Kane County, Illinois - Chapter 19: Courts Bench and Bar, 1908 (part 1 of 2)

Chapter 19: Courts Bench and Bar

The county commissioners at their meeting held in September, 1836, selected grand and petit jurors for the first term of the Kane county circuit court, who were as follows: Grand jurors - Isaac Wilson (made foreman of the jury), Sidney Kimball, Allen Ware, James T. Wheeler, William Van Nortwick, Samuel jMcCarty, X^icholas Gray, Edwin Knight. James Squares, Benjamin F. Phillips. Otho W. Perkins, Ansel Kimball, Walter Hotchkiss, John Van Fleet, William T. Elliott, John Ross, Friend Marks, Solomon Dunham, Marshall Starks, George Johnson, Lyman Barber. Petit jurors - Calvin Ward, Read Ferson, B. H. Smith, E. R. Mann, Solomon H. Hamilton, James H. Latham, Carlos Lattin. John V. King, James Ferson, John Douglas, Ira ]Merrick and Gideon Young.

The first term of the circuit court was held at Geneva, in James Herrington's log house, on June 19, 1837, Judge John Pearson presiding. A. B. Hubbard acted as clerk pro tem and B. F. Fridley as sheriff. The first jury trial at this court was that of John Wilson et al. vs. Thomas Wilson, for trespass. The jury found the defendant guilty and assessed the plaintiff's damages at $4,160.66, probably an amount equal to all the money in circulation in the county at that time. The calendar at that term was large, most of the actions being for trespass. The grand jury presented five indictments, two for riot and three for larceny. The rioters were fined $5 and costs each at the following September term. Much of the business of this grand jury and of the first term of court w-as with claim jumpers and house burners. A couple of these worthies were in examination before the jury and one of its members, Mr. Van Nortwick, became so disgusted with the testimony that he impatiently blurted out, "Gentlemen, you can think what you please, but I believe these fellows swear to a d - d lie, both of them!" It was a favorite scheme with some of these claim jumpers to come from somewhere down the river, engage to do a job of plowing for a settler, and after having plowed two or three acres drive off and sell the claim to another party. These rascally proceedings did not always result healthfully for the perpetrators. The following from the diary of Captain Thomas H. Thompson, of Dundee, is an illustration of the above subject, and good evidence of what the settlers were forced to go to law about :

"Fence put up Friday, September 15, 1836; commenced drawing logs to build house i6th; i8th, finished drawing logs and put up body of the house; the same day Benjamin Bell came on the premises and swore that Sutfin should not build, for he (Bell) was going to build and both of them could not stay on the claim; at night the logs were taken down, put in a pile and set fire to; 20th, more logs drawn, the house raised, the roof boards put on; 2ist, 22d, 23d, work putting in gable ends, making door, chinking, hewing down the walls and mudding; evening of 23d, roof torn off; 24th, at daylight. Benjamin Bell and James Robinson came to the house; 25th, at night, house set on fire."

At this term of court Mark W. Fletcher was appointed clerk in place of Hubbard, who resigned after the first day. It is said that not a single lawyer was then living within the limits of Kane county. Alonzo Huntington was the state's attorney in attendance on the court. Selden M. Church had been appointed clerk originally, but removed to Rockford before court was held, and ]\Ir. Hubbard received his appointment from Judge Ford September 21. 1836. This first term of court lasted three days, during which time there were five jury trials, four changes of venue granted, fourteen judgments rendered amounting to $5,400, twenty suits continued and five dismissed. Therefore it seems the pioneers dabbled quite extensively in legal proceedings, and usually for cause. It is recorded that Jacob B. Mills and H. N. Chapman were at this term granted the privilege of practicing as attorneys in the court. On the second day John Douglass, by birth a Scotchman, renounced his allegiance to the British government and swore fealty to that of the United States.

In September, 1837, the second term of the court was held by Judge Thomas. Most of the settlers attended the terms of court, it is said, either as jurors, parties to suits or witnesses, or merely as spectators. Beside the suits brought on account of conflicting claims to lands there was much trouble and litigation over prairie fires carelessly kindled. These were, in the language of an eminent member of the bar and formerly a practitioner of the Kane county courts, "an annual terror," and caused great destruction of property. When Mark W. Fletcher w'as clerk of the courts he had a Bible upon which to swear witnesses and on one side of it was a cross, while a dollar embellished the other side, the witness having his choice of objects to swear upon.

The first judge of the circuit court for the district which included Kane county was John Pearson and the second Thomas Ford, who was in 1842 elected governor of the state. Hon. B. C. Cook has said of him : "He was one of the best circuit judges I ever knew." He was succeeded by Judge Caton and the latter by Judge T. Lyle Dickey. Previous to 1852 the prosecuting attorneys of the district were Nonnan H. Purple, afterward a judge of the supreme court and one of the ablest attorneys in the state; Seth B. Farwell, B. F. Fridley and Burton C. Cook, the latter holding from 1846 to 1852 and attending every term of the court held in the county. He succeeded Mr. Fridley, during whose term the courts were called upon to take in hand the work of suppressing a class of criminals such as are found at some period troubling the settlers in all new countries.

\'ery comical incidents sometimes occurred in the court, human nature then being very much the same as at the present day. During the December term, in 1858, a couple of rival horse doctors on the witness stand made considerable sport for the spectators. One of them solemnly swore to his positive knowledge of a disease among horses called the red belly-ache, while the other as solemnly and earnestly swore that there was no such thing, and both adhered tenaciously to their belief, defending their positions with much loud talk and many emphatic gestures.

Probate Court

The probate court, originally, was simply a probate justice of the peace, who was his own clerk, and conducted the business of his office without the presence of the sherifif or his bailiff. Archibald Moody, of St. Charles, died Jul)' 2^, 1836, and the first recorded act of the probate court was the granting of letters of administration to his widow, Lydia C. Moody, by Mark Daniels, probate justice, on the 6th of June, 1837. The bonds of the administratrix were S2.000. with Gideon Young as surety. The first will probated was that of Warren Tyler, also of St. Charles. It was dated September 10, 1837. and proved and admitted to record November 6, 1837, by Isaac Wilson, who had succeeded Daniels as probate justice. The first letters of guardianship were issued to Closes Selby, as guardian of Rebecca Gillespie, November 5, 1838. The seal of this probate court is described as a "copper block, with a weeping willow and tombstone, emblematic, in those days, of grief for the dead."

In 1849. under the new constitution, the probate justices gave place to the county court, of which Isaac G. \\"ilson, afterward circuit judge, was elected first judge, with James Herrington as county clerk. They were elected in November. 1849, commissioned in December, and held the term of the county court in January, 1850. beginning on the loth of the month. Of this court, Andrew J, Waldron and Marcus White w^ere associate justices. Among other business transacted was the granting of grocers' licenses - i. e. licenses for the sale of liquors - to John D. Wygant, of Batavia, and William G. Webster, of Geneva, the charge for the same being $25 each.

City Court Of Aurora And Elgin

When the original charter of the city of Aurora was granted by the legislature in 1857, it was given an addendum providing for a city court at that place, the idea emanating from the brains of B. F. Parks and O. D. Day. A. C. Gibson was chosen the first judge. Elgin copied and adopted the Aurora charter, and a city court was also created at that place, of which C. H. Morgan was the first judge. By the terms of these charters, the expenses of the courts were to be met by their respective cities. An act was passed in 1859 providing that the same judge should preside over both courts, and the two were consolidated under the title of the court of common pleas of the cities of Aurora and Elgin. The bulk of business was transacted in the Aurora branch. In 1870, when the new constitution was framed and adopted, a clause was inserted similar to that in the constitution of 1848, by which Kane county is entitled to have a superior court, with terms held at Elgin and Aurora. The present judge of this court is Hon. Mangan, of Aurora. Prior to tiie term of Judge Mangan, Judge John L. Healy and Judge R. P. Goodwin, of Aurora, and Judge A. H. Barry, of Elgin, held the office. Several attempts have been made to abolish the court, but the efforts have proved unfruitful, owing to lack of interest. This year an attempt to awaken interest to abolish the justice court and give the city court their work, so far has resulted in nothing practical.

The judicial district embracing Kane county has been remarkably fortunate in its choice of men to occupy the bench. Judge Ford, in his subsequent career as governor of Illinois, won an enviable reputation by his upright and straightforward administration of the affairs of the commonwealth. Judge John D. Caton was for many years an honored resident of Cook and LaSalle counties, and Judge Dickey, who was from the same county, died July 22, 1885. His duties as circuit judge were admirably discharged, and his marked ability was evident in his career as a judge of the supreme court of Illinois. Judge Pearson was judge of the Seventh judicial circuit, Kane county being in the Sixth, and held court several times in said county. Judge Jesse B. Thomas belonged in what was then the First circuit, and Judge Caton was a justice of the supreme court at the same time his services were rendered in the Kane circuit. Supreme court then held court in their districts as appellate justices now do. His first term here began August 25, 1842. Hon. Isaac G. Wilson's first term of the Kane county circuit court began August 11, 1851, Phineas W. Piatt being, at the time, state's attorney. He held the office until 18 - , being succeeded by Judge Henry B. Willis, the present judge.

Judge Wilson was a native of Middlebury (now Wyoming) county, New York, and the son of an eminent lawyer and judge. He was graduated from Brown university, at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1838, and removed at once to Chicago, whitlier his father had shortly before preceded him. He began the study of law under Butterfield & Collins, then prominent Illinois practitioner.'^. About a year later he entered the law school at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in 1841 was admitted to the Massachusetts bar, returned to Illinois and began practice at Elgin, in August of that year. He was elevated to the bench in 185 1, holding through subsequent elections for about seventeen j-ears. In 1867 he removed to Chicago, remaining until 1871, when he lost his valuable law library in the great fire. He finally returned to Kane county, locating at Geneva, and w^as elected one of the judges of the Twelfth characteristics of Judge Wilson were remarkable industry, strict integrity, and opposition to needless litigation and the delays which are so vexatious in most courts. He is regarded as one of the ablest lawyers of Illinois, and during his years upon the bench was several times chosen to represent his district in the appellate court.

Hon. Silvanus Wilcox, who succeeded Judge Wilson in 1867, is a native of Montgomer}- county, Xew York. He was a cadet at West Point for two years, beginning in April. 1836, but was obliged to resign on account of ill health, standing fifth in general merit, in a class of fifty. He spent five months in the \\'est. in 1840, and finally located, in 1844. at Elgin, where he was the next year appointed postmaster by President Polk, holding the office during the latter's administration. He was admitted to the bar in 1846, and in 1867 elected judge of the Twentj^-eighth judicial circuit, comprising the counties of Kane. DuPage and Kendall. He was reelected in 1873. but resigned in 1874, because of poor health, his resignation being received with regret by the judiciar}- of the state.

Judges Wilson and \\'ilcox and Judge Willis are the only citizens furnished by Kane county for the circuit bench of the district, but those from other counties, who have performed its duties have been men of marked ability and high standing in the profession. Judge Hiram H. Cody, of DuPage, was no exception to the rule, and Judges Charles Kellum and Clark W. Upton, stand also in the front rank. George W. Brown and L. J. Ruth, of DuPage, and Charles A. Bishop, of DeKalb county, all three of whom have died within three years, were each able lawyers and capable judges, whose loss to the district can hardly be estimated.

Judge Henry B. Willis, present circuit judge, was born May 8, 1849, in A^ermont, and came to Illinois with his parents in 1852, they locating at Genoa, DeKalb county. In 1870 he graduated from Albany Law School. Albany. New Y^'ork, and began practice in Elgin in 1872. He was state's attorney. 1876 to 1880. and mayor of Elgin, 1885-7. He was elected circuit judge in 1891. succeeding Judge Isaac G. \\'ilson, and has since held that office, conducting its business with dignity and ability. In 1906 he was appointed one of the justices of the appellate court for the Second district.

legally executed for this crime within the limits of the county. At the February term of the circuit court, in 1855, John Collins was convicted of murder for having, while intoxicated, killed his wife. He was sentenced to be hanged, and the penalty was inflicted upon him by Sheriff Spaulding, April 21, 1855. N. S. Young, Esq., of Batavia, thus describes the incident:

"The sheriff and prisoner were escorted from the jail, in the old stone court house, by an armed military company from Ciiicago, procured for the purpose, to a spot southwest from the court house, in a hollow or ravine just north of the present Chicago & Northwestern Railroad track, and in sight of the present depot grounds. The scaffold was made with a platform some three feet from the ground, with two upright posts eight or ten feet apart, and a cross-beam on top. The rope hanging down from the center of the cross-beam, passed over a pulley and along the beam to the post, over another pulley and down to a large, heavy iron weight, to which it was fastened. The prisoner was dressed in a nankeen suit of clothes : a white cotton cap was drawn over his head and face : his arms were tied to his body, the rope was placed around his neck, and, standing west, the sheriff, with a hatchet,, cut a rope which held the heavy weight. Falling quickly and heavily, it gave the culprit a sudden jerk upward about one foot. A slight contraction of the legs was all there was to be seen of struggling, and soon they relaxed, and, after hanging thirty minutes the doctor pronounced him dead. A large concourse of people was present on the rising grounds near, and all through the proceedings quiet and order prevailed, with no disturbance."

There have been several noted murder cases in the county, among them the following: April 3, 1868, Mrs. Mary Widner, second wife of Adam Widner, was found to have been murdered. The crime was laid to John Ferris and wife, who rented part of the Widner house, and with whom there had been a dispute and one or two lawsuits. The trial was held at Woodstock, McHenry county, and ended early in April. 1869, with a verdict of acquittal for Mrs. Ferris and a sentence of fourteen years in tlie penitentiary for the husband, who was proved to be undoubtedly guilty.

Rev. Isaac B. Smith was tried in the fall of 1869 for the alleged drowning of his wife in a creek near Elgin and Turner Junction. The trial was long, and excited great interest, but a verdict of not guilty was reached in November.

The Kimball case, tried in the circuit court in the fore part of May, 1881, was for the fatal wounding of Billings \\^right by William Kimball, in the car shops at Aurora, October 22. 1880, while the latter was intoxicated. Wright died of his wounds in November following. The jury found Kimball not guilty, on the plea of emotional insanity.

On Sunday, June i, 1884, Otto John Hope, a German farmer, residing in Sugar Grove township, was killed, and his hired man, Ed. Steinburn, dangerously wounded during a dispute over the feeding of some of Hope's cattle on the highway. Ozias W. Fletcher and his son Merritt W.. were the guilty parties, the shooting being done with a revolver. The trial, which ensued, was intensely bitter, and resulted in sending the senior Fletcher for three years to Joliet, and sentencing the young man to death. Steinburn, the principal witness, recovered and went to Europe, and, finally, after Merritt Fletcher had been confined in jail three years, he succeeded in having his sentence commuted to three years in the penitentiary, making an incarceration of six years.

A fiendish murder was committed at Elgin, March 3. 1883, when George Panton shot and killed his tenant, William Smith, in consequence of a dispute over the occupation of a house belonging to Panton. It was shown that the murder was deliberate, cold-blooded and unprovoked. Panton was arrested and tried on a change of venue in the Boone circuit court, the jury finding him guilty of murder in the first degree, and the judge sentencing him to be hanged. He was granted a new trial and a second time sentenced, but Governor Oglesby commuted his sentence to imprisonment for life in the penitentiary. He was accordingly sent to Joliet. where he eventually became violently insane, and in the spring of 1887 he was removed to the asylum at Elgin, from which he subsequently escaped and has been unheard of since Many other cases have been tried, but no convictions have been secured.

The Early Bench And Bar

The following reminiscences are from the book of Judge John Dean Caton, who tried the first law suit in Kane county, and for many years was a judge of the district:

It happened also that I tried the case which was submitted to the first petit jur}" ever impaneled in Kane county. It was Wilson vs. Wilson.

One day while at work in my office a man and his wife, way-worn and dusty, entered, and sought my professional services for the redress of a grievance which they had suffered. Both were rather undersized, under thirty years of age, very poorly clad, and were what may be justly termed simple people, without force of will or energ)'. Their story was that they had come from Buffalo on a schooner, which a week before had been wrecked about two miles south of this city; they and the crew had been all landed safely, after a hard night's experience on the wreck, but they had lost everything except what was on their persons. After a day or two's stay in the town, they had started on foot for the country, and when in the prairie about two miles beyond Laughton's Crossing, where Riverside now is, they had met a drove of horses from Schuyler county, in this state, belonging to one Wilson, who was in charge, with several men with him. Wilson pretended to be a sheriff, and to have a warrant for their arrest, and did arrest them and detained them about half an hour in the prairie, but finally left them, nearly frightened to death.

After they had somewhat recovered from their fright, they turned back, and stopped at Laughton's house at the ford, and told their pitiable story.

Laughton had been a client of mine, and they were strenuously advised to come back to Chicago and state their case to me, with the confident assurance that I would see that justice was done for the outrage. This they did.

and hence their appearance in my office as above stated. I immediately took means in a quiet way to obtain the name of the owner of the horses, and leader of the gang, who was yet in town, and before night he was under bail to appear at the next term of the circuit court to answer to an action of trespass and false imprisonment. My clients' names were Wilson, and that was the name of the defendant.

McScammon was retained for the defense. He succeeded in getting the case continued for one or two terms, and then took a change of venue to Kane county, on an affidavit showing that the people of Cook county were prejudiced against his client so that he could not have a fair trial here.

This day came the parties upon a plea of not guilty; it is, thereupon, ordered that a jury come, and thereupon came the jurors of a jury of good and lawful men, to-wit : who were severally elected, tried and sworn well and truly to try the issues joined between the plaintiffs and the defendant, who upon their oaths do say : "We, the jury, find the defendant guilty, and assess the plaintiffs' damages at four thousand one hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-six cents."

John Pearson had been elected judge of this circuit at the session of the legislature (1836-37), and he opened his first court at Geneva, on June ig, 1S37, and the first case on the docket was that of Wilson vs. Wilson, change of venue from Cook county. I had found a witness, who from a distance of half a mile or more had seen the plaintiffs walking on the road in the prairie, when they were met by the defendant with a drove of horses; that the defendant with several other men stopped and dismounted from their horses and seemed to surround the plaintiffs, and that after half an hour had elapsed they remounted their horses, gathered up the drove, and proceeded with them toward Chicago, and that after the expiration of another half hour the plaintiffs had returned along the road to Laughton's house, when they appeared to be in a much demoralized and frightened condition. At that time the parties to a suit, or those who had even a remote interest in the result, could not be allowed, or forced to testify, so that what actually took place at the time of the stoppage in the prairie could not be explained to the jury, but I had an undoubted right to draw the most unfavorable inferences against the defendants, which could be justified from the facts proved, and I made the most of this right.

The jury was out but a little while, when they returned with a verdict of "guilty," and assessing the plaintiffs' damages at four thousand one hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-six cents, which amount at that time was considered simply enormous, at least in this part of the state, for a trespass to the person.

In the olden time in Illinois, say prior to 1850, the circuit system of practice was in vogue in legal life, and presented incidents and peculiarities which are entirely wanting since the country has become more populous. \Mth the growth of the cities and towns, resident lawyers of ability and learning are found in every county seat at least, who require no assistance in the conduct of the most important cases. It was not so in the early days. Then the few local lawyers who had settled in the county towns were generally newcomers, without experience and self-confidence, and both they and their clients depended largely on the assistance from abroad, especially at the trials of causes. This state of things necessitated a class of itinerant lawvers whose ability and experience had secured to them reputations coextensive with their judicial circuits, and. in many cases, throughout the state. These were few at first, but with the increase of population and business their nuinbers increased, while their theaters of action became more circumscribed.

At first they, with the judge, traveled on horseback in a cavalcade across the prairies from one county seat to auother. over stretches from fifty to one hundred miles, swimming the streams when necessary. At night they would put up at log cabins in the borders of the groves, where they frequently made a jolly night of it. This was a perfect school for ston.- telling, in which Mr. Lincoln became so proficient. It was, indeed, a jolly life on the border, the tendency of which was to soften the asperities and to quicken the sensibility of human nature. Here was unselfishness cultivated, and kindliness promoted, as in no other school of which I have knowledge.

This circuit practice required a quickness of thought and a rapidity of action nowhere else requisite in professional practice. The lawyer would, perhaps, scarcely alight from his horse when he would be surrounded by two or three clients requiring his services. Each would state his case in turn. One would require a bill in chancery to be drawn. Another an answer to be prepared. .\ third a string of special pleas, and for a fourth a demurrer must be interposed, and so on, and all of this must be done before the opening of the court the next morning. Then perhaps he would be called on to assist in or to conduct a trial of which he had never heard before, just as the jury was about to be called, when he must learn his case as the trial progressed. This requires one to think quickly and to make no mistakes, and to act promptly to take advantage of the mistakes of the adversary, who was probably similary situated. It is surprising how rapidly such practice qualifies one to meet such emergencies.

Those early settlers had not much money to pay lawyer's fees, but they would generally pay something and give notes for the balance, or, perhaps, turn out a horse or a colt in payment. These would probably ser\'e to pay tavern bills, and a horse or two might be led home or sold on the wav. Fee notes formed a sort of currency at a county seat about court time, and could frequently be sold to a merchant or the landlord at a moderate discount. A town lot or an eighty of land would sometimes be taken for a fee, especially when it had been part of the subject-matter of the litigation.

The southern part of this state was first settled, and so legal tribunals were there first established. The first settlers were mostly immigrants from Kentucky and Tennessee, with some from Virginia and the Carolinas, though many were from the eastern states. The lawyers from tlie southern states were in the majority, while the eastern states furnished many able lawyers as well.

All of these men would ha\e ranked high at any bar, and were thoroughly read in the fundamental principles of the law. Later came Lincoln; Davis. Treat, Douglas and Trumbull, all able men. It may be remembered that all were young men then, and fond of amusements and pastimes and practical jokes, and after the pressure of the first few days of the court was over, they spent their evenings, and I may say night, in hilarity, which was at times, no doubt, boisterous. For instance. Benedict, who had a fog-horn of a voice, which he used most recklessly when excited, and who had been roaring to a jury at an evening session, was met, when he came to the tavern, by the sheriff, with a bench warrant on an indictment "for making loud and unusual noises in the night time," and soon a court was organized and he was put upon his trial, and before midnight he was convicted and sentenced to repeat the offense in arguing a motion for a new trial, or to pay a heavy fine, upon the ground that two aiTirmati\-es would make a negati\-e, or that the hair of the same dog would cure the bite. It was said that he fairly outdid himself in that effort, so that he aroused the whole town from their slumbers, and he came near being fined for overdoing it.

Judge Young was a good performer on the fiddle and thus contributed much to the hilarity of circuit life. As the settlements extended into the northern part of the state, this circuit system of practice came with them, and for a time prevailed in all of its pristine beauty, except in Chicago alone. where the visits from foreign lawyers were only made upon special retainers and in important cases. I saw I\Ir. Lincoln here several times engaged in important cases.

Under the old circuit system, when the state was divided into fi\-e circuits, and a circuit judge was elected for each, John York Sawyer was judge of the Vandalia circuit. He was not a tall, nor a very stout man, but carried in front about the largest bay-window for his size I ever saw. He presided in a very suave way, but with a fixed determination to do ample justice and without a very scrupulous regard to forms, especially if those forms did not suit him at the time. It was related to me that on one occasion Hubbard, who had a considerable practice, argued some question before him at great length and with great confidence, and concluded with an air of assurance which declared that he knew he could not be beaten this time. The judge in his decision praised Hubbard's argument and followed it all the way through, especially emphasizing the weakest parts of it, as if he was greatly impressed with them, and then decided against him without stating a single reason for the decision. This enraged Hubbard terribly, and he could hardly wait till court adjourned and the judge had retired before he gave vent to his indignation to the members of the bar and other by-standers. in terms forcible if not elegant, and in conclusion "he said : 'T tell you, gentlemen, what I am going to do about it, and so you may prepare yourselves with smelling bottles or cover these streets with quick lime; I am going right now to hunt up that offensive mass of bloated humanity, and I will relieve his corpus of a peck of tadpoles the first slash."' But he did not do it, and I was told that the facetious judge, when told of it, laughed heartily at Hubbard's rage, regarding it as an excellent joke.

Another circuit scene, in which we may see how Judge Sawyer administered the law, may be given as it was told to me by Judge Ford, soon after I made his acquaintance, in 1834.

At the time of which he spoke, horse thieves were punished at the whipping post, and Ford always insisted that it was the most deterrent punishment ever inflicted for the punishment of crime. He said he had often seen criminals receive a sentence of ten years or more in the penitentiary with apparent indifference, but he had never seen a man sentenced to be whipped who did not perceptibly wince, and that the most 'nardened would turn pale and shudder.

A man who had been indicted for horse stealing, had retained General Turney to defend him. The general struggled hard for his client, but the proof was so clear that the task was hopeless, and the jury, after a short absence, returned a verdict of guilty. The general immediately entered a motion for a new trial, and was about to proceed to argue it, when the dinner bell at the tavern hard by, where they all boarded, was heard loudly calling all to dinner. Judge Sawyer, as I have said, was a man with a very protrudent stomach, and he especially prized his dinner. The judge interrupted the counsel, saying: "General Turney, I hear the dinner bell now ring, so the court will adjourn till one o'clock, when I shall take pleasure to hear you on your motion for a new trial." So the court was adjourned till one o'clock, but before the judge left the bench he motioned the sheriff up to him, and in a determined whisper, said :

"While I am gone to dinner take that rascal out behind the court house and give him forty lashes, and mind you, lay them on well, and tell him if he is ever caught in this count)' again you will give him twice as much."

After the whipping the culprit was turned loose and was taken charge of by some of his friends, who washed him oft' and bathed his lacerated back with whiskey, and dressed him, and when he had taken some dinner he hobbled down the street, and as he passed the court house he heard the general's loud voice and crossed over, and soon discovered he was earnestly pleading for a new trial in his case. This horrified him. and he rushed into the house and cried out, "For God's sake don't get a new trial. If they try me again they will convict me again, and then they will whip me to death."

Turney, I thought we would make sure of what we had got, so I ordered the sheriff to whip that rascal while we were at dinner, and I trust he has done so. But go on, general, with your argument, for I am inclined to be with you. I think another whipping would do him good."

A year later I was retained in the most important case, nominally at least, in which I was ever engaged. That was to defend one hundred and twelve men charged with the crime of murder. For some years before there was a sort of an organized band of criminals, principally engaged in horse stealing and counterfeiting, but who on occasions did not hesitate to commit murder. They became bold and defiant. They were well known throughout the community, and had many sympathizers, who, in order to turn suspicion from themselves, roundly denounced them when in certain circles; indeed, they were so well organized and bold, and had so many sympathizers, who did not profess to be of them, that it was impossible to punish them, even upon the clearest proof of guilt. The jail was broken open and burned to liberate some of the gang who were confined in it, and some of their sympathizers would always manage to get on the jury, so that a conviction became impossible.

But the evil-doers consisted of but a small percentage of the population of the county, a great majority of whom were as excellent men as could be found in any other community. They, seeing that the arm of the law was too short to afford them protection for either life or property, formed themselves into a sort of association or club, the declared object of which was to rid the community of the criminal class; one Campbell was elected captain of this club, which also elected several subordinate ofiicers. This was done on Saturday, and, as its proceedings were open and public, they were known immediately throughout the county. The desperadoes saw at once that they must strike such a terror throughout the community as to disintegrate the members of this club by the force of fear, or they must go themselves. They saw it was an issue of blood, and did not hesitate to accept it at once. By arrangement three of the gang were to commence operations by assassinating, in the most public manner, Campbell, the leader of the association, and accordingly, on Sunday, rode up to his cabin in broad daylight, called him to the door and riddled him with bullets.

The news of this terrible tragedy was known throughout the county by Monday morning, and without call or notice, the members of the club assembled at their appointed rendezvous, and details were sent out to arrest and bring in the murderers. This was finally accomplished, and they were brought before the assembled club in a grove a few miles south of the county seat. There a court was organized, consisting of a judge and jury, all of whom were sworn by a justice of the peace, to impartially try the case, and a true verdict to render. Witnesses were sworn before this tribunal, who saw the murder committed, and who positively identified the prisoners as the murderers. Lawyers had been appointed to prosecute and defend the prisoners, and every formality was observed which was characteristic of a regularly constituted court of justice established by law. A verdict of giiilty was returned, and a sentence passed that all should be shot on the spot. A company was

This prompt proceeding struck such a terror into the criminal class, that tlie most notorious of them fled at once, without standing on the order of their going, and their sympathizers were dumb with terror.

Accordingly an indictment was presented against one hundred and twelve who were present at the trial and execution of the culprits. Of course, my consultations had been with only a few of the leaders, but now it was necessary to have them all together, and accordingly we marched out onto a little isolated peak in the prairie, and I had them formed in a circle around me, while I called over a list of the defendants, when all answered to their names except four, who were unavoidably absent. Even the sherifif, in whose nominal custody they were, was conveniently absent, and no one but the prisoners and myself were within two hundred yards of us. I was assured that no one of them had boasted of the transaction, or in an\- way admitted that he was present at the time, and I saw no difficulty in the way, except as to the four defendants that were not present, in whose favor a judgment of acquittal was as necessary as to the others ; but this was got over by selecting four of the party, each of whom was to answer for one of the absentees when his name should be called in court to plead to the indictment. When all of the many details were arranged for the conduct of the case, we marched back to the court house, which was cleared of all others, as supposed, and when my numerous clients filed in they filled the little court room quite up to the table around which the lawyers sat. While the court was waiting for our appearance it had been occupied with some unimportant business, so that all was ready to proceed with the case when we arrived. The case was at once called, and the clerk proceeded to call the prisoners, who promptly answered to their names. I confess I felt a little anxious whenever the name of an absentee was called, but the proxies all answered promptly and without another word, until the last answer was made, when some one near the door hallooed out in a rather tremulous voice, "That ain't him."

This caused a flutter of excitement for a moment, and the judge directed that name to be called again, when the proxy, who was standing away back in the crowd, again responded for his principal, and no one could tell who had interrupted the proceedings in the manner stated.

I called no witnesses, no argmnent was made to the jury on either side, and I asked the court to instruct the jury that mere rumors were not evidence, which, of course, he did, and explained the law in his own way as to what evidence was necessary to authorize a con\iction. The jury were absent but a short time, when they returned with a verdict of acquittal, upon which judgment was entered, and thus ended that celebrated case.

There were great discrepancies in the statements made by the brothers and the third witness, and as the science of jurisprudence had not so far progressed as to offer a high premium for perjury by allowing tiie prisoner to swear in his own exculpation, the evidence closed with two witnesses against one. Mr. Dickey, who was defending the prisoner, to overcome this advantage, in summing up to the jury pointed out many inconsistencies in the statements of the witnesses for the people, and insisted that the story told by his witness was the most probable and natural for the occurrences of such a fight, and said that if Scott or Bulwer or Cooper, or any other great novelist, were going to describe such a fight in a novel they would describe it just as his witness had testified to this one, simply because it was most probable and natural - most consistent with human action under such conditions.

In reply to this Fridley in his closing speech said that Mr. Dickey had told them that if a novelist was going to put in his novel an account of such a fight as this was, he would put it down just as his witness had stated it here. "Well," said Mr. Fridley, "I agree with Mr. Dickey in this. Now what does a novelist do, when he's going to write a novel? He just sits down and invents the infernalest lie he can think of. Then he tells the story in his book, and that's just the way with Mr. Dickey's witness. He just invented this big lie, and then came here and told it to you, but he didn't expect you to believe it any more than you would a novel. Mr. Dickey was right in what he said and he don't believe it either."

Benjamin F. Fridley was certainly a man of some remarkable characteristics. His mind was clear and penetrating, his observations exceptionally acute; his study of mankind was much more profound than his study of law. He was witty without knowing it, and his sense of the ludicrous was really brilliant without his appearing to appreciate it. I scarcely ever knew him to laugh, while his quaint suggestions would sometimes provoke laughter in others, though generally these were made in so solemn and matter-offact a way as not to provoke boisterous laughter, but rather a quiet internal satisfaction.

He readily perceived the vital points of a case, though when his interest could be subserved thereby he could appear to be as stolid as a block about them. His primary education was very limited, and his orthography was nearly as remarkable as that of Chief Justice Wilson, who always assumed that the proper way to spell any word was to use as many letters as could possibly be appropriated for the purpose. I observed once, when sitting beside him on the bench, and Stephen T. Logan was arguing a case and quoted from Dana's reports, that in making a note of it he wrote it down "Dainey" ; and yet any one who will read over his opinions will observe that he was really a fine scholar, and a clear and perspicuous writer.

His opinions will compare favorably with those of any other judge to be found in our reports. With this example before us we are not at liberty to condemn Mr. Fridley for his bad spelling. He, too, was a very poor reader, but by pauses, repetitions and emphasis, he could cover this up most ingeniously, and would manage to give what he read a meaning to suit himself. I never saw evidence that he had ever read a literary work in his life and I doubt if he ever read a law book through, but he knew a great deal of law, and what he did know he was able to turn to the very best account. He learned his law from his observations in courts or in conversations with other lawyers. When he heard a proposition of law stated for the first time he could tell intuitively wliether it was good law, by determining in his own mind if it ought to be law. When it suited his purpose he would pretend to be ignorant of a principle which he well understood, and would pretend to be unable to understand a ruling which he perfectly comprehended.

He was the originator of many aphorisms, which I often hear repeated, the author of which is not generally known ; for instance : Fridley and I were appointed by Judge Ford at the DeKalb circuit court to defend an impecunious horse-thief. When we were congratulating ourselves that the evidence was quite insufHcient to convict him, as a last resort, the officer who arrested him was put upon the stand, who testified that the prisoner had confessed to him that he had stolen the horse. At this point the court adjourned for dinner. When walking up to the hotel together, I remarked to Fridley that a very good case had been badly spoiled by that last witness. "Yes," answered he, "in this country, if a man is amind to be a darn fool, there is no law agin it."

Fridley was state's attorney for two years during my administration on the circuit bench, and he was certainly a most proticent prosecutor; in the main he was just and fair, but when fully convinced that the prisoner was guilty, he was sure to convict him in one way or another. When the emergency required it, he exceeded all men I ever knew to worm in illegal testimony, and he would contrive to make it tell, when it was ruled out, but he would do it in such a way as to avoid censure, and yet to make the very ruling out of the evidence tell against his opponent, sometimes by an ati'ectation of illiteracy. The first time he went round the circuit as prosecutor, many of the lawyers evidently thought they would have a good time, and sought to expose his want of education in various ways, and particularly by moving to quash his indictments for bad spelling and bad grammar, which they would parade to the amusement of the audience ; but these were generally overruled, as they expected they would be, but this was invariably followed by a successful prosecution, whether the prisoner was guilty or innocent, so that it was not long before this amusement was found to be too expensive to be indulged in, unless the defense was deemed too clear that conviction was thought to be impossible.

When I was holding the Kane circuit, the grand jury came into court, and complained that they had found an indictment against a man for larceny, but that the state's attorney refused to draw the indictment; whereupon Mr. Fridley stated that he had heard all the evidence before the grand jury, and was certain that no conviction could be had ; that the man complained of had, found an old plowshare in the weeds by the side of the road, and supposing that it had been lost or thrown away, had thrown it into his wagon and taken it home, without any felonious intent; and that he did not deem it his duty to put the county to the expense of a useless trial. I told him that he had better draw the indictment, and when it should be returned into court he could do with it as he thought best.

Mark Fletcher was clerk of the circuit court of Kane county, and a most excellent clerk he was, too. He had a vein of quiet humor about him in which he frequently indulged. He had taken an American silver dollar and placed it on the outside of his Bible, on which he administered official oaths. He then placed it in liis press and made a deep and distinct impression of the coin on the cover of the book, on the opposite cover of which there was a cross. When asked why he had the impression of the dollar on the book, he replied that when he swore a Catholic he presented that side on which the cross was shown, but when he swore a Yankee, he presented that side of the book on which the dollar was shown.

At one term of the court a case of divorce was tried in which a Presbyterian minister from Elgin was the complainant. He proved a pretty strong case of the misconduct of the defendant by several witnesses brought from Quincy, Illinois, but not being entirely satisfied, I held the case over for further consideration. A day or two after I called the case up, reviewing the evidence, and expressing my doubts about its sufficiency and the hope that some further evidence might be produced which would remove my doubts.' Some bystander from Elgin, having misunderstood what I had said, rushed away in hot haste and informed the clergyman that I had granted his divorce. Whereupon, the same evening he was married to a sister of his flock, but after two days of wedded bliss he learned, to his consternation, that I had not decided the case at all.

He immediately started for Geneva, and rushed into the court in breathless haste just as I was about to adjourn it for the term, and made known the plight in which he found himself. His despair was unmistakable. I allowed him to be sworn. His testimony removed all doubt and I granted the decree. I was told that he hastened back to Elgin with as much speed as he had shown in his way down, and was married over again as quickly as some one could be found to perform the ceremony.

In the olden time judges, lawyers, jurors and witnesses all had to be accommodated at some little hostelry at the county seat, where it would take two or three tablefuls to feed all the guests; then when the bell rang for a meal there would be a rush for the dining room, when none stood upon the order of their going. A table was usually placed near the door, upon which the guests as they passed in threw their hats or wraps in a promiscuous pile. Mr. Helm, a resident lawyer of Yorkville, a man of full habit and pretty large proportions, in going out had some difficulty in finding his own hat, and in his efforts tried on several which would not fit him; all were too small, for his hat was nearly as big as a bee-hive. He had just laid down a small hat, which would barely sit upon the top of his head, and picked up his own, when Mr. Butterfield came along, and claimed the little one which he was about to lay down, when Mr. Helm remarked : "Brother Butterfield, it seems to me you have a very small head. My hat would cover your face as well as your head." "Yes, yes, Brother Helm," said Butterfield, "you have a very thick head, but mine is a good deal the longest."

Right on this point I may refer to another instance in illustration. When going to open the first term of the fall circuit in 1844, in Kendall county, I found the roads in a most horrible condition, showing that no road labor had been bestowed upon them. That was the wettest summer that I ever knew in this country. All the sloughs were full of water, and had been tramped up until they seemed to have no bottom, and I myself, with a light carriage and two horses, got stalled in a slough not two miles from the court house, and had to pack my wife and children out to dry ground, and then to hitch the horses to the end of a pole, and draw out the carriage. If to be covered literally with mud constitutes an element of beauty, then, indeed, was I beautiful for once in my life.

The result was that before night the grand jury brought in indictments against every road-supervisor in the county, and before I adjourned court that week I had the satisfaction of fining every one for neglect of duty. Indeed, all came in and pleaded guilty but one. Fridley had seconded my efforts with the greatest zeal.

When I adjourned that court and went on my way to Geneva, I found the road fairly lined with men repairing it. not only in Kendall county, but in Kane also, which was my next county. This convinced both Fridley and me that the fame of our work had gone before us. I charged all the grand juries in my circuit that fall, in substantially the same way, with equally good results. The influence of that campaign on the roads of that circuit was plainly observable, so long as I held the courts there at least.

Most lawyers who have practiced in the country will remember that it has frequently occurred that controversies about the identity of domestic animals have been maintained on both sides, at first with confidence, and then with bitterness, and that many witnesses will be brought who testify to the identity of an animal with the same confidence that they would to the identitv of their own children, but directly opposite to each other. Such a case was once tried before me either in Kane or Kendall county (I do not remember which), in which the identity of a calf was involved. The usual number of witnesses testified on each side, and with equal confidence, until it was impossible to fomi any satisfactory conclusion as to which was right, when finally the owner of the cow and of the calf introduced them both to maintain his claim to the latter. He showed that when he brought the calf home and turned it in with the cow, it at once rushed up to her and commenced sucking, which she not only suffered it to do, but caressed and licked it in the meantime, as if greatly satisfied to see it again.

Now I thought we had something tangible, upon which some reliance might be placed, but the other party brought up witnesses, and several of them, who testified that that particular cow would allow any calf to suck her, and always manifested an equally maternal affection for every calf she met, and licked and fondled all with great impartiality, and that that calf had been suffered to suck several different cows and would claim that privilege of any cow that it met. All of these witnesses testified with equal confidence, and it was manifest with equal integrity and sincerity.

There were no railroads then to help us on the waj', and Mount Vernon, as things then existed, would now be considered in a remote and secluded part of the country. I went from Ottawa in a double buggy, with my wife and child, and drove through the country to Springfield, which occupied four days. On the way I stopped at ^^'ashingto^, in Tazewell county, and held my last circuit court at a special term, which had been appointed by Judge Treat to try a criminal case, which I had sent over by change of venue from Peoria county. At Springfield I left my wife and child at quarters which I had secured for them, and took in Judge Treat, whom I had invited to ride with me on to Mount Vernon.

We started from Springfield on a dark, cloudy morning, and before we had proceeded half a mile a heavy snow storm set in, which proved to be the most severe that had been known there for many years. I drove a good team, and we pressed forward through the blinding storm without stopping until we reached Macoupin Point, twenty-eight or thirty miles, by which time the snow was about ten inches deep, when we were glad to take shelter, though the weather was not cold. The next day we pushed on toward Greenville, in Bond county, which we reached the second night after, and the next day we reached Carlyle, in Clinton county. Here one of my horses was taken ill, when I left him and procured another in his place. The snow was still deep and the roads very heavy. Indeed, for more than three-quarters of the way since we left Springfield, not a single track was seen from the road.

The unusual fall of snow seemed to shut everybody up, and we passed many log cabins in the timber which bordered the prairies, and in the forest through which the road passed, where we could see families shivering around large fires in their cabins, with both doors and windows wide open, and pigs squealing around on the outside as if they, too, would be glad to get near that fire.

Indeed, the people there hardly seemed to know what snow meant or how to protect themselves from the cold, and this caused constant remark between us.

We had expected when we left Springfield to reach Mount Vernon on Saturday, but here we were only at Carlyle on Saturday night with a sick horse and a still unbroken road before us. We got our new horse and made an early start Sunday morning and pushed forward at the best speed we could ; but a considerable coat of snow was still on the ground and it was already getting dusk when we reached, in the edge of the timber, the brick farmhouse of a well-to-do farmer, who, we learned at Carlyle, was in the habit of entertaining travelers, and where we could get excellent quarters unless the good lady of the house should happen to be out of humor, and then we would have to stay out all night, if necessary, in a storm, before she would let us into the house. For many years I remembered the name of this farmer and the distance from Carlyle to his house and from there to Mount Vernon, but I cannot state them now with certainty. I am very confident we were still from fourteen to eighteen miles from the latter place. It was raining hard and a cold wind was blowing, and it was getting dark when we drove up to the fence in front of the house, where the landlord came out and met us, who, upon our application for entertainment, with evident embarrassment, frankly told us that his wife was in a tantrum and that he could not afiford us shelter. He told us that the nearest house was about two miles ahead, where lived a widow in a log cabin, and that this was our only chance for the night.

Neither of us had ever been there before, but entieaty was of no avail; we started on. Even the snow which would have afforded some light, had disappeared in the course of the afternoon. We found the road to be narrow and winding, deeply gullied, up and down steep hills, and across creeks, now swollen with the rain, over some of which were narrow, corduroy bridges, and through others we had to ford. We had not gone half a mile before pitch darkness set in, so we could not see a vestige of the road, or even the forest trees, which bordered on either side. Then one of us had to get out and wade through the mud in front of the horses, and with our feet feel where the road was, and see if there were gullies en either side, and so we plodded on for more than three hours, copious rain falling all the time, and the coid wind increasing in violence. We had to look sharp all the latter part of the way. lest we should pass the widow's cabin without observing it. At last we did find it along toward midnight, and succeeded in arousing the widow and her little family of children, and the brave woman, as she was, admitted us without knowing whether we were tramps or honest men. Treat went in and helped to get up a good fire, while I unhitched the horses and took them to a shed across the road, which partly protected them from the storm. I found some corn for them in a crib near by, and then went to the house, where I found a good fire and some corn bread and cold meat set on the table with a pot of coffee. Humble and plain as it was. this was a luxurious repast; we were nearly famished. There was but one room in the house, in which there was a bed and under it a trundle bed, where a part of the children slept.

Covered as we were with mud and rain, we must have presented anything but a charming sight; but after drying ourselves as well as we could by the grate fire, w^e managed to get into the bed, while the good woman nestled into the trundle bed with her little ones.

W'ith the break of day we were astir, when I went out to feed and harness the horses, while the landlady fried some meat, with which, and some more corn bread, we made our breakfast. The rain had stopped, but the cold had increased very considerably, and the horses, having been but partially protected from the storm and still wet and shivering, were evidently in bad humor. However, I managed to hitch them to the vehicle, into which we climbed, having compensated the woman liberally for her kind entertainment, reflecting sharplj' upon the contrast between her kindly hospitality, and the conduct of the rich farmer's wife, who had refused us shelter under such forbidding circumstances.

W^ell, there are many good women in this world, while there are some who are not so good ; and we really thought that her husband was more to be pitied in the long run than we were.

When we started up to pursue our journey, the new horse, which had evidently been used to better treatment, laid back his ears and refused to budge an inch. I did not thrash him, and whip him, as one might have been inclined to do, but got out and got to his head and petted him and coaxed him till he seemed to have attained a better humor, when I got in and he started up and went along very cheerfully: indeed, he acted as if he would like to have taken a run for awhile. We pursued our way slowly but diligently through tlie muddy forest road, and reached Mount Vernon soon after noon, where we found Judge Trumbull, who had arrived before us.

When Judge Breese took liis seat upon the bench of the supreme court for the second time, the court consisted of Breese, Skinner and myself. In the course of conversation we discovered that we all three came from Oneida county, New York, and this remarkable incident soon became known to the bar, and was the subject of comment among them.

At that time, what may be called the circuit practice necessarily prevailed, and in each circuit in the state there was a class of lawyers who attended most of the courts in their own circuits, and very frequently attended the courts in the other circuits, mostly to try important cases, where their special reputations had caused them to be retained. This circuit practice was a special school, unequaled in its way, and in it these circuit lawyers acquired qualifications which could be learned in no other school.

They had but few books to study, but these they studied to a purpose. Blackstone and Coke upon Littleton, were their favorite books, and from them they learned the fundamental principles of the law, and the reasons why the law was so.

As in traveling the circuit few books could be carried, and but rarely were books to be found at the county seats, excepting the statutes, this sort of legal qualification was indispensable for both judges and lawyers, and the character of their work was such as to train them to think quickly and accurately, and to change the thoughts rapidly from one subject to another.

In passing from one county seat to another, the judges and lawyers always rode on horseback, with saddlebags, very frequently traversing uninhabited prairies of from ten to twenty miles or more across. Indeed, at that early time all the settlers lived in cabins along the skirts of the timber, with inclosures in the adjoining prairies in which were cultivated fields, their stock ranging in the groves or grazing on the prairies. Nearly every cabin entertained travelers, who stopped for meals or to stay over night. Ham and eggs, fried chicken and warm biscuit, with good coffee, constituted the menu at nearly every cabin. If the position was such that the approach of the traveler could be seen some distance away, and it was about meal time, it did not require very attentive listening for him to distinguish the outcry of the chickens from the hen-coop as one or more were being immolated, which he knew was to satisfy the cravings of his inner man.

If a boy was about to take his horse, he might go into the house at once; if not, he would have to stable and feed his own horse, which many preferred to do, to make sure that they were well cared for. If he went into the house soon, he might see the good lady pull from under the bed a breadtray, which was kept constantly supplied with dough, and in a trice the biscuits would be molded and placed in the bake-pan; chickens were placed in the frying pan; the coffee-pot was set to brewing; the table was set; and in an incredibly short time he was seated at the table with a meal before him as inviting as was ever set before a guest in the most fashionable hotel, with the most modern conveniences. The food was plain but substantial, and was always cooked to a turn. It was not smothered up in rich condiments, but

In riding from one county seat to another, the judges and lawyers generally traveled in a band together, although not always in a compact body. Usually the gait was a fast walk or a slow trot, and frequently the band would be separated into little squads of from two to four, when the monotony of the ride was relieved by conversation and the relation of anecdotes or storytelling, as it was called, though ordinarily these last were reserved for the evening, when the whole party would be assembled. Then it was that the delights of circuit riding were most appreciated. All were good story-tellers, and with rare exceptions each one added somewhat to his store since the last meeting, either from having heard a good story from somebody else or invented one; and a new story, if it were only a good one, was always received in the way that showed that it was fully appreciated. Frequently a quite ordinary incident would be dressed up and so embellished as to be exceedingly ludicrous and amusing.

The early circuit riders, for the purpose of illustrating certain characteristics of the human mind, used to tell a story of Judge Harlan (a name suggestive of the ermine) when he was circuit judge. They stated that when he had closed his court at a little town in the southern part of the state, and nearl}' all were ready to mount their horses and proceed to the next county, and just as he was putting his foot in the stirrup, a lawyer rushed up with a paper in his hand, and asked him to sign a bill of exceptions. With evident marks of impatience, he dropped the reins of his bridle, and hastened back into the log tavern and called for pen and ink, which were shown him on the little counter in the bar-room. Goose quills, then, only were used for pens. He seized one and jammed it into the inkstand with such force as to spoil it. He only appreciated this when he attempted to sign his name. And this crushing process he repeated several times before he succeeded in writing his name, and then it was hardly legible, when he threw down the pen and paper, evidently in bad humor, and bolted from the house, mounted his horse, applied the whip, and took the lead upon the trail which led across a ten-mile prairie to a cabin in a grove of timber.

The rest followed as best they could ; but none could succeed in eliciting from him even a word of recognition during a ride. When he reached the cabin, he accosted a woman who stood at the front of the house, and asked her for a drink of water. This she brought him in a gourd, from the well, of which he drank heartily, and when he returned the gourd to the good lady, he remarked, "That is good water, and I tell you, madam, they do keep the infernallest pens back in this little onery town that we just left, that you ever saw," and he again took the lead, apparently still brooding over those

Euchre parties were frequently formed, and so time was pleasantly passed ; and sometimes a dance was gotten up, when an old fiddle could be found, and some one was capable of using it. Judge Young himself was deemed the best fiddler on the circuit, and so contributed much to the hilarity of such occasions.

Sometimes a mock trial was instituted, when an indictment was presented against some member of the bar, accusing him of most ridiculous crimes, embellished with laughable incidents. On such occasions, the judge, the lawyers and the witnesses fairly overflowed with wit; and boisterous laughter was not considered a breach of decorum in that court, and the verdict of the jury partook of the character of the previous doings. A verdict of "guilty" was almost a foregone conclusion, and the penalties inflicted were frequently the most ludicrous and amusing of all the proceedings. If the wit was keen, it was frequently deeply penetrating, but the subject of it must bear it good naturedly and console his irritated feelings with the reflection that he would get his revenge on some future occasion. To show irritation at hard rubs was the worst thing a man could do, but to turn them oH in some witty way enhanced his popularity for the time.

But the first few days of the term could not be given up to amusement; all thoughts must be bent on business. Before the cavalcade of judges and lawyers had arrived, suitors and their friends, witnesses and sightseers, had already appeared, and were awaiting this important arrival ; and scarcely had the advocates dismounted, generally covered with dust or mud, when they were surrounded by clients, eagerly seeking to engage their favorite counsel, and as soon as their leggings and dusters or overcoats could be discarded, they gave ear to those who sought their services, and listened to brief accounts of the cases in which their services were sought. One man wanted a suit defended; another wanted a case tried; another a suit commenced, and soon everything was bustle and excitement. Special pleas must be prepared in one case ; in another, a demurrer must be filed ; in a third, a bill in chancery must be drawn, or an answer prepared; and in another, preparations for a trial which might come off immediately; and finally, some poor fellow was in jail for horse-stealing, or counterfeiting, or perhaps for murder, who wanted a lawyer to defend him; and all this heterogeneous mass of business was rushed in upon them in a manner which would have confused any mind not well trained to that mode of practicing law. Not infrequently, men were called in to take part in a trial when the jury was already being called, and they must learn the case during the trial itself, and it was astonishing to see how rapidly they could see the salient points of the case, and methodically arrange and present them.

As an instance of some of the means resorted to by the early courts to relieve the country of the presence of desperadoes and law-breakers of various kinds, B. F. Fridley is reported to have related the following: At one time, while horse stealing and all sorts of kindred mischief were going on, a gang of counterfeiters was discovered, and it was necessary that decisive action should be taken. Accordingly, a subpoena duces tecum was issued, commanding the counterfeiters to appear before the court at a designated place, on such a date, and bring with them all the counterfeit bills in their possession. This was issued because it was deemed necessary that the bills should be used in evidence. Of course, the defendants were not obliged to pay any attention to the command, but of that fact they were not aware; and as the best way out of the difficulty they left for pastures new, and were

Few books upon legal matters existed in the early circuit, and Hon. B. C. Cook describes the lawyers who "rode the circuit" as "strong men, dependent more upon their own intellectual strength than upon books." And be it remarked that their intellectual strength proved a solid rock upon which they based a successful career. The bulk of business in the early courts was transacted by lawyers outside of the county, among whom were J. J. Brown, of Danville, Leslie Smith and J. D. Butterfield, of Chicago ; Jonathan K. Cooper, Onslow Peters and Lincoln B. Knowlton, of Peoria; Judge Dickey, of Ottawa, and others. B. C. Cook was also from Ottawa, although he practiced to a great extent in the Kane county courts. When first known in the profession here he was a young man just entering upon his public career. From 1846 to 1852, as stated, he was prosecuting attorney of the district, and it has been said of him that he was a terror to all criminals, who, in their own language, "would rather have the devil after them than that young, pleasant, smiling, white-headed Cook." Mr. Cook was elected afterward to the state senate, and later served several terms in congress. He was a delegate from Illinois to the peace congress, to arrange a settlement with the southern states, when they were about going out of the Union, and took a bold and decisive stand in favor of upholding the constitution, and preserving the Union at all hazards. He subsequently served many years as chief attorney for the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, with headquarters at Chicago.

Among the first lawyers to locate in Kane county w-ere Caleb A. Buckingham and H. N. Chapman, at Geneva, about 1837, and S. S. Jones, at St. Charles. Buckingham was a 3'oung lawyer of fine promise, who acquired some prominence in his profession and in other directions, but was cut ofi b}' death about 1841 at Chicago. Chapman married and removed, it is thought, to Racine, Wisconsin. Jones had visited the region in 1837, and in 1838 located with his family at St. Charles, coming by way of Naperville. He had been admitted to the bar at Montpelier, Vermont, about 1835, and opened an office upon his arrival at St. Charles. He became a prominent attorney, but finally relinquished the profession to engage in newspaper publishing, his death occurring some years since in Chicago. He was the first lawyer to locate at St. Charles.

A. R. Dodge is said to have hung out his shingle at Aurora as early as 1837. He was a good speaker and a man of considerable ability, and at a later date was sent to the legislature from Kendall county.

Orsamus D. Day settled at Aurora in 1839. and in the following year published his professional card in the nearest newspaper - the Joliet Courier, He died in the fall of 1861, having been elected mayor in i860.

Among the early lawyers and well-known residents of Geneva were William B. Plato, who removed there from Aurora ; Joel D. Harvev, who subsequently became a prominent citizen of Chicago, and Charles B. \^^el]s, who won fame not onlv as a lawvcr but as a soldier.

Edward E. Harvey was an honored pioneer lawyer of Elgin, who volunteered at the breaking out of the war with Mexico and gave his life for the country during that struggle.

Paul R. Wright, a native of Oneida county. New York, moved to Illinois in 1837, when eighteen years of age. He taught school five years, and during that time studied law. In 1844 he entered the office of E. E. Harvey, at Elgin, was admitted to the bar a year later, and opened an office in that place. In 1856 he was chosen circuit clerk on the Fremont ticket and removed to Geneva. At the expiration of his term he resumed practice, but moved in 1862 to a farm in Union county, and thence in 1874 to Jonesboro, where he again entered practice.

Charles H. Morgan, the first judge of the Elgin court of common pleas, became subsequently a United States judge in one of the territories, and was a very able lawyer. His residence was also at Elgin.

Edmund Gififord, one of the early lawyers of Elgin, was well and favorably known for his legal ability, and became in after years a judge at New- Orleans, Louisiana.

William D. Barry, who had been admitted to the bar in Henry county, Ohio, in 1836, located at St. Charles in the spring of 1840, and is now the oldest practicing lawyer in Kane county. Although nearly eighty years of age he continues in the field, the weight of years, however, rendering it impossible for him to transact the amount of business he was accustomed to in the palmy days of his practice. He was long judge of the Kane county court. During the early days of his residence here he conducted many hard criminal trials, among them being the defense of Taylor Driscoll, of Ogle county, for the alleged murder of one Campbell during the dark days of horse stealing and kindred crimes. Driscoll was tried at Woodstock, McHenry county, on a change of venue, and through Judge Barry's efforts acquitted.

Joseph W. Churchill, a young resident of Batavia, was one of the first lawyers in the county. In 1837 he was chosen to a position on the board of county commissioners, and was otherwise prominent.

A good story of practice in the early days was related a number of years since by Henry B. Peirce, now deceased. It seems that Churchill's estimate of his own ability was very great. A. M. Herrington, whom everybody knew most familiarly as "Gus," was then a law student in the office of Ralph Haskins, Esq., at Geneva, and had access to the latter's fine library. He had picked up many points in law, and was especially familiar with the decisions and opinions in "Coleman on Contracts." He had been engaged to try his first case before Squire McNair, in Blackberry precinct, one in which suit had been brought for breach of contract. He took along his book, but hid it under a fence before entering the judicial presence. He had walked from Geneva, carrying his brogans over his shoulder until he had nearly reached his destination, when he stopped and put them on. The aforesaid Churchill was opposed to "Gus" in the case. After the evidence was heard Herrington claimed a verdict by virtue of the law, which he quoted after bringing his authority into court. Churchill claimed the case for the plaintiff, stating that the law as read by the defense was not applicable to the case at all, and that the mere boy who had offered it had no educational advantages and could not be expected to know the law or its application. Churchill sounded his own trumpet after the following manner: "May it please the court, my father spent a thousand dollars to give me a collegiate education and fit me for the bar, and, of course, I ought to and I do know the law in this case."

After Churchill had finished his plea and taken his seat, young Herrington arose and said : "May it please the court, the counsel for the plaintiff has stated to you that his father spent one thousand dollars to give him an education. Now I submit to the court and the jury that, in view of the facts proven in this case, the bearing of the law thereon, it was a mighty poor investment and would have paid better if he had put it into wild land at one dollar and a half an acre." The jury rewarded the young counsel by deciding the case in favor of the defense, and his first legal fee was paid him - two new five franc pieces - which he coolly placed in the pocket of his tow trousers and proceeded homeward. When he was out of sight of the scene of triumph he took out the coins, looked at them with a smile, and clinked them together in true boyish satisfaction, and it is safe to say that he never afterward earned a fee which gave him so much genuine pleasure.

Augustus M. Herrington, the hero of the foregoing incident, came to Kane county with his father, James Herrington, in 1835, the family locating at Geneva. He studied law during his leisure moments, and was admitted to the bar in 1844. In 1856 he was an elector on the democratic ticket and iu 1857 was appointed United States district attorney, a position he held until removed by President Buchanan for being a friend to Stephen A. Douglas. In i860 he was a delegate to the national democratic convention, and to similar bodies in 1864 and 1868. For many years he was attorney for the Chicago & Northwestern Railway. Mr. Herrington was a man of positive likes and dislikes, and, while he would go to almost any length to favor a friend, his enemies knew they could expect nothing from him. He was a fine lawyer and an impressive speaker, and was possessed of purely original characteristics. He died August 14, 1883. Many stories are related of the tilts between himself and John F. Farnsworth. Herrington's cutting remarks were often met by an exercise of physical force on the part of Farnsworth, though never with any damaging result to either party.

John F. Farnsworth, a native of Eaton, Canada East, was born of New England parentage, and removed with the family to Livingston county, Michigan, in 1834. There he assisted his father in surveying, studied law and was admitted to practice. He read in the office of Judge Josiah Turner at Howell in 1842-43 and was admitted to practice in 1843. He pushed at once for a new field in which to begin his professional labors, locating in the same year at St. Charles, Kane county, Illinois. The stage upon which he was journeying from Chicago stuck in a slough, and he being, in his own language, unable to wait and without money, friends or library, took his trunk on his back, waded out and made his way to his new home. Previous to 1846 Mr. Farnsworth was a democrat in politics, but in that year left the party and assisted in the nomination of Owen Lovejoy for congress. In 1856 and 1858 he was elected to congress by large majorities on the republican ticket from what was then called the Chicago district. His speeches were widely copied by the newspapers and he swept all opposition before him. In iS6o, at the Chicago convention, he assisted in nominating Abraham Lincoln for president. In October, 1861, he left St. Charles in command of the Eighth Illinois Cavalry, a regiment of twelve hundred strong, which he had raised and rendezvoused at St. Charles. It was one of the finest regiments which entered the service during the war of the rebellion. In November, 1862, Colonel Farnsworth was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and commanded the First Cavalry Brigade until after the battle of Fredericksburg in December following. By being almost constantly in the saddle he had contracted a severe lameness and was obliged to obtain leave of absence for medical treatment. Having been again elected to congress in the fall of 1862, he resigned his commission in the army March 4, 1863, and took his seat once more at Washington. In the fall of 1863 he was authorized to raise the Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry, with officers from his old regiment, the Eighth, and carried out the plan. By successful elections he was returned to congress term after term until 1872, when he was defeated in the convention after a large number of ballots by General Stephen A. Hurlbut, of Belvidere, who also had an enviable war record. In congress, where he served for fourteen years. General Farnsworth was active and prominent and held numerous important committee chairmanships and positions. After his defeat in the republican district convention, in 1872, he espoused the Greeley cause, and about 1879 removed from St. Charles to Chicago. He was several times a candidate for office after 1872. In 1876 he was defeated for congress in his old district by Hon. William Lathrop, and met defeat subsequently at Chicago as a democratic candidate for congressional honors. He later removed to Washington, District of Columbia.

Benjamin F. Fridley is really entitled to the honor of being the first lawyer to locate within the present limits of Kane county. He had studied law in the east. Coming west in the fall of 1834 he joined his friends, the Cartons and Wormleys, near Oswego, November i, making his home with them for some time. He subsequently located a claim on the east side of the river in Aurora township, next north of that taken by William T. Elliott, afterward selling out to Charles Wagner. Mr. Fridley came to Aurora in 1835. I" 1836 he was elected sheriff of Kane county, being the first to serve in that capacity. It is said of him that his experience while sheriff assisted him greatly in obtaining a knowledge of legal matters, which, combined with his native wit and judgment, enabled him to stand so high among the pioneers of the bar in this region. His term as sheriff closed in 1839, ^"d he immediately entered upon the practice of his profession. From 1840 to 1846 he was prosecuting attorney of the district, which included twelve counties, extending from Ogle to Peoria, in each of which two and in some of which three terms of court had to be held annually, making the officer's work very laborious. Mr. Fridley was located at Geneva during his official career, and had an office with Mark W. Fletcher. In his travels over the circuit he used his own conveyance, and was usually accompanied l)y the judge or some member of the bar. He subsequently lived for a shcrt time at Oswego, but returned to

Aurora in 1857. Besides the business which naturally came to him as a resident lawyer a large amount was placed in his hands by attorneys at Chicago who did not desire to travel the circuit and who were aware that their matters would be faithfully attended to by him. In short, he had one side of pretty much all the good cases in the twelve counties composing the district. He stated that at the first term of the circuit court (June, 1837) there were no practicing lawyers in Kane county, although both he and Mr. Fletcher, who still resides in St. Charles township, were members of the profession. He died at Aurora in 1898.

Mark W. Fletcher, who, previous to coming to this region, had practiced law in the east, never engaged in practice here because of being elected to ofifice and continued therein for years. He is a native of Orange county, Vermont, and read law in Genesee, Livingston and Ontario counties. New York. He located a claim in the township of St. Charles in May, 1835, and resided upon it for many years after his official duties at the county seat were ended. He was the first county surveyor, first clerk of the commissioner's court and the second circuit clerk of Kane county. He died at Geneva in

Aside from the lawyers mentioned as having been in practice at Geneva we find that C. H. jMcCubbin located quite early at that point, probably about 1841-42; but after remaining a short time he removed to Kendall county. Joseph W. Helm, of Yorkville. was also an early practitioner in the courts of Kane county.

Major J. H. Mayborne, who studied law in the state of New York, located at Chicago in 1846, and in 1848 removed to Geneva, where he practiced many years. During the war of the rebellion he occupied the position of paymaster from 1863 to 1866, with headquarters at St. Louis, and has since served in the Illinois state senate, having been elected in 1876. He also served a number of years as supervisor of Geneva township and was prominent in politics after the formation of the republican part}- in 1854.

William J. Brown, who first practiced in the western part of the county, afterward located at Geneva. He was for some time master in chancery and a popular lawyer. He removed farther west a few years since, but returned to Geneva, where he still resides at the age of

William Augustus Smith, a graduate of Wesleyan University, at Middletown. Connecticut, opened a law office in Geneva about 1857 and practiced nearly two years. He then abandoned the law and took up theology, becoming a noted Methodist minister. He was for sixteen years secretary of the Rock River Conference, and died suddenly at his home in Rockford during a session of the conference, September 30, 1887.

At St. Cliarles the number of lawyers who have been residents at various periods is considerable. S. S. Jones, the first one, has already been mentioned, also Hon. W. D. Barry and Hon. F. J. Farnsworth. William J. Miller located at the place in 1841, but removed subsequently to Carroll county, Illinois, and later to Chicago. Ralph V. M. Croes, virho was at first engaged in mercantile business, afterward studied law and was admitted to practice; he was an early resident of the place. S. G. D. Howard practiced at St. Charles previous to 1846, in which year he removed from the place. Van H. Higgins was also a resident attorney previous to 1845. An attorney named Van Wormer, from Genes.ee county. New York, located at the same place with his family about 1846 and opened an ofiice. His dealings were not looked upon with favor by the people, he having stirred up enmity among them in about the same manner a boy would disturb a hornet's nest. Finally Van Wormer was employed in a suit which brought matters to a focus and resulted in his obtaining a not very sleek coat of tar and feathers. The offenders in the case were brought before the grand jury at its next session, but that body refused to consider the matter, and Van Wormer, recognizing at last that the prejudices of the community were decidedly not in his favor, soon after left the place. He removed to Algonquin. McHenry county, abandoned his family, and added still further to his record as an unprincipled villain.

James P. Vance located at St. Charles about 1845 ^"d practiced law for several years in Kane county. He afterward changed his profession for the clerical and removed from that place. In 1871 he was residing in Batavia.

H. F. Smith, from Wyoming county. New York, opened a law office in St. Charles in 1846. hut, finding business dull, engaged for a time in peddling maps and canvassing for a life of John Quincy Adams. In the course of his journeyings he reached Elkhorn, the seat of justice for Walworth county, Wisconsin, where he formed a partnership with a local attorney and where he afterward practiced.

John H. Ferguson, one of the ablest of the many able members of the Kane county bar. located at St. Charles about 1850-51, coming from the state of New York. He was for a time in partnership with J. F. Farnsworth, and "it was often remarked," says the editor of the St. Charles Valley Chronicle, in a brief mention, "that the two constituted the strongest legal team in the county. Ferguson was perhaps the best informed in legal authorities of any practicing attorney in the county, and his knowledge, reinforced by Farnsworth's oratorical powers before a jury, constituted a combination of talent which was well nigh irresistible." Mr. Ferguson opened an office in Chicago in 1855 or 1856 and died in that city suddenly of a malignant throat disease December 3, 1857.

David L. Eastman, a native of Washington county, Vermont, settled at St. Charles about the fall of 1848. He formed a law partnership with S. S. Jones, and later, in Chicago, with the present General and ex-Governor John L. Beveridge. He rose very rapidly in his profession, and had he lived w'ould undoubtedlv have won name and fame; but he fell a victim to consumption in i860. During the few years of his residence in Kane county he became one of its brightest legal lights, and those who knew him yet do honor to his memory.

Lewis A. Norton, WilHam and Warren Brown all studied law in the office of Judge Barry at St. Charles and were admitted to the bar. Norton removed subsequently to California, of which state he is still a resident and in which he has risen to prominence in his profession.