History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 63

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875

USA > Illinois > Cook County > History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time > Part 63

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early as 1839 generally recognized as a lumber merchant. "Though a wellbred lawyer," says Judge Goodrich, " he was never actively engaged in practice, but devoted himself to the accumulation of wealth, and died pos-

A Fullerton

sessed of a large fortune," September 29, 1880, aged seventy-six. He belonged therefore to the commercial rather than to the professional class of early settlers.

JAMES H. COLLINS first became known to the citi- zens of early Chicago in February, 1834, when he formed a partnership with J. D. Caton, who had studied law under him, at Vernon, N. Y., two years before. He pulled up stakes in the fall of 1833, having been de- feated on the Anti-Masonic ticket in his native State, set out for the West, and passing through Chicago in September, settled on "a claim " at Holderman's Grove. in what is now the southwestern corner of Kendall County, where a settlement had been begun some three years earlier. But the sufferings of the first winter con- vinced him that he was not cut out for afarmer. Indeed

James H. Collins

he was found at Levi Hill's tavern by Caton, January 3, 1834, with his feet badly frozen ; and it was then ar- ranged that on his recovery he would join Caton in Chicago. A year later, among the expenses of the town of Chicago, is an item of five dollars paid him for legal advice. The firm of Collins & Caton was dis- solved in 1835. Afterward Mr. Collins formed a partnership with Justin Butterfield, the first record of which is found under date of July 16, 1836, and which lasted until about 1845. In those carly years of the Chicago Bar, the firm of Butterfield & Collins was the most conspicuous, being usually found engaged in every important lawsuit, on one side or the other. They were of the counsel for the General Government in the cele- brated Beaubien land claim, and Collins bought several of the lots which many of the citizens had intended the okdl Colonel should bid in without opposition. Mr. Col- lins feeling satisfied that such an arrangement would accrue to the benefit of others rather than of Beaubien, bid on the lots, drawing upon himself much adverse criti- cism from Press and people. He was very obstinate in his opinions and was once committed for contempt by Judge Ford for refusing to submit to the court a docu- nient entrusted to him by a client, John Shrigley, High Constable, which he claimed was privileged. He was associated with Owen Lovejoy in the defense of the latter in 1842, in his celebrated trial for harboring a runaway slave, and did much toward securing his ac- quittal. After dissolving partnership with Butterfield he practiced his profession alone for seven or eight years, but in 1853 he formed a new partnership with E. S. Williams, who had studied law with Butterfield and himself several years before. He was "an early and most violent and extreme abolitionist, and in 1850 was the candidate of that party for Congress, receiving one thousand six hundred and seventy-three votes." He died in 1854 of cholera, " He was a good lawyer," says Arnold, "a man of perseverance, pluck and reso- lution, and as combative as an English bull-dog.

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He was indefatigable, dogmatic, never giving up, and if the court decided one point against him, he was ready with another, and if that was overruled, still others." " He seems to me," says Goodrich, " never to have had one particle of genius, but was the hardest worker I ever saw. He bestowed upon the preparation of his cases the most thorough research and critical exam- ination. Though often brought in professional conflict with him I always regarded him as my friend ; and have the melancholy satisfaction of having attended him almost alone during the whole night of his fearful strug- gle with the cholera, until death relieved him of his sufferings." He had at least two daughters-Cornelia M., who was married to J. V. Smith, and who died at her father's house May 31, 1851, at the age of twenty ; and Kate F., who was married May 15, 1855, to John M. Sharp.

HENRY MOORE, a native of Concord, Mass., arrived in Chicago some time in 1834, being admitted to the Bar in Illinois December 8 of that year. He was the second of quite a line of deputies to Colonel Hamilton, Circuit Court clerk, a position he held until the fall of 1835, when his law practice required his attention. Early in 1836, he formed a partnership with F. A. Harding, which was dissolved May 19, 1837; and the firm of Moore & Harding turns up frequently in law business of the time. Mr. Moore was at the Circuit Court of Iroquois County on business May 16, 1836,

Henry Moore

when Judge Ford appointed him for the defense of the murderer " Morris." He "astonished " the prosecuting attorney, James Grant, by "the ability he manifested." "He relied," says Grant, "upon the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence; made the usual argument in such cases, but with much more than the usual ability." In the fall of 1836 Mr. Moore was one of the prominent speakers at the Whig meeting in Chicago; and in De- cember one of the representatives of Cook County at the Internal Improvement Convention held at Vandalia. In March, 1837, his name is on record as a trustee of Rush Medical College, and June 1 of same year he be- came law partner of E. G. Ryan. He obtained about that time from the Legislature the first charter for a gas company in Chicago; and was an active and prominent member of the Bar. He, however, found this moist and breezy climate rather unfavorable for his weak lungs, and on the approach of the winter of 1838-39, he sought alleviation in the genial climate of Havana, Cuba. He did not return to Chicago, but it is learned from " 2 Scam." that he was a resident of Concord, Mass., in 1841, where he died before many years.

BUCKNER STITH MORRIS was born August 19, 1800, at Augusta, Ky., a village founded by his maternal grandfather, Philip Buckner, who had been a Captain in the War of Independence. The parents were Dickin- son Morris, a native of Delaware, but at this time sur- veyor of Bracken County, Ky., and Frances Buckner, by birth a Virginian. Schools were few in Kentucky, and young Morris received his early education at home from his parents. He arrived at man's estate, and had worked some on farms before he conceived the idea of studying for the Bar. From 1824 to 1827 he devoted

to acquiring a knowledge of the profession, and was admitted to the Bar in the latter year. In 1830 he was elected to the Legislature, and was re-elected in 1832, being a Whig in politics, but never a blind partisan. In 1832 he married Miss Evilina Barker, of Mason County, Ky. At the close of his second term, in 1834, he came to Chicago, by way of the Wabash to Vincennes, and on horseback from that point. Returning for his family, he made a second trip in August, when he per- manently settled here. He found less than forty houses on his arrival, and soon opened a law office, He is found advertised as a Chicago lawyer as early as July 9, 1835 ; and formed a partnership with E. W. Casey August 7, though his name does not appear on the rec. ords of the Supreme Court of Illinois as a licensed law- yer until December 7, 1835. Morris & Casey dis- solved in the fall of 1836, and Morris & Scammon was formed December 5, 1836. This firm was also short-lived, as Mr. Morris was elected Mayor in the spring of 1838, and Alderman of the Sixth Ward in 1839. In 1840 he resumed more fully the practice of his pro- fession, and formed a partnership, August 13, with Will- iamı W. Brackett, which lasted about three years. With

Buckner b. Morris

Lincoln, in 1840, he was nominated presidential elector at large on the Whig ticket. In 1844 he was elected Alderman, but resigned before the close of the year, and was also president of the Hydraulic Company. In 1845 he formed a new firm with William M. Greenwood as partner, who was exchanged as early as March 16, 1846, for John J. Brown. His wife died in 1847, leaving two daughters ; and in 1848 he became a Mason, eventually reaching the highest degree attainable in America. In 1850 he married Miss Eliza A. Stephenson, who died suddenly of heart disease in 1855, leaving one son, who,

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however, lived to be only seven. The firm of . Morris & Brown continued until the death of Brown in Au- gust, 1850, after which Grant Goodrich became partner for a short time. In 1852 he formed a new partnership, the firm being Morris, Hervey & Clarkson ; and was the unsuccessful Whig candidate of that year for Sec- retary of State for Illinois. In 1853, Judge Hugh T. Dickey having resigned, Mr. Morris was elected to complete his term as Circuit Judge, and was commis- sioned May 24. The Green trial for wife murder was prosecuted before Judge Morris, and is said to have been the first case in this State in which scientific ex- perts were accepted on the witness stand, Green's con- viction being largely due to the testimony of Drs. Blaney and Bird to the presence of strychnine in the stomach of the deceased. His decisions in relation to that class of evidence have been often quoted, and have been incorporated in the medical jurisprudence of the State. He was tendered a nomination for re-election at the close of his term in 1855, which he declined and returned to his practice. He soon formed a new part- nership, the firm being Morris & Blackburn in 1856, and Morris, Thomasson & Blackburn in 1857. In 1856 he married Mrs. M. E. Parrish, of Frankfort, Ky., a daughter of Edward Blackburn, and sister of Morris's two partners, Breckenridge F. and James Blackburn, and of the recent Governor of Kentucky, Dr. Luke Blackburn. In 1860 he was a candidate for Governor of Illinois on the Bell and Everett ticket, of which he was an early advocate, as a solution or postponement of the impending crisis. He claimed that a vote for Lin- coln on the one hand or for Breckenridge on the other was a vote for civil war, as sectional feeling had reached a point where no other is- sue could reasonably be anticipated. The election of Bell and Everett alone could save the country. One of his regrets and a constant censure of Andrew Jackson was the breaking up of the United States Bank. He held that the cohesive power of a common financial sys- tem in holding the North and South together had not been duly weighed. His Southern origin and relation- ship with the Kentucky Blackburns, who were all vio- lent Secessionists, as well as his acknowledged connec- tion with " Sons of Liberty," but above all the heated state of the public mind which could brook nothing less than the most out-spoken Unionism, brought him into suspicion of disloyalty in 1864, in connection with the alleged Camp Douglas conspiracy. Mr. and Mrs. Morris were arrested with the other " conspirators," taken to Cincinnati, tried by court martial and acquitted. Judge Drummond thus testified to his loyalty ; " I have been acquainted with Judge Morris for twenty-five years, and I think his reputation to be, as far as I know it, that of a loyal 'inan. He was a strict advocate of what was the Crittenden compromise, and desired ex- ceedingly that the difficulties between the two sections of the country should be settled amicably. * * * I do not know what developments this trial may have pro- duced, not having followed the evidence, but up to the time of his arrest I certainly should as soon have dis- trusted my own loyalty as that of Judge Morris." Dur- ing his detention, which lasted several months, Mrs. Morris and himself received much kind attention at the hands of one of the female religious orders of the Roman Catholic Church, which eventually led both to give their adhesion to that communion. After their re- lease in the spring of 1865, Judge Morris ceased to be an active member of the Bar, confining himself chiefly to his real estate interests and occasional law business for his friends. He died December 16, 1879, having

well entered on his eightieth year, and was buried from St. Mary's Catholic church. " Both these gentlemen," says the Hon. Thomas Hoyne, speaking of Judges Spring and Morris, "rose to high positions from the native force of their characters, and the possession of vigorous intellects. And what seemed singular in their case is, that in the absence of regular culture in the art of advocacy or oratory, they were among the most suc- cessful speakers of the day. In many respects they ob- tained in jury trials a pre-eminence in advocacy over their more highly favored brethren who had been sed- ulously prepared in universities and schools, both in New York and New England."

To this Judge Goodrich adds : " Having been a partner for a short time of Buckner S. Morris, I am jus- tified in saying-and I think all who were acquainted with his professional capacity will agree with me-that he was no ordinary man. It is evident his general ed- ucation, his professional reading and training had not been systematic or thorough, but he possessed good vigor of mind and strong common sense and sincerity of manner, which joined with a popular homeliness of expression, apt and striking comparisons, fervent zeal and apparent honesty of belief in the justice of his cause, made him a formidable opponent before a jury. In a desperate case he was remarkable, and the more desperate it was, the more conspicuous his powers be- came. He often carried his case by main strength against the law and the facts ; and it became a common remark that in a bad case he had no equal. He was elected Judge of the circuit, but was better fitted for practice and served but a brief term on the Bench. In character he was simple as a child, tenderly sympathetic and kind, heartily good-natured, and genial in his man- ners. I doubt if the remembrance of any deceased member of the Chicago Bar is cherished with more un- mixed sentiments of kindness than that of Judge Mor- ris." " For native strength, I never saw his superior," says Mr. Beach; "his natural powers of oratory were truly great."

CIRCUIT COURT, 1835-36 .- Thomas Ford, who had been Prosecuting, or State's Attorney, in the Fifth Judicial Circuit, was elected by the General Assembly as Judge of the newly created Sixth Circuit ; but, by exchange, the first term in Chicago in 1835 was held by Judge Sidney Breesc. It extended from May 25 to June 9, showing a marked increase in the busi- ness of the court. Before 1835, three or four days were sufficient to clear the meager docket, but thence- forward there never was any lack of business in Chi- cago courts. The judicial requirements of the place have always kept ahead of the legislative provision for its wants, No sooner have apparently ample facilities been secured than the city has leaped forward to double or treble the population contemplated, com- pelling a fresh enlargement of the judicial force. This term was the first in Chicago after it became part of the Sixth Circuit, and the first held anywhere by the recently elected Judge Breese, then in his thirty-fifth year.

Chief-Justice Marshall died July 6, 1835, and the first formal meeting of the Chicago Bar was held in respect to his memory. The members present were Fullerton, Casey, Goodrich, Morris and Moore of those already mentioned, and Royal Stewart, a later accession.

The second term of the Circuit Court, in 1835, was held by Judge Stephen T. Logan, also in exchange with Judge Ford. It was opened the first Monday in Octo- ber and closed on the 11th. By this time there were one hundred and three civil suits on the docket, and

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seventy of these were determined at that term. Of the thirty-seven people's cases twenty-five were closed- nineteen were merely for non-attendance as jurors, of whom two were fined five dollars cach ; and twelve cases were continued. The case of most interest at this term was the-

SECOND MURDER TRIAL .- The criminal under in- dictment gave the name of Joseph F. Morris, but it was afterwards stated that his real name was Joseph Thomasson. His victim's name was Felix I.egre, and the murder was committed about twenty miles from Chicago on the road to Ottawa. The Grand Jury of Cook County found a true bill against Morris at the fall term of 1835, but by change of venue the case was carried to Iroquois County, where it was tried the en- suing term. Notwithstanding the most strenuous efforts, and an able defense on general principles, by Henry Moore, who had been assigned to him as coun- sel by Judge Ford, Morris was convicted on rather slender evidence, wholly circumstantial. He was the person last seen in company with the murdered man, and a knife was found in his possession which the re- cent employer of Legre fully identified as belonging to that unfortunate individual. He denied the killing, but acknowledged that he knew the guilty party, whose name, however, he steadily refused to divulge-a self- deceiving cvasion founded probably on the false name under which he was indicted. The implied chivalry and devotion to alleged principles was too fine-spun for a jury of pioneer settlers of Iroquois County, and they found him guilty of murder, though not without some hesitation. On May 19, Judge Ford sentenced him to be hanged June 10, 1836 ; and the sentence was faithfully carried into effect, though in the absence of a jail it required persistent watchfulness on the part of Sheriff Dunn of Iroquois County and his deputy, George Courtright. The substantial justice of the ver- dict has never been seriously questioned, but conviction on the evidence would be to-day improbable, if not hopeless.

Both these terms of the Circuit Court of Cook County in 1835, were held in the First Presbyterian church, then situated north of what is now the Sher- man House, and fronting on Clark Street. The spring term of 1836 was held by Judge Ford in the same building, and extended from May 23 to June 4. There were two hundred and thirty civil cases, twenty-one criminal and thirteen chancery. Most of the people's cases were for constructive contempt through non-at- tendance as jurors. The two most important of them were for assault with intent to kill and both culprits were sent to the penitentiary, the first of a long and ever-widening band of convicts on that charge from Chicago. The most important civil suit was, perhaps, that of Harrington as. Hubbard, the first land case in Cook County which was decided in favor of the de- fendant but on appeal to the Supreme Court that decis- ion was reversed the ensning winter at Vandalia.

The fall term of 1836 was held by the same Judge, and in the same building. In addressing the Grand Jury, James Grant, prosecuting attorney, dwelt specific- ally on the duty they owed the public in relation to trespassers upon the canal lands. The court re-enforced his remarks by reminding them that it was to these lands the public must look for the completion of the canal ; and every tree stolen detracted from its value. Both speeches help to show how paramount in interest at that time to the people of Chicago was the longed- for canal and all its belongings. Several rogues were sent to the penitentiary at Alton as a result of this term

of court; and a score or more were indicted for tres- passing on the canal lands; but a large part of the court business remained unfinished, and the need of additional judicial facilities, through new courts or more terms of the Circuit Court, became apparent.

Among the most important of the civil cases tried at the fall term in 1836, was what is popularly known as the Beaubien land claim, which Judge Ford decided fa- vorably to claimant. This decision was sustained by the Supreme Court of the State, but was reversed in 1839 by the Supreme Court of the United States. See Beaubien claim.

THE CHICAGO BAR AT THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CITY .- As at the close of 1834 Cook County was about to be transferred from the Fifth to the Sixth Cir- cuit, so now before the spring term of 1837, it became a part of the Seventh Circuit, to which amid frequent changes and numerous additions to the circuits in the State, it ever afterward belonged, until by the Constitu- tion of 1870, the County of Cook was made one judicial circuit. A month after the establishment of the Seventh Judicial Circuit, Chicago was granted its charter of in- corporation as a city, which is therefore appropriately made an era in the history of its Bench and Bar. Meanwhile the membership of the Chicago Bar had more than doubled, and biographical sketches of the accessions since the close of 1834, now deceased or de. parted from Chicago, are here subjoined.

ROYAL STEWART is on record as admitted to the Bar in Illinois January 8, 1835 ; and is found adver- tised as an attorney at Chicago on June 8, of the same ycar. How much longer he remained a resident is not clear, but his name disappears from the local records.

In 1841, however, he was residing at Syracuse, N. Y., as may be learned from 2 Scam.

WILLIAM H. BROWN, a lawyer and distinguished citizen, is treated elsewhere, as after his arrival in Chi- cago he became more distinguished as a banker.

JAMES CURTISS, more of a politician than a lawyer, and twice Mayor, became identified with local political affairs, and is more properly named in that connection.

HANS CROCKER arrived in Chicago in 1834, and studied law for a time in the office of Collins & Caton. In 1836, he removed to Milwaukee, where he has since attained some prominence as a lawyer .* but he was not admitted to practice while here, and does not properly belong to the Bar of Chicago.

WILLIAM STUART, though not admitted to the Bar in Illinois until July 11, 1837, advertised as attorney and land agent as early as December 5, 1835. He never practiced much at the Bar, being at first a real estate man, and then a journalist. In August, 1836, he became partner of James Curtiss, and was appointed Town At- torney for a short time during the absence of James H. Collins. Curtiss & Stuart dissolved in October, 1837, and Mr. Stuart was publisher and editor of the Chicago American in 1839. He was appointed Postmaster by Harrison in 1841, and held that office until the close of the presidential term in March, 1845. In May of that year he formed a partnership with Charles H. Larrabee, but in 1846 he left Chicago for Binghamton, N. Y., where he also edited a newspaper and became twice Postmaster, and died a few years since.

EBENEZER PECK was born in Portland, Me., May 22, 1805, but received his earliest education at Peacham, VL. While yet a lad, his parents removed to Canada, and some years later young Peck began the study of law in Montreal, where also he first practiced the profession. About 1826 he was married to Miss Caroline I. Walker,

* A. T. Andreas's History of Milwaukee, sp81, page ış85.

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at Peacham, Vt. In 1833 he rose to the dignity of King's Counsel for a district in Canada East, and was elected to the provincial Parliament on the Reform ticket. His party began to drift toward rebellion, and Counselor Peck removed to Chicago, where he arrived in the sum- mer of 1835. About the middle of October, he is found associated with J. D). Caton, in the case of Geddis vs. Kercheval. " He made his mark at once," says Caton. " He showed that his study of the law had been syste- matic, while he evinced all the resources of tact, and sagacity and quickness of apprehension, so important in the successful trial of a cause before a jury. His ad-

EBENEZER PECK.

dress to the jury was forcible, and at times eloquent." From the first he took an active interest in politics, and was induced by Mr. Caton to join the Democratic party. October 28 he was appointed Town Clerk, and the en- suing month was chosen delegate to the first State Con- vention, which was held at Vandalia December 7, and at which the future Senator Douglas first began to at- tract public attention. Before leaving the capital, he was admitted to the Bar of Illinois, December 14. In the summer of 1836, he resigned the clerkship of the town, and a few months later became prominent in the movement for a city charter. At the meeting of Novem- ber 25, he was appointed chairman of the committee to draft it, and December 9 reported the instrument, which with slight modifications was finally adopted by the Board of Town Trustees, and passed by the Legislature, March 4, 1837, as the charter of the future metropolis of the Northwest. Of this he and Caton have always been regarded the principal authors. In 1837, on the dissolution of the house of Jones, Clark & Co., Mr. Peck became a member of the succeeding firms of Jones, King & Co., and W. H. Stow & Co., iron found- ers. He was chosen one of the board of commission-

ers under the State internal improvement act of 1837. In 1838 he was elected from this Senatorial District to fill the unexpired term of Peter Pruyne, deceased, bot resigned before the close of the term and became clerk of the internal improvement board in 1839. In the suspension of public improvements, which soon supervened, his position was neither exhaustive nor remunerative, and he was again elected to the Legislature in 1840, this time as representative. On the re-organization of the State judiciary by the General Assembly February 15, 1841, he was chosen clerk by the Supreme Court some time before May 19. In 1846 he formed a partnership with James A. Mc- Dougall, of Chicago, previously of Jacksonville, and later Attorney-General of the State, which continued as McDougall & Peck until the former went to Califor- nia in 1849, when Peck became associated with Charles B. Hosmer. Meanwhile he had gone out of office as clerk of the Supreme Court when it was legislated out of existence by the adoption of the new constitution March 6, 1848. Charles Gilman, reporter of the Su- preme Court, died July 24, 1849, and Mr. Peck was chosen to that office by the new court, and from that time the volumes were called Illinois Reports. His first appeared in 1850, and he numbered it XI, thus leaving room for the preceding ten-Breese's one, Scam- mon's four and Gilman's five. His own series closed with Volume XXX, in 1863. About 1850 he became interested in the new Democratic journal known as the Argus, the business connection being in the name of his eldest son, W. W. In 1853 his law firm became Peck, Hosmer & Wright, by the accession of Edward Wright, son-in-law of the senior member. In the mem- orable new departure of the Democratic party for the enlargement of the slave area, in 1853, by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, established by their more prudent fathers a generation before, Mr. Peck aban- doned his old party associations. In 1856 he became one of the ex-Democratic founders in Illinois of the party which has since become historic under the name of Republican. In the famous political debate between Lincoln and Douglas in 1858 Mr. l'eck was deeply in- terested, and was elected on the new ticket as one of the four representatives of Cook County in the twenty- first General Assembly, where he helped, by his expe- rience and management, to establish the Republican party on a solid foundation in the State. In 1860 he labored for its success in the wider field of national politics. In April, 1863, he resigned as reporter to the Supreme Court of Illinois, and was appointed one of the judges of the Court of Claims at Washington by President Lincoln, whose friendship and intimacy he enjoyed and labored to repay by faithful advice and de- voted service. In the heavy burdens of head and heart which fell to the President's lot he is known to have sought and valued the counsels of Judge Peck, whose experience as a politician specially commended his views. For many years there were but few men in Illinois who wielded a more extensive or powerful in- fluence in political circles, and few were more active or adroit partisans. He held the judgeship under the successive administrations of Johnson and Grant, re- tiring in 1875 on full pay, at the age of seventy, when he returned to Chicago in broken health. His oldest son W. W., born in 1831, died at Washington, a Captain in the regular army, in 1862. Two years after the re- turn to Chicago, the mother died, in 1877. The Judge survived his wife some four years. He died May 25, 1881, and was buried two days later from Unity church. Three children survived him-Charles F., bred a lawyer,

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 63

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas Number of Pages: 875

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875