USA > Indiana > Delaware County > A twentieth century history of Delaware County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 8
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
The commissioners examined sites and deliberated with the citizens about a week. It was finally decided to locate the county seat on the south side of White river, almost exactly in the center of the county from east to west. The commissioners were led to this decision by the donations of three men, who offered a site for the county government. They were Gold- smith C. Gilbert, Lemuel G. Jackson and William Brown. In donating land, it was their desire, as stated in the proposal, to aid "in improving the town of Muncietown, the county seat for the county aforesaid, and for the benefit and use of the said county of Delaware in the erection of public buildings and for other public purposes." Accordingly, the donated lands were transferred to the ownership of the county and were to be sold by the county officials and the proceeds applied to the buildings and other improve- ments essential to a county seat. The donations, which centered where the court house now stands on the public square, were as follows: Gilbert's, containing 20.09 acres, was bounded on the south by a line through the center of the court house and extending east along the alley between Washington and Main streets to the west side of Jefferson street; thence north to North street; from North street west to the river; and along the course of the river southwest until it meets a line drawn west from the
59
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
center of the court house. Jackson's donation, 9.72 acres, was bounded on the cast by Walnut street, on the south by Jackson street as far west as Gharkey street, and on the west by Gharkey street to Water street where it joined the Gilbert tract. Brown's donation, containing 20 acres, . and lying east of Jackson's, was bounded on the south by Adams strect, extending cast almost to Elm street, and by a line from that point north to a point cast of the court house.
These donations comprised the original area of the town of Muncie. The public square was set aside for the site of county buildings and grounds, and the rest of the land was laid off in streets and platted into lots. A cer- tain proportion of these lots were given to the original donors, but the rest were sold by the county. The deed for the Jackson donation was executed in December, 1828, but the other two not until 1831.
Beginning of County Government.
The organizing act had provided that county government should begin April 1, 1827. It happened that this day was Sunday, so the election was postponed until Monday, when the citizens assembled and chose their first county officers. William Van Matre was elected to perform all the duties of clerk, recorder and auditor. John Rees and Lewis Rees were elected associate judges; Peter Nolin sheriff; and Valentine Gibson, Aaron Stout and Enoch Nation, justices of the peace. At that time and until the law was changed in 1831, the business of the county was performed .by the justices of the peace constituting a board for that purpose.
The first meeting of the board of justices was held, in accordance with the organic act, at the house of Goldsmith C. Gilbert. This house is said to have stood on the site of the present jail. The meeting was held on the first Monday of August, 1827, and such business was transacted as was essential to set the county government in action.
County Buildings.
Naturally one of the first matters to which the county officials turned their attention was the building of a home for the county government. Courts and the meetings of the board of justices were held in private resi- dences for a year after organization. In 1828 the board contracted for the building of a court house, and it was completed probably by the spring of 1829. It was considered a large and rather splendid building at the time. It was a two-story frame building, 20 by 40 feet, with a gable fronting the street; had a door to each of the court rooms into which the lower floor was divided, while the upper floor, lighted by half a dozen windows, was for the use of the county officials who kept offices of record. The square-hewn timbers of this building were mortised and fitted together by
..
60
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
means of wooden pins. A few years' use and this court house became dilapidated. It caught fire once, and after the citizens had taken much trouble in extinguishing the blaze they felt regretful that they had not allowed the old structure to suffer the destruction it deserved.
Early in 1837 the board of commissioners adopted plans and awarded a contract for a new court house. Delaware county had progressed far since the organization of the county, and now it was proposed to erect a building that would be an ornament to the county for years to come. Until its removal to make place for the present court house, about twenty years ago, the brick structure built in the thirties did service as court house. The building was modeled after that of the court house of Wayne county at Centerville. After the contract had been awarded and the work begun by the contractor, Morgan John, it was decided to alter the plans and make a better building, which would also cost more. The contractor, however, agreed to do the work at the original terms, but failed before it was completed. The court house was built forty-five feet square and twenty- eight feet high, with nothing to relieve the rectangular plainness of the whole except the cupola. There was a rather flat kind of hip roof, and from the center rose this cupola, with no special character to distinguish it as a thing of beauty or of architectural elevation. A bell, mounted in the cupola, summoned the court sessions. In 1848 the old bell was removed and placed in the seminary building, and a new bell, weighing a thousand pounds, was hung in the tower on June 30.
The court house square in those days was a rather unattractive place, if it may be judged from contemporaneous descriptions. One picturesque feature, however, was a large elm tree standing at the southwest corner. It was one of the few survivors of the wilderness, and had been permitted to stand probably on account of its beauty and size. Here the farmers used to hitch their teams and gather in little groups in the shade to gossip and discuss such affairs as then concerned home and state. Along in the forties the Muncie paper has much to say about the bareness and unkempt conditions surrounding the square. The square should be fenced, shade trees should be planted both in the square and along the streets. Some response to this advice is found in the news item of April, 1847, that the citizens on the south and east sides of the square had planted shade trees.
The old court house was not ample for the accommodation of the county officers. In 1848 the county board advertised for bids on a brick building, 46 by 26 feet and 20 feet high, to contain offices for treasurer, recorder, clerk and auditor. James L. Russey, John Jack and Jacob H. Wysor were given the contract to erect this building, their bid being $2,696.46. It was built on the ground just north of the court house, and continued in use as originally designed until the present court house was built. The builders
61
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
had been granted the privilege of constructing a basement story to the county offices, and for a nominal sum had the use of it for fifty years. The interesting feature of their contract was this: "No liquors to be sold on the premises, except beer or cider, cither for purposes of sickness or medicine."
Long before the decision was reached to build a new court house, in keeping with the county's growth and prosperity, the necessity for such a building had become plain, and both the press and the public were urging the replaces; of. the old with a modern court house .* But the old brick building tood nearly half a century. Finally the county board, reinforcing their own judgment with what they deemed the best public opinion, awarded i contract, on November 6, 1884, to Charles I'carce and Company, for the building of a stone court house to cost $195,618.46. At their meeting on January 15 previous, the commissioners had decided to build the court house, and had advertised for bids. The old county offices were sold to D. C. Mitchell for ten dollars, but there were no bidders for the court house and it had to be removed at the expense of the county. During the building of the new court house Walling Hall was used for court room and clerk's office.
May 6, 1885, the first issue of court house bonds, consisting of ninety- eight $1,000 bonds, bearing five per cent interest, was sold to a Chicago firm. The bonds were dated May 15, 1885, and the first one was due in 1895. There was much discussion at this time concerning the wisdom of building such an expensive court house, many claiming that the county was already burdened. However, the financial condition of the county in July, 1885, showed the following: $2,000 outstanding bonds for free
"Volney Willson, opposing the purpose of the commissioners to build a new court hanse, argued from the economic and civil burdens ou the citizens, and incidentally gave some descriptions of the first court house in 1837:
"Taking into consideration the financial condition of this county, its $89,000 of present indebtedness, the twenty odd thousand dollars' indebtedness of Muncie, in all this talk about a new court house that, as is advocated, we must build at no distant day, there is only one thing that this day entitles it to a moment's thought, viz., the safety of the county records.
"The first court house, the tirat court room, that I was in, was, I think, of hewn Ings, weatherboarded, standing on the lot where Walling Hall now stands. I saw then inside of what, I suppose, was the bar, a part of the room enclosed with fencing boards, and an improvised kind of rostrum with a board for a shelf elevated on the front to place books, behind which was a bench, on which ant Samuel Bigger, judge, and Eleazer Coffeen and William McCormick, associates. Samuel W. Harlan, clerk, was sitting nt a low table writing. William Gilbert, sheriff, omnipresent. Inside the pen eat Oliver II. Smith, afterwards known as the intellectual giant of the West; Cabel B. Smith, David Kilgore, Andrew Kennedy, Jehn Elliott, Charles Test, - Minchell, with Samuel W. Parker, proscenting attorney, all sitting on benches and Jonathan Smith's best split-lottom chairs. I did not hear them say a word about ventilation or the sanitary condition of the court room, but they did look like a body of mea that know how 'Eli got there'! and they were going, and did as the history of Ind'ann and their biographies show; so much for the Delaware court room of 1837."-Muncie Daily News, March 28, 1884.
:
62
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
gravel roads ; $5,000 bonds for new jail, $2,000 coming due June 1, 1886. Aside from the court house bond issue it was claimed that the county could have paid all its indebtedness and left a surplus. The court house bonds not coming to maturity until 1895, when ten thousand dollars would be payable in each of the following five years, and thereafter twelve thon- sand dollars each year for four years, it was argued that the county could never be in a better situation financially to expend money on public im- provements.
July 23, 1885, was a day long to be remembered in Delaware county. The laying of the cornerstone of the new court house was celebrated as an event that concerned every citizen and an occasion that should bring thou- sands of people together. The Most Worshipful Grand Master Mason of Indiana officiated at the ceremony. The procession down the streets to the public square was headed by the U. D. Camps of the I. O. O. F. of Muncie and adjoining towns; then followed the Knight Templar com- manderies; the G. A. R. posts of Muncie, New Corner, Eaton, Selma, Yorktown, Reeds and Hartford; Delaware Lodge A. F. & A. M., and speakers, officials and citizens. A rain marred the ceremony somewhat, and during its progress the news came of General Grant's long expected death.
It required two years to complete the present court house. It was accepted and the contractors released on August 13, 1887. The total cost was $227,250.06. After twenty years it is not possible to regard the court house with the same unqualified admiration that was expressed concerning it when first built. And yet the Delaware county court house for some years was claimed to be one of the finest court houses in the state, and it was a building certain to be praised by visitors. Built in the style of the French Renaissance, on ground dimensions 155 by 110 feet, on the plan of a Greek cross, the structure conformed to the most approved ideas of that time in county architecture and among court houses that were erected two decades ago it has few superiors. One of the features in the construction of both the high school building and the court house (the former built several years before the latter) is the high basement, equivalent almost to a full story, and requiring a tower of steps as direct approaches to the main floor. Much was said in praise of this feature. at the time. In conformity with the predominating architectural style, the exterior presents great detail in supporting buttresses, projecting corners, heavy window casements, and Other variety of ornamental construction. The office and court rooms are spacious and conveniently arranged, although the stairways are narrow and the general interior aspect unattractive. Notwithstanding some obvious defects, the court house has admirably served its purpose, and for twenty years has been a credit to Delaware county.
63
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
Jails.
It is related that the first sheriffs of Delaware county confined their prisoners by chaining them and fastening the chain by staple to one of the big puncheons in their house. But soon after the county was organized a lock-up was constructed, though so inadequate for its purposes that it soon became a subject for the grand jury's report. Another jail was constructed, which stood, according to a pioneer's account, just west of the court house and on the public square. The jail occupied the south end and the sheriff's residence the north end of the brick two-story house. The jail was of logs, surrounded with brick, and on the second floor was evidence of the extension of an obsolete custom into Delaware county-a room for the confinement of debtors.
This jail was insecure and jail deliveries caused general agitation for a better one. In December, 1858, following an examination of the jail at Winchester, Randolph county, by members of the board, the commissioners decided upon an issue of bonds to the amount of $3,000 to supplement the regular revenues in paying for the jail. In February, 1859, contracts were ' let for the building of the iron at $4,780, and for the construction of the building at $4,467. The jail was completed during the latter part of 1859. Two lots, lying north of the public square, were purchased for the site of the jail in March, 1859.
This jail was used a little more than twenty years. January 21, 1882, the commissioners let a contract at $20,000 for building a new jail to Myers and Company, of Fort Wayne. The work was completed in the fall of 1883.
CHAPTER VIII. THE COURTS: BENCH AND BAR.
The day following the approval of the act organizing Delaware county another law received the signature of the governor, by which "the county of Delaware shall be, and the same is, hereby attached to the county of Randolph, for judicial purposes, any law to the contrary notwithstanding." It is highly creditable to American civilization, even in face of the apparent lawlessness of the western mining camps and cattle ranges, that means to secure the operation of regular justice have been instituted almost at the same time with the establishment of the community itself. It seems that the instinct for law and order began to operate as soon as a few settlers came together and found themselves outside the jurisdiction of organized counties.
Delaware county had settlers for seven years before organization of civil government. The legislature had seen to it that the jurisdiction of the courts should be extended over the territory acquired by the Indian treaty, and to that end had provided that the unorganized country should be attached for all judicial purposes to the organized county next adjacent. It is likely that causes arose among the first settlers that called for judicial determination. The litigants must have gone to Winchester or some neighboring county seat to obtain a court hearing, or in case of criminal action it is probable that the sheriff of Randolph county rode over with a warrant and, arresting the offender, took him back to Winchester to await trial.
A clause of the organic act provided that all suits and cases, originating within the limits of the county, and which had been begun before the organization of the county, should be continued to final settlement as though the formation of civil government had not taken place. What cases there were in this county before its organization, and any account of them cannot be presented at this time.
But with the organization of the county a complete judicial machinery was provided. The first judicial district to which Delaware county was attached covered a goodly share of the state's area, extending to the north line. In 1833 Delaware county was a part of the sixth circuit, the other counties being Randolph, Wayne, Union, Fayette, Rush, Henry, Grant. By an act approved January 28, 1839, the eleventh judicial circuit was
65
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
formed, consisting of Delaware, Grant, Blackford, Wells, Adams, Jay and Randolph. Two associate judges were elected in April, 1827, John Rees and Lewis Rees, and with the president judge of the district, Miles C. Eggleston, the circuit court of Delaware county was complete. Its first session was held May 19, 1828. Gilbert's house was the court room, and it is probable that on that bright spring day the spectators, jurymen and others interested were unable to crowd into the court room and stood around by the door or leaned over the log window-sill, intent to hear all the proceedings of this first court in the new county. For many years court sessions were among the big events of the year. The arrival of the judge created much excitement, and among the children he must have been regarded with the awe due a mighty potentate. Accompanying the judge on his rounds of the circuit were the lawyers. The practice in one locality was very small, and had the lawyer depended on that alone he would have faced starvation even sooner than the traditions of the profession guarantee. Therefore. the attorneys followed the peregrinations of the court, and in the larger circuits this meant traveling over a number of counties. They rode to the county seat on horseback, with their briefs and copy of statutes in their saddlebags, and putting up at the town tavern they increased the social activity of the county scat and along with their serious business added a gayety that no other occasions of the year could produce.
After Judge Eggleston had called court to order on that day in May. 1828, the sheriff produced the panel of grand jurors, who he had summoned for that term. Familiar names are in that list. They were as follows :
Lemuel G. Jackson ( foreman),
Henry Mosburgh, Robert Gibson,
joseph Thornburg,
Jonathan Beason,
Lewis Van Sickle,
John Wardwick.
Thomas Thornburg,
William Stewart,
Joel J. Spencer,
Richard Thornburg,
Samuel McCulloch.
The grand jury returned one indictment, against Jolin Downing for assault and battery. The latter pleaded guilty, and was fined one dollar. The regular prosecutor was Cyrus Finch, from Randolph county, but in his absence Septimus Smith was appointed and received five dollars for his services. The two associate judges each received two dollars, and the bailiff. Joab Vestal, got one dollar. The business of the court was all completed in one day and then adjourned until "court in course."
One of the lawyers, in fact, the first one to be admitted to practice at this term of court, was Charles Il. Test. Three years later he was elected president judge of the judicial circuit. comprising a considerable part of the state, reaching almost from the Ohio to the northern boundary line,
66
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
and his subsequent career placed him among the leaders of the Indiana bar. The only other applicant to be admitted to practice was James Rariden.
The dockets of the circuit courts in those days were not crowded with cases that must be hastened to settlement. Indeed, the course of justice might have proceeded very leisurely and no great wrong would have been done to anyone. When the second term of court came around, in November, 1828, only one associate judge was found to be present on the opening day ; court adjourned. Next day none of the judges were present, and Sheriff Nolin declared court adjourned till the following day. That day came, and still no judges. In pursuance of the law, the sheriff then adjourned court till the next term. We can imagine the sheriff, assuming all the dignity of his position, spoke in loud tones the legal formula pre- scribed for the occasion, and thus impressed the few who had assembled about the court room with the full solemnity of the occasion.
When court convened in May, 1829, four applicants were present desiring admission to the bar, which was granted. They were: Martin M. Ray, Calvin Fletcher, Hiram Brown and Oliver H. Smith. The first named was prosecuting attorney for the third judicial circuit, which then com- prised this county, and it fell to him to prosecute the case of assault and battery against James Liston. This was the first jury trial in the county, and the verdict was "not guilty."
Another incident of this session was told by Minus Turner, being reported in the History of 1881, as follows: "The grand jury held its session in the blacksmith shop on Walnut street, owned by David Baggs, the present (1881) site of the Episcopal church. The petit jury met under a buckeye tree which stood on the northwest corner of the public square. This tree was a very fine one. It had a large grapevine on it, . which, with the tree's foliage, afforded a very good shade. I remember quite well, when the grand jury convened in the old blacksmith shop, that . I climbed up in the loft and saw one of the jurymen creep out between the logs and go over into the hazel brush and purchase some whiskey of a fellow who was selling it there. He then crept back again, and soon became very noisy and unmanageable. His case was reported to the judge and he was fined ten dollars. Then he pulled out a long leathern sack, made, perhaps, of buckskin, which had all kinds of silver money it. It broke, and the money spilled out on the floor. He told them to take what they wanted and hand the rest back. He was a very peculiar man, and when under the influence of liquor he did not care what he said or did. His name was James Jackson, and he was familiarly known as 'Devil Jim.' He went into the Gilbert bar room, after being fined, purchased a glass of whiskey, and chewed the glass up between his teeth. I remember seeing him-chewing and damning, with his mouth bleeding."
.
67
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
Probate Court.
The associate judges of the circuit court by virtue of their office trans- acted all the probate business of the county without the formal organization of a probate court until 1830. In March of that year these associate judges constituted and held the first session of the probate court. At the first session of the circuit court, above described, the pioneer William Blount had been appointed guardian for his daughter's child, William Blount Jones. . At the first regular session of the probate court the only business was the appointment of Joseph Bennett as guardian of the infant heirs of Catherine Bennett, deceased. In 1834 the associate judges ceased to act, ex-officio, as probate judges, and on the 10th of November John Tomlinson became first regular probate judge. He held the office ten years, being succeeded by Enoch Nation. Samuel W. Harlan became judge of probate in 1852, and in the same year the court was abolished and its jurisdiction trans- ferred to the court of common pleas. Only the older generation in Dela- ware county know anything of any of these courts. The court of common pleas, which also had some civil jurisdiction, was abolished in 1873, and since that year probate business has been a branch of the circuit court. During the existence of the court of common pleas it had but three incum- bents-Judges Walter March, J. H. Haynes and J. J. Cheeney, the last being in office when the court was abolished.
The Personnel of the Bar.
Of the attorneys who, at the various early sessions of the circuit court, were admitted to practice in Delaware county, but few maintained a regular office at Muncie or in the county, the reasons for this having already been referred to. The list of lawyers who in the course of eighty years have been admitted to practice in the county presents a notable array -representing every phase of legal ability and some of the finest types of lawyers known in the history of the Indiana bar. The claim has often been advanced, with much reason to support it, that outside of Indianapolis no county in the state has better reason to be proud of its bar, past and present, than Delaware.
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.