Meeker County, Minnesota - Chapter 13: The Judiciary, 1877

Chapter 13: The Judiciary

During the early period which our historic¬ al reminicences extend, such a thing as a "Judi¬ ciary'' or any necessity for law, was unheard of and unknown in the county.

No county was ever settled by a better set of boys, and none submitted to the hardships of a new country one hundred miles from cvilization with better grace, and with less complaint than those who first opened up Meeker County, and remdeemed her soil from savage rule.

No law was required, the intelligence of the settler=, their quietness and iridnstry, and the ne¬ cessity which every man was under, to attend to

Like our Pilgrim fathers, when landing at Ply¬ mouth - they regarded the "Decalogue" as both "law and gospel," from the first discovery of the prairie till the spring of 1858.

The first thing the settlers were considered good for, was to be "taxed" - Law soon followed, and Blackstone & Kent could b*' found at any man's door, who was willing to pay for it, and it was a little remarkable that among the first cases tried, was one of "woman's right's," and which has been already sufficiently described in chapter ten of this book.

From the spring of 1858, we were blessed with three courts - one presided over by Smith & Ev¬ ans, under the supervision of Thomas A. Hen¬ dricks, then commisioner of the General Land Office, one known as the District Court, presided over by Hon. E. O. Hamlin of St. Cloud, and thirdly, the one of all others, presided over by Judge Atkinson as J. P.

Early in the summer of 1859 Col. Allen now of the Merchants Hotel, St. Paul - not having much to do at that (time, bethought him to make a bus¬ iness strike and came all the way from St. Antho¬ ny to Forest City to pre-empt a quarter section of

The Col. was able to furnish first class proofs of settlement and improvements, consisting of a "half acre broke" - a dwelling house 12 feet square, one story high made of logs, with double board floor (i.e. one board with a hole bored through it) a double pitch roof (i.e. one board on top of the house, with some tar rubbed on it) one door, (i. e. a place where you could crawl out or in) and one window with glass in it, (i.e. a hole between the logs and a broken junc-bottle placed therein.)

The proofs were excellent, but just here the witness seemed to be tender-toed about swearing to the (then) requisite 30 days residence prior to pre-emtion.

The Col. was fully equal to the emergency and promptly produced witness No. 2, consisting of about two-thirds ot a demijohn of Medicine, vul¬ garly termed "brandy," and as he was quite anx¬ ious to propitiate the judges, that the care might the more easily "slide through" and with the same patriotic motion that rail road men furnish free passes to cheap legislators, he made us a present of Demijohn and its unfinished contents.

The testimony of witness No. 2, was carefully preserved and filed away in the store room, so as not to tempt "loungers to sudden attacks" - requir¬ ing the use of such remedies, and to be brought out only on state occasions," or when visited by governors, judges, rail road presidents &c.

The first Term of our District Court was to have been held in the fall of 1858 - Hon. E. O. Hamlin Judge 4th Judicial District, but the roads were so bad, the judge could not come to time, and on the appointed day, the legal wisdom* of the county met in Judge Smith's back office - then used as a store room - to wit, Wm. Richards County Atty. (not then admitted to practice) T. C. Jewett Sheriff, and Smith & Willie then con¬ stituting the Bar Association.

"'Ere ye 'ere ye 'ere ye," says the sheriff, - "The District Court for the County of Meeker is now open - all persons having any business in this court must appear and they shall be heard - God save the Queen," says the county attorney.

At this point in the ceremony Richards looked at Willie, who had discovered the demijohn under the table - had exploded the cork and elevated "the substance of things hoped for," and obtained a goodly portion of "the evidence of things unseen," and had lowered the same to half mast - and at once with offended dignity, which none but those who knew Richards could appreciate - enquired of Willie what he was about.

your court, this is only the first informal call, of the calender, and ceremony is entirely unneces¬ sary" - again flourishing the demijohn, as a barber would cut a figure eight with his razor, and in its descent securing another liberal portion of the "evi¬ dence of things unseen."

It is needless to add, to those who knew Rich¬ ards, that he left, in disgust, forgetting to adjourn the court and it is not quite certain that that court has ever been adjourned.

The bar consisting spiritually of Messrs Smith & Willie - Materially of Geo. B. Wrights old draw¬ ing board 3 feet by 7 - and the first case tried was that of John Pfeifer vs Peter Ste'rnc - and as the case was reported in Harpers New' Monthly for Nov. 1861, I give the substance of the report from that work.

"When Meeker County, Minnesota, was newbefore lawyers found their way out there, two Dutchmen. Pfeifer and Steirne (brothers-in-law), undertook to cheat Uncle Sam by pre-empt¬ ing two claims with one cabin, each furnishing half the lumber, the cabin to stand on the line be¬ tween the two claims. Before the claims were pre-empted the brothers fell out., Steirne under¬ took to carry away his half of the lumber, when Pfeifer shot Steirne. Steirne complains of Pfeifer for an assault with intent to kill, and Pfeifer settles up by giving Steirne a chattel mortgage on two yoke of oxen (all the property either party had in the world except a wife and several children each.)

"When the mortgage came due Steirne takes the cattle and Pfeifer replevied them, on the ground that the mortgage was given to compound a felony and was void. ,

"Maturing the mortgage, two pettifoggers ar¬ rived at the county seat, one Smith, a frontier lawver and a notorious wag, and Willie, a clever young lawyer from Western Virginia.

"Pfeifer having the actual possession of the oxen, delivers one yoke to Smith for his fee, and Steirne, having the cattle in expectancy, mortgaged one yoke to Willie also to secure his fee.

"The case was tried by His Honor, E. O. Ham¬ lin. then on tl^ bench of the Fourth District, at the October Term, 1S59, at Forest City. Being but one spare room in tow n, the court adjourned to give the use of the room to the jury. About i 1 p. m. jury sent for the Court and informed the judge that there was no possibility of an agree¬ ment. The judge thereupon instructed the sheriff

I38 History Of Meeker County

"At 4 o'clock a. M. the jury sent for* the Court, and gave in a sealed verdict, and were discharged from further attendance on the Court, with the judge's thanks. When the court convened at 9 A. m. the verdict was opened, and read as follows:

At this term of court Wm. Richards Esq. county Attorney "nunc pro tunc", was admitted to practice as an attorney and counsellor, on his own motion, assuring the court that although an Englishman, he was nevertheless a man of good moral character, attached to the constitution and the principles of a Republican Government, and could prove it by all the boys in Jim's bar¬ room - and as material was somewhat scarce for lawyers west of the woods, trusted that his apfpli- cation would be favorably considered. The Judge casting a longing eye over the pau¬ city of the Bar, remarked "did you ever" and di¬ rected the clerk to "swear him in."

Something is due to our ''Supreme Court," pre¬ sided over at times by Judges Butler, Ritchie, Geo. Frid, Robson, Griswold, Atkinson, Stevens, Walk¬ er, Campbell, Hutchins and a host of others. Jurisdiction depended somewhat on who got hold of the case first.

Piper made a motion to "quash the summons" on the ground that the letters, s. s. were not at¬ tached to "The State of Minnesota Meeker Coun¬ ty"

This was a poser for Butler and his argument therein was not the most lucid, but the motion was overruled and judgment entered for Pl'fFfor the value of one "Opossum supper" proved to have been unfortunately eaten on some formei occasion in the early history of the county by the defen¬ dant.

I40 History Of Meeker County

If we remember rightly we informed them that the s. s. stood for -'simplicity simplified," refer¬ ring to the "code" and that no case could be-pros¬ ecuted without recognizing "the code" by the ad¬ dition of the s. s.

The same summer we had a case before Hutch¬ ins. J. P. of Kingston, in which our old friend Fitz¬ gerald appeared as both client and counsel against us, and moved to dismiss on the ground that the justice had never given a bond, and as the justice had quite forgotten whether he had or not, for¬ bade any futher proceedings.

Fitzgerald came into court with a club two feet long and size of a sled-stake - hence the sobriquet "Shillala Fitzgerald" which he carried ever after to the end of his days.

In 1862 Jewett sued Hoken Peterson for $4.00 sheriffs fees in some former case. Hoken came to us to see what we would defend him for, and war¬ rant the case, and ^fter an hours p .rley, in which we commenced on $3,000, secured on real estate, we finally struck off the three ciphers and closed a contract and sealed it at $3.

settle and pay his own costs for $2.75- Hoken having an eye to finance, promptly settled, and by not paying his lawyer anything, thereby saved 25 cents. Jewett would have found it a telling business had the suit been before any one else but "Jim" Atkinson, who always regarded the fee bill as the "chief end of law," and mulched Jewett about six dollars.

J. B. Atkinson, Esq. was chief justice ol Meek¬ er county most of the time from 1858 to 1870, usu¬ ally re-elected at any time, when he saw a major¬ ity in his favor - his term of office never expiring when his party was in a minority!

The judge vv/is easily fatigued into granting short adjournments, particularly when both par¬ ties and all their witnesses were boarding at his hotel. On one occasion two parties, one man and one woman were arrested for an assault and bat¬ tery. Two days were spent in trying to prove the case against the man while the testimony clearly

The court, nevertheless, imposed a fine of five dollars on the defendant who was perfectly good, while county orders were worth but 30 cents on the dollar and the court was bound to have pay for his time against a responsible party.

The next morning the woman appeared in court without counsel whereupon F. Belfoy (who had prior to this time settled in the County,) re¬ fused to appear for the prosecution and the wom¬ an fought the complainant, flaxed him out, and was discharged.

Jewett was a member of the organization termed by the Adjutant General "Irregular Volun¬ teer Militia" but at Forest City, for brevity, styled the "Guerrilla Guards."

Jewett had not answered roll call for some days owing evidently to indisposition, inclining that way. Whitcomb was captain and our judge first Lieut, a corporals guard was dispatched for Jew¬ ett and he was somewhat unceremoniously led by

On the 8th, of October Smith filed his com¬ plaint with Judge Griswold, setting forth that Wm. Branham, Geo. W. Waggoner and Cornelius McG&w did on the 7th day of the same month "wilfully and without lawful authority" come un¬ bidden into the dwelling house of deponent and seized deponent by the arms and dragged him therefrom."

On this complaint a warrant was issued by Judge Griswold returnable forthwith at the office of A. C. Smith,, who appeared as prosecutor, and Judson A. Stanton was appointed to execute the warrant.

The "Guerrilla Guards" consisted of about 35 men and boys, while Capt. Pettit was now sta¬ tioned here with a full company of U. S. soldiers

Apprehending difficulty in making the arrest at Whitcombs quarters. Judge Griswold had made a call on Capt. Pettit of which the following is a copy.

"Sir: - Circumstances are such as to compel me to issue a warrant against, and to deal with, accord¬ ing to law, one Wm. Branham, Geo. W. Wag-

Circumstances are also such as to render it more than probable that said warrant cannot be duly served without the aid of the military arm of the State.

You are therefore, directed and required^ ren¬ der to the special officer in charge of the execution of said warrant, such military assistance as he mav need for the the faithful discharge of his duty.

Stanton thought he could arrest the boys with¬ out help - by others, it was thought doubtful - the sequel will show that Stanton had made most proficiency in the study of human nature.

He went to Whitcombs quarters and seperately whispered to the culprits, that Smith had a basket of apples at his office and would like to treat his friends and had sent him to invite a few of them, following close behind them, as they passed into the office - Stanton cooly locked the door - drew forth the warrant and in his inimitable suttering style, respectfully informed them that they were his prisoners.

At this moment Judge Griswold sat at the head of the table "looking more law" than any Lord Coke ever dreampt of, - Smith at the foot with the "code" under his arm, and Capt. Pettit with

For certain reasons, in connection wdth the rest of Whitcombs boys, Stanton soon had business at Clearwater, and the court assigned the prisoners to the keeping of "Uncle Ike Delamatter," whose age and venerable looks were sure to protect him from insult.

Whitcomb and Atkinson defended the prison¬ ers bravely, but the judge held them to bail for their appearance at the next term of the District Court to answer to an indictment for false impris¬ onment. The case has not yet been disposed of, and so far as we know, the prisoners are yet in the legal custody of "Uncle Ike. "

Some deny the correctness of this report, and we confess to tw r o strong reasons why it might well be doubted - first the known fact that Judge Atkinson was never before found at the pinching end of the judicial nippers and secondly this was the only occasion known in the history of the county, when Jewett was at all backward, or need-

Legal proceedings in the county could be re¬ counted to most any extent and perhaps with some degree of interest, but the printer reminds us that our book is about large enough, and we will be compelled to desist. In many of the cases the udicrous predominate and while the old saw holds good that -

We are reminded that it is not quite safe to go in for too much of it. Kandiyohi county was at¬ tached to Meeker for judicial purposes from 1857 to 1870 and we have a quantity of judicial and oth¬ er "nuts to crack" at the expense of that county, but we must desist, as we do not like to deprive Kandiyohi of her own future history.

The first person ever sentenced to the Peniten¬ tiary from this county was a man by the name of Roberts in 1869 for twenty-two months - Judge Vanderburgh presiding - Roberts thanked the Judge cordially for the brevity of the time fixed, and hoped he (the judge) would call and see him if he ever came to Stillwater!

I 4 S History Of Meeker County

The area of land in Meeker County is 381,588 ac. Deducting 81,588 acres for timbor and meadow lands, and we have 300,000 acres for cultivation.

From the foregoing table we find, in 1875, 32.469 acres in grain crops of all kinds and pota¬ toes, producing 864,208 bushels. At this rate this County has the capacity, when fully settled up, of producing in similar a proportions, not less than S,000,000 bushels, and of supporting 250 run of buhrs!

Our lands are much diversified, affording every facility for farming that the husbandman can de¬ sire. The eastern and northern parts are gener¬ ally timbered with oak, maple, linden, ash etc., the balance of the land is prairie, with groves of tim¬ ber skirting the largest lakes. The surface is gently undulating, and the soil is deep, rich, black sandy, and loam.