History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 70

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 70

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By the expiration of Judge Skinner's term af 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 1, 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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are 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 of of. 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 ta 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 hy 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, Numher 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 fortwo 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 tristees 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 hin January 7, 1854. A month later, February 9. the application for leave to file a quo warrante 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 hay- 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 vs. 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 que 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 ta evil doers,

It was provided hy 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 snit, cither 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 18, 1854, Judge Drummond opened a term of the I'nited 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 marreil the uniformity of court routine.

Before the Circuit Court, in May, Judge Morris pre- sicling, in the case of Charles Walker rs. the Illinois Central Railroad, a jury was empaneled on the gtl. 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 hy 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 ont 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 anthority to issue such an order, whereupon the military withdrew and the Marshal returned to Spring- field without the fugitives.

In the Court of Common Pleas an important land

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THE BENCH AND BAR.

case known as the ejectment suit of D. A. B. Newkirk 25. 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 11. 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 establishinent 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 18th. 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 18th, 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 saloon 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 withaggravat- 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 inalcontents 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. Reese 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 held, indicted and brought to trial. The Light Guard, Flying Artillery, and a num-

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her of special policemen sworn in for the occasion. while it guaranteed all possible safeguards against in. justice, ilid not tend to decrease the rapidly increasing business of the Chicago courts.

patrolled the streets for three or four days and nights until their own excitement, the alarm of the authorities and the apprehensions of non-combatants had subsided. The liquor-dealers published a card May 2, denying the allegation that the money contributed by them was de- signed to be used in resisting the laws; their purpose was to test the legality of the new license law, which was personally oppressive, and from a business point of view too restrictive of trade. The Anti- Prohibitionist, they also said, was published for a similarly broad and statesmenlike reason, to oppose an innovation unheard of in all history, The trial begun June 15, and closed June 30, with the acquittal of all except two, who had been more clearly identified with the alleged violence tu the police, or had been more feebly defended. These were Farrell anıl Halleman, both Trishmen, who were sentenced to one year in the penitentiary, hut were granted a new trial by Recordler Wilson, July 11, on the ground of interference with the jury by the constable in charge. They were not again brought to trial, it seeming little less than a travesty of justice that in a sedition noturiously German the only victims should be two Irishmen, accidentally caught in the crowd, without any evidence of previous affiliation with the malcontents.

A CONTESTED JUUlCINE. Bu TION,-By an act of the Eighteenth General Assembly in 1854 a system of Police Magistrates was established for the whole State. At the municipal election in Chicago in 1855 Police Justices were voteil fur withont reference to the new institution. It was supposed that Messrs. Ward, Akin and King were elected hy a handsome majority, having each received about three thousand votes, and beating their competitors, Stickney, Magee and Howe. A few votes were rast for puhce magistrates, of which Calvin De Wolf receivedl thirty, W. H. Stickney, twelve, and Nathan Allen, twelve. These received the commission of the Governor, as having been elected in conformity with the law of 1854. Mr. Stickney, having been one of the three unsuccessful candidates on the Police- Justice ticket, resigned March 17, not wishing to profit hy a mere technicality. Mr. De Wolf was a Justice of the Peace at the time, and continned to act, the second commission being mere surpisage. Mr. Allen serveil under the commission for the West Side. Thomas G. Prendergast was substituted for Mr. Stickney as Police Magistrate for the North Side. Mr. De Wolf discharged the same functions on the South Shle, The case was afterward taken by agreement to the Su- preme Court, which decided that either title for the office was legal, as the difference in words could lead to no misunderstanding of the wificial station to which the people aimed to elect. Accordingly it ordered that rom- missions should be issued to the three gentiemen who had received a majority of the popular vote, without prejudice to the three already commissioned. A double supply of Police Magistrates for the remainder of the term was thus instituted.

At the State judicial election in June George Ma- nierre, an industrims and well-read member of the Chicago Bar, was chosen for the Bench of the Seventh Circuit, embracing then only the counties of Cook and Lake. He was commissioned as its Judge June 25. 1855, for six years, Cook County then had four termis uf the Circuit Court annually. Two were regular ir " trial " ternas on the first Monday in May and the third Munday in November, Two were special or " vacation " terms on the first Mondays in March and October. With this extra provision the docket continued heavy, and Judge Manierre's extreme carefulness in weighing evidence,

At an adjourned term of the United States counts, extending from October 15 to December 8, 1855, it was found that they too, in less than eight years from their introduction here, were involved in the same des. tiny as the other Chicago courts, an overloaded docket, After disposing of one hundred and fifty-three cases, there remained four hundred and one in the Circuit, and ninety-eight in the District Court. Not only did the more ahle members of the Chicago Bar find frequent occasion to plead before these courts, but several em- inent counsel from other cities were often in attendance. Among the most distinguished of these were Abraham Lincoln, O. H. Browning. Archibald Williams, Joel Manning, B. 1 .. Edwards, Charles Ballance, E. N. Powell, H. M. Weed, A. 1 .. Merriam, J. K. Cooper, N. H. Purple, W. F. Brian, J. W. Drury and James Grant.

At the January term of the Recorder's Court, in 1856, thirty-four convicts were sent to the penitentiary, and court adjourned to March, when there was a short term and a similar adjournment to May 5, when the Judge charged the Grand Jury especially against lottery tickets and gambling. Toward the close of the year it is again noted that this cuurt kept its docket well cleared. there being but a few cases civil or criminal undisposed of at the carly close of the November term.

At the February term of the United States courts in 1856, two weeks were consumed in the famous case of Kingsbury rs. Brainard. The lot on the northeast cor. ner of Clark and Randolph streets, where now stands the Ashland Block, had been leased to the defendant for twenty years hy J. B. F. Russell, agent for the plain- tilf, at an annual rental of $2,000, of which half was to be actually paid and the other half retained as purchase money for the buildings, which at the end of the lease were to revert to the owner of the lot. The plaintiff brought suit, on the ground that the agent had no right tu grant so unusual a lease. The jury, however, found a verdiet against him, becoming satisfied that some others had declined to accept the same offer, and that the lease had virtually been ratified before the rapid in- crease in values had shown its alleged injustice.

March 21. 1856, by a rule of court, Judge Drum- mund ordered three "adjourned " terms of the I'nited States courts in Chicago, on the first Mondays of March, May and October, in each year. in addition to the two regular termas, on the first Monday in July and the third Monday in December, previously provided by act of Congress, At the October term in 1856, it was again noted that notwithstanding these apparently abundant provisions, there was a large docket in admiralty, chan- rery and common law, as well as patent cases.

GEORGE W. MERKER was born in Elizabethtown. N. J., ahout 1817. In infancy one of his lower limbs was paralyzeil, rendering necessary the nse of crutches for the rest of his life ; he was otherwise much above the average in manly beauty. - Duc attention was paid to the cultivation of his intellectual powers, and he became not only a well read lawyer, but a very thor- ungh scholar, familiar with the English and French, as well as the Latin and Greek classics. He came to Chi- cago about 1837, and studied law with Spring & Goodrich until admitted to the Bar. December 16, 1839. As early as February 22, 1840, he is found in partner- ship with George Manierre, the firm having been formed about Jannary 1. He held the offices of United States Commissioner and Clerk of the United States Court. He died suddenly on April 2, 1856.

MEDICAL HISTORY.

In the following account of the medical practitioners of early Chicago, no attempt has heen made to discrimi- nate hetween those who were duly qualified physicians and those whose claim to the title was empirical. The fact that an individual represented himself, by announce. ment or advertisement, as prepared to heal diseases, has been accepted as prima facie evidence of his hav- ing some claim to enrollment among the followers of Galen or .Esculapius.

"The earliest authentic account of the existence of a disciple of the medical profession is found in a muster roll of Capt, Nathan Heald's company of the First Infantry,* for the two months from November 30, 1810. to December 31, 1810, wherein appears the name of

John Cooper, surgeon's mate, appointed June 13, 1808; on duty at Fort Dearborn. December 31, 1810; the mus- ter roll heing certified to by Phillip ()'Strander, Lieuten- ant commanding the company, and John Cooper.

Dr. Cooper was succeeded hy Dr. Isaac Van Voor. his, one of the slain in the massacre of 1812, of whom the following account is given in the various works referred to :

Dr. Isaac Van Voorhis, born February 22, 1790 : killed at the massacre at Fort Dearborn, August 15. 1912; unmarried.+

The following extract is from the " Fiekl-Book of the War of 1812," by Benson J. Lossing : " In the spring of 1812 the garrison at Fort Dearborn was com- manded by Captain Nathan Heall, assisted by lieuten- ant Linai T. Helm and Ensign George Ronan. The surgeon was Dr. Van Voorhis. The garrison consisted of fifty-four men. The massacre of Fort Dearborn, or Chicago, took place August 15, 1812. In this terrible tragedy in the wilderness, fifty-five years ago, twelve children, all the masculine citizens except Mr. Kenzie and his sons, Captain Wells, Ensign Ronan, Surgeon Van Voorhis, and twenty-six private soldiers, were murdered. Dr. Cooper, of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., was the immediate predecessor of Dr. Van Voorhis at Fort Dearborn. They were natives of the same town, Fish- kill, Duchess County, and were class-mates, Van Voor- his was a young man of great powers. Dr. Cooper left the fort in 1811, tendered his resignation and left the army."

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History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 70

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