USA > Iowa > Appanoose County > Past and present of Appanoose County, Iowa : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 27
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No judicial district in lowa has ever had abler judges or men of higher integ- rity, than the judges on the bench in the second judicial district since it- organiza- tion in 1858. No suspicion of a lack of judicial honesty or integrity has ever been cast upon either of them.
Under the territorial organization as well as under the state organization up to 1851. we had the probate court, but after that the county court system until 1870. when that court was abolished.
Benjamin Spooner was the first probate judge in Appanoose county, and his first order made was the appointment of an administrator.
The first case docketed in the district court was a criminal case against George Braffit, charged with larcency. Defendant ran away and his bond was forfeited. In the first law case, the plaintiff recovered judgment for thirty -two cents. The first equity case was an action for a divorce.
There being no court house, the court was held in a little store room ow ned by one Wadlington, and the grand and petit juries deliberated in Jim Hough's little blacksmith shop, except when the court adjourned to the black smith shop. and then the juries went out to a clear place in the hazel brush near by to deliber- ate. When the court was held in the little store the judge sat on the counter and the clerk's table was a barrel, and when held in the blacksmith shop the judge sat on the anvil and the clerk's desk was the bellows. It was said this made the judge hard hearted and the clerk a "loud fellow," or a "blow."
It is a noteworthy fact that the bar of Appanoose county has always been one of the ablest in the state, and so recognized since the early days of its history.
The lawyers who attended the first court were J. C. Knapp, afterward Judge Knapp, and Augustus Hall of Keosanqua, S. W. Summers of Ottumwa, and Samuel MeArchon of Bloomfield, and Powers Richie.
The first court house was built in the fall and winter of 1847, of logs, and cost. when completed, Sto. This was the home of the district court until 1800, when it was voted by the people to build a new court house to cost $15,00 The court house was occupied by the district court from 1802 until the house was con- demned, years ago. Then the court was held from house to house until ups.
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HISTORY OF APPANOOSE COUNTY
in which year a magnificent court house, costing $100,000, was completed, and is now one of the finest and most comfortable buildings in lowa in which to transact the legal business of a wealthy and populous county.
LAWYERS OF AN EARLY DAY
Amos Harris
was the first attorney permanently located in Appanoose county. He was born in Madison county, Ohio, in 1822. He studied law in Ohio and came to Center- ville in 1847. He was elected prosecuting attorney, as the office was then called. in 1849, and reelected in 1851. In 1852 he was elected representative to the leg- islature from this county. In 1854 he was elected county judge. In 1855 he was elected a delegate to the constitutional convention which met in Iowa City, Janu- ary 19, 1857, and took an active part in the convention, displaying that activity and legal ability that afterward marked his career as an attorney. In 1858 he was elected district attorney for the second judicial district of Iowa. He was a very able lawyer, and filled the office of district attorney with fidelity, and to the satisfaction of his constituents. In 1875 he removed to Wichita, Kansas. where he died some years after, leaving a widow and three sons.
Harvey Tannehill
was born in Urbana, Ohio, September 5, 1822. His father was a native of Vir- ginia and his mother of Kentucky. His parents were farmers and of limited cir- cumstances. In his youth he had no advantages of school, his services being required on the farm, but after reaching the age of twenty, having always had a desire for an education, he attended three years the high school at Springfield, Ohio. From 1845 to 1848 he taught school, and during that time acquired a good education and a cultivated mind. After that time he read law with Charles Morris, of Troy, Ohio. In August, 1851, he came to Centerville, and in Septem- ber following was admitted to the bar in Appanoose county. In 1853 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Appanoose county. In 1855 he was elected county judge of the county and served two terms. In 1866 he was elected judge of the second judicial district and served one term.
Judge Tannehill was one of the ablest lawyers in Iowa and a model judge. He was a most industrious, painstaking and conscientious lawyer and absolutely pure as a judge. Ilis reputation as an honorable and honest lawyer was not con- fined to this county, but extended wherever he was known. He was a most genial gentleman when in the company of his intimate friends, but rather cold and reserved in his demeanor generally, which caused him to be misunderstood by some, and considered selfish, but no man doubted his integrity. He was a strong lawyer with the court. When he retired from the bench he formed a partner- ship with T. M. Fee, which continued for sixteen years, or until January, 1886. Some time after he retired from the firm of Tannehill & Fee, he formed a part- nership with W. F. Vermilion, but soon thereafter Tannehill moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where he died February 26, 1901.
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HISTORY OF APPANOOSE COUNTY
Thomas G. Manson
entered the practice of the law at Centerville, in 1852. Ile was the oldest son of Rev. William S. Manson, who came to Appanoose county from Tennessee about 1848 with his family. He studied law with Amos Harris. Hle held the office of postmaster at Centerville for some time before engaging in the practice of law. He was married to Miss Elizabeth Swearingen in 1851, and died in 1853.
John J. Cummings
was a native of Belmont county, Ohio. He studied law with Judge Kennon, of Ohio, and located at Centerville in January, 1857, becoming associated with II. Tannehill in the practice of the law. In 1862 he married a daughter of Dr. Steele, of Fairfield, lowa, to which place he removed the next year. He filled the office of mayor of Fairfield for a number of years.
Reuben Riggs
came to the county soon after Amos Harris and entered upon the practice of law. He was a rough-hewn frontiersman with but little education, but was possessed of an unusual amount of native common sense and had a high legal mind. In 1857 he was elected county judge of Appanoose county, for a term of four years, being the first county judge under the code of 1851. AAt the termination of his office as county judge, he removed to Union county, Iowa, whence he removed to Kansas. lle there froze to death in a storm while crossing a large unsettled prairie.
James B. Beall
came from Guernsey county, Ohio, in 1858, taught school at Centerville for a year or two, studied law in the office of Tannehill & Cummings, and commenced the practice of law at Centerville. He married Miss Mary E. Mowbray, of Cen- terville. He died in the fall of 1862.
Lewis Mechem
an attorney from Belmont county, Ohio, located in Centerville in the spring of 1858 and commenced the practice of law. His health failed. however, and he returned to Ohio, where he died within a few months.
James Galbraith
attorney-at-law, came to Centerville from central Ohio about 1851. and became a law partner of Amos Harris, under the firm name of Harris & Galbraith. The partnership was continued until 1803, when he went to California. He was once elected a representative in the legislature and was afterward elected county judge.
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HISTORY OF APPANOOSE COUNTY
Thomas M. Fee
was born in Ohio. April 18. 1839. His parents were Thomas J. and Sarah ( [lastings ) Fee. Thomas J., his father, laid out the town of Feesburg. in Brown county, six miles from Felicity, in Clermont county, and six miles from George- town, the county seat of Brown county. This was only a few miles from the Grant tanyard, where General U. S. Grant learned his trade, Georgetown being for some years the home of General Grant. His father was of English and Welsh descent, and his mother of Irish descent, although both were born in Clermont county, Ohio.
Thomas M. Fee removed with his parents from Ohio to Perry, Pike county, Illinois, in 1848, where he received a good common-school education and finished his studies in the academy at that place, then a prominent educational institution. In 1858, being then nineteen years old, he left the parental home and started in life for himself, with but little money and among strangers. The first place he stopped after leaving his father's house was Lancaster. Missouri. Soon after he secured a school in Adair county and taught one term, not yet being twenty years old. In the spring of 1859 he went to Ottumwa, Iowa, and began the study of law in the office of S. W. Summers, then one of the most prominent lawyers in Iowa. Ile read law until his money ran out, which was very soon. and then secured a place as principal of the Ottumwa schools, which place he held until March, 1862, when, having finished his course of law studies, which he kept up while teaching, he was admitted to the bar. In May, 1802. he went to Centerville and formed a partnership with Joshua Miller, an old and success- ful lawyer, but the cry of war ran through the land and young Fee put aside his books and surrendered for the time his ambition to rise in his profession, and on August 8. 1862, enlisted as a private in Company G. Thirty-sixth lowa Infantry Volunteers. The regiment went into rendezvous at Keokuk, Iowa. The gentle- man who had been captain of the company up to the time it, with the regiment, was mustered into the United States service, having found soldiering not agree- able to him, declined to be mustered in. The company being without a captain, an unusual thing was done, to muster a soldier over his superiors in office, but Fee was promoted to be captain of his company, and commissioned captain by Governor Stone, then governor of lowa. He served with his regiment until the close of the war, and was mustered out in the fall of 1865. He, with his regi- ment, was captured by the confederates and confined in a rebel prison for ten months. He escaped from prison once, but after hiding in the woods, wading creeks, rivers, swamps and lakes, and hiding and escaping from the blood- hounds. he was after weeks captured and returned to prison. After returning to his regiment from the rebel prison. he was detailed as assistant inspector-gen- eral of the Trans-Mississippi department on General J. J. Reynolds' Staff, and inspector-general of the Seventh Army Corps, on the staff of General Shaler, commanding.
On his return home from the war to Centerville, where he has lived ever since, he devoted all of his energy to regain in the law what he lost therefrom in the army. In 187t he formed a partnership with Judge Harvey Tannehill,
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HISTORY OF APPANOOSE COUNTY
who had just retired from the bench a judge of the district court. This part- nership lasted for sixteen years. In 1866 Captain Fee was elected superintend- ent of schools in Appanoose county.
In 1874 he was elected district attorney and went into office in January, 1875. Judge J. C. Knapp was elected judge at the same time, but Knapp was a democrat and Fee a republican, the republican candidate for judge being defeated by Knapp. Captain Fee defeated J. C. Mitchell, afterward one of the judge- of the district court. So well did he fill this office that his party, at the next judicial convention nominated him as its candidate for judge, but his party being in a hopeless minority, he was defeated. In 1804 he was elected judge of the district court for the second judicial district, and in 1898 was again nominated and elected to the same office. At the end of the third year of his second term as judge, he resigned his office and reentered the active practice of the law, with his son Thomas Grant Fee, under the firm name of Fee & Fee. He was a member of the Masonic order, the Knights Templar, the Mystic Shrine, the Elks, the Grand Army of the Republic, the Loyal Legion and was a working member of the Methodist Episcopal church. In politics he was a republican. His death occurred April 13, 1910.
Andrew J. Baker
was born in Marshall county, now West Virginia, June 6, 1832. After leaving the common school of his state he entered the lowa Wesleyan University, at Mount Pleasant, lowa, where he took a special course. He taught school four years and read law in the office of C. Ben Darwin, of Burlington, lowa. He, was admitted to the bar in August, 1855, at Winterset, Iowa, and engaged in practice there. In 1861 he enlisted as a private in Company E. Seventeenth lowa Volunteer Infantry, and was elected first lieutenant. He was with his regiment until January, 1863, when he resigned on account of disability.
After having the army he went to Lancaster, Missouri, and entered again the practice of law. So successful was he that in January, 1807, he was elected county attorney. In 1808 he was nominated an elector on the Grant & Wilson ticket for the eighth congressional district of Missouri. At the election in 1808 he was elected to the Missouri house of representatives. In 1870 he was elected attorney general of the state of Missouri. In March, 1875. General Baker returned to Towa and formed a partnership for the practice of law at Center- ville, with General F. M. Drake, later governor of lowa, under the firm name of Baker & Drake.
At the republican state convention in 1884, he was nominated for attorney general of Iowa and elected that fall, and was reelected to the same office in 1886. In 1801 General Baker retired from active practice and became presi- dent and counsel of a loan company of Des Moines, where he then lived. In 1802 he sold his interest in the loan company and soon removed again to Cen- terville, where he formed a partnership with his son Clarence .A. Baker, under the firm name of Baker & Baker. General Baker died April 23. 1911.
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JHISTORY OF APPANOOSE COUNTY
WV. F. Vermilion
was another member of the Appanoose county bar. He was born in Kentucky in 1830. He read medicine and came to lowa and located at Iconium in this county, and rose to distinction in the profession of medicine and surgery, which he followed until the summer of 1862, when he raised a company for the war, and on the 4th of October was mustered into the United States service as cap- tain of Company F. Thirty-sixth Volunteer Infantry. Ile served with his regi- ment until the close of the war and was mustered out of the army in the fall of 1865. Ile read law with the firm of Miller & Fee, and was admitted to the bar in 1868. He at once took high rank as a lawyer. There were but few bet- ter lawyers in Jowa than was Captain Vermilion, and none more honorable than he. He was elected and served one term in the lowa senate, in which he was regarded one of the ablest members. He and Judge Fee were pitted against each other for years in all the important cases in the county. He was also for some years a partner with Judge Tannehill, under the firm name of Tannehill & Vermilion. He died December 24, 1894.
Henry Clay Dean
was connected more or less with the courts and bar of Appanoose county up to the time of his death, although never enrolled as a local member. He lived for many years south of Centerville just across the Missouri line on a farm, which he called "Rebel Core." He was never regarded as much of a lawyer beyond his great oratorical ability. He was employed, not so much for his legal attainments as for his influence on the jury, by his unequalled ability as an orator.
LAWYERS NOW PRACTICING IN THE COUNTY
Of the lawyers now in active practice at this bar is I. C. Mechem, dean of the profession, and a man of ability and of high standing. He was born in Bel- mont county, Ohio, in 1843. In 1861, young Mechem enlisted in the Fifteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry and served until the summer of 1863. Ile was admit- ted to the bar at St. Clairsville, the county seat of Belmont county, in 1866, and the same year came to Centerville, where he built up a large clientele and is still in the harness. Ile is one of the pillars of the Christian church, a mem- ber of the G. A. R. and of the republican party.
W. S. Johnson
was a lawyer who came to Centerville in 1851. but did not practice his profes- sion to any appreciable extent, preferring to enter trade. He was the senior member of the clothing firm of Johnson & Calvert, is given credit of having built the first store building in Cincinnati, was the first merchant and post- master of that village, and clerk of the courts three terms. Ile is a veteran of the Civil war.
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HISTORY OF APPANOOSE COUNTY
Joshua Miller
was the senior member of the law firm of Miller & Goddard, of Centerville. Mr. Miller located here in 1850, went on a farm and at intervals studied law under Harvey Tannehill. He was admitted to the bar at Centerville in 1856. He served as justice of the peace and in 1876 was elected state senator.
Judge S. M. Moore
was born in Miami county, Ohio, in 1830. Came to Iowa in 1844 and to Appa- noose county in 1859, locating in Centerville. Began the practice of law in 1862. Elected probate judge in 1865; auditor in 1870.
A. F. Thompson
began the practice in Centerville in 1880 and made a specialty of pensions.
Charles W. Vermilion
is a son of Captain W. F. Vermilion, and became one of the leading lawyers of this section of the state. He was born in Centerville. November 6, 1866. Gradu- ated from the high school and then entered his father's alma mater, De Pauw University. In 1869 graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor. The same year of his graduation the young lawyer entered into the practice with his father. He was county attorney two terms, and upon the resignation of Judge Fee from the district bench in 1901, Gov- ernor Shaw appointed Vermilion to fill the vacancy. Was elected to the place in 1902 and still remains upon the bench. Judge Vermilion married Clare Eloise Biddle in 1897. They have one child.
Claude R. Porter
stands at the head of the Appanoose county bar. He is a very able lawyer and an orator whose services, are in constant demand. lle is still a young man and was born in Moulton in 1872, the son of George D. and Hannah ( Rodman) Porter. The elder Porter was at one time a prominent member of this bar, locating at Moulton in 1870, where he practiced for some time and then removed to Centerville, where he died in 1899. The son read law in his father's office and was admitted to the bar in 1893 and began the practice with his father, soon attaining a high standing as a lawyer. fle was elected county attorney in 1902 and in 1906 was the democratic nominee for governor of the state.
Appanoose county has an able and reliable class of men who go to make up the members of the local bar and the names of those not heretofore mentioned follow :
Centerville-C. A. Baker, C. H. Elgin, T. G. Fce. J. M. Fce, Harry S. Greenleaf. E. C. Haynes, C. F. Howell. W. B. Hays. O. H. Law. F. S. Payne, Purley Rinker, R. W. Smith, 11. E. Valentine, J. M. Wilson, C. S. Wyckoff ; Moulton-J. R. Barkley, W. F. Garrett, H. P. Powers; Mystic-J. P. Russell.
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HISTORY OF APPANOOSE COUNTY
JUDGES OF THE SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICT
Thomas S. Wilson, Dubuque, 1852 to 1858; John S. Townsend. Albia. 1859 to 1862; Henry Il. Trimble, Bloomfield, 1863 to 1866; Harvey Tannehill, Cen- terville, 1807 to 1870; M. J. Williams, Ottumwa, 1871 to 1874; Joseph C. Knapp, Keosauqua, 1875 to 1878; Dell Stuart, Chariton, 1877 to 1800: 11. C. Traverse. Bloomfield, 1877 to 1894: E. 1 .. Burton, Ottumwa, 1879 to 1894; Joseph C. Mitchell, Chariton, 1892; W. D. Tisdale, 1892 to 1894: Robert Sloan. 1895 to 1906; \'. 1. Babb, Mt. Pleasant, 1801 to 1894: Milton A. Roberts, Ottumwa. 1895 to 1010; Frank W. Eichelburger, Bloomfield, 1895 ; T. M. Fee, Center. ville. 1895 16 1901 ; Charles W. Vermilion, Centerville, 1902 to -: Dan MI. Anderson, Albia, 1907 to -: Francis M. Hunter, Ottumwa, 1911 10 -.
THE FIRST AND SECOND COURTHOUSES
It was not until July 5. 1847, that the board of county commissioners reached a decision to build a courthouse. Plans were adopted at that time and a con- tract was let to James J. Jackson for the construction of the building, his bid having been S140. It was provided in the contract that the house was to be completed by the ist of January, 1848. This sum of $140 did not cover all the expenses of building the first Appanoose courthouse, however. Additional con- tracts were let under sealed bids. For instance, there was a contract for cutting doors and windows and plastering, which amounted to $49: finishing work. $119.50 ; shutters and banisters, $11, so that in all there was about $324 expended up to this time. A year or so later, additional room being necessary, a contract was let to Joab G. Brown for the construction of wings to the building. Like the other contractors, he was paid by the board of commissioners in town lots.
A description of this old building is given in the old records made by the clerk of the board of county commissioners in 1847. At that time Jesse Wood, Ephraim Sears and George W. Perkins were the three members of the board. and J. F. Stratton clerk. In his minutes the clerk recorded the following :
"On motion be it ordered by the said board of county commissioners that the dimensions of the courthouse at the July term be reconsidered. Therefore be it resolved that said courthouse shall be of the following dimensions, to-wit : To be of logs. 24x20 feet, one and one-half stories high, to be well hewed down outside and inside, the two lower rounds to be of good sound burr or white oak, the bottom side logs to be hewed on the upper side to receive the sleepers, the lower story to be eight feet in the clear, the upper half story to be four and a half feet to the top of the plate, nine good substantial sleepers to be put in ready to receive the floor ; nine joists seven inches thick hewed on two sides to be put in entire through the side wall. to be well rafted with a sufficient num- ber of good substantial rafters; the roof to be of good three feet oak boards. laid one foot to the weather in a workmanlike manner, and well nailed; the gable end to be weather boarded with sawed or shaved boards, with a space left open in each gable end of a sufficient size to receive a nine-light 8x10 window ; the corners to be sawed down close and square: good stone to be placed under the corners and also under the center of the side logs of such size as to raise the house eight inches above the surface of the ground; the site for said house
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HISTORY OF APPANOOSE COUNTY
to be selected and staked off by the county commissioners; all to be completed by January ist next ; the nails to be furnished by the commissioners; the above described house to be let to the lowest bidder, provided, however, that the com- missioners reserve the right of receiving or rejecting any such bids, the con- tractor to enter into bonds with good security to double the amount of his bid. conditioned for the faithful performance of his contract.
"Be it ordered by said board that the person contracting to build said court- house may have the right of selecting any unsold lot or lots in the town of Centerville at any time after he enters into bonds for the fulfillment of his con- tract, which lot, or lots, shall be held in reserve for his use until the completion of said contract.
"By order of said board said courthouse was put up for a bid announced by the sheriff and struck to the bid of James J. Jackson at $140.
"October 4. 1847-Be it ordered by the board that the contract with Jantes J. Jackson be so altered that the said James J. Jackson is to hew the logs on the ground to be seven inches thick in workmanlike order and also to raise the corner- half dove tail, for which the court allows him an additional $5.
"April 10. 1848-Be it ordered that the job of finishing the courthouse be let out as follows : That in one contract, sawing out the doors and windows and chinking said house and plastering the same in good workmanlike manner.
"Be it ordered by the board that the second contract for finishing the court- house be let out in one contract, if one person will bid for the same, bid sub- ject to the approval of the board.
"April 10. 1848-Be it ordered that the sheriff proceed to let out the court- house. The first contract was let ont to the lowest bidder. Bid was struck off to J. J. Jackson for $49, the work to be performed in good workmanlike man- ner by the first Monday in July next. The second contract was struck off to Jesse Wood at $119.50, the work to be performed by the first Monday in September next, viz: Laying the upper and under floor, the upper floor may be laid with any good plank, the under floor to be laid with good oak, to be laid square joint and reed and case up and sash five windows, three twelve- lights and two nine-lights, and case up and make a good batten door and run straight stairs.
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