USA > Iowa > Lee County > Story of Lee County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 28
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When the Territory of Iowa was established in 1838, Charles Mason of Burlington was appointed chief justice; Thomas S. Wil- son of Dubuque and Joseph Williams of Pennsylvania, associate judges of the Supreme and District courts of the territory, and these gentlemen continued to hold courts until Iowa was admitted as a state. Under the constitution of 1846 the state was divided into judicial districts, and George H. Williams of Lee County was made first district judge of the First District.
Mr. Williams was born in the State of New York, March 26, 1823. He was educated in the academy at Pompey Hill, New York, and came to Iowa, where he was admitted to the bar in 1844. He was elected judge of the First District in 1847 and served in that capacity for about five years. In 1852 he was a presidential elector on the Pierce ticket, and in 1853 he was appointed chief justice of the Territory of Oregon. He was a member of the Oregon Constitu- tional Convention and served as United States senator from that state from 1865 to 1871. Judge Williams was a member of the commis- sion to settle the Alabama claims, and in 1871 he was appointed attorney-general of the United States by President Grant and served until 1875, when he was nominated by Grant for chief justice of the Supreme Court, but his name was withdrawn. From 1902 to 1905 Mr. Williams served as mayor of Portland, Oregon, his home city.
In 1852 Judge Williams was succeeded by Ralph P. Lowe, who was born in Warren County, Ohio, November 21, 1805. In 1829 he graduated at Miami University, after which he went to Alabama, where he was employed as teacher. He studied law there with John
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Campbell, afterward justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was admitted to the bar in Alabama, practiced four years in that state, then removed to Dayton, Ohio, and in 1849 removed to Iowa. In 1857 he resigned his position as judge of the First District Court, and in the fall of that year was nominated by the republican party for governor. He was elected, being the first governor under the new constitution. Two years later he became one of the justices of the Iowa Supreme Court, the first time the justices of that court were elected by popular vote. He served on the bench until 1868, when he resigned and resumed the practice of law. In 1872 he was elected chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court, but two years later removed to Washington, D. C., where he died on December 22, 1883.
Judge Lowe was succeeded on the district bench by John W. Rankin, who was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, June 21, 1823. In 1842 he graduated with honors at Washington Col- lege. He then taught school and studied law in Ohio, was admitted to the bar, came to Keokuk in 1848, and soon became recognized as one of the leading members of the Lee County bar. In 1857 he was elected district judge, but served only a short time. During his twenty-one years' residence in Keokuk he served as a member of the State Senate and was colonel of the Seventeenth Iowa Infantry in the Civil war. For some time he was associated in the practice of law as a partner of General Curtis, and later with Judge Charles Mason and Samuel F. Miller. His death occurred on July 10, 1 869.
Thomas H. Clagett became district judge upon the retirement of Judge Rankin in 1857, and served about one year. Judge Clagett was born in Prince George County, Maryland, August 30, 1815, received an academic education, studied law in the office of Gov- ernor Pratt of Maryland, and was admitted to practice in that state. He was twice elected to the Maryland Legislature and was active in his efforts to establish a public school system in that state. In 1850 he came to Keokuk, where he soon became identified with the legal profession, and at the time of his death, April 14, 1876, he was editor and proprietor of the Keokuk Constitution.
Under the old constitution a County Court was established in 1851 and Edward Johnstone was elected the first judge. Judge Johnstone was one of the prominent attorneys of the early Lee County bar. He was born in Pennsylvania, July 4, 1815, and was admitted to the bar in his native state at the age of twenty-two years. About 1837 he located at Burlington, where he served as clerk of the
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Territorial Legislature. During that session he was appointed one of the commissioners to adjust the land titles in the half-breed tract, and located at Montrose. In 1839 he was elected to the Legislature and was made speaker of the House, and when James K. Polk became President he was appointed United States attorney for Iowa. He was also associated with Dr. J. H. Bacon in the banking business and was one of the public spirited citizens of Lee County.
Judge Johnstone was succeeded as county judge in 1855 by Samuel Boyles, who was reelected in 1859. Robert A. Russell suc- ceeded Judge Boyles in 1862, and he in turn was succeeded by Edmund Jaeger, who served until 1870, when the office was abol- ished.
Article V, section 5, of the constitution of 1857, provides that "The District Court shall consist of a single judge, who shall be elected by the qualified electors of the district in which he resides. The judge of the District Court shall hold his office for the term of four years, and until his successor shall have been elected and quali- fied ; and shall be ineligible to any other office, except that of judge of the Supreme Court, during the term for which he was elected."
Another section of the same article provides for the establish- ment of judicial districts as follows: "The state shall be divided into eleven judicial districts; and after the year 1860, the General Assembly may reorganize the judicial districts, and increase or diminish the number of districts, or the number of judges of the said court, and may increase the number of judges of the Supreme Court; but such increase or diminution shall not be more than one district, or one judge of either court, at any one session ; and no reorganization of the districts, or diminution of the judges, shall have the effect of removing a judge from office. Such reorganization of the districts, or any change in the boundaries thereof, or any increase or diminution of the number of judges, shall take place every four years thereafter, if necessary, and at no other time."
Under these provisions Lee County was attached to District No. 1. of which Francis Springer of Louisa County was judge from 1858 to 1869. The First District was then made to consist of the counties of Lee and Des Moines until about 1896. Among the Des Moines County men who served as judge of this district were Joshua Tracy, Thomas W. Newman, A. H. Stutsman, O. H. Phelps and James D. Smyth. Joseph M. Casey was elected judge of the dis- trict in 1887 and served until his death in 1895. Judge Casey came to Lee County when he was but eleven years old. He received a good academic education, studied law with John F. Kinney, and in
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1847 was admitted to the bar. He located in Sigourney, Keokuk County, where he served for five years as prosecuting attorney. In April, 1861, he located at Fort Madison, and in 1887 was elected district judge, holding that office until his death in 1895.
Alvin J. McCrary was elected to the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Casey, but served only a short time, when Henry Bank was elected for a full term. It was about this time that Lee County was made a judicial district by itself. In 1911, when the docket became so crowded, William S. Hamilton was appointed as an additional district judge to relieved the congested condition and in 1912 was elected for full term. The present judges of the District Court are Henry Bank and William S. Hamilton.
THE BAR
Lee County has produced a number of attorneys whose names and reputations occupy high places in the legal annals of the Union. Foremost among these was Samuel F. Miller, a native of Richmond, Kentucky, where he was born on April 5, 1816. He was educated in the local schools and the town academy, and at eighteen years of age began the study of medicine. He began the practice of medicine at Barboursville, Kentucky, in 1838. Disliking medicine, he turned his attention to the law, read with Judge Ballinger, and in 1845 was admitted to the bar. Five years later he located in Keokuk, where he became the partner of John W. Rankin, and the firm of Rankin & Miller became one of the best known in Southeastern Iowa. In 1861 the lawyers of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Wisconsin all joined in recommending him for one of the justices of the United States Supreme Court and he was appointed by President Lincoln in July, 1862. His nomination was immediately confirmed by the Senate and he served on the supreme bench until his death on Octo- ber 13, 1890. After his death a lawyer who knew him well said : "Some other judges had greater learning, but none possessed greater legal wisdom. After delivering judgments whose influence will outlive the granite walls of the court room and after deciding cases that involved millions of money, he died poor in gold, but rich in fame."
Joseph M. Beck, who was born in Clermont County, Ohio, April 21, 1823, was of English and Welsh ancestry. After graduating at Hanover College in Indiana, he read law with Miles C. Eggleston of Madison, Indiana, taught school for some time, and in 1847 located at Montrose, Lee County. In 1849 he removed to Fort Madison
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and ten years later was elected mayor of that city. He then served several years as prosecuting attorney, and in 1867 was elected one of the judges of the lowa Supreme Court, in which capacity he served for twenty-four years. Judge Beck was one of the trustees of the state library and was influential in building it up to its present proportions. He had a fine judicial mind and his opinions are still quoted as authority, not only in Iowa, but also in other states. He died at Fort Madison, May 30, 1893.
Philip Viele, an early attorney and prominent citizen of Fort Madison, was born in Rensselaer County, New York, September 10, 1799. He was a descendant of the Frenchman, Arnaud Cornelius Viele, who came to America in the latter part of the seventeenth century and located near Schenectady. Philip was educated in the local academy and Union College, and in the fall of 1821 began the study of law at Waterford, New York. In the presidential cam- paign of 1824 he took the stump for Jackson and in 1827 was appointed surrogate of Rensselaer County, where he served until 1835. In June, 1837, he located at Fort Madison, when the town consisted of about a score of log cabins. In 1840 he took an active part as a whig in the political campaign and in 1846 was the leader of the "Union, Retrenchment and Reform Party of Lee County." He was the candidate of that party for judge of probate and was elected. In 1852 he was the whig candidate for Congress, but was defeated, and in 1859 became a member of the State Board of Educa- tion. He served four terms as mayor of Fort Madison. Mr. Viele was a great lover of children and every Christmas gave a dinner to . a large number of Fort Madison's little people.
An amusing story in Judge Viele's practice as an attorney is told of a case tried before Judge Mason at Fort Madison, in which a wood dealer on the river sold a piece of land in the half-breed tract to the clerk of the court at Fort Madison, taking a note for payment. The title proved valueless and the clerk refused to pay the note. Suit was brought, in which Judge Viele represented the wood dealer. In closing his argument to the jury he described how the wife and chil- dren of his client were probably standing at the doorway of their humble cottage home "with eyes strained up the road toward Fort Madison, anxiously looking for the return of the husband and father ; and the first words that will greet my client on his return home will be, 'Pa, have the court and jury at Fort Madison done you justice?' " When the case was given to the jury eleven voted for the wood dealer and one for the clerk. When that one juror was asked the reasons for his position he replied : "Well, I know that man has
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no wife and children. He keeps 'bach' in a log cabin. I believe the whole claim is a fraud." Upon receiving this information the other eleven reversed their views and the case was decided against Viele. A second trial was ordered, but before it came on the wood dealer got into trouble and fled the country. He was never heard of again.
Alfred Rich was a native of Kentucky. He studied law in Cov- ington with W. W. Southworth, and while studying in his office fell in love with his preceptor's daughter. Southworth, who had been a member of Congress, said to Rich : "Go to Congress and you may have my daughter." The girl would have married him anyhow, but Rich declared he would win her by becoming a congressman. He first went to Texas, but later located at Fort Madison. Without money, he accepted such work as he could find. Some friends took an interest in him and got him a school. While teaching, a man was arrested at Montrose charged with assault and battery with intent to kill, and Rich offered to defend him. His intelligent and successful conduct of this case established him in a good practice. In 1839 he was elected to the Legislature and the next year, remembering his ambition and desires, he was the whig candidate for Congress, but was defeated by Gen. A. C. Dodge. From this defeat he lost courage, became somewhat dissipated in his habits, and died of tuber- culosis in the spring of 1842.
Daniel F. Miller, Sr., whose name is still a household word in Lee County, was born near Cumberland, Maryland, October 14, 1814. He received all his schooling by the time he was twelve years of age and then worked about three years at the printer's trade. After teaching a term of school he walked to Pittsburgh, in order to save what little money he had, and was successful in getting a job in a store. Here he studied law, and in the justices' courts or before referees he was able to earn a small fee now and then. In 1839 he was admitted to the bar, and in April of that year located at Fort Madison, where he opened his office. In 1840 he was elected to the Legislature and on the third day of the session introduced his bill to abolish imprisonment for debt, which passed the House, but was defeated in the Council. In 1848 he was elected to Congress on the whig ticket from the southeastern district of Iowa, but did not get the certificate of election on account of fraud in one of the western counties. He went before Congress and stated his cause with such force that his opponent was unseated and a new election ordered. In 1850 he was elected by about eight hundred majority, and in 1856 was an elector-at-large on the republican ticket. He served as mayor
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of Keokuk, and was one of the best known and most able attorneys in Southeastern Iowa. He died at Omaha, Nebraska, December 9, 1895.
George W. McCrary was born near Evansville, Indiana, August 29, 1835. A few months later his parents removed to Illinois, and at the age of eighteen years he began teaching school. In 1855 he entered the office of Rankin & Miller at Keokuk as a student, and upon completing his legal studies was admitted to the bar. He soon built up a good practice, became active in politics, was elected to the lower house of the Legislature in 1857 and in 1861 to the State Senate. He was a strong Union man, and in the Senate was chair- man of the committee on military affairs. When Samuel F. Miller was appointed to the United States Supreme Court, Mr. McCrary became Judge Rankin's partner. In 1868 he was elected to Congress and was twice reelected. He was appointed secretary of war in the cabinet of President Hayes, and after serving about three years in that position was appointed United States judge of the Eighth Cir- cuit, composed of the states of Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Arkansas. In 1884 he resigned his position on the bench to become general counsel for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. He then located at Kansas City, Missouri, where he died on June 23, 1890, but his remains were taken to Keokuk for burial. Judge Mccrary was the author of the "American Law of Elections," a work which is still regarded as a standard authority.
William W. Belknap, for many years a prominent figure in Keokuk, was born at Newburg, New York, in 1829, graduated at Princeton University in 1848, studied law and in 1851 was admitted to the bar. Two years later he located in Keokuk, where he formed a partnership with Ralph P. Lowe. In 1857 Mr. Belknap was elected to the Legislature as a democrat. Upon the breaking out of the Civil war he assisted in recruiting troops and was commis- sioned major of the Fifteenth Iowa Infantry. He was in command of the regiment at the siege of Corinth and afterwards served on the staff of General McPherson. In 1864 he was made brigadier-gen- eral, and at the close of the war was offered a commission in the regular army, which he declined. In the meantime he had become a republican, and in 1866 was appointed collector of internal revenue for the First Iowa District. He served for seven years as secretary of war under President Grant, and died at Washington, D. C., Octo- ber 13, 1890.
Hugh T. Reid, another early Lee County lawyer, was of Scotch- Irish extraction and a native of South Carolina. His grandfather,
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Hugh Reid, served as an American soldier in the Revolution, and entered a tract of land in the Northwest Territory, which he after- ward gave to James Reid, the father of Hugh T. In 1833 Hugh T. Reid entered Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, where he spent three years, and then graduated at the Indiana University, Bloomington. He studied law with James Perry of Liberty, Indiana, and was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1839. In June of that year he located at Fort Madison, and in the spring of 1840 formed a partner- ship with Edward Johnstone which lasted about ten years, much of which time was spent in defending his title to the half-breed tract, an account of which is given in another chapter. From 1840 to 1842 he served as prosecuting attorney for the district composed of Lee, Des Moines, Henry, Jefferson and Van Buren counties, and while in this position won a place in the front rank of attorneys. Mr. Reid was one of the lawyers who defended Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, when he was on trial at Carthage, Illinois, in 1844. While in command of the Fifteenth Iowa Infantry at Shiloh he received several wounds, one through the chest almost proving fatal. On April 13, 1863, he was made brigadier-general by President Lincoln, but resigned in April, 1864, to look after his private business. He took a prominent part in building the Des Moines Valley Railroad from Keokuk to Fort Dodge.
It would be impossible to give individual mention to all the lawyers who have won distinction as members of the Lee County bar, but among those who occupied prominent places may be men- tioned H. H. Trimble, W. D. Patterson, James M. Love, J. Monroe Reid, William C. Howell, W. R. Gilbreath, Daniel Mooar, W. C. Hobbs, Daniel F. Miller, Jr., John Van Valkenburg, William Ful- ton, M. D. Browning, O. H. Browning, J. C. Hall, Jesse B. Browne, W. H. Morrison, John H. Craig and J. D. M. Hamilton, all of whom are remembered as able and successful attorneys.
CHAPTER XX
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION
HOME REMEDIES OF EARLY DAYS-THE PIONEER DOCTOR-HIS CHARAC- TER AND METHODS OF TREATMENT-HIS STANDING IN THE SETTLE- MENT-HARDSHIPS OF FRONTIER PRACTICE-DR. SAMUEL MUIR THE FIRST LEE COUNTY PHYSICIAN-OTHER EARLY PRACTITIONERS- KEOKUK MEDICAL COLLEGES-SKETCHES OF PROMINENT OLD-TIME PHYSICIANS.
Voltaire once defined a physician as "A man who crams drugs of which he knows little into a body of which he knows less." That may have been true of a certain class of French empirics at the time it was written, but since Voltaire's day the medical profession has made almost marvelous strides forward, and the physician of the Twentieth Century is generally a man entitled to the honor and respect of the community, both for his professional ability and his standing as a citizen.
In the early settlement of every section of the Mississippi Valley each family kept a stock of roots, barks and herbs, and common ail- ments were treated by the administration of "home-made" remedies. Old residents can remember the bone-set tea, the burdock bitters, the decoctions of wild cherry bark, the poultices and plasters that "grandma" would prepare with scrupulous care and apply-inter- nally or externally, as the case might demand-with more solemnity than the surgeon of the present day cuts open a man and robs him of his appendix.
Such was the condition in every frontier settlement when the pioneer doctor arrived, and probably no addition to the population was received with warmer welcome. Yet the life of the frontier physician was no sinecure, and about the only inducement for a doctor to cast his lot in a new country was that he might succeed in estab- lishing himself in practice before his competitor arrived in the field. Money was a rare article and his fees, if he collected any at all, were paid in such produce as the pioneer farmers could spare and the doctor could use.
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The old-time doctor was not always a graduate of a medical col- lege. In a majority of cases his medical education had been obtained by "reading" for a few months with some older physician and assist- ing his preceptor in his practice. When the young student thought he knew enough to branch out for himself, he began looking about for a location, and frequently some new settlement appeared to him as the best opening. Of course, there were many exceptions to this rule and some of the best physicians, already established in practice, would "pull up stakes" and seek a new location in some young and growing community.
If the professional or technical knowledge of the early doctor was limited, his stock of drugs and medicines was equally limited A generous supply of calomel, some jalap, aloes, Dover's powder, castor oil and Peruvian bark (sulphate of quinine was too expensive for general use) constituted the principal remedies in his Phar- macopia. In cases of fever it was considered the proper thing to relieve the patient of a quantity of blood, hence every physician car- ried one or more lancets. If a drastic cathartic, followed by letting blood, and perhaps a "fly blister," did not improve the condition of the patient, the doctor would "look wise and trust to a rugged con- stitution to pull the sick man through." But, greatly to the credit of these pioneer physicians, it can be said they were just as conscien- tious in their work and had as much faith in the remedies they admin- istered as the most celebrated specialist has today. It can further be said that a majority of them, as the population of the new settle- ment increased, refused to remain in the mediocre class and attended some medical school, even after they had been engaged in practice for years.
The doctor, over and above his professional calling and position, was a man of prominence and influence in other matters. His advice was frequently asked in affairs entirely foreign to his business; his travels about the settlement brought him in touch with all the latest news and gossip, which made him a welcome visitor in other house- holds; he was the one man in the community who subscribed for and read a newspaper, and this led his neighbors to follow his leadership in matters political. Look back over the history of almost any county in the Mississippi Valley and the names of physicians will appear as members of the legislature, incumbents of important county offices, and in a number of instances some doctor has been called to represent a district in Congress. Many a boy has been named for the family physician.
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When the first doctors began practice in Lee County they did not visit their patients in automobiles. Even if the automobile had been in existence, the condition of the roads-where there were any roads at all-was such that the vehicle would have been practically useless. Consequently the doctor relied upon his trusty horse to carry him on his round of visits. His practice extended over a large expanse of country and frequently, when making calls in the night with no road to follow but the "blazed trail," he carried a lantern with him, so that he could find the road in case he lost his way. On his return home he would drop the reins upon the horse's neck and trust to the animal's instinct to find the way.
As there were then no drug stores to fill prescriptions, the doctor carried his medicines with him in a pair of "pill-bags"-two leathern boxes divided into compartments for vials of different sizes and con- nected by a broad strap that could be thrown across the saddle. Besides the lancet, his principal surgical instrument was the "turn- key" for extracting teeth. A story is told of a man once complaining to a negro barber that the razor pulled, to which the colored man replied : "Yes sah ; but if the razor handle doesn't break de beard am bound to come off." So it was with the pioneer doctor as a dentist. Once he got that turnkey fastened on a tooth, if the instrument did not break the tooth was bound to come out.
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