USA > Michigan > A history of the northern peninsula of Michigan and its people, its mining, lumber and agricultural industries, Volume I > Part 30
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The first mail to reach Ontonagon overland came by dog-train in the winter of 1846-1847, and the house of D. S. Cash was used as the postoffice, and Mr. Cash continued to be the postmaster for six years. There was but one mail that winter.
In 1848 Lathrop Johnson converted the government agency build- ing into a tavern and called it the "Johnson House," which was the first hotel open for the entertainment of the public. Until that time, Mr. Paul's cabin had been the usual stopping place for travelers.
THE SAULT AND MACKINAC AGAIN
At the Sault there was comparatively little change from 1830 to 1850. In the former year the population is recorded as having been 526 at and near the village. In 1837 it had fallen off to 366. In 1840 it was 534, and in 1845 it again fell to 107; but increased again so that in 1850 it was 898.
The settlement at Mackinac continued to be the headquarters for the fur trade throughout the entire first half of the nineteenth century,
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and the population varied somewhat; the census being of such a very large territory, gives no record so far as we can learn as to just the number in the village in 1850. The then county of Mackinac, prior to the division into a number of counties in 1843, covered a very large territory, and in 1840 was credited with a population of 923.
The government Indian agents located at Mackinac were as follows: 1816-24, W. H. Puthuff ; 1824-33. George Boyd; 1833-41. H. R. School- craft; 1841-45, Robert Stuart; 1845-49, William A. Richmond; and 1849-51, Charles P. Babcock.
Thus the last half of the nineteenth century began, for the Upper Peninsula, with the few settlements we have mentioned, the only ones
OLD VIEW OF WATER STREET, THE SOO
of any considerable importance being those at the Sault and Mackinac, but with substantial beginnings at Marquette, Copper Harbor, on Ke- weenaw bay, and at Ontonagon. Interest in the Peninsula, however, had assumed considerable proportions, and the three great attractions which were to enlist the attention of the public were copper, iron and lumber. The development in the sixty years from that time to this has been phenomenal, and the history covering that time will be writ- ten topically, with reference to localities, industries, etc.
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CHAPTER XII JUDICIAL AND LEGAL
THE PIONEER LAWYER GETTING TO COURT-UPPER PENINSULA CIRCUIT COURTS JUDGE DANIEL GOODWIN-JUDGE JOSEPH STEERE-TWELFTH CIRCUIT JUDGES-THE PRESENT FOUR CIRCUITS-VETERANS OF THE BAR-JUDGES WILLIAMS AND STREETER-JUDGES GRANT AND STONE- JUDGE RICHARD C. FLANNIGAN-THIRTY-SECOND CIRCUIT JUDGES- J. LOGAN CHIPMAN, OF THE SOO-DAN H. BALL, OF MARQUETTE- OTHER MARQUETTE COUNTY LAWYERS-HOUGHTON COUNTY BAR- ONTONAGON, SCHOOLCRAFT AND DELTA-MENOMINEE COUNTY PRAC- TITIONERS-BAR OF DICKINSON AND IRON COUNTIES.
By Hon. John Power
A trifle in excess of a decade prior to the advent of the titanic strug. gle between the sections of our country, for that supremacy of the doc- trine of indissoluble union as opposed to the theory of secession which was established at Appomattox Court House in the memorable spring of the year 1865, the judicial history of the Upper Peninsula of Michi- gan had its inception. But sixty years having elapsed in a theater com- posed of the most remote and inaccessible, and for many years most sparsely settled portion of the territory forming the state, it might well be expected that the matter appropriately applicable to the subject of a brief history of the bench and bar of the Upper Peninsula, would be so limited and circumscribed as to defeat any effort to present a sketch of the most elementary interest.
Notwithstanding, however, the pancity of what may be styled con- crete material, there doubtless are many matters and personages con- nected with these sixty years of judicial and professional happenings, which may be found of more or less interest in the future, and hence, worthy of preservation in the pages of a work devoted to a historical recital of matters, events, development and progress of that section of our state north of the Straits of Mackinac, where the pine of primest quality and most gigantic dimensions stretched its ambitious boughs far into the pure atmosphere, surrounding a rugged region, it is true,
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but one blessed with a climate redolent of health and laden with all those qualities which produce physical vigor, and where nature had selected storehouses in which to deposit almost limitless supplies of the most useful and most wealth-producing of her mineral gifts to man.
There are still living in several of these northern counties many of the older practitioners at the bar, who have a store of reminiscences connected with their professional work and experiences which are full of interest, and which might be of much value to the younger mem- bers of the profession as illustrating the virility and endurance, as well as the power to endure privation and hardship, which were pos- sessed and exercised patiently and uncomplainingly by the generations of lawyers who served in the courts in this region, beginning in the year 1850.
THE PIONEER LAWYER "GETTING TO COURT"
Railroads were an unknown luxury anywhere on the peninsula until the year 1865, when the Marquette Iron Range was connected with the port of Escanaba by a piece of road some sixty-five miles long. Afterwards, in the year 1871-2, the Northwestern road was ex- tended from Green Bay to Escanaba, thus furnishing an inadequate gateway operated by rail, from Marquette county on the north to the outer world. It was not until the year 1883 that the copper region- Ontonagon, Houghton, Keweenaw and Baraga counties-secured rail- road transportation facilities. It follows that as late as 1884 and 1885 the lawyer practicing in the counties of the Upper Peninsula had no such comfort in reaching the various circuit courts, in the pursuit of his profession, as is enjoyed nowadays through the agency of the railroad coach, the Pullman car, the observation car and the dining car, with the various other luxurious accessories. In those days of the simple life long journeys were undertaken in the heat and dust and discomforts of the summer day, in an ordinary stage coach, usually an open wagon, or in the vigorous winter weather, when mayhap the mercury would sink to thirty degrees or more below zero Fahrenheit, in a sleigh, and in the carlier days even upon snow shoes.
It may be accepted as a fact, that these journeys to the various tem- ples devoted to the administration of even-handed justice were no picnic occasions; far from it. The distance may be described as far more "magnificent" than those which are one of the proud boasts of our nation's capital, and in annihilating them the old practitioner, or he who is now old, enjoyed a more than ordinarily strenuous experience. From Houghton to L'Anse, thirty-two miles one way had to be covered in this way to each of the several terms; from L'Anse to Marquette, fifty-three miles; from Houghton to Marquette, eighty-five miles; from Escanaba to Manistique exceeded forty miles by the traveled routes, including over twenty miles of ice in the winter season. The distances to and from St. Ignace and Sault Ste. Marie, and to and from Menom-
Vol 1-15
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inee, were still more heroie. The modern hotel and the comforts they afford were, of course, in great measure unknown. The old lawyer "travelling circuit," if you please, had to be content with much plainer fare, and much cruder surroundings, than they afford. The wayside inn with the rough common table, with all else eschewed except only the homely accessories of life, were all that he could look for with any rea- sonable hope of gratification. He would luxuriate in whitewashed walls and sanded floors, and deem himself thrice fortunate did he succeed in commanding a bed for his exclusive use, the occasion often arising when the exigencies required that he could be allowed to preempt only part of that most useful and indispensable article of household economy. Thus he was compelled (and they were cases of "willy nilly") to be- come a tenant in common of the bed with a person, or persons, whom he had never seen before; the extent and volume of his knowledge about whom was that they belonged to the Caucasian race.
The old-time court house, too, was a marvel of architectural sim- plicity; slab walls, four in number, with a shingle roof, constituted the temple; the jury room, a contrivance which well illustrated the adage "Necessity is the mother of invention." When the inventive faculty was not equal to the occasion, the "good men and true" were relegated to the nearest inn to deliberate on the knotty entanglements of evidence, and momentous questions involved in the ease at bar. All-in-all, it may be accepted that the lawyer who practiced before the courts of the Upper Peninsula during the first three and a half decades after the adoption of Michigan's second constitution, neither lay on beds of roses nor feasted at Lucullian boards. They often had grim and trying ex- periences that tested the metal of which they were made, and proved, beyond room for refutation, the sterling, manly and gritty qualities that predominated in their virile make-up; their indomitable resolution, strong fortitude under adverse conditions and dogged determina- tion to win the battle, the gage of which is taken up in every manly man's life struggle.
In these reflections upon the characteristie qualities and the labors of the early-day lawyer, in the primeval judicial period of judicial and professional history on the peninsula, there lurks no intention to make or suggest any invidious comparisons between the old lawyers and their juniors who oreupy the places formerly filled by many who have passed away; by those who have retired and those who are still in the harness and who have become the veterans, the old guard of the profession. It is fully recognized that our young men who offer their services to the publie as legal advisers, and who hold themselves as worthy to be en- trusted with the professional supervision of interests of the greatest possible moment to the people, are, as a rule, men of learning and abil- ity ; aye, and integrity ; notwithstanding the unpleasant but undesirable fact, that as in all flocks, there are black sheep.
It must be borne in mind that this, in the most emphatic degree, is an age of strenuous effort ; that competition is rife in every field of en-
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deavor; that the profession of the law is being invaded by too many per- sons ambitious of legal and forensic fame, some of whom are lacking in the qualities essential to success, yet, all things considered, the reason- ably reflective will conclude that the profession of the law, regardless of the flippantly expressed opinions of the unthinking to the contrary, furnishes as large a measure of capacity, integrity and reliability as can be expected to be afforded by men drawn from any of the most approved constituent parts of the civilized people of today.
UPPER PENINSULA CIRCUIT COURTS
The state of Michigan, prior to the adoption of the constitution of 1850, for judicial purposes, was divided into four circuits. The first circuit, by force of the statute of 1846, embraced the counties of Wayne, Monroe, Macomb, LaPeer, St. Clair, Mackinaw and Chippewa, When this statute was enacted, the Upper Peninsula had but two organized counties : those of Mackinaw and Chippewa. The statute referred to provided that two terms of the circuit court should be held in each of the counties annually ; but further provided that the second term might be omitted in some of the counties, among which were those of Macki- naw and Chippewa, unless the sheriff and county clerk of the excepted counties should determine and declare that such second term was nec- essary, in the public interest. It will be seen, therefore, that the labors of the judiciary and of the members of the bar, in that portion of the state known as the Upper Peninsula prior to the adoption of the second state constitution, were limited and few. The organized counties upon the peninsula were judicially served under this statute until the adop- tion of the constitution of 1850.
That constitution as far as respects the Upper Peninsula, provides as follows, according to article XIX :
Sec. 1. The counties of Mackinaw, Chippewa, Delta, Marquette, Schoolcraft, Houghton, Ontonagon, and the islands and territory thereunto attached; the islands of Lakes Superior, Huron, and Michigan, and in Green Bay and the Straits of Mackinaw, and the river Sault Ste. Marie shall constitute a separate judicial district, and be entitled to a district judge and district attorney.
See. 2. The district judge shall be elected by the electors of such district, and shall perforin the same duties and possess the same powers as a circuit judge in his circuit, and shall hold his office for the same period.
Sec. 3. The district attorney shall be elected every two years by the electors of the distriet, and shall perform the duties of prosecuting attorney throughout the en- tire district, and may issue warrants for the arrest of offenders in cases of felony, to be proceeded with as shall be prescribed by law.
Sec. 4. Such judicial district shall be entitled at all times to at least one senator, and until entitled to more by its population, it shall have three members of the house of representatives to be apportioned among the several counties by the legislature.
Sec. 5. The legislature may provide for the payment of the district judge a salary not exceeding one thousand ($1.000) dollars a year, and of the district at- torney, not exceeding seven hundred ($700) dollars a year; and may allow extra compensation to the members of the legislature from such territory not exceeding two ($2) dollars a day during any session.
Section 26 of the schedule of the constitution of 1850 provides that the legislature shall have authority, after the expiration of the term of office of the district judge first elected for the Upper Peninsula, to
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abolish said office of district judge and district attorney, or either of them.
Act No. 150 of the session Laws of 1863 abolished the office of dis- trict judge, abolished the judicial district and created the Eleventh judieinl circuit-the circuit including all the territory of the Upper Peninsula-while the office of district attorney, created under the con- stitution of 1850, was abolished by aet 191 of the session Iuws of the year 1865.
Under the provisions of act No. 135 of the year 1851 the district judge was required to hold eight terms of court each year in the dis- triet; two terms in ench of the counties of Mackinaw, Chippewn, On- tonagon and Houghton. Marquette county was at that time attached to Houghton county for judicial purposes; and the latter included the present county of Keweenaw. The county seat of Houghton county was, at the time of the organization of the district court, located at Eagle river, now within the limits of Keweenaw county.
JUDGE DANIEL GOODWIN
The only district judge of the judicial district organized under the constitutional provisions of 1850, was the Hon. Daniel Goodwin, of De- troit, who was the president of the constitutional convention by which the constitution of 1850 was adopted. Judge Goodwin continued to occupy the bench of the district court of the Upper Peninsula until the court was abolished in the year 1863, and subsequently was elected judge of the Eleventh judicial circuit, created by the act of 1863. He served as circuit judge of the Eleventh judicial cirenit until the year 1881, so that the venerable judge wore the ermine of the Upper Penin- sula for a period of thirty years; from the inception of the district court until the year last mentioned. During his incumbency of the circuit judgeship, the official title of Judge Goodwin was attacked; the claim having been advanced that it was invalid, and that he was in- eligible to the office of circuit judge in this the Eleventh circuit be- cause of non-residence. The judge, being a resident of Detroit, contin- ued to reside in that city during the entire period covered by his serv- ice as district and circuit judge. A proceeding in the nature of a quo warranto information was filed against the judge in the supreme court, at the April term in the year 1871. The court held that Judge Goodwin's title to the office was valid, notwithstanding non-residence, and that it is only when a judge actually residing in his circuit removes from it, "that he vacates his office." The case in question is entitled "The People ex rel, Eli P. Royce vs. Daniel Goodwin; Twenty-two (22) Michigan, page four hundred ninety-six (496).
The writer of this sketch would fail in duty to the memory of a most excellent gentleman, did he pass without further comment than is contained in the recital of mere incidents, an occasion that presents the opportunity to place upon a record which may be scanned by many eyes, his estimate of the character of a just and pure-minded judge.
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HON. DANIEL GOODWIN
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Having had occasion during a few of the last years of Judge Good- win's administration of the law within the Eleventh judicial circuit to practice in his courts, the impression became deep-seated, as a result of observation and personal experience in the trial of causes before this even-handed jurist, that no state in the union, no country within the limits of civilization, was ever better, more justly and more equitably served upon its bench, than Michigan and the Eleventh circuit while Judge Goodwin presided in the courts of the several comties within that circuit. His temper was eminently judicial. Patient ahnost to a fault, he was never known to become irascible, hasty or testy. Counsel was fairly and patiently heard; litigants justly treated, and the public good always conserved by Judge Goodwin during the long years of his honorable serviee.
JUDGE JOSEPH H. STEERE
The Eleventh judicial cirenit, the first cirenit created on the Upper Peninsula, has had since its creation but two judges, Hon, Daniel Good- win and the present incumbent, Hon. Joseph H. Steere. As herein- before stated, the circuit was created in the year 1863 and the circuit court took the place of the district court on the first day of January, 1864; so that the Eleventh cirenit has now entered upon its forty-eighth year; and its second judge is still in service on its bench. Judge Good- win's service on the bench of the Eleventh eircuit covered seventeen years, and Judge Steere has now been serving in the neighborhood of thirty years. This is a time-record, it is believed, nnexcelled in the history of any other cirenit in Michigan.
Hon. Joseph H. Steere, when elevated to the bench, was for that dignity a very young man. He probably had not yet reached his thir- tieth year, and, resultingly, his practice at the bar had been limited; but, notwithstanding that fact, he has made one of the most successful judicial officers that Michigan has had during its entire history. His excellent legal equipment at the outset ; his extensive reading, his indus- trious habits, his close application, all stood him in good stead and con- tributed with the aid of a judicial temper, marked by his unvarying patience and courtesy, to win his noted success. His affability off and on the bench, made it a pleasure to practice in his court. In an ex- tended experience at the bar, the writer has appeared in many of the state courts, not only of Michigan but of other states, and in the federal cireuit court, district court and circuit court of appeals; has met dur- ing that experience a large number of judges, state and federal, and has transacted business in their courts, including that of President Taft when he was presiding justice of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit; and, in the light of that experience, he is prepared to say that no one among these judicial officers excelled in the happy faculty of patient judicial temper the Hon. Joseph HI. Steere. It fol- lows, and goes without saying, that he has achieved a noted success upon the bench. Such men as he can best serve the public interest in presiding in our courts of justice.
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TWELFTH CIRCUIT JUDGES
By act No. 28 session Laws of the year 1865, the Twelfth judicial circuit was created, comprising the counties of Ontonagon, Houghton, Keweenaw and Marquette. The present county of Baraga was, at the time of the creation of the Twelfth judicial circuit, part of the county of Houghton, and most of the present county of Iron, as well as a por- tion of Dickinson county, was then included in the territory of Mar- quette county. The last mentioned act provided that on and after the 10th day of March, in the year 1865, the counties mentioned should constitute the Twelfth judicial circuit. The aet provided for the hold- ing of a judicial election on the first Monday in April, 1865, and that the judge thereat elected should hold office commencing on the twenty- eighth day of May, 1865, and ending on the first day of January, 1870. At that election, Clarence E. Eddie was elected circuit judge of the Twelfth circuit. Judge Eddie was at the time of his election a resi- dent of Houghton and had been in the region but a few years; and at the time of his election, he was engaged in the practice of law in part- nership with the late J. A. Hubbell, who represented the old Ninth dis- trict in congress for several terms. Judge Eddie held the office of judge of the Twelfth circuit until the carly part of the year 1869, when he died. though yet a comparatively young man.
At the following judicial election in April. 1869. James O'Grady was elected and filled the bench of this circuit until the first day of January, 1876, when he was sneceeded by William D. Williams. James O'Grady came to the Michigan copper region from Marquette, at the close of the year 1866, and practiced law part of the time, being one of the firm of Hubbell & O'Grady. He had been in practice in Mar- quette for two years when he established himself in Houghton. He was a resident of New York when he established himself in Marquette, in the later portion of the year 1863. He was active as a member of the committee which, early after the opening of the war of the rebellion, organized the body of troops for field services popularly known as the "Irish Brigade." Judge O'Grady took the field with the brigade, as a major in one of its regiments. He was a Democrat in politics, and in common with a number of others of his political views, fell under the displeasure of the great war secretary, Edwin M. Stanton, who, lacking faith in the loyalty of the Democratic officers serving in the army, compelled a number of them to resign, among whom was Major O'Grady. It was after this army experience that he moved to Mar- quette. He was by birth a Vermonter, a man of considerable ability, and especially dignified in manner and in bearing. He was a good judge; something of a martinet, however, and especially severe upon persons convicted of crime in his court. He died at Houghton in the year 1879.
THE PRESENT FOUR CIRCUITS
Act No. 32 of the session Laws of the year 1861 reorganized the Eleventh and Twelfth circuits, and created a new circuit which was
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designated as the Twenty-fifth judicial cireuit. The Twenty-fifth ju- dicial circuit consisted of Marquette, Delta and Menominee counties. It included all of the territory now known as Marquette county. and also the principal part of the present county of Iron, and a portion of the county of Dickinson. The counties of Ontonagon, Houghton, Ke- weenaw, Baraga and Isle Royale constituted the Twelfth circuit under this act. Isle Royale had but a short time before been organized into a separate county. Prior to its county organization, Isle Royale was at- tached to Houghton county for judicial purposes. The Eleventh cir- cuit, under the same act, consisted of Chippewa, Mackinaw, Manitou and Schooleraft counties. Mackinaw county has since been detached from the Eleventh circuit and now forms part of the Northern cirenit of the Lower Peninsula, the Thirty-third circuit. (See Act 110, Pub- lic Acts 1891.)
Since and by act No. 65 of the year 1891, the Thirty-second judicial circuit was organized, and it was niade to consist of the new county of Gogebic and the county of Ontonagon, which, by the act, was detached from the Twelfth circuit to form part of the new one. Act No. 32 of the year 1881 provided that no person should be eligible to the office of circuit judge in either the Eleventh. Twelfth or Twenty-fifth judicial circuit who had not resided within the circuit for thirty days prior to his election. This provision as to resident's qualification was inserted in the aet with a view of dissipating a considerable dissatisfaction which had existed among members of the bar on account of importation, so to speak, of judges to serve on the bench in the various circuits of the Upper Peninsula.
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