Perry County, Indiana - Chapter 3: First Circuit Court and Officers at Troy, 1916

By THE Territorial Legislature in September, 1814, a dedimus was issued Ratliff Boon to swear in all officers of the new Perry County, in pursuance whereof the official positions were filled as follows: Associate Judges, the Rev. Charles Polke (Polk) and James McDaniel, Sr. ; Sheriff, Samuel Connor; Clerk, (also at that time Recorder,) Solomon Lamb; Coroner, Francis Posey.

Ratliff Boon, while a true and typical pioneer, was not of the Daniel Boone family but came about 1807-09 from Georgia, through Tennessee and Kentucky into Indiana, locating in Warrick County where his important services were recognized by naming the county seat - Boonville - and Boon Township in his honour. Leaving v/ith Solomon Lamb in October, 1814, a dedimus to swear in all further officers, his connection with Perry County ceased, except that in 1818 he was elected Senator for the early 'shoe-string' district then embracing Perry, Spencer, Warrick, Vanderburg and Posey Counties.

Perry County's first Circuit Court was called to meet at the house of James McDaniel, Jr., April 3, 1815, but a majority of the three judges not being present, it was adjourned until the following day when a majority still being absent, it was adjourned "until court in course." Three months later, therefore, or on July 3, 1815, at the same place, (designated by law,) the first session of court convened with full attendance; president judge, Isaac Blackford ; associate judges, Thomas Polk (succeeding the Rev. Charles Polk,' who had resigned October, 1814,) and James McDaniel, Sr.

Isaac Blackford was a resident of Salem and the first Clerk-Recorder of Washington County at the time of his elevation to the bench. He did more than any other one man toward establishing the early courts of Indiana upon a correct, sound basis, and the name of Blackford County (organized 1839), is a memorial to his invaluable judiciary service. Judge Blackford was one of the earliest members of the Supreme Court bench, editing the first eight volumes of its decisions, which are regarded as more authoritative than any others of Indiana's Supreme Court and are cited for precedent in pleadings in every English-speaking court room where common law prevails.

The first Prosecuting Attorney, by appointment, was Davis Floyd, a young Virginian, who had served under General George Rogers Clark and had settled in "Clark's Grant" (later Clark County) where he kept a tavern and operated a ferry across the Ohio. He had been appointed Recorder of his county, in 1801, and Sheriff, in 1802, by Governor Harrison, and in 1805 was its Representative in the Territorial Legislature, being chosen Clerk of the House.

A temporary suspension of his political career, occurring a little later, was his indictment and conviction for implication in the Aaron Burr treason conspiracy. This episode was the most conspicuous event allying Indiana with Burr's project, and Floyd's sentence was for only three hours' imprisonment, so that he soon regained his original standing. He represented Harrison County in the Constitutional Convention of 1816 and was afterward Circuit Judge in his district. Descriptions portray Floyd as a tall man, of dark complexion, with heavy voice, of rapid speech, an able jury lawyer and especially skilful in the management of a case in court.

As a practising attorney was present, at Troy, Judge William Prince, then of Knox County, in whose honour the county seat of Gibson County v/as called Princeton,

Sheriff Samuel Connor called the first grand jury as follows: Peter Barber, Andrew Collins, Jacob Davis, Barnett DeWitt, Jonathan D. Esarey, Edward Eskins, Jesse Green, David Groves, Elias Hedden, Abraham Hiley, James Kellams, Benjamin Lamar, Elijah Lamar, Ezra Lamb, Jesse Morgan, Thomas Morton, Alexander Murphy, John Shields, William Stark, William Taylor and Jacob Weatherholt. Twenty-two in all, two less than the number then required by law, but no other names are shown on record. This empanelment, with the appointment of a prosecutor, comprised the first day's proceedings.

On the next day the first case called for trial was an appeal brought up from justice's court: William Gibson, appellant, vs. Abraham Hiley, appellee. Appellant desired to introduce documentary evidence not produced before justice's court, but was ruled out. Defendant prayed judgment for want of jurisdiction. Argument was had and case was continued, - a precedent of continuance ever since locally honoured, and not in the breach.

Indictments returned by the grand jury v/ere: Habeas corpus, usurpation, slander, rape, adultery, one each; for unlawfully selling an estray horse, assault and battery, bigamy, divorce, two each; profanity ( !), twenty-five.

The first cause tried was Indiana Territory vs. John Cooper for assault and battery on Daniel Weathers. Not guilty was defendant's plea, and the first jury was called. Dade Connor, William Cummings, Richard Deen, John Farris, James Falkenborough, Joseph Hanks, Daniel Hazel, Daniel McLaughlin, Daniel Taylor and John Weatherholt. David Floyd represented the Territory and John Fletcher, the defendant. The verdict returned was: "We, the jury, do find the defendant Not Guilty." The divorce cases were ordered published and the first court then adjourned.

The straggling hamlet comprising perhaps a score of V' log cabins was regularly surveyed about this time by Francis Posey, with Samuel Moore as his assistant, and the plat of ninety-six lots and a public square was duly recorded in March, 1815, under the official title "Troy," its street names remaining today as then.

Francis Posey was the son of Thomas Posey, the distinguished Virginian to whose name Posey County became a memorial on the same day of Perry County's christening. Thomas Posey's boyhood home was a plantation adjoining "Mount Vernon," and Washington's influence secured for the young lad at an early age a commission in the British army from Lord Dunmore, then governing the royal province of Virginia. Through the same valuable friendship he was made a general in the American Revolution. At its close he located in the new 'Volunteer State,' Tennessee, which he represented in the United States Senate when President Madison, on February 27, 1813, appointed him the last Governor of Indiana Territory, succeeding General John Gibson, who had been for a year actinggovernor in the enforced absence of Governor William Henry Harrison, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Northwest.

Troy's earliest years were prosperous and hopeful. As the seat of an extensive new county it commanded the trade of many miles around, its geographical location and remoteness from other towns of consequence making it an important shipping-point and giving it a promise of growth which future developments were not destined to fulfill.

Reuben Bates was an early merchant who carried on a trade with New Orleans by flat-boat, shipping pork, corn, beeswax, hay, wood and other farm products, bringing back general merchandise from the South in return. For a while he was in partnership with James Worthington, but for much longer trafficked alone. Another conspicuous trader was James Taylor, who maintained large beef and pork packing houses at the mouth of Anderson River. He continued this for many years, until succeeded by his son, Green B. Taylor, who then conducted the business upon a scale even larger.

Other residents during this decade may be grouped among the organizers of the first Methodist class in Troy, some time prior to 1820, although some of the names given in a list published by Goodspeed in 1885 could not have been members so early : John Huffman, Jane Huffman, James Willen and wife, Warren Duncan, Lawrence and Ann Protzman, William and Cynthia McKinley, Harvey Spillman, Mary Spillman, et al. About the same period the Baptists, headed by Reuben Bates and Betsey Bates, his wife, organized a society, among their co-workers being Bennett Phillips, Thomas Phillips, Rebecca Phillips, James Taylor, Abby Taylor, Green B. Taylor, the Rev. John B. Harpole, America Harpole and others.

Solomon Lamb taught school in Troy at a very early day, and tradition describes the first woman teacher in the county to have been one Annis Crocker, a picturesque figure of Perry County's 'Iliad,' captured in her infancy by the Indians and rescued from them after a romantic childhood spent in the red men's wigwam. George Phillips is said to have been a teacher in the first log school house before 1819, on the site of the present High School building, which was erected in 1872, to succeed a one-story edifice for which Warren Duncan and James Willen had made the brick by hand in 1834-35.

Troy's first and only Court House was also a log structure, which stood on the corner of Main and Franklin Streets, a site now filled by the business block of Theobald T. Gaesser. Court was held from the beginning at the house of James McDaniel, Jr., David Raymond follov/ing Judge Blackford in April, 1816, and being himself succeeded by William Prince in April, 1817, when the first seal v/as adopted, a small one bearing the words "Perry Circuit." This term was the last session in the McDaniel building, as the new court house was finished by its builders, James Taylor and Aquila Huff, in time for Judge Prince to convene the July term within its walls.

Aquila Huff was a pioneer settler in the vicinity of Troy and as such deserves mention here, although the land upon which he located in 1815 remained a part of Perry County for only three years. He was the sixth child of John Huff, (Hough) a private in the Maryland Line during the American Revolution, and Elizabeth Dodderidge, his wife, who about 1784 emigrated Westward from Maryland expecting to travel down the Ohio River.

Near Pittsburg, while hunting game, John Huff was attacked and killed by Indians, but his widow and children continued their journey by boat with other emigrants as far as Breckinridge County, Kentucky, where they erected log block-houses for their residence and protection. In some such rude fortification Aquila Huff was reared from five to twenty-one years of age.

In 1807 he married Mary, daughter of Stephen Rawlins, coming eight years later into Indiana, where he resided until his death in 1857, meanwhile holding many positions of responsibility. Huff Township, Spencer County, was named for him when organized in 1837. Many direct descendants of John and Elizabeth (Dodderidge) Huff, still under the family name as well as through female lines, reside today in Perry County, besides at other points far more remote.

A very early tavern-keeper was Jacob Protzman, a native of Pennsylvania, who came to Troy from Nelson County, Kentucky, where he had married Catherine, daughter of Thomas and Judith (Ferguson) Lewis, a descendant of the extensive Virginia Lewis family through the Fairfax (later Loudoun) County branch. On March 4, 1828, their daughter Louisa was married to a rising young physician of Troy, Doctor Cotton, who lived to become Perry County's leading medical authority, also a man of prominence in political circles.

Robert Greenberry Cotton was born August 8, 1804, near Bloomfield, Nelson County, Kentucky, the son of Edmund and Sallie (Dorsey) Cotton. His mother belonged to one of Maryland's finest families, and the Dorsey (d'Orsay) lineage is widespread from Colonial days to the present, embracing names which adorn many pages of history and romance.

To mention but one among her notable ancestry, it is due to say that Nicholas Greenberry, whose name her son worthily carried, arrived July 9, 1674, at Patuxent, Maryland, with his wife Anne, their children, Charles and Katherine, and three servants, in the stanch little ship 'Constant Friendship.' He soon became a leader in the royal province, holding numerous posts of honour and responsibility, including that of Governor. On page 338 of "Side-Lights on Maryland History," Volume n, (published Baltimore, 1913,) it is stated that the descendants of Nicholas Greenberry "include more men and women of national importance than can be traced to any other one personage in Colonial history."

Doctor Cotton was a member of the Legislature for a number of years, serving as Representative from Perry County, 1837-39, 1841-42, 1848-49 ; and as joint Senator from Perry, Spencer and Warrick, 1842-45. By a majority of only one vote was he defeated August 5, 1850, by Samuel Frisbie, as delegate to the Constitutional Convention, but he did not live to have filled the ofl^ice even if chosen, his death occurring in the following month, September 11, 1850, his widow, one son and four daughters surviving him.