History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 43

Author: Edwards, Lewis C
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1742

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The next medical society I remember of attending was called the Southeast Nebraska Medical Society. It was supposed to include some three or four counties in this corner of the state. Dr. A. B. Newkirk being its organizer. This was in the year 1883. I remember on this occasion that efforts were made to compel a woman doctor to cease practice on the grounds that she was not registered. An attorney was employed to prose- cute the case, but the case never came to trial. It was ridiculed out of court through newspaper influences, largely on account of the defendant being a woman.

Spasmodic efforts were made from time to time to start and maintain medical societies, but these failed for one reason or another, until the year of 1903, when there was organized in Falls City the Richardson County Medical Society in affiliation with the State Medical Association. The state association, realizing the transient and unstable character of local and

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county societies over the state, deemed it advisable to take the county asso- ciations under its wing. This was true, not only of Nebraska, but of all of the states of the union. The state associations were responsible to and in affiliation with the American Medical Association, the great national body of the United States, so that a member gaining admission to a county med- ical society automatically became a member of the state association and the national body.

The charter members of the Richardson County Medical Society at the time of its organization were the following: Drs. J. A. Waggener, .\. Kellar, F. C. Wiser, I. C. Sutton, A. E. Burgher, R. G. Henderson, Howard Marsh, W. S. East, F. A. Kellar, C. T. Burchard, I. N. Williamson, I. M. Houston, W. H. Kerr, D. D. Leeper, Hannah C. Fleming, M. L. Wilson and J. E. Waller. Those subsequently elected to membership are the fol- lowing : Drs. J. R. Morris, W. E. Shook, J. M. Willis, Clinton Day, G. M. Andrews, Chester A. Brink, C. C. Keeler, Edward C. Wittwer, A. W. Mont- gomery, G. W. Reneker, Thomas, S. A. VanOsdel, G. G. Gandy, E. R. Hays, W. R. Boose and W. M. Trotter.

REORGANIZATION OF THE RICHARDSON COUNTY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

Up to the spring of 1910 some undesirable members had gained admis- sion to the society, which caused some disaffection and threatened its dis- ruption. It was deemed best to permit the society to die a natural death from nonpayment of dues, thus forfeiting its charter, with the view of reorganizing under a new charter at some future time. This was done under a new charter on April 9, 1912, at a meeting held in Humboldt in the office of Drs. Waggener & Waggener, with the following as its charter members : Dr. J. A. Waggener, president and delegate; Dr. A. Kellar, vice- president : Dr. W. E. Shook, secretary and treasurer; Dr. C. T. Burchard. Dr. M. L. Wilson, Dr. W. R. Waggener, Dr. C. A. Brink and Dr. A. W. Montgomery, censors.

In our previous experiences in conducting medical societies, regular licensure had been the only test for eligibility. Realizing that this test proved inadequate to the vitality of this society, it was resolved that in conducting the society in the future, we would make character, integrity and ethics the test as to eligibility, and the censors were duly instructed to approve applications only on the applicants who measured up to these re- quirements. The result is that the cream of the profession has representa- tion in this present society. The following members have since been added :

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Drs. R. W. Fouts, J. T. Waggoner, A. J. Smith, G. G. Gandy, H. D. Burchard, C. L. Hustad, C. E. Novak, G. A. Ruetter, Leroy Peterson. E. R. Hays, Hurka, H. R. Miner, J. P. Bishop, J. F. Kelly, Lee Cowan, G. W. Reneker and C. P. Fordyce. The present official personnel is as fol- lows: Dr. R. W. Fouts, president ; Dr. E. R. Hays, vice-president ; Dr. S. D. Cowan, secretary and treasurer; Dr. A. W. Montgomery, Dr. W. R. Waggoner and Dr. C. T. Burchard, censors.

THIE MEDICAL PROFESSION AND THE GREAT WORLD WAR.

This chronicle opens with reference to the Civil War, the great conflict between the North and the South, which rent the nation in twain, its line of demarcation being Mason ond Dixon's line, and which created a breach that has taken three score of years to bridge. The fates decree that this history will close with reference to another war more terrible than any of the wars which have preceded it, a war in which have been utilized craft on the sea, under the sea and above the sea ; and on land, engines of destruc- tion discharging not only shot and shell but poisonous and blinding gases which have prostituted science and taxed the very demons of hell to devise. This colossal war involves the great nations of two hemispheres, arrayed as belligerents.

The former war, during its prosecution, made great drafts upon the medical and surgical talent of this, the new world, and the profession nobly responded. Today the world is making huger drafts on the profession of all the nations involved, for Europe has been unequal to the exigency. The deficiencies to some extent have heretofore been supplied by this country, and it has been left to America ingenuity to devise a treatment for wounds in which chlorinated lime has been the basic antiseptic. I refer to the cele- brated Dakin-Carroll treatment, adopted so far as I know by all the bellig- erents. At the present time Washington calls for thirty thousand surgeons. Up to this time the United States has contributed not more than one-third of its quota and it is deemed quite possible that the draft or conscription of doctors may be necessary to supply the remainder. Every city, town and hamlet has felt the effect of this drain, and a number of physicians of this county and society have signified their desire and intention of doing thi- service. Drs. H. R. Minor, S. D. Cowan and O. F. Lang have received com- missions and will go to France. Doctor Minor's wife, who is a trained nurse, will accompany him to France and serve in the American hospitals. It must be remembered that the doctors entering the hospital and marine

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service must be sound physically and pass a more or less rigid medical exam -. ination. He must leave his home ties, his business and his otherwise pleasant pursuits to take on a duty severe in its requirements and extremely hazardous in its conduct, requiring the most patriotic self-sacrifice and arduous work. There is no doubt but the American surgeon will respond to the call and, when this great, sanguinary conflict shall have ceased, when the final curtain is dropped upon the last tragic act and when the smoke has cleared away, I may say with the utmost confidence that the American surgeon will have conducted himself with dignity, with good American common sense, with kindness and mercy to his patients, and that he will have proven himself the peer of any of his European brothers. The world will adorn him with the stamp of its approval and, if one may indulge in imagination or specula- tion. He whom we are taught to believe is omnipotent and guideth all things, we feel sure, will direct His recording angel in a spirit of benedic- tion to write opposite every name. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

ABEL D. KIRK, FIRST NEWSPAPER MAN IN RICHARDSON COUNTY AND ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF ARCHER.

CHRISTIAN BORST, EARLY SETTLER AND FIRST COUNTY JUDGE.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE BENCH AND BAR.

The task of writing a chapter on the bench and bar of Richardson county is one best suited to an individual reared in the atmosphere of law offices and the courts. For one who is not versed in legal lore and phrase- ology, to attempt to give an authentic and readable history of the bench and bar is an appalling task and one from which the writer shrinks. However, the task has to be accomplished and will necessarily be done by a layman because of the fact that the talented and able attorney who had been selected for the task and who would have written a brilliant and enter- taining chapter upon this very important department of the county's history, was called to the bosom of his Creator some months since. With due apologies to the members of the bar of Richardson county, the writer will present what facts he has been able to glean from the available records concerning the courts and lawyers of this county.

To the bench and bar, all acting under an oath of office, is confided the solemn and sacred trust and duty of vindicating, enforcing and carrying out the natural, revealed, common and statute laws of the land, which the sages of the law have defined to be the "rules of action, prescribed by a superior power, commanding what is right and prohibiting what is wrong." These rules of action, or law, have for their object the security and welfare of the nation, state and municipality, as well as of society in the aggregate. and the personal and property rights of the individual as a component part of the body politic-the common people. Law is also frequently and aptly defined as "common sense," and in our opinion, springs from the natural equity and conception of right in the innermost consciousness of a normal and well balanced human being, impressed on man by the Creator and finds expression in multitudinous, complex and often intricate rules of action laid down in the law now in force, for our government, which has been built up and taken from the experiences and judgment of the soundest and best minds and hearts of the centuries that have gone before.

However wise, beneficent and just the laws may be. much depends on the application of the law to existing facts of the case on trial and its proper

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enforcement, to prevent a miscarriage of justice. It must be remembered that all officers, from the highest to the lowest, are but human, moved by the same passions and prejudices as other men, and subject to the same liability to err; so, gentle reader, if you would be secure in your full rights under the law, see that the most available men of integrity, capacity, suit- able temperament and sound common sense, be chosen to administer and enforce the law without fear, favor or oppression, always remembering that where the best results are not reached in lawsuits, the failure can be generally traced to the defects or weaknesses of witnesses, juries, attorneys or judges, and not to the laws themselves.

THE BENCII.

When on you the law Places its majestic paw, Whether in innocence or guilt, You are then required to wilt. -Ware.

The "bench" is a designation originally applied to the seat of the judges. when benches, instead of richly upholstered furniture, on which they now recline, was in use; and the term "bench" was applied to the judges collec- tively, as a distinction from the attorneys and counsellors, who are called the "bar." Anciently, all, and now, many of the judges in the nations of the world, were arbitrarily appointed by the king, prince, power or potentate governing the realm and held their office during life or the pleasure of their sovereign ; and even now, in our own democratic republic, all federal judges are appointed by the President. Judges so chosen are naturally more or less subservient to the power that creates them and the common rights of the people are thus greatly endangered; and there have been many instances where they have been grossly and arbitrarily denied.

In this free and enlightened nation, where the judges, or "bench," in all the states are chosen by the ballot of the citizens at their general elec- tions, and, recently, without regard to political consideration or the intrigue of political parties or politicians, the common people are supreme in their ballots and can have an intimate knowledge of the honesty, integrity, capa- bility and temperament of the men whom they elevate to these very im- portant trusts. Few mistakes are made in their selections and when made. the people stand ready to yield them a cheerful, respectful and courteous obedience, while applying the law that governs them, which, of necessity.

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gives them almost autocratic power over their lives, property and liberty, subject to review only by a higher court; and in many instances of discre- tion and weight of evidence, their decision is final and cannot be reviewed on appeal. An ignorant, a dishonest, a revengeful, an impetuous or a par- tisan judge is a menace to the rights and privileges of every citizen and it is a wonder that there are so few instances on record where this autocratic power has been abused, and for this reason there is a general feeling of respect and confidence in the judiciary that makes their duties and positions a pleasant task.

Authentic records bearing upon the early history of the judiciary of Nebraska are most remarkable for their scarcity. It is a comparatively easy matter to establish dates and the leading facts, but details are lacking. Even the early historians of the state seem entirely to have overlooked this branch of the state government and to have failed to avail themselves of the many opportunities at their command for procuring interesting details from the numerous participants in the proceedings of the courts during territorial days.

The organic act providing for the creation of the Territory of Nebraska declared that "The judicial power of said territory shall be vested in a supreme court, district courts, probate courts, and in justices of the peace. The supreme court shall consist of a chief justice and two associate justices, any two of whom shall constitute a quorum, and who shall hold a term at the seat of government of said territory annually, and they shall hold their offices during the period of four years and until their successors shall have been appointed and qualified. The said territory shall be divided into three judicial districts and a district court shall be held in each of said districts by any one of the justices of the supreme court at such times and places as shall be pre- scribed by law, and the said judges shall, after their appointments, respec- tively reside in the districts which shall be assigned them."

In compliance with this section of the organic act President Pierce on June 29, 1854, commissioned Fenner Ferguson chief justice and Edward B. Hardin and James Bradley associate justices of the supreme court. Acting Gov. T. B. Cuming made the assignment of districts provided for in the act. Under this arrangement Chief Justice Ferguson took charge of the first dis- trict comprising the counties of Dodge and Douglas. Judge Hardin presided over the second district, comprising all the territory south of the Platte river, and Judge Bradley took charge of the third district, which embraced Wash- ington and Burt counties.

The supreme court for the territory of Nebraska was organized at Omaha

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on February 10, 1855, the court convening in the hall of the House of Repre- sentatives in the historic old state house which stood on Ninth street between Douglas and Farnum. Chief Justice Ferguson and Justice Hardin were the only members of the court present. Under the authority of the organic act. Experience Estabrook had been appointed by the president as United States attorney for the territory and J. Sterling Morton was delegated to act as clerk of the court. These officers were present in court, but no business was trans- acted beyond adjourning until June, when court convened and the following attorneys were admitted to practice on motion by Mr. Estabrook: O. D. Richardson, A. J. Poppleton, A. J. Hanscom, Silas A. Strickland. L. L. Bowen, A. D. Jones and Samuel E. Rogers. This constituted the only busi- ness transacted at that term of court and no further sittings were held until in June, 1857. From this time until the admission of Nebraska as a state very little of an historic nature relating to the supreme court seems to be in existence.

The chief justices of the territorial supreme court, following Justice Fer- guson, were these, the dates being those on which their terms began. Augus- tus Hall, March 15, 1858; William Pitt Kellogg, May 27, 1861 ; William Kel- logg, May 8, 1865. The associate justices were : Edward R. Hardin, Decem- her 4. 1854: James Bradley, October 25, 1854; Samuel W. Black, 1857; Eleazer Weakley, April 22, 1857; Joseph Miller, April 9, 1859; William E. Lockwood, May 16, 1861 : Joseph E. Streeter, November 18, 1861 ; Elmer S. Dundy, June 22. 1863. The last-named, Judge Elmer S. Dundy, was well known to Richardson county people of the early territorial days and his ter- ritory included what is now Richardson county. When the territorial supreme court passed out of existence by reason of the admission of the state to the Union, the United States district court for Nebraska was created, and Elmer S. Dundy, an associate justice of the supreme court of the territory. was ap- pointed by the president to the position of United States district judge for the district of Nebraska, this territory including all the territory within the con- fines of the newly-created state. Judge Dundy held the position until his death in 1896.

JUDGE ELMER S. DUNDY.

Elmer S. Dundy was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, on March 5. 1830. and died on October 28, 1896, in the state of Nebraska, where he had long been a dominant and useful figure. His forbears came from Germany in the early part of the seventeenth century and settled in eastern Pennsyl- vania and Maryland. The boyhood of Elmer S. Dundy was spent on his

JUDGE ELMER S. DUNDY.

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father's farm in Ohio and in 1850 the family removed to Clearfield county, Pennsylvania. Here young Dundy taught school for a number of terms and became principal of the schools of Clearfield, Pennsylvania. He studied law while teaching and was admitted to the bar of his home county in 1853. He came to Nebraska in 1857 and after remaining at Nebraska City for a short time he took up his residence in Archer, the first county seat of Rich- ardson county. Mr. Dundy removed to the new town of Falls City, when it was laid out and lived there until his death. He served as a member of the Council of the Territorial Assembly in 1859 and was re-elected a member of the Legislature in 1860. He continued to practice his profession at Falls City until 1863, in which year he was appointed associate justice of the supreme court of Nebraska by President Lincoln. His district at that time covered nearly one-half of the organized counties of Nebraska and extended from the Platte river southward to the Kansas state line. Court was held twice each year and during the winter months a session of the entire court was held at Omaha, where the court sat in judgment upon such cases as were appealed or brought on writ of error from the several district courts. Upon Judge Dundy's retirement from the bench he practiced law for a year and was then appointed district judge for the district of Nebraska by Presi- dent Johnson, in May, 1868. He held this office until his death, October 28, 1896. Judge Dundy was married in 1861 to. Mary H. Robertson, of Omaha, and to this union were born four children, E. S., Jr., May, Luna and a daughter, who died in infancy. Mrs. Dundy and her son, Elmer S., reside in New York City. Elmer, or Sciopio Dundy, as he was more familiarly known in Falls City, became the founder of the New York Hippodrome and of Luna Park in New York City and is now deceased.

CIIIEF JUSTICE MASON AND OTHERS.

In the original state constitution, approved by a vote of the people of the territory at an election held on June 2, 1866, it was provided that the supreme court should consist of one chief justice and two associate justices. each of whom was to receive a salary of two thousand dollars per annum. It was also provided that the judges of the supreme court should hold the district courts of the state, and for this purpose the state was divided into three districts, the first district comprising the counties of Richardson, Ne- maha, Otoe, Johnson, Pawnee, Gage, Jefferson, Saline, Fillmore and Nuckolls. At the time the constitution was adopted William A. Little was elected chief justice and George B. Lake and Lorenzo Crounse were elected associate

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justices. Judge Little died before having qualified and Gov. David Butler appointed Oliver P. Mason, of Nebraska City, to succeed him as chief justice.

Oliver P. Mason, Nebraska's first chief justice, came to Nebraska on July 10, 1855. taking up his residence in Nebraska City, which continued to be his home until the fall of 1874. He was born in Madison county. New York, in May, 1829, and lived on a farm in that county until 1852. The following two years were spent in the South in commercial business and he then took up his residence in northwestern Ohio, where he studied law, being admitted to the bar at Norwalk in 1854. He came to Nebraska in the following year and took an active part in public affairs from the time of his arrival in the new country. He was elected to the lower house of the Terri- torial Legislature in 1858 and in 1864 took his seat as a member of the upper house, known as the Council, serving in 1865 and 1866 as president of that body. He was one of the most active members of the committee which framed the first constitution. June 15, 1867, he was appointed chief justice of the supreme court and held that office until January, 1872. After leaving the bench he practiced law until the time of his demise. In the spring of 1874 he moved from Nebraska City to Lincoln and that place continued to be his home until his death, August 18, 1891.

Judge George B. Lake was elected chief justice in 1872 and held that position until a change was made in accordance with the terms of the con- stitution of 1875, which provided that the members whose term next expired should be the chief justice during the last two years of his term.

In 1872 Daniel Gantt and Samuel Maxwell were elected associate jus- tices of the supreme court. Judge Gantt presided over the courts held in the first district and is best remembered by Richardson county people of that decade. He was the father of Amos Gantt, later a well-known member of the Richardson county bar.

The constitution of 1875 did away with the custom which required the judges of the supreme court to preside at the district courts of the state and thereafter they devoted their attention solely to the business of the supreme court. Judge Gantt continued to hold the district courts of the first district, which included Richardson county, until the adoption of the state constitution in 1875. The constitution made a temporary division of the state into judicial districts "until amended or changed by law," creating six districts, the first district comprising the counties of Richardson, John- son, Pawnee, Gage, Jefferson, Saline, Thayer, Clay, Nuckolls and Fillmore. The first judge elected to preside over the first judicial district was Archibald J. Weaver. of Falls City, elected in 1875, re-elected in 1879. and who resigned from the bench in 1883.

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JUDGE ARCHIBALD J. WEAVER.

Judge Weaver came to Nebraska and located in Falls City in 1869 and immediately began the practice of the legal profession. He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1871, and was elected district attorney for the first judicial district in the same year. He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1875 and was elected judge of the district court in that same year, being re-elected in 1879, but resigned in 1883. He was elected a member of the Forty-eighth Congress, and was re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress. He was a man of fine intellect, of great force of character. untiring energy. unimpeachable integrity, possessed of generous impulses and an attractive personality. . \ complete biography of Judge Weaver is given in the last chapter, or biographical section, of this work.

SAMUEL PRESLEY DAVIDSON.

Judge Samuel Presley Davidson, of Tecumseh, was appointed to fill out the unexpired term, upon the resignation of Judge Weaver in 1882. Judge Davidson served until 1883 and then gave way to his successor. . Judge Davidson is one of the most distinguished and able lawyers of Nebraska and has been a resident of the state since 1872. He was born on a farm in Macon county, Illinois, October 8, 1847, and is a descendant of Scotch- Irish ancestry who immigrated from the North of Ireland to the American states after the Revolution, in 1800, and settled in the Carolinas, where his paternal grandfather, Andrew Davidson, served as a colonel in a South Carolina regiment during the War of 1812. Andrew Davidson removed to Illinois in 1818 and in 1825 took a prominent part in the settlement of Macon county, Illinois. Samuel P. Davidson was educated in the common schools of his native county and studied for three years in Mt. Zion (Illi- nois) Seminary. He was graduated at the head of a class of eleven stu- dents from Lincoln University ( Illinois) in June, 1869. While yet a stu- dent in college he read law under Judge William E. Nelson at Decatur, Illinois, and was admitted to the practice of law in .April. 1870.

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History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 43

Author: Edwards, Lewis C Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1742

Author: Edwards, Lewis C
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1742