Miami County, Indiana - Chapter 15: A Reminiscence of the Early Bench and Bar, 1896

I wish no other herald, No other speaker of my living actions, To keep mine honor from corruption, But such an honest chronicler. - Shakespeare, Henry VIII.

AM requested oy the publisher of ''The History of Miami County, Indiana, ak contribute something to its pages by way of reminiscence of an early date.

I became a citizen of Logansport, Indiana, in October, 1839. The courts were over for the fall circuit, except in Carroll County. I went down to the Carroll Circuit with the bar of Logansport about the last week in October, and was then admitted to practice in the Circuit Courts of the state. I had been admitted at Cincinnati in April, 1839, to practice in the Common Pleas and Supreme Courts of Ohio, and at Columbus to the Supreme and Federal Courts, and had ''traveled" one circuit of the Common Pleas before I left Ohio, and had tried several cases.

The first case that I tried in court in Indiana was at the spring term of the Miami Circuit Court, 1840. I went up with the Logansport bar to make myself acquainted with the courts and the people, not expecting any business at the first term, but, very much to my surprise, not to say astonishment, J] was retained by Capt. Scott, the clerk of the court, to defend him against an indictment for refusing to issue a certificate of election to Daniel R. Bearss as county commissioner. There were at least a dozen attorneys there from the several counties of Cass, Miami, Grant. Wabash, Huntington and Allen. Bearss was the principal witness against Scott. He was in the full bloom of © manhood, handsome, plump in figure, earnest and aggressive in manner. Scott was directly the opposite - all bone, tendon and nerve; his actions spasmodic as an electrical machine. Of course such men could never harmonize. During the trial Bearss in his testimony betrayed much dislike to Scott, and in his emphatic way laid himself quite open to sharp comment on the part of the defense; and in the defense we got in some evidence showing a defect in the demand of the certificate. If I remember rightly it was that Bearss had not tendered to Scott his fee for the certiticate at the time he made the demand. In my argument on behalf of the defense, not knowing Mr. Bearss and not having the fear of his influence against me, | took off my gloves andl handled his evidenee as well as I could. [| discovered that the trial bad created some excitement. Scott was acquitted. After the verdict was rendered there was much applause for Scott.

My elient met me, clothed in a vast overcoat, +a world teo wide," with immense pockets in it, reminding me, in the figurative language I had heard when a boy. of "a shirt on a forked bean-pole." He took me around behind the court-house, and, offering me two pistols (there were no revolvers then} and a bowie-knife, '"Here," says he, ''take these and defend yourself; your life is in danger; Bearss has threatened to kill vou." I refused the weapons and told him §f thought there was no danger whatever Bearss mightde. surrounded by a crowd as we were, and the law ofticers present. It was some time before } could pacify him- ead

Mr. Bearss was elected that year to the legislature. On his way to the capital he came by Logansport and stopped at the hotel where I was boarding. He met me in a friendly manner, and, taking me aside, said: «'Look here, Biddle, I want you to go to Indianapolis with me." JI was much surprised. "For what, Mr. Bearss?" said I. '*Why, we want to elect you prosecuting attourney. You gave me hell in the Scott case, and we think you would make # first-rate prosecutor."' At that time prosecuting attorneys were elected by the legislature. He was my constant friend from that time to his death.

Mr. Bearss was not a man of broad general] views - as very few men are. indeed- - but he had the faculty of concentrating himself on any point, ond in that way he wielded a remarkable power.

In the winter of 1840-41 the Hon. John W. Wricht was eleeted cireuit judge of the 8tb judicial circuit, which included Miami County. He served out the term, which was then seven years. He was a remarkable man - a most eccentric character. The goud and evil in our common nature in him did not seem to have been well kneaded. When the good was uppermost he was an excellent man in all the relations of life. When the evil was up he was quite the reverse. and the same defect seemed to attend his mental faculties. He would decide cases for days and give correct reasons fo> the decisions; he would then reverse the same principles, apparently as if he still thought they were the same. He would tell mischievous stories even about his best friends, and sometimes malicious ones, no doubt. He would also tell innocent and harmless stories without any apparent motive and without a single fact for their foundation. J will relate one ofthe latter kind. He once told his ayed father, a Presbyterian divine, and his excellent old mother, that he and myself had taken tea with acertain family in Peru, mutual acquaintances, and that there were certain persons at the same tea from Lancaster, Ohio. acquaintances of the old people - -and what they said and all about it. Soon afterward 'Father Wright," as we all called him, sent for me. TI called upon him occasionally to hear him tell about the early history of Lancaster. I answered the message in person. The old gentleman began telling me about this taking tea with «John Wright," as he always called his son, and with the others, and told me the whole story. J was compelled to tell him thatI never had been at such tea, and did not know the other persons mentioned, und knew nothing about the story. 'The old father turned toward the old mother and said: «*Well, well; we can't always believe John Wright." The longer and better that I knew Judge Wright the more charity I had for his errors. at times he evidently labored under a strange abberation of mind which appeared to be constitutional.

1. R. Smith was the judge of the Probate Court of Miami County during the earlier years of the decade of 1840. He was an excellent citizen of general intelligence, but not bred to the law. 'The business before the court was generally the settlement of estates which was amicably done by the parties and satisfactorily disposed of.

John Bush, I| believe, was the first lawyer that settled in Miami County. I was iv Miami County in 1836. We (there were three of us) came in by way of Marion, Grant County. through the Indian Reserve, to Pern, where we stayed all night. I was then a law student. I learned at the hotel that they had one lawyer, and I think there was another lawyer who had lately come in, but Ido notremember the name. Afterward, when I becamea citizen, I knew John Bush well. He was a robust pioneer, but knew very little law. A good man, made so by nature. He kept the licensed ferry across the Wabash River at Peru. The most famous lawsuit he ever had was when he brought a long bill in chancery to enjoin the Peru Bridge Company from building a bridge across the Wabash River, upon the ground that his licensed ferry was a vested right. He worried himself with it in the Circuit Court for several terms, but was constantly defeated; appealed to the Supreme Court, and was defeated there. He soon afterward left for the farther west - and he was really much missed. for he had many excellent qualities of character.

I would gladly say something of all the resident lawyers of Miami County whom I have known, but away from the records it is impracticable. { dare not trust a memory now more than half a century old.

*[The following brief biography of the author of this article is taken from the pen of Eva Peters Reynolds. It is the introduction of a pamphlet which shows Mr. Biddle's ability as a writer on music and as a musician. |

Horace P. Biddle was born in the state of Ohio in what was then Fairfield County, but which is now Hocking County, on the 12th day of March, 1811. In his boyhood he received an elementary Kng¢lish education. He afterward, however, acquired sufficient knowledge to the eye of the Latin,

- German, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese languages to translate correctly; and as a student of Sir William Jones he acquired some knowledge of several of the eastern languages. When questioned on the subject of languages he.is apt to reply that 'shis eyes know something of several languages of which his ears, tongue and lips know nothing " Mr. Biddle from early boyhood was not only a lover, but a faithful student, of his books as well as in the great school of the world. In his early manhood he felt a desire to study law and make it his profession; and accordingly took up a line of preparatory studies - natural philosophy, history, DelLolme, Hallam's Constitutional England, etc. At the age of 25 he applied to the Hon, Thomas Ewing, then a United States Senator from Ohio, for advice with regard to the study. and practice of law. He was kindly received by that distinguished man, and, after a careful examination, much encouraged. Mr. Ewing recommended him to H. H. Hunter, an eminent lawyer of Lancaster, Ohio, in whose office he was cordially received; and, after studying over two years, was admitted at Ciacinnati to the Common Pleas and Supreme Court of Ohio; and at Columbus to the Circuit and Supreme Courts of the United States. After his admission Mr. Biddle «'traveled the circuit" a year in Ohio, and in 1839 settled and opened an office in Logansport, Inuiana. He soon had a lucrative practice, rose to the first rank ic the profession, and received the highest judicial honors of the state. He was also a member of the constitutional convention which formed' the present constitution of the state. Though Mr. Biddle never neglected his professional studies for any other pursuit, he yet carried on a line of studies in philosophy, science and literature through life. He is of the opinion that these accompanying studies did not interfere with nor lessen his ability asa lawyer, but rather strengthened -him in his profession.

Mr. Biddle is the author of several books. In science, *'The Musical Scale;" in philosophy, «'Elements of Knowledge;" in poetry, ''A Few Poems," --Biddle's Poems," ''American Boyhood," -'Glances at the World," 'Last Poems," and a volume éutitled 'Prose Miscellany." He also has written several other books and pamphlets which have been privately printed but not published; and it is supposed that he had something still in manuscript. In January, 1881, a few weeks before he arrived at the age of 70, Mr. Biddle retired from all active participation in the current affairs of life. During the first year of his retirement he published all the above books except ''The Musical Scale" and the first book of poems, though they essentially existed in manuscript before that time - some of them, indeed, for several years. He still resides in his ''Island Home," on an island in the Wabash river, amidst his library, which he playfully calls his 'eight thousand friends," but Mr. Biddle is not without 'troops of friends" beside these."