USA > Illinois > Union County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 60
USA > Illinois > Pulaski County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 60
USA > Illinois > Alexander County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 60
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HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.
ciate Justices were again required to per- form circuit duties.
The Justices of the Supreme Court then continued to hold all the Cricuit Courts until a Circuit Judge was elected by the General Assembly, in pursuance of the act of Janu- ary, 1829, which declared that there should be elected by joint ballot of both branches of the General Assembly at that session, one Circuit Judge who should preside at the circuit to which he might be appointed, north of the Illinois River. A Circuit Judge was elected in pursuance of that act, and at the same time the Fifth Judicial Circuit was created in which the Circuit Judge was re- quired to preside, the Justices of the Su- preme Court continuing to perform their du- ties in the other four circuits. This remained the law until January 7, 1835, when the act was repealed, and it was provided that there should be elected by the General Assembly five Judges in addition to the one provided for by law. The Justices of the Supreme Court were thus again relieved from the per- formance of circuit duties.
The judiciary remained unchanged until 1841, when the number of judicial circuits and of Circuit Judges were increased from time to time, as the business of the courts required.
The judiciary of the State was re-organized by the act of February, 1841, which repealed all former laws authorizing the election of Circuit Judges or establishing the Circuit Courts, thus again legislating out of office all the Circuit Judges in the State. The act then provided there should be elected by joint ballot of both branches of the General Assembly, five Associate Judges of the Su- preme Court, who, in connection with the Chief Justice and the three Associates, then in office, should constitute the Supreme Court of the State. At the same time the
State was divided into nine judicial circuits and the Chief Justice and eight Associates were required to perform circuit duties in those circuits. As thus organized, the judi- ciary remained until it was re-organized by the constitution of 1848.
Under the constitution of 1818, the Su- preme Court was the only one created by that instrument, and the Circuit Court had no existence except by legislative enact- ment. But upon organizing the judiciary as it existed under the constitution of 1848, the Circuit Courts constituted a part of the ju- dicial system as created by the new constitu- tion-it being declared in that instrument that the judicial power of the State shall be vested in one Supreme Court, in Circuit Courts, in County Courts and in Justices of the Peace, and the General Assembly is au- thorized to establish local inferior courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction in the cities of the State.
The Supreme Court consisted of three Judges. The State was divided into three grand divisions, the people in each division electing one Judge. The State was divided into nine judicial circuits, which were in- creased as necessity required from time to time. In each of these circuits the people elected one Judge. All vacancies were to be filled by re-election. It required that there should be two or more terms of the Circuit Court held annually in each county. The Circuit Courts to have jurisdiction in all cases at law and equity, and in all cases of appeal from inferior courts.
The constitution of 1870 vested the judi- cial powers in one Supreme Court, Circuit Courts, County Courts, Justices of the Peace, Police Magistrates, and such courts as may be created by law in and for cities and in- corporated towns.
The Supreme Court consists of seven Judges,
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HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.
and has original jurisdiction, similar to that given by the constitution of 1848. There is one Chief Justice selected by the court; four Judges constitute a quorum, and the concur- rence of four Judges is necessary to a decis- ion. The State is divided into seven dis- tricts, one Judge being elected in each. The election occurs on the first Monday in June. The term of office is nine years.
The Legislature of 1877 created four Ap- pellate Courts and provided the following districts: The first to consist of the county of Cook, the second to include all of the Northern Grand Division of the Supreme Court except the county of Cook; the third to consist of the Central Grand Division, and the fourth the Southern Grand Division of the Supreme Court. Each court to be held by three of the Judges of the Circuit Court to be assigned by the Supreme Court, three to each district, for the term of three years at each assignment. The Appellate Court holds two terms annually in each district.
The Legislature in 1873 divided the State, exclusive of Cook County, into twen- ty-six judicial circuits. In 1877, an act was passed, in order to provide for the organiza tion of the Appellate Court, to increase the number of Circuit Judges, and it divided the State into thirteen districts and provided for the election of one additional Judge in each district, in August, 1877. for two years, making three Judges in each district, and thirty-nine in the State.
In June, 1879, three Judges were elected in each of the thirteen judicial circuits, as pro- vided by the act of 1877.
The first Justices of the Supreme Court at the organization of the State were Joseph Philips, C. J., Thomas C. Browne, William P. Foster and John Reynolds, all ap- pointed October 9, 1818. Foster resigned July, 1819, and Philips July, 1822. John
Reynolds, C. J., in 1822, and William Wilson added to the court in July, 1819. In 1825, Wilson, Chief Justice, and Asso- ciates, same date, Samuel D. Lockwood. Theophilus W. Smith and Thomas C. Browne. Theophilus W. Smith resigned December 26, 1842. He had been impeached, and his trial and acquittal were among the exciting events of the early days in the State.
In February, 1841, the Supreme Court was composed of Thomas Ford, Sidney Breese, Walter B. Scates, Samuel H. Treat, and Stephen A. Douglas. The last named re- signed in 1843. Ford and Breese resigned in 1842 and Scates in 1847. In 1842, John D. Caton was elected, vice Ford. In 1843, James Simple, vice Breese. Richard M. Young was elected in 1843, and resigned in 1847. John M. Robinson was elected March, 1843, died April 27, same year. John D. Caton was elected, vice Robinson; Jesse B. Thomas, vice Douglas; Sample resigned and James Shields appointed August, 1846. Shields resigned and Gustavus Keorner was elected. W. A. Denn- ing appointed, vice Scates: Jesse B. Thomas appointed, 1847. Samuel H. Treat, Chief Justice in 1848; John D. Caton, same year; Lyman Trumbull appointed December 4, 1848, resigned July, 1853; Walter B. Scates, Chief Justice, 1854, resigned May, 1857; O. C. Skinner, appointed June, 1855, re- signed April. 1858, whereupon Sidney Breese was made Chief Justice and held the office until June, 1878; Pinkney H. Walker appointed, vice Skinner, and was Chief Jus- tice until 1867; Breese was again elected, 1861, and was re-elected 1870.
Corydon Beckwith was elected, vice Caton, January, 1864, term expired June of same year; Charles B. Lawrence succeeded Beckwith, June, 1864, and held office to June, 1873; Pinkney Walker, elected June, 1867, re- elected in 1876; Sidney Breese, again elect-
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HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.
ed, 1870, died June 28, 1878; Anthony Thornton, elected 1870, resigned 1873. John M. Scott, Benjamin R. Sheldon, W. K. McAllister were elected June, 1870. The latter resigned November, 1875; John Scho- field elected, vice Thornton, June, 1873, and re-elected June, 1879; Alfred M. Craig, elected 1873, to succeed Lawrence; T. Lyle Dickey, 1875, to succeed McAllister; Pink- ney H. Walker, re-elected June, 1876; David J. Baker, appointed, vice Breese, July, 1878, retired June, 1879; John M. Scott, Benja- min R. Sheldon, John Scholfield and T. Lyle Dickey, re-elected June, 1879; John H. Mulkey, elected to succeed Baker June, 1879.
Under the act of 1826, making five judi- cial circuits, the Judges appointed were John Y. Sawyer, First District; Samuel Mc- Roberts, Second District; Richard M. Young, Third District; James Hall, Fourth Dis- trict; and James O. Wattles, Fifth District. In 1829, Richard M. Young was appointed Judge of the single district that then com- prised the entire State.
Under the constitution of 1848, Alexander, Pulaski and Union Counties were a part of the Third Circuit. The first Judge was Will- iam A. Denning, commissioned December, 4, 1848. He was succeeded by W. K. Perrish, who was commissioned January 4, 1854; re- commissioned June 25, 1855, resigned June 15, 1859; Alexander M. Jenkins, commis- sioned August 27,1859, vice Parrish, resigned; re-commissioned July 1, 1861, died February 13, 1864. John H. Mulkey, commissioned April 2, 1864, vice A. M. Jenkins, de- ceased; resigned and was succeeded by W. H. Green December 28, 1865. Monroe C. Crawford, elected and commissioned June 27, 1867.
The act of March, 1873, dividing the State into twenty six circuits, one Judge to be elected to each circuit. David J. Baker
was elected Circuit Judge for this Twenty - sixth Circuit.
Under the act of 1877, making thirteen ju- dicial circuits, the following have been elect- ed in the First Circuit: Baker, Browning and Harker. D. J. Baker was assigned to the Appellate Court in June, 1879, and again in 1882.
William Wilson at the time of his eleva- tion to the high and honorable position of Chief Justice of Illinois was but twenty- nine years old, and had been already five years on the Supreme Bench as Associate Justice. He was born in Loudoun County, Va., in 1795. When quite young, his father died, leaving his widow with two sons and an embarrassed estate. At an early age, his mother obtained for him a situation in a store; but the young man displayed no apti- tude for the business of merchandising, and, young as he was, developed an unusual greed for books, reading every one attainable, to the almost total neglect of his duties in the store. At the age of eighteen, he was placed in a law office under the tuition of the Hon. John Cook, who ranked high as a lawyer at the bar of Virginia, and who also served his country with honor and distinction abroad as Minister to the Court of France. In 1817, young Wilson came to Illinois to look for a home, and such was his personal bearing and prepossessing appearance that one year later, at the inauguration of the State government, his name was brought before the Legislature for Associate Supreme Judge, and he came within six votes of an election. Within a year, as will be seen above, he was chosen in the place of Foster. For five years, he served the people so acceptably on the bench as to be at this time chosen to the first posi- tion by a large majority over the former Chief Justice, Reynolds. This was the more a mark of approbation because Judge Wil-
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HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.
son was totally devoid of, and never in his life could wield any of the arts of the politi- cian or party schemer. As regards political intrigue, he was as innocent as a"child. He was singularly pure in all his conceptions of duty, and in his long public career of nearly thirty years, as a Supreme Judge of Illinois, he commanded the full respect, con- fidence and esteem of the people for the probity of his official acts and his upright conduct as a citizen and a man. His edu- cation was such as he had acquired by dili- gent reading and self-culture. As a writer, his diction was pure, clear and elegant, as may be seen by reference to his published opinions in the Supreme Court reports. With a mind of rare analytic power, his judg- ment as a lawyer was discriminating and sound, and upon the bench his learning and impartiality commanded respect, while his own dignified deportment inspired decorum in others. By the members of the bar he was greatly esteemed; no new beginner was ever without the protection of almost a fa- therly hand in his court against the arts and powers of an older opponent. In politics, upon the formation of the Whig and Democra- tic parties, he associated himself with the for mer. He was an amiable and accomplished gentleman in private life, with manners most engaging and friendship strong. His hos- pitality was of the Old Virginia style. Sel- dom did a summer season pass at his pleas- ant country seat about two miles from Carmi, on the banks of the Little Wabash, that troops of friends, relatives and distinguished official visitors did not sojourn with him. His official career was terminated with the going into effect of the new constitution, December 4, 1848, when he retired to private life. He died at his home in the ripeness of age and the consciousness of a life well spent, April 29, 1857, in his sixty-third year.
The Common Pleas Court of Cairo was or- ganized by law in 1857. and Isham N. Haynie was appointed Judge and John Q. Harmon, Clerk. In 1860, J. H. Mulkey was Judge and A. H. Irvin Clerk. The office of Register of Deeds was created and the Clerk of the Common Pleas Court was ex officio Register. Judge Mulkey continued to preside, and Mr. Irvin was Clerk until the court was abolished in 1869.
The destructive fire that consumed Spring- field block in 1858, where were the court rooms, destroyed the records, inflicting there- by a great loss and inconvenience to prop- erty owners. Record Books A and B and F and H were consumed, as were also tran- scribed Book I, which contained transcripts of all deeds pertaining to the city. The deeds in these records were recorded when they could be obtained, but many could not be found, and there is, therefore, a missing link in the chain of many of the record ti- tles.
Judge Mulkey .- The bar of Cairo may be dated as really commencing an active and prominent existence in 1859-60. But few local lawyers of any especial prominence lo- cated in the county prior to that time. It will be remembered that in the history of the city of Cairo we had occasion to mention the first lawyer ever to swing out his shingle in the county was one "Gass, attorney at law." The local wits of that time said the name was very appropriate to his profession, and when they read " Ten Thousand a Year " and became acquainted with Lawyer " Gam- mon," they insisted that Gammon and Gass should form a partnership. This reminds the writer of the first time he was in Robin- son, Crawford County, as he drove down street, one of the most attractive signs he saw was "Robb & Steele, Attorneys at Law." These worthy gentlemen and able lawyers
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HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.
are still in Robinson, but some years ago dissolved partnership, and the sign was taken down.
The conspicuous figure that has been evolved from that large bar of Alexander County is Judge John H. Mulkey, at pres- ent a member of the Supreme Court. We regret we cannot give a complete biography of the man, and have to be content to give rather a sketch of his mental and personal character- istics. This necessity comes from the Judge's excessive timidity about appearing in print at all, and hence, when our interviewer seized upon him he found him as mute about himself as the grave. We only know from others that he was born in Kentucky about 1823, and with his father's family came to Illinois and settled in Franklin County. The family were farmers, and the Judge, being always inclined to physical delicacy, soon discovered that he was not specially adapted to farm life. His opportunities for educa- tion had been fair, and from early childhood he was noted as a persistent reader of books- literally devouring the contents of nearly everything that came in his way. When about twenty-five years old, he essayed to become a merchant, and opened a little cross-roads store somewhere near the county line. He volunteered as a private in Company K, Sec- ond Regiment, in the Mexican war, and was promoted to a Sergeant and afterward was elected Second Lieutenant of his company. When he returned from the war, he resumed the ferule in the country schoolhouse, and here, as David Linegar tells us, he " read law in the brush," and was his own preceptor. Afterward, he read law for some time in Benton, Franklin County.
He tried farming for some time, but his success was indifferent. After his return from the Mexican war, he kept a small store in Blairsville, Williamson County, and going
unfortunately into a hoop pole speculation (loaded a flat-boat that sunk on the way), was bankrupted. He then attempted with his ax to clear a farm, and he worked and struggled hard, but with very poor success. He removed to Perry County, and was ad mitted to the bar in 1857. His father is a minister of the Christian Church, and is now a very old man, residing in Ashley, Wash - ington County. This gentleman, during the early years of his son, John H., determined to prepare him for a minister of that church. The son made, no doubt, a faithful effort to fulfill his father's wishes in this respect, but while he was noted for his piety, his perfect accomplishment of purposes here was not much better than his farming or merchan- dising.
When admitted to the bar, he commenced the practice, and traveled over pretty much all the counties of Southern Illinois. He made friends wherever he went, and his love of frolic and innocent fun were strong char- acteristics. His early backwoods life, per- haps, made him seem at times somewhat awkward in his movements in the company of young people, but his old friends in Un- ion County insist that when visiting them he never missed an opportunity to attend a good, old-fashioned country dance. He was plain, unassuming and fun-loving in his young manhood, and yet he must have been a close, hard-working student in order to carve out the bright and honorable career that lay before him.
In 1860, he located in Cairo and formed a partnership with Judge D. J. Baker, Jr., and from this time we may date his rapid rise to the head of the bar in Southern Illi- nois and thence to his present great emi- nence as the master spirit of the Supreme Court of Illinois. His intellectual gifts are of the highest order; his social qualities have
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HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.
called about him troops of sincere and ad- miring friends. In the practice of his pro- fession, he strove not to rely upon the arts of the orator, but rather to know the law, and his wonderful analytic powers of mind crowned him master, either as an attorney before the courts, or as a Judge upon the bench. Of the many lawyers that have adorned by their pure lives and great genius the bench and bar of Illinois, Judge Mulkey will go into history as the conspicuous, pre- eminent figure, leaving here an impress that will never fade.
He owes nothing to fortuitous circum- stances, fortunate surroundings or the ad- vantages of powerful friends at court, to ad- vance him along the highway where youth, inexperience and poverty are so much in need of those adventitious aids. But alone, and by the inherent strength of mental power, he has achieved, apparently without effort, the prize for which so many ambitious men have toiled and struggled so long and so hard, and then failed to reach.
Judge D. J. Baker was born in Kaskas- kia on the 20th of November, 1834, the third son of the late Judge D. J. Baker, of Alton, Ill. He graduated at Shurtleff College in 1854, carrying off the prize of the Latin oration. He read law in his father's office and was admitted to the bar in 1856. He opened an office in Cairo the same year, and commenced the practice of his profession. He voted for Fremont, his first vote, in 1856, and there has been no perceptible change in his politics since, although his real friends and supporters, from the first day especially of his public life, to the present, have been the strongest kind of Democrats.
He was elected Mayor of Cairo in 1864 and served one year. In March, 1869, was elected Judge of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit. A full account of his official career
to date is given in the preceding chapter.
The writer first made Judge Baker's ac- quaintance in the early part of 1863. He was then in partnership with Judge Mulkey, and they were the leading firm in Cairo -Baker, the office lawyer, and Mulkey, the court lawyer, and this was a combination that best adjusted each to his place and thus formed a strong combination. Baker was at that time a very affable young man, dressed better then than he does now, and was noted for having by far the finest law office in the city. His whole nature was genial and pleasant, so much so, indeed, that the most rabid Democrat would always forget he was a Republican when he wanted an office. While the girls were free to confess he was a little odd as a beau, yet he married the belle of the town, Miss Sarah Elizabeth White, daughter of John C. White, July, 1864.
The turning point in Judge Baker's life was when he was elected Judge in 1869. His Democratic friends in Cairo who knew him the best brought this about in the faith that as Judge his success in life would be assured. They were not mistaken. His competitor in that election was Judge Wes- ley Sloan, one of the ablest Judges of his day in the State, who had long been upon the bench and whose chair it was no easy matter to fill successfully. Yet so well did Judge Baker fulfill the expectations of his Cairo friends in this respect that he has held the place for all these years, and por- tions of the time has been elected without opposition.
We can pay no higher compliment to his kindness of heart, purity of purpose, exalted integrity, tenacity of friendship and pro- found abilities as a just and upright Judge than to tell the short story of his life as we have given it above.
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HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.
His father the late D. J. Baker, of Alton, was one of the early eminent jurists of South- orn Illinois. He was among the first visit- ing lawyers to Alexander County, and in an early day was the Prosecuting Attorney of this district. He was for many years one of the most prominent lawyers of the State.
Judge Isham N. Haynie was of the mod- ern bar of Chiro and of the earliest comers. He came to this county from Salem, Marion County. For some time he was Judge of the Common Pleas Court of Cairo, and re- signed that office to enter the army in 1861. Entering sa a Colonel, he was promoted to Brigadier General soon after tho Fort Don- elson battle. He was Adjutant General of the State in 1865, and died in Springfield in 1866. He was known as an able and careful lawyer, and noted for his suavity of man- ners.
Judge W. H. Green was born in Danville Boyle Co., Ky., December 8, 1830, and was the son of Dr. Duff . Green and ; Lucy (Kenton) Green. His father was an eminent and sci- entific physician, and his grandfather, Willis Green, one of the earliest settlers of Kentucky and was the first delegate from the District of Kentucky to the Virginia Legis- lature, and was Register of the Kentucky land office while it was a Territory, and Clerk of the first District Court organized in the Territory. His ancestors were among the early settlers of Virginia, and were extensive land owners in the Shenandoah Valley. They came originally from the province of Leinster, in Ireland, about the year 1830. His mother was a niece of Simon Konton, celebrated in the early days as an Indian fighter, and of Scotch parents.
Judge Green was educated at Center Col: lege, Danville, Ky., and without graduating, beenme a fair classical scholar, and has all his life been an extensive reader of history,
belle lettres, and kept pace with the modern investigations of scientific investigators. His range of thought and study has been exten- sive and profound, and, whether as a lawyer, judge, politician, writer for the press, either political or literary, or in social life, his ac- complishments were varied and his abilities of a commanding order. He was twice in the House of the State General Assembly and one term as Stato Senator; a delegate to four National Democratic , Conventions, namely, Charleston, Chicago, New York and Cincinnati. Has for years been a member of the State Central Committee, and for twelve yoars has been Chairman of the District Con- tral Committee; for the past twenty-two years has been a member of the State Board of Education-the only Democrat in that body.
In 1846, the family removed to Illinois and settled in Mount Vernon, Jefferson Coun- ty, where his father practiced his profession till his death in 1857.
Judge Groen taught school in Benton and in St. Louis County Mo., and in Mount Vernon, Ill., and was during the time read- ing law under the direction of Judge Walter B. Scates, and he was admitted to the bar in 1852, and opened at once an office in Mount Vernon. He continued the practice here for one year, and removed to Metropolis, Ill., where for ten years he was a successful prac- titioner of his profession. In 1863, he re- moved to Cairo, where he has continued to reside. He is the senior attorney in the law firm of Green & Gilbert (the brothers Will- iam and Frederick), and in all the courts of the State this firm does a leading business and commands a wide respect. In 1865, he was elected Judge of the Third Judicial Circuit and served as Circuit Judge for three years. In 1861, he was appointed attorney for the Illinois Central Railroad Company,
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