USA > Illinois > Pike County > History of Pike County, Illinois : together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons and biographies of representative citizens > Part 34
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Besides the Regiments and Companies noticed above, Pike county gave many men to numerous other Companies. Her sons fought upon every battle-field of that great war, and upon the field of every great battle during that long, hard struggle for the supremacy of the Union the life-blood of some of her sons was shed. They were found in the foremost of the fight : indeed, they were found
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wherever duty called them. It is an easy matter to be a patriot " in the piping times of peace, in the sunny hours of prosperity," but when war, discord and rebellion present their 'horrid forms to strike the liberty of a hundred years, it is then the patriot shines in his devotion to his country. When the painful duty presented itself to the patriots of this county to send thousands of her citi- zens into danger, and many of them to certain death, there was no hesitation. Men enrolled their names with a steady hand, bade wife and little ones, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters farewell, and went boldly to the front and saved this glorious blood bought Union.
LEE'S SURRENDER. - LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION.
Our armies bravely contended until finally, after four long years of bloodshed and carnage, the news was flashed over the wires that Lee had surrendered. This joyful news reached this county Mon- day, April 10, 1865, being within two days of four years from the time the batteries were opened on Fort Sumter. On receiving the news of the fall of Richmond the people were very jubilant over the success of the Union forces. They assembled in all parts of the county and had grand jubilees. The streets of the cities were brilliantly illuminated; bonfires, rockets and music were seen on every hand; it was indeed a season of rejoicing; and well might it be, for what had been endured, what had been suffered.
Scarcely had the downfall of the Southern Confederacy been re ceived ere the sad news of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln was flashed over the wires. On that beautiful April morning, five days after the announcement of Lee's surrender, the people, joyful over the near approach of the return of their loved ones from the South, the sorrowing news of the President's death was announced. Mr. Lincoln was bound to the people of this county with stronger cords than simply being a good ruler. He had spent many days here, had many warm personal friends, and it was like the loss of a brother. They felt the loss keenly; the tolling bells, the sym- pathetic dirges, interpreted not merely the grief of the people at the loss of a President, but the sorrow of a community at the death of brother, a son, one who was closely akin to all. Meetings were held and appropriate resolutions passed. Dwellings, stores, churches and public buildings were draped, and the flags which had been sent up in moments of rejoicing were taken down, draped, and sent up at half-mast.
THE CLOSE.
The war ended and peace restored, the Union preserved in its in- tegrity, the sons of Pike, who had volunteered their lives in de- fense of their Government, and who were spared to see the army of the Union victorious, returned to their homes to receive grand ovations and tributes of honor from friends and neighbors who had eagerly and zealously followed them wherever the fortunes of war
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called. Exchanging their soldiers' uniforms for citizens' dress, most of them fell back to their old vocations,-on the farm, at the forge, at the bench, in the shop, and at whatever else their hands found to do. Brave men are honorable always, and no class of citizens are entitled to greater respect than the volunteer soldiery of Pike county, not alone because they were soldiers, but because in their associations with their fellow-men their walk is upright, and their honesty and character without reproach.
Their country first, their glory and their pride, Land of their hopes, land where their fathers died ; When in the right, they'll keep their honor bright; When in the wrong, they'll die to set it right.
The soldiers of Pike county met at the court-house Ang. 23, 1866. The meeting was called to order by Maj. T. W. Jones, when Dr. E. M. Seeley was called to the chair, and James H. Crane was ap- pointed Secretary. The object of the meeting was to take measures for raising funds for the erection of a monument. Elaborate resolu- tions were adopted with reference to the loyalty and fidelity of the soldiery, etc., and sympathy with the suffering, the widows and or- phans etc .; and committees of soldiers, five in each township, were appointed to solicit donations. A 'central committee for the county was also appointed, and a committee to solicit $10,000 from the county treasury. Considerable enthusiasm was manifested in this work of love, and a wish to honor the heroic dead, the citizen soldiers who yielded their lives a sacrifice to their country, but nothing definitely toward the final carrying out of the project was ever done. Although no marble pile rises heavenward to commemo- rate the fallen heroes, yet we know that the memory of their valor and heroic devotion to our country will never fade in the minds and hearts of the citizens, and that their love and gratitude are as strong and undying as though a monument of stones were piled up as high as Babel's tower.
CHAPTER XV. PIKE COUNTY BAR.
PIONEER COURTS.
The records of the early Courts found in the Circuit Clerk's office open as follows:
"At a Circuit Court begun and held at Cole's Grove, within and for the county of Pike, on Monday, the first day of October, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one. Present, Hon. John Reynolds, Judge.
" The Sheriff of the county returned a panel of grand jurors, which being called over, sixteen of them appeared and were sworn agreeably to law, viz: Levi Roberts, foreman; Ebenezer Franklin, Gardner H. Tullus, Joel Bacon, George Tully, Ebenezer Smith, David Dutton, Amos Bancroft, James Nixon, Nathaniel Shaw, Thomas Proctor, Richard Dilley, Stephen Dewey, William Massey, Comfort Shaw, Daniel Phillips; and the following persons were called but made default, to wit: Leonard Ross, Henry J. Ross, Daniel Shinn, James M. Seeley, Abraham Kuntz, Levi Newman, Henry Loup, John Bolter and John Jackson.
"Joseph Jervais and John Shaw, interpreters sworn to give evi- dence to the grand jury."
The first case called was " Solomon Smith, assignee of Elias K. Kane, vs. Wm. Frye, action of debt." The case was continued, as the defendant was reported by the Sheriff not found.
The second case was a "libel for a divorce," by Salley Durham, plaintiff, vs. John Durham, defendant. The defendant not appear. ing, the case went against him.
The fourth case was the indictment of two Indians for murder, an account of which is given in our chapter entitled "Criminal Record."
Pike county was originally in the 1st Judicial Circuit, then in the 5th, and is now in the 11th, comprising the counties of Adams, Hancock, McDonough, Fulton, Schuyler, Brown and Pike. By provision of a recent State law the Circuit elects three Judges, who divide the work between them.
Four Appellate Districts were defined in the State in 1877, for each of which the Supreme Court appoints three Judges, and these
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Judges elect one of their own number the presiding Judge. Each District elects its own Clerk, and these officers are all chosen for six years. The sessions of the Court arc held the 3d Tuesday of May and November each year. Pike county is in the 3d Appellate District, and the Court is held at Springfield.
CIRCUIT JUDGES.
We now proceed to give a short sketch of all the Judges and attorneys who have been or are now connected with the Bar of Pike county.
Hon. John Reynolds was a native of Pennsylvania, of Irish descent, and was reared amid pioneer associations and imbibed the characteristics, manners and customs of the pioneers. He disliked polish, condemned fashion, and was addicted to inordinate pro- fanity. These, garnished by his varied reading, a native shrewd- ness and a wonderful faculty of garrulity, make him, considering the high offices he held, one of the public oddities of Illinois. He was one of the Justices of the Supreme Court when he held Court at Atlas.
Hon. John Y. Sawyer .-- By the Constitution the terms of office of the Supreme Judges were to expire with the close of the year 1824. The Legislature re-organized the judiciary by creating both Circuit and Supreme Courts. The State was divided into five judicial circuits, providing two terms of Court annually in each county. The salaries of the Circuit Judges were fixed at $600. Judge Sawyer was the first Circuit Judge to hold Court in this county. He was chosen for the First Circuit.
Hon. Richard M. Young was appointed Judge of this Circuit in 1828, and remained in the office till January, 1837, when he resigned to accept a seat in the United States Senate. Judge Young was a native of Kentucky, and was one of the first settlers of Northern Illinois. He ranked high in his profession, and his counsels did much to shape the policy of the State. In his manners he was gentle, courteous and entertaining, which qualities rendered him attractive and popular. He was generous in his feelings and lib- eral in his views; possessed liberal endowment of intellectual abil- ity and literary and legal acquirements, and these, with his other qualifications, admirably fitted him for the post he was called to fill. He died from insanity.
Hon. James II. Ralston, a native of Kentucky, was elected by the Legislature in 1837, and in August of the same year he resigned on account of his health, with a view of going to Texas, whither he went, but soon returned to Quincy. In 1840 he was elected State Senator. In 1846 President Polk appointed him Assistant Quar- termaster of the U. S. army. Having discharged his duties faith- fully during the war with Mexico, he returned home and soon after emigrated to California.
HIon. Peter Lott, a native of New York, was elected the successor
GRIGGSVILLE
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of James Ralston, and continued in the office until January, 1841. He was subsequently appointed Clerk of the Circuit Court of Ad- ams county, and served until 1852; he then went to California and was appointed Superintendent of the U. S. Mint in San Francisco by President Pierce, and was removed in 1857 by President Buchanan, and afterward moved to Kansas and lived in humble life.
Hon. Stephen A. Douglas was elected Judge by the Legislature in 1841. The life and career of this great man is so well and widely known as to render any extended notice of him useless. It is suf- ficient to say that the circumstances under which he entered upon the duties of his office were such as to thoroughly try the scope of his ability. The Cireuit was large; the previous incumbent of the office had left the " doeket " loaded with unfinished " cases, " but he was more than equal to the task. He "cleaned out the docket " with that dispatch and ability which distinguished his subsequent course; and so profound was the impression he made upon the people that, in the first Congressional election which occurred after he was established in his character as Judge, he received nomination as a member of Congress, and was elected.
Hon. Jesse B. Thomas was appointed in Angust, 1843, and con- tinued to hold the position until 1845, when he resigned. Judge Thomas possessed high legal abilities and acquirements, and dis- charged the duties of his office with honor to himself and to the satisfaction of the people. After his resignation he was appointed to another Circuit, and soon after died. He was a delegate to Congress from Indiana as early as 1808. His district was what are now the States of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. He was one of the first U. S. Senators of Illinois.
Hon. Norman H. Purple was the next ineumbent of the office. He was elected in 1845 and served till May, 1849, when he resigned. The probable cause for this was the insufficiency of salary. The people of this district were anxious to retain him as Judge, and probably would, but for the cause stated. He was distinguished for high legal abilities and executive talents, and the office was ren- dered the more honorable for his having occupied it.
Hon. William A. Minshall was elected in May, 1849, and con- tinned to hold the office till his death, in October, 1851, although in 1850 his distriet was changed. Judge M. was a native of Tennessee, and came early into the State. He was an active and successful lawyer, and attained distinction in his profession. Pre- vious to his election as Judge he had been a member of the Con- stitutional Convention, and also a member of the State Legislature.
Hon. O. C. Skinner succeeded Judge Minshall and occupied the office from May, 1851, to May, 1853, when he was elected to the Supreme Bench, and remained there till 1858, when he resigned. He was a sound, able lawyer, and popular as a Judge, and gained eminence in his position as a Judge of the Supreme Court.
Hon. Pinkney H. Walker served until his appointment, in 1858,
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to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Bench. In 1859 he was elected to the Supreme Court for nine years, which position he now holds. Judge Walker is a native of Kentucky, and came into the State with his father among the first settlers, and located in MeDonough county. He had only such advantages for obtaining his literary acquirements as a newly settled country afforded, but a strong determination, added to high intellectual abilities and good health, carried him over all of the educational wants of the times, and gave him a fair position as a scholar. The same qualifications rendered him thorough as a student of law, and gave him superi- oritv as a counselor. ITis present residence is at Rushville.
Hon. John S. Bailey was the succeeding incumbent of the office and served for three years. Previous to his appointment he was State's Attorney for this district. He was considered a sound lawyer, and made an impartial Judge. He now resides at Ma- comb, and yet follows his chosen profession.
Hon. Chauncey L. Higbee, of Pike county, was first elected in 1861, and was re-elected twice, each time for six years. His repu- tation as an able lawyer is unquestioned, and fewer appeals were made from his decisions than from any other Judge in the State. He was elected to the Appellate Court in 1877, when the present incumbent, Judge Shope, of Lewistown, was chosen.
Hon. S. P. Shope .- Judge Shope, of Lewistown, was born in Mississippi but reared in Ohio. In the spring of 1839 he came to Illinois, read law with Judges Purple and Powell in Peoria, and was admitted to the Bar June 11, 1856. He first opened an office in Metamora, Ill, but in a short time removed to Lewistown, where he still resides. He has had a large practice as a lawyer, not only in his own Judicial District, but also in Logan, Mason and Cass counties. In August, 1877, he was elected Judge of this District without opposition. His thorough knowledge of law, quick com- prehension and well-known impartiality, render him a popular Judge.
PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS.
During the earliest period of the county's history the Attorney. General of the State acted as Prosecuting Attorney in Circuit Dis- tricts. After the expiration of Attorney General Forquer's term the Circuit was given a State's Attorney. This mode remained in vogue, although, of course, the districts were often changed and cut down, until 1872, when the county was given a Prosecuting At- torney, who is known both as State's Attorney and County At- torney. This official is not now, as formerly, called out of the county to prosecute for the people.
The Prosecuting Attorneys serving this county are as follows:
Hon. Thomas Ford served for several years previous to 1835. He was possessed of high and noble qualities of manhood, a thor- ough student, a keen, energetic, untiring lawyer, of strict integrity
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and landable aspirations, and was universally esteemed and re- spected. IIe afterward became Judge of the northern district, and when he had become known over the State, was chosen Governor by a spontaneous movement of the people. Mr. Ford failed to Appear at the Courts of this county very much, and in his place in 1832 Hon. J. H. Ralston served, and in 1833 Gen. John J. Hardin.
Hon. William A. Richardson, who served till 1837. Mr. Rich- ardson's personal merits and characteristics are too well known to require any delineation. His predominating traits were courage, unyielding perseverance and unvarying adherence to the cause to which he was committed. He had command of a regiment of Illi- nois volunteers during the Mexican war, and in the battle of Buena Vista his cap was carried from his head by a musket ball. He re- turned home and was elected to Congress, and re-elected five times. He was also appointed Governor of Nebraska by Buchanan.
Hon. Henry L. Bryant, of Lewistown, succeeded Mr. Richardson, and served until 1839. He is characterized as a gentleman of fine qualities and as an able lawyer.
Hon. William Elliott served from January, 1839, till January, 1848. He was esteemed as a worthy man, a warm friend and a good lawyer. He served in the Black Hawk war, and was wounded in a hand-to-hand conflict with a single Indian, whom he killed. He was Quartermaster in the 4th Regiment during the Mexican war, and served through. He returned to Lewistown and continued his practice until about 1856, when he moved upon a farm in Peoria county, near Farmington, where he died in February, 1871.
Hon. Robert S. Blackwell was the successor of Mr. Elliott, and served from 1848 till 1852. Mr. Blackwell was one of the most distinguished lawyers in the State, and is the author of " Blackwell on Tax Titles."
Harmon G. Reynolds .- From 1852 to 1854, Hon. Harmon G. Reynolds, of Knoxville, held the office. Mr. Reynolds was an at- torney-at-law of great ability, and an active man in all beneficent enterprises. He came from Rock Island to Knoxville some time about 1851, where he practiced law, was State's Attorney and post- master, and held prominent positions in the Masonic order. He moved from Knoxville to Springfield, where he served as Grand Secretary of the order. He now resides in Kansas.
William C. Goudy .- Hon. William C. Gondy, of Lewistown, succeeded Mr. Reynolds. Mr. Goudy was a shrewd Democratic politician in earlier days, as well as a faithful servant of the people as a delegate to conventions, as a member of the State Senate, etc. As a lawyer he is accounted one of the ablest that ever practiced at the Bar. He has accumulated large wealth and now resides in Chicago, where he moved in 1859.
Calvin A. Warren followed Mr. Blackwell in the office. Mr. Warren served from May, 1852, until August, 1853. This gentleman was a popular, fluent speaker and successful lawyer.
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Hon. John S. Bailey, of McDonough county, tilled the office until September, 1858, when he resigned for a seat upon the Bench. Daniel H. Gilmer served as State's Attorney pro tem in 1860, as also did Thomas E. Morgan in 1862, and Win. R. Archer.
Ilon. L. H. Waters was appointed by the Governor to fill the unexpired term of Mr. Bailey. He was from Macomb, and served until the fall of 1860. A year later he entered the army as Lieu- tenant-Colonel of the 28th Illinois Infantry. Resigning, he was commissioned to raise another regiment, which he succeeded in doing and received the appointment of Colonel. This was the S4th Illinois Infantry and did excellent service under his efficient com- mand. At the close of the war he returned to Macomb and prac- ticed law, and about four years later moved to Missouri. He now resides at Jefferson City that State.
Thomas E. Morgan was the next incumbent. Mr. Morgan was a lawyer of fine ability and ranked at the head of the Bar in this part of the State. He died July 22, 1867.
L. W. James, of Lewistown, was the next incumbent. Mr. James is a lawyer of more than ordinary talent, and was one of the best prosecutors in the district, and is said to be one of the most brilliant young men in the State. He now resides at Peoria.
Jeff Orr .- When each county throughout the Circuit was given a Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Orr was chosen for Pike county, and since has served with marked ability. He is a young member of the Bar, endowed with great energy, and gifted with superior native talent. He has resided in Pittsfield since 1873.
THE BAR.
The Bar of Pike county has ever stood foremost of all in this great State. Some of the best legal minds, and fairest logicians and finest orators of the age have practiced at this Bar.
In reviewing the Bar of the county our readers must bear in mind that as the prosperity and well-being of every community depends upon the wise interpretation, as well as upon the judi- cious framing, of its laws, it must follow that a record of the mem- bers of the Bar, to whom these matters are generally relegated, must form no nnimportant chapter in the county's history. Upon a few principles of natural justice is erected the whole superstruc- ture of civil law tending to relieve the wants and mect the desires of all alike. But where so many interests and counter interests are to be protected and adjusted, to the judiciary is presented many interesting and complex problems. But change is everywhere im- minent. The laws of yesterday do not compass the wants and necessities of the people of to-day. The old relations do not exist. New and satisfactory ones must be established. The discoveries in the arts and sciences, the invention of new contrivances for labor, the enlargement of industrial pursuits, and the increase and devel- opment of commerce are without precedence, and the science of
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the law must keep pace with them all; nay, it must even forecast events and so frame its laws as will most adequately subserve the wants and provide for the necessities of the new conditions. Hence the lawyer is a man of the day. The exigencies he must meet are those of his own time. His capital is his ability and individuality. He can not bequeath to his successors the characteristics that dis- tinguished him, and at his going the very evidences of his work disappear. And in compiling this short sketeli one is astonished at the paucity of material for a memoir of those who have been so intimately connected with, and who exerted such an influence upon, the county's welfare and progress. The peculiarities and the per- sonalities, which form so pleasing and interesting a part of the lives of the members of the Bar, and which indeed constitute the charm of local history, are altogether wanting. Unlike the fair plaintiff in Bardell vs. Pickwick, we have no pains-taking sergeant to relate " the facts and circumstances " of the case. The Court records give us the facts, but the circumstances surrounding and giving an interest to the events are wanting.
The great prominence in history occupied by the Bar of the Mili- tary Tract is well known, and ranking with and a part of this is the Pike county Bar. High as stood the local standard of its at- tainment and repute. whenever its chieftains were called to combat on other arenas, they left no lost laurels there. Here were taught, needed, developed, the stalwart qualities that attach to and betoken the most complete fruition of legal excellence, as attained in the recognition, study, comprehension and application of the abstruse and limitless principles and history of that noblest portion of juris- prudence, land law.
It is no such difficult task to become what the world calls a lawyer, but with hope to tread the higher paths of the profession, easy effort, varnished knowledge, common mind muscle, need not ap- ply. There are grades to which any may attain, but there are also summits to which few can aspire. Education, industry, and per- sistency may rightly demand and ensure success and even eminence in the settlement of commercial collisions, or in the adjustment of the thousand ordinary interests that constantly appeal to a lawyer's guidance. The babbling charlatan may, equally with the profound jurist, claim a fictitious standing as a criminal advocate; but such will always stumble among the rugged paths of " land law " prac- tice, where rests the settlement of the earth's ownership and where true learning, combined with most grasping mental strength, can only be at home.
On this broad field, years since, inviting and fast filling with ad- venturous immigration, where existed land titles of every shade, affected by conflicting legislation varying as the years, was gained the rare training and reputation of the legal athletes,' an arena such as was found in no other section of the State; and in addition to these advantageons themes of practice, the professional necessities
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of the Bar vastly aided its members in their advance to self-reliant supremacy. The reasons for this are novel, but conclusive.
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