Clark County, Indiana - Chapter 29: The Bench and Bar of Clark County, 1909 (part 1 of 2)

Chapter 29: The Bench and Bar of Clark County

The profession of law in no part of the United States in early days had more brilliant intellects nor deeper students than did Clark coimty. Her judges upon the bench and the lawyers who practiced before them will compare with those of any other locality both as to depth and breadth of intellect.

Perhaps the most prominent early member of the bar in Clark county was Jonathan Jennings, the first Governor of Indiana under the state constitution. He was a native of Rockbridge county, Virginia, and was born in 1784. When a youth his father emigrated to Pennsylvania, and the boy having obtained some knowledge of Greek and Latin, commenced the study of law, but before being admitted to the bar removed to the Territory of Indiana, and was employed as clerk by Nathaniel Ewing, of Vincennes.

He returned to Charlestown soon after and adopted that place as his home. His slogan was "No Slaveiy in Indiana," and throughout his long and brilliant career he kept the slavery question to the front Jonathan Jennings was a man of the people and owed much of his success in politics to his peculiar knack of keeping close to them. Clark county has produced no more brilliant character. His incorruptible integrity, his refusal to bow to political expediency, his hospitality, his thorough understanding of the people, and his firmness of character place him in the front rank of Indiana's great men.

In 1809 he was elected delegate to Congress, and remained as such until the formation of a state constitution. He was chosen president of the constitutional convention, and at the first state election, in 1816, was the choice of the people for Governor. He was again elected to the office in 1819, and in 1822 was returned to Congress from the Second district, continuing its representative until 183 1, when he failed of a re-election. He died on his farm about three miles west of Charlestown, in 1834.

The following paper was written by the late Judge C. P. Ferguson, and is of particular value on account of his personal knowledge of the man of whom he writes :

Early in the month of January, in the year 1801, William Henry Harrison, then twenty-eight years of age, arrived at Vincennes and entered upon the discharge of his duties as Governor of the Indiana Territory. At that time the boundaries of the territory inchided all that immense scope of country out of which the states of Indiana, Illinois, ^Michigan and Wisconsin were afterwards formed. So it remained until 1805, when Michigan Territory was struck off, and in 1809, Illinois Territory was organized, and from that time the territoiy of Indiana had the same boundaries as the state of Indiana now has.

As a part of the organization of the Indiana Territory, the law provided for an appointment by the President of the United States of a Governor, a Secretary and three Judges. Jnhn Gibson was appointed Secretary and served as such during the whole territorial period, and among the territorial judges acting under the commission of the President of 1813, and as United States Attorney for the territory in 1809, was a Charlestown man, who for a long period ranked as an important man under both the territorial and state governments. Of this man I have never seen in print anv biographical sketch, and what I shall say of him I have gathered from his public acts, so far as they have liecome a part of the history of the state, and from what I knew of him personally in his old age.

I have reference to Judge James Scott. After serving as United States Attorney and United States Judge for the territory his next public service was a delegate from the county of Clark to the convention called for the purpose of framing a state constitution, in 1816. That constitution provided for the appointment, by the Governor, to be confirmed bv the Senate, of three judges of the Supreme Court. Jonathan Jennings, the first Governor and also a Clark county man, appointed his friend and neighbor. Judge Scott, as one of the Supreme judg-es for the constitutional period of seven years. He served his first term and was re-appointed by Governor William Hendricks for a second term, serving altogether fourteen years and retiring in 183 1. After retiring from the Supreme Bench, it would seem that he did not meet with much success as a member of the bar, for about the period 1834 we find him giving attention to the editing of a newspaper called "The Comet," printed in a little frame building which stood on a part of his residence lot. No 55, in Charlestown. At the liead of his paper the following lines were kept standing as its motto : "Ask not to what doctor I apply, for sworn to no sect or party am I."

How long this newspaper was published, I am unable to say, but after Gen. W. H. Harrison was inaugurated as President, in 1841, Judge Scott was appointed as register of the land office, at Jeflfersonville. and served as such until removed under the administration of President Polk.

After leaving this office he opened a school for girls in Charlestown. I could name several grandmothers, well known to some of you, who were under his tuition when they were frisky little girls. But the school did not last- very long, and it seems this was the last effort he made for self-support.

He was old and poor and childless, and his wife had been dead for many years, but there was a lady living in Carlisle whom he had reared as an adopted daughter. In her house he sought a home and found it, and there he died. Judge Scott had the rqjutation of having a fine education and great learning. As to his ability as a jurist, his many opinions published in the Supreme Court reports in the hands of every Indiana lawyer, must speak for themselves. That he was an amialjle. honest and devoted Christian man. I can testifv of my own knowledge.

\\'hen the Indiana Territory was established by ordinance of Congress, the county of Knox included all the territory embraced in what is now the state of Indiana. Out of Knox county the county of Clark was formed, which included what is now Harrison county and by boundaries eastward and northward covered about one-fifth of the present state and a court was established in the new county. Oiu^ court records show that the first court held in the county was held at Springvalle. April 7, 1801, by the following named persons as judges : William Goodwin. ]\Iarston G. Clark, Abraham Huff, Thomas Downs, and James N. Wood. Charles P. Tuley was also one of the justices of the court, but was not present. Samuel Gwathmey was the first Clerk and Samuel Hay the first Sheriff.

These first officials in the organization of the county took deep root. During their own lives they continued from time to time to fill important places and after them, their descendants have often filled places of honor and trust in the county. It may be interesting to note that after the lapse of nearly one hundred years, a great-grandson of one of these judges was the Judge of the Circuit Court, and another great-grandson of the same person was the Clerk of the court, and the grandson of the first Sheriff, as well as grand-nephew of one of those judges, was Recorder of the county, all holding office at the same time.

The laws governing these local courts were made by the Governor and Territorial judges appointed by the President, until the county arrived at what was called the second grade, when it became entitled to a Legislature, and this happened in 1805. when the first Legislature convened.

No trace of Spring\'ille. which was located a little more than a mile west of Charlestown, where the courts were held until July 6, 1802, can now be found, but like ancient Carthage, it has not only been destroyed, but the ground upon which it stood ploughed up and converted into a field.

On and after July 6. 1802, the courts were held at Jeffersonville until March 3, 181 1, when the court was first held at Charlestown. These local county courts continued to exist for thirteen years, some new names appearing as judges from time to time: the name of Evan Shelby. Rezin Redman and John Miller appearing as judges at the close of 1813.

to present indictments. Xone of these judges pretended ti. be lawyers, but were plain, honest and intelligent men, acting under the appointment of the Governor, in fact, justices of the peace, with power to come together at certain times as a court. During the period of these courts and especially while they were held at Jeffersonville, the business was largely in the hands of Louisville attorneys, the names of Breckinridge, Harrison. Johnson, Fortunatus Cosby. \\'orden Pope, James Ferguson and other Kentucky names of distinction, often appearing in court proceedings.

Among the Indiana lawyers of this early period the names of Henry Hurst, Robert A. Xew, Jonathan Jennings, James Scott, Benjamin Park, Gen. Washington Johnson, Thomas Randolph and others appear in the records.

It may truly be said of Henry Hurst that he was in at the beginning, for at the second term of court held at Spring^^ille he made his appearance under the style of Deputy United States Attorney General, ready to indict and prosecute in the name of the United States all violators of the law. He settled himself at Jeffersonville and among the landmarks of that city still standing in a good state of preservation is his two-story brick dwelling, with high stone steps, at the top of the wharf directly fronting the ferry landing.

Major Hurst became one of the noted men of Indiana. He was an aid to General Harrison at Tippecanoe, and history has it that on the morning of the battle, the general had risen a little after four o'clock as usual, and was in his tent in the act of drawing on his boots in conversation with Major Hurst and Major Owens, when the unexpected attack was made. When President Harrison was inaugurated, on the 4th day of March. 1841, he rode on horseback at the head of the procession, through the streets of W'ashington, and at his request, Alajor Hurst, mounted on a white horse, rode at his right hand, while the officer who had been his aid at the battle of the Thames, rode at his left. Thus was Clark county, through one of her citizens, given the post of honor on a most notable occasion. Major Hurst, for a time, served as Clerk of the United States District Court, and in 1838 was a member of the Legislature from Clark county. He was of portly frame, with the dignified carriage of a gentleman of the old school, and his ivory headed cane, his bandana handkerchief and his snufif-box were his inseparable companions. He was blunt of speech, and was fond of a joke, liked his wine and delighted in a game of cards, but he was not a gambler. In the long ago when lawyers traveled the circuit he was generally with them, more for the pleasure of the association than the profits of his profession. The last iuiportant business he attended to was in settling the estate of John Fischli. as executor of the will. Mr. Fischli died in 1838, leaving the shortest will ever recorded in Clark county, the devising part occupying only three lines of record, yet those three lines controlled the largest estate ever disposed of in the county, up to that time, the settlement of which demanded the attention of the court for years, as well as requiring some special acts of the Legislature to preserve the rights of the devisees.

In 1814 the judicial system of the territory underwent a change; the territory was divided into three circuits, with a presiding judge for each circuit and two associate judges in each county, all appointed by the Governor.

In November, 1814, Jesse L. Holman appeared in Charlestown and took his seat as presiding Judge imder the commission of Territorial Governor Posey, and William Goodwin and John Miller having also produced their commissions, took their seats at associate judges, and Isaac .Shelby was the Clerk. This was the same Judge Holman who became one of the first Supreme judges under the state constitution, and unless I have been wrongfully informed, he was the father of William S. Holman, who was an Indiana Congressman almost continuously for thirty years. Judge Holman's commission being a territorial appointment, his ser\'ices came to a close at the November term, 1816, Indiana having been admitted as a state and adopted a constitution. Under the constitution the state was divided into circuits, each circuit to have one presiding Judge, to be elected by the Legislature, and two associate judges for each county, to be elected by the votes of the respective counties, and term of all judges was seven years. At the commencement of this new. era in Indiana history, the following named Clark county attorneys were permitted to continue in the practice by taking a new oath to support the constitution, and also the oath against duelling, -required by law; Alex Buckner, John H. Thompson, Benjamin Ferguson. David Floyd, Craven P. Hester, Henry Hurst, John F. Ross, Isaac Naylor, Isaac Howk and James Morrison.

Many of the attorneys so named subsecjuently removed from the county. Mr. Buckner owned and kept his office on lot i, in Charlestown, and while a resident here he was the very head and front of the Masonic Order in Indiana. He went to St, Louis and became L'nited States Senator in 183 1.

Mr. Thompson, after becoming Judge, removed to Salem. Mr. Ferguson retired from the practice and settled on a farm. Mr. Hester, the father of the late Judge James S. Hester, of Brown county, went to California.

Mr. Morrison removed to Indianapolis, became Judge of the Circuit Court and filled other important offices, among which was president of the State Bank. Mr. Naylor removed to Crawfordsville and became Judge of the Circuit Court. Mr. Howk. who was the father of the late Supreme Judge, George V. Howk. died at Indianapolis in 1833, and had been speaker of the House of Representatives. Mr. Floyd, formerly of Clark county, was already located in Harrison county. At this period Charles Dewey attended the Clark county courts, but was a resident of Paoli.

held in Marcli, 1817. The court records show that David Raymond was the presiding Judge and W'ilham Goodwin and John Beggs the associates. Isaac Shelby produced his commission as Clerk for seven years and took the oath of office and oath against duelling. The June term. 181 7, was held by the same judges. I have been unable to find out who Judge Raymond was and by what authority he held these two terms. The election for Judge should have been at the November session. 1816, when the United States Senators and state officers were elected by the Legislature. If Judge Raymon was the Judge elected why did he hold two terms only? So far as I ha\'e knowledge Judge Raymond is one of the lost judges.

At the October term. 181 7, Davis Floyd took his seat as Judge of the Second Circuit, under a commission to hold the office for seven years from October 13. 1817. William Goodwin and John Beggs were the associate judges and John F. Ross Prosecuting Attorney.

The career of Judge Floyd, if written out in detail, would read like a romance. From the first organization of the county he seems to have been the liveliest man in it. A yen* tall and dark complexioned man full of courage, he appears to have been in e\'erything and ready for anything, and for twentyfive years he was a most prominent figure in the territory and state of Indiana. The records show that in 1801 he was deputy for Samuel Hay, the first Sherifif ; was licensed to keep a tavern at Clarksville ; said tc have been a falls pilot and major of militia, and in 1803 was Sheriff and collector of public revenues, and was adjutant for Joe Hamilton Daviess at Tippecanoe, and admitted to the bar in 181 2.

His name often appears in litigation in the earliest records sometimes as plaintiff, but generally as defendant, defending actions for debt, actions for trespass, suits on his official bond, and sometimes indictments preferred against him. The first execution issued in the county. No. i on the docket, issued January, 1802, was in his favor against Aaron Bowman, for fifty dollars, and the criminal records show that on account of matters growing out of the execution of the writ, Mr. Bowman assaulted Sheriff Hay, for which he paid a fine of twenty dollars. With it all he seems to have been a verv' popular man, for at the first territorial Legislature, in July, 1805, he took his seat as a member of the House of Representatives from the county of Clark. Soon after the close of the Legislature he became involved in the mysterious and supposed treasonable movements of Aaron Burr, went to Blennerhasset's Island to meet Colonel Burr and received a special visit from him at Jeffersonville. and on December 16. 1806, some men he had in charge joined the expedition and proceeded down the river. For this little piece of fillibustering he was indicted in the United States General Court, held at Jeft'ersonville, June 2, 1807, by Judge Thomas T. Davis, tried by a jury, which found him guilty of carrying on a militaiy enterprise against his Catholic ]Majesty. the king of Spain, and was punished by a fine of ten dollars and imprisoned for three hours. But this did not seem to set him back in the estimation of his fellow citizens, for we find him taking an active part in a historic meeting held at SpringTille. October lo, 1807. over which John Beggs presided as chainnan and ]\Ir. Floyd acted as secretary, the object of which was to remonstrate to Congress against the scheme of Governor Harrison, Walter Taylor, Thomas Randolph and other pro-slavery men. for the suspension of that part of the Ordinance of 1787, forbidding slavery in the territory. Of how many inter\-ening legislatures Judge Floyd was a member, I am unable to say, but having been a member of the first territ(jrial Legislature, he again turns up as a member of the first state Legislature, which convened November 4, 1816, he then appearing as a member of the House of Representatives from Harrison county, having previously been a delegate from that county in the convention which framed the constitution.

At this session the Governor was directed to procure a great seal for the new state, and it was upon the motion of Mr. Floyd that the device adopted by the Legislature was the same now in use, with which the school children are familiar - a woodman felling a tree, a fleeing buffalo and the setting sun. At the next session of the General Assembly he was elected Judge of the Second Circuit and after ser\ing seven years on the bench went to Florida under the commission of President Monroe, to investigate some troubles growing out of land titles. Of his career afterwards scarcely anything is known with certainty, but old citizens of Harrison county are emphatic in the assertion that he never returned to Indiana. The Sheriffs of Clark county who served under Judge Floyd were John \\'eathers. Joseph Gibson, James Curry and John S. Simmonson.

Judge John F. Ross, a resident of Charlestown, was the successor of Judge Floyd. His first term of Clark Circuit Court was commenced in May, 1824, when he was thirty-six years of age. Willis W. Goodwin and Benjamin Ferguson took their seats with him as associates. Gen. John Carr had just commenced his first term as Clerk, and tien. John S. Simonson was Sheriff.

Judge Ross, after serving one term of seven years, was re-elected and died about the middle of his second term, his last signature on the court record being May 24, 1834. He was a scholarly man, had been a soldier in 1812, served in a session of the Legislature, often was Prosecuting Attorney and of undoubted integrity as a Judge. His birthplace was Morgantown, Virginia, but in his infancy his parents moved to near Bardstown, Kentucky, where his father died when he was nine years of age. After his death his mother was careful to see that he, as well as the other children of the family, received a good education. L'pon the death of Judge Ross the venerable Judge Scott, who had been his law preceptor, pronounced this eulogy : "His life was strictly moral, humility was one of the brightest traits of his Christian character. He was one of Indiana's purest statesmen. He was a strict, uncompromising temperance man, and fearless in advocacy of his views. Philanthropic in his aims, he was popular with the mass of the public. He always thought to promote the best interests of humanity. A gallant soldier, a finished scholar and a true gentleman, without fear or reproach."

During Judge Ross" administration several Clark county lawyers, not previously mentioned, were members of his bar, among whom were James Collins, father of the late Judge Thomas Collins, of Salem. Xewton Laughberry, who married the daughter of Judge Evan Shelby, and Samuel C. Wilson. Mr. Wilson came from New York and located at Charlestown, married Miss Laura Maddock and afterwards removed to Crawfordsville, where he became a partner with United States Senator, Joseph E. McDonald, in the practice of law. Also, alxiut this time, Lyman Leslis took up his residence at Charlestown.

The Sheriffs under Judge Ross, after General Simonson. were Thomas Carr and David W. Daily. When Judge Ross had been on the I)ench about one year he was called upon to perform a duty, the most painful of all duties required of a Judge of humane feelings, the pronouncing of the death penalty on a convicted criminal. A negro named Jerry killed ex-Sheriff Joseph Gibson at Charlestown Landing, in 1825, and was indicted, tried and sentenced to death by Judge Ross within two weeks after tiie killing. But Jerry did not hang, the Supreme Court gave a new trial, and upon the second trial he was sent to the penitentiary for fifteen years. Here I will digress a little to state that the sentence of death had been pronounced seven times in the Clark Circuit Court since its organization, but only two executions have taken place: that of \\'illiam Hardin, who was executed by Sheriff T. F. Bellows, and Macy Warner, executed by Charles S. Hay. In territorial times there was no penitentiary and if the killing was not a hanging case, the punishment was by burning the letter ]\I in the hand with a red hot iron.

Such was the punishment given Henry Bannister in 181 1, who killed Moses Phillips, in Harrison county, who was tried in Clark. And to John Irwin, in 1812, who killed Joseph Malott near the road leading from Charlestown to the Ohio river. On November 8, 1809, at Jeffersonville, Walter Taylor, a United States Jutlge for the territory, and afterwards Lfnited States Senator, passed sentence that John Ingram, for stealing a horse worth ten dollars, "be hanged by the neck until he is dead, dead, dead," but afterwards, on the day set for the execution, the prisoner while on the scaffold, was reprieved.

In cases of theft generally, the punishment, in territorial times, was by compelling the restoration of the property, or its value, and by a designated number of stripes laid on the bare back.

1834, appointed Jolin H. Thompson Judge of the Second Circuit to sen-e until a Judge could be elected. Under this appointment, and a subsequent election, Judge Thompson presided for a period of over ten years. At the time he went upon the bench, he was a resident of Charlestown, but afterwards removed to Salem. In early life he had been a cabinet maker, but after he took to the law he became a successful practitioner at the bar and was Liuetenant-Go\-ernor of the state from 1825 to 1828. At the session of the General Assemlily, which convened in December, 1844. a Judge for the Second Circuit had to be elected. And Judge Thompson was a candidate for re-election. At that time there was living in Brownstown a young lawyer by the name of William T. Otto, scarcely thirty years of age. At the previous Legislature he had been principal secretary of the Senate, proved himself to be an excellent officer, and became well known and popular, and when the election came off, he was elected over Judge Thompson. Judge Thompson took the defeat very much to heart, Init it turned out to be the very best thing that could have happened to him. The same Legislature had to elect a Secretary of State, and the defeat of Judge Thompson for Judge aroused a sympathy for him, and he was elected Secretary' of State. This office suited him admirably. His wife had been the widow of John Strange, the eminent Methodist minister, and in his family he had a step-son, William R. Strange, just arriving at manhood, who went into the office as deputy and relieved the Judge of many of its burdens. Besides, a change of residence had to be made, causing the Judge to sell his Salem property, and to remove to Indianapolis and remain there, and the advance was so great that he was put at ease financially during the remainder of his life.

Among the attorneys who located in Clark county while Judge Thompson was on the bench, were the following: B. F. Clark, Joseph Evans, M. Y. Johnson, J. M. Stagg, William Newton, John C. McCoy, Charles Hensley, Silas Osborn, T. W. Gibson, a Mr. Ogden, Andrew C. Griffith, Amos Loveriner, and Geors:e F. Whitworth. none of whom remained in the countv verv long except Mr. Gibson and Mr. Lovering. Major Griffith died in Charlestown in 1844.

\Miile Judge Thompson was on the bench Lemuel Ford and Joseph Work served as associate Judges, after the expiration of the terms of Judges Carr and Prather. and Henry Harrod served as Clerk, as the successor of General Carr, who had been elected- to Congress. Thomas Carr was the successor of General Simonson as Sheriff, and Joseph Moore succeeded Colonel Carr : then Carr came in again and was succeeded by George Green.

Judge \\'illiam T. Otto first presided as Judge of the Clark Circuit Court at the May term. 1845. The associate judges were: Beverlev W. James and Hezekiah Robertson. Eli McCauley was Clerk, and John C. Huckleberry was Sheriff, succeeded by John Stockwell. At the very start Judge Otto gave things a general shake-up. In many respects he revokitionized the practice, and let the members of the bar and the officers of his court understand that the go-easy methods they had been pursuing would not be tolerated : in fact, he assumed a crabbed air. as if to say that when he put his foot down every person must succumb without a word. But notwithstanding his apparent harshness, his splendid ability as presiding Judge, his quick comprehension of the law and clearness in decision soon developed themselves, and the bar, without excepti()n, had the greatest admiration for him. It is safe to say that no Circuit Judge in Indiana was ever his superior. He was the last Judge of the Second Circuit elected by the Legislature. When his term expired, the constitution of 1851 was in force, and he was succeeded Iiy Judge Breknell, by election of the people. After Judge Otto retired from the bench he returned to the bar. secured a fair practice and was considered a formidable lawyer. But misfortune overtook him, his partner involved him into some financial troubles, which swept his means from him and turned him loose upon the world. Deciding to leave New Albany, the place of Assistant Secretary of Interior under Mr. Lincoln's administration was offered him and he accepted. After this he became official reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. This place he kept for many years, then gave it up, fickle fortune in the meantime smiled on him and placed him in independent circumstances. A few years ago he was living and I have not heard of his death. Judge Otto was never married, but in Brownstown cemetery there is a tombstone erected by himself which marks the grave of a lady, who doubtless would have become his wife had not death carried her away. [Note: - Judge Otto died in Philadelphia in November. 1905. at the advanced age of eighty-nine.]

The Clark County Bar. during Judge Otto's term, was a strong one. The resident attorneys were: Judge Charles Dewey, Capt. T. W. Gibson, Amos Lovering. Charles E. Walker. John D. Ferguson, J. G. Howard, Charles Moore, John F. Read. W. H. Hurst, Henn,- Foster Smith, C. T. Solas, W. W. Gilliland, and possibly some others whom I have overlooked. Besides every term of court was attended by some of the best lawyers of the adjoining counties. Randall Crawford, H. P. Thornton. James Collins. Judge W. A. Porter, Cyrus L. Dunham and Joseph G. Marshall, the sleeping lion. were regular in their attendance, as were also Humphrey Marshall and W. P. Thomasson. of Louisville, and sometimes in particular cases the most eminent of the Louisville lawyers would make their appearance. I know of one case, in 1848. memorable as the Clarksville Slip Case, in which Henry Pirtle. Charles M. Thurston, T. W. Gibson, James Guthrie and Randall Crawford all took their turn in making speeches to the Judge. It was a battle of giants. Mr. Thurston swaying like an aspen in a storm. Mr. Guthrie stood motionless as a statue, looked the Judge square in the face and talked to him as man talks to man, but made no gestures. Mr. Thurston had never seen the Judge before whom he was to appear. When he entered the court room finding Judge Otto in the act of charging a jury, he stopped in the lobby with the crowd until the charge was finished, then nodded his head and muttered, "A pretty smart Judge that."

Among the strong lawyers at Judge Otto's bar was Judge Charles Dewey, who returned to the practice after over ten years' service as Judge of the Supreme Court. He was a Massachusetts man and when he came to this state located in Paoli. He represented Orange county in the Legislature in 182 1, and the journals show that he was an active member, and was conspicuous as the special friend and defender of Governor Jennings, when an attempt was made to censure him in regard to some transactions growing out of the Jeffersonville canal project. After this he came to Charlestown and became Supreme Judge in May, 1836, upon the resignation of Stephen G. Stephens.

While serving as Supreme Judge he was by the President tendered the appointment of United States Judge for the District of Indiana, as the successor of Benjamin Parke, but declined it on account of the difference of the salaries of the two offices. No previous Judge in Indiana had ever attained the celebrity that was given Judge Dewey while on the Supreme bench. I had known him from early boyhood, and when I heard him so often spoken of as a great man I was a little slow to comprehend it, for a boy never sees greatness in a person with whom he is familiar, but always looks for greatness in the distance. When I got older I got over that, and now, at that distant day, when I think of the kind of man he was, I am satisfied that no man of ordinary perception could have come into the presence of Judge Dewey without being impressed with the feeling that he was in the presence of no ordinary man. His superb frame, large features, swarthy complexion, protruding under lip and heavy brow indicated force of extraordinary character.

When Judge Dewey died I walked with Judge Otto tc the family residence to take a last look at the corpse. I well knew of the high esteem Judge Otto had for the deceased, and was not surprised when he turned to me and said, "The equal of Daniel Webster is in that coffin today "

Hugh McCulloch, Secretary of the Treasury under three administrations, a few years ago wrote a very interesting book in which it is stated that when he came West, in 1833, seeking a location, he remained at Madison for a considerable time, and while there made the acquaintance of three of the most distinguished lawyers in Southern Indiana, and they were Charles Dewey, Isaac Howk and Jeremiah Sullivan.

x'Vnd now at the close of this feeble effort to bring to your minds the memory of some of the men, now dead and gone, who assisted in establishing and building up your county and state, I want to say a few words in regard to one man whose long service at the bar and close identification with the peo- pie of the county, demand something more than a mere casual reference. I mean Thomas \\'. Gibson, who first came to Charlestown in 1837, over sixty long years ago. Young, handsome, active, full of pranks and frolicsome mischief, he soon became the life and soul of enjoyment among the young and middle aged people of the town, and from the start he attracted attention as a promising lawyer. After he became married and the head of a family, he soon established his reputation as an able attorney and counsellor, acquired a large practice and great influence among the people, which he retained to the last. After serving as an officer in the Mexican war he was sent as a delegate to the convention that framed the constitution adopted in 185 1. Not only did he help make the constitution but for several sessions was a member of the Legislature which had before them the dit^cult task of making the laws in conformity with the constitution so adopted. Subsequently, while retaining his family and residence at Charlestown he opened an office in Louisville and was recognized as a leading lawyer in that city. In the war between the states he did not hdld ;iny commission, but was often called in consultation with men of high official positions, especially in regard to the organization of troops, munitions of war and the gun-boat service, and his counsel was valuable. He had been a cadet at West Point, a midshipman in the navy, and had seen service in the field. Not only was he learned in the law, but he was a great student and close observer, and his knowledge of things in general, small matters as well as great, was wonderful, and besides he had been a student of medicine before he turned his attention to law. As a companion Captain Gibson was the most entertaining of men, had a supply of jokes always on hand, and was as fond of a joke as Abraham Lincoln. He had a horror of gambling and drunkenness, was steadfast in friendship, and always on the lookout for an opportunity to confer a favor upon some friend or relieve the suffering of some fellow-being. Altogether he was certainly a remarkable man. Beneath the sod of Clark county are the remains of many men who were regarded as excellent lawyers and jurists ; others who were distinguished as soldiers, and others who were justly classed among statesmen, but it might well be written upon the monument of this man, that the quality of the jurist, the statesman and the soldier were all combined in the same person.

The Judicial District of Indiana, of which the Clark Circuit Court forms a part, was composed of the counties of Clark, Floyd, Harrison, Crawford, Orange, Washington. Jacksnn and Scott, until about the year 1876. when the counties of Clark and Floj-d were formed into a Judicial District. Prior to the change in the districts there were but two terms a year in each district in the state, and the sessions for the transaction of business in each county were limited to trom two to four weeks. This court was in session onh- in one county at the same time. The time tixed for the session to be held in each county \\as prescribed by law.

The Judge would go from count}- to county and hold cdurt at tl\e prescribed time, and the lawyers of the district, as a rule, wt)uld follow the court around the circuit and would take cases wherever ofi'ered. The lawyers did not then, as now, confine themselves in the practice of law to the counties in which they lived. Prior to 1850, when many streams were unbridged, the traveling was chiefly by horseback. From 1843 to the close of the year 1852, Judge William T. Otto presided over the Clark Circuit Court. Judge Otto was succeeded by George S. Bicknell, who presided over said court from 1852 to 1876. Judge Bicknell was succeeded by John S. Davis, who presided from 1876 to 1882, the time of his death, which occurred a few months before his term expired. Simeon K. Wolfe was appointed to fill out the unexpired term of Mr. Davis. Mr. Wolfe was succeeded by Charles P. FergusDii, who served on the bench from 1882 to 1894. Mr. Ferguson was succeeded by George H. D. Gibson, who served from 1894 to 1900. Mr. Gibson was succeeded by James K. Marsh, who served six years and was succeeded by Harry C. Montgomery, the present incumbent.

In 1852 a Common Pleas Court was created in the state of Indiana, with circuits composed of from two to four counties, with four terms a year. It had exclusive jurisdiction oi all probate business and concurrent jurisdiction with the Circuit Court in all matters of contract and tort, where the amount in controversy did not exceed one thousand dollars, and in matters arising between landlord and tenant, where the title to real estate tlid not come in issue. For several years after the creatirm of this court, the counties of Clark and Scott formed a circuit and afterwards the circuit was enlarged by the addition of the counties of Flo} d and Washington. Judge Amos Loxering was the first Judge to preside over the Common Pleas Court. He sen-ed from 1852 to 1862, when he resigned about the middle of the third term, when Melville C. Hester was appointed to fill the vacancy. In 1864 Judge Hester was succeeded by Judge Patrick H. Jewett, who hekl the office for eight years. In 1872 Judge Charles P. Ferguson succeeded Judge Jewett and held the ofifice about four years and until the court was abolished.

Judge \\'illiam T. Otto was the first Judge to preside over the Clark Circuit Court during the period above mentioned. It was claimed by Judge Otto's contemporaries that as a jurist and presiding judge he had no superior and by some that he had no eciual.

Baird S History Of Clark Co., Ind

of Indiana, recently said tliat Judge Otto was tlie finest conversationalist, the best lawj'er and the best judge he ever met: that he could talk law as no other man he ever heard of did, and would ha\'e been an ornaiiieni uvr.n the bencli of the Supreme Court of the United States.

The late Gen. Walter O. Gresham, Ex-United States District Judge for Indiana; Ex-Postmaster-General under Arthur's administratimi and Ex-Secretaiy of State under ClevelancTs second ailministrati(.)n, said of Otto as a jurist and presiding judge that "he had no superior and few equals."

Judge Otto was born, reared and educateil in Philadelphia. He was born in 1815 and came to Indiana about 1837, settled in Brownstown, Indiana, Jackson county, and commenced the practice of law. Soon his superior literary and legal attainments attracted the attention of the leading men of the state : that at the age of twenty-se\-en years he was elected by the Legislature Judge of the Clark Circuit Court and the District of which Clark county formed a part. This position he held until the close of the year 1852. During the period of his incumbency on the bench he spent his winter vacation in lecturing on law at the Indiana State University at Bloomington.. While on the bench he won the re])utation of being the ablest presiding Circuit Judge that was ever in the state. \Miile on the bench his manner was imperious, austere and autocratic. He brooked no familiarity from young or old, and handled the most abtruse proposition of law as if a plaything- and astonished the older members of the bar with the rapidity and case with which he solved every legal question submitted for his consideration. Immediately after leaving the bar in 1853 li^ settled in Xew Albany in the practice of the law and at once his sen-ices were in demand to argue important cases pending before the Supreme Court. In 1855 l""^ ^^'^s employed l)y the Liquor League of Indiana, to test the constitutionality of tlie Maine li(|uor law, then but recently passed by the Indiana Legislature, in which his ettorts were crowned with success. In person he w-as commanding; was about five feet and eleven inches tall; would weigh about 175 pounds; stout, sturdy and symmetrically built, with a head of medium size, well shaped, with a strong but handsome face, with features, every lineament of which was suggestive of a great strength and power ; with a strong, full voice, and fine flow of the choicest language. In arguing before the court or jury he stood straight up, motionless, without a gesture or any dallying with oratory, went direct to the controlling- points of the case, and came down on his adversary with crushing power like an avalanche. His power was not in arousing the passions or feelings, but in convincing and carrying captive the judgment. I am now speaking of him as a lawyer. He never appealed to the passions or feelings of the court or jury. He seemed to have no use for any weapon other than that calculated to convince the judgment, and enlighten the understanding. His power and influence over a jury thus exerted, far surpassed the effect and influence of the impassioned class of orators. The efifect of the impassioned speech may die \vith the passion, while the convincing power of logic will live.

In 1895. less than three years after Otto had left the bench, he was pitted against George G. Dunn, the "Henry Clay of the West," as he was called, in a noted murder trial at Corydon, in which Dunn spoke eight hours. Mr. John F. Reed, who was associated in the case with Mr. Dunn, said that Otto made the most powerful speech before the jury that he had ever heard and that there was no comparison between the power of the men liefore a jury ; that Otto was by far the superior of the two ; yet Dunn stood at the head of the bar in Indiana, as an advocate. I have seen Charles Dewey, Joseph C. Marshall and William T. Otto at the bar in Clark county at the same time and I never have seen three men at the bar of any court, or on the bench of the Superior Court of any state, or of the Cnited States, that I thought equal to those three men.

Judge Otto was appointed Assistant Secretaiy of the Interior under Lincoln's administration in 1862, and left Indiana and never returned. He served in the position to which he was appointed through Lincoln's and Johnson's administrations and then served for ten yea^rs as Reporter of Decisions of the United States Supreme Court, after which he spent the remainder of iiis life traveling in foreign countries. He died about two years ago at the age of eighty-nine years.

George A. Bicknell was born, reared and educated in the city of Philadelphia and came to Indiana and settled in Scott county in about 1848. and was soon after elected Prosecuting Attorney for the Second Judicial District, and in 1852 was elected Judge of the same district and served for twenty-four consecutive years until 1876, when he was made a Representatix'e in Congress, when he served until 1880, then he served several years as Commissioner as an assistant to the judges of the Supreme Court of the state, in deciding cases that had accumulated in said court frum time to time, over and above what the regular judges could dispose of. After that he was elected Judge of the Floyd Circuit Court, which position he filled until his death in 1892. Here is a man who was scarcely ever a day out of office from 1848 to 1892, thirtysi.x years, yet he was never known to electioneer for any position he filled, a record almost, if not c|uite unparelleled in the histor_\- of the county. His long official career, without any apparent effort on his behalf to secure it, speaks volumes for the man. He was indeed a worthy successor to Judge Otto. Perhaps no man was ever on the bench who was more loved and respected b}' both bar and litigants. So popular was he upon the bench that it was not unusual for a wliole term of court to pass without calling upon a jury to try a single civil suit. The Hon. Thomas ^^^ Gil^son said of him : "He never decided a case that he did not convince him he was right, even when the decision was against himself." In conclusion it may be said of him that he discharged every official trust reposed in him with distinguished ability and fidelity.

Judge John S. Davis was not a great jurist, yet he was a very formidable competitor at the bar. He possessed a large fund of common sense and was an excellent judge of human nature. He exercised a wonderful influence over men with whom he came in contact. In this regard, had he been more fortunate in his political aspirations, he may have rivaled Jesse D. Bright. In politics he was a Whig until that party passed away. He then became a Republican, which party i-an him for Congress in i860 against James A. Cravens, the Democratic nominee in a district Democratic by more than three thousand majority, and he came within about three hundred votes of being elected. This race demonstrated his power before the people. Had he remained in the Republican party he doubtless would have attained great political eminence, because his \\onderful race for Congress in the stronghold of Democracy gave him a commanding position in his party, but during the War of the Rebellion he joined his fortune with the Democratic party, and soug'ht the nomination for Congress in its convention, in 1870, 1872, 1874 and 1876, and was defeated each time and for no other reasons than many Democrats had not forgotten the race he had previously made against them as a Republican. But in his own county, Fknd, where he came in dailv contact with the people, he absolutely dominated the Democracy from the time he came into the party until his death. Anything his county could give him he could get. In 1874 Floyd county elected him to the Lower House of the Legislature, where in 1875, in the memorable race for the L^nited States Senate, between Joseph E. McDonald and Benjamin Harrison, at a time when the Democracy lacked one vote of a majority on joint ballot and at a time when the Republicans were highly elated with the prospects of success, and the Democrats correspondingly depressed. In this emergency the last expiring hope of Democracy was centered in John S. Davis. Davis's management secured the needed vote and McDonald was elected to the United .States Senate.

The situation at the time was such that no other man than Davis could have secured the \()te that gave tliat importrmt \ictiiry to the Indiana Democracy ; hence it is fitting that Davis should be held in greateful remembrance by the Democracy of the slate of Indiana and of Floyd county as well, for giving to the state the only man that could have done the work.

Simeon \\'. Wolfe served but a few months as Judge of the Clark Circuit Court, but long enough to show that he possessed great capacity for the business. Mr. \\'olfe was born in Harrison county, about 1822, and was educated in the schools of his native county. He married at the age of twentyone years and settled in Georgetown, Floyd county. Indiana. He engaged in making shoes and reading law until 1849. \vlieii he entered the law scIkmI of the Indiana State University in Bloomington, Indiana, and was graduated from that university in one term. He then moved to Corydon, the county seat of Harrison county, and commenced to edit a newspaper and to practice law; In 1852 he was Democratic Presidential elector for his district and can\assed the same with abilii\. In i860 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Charlestown, South Carolina. In 1862 and 1864 he represented Harrison county in the State Senate. In 1872 he was elected to Congress from his district and served with distinction. In 1882 he was appointed Judge of the District, composed of the counties of Clark and Floyd. After that he practiced law in New Albany, until his death in about 1889. Of all the distinguished men that that magnificent county has given to the state, not one surpasses Simeon ^^^ Wolfe in breadth and strength of intellect. If his magnetism and social qualities had been ecjual to his ability, history would place him high up in the ranks of the great men of our state. He was not an attractive speaker, but as a logician and debater he ranked with the very best we had in the state. In the campaigns of 1866, 1868, 1870 antl 1872, I thought he made the ablest and most instructve speeches that were made. With the severest logic he always went to the very bottom of every subject he discussed.

Judge Charles P. Ferguson, whose name deserves to be held bv the people of Clark county in grateful remembrance, for if there ever was a faithful servant of the people Charles P. Ferguson was one. It might have been truly said of him as Robert Ingersoll said of his brother, that if ever}- person to whom he had done little acts of kindness were to put a rose upon his grave. he would sleep under a world of flowers. Who can remember the poor people to whom in his long life he has given legal advice without money, and without price, who can number the men he has saved from vexations and fruitless law-suits by giving sound advice? Of the sixty years he lived, after reaching mature manhood, thirty-six years were spent in the perfonnance of ot^ncial duties imposed upon him l:)y the partiality of the people.

Mr. Ferguson was born in 1824 in Clark county, near Charlestown, Indiana. He was educated in Charlestown at the time wdien it was celebrated for the proficiency of its schools. At an early age he entered the oftice of the Clerk of the Circuit Court, as Deputy Clerk and as such served from 1844 to 1852, and in 1852 he w'as elected Clerk of said court for a term of four years. In 1856 he was elected for a further term of four years. In i860 be began to practice law, and during the same year he was elected to the State Senate for four years. He then practiced law until 1872, when he was elected Judge of the Common Pleas Circuit Court and served until the court was abolished four years later. He then practiced law until 1882, when he was elected Judge of the Clark Circuit Court for six years. In 1888 he was rei elected for six years more, and served until 1894. After that he practiced law until within about three years of his death. As a Judge he was able, faithful and conscientious. He performed every trust reposed in him with distinguished ability, fidelity and with an eye to the public welfare.

While in the strength and vigor of his days Judge Ferguson probabh' exercised more influence over the people of Clark county than any other man.

Judge Ferguson was well grounded in the principles (if the law and always took care of his clients, and was a remarkably shrewd and able practitioner. Socially he was one of the most agreeable and pleasant companions, and generous hearted to a fault. In person he was about five feet and seven inches in height and weighed about one hundred and thirty-five pounds. He had a large and well formed head, with light hair, high and broad forehead, a pleasant expression and an intellectual cast of features indicating firmness and will power.

Patrick H. Je\\ett was a native of Georgia and came to Indiana ahiuit the year 1849 and settled in Lexington, Scott county, and commenced the practice of law and soon came into prominence at the bar. In the year 1854 lie was elected Prosecuting Attorney for the Second Judicial District, composed of eight counties. He made an active, energetic prosecutor and discharged the duties of the office with commendable ability. In 1864 he was elected Judge of the common Pleas Court, the circuit being then composed of the counties of Clark, Floyd, Washington and Scott. In 1868 he was reelected and filled the office, in all, eight years. He performed the duties of the office well and made a proficient judge. As a lawyer he was able, energetic and resourceful, and in the earlier days of his life, before ill health had impaired his native vigor, he was a formidable competitor at the bar and one cf the most companionable of men.

Amos Lovering was the first Judge who presided over the Clark Common Pleas Circuit Court. He was a native of Massachusetts, was graduated in one of its colleges. He came to Indiana and settled in Jeffersonville in 1840. He was well grounded in the general principles of law, but never liked to practice it, consec|uently had but few clients. He had a great taste for literature and avoided the drudgery the law imposed upon him. He was elected Judge of the court in 1852 and served until 1862, when he resigned before the expiration of his third term. He made an excellent and able Judge, and seldom were any of his decisions reversed. He was popular with the people and the bar, and could have retained the office much longer had he so desired. In person he was six feet tall and weighed about one hundred and fifty pounds. He had a large, well shaped head, black hair and symmetrical and handsome features. He died in Louisville about 1877, and will long be remembered as a faithful public servant.

Judge Levering, served about two years. He made a good Judge, and was an able lawyer. He was a native of Clark county and was educated at the Asbury University, Greencastle, Indiana. He belonged to a family noted for its scholarly attainments, and was a brother of several distinguished Methodist preachers, formerly of Southern Indiana. About 1881 Mr. Hester left Charlestown, where he was then living, and went to California, where he now resides. He was a worthy successor to Judge Lovering upon the bench.

Cyrus L. Dunham \yas born in Thompson county. New York, the i6th day of June, 18 17. He was educated and studied law in that state, and came to Indiana and located at Salem in Washington county, in 1841, being then in the twenty-fourth year of his age, and commenced the practice of law, and soon ranked with the best attorneys at that bar. In 1844, at the age of twenty-seven, he took the stump and canvassed his district for James K. Polk for President. In that canvass he demonstrated his ability to successfully cope with any of his opponents. In 1845, at the age of twent\'-eight, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney for his circuit and at once established the reputation of an able criminal lawyer. Pie appeared at the bar of the Clark Circuit at its first session after he was elected Prosecutor, rather shabbily dressed and being a stranger in that locality he made an unfavorable impression upon the people, all of which disappeared before the end of the first day of the session. On the docket for trial that day was a certain criminal case in which the prosecuting witness, after looking at Dunham, came to the conclusion that he had better hire another lawyer to help prosecute the case, plucked Dunham to one side and said, "Young man, had I better employ another lawyer to assist you in the prosecution of this case?" Dunham answered : "My friend, you can do as you please about that, but I tell you that I can prosecute that man as hard as he ought to be prosecuted." \\'hich fact was subsequently verified to the complete satisfaction of the prosecuting witness. In 1846 !Mr. Dimham was elected to the Legislature from Washington county and re-elected two years afterwards. In 1848 he was a presidential elector and stumped the state for Cass and Butler, the Democratic nominees for President. In 1849, at the age of thirty-two years, he made the race for Congress and defeated William McKee Dunn. In 1853 he was re-elcted to Congress over Rodger Martin. In 1852 he defeated Joseph G. Marshall, the "Sleeping Lion," for Congress. In 1859 he made the race for Congress and was defeated by George C. Dunn. This was the end of his Congressional career, which was most brilliant. Thus, before he had completed his thirtyfifth year, he had served two years as Prosecuting Attorney, four years in the Legislature and six years in Congress. In 1859 he was Secretary of State under the appointment of Governor Willard, to fill out the unexpired term of Daniel McClure. resigned. In i860 he was a candidate before the Demo- cratic Convention for Governor, and all the southern part of the state was for hini. The northern part was for Hendricks and Dunham withdrew in favor of Hendricks and moved to make his nomination unanimous. In 1861 he raised the Fiftieth Indiana Remigent and was commissioned its colonel and went into the war, served for about one year with distinction, when ill health forced him to resign. In 1871 he was elected Judge of the Floyd and Clark Criminal Court Circuit. He then removed to Jeffersonville, where he lived until his death, November 21, 1877. At a meeting of the JelYersonville bar, over which Jonas G. Howard presided, the following resolutions were adopted :

Rcsok'cd : That in the death of Colonel Dunham, our profession has lost a member possessed of imminent personal and rare legal attainments, guided always by a sense of duty, justice and right. His firmness and perseverance and independence in maintaining his convictions, won the confidence of all who knew him, either in professional, public or private life.

Unfortunately for Air. Dunham's fame, that in 1854 after he served his six years in Congress, that he did not open a law office and return to the practice of law, for which he was so well ecjuipped and admirably adapted, instead of spending the best years of life on a big thousand acre farm in \\'hite river bottoms, raising corn and hogs, a business in which he had had no experience.

Mr. Dunham, in strength and breadth of intellect, was a great man and could combat successfully with any adversarv at the bar, or on the stump. Mr. Dunham was one of the few of our distinguished men of Indiana who combined the great persuasive power of eloquence with the crushing power of logic. As a rule these two elements are not found in a great degree in the same individual, as notable exceptions we will name Joseph G. Marshall and Jason B. Brown. 'Sir. Dunham was more than what is usually termed an advocate. He was intellectually capable of grapling successfully with the most difficult subjects the human mind is called upon to solve. Mr. Dunham, before he reached the meridian of manhood, had contracted irregular habits, which finally, long before his death sapped his intelluctual vigor and those who only knew him after he came out of the war, have but a faint conception of his intellectual power. Long before his death he was conscious of his waning strength and loss of inlluence. In a conversation with him in 1868. wlien he resided in New Albany, he complained that when Thomas A. Flendricks and Joseph E. McDonald visited his town, they never called on him ; that when he went to their town he ne\-er failed to see them. In that conversation, the writer replied to him: "Dunham, if you would just hold up and be yourself again, you would have no trouble with Hendricks and McDonald. They would be glad to meet you. but I fear that you are too excitable to control yourself." He said : "Yes, I am too excitable." This ended the conversation on that subject and I afterwards felt that I ought not to have said what

I had to him. About two months after that conversation I recefv^d a note, a few Hnes, of which I yet ha\e in my possession, which reads as foHows, after tlie address: "Dear Sir: - I have conckided to take your advice and have cut off all supplies forever. Will soon be myself again, age and loss of time only excepted. Yours truly, C. L. Dunham."

In 1864, in the Indiana Legislature, ilr. Dunham was by odds the ablest debater in that body, as well as the most eloquent speaker, though this was some }'ears after his powers began to wane. He appeared at his best in 1852 and 1854, in making his races for Congress with those two intellectual giants, Joseph G. ]\Iarshall and George D. Dunn. Once, while making a speech in the Legislature, he was advising against the habit of drinking, some member cried out: "Do you practice that?" Instantly came the answer: "Does the guide Ixjard point the way any less because it does not travel it? In the Mexican war there was an Irish gunner named Riley, in General Taylor's command, who deserted and joined the Mexican army. Afterwards, in 1854, during "Know Nothing Times," Dunham, in making a speech, was eulogizing the patriotism of the Irish and Germans, when some one in the audience called out, "Who was Riley." Instantly came the reply: "Riley was an Irishman and Benedict Arnold w^as an American." Dunliam was one of the most gifted men and by nature designed for a better fate.

The names of the principal local attorneys who practiced law at the bar of Clark county, state of Indiana, from 185 1 until the year 1900, to-wit: Charles Dew-ey, Thomas \Y. Gibson. John D. Ferguson. John F. Read, Charles Dewey, Jr., John Borden, Jonas G. Howard, Simeon S. Johnson, James B. Meriweather, Cyrus L. Dunham, Patrick H. Jewett, George H. D. Gibson. Henry A. Burtt, James E. Taggart, Jacob Buchannan, Thomas J. Gillian, M. Z. Stannard, Matthew Clegg, Park Dewey, Charles P. Ferguson, Melville C. Hester, James K. Marsh, James A. Ingram, George H. Voigt, Edgar A. Howard, James W. Fortune, Ward H. Watson, Edward C. Hughes, L. A. Douglas, F.'W. Carr, F. M. Mayfield, T. J. Brock, Harry C. Montgomery, Frank B. Burke, H. W. Phipps and B. C. Lutz

The names of non-resident attorneys, who for many years during said period appeared at the Clark county bar, are as follows, to-wit : William T. Otto, Joseph G. Marshall, Randall Crawford, Alexander Dowling. John H. Stotsenburg, Thomas M. Brown, D. C. Anthony and George V. Howk.

The bar of Clark county, between the years 1852 and 1862, was stronger tlian it has ever Ijeen since. At the close of that period it lost three of the greatest jurists, lawyers and intellectual giants that ever appeared in a court of justice, namely Charles Dewey, William T. Otto and Joseph G. Marshall, three men that in legal attainments and in intellectual grasp and power have never been surpassed and neither of whom has ever had an ecpial upon the

Dewey was born in Massachusetts in 1784, and was graduated at Williams College in that state, with first honors of his class. He studied law and came to Indiana in 1816 and located in Paoli, Orange count)', and entered into the practice of law, but did not confine himself in the practice to a single county. His great ability brought him rapidly to the front and soon the field of his practice extended to the boundaries of the state. As most lawyers do, Mr. Dewey soon took to politics, and in 182 1 was elected to the Indiana Legislature and served with such distinction as to attract the attention of the people throughcjut the state, and the next year the people of bis district demanded that he should run for Congress. His district at that time comprised more than one-thn-d of the state. He was a Whig in politics; his district was strongly Democratic, and he was beaten in the race. Two years after that, in 1824, he moved to Charlestown in Clark count}-, where he lived until his death, which occurred April 25, 1862, at the age of seventy-six years. At Charlestown he devoted himself assidiously to the practice of law and had the reputation of being the ablest lawyer in the state of Indiana. In 1852 he made the race for Congress against John Carr and was defeated, after which he never ran for an elective oflice. In 1856 he was appointed by the Go\-ernor, Judge of the Supreme Court of the state, which lie occupied for eleven years, and honored it as few have done, and b}' universal consent was placed in the very front rank ul Indiana's greatest jurists. Judge Dewey's associates on the bench were Judge Blackford and Jeremiah Sullivan, and it is universally conceded that at no time since the organization of the court has it stood so high as when Dewey, Blackford and Sullivan were its judges, but in strength of intellect and ability to grasp legal questions, Dewey was far superior to either of his distinguished associates. In 1886 Judge William T. Otto said that Judge Dewey was the equal of Daniel Webster, that he had never met a man that in strength of intellect and ability to grasp a legal proposition, was Judge Dewey's equal. That no man on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, except David Davis, of Illinois, approximated him. It will Ije remembered that when Judge Otto made this statement, that it was after Dewey had practiced for twelve years in the circuit of which Otto was Judge and after Otto had served eight years as Assistant Secretarv of the Interior under Lincoln's and Johnson's administrations, and had served ten vears as Reporter of Decisions of the United States Supreme Court, and several years traveling in Europe, visiting in the courts of England, France, Germany and other countries.

In person Judge Dewey was large and commanding. He was si.x feet high and weighed about two hundred pounds, his head was large, his forehead high and broad, his hair was black, his complexion dark, his face was large, liis features irregular but wonderfully suggestive of intelligence, strength and will power. Judge Dewey was a great admirer of Clay and Webster, but he hated Andrew Jackson. He always condemned the American practice of deserving and selecting military chieftains for civil offices of government, instead of statesmen. He believed that statesmen for the forum and chieftains for the field were the safest for a republic. In 1861. on the day the news reached here that Fort Sumpter had been fired on, Judge Dewey came into the court-house at Charlestown, took a seat by the stove to await the opening of the court. It was a chilly April morning, and he sat there with bowed head and gloomy and apparent distress pictured on his countenance, surrounded by a small group of lawyers all still not a word being spoken, suddenly he raised his crutch, which he held in his hand and broke the silence by exclaiming, "I wish old Jackson could be brought up out of purgatory just long enough to put down this rebellion, but then I would want him sent right straight back there again." Judge Dewey died on the 25th of April, 1862, and was buried at Charlestown in the town cemetery.

It was said of Marshall that in breadth and strength of intellect Indiana never had a superior and in ability to stir the passions and sway the feeling of the people he never had an equal. He was called the "Sleeping Lion" and fully aroused he was a lion indeed. On such occasions his oratory was like the hurricane that sweeps everything before it. Ordinarily this power was dormant, but when engaged in a case that enlisted his feelings and conscience his words were like hot shot from the cannon's mouth.

In his sketches of Indiana men Oliver H. Smith says of Mr. Marshall, ".As a lawyer Mr. Marshall stood among the very first in the state. His great fort as an advocate was in the power in which he handles facts before the jury. At times I have thought him unsurpassed by any man I ever heard, in impassioned eloquence." It should be remembered that Mr. Smith had sat in the Senate of the United States and heard speeches from Clay, Webster and Calhoun. Colonel Abraham W. Hendricks, who for many years had practiced law at the Madison bar with Mr. Marshall in a recent address said of him, "He was the most transcendentally powerful advocate that ever figured at the Indiana bar in Indiana." His intellect was colossal. He seemed to know the lowly intuition ; his logic was surrounded by a glowing atmosphere of passion. He could sweep through his subject like a tempest or crash through it like an avalanche. He was sometimes called the Webster of Indiana.

John L. King, of Chicago, once said in a letter that Mr. Marshall was by odds the greatest man Indiana ever produced, but Mr. Marshall himself and Judge Otto both believed that in breadth and strength of intellect that the honor belonged to Judge Dewey, but both men were too great to be envious of each other's fame. Marshall was large, raw-lx)ned, over six feet high and weighed about two hundred [xiunds. He had a large head and face and sandy hair. His countenance indicated strength, power and determination.

Josepli G. Marshall was born in Fayette county, Kentucky, on January 18. 1800. He was graduated from the university in 1823. He read law in Kentucky. In 1828 he came to Indiana and settled at Madison, where he remained until his death in a town noted for strength of its bar. He soon obtained a lucrative practice and rose to eminence at the bar. Two years later after his arrival in the town he was elected Probate Judge, which office he filled with ability. In 1836, 1840 and 1844 he was on the Whig electoral ticket and each time made an active canvass of state. In 1846 he made the race for Governor and was beaten by James Whitcomb. In 1849 President Taylor appointed him Goernor of Oregon, but he declined the place. In 1850 he was elected Senator from his county and served the legal term. In 1842 he was nominated for Congress in his district, but was beaten by Cyrus Dunham. In addition to the offices nameil he represented his countv several times in the lower branch of the State Legislature. Mr. Marshall had an ambition to go to the United States Senate, but his ambition was never gratified. In the Legislature in 1844 the Whigs had the majority on joint ballot. They nominated him for the Senate but the Democrats refused to go into the election. Each party had twenty-five votes in the Senate, and Jesse D. Bright, then Lieutenant Governor, gave the casting vote against going into the election. In 1854 the People's party had a maj<.^rity of fourteen on joint ballot, but the Democrats had the majority in the Senate and refused to go into an election. Mr. Marshall was the nominee chosen of the Republican party and had the election been held he would have been chosen, thus it seems that he was twice prevented from going to the Senate by the refusal of the Democrats to go into an election.

John D. Ferguson was a native of Clark county, Indiana. He was b(irn near Charlestown in 1822. His parents were Virginians, and came to Indiana earlv in the nineteenth century. He read law and was admitted to practice in the Clark Circuit Court at the age of twenty-one. In 185 1, at the early age of twenty-nine, he had ac(|uired a large and lucrative practice and was regarded the best lawyer of his age in Southern Indiana. At the time of his death, at the age of thirty-six, he was one of the leading lawyers of the countv and at that time had the largest practice of any man in the county. He died in 1858, on the 25th day of April, with consumption. Had he lived until he was fifty years of age he would scarcely have had a superior at the bar in the state. He was a man of the very finest intellect, resourceful, with a wonderful capacity for work, and capable of grappling successfully with the most abtruse questions of law. He was not only a good lawyer, but he was well grounded in national politics. He studied thoroughly the writ- ings of Jefferson. Madison, Hamilton. John Adams, Calhonn. Benton, Clay, "W'eljster and other distinguished writers on pohtical econom\- ; hence he was well equipped at the time of his death for the leadership of his party, which leadership he had enjoyed for the ten years before his death. Absolute leadership was conceded to him by all the leaders of the W'liig part}- in the county. The leaders of the Whig party in Jeffersonville and elsewhere in the county did not know, nor care to know, any other leader than John D. Ferguson. Willard never had a more absolute control over the Democracy of Floyd county than had John D. Ferguson over the Whig party of Clark county from 1850 until that party ceased to exist. He died soon after the Republican party was organized. Had he lived he doubtless would have cast his lot with that party, in fact the great majority of his old Whig friends went into the Republican party after the demise of the Whig party. Although he had never been a candidate for an office, yet no man in Southern Indiana was better equipped for the political arena than he, consequently he had a bright future before him, had his life been spared. He was a distinguished looking man, over six feet high and slender, but symmetrically made, would weigh about one hundred and sixty pounds when in health. He had a large head, a high broad forehead and a long, slim, well proportioned face, light hair, slightly sandy. In speech he had a good voice and an easy flow of language; in argument he was logical, convincing and persuasive: in temperament he was mild and genial. He reminded one of William McKinley in this, he made no enemies. Politically he was popular with both parties. He once said that at one time he had been an admirer of Hamilton, but that upon further investigation his mind had undergone a change and that he had reached the conclusion that Jefferson was the greatest statesman the age had produced.

Captain Thomas W. Gibson was educated at the ^Military Academy at West Point. He first studied medicine, then law. He came to Charlestown when quite a young man and engaged in the practice of law and soon rose to distinction. He was with General Scutt in th.e war with Mexico. In 1851 he was elected to the Indiana State Senate. He was appointed l:)y that body as one of a special committee to revise the code of practice and td make a new code of laws under our new constituiion. These duties were discharged v.-ith honor to himself and credit to the state. In 1853 he opened a law office in the city of Louisville, but still retained his residence at Charlestown and attended the sessions of the court of that place in connection with his Louisville practice. His repniation had preceded him and he was employed soon after he arrived there in the prosecution of Mat Ward for killing Butler, a noted case that shook Kentucky from center to circumference, and well nigh turned Louisville upside down. Ward's father was a wealthy Louisville merchant. He was tried in Hardin county and acquitted. This so incensed the people of Louisville that a mob arose and stoned the father's residence, and the residences of some of the attorneys engaged in the defense of defendant. Upon the trial of the cause many able speeches were made on both sides. I read them all and reached the conclusion that Captain Gibson's speech was the ablest delivered on that occasion. Captain Gil)son always ranked in strength and intellect with the ablest lawyers of our state. Captain Gibson differed from nmst lawyers of the present dav in this, that outside of his profession he was full of valuable information upon almost an}- subject that might be broached. Joseph G. Marshall had great admiration for Captain Gibson, when he came to Louisville in 1850 to arrange to fight a duel with Senator Jesse D. Bright, he turned his back on all the other numerous friends of his in Lidiana and came to Charlestown and took Captain Gibson with him to act as his second, but while the belligerents were getting ready for the conflict James Guthrie, Judge Pirtle, William O. Butler and other friends of both parties settled the matter so far as the fight was concerned, but the parties never spoke to each other afterward. In person Captain Gibson was a sturdy liuilt man, about five feet, ten inches high and would weigh about one hundred and eighty pounds. He had a large head and face, with regular features, and light hair and complexion. His countenance indicated a man that would brook no insult nor quail before a foe. Li 1846 and 1847 ^^ served as captain of a company in the war with Mexico and with distinction. In 1833 '^^ served Clark county in the Senate of the state and was chairman of the committee who made Indiana's code of practice under the constitution. Captain Gibson in breadth and strength of intellect ranked with the very ablest men of Indiana.

John F. Read was born in the county of Davis in the state of Indiana, in 1822. He was a son of James G. Read, a prominent politician of Indiana. Mr. Read came to Indiana with his parents about 1833. He was graduated at Hanover College in 1843, and then read law with Maj. Henry Hurst in Jeffersonville, and was admitted to the bar in 1845, and commenced practicing law in Jefifersonville. In 1853 be was elected to the Legislature and served one term. In 1833 he was appointed receiver of the land office located at Jeffersonville, and he filled that office for several years. After that he served several years as City Attorney. In 1866 Mr. Read and I formed a partnership for the practice of law and for certain enterprises in which we were engaged. Mr. Read was the most valuable man to the city of Jeffersonville that ever lived in it. Yes, he has done enough for the city of Jeffersonville without money and without price, to entitle him to a monument that would transmit his name in story and in song to the most distant posterity. He always contributed to every enterprise calculated to promote the general welfare, freelv. The following are some of the enterprises he aided to promote and put his money in to aid in the advancement of the city of Jeffersonville, to-wit : In 1859 he insisted that for the interest of Jeffersonville a turnpike road should be built to the county seat at Charlestown. He aided in the organization and building of the Charlestown pike. In 1864 he insisted on building the Hamburg turnpike, with a view of inviting the trade of our county lying north of Silver creek, which had been going to New Albany to come to Jeffersonville. He helped organize the company and built that road. In 1867 he organized the Ohio Falls Hydraulic Company with the view of developing the water power of the Falls of the Ohio, which resulted in the building of the big flour mill at the Falls. About 1865 and for several years previous the shipyards had been building in Jeffersonville, about twenty-five steamboats a year, the machinery of all were furnished by New Albany foundries. Mr. Read insisted that Jeffersonville should have a foundry and have that work done at home and he organized a company for that purpose, with a capital stock of seventy-five thousand dollars, to which he subscribed ten thousand dollars. He got Dillar Ricketts, then president of the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis Railroad Company, and several Louisville capitalists interested in the enterprise, but the company failed in getting a competent man to run the business and the scheme was abandoned. Mr. Read then turned his attention to the Sweeney boys, who had started a small foundry on Pearl street, and encouraged them to enlarge their business and aided in raising money to buy machinery. He also encouraged and aided Plumadore in raising money to start his wagon and buggy factory on Pearl street. He assisted Henry Same to raise money to start and run his flour mill on Walnut street. In 1870 he helped organize and put in operation the Ohio Falls Wagon Company, with a capital stock of seventy-five thousand dollars, to which he subscribed five thousand dollars. He also got Belknaps and Avery, of Louisville, interested in the enterprise, and each put into it five thousand dollars, which company gave employment to about seventy-five men for about three years and when the panic of 1873 swept the country like a besom of destruction the company had shipped south several hundred of its wagons to be sold on commission from which it never received any returns. It. together with over twenty-five thousand similar enterprises, went to the wall. Among those that failed was the great Ohio Falls Car & Locomotive Company, capitalized at one million dollars, and the other car company operated in the Indiana State Prison. South. After the former had gone into bankruptcy a bid was offered to the company to buy and remove the plant from Jeffersonville to a neightoring city, and after Mr. Sprague, its president, had labored in \ain for more than three months with the people of Jeft'ersonville to raise the money to re-organize the company and save it to Jeffersonville, and had given up all hope, and had concluded that it be sold and removed to New Albany, at this critical period Mr. Read sent for ]\Ir. Sprague and told him that rather than have the works taken away from this place he would take the responsibility of raising the required amount of money to prevent its removal. In two daj's after that interview with Air. Sprague the money was raised, the company re-organized and plans were being made for the resumption of business. This was thirty-five years ago and from that day to this that company has employed from fifteen hundred to three thousand men almost continuously until about one year ago. Again in 1876, in the hope of reanimating Jefifersonville, he organized the Jeff^ersonville Plate Glass Company, with a capital stock of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, in which company he invested over sixty thousand dollars. He was president of the company, and at the same time was president of the Citizens National Bank. The company employed two hundred and twenty-five men for nine }'ears. forty of them were experts who received four dollars per day for their labor. The men were paid off every Saturday night, and every glass was sold as fast as it was made. It made the largest plate glass made in the United States. For nine years the company brought into Jeffersonville twenty-five thousand dollars a month. Again when Mr. Barmore's big shipyard sawmill was burned and his shipyard business was lying prostrate and Mr. Barmore was contemplating a location elsewhere. Mr. Read sent for him and told him that he must not leave this city, that his mill must be rebuilt and that he would assist him to raise the money to do it. and he did. In all these enterprises through all these years Mr. Read wa^ so quiet, so unassuming, so unostentatious, so undemonstrative, that the public seldom knew whence the power came. But this is not all, 'Sir. Read went more poor men's security and helped more men out of financial difficulties tlian all the other men in Jeft'ersonville, beside, for years he was on every Falls pilots bond, on the official bond of nearly every officer of the city, township and county. He never withheld help from the needy nor refused aid to the sufi^ering. Through his management and skill the government building was secured to Jefifersonville. He brought on the fight for the re-location of the county seat from Charlestown and lead the fight for three long vears and in it Jeft'ersonville had met such giants at bar as Judge Alexander Dowling, Jason B. Brown and John S. Davis. Jefifersonville had two lawyers besides Mr. Read. Mr. Brown said on several occasions that tliev would have won in the fight had it not been for that Ic.ng head of John F. Reafl. Be that as it may, certain it is that Jeffersonville would not have won without him. In 1884 it was Read who had the men sent to \\'ashington to get the appropriation to build the levee, Air. Read was endowed with a great intellect and had he given one half the attention to the law that he bestowed upon these other affairs he would have been equal to the very best. In the thirty-fi\e years that Mr. Read and I were associated together he spent iii these dift'erent enterprises not less than (ine hundred thuusand dollars, beside all these services in every public enterprise was given withtiut compensation. In conclusion I will say that Jeft'ersonville is indebted to him for the government building, for the countv seat, for the Car \\'orks, for the levee and for the Bie Four bridge.

In person Mr. Read was about five feet and ten inches high, and would weigh about one hundred and forty pounds ; his body was symetrically formed, his head was large, his face well shaped with regular features, his hair was black, his temperament was cool and calculating. Nothing seemed to excite him. He never flew into passion nor used an oath.- In speech he was rapid, with a good flow of language. His speeches were earnest, convincing and logical and always directly to the point. In logical power I belive he was unsurpassed.

Frank B. Burke was born in Jefifersonville, Indiana, December 26, 1856. He was a son of the late James and Cornelia Burke, of Jeffersonville. His father was a native of Ireland, and came to the United States in 1848. His mother was a native of Louisiana; her ancestors were French. Mr. Burke was educated at Nazareth, Kentucky. In 1876 he began to make speeches in the Presidential campaign of that year, being then in the twentieth year of his age. He studied law in Jeffersonville and attended law lectures at the Law University in Louisville. He was admitted to the bar in 1878. In 1880 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of the district composed of counties of Clark and Floyd. In 1882 he was re-elected; from 1886 to 1890 he represented Clark county in the state Senate. In 1893 he was appointed, under Cleveland's second administration, United States District Attorney for the United States, District of Indiana. While in that office he distinguished himself and established the reputation of being a strong and able lawyer. In 1900 he was a candidate before the Democratic convention for Governor and was defeated by John Kern. In the same year he was nominated for Congress by the Democrats of the Indianapolis District and was beaten by his Republican opponent. Burke was a great thinker, but he never spent much time with the books. He did not like the drudgeiy the practice of law imposed upon him. He liked to examine great questions and discuss them from his own standpoint. He disliked the idea of having to obtain the meaning of the question from the conflicting opinions of a dozen or more different judges and then figure up which side had the majority. He possessed a wonderful capacity for learning and an astonishing ability to grasp the controlling points in a case. His power to arouse the passions and stir the feelings of an audience was almost unecjualed. I think in that line he would have rivalled Joseph G. Marshall, the "Sleeping Lion." Once many years ago while he was making a speech to a jury in the prosecution of a man charged with murder in which the sympathies of the audience were with the defendant, at a time when he was coming down heavily upon him, the audience hissed him. He instantly turned to them and said, as no other man could have said it, "More than eighteen hundred years ago the multitude cried out, surrender unto us Barabas." It is said for ten seconds the silence was so intense that you could almost hear every person in the audience breath. Burke possessed great logical power as well as the gift of eloquence. In this he differed from many of our popular orators. As a rule the two elements are not in a marked degree combined in the same person. I claim that Joseph G. Marshall and Burke were exceptions to this mle, that Burke and Marshall's logical powers enabled them to grapple successfully, with any subject, however obtruse, with the ablest advocates in this country. This could not be said of the Henry S. Lane or the Ed. Hanigan type of orators. Cyrus L. Dunham was another of our distinguished men, who combined great logical and oratorical powers. In person Mr. Burke was commanding; he was six feet high and would weigh about one hundred and eighty pounds. He was stout built and symmetrically formed, his head and face were large, his features regular and his hair was black. In temperament he was cool, reserved and undemonstrative, and ncjthing seemed to excite him. In speech he had an easy flow of language and a voice that I am unable to describe. It differed from the voice of any other I ever heard ; and all that I can say about it is that I have seen the passions and feelings of an audience swayed by it as I never witnessed from any other human voice.

Simecn Stephens Johnson was a nati\'e of Vermont. He was born at Athens, Windham county, July 22, 1836. He was educated at Newbury Seminai"y, and prepared for Yale College. His father's death changed his plans and he came to Jeffersonville in 1856, where his elder brother, Jonathan, was then located. He taught school for a year, clerked iov a while in his brother's drug store and then entered the law office of the Hon. Jonas G. Howard, to read law. Mr. Johnson was admitted to the practice of his profession in 1859 and immediately entered into partnership with Mr. Howard. He later dissolved this connection and began to practice for himself. Under his instruction several young men of Jeffersonville, who have made their mark, read law, one of them being the Hon. George H. Voigt, one of the most prominent attorneys at the bar of the Clark Circuit Court. In politics Mr. Johnson was a staunch Democrat of the old school, and although he was not an office seeker, he served as City Attorney from 1863 to i86g and from 1885 to 1887. From i88g to 1891 he was a member of the City Council from the Second Ward. His services to the city of Jeft'ersonville were pitched on a high plane of civic and professional pride.

His paramount inclination was toward equity, fair dealing, kindness and charity. Simple and unostentatious he was recognized by all as a man of the most sterling character. In his professional character he was trusted because of his ability and strict adherence to the line of right. In his private relations his life was pure and unsullied.

In 1866 he entered Masonry, being initiated into Clark Lodge, No. 40, Free and Accepted Masons, of Jeffersonville. From this time until his death his whole life was wrapped in the study and practice of the principles of the institution. He was raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason in May,

1866, and served as worshipful master for ten years, and as grand master in 1898-99. He received the Capitular degree in Horeb Chapter, Royal Arch Masons in 1867; served as high priest in 1872-74 and as grand high priest in 1878.

In Jefiferscnville Council. Royal and Select Masters, he served as illustrious master thirty-seven } ears, and as illustrious grand master in 1894. He was knighted in New .Mljany Conimandery. Knights Templar, in 1867. and served as eminent commander of Jeffersonville Conimandery in 1875-76-80-86. He was right eminent grand commander in 1883.