USA > Iowa > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, Iowa, including a condensed history of the state, the early settlement of the county together with sketches of its pioneers > Part 25
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
This brings to mind a circumstance which happened at the first or second term of court held by the Hon. Samuel Riddle, at Magnolia, in the year 1855 or 1856, at which time two gentle- men, named James M. Butler and S. J. Comfort, made applica- tion for examination and admission to the bar of this county. The motion having been filed, the court appointed a committee, consisting of N. G. Wyatt, Robert Douglas, A. C. Ford and Judge Street, to examine the applicants in open court. The committee at once set about the duty thus imposed by the court, and while Bob Douglas was interrogating Mr. Butler as to the different kinds of property, the following questions were asked and answered as herein stated, viz .:
Mr. D .- Mr. Butler, how many kinds of property are there known to the law ?
Mr. B .- Well, I should say about three.
Mr. D .- Mr. B., will you tell me the different kinds of prop- erty?
Mr. B .- There is land, and real estate, and town lots, and swamp land, and seminary land, and school land, and govern- ment land, you know; and then there are horses and cows, and sich.
307
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
Mr, D .- Now, Mr. B., come right to time, and tell me the dif- ferent kinds of property, by the names known to the books?
Mr. B .- There is real property.
Mr. D .- Go on and tell me the other kinds?
Mr. B .- Well, there is personal property, which is horses and cattle, and town lots and rails, and county orders and swamp- land scrip.
Mr. D .- Do not the books speak of a certain kind of property that is known as mixed property ?
Mr. B .- Yes, sir.
Mr. D .- Mr. B., give me the definition of mixed property?
Mr. B .- By the Eternal, Douglas, I think you have got me treed this time, because I don't really know that I ever seed any of this kind or not.
Mr. D .- You need not confine yourself to the very words of the books, but just give us a definition as your recollection best prompts you.
Mr. B .- Well, Douglas, I think that mixed property is a-a- a-m-mules, by the Eternal, for if they are not well mixed, I do not know of any that is.
LAWYERS OF THE COUNTY.
The first lawyer who settled in this county was one Richard Humphrey, who dropped into Magnolia shortly after the " seat of justice " was located at that place, and remained there until 1855, at which time he took his departure for the State of Mis- souri, and in two years after locating.in that State began prac- ticing slack and tight rope performances in public, at one of which entertainments he was so unsuccessful that he lost his life. The seqnel of the story is, that about fifty men of the neighborhood were at one end of the rope and Mr. Humphrey at the other, and by reason of the disparity of numbers the motions and demurrers of the minority were not heard or passed upon by Judge Lynch.
The next attorney to locate in the county was one N. G.
308
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
Wyatt, who put in an appearance in 1856 at Magnolia and tarried there until in February, 1859, at which time he, in com- pany with many others of Harrison county, went to Pike's Peak, to better their financial conditions in the reported regions of inexhaustible fields of gold. Once there he never returned, but is at the present nicely located in the State of California, having taken to himself a wife, and is surrounded by loving wife and happy family. Mr. Wyatt was a Representative from this county in the Sixth General Assembly, and was a man of more than ordin- ary brain power. He made one mistake in this county which forever ruined his political aspirations, and it was this: In 1858, while he was attending the Methodist church at Magnolia, the church being held in a log house which was owned by him, and as is usual on all occasions now of a church character, the "hat" was passed and Wyatt failed to place the usual quarter therein, saying that they might consider him as putting therein a half a dollar, as he would apply that or double that amount on the rent for the building. This was caught up as a " dun " in public for rent, and in the services for the afternoon, the minis- ter, one Mr. Guylee, took occasion to most unmercifully abuse friend Wyatt for making a dun in so public a manner, and after exhausting the force of the English language by way of denun- ciation, wound up by calling Wyatt a most accomplished scoun- drel. This coming to the ears of Wyatt on the following Mon- day morning, somewhat ruffled a temper which at other times was not easily provoked, and on meeting Mr. Guylee on the street, proceeded to and did take his change by administering to the fool minister such a " drubbing" as in his mind satisfied all damages for wrongs inflicted in his absence on the preceding Sab- bath. This act of lawlessness was taken up and howled at by every Methodist and every son of a Methodist in the entire county, and the result was that there was such a furore against Mr. Wyatt, that he deemed this climate too cool for him to try to be- come a millionaire in, and as a result he shook the dust of the
309
HISTORY OF HARRISON. COUNTY.
county from his feet as a memorial against those who took ex- ceptions to his applying the rent on the Sabbath day as part and parcel of public donations for the support of the church.
Joe H. Smith located in Magnolia on the 1st day of June, 1856. He is still in the flesh, and some other person may place on paper his evil as well as good deeds.
Then in 1859 came W. W. Fuller and Jno. K. L. Maynard. These formed a partnership, and continued to practice until in July of 1860, at which time a dissolution was had, and W. W. Fuller continued in the practice, who soon entered into a part- nership with Joe H. Smith, which continued until August, 1862.
At this time Company C of the Twenty-Ninth Iowa was formed, both entering the service, and Captain Fuller dying at Greenwood, in the State of Mississippi, on the 14th of March, 1863, surrendered back to God a life which few in all this grand land possessed of greater promise.
Here permit me to digress a little, because of the unconquera- ble and unmeasured love I had and have for this noble specimen of manhood. Fuller was an able and learned lawyer, a patriot beyond reach of suspicion, and a citizen above reproach, an honest man, and a friend whom adversity did not frighten. His friends increased with his years, and while time served to multiply their numbers, death alone could thin their ranks. The sunshine of life seemed to be in his keeping, and in every com- pany in which he formed a part, he dispensed its light and warmth with a hand as lavishly generous as its sources were inexhaustible.
In 1860, came the Hon. Henry Ford and the Hon. Alexander Brown. These two were the products of the Hon. George G. Wright, formerly one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the State of Iowa. Lawyer Alexander Brown enlisted in Nov- ember, 1861; in the Fifteenth Regiment Iowa Infantry, was wounded in the battle of Shiloh, from which to this day he has never recovered, and never will as long as life shall last. Henry
1
310
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
Ford remained at home, and took upon himself the duties of District Attorney for the Fourth Judicial District of this State, and after having held this position for four years, while the attorneys were in the field, was elected to the position of Judge thereof, with what credit to himself, each person knowing his habits is left to form his or her own conclusions.
I should have said, heretofore, that Mr. Geo. S. Bacon was a lawyer at the time he settled in Iowa, in 1857, but through neg- lect it was not mentioned, from the fact that Captain Bacon never made a specialty of the law, or ever appeared in the saw dust before a court in the trial of a cause. The Captain found a more genial atmosphere in the vocation of trading in real estate, selling of goods and holding county office, than in the arena before the court, measuring intellect on intricate law points with an antagonist worthy of his steel.
In 1865, Philip D. Mickel located at Magnolia, and remained there until the winter of 1866, at which time he removed to Missouri Valley, and there began the practice of law. The sub- ject of this sketch was a man of greater energy than fine dis- crimination; but notwithstanding his bad orthography and fre- quent bulges on doubtful propositions of law, succeeded well in the profession. His untiring energy and apparent earnestness more than balanced the former. He is now in Colorado, and succeeding in his profession.
T. E. Brannon located in Magnolia in 1867, and in the spring of 1869 removed his office to Missouri Valley. Mr. Brannon was a brother of the Hon. William Brannon of Muscatine, Iowa, and a man of excellent education and of extensive learning in the law. Somehow he had formed an opinion by which he attached but little value to his life, and while in the whirlpool of legal foray, manifested all the superior qualities of the lawyer, fought his cases to a finish, ever being gentlemanly, honest, fair and straightforward. The conditions of bodily infirmities, the loss of one of his arms, and added to this a part of each of his feet,
311
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
created a despondeney by which he in the year of 1878 took upon himself the disposition of his own life, and died by his own hand at Missouri Valley in the year last named. Mr. Brannon was honorable and generous, and as brave as magnanimous, and now that the grave possesses all that we formerly called the embodi- ment of a gentleman and scholar, I can only say, judge him with the same measure by which we ourselves would wish to be judged.
Time and space forbid that mention should here be made of all who belonged to the legal fraternity who have attempted to practice law in the county, from the fact that many have been birds of passage, and some scavengers.
One Frank Wolf, who located at Woodbine, kept this part of the legal vineyard in a continual uproar during the time of his stay in the place, and finally by his rascality called down the vengeance of the court upon his head and was disbarred, leaving this county in unmagnified disgrace.
Frank Griffin, of Dunlap, was of the order of the gentleman last named as of Woodbine, and during his professional life in the county had his shingle floating in the breeze at the town of Dunlap. This person being somewhat disgusted with the prac- tice of the law in the county, departed hence, without giving his clients notice of his departure, leaving the town which had given him more than merited support, solitary and alone on horseback.
G. W. Thompson, of Dunlap, was never sufficiently informed in the merits and philosophy of legal intricacies as to be of any advantage to himself or disadvantage to others; never ventured out into the current so as to be beyond his depth. This person- age left Dunlap in 1885 and since that time has been a resi- dent of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The Hon. L. R. Bolter became a member of the bar of this county as early as 1865, and from that date to the present has ever upheld the reputation and glory of the profession. With
312
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
the exception of Joe. H. Smith, Mr. Bolter is the oldest practi- tioner at the bar of this county. Mr. Bolter was, in his younger days, a student of Hillsdale College, Michigan, and studied law under the Hon. Salathiel C. Coffinbury at Constantine in the last named State, at which place he was admitted to the bar. Coming to Iowa in 1865, he immediately entered the arena as a legal gladiator and from that to the present has studiously prose- cuted or defended all causes intrusted to his management, with a devotion worthy of the profession to which he has the honor to belong.
J. W. Barnhart is the next oldest attorney in the county; he is now 50 years of age and a graduate of the University of Mich- igan. He was admitted to the bar as a practicing attorney in 1865, in Boone county, Iowa. He was actively engaged in the practice of his profession at that place until 1878, when he re- located at Logan, and from that day to the present he has been among the foremost members of the bar. Mr. Barnhart is a man of sterling qualities and though not among the first to unravel the mysteries and intricacies of law to court and jury, in the county, yet during his stay among the people of the county he has won a reputation in the Supreme Court which is both enviable to attorneys and an honor to the profession of which he is an honored member.
Major Charles Mackenzie is 44 years old, and a bachelor. He served for three years in the late rebellion, under the title of Major, in the Ninth Iowa regiment of Iowa Volunteers, and, when the war was over he read law under D. E. Lyon, of Du- buque, Iowa, and was admitted to the bar in 1867. Following his admission, he practiced his profession at Dubuque, Eldora, Mason City, Sioux City, and last, but not least, at Dunlap, in this county. The Major is a lawyer of ripe mind, of unquestioned integrity, commanding appearance, and an excellent student. He is in the prime of manhood as a lawyer, and merits a top round in the ladder of professional standing.
1
313
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
H. H. Roadifer is an academic graduate of Mt. Vernon, Illi- nois. He read law in the office of Hon. T. Lyle Dickey, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Illinois. He was admitted to the bar in that State in the year 1875. Coming to Iowa immediately following his admission to the bar, he located at Emerson, Iowa, and was Principal of the High School at that place for the period of one year and a half. He afterward located at Logan and began to practice his profession in 1878.
Mr. Roadifer has been among the most successful lawyers of this county since his location here, and has an excellent record, not only at the local bar of the county, but also in the Supreme Court, to which many of the cases in which he has been inter- ested have found final adjudication.
Mr. S. I. King is nearly to the manner born, being only two years old at the time of the settlement of his parents in this county. I might say that he is as near being an Iowa lawyer as the present age of this State will warrant, for he informs me that he cannot recollect whether he was born in the State of Iowa or in the State of New York. Being educated in the best schools of the county, and, after taking a course at the State University, at Iowa City, he acted as Principal of the High School at Magnolia for the term of one year, and then being under the especial tutelage of the Law School of Judge C. C. Cole and Hon. George G. Wright, at Des Moines, and having received his diploma at this school, he came to Logan and began the practice of his profession in 1877, since which time he has kept up his well deserved honors and to-day stands in the front rank.
A. L. Harvey (the banker) was admitted to the practice in 1868, while Judge Ford was on the bench. Mr. Harvey does not give much time to the law, his whole attention being devoted to real estate and banking. It could not be expected that they who do not spend their time and entire energies in storing their . minds with fine distinctions, now made by our Judges, could
314
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
successfully compete with those who make this profession their whole study and devote an undivided life in mastering the philosophy of legal principles and the rules of practice.
Captain W. M. Magden, of Woodbine, follows as next in the list. This veteran, when entering the army in 1861, was the embodiment of physical manhood, but the rebel bullets and fatigue of marches, and disease of southern swamps, have only left a remnant of former perfection. In the business of the profession, the Captain keeps up his whiffletree, and by all is regarded as an honest lawyer.
J. A. Phillips, our present County Attorney, is a graduate of Westminster College, of Lawrence county, Pennsylvania. Mr. Phillips resides at Dunlap, and was elected to the above named position at the fall election of 1886, and will hold over until the 1st of January, 1889. The personage last named was admitted to the bar at Newcastle, Lawrence county, in 1873, and soon thereafter located at the town of Dunlap. Since that time until election as County Attorney, was attorney for the bank at that place. Mr. Phillips is a very careful, conscientious man, and a member of the Congregational Church at the place of his resi- dence.
C. R. Bolter first took lessons in educational archery under Prof. J. D. Hornby, at the High School at Magnolia, and from this last named place went to the Iowa State University at Iowa City, and when quitting this took up the study of law in his father's office, and, together with his brother, C. A., was, after a very severe examination by the local bar of Harrison county, in 1883, admitted to practice. Mr. Bolter is still young, and with half of the energy of the father would soon stand at the front of the local law class.
C. A. Bolter, the younger brother, is partly the product of Prof. S. G. Rogers, formerly of Logan School. After graduating in Logan School, he attended Tabor College, and from there to his father's office, where, under the tutelage of the parent, after a
315
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
rigid examination by a committee appointed by Judge Lewis, was, in 1883, given a certificate, which examination showed he was richly entitled to.
Lafayette Brown, of Missouri Valley, is a graduate of the Law Class of 1879, of the Iowa State University. Located in Mis- souri Valley when first unfurling his legal banner to the breeze, and from that time to the present has been actively engaged in the practice, yet the greater part of his time is taken up now with real estate and agency business.
Marcellus Holbrook, the banker at Missouri Valley, began the practice of his profession at Magnolia in 1865, and remained there until about 1873, at which time he removed to Missouri Valley, and began the banking business, in which he has been quite successful, so much so that the business of the law is by him left to others.
J. S. Dewell and John S. McGavren constitute the law firm of Dewell & McGavren, of Missouri Valley. These are graduates of the Law Department of 1883. The senior member of the firm is a graduate of Ames College, and the latter of Tabor. These young men possess sterling qualities, and have met with a success far beyond that of young men just starting in the prac- tice. This succees is partly attributable to their learning in the law, the honesty they so rigorously practice, and the assistance of friends they are so fortunate to possess in such copious quan- tities.
S. H. Cochran, of Logan, was once a cadet at the West Point Military Academy, and from that place to Iowa City, where he graduated in the Law Department of the State University in 1868, when in 1869 he located at Missouri Valley and began the practice of law. Mr. Cochran was for a term of years the law partner of Mr. J. C. Rhodabeck, and then formed a partnership with one Hart. This was soon dissolved, and then a partner- ship was formed of Cochran & Baily; this in turn was dispensed with, and Mr. Cochran moved to Logan in 1882, since which
316
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
time he has devoted his entire energies to the practice of his pro- fession. Mr. Cochran is energetic and daring, and works for the client as long as there is hope for success for attorney or client.
Cyrus Arndt, Esq., of Missouri Valley, was the law student of Mr. S. H. Cochran, and was addmitted to the bar prior to the passage of the statute requiring examination in the Supreme Court. Mr. Arndt has been crowned the "great pardon lawyer" of the mighty West, from the fact that during the last half year of the administration of Buren R. Sherman as Governor of this State, he, by reason of his good standing with said gubernator, procured the free, full and unconditional pardon of all the sa- loonists of Missouri Valley who had been tried, found guilty and fined in Judge Lewis' court in this county. No other person had the fertility of brain to originate, nor the cheek to present, such a request to a Governor of a Northern State; and no other Executive ever lived who would have disgraced the exalted posi- tion of Chief Magistrate by even entertaining, much less grant- ing, the pardons.
John A. Berry was the student of Mr. John V. Evans, and through his instrumentality was admitted to the bar at Logan, Iowa, in 1879. The gentleman last named, as some seem to think, is the protege of the court, but whether this is true, I have neither knowledge nor information sufficient to form a belief, only this far, that if partiality has been by any courts shown this attorney, it must have been in the absence of the author.
F. M. Dance, of Missouri Valley, is a graduate of Ann Arbor, Michigan, of the class of 1876. He located in Missouri Valley in May, 1868, and for the past twenty years has labored hard in the legal vineyard, with flattering results, both professionally and financially.
Minor B. Baily, of Dunlap, is a promising young attorney, and will in the near future rise in the profession. His present
317
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
knowledge of the law, coupled with his untiring energy, will not fail to merit the hoped-for recognition, the objective point of the real lawyer.
Thomas Arthur graduated in the class of 1881 at the State University at Iowa City, is a young man of excellent habits, good education and an excellent clerk. Up to the present date, he has not launched out into the wide expanse of law on his own hook, but for the past five years, has been constantly employed in the Clerk's office, either as deputy or principal Clerk of the District Court. It is fortunate that for the past ten years this office has been filled by those conversant with the law and the legal forms of such business. This opinion would be the more readily formed by an inspection of some of the records now extant at the Clerk's office. To a casual observer twenty years ago, but little of the proceedings of the Courts were spread upon the record, and much that does so appear is so unintelligible that in order to obtain a translation thereof lessons must be taken on the hieroglyphics of the China tea chests in order to accomplish a faithful rendering of the matter.
P. W. Cain, of Dunlap, now a young man of 27, bids fair to become a lawyer of note, some time in the near future. He was educated at Bloomfield, Tabor and Keokuk; when from these places of learning, he entered the Des Moines University, where he was admitted to the practice of the law in 1886, settled in Dunlap, where he has magnified the profession by a faithful adherence to legitimate business. For him, as is the case with all young attorneys, there is much to learn it and can only be accomplished by diligence and perseverance.
Col. F. W. Hart, who is at the present time one of Gov. Larra- bee's staff officers, was admitted to the bar in Cedar Rapids, Linn county, Iowa, and located in this county in 1881, since which time he has devoted a greater portion of his time to the land and loan agency business than to the law; yet whenever he has sufficient time, is always at hand in court settling some estate or
318
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
arranging for the trial of some case. The Colonel does not make the law a specialty, but only takes a hand when imperatively necessary.
Mr. Linus Bassett, of Little Sioux, is a graduate of the Law Department of Iowa State University, does not enjoy a very rugged constitution, and hence does not give his undivided ener- gies to the practice. Mr. Bassett is of that straightforward school that permits no crookedness, and has a reputation for honesty, which is the basis for a lucrative practice.
John A. Traver and S. E. Wilmot are both of Dunlap, are each young in the practice, and possessed of that material which in time, by proper application, will place them well to the front at the bar of their adopted home.
There are twenty-two attorneys of local residence in the county, which if the population of the county was divided up equally between these, each attorney would have 1,136 and 4-11 of a population from which to draw his nourishment.
Of these twenty-two, eight firms do nearly all the business in the courts, occasioned by reason of the fact that many of those who hold certificates of admission have studied the law more for their own protection than for profits arising from the practice. Perhaps no profession is so universally berated as that of the lawyer, and upon his defenseless head are emptied all the woes of an ignorant, selfish and prejudiced people.
To be a lawyer is the acquirement of something that passes not by inheritance, or purchased alone by bank accounts or high social standing. A law-trained mind is a mine of wealth to the possessor, and obtained by him by hard, persistent, continuous individual effort. It is not the result of the labor of a day, month or year, but that of a whole life time.
At Oxford, one hundred and thirty years ago, it was truly stated in a lecture by one well informed in the law, " that a competent knowledge of the laws of that society in which we live, is the proper accomplishment of every gentleman." How many of
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.