USA > New York > Wayne County > Landmarks of Wayne County, New York, Pt. 1 > Part 11
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Pierson; 1885, Ammon S. Farnum, Edwin K. Burnham ; 1886, William Wood, Barnet H. Davis; 1887-88, Charles T. Saxton, Barnet H. Davis; 1889, Charles T. Saxton, Richard P. Groat; 1890, John P. Bennett, Richard P. Groat; 1891, Elliott B. Norris, Richard P. Groat; 1892, George W. Brinkerhoff, Flynn Whitcomb. By the act of April 30, 1892, Wayne county was entitled to but one member of assembly. 1893,
; 1894, George S. Horton.
Prior to 1857 school commissioners were appointed by the Boards of Supervisors; since then they have been elected by ballot. The first election under the act was held in November, 1859. In Wayne county the commissioners of the First District have been as follows: Mortimer F. Sweeting, Thomas Robinson, Alonzo M. Winchester, John McGon- egal, Joseph G. L. Roe, Sidney G. Cook, E. C. Delano, Everett ('Neill, and Samuel Cosad. In the Second District: Albert S. Todd; Myron W. Reed, Jefferson Sherman, Ethel M. Allen, W. T. Goodnough, M. C. Finley, and Freeman Pintler.
County Treasurers .- Bartlett R. Rogers, 1848; Philander P. Brad- ish, 1851; John Adams, 1857; Smith A. Dewey, 1862, re-elected 1865, and 1868; Wm. B. Stultz, 1871, and re-elected 1844 and 1876; L. F. Taylor, appointed 1829; Dr. A. F. Sheldon, 1879, and re-elected 1882 and 1885; Volney H. Sweeting, 1888, present imeumbent.
Sheriffs during the colonial period were appointed annually in Octo- ber, unless otherwise noticed. Under the first constitution they were appointed annually by the council of appointment, and no person could hold the office more than four successive years. The sheriff could hold no other office and must be a freeholder in the county to which appointed. Since the constitution of 1821, sheriffs have been elected for a term of three years, and are ineligible for election for the succeeding term.
The following persons have held the office of sheriff of Wayne county from the respective dates given: The elections have been held in No- vember of each year. Reuben H. Foster, 1825; Cullen Foster, 1828; Calvin D. Palmeter, 1831; Truman Heminway, 1834; Hiram Mann, 1837; Simon V. W. Stout, 1840; John Borrowdale, 1843; George W. Barnard, 1846; Chester A. Ward, 1849; George W. Paddock, 1852; William P Nottingham, 1855; Adrastus Snedeker, 1858; John P. Ben- nett, 1861; Bartlett R. Rogers, 1864; John P. Bennett, 1867; John N. Brownell, 1870; Richard P. Groat, 1873; Thomas M. Clark, 1876; Wil- liam J. Glenn, 1879; Vernon R. Howell, 1882; Rossman J. Parshall, 1885; Charles E. Reed, 1888; Geo. W. Knowles, 1890, appointed; Walter Thornton, 1891; Chas. H. Ford, 1894, appointed.
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In the comparatively brief period of a century-a period that is some- times lived through by one person-what a transformation has been ef- fected in the region of Western New York which embraces the county of which this work treats! The mind that is accustomed only to super- ficial thought and observation, fails utterly to comprehend it. At the one extreme of the period was a wilderness, untrodden by man other than the red natives who are now fast disapearing from the face of the earth. A wilderness of forest and stream and lake; thickly peopled by wild animals and feathered tribes. At the other extreme of the cen- tury we look upon as fair a land as lies beneath the sun. Every evi- dence of civilization greets the observer's eye. Surely the deeds of the men and women who have wrought this marvelous transformation de- serve to be enshrined on the pages of history.
Our forefathers did not begin their work under favorable conditions. They had just passed through a long and harassing war, which was fol- lowed by a period of stagnation of all kinds of business, leading to con- tinued privation and suffering at many firesides. One observant writer has said that "as a nation, or a people in the aggregate, ours was the poorest that had ever entered upon the experience of separate and in- dependent existence; and the settlement of this region | Western New York] commenced at the lowest point of depression. Those who had homes in New England and elsewhere- - the means of comfortable sub- sistence-generally chose to remain where they were, leaving it mostly for those who were impelled to it by necessity to encounter the then hard task of settling and improving the wilderness. No new region of our entire country has been settled by a class of emigrants as poor, in the aggregate, as were the pioneers of the Genesee country. The in- stances of those who had enough to pay the expenses of immigration, get possession of their lands, and make any considerable improvements, were few; those who had enough to place themselves in their new homes and purchase the necessaries of life, until they could produce them, were. not numerous; while the great bulk of the pioneers had but little left when they had planted themselves in the forest and erected their rude log cabins. The instances were not few of those who parted with necessary raiment, with household furniture that could not easily be spared-with things essential to their comfort-either to pay the ex- penses of emigration, or to piece out the means of subsistence.
"Located in a widely extended forest, in sparse settlements, or in solitary or detached homes-the long and tedious journey of emigration
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consummated, log huts erected, small openings made, and a rude and primitive agriculture commenced-they had but just entered upon a long series of difficulties and hindrances; disease and apprehensions of Indian wars, came upon them in their years of extreme weakness; in busy seasons when health and strength were most needed, whole house- holds and neighborhoods were stricken down with agues and fevers, and the services of households and neighborhoods that escaped would be required to aid those less fortunate; then would come Indian alarms, demonstrations of renewal of Indian hostilities which would render the tenure by which they held their wilderness homes precarious-desertion and flight, not an improbable necessity. These difficulties subsiding and warded off, when lands that been cleared, soil that had been sub- dued, began to yield a surplus, they had no markets; their wheat moulded in the stack or in the bark-covered log barns; or, when thrashed and drawn over long and tedious wood roads, at a low price, could not be exchanged for many of the most common necessaries of life. A gleam of sunshine came, a better day dawned for a brief season, but soon came the national exigencies of embargo and non-intercourse, which bore especcially hard on all this region.
" When all these difficulties had been surmounted, to which should have been added, at least, one unfruitful season, and consequent scar- city of food for man, and hay and grain for stock, causing in many lo- calities actual suffering ---- when the whole region of the Genesee country had just begun to realize something of prosperity, war upon its imme- diate borders, in its weak and exposed condition, came upon it-a local calamity, the magnitude of which can now hardly be realized."
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CHAHTER X.
Comparison of State Law with the Common Law-Evolution of the Courts-The Court of Appeals-The Supreme Court-The Court of Chancery-The County Court -The Surrogate's Court-Justice's Court-District Attorneys-Sheriffs-Court House-Judicial Officers-Personal Notes.
The statement is commonly expressed that the judicial system of the State of New York is largely founded upon the common law of England. While this is true to a great extent, there are important differences revealed by a close study of the history of the laws of this State, showing that our system is in many important respects an original growth. In the simple, yet initiative matter of entitling a criminal process for example, there is a radical difference between our method and that which must be followed in England. Here it is " The People Versus the Criminal;" there, "Rex versus the Criminal." In the one it is an independent judiciary responsible directly to the people; in the other to the king.
This principle of the sovereignty of the people over our laws, as well as their dominance in other respects, has had a slow, conservative, yet steadily progressive and systematic growth. In the colonial history of the State the governor was in effect the maker, interpreter and en- forcer of the laws. He was the chief judge of the court of final resort, while his councillors were generally his obedient followers. The execu- tion of the English and Colonial statutes rested with him, as did also the exercise of royal authority in the province; and it was not until the adoption of the first Constitution, in 1777, that he ceased to contend for these prerogatives and to act as though the only functions of the court and councillors were to do its bidding as servants and helpers, while the Legislature should adopt only such laws as the executive should suggest and approve. By the first Constitution the governor was wholly stripped of the judicial power which he possessed under the Colonial rule, and such power was vested in the lieutenant-governor and the Senate, the chancellor and the justices of the Supreme Court ; the former to be elected by the people, and the latter to be appointed by the council. Under this Constitution there was the first radical
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separation of the judicial and the legislative powers, and the advance- ment of the judiciary to the position of a co-ordinate department of the government, and subject to the limitation consequent upon the ap- pointment of its members by the council.
But even this restriction was soon felt to be incompatible, though it was not until the adoption of the Constitution of 1846 that the last con- nection between the purely political and the judicial parts of the State government was abolished; and with it disappeared the last remaining relic of the colonial period as regards the laws. From this time on the judiciary became more directly representative of the people in the election by them of its members. The development of the idea of the responsibility of the courts to the people, from the time when all its members were at the beck and nod of one well-nigh irresponsible master, to the time when all judges, even of the court of last resort, are voted for by the people, has been remarkable. Yet, through all this change there has prevailed the idea of one ultimate tribunal from whose decision there can be no appeal.
Noting briefly the present arrangement and powers of the courts of this State and the elements from which they have grown, we see that the whole scheme is involved in the idea of, first, a trial before a magis- trate and jury-arbiters respectively of law and fact-and then a review by a higher tribunal of the facts and law, and ultimately of the law by a court of last resort. To accomplish the purposes of this scheme there has been devised and established, first, the present Court of Appeals, the ultimate tribunal of the State, perfected in its present form by the Conventions of 1867 and 1868, and ratified by a vote of the people in 1869; and taking the place of the old "Court for the trial of impeachment and correction of errors" to the extent of correcting errors of law. As first organized under the Constitution of 1846, the Court of Appeals was composed of eight judges, four of whom were elected by the people and the remainder chosen from the justices of the Supreme Court having the shortest time to serve. As organized in 1869, and now existing, the court consists of the chief judge and six associates judges, who hold office for a term of fourteen years from and including the first day of January after their election. This court is continually in session at the capitol in Albany, except as it takes recess from time to time on its own motion. It has full power to correct or reverse the decisions of all inferior courts when properly before it for review. Five judges constitute a quorum, and four must concur to
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render judgment. If four do not agree the case must be reargued; but no more than two rehearings can be had, and if then four judges do not concur, the judgment of the court below stands affirmed. The Legislature has provided by statute how and when proceedings and decisions of inferior tribunals may be reviewed in the Court of Appeals, and may in its discretion alter or amend the same. Upon the reor- ganization of the court in 1869 its work was far in arrears, and the law commonly known as the "Judiciary Act" provided for a commission of appeals to aid the Court of Appeals. And still more recently, in 1888, the Legislature passed a concurrent resolution that section 6 of article 6 of the Constitution be amended so that upon the certificate of the Court of Appeals to the governor of such an accumulation of causes on the calendar of the Court of Appeals that the public interests required a more speedy disposition thereof, the governor may desig- nate seven justices of the Supreme Court to act as associate judges, for the time being, of the Court of Appeals, and to form a second division of that court, and to be dissolved by the governor when the necessity for their services ceased to exist. This amendment was submitted to the people of the State at the general election of that year and was ratified, and in accordance therewith the governor selected seven Supreme Court justices, who were constituted the Second Division of the Court of Appeals.
Second to the Court of Appeals in rank and jurisdiction stands the Supreme Court, which, as it now exists, is made up of many and widely different elements. It was originally created by act of the Colonial Legislature May 6, 1691, and finally by ordinance of the governor and council May 15, 1699, and empowered to try all issues to the same ex- tent as the English Courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas'and Exche- quer, except in the exercise of equity powers. It had jurisdiction in actions involving $100 and over, and to revise and correct the decisions of inferior courts. "An appeal lay from it to the governor and council. The judges-at first there were five of them-annually made a circuit of the counties, under a commission naming them, issued by the gov- ernor, and giving them Nisi Prius, Oyer and Terminer, and jail de- livery powers. Under the first Constitution the court was reorganized, the judges being then named by the council of appointment. All pro- ceedings were directed to be entitled in the name of the people instead of that of the king.
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By the Constitution of 1821 many and important changes were made in the character and methods of this court. The judges were reduced in number to three and appointed by the governor, with the consent of the Senate, to hold office during good behavior, or until sixty years of age. They were removable by the Legislature when two-thirds of the Assembly and a majority of the Senate so voted. Four times each year the full court sat in review of their decisions upon questions of law. By the Constitution of 1846 the Supreme Court, as it then ex- isted, was abolished, and a new court of the same name, and having general jurisdiction in law and equity, was established in its place. This court was divided into General Terms, Circuits, Special Terms, and Oyer and Terminer. Its members were composed of thirty-three justices, to be elected by the people, and to reside, five in the first and four in each of the other seven judicial districts into which the State was divided. By the judiciary act of 1847 General Terms were to be held at least once in each year in counties having more than forty thousand inhabitants, and in other counties at least once in two years; and at least two Special Terms and two Circuit Courts were to be held yearly in each county except Hamilton. By this act the court was authorized to name the times and places of holding its terms, and those of Oyer and Terminer; the latter being a part of the Circuit Court and held by the justice, the county judge and two justices of sessions. Since 1882 the Oyer and Terminer has consisted of a single justice of the Supreme Court.
It is proper at this point to describe one of the old courts, the powers of which have been vested in the Supreme Court. We refer to the Chancery Court, an heirloom of the Colonial period, which had its origin in the Court of Assizes, the latter being invested with equity powers under the duke's laws. The court was established in 1683, and the governor or such person as he should appoint, assisted by the coun- cil, was designated as its chancellor. In 1698 the court went out of existence by limitation ; was revised by ordinance in 1701; suspended in 1203, and re-established in the next year. At first the Court of Chancery was unpopular in the province, the Assembly and the colonists opposing it with the argument that the crown had no authority to establish an equity court in the colony, and they were doubtful of
. the propriety of constituting the governor and council such a court. Under the Constitution of 1777 the court was recognized, but its chancellor was thereby prohibited from holding any other office except
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delegate to Congress on special occasions. Upon the reorganization of the court in 1778, by convention of representatives, masters and ex- aminers in chancery were provided to be appointed by the council of appointment; registers and clerks by the chancellor. The latter licensed all solicitors and counsellors of the court. Under the Constitu- tion of 1821 the chancellor was appointed by the governor and held office during good behavior, or until sixty years of age. Appeals lay from the Chancery Court to the Court for the Correction of Errors. Under the second Constitution equity powers were vested in the circuit judges, and their decisions were reviewable on appeal to the chancellor. But this equity character was soon taken from the circuit judges and there- after devolved upon the chancellor, while the judges alluded to acted as vice-chancellors in their respective circuits. But, by the radical changes made by the Constitution of 1843, the Court of Chancery was abolished, and its powers, duties and jurisdiction vested in the Supreme Court, as before stated.
By act of the Legislature adopted in 1848, and entitled the "Code of Procedure," all distinctions between actions at law and suits in equity were abolished, so far as the manner of commencing and conducting them was concerned, and one uniform method of practice was adopted. . Under this act appeals lay to the General Term of the Supreme Court from judgments rendered in justice's, mayor's and recorder's, and county courts, and from all orders and decisions of a justice at special term of the Supreme Court.
The judiciary article of the Constitution of 1846 amended in 1869, authorizing the Legislature, not more often than once in five years, to provide for the organization of General Terms, consisting of a pre- siding justice and not more than three associates; but by chapter 408 of the laws of 1870 the then organization of the General Term was abro- gated and the State divided into four departments and provision made for holding General Terms in each. By the same act the governor was directed to designate from among the justices of the Supreme Court a presiding justice and two associates to constitute a General Term in each department. Under the authority of the constitutional amend- ment adopted in 1882, the Legislature in 1883 divided the State into five judicial departments, and provided for the election of twelve additional justices to hold office from the first Monday in June, 1884.
In June, 1887, the Legislature enacted the code of civil procedure to take the place of the code of 1848. By this many minor changes were
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made, among them a provision that every two years the justices of the General Terms, and the chief judges of the Superior City Courts, should meet and revise and establish general rules of practice for all the courts of record in the State, except the Court of Appeals.
Such are, in brief, the changes through which the Supreme Court of this State has passed in its growth from the prerogative of an irrespon- sible governor, to one of the most independent and enlightened instru- mentalities for the protection and attainment of the rights of citizens of which any State or nation can rightfully boast. So well is this fact understood by the people, that by far the greater amount of business, which might be done in inferior courts at less expense, is taken to this court for settlement. The only man from Wayne county ever elected Supreme Court judge was Theron R. Strong of Palmyra.
Next in inferiority to the Supreme Court is the County Court, held in and for each county of the State at such times and places as its judges may direct. This court had its origin in the English Court of Sessions, and, like that court, had at first criminal jurisdiction only. By an act passed in 1663, a Court of Sessions, having power to try both civil and criminal causes by jury, was directed to be held by three justices of the peace, in each of the counties of the province twice each year, with an additional term in Albany and two in New York. By the act of 1691 and the decree of 1699, all civil jurisdiction was taken from this court and conferred upon the Court of Common Pleas. By the sweeping changes made by the Constitution in 1846, provision was made for a County Court in each county of the State, excepting New York, to be held by an officer to be designated the county judge, and to have such jurisdiction as the Legislature might prescribe. Under authority of this Constitution the County Courts have been given, from time to time, jurisdiction in various classes of actions which need not be enumerated here, and have also been invested with certain equity powers in the foreclosure of mortgages; to sell infants' real estate; to partition lands; to admeasure dower and care for the persons and estate of lunaties and habitual drunkards. The Judiciary Act of 1869 continued the existing jurisdiction of County Courts, and confer- red upon them original jurisdiction in all actions in which the defend- ants lived within the county, and the damages claimed did not exceed $1,000, which sum has since been extended to $2,000. Like the Supreme Court, the County Court now has its civil and its criminal side. In criminal matters the county judge is assisted by two justices
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of sessions, elected by the people from among the justices of the peace in the county. It is in the criminal branch of this court, known as the Ses- sions, that all the minor criminal offenses are now disposed of. All indictments of the grand jury, excepting for murder or some very serious felony, are sent to it for trial from the Oyer and Terminer. By the codes of 1848 and 1877, the methods of procedure and practice were made to conform as nearly as possible to the practice in the Supreme Court. This was done with the evident design of attracting litigation into these courts, thus relieving the Supreme Court. In this purpose there has been failure, litigants much preferring the shield and assistance of the broader powers of the higher court. By the Judiciary Act the term of office of county judges was extended from four to six years. Under the code the judges can perform some of the duties of a justice of the Supreme Court at Chambers. The County Court has appellate jurisdiction over actions arising in Justice's Courts and Courts of Special Sessions. Appeals lay from the County Court to the General Term. County judges were appointed until 1847, after which they were elected.
First judges in the old court of Common Pleas were originally ap- pointed by the governor and Senate for a term of five years. None of those appointed previous to the formation of Wayne county was from within the present limits of Wayne. Their names were: Oliver Phelps, May, 1789-93; Timothy Hosmer, October, 1793-1802; John Nicholas, January, 1803-1819; Nathaniel W. Howell, March, 1818.
Those appointed since the formation of Wayne county are as follows: John W. Hallet, April 19, 1825; Alexander R. Tiffany, March 28, 1827; William Sisson, January 30, 1830; Hiram K. Jerome, January 29, 1840; Oliver H. Palmer, April 12, 1843; William HI. Adams, May 12, 1846.
Those who have held the office since it was made elective are as fol- lows: George H. Middleton, June, 1847; Leander S. Ketcham, November, 1851; Lyman Sherwood, November, 1859; George W. Cowles, November, 1863, and November, 1867; Charles McLouth, (appointed) November 1, 1869; Luther M. Norton, November, 1869; George W. Cowles, November, 1873; Thaddeus W. Collins, Novem- ber, 1879; George W. Cowles, November, 1879; George W. Cowles, November, 1885; L. M. Norton, 1891, incumbent.
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