USA > Illinois > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson County, Illinois > Part 18
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Benjamin Johnson. the ancestor of the Johnsons living here, was a native of Mary- land, but removed to Hanover County, Va., where he died. John Johnson, a son of his, was the father of the pioneer Johnsons who came to Jefferson County. He married Han- nah Medlock, who died early, leaving three children. He afterward married Betsey Tyler, a widow, who had three children by her first husband. By this second marriage Mr. Johnson had four children -Lewis, James, Betsey and John. After his death (about 1803), his widow and her family moved to Sumner County, Tenn. The Tylers, Mrs. Johnson's children by her first hus- band, were also early pioneers in Illinois.
Lewis Johnson, the eldest son of John Johnson by his second marriage, was among the early settlers in Jefferson County. He married Mrs. Winu, formerly Miss Stone, by whom he had nine children-Milly, Anna, Incy. James E., John T., Nicholas S., Elizabeth, Nancy and Susan. Mr. Johnson was licensed to preach in Tennessee in 1812; was ordained Deacon there by Bishop Rob- erts in 1816, and Elder by the same Bishop in Illinois in 1827. He was a pious man, and lived a purely Christian life. It is said that for a period of fifty years he held prayers in his family regularly three times a day. He died in January, 1857, at the age of eighty, and his wife in December following at the age of eighty-three years. Of his chil- dren, Milly married Asahel Bateman in
Tennessee, but removed to Illinois in an early day. Anna married Rausom Moss in 1821 and has numerous descendants !in the county. Lucy married Launcelot Foster. He died early from a peculiar disease brought on from exposure while hunting. Their house was burned a year or so after their marriage and their month-old infant burned to death in it James E. was the oldest son of Lewis Johnson. He was con- verted in 1821 and soon after began to ex- hort. He went back to Tennessee, where he attended school during the winter and then re- turned to Illinois and commenced preaching. He preached throughout Southern Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas, as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His health gave way and he was forced to cease regular preaching. He came here and improved a farm where John T. Johnson now lives, or recently lived. He died at the age of seven- ty years. John T., the next oldest brother to James, was also licensed to preach, when but twenty-one years old. He joined the Illinois Conference (Methodist Episcopal Church) and for many years preached in this State and Indiana. In 1843, he located in this county on a farm, but still continued preaching. He has always been considered a lueid, interesting preacher, a successful farmer and a useful man. The next brother, Nicholas S., married Minerva Holliday. He lived in Grand Prairie some years, where he finally died. Elizabeth married T. B. Afflack and moved to Grand Prairie and then to Rieh- view. Nancy married James Barnes and also lives in Richview. Susan married U. G. Witherspoon, of Kentucky. They finally removed back to Kentucky after living here for a time, and now reside in Crittenden County.
James Johnson, the second son of the pio- neer, John Johnson, was born in Louisa
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County, Va., about the year 1778. He mar- ried Clarissa Maxey in Tennessee, and in 1818 came to Illinois with five children. His wife died in 1847, and he afterward married Mrs. Livingston. He was a man of the most unswerving honesty. and was a re- spected and upright citizen. He died in 1860 at the age of eighty-two years. Six- teen children were born to him, one of whom died at the age of seventeen months, another at nine years, while the rest lived to matur- ity. His eldest son, John N. Johnson, mar- rie Sarah Hobbs in 1834. He was a stir- ring and enterprising man, and built several houses in Mount Vernon, among them the City Hotel, which was known as the Johnson House. He was a physician, and graduated in the healing art in Cincinnati, but did not follow the profession through life. He died in 1858, leaving a wife and five children. James D. and A. Curtis, his sons, are among the prominent citizens and business men of Mount Vernon. Others of James Johnson's children are mentioned elsewhere in this work.
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John Johnson, the youngest brother of Lewis and James Johnson, came to Illinois in 1834, and hence can scarcely be reckoned among the pioneers of Jefferson County. He was a preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in discharge of his ministerial duties traveled over a large portion of Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee and Missis- sippi for a period of twenty-five years. He was a man of great power in debate and in the pulpit, and his fervent piety and patient endurance were unexcelled by any minister in the conference to which he belonged. He (lied in Mount Vernon in 1858, aged seventy - five years. His children were Dr. T. B. Johnson, who died in Kentucky in 1870; the wife of Blackford Casey; J. Fletcher, Washington S., G. Wesley, J. Benson, a
girl and boy who died in childhood. and Adam C., the faithful historian of the pio- neers of Jefferson County, and whose sketch of Mount Vernon forms several interesting chapters of this volume.
Among other pioneer families of the coun- ty who will receive adequate mention as we proceed with our work, we may note the following who came in a few years after the organization of the county: The Hickses, the Wilkersons, the Jordan family, Overton Harlow, the Baldridges, Fleming Greenwood, Thomas D. Minor, the Maxwells, Mathew Cunningham, and a number of others.
We have now given in this and in the chapter on the early settlement a record of some of the pioneer families. The sketches as they appear in this book are drawn by those who never saw the originals, and who can know of them only by much talking with those who did know them long and well, and while they were here and playing their part in life, and from the brief sketches that have hitherto been written of them. To pick out the representative people of all the different classes of a community and draw a true representation of them-so true that any reader can gather an actual person- al acquaintance with those who were, per- haps, dead before he was born, is no easy task, yet one, if done well and truly, will give him a just and correct idea of those about whom he is studying history for the purpose of learning. For a certain quality of society will produce a certain kind of men or a certain kind of character-a leading character, with strong marks and signs, that arrests attention and fixes upon him the duty of furnishing posterity the key to the whole mass of his fellow-men who were his neigh- bors and cotemporaries.
The sketches, as we have said, are not drawn by those who personally knew the
E UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
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original. This is best, for then there is less danger of prejudices, either for or against the subject that constitutes the picture, and false colors are not liable to slip in. There is less incentive (there should be none) to suppress here and overdraw there; in short, less of prejudice, and consequently more of truth. But men who write are affected by much the same prejudices of color of vision in viewing transactions of which they formed a part, as other men, and for this rea- son, history is written by strangers or the sons and daughters of strangers, who live in the long years and ages after the actors and their immediate descendants have passed away.
So far, we have attempted to give the names and settlement, as already stated, of the first actual settlors of the county, together with some of the old and prominent and numerous families who came here over half
a century ago. These notices and sketches have been necessarily brief. Many of those already mentioned will receive further no- tice in connection with works upon which they were actively engaged, and with sub- jects wherein they bore important parts. In the chapters devoted to the history of the different townships, many other pioneers hitherto unnoticed will be written up and receive full justice according to their merits. That their works are confined to divisions so small as townships does not imply that they are of no moment or interest. Men, at most, are but as coral, feeble, insignificant, working out of sight, but they transmit some occult quality or power, upheave society un- til. from the moral and intellectual platean, rises, as Saul above his fellows, a Shakes peare, a Phidias or a Hamilton, the royal in- terpreters of the finest sense in poetry, in art and statesmanship.
CHAPTER VI .*
THE BENCH AND BAR-SUPREME COURT-ITS LOCATION AT MOUNT VERNON-THE JUDGES OF THE SAME-BREEZE AND SCATES-OTHER LUMINARIES-THE APPELLATE COURT-SOME OF ITS GREAT LIGIITS-CIRCUIT COURT-JUDGE TANNER AND OTHERS-EARLY CASES TRIED IN THE COURTS-MARSHALL, BAUGH, ETC .- PRESENT MEMBERS OF THE BAR, ETC., ETC.
"The ethics of the bar comprehends the duties of each of its members to himself."
"TO write a history of the bench and bar of this or any other place is to write the history of that department which absolutely guarantees the freedom and safety of our government. The perpetuity of our liberties depends more upon au honest and intelligent judiciary than upon anything else, and to ac. "By George M. Ilaynes, Esq.
complish the noble purposes for which it is created it must be supported by an honest and intelligent bar. It is by the courts of the land and the powers in them vested that criminals are apprehended and punished; it is through them that all wrongs are re- dressed; it is by them that the wrongly im- prisoned are given their liberty: it is through them that the minister is permitted to occupy his pulpit. In fact, our government could
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not exist without its judiciary. It is the "jew- el that from the cluster riven would leave all a dark and hopeless chaos." Localizing, we can say that Mount Vernon and Jefferson County may well be termed the seat of jus- tice and the home of Judges. Since 1848, the Supreme Court has been located here, during which time the State has spent large sums of money in a building and its equip- ment. The library here is the largest and most valuable in the State. There is noth- ing written upon the law that has passed to the dignity of authority that may not be found here, and few finer collections can be found in the United States. Perhaps few towns of its size can boast of more Judges taken from its bar than can Mount Vernon. So marked has this been that it has almost became a proverb to say " Mount Vernon, the home of Judges." Although the county had been organized for fifteen years before we had a resident lawyer, the bar here has ever since stood high in line with the pro- fession of the State. Since 1864, the Mount Vernon bar has been represented upon the bench. In that year, the Hon. James M. Pollock was elected from this county. He was succeeded by Tanner, and he by Casey, the present incumbent. Mount Vernon has, since the county's organization, furnished Baugh and Scates, in addition to those of later date already mentioned.
Supreme Court .- Under the Constitution of 1848, the State was divided into three grand divisions, the people in each division electing one Judge of the Supreme Court. The divisions were known as the First, Sec- ond and Third; this county was placed in the First, and after a strong and bitter strug- gle, Mount Vernon was selected as the seat of the court for the First Grand Division, which. through biennial fights, she has con- tinued to retain until the present.
The first term of the court held in this place convened in December, 1848, with Samuel H. Treat, Chief Justice, and J. D. Caton and Lyman Trumbull, Associates; Finny D. Preston, Clerk. There were sev- enteen cases on the docket. The first case was Meridith Hawkins vs. Silas N. Berry, error to Franklin. Jefferson County fur- nished one case, William B. Thorn against Joel F. Watson, administrator of the estate of James Ham. Thorn had a claim against the estate which Watson thought had been filed too late, and consequently barred by the statutes. Watson defeated him in the lower courts and Thorn took it up and was again beaten. The second term convened in No- vember, 1849, with twenty-three cases, one from this county, Governor, etc., vs. E. H. Ridgway et al., Ridgway being successful. The court remained the same until November, 1853, when Trumbull resigned and Scates was made his successor.
In November, 1854, Preston resigned as Clerk and Maj. Noah Johnston was ap- pointed by the court to succeed him. In 1855, Treat resigned and O. C. Skinner was elected in his stead, and Scates became Chief Justice.
In 1857, J. D. Caton became Chief Jus- tice; Scates resigned and Sidney Breeze was elected, and as such he continued until his death.
In 1857, Skinner resigned and Pinkney H. Walker was elected, since which time he has been regularly re-elected, and is at pres- ent one of the Judges. In January, 1864, Caton resigned, and Corydon Beckwith was appointed and served until June of the same year, when Charles B. Lawrence was elected. By the constitution of 1870, the judicial de partment of the State was reconstructed, the three Grand Divisions retained, but the Court increased to seven Judges, instead of
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three. The State was divided into seven districts and one Judge elected from each district. After the election under this sys- tem, the court consisted of Lawrence, Walk. er, Breeze, Thornton, Seates, Sheldon and McAllister, and it is no reflection to say that at no time since the organization of the court was it ever stronger. Its opinions were cited and recognized during this period as of the first of American authorities. In 1873, Alfred M. Craig succeeded Judge Lawrence and John Schofield went on in the place of Thornton. In December, 1875, T. Lyle Dickey succeeded McAllister, who resigned.
June 28, 1878. Judge Breeze died and David J. Baker was appointed to succeed him by the Governor, and on the 2d of June, 1879, John H. Mulkey was elected to succeed Baker. since which time there has been no change, leaving the court now consisting of Sheldon, Schofield, Craig, Dickey, Walker. Scott and Mulkey. June 3, 1867. R. A. D. Wilbanks was elected Clerk, succeeding Maj. Johnston, and so continued until November, 1878, when he was in turn succeeded by J. O. Chance, the present incumbent. From 1848 until November, 1853, the court met in the old Odd Fellows Hall on Main street, pay- ing an annual rent of $75. From November, 1853, until the court house was completed in about 1856, it met in the Masonic Hall, over Joel Pace's store, at the same rent paid the Odd Fellows.
In 1854, an appropriation was obtained from the Legislature of $6,000 for the build- ing of a court house. T. B. Tanner, Maj. Johnston, Zadok Casey, William J. Stephens and Dr. John N. Johnson were appointed Commissioners to take charge of the build- ing and superintend its construction. Plans were obtained, and it was found that the fund was insufficient, but finally parties in St. Louis were found who contracted to in-
close it for the money, which was done, and in 1854, T. B. Tanner, who had been elected a member of the Legislature, obtained an additional appropriation of $10,000, with which the building was completed according to the original design. In 1874, an addi. tional appropriation was obtained for the purpose of remodeling the building, and the north and south wings were added, and the building left in its present condition, an ornament to the county and a credit to the State.
Judge Sidney Breeze .- Illinois has pro- duced some very great men-men whom all the world has been proud to honor -men who will go down in the national history, yes, in the history of the world, as truly great. In war, the Illinois' soldiers are said to be the greatest now living; in State-eraft we sent Douglas and Lincoln -- men prominent in statesmanship. men to whom the world's history must accord befitting space. But, great as they are, none have been greater in their partienlar line than has Judge Breeze in his-a jurist quoted in every civilized coun- try, logical, analytical, just and blunt, se- vere, yet impartial. Judge Breeze was born in New York on the 15th day of July, 1800 -born at the beginning of the most brill- iant century the world ever saw-born fitted and destined to bear a most prominent part in the many overshadowing achievements of the world's history. He received a classical education at Union College, New York, and at a very early age started with the star of empire westward. The year 1818 found Judge Breeze at Illinois' first capital, Kas- kaskia, as Assistant Secretary of State to Elias Kent Kam-his old friend. During this employment, the State capital was re- moved to Vandalia. The responsibilty of removing the Secretary's office was left to Judge Breeze; he accomplished the task with
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a yoke of oxen and the old two-wheeled cart, and thus were the great State documents re- moved from the old to the new capital.
In 1822, he was appointed State's Attorney; in 1827, he was made United States District Attorney for Illinois by President John Q. Adams. In 1831, he published Breeze's Reports, to be found in every well-appointed law library, and the first book ever published in Illinois. In 1835, he first went upon the bench as Judge of the Second Judicial Cir- cuit. In 1842, he was elected to the United State Senate and served as such for six years. His career in the Senate was not barren of results. Then Clay, Webster, Benton and Calhoun were there. In the forum or in the committee, Senator Breeze ranked with those giants.
While his mind, perhaps, was not em- ployed in the more active and exciting ele- ments of politics and State craft. yet he was never idle, his giant intellect reached out into the great unknown future; he read its hidden pages; he saw the future wants of this then young republic; he saw a few years in the distance the great chains of iron that were to bind this continent into indissoluble union; he saw the rapid strides of commerce; he realized its demands. He saw that in the great and rich valleys and prairies of the West was to spring the attributes of prosper- ity and wealth to this Government. He saw the great agricultural districts bending beneath the rich harvests, asking for trans- portation. 'Twas then his practical sagacity and comprehensive mind discovered and brought for the first time to the light of the nation the necessity of railroad connection between the Pacific and the Atlantic. He availed himself of his opportunity as Chair- man of the Committee on Public Lands in the United States Senate in 1846, elaborated in detail and brought in the first report ever
made, advocating and anticipating the con- struction of the Pacific Railroad twenty-three years in advance of its commencement. His friends were incredulous; his enemies thought, for the time, at least, that he had, by his own blunder, succeeded in throwing ridicule on himself. But no; he only lived as many great men before his time.
It has so happened that no man has left to his age or his country a more enduring mon- ument by which he is to be known to poster- ity. This one act, had he done no other, would hand him down in history as long as the whistle of the engine and the rumbling of the cars are heard upon our great plains. But this was not all that Judge Breeze did in the Senate. He was a continual worker for the development of his adopted State and the resources of the nation, but to write of his activities and public services while in the Senate would of itself make a volume. The building of the Illinois Central Railroad was under consideration while he was in the Sen- ate, and in Judge Breeze that enterprise found a strong and valuable champion.
He was defeated in 1848 for re-election to the Senate by the hero of Cerro Gordo, Gen. Shields, who had just returned from the Mexican war, covered all over with glory. The military sentiment ran riot, as it has many times before and since, and a great mind was forced to retire for the advance- ment of one who, while brilliant and brave on the field, yet had no qualification to rep- resent the rising State of Illinois in the na- tion's councils. And again we have illustrated the senitment, "Put a man on a charger, call him a warrior, and the American people are ready to blindly follow him they know not whither, neither do they care; so long as the shouts of the . General' are heard they gu." A few military gentlemen have been called to the White House from the same senti-
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ment, and the experiment has in almost every instance shown the folly of such a selection. The better the soldier, the poorer the states- man. But we are digressing. After his retirement from the Senate, Judge Breeze remained in private life until 1850, when he was elected to the Seventh General Assem- bly, of which he was elected Speaker of the Lower House, defeating Gov. Z. Casey of this county. In June, 1855, he was again elected Judge of the Second Judicial Circuit, and from this time it may be said he began that course of life which has handed him down as the greatest jurist this State has ever produced, and the peer of any in the nation. This marked his final retirement from politics, not, perhaps, from his own inclination, for he early evinced a strong desire for political preferment, and for years cherished his political aspirations, but his defeat by Shields so mortified him that he never afterward pressed his claims or wishes. In 1857, he resigned the Circuit Judgeship to accept a seat upon the Supreme Bench, never more to leave it until the final sum- mons, and it is as such that he achieved his highest honors. He was upon the Supreme Bench in 1841, when he was elected to the State Senate. He died June 28, 1878, a member of the court. We know of no more fitting words by which his judicial life may be reviewed than the remarks of Mr. Justice Scott, of the Supreme Court, at Ottawa, upon the presentation of resolutions an- nouncing Judge Breeze's death. He says: " Judge Breeze was a man of great learn- ing in the best and broadest sense of that term. To the studies prescribed by the col- ege of which he was graduate, he added a life-time of study. Notwithstanding his constant employment in public life, he found time for the study of classic literature, both in Latin and in English. After the close of
the labors of the day, extending to a late hour of the evening, I have often known him, in his private room, before retiring, to spend hours in reading standard works on literature or scientific subjects. It was his constant habit. It is a marvel the amount of intellectual labors he could endure. What relates to his personal history will soon fade from the recollections of the living and be forever forgotten. He will only be remem- bered by his public works.
" In two particulars Judge Breeze will stand out prominent in history. First, in his character as a statesman, and second as a jurist.
" Few men have influenced in so large a measure the jurisprudence of this State or nation in which they lived as Judge Breeze. Every one, to some extent, creates the oppor- tunities for success in life. The means he possessed were within the reach of others, had they possessed the ability to combine them. Genius makes opportunities as well as employs those at hand for successful achievements. We call men great only in comparison with others. and hence we are al- ways looking to see what others have done in the same field of labor. When the real does not exist we may conceive the ideal, and institute comparisons. As no one appears anywhere in judicial history who conforms exactly to the ideal of the true Judge, it is no easy task to express the conception of such a character. Some few of the essential qual- ities readily suggest themselves. * *
While we may not expect to find in him whose character we are considering, nor in that of any other Judge of the present or past ages, all that we might conceive to belong to the ideal Judge, yet some of the grand es- sentials do appear in his character. Although making no parade of it, he possessed in a
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full measure that absolute incorruptibility that insures purity in the administration of the law-qualities which belong to the true Judge. His judgments were always dis- tinctly marked with impartiality and even- handed justice. He believed in those fun- damental principles embodied in our organic law-that every person ought . to obtain by law right and justice freely and without be- ing obliged to purchase it,' and that he ought to 'find a certain remedy in the laws for all injuries and wrongs which he may receive in his person, property or reputation.'
"He had not that degree of self-confidence possessed by many, yet he was free from that hesitancy that so embarrasses many Judges, as to destroy, in a marked degree, their efficiency. Although he wrote with nu- usual facility, yet so careful was he in pre- paring his opinions, I have known him when he deemed the case of importance, to write the same over as many as three or four times.
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