USA > Kansas > Marshall County > History of Marshall County, Kansas : its people, industries, and institutions > Part 35
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The subject of preventive medicine as required in modern times and under modern conditions and in the light of modern knowledge. has just begun to be recognized. This will include the broad subject of nutrition, growth, repair, energy, waste and decay, and the differences between the uses of the fats. the carbohydrates and the proteins from the animal and the vegetable kingdoms.
On these varying changes and broadening of human knowledge, the doctors of Marshall county have not been idle. New men fresh from the standard medical schools and strengthened by preparatory training, have from year to vear been added to the ranks as recruits. Many of the older men, who are still active in the work, have either returned to their alma mater or taken regular post-graduate work and are active students today as of old, pushing onward, traveling in search of "light, more light."
COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY.
The first County Medical Society was organized in 1879 with ten men- bers and many of the young doctors who, twelve years before, had been mustered out of the army, were active in this movement. New members have been added from year to year and at present the county organization is in affiliation with the State and American Associations.
At present the profession is represented by thirty-three doctors in twelve towns. In Oketo-Doctor Wood. In Marysville-Doctors Mc Allister.
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Breeding. Edington Eddy, Hausman, Hawkins. Patterson. Rooney, Von Wald and the Wilsons, father and son. Home City-Doctor John Shumway. Beattie-Doctors Ham, Gist and Mathews. Axtell-Doctor Piper and New- man. Summerfield-Doctors Dodds. Stewart and Johnson. Waterville- Doctors Humfreville and Thatcher. Blue Rapids-Doctors Fillmore, Reed and McFarland. Irving-Doctors Leith and Phillebawm. Frankfort- Doctors Brawley, Sr., and Brawley, Jr. and Brady. Vermillion-Dr. John Clifton. Lillis-Doctor Holliday.
Thirty-three doctors in Marshall county, with a total population of twenty-two thousand, gives us an average per capita of a number that would indeed tax the ability of the physicians. if it were not for the many modifying conditions. Here we have a population composed almost entirely of the so-called middle classes, the workers, the thinkers and the planners. These people are living under the very best social and economic hygiene. There are some drug stores, where we have good reason to believe the clerks and proprietors are violating state laws by counter prescribing. Those who are guilty are acting the part of a dispensing physician, without possessing the state regulation as such.
The National and State Druggists' Association have been trying for years to force the doctors to send all patients to the druggist with prescrip- tions, and prevent the doctors from dispensing their own drugs to the patient direct. Many of the drug jobbers and manufacturers have refused to sell direct to dispensing physicians.
It has for years been a common practice among druggists to refill physi- cians' prescriptions for any and all who requested it. and even they them- selves prescribe for customers. The druggist, who should be the co-worker of the doctor, is often his most bitter enemy. Today, practically all physi- cians in the county are dispensing direct to patients.
MACBETH ON MEDICINE.
There is another reason why all patients do not come to the doctors. In all times, past and present, it has been a well-known fact that, under favor- able conditions, the human system tends to right a wrong within itself. One of the favorable conditions is a contented mind. This is often produced by the confidence that something is being or has been done for them. On this principle, a great many systems of drugless treatment have been devised and thrust upon the confiding public. The underlying truth of this was well understood by Shakespeare, when he causes Macbeth to enquire of the doctor :
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Macbeth : How does your patient, doctor ?
Doctor : Not so sick, my lord,
.As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies,
That keep her from her rest.
Macbeth : Cure of that.
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain
And with some sweet oblivious antidote,
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart.
Doctor: Therein the patient
Must minister to himself.
.All through the journey of human life the true doctor is constantly brought face to face with every problem that confronts mankind. The very problem of life itself he is often asked to explain. Every cradle asks us whence and every coffin, whither?
Every member of the community calls upon him in the hour of trouble, leins upon him in the time of weakness, and draws aside the curtain disclos- ing the family skeleton in the closet, or the secret, hidden wealth.
No man becomes so endeared to the family as the old family doctor.
"Unskilful he to fawn, or seek for power. By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour : Far other aims his heart had learned to prize. More bent to raise the wretched, than to rise."
It was not for selfish, commercial reasons that the okl-time doctor made the long drives on stormy nights to relieve some sufferer in the settler's lonely dugout. There is something so noble, so precious, so enjoyable that money cannot purchase it, when the doctor rejoices with the young parents over their new-found treasure.
In after years when the mother counsels with the doctor on a well-bal- anced ration and the entire process of constructive and destructive metabolism, the doctor enjoys a part ownership in the development of a new American citizen.
RETROSPECTIVE.
When in his declining years the doctor sees his babies take their places and play their parts on the world's stage in the drama of human life, there is a pride and a satisfaction that words cannot express and the careless can- not understand.
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When you see the modern physician walk down the cement sidewalk with his neat little black case, or you see him go rapidly past you in his modern motor car over one of our well dragged country roads, at a speed far exceed- ing the legal rate, don't think he is out for a pleasure or a crazy speed drive. He may be going to the home of wealth and luxury, to relieve the victim of an afternoon tea party or a last night's banquet.
It may be to the home of privation and sorrow, or to the injured bread- winner in some laborer's cottage with the rent unpaid. It matters not to the doctor, so long as it is a call from one who is suffering. He goes as cheer- fully, as willingly and as hurriedly to one as to the other. I know of no one of all the world's workers, who comes nearer than the honest, conscien- tious, self-sacrificing member of the medical profession to the poet's ideal, when he wrote :
"What is noble? That which places, Truth in its enfranchised will. Leaving steps like angel traces, That mankind may follow still : Ever striving, ever seeking, Some improvement yet to plan ; To assist our fellow-being, And like man, to feel for man."
CHAPTER XVIII.
BENCH AND BAR OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
On February 26, 1855. A. H. Reeder, territorial governor of Kansas, issued a proclamation defining the judicial districts of the territory and assign- ing judges to them.
The third district included the seventh, eighth, ninth. tenth, eleventh and twelfth election districts. Big Blue Crossing was the tenth election district and Marysville, the eleventh. Marshall county was then in the third judicial district, Kansas territory.
President Pierce had commissioned Saunders W. Johnston as an associ- ate justice on June 24, 1854, and the third judicial district was assigned to him. Courts were to be held at Pawnee.
It is well to recall some political history in connection with the fact that conrt was to be held at Pawnee. Governor Reeder, like many other citizens, had become interested in various schemes for the organization of embryo cities.
What more natural than to think that the future capital of the state would be located near the center. Pawnee was the logical site of the future capital : so the Pawnee Town Company was formed. Congress had appro- priated twenty-five thousand dollars for the erection of a suitable building in which the territorial Legislatures might meet.
That building was erected by the Pawnee Town Company, of which Governor Reeder was a passive, if not an active, member. The executive offices were established at Pawnee and the first territorial Legislature con- vened there. Trne, it did not last long; but for a time, at least for four days, it was in the same judicial district as Marshall county. On July 2. 1855, the same day on which the first territorial Legislature met at Pawnee, Saunders W. Johnston organized the third district bar, at Pawnee. One man from Marshall county was present at that meeting-Frank J. Marshall.
llis honor, Saunders W. Johnston, never visited this county. On Sep- tember 1, 1855. not quite three months later, he resigned his office and Jere- miah D). Burrell was appointed and on September 13 was commissioned and assigned to the third district. Two years later he held the first court in
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Marysville, probably in one of F. J. Marshall's log houses. His one act was to "swear in". D. C. Auld, as justice of the peace.
In the fall of 1855 the voting strength of Marshall county being about .. sixty, it was decided that a, county organization was needed and. the county was duly organized, the necessary business proceedings taking place, as usual, in a log cabin on the banks of the Blue.
SHERIFF SHOT.
The duties of the county officials were not very arduous. Alexander Clarke, the first sheriff, had his official career ended very suddenly by being slot by a desperado, whom he was attempting to arrest.
A county warrant was issued on December 15, 1856, by James McClosky in favor of Henry Adams and H. L .. Kirk, of Atchison, for services rendered in laying out a road from Atchison to Marysville.
This was the first county warrant issued in Marshall county. The first regularly organized district court convened in Marysville in March, 1857. Judge Burrel, of the United States district court, presided and James McClosky acted as clerk. As no cases appeared on the docket and no grand jury called. it looked as if the court would have to adjourn without trans- acting any business, when a "case of conscience" came up. D. C. Auld, an abolitionist. had been appointed justice of the peace for the Vermillion dis- trict. The territorial laws, as passed by a pro-slavery Legislature, required that all officials should take an "iron-clad oath" to support the United States fugitive slave law. This law was antagonistic to Mr. Auld's principles and he refused to take the oath. McClosky appealed to Judge Burrel to qualify Mr. Auld without requiring the oath and Judge Burrel wrote out a Pennsyl- vania oath and administered it to Auld, who qualified, served out his term and felt free to assist any fugitive slave who, in his flight for freedom, hap- pened to pass his way.
COUNTY RE-DISTRICTED.
In 1860 a re-districting was made and Marshall county was then put in the second judicial district and Rush Elmore, associate justice of the supreme court, was assigned as judge. Elmore was from Alabama and was com- missioned an associate justice of the territory of Kansas by Franklin Pierce, President, on the same day on which Andrew H. Reeder was commissioned territorial governor-June 29. 1854. There is no record that Judge Elmore ever presided over a court in Marshall county.
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The second judicial district was now composed of the counties of Atchison, Doniphan, Brown, Nemaha, Washington and Marshall counties. Judge Rush Elmore was succeeded by Hon. Albert L. Lee, who lived at Elmore, Doniphan county, and who served from January 29, 1861, the day on which Kansas became a state, until October 31. 1861. Judge Lee died in New York City on December 31, 1907.
The next judge was Albert H. Horton, who was born in Orange county, New York, March 12, 1837, and was educated at Ann Arbor University. He was admitted to the practice of law in the supreme court of New York in 1859 and came to Kansas in 1860. locating at Atchison. In 1861 he was elected city attorney of Atchison and the same year was appointed judge of the second judicial district by Gov. Charles Robinson, and held that office by election until 1866. when he resigned. In 1876 he was appointed chief justice of the supreme court of the state by Governor Osborne, and the fol- lowing year was elected to the same office, in which capacity he served seven- teen years, when he resigned. He was subsequently re-elected supreme court justice and died while serving in that office September 2, 1900.
A CELEBRATED CASE.
Horton was succeeded as judge of the second judicial district by Hon. St. Clair Graham on May 11, 1866, who served until January 11, 1869. Judge Graham was on the bench when the celebrated Regis Liosel land con- test was tried in the Nemaha county court, in which John J. Ingalls repre- sented claimants to thirty-eight thousand one hundred and eleven acres of land in the counties of Nemaha, Marshall and Pottawatomie.
It was one of the celebrated cases of the day and formed the basis for Ingalls' most charming story of "Regis Liosel, 1799-1804," to be found in the Ingalls' book of writings. The litigation grew out of a French land grant, which subsequently was confirmed by an act of Congress in 1858.
The attorneys of record at the bar were: John W. Ballinger, county attorney : J. E. Clardy, J. D. Brumbaugh, W. C. Dunton and W. W. Jerome.
1861-66 .- llon. Albert Horton. district judge : Byron Sherry. county attorney ( appointed from Atchison county). Attorneys: R. M. Bratney, J. F. Babbett. H. C. Hawkins. E. J. Jenkins, United States district attorney, appeared on the April term of court in 1865 and W. W. Jerome was the county attorney.
1866-08 .- llon. R. St. Clair Graham, district judge: W. W. Jerome, county attorney. The bar remained the same.
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1868-71 .- Hon. Nathan Price, district judge; M. C. White, county attorney. During the October term, 1869, Asa E. Park and W. Pitt Mudgett were admitted to the bar. Attorneys of note were Metcalf and Waggener and John J. Ingalls, of Atchison.
In 1868 Hon. Nathan Price, of Troy, was elected judge and served until 1872, when he resigned. Judge Price was a man of strong, forceful personality, impressing all who came in touch with him with that indefinable quality called magnetism. His decisions were seldom reversed.
TWELFTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT.
The twelfth judicial district was created by the Legislature of 1871 and consisted of Marshall, Washington, Republic, Mitchell, Clay, Cloud, Smith, Osborn, Phillips and Norton counties.
The terms of court in Marshall county were to be held on the second Monday of April and the second Monday of October.
Andrew S. Wilson of Washington was judge of the twelfth district from March 16, 1871, to October 20, 1884, when he was succeeded by Joseph G. Lowe, of Washington, who held the office from October 20 to November 10, 1884, when he was succeeded by A. A. Carnahan, of Concordia, who held the position from November 11, 1884, to January, 1885. He was suc- ceeded by Edward Hutchinson, of Marysville, who served from January, 1885, to January, 1889.
Lowe and Carnahan were appointed by Gov. George W. Glick.
1871-84 .- Hon. A. S. Wilson, district judge; M. C. White, county attorney, 1871-73.
1873 .- Edward Hutchinson, county attorney.
1875 .- F. M. Love, county attorney.
1879 .- John A. Broughton, county attorney.
1883 .- E. A. Berry, county attorney.
Members of the bar during these years were: W. H. H. Freeman, W. W. Smith, John V. Coon, E. L. Begun, Theodore H. Polack, George C. Brownell, G. E. Scoville, W. S. Glass, W. A. Calderhead, C. H. Lemmon, J. D. Gregg, W. J. Gregg, Cal. T. Mann, Jos. Patterson, J. S. Magill, John McCoy and H. K. Sharpe.
This was without doubt the strongest bar in the history of Marshall county. E. A. Berry served many years as county attorney. W. W. Smith acted as private secretary for Senator Charles Curtis for many years. E. Hutchinson became the district judge. W. A. Calderhead was elected to
(26)
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MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.
Congress and served fourteen years. Of this bar, Love. Coon, Begun, Sco- ville. J. D. Gregg, Mann, Patterson, Glass and Lemmon have appeared before a higher judge.
Mr. Berry, Mr. Broughton and Mr. Caklerhead are no longer in active practice. Smith, Brownell and Hutchinson are not residents of the county. Mr. Polack and Mr. W. J. Gregg are the only active lawyers left of that bar.
TWENTY-FIRST JUDICIAL. DISTRICT.
In 1888 the district was again changed and the twenty-first judicial dis- trict created, composed of Marshall, Clay and Riley counties.
Judge Robert B. Spilman, of Riley county, was elected judge, to suc- ceed Judge Hutchinson.
Judge R. B. Spilman was the most popular judge who ever graced this bench. He had the judicial temperament in a high degree and was greatly respected by the bar of the district. He continued judge until his death in 1899.
Hon. W. S. Glass, of Marysville, was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Spilman and served until 1902.
At the annual election, Hon. Sam Kimble, of Manhattan, was elected judge and continued in office until 1915. serving as judge of the twenty-first judicial district for twelve years. He was succeeded by Hon. Frederick Smith, the present judge. Judge Smith is a native of Manhattan and is the third judge from that city to preside over the tri-county bar.
1888 .- Ilon. Edward Hutchinson, district judge; E. A. Berry, county attorney. S. D. McKee admitted. The bar remained much the same.
1889-99 .- Ilon. R. B. Spilman, district judge: W. A. Calderhead, county attorney, 1889-91; E. Hutchinson, county attorney, 1895-96: E. . \. Berry, county attorney, 1896-97.
On February 8, 1895, J. G. Strong, of Blue Rapids, was admitted to the bar and one week later his father. J. G. Strong, Sr., was admitted. W. W. Redmond was an attorney of practice in 1889, and is still a member of the Marshall county bar.
October 15, 1899, Hon. W. S. Glass was appointed to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Judge R. B. Spilman.
At the election of 1902. Hon. Sam Kimble. of Manhattan, was elected judge and continued in office until January 1, 1915, serving for twelve years.
County attorney-Guy T. Helvering. 1907-HE ; James Van Vleet, 1911- 13: Charles 11. Davis, 1913-17.
1915 .- Hon. Fred R. Smith, district judge.
1917 .- Hon. J. G. Strong, county attorney.
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MARSHALL COUNTY, KANSAS.
ATTORNEYS.
The dates on which many of the attorneys were admitted to practice at the Marshall county bar are not of record, but such as it has been possible to ascertain are given.
E. L. Begun, admitted, 1871.
W. A. Calderhead, admitted, December 10, 1879.
W. S. Glass, admitted, December 11, 1879.
Charles H. Lemmon, admitted, December 14, 1879. Omar Powell, admitted, March 15. 1880.
A. C. Pepper, admitted, December 8, 1879.
Giles E. Scoville, admitted, March 17, 1873.
J. W. Searles.
E. WV. Waynant.
Gny T. Helvering, admitted, 1906.
Robert L. Helvering, admitted, 1909.
MARSHALL COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION.
In May, 1884, the first Bar Association of Marshall county, was organ- ized at the court house in Marysville. The membership consisted of J. S. Magill, John McCoy. J. A. Broughton, W. A. Calderhead, E. A. Berry, A. E. Park, W. J. Gregg, H. K: Sharpe, G. E. Scoville, Cal T. Mann, S. D. McKee and E. Hutchinson. At this meeting, E. Hutchinson was elected president : W. J. Gregg, secretary, and J. A. Broughton, treasurer.
The present officers are: W. J. Gregg, president; R. L. Helvering, secretary, and W. W. Redmond, treasurer. The regular meetings are held on the first day of court each new year.
FIRST SESSION OF COURT IN MARSHALL COUNTY.
In 1855 a few log houses on the slight eminence, where R. Y. Shibley's house now stands, constituted the city of Marysville.
One log house near where the ward school is located, the home of J. P. Miller, was all there was of Palmnetto.
One day this community was interested to learn that court would be held in one of the log cabins on the river bank and would be presided over by Judge Buce, from South Carolina.
Suit had been brought by Frank J. Marshall against W. M. F. McGraw,
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of Maryland. McGraw had a contract with the United States government for carrying mail monthly to Salt Lake City. Marshall had instituted suit against McGraw for the keeping and feeding of some eighty mules for a period of two years, for which MeGraw had not paid. MeGraw had been notified to appear in court and the momentous day arrived.
A UNIQUE JURYMAN.
"Bob" Shibley, measuring six feet two in height and about the size of a clothes line in width, aged seventeen years, was one of the six jurymen. A store box served for the judge's bench and another box furnished him a seat. The six jurymen were seated on boxes, the judge was in his place, when amidst a great commotion, yelling and rattling, the mail stage drove up. McGraw was on the seat with the driver, while a man known in plains- men's parlance as a "whacker." ran along side the four mules doing exactly what his name indicates.
J. P. Miller, who will be recalled as one of the original Palmetto Town Company, was officiating in as many roles as the celebrated Pooh-Bah of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Mikado."
Ile was sheriff, clerk of the court, register of deeds, and in fact in any other office that might be thrust upon him. He was a tall thin man and, with much dignity, he advanced to the door of the cabin and ordered McGraw into court.
McGraw and his two men had two revolvers in their belts and things looked like immediate war, as they came into the cabin.
The judge was attired in a suit of clothes which showed wear and lack of cleaning and pressing, but what attracted young Bob's attention was his coat. This article was a bright blue in color and fit his honor "like the feathers on a bird." This dazzling garment caught the eye of the young juror and interested him more than the legal proceedings.
CHALLENGE TO A DUEL.
The judge opened court: "Mr. McGraw you are summoned to appear here as defendant in a suit brought by F. J. Marshall for recovery of money. Have you anything to say?"
"Yes, sir," roared McGraw. "I refuse to recognize this court. You are all Frank Marshall's hirelings and I will have nothing to do with you."
The effect of this retort on Judge Buce cannot be described. He thrust
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his hands into the box before him and brought forth two revlovers. One he held by the barrel presenting the handle to McGraw and demanding with language more forceful than elegant that he take the revolver and defend himself, for he (Buce) proposed to defend the honor of the court. In other words a duel was imminent.
McGraw, who was a large, portly man, backed around the room, fol- lowed by the small but wrathy South Carolinian, pouring out oaths and threats in quick succession. Finally reaching the door, McGraw made his escape and with his drivers left judge and jury to finish the trial.
TALE OF A COAT MINUS A TAIL.
During the altercation between Buce and McGraw, "Bob", who feared there would be blood shed, backed into a corner of the cabin and made him- self as flat as possible against the wall. The thing which impressed itself most vividly on his mind was the coat of his honor the judge. This gar- ment had previously attracted the attention of the boy juror, but when the integrity of the court was questioned and Buce sprang from the judicial bench, the astounding fact was revealed that one coat tail was missing.
The coat was of the "spike tail" variety and the spectacle of the judge in pursuit of McGraw with rage and oaths, threatening vengeance with one "claw" of the "hammer" missing, was too much for "Bob," and to this day. when he recalls it, he roars with laughter.
After McGraw's departure the perspiring judge again opened court. Miller presented the case for the plaintiff, and the jury was sent out into the yard to deliberate on the verdict. Having agreed they came into court and in response to the question, "Gentlemen, are you agreed?" the foreman answered that damages to the amount of eight thousand dollars had been awarded to F. J. Marshall. A board of appraisers was sent to the pasture, enough mules were selected to satisfy the judgment, and such report was made by Sheriff Miller. Court was adjourned and Judge Buce, with his blue coat minus one section, departed. That night, Frank Marshall's partner, Woodward, started with the mules for Iowa.
BAR STORY.
In the days that Nathan Price served as judge, the lawyers from Atchison made the trip in the Overland stage.
Many amusing incidents of those days were told by those who "practised
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