USA > Indiana > St Joseph County > A history of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Volume 1 > Part 36
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97
Sec. 2. OUR SLAVE CASE .- John Norris, residing south of the Ohio river, a little be- low the town of Lawrenceburg. Indiana, claimed to own as slaves a family consisting of David Powell, his wife Eney, and their four children. Lewis, Samuel, George and James. The family was allowed to cultivate a plat of ground and sell the produce where they pleased: and David and his boys often crossed the river to Lawrenceburg to make sale of their erops. During the night of
Saturday, October 9, 1847, the whole family disappeared from Kentucky. The alarm was given next morning and several persons started in' pursuit. Norris and his party hunted through southern Indiana for two months withont success, though they found in several places artieles belonging to the fugitives.
Two years afterwards, in September, 1849, Norris started north with eight men, and at midnight on the 27th of that month, they broke into the house occupied by the Powells, about eight miles from Cassopolis, Michigan. The house was in the woods, abont half a mile from any other dwelling; and David Powell and his son Samuel were at the time absent from home. Norris and his party com- pelled the mother and her three children to rise from their beds and go with them ; and, hurrying them off to their covered wag- ons, they started for Kentucky. A guard was left at the house to prevent the other in- mates from giving the alarm. After a short time, however, the news spread and pursuit commenced. A neighbor, Wright Mandlin, overtook Norris and his party about noon next day near South Bend, Indiana, thirty miles from where they had started. Mr. Maudlin immediately applied to Edwin B. Crocker, an attorney of South Bend, stat- ing what he knew of the cirenmstances, that he had no doubt the Powells were free peo- ple, that he had known then as quiet and industrious persons, and never heard any intimation that they were slaves; that they had purchased a small traet of land, on which they resided at the time of their ab- duction, and that they were laboring hard to pay for it.
A petition for a writ of habeas corpus was drawn up, and signed and sworn to by Mr. Mandlin, averring that Mrs. Powell and her son Lewis were deprived of their liberty by some person whose name was unknown, un- der pretense that they were fugitive slaves ; and averring that he verily believed they sheriff, for service. Mr. Day called upon sev-
a. The St. Joseph County Fugitive Slave case was fully treated in a paper prepared for a His- tory of St. Joseph County, published in 1880 by Chapman & Co., of Chicago. The writer shows himself to have been familiar with the facts, but does not give his name. We have somewhat abbreviated the narrative. Chapman, Hist. St. Joseph County, pp. 618-626.
.
204
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
were free persons. On this petition the Hon. Elisha Egbert, probate judge, ordered a writ of habeas corpus to issue. The writ was placed in hands of Russell Day, deputy eral citizens to accompany him in serving the writ. In the meantime, the report hav- ing spread that a party of kidnappers with their captives were in the vicinity, the whole community was aroused, and the people, in a state of excitement, ran about anxiously inquiring into the matter. The deputy sher- iff overtook Norris and his captives about a mile south of the town. where he had stopped in the woods to feed his horses. His party was well armed and made quite a display of their weapons, and at first evinced a dis- position to resist all legal proceedings. The writ, however, was served by reading; and after a parley in which the deputy insisted that Norris and his party would not be al- lowed to proceed without a fair trial of his claims, he at last agreed to go back to town and proceed to trial on the writ of habeas corpus. By this time thirty or forty persons had arrived from town, two of them with guns; but no attempt was made to do vio- lence to the kidnappers; and Norris and his party drove back to town, followed by the deputy sheriff and the people. Meanwhile another writ of habeas corpus, for all four of the captives, was sued out, and directed to Mr. Norris, whose name had now been learned. The first writ was dismissed. At the request of Norris, the deputy sheriff took the custody of the captives until Norris could procure counsel. In a short time he secured the services of Mr. Liston and Mr. Stanfield, to conduct his defense. Mr. Crocker and Mr. Deavitt appeared for the captives.
The fugitive slave law not then being on the statute book, the only law under which Norris could hold his captives was an old statute of 1793, not having any particular reference to the recovery of runaway slaves. but intended, in general, for the arrest of persons who had violated law in one state and then fled to another. It was contended
against Norris that he had not complied with the terms of this statute, and therefore had no standing in court to hold his captives. In his favor it was contended that he had a right to arrest his slaves wherever he found them. No authority was introduced to sus- tain this contention; and Judge Egbert, after a full and candid hearing, ordered the Powells to be discharged.
The court was crowded with an anxious audience, listening to the argument of coun- sel and awaiting the decision of the court. Everything had been conducted with order and propriety, and no one anticipated the scene that followed the decision of the court. The judge spoke in a low tone of voice, so that but few had heard him. Mr. Crocker, however, stated the decision in a voice that all could hear. Norris, in the meantime, had gathered his men around the captives seated within the bar; and the moment the decision was repeated by Mr. Crocker the Norris party seized each of the captives with one hand, brandished their weapons with the other and threatened to shoot the first man that inter- fered. This action took place before adjourn- ment of court and while the judge was still sitting on the bench. Up to that time every- thing had been quiet among those gathered in the court room; but upon this display of force the people rose to their feet in a state of excitement. Some ran out to spread the alarm through the town; others crowded around the Norris party and their captives, calling upon them to put up their arms. Notwithstanding their excitement the citizens made no attempt to rescue the captives by force. At length the Norris party put up their arms, the excitement subsided, and the sheriff, at the request of Norris, locked up the captives for safe keeping.
This was on Friday. During that evening and the next day several warrants were is- sued against Norris and his men for assault. and battery. and one for riot, based upon their violent proceedings in the courthouse. Saturday was occupied in trying these cases ;
205
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
and in the riot case Norris and his party voluntarily gave bail to appear in the circuit court, which was to begin its session the next Monday morning. Two suits were also begun by the Powells against Norris and his men, for trespass and false imprisonment ; and they were held to bail in the sum of one thousand dollars in each suit. On Saturday evening another writ of habeas corpus was issued against Norris, charging him with hay- ing placed the captives in jail, returnable also on Monday morning.
There was at this time an extensive negro settlement near Cassopolis, in the neighbor- hood where the Powells had been found by Norris and his men. As soon as it was known that Powell's wife and children had been captured, large parties of these people, themselves almost all fugitive slaves, started to rescue their friends. It was not until Saturday that they learned definitely the di- rection the captors had taken. During Sat- urday and Sunday great numbers of these negroes arrived in South Bend. many of them armed and all of them in a highly exas- perated state of mind, though conducting themselves with coolness and moderation.
On Saturday, a citizen of Michigan made affidavit before a justice of the peace in South Bend that Norris and his party had been guilty of kidnapping in Michigan, and had fled from that state to Indiana. On this affi- davit a writ was issued, but not served; for it afterwards became apparent that Norris and his men would be pleased to be arrested so as to give that as an exeuse for not ap- pearing in court on Monday morning to answer in the habeas corpus case.
On Sunday morning Norris, after a con- sultation with his attorneys, became satisfied that it would be useless to attempt to take his captives out of the county, in the face of the great number of armed negroes from Michigan. He therefore made up his mind to abandon all present legal proceedings ; and determined instead to bring suits for damages for the value of the negroes against the per-
sons who had prevented him from taking them back.
On Monday morning, accordingly, when the habeas corpus case came on for trial, Norris refused to appear, saying that he did not want the negroes; but would make the citizens pay for them, which suited him bet- ter. The sheriff, in his return, stated that he held the captives as the agent of Norris, under the state writ, which was set out in full. A replication to this return was filed, sworn to by Lewis Powell, excepting to the sufficiency of the return, and alleging that he and his family were free persons and not slaves. One of Norris' attorneys was pres- ent at the trial, but refused to appear for him. The case of Prigg vs. Pennsylvania, 16 Peters', in which the supreme court of the United States declared that all laws passed by the states in relation to fugitives from labor are unconstitutional, was read to the court, and several witnesses were examined in rela- tion to the facts of the case. The court, after a full and fair hearing, again ordered the captives to be discharged. The negro friends and neighbors of the captives now eame for- ward, conducted them out of the courthouse to a wagon and quietly drove off to their home in Michigan. On the bridge, as they crossed the St. Joseph, they halted and gave hearty cheers. They then rode on, singing their songs of freedom and rejoicing over the fortunate escape of their friends. The prose- cutions against Norris and his party were now dropped, and in a few days they also quietly departed for their homes. Thus ended one of the most exciting episodes that ever took place in northern Indiana ..
Norris afterwards made his threat good; and brought suit in the United States cireuit court for the district of Indiana, to recover damages against Leander B. Newton, George W. Horton, Edwin B. Crocker. Solomon W. Palmer. David Jodon, William Willmington, Lot Day, Jr., Amable La Pierre and Wright Maudlin, who had befriended the negroes. The pleadings were passed upon by Judge
206
IIISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
Huntington, then on the bench, who ruled for the claimant. The case was afterwards tried before Judge McLean. In his charge to the jury. the judge favored the elaim; which was, for Lucy, forty years of age, five hundred dollars; for Lewis, twenty years of age, eight hundred dollars: for George, sixteen years of age, seven hundred and fifty dollars; for James, fourteen years of age. seven hundred dollars; and for claimant's expenses, one hundred and sixty-five dollars and eighty cents. The jury allowed the claims, substantially as made, the verdiet, in the aggregate, being for two thousand eight hundred and fifty-six dollars. During the years 1850 and 1851, twelve additional suits were brought against fifteen defendants for five hundred dollars' penalty each. for vio- lation of the statute of 1793. Twenty-five other suits were threatened, if these should prove successful. These penalty suits were, however, decided in favor of the defendants, and the litigation came to an end. Such, in brief, was the most famous ease ever liti- gated before the courts of St. Joseph county, and by St. Joseph county lawyers.
VI. THE COUNTY BUILDINGS.
On Tuesday, November 1. 1831, the board of eounty commissioners, then consisting of Aaron Stanton. David Miller and Joseph Rohrer, being in session at the house of Alexis Coquillard. on the second day of the November term of the board for that year, took the first step for the erection of build- ings in which the business of the new county eould more conveniently be carried on. The order of the board made on that day in rela- tion to the matter is as follows:
Sec. 1 .- THE FIRST COUNTY JAIL .- "Or- dered by the board aforesaid, that the county agent be required to sell out to the lowest bidder, on the eighth of this month, at the hour of one o'clock on said day, the building of a county jail, of the following dimensions. to-wit: The jail to be thirty feet long and sixteen feet wide, with a partition wall
through the center of the building: all the timber of the walls to be of good white oak timber, and to be hewed at least one foot square; as also both the under and upper floor to be of like timber, of one foot square; the foundations of the building to be laid one foot and a half below the surface of the ground, and to be raised six inches above the ground; the sills to be fifteen inches wide, and the logs for the floor to be let in on the sills six inches, and the logs to be rabbeted out that go on the top of the floor and let down over so as to completely cover the ends of the logs and prevent the floor from being raised: the building to be raised with a half dovetailed notch. in each of the corners as well as the partition wall; the story to be eight feet between the under and the upper floor: the upper floor to be the ends of the logs eut off about six inches at each end, and the under side of the ends to be cut out or bloeked off about four inches and let down on the logs, so as to prevent them from slipping out; the plates to be rabbeted ont over the ends of the floor logs and onto them; the roof to be put on with good white oak rafters, covered with good sheathing and good joint pine shingles; the gable ends to be done up with good poplar weather boarding; the corners of the build- ing to be raised up plumb, and the corners to be sawed down smooth; the outside door to be eut out one foot from the partition wall, and to be two feet wide and four feet high in the clear when finished. There shall be an iron rod run up through the ends. or a foot from the ends, of the logs on the side of the door opposite the partition wall, of one inch bolt, and to extend six inches into the log below those eut ont, and six inches up into the log above those cut out, and running through the same. The door shall be made of white oak plank of two inches thick, and be made double with said planks; the door shall be hung on three strap hinges, the straps to be three inehes broad and half an inch thick: and the door
207
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
shall also be lined with iron straps, to be put on within four inches of each other, and on each side of the door; and said straps, as well as the hinges, shall all be riveted through the door within four inches of each other ; the straps, other than the hinges, shall be at least one-eighth of an inch thick; the door to be hung on hooks to be in proportional size to the straps, and two of the hooks to be set upwards and one turned downwards; the lock of the door to be set in the inside by the contractor: the lock to be furnished by the agent; the hooks on which the door is hung to be entered into the timber well; and the cheeks of said door shall be lined with good white oak plank, one and a half inch thick, to be well spiked on. There shall also be another door made in the center of the partition wall, to be two feet wide and four feet high in the clear of said door after being finished ; the cheeks of said door shall be faced with good oak plank,'one and a half inch thick and well pinned on; the door shall be made of two inch white oak plank; the door shall be hung on two strap hinges, to extend across the door and hang on two sufficient hooks driven into the wall; the whole of the door to be driven with spikes within four inches of each other; the con- tractor shall put the lock on furnished by the 'agent. There shall be a window ent out in each end of the house, two feet wide and one foot high; and there shall be bars of iron in each of said windows, of one and a quarter inch square, and shall be placed up and down in the windows within two inches of each other, and the ends of said bars shall be sunk in the lower and upper logs at least three inches.
"And the jail shall be put on the south- west corner of the public square in the town of South Bend, and shall set lengthways north and south on the line of said lot, and the door shall be on the east side of said house. The undertaker shall be required to give bond and security to be approved of by the agent, in the penal sum of one thou-
sand dollars. The contract to be completed by the last Monday in April next ensuing the date hereof. The contractor will be en- titled to receive a county order on the county treasury as soon as the contract is completed for the building of said jail. All the work to be done in a good, workmanlike and sub- stantial manner."
Such were the plans and specifications for the first jail of St. Joseph county. As in many other cases, since and before, the work does not seem to have been completed ac- cording to the plans, nor to the satisfaction of the county commissioners. This will ap- pear from the following record :
"The board of St. Joseph county commis- sioners met at the usual place of meeting on Saturday, the 28th day of April, 1832, in the town of South Bend: it being a special meeting of said board to receive the jail built for the said county. Present, David Miller and Joseph Rohrer, Esqrs.
"The commissioners, after a full examina- tion of the said jail, are of opinion that it was not finished according to contract; and by an agreement with the said Woods & Mc- Cormie [the contractors], they took the said jail off of their hands.
"Ordered by the board aforesaid, that Andrew Woods be allowed the sum of two hundred and six dollars and ninety eents, in full for his half in building a jail for said county, to be paid out of the first money that may come into the treasury from any donations made the county for the location of the county seat.
"Ordered by the board aforesaid, that Denis McCormie be allowed the sum of two hundred and six dollars and ninety cents, out of the first moneys that may come into the county treasury from any donations that have been made to said county for the loca- tion of its county seat, in full for his half in building a jail for said county."
On March 3, 1835, the board entered into contract with Peter Johnson to add a second story to the jail for six hundred and twenty-
208
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
five dollars. This time the work was done according to agreement by one of the most competent and reliable of our early eon- tractors. At the ensuing September term, September 9. 1835, an order was made which has a strange sound at the present day. Or- lando Hurd, then one of the county commis- sioners, was "authorized and empowered to rent or let out the two upper rooms attached to the jail of said county, for the purpose of having the jail and other property belong- ing to said county guarded and taken care of."
Perhaps this primitive wooden jail. its walls and floors of white oak timber, "hewn at least one foot square." held its inmates quite as securely as the steel cages of our modern structure, "the best jail in the state," hold the incorrigibles of our day. If the of- fieer then in charge was as competent as his successor in charge to-day, we have little doubt that our first jail of white oak was amply sufficient for the purpose.
Sec. 2 .- THE FIRST COURT HOUSE .- But the new county needed a court house nearly as much as it did a jail. At the January term, 1832. the board of commissioners met as here- tofore at the house of Alexis Coquillard; but "it not being convenient for the said Coquil- lard to furnish them a room in his house, by request of the said Coquillard the commis- sioners adjourned to the house of Calvin Lilly in the town of South Bend, in a room provided for them at the request of the said Alexis Coquillard." The need of a perma- nent place to attend to the public business was thus forcibly brought to the attention of the board, and on the third day of the ses- sion. Wednesday, January 4, 1832, the fol- lowing entry was made in the records of the board :
"The following is a statement of the court house to be built in St. Joseph county :
"The court house shall be forty feet square, and built of briek. The foundation shall be made of good, durable arch brick, and sunk one foot below the surface of the ground.
And the said wall shall be raised three feet high above said foundation, shall be twenty- two inches in thickness; and there shall also be a foundation wall run north and south through said building. and raised so high that a sill of eighteen inches square, with the joist placed on said wall, shall raise the floor of the first story only three feet from the foundation. The walls of the first story of the building shall be raised so high as to leave twelve feet between the first floor and the ceiling. The walls of the first story shall be laid eighteen inches thick. The walls of the second story shall be raised ten feet above the second floor, and be made thir- teen inches thick. There shall be a plate of yellow poplar timber of thirteen inches square placed on the top of the wall all around said building. There shall be four stacks of chimneys carried up in said build- ing, one in each corner of the house; and there shall be a fireplace in each of said chimneys in the lower story, of three and one-half feet in the back and five feet in the flare or front of the jambs, in the under room of each of said chimneys, except the southeast chimney, which may be three feet in the back and four feet in the front. And there shall be also a fireplace made in each of said chimneys in the second story of said building, exeept the southeast; and said fire- place shall be three feet in the clear in the back, and four feet in the flare or front of said fireplaces. The east half of the under room shall be filled up with earth nearly to top of the aforementioned sill, and then laid over with good hard briek. There shall be substantial iron bars under the arch of each fireplace. And in the north of said under room there shall be joists placed east and west across in said sill and wall, and within two feet of each other. of good white oak timber: and they shall be three inches thick and fourteen inches wide, and placed so as the floor when laid shall be three feet from the foundation. The floor of said end shall be laid of white oak boards, of one and one-
209
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY.
fourth inch thick and six inches wide. There shall be four air holes left in the west side of said building, and two on the north and two on the south, of nine inches deep and four inches wide, to let the air in under the floor. There shall be two columns set upon said sill, running through the center of said building, one twelve feet from the north side of said building and the other twelve feet from the south side. The said columns shall be turned by a bilection, and with a hand- some mold at each end of the same; and there shall also be a hole bored through the center of each of said columns with a common pump auger. There shall be a poplar girder of fourteen inehes square running aeross said building, north and south, and placed on said columns; and the joists for the second floor shall be laid into said girder, and on the walls, east and west. The said joists shall be three inches thick and fourteen inches wide, and shall be placed in said girder within two feet of each other; and the floor shall be made and laid on said joists, of poplar boards of one and one-fourth inch thiek and six inches wide. There shall be a door made on the east side, and in the cen- ter of the house, of four feet wide, and shall have a transom light sash above the door, and to be made to correspond with the height of the windows; and also a door of the same deseription, to be placed in the center of the north side of the building. The doors shall be made of eight panels, and lined and braced on the inside of the door. Said doors shall be three inches thiek, and hung on three butts sufficiently strong, and have each a good substantial thumb latch, and each a twelve ineh stoek loek fixed thereon. There shall be three twenty-four light windows, of glass ten by twelve, on the west side of the building, to be placed so in the wall of the building as to have the columns between the windows on each side even; and also two windows on the north side of said building, to be placed half way between the corners of the building and the door; and also two
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.