USA > Illinois > Kane County > History of Kane County, Ill. Volume I > Part 38
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Treasurer-1837 to 1840, John Griggs; 1840, H. A. Miller; 1841 to 1843, B. T. Hunt; 1843, E. R. Allen; 1844, Charles Metcalf; 1845 to 1847, James Hotchkiss; 1847 to March, 1850, Thomas A. Scott; from March, 1850, to November, 1850, S. K. Whiting; from November, 1850, to November, 1851, John Clark; from November, 1851 to 1853, A. W. Glass; 1853 to 1855, George P. Harvey; 1855 to 1857, George W. Waite; 1857 to 1859, William R. West ; 1859 to 1861, Adin Mann; 1861 to 1865, R. WV. Hoyt ; 1865 to 1867, W. H. Miller ; 1867 to 1869, A. Barto; 1869 to 1872, W. P. West.
Sheriff-1836 to 1840, B. F. Fridley ; 1840 to 1842, James Risk; 1842 to 1848, Noah B. Spaulding; 1848 to January, 1851; B. C. Yates; January, 1851 to 1852, Luther Dearborn; 1852 to 1854, Noah B. Spaulding; 1854 to 1856 L. P. Barker; 1856, to 1858, George E. Corwin; 1858 to 1860, E. J. Allen ; 1860 to 1862, Demarcus Clark; 1862 to 1864, J. H. Whipple; 1864 to 1866, H. L. Perry ; 1866 to 1868, D. Smith; 1868 to 1870, L. M. Kelly ; 1870 to 1872, J. C. Brown.
County Judge-1836, Mark Daniels; 1837 to 1839, Isaac Wilson; 1839 to 1842, H. N. Chapman; 1842, L. Howard; 1843 to 1847, S. S. Jones; 1847 to 1849, Alexander V. Sill; 1849 to June, 1851, J. G. Wilson; June, 1851, to 1857, W. D. Barry; 1857 to 1861, Daniel Eastman; 1861 to 1865, R. N. Botsford; 1865 to 1867, J. T. Brown; 1867 to 1869, C. D. F. Smith; 1869 to 1872, W. D. Barry.
School Commissioner-1841 to 1843, Ira Minard; 1843 to 1845, Wyatt Carr; 1845 to 1847, A. W. Churchill; 1847 to 1849, John W. Hapgood; 1849, Joseph Kimball; 1850 to 1853, E. W. Brewster; 1853 to 1855, D. D. Waite; 1855 to 1857, Mervin Tabor; 1857 to 1861, David Higgins; 1861 to 1863, N. T. Nichols; 1863 to 1865, Clark Braden; 1865 to 1869, C. E. Smith ; 1869 to 1872, George B. Charles.
County Clerk-1873, J. C. Sherwin; 1880, Thomas Meredith; 1887, A. M. Beaupre; 1894, Charles W. Raymond; 1898. John McKellar; 1892, William F. Lynch; 1906, William F. Lynch.
Clerk of Circuit Court-1872, H. T. Rockwell: 1876, C. P. Dutton; 1884, . C. A. Miller : 1888, John Dewey: 1898, T. J. Rushton; 1900, B. E. Gould; 1904, E. F. Rogers.
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Recorder-1892, Joseph Ingham ; 1896, Frank E. George; 1900, Frank E. George; 1904. Frank E. George.
Treasurer-1873, H. C. Paddock; 1876. T. F. Tolman; 1878, T. B. Coulter; 1880, F. L. Young : 1886, C. E. Smiley; 1890, J. M. Innis ; 1894, Robert J. McCormack; 1898, Henry McGough; 1900, Samuel Shedden; 1904, George A. James.
Sheriff-1872, J. C. Brown; 1874, L. M. Kelley; 1876, C. S. Mixer; 1880, N. S. Carlisle ; 1886, John Kelley; 1890, William H. Reed; 1894, Robert E. Burke; 1898, H. S. Denimer; 1900, Robert E. Burke; 1904, B. E. Richardson.
County Judge-1872, W. D. Barry; 1874, John W. Ranstead; 1882, E. C. Lovell; 1892. D. B. Sherwood; 1894. M. O. Southworth; 1904, Frank G. Plain.
Probate Judge-1902, J. H. Williams; 1906, D. B. Sherwood.
(This court was established in 1902.)
Probate Clerk-1902, Peter Klein; 1906, M. J. Beverly.
States Attorney-1836, B. F. Fridley; 1846 to 1852, Burton C. Cook; 1876, Henry B. Willis; 1880, T. E. Ryan; 1884, John A. Russell; 1888, F. G. Hanchett; 1892, Frank W. Joslyn; 1896. Frank W. Joslyn; 1900, W. J. Tyers ; 1904, Frank R. Reid.
CHAPTER XIX.
COURTS-BENCH AND BAR.
The county commissioners at their meeting held in September, 1836, selected grand and petit jurors for the first term of the Kane county circuit court, who were as follows: Grand jurors-Isaac Wilson (made foreman of the jury), Sidney Kimball, Allen Ware, James T. Wheeler, William Van Nortwick, Samuel McCarty, Nicholas Gray, Edwin Knight, James Squares, Benjamin F. Phillips. Otho W. Perkins, Ansel Kimball, Walter Hotchkiss, John Van Fleet, William T. Elliott. John Ross, Friend Marks, Solomon Dunham, Marshall Starks, George Johnson, Lyman Barber. Petit jurors- Calvin Ward. Read Ferson, B. H. Smith. E. R. Mann, Solomon H. Hamilton, James H. Latham, Carlos Lattin, John V. King, James Ferson, John Douglas, Ira Merrick and Gideon Young.
The first term of the circuit court was held at Geneva, in James Herring- ton's log house, on June 19, 1837, Judge John Pearson presiding. A. B. Hubbard acted as clerk pro tem and B. F. Fridley as sheriff. The first jury trial at this court was that of John Wilson et al. vs. Thomas Wilson, for trespass. The jury found the defendant guilty and assessed the plaintiff's damages at $4, 160.66, probably an amount equal to all the money in circula- tion in the county at that time. The calendar at that term was large, most of the actions being for trespass. The grand jury presented five indictments,
EARLY KANE COUNTY JUDGES AND LAWYERS.
R. G. MONTONY.
J. F. FARNSWORTHI.
E. S. JOSLYN.
A. H. BARRY.
P. N. BOTSFORD.
I. G. WILSON.
A. M. HERRINGTON.
F. G. GARFIELD.
B. F. PARKS.
B. F. FRIDLEY.
J. H. MAYBORNE.
SYLVANUS WILCOX.
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two for riot and three for larceny. The rioters were fined $5 and costs each at the following September term. Much of the business of this grand jury and of the first term of court was with claim jumpers and house burners. A couple of these worthies were in examination before the jury and one of its members, Mr. Van Nortwick, became so disgusted with the testimony that he impatiently blurted out, "Gentlemen, you can think what you please, but I believe these fellow's swear to a d-d lie, both of them!" It was a favorite scheme with some of these claim jumpers to come from somewhere down the river, engage to do a job of plowing for a settler, and after having plowed two or three acres drive off and sell the claim to another party. These rascally proceedings did not always result healthfully for the perpetrators. The fol- lowing from the diary of Captain Thomas H. Thompson, of Dundee, is an illustration of the above subject, and good evidence of what the settlers were forced to go to law about :
"Fence put up Friday, September 15, 1836; commenced drawing logs to build house 16th; 18th, finished drawing logs and put up body of the house; the same day Benjamin Bell came on the premises and swore that Sutfin should not build, for he ( Bell) was going to build and both of them could not stay on the claim; at night the logs were taken down, put in a pile and set fire to; 20th, more logs drawn, the house raised, the roof boards put on; 21st, 22d, 23d, work putting in gable ends, making door, chinking, hewing down the walls and mudding; evening of 23d, roof torn off ; 24th, at daylight, Benjamin Bell and James Robinson came to the house : 25th, at night, house set on fire .*
At this term of court Mark W. Fletcher was appointed clerk in place of Hubbard, who resigned after the first day. It is said that not a single lawyer was then living within the limits of Kane county. Alonzo Huntington was the state's attorney in attendance on the court. Selden M. Church had been appointed clerk originally, but removed to Rockford before court was held, and Mr. Hubbard received his appointment from Judge Ford September 21, 1836. This first term of court lasted three days, during which time there were five jury trials, four changes of venue granted, fourteen judgments ren- dered amounting to $5,400, twenty suits continued and five dismissed. There- fore it seems the pioneers dabbled quite extensively in legal proceedings, and usually for cause. It is recorded that Jacob B. Mills and H. N. Chapman were at this term granted the privilege of practicing as attorneys in the court. On the second day John Douglass, by birth a Scotchman, renounced his allegiance to the British government and swore fealty to that of the United States.
In September. 1837, the second term of the court was held by Judge Thomas. Most of the settlers attended the terms of court, it is said, either as jurors, parties to suits or witnesses, or merely as spectators. Beside the suits brought on account of conflicting claims to lands there was much trouble and litigation over prairie fires carelessly kindled. These were, in the lan- guage of an eminent member of the bar and formerly a practitioner of the Kane county courts, "an annual terror." and caused great destruction of property. When Mark W. Fletcher was clerk of the courts he had a Bible
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upon which to swear witnesses and on one side of it was a cross, while a dollar embellished the other side, the witness having his choice of objects to swear upon.
The first judge of the circuit court for the district which included Kane county was John Pearson and the second Thomas Ford, who was in 1842 elected governor of the state. Hon. B. C. Cook has said of him: "He was one of the best circuit judges I ever knew." He was succeeded by Judge Caton and the latter by Judge T. Lyle Dickey. Previous to 1852 the prose- cuting attorneys of the district were Norman H. Purple, afterward a judge of the supreme court and one of the ablest attorneys in the state; Seth B. Farwell, B. F. Fridley and Burton C. Cook, the latter holding from 1846 to 1852 and attending every term of the court held in the county. He succeeded Mr. Fridley, during whose term the courts were called upon to take in hand the work of suppressing a class of criminals such as are found at some period troubling the settlers in all new countries.
Very comical incidents sometimes occurred in the court, human nature then being very much the same as at the present day. During the December term, in 1858. a couple of rival horse doctors on the witness stand made considerable sport for the spectators. One of them solemnly swore to his positive knowledge of a disease among horses called the red belly-ache, while the other as solemnly and earnestly swore that there was no such thing, and both adhered tenaciously to their belief, defending their positions with much loud talk and many emphatic gestures.
PROBATE COURT.
The probate court. originally, was simply a probate justice of the peace, who was his own clerk, and conducted the business of his office without the presence of the sheriff or his bailiff. Archibald Moody, of St. Charles, died July 27. 1836, and the first recorded act of the probate court was the granting of letters of administration to his widow, Lydia C. Moody, by Mark Daniels. probate justice, on the 6th of June, 1837. The bonds of the administratrix were $2.000, with Gideon Young as surety. The first will probated was that of Warren Tyler. also of St. Charles. It was dated September 10, 1837, and proved and admitted to record November 6, 1837, by Isaac Wilson, who had succeeded Daniels as probate justice. The first letters of guardianship were issued to Moses Selby, as guardian of Rebecca Gillespie. November 5. 1838. The seal of this probate court is described as a "copper block, with a weeping willow and tombstone, emblematic, in those days. of grief for the dead."
In 1849. under the new constitution, the probate justices gave place to the county court. of which Isaac G. Wilson, afterward circuit judge, was elected first judge, with James Herrington as county clerk. They were elected in November. 1849. commissioned in December. and held the term of the county court in January, 1850, beginning on the Ioth of the month. Of this court. Andrew J. Waldron and Marcus White were associate justices. Among other business transacted was the granting of grocers' licenses-
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i. e. licenses for the sale of liquors-to John D. Wygant, of Batavia, and William G. Webster, of Geneva, the charge for the same being $25 each.
CITY COURT OF AURORA AND ELGIN.
When the original charter of the city of Aurora was granted by the legislature in 1857, it was given an addendum providing for a city court at that place, the idea emanating from the brains of B. F. Parks and O. D. Day. A. C. Gibson was chosen the first judge. Elgin copied and adopted the Aurora charter, and a city court was also created at that place, of which C. H. Morgan was the first judge. By the terms of these charters, the expenses of the courts were to be met by their respective cities. An act was passed in 1859 providing that the same judge should preside over both courts, and the two were consolidated under the title of the court of common pleas of the cities of Aurora and Elgin. The bulk of business was transacted in the Aurora branch. In 1870, when the new constitution was framed and adopted, a clause was inserted similar to that in the constitution of 1848, by which Kane county is entitled to have a superior court, with terins held at Elgin and Aurora. The present judge of this court is Hon. Mangan, of Aurora. Prior to the term of Judge Mangan, Judge John L. Healy and Judge R. P. Goodwin, of Aurora, and Judge A. H. Barry, of Elgin, held the office. Several attempts have been made to abolish the court, but the efforts have proved unfruitful, owing to lack of interest. This year an attempt to awaken interest to abolish the justice court and give the city court their work, so far has resulted in nothing practical.
BENCH AND BAR.
The judicial district embracing Kane county has been remarkably for- tunate in its choice of men to occupy the bench. Judge Ford, in his subsequent career as governor of Illinois, won an enviable reputation by his upright and straightforward administration of the affairs of the commonwealth. Judge John D. Caton was for many years an honored resident of Cook and LaSalle counties, and Judge Dickey, who was from the same county, died July 22, 1885. His duties as circuit judge were admirably discharged, and his marked ability was evident in his career as a judge of the supreme court of Illinois. Judge Pearson was judge of the Seventh judicial circuit, Kane county being in the Sixth, and held court several times in said county. Judge Jesse B. Thomas belonged in what was then the First circuit, and Judge Caton was a justice of the supreme court at the same time his services were rendered in the Kane circuit. Supreme court then held court in their districts as appellate justices now do. His first terin here began August 25, 1842. Hon. Isaac G. Wilson's first term of the Kane county circuit court began August 11, 1851, Phineas W. Platt being, at the time, state's attorney. He held the office until 18-, being succeeded by Judge Henry B. Willis, the present judge.
Judge Wilson was a native of Middlebury (now Wyoming) county, New York, and the son of an eminent lawyer and judge. He was graduated from Brown university, at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1838, and removed
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at once to Chicago, whither his father had shortly before preceded him. He began the study of law under Butterfield & Collins, then prominent Illinois practitioners. About a year later he entered the law school at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in 1841 was admitted to the Massachusetts bar, returned to Illinois and began practice at Elgin, in August of that year. He was ele- vated to the bench in 1851, holding through subsequent elections for about seventeen years. In 1867 he removed to Chicago. remaining until 1871, when he lost his valuable law library in the great fire. He finally returned to Kane county, locating at Geneva. and was elected one of the judges of the Twelfth judicial circuit. He held the office continuously from 1879 to - -. The characteristics of Judge Wilson were remarkable industry, strict integrity, and opposition to needless litigation and the delays which are so vexatious in most courts. He is regarded as one of the ablest lawyers of Illinois, and during his years upon the bench was several times chosen to represent his district in the appellate court.
Hon. Silvanus Wilcox, who succeeded Judge Wilson in 1867, is a native of Montgomery county, New York. He was a cadet at West Point for two years, beginning in April. 1836, but was obliged to resign on account of ill health. standing fifth in general merit. in a class of fifty. He spent five months in the West. in 1840. and finally located, in 1844. at Elgin, where he was the next year appointed postmaster by President Polk. holding the office during the latter's administration. He was admitted to the bar in 1846. and in 1867 elected judge of the Twenty-eighth judicial circuit. comprising the counties of Kane. DuPage and Kendall. He was reelected in 1873. but resigned in 1874. because of poor health, his resignation being received with regret by the judiciary of the state.
Judges Wilson and Wilcox and Judge Willis are the only citizens fur- nished by Kane county for the circuit bench of the district. but those from other counties, who have performed its duties have been men of marked ability and high standing in the profession. Judge Hiram H. Cody. of DuPage, was no exception to the rule, and Judges Charles Kellum and Clark W. Upton, stand also in the front rank. George W. Brown and L. J. Ruth, of DuPage, and Charles A. Bishop, of DeKalb county. all three of whom have died within three years. were each able lawyers and capable judges. whose loss to the district can hardly be estimated.
Judge Henry B. Willis, present circuit judge. was born May 8. 1849, in Vermont, and came to Illinois with his parents in 1852. they locating at Genoa, DeKalb county. In 1870 he graduated from Albany Law School. Albany. New York, and began practice in Elgin in 1872. He was state's attorney. 1876 to 1880. and mayor of Elgin, 1885-7. He was elected cir- cuit judge in 1891. succeeding Judge Isaac G. Wilson, and has since held that office, conducting its business with dignity and ability. In 1906 he was appointed one of the justices of the appellate court for the Second district.
NOTABLE CASES.
Although numerous murders have been committed in Kane county, and some of them of the most diabolical character. hut two inen have been
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legally executed for this crime within the limits of the county. At the February term of the circuit court, in 1855, John Collins was convicted of murder for having, while intoxicated, killed his wife. He was sentenced to be hanged, and the penalty was inflicted upon him by Sheriff Spaulding, April 21, 1855. N. S. Young, Esq., of Batavia, thus describes the incident :
"The sheriff and prisoner were escorted from the jail, in the old stone court house, by an armed military company from Chicago, procured for the purpose, to a spot southwest from the court house, in a hollow or ravine just north of the present Chicago & Northwestern Railroad track, and in sight of the present depot grounds. The scaffold was made with a platform some three feet from the ground, with two upright posts eight or ten feet apart, and a cross-beam on top. The rope lianging down from the center of the cross-beam, passed over a pulley and along the beam to the post, over another pulley and down to a large, heavy iron weight, to which it was fast- ened. The prisoner was dressed in a nankeen suit of clothes: a white cotton cap was drawn over his head and face; his arms were tied to his body, the rope was placed around his neck, and, standing west, the sheriff, with a hatchet, cut a rope which held the heavy weight. Falling quickly and heavily, it gave thie culprit a sudden jerk upward about one foot. A slight contraction of the legs was all there was to be seen of struggling, and soon they relaxed, and, after hanging thirty minutes the doctor pronounced him dead. A large con- course of people was present on the rising grounds near, and all through the proceedings quiet and order prevailed, with no disturbance."
In 1897 an Italian named Romano was executed for killing a companion.
There have been several noted murder cases in the county, among them the following: April 3, 1868, Mrs. Mary Widner, second wife of Adam Widner, was found to have been murdered. The crime was laid to John Ferris and wife, who rented part of the Widner house, and with whom there had been a dispute and one or two lawsuits. The trial was held at Wood- stock, McHenry county, and ended early in April. 1869, with a verdict of acquittal for Mrs. Ferris and a sentence of fourteen years in the penitentiary for the husband, who was proved to be undoubtedly guilty.
Rev. Isaac B. Smith was tried in the fall of 1869 for the alleged drown- ing of his wife in a creek near Elgin and Turner Junction. The trial was long, and excited great interest, but a verdict of not guilty was reached in November.
The Kimball case, tried in the circuit court in the fore part of May, 1881, was for the fatal wounding of Billings Wright by William Kimball, in the car shops at Aurora, October 22, 1880, while the latter was intoxicated. Wright died of his wounds in November following. The jury found Kimball not guilty, on the plea of emotional insanity.
On Sunday, June 1, 1884, Otto John Hope, a German farmer, residing in Sugar Grove township, was killed, and his hired man, Ed. Steinburn, dangerously wounded during a dispute over the feeding of some of Hope's cattle on the highway. Ozias W. Fletcher and his son Merritt W., were the guilty parties, the shooting being done with a revolver. The trial, which
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ensued, was intensely bitter, and resulted in sending the senior Fletcher for three years to Joliet, and sentencing the young man to death. Steinburn, the principal witness, recovered and went to Europe, and, finally, after Merritt Fletcher had been confined in jail three years, he succeeded in having his sentence commuted to three years in the penitentiary, making an incarceration of six years.
A fiendish murder was committed at Elgin. March 3. 1883, when George Panton shot and killed his tenant, William Smith, in consequence of a dispute over the occupation of a house belonging to Panton. It was shown that the murder was deliberate, cold-blooded and unprovoked. Panton was arrested and tried on a change of venue in the Boone circuit court. the jury finding him guilty of murder in the first degree, and the judge sentencing him to be hanged. He was granted a new trial and a second time sentenced, but Governor Oglesby commuted his sentence to imprisonment for life in the penitentiary. He was accordingly sent to Joliet, where he eventually became violently insane, and in the spring of 1887 he was removed to the asylum at Elgin, from which he subsequently escaped and has been unheard of since. Many other cases have been tried, but no convictions have been secured.
THE EARLY BENCH AND BAR.
The following reminiscences are from the book of Judge John Dean Caton, who tried the first law suit in Kane county, and for many years was a judge of the district :
It happened also that I tried the case which was submitted to the first petit jury ever impaneled in Kane county. It was Wilson vs. Wilson.
One day while at work in iny office a man and his wife, way-worn and dusty, entered. and sought my professional services for the redress of a grievance which they had suffered. Both were rather undersized, under thirty years of age, very poorly clad, and were what may be justly termed simple people, without force of will or energy. Their story was that they had come from Buffalo on a schooner, which a week before had been wrecked about two miles south of this city; they and the crew had been all landed safely, after a hard night's experience on the wreck, but they had lost everything except what was on their persons. After a day or two's stay in the town, they had started on foot for the country, and when in the prairie about two miles beyond Laughton's Crossing, where Riverside now is, they had met a drove of horses from Schuyler county, in this state, belonging to one Wilson, who was in charge, with several men with him. Wilson pretended to be a sheriff, and to have a warrant for their arrest, and did arrest them and detained them about half an hour in the prairie, but finally left them, nearly frightened to death.
After they had somewhat recovered from their fright, they turned back. and stopped at Laughton's house at the ford, and told their pitiable story.
Laughton had been a client of mine, and they were strenuously advised to come back to Chicago and state their case to me, with the confident assur- ance that I would see that justice was done for the outrage. This they did.
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and hence their appearance in my office as above stated. I immediately took means in a quiet way to obtain the name of the owner of the horses, and leader of the gang, who was yet in town, and before night he was under bail to appear at the next term of the circuit court to answer to an action of trespass and false imprisonment. My clients' names were Wilson, and that was the name of the defendant.
McScammon was retained for the defense. He succeeded in getting the case continued for one or two terms, and then took a change of venue to Kane county, on an affidavit showing that the people of Cook county were prejudiced against his client so that he could not have a fair trial here.
The records of the court show the following as to this case : JOHN WILSON PARMLICE WILSON vs. Trespass.
THOMAS WILSON
This day came the parties upon a plea of not guilty; it is, thereupon, ordered that a jury come, and thereupon came the jurors of a jury of good and lawful men, to-wit :
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