USA > Iowa > Appanoose County > Past and present of Appanoose County, Iowa : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 29
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The lawyers residing in this county when I came here were Harvey Tanne- hill, Amos Harris, Joshua Miller and James Galbraith, living in Centerville. All of these are dead and all remained in the active practice until their death. All of these men were honest, courteous and able lawyers, and worthy the name and the profession.
Tannehill, Harris and Miller were distinguished for their ability as law- yers, as citizens and Christian gentlemen, and all rose to distinction. Harris was a member of the constitutional convention which framed the present con- stitution of lowa. Tannehill was elected judge of the district court and Miller was state senator.
Other lawyers were afterward added to this bar as the years passed by. Some are dead and others are yet alive and with us now and some removed to other places. The time limits of my remarks will not permit me to refer to them individually. My subject is the bar.
What is the bar? It is a class of men who have been admitted to the legal profession, or profession of the law, and in this country includes the counselor, the advocate and the barrister, and all embraced in the title, lawyer. We are members of and represent one of the noblest, and sometimes it is claimed, the noblest of all the professions. As we look out upon the present and turn back to the past. we discover that it includes many of the greatest. ablest and re- nowned men of the present and the past, and certain it is, that no profession or class has so great an influence in shaping and controlling the destinies of mankind and of governments, as the men of the legal profession ; and none have so great opportunities to direct the affairs of men in all the divisions and walks of life as the legal profession, or members of the bar.
Then what kind of a man should the lawyer be? My judgment is, and that is the consensus of most of mankind. I believe, he should be a man of the high- est character and integrity; of the highest patriotism and deep seated honesty ; of the most lofty conception of the rights of others and his duties in obtain- ing or defending those rights: a man of such noble traits as cause him to shun and scorn the base and dishonorable tricks and practices of what is known as the shyster or pettifogger : a man educated and learned, diligent and wise, cour- teous and considerate and who holds love of truth and right, personal honor and personal integrity above mere success and financial gain.
After long years of experience, with the best of opportunities to learn the character of the members of the bar, I am glad to be able to say that in no pro- fession of class of men, outside the ministers of the gospel, can a greater per
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cent be found who come up to the standard I have given than can be found in the legal profession.
I have many times been pained, humiliated and disgusted by a wholesale criticism or declaration by some intelligent people that all lawyers are dishonest. The whole profession has to suffer this denunciation because of the acts or character of some individual member of the profession.
It is the dishonest and disreputable individual member that brings disgrace and distrust upon the profession. He filches the good name of the greatest profession and makes it a by-word upon the lips of those who cannot dis- tinguish between the clean and the unclean.
The one who tampers with or packs the jury, or suborns witnesses or per- suades, drives or coaxes his clients or witnesses to commit perjury, either directly or indirectly, or employs all the tricks of deception, omission or of commission known to a skillful, adroit and bold shyster, "who is a past master of the arts of impudence, swagger and cunning," or, in other words, the lawyer whose purpose is to win his case by fair or foul means and wins his case, is talked of and his success is heralded forth in the community, and he is the man that brings unmerited condemnation upon the whole profession.
The profession should not be condemned because of the disreputable prac- tice of the few, any more than the Christian religion because a minister of the gospel has fallen from the path of virtue.
The true lawyer is he who with honest motives endeavors to develop the truth, and searches for the same with all his might. let it be with his client or the opponent, and not use any means to conceal the truth and cheat justice of its reward, or conceal it from the court or the jury. Hle will appeal to the court and the jury only for a just, fair and honest disposition of his client's cause and will only seek to develop the truth, that right and justice prevail.
His whole aim should be to tip the scales of justice, by truth, fairness, hon- esty and the very right, and not by knavery, imposition, injustice, perjury, subornation of perjury, deceit, deception or the practices of fraud, or by the concealment of the truth, or misleading jurors or witnesses, or false statement or deception.
No lawyer should seek to obtain business by the means that by all respectable lawyers are recognized as unfair, dishonorable or disreputable.
To maintain our good standing, we must not go contrary to the ethics of the profession, which all lawyers are supposed to know and recognize, but which it is needless for me to recall if time permitted. The lawyer's life is one of con- flict. Ile leads a strenuous life and spends much of his time in conflict with the court. He puts in much of his time in every court trying to keep the court from making mistakes, and much of his time is employed in trying to convince the court that it has made mistakes and in the latter case it is a hard task he has assumed.
It is said the lawyer sometimes confuses the jury. That may be, but that is no worse than the judge does. I heard of a judge in another district, who instructed the jury in a case tried before him. The jury retired to consider their verdict but remained out a long time. The judge got impatient at the delay in returning a verdict and called the jury into court and asked them what was the cause of the delay. He was not a good writer and it occurred to him
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that perhaps they could not read his instructions, so he said to the jury, "Can't you read my instructions?" The foreman of the jury arose and said, rather hesitatingly, "Yeas-ah, Judge, we can read your instructions easy enough, but we can't make head nor tail out of them."
That reminds me of another transaction in court. A lawyer had been talk- ing two hours to the jury, and a listener that heard it leaned over to the bail- iff and asked him which side the lawyer who was talking was on. The bailiff replied : "I don't know ; he has not committed himself yet."
At the dedication of the new courthouse in 1904, John Jackson Perjue, famil- iarly known as "Uncle Jack" Perjue, the first sheriff of Appanoose county, was present, and took a lively interest in all that was taking place, notwithstanding he was then in the eighty-ninth year of his age. Ile came to the county in 1843, about the time this portion of Iowa had been thrown open for settlement, took an active part in the organization of the county in 1846, and was elected its first sheriff. flis experiences were varied and intensely interesting. as his life covered the period of the county's birth and growth of sixty years. Below is given a reminiscent article, the material of which was furnished by this pioneer settler and sheriff for The lowegian, and published a short time before his death. There are valuable details of the early history of this county never before published, which are here preserved for the edification of coming genera- tions. The reader should keep in mind that Sheriff Perjue gave the relation of his recollections in 1904 and all comparisons of dates should be made with that year :
Hlad "Uncle Jack" Perjue had his way about it, Centerville would now be admiring her paved streets and other improvements and the people of the county would be coming to pay their taxes in a new courthouse some distance to the northeast of where the city site now lies. In 1845 when the commis- sioners came to lay out the county seat. Mr. Perjue, a resident of the county since 1843, piloted them over the neighborhood and helped make the selection. The commissioners first came to his house from Bloomfield. Mr. Perjue then living northeast and some five or six miles from what is now Centerville. Using his own expression, he went with the commissioners to old man Perkins, where now is the McConnell farm east of town, and from there they went to the Strat- ton place. north on Cooper, and then these three pioneer settlers and commis- sioners went over the hills through the grass and hazel brush and finally decided on the spot where the future county seat was to grow.
DISAGREEMENT AS TO THE SITE
The main motive of the commissioners was to secure a site for the county seat as close to the geographical center of the county as possible, and when they found the center was near what is now the northeast corner of the corpora- tion of Centerville they chose the quarter section lying to the south and west as the proper one.
"If I had my way about it," says Mr. Perjue, "it would have been to the northeast. nearer Chariton and in the neighborhood of my place. I had a good lying piece of ground in mind for it but old man Perkins had a site too, and if he had won out, it would have been east of the present site, while if Mr.
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Stratton had succeeded in having his way, it would have been north of Cooper on the divide between it and Walnut, about where Forbush now is. I think the commissioners did not listen much to any of us, and only tried to get close to the center. I think it was something of a mistake, too, for if the town had been built where I proposed, it would have been on lower ground and railroads would have been much more easily secured."
SQUIRE WADLINGTON
In prospecting for a town site the prairie south of Centerville was looked over, but prairie in those days did not appeal very strongly to the prospective settler. The site was selected-an open country with no inhabitants. But there was a pioneer watching to open up in business in the person of a man who became widely known as 'Squire Wadlington. "He had settled down," says Mr. Perjuc, "in a little cabin, a short distance cast of the northeast corner of town. Wad- lington had learned from George W. Perkins, who was something of a surveyor and possessed a compass, that he was near the center of the county and thought it might be that he would be on the county seat site when it was chosen. But Wallington was not on the site of the future city of Centerville, and when he discovered the fact, he tore down his cabin and moved it to the spot where now stands the Wooden Bank. Here he installed his little general store in a little room of the log cabin. A brother assisted him in making his new arrange- ments."
The site for the future city of Centerville, which was first called Chaldea. was a half mile square and took in a part of the Spooner claim, that family having located to the north. The Wadlington store became something of a center of importance but it was not destined to long have a monopoly. As Mr Perjue says. "Charlie Howell, father of attorney Fred Howell, opened a store on what is now East Maple street, not far from the Augustus place. In 1846 when the town was surveyed by J. F. Stratton and the public square laid out, this store was removed and set upon the lot where the Howell brick block now stands on the public square, part of which is occupied by a son of Mr. Howell as a law office."
THE FIRST SCHOOL
"The first school in what is now Centerville," continued Mr. Perjue, "was. if I remember rightly, at Billy Manson's. I am not sure just when it was opened but in those days the people were pretty careful to have schools wherever they could. Charlie Howell built the first frame house in the town, on the cast corner of Main, on the south side of the square. In this building he kept his store and part of it was occupied by his family. It was not long either, till the people had church privileges and the old Methodist church was built. The first church bell that I remember of was the one put in the Baptist church. 'Squire Wadlington gave it to them. His store is where the public business was first transacted and in it the first court was held, the jury using an adjoining room to his store, but court did not last long."
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THE FIRST ELECTION
The first election in the county is vividly remembered by Mr. Perjuc, as he was then elected sheriff, and as no counties to the west were organized, his jurisdiction took him to the Missouri river. His family was now growing and having a dislike to being away from home, he resigned after having been reelected. Thomas Wilson was appointed to fill his unexpired term.
TAKES ELECTION RETURNS TO IOWA CITY
At the time of the first election in Appanoose county, there was no postoffice established nor was there such a person as a mail carrier in this section of the country, hence it was required of Mr. Perjue, as sheriff of the county, to take the election returns to the state capital, then at Iowa City. The journey was a long one, but he set out in the early part of 1847 with the few ballots which had been cast, probably about thirty-five, all of which had been deposited in the box at Centerville. The journey was made safely, however, and arriving at Iowa City, he was disappointed by not finding a person about the state house. The next thing to do was to put up at a lodging house and when finally he delivered his ballots to the proper official and received his pay for his arduous services, he found that his stipend was not in currency but state script, which had to suffer a generous discount before it was available to meet his expenses. After having paid his bills and returned to his home, Sheriff Perjue had $1.50 in script remaining.
This, however, was not the first trip Mr. Perjue made to lowa City. When first elected sheriff he was keeping "bachelor's hall" in a lonesome cabin he had erected. From events that followed it is very probable the sheriff had deter- mined while in Iowa City that he would return and marry the girl he had met there some time previously, so that it is presumed having seen his sweetheart in the city and being disgusted upon his return here with the barrenness of his cabin, he hitched up his ox team, drove back to lowa City, married the girl, returned to Centerville and set up housekeeping. On his wedding trip back from the capital, Mr. Perjue brought back some wheat and rye, which he sowed in the spring. His first home in the county was on a tract of land. part of which is now owned by Edward White.
SETTLERS WERE SLOW TO COME
"Settlement the first six years," says Perjue, "was slow. There was a dis- pute about the Missouri line and people did not like to settle so near trouble and uncertainty. But finally these difficulties were adjusted and then the growth was substantial. At the time I came here the last settlement passed was in Jefferson county and this was pretty much on the frontier for some time. Old Alexandria on the Mississippi was the trading point for several years. Later came Des Moines river points and a little trading was done at Bloomfield. It was not until 1844 that I learned of other settlers around me in the county. In
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that year I met the Strattons from about Unionville and they told me of Wil- liam Crow being down there, and other settlers. Mr. Stratton had set up a little mill on Cooper, north of town, and with the Spooners south of that, and a few other stragglers here and there, a feeling of great neighborliness sprung up and soon the work was initiated and the foundation of Appanoose county's future prosperity was laid securely and well."
CHAPTER NAH
THE FIRST PIIYSICIANS ENDURED HARDSHIPS AND WERE POORLY PAID-PILLS AND QUININE COMPRISED THE PIONEER DOCTORS PHARMACOPORLA-PLACED GREAT RELIANCE ON THE LANCET AND BLED HIS PATIENT WITH OR WITHOUT PROVOCA- TION-MAMIES OF SOME PIONEERS OF THE HEALING ART-THE MEDICAL SOCIETY -MERCY HOSPITAL ..
The pioneers of the healing art in Centerville and Appanoose county were the guardians of a widely dispersed population. Aside from their professional duties they contributed their full share to the material development of a newly opened country. Some were men of culture who had gained their medical edu- cation in college; the great number were of limited educational attainment whose professional knowledge had been acquired in the offices of established prac- titioner- of more or less ability in the sections from which they emigrated. Of either class almost without exception they were practical men of great force of character who gave cheerful and efficacions assistance to the suffering, daily journeying on horseback scores of miles over a country almost destitute of roads and encountering swollen, unbridged streams, without waterproof garments or ather now common protection against water. Out of necessity the pioneer physician developed rare quickness of perception and self-reliance. A specialist was then unknown and he was called upon to treat every phase of bodily 'ail- mient, serving as physician, surgeon, oculist and dentist. Ilis books were few and there were no practitioners of more ability than himself with whom he might consult His medicines were simple and carried on his person, and every preparation of pill or solution was the work of his own hands.
Before the advent of the "regular" practitioner the sick and ailing were sub- jected to the tender mercies of the "yarb" (herb) doctor, the "bone-setters." and other "quacks," who knew of the virtues of certain nostrums which they compounded, and which were prescribed to their patients indiscriminately. Then there was the woman doctor, whose chief merit lay in the intensity of her pas- sion for nursing and mothering the object of her ministrations. She gath- cred boneset. pennyroyal and other herbs, from which she made teas and syrups. the latter being much more palatable than the former. She was the dreadful ogre of the youth of early days, as she was wont to dose them with her bitter. Hauscon decoctions, to her heart's content and the utter disgust of the little Victims
l'atent medicines did not come until later on and those who took up the heal- ing art were often put to severe tests to meet the exigencies of an extraordinary
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case. Drug stores were few and far between and the doctor was compelled to use his wits to the stretching point in many instances.
In the "Forties" appeared the college bred, regularly prepared practitioner. who gave to his patient the benefits of a specially trained mind and hand. With ambition to become practical and expert in his chosen profession and a laud- able determination to "make his mark" as a physician in the new field of his choosing, he soon made headway into the confidence of those who placed them- selves under his care and the "quack" almost disappeared as a nondescript unit of professional society. We still have the gentry with us, however, and the thou- sand and one "patent" cures for consumption, cancer and other maladies, which baffle the research and skill of the most adept in the science of materia medica.
During the early settlement of the county the principal diseases were ma- larial fever and catarrhal pneumonia, according to Dr. S. W. Sawyers, of Cen- terville. At this time-1849 to 1853-"these diseases were usually sthenic in character and were almost invariably treated by vene-section, calomel and qui- nine. In 1852-3 a very widespread epidemic of scarletina of severe form pre- vailed in the western part of the county." Typhoid first made its appearance in 1853 and prevailed to quite an extent, and in 1856 diptheria taxed the ingenuity and endurance of the physician, the first cases nearly all proving fatal. In the same year the scourge of smallpox menaced the community. There were forty cases, many of them resulting in death. In the winter of 1863-4. a number of fatal cases of cerebro-spinal meningitis were reported and in 1865 an epidemic of erysipelas was energetically fought before it could be exterminated.
SOME EARLY PRACTITIONERS
The first person to take up the practice of medicine and surgery in Appa- noose, of which there is any record, was William S. Manson, who had acquired some little acquaintance with the uses and efficacy of drugs and medicines in his old Tennessee home. Arriving early in the '4os, he at once became known as the "doctor" and soon had quite a clientele, which he visited on foot or horse- back, as the occasion required. Ile concocted his own medicines and carried them in saddlebags, which were thrown over the shoulders of his horse, or carried on his own back. It was said of "Dr." Manson that "he was a man of good judgment and, in ordinary ailments, was of considerable help." The chronicle does not state, however, that Manson was prepared for his vocation by a course of reading and training in college and hospital.
In the class with William Manson may be added "Dr." Shafer, a German ; "Dr." Sales and "Dr." Pewthers. There was also a Mr. Stratton. All of these attended the sick and distressed and prescribed for the bodily ailments of their patients with more or less success. They were not required in those days to have a license to practice medicine and that, for one reason, was why the set- tlers took them upon trust, so to speak. Through a spirit of kindliness, earnest- ness of purpose and natural aptitude for the work at hand, these men undoubtedly did well, worked hard, withstood many privations and were poorly paid, for money was an extremely scarce article.
J. 11. Worthington was the first regular physician to practice his profession in Appanoose county. He was born in Shelby county, Kentucky, in December.
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1822, and commenced the practice of medicine at Exline in 1846. He died at Exline in 1885.
In the year 1851 there were four physicians in Centerville: W. W. Cottell; Hugh McCoy. Amos Patterson and Jeremiah Brower. Dr. Cottell, a bachelor came from Ohio and removed to Jefferson county in 1855 and from there to Fairfield, where he died in 1883. lle was considered a very good physician. Dr. McCoy was in good standing, but relinquished his practice for farm life in 1868, moving to Walnut township. Dr. Patterson also tired of the routine of a professional life and retired to a farm a mile and a half south of Centerville. He is still living, but the years are bearing heavily upon him.
Dr. Jeremiah Brower immigrated from North Carolina and located in Centerville in 1850, where he became well known as a physician. He practiced three years in Centerville and then removed to Warren county, continuing there as a physician until incapacitated by physical infirmities.
Dr. Pewthers was a botanic doctor, or an herbalist or "yarb" doctor.
Dr. Nathan U'dell was one of the carly settlers in the county, coming here in 1848 and locating in Unionville. The township and village of Udell were named in his honor. He practiced his profession at Unionville for many years and in 1885 removed to Kansas. Dr. Udell was an able physician and became a prominent citizen. He was a member of the state senate. Ilis death took place in Denver, Colorado, in March, 1903, and his body was brought back for inter- ment.
Henry Hakes was born in New York in 1823 and studied medicine with one of the leading physicians of the Empire state. He practiced his profession in his native state and after his marriage came to Appanoose, in 1853, and located in Centerville and opened an office. Hle also kept a drug store. Dr. Hakes died in 1885.
Dr. E. Mechem was a resident of Centerville some time before the war and many patients were on his list, all of whom spoke a kindly word for him, both as a man and physician. After a short stay he left Centerville for Decatur county, where he spent the remainder of his life.
Dr. Walker practiced medicine in Centerville in the days of its infancy, but left the village for a more lucrative field of endeavor.
Dr. Robert Stephenson, Sr., immigrated from Ohio to Centerville while the Civil war was on and maintained a successful practice until his death in 1880.
Sylvester 11. Sawyers was the son of Elisha Sawyers, who left Nashville. Tennessee, with his family in 1850 and settled in the free state of Jowa, choosing Centerville as a location for his energies. For a while he kept a hotel and later one at Unionville. Sylvester II. Sawyers, the son, became noted as a physician and surgeon, acquiring a large practice, not only in the county but in other localities. To Dr. Sylvester Sawyers Appanoose county is indebted for the two physicians and surgeons of his name, John Lazelle Sawyers and Clyde E. Saw- yers, both of whom have a large and lucrative practice at Centerville.
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