Elkhart County, Indiana - Chapter 7: The Bench and Bar, 1916

The Territorial Courts - Federal Judge Parke Rebels Against Territorial Jurisdiction - Circuit Court Established - Under the State - Courts of Common Pleas - Court of Appeals Established - Revisions of the Laws - Judge and Jury in Criminal Cases - Personal Sources of Local Information - First Meeting of the Circuit Court - The County Clerk and the Thomas Family - Before Justice Had a Home - County Courts and Judges in the '40s - Judge Ebenezer M. Chamberlain - Judge Henry D. Wilson - Judges John H. and Francis E. Baker - Judge Joseph D. Ferrall - Judge James S. Dodge - Judge James S. Drake - Charles W. Miller - Aaron S. Zook - William J. Davis - Lou W. Vail - Elmer E. Mummert - Anthony and Benjamin F. Deahl - E. A. Dausman - Elkhart Soldiers and Lawyers - Veteran George T. Barney - Judge Joseph D. Arnold - William B. Hile - Louis A. Dennert - Younger Lawyers of Promise - The Elkhart County Bar Association.

The judicial system through which justice is administered in Elkhart County has been created by legislative enactment of the Indiana commonwealth, although before its territory became a part of the American domain it was legally subject to the laws both of France and England. Such jurisdiction, when the country was Old World property, had no effect upon its people, their customs or their institutions, for the very logical reason that there were no settled white populations to be affected. As settlers did not commence to arrive until about 1827, the first courts to actually have

It is of historic interest, however, to briefly trace the connection between the territorial courts and those created by the state. Under the Ordinance of 1787 the governor and judges of the Northwest Territory were authorized to adapt existing laws of the original states to the new domain. But when the three judges met at Marietta, Ohio, they tried their hands and heads at original lawmaking, against the advice of Governor St. Clair. The latter ignored the Marietta code as illegal, and in 1795 the governor and judges met at Cincinnati and promulgated a number of adapted laws, as authorized by the ordinance. In 1799, however, the Territorial Legislature adopted the laws devised at Marietta, and in 1800 Indiana Territory was created, with Gen. William Henry Harrison as governor. But the laws that had been enacted at Cincinnati were in force in the new territory until they were superseded by others adopted by its special court.

William Clark, Henry \'anderburgh and John Griffin were appointed judges of Indiana Territory. \\'hat follows, in explanation of the main lines along which the courts have been developed to the present, is from William Henry Smith's well known "History of Indiana," to which the author is much indebted. The governor and territorial judges met in Vincennes, in January, 1801, and passed ten laws on various subjects, one of which was to establish courts of general quarter sessions of the peace in the counties of Knox, Randolph and St. Clair. The first court held legally in Indiana began its first session on the 3d of March, 1801. A grand jury was impaneled and the machinery of the territorial government was fully set going. In 1807 all the laws of the territory were revised and reenacted by the General Assembly, thus making those of doubtful validity legal. According to this revised code, treason, murder, arson and horse stealing were punishable with death. Whipping was recognized as a sufficient punishment for a number of smaller crimes and misdemeanors, such as hog stealing, bigamy, burglary, larceny, and disobedience to parents.

When the territory entered upon its second state of poHtical existence, Benjamin Parke, James Scott and Waller Taylor had been appointed judges of the general court of the territory by the President. In 1814 Congress authorized the Territorial Legislature to lay oflf the territory into five districts, each of which was to elect a member of the Territorial Council. By this time the question of the jurisdiction and powers of the various courts which had been established began to be troublesome. In January, 1814, the General Assembly of the territory had attempted to reorganize the judicial system. By this law the state was divided into three judicial districts. One of the judges appointed by the President was to act as presiding judge in each of these districts, and provision was made for the appointment of three "associate" judges in each county, who were to sit with the presiding judge in the trial of all causes. This did not suit the judges appointed by the General Government, and was in conflict with the powers conferred by Congress on the court. Benjamin Parke, one of the judges, and one of the ablest jurists Indiana has ever known, soon after the passage of the act referred to, addressed the following letter to Governor Posey: "By an act, entitled 'An act reorganizing courts of justice,' passed at the late session of the Legislature, the Territory is divided into three dis^ tricts, in each of which a circuit court is established - the court to consist of one of the judges appointed by the government of the United States for the Territory, as president, and three associates, commissioned under the authority of the Territory, and to have jurisdiction in all cases, at law and in equity. The first circuit, comprising the counties of Knox, Gibson and W'arrick, is assigned to me. The Legislature is empowered to make laws, in all cases, for the good government of the Territory, not repugnant to the laws of the LInited States. In the delegation of power, that which is not expressly given is reserved. Implications cannot be admitted further than to carry into effect the power given. The laws of the United States being paramount to the laws of the Territory, if they are found in conflict, the latter must yield to the former. Congress has defined the jurisdiction of the judges appointed by the general government, and made one judge, in the absence of the others, competent to hold a court. The judges are co-ordinate, and their jurisdiction extends over the whole Territory. They are judges in and over, and not of a part of the Territory. As the judges derive their jurisdiction and power from the government of the United States, they cannot be controlled, in the exercise of their functions, by persons deriving their authority from the government of the Territory. The judges appointed for the Territory, are limited, by the laws of the United States, to the exercise of a common-law jurisdiction. The act, therefore, as it regards the organization and jurisdiction of the circuit courts, is repugnant to the laws of the United States, and neither confers any powers, nor imposes any duty, on the judges appointed for the Territory by the United States. The General Government has appointed for the Territory three judges, with a common-law jurisdiction ; but when, where, or in what manner they are to hold a court - or rather exercise the jurisdiction with which they are invested - Congress has not provided. I consider it is the duty of the Legislature to do it. To you, sir, it belongs to watch over the affairs of the Territory, and to see that the laws are faithfully executed ; and, on account of the relation in which I stand to the Territorial government, I have thought it my duty to make this representation to you. The peculiarity of the case leaves me no other mode of stating my objections and the cause of my not conforming to the law. The Legislature has organized certain courts, and assigned me to perform certain duties ; but the law, constituting the one, and directing the other, is unconstitutional; and as I can derive no authority from it, it imposes no obligation. I shall, therefore, not hold the courts for the circuit."

Thus the elaborately wrought out judicial system was knocked out and the territory was left to the judges appointed by the General Government. Governor Posey realized the situation and called the General Assembly to meet at Corydon, August 15, 1814. The main duty of that session was to organize some kind of a judicial system. That the difficulties in the way may be better understood, it is well to turn to a memorial address by the Legislature at that session to Congress. The memorial said: "By a law of Congress, one of the judges, appointed by virtue of the ordinance for the government of this Territory, is authorized to hold a court. Thus, one of the judges being competent to hold a court, may decide a principle or point of law at one term; and, at the next term, if the other two judges are present, they may decide the same principle or point of law different. Thus, the decision of the Superior Court, organized, we presume, by the General Government, finally to settle in uniformity the principles of law and fact, which may be brought before them by the suitor, may be, and frequently are, in a state of fluctuation; hence the rights of persons and property become insecure. There is another evil growing out of the system of one judge being competent to hold the Superior Court, or that court which forms the last resort of the suitor in any government, and particularly in the Territory, for appeals are taken from all the courts of inferior jurisdiction in the Territory, to the court organized by the ordinance, which inferior courts are never constituted of less than two judges. Thus, the suitor in the Territory is frequently driven to the necessity of appealing from the judgment of two men to that of one. But this dilemma only constitutes a part of the solecism for the next Superior Court, as the other two judges may overturn the principles of the decision of their brother judge at the preceding term. Hence, the want of uniformity in the decisions of the court of last resort. Anger and the warmth of suitors, and a confusion in our system of jurisprudence, is the result."

At the same session the General Assembly established another court. It divided the state into three judicial circuits, and made provision for holding courts therein, and defined the jurisdiction of such courts. The governor was invested with the authority to appoint a presiding judge in each circuit, and two associate judges in each county. By the law the governor was required, in selecting his presiding judges, to choose men "learned and experienced in the law," who were citizens of the United States and "who had regularly practiced in some of the courts of the United States, or in this Territory, three years." Congress soon after the receipt of the memorial of the General Assembly, changed the law so as to require the presence of at least two of the judges to constitute a court.

The whole question was solved two years later by the admission of Indiana as a state into the Union. Benjamin Parke was appointed judge for the District of Indiana, by the President, and held that office until his death in 1835. Under the constitution of 1816 the judiciary powers of the state, both as to matters of law and equity, were vested in one Supreme Court, in Circuit courts, and such inferior courts as the General Assembly might establish. The Supreme Court was to consist of three judges to be appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, and to hold their offices for a term of seven years. The General Assembly was given authority to give the Supreme Court original jurisdiction in capital or chancery cases where the president of the Circuit Court might be interested or prejudiced. The Circuit courts were to consist of a president and two associate judges; the presidents of the Circuit courts were to be elected by the General Assembly, in joint session, and the associate judges by the voters of the counties. Each county was to have two associate judges. The president alone or in connection with one of the associate judges could hold a court, and the two associates, in the absence of the president could hold a court, but could not try capital or chancery cases. The constitution also provided for the selection of clerks for the various courts, that for the Supreme Court was to be chosen by the court, and clerks for the Circuit courts were to be elected by the people, but no one could be elected who had not previously obtained from a judge or the Supreme or Circuit Court a certificate that he was qualified for the place. Under the constitution a competent number of justices of the peace were to be elected by the people.

The constitution of 1851 made several important changes in the judiciary. It provided for a Supreme Court, Circuit courts and such inferior courts as the General Assembly may determine upon. Instead of being appointed by the governor the Supreme judges are elected by the people of the state, although they must be chosen from certain defined districts. The term of service was reduced from seven to six years. The General Assembly is empowered to give the Supreme Court such original jurisdiction as it may determine upon at any time. Under the constitution as originally adopted the Supreme Court was to consist of not less than three nor more than five judges, but several efforts have been made to increase this number. The Supreme Court is required to gi\e a written opinion in every case, and upon every question arising in the record or in the decision of the lower court. The choice of a clerk of the court was taken from the court and given to the people. Associate judges were done away with in the Circuit courts. The new constitution provides that no one elected to any judicial office shall be eligible to any other office during the term for which they

The first three judges of the Supreme Court, under the state administration were James Scott, John Johnson and Jesse L. Holman. Scott and Holman served until 183 1, but Johnson only served a few months and was succeeded by Isaac Blackford, who served until 1853. I" creating inferior courts the Legislature established what were known as courts of Common Pleas. These courts were given exclusive jurisdiction in probate matters, and concurrent jurisdiction with the Circuit courts, in some other matters. This created great confusion. All the courts assumed to pass upon the constitutionality of laws enacted by the General Assembly, and the state witnessed the anomaly of having laws enforced in one county, and declared unconstitutional in another. When the Legislature enacted the prohibitory liquor law in 1855, some of the circuit judges declared it constitutional and enforced it, while others declared it void. This lasted until the Supreme Court finally overthrew the law entirely. The confusion grew worse after the Common Pleas Court was established, for then some counties were operating under two different laws at the same time, according as the opinions of the judges differed. This confusion could not last, and finally the General Assembly abolished the courts of Common Pleas, and in counties where the business was too great to be transacted by the Circuit courts. Superior and Criminal courts have been established with well defined jurisdiction.

Several times the Supreme Court has been overburdened with work, and measures of relief have been sought. The first experiment was the establishment of the Supreme Court Commission, consisting of five members, appointed by the judges of the Supreme Court. The commission was to consider and pass upon such causes as might be assigned them by the Supreme Court. This Commission was kept up for some years, but it presented so many anomalous features that it was also finally abandoned.

preme and Circuit courts. This court was to consist of five judges, elected from specified districts, and to continue for four years. The Legislature of 1897 continued the life of the court for another term of four years.

The constitution of 185 1 provided that "The General Assembly, at its first session after the adoption of this constitution, shall provide for the appointment of three commissioners, whose duty it shall be to revise, simplify and abridge the rules, practice, pleadings and forms of the courts of justice. And they shall provide for abolishing the district forms of actions at law now in use, and that justice shall be administered in a uniform mode of pleading, without distinction between law and equity." Under this section the laws of the state were codified, and a new system of rules and practice introduced. The laws were again revised in 1881 by a commission appointed by the General Assembly for that purpose, but this revision was never adopted by the General Assembly. Since then there has been no general revision. Under the constitution, no law can take eflfect until it has been printed and distributed to all the counties of the state, unless the act itself declares the existence of an emergency. It is proper to say that but few acts are permitted to escape the emergency clause, the franier always deeming that the demand for the enactment of his measure is so great that it absolutely amounts to an emergency.

Under the constitution juries in criminal cases are the sole judges of both the law and the facts ; they fix the degree of the crime and assess the penalty. While a judge has actually no voice in deciding the law of a case tried by a jury, if the jury errs in the law the judge does not hesitate to grant a new trial. Capital punishment has been abohshed for all crimes except those of treason and murder in the first degree, and even for murder in the first degree the jury may, in its discretion, change the punishment to imprisonment for Hfe. This power of the jury to determine the punishment to be assessed against the violator of the law has been materially modified by the law enacted in 1897, known as "the indeterminate sentence law." By this act the jury decides upon the guilt or innocence only, in many cases, and the judge, in pronouncing sentence leaves the term of the imprisonment to be determined by the Board of Prison Control. That is, the judge certifies to the prison authorities, the crime committed, the minimum and maximum term of imprisonment fixed by the statute, and the good behavior of the convict determines the actual length of his confinement. If his conduct is such as to impress the authorities with the belief that he has reformed, and if permitted to go at large will live as a law abiding citizen, they can release him at any time, but under no circumstances can they hold a prisoner for a greater length of time than the maximum term of imprisonment fixed by the statute, or release him before he has served the minimum. The constitutionality of this law has been questioned, and some judges have held it to be invalid, because of the fact that it takes from the jury the power to determine the extent of the punishment.

The courts of Elkhart County were organized, as indicated by the foregoing sketch and, until the old court house was completed, as described by Mr. Ellis, in 1833, justice certainly was "knocked around from pillar to post" - to revive an ancient expression. Aside from the evidence furnished by the county records, the main facts connected with the pioneer period of the bench and bar have come down to us through the writings of Dr. E. W. H. Ellis, an arrival of 1838, and so long a leader in medicine, journalism and public afl^airs; and Philip M. Henkel, who located in Goshen a few years later, and made a good record for himself as county auditor and upright citizen. Dr. Ellis had preceded him in that office, the two performing its duties for nearly twenty years.

Dr. Al. M. Latta, whose first appearance at the county seat was in 1840, as>a studious youth of eighteen, and who afterward became widely known both in his profession and as a promoter of railroads and industries and other helpful enterprises, also contributed to the prevailing fund of information regarding the courts, the judges and the lawyers of the county.

of the Circuit Court was held at the log cabin of Chester Sage, on the north bank of the St. Joseph River nearly opposite the mouth of the Elkhart River, on the 30th of November, 1830. The old Sage Farm is now a part of the city of Elkhart, and the location of this first temporary county seat is about sixty rods east of the bridge which crosses the St. Joseph at Main Street. As no presiding judge was present at the opening session of court, WiUiam Latta and Peter Diddy, the associates, attended to such routine matters as were brought before the court. Mr. Latta, a successful business man, located near Goshen in 1828 and was one of the first to buy lots when the county seat was platted. He died in 1847. Peter Diddy was well known as a prosperous farmer. But they were neither trained in the law ; only men of common sense who had the confidence of the settlers.

As the legislative act erecting the county also authorized the holding of court at any other convenient place than Mr. Sage's house, it was decided to hold the second session of court, which was to convene in April, 1831, at the residence of Thomas Thomas, the county clerk, about three miles east of Elkhart on Two Mile Plain.

Mr. Thomas, who was a native of Delaware and of an old Virginia family, had located on Two Mile Plain in 1828. Less than two years before, he had brought his family from Richmond, Indiana, to Carey Mission, Alichigan, where he had received the glad tidings of a promised home in the valley of the St. Joseph in the State of Indiana. When he entered his land and built his log cabin his only neighbors were the French trader, Rosseau, and the German "squatter"' Noffsinger; and they were several miles away.

Among the members of the family at that time was -William A. Thomas, then twelve years of age, who not only assisted his father during a portion of the latter's fourteen years of service as county clerk (1830-44); but was associated with him in his mercantile enterprises. These included stores both at Gosheri and Leesburg. The late Dr. William H. Thomas, the widely known physician of Elkhart, was born in Goshen in 1841, and Lewis D. Thomas, another son, served as county recorder in the early '70s. In fact, there is probably no family in the county, the members of which have been

In April, 1 83 1, when the second session of the Circuit Court - the Spring term - convened at Mr. Thomas' house, Judge Charles H. Test, presiding judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit, assumed the reins of justice, and the associate judges retired to the background. One of his first acts was to admit to practice in his court three members of the ^Michigan Bar. A few months later the county bar was increased by the admission of John Sevey, Elisha Egbert, D. H. Colerick, ]M. Ray, William J. Brown and J. S. Newman.

The third term of the court was held in October, 1831, at the residence of Thomas Frier, on what was then called Elkhart Plain, but is now known as Elkhart Prairie. The place referred to is what has been known for many years as the McConaughy farm. The late Dr. E. W. H. Ellis, in an address delivered at the Elkhart County Fair in 1852, referred to this session of the court and stated that it was really the first session at which the full bench was represented, the Hon. Charles H. Test, the presiding judge, meeting with the court then for the first time. At the two sessions held after this, at the places above mentioned, only the two associate judges, Peter Diddy and William Latta, were present. The residence of Mr. Frier was then a log cabin and the court held its session under the stately trees which stood in front of it. It might also be added here that James Frier was the first treasurer of Elkhart County and was then serving in that capacity.

The fourth terra, counting the two terms which were held by the two associate judges, as already mentioned, was held in April, 1832, and the sixth in May, 1833, both being held at the residence of Henry Dusenberry, which was located in Goshen at the northeast corner of Main and Washington streets, where the Dewey Block now stands. There is nothing in the court records to show where the fifth term was held, which was in October, 1832. The seventh term was held in the court house, which is the first mention of that building in the Circuit Court records.

The residences of Chester Sage, Thomas Thomas, George McCollum and Abner Stilson were also the meeting places of the Probate Court from 1830 to 1833, the year when the court house

Mr. Henkel. in a paper entitled "Goshen Sixty Years Ago," has drawn a sketch of the courts, lawyers and county officials, in the early '405. following the period during which Judges Test and Gustavus A. Everts had served as president judges of the circuit. The court house, which had been completed several years, stood in the middle of the public square, still unfenced. Extract from Mr. Henkel's paper: "The first courts were held semi-annually, spring and fall, and were limited to two weeks each term. Samuel Sample of South Bend was the presiding officer, with two associates, Joseph Beane and William Latta. The legal fraternity of that day consisted of Eben Chamberlain, Thomas G. Harris and Michael C. Daugherty, while Jonathan Listen and Joseph L. Jernegan of South Bend were among the regular attendants of the court. A separate court for the transaction of probate business was held at regular intervals and presided over by Samuel P. Beebe of Elkhart. Dr. E. \V. H. Ellis was auditor and held his office in a small wooden building just north of the public square. Elbridge Chamberlain filled the office of recorder and kept his records in a small building on the west end of a lot owned by James H. Barnes. Thomas Thomas was clerk of the court, and his son William A. performed the duty of deputy and held the office in the upper part of the court house. Ellis Carpenter was county treasurer and performed the duty of collecting taxes at his residence, as there was no other place provided to perform that duty."

Judge Beebe. mentioned by Mr. Henkel, was the character of Elkhart during the early days. He had been originally a merchant, but was then settled to the occupation of farmer, and had been elected to the office of probate judge. He was a man of more than ordinary intelligence, of great good sense and correct habits, and of honorable principles ; but withal a free thinker in religion, and a practical joker. He had a nickname for everybody, but a warm hand for his friends. He discharged the duties of his office with eminent ability and impartiality, but more men feared than loved him.

Ebenezer M. Chamberlain, who succeeded Samuel C. Sample as presiding judge of the circuit, was one of the ablest and most honored members of the profession who ever practiced in Elkhart County. He was born in Penobscot County, Maine, and worked on a farm and in a shipyard until after he had passed his majority. After studying law and teaching for several years in Bangor, that state, he decided to migrate to the West where the laws did not require seven years of preliminary study before a young man could be admitted to the bar. In 1832 he arrived in Fayette County, taught again to replenish his funds, entered the law office of Samuel W. Parke, of Connersville, and in August, 1833, was admitted to the bar. Then in his twenty-eighth year, a few months later he moved to Elkhart County for practice.

Mr. Chamberlain's rise to public and judicial preferment was steady and continuous. In 1835 he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature as the representative of a district which covered nearly one-fifth of the entire state. In 1839 he was elected to the State Senate, for a three-year term, and took rank as one of the leaders of the democratic party. His famous address on the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans, delivered before the Democratic State Convention in 1841, exemplified before the people his strength and eloquence, and thereafter his political preferment was rapid and continuous. In 1842 he was elected by the Legislature prosecuting attorney of the Ninth Judicial District, and a year later presiding judge of the same district. At the expiration of his term in 185 1 he was re-elected without opposition. So clear was the justice he gave out impartially to all that, when adverse criticism appeared in the whig press, the entire bar in attendance at court united in a letter to Judge Chamberlain testifying to the "creditable, dignified, courteous and satisfactory" manner in which he discharged the duties of his high office. The associate judges, both whigs, added their written encomiums of praise to the same effect. During the nine years he remained on the bench Judge Chamberlain retained the respect and esteem of the bar and people. The high regard of his party is illustrated by the frequent honors bestowed on him. In 1844 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. In 1848 he was one of the senatorial candidates for presidential elector and aided in giving the vote of the

The Late Hon. William A. Wikids, \ l,i xm k of the Bench and Bar of Elkhart County; Formerly United States Judge of THE Seventh Judicial Circuit.

state to General Cass. In 1841 he resigned the judgeship to accept the nomination for Congress, which his party had made in the reorganized Tenth District.

Following Judge Chamberlain on the circuit bench were Judges Robert Lowry, E. A. McMahon, James L. Worden, Reuben J. Dawson, Moses Kenkinson, Edward R. Wilson, Hiram S. Tousley, James D. Osborne, William A. Woods, James D. Osborne (another term), John M. Vanfleet, Henry D. Wilson, Joseph Ferrell, Francis D. Merritt, James S. Dodge and James S. Drake.

Judge Wilson, who served his full term of six years from 1894 to 1900, inclusive, was at the time of his death in 1905 the oldest of the active practitioners. His father, Thomas H. Wilson, was a successful and intelligent Ohio farmer, who moved into Noble County, Indiana, when the son was seven years old, and in the Hoosier State became an associate judge and was twice elected to the Legislature. Henry D. received a thorough collegiate education in several of the Indiana institutions, finally graduating from the Wabash College, in 1854. For several years following he held important positions in several institutions of higher learning in both Indiana and Iowa, but in i860, having previously read law, he returned to Indiana and entered into a professional partnership with Hon. A. Y. Hooper, of Columbia City. There he continued to practice, in association with Mr. Hooper and alone, until 1864.

In November of the year named, Mr. Wilson located at Goshen, where he was a leader at the bar and on the bench until his death. The last of his long practice as a lawyer was as senior member of the firm of Wilson, Davis (Hon. W. J. Davis) & Wilson (Harry C. Wilson, his son). In 1868 Mr. Wilson was elected the first mayor of the City of Goshen. In 1890 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress. He was elected to the Circuit bench of Elkhart and Lagrange counties in the fall of 1894 and served with unusual credit for the six years' term, or until January i, 1901. His law partnership was dissolved when he ascended the bench, and when he retired in 1901 he formed a professional connection with his son, Harry C. Wilson, who was then serving the last of his four years' term as probate commissioner. In April, 1855, Mr. Wilson married Miss Annjeannette Trumbull, at Fort Wayne, Indiana, the day fol- lowing her graduation from college. They have had six children, but Harry C. is the only one who has matured into a member of the legal profession.

It is seldom in the history of American jurisprudence that father and son have reached such eminence as John H. Baker, for a decade United States district judge of Indiana, and Francis E. Baker, one of the judges of the Seventh Circuit of the United States, which includes Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. Since his appointment to the Federal bench in January, 1902, the younger man makes Chicago and Indianapolis his oftkial residences, but Goshen is still his home. He succeeded his father to the position, the venerable John H. Baker having been appointed to the Federal bench by President Benjamin Harrison, of whom he was a stanch supporter both before and after the presidency.

Judge Baker, the elder, was a resident of Goshen for thirty-five years before he assumed judicial duties, and during that long period was in active and prominent practice, with the exception of his three congressional terms in the '80s. He died in his eighty-fifth year, in honored retirement at his old and pleasant home in Goshen. The judge is a New Yorker by birth, but was brought West to Fulton County, Ohio, while he was an infant ; was hardened and educated on a farm, as well as at the Ohio Wesleyan University and elsewhere. In 1857 he was admitted to the practice before the Supreme Court of Michigan, and in the same year located at Goshen for practice.

Judge Baker rapidly advanced to a substantial standing and good practice. He was a strong republican when the party was young and in 1862 was elected to the State Senate, but his democratic opponents ousted him from his seat on the ground that he held the commission of a notary public, was the "incumbent of a lucrative office" already, and therefore could not sit as a state senator. In 1872 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress from the Thirteenth District, but was elected for the three terms commencing 1874, 1876 and 1878. His record as a congressman was unimpeachable. At the close of his third term, when he was the ranking republican member on the important Appropriations Committee, he declined a renomination and resumed practice at Goshen.

When James A. Garfield became president he urged upon Mr. Baker the position of second assistant postmaster general, an office for which the latter was peculiarly well fitted, because of his experience in Congress as an investigator of the Star Route contracts. But in that instance, as in subsequent oflfers of responsible public positions, he refused to resign his practice except for some office in line with his profession. In 1892 his opportunity came with the promotion of Judge Wood from the United States District Court to the Federal Circuit bench. President Harrison appointed Mr. Baker to the vacancy. He ascended the bench in March, 1892, and served with dignity and distinction until 1902, when he retired under the age privilege of the law, in his seventieth year. In his early manhood Judge Baker married Miss Harriet E. Defrees, of the well known family - so prominent in public, legal and journalistic matters - and Francis E. is their only son.

Judge Francis E. Baker was born in Goshen in i860. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1882, read law in the office of Baker & Mitchell, was admitted to the bar, and when his father's partner became judge of the Supreme Court of Indiana, the firm of Baker & Baker was formed. That was in 1885. Seven years later, when the father was appointed judge of the Federal District Court, Charles W. Miller, afterward attorney general of the state, and United States District Attorney for Indiana, associated himself with Francis E. Baker, as Baker & Miller. After Mr. Baker's judicial elevation the firm developed into ^liller, Drake & Hubbell. In 1898 Judge Baker was elected to the Supreme Court of Indiana, taking his seat in January of the following year. In December, 1901, he was appointed, and in the January following assumed his duties as a judge of the United States Court of the Seventh Circuit, of which there are four members. Judge Baker married a daughter of John W. Irwin, the pioneer lawyer, banker and public man.

The late Judge Joseph D. Ferrall. who succeeded Judge Henry D. Wilson to the bench of the Thirty-fourth Circuit, had been in active practice at Lagrange for over thirty-five years. He was also a native of Ohio, and was a farmer's boy and a school teacher before he commenced the study of his profession with Judge Lyman Potter, of Lisbon, Ohio. After the Civil war. in which he served, he settled at Lagrange. In iS66 he was elected prosecuting attorney, served two terms in that capacity and declined a third term. His pronounced judicial temperament earned recognition quite early in his career, and he acted many times as special judge in the counties of Lagrange, Elkhart, Noble, DeKalb and Allen, before he was finally elevated to a regular position on the bench. In August, 1900, he received the republican nomination for the circuit judgeship and was elected in November by a large majority. As was expected, he gave unqualified satisfaction and his death in 1902, while on the bench, was deeply and widely regretted.

James S. Dodge, who succeeded Francis D. Merritt, as judge of the Thirty-fourth Circuit of Indiana, spent most of his life in Elkhart County. Although born in I\Iorrow County, Ohio, in 1846, at the age of three years his parents brought him to this county. He became an orphan by the death of his mother when he was four years old, and the death of his father in 1S56. In 1863 he left his mother's people in Ohio, with whom he had been living, and joined the Third Ohio Cavalry, being a part of its fortunes and hardships for three years. He was wounded several times and participated in the raid and liberation of Union prisoners at Andersonville, as well as in the pursuit and capture of Jefferson Davis. When he located in Elkhart in September, 1865, he was still under legal age.

Mr. Dodge taught school for a time and in 1866 began the study of medicine under Dr. R. J. Haggerty, of Elkhart. In 1869 he graduated from the medical department of the University of ^lichigan and was a successful practitioner until 1884; so that he has the best kind of a title to the degree of M. D. But Doctor Dodge was so ambitious in another large field that he was admitted to the bar in the year named and at once took high standing as a practitioner of the law. He received the republican nomination for* Congress and was proposed as a gubernatorial candidate, but earned no positive public advancement until his party elected him judge of the Thirty-fourth Judicial Circuit in November, 1904.

Judge Dodge has a son in practice, James S. Dodge, Jr. The elder man has been commander of the Indiana Grand Army of the Republic, and is both popular and able.

James S. Drake, the present incumbent of the bench of the Circuit Court, commenced his term of service in 191 1 ; it will expire in November, 1917. He is one of the ablest lawyers and judges, and best known public men in the county. Judge Drake comes of a stanch and patriotic family. His father was a '49er in California, who, during the Civil war, was captain of a company in the famous Twenty-third Ohio Infantry, which had as commander Rosecrans, as lieutenant-colonel, Stanley Matthews, the noted jurist, as major, Rutherford B. Hayes, and as private, William iMcKinley. After being severely wounded at Antietam, Captain Drake was made provost marshal of the Fourteenth Ohio District. After the war he moved to Lagrange, Indiana,. where he died in 1886. Two of his sons were also in the war; and James S. undoubtedly would have been, had his age warranted military service.

Judge Drake was bom in Holmes County, Ohio, in 1852, and was fourteen years of age when the family moved to Lagrange. He received his higher education at Hillsdale College and the University of Michigan, graduating from the law department of the latter in 1874, and at once commencing practice with Joseph D. Ferrall, who served on the Circuit bench from igoi until his death in 1902. Air. Drake was elected prosecuting attorney for Lagrange and Elkhart counties in 1878, and by reelection held that office for four years. He also served four years in the State Senate, from 1884; was also prominent at Lagrange in educational matters. In November, 1898, he came to Goshen and began practice with C. W. Miller, the firm later becoming Miller, Drake «& Hubbell. Judge Drake is one of the stanchest of the old-time republicans, his prominence dating from as early a year as 1888, when he was a delegate to the Chicago convention which nominated Benjamin Harrison to the presidency.

Charles W. ]\Iiller, who has served two terms as attorney-general of the State of Indiana, and since 1909 as United States district attorney, is one of the ablest members of the younger generation, as he is still in his fifty-fourth year. He is a native of Indiana, coming of an old Hoosier family, as his grandfather, Jacob Miller,

After having laid a solid basis for his law studies in private schools and at the Ladoga Normal, Indiana, Mr. Miller entered the law department of the University of Michigan, from which he graduated in 1884. Immediately assuming active practice he formed a partnership with John H. Binford, at Greenfield, Indiana, and this continued until he came to Goshen, in January, 1885. In 1892 he formed a law partnership with Francis E. Baker, and the firm of Baker & Miller continued until the senior partner was ele\ated to the Supreme bench of Indiana, on January i, 1899. At that date J. S. Drake became I\Ir. Miller's partner, and later, S. C. Hubbell was admitted, the firm thenceforth being Miller, Drake & Hubbell. As a member of these successive law firms Mr. Miller was interested in almost every lawsuit of importance in Elkhart County, and also had an extensive practice in other counties of Northern Indiana.

Politically an ardent republican, and a quiet, though eflrective worker for his party, Mr. Miller has given of his time and energies to political affairs for many years. He has served as chairman of the Elkhart County Central Committee, and for many years was a member of the executive committee. In 1888 he was elected mayor of Goshen, having the distinction of being the youngest mayor in the State of Indiana at the time, and he served two years with credit. He has been a delegate to all the republican state conventions since 1882, and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention which nominated Harrison, in 1892. His ability as a lawyer and prominence in state republican circles brought him forward, in 1902, as the logical candidate for attorney-general. His service in that capacity covered 1902-06 (two terms), and, as stated, since 1909 he has filled the office of United States district attorney.

Since April, 1909, Mr. Miller has resided in Indianapolis as United States district attorney for Indiana, and in that capacity has necessarily had charge of many important cases. Besides gaining such broad professional prominence, he has always been a local leader in various financial and industrial enterprises. In 1900-05 he was president of the State Bank of Goshen ; since 1900 has been on the directorate of the Elkhart County Trust Company, and is identified with the management of the Home Telephone Company and of large lumber interests.

Aaron S. Zook, of Goshen, has been prominent in several fields of endeavor and accomplishment which have tended to advance the city and the county. As an educator, as a lawyer, as a Mason and as an earnest, honorable and able citizen, his influence has been widely and usefully extended. He was born near Bristol, Washington Township, this county, in 1847, ^nd during his earlier years as a teacher got over the line into Michigan. In 1868-9 he attended Hillsdale College and then secured the school at Millersburg. During 1870-71 Mr. Zook was superintendent of the Mishawaka public schools. In 1873 he was elected the first county superintendent of schools, but resigned after one year to go to Chicago, where he was instructor in penmanship and mathematics at Bryant and Stratton Business College. At the same time he took the law course in Union College of Law. His teachers were such men as senators Doolittle and Trumbull. This occupied the years 1871-74. In 1875 he came to Goshen, entered the law office of Judge H. D. Wilson and was admitted to the bar in 1876. Associated with him in practice during the period from 1876, at difterent times, were his brother, Daniel Zook, I. A. Simmons, L. W. Vail, Judge James D. Osborne and William Charnley. For six years, from 1885 to 1891, he was a member of the board of education and from 1892 to 1899 served- as city attorney. Subsequently Mr. Zook has appeared as a lecturer in many parts of the country. He has been identified with Masonry for many years and has filled many of the offices in the Blue Lodge, Chapter and Council. He served many terms as worshipful master in the lodge and high priest of the chapter. He is one of the board of deacons of the Presbyterian Church. On October 3, 1876, he was married to' Miss Ida C. McKibben. They have one daughter, Mary, a very accomplished young lady.

William J. Davis, one of the older members of the Goshen Bar, is a native of Fairfield County, Ohio, and in 1871 was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of that state. He commenced his professional career at Bluft'ton, Wells County, Indiana, but in 1878 located at Goshen. He was an active republican; was elected to the State Senate by his party in 1884, and served as chairman of the county committee in 1896 and 1S98. In the following year Schuyler C. Hubbell and Thomas A. Davis, a son who but recently had graduated from the law department of the University of Indianapolis, were admitted into partnership under the style of Davis, Hubbell & Da\is. During the past few years he has been living in California.

Lou W. Vail is a son of Jesse D. \''ail. the pioneer merchant of Benton, one of the organizers of the republican party in Elkhart County, and active as a county commissioner and earnest Union citizen during the Civil war. The family is of Quaker stock, and a portion of Lou W. Vail's education was obtained in the Raisin Valley Academy, of Adrian, Michigan, a widely known school conducted by the Friends. He completed his literary education at Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana, teaching school for a decade in the country districts and at Millersburg, Benton and Wakarusa. In the early '70s he spent three years in wild Kansas, did not like the country as it was then, and returned to Elkhart County. In 1877 he commenced the study of law in the office of Judge Henry D. Wilson, was admitted to the bar in December, 1879, and at once commenced practice. During the first five years he was in partnership with Daniel and Aaron S. Zook, and for the succeeding five years served as deputy prosecuting attorney. Air. Vail was elected to the city council in 1891, but resigned in the following year in order to personally conduct his campaign for the state senatorship, in which he was successful. His creditable service in the Legislature during 1893-95, 3nd as county attorney for several years subsequent to 1896, so advanced his judicial prospects that in 1900 he was a leading candidate for the circuit bench. For several years his practice has been conducted with Charles A. Weymeyer, under the firm name of Vail & Weymeyer.

Elmer E. Mummert, a leading lawyer and public man, is a native of Goshen where he still is engaged in active practice. In 1885 he graduated from the law school of Michigan University and began practice as in partnership with Wilber L. Stonex, who had but recently entered his long service as county attorney. In 1889 Mr. Mummert himself was appointed deputy prosecuting attorney, serving as such four years; was later elected city attorney for Goshen. In 1900 he became the nominee of the republican party for state representative, was successful at the polls in that fall, and two years later was re-elected. He represented his county in the sixty-second and sixty-third sessions of the General Assembly as a member of important committees and taking a leading part in the discussions and deliberations. During his first term he introduced the general library bill, since known as the Mummert Law, and upon the strength of which Andrew Carnegie has given between forty and fifty libraries to Indiana. During his second term Representative Mummert introduced some of the most important bills considered during the session, among them the General Improvement Law for cities and towns, and also the law that made possible the magnificent new high school building in Goshen, which, considered both from an architectural standpoint and as an institution, is a lasting credit to the city. He has for years been active in local and state politics.

Mr. Mummert did much to establish the Goshen Public Library in his home city. For a year he importuned Mr. Carnegie to make a contribution for that purpose to Goshen, although none but the library committee knew of the quiet and effective efforts being made by him, until the gift was secured and public announcement given to the city. This successful initial step was followed by his securing the library legislation already mentioned, and a short time later he made a second trip East to interview Mr. Carnegie, by which $25,000 in all was secured for a public library in Goshen. This gave Goshen the distinction of being the first city in Indiana to receive recognition in this manner. He was appointed to serve on the first library board. Mr. Mummert, besides being active in .promoting public affairs, was for five years secretary of the Commercial Exchange of Goshen, and in this capacity gave much time and effort to the enterprises planned and undertaken during that period. He is a leading member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Goshen.

were both born in Millersburg, Elkhart County, of a soHd German family, and were widely known as teachers in that part of the county before they commenced the practice of the law. B. F. Deahl was at one time also superintendent of the Nappanee schools. They are graduates of the law school of the University of Michigan, Anthony in 1889 and Benjamin F., in 1896, and in the latter year the partnership was formed. Benjamin F. Deahl was mayor of Goshen, from 1898 to 1902, serving out the unexpired term of J. H. Heatwole and the regular term beginning September, 1898. During that period he was quite active in the work of the Indiana Municipal League. They have both been active in public enterprises outside their profession, the senior member being for a number of years president of the Goshen Commercial Exchange, and prominent in the various public works promoted by that organization. He has also served as special judge in numerous cases, and is generally acknowledged to be in line for the honors of the bench. In 1816 Governor Ralston offered Anthony a position on the board of public utilities of the state, but the offer was not accepted.

E. A. Dausman is another active practitioner at the bar, of middle age; a native of the county, born on his father's farm, two miles east of Elkhart. Like so many other lawyers he taught school in his early manhood, and while thus engaged at Nappanee commenced his professional studies in the office of Daniel Zook, who subsequently abandoned the profession in favor of a business and industrial career. In October, 1884, Mr. Dausman was admitted to the bar and, when Mr. Zook was elected county clerk in 1886 succeeded to the latter's practice at Nappanee. In 1892 Mr. Dausman moved to Goshen, was elected to the State Senate in 1900, and has been prominent as a lawyer and a public man.

The City of Elkhart is represented by a number of good lawyers who have also been brave soldiers. In that class are Capt. Orville T. Chamberlain, of the Seventy-fourth Indiana Infantry during the Civil war, and who since has served the public as town clerk, city attorney and district attorney. James S. Dodge, in his youth a

Union cavalryman and later in life a graduate and a practitioner both in medicine and the law, and Collins Blake, in his nineteenth year, of the Eighth Illinois Cavalry, since 1882 a resident of Elkhart, a lawyer since 189S and for years a justice of the peace and city judge.

Elkhart also has the distinction of holding the record in the continuous length of practice attained by any member of the bar in the county. The late George T. Barney, Mexican war veteran, pioneer of the Lake Superior region and prominent in the public affairs of Elkhart, is the gentleman to whom reference is made. His grandfather was an Irishman; his father a native of New York, and an iron worker by trade who located in Ohio in 1833. George T., then twelve years of age, was only one of nine children. His first money-making job was to carry the mail between Elyria and Oberlin, Lorain County, Ohio, when both of those towns were young. About two years afterward he commenced to learn the carpenter's trade and was thus engaged in Ohio and Michigan, when he enlisted for the Mexican war and saw eighteen months of hard and sobering service. In 1848 he located at Kalamazoo, Michigan, married there and several years afterward went to Marquette, in the Upper Peninsula. In that region, then almost unsettled wilds, he got into public office, being twice elected sheriff and receiving the gubernatorial appointment of Government timber agent. He was constable, justice of the peace, enumerator of the Chippewa Indians, and what not? At the outbreak of the Civil war he tried to enter the service, but was rejected on account of disability.

Mr. Barney came to Elkhart in 1866, having previously studied law, and been admitted to practice before the Michigan Bar in 1861. During the first two years of his residence in the city he engaged in business, as well as professional work, and always dabbled more or less in fire and life insurance. In fact, Mr. Barney was what one might call a thrifty man. As he became a Mason in 1850, there were few of that fraternity in the state who outranked him in length of service. He was identified with numerous other orders. At the time of his death he was one of the very few Mexican war veterans. As early as 1867 he was active in the formation of the Indiana Mexican War Veterans and was several times elected to the presidency of the organization. His public offices included a seat in the Indiana General Assembly, to which he was elected in 1874; four years as clerk of the Elkhart City Court, commencing with 1878, and membership on the Elkhart School Board in igoo-03.

Joseph D. Arnold, who practiced his profession at Goshen and Elkhart for many years, was elected city judge of the latter municipality in 1892 and occupied that bench for some time. His father, A. B. Arnold, was an early settler of York Township, where Joseph D. was born in 1836. The younger man was deputy county clerk before he commenced to read law with John H. Baker, the Goshen lawyer and judge, and was admitted to practice in 1863. With the exception of a few years spent in farming at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, he gave his entire attention to the practice of his profession and his duties in connection with the judgeship. From 1868 to 1870 he served as prosecuting attorney for the district comprising the counties of Elkhart, St. Joseph, Laporte and Marshall, and after 1879 was a continuous resident of Elkhart. Judge Arnold married a daughter of X. F. Brodrick, a settler of 1835 and a well known merchant and justice of the peace.

William B. Hile has been a resident of Elkhart since 1889 and was with the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern for several years while he was studying law. He finally graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan in 1898, formed a partnership with E. A. Baker, who had been his roommate in college, and has been twice honored by the republicans by election to the office of prosecuting attorney for the Thirty-fourth Judicial District. His first term commenced in 1900 and his second in 1902.

Louis A. Dennert, county clerk from 1898 to 1902, is a lawyer in good standing at Elkhart, of which cify he has been a resident since 1893. He was bom at Adrian, Michigan, whence his father moved to Elkhart when the son was about two years of age.

August F. Dennert, the father, was in the employ of the Lake Shore Railroad for nearly half a century. The son received his early education in the public schools of Elkhart, graduated in law from the University of Michigan in 1890, spent several years in Richmond, Ohio, and in Chicago, and in 1893 returned to Elkhart for practice. Excepting his service as county clerk he has been actively engaged in professional work, in combination with real estate transactions. He was for a number of terms secretary of the Elkhart County Bar Association.

Among the still younger, but promising members of the bar of Elkhart County may be mentioned William H. Charnley, Oscar Jay and Harlan A. Stauffer.

Although nearly all the active members of the bar are members of the Elkhart County Bar Association, it has no regular times of meeting, and is called together seldom. When a brother dies a meeting is always called to pass suitable resolutions ; and that is about all its stated function.