USA > Indiana > Courts and lawyers of Indiana, Volume I > Part 13
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CIRCUIT COURTS, 1816-52
dent the President Judge could not spend one-half that time at any given point. His itinerary called for five weeks and he was required to make three rounds each year. This was not so difficult a circuit as the First.
The Third circuit was composed of Dearborn, Franklin, Wayne, Switzerland and Jefferson, five counties in all. This circuit contained almost one-half the population of the state in 1816.
John Test was the first Judge on the Third circuit. Few men of the second rank were as well and agreeably known as Judge Test. He was a native of New Jersey, but spent most of his life in the practice of the law at Brookville. He served for three terms as congressman from Indiana.
His circuit began in Lawrenceburg, where he opened court on the fourth Monday in February. It is probable that Law- renceburg had the finest court-house in the state at that time. It was a two-story brick, the lower floor being used for the court room and the upper for the juries. However, the log jail in the square would have reminded one that it was still a pioneer society. It is also probable that the Dearborn county bar was the most ceremonial and pompous in the state. Judge Test, himself, put on the latest robes of the profession, includ- ing a queue that reached his waist. Several of the lawyers and officers had been officers in the Revolutionary army and liked to preserve something of their military bearing. Such were James Dill, Amos Lane, James Noble, Jesse L. Holman, Stephen C. Stevens and Jesse B. Thomas.
From Lawrenceburg, the Judge went up the Whitewater valley to Brookville in Franklin county, a distance of probably twenty or twenty-five miles. Brookville was an important town, one of the leading towns of the state, the home of the Nobles, the Tests and the Rays.
From Franklin to Wayne county was a somewhat longer ride. The Franklin term opened on the first Monday of March and the Wayne county term one week later. The county seat at this time was at old Salisbury. Court had been held here, as well as at the other points mentioned, for several years and a well-appointed bar was on hand at the opening of the sessions.
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Switzerland was the next point. Here Judge Test found a new court-less than two years old-and a settlement of French people. From Vevay, the seat of Switzerland county, the Judge continued, after spending the week beginning the third Monday of March at Vevay, down the river to Madison, the county seat of Jefferson county.
This was not a difficult circuit and in many respects was better organized and provided than the other two-not a new court in it nor a county without a fairly good court-house. A better class of attorneys rode the eastern circuit, though, as far as individuals were concerned, there was no lawyer in the east who compared with Parke, Blackford, Johnson, or Dewey in the west.
One of the most regrettable features of this early court history is the fact that circuits were so frequently changed. The same observation holds with respect to the congressional districts. It would have been entirely possible to have pre- served the identity of the old circuits, but, instead of doing this, wholesale changes were made. Not only is this true with regard to the counties composing the circuits, but it is equally true with regard to the terms.
The law of January 28, 1818, re-circuited the state. Knox, Sullivan, Daviess, Vigo, Dubois, Lawrence and Monroe were placed in the First circuit. The route of the circuit was as follows: Beginning at Bloomington the first Monday of March; thence to Palestine, county seat of Lawrence, on the Thursday following the above date; thence to Portersville, in Dubois county, where court was to open on the second Monday of March; thence to Washington, in Daviess, by the third Mon- day of March; thence to Vincennes by the first Monday of April; thence to Carlisle, in Sullivan, by the third Monday of April; and lastly to Vigo, where court was opened at Terre Haute on the fourth Monday in April. This circuit was re- peated three times annually. The sessions were greatly re- duced by this act. The Monroe court was to hold two days, Lawrence three, two weeks in Knox, and one week each in Dubois, Daviess, Vigo and Sullivan.
The Second circuit was composed of Harrison, Orange, Washington, Jackson, Clark and Jefferson. The circuit began
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CIRCUIT COURTS, 1816-52
on the first Monday of March at Paoli; Salem, on the second Monday; Brownstown, on the third Monday; Madison, on the fourth Monday; Charlestown, on the second Monday of April, and Corydon, on the fourth Monday of April. The circuit occupied thus about nine weeks and was to be covered three times a year. On this circuit the session was for twelve days except for Jackson, Washington and Orange counties, where each term was to last at least six days. Later the same year Crawford county was added to this circuit. Its court was held at Mt. Sterling.
The Third circuit was composed of Randolph, Wayne, Franklin, Dearborn, Switzerland, Ripley and Jennings. The itinerary began at Brookville on the second Monday of Feb- ruary, Centerville (the new county seat of Wayne), the first Monday of March, at Winchester on the second Monday of March, at Lawrenceburg on the third Monday of March, at Vevay on the first Monday of April, at Vernon (in Jennings county) and at Marion in Ripley county on the Thursday fol- lowing the sitting at Vernon. It is significant in this connec- tion that the statute specifically states that court shall be held at Centerville. In all these directions it specifies no other town, but merely says in a given county. The reference is to the bitter county-seat war then raging in Wayne. The lengths of the terms vary from two weeks in Franklin, Wayne, and Dearborn to one week in Switzerland and Randolph and three days each in Jennings and Ripley.
The Fourth and last circuit was composed of Gibson, Po- sey, Vanderburg, Warrick, Spencer, Perry and Pike. The trip began at Princeton on the first Monday in February; thence to the new court house built by Frederic Rappe at Springfield, in Posey county, on the third Monday of Febru- ary ; thence to Evansville on the fourth Monday of February ; thence up the river to Darlington, in Warrick, by the first Monday of March; thence to the county seat, Rockport, in Spencer, the second Monday in March; thence up to Troy, in Perry, on the third Monday of March; thence to the end of the circuit at Petersburg on the fourth Monday in March. This court sat one week at a place except Princeton, where it sat two.
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The salary of the circuit Judge was seven hundred dollars per annum, the same as that of the Judges of the Supreme court. The work was hard and the exposure great. Only men of the strongest physique could hold out on the circuit. The litigation rapidly increased, as can be seen from the length of the terms in the older counties.
In explanation of the seemingly impossible schedule, it should be stated that the Associate Judges usually opened court and impaneled the grand and petit juries. Local attor- neys filed the pleadings for most of the cases and set the dates for trial, so that considerable speed could be made when the President Judge arrived. Very frequently, as the county rec- ords show, the President Judge never attended at all unless there was an important criminal case on the docket.
Two of the three circuit Judges elected in 1816 had handed in their resignations before the General Assembly convened in 1817. During the intervening time the governor had filled the vacancies by special appointment. On the 8th of February, 1817, William Prince, of Princeton, had been appointed to succeed Benjamin Parke of the First circuit, who had been appointed a federal Judge for the Indiana district. On Octo- ber 13, Davis Floyd, of Corydon, had been appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of David Raymond of the Second district. What had become of Raymond cannot be learned from any records at hand.
A notice of these appointments was given the General Assembly by the governor, January 24. On the same day the House summoned the Senate to meet it in joint session on the 27th to elect Judges to fill these vacancies and also to elect a Judge for the new district. The joint meeting was held and William Prince was chosen for the First circuit, Davis Floyd for the second, and David Hart for the fourth.
William Prince was an early settler of Knox county and, later, of Gibson when it was created. His home was in Prince- ton and the city is named for him. He served as Judge only from August, 1816, to March, 1817. In 1823 he was elected to Congress, but died, September 8, 1824, before his term of office expired.
Judge Davis Floyd was one of the most interesting charac-
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ters in early Indiana. He was one of the early settlers at Clarksville, where he opened a tavern as early as 1801. He was licensed as a Falls pilot at the same time. He was con- nected with the courts from their earliest organization. He took an active part in aiding Burr, for which he was brought to trial on a charge of treason. He was fined ten dollars and imprisoned three hours. In the anti-slavery struggle he took an active part against slavery. He served in the territorial and state Legislature frequently. It is said that he designed our present state seal. About 1815 or 1816 he moved to Cory- don, and represented Harrison county in the first General As- sembly. After serving out his seven-year term, President Monroe sent him on a government appointment to Florida, from which it is thought he never returned. He was not a great lawyer, but seems to have been a satisfactory Judge, due perhaps to his strong personality and firm character.
David Hart, in March, 1817, succeeded William Prince in the old First circuit. He was an attorney from Gibson county. He rode the Fourth circuit about one year, being succeeded by Richard Daniel on January 2, 1819. His father had been in- terested in the Transylvania land deal, coming originally from North Carolina. Judge Hart came from Kentucky to Prince- ton in 1815. He went to Evansville about the time the town was laid out and became interested in real estate. He evi- dently died in December, 1818, since the records state that Richard Daniel was commissioned January 2, 1819, "vice Hart, deceased." His family returned to Lexington after his death. The traveler, W. Faux, who was in Princeton toward the close of 1818, speaks of Judge Hart as a gay, humorous man of twenty-five. He was proprietor of a tavern, dressed in an old white beaver hat, coarse, threadbare coat and trousers made of domestic, yellow-striped waistcoat, out at elbows ; yet clean and refined in language. He told Faux that the legal pro- fession was the least profitable occupation in the country and "merchandising" the most profitable.
Everything was new and changing. Each General Assem- bly created new counties and consequently had to create new courts and attach them to the old circuits or to new ones. The records at the county seats show the names of strange Judges
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occasionally, evidencing the fact that special Judges made trips around the circuit or were appointed for special terms or per- haps for special cases. The county seats in many counties were not permanently located. In others no court-houses had been erected.
A law of January 2, 1819, changed the dates for holding courts in the Second, Third and Fourth circuits. In the same act the place of holding the Perry Circuit court was designated as "Franklin", the modern village of Rome; in Spencer county, court was to meet at the house of Asel W. Dorsey ; in Warrick, for the first time at Boonville; in Vanderburgh, at the town of Evansville in the house of Hugh McGary; in Posey, at Spring- field, and in Gibson, at "Princetown". Several new counties- Fayette, Owen and Floyd-had to be provided for.
The act of January 9, 1821, attached Greene and Orange counties to the First circuit, Crawford to the Fourth and Bar- tholomew to the Second. This, of course, necessitated a re- arrangement of the schedule for these circuits.
On January 2, 1819, Richard Daniel, of Gibson county, was commissioned to succeed David Hart on the Fourth circuit. Judge Daniel was not widely known, serving less than a full year. According to tradition, he had many peculiarities. He was a busy practitioner on the circuit, as the records show, both before and after his judgeship. On January 21, 1820, he was succeeded by James R. E. Goodlet.
A celebrated case that came before Judge Goodlet was that of "Bob" and "Anthony", two colored men held by Luke Decker. The case had been laid in Orange, but in 1817 the case was venued to Pike. It appears from the papers that John Decker, father of Luke Decker, had brought the slaves from Virginia prior to the Ordinance of 1787. The slaves had continued without question as the property of the Decker family until the above date. Decker was defended by Henry Hurst and Charles Dewey, two of the best lawyers of the day -if, indeed, Indiana has ever produced a greater lawyer than the latter.
In the Third circuit, John Watts, of Dearborn, succeeded (February 2, 1819) John Test, of Franklin, as President Judge. He was a Baptist pioneer preacher, an excellent man,
All the northern part of the state etill owned by Indians
Miami Reservation
Randolph
Wabash 1st.
2nd.
3rd.
Henry
Parke
Marion
Rush
Morgan
Johnson
Shelby
Vigo
Putnam
Franklin
Decatur
Owen
Bartholomew
Monroe
Ripley
Greena
Jennings
Jackson
Lawrence
Switzer- land
Daviess
Knox
Martin
Scott
Washington
Orange
Clark
Pike
Dubois
Crawford
Floyd
Harrison
Van-r der- burg
Warrick
Perry
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS established by the act
Posey
Spencer
Of January 3, 1822
INDIANAA IN 1822.
By Ernest V. Shockley.
Fayette
Union
Sullivan
Dearborn
Jefferson
Gibson
Dalaware
Wayne
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CIRCUIT COURTS, 1816-52
ยท large, fleshy, plain of dress and speech. He was not a lawyer of any note, but a man of good judgment. He served only about one year and was succeeded, on January 21, 1820, by Miles C. Eggleston, the best-known trial Judge of early In- diana, if he has had a superior at any time in the state.
Miles C. Eggleston opened an office in Brookville. In 1820 he succeeded Watts on the bench where he served till 1845. He was a small man, dignified, and at times severe, but as a Judge eminently fair and usually very kindly.
The law of December 31, 1821, divided the state into five circuits.
The First contained Knox, Sullivan, Vigo, Park, Putnam, Daviess, Martin and Orange-thus retaining about half of its former counties. The Second was composed of Jefferson, Clark, Floyd, Harrison, Washington, Jackson and Scott-drop- ping Orange to the First and picking up the new county of Floyd. The Third was made of Ripley, Switzerland, Dearborn, Franklin, Union, Fayette, Wayne and Randolph. The Fourth remained as before-Dubois, Pike, Gibson, Posey, Vanderburg, Warrick, Spencer, Perry and Crawford. The Fifth consisted of Lawrence, Monroe, Morgan, Green, Owen, Marion, Henry, Rush, Decatur, Bartholomew, Shelby and Jennings.
The latter circuit, it will be noted, contained twelve coun- ties, all new and most of them in the "New Purchase," just then being opened up. The term in the new counties was lim- ited to three days.
On the 2nd of January, 1822, William W. Wick was elected president Judge of the Fifth circuit. He was born February 23, 1796, and educated at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. He set- tled in Connersville in 1820 and began practice as an attorney. He was an assistant clerk in the House during the session of 1820-21 and held the same position in the Senate at the time he was elected President Judge. Later he served as secretary of state (1825-29), prosecuting attorney for the Fifth circuit (1829-30), and President Judge (1831-1835). He served three terms in Congress and held various other offices. He was a successful politician, though only an indifferent lawyer or Judge.
(5)
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COURTS AND LAWYERS OF INDIANA
On the First circuit Thomas H. Blake had been appointed Judge on May 16, 1818, vice William Prince, resigned. He was then a practicing attorney of Terre Haute. He was born in Calvert, Maryland, June 14, 1792, served in the East during the War of 1812 ; moved to Kentucky and soon after to Indiana. He had served as prosecutor before becoming Judge. He was followed on the bench by General W. Johnston, December 31, 1818, and quit the law about 1820 and went into business and politics. He was in Congress from 1827 to 1829.
His successor on the bench, General Washington Johnston, was a widely-known attorney of Vincennes. He was born in Culpeper county, Virginia, and came to Vincennes in 1783, having been the first attorney admitted to practice at the Vin- cennes bar. He twice presided over the Circuit court of his district and often represented his county in the Legislature. He died at Vincennes, October 26, 1833.
The General Assembly of 1823-24, by act dated January 14, 1824, redistricted the state as follows: Orange, Martin, Daviess, Knox, Sullivan, Vigo, Parke, Vermillion, Mont- gomery, Putnam, Greene and Owen were placed in the First circuit; Scott, Jefferson, Jennings, Jackson, Monroe, Law- rence, Washington, Harrison, Floyd and Clark constituted the Second; Allen, Randolph, Wayne, Union, Fayette, Franklin, Dearborn, Switzerland and Ripley formed the Third; Dubois, Pike, Gibson, Posey, Vanderburg, Warrick, Spencer, Perry and Crawford were in the Fourth circuit; Morgan, Johnson, Shelby, Bartholomew, Decatur, Rush, Henry, Madison, Marion, Hamilton and Hendricks formed the Fifth.
The districts at this time contained from nine to twelve counties each. The amount of horseback travel required is almost unbelievable. In this regard the Third circuit at that time was worst. It extended from Fort Wayne to Vevay, a distance of one hundred and thirty-five miles as the crow flies and at least one hundred and fifty miles by the bridle paths of that day. The Judge of this circuit lived in Brookville, making it necessary for him to travel approximately one hun- dred miles in February to open court on time in Fort Wayne. The trip was not so bad if winter was still unbroken; but if the spring thaw had begun and the streams were not frozen,
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CIRCUIT COURTS, 1816-52
it was necessary to swim at least a score of streams on the trip. The summer trip to open court on the second Monday of August was not more attractive. If the weather was warm and wet, the country from Winchester to Fort Wayne was an endless quagmire. So dreaded was this road that the circuit riders frequently went around by Muncie and Marion, striking the old Delaware Trail, which was on the firmest ground in that country.
It is to be noted that the number of terms was reduced to two in all counties. Except for the added distance, this com- pensated for the enlargement of the circuits. The length of the terms in the various counties ranged from three to six days under this law.
Each session of the Legislature found it necessary to change more or less the schedule and term time of the courts and circuits. This had to be done whenever a new county was admitted. In the large circuits it became more and more nec- essary to authorize extra or special terms. These were usu- ally held by the Associate Judges alone, resulting generally in the demoralization of the courts. Probate courts were estab- lished and it seemed the simplicity of the system was in a good way to be marred by a return to a multiplicity of jurisdictions. The work of the President Judge and his cavalcade of great lawyers was fast becoming merely a criminal court.
On January 20, 1830, in order to give the Circuit court a better chance, the state was divided into seven circuits as fol- lows : Vermillion, Parke, Montgomery, Fountain, Warren, Tippecanoe, Carroll, Cass, Clinton and St. Joseph were con- stituted the First circuit; Clark, Scott, Jackson, Washington, Lawrence, Orange, Harrison and Floyd were left in the Second circuit; Franklin, Dearborn, Ripley, Decatur, Switzerland, Jefferson and Jennings remained in the Third; Gibson, Posey, Vanderburg, Warrick, Spencer, Perry, Crawford and Pike were placed in the Fourth; Marion, Hendricks, Morgan, John- son, Bartholomew, Shelby, Hancock, Madison and Hamilton formed the Fifth circuit; Allen, Delaware, Randolph, Henry, Wayne, Union, Fayette, Rush and Elkhart were placed in the Sixth; Knox, Daviess, Martin, Greene, Monroe, Owen, Vigo, Putnam, Sullivan and Clay formed the Seventh circuit.
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COURTS AND LAWYERS OF INDIANA
The terms remained in length and numbers about as be- fore. There were two terms, spring and fall (named, however, from the month in which they were held), ranging in length from three days in the new counties to six or twelve in the old. A new schedule or itinerary was made out for each cir- cuit. There were not so many changes in the judgeships dur- ing this period as earlier.
On January 14, 1825, Governor Hendricks notified the Assembly that Judge W. W. Wick, of the Fifth circuit, had resigned. In his place the Assembly, January 17, chose Beth- uel F. Morris, who was then serving as state agent.
On January 22, 1825, the Assembly again met in joint session for the purpose of electing a Circuit Judge for the First circuit. There were three candidates, John R. Porter, who received fifty-four votes; Thomas H. Blake, the President Judge, two, and John Ewing, of Vincennes, one.
Down in the Second circuit, John F. Ross, of Charlestown, succeeded Judge Floyd at the opening of the year 1824. Ross was a young man, thirty-six years old. He had served in the War of 1812, in the General Assembly, and as prosecutor. He was a native of Morgantown, Virginia, whence his parents had moved to Bardstown, Kentucky. Judge Ross died in 1834 while serving his second term.
After the death of Ross, Judge John H. Thompson was ap- pointed his successor for the balance of the term. He was then elected for a full term. Thompson had been lieutenant- governor from 1825 to 1828. He lived in Charlestown at the time. Later he moved to Salem and from there to Indian- apolis, where he became secretary of state in 1844.
A law of February 3, 1832, rearranged the schedules in First, Second, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh circuits. New coun- ties were added to some and the length of the sittings changed. However, the identity of the circuits remained. The next Assembly again reorganized the schedules in the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth. Grant county was added to the Sixth and the new circuit, the Eighth, was laid out by the act of January 7, 1833, as follows: Carroll, Cass, Miami, Wabash, Huntington, Allen, Lagrange, Elkhart, St. Joseph and La- porte. Gustavus A. Everts was elected President Judge of this
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CIRCUIT COURTS, 1816-52
circuit. He was a Virginian by birth, forty-one years of age at this time. He had previously practiced in Union county. After a long service as Judge and lawyer he moved to Texas.
He was succeeded on the bench by Samuel C. Sample, a Marylander by birth, who, with his family, had settled at Con- nersville about 1823. He studied law under Oliver H. Smith, after which, in 1833, he settled in South Bend. He was soon made prosecuting attorney and in 1835 became Judge, a posi- tion he held till 1843, when he was all but forced to represent his district in Congress. He is favorably known in state his- tory.
The schedule of the circuits was changed, February 1, 1833, though no new circuits were organized. The next session, 1833-34, by a series of separate acts, made some change in almost every court in the state. It was an era of special legis- lation and to one not acquainted with the practice it is ex- tremely bewildering. As a result of the formation of several new counties in 1837, a new circuit was organized. It was formed by dividing the Eighth and adding new counties to both the Eighth and Ninth.
The new Eighth circuit contained Cass, Miami, Wabash, Huntington, Allen, Adams, Wells, Jay, DeKalb, Steuben, Noble, Lagrange and Whitley counties.
The Ninth contained Elkhart, St. Joseph, Porter, Lake, Newton, Starke, Pulaski, Marshall, Fulton and Kosciusko counties.
So far as territory is concerned, the state was now pretty well covered except the extreme northwest corner. But the distribution was not satisfactory; so the first work of the Assembly of 1838-39 was a law to recircuit the state. The law was approved January 28, 1839, and divided the state into eleven circuits.
The First contained Fountain, Warren, Tippecanoe, Clin- ton, Carroll, White, Jasper, Newton and Montgomery-nine counties.
The Second contained Floyd, Harrison, Washington, Scott, Jackson, Clark and Orange-seven counties.
The Third contained Jefferson, Switzerland, Ripley, Jen- nings, Dearborn, Franklin and Decatur-seven counties.
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COURTS AND LAWYERS OF INDIANA
The Fourth contained Posey, Gibson, Vanderburg, Pike, Dubois, Spencer, Perry, Crawford and Warrick-nine counties.
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