History of Sangamon 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 11

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084

USA > Illinois > Sangamon County > History of Sangamon 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 11

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James Adanis is the pioneer attorney of San- gamon county, having settled in Springfield in 1821, shortly after the county was organized. Mr. Adams was born in Hartford, Connecticut, January 26, 1803, from which place he removed to Oswego county, New York, in 1809, and from thence to Sangamon county as already stated. For several years he had quite an extensive practice, being careful and painstaking in work- ing up his cases and in his clients'interests. In 1823 he was appointed justice of the peace, and was elected successively for many years. He took part in the Winnebago and Black Hawk wars. After an exciting personal canvass, he

was elected Probate Judge in 1841, and died in office on August 11, 1843.

Jonathan H. Pugh was the second attorney to make Sangamon county his home. He ar- rived in Springfield early in the year 1823, and at once secured a good practice for that day. In the first decade of the Bar of this county, his name probably appears oftener on the docket than any other attorney. Mr. Pugh was from Bath county, Kentucky, and was a man of brilliant talents, a good lawyer for that time, and one whose wit never failed him on any occasion. Before a jury he was almost invinci- ble. In society he was a prime favorite, having remarkably fine conversational powers. Before coming to Sangamon he located for a time in Bond county, and was there elected to the legis- lature. He also served Sangamon county in the Assembly after his removal here. In 1831 he was nominated . for Congress, and made the race in opposition to ex-Governor Duncan. At this time the question of internal improvements was being agitated, especially the building of a canal from Lake Michigan to the Illinois river. Governor Duncan was a strong advocate of the canal, while Mr. Pugh advocated the building of a railroad. and was probably the first man in the State to advocate this measure. His views upon this question were doubtless one cause of his defeat. In 1833, while in the prime of life, Mr. Pugh "laid down life's burden and passed over to the other side."

Thomas M. Neale was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, in 1796. When a mere child, he was taken by his parents to Bowling Green, Kentucky. On the breaking out of the war of 1812, he enlisted and served his country faith- fully as a common soldier. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in Bowling Green. In the fall of 1824 Mr. Neale arrived in Spring- field, and at once commenced the practice of law. For some three or four years his practice was good. In the campaign against the Winne- bago Indians in 1827, he was the colonel in com- mand of all the infantry companies. After the Black Hawk war, Col. Neale was elected sur- veyor of the county, and one of his first acts was the appointment of Abraham Lincoln his deputy. Ile was also a justice of the peace for many years, and as such uniting many couple in marriage, some times receiving as his fee only a saddle of venison. Mr. Neale died August 7, 1840.

James M. Strode was from Kentucky, and made his first appearance before the Sangamon County Courts in 1823. He was then a young

HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

man of fair talents, rather showy in dress and manners, a good story teller, and for many years was quite prominent in the courts of the State. Leaving Springfield he settled in Galena, where he died.

William S. Hamilton was a son of the noted Alexander Hamilton, of New York. He first ygured in the courts of this county in 1825, though he was probably here the previous year. He was a man of great intellectual powers, but was unsteady in his habits. lle served the county one year in the legislature.

Thomas Moffett was from Bath county, Ken- tucky, and came to Springfield in 1826, where he engaged in teaching school and devoting his leisure hours to the study of law. He was admitted to the Bar in 1828, and was the first in the county to receive a license to practice. Mr. Moffett was orderly sergeant of a company in the Winnebago war, and captain of a company in the Black Hawk war. He served two years as County Commissioner, and from 1843 served as Judge of the Probate Court. Under the constitution of 1848 he was elected County Judge for four years. While not taking high rank as a lawyer, Mr. Moffett was a man of excellent judgment, and made an excellent justice of the peace, Probate Judge and County Judge. He died in 1877, at a very advanced age. He was many years a ruling elder in the Second Presbyterian Church.

William Mendel was a queer genius, not much of a lawyer, and good for little else, unless it should be for being very witty. He occasion- ally failed to behave himself in court with that decorum demanded of the profession, and con- sequently was punished therefor by the presid- ing judge. He once appeared before Judge Sawyer and behaved himself in an unbecoming manner. The judge sentenced him to jail for the night. The next morning on going to the court house a calf was discovered in the judge's stand and a lot of geese in the jury-box, with Mendall addressing them in an impassioned manner. The judge took no notice of the indig- nity.

Samuel McRoberts was one of the best law- yers that followed the circuit and making Spring- field a point. He was afterwards Circuit Judge, and also U. S. Senator from this State. He died before the expiration of his term. He was an excellent man to be with on the circuit, serv- ing to beguile the weary hours in traveling from place to place. U. F. Linder, whose reminiscen- ces are often quoted in this work, says he could give the heartiest laugh when amused, of any man

he ever saw. He relates the following incident that transpired on one occasion: "Nearly all the lawyers of Judge Harlan's circuit met at the Ed- gar County Circuit Court, among the rest, Judge McRoberts and myself. In those days we nearly all roomed together. There was a man by the name of Lodge, who was a bricklayer by trade, but who had arisen to be superintendent of a large farm. Lodge was in the habit of seeking every opportunity to talk with the judge and lawyers, and would generally seize and run away with the conversation. One day he came in where we were all talking, and with great pom- posity and egotism told us that he had a water- melon-patch adjoining the road from Danville to Paris; that he was one day sitting on his piazza, which overlooked this melon-patch. While sit- ting there he saw a gentleman coming along in his buggy, and when he got opposite the melon- patch he jumped out, got over the fence, pulled one of his finest melons, of which he had several thousand, and deliberately commenced eating it. He said he concluded he would go down and have a talk with the gentleman. He edified and regaled us with a fine moral lecture which he delivered to the stranger, and said he told him that if he had come and asked for the melon he would have given it to him; and said that he ended by walking up to him and deliberately knocking the melon out of his hand. He said the man seemed greatly mortified, aud said to . him: 'Sir, I am a gentleman ; my name is Bishop, a commission merchant at Evansville, Indiana. In my native State, where we raise vast quantities of melons, it is not thought to be a serious matter or a crime for a man to help himself to a melon by the wayside, and if you feel very much concerned about it here is the pay for it,' pulling out his purse. Lodge refused, as he told us, and went on to deliver a lecture to Mr. Bishop on the rights of equality of men, saying that he did not consider that it conferred an honor on him, that a commission merchant or anyone else should take one of his melons without leave. Here McRoberts burst out in one of his great 'horse laughs,' which, to ap- preciate, should be heard:

""' Ha! ha! ha !' says he, 'that reminds me of a story I once heard of William the Fourth, when he was Prince of Wales. He was traveling in cog. through Canada, and at Montreal he strayed into a tailor shop, where the tailor and his wife were both sitting on the counter at work; the tailor with crossed legs pressing a seam with his hot goose, and his wife sewing away at some garment with nimble fingers. Neither seemed

HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

to pay much attention to the disguised royal stranger, when William, stepping up to where the woman was sitting, turning his head, asked the tailor if that was his wife. 'She is a very pretty woman,' said the Prince, and pulling her head down toward him, he deliberately kissed her, and turning to the tailor very patronizingly said, 'Now, sir, you will have the honor of tell- ing your children that your wife was kissed by the King of England. I am William, the Prince of Wales, and heir-apparent to the throne.' The tailor laid down his goose, put on his slippers, jumped off the counter, and catching William by the shoulders pushed him to the door and gave him two or three lusty kicks on the seat of honor, and said, 'Now, sir, you will have the honor of telling your subjects that in one of your Majesty's Provinces you had your posterior kicked by a tailor." Lodge looked like he could have crawled through an auger hole, and said : 'Judge McRoberts, I hope you don't mean to say there is the same disparity between Bishop and myself as existed between the Prince and the tailor!' Whereupon we all burst into a most uproarious fit of laughter, when Lodge left, and never visited us again."

Alfred W. Cavarly is a man well known by the elder members of the Bar. He lived in Greene county and rode the circuit of which Sangamon formed a part for many years. He . was considered a good lawyer, though a little egotistic. He always rode a good horse in his travels. On one occasion he interposed a gen- eral demurrer to one of Mills' pleadings, and sought thus to take advantage of some matter which could only be reached by special demur- rer. When Cavarly discovered that he could only reach the defect by special demurrer, he insisted that his was a special demurrer be- cause he had underscored part of it. Judge Lockwood decided against him. At dinner the same day at which the Judge and members of the Bar were present, Cavarly sent his plate to Mills to be furnished with what he thought was a cut of venison. Mills sent him a piece which Cavarly discovered was beef, and he remarked, " Brother Mills, I wanted venison, and you sent me beef." "Oh," said Mills, "underscore it, Brother Cavarly, and that will make it venison."

Benjamin Mills was one of the ablest, most learned and accomplished lawyers of the early Bar of this State. He was from Massachusetts, highly educated, and a man of a rare style of oratory, through which there ran a rich vein of wit and irony. It was a talent he often indulged in in conversation. He rode the circuit in com-

pany with several others who have since become prominent, and had few equals to contend with. As illustrative of his wit it is related that one day when he was in his cups at his hotel, he was sitting about half asleep, when Cavarly stepped up to where he was sitting and laid his hand on Mills' bald head and remarked: "Friend Mills, you have quite a prairie on your head." "Yes, Cavarly," he said, " and do you know the differ- ence between you and me?" "By no means, Brother Mills," said he, in quite a patronizing manner. " Well, I'll tell you," said Mills, "my prairie is on my head, but yours is inside your head."

Mills was the son of a New England Presby- terian minister, and came to Illinois at an early day, when there was a law authorizing a justice of the peace, if he heard a man swear, even upon the streets, to go to his office and enter up a fine of one dollar against him. Ben was a justice of the peace, and was one day taking his glass with another justice of the peace at his hotel in Greenville, Illinois, when he happened to let slip about a half dozen oaths. His brother justice said nothing about it at the time. This was in the morning. They met again at the same place in the evening and were taking another social glass together, when his friend remarked:

" Brother Mills, you swore several oaths this morning, and you know the law makes it my duty to enter a fine against you of a dollar for each oath."

" I know it, my brother," said Mills, "and thought of it as I went to my office, and being a justice of the peace myself, I entered upon my docket a fine of one dollar for each oath I swore."

"Oh, well," said his friend, "that will do. Come, Brother Mills, let us have another glass." And when they were about to drink it, Mills remarked: "But you know, my brother, that the policy of the law is reformation and not vengeance, and feeling that object has been thoroughly accomplished in my case, by the fine, I am now considering the question of remitting it." After their glass and a hearty laugh they parted.

Mr. Mills was a powerful prosecutor. At Edwardsville, a lawyer named Winchester, killed a man named Smith, or at least was charged with the crime. Mills was his prosecutor. Felix Grundy, of Tennessee, then one of the greatest criminal lawyers in the southwest, was sent for to defend Winchester. The prosecution is said to have been one of the ablest, most fearful and

HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

terrible ever heard, and it required all the talent and oratory of Grundy, assisted by the presence and countenance of many of the leading attor- neys and men of the place to prevent a con- viction.

Mr. Mills died about 1850.

John Reynolds is well known to every student of the history of Illinois, having been Governor of the State, member of Congress, and Judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois. Ile was a ripe scholar, a man of great natural ability, yet withal modest, seeming more disposed to conceal than to blazon forth his accomplishments to the world. An amusing story is told of the Governor which occurred while holding a term of the circuit court at Edwardsville. At that term a man named Green was tried before him on the charge of murder, and was convicted. Reynolds, who was always seeking popularity, desired the ill will of no one, even of a murderer, and after the verdict of guilty had been read by the clerk in open court, turned to Green, his face all beam- ing with sympathy, said:

" Mr. Green, I am truly sorry for you; the jury have found you guilty of murder, and I suppose you know you have got to be hung."

" Yes, your Honor," said Green.

"Mr. Green, I want you to understand that this is none of my work, but of a jury of your own selection. I would take it as a favor of you if you would communicate this fact to your friends and relatives. The law makes it my duty to pass sentence upon you and carry out the verdict of the jury. It is a mere matter of form, Mr. Green, so far as I am concerned, and your death can in no way be imputed to me. Mr. Green, when would you like to be hung?"

" Your Honor," said Green, "if I had any choice in the matter, I should not like to be hung at all; but as it seems I have not, I have no preference of one time over another."

Reynolds then turned to the clerk and said:

" Mr. Conway, look at the almanac and see if the fourth Friday in December comes on Sun- day."

Conway, being a man of considerable humor, gravely turned to the almanac, and then looking up, said:

"I find, your Honor, to my utter astonish- ment, that that day comes upon Friday!"

" So it does, so it does," said Reynolds. Turn- ing to Green, he said:

"Mr. Green, the sentence of the court is that on the fourth Friday in December, between the hours of ten o'clock in the forenoon and four

o'clock in the afternoon, the sheriff of Madison county will take you from the jail to the place of execution, and there, Mr. Green, I am sorry to say, he will hang you till you are dead, dead, dead, and may the Lord have mercy upon your soul. And don't you forget it, Mr. Green, that it is not my work, but that of the jury which tried you."

James Turney's name appears upon the rec- ords of the Sangamon Circuit Court for several years, beginning in 1824. He was a Tennessean by birth, but at this time lived in Carrollton. He was a man of fine personal appearance, of great natural, with but little acquired ability. When Attorney-General of the State, it is said, that such was the reputation which had preceded him when traveling the circuits, that many men indicted, came into court and confessed guilty rather than stand a trial with him as prosecutor. He was a natural orator, and always commanded the most profound attention. No one could fail to recognize in a moment, when hearing him speak, that he was a man of considerable genius and talent. He served the State as Attorney- General and as Commissioner of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. He was also State Senator from Greene county.

Henry Starr, at a very early day, left his na- tive State of New Hampshire and settled in Ken- tucky, where he taught school and studied law. After being admitted to the Bar, he removed to Edwardsville, Illinois, from which place he made his semi-annual trips around the circuit, his name appearing on the docket of Sangamon Circuit Court in 1822. He remained in the State but a few years when he removed to Cincinnati, and soon was recognized as a leading lawyer of that metropolis.

George Forquer, a half-brother of ex-Governor Ford, was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1794. With his mother and half-brother he moved to Monroe county, Illinois, at an early day, from which place he was elected a member of a legislature. In 1825 he was appointed by Governor Coles, Secretary of State, and went to Vandalia in the discharge of the duties of that office. In December, 1828, he resigned the posi- tion, and in January following was appointed Attorney-General by Governor Edwards. Re- signing this latter office the same year, he re- moved to Springfield. He afterwards repre- sented Sangamon county in the State Senate, and was at one time register of the land office in Springfield. He was considered by his contem- poraries a fair lawyer and had a good business. He died September 12, 1838.

Stephen J. Logan

HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

A sketch of John T. Stuart, who had his first case in the April term, 1829, of the Circuit Court, and who is at present actively engaged in busi- ness in Springfield, appears in connection with the seventh decade.

As illustrative of the way the lawyers followed the circuit, the following reminiscence by Judge William Thomas, of Jacksonville, is here given:

"My Kentucky law license is dated July 5, 1823 (granted before I was twenty-one). My Illinois license is dated October, 1826. The first court that I attended in Illinois was held in this place, November, 1826; John York Sawyer was Circuit Judge. The attorneys in attend- ance were, John Reynolds, Belleville; James Turney, Attorney General, and Alfred W. Cav- arly, of Carrollton; William H. Brown, Benja- min Mills and George Forquer, of Vandalia; David Prickett, Edwardsville; Murray McCon- nell, John Turney and Benjamin Cox, of this place; Jonathan H. Pugh, Thomas M. Neale and James M. Strode, of Springfield. The bus- iness of the court was finished in less than a week, and the next and last court held by Judge Sawyer was in Springfield in the same month. With two exceptions, McConnell and Cox, the same attorneys were in attendance at Spring- field, with the addition of William S. Hamil- ton, General James Adams, Thomas Moffett, of Springfield, and John L. Bogardus, of Peoria. "The First Judicial Circuit at that time was composed of the counties of Greene, Morgan, Sangamon, Peoria, Fulton, Schuyler, Adams, Pike and Calhoun. A week was allowed to each term of the court in Greene, Morgan and San- gamon, and half a week in each of the other counties. From December, 1826, to March, 1827, I was employed as village schoolmaster in this place. In the spring of 1827, I attended all the courts in this circuit. S. J. Lockwood, of the Supreme Court, was required to hold the courts in this circuit-Greene, Morgan and San- gamon, with the resident attorneys-Reynolds, Turney, Pugh, Strode and Cavarly from other counties being in attendance. From Sangamon we went to Peoria, Bogardus resided there and kept the tavern. There was another attorney there who resided on the lake some distance above Peoria, his name I have forgotten. The Attorney General being absent, I was appointed to represent the people. Jacob Funk and one Ogee, having been indicted for an affray, to the "terror of the people," confessed guilty, were fined a small sum, and each paid my fee of $5, with which I paid my traveling expenses around the circuit. The attorneys present at this court

from other counties were, John Turney, James M. Strode, Jonathan II. Pugh and General James Adams.

"From Peoria the court went to Fulton county, Pugh, Turney, Adams and myself being the only attorneys, besides a resident attorney whose name I have forgotton. Judge Phelps entertained the judge and Bar, and refused pay. Here I was employed in an appeal case, which I gained, and received $5 for my fee. John Tur- ney was appointed to represent the people. There was no criminal case for trial. From there we went to Schuyler county, our horses swimming Spoon river, and we crossed in a canoe. There we found at the county seat but two families-Hart Fellows, clerk, and Terry, recorder. Pugh was appointed to prosecute, but there was no criminal case on the docket- the grand jury found no bills-and after the trial of a few appeal cases the court adjourned on the second day.

"From that county we went to Quincy, trav- eling through the prairie in a day, distance sixty miles, with no roads. I think there was no resident attorney at Quincy. We met there General Hanson, J. W. Whitney and J. I. Ross, of Atlas, Pike county. Here I was appointed to prosecute. There was but one criminal case tried, the party was convicted, and paid my fee of $5. From that county we went to Pike. There we met the Attorney General and Mr. Cavarly from Carrollton, and Colonel Jenkins from Calhoun county. Captain Leonard Ross, then sheriff of the county, entertained the court and Bar, refusing pay. He was one of nature's noblemen, from Massachusetts.

"Three days were occupied with the business of the court, and then we went to Gilead, county seat of Calhoun county, where I was em- ployed to defend a doctor, indicted for murder -a case of supposed malpractice, but, in fact, a case of ignorance and malice. In employing me he said that $20 was all he had, that he was in feeble health, had a sick family, and was in destitute circumstances. I agreed to defend him for the $20, being satisfied of his inno- cence and of his extreme poverty. Upon the trial of the case and the charge of the court, the jury found him not guilty. More than twenty years after I met this doctor at Spring- field, a member of the legislature. He was still in feeble health, remembered and recognized me, but I did not him, until he made himself known. There the circuit ended.

"The resident and non-resident attorneys who practiced in this circuit, say in May, 1827,

10-

HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

were, John Reynolds, Belleville; James Turney and Alfred W. Cavarly, Carrollton; Benjamin Mills, Vandalia: Samuel McRoberts, Edwards- ville; Murray McConnell, John Turney, Benja- min Cox and William Thomas, Jacksonville; Jonathan H. Pugh, William S. Hamilton, James M. Strode, Thomas M. Neale, General James Adams and Thomas Moffett, Springfield; John L. Bogardus, Peoria; General N. Hanson, James W. Whitney and John I Ross, Pike county; Colonel Jenkins, of Calhoun, brother of Lien- tenant Governor Jenkins. Of all these attor- neys I am the sole survivor."

SECOND DECADE.

In the second decade, from 1831 to 1841, an array of names appear, some of whom have made a reputation that is world-wide. For char- acter, learning and ability the Bar during this decade has never been surpassed either in San- gamon county or in any county in the State, and perhaps not in the Union. At what Bar will be found the superior, or even the equal of Abra- ham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, James Shields, Stephen T. Logan, John T. Stuart, Ed- ward Jones, Dan Stone, Samuel H. Treat Ninian W. Edwards, E. D. Baker, Cyrus Walker, Jesse B Thomas, and A. T. Bledsoe, all of whom engaged in practice and often appeared before the courts of Sangamon county during this time? Not alone as attorneys, but as states- men, the greater number of the foregoing were prominent in after years. James C. Conkling, who was cotemporary with those named says this of law and lawyers at that time:

" Forty years ago, business was not so great in extent as to occupy the full time of the law- ver. Suits were not so numerous, or so impor- tant, as to afford a support for himself and fam- ily. He engaged in political life as an employ- ment, and solicited office to improve his slender income. A much larger number of the promi- nent members of the legal profession then became members of the State Legislature or of Congress than at present. The people demanded their political services, and they were happy and anxious to accommodate the people. political contest gave them notoriety among the masses, and afforded them an opportunity to display their abilities. A reputation for elo- quence and skill in debate was a recommenda- tion as lawyers in the practice of their profes- sion. Hence we find the names of Reynolds, Edwards, Cook, Casey, Breese, Browning, Har- din, Baker, Williams, Shields, Douglas, Trum- bull, Lincoln, McClernand and numerous others

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History of Sangamon 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 11

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company Number of Pages: 1084

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084