USA > Illinois > Cook County > History of Cook County, Illinois : being a general survey of Cook County history, including a condensed history of Chicago and special account of districts outside the city limits : from the earliest settlement to the present time, volume II > Part 18
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In 1847 the Constitution of the State of Illinois was revised and a new judicial system adopted for the State, in and by which the judiciary was made elective. A County Court was established in each county with probate jurisdiction, to be held by one judge, who was to be elected by the qualified voters of the county and hold four years.
By an act of the General Assembly, approved November 5, 1849, entitled "An act to establish the Tenth Judicial Circuit, and to fix the times of holding courts in the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Judicial circuits, and for other purposes," it was provided in the 11th section as follows: "From and after the first Monday in January next, the Circuit Court in and for the county of Cook shall be holden on the first Mondays of May and December in each year, and that there shall be added to the name and title of the 'Cook County Court,' created by an act of the Legislature, approved on the 21st of February, 1845, and referred to in the 21st section of the schedule of the Constitution, the words' of 'Common Pleas,' so that the title and name of said court shall henceforward be the 'Cook County Court of Common' Pleas,' and the regular terms of said last- named court shall hereafter be held on the first Mondays of Feb- ruary and September in each year, instead of at the time heretofore designated by law; and the said Cook County Court of Common Pleas and the said Circuit Court of Cook County shall have equal and concurrent jurisdiction in all cases of misdemeanor arising un- der the criminal laws of this State and in all cases of appeals from
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justices of the peace arising or instituted within said county of Cook, any law in any wise to the contrary notwithstanding, and all appeals from justices of the peace within said county of Cook shall be taken and carried to whichever of said courts the term of which shall be held next after any such appeal shall have been applied for and taken."
By an act of the General Assembly, approved February 6, 1849, it was provided by the 1st section "that on the first Monday of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, and every fourth year thereafter, an election shall be held in Cook county, at which election there shall be chosen one judge of the court created by an act entitled 'An act to establish the Cook County Court,' approved February 21, 1845, also a clerk of said court, and a prosecuting attorney, to perform the duties pro- vided for in said act, who shall each hold their respective offices for the term of four years and until their successors shall be elected and qualified."
Giles Spring was a phenomenon-a natural born lawyer. His education was quite limited, and he paid little respect to the rules of grammar, yet he could present a point of law to the court and argue the facts of the case to the jury with a clearness and force seldom equaled. In argument he possessed a keenness of analysis, a force of compact, crushing logic which bore down all opposition. He studied law in Ashtabula, in the law office of Benjamin F. Wade and Joshua R. Giddings, and removed to Chicago in 1833, and six- teen years after, or in 1849, was elected judge of the Cook County Court of Common Pleas. On the death of Spring, in May, 1851, Mark Skinner was elected judge of the Cook County Court of Com- mon Pleas and held the office for two years. He was succeeded by Judge John M. Wilson, one of the most remarkable jurists, in some respects, that ever held a judicial position in the courts of this county. He possessed great grasp of intellect and strong reasoning powers, and was master of the common law and the science of pleading, and was equally at home on the chancery side. He pre- sided with great dignity on all trials, ruled with promptness, and disposed, in the course of a year, of an immense amount of business.
Mark Skinner spent a year at the New Haven Law School, then entered the office of Judge Ezek Cowen at Saratoga Springs, a cele- brated lawyer, and finished his studies under the tutelage of Nich- olas Hill at Albany, who was a master of his profession, and who perhaps never had his superior in this or any other country in analyzing a case and making a brief and presenting the law points. Mr. Skinner arrived here in July, 1836. He was soon after ad- mitted to the bar and formed a partnership with George Anson Oliver Beaumont, with whom he continued in business until 1844, and in 1847 he formed a partnership with Thomas Hoyne, which continued until he was elected to the bench. Mr. Skinner was not
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only a highly educated man, but one of the best trained men in the profession. He was identified with almost every public enter- prise and improvement which was projected during his time. He was city attorney in 1840, school inspector in 1842, United States district attorney in 1844, was a member of the Legislature in 1846, was chairman of the meeting called by the citizens of Chicago in 1846 to make the necessary arrangements for the great River and Harbor convention in 1847. He helped organize the Young Men's association and the Chicago Lyceum, and was a member of the United States Sanitary commission and president of the Chicago Sanitary commission during the war. He was a trustee of the Illinois Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary and was long connected with the Chicago Relief and Aid society, the Home of the Friend- less and the Reform School.
Justin Butterfield was without doubt one of the greatest lawyers of his time and belongs to that early group who attained national distinction. He was appointed commissioner of the General Land Office in June, 1849, his rival being Abraham Lincoln. Daniel Webster was a great friend of Butterfield and Butterfield recipro- cated the friendship, dressed like him, and imitated to a great ex- tent his methods. He took part in many noted trials and many anecdotes are told of his powers and quaint methods. One of the most remarkable cases that he ever engaged in was that of Joe Smith, the great head of the Mormon Church at Nauvoo.
Thomas Hoyne was one of the most eminent lawyers that ever practiced at the Chicago bar. He came here in 1839 to meet the early friend and companion of his youth, George Manierre, who had preceded him but a few years. His career is something unique in our history, for, commencing with a clerkship in the Circuit Court clerk's office, he afterward filled the office of city clerk, pro- bate judge, United States district attorney, United States marshal and acting mayor of the city of Chicago.
Among the most enterprising public-spirited and useful citizens was Jonathan Young Scammon. He came here in 1833 and was appointed reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Illinois in 1839 and issued four volumes, which bear the marks of great care and industry. The first edition of Volume I of his reports was destroyed by fire in December, 1840, while in the hands of the binder, causing a heavy loss of time and money. That Mr. Scam- mon labored under many difficulties in preparing his reports for publication is evident by what he says in the preface to Volume I of his series, from which it appears that printed abstracts and briefs were entirely unknown and he had to prowl through the record and briefs of the appellant and then sit by and take notes of the points and authorities of the appellee at the time the case was argued, as no briefs were required to be filed by the appellee.
Henry W. Blodgett was one of the early pioneers of Cook
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county, and for many years occupied a seat upon the bench of the United States District and Circuit courts. Henry Moore came to Chicago in 1834 from Concord, Mass., and was admitted to the bar the same year. He was a lawyer of fine abilities, a very attractive and interesting speaker and very soon became prominent. He was for a short time a partner of E. G. Ryan. Henry Brown came here in 1836 and was soon after elected a justice of the peace, and in 1842 became city attorney. He prepared a history of Illinois in 1844.
Paul Cornell may be regarded as among the most enterprising men ever connected with the Chicago bar. He studied law in the office of William A. Richardson at Rushville. He first came to Chicago in 1845, but did not remain permanently. He returned on June 1, 1847. John M. Wilson had recently removed here and had formed a partnership with L. C. P. Freer, and Cornell became a clerk in their office. He was afterward employed in the office of James H. Collins and of Skinner & Hoyne, and on Mr. Hoyne being elected probate judge he acted as clerk.
In 1851 he formed a partnership with William T. Barron and they did a large business. In 1856 Barron was elected probate judge, when he became associated with the late Judge John A. Jameison and Perkins Bass, and after that with H. N. Hibbard, the firm being Cornell, Jameison & Hibbard.
He always had great faith in the future of Chicago and invested largely in real estate. He purchased the town site of Hyde Park, laid it out into lots and sold many of them and improved the rest. He also laid out Grand Crossing, built a hotel there and established a watch factory. He took a great interest in schools and churches and contributed largely to their support. He was an ardent sup- porter of the project for establishing parks in the south division of the city and was for a number of years one of the park commis- sioners. .
Calvin De Wolf arrived in Chicago October 31, 1837, and in 1838 entered the law office of Spring & Goodrich. He was admitted to the bar in May, 1843. He was elected a justice of the peace in 1854, and held the office up to 1879 when he resumed the practice. but did not continue it long. In his early days he was an abolitionist of the most pronounced type and belonged to that well-known school of philosophers and philanthropists of which Dr. Dyer, George Manierre and Owen Lovejoy were types.
Harvey B. Hurd belongs to the old regime, although he did not join the Chicago bar until 1846. In 1847 he began the study of law in the office of Calvin De Wolf and was admitted to the bar in 1848. He commenced practice with Carlos Haven, who after- ward distinguished himself as State's attorney for the Cook and Lake county circuit. He was one of the founders of the flourish- ing city of Evanston and took up his residence there in 1855.
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Ezra B. McCagg is one of the links in the remote past of the Chicago bar. He studied law in the office of Monell, Hogeboom & Monell of Hudson, and was admitted to the bar in 1847. In the summer of that year he came to Chicago and formed a partnership with J. Y. Scammon, which continued many years. Samuel W. Fuller became a member of the firm about 1859, which continued until his death. No one at the bar had a more varied experience than Mr. McCagg. No lawyer at the Chicago bar traveled so much as he, and none had such opportunities to make himself well informed and well read as he.
Col. James M. Strode was a member of the Chicago bar and prosecuting attorney from about 1844 to 1848. He was identified with the bar of Joe Daviess, Cook and McHenry counties. His name is attached to a letter signed by the leading citizens of Chi- cago addressed to Alexander McKinzie, dated October 3, 1838, in which they express their high appreciation of Mr. McKinzie's efforts to entertain the people by a series of theatrical performances and trusted that before he left the city he would allow them to testify their regard for him "by appointing an evening for a benefit for himself." Mr. McKinzie replied to this highly complimentary letter on the 11th of October, 1838, which is addressed to H. L. Rucker, J. M. Strode, Buckner S. Morris and others, acknowledg- ing the receipt of the communication and naming Thursday evening, the 18th, as the benefit night. The colonel was not only a devotee of the law, but a patron of the drama.
William H. Brown was one of the most useful citizens that Chi- cago ever had and the bar should be proud of his exemplary char- acter. He was one of the most careful and trustworthy lawyers that ever advised a client or tried a case. His business was strictly an office business, and in his later years he did nothing but attend to his own affairs.
Edward W. Casey of New Hampshire was the fifth lawyer to take up his abode here, in 1833, and was for a time deputy clerk of Richard J. Hamilton, clerk of the Circuit court. He practiced for some time in partnership with Buckner S. Morris, the firm name' being Morris & Casey. He was a strong and vigorous lawyer and able advocate.
James Grant, the sixth member of the Chicago bar, was admitted to practice in this State March 26, 1836. In 1836 he represented Arthur Bronson in making sales of some seven thousand acres of land at the terminus of the Illinois and Michigan canal. In 1836 he formed a partnership with Francis Peyton, which continued until about 1839, when he removed to Davenport, Iowa.
A. N. Fullerton of Vermont came here in 1833 and was for a time a partner of Grant Goodrich. He drifted into commercial pursuits.
The names of Royal Stewart, William Stuart and Hans Crocker appear on the records as lawyers at a very early period.
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James Curtis came here early, and was a shrewd lawyer and man of ability. He set himself up as the champion of the people and was more inclined to talk politics than practice law. He had many good traits in his character and drew around him many friends and adherents. He was elected mayor of the city in 1847 and again in 1850. He was appointed by Judge Hugh T. Dickey the first clerk of the old Cook County court, now the Superior Court of Cook county.
Ebenezer Peck filled for a considerable period a large place in the public affairs of this State. He was born in Portland, Me., but moved to Montreal at a very early age, where he was educated and admitted to the bar. He rose to the position of king's counsel and was elected a member of the Provincial Parliament of Canada East. He came here in 1835 and soon showed his forcible man- ner. He was elected to the State Senate in 1838 to fill the unex- pired term of Peter Pruyne, deceased.
George W. Meeker came to Chicago in 1837, studied with Spring & Goodrich, and was admitted to the bar in 1839, and very soon after formed a partnership with Mr. Manierre. He was for a time clerk of the United States court and was for many years United States Court commissioner. He was considered a very fine office lawyer; was well versed in the statute law of the State and especially the statutes of the United States, and was an authority on all points of practice arising in the Federal courts.
In 1854 a system of police magistrates was established for the whole State. At the municipal election in 1855 police justices were voted for under an old act relating to Chicago without any regard to the new act, although there were very many who believed that by the law as it then existed police magistrates alone should be voted for. The consequence was that both police magistrates and police justices were voted for. The police justices received an over- whelming vote. W. H. Stickney, Calvin De Wolf, and Nathan Allen received a few votes, having been voted for as police magis- trates. A case was taken to the Supreme court, and it was decided that under the circumstances either title would comply with the true intent and meaning of the law, and Mr. Stickney was offered a certificate of election and a commission, but he said that the citizens having so unmistakably indicated their preferences, he would not take advantage of any technicality, and therefore refused the com- mission offered to him.
Among the early public prosecutors in Cook county was Alonzo Huntington, who came to Chicago as early as 1835 from Vermont, became State's attorney in 1837, and served in that capacity until 1841. He prosecuted John Stone for the murder of Lucretia Thompson, which was tried at the April term of the Circuit Court of Cook county, 1840, before Hon. John Pearson, who presided. Stone was defended by Justin Butterfield and S. Lisle Smith, and
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from beginning to end the trial was attended by many dramatic incidents. Stone was convicted and finally executed.
In 1851-2 Daniel McElroy and Patrick Ballingall were the lead- ing criminal lawyers, and Mr. McElroy was at that time State's attorney and prosecuted George W. Green for poisoning his wife with strychnine. He was succeeded by Carlos Haven, who proved to be one of the most successful prosecutors the county ever had. He was the very embodiment of honesty and integrity, and never insisted upon a conviction when he became convinced that there ought not to be one, but he was the terror of the wicked and they fled before him.
Patrick Ballingall was a man of unusual acumen and shrewdness, and, considering the great disadvantages that he labored under in his youth, it is quite wonderful what success he had and what a reputation he established. That he attained distinction is evidenced by the fact that he was more than once elected to the office of State's attorney, and was one of the delegates from this county to the Con- stitutional convention in 1847.
Daniel McElroy came to Chicago in 1844, and was twice elected State's attorney.
Carlos Haven was succeeded by Joseph Knox, Charles H. Reed, Luther Laflin Mills, Julius H. Grinnell, and Joel Longenecker as public prosecutors.
George Ingham, who was the assistant prosecutor under Mills, was possessed of the most wonderful gifts, and his earnestness and directness always attracted attention. Charles G. Neely was an as- sistant under Longenecker, also achieved a wide reputation while acting on behalf of the State.
Joseph Knox was a natural born lawyer and was one of the most effective jury lawyers that ever practiced in the Rock River Valley. He was very direct and at times very dramatic in his pres- entation of a case, and was for years engaged in the trial of more cases than any other lawyer of his time.
Charles W. Reed was admitted to the bar in 1859, and soon after became a partner of Joseph Knox. He removed with Knox & Drury from Rock Island to Chicago in 1860, and in 1864 was elected State's attorney, and was reelected two successive terms. In the winter of 1882 he was associated in the defense of Charles Guiteau for the murder of Garfield.
He was a man of great natural abilities, and was considered a great Greek scholar. He was a most efficient State's attorney.
The success of Julius H. Grinnell in modern times as State's attorney is something phenomenal. During his term of office he was called upon to prosecute a number of the most remarkable criminal cases that ever had occurred in this country. He prose- cuted with success the anarchist cases and what are known as the boodle cases, which involved a number of the county commissioners
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in Cook county in corrupt practices, and was triumphant in all of them.
John Van Arnam, one of the most noted criminal lawyers of the country, came to Chicago from Michigan in 1859, and practiced with distinction. Emory A. Storrs was a great criminal lawyer, but he did not make it a specialty. William O'Brien was another great criminal lawyer. He was a man of great natural abilities and brain power.
E. G. Asay, for a considerable period antedating the fire, did a large criminal business, and was very successful. Augustus H. Van Buren, his father, Evert Van Buren, A. S. Trude, and Charles M. Hardy all attained celebrity in the management of criminal cases. Leonard Swett was a man who pursued a lofty ideal and was above trickery and chicanery. He was in appearance almost the counterpart of Abraham Lincoln, and was his intimate friend and practiced with him on the circuit long before his removal to Chicago.
In addition to the above William S. Forrest, Russell M. Wing, Daniel Donahue, William J. Hynes, Kickham Scanlan, Daniel Munn, and William S. Elliott have all attained distinction in the practice of the criminal law. Mr. Forrest has made criminal juris- prudence a specialty, and has studied the subject scientifically, and the same may be said of Mr. Wing and several others.
There is no branch of law so much neglected and so illy under- stood as that of the criminal law. In cities like Chicago the office of State's attorney has risen to the importance of the home depart- ment in England and should be filled by not only a learned and experienced lawyer, but one of the greatest integrity and well versed in public affairs.
The administration of the criminal law during the pioneer period was attended with far more certainty than at the present time, and there was far less nonsense and trifling indulged in than character- izes the trial of cases of this character in our courts at the present time. If we are to judge of the manner in which criminal cases are disposed of by an examination of the reports of this State, it would appear that all criminal cases are determined by an equation of errors instead of on their merits, and that we have made no progress at all since Judge Lockwood made his celebrated decision in the case of Mckinney vs. People (2 Gil., 248) in 1845.
The criminal law at the present time is the least studied and the least understood of any branch of the law, and our courts seem to have but one idea about it, and that is to be guided solely by the technical rules of the seventeenth century, to rule everything against the State and to not only give the defendant the benefit of every doubt, both reasonable and unreasonable, but also every possibility of a doubt. In the pioneer period penitentiaries were not regarded as summer resorts which were to be run on the European plan, but
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a place of penance, and persons when convicted were sent there to do something besides sit around and calculate their chances of being set at liberty by those who are "in the push" or be pardoned outright by a sympathetic Governor.
The District court of the United States for the State of Illinois was established March 3, 1819, and Nathaniel Pope was appointed district judge. He died in 1850, and was succeeded by Thomas Drummond, who continued to fill that office until he was appointed circuit judge in December, 1869. The District court of the United States had and exercised Circuit court jurisdiction, and the district judge held the Circuit court for a long period, although Judge McLean of the United States Supreme court was the judge of this circuit, which was called the Seventh, from 1837 down to the time of his death in 1861.
Nathaniel Pope was the first judge to hold a Federal court in Chicago, which was in 1837, over George W. Meeker's store, on Lake street, between Clark and Dearborn. Judge Drummond also held court for a short time in the same place, but very soon after Judge Drummond removed from Galena to Chicago, and perhaps before, the United States courts were held in what was known as the Saloon building, at the southeast corner of Clark and Lake streets. In 1857 the United States courts were removed to the Larmon building, corner of Clark and Washington. Immediately after the fire the courts, with the custom house, were removed to Congress hall, at the corner of Michigan avenue and Congress street, then they were transferred to the Republic Life building, on La Salle street, and later to the Government building, at the corner of Dearborn and Monroe streets.
Abraham Lincoln, prior to 1860, tried many cases in the United States District courts. The last case he tried in any of the courts in Cook county was what is known as the "Sand bar" case, which involved title to a large amount of "shore" property on Lake Michi- gan, north of the Chicago river. It had been tried three several times previously, and came on for the fourth time before Judge Drummond and a jury in the Larmon block, northeast corner of Clark and Washington streets, on March 19, 1860, two months prior to the great Chicago convention. Lincoln stopped at the Tremont House, and he never was in Chicago but twice afterward. The title of the case was William S. Johnson vs. William Jones and Sylves- ter Marsh. The counsel for the plaintiff were Buckner S. Morris, Isaac N. Arnold, and John A. Wills. The counsel for defendant were Abraham Lincoln, Samuel W. Fuller, Van H. Higgins, and John Van Arnam. The trial closed April 4 by a verdict for de- fendants.
'The business directory which was published by J. W. Norris in January, 1846, contains the following list of attorneys, with their place of business: Abell, Sidney, 37 Clark street; Arnold (Isaac
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N.) & Ogden (Mahlon D.), 123 Lake street; Brown, Henry and Andrew J., 126 Lake street ; Brown, John, 901/2 Lake street; But- terfield, Justin and J., Jr., 70 Lake street; Clarke, Henry W., south- west corner Clark and Lake streets; Cowles (Alfred) & Brown (William H.), State Bank building, southwest corner La Salle and South Water streets; Curtis, James, courthouse, southwest corner Randolph and Clark streets; De Wolf, Calvin, 71 Lake street; Dickey, Hugh T., 1021/2 Lake street; Freer, Lemuel Covell Paine, 53 Clark street, opposite City Hotel; Gardiner, Charles, 71 Lake street ; Gregg, David L., U. S. attorney, 65 Lake street; Hamilton (Richard Jones) & Moore (Thomas C.), 59 Clark street; Hoyne, Thomas, 51 Clark street, opposite jostoffice; Huntington, Alonzo, 98 Lake street; Leary, Albert Green, 53 Clark street; Lee, David, 1031/2 Lake street ; McDougall, James A., 118 Lake street ; McIlroy, Daniel, courthouse basement; Manierre (George) & Meeker (George W.), 100 Lake street ; Morris (Buckner S.) & Greenwood (George W.), 59 Lake street; Phelps, Pallas, Clinton between Mad- ison and Washington streets; Scammon (Jonathan Y.) & Judd (Norman B.), 23 Lake street; Skinner, Mark, 92 Lake street; Spring (Giles) & Goodrich (Grant), 124 Lake street; Stuart (Wil- liam) & Larrabee (Charles R.), 59 Clark street; Thomas (Jesse Burgess) & Ballingall (Patrick), 92 Lake street; Tracey, Elisha Winslow, 123 Lake street; Wright, Walter, 94 Lake street.
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