USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 29
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"The trial lasted three days, and nothing was left undone on the part of the prisoners in their efforts to bribe witnesses and intimidate the counsel for the Government. The justice evidently had little confidenee in his legal ability to act in the premises and was fearful that, if he con- mitted the prisoners, he would perpetrate some error whereby he would be liable to a suit for false imprisonment. He therefore made his de- cisions as favorable as possible to the prisoners. I was well satisfied with that, my first effort in conducting a suit, but was deeply indignant at the discharge of the prisoners, and so informed the court. The next day after their discharge, the two Richard brothers brought to this village a bag containing about a peek of bogus fifty-eent pieces made of Babbett . metal, which they had found concealed in some brush near where the men were arrested."
CHANGES OF CIRCUIT DISTRICTS
In 1839, the year following the separation of Iowa Territory from Wisconsin, the latter was divided into three judicial distriets: The first, to include Iowa, Grant and Crawford; the second, Dane (to which Sauk had but recently been attached for judicial purposes), Jefferson, Rock, Walworth and Green; and the third, the counties of Brown, Milwaukee and Racine. Sauk County, at its organization in 1844, was still in the Second District. Upon the admission of Wiseonsin as a state in 1848, it was divided into five judicial circuits, Sauk County, with the Counties of Washington, Dodge, Columbia, Marquette and Portage, being in the third eireuit. In 1855 Sauk County was attached to the ninth eirenit. In the meantime, in accord with a constitutional provision, the duties of the Circuit and Supreme Court judges were separated, and these bodies have since been distinet.
It would serve no good purpose to give a list of the judges who pre- sided over the old second and third circuits, in which Sauk County was included, or to mention the abilities of Judges Irvin and Larrabee; for they never were residents of Sauk County and are therefore without the jurisdiction of this history. The same may be said of Judge Alexander L. Collins, who presided over the ninth distriet when Sauk County first became a part of it, of Luther S. Dixon, who was elevated to the State Supreme Beneh; and of Harlow S. Orton and Alva Stewart, the latter one of the veterans of the Circuit Beneh.
CIRCUIT AND SUPREME COURT JUDGES
Sauk County has furnished one judge, Robert G. Siebecker, for the home cireuit. He was born in the Town of Merrimack, October 17, 1851. and was educated in the common schools, a private academy at Madison and the University of Wisconsin, graduating in June, 1878. He com-
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pleted the law course in the same institution in 1880. He was admitted to the bar in 1879 and practiced until January 7, 1890, when he was elected judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit. At the time of his appoint- ment he was city attorney in Madison, having held the office since 1886. He was twice elected circuit judge and on April 7, 1903, was elevated to the Supreme Court, his term beginning in January, 1904. He has since remained on the highest bench in the state.
Roujet D. Marshall, LL. D., of the Supreme Court, is also from Sauk County. He was born December 27, 1847, in Nashua, New Hampshire, and came to the Town of Delton, Sauk County, with his parents in 1854. He was educated in the district school, Delton Academy, Baraboo Col- legiate Institute and Lawrence University. He commenced the study of law when seventeen, walking between his home and Baraboo much of the time, the distance each way being ten miles. He was willing to make great sacrifices, so eager was he for an education. In connection with his school work he pursued the study of law until he was twenty-four, when he was admitted to the bar. He practiced at Chippewa Falls until he became county judge in 1876. He was elected circuit judge of the Eleventh Circuit in 1888 and 1894. He was appointed to the Supreme Bench by Governor Upham in 1895 to succeed Chief Justice Harlow S. Orton, deceased, and held the office until retired in January, 1918. Judge Marshall was a member of the board of regents of the University of Wisconsin, 1884-1886.
PROBATE JUDGES
It is far different with the members of the Probate Court. On March 11, 1844, the voters of Sauk Prairie Precinct elected among other county officers, a probate judge in the person of Prescott Brigham. But he did not hold it long, for in September of that year (the county having been organized and Baraboo election precinct created) a second election took place, in pursuance with the provisions of the organic act, and Lorrin Cowles, father of Dr. Charles Cowles, of Baraboo, was chosen to the Probate Bench. Judge Cowles and his brother, New England people, but pioneers of Kalamazoo, Michigan, had recently settled in the Bara- boo Valley, where the former was elected to the Probate Bench. Doctor Cowles, the son, was the second physician to settle in Sauk County.
It is the belief of an old settler that Judge Cowles' successor was George Cargel. Maj. W. H. Clark was then elected to the office and at the expiration of his term he was succeeded, in 1849, by James M. Clark, who was re-elected. Judge Clark resigned before his second term of office expired, and R. G. Camp was appointed to fill the vacancy. E. G. Wheeler was chosen to the position in 1853 and served until 1857, when S. S. Barlow was elceted as his successor. John B. Quimby succeeded to the office in 1861 and, being re-elected in 1865, retired in favor of C. C. Remington in 1869.
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JUDGE C. C. REMINGTON
For many years previous to his death, October 13, 1878, Judge Rem- ington was acknowledged to be at the head of the Sauk County bar. He had been practicing, and ably performing his duties as a legislator and a judge, sinee 1847. The judge, who was a native of New York, located near Waukesha, Wisconsin, with his parents, in 1840, being then sixteen years of age. After working on the family farm for six years, he studied law with Alexander Randall, of Waukesha, afterward governor of Wis- consin, and with Finch & Lynde, a leading Milwaukee firm. Soon after his admission to the bar in February, 1847, he located in Baraboo and commenced practice. In 1854 he was elected to the Wisconsin Assembly as a representative of Adams and Sauk counties. Ile served as county judge from January, 1870, to April, 1873. With the exception of these periods, he was an active and a most successful practitioner.
JOHN BARKER
When Judge Remington resigned from the Probate Bench in April, 1873, the governor appointed Jolin Barker to fill the vacancy, who con- tinued to hold the position until his successor was elected in the following year. When Judge Barker died in 1889 he was in partnership with one of Judge Remington's sons, Arthur Remington, now a resident of Olympia, Washington. While an able and most honorable member of the profes- sion, the deceased was not a brilliant one. But, as stated by one of his friends: "A lawyer who turns away a client and makes him go home and shake hands with his neighbor across a disputed land line, shows that the man in him is greater and of more worth than all his learning and his talents; and that sort of practice marked the career of this attor- ney and made him rich, too-rich in the only true wealth-wealth that does not rust, that cannot be stolen, that alone possibly may be carried out of the world, the love of his fellow men." A native of New York, Mr. Barker came to Baraboo from Ohio in 1865. Before entering active practice he taught for awhile as principal of the local schools, and, at various times in the course of his practice served as town clerk, town treasurer and district attorney. Everyone had confidence in him and he might have held other public offices had he so desired.
EPHRAIM W. YOUNG
James W. Lusk was elected probate judge in 1873 and Giles Stevens in 1877. He was succeeded by Ephraim W. Young, in January, 1882. Judge Young was twice re-elected, and had served little more than half of his third term at the time of his deccase, March 25, 1892. He was a Maine man, graduated from Harvard with honors and studied hydraulic
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engineering and the higher mathematies before being admitted to prac- tice in the Massachusetts courts. Among all the judges and lawyers of Sauk County there was probably never one who was Judge Young's equal in breadth and thoroughness of scholarship. When he first came to Wis- consin he practiced for a short time in a small country town; then bonght a farm of 260 acres in the Town of Prairie du Sac on the Wisconsin River. For a time the family lived in a little house of two rooms, a larger and more comfortable residence being subsequently constructed. Situated on an eminence, it commanded a view for miles of the most beautiful of prairies and in the distance the far-away Blue Mounds. Son of a farmer, he loved the business of raising everything and any- thing-fruits, grains, cattle, horses and hogs, hops and sorghum-in all he found pleasure. "But, best of all," says one who knew him well, "he liked to open new land, to fell trees and grub. It was to him a pastime. As years passed, finding himself in no better circumstances financially, he concluded to sell out and resume the practice of law. For fourteen or fifteen years he attended the assembly sessions in Madison, being a member one year; then holding a clerkship a few years; and later was chief clerk seven or eight years. He was trustee of the Wisconsin State Hospital for the Insane from 1860 to 1874, and a member of the com- mission to locate the Northern Hospital for the Insane. A Republican in politics, and the nominee of his party in 1873 for secretary of state, he shared the fate of his associates in the defeat of that year. At dif- ferent times he was urged to become a candidate for Congress, but al- ways declined. Upon being elected to the County bench in 1882, Judge Young moved to Baraboo. For several years he was a member of the City Board of Education, and prominent in the affairs of the Free Con- gregational church. His last illness was severe and short, he passing away in a moment-without warning. A noble man gone-conscientious, kind, and generous; faithful in the discharge of duties, public and private, he was universally loved and respected."
Judge Young was succeeded by W. T. Kelsey, in April, 1892, and Judge Kelsey has given such general satisfaction that he is still on the hench.
PEN-SKETCHES OF EARLY PROBATE JUDGES
As to the earlier occupants of the bench, one of the old settlers recalled Judge Cowles as "a sturdy, honest old farmer, and likewise Judge Cargel; both fully competent to handle the affairs of the office at that date. Major Clark was a native of Madison county, New York. A graduate of Hamilton College, he was a fine scholar and an able lawyer. On account of his skill in his profession and his ability in the Legis- lature (he having been a member of one of the Territorial Legislatures), he came to be known as the Lion of Sauk. An amusing ineident is re-
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lated concerning the Judge who, being engaged in the prosecution of a case of theft, in which the prisoner was charged with having stolen a light wagon, replied to the Latin phrase, 'Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus,' 'Yes, a man that will lie about a one-horse wagon will lie about an omnibus.'
"Judge James M. Clark was a graduate of an eastern law school. He was a sociable gentleman, thoroughly competent. He went from here to Tennessee, and later moved to Greeley, Colorado. Judge Wheeler, afterward of Sioux Falls, Dakota, bore his honors easy and had the confidence of the people. His successor, Judge Barlow, made a good judge. He has also distinguished himself as district attorney, member of the Assembly several terms, and attorney general of the state. Judge Remington was a man of strong convictions and, like most men of mark, had some enemies."
JUDGE REMINGTON'S REMINISCENCES
At one of the Old Settlers' meetings held at Prairie du Sac in 1873, Judge C. C. Remington delivered an address, in which is the following relating to county seat rivalries, land claims and complications and lawsuits : "When I first came here, Judge Irvin held court in the schoolhouse in Prairie du Sac. The county seat was there. The two Sauk villages could not agree about the location, and rather than let the upper town keep it the lower town voted it to Baraboo. That was an unlucky quarrel for Sauk-as we called this prairie part of our county -a foolish quarrel. It was just like all other quarrels in that respect. Wisdom must depart to make room for a quarrel. Had the county buildings been located at the point half way between the two towns they would have grown together long ago. Baraboo was the lucky 'third candidate' that time. This was before my time. Baraboo contracted considerable of an obligation to the lower town in this affair. She was not allowed to forget it, and she didn't want to. The two villages often afterwards sent up double delegations to county conventions. The lower town set seemed to have regularity on their side. At all events they were admitted to the exclusion of their neighbors. At one time the upper town got its revenge by also sending a double delegation to the Portage Senatorial District Convention. This senate district at that time comprised what is now the counties of Columbia, Sauk, Juneau, Adams, Marquette, Wood, Portage and Marathon. The result of it all was, that out of the quarrel of the double delegation grew such dissatis- faction that the opposition candidate, Col. Jas. S. Allan, then of the pinery, was elected. Although he was one of our earliest settlers, he was not the candidate of either of the other pugnacious factions. Had the Sauk county delegation united on one man from Sauk he would have been nominated and elected. Since then these two enterprising villages
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have built one more bridge across the Wisconsin than they need to, had the first one been built by an umpire with power of location and power to enforce an equal contribution from the said towns. That would have gone a good way toward drawing the two towns together. They seem to have hit upon the right plan at last; a depot where the court house and bridge ought to have been. That, we hear, has been agreed upon. All that is lacking is the consent of the third party, the railroad. May that consent not be long withheld.
"We have nothing to brag of in the way of peace and harmony ou our side of the bluff. The Baraboo valley was the last to settle. The farms were newer, and it fell more under the sway of the claim laws than Sauk prairie did. When the early settler came, he could not buy his farm if he had the money. The land was not in market. When it did come in market, he had in many cases spent his money, and he held his farm by claim- a neighbor institution not known or respected at the land office.
"Shortly after my arrival, or at least within a year or so thereafter, I was gravely informed by a very intelligent, honest and conscientious man, in a confidential way, that he had begun to entertain serious doubts as to whether it was right to kill a man for jumping a claim. Such a thing as a man's buying against the claim law the home 40 on which a poor man lived and worked did not occur. It would not have been a safe investment for any man. Such was the first tenure under which the soil was occupied. We had our rival towns, Baraboo, known as Brown Town, and Lyons. The village of Baraboo was then merely one 40-acre tract, extending but a few rods south of the river. The quarter section on which the county seat was located was north and west of Baraboo. It was bought by the early settler, Prescott Brigham, of the government for the county. The county had no money in those days. County orders were fifty cents on the dollar, and heavy barter at that. The reason this quarter section had not been bought up before was, it had been claimed for the benefit of the school district. The county seat and post office was Adams. Baraboo was not a name of high esteem among the natives. Its oddity, or ugliness, triumphed, or the good sense of the people came to it at last. At any rate, the name pre- vails, and it rests in the hearts of our people. Lyons has napped away her day on the rapids, and is contentedly nestling under the spreading wings of her old rival, not a little proud of being taken for a part of the same town. Indeed, Baraboo has done amazingly well in improving upon the strength of the push the lower town gave her. What say you? Let us give Upper Sauk equal credit, for the lower town could not have quarreled without the upper town to help her in the muss. Besides all that, the lower town wanted the county seat just as much as either of the three. She had sense enough to see that there was no site for her between
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the other two; and so made choice of what was deemed the lesser evil, and Baraboo was chosen.
"Another town has done remarkably well since Wisconsin was a ter- ritory. That is Babb's Ford. With that spirit for novelty and restless- ness most unaccountable, the name has been changed to Reedsburg. Although Reedsburg had a member in the legislature all winter long, I don't know as he did anything toward getting the name changed back. The member was not to blame. There were a good many laws to alter. You know our laws don't keep much longer than eggs without turning, and the turning of eggs and the making of laws is very much the same kind of business. Anybody that can do one can the other. The talent required for either is to know enough to count twelve, and repeat. But as this is chiefly an old settlers' arrangement, let us return to the subject, or rather turn to it.
"I am not going to undertake any record of events that fell under my observation in this country under territorial times, for several rea- sons: First, I did not observe anything worthy of note. I have seen rafts of lumber run over the Baraboo rapids. I clerked it for Mr. H. Canfield at the first sale of lots in Adams (now Baraboo). He died at the plow long ago. He was a good man, full of schemes. He was my first patron and earliest friend. He helped me when I most needed it. But for him my board bill would have accumulated on my hands, and this acknowledgment is all I can do towards squaring the account.
"I might report to you the trial of some men in a justice court held in the log schoolhouse (the only building on the county seat), Squire Garrison presiding. The offense charged was burglary and arson. Col. D. K. Noyes and I were counsel for the defendants. There was a jury trial. After several adjournments and delays, the jury became aware of the nature of the proceedings and wisely concluded that a higher court alone had jurisdiction. They refused to attend court any more, and the defendants escaped punishment. They had only been trying to enforce the claim laws. But it is not worth while to go into such things.
"A second reason is, that if there was anything worthy of note it would not be worth while to attempt to impale it now, for we have our Josephus contemporary historian-yea, social histographer and geog- rapher. We are sketched and mapped out with outlines and in-lines by-well, you all know him. But for him many noble sayings and doings, and some of our highways and byways, might now be 'sleeping the sleep that knows no waking.' By the aid of his maps and diagrams of the ancients and moderns, and sketches and certificates of the same, we may reasonably hope for all the immortal fame in this world that we are in any wise justly entitled to. More than that would be a sin not worth committing. So, on that head, we may rest in quiet, easy indif- ference, that all is well; or as well as can be."
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SOME OF THE EARLY LAWYERS (MAJOR CLARK)
Elbridge D. Jackson, who was an early resident and attorney of Baraboo and afterward moved to Minneapolis, contributed an interest- ing paper to the local press sketching some of the pioneer practitioners of the county seat, where they most did congregate. "First and fore- most in point of time and reputation as a lawyer," he says, "was Major Clark, as he was always called. Where he came from, what his prepa- ration was or what became of him, is equally unknown to the writer. For very many years he was the oracle of the law in the little hamlet. At that time he must have been in middle life, and had already acquired sufficient of what is called lex scripta, or the law of the law books, to stand him in good stead in those days of meager legal learning. Being naturally of a legal turn of mind, he could apply the principles in which he was well grounded to the facts of the case in hand and make what is now called a pretty good guess without studying up. He always retained the confidence of the courts in his knowledge of the law, and had the faculty of getting down to the underlying principle governing the controversy, which always in those days was particularly convincing, especially before the justices of the peace. He was what may be called a silent man; his words were measured; he rarely joked, but was grave and solemn. He spoke alinost as an oracle, seemingly from a deep well of wisdom, and had a far-away look. Lawyers associated him with them- selves in the trials for guidance often, but more likely to discuss the la'w of the case to the court. He dispensed counsel on the street, more often in pleasant weather from the front door of the hotel where he was wont to spend many an hour. Had it not been for his confirmed habit, not so rare in those days, of continuous use of strong drink, no one can tell what success he might have achieved even in those days of small things. One thing he did achieve, however, and that was the universal recognition of the community that he was a profound lawyer.
JUSTICE OF THE PEACE ARMSTRONG
"In those days even justices of the peace in the village, who had any legal turn of mind, gradually acquired sufficient knowledge of the law from the trials before them to practice themselves without further preparation. Such was the ease with Justice of the Peace Armstrong, who was a conspicuous figure for many years in both capacities. He was an Irishman, or had some of that blood, so essential to a good lawyer, in his veins. Though quite diffident in the use of language, he had a faculty of pretty carefully sifting the leading and controlling circum- stances of a case and getting them before a court or jury as the case might be. He was rather tall and angular, with a naturally very ruddy complexion and almost the opposite in appearance to Major Clark, who
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was rather below medium in size, with something of a round featured visage set off with a pointed nose.
BILL BROWN
"Bill Brown was another who confined his legal efforts to courts of justices of the peace. He came into the law naturally through early and exciting litigation in his own family and to a large extent growing out of the property left by his noble brother, George, at the time of his tragic death at the raising of a bent at the mill. Bill Brown for a great many years was regarded as the best statute lawyer in Sauk county ; in fact, he knew little of the law than what was contained in the statutes of Wisconsin, and these he knew by heart. It gave him a vast advantage over others who knew even more law, but not so well, the statutes. Many a victory was won in justice court by him through such familiarity with existing laws his adversary knew nothing of. Bill Brown was an antagonist in court that could not be downed by bluffs, and not always by argument, for he was like Goldsmith's attorney, wlio, though vanquished, could argue still.
"There was nearly always something doing in the courts between Bill Brown and Philarmon Pratt, mostly growing out of water power interests along the Baraboo river in Browntown, as originally called. Each had about equal staying qualities and never knew or seemed to know when defeated. Besides this a good bit of real hot blood often mingled with the litigation and left its stain long after. Both lived to a ripe age and are gone now, while the unvexed Baraboo flows on as though these two doughty antagonists had never contended in perennial strife.
NELS WHEELER
"Nels Wheeler was among the elders of the law, and continued to be a lively factor down to the times fitly called recent. He was not so much a lawyer as a wag, good fellow, man of humor and entertaining speaker. In fact he was in great demand in the school districts round- about Baraboo and also Chippewa Falls, where for several years he practiced, as a funny lecturer, in which he certainly had real talent. He wrote a book entitled 'Old Thunderbolt in Justice Court,' which was an attempt to portray his experience at the bar, but it fell so far short of reaching the mark as to be disappointing. While there are some really good things in the book, it only serves to show how impossible it is to transfer a living personality to the cold printed page, and especially such a rollicking, side-splitting, good-natured fellow as Nels Wheeler really was. And yet he could try a case in court very well. It de- pended ou the kind of case. If such as to afford a field for the play of Vol. 1-18
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