Cook County, Illinois - The whole text, 1884 (part 15 of 61)

The First Baptist Church was organized October 19, 1833, with nineteen members, bv Kev. Allen B. Freeman. With the exception of Mrs. Rebecca Heald, wife of Captain Nathan Healtl, and Rev. Isaac McCoy, Dr. John T. Temple was the first Baptist to 3u'l? IU ChlcaK<>- r)r- '1'fmple, with his wife and four children, reached Chicago about the .,tlt of Julv i8jj For some time after his arrival, he and his family attended the Presbyterian services in Fort Dearborn! but having, through correspondence with the American Uaptist II, me Mission Society, secured the appointment of a missionary for Chicago, and thinking best that the two denominations Should at the first begin with separate churches, started a subscription for a building, heading it with one hundred dollars. In a few weeks the build mg was erected near the corner of Franklin and South water streets. It was a two-story frame structure, the upper story for school, the lower for religious purposes and cost about nine h .ndred dollars. With the excep- Uon of Rev. Jesse Walker's log house at the Point, this was the lust house bu.lt for religious worship in Chicago.

for use. On the hrst Sunday after his arrival he preached to the Rev. Jeremiah Porter s congregation in that S !:1^:1' Wackstones Grove- twenty e JS as follows: Rev. Allen B. Freeman and Hannah C.his wife; S, T. Jackson, Martin D. Harmon, Peter Moore, Nathaniel Carpenter, John K. Sargents, Peter Warden! Willard Jones, Kbenezer and Betsey Crane, Susannah Rice, Samantha Harmon and Lucinda Jackson.

Thk First Methodist Church. - Reference to the " Prc-Chureh" history of Chicago will show that the: Methodists were the first in this city to form the nucleus of a church society, and might without impropriety have been placed first in the list of organized churches, but as their regular and permanent organization was not effected until 1834, the sketches of the churches organized in 1833 precede.

At Rev. Jesse Walker's first quarterly meeting in 1833. held in the Watkin's school-house, which was located on North Water Street, between Clark and La- Salle, Rev. Henry Whitehead received his license to preach, and occasionally preached in the Temple lluilding. In the spring of 1834 Charles W'isencraft was appointed class-leader. For a time sen-ices were held in various places - in Billy Caldwell's log council-house, in Chester Ingersoll's tavern, or in Watkin's school-house; but as the membership of the Church increased, the necessity for a building became more pressing, and measures for its erection were soon taken. It was built at the corner of North Water and Clark streets, by Henry Whitehead and John Stewart. According to the oiiginal. contract it was to be a " frame building twenty-six by thirty-eight feet; twelve-foot posts; sheeted and shingled roof; a neat pulpit; a platform for table and chairs; the whole to be done in a workmanlike manner," for $580. The contract was signed June 30, 1834. The building was finished, and religious services held therein until 1836. Rev. Jesse Walker preached regularly every Sunday most of the remainder of the year 1834, but about the beginning of the winter of 1834-35, hc became superannuated and was succeeded by Rev. J. T. Mitchell. On October 4, 1S35, Rev. Jesse Walker died at the age of sixty-nine years.

During the winter of 1S34-35 a number of conversions and accessions to the membership was made. Chicago Methodism is largely indebted to the zeal and efficiency of Rev. John T. Mitchell. He gave to the Church a thorough organization and laid the foundations of its future stability. He was succeeded in 1836 by Rev. O. T. Curtis. The Church that year was struck off the list of missions, ami erected into an independent s.n:iety. Mr. Curtis was a pious, amiable and quiet man. but not very energetic. In part for this reason the financial crisis that began to be felt that year had a peculiar effect upon the religious zeal of many of the members. At the loss of their wealth they lost faith m Cod, and turned their backs on the Church. In addition to this some members lost their integrity, and the fall of others was especially ignominous and sad. Blow after blow fell with quick succession and crushing effect upon the Church and, added to the financial embarrassments, threatened to overwhelm it with confusion and shame The faithful few were deeply humiliated. Thcv "gathered around their almost forsaken altars, and humbling themselves before God with tears and agonizing pravers, besought the World's Redeemer for mercy and help." In answer to their prayers, as they believed, the Conference of 18,7 sent Rev. Peter R. Bnretn to them " for a Joshua to lead them out of the wilderness * " He came in the fullness of the Gospel, burdened with the love of Christ to dying men. He gathered his feeble flock around him and breathed into them something of his own mighty faith, and with them, attne feet of the Redeemer, cried for help. Salvation was poured as in a mighty torrent upon the people." This effect was not produced, however, at once upon the arrival of Mr. Borein. It was a year afterward that the great revival occurred. So great was the interest awakened at this revival, still vividly remembered by many now living at Chicago, that about three hundred united with the Church; the young city containing at the time a population of about three thousand. This revival commenced in December, 1838. and lasted till April, 1839. Mr. Borein died soon after its close. Those who heard it will never forget his last sermon. His subject was the vision of the dying Stephen, and during the delivery of the sermon he pictured for the congregation his own conception of heaven. In the language of S. R. Beggs. " he believed that in the next, as in this world, there were degrees of Christian attainments, and that in the land of glory some would occupy higher positions than others; that sometimes his imagination had pictured heaven as a vast amphitheatre, whose seats rose tier above tier, up to the very throne itself; and when, from the lower seats, the white-robed struck the exultant song of redemption, it was caught up from rank to rank, growing louder and sweeter as it rose, while in unison the angel choir struck their lyres, and from every golden harpstring of saint, angel, cherubim and seraphim, was poured the rapturous, jubilant, adoring song, and heaven was filled with an atmosphere of melody "

During the summer of 1838, the church was moved across the river, on scows, from its position on the North Side, to a lot at the corner of Clark and Washington streets, purchased in 1836, by Dr. R. Tripp, for $3,250. The society purchased a portion of this lot, which was eighty by one hundred ami eighty feet in size, but never paid for it, as before the payments were Completed, eighty by one hundred and thirty feet of it was secured as a donation from the canal company. Subsequently a lot on the corner of Adams Street and Wabash Avenue was donated for a parsonage, by David Carver. The church building after removal was enlarged from time to time to meet the necessities of a continually increasing congregation; and in 1845, through the influence of Rev. W. M. D. Ryan, a brick building, sixty-six by ninety-five feet, was erected at a cost of $12,000. The corner stone was laid on the 8th of May, and the dedication occurred in November. This church stood at the corner of Clark and Washington streets. It had a stone basement eight feel high, and walls thirty feet high. The apex of the spire was one hundred and forty-eight feet from the ground. The auditorium seated one thousand persons.

This Church was incorporated November 20, 1835, as the "Methodist Episcopal Church of Chicago." Being located later on Clark-street, it was popularly known as the " Clark street M. E. Church." On the 14th of February, 1857, an act of the Legislature was approved, changing the name to the " First Methodist Episcopal Church of Chicago."

St. James' Episcopal Church was organized in 1834. the gentlemen taking part in the organization were : William B. Egan, Dr. Philip Maxwell, Ciles Spring, John II. Kinzie, Dr. Clarke, Gurdon S. Hubbard, John I.. Wilcox. William i'ettit, Eli B. Williams, Jacob Russell and Hans Crocker. The fi:st eight were elected vestrymen. The first communicants were Peter Johnson, Mrs. Peter Johnson, Mrs. Juliette A. Kinzie, Mrs. Francis W. Magi'll, Mrs. Nancy Hullman and Mrs. Margaret Helm. Rev. Palmer Dyer arrived in Chicago on the 10th of October, 1834, and on or about the 12th. by invitation of Rev. Jeremiah Porter, preached both morning and afternoon in the Presbyterian church. These were the first Episcopal services held in Chicago. In the morning the text was Matthew, xviii, 3: " Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." In the afternoon the text was Isaiah, xi, 8 : " The grass withereth, the flowers fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever." After the afternoon service Mr. Dyer administered the sacrament to four Episcopalians - three lady members of Mr. Kinzie's family and one gentleman - and about twenty-five Presbyterians. Mr. Dyer did not remain in Chicago, but afterward went to Peoria, and thence to Fort Snelling as army Chaplain, On the next Sunday. October 19, Rev. Isaac W. H;»llam preached his first sermon in Chicago, in the Baptist church. For some time religious services were held in a building named afterward " Tippecanoe Hall," fitted up for the purpose by John H. Kinzie, on the southeast corner of Kinzie and State streets. In 1836 Mr. Kinzie donated to the Church two lots at the corner of Cass and Illinois streets, and in 1837 the first church building of the society was erected thereon. On the 25th of June of that year the new church was dedicated by Bishop Philander Chase. The style of the building was Gothic, forty-four by sixty-four feet in size, and, though really a very modest structure, was thought to be very imposing for a frontier town. It was the first brick church built in Chicago. The tower contained a bell bearing the name and date of the erection of the church.

'The entire cost of the building, furnished with organ, bell, carpet and lamps, was §15,500. By the sale of the slips ami pews there was realized the sum of $13,- 860, and by means of fairs something over $5,600 more, so that after paying for the church there was a suqilus of $4,000, which was used in 1S38 for the erection of a parsonage.

The German Evangelical Association - The initiatory steps toward the organization in the United States of this Association were taken in 1790, by Rev. Jacob Albright, a Methodist clergyman. Mr. Albright was impelled to special effort among the German residents of eastern Pennsylvania, by observing their general decline of religious life, and their corruption of morals. Without having in view such a design, his labors resulted, ten years later, in the organization of the -' Evangelical Association," which name, although unsatisfactory to most of the members, and notwithstanding numerous attempts to change it have been made, is still retained. Its first Conference was held in 1807, and its first General Conference in 1816. In doctrine and theology the Association is Arminian; with reference to sanctification, Wesleyan. and in its modes of worship it conforms very nearly to the Methodist Episcopal Church. A few of the differences between them are as follows: In the Evangelical Association the bishops are elected for four years, instead of for life; the ministers are assigned to their charges by the presiding elders instead of by the bishops, the latter however having a revisory power, and the elders are elected by the Church members, instead of being appointed by the minister. The first members of this Association to come to Chicago were Daniel and Christopher Stangcr, in 1835. The former wrote back to Jacob Esher, the father of John G. and J.J. Esher, the latter of whom is the present Bishop of Chicago, describing to him the exceeding fertility of the soil of Illinois, and urging him to emigrate from the mountainous country and rocky soil of eastern Pennsylvania, and come to this fair and fertile region of the West. Mr. Esher, accompanied by a number of other Germans, came to the vicinity of Chicago in 1836. Among them were his brother Martin, Lewis Arnet and a Mr. Suther. In 1837 Jacob Ott and his sons Lawrence, Jacob and Philip came. During this year quite a number had settled in Chicago, and in August, Jacob Doaz. after riding on horseback three hundred miles, arrived in the city, having come as the first minister of the Association to preach to the members already here. The first place of preaching was the City Hall. '

The First Uxivf.rsai.ist Church. - The first attempt to organize a Universalis! Church in Chicago was made in 1836. In that year Rev. William Queal preached to a small congregation, and on the nth of June organized the society which consisted of N. H. Holies, K, F.. Hunter, A. N, Marble, Chester Tuppcr, S. G. Trowbridge and S. C. liennctt, who worshiped for a number of years in Mechanic's Hall, in the old Saloon Building. Other places were occasionally occupied, as Bennett's school-house, and the court-room. For a number of years the congregations were quite small, but amon £ them were several persons who afterward became prominent and leading citizens. Previous to 1S43 the Church had no regular minister, but depended upon missionaries as supplies. The first church building erected by this society was located on Washington Street, near the Clark-street Methodist Episcopal church. It was a frame building, thirty by forty-five feet in size, ami cost $1,000. It was dedicated October 23. '*».». by Rev. William E. Manley, D. I)., who had accepted a call to the Church in the preceding January

The First Unitari an Church was organized June 29, 1836, under the laws of Illinois, and with the title of " The First Unitarian Society of Chicago," §800 were at once subscribed for the purchase of a lot. The first Unitarian preaching jn Chicago was a few days or weeks previous, but in the same month of |une The services were held in the Lake House, which stood at the corner of Rush and Michigan streets. Dr. Charles 1-ollen preached the sermon. Miss Martineau who was on a tour through the West at the time, refers to that occasion m the following language : " We were unexpectedly detained over the Sunday in Chicago, and

Dr. F. was requested to preach. Though only two hours' notice was given, a respectable congregation was assembled in the large room of the Lake House, a new hotel then building. Our seats were a few chairs and benches and planks laid on trestles. The preacher stood behind a rotiKh pine table, on which a large Bible was placed. 1 was never present at a more interesting service, and I know that there were others who felt with mc." For some time after the organization was |Krfected the society had no regular pastor. Rev. Mr. Huntoon preached for some months in the summer of >«37;

The New Jerusalem, or Swedexiiorcun, Church. - Previous to 1S35 there were probably no Swedenborgiaus in Chicago, or in northern Illinois. In September of that year J. Young Scammon arrived in the city, and for sonic time was alone in his belief in the doctrines of the Church of the New Jerusalem. According to Swedeuborg. the Divine Love and Wisdom constitute the essential Church, and anv individual Who is receptive of the Divine Love and U'Udom. constitutes an external Church in its smallest entity. Upon this principle Mr. Scammon commenced to hold New Church worship on Sundays in his olhce, almost immed'ately upon his arriving in Chicago. In 1836 he became acquainted with Yinccnt S. Lovell, a young merchant in Chicago, and converted him to the doctrines of the New Church. Afterward the two united in Sunday worship. In 1S37 Mr. Scammon was married to Miss Mary Ann H. Dearborn, of IJath, Maine, a receiver of the doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg. Up<n bringing his wife to Chicago, he took up his residence in the City Hotel, and here, in his private parlor. Mr Scammon, his wife and Mr. Lovell held Sunday morning worship, in company with those invited who chose to attend.

Relative to religious sects and places of worship the following table exhibits data that has been compiled from the Federal census reports of 1850, i860 and 1870; the report for 1880 not having yet reached the publication of such statistics.

The Bench And Bar

The prosperity of a people depends as much upon a wise interpretation as on a judicious framing of its laws. The advocate is as necessary as the lawgiver; the Bench and Bar as indispensable as the Governor and Legislature. Nowhere else has the legal profession exercised a more powerful influence in framing the laws and molding the destinies of the people than in the United Slates. Here they form the leading political class, being the most thoroughly educated in all that appertains to the civil life of the nation.

In the State of Illinois their influence has been paramount from the first. Nearly all the great names connected with its early history are also to be found on the roll of lawyers. They have been leaders of the people, not alone, as was In lie expected, in the domain of law, but in every intellectual, moral, educational, charitable and even commercial enterprise. And the firm stand taken by the profession against repudiation, in the dark period of 1837 to 1842, was creditable to their judgment and worthy of the leadership they had tacitly assumed.

It is now half a century since Chicago began to have a Bench and Bar of her own, in 1833, and in every important crisis of her history since then, in each successive step of the petty hamlet toward metropolitan greatness, lawyers have been among her most active leaders and most influential counselors. They soon attained among the members of the profession throughout the State the prestige that always attaches to commercial centers, which the rapid growth and concentration of large interests here have exceptionally enhanced. The wealth of clients, corporate and individual, has stimulated the powers of the profession, until to stand among one's brethren of the Chicago Bar, well toward the front with name untarnished, is perhaps the most enviable position that can be reached by a citizen.

The Judiciary under the Constitution of 1818. - The fourth article of the constitution of iS 1 8 instituted a judiciary for the new State by the following provisions:

1. The judicial power of this State shall be vested in one supreme court, ami such inferior awns as the general assembly shall, from time to time ordain and establish.

2. The Supreme Court shall be holden at the seal of government, and shall have an appellate jurisdiction onlv. except in cases relating to the revenue, in cases of mandamus, and in such cases of im]>eachmcnt as mav he required to be tried before it.

y. The Supreme Court shall consist in a chief justice and three associates, any two of whom shall form a quorum. The number of justices mav, however, be increased by the General Assembly after the year 1824.

4. The justices of the Supreme Court and the judges of the inferior courts shall be appointed by joint ballot of both branches of the general assembly, ami commissioned by the governor and shall hold their offices during good Iwhavior until the end of the first session of the general assembly, which shall be begun and held after the tst day of January, in'thcycar of our l-ord 1824. at which time their commissions shall expire; and until the expiration of which time the said justices respectively, shall hold circuit courts in the several counties, in such mannei and at such times, and shall have and exercise such jurisdiction as the General Assembly shall by law prescribe, ltut ever after the aforesaid period the justices of the Supreme Court shall be commissioned during good behavior and the justices thereof shall not hold circuit courts, unless required by law.

5. The judges of the inferior courts shall hold their offices during good behavior, but for any reasonable cause, which shall not be sufficient ground for impeachment, both the judges of the supreme and inferior courts, shall lie removed from office on the address of two-thirds of each branch of the General Assembly: Pro. vided always, that no member of cither house of the General Assembly nor any person connected with a member by consanguinity or affinity, shall be appointed to (ill the vacancy occasioned -by such removal. The said justices of the Supreme Court, during their temporary appointment, shall receive an annual salary of one thousand dollars, payable quarter-yearly out o( the public treasury. The judges of the inferior cnurts, and the justices of the Supreme Court who may be appointed after the end of the first session of the General Assembly which shail he begun and held after the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 1824, shall tunc adequate and competent salaries, w hich shall not be diminished during their continuance in office.

6. The Supreme Court, or a majority of the justices thereof, the circuit courts or the justices thereof shall respectively appoint their own clerks.

7. All process, writs, and other proceedings shall run in the name of " The people of the State of Illinois." All prosecutions shall be carried on " In the name and by the authority of the pco. pic of the State of Illinois," and conclude "Against the peace and dignity of the same."

6. A competent numl>er of justices of the peace shall be ap. pointed in each county, in such manner as the General Assembly may direct, whose time of service, power, and duties shall be regulated and defined by law. And justices of the peace, when so appointed, shall be commissioned by the governor.

Accordingly the State was divided into four judicial circuits, in which the chief justice and his three associates perforated circuit duties until 1S24. By an act of December 29, 1824, the State was divided into five judicial districts, and five circuit judges ordered to be elected by the General Assembly. These were to perform all circuit duties, relieving the Supreme Court of that labor, and were to continue in office during good behavior, as provided in the constitution.

But this was soon regarded as a piece of legislative extravagance. Four judges of the Supreme Court at $800 each, and five of the Circuit Court at $600 each, or in all, §6.200 annually. It was therefore repealed, January 12, 1827, and the State was again divided into four Circuit Court districts, to each of which was assigned one of the justices of the Supreme Court. Two years later, January 8, 1829. it was found necessary to create a fifth circuit, to include the whole region north of the Illinois River, and for it a judge was chosen by the General Assembly, the justices of the Supreme Court doing duty in the four circuits south of that river.

Chicago's Earliest Judiciary. - Before treating of the Bench and Bar of Chicago in the stricter sense of judges and lawyers, assembling amid customary surroundings, made respectable by the inherent majesty of law. if not by outward pomp and court forms, it is thought proper to refer to the earliest representatives and processes of law in the future city.

As in the traditional history of ancient nations, the warlike conqueror and founder of empire is always followed by the pacific lawgiver and civil organizer, even so by curious coincidence did it happen in the predestined metropolis of the Great West. Scarcely had the military outpost of Fort Dearborn been established, before a lawyer came here to reside; and as if yet further to justify the parallelism, he came in the interests of order and justice. Reference is made to Charles Jouett, a lawyer of Virginia, and afterward judge in Kentucky and Arkansas, who came here in 1805, as the first Indian Agent.

The earliest mention in the legal records of the State of a Chicago Justice of the Peace, is the following: "Junes. '821, at the second term of the Commissioners Court of I'ikc County, upon motion of Abraham Heck, Judge of Probate, John Kinzie was recommended as a suitable person for Justice of the Peace." Chicago was then in Pike.

At a term of the Commissioners Court of Fulton County, held December 2, is;?. John Kinzie was again recommended for Justice of the Peace. Chicago was then in Fulton.

however, was not commissioned until |ulv 28, 1825. He was, therefore, not only the first resident Justice in Chicago, but one of the first two confirmed for Peoria County It seems probable, in the absence of anv mention of his having performed the duties of the' office, that the previous indorsements had not been followed by a formal appointment or commission.

Alexander Wolcott and Jean liaptiste Heaubien were made Justices September 10. 1825; and thev and Kin/ie were judges of election in Chicago precinct December 5' John L" BufP»rdus, of Peoria, Assessor of St m l82S' was appointed Justice January 15,

30, 1826, Justices were made elective, and their term of Office extended to four years. A supplemental act of rehruary 9, 1827, continued in office those previously appointed until the election of successors. In Chicago WokXrtt and Heaubien were re-coinmissioned December 26, 1827, having been elected by the voters of the precmct, or perhaps continuing in virtue of the law referred to. There are on record at least five marriages by n h;"g"(,An,,,h7- -VrC',,i,,:,ld ( |yl>ourne, did not reside n the Chicago of that day. although what was then his farm ,s now within the city limits.- Russet K. HeacoS

The Circuit Court. - By an act of February 16 1831, it was provided that " The counties of Cook", I.a- Salle. Putnam, Peoria, Fulton, Schuyler, Adams, Han- cock, McDonough. Knox. Warren, Jo Daviess, Mercer Rock Island and Henry shall constitute the Fifth Jmli' cial Circuit * * Richard M. Young shall perform circuit duties in the Fifth Judicial Circuit. - - There shall be two terms of the Circuit Court held annually in each of the counties. * * In the county of Cook on the fourth Mondays in April and second Mondays in September.

It will be noticed that this circuit embraced such distant points as Galena, Quincy. Peoria and Chicago, and the fifteen al>ove-nametl counties, now increased by sub-division into thirty-nine.

The Constitution of 1818 only ordained that the Circuit Courts should have and exercise such jurisdiction as the General Assembly should bylaw provide; and by that body they had 'been endowed with jurisdiction in criminal and civil cases, and in the latter, both at common law and in chancery.

EARLY TERMS, 1831-34. - There is no little uncertainty about the first terms of the Circuit Court in C hicago, As stated, the county of Cook was organized in the spring of 1 831, and by the foregoing statute it was entitled to a September term. If reliance can be placed on a historical pamphlet on Chicago by Governor Kross, issued in 1858, such a term was held or provided for "at Fort Dearborn, in the brick house, and in the lower room of said house." At the funeral of Colonel Hamilton in 1860, Judge Manierre also stated that the first term was held in September, 1831. And again in 1S32, in the same work of Mr. Ilross, the Court of County Commissioners is on record as ordering that the Sheriff shall secure one or more rooms for the Circuit Court at the house of James Kinzie, " provided it can be done at a cost of not more than ten dollars." In confirmation of the view that such court was held, the same work states that Judge Young, accompanied from Galena by Lawyers Mills and Strode, brought tidings to Chicago of the disturbed state of the Indians, which culminated later in the Hlack Hawk W ar.

"In May. 1 833," says Charles Hallance in his history of Peoria, - Judge Young made his appearance in the village of Peoria, and announced that he was on his way to Chicago to hold court. * * On thisoccasion I attended court at Chicago, partly to seek practice as a lawyer, and partly to see the country."

" The first term of the Circuit Court held in Cook County," says Hon. Thomas Hovne, " was in September, 1833, by Hon. Richard M. Y< >ung. In 1834, he also held the term in May."* This last, in the opinion of Hon. J. D. Caton, was the first term held here, or at least the first at which any law business was done. Except an appeal from some Justice Court, which was No. 1 on the docket of the Circuit Court of Cook County, a case tried by him, was the first ever tried in Chicago in any court of record ; and this he is confident was at the May term in 1834. If this view is correct, although Judge Young may have come to Chicago on any or all of the years from 1831 to 1833, no regular court was held until the spring term of 1834, which in view of all the facts maybe accepted as the verdict of history.

Thk First Law Office. - The first lawyer in Chicago to make a living by his profession alone was Giles Spring ; and separated from him by a few days was

John Dean Caton, who arrived June 19,1233. i here was but little law business in Chicago then, but notwithstanding untoward appearances, both rose to eminence and acquired wealth. Early in July, while they kept office as was facetiously said, "On the head of a barrel at the corner of Lake and Wells," Caton obtained his first case, which also proved to be Spring's, on the other side. It is here subjoined as -- the first larceny case in Chicago ; " that is, the reader need scarcely be told, the first to receive legal cognizance, for not a little stealing had been done from "Lo" and Others, before that time.

In December. 1833, Mr. Caton rented of Dr. Temple the back room and attic of his "building" on Lake Street, converting the attic into a bedroom, and extending to Spring the courtesy of desk-room in the room below, which thus became the first law-office in Chicago.

The First Larceny Case. - The first larceny case heard before a Justice of the Peace occurred in July, 1833. Mr. Hatch had been robbed of thirty-four dollars in Eastern currency, at the tavern, and hired lawyer Caton to recover it. Suspicion rested on a fellow-boarder who was arrested by Constable Reed and taken before Squire Heacock for examination, followed by a large part of the population. The search had proved fruitless, and the prisoner was about to be released amid many jeers at the legal fledgling who had prosecuted the investigation. Just then Caton detected a suspicious lump, which distended the culprit's stocking, and making a hurried grab, brought forth the tell-tale roll of stolen bills. The constable took charge of the prisoner, who was duly arraigned the ensuing morning, with Spring and Hamilton as his lawyers, who obtained a change of venue to Squire Harmon, on the North Side. Afterward to satisfy the public interest in this first case, Harmon adjourned to the tavern on the West Side, where the public could hear the young lawyers to the best advantage. " The court-rooms in those days," says Arnold, "were always crowded. To go to court and listen to the witnesses and lawyers was among the chief amusements of the frontier settlements."

Fifty years later Judge Caton confessed that he had never been more interested in a case. The criminal was convicted, but escaped punishment by the device of straw-bail, which seems to have been introduced into Chicago at the same time as its earliest jurisprudence. Caton obtained his fee of ten dollars out of the recovered money, but Spring and Hamilton were cheated out of theirs by the runaway thief.

Ac VENTURES of a Lawyer in Search of Practice. - In the golden leisure of mature age Judge Caton has often found pleasure in relating the following stories :

"Clients were few, fees small and money running low, with board bills fast maturing. It was in that first July, and the proceeds of the first larceny case were gone or going fast, when we both hired out to carry the chain for a surveyor, who had just got a job on the North Side. Returning at noon, we learned from R. J. Hamilton that a party had been inquiring for a lawyer, and, to avoid all partiality, it was agreed that he should follow us to our work in the afternoon. As he approached, blindly groping through the thick and high alders, which concealed us as we sat, while the choppers were clearing a lane for our operations, I saw that he was making straight for where Spring stood, when 1 dropped on each other the surveying pins 1 held in my hand, and, repeating the performance, succeeded in attracting his attention and directing his steps to where I sat. He secured my services, paying me in advance. Spring felt that he had been tricked and was a little sore, but actually got the best side of the case, being hired by John Hates, whom he enabled by interpleading to retain the property unattached, against which my client had hoped to obtain judgment. Spring got the larger fee and won the more substantial victory, though I had no difficulty in securing for my client a worthless judgment against an insolvent debtor, who was proved to have lost the ownership of the contested property.

"In August, 1833, there resided in Chicago six or seven free colored men, all of whom had come from free States. The law-givers of Illinois, however, had not contemplated such a contingency, the earlier population having come mostly from slave States. The laws had provided that if a negro was found in the State without free papers, he should be prosecuted and fined, and, if necessary, sold to pay the fine. Some enemy of the black man, or pro-slavery admirer of the black code, or believer in the blessings of the peculiar institution for the heaven-marked subject race, or possibly some aspirant for political preferment at the hands' of the dominant party, which was largely under the control of the slave-holding aristocracy of the South, felt it to be his duty or his interest to prosecute these early representatives here of the proscribed race. J. D. Caton undertook their defense, and pleaded their case before the Court of County Commissioners. This was putting a very literal interpretation of judicial powers on the rather euphemistic term court as applied to the board of County Commissioners. But court was then the legal designation of that body, and the young lawyer overcame their natural modesty, or their unwillingness to assume a function hitherto unheard of. They ended by acceding to the learned jurist's exposition of the law, and as the highest accessible representatives of the judiciary of the sovereign State of Illinois, they granted to bis grateful clients the required certificates of freedom, which were never questioned and passed for excellent free papers. Mr. Caton's fee was a dollar from each of the beneficiaries."

First Chicaoo Divorcf.. - That term in May, 1834, " when," says Judge Caton, "we all first met together in the unfinished loft of the old Mansion House, just north of where the Tremont now stands," is memorable for witnessing the initial steps in the first of a long and unfinished line of divorce suits in Chicago. The parties to the suit were Angeline Vaugban, petitioner, and Daniel W. Vaughan, respondent. The petition was dated April 12, and made returnable May 14, 1834, but the outcome has not been learned. They had been married July 9, 1831, the maiden name of the bride being Hebert.

First Murder Trial. - In the fall of 1834, in an unfinished store, about twenty feet by forty, on Dearborn Street, between Lake and Water, another term of the Circuit Court was held by Judge Young. It was his last term here as Circuit Judge, and the last in Chicago, while Cook County remained within the Fifth Judicial Circuit. It is memorable for trying the first murder case in Chicago, and yet more for the resulting acquittal. An Irishman was arraigned for killing his wife; ami his lawyer, James H. Collins, .succeeded in getting Judge Young to instruct the jury that if they could not t*i n d him guilty of murder, as indicted, it was their duty to acquit, which they (lid. They were inclined to bring a verdict of manslaughter, as there were circumstances which put the crime out of the grade of murder, but were misled by the instructions of the court and the wiles of the lawyer.

1834. and indeed for several years afterward, a considerable part of the pleading and other law business of Cook County was done by the circuit-riders of the profession, of whom a few habitually accompanied the Judge from one county-seat to another, over the then sparsely-settled section of northern Illinois. They were residents of Galena, Peoria, Quincy, or other distant points. The riding was on horseback, or by stage, buggy or wagon, over unimproved roads, running at intervals through miry swamps that were rendered passable only by the " corduroy " logs and saplings, loosely laid in the uncertain, yielding roadway, and across swollen streams unprovided with bridges.'

" The practice of riding the circuit in those early days," says Judge Goodrich, " while it may be regarded as the knight-errantry of the profession, was an admirable training school to make ready and skillful practitioners. The want of books compelled reliance upon reason and leading principles. I doubt if a class of lawyers can be found anywhere, as ready and skillful special pleaders as the early practitioners upon the country circuits. 1 rtn)!h?t ?!llduno1t conveniently ^determined by authontyhad ,0 be decided by the processes of individual S , 1 hf elementary ,)uoks ;inl] the comprchensi principles of general law formed a solid foundation: and the superstructure was largely their own reflections and deductions all the more available and serviceable as the tools of their craft, because fashioned bv each whh noJrSe f rThc reSUlt « ;l b0d/S lawver" with powers of discrimination well developed, always ready to give an account of the knowledge tha was , them, not in their books.

splendid horses, the best of Troy coaches, good company, the exhilaration of great speed over an elastic road, much of it a turf of grass, often crushing under our wheels the most beautiful wild flowers; every grove fragrant with blossoms, framed in the richest green; our roads not fenced in by narrow lanes, but with freedom to choose our route; here and there a picturesque log cabin, covered with vines; boys and girls on their way to the log schools, and the lusty farmer digging his fortune out of thc rich earth. Everything fresh ami new, full of young life and enthusiasm, these June trips to Springfield would, I think, compare favorably even with those we make to-day in a luxurious Pullman car.* Hut there were exceptions to these enjoyments. Sometimes torrents of rain would, in a few hours, so swell thc stream that the log bridges and hanks would be entirely submerged, and a stream, which a few hours before was nearly dry, became a foaming torrent. Fording at such times was never agreeable, and was sometimes a little dangerous."

"The judge," says Mr. Arnold.* "usually sat upon a raised platform, with a pine or white wood board on which to write his notes. A small table on one side for the clerk, and around which were grouped the lawyers, too often, I must admit, with their feet on top of it. * * * There was, in those days, great freedom in Social intercourse; manners were at times rude, but genial, kind, and friendly. Each was ready to assist his fellow; and as none were rich, there was little envy or jealousy. Thc relations between the Bench and Bar were free and easy; and flashes of wit and humor and personal repartee were constantly passing from one to another. The court-rooms in those days were always crowded. At court were rehearsed and enacted the drama, thc tragedy, and comedy of real life. The court-room answered for the theater, concert-hall, and opera of the older settlements. The judges and lawyers were the stars; and wit and humor, jwlhos and eloquence always had appreciative audiences. The leading advocates had their partisans, personal and political, and the merits of each were canvassed in every cabin, si in., l-house, and al sverj borst r.i: «-. bee, and raising."

The EARLY Bar. - At the close of 1834. while Chicago was still in the Fifth Circuit, thc resident lawyers, though not yet formally associated as a Bar, had begun to assume respectable proportions. While the population was estimated all the way from four hundred to twelve hundred, the lawyers already numbered eleven - Heacock, Hamilton. Spring, Caton, Casey, Fullerton, Collins, James Grant, Grant Goodrich, Moore, and Morris. It is remarkable that so many of these should have risen to distinction, five having reached the Bench, and all having attained a respectable standing in the profession, and as public-spirited citizens in civil life, noted for intelligence, integrity, and varied substantial service to thc young and struggling community. To none of them has there attached any taint of professional misconduct or neglect of duty, no venality as judge, or betrayal of client's interest as lawyer. The first two have already been noticed among the early settlers; and this is a fitting place to introduce such of thc others as have passed awav from earth, or removed from Chicago Two members of thc Bar of 1834, Judges Caton and Goodrich, still survive as honored citizens, and their lives will be sketched in a later volume. The only representative of the Bench of Chicago at this peri' 0 was Judge Young.

Richard M. Young, the first Circuit Judge who held court iti Chicago, was born in Kentucky toward the close of the last century. He emigrated early into southern Illinois, residing at Jonesboro, Union County, before as well as after the organization of that county in 1818. He was admitted to the liar September 28, 181 7 ; and he represented Union County in the Second General Assembly, 1820-22. By an act approved December 29, 1824, the State was divided into live judicial circuits, and he was commissioned Judge of the Third, January 19, 1825. This act was repealed January 12, 1827, and all judicial functions again devolved on the Chief Justice and the three Associate Justices of the

Supreme Court, which abrogated Judge Youngs office. Accordingly we find that " An act for the relief of Richard M. Young" - the payment probably of salary balance - was introduced in the Legislature January'u, 1827. and approved the 22d, by which $58.40 were appropriated for that purpose. And it was enacted February 17, 1827, that he be paid " four State paper dollars a day " for sixteen days' service as clerk to an important committee of the House. In 1828 he was presidential elector on the Democratic ticket. By the judiciary act of January 8, 1829, a Fifth Circuit was created to include all that portion of the State lying north of the Illinois River; and Mr. Young was chosen its judge on the 12th, and commissioned on the 23d. About that time he removed to Quincy, within his judicial district. His duties were arduous, not so much for the volume of business to be done in any particular couoty, as for the number of counties he had to serve, the distance apart of the several county scats, and the absence of modern conveniences for traveling. He was in active correspondence with Governor Reynolds in April, 1832, in reference to the disturbed condition of northern Illinois, and urged the necessity of speedy and effective protection of the northern frontier against the Indians in the Black Hawk War. In the impeachment trial of Judge Theophilus W. Smith before the State Senate iii the session of 1832-33, Judge Young was associated with the future Judges llreese and Ford, for the defense. He held the earliest terms of the Circuit Court in Chicago. By an act approved January 7. T.S35, a Sixth Circuit was established which included Cook County, and lodge Young had no further occasion to ride his blooded Kentucky horse to distant Chicago, though there still remained ample exercise for his equestrian skill within the Fifth Circuit. At the session of the General Assembly in 1836-37, Judge Young was put in nomination for United States Senator, and elected over five competitors, December 14, 1836, for the full term, 1837-43. He resigned the judicial office January 2. and took his seat as Senator September 4, 1 S ? 7 . During his senatorial term he seldom made speeches, but was always ready to enforce a point or defend a principle in the interest of his constituents, such as the establishment of new post routes, the advocacy of pre-emption laws and the support of internal improvement measures. He was quite active and watchful on all questions likely to affect the State of Illinois; and his counsels were not without influence at home HI directing the policy of the State toward the payment of its debt. February 1, 1841, in his place in the Senate, he said : "The march of Illinois is forward ; and if her legislative guardians at home shall promptly discharge their duty in the preservation of her credit at home and abroad, who cannot foretell that her destiny is no less than that of an empire State ? " And, on the question of internal improvements he thus defined his position on the 26th of the same month: "I am willing to promote the interests of the West and South, the Flast and North, but I wish them to go hand in hand, Let them all go together!" With ex-Governor Reynolds, he had been appointed Slate agent by Governor Carlan in 1839 to negotiate the sale of State bonds, with a view to push forward the internal improvements so ardently desired by the people of Illinois. He made a journey to Europe for that puqiose, but he failed in his financial mission and returned to the discharge of his duties as Senator. Failing of re-election to the Senate, hewaschosen an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, January 14, 1843, and commissioned February 4th. He held the office until January 25, 1847, when he resigned. During this period he frequently held court in Chicago, and was favorably regarded by the Bar as well as by the Press and people. In 1847, he was appointed commissioner of the general land office, succeeding General Shields, and being succeeded by lustin Butterfield, June 21. 1849. In 1850-51, he was clerk of the House of Representatives at Washington. " I-'or a number of years before his death," says Hallance,* he was a claim agent in Washington City. But for some time before his death he was confined in an asylum for maniacs. * * * - If the story is true, he passed away many a day anil night in a dungeon, under the torturing hands of fiends in human shape, in the great capital of the Nation ; and yet for a long time so secretly, that a brother living in that city had no suspicion of it." Physically Judge Young was a tall, fine-looking man, large of stature and of dignified and attractive bearing. His intellectual ability was equal to filling any office res| ectabl v. although not with eclat, and coupltd with his industrious and methodical habits made his legal and political attainments above the average of his day and his opportunities. His manners were gentle, courteous and entertaining; his feelings generous and sympathetic; his disposition amiable and unaggressive; and altogether he was eminently fitted to win anil retain popular favor. His more able associates were often distanced when they became his competitors; although he never reached the highest position as a lawyer, jud^e or senator, he always commanded the respect and confidence of his constituents and the public. Of excellent personal habits and refined tastes, whatever he may have lacked in brilliancy was amply compensated for by his steady attention to duty, and his earnest purpose to promote the prosperity of the State. He had two daughters, of whom the elder, Matilda, was married at Washington, to R. A. Matthews, of Georgia, July 29. 1852.

Giles Spring was born alxiut 1807, in Massachusetts, whence he emigrated when a young man to the --Western Reserve" in Ohio. Having studied law at Ashtabula under the firm of Gitldings & Wade - the historic Benjamin F. Wade and Joshua P. Giddings - he removed to Chicago in June, 1833. Here he practiced his profession until raised to the Bench, sixteen wars later. Judge Caton thus refers to those early days: "Clients were scarce, but as there were but two of us to do the business the only rivalry between us was as to who could most zealously serve his client, with the greatest courtesy and kindness to each other. - The Justices of the Supreme Court did circuit duty in those days, and exclusively in the portion of the State south and east of the Illinois River. When, therefore, a young lawyer desired a license, it became necessary to make a pilgrimage to one or two southern county-seats and be examined by two Justices, and thus get authority to practice. It was not until January 24, 1S35,* that Mr. Spring was entered on the records of the Supreme Court as licensed, though he advertised location as a lawyer in the fourth number of the Chicago Itemocrat, December 17, 1833. He had, however, been admitted to the bar in Ohio, and only required to have his papers sent forward for record. He early obtained a good share of the Circuit Court as well as Justice Court practice; antl was generally on one side or the other of all the more important early cases. In February, 1836, he formed a partnership with Grant Goodrich, which continued until his election to the bench, by a rather singular coincidence the partners wedded life-partners on the same day, Sunday, July 24, 1836, at West field, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., Miss l.evanlia Budlong becoming Mrs. Spring. In the winter of 1 836-37, Mr. Spring was in Yandalia, prosecuting the case of Harrington rs Hubbard before the Supreme Court. This was the first important land case in this county, involving the title to the south forty-seven ai res in what was called the Harrington tract in Section 32. It was specially important to Mr. Spring because being paid with about a dozen acres of that land, it laid the foundation of his modest fortune. Mr. Spring was a prominent Whig, and for years at every convention received the nomination to the l>est of offices, and being personally popular always ran ahead of his ticket. In the spring of 1843 he was the Whig candidate for representative in Congress of the Chicago district, against the Democratic nominee, John Wentworth, whom he beat 111 the city by fifty-one votes, only to lie overwhelmed in the district by a majority of one thousand six hundred and twenty-one for his opponent. Had his |>arty not been in a condition of chronic minority, he would doubtless have attained to high political preferment; but it would probably have added nothing to his fame; for he was essentially a better lawyer than politician, In 1 848 he was chosen City Attorney, and was a delegate to the Free-Soil convention of that year in Buffalo. In 1S49 he was elected Judge of Cook County Court of common pleas, and held the office until his 'premature tleath. May 15, 1851. Several of his contemporaries have borne witness to his merits as a lawyer. Judge and citizen, all agreeing, with varied phraseology, in the following tribute by his former partner. Judge Goodrich, delivered thirty-two years afterward before the Chicago Historical Society:

"Spring was a phenomenon, a natural born lawyer. His education was quite limited, and he paid little' respect to the rules of grammar ; vet he could present a point of law to the court, and argue the facts of a case to the jury with a clearness and fort e seldom equaled He seenied sometimes to have an intuitive knowledge of the law, and mastery of its profoundest and most subtle principles. His brain worked with the rapidity of lightning, and with the force of an engine. In argument he assessed a keenness of analysis, a force of compact, crushing logic which bore down all opposition. His language though sometimes homely was always forcible and strongly expressive of his 'thought. He was firm in attack but not often offensive, but his most

.h« Sff&ftf -""fl""."1 "Supreme Goaty practwx and that of record on the tolls of the Suastonishing powers were exhibited when some new question arose in the progress of a trial. Howeve#suddenly it might be sprung, and however grave or abstruse in character, he would instantly and seemingly by a flash of intuition, grasp it with a skill and mastery of legal learning which seemed possible only to the most skilled preparation. His resources appeared exhaustless. * * It would be misleading to assume that these rare powers were the mere flashes of genius or intuition, for few men studied their cases, or the law involved in them, with more careful assiduity. His memory #as marvelous; his discrimination searching and accurate. His method of studying a case made him complete master of all the law applicable and kindred to it, the reasons upon which it was based, and alt the distinctions to be observed. He first consulted the elementary books, and made up his mind what the law ought to be. and then studied the cases in which the principles had been applied. Though he was not an orator, yet before a jury he rarely failed to carry them with him, in a CMC of anything like even chances. It was, however, in the argument of legal questions before the court, where his comprehensive knowledge of the principles of law. his clear sledge hammer logic, and his wonderful mental endowments shone most conspicuous. * * - - He was devoted to his clients and honorable in his practice, respected and admired by his professional brethren. As a Judge be was scrupulously impartial, upright antl able. In some of his decisions, his genius antl legal learning burst out in opinions so luminous and profound as to extort the admiration of the bar. * * * His faults were of that character which excited commiseration, while they did not destroy admiration for his virtues. He died I believe without an enemy. Colonel binder, in his ' Reminiscences' says of him. and surviving contemporaries confirm the testimony - ' He was a man of childlike simplicity of manners, as tender-hearted as a woman, and would have stepped aside to keep from treading on a worm.' He was^ unfortunately, a victim to the free use of intoxicating liquors, which exercised upon him a peculiarly baleful influence, besides sometimes interfering with his official duties* He regarded himself as inextricably involved in the toils of his evil habit, and bewailed his misfortune, apparently unconscious of his power to remove it. He died at the age of forty-four, many years being lost of a life otherwise useful - another instance of the disastrous results Of stimulating a brain and nervous system that were much better when left to more natural invigorauts."

Edward \V. CASEY, a native oi New Hampshire, was in the order of arrival the fifth memlier of the Chicago bar, antl was deputy to R. J. Hamilton in 1S33. He acted as secretary to him in his capacity of school commissioner at the sale of school lots, October 20 to 25. 1835. Early in the next year his literary, legal and clerical powers were brought into requisition by "is townsmen in drafting a petition to the Postmaster- General, asking better mail facilities for the uneasy little town on the Chicago River, which even then was unwilling to be ignored, and eager " to push things. Mr. Casey was appointed corporation attorney Aug"*1 18, and its clerk and collector December 19. 's34 H,s name appears on the Supreme Court register of lawyers licensed to practice, under date of January 7. 1835. it was while acting as attorney for the town that he prosecuted Richard Harper for vagrancy. The lwrsona habits of the lawyer furnished occasion to the accused to make the demurrer, whether one vagrant could law- fully prosecute another. Mr. Casey formed a partnership willi Buckner S. Morris August 7, 1835, and was elected Justice of the Peace two days latter, but does not appear to have served long in that capacity. That Morris & Casey did a fair share of the law 'business of the period may be inferred from the frequency with «Ueh their names recur in the scant records of' those early years. Mr. Casey took an active part in the meetings and deliberations of November, 1836, which led to the petition for a city charter. The firm was dissolved on of before December 1, 18,56, and Mr. Casey continued to practice here alone until some time in :83s, when his friends induced him to return East. In those early days the excessive use of liquor was almost universal. Here and there a professional man stood aloof from the mad whirl of excitement, but a large proportion of the young and brainy fell victims to the spirit of the times in their personal habits. Among them was Mr. Casey, whose life, however, happily teaches an important lesson in this regard. For no sooner had he broken with the associations of the frontier, and withdrawn to the purer atmosphere of a New England farm, than he corrected those mistakes of immature life and became a respectable and self controlled citizen. In the 2 Scam, he is said to have been residing at Concord, New Hampshire, in 1841, and in the Times of- October 3, 1875, at Newburyport, Mass. "He was," says Judge Goodrich, "a thorough lawyer, a fine scholar a most amiable man, and a polished gentleman. Though he had acquired a good practice and had before him the highest promise of professional success, he abandoned his profession, returned to his Eastern home, and engaged in farming."

James Grant, born in North Carolina, December is, 1812, was the sixth member of the Chicago Bar, was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of Illinois, March 26. 18,54, and arrived here "on the 23d of April'* of that year. He was appointed State's Attorney, January 1, 1835. As early as January 30, 1836, he represented large real estate interests here, advertising for sale at that date 7,000 acres at the terminus of the Illinois & Michigan Canal, which belonged to Arthur Bronson of New York. About March 30, 1836, he formed a law |>artnershtp with Francis Peyton, and the firm, Grant & Peyton, continued until 18,58. Mr. (."rant removed to Iowa' in 1839. where he rose to the position of Judge, and where he still survives, at Davenport, an honor to the Bar and Bench of two great States. Of late years he makes an annual pilgrimage to Chicago, to the reception of old settlers by the Calumet Club ; but the fuller history of his life belongs to the State of his later adoption.

Alexander N. Fullerton was a native of Vermont, and there admitted to the Bar, arrived here between July and November, 1833, but nothing u known of his pursuits until 1855. Early in June of that year he was in partnership with Grant Goodrich ; on the 19th he became a member of the first board of hea'lth. and three weeks later was appointed clerk of the board of Town Trustees. The firm of Fullerton iV Goodrich was dissolved February 22, 1836, and after a year or two of little more than nominal connection with the profession, he finally drifted into commercial business, and was as early as 1839 generally recognized as a lumber merchant. "Though a wellhred' lawyer," says Judge Goodrich, " he was never actively engaged in practice, but devoted himself to the accumulation of wealth, and died pussessed of a large fortune," September 29, 1S80, aged seventy-six. He belonged therefore to the commercial rather than to the professional class of early settlers.

James H. Collins first became known to the citizens of early Chicago in February, 1834, when he formed a partnership with J. D. Caton, who had studied law under him, at Vernon, N. Y., two years before. He pulled up stakes in the fall of 1833, having been defeated on the Anti-Masonic ticket in his native State, set out for the *>Vest, and passing through Chicago in September, settled on "a claim " at Holdennan's Grove, in what is now the southwestern corner of Kendall County, where a settlement had been begun some three years earlier. But the sufferings of the first winter convinced him that he was not cut out for a farmer. Indeed he was found at Levi Hill's tavern by Caton, January 3, 1834, with his feet badly frozen; and it was then arranged that on his recovery he would join Caton in Chicago. A year later, among the expenses of the town of Chicago, is an item of five dollars paid him for legal advice. The firm of Collins & Caton was dissolved in 1835. Afterward Mr. Collins formed a partnership with Justin Butterfield. the first record of which is found under date of July 16, 1836, and which lasted until about 1845. In 'those early years of the Chicago Bar, the firm of Butterfield & Collins was the most conspicuous, being usually found engaged in every important lawsuit, on one side or the other. They were of the counsel for the General Government in the celebrated Beaubien land claim, and Collins bought several of the lots which many of the citizens had intended the old Colonel should bid in without opposition. Mr. Collins feeling satisfied that such an arrangement would accrue to the benefit of others rather than of Beaubien, bid on the lots, drawing upon himself much adverse criticism from Press and people. He was very obstinate in his opinions and was once committed for contempt by Judge Ford for refusing to submit to the court a document entrusted to him by a client, John Shrigley, High Constable, which he claimed was privileged. He was associated with Owen Ixivejoy in the defense of the latter in 1842, in his celebrated trial for harboring a r.inaway slave, and did much toward securing his acquittal. After dissolving partnership with Butterfield he practiced his profession alone for seven or eight years, but in 1S53 he formed a new partnership with E. S. Williams, who had studied law with Butterfield and himself several years before. He was " an early and moA violent and extreme abolitionist, and in 1850 was the candidate of that party for Congress, receiving one thousand six hundred and seventy-three votes." He died in 1854 of cholera. " He was a good lawyer." says Arnold, "a man of perseverance, pluck and resolution, and as combative as an English bull-dog. * * *

He was indefatigable, dogmatic, never giving up, and if the court decided one point against him, he was ready with another, and if that was overruled, still others." " He seems to me," savs Goodrich, " never to have had one particle of genius, but was the hardest worker I ever saw. He bestowed upon the preparation of his cases the most thorough research and critical examination. Though often brought in professional conflict with him I always regarded him as my friend ; and have the melancholy satisfaction of having attended him almost alone during the whole night of his fearful struggle with the cholera, until death relieved him of his sufferings." He had at least two daughters - Cornelia M., who was married to J. V. Smith, and who died at her father's house May 31, 1851, at the age of twenty; and Kate F., who was married May 15, 1855, to John M. Sharp.

HEKRY Moore, a native of Concord, Mass.. arrived in Chicago some time in 1834, being admitted to the Bar in Illinois December S of that year. He was the second of quite a line of deputies to Colonel Hamilton, Circuit Court clerk, a position he held until the fall of 1835, when his law practice required his attention. Early in 1836, he formed a partnership with F. A. Harding, which was dissolved May 19, 1837; and the firm of Moore & Harding turns up frequently in law business of the time. Mr. Moore was at the Circuit Court of Iroquois County on business May 16, 1836, when Judge Ford appointed him for the defense of the murderer " Morris." He " astonished " the prosecuting attorney. James Grant, by "the ability he manifested." "He relied," says Grant, "upon the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence; made the usual argument in such cases, but with much more than the usual ability." In the fall of 1836 Mr. Moore was one of the prominent speakers at the Whig meeting in Chicago; and in December one of the representatives of Cook County at the Internal Improvement Convention held at Vandal ia. In March. 1837, his name is on record as a trustee of Rush Medical College, and June 1 of same vcar he became law partner of K. G. Ryan. He obtained about that time from the Legislature the first charter for a gas company in Chicago; and was an active and prominent member of the Bar. He, however, found this moist and breezy climate rather unfavorable for his weak lungs, and on the approach of the winter of 1838-39, he sought alleviation in the genial climate of Havana, Cuba. He did not return to Chicago, but it is learned from " 2 Scam." that he was a resident of Concord, Mass., in 1841, where he died before many years.

Buckner Stith Morris was born August 19, 1800, at Augusta, Ky., a village founded by his maternal grandfather, l'hilip Buckner, who had been a Captain in the War of Independence. The parents were Dickinson Morris, a native of Delaware, but at this time surveyor of Bracken County, Ky..and Frances Buckner, by birth a Virginian. Schools were few in Kentucky, and young Morris received his early education at 'home from his parents. He arrived at man's estate, and had worked some on farms before he conceived the idea to acquiring a knowledge of the profession, and was admitted to the Bar in the latter year. In 1830^ was elected to the Legislature, and was re-elected in 183?, being a Whig in politics, but never a blind partisan. In 1832 he married Miss Evilina Barker, of Mason County, Ky. At the close of his second term, in 1834, he came to Chicago, by way of the Wabash to Vincennes, and on horseback from that point. Returning for his family, he made a second trip in August, when he permanently settled here. He found less than forty houses on his arrival, and soon opened a law office, lie is found advertised as a Chicago lawyer as early as July 9, 1835 ; and formed a partnership with E. w, Casey August 7, though his name does not appear on the records of the Supreme Court of Illinois as a licensed lawyer until December 7, 1835. Morris & Casey dissolved in the fall of 1836, and Morris & Scammon was formed December 5, 1836. This firm was also short-lived, as Mr. Morris was elected Mayor in the spring of 1838, and Alderman of the Sixth Ward in 1839. In 1840 he resumed more fully the practice of his profession, and formed a partnership, August 13, with William W. Brackett, which lasted about three years. With

Lincoln, in 1840, he was nominated presidential elect at at large on the Whig ticket. In 1844 he was eiecteu Alderman, but resigned before the close of the year, anu was also president of the Hvdraulic Company. In»45 he formed a new firm with William M. Greenwood as partner, who was exchanged as early as March 10, t»4 . for John J. Brown. His wife died in 1847. leaving WO daughters ; and in 1848 he became a Mason, eventual') reaching the highest degree attainable in America. 1850 he married Miss Eliza A. Stephenson, who ate suddenly of heart disease in 1855, leaving one son, v*nv, however, lived to be only seven. The firm of Morris & Brown continued until the death of Brown in August, 1S50, after which Grant Goodrich became partner for a short time. In 1S51 he formed a new partnership, the firm being Morris, Hervey & Clarkson ; and was tlu- unsuccessful Whig candidate of that year for Secretary of State for Illinois. In 1853, Judge Hugh T. Dickey having resigned, Mr. Morris was elected to complete his term as Circuit Judge, and was commissioned May 24. The Green trial for wife murder was prosecuted before Judge Morris, and is said to have been fhe first case in this State in which scientific experts were accepted on the witness statu], Green's conviction being largely due to the testimony of Drs. Blaney and bird to the presence of strychnine in the stomach of the deceased. His decisions in relation to that class of evidence have been often quoted, and have l>een incorporated in the medical jurisprudence of the State. He was tendered a nomination for re-election at the close of his term in 1855, which he declined and returned to his practice. He soon formed a new partnership, the firm being Morris & Blackburn in 1856, and Morris, Thomisson \- Blackburn in 1S57. In 1856 he married Mrs. M. E. l'arrish, of Frankfort, Ky., a daughter of Edward Ulackbtirn, and sister of Morris's two partners, Breckcnridge F. and James Blackburn, and of the recent Governor of Kentucky, Dr. Luke Blackburn. In i860 he was a candidate for Governor of Illinois on the Bell and Everett ticket, of which he was an early advocate, as a solution or postponement of the impending crisis. He claimed that a vote for Lincoln on the one hand or for Breckcnridge on the other was a vote for civil war, as sectional feeling had reached a point where no other issue could reasonably be anticipated. The election of Bell and Everett alone could save the country. One of his regrets and a constant censure of Andrew Jackson was the breaking up of the United States Bank. He held that the cohesive power of a common financial system in holding the North and South together hail not been duly weighed. His Southern origin and relationship with the Kentucky Blackburns, who were all violent .Secessionists, as well as his acknowledged connection with "Sons of Liberty," but above all the heated state of the public mind which could brook nothing less than the most out-spoken Unionism, brought him into suspicion of disloyalty in 1864, in connection with the alleged Camp Douglas conspiracy. Mr. and Mrs. Morris were arrested with the other " conspirators," taken to Cincinnati, tried by court martial and acquitted. Judge Drumimmd thus testified to his loyalty ; " I have been acquainted with Judge Morris for twenty-five years, and I think his reputation to be, as far as I knowit, that of a loyal man. He was a strict advocate of what was the Crittenden compromise, and desired exceedingly that the difficulties between the two sections of the country should be settled amicably. * * * I do not know what developments this trial may have produced, not having followed the evidence, but up to the time of his arrest I certainly should as soon have distrusted my own loyalty as that of Judge Morris." During his detention, which lasted several months, Mrs. Morris and himself received much kind attention at the hands of one of the female religious orders of the Roman Catholic Church, which eventually led both to give their adhesion to that communion. After their release in the spring of 1865, Judge Morris ceased to be an active member of the Bar, confining himself chiefly to his real estate interests and occasional law business for his friends. He died December 16, 1879, having well entered on his eightieth year, and was buried from St. Mary's Catholic church. " Both these gentlemen," says the Hon. Thomas Hoyne, speaking of Judges Spring and Morris, " rose to high positions from the native force of their characters, anil the possession of vigorous intellects. And what seemed singular in their case is, that in the absence of regular culture in the art of advocacy or oratory, they were among the most successful speakers of the day. In many respects they obtained in jury trials a pre-eminence in advocacy over their more highly favored brethren who had been sedulously prepared in universities and schools, both in New York and New Kngland."

To this Judge Goodrich adds : " Having been a partner for a short time of Buckncr S. Morris, I am justified in saying - and I think ail who were acquainted with his professional capacity will agree with me - that he was no ordinary man. It is evident his general education, his professional reading and training had not been systematic or thorough, but he possessed good vigor of mind and strong common sense and sincerity of manner, which joined with a popular homeliness of expression, apt and striking comparisons, fervent zeal and apparent honesty of belief in the justice of his cause, made him a formidable opponent before a jury. In a desperate case he was remarkable, and the more desperate it was, the more conspicuous his powers became. He often carried his case by main strength against the law and the facts ; and it became a common remark that in a bad case he had no equal. He was elected Judge of the circuit, but was better fitted for practice and served but a brief term 011 the Bench. In character he was simple as a child, tenderly sympathetic and kind, heartily good-natured, and genial in his manners. I doubt if "the remembrance of any deceased member of the Chicago Bar is cherished with more unmixed sentiments of kindness than that of Judge Morris." " For native strength, I never saw his superior," says Mi. Beach; -- his natural powers of oratory were truly great."

CIRCUIT Court, 1835-36. - Thomas Ford, who had been Prosecuting, or State's Attorney, in the Fifth Judicial Circuit, was elected by the General Assembly as Judge of the newly created Sixth Circuit ; but, by exchange, the first term in Chicago in 1S35 was held by Judge Sidney Breesc. It extended from May 25 to June 9, showing a marked increase in the business of the court. Before 1835, three or four days were sufficient to clear the meager docket, but thenceforward there never was any lack of business in Chicago courts. 'The judicial requirements of the place have always kept ahead of the legislative provision for its wants. ' No sooner have apparently ample facilities been secured than the city has leaped forward to double or treble the population contemplated, compelling a fresh enlargement of the judicial force. This term was the first in Chicago after it became part of the Sixth Circuit, and the first held anywhere by the recently elected Judge Breesc, then in his thirty-fifth year.

Chief- Justice Marshall died July 6, 1835, and the first formal meeting of the Chicago Bar was held in res|>ect to his memory. 'The members present were Fullerton, Casey, Goodrich, Morris and Moore of those already mentioned, and Royal Stewart, a later accession.

The second term of the Circuit Court, in 1835, was held by Judge Stephen T. I,ogan, also in exchange with Judge Ford. It was opened the first Monday in October and closed on the 1 ith. By this time there were one hundred and three civil suits on the docket, and seventy of these were determined at that term. Of the thirty-seven people's cases twenty-live were closed - nineteen were merely for non-attendance as jurors, of whom two were fined five dollars each ; and twelve cases were continued. The case of most interest at this term was the -

Second Mikoer Trial. - The criminal under indictment Rave the name of Joseph F. Morris, but it was afterwards stated that his real name was Joseph Thomasson. His victim's name was Felix I.egre, and the murder was committed about twenty miles from Chicago on the road to Ottawa. The Grand Jury of Cook County found a true bill against Morris at the fall term of 1835, but by change of venue the case was carried to Iroquois County, where it was tried the ensuing term, Notwithstanding the most strenuous efforts, and an able defense on general principles, by Henry Moore, who had been assigned to him as counsel by Judge Ford, Morris was convicted on rather slender evidence, wholly circumstantial. He was the person last seen in company with the murdered man, and a knife was found in his possession which the recent employer of Lcgrc fully identified as belonging to that unfortunate individual. He denied the killing, but acknowledged that he knew the guilty party, whose name, however, he steadily refused to divulge - a selfdeceiving evasion founded probably on the false name under which he was indicted. The implied chivalry and devotion to alleged principles was too fine-spun for a jury of pioneer settlers of Iroquois County, and they found him guilty of murder, though not without some hesitation. On May 19, Judge Ford sentenced him to Ik; hanged June 10, 1836 ; and the sentence was faithfully carried into effect, though in the absence of a jail it required persistent watchfulness on the part of Sheriff Dunn of Iroquois County and his deputy, George Courtright. The substantial justice of the verdict has never been seriously questioned, but conviction on the evidence would be to-day improbable, if not hopeless.

Both these terms of the Circuit Court of Cook County in 1S35, were held in the First Presbyterian church, then situated north of what is now the Sherman House, and fronting on Clark Street. The spring term of 1N36 was held by Judge Ford in the same building, and extended from May 23 to June 4. There were two hundred and thirty civil cases, twenty-one criminal and thirteen chancery. Most of the people's cases were for constructive contempt through non-attendance as jurors. The two most important of them were for assault with intent to kill and both culprits were sent to the penitentiary, the first of a long and ever-widening band of convicts on that charge from Chicago. The most important civil suit was, perhaps, that of Harrington W. Hubbard, the first land case in Cook County which was decided in favor of the defendant but on appeal to the Supreme Court that decision was reversed the ensuing winter at Vandalia.

The fall term of 1836 was held by the same Judge, and in the same building. In addressing the Grand Jury, James Grant, prosecuting attorney, dwelt specifically on the duty they owed the public in relation to trespassers upon the canal lands. The court re-enforced his remarks by reminding them that it was to these lands the public must look for the completion of the canal ; and every tree stolen detracted from its value. Both speeches help to show how paramount in interest at that time to the people of Chicago was the longedfor canal and all its belongings. Several rogues were sent to the penitentiary at Alton as a result of this term of court; and a score or more were indicted for trespassing on the canal lands; but a large part of the court business remained unfinished, and the need of additional judicial facilities, through new courts or more terms of the Circuit Court, became apparent.

Among the most important of the civil cases tried at the fall term in 1836, was what is popularly known as the Beaubien land claim, which Judge Ford decided favorably to claimant. This decision was sustained by the Supreme Court of the State, but was reversed in 1839 by the Supreme Court of the United States. See Beaubien claim.

The Chicago Bar at the Organization of the City. - As at the close of 1834 Cook County was at>out to be transferred from the Fifth to the Sixth Circuit, so now t>eforc the spring term of 1S37, it became a part of the Seventh Circuit, to which amid frequent changes and numerous additions to the circuits in the State, it ever afterward belonged, until by the Constitution of 1S70, the County of Cook was made one judicial circuit. A month after the establishment of the Seventh Judicial Circuit, Chicago was granted its charter of incorporation as a city, which is therefore appropriately made an era in the history of its Bench and Bat Meanwhile the membership 'of the Chicago Bar had more than doubled, and biographical sketches of the accessions since the close of 1834, now deceased or departed from Chicago, are here subjoined.

Royal Stewart is on record as admitted to the Bar in Illinois January 8, 1835 ; and is found advertised as an attorney at Chicago on June 8, of the same year. How much 'longer he remained a resident is nut dear, but his name disappears from the local records.

Willi am H. Brown, a lawyer and distinguished citizen, is treated elsewhere, as after his arrival in Chicago he became more distinguished as a banker

James Curtiss, more of a politician than a lawyer and twice Mayor, became identified with local political affairs, and is more properly named in that connects

Hans Crocker arrived in Chicago in 1X34, studied law for a time in the office of Collins & C aton. In 1816, he removed to Milwaukee, where he has since attained some prominence as a lawyer.* but he was not admitted to practice while here, and does not propern belong to the Bar of Chicago. .

William Stuart, though not admitted to the Bar in Illinois until July n, 1837, advertised as attoffleyanu land agent as early as December 5, 1835. He ,u\ practiced much at the Bar, being at first a »«w man, and then a journalist. In August, 1 836 he became partner of James Curtiss, and was appointed lo«m ai tornev for a short time during the absence of Jam© n. Collins. Curtiss & Stuart dissolved in Oc tober, »37- and Mr. Stuart was publisher and editor of W*W American in .839. He was appointed Harrison in 1841, and held that office until the close u the presidential term in March, 1845. In i«ranoe year he formed a partnership with Charles H. Lar 1 but in 1846 he left Chicago for Binghamton. Jv « where he also edited a newspaper and became Postmaster, and died a few years since. ^

Ebenezer Peck was born in Portland, Me.. «j * 1805. but received his earliest education at FeaCBM . While yet a lad, his parents removed to Canada, an some years later young Peck began the stud) , oM* Montreal, where also he first practiced the DM tc _ About 1826 he was married to Miss Caroline I.

at Feodum, Vt In 1 833 he rose to the dignity of King's Counsel for a district in Canada East, and was elected to the provincial Parliament on the Reform ticket. His party began to drift toward rebellion, ami Counselor Peck removed to Chicago, where he arrived in the summer of 1835. About the middle of October, he is found associated with J. 1). ("aton, in the case of Geddis vs. Kercheval. " He made his mark at once," says Caton. " He showed that his study of the law had been systematic, while he evinced all the resources of tact, and sagacity and quickness of apprehension, so important in the successful trial of a cause before a jury. His ad - dress to the jury was forcible, and at times eloquent." From the first he took an active interest in politics, and was induced by Mr. Caton to join the Democratic party. October 28 he was appointed Town Clerk, and the ensuing month was chosen delegate to the first State Convention, which was held at Vandalia December 7, and at which the future Senator Douglas first began to attract public attention. Hefore leaving the capital, hewas admitted to the Bar of Illinois, December 14. in the summer of 1836, he resigned the clerkship of the town, and a few months later became prominent in the movement for a city charter. At the meeting of November 25, he was appointed chairman of the committee to draft it, and December 9 reported the instrument, which with slight modifications was finally adopted by the Board of Town Trustees, and passed by the Legislature, March 4, 1837, as the charter of the future metropolis of the Northwest. Of this he and Caton have always been regarded the principal authors. In 1837, on the dissolution of the house of Jones, Clark & Co., Mr. Peck became a member of the succeeding firms of Jones, King & Co., and W. H. Stow & Co., iron founders, He was chosen ene of the board of commissioners under the State internal improvement act of 1837. In 183s he was elected from this Senatorial District to fill the unexpired term of Peter Pruyne, deceased, but resigned before the close of the term and became clerk of the internal improvement board in 1S39, In the suspension of public improvements, which soon su|)ervened, his position was neither exhaustive nor remunerative, and he was again elected to the Legislature in 1S40, this time as representative. On the re-organization of the State judiciary by the General Assembly February 15, 1841, he was chosen clerk by the Supreme Court some time before May 19. In 1S46 he formed a partnership with James A. Mc- Dougall, of Chicago, previously of Jacksonville, and later Attorney-General of the State, which continued as McDougall & Peck until the former went to California in 1849, when Peck became associated with Charles B. Hosmcr. Meanwhile he had gone out of office as clerk of the Supreme Court when it was legislated out of existence by the aduption of the new constitution March 6, 1848'. Charles Oilman, reporter of the Supreme Court, died July 14, 1849, and Mr. Peck was chosen to that office by the new court, and from that time the volumes were called Illinois Reports. His first appealed in 1850, and he numbered it XI, thus leaving room for the preceding ten - Breese's one, Scammon's four and Oilman's five. His own series closed with Volume XXX, in 1S63. About 1,850 he became interested in the new Democratic journal known as the Argus, the business connection being in the name of his eldest son. W, W. In 1853 his law firm became Peck, Hosmer & Wright, by the accession of Edward Wright, son-in-law of the senior member. In the memorable new departure of the Democratic party for the enlargement of the slave area, in 1853. by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, established by their more prudent fathers a generation before, Mr. Peck abandoned his old party associations. In 1856 he became one of the ex-Democratic founders in Illinois of the party which has since become historic under the name of Republican. In the famous political debate between Lincoln and Douglas in 1858 Sir. Peck was deeply interested, and was elected on the new ticket as one of the four representatives of Cook County in the twentyfirst General Assembly, where he helped, by his c.\|k;- rience and management, to establish the Republican party on a solid foundation in the State. In i860 he labored for its success in the wider field of national politics. In April, 1863, he resigned as reporter to the Supreme Court of Illinois, and was appointed one of the judges of the Court of Claims at Washington by President Lincoln, whose friendship and intimacy he enjoyed and labored to repay by faithful advice and devoted service. In the heavy burdens of head and heart which fell to the President's lot he is known to have sought and valued the counsels of Judge Peck, whose experience as a politician specially commended his views. For many years there were but few men in Illinois who wielded a more extensive or powerful influence in political circles, and few were more active or adroit partisans. He held the judgeship under the successive administrations of Johnson and Grant, retiring in 1875 on full pay. at the age of seventy, when he returned to Chicago in broken health. His oldest son W. W., born in 1S31, died at Washington, a Captain in the regular army, in 1862. Two years after the return to Chicago, the mother died, in 1877. The Judge survived his wife some four years. He died May 25, 1881, and was buried two days later from Unity church. Three children survived him - Charles F., bred a lawyer, and admitted to the Bar of Illinois January 7, 1857, who removed to Washington about 1864. ami became a member of the law firm of Hughe*, Deover & Peck; Mrs. I'.dward tt' right, and Mrs. Perry Trumbull, an adopted daughter. At the memorial meeting of the liar, convened May 26. and adjourned to the joth, when they again assembled, speeches were made by several of the Judge's laW associates, from which are excerpted the following estimates of his character and powers :

--It omld be truthfully said of Judge Peck," remarked Judge Drummon'd. "that he was an honest, self-reliant man, whose judgment and counsel went rarely astray." " A man," said B. C. CtHik, chairman of committee on resolutions, "of earnest convictions and had the courage of his convictions * * * a judge whose decisions will stand as clear, profound, and faithful expositions of the law. * * * He has left the impress of liis character upon the eventful time in which he lived. His influence has been marked and beneficial in the history of the city, the Slate and the Nation." *. * * "It was fortunate," says Judge CatOB, "that he was rarely wrong. Whenever his mind was fully made up on any subject, I never knew him to change it, and this whether it were on a question of law or ethics, the use of a word or the structure of a sentence. * * - It was not obstinacy, for he was anxious to be convinced and to agree with us. It was simply conviction, from which he would not be moved to oblige anybody." "Judge Peck," says Mr. Ashton, "was no ordinary man. As a lawyer and judge he had few superiors; as an adviser and counselor I doubt if he had his superior. He was not a 'case lawyer,' although when inclined, he was a fine advocate. He was a lawyer in the fullest sense of the term. * * * He always reached his conclusions by analysis and from principle. * * * He disliked the drudgery and routine of the office, but when necessary he could accomplish as much labor in a short time as any man I ever knew." ** He was," said Judge Trumbull, "outspoken in his opinions, and never pretended what he was not. With hypocrisy, shams and deceit he had no patience. He was a man of great kindness of heart, full of sympathy and hospitality. * * * His family circle was one of the happiest and brightest in which it was ever my privilege to mingle. Even in later life, when pain and sorrow came, and his physical system was broken by disease, his hope and cheerfulness did not forsake him. * - - He lived a pure life, was kind, true and faithful in all its relations, and died an honest man."