USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Valley of the upper Maumee River, with historical account of Allen County and the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Volume II > Part 57
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Judge Worden perhaps, wrote as few cases in the same length of time as any judge who has ever been upon the bench of the supreme court, but in the way of reputation, he was in the front rank, if not in- deed, the first man in the rank. By the lawyers of the state and by the courts, including the supreme court, his opinions are read and cited with a feeling of security. There is a feeling that he was not only capable of deciding and stating the law correctly, but that he had bestowed the labor, and taken the time, necessary to enable him to state it correctly. It is for this reason that his opinions are the more frequently cited and relied upon, not only in Indiana, but elsewhere. Again, as has been said elsewhere, by his work upon the bench of the supreme court, as embodied in his written opinions extending over so many years, Judge Worden erected his own monument and wrote his own inscription. He needs none other.
While Judge Worden was a democrat, and a firm and conscientious believer in the principles and doctrines of that party, he was, in no sense, an aggressive or active partisan. The result was that he was singularly free from the assaults of party opponents, which almost invariably, every public man has to meet. Indeed, Judge Worden always received quite a large vote from persons in the opposite party, who knew him well. On one occasion only, was he assailed with anything like violence, and that assault was absolutely unfounded, and more unjust than it was vio- lent. He never took the trouble to meet and overthrow the assault-
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indeed, could not well afford to do so, while he was upon the bench of the supreme court. The time has now come when, in justice to his memory, the facts ought to be made known.
In 1869 a law was passed which dispensed with the annual general elections, and provided that, commencing with the year 1870, a general election should be held biennially on the second Tuesday in October, and that at such elections all offices, the terms of which would expire before the next general election thereafter, should be filled. So long as the elections were held in October, the terms of county officers com- menced, and ended in that month, subsequent to the general election, and they were so commissioned. In April, ISSo, some constitutional amendments were submitted to the people of the state for adoption or rejection by popular vote. One of those amendments provided for a change of the date of the general elections from October, to the first
Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Almost immediately after the vote had been taken, the question was made and insisted upon, that the amendments had not been adopted by the requisite vote. The controversy soon assumed the form of a legal contest in court, and went upon appeal to the supreme court. It will be readily seen that if that court should hold that the amendments had been adopted, the next election, in the fall of ISSo, would be in November instead of October, and the four-year terms of many county officers would expire in Octo- ber before the November election in 1882. In that event, in order to comply with the law of 1869 above mentioned, it would be necessary to elect successors to such officers in 1880.
Acting upon the assumption that the amendments had been adopted, there were in Allen county, where Judge Worden lived, quite a number of candidates for the nomination for the four-year county offices by the democratic convention, soon to assemble. If the amendments were not adopted there would be no expiration of terms in such offices before the election in 1882, and hence no vacancies to be filled by election in 18So. By reason of the candidates above mentioned, Judge Worden's friends, at home, thought it would be best to know, if possible, before the assembling of the county convention, whether or not the amendments had been adopted. The convention was called to meet on Saturday of the week in which the case was argued in the supreme court. If the amendments should be held to have been adopted, it would be necessary to nominate candidates for the four-year offices; otherwise not. While the argument was in progress, a prominent citizen of Fort Wayne was at Indianapolis, and in a conversation with Judge Worden, in the pres- ence of a close friend of each, spoke of the condition of things in Allen county, and, without an intimation as to whether he wished a decision one way or the other, that, in fact, being a matter of no consequence at all, requested that if a decision should be reached before the coming Saturday, the judge should telegraph him at home what it was. The case was decided before the coming Saturday, and it was held, Judge Biddle writing the opinion, that the amendments had not been adopted ยท
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by the requisite vote. After the opinion had been read, and approved by the court, and had thus become open for the inspection of all, Judge Worden met the friend who had been present at the conversation with the Fort Wayne gentleman, and said to him that the decision was, that the amendments had not been adopted, and requested him to telegraph the fact to the boys at Fort Wayne. That conversation was overheard by a newspaper reporter, and he has contended that the judge requested the friend to "telegraph it to the boys," not mentioning Fort Wayne. Whether he might have been wrong or not, in that contention, is a mat- ter of no consequence, and cannot affect the real truth in the matter, because Judge Worden had, and could have no thought except to have the fact communicated to his friends at home in compliance with the request before mentioned, which friends he called the boys. He was a man of too much dignity, and too high a sense of propriety, to speak of any except his intimate friends at home as " the boys."
But for the peculiar political condition in Indiana at that time, doubt- less no notice at all would be taken of Judge Worden's innocent remark. Indiania was then just entering upon one of its most exciting political campaigns. Up to that time the general elections had been held in Oc- tober. The state was one of the few states known in the political world as an October state, and having been regarded as a close and pivotal state, the presidental campaigns had always been exciting, and closely contested, a large portion of the great speakers of both parties from other states usually being present, taking part in them. A presi- dent of the United States was to be elected in 1880. The friends of Gov. Hendricks in Indiana were making a vigorous effort for his nomina- tion by the democratic national convention. The convention was about to assemble at Cincinnati, and many of the delegates were already there, when the decision of the supreme court was rendered. Although the opinion in the case was written by Judge Biddle, who had not been elected as a democrat, and never had been a democrat, yet, as a major- ity of the court had been elected as democrats, for the purpose of turn- ing every possible thing to political advantage in the close and fierce contest that was just opening, Judge Worden's innocent statement was tortured and twisted from its true, and only reasonable meaning, and it was contended that his purpose was to have the fact telegraphed to the delegates at Cincinnati, and that therefore, the decision had been rendered for the purpose of assisting in the nomination of Gov. Hen- dricks.
The real facts in the case, as above stated; Judge Worden's high character, dignity, and sense of propriety; his well known and uniform personal, official and judicial integrity, and the judgment of all who knew him well, fully meet and overthrow such an unreasonable contention, and such an unjust and unreasonable torture of his statement made as- above recited. There is no method of judging of a man's character and integrity so reliable as the judgment of the people amongst whom he has lived for a life-time, and who thus have had the opportunity of
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knowing him as none others can. Judge Worden was a resident of Indiana a few months over forty years. As prosecuting attorney, judge of the circuit court, mayor, judge of the supreme court, and judge of the superior court of Allen county, he was in the public service for more than twenty-seven years of that time. His life was thus, in a large measure, an open book, to be read by all. When not in the public ser- vice, he was in the practice of the law at home, and in a large number of surrounding counties, and was thus, in a sense, in public life. At no time, did the people, who knew him best, have more confidence in his integrity than in the later years of his life. As already stated, less than two years before his death, and after his long service upon the supreme bench, he was elected judge of the superior court of Allen county, with- out opposition. Such a manifestation of enlightened confidence is, of itself, more than sufficient to meet and overthrow the unreasonable and unjust imputation above mentioned.
It is a matter in which his widow, children and friends, may have a just pride, that after having spent the greater part of his business life in the public service, he went to his grave respected and honored by the people who knew him, and by the bar and courts of the state, as an honest and honorable man, and as an honest and faithful public servant. So long as Indiana shall be a commonwealth, so long as its people shall have laws and courts, his name will be known and honored. How much good he may have accomplished for the people of the state may never be fully appreciated by the people generally, but it will be, in a measure at least, by the profession and the more observing.
Judge Worden was not only a great lawyer and judge, but by ex- tended reading and study, he was a man of refined taste and culture. He left surviving him three sons, one of whom, Charles H., is a lawyer. He was born in Fort Wayne on the 14th day of September, 1859. He was educated in the schools of the city, and in 1878 entered the univer- sity of Michigan, where he remained two years, pursuing the course of study prescribed by that institution. He was admitted to the bar of the courts in Allen county in 1882, and has since been admitted to the bar of the federal courts in Indiana. He is a member of the law firm of Worden & Morris, and is prominent among the young attorneys of the city and state. He was married on the 10th day of June, 1884, to Miss Elizabeth M. Hoffman, of Fort Wayne, and they have one child, Alice.
Charles Wayne Ewing, at one time president judge of the eighth judicial circuit, was the oldest son of Col. Alexander Ewing. He was born October 13, 1798, near Geneseo, N. Y., and received his collegiate education in Ohio. His first study of law was with Judge Eeste, of Cincinnati. On being admitted to practice he began his career as a lawyer at Fort Wayne. At the first session of court in Allen county he was on August 9, 1824, appointed prosecuting attorney. In 1826 he presented a design for a court seal, which was adopted. Previous to this time he had become a member and the first secretary of Wayne lodge, No. 25, F. & A. M., organized in 1823 by Gen. Tipton. In 1827 Mr. Ewing
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went to Detroit, where he practiced law about two years, and was mar- ried June 5, 1829 to Abigail B. Woodworth. In 1832 he removed to the settlement at Logansport, Ind., where he became eminent as a lawyer, and was judge of the circuit court for several years. Resuming the prac- tice at Peru, he removed to Fort Wayne in 1835, where he became the leading lawyer, and again was called to the bench. He died on January 9, 1843. Judge Ewing was an accomplished gentlemen, and brilliant in social life as in his profession. Impulsive, warm hearted and generous, he won the friendship of all his associates. In the earlier pages of this work is quoted an appreciative tribute from one who knew him during his brief but brilliant career.
Henry Cooper, a noted lawyer and prominent citizen of Fort Wayne in an early day, was a descendant through his mother, of Irish Protest- ants, who were among the first followers of Lord Baltimore, to Mary- land, where they settled near Cambry. His paternal progenitors, who were English Protestants, arrived in Maryland at a later period. He had a maternal uncle who served under the unfortunate Admiral Byng, at Minorca, and in the English West India fleet during the French war. His maternal grandfather was an ensign in the Maryland volunteers dur- ing the revolutionary war. One of his paternal uncles was taken pris- oner by the Hessians in New Jersey, and was detained a long time on board one of the prison ships at New York. Henry Cooper, son of James and Leah Cooper, was born at Havre de Grace, Md., June 8, 1793, and was left fatherless in his tenth year. Influenced by the slen- der state of his resources, he commenced a sea-faring life in ISIO, but finding there was no chance of preferment without a knowledge of navi- gation he entered himself as a student of that science under the tuition of Mr. Ackworth, in Baltimore. Determining to follow the sea, he did so until ISIS, and by perseverance and good conduct, rose to the com- mand of a vessel. About the year ISI8, he abandoned the sea and came west. After coming to the west, the small amount he had saved from his hard earnings was sunk in the Mississippi river during a storm. He made a fresh effort in a new profession, and, in 1822, commenced the study of law. under the direction of the late Mr. Wing, of Cincinnati, Ohio. About the year 1825, he removed to Fort Wayne, and after three years of unremitting study, was admitted to the bar of the circuit courts of this state, and in May, 1829, to practice in the supreme court of the state. Mr. Cooper had a very extensive practice in the circuit and supreme courts in Indiana, and in the United States courts in the state. A few of the many interesting cases in which he was engaged have been reported, either by Judges McLean, Blackford or Smith. At the Janu- ary term, 1833, he was licensed in the supreme court of the United States. In February, 1833, Mr. Cooper married Mary C. Silvers, of Hamilton county, Ohio, who, before her decease, bore him seven child- ren, five of whom have long since died. The two survivors are now engaged in mercantile business on the Pacific slope. In July, 1850, he married Mrs. Ellinor Munson, widow of James P. Munson, and mother
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of Charles A. Munson. The only child by the last marriage is William P. Cooper. Mr. Cooper was never a candidate for any political office, but was a leading whig, and during the presidential candidacy of his old personal friend Gen. Harrison, he was chairman of the committee which organized such a successful campaign in Allen county. Mr. Cooper had an extensive practice in the courts of Indiana, and frequently of Ohio, and, during the period from 1845, to the time of his death, few lawyers had presented the result of more labor and research to the supreme court than he. As a speaker he made no effort at flowery declamation, but in a methodic and logical argument, presented his case, analyzed the testimony and concentrated it on the point at issue. His memory was wonderful, a decision once read became indelibly impressed on his mind, and he could repeat not only the substance, but give the page and vol- ume with astonishing accuracy. Lawyers yet practicing, remember the kind assistance he always tendered, and the great pains he ever took to thoroughly explain or apply a point of law. Mr. Cooper died suddenly, on Friday, March 25, 1853, from a congestive chill.
Judge William H. Coombs, of Fort Wayne, was born in Bruns- wick, Maine, July 17, 1808, the son of Andrew and Susannah (Jackson) Coombs, also natives of that state. In December, ISII, his parents - removed to Cincinnati and in the following spring they located on a farm twenty miles east of that city, in Clermont county, where Judge Coombs spent his boyhood and early youth. He went to Cincinnati, in 1826, and until 1831 he worked as a carpenter in that city and its vicinity. In 1831 he settled at Connorsville, Ind., where he entered upon the study of law with Caleb B. Smith. He was admitted to the bar at Connorsville in the spring of 1834 and for a short time practiced his profession with Mr. Smith. In 1835 he removed to Wabash, and there practiced until the fall of 1837, when he came to Fort Wayne. Here he practiced law until 1849. In that year he went by way of Cape Horn to California. Arriving there in the fall of 1850, he remained, en- gaged at the practice of law and farming until the fall of 1855, when he returned by way of the Isthmus to Fort Wayne. In the following spring he removed to Middleport, Ohio, but returned to Fort Wayne in 1859 and here continued in the active practice of his profession until about 1886, since when he has led a retired life. Upon the resignation of Judge Worden of the supreme court, in the fall of 1882, Judge Coombs was appointed by ex-Governor Porter, to fill the vacancy, and he served until his successor was qualified in January, 1883. Judge Coombs has served one term as prosecuting attorney in the judicial dis- trict composed of the counties of Allen, Adams, Wells, Whitley, No- ble, LaGrange, Steuben and DeKalb, and he also served one term as prosecuting attorney for Alameda county, Cal. He was married at Fort Wayne, May 25, 1837, to Jane Edsall, a native of Ohio, with whom he has passed more than fifty-two years of happy married life. To them eleven children have been born, only four of whom are living: John M., a prominent hardware merchant of Fort Wayne; Joseph, of
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Louisville, Ky .; Thomas A., of Wisconsin, and Alice, who resides with her parents. Politically, Judge Coombs was originally a whig, and since 1856 has been an ardent republican.
Hon. Reuben Jackson Dawson, a conspicuous figure in the early history of northern Indiana, was born March 13, 1811, six miles west of Lawrenceburg, Dearborn county, Ind. His vocation was farming and clearing land, and, toward manhood, he taught a common school for one term. Having a fine mathematical mind, he improved it as best he could and, about 1831, learned surveying with Samuel Morrison at his county seat, and took a course of law reading in the office of the Hon. George H. Dunn, since deceased. In May, 1832, his brother-in-law, Col. John C. Spencer, having been appointed receiver of public moneys at Fort Wayne, he came to this place and accepted a position as clerk in the receiver's office. He was appointed surveyor of Allen county, and, about 1833, was awarded the contract by the government for subdividing and platting a large body of wild lands, now a part of the counties of Elk- hart, Kosciusko and Noble, which he completed early in 1834. After that he spent several years speculating in real estate. In 1837 he re- sumed his law reading in the office of another brother-in-law, Thomas Johnson, esq. In the spring of 1838, he was admitted to the bar, and, entering into a partnership with his preceptor, at once took a high rank. About February 1, 1840, the office of county judge having become va- cant by the resignation of Hon. Lucian P. Ferry, Mr. Dawson was appointed to that position, and held it until his successor was elected in the following November. Having a large estate, a saw- and grist-mill, and a dry goods store in DeKalb county, in 1841 he removed there, and platted the town of Spencerville, where he resided until his death, mainly attending to his business, which was extensive and lucrative. In Janu- ary, 1846, he was married to Minerva Catlin, of Spencerville, who after his death became the wife of S. Cary Evans, formerly a banker of Fort Wayne, and later one of the proprietors of Riverside, Cal. In 1849 he was elected to represent the counties of DeKalb and Steuben in the leg- islature, and in 1850 was elected senator for the counties of DeKalb, Noble and Steuben. In January, 1852, Judgde Dawson was placed on the democratic ticket as elector for Franklin Pierce. Soon after he was prosecuting attorney for the county, but soon resigned that position. In January, 1858, on the resignation of Hon. J. L. Worden as circuit judge, Governor Willard tendered that position to Judge Dawson. He held his first term of court at Bluffton, commencing about the first of February and ending in June of that year, with but one week's rest. During this time, a crisis arose which tested his nerve and judicial skill. Northern Indiana had long been infested by a band of horse-thieves, counterfeiters, etc., and the public mind was aroused to a degree un- paralleled in the history of the state. When the LaGrange circuit court opened, many were in custody, charged with these crimes, and many citizens were present, determined to see law and order prevail, or else take the enforcement of the laws into their own hands. The out-
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laws and their friends soon found they had a judge who could not be intimidated from doing his duty, and by his prompt and fearless rulings on the side of law and order, all danger of lynch law was averted. Again, in Noble county, when court opened at Albion, a few weeks later, an intense feeling was manifested. One McDougall had been hung by the Regulators a short time before and a number were waiting trial for crimes of that kind, and had employed the best legal talent in northeastern Indiana to defend them. Their plan was to challenge the array of grand and petit jurors, and by other dilatory motions and pleas, so embarrass the judge that there would result errors in the record; but Judge Dawson proved equal to the emergency, and the excited people soon found that law and order was the best course and remained satis- fied. Illness compelled him to resign in November, 1858. In August of that year, the democratic party of the tenth district nominated him for congress, but he became the victim of a disease affecting the kid- neys and liver, and died May 14, 1859, at his residence in Spencerville. On the announcement of his death in court, a committee, consisting of David H. Colerick, Charles Case, John Morris and William M. Crane, was appointed to draft resolutions of respect, and the court adjourned. Their report, entered of record, says among other words of praise: " He, as a lawyer, was faithful, conscientious and energetic; as a legis- lator, honest, disinterested and patriotic; as a judge, pure, impartial and efficient; as a partisan, ' he never gave up to party, what was meant for mankind.' "
Charles M. Dawson, son of the above, was born in DeKalb county, February 22, 1848. He graduated at Pennsylvania college with the class of 1869, and coming to Fort Wayne in the same year was em- ployed by the Merchants' National bank as assistant cashier, and sub- sequently, as cashier for three years. In 1876 he entered the Albany, N. Y., law school where he graduated in 1877, and was admitted to practice in the New York supreme court. Since that date he has been practicing in Fort Wayne with marked success. In 1879 he was ap- pointed prosecuting attorney for the thirty-eighth judicial circuit by Governor Williams, and was re-elected in 1880, 1882 and IS84. His service in this capacity was unexcelled for efficiency and fearlessness. He successfully conducted the prosecution for murder of McDonald, who was hung here in October, 1883, also of Boyle and Snurr, who are filling life sentences at the penitentiary. He is an active democrat, and on the stump as well as before a jury is a forcible speaker. He is a member of the Masonic order of the rank of Knight Templar. Mr. Dawson was married in 1870, to Elizabeth Maier, of this city, and they have two children, Ronald and Hadjie.
James W. Borden, a former distinguished member of the Allen county bar, was of an English family, whose ancestral home was near Sittingbourn, about forty-two miles from London. There Richard Borden, the progenitor of the family in America, was born about 1600. He removed to Portsmouth, R. I., in 1636, and died in 1670. His grandson
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William, removed in 1732 to a new home near Beaufort, S. C., where James W. Borden was born February 5, 1813. He was early left father- less, and his education was due to his mother, Esther Wallace, a lady of rare talents, who sent her son to Fairchild academy, N. Y., and subse- quently to Windsor, Conn. James W. Borden read law first in the office of Abijah Mann, jr., then a member of congress, and he was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of New York, in 1834. About this time he was married to Emeline Griswold, and in 1835 he removed to Richmond. Ind. There he was elected mayor, a position he resigned in 1839 to remove to Fort Wayne, and take charge of the United States land office. In 1841 he was elected president judge of the twelfth judi- cial district, then composed of nine counties. When the people of the state, in 1850, decided to hold a convention to revise and amend the state constitution, Judge Borden prepared the bill to provide for the same. He was elected a delegate from the counties of Allen, Adams and Wells, and resigned his judgeship. In the proceedings of this important con- vention he took an active part, and the plan of referring the different parts of the old constitution to various committees in such a way that every member should be placed upon one or the other of them, origin- ated with him, and though meeting the opposition of such men as Owen, Bright, Kilgore, Rariden and Petit, contributed materially to give the constitution its present form. Judge Borden was placed at the head of the committee to whom was referred law reform, and was the author of that section of the constitution which has given rise to the present prac- tice. On the subject of currency and banking, there were repeated and animated debates, extending through the entire session of five months. The convention at an early day divided into two parties, one favoring a State bank and branches only, the other a free banking system. Judge Borden vigorously opposed both systems, contending that the state had no authority to issue a paper currency, either in shape of treasury notes, as it had recently done in the case of the bills of credit or currency called " white dog," or indirectly through a State bank or local banks. He held that currency and banking were entirely distinct and separate matters, having no legitimate connection, and their union in the legislation of the United States and the states had been productive of untold evil; that it was the intention of the framers of our government to vest the issue of a circulating medium, whether of silver or gold or circulating notes to operate as money, exclusively in the general government; that banking properly speaking, was a subject upon which the general government could not act; that the regulation of banking was left entirely with state gov- ernments; that the time had or soon would come when the best interests of the people required their complete and final separation. Judge Borden, in 1852, was elected judge of the common pleas district of Allen, Adams, Huntington and Wells. These duties he performed until 1857, when he was appointed resident minister at the Hawaiian Islands. He returned home in 1863, and, in the year following, was again elected to the office of judge of the court of common pleas. In
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