated and made a vigorous campaign, having for his democratic competitor Ex-Governor Stephen Hempstead. Thorington was elected by more than one thousand five hundred majority. He served two years from March, 1855, and was largely instrumental in securing to Iowa the land grants of 1856 for the aid of railroads. This most important act gave to his district three trunk lines of railroad from the Mississippi to the Misouri river. But it compassed his defeat for renomination. Delegates in the convention from counties not on the lines of the projected railroads united against him and nomi- nated a republican in Dubuque. Mr. Thorington was one of the leaders in the political movement which resulted in uniting the anti-slavery elements into the republican party in 1855-6. In 1858 he was a candidate for United States senator to succeed George W. Jones but James W. Grimes was nominated and elected. Mr. Thorington was appointed by the governor agent for the state at Washington to secure title to the swamp lands embraced in the grant. In 1872 he was ap- pointed by President Grant United States consul to Aspinwall, where he served ten years. It has often been remarked that our state never sent a representative to congress who accomplished so much in a single term as this first republican member from Iowa. He died June 12, 1889, at Sante Fe, in New Mexico.

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

Jonathan W. Parker was one of the pioneer lawmakers of Iowa territory. He was born in Clarendon, Vermont, on the 10th of August, 1810. After ac- quiring the usual education he began the study of law in Pennsylvania and came with his father's family to Davenport in 1836. He was admitted to the bar at the first term of court held in Scott county and immediately began practice. In 1838, upon the organization of the territory of Iowa, he was elected to represent Scott and Clinton counties in the council of the first legislative assembly and was re-elected, serving in the second, third and fourth territorial legislatures. He attained high rank as a legislator and was president of the council during the session of 1841-2. In 1841 he was mayor of Davenport. In 1852, while on a visit to Cincinnati, he died of cholera at the early age of forty-one.

Henry Vollmer was born in Davenport, Iowa, in 1867. He received his edu- cation in that city, the Iowa State University and Georgetown University at Washington, D. C. He took a thorough law course, was admitted to the bar and began practice in Davenport. He early developed a talent for public speaking which brought him into prominence as one of the young leaders of the democratic party. In 1893 he was first chosen mayor of Davenport and at once applied himself to the inauguration of municipal reforms. He was three times reelected and se- cured the erection of a fine city hall without an increase of taxation. In 1893 he was chosen president of the democratic state convention and delivered an ad- dress which for eloquence and ability gave him more than a state-wide reputa- tion as a public speaker. He was one of the leaders of what is termed the sound money wing of the democratic party of Iowa in the presidential campaign of 1896.

Jeremiah H. Murphy was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, February 19, 1835, was educated in the schools of Boston and after removing to Iowa, graduated at the State University. He read law in Davenport, was admitted to the bar and at once entered upon practice. He was an active democrat and in 1873 was elected mayor of Davenport. In 1874 he was elected to the state senate, serving four years. In 1879 he was again chosen mayor. In 1882 he was elected to represent the second district in congress and was a member of the committees on rivers and harbors and on railroads and canals. On the latter committee he worked faithfully to secure an appropriation for the Hennepin canal. Mr. Murphy was reelected in 1884, serving four years. He died in Washington on the 11th of December, 1893.

PRESENT BAR OF DAVENPORT.

Henry A. Arp, Stephen P. Bawden, Waldo Becker, Albert Bergman, Frank F. Betty and Harry B. Betty, of the firm of Betty & Betty; William J. Birch- ard, Louis Block, William H. Campbell, Alexander E. Carroll, William H. Car- roll and Edward J. Carroll, of the firm of Carroll Brothers; William M. Cham- berlin, Edward E. Cook, Reuel B. Cook and Walter M. Balluff, of the firm of Cook & Balluff; Charles T. Cooper, Francis A. Cooper, Edward J. Dahms, Phil Daum, Henry E. C. Ditzen, Maurice Donegan, Nathan D. Ely and Arthur G. Bush, of the firm of Ely & Bush; Charles A. Ficke, Robert C. Ficke, Arthur D. Ficke and Julius Ficke, of the firm of Ficke & Ficke; Samuel A. Finger,

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

Lewis Fisher, Nathaniel French, Michael V. Gannon, J. Clark Hall, James A. Hanley, Carl F. Hass and Albert W. Hamann, of the firm of Hass & Ha- mann; John M. Helmick and Howard S. Boudinot, of the firm of Helmick & Boudinot; Hadley M. Henley, James B. Hickey, William Hoersch, George E. Hubbell, H. H. Jebens, Charles W. Jones, Charles T. Kemmerer, G. H. Koch, James J. Lamb, Dick R. Lane, Joe R. Lane and Charles M. Waterman, of the firm of Lane & Waterman; Dickinson F. Letts, Victor L. Littig, William W. Lunger, William R. Maines, L. Earl Marshall, William G. Mott, Alfred G. Mueller, Cornelius H. Murphy, Timothy A. Murphy, Albert Noth, Leroy C. Oelkers, Bernard T. O'Neil, Alfred Parsons, Isaac Petersberger, Walter H. Petersen, Louis E. Roddewig, Claus J. Ruymann and Adolph Ruymann, of the firm of Ruymann & Ruymann; Benjamin I. Salinger, George W. Scott, William Theophilus, Arthur G. Sampson, Henry Vollmer, of the firm of Schmidt and Voll- mer, Schmidt is dead-Vollmer has no partner; Fred W. Schnare; James W. Seaman and Ernest W. Seaman, of the firm of Seaman & Seaman; Emmet M. Sharon, Joseph Shorey, Ira R. Tabor, Henry Thuenen, Jr., Fred Vollmer, Wil- liam T. Waterman, Albert E. Whitney, Ralph C. Williamson, William H. Wilson, Charles Grilk and Charles H. Wilson, of the firm of Wilson, Grilk & Wilson.

INCIDENTS AMUSING AND OTHERWISE RELATING TO THE EARLY BAR AND COURTS

OF SCOTT COUNTY.

The first banquet of the Scott county bar was given at the Burtis House in honor of Judge A. H. Bennett, who had a short time previous retired from the bench. This took place on the evening of January 3, 1859. John P. Cook was toastmaster and John F. Dillon, then a young man of twenty-six years of age, and who had succeeded Judge Bennett on the bench, was present. Five dollars a plate was paid by the banqueters.

Judge Dillon, in a reminiscent communication published in the Democrat, speaks of the early bar of Scott county in the following glowing terms:

"It may be expected perhaps that I shall say something concerning the old and early bar of Davenport. A few words must suffice. Of the earliest terri- torial bar of Iowa, say from 1837 to 1846, its high order of ability has often been remarked. I may not omit to mention that within this general period Samuel F. Miller came to Iowa, Mr. Justice Miller of the supreme court of the United States-perhaps the ablest constitutional lawyer of his day. His frame, his features and majestic port, duly put in marble, might stand for a Roman Cæsar in Rome's best days; but the Roman people, though noted for their legal genius, never produced a jurisconsult more worthy of perpetual honor than Mr. Justice Miller, and I hope that the state of Iowa and the bar of Iowa will yet join in erecting a statue to his memory at the capital of the state.

"In Davenport we had Judge Grant, Judge Mitchell, Ebenezer Cook, and afterward John P. Cook, who were, in all respects, the peers of the Iowa law- yers above named. The semi-annual terms of court in Davenport were also regularly attended by Knox and Drury of Rock Island, and often by lawyers from other places. Court week, to hear the lawyers plead, ranked with the

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

annual circus as one of the few entertainments possible in this new and dis- tant region. In early life I have spent many an hour in the old brick court- house on Fourth street, listening to the trial of cases, at a time when I had no fixed purpose of becoming a lawyer myself. Every day I used to see the erect form of Ebenezer Cook as he passed my father's house, walking to and fro, cane in hand, between his home on the Cook farm and his office in the town. One day he was kind enough to stop and say to my mother that when I was old enough he wished me to enter his office and become a lawyer, which (after a detour by way of Dr. Barrows' office and a short course of medical instruc- tion) came to pass in 1851. In 1850 and 1851 I studied law by myself while keeping, for a livelihood, a small drug store at the corner of Third and Brady. I had no instructor or aid in my studies. As a law student I was never in a law office or law school. Of law schools there were but few in the country at the time, and none within my reach or means. I recollect when reading in Kent about mortgages, I wished to see the form of such a document and that I was compelled to walk down to the courthouse, where Hiram Price was the recorder, and there had, on the records, my first inspection of this important instrument. In 1852, Austin Corbin came to Davenport, bearing with him a letter of introduction to me from Judge Grant, who was holding court in Dubuque. In May, 1852, Corbin moved my admission to the bar. The last time I saw him in New York, just before his tragic, accidental death, he pleas- antly admonished me, as we parted at the corner of Cortlandt and Broadway : 'John, don't you forget I am your godfather in the law.'

"The old bar of Scott county, by 1855, and soon afterward, had been much enlarged and contained lawyers whose ability and character are an honor and an ornament to the city, the state and the profession. I cannot name them all, but may mention Davison, True, Hubbell, Lane, Bills, Putnam, Rogers, Corbin, Dow, Cook, Waterman, French, and there were many others.

"Noted as the bar of Davenport has ever been for its character, talents and learning, the present bar may look back with a sort of ancestral pride upon the first and oldest bar: Knox, the most eloquent jury lawyer I have ever heard; Drury, the judicious counselor; Grant, the intrepid and fearless advocate; Mitchell, the comprehensive and well poised lawyer; Ebenezer Cook, whose judgment on legal questions and problems was as sure-footed as that of any man I ever knew; John P. Cook, a natural born trial lawyer, aggressive, bold, courageous, who, like General Taylor, was generally victorious, and who, like him also, never knew when he was whipped. Some of the lawyers of other days have sons at your bar today, of whom it is high and just praise to say that they worthily rival their fathers and predecessors. But I have rambled far afield and conclude by saying : 'Long live the Democrat.'"

JUDGE GRANT'S KNIFE,

Elihu B. Washburn, in a sketch of Edward Coles, the second governor of Illinois, gives a bit of Iowa experience that sounds rather singular at this day. Mr. Washburn was fresh from staid, sober New England in the spring of 1840, when he attended a term of court held at Maquoketa, the seat of gov-

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

ernment of Jackson county. This community, like many frontier settlements, was afflicted with a gang of rustlers, counterfeiters and horse thieves which the newly organized courts found to be difficult to deal with effectually. So the people had just arisen en mass and driven out the gang of counterfeiters in a fierce fight in which seven men were killed. The whole community was greatly excited and every man was armed. Mr. Washburn says: "I stopped at the tavern which had been kept by W. W. Brown, alleged leader of the gang, and who had been killed in the doorway of his home. My roommate was Judge James Grant, of Davenport, who has been for nearly a half century one of the most distinguished citizens and lawyers of Iowa. When we were about to retire what was my amazement to see my roommate, whom I had never met before, draw out from the back of his coat an immense bowie knife and place it under his pillow. When abroad I wrote a letter to a friend in regard to the incident and described Judge Grant's bowie knife as being three feet long. The letter got into the newspaper. The Judge wrote me a letter to Paris deny- ing my statement and asserting the knife he had on that occasion was only two feet long."

The following amusing incident is related by Judge Joseph Williams: "I received my commission as judge of the territory of Iowa while in Pennsylva- nia. The first court I held was in Cedar county. Some one placed a large split-bottom chair under a spreading burr oak and I sat down to settle the county seat. I picked out the longest, leanest, lankiest, ugliest looking man in the crowd for sheriff. He had a long beard and when his mouth was closed no opening was visible, and when he spoke it looked like a hole in a buffalo hide. The grand jury sat down on the ground on the right and the petit jury on the left. I impaneled the former, swore the sheriff to do his duty and sent them off to work. The bailiff took the jury to a large rail pen and herded them in. They were about to indict a man for stealing hogs when a Dutchman squealed, 'I don't agree!' At these words an Irishman, springing to his feet and pulling off his coat, said: 'I'll make you agree!' and commenced pegging the Dutchman. The bailiff came running to me saying: 'Judge, Judge, the jury are all fighting.' I went down, kicked open the fence and sent them home, saying: 'I would not have the county disgraced.' When I was in Jones county I was led into a slough where the grass was as high as my head. A chair was placed for me and I sat down and then they told me that was the county seat. I impaneled the grand jury, after which they were taken down the slough to commence work. I was preparing the petit jury for work when the bailiff of the grand jury came slipping up close to me and then hallooed: 'Judge, is it right to have anybody sneaking?' I did not know what he meant and so inquired, and when I un- derstood, said: 'No, no, have a picket guard placed at a certain distance to keep all sneakers off.'"

In March, 1882, the legislature passed an act providing that the terms of the supreme court, which had been held in Davenport, Dubuque and Council Bluffs, should be transferred to Des Moines. Thereafter the court should hold its sessions at the state capital. At one time the sittings of this court at Daven- port were fully as important as those held at Des Moines, for the annual terms of the court were held in these two cities. This court at Davenport was estab-

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

lished in 1858 by action of the seventh general assembly. One great inducement for the location of the court at Davenport was the existence here of the cele- brated Grant law library, which was at that time the greatest and most valuable in the state, and to which through the generosity of Judge Grant, the bar not only of Scott county, but visiting lawyers had free access. Another reason for establishing the court here, and it may have been considered an excellent one, was the splendid hotel accommodations. Judge Grant, as was his nature, offered every courtesy to the court and in rooms over his office on Main street he pro- vided commodious quarters for its sittings. The court convened promptly after the passage of the act. The first Monday in the following April found the clerk here ready for the initial session, but all of the judges were not pres- ent and an adjournment was therefore taken until the following day, when the court was fully organized. George G. Wright, of Keosauqua, was chief justice; William C. Woodward, of Muscatine, and L. D. Stockwell, of Burlington, asso- ciate justices; Lewis Kinsey, of DesMoines, clerk; Samuel A. Rice, of Oska- loosa, attorney-general, and William Penn Clark, of Des Moines, reporter. A large number of lawyers were present.

The first case held in Davenport concerned a new charter which had been granted the city of Davenport at the term of legislature then nearing its close. The provision of the new charter which was to take the place of the special charter granted under the old constitution arranged for a party of aldermen of twelve, which was to be reinforced by a council of six, each councilman to be ex-officio justice of the peace. The act which granted the new charter was declared unconstitutional because under the constitution which at that time ex- isted special legislation for any town was forbidden. This court continued at Davenport about twelve years. Twice a year a six weeks' term would be held and attorneys from thirty-two counties, then a major part of the central por- tions of the state, would come to Davenport and remain for several days, some- times bringing their wives with them. This made gay times for the Burtis House, especially during the years of the war, when Davenport was military headquarters with its four military camps. In fact, all the attorneys in this part of the state came to this city, where they realized they were near the seat of greatest interest in Iowa. It was about 1870 when sessions of the court were established at Dubuque, and the Davenport district was reduced to nine counties : Scott, Cedar, Clinton, Johnson, Iowa, Muscatine, Louisa, Washington and Keokuk. Eventually the terms dwindled from five and six weeks to a week, and then four days, and then ceased to exist in Davenport in 1881.

SOME EARLY HISTORY OF THE DISTRICT COURT.

When Scott county was organized it was made part of the second judicial dis- trict of the territory of Wisconsin and David Irwin was appointed as the presid- ing judge, and the original records of the first district court held in Scott county are still preserved in a small record book, which is a valuable part of the archives of the county in the clerk's office at the court house. The transcription of these early records is in the handwriting of Ebenezer Cook, first clerk of the court.

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

The first entry made upon the records of the district court is a certificate of the appointment of Ebenezer Cook clerk of the court, bearing date May 30, 1838, and signed by David Irwin, presiding judge of the second judicial district of Wis- consin territory, and associate judge of the supreme court. Mr. Cook accepted the appointment and entered into bonds with John H. Sullivan and Adrian H. Davenport. This appointment was continued by Judge Joseph Williams, the first presiding judge of the second judicial district of the territory of Iowa, under date October 5, 1838.

It was further ordered by Judge Irwin that the seal "hereunto attached" be until further notice recognized as the seal of the second judicial district for Scott county. This seal, be it known, bears no judicial impress, no scales of justice, not even a vestige of Justice herself, in her usual blindfolded condition; but simply the coat of arms of the United States as represented on one side of a good round silver quarter dollar, such money, in those primitive days, being in vogue. As a seal of the court it is believed to have been as good as any other for the time being. So much having been effected in the interest of justice unto some, and law for everybody, nothing further appears to have been done until the following October.

In 1838 Hon. Joseph Williams was appointed judge of the second judicial dis- trict. Judge Williams was from Pennsylvania, and settled in Muscatine early in the year 1838. He was a man of good talents, though not of judicial mind. As a public speaker he was considered one of the best in the territory. He was said to have been a natural orator, his powers of mimicry and facial expression being almost perfect. While on a visit east some years after he met an old schoolmate and companion of his boyhood. The two together spent some happy hours in recalling the scenes of long ago. Judge Williams wrote upon one of the books of his friend the following :

"O, Jerry, Jerry, I've found you at last, And memory goes back to the scenes of the past, And I think of old Somerset's mountain of snow, When you were but Jerry and I was but Joe."

Judge Williams opened court here on the 4th day of October, 1838. The ap- pointment of E. Cook as clerk was reaffirmed, and the "two bit" seal declared in full virtue. The court met in St. Anthony's church, a small building still stand- ing in St. Anthony's church grounds and now used as a part of the parish school- house. Father Pelamourgues, the then Catholic priest in charge, deemed it no desecration of the holy place to have it temporarily used as a temple of justice. In those early days St. Anthony's served as a public hall and was utilized for all meetings of the people, debating societies, etc. It was a building of a single room, and small at that, hence afforded no accommodations for juries. Down Front street, three doors east of Main, was a low, two-story building, the property of George L. Davenport, but partially completed, though the Iowa Sun had been darting its rays from the upper story since the previous August ;- here was found a room in which the first Scott county grand and petit juries held their delibera- tions. The building was afterward finished and became the first family residence of Mr. Davenport.

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

Frazer Wilson was appointed deputy marshal for this term of court, the mar- shal of the territory not being present. The first business transacted was the issuing of a venire for a grand jury returnable forthwith, whereupon the marshal subpoenaed the following named jurors: John Work, James O. Kelley, J. A. Birchard, L. S. Colton, R. H. Spencer, James McIntosh, Walter B. Warren, Caleb H. Gardner, James Hall, Andrew Logan, M. J. Lyman, M. Strong, Benjamin W. Clark, Jacob Heller, Philip Suiter, William L. Cook, Samuel Hedges, A. J. Hyde, John Robinson, Isaac Hawley, John Lewis, Ira Cook and Smith Mounts. R. H. Spencer was appointed foreman.

After being charged the jury retired, and after spending some time returned into court and by their foreman reported that they had no business before them. They were each allowed for one day's attendance and mileage from their place of residence, after which they were discharged from any further attendance at this term as grand jurors.

On motion of Gilbert C. R. Mitchell, Rufus Harvey, of Rock Island, Illinois, was admitted to practice at the Scott county bar, the first to be admitted before the local court.

On motion by the same Simeon Meredith was also admitted, and there being no district attorney, he was by the judge appointed to that position pro tempore.

Jonathan W. Parker was also admitted to practice.

On motion of the district attorney the venire for the original grand jury was set aside and a venire de novo for a grand jury was awarded and made return- able forthwith. The sheriff reported as follows: Wheeler Hedges, W. B. V. Franks, Samuel Hedges, Alfred White, M. J. Lyman, J. M. Robertson, John R. Spicer, Isaac Hawley, W. L. Cook, L. S. Colton, John Forrest, L. M. Strong, John Work, John Robinson, Ephraim Knapp, James Thompson, A. J. Patten, W. H. Patten, Cheney Munger, Seth F. Whiting. Wheeler Hedges and W. B. V. Franks were excused from attendance. The jury as impaneled were sworn in, with Samuel Hedges as foreman. The jury was charged and retired to con- sider business.

The first term of the Scott county district court lasted for three days. On the third day the venire which was placed in the hands of the sheriff on the first day for a petit jury was returned. The names of those selected were as fol- lows: Roswell H. Spencer, A. J. Patten, James Mackintosh, Walter B. Warren, Jacob Heller, Ephraim Lane, John Lewis, Andrew J. Hyde, William H. Baker, Caleb A. Gardner, Robert Mackintosh, Daniel Wilson, Richard Peace, John Squires, M. A. Harrington, James Hall, Cheney Munger.

Why there were but eighteen is an open question. The jury was returned October 6, 1838, but on examination of the records of the county commissioners we find that on the 4th of the preceding May a panel of twenty-four was an- nounced as "the petit jury of the first term of the district court of Scott county." There are no records of such a term being held, and no one now living can give any account of it. The records of the commissioners show that of the twenty- four called by the board only eleven came.

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History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I, Part 49

Author: Downer, Harry E Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Number of Pages: 1042

Author: Downer, Harry E
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1042