THE COURTS BORN OF AMERICAN RULE-- FIRST TERRITORIAL COURT— JUDGE PARKE REFUSES TO HOLD COURT— THE COURTS UNDER THE FIRST STATE CONSTITUTION-- UNDER THE SECOND CONSTITUTION— COURTS OF COMMON PLEAS— CREATURES OF THE LEGISLATURE— PROBATE COURTS~- COURT OF COMMON PLEAS DEFINED-- THE NEW CIRCUIT COURT-- FIRST CIRCUIT JUDGE— FIRST ACTIVE GRAND JURORS— PIONEER LAWYERS OF THE CIRCUIT— ALBERT S. WHITE— TURPIE'S SKETCHES OF JUDGE WHITE-- YOUNG TURPIE HEARS FIRST STUMP SPEECH— BOYS ABASHED AT WHITE'S GREATNESS— MEETING OF ALPHA AND OMEGA— MEET IN EARLY MATURITY AND OLD AGE— TOGETHER THEY CALL ON PRESIDENT LINCOLN— THOMPSON, FIRST LOCAL LAWYER— DANIEL D. PRATT— HIS KIND HELPFULNESS TO YOUNG MEN— JUDGES AND ATTORNEYS, 1838-43— HORACE P. BIDDLE— BIDDLE vs. PRATT— CHARACTERISTICS OF DAVID TURPIE-- BRIEF FACTS OF HIS LIFE— DESCRIBES HIS COMING TO MONTICELLO— AUTHOR OF THE CATTLE-LIEN LAW— GOOD SQUIRE HARBOLT-- TRAITS OF EARLY JUDGES AND LAWYERS— "THE CHOCTAW LINE"— PLAYED "WHEN SCHOOL WAS OUT"— NOT DOLLAR-SLAVES-- ROBERT H. MILROY--JOHN U. PETTIT— JOHN M. WALLACE— OTHER CIRCUIT JUDGES, 1855-1915— THE "WHEREFORE" FOR SO MANY JUDGES— REYNOLDS, FIRST WHITE COUNTY JUDGE— FORGOT HE WAS JUDGE—TRUMAN F. PALMER— JAMES P. WASON— THE PROBATE JUDGES— ROBERT NEWELL—WILLIAM M. KENTON— ZEBULON SHEETZ AND AARON HICKS— COURT OF COMMON PLEAS AGAIN— SAMUEL A. HUFF—COMMON PLEAS JUDGES, 1854-73—CAPTAIN AND JUDGE ALFRED F. REED— THE LAWYERS OF 1834-51—THE SILLS— LAWYERS OF 1856-1900— JOSEPH H. MATLOCK— ORLANDO MCCONAHY--LAWYERS IN ACTIVE PRACTICE.
Until about the middle period of the Revolutionary war, after General Clark had conquered the territory northwest of the Ohio for the patriot army, no earnest attempt was made by either France or Great Britain to establish civil or judicial administration over any part of the country west of the Alleghany mountains; and then it was too late for either mother country to do anything in that line. In other words, neither France nor Great Britain ever attempted to establish other than a military rule over the Northwest. Under French rule the commandants of the posts decided most points at issue between the civilians and the Indians, or which came up between the whites themselves; when the cases seemed particularly involved or important, some of the most influential characters of the special locality which was disturbed would be called into consultation. But few cases of lawsuits could arise, as few of the settlements in Indiana consisted of more than fifty families; they were happy-go-lucky people who did not worry about definite titles to their land so long as their neighbors did not object, and much of the land in the settlements was communal, each man usually cultivating only so much as would furnish him or his family with the necessities of life.
When the common law of England was extended over the territory, no attempt was made to establish courts, as the new owners discouraged settlement west of the mountains. They did not think it worth their efforts to even take possession of Vincennes until 1777, the only real center of civilization in the Northwest.
But when General Clark conquered the territory for Virginia and the Americans, and John Todd was appointed lieutenant for the County of Illinois, the authority of the courts commenced to be established. His headquarters were at Fort Chartres, but he sought also to establish a court of civil and criminal jurisdiction at Vincennes, of which the commandant of that post, Col. J. M. P. Legras, was president. A historian of those times says that "no record of an action by this court remains, except its assumption of the right to make grants of land, and it exercised that authority with royal liberality, most of the grants being made to the members of the court." That was the first judicial tribunal which legally and theoretically exercised jurisdiction over what are now Indiana and White County, although fifty years were to elapse before any white men came to that section of the state to look for civil or judicial protection.
Under the ordinance of 1787 Samuel H. Parsons, James M. Varnum and John C. Symes were appointed judges of the Northwest Territory, who, with Governor St. Clair, were authorized to enforce such laws of the original states as might be applicable to the new territory. It appears that the judges who held their first session at Marietta exceeded their authority and tried to incorporate some original—very original—laws, which were repudiated by the Congress of the United States. In 1795 the governor and judges met at Cincinnati and enacted a number of laws which conformed to the authority of the organic ordinance; the validity of the laws promulgated at Marietta was questioned until 1799, when, to avoid complications, they were readopted, as a whole, by the Territorial Legislature.
In January, 1801, William Clark, Henry Vanderburgh and John Griffin, who had been appointed the first judges of Indiana Territory, met Governor Harrison at Vincennes, the capital, for the purpose of passing a code of laws to supersede that enacted at Cincinnati for the government of the Northwest Territory. Among those passed as a part of the new code was one establishing courts of general quarter sessions of the peace in the counties of Knox, Randolph and St. Clair.
The first session of the General Court was opened at Vincennes on the 3d of March, 1801, all the judges present. The grand jury called, as will be seen by an examination of the names of its members, was largely of French extraction, consisting of Luke Decker, Antoine Marshal, Joseph Baird, Patrick Simpson, Antoine Petit, Andr. Montplaiseur, John Ockiltree, Jonathan Marney, Jacob Tevebaugh, Alexander Vadney, Francois Turpin, Fr. Compagnoitte, Charles Languedoc, Louis Severe, Fr. Languedoc, George Catt, John St. Barios, Abraham Decker and Philip Catt. With a court of general sessions and a grand jury in operation, the judiciary of Indiana may be said to have been fully established.
In February, 1805, the first popular assembly of the territory met at Vincennes and split off Michigan from Indiana Territory, and four years later Illinois was carved out of it. In 1814, what is now Indiana was divided into five districts, each of which was to elect a member of the Territorial Council; this action originated in Congress. In the same year the General Assembly divided the territory into three judicial districts, but Judge Parke refused to act, on the grounds stated in the following letter to Governor Posey: "By an act entitled 'An act reorganizing courts of justice,' passed at the late session of the Legislature, the Territory is divided into three districts, in each of which a circuit court is established—the court to consist of one of the judges appointed by the government of the United States for the territory, as president, and three associates commissioned under the authority of the territory, and to have jurisdiction in all cases at law and in equity. The first circuit, comprising the counties of Knox, Gibson and Warrick, is assigned to me. The Legislature is empowered to make laws in all cases for the good government of the territory not repugnant to the laws of the United States. In the delegation of power that which is not expressly given is reserved. Implications cannot be admitted further than to carry into effect the power given. The laws of the United States being paramount to the laws of the territory, if they are found in conflict, the latter must yield to the former. Congress has defined the jurisdiction of the judges appointed by the General Government and made one judge, in the absence of the others, competent to hold a court. The judges are coordinate and their jurisdiction extends over the whole Territory. They are judges in and over, and not of a part of the Territory. As the judges derive their jurisdiction and power from the government of the United States, they cannot be controlled, in the exercise of their functions, by persons deriving their authority from the government of the Territory. The judges appointed for the Territory are limited, by the laws of the United States, to the exercise of a common-law jurisdiction. The act, therefore, as it regards the organization and jurisdiction of the circuit courts, is repugnant to the laws of the United States, and neither confers any powers, nor imposes any duty, on the judges appointed for the Territory by the United States. The General Government has appointed for the territory three judges with common-law jurisdiction; but when, where or in what manner they are to hold a court, or rather exercise the jurisdiction with which they are invested, Congress has not provided. I consider it the duty of the legislature to do it. To you, sir, it belongs to watch over the affairs of the territory and to see that the laws are faithfully executed, and, on account of the relation in which I stand to the Territorial Government, I have thought it my duty to make this representation to you. The peculiarity of the case leaves me no other mode of stating my objections and the cause of my not conforming to the law. The legislature has organized certain courts and assigned me to perform certain duties; but the law constituting the one, and directing the other, is unconstitutional, and as I can derive no authority from it, it imposes no obligation. I shall, therefore, not hold the courts for the circuit."
This refusal of Judge Parke, with various appeals to the General Assembly to establish courts which should modify the one-man power of the Superior Court (one judge being competent to hold court) hastened the establishment of the Circuit Court which was alive when White County was created. At the legislative session which convened at Corydon in August 1814, the territory was divided into three judicial districts, each of which was to be presided over by a judge appointed by the governor. In selecting the presiding judges, the chief executive was required to choose men "learned and experienced in the law," who were citizens of the United States and who had "regularly practiced in some of the courts of the United States, or in this territory, three years." The two associate judges of each county were to be residents of good standing, but not necessarily lawyers. Two judges were to constitute a quorum.
The entire judicial system, which prevailed in Carroll and White counties from the years of their organization in 1828 and 1834, respectively, until the Common Pleas Court was established in 1852, was fixed and consolidated under the state constitution of 1816. Under its provisions the judicial bodies were to consist of a State Supreme Court, Circuit courts, and such inferior courts as the General Assembly might establish. The highest body was to consist of three judges to be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the senate, their term of office to be seven years. The Supreme Court was given jurisdiction in capital or chancery cases where the president of the Circuit Court might be interested or prejudiced
The Circuit courts were to consist of a presiding judge and two associates. The president alone, or with one of the associates, or the two associates together, could hold court, although capital and chancery cases could not be tried in the absence of the presiding judge. The presidents of the Circuit courts were elected by the General Assembly in joint session and the associate judges were chosen by popular vote.
The state constitution also provided that the clerk of the Supreme Court was to be appointed by the court and that the clerks of the Circuit courts were to be elected by the people, but no clerk could qualify who had not obtained a certificate of competency from a judge either of the Supreme or Circuit Court. The constitution also provided for justices of the peace.
The constitution of 1851 made the supreme judgeship elective instead of appointive and reduced the term of service from seven to six years. The choice of a clerk for the Supreme Court was also given to the people, and the associate judges of the Circuit courts were abolished. Further, the new constitution provided that no one elected to any judicial office should be eligible to any other office during the term of his service, other than a judicial one.
"In creating inferior courts," says W. H. Smith, in his "History of Indiana," "the Legislature established what were known as Courts of Common Pleas. These courts were given exclusive jurisdiction in probate matters and concurrent jurisdiction with the Circuit Courts in some other matters. This created great confusion. All the courts assumed to pass upon the constitutionality of laws enacted by the General Assembly and the state witnessed the anomaly of having laws enforced in one county and declared unconstitutional in another. When the Legislature enacted the prohibitory liquor law in 1855, some of the Circuit judges declared it constitutional and enforced it, while others declared it void. This lasted until the Supreme Court finally overthrew the law. The confusion grew worse after the Common Pleas Court was established, for then some counties were operating under two different laws at the same time, according as the opinions of the judges differed. This confusion could not last, and finally the General Assembly abolished the Courts of Common Pleas, and in counties where the business was too great to be transacted by the Circuit Courts, Superior and Criminal Courts have been established, with well defined jurisdiction."
To condense judicial matters in so far as they relate to White County: From the organization of the county in 1834 to the adoption of the second state constitution in 1851 its immediate judicial affairs were under the jurisdiction of the Circuit and Probate courts, with right of appeal to the State Supreme Court; in 1852 all probate matters were transferred to the Common Pleas Court, created by the Legislature; the Circuit Court continued its jurisdiction, with the abolishment of the two associate judgeships, and in 1873 absorbed the Court of Common Pleas; so that as far as White County is concerned, the Circuit Court has had a monopoly of judicial power for considerably over forty years.
At the time of the organization of the county in 1834 there were, besides the Circuit and Probate courts, one or more justices of the peace for each of the townships and the Court of Commissioners, comprising three members, the latter having charge of the location and improvement of highways, building of bridges, levying of taxes, allowance of claims against the county and general supervision of county affairs. Although judicial to a certain extent, its functions were so largely administrative that the commissioners' standing as a court has been largely obscured.
The state was divided into districts or circuits, and the presiding judge was required to reside in one of the counties embraced in his circuit, all civil and criminal cases coming before the body over which he presided. White County was attached to the Seventh Circuit, and it was not until 1888, when Alfred W. Reynolds ascended the bench, that the county was represented in that judiciary.
The first law passed after the adoption of the constitution of 1816 was for the creation of a Supreme Court; the second, defined the powers of the Circuit Court; the third was in relation to suits at law and chancery, and the fourth regulated the jurisdiction of justices of the peace.
Probate courts were established by an act of the General Assembly passed January 23, 1829, to consist of one judge, who was not required to possess a legal education. Exclusive jurisdiction was given in the probating of wills, granting letters testamentary, and in affairs relating to guardianship and the settling of estates. The judicial term was four years.
By the provisions of an act approved May 14, 1852, the Court of Common Pleas was established and its powers defined. Its jurisdiction was similar to the old Probate Court which it superseded; it also had jurisdiction over criminal cases which were not felonious. An appeal lay to the Circuit or Superior Court direct, at the option of the appellant. The judges could practice law in all courts except their own. The clerk of the Circuit Court and the sheriff of the county served also the Probate and Common Pleas Court.
The constitutional convention of 1851, of which Judge Biddle was a leading member and in which he took a prominent part, provided that the Circuit Court should consist of but one judge instead of three, and by act of the Legislature of 1852 it was provided that there should be ten districts in the state. White was then assigned to the Eighth Circuit, with Cass, Miami, Howard, Wabash, Fulton, Pulaski, Jasper and Carroll. The term of the circuit judge was fixed at six years and John U. Pettit was the first judge to serve after the triple judgeship was abolished.
Little is known of John R. Porter, the presiding judge of the 1835 session. About all that can be stated in the way of facts is that he formerly presided over the Eighth Judicial Circuit, which embraced territory to the east and northeast of White County—the counties of Carroll, Cass, Miami, Wabash, Huntington, Allen, Lagrange, Elkhart, St. Joseph and Laporte. Like so many other of the early judges, he was rather "practical than technical," and the "records show a lack of method and a non-observance of strict rules of procedure and practice."
As has been noted, the first session of the Circuit Court at the house of George A. Spencer, in Big Creek Township, was held by the two associates, James Barnes and Thomas Wilson. The grand jury consisted of Royal Hazleton (foreman), William Woods, James Johnson, Samuel Gray, Robert Barr, Aaron Hicks, Daniel Dale, Robert Hanners, John Roberts, John Ferguson, James Parker, Joseph James, Sr., Cornelius Sutton, William Kerr and Joseph Thompson. In all probability Judge Porter had ascertained that only one little case of "malicious mischief" was on the docket and concluded that it could wait; but at the second session, held at the same place, April 17, 1835, all the judges were present and both bench and docket were full.
The grand jurors who returned the indictments consisted of Benjamin Reynolds (foreman), Ashford Parker, David Berkey, Elias Louther, Jonathan Harbolt, William Walters, Rowland Harris, William Phillips, Matthew Terwillager, James Kent, Phillip Davis, Armstrong Buchanan and Robert Newell. William Sill acted as clerk, John Wilson as sheriff, and George A. Spencer, in whose house court was held, as bailiff.
As this was the first session of court in White County where cases were actually adjudicated, the matters brought before Messrs. Porter, Barnes and Wilson have been noted as an important incident in the general history of the county. The petit or special jury which tried the cases legally allotted to it consisted of Joseph Sayre, Jacob Crooks, John Price, Henry Smelcer, Oliver Hammond, Jacob Keplinger, Thomas Kelley, Henry Baum, Robert A. Spencer, Joseph James, Joseph Dale and Elisha Bowles.
For four years the practitioners at the White County Bar were drawn from outside localities. At the October session of 1834 William P. Bryan, Andrew Ingram, Aaron Finch and William M. Jenners were licensed to practice. At the close of that very uneventful sitting these gentlemen, with the judges and the new county officers, visited the county seat at Monticello, and seriously inspected the lone cabin in which the clerk held forth, at the same time enthusiastically praising the good judgment of the commissioners in selecting the site.
At the April term of 1835 so many cases came before the court that it became necessary to have a prosecuting attorney to represent the state. William P. Bryan was appointed to that office, and Thomas B. Brown and John W. Wright were sworn in as members of the White County Bar. At the April term of 1837 Albert S. White, Rufus A. Lockwood and M. C. Dougherty were admitted to practice, and at the October session Zebulon Baird, A. L. Robinson, Samuel C. Wilson, Williamson Wright and Joseph Tatman were licensed as attorneys. None of the lawyers mentioned resided in White County, but followed the judge in his circuit and attended to what legal business they could secure.
The best known of these early lawyers. who became a character of national distinction, was Hon. Albert S. White. He was learned in his profession, literary in his tastes, graceful in his diction, popular in his intercourse with his fellows, and of unimpeachable morality. During most of his mature life his residence was Lafayette, but while he actively practiced his profession there were few lawyers in Northwestern Indiana who were abler or more widely known, and it was no surprise to his numerous admirers when he graduated to Congress, the United States Senate and United States District Court. His death occurred at Stockwell, Indiana, September 4, 1864, and his funeral was the occasion of an impressive demonstration of deep and widespread grief, observed by public officials, railroad employes, and those of all classes included in those democratic words—the people.
Judge White is described as a small, wiry, wide-awake, nervous man, near-sighted, with aquiline nose and thin face. He shared with Hon. Daniel D. Pratt, of Logansport, the highest honors of the profession and of public life among the early practitioners of Northwestern Indiana. Both were elder friends of Hon. David Turpie, whose fine record as a lawyer, jurist and public man is more intimately identified with the history of White County than the careers of the elder statesmen.
It was the pleasure of the late Judge Turpie to meet Judge White at different periods of his life, from boyhood to middle age—in his school days at Lafayette, in his practice as a young lawyer, and in the halls of Congress after he had acquired a high standing as practitioner and judge. Turpie's delightful book, "Sketches of My Own Times," has this first picture of Mr. White, which is illustrative of both characters: "In the outskirts of the town (Lafayette) where we lived was an inn--so called—so kept. It stood upon a street corner, which we passed every day in going to school. Here Mr. Albert S. White had his rooms and lodging; he was one of the United States senators from Indiana; he was at this time a bachelor, had an office down town, but dwelt at the inn—no doubt from choice, as it was a quiet, pleasant house, and convenient for those who called to see him. He was a man of very affable manners, always spoke to the school boys whom he met, touched his hat when we doffed ours, and occasionally stopped to talk with us. We saw and noticed him day after day, and often made our small reflections about the high place which he held and his manner of life in Washington.
"After we had been going to school for a year or two, one day the town was billed with notices of a Whig meeting to be addressed by Senator White; the time was fixed for Saturday at one o'clock in the afternoon. As Saturday was always a holiday with us, we made up a party to attend the meeting, chiefly to hear him. The meeting was held out of doors and the attendance was large, mostly of people from the country. When we arrived Mr. White had already commenced his address, which was delivered from a wagon standing under the shade of an old beech. He held in his hand a document from which he read, commenting upon it as he proceeded. This document was thc celebrated Ogle report. The Whigs charged at that time that there had been a very lavish and unnecessary expenditure of public money in furnishing the White Rouse, its gardens and grounds, and that the Democratic president, Mr. Van Buren, was responsible for this expenditure. The first words of the address which I heard related to the purchase of golden spoons for the use of the president's table. Mr. White said this was a mere waste of the national revenue, and he sharply contrasted these costly spoons with those of horn and wood still not out of use among the people.
"In the course of reading the report, he came to an item for the purchase of a large number of young trees of the Morus Multicaulis, saying that his Latin was a little rusty, but that he understood these words to mean, the many-leaved mulberry, whose foliage was fed upon by the silk worm; that the president had gone into the mulberry trade in order to procure, as he supposed, silk napkins, table-cloth and towels, to match the golden spoons. He added that there was another kind of tree which would have been far more appropriate to adorn the lawn and gardens of the executive mansion than the Morus Multicaulis; that tree was the Ulmus Lubrica-- in English, the slippery elm. When he spoke of the slippery elm, he was interrupted by prolonged shouts and laughter.
"Mr. Van Buren was already well known to the public as the Kinderhook Wizard and the Little Magician, and although Mr. White had applied none of these epithets to the president, the audience readily made the application. In the latter part of his address Mr. White became more grave and serious, describing the Whig national convention held a few months before, which had nominated General Harrison for the presidency. He related the account of Harrison's government of this territory; his faithful and long continued safeguarding of white settlers on the frontier, his treaties with the Indian tribes, his defeat of the Prophet at Tippecanoe, and the subsequent overthrow and death of Tecumseh at the Thames, closing with an appeal, full of force and feeling, to the old soldiers and settlers of Indiana to stand by their former friend and commander as one who had worthily deserved the highest honors of the republic.
"The speech was well received, applause was manifested by the waving of hats and clapping of hands, and many of the audience walked to the speaker's stand and tendered their congratulations. None of our group of school-boys went forward; our old acquaintance, Mr. White, had suddenly become in some way a stranger to us; he seemed upon the stand before a public assembly to be so much greater, higher, than upon the street—we felt too much abashed to approach him. This address, made now more than sixty years ago, was the first stump speech I ever heard. It was, judging from the effect following it, an excellent specimen. It gave life and movement to the Whig campaign, which from that day prospered without ceasing until it ended in the election of General Harrison to the presidency."
In 1850, soon after his admission to the bar and at the commencement of his practice, Mr. Turpie again met his elder practitioner at Monticello. Let him tell the story: "Mr. Albert S. White appeared only once in the White Circuit Court —it was at the second term after my admission. He came to present an argument upon a demurrer pending in an important cause which had been brought to our county on change of venue. He spoke more than an hour. There was a large audience and a full bench, though upon mere questions of law the two associate judges seldom acted. Every one liked to hear Mr. White. He had a very copious and accurate command of legal terms and phraseology. The case involved the construction of a will, and when he spoke of real estate he used the word devise; when of personalty, the word bequeath; and he never confused them. His own position was always defined in language measured, precise and deliberate, with courteous deference to the court, implied, even more than expressed in his tone and manner. In criticizing the position of opposing counsel, he was trenchant and severe, but classic and ornate. He had an elegant way of transposing maxims and cases cited by the adverse party to his own advantage, which had all the effect of surprise or accident.
"At the close of his argument he was complimented in high terms from the bench and by the attorneys in attendance. I went forward, among others, and offered my hand, giving him my name. He recognized me, in the friendliest manner, as the school-boy of his former acquaintance. 'Why,' said he, 'here is a meeting of Alpha and Omega; you are commencing your professional course, and I am just closing mine.' He told that he had become president of a railroad company recently organized in his city, which required all his time and attention; that he had given up the practice of the law, and did not think that he should ever appear in another case. I was invited to call on him at his room, and I called in the evening. He inquired about my previous occupation and said he was glad I had been engaged in teaching in the country. The business men about a town who know and become acquainted with a young man as a schoolmaster seem to entertain a kind of misgiving as to his ability for any other pursuit. If he becomes a lawyer they avoid him; they are unwilling to consult him in their affairs; they think there is a sort of dust of incapacity that settles upon a school-teacher, not to be brushed off; but a teacher in the country is not so much subject to this disparagement. Kindly directing the conversation to those things most interesting to myself, he gave me an account of his early experience in the law practice at Rushville and Paoli, Orange county, where, as a young man, he had labored in the profession."
When Mr. Turpie went to Washington, in the winter of 1863, to serve out the unexpired term of Jesse D. Bright as United States senator, he again met Mr. White, who was serving his second term in the house of representatives; "nor did I meet any one in Washington," he says, "with more pleasure than my friend Albert S. White. He had previously served in the House and the Senate as a Whig; now, in his old age, he had been elected to the House as a Republican. But these political changes had not affected in any way the goodly and gracious personality of the man.
"We had lived in the same section of our state and, though the tide of events had separated us, yet we had at home many personal friends and acquaintances common to both. One of them had taken office at the beginning of the new administration and in the course of his service had fallen into some embarrassment that required executive action for his relief. We called upon Mr. Lincoln together concerning this affair. The president informed us that the papers in the case had reached his desk, that he had not overlooked them, neither had he as yet looked them over very closely. Mr. White made a full statement of the facts; I followed with some remarks about the law of the case. Mr. White resumed, speaking of his long acquaintance with the man, his honesty and good faith; among other things, of an instance in which a large sum of money had come into his hands for which he was not bound by any note or bond, yet he had fully accounted for it, principal and interest, without suit. Mr. Lincoln, as I noticed, paid very close attention to this, shifted his legs upon his knees (a bodily habit of his) and seemed to be much moved by parts of his recital. When Mr. White had finished, the president said: 'Gentlemen, I shall carry this case, as we say in Illinois, over to the chancery side. We all know what statutes are made for —it is to see that the right thing is done; it is my duty to take care that no innocent man is wronged by them; by that rule I shall be guided.' We went away feeling hopeful as to our mission and were not disappointed in the result.
"Mr. White did not desire to be a candidate for re-election to the house. At the expiration of his term he was appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate as a member of an Indian commission. Talking of this some time afterward, Mr. Lane (Henry S. Lane, Mr. Turpie's colleague in the Senate) said to me that he supposed it would be the last we should hear of our old friend. It happened that in a few months a vacancy occurred in the United States District Judgeship for the district of Indiana, and he was immediately nominated and confirmed for that office, but died a short time thereafter. All Mr. White's preferments were due to the personal favor of the president. Mr. Lincoln was not at all careless; he was very cautious in the bestowal of his friendship and confidence, but when they were once given they were given wholly, without reserve. It may be said there might have been an unworthy recipient; he never chose an unworthy recipient when he acted upon his own personal judgment and observation.
"I have since deeply regretted that Mr. White did not live some years to preside in the federal courts of our state. He would have brought to the duties of the bench great store of legal learning and acumen, the most patient diligence in all his work, accompanied by an inborn courtesy, an urbane suavity of manner which much becomes those who sit in these high tribunals."
In April, 1888, the year after Albert S. White became a member of the White County Bar, Thomas M. Thompson and Nathaniel Niles were admitted, and in December of the same year Joseph A. Wright, afterward governor of Indiana, Hiram Allen and Nathan Darnell were licensed. In the name Thomas M. Thompson we at last recognize a resident of White County. His full name was Thomas McKean Thompson and his father, after whom he was named, was a nephew of Thomas McKean, formerly a governor of Pennsylvania and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In 1817 the family moved from Steubenville, Ohio, where the son had been born seven years previously, and located in Branville, that state, where the future lawyer reached manhood. After receiving a collegiate training at Kenyon College and Miami University, he pursued his legal studies in the office of Colonel Marthiat, of Newark, Ohio, and soon after his admission to the bar in 1834 began practice at Indianapolis. About four years afterward he settled at Monticello, as its first local attorney, engaging in other occupations to tide over the small years.
Soon after his admission to practice before the White County courts he became deputy county clerk, recorder and auditor under William Sill, and when his superior died in January, 1846, was appointed to the head of the consolidated offices, continuing to discharge their duties until the succeeding general election of August. The constitution of 1851 separated these offices, and in August, 1852, he was elected auditor for a term of four years. Mr. Thompson was a whig and, naturally, a republican at the organization of the party. He appears to have been an industrious, reputable lawyer and official, never attaining prominence in either capacity; but, what is more to his credit, he has left a name which is bright in kindly ways and liberal deeds, and his death in August, 1881, was sincerely mourned. He married Mary Ann Sheetz, member of another stanch pioneer family, and both were buried in the old Sheetz burial ground a short distance above Monticello, on the east bank of the Tippecanoe. The wife preceded the husband many years. They were the parents of seven children and in their descendants are therefore personified much that stands for the early bench and bar of White County; that fact will be more evident when it is considered that Zebulon Sheetz, the founder of the family, was one of the pioneer probate judges who held sway before their functions were absorbed by the Court of Common Pleas.
At the November term of the Circuit Court, in 1839, the members of the White County Bar—that is, those allowed to practice in its courts—were increased by the admission of Daniel D. Pratt and Daniel Mace, and in April, 1840, H. J. Harris and John L. Scott were entered on the roll of attorneys.
Mr. Pratt earned a fine standing at the bar and as a public man. During the forty years of his most pronounced successes he resided in Logansport, although he quite frequently appeared in the courts of White County, and was everywhere recognized as one of the most eloquent, adroit and successful pleaders before a jury. As he was also very careful in the preparations of his cases and based his eloquence upon the facts, his standing as a lawyer was very substantial, resting as it did upon practical results, suits actually won.
Mr. Pratt studied law in Indianapolis during his younger years, and located at Logansport in 1836. He served one term in the State Legislature, was in the United States Senate from 1869 to 1875, and died in his adopted city, and which had adopted him as perhaps her foremost citizen, in June, 1877. The veteran and beloved lawyer became the preceptor of many young men who were ambitious to succeed in the profession, and who, in after years, freely acknowledged their indebtedness to his generous and fatherly instruction. Among the number was David Turpie, who speaks of him thus, and by his words closely connects the personality of Mr. Pratt with the young lawyer who was first to give the bar of White County a high standing abroad: "A few days after the close of my first school 1 went to Logansport, taking with me several letters of commendation addressed to Mr. Daniel D. Pratt, an eminent attorney of that city, in whose office I was desirous of pursuing my law studies. Mr. Pratt read the letters and received me very kindly, said I was quite welcome to a place as student in the office, and that he would take pleasure in directing the course of my reading. Mr. Pratt was then, as a member of the bar, in the meridian of his fame. He had, and deserved, the highest professional reputation and in fullest measure the confidence of the people. It was a privilege to make my studies under the guidance of such a preceptor. This gentleman was considerate in his treatment of young men and conscientious in the discharge of his duty toward them. Unless actually engaged in court, he spent some hours every Saturday with his students, questioned them closely on the subject upon which they were reading, answered himself questions upon the same, and sometimes advised that a particular section or chapter should be read over, saying, by way of encouragement, that he had, when a student, taken the same course. He accepted no compensation for his services; the work which a student did in the office was perhaps of some assistance to him, but more to the student."
At the December term of the Circuit Court in 1838 Isaac Naylor succeeded John R. Porter as its presiding judge, and in April, 1842, John W. Wright became the third incumbent. James Barnes continued as an associate, while Thomas Wilson was replaced by Thomas McCormick; they were the last of the associate judges of the Circuit Court. At the October term of that year Godlove S. Orth, afterward a congressman, William S. Palmer and John Hanna were admitted to the bar, and in October, 1843, Samuel A. Huff, subsequently judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and Robert Jones were added to the list.
At the April term, 1847, Horace P. Biddle ascended the circuit bench as the successor of John W. Wright. Judge Wright was known as "ready," although not profound, in his decisions. After he left the bench he was mayor of Logansport, became influential in railroad matters, and spent the last years of his life at Washington, District of Columbia.
If ever there was an able, versatile and eccentric character on the bench of the old Circuit Court it was Judge Biddle. He was a little, fiery man, but although he had not a few personal encounters when he was an advocate at the Logansport Bar, as a judge he seemed to retain a calm equipoise and made a fine record both as a member of the constitutional convention of 1851 and as an occupant of the Circuit and State Supreme courts.
Daniel D. Pratt was as large physically as Horace P. Biddle was small, and at the Logansport Bar they were sometimes pitted against each other with exciting clashes. Upon on [sic] occasion, while they were fighting out a case before Judge John U. Pettit not long after Biddle's term had expired as circuit judge, Mr. Pratt turned fiercely upon his diminutive but sturdy antagonist and shouted, "Why, I could swallow you!"
Biddle returned like a flash, "If you did, you would have more law in your belly than you ever had in your head."
On another occasion Biddle was incensed at Pratt's abuse and next day carried a sword into court with him. Pratt again referred to Biddle in very uncomplimentary language and Biddle slapped him in the face with the flat of his sword. The two men clinched, but Pratt's powerful form soon stood over the frail Biddle, when the latter was about to unsheath his sword and thrust it into Pratt's ponderous abdomen, but the sheriff separated the combatants. Judge Pettit fined Biddle $1,000 for contempt of court, but the fine was never collected. As stated, Judge Biddle was one of the most influential members of the second constitutional convention, served for many years as judge of the higher courts, became widely known for his strong and polished pen, and died in 1900 at his home in Logansport.
In 1849, or about midway in Judge Biddle's term, the local bar, heretofore represented by Mr. Thompson, was re-enforced by a young man of twenty-one, who was to make history for himself, the county and the state--David Turpie, lawyer, judge, statesman, classical scholar and literatteur, and in many respects the most remarkable character with which this history deals. The activities of his broad career and the charms of his large and strong personality (notwithstanding its weaknesses) embrace, as their fields, Monticello, Logansport and the capitals of both the State of Indiana and the United States of America. Re was a brilliant lawyer, lacking somewhat the patience to be a profound judge; a constructive statesman; a cultured companion who did not need the printed page either to expound the gospels or present the beauties of the classics; a writer of the Goldsmith and Irving grace of diction, and a friend and citizen who, on the whole, inspired both by spirit and action. As a test of his standing in authorship, when applied to home and domestic history, the best critics place his "Sketches of My Own Times" in a class by itself; in other words, pronounce it an Indiana classic.
Like other men of genius, Mr. Turpie was so wrapped in his own thoughts that self-consciousness was quite foreign to his nature, with the result—which is also not unusual—that his most intimate friends were never sure of what treatment to expect from him; whether the geniality of unaffected comradeship or a complete ignoring of bodily presence. While such breaches of the common standards of courtesy seemed to the careless observer as little more than freaks of an unbalanced nature, those who were capable of appreciating Senator Turpie knew that his nature was so absorbed that he had no thoughts for appearances. But such peculiarities brought him many enemies and unfitted him to be a successful politician, although his great force of character carried him repeatedly into public office, despite what in one of less strength would have been insurmountable obstacles to advancement.
David Turpie was an Ohio man, born in Hamilton County, July 8, 1829. He graduated from Kenyon College in 1848; studied law with Hon. Daniel D. Pratt, of Logansport, who twenty years afterward commenced service in the United States senate, and soon after being admitted to the bar in that place moved to Monticello for the practice of his profession. In 1868 he returned to Logansport, where he continued actively engaged in the law until 1872, after which Indianapolis was his home. His death occurred in the capital city April 21, 1909, when he had nearly reached his eightieth year.
Mr. Turpie's public career included a seat in the lower house of the State Legislature as a stalwart democrat from 1853 to 1858; a term as judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1854; the completion of the unexpired term of Jesse D. Bright as United States senator from January to March, 1863; representative in the State Assembly again, in 1874-75, during which he served as speaker; a leading participation in the revision of the state laws as one of the three members constituting the board of commissioners appointed for that purpose whose labors covered 1878-81; able professional service as United States district attorney in 1886-87; delegate at large to the democratic national convention of 1888 and, as a deserved conclusion, dignified, useful and brilliant performance of the duties attaching to the United States senatorship, from 1887 to 1899.
Mr. Turpie served as United States senator until the expiration of his second term, March 3, 1899, and made a fine record as chairman of the Committee on Census and member of the Foreign Relations Committee. He was long recognized by his fellow senators as a rich source of information and a valued counselor in the general deliberations of the upper house. Quotations, facts, literary and practical information of all kinds were promptly available as the result of a personal interview; so that when in doubt about any knotty point or authority, the instinctive advice would be given—"Ask Turpie."
Senator Turpie died at his home in Indianapolis, the later years of his life being largely devoted to the preparation of his "Sketches," or reminiscences, published in 1903. He himself tells of his advent into the community which he was so long to honor. "Having completed my third term as schoolmaster," he says, "I went to Logansport a few days afterward, made a review of my law reading and applied for admission to the bar. The examination lasted three hours. The report thereof being favorable, my name was entered upon the roll of attorneys and a certificate of admission was given me which bears date April 14, 1849. I was yet in my twenty-second year. Before this some conference had occurred between Mr. Pratt and myself concerning a suitable location to commence the practice. He had told me of a large county lying directly west of the one in which he resided, where there was no resident attorney. It was, as he stated, a county of rich land and, although very sparsely settled, would become at no distant day wealthy and populous; he thought it was an eligible place for a beginner. Soon after my admission, I took a livery conveyance and was driven to the capital of White County. On the day after my arrival, an entire stranger, I called upon and delivered to three gentlemen residing there my letters of introduction, thus commencing an acquaintance not yet ended and a residence of many years."
When Mr. Turpie commenced his practice at Monticello, and for several years thereafter, the farmers of White County and neighboring country were in the habit of grazing cattle driven in from Eastern Indiana, Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, for that purpose. Disputes often arose between the herders, or agistors, and the eastern owners as to the charges due for such pasturage and services; as the country where the herds were grazed was mostly free range, such charges were really more for herding than for feed. One of these prairie herdsmen having had, at the close of the season, a dispute with the owners of certain cattle about the amount of his bill, which they refused to pay, impounded the whole herd, declined to deliver it and forcibly prevented the sheriff from serving a writ of replevin, which they had issued to recover possession.
At this juncture mutual friends of the parties intervened, the herder's bill was settled and paid upon compromise and the cattle were delivered to their owners. Some months after this, however, the grand jury returned an indictment against the herder and a number of his tenants and friends who had aided him in resisting the process of the sheriff. They applied to Mr. Turpie to assume their defense, who advised them to plead guilty, as they had no remedy under the existing laws; but they insisted and the case went against them, the judge instructing the jury that the herders had no lien upon the cattle at common law and were therefore trespassers. The defendants were therefore all convicted and fined. But in the spring of 1852 a number of farmers in the herding business urged that Mr. Turpie become a candidate for the Legislature upon the platform of a new cattle-lien law. This he did and, despite opposition from Mr. Pratt and other prominent men, the measure was passed and incorporated into the state statutes. No one service which he accomplished during his career in the Legislature was more generally appreciated by the farming element than that mentioned, which is credited to the General Assembly of 1853.
One of the first justices of the peace appointed to serve White County was Jonathan Harbolt, of Monticello, and no one served longer or more conscientiously in that office. The "Sketches" thus picture him: "The principal character in our village was the Squire. Of course the county officers lived there, but they were not so well known, nor nearly so often spoken of as the old Squire. He had been a justice of the peace for a long time--in his case, it proved to be a life office. He was a man of fifty years, a native of Culpeper County, Virginia, who had crossed the mountains on horseback when a youth just out of his apprenticeship, and after traveling through the West for some time settled down in our village. By trade he was a joiner and cabinet maker, and his office and court were held in the carpenter-shop, a roomy apartment, where I often appeared for parties litigant. His books and papers were kept neatly in place, the docket entries were clear and legible, especially the signature; indeed, the Squire may have been a little vain of his handwriting—it was the only vanity he cherished.
"The margin of the docket page was reserved for costs; here, as the case proceeded, his fees were entered with precision to the cent or half-cent; but if he was strict in taxation he was liberal in collection; he would at any time throw off half his costs—all his costs—if he could only induce the parties to settle without further action. Great stress was laid upon the last word of his official title; peace, he said, was better than pennies; peace was better than to gain a lawsuit or to lose it; it was his duty to make peace, as well as to keep it. In religion he was a Presbyterian of the old school, a resolute stickler for the Five Points of Calvin, though no proselyter; but when attacked, if he did not convince his assailant, he often reduced him to silence by a battery of well-chosen texts, aided by his imperturbable good humor and his unfeigned sincerity. If there were in his creed any lack of charity, it abounded in his life and conversation. Whenever he entered a final judgment for principal, interest and costs, he closed it with the formula: 'And the defendant in mercy,' the form used at that time in such cases in the Circuit Court. I have frequently heard him repeating this clause over and over after he had written it, the words seeming to charm his ear. He observed closely; knew more of men than he said or than they thought, and, although he was willing to overlook the follies of mankind and much commiserated their sins and shortcomings, yet he treated offenses against the statute in such case made and provided, with somewhat more of rigor. His probity has passed into a proverb: 'As honest as the old Squire.' In his prolonged service he had become well versed in the law of his jurisdiction, and was so thoroughly impartial in judgment that appeals from his court were seldom taken. In polities the Squire was always a Democrat, and as such he was elected by the people of a district composed of three counties, a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1851. He went to Indianapolis, served through the session of that body, was held in the highest esteem by his distinguished members, and when he returned from the capital resumed the duties of a magistrate, which he continued to discharge until his death.
"The praises justly due to the excellencies of such a character may in some degree be reflected upon the people and the constituency which he served, who, if they did not all possess these qualities, yet appreciated them, and upon this consideration honored their fellow townsman with a lifelong trust and confidence." Good Squire Harbolt passed to his future reward on the 12th of August, 1872, in his sixty-seventh year and no one has ever died in Monticello who carried to the unknown more kindly thoughts and remembrances.
No writer has drawn with clearer or more graceful outlines the relations of the pioneer bench and bar than Mr. Turpie, if any excuse were needed to reproduce those pictures of the times in which his young manhood was cast: "The members of the bar fifty years ago were a convivial fraternity. They made a free use of stimulants; they drank, not to any gross excess, but the habit was general. In like manner with few exceptions, they played cards and frequently for money; but the stakes were small and no one was ever enriched or impoverished by the result. Our circuit judge (Biddle), though he was an inveterate player, would never admit that he gambled. He had a handsome euphemism for the occasion. Approaching an attorney with whom he was well acquainted, he would say that he had a little money in his pocket about which he was uncertain whether it belonged to himself or to the person he addressed, and would invite him to his room in the evening so that they might have a trial of the right of property to determine its ownership. The trial of course took place at chambers. Any member of the bar who called might interplead and take part in the action. Outsiders were not admitted; to that extent the game was exclusive.
"When a regular symposium was held, usually at the close of the term, these games were accompanied by music, the songs of the circuit. The ballads sung were jovial, but not beyond the line of becoming decorum. 'In the Season of the Year,' 'Gabriel's Wedding,' 'Life Let Us Cherish' and the 'Arkansas Gentleman,' were specimens. The 'Arkansas Gentleman' was a general favorite. It was a sort of poetical centipede, having rhymed terminals, though the feet in the lines were irregular and almost innumerable.
"'This fine Arkansas gentleman went strong for Pierce and King,
And when the election was over he went down to Washington to get an office or
some other comfortable thing;
But when he got there the boys told him that the trumps were all played and the
game was up, yet they treated him so
fine
That he came back to his plantation and lived happier than ever just on the
Choctaw line.'
"The counterpart of this pilgrim to Washington might doubtless be found in many places today; no poet has celebrated his journey, and even if some of our bards had done so it is hardly to be supposed that any member of the bar would now sing or even deign to listen to such a roundelay.
"The Choctaw Line became a proverbial expression in our circuit for a life of good cheer and hospitality. A witness called in a certain case to a question of character, after answering the usual inquiries, summed up his statement with the remark that the gentleman asked about was an honest man, a good neighbor and citizen, and had lived for many years as near to the Choctaw Line as any person he had ever known. This evidence was perfectly understood both by the judge and jury engaged in hearing the cause.
"These convivialities of the bar were limited to the members of their own brotherhood and occurred when those who participated in them were off duty. These same gentlemen, when engaged in the courtroom in the trial of a case pending, were models of the gravest propriety. When the active business of the term was over the revels commenced; all waited for the final adjournment, and no one ever thought of leaving the judge to make the journey alone to the next appointment. It must not be forgotten that these veterans of the bench and bar were living at the close of what might be called on old dispensation, the distinctive feature of which was the circuit practice. Much of their time was spent away from home. On their travels, mostly made on horseback, they encountered bad roads and often worse weather; their professional work was performed with great skill and fidelity, frequently under circumstances of much discomfort. When the labors of the term were ended, or, to use their own expression, when school was out, they felt as if they had a right to some amusement. They took not the least pains to disguise or conceal the character of their recreations, as these were not, in their view, the subject of any reasonable reproach or discredit.
"Members of the old bar were not at all inferior to those of the new in capacity or integrity, in dignity, courtesy or learning. These patriarchs made no sort of claim to virtues, or so-called virtues, which they did not possess, or to habits which they did not practice. They did not write elaborate essays for the magazines upon the subject of professional ethics, but they thoroughly understood and rigidly enforced the rules of that species of morality. The attorney who indulged in sharp practice against his fellow member of the bar might be once or twice forgiven, but he who resorted to such means in dealing with a client or a layman instantly lost caste, and that beyond respite or remedy.
"The fee was regarded as a proper accompaniment for legal service, but it was not the chief object in professional life. The lawyers of those days were untouched by the commercial spirit, untainted by the slightest trace of reverence for wealth as such. They felt in their faces the breath of the coming age; overheard in the distance the gigantic steps of approaching material progress, and somewhat adapted their methods to its action, but always within the elemental lines of rectitude and justice. Sometimes seated around a blazing log fire in a wayside country tavern, they discussed with keen zest and much philosophic foresight the probable legal questions of the coming time. Having done this, they left these subjects, not without deep concern, but with unfaltering trust and confidence, to the wise and pure arbitrament of the tribunals of the future."
Robert H. Milroy, who succeeded Judge Biddle in November, 1852, was a resident of Delphi, Carroll County. The Ninth Circuit, of which he was the presiding judge, was then composed of White, Carroll, Lake, Laporte, Porter, St. Joseph, Marshall, Starke, Fulton, Cass, Pulaski, Howard and Miami. Judge Milroy left a good record as a lawyer, a judge and a soldier, serving as a captain in the Mexican war and a colonel in the War of the Rebellion.
John U. Pettit, who became presiding judge in May, 1853, served about a year, and then resigned for congressional honors, finally becoming speaker of the House of Representatives. He was also one of D. D. Pratt's boys; was admitted to the Logansport bar in 1841, but located in the following year at Wabash, where he resided until his death in 1881.
John M. Wallace, who was Judge Pettit's successor, ascended the bench in November, 1854, and also ranked high in his profession. Before he became judge he had served with credit in the Mexican war and was afterward a colonel in the Civil war and a paymaster in the regular army.
John Pettit, of Lafayette, who afterward served as one of the judges of the State Supreme Court, presided over the Circuit Court of White County from March, 1855, to March, 1856, and the following occupied the bench from that date until 1888, when Alfred W. Reynolds, already designated as the first member of the profession from White County to be thus honored, assumed his judicial duties: Andrew Ingham, commenced his term in March, 1856; John Pettit, September, 1857; Charles H. Test, March, 1858; David P. Vinton, 1870; Bernard B. Daily, who was the first judge of the new circuit composed of White, Carroll and Pulaski counties, May, 1875; and John H. Gould, who refused a third term, October, 1876 to 1888; Alfred W. Reynolds, 1888-94; Truman F. Palmer, 1894-1906; and James P. Wason, of Delphi, the present incumbent, since 1906.
Sill's unpublished "History of White County" thus condenses a number of salient facts connected with the White County Circuit Court: "The remarkable increase in population in northwestern Indiana, and especially in White county, which had more than doubled in the decade between 1840 and 1850, created a necessity for a frequent change of circuits and the creation of new ones. The legislature could not legislate a Circuit judge out of office as it could the judge of a court created by statute, for the Circuit Court was provided for in the constitution of the state and could not be legally abolished; but where a circuit embraced two or more counties a new circuit could be created out of the counties detached from the old one, and the governor would appoint a judge who resided in tbe new circuit to act until his successor was elected and qualified. This will account for the great number of judges holding the circuit in White county. No resident judge had been elected from the organization of the county in 1834 until the election of Judge Reynolds in 1888. In the interim our judges had been provided for us, either by election or appointment, from the counties of Warren, Tippecanoe, Carroll, Cass, Miami and Jasper. At one time our circuit extended from the eastern line of Miami county to the state line on the west, and north to the north line of Pulaski county. Now there are four circuits, and part of a fifth, covering the same territory."
Judge Reynolds was in his twentieth year when Monticello and White County first knew him as an earnest law student whose course was directed by David Turpie. He was a native of Somerset, Ohio, born September 16, 1839, coming to Monticello in 1856. He attended Wabash and Monmouth colleges two years as a preparation for his legal studies, and after his admission to the bar practiced for a short time at Winamac hut soon returned to Monticello, where within a few years he had secured a high-class and lucrative clientele.
As warmly sketched by a long-time friend at the time of his death in his seventy-fifth year, after he had secured so firm a hold upon the respect, admiration and affection of all: "Judge Reynolds had many traits of character which drew and held friends and contributed to his success at the bar. He was in love with his profession and seemed to enjoy the work which it entailed. He not only mastered every detail of his cases, but he made his client's cause his own, and was ready to fight for him if need be. At the same time he was not exorbitant in the matter of fees and was kindly discriminating in favor of the poor. Faults he had, but ingratitude was not one of them. He never forgot a friend, nor was he prone to cherish malice against an enemy. For his fearlessness, his determination and his singleness of purpose in the pursuit of one of the highest callings that engage the human intellect, he will be remembered by his profession far and near.
Mr. Reynolds was judge of the White County Circuit Court from 1888 to 1894 and discharged his duties well; but he was primarily an advocate and at least one instance is related, which occurred during the fIrst year of his judgeship, illustrating that fact. The case of Dickey vs. Garrigan, by change of venue from Pulaski County, was before him in December, 1888. The judge was uneasily watching the maneuvers by which counsel for the defendant were endeavoring to introduce indirectly a piece of incompetent testimony that the court had once ruled out. When at last the main question, which was clearly irrelevant, was put, the words were hardly out of the lawyer's mouth before Judge Reynolds, carried away by the instincts of the veteran advocate, lost his judicial consciousness and shouted from the bench "We object!" A burst of laughter from jury, bar and witnesses at once recalled the judge to a realization of his position, who added, almost in the same breath, "And the Court sustains the objection."
At the conclusion of his six years on the Circuit bench, Mr. Reynolds resumed his beloved practice, in which he continued to be actively engaged until stricken by his last illness a few months before his death at his home in Monticello, on the 27th of April, 1913.
Truman F. Palmer succeeded Judge Reynolds in 1894 and continued on the Circuit Bench until 1906. He is a son of Rev. Truman F. Palmer, A. M., and Plumea (Perry) Palmer, M. E. L. The father was a graduate of Allegheny College (about) 1847, and the parents were married at Meadville, Pennsylvania, the same year. They came to Indiana and the father was attached, as a minister, to the Indiana conference, as a member of which body he preached at Fort Wayne and other places until January 17, 1851, when he died, while in charge of the church at Orland, Indiana, aged about twenty-six years. The mother lived until May 23, 1900, and passed away at Burnettsville, in White County, where she had lived most of the time since her husband's death. There were two children: Emma, a widow, who resides with her brother, Truman F., in Monticello. She was for many years a teacher in the Monticello schools. The mother was well educated and had excellent literary taste. She was a writer of considerable note in her younger days, but gave up her ambitions in order that she might rear and educate her children. She was a teacher of English for many years in the old Thorntown Academy. which was one of the prominent schools of the Methodist Episcopal Church during, and for a long time after the Civil war. Of her it is said by resolution of her church, which is inscribed on a memorial window of the church building at Burnettsville, as follows: "She has woven her noble influence for good into the lives and characters of more people in this community than any other person who ever lived in it."
Truman F. Palmer (2nd) was born at Orland, Steuben County, Indiana, on the 7th day of January, 1851, and three years thereafter came with his mother to White County, where (his boyhood at Burnettsville) his home has been most of the time since. He was educated, in a very irregular way, at Battle Ground Institute, Thorntown Academy, Farmer's Institute, at Clinton, Indiana, and Indiana University, and his professional preparation was at the last named institution. After graduating in the law, he was for four years deputy clerk of the Circuit Court of White County, and thereafter (July 5, 1879) he opened a law office at Monticello. Since that time he has been engaged in the practice except for an interval of twelve years, from 1894 to November, 1906, during which time he served, by two successive elections, as judge of the Thirty-ninth Judicial Circuit. He was president of the Indiana State Bar Association in 1904-05, and was a delegate from the American Bar Association to the International Bar Association in 1904.
He is a thirty-third degree Mason, crowned at Boston in September, 1904, and is
at present one of two members from Indiana of the very important
Committee on Charitable Foundation of the Supreme Council. He has been since
November, 1906, a member of the legal firm of Palmer & Carr, composed of
himself and Mayor Benjamin F. Carr. Politics, republican.
James P. Wason was born September 26, 1867, in Toledo, Ohio. He was the son of Robert A. and Gertrude L. Wason (nee Freleigh) and came to Delphi, Indiana, September 24, 1881, with his parents; attended the common schools at Toledo, including the eighth grade and graduated from the Delphi High School in May, 1885; studied law for a short time with the firm of Applegate & Pollard and then entered the store of Bolles & Wason in Delphi in 1887, where he was employed until the fall of 1894, when he went to Ann Arbor and entered the law department of the University of Michigan, graduating from there with the degree of LL. B. in June, 1896; while at Ann Arbor was assistant law librarian for the purpose of partially defraying his expenses; formed a partnership with John H. Cartwright in 1896, under the firm name of Cartwright & Wason, which lasted until his elevation to the bench. Was attorney for the board of commissioners of Carroll County in 1903-1904. Was elected judge of the Thirty-ninth Judicial Circuit, composed of Carroll and White counties, in November, 1906, by a majority of forty-one and was re-elected in 1912, by a majority of 1,315; is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church and also a member of Mt. Olive Lodge, F. & A. M., No. 48; Delphi Chapter, R. A. M., No. 21; Monticello Council, No. 70, R. & S. M.; Delphi Commandery, K. T., No. 40; Delphi Lodge, K. of P., No. 86; Delphi Company U. R. K. of P., No. 86, and Tippecanoe Tribe, I. O. R. M., No. 505. In politics is a democrat.
Like the old-time associates of the circuit judges and the justices of the peace, the probate judges of White County were "homey" men, often citizens of simple common-sense without legal knowledge or many other intellectual qualifications. Yet they were generally classed as "honorables" and invariably claimed the title of judge.
Robert Newell, the first probate judge, who was appointed by Governor Noble in 1835, was an honest, popular Big Creek farmer, and served until the general election in August, when he resigned from the bench to accept a nomination for state representative. Judge Newell is described as a jolly, unassuming man, and quite regardless of personal appearances. He would often come into court barefoot and coatless, with the merest excuse for a hat, and if the docket showed no business would adjourn court, and join the boys in a game of quoits, or in jumping, wrestling and any other sport at hand. If any business turned up he would enter into its disposal with the same zest as marked his participation in the sports of the villagers.
Mr. Newell was succeeded by William M. Kenton, son of the famous frontiersman and Indian fighter of Kentucky and himself one of the largest landowners and most prosperous cattlemen in the state. In his youth he had been well educated at West Point, married early and soon afterward brought his wife and child from Logan County, Ohio, to what was then Big Creek Township, Carroll County. That was in the fall of 1832, and Mr. Kenton selected for his homestead a tract of land three miles west of the present site of Monticello. In 1851 he moved to Honey Creek Township, where he died, April 30, 1869, his widow following him on the 3d of July, 1881. They were the parents of ten children and many of their descendants of the third and fourth generations are still living in the county.
Mr. Kenton was a man of far more education and dignity than his predecessor in the probate judgeship, although most of his life since his youth had been spent amid outdoor scenes of primitive life in what was then the western frontier. But he tired of his judicial dignities in about a year and returned to his farm a few miles west of the Tippecanoe River. It was while living there that Mr. Turpie met him, not long after locating at Monticello in 1849. "The best known citizen of the county at that time," he says, "was William Miller Kenton, a son of Simon Kenton, the far-famed Indian fighter and hunter of Kentucky. His early youth had been spent on the farm and in attending his father in his numerous excursions in search of lands and game. The Indians where they lived then gave little trouble. After the age of sixteen the friends of his father, who were quite influential, including all the elder congressmen and senators from his state, procured for young Kenton in commission in the navy. Disliking this employmnent, after a brief service as midshipman with the home squadron in the gulf, he resigned. The same friends obtained for him an appointment to the military academy at West Point, then a very primitive institution. Young Kenton here excelled in the drill and manual of arms and in all athletic sports and exercises; but with books he failed, not from any lack of mental ability, but from his innate aversion to regular study and application. After a certain time spent at the academy, he was honorably relieved from further attendance, went home, married and, with considerable means derived from his parental estate and other sources, removed to what was then Carroll, later White county, bought large tracts of government land, and was among the first settlers of the Grand Prairie.
"When I first knew him Kenton lived on a farm of a thousand acres on what was called the Range Line, in the open prairie about four miles west from the Tippecanoe River, and owned another plantation of two thousand acres not far away. His house was a large one, a frame of two stories. Here he dispensed a profuse hospitality; no one was ever turned away from his door. Whites and Indians were equally welcome. His Indian visitors were frequent, for he had settled in the county some time before their removal by the government to their new home in the West. Some of these guests had seen and known his father; they loved the son for the father's sake, yet their attachment may have been partly due to the well stored pantry and kitchen which ministered to their wants.
"Besides farming, Kenton was largely engaged in rearing cattle and live stock for the market, and among other things he gave much of his time and attention to the prosecution of certain land claims located in Kentucky, which he had inherited from his father's estate.
"The younger Kenton was a man of considerable reading and information, fond of the chase, a notable wrestler, runner and boxer, surpassing most of his contemporaries in these exercises; but he was a person of exceeding equable temper, and resorted not to force or violence save under extreme provocation. He, like his father, had lived in his youth so much among the Indians as to have contracted somewhat of their habits. He was of a firm step, with a decided military bearing, yet inclined to the Indian gait. His eyes were large and brilliant, constantly in the attitude of expectancy, as if watching or awaiting some one. He was in politics a zealous Whig, a personal friend and a steadfast adherent of Henry Clay, who had also known and befriended his father in days of yore.
"As the representative of a district composed of a group of our northern counties, of which White was one, he had served, with much acceptance to his constituents for several sessions in the general assembly; he was a close friend and ally of Albert S. White, and in the Whig caucus, it is said, had placed that gentleman's name in nomination for United States senator when he was chosen to that position. Kenton's conversation was very interesting, especially when it related to the life and adventures of his father.
"Mr. Kenton was a very careful herdsman and feeder, a better judge of live stock than of the market. He often made unfortunate sales, and as his transactions were on a large scale, met with serious losses. Toward the close of his life, in his old age, he fell into some pecuniary embarrassment. His creditors came in a cloud, all at once, to summon him with writs of indebtedness. The old pioneer made a gallant fight. Some of them he paid, with others he settled, many of them he defeated, and two or three of the most insolent claimants he literally whipped into terms of submission. He saved a large portion of his real estate and, though he did not long survive his campaign in the courts, spent his last days in comfortable competency and died in peace with all the world. His memory is yet highly respected, even fondly cherished, by the descendants of the friends and neighbors with whom he formerly associated, and whom he had often aided in the struggles of their early life on the frontier."
With most of his family he was buried in the old Kenton graveyard, about five miles southwest of Monticello, but about thirty years ago their
remains were disinterred and deposited in the old cemetery at Monticello. The
old-fashioned tombstones were left in the original burial ground, where they may
still be seen.
When Mr. Kenton resigned after his year's service as probate judge, Zebulon Sheetz was elected to succeed him. He was also one of the pioneers of the county, as were usually the occupants of the probate bench, and was a mild, dignified Virginian, who firmly suppressed any levity in court, either on the part of attorneys or laymen. He and Judge Newell were as different as honest dirt and pure snow.
Mr. Sheetz was succeeded, after a creditable service of four years by Aaron Hicks, who had come into the Wabash country as one of a colony of Ohio emigrants as early as 1825, first settling near the mouth of Rock Creek, in what is now Grant County. He had lived there for several years among the Miami Indians and a sprinkling of white people, until he migrated still westward beyond the Wabash into White County. He was also an advocate of decorum, and bears the reputation of a man who was rather timid in the maintenance of his own opinion, or, better still, of one who was anxious to correct an opinion when the evidence showed that he was in the wrong. Judge Hicks served for six years, or until the office was legislated out of existence.
Altogether the probate judges of the county, although selected from the unprofessional, were men of integrity and fair practical ability.
When the Court of Common Pleas became an established fact, under the legislative act of May, 1852, a legal and a higher order of talents was demanded. By that act the state was divided into thirty-eight judicial districts, in each of which a judge was chosen at the succeeding election to hold the office for four years. As stated, it absorbed the Probate Court and relieved the Circuit Court of its minor business concerning both civil and criminal actions.
Samuel A. Huff, the first of the common pleas judges, entered office at the January term of 1853, his district comprising Tippecanoe and White counties. Then, and for many years afterward, he was a resident of Lafayette, although he spent the last of his life in Monticello with his son, William J. Huff, of the Monticello Herald. In his early manhood, Judge Huff himself had been connected with several Indiana newspapers. Born at Greenville, South Carolina, on the 11th of October, 1811, he settled at Indianapolis in his nineteenth year and entered the counting room of the Indiana Agriculturist; in 1832 he became a printer in the office of the Indiana Democrat and in the following year joined the business department of the Lafayette Free Press.
After three years of such experimenting, Mr. Huff decided to study law, and commenced his course in the libraries of John Pettit, afterward his brother-in-law, and Rufus A. Lockwood. He was admitted to the bar in 1837, and practiced alone and in partnership with Judge Pettit, Zebulon Baird and Byron W. Langdon. When he was elected to the common pleas bench he had acquired a substantial standing as a lawyer and had become widely known as an ardent Free Soiler. He resigned the judgeship after eighteen months of service, and later vigorously championed the cause of the new republican party, being one of the presidential electors from Indiana who cast his vote for Lincoln in 1860.
Several years before his death Judge Huff moved from Lafayette to Indianapolis, but the years were telling upon his vitality and he soon joined his son in Montidello. There his death occurred in January, 1886. His remains were taken to his old home for burial, where the courts and members of the bar, as well as numerous friends outside the pale of his profession, testified to the great ability and generous impulses of the deceased.
David Turpie succeeded Judge Huff, but occupied the bench only for the July term of 1854, and Governor Wright appointed Gustavus A. Wood as his successor. Judge Wood occupied the common pleas bench but one term—that of October, 1854— and then came, in succession, Mark Jones, who served until 1856; Judge Wood, again, from December, 1856, to May, 1861 (with the exception of the March term of 1860, at which Godlove 0. Behm presided); Judge Godlove, the May term of 1861; David P. Vinton, 1861-67; Alfred Reed, 1867; B. F. Schermerhorn, one term, 1869, and Alfred Reed, from October, 1869, until the court was abolished in 1873.
In 1867 a new common pleas district was formed, comprising the counties of Carroll and White. Up to that time the district had consisted of Tippecanoe and White counties, and all the judges, save Mr. Turpie, had been residents of the former county. With the new districting, White County felt that she was entitled to representation upon the bench, and her wishes were gratified by the nomination and election of Capt. Alfred P. Reed, who had practiced for a number of years before the Civil war, served gallantly as captain and lieutenant, resigning his seat in the state senate to return to the arduous duties of a soldier, and after the conflict at arms was over, quietly and earnestly resumed the practice of his profession. He was elected and commissioned judge of the Common Pleas Court, October 1, 1869, and again on October 28, 1872. When the court was abolished by act of March 6, 1873, he resumed the practice and speedily regained his former standing and professional business, his judicial record adding to both as time progressed. Monticello and White County have reason to be proud of his character and his acts.
Captain Reed was born in Clark County, Ohio, February 3, 1824. Although his parents first came to Indiana in his childhood, the family did not permanently locate in White County until in November, 1852. After that date Monticello was their home. In the meantime Alfred F. had married and been admitted to the bar. He practiced his profession until the outbreak of the Civil war, and on August 1, 1861, was commissioned captain of Company K, Twentieth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. As such he served until the fall of 1862, when he resigned to assume his seat in the state senate; but, after one session at Indianapolis, he felt that his duties called him to the front; he then resigned the senatorship and in March, 1864, was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Twelfth Indiana Cavalry, continuing as such until the close of the war. He was many times wounded and the stress of army life undoubtedly hastened his end, as his death at Monticello occurred October 23, 1873, in his fiftieth year.
Before the coming of Mr. Reed, in 1852, to engage in the practice, the following were the members of the bar who had professional business at the county seat, only two of whom--Messrs. Thompson and Turpie—were residents: William M. Jenners, William P. Bryant, Andrew Ingraham, Aaron Finch, Rufus A. Lockwood and John Pettit, who first appeared in 1834; John W. Wright, 1835; Zebulon Baird, 1836; William Wright, 1837; Thomas M. Thompson and Hiram Allen, 1838; Daniel D. Pratt, 1839; D. Mace and W. Z. Stewart, 1840; L. S. Dale, 1841; G. S. Orth, 1842; Robert Jones, Jr., 1843; Samuel A. Huff, David M. Dunn and J. F. Dodds, 1843; William Potter and A. M. Crane, 1847; J. C. Applegate, Elijah Odell and A. L. Pierce, 1848; David Turpie, Robert H. Milroy and T. C. Reyburn, 1849; Hiram W. Chase, 1850, and Abraham Timmons, 1851.
Not long after Captain Reed located at Monticello as a practicing attorney, the roll of resident lawyers was augmented by the admission of W. H. Rhinehart, Benjamin F. Tilden, James Wallace and Robert W. Sill, so that White County was no longer so dependent upon the profession drawn from Logansport, Lafayette and Delphi.
The last named was the widely known Sill family, being a son of the founder in the State of Indiana, viz.: William Sill, the first clerk of White County, who came with his wife to Washington County in 1828, two years later moved to Tippecanoe County, and in the fall of 1830 settled in what is now Prairie Township, White County. There he farmed and taught school for a time, and in 1834 located in what is now Monticello, erecting the first house in town on lot 1, at southwest corner of Bluff and Marion streets. He served seven years as county clerk, and was in the fifth year of his second term when he died, January 7, 1846.
Robert W., the oldest of the eight Sill children, studied law; was sheriff of the county from 1848 to 1852, and not long afterward commenced active practice at Monticello. At a later day another son, Milton M., made a substantial record as both a newspaper man and a lawyer. As the author, also, of a history of White County, which he had not completed at the time of his death, he has rendered a good service to the editor of this work.
In his article on the "Bench and Bar," Milton M. Sill had this to say of his fellow-practitioners: "Between 1856 and 1890 many members were added to the local bar. Johnson Gregory, who had located at Reynolds; William J. Gridley, Ellis Hughes, Judge Joseph H. Matlock, Joseph W. Davis, Judge A. W. Reynolds, W. E. Uhl, Thomas Bushnell; Robert Gregory. a son of Johnson Gregory; E. B. Sellers, O. McConahay, Hugh B. Logan, Daniel D. Dale, W. S. Bushnell, William Guthrie, Judge T. F. Palmer, John H. Wallace, W. S. Hartman, Isaac Parsons, George F. Marvin, A. K. Sills, W. H. Hamelle and Charles C. Spencer, all joined and became members of the White county bar between these dates, presenting quite an array of legal talent in our courts.
"Judge Matlock removed here from Peru with his family and built a neat and commodious office on the present site of the Herald building. His first partner was Joseph W. Davis, a bright and promising young lawyer who had moved from our neighboring county of Carroll, but he dying in the early spring of 1872, Judge Matlock formed a second partnership with Henry P. Owens, a young lawyer from Kentucky, and they together enjoyed a large and increasing practice until the death of Judge Matlock in -----. [Editor: December 29, 1878.] After the death of Judge Matlock a partnership was formed by Owens with William E. Uhl, which was continued until the declining health of Mr. Owens compelled him to retire from the practice altogether."
Undoubtedly there have been not a few greater lawyers than Orlando McConahay,
there have been none more popular or charged with more vim, either professional
or personal. His friends were legion, especially in Monticello and Monon, his home
towns during most of his life and the chief scenes of his practice, his official
activities and his personal conflicts and complications of all kinds. He came of
Scotch-Irish ancestry, his father, Ranson, being a native of Bourbon County, Kentucky. Three years after
his marriage the father moved to Tippecanoe County, where Orlando was born in 1832.
The family home afterward became what is now Liberty Township, and in January,
1846, the elder McConahay commenced to serve out the unexpired term of William
Sill, the first county clerk. This he completed, was re-elected to the office,
and completed his official life in 1858, and his career on earth a decade later.
The son, Orlando, assumed the clerkship which the father relinquished and performed its duties for eight years. In the meantime he had been admitted to the bar and located at Monticello for practice at the expiration of his official term in 1867, forming a partnership with Ellis Hughes in 1871.
Mr. McConahay's successor in the office of county clerk was his fellow attorney and former assistant, Daniel D. Dale, and there are a few of the profession yet in the county who remember the acrimonious triangular contest between Messrs. Dale, McConahay and Robert Gregory, which raged with such fury in 1873. Without going into the merits of the charges and counter-charges, it will probably be admitted from the perspective of the present that Mr. Dale, who was generally pounced upon by both Messrs. McConahay and Gregory, came out of the fray with his feathers considerably ruffled and his comb pretty well picked to pieces. McConahay was drawn into the fight at its last stage, and most of his friends were sorry he mixed in; they felt, as was expressed by a poetic contributor to the press, who signed himself "A German Fellow Citizen," and starts out with this hitch:
Mr. McConahay built up a fair practice in Monticello, notwithstanding his rather fiery temperament and somewhat indiscreet conduct and afterward moved to Lafayette, where he remained about two years. While in that city he served as justice of the peace. In 1885 he located at Monon, where he lived the remainder of his life, holding such offices as town attorney and notary public.
The members of the bar of White County who have been enrolled since 1890 are as follows, those engaged in the practice being indicated by a *:
Law firms: Spencer, Hamelle & Cowger, Monticello; Palmer & Carr, Monticello; Sills & Sills, Monticello.
Resident attorneys: *E. B. Sellers, Monticello; *T. F. Palmer, Monticello; Benj.
F. Carr, Monticello; *W. S. Bushnell, Monticello; *Wm. Guthrie, Monticello; *W.
H. Hamelle, Monticello; *W. J. Gridley, Monticello; *A. K. Sills, Monticello; *Charles C. Spencer, Monticello; *George F.
Marvin, Monticello; L. D. Carey, Monticello; M. B. Beard, Wolcott; James T.
Graves, Monticello; George W. Kassebaum, Monticello; Thomas J. Hanna, Monticello;
*A. R. Orton, Monticello; Clarence R. Cowger, Monticello; W. R. Taylor,
Monticello; A. K. Sills, Jr., Monticello; H. T. Brockway, Monticello; S. L.
Callaway, Monticello; Henry C. Thompson, Monon; W. A. Ward, Reynolds.