Logan County, Illinois - Chapter 18: Bench and Bar, 1911 (part 1 of 2)

Logan County was created February 15, 1839. Prior to its creation, the larger portion of it, being part of Sangamon, was amenable to the Sangamon County courts. The first Probate Court ever held in Sangamon County, in 1821, was presided over by James Latham, who was the first white settler in what is now Logan County, in 1819. A sketch of his career is given in the chapter on early settlement. The same General Assembly, which created Logan County, also created the Fighth Judicial Circuit, composed of the counties of Logan, Sangamon, McLean, Macon, Tazewell, Menard, Logan, Livingston and Dane, the name of the latter county being subsequently changed to Christian. On the twenty-ninth of February, 1839, Stephen T. Logan was commissioned as judge of this new circuit, but resigned the office, May 27, 1839, and was succeeded by Samuel H. Treat. Judge Treat was the first judge to preside over a Logan County court. He was regarded as an able lawyer and devoted himself exclusively to his judicial duties, to the detriment of his private business which was found at his death to be in great confusion. He was born in New York in 181 I, admitted to the bar in that state, came to Illinois in 1834, settling in Springfield, where he resided until his death. His succession to the Circuit Judgeship came first by appointment of the Governor, in 1839, to fill Judge Logan's unexpired term. He was elected as one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, by the General Assembly in 1841, and as the law then provided that the Supreme Justices were to travel the state and hold the district or circuit courts, in the several counties, Judge Treat was assigned to the counties in the Eighth Circuit. He held the office of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court until March 23, 1855, when he resigned to accept the position of judge of the United States District Court, for the Southern District of Illinois, which last mentioned position he occupied until his death, March 27, 1887. He was the nisi prius judge of the Logan County Circuit Court, from 1839 to 1848, when he was succeeded by Judge David Davis. Judge Treat was therefore the Postville judge, being the sitting judge of the Logan

County Circuit Court while the county seat was located at that town, Judge Davis succeeding him, just about the time the county seat was moved to Mt. Pulaski.

The constitution of 1818 had vested the judicial power of the state in a Supreme Court and such inferior courts as the Legislature should, from time to time, ordain and establish. Until 1824, it consisted of a chief justice and three associates, who in addition to their appellate work, were required to hold the Circuit Courts, in the several counties, as before stated. In 1824, a law was passed providing for five judicial circuits and five circuit judges. This was repealed in 1826, and the Supreme Judges again were required to do trial court work. In 1835, however, the Supreme Judges were once more relieved of this work and six circuits were created, with provision for six circuit judges. In 1837, a seventh district was created and in 1839, an eighth and a ninth. As before stated, Logan County was included in the eighth. In 1841, the Circuit Judges were legislated out of office and the Supreme Court was increased from one Supreme Judge and three associates to one Supreme Judge and eight associates, and the nine districts were parcelled out among these nine supreme judges, Judge Treat, being assigned to the Eighth District. Judge Treat was continuously the trial judge, in the Eighth district, from its creation, either as Circuit Judge, or as Associate Supreme Justice, assigned to this district, until 1848, when he was succeeded by Judge Davis. In 1841, the following counties were added to the Eighth District: Shelby, DeWitt, Champaign, Mason and Piatt. In 1845, Macon, Shelby and Mason Counties were detached from the Eighth District, were attached to other districts and Woodford, Vermilion, Edgar and Moultrie were added to the Eighth. In 1845, Menard and Livingston were detached from the Eighth District and Macon and Shelby were re-attached. The Supreme Judge and his eight associates continued to do circuit work, from 1841 until the adoption of the new constitution in 1848.

The first term of the Logan County Circuit Court convened at Postville, on Thursday, the thirteenth day of June, 1839. The court house had not yet been built and court was held in the front room of the Deskins tavern, on Fifth Street, opposite the court house square, where the court house was built the next year. Here Judge Samuel H. Treat' called the court to order. The statutes provided that the clerk of the Circuit Court should be appointed by the court, and the court appointed James Primm, a well-known early settler, who held the office during Treat's incumbency of the judgeship, from 1839 to 1848. Primm was also appointed Master in Chancery, the clerk of the Circuit Court, in those days, usually acting in that capacity, and then not being overworked. John Deskins was the sheriff and he appointed Eli Enslow as his bailiff. The court was in session a part of the day and there was no civil business to require the attention of the court. A grand jury was impanelled and it found one true bill for larceny. The name of the party indicted has not been preserved, but the charge against him was that he had purloined from William McGraw, who resided about a mile southwest of Postville, one certain jeans coat. Being indicted, a petit jury was impanelled and he was immediately tried, found guilty and sentenced in one day, an exhibition of swift retributive justice worthy of emulation in these present times. The jail had not yet been constructed and it was arranged that Sheriff Deskins should take the prisoner to Springfield the next day, for incarceration in the Sangamon County jail, there to serve out the jail sentence imposed upon him by the court. During the night, however, the prisoner got out through a window, while the bailiff, who was in the room with him, was inadvertently asleep. As the majesty of the law had been vindicated by legal action, in the new county, no attempt was made to recapture the prisoner and he has not been apprehended to this day. The first term of the Logan County Circuit Court thus records the organization of the court, the impanelling of a grand and petit jury, an indictment by the grand jury, a trial of the party indicted, and a conviction, sentence and escape of the party so tried, all in one day. The second term of the Logan County Circuit Court was held on Thursday, the tenth day of November, 1839, but there was no business transacted at that term, either civil or criminal. A grand jury was impanelled, however, with George W. Edgar as foreman, but no true bills were found.

During the period that the county seat was at Postville, Josiah Lamborn was the prosecuting attorney for the Eighth District and came to Postville twice a year, at court time, riding the circuit with Judge Treat. He was quite a character in early times. Linder said of him: "Intellectually, I know of no man of his day who was his superior." As a prosecutor, he was a terror to criminals, and was clearly the most noted criminal lawyer of his day. He was a large man, over six feet high, was fine looking, but had a deformed foot and carried a heavy cane. He was quite convivial in his habits, and when once chided for his intemperance and told that he could quit drinking if he would, replied: "I'm aware I could if I would, but the devil of it is, I can't would." Once he was prosecuting an old, gray-haired man for stealing hogs. Stephen T. Logan was defending him, and made a powerful plea in his behalf, describing the accused as a man with whitening hair, with one foot in the grave. "Yes, gentlemen of the jury," said Lamborn, in reply, "his hair is whitening, it is true, but it is whitening for the place that burns with liquid fire; one foot is in the grave, it is true. but the other foot is in his neighbor's hog pen." Lamborn was a Kentuckian by birth and for three years, he was Attorney General of the State, by appointment of the Governor.

At one time, Lamborn was prosecuting a defendant at Postville, for having stolen certain horses from a man named Coffey, who lived near Postville. It was alleged that the defendant had taken the horses to Beardstown, when Coffey hove in sight. Asahel Gridley, of Bloomington, was defending the accused. Gridley moved for a continuance of the case, until a subsequent term, on the ground of the absence of two material witnesses, whom the defendant swore lived in an adjoining county, naming the witnesses, and that if present he could prove an alibi by them. Lamborn took Gridley by surprise, when he notified the court that the State would admit that the said witnesses would testify as alleged, and the case went to trial. On the trial, Lamborn took the stand himself and testified, that as prosecuting attorney, in the said adjoining county, he had recently prosecuted the two witnesses named in the affidavit, for horse stealing in that county, that they had been found guilty by a jury and were now doing time. And the court let the testimony go to the jury. Reference has already been made in another chapter to the remarkable escape of a prisoner, charged with shooting a stage driver on Delavan prairie, the escape being from Logan County's first jail at Postville. The escaped prisoner was recaptured and when court time came around, was put on trial before a jury. Lamborn prosecuted him. The defendant was found guilty and sent to the penitentiary for five years. Before sentence, Judge Treat asked him if he had anything to say and he answered: "All I've got to say is, that Lamborn could make a jury believe the moon was made of green cheese."'

The first lawyers who tried law suits at the Postville bar were principally Springfield lawyers, who participated in the avocation of what was known as "riding the circuit.'""' There was not sufficient legal business in the small communities, such as Logan County was in the early forties, to support a lawyer, to say nothing of a law firm. Those who had law-suits to bring, usually went to Springfield and sought legal advisers, or waited the arrival of Judge Treat and his attendant bar, when litigants could look over the field and select their advocates. Later, local attorneys, somewhat versed in the practice, were retained to prepare papers, with instructions to select a suitable attorney for court work. when the circuit-riding bar reached the scene. It was an open and sparsely settled country, through which the judge and lawyers journeyed in the early days. Vasts stretches of wonderful prairieland rolled between the little towns, which served as the centers of government, for the respective counties, and so great were the distances that several days were sometimes consumed, in traveling from point to point. During the days of the Postville court, circuit riding was mostly accomplished on horseback, the judge and lawyers fording streams and defying weather, forming a gay company, which was awaited with eagerness and met with welcome, at every county seat. In fact, traveling by wheeled vehicles was not so much in vogue, owing to bad roads, until about the time of the removal of the county seat to Mt. Pulaski, in 1848. When vehicles came in to general use, a number of lawyers frequently clubbed together and hired a conveyance for the trip. The Eighth district, in those days, covered the larger part of Central Illinois. The court, Judge Treat, resided at Springfield, and in view of that fact, and the further fact that Springfield was the capital of the state, most of the early lawyers of Illinois settled in that town and rode the circuit with the judge. Postville, being the nearest county seat to Springfield, thus became a legal "outpost" of the latter town.

The old hotel, which was located almost opposite the old court house, at Postville and which really served as the first seat of justice for the year intervening between the establishment of the county and the completion of the court house, in 1840, was the rendezvous for the judge and his legal retinue and while they were at the hostelry, gay times were at hand. Jokes and quips were the order of the day. The lawyers strove mightily against each other in the court room, but ate and drank together as friends. Every man knew the other and daily contact on the circuit and in the court room, created a spirit of comradeship, cordial and permanent. Many of the evenings, in the judge's private room, were all night sessions of mirth and good-fellowship, with song and story. Sometimes, owing to lack of rooms, in the small taverns, two, three, four or more lawyers would "bunk" in the same room, and all sorts of improvised beds were made. The judge was usually seated at the head of the dining table, but the other guests, lawyers, litigants, witnesses, jurors and prisoners out on bail, all sat at the same table, enjoyed the same fare, and talked, man to man, without distinction of position. This comradeship of the circuit was continued during the days when the county seat was at Mt. Pulaski, and throughout the fifties and, more or less, to the days of the Civil war. In the ante-bellum days at Lincoln, Springfield attorneys still came to - the Logan County Court and divided the practice with the local attorneys and these attorneys were wont to spend their evenings in the offices of the local attorneys, in social enjoyment, with somewhat of the zest and good-fellowship of the circuit-riding days - but the coming of the railroad was bringing about a change in customs and after the Civil war, the comradeship of the circuit had become a happy tale of the days when prairieland was king.

A description of these circuit-riding days satel brings to mind the one man of all others whose early life at the bar was inextricably interwoven into the woof and web of these pioneer days - Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was the dominant figure, at every term of the Post- ville and Mt. Pulaski courts and was frequently present at the antebellum terms of the Lincoln court. A chapter in this work has been devoted by the writer, to Abraham Lincoln and his relation to the County of Logan and therein will be found a resume of his life at the bar, covers a period extending from the establishment of the county seats and the part played by him in the establishment of the County of Logan and its subsequent civic life. It need not, therefore, be repeated here. Lincoln's mind and character was most happily fostered by the free life of the circuit and it was this which largely moulded the man, in the formative period of his career. His practice at the Logan County bar, covers a period, extending from the establishment of the county in 1839, to his election to the Presidency in 1860, and during all this time, it can be historically, and not merely heroically, said, that he was the leading lawyer of the Logan County bar. He considered himself a member of the local bar, it would seem, for the Lincoln Herald, in April of 1860, tells of a meeting of "the Logan County bar," held in the court house at Lincoln, for the purpose of passing resolutions upon the death of Gov. William H. Bissell, and the Herald adds: "The resolutions were offered by William M. Springer and on motion of Abraham Lincoln were unanimously adopted." Springer, at that time, resided in Lincoln. In six months after this meeting was held, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States.

In addition to Abraham Lincoln, among those who traveled the circuit, of which Logan County was a part, in the old Postville days, were such well known characters as Stephen T. Logan, John T. Stuart, E. D. Baker, Edward Jones, Ninian W. Edwards, Cyrus Walker, James C. Conkling, Asabel Gridley, Thomas L. Harris, David Davis, Clifton H. Moore, Benjamin S. Edwards, William H. Herndon, William Orme, Albert T. Bledsoe, Joseph Hewitt, Elliott B. Herndon, James H. Matheny and J. H. Wickizer. Substantially all of these also traveled the circuit during the years the county seat was at Mt. Pulaski and a number of them were frequent attendants at the Lincoln court, after the railroad came. In later years, in addition to those above named, among the attorneys from Springfield, Bloomington and other points, who attended the Logan County court, were Leonard Swett, C. H. Goodrich, David Campbell, John M. Scott, Henrys: Greene, William Hannah, Charles Emmerson, Charles A. Keyes, Shelby M. Cullom, A. McWilliams, C. C. Brown, W. J. Conkling, O. T. Reeves, J. S. Post, R. M. Benjamin, William D. Power, E. L. Gross, John A. McClernard, John M. Palmer, William E. Shutt, Nathan Coffin, J. L. Dugger, Ward H. Lamon, Harvey Hogg, William Ferguson and others. In the earliest days, however, of the Logan County Circuit Court, the "big five' who traveled the horseback circuit, who were always on hand at the Postville court, who especially attended to the legal business of the county before the fifties, who really constituted, in those days, the Logan County bar and every one of whom, subsequently became famous in the state and nation, were Abraham Lincoln, Stephen T. Logan, John T. Stuart, Edward D. Baker and David Davis. Logan was a partner of Lincoln, was for awhile a Circuit Judge, and was a member of the Peace Commission after the war. Judge Davis said of him: "In all the elements that constitute a great nisi prius lawyer, I have never known his equal." He was born in 1800 and died in 1880. John T. Stuart was born in Kentucky in 1807 and began practice at Springfield in 1828. He defeated Stephen A. Douglas for Congress in 1838, was elected to Congress again in 1840, and elected a third time in 1862. He was the Nestor of the Springfield bar and died in 1885. Edward D. Baker was born in 1811, served several times in Congress, went to Oregon, where he was elected United States Senator, in 1860. He resigned his seat in the Senate to enter the Union Army, commanding a brigade at Ball's Bluff, where he was killed, Oct. 21, 1861. He was a natural born orator and one of the great men of his time. David Davis succeeded Judge Treat on the bench of the Eighth District, and will be referred to in that connection.

During the days of the Postville court, there was substantially no local bar. Probably the first person, who could be considered in the light of a legal adviser was Ezekiel Bowman. Bowman came to Logan County from Ohio about 1828, and was a general all around handy man, with legal papers. He tried suits frequently before local justices of the peace and would file suits for litigants, during the vacation between terms of court, and later arrange with Lincoln, Logan, Baker or other attorneys to look after the cases in court. Frequently, he would assist in the trials or if the cases were unimportant, would try them himself. Bowman was also a justice of the peace, was County Treasurer from 1844 to 1847, School Commissioner from 1844 to 1846 and Sheriff from 1846 to 1848 and from 1852 to 1854. He enlisted in the Civil War and died while in the service. Owen Davis was another oid settler, who tried cases before justice courts and sometimes in the Circuit Court. It is said he once tried a law. suit with Lincoln on the opposite side. He was also a local itinerant preacher. Michael Mann, first Probate Justice, was a Baptist preacher, but often represented his neighbors in early litigation. Horace H. Ballou was an early lawyer, who located at Mt. Pulaski in the forties and practiced in a limited way. The early justices of the peace also transacted legal business, as far as conveyancing, writing of wills and the like were con-' cerned and attended to minor legal matters for the pioneers. Nathaniel M. Whittaker located in Mt. Pulaski and divided his time between running a hotel, acting as justice of the peace, giving advice to clients, drawing up legal papers and trying a small law suit, now and then. He was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, in 1808, served a year in the Black Hawk war, and came to Logan County, the year before the county was organized. He was justice of the peace for 16 years, moved to Mt. Pulaski in 1842 and conducted the old Mt. Pulaski house. He died in 1865, and the manner of his death was somewhat obscured, but it was supposed that he was murdered for his money. He left his widow 29 acres of land in the city limits of Mt. Pulaski, with a fine orchard of 500 trees. Probably none of the above, with the exception of Mr. Ballou, were ever admitted to the bar, and the first lawyers of the Logan County bar, in the sense of being actual practitioners, were their chronological order. These three began the practice of law, during the last years of the Postville regime, but as their active efforts began with the location of the county seat at Mt. Pulaski, they will be mentioned in that connection.

The details of the removal of the county seat from Postville to Mt. Pulaski, in 1848, are recited elsewhere. Three other features of a juridical nature occurred this same year, the adoption of a new state constitution, a judicial re-apportionment and a change in the personnel of the circuit judge presiding over the Logan County Circuit Court. The constitution of 1848 provided for nine judicial circuits, with one judge to be elected in each district. The Eighth District still included the counties of Logan, Sangamon, McLean, DeWitt, Macon, Christian, Shelby, Tazewell, Woodford, Champaign, Vermilion and Moultrie. The new constitution provided for an election for judge, to be held in September, 1848, to hold his office for a term of six years. There was only one candidate for judge, in the district, and that was David Davis and he was elected without opposition. He succeeded Judge Treat and his commission was dated December 4, 1848. He was the sitting judge during the entire period that the county seat was at Mt. Pulaski. He was re-elected without opposition in 1855 and again in 1861. He could undoubtedly have remained Circuit Judge, of the Eighth District, his entire mortal life, if his old friend, Abraham Lincoln, had not, in 1862, made him a member of the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1853, the Eighth District, having grown in population, was reduced in size, by detaching from it the counties of Shelby, Edgar, Piatt, Moultrie, Macon and Christian. Of Judge Davis, Senator Palmer said: "In 1848, the soil of the circuit had not been broken, by the survey of a railroad and his duties required Judge Davis to hold two sessions of the court in each year, in fourteen of the largest counties of the state. The clearness and quickness of his intellect, his preparatory education, and his practice had fully capacitated him to discharge with promptness the various duties of his position. In some of the qualities of a judge,

Judge Davis was born in Maryland, in 1815. He was a graduate of the law school at Yale, came to Bloomington in 1836 and began the practice of law. He was elected to the Legislature of 1844 and served in the Constitutional Convention of 1847. Usher F. Linder, in his bar reminiscences, says: "For his promotion to the Circuit Judgeship, Mr. Davis was largely indebted to his old and tried friend, Abraham Lincoln, and to the eternal credit of Judge Davis, be it said, he never forgot it. When a member of the convention in 1860, which nominated the Republican candidate for President, Judge Davis had as large a share in bringing about the nomination of Lincoln as any other member of that convention. Mr. Davis is a large man, about six. feet high and weighing some 350 pounds. He was a very impartial judge but such was the marked deference he showed Mr. Lincoln, that Lincoln threw the rest of us in the shade. I am inclined to think that Mr. Lincoln tendered him a place in his cabinet, but Mr. Davis waited for a safer and more permanent place. His ambition was to reach the Supreme Bench of the United States, and a vacancy occurring, he was appointed over the heads of such men as Salmon P. Chase. He has made a most excellent judge and has delivered some opinions on constitutional questions, which have given him a national reputation." In 1877, Judge Davis resigned his high judicial position to become a Senator for the United States from Illinois. He was President pro tem of the United States Senate from 1881 to 1885, when he retired to private life. He died at his home in Bloomington in 1886.

The last term of the Logan County Circuit Court, at which Judge Davis was the presiding judge, was the October term of 1862. On the last day of that term, Oct. 29, 1862, Judge Davis, before adjourning court, called the bar together in the old court house at Lincoln, and said: "Gentlemen of the Bar of Logan County: My official connection with the people and bar of this circuit is about to terminate. The President has tendered me an appointment as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States which I shall accept, although distrustful of my abilities to discharge the duties of the office. I was elected judge on the adoption of the present constitution. Since then, how changed the business, the population and the material interests of this state. The Eighth Judicial District, at that time, included fourteen counties. Now it is reduced to three (McLean, Logan and De- Witt), and the business of these three counties is nearly if not quite, equal to that of the whole fourteen in 1848. Several of our brethren have risen to eminence. The President of the United States and also that great lawyer, Judge Logan, for many years practiced with us; the lamented Douglas was once the Prosecuting Attorney in some of the counties forming the district; General McDougall, now a Senator in Congress from Ohio; the noble Baker, who yielded his life for his country at Ball's Bluff; the chivalric Hogg, whose death we have so recently mourned; the gallant Oglesby, distinguished alike for his services and suffering, and my immediate predecessor, Judge Treat, having adorned the Supreme Bench of our state, is now United States District Judge for the Southern District of Illinois. They attained -distinction by the force of their traits and character, unaided by wealth or influential connections. How illustrative are their successes of the advantages afforded by our free institutions. I feel grateful to the people and members of the bar of the several counties, which at different times have composed my circuit, for their uniform support. My relations with them have always been pleasant and I shall ever cherish the remembrance of their kindness and courtesy. If in the hurry and distraction of business, I have wounded the feelings of any, I sincerely regret it. Be assured that I shall always feel the deepest interest in your prosperity and happiness. We part, gentlemen, in time of great national peril. May God, in His providence, avert the dangers that threaten our beloved country and may that heritage of good government, which was bequeathed to us, by our fathers, be transmitted unimpaired to our descendants." Following this address, a meeting of the Logan County Bar was 'called to order by Lionel P. Lacey and William McGalliard was made Secretary. A committee was appointed to draft suitable resolutions of respect and appreciation upon the retirement of Judge Davis from the Circuit Bench. The following were appointed: William H. Young, C. H. Moore, Wilford D. Wyatt, James G. Bryce and William M. Springer. They reported resolutions - paying high tribute to the eminent character and talents of the Judge and congratulating him upon his merited promotion.

The removal of the county seat to Mt. Pulaski and the election of Judge Davis to the bench really marked the beginning of a distinctive Logan County residential bar. Prior to that, Logan County had been one of the legal "stakes of Zion," Zion, in this case, meaning Springfield. The first triumvirate of Logan County lawyers were, as before stated, L. P. Lacey, S. C. Parks and W. H. Young. The names of the two latter are the first lawyers of Logan County, whose names appear on the rolls of the Supreme Court of Illinois, the date of entry of their names, being given as 1848. Lionel P. Lacey was born June 19, 1819, at Belleville, St. Clair County, this state. He was reared on the farm, but read law when quite young. He came to Logan County in the forties, settling in Mt. Pulaski, but following the county seat to Lincoln. He was much sought after as a legal adviser, being. a safe and conservative counselor, and his legal forte was in his office work, rather than in the trial of cases. He was greatly respected by all who knew him and his death, August 20, 1866, in the very prime of life, was deeply regretted. A marble shaft in Union cemetery now marks hig last resting place. Politically he was a strong ante-bellum Democrat and-on the occasion of the address of Stephen A. Douglas, in Lincoln, in the memorable Lincoln-Douglas campaign of 1858, presided at the meeting and presented Judge Douglas to the audience. William H. Young, another member of this early legal triumvirate, first located in Postville, where he taught school for awhile in the school building, now used for a residence, immediately east of the present Jefferson school. He enlisted and. served in the Mexican War. He followed the county seat to Mt. Pulaski and then to Lincoln. He was the nominee of the newly organized American party for Secretary of State in 1856. At the death of the District Prosecuting Attorney, Harvey E. Hogg, in 1861, Gov. Yates appointed Mr. Young to fill this office until an election could be had for a successor to Mr. Hogg. Mr. Young was a warm personal friend of Mr. Lincoln and the latter frequently visited with Mr. Young at his residence. Mr. Young did not live to fill out his term as District Attorney, but died at his home near Lincoln in the summer of 1863. He was a man of great energy and determination, | but during the latter part of his life was greatly handicapped by ill health.

Judge Samuel C. Parks was, however, probably the leading attorney at the early Logan County bar. His father, Beaumont Parks, was one of the first educators in the City of Springfield, and was born in Connecticut in 1775. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College, being a fellow collegian with Daniel Webster and a classmate of Levi Woodbury; read law with Judge Slade, of Vermont, and was admitted to the bar in that state; went to Madison, Indiana, in 1821 and opened up an academy, being the first school in which Latin, Greek and the higher branches were taught west of the Allegheny Mountains, Thomas A. Hendricks, later Vice President of the United States, being one of his pupils; came to Springfield in 1840 and established a private school for young men. He died April 8, 1870, at the home of his son, Judge Parks, in Lincoln, and is buried in Union Cemetery. His son, Judge S. C. Parks, was born in Middlebury, Vermont, in 1820. He was educated at the Indiana State University and came to Springfield, with his parents, in 1840. He read law with the firm of Stuart & Edwards in Springfield, where he was admitted to the bar, and located in Logan County about 1846. He located in Mt. Pulaski in 1848, the year the county seat was removed from Postville to that place, and in 1856, followed the county seat to Lincoln. While in Springfield, he became acquainted with Abraham Lincoln, and a warm friendship resulted, which continued until Mr. Lincoln's death. In 1855, he was elected a member of the Legislature, from the district, of which Logan County was a part. He was a delegate from this Congressional District to the first Republican National Convention, held at Philadelphia in 1856, when John C. Fremont was nominated for President. At the Republican Congressional Convention at Springfield, in 1848, he was one of only two delegates who favored the renomination of Abraham Lincoln for Congressman, the other delegates, including the Sangamon county delegates and Lincoln's law partner, Herndon, being against Lincoln's renomination, on account of Lincoln's opposition in Congress to the Mexican War.

Judge Parks was at the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1860, and was very active in assisting in securing the nomination of Lincoln for President, at that convention. In 1862, President Lincoln appointed him Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Idaho. He was a presidential elector on the Grant ticket, in Illinois, in 1868, and a candidate for elector on the Greeley ticket in 1872, having temporarily joined the Liberal Republican movement that year. In 1870, he was a member of the Illinois Constitutional Convention ,representing Logan County. In 1878, he was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Mexico, by President Hayes, and in 1882 was transferred to the Supreme Court of Wyoming by President Arthur. Judge Parks is still living, at the advanced age of ninety years, spending the declining years of his life, with his daughter, in Kansas City, Mo. While physically not strong, still his intellectual strength shows not the slightest signs of diminution. He wrote a monograph, in 1900, entitled "The Great Trial of the Nineteenth Century," which for depth of thought, originality of idea and ornateness of expression has few superiors in literary work. It indicates a thorough knowledge of the classics. In substance, the work is a discussion of the policy of the United States in acquiring insular possessions. Judge Parks, in the days of his active practice, was an able lawyer, a safe legal adviser and an earnest advocate. He was and is a close student of men and affairs. He is one of the few remaining examples of the old school of public men, whose stock in trade was their ability, integrity and pure patriotism, and who are rapidly passing away.

With the election of David Davis to the bench in 1848, came also David B. Campbell, who was, at the same time, elected Prosecuting Attorney for the district and who continued in that capacity until his death in 1855. He was elected, without opposition in 1848, and in 1852 was re-elected over N. M. Broadwell, his opponent, by a vote of 10,026 to 8,744, in the district, and by a vote in Logan County of 537 votes for Campbell and 498 for Broadwell. Campbell came to Springfield in 1838, from New Jersey, his native state. He had the reputation of never prosecuting a man charged with crime unless thoroughly convinced of his guilt. The vacancy caused by his death in 1855, was filled by appointment of A. McWilliams, who served in that capacity until the election in 1856, when he was succeeded by Ward H. Lamon. McWilliams was a talented lawyer, but possessed an ungovernable temper, which unfitted him for trial work. He was, however, a man of high character and integrity. He died in St. Louis, in 1862. In December of 1855, the county records of Logan County were removed from Mt. Pulaski to Postville, following the change of county seat. In 1857, the court house in Lincoln was consumed by fire, the particulars of which are narrated elsewhere.

In 1855, a judicial election was held, resulting in the reelection of Judge Davis, as Circuit Judge, without opposition and in 1856, an election was held for District Attorney, Ward H. Lamon being elected over Major W. Packard, by a district vote of 10,783 to 9,578. Lamon received 1,117 votes in Logan County to 836 votes cast for Packard. Lamon was a native of West Virginia, being born in 1828, came to Danville in 1847 and was admitted to the bar, was the Danville law partner of Abraham Lincoln, removed to Bloomington in 1859, accompanied Lincoln in his perilous night journey through Baltimore, was a colonel in the Civil War, wrote a life of Abraham Lincoln, was a son-in-law of Stephen T. Logan, and died in 1893. He was also Provost Marshal of the District of Columbia. He was Prosecuting Attorney, until 1861, when he was succeeded by Harvey Hogg. A judicial apportionment in 1857 reduced the number of the counties in the Eighth district to Logan, McLean, DeWitt, Champaign and Vermilion Counties. The following "hefty" grand jury held down the boards in the old court house that was burned. This was in 1856 and the grand jury, "sizing themselves up," concluded they were a remarkable grand jury, in the matter of weight, probably not surpassed before. The court was not a light one, either, and they took him along, to be weighed. The scales told the following story, the figures representing the number of pounds: Judge David Davis, 275; Theodore Lorence, Mt. Pulaski, 292; Samued Hoblit, Atlanta, 279; John E. Hoblit, Atlanta, 267; James Hawes, Eminence, 253; D. P. Lee, Lincoln, 245; S. M. Copeland, Mt. Pulaski, 245; J. D. Dement, Mt. Pulaski, 236; I. R. Braucher, Mt. Pulaski, 227; H. B. Stephens, Prairie Creek, 224° Richard Botkin, Atlanta, 223; David Evans, Middletown, 223; Peter J. Hawes, Eminence, 216; John Bigger, Mt. Pulaski, 212; C. F. Ewing, Atlanta, 205; James Barr, Atlanta, 205; R. J. Cunningham, Mt. Pulaski, 203; R. S. Fleming, Mt. Pulaski, 188. All were farmers.

The first records of any term of the Logan County Circuit Court, now in existence, are the records of the September term, 1857, this being the first term after the fire. The greater amount of litigation in those days, as compared to the present, is indicated by the fact that on the docket of that term appear 332 common law cases, over 100 chan- ery cases and over sixty criminal cases. The grand jury brought in 121 additional indictments during the term, 115 of which were for the illicit selling of intoxicating drinks. Law suits were not tried, in those days, with the great attention to detail noticed to-day, and every inch of ground was not so closely contested as in modern day trials. Hence more cases were disposed of in a given time. Dr. G. M. Angell, of Atlanta, used to tell of a law-suit he had, at this term of court, with R. K. Webster. He went to Springfield to secure the services of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln said: "I'm very sorry, but Webster was here yesterday and left five dollars with me, as a retainer fee, on his side of the case. You had better go get Stuart. He's a better lawyer than I am, anyway." Angell therefore secured Stuart. When the case came for trial at Lincoln, Judge Davis called the case and without waiting for opening statement of counsel, told Angell to take the witness stand, had him sworn and said: "Now tell your story from beginning to end and not leave out anything." Angell told his story. Then Stuart cross-examined him briefly. Davis then called Webster to the stand and directed him to tell his story. Lincoln then briefly crossexamined. Davis asked both Angell and Webster some questions, both parties having agreed beforehand to try the case by the court, who was a friend of both litigants. Following the examination, Davis asked Lincoln and Stuart if they had anything to say. Both had nothing to offer, and the case went to the court. Both litigants and both law- - yers then went out to a restaurant to indulge in a dish of oysters and when they returned, Judge Davis decided the issues in favor of Angell. Dozens of cases were thus disposed of, without delay.

The first recorded list of grand jurors, at the September term, 1857, were Harrison Dyer, Stephen Hukill, John D. Gillett, Joshua Robinson, David Pence, John Linbarger, William Cramer, J. T. Haughey, James Shores, A. D. Downey, C. H. Whitesides, Simon B. Scott, James Lindsey, Ewing Duff, David D. James, Joseph Reed, Henry Hall, Marquis Caudy, John Sargent, Joshua Howser, Alfred L. Bryan, George Clark, and N. Harris. The first panel of petit jurors were Robert Miller, Thomas Quisenberry, J. W. Walker, Thomas J. Niblack, John Miller, Peter J. Hawes, A. F. Rayburn, Chatham Ewing, Abel Larison, Henry Carpenter, Benjamin F. Smith, James Gordon, Robert Faris, McCarthy Hildreth, Andrew Stallings, Richard F. Ayres, William Turner, James Carlyle, Jeremiah Buckles, Abner Copeland, Milton Rayburn, Asabel Halstead, R. F. Bernard and John Watkins. The grand jury fees paidi that term amounted to $433.20, and the petit jury fees, $703.40.

The local attorneys whose names appear on the docket of the September term of court, 1857, as representing litigants, are Samuel C. Parks, Lionel P. Lacey, William H. Young, Eli L. Austin, John E.

Cummings, A. J. Turley, C. H. Goodrich, Charles Worthington, George H. Estabrook, Joseph H. January, James G. Bryce, William E. Dicks, Wilford D. Wyatt and E. S. Jones. From other counties are Abraham Lincoln, John T. Stuart, A. McWilliams, Asabel Gridley, C. C. Brown, William Hanna, John M. Scott, J. C. Conkling, W. J. Conkling, William H. Herndon, C. H. Moore, Leonard Swett, William Orme, O. T. Reeves and J. S. Post. To the local list, are added in 1859, the names of W. P. Randolph, Silas Beason, R. V. Davis and L. D. Norton. The Lincoln Herald, in noting the opening of the September term, 1859, of the Logan County Circuit Court, mentions the attendance on the first day, of Attorneys Parks, Lacey, Young, Wyatt, Cummings, Austin, Norton, Randolph and Davis, of Lincoln; Estabrook, Turley, January, Worthington, Goodrich, Dicks and Beason, of Atlanta; Lamon, Swett, Packer and Wickizer, of Bloomington, and Green, of Petersburg. The common law cases for this term were 627 in number, chancery 163 cases and people's cases 109, making substantially goo in all.

Of the above local attorneys, Parks, Lacey and Young have been mentioned before. Eli L. Austin came to the county from Morgan County in 1855, was associated in a partnership with John E. Cummings in 1859 and with William P. Callon in 186r. Mr. Austin was elected delegate from Logan County to the Illinois Constitutional Convention of 1862, but illness prevented him from being present at the sessions of the convention. In fact, before the convention had concluded its labors, namely, March 25, 1862, Mr. Austin died. John E. Cummings located at Middletown in the fifties, but removed to Lincoln in 1855, was in partnership with Eli L. Austin for about a year, after which he practiced alone. He was a close student, a fine scholar and a fluent speaker, but was a man of convivial habits and one night in 1866, fell down his office stairs and was killed. Politically he was an ardent Democrat, having refused to support Douglas in 1860, and casting his lot during that campaign with the Breckenridge Democracy, upon which ticket, he was a candidate for presidential elector that year. A. J. Turley practiced law for a time at Mt. Pulaski, but moved to Atlanta about 1858. C. H. Goodrich came to this county from New Jersey, where he was born in 1794. He afterwards moved to Jerseyville, where he became one of the leading lawyers of Southern Illinois. He died in Jerseyville in 1868. Charles Worthington came from Maryland, practiced here awhile and then returned east. George H. Estabrook was an early settler in Atlanta, where he practiced Jaw continuously until his death. He raised one of the first companies of the Civil War, at Atlanta, in April 23, 1861, within twenty-four hours after the first call for troops. James G. Bryce was located at Atlanta and was totally blind. Notwithstanding this infirmity, he was an able lawyer, being especially gifted as a speaker. William E. Dicks also practiced law in Atlanta, until 1869, when he was elected County Judge. He was re-elected in 1873 and defeated in 1878. In 1879, he removed in McLean County and moved on a farm, near Belleflower. He served two years on the McLean County Board of Supervisors. His health failing, he moved to Roger's Park, where he died in 1890. He was not an active trial lawyer. Wilford D. Wyatt was born in Morgan County in 1821; was admitted to the bar in Arkansas in 1846; enlisted in the Mexican war, that same year and served in a regiment commanded by Jefferson Davis; came to Lincoln in 1856 and was the first local attorney of the Chicago & Alton Railroad; was Lieutenant Colonel of the first Illinois regiment to offer its services in the Civil War. He was appointed Master in Chancery in 1880 and held the office until 1889, when he was succeeded by Robert Humphrey. He died Nov. 1, 1904, at the Soldiers' Home in Quincy. E. S. Jones practiced law in Lincoln, during the late fifties and to the time of the Civil War. He was associated in a partnership with William H. Young, as a junior member. William P. Randolph was born in Virginia in 1829, coming to Logan County, with his parents in 1831. He took a law course at Ann Arbor, Mich., in 1855 and was admitted to the bar in 1859. He practiced law in Lincoln until 1875, when he moved upon his farm, in Oran township. He returned to Lincoln in 1885, leading a retired life, until his death, in September of 1906. Joseph H. January came from Ohio in 1854 and located in Atlanta, being one of the first settlers in the town. He afterwards moved to Missouri, where he died.

Silas Beason came to the Logan County bar, in 1859, and from a few years thereafter, until his removal to Iowa in 1882, was not only a recognized leader at the bar, but was intimately identified with every public movement connected with the growth and progress of Logan County. He was born in Greene County, Ohio, January 28, 1836, and came to Logan County, with his parents, in 1848, settling on a farm near Atlanta, where Mr. Beason was reared. He read law and was admitted to the bar in 1859, began practice of the profession at Atlanta, moving to Lincoln a year or so later. He was elected to the Legislature in 1868. He was eight times Mayor of the City of Lincoln, three times City Attorney and was the leading promoter in putting through the county, the Champaign & Havana Railroad, now a branch of the Illinois Central. In 1869, he became associated in the practice of law, with Edward D. Blinn and the firm of Beason & Blinn continued until 1882, when Mr. Beason decided to retire from the practice of law and remove to Iowa, to locate upon a farm. A banquet, attended by over 200 professional and business men, was tendered him at the Lincoln House, on March 30, 1882, prior to his removal. Two years later, on Nov. 8, 1884, while riding on a load of hay, he fell in front of the wheel of the loaded wagon and received injuries from which he died the next day. His remains were brought to Lincoln, for interment. An intimate friend of Mr. Beason, in writing of him, said: "For many years, he was the recognized leader of the bar, a position which he adorned. Always courteous to the court and opposing counsel, when aroused he was a most untiring and dangerous antagonist. His manner was earnest and convincing; at rare intervals, he was eloquent; but his great strength lay in his unflagging zeal and in his simple, earnest and convincing manner. His friendships were enduring and his friends were numbered by thousands, from every walk of life. His official career was extended and reflects great credit upon him. It exhibits no broken trusts, no taints of vice or dishonesty. He had an abiding faith in the justice and impartiality of the people and this made him strong with them."

The Logan County bar of the sixties, before, during and after the war, as far as records go, in addition to those already mentioned, show the names of William McGalliard, William M. Springer, David T. Littler, William P. Callon, W. B. Jones, David H. Harts, P. W. Harts, George H. Campbell, George S. Dana, H. W. Dana, Stephen A. Foley, James T. Hoblit, Edmund Lynch, Edward D. Blinn, Robert Orendorff, Albert H. Alkire, William P. Hackney, A. C. Edwards, William B. Mann, Rufus Mayfield and Frank Fisk. The Lincoln Herald mentions the presence, at court, of the following attorneys, in 1860: Attorneys Parks, Lacey, Young, Wyatt, McGalliard, Norton, Randolph, Austin, Springer, Davis, Fisk, Cummings and Beason, of Lincoln; Estabrook, Dicks, January, Worthington and Turley, of Atlanta; and "from abroad," Attorneys Abraham Lincoln, Lamon, Gordon, Goodrich, Orme, Cullom, Shutt, Post, Gallagher, Keyes, Wickizer, Herndon, Power and Matheny. There were 557 civil cases, 147 chancery cases and 62 people's cases at the first term that year.

William McGalliard came to Lincoln in 1858 and was soon recognized as a foremost leader at the Logan County bar. He was a man of literary attainments, a close, industrious student and a man of culture and refinement. He was especially strong as a pleader, being thoroughly conversant with the books with reference to this branch of the law. He was a partner of Judge Parks for a number of years, the firm being Parks & McGalliard. He was elected to the Legislature in 1866 and served one term. He also served as Master in Chancery from 1869 to 1873. He was the legal adviser of William Scully for many years. He was intimately identified with the establishment of Lincoln University, taking an active part in its location in Lincoln and was the first Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the institution. He was an exceedingly valuable man in the community and when it was learned, on November 11, 1873, that in a fit of mental aberration, he had taken his own life in his office over the Mayfield bank, it was an occurrence universally deplored. William M. Springer was born in Indiana in 1836; came to Jacksonville, Ill., with his parents in 1848; graduated at the State University of Indiana in 1856, came to Lincoln soon thereafter and was admitted to the bar in 1859. While a resident of Lincoln, he was a candidate for the Legislature in 1860, but was defeated by R. B. Latham. He was elected Secretary of the Illinois Constitutional Convention in 1862. Soon after, he went to Springfield and formed a law partnership with John A. McClernard and N. M. Broadwell. He was elected to the Legislature in 1870, In 1874, he was elected to Congress, continuing in that capacity for a period of over twenty years. He was then appointed United States District Judge for the Territory of Oklahoma. He died in 1903.

David T. Littler was born in Ohio in 1836 and came to Lincoln in 1856. He worked at the carpenter's trade for a while, then read law with Judge Parks and was admitted to the bar in 1860. Soon after he was elected Police Magistrate of Lincoln. He was Master in Chancery of the county from 1863 to 1868, having been appointed by Judge Scott. In 1868 he moved to Springfield, on his appointment as Internal Revenue Collector for this district. He also was Representative and State Senator in the General Assembly and was a delegate to three National Republican Conventions. He died June 23, 1902. William P. Callon was born in Indiana in 1836, came to Morgan County, IIlinois, in 1843, was educated at Jacksonville, Ill., read law with Judge Epler, was admitted to the bar in 1860, came to Lincoln and opened up a law office soon after, forming a partnership with Eli L. Austin. He enlisted in the Civil War, was a lieutenant of cavalry in the Fourth IIlinois Regiment and after the war located at Jacksonville, where he died, October 29, 1907.

George H. Campbell came to Lincoln from Mason County, where he had been admitted to the bar and had been elected County Judge. He engaged in mercantile pursuits in Lincoln and did not participate in the active practice of the law. He was president of the first Board of Trustees of Lincoln University. He was elected to the Legislature in 1858 and was the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State in 1860. He was Lieutenant Colonel of the 106th Infantry. He removed to Mason City after the war, where he subsequently died. Albert H. Alkire was a law partner of William P. Randolph, but was not an active practitioner. George S. and Henry W. Dana, while having been admitted to the bar, gave their attention principally to abstract work. Henry W. Dana came to Lincoln from Vermont in 1866. He afterwards moved to Marshall, Ill., where he died in 1904. He was also associated in partnership with A. M. Hahn in the seventies. Robert Orendorff was admitted to the bar in 1861, officed with L. P. Lacey and practiced law here several years, going west after the war. Rufus Mayfield was associated in a law firm with Wilford D. Wyatt. William P. Hackney practiced law here a while and then moved to Nebraska, where he became quite prominent in a political way. Frank Fisk was born in Maine in 1829 and came to Mt. Pulaski in 1852 and to Lincoln in 1857. He was admitted to the bar in-1858. He was a lieutenant of cavalry in the Civil War and died June 5, 1901.

David H. Harts was born in Pennsylvania in 1839 and came to Logan County, with his parents in 1856. He was captain of Company C of the ro6th Illinois Infantry. He was admitted to the bar in 1866. He was a member of the Legislature in 1878, mayor of Lincoln in 1881, and candidate of the Prohibition party for Governor of Illinois in 1888. He has been identified with the progress of the city of Lincoln for a period of thirty years or more, always having been public spirited in civic matters, Of later years, he has been engaged in developing coal mining property and has not been active in practice of the law. His brother, P. W. Harts, was an ante-bellum lawyer at the Logan County bar, having been admitted just prior to the outbreak of the war. He was captain of Company H of the 1o6th Illinois Infantry, and after the war, located at Springfield, where he now resides. William B. Jones came to Lincoln, from Kentucky, in 1866, and was a type of the old school of Kentucky lawyers "before the war.'"' He was admitted to the bar in the early forties and in 1859 was elected District Attorney in an extensive Kentucky judicial district, which position he held during the trying days of the war. He was a strong Unionist and narrowly escaped with his life, from roving bands of armed secessionists, on several occasions. He was a dignified and scholarly member of the bar. He died in Lincoln in 1907. His son, William O. Jones, also practiced law in Logan County, was a member of the State Board of Equalization from 1892 to 1897, and was elected Mayor of Lincoln in 1897 and again in 1899. He died June 16, 1903.

James T. Hoblit, present County Judge of Logan County, was admitted to the bar in 1865. He is a native of Logan County, a son of one of the first pioneers. He was born in 1842. At different periods in his practice, he has been associated in law partnerships with Silas Beason, Stephen A. Foley, W. W. Stokes, Edward D. Blinn, Frederick M. Hoblit and C. Everett Smith. He was elected County Clerk in 1869, State's Attorney in 1876 and County Judge in 1886. He was a delegate to the National Democratic conventions in 1876 and in 1888. In all these positions he has acquitted himself with credit to himself and to the constituency which he has so well represented. He is a lawyer of ability, as well as a scholar of considerable literary attainments. Stephen A. Foley is likewise a native of Logan County and likewise the son of one of the early pioneers. He graduated from the law departbai ment of the University of Albany in 1867 and formed a law partnership with James T. Hoblit soon after. In 1877, he was elected County Judge of Logan County, which position he filled with efficiency. He is, today, one of the wealthiest men of the county, due to his unerring judgment in the investment of capital. In 1877, he founded the Lincoln Loan, Savings & Trust Bank, which in 1885 was merged in the Lincoln National. He was for three years Treasurer of the Illinois Asylum for Feeble Minded Children. He is a man who appreciates literary culture and has been a constant patron of educational movements, the Lincoln Library being one of the enterprises that has greatly profited by reason of his interest in the same. He has been president of the Lincoln Library Board for many years past.

One of the leading lawyers at the Logan County bar, whose strength as an advocate was in his unusual abilities as an orator, was Edmund Lynch, who was admitted to the bar in 1867. Mr. Lynch had few superiors in the state as a pleader before a jury. The writer has, on more than one occasion, seen Mr. Lynch, in an argument in a criminal case, and even in a civil case, bring tears to the eyes of a jury, as well as to the eyes of the auditors in the court room. His powers of eloquence were due not so much to the phraseology of his sentences, as to the mellowness and tremulous cadences of his voice and the personal magnetism which seemed to electrify his auditors. He was born in New York in 1842, of Irish parentage. He came to Logan County in 1866, and was admitted to the bar in 1867. He was elected City Attorney of Lincoln in 1868 and again in 1870 and 1871. He was the Democratic candidate for the State Senate in 1872 and for Attorney General of the state in 1876. He was one of the organizers of the Catholic Total Abstinence Society and was president of the same for three years. As a campaign orator, he was in great demand. He died July 27, 1892. A more unselfish soul never lived in Logan County than Edmund Lynch. He was also a great reader and student, and was a walking encyclopedia of the world's history.

Edmund D. Blinn came to the Logan County bar in 1867, and has practiced his profession from that time to the present with marked success. It is not the intention in this chapter to indulge in eulogies of the members of the bar still living, but the standing of Mr. Blinn, among the lawyers of Illinois, is such as to demand special historical notice. Mr. Blinn has a naturally logical mind, which causes him to resolve every proposition into its constituent elements. He is a strong man before a court, where propositions of law are to be argued. Mr. Blinn's ability to draw fine distinctions of law, his clear conceptions of underlying principles and his power to make his position apparent, would place him at the front rank at any bar where the English tongue is spoken. He came from Vermont to Logan County in 1867, having been admitted to the bar in Ohio previous to his coming. He was Chairman of the Republican County Committee for many years, was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1880 and in 1884, was presiding judge of the Illinois State Court of Claims from 1889 to 1893, and a presidential elector for Illinois in 1884. He was indorsed by the bar of the county for Judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois in 1907, a position which he is well qualified to fill.

A new judicial apportionment occurred in 1861, by which the Eighth District was narrowed down to three counties, Logan, De Witt and McLean. A judicial election was also held the same year. Judge David Davis was re-elected Circuit Judge, without opposition. The year previous Ward H. Lamon had been re-elected District Attorney, without opposition. In the early part of 1861, he resigned to be Provost Marshal of the District of Columbia, whereupon Gov. Yates appointed Mr. Lamon's law partner, Harvey E. Hogg, to fill out the unexpired term. A few months later Mr. Hogg enlisted in the Civil War, being made Lieutenant Colonel of the Second Illinois Cavalry. Gov. Yates then appointed William H. Young, of the Logan County bar, to succeed Mr. Hogg. Mr. Hogg appeared only at the April, 1861, term of the Logan County Court. He was afterwards killed in an engagement during the war. Mr. Young did not fill out the unexpired term, dying quite suddenly in 1863, after the April term of Court. Henry S. Greene, of Clinton, was thereupon appointed. The regular election for Prosecuting Attorney of the district occurred in 1864, at which Mr. Greene was elected, without opposition. Mr. Greene came from Ireland to Illinois in 1857, read law with Judge Lawrence Weldon, at Clinton, was admitted to the bar in 1860, and became a law partner of C. H. Moore, a well known De Witt County attorney. Later he moved to Springfield, becoming a member of the firm of Hay, Greene & Littler. He resigned his position as District Attorney, in 1867, to go to the Legislature, and was succeeded by Thomas F. Tipton, of Bloomington, who was appointed by Gov. Oglesby, to fill out the unexpired term. Mr. Tipton served as District Attorney until 1869, when he resigned to accept the Circuit Judgeship of the district. Jonathan H. Rowell, of Bloomington, succeeded Mr. Tipton as District Attorney in 1869, and continued in the position until the office was abolished by the new Constitution of 1870, which provided that in 1872, and every four years thereafter, there should be elected one State's Attorney for each and every county in the state. The first State's Attorney for Logan County, elected under the new constitution, in 1872, was Timothy T. Beach, who served in that capacity until 1876. James A. Hudson was appointed State's Attorney pro tem from July 1, 1872, to December 1 of the same year, pending the election.

As before stated, Judge David Davis resigned as Circuit Judge in 1862, and an election for his successor occurred in November of that year, resulting in the choice of John M. Scott, of Bloomington, who presided, for the first time, over the Logan County court, at the April term, 1863. Judge Scott was a native of Illinois, and was born in St. Clair County in 1824. He was admitted to the bar in 1848 and moved to McLean County. In 1870, he was elected from the Supreme Judicial District, of which Logan and McLean Counties were a part, as a member of the Supreme Court of Illinois, which position he held for eighteen years. He died at his home in Bloomington, January 21, 1808, leaving an honored and revered name. Judge Scott, having resigned to accept the position of Supreme Judge in 1870, an election to fill the vacancy thus caused, resulted in the choice of Thomas F. Tipton, of Bloomington. Judge Tipton held his first Logan County court, at the October, 1870, term. He was born in Ohio in 1833, came to Illinois in 1844 and was admitted to the bar in 1854. His tenure of office as Circuit Judge continued until 1877, when he was elected to Congress, serving one term. In 1891, he was elected Circuit Judge in the eleventh district, which then included the counties of McLean, Livingston, Kankakee, Iroquois and Ford. He died February 10, 1903. In 1873 another judicial reapportionment occurred and for the first time in the history of Logan County, the county was included in a district numbered otherwise than the Eighth. The new apportionment placed Logan County, in what was called the Seventeenth district, with De Witt, Menard and Mason Counties, and Judge Tipton, whose term had not expired, and whose residence was McLean County, was assigned to the district of which McLean County was a part. For the new Seventeenth district, an election for Judge was held, June 10, 1873, resulting in the election of Lyman Lacey, of Havana. Judge Lacey held his first court in Logan County at the September term, 1873. He was born in New York in 1832, and came to Illinois, with his parents in 1837; was admitted to the bar in 1856 and located in Havana; served in the Legislature in 1862, and was elected Circuit Judge as above stated.

Among those coming to the Logan County, bar in the seventies, and who at once took front rank with the active trial lawyers, was Timothy T. Beach, who was admitted to the bar in 1871. As in the case of Mr. Blinn, Mr. Beach's ability as a lawyer and his success at the bar, warrant a violation of the rule of history not to indulge in eulogy of those still living. Mr. Beach is pre-eminently a trial lawyer and his reputation as such is extensive and wide. As a cross-examiner, he has few superiors. His earnestness in argument, his belief in the justice of the cause of his clients, whose cause he makes his own, his untiring zeal and persistence, as well as his alertness in taking advantage of every point in favor of his position, has given him a standing as one of the leading trial lawyers of the state. He was born in New York in 1843; enlisted in the Civil War in 1862, serving for three years; came to Lincoln at the end of the war; graduated at Lincoln University in 1870; admitted to the bar in 1871; elected City Attorney of Lincoln in 1872; was the first State's Attorney of the county and was Master in Chancery from 1873 to 1879. He has been a delegate a number of times to Democratic National Conventions.

Joseph Hodnett, for many years a legal partner of Mr. Beach, came to the bar in 1872. He was born in Ireland in 1849, came to the United States in 1864, to Lancaster, Wis., where he was admitted to the bar, in 1870, and came to Lincoln in 1872. His location in Lincoln was due to the fact that his brother, the late lamented Father Hodnett, was then in charge of St. Patrick's Catholic church at Lincoln. Father Hodnett died less than a year ago in Chicago, and at his death was one of the best known and most popular clergymen of his faith in the Middle West. Joseph Hodnett is an example of the scholar at the bar. He is a man of literary attainments and is posted upon all matters pertaining to history. As a lawyer, he has the decisions of the Illinois court of last resort at his finger's end, and is able to quote volume and page from memory, in frequent instances. He is well grounded in the books, is a versatile pleader and a safe counselor. These attributes, together with a flawless integrity and a loyalty to his friends, have won him an enviable place in the community.

Oscar Allen was born in Massachusetts in 1836 and served in the Civil War in a regiment from his native state. At the close of the war, he came to Logan County, taught school for a while, read law and was admitted to the bar in 1871. He was a law partner of Judge Parks a number of years. As an attorney, he is exact and thorough in the prac- tice and is a student of the history and the origin of the law. Joseph B. Bates was born in Jacksonville, Ill., in 1842, taught school in Alabama, where he was admitted to the bar in 1872, came to Lincoln in 1877 and divided his time between newspaper work and the law. He is now editorial writer on the Bloomington Pantagraph. William G. Bates located in Elkhart, but removed to Kansas in 1883. William G. Webster was admitted in 1878 and subsequently moved to Nokomis, Ill., where he is now located. Randolph B. Forrest came from Ohio to Illinois, in 1852, with his parents; graduated at Normal University in 1868 and taught school several years ; was first editor of the old Lincoln Times; read law, was admitted to the bar in 1876, and was associated in a partnership with Edmund Lynch. He is now practicing law in Oklahoma. James G. Chalfant came to Logan County from Ohio in 1862, served in the 106th Illinois Infantry during the war, was elected County Superintendent of Schools in 1865, was admitted to the bar in 1870, and elected County Superintendent again in 1973; 7B rastus R. Lentz came to Logan County from Ohio, in 1871, taught school a while and was admitted to the bar in 1875, being associated with W. P. Randolph. J. T. James was a law partner of D. H. Harts. Samuel P. Davidson graduated at Lincoln University in 1869, was admitted to the barin 1872 and practiced law in Lincoln. He afterwards removed to Tecumseh, Nebraska, where he was elected Circuit Judge. He is now in the practice there. Charles I. Forsythe graduated at Lincoln University in 1871, was admitted to the bar in 1873, and later moved to Alton, Mo., where he is now' located. Edward G. Hudson is now located at Newton, Kan. Samuel G. Allen was raised on a farm in Oran township, read law with Edmund Lynch, was admitted to the bar in 1879, practiced law in Lincoln until 1885, when he removed to Montana, where he died in 1908. Edd E. M. Cochran came from Ohio to Logan County in 1876, was admitted to the bar in 1881, and was associated in business with D. H. Harts. He is now publishing a paper at South McAlester, Oklahoma.

Robert Humphrey was born in New York in 1853, came to Illinois, with his parents in 1855, and to Lincoln in 1859. He taught school until 1875, when he began reading law and was admitted to the bar in 1878. He was elected City Attorney of Lincoln in 1883 and 1884, was elected State's Attorney in 1884 and served one term, was Master in Chancery from 1889 to 1891 and was County Judge from 1890 to _ 1894. He is associated in a law partnership with A. L. Anderson. In the administration of the offices which he has held, as well as in the practice of his profession, Judge Humphrey has won an enviable reputation for sterling honesty and fair dealing. Samuel L. Wallace is a native of Ohio and after teaching school several years in Logan County, was admitted to the bar in 1875. He first located in Mt. Pulaski and.

came to Lincoln in 1880. He was State's Attorney of Logan County from 1888 to 1892, and was Postmaster of Lincoln from March 1, 1893, to June 1, 1894. He was again appointed Postmaster to fill out an unexpired term in 1898. Mr. Wallace has a high standard of professional ethics and is a competent and qualified attorney. Albert D. Cadwallader is a native of Ohio and when sixteen years of age enlisted in the Civil War. He was captain of a company in the 85th Illinois Infantry and lost his arm at the Battle of Peach Tree Creek in 1864. After the war, he settled in Lincoln, was City Clerk of Lincoln in 1868 and was appointed Postmaster in 1869, which position he filled until a change of political administration in 1884. He was admitted to the bar in 1883. He was elected Clerk of the Supreme Court of Illinois, Central Grand Division, in 1896, serving until the consolidation of the divisions in 1902. He is a public spirited citizen and a safe counselor. John L. Bevan is a son of one of the early pioneers of Logan County, in which county he was born in 1845. He graduated from the law department of Ann Arbor University in 1874 and located at Atlanta the same year, since which time he has been in the continuous practice of law at that place. He has held various town and city offices in Atlanta, and has the confidence and esteem of the people amongst whom he lives. Ferdinand L. Capps came to Logan County in 1858, locating - jn Atlanta. He enlisted in the Seventh Illinois Infantry in the Civil War. After the war, he read law and was admitted to the bar in 1877. He practiced continuously at Atlanta, where he built up a lucrative business, from 1877 to a few months ago, when he moved to Chicago:

Louis C. Schwerdtfeger is a graduate of the Ann Arbor University, being a member of the class of 1879 and a classmate of Clarence Darrow, of Chicago. He is a native of New York state and came to Logan County shortly after his graduation from Ann Arbor. Since then he has been actively identified with every step in the civic progress of the city of Lincoln. He is a man of keen perception and clear business acumen. He was interested a number of years in newspaper ventures, was one of the reorganizers of the Union Cemetery Association, and has organized various industrial and financial corporations in the city of Lincoln. He served a number of terms in the city council. In 1887, he assumed the management of the German American National Bank, was for many years its cashier and is now its president. He was elected County Judge in 1894, serving in that capacity for four years. He has been successful in all of his undertakings and has been a valuable citizen in the community. Robert C. Maxwell was a native of Ohio and came to Logan County in 1866, teaching school until 1872. He was admitted to the bar in 1877 and began the practice of law in Lincoln. He was elected City Attorney of Lincoln in 1878. At different times he held numerous township offices, was a member of the Board of

Education of Lincoln and a member of the city council for several years. ' He was a member of the State Board of Equalization, from this district, from 1892 to 1896. He died in 1904, and his death was greatly deplored by the entire community. He was a man of kindly impulses and made friends of all with whom he came in contact. Solomon ik Woland is a native of Pennsylvania, came to Logan County with his parents in 1855, enlisted in the Civil War and after the war taught school. He was admitted to the bar in 1878. He was associated with O. C. Sharp, with whom he practiced law until 1881. He was twice elected City Attorney on the temperance ticket. He has retired from the practice of law and is now residing on his farm near Hartsburg. He is president of the Logan County Old Settlers' Association and the Logan County Farmers' Institute, and is one of the leading, progressive citizens of the county. Albert G. Jones was born in Bond County, this state, in 1847, and came to Logan County in 1863, locating in Mt. Pulaski. He began the practice of law in 1878 and died in 1898. W. W. Stokes came from Ohio in the seventies and began the practice of law in Lincoln. He was associated in business with Judge Hoblit for several years. He is now located at Dayton, Ohio. Wallace Nall was admitted to the bar in 1871 and practiced law but a short time, later engaging in newspaper work.

As before stated, Judge Lacey was elected Circuit Judge for the Seventeenth Judicial District in 1873. By an Act of the Legislature, passed in 1877, a radical change was made in the matter of Circuit Judges. By this act, the state was divided into thirteen districts. The Seventh District included the counties of Logan, De Witt, Menard, Mason, Cass, Morgan, Scott, Greene, Jersey and Calhoun. It provided that the existing judges should be judges for the respective circuits in which they resided, the districts being so arranged that two of the old districts were thus combined in one, and each new district thus having two judges already serving their terms. A third judge was then to be elected, the terms of all three judges ending in 1879, when three judges were to be elected. These three judges elected in 1879 were to hold office for six years. The two formerly elected judges in the new Seventh District were Lyman Lacey of Mason County and Cyrus Epler of Morgan County. At the election held August 20, 1877, Albert G. Burr, of Greene County, was elected the third judge. In 1878 Judge Lacey held the January term of the Logan County Court, Judge Burr the May term and Judge Epler the September term. In 18709, Judges Lacey, Epler and Burr were re-elected 'for six years. In 1879, Epler, Lacey and Burr all held court in Logan County, in 1880 Judge Epler alone presided, and in 1881 Epler and Burr held the terms of court. Judge Epler was a native of Indiana and moved to Jacksonville, with his parents, in 1831. He was admitted to the bar in 1852. He was

District Attorney for the First Judicial District a number of years and was a member of the Legislature from 1856 to 1861. Judge Burr was said to have been one of the ablest attorneys who ever graced the bench and bar in Central Illinois. He was born in New York in 1828 and his father was a nephew of Aaron Burr. When a year old Judge Burr came to Sanagmon County with his mother and sister. All were in indigent circumstances. When Burr was quite a boy, the support of his mother and sister devolved upon him. He worked in the brickyards at Springfield and acquired an education at night. He followed school teaching and merchandising, studied law meanwhile and moved to Greene County, where he was admitted to the bar in 1856. He was a member of the Legislature in 1858, a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1862 and a member of Congress from 1867 to 1871, two terms. He was a model judge, but died, at his home in-Carrollton, in 1882, in the midst of his term of office.

The death of Judge Burr necessitated a special election to fill the vacancy. This election, in 1882, resulted in the selection of George W. Herdman, of Jerseyville, as Burr's successor. Judge Herdman came to Illinois from Néw York in 1854. He was admitted to the bar in 1867 and began the practice of law. He was elected to the House of Representatives of the General Assembly in 1870 and to the State Senate in 1876. He was Circuit Judge fifteen years. He is still residing at Jerseyville. As a judge, Judge Herdman made a reputation for the speedy expedition of business during terms of courts and the brooking of no delays. In 1883, Judge Epler held all three terms of the Logan County Court and in 1884, Judge Herdman held the January and May terms and Epler and Lacey the September term. In 1885, all three judges, Lacey, Epler and Herdman, were re-elected, as they also were in 1891, and serving until 1897. Judges Epler and Herdman were thus associated with the Logan County Court for twenty years and Judge Lacey for twenty-four years. From 1885 to 1897, Judge Herdman held the January and May terms and Judge Epler the September term, this being a general rule, but with occasional terms held by Judge Lacey. In 1897, a new judicial apportionment took place. The present Eleventh District was created, including the counties of McLean, Livingston, Logan, Woodford and Ford, being coextensive with the Congressional District. The first election in the new district occurred June 18, 1897, and resulted in the election of the following judges: Colostin D. Myers, of Bloomington, George W. Patton, of Pontiac; and John H. Moffett, of Paxton. The same judges were re-elected in 1903. Judge Myers, in addition to his work as Circuit Judge, has also been upon the appellate bench for a number of years, and is a hardworking, painstaking jurist. He holds court principally in McLean County, which is his home, but occasionally hears causes in Logan.

He is an affable, courteous gentleman, whether upon the bench or otherwise, and is a general favorite. He was born in Ohio in 1847, served in the Union Army, took a law course at Ann Arbor, was admitted to the bar in 1874, located in Bloomington for the practice of his profession and was County Judge in 1886. Judge Patton held the Logan County Court frequently, especially during the illness of Judge Moffett. Judge Patton is a native of Pennsylvania and came with his parents to Illinois in 1852, read law in Springfield, and was admitted to the bar in 1875 and after practicing at Fairbury, in Livingston County, located at Pontiac in 1883. He is a close thinker, possesses an analytical mind and has always administered his judicial office "without fear or favor." All attorneys before him are treated with equal fairness. He upholds the dignity and decorum of the court at all hazards, and breach of the same receives rebuke from him, despite the long experience, political or other influence of the offender. A blameless private life and an unimpeachable character add to his attributes of head and heart.

Judge Moffett, during his life time, was generally the sitting judge at all terms of the Logan County court. During that time he endeared himself to the bar and the community alike. Not a trial lawyer himself, he came to the bench with a conscientious desire to do his whole duty. He was born in this state, February 25, 1856, and located in Ford County in 1869. He was admitted to the bar in 1880. So fearful was Judge Moffett that in his rulings he might do some one an injustice, so conscientious was he in the discharge of his duty, that it is the general consensus of opinion that the nervous disorder which caused his death, September 16, 1904, was more or less superinduced by worries over the matters passed upon by him in judicial proceedings. His death was universally deplored. He was a lovable character, without a known enemy in the world. Judge Moffett was succeeded in office by the first Circuit Judge ever elected from Logan County, Thomas M. Harris, who was elected November 28, 1904, to fill out the unexpired term. He is a native of Illinois, born in 1865. He was admitted to the bar in 1893 and in 1895 formed a partnership with E. D. Blinn, under the firm name of Blinn & Harris, which firm was dissolved upon Judge Harris' elevation to the bench. Judge Harris has proven himself a worthy successor to Judge Moffett. The soul of honor and integrity, he administers the duties of his judicial office with a conscientious adherence to his conception of the right. One of the younger members of the bar himself, he has full sympathy with those on the threshold of the profession. He has a clear, comprehensive grasp of legal problems, and is a close student of the books. He is urbane and courteous, both on the bench and off, and makes a safe, careful and conscientious

The first County Judge of Logan County, after the creation of that office in 1849, was Thomas R. Skinner. He was not a practicing attorney, but made an excellent judge. He was one of the early settlers of the county, coming during the forties. He first served as County Surveyor, was elected judge in 1849 and served until 1857, the year of his death. He was succeeded by Reuben B. Ewing, who was born in Tennessee in 1801 and came to Logan County in 1854. Judge Ewing was County Judge from 1857 to 1869. He died July 10, 1876. Like Judge Skinner, he was not a practicing attorney. William E. Dicks was County Judge from 1869 to 1877, Stephen A. Foley from 1877 to 1886, James T. Hoblit from 1886 to 1890, Robert Humphrey from 1890 to 1894, L. C. Schwerdtfeger from 1894 to 1898, all of whom have been referred to at some length in this chapter. Emil C. Moos was elected County Judge in 1898. Judge Moos died while in office, and his death was considered a public calamity. He was born in the Fourth Ward of Lincoln, March 19, 1870, was admitted to the bar in 1892, was City Attorney of Lincoln from 1893 to 1897, and was appointed Master in Chancery in 1897. He was a young man of exceeding promise, of a generous, genial good nature, had forged his way to the front in the face of adverse circumstances, and was very popular in the community. His death occurred April 8, 1900. He was succeeded as County Judge by his friend, Donald McCormick. Judge McCormick is a native of Logan County and was admitted to the bar in 1894. He was City Attorney of Lincoln from 1897 to 1901. He was first elected County Judge in 1900, to fill out Judge Moos' unexpired term. He was re-elected in 1902 and 1906, serving as County Judge for ten years, retiring voluntarily from the office in 1910, to resume the practice of law, in association with Peter Murphy. His long continued incumbency of the office was due to the satisfactory manner in which he administered the duties of the position, his obliging disposition and courteous treatment, in addition to his ability as a judge, making for him many friends. The present incumbent of the office is James T. Hoblit, who was elected in 1910, a sketch of whose life appears elsewhere.

Among other attorneys who came to the Logan County bar after the seventies, and who subsequently moved from Lincoln to other localities, were Charles H. Curtis, John F. Hilscher, John Johnston, R. F. Buckles, A. B. Miller, Charles A. Higgins, Joe A. Horn, John H. Beckers, Paul Houser, Louis H. Zeter, Fred M. Hoblit. Charles H. Curtis practiced law in Mt. Pulaski, having been admitted to the bar in 1889. John F. Hilscher came from Indiana, with his parents, in 1857, and was admitted to the bar in 1883. John Johnston came to Illinois in 1861, graduated at Lincoln University in 1877, and was admitted to the bar in 1882. He removed to Spokane, Washington. A. B. Miller is located at Murray, Iowa, where he is now in the practice. He was admitted to the bar in 1891. Joe A. Horn was a practitioner at Mt. Pulaski, being City Attorney at that place from 1891 to 1896. He was a member of the Legislature from 1896 to 1898. In 1902, he moved to Springfield, Ill. John H. Beckers was City Attorney of Lincoln in 1905, but moved to Kankakee, IIl., where he is now in the practice. Paul Houser was also City Attorney of Lincoln, from 1903 to 1905, but soon after moved to Oregon. Fred M. Hoblit was associated for a number of years in a partnership with his father, James T. Hoblit. He was admitted to the bar in 1891. Among the lawyers recently at the Logan County bar, who have died, are Charles C. Maxwell and Frank L. Tomlinson. The former was born in 1872, admitted to the bar in 1895 and died in 1898. He was a young man of considerable promise. Frank L. Tomlinson, of Mt. Pulaski was born in 1860 and was admitted to the bar in 1886. He was appointed Master in Chancery in 1905 and died, while an incumbent of that office, on February 1, 1909. Mr. Tomlinson was a careful, painstaking officer, an excellent lawyer and a safe adviser.- He had the confidence and respect of the people of the county. W. E. Stone practiced law at Middletown several years, but is now located at Mason City, Ill.

The present bar of Logan County includes the following named attorneys, in alphabetical order: Oscar Allen, A. L. Anderson, W. R. Baldwin, T. T. Beach, Carl Bekemeyer, John L. Bevan, E. D. Blinn, A. D. Cadwallader, William A. Crain, W. A. Covey, George H. Cox, Thomas S. Davy, S. A. Foley, Charles Gehlbach, D. H. Harts, David H. Harts, Jr., Joseph Hodnett, Milton Hoose, James T. Hoblit, Robert Humphrey, Hugh Hunter, J. E. Jewett, Edward G. King, Uriah J. Kissinger, Donald McCormick, James E. Miller, E. W. Montgomery, Peter Murphy, E. C. Perkins, C. Everett Smith, George J. Smith, L. C. Schwerdtfeger, Lawrence B. Stringer, Harold F. Trapp, Harry F. Wakeman. Reference has already been made in this chapter to a large number of the above named attorneys, many of them having been members of the bar in the seventies and being still actively engaged in the practice. Those noted here came to the Logan County bar since the seventies. A. L. Anderson is a native of Logan County, graduated at Lincoln University in 1884 and taught school in the county a number of years, being at one time Superintendent of the City Schools of Lincoln. He was admitted to the bar in 1892, and formed a law partnership with Emil C. Moos. In 1896, he was elected State's Attorney, serving one term and declining renomination. He is now associated with Judge Robert Humphrey. He is prominent in Masonic circles in the state, being a state officer of the Grand Commandery, Knights Templars of Illinois. William R. Baldwin is the present Master in