USA > Indiana > Grant County > Centennial history of Grant County, Indiana, 1812 to 1912 : compiled from records of the Grant county historical society, archives of the county, data of personal interviews, and other authentic sources of local information > Part 50
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
If you do not understand the strong hold the press has on the com- munity, just answer a few of the telephone inquiries in the business office when some carrier has missed a subseriber or has been late in reaching him, and you will have some slight conception-and you were not alone in making inquiry. Sometimes a mail pouch has been carried by-a little oversight on the part of the elerk, but a big misfortune to those who miss the paper that day. After all, human life is but a book with the passing years for its chapters, and the gliding months are its paragraphs as we hurriedly read them. The days are as the sentences, but the punctuation and the proof -- usually those around us attend to that-while to carry out the idea, our doubts are the interrogations and imitation of others the quotation marks, and any attempt at display is a dash-the final period being death, and from the cradle to the grave the greatest influence is the printed page. The newspaper is the most potent ageney of education -- the advance guard of civilization, and yet every day men say: "If I were running your paper, " Forgetting that "We, the People" are shaping its policy-responsible for it, even though absolutely silent about it.
XLVIL. THE BENCH AND BAR IN GRANT COUNTY
The history of the bench and bar of Grant county is almost cou- temporary with the history of the county itself, so closely are their interests interwoven, and the terms indicate in a figurative way the judge and the practicing members of the legal fraternity. Bench is a time honored term, English in its origin and the judge himself is a public officer invested with authority to hear and determine causes-civil or criminal-and to administer justice according to the law and evidence in the case. While there are unwritten laws in society and lynch laws in some communities, that do not require legal advice in their exeention, jurisprudence is a systematic knowledge of the laws, customs and rights of man in a state or community necessary to seeure the due administra- tion of justice. A jurist is one who professes the science of law or one who writes on law, and under the latter designation there is a jurist - G. A. Henry- in the Grant county bar, Mr. Henry having added to the legal publications in Indiana.
Laws are the necessary relations resulting from the nature of things. and many matters are settled in court every year about which there has been no dispute-litigation without the element of contest, simply as a matter of amicable adjustment. Judicial proceedings do not neces- sarily mean controversy, and there are office lawyers who seldom ap- pear in court. There are estates to be settled and titles to be cleared. and the mimie dietionary definition of the word lawyer: "The man who resenes your property from the adversary and keeps it himself," perhaps describes the situation to some who have had experience in court. While there is no roll eall in court, there are about seventy-five members of the Grant county bar, but if there were the same stringent requirements in the practice of law as in medicine, the roster so said a local at- torney-would be smaller and the efficiency woukl be greater. IF there were entrance examinations the membership would be regulated by a
339
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
standard of efficiency, but under the Indiana constitutional provision of 1851 the necessary qualification is moral character and a friend at the bar who will stand before the judge and say : "I vouch for him." and the judge orders the clerk of the court to administer the oath wherein the applicant agrees to support the constitution of the state and nation, and he is a Full fledged lawyer.
Some of the reputable lawyers at the Grant county bar deplore the system and agree with Ex-Governor Thomas R. Marshall that re- vision of the constitution of Indiana is necessary. Notwithstanding the laxity of the requirements in Indiana jurisprudence, there are eminent men engaged in the practice-men of character and standing in the state and nation, and Grant county has its relative share of talented legal lights. There are men at the Grant county bar who are known in the halls of state. It is said that Indiana people know each other and that jealousies are subordinated. There is an unusual fraternal spirit in the Grant county legal profession, and the bench has had merited recogni- tion beyond the bounds of the county, legal acumen being appreciated in the courts of the commonwealth. At the present writing there are two members of the local bar, John R. Browne and Onis S. Condo, who are members of the supreme court of the United States, eligible to prae- tice in any state or federal court, and there always have been strong legal combinations engaged in general practice in Grant county.
It is said that the attorney who defined arson as " pizen," was not a member of the Grant county bar, although no one enjoys a mirthful aspersion upon his own profession more than the lawyer. From the senior member. Judge R. T. St. John down, there are many who tell good stories, and there is not one among them but what would offer $2 worth more counsel when asked to take a $3 fee out of a $5 bill, were such an emergency forced upon them, and it is universally conceded that the average lawyer will take care of himself in the matter of charges. Lawyers no longer depend upon eloquence to carry them through, the newspapers having "stolen their ammunition" by spreading the story in advance, and only the faets in the law and evidence are now sunmed up by them. While not much is required in the way of en- trance qualifications, the successful lawyer well understands that his knowledge is his capital-and that cold blooded farts without garniture are the convincing things-the bread and butter end of the story. Most lawyers are students, and when oratory prevailed. decisions were often reached under stress of emotion produced by fiery eloquence.
Time was in Grant county when prisoners and counter clients were afraid of certain "spellbinders" who could influence juries by their clo- quence, Imt under the searchlight of more widespread general intelli- gener the advocate must be in sympathy with his cause if cloquence comes to his rescue at all. There are still causes that stir the heart, and the orator must feel the burden of his words or they fall without im- press upon the jury-the public beyond the jury box-and unless the lawyer has a distinctive message -- why "fan the air?" why exert him- self to the point of frenzy ? Just as the fife and drum stir a crowd on a gala day, some men are able to sweep things with their personality. There is inspiration in numbers and oratory always attracts the crowd. There are men at the local bar who are eloquent in or out of court. Imit the trouble is-the newspapers have already told the story, and the business-like lawyer comes to the point in the fewest possible words. Thomas A. Hendricks and Oliver P. Morton were Indiana characters who, like the "Tall Sycamore of the Wabash," were known beyond the boundaries of the state, but they lived under different environment or their reputations might have been different. This is the age of calin
340
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
reason rather than disturbed emotion, and the legal fraternity has adapted itself to the changed conditions.
Litigations arise from various sources, and business of the bench and the bar alike depend upon them, From the nature of the case lawyers enjoy trials and tribulations-their source of revenue, and questions of title --- but friendly litigation often claim their attention. A flaw may have occurred in the spelling of a name or a signature may be in doubt-many technicalities and legal entanglements are straight- ened out in court. Interpreters of the law quite frequently become law- makers, legislators and in some instances they are well adapted to the requirements. Quite often the political bee buzzes in the legal head- gear-the lawyer's bonnet-and at the Grant county bar is a creditable array of jurists and statesmen. When politics becomes morals applied to government, the Decalogne and the Golden Rule will assist men greatly in framing the necessary laws, and patriotism-always commendable- will he as pure as the sunlight and not tainted with the influence of the almighty dollar. When partisanism is buried in patriotism and every heart throbs with one common purpose, the purification of politics, now an iridescent dream, may be accomplished in the world.
The battle for supremacy is as old as Nature herself, and in it there are no humanities-there is no sentiment-and yet the senior member of the Grant county bar denominates it as a good, average body-men of character-men as corrupt as thunder-and then JJudge St. John solemnly affirmed that there is dignity, a high sense of right and justice in the average Grant county lawyer. Perhaps the above picture is a little strong, but a glance through the records of the court shows the following entry in the April session of 1846: "On motion of John Brown- lee it is ordered to be certified that Robert T. St. John will be twenty- one years of age on the twenty-seventh day of October next," and A. D. 1913 he is still in active practice, and the county historian has frequently consulted him as to the relative importance of different questions con- sidered in this Centennial history. As senior member of the Grant county bar Judge St. John has been signally honored by his colleagues, and in his old age his portrait hangs on the wall of the circuit court room-a distinction not hitherto accorded any other man.
The pen of a St. John was needed in developing the history of the bench from its first existence. Ile is a forty-niner and a capital story teller as well as the exemplification of honor in the almost three score and ten years of local practice. From Judge H. J. Paulis, who now occupies the bench, to the latest addition to the bar they all want to see such history in print, although they have forgotten many contempo- rary events. The majority of attorneys at the local bar are residents of Marion, although several other towns are represented in the county roster. Like people in other vocations, their physical and financial in- terests are closely allied, and some of them have known the meaning of threadbare clothing while waiting for delayed patronage, and when "run down physically they soon run down financially." and do not dare to think of such misfortune. Most lawyers know the full import of "feast or famine," although they do not claim any exclusive privileges and most of them extract a living from those who must adjust differences among themselves. Arbitration has always been strong argument in Grant county, and estates and differences have often been settled out of court, and no record ever made of such transactions.
The first session of eireuit court in Grant county was held on Thurs- day, April 26, 1832, at the home of David Branson, a ITieksite Quaker strongly in favor of arbitration. On October 25th of the same year the first well organized court began its session at the Branson homestead,
311
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
near the Branson monument, along the Cemetery Boulevard, but ad- journed to the home of Riley Marshall to remain until a court house was in readiness for it. The story of court being held under the elm tree, as detailed in another chapter, is easily reconciled since this famous tree was in the Marshall door yard, and with limited space in his primi- tive home it would be the natural thing to hold the sessions in the open- in God's first temples --- when the weather was favorable for it. The first court in the first court house opened May 5, 18344, and Jesse Ver- milyea, who had been formally chosen elerk, having resigned, Riley Marshall was really the first ineumbent, and after more than sixty years a grandson of this pioneer attempted to write a new constitution for Indiana. In an early day the judges who served the county were all non-resident, coming from older settlements, and although Charles H. Test, who lived in Wayne county, was accounted the first judge, there were sessions of court held in his absence. Samuel Bigger of Rush county, was the second judge, and in turn he was succeeded by David Kilgore, of Delaware county, Jeremiah Smith, of Randolph county, and Joseph Anthony, of Delaware. In 1853 the court was reorganized, the associate judges were discontinued, and the bounds of the court have several times been changed since then until the Grant circuit court is independent from other counties. These eirenit judges were veritable circuit riders, and transportation had not then become such an easy matter.
The next judge after the court was reorganized and the associate judges were a thing of the past was John U. Pettitt, of Wabash, followed by John Brownlee, the first resident judge in the county. Walker Wins- low, who drove the stage coach from Marion to Anderson from before the Civil war until the C. W. and M. ( White Pigeon ) Railroad was built in 1875, related that Judge Brownlee had frequently paid $1 passage and walked most of the way over the corduroy imrough the slashes. "Thirty miles from a railroad" was the handicap of the town of Marion for many years. Judge Brownlee was succeeded by another local man, John M. Wallace, and both have posterity today among the well known citizens of the community. Other foreign judges were Horace P. Biddle, of Logansport, whose name suggests the story of his "Island Home" in the Wabash, and following him came Joseph S. Buckles, of Delaware, the third Muncie judge to hold forth in Grant county. Joshua H. Mellett was of Henry county, and when James R. Slack, of Huntington, was on the bench, the present judge of the Grant circuit court, Henry Jefferson Paulus, began keeping track of such things with an eye on the same posi- tion. He has personal knowledge of Heury B. Saylors, of Huntington, W. Il. Carroll, who was at the time he was elected a resident of Blackford conuty, and the dean of the Grant county bar, Judge St. Johm. followed by Judge Joseph 1. Custer, who was a Marion citizen. Judge Panlus came to the bench November 16, 1898, and is serving his third term as circuit judge, and within his recollection Huntington and Blackford counties were in the same circuit with Grant, and later Blackford and Grant were together, but now Grant is alone and there is no dearth of legal business-court always coming around again in due season.
Those who served Grant county as associate judges were: Samuel MeClure, Daniel James, William Massey, Benjamin F. Furnish, Caleb Smith and Henly James. In 1837 the office of probate judge was created, and James Trimble, B. C. Hogin, J. W. Goldthait, George F. Dum, Fred- erick P. Lucas, Walter March, Henry S. Kelley, John Green and William Garver served in that capacity until 1873 when the office was abolished. When a superior court was established in Grant and Howard counties, in 1897. ITiram Brownlee occupied the bench by appointment until
.
342
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
he was duly elected in the Century year, serving until 1904, when B. F. Harness, of Kokomo, was elected and in 1908 he was succeeded by Patrick Henry Elliott. While Judge Elliott was on the bench the superior court relation with Grant was shifted from Howard to Delaware, and at the expiration of his time R. M. Van Atta was elected and will serve the two counties until 1916-the next general election.
Judge Paulus feels great pride in the law library maintained in the conri house and consisting of about 5,000 volumes, the property of the Marion Law Institute, which he was instrumental in organizing. lle re- gards it as the best monetary investment possible to a young lawyer who is limited in his book purchasing ability. The membership fee in the institute is $100 with necessary assessments, and the amount is payable in four annual installments when more convenient to the members. While many lawyers wish all the Indiana reports in their own private libraries, few of them feel that they can afford to have the reports of all other states, not often having occasion to refer to them, yet the institute has made it possible to have access to them without owning them. About 1,000 volumes were originally placed on the shelves, and the minin- ber has been increased from time to time as there was money and need of them. The.reports are kept full and many reference books are added to the collection. Members of the Law Institute do not need large pri- vate working libraries. While the county commissioners donate a room in the court house for the library, it is a saving to Grant county, as the judge frequently finds volumes there he would otherwise ask them to buy for him. While no books are taken away and there is no librarian, all the members have keys and use the library, and the arrangement is proving eminently satisfactory. The bench and the bar are well taken care of by the county-the goddess on the court house always in favor of special privileges to those who deal out justice.
XLVIII. MEDICINE AND DOCTORS By Dr. F. A. Priest
The History of Medicine in Grant county has been a study in evoln- tion. Way back in the days of malaria, when the custodian of the court house rang the fire bell at regular intervals that the inhabitants might know when to take quinine for their chills and fever, up to the present time, the advance in medicine has been truly an evolution-as much so as has been the evolution in methods of locomotion between then and now.
During that early period, which but few of the doctors now living remember, the days when "yaller janders" was so prevalent, the good old doctor would throw his saddle-bags across his faithful horse and start out on his rounds which, would often take all day and night, and if the roads were bad maybe all the next day, and when the roads and cow- paths were too bad for the horse, which they often were, the physician would proceed upon foot.
Then came better drainage and with better drainage and with less stagnant water there were fewer mosquitoes and consequently less ma- laria and fevers. Also, when the water was drained from the surface to such an extent that land could be seen in Grant county, there was aroused a desire for better roads and you find the doctor riding around in better vehieles. And so as time passed and the county was so well drained that eventually it went "dry," so some of the old time diseases have al-
343
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
most become extinet, and as the highways have now become tarvia the doctors of today ride about in high powered machines and call upon their patients with high sounding diseases. histead of giving the good old fashioned quinine and blue mass, they now inject a few million slaughtered bacteria into their system or hurry them to the hospital and relieve them of their appendix, if they are so unfortunate as to have re- tained it that long. It is a long jump From the time when the good oldl doctor set by the bed side, felt your pulse, looked at your tongue, put his ear over your chest and listened to your lungs and heart, and then wrapped up some of those mysterious looking powders in some squares of news-paper, and, while doing so admonished those in charge to not allow any drafts in the room, up to the present time, when the doctor prieks the lobe of your eye and gets a drop of blood, uses a phonendo- seope over your lungs. a sphygmomanometer on your arm. then obtains a sample of your sputum and does a great many other things of diagnos- tie vale or otherwise, then, after carefully weighing all the evidence, determines just what strain, culture or family of dead bugs shall be in- jected into the patient, and this bacterin and serum therapy of today is the "last word" at the present time in medicine. It appears to have opened up a field of which now we are only in the beginning, and the benefits so far are very evident to the profession and the laity as well.
But getting away from all apparent levity, Grant county owes much to the advance guard of the profession that has paved the way for better sanitary and hygenie conditions in our community. Probably few men of the profession today would care to meet the hardships of those that have gone before, and the profession as a whole can look back with a large measure of pride upon those that have labored in our field of en- deavor for the good of their fellow-man. Perhaps no community ever had a better array of medical talent than was represented in Grant county in the early days by such men as the two Lomaxs, Constantine and William. Dr. James Shively, Dr. Lewis Williams, Dr. S. D. Ayres, Dr. E. P. Jones, the Drs. Abner and T. C. Kimball. Dr. William Flynn, the elder Dr. S. S. Horne and many others. These were men that dedi- cated their lives to their science and to each one individually and to all collectively Grant county owes a debt of gratitude that can never be paid except in loving memory. They were men that with but few of the modern conveniences of the profession met conditions and came out victorious. They were indeed great men-men that were an honored part of the people of the county. Few of these older men are now liv- ing-in faet in all of Grant county probably Dr. Daniels, of Sweetser, and Dr. Snodgrass, of Marion, are the only two that ever swung a pair of saddle-bags across a horse.
The profession in Grant county of today is in most part made up of younger men who are in the most active period of their life, and no- where in our great state will there by found a cleaner, more energetic, or better qualified class of physicians than are to be found within the confines of oll Grant county -- each city and town is well represented by medieal men that are an honor to their community. Individually, these men will need no introduction to you, for almost without excep- tion they are the most affable bunch of "good-Fellows" (women physi- cians included , you have ever met and you have met them often. To meet them in times of sickness and sorrow is a great consolation, and at other times it is a delightful pleasure. The sunshine they radiate is within itself a tonie that brightens the hours of the afflicted and drives away the shadows that hang like a pall over the sick room. They are here of all schools, isms, pathies and fanciful theories, and even the most fastidious layman will be able to find someone that will administer
344
HISTORY OF GRANT COUNTY
to him according to his way of believing even though the belief is only temporary and oft changing. But be he of what school he may or the follower of what theory, either real or imaginary, if he is a true physi- cian he is using his best endeavor in bringing about better sanitary and hygienic conditions that disease may be prevented and thereby de- crease the greatest and most vital waste in the world-namely, the waste of human vitality and life when it might have been prevented. The profession is working to obliterate the preventable diseases, such as typhoid fever, malarial fever, tuberculosis, small pox, etc., and the time is not far distant when to have any of the above diseases in Grant county will be looked upon as a disgrace and classed along with some other nu- mentionable diseases that are not considered good form in our best so- ciety.
The history of medicine in Grant county would not be complete with- out some mention of The Grant County Medical Society, one of the old- est medical societies in the state. It is a power for good, promoting a higher standing in the profession and a closer bond of fellowship among the members, and neither would this be complete without including the Grant County Hospital Association and the Grant County Hospital. The association was organized early in 1911, with Mr. A. P. Butter- worth as president, and they condneted the affairs of the old hospital in such a manner that it ontgrew its quarter and in October. 1913. a campaign was put on and $50,000 was raised for a new hospital build- ing and Normal Institute improvements, which will be on their way to completion when this publication is out. The hospital will be, modern in every respect and every citizen of Grant county will be proud to have such an institution within the borders of the county, and equally proud to know that he contributed to its erection and equipment.
Such has been the advance of medicine in Grant county that from saddlebags to hospitals has marked the progress of the last half century.
XLIX. DENTISTRY IN GRANT COUNTY By Dr. N. W. Hiatt
The practice of Dentistry in Grant county dates back to the year 1860. At least that is as far back as we are able to trace it. At or near that time Dr. David Cubberley began the practice of dentistry in Marion. A few years later a Dr. Braffet located here. for a short time only, leaving the work for Dr. Cubberley, who practiced for a number of years before retiring from active practice. The methods of practice in those days was very erude as compared with the modern methods em- ployed at the present time, but a great deal of credit is due the dentists of the early days for the good work done with so few instruments (o work with. Dr. A. W. Tripp was one of the carly dentists to locate in Marion. Dr. Tripp did most of his practice by traveling from house to house over the country, doing his work at the homes of his patients. Dr. Zook was another of the pioneer dentists of the county. There is no record to show how long he remained in practice here. Dr. James S. McClain located in Marion in the year 1878, and continued in active practice until a short time before his death in 1913. Dr. Wilford F. Kinley came to Marion in July of 1878, and has been in active practice up to the present time. Dr. Dan Jay practiced here for a number of years, afterward forming a partnership with a Dr. Birch, the firm name being Jay & Birch. Dr. Wilkinson came to Marion about the year 1843
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.