USA > Illinois > Shelby County > Historic sketch and biographical album of Shelby County, Illinois > Part 16
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Judge Thornton is a very remarkable man. now past eighty-six years of age, and in the active and remunerative practice of his chosen profession.
While his physical strength is lessened by age. his mental powers are still strong, and when interested in a matter under his charge. his mind seems to be as vigorous as it was forty years ago. and his voice rings 'out strong, steady and clear. and he is verily the "old man eloquent."
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Few men of the state of Illinois, or anywhere have been before the public as long as Judge Thornton, and Judge Moulton is his close sec- ond. These men have been in Shelby county. one of them since 1836, sixty-six years, and the other since 1850. and both in active employment in public business.
On June 10, 1898, the life-sized portraits of Judges Thornton and Moulton were unveiled in the court house in Shelbyville.
I here give you some extracts from a sketch. written by the Judge himself, after he was past eighty-two years of age:
My ancestors, both parental and maternal. were from England. They emigrated to Virginia early in 1600. 1 recollect my grandfather very well, for I lived with him for a number of years. My grandfather and my father had the same christian name. Anthony, which has descended to me. They were planters in Virginia, as they were called in those days. Among my grand- father's old papers I have seen a good many consignments of tobacco to Liverpool, and re- turned invoices of family stores in payment.
My grandfather and my father with their families migrated from Virginia to Kentucky in the year 1808. The entire party, including whites and negroes, numbered ninety-nine. They came over the mountains in wagons, carriages, and on horseback. They left Caroline County, Virginia, on the 5th of October, 1808. and reached Bourbon County, Kentucky, on the 16th day of November, 1808, making the journey in forty-two days.
My grandfather was born in Caroline Coun- ty. Virginia, on the 18th day of February, 1748, and died in 1830. He was twice married ; had one son by his first wife, and ten children, five boys and five girls, by his last wife, whose maid- en name was Mary Rootis. He was first mar-
ried in 1768, before he was twenty-one years of age.
Hle had the title of colonel. I have now in my possession a commission, dated April ist. 1785. signed by Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, appointing him "County Lieutenant of the militia of Caroline County.' The com- mission bears the genuine signature of Patrick Henry, the greatest orator of "Old Virginia." It is printed on rough, coarse paper without the scal of the state. . \ wafer is used for a seal. This was before Virginia had adopted her present seal, with the proud motto, "Sic Semper Tyrannis."
When the large party of ninety-nine reached the fertile lands of Kentucky, a settlement was made in Nicholas county. Afterwards my grand- father purchased about five hundred acres of land lying in Bourbon and Harrison counties, within two and a half miles of Ruddel's Mills. When I was a boy there were numerous distiller- ies for the manufacture of whisky around there. and I have often heard it said that there was some peculiarity in the water of a certain spring near Ruddel's Mills from which the best and pur- est whisky in Kentucky was made. I lived on the above farm after my father's death for about twelve years.
My father bought a farm on Cane Ridge. in Bourbon county, six miles east of Paris, the county seat. There he lived until his death. My father was born in Virginia on the 24th day of December, 1775, so that he was a child at the time of our great struggle for National Inde- pendence. He was a native of Caroline county.
My mother, whose maiden name was Mary Towles, was born in Spotsylvania county, Vir- ginia, on the 29th day of March, 1777. They were married in Spotsylvania county, on the 16th of April, 1802. They had ten children, of whom 1 am the only survivor. My father died on his farm on the 20th day of November. 1819. in the
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vigor of his manhood, when he was only forty- four years of age. At that time a virulent fever prevailed in Kentucky, of which he died. My mother died on the 14th of July, 1820, in giving birth to a child which never saw either father or mother. At the death of my father and mother they left eight living children, five boys and three girls. The boys and the youngest girls were taken to my grandfather's; the two oldest girls went to live with Judge Mills in Paris, Kentucky, who married my father's sister. Thus a numerous and happy family was separat- ed by the ruthless hand of death, never to be re- united in this world.
My sister, Elizabeth Smith, married Benja- min Keiningham of Paris, Kentucky, a mer- chant. They left two children. My sister. Cath- arine Presley, married John W. Hall, a Presby- terian minister, a fine scholar and an eloquent preacher. They left three children. My brother. Thomas Towles, married Rebecca Warfield of Lexington, Kentucky. He left one child, a daughter. He was a promising young lawyer of Paris, but died in the vigor of manhood, with a brilliant future before him. Truly. how in- scrutable are the ways of Providence! My brother, John Rootes, died in 1875. He left one son. I have three living and one dead. All the rest of my brothers and sisters died without any children surviving them. We were widely sep- arated in life, but have the hope of a happy re- union in a better workl.
I was born on my father's farm, six miles east of Paris, on the 9th day of November, 1814. I was, therefore, five years and eleven days old at the time of his death, and in about seven months thereafter, when my mother died, six of the children were taken to my grandfather's. 1 cannot remember my mother, but have a distinct recollection of my father.
I can recollect him on horseback and about the house. He was a tall and spare man, with fair and ruddy complexion and brown hair. He was a good scholar, and wrote a fair and legible hand. 1 have some of his books in which his name is written. His farm was in the heart of the beautiful and fertile blue grass region of Kentucky. With a loved wife and numerous children, his future was bright for happiness and wealth. But cruel death darkened the happy home. and severed the sacred ties of husband and wife, and father and children.
At five years of age I was taken from my childhood's home. 1 labored on the farm : plowed, cut grain with the sickle, cut wood, and performed other work until I was about sixteen. .At my grandfather's death he left his farm to Aunt Lucy during her life. 1 continued to live with her, and went occasionally to a country school. In my boyhood the schools in the coun- try were kept in houses built of hewn logs ; the floor was laid with puncheons. logs split : and the benches on which we sat were also of pun- cheons. There were no windows, but a log was cut out to give light. I had only two teachers in my earliest schooling. One was a Presbyter- ian minister, who supplemented his meagre sal- ary with the pittance he obtained by teaching. The other was a candidate for the ministry, and taught school to obtain money to aid him in the theological studies. The latter teacher was a good man, and a good scholar, but a great odd- ity. He was rigid in discipline and used the rod. or switch, on all occasions. I had my skin often cut and bruised, and welts made on me that did not disappear for weeks. The boys would fre- quently trick him in regard to the switches. Our school house was in a dense wood where grew a great many trees called iron-wood. These trees had long, tapering switches as tough as whalebone. The teacher would send the boys
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to procure switches, and they with a keen knife would carefully cut the switches every few inches, so that with the first stroke they would break into a number of pieces. The teacher always opened and closed school with prayer.
1 lived on my grandfather's farm from 1820 until 1831: labored on the farm and attended school until I had acquired the rudiments of an English education and a smattering of Latin. There were always ten white persons in the fan- ily until my grandfather's death, and about one hundred Negroes. There were only eight rooms in the house, and I have often thought, in mind. of the family, and company almost constant, how so many people could be cared for and bedded in so small a house. The Negroes, of course. occupied their own cabins. From Christmas Eve until New Year's day the house was always well filled, and joy and feasting were the order of the holiday. We had indeed a joyous time to which memory often fondly recurs. The Negroes did not labor during the holidays, and they had, consequently, a good time. 1 can never forget the "corn shuckings." A\ good sup- per and a dram of pure whisky awaited the end of the work. The Negro is naturally musical. and on these occasions the singing was grand and melodious.
W'e had a peculiar mode of threshing grain. .A circular track was made smooth and firm ; the wheat, rye or oats were put upon it, and then the boys would mount a horse and lead four. two on each side. Round and round they would go until the grain was threshed. Upon the re- moval of the straw, the ground was covered with the grain.
Our sugar making, too, was glorious fun. My grandfather had a sugar orchard of over one thousand trees. The sweet water. the glowing furnace with a dozen large kettles bub-
bling. the delicious syrup, the ash pone, and broiled bacon, made a grand sight and a glor- ious feast.
"Ah! happy years! once more who would not be a boy?"
While rigid obedience was exacted of the Negro in the early days of slavery, he was treated with kindness and consideration : was well fed and well clothed, and well cared for in sickness. .All the house servants regularly attended pray- ers, morning and evening. Every Sunday both whites and blacks went to a Presbyterian church at Ruddel's Mills, and remained for the fore- noon services. The Sunday school for whites was in the morning, and for the Negroes in the : fterncon. Slavery was
then in its mildest form, and its mischiefs affected the white more than the black race.
With an abundance of work, and hunting and fishing, (we had a good supply of game). I became a robust boy, and was almost fully grown at 16 years of age. Kentuckians at that tinte constituted an unusually tall race. I went to school with a number of girls who were six feet in height. We hunted a great deal at night. principally coons and opossums.
But my boyhood days abruptly ended. 1 was determined to obtain an education, if possi- ble. My share in my father's estate was not large : indeed barely enough to afford me an education. My guardian, John Rootis Thorn- ton, of Paris, Kentucky, a good man and a good lawyer, insisted that I should engage as a clerk in a store, and thus fit myself for the mercantile business. I demurred to such an arrangement. With dogged persistence I claimed that a thor- ough education would fit me for any position. and I was willing to expend my patrimony to procure it. I probably should have failed in my desire but for the intercession of my sister. Cath- arine, who then lived in Tennessee, and was on
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a visit to Kentucky. She said there was a most excellent preparatory school where she lived. and. if 1 would go and live with her she would board me and make no charge, so that I should have the expense of clothing and tuition only. Hence in June, 1831. I took the old stage coach at Paris and traveled alone, night and day. to my sister's in Gallatin, Tennessee. I lived there in 1831 and part of 1832 : attended a fine school preparatory to going to a college at Nashville. Tennessee, but finally determined, with the con- sent of a guardian, to go to Danville, Kentucky, to a college called Center College. I was there something over a year, and in the latter part of 1833 I made a change again and went to Oxford. Ohio, to the Miami Umversity, where I graduat- ed and received a diploma m September. 1834.
I had a happy time in Tennessee. I visited the Hermitage and greatly enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the Cumberland river. I had an agreeable time at college with both teachers and pupils. When I graduated, I was a good Latin and Greek scholar, and could read both German and French.
After graduation I went back to Paris, Ken- tucky, and commenced the study of law with my uncle, John R. Thornton. On the 23rd of August, 1836, 1 obtained a license to practice lan from George Robertson and Thomas .A. Mar- shall. Judges of the Court of Appeals of Ken- tucky. They examined me for three separate days before they would grant me a license.
In October. 1836, 1 left Kentucky and started to settle in Missouri. When I got to St. Louis, I remembered I had an aunt in Sangamon county, Illinois, and thought I would go and see her. I took a boat at St. Louis and went up the Illinois river to Meredosia, and there I rode on the first railroad, made with a flat iron bar for a rail, and pulled by two mules, which brought me to Jacksonville, Ilinois. Then I took
a stage to Springfield, and visited my aunt for a week or two. There I heard of General Thorn- ton and his family living in Shelbyville, and con- cluded I would visit them, as I had never seen them before. So in October. 1836, I cante to Shelbyville, Illinois, and as there was only one lawyer here. Daniel Gregory, who afterwards died in Vandalia, I concluded to abandon the trip to Missouri, and settled in Shelbyville, and I have been a citizen of this place with the ex- ception of a few years up to the present time.
The sessions of the legislature of Illinois were then held in Vandalia, and in December. 1836, 1 went from Shelbyville to Vandalia to see the legislature and supreme court, and there on the 13th of December, 1836, 1 obtained a license to practice law from Thomas C. Brown and Wil- liam Wilson, two Judges of the Supreme court. I remained in Vandalia about a month, and I saw Mr. Lincoln for the first time, also O. B. Picklin, Usher F. Linder, Orville B. Browning. of Quincy, Illinois, General Ewing. Jefferson Gatewood, and a number of other distinguished men of the state at that time.
During the time I spent at Vandalia, there was gambling all over the town every night, and sometimes during the day : poker playing, rou- lette tables, and almost every device for gamb- ling, and liquor was sold everywhere. To me this was a novel scene, for I had never witnessed the like in my life before. Just before I left Vandalia a severe epidemie prevailed which affected the throat, and was fatal in a great many instances. I became somewhat alarmed and anx- ious to get away, but it was impossible to get any conveyance from Vandalia. There were no rail- roads, and only a wagon carrying the mail twice a week from Vandalia to Shelbyville. Just abont the time I was so anxious to get away, in Janu- ary. 1837. a heavy rainfall came, and the whole country was a sheet of ice three or four inches
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thick, so that it was almost impossible to travel. At last to my great joy, a gentleman now living in Mattoon, Ebenezer Noyes, reached Vandalia front St. Louis, riding a little pony. He was a merchant on Whitley creek in what is now Moul- trie county, Illinois. He had been to St. Louis to buy goods, and having formed his acquain- tance at Shelbyville, as soon as I met him, I per- suaded him to try and bring me home. He said he would do so, and he went into the woods and cut some hickory poles, and with them and a goods box, made a sled. We fixed up a harness. and he and 1 rode home to Shelbyville on that box, pulled by the pony, on the solid ice all the way.
After my return from Vandalia I opened an office in Shelbyville and commenced the prac- tice of law. There was no other lawyer here at the time but Daniel Gregory, and, of course, I had one side of every case. There was a good deal of litigation of a small character, and the fees would range from $2.50 to $25, but rarely the latter sum.
The first judge before whom I practiced was Sydney Breese, who lived at Carlyle, and who was afterwards for over twenty years upon the supreme bench, and a member of the United States Senate from Illinois. He was a fine scholar, a profound lawyer, a model judge. 1 have not known any man who presided in the court house with such ease and dignity, readiness and learning. The other judges who held court during my early practice were Judge Treat. Judge Underwood, Judge Koerner, Judge David Davis, Judge Constable, Judge Harlan, Judge Wilson, Judge Shields, and Judge Emerson. They were all good lawyers and highly honor- able men.
The principal lawyers at the bar in my early practice were Usher F. Linder and O. B. Ficklin, of Charleston : A. B. Field, Ferris Foreman and
Levi Davis, of Vandalia : Charles Emerson, Kirby Benedict, Seth Post and Brower Bunn, of De- catur : James M. Davis, generally called "Long Jim," and E. Y. Rice, of Hillsboro ; Judge Van- deveer, of Taylorville: Edward D. Baker, of Springfield, and occasionally Mr. Lincoln would come to Shelbyville. I also met him on the cir- cuit almost every spring and fall for a great many years.
From 1836 until about 1846 we rode to all the courts on horseback. There were scarcely any public highways and we would strike through the country from timber to timber. and, rosin weed in the prairie, which pointed north if it was cloudy, we would then be guided by the and south. There were few law books in the country at that time. In some of the towns where the courts were held, there were really no books, and the lawyers would carry in their sad- dle bags some work upon evidence or pleading, and we argued cases entirely upon principle. The lawyers whom I have named, and others, were all well read in the law. highly honorable gentle- men, courteous to each other, and the life on the circuit with such men was very enjoyable. Lin- coln. Linder, and Ficklin were great story tellers. and, after the adjournment of court in the even- ing. they would entertain the crowd by telling stories almost every night until past midnight.
When I commenced the practice of law in this state, the only report of the adjudged cases was a small volume by Judge Breese. After- wards Mr. Foreman of Vandalia, published a small volume of the reports. The statutes were. however, few and easily understood, but we had no reports to guide us until Mr. Scammon com- menced the publication of Scammon's Reports.
It will thus be seen that at this carly period in the history of the state the law was adminis- tered, not upon adjudicated cases, but upon the principles in the elementary books. In the argu-
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ments before the court no judge ever inquired for a case in point, but the principles of the com- mon law were applied to the facts as they were developed by the testimony ; hence the practice was much easier than at present, and the labor less, if the lawyer was well versed in the princi- ples of common law.
I have been a resident of Illinois for over sixty years. I was always a whig in politics until 1856. My first vote was for General Harrison in 1840. That was a memorable campaign. "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" was the slogan everywhere. The people seemed wild. They would go from meeting to meeting, and from county to county in immense crowds. Wagons were to be seen everywhere along the roads, drawn by six and eight yoke of oxen, and filled with bright, pretty girls; in the middle a log cabin, and at the end a barrel of cider, free to all.
I was an active speaker in the campaign of 1840 for Harrison : in the campaign of 1844 for Clay ; in the campaign of 1848 for Taylor ; and in the campaign of 1852 for Scott.
In June, 1856. I made an appointment to pronounce my first democratic speech in the old court house in Shelbyville. There were but few republicans in Shelby county at that time. Slavery, and, intimately connected with it, the Nebraska bill, was the principal question for discussion. A committee waited upon me and requested a joint discussion, to which I assented. On the appointed day Mr. Lincoln appeared. I had then known him well for many years. . As it was my meeting, and, as a matter of courtesy. I consented that Mr. Lincoln should open the discussion. He commenced at 2 o'clock and spoke until nearly 5. He knew he was address- ing people who sympathized with the south, and he made a most ingenious and plausible speech. Hle, however, spoke so very long that I became apprehensive as to any effort I might make to a
wearied crowd. I began my reply by telling one of Mr. Lincoln's stories, and thus obtained the attention of the crowd, and made a short speech. The meeting was a pleasant one. We parted with the kindliest feelings, and that was the last public speech I ever heard Mr. Lincoln make.
In 1860 I was one of the democratic elec- tors, and had thirteen joint discussions with Leonard Swett, then of Bloomington, and who afterwards died in Chicago. He was the fairest. ablest, most pleasant and courteous gentleman 1 ever encountered in public discussion.
I knew all the governors of the state from James Duncan in 1836 to the present time. The first appointment I ever had was from Governor Carlin. He appointed me as major in the militia.
Early life in Illinois was rough, but pleas- ant. The people were generous and hospitable ; free and easy in their manners ; rough in dress, but honest and honorable in all their dealings. There was very little crime. Fights were fre- quent, but no pistol, knife, chb, or deadly weapon was ever used. The fist and the foot were the only agents to revenge a fancied in- sult. When the fight was over, and no person seriously injured. reconciliation ensued, and a chink of whisky all around sealed the peace.
From 1836 to almost the year 1850 we had frequent "house raisings and "barn raisings." and wolf hunts, and horse racing, and sport of every character. We would often collect to the number of from one to two hundred and kill squirrels : meet at noon and barbecue them, and a luscious feast was the result. The squirrels were so numerous that we were compelled to kill them to save the corn from destruction. We used only the rifle. On one of these hunts I killed fifty-two squirrels one morning in the sec- tion east of Shelbyville. Deer, turkey, and prairie chickens were in great abundance. I
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have seen fifty deer in a drove, and gangs of wolves to the number of a dozen or more.
From abont 1838 to 1870 I had a regular deer hunt every fall, when we would camp in the woods from ten days to a month. . At the "rais- ings," which were attended by the neighbors for ten miles around, we had a substantial dinner and supper, and the old couplet was sung and practiced :
"We'll dance all night "Till broad day-light. And go home with the gals in the morning."
When I located in Shelbyville it contained about two hundred people. Large oak stumps stood in the public square now fronting our court house. In front of the First National bank building was a ravine of the depth of at least fifteen feet. On the lot where the bank building now stands there was an old horse mill. The plat of Crane and Stevenson's addition was a forest covered with beautiful and magnificent elmis and sugar trees. I have often killed squir- rels there, and for years we used the beautiful grove for meetings on the 4th of July, and bar- becues, which were frequent. The entire town was from Brewster's hill west to the residences of Conn Brothers, and from Second street north to Second street south. All the business houses, taverns and saloons were around the square. The houses were built mostly of logs. Captain John Tackett kept tavern in a log house where the "Tallman" is now situated. Reuben Wright, father of William and David Wright, kept tavern in a log house on the corner west of the present court house. It seems a dreary and dismal place to look back upon in view of the progress since those days. Yet we enjoyed life. There were a goodly number of young people of both sexes, ready for a ride, a frolic, or a dance. Though I never had any ear for music, and never could
tell one tune from another, and must be con- demmed to the ban pronounced by Shakespeare-
"The man that hath no music in himself Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds.
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils,"-
vet I attended all the gatherings, and walked through the dances. At one time I was dancing with Mrs. Lufkin, then Miss Lucia Smith, and one of our brightest girls, when the string of the fiddle broke: 1 kept right on without any music, though all the dancers had stopped, until the general laugh at my expense made me real- ize the situation. The music had no effect on me.
Notwithstanding the hunts and frolics, 1 devoted a large part of every day to the study of my profession. 1 had voluntarily chosen this profession with the fixed determination to make a good lawyer of myself. To what extent I may have succeeded, my clients and contemporaries must answer. 1 am not vain enough to suppose that posterity will trouble itself very much as to my character as a lawyer.
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