USA > Michigan > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph County, Michigan; Volume I > Part 25
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The county's contributions to Battery F were as follows :
White Pigeon-Junior First Lieutenant Norman S. Andrews, mustered out; Sergeant George W. Nash, mustered out; Corporal Charles A. Sweet, re-enlisted and mustered out; John Miller, L. S. Ellis and Charles Stevenson, mustered out; Charles Swan, died of disease.
Constantine-Wagoner Lyman Irwin, mustered out; Andrew Almy, Samuel Brandall, James Cook, Justus Miller, Frederick Smith and Andrew Weatherwax, re-enlisted and mustered out; Henry F. Beecher, discharged for disability.
Lockport-James Honts, George Honts, Adam Miller and Hi- ram Millard, re-enlisted and mustered out; James Wheeler, dis- charged for disability; Alonzo Westcott, Edgar W. Ensign and William A. Ensign, mustered out.
Colon-John J. VanHorst and Abner J. VanHorst, dis- charged for disability; John B. Winchell, mustered out.
The following townships were represented in Battery G:
White Pigeon-Corporal Adam V. Thompson, mustered out; Corporal James McElroy, re-enlisted in regular army; George W. Brown, John Kietlin, Fred Kleifish, John Myer, James Cloonan, John Huff and Peter Snook, mustered out.
Nottawa-Joshua C. Goodrich, discharged for disability, and Julius A. Goodrich, mustered out.
Constantine-Corporal Jonathan G. Waltham, discharged; Corporal Elisha Moyer, discharged and enlisted in regular army ; Jacob R. Ackerman, transferred to the regular army; Thomas M. Curtis, Michael Loughran, and Henry L. Beecher, discharged for disability.
Sturgis-John Allen and Eugene S. Munger, mustered out.
Mottville-John Koon; Hiram L. Hartman, died November 20, 1864.
Battery Fourteen made the following draft upon St. Joseph county :
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Flowerfield township-John S. Bullock, Christian Motler, William H. Fry, Missouri Fetteral, Thomas Hazen, Aaron Hick- enburg, Yost Kern, Jacob Kern, Emanual Kline, John Markle, Reuben Shy and Peter T. Youalls, mustered out; William Jones, enlisted in the regular army.
White Pigeon-Charles Ackerman, Lorenzo C. Cooper, Henry M. Ellis, Henry Fitch, John Hill, Daniel Swartz and George A. Shoefelter, mustered out; John G. Bronson, Seventy- eighth New York Infantry, veteran reserve corps.
OTHER MILITARY BRANCHES.
St. Joseph county boys were represented in every regiment of Michigan cavalry from the First to the Eleventh, Mendon and Fawn River townships contributing especially large contingents to the Ninth. Fawn River, Constantine and Mendon also sent a number of troops to join the One Hundred and Second U. S. Col- ored regiment, and the First Michigan Sharpshooters of the county came from Constantine, Mendon, Lockport, Mottville and Fabius townships, while the few who entered the U. S. navy were supplied by Sturgis, Leonidas and Park.
THE COUNTY'S PART IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
Company K, of the Thirty-third Michigan Volunteer Infantry, embraced nearly all those who served in the Spanish-American war from St. Joseph county. This company was in the United States service about four months in all, was largely made up of St. Joseph county boys and was known as the St. Joseph County Volunteers. It was organized in Three Rivers in May, 1898, and its officers were as follows: Captain, Charles P. Wheeler, Three Rivers ; first lieutenant, Wade L. Swartwout, Three Rivers; second lieutenant, William F. Pack, Centerville; quartermaster sergeant, James McJury, Three Rivers; sergeants-(first) Willard King, Three Rivers, (second) Louis Evans, Three Rivers, (third) Charles Hitchcock. White Pigeon, (fourth) Walter C. Jones, Marcellus, and (fifth) Frank E. Davey, Constantine; corporals-Ernest J. Stilwell, Constantine, Sherman L. Culbertson, Centerville, Barton C. Nottingham, Mar- cellus, Charles Slater, Mendon, Charles R. Arner, Three Rivers, and
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Jesse L. Dockstader, Centerville; artificer, Ross Appleman, Men- don ; wagoner, Harmon Legg, Three Rivers.
The list of privates from the county of St. Joseph, when the company was first organized, was as follows: Three Rivers- Charles S. Boyer, William H. Hartgrove, John W. Hartgrove, Fred L. Kaiser, Frederick A. Kramb, Albert Machalwaska, Warren A. Mowrer, Austin C. Ruggles, Clarence H. Ruggles, Harvey J. Rug- gles, Burney E. Reed, George M. Trickey and Otis D. Weinberg.
Mendon-William E. Brown, Michael Butcher, William A. Butcher, Clarence J. Hatch, Frank E. Mero, John C. McGowan, Marion A. Young, Harry M. Younglove, George H. White and Joel Auton.
Centerville-August C. Greenburg, Joseph L. Kirby, Amos I. Lincoln, Charles A. Loncoln and Ira R. Price.
Constantine-L. C. Avery, Bert W. Evans, Henry D. Rogers and Edward E. Wortinger.
Moore Park-Albert Benfer, Burton E. Gilman, Clyde R. Schoonmaker and Eugene P. Spangler.
White Pigeon-Harry B. Brown, Christian W. Wolgamwood, Orbey L. Wright.
Burr Oak-Bertrand I. Downs, Arthur B. Prouty and Arden R. Seymore.
Howardsville-Arthur G. Bennett and Guy H. Pixley.
Colon-Bennie Clay and John H. Gray.
Parkville-Elijah D. Heimbach.
The Company left Three Rivers on the sixteenth day of May, 1898, eighty-four strong. Thousands of people came to see the boys bid good-by to home and friends and start off to war. Flags were floating, all hearts were sad, music was furnished by the Three Rivers cornet band, the martial band and Constantine's martial band, and these organizations, together with members of the Grand Army of the Republic, Sons of Veterans, and citizens, marched with the soldiers to the Michigan Central depot where Judge Pealer, Rev. McPherson, M. H. Bumphrey and others made short addresses to the boys, to which Captain Wheeler responded in a few well-chosen words. Patriotic songs were sung by a male quartette. At 11:40
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the company left for Island Lake, amid an outburst of cheers and sobs characteristic of such an occasion only. At Jackson, dinner was furnished at the hotel by the ladies of Three Rivers.
The following from St. Joseph county joined Company K as re- cruits after the company had gone to the front: Ray W. Nihart, Mendon; Wally Barringer, Frank M. Boyer, Lewis E. Parker and Samuel Gemberling, Three Rivers; George F. Belote, William I. Fairman and Frank Shalla, Centerville.
John Hartgrove and James McJury of Three Rivers, Henry D. Rogers of Constantine and Sherman L. Culbertson of Centerville, died of disease before the company was mustered out.
The Thirty-third Michigan, of which Company K was a part, was sent forward to Camp Alger, Virginia, and was brigaded with the Thirty-fourth Michigan and Ninth Massachusetts regiments, of which General Henry M. Duffield, of Detroit, had command. This brigade was assigned to General Bate's division of the Fifth Army Corps, commanded by General William I. Shafter, and on June 23rd the St. Joseph boys steamed out into the ocean from Chesapeake bay for Cuba, landing at Siboney and disembarking by means of life- boats. The descent from the ship was made on ladders, each soldier being loaded to his utmost with equipments and ammunition. This was slow work, the waves rolled five feet high and it was with diffi- culty the life-boats were landed. Some of the men would jump into the boat just as it went into a trough of the sea and would conse- quently land all in a heap in the bottom of the boat, or upon the heads of their comrades. The boats were cut adrift and towed ashore by steam launches, the landing was made in the surf-foam and most of the men got soaked and were covered with sand and grit. After the landing, the men were marched to their camping ground. A multitude of the people met them; on either side of the marching column were crowds of half starved natives, ragged and shoeless, and black as coal. They were physically poor, with the exception of large stomachs caused by drinking cocoanut milk, which, since the devastation by the Spaniards, had been their only sustenance.
On June 30th and July 2nd, the Thirty-third took part in the af- fair near Aguadores, where the men were under fire and two were killed and one mortally wounded. All were exposed to diseases of the climate and the hardships of the camp until August 15th, when they were all ordered to return to the states. Some were sick in the hospitals and unable to return until later.
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PHILIPPINE SOLDIERS.
The following named served in the Philippines: Charles S. Boyer served in the Thirtieth United States Infantry.
L. C. Avery was in Company E, Thirty-fourth United States In- fantry, having enlisted to serve during the insurrection; continued in this service for about twenty-one months and afterward enlisted in the Navy and served on the training ship, torpedo boats and the battleship "Wisconsin," going around the world and seeing the Rus- sian vessels after they were defeated.
Otis D. Weinberg served in the Thirtieth United States Infantry for two years and Eugene P. Spangler in the same command.
General Fred M. Case of Three Rivers was inspector general of the state troops during Governor Pingree's administration, but saw no service in the field.
SOLDIERS OF WARS AND REGULAR ARMY.
Frank D. Baldwin was born on Nottawa prairie, June 26, 1842. His father died when Frank was but a small boy, and the widow married Jeriel R. Powers, who was a good citizen and a member of the Masonic Order.
Frank enlisted in Constantine, where he then lived, became a second lieutenant, September 19, 1861, and was mustered out on No- vember 22d. He became first lieutenant in the Nineteenth Michigan Infantry August 12, 1862; captain, January 23, 1864, and was hon- orably mustered out June 10, 1865. He was transferred to the Nine- teenth Regular Infantry and commissioned second lieutenant Feb- ruary 23, 1866, and first lieutenant May 10, 1866, and was trans- ferred to the Thirty-seventh Infantry, September 21st; transferred to the Fifth Infantry May 19, 1869, and commissioned captain March 20, 1879, and major April 26, 1898; transferred to Third In- fantry November 3, 1899, and attained the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Fourth Infantry, December 18, 1899. He was trans- ferred to the First Infantry, July 25, 1901, and rose to colonel in the Twenty-seventh Infantry on July 26th and brigadier general June 9, 1902, retiring, after his distinguished service, June 26, 1906. The general is now enjoying the laurels he won on many hard fought fields, in the Civil war, the Indian wars, the Spanish and Philippine wars. He resides at Boulder, Colorado, near the foot- hills of the Rockies, and in looking to the west he can see the snow-
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capped mountain peaks, and to the east are spread out the great plains of Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas; and on and on over the prairies, through Illinois to Chicago, he can gaze in his imagina- tion and think of the part he played in the great struggles to make this grand country, and rejoice in the honors won. The people of St. Joseph county have followed him and rejoiced with him over these successes, and claim him as a son.
Harry H. Bandholtz is another son of St. Joseph county who has made good, and of whom the people are justly proud; they delight to do him honor because he has reflected so much credit upon his county and state. He was born in Constantine, December 18, 1864; entered the Military Academy July 1, 1886, and became a second lieutenant in the Sixth Infantry, June 12, 1890; first lieutenant in the Twenty-fourth Infantry, February 12, 1897, and was trans- ferred to the Seventh Infantry, March 2, 1892; was made a captain in the Second Infantry, November 15, 1899, in the United States regular service. He was also made a major in the Thirty- fifth Michigan Infantry, August 6, 1898, and was honorably mus- tered out, March 31, 1899. He is now in the regular service and has been given responsible and honorable positions in the Philippines. His father was a harness-maker in Constantine, and the family was of limited means, but of real worth. They were people of genuine character. Harry has advanced step by step, unaided, to the high rank which he has attained, but higher positions still await him. We will watch him and see him climb, and cheer him on and on and share in the glory which he will win.
CHAPTER XII. THE BENCH AND THE BAR. BY HON. R. R. PEALER.
SUPREME COURT OF MICHIGAN-JUDGE WOODWARD-DIVISION OF LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIAL-THE STATE SUPREME COURT- JUDGE RANSOM-CONSTITUTED A SEPARATE BODY-CIRCUIT COURT JUDGES-JUDGE OSBORN-PROBATE COURT JUDGES- JUDGE BARRY-JUDGE CROSS-PIONEER PROBATE MATTERS- FIRST REGULAR COURT ROOM-THE OLD COUNTY COURT -- FIRST LAWYER ADMITTED TO BAR-PERSONNEL OF PIONEER LAWYERS-JUDGE SEVERENS-TALCOTT C. CARPENTER-JUDGE KEIGHTLEY-JUDGE PEALER-THE ANDREWS FAMILY-AT- TORNEYS OF 1877-LAWYERS OF TO-DAY.
St. Joseph county is in the sixth judicial circuit of the United States, over which presides John M. Harlan, of Kentucky, asso- ciate justice of the national supreme court. The U. S. circuit judges for Michigan are Henry F. Severens, of Kalamazoo, who has served since March, 1900, and for the previous four years occupied the district bench of western Michigan, and Loyal E. Knappen, of Grand Rapids, formerly district judge. These are also members of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the sixth circuit. The county is under the jurisdiction of the United States district court for the western district of Michigan, whose presiding judge is Arthur C. Denison, of Grand Rapids, one of the leading members of the bar of that city for nearly twenty years before his eleva- tion to the bench.
SUPREME COURT OF MICHIGAN.
The history of the supreme court of Michigan commences with the creation of the territory, and from 1805 to 1823 the Presi-
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dent of the United States appointed the judges, three in number. Each presided over his assigned district, with two laymen as his associates, and the entire body formed the territorial legislature, of which the governor was chairman, ex-officio. In those days it was impossible to make any nice distinctions between the legis- lative and judicial functions of government. The districts were designated as Detroit, Erie and Huron, the territory now included in St. Joseph county being embraced in the first named. These supreme court judges had jurisdiction over land cases, capital offenses, and civil matters in which the amount involved was at least two hundred dollars. Inferior courts were organized for the transaction of minor civil business.
JUDGE WOODWARD.
President Jefferson appointed as the first judges of Michigan's supreme court, Augustus B. Woodward, Samuel Huntington and Frederick Bates, the governor being General William Hull (of "Hull's surrender" fame). Judge Huntington, one of the judges of Ohio's first supreme court, declined the honor, and John Griffin was appointed in his place. Judge Woodward, of Detroit, who was the nearest related to the history of St. Joseph county, as stated in Reed's "Bench and Bar of Michigan," "was in many respects a remarkable character-original certainly. He was possessed of considerable ability and a great deal of intellectual force. He had a liberal knowledge of the law, considerable learn- ing and more pedantry. He was a strange compound, frequently stubborn and wrong headed, generally audacious and capricious. He was responsible for the plat of Detroit, which was laid out on a scale of magnificence quite out of harmony with the times and the surroundings. Broad avenues, starting from a common center, which he styled the Circus Maximus, were projecting far into the woods and located by the aid of astronomical instruments. Al- though his scheme as a whole was impracticable, the visitor to Detroit as it stands today will find a city more beautiful for the nightly vigils and consultations of the heavenly bodies by the first chief justice, when he planned and platted the City of the Straits. Another marvelous creation of his mind was the Catho- lepistemiad, incorporated in 1817 with an array of professorships bearing unpronounceable Greek and Latin titles, governed by a president, vice president and other officials. While you smile at
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the conceit and vagaries of the man whose peculiar genius is shadowed by this dream, do not fail to remember that the Catho- lepistemiad of the eccentric chief justice has become the University of Michigan, to which so many lawyers of the state are debtors.
"Judge Woodward quarreled with every member of the court whom he could not control. His henchman was Judge Griffin, and it was not unusual to witness a deadlock in matters of legislation between Woodward and Griffin on one side and Governor Hull and Judge Bates on the other. The quarrels were frequent and unseemly; so that Judge Bates, a man of high character and honorable purpose, resigned after two years of service and moved to St. Louis, where he won distinction at the bar. James Wetherell was appointed to succeed Bates. He was a good lawyer, an up- right judge. Firm in his convictions, he could not be influenced by another to favor legislation or a judicial decision which his conscience did not approve. He remained a member of the court to the end of the first epoch (ending 1823), and was re-appointed under the second (1824-35)." With the latter year ended the territorial era.
DIVISION OF LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIAL.
In March, 1823, Congress passed a law dividing the legisla- tive and judicial functions of the territorial government, vesting the former in the governor and a council of nine citizens appointed by the president from a list of eighteen chosen by popular elec- tion. By the same law the term of judges of the supreme court was reduced from six to four years, and their powers extended to equity cases. On the 1st of February all the offices in the terri- tory were vacated, that the new code of laws might be put to a fair test, and James Witherell (chief justice), Solomon Sibley and John Hunt organized themselves into the supreme court. Solomon Sibley is described as "one of the wisest and best men that ever lived in Michigan," and served from 1824 to 1837. Justice Witherell remained on the bench until 1828, when he was ap- pointed secretary of the territory and was succeeded by William Woodbridge, of Connecticut, who had been an incumbent of that position for fourteen years (under original appointment from President Madison). Judge Hunt, the third member of the first supreme court under the new civic dispensation, died in 1827, and was succeeded by Henry Chipman, who served until 1832. Judge Woodbridge also retired the same year.
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A synopsis of the personnel of the Michigan supreme court during territorial times shows that both Augustus B. Woodward and John Wilkins served from 1805 to 1823; Frederick Bates from 1805 to 1807, and James Witherell from 1808 to 1823. The last named, as has been seen, was appointed chief justice upon the re- organization of the civil and judicial departments of the govern- ment in 1823-4, and served until his appointment as secretary of the territory in 1828. Solomon Sibley remained on the supreme bench from 1824 to 1837, serving as chief justice from 1827. Judge Hunt was the only justice to die in office during this epoch, and his successor, Henry Chipman, was on the bench from 1827 to 1832. William Woodbridge, who succeeded Judge Witherell, was supreme justice from 1828 to 1832. George Morell and Ross Wilkins were associate justices under Judge Sibley from 1832 to 1837.
THE STATE SUPREME COURT.
The enabling act for the admission of Michigan as a state was approved by congress June 15, 1836, but on account of the disagreements with Ohio over the southern boundary of the pro- posed state, President Van Buren's official signature was not affixed to the document until January, 1837. Under the constitu- tion adopted in 1835, the first supreme court of the state, which was appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate, con- sisted of William A. Fletcher, chief justice, and George Morell and Epaphroditus Ransom, associates. To Judge Ransom was assigned the circuit comprising the seven counties which embraced the present territory of St. Joseph county. The state constitution retained the territorial provision providing for two assistants to the circuit judge in each county, who were to be elected for four years and were not required to have been admitted to the bar. The state constitution also provided for a probate court, four justices of the peace for each township, and as many other courts as the legislature might establish. The people certainly had no grounds of complaint as to the elasticity of that fundamental instrument in providing them legal redress.
The original legislative council of the territory established supreme, circuit and probate courts. Until October 29, 1829, the territory included in the present county was attached to Lenawee county for judicial purposes; but on that date the territorial council gave St. Joseph county a political entity and constituted
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it the ninth judicial district. On the fourth of the following November it also ordered a circuit court to convene at the tavern of Asahel Savery, White Pigeon prairie, on the third Tuesday of August, 1830. The council further authorized a county court to be held on the first Tuesday of June and December ; but this body was abolished in April, 1833, its jurisdiction being assumed by the circuit court, consisting, as noted, of a circuit judge (one of the associate justices of the supreme court) and two citizens chosen by popular vote.
Judge Fletcher resigned his seat on the supreme bench in 1842, and Judge Morell succeeded him as chief justice. Daniel Goodwin followed Judge Morell, but returned to private practice in 1846 and was later judge of the Upper Peninsula. His entire service on the bench covered about thirty years.
JUDGE RANSOM.
Judge Ransom, better known to the early lawyers and liti- gants of St. Joseph county, was a large, dignified, but genial man- the opposite of Judge Goodwin, who was small, quiet and even reserved. After becoming somewhat prominent in the law and politics of Vermont, Judge Ransom had settled in Kalamazoo three years before he ascended the bench. No one has ever thrown a slur on his integrity, but it is a settled verdict that his tastes and qualifications were better adapted for advancement in civic than in judicial affairs. He was an earnest Democrat, a popular and a respectable citizen of fair ability, and in 1847 his party elected him governor of Michigan. On New Year's day, 1848, before the end of his second judicial term, he resigned from the supreme bench to become chief executive of the state. Judge Ransom made a good governor, but unsuccessfully aspired to the United States senate.
The constitution of 1835 provided for a chancery court, with one chancellor, which was abolished in 1847 and the business transferred to the circuit courts. In that year, the county court was re-established, but again abolished in 1853. In the days of the chancery court, St. Joseph county was in the third chancery district and third circuit. The constitution of 1850 vested the judicial power in one supreme court, a circuit court, probate courts and justices of the peace.
Under the constitution of 1850 the state was divided into eight judicial circuits, whose judges were elected for terms of
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six years and constituted the supreme court of Michigan. Appeals from these circuits were carried to the supreme court. Five of the eight judges thus elected were carried over from service under the 1835 constitution, viz .: Warner Wing, Sanford M. Green, Charles Wiley Whipple, Abner Pratt and George Martin. The other three were Samuel Townsend Douglass, John Skinner Goodrich and David Johnson. Judge Whipple was secretary of the constitutional convention of 1835 and succeeded Judge Ran- som as chief justice when he resigned to become governor in 1848. He died in 1855 and Nathaniel Bacon was appointed in his place.
CONSTITUTED A SEPARATE BODY.
With the organization of the Republican party in 1856 and its victory throughout Michigan in the elections of 1857, it fol- lowed that the state supreme court was constituted a separate body, comprising four judges elected by the people. The justices chosen, under the authority granted by the constitution to es- tablish necessary courts, were George Martin, Randolph Manning, Isaac P. Christiancy and James V. Campbell, the first named be- ing chosen chief justice. The independent supreme court was organized January 1, 1858, the term of eight years being so ar- ranged that one judge shall retire at the end of one term of two years. Originally, the chief justice was designated by the voters, but in 1867 the choice was determined by the member of the court whose term should soonest expire. In 1887 the number of judges was increased to five and the term fixed at ten years. Since 1857 the state supreme court judges have not been required to sit in the circuits.
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