USA > Indiana > Madison County > History of Madison County Indiana (Volume 1) > Part 25
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Marcellus A. Chipman came to the bench in 1888. He was the absolute antithesis, both of Judge Moss his immediate predecessor and of Judge Goodykoontz who had preceded Judge Moss, in his attitude toward pleading and practice. They cared hardly at all for form, if only results might be reached. Judge Chipman was more lawyer like. Trained to make issues by regular and logical steps, he adhered to that method always. And nothing delighted him more than a well worded, clean cut, logical presentation of an issue on paper. To him came exquisite delight to weigh the argument of counsel as revealed in sharp incisions of keen retort or in the heavy proof of authority piled on authority. He fell nothing short of the kindly men who had gone before him in his hope to see justice prevail. He had all patience, and would listen to an advocate old or young as long as he cared to write or talk in support of his position. But he seemed to think that when a party had committed his grievance to the court, it should be threshed out through the processes there provided. And so with the circumspec- tion of the clear headed pleader, with the promptness of the faithful public servant, with the fairness of the just judge, he welcomed the formation of the issues to a finish and all the conflict that those joining them might produce until judgment was rendered. This requirement of the court too was a good lesson to those practicing before it. The advantage of well reasoned statements and carefully prepared papers were readily recognized by all members of the bar. And there is no doubt that many, especially the younger lawyers, have experienced great help in the fondness of Judge Chipman for correct pleading and for all the finer practices of the profession.
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Alfred Ellison was chosen circuit judge by the electors of the county in 1890, being at the time but thirty-six years of age, probably the youngest candidate ever elevated to that position in this county. He had then been engaged in the practice of his profession but a few years, and there were not lacking those in the campaign who expressed their doubts of his ability to discharge the duties of the office to which he aspired. But the fact soon dawned and to the great gratification of his friends, that he was fully master of the new situation. During the first four years of his term there were more causes disposed of by him each term than ever found their way to a trial calendar in a single term in any court in this county before or since. Hundreds of these causes involved large sums and important interests. But the judge did not shirk the mountain of labor which thus piled up before him. Day after day he held court through terms practically unending, for when the statutory time arrived for a new term to commence the old one was still holding on. Besides this, night sessions of the court were not uncommon. Ten o'clock found court in session many nights. And upon a few occasions the jury was instructed by Judge Ellison after the clock in the tower had struck the solemn hour of midnight. The work was more than one judge should have been required to do. And finally to relieve the overworked court and to facilitate the disposition of cases the movement began, which resulted in the establishment of the supe- rior court in the latter part of his term. Very few, only three or four of the judgments rendered by Judge Ellison and appealed to the supreme court were reversed. And he never met with a reversal in the higher courts from his instructions to a jury.
The characteristic bearing of Judge Ellison upon the bench was dis- tinctly courteous, and his uniform kindness and ease of manner toward the several members of the bar served to make him popular. And all remembering his industry, his integrity, and his kindly disposition, retain for him their admiration and good will.
The success of Judge Ellison had made it plain that the younger as well as the older lawyers were fit for the bench. And so as one of this class had done so well, the thought was natural that another might be tried. It was in this conviction that the people called John F. McClure to try his hand. He was just rounding to the maturity of his mental powers when elected judge in 1896. And endowed with a conquering greediness for the toil that runs a question down, he delved into the principles of law and the details of evidence in so thorough a fashion that although he may have seemed to be slow as he plodded, it was plain when he had concluded his finding and judgment that he was really rapid, for then the whole fabric of the case stood revealed and its atmos- phere cleared in his complete consideration and exposition of the same. His re-election to a second term was an indorsement of his first. And during the whole of his twelve years upon the bench he performed a prodigious amount of labor, through which with admirable judicial poise and earnest manner uniquely underlaid with a fine sparkle and relish of quiet wit, he won and retains the deep appreciation of the bar and public.
It may be that the merits of Charles K. Bagot as judge of the Madi-
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son circuit court can not now be so truly measured or appreciated as they may when his entire career in such capacity shall have dropped into the golden mould of time. But his work has gone far enough already to warrant an assertion of its success, as it has a general belief that he will leave behind him a judicial record of exceptional worth and ability.
He had engaged for many years in an active practice in the courts when called to preside in this one. He possessed a rare knowledge of the law and of the rules of proceedure, which he has carried and applied in the best and most conscientious way to his work upon the bench. Lay- ing aside the partiality which the attorney naturally takes on for his client, he assumes in his high position the impartiality and reserve which are found only in the trusted arbiter of litigants. And his unfailing evenness of temper and genial disposition, together with his recognized understanding of the law fit him well for his varied work as judge in questions of probate, in civil and criminal causes.
And passing now from the bench in this narrative to the bar of Madi- son county, one realizes more fully still the difficulty of attempting a sketch at once truthful and of interest concerning an institution and the numerous individuals composing it, whose lives and labors are in- wrought all told with a hundred years of human controversy.
But while the task looms doubtful of complete success, it is not with- out attractiveness. There is so much of variety, of effort and of inspira- tion connected with the character and history of our bar that a real pleasure fills the minds as it soars in survey of the noblest of its past and dwells on the precious lessons that have flowed thence to the present.
There is a glory in the very simplicity and naturalness by which law- yers practicing before a court come into association. They do not arrive by any assignment. They have no "Union." They stand there at the call of human brotherhood, obedient to the needs and rights of clients. Money is not the main moving cause. Fees are charged and paid, but they are only incidental to the work. They are absolutely requisite now and then of course. But the compelling magnet which draws men to this profession is the burning thought of fame and of service to one's fellows and to society.
Lawyers laboring always in a situation that would enable them to form the most rigid combine to monopolize employment and fix charges, do not choose to exercise such advantage. The field is left always open. Every attorney remains free to serve whom and to charge what he pleases. In this also he consults his client, and the compensation is largely a mutual matter between them. This is the most honorable relation between employer and employed in the world. The fee may be thousands, it may be nothing, but all the same the attorney has the consciousness of having done his duty and of having satisfied his client. He has come into this notion of his service by tradition and by impulse. If he has studied the ethics of his profession, he knows that in a way he is a public servant and that upon him rests a duty to aid the ends of justice, although in particular calls upon his time and talent there may be no pay, while on the other hand he has the right to handsome com- pensation for intense thought and devotion to the dearest or most valu- able interests of another.
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Could character actuated and developed under such ideals be other- wise than strong? Could living sustained in such a pursuit be anything but noble? The lawyer may not often enough reflect upon the value or the extent of his influence. It is sure that he rarely boasts of it. But his quiet conduct exerted with a fair understanding of what is just and what is practical in his community is a steadying, leavening force that has no equal man for man in any other calling.
The legal profession attracts to its pursuits men of brains. There are such in almost every county seat in the United States, who are able, should the opportunity offer, to preside with credit in the highest courts of their state or country. The most of this modest talent receives no public notice. It does not need nor long for that, for it is a reserved and latent force and a pleasure to itself and to those it serves in a private and effective way.
Moreover, here is found exceptional honesty and the trust that fol- lows it. In business enterprises generally a mortgage or binding con- tract is executed to secure performance. With all, the lawyer's word is better than a bond. The deepest secrets and sums without limit repose absolutely on his judgment and in his keeping. The wrongs wrought by dishonorable practice on the part of members of the Madison county bar, could any be found, would make but a bagatelle compared with the mass of that which is square and upright. Realizing this, it is easy to understand the uniform courtesy and good feeling that prevails among practitioners here, where envy and ill will have but little place. But hope each for the other and faith that the greatest success will follow each individual as he adheres nearest to an open and honest struggle is the sentiment which animates the members, and is well nigh universal among them.
The Madison County Bar Association was organized in January, 1892, with Howell D. Thompson as president; Edward D. Reardon, sec- retary, and E. B. McMahan, treasurer. Mr. Thompson served until his death, when Frank P. Foster was chosen as his successor and still holds the position. Upon the removal of Mr. Reardon to Indianapolis, Frederick Van Nuys was selected as secretary and still serves in that capacity, and Mr. McMahan continues to discharge the duties of treas- urer. All these positions are merely formal, for the purpose of the association is purely social. It has no stated meetings; it has formulated neither a constitution nor by-laws. Its members assemble only when called upon to attend the last sad rites of a stricken one, or on the occa- sion of a banquet or other social function. But even in this unwritten and informal character, the members of the bar have come to regard their association as something more than nominal and are ever ready to lend their presence and aid to its invitations and directions.
It would not be worth while, perhaps, if it were proper at all, to com- ment here upon living members of the bar, since sketches of them, or many of them, will doubtless appear in biographical notices, elsewhere in this volume. But it may be helpful to collect, which is done, at the foot of this article, a roster of the practicing attorneys in our court from the beginning to the present.
Something also may be said of some of those who have passed to the
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"bourne from which no traveler returns," members of the Madison county bar, who in one way or another, now and then in a manner very simple and in other instances quite grave, but generally in such a fash- ion as to leave an impression with their fellows and upon the community that history hastens to collect and hold for posterity to whom its recital may be of use and interest in after years.
As a mere mark of wide spread circumstance, the earliest period of the Madison county bar is the farthest famed of any in its entire record. A few of its first members were governors, and others United States senators. James B. Ray became governor of Indiana in 1823. To the same station in 1843 rose James Whitcomb, who was later advanced to the senate of the United States. Oliver H. Smith, a profound lawyer and a happy writer, whose "Early Indiana Trials and Sketches," will last with the state's literature, was elected a United States senator in 1836.
Smith, prior to the time he became senator, and Ray, while governor, bore conspicuous parts, though in a very different capacity in one of the most remarkable lawsuits that was ever prosecuted in this county or in the United States. It may be worth while here to recall the fact that Madison county's trial of widest note and importance took place but one year after the organization of the county.
It was in the spring of 1824, that a party of Seneca Indians-two men, three squaws and four children-encamped on the east side of Fall creek, about eight miles above Pendleton. They were peaceable and came to hunt and trap. They had been there a week, when in the evening seated about their blazing fagots wholly unsuspicious of harm, they were visited by five white men of the neighborhood-Harper, Sawyer, Hudson, Bridge and a son of Bridge, aged eighteen. They enticed the male Indians from the camp on a pretext of having them help in hunt- ing some lost horses, and shot them, then returned and killed the squaws and both boys and the two little girls. Harper fled and made good his escape. The others were arrested and held for trial. News of the crime flew as if on the "wings of the wind." Soon it was known in every wigwam and war council of the powerful Senecas. The settlers then but sparse were greatly alarmed, lest the deed would call the redskins to retaliate. And the white folks of that day knew what a campaign of the tribes for vengeance meant. And all were astir. But notice of this foul murder was taken by others also. It had the attention of John Johnson, Indian agent at Piqua, Ohio. And he and others visited all the Indian tribes and promised them that the government would punish the offenders, and obtained from them consent to make no hostile move until there had been time for the law to act. The war department at Washington also was on edge. A national policy and great interests were at stake. And the secretary of war was quick to weigh the gravity of the situation. The preparation for and conduct of that trial were directed from the capital of the nation. The secretary of war employed United States Senator James Noble to make an argument in the case, authorizing him at the same time to fee an assistant for the same pur- pose. Calvin Fletcher then a young man, and a brilliant lawyer, was the prosecuting attorney. An array of able counsel, some of them
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from Ohio, appeared for the defense. Hudson was tried first. He was convicted and hanged. Several Seneca Indians, relatives of the victims, were present at the hanging. The other three defendants were tried, convicted and sentenced to the gallows. Sawyer and the elder Bridge paid the extreme penalty. The younger Bridge was on the scaffold and the noose was around his neck. He was but a stripling, and much sympathy had been expressed for him. The governor had considered a petition for his pardon. And an incident of his action on this serves strongly to reveal a trait that was prominent in Governor Ray. He was fond of impressing others with his importance. He was, it is related on good authority, eccentric and vain. He did not hesitate to make a spectacular exhibition of himself in order to draw the attention of the public to himself. And to this young man in his awful hour and before the vast concourse of people gathered about him, the governor chose not to send his message by a courier, nor to approach the scene in solemn and dignified bearing, such as would seem to have been suitable to that occasion, but to ride his steed furiously into the expectant crowd just in time to stay the fatal drop, dismount, ascend to the scaffold and address the quivering culprit thus :
"Young man, do you know who now stands before you?"
"No sir," said the dejected boy.
"Well sir, it is time that you should know. There are, sir, but two beings in the great universe who can save you from death; one is the great God of Heaven, and the other is James Brown Ray, governor of Indiana, who now stands before you. Here is your pardon. Go sir, and sin no more!" 1
This case was remarkable not alone for its atrocity and for the able and illustrious counsel engaged in it. It stood out no less clearly for the absolute faithfulness of the local and national officers and attorneys in the execution of the law for the expiration of the crime committed upon those helpless children of the forest. And it was the first instance in America of a white man suffering the death penalty under the law for murdering an Indian.2
Richard K. Benson who practiced here in the seventies, and Charles Nation who continued to do so until some time in the eighties, though they did nothing so far as the records run to call forth particular com- ment, each held a certain personal relation to which interest has attached. For the former was the brother of Luther Benson, the eloquent temperance advocate noted in his day throughout the land, while the latter was the son of a former marriage of the husband of Carrie Nation, who in campaigning against the liquor traffic a decade or two ago, won as her sobriquet, "The Hatchet."
One of the attorneys who came to the Madison county bar in the first decade of its history was Robert Newell Williams, a man of extra- ordinary versatility in the general business and industrial life of the community. For he was not only a lawyer, but a skilful accountant, a successful politician and a captain of industry. Through the seventy
1 Stories of Indiana, Maurice Thompson, p. 196.
2 Early Indiana Trials and Sketches, Oliver H. Smith, p. 57.
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years allotted to him, his life unrolled like a ribbon of beauty and com- pleteness. He was born in 1800 at Elizabeth City, North Carolina. And migrating from there when he had arrived at the age of sixteen with his parents traveling in a wagon drawn by one ox, he halted with them in Montgomery county, Ohio, near Dayton. During the succeeding twelve years, young Robert labored principally at making and mending shoes and harness, steamboating and at teaching school in his adopted county, and in Darke and Preble counties, Ohio. While residing near Dayton, he made a trip from Cincinnati to New Orleans by boat. On arriving at Cincinnati on his return and being in a hurry to reach home, he walked the entire distance from Cincinnati to his home, a distance of 55 miles between daylight and dark of one day. But it was in 1828 that his eyes first fell upon the light that shone over Andersontown. And here his services were soon in demand. There being but few men in the rural districts of those days, who could discharge the duties of public office, and no bar to the number of such positions one might occupy, he held the office of postmaster, county auditor, clerk and recorder, all at the same time. He represented his county two terms 1842-43 and 1847-8 in the Indiana legislature. And when Anderson became a city, he was chosen without opposition to be its first mayor. Besides these offices, he served during the war as deputy revenue collector and as a clerk for the medical board, having charge of the physical examination of those drafted for military service.
Mr. Williams had an aptitude also for handling large industrial proj- ects. He was one of the contractors who built the first railroad in Indiana, the old junction line extending from Indianapolis to Madison. And he undertook with the company that constructed what is now the Pan Handle Railroad to do a portion of their grading. He believed in the material as well as the political and educational development of his city and his name was synonymous with progress. Williams' addition to the south front and Williams' street, now Twelfth street, were named for him.
The late Augustus M. Williams, the first white male child born in Anderson, was the son of Robert Newell Williams, and by whose liberal- ity and love of learning the son was afforded a classical education at Asbury University. And the late Addison D. Williams, also a lawyer and for many years the surveyor of Madison county, was his son. And there still reside in this city two of his grandsons, Drs. Charles F. and Lucian O. Williams.
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The breadth and independence of his mind may be judged by his preferences in voting for presidents in the course of which he so favored John Quincy Adams, Jackson, Harrison, Fremont and Lincoln. And in all the varied relations of lawyer, public official and private citizen he sustained a charter of unquestionable integrity, and enjoyed the esteem and confidence of all who knew him.
Another of the early legal lights was John Davis. He first saw the light of this world in Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1812. His father, when John was quite young, moved to Mount Vernon, Ohio, where he owned and operated large woolen mills. During this period the son attended Kenyon College at Gambier, Ohio. Later, he came westward and read
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law with John Elliott at Newcastle, Indiana. He settled in Anderson for the practice of his profession in 1835. Giving some attention to politics, he was elected to the state legislature in 1842 and again in 1852. In recognition of his legal attainments and fitness, he was honored with the judgeship of the circuit court from 1865 to 1869, which was then held in Anderson, Noblesville, Kokomo and Tipton.
Judge Davis was one of the strong lawyers of his time and enjoyed a large practice. Many of the well known attorneys who afterward came to the bar studied under him. Among these were Richard Lake, Eli B. Goodykoontz and William R. Myers.
Judge Davis owned considerable of the land in and near town and he laid off into building lots several additions. Upon his retirement from the bench, he traveled extensively and journeyed to Europe. While at Acqui in Italy, he suffered from a stroke of paralysis, and returning thence to his home, he continued to reside in Anderson, one of its vener- able and most respected citizens until his death which occurred in 1875.
In this connection, let us refer also to Richard Lake. He was born in Knox county, Ohio, in 1825. At the age of nineteen he came to Anderson to visit his cousin, John Davis. This was the John Davis who afterward became judge and who was then practicing law in Ander- son. Young Lake liked the country here, liked his cousin, more than liked the sister of his cousin's wife, for two years after that he made her his wife, and thinking he would like to be a lawyer himself, he entered upon a course of study with such in view in the office of his cousin.
Determined to make his education more complete he attended the Martinsburg Academy in 1847. The next year he was admitted to the Madison county bar, and in the following year to practice in the supreme court.
His success was rapid, when once he had launched into the practice. Though not so close a student, perhaps, of the books as some of the old attorneys, he possessed a native strength in debate and judgment of human nature that made him a lion before the jury. His practice once extended throughout eastern and southern Indiana, and he rode the cir- cuits with the veterans of the bar.
Judge Lake was the recipient of many public honors. He was the postmaster of Anderson by appointment from President Pierce. He served a term as judge of the court of common pleas. And he was elected to represent his county in the general assembly of 1862-1863.
He was personally and as a citizen one of the finest of characters. Truthful, honest and square in all his dealings, he was large of heart and immense in his good cheer. And so he lived to the end of his life which came on the 22nd day of February, 1898, at his home on South Jackson street in the city of Anderson, surrounded by his affectionate wife, sons and daughters.
The career of James W. Sansberry looms large in the history of the Madison county bar, and is calculated to encourage worthy young men to high endeavor. Born in Brown county, Ohio, he lost both his par- ents when he was but six years of age. A home was found for him with an uncle in Delaware county, Indiana. But he was fourteen years old
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