USA > Indiana > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Indiana > Part 13
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Judge Morrison signed his last record in our court at the March term, 1842. Judge Banta states in his "Historical Sketch of Johnson County" (page 84) that Governor Bigger thereupon appointed Fabius M. Finch, of the Johnson bar, as his successor for one year. We are not able to verify
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this statement. It is certain that Finch did not preside in our county, for the record shows that he was of counsel in several cases pending at the March and September sessions of that year, and all the records are signed by Robert Moore and James R. Alexander, associate judges.
Judge William J. Peaslee assumed the duties of presiding judge of our court on January 12, 1843, and served seven years. Judge Peaslee, the son of a Quaker minister, was born in Vermont, January 8, 1803. Receiving only a common school education, he engaged in business in early manhood, later studied law and in 1832 opened a law office in Shelbyville, Indiana. He was a Jacksonian Democrat, and represented Shelby county in the Legisla- ture of 1837. He was circuit prosecutor in 1839 and 1840, and this was followed by his election by the state Legislature to the bench. After retiring from the bench, he lived at Shelbyville, moved thence to Chicago, and in 1863 removed to Davis county, Missouri, where he died in 1866. During Peaslee's term, Hiram Brown, William Quarles, Hugh O'Neal and David Wallace were often before the bar of our court. In the latter part of his term (1848-49) G. M. Overstreet and A. B. Hunter began their career as law- yers, and they at once took a prominent place at our bar. Overstreet served as prosecuting attorney in 1849, and the first record bearing the name of the firm of Overstreet & Hunter is dated July 19, 1849.
At the March term, 1850, Judge W. W. Wick again took his place on the bench in our county, serving until the September term, 1853, when he was succeeded by Stephen Major. Judge Banta places the date of Major's eleva- tion to the bench as 1857 (Historical Sketch, page 84), but he corrects the error in his later history of the county. Judge Major resigned in 1859, and Wick was appointed by Governor Willard to serve until after the fall election.
Fabius M. Finch was elected in 1859 and held the office for a term of six years. His career was noteworthy and deserves some extended notice. He was born in Livingston county, New York, in 1810. He came with his father to Connersville in the year that Indiana became a state, and remained in the state for the rest of his life. In 1819 the family again migrated, stopping at Muncie-town, the headquarters of Muncie, the chief of the Shawnees. The colony, of which the Finch family was a part, finally located on the prairie where Noblesville is now located. The father was the village blacksmith, and his shop and his home were frequented by travelers. Will- iam W. Wick was a guest of the Finch's on one of his circuits, fell in love with and married a daughter, and in 1828 took his young brother-in-law to his Indianapolis office. Finch had had little schooling, but he had a fine tutor
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and soon qualified for admission to the bar. He came to Franklin in 1831, · was admitted to the bar in March of the following year.
Judge Banta says of his early life in Franklin: "There was not much for a lawyer to do in Franklin in those days at the legitimate practice of the law. There was not only little to do, but the people were poor and had but little money with which to pay for legal business. It was a prevailing cus- tom for lawyers to take the promissory notes of their clients for. services ren- dered, and the non-resident lawyers generally exchanged such of their notes as had any exchangeable value with the merchants of the county where the payers lived, for dry goods or even groceries. It was no uncommon thing in the early day to see Hiram Brown, Philip Sweetser and other lawyers riding out of Franklin with calicoes, muslins, jeans and other articles tied to their saddles, the product of such exchanges.
"When Finch came to town Samuel Herriott was clerk of the circuit court, and kept his office in a little room in the rear of his storeroom, stand- ing on (near) the northwest corner of the public square. His records were very much behind, and it coming to his knowledge that Finch wrote a good hand, he at once made him his deputy. William Shaffer, an honest old car- penter, who could make a wooden pin better than he could a quill pen was at the same time county recorder, and he too sought the young man's help, and between the clerk's office and the recorder's, Finch found profitable employ- ment, profitable to himself we may hope, and certainly profitable to the people of Johnson county, for the records made by him are among the best that have ever been made in the county. After some time Pierson Murphy, a physician of the town, was elected to the office of school commissioner and Finch acted as his deputy in the discharge of the duties of that office.
"For many years after Johnson county was organized the Whigs held the better county offices, and Fabius M. Finch being a Whig, the office- holders quite naturally gave him their countenance and support. But he did not make himself known to the people as a deputy clerk or deputy re- corder only. He had a higher ambition, and that was to be known as a lawyer, and he succeeded. Clients came to him one by one, and his business so increased and he managed it in such a manner as to make himself known as one among the best lawyers in the circuit."
In 1839 he was elected to the State Legislature, and he filled many local appointive offices with credit. Near the close of his term of office he re- moved to Indianapolis, and upon retiring from the bench formed a law part- nership with his son, John A. Finch, who became an insurance lawyer of national reputation. Judge Finch in 1889 received a severe injury from a
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fall and retired from court practice, but he lived until 1900. His remains lie at rest in the family tomb at Greenlawn cemetery in Franklin.
General John Coburn succeeded Judge Finch, but he presided in our court only a year, resigning to accept a nomination for Congress. He was little known to this community, but his long service in Congress made him a national character. Upon his retirement from Congress in 1875 he resided at Indianapolis, save for a time he served as member of the supreme court of the territory of Montana.
Cyrus C. Hines was elected in October, 1866, to the bench of the cir- cuit then composed of Marion, Hendricks and Johnson counties, first coming to our county in March, 1867. He continued to serve until the state was redistricted in 1869, thereafter retaining a place on the bench in Marion county until his resignation in 1870. He then formed a law partnership with Albert G. Porter and Benjamin Harrison. In 1873 Governor Porter retired from the firm and a year later W. H. H. Miller. became the junior partner. In 1883 John B. Elam was taken into the firm, and a year later Judge Hines retired to assume management of a deceased brother's estate. Later he re- moved to New York City.
Samuel P. Oyler was appointed by Governor Conrad Baker judge of the new twenty-eighth judicial circuit. composed of the counties of Shelby, Bartholomew, Brown and Johnson, and qualified as such on August 25, 1869. He was a native of England, born in Sussex county on August 26. 1819. At the age of fifteen he came to this country, stopping at Rochester, New York, for seven years. In 1841 he came to Indiana and located on a farm in Tippecanoe county. While a farmer, he became interested in the study of theology, united with the Unitarian church, and was presently li- censed to preach. For eight years he traveled through the states bordering on the Ohio river preaching the doctrines of his church, but in 1850 he found a home in the town of Franklin and took up the law. He entered the office of Gilderoy Hicks and on June 16, 1851, was admitted to the bar of the Johnson circuit court. In 1852 and in 1854 he was elected prosecuting attorney of the district and soon made himself a place at the bar of our court. When the Civil war broke out he organized the first company of volunteers in the county and was chosen its captain. The company was given a place in the Seventh Regiment, and Oyler was at once promoted to major. When the three months campaign in West Virginia was at an end, Oyler returned to Franklin and resumed the practice of the law. In August, 1862. he again entered the army, as captain of a company in the Seventy-ninth Regiment. was soon promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and with his regiment was assigned
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to duty in the Army of the Cumberland. Under General Buell and later General Rosecrans, his regiment had much serious work to do in the Ken- tucky, Tennessee and Georgia fighting, finally culminating in the Chicka- mauga and Chattanooga campaigns. Colonel Oyler played a man's part in all these important movements, after the battle of Chickamauga leading back the remnants of the Twenty-first Corps, of which he was the ranking officer left on the field.
Colonel Oyler later went with Sherman on his famous march to the sea, but in July, 1864, he was disabled and was compelled to resign a month later. He had barely returned home until he was elected to the Indiana Senate, where he served four years ( 1865-69). He served as judge of our court about fifteen months. After his retirement from the bench he was, as he had been throughout his residence here, much interested in local affairs. In 1892 he was elected mayor of the city of Franklin, and, although of advanced years, was a capable and vigorous executive.
Colonel Oyler was associated with but two attorneys in the practice at the Johnson bar. From the close of the war until 1874 he was senior mem- ber of the firm of Oyler & Howe, the latter being his step-son, the Hon. Daniel Wait Howe, later a judge of the superior court of Marion county, and still a prominent lawyer of the capital city. On March 1, 1881, William A. Johnson became associated with Colonel Oyler under the firm name of Oyler & Johnson, and this relationship continued until the last named went on the bench, on January 2, 1893.
Colonel Oyler was an impetuous, gruff man, and impatient in the face of opposition or attack. As a lawyer he was a ready fighter and preferred an open ring and no gloves. While not without weaknesses, he was a loyal friend, a public-spirited citizen, a faithful soldier and a just judge. He died at his home on the corner of Madison street and Home avenue on September 6, 1898.
Judge David D. Banta was elected to the bench of the twenty-eighth judicial circuit in 1870, then composed of Johnson, Shelby, Bartholomew and Brown counties, court being held in our county on the second Mondays of March and September, continuing four weeks. The act of 1873 created the sixteenth judicial circuit of Johnson and Shelby counties, with court to be held in Johnson county on the first Monday of February. the fourth Monday of April, the first Monday of September, and the third Monday in November. each term to extend four weeks. Judge Banta served a full term of six years, the first native-born son to fill that high office.
His long-time friend and law partner, Judge Thomas W. Woollen,
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wrote a biographical sketch of Judge Banta's life for the "Bench and Bar of Indiana," and from this the following facts are gleaned: Jacob Banta and his wife, Sarah Demaree Banta, moved from Henry county, Kentucky, to Johnson county, Indiana, in the fall of 1832 and began life in the wilder- ness. On the 23d day of May, of the following year, their son, David Demaree Banta, was born. In that part of Union township where Jacob Banta settled there were several families of Presbyterians, and they united to form a church society and build a house of worship. Jacob Banta donated two acres of ground for the churchyard and graveyard adjoining, and "Shiloh church" was built. Here at the same time a school was started in the primeval forest. Young David Banta was the first scholar to reach the little log school house on the first day of the first school in the settlement, and hence onward he attended every school taught there till nearly grown. Books were exceedingly scarce in the neighborhood, and this young student's efforts to get hold of books for his reading are graphically pictured in his history of the pioneer days.
Banta taught a term or two of school in early manhood, and then went to the new state of Iowa for a year of work and wandering about that state. Early in 1853 he came back home and entered Franklin College. In the autumn of 1853 he became a student at the State University. where he re- mained until his graduation both from the academic and law departments in 1857. While in school he had married Mrs. Melissa E. Perrin, a daughter of the Hon. James Riddle, of Covington, Kentucky. In the fall of 1857 he re- turned to this county and opened a law office in the city of Franklin.
For some time prior to the Civil war the law business in Franklin was far from lucrative, and Banta gave much time to reading and began to write for the newspapers. For two years he had charge of the recorder's office and for two years he was prosecuting attorney of the common pleas district. He also served as an assessor in the United States revenue department, was school examiner, and a trustee of the Franklin schools. His varied contact with the people of the county and his pleasant personality made him many friends. and he was successful in his court practice against more eloquent and forceful pleaders. Judge Woollen relates an incident of his meeting with one of the regular jurors on the court house steps one day toward the close of a term. The juror, after looking furtively around to see that no one was in hearing, said: "Stand up to those old lawyers, Davy, stand up to 'em. The jury is standing up to you."
During the first half of the war the courts of Johnson county were com- paratively idle, but toward the close business revived and the struggling
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young lawyer came into his own. The fifteen or twenty years following the war were the lawyer's flush times in Indiana; money was plenty, business was good, commercial enterprises sprang up like mushrooms, and the dockets were crowded with cases. His term on the bench (1870-76) was a busy and profitable season for the lawyers, and the Judge gave universal satisfaction as a fair-minded, honorable arbiter of the important causes brought before him.
When Judge Banta retired from the bench in 1876 he formed a law partnership with Judge Woollen, which continued until 1889, when the for- mer was made the head of the department of law at the State University, and this necessitated his moving to Bloomington. He maintained his position as dean of the School of Law in the university until his death, on April 9, 1896.
Judge Banta was a great lover of out-door life. Beginning with 1871, when illness compelled him to seek recreation in the open, he seldom failed to spend the summer months in the woods of northern Michigan. There he hunted, fished and trapped, camping in tents and "roughing it" in genuine backwoods style. On his outings he sought the companionship of younger men, kindred spirits, and the Judge was at once the oldest and the youngest of these merry companions.
But Judge Banta is perhaps best known as a writer along historical lines. He was the author of an "Historical Sketch of Johnson County," pub- lished by Beers & Co., of Chicago, in 1881; of the local history section in the "History of Johnson County," published by Brant & Fuller, of Chicago, in 1888; of numerous historical articles published in the Indianapolis News and in the local papers, nearly all dealing with incidents of pioneer life. In . his narratives of early days, he was recognized as an accurate and faithful historian, gifted with literary skill and a broad, generous sympathy.
He was a man of sterling moral qualities, devoted to his family. His epitaph, carved on a stately shaft in Greenlawn cemetery in Franklin, truly presents the man : "He was an honest lawyer, and a just judge. A lover of books and a writer of ability. He filled many offices of trust faithfully and well, and was an abiding friend, a loving husband and father and a Christian gentleman. He died in the hope of everlasting life."
Kendall Moss Hord was born at Maysville, Kentucky, October 20, 1840. His father was a lawyer, and at the age of nineteen the son entered his office as a student. In 1862 he was admitted to the bar and began the practice of the law in Flemingsburg, Kentucky. About a year later he came to Indianapolis and further prepared himself for practice by study of the
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Indiana code in the office of his distinguished brother, Oscar B. Hord, who was then a law partner of Thomas A. Hendricks and Judge Samuel E. Perkins. In the fall of 1863 Hord located at Shelbyville, Indiana, and there he has ever since lived. He at once took an active interest in politics and has always been a leader in Democratic councils in the state. In 1864 he was elected prosecuting attorney of the common pleas court of his district, and two years later prosecuting attorney of the circuit. In 1872 he was again elected to the latter office, and in 1876 was elected judge of the six- teenth judicial circuit and was re-elected in 1882. During his twelve years' service on the bench of the Johnson circuit court he became personally known to almost every citizen of the county, as he had the politician's faculty of remembering faces and names, and he took great pleasure in social intercourse with the men of the street. He was quick to grasp a point of law, had an unusual acquaintance with the code and had precedents at his fingers' ends. He was fearless in his decisions and was at once self-reliant and approachable. Upon his retirement from the bench he founded a part- nership with Edward K. Adams, and the firm of Hord & Adams has for the past twenty-five years stood at the head of the legal fraternity in Shelby county.
Leonard J. Hackney, on November 17, 1888, took his seat on the bench of the sixteenth circuit. He was born at Edinburg, in this county, March 29, 1855. His parents were very poor and the boy had no opportunities of de- velopment in home or school. Most of his time was spent about the livery barns and the Edinburg fair grounds. From his work as "swipe" he was sometimes taken to ride the running horses of the local sportsmen. Quitting · the unfavorable environment of his youth at the age of sixteen, he started out to make his way in the world. Thenceforward he instinctively, as it were, chose a course that led to rank and honor. First as a student in the office of Hord and Blair, later in the office of John W. Kern at Kokomo, and finally as law clerk in the office of 'Baker, Hord & Hendricks at Indianapolis, he rapidly progressed in the knowledge of the law, and in September, 1876, "hung out his shingle" at Shelbyville. Two years later he was elected prosecuting attorney of the six- teenth circuit and in 1888, after a contest characterized by unusual feeling, succeeded in landing the Democratic nomination for circuit judge. Many old-time politicians remember the Fairland convention, and to some of the friends of Judge Woollen, who was a candidate before the convention, the name of one Johnson county delegate will always be anathema. By his
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treachery the Johnson county candidate lost to the stripling from Shelby- ville.
After the election Judge Hackney's ability, courtesy and fairness quickly won over his political enemies, and no man ever graced our bench who was more respected and admired. His record on the circuit bench met with such favor that when a vacancy occurred on the supreme bench in 1892 he was nominated without opposition and elected. He resigned his circuit judge- ship on January 2, 1893, and on the same day qualified for the higher posi- tion.
On his retirement from the supreme court he was offered the position of general counsel for the Big Four Railroad Company, and has since that time maintained his office and residence in Cincinnati.
Upon Judge Hackney's resignation,, William A. Johnson, of Franklin, was commissioned judge of the sixteenth circuit and qualified January 3, 1893. Judge Johnson was born at Edinburg, in Johnson county, June 7, 1852, and after his school days went to college at Moores Hill and later at the State University. He studied law in the office of Nelson Berryman at Edinburg, was admitted to the Johnson county bar on September 7, 1874, and entered the practice in his home town. In 1881 he came to Franklin and was associated in the practice of the law with Colonel Oyler until his elevation to the bench. He has held no other public office, save that of an elector in the Mckinley election. He is still an active member of the Johnson county bar, and his record and achievements must be left to later biographers.
William J. Buckingham was elected judge of the circuit of Johnson and Shelby counties at the November election, 1894, and qualified on Novem- ber 17th of that year. He was re-elected in 1900, but the Legislature had in the meantime, by the act of 1899 (page 199), redistricted the state, constituting Brown and Johnson counties the eighth judicial circuit. Buckingham was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, December 4, 1849, his parents removing to Franklin county in the following year. He attended the common schools until the age of fourteen, then attended a graded school at Mt. Carmel for a year, and was for three years a student at the Methodist Seminary at Brook- ville.
He began teaching at the age of eighteen, and many country school houses in Johnson county were the scene of his labors for the next ten years. In the summer seasons he worked as farm hand and as a common laborer about the brick kilns and other factories of Franklin. During this time he began to study law, and rarely laid aside his manual labor without a book at hand. On August 1, 1877, he opened a law office in Franklin and continued
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in the practice until his death, except for the twelve years of his service on the bench. His first law partner was Jacob L. White, with whom he asso- ciated in 1880. After Mr. White's death, in 1889, he formed a partnership with Edward F. White, which was interrupted by his election to the judge- ship.
Judge Buckingham on the bench was impartial and fair-minded, but was painfully slow in his conduct of trials and in making of issues. He was a tireless worker and of indomitable courage, even in the face of mortal illness. A victim of diabetes, causing the loss of a limb, he persisted in his office work to the day of his death. He died February 1, 1913.
William Edward Deupree, present judge of the eighth judicial circuit, was elected in 1906 and re-elected in 1912. A biographical sketch of Judge Deupree is found elsewhere in this volume.
ASSOCIATE JUSTICES.
Indiana's first constitution provided for the election in each county of two associate justices, who should sit with the presiding judge of the cir- cuit. The Legislature chose the circuit judge, and it was doubtless in the minds of the framers of the Constitution that a check ought to be placed on the power of the bench over the rights and liberties of the citizen. The law did not require that the presiding judge should be a lawyer, nor that the associate justices should be laymen, but so it was not only here but every- where. The associate justices had the power to overrule the decision of the president judge, and were authorized to hear and determine causes in his absence. In the early history of the county it happened several times that a whole term of court (one week) went by without the appearance of the president judge, but a cursory examination of the records at such times in- dicates that only routine business was transacted and important cases were continued until a meeting of a full bench.
The associate justices of the Johnson circuit court and their dates of service are as follows : Israel Watts, 1823-30; Daniel Boaz, 1823-37; Will- iam Keaton, 1830-35; James R. Alexander, 1835-43; Robert Moore, 1837-44; James Fletcher, 1843-45 : John R. Carver, 1844-51 ; John Wilson, 1845-51. Israel Watts came to Blue River township in 1821 from Ohio. Daniel Boaz, a native of Virginia, settled on White river in 1821. William Keaton emi- grated from Kentucky to Nineveh township in 1826. Robert Moore, father of the Hon. Joseph J. Moore, deceased, settled in Union township in 1829. These four, in particular, were strong, sturdy pioneers, fair representatives
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