USA > Indiana > Wabash County > History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 22
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"I acknowledge here, at this last stage of my melancholy cause, surrounded with its strange web of difficult, unraveled, painful and inexplicable circumstances, my grateful sense of the Immane conduct of the sheriff of this county, the integrity of purpose of the human judgment on my conduct, and the humanity of the jury who have patiently taken in the most obvious sense my own and the public interest in charge.
"I press again before you that I am innocuous to this abominable and atrocious conduet, and appealing from this judgment, whose mercies are exhausted in the verdiet of the jury, I prepare to go to that Infinite Judge that tries the reins and searches the hearts, not of myself only, but of all the children of men.
"JOHN HUBBARD.
"Wabash, September 8, 1855."
THE JUDGE'S COMMENTS
Among other remarks in sentencing the defendant to be hung on December 13th, Judge Wallace said: "You have been found guilty of the murder in cold blood of a man while languishing, upon a bed of sickness. The proof establishes the horrid truth, also, that not alone the man (the husband and father), but also the wife and children, five in mumber, fell victims to your unnatural thirst for blood. It appears, also, that this unfortunate victim of your cruelty, confiding in your honesty, integrity and humanity. kindly received you and your wife into his own house, humble though that home was, and to some extent, in your poverty-stricken condition, shared with you his own condition of life. This was your condition in his house, too, at a time when, without apparent cause (indeed, what cause could there be for it?) you ruthlessly murdered every member of his family-not even sparing those infant children whose sweet smiles of innocence should have awakened your own parental feeling, and deterred you from the accomplishment of the bloody purpose of your heart, or like the rays of sunshine peering
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in upon the terrible darkness of your soul, guided you again to your humanity, awakening a sense of gratitude to your friend and their father."
FIRST AND ONLY EXECUTION IN WABASH COUNTY
An appeal to the State Supreme Court failed, and at 3 o'clock on Thursday, the 13th of December, 1855, Hubbard was hung accord- ing to the decrees of jury and court. The scene of his execution was the court house square, and it was witnessed by thousands who flocked thither from distant points in Northern and Central Indiana. Legally, the hanging was private, but actually it was far from it.
The body of Hubbard was decently buried, but it is said to have been afterward disinterred in the "interest of science." The discovery was made that it had carried several bullets for many years; their presence was, of course, never explained. A plaster east of the erim- inal's head and shoulders was long preserved by Dr. James Ford, and showed the likeness of a man who seemed capable of uprightness, honor and even humanity.
MRS. HUBBARD GETS LIFE SENTENCE
Mrs. Hubbard was tried for the same abominable erime in the Cireuit Court of Grant County, and in April, 1856, was sentenced to hard labor in State's Prison for life. When the Woman's Reformatory was estab- lished, she was transferred to that institution, where she lived to be a matronly, white-haired old woman, one of the most obedient and bidable of its inmates, never causing the attendants any trouble what- ever. She was often visited by persons from Wabash County and was friendly and talkative, but when asked about the French family, she said that was a sealed book and would not talk about it. She died in the institution.
IIubbard's is the only execution which has ever occurred in Wabash County, and it is believed that it will be the last. The ease is therefore historie, as well as dramatie.
CIRCUIT JUDGES
From the organization of Wabash County, in 1835, until the reor- ganization of the judicial circuits of the state in 1853-54, the county was a part of the Eighth Circuit, and the president judges were as follows: Gustavus A. Everts, 1835; Samuel C. Sample, 1836; Charles W. Ewing,
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1837-39; John W. Wright, 1840-46; Horace P. Biddle, 1847-51; Robert M. Milroy, 1852. In 1853 Wabash County became a part of the Elev- enth Judicial Circuit, presided over by Judge John U. Pettit, who was sneceeded by the following: John M. Wallace, 1855-60; Horace P. Biddle, 1861-72. In 1873 the circuit was again divided, and Wabash County became attached to the Twenty-seventh. By a legislative act of 1889 the county and the circuit were made one; since which year Wa- bash County has constituted the Twenty-seventh Judicial Circuit. The presiding judges since 1873 have been: John U. Pettit, 1873-79; Lyman Walker, 1879-85; James D. Conner, 1885-91; Harvey B. Shively, 1891- 1903; Alfred II. Plummer, 1903-
PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS
Since 1878 the prosecuting attorneys for Wabash County have been as follows: Macy Good, 1878-84; Charles R. Pence, 1884-86; Ethan T. Reasoner, 1886-89; Alfred H. Plummer, 1889-94; Lincoln Guynn, 1894- 98; Joseph W. Murphy, 1898-1902; Charles II. Brower, 1903-06; Frank G. Carpenter, 1910; Walter S. Bent, 1911-12; Aaron Mandelbaum, 1912-
PROBATE COURT AND JUDGES
Under the act of February 10, 1831, the associate judges of the Cireuit Court acted on all matters of probate until the first Monday in August, 1836, when Elmer II. Cox was elected to the bench of the Probate Court. His term was for six years from August 30th. William Steele was clerk of the court. The first meeting of the Probate Court, under the jurisdiction of Associate Judges Jackson and Ballinger, was held November 9, 1835, and the first meeting at which a regular probate judge presided, November 14, 1836. On the second day of the latter term a seal of the court was adopted, appropriate doubtless, but not especially cheerful. "Words to be engraved on said seal to be 'Indiana, Wabash Probate Court,' and in the center of the seal a female figure setting ( ?) leaning over the figure of a coffin, with her left elbow resting on the shoulders of the said coffin, her head supported by her left hand, holding a handkerchief in the left hand between the side of her face and her hands."
The earlier terms of the Probate Court were held at private houses, often at those of the judges themselves. Those who occupied the bench until the probate business was transferred to the Court of Common Pleas were as follows: Elmer E. Cox, 1836-38 (resigned) ; James
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ITackleman, 1838-46 (both appointive and elective terms) ; John Com- stock, 1846-52.
COURT OF COMMON PLEAS AND JUDGES
Under the act approved May 14, 1852, the Court of Common Pleas of Wabash County was created. By that law the state was divided into Common Pleas districts, from the courts of which there was an appeal to the Circuit Courts. At first Wabash and Kosciusko counties con- stituted the Thirty-third District. In each of the districts a judge was to be elected at the annual election in October, 1852, and every fourth year thereafter. John L. Knight was elected first judge of the Thirty- third District, and on the 3d of January, 1853, the first term of the Common Pleas Court for Wabash County was held in the court house at the seat of justice. Besides the probate business, its jurisdiction was conenrrent with the Circuit Court "in all cases against heirs, devisees and sureties of executors, administrators and guardians; in the partition of real estate, the assignment of dower, and the appointment of a com- missioner to execute a deed on any title bond given by a decedent ;" also, "in all civil eases, except for slander, libel, breach of marriage contract, action on official bond of any state or county officer, and where the title to real estate shall be in issue, and when the sum due or de- manded, or the damages claimed, shall not exceed $1,000, exclusive of interest and costs. In all that class of offenses not amounting to felony, except those over which justices of the peace had jurisdiction, the Com- mon Pleas Court had original jurisdiction. The clerk of the Circuit Court was ex-officio clerk of the Common Pleas Court.
Judge Knight, of Wabash County, continued to occupy the bench through 1855; was succeeded by George E. Gordon, also of this county, who served one year; JJoseph H. Matlock, 1857-60; Kline G. Shryock, of Fulton County (then in the district), 1860-63 (resigned to enter the army) ; David D. Dykeman of Cass County, 1863-65; Thomas C. White- side, 1865-70; James H. Carpenter, 1870-73. The Legislature of the latter year, as stated, abolished the Court of Common Pleas and transferred all its business to the Circuit Court, which now shares with the justices' courts the great responsibility of dispensing justice in Wabash County.
PIONEER MEMBERS OF THE BAR
Incidentally, the reader has already met the pioneer members of the bar. who usually figured in various publie capacities; as a new com- munity can ill afford to let any good, intelligent man go to waste. The
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lawyers of Wabash County were of a high grade of intelligence and morality, and it is with much pride that they are grouped at this stage of the history.
Col. William Steele has already been mentioned as the county's first representative of the bar. He was a good lawyer, but was so active in his public capacities that he rather scattered his abilities in the strictly professional field. He was so able, so popular and so versatile that the people simply would not let him alone.
William II. Coombs, who came from Connersville, Indiana, in the summer of 1835, was perhaps the second regular practitioner, but though he made a good impression during the few years of his residence in the county, he sought a larger professional field in Fort Wayne.
JUDGE JOIN U. PETTIT
John U. Pettit came from Logansport soon after his admission at the bar of the Cass County Circuit Court and rose rapidly in the profession. For many years he was associated in practice with Hon. Calvin Cowgill. In 1853 he was appointed judge of the Eighth Cirenit, having already served in the State Assembly and as Government consul in Brazil. He resigned the judgeship in 1854 to be elected to Congress, being honored by three successive terms. Then back to the State Legislature. Judge Pettit was in Congress also during the first of the war, and although originally a democrat became a stanch republican and an acknowledged force in the councils of Lincoln and Governor Morton. In many re. sprets he was a great man. In view of his frail physique and almost lifelong sickness, his accomplishments were certainly most remarkable. Ile died at his home in Wabash, March 21, 1881.
JUDGE JAMES D. CONNER
James D. Conner, a Fayette County man, located at Wabash in 1840, when he had but just passed his majority, poor but ambitious in the right way. Within a decade he stood among the leading members of the bar. He was a strong whig and in 1856 was sent as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention which nominated Fremont for the presi- dency of the new party. As a republican he was among the first to serve in both the lower and upper houses of the state Legislature, and although as early as 1861 Lincoln tendered him a judicial appointment, he did not ascend the bench until 1884, when he was elected judge of the Twenty-seventh Circuit, then composed of Wabash and Miami coun- ties. Ile served in that capacity for six years to the satisfaction of both
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lawyers and their clients. Judge Conner married a daughter of Col. IIugh Hanna, and was therefore doubly endeared to Wabash County people.
IION. CALVIN COWGILL
Calvin Cowgill was born in 1819, the same year as Judge Conner, but the former was a native of Ohio. In 1842 he was admitted to the bar at Winchester, Indiana, and before the Supreme Court at Indiana- polis, but did not practice much for several years. In 1851 he was elected to the Legislature and in the following year moved to Wabash, where he commenced active practice with John U. Pettit. He was among the pioncer republicans of Wabash County, served for several years as treasurer, was provost marshal during the Civil war, and was subsequently returned to the General Assembly. In the late '70s he was elected to Congress. He was also prominent in connection with the organization and presidency of the Grand Rapids, Wabash & Indiana Railroad, and for several years at the head of the Wabash Natural Gas Company, as well as a leader in other large enterprises.
GENERAL PARRISH AND CAPTAIN WILLIAMS
Gen. Charles S. Parrish was admitted to the bar at Wabash in 1856, served as prosecuting attorney of the circuit for the term commencing 1857, and was for many years after a leader at the bar, as well as one of the most prominent citizens of Wabash. He served throughout the Civil war from captain to brevet brigadier general and no citizen did more for the Union, both at home and at the front. General Parrish was afterward mayor of the city, and, whether in peace or in war, was honored for his faithfulness and ability.
Benjamin F. Williams, who had lived in Wabash sinee he was three years old, studied law under Judge Conner and at Butler University, Indianapolis. In 1859 he graduated from that institution at the head of his class, and immediately commeneed practice at Wabash. At the very commencement of his practice, in April, 1861, he enlisted in the first company which left Wabash, commanded by Captain Parrish, re- enlisted in August, 1862, and did not return to his law practice until the war was over. He bravely served as captain of Company K and for many years after the Civil war actively and successfully practiced his profession. Captain Williams is now the oldest lawyer in the county measured by length of professional service, is the father of the beautiful Memorial Hall erected to the soldiers with whom he marched and fought
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in his younger days, and is among the best-informed men in the county. Everybody knows him and has a warm heart for him, as he has for all.
LESSER LIGHTS
William O. Ross, dead these many years, was among the first of our legal practitioners, but never attained marked prominence.
George E. Gordon commenced practice about the same time as Judge Pettit, enjoyed fair success for a number of years, but was not a stayer.
John M. Wheeler, who appeared at Wabash in 1844, attained prom- inence as a lawyer and a citizen.
John L. Knight studied law with Judge Conner, and in 1843 was admitted to practice before the Circuit Court. Ile was a fine lawyer, the first judge of the Common Pleas Court and a credit to both the bench and bar.
Daniel M. Cox located at La Gro at an early day, afterwards moved to Wabash, was at one time editor of the Wabash Intelligencer, and was what may be called "an all-around good man."
In the carly '50s Joh M. Connell and Joseph HI. Matlock added their names to the list of practicing attorneys in Wabash County. Mr. Connell was a fair lawyer, while Judge Matlock was able both as a practitioner and on the bench. In 1854 he was elected district pros- centor and afterwards served a term on the bench of the Court of Common Pleas.
Alanson P. Ferry came to Wabash County in 1843 and commenced the practice of the law at La Gro. Some two years later he came to the eity of Wabash and, although he stood high in his profession, his literary attainments drew him to journalism in which, as editor of the Plain Dealer, he made perhaps a higher reputation than in the field of law. He was highly respected in every way. He died July 26, 1880, aged about sixty years.
John C. Sivey became a practicing attorney about 1860, having pre- viously served as county elerk for more than a decade.
Meredith HI. Kidd came from Peru, where he had been admitted to the bar in 1851, and in 1857 was elected prosecuting attorney of the circuit. Ile was active and stood high, but his fine service in the Civil war and later in the regular army overshadowed his reputation as a lawyer. Ile also made a good record as a banker. He was a son-in-law of Maj. Stearns Fisher.
PRACTITIONERS OF TIIE '80S
In the early '80s the following composed the bar of Wabash County : James D. Conner, John L. Knight, Calvin Cowgill, Charles S. Parrish,
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M. HI. Kidd, J. C. Sivey, B. F. Williams, F. M. Eagle, Joseph Mackey, James M. Amoss, Alexander Hess, Carey E. Cowgill, Warren G. Sayre, II. G. De Puy, H. B. Shively, J. M. Burdge, Maey Good, Clarence W. Stephenson, James D. Conner, Jr., Warren Bigler, J. T. Hutchins, George T. Herrick, J. M. Curtner, N. G. Hunter, J. C. F. De Armond, B. F. Clemens, Edward Smith, C. F. Arthur, O. II. Bogue, J. F. Beegan, I. E. Gingeriek, W. H. Bent, J. D. Chaplin and O. B. Pettit.
WABASH COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION
The members of the bar early formed the Wabash County Bar Asso- ciation, the chief duties of which have consisted in taking action upon deceased lawyers and judges and the regulation of professional fees. The present membership is twenty-five. Warren G. Sayre is president of the association, Herman N. Hipskind, secretary, and W. G. Todd, treas- urer. As the members embrace the active practitioners in the county, they are given as follows: B. F. Williams, Alex Hess, W. G. Sayre, Alvah Taylor, Clark W. Weesner, John W. R. Milliner, J. D. Conner, Jr., N. G. Hunter, I. E. Gingeriek, Frank O. Switzer, F. A. Payne, E. E. Eikenbary, T. L. Stitt, Frank Brooks, W. H. Anderson, Charles II. Brower, Joseph W. Murphy, A. N. MeCracken, Charles Sala, Fred I. King, W. S. Bent, Aaron Mandelbaum, Walter G. Todd, Quincey E. Milliner, Lon D. Fleming, Herman N. Hipskind, Will H. Adams, Frank W. Plummer.
CHAPTER XIII
EDUCATIONAL MATTERS
CONGRESSIONAL TOWNSHIP FUND - SUBSCRIPTION SCHOOLS - FIRST SCHOOLS OF WABASH TOWN-FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL IN THE COUNTY- PIONEER SCHOOLS AT AMERICA AND LA FONTAINE-PAW PAW SHARES HONORS WITH LIBERTY-NORTH MANCHESTER AND LIBERTY MILLS- FIRST PRIVATE SCHOOLS ELSEWHERE IN THE COUNTY-PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDS COLLECTING-QUOTA OF WABASH COUNTY-BAD OUTLOOK IN 1853-FIGURES FOR 1854-60-COUNTY SCHOOLS IN 1870-82-HIGH CONDITION IN 1913-NUMBER OF TEACHERS-HIGH .SCHOOL ENROL- MENT-OLD-TIME EXAMINERS-CHANGE TO COUNTY SUPERINTEND- ENCY-COUNTY AND TOWNSHIP INSTITUTES-COUNTY SUPERINTEND- ENTS-COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION-PRESENT BROAD FIELD OF SUPERINTENDENT-TOWNSHIP SUPERVISION-SUPERVISION IN GRADE BUILDINGS-HYGIENE OF THE SCHOOL-APPEARANCE OF TEACHERS AND PUPILS-MEDICAL INSPECTION LAW-SUCCESS GRADES-SCHEDULE OF SUCCESS ITEMS-COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE-STATE FLOWER AND STATE SONG.
Substantially, the present county system of public instruction was founded under a state law of 1852. A general distribution of various funds which had been collecting for several years was made among the various counties of the state in 1854, and the official examiner of Wa- bash County commenced to license teachers in such numbers that it be- came evident that its educational matters were at last on a comparatively solid basis.
CONGRESSIONAL TOWNSHIP FUND
As is generally known, the foundation of the public school system of the state and county was the fund derived from the sale of the sixteenth section of each congressional township, under the Ordinance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest Territory. For the pur- pose of utilizing the proceeds of the sales of these lands and converting
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them into school revenue, an act of the Indiana Legislature was ap- proved January 31, 1824, providing that "the inhabitants of each con- gressional township being either frecholders or honseholders, at the notice given by any three such inhabitants, set up for twenty days at three of the most publie places in such township, shall meet at the section reserved by Congress for the use of schools, or at some place convenient thereto; and if there be present at such time and place twenty inhabitants of such township, as aforesaid, they shall proceed to elect by ballot three persons of their township as trustees, who shall be freeholders; and, upon filing a certificate in the clerk's office that such election was held in conformity to the provisions of this act, the inhab- itants shall be a body corporate and politie, under the name and style of Township School No. - , Range -, as designated in the United States survey."
SUBSCRIPTION SCHOOLS
It is unnecessary to go into the details of this fundamental act, since the inhabitants of Wabash County were not sufficiently advanced, either in numbers or tax-paying capacity, to adopt and support a township sys- tem of publie instruction until they were well into the '50s. Previous to that time, private or subscription schools were in vogue. As an in- troduction to a review of the public system of the county, the first schools of that nature started in the several townships are here noted.
FIRST SCHOOLS OF WABASH TOWN
Wabash Town was the only community in Wabash County which took advantage of the school laws of the state enacted prior to 1852, although at least four private schools were opened before a publie insti- tution was put in operation. In the winter of 1836-37, when the town was less than three years old, Ira Burr taught school in a building pre- viously used as a storehouse by William S. Edsall, situated on lot 26 of the original plat. The second school occupied the same, or adjacent premises, and was taught for several months in the spring and summer of 1837 by Sarah Blackman. Emma Swift taught the third school during two terms of three months each, in the fall and winter of 1837- 38, and the teacher for those seasons in 1838-39 was Mrs. Daniel Rich- ardson. The latter held forth in the Pat Duffy Building, which is de- scribed as a log house which had previously been used both for school and publie purposes. It was probably David Burr's log house on the
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Treaty Grounds. Dr. Lumaree taught a fall and winter session of 1839-40, probably in the same building.
FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL IN THE COUNTY
In the winter of 1839-40, School District No. 1, of Congressional Township No. 27 North, Range 6 East, in Noble Township, having been organized, the people of the district prepared to erect a public school building within its bounds. The contract was awarded to Joseph Ray who, under its terms, completed a frame building on the north part of lot 157, original plat, in the spring of 1840. It stood a little south and east of the freight depot of the old Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad and the old-time hollow which extended in a northwesterly and south- easterly direction was utilized as a playground. Miss Mary Ross, daughter of William O. Ross, opened this first public school of the town and the county-probably in the summer of 1840. She afterwards mar- ried George Miller and moved to Peru. It is said that Judge Daniel Jackson and Joseph Ray were especially identified with the erection of this historie schoolhouse, which, with various private buildings rented by the school authorities, supplied the demand for schoolhouses in Dis- triet No. 1 during the succeeding decade or more.
PIONEER SCHOOLS AT AMERICA AND LA FONTAINE
If any school in the county outside of Wabash, was opened prior to the one mentioned by Mrs. Jonathan Scott, the author has not found the record of it. She said, many years ago, that the first school in Liberty Township was taught in a cabin built by John Ferree north of America. It was located on the old State Road, the teacher was George W. Smith and she was one of his pupils in the summer of 1837. The school had been opened in the winter of 1836-37. In 1837 a separate building was erected for a school in the Town of America. It was made of hewn logs, and one of Mrs. Scott's most vivid impressions of the town schoolhouse was gained from the fact that Mr. Smith's twenty pupils all had to sit on "sleepers" instead of regular seats.
In the summer of 1837 William Grant installed a school in one room of his double log cabin, located in the north edge of the present Town of La Fontaine. Eli Dillon taught the few children gathered there, chiefly collected from the Grant families, or the Grant settlement. The same room had been used for the first religious services held in Liberty Township.
About 1839 another schoolhouse devoted entirely to educational
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purposes, was built a mile and a half north of La Fontaine. It was described as a small pole-cabin, with eight or ten feet eut out of one end for a chimney, with huge back wall and dirt jams. Moses F. Well- man was one of the early teachers.
PAW PAW SHARES HONORS WITH LIBERTY
Paw Paw Township shares first educational honors with Liberty, as a school was taught for a few weeks in the winter of 1836-37 at the double log house of Jacob Bryan, just south of the Eel River. There were ten scholars-four from Bryan's own family, five from Bechner's and one from Ralston's.
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