Montgomery (1st included) Court - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

The first court of Montgomery County was organized at the home of William Miller in Crawfordsville on May 29, 1823.  Jacob Call of Vincennes was the presiding officer. The other officers of the court were John Wilson, Clerk; Samuel D. Maxwell, Sheriff and Jacob J. Ford, presecuting attorney. After ordering summons for a grand jury for the ensuing term to be held in August and adopting a seal for the court, the court adjourned. The court convened the second time Aug 28, 1823 and tradition says at the tavern kept by Henry Ristine. The first grand jury was composed of James Dungan; Richard M. McCafferty, James Scott, James Stitt, William Miller, Robert Craig, Samuel Brown, Elias Moore, Wilson Claypool, George Miller, Joseph Hahn, Samuel McClung, William B. Mitchell and John Farlow with Samuel McClung, forement.

The first indictment of Montgomery County Court was returned against John Toliver for assault and battery. Toliver fled from the county and although warrants for his arrest were issued repeatedly he was never captured.  At the May tern of the court, 1825, one Jesse Keyton was sentenced to the pentitentiary for two years for receiving stolen goods. This trial was held in the new court house which had been built. This house, the first of the county was of logs and two stories high. It was 26’ long, 20’ wide and there was a partition in each floor making four rooms in all. The building was erected by Eliakam Askton at a cost of $295.  It stood on Main Street. The jury of the Keyton case was composed of Joshua Baxter, Reginald Butt, Samuel D. Maxwell, William Miller, George Miller, Samuel Wilhite, John Stitt, William Mount, John Ramsey, Edward Nutt, Abraham Miller and Isaac Miller. The case was prosecuted by Hon. John Law, while Joseph Cox and Nathan Huntington appeared for the defendant.  The presiding judge not being present the associate judges, William Burbridge and James Stitt ruled over the court.

The population of the county at this time was sparse but the public land sale beginning Dec 24, 1824, and following brought many settlers here.

A “jail house” was built in the year 1824 at a cost of $200 only to be reduced to ashes three years later by Peter Smith, an inmate under a charge of larcency and while trying to burn the lock from his cell, set fire to the building. It stood only a few years from the northeast corner of the present courthouse.