USA > Iowa > Jackson County > History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I > Part 12
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Judge Bennett, under this appointment, served until December 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, comprising the coun- ties of Muscatine, Scott, Clinton and Jackson, and the district has remained un- changed until the present time. At the October election, 1858, Judge Bennett was a candidate for reelection, having been nominated at a bar convention. The republicans nominated Hon. John F. Dillon, of Davenport, and, although Judge Bennett carried both Scott and Jackson counties, Judge Dillon was elected by the large majorities he received in Clinton and Muscatine counties, and in January following began his services as judge of the District Court, 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 as he did when he began his distinguished career as judge in this district fifty years ago. Judge Dillon was reelected without opposition in 1862, the demo- cratic 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 on the Supreme Bench.
Hon. J. Scott Richman, of Muscatine, was appointed in his place and was elected in 1864, and reelected in 1866 and 1870, the last two times without a dis- senting vote. He was an admirable judge, disposing of business rapidly and without apparent effort and with such accuracy and impartiality that he was sel- dom reversed. He was admitted to the Bar in 1839, in the first year of Iowa's existence as a territory, and was a member of the constitutional convention of 1846, and continued in practice until a short time before his death. His career of over two-thirds of a century as a lawyer has no parallel in Iowa.
After his resignation in 1871, Hon. William F. Brannan was appointed his successor, and was elected in 1872, reelected 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 organization 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 reelection might have been still on the bench. His genial manners made him a favorite with all, and every person in the entire district had an abid- ing faith in his ability as a lawyer, and his integrity and impartiality as a judge. The people and the bar parted with him with genuine regret.
Walter I. Hayes possessed many of the highest qualifications of a lawyer, 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 presented to him was
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possessed by very few lawyers, and unless he had been requested to give a written opinion on a case after taking it under advisement, his decision 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 profession.
CIRCUIT COURT.
The business of the District Court increased so largely, and so much dissat- isfaction had arisen over the manner in which the probate business was adminis- tered in the County Courts, that the legislature, on April 3, 1868, created the Cir- cuit Court, with original and exclusive jurisdiction over all matters of which the county judge, or the County Court, had jurisdiction, and also exclusive jurisdic- tion over appeals or writs of error over all inferior tribunals, and concurrent jur- isdiction with the District Court over all civil matters, but had no jurisdiction over criminal cases except such misdemeanors as the District Court, with the con- sent of the defendant, might order to be tried in the Circuit Court. Jackson and Clinton counties constituted the Second Circuit of the Seventh Judicial District. Hon. George B. Young, of Clinton, was elected judge of this circuit, and served about three years, when he resigned to reenter the practice of the law, and was succeeded by Hon. Daniel W. Ellis, of Lyons, who was appointed by the gov- ernor to fill the vacancy, and was subsequently twice elected to the position. He served in all about nine years and at the election in 1880 was succeeded by Hon. Charles W. Chase, also of Clinton county, who was in turn succeeded by Hon. A. J. Leffingwell in 1884, who served as circuit judge until that court was abolished.
THE DISTRICT COURT AGAIN.
The Circuit Court, although it had greatly relieved the District Court, had not given satisfaction to the members of the bar, or to the people at large, and in January, 1886, the legislature enacted a law abolishing the Circuit Court after January 1, 1887, and transferring all its busines to the District Court, and redis- tricting the state, and providing for additional district judges. This act left the boundaries of the Seventh Judicial District unchanged, and provided for the elec- tion of three judges therein. The democrats put in nomination A. J. Leffingwell, of Clinton, then one of the judges of the Circuit Court ; D. A. Wynkoop, of Jack- son, and Fred Heinz, of Scott. A bar convention was called, which nominated A. J. Leffingwell, of Clinton ; Hon. William F. Brannan, of Muscatine, and John N. Rogers, of Scott. A very bitter contest arose over the nominations of all ex- cept Leffingwell, but resulted in the election of the nominees of the bar conven- tion.
Judge Rogers never held any term of court in Jackson county, as he died a few months after entering upon the duties of his office. He was a man of fine schol- arly attainments, and a profound lawyer. He was succeeded by Hon. Charles M. Waterman, first by appointment and afterward by election until he was pro- moted to the bench of the Supreme Court. Judge Leffingwell died while holding a term of court at Maquoketa in 1888, and Andrew Howat, of Clinton, was ap- pointed his successor, and was also elected at the next election, and served until he resigned, in 1891, to remove to Salt Lake, where he also served as judge, but soon resigned to return to practice. P. B. Wolfe. also of Clinton, was appointed his successor, and was elected and reelected until he, too, resigned in 1908, and Hon. A. R. Barker, of Clinton, succeeded him and is now on the bench. Judge Brannan retained his place by successive reelections until 1906 when he declined to continue in service by reason of advancing years, and D. V. Jackson was cho- sen in his place.
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In 1892 the legislature provided an additional judge for the Seventh District. and Allen J. House, having been nominated by the bar of Jackson county, was appointed to the place, and has been reelected continuously ever since. When Judge Waterman was promoted to the Supreme Bench, James W. Bollinger was chosen to succeed him and has continued in that position. The present occu- pants of the bench in this district at the present time are Hon. Allen J. House, of Maquoketa ; Hon. James W. Bollinger, of Davenport; Hon. D. V. Jackson, of Muscatine, and Hon. A. R. Barker, of Clinton.
PROBATE AND COUNTY COURTS.
The first records of the Probate Court in Jackson county were signed March 12, 1838, by J. K. Moss as probate judge. Those of Iowa Territory were signed by Anson Harrington, W. L. Brown, Joseph Palmer, and R. B. Wyckoff. Under the Code of 1851, County Courts were established, and the single judge who pre- sided therein possessed the powers and performed the duties now 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 the powers great. They were so exercised in some counties as to work great disaster and inflict heavy losses on the taxpayers, and its jurisdiction was not curbed any too soon by the transfer of nearly all of 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 J. Smith, Philip B. Bradley, A. L. Palmer, and Joseph S. Darling were the county judges for Jackson county until its jurisdiction was merged with that of the Circuit Court in 1868.
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, a good accountant, and possessed of the strictest integrity. Judge Spurr possessed the first qualification, but lacked the others. Judge Kelso performed his official duties 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 super- visors.
THE BAR OF JACKSON COUNTY. . BY IION. WILLIAM GRAHAM.
The earliest resident lawyer of Jackson county is believed to have been Philip B. Bradley, who was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut, January 5, 1809. He grad- uated at Union College, Schenectady, New York, in the class of 1829, of which class the late Senator L. B. Dunham, of Maquoketa, was also a member. In 1834 he located in Galena, Illinois, and was appointed prosecuting attorney, in 1836, and a year later postmaster of Galena. In 1839 he removed to Iowa, mak- ing his home in Jackson county, and soon entered the practice of his profession. He early entered political life and in 1843 he became clerk of the District Court. In 1845 he was elected a member of the legislative council, and in 1845 became the first member for Jackson and Jones counties in the senate of the newly ad- mitted State of Iowa. In 1850 and again in 1852 he was secretary of the senate, and was also elected one of the representatives of Jackson county in 1858 and again in 1877. He was also elected county judge in 1861 and served one term. In 1852 he was a delegate from Iowa to the democratic national convention at
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Baltimore, and voted for General Cass until his nomination was hopeless, when he transferred his vote to Stephen A. Douglas until on the final ballot he cast it for Franklin Pierce. He was a member of the committee on resolutions in this convention.
Judge Bradley was a genial gentleman of polished manners, and was adroit and skillful politician. He was largely instrumental in securing the nomination of his neighbor, Ansel Briggs, for governor, and is credited with the manage- ment of the campaign which resulted in his election. He was one of the chiefs of the "Andrew Clique" which had such a potent influence in the early politics of Iowa.
During the first session of the legislature while Bradley was senator, the democrats had six majority in the senate and the whigs six majority in the house of representatives, so that neither party could command a majority on joint bal- lot, and the situation was still further complicated by the fact that three demo- crats and one whig refused to support their caucus nominees for senators or judges of the Supreme Court. During the joint convention after the whigs had failed to elect their men, a proposition was made to Bradley that if he would furnish half a dozen votes to elect M. D. Browning, a whig, from Burlington, senator, they would in turn elect Bradley to the United States senate. The offer was declined, but Phil persuaded enough whigs to vote with the democrats to adjourn the convention, and the senate would not afterward agree to hold a joint convention, and the election of senators went over to the next legislature, although Governor Briggs called a special session in expectation that the demo- cratic nominees could be elected. If Bradley had accepted the offer the early political history of Iowa might have been written differently.
Jacob Y. Blackwell also came to Andrew about 1846. He is well remembered for his fondness for "Sesquipedalian" words and for his curious facility in mis- placing them. He was in California for a time, and afterward in Minnesota, but returned to Jackson county and remained there until the latter part of the sixties, when he removed to Iowa City, of which place he was at one time city attorney, and also represented Johnson county in the legislature. He died a good while ago in New Jersey.
One of the early lawyers was Chenowyth, who is chiefly remembered by the suit which he brought to replevy forty acres of land and a sawmill. He was among the early emigrants to the Pacific Coast, meeting with untold hardships on the way, and losing his little daughter among the Indians. He afterward be- came a successful lawyer in Oregon.
J. McGarl and Frank F. Taylor practiced law for a little while in Bellevue, but McGarl died while on a business trip to New Orleans, and in 1853 Taylor removed to California where he acquired a comfortable estate.
Dan F. Spurr, Joseph Kelso and Fred Bangs all located in Jackson about 1847. Spurr was a member of an influential family in the bluegrass region of Kentucky. A college graduate and a well read lawyer, he was also a man of genial manners, and soon attained great popularity. He was elected county judge in 1851. In those days the county judge was not only judge of the Probate Court, but possessed the powers of issuing or dissolving injunctions, and hearing writs of habeas corpus. He also exercised all the powers since vested in the board of supervisors, and the auditor, and many of those now exercised by the clerk of the District Court. In fact very few officers anywhere in the United States possessed powers so extensive as those exercised by the county judges of Iowa under the Code of 1851. Judge Spurr's administration of county affairs was a lamentable failure. His popularity was such that he held the position for six years, and in 1855 was prominently urged for judge of the Supreme Court against Judge Isbell. His convivial habits grew upon him, and worked his ruin, and in 1857, he and his party associates were retired from office. Soon afterward he removed to California, but never again regained his standing at the bar, and died a few years ago in very reduced circumstances.
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Kelso was born near Belfast, Ireland, where his father was a Presbyterian minister. In 1840 he came to the United States and at first settled in the Valley of Virginia, but remained there but a short time and went to Lancaster, Ohio, and began the study of law in the office of Hon. Thomas Corwin, afterwards governor of Ohio, senator and secretary of the treasury. About 1845 he came to Galena and entered the office of John M. Douglas, afterward president of the Illinois Central Railroad. He started as a lawyer in Bellevue under very adverse circumstances, but his industry and integrity won for him business and wealth. He was prosecuting attorney in 1851 to 1853, and it is said that he never indicted a man whom he failed to convict. He was also county judge from 1857 to 1859, to the great benefit of the taxpayers. He afterward engaged in banking, and died a few years ago at an advanced age leaving a large estate, and an untarnished reputation.
Fred Bangs first settled at Andrew and soon afterward became private sec- retary to Governor Briggs. His early days had been spent in a printing office, and he became an accurate and careful writer. He was prosecuting attorney from 1855 for two or three years, and afterward removed to Tama county and from there to Harrison county, where he died a few years ago. He had a large fund of stories about the legislators and state officers of early days, and it is a great pity he did not print them.
J. W. Jenkins settled in Maquoketa about 1850. He was a candidate for senator of state in 1852, and was elected senator in 1856, and was afterward lieutenant colonel and colonel of the Thirty-first Iowa Infantry. At the close of the war, he removed to Kansas City, and died there a few years ago.
William A. Maginnis came to Bellevue in 1851. He was prosecuting attor- ney from 1853 to 1855, and in 1875 was elected state senator. His genial nature and infectious laugh were almost irresistible. His good nature led him into financial difficulties, and the foundation of a comfortable fortune was exhausted in paying other people's debts. He was a democrat in the early years, but in his latter days became a prohibitionist of the most pronounced type.
William P. Montgomery located in Maquoketa early in "the fifties," but be- fore the close of the decade he went to Kansas, and was living at Topeka at the time that town was sacked, and its inhabitants murdered by Quantrell's band of guerrillas. Montgomery escaped by hiding in a cornfield until the cutthroats had left the neighborhood. .
Hon. Judge Booth settled in Bellevue in 1851 and soon took the first place among the members of the Jackson county bar. He was a native of Orange county, New York, where he was born June 1, 1792. He was admitted to prac- tice as an attorney when he arrived at his majority and settled at Goshen and three years later received his certificate of admission as counselor at law. When he was admitted to the bar Ambrose Spencer was chief justice of New York, and his license to practice as a solicitor in chancery was signed by the great Chancellor Kent. In 1827 he was appointed one of the judges of the Common Pleas Court, and in 1830 became surrogate of his native county, which position he held for about eleven years. He was a man of ability, thoroughly grounded in the fundamentals of the law, a hard fighter and a tireless worker. Soon after he had been licensed to practice as an attorney, he was selected by the celebrated Aaron Burr, who had a large practice in that region, as his correspondent, and in that capacity attended to the local details of his business in that vicinity until he went on the bench.
He early entered political life and was one of the famed Albany Regency, which controlled the fortunes of the democratic party in that state for so many years. This connection brought him into terms of intimacy with the leading democratic politicians of New York, as President Van Buren, Governor Marcy, General Dix, Flagg, Van Dyck, Judge Duer, Judge Brown, and Silas Wright, whose friendship he retained through life and which cost him many hard fought battles.
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Judge Booth was interested in the Erie Railroad from the time of its incep- tion ; was one of its incorporators, and also for many years one of its most active directors. At one time when it seemed that the enterprise must be abandoned, he with six other of the directors each built a mile of the road at their own ex- pense, and thus secured its extension to Middletown and saved the life of the corporation.
Judge Booth came to Iowa in 1851 and settled in Bellevue and easily took his place in the front rank of the bar of Jackson county. In 1854 he was ap- pointed judge of the District Court to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge W. E. Leffingwell, but after one year's service resigned and returned to the practice of his profession, which he continued up to the time of his death, which occurred February 18, 1869. The day before his death he concluded the distribution of a large estate, and the distribution sheet prepared by him was clear and accurate, and written as legibly and firmly as any he had prepared forty years before. The Iowa bar has had few equals and no superior in either equity or probate law. He was quaint and peculiar in his manners, and every member of the bar had some good story to tell at his expense, but he was not often worsted by any of them in a lawsuit. His success was largely attributable to the fact that no fee was large enough to induce him to accept the prosecution or defense of a case that he believed after examination, he either could not, or ought not to win. The maxim most frequently on his lips was that "it is the lawyer's first duty to keep his client out of lawsuits." His aid and counsel were always at the disposal of the younger members of the bar, and with all his pecu- liarities few persons ever had a kinder heart.
Judge Booth was nearly all his life a member of the Presbyterian church and was frequently commissioned to sit in its judicatories, and was for a while a director of the seminary of that church at Chicago. The church of that denom- ination at Bellevue owes its existence to him, and much of the larger part of the cost of their edifice was defrayed by him. When his death was announced to the Supreme Court, Judge Dillon, then chief justice of that tribunal, paid a touching tribute to his memory.
In 1854 Joseph S. Darling was admitted to the bar and settled at Sabula. Afterward he located in Bellevue, and with the removal of the county seat to Andrew, he also moved to the "Geographical Center," and while living there served one term as county judge. He subsequently went to Clinton and after twenty years' residence there, took up his residence at Arkansas. He is still in active practice. He was one of the best equipped lawyers in the state, and able to compete with any of his competitors, and recent trials have demonstrated that his hand has not lost its cunning, and that "Time's effacing fingers" has not yet touched his intellect, nor swept from his mind its stores of legal learning.
A. S. Rosecrans some time during "the fifties" located at Fulton and prac- ticed law there for some years.
In May, 1856, Dean A. Fletcher was enrolled among the lawyers of Jackson county and his name has never been erased. He was a native of Essex county, New York, and graduated from Vermont University at Burlington, and also from the Poughkeepsie Law School. He located at Maquoketa, where he still lives, and is the lawyer longest of any in practice at this bar, but his service has not been continuous as he devoted several years to teaching and was also for several terms superintendent of schools in this county.
Rufus S. Hadley also practiced law in Maquoketa for a few years, but in 1858 removed to Anamosa.
William Graham settled in Bellevue in August, 1856, and was admitted to the bar of Jackson county, September 8th following, and at once entered into partnership with Hon. John B. Booth, which continued until dissolved by the death of the senior member in February, 1869. He was a native of Montgomery. Orange county, New York, and graduated at Union College in 1851. After one
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year spent in teaching, he studied law and was admitted to the bar at Brooklyn, his certificate of admission bearing date January 8, 1856. The firm of Booth and Graham did a large business in Jackson and adjoining counties, but in 1867 the junior partner removed to Dubuque, where he is still actively engaged in the practice of the law and visits Jackson county every term of court or oftener. Since coming to this state in 1856, he has never engaged in any business or accepted any position that would interfere in the least with his profession.
Eugene Cowles, of Maquoketa, was admitted to the bar on the same day with Graham, and immediately became associated with Judge Spurr as partner at Bellevue. The firm was dissolved shortly before Spurr's removal to Cali- fornia, and Cowles located for a short time in Maquoketa, but soon removed to Dubuque, and while located there was persuaded by some Boston clients to tin- dertake the management of their mills at Canton. After two or three years he sold the mills for his clients, and then engaged with his brother in the commis- sion business in Dubuque, and after a successful career there they removed to Chicago, where they suffered the loss of everything in the Chicago fire. Cowles returned to Iowa and finally located at Cherokee and again entered the practice of the law, and while in the enjoyment of a successful and lucrative business his career was cut short by a sudden and fatal illness.
In the early part of 1857 Charles Rich, a native of Vermont, where he grad- uated at the University of Vermont at Burlington, came from Gouverneur, St. Lawrence county, New York, where he had practiced for some years, to Maquo- keta, and became a partner of D. A. Fletcher, and the firm of Rich and Fletcher continued until Mr. Fletcher was elected superintendent of schools, and from that time Mr. Rich was alone. He was an able lawyer, but on account of some errors made soon after coming to this state, neither his abilities nor his merits received full recognition for some years. He was an indefatigable worker, and gave himself no relaxation, and his increasing labors sapped his vitality, and in the spring of 1874 while in the full tide of success he succumbed to an attack of pneumonia.
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