USA > Iowa > Johnson County > Leading Events in Johnson County, Iowa, History > Part 40
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CHAPTER XXIX
The Early Courts - Early Marriages
T HE act of the legislature of Wisconsin territory creating Johnson county provided for two terms of the district court to be held annually in the county, during the months of August and December, but it so happened that the legislature of the territory of Iowa, in January, 1839, changed the time to May and September of each year. However, when the time came for the first session it was found that the court house at Napoleon was unfinished and that the tavern was fully two miles from the court house, so that Judge Williams decided to call the court to assemble at the Gilbert trading house. Ac- cordingly, on May 13, 1839, court was opened here. The prose- cuting attorney, T. S. Parvin, wrote in his diary on that date : "May 13, 1839 - Started to Johnson county to attend court, accompanied by Joseph Williams, judge." He adds on this same date: "A beautiful road; fine country mostly prairie, between this [Bloomington] and the west; reached the point distant 30 miles, p. m., called court and empanelled a jury."
It appears, from other data, that court then adjourned until the following morning, and on that date Mr. Parvin wrote: "Court as prosecutor; found an indictment vs. A. J. Gregg for counterfeiting, cause continued - evening fiddling & danc- ing - officers & all - Indians, a number; visited with Gen'l Frierson." 378
On the morning of the fourteenth of May, 1839, the court met as a United States district court and the grand jury for the United States was called. It was composed of Samuel H. McCrory as foreman, David Sweet, Robert Walker, John G. Coleman, Nathaniel Fellows, David Switzer, John Gardner, James Smith, Charles Jones, James Douglass, George W. Hawkins, John A. Street, Yale Hamilton, John Gaylord, Wil- liam Ward, Samuel Walker, and Jonathan Harris.
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The officers present were Judge Joseph Williams, of Bloom- ington who was the second judge appointed to the district; Luke Douglass, the clerk; the prosecuting attorney, T. S. Par- vin, of Bloomington; the United States attorney, Charles Weston, of Davenport; the United States marshal, Charles Hendrie, deputy for Gen. Francis Gehon, of Dubuque; and Sheriff S. C. Trowbridge, of Johnson county.
The grand jury for the United States received their charge from the judge and retired to consider the matters before them, but in a short time reported no business for such a jury, where- upon they were discharged. However, they were at once re- called and sworn as a grand jury for the territory of Iowa. Having been charged in this new capacity, they retired to the open prairie, since there was privacy nowhere else, and after due deliberation they found a formal indictment against An- drew J. Gregg, which, the attorney says in his diary, was for "counterfeiting." He had been arrested in April before, and it appears that he was a general outlaw. After the indictment was found, he was at once arraigned and naturally pleaded not guilty, whereupon he was placed under bonds of $600 to appear at the next term of court.
The petit jury called at this term, which found no cases to try, was composed of Henry Reddout, Samuel Baumgardner, James Magruder, Philip Clark, John I. Burge, James S. Wil- kinson, Jesse McCart, Peter Crum, Asby D. Packard, Green Hill, William Kelso, Elijah Hurley, John Trout, I. P. Hamilton, .Joel Dowell, William M. Harris, and Alonzo C. Dennison. Of these jurors James Magruder served again forty-two years later in this county, or at the January term in 1881.
There were other attorneys present at this term of court who probably came out of curiosity, since they appear to have had nothing more than prospective business at this time in the county. Among these was S. C. Hastings, a young attorney of Bloomington, who later distinguished himself by becoming chief justice of two states, Iowa and California. Stephen Whicher was also among the number ; he became United States attorney in due time; also I. C. Day, all these coming from Bloomington. There was, besides these, a young friend of Judge Williams, from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, William E. Austin, who on this occasion was, on motion of T. S. Parvin,
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admitted to practice in the courts of Johnson county, thereby becoming the first candidate for such honors within its borders. This event occurred on the third day of the session.
In the diary of Mr. Parvin he refers to the social phases of the settlement on the night of the fourteenth, but there was also a feast after the adjournment of court on the last day when Mr. Chase, of the trading house, prepared refreshments for the entire court and invited guests. Here young Austin made a speech which was pronounced by Judge Williams as of the finest he had ever heard.
The following morning the judge and lawyers left the county, some on horseback, and some by other means of trans- portation, while the settlement resumed its work of building cabins and improving the new claims. As has been said, An- drew J. Gregg was a prisoner of the United States who came into the hands of the Johnson county authorities in 1839, when no means of caring for him or detaining him were at hand be- yond the agency of guardianship. Just to watch him so as to keep him from getting away until the court assembled for his trial at the September term, was all that could be done, and to provide for this emergency the commissioners called a special session in May, 1839, after court had adjourned. The minutes relating to this matter indicate a long list of guards, and the detailed expense account of the session deals with "services rendered the county" without specifying the particular kind in every case. A large number of items are for services in connection with the prisoner, Gregg. Jonathan Harris became responsible under oath "to keep this prisoner until the next session of the district court."
It is said Gregg, by some means, got possession of weapons and made his escape, only to return again to show his daring and defiance of authority during the festivities that took place some time later at the trading house near Napoleon. In the melee that occurred he and his companion met such rough treatment that they never returned to the vicinity.
Authority is given for the statement that Gregg was guarded for some weeks before his escape, and that the expense of guarding him had amounted to all the county revenues for an entire year, so that it was perhaps a matter of economy for him to get away, so long as no jail was available. This event
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is said to have induced the settlers to use more effective and less expensive means in dealing with their prisoners.
Counterfeiting was a common crime, as all eastern Iowa was a fertile field for such a medium of exchange. It usually was accompanied by horse stealing, an offense so common in the first twenty years of the local history that it ceased to be wondered at, and was suppressed only by the thorough organ- ization of vigilance committees.
Some time after the final escape of Gregg, two men stopped at the Gilbert trading house, where Jonathan Harris was keep- ing a tavern, and after securing the accommodations usual at such a place, offered in payment a counterfeit bill, which was, without suspicion, accepted, the good change being returned. Not long after their departure, a settler from the Wapsinonoc, a small stream some miles east, arrived at Harris's tavern, stating his own losses by these same individuals. It did not require much time to organize a pursuing party and the chase began. Crossing the river north of the new city the culprits went several miles up the valley of Clear creek, then turned southward, still pursued by the victims. Near morning they were found far south on English river at the house of Dr. Teeples, where they were soundly sleeping. They were at once arrested, probably without any formal warrant, and brought to the house of Pleasant Harris, all the time protesting their innocence under the plea that they had taken the bad money in exchange for good. Strict search having been made, the saddle bags of one were found stuffed with bogus money. Thereupon a court was organized, the evidence was taken, and sentence pronounced; the man with the stuffed saddle bag was to receive fifteen lashes on his bare back, the other ten lashes, and he was allowed to keep his shirt on. These penalties were duly administered, the culprits being in turn tied to an ash tree. They were then told to leave the country, which com- mand they promptly obeyed.874
Another renegade familiar to the early settlers went by the name of Conlogue, who made his headquarters on the Cedar river near Gower's or Washington's ferry, now Cedar Bluffs. He did not escape sundry punishments in the vicinity men- tioned, but was finally brought before the Johnson county courts, where, under an indictment in the territory of Iowa, he
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was a prisoner of the United States. The formal indictment is in part below :
The indictment against Conlogue for "burglary and lar- ceny" was made by the grand jury at the May term, 1840, in 'Johnson county, this jury consisting of "twenty good and law- ful men of said county," who were duly charged to inquire into the affairs of the territory in relation to criminal matters. The twenty men concerned, all pioneers of course, included Nathaniel Fellows, Isaac McCart, John Gardner, James Hawk- ins, Jonathan Harris, Yale Hamilton, John G. Coleman, John J: Burge, Wheaton Chase, Jacob Stover, Stephen Chase, Wil- liam Willson, Joseph Stover, Samuel Walker, Jehiel Parks, Robert Matthews, Warner Spurrier, Jesse B. McGrew, John Parrot, and Pleasant Harris. Joseph Williams was still judge of the second district.
The indictment in full is not essential and may be given in substance to show the charges as enumerated and the outcome of this case: "District Court, May Term, A. D. 1840. The grand jurors duly empanelled in and for said county upon their oath do present, that Samuel Conlogue of the county of John- son on the second day of December last past [1839], and in the night time with force and arms, the dwelling house of one Samuel Brown there situate willfully and feloniously did break open and enter, being armed with a dangerous weapon, that is to say, with a certain weapon called a club and then and there did commit personal abuse, force and violence by beating and knocking down the said Samuel Brown; and then and there in and from the said dwelling house, a large quantity of gold coin of the value of two hundred dollars and a large quantity of silver coin to the value of two hundred dollars of the legal money of the United States; one pocket book containing divers goods, chattels and choses in action to wit: four promissory notes, being of the value of one hundred and thirty dollars; and one small leaf-flowered box containing five paint brushes, and patterns to the value of thirty dollars, all the property of the said Samuel Brown, then and there did feloniously take, steal and carry away, against the peace and dignity of the United States and contrary to the form of the statute in such cases made and provided. - William G. Woodward and J. C. Hall, special prosecuting attorneys."
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And "afterwards on the fourteenth day of May," in 1840, the defendant was brought into court and pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was placed on trial and twelve men passed on his case. They were, "Joel Dowell, John N. Headly, Har- vey Lyman, Warren Stiles, John Matthews, Wm. Sturgis, James Magruder, David Street, William Kelso, James Hermin, Henry Felkner, and John A. Street." These, "after hearing the proofs and allegations of the parties retired to consider of their verdict." On the same day the jury returned into court, which suggests a very short time for deliberation, with the "following count:" "We, the jury, find the defendant guilty in manner and form as he stands charged in said indictment, and upon the first count assess a fine upon said defendant of five hundred dollars and sentence him to four years imprison- ment in the penitentiary of Iowa situated in the county of Lee, there to be confined to hard labor during the said term; and we further find the value of the property stolen as charged to be two hundred and ten dollars, the treble value of which is six hundred and thirty dollars, the property of said Brown."
. Upon the second count in the indictment the jury fixed a fine of five hundred dollars and four years in the penitentiary. "And now comes Woodward and Hall," the special prosecu- tors, and "remit and discharge" the fine on the first count and then the court took the matter under consideration and levied a fine upon the defendant of eleven hundred and thirty dollars, two hundred and ten of which was to be paid to Samuel Brown, and nine hundred and twenty was for the use of the territory of Iowa; also imprisonment for eight years in the penitentiary at Fort Madison at hard labor during the term, and to pay the costs of the prosecution, was the final statement of the court. Samuel Conlogue was then given into the hands of the sheriff, S. C. Trowbridge, to be safely conveyed to the penitentiary as determined.375
R. P. Lowe was the regularly appointed prosecuting at- forney at this date, but the attorneys mentioned appear to have served in his stead. In connection with this case, the following interesting bill is found which relates to a well known early settler :
"Iowa City, May 30th, 1840.
"The County of Johnson Dr.
"To Jesse Berry for guarding Conlogue three nights @ 1.25
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per night, $3.75. Nov. 12, 1840, to preparing a room and fur- nishing materials for the same for the District [Court] Nov. Term 1840 $7.00. Total $10.75.
"Jan. 5. 1841.
JESSE BERRY."
On the reverse side of this bill one may find this entry :
"Presented January 6th, 1841, and 5.371/2 allowed at Jan'y Session 1841." The reference is to the January session of the county commissioners.876
At the same term of court in which Conlogue was tried, found guilty, and sentenced, the county clerk, Luke Douglass, was indicted for gaming. He had played a "game of cards and bet twenty dollars to the evil example of all others in like case, offending against the peace and dignity of the govern- ment of the United States." On the face of the record it ap- pears that the clerk had to issue "by order of the court" the "capias and respondendum" in the following words and fig- ures, which is a warrant for the arrest of the clerk who issued it and for James Rock. They were held to answer to the "United States of America" for gaming. R. P. Lowe did the prosecuting. Douglass and Rock pleaded guilty, whereupon the judge, Joseph Williams, fined them ten dollars and costs each.377 This trouble is said to have cost Douglass his county office, as doubtless it should, for he was soon succeeded by Stephen B. Gardner, in 1840, as clerk of the district court. Douglass was not the only one found guilty, but his position was somewhat different. To sell liquor to the Indians was an indictable offense under the laws of the United States and many individuals were caught violating this law, usually pleading guilty and paying a modest fine for penalty. In one instance a woman by the name of Skinner, whose name was mentioned in connection with the first town of Monroe, was indicted for this offense. She was placed under bonds of five hundred dollars while the six or seven men indicted at the same time were allowed to go on bonds of one hundred dollars. The men who pleaded guilty to the offense were fined five dol- lars and costs, while this woman who also pleaded guilty, was given a penalty of thirty dollars and costs. No one is able it appears to explain at this date the cause of the difference in treatment, when all were equally guilty.
Referring again to criminal matters of greater import one may say that it is a strangely sounding phrase to read
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WEYERS & PRICE
NORTH LIBERTY, IOWA
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that, "Aaron Usher was paid one dollar for making fetters for Wallace." We infer that Usher must therefore have been a blacksmith, although the record does not say. It is sufficient to know that this was Lester Wallace, one of the four men concerned in the robbery of the home of John Goudy in Linn county. Three of them were known, Wallace, Switzer and Long, and were indicted by a Johnson county grand jury since Linn was then attached to Johnson for judicial pur- poses. R. P. Lowe, afterwards governor of the state (1858- 60), was the prosecuting attorney. The records are incom- plete in the matter of Wallace and Long, but the trial of Switzer was finished in October, 1841, in Cedar county. The indictment of these three which is now on file in Cedar County, passed through the hands of the clerks of the district court in Washington, Johnson, Linn and Cedar Counties.378 This was the part of a gang that were finally brought to the point of trial, but through the disagreement of a jury the leader at least escaped punishment. Recently, at the age of ninety- seven, Samuel Gilliland of Mechanicsville, one of the jury that served in 1841, told of his own part in the case and who caused the disagreement. His death occurred in January, 1911.
Jury duty in the early history of the vicinity was confined to a few men, since there were few on whom to draw for such service. It is uncommon for men to live so many years after the service in primitive days. The trial referred to is a long story and while it has to do with Johnson county in some respects it is found in detail elsewhere, and is not essen- tial here.379
The juries of 1842 are worthy of special mention because of the names of men included among whom are many that are still familiar to the present citizenship of the county. The grand jury was composed of: Chauncey Swan, the capital commissioner who supervised the platting of the capital sec- tion; Cyrus Sanders, the surveyor who left so many excellent plats of the county roads; William Jones, James Haiden, Matthew Teneyck. A. D. Stephens who claimed the land on which the county seat was located; Chauncey Ward, John D. Wolf, David Lindsay, Titus Fry, A. E. McArthur, James McCrae, Sr., John Gailor (probably the same as John Gay-
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lord) of the Gailor settlement; John Eagan, conspicious in various county affairs and one of the commissioners ap- pointed by the territorial legislature to relocate the seat of justice for Cedar county in 1839; R. W. Orr, Andrew Kirk- patrick, A. W. Blain, Geo. Clarkson, A. J. Willis, F. A. Mc- Cormick, John Smith, Stoddard Devault, and Frederick M. Irish. On the petit jury were: Charles Pinney, James Hawkins, David Switzer, Joshua King, Lyman Trost, Levi Wells, John Cohick, Chas. C. Morgan, A. G. Adams, Major P. McAllister, Robert Hutchinson, John C. Lee, B. M. Horner, Allen Strouch, David Hess, H. G. Jones, Samuel Nixon, John McCune, Thos. Parker and A. H. Haskill.380
An appointment of jurors by townships was not made until 1846, since civil townships were not fully organized until that date. The first distribution or appointment among the eleven recently organized townships gave the following as the result: To Monroe 7; Big Grove 16; Cedar 6; Newport 10; Scott 7; Penn 9; Clear Creek 8; Washington 12; Liberty 11; Pleasant Valley 14; Iowa City 50. Jury service was brief during the early courts yet no less solemn and sometimes more effective than under due forms of legal affairs in later days. Conditions were not favorable to secret sessions and makeshifts were employed as circumstances demanded. Some difficulty arose between the county commissioners and Attorney R. P. Lowe, on his allowances for services as prosecuting attorney when he presented his bill in 1840 for one year's service, claiming two hundred and fifty dollars. They, probably, through the spirit of economy, allowed him only one hundred, whereupon the attorney appealed his case to the district court. It ap- pears, however, that in 1841 the county officials settled the matter by paying him then, four hundred dollars for his services to date and in satisfaction of his judgment against the county. This furthermore, is the first instance in which the county engaged in litigation of this nature. The bill for costs amounted to forty dollars, and such sums then were not easy to obtain.881
The first attorney employed by the county to act in all cases when the county was interested was Asa Calkins. His compensation was not stated although it was to be "reason- able." Some years later it was arranged by the commis-
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sioners to secure the services of an attorney for the county in cases of need, and a bargain was made with Gilman Fol- som whereby he was to use a room in the new court house as an office and pay for its use in services to the county. Certain conditions, however, were imposed on him as to its care and surrender in case the room was needed by the court. This use of the county buildings for private offices was not uncommon, and in the economic interests of the county it ap- peared a wise provision. Other counties adopted this plan.
County buildings up to July, 1841, were temporary affairs. A jail was a prime necessity even at the beginning but since none could be had without money prisoners were placed un- der guard or sent away. Among the first warrants issued by the county, as has been shown, were various sums for "guarding prisoners." A house of logs hurried together for jail purposes furnished the first public building in an ad- joining county and it became the security for evil-doers very early in the county's history.
It was in July, 1841, that Jesse Berry and James Herron were paid $12.50 for drafting a plan for a county jail for Johnson county. Berry was also allowed $15 for making specifications and for a bond. James Trimble was the con- tractor on this first building. All the money used in erecting such buildings came from the sale of lots in the county seat. Trimble was paid $250 at the commencement of his contract and through many months that followed before the comple- tion of his work, "allowances" were made to him until one be- gins to wonder how much the jail cost. No mention is made of any contract with Trimble, but the clerk was allowed pay for posting notices "for proposals to build." So we may con- clude that a contract was drawn. Trimble was further paid "twelve hundred dollars on contract for jail" in October, 1841, which also suggests a written agreement, and from money arising from the sale of lots in the county seat. That the county orders might furnish a means of exchange the clerk was authorized to issue them in fractions of the twelve hundred dollars. From the records it is concluded that some- where in the county is a "date stone," probably 1841, made for the first county jail, furnished by Dewel & Ball at an expense of three dollars, and paid from the county seat fund.882 It
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would be an interesting relic if found. Jails were sometimes "borrowed" by counties, the bills for which sometimes also caused annoyances. The instances here given are illustra- tions of the point.
Muscatine county had a jail in 1842 and it was used by Johnson county for quartering the prisoners, Morehead and Burkholder, for whose care the jailer of the county presented a bill of $69 for "feeding them and having them ironed by a blacksmith." Moreover, this was not the end of the matter, for later a bill came from D. J. Snider, sheriff of Muscatine, for money paid Wm. Parvin for watching the jail when Burk- holder was confined for "thirty-eight nights." This claim the commissioners rejected, and Philip Clark, who seems to have been the final resort in trouble, here as on the occasion of locating the capital, was sent, or went to Bloomington [Muscatine] and brought this prisoner to Iowa City, in May, 1842. The increasing bills from Muscatine county seemed to make it advisable to care for the culprit at home.
County relations were somewhat strained at this time if the matter of allowing bills presented by adjoining counties is any criterion. The reference above and later a bill from Washington county for the trial of Lester Wallace on change of venue from Johnson county, which was rejected, suggest a disposition toward independence. This is also true in the case of the trial of Switzer as mentioned, one of this same gang, on change of venue from Linn county to Cedar, when the bill against Linn passed through the supreme court of the terri- tory and judgment against Linn was affirmed, resulting in that instance in the withdrawal of the claim by the county which presented it. Another case of the same nature hap- pened at home when the jailor of Johnson county, who hap- pened to be J. R. Johnson by name, presented his bill for the care of prisoners, three of whom were from Dubuque county. For these also the board of commissioners refused to pay, presumably expecting Dubuque county to pay it even when they refused certain apparently just payments.383
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