USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 13
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
period of Brown county's legal history. It is a suit brought by the children of an early French resident to prove their title to property in the town of Astor, and shows the confusion which ensued because of these common-law marriages and the difficulty of obtaining proof sufficient to make good the claim of the children as rightful heirs to their parents' property. The witnesses in this legal proceeding are from families who occupied the land in 1804, as many of the original owners were at that time ( 1839) still surviving.
Question : "When did the laws of the whites come in force here?"
Answer: "When Judge Doty came here, which was in the spring of 1824. There were some white people here (De Pere), in 1802. When a white man took a white woman to wife they were married before witnesses-when a white person took a squaw for a wife they were married according to the Indian custom, which was by asking the consent of the Indian parents-the son-in-law would make presents to the girl's parents, who would send the girl to the son- in-law's house and he would afterward assist in supporting the parents.
"The Indians and whites were living mixed. There was a settlement here it was among the Indians on each side of the river. I mean from the place on the river from Captain (Judge) Arndt's up here to Depere. The Indians lived in that place, they had their villages here and planted corn-they left in the fall to hunt and returned in the spring The white settlement extended from here (De Pere) to Judge Arndt's and the Indian residents intermingled with those of the whites."
In the county court Judge Porlier held the office of chief justice and judge of probate until succeeded by John Lawe, whose signature first appears in a record of June 24, 1824. Both Porlier and Lawe were fur traders, devot- ing their time and interests to the furtherance of this traffic, still the most important industry of the county. Beaver pelts were becoming rather scarce but other fur-bearing animals were to be taken in abundance, and agents of the American Fur Company were the top of the heap socially in the Fox river settle- ment. Lawe's home was situated on Lawe's Point, a sandy spit of land that jutted out in the river at the western extremity of Porlier street, in the present city of Green Bay, while Porlier lived in a little low house built by a voyageur, Joseph Roy, on the west side of the river and so nearly opposite to Lawe's trad- ing house that each could watch the other when the season for gathering in the peltries was on, and the river was dotted with loaded canoes. While in league against outside interference Lawe, Porlier and Grignon were intensely jealous of any possible advantage one might gain over the other, and the ethics of the fur trade were sternly enforced in their intercourse.
There is a letter of John Lawe's preserved in the Historical Library at Mad- ison, written in 1824. which absolutely, without intention, gives a vivid picture of the trader's trials at this time. It is a dark and gloomy day in November, the river running rough outside, his trading house, which stood close to the water's edge, filled with drunken Indians haggling over the price to be charged them for guns and trinkets. Lawe, thoroughly sick of the whole outfit, writes that no more Indians must be allowed to come down to the settlement. "Tell them that the smallpox is raging. Amable Grignon has it, and the fort has gone into quarantine. No boats can cross the river."
In the corner of the large room stood the scales on which peltry packs were
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
weighed, and there was little other furniture in the room except the high desk where the clerks stood to make out the accounts and the inventories. There is, however quite another side to the picture. for Lawe's house was a rendezvous for officers and civilians, and many were the gay gatherings that took place there.
In "Life in Territorial Wisconsin," Mrs. Henry S. Baird describes Judge Lawe's log house in 1824; this house was later replaced by a commodious and handsomely built frame dwelling erected about 1836:
"Judge Lawe's home, a large one-story building with many additions stood near the river, and a path led from it through the grass to the beach. The ceil- ings were very low and the windows small, so small that when the Indians came peering in, the room was almost darkened. An indescribable air of mystery hung over the place, there was a dreamy appearance about the whole. Then all around the house and store stood Indians waiting to trade off their peltries. One might sit in that house and imagine all sorts of things not likely to happen."
The minute book of the Brown county court during Judge Lawe's incum- bency does not show a crowded docket. One entry after another reads "The court met this day, Present, Hon. John Lawe, Judge of Probate. Therefore the court adjourned." The "indisposition of the Judge," or "the inclemency of the weather," this entry being on the second of May, or "the Judge not appearing" were all sufficient causes for adjournment. The French inhabitants seemed to have died intestate, and their estates were not settled in probate court, that of Domitelle Langevin's being the most complicated which appeared before Judge Lawe.
Robert Irwin, junior, who first began his political career as register of probate, in 1824, was sent to the first legislative council of Michigan territory, serving for three years. He also held the office of first postmaster of Brown county. All offices were situated in Shantytown, "Munomonee, Green Bay township." as Judge Doty heads his letters at this date. As a matter of fact, however, the Green Bay township was not founded until on the 12th of April, 1827, an act was passed "to divide the several counties in this territory into townships." In that portion of the territory which is now Wisconsin but two townships were formed, of which one was in Crawford county and called "St. Anthony." The other was in Brown county, and was called "Green Bay." The south- western boundary of the latter was a line running southeast and northwest through the head of the rapids of the grand Kaukanlin and extending ten miles on such line each way therefrom. The northeastern boundary was a line drawn northwest and southeast through Point au Sable of Green Bay and extending ten miles on such a line each way therefrom. The southeast and northwest boundaries were parallel lines, twenty miles apart, connecting the other bound- aries. Fox river consequently ran nearly through the center of the township.
When the question of a county seat for Brown was brought into prominence Lewis Cass, spokesman and lawgiver for all the territory west of Lake Mich- igan, authorized the justices of the county court to locate the seat within six miles of the mouth of the Fox river. They neglected to act, and in 1824 the Territorial Council of Michigan passed the responsibility over to the county commissioners. Neither would they decide, and the next year, 1825, the commit- Vol. 1-T
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tee on decisions was formed to consist of the justices of the peace, the county commissioners and the United States judge; whereupon the seat of justice was fixed at Menomineeville, in a log house, erected for the reception of the county officials, until the year 1828. On the seventeenth of March of that year Doty wrote in regard to the trial of Red Bird, the celebrated Winnebago chief, then imprisoned at Fort Winnebago.
"It is expected the Winnebaygo prisoners will be tried at G .. Bay or St. Louis. Col. McKenny prefers the latter place-and to this I certainly shall not object. I expect the territorial committee will report a bill making several * amendments to the act creating the circuit court. * * I beg you to urge the supervisors to take measures to erect a building of some sort to hold the court in-if it is only a Winnebaygo wigwaam."
The town of Menomineeville grew apace and the slope and plain below was dotted with the log cabins of settlers. Judge Doty, always an ambitious spirit in pioneer house building, had erected for his use, a large frame house which stood on the river shore just across from Ashwaubenon creek on private claim 21. It was a two-story structure and was afterwards purchased by the govern- ment (1827) for an Indian agency house. By the following year the judge had put up another homestead. This was a one-story brick dwelling, the material for which was brought by sailing vessel from the east and was stuccoed and white- washed. The house was still in process of building in March, 1828, and of it Doty writes: "I wish you or Mr. Whitney would make a bargain for me with any mechanic at the bay to paint and pencil the outside of my brick house. * * Please say to my friend, Major Brevoort, that I have sold my frame house to the Govt., but as I have not yet received the money I can not transfer it to him until my return. There has been a great and unnecessary delay about this which I can explain when I see you."
In 1830 when a treaty was in progress between the New York Indians and the western tribes, the Menominees indicated their choice of the person they wished as counsel as "one who lived in a brick house and was judge of the high court," and this identification of the well-known jurist (Doty) is significant of the wide impression made on the Indians as well as white men by the construc- tion of a brick house in these western wilds. Meantime in the probate court Judge Lawe had resigned in favor of N. G. Bean and on June 14, 1832, wrote : "I recom- mended N. G. Bean for the appointment of judge of probate at the same time I sent in my resignation. I see you write to Bernard Grignon to enquire of me who I wish to recommend but if they will not consent to appoint him, though I wish very much he would be appointed, I wish to be exonerated immediately, and you will please recommend any person that you know will do honor & justice & not let it fall into the hands you know of some persons that will or may make bad use or take advantage of the power."
The appointment of Nicolas G. Bean, Lawe's protegee, to the county judge- ship was received within the following year, Bean assuming his duties on June 22, 1833. He was in many ways a man of ability, a former lieutenant in the regular army but who had retired from the service in 1815. Without relatives or friends; Bean was taken under the patronage of John Lawe, then one of the wealthiest and most powerful of the residents on the shores of Fox river. Lawe proved a good friend of the morose, disappointed man, and in his hospitable home
IP HA A TT of the TOWN of
Real 4th Jany 1829 at 12 Oclock m and recorded in volume B page 146 - Alex J Irwin Dept Rey Requester fees $ 125
VARIATION OF THE NEEDLE 6'SJE
MUNNOMONE E in the
county of Brown, John Lawe Ropretor
No 18 No 29
No 34 NO
No 15
0
STREET
6OFT
No 4 No 5
No 24
60FT
12OFT
NO IL NO 13
No 23
No 26 Nost
NO 32 NO 37
KISQUAUkLE STREET
No 40
No 45
No 22
No 55 110 60
NO 49
No 41
No 46
No.54
ILOFT
ILOFT
NO 21
60 FT
LOFT
6OFT
No 20
330FT
DONATION OF LAND TO
No So No 53
No 56 No 59
LOFT
60FT
AS A SITE FOR A
No J No 8
No 4 No 16
No 18
HAVING BEEN ESTABLISHED UPON THIS LOT
No 17
Sept Sth 1825
400 FT
GOFT
LOFT
6OFT
GOFT
60FT
190 FT
2LOFT
No 51 No 54
Postowotome Street
No 57 Nos8
IROQUOIS STREET
N 55°W
IN EEN AUPOD STREET
No 2 No 7
No 10 IT0 15
Toway Street.
No 19
AS A SITE FOR THE PUBLIC BUILDINGS
CHRIST'S CHURCH
N Ss W
CHURCH AND
YARD.
LOFT
PUBLIC HIGHWAY 40 FT WIDE
TAVE MERIDIAN
60 FT N DE
Saukee Street Co
No 27 No 30
No JaNo 36
No 38 1
10 47
١٩٩٢٣
SOFT
No 39
NO 46
SOFT
HOOFT WIDE
Chippewaw Streit.
SOFT WIDE
99FT
SOFT
NO 48
No 3 No 6
No Il No 14
Donation of Land to the County BROTT;
NO 42
No 43
DANCOTAN STREET
THE SEAT OF JUSTICE OF SAID COUNTY
Minwebaygo Street
7
OTTAWWAW
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
AUTOR, LEADX AND
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
Bean was given comfortable quarters and the freedom of the house. Barring out his one great fault of intemperance, Judge Bean was acknowledged to be remarkably correct in his decisions and unswerving in his integrity. "It is often said that Bean, drunk or sober, would do justice though the heavens should fall. Some fault was found with the locale of his docket, which it was feared would be lost, and the rights of parties go with it-it was kept in his hat crown. After all no one ever sought in vain for a paper; it was always speedily produced from the safe receptacle-his hat."
At the second session of the third legislative council of the territory of Michigan, 1829, it was provided that the county courts of the territory including those of Michilimackinac, Brown and Crawford should not from that time on have jurisdiction in any civil matter in law or equity. This was during Judge Lawe's incumbency and the act remained in force until 1875, when the law creat- ing a new county court in Brown was passed, and civil jurisdiction restored. This act, however, was later repealed and jurisdiction in probate matters only was given to the county court.
Nicolas Bean held the office of judge of probate for four years, up to the time of his death. He was succeeded by Joel S. Fisk, a practical, astute business man who had studied law but was not practicing. Judge Fisk held the office from March, 1827, until the following December when he resigned and moved to De Pere. George Meredith, of whom no particulars can be gleaned, kept the minute book and apparently presided over the court until February 26, 1838, when Charles C. P. Arndt was appointed to the position.
Green Bay was in this year regularly incorporated as a borough and the office of judge of probate was an important one. Young Arndt gave very good satisfaction and was still holding the office when he was elected as one of the members of the state legislative council from Brown county. The last entry made by him as judge is on July 29, 1841. In February, 1842, he was shot in the legislative hall at Madison by James R. Vineyard, the most tragie event that ever occurred in the political life of Wisconsin.
Arndt's father, John P. Arndt, succeeded him in the office of probate judge, and began his duties on April 30, 1842, only retaining the position, however, until August 7, 1843.
The next incumbent, Charles Chapman, was a well known and well-liked resident of Green Bay, who although not a lawyer, discharged the duties of his office satisfactorily. The county seat was now established at De Pere and there was constant grumbling among the residents of the older borough over the inconvenience caused in the transaction of business. The term of office by suc- ceeding judges of probate up to 1849 is uniformly very short, not exceeding a year and a half at the longest.
David Agry seems to have occupied the bench from February 3, 1845, to October 4th of the same year when John Last came into office, holding the posi- tion until June 5, 1847. Judge Last was a highly educated Englishman and well read in the law, who came to America in 1832 and held during ensuing years many offices of trust and importance in Green Bay. From September, 1848, for one year John P. Arndt again occupied the Brown county bench, but in Septem- ber of 1849 David Agry, the stalwart and highly-respected incumbent for the ensuing twenty-eight years, entered into the duties of his office.
In 1875, the organization of a new county court in Brown county necessitated
633356
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
the election of an additional judge and Morgan L. Martin was elected to the office. On the death of Judge Agry in February, 1877, Judge Martin assumed the duties of the probate court, civil jurisdiction having been largely curtailed in the county court.
On the death of Judge Martin on December 10, 1887, Howard J. Huntington was appointed by the governor to fill the unexpired term. Judge Huntington proved a very popular jurist during the fifteen years in which he occupied the Brown county bench, his death occurring in the spring of 1902.
The present incumbent, Carlton Merrill, after serving by appointment Judge Huntington's unexpired term of office, was elected without opposition and has filled the Brown county judgeship most acceptably and honorably. Judge Merrill is a son of Curtis R. Merrill, who during the war of the rebellion was provost marshal and in charge of the recruiting station at Green Bay.
In the early circuit court, which included the counties of Brown, Crawford and Michilimackinac, James Duane Doty was succeeded, in 1832, by David Irvin of Virginia, who when not holding court made his home in that state or in Ohio. This indifference to his political supporters naturally nettled the people of Brown county, and it was questioned whether a non-resident could legally retain so responsible a position in the territory.
A petition was sent to President Jackson, urging him to make another appointment, but "Old Hickory" seems to have regarded "the voice of an injured territory," as unworthy of serious attention, the appeal was ignored, and the stately dignified Irvin retained his judicial circuit until the formation of Wisconsin territory in 1836, when he was transferred to another district and became an associate justice of the territorial supreme court.
Justice Pinney's estimate of Judge Irvin was as follows: "He was not con- sidered a profound lawyer. but with a strong vein of practical common sense and a natural love of justice ; after hearing the arguments and examining the authori- ties he was generally enabled to give correct and satisfactory decisions."
The Virginian is thus described by a contemporary: "Judge Irvin was spare of form, thin and pallid of face, and had a sparse covering on his head of dull yellow hair, brushed straight back from his forehead, which set off his peculiar facial development in somewhat cadaverous fashion. He came to Wisconsin fully imbued with the dignity of his office and with absorbing devotion to his native state. Aristocratic in lineage, full of almost childish whims and crochets, yet with a keen sense of humor which gave him a happy vein in story telling. The judge's passion for horses and dogs was excessive, and it became a kind of local proverb that in order to win a case in his court one must praise his horse. 'Pedro,' and his dog. "York.' "
Wisconsin during Judge Irwins' term of office still formed a part of Mich- igan territory and the circuit was practically the same as when Judge Doty first came into office in 1824. With the organization of Wisconsin territory the judiciary followed the precedent established in other states and power was vested in a supreme court, district courts, probate courts and justices of the peace. Wisconsin was divided into three judicial districts, in each of which at a stated time and place regular sessions of court were to be held, presided over by a judge, who served by presidential appointment and held his office "during
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
good behaviour." The supreme court was made up of these district judges who were empowered to elect one of their number as chief justice.
On the twenty-second of May. 1837, Judge William C. Frazer held his first term of court in De Pere, succeeding Judge Irvin. No civil cases were tried in consequence of the disarrangement of records and papers, the county seat having been moved to that place from Menomineeville only the year previous. The criminal calendar was, however, disposed of during the week's term. Maw- zaw-mon-nee-hah, a Winnebago Indian, was indicted for the murder of Pierre Pauquette, a well known creole fur trader at Fort Winnebago, and was sentenced to be hung on the first of September following. For burglary a prisoner was sentenced to seven years' solitary confinement in the county jail at hard labor and in addition a fine of $100 was imposed.
Judging by newspaper comments of that day Judge Frazer's first appearance on the Brown county bench was highly creditable. His decisions were prompt and drastic and his dignified mode of conducting proceedings was in marked contrast to his later and less approved judicial methods.
"He had fallen into intemperate habits and his health. both physical and mental, had become seriously impaired. He was sixty years old and nervous, impatient, arbitrary and often harsh, overbearing and offensive in his judicial conduct and in his treatment of the members of the bar." ( Bench & Bar of Wisconsin.)
Judge Frazer's death occurred in October, 1838. and in November of the same year Andrew Galbraith Miller was appointed as his successor. The first term of court held in the new court house at De Pere was presided over by Judge Miller, who proved himself to be a jurist of exceptional acumen and ability. It was fifteen years and more after his first appearance on the Brown county bench that Judge Miller, as federal judge, handed in his famous decision uphold- ing the fugitive slave law.
The proceedings in the Wisconsin federal court during the fifties assumed national importance and contributed not a little toward preparing the way for the conflict of arms between the free and slave states in 1861. Feeling throughout Wisconsin against the law was very strong, and most of those who thronged the courtroom in Milwaukee daily, when the trial of Sherman Booth, who aided the escape of the slave, Joshua Glover, was in progress, were in warm sympathy with the accused. Judge Miller presided with calm dignity and unflinching firm- ness and courage. He believed the law to be valid and his duty to enforce it plain under the official oath, whatever he might think of its wisdom or abstract justice. For a time Judge Miller was decidedly unpopular throughout Wiscon- sin and feeling ran high against him, until later when it was proved that although upholding the federal law in regard to the return of the escaped slave to his master, he in other ways aided the slave and approved the action of his res- cuers.
Judge Miller was the last of the territorial judges to preside in the little De Pere courthouse. Wisconsin was admitted into the union as a state in June, 1848, and the judicial organization of Brown county changed in common with the rest of the newly created commonwealth. It became a portion of the fourth judicial circuit which comprised the counties of Brown, Sheboygan, Manitowoc, Winnebago, Calumet and Fond du Lac.
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
Alexander W. Stowe, a native of Lowville, New York, was elected judge of the fourth circuit and later chosen by his associates in the Wisconsin judiciary, chief justice of the state supreme court. Of Judge Stowe's ability Judge Mor- gan L. Martin, his lifelong friend, wrote: "As presiding officer of the supreme court his highest eulogium may be found in the opinions he pronounced during his short official term. They exhibit great comprehensiveness of thought ; are terse, excisive and pungent in diction and furnish models of judicial compo- sition."
At the fall elections of 1850, Timothy Otis Howe was elected judge of the fourth circuit and in January, 1851, took his seat as an associate justice of the supreme court. Judge Howe was a native of Maine, who had been a resident of Green Bay since 1845 and had become prominent as a practicing lawyer and in the social life of the town. During the winter of 1852, a separate supreme court was created in Wisconsin, the judges of the circuit court thus losing their functions as associate judges.
Judge Howe resigned from the circuit bench in 1855, and resumed the prac- tice of law in Green Bay. He had at this time gained reputation as an .able law- yer, and had come to the front politically as a speaker for the newly organized republican party. It is said that Howe would have received the Wisconsin senatorship in 1857, had he not strenuously opposed the states rights issue, for the country was already in a disturbed and expectant condition and the feeling between the parties was bitter. In 186t Judge Howe took his seat in the United States senate, an office which he held for eighteen years. In 1880, by appointment of President Garfield, he became postmaster general, serving in the cabinet of President Arthur. His death occurred in March 25, 1883.
Judge Howe's other public services included a commissionership for the pur- chase of the Black Hills territory from the Indians and membership in the international monetary conference held in Paris in 1881.
After July 1, 1855, the eastern district including the counties of Brown, Kewaunee, Door. Outagamie, Oconto and Shawano were formed into a new circuit to be called the tenth judicial circuit, Stephen Rossiter Cotton of Green Bay being elected as presiding judge to succeed Judge Howe. A native of Ply- mouth, Massachusetts, Judge Cotton was a direct descendant of John Cotton, the famous New England divine. In the spring of 1842, he removed to Green Bay and entered upon the practice of his profession. Of Judge Cotton's record on the bench Moses M. Strong, the well-known Mineral Point lawyer, says: "The discharge of his duties as judge was marked by superior learning and ability ; great patience and endurance, a wonderful suavity of manner and the greatest consideration for the rights and feelings of all concerned."
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