History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 44

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 920

USA > New York > Oneida County > History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 44

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In 1786 the Legislature provided for circuit courts to be held by the justices of the Supreme Court in each county, cognizable of all cases triable by the county at the common law.

In 1813 special sessions of the peace, held by three jus- tices of the towns, were provided for petty crimes and mis- demeanors, when the defendant could not give bail to the general sessions of the county.

The courts under the first constitution were continued by the second one, which latter was ratified by the people Jan. 15 to 17, 1822.

The constitution of 1846 recognized and continued the courts under the constitution of 1821, except those of Chancery and Common Pleas, and in addition created the Court of Appeals and the county courts. The Court of Appeals had its origin in the powers of the original Court of Impeachment for the " correction of errors." These latter powers were abrogated by the constitution of 1846, and the Court of Appeals created by Sec. 2 of Art. VI. of that instrument, which court occupies the place in the ju- dicial system which the original court for the correction of errors formerly did. It was, when first constituted, com- posed of eight judges,-four elected by the people of the State for eight years, and four selected from the class of justices of the Supreme Court having the shortest time to serve. November 2, 1869, the people ratified an amend- ment to the constitution, prepared by the convention of 1867-68, whereby, among other changes in the judiciary effected thereby, the Court of Appeals was reorganized as it now exists, being composed of a chief judge and six asso- ciate judges, who are chosen by the people of the State for terms of fourteen years each. This court has power to re- view every actual determination made at a general term of the Supreme Court, or by cither of the superior city courts, in certain cases and under certain limitations. The Su- preme Court has the same jurisdiction it had originally, with the exceptions, additions, and limitations created and imposed by the constitution and statutes, and has appel- late jurisdiction over all courts of original jurisdiction not otherwise specifically provided for. Appeals also will lie from certain limited judgments of the court itself to a gen- eral term of the same, which are held at least once a year in each of the four judicial departments of the State, Oneida

t In the State Civil List for 1874 (page 40) it is stated that a Court of Exchequer was erccted by Governor Dongan in 1685, composed of tho Governor and Council. It had jurisdiction as stated above. The act of 1691 gave the Supreme Court cognizance of matters in Ex- chequer, doing away with the necessity of a separate cuurt.

* Notes to act in Revised Laws, 1813.

166

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

County being included in the fourth department and in the fifth judicial district.

The general terms are held by one presiding and two associate justices, but all of them of the Supreme bench. Any justice of the Supreme Court may hold the Circuit Courts or courts of Oyer and Terminer, the terms of which are appointed by the justices of the department, who also assign the particular justices to hold courts in their re- spective counties.

The county courts, created by the constitution of 1846, have jurisdiction in all action of partition, dower, fore- closure, and specific performance, the action accruing in the respective county ; and to actions generally where the amount involved in controversy does not exceed $1000 in value, and where the defendants are in the county at the commencement of the action. This court is held by the county judge, who, associated with two justices of the peace, may hold courts of the Sessions of the Peuce, with suchi criminal jurisdiction as may be provided by law.

The constitution of 1777 continued in force such por- tions of the common law of England, and the statute laws of England and Great Britain, and acts of the colonial Legislature of New York, as together formed the laws of the colony April 19, 1775, subject to further amendment or repeal by the proper authority.

The resolves of the Provincial Congress of the colony, which existed from the early part of 1775 to 1777, as also the resolutions of the Convention of the State, not incon- sistent with the constitution, were adopted as law. Any- thing in any of the above-quoted legislation repugnant to the constitution was abrogated and rejected. The consti- tution also provides for trial by jury and the naturalization of aliens. The constitution of 1821 still continued in force the common law of England, and the colonial laws not repealed or repugnant to the provisions of that instrument.

Courts of the Sessions of the Peace were provided for the county of Albany April 17, 1691,* with three terms per year, and a court of Common Pleas, from which no appeal or habeas corpus would lie on matters under £20 in controversy. The old justices of the peace of the colony were to be " good and lawful men of the best repu- tation, and who be nn maintainers of evil or barretors."

In 1778 the Legislature declared that paper would answer in legal proceedings and documents in emergent cases, and its use was held not to invalidate proceedings in the courts, notwithstanding the requirement of vellum for such pur- poses previously. In 1798 paper was still further advanced in respectability in the courts, being declared lawful for use in the Supreme and Chancery Courts for all purposes except for the processes of the courts, for which parchment con- tinued to be used.

The court of General Sessions of the Peace, under the first constitution, had jurisdiction in all cases where the penalty was not confinement for life or the death penalty. In 1796 the criminal code was ameliorated, and State- prisons first directed to be established. Previous to this most of the offenses punishable by imprisonment for life were under the death penalty. The claim of " benefit of

clergy" by criminals was abolished in New York Feb. 21, 1788. In May, 1788, the statutes of England and Great Britain were abolished. The first fee-bill established by law was dated May 24, 1709. The courts of Common Pleas, established by the ordinance of the colonial Governor in 1699, were the germs of the courts of General Sessions. Imprisonment for debt was abolished in New York April 26, 1831.

EARLY COURTS.

In connection with this subject the following paragraphs we copy by permission from a lecture delivered before the " Young Men's Association" of the city of Utica, by Wm. Tracy, Esq., in 1838."+

"On the 19th of January, 1793, an act was passed authorizing every alternate term of the court of common pleas of Herkimer County to be held at such place in Whitestownf as should hy the courts be directed by orders to be entered in the minutes. The first court in this (Oneida) County under this provision was held in a barn, in New Hartford, be- longing to the Inte Judge Sanger (New Hartford then forming a part of the town of Whitestown), in the month of October, in the year 1793, Judge Staring presiding, and the late Judge Platt, then Clerk of the County of llerkimer, officiating as Clerk. The sheriff of Herkimer County at that day was a Colonel Colbraith, an Irishman, who, in the war, had done some service to his adopted country, and had acquired his title as a militia officer since the peace.

" His education had not been conducted with special reference to the usages of what is technically called good society ; and indeed his man- ners here uncquivocal evidence that they originated from a native mine of genaine good humor and a most capacious soul, rather than from the arbitrary rules of a professor of polite breeding. A gentleman who attended the court as a spectator informed me that the day was one of the damp, chilly days we frequently have in October, and that in the afternoon, when it was nearly night, in order to comfort them- selves in their by no means very well appointed court-room, and to keep their vital bloed at a temperature at which it would continue to circu- late, some of the gentlemen of the bar had induced the sheriff to precare from a neighboring inn a jug of spirits. This, it must he remembered, was before the invention of temperance societies, and we may not, there- forc, pass too hasty an opinion upon the propriety of the measure.

"Upon the jug appearing in court, it was passed around the bar table, and each of the learned counselors in his turn apraised the ele- gant vessel and decanted into his mouth, hy the simplest process im- aginahle, so much as he deemed a sufficient dose of the delicious fluid. While the operation was going on, the diguitaries on the bench, who were no doubt suffering quite as much from the chilliness of the weather as their brethren of the har, had a little consultation, when the first judge announeed to the audience that the court saw ne reason why they should continue to hold open there any longer and freeze to death, and desired the crier forthwith to adjourn the court. Before, however, this functionary cauld commence with a single ' Hear ye,' Colonel Colbraith jumped up, catching, as he rose, the jug from the lawyer who was complimenting its contents, and, holding it ap towards the bench, hastily ejaculated, 'Oh, no, no, Judge; don't adjourn yet ! Take a little gin, Judge,-that will keep you warm ; 'tain't time to adjourn yet'; and, suiting the action to the word, he handed His Honor the jug. It appeared that there was force in the sheriff's ad- vice, for the order to adjourn was revoked and the business went on.

"Judge Staring continued in office until after the erection of Oneida County, and finally resigned his office shortly after that event. Ilis death took place after the year 1800, but at what precise period I have been unable to learn."¿

t From a volume of public papers belonging to Hon. W. J. Bacon. # Whitestown was then the most considerable town in the territory now constituting the county of Oncida.

¿ When Herkimer County was organized, in 1791, Henry Staring was appointed First Judge, and Michael Myers, Hagh White, aud Abrabum Hardenburg, Judges and Jastiecs of the Penec; Jedediah Sanger and Amos Wetmore, of Whitestown, Alexander Parkman and Ephraim Blackmor, of Westmoreland, and John Bank, Patrick Cump- bell, and William Veeder, Assistant Justices and Justices of the Peace. [Jones' Annals.]

* Journal of Assembly.

167

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

According to Mr. Jones, the first Court of Record held within the present limits of the county was a term of the Herkimer Common Pleas and General Sessions, at the meeting-house in the town of Whitestown (village of New Hartford), on the third Tuesday in January, 1794. Pres- ent-Henry Staring, Judge, and Jedediah Sanger and Amos Wetmore, Justices .* In the list of assistant jus- tices of the peace found in the minutes of this term, occur the following names of those living within the present limits of Oneida County : Hugh White, Judge Sanger, A. Wet- more, Alex. Parkman, Ephraim Blackmer, Moses Foot, Edward Paine, Seth Phelps, David Ostrom, Needham Maynard, Elizur Mosely, Samuel Sizer, William Fanning, Ebenezer Wright, and Jedediah Phelps. Among the con- stables named are Uriah Seymour, Simeon Pool, and Sam- uel Ensign, of Whitestown ; Jesse Curtiss, Nathan Marsh, Amos Dutton, Samuel Branch, John Finch, and Ezekiel Goodrich, of Paris ; Joseph Jones, of Westmoreland; and Samuel Dickinson, Edward S. Salisbury, Jasper French, and Benjamin Gifford, of Steuben. Grand Jury-William Stone, foreman ; Archibald Beach, Jared Chittenden, Waitstill Dickinson, Matthias Hurlburt, Nehemiah Pratt, Abijah Putnam, Nathaniel Gilbert, Alexander Enos, Coon- rod Edee, Debold Dedrick, Joseph Jennings, R. Mills, Matthew Hubbell, Benjamin Ballou, Nathan Seward, Thomas Jones, Alvin Wheelock, James McNutt, Benjamin Tisdale, Justin Griffith, Duty Lapham. William Colbraith, Sheriff; Jonas Platt, Clerk. Joseph Strong was admitted as an attorney and counselor, and took the oath. Eight men were convicted of assault and battery, and fined from sixteen shillings to three pounds each. . . . This term ap- pears to have been the only one held at New Hartford. Courts were held at various times at Whitesboro' until the organization of Oneida County, and in 1802 Whitestown was made a half-shire town with Rome, and so continued until superseded by Utica, about 1851.t

When the county was organized, in March, 1798, the following persoos were commissioned as conservators of the peace : Judges, Jedediah Sanger, Hugh White, James Dean, David Ostrom, George Huntington ; Assistant Jus- tices, Amos Wetmore, Thomas Cassety, Garret Boon, Adrian Fr. Van der Kemp, Elizur Mosely, Henry McNeil, Peter Colt, Ncedham Maynard; Justices of the Peace, James S. Kip, James Steel, Matthias Hurlburt, James Sheldon, Jared Chittenden, Joseph Jennings, Reuben Long, Ithamar Coe, Jesse Curtiss, Kirtland Griffin, William Blount, James Kinney, Ephraim Waldo, Thomas Con- verse, Joseph Jones, Daniel Chapman, Ebenezer R. Haw- ley, Abram Camp, Joshua Hathaway, Jesse Pearce, Matthew Brown, Jr., David W. Knight, Samuel Sizer, Ebenezer Weeks, William Olney, Henry Wager, John Hall, Isaac Alden, Joseph Strickland, Samuel Royce, John W. Bloomfield, Benj. Wright, Luke Fisher, Jonathan Col- lins, John Storrs, Pascal C. I. De Angelis, Stephen Moulton, Abel French, Daniel J. Curtiss, Samuel How, Rozel Fellows, Rudolph Gillier, Medad Curtiss, John Townsend, Abiel Lindsley, G. Camp, Alexander Coventry, Joel Bristol.

The first Circuit Court in the county was held on the second Tuesday of September, 1798, at the school-house near Fort Stanwix, Hon. John Lansing, Jr., Chief-Justice of the State, presiding. The first jury io a civil cause at this term was composed of the following persons : Jotham Wardon, Benjamin Case, Allen Risley, Ithiel Hubbard, Caleb Smith, Jr., Phineas Kellogg, Andrew Warner, Comfort Lee, George Stewart, Enoch Higby, Elias Merrill, and Peter Sloan. There were only five causes upon the calendar. Circuit Courts were held at Fort Stanwix until the ereetion of Whitesboro' into a shire-town, when they were held alternately at that place. Previous to 1818 only one term in each year was held.

The first Court of Oyer and Terminer was also held at the school-house near Fort Stanwix, June 5, 1798, Hon. James Kent, Justice of the Supreme Court, presiding ; George Huntington, Judge of Ceromon Pleas Court, and Thomas Cassety and Elizur Moseley, Assistant Justices. The Grand Jury was composed of the following persons : Ebenezer Wright, foreman ; Matthew Brown, Jr., John White, Andrew Clark, Hugh White, Jr., Aaron Roberts, Ezra Paine, Samuel Wells, Timothy Pond, Michael Frost, Jesse Woodruff, Ozias Marvin, John E. Howard, Stephen Eldridge, and Joshua Wills. Stephen Ford and Thomas Converse were each fined five dollars for non-attendance. A siogle eriminal trial took place at this term,-that of Sylvia Wood, for the murder of her husband.

The first term of the Oneida Common Pleas and General Sessions of the Peace was held at the same place, on the third Tuesday of May, 1798. Present, Hon. Jedediah Sanger, First Judge; George Huntington and David Ostrom, Judges. At this term a rule was entered on the record that any attorney or counselor who had been ad- mitted to the Common Pleas Courts of Herkimer County should be admitted to this court upon taking the prescribed oath. Thomas R. Gold, Joseph Kirkland, Arthur Breese, Erastus Clark, Joshua Hathaway, Joab Griswold, Nathan Williams, Francis A. Bloodgood, Jonas Platt, Rufus Easton, and Medad Curtiss subscribed the oath and were admitted to practice.

The names of the grand jury were as follows: Loan Dewey, of Whitestown, foreman ; Gershom Waldo, John Barnard, Ebenezer Wright, Jr., Amos Noyce, Cyrus Fellows, of Rome; Abraham Ogden, Levi Butterfield, of Floyd ; Alpheus Wheelock, Jonathan Swan, Reuben Beckwith, of Western ; Stephen Reed, Jacob T. Smith, of Trenton ; Gurdon Burchard, Philo White, William Smith, of Whites- town ; Richard Whitney, Josiah Whitney, Stephen Barret, of Paris; Shadrach Smith, William Fanning, Caleb Willis, of Deerfield; Josiah Stillman, John Baxter, of Westmoreland.

The following-named persons served as petit jurors : Matthew Brown, Reuben Merrill, John Hewson, Frederick Selleck, Abraham Handford, John Bristol, Stephen White, Asa Knapp, William Walworth, Rufus Barnes, of Rome ; Ephraim Robbins, Timothy Bronson, Josiah Woodruff, Stephen Cummings, of Floyd; Ezekiel Cleveland, Daniel Spinning, Luther Miller, Richard Salisbury, David Hicks, John Hawkins, Ichabod Brown, Daniel Eames, of Western ; Isaac Chamberlain, Joseph Martin, Allen Pierce, Garret Becker, of Trenton ; Aaron Clark, Arnold Wells, Barnabas

# In his history of Whitestown, Mr. Jones mentions William Feeter as one of the justices.

t See proceedings of Board of Supervisors.

168

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Brooks, Zebediah Tuttle, John Hobby, William Brown, of Whitestown; Simon Hubbard, Abiel Simmons, Luther Richards, Elijah Dresser, Samuel Nickols, Zebediah Plank, of Paris ; Hazard Shearman, John Weber, Zadock Warren, George Damewood, John Damewood, John Reeves, of Deer- field; Alexander Dorchester, Nathaniel Townsend, Benja- min Blackman, and Joshua Douglass, of Westmoreland.

At this term a committee, consisting of Messrs. Gold, Kirkland, Breese, Clark, Platt, and Williams, was ap- pointed to draft a system of rules for the government of the court, and at the May term, in 1799, they reported twenty-two rules, which were adopted.

The first civil cause tried in this court was at the Sep- tember term, in 1798, at which time Hon. Hugh White took his seat upon the bench. Hon. James Dean took his seat at the December term, in 1799.

The county courts, previous to May, 1802, were held at the school-house near Fort Stanwix. At the December term of Common Pleas for 1801, C. C. Brodhead, sheriff, announced that the new jail at Whitestown was completed, and that the prisoners from Oneida County, who had been kept in the Herkimer jail, had been removed to the new one. An order was accordingly entered on the record that " the next term of the court be held at the school- house near the jail in Whitestown." The May term was held in accordance with the above order. Present,-Hon. Jedediah Sanger, First Judge, David Ostrom, James Dean, Hugh White, Thomas Hart, and Henry Coffeen, Judges ; and Amos Wetmore, Needham Maynard, and Joseph Jen- nings, Assistant Justices. This court was held at Whites- town during the year 1802, and subsequently, alternately at Rome and Whitestown. The terms commenced upon the third Tuesday in May, first Tuesday in September, and last Tuesday in December.

By an act of Legislature, passed April 2, 1806, the board of supervisors was authorized to raise $4000 for the purpose of erecting two court-houses, one at Ronie and one at Whitesboro', and they were soon afterwards erected. The justices of the Supreme Court, by an act passed April 21, 1818, were authorized to hold terms of the Circuit Courts and Courts of Oyer and Terminer between the regular terms of August and January, at such places in the county as they should deem proper ; and it would appear that they were held at Rome, Whitestown, and Utica, the academy building at Utica being used for the purpose.

On the 4th of February, 1836, " An act relative to the county jails, county courts, and courts of oyer and termi- ner in the county of Oneida" was passed by the Legis- lature, under which Squire Utley, Daniel Twitchell, S. Germond Mott, Fortune C. White, William T. Gregg, Allanson Bennett, and Noah E. King were appointed com- missioners to erect two new jails in the county, and fix the location. One to be erected at Rome, the other at Whites- town, " unless the said jail shall be located at Utica ;" based upon the conditions that the citizens should furnish a suitable lot free of expense to the county, and keep the rooms in the academy in good condition for the use of the courts " as long as the county shall choose to use them." The jail at Whitestown was to be occupied until the new one was built.

"In case one of the said new jails shall be located at Utica, the county courts now required by law to be held at Whitestown shall, from and after the time of filing such certificate in relation to the jail last mentioned, as is provided for in the eighth section of this act, be held at the court-room in the building called the Academy, in Utica."

Under the provisions of this act, Utica became the demi- capital of the county .*

SURROGATE'S COURT.

These officers, under the first constitution, were appointed for an unlimited period by the Council of Appointment, and an appeal lay from their decisions to the Judge of the Court of Probates of the State. Under the second con- stitution they were appointed hy the Governor and Senate for four years, and appeals lay from their decisions to the Chancellor.

The constitution of 1846 abolished the office of surro- gate, except in counties where the population exceeds 40,000, and devolved its duties on the county judge. In counties ex- ceeding in population 40,000 the Legislature may authorize the election of surrogates. They are elected for a term of four years (except in New York County, where the term is three years), and are allowed to take the acknowledgment of deeds and administer oaths in the same manner as county judges. The date of the first appointment to this office in Oneida County was March 19, 1798, four days after the organization of the county. The office at present is located in Rome. The tribunals which exercise legal jurisdiction in Oneida County and the constitution of the various courts are as follows :

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Chief-Justice, Morrison R. Waite, Ohio ; Associates, Ward Hunt, Utica, N. Y .; William Strong, Philadelphia, Pa. ; Nathan Clifford, Portland, Maine ; Noah H. Swayne, Columbus, Ohio ; Joseph P. Bradley, Newark, N. J. ; John M. Harlan, Louisville, Ky .; Samuel F. Miller, Keokuk, Iowa; Stephen J. Field, California; Daniel W. Middleton, Clerk ; William T. Otto, Indiana, Reporter ; John G. Nicolay, Illinois, Marshal. The court holds nne general term annually at Washington, D. C., commencing on the first Monday in December.

UNITED STATES CIRCUIT COURT.

Hon. Ward Hunt, Utica; Hon. Samuel Blatchford, New York, and Hon. Wm. J. Wallace, Syracuse, Judges ; Hon. Charles Mason, Utica, Clerk ; William L. Bonney, Utica, Deputy Clerk ; Hon. Richard Crowley, Lockport, N. Y., United States District Attorney ; Clinton D. Mc- Dougall, Rochester, United States Marshal ; Thomas Hig- gison, Utica, Deputy United States Marshal. Terms : third Tuesday in January, at Albany; third Tuesday in March, at Utica; third Tuesday in June, at Canandaigua ; second Tuesday in October, at Albany.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT.

Hon. William J. Wallace, Syracuse, Judge; Hon. Rich- ard Crowley, Lockport, United States District Attorney ;

# See proceedings of Board of Supervisors.

169

HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Charles B. McDougal, Rochester, Marshal; Winfield Rob- bins, Buffalo, Clerk. Terms: third Tuesday in January, at Albany; third Tuesday in March, at. Utica; second Tuesday in May, at Rochester; third Tuesday in August, at Buffalo; third Tuesday in November, at Auburn ; and a special term, by appointment, at Oswego, Plattsburg, or Watertown.

COURT OF APPEALS.

Sanford E. Church, Chief Judge, Albion ; William F. Allen, Associate Judge, Oswego; Charles A. Rapallo, As- sociate Judge, New York ; Charles Andrews, Associate Judge, Syracuse; Charles J. Folger, Associate Judge, Geneva ; Theodore Miller, Associate Judge, Hudson ; Robert Earl, Associate Judge, Herkimer ; Edwin O. Per- rin, Clerk, Jamaica.

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE.

General terms for the Fourth department consisting of the Fifth, Seventh, and Eighth judicial districts. Joseph Mullin, Presiding Justice ; John L. Talcott and James C. Smith, Associate Justices. Terms in Oneida County : second Tuesday in April, Utica; third Tuesday in August, Utica; last Tuesday in October, Rome.

CIRCUIT COURTS AND COURTS OF OYER AND TERMINER AND SPECIAL TERMS, FOR THE FIFTH JUDICIAL DIS- TRICT.

Terms held in Oneida County : second Monday in Janu- ary, at Utica ; third Monday in Mareb, at Rome; second Monday in May, at Utica ; second Monday in December, at Rome. Judges: Joseph Mullin, Watertown ; George A. Hardin, Little Falls; Milton H. Merwin, Utica ; James Noxon, Syracuse.

COUNTY COURTS AND COURTS OF SESSIONS.

William B. Bliss, Judge; Robert O. Jones, Special Judge. Regular terms: third Monday in February, at Rome; second Monday in June, at Utiea; third Monday in September, at Rome; second Mouday in December, at Utica.

SURROGATE'S COURT.

Stephen Van Dresar, Surrogate, Rome; Elliott S. Wil- liams, Special Surrogate, Clinton. Terins : first Tuesday of every month, at Rome. Utica office at Baggs' Hotel.

THE JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

In the several towns, and the eities of Utiea and Rome.

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History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 44

Author: Durant, Samuel W Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss Number of Pages: 920

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 920