USA > Kentucky > Hardin County > Elizabethtown > A history of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and its surroundings > Part 4
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I have some vague recollection of mule loads of gold being dis- tributed among some high officials in some way connected with the Spanish territory of which Missouri was a part.
At this term a case came up for a breach of peace-James Nourse and Felix Grunday were attorneys for plaintiff and Rowan for de- fendant. The name of John Rowan appeared several times on record before this, but I have not been able to find where he was admitted to the bar. More of him hereafter.
TAKING TIME BY THE FORELOCK-OCTOBER TERM, 1797
The court appointed Samuel May clerk pro tempore, provided David May, the present clerk, departed this life.
I would here note that David May was a highly esteemed gentleman and was the progenitor of all the Mays of this county.
Hon. Joseph Barnett, having departed this life leaving an immense estate in lands, and his children being minors, the legislature of Ken- tucky, by a strange enactment, appointed Gen. Stephen Cleaver, Henry Rhodes and Harrison Taylor commissioners to manage and settle the estate.
At this term in the case of Joseph Barnett's commissioners against Robert Baird, the court appointed Henry P. Brodnax, John Rowan, Felix Grunday, Newman Edwards, John Pope and Gabriel Johnson, or any three of these arbitrators in the case, and their award to be made the judgment of the court.
All of these arbitrators were practicing lawyers in the Hardin Quar- ter Session Court. Their history is too well known to make it necessary to say that they were distinguished men. But I will say that such a galaxy of eminent men were hardly ever before charged with such a
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case of private controversy. Either of these men was far ahead in legal knowledge, statesmanship and administrative capacity of some of our Presidents. In giving a history of the bar I shall have occasion to speak of them more in detail. Three of them were afterward judges of the Court of Appeals, one a circuit judge, one a minister to Mexico, two of them were senators in Congress, and one of them a member of Con- gress and one a governor.
CHAPTER IX
In my last chapter I had occasion to mention the commissioners of Joseph Barnett's estate.
Many years after the reference of the case of Barnett's commis- sioners against Baird, while at Frankfort I was much amused in read- ing a petition of Joseph Barnett, Jr. (son of the deceased), to the Legis- lature, in which he set out in his peculiar sarcastic style : That his father had died "possessed of an estate in lands sufficient to set two tyrants at war and his children all of tender years. And the Legislature had undertaken to be guardians for the children, and their agents had ap- pointed three men as commissioners to manage and settle the estate ; that these commissioners, while they were not dishonest, were too ignorant to be honest.
"That the harpies, taking advantage of their want of business capacity, had hovered around, feasted, gorged and fattened themselves on the spoil, and that the bungling of the commissioners had frittered the estate away. That he wanted no more Legislature enactments on the subject, but just to stand out of his moonshine while he carried into Grant the numerous entries and surveys of land made by Joseph Barnett, now deceased."
The commissioners were all honest men, but lacked business quali- fications ; without any disrespect to the memory of Harrison Taylor, for he was a good man, but claimed the right to have a dictionary of his own, and had as much right as Walker, Webster or Johnson to teach spelling. On one occasion he wrote to his merchant to send him a specific quantity of KAUGHPHY, managing in his orthography to spell the word with the complete sound, without using a solitary letter with which our bungling merchants were accustomed to spell, and who"
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knows but that he was right, and that spelling it COFFEE is an arbi- trary usage.
In legal terms he also had his way; wanting a process to compel the production of a paper, which process our lawyers term subpæna duces tecum, he applied for missile with a sharper edge, a writ of axim stickma.
CLERKS RAPIDLY MADE AT FEBRUARY TERM, 1798
David May, the clerk, having departed this life, the court appointed John Helm to fill the vacancy, and he gave bond, with William McClung and George Helm as his securities, in the penalty of $3,000. George Helm produced a commission as sheriff and was ordered to qualify at the next term. On motion of John Helm, clerk, Maurice Miles was admitted as his deputy. Court adjourned 2nd day of the term. John Helm, who was appointed clerk on yesterday, resigned his office. Maurice Miles was appointed clerk and gave bond, with Felix Grundy and John Rowen as securities ; penalty, $3,000. Maurice Miles was a business man of fine promise, wrote a beautiful business hand, and would have made an excellent clerk, but he lived but a short time.
Of John Helm, who held the office of clerk but one day, I propose in my next number to give an extended account, as having acted a prominent part in the thrilling events of the early settlement of the Valley.
FIRST PRESS FOR PUBLIC PAPERS
At the same term, February, 1798:
"Ordered, That the clerk of this court employ a fit person to make a press for the public papers, at the public expense, and make a report to this court."
That press was made of walnut wood, and was the only press in the office when I entered as deputy in 1809.
The papers up to this time, say six years, had been kept in a basket and bread tray. The orders of court had previously been simply short minutes, and the greater part of the judgments were so indefinite that it required a reference to the papers of the suits to ascertain the amounts recorded. Even in the celebrated case of Barnett's commissioners against Baird, which had been referred to such eminent lawyers as arbitrators, a note was made by the clerk that an award was returned
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and that award was made the judgment of the court.
But what that award was, after an intimate acquaintance with the office for nearly sixty years, I have never been able to learn, nor is there a man above ground that can tell.
APRIL TERM, 1798
At this time Henry P. Brodnax produced a license and was sworn as attorney-at-law.
(Note .- He had been previously sworn and admitted to the bar ; perhaps he had been admitted before on the militia system, without license. I have spoken of him at length in my seventh chapter.)
Richard Harris, Esq., produced a license and was sworn as attorney- at-law.
The grand jury had little to do at this term, as appears by the fol- lowing entry :
"The grand jury returned into court and made the following pre- sentment : 'We present Samuel Forrester for profane swearing (By God),' and having nothing further to present, were discharged."
This term lasted four days. The heaviest part of the docket was for and against Joseph Barnett's commissioners.
The winding up of the term was an order authorizing the Common- wealth's Attorney to proceed legally, by information or otherwise, against John Lawson Hall for arson, in burning the house of Joseph Greenawalt, the court being of the opinion that the evidence was strong against him, and to make things secure Hall was bound over to keep the peace on the complaint of Nellie Greenawalt, the wife of Joseph.
JUNE TERM, 1798
The grand jury presented a woman for having a child without the aid of a legal husband, deeming such proceeding a little out of order.
The court directed George Berry, Esq., J. P., to pay attention to this little affair.
The most specific entry of a judgment was at this term as follows :
"Vanmetre vs. Sharp-judgment confessed for £25 with interest from 7th, 1796-(fee paid) and cost."
Another not so definite as to interest :
"Marshall vs. Parepoint-issue waived, judgment confessed for fio with interest from day it became due till paid, reserving equity."
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JUNE TERM, 1799
James Crutcher, Esq., produced commission as quarter session jus- tice from James Garrard, governor, was sworn and took his seat.
Maurice Miles, the clerk of this court, having departed this life, Major Ben Helm was appointed clerk pro tempore and gave bond, with John Rowan and Felix Grundy his sureties-penalty, $3,000.
James Nourse, Esq., attorney for the Commonwealth, having de- parted this life, his administrators were allowed £15 for the year 1799.
APRIL TERM, 1800
Samuel Brunts, Esq., was appointed and sworn as Commonwealth's Attorney pro tempore.
Brunts, who afterward corrected the spelling of the family name to Brents, most likely the proper name, was sworn in several terms back, was an eminent lawyer, lived in Greensburg, and was afterward a mem- ber of the State Legislature, and afterward died in Greensburg of cholera in 1832 or 33.
MARCH TERM, 1802
Samuel Haycraft produced commission and took his seat as quarter session justice.
Robert Wickliffe and John W. Holt, Esqs., sworn as attorneys.
SEPTEMBER TERM, 1805
Nathaniel Wickliffe sworn as deputy clerk.
The record of the court's proceeding at this term were not signed by the judge.
REMARKS
Fearing that my readers have become wearied with the dull routine of court business, which has been given perhaps at the expense of patience of the reading public as rather prolix and ceased to be interest. ing, I will omit them in the future, and remark that the proceedings of the courts up to the conclusion of September, 1802, were occasionally signed by the Rev. Judge Joseph Barnett and Judge Vertrees, but the great majority of the signatures was by the venerable Judge Thomas Helm, who appears to have been present at every term.
The old system of summoning jurors from the bystanders and run- ning down men then existed, and they got no pay ; and it was usual
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when the judges directed the sheriff to summon a jury that the court house was cleared in short order, and men might be seen, as if running for life, and the tails of their coats and hunting shirts sailing behind as they broke to the brush and tall grass, where they sometimes fell into yellow jackets' nests.
Perhaps as good an illustration of the jury system then in vogue as could be given occurred in the early courts of Indiana, perhaps out of my bounds, but it will bring up the thing naked.
In a round log cabin for a court house, with a pole across, dividing his honor from the masses of the people, the judge asked the sheriff if he had a jury ready. The sheriff replied that he had eleven tied up in the loft, and that the deputy was running down the twelfth.
Witnesses were allowed two shillings and sixpence per day and were not very apt to attend punctually, and many were summoned and fined for non-attendance.
The clerk kept no witness book up to this time, 1802, but their at- tendance was noted in the proceedings of the court.
Here endeth the second lesson on courts, being the death of the quarter session court system.
CHAPTER X
In my last chapter I promised to speak of John Helm, who was appointed clerk and resigned the office after holding it one day. He was born on 26th of November, 1761, in Prince William county, Vir- ginia, and was the eldest son of Judge Thomas Helm, frequently spoken of in this history. His father landed on the Falls of the Ohio, near Louisville, in March, 1780, and at the close of the year removed to the Valley and built a fort. John Helm at nineteen years of age came to Kentucky, one year before his father's removal from Virginia. For those times he was well educated for a practical surveyor. He was of small stature, and not remarkable for strength or activity, the qualities that most adorned the forest gentleman of that day ; but possessing a firm constitution, with great steadiness of purpose and habits, he was enabled to perform the most astonishing labor and to endure the great- est sufferings.
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The qualities of his mind were well suited to his business, possessing in a superior degree a sound and discriminating judgment, united with patient and untiring investigation, and moral courage.
On reaching Kentucky he immediately commenced the dangerous occupation of locating and surveying lands, for which he had been educated.
His first trip was perhaps his most unfortunate, and as I cannot go into a detail of all, I will notice this and pass on. Having formed the usual company for surveys in those times, he commenced operations not far from the mouth of Salt River, accompanied by William John- ston, the father of the late Dr. Johnston, of the city of Louisville, for whom he was then surveying, a company of Indians having discovered them, and knowing their business, waylaid them while in the active em- ployment of running a line. The Indians squatting in the small cane, through which they had to pass, as they came up fired, and rising up at the same moment, rushed upon them with their usual terrible yell. Mr. Helm being a little in advance, was in the midst of the Indians at the moment of the attack. The Indians, thinking him their captive, turned their attention to those in the rear. He used the fortunate moment, and passing through them made his escape. The others were killed or taken prisoners. Among the latter was William Johnston, and Helm alone remained to tell that all was lost.
Soon, another set of instruments being procured and the necessary arrangements made, young Helm again commenced the hazardous occu- pation, experience having taught him the necessity of caution in all his movements. The theater upon which he acted being generally between green and Salt rivers, many were the trials and sufferings through which he passed. The hairbreadth escapes and thrilling incidents of living in a constant state of warfare, sometimes driven from their work by the Indians, and at other times suffering from fatigue, cold and want of food ; sometimes in assisting to defend his father's fort when attacked by the Indians, which was often the case ; at other times venturing to the assistance of some neighboring fort, often forming one of a little band of volunteers to drive off a maraudering gang of Indians who were com- mitting depredations upon the neighborhood.
Yet scenes of blood and strife will become familiar, and in the midst of them there will be marrying and giving in marriage. On the 22nd of
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March, 1787, young Helm was married to Miss Sallie Brown, in Hay- craft's fort, in the same neighborhood. In 1791 he went out in St. Clair's campaigns as a common soldier. But his capacity for business and superior education, more uncommon in those days than at present, could not long be overlooked. He performed all or nearly all the duties appertaining to the officers in Colonel Oldham's regiment of Kentucky militia, which formed one division of St. Clair's army. The regular troops formed the other division. Colonel Oldham and Mr. Helm being connected by marriage (Helm's mother being a Pope and Colonel Old- ham's wife being a Pope) as well as by official relationship in the army, were on the most intimate terms and fully in each other's secrets. They were greatly dissatisfied with St. Clair's disposition of the army the night before the fatal battle. Oldham remonstrated with St. Clair and told him of the danger before him, but to no effect, and finally parted with him the evening before the battle with the prophetic warning that history would have to record the tale of sorrow which would be the result of blunders then making. Neither Oldham nor any of his prin- cipal officers slept that night. A little before day Mr. Helm was sent on a trip of discovery beyond the lines of the army, and while he was on this service the attack was commenced, the Indians rushing upon Oldham's division, which was about half a mile in advance of the main army, a small river or large creek between them.
Mr. Helm, taking a circuitous route, reached the ford and waded over with the retreating division. Immediately after crossing the river he met with Colonel Oldham, and while in conversation about the best course to pursue Colonel Oldham received a ball, passing through his body, and he fell. The Indians being in hot pursuit and near at hand, Helm could only stay a moment to receive the Colonel's dying message to his wife.
As history records all the particulars of this bloody scene, my pur- pose is only to speak of Mr. Helm as one of the actors on that occasion.
Assisted by the officers of the Kentucky division, he made every exertion to ward off the dreadful horrors of that day by trying to keep the way clear so that the army could retreat in some sort of order. They continued their exertions till scarcely one was left who was not dying or wounded.
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Mr. Helm, while in the act of touching the trigger to shoot an Indian who was doing great mischief, received a ball in his left arm, shattering one of the bones from the wrist to the elbow. Thus disabled, he fell back among the wounded and dying, and for some time saw the efforts to regain possession of that point which he and his comrades had strug- gled so hard to hold. But St. Clair had committed the second great blunder and streams of blood had to be poured out before that important point was again obtained.
Some of the best and bravest officers of the Regular Army fell here, and several unsuccessful charges were made to no effect. By this time rain and death engulfed the army all around; no place was safe, the wounded often receiving the second and more fatal shot where they lay. Mr. Helm had no less than seven bullets passing through his clothes.
Seeing death or escape the only alternative and being surrounded by the enemy on every side, Major Patrick Brown, Captain Thomas (since General Thomas), Stephen Cleaver (since General Cleaver), Mr. Helm and a few others concluded to make a last desperate attempt to open a passage through the Indian lines, the only possible way by which to retreat. The Indians were doubly prepared, having twice resisted charges made by a division of the regular soldiers, but these men thought it was nothing but death any way and determined to make a trial for life. Their plans being settled, they called long and loud for Kentuckians to make a rush for home. That word home had a talis- manic effect. Their young wives and little children shot up before the mind's eye and nerved them for the struggle, and with a desperate shout they charged the Indians without firing a gun. The Indians for a moment seemed to be panic stricken, yielded for them to pass, whilst the balance of the shattered army, as if by one impulse, followed after.
Mr. Helm, with the feelings and true spirit of a back woodsman, clung to his rifle-that treasure to be parted with only in death, his arm- bone broken and shattered as before mentioned-carrying his rifle, ran and marched with the army upwards of thirty miles that day. The suf- ferings from such a wound would have been great under the most favorable circumstances and best treatment, but awful indeed must they have been in a wilderness, with such treatment and accommodations as could be given in a retreating and defeated army, yet after months of suffering Helm returned to his family and was restored to health.
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This closed the Indian fighting and he again resumed his occupation as surveyor. The Indians were no longer regarded as an object of dread and terror. The balance of his life was spent in active and useful labor, mostly as surveyor. He acted as county surveyor many years in Washington county, where he removed, and was associate judge in that county under the old system, and was a neat and thrifty farmer. He afterward removed to Breckinridge county and there farmed exten- sively, and finally removed to Elizabethtown. He had no political aspira- tions ; although often urged, he never was a candidate for office before the people. He accumulated a considerable fortune, considering the theater upon which he acted and the county in which he lived; for these things are comparative, at least, yet few men ever came as near living and dying without an enemy. He died at his residence in Elizabethtown on the 3rd day of April, 1840, having been a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for seven years.
The foregoing notice of the Hon. John Helm is principally taken from his memoir (not only as to facts but nearly as to language), writ- ten in 1840 by his son, the Hon. B. Helm, now of Hannibal, Missouri.
CHAPTER XI
QUARTER SESSION AND DISTRICT COURTS ABOLISHED AND CIRCUIT COURTS ESTABLISHED
On the 20th day of December, 1802, the Legislature abolished the quarter session courts; on the 21st of the same month an amendment was made, by which the district courts were established.
A circuit court to be held in each county, to be composed of one cir- cuit judge and two assistant judges. Nine judges were commissioned by the governor, by and with the consent of the Senate, for the State at large. Those judges, at a general court assembled at Frankfort, the capital, on the 4th Monday in January, 1803 ; and allotted to each judge his circuit and by allotment, the Hon. Stephen Ormsby was to preside in the counties of Nelson, Jefferson, Bullitt and Hardin. This allotment was given under the hands and seals of the following judges:
Samuel McDowell, John Colburn, B. Thurston, Stephen Ormsby, James G. Hunter, John Allen, Christopher Greenup and Allen Milton Wakefield.
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HARDIN CIRCUIT COURT
On the 18th day of April, 1803, the Hon. Stephen Ormsby, circuit judge, and the Hon. Samuel Haycraft, and William Munford, assistant judges, organized the first circuit court in Elizabethtown.
CLERK APPOINTED
Major Ben Helm, who produced a certificate of qualification from under the hands and seals of the Hons. George Muter, Benjamin Sebastian and Caleb Wallace, judges of the Court of Appeals, was ap- pointed clerk and gave bond, with Felix Grundy and Robert Wickliffe as securities.
The assistant judges were sworn before Asa Combs, Esq., justice of the peace and tavern keeper.
Alexander Pope, Esq., by consent of the court, undertook to prose- cute as county attorney.
Felix Grundy, John W. Holt, Robert Wickliffe and Alexander Pope sworn and admitted as attorneys-at-law.
Nathaniel Wickliffe sworn as deputy clerk.
RULE DAYS
were appointed to be held in the clerk's office on Saturday after the 3rd Monday in each month. The object of rule days was intended for par- ties to prepare for trial and to file with the clerk their answers, pleas, republications, etc. The clerk kept a docket for that purpose, and when both parties were ready, cocked and primed, their cases were transferred to a trial of reference docket, then the case came before the court and jury, and many men then had to experience the glorious uncertainty of the law, the winners always admitting that a Daniel had come to judgment, and the losers asseverating that they were the vic- tims of the blindness and superstition of fellow man, and although the rule docket has long since been dispensed with, yet the return days of executions in the Hardin Circuit Court has been the same days for sixty years to 1869.
The clerk was authorized to issue executions on all judgments of the quarter session courts now defunct. Having thus organized, the- court adjourned until the next day at 7 o'clock a. m., at which time they met, examined and signed the orders and adjourned.
(Signed) STEPHEN ORMSBY.
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JULY TERM, 1803-A NEW JUDGE
The general court having made a new allotment of circuits, the Hon. Christopher Greenup was allotted to the counties of Henry, Hardin, Livingston and Ohio.
This allotment signed by the same judges, with the addition of the name of the Hon. Ninian Edwards.
PRESENT
Hon. Christopher Greenup, circuit judge, and Samuel Haycraft, assistant judge.
David Trimble sworn as attorney-at-law.
SECOND DAY
H. P. Brodnax sworn as attorney-at-law.
This term lasted six days-each day's business signed
CHRISTOPHER GREENUP.
OCTOBER TERM, 1803
Present-Hon. Samuel Haycraft and William Munford.
The clerk recorded all the indictments in the order book-rather tedious.
SECOND DAY
Present also, Hon. Christopher Greenup, judge.
APRIL TERM, 1804-CIRCUIT CHANGED
Hon. Christopher Greenup allotted to the counties of Henry, Hardin, .
Muhlenburg and Ohio.
COMMONWEALTH
LOn indictment of murdering Robert Kennedy. VS.
F. PAREPOINT.
Parepoint surrendered himself ; was put upon trial and found not guilty.
The circumstances were: Parepoint had a process to arrest Ken- nedy on a penal charge. Kennedy and his wife were attending preach- ing at the old Baptist meeting house on the hill, where Mr. I. Robin Jacob now resides. Kennedy was ordered to stand, but chose to run, was shot in the back and died next day, and was buried in Vertrees' old graveyard, where some forty or fifty others were buried, near a spring
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on the hill, owned by Dr. Harvey Slaughter. Although I witnessed the interment at nine years old, I could not, nor can any living man, desig- nate his or any other solitary grave, nor are there ten men living that could find the graveyard. This is sufficient to show the impolicy, if not absurdity, of burying in private graveyards.
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