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North Vernon Plain Dealer - September 29, 1921, Page 2
Early Court Systems
IMPORTANT FACTS IN JENNINGS COUNTY HISTORY
By Dr. Ernest V. Shockley
      The first legislature which met after Indiana was admitted to the Union (congressional act of December 12, 1816) provided for the organization of four counties: Pike, Davies, Jennings and Sullivan, Jenning County being started off on December 17, 1817. The act defining its boundaries stipulated that three men known as "locating commissioners" should select a site for the county seat and that they should hold their first meeting on February 1, 1819, at which time they were to make the final announcement of their choice of a site for the "county town" as it was usually called in the early days. On this day they were to set the wheels of the county government into motion, appoint certain officers and provide for the election of others.
     It appears that the commissioners did not meet until March and when they did meet, they had two sites in consideration for the county seat, one about half a mile southwest of the present town of Vernon and the other the present site. Whatever the inducement may have been the commissioners declared in favor of the first mentioned location, but John Vawter, the first settler of the county, was not satisfied with their decision and prevailed upon them to rescind their action. It is recorded that on April 1, 1817, Vawter and David McClure made a counter proposition to the locating commissions which resulted in the selection which has now born the name of Vernon for more that a hundred years.
     Vawter and McClure proposed to give the county a tract of land on which they were to erect the public buildings and in addition another tract which could be sold, the proceeds of the sale to be devoted exclusively to the erection of the buildings. To these two separate tracts was added another gift of two acres for a cemetery, and three lots of one acre each for churches or school houses. Another proposal of theirs was to the effect that the eastern part of the town as then laid out should be "forever" open and common to the citizens of the town and county. It is not on record when this part of the offer was abrogated. As a final aid to the commissioners, a very convincing argument for the selection of their site, Vawter and McClure obligated themselves to pay $400 in cash. And so Vernon became the county seat.
     No one raised any objections to Vernon as the county seat for many years and it was not until the railroad was built through the county in the fifties (1850's) that an agitation was begun for the removal of the county seat north, to the railroad. However more than half a century was to pass after the first railroad went through the county before definite steps were taken to change the county seat from Vernon to North Vernon. The latter city and its friends prevailed upon the legislature to pass an act (March 1913) which provided for an election to determine whether the county seat should be moved from Vernon to North Vernon. The change was to be made if sixty percent of the voters were in favor of the proposed relocation. The election was held on September 22, 1913, and Vernon retained the county seat by the slender majority of twenty, the vote standing 2217 for relocation and 1512 against it.

Judiciary of Jennings County
      Indiana has had two constitutions, the one of 1816 being replaced by the present constitution in 1851. Under the present constitution there was a peculiar judicial system. Each judicial district, and when Jennings County started its official career there were only three, had what was known as a "President Judge" elected for a period of seven years. Each county however had two "Associate Judges" likewise with a seven-year tenure. Furthermore each county had a probate judge and a prosecuting attorney. First court met at Vernon in April 1817 in a log court house. It will be interesting to note the men of Jennings county who have presided over its judiciary during the past century. The following lists of officials have been compiled in part from the Jennings county record and in part from the records from the State House at Indianapolis.

Associate Judges
William Prather Feb. 24, 1817
Chapman Denslow Feb. 24, 1817, resigned 1819
Jonathan Barrett May 27, 1819 vice Denslow, resigned
Chapman Denslow Aug 20, 1823; resigned 1829
John Winchell, Aug. 20, 1823; removed from county June 1825
Joseph Cowell Aug. 25, 1825 vice Winchell
Ransom Perry Aug 22, 1829; vice Denslow resigned
Samuel Finnacle Sept. 8, 1930; resigned July 1834
Ezra F. Pabody Sept. 8, 1930; resigned June 1834
Richard Stott Aug. 23, 1834; vice Finnacle, resigned
Daniel M. Hill Aug. 8, 1935; vice Pabody resigned
Robert Elliott Aug. 12, 1837
John T. Johnson Aug. 12, 1837; removed from county 1843
Jesse Whitcomb Dec. 18 1843
Samuel Read Aug. 17, 1844
Riley Foster, Aug. 18, 1851; served until Oct. 12, 1852
Phanuel Davis Aug. 1851,, served until Oct. 12, 1852
Probate Judges
Chapman Denslow, Aug. 22, 1829, died Aug 1834
Alanson Andrews Sept 3, 1834; appointed vice Denslow, deceased
Achilles Vawter Aug. 8, 1835
Ezra F. Pabody, Aug 12, 1842 served until Oct. 12, 1852
President Judges
John Test, Feb. 1, 1817 Third judicial circuit
Alexander A. Meek Jan. 2, 1819; resigned Feb. 2, 1819
John Watts Feb 3, 1819 appointed vice Meek resigned
Miles C. Eggleston Jan 20, 1821
Wm. Wick Feb. 7, 1822; the legislative act of Jan 14, 1824, placed Jennings in the Second circuit.
John F. Ross Jan. 14, 1824; the act of Jan. 30 1830 put Jennings back in the third circuit.
Miles C. Eggleston Jan 20, 1830
Courtland Cushing, Dec. 20, 1833; resigned Aug. 9, 1850
Alexander Downey Aug. 9 1850; served until Oct. 12, 1850
Circuit Judges
Alexander C. Downey Oct 12, 1852; resigned Aug. 1, 1858
Joseph W. Chapman Oct 2, 1858
John G. Berkshire Oct. 25, 1864;
Jeptha D. New Nov. 20, 1882: the act of March 6, 1873 placed Jennings in the sixth circuit with Ripley and Scott, where it has since remained
Thomas C. Batchelor Nov. 20, 1888
Willard New Nov. 20, 1894
Francis M. Thompson Nov. 20, 1906;
Robert A. Creigmile Nov. 20, 1912
John R. Carney, 1918

Common Pleas Judges

     It is not generally known that Indiana had a complete set of common pleas judges for the state from 1852 to 1872. There had been such courts under the old Northwest Territory (act of June 6, 1795) and they continued in operation until the adoption of the constitution of 1816 and the admission of the state to the Union. Under the 1816 constitution two counties Tippecanoe and Marion had common pleas courts, but the act of May 14, 1852, abolished the old probate courts, and these special common pleas courts, and established common pleas courts throughout the states. They took over all the business formerly handled by the probate courts and also assumed some causes which had hitherto been under the jurisdiction of the circuit court. They continued in full operation until abolished by the act of March 6, 1873, when all cases pending were transferred to the circuit court. The judges of the common pleas court in the circuit to which Jennings was attached were as follows:
Ezra Pabody 1852-1856
Jeremiah Bundy 1856-1860
Ralph Applewhite 1860; resigned April 28, 1862
Simon Stansifer April 28, 1862, appointed
Beattie McClellan 1862-1864
Jepha D. New 1864-1969
Franm Emerson 1868-1873

District Prosecuting Attorneys
 The Common pleas courts had a special prosecutor and some of the best lawyers of Jennings county served as prosecutor of this court. The complete list of these special prosecutors during the life of the court were as follows:
Jeremiah Bundy 1852-1856
Alexander W. Lattimore 1856-1858
Solon Russell 1858-1859
Jas. H. Myers Jan. 19 1859 appointed
Solon Russell Mar. 16, 1859 appointed
Lycurgus Irwin 1860-62 resigned
Jeremiah Bundy Jan 1862 appointed
Jepha D. New 1862-1964
William L. Bane 1862- 1865 resigned
John M. Kerr 1865-1866
Newton Crooke 1866-1870
Wilson S. Swengel 1870-1872
George W. Cooper 1872-1873
Prosecuting Attorneys
Sixth District
John Kingsbury Aug. 9, 1824
Milton Stapp Aug 14, 1826
John H. Thompson Dec. 30, 1828
Jas. F. D. Lanier Jan 25, 1832 resigned
John Test Feb. 21, 1833 appointed
Courtland Cushing Dec. 4, 1833
John Dumont Dec. 11, 1837
George Robinson Dec. 15, 1841 died in office
John Dumont May 18, 1842 appointed
Jas. Y. Allison Aug 15, 1851
Robert P. More Oct. 12, 1852 resigned
Daniel Kelso Nov. 7, 1854
Francis Adkinson Nov. 7, 1856
George W. Richardson Nov. 7, 1858
Jas. M. Myers Nov. 7, 1862 resigned
Benjamin F. Lewis June 16, 1862 appointed
John A. Miller Nov. 1, 1865
John Denton Nov. 3, 1872
John O. Cravens Nov. 3, 1872
Wm. G. Holland Nov. 3, 1878
Lincoln Dixon Nov. 15, 1884
Joseph H. Shea Nov. 15, 1892
Francis M. Thompson Nov. 15, 1894
Marcus R. Connelley Nov. 15, 1896
Samuel B. Wells Jan. 1, 1901
Louis A. Lee Jan 1, 1905
John W. Davis Jan 1907
Joseph W. Verbarg Jan. 1, 1909
Chas Royce 1919

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