History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 127

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

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holders. Among other obstacles thrown in the way of the owner's representatives in this case, was the demand that they should prove by any other hearsay testimony that Missouri was a slave State ! Had the decision been different, it is probable Crawford E. Smith would have been no nearer to getting possession of his chattel, as "the underground railroad" was at that time in active operation here.

At the September term of the Cook County Court of Common Pleas to the Bench of which he had been elected upon the death of Giles Spring, Judge Mark Skinner found an overloaded docket. The most im- portant criminal case was " The People vs. Martin O'Brien," for the murder of Stephen Mahan. The trial lasted three days, and no other defense was made than that the prisoner acted in the heat of passion, and to re- dress an injury offered to one of his relatives by the de-

ceased. · He was convicted of manslaughter, and sen- tenced to eight years in the penitentiary with ten days of each year in solitary confinement.

Judge Skinner sat almost continuously for seven months, including the regular term in February, 1852,

The city had been for several months preparing to throw a bridge across the river on Lake Street, at con- siderable expense for those times, when in February, 1852, an injunction was asked of the United States District Court, which Judge Drummond refused. Navi- gation had its interests, and so had the city. The prin- ciple was understood to be that the right to navigate the river and the right to cross it by bridges are co- existent, and neither could be permitted to essentially impair, much less destroy the other. They were to be so harmonized as to afford the least possible obstruction or interruption to each other.

In September another murder case was tried before Judge Skinner, "The People vs. John O'Neil, for the murder of Michael Brady." On Saturday, May 29, 1852, at 12 o'clock at night, Michael Brady, a black- smith, residing on Indiana Street, corner of LaSalle, was killed by his neighbor, John O'Neil, a tinner. For some time there had been a standing quarrel between them. On the day of the murder, Brady called a little girl. of O'Neil an opprobrious epithet. . Swearing to be revenged, O'Neil waited at the door of Brady's house, and when the latter appeared, struck him over the head with a heavy club, fracturing his skull, and he expired in a few minutes. O'Neil fled, but was captured the next night, in a house ten miles out of town in the North Branch woods, by Owen Dougherty, Constable, accom- panied by Daniel T. Wood, Deputy Sheriff. When he saw the officers he attempted to escape, but was seized by Dougherty, brought into town and lodged in jail. On trial, he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in the penitentiary.

In virtue of the law of 1851, establishing a police court, Henry L. Rucker and Frederick A. Howe had been chosen by the Common Council as Police Justices, mainly for the trial of violations of city ordinances and the lower grade of criminal offenses. Besides these there were six other Justices of the Peace, two for each division of the city.

LEWIS C. KERCHEVAL .- One of the most singular characters of the early Bench and Bar of Chicago was the well-known and eccentric Justice of the Peace, L. C. Kercheval, who died, rather unexpectedly, December 8, 1852. Mr. Kercheval was for many years a member of the judicial fourth estate, hanging on the outer circle of the judiciary. Few Judges were more quick to note and resent a contempt or more ready to vindicate the honor of the court. In 1839 he was Inspector of Cus- toms for the port of Chicago, in which office he was succeeded by George W. Dole, in June, 1841. Some time afterwards he was elected and commissioned a Justice of the Peace; and was for many years a con- spicuous representative of his class. " He rises before me to-day," says Eastman, " as distinct as when 1 used to meet him in the streets, straight as a pine, unbending as an oak, defiant and tough as hickory ; with his tall, muscular form, his grizzled hair, blue brass buttoned coat, and his soldier-like bearing, proud as Julius Cæsar, and imperious as the Czar, always neatly dressed, with cleanly shaved face, and-a rara avis in those muddly times-well polished boots."

He was a person of good natural intelligence and ability and took pride in his official station ; but became

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badly demoralized by the high-living habits of the period. He slept in his office, kept no records, but tried to discharge his other duties as a Justice with fidelity and in accord with the dictates of natural honor.

PALLAS PHELPS was another quaint character of the period, and with mock dignity nicknamed by some wag of the Bar as "Chancellor" Phelps. He is said to have been here several years before 1840, and he is known to have been admitted to the Bar in 1843. He liked to try his cases in the newspapers, and dispensed with the luxury of an office. With even the best law- vers, cases were not numerous in those days, and Mr. Phelps was able to carry all the papers relating to his current business in his hat. Justin Butterfield, the acknowledged wit of the Chicago Bar, never missed an opportunity of playing on the eccentricities of Phelps. He made frequent references to his commodious office, "as biy as all out doors," and would vary the joke by inquiring if he had any room to let. On rainy days when Chicago crossings were marvels of muddy con- sistency, the wit of the profession was wont to rally its butt, amid the plaudits of admiring listeners, about the beastly condition of his " office." When the first sprink- ling cart was brought into requisition here, Butterfield on meeting Phelps saluted him with affected courtesy, which his dupe, proud of the attention, cordially recip- rocated. saying. " A fine morning. your honor ! A very fine morning!" "Yes, indeed," replied Butterfield, "and I am glad to find you improving the opportunity, Mr. Phelps, to have your office sprinkled." Whenever Phelps had a case, Mr. Butterfield would inquire, with mock gravity, which of the papers he was to try the case in, or before which of them he should file his brief. Mr. Phelps survived this period many years, and finally disappeared from public notice in the whirl and pre- occupation of the great city.

CHICAGO COURTS 1853 TO 1857 .- Early in Janu- ary, 1853, the Chicago Hydraulic Company applied to the Circuit Court for an injunction against the Board of Water Commissioners to stop the further progress of the new water-works, in the South and West divisions, claiming the exclusive right under their charter to sup- ply those sections. The same company had asked for a second injunction to prevent the city from collecting the water-tax. Judge Dickey rejected both petitions. The first could not be granted because exclusive privi- leges cannot be inferred, and their charter did not ex- pressly confer them. A government, municipal or other, does not debar itself by implication from grant- ing a like power to other corporations. It only debars itself from hindering the first in the exercise of the privileges granted. And although a section of the act establishing the Water Commissioners imposed the obli- gation of buying the property of the Chicago Hydraulic Company it was not to be understood that such purchase was a condition precedent to the beginning of opera- tions. The remedy of the complainants was by manda- mus or other process, not hy injunction. The right of the city to collect the water-tax, for similar reasons could not be denied.

February 7, the first term for 1853 of the Cook County Court of Common Pleas, was held in the new court-house which had been begun eighteen months be- fore, and Judge Skinner congratulating the Bar on the privilege of occupying their new room, where there was no fear of the walls or benches breaking down.

THE RECORDER'S COURT .- By an act, approved February 12, 1853, " an inferior court of civil and crimi- nal jurisdiction, which shall be a court of record," was

established under the above name, having "concurrent jurisdiction within said city with the Circuit Court in all criminal cases, except treason and murder, and of civil cases where the amount in controversy shall not exceed one hundred dollars. * *

* Said Judge and Clerk shall be elected by the qualified voters of said city, and shall hold their offices five years. *

* * All recognizances, taken before any Judge, Justice or Magistrate in said city, in criminal cases, shall be made returnable to said Recorder's Court. *

* * All ap- peals from decisions of Justices of the Peace within said city shall be taken to said Recorder's Court. * * * Appeals may be taken from said court to the Circuit Court of Cook County in all cases. *

* * The regu- lar terms of said court shall be held on the first Mon- day of each month."

The first term of the Recorder's Court began April 4, 1853, with Robert S. Wilson as Judge and Philip A. Hoyne as clerk, both having been duly chosen by the votes of the people, at the regular city election of the previous month, as provided by act of February 12, es- tablishing the court.

March 28, 1853, before Judge Skinner of the Cook County Court of Common Pleas, was argued the request of Jaines H. Collins for an injunction against the Illi- nois Central Railroad. The petitioner argued in his own behalf, aided by I. N. Arnold and J. M. Wilson, while James F. Joy, of Detroit, was instructed with the advo- cacy of the railroad's interest. That corporation had purchased from the General Government the made land south of the Goverment pier. To get to it they had to lay the railroad track through the edge of the lake, back of Mr. Collins's dwelling. He claimed the owner- ship to the middle of the lake and contested the right- of-way. The final result was that the railroad corpo- ration paid off his claim, as well as the similar one of Charles Walker tried the following year. Several years later, by its "influence " with the General Assembly, it attempted to secure, as against the city as well as the General Government, the whole "lake front" and almost as broad an expanse of the lake itself as was claimed by Mr. Collins, originating a quadrilateral con- tention which has not yet been definitely determined.

By the expiration of Judge Skinner's term of office there arose a vacancy in the Cook County Court of Common Pleas, to which John M. Wilson was elected April 4, with Walter Kimball as clerk, and Daniel Mc Ilroy as Prosecuting Attorney. A special term of the court was held by the new Judge, beginning May 16, at which was found a large docket, notwithstanding his predecessor's great efforts to keep abreast of the busi- ness of his court. The truth is, Chicago's civil and criminal law business has always outstripped its great- est court facilities.

THE MAYOR'S COURT .- About the middle of April Mayor Gray began to hold his court regularly in the basement room on the southeast corner of the court- house, which had been fitted up for the purpose, light- ening the work of the Police Justices Rucker and Howe.

About May I, before Judge Drummond of the United States Court was procured the first conviction of a counterfeiter since the establishment of the court here in 1848. Thomas Hoyne, who had been con- firmed as District Attorney, March 22, was assisted by Grant Goodrich in prosecuting this case to a successful issue. The offender was James Campbell, and his crime, the counterfeiting of United States gold coin. Judge Dickey of the Seventh Judicial Circuit, whose limits had meanwhile been restricted to the counties of Cook and Lake, resigned his office because of the press-

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ure of private and judicial business, to take effect April 4, 1853. Buckner S. Morris was chosen to fill the va- cancy for the remainder of the term until 1855.

Before the United States Court in October was tried the celebrated accretion case known as William S. John- ston as. William Jones et al. It was the fourth trial of the case, which had been decided, once for plaintiff, once for defendants, and once the jury had disagreed. It involved the title to about five acres of land, lying immediately north of the Government pier, in Kinzie's addition. It is all land thrown up by the action of the waters of Lake Michigan, created mainly by the exten- sion of the pier into the lake. The right of the plaintiff to recover depends upon the claim that a portion of his lot, Number 34, in Kinzie's addition, when originally laid out touched the water on the old line of the lake shore. The defendants had been in possession of the property in dispute for some time, and William Jones purchased Lot 35 September 10, 1834, while the John- ston lot was purchased October 22, 1835. Both deeds were from Robert A. Kinzie. The case occupied the attention of the court for two or three weeks, and after four days' arguments from the learned counsel on both sides, the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff. The case came up again seven years later.

EDWARD S. SHUMWAY, a member of the Chicago Bar, died at Essex, New York, September 24, 1853, aged thirty-five years. He was a brother of Horatio G., who had been in practice here some years, and whom he fol- lowed to Chicago. In 1852 they became partners, and Edward S. was admitted to the Bar in Illinois, June 24, 1853. His health failing, he sought rest and restora- tion in the home of his youth, with the above result.

A contention had arisen between the canal trustees and the city of Chicago as to which corporation should excavate the basin at the confluence of the North and South branches of the Chicago River. After having been in dispute some time the Supreme Court decided in January, 1854, through Judge Treat, that the canal trustees were not under any obligation to perform the ·work.

ALLEGED INELIGIBILITY OF A JUDGE .- The neces- sary papers to commence proceedings before the Cook County Court of Common Pleas against Robert S. Wil- son, Judge of the Recorder's Court, were served on him January 7, 1854. A month later, February 9, the application for leave to file a quo warranto against Judge Wilson was argued before Judge John M. Wil- son in chambers. William T. Burgess, relator, and John F. Farnsworth argued for the application, with Thomas Hoyne and Robert S. Blackwell against it. Robert S. Wilson for many years a resident of Ann Ar- bor, Mich., had come to Chicago in 1850, and was of the law firm of Wilson & Frink for two or three years, when, as has been seen, he was elected Judge of the newly created Recorder's Court in March, 1853. He had meanwhile administered justice with an energetic and impartial hand, and the prison and jail of Chicago had many inmates duly sentenced by him. But the question arose as to his eligibility to the office, not hav- ing been a resident here for five years before his elec- tion. The main points in the defense were that he was not a Judge under the constitution, and that were it otherwise the relator was not legally entitled to make application for the remedy.

In the case of the People, on relation of William T. Burgess as. Robert S. Wilson, Judge of the Recorder's Court, for unlawfully intruding into and usurping the office of Recorder, Judge John M. Wilson decided against the motion for a quo warranto. The relator

proposed a stipulation to take the case to the Supreme Court, to which the Recorder signified his assent, pro- vided that he could have assurance that a responsible person would appear to prosecute the case, and give security for costs. Two days later Mr. Burgess an- nounced that the case would go up by appeal, under good and responsible bail to prosecute it with all due diligence. In November the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the lower court, and Judge Wilson con- tinued to discharge the duties of his office with almost universal acceptance. He was generally regarded as specially adapted by his energy and boldness for the judgeship of the Recorder's Court, in which he was a terror to evil doers.

It was provided by the Legislature, February 28, 1854, that Chicago should " pay all fines, expenses and charges for dieting, committing," etc., of all persons convicted by the Recorder's Court. And on February 15, 1855, an act was approved, by which it was ordered that its "rules of practice should conform as near as may be to the rules of practice in the Circuit Court. * * That in all cases where any suit, either at law or in chancery, shall be commenced in the Recorder's Court of the city of Chicago, and the amount in con- troversy shall exceed one hundred dollars," such suit might be "transferred to either the Circuit Court of Cook County or to the Cook County Court of Common Pleas," and "all further proceedings in said Recorder's Court shall thereupon cease."

April IS, 1854, Judge Drummond opened a term of the United State courts at his chambers in the Saloon Building; and at the same place a second term was opened by the same, October 3. Neither was a pro- tracted session, and no case of historic interest marred the uniformity of court routine.

Before the Circuit Court, in May, Judge Morris pre- siding, in the case of Charles Walker rs. the Illinois Central Railroad, a jury was empaneled on the 9th. The suit was similar to that of James H. Collins in the previous year against the same corporation. The rail- road track was laid across Walker's water-lot on the shore, to reach the river. Eight days were occupied in taking testimony, and two in the closing arguments of counsel, when on the 20th, the jury returned a verdict of $20,712 in favor of plaintiff for damages sustained by loss of land taken by the company for their track. A second claim for damages because of nearness of their depot, was denied, the jury being of opinion that the value of Walker's property was as likely to be en- hanced as depreciated by that circumstance. The award by the commissioner, from which both parties had appealed, was $47.800.

Three alleged fugitive slaves, thrown into jail in Chicago on a charge of assault, were taken to Spring- field, on a writ of habeas corpus issued by Judge Treat of the Supreme Court, and discharged by him Septem- ber 22, 1854. Their names were George and John Buchanan, and William M. Graub, Some ten weeks later Colonel Henry Wilton, United States Marshal, ar- rived in Chicago from Springfield, armed with four writs for the arrest of as many runaway slaves. He ordered out the Light Guards in anticipation of resist- ance and directed that Company A of the National Guard should be in readiness. The officer in command of the Light Guards took legal advice from ex-Judge Dickey, who assured him that Henry Wilton had no legal authority to issue such an order, whereupon the military withdrew and the Marshal returned to Spring- field without the fugitives.

In the Court of Common P'leas an important land

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case known as the ejectment suit of D. A. B. Newkirk vs. Rosella Chapron, and involving eighty acres of land in the region west of Ashland and south of North avenues, together with two hundred and forty acres outside the limits, of the estimated value of half a mil- lion dollars, was decided for the plaintiff by Judge John M. Wilson, October 6, 1854; and a copy of the opinion requested by the Bar for publication. But ten months later the Supreme Court, in session at Ottawa, reversed that decision.

The Bar lost three of its members by cholera in 1854. Two of these, J. H. Collins and S. L. Smith, have already been sketched. The third was Alexander S. Prentiss.

ALEXANDER S. PRENTISS was born in Cooperstown, N. Y., in March, 1829. He was a son of Colonel John H. Prentiss, who died in 1861. He graduated at Hamilton College before he was twenty-one, studied law under Judge Deino, of Utica, and was admitted to the Bar in New York. In 1851 he came to Chicago, entered the law office of Collins & Williams to famil- iarize himself with the peculiarities of Illinois law, and was admitted to the Bar in this State, May 3, 1851. Some six months later he formed a partnership with Henry G. Miller, which was dissolved in February, 1853, after which he practised alone until his death, October 13, 1854. The occasion of his early death was due to the marked benevolence and self sacrifice in the presence of public calamity. "When," says Mr. Ar- nold, "Collins was struck down at the Bar of the Su- preme Court, and so many were seeking safety in flight, he remained because he thought he could be of assist- ance to Mrs. Collins ; and again, when Smith was taken, young Prentiss was found ministering to the suffering and afflicted."

The rulings of Judge Morris in the case of George W. Green, for the alleged murder of his wife, covered some new points in the jurisprudence of Illinois, as it was the first case tried here, in which the testimony of experts as to the presence of poison, ascertained by chemical tests after death, was admitted in evidence.

The February term of the United States courts in Chicago, in 1855, was postponed from the 12th to the 19th, awaiting the act of Congress of the 13th, which divided Illinois into two districts. The criminal docket at that first term of what was thenceforth known as the Northern District of Illinois, embraced twenty-five en- tries, of which two were burglaries, one counterfeiting, one forgery, and the remainder, various minor offenses.

WILLIAM H. BRADLEY, of Galena. arrived in Chicago March 21, 1855, to fill the position of clerk of the United States courts by appointment of Judge Drummond, and has served in that capacity with general acceptance to the present time.

The April term of the Recorder's Court began April 2, with one hundred and fifteen civil and sixty-three criminal cases on the docket. Since its establishment two years before, seven hundred and fifty three indict- ments had been disposed of, and one hundred and forty criminals sentenced. Of all the decisions from which appeals had been taken only one was reversed. For some months there had been more cases, civil and criminal, tried in the Recorder's Court of Chicago than in any court in the United States, except a few of the police courts of the larger cities. " We did," says Philip A. Hoyne, the then clerk, "a land-office business from 1854 to 1857.'

BEER RIOTERS' TRIAL. - Before the Recorder's Court, June 15, 1855, the indictment found against four- teen of the participants in the "Beer Riot " of April 21,

was taken up, and the motion for separate trials over- ruled. There was some difficulty in getting a jury, and it was not completed until the ISth. Soon after the municipal election in March an issue was joined with the foreigners on the liquor question. March, Mayor Boone issued a proclamation notifying saloon-keepers that the ordinance requiring their places to be kept closed on the Sabbath would be strictly enforced. That was on Saturday ; and on Sunday, the ISth, owing to the insufficiency of the notice, there were naturally many violations, and many arrests, but the next Sunday the saloons were very generally closed. At the trial of several of these saloon cases on Monday, March 26, before Justice H. L. Rucker, of the Police Court, the defendants raised the question of jurisdiction. They claimed that as these were criminal offenses, they could be prosecuted only by indictment ; and that criminal cases cognizable by Police Court justices meant such cases only as that entire body of the judiciary, known to the Constitution as Justices of the Peace, might try and determine. A few days later, Justice Rucker de- cided that the Justices had a right to try salnon cases. Meanwhile, at a meeting of the Common Council, March 27, the license to sell liquor was fixed at $300 from that date to July 1, 1856, when the prohibitory liquor law was to go into effect if sanctioned by the votes of the people at the preceding June election. Some dealers paid the fee and others gave up the business, but most preferred to test the question in the courts and before the people. Frequent meetings were held in North Market Hall by saloon-keepers and brewers, mostly Germans, urged on and encouraged by wholesale liquor dealers and the allied interests generally. They issued for gratuitous distribution a campaign paper known as the Anti-Prohibitionist. Meanwhile Rucker's decisions continued to be given in favor of the city with aggravat- ing uniformity. Early in the contest it was announced in behalf of the defendants that whenever an adverse decision should be rendered, the case would be taken by successive appeals to the Supreme Court. A large number of these cases were to be tried on Friday, April 20, before Justice Rucker. During the week active preparations were made by the malcontents for a demonstration in force, either in the hope of overawing the court, or with a view perhaps to serve a sort of mob-law notice on the municipal administration just elected on the Know-Nothing ticket, that they should not expect to force their puritanical notions down the foreign throats, where beer and liquor had been wont to flow unburdened by so heavy a tax. On that day, about one hundred men, headed by a drum- mer, marched through some of the streets and took up a position on Randolph Street, opposite court-house square, where they remained until it was learned that the cases would not then be heard, as Mr. Rucker was out of town. On Saturday, April 21, the demonstration was repeated, when the crowd came into collision with the police, who had been ordered to disperse them. As the mob rounded the corner of Clark and Randolph streets about eleven o'clock, they were met by the offi- cers of the law when about a dozen shots were fired by the more hasty spirits in the crowd. Peter Martin an alleged rioter, was killed ; J. H. Recse and J. H. Ked- zie, two unoffending citizens, were wounded; George W. Hunt, a policeman, was so severely injured in the arm that amputation became necessary, and Nathan Weston, another officer, was also dangerously wounded. Some seventy or eighty " rioters " were arrested and jailed, but only fourteen were hekl. indicted and brought to trial. The Light Guard, Flying Artillery, and a num-

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 127

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