History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 119

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340

USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time > Part 119

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The Constitution of 1818 only ordained that the Circuit Courts should have and exercise such jurisdic- tion as the General Assembly should by law provide : and by that body they had been endowed with juris- diction in criminal and civil cases, and in the latter, both at common law and in chancery.

EARLY TERMS, IS31-34 .- There is no little uncer- tainty about the first terms of the Circuit Court in Chi- cago. As stated, the county of Cook was organized in the spring of 1831, and by the foregoing statute it was entitled to a September term. If reliance can be placed on a historical pamphlet on Chicago by Governor Bross. issued in 1858, such a term was held or provided for " at Fort Dearborn. in the brick house, and in the lower room of said house." At the funeral of Colonel Hamil- ton in 1860, Judge Manierre also stated that the first term was held in September, 1831. And again in 1832. in the same work of Mr. Bross, the Court of County Commissioners is on record as ordering that the Sheriff shall secure one or more rooms for the Circuit Court at the house of James Kinzie, " provided it can be done at a cost of not more than ten dollars." In confirmation of the view that such court was held, the same work states that Judge Young, accompanied from Galena by Lawyers Mills and Strode, brought tidings to Chicago of the disturbed state of the Indians, which culminated later in the Black Hawk War.

"In May, 1833," says Charles Ballance in his history of Peoria, " Judge Young made his appearance in the village of Peoria, and announced that he was on his way to Chicago to hold court. *

* On this occasion I attended court at Chicago, partly to seek practice as a lawyer, and partly to see the country."

" The first term of the Circuit Court held in Conk County," says Hon. Thomas Hoyne. " was in Septem- ber. 1833, by Hon. Richard M. Young. In 1834. he also held the term in May."* This last. in the opinion of Hon. J. D. Caton, was the first term held here, or at least the first at which any law business was done. Ex- cept an appeal from some Justice Court, which was No. I on the docket of the Circuit Court of Cook County, a case tried by him, was the first ever tried in Chicago in any court of record ; and this he is confident was at the May term in 1834. If this view is correct, although Judge Young may have come to Chicago on any or all of the years from i8;1 to 1833. no regular court was held until the spring term of 1834, which in view of all the facts may be accepted as the verdict of history

THE FIRST LAW OFFICE .- The first lawyer in Chi- cago to make a living by his profession alone was Gile- Spring : and separated from him by a few days was * ** The Lawyer as a Pioneer."

421

THE BENCH AND BAR.

John Dean Caton, who arrived June 19, 1833. There was but little law business in Chicago then, but not- withstanding untoward appearances, both rose to emi- nence and acquired wealth. Early in July, while they

kept office as was facetiously said, "On the head of a barrel at the corner of Lake and Wells," Caton ob- tained his first case, which also proved to be Spring's, on the other side. It is here subjoined as "the first larceny case in Chicago ; " that is, the reader need scarcely be told, the first to receive legal cognizance, for not a little stealing had been done from "Lo" and others, before that time.

In December, 1833, Mr. Caton rented of Dr. Tem- ple the back room and attic of his " building " on Lake Street, converting the attic into a bedroom, and extend- ing to Spring the courtesy of desk-room in the room below, which thus became the first law-office in Chi- cago.

THE FIRST LARCENY CASE .- The first larceny case heard before a Justice of the Peace occurred in July, 1833. Mr. Hatch had been robbed of thirty-four dol- lars in Eastern currency, at the tavern, and hired Lawyer Caton to recover it. Suspicion rested on a fellow-boarder who was arrested by Constable Reed and taken before Squire Heacock for examination, fol- lowed by a large part of the population. The search had proved fruitless, and the prisoner was about to be released amid many jeers at the legal fledgling who had prosecuted the investigation. Just then Caton detected a suspicious lump, which distended the cul- prit's stocking, and making a hurried grab, brought forth the tell-tale roll of stolen bills. The constable took charge of the prisoner, who was duly arraigned the ensuing morning, with Spring and Hamilton as his lawyers, who obtained a change of venue to Squire Harmon, on the North Side. Afterward to satisfy the public interest in this first case, Harmon adjourned to the tavern on the West Side, where the public could hear the young lawyers to the best advantage. " The court-rooms in those days," says Arnold, "were always crowded. To go to court and listen to the witnesses and lawyers was among the chief amusements of the frontier settlements."

Fifty years later Judge Caton confessed that he had never been more interested in a case. The criminal was convicted, but escaped punishment by the device of straw-bail, which seems to have been introduced into Chicago at the same time as its earliest jurisprudence. Caton obtained his fee of ten dollars out of the recov- ered money, but Spring and Hamilton were cheated out of theirs by the runaway thief.

ADVENTURES OF A LAWYER IN SEARCH OF PRAC- TICE. - In the golden leisure of mature age Judge Caton has often found pleasure in relating the following stories :

"Clients were few, fees small and money running low, with board bills fast maturing. It was in that first July, and the proceeds of the first larceny case were gone or going fast, when we both hired out to carry the chain for a surveyor, who had just got a job on the North Side. Returning at noon, we learned from R. J. Hamilton that a party had been inquiring for a lawyer,

and, to avoid all partiality, it was agreed that he should

-follow us to our work in the afternoon. As he ap- proached, blindly groping through the thick and high alders, which concealed us as we sat, while the choppers were clearing a lane for our operations, I saw that he was making straight for where Spring stood, when I dropped on each other the surveying pins I held in my hand, and, repeating the performance, succeeded in attracting his attention and directing his steps to where I sat. He secured my services, paying me in advance. Spring felt that he had been tricked and was a little sore, but actually got the best side of the case, being hired by John Bates, whom he enabled by interpleading to retain the property unattached, against which my client had hoped to obtain judgment. Spring got the larger fee and won the more substantial victory, though I had no difficulty in securing for my client a worthless judgment against an insolvent debtor, who was proved to have lost the ownership of the contested property.

"In August, 1833, there resided in Chicago six or seven free colored men, all of whom had come from free States. The law-givers of Illinois, however, had not contemplated such a contingency, the earlier popu- lation having come mostly from slave States. The laws had provided that if a negro was found in the State without free papers, he should be prosecuted and fined, and, if necessary, sold to pay the fine. Some enemy of the black man, or pro-slavery admirer of the black code, or believer in the blessings of the peculiar institution for the heaven-marked subject race, or possibly some . aspirant for political preferment at the hands, of the dominant party, which was largely under the control of the slave-holding aristocracy of the South, felt it to be his duty or his interest to prosecute these early repre- sentatives here of the proscribed race. J. D. Caton undertook their defense, and pleaded their case before the Court of County Commissioners. This was putting a very literal interpretation of judicial powers on the rather euphemistic term court as applied to the board of County Commissioners. But court was then the legal designation of that body, and the young lawyer overcame their natural modesty, or their unwillingness to assume a function hitherto unheard of. They ended by acced- ing to the learned jurist's exposition of the law, and as the highest accessible representatives of the judiciary of the sovereign State of Illinois, they granted to his grateful clients the required certificates of freedom, which were never questioned and passed for excellent free papers. Mr. Caton's fee was a dollar from each of the beneficiaries."

FIRST CHICAGO DIVORCE .- That term in May, 1834, " when," says Judge Caton, "we all first met together in the unfinished loft of the old Mansion House, just north of where the Tremont now stands," is memorable for witnessing the initial steps in the first of a long and unfinished line of divorce suits in Chicago. The par- ties to the suit were Angeline Vaughan, petitioner, and Daniel W. Vaughan, respondent. The petition was dated April 12, and made returnable May 14, 1834, but the outcome has not been learned. They had been married July 9, 1831, the maiden name of the bride being Hebert.

FIRST MURDER TRIAL .- In the fall of 1834. in an unfinished store, about twenty feet by forty, on Dear- born Street, between Lake and Water, another term of the Circuit Court was held by Judge Young. It was his last term here as Circuit Judge, and the last in Chi- cago, while Cook County remained within the Fifth Judicial Circuit. It is memorable for trying the first murder case in Chicago, and yet more for the resulting

422

HISTORY OF CHICAGO.

acquittal. An Irishman was arraigned for killing his wife; and his lawyer, James H. Collins, succeeded in . getting Judge Young to instruct the jury that if they could not find him guilty of murder, as indicted, it was their duty to acquit, which they did. They were in- clined to bring a verdict of manslaughter, as there were circumstances which put the crime out of the grade of murder, but were misled by the instructions of the court and the wiles of the lawyer.

THE CIRCUIT-RIDERS OF THE LAW .- From 1831 to 1834, and indeed for several years afterward, a consid- erable part of the pleading and other law business of Cook County was done by the circuit-riders of the pro- fession, of whom a few habitually accompanied the Judge from one county-seat to another, over the then sparsely-settled section of northern Illinois. They were residents of Galena, Peoria, Quincy, or other dis- tant points. The riding was on horseback, or by stage, buggy or wagon, over unimproved roads, running at intervals through miry swamps that were rendered pass- able only by the " corduroy " logs and saplings, loosely laid in the uncertain, yielding roadway, and across swollen streams unprovided with bridges.

" The practice of riding the circuit in those early days," says Judge Goodrich, " while it may be regarded as the knight-errantry of the profession, was an admi- rable training school to make ready and skillful prac-

titioners. The want of books compelled reliance upon reason and leading principles. I doubt if a class of lawyers can be found anywhere, as ready and skillful special pleaders as the early practitioners upon the country circuits."

What could not conveniently be determined by an- thority had to be decided by the processes of individual reason. The elementary books and the comprehensive principles of general law formed a solid foundation; and the superstructure was largely their own reflections and deductions, all the more available and serviceable as the tools of their craft, because fashioned by each one for himself. The result was a body of lawyers, with powers of discrimination well developed, always ready to give an account of the knowledge that was in them, not in their books.

A few years later the traveling members of the Chi- cago Bar had similar experiences in their semi-annual journeyings to the United States courts at Springfield, or to such county courts in the interior as business called them to attend.

" I have known the trip to Springfield," says Mr. Arnold, "to take five days and nights, dragging dreari-

Isaac N. Arnold

ly through the mud and sleet; and there was an amount of discomfort, vexation and annoyance about it, sufficient to exhaust the patience of the most amia- ble. But the June journey was as agreeable as the December trip was repulsive. A four-in-hand, with

splendid horses, the best of Troy coaches, good com- pany, the exhilaration of great speed over an elastic road, much of it a turf of grass, often crushing under our wheels the most beautiful wild flowers; every grove fragrant with blossoms, framed in the richest green: our roads not fenced in by narrow lanes, but with freedom to choose our route; here and there a picturesque log cabin, covered with vines; boys and girls on their way to the log schools, and the lusty farmer digging his fortune out of the rich earth. Everything fresh and new, full of young life and enthusiasm, these June trips to Springfield woukl, I think, compare favorably even with those we make to-day in a luxurious Pullman car .* But there were exceptions to these enjoyments. Some- times torrents of rain would, in a few hours, so swell the stream that the log bridges and banks would be entirely submerged, and a stream, which a few hours before was nearly dry, became a foaming torrent. Ford- ing at such times was never agreeable, and was some- times a little dangerous."

" The judge," says Mr. Arnold,* " usually sat upon a raised platform, with a pine or white wood board on which to write his notes. A small table on one side for the clerk, and around which were grouped the law- yers, too often, I must admit, with their feet on top of . it. * *

* There was, in those days, great freedom in social intercourse; manners were at times rude, but genial, kind, and friendly. Each was ready to assist his fellow; and as none were rich, there was little envy or jealousy. The relations between the Bench and Bar were free and easy; and flashes of wit and humor and per- sonal repartee were constantly passing from one to an- other. The court-rooms in those days were always crowded. At court were rehearsed and enacted the drama, the tragedy, and comedy of real life. The court-room answered for the theater, concert-hall, and opera of the older settlements. The judges and law- yers were the stars; and wit and humor, pathos and eloquence always had appreciative andiences. The leading advocates had their partisans, personal and political, and the merits of each were canvassed in every cabin, school-house, and at every horse race, bee, and raising."

THE EARLY BAR .- At the close of 1834, while Chi- cago was still in the Fifth Circuit, the resident lawyers, though not yet formally associated as a Bar, had begun to assume respectable proportions. While the population was estimated all the way from four hundred to twelve hundred, the lawyers already numbered eleven-Hea- cock, Hamilton, Spring. Caton, Casey, Fullerton, Collins, James Grant, Grant Goodrich, Moore, and Morris. It is remarkable that so many of these should have risen to distinction, five having reached the Bench, and all having attained a respectable standing in the profes- sion, and as public-spirited citizens in civil life, noted for intelligence, integrity, and varied substantial service to the young and struggling community. To none of them has there attached any taint of professional mis- conduct or neglect of duty, no venality as judge, or betrayal of client's interest as lawyer. The first two have already been noticed among the early settlers: and this is a fitting place to introduce such of the others as have passed away from earth, or removed from Chicago. Two members of the Bar of 1834, Judges Caton and Goodrich, still survive as honored citizens, and their lives will be sketched in a later volume. The only representative of the Bench of Chicago at this period was Judge Young.

* " Reminiscences of the Hiinois Bar, Forty Vrars Ago."

+ " Recollection- of the Early Illinois and Chicago Bar," by Hon. I. N. Arnold.

423

THE BENCH AND BAR.

RICHARD M. YOUNG, the first Circuit Judge who held court in Chicago, was born in Kentucky toward the close of the last century. He emigrated early into southern Illinois, residing at Jonesboro, Union County, before as well as after the organization of that county in 1818. He was admitted to the Bar September 28, 1817 ; and he represented Union County in the Second General Assembly, 1820-22. By an act approved De- cember 29, 1824, the State was divided into five judicial circuits, and he was commissioned Judge of the Third, January 19, 1825. This act was repealed January 12, 1827, and all judicial functions again devolved on the Chief Justice and the three Associate Justices of the

R. M. Young

Supreme Court, which abrogated Judge Young's office. Accordingly we find that "An act for the relief of Richard M. Young "-the payment probably of salary balance-was introduced in the Legislature Jan- uary 11, 1827, and approved the 22d, by which $58.40 were appropriated for that purpose. And it was en- acted February 17, 1827, that he be paid " four State paper dollars a day " for sixteen days' service as clerk to an important committee of the House. In 1828 he was presidential elector on the Democratic ticket. By the judiciary act of January 8, 1829, a Fifth Circuit was created to include all that portion of the State lying north of the Illinois River ; and Mr. Young was chosen its judge on the 12th, and commissioned on the 23d. About that time he removed to Quincy, within his judi- cial district. His duties were arduous, not so much for the volume of business to be done in any particular county, as for the number of counties he had to serve, the dis- tance apart of the several county seats, and the absence of modern conveniences for traveling. He was in active correspondence with Governor Reynolds in April, 1832, in reference to the disturbed condition of north- ern Illinois, and urged the necessity of speedy and effective protection of the northern frontier against the Indians in the Black Hawk War. In the impeachment trial of Judge Theophilus W. Smith before the State Senate in the session of 1832-33, Judge Young was as- sociated with the future Judges Breese and Ford, for the defense. He held the earliest terms of the Circuit Court in Chicago. By an act approved January 7, 1835, a Sixth Circuit was established which included Cook County, and Judge Young had no further occa- sion to ride his blooded Kentucky horse to distant Chi- cago, though there still remained ample exercise for his equestrian skill within the Fifth Circuit. At the ses- sion of the General Assembly in 1836-37, Judge Young was put in nomination for United States Senator, and elected over five competitors, December 14, 1836, for the full term, 1837-43. He resigned the judicial office January 2, and took his seat as Senator Septem- ber 4, 1837. During his senatorial term he seldom made speeches, but was always ready to enforce a point or defend a principle in the interest of his constituents, such as the establishment of new post routes, the advo- cacy of pre-emption laws and the support of internal improvement measures. He was quite active and watch- ful on all questions likely to affect the State of Illinois; and his counsels were not without influence at home in directing the policy of the State toward the payment

of its debt. February 1, 1841, in his place in the Sen- ate, he said : "The march of Illinois is forward ; and if her legislative guardians at home shall promptly dis- charge their duty in the preservation of her credit at home and abroad, who cannot foretell that her destiny is no less than that of an empire State ?" And, on the question of internal improvements he thus defined his position on the 26th of the same month: "I am willing to promote the interests of the West and South, the East and North, but I wish them to go hand in hand. Let them all go together !" With ex-Gov- ernor Reynolds, he had been appointed State agent by Governor Carlan in 1839 to negotiate the sale of State bonds, with a view to push forward the internal im- provements so ardently desired by the people of Illinois. He made a journey to Europe for that purpose, but he failed in his financial mission and returned to the dis- charge of his duties as Senator. Failing of re-election to the Senate, he was chosen an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, January 14, 1843, and commissioned February 4th. He held the office until January 25, 1847, when he resigned. During this period he fre- quently held court in Chicago, and was favorably re- garded by the Bar as well as by the Press and people. In 1847, he was appointed commissioner of the general land office, succeeding General Shields, and being suc- ceeded by Justin Butterfield, June 21, 1849. In 1850-51, · he was clerk of the House of Representatives at Wash- ington. " For a number of years before his death," says Ballance,* he was a claim agent in Washington City. But for some time before his death he was con- * * fined in an asylum for maniacs. * * If the story is true, he passed away many a day and night in a dungeon, under the torturing hands of fiends in human shape, in the great capital of the Nation ; and yet for a long time so secretly, that a brother living in that city had no suspicion of it." Physically Judge Young was a tall, fine-looking man, large of stature and of dignified and attractive bearing. His intel- lectual ability was equal to filling any office respecta- bly, although not with eclat, and coupled with his in- dustrious and methodical habits made his legal and po- litical attainments above the average of his day and his opportunities. His manners were gentle, courteous and entertaining; his feelings generous and sympathetic; his disposition amiable and unaggressive; and altogether he was eminently fitted to win and retain popular favor. His more able associates were often distanced when they became his competitors; although he never reached the highest position as a lawyer, judge or senator, he always commanded the respect and confidence of his constituents and the public. Of excellent personal habits and refined tastes, whatever he may have lacked in brilliancy was amply compensated for by his steady attention to duty, and his earnest purpose to promote the prosperity of the State. He had two daughters, of whom the elder, Matilda, was married at Washington, to R. A. Matthews, of Georgia, July 29, 1852.

GILES SPRING was born about rSo7, in Massachu- setts. whence he emigrated when a young man to the " Western Reserve" in Ohio. Having studied law at Ashtabula under the firm of Giddings & Wade -- the historic Benjamin F. Wade and Joshua P. Giddings-he removed to Chicago in June, 1833. Here he practiced his profession until raised to the Bench, sixteen years later. Judge Caton thus refers to those early days : "Clients were scarce, but as there were but two of us to do the business the only rivalry between us was as to who could most zealously serve his client, with the

· History of Peoria, p. 64-

424

HISTORY OF CHICAGO.

greatest courtesy and kindness to each other." The Justices of the Supreme Court did circuit duty in those days, and exclusively in the portion of the State south and east of the Illinois River. When, therefore, a young lawyer desired a license, it became necessary to make a pilgrimage to one or two southern county-seats and be examined by two Justices, and thus get authority to practice. It was not until January 24, 1835,* that Mr. Spring was entered on the records of the Supreme Court as licensed, though he advertised- location as a lawyer in the fourth number of the Chicago Democrat, December 17, 1833. He had, however, been admitted to the Bar in Ohio, and only required to have his papers sent forward for record. He early obtained a good share of the Circuit Court as well as Justice Court prac- tice; and was generally on one side or the other of all the more important early cases. In February, 1836, he formed a partnership with Grant Goodrich, which con- tinued until his election to the Bench. By a rather singular coincidence the partners wedded life-partners on the same day, Sunday, July 24, 1836, at Westfield, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., Miss Levantia Budlong be- coming Mrs. Spring. In the winter of 1836-37, Mr. Spring was in Vandalia, prosecuting the case of Har- rington us Hubbard before the Supreme Court. This was the first important land case in this county, involv- ing the title to the south forty-seven acres in what was called the Harrington tract in Section 32. It was specially important to Mr. Spring, because being paid with about a dozen acres of that land, it laid the foun- dation of his modest fortune. Mr. Spring was a prom- inent Whig, and for years at every convention received the nomination to the best of offices, and being person- ally popular always ran ahead of his ticket. In the spring of 1843 he was the Whig candidate for represent- ative in Congress of the Chicago district, against the Democratic nominee, John Wentworth, whom he beat in the city by fifty-one votes, only to be overwhelmed in the district by a majority of one thousand six hundred and twenty-one for his opponent. Had his party not been in a condition of chronic minority, he would doubtless have attained to high political preferment; but it would probably have added nothing to his fame; for he was essentially a better lawyer than politician. In 1848 he was chosen City Attorney, and was a delegate to the Free-Soil convention of that year in Buffalo. In 1849 he was elected Judge of Cook County Court of common pleas, and held the office until his premature death, May 15, 1851. Several of his contemporaries have borne witness to his merits as a lawyer, Judge and citizen, all agreeing, with varied phraseology, in the fol- lowing tribute by his former partner, Judge Goodrich, delivered thirty-two years afterward before the Chicago Historical Society :

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 119

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas Number of Pages: 1340

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340