L (gnrnpU ICam i>rl|onl Hihrarg Cornell University Library KF 354.I5T23 Biographical sketclies and review of the 3 1924 018 792 170 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924018792170 Oliver H. Smith. Oliver P. Moktox, Oscar H. Hokd. John b. Howh. Daniel D. Pratt. Calfh R. Smith. Conrad Baker. J-'HX l>. rsHER. Hrnrv s. I,ane. A IAIN p. HovE', . Jos. C. Marsh m.i,. Biographical Sketches AND REVIEW OV THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA CdXTAININC, BlOGRAPHIKS AND SKETCHES OK EMINENT Jl'DCiES ANIi Law'yers of Indiana, together with a History of the Judiciary of the State and Review of the Bar from THE Earliest Times to the Present, with Anecdotes, Reminiscences, Etc. Charles W. Taylor ILI^rSTRATED INDIANAPOLIS : Bench and Bar Publishing Cumi'ax' 1S95 Copyrighted BY THR Bench and Bar Puewshing Company 1895 Bio ^. r Press of Levey Bros. & Company Indianapolis INTRODUCTORY THIS is the first systematic effort made to secure a collection of biographies of representative Judges and lawyers of this State. How successful we have been the reader must decide for himself. The list has not been con- fined to Judges and practitioners of the present time, but includes many of the past, whose lives are now only pleasant memories. That this volume contains the biographies of all the eminent members of the Bench and Bar of the State, or of those worthy to have a place within its covers, is not claimed by the author; but with these that are here collected together anv man might well esteem himself favored to secure a place. The memory of the life of a lawver is fleeting — a name written on the sand-shore of time, effaced by the on-com- ing wave of the next generation. The great lawyer of to-day will be unknown to the next generation, just as the great lawyer of the past finds no place in the pages of hi.story. The lawyer's work is for the present ; and unless some effort be made to preserve in permanent form a note of that work, it will be lost to tlrg future • ^ven thesmemory of his name will fade. Even the names of the great Judges a,raforgQtfei^ XJjev live only within the pages of dry and musty refTorts, ancMhen the reco"nection is onlv that of a name. I )f all the great men who have sat upon the Bench of the Federal Supreme Court, how many are there of whom we have more than a tithe of informa- tion ? And who of the members of the Bar of this State can name the forty- six Jndges that have sat upon the bench of our own .Supreme Court, or can name even the first three Judges of that tribunal ? The effort has been made in this work to stay the effacing hand of time and preserve in a permanent form information concerning the Judges, the lawyers and the courts which would otherwise have been swept into the gulf of oblivion. Historical sketches of several courts of the State have been secured with great labor, and it is believed they will be of interest to the profession. IJata concerning the courts, laws and lawyers have been here collected, obtainable only in many volumes am articles, and much of it to be found upon no written page. These articles have Ijeen prepared by writers who have been contemporary with the events and incidents thej' relate, and by others who have given special study to the laws and history of the State. The biographies have been submitted to each person sketched, or to a near relative when the person sketched was dead, to secure accuracy in facts, names, figures and dates. Many portraits contained in this volume are exceedingly rare and required long search to secure t 'em. They preserve the features of many whose memory with us is only a name. To the many who have contributed both articles and information the author is under lasting obligations of gratitude. C. \V. TAYI.OR. Cieari.es Dewey. JiiHX Pkttit. IS.^.\C Bl..\CKFORI). JEKEMHH .SUI.I.IV.^x. S-^MT'tr. B. CoOKixs. HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE BENCH .AND BAR United States Circuit Court FOR THE DISTRICT OF INDIANA. Bv W. W. Thornton. There were no Circuit Court Judges until their appointment was author- ized by the Act of April lo, 1869. Previous to that the Justices of the Supreme Court sat on the Circuit Court bench; but no Justice of that Court ever sat in Indiana until authorized by the Act of ilarch 3, 1837, when the Di.strict was assigned to the Seventh Circuit, with the districts of Ohio, Illinois and Michigan. By the Act of July 15, 1862, Ohio and Indiana constituted the Seventh District. By the Act of January 28, 1863, Indiana, Illinois and Wis- consin constituted the Eighth; Ohio remaining the Seventh. February 9, 1863, Wisconsin was transferred to the Ninth District, and, lastly, by Act of JiTly 23, i865, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin were constituted the Seventh, since which time there has been no change. The first Justice of the Supreme Court who ever sat on a Federal Bench in this State was John IMcLean. He was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, March 7, 1829, and died holding the office, April 4, 1861. He was born March 11, 1785, in Morris countv, New Jersev. When he was four years of age his father moved to Morgantown, Virginia, and then to Nicholasville, Kentucky. In 1799 John moved to Warren county, Ohio. Shortly afterwards he served as deputy, in the Clerk's office, at Cincinnati. At that city he read law under Arthur vSt. Clair, the son of General St. Clair. He was admitted to practice in 1807, and began the practice at Lebanon, Ohio. In 181 2 he was elected to Congress, and two 3'ears later was returned by a unani- mous vote. In 1815 he declined a seat in the Senate, and the same year was elected Judge of the Ohio Supreme Court. In 1822 he wa< appointed Com- missioner of the General Land Office; and the same year was made Post- master General, continuing through John Quincy Adams' administration. Although requested by Jackson to continue in office, he declined to do so. He also declined the Secretaryships of the War and Navy, tendered bj^ the same official, but accepted the nomination of Justice of the Supreme Court. 10 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 111 1856 he was a rival of Fremont for the Presidential iioniinalion on the Republican ticket, receiving 196 votes, as well as of Lincoln in i85o. McLean was not a man of high order of ability. He was diligent and a hard worker. His administration of the postoffice department has always been considered one of the best this country has ever had. During the last two years of his life he was an invalid; but previous to that period he never missed a single sitting during the long period he was on the bench of the Supreme Court. He was the author of six volumes of Circuit Court reports, known as "McLean's Reports." Noah Haynes Swayne succeeded McLean January 24, 1862. He was born December 7, 1804, in Culpepper county, Virginia being a descendant of Fran- cis Swayne who was an early follower of Penn. His father's name was Joshua, who intended to make him a physician, and having that object in view, young Swayne became an apothecary's clerk in Alexandria. That profession, how- ever, was not to the inclination of his mind, and he resolved to study law. He began his studies at Warrenton, Virginia, and was admitted in 1823. In 1825 he moved to Coshocton, Ohio, and opened an office. He was soon elected a prosecuting attonie}-, and shortly after sent to the Legislature as a Jeffer- sonian Democrat. In 1830 President Jackson appointed him United States District Attorney, and he moved to Columbus. He served in the office ten years. While occupying this office he served as one of the Commissioners of the State debt, and in 1840 was one of the Commissioners to settle the boundary dispute between Ohio and Michigan. He objected to slavery, and as early as 1832 emancipated some slaves he had inherited from his mother. F'rom its formation he was a member of the Republican party. He died April 8, 186 1. David Davis succeeded Justice Swayne. He was appointed October 17, 1862, and recommissioned, after his confirmation by the Senate, December 8, 1862. He was born March 9, 1815, in Cecil county, Maryland, and was of Welsh descent. He graduated at Kenyon College, Ohio, in 1832, and studied law at Yale College. In 1835 he settled at Bloomington, Illinois, and there made the acquaintance of Lincoln. In 1844 he was a member of the Legis- lature, aud a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1847. In 1848 he was elected Judge of the State Circuit Court, aud twice re-elected, serving in that capacity when appointed to the high office of Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. In i860 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago, and was quite instrumental in securing the nomination of Mr. Lincoln. While on the Federal Bench, his most noted decision was in Milligan's case, familiarto the people of the State from the fact that the participants therein were residents of this State. In politics Judge Davis did not observe that reserve which usually characterizes the Judges of the Federal Judiciary, aud he became, as early as 1872, a figure in politics, receiving at the Cincinnati Convention, ninety-two and one-half votes for the nomination for the Presidency. It was considered that he would be one of the Electoral Commission, but having been elected to the THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 11 United Slates Senate before that commission was created, Joseph Bradley was chosen in his place. He took his seat in the Senate March 4, 1877, and resigned in 1883. He died Jnne 26, 1886. His judicial opinions are char- acterized by a strong common sense, but not by breadth and depth of learning. On the death of Justice Davis, President Hayes appointed John Marshall Harlan his successor. Justice Harlan was born June i, 1833, in Boyle county, Kentucky. He graduated at Center College, Kentucky, in 1850, and afterwards attended the law department of Transylvania University, of the same State. His father was James Harlan, once Attorney-General of Kentucky. He was admitted to the Bar in 1853. In 1858 he was Judge of the Circxiit Court of Franklin county, which position he held just one year. In 1859 he was nomi- nated for Congress from the Ashland District, and defeated by only sixty-seven votes. In 186 1 he was an elector on the Bell and Everett ticket. In 1861 he located in Loviisville, and shortly afterwards was made Colonel of the loth Regiment of Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. In 1863 he was elected Attorney- General of the State; moved to Frankfort, and held the office until 1867. In 1871 he was nominated for Governor and defeated; and the same thing was repeated in 1875. In 1877 he was a member of the Louisiana Committee on the contested Presidential Election of 1876. It seemed to be generally under- stood that he would go into President Hayes' cabinet as Attorney-General; but political difficulties arose which rendered his appointment to that posi- tion inexpedient. On the 29th of November, 1877, he was appointed Justice of the Supreme Court, which position he yet* holds. At the time of his ap- pointment but seven other Judges had reached that bench as early in life as he did. In 1S92 President Harrison appointed him one of the arbitrators in the Behring vSea arbitration between this country and (^reat Britain. Justice Harlan was first assigned to the Circuit, of which Indiana is a part, April 22, 1.S78, and served until December 4, 1892 ; shortly after Chief Justice Fuller was assigned to it. In October, 1893, Justice Harlan was again assigned to it. On December 19, 1892, Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller was assigned to the Seventh Circuit, and so remained until October, 1893, when Justice Har- lan was re-assigned to it. Justice Fuller was born in Augusta, Me., February II, 1833. He came from a long line of lawyer ancestors. In 1855 he began the practice at Augusta, but in 1856 went to Chicago, Ills., where he was re- siding when appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, March 23, 1888. In i86r he was a member of the Illinois State Constitutional Convention, and the year following a member of the State Legislature. He always took an active part in politics, and was a delegate to the Democratic Conventions of 1864, 1872, 1876 and 1880. 12 THE BENCH AND BAR 01' INDIANA UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT JUSTICES. ASSIGNED TO THE CIRCUIT TO WHICH INDIANA BELONGS. John Mcl^ean, March 3, 1837 — April 4, i85i. Noah Haynes Swayue, January 24, 1862 — April 8, 1867. David Davis, April 8, 1867 — March 4, 1877. John Marshall Harlan, April 22, 1878— December 4, 1892. Melville Weston Fuller, December 19, 1892 — October, 1893. John Marshall Harlan, October, 1893 — SEVENTH CIRCUIT JUDGES. There was no statute authorizing the appointment of special Circuit Court Judges until April 10, 1869. Until that time the diities of the Circuit Court bench were divided between the Judge of the District Court and the Justice of the Supreme Court assigned to this Circuit. The appointment of these special Circuit Court Judges and the recent creation of Judges of the Circuit Court of Appeals are fair indices of the increase of l<»gal business in this coimtry, notwithstanding the fact that the jurisdiction of the Federal Courts have been greatly curtailed in the last few years. The first Judge of the Seventh Circuit was Thomas Drummond. His father lived on the coast of Maine, and followed both farming and fishing. It was there that Thomas was born October 16, 1809 ; and it was there that he obtained that knowledge of the sea and sailing which served him so well in after years in the trial of admiralty cases. He entered Bowdoin College, situated at Brunswick, Me., and grad\iated from it in 1830. He went to Phil- adelphia and read law with a son of President Dwight, of New York. He was there admitted to the bar in 1833. Two years later he went to Galena, Ills., and began the practice of the law. In 1840 he was elected to the Legislature of that State as a Whig. In 1850 President Taylor appointed him Judge of the District Court for the District of Illinois. In 1854 he moved to Chicago ; and on that State being divided into two districts in 1855 he was appointed Judge of the Northern District. On December 22, 1869, he was appointed Judge of the Seventh Circuit, and resigned in October, 1884. Perhaps no Judge ever sat upon the bench who was more universally respected and ad- mired, and whose integrity was so un impugned as Judge Drummond. Few of his cases were reversed ; and no appeal was ever taken from his decisions in criminal trials. He was the Judge who first laid down the rule that labor and supply claims against a railroad took precedence of a mortgage prior in date. After his retirement from the bench he lived at Wheaton, near Chicago, and there died May 15, 1890. Walter Q. Gresham succeeded Drummond October 24, 1884, of whom a sketch is given elsewhere. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 13 On the resignation of Judge Gresham, James G. Jenkins, March 23, 1893, was appointed his snccessor. Judge Gresham resigned the first day of March of that year. UNITED STATES CIRCUIT COURT JUDGES FOR INDIANA. Thomas Drummoud, December 22, 1869 — July, 1884. Walter Q. Gresham, October 28, 1S84 — :\Iarch, 1893. James G. Jenkins, March 23, 1S93 — UNITED STATES CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS. FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT. The United States Court of Appeals was created by the Act of INIarch 3, 1891. William Allen "Woods, Judge of the Court for the District of Indiana, was appointed its first Judge, liis appointment bearing date of :\Iarch 21, 1S92. A sketch of him is given elsewhere. United States District Court FOR THE DISTRICT OF INDIANA. By W. W. Thornton. The State of Indiana was admitted into the Union, December ii, i8i6, although the State Government actually began the seventh of the preceding mouth. On March 3, 1817, Congress passed a statute organizing the State as a separate district, providing for a Court having two terms a year, one begin- ning on the first Monday of May, and the other on the first Monday of November. The statute provided that the Judge " shall, in all things, have and exercise the same jurisdiction and powers which were, by law, given to the Judge of the Kentucky District, under an Act entitled, 'An Act to establish the Judicial Courts of the United States.' " The statute thus referred to was the one providing for the general organization of Courts for the United States adopted September 29, 1789. Special powers were given to the District Court of Kentucky. It was given full Circuit Court powers ; and appeals could be taken directly from decisions rendered in it to the Supreme Court of the United States, under the same regulations as an appeal from the Circuit Courts of the Union. And although the District Court of Kentiicky was reduced to the level of the ordinary District Court by the Act of February 24, 1807, the peculiar powers of the District Court for Indiana continued until March 3, 18371 when it was reduced to the grade of an ordinary District Court. The first Judge of the District Court for Indiana was Benjamin Parke, of whom a sketch is given elsewhere, who was appointed March 6, 1817. The first session was held at Corydon, then the Capitol of the State. He died in June, 1835. The last day he held Court was May 28th of that year. His salary was $1,000, and the District Attorney's I200. Judge Parke's successor was Jesse Lynch Holman, who was appointed September 16, 1835, and held until his death, March 28, 1842. His first dtx of Court was November 30, 1835, and his last November 17, 1841. He was bom at Danville, Ky., October 24, 1784. While an infant his father was killed by the Indians. Under discouraging difficulties he received a common school THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 15 ed«ctition. Before his majority, being ursje 1 to do so by Henr\- Clay, he pub- lished a novel entitled "Errois of Education," in two volumes. He after- wards became dissatisfied with the work and destroyed every copy he could secure. He studied law under Clay at Lexington, and opened an office at Carrollton. Sometime previous to iSio he moved to Indiana, and settled near Aurora on a farm he called " Veraestan." A lar^e family of slaves had descended to him, and these he brought to Indiana and liberated. In i8ii he was Prosecuting Attorney of Dearborn county ; in 1.S14 elected a member of the Legislature, and the same year appointed Judge of the Second Judicial Circuit. He ascended the Supreme Court bench of this State December 28, 1S16, and was reappointed, serving fourteen years. In 1831 he came within one vote of being elected United States Senator, General Tipton defeating him. He was a Baptist minister and for years served as pastor of the Aurora Bap- tist Church. He was also one of the proprietors of the' town of Aurora, and manifested a deep interest in the schools of his town aud countv, as well as in the organization of the State University. He was the father of Hon. William S. Holman, for many years and at present a member of Congress. Part of the time he was Judge, Horace Bassett was Clerk, having been ap- pointed December 5, 1837, by Judge McLean. Judge Holman's successor was Elisha Jlills Huntington, who was appointed May 2, 1842, and held the office until his death, which occurred at St. Paul, Minn., October 26, 1862. He first held Court eighteen daj'S after his appointment. He was a native of Otsego county, N. Y., and was born ]\tarch 29, 1806. In 1822 his father moved to Vigo county, this vState, where Elisha read law. In 1829 he was appointed Prosecuting Attorney ; in 1831, 1832 and 1S33 he was a member of the Legis- lature, and in the latter year was appointed President Judge of the Circuit to which Vigo county belonged. In 1841 he was appointed Commissioner of the General Land Office, and the following year, as has been said. Judge of the District Court. During his term. May 24, 1853, John H. Rea was ap- pointed Clerk. Caleb Blood Smith was Judge Huntington's successor. He was appointed December 22, 1862, and died suddenly in Court chambers January 7, 1864, at the age of fifty-six. He was born in Massachusetts. In eaily childhood and youth he lived in Cincinnati, and when twenty-one years of age he went to Connersville, this State, to enter the office of Hon. O. H. Smith. In 1837-38 he served two term: in the Legislature, the last one as Speaker. He also served two terms in Congress. He served as Commissioner with Corwin and Payne under the Me.xican treaty. About 1849 he moved to Indianapolis, and a year later, having been elected President of the Junction Railroad, moved to Cincinnati. President Lincoln made him, March 5, 1861, his first Secre- tary of the Interior. He had always been a Whig and consequently found naturally an early affiliation with the Republican party. His health failed him and he resigned early in December, 1862. He possessed unusual oratorical powers, and was recognized as one of the foremo-st lawyers of the State. 16 THE BENCH AND B.\R OF INDIANA Albert Smith White succeeded Judge Smith on January i8, 1864, and died the fourth of the following September. White was born at Blooming Grove, N. Y., October 24, 1803, and graduated at Union College in 1822, having William H. Seward as a classmate. He studied law and was admitted at Newburg, of that State, in 1825. Soon after he moved to Rushville, in this State, and began the practice of the law. A year later he moved to Paoli, and after staying there a short time moved to Lafa^'ette in March, 1829. Some time after this he made his home at Stockwell, a pleasant village in the Southeastern part of Tippecanoe county. In 1828 and 1829 he reported the proceedings of the Legislature for the Indianapolis _/(3«r«a/, and during the sessions of 1830 and [831 was Assistant Clerk of the House, and Clerk for the years 1832, 1833, 1834 and 1835. In 1833 ^^ was a candidate for Congress on the Whig ticket against Edward A. Hannegan, and was defeated. In 1837 he made a successful race for that office. In 1839 he was elected United States Senator ; the contest was a memorable one, and it was only on the thirty- sixth ballot that he was successful. Shortly after this he was elected President of the Indianapolis and Lafaj'ette Railroad Company, and served until 1856. About the same time he was elected President of the Wabash and Western Railway Company. In i860 he was returned tj the Lower House of Congress, and introduced a bill appropriating one hundred and eighty mil- lions of dollars for the purpose of freeing the slaves, and also twenty mil- lions for their colonization in Africa. If the olive branch of peace thus held out had been accepted by the South, the War of the Rebellion would have been averted. In 1861 Gov. Morton appointed him a member of the Peace Convention, .which so signally failed. In Congress White was one of the close advisers of Lincoln and a man of power. On the death of Judge Smith, he was appointed, January 18, 1864, Judge of the District Court, and died in office September 4, of the same year. White was, perhaps, the most scholarly man ever in Indiana politics, or who ever occupied a judicial posi- tion in the State. His life is an illustration that the scholar may be both a successful politician and Judge, and hold the admiration of the populace. On December 13, 1864, David McDonald was appointed Judge of the Court, and served until his death, which took place August 25, 1869. His father was a native of Maine and his mother of Maryland. He was born in Bourbon county, Ky., Jlay 8, 1S03, When he was fourteen years of age his father moved to Daviess county, this State, and settled in the woods. David received only a common school education; but he had a remarkable desire to read, and improved every leisure moment in that delightful occupation. He read law in Washington, beginning in 1828, and was admitted in 1830. In 1833 he was a member of the Legislature, and three years later Prosecuting Attorney. In 1838 he was appointed Judge of the Tenth Judicial Circuit, and moved to Bloomington. He served in that capacity for fourteen years, two terms. In 1855 he moved to Indianapolis in order to practice in the United States Court. In his early life he occasionally occupied the pulpit of a sect then popularly called " New Lights." In later life he took great interest in THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 17 spiritualism, a year or so before his death having closely attended several large meetings of spiritualists held at Indianapolis. During his occupation of the Federal Bench, many important cases came before him, growing out of the War of the Rebellion, and his administration was highly satisfactory. He was a man well liked, and his integrity unquestioned. He was the author of " McDonald's Treatise," a work of high order of its kind, and which has run through many editions under different editors' hands. It was based, however, upon Swan's Ohio Treatise, and that upon Cowen's New York Treatise. On the death of Judge JIcDonald, President Crrant appointed Walter Q. Gresham Judge of the Court. That was September 2, 1869. In 1861 Orresham was elected Colonel of the 53rd Indiana \'oluuteers, and promoted to Brigadier General for meritorious service. A gunshot wound received in the Army rendered him permanently lame. In i865 he was State Agent, and was re- elected two years later. In i,S66 and again in 1868 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress. At the time of his appointment he resided at New Alban3-. President Arthur appointed him April 13, 1883, Postmaster-General; and September 24, 1884, Secretary of the Treasury, which position he held until October 28, of the same year, when he was appointed Judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit. This position he held until President Cleveland appointed him .Secretary of State, March 6, 1893. Judge Gresham's opinions do not show as broad and deep learning in the law as is desirable in a Fed- eral Judge ; and he always seemed impatient of precedent. His opinions, however, evince a strong sense of equity and fairness. On the bench he, at times, was inclined to use his power arbitrarih- when annoved with what he considered undue zeal in counsel. Like David Davis and Stephen J. I'leld, his language concerning political measures was not as guarded as is usually obsers-ed by Judges on the bench, and in later }-ears he possessed a strong political following which culminated in his candidacy for the Presidential nomination before the Republican convention at Chicago in 1S88. F'rom thence he was an uncertainty in politics until he went into Mr. Cleveland's cabinet. On the resignation of Judge Gresham President Arthur appointed, May 2,. 1883, William .\llen Woods Judge of the Court. A sketch of him is given elsewhere. Judge Woods resigned March ar, 1892; and on ;\Iarch 29, 1892,, President Harrison appointed John H. Baker, a sketch of whom also appears elsewhere. On January 26, 181S, the Legislature provided that the United .States Marshal shall have the right to confiue Federal prisoners in any county jail within the .State. The District Court, by the same statute, was also authorized to hold its sessions in the Court room that was used by the Supreme Court of the State for the same purpose. This was while the Capitol was at Corvdon, but the .statute continued in force until after the Capitol was removed to Indianapolis. At Corydon the Supreme Court used the Court room in the County Court House, and also used the Marion Count}- Couit room after the :s TIIIC lUvNCH AXI) BAR Ol'" INDIANA Ca])iloI was remON'cil. Tlie I'liiteil States District Court ii December;,!, 1.S311, tile legislature ,t;ave the Court ])ermissiou to sit iu the (Governor's House, situated in the Circle, uow Monument Place. After the Cajiitol was liuilt, in 1835, the District anil Circuit Courts sat iu the State Supreme Court room when uot oceuijied. or in one of the Chambers of the Ive,t;islature when not iu use bv it, until tlie present <;overnment buildintf at the Southeast corner of Pennsylvania and Market Streets was built in iSjy. The first session of the Court w;is May 6, 1817. On that day Judj^e Parke appeareil, and jiroduced his commission, ni^on which was endorsed his oath. Henrj- Hnrst also a])peare(l, produced his_ coniniission and .gave bond, with i-u «!«%»%«*' 'I'HE Oi.ii SlAric CArrriir at ^nnvints, iS[3 Ti I 1.S23. Richard M. Hetli and Davis Hoyd as sureties, and took the oath. Thomas H. IJlake also appeared as United States Attorne\-. 'Idle Al.irshal did not a]ii)ear and produce liis commission until the third of the followin.i;- Xo\eni- ber. The next day the Court simiily met :iml adjourneil. 'IMiis is the entire reconl, consisting of only three pa,i;cs, for the term. Not a case was tried nor docketed, nor a motion made. On the third of .\ai;es of rernnl, and having transai'ted no business except to approve the Marshal's bond aiul admit li\e attorneys to the Inir. So ended the lirst \ear's work. 'l"o the proceedings of the last day ol this term the Judge ajipendeil his signature, for the first lime, in cramped hand-writing, \ery much unlike his signatures sul)sei|nently found in the records. It was not the universal prac- tice to sign each days ])roceedings, though it was usually d(Uie. Since about 1.S70 the practice has been totally discontinued. At present Noble C. Butler is the Clerk. The third term of the Court began May i, iS[!S, and adjourned four days later, the record covering only eight pages. j\t this term Moses Talbot, John N. Dunbar, Reuben R. Nelson ami ICbene/er Macdonald \vere admitted to ])ractice. The No\ember term began on the second and terminated on the fifth, with only se\en pages of record. The May term, iSic;, lasted only four days, and its proceedings cover only ten pa,t;es of record. At the November term nuire business was transacted than at any previous term, lasting an entire week, and its proceedings refjniring twenty-three ]),Lges to record them. ( )n May .-, 1.S25, Court met for the first time .at Indiamipolis, holding a session in the Court room of Marion County. William W. Wick, Oliver II. .Smith, John T McKinuey and Cyrus I''inch were admitted to the bar. On the fifth Court adjourned, ele\'en ])ages being sufficient for ,1 record of its l^roceedings. The amount of business transacted in the Court was always small until the War of the Ri-bellion required a great increase of its jurisdiction. JUDGES OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT KOR TlIK DI.STRICT 111' INDFANA. Benjamin Parke, March 6, 1.S17— June, i,S;,,S- [esse Lynch Holman, Se])teud)er id, 1835— March jS, 1S.42. Klisha Mills Huntington, May 2, i,S,|2- ( )ctober 26, i,S62. Caleb Blood Smith, Decend)er 22, iS()2 - Jarniary 7, i,S6.|. .\lbert Smith White, January 18, 1S64— Septend)er 4, i,S(i4. David McDon.ild, December 13, 1.S64 August 25, 1869. Walter Q. Oresham, Se])tend)er i, 1869- ,April, 1S83. William Allen Woods, May 2, 1883 -March 21, 1892. John H. Baker, March 29, 1892- The General Court of the Northwest Territory. By W. W. Thornton. By the treaty of Paris the country afterwards known as the " Northwest Territory" passed from the rule of France to that of Great Britain. This was in 1763. On the 21st day of November, 1768, Lieutenant-Colonel John Wilkins, the British military commandant of the Territory, issued a procla- mation stating that by order of General Gage, Commander-in-Chief of the Brit- ish forces in North America, he was to establish a court of justice in Illinois, county of Virginia, for settling disputes and controversies between man and man, and all claims in relation to property, both real and personal. As mil- itary commandant, Colonel Wilkins appointed seven Judges, who met and held their first Court at Fort Chartes, Illinois, December 6, 1768. Thereafter Courts were held once a month. This Court had jurisdiction over the present territory of Indiana. In Moses' History of Illinois, vol. i, p. 140, it is said that this was "the first British Court west of the Alleghanies. Instead of appeasing, it increased the discontent of the French ; it was repugnant to all their ideas of jiistice that the rights of persons and property should be safer in the hands of a panel of miscellaneous tailors and shoemakers than in those of erudite and dispassionate Judges. ' ' George Rogers Clark was a Virginian. He had settled in Kentucky, and while a resident there was commissioned by his mother State to wrest the country north of the Ohio river from British rule. This information was con- veyed to Clark by a letter of Governor Patrick Henrj', dated January 2, 1778. On July 4, of the same year, Clark captured Kaskaskia, and February 25, 1779, Post Vincennes. By reason of this conquest Virginia claimed the right of sovereignty over a large portion of this territory, and in 1779 opened a land office for the sale of her western lauds ; but upon the request of Congress she reconsidered her action and closed the oiBce. After the capture of Kaskaskia, in October, the House of Burgesses of Virginia enacted that all the citizens of Virginia "who are already settled or shall hereafter settle on the western THE BEN'CII AND BAR OF INDIANA 21 side of the Ohio shall be included in a distinct county which shall be calkd Illinois county ; and the Governor of this commonwealth, with the advice of the council, may appoint a Count}' Lieutenant or Commander-in- Chief in that county, who shall appoint and commission so many deputy commandants, militia and officers and commissaries, as he shall think proper, all of whom shall take the oath of fidelity to this commonwealth." We take the following (by permission of the publishers) from an article of ;\Ir. James E. Babb on the Supreme Court of Illinois, published in The Green Bag of May, i.Sgi, which is as applicable to the early Courts of Indiana as to those of that State; "John Todd, of Kentucky, having been appointed Lieutenant of Illinois county, issued his proclamation as such at Kaskaskia, June 15, 1779. In the same month a Court of civil and criminal jurisdiction was instituted at Post Vincennes, which was composed of several magistrates. Colonel J. "SI. P. Legras acted as President of the Court, and in some cases exercised a con- trolling influence over its proceedings. Adopting in some measure the u-.ages and customs of the early French commandants, the magistrates of the Court of Post Vincennes began to grant or concede tracts of land to the French and American inhabitants of the town, and to different civil and military officers of the country. The commandant anil magistrates, after having exercised this power for some time, began to believe that they had the right to dispose of all that large tract of laud which had been granted for the use of the French inhabitants of Post Vincennes. Accordingly the coun- try was divided between the members of the Court, and orders to that effect entered on their journal ; each member absenting himself from the Court on the day that the order was to be made in his favor. (Western Annals, 69S.) Other magistrates of this Court were P'rancis F. Bosseron, Louis Edeline, Pierre Gamelin, Pierre Querez. 1 "The decisions of the Court of Last Resort in Virginia during the time tliis territory constituted Illinois county of Virginia are reported in the first few pages of 4 Call's Reports, and include the case of Commonwealth v. Caton, celebrated in constitutional history. " By a process, the details of which are well known, the State of Virginia on March i, 1784, made to the United iStates a deed of ce-;iion of the lands northwest of the Ohio River. In the following April, Congress provided for the maintenance of a temporary government of that territory, which provi- sion was on July 13, 1787, repealed, and in lieu thereof there was then enacted the famous Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the Ohio River. " By this ordinance there were to be appointed for the Territory a Governor and three Judges, the latter to form a Court and have common-law jurisdic- tion. The Governor and Judges were given authority with certain (|ualifica- _ tions to enact laws until the Territory should have a population of five thousand free male inhabitants of full age, when it was provided that a General Assembly should be elected with legislative authority. 22 THE BENCH AND BAR OE INDIANA " The first Judges chosen for the Northwest Territory were Samuel Holden Parsons, James Mitchell Varnum and John Armstrong ; the last declining to serve, John Cleves Symmes siicceeded him. Those who there- after served as Judges under this ordinance were George Turner, who took the place declined by William Barton ; Rufus Putnam, the one made vacant by Samuel Holden Parsons ; Joseph Oilman, who succeeded Putnam, and Return Johnathan Meigs, Jr., the successor of Turner. " Parsons was born at Lyme, Conn., May 14, 1737, was graduated at Harvard at nineteen, admitted to the bar, served eighteen sessions in the Assembly of Connecticut, was a member of the Constitutional Convention of that State in 1778, and a Brigadier-General in the Revolutionary War. He died November 17, 1789. " Varnum was born at Dracut, Mass., December 17, 1748, was graduated at Brown College with first honors, was a Brigadier-General in the Revolu- tionary War, and thereafter became a distinguished lawyer and brilliant orator in Ma,ssachusetts. He was a brother of Joseph Bradley Varnum, United States Senator from Massachusetts. He died at Marietta, Ohio, January 10, 1789. "John Cleves Symmes was born on Long Island, New York, July 21, 1742. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress from Delaware, Judge of the Superior Court and Chief-Justice of New Jersey. His wife was a daughter of CTOvernor William Livingstone ; his daughter, Anna Symmes, married President William Henry Har'-ison. He died at Cincinnati, Feb- ruary 26, 1814. "Putnam was from Massachusetts. He was a cousin of General Israel Putnam. He was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, a Brigadier- General in the Revolution, one of the prominent members of tho Ohio Com- pany of Associates, Surveyor-General of the United States, and a member of the Constitutional Convention of Ohio in 1803. He died at Marietta, Ohio, May I, 1824. "Return Jonathan Meigs was a son of a distinguished Revolutionary soldier of Connecticut of the same name, to which it seems a bit of romance is attached. The grandfather of the Judge, after several refusals from his lady-love, mounting his horse to leave her for the last time, heard her call in a relenting tone, ' Return, Jonathan.' These words he gave his sou, the father of our subject, for a name. "Judge Meigs was graduated at Yale with first honors, was a member of the first General Assembly of the Northwest Territory, Federal Judge in Michigan and Louisiana, United States Senator, Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and Postmaster- General. He died at Marietta, O., March 29, 1825. Judge Turner was born in England in 1750. He was a Captain in the _ Revolutionary War, and died at Philadelphia, March 16, 1843. "Joseph Oilman was from Exeter, N. H., and was probably a cousin of Nicholas Oilman, who was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 from New Hampshire. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Zi ii "The Governor, General Arthur St. Clair, and the Jud.yes first met as a |( legislative body at Marietta, Ohio, July 15, 1788, when a code of laws was iig. adopted. The laws were largely taken from those in force in Pennsjdvania, |g( Massachusetts. Virginia, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Kentucky. iq In 1795 a Virginia Act of May 5, 1776 (adopting the Common Law and ,j Statutes of England of a general nature, prior to the fourth year of the reign of James I.), was adopted. The first General Assem1)ly of this Territory j, enacted that an applicant for admission to the bar should produce a certificate ij that he had read law four years. The first session of Court for the trial of l, causes was opened September 2, 1788, at Marietta, Ohio, with impressive ceremonies. At first the Supreme Court sat at ^larietta, then at Cincinnati, Vincennes and Kaskaskia; later Detroit was added to the circuit, and this wide » circuit the Judges traveled on horseback. The Court had power to review the decisions of Courts inferior to it, but there was, it is stated, no appeal from its own decisions." The General Court of Indiana Territory. Bv W. \V. THOR^-T()^,^ [From Tke Green Bag, May, iS92. By Permission.] On the 7tb dav of May, 1800, the Northwest Territory was divided, the greater part of what is now the State of Ohio being embraced in the eastern division, and the remainder constituting Indiana Territory, with the seat of government at Vincennes. The ordinance of 1787 was continued in force, its provi'iions in one or two instances slightly modified. 1)1 June, 1779, a Court of civil and criminal jurisdiction had been organ- ized at Vincennes, composed of several magistrates ; but this was not an appellate Court. It was a nisi prius Court, and having also some legislative authority. The commandant at the post acted as its President. This Court, however, was not the predecessor of the General Court authorized by the ordinance of 1787, when Indiana Territory was severed from Ohio. May 13, 1800, Harrison was appointed Governor of the new Territory', and on the next day John Gibson, a native of Pennsylvania, was appointed Secretary. The Executive Journal of the Territory, dated at " St. Vincennes, Jvily 4, 1800," runs: "This day the government of the Indiana Territory commenced, William Henry Harrison having been appointed Governor, John Gibson Secretary, William Clarke, Henry Vanderburgh and John Griffin Judges in and over said Territor}'. ' ' BvTt the only officer present and acting was Gibson, who served as Governor until the arrival of Harrison, January 10, 1801. He forthwith issued a proclamation, convening the Governor and Judges in a legislative session two days later. Under the Ordinance of 1787, the material parts of which remained in force after the separation of Ohio and Indiana, the Governor and Judges con- stituted the Legislature, with the power to " adopt and publish in the district such laws of the original States, criminal and civil, as ' might ' be necessary, and best suited to the circumstances of the district, and report them to Con- gress from time to time, which laws were to ' i-emain in force in the district until the organization of the General Assembly therein, unless disapproved of by Congress;'" but afterwards the Legislature was given "authority to alter them as they might see fit." THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 25 Three resolutions and six laws were adopted at the first session. The Governor and Judges had only power to "adopt and publish in the district such laws of the original States * * ♦ as ' might' be necessary and best suited to the circumstances of the district." Consequently they had no authority to pass a resolution, much less one not taken from the laws or reso- lutions of one of the original States. The three resolutions thus adopted were nullities. Two of the laws were taken from Kentucky ; and a third one in part from Kentuck}-, and the remainder of them from Virginia. It is quite clear that the Governor and Judges had no power to adopt a law of Kentucky ; for they were only authorized to adopt ' ' laws of the original States,'' and Kentucky was not one of those States. The Governor and Judges continued as a legislative body u.ntil July 29, 1805. Their second session began Januar}' 30, 1S02 ; the third, February 16, 1803, and the fourth Septem- ber 20, 1803. At their second session they adopted two laws; at theirthird, one law and two resolutions ; and at their fourth, eight laws and seven resolu- tions. One of the laws adopted at the fourth session was an original repealing act, a law the}- had no power to adopt. The laws of the Northwest Territory adopted previous to the division were considered in force, upon the theorjr that the division of the old Terri- torv was merely for administrative purposes ; that the laws were as much in force in the one part as in the other, and therefore that there was no need of re-enacting or re-adopting them. In fact, by a decision of the Territorial Court in 1S03, a law passed in the Northwest Territory after 1800 was held to be still in force in \Vayue county, which was added to Indiana Territory in 1802 ; and that, too, notwithstanding the fact that an entirely different law was in force in the remainder of Indiana. This construction of the laws of the Northwest Territorv was of great importance to Indiana ; for it had been clearly demonstrated that laws adopted from the original States were unfitted to the new country and inadequate. This was one of the factors which had brought a change in the government of the Northwest Territory, previous to its division, by advancing it to the second stage of Territorial government, and the election of a Legislature which had the power to enact new laws fitted to the place, time and people. These laws, thus adopted by the Legis- lature previous to the division, were then, by the decisions of the Courts, in force in the Indiana Territory. But we are more interested in the first Court of Indiana Territory than we are in the council of the Governor and Judges. The fir.st session of the Territorial Court opened at Vincennes, March 3, iSoi. Thus runs the record : "At a General Court of the Indiana Territory, called and held at St. Vincennes the third day of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and one. The commissions of the Judges being read in open Court, they took their seats, and present : William Clarke, Henry Vanderburgh and John GrifBn, Judges. Henry Hurst, Clerk of the General Court, having produced his commission from the Governor and a certificate of his having taken the 26 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA oath of allegiance and oath of office, took his place. [He w^s afterwards Clerk of the United States Court for the District of Indiana.] John Rice Jones, Attorney-General, produced his commission, and a certificate of his having taken the oath of allegiance and oath of office." Then follows the return of the Sheriff (but who he is is not said) of "a panel of the Grand Jury," " nineteen good and lawful men." After the impanelling of the Grand Jury, an order is entered for the examination of Robert Hamilton and General Washington Johnston, on "the first Monday in September," "for counsellor's degree agreeably to a law of the Territory ;" and another order for the examination, on the same day, for the same degree, of John Rice Jones. The Court then entered an order fixing rule days in two vacations ; pre- scribing the Sheriff's diity in making returns to writs, and the Clerk's in cases of appeal and writs of error. On request of the Grand Jury a stubborn witness was ordered to appear before them ; and the Coroner, Abraham West- fall, " returned the inquisition taken before him on the bod}- of George Allen, deceased." James Johnson returned the examination of several witnesses touching the murder of George Highland, and also the recognizance of two persons taken because of their having assaulted an Indian. The stubborn witness having been brought before the Grand Jury, they returned two indictments — one for murder and the other for assaulting and beating the Indian. The last defendant appeared in discharge of his lecog- uizance, taken at his preliminary examination ; and the case of the first defendant was set for trial at the next term. Thereupon the Court entered an order for the examination of Gabriel Jones Johnston as counsellor, if he should be found to be a permanent resi- dent of the Territory; and then "Ordered that the Court be adjourned till the term in course," which order Wm. Clarke signed. Such was the first day of the General Court of Indiana Territory. The Court did not meet again until the first day of September. The Court held two terms a year, March and September. The second term had but six days, but several cases were tried. While the record of the first day recites that John Griffin appeared on that day, yet this statement is flatly contradicted in the proceedings of the first day of the March term, 1802, when he appeared, produced his commis- sion and took his seat. He did not sit at the preceding September term. On the first day of the March term, 1802, Benjamin Parke, John Rice Jones and General Washington Johnston produced their license as coun- sellors and took the requisite oath. At subsequent terms these gentlemen were examined and admitted as attorneys at law ; and all others had to pass through the same ordeal. But what must strike the practitioner now as singular was the examination by the Court of the Attorney-General of the Territory and his admission. He was commissioned by the President. Per- haps, however, this was to enable him to attend to civil business in the Court, and not his official business ; for he appeared in several criminal cases before THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 27 even an order was made for his examiuatiou as au attoruej- at law. And so several other gentlemen appeared and transacted business before their admis- sion, either as counsellors or attorneys ; possibly the Coirrt of necessity was compelled to entertain their motions, or there would have been no business for the Court — even the Attorney-General's in his official capacity. The first and second and only dockets or order-books of the General Court lie before the writer. The first contains 457 pages and ends with the September term, i8io. The second begins with the March term, iSir, and ends on Tuesday, the 16th day of September, 1816, on the 120th page. The first is worm-eaten and shattered, and should be re-copied ; the second is in a good state of preservation. All the entries are clear, legible and in a good hand. William Clarke was evidentlj' President of the Court, for when present his name is always first, and then on such occasions he signs the day's pro- ceedings. After the September term, 181 1, he no longer sat on the bench. Who he was and whence he came cannot now be told. He has been con- founded with a brother of General George Rogers Clarke, but this is error ; for this brother of the General was the Clarke of Lewis and Clarke fame, who went overland to the Pacific Coast in 1S04. It is not often that the memon,- of a man so high in the affairs of a State has so completely faded from sight as that of William Clarke. The same may be said of John Griffin, an associate of Clarke and Van- derburgh, whose official duties ended with the special May term, 1S06. Henry Vanderburgh invariably wrote his name with a capital B, and in the early laws his name is printed as Vander Burgh; but he himself wrote it as one word. He was a Captain in the Fifth New Vork Regiment of Con- tinentals, and as such served in the War of the Revolution. Soon after the close of that war he settled in \'incennes and married into an old and dis- tinguished family — the Racines. As early as 1794 he was Probate Judge and Justice of the Peace for Knox county. He was a man of much natural ability, and was the only member of the Council selected by President Adams from outside of Ohio in 1798, of which he became the President. In 1804 he approved the advance of Indiana Territory from the first to the second grade of Territorial government. He seems to have been a political bed-fellow with William Mcintosh, who became involved in a slander suit with Governor Harrison. He was a slaveholder and a man of some temper. Thomas Terry Davis first appeared in Court as Judge, September 6, 1803, when Benjamin Parke was the administration's candidate for Congress. Davis was recommended, although then Judge, as the opposition candidate, and was beaten by a majority of only three votes ; and yet it is quite evident that he did not actively oppose the Governor, for on March i, 1806, he was appointed by that official Chancellor of the Territory, in place of John Badol- lett, resigned. He died at Jeffersonville, November 17, 1807. Waller Taylor succeeded Davis, and first appeared in Court as Judge, Sep- tember 8, 1806, and continued as such until the Court was dissolved by the 28 THS BRNCH AND BAR OF INDIANA admission of Indiana Territory as a State. Taylor was born before 1786 in Luenburgh connty, Virginia, and died there August 26, 1826. He had only a common-school education. He served one or two terms in the Virginia Legislature as a Representative of his native county. In 1805 he settled in Vincennes. November 24, 1807, on the death of Thomas T. Davis, he was appointed by the Governor, Chancellor of the Territory. On his appointment by the President as Judge of the Territorial Court, he resigned the office of Chancellor. He succeeded John Griffin. Taylor was a pro-slavery man of decided cast, and trained with Harrison. In 181 r he was Jonathan Jennings' opponent in the race for Congress, but was defeated. At the battle of Tippe- canoe he was a major, and served as aid-de-camp to Harrison. On the ad- mission of the Territory as a State, Taylor, with James Noble (afterwards Goveruor), was elected, November 8, i8i6, to represent Indiana in the Senate of the United States, and was re-elected, serving until March 3, 1825. Benjamin Parke, an intimate friend of Henry Clay, was one of the strong men of the State. He was born in New Jersey in 1777. With his young wife, whom he married at Lexington, Kj'., he settled in Vincennes in 1801, where he opened a law office. Parke must have very early given evidence of ability, for he was appointed Attorney-General of the Territory, and first appeard as such at the September Term, 1804, succeeding John Rice Jones. He was a member of the first Territorial Legislature, which met July 20, 1805, and served in that capacity until he was appointed by the President a Territorial Judge. He took the bench September 6, 1808, succeeding Thomas T. Davis. At that time his associates were Vanderburgh and Waller Taylor. Davis and Taylor held the office of Chancellor, notwithstanding that at the same time they were Judges of the Territorial Court. Parke remained in office until the State was admitted into the Union, when he was appointed Judge of the United States District Court, which office he held until his death. He had also served as a member of the first Constitutional Convention. At the battle of Tippecanoe he served as captain, and on the fall of Daviess he was at once promoted to the position of major, and became commander of the cavalry. Of him General Harrison said: "He was in every respect equal to auy cavalry officer of his rank that I have ever seen, As in everything else which he undertook, he made himself acquainted with the tactics of that arm, and succeeded in bringing his troops, both as regards field manoeuvring and the use of the sabre, to as great perfection as I have ever known." Parke acquired great influence over the Indians, and during the terri- torial government served as Indian agent. In a bank adventure at Vincennes, with a couple of dishonest partners, he lost his wealth, and from thence had only his income as a lawyer and his salary as a Judge to support him. After Harrison left that town, Parke moved to Salem, where he resided until his death, July 12, 1835, leaving no children surviving him. While there he took great interest in the education of the youth, and especially his own children. He was loved by all who knew him, and was in ever)' way a christian gen- tleman. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 29 Parke was a lover of books, and had at his death the largest private library, perhaps, iu the State. The present Supreme Court of the State owes much to him, for he was the founder of its now magnificent law library. Many of the books he presented to the library still remain on its shelves, with his autograph written therein. On December 31, iiS22, the legislature provided for a revision of the laws, conferring on him "full power to revise, alter, amend, abridge, enlarge and model the statute laws " of the State, "so as to produce a comprehensive and systematic code, best fitted in his opinion to subserve the public interests and happiness." Parke was selected by the legislature for this purpose. The result of this was the Revised Statutes of 1824. For his labor he received |ii,ooo. James Scott was the last person appointed Judge of the Old Territorial Court, and he succeeded Vanderburgh. He evidently was somewhat of a new-comer, for he was not admitted to practice before the Court as counsellor until April 10, 1811. He took his seat April 6, 1813. Two or three prominent characters are so connected with the old Com-t that a sketch of it without reference to them would be incomplete. Among these is John Rice Jones, the first Attorney-General of the Terntor}^ Jones was a. Welshman by birth, an accomplished lawyer and a man of g-eat vin. dictive oratorical powers. He was a pro-slavery advocate, and at the conven. tion which met at Vincennes, December 20, 1802, for the purpose of petition- ing Congress to remove the restrictions on slavery in the Territory, he was made secretarv. As early as 1786 he was General Clarke's commissary when he made an expedition up the Waljash against the Indians. He then prop- erly resided in Virginia. The convention of 1802, after recommending the re-appointment of General Harrison as Governor, recommended the appoint- ment of Jones as Judge of the Territorial Court, although he then held the position of Attorney-General. At that time he was a firm political friend of Harrison, and evidently possessed much influence. He served several terms as a member of the Territorial Legislature, and was a member of the Council. In 1808 he was a prominent candidate for Congress to succeed Benjamin Parke, who had resigned on his appointment as territorial Judge, but was defeated. December 4, 1806, the legislature, by resolution, appointed Jones and John Johnson to revise and codify the laws; and as a result of this we have the compilation of 1807. Jones became involved in a political quarrel with Harrison, probably because he did not receive the appointment as Judge of the Territorial Court in 1808 instead of Parke. The year after his defeat for Congress he went to Illinois, and in 1810 to ]\Iissonri. He was a member of the first constitutional convention of that State, and one of the Judges of the State Supreme Court, which position he held until his death in April, 1824. General Washington Johnston was another prominent member of the bar. He was a native of Culpeper county, Virginia, came to Vincennes in 1793, and was the first Attorney at the bar of Knox county of whom there is any record. He was one of the original organizers of the Masonic Grand Lodge 30 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA of Indiana, in 1817-18. He was at first a pro-slavery man, but afterwards changed about; and was a member of the first territorial legislature. He was a candidate, on Parke's resignation, for Congress, but seems to have had no following; and opposed the division of Indiana and Illinois. In 1808, on the resignation of Jesse B. Thomas, of Illinois, Johnston was elected in his stead Speaker of the Illinois Territorial House of Representatives. In 1809, after a bitter contest, he was again elected a Representative, and also in 1810. He superintended the printing of the Acts of several sessions of the legislature. A number of his law books are in the Supreme Court library, which contain his name in his own hand-writing. Thomas Randolph was the third and last Territorial Attorney-General, succeeding Parke, September 6. 1808. He was born in 1771, in Richmond, Va., and was a member of the celebrated Randolph family of that name — a second cousin of John Randolph of Roanoke. He was a graduate of William and Mary's college, and served one term in the Virginia legislature. He was a protege of Harrison. Randolph was a fiery and impetuous man, a friend and promoter of slavery. At the battle of Tippecanoe he fell a victim to the carnage of warfare; and he and Jo Daviess are buried side by side, by their friend Waller Taylor, on the field of slaughter. It may be remarked paren- thetically, that the salary of Attorney-General was, in 1803, |6o per annum, and in 1808, |ioo, while the pay of a Judge of the Territorial Court was j!70o. The Court sat at Vincennes until 1813, when the seat of government was moved to Corydon — the first session there being the September term of that year. The General Court was a Court of both original and appellate jurisdiction. Appeals of law lay to it from the Court of Common Pleas and Circuit Courts ; and writs of error were issued by it, running not only to both of these Courts, but also to Justices of the Peace. In a number of instances the Court deliv- ered written opinions while sitting in its capacity as an Appellate Court, and they were entered at length in its dockets or order-books. None of these opinions have ever been published. The Judges possessed the power to hold Court in the circuits, and in the exercise of this power. Judge Parke tried his first case in Wayne County, riding all the way from Vincennes for that purpose alone, and having a log for a desk. It was a case of theft — a theft of a twenty-five cent pocket-knife. The important case which came before the Territorial Court was that of Governor Harrison against William Mcintosh for slander. Mcintosh was a Scotchman — and perhaps the wealthiest man at Vincennes — a near relation of Sir James Mcintosh, the English philosopher and statesman. From being a close friend of Harrison he turned a bitter enemy, and charged him with having cheated the Indians. In the spring of 181 1 Harrison sued him for slander. Vanderburgh and Parke declined to sit — the first because he was a personal friend of the defendant, and the other because he was a strong per- sonal friend of the plaintiff. This left Waller Taylor as the sole Judge. Elisors were appointed to select the names of forty-eight citizens as a panel THE BEN'CH AND BAR OF INDIANA 31 from which the jury was to be taken. From these the plaintiff and defendant each struck twelve names, and from the remaining twenty-foiir the jury was selected by lot. Thomas Randolph appeared for Harrison, and Ellis Glover and Gen. W. Johnston for INIcIntosh. The jury was impanelled .April lo, i8ii; trial was had the same day, beginning at lo A. ii. and lasting until i A. M. the next day, .April 12, when a judgment for four thousand dollars was rendered against the defendant. The jurj- was out only one hour. IMcIntosh's land was levied npon to satisfy the judgment, and the Governor's agent, while the latter was iu command of the army, bid it in. Afterwards Harrison restored two-thirds of it to Mcintosh and gave the remainder to the orphan children of several distinguished citizens who fell in the war of 1812. In 1814 a crisis arose in the Territorial Court. At the January session, 1814, of the legislature, a law was enacted re-organizing the Courts of Justice, and dividing the Territory into three judicial circuits. Parke, Taylor and Scott were named as president Judges, severally, of these circuits, and pro- visions were made for the appointment of three associate Judges in each county. Judges Parke, Taylor and Scott considered this law unconstitu- tional, and the former addressed a long letter to Governor Posey, assigning its invalidity- as a reason for their not complying with its terms. As a result of this communication, the Governor called a special session of the legisla- ture, which met August 15, 1814, and removed the difficulty by providing for the appointment of president Judges for each circuit. Sketch of the Old Supreme Court. By John Coburx. The first Supreme Court of this State was composed of James Scott, of Clarke county, John Johnson, of Knox county, and Jesse L. Holman, of Dear- born county. Their commissions were dated on the 2!Sth day of December, 1816. The Court first assembled on the 5th day of May, 1817. Judge Scott was a native of Pennsylvania. He had been a member of the Territorial Legislature, and a Judge of the Territorial Court, for three years. He was also a member of the Constitutional Convention of i8r6. A stout, rugged and burly man, with a florid complexion, blue eyes, a square face and a large head, indicating physical .strength, a firm purpose, and sound, common sense. A plain spoken man, with a vein of humor and pleasantry. In all respects fitted for the bench in a new country, where a strong sense of equity, an upright character, and a good knowledge of the general principles of law enabled him to attain to great eminence as a just and pure Judge. He served fourteen years on the Supreme bench and retired with the unbounded couSdence and respect of the bar and the people. John Johnson, who served but a few months, and so far as is known, never delivered an opinion, was a Kentuckian by birth, who settled in Viii- cennes about the beginning of this century and began the practice of the law. He served as a member of the Territorial Legislature and in connection with John Rice Jones, edited the Revised Code of the Territory of 1807 — quite a large volume of statutes. He was an unsuccessfvil candidate for delegate from the Territory to Congress ; the other candidates being Jonathan Jennings and Thomas Randolph ; the former anti-slavery, the latter pro-slavery ; the attempt being then aggressively made to convert Indiana into a slave State, in violation of the ordinance of 1787. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention and held a high rank for ability as a lawyer and legislator. He died before the maturity of his power and the culmination of his usefulness. His widow survived him many years, living in Vincennes. Jesse L. Holman served fourteen years with his distinguished colleague, James Scott ; both were retired at the same time, after an honorable service, by Gov. James B. Ray; who appointed his personal friends, Stephen C. THE i;i{NCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 33 v'^levens, of Madison, and JohnT. McKinuey, of BrookYille, each then if^arded inferior to his predecessor. Judge Holman was a Kentuckian ; born at Dan- ville, October 24, 17S4. He received a common school education and studied law under Henry Clay, at Lexington. At the age of tweut\-six, he moved to Indiana and settled for Hie near .\urora, on a farm. He was one of the first who brought over the Ohio River and emancipated his slaves, a large fannly. In iSu, he was elected Prosecuting Attoruty ; in 1S14, a member of the Terri- torial Legislature and Judge of the Second Circuit. Upon the organization of the State, he was appointed a Supreme Judge. In 1831, he was an unsuccess- ful candidate for Senator in Congress, being defeated b\' John Tipton, by one vote. In 1.S35, he succeeded Benjamin Parke, the District Judge of the United .States Court, aud served as such until his death, on ;\Iarch 3Sth, 1X42. He was a great Judge, careful, laborious, and exact. .\ more conscientious man never lived. A student, a lover of nature, a lover of books, a preicher of the gospel. Taking him all in all, he was a very rt-nTarkable man — a strong, serious, quiet, modest, manly, frank, kind and thoughtful man. A good writer, a good speaker, pleasant and entertaining in conversation and observ- ant of all his duties as a neighbor and citizen. He was a man of stout frame, a little inclined to stoop, with a head ample and drooping forward, as if in thought, with large, plain, regular and ample features, on which were stamped the kind aud generous impulses of his nature. He passed through life with- out an enemv' and without ever shirking a duty. Isaac Blackford was born at Beundbrook, X. J., on the 6th of Xovendjer, 17S6. He graduated at Princeton College at the age of twenty. In i.Sm, he was licensed to practice law in his native State. In 1812, he removed to Davton, Ohio, and in a few months to Brookville, Ind., and in a short time he again moved to Salem, Ind. In 1813, on the organization of Washington county, he was elected the first Clerk and Recorder. In 1815, he was elected Clerk of the Territorial Legislature, which office he held but a few weeks and resigned it, upon being appointed Judge of the First Judicial Circuit. He then took up his residence at Vincennes; and in the fall of 1815, resigned ami went into the practice of his profession at Vincennes. In 1816, he was elected to represent Knox county in the first Legislature of this State. In 1817, he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court by Gov. Jennings, which office he held as long as it was filled by appointment of the Governor, which was until the end of the year 1852. He succeeded John Johnson, deceased, of Knox county, who only held his office eight months. So that, he may be said to have been on the bench from the beginning of the State Government until January, 1853. Only two important cases having been decided while Judge Johnson was on the bench. The bench consisted of James Scott, Jesse L. Holman, and leaac Blackford, until December 28, 1830. Blackford was re-appointed on the 28th of January, 1831. Judge Stevens resigned in May, 1836, and Charles Dewey was appointed in his stead. In May, 1837, Jeremiah Sullivan was appointed to fill the vacancv occasioned by the deathof Judge McKinney. In January, 1846, Samuel 34 THE BEXCH AND BAR OF INDIANA E. Perkins succeeded Judge Sullivan by appointment of Governor Whitcomb, and in January, 1847, Thomas L- Smith, also by appointment, succeeded Judge Dewey, who, with Blackford, held office until the new bench, elected under the Constitution of 1850, came into office on the 3rd of January, 1853. Thus Judge Blackford filled out the entire age of judicial appointments under the Constitution of 18 16, with colleagues as unlike, as unique in character, and as peculiar in qualifications as any lawyers that ever sat upon any bench, anywhere. In 1853, J"dge Blackford resumed the practice of the law at Indianapolis, but in about two years was appointed as one of the Judges of the Court of Claims and removed to Washington City, where he died on the 31st of December, 1859. He was unfitted for the practice by his long service on the bench. In addition to his duties as Judge, he reported the decisions of the Su- preme Court from the beginning up to and including November term, 1847 — eight volumes. The only serious jar in his intercourse with any one of his colleagues occurred with Judge Thomas L. Smith, who published a volume of decisions covering the volume entitled " First Indiana Reports," or "First Carter. ' ' So that when he went out of office there were six j^ears of unreported cases. He was preparing Ninth Blackford when the volume of Smith's Reports was (to his surprise) published. To him it was an offense of no slight nature, but there was no open outbreak. The fact was manifest that he was too slow in preparing and publishing his reports. At all events his reporting was unofficial. He spent more than half his life on the bench — counting it from his birth — while counted from the beginning of his manhood, five-sixths of the life of the man was occupied as the life of a Judge, and much of it as a reporter. Such a career has no parallel. A life, unmarred by contentions, unvexed by the cares and strifes of business, and the passions and turmoils of trial courts, devoted purely to the duties of a Court of errors and appeals, to the consideration of the just and proper application of the abstract principles of jurisprudence and the practice of the Courts, trained and developed a character singularly lofty, pure, just and upright. • In his early career he was sought for and urged as a candidate for popular favor. Once he was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor, and once for United States Senator. But not many years elapsed of service on the bench until his fitness for that position became so evident and distinct that no rival ever appeared for his place, until the appointing power of the Governor was abolished, and his choice had to be subjected to the degrading intrigues of a State convention. Not till then did a question as to his qualification for a candidacy for the office arise. He could not stoop to engage in the tricks and alliances, which, too often, control conventions. His capacity for labor was very great ; his practice unbounded ; while his power of investigation reached to the bottom of every legal question submitted to him. He wrote and re- wrote and corrected his opinions with an unsparing THE BKNCH AND BAR OF INDIANA .^S hand. Up to the last moment, he stood ready to make corrections and revi- sions of his work. As a reporter, he took some liberties with the text. Very mnch was omitted from man}' opinions, as appears upon a comparison of the order books of the Court with the printed reports. Bvit what was reported was never questioned, while much that was fairly obiter dicta was omitted, the actual point decided was perfectly reported. The abstracts of the decisions were prepared with the most scrupulous care, and are a just reflection of the points decided. Doubtless the reputation of Blackford's Reports was greatly enhanced by this unflagging care in their preparation. His opinions were not voluminous; his notes and abstracts were pointed and sententious. In politics, he was a Whig until 1840, when Gen. Harrison was nominated for President. He opposed his election, on account of his hostility to Har" rison's attempt to foist slavery upon this State and set aside the anti-slavery provisions of the ordinance of 17S7. From that time until his death he acted with the Democratic party. His disgust at the efforts of the Virginians to introduce slavery into Indiana was intense and undying, and carried him into part}' affiliations that must have made him uneasy. But so quiet was his later career that no public expression of political sentiments was ever drawn from him for 3-ears before his death. He was a firm believer in the Christian religion, but joined no church. The Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule never had a more obedient observer. P'or the greater part of his official career his salary was so small as to require strict ecouomv to live respectabh-. He accumulated some wealth bv the increased value of real estate, which cost but little. Some persons mistook honest economy for parsimony. He was timid almost to a fault ; living a life of seclusion ; having lost his wife soon after marriage and his onl}- son in early manhood. Judge Holman was succeeded by John T. McKinney, January 28, 1831. His residence was Franklin county. He was tall and slender in form, with a thin visage, prominent nose and narrow forehead He seemed to be in failing health and had about him a constant air of lassitude and weariness. He died of consumption in May, 1837. His abilities were moderate, and his history as a lawyer and Judge is unmarked by any memorable act or admirable feature. Death ended his career before the full maturity of his powers. Judge Scott was succeeded by Stephen C. Stevens, who came to the bench on the same day with Judge McKinney. Little, if anything, is known of his birth or ancestry or boyhood days. He was a prominent and active lawyer ; had represented Franklin county in the Legislature in 1817, and Switzerland county in 1824 and 1825, and was elected a State Senator in 1826 and 1827. He was once Speaker of the House ; Chairman of the Committee on Revision of the Statutes ; also of the Judiciary Committee. No contemporary in those leg- islative bodies took a more active part or exercised greater influence. He was a ready debater, persevering in his labors and punctual.in his attendance. He 36 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA filially settled in Madison, wherfe he resided during the six years of his service on the Supreme bench. Resigning in May, 1836, on account of the meager salary, he returned to the practice of the law in Madison, obtaining an exten- sive and lucrative emplo^'ment. His diligence, patience, and painstaking carefulness put him in the front rank of the bar. His opinions as a Judge were prepared with laborious minuteness ; many of them are lengthy, and ' under the pruning knife of Judge Blackford, in his reports, were stripped of prolixity and obiter dicta. Yet no Judge ever saw the point more clearly or could present it more forcibly. When the Liberty party was organized, he took an active and prominent part. He was its candidate for Governor in 1S46. He made a bold and powerful contest upon the stump over the State. His speeches rang with pointed and powerful sentences, some of them being preserved in newspaper and pamphlet form. He was a courageous, positive and defiant advocate of an unpopular doctrine, which a quarter of a century later fired the hearts of many thousands of his countrymen and practically carried out, was one of the great features of the War of the Rebellion. A peaceable solution of the slavery question was impossible. Argument w?s wasted. Only the terrific conflagration of war could melt off the manacles of the slave. Had Judge Stevens lived thirty years later he would have been in his element. In 1S51, he embarked in a railroad enterprise that wrecked his fortune and overwhelmed him with all the annoyances and stings of extreme poverty. He was broken down by it and finally became insane and died in the State Hospital at Indianapolis, in November, 1870. He had been wounded in the head by a musket ball at the battle of New Orleans and this doubtless increased his tendency to insanity. He is remembered by all who knew him as a man of strong character, self-reliant, aggressive, conscientious and fear- less. Judge Stevens was a religious man and for many years a member of the Presbyterian Church. Judge Stevens was succeeded by Charles Dewey, who came to Indiaua from Massachusetts in i8i5, at the age of thirty-two years. He was a native of Sheffield, in that State. He graduated at Williams College, with high honor, and studied and practiced law in his native State. He first located here at Paoli, but afterwards settled in Charlestown, which became his only other residence. He was elected to the Legislature in 1821, from Orange county. Afterwards he was twice an unsuccessful candidate for Representa- tive in Congress, once in 1822, and again in 1832. In 1822 his competitor. Prince, defeated him on the ground that he had been a Federalist in Massa- chusetts. Governor Noble appointed him Supreme Judge, on May 30, 1836. In this office he served eleven years, or until the 29th of January, 1847. In 1842, he was appointed District Judge of the United States Court for Indiana, without his knowledge, but declined to serve, although confirmed by the Senate. His intimate friends said his action was governed by his unwilling- ness to accept an office under President Tyler. He resumed his practice on leaving the bench, but was thrown from his buggy in 1849 and ever afterward used crutches. He was a man of great nerve ; as an instance it is said at the THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 37 time he was crippled for life, he had the stump of a cigar in his lips, and it was there when he w-as lifted from the grouud. Some time late in the fifties, a negro man, at Charlestown, was charged with an assault upon a white woman. There was a bitter prejudice in Clark county against the colored nice. When the day of preliminary examination arrived, which was before Justice of the Peace Vanhook, at the Court house, a large crowd of hostile men filled the room, having prepared a rope and selected a tree on which to hang the defendant. One of the Judge's neighbors had asked him for a rope for use on the occasion ; he concluded to take his crutches instead, and observe the proceedings. He entered and took a seat within the bar. At the conclusion, the Justice recognized the prisoner and referred the case to the Grand Jury. The Sheriff was in sympathy with the crowd, being a stalwart and courageous man, he was about to take the prisoner alone to the jail, three squares away. Just then. Judge Dewej-, fearing that the inob would hang the man, arose and with strong and peremplorj^ tones said to the sheriff: " 'Squire Vanhook, you will put that man safely in the body of the jail, or by the gods, I will bring suit on your bond for the fail- ure." The Sheriff said : "Judge, can vou do that? Is that 1he law?" "Yes," said Dewev, " and I will sue vou !" The big Sheriff turned to the crowd and said : " Men, you hear what Judge Dewey says ; he knows the law, and by G — d this man goes to jail." He then selected a posse, ordered them to guard the prisoner, and pistol in hand, kept the crowd at bay ; marched out of the Court house door, protected the prisoner by stepping backward, with his pistol, and the threat that he would kill any man who came within twenty feet of him. At another time in an exciting contest before the Commission- ers' Court, the Judge was called to take the place of a sick attorney. The Court ruled steadily against him upon all points; this continued for about two days ; at length he arose and with great power, demonstrated the folly of their rulings, their injustice and illegality and then with fierce reproaches for their shameful course, concluded by saying : " Now, damn you, fine me ; send me to jail, too ; you ought to ; if you have any respect for your Court." This put an end to this kind of proceeding, the Commissioners re-considered their action, and he had things his own way during the remainder of the trial, which resulted in his favor. One day a young man called at his house and said : " Parke " (his son) "told me I could have his gun." The Judge sharply said: "Parke has no gun." The young man promptly replied, "the h— 1 he hasn't," and turned to go away, when the Judge said : " Young man, what is your name?" He told him. "Well," he said, "I like your spirit. I have a gun and will cheerfully loan it to you." He was a positive and stern man when wrong-doing came under his eye. But full of tenderness and sympathy for the suffering and the poor, and was always ready to give aid and relieve their sufferings. In his earlier years he was an athlete, ready to match any coiner in a wrestle, and never shrunk from a contest, with blows, if it was forced upon 38 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA him. His muscular power made him a formidable antagonist with the strong- est. He had a limb broken in a wrestle in a friendly contest of strength and agility. Perhaps uo man had a keener wit than he. Nothing stood in the way of his jokes, sallies and pointed sayings. In argument, when fully roused, he was well nigh irresistible, whether before a Court or jury. He could not be called a great orator. His voice was weak and he avoided all the ornaments of style and all indirection of speech ; but those who heard him announce the death of his bosom friend, Isaac Howk, the morning after his sudden death, said that it was the most touching and sublime speech they ever heard. They were then neighbors and members of the Charlestown bar, and had come to the Supreme Court on business. His eulogy on Judge Parke, deliv- ered before the Historical Society of Indiana, could hardly have been excelled. His style was simple, laconic, clear and forcible. He had read and appreci- ated the best books. He was a profound thinker, an accurate reasoner, and able to grasp and master any subject submitted to him. He had strong friends and bitter enemies, for he was bold of speech and prompt in action, letting consequences take care of themselves. He lived simply and plainly in a village and seemed never to court either wealth or fame, and was entirely devoid of the greedy ambition that disgraces and defaces so many otherwise lofty characters. A more unselfish and unassum- ing man could not be found ; nor one who with more utter scorn and contempt looked upon those who intrigued for offices and honors at the hands of the people. To say that he was a great man intellectually is only to repeat what was awarded him by the common consent of all who knew him. Had he been elected to the United States Senate, or placed on the Supreme bench of the Nation, those who knew him felt that he could have stood worthily by the greatest and shared their labors and divided their honors. He was con- tent to live in comparative obscurity ; to do the drudgery of a county Court lawyer and wade through the hard and dry details of a Judge of our early Supreme Court. He lived in a very quiet period of our history, while the nation was at peace, while violent popular agitation was discountenanced, and before the vast upheavals of the rebellion had made opportunities and developed honors that gave enormous prominence to men greatly inferior to him. He lived in times when the fierce passions of the nation were lulled to repose after the two wars with Great Britain. It was the age of compromises, of financial disasters, of dull and tame progress. The agitator was told to hush. Jackson, Clay, Webster, and their powerful friends, in both parties, denounced the Abolitionists and the NuUifiers. Dewey was a Whig and one day in speaking of Abolitionists, said: "Their tongues ought to be split." He was not a reformer or an agitator. He waited for the clock to strike. He lived to hear it and stood by his country. As a Judge he has had no superiors in America. He ranks with the highest. His terse style, his strong logic, his true sense of justice and equity THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA S'J appear in his opinions. He did not write them for a display of his learn- ing ; he did not write essays on elementary- law, when called on to simply decide one or two points ; he refused to ramble over all the possible points of a case, in order to spin out an opinion. Of an old friend he once asked the question : " Do 3-on know why I do not write longer opinions?" On obtaining an evasive answer, he said : " I don't know enough to write long opinions ; it is as much as I can do to write short ones on the few points arising in a case. If I can give one good reason for a decision whv should I hunt formore? I think I do well if I can do that much." He could condense a thought or a sentiment as well as Horace, or a legal argument as well as ilansfield or ^Marshall. He was a man of deep religious convictions, a Presbyterian by profes- sion. During Beecher's pastorate here he attended, when in town, his church. The preacher had a wa}- of folding his arms on his breast and stepping back from the front of the desk when he ceased reading certain passages in his sermons or notes and declaiming his best and most forcible thoughts. The Judge thought there was a little affectation in this and said that on such occa- sions ilr. Beecher seemed, by his manner, to say, "There, damn you, beat that." He belonged to a great family in Massachusetts of distinguished men — numbering among them the preacher Orville Dewey, and the Supreme Judge, Charles Dewey. When the AVhig party dissolved he became a Republican. Two of his sons and two of his grandsons did valiant service for the Union cause during the rebellion. Three of them died soon after the war from wounds and exposure. One son was a Colonel from Iowa — his two grandsons were Captains from that State. His other son was a Lieutenant from Indiana. Jeremiah Sullivan was born at Harrisonburg, Virginia, on the 21st day of July, A. D., 1794. His father, an Irish Catholic, urged him to become a priest in that church ; but he chose the law as his profession. He completed his education at "William and Mary Colleges. He had almost finished his legal studies when he enlisted in the army in 1812, where he became a Captain. At the expiration of his service as a soldier, he emigrated to Madison in this State, where he ever after lived. He represented Jefferson county in the Legislature of 1820-21, and was appointed one of the Commissioners to lay off the New Capital, which was called Indianapolis at his suggestion. He soon secured a lucrative practice as a lawyer. He was a careful, laborious and patient investigator of his cases, and a constant student of the general principles of his profession. He was a candidate for Congress in 1824 and was defeated by William Hendricks. In 1829, he was appointed and served for several years as one of the Commissioners to adjust the land claims of Indiana and Ohio, connected with the grants for making of the Wabash and Erie canals. In May, 1837, he was appointed Supreme Judge, which office he filled nine years. He had the highest qualifications for the position. A sound judgment, an independent spirit, a clear perception, and a conscien- tious sense of his duty as a Judge. Patient and thorough in his investigation 40 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA of cases, lie was able to express in finished phrase his opinion of the merits of the controversy. No one could do so more directly or elegantly. His opinions are a fitting monument to his great ability as a Judge. He was a plain, quiet, and very religious man. His manners were gentle, his address kindness itself; his whole demeanor that of a man of lofty pur- pose. His temper was unruffled, and his appearance majestic. Without effort he avoided the fiery contests and the rude and exasperating collisions that usually impede the progress of superior men. He resumed the practice of the law after his retirement from the bench. In 1869, Governor Baker appointed him Judge of the Jefferson Criminal Court. The next year he. was elected to the same office, but never held Court under this commission. He died suddenly in the morning, some three hours before the meeting of the Court. He was in politics a Whig and a Republican. One of his sons, Thomas L., was a Captain in the Mexican war. Another, Jeremiah, was a Colonel and Brigadier from Indiana in the War of the Rebellion. Another, Algernon S., as counsel for some rebel privateers, was sent to Fort Lafayette for dis- obedience of an order of the President to lawyers not to accept employment in defense of such criminals. Judge Sullivan held that his son had to perform a dut3' to his clients as a lawy r, and openly denounced the arrest. He pre- vailed and his son was released. He occasi'inally wrote humorous and satirical articles for the local news- papers. And those who read them say, that thej' were masterpieces of that style. In them a signal power of ridicule was displayed which never appeared in his conversation or public addresses or in his speeches in Court. When the temple of fame for Indiana is erected, five colossal figures will stand near the entrance. James Scott, Jesse L- Holman, Isaac Blackford, Charles Dewey and Jeremiah Sullivan. In the daj's of those men the Judges read over and examined the transcripts, pleadings and briefs together ; dis- cussed the points made ; decided the case and assigned to one of the number the task of writing an opinion. The decision was made by the Court, the opinion was written in the style of the Judge. In that day no decision of the Court was spoken of as the decision of a Judge. Motions to dismiss appeals upon technical grounds met with prompt rejection by the ol 1 Court. It is safe to say that but few precedents made by that Court adorn the pages of Elliott's lengthy work on Appellate Procedure. And not a few rashly outspoken gentlemen have intimated that the small number of Judges on the bench and the large number of cases on the docket inclined the immediate successors to the old Court to lend a listening ear to motions to dismiss, and establish precedents out of which the prolixities of the appellate practice have become proverbial. Thomas L,. Smith, of New Albany, who was appointed by Governor Whitcomb in the winter of 1847, January 29th, to succeed Judge Dewey, was, at the time of his appointment, about forty-five years of age. He had prac- ticed law but a few years before that time, and had not a large practice. He THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 41 had b(.-en a iiL-wspaper editor. At the State convention of the Democratic party before his nomination, he reported the platform and address of the convention, which was said to have been written by him. These papers were composed in yood style and attracted a jjood deal of attention. He had no reputation beyond Floyd county and that region as a lawyer, and his appoint- ment was a surprise to the people without respect to party. He had ap- plied for adtuission to the Supreme Court bar a few months before that time and failed in his examination, which was made in the form of written questions to be answered in a room into which all the applicants were obliged to remain until their written answers were prepared. He, however, had an excellent English style, and by dint of hard study and close application, maintained a respectable position on the bench. He published a yolunie of reports. He was much more of a politician than a lawyer, and by his party zeal obtained his appointment. He never was ac- cused of any undue bias or prejudice as a partisan Jud<;e, and left the bench with a fair reputation for industry, uprightness, patience and conscientious carefulness in the preparation and style of his opinions. His character as a citizen and member of society was good. After his retirement from the bench he resumed the practice of law at New Albany. He was in person a large and portly man, above the medium height. His complexion was florid, his eyes blue, with a slight but constant vibratory motion, giving an uneasy air. His face was oval, regular in features, with a nose somewhat prominent and inclining to the aqitiline. He was a quiet, re- served and silent man in general society, and was seen at his best in conver- sation with one or more friends. The New Supreme Court of Indiana. By W. W. Thornton. [From The Green Bae^, May, 1892. By Permission.] On the i8th day of January, 1850, the General Assembly provided for the call of a convention of the people of the State, to revise, amend, or alter the Constitution of 1816. The convention met on the first Monday of the follow- ing October, and an entirely new constitution was framed, which took effect November i, 1851. By its terms, as amended in 1881, the judicial power of the State is vested in a Supreme Court, in Circuit Courts, and in such other Courts as the General Assembly may establish — the Supreme Court to con- sist of not less than three nor more than five Judges, a majority of whom con- stitute a quorum ; and the Judges to hold their offices for six years, " if they so long behave well." The Legislature is required to divide the State into as many districts as there were Judges ; and one Judge is elected from each district, who must reside therein, " by the election of the State at large." The Supreme Court is given jurisdiction by the Constitution co-extensive with the limits of the State, " in appeals and writs of error, under such regu- lations and restrictions as may be prescribed by law." It is also given such original jurisdiction as the General Assembly may confer upon it. Upon the decision of every case the Court must "give a statement in writing of each question arising in the record of such case, and the decision of the Court thereon." The General Assembly is required to provide by law " for the speedy publication of the decisions of the Supreme Court made under " the Constitiition ; but no Judge of the Court is " allowed to report such decisions." The Clerk of the Court is elected by an election at large for a term of four years. The Judges of the Court are made conservators of the peace; their sal- aries can never be diminished during the term for which they are elected, and they are not eligible during such term "to any office of trust or profit under the State, other than a judicial office." Neither the Constitution nor the statute requires of a Judge any qualifica- tions for the high office he holds. In this we have the reflex of the absurd clause of the Constitution, that "every person of a good moral character, being a voter, shall be entitled to admission to practice law in all Courts of THE BKNCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 43 justice." Indeed, more is required of au attorney than of a Judge of the Supreme Court ; for the latter is not required to have a " moral character," if he "behave well," or even to have been admitted to practice law. Thus the people have reserved to themselves the power to send any elector of the State to the highest (or to the lowest) judicial bench of the State, regardless of his fitness for the position ; but the spirit of reform has not swept with such resistless might as to place upon the Supreme Bench any one who was not a practicing lawyer, nor men who have not stood at the head or in the very front rank of their home associates. The poorest Judges, in ability and learning, have been the appointees of the Governors, to fill vacancies caused by deaths and resignations. This is strong testimony' and argument in favor of the popular election of the judiciary. The Act for the organization of the Supreme Court was enacted May 13, 1852. By its terms the Court was made to consist of four Judges; the Court to be held in the State House, or, by adjournment, in any other room in the City of Indianapolis. They were authorized to occupy for consultation any of the rooms of the building in the Governor's Circle, where the present Sol- diers' and Sailors' Monument now stands. The two terms, then as now, began respectively on the fourth Monda3'S in ;\Iay and November ; and each term consisted of thirty days, and was enlarged by operation of law, " if the business thereof requires it." For each term, then as now, the Judges choose one of their number Chief-Justice, who presides at their consultations and in Court. Each Judge takes his turn as Chief-Justice. The term of office of each Judge begins on the first Monday in Januar}' after his election. An Attorney-General to represent the State was not provided until 1855. The Court was authorized to appoint its own sheriff. On the i:th day of October, 1852, Samuel E. Perkins, Andrew Davison, William Z. Stewart, and Addison L. Roaclie were chosen by the electors of the State, Judges of the Supreme Court over their opponents, Charles Dewey, David :\IcDonald, John B. Howe, and Samuel B. Gookins ; and they entered upon their duties Jan. 3, 1853. Perkins was Blackford's competitor for the nomination, and defeated him. He was the only member of the old Court who was retained on the bench. Blackford's last opinion was Sloan v. Kin- gore, (3 Ind. 549), delivered December 24, 1852 ; and Smith's, theTerre Hatite Draw Bridge Company v. Halliday (4 Ind. 36), delivered January i, 1853, the last day of the old Court. Two opinions were delivered on that day. The first opinions of the new Court were delivered February i, 1853. Stuart deliv- ered three, and the other Judges two each. No further opinions were deliv- ered until the May term of that year. The pay of the Judges was only twelve hundred dollars per annum, three hundred dollars lower than it had been at one time for a Judge of the old Court. The new Judges were all Democrats. A new condition of affairs confronted the Court. A wave of reform was sweeping over the State, and the new Constitution provided for a revision of the laws. The General Assembly was required to provide for the appointmei.t :4 THPv BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA of three commissioners, whose duty it was "to revise, simplify, and abridge the rules, practice, pleadings, and forms of the Courts of justice." They were required to provide " for abolishing the distinct forms of action at law now in use, and that justice shall be administered in a uniform mode of pleading without distiuction between the law and equity. ' ' They were also required " to reduce into a systematic code the general Statute Law of the State," and report the result of their labors to the General Assembly, with "recommendations and suggestions." Walter March, G. W. Carr, and Lucien Barbour were appointed the three commissioners, and reported a Civil Code, May lo, 1852, and a Criminal Code the 17th of the same month. ? The codes were almost literally adopted as reported. The model for the Civil Code was the New York Code of Civil Procedure ; but the Codes of Kentucky and Iowa were resorted to by the commissioners. The most striking feature of the Civil Code was the abolition of all "dis- tinctions in pleading and practice between actions at law and suits in equity," and the substitution of " one form of action for the enforcement or protection ■ of private rights and the redress of private wrongs," denominated a "civil action." The only pleading allowed was the complaint by the plaintiff, the demurrer and answer by the defendant, and the demurrer and reply by the plaintiff. The Court found upon its docket a great number of cases that must be disposed of in accordance with the common law and chancery practice that had prevailed, and many cases thereafter appealed had to be treated in the same way ; but all cases begun after the new Code took effect were governed by its provisions, and this entailed upon the Judges a vast amount of original work. No doubt a prejudice against the new Code and a predilection for the old system prevailed both with the bench and the bar, although often unsus- pected by those entertaining them. The New York Code had been in force five years, and the decisions of the Courts of that State had not been free from a distrust of the new code. Indeed, it may be said that the early deci- sions of the Courts of that State were less in harmony with the new method of pleading and practice than that of any other State adopting a code ; and their decisions did not fail to have an effect upon the Indiana Courts. But not- withstanding all this, the decisions of the Indiana Supreme Court are singu- ,| larly in harmony with the spirit and letter of both the Civil and Criminal Codes of the State. The provisions of the Constitution requiring all decisions ^: to be reduced to writing and to be reported, soon swelled the number of reports far beyond their former number, and filled them with innumerable ;| questions of practice, which, owing to these provisions, are repeated over and over. No State in the Union, unless it is the State of New York, has a set of reports containing as many decided questions of practice as Indiana; and herein the Court has been placed at a decided disadvantage, because of the frivolous questions that encumber the pages of our reports, and the una- voidable conflicting decisions on minor and obscure points of practice. Since the new Court was formed, its opinions fill one hundred and twenty-five THE BI^NCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 45 volumes, averaging;- over six hundred pa^es per volume. To the profession the burden is intolerable, not only in the purchase of the volumes, but in wading through a vast amount of rubbish for kernels of new grain. Not only did the Court have two new codes to interpret, but it also had the whole body of the statute law of the State and the new Constitution. The first General Assembly after the new Constitution went into force recon- structed the entire body of the statute law of the State, so as to conform to the provisions of that instrument. Constitutional questions came thick and fast. The fir^t question arose in Jones z'. Gavins (4 Ind. 305), Nov. 28, 1853, concerning the office of County Auditor ; and Judge Perkins wrote the opinion. In the temperance legislation of that day the Court found its most ser- ious and difficult questions. The first case on this legislation was Maize v. The State, (4 Ind. 342), upon the Local Option Law of 1853. The Court held that so much of that Act as required a submission to the voters of the town- ship, to determine whether intoxicating liquors coulil be therein sold, was unconstitutional, but that the remainder of the Act could stand. Judge Stewart wrote the opinion. The principle governing this case was adhered to in Greencastle Township v. Black (5 Ind. 557), with respect to a township voting a tax for school purposes. The result of these decisions was that the Legislature passed in 1855 a prohibitory liquor law; but it too fell before the Court. On October 30th, 1855, Judge Perkins, as a single Judge of the Court, delivered an opinion on the petition of one Herman for a writ of habeas corpus, holding the Temper- ance Act of 1855 unconstitutional, (8 Ind. 545); and on the 20th of the fol- lowing December a divided bench sustained his opinion. (Beebe v. State, 6 Ind. 50[.) In Beebe's case it was in effect held that the prohibitory' law was in direct conflict with the fundamental principles of civil government, as em- bodied in the Bill of Rights. It was then contended that the effect of this decision, in striking down the Act of 1855, was to leave that part of the Act of 1853 previously held valid in force ; but here the advocates of temperance were doomed to disappointment, for the Court held in a still later case (11 Ind. 482), that although the main part of the Act of 1855 was invalid, yet its general re- pealing clause was constitutional, and had the effect to repeal the Act of 1853. A most absurd conclusion, it must be said, and one that savored of party sub- servience ; for the Judges belonged to the party which opposed the stringent measures embodied in the Acts of 1853 and 1855. It is well to state that these decisions have been in effect overruled. Another far-reaching decision was that in the case of the City of Lafay- ette V. Jenners (10 Ind. 70), in which the part of the school law authorizing cities and towns to establish public schools and to levy and collect taxes for their support was stricken down. The effect of this decision was far-reaching and was a great blow to the public schools of the day. It is true that the Court was continually asserting that the strong pre- sumption was that an Act of the Legislature was constitutional, that a law was sj THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA not to be held invalid unless plainly in conflict with the Constitution, and that the Court would hesitate long before striking down an Act for that reason ; yet one who now reads the decisions then rendered cannot help entertaining the thought that the Court in' a measure constituted itself a Court of revision for the Legislature, and struck down many Acts that did not meet with its ap- proval. " Public polic}-," even at that early day, was a subject of discussion in the opinions, and had its weight in determining the result. Yet it must be admitted that opinions were then rendered that have become landmarks in constitutional law. Addison L. Roache resigned, and May 8, 1854, Alvin P. Hovey was appointed his successor. At the next general election, held October 10, 1854, Samuel B. Gookins, a Republican, was elected as a successor to Judge Roache — Hovey, a Democrat, not being elected to succeed himself. On the 15th of August, 1857, William Z. Stewart filed with the Governor his resignation, dated the 4th inst., "to take effect on the first Monday of January next" (1858). At the next general election (1857) Horace P. Biddle was a candidate for the office vacated by Stewart, and received 20,000 of a majority ; but Governor Willard refused to issue him a commission. Biddle brought an action for a mandate to compel the Governor to issue to him the commission ; but the Supreme Court decided that at the time the election was held there was no vacancy ; that the resignation was only prospective, and could have been withdrawn at any time before it was accepted, and after its acceptance, with the consent of the Governor, and that Biddle had not been duly elected. Biddle was then a Republican, and the Governor and Judges of the Supreme Court were Democrats. Since then their decision has been greatly impaired by subsequent decisions. The day after the decision was rendered— Jan. 15, 1858, — Governor Willard appointed James L. Worden as Stewart's successor. On September 22, 1857, Judge Gookins also resigned, to take effect when his successor should be elected ; but the Governor decided that this was no resignation. On the loth of December following, the Judge sent in another resignation, to take effect immediately ; and on the same day James M. Hanna was appointed to fill the vacancy. The reason for Judge Stewart's and Gookin's resignation was the low salaries paid them by the State. When the Court was reorganized under the new Constitution, the salary of a Judge was only twelve hundred dollars. In 1859 the salary of a Supreme Court Judge was raised to two thousand dollars, in 1865 to three thousand, and in 1873 to four thousand, where it now remains. An effort was made in 1891 to raise it to forty-five hundred, but failed. On the i2th of October, 185S, Perkins and Davison were re-elected, and Worden and Hanna elected for the first time, for a term of six years from Jan- uary 3, 1859. The period coveringthe six years extending from 1859 to 1865 was a momentous one. At the October election, i860, the State went Republican, and a Republican Governor and State officers were elected. Party feeling ran high. The southern portion of Indiana had been settled by people from THK BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 47 the South, maiiv of whom, if not a majority, were in sympathy with the cause of the Southern Confederacy. The Legislature of 1863, which was Demo- cratic — and so were the State officers except the Governor — refused to make the necessary appropriations to cover Indiana's portion of the cost of arming her quota of troops ; and trovernor Morton pledged his personal word in order to secure funds for that purpose. An effort was made to compel Governor Morton to call an extra session of the Legislature, on the ground that no appropriation had been made at the general session for the salaries and expenses of the State officers and institu- tions. Governer Morton contended that general statutes authorized the pa)-- ment of such individuals and institutions, and in this he was following a pre- cedent set by- a former Democratic Governor. The interest on a large State debt was also due, for the payment of which no appropriation had been made ; but this had also previously been paid under the authority given by general statutes. There was plenty of money iu the State treasury to paj' all these just claims. The Auditor of State was iu favor of their payment, but all the remainder of the State officers, except the Governor, opposed it ; and these were spurred on by the hope of an extra session of the Legislature and by political capital. Then was instituted a proceeding that was an outrage on the administra- tion of justice. Several days after the Legislature adjourned, the Attorney- General appeared before the clerk of the Marion Circuit Court with a sworn complaint for an injunction to prohibit the State Treasurer paying the inter- est due on the State debt, with an answer, and an order-book entry granting the injunction and entering final judgment. Upon the assurance of the Attorney-General that everything was correct, that official entered the pro- ceedings in the order-book of the Court, and gave the Attorney-General a certified transcript of the entire proceedings, in order to take an appeal to the Supreme Court. The Attorney-General was anxious to take an appeal at once. The next day, when the Judge of the Circuit Court came to sign the record of the previous day, he denovmced the proceedings, said he knew nothing of the case, and struck out the entire entry. In the meantime the certified copy had been filed in the Supreme Court clerk's office, and the Circuit Court clerk at once notified him of the action of the lower Court. The Court then proceeded to hear the case, and refused the injunction as prayed for. From this an appeal was also taken. Both cases came on for a hearing in the Supreme Court, the same counsel appearing in each case. The parties were the same, the same question was involved in both cases, and the two appeals were from the same Court ; but the results of the decisions of the lower Court were diametrically opposed to each other. One case was affirmed and the other reversed on the same day ; and the State Treasury was tied up with thousands of dollars. (See Ristine v. State, 20 Ind. 32s ; and State v. Ristine, 20 Ind. 345.) If the Court was not cogni- zant of these facts and a party to the conspiracy, then it seems that " induc- tive reasoning is utterly fallacious." 4.S THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA One of the cases tinged -with politics was Kerr v. Jones, 19 Ind. 351. Mr. Harrison, the now President, was elected Reporter of the Supreme Court iu i860, for the term of four years. August 7, 1862, he was commissioned Colonel in the volunteer service, and accepted the commission, leaving a deputy in charge of his office. In the following October, Michael C. Kerr was a candi- date at a general State election for the office of reporter, and was elected. The Court held that the acceptance by Mr. Harrison of the office of Colonel vacated his office as reporter, and that Mr. Kerr was entitled to the office. The result of this decision was to deprive many individuals of county and township offices to Avhich the}' had been elected before entering the volun- teer service. In 1861 the Legislature passed a statute authorizing township and county officers to retain their offices while serving in the volunteer ser- vice during their terms ; but this Act was pronounced unconstitutional. (State ('. Allen, 21 Ind. 516.) The legality of the legal tender quality of treasury notes early came to the front in Indiana. At the May term, 1862, the Court, Judge Hanna dis- senting, held the Act of Congress making them a legal tender was constitu- tional and valid, and the banks of the State, by redeeming their paper in treasury notes, did not expose their franchises to forfeiture. Reynolds v. State, 18 Ind. 467.) At the May term, 1864, the validity of the clause making these notes legal tender again came before the Court in Thayer v. Hedges (22 Ind. 282) In a long and discursive opinion written by Judge Perkins, in which Biblical quotations respecting money are quite prominent, the Court held the act unconstitutional, notwithstanding its former opinion ; but in view of the fact that the question was pending before the .Supreme Court of the United States, the Court said that "a petition for rehearing may, if the party desires, keep open the question, and save all rights as they may be finally settled by that tribunal." The opinion was unanimous. At the fol- lowing November term the judgment was set aside. This was after the Judges deciding the case had been defeated at the polls in their candidacy for i-e- election. In January, 1865, four new Judges came to the bench, and within a few weeks thereafter they unanimously held the legal tender clause valid. (Thayer z\ Hedges, 23 Ind. 141.) In thus changing front the Supreme Court of Indiana did no more than the Supreme Court of the United States after- wards did upon the same question. In Griffin v. Wilcox (21 Ind. 370) the Court decided that neither the Pres- ident nor Congress had any power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus ; and that the Act of March 3, 1863, attempting to indemnify officers for illegal mili- tary arrests, was unconstitutional, and afforded them no protection. This deci- sion, so far as it relates to the Act of 1863, is contrary to the weight of authority. Another important opinion was rendered iu Warren v. Paul (22 Ind. 276), in which it was rightly decided that Congress could not require the use of internal revenue stamps upon judicial process issued by State Courts. At the October election of 1864, James S. Frazer, Jehu T. Elliott, Charles A. Ray, and Robert C. Gregory were elected, to take their offices Jauuary 3, 1865. Tin-: P.KXCIt AND r.AR or INDIANA 49 They \vere all Rcpiililicaii^. ( )iit' of thciv carlii-st I'ase^ was upon Uk' valiil- itv ot the lA\U"al TeinK'r Act. a^ we havL' seen. Another was upon the Teniper- anoe Law ol' 1S59. In leaner :'. The State (22 Iml. 4hi) the Conrt had deeiileil that the fourteenth seetion of that act \vas inx'alid, overrnlinn" thereby a for- mer decision. i Thoniasson :'. The State, 15 Inil. 440.) Ihit in Reams ;'. The State 123 Ind. I 1 1) the Cmirt held this section \aliil, follow in;<' its earlier decision. One of the important cases ilecided In- this Court was that the ])ro\isions ot the State Constitution prohibitint;" negroes or mnlattocs from coming into the State were rendered nui;ator\- b\' the iirovisions of the recently ado]ited amendments to the I'ederal Constitution. Smith ;■. Cloudy, 20 Ind. 299.) St.^tf, and Sr'PREME Col KT Oi-ioeJ-:s, lS''i9 Tu 1><^Q. The old State House beeominL;- inconvenient, the Legislature in 1 ,S67 authorized the erection of a brick buildini;-, on ground owned by the Slate, for the use of the Snjireme Court and the officers of the State. The buildint,' was erected that year, and the law library of the State placed in it. It was here that the new^ hbrarv, as distinct from the general State Librar\-, had its origin: for previous to that they \\ere combined. The chan,i;e was a \-ery beneficial one. The Court about this time adopted file plan of making a statement of the case, or allow-in.L,^ the re])orter to do so, and then writin- its o]jini..n. This method was only followed a few \-ears, bein.t; far inferior to the practice of statin" tlie case in the bod}' of the o])inion. so THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA At the fall election of 1870, John Pettit, Alexander C. Downey, James L. Worden and Satnuel H. Biiskirk, all Democrats, were elected, their ofBces beginning the 3d of the following January. By an Act of December 16, 1872, the number of Judges was increased to five ; and Governor Baker appointed, the same month, Andrew L. Osborn to the vacancy thus created. The new Judges were met with a crowded docket. Worden had served upon the bench, but the other four were new to the work. During this period of the Cotirt, the Judges fell into the habit of writing long opinions, some of them being almost treatises upon the subject discussed. This was particularly true of Judge Buskirk. The practice thus inaugurated has left its mark itpon many succeeding cases. Another growth that marred the decisions of the Court for many years was the extreme technicalities it fell into in criminal cases. It was proverbial throughout the State that it was almost impossible to sustain a conviction in a criminal case, where able attorneys defended the criminal. For this Judge Worden was largely responsi- ble ; and the practice continued until 1881. At the fall election of 1874, Horace P. Biddle was elected as a Democrat, to succeed Andrew L. Osborn, his term beginning January i, 1875. At the October election, 1875, James L. Worden was re-elected, and Sam- uel E. Perkins, William E. Niblack and George V. Howk elected, their terms beginning January 1, 1S77. A charge of extravagance in the fitting-up of their rooms at the expense of the State was brought against the sitting Judges, and this had much to do with the retirement of Judges Buskirk, Downey and Pettit. This charge figured much in the campaign of 1876 ; and while it had little or no foundation, it served its purpose in the memorable and hotly contested political campaign of that rear. Judges Worden and Perkins were men who had much experience on the bench — the former in the full manhood and vigor of mind ; the latter in the decline. Judge Biddle had been on the bench two years, but as yet had not given evidence that his long and successful career on the nisi prius bench led the bar to expect of him. Judge Howk came fresh from the bar and a large practice, with a very decisive leaning to technicalities. Judge Niblack had just retired from a fourteen years' career in Congress, and of him it could not be expected that he was as well "up" in the practice as if he had not been in politics. On December 17, 1879, Judge Perkins died, and John T. Scott suc- ceeded him, the 29th, by appointment. The most noted case before the Court during this period was the State v. Swift (69 Ind. 505), involving the validity of the constitutional amendments of 1880. In the spring of 1879 there had been submitted to the electors of the State several proposed amendments to the Constitution. These proposed amendments changed the State election from October to November, the time of holding the presidential and congressional election. Of the votes cast for and against them, the amendments had received a clear majority ; but that majority was less than one-half of the votes cast at the same time, in the same ballot-boxes, for the several township trustees elected throughout the State. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 51 The Court held that it would take judicial knowledge of the number of votes cast for township officers ; and the amendments having received less than a majority of these votes, they had not received a majority of the ballots of all the electors of the State, and consequently were not legally adopted. The effect was to leave Indiana an October State. The decision was given while the Democratic National Convention was assembled at Cincinnati ; and before that Convention Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks was a prominent candidate for the presidential nomination. The charge was made that the decision was a political one — to throw Indiana back to an October State, and thus render it a pivotal State. This charge received color from the unjudicial manner in which Judge Worden privately announced the decision of the Court a few minutes after it was rendered, instead of waiting until two o'clock in the afternoon, the usual time of handing down the opinions to the Clerk, Judges Niblack and Scott wrote dissenting opinions. However false the accusation may have been, it undoubtedly had its effect in the autumn election, for Byron K. Elliott and William A. Woods, Republicans, were elected to succeed Judges Biddle and Scott. They took their seats Januar3- 3, 1S81. The two newly elected Judges were men of vigor and power, who had much experience on the nisi prius bench. The Legislature of 1879 provided for a commission to revise and codify the laws of the State. James S. Frazer, David Turpie and John H. Stotsenburg were appointed commissioners. Their revision of the Civil and Criminal Codes, the Decedents' Act, the Penal Act and the tax laws were adopted in iSSi, substantially as proposed by them. The new codes introduced few new features in our statute law, but the Decedents' Act was radically new. On the 1st day of December, 1882, Judge Worden, having declined a re- nomination, resigned, and William H. Coombs was appointed, December 2, 1SS2, his successor, serving until Januarj' i, 1883, when Allen Zollars, elected at the previous November election, succeeded him. On the 8th day of May, 1883, Judge Woods resigned, having been appointed Judge of the Federal Court for the District of Indiana ; and Edwin P. Hammond was appointed his successor, May 14, 1883. This rendered the election of a new Judge nec- essary at the November election of 1884 : and Joseph A. S. Mitchell, a Dem- ocrat, was chosen, his term beginning January 1, 1885. The Court now stood four Democrats and one Republican. During the years 1865 to 1871 the Court began to run behind with its docket, until, in 1880, it took over three years, in the regular course of busi- ness, for a case to reach a decision, and then it might be farther carried along several months by a petition for a rehearing. As a measure of relief, the Legislature of 1881 created a commission, the members of which were to be appointed by the Court, to continue two years. Pursuant to the provisions of this Act, on April 27, 1881, the Court appointed George A. Bicknell, John Morris, William M. Franklin, James I. Best, and Horatio C. Newcomb — three Democrats and two Republicans. Judge New- comb died May 23, 1882, and James B. Black was appointed his successor. 52 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Ma^' 29, 18S2. The Legislature of 1883 continued the commission two years. November i, 1883, Judge Morris resigned, and on the 9th Walpole G. Colerick was appointed his successor. The commission expired April 14, 1885. Upon the whole it was not satisfactory' to the bar of the State. The individual members of the commission prepared opinions in cases assigned to them, and after these opinions had received the approval of the Court — the commission and Court sitting jointly — they were adopted and made the opinions of the Court, and judgment rendered accordingly. These opinions thus became the opinions of the Court, and found a place in their reported opinions. At the November election of 1886 Judge Elliott was re-elected, his second term beginning January 3, 1887. From the beginning of 1881 a change is quite perceptible in the decisions of the Court, especially in criminal cases. The Court gradually brushed aside technicalities, and decided the cases upon their merits. Previous to that time it was difficult to sustain a conviction in a well-defended criminal case. Gradually and imperceptibly technicalities in criminal cases had as- sumed undue proportions. This state of affairs was largely due to the new blood placed upon the bench in i88i. Not until then did it seem possible to sustain in that Court a conviction for illegally selling intoxicating liquors ob- tained upon circumstantial evidence (Dant v. The State, 83 Ind. 60), although death penalties thus obtained vpere affirmed. Another evidence of the brush- ing aside of technicalities was a decision that the Courts judicially know that beer is a malt liquor prepared by fermentation, and that it was not neces- sary to prove that it was intoxicating, (Myers v. The State, 93 Ind. 251) as had been previously necessary under the rulings of the Court. Questions of grave importance came before the Court iu 1886 and 1887, which went to the very foundations of the State. In 1886 the Lieutenant-Gov- ernor, Mahlon D. Manson, resigned. He, with the Governor, had been elected in 1884 for a term of four years from the following January. Governor Gray applied to the Attorney-General, Francis T. Hord, for an opinion upon the question whether a successor to Manson could be elected at the November election of 1886, and received an answer in the affirmative. The Democratic convention, following this opinion, nominated Hon. John C. Nelson for Lieu- tenant-Governor, and subsequently the Republicans nominated Hon. Robert S. Robertson. The latter received a majority of 3,200. After the election, Alonzo G. Smith, the Democratic President of the Senate, who, if there was no Lieutenant-Governor, would hold that office, and be Governor if the chief executive of the State were to die or resign, brought an action to prevent the Secretary of State from delivering to the Speaker of the House the sealed returns of the election of Lieutenant-Governor, which were directed to the Speaker as required by law, in the care of the Secretary, and were to be deliv- ered to him 1)y the latter. The avowed purpose of the suit was to test the validity of the election of Robertson. The Court unanimously decided that it had no jurisdiction of the controversy. (Smith v. Myers, 109 Ind. i.) Although at the November election of 1886 the Republicans had secured THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA S3 a majority in the House, the Democrats still held a majority in the Senate. Robertson claimed the right to preside over the Senate, but that body denied his claim, placed Smith in the chair as President pro tern., and 'forcibly ejected Robertson from its chambers, and by police-force kept him out. On the I2th day of January, 18S7, Smith filed in the Marion Circuit Court an in- formation, praying for an injunction against Robertson, restraining him "from intruding, or attempting to intrude himself into the office of I^ieuten- ant-Governor," and for a judgment of ouster, " excluding him " from that office. The lo\yer Court granted the restraining order, but upon appeal its judgment was reversed. The Supreme Court held that as Robertson resided in Allen and not in Marion county, the action should have been brought in the former ; and a majority of its members also held that a claimant of the office of Lieutenant-Governor cannot maintain an information in the nature of a quo warranto to settle the title to that office, for the Constitution vests exclusive jurisdiction of such a controversy in the General Assembly. (Rob- ertson V. Smith, 109 Ind. 79). These decisions called down on the Court the wrath of the entire Demo- cratic press of the State. Its leading organ at the capital was very offensive, going so far as to use on its editorial page, as applied to the members of the Court, the unseemly denunciation, "D — n their cowardly souls! " Political strife ran high. The House declared in effect that the body occupying the Senate Chamber was not legally organized, and refused to communicate with it until Robertson was recognized as Lieutenant-Governor and as ils duly elected presiding officer. The consequence of the deadlock was that few laws were passed in 18S7. The strife was continued in 1S89, and Robertson ex. eluded, until the newly-elected Lieutenant-Governor, Hon. Ira J. Chase, took his seat. At the November election of 18SS, Silas D. Coffey, Walter Olds and John G. Berkshire were elected as successors to William E. Niblack, Allen Zollars and George V. Howk, and the^- took their seats January 7, 18S9. The\' were Republicans, and for the second time in the history of the State a majority of the bench were members of that political party. The strife that had arisen between the two leading parties of the State was one not calculated to pour oil on the troubled waters. The Democrats took their defeat of 18S8 sorel}'. The Legislature in both its branches was Democratic, and it soon manifested a disposition to save from the wreck of defeat as many offices as possible. The docket of the vSupreme Court was several 3'ears behind. There was a universal demand for relief. To increase the number of Judges, or to change the organization of the Court, a consti- tutional amendment was required, and it would take two years to adopt it. A commission was proposed ; but a Republican Governor would appoint Republican Commissioners, and so would a Republican Court, it was thought. The result was that the Legislature created a commission of five members "to aid and assist the Court in the performance of its duties," to hold their offices four years. The Legislature selected the Commissioners. The persons 54 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA thus selected qualified and demanded recognition ; but the Court, in an able and elaborate opinion, unanimously held the action of the Legislature unau- thorized, and the act failed. The striking down of this act was simply an assertion of the independency of the judiciary. (State v. Noble, iiS Ind. 350). The Legislature attempted to compel the Court to prepare a syllabus of each opinion recorded, and to superintend the printing of the Supreme Court reports. The effect of this act was to deprive the Reporter of his con- stitutional privileges, and to impose upon the Court duties and labors placed elsewhere by that instrument. The Court declined to write the syllabi, and held, in an elaborate opinion (^Ex parte Griffiths, 118 Ind. 83) and in a subse- quent one, (Griffin v. State, 119 Ind. 520) the entire act invalid. The Legislature of 1S89 provided for a Board of Public Works in all cities of fifty thousand inhabitants or more, to consist of three members, selected from the two leading political parties by the General Assembly. These boards were given control over many affairs of the cities. The Legis- lature was largely inspired to this action by party motives, in order to secure control over cities of political majorities adverse to the majority of that body. Contests quickly arose over the validity of this act ; and the Court, one mem- ber dissenting, held it invalid, on the ground that the Legislature could not fill a vacancy in an office, and that it deprived the municipalities to which it applied of that local self-government guaranteed them by the Constitution. (State V. Denny, 118 Ind. 382 ; and City of Evausville v. State, 118 Ind. 426.) A similar act, creating a Board of Metropolitan Police and Fire Department in cities having a certain population, was also held invalid, (State v. Denny, 118 Ind. 449) leaving an earlier act on the same subject, but not obnoxious to the constitution in force. (State v. Blend, 121 Ind. 514). Another case of importance before the Court was the act authorizing the State to borrow a large sum of money for governmental purposes. The act was upheld. (Hovey v. Foster, 118 Ind. 502). So was an act authorizing the Legislature to elect Trustees of the benevolent institutions of the State. (Hovey v. State, 119 Ind. 386 and 395). In its greed for office, and to hedge about the constitutional privileges of the Governor, the Legislature of 1S89 provided that the State Geologist should be elected by the joint ballot of the two houses. The Governor claimed the right, under the constitution, to appoint, and the Court upheld his claim. (State V. Hyde, 121 lud. 20.) Two members of the Court dissented. The same ruling was made, with a like division of the Court, with respect to State Statistician, the majority of the Court holding further that such office was elective. (State v. Peele, 121 Ind. 495.) The same ruling was made con- cerning Oil Inspector, except as to the elective feature. (State v. Gorby, 122 Ind. 17). Other acts of 1889 held invalid were the Meat Inspection Act, (State v. Klein, 126 Ind. 68) the section of the Election Law requiring registration of those leaving or absent temporarily from the State, (Morris v. Powell, 125 Ind. 281) and the Natural Gas Law. (State v. Indiana, etc' Co., 120 Ind. 575). THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 55 On the other hand the Court upheld, of the acts of this 3-ear, the act permitting cities and towns to exact an increased license fee for a permit to retail intoxicating liquors, (Bush v. Indianapolis, 120 Ind. 476) the School- book Law (State v. Haworth, 122 Ind. 462) and the Street Improvement Law. (Quill I'. Indianapolis, 124 Ind. 292 ; JIcEneney v. Sullivan, 125 Ind. 407). The several decisions of the Court holding invalid legislation that was largelv inspired by party expediency and thirst for place drew down upon the Republican members of the Court the denunciation of the State Democratic press, which pursued them with unusual violence of language and with charges of dishonesty and party subserviencj-. So heated became the lan- guage and charges of that press that when the party it represented met in State convention on the 2Sth day of August, 1S90, it, led b}- its extremest members, denounced Judges Coffey, Olds and Berkshire in its platform, charging them with rendering partisan opinions and with judicial dishonesty. We are not aware that any part}- so openly ever went to this extreme. The charges were wholly unfounded, and largely inspired by chagrin occasioned bv the decisions of these three Judges in striking down vmconstitutional laws enacted for party ends. At the November election of 1S90 Judge :Mitchell was re-elected ; but he died on the 12th of the following month ; and on the 17th of the same month Robert \V. McBride was appointed to fill the remainder of the few days of his first term, yet unexpired, and to fill the term to which he was elected until the November election in 1892. On the 19th of February, 1891, Judge Berkshire also died, and on the 25th of the same month John D. Miller was appointed to the vacancy thus occasioned. The Legislature of 1891, in order to relieve the Supreme Court and its overloaded docket, created the Appellate Court, giving it appellate and final jurisdiction in all cases of misdemeanor, cases originating before Justices of the Peace, cases for the recovery of money only where the amount in contro- versy does not exceed one thousand dollars, cases for the recovery of specific personal property, actions between landlord and tenant for the recovery of possession of leased premises, and all cases of appeals from orders allowing or disallowing claims against decedent's estates. In all such cases their decisions are final. Constitutional questions and the validity of statutes are reserved for the Supreme Court. By the terms of the act all cases of which the Appellate Court was given jurisdiction, and which were then pending before the Supreme Court, were transferred to the former Court. In pursuance of a private understanding with several members of the Legislature who sectired the passage of the law. Governor Hovey appointed three Republicans and two Democrats to the judgeships thus created. Unfortunately the jurisdiction of the Court was not made broad enough, and consequently the full relief desired was not obtained. At the November election in 1892, Leonard J. Hackney was elected on the Democratic ticket to succeed John D. Miller, James McCabe, on the same ticket, to succeed Byron K. Elliott and Timothy E. Howard, also on the same 56 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA ticket, to succeed Robert W. McBride. They all assumed the bench January z, 1893. On the 15th of the following June, Judge Olds resigned, and Joseph S. Dailey, July 25, was appointed his successor. At the November election of 1894, Leauder J. Monks, a Republican, was elected to succeed Judge Dailey and James H. Jordan, also a Republican, to succeed Judge Coffey. They took their seats on the bench January 7, 1895. JUDGES OF THE SUPREME COURT. John Johnson, December 28, 1816 — 1817. James Scott, December 28, 1816 — December 28, 1830. Jesse L. Holman, December 28, i8i6 — 1842. Isaac Blackford, September 10, 1817 — January 3, 1853. Stephen C. Stevens, January 28, 1831 — May, 1836. John T. McKinney, January 28, 1831 — May, 1837. Charles Dewey, May 30, 1836 — 1847. Jeremiah Sullivan, May 29, 1837 — January 21, 1846. Samuel E. Perkins, January 11, 1846 — January 3, 1865. January i, 1877 — December 17, 1879. Thomas L. Smith, January 29, 1847 — January 3, 1853. Andrew Davison, January 3, 1853 — January 3, 1865. Addison D- Roache, January 3, 1853 — May, 1854. Alvin P. Hovey, May 8, 1854 — January, 1855. Samuel B. Gookius, October 10, 1854 — December 10, 1857. William Z. Stuart, January 3, 1853 — January 3, 1858. James M. Hanna, December 10, 1857 — January 3, 1865. James L. Worden, January 16, 1858— January 3, 1865. January 3, 1871— December i, 1882. James S. Frazer, January 3, 1865 — January 3, 1871. Jehu T. Elliott, January 3. 1865— January 3, 1871. Charles A. Ray, January 3, 1865 — January 3, 1871. Robert C. Gregory, January 3, 1865— January 3, 187 1. John Pettit, January 3, 1871— January i, 1877. Alexander C. Downey, January 3, 1871 — January i, 1877. Samuel H. Buskirk, January 3, 1871 — January i, 1877. Andrew D. Osborn, December, 1872 — January i, 1875. Horace P. Biddle, January i, 1875— January 3, 1881. William E. Niblack, January i, 1877— January 7, 1S89. George V. Howk, January i, 1877— January 7, 1889. John T. Scott, December 29, 1879— January 3, 1881. Byron K. Elliott, January 3, 1881— January 2, 1893. William A. Woods, January 3, i88i— May 8, 1883. William H. Coombs, December 2, 1882— January i, 1S83. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Edwin P. Hammond, Hay 14, 1SS3— January i, 1885. Allen Zollars, Januarj' i, 1883— Januan- 7, 1889. Joseph A. S. Mitchell, January i, 1S85— December 12, 1890. Silas D. Coffey, January 7, 1889— January 6, 1895. Walter Olds, January 7, 1889— June 15, 1893. John G. Berkshire, January 7, 1889 — February 19, 1891. Robert W. McBride, December 17, 1890 — January 2, 1893. John D. Miller, February 25, 1891 — January 2, 1893. Leonard J. Hackney, Jauu.ary 2, 1893 — James McCabe, January 2, 1893 — Timothy E. Howard, January 2, 1893 — Joseph S. Dailey, July 25, 1893 — January 7, 1S95. LeanderJ. Monks, January 7, 1895 — James H. Jordan, January 7, 1895 — CLERKS OF GENERAL COURT OF NORTHWEST TERRI- TORY, OF INDIANA TERRITORY, AND OF STATE SUPREME COURT. Daniel Lymmes, 1 794-1 804. Henry P. Coburn, 1S20-1852. John P. Jones, 1860-1864. Theodore W. McCoy, 1S68-1872. Gabriel Schmuck, 1876-1880. Jonathan W. Gordon, 1881-1882. William T. Noble, 1886-1890. Henry Hurst, 1804-1820. William B. Beach, 1852-1860. Lazarus Noble, 1864-1868. Charles SchoU, 1872-1876. Daniel Royse, 1880-1881. Simon P. Sheerin, 1882-1886. Andrew M. Sweeney, 1890-1894. Alexander Hess, iS REPORTERS OF THE SUPREME COURT. Isaac Blackford, 1817-1850. Albert G. Porter, 1853-1856. Benjamin Harrison, 1861-1863. 1864-1869. Augustus N. Martin, 1877-1S81. John W. Kern, 1885-1889. Horace E. Carter, 1852-1853. Gordon Tanner, 1857-1861. Michael C. Kerr, 1863-1864. James B. Black, 1869-1877. Francis M. Dice, 1881-1885. John L. Griffiths, 1889-1893. Sidney R. Moon, 1893-1895. 58 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA ATTORNEY-GENERALS OF TERRITORY AND STATE OF INDIANA. John Rice Jones, January 29, 1801-1804. Benjamin Parke, August 4, 1804-1808. Thomas Randolph, June 2, 1808-1811. James Morrison, March 5, 1855 — December 17, 1857. Joseph E. McDonald, December 17, 1857 — December 17, 1859. James G. Jones, December 17, 1859 — November 10, 1861. John P. Usher, November 10, 1861 — November 3, 1862. Oscar B. Hord, Novembers, 1862 — Novembers, 1864. Delano E- Williamson, November 3, 1864 — November 3, 1870. Bayliss W. Hanna, November 3, 1870 — November 6, 1872. James C. Denny, November 6, 1872 — November 6, 1874. Clarence A. Buskirk, November 6, 1874 — November 6, 1878. Thomas W. Woollen, November 6, 1878 — November 6, 1880. Daniel P. Baldwin, November 5, 1880 — November 6, 1882. Francis T. Hord, November 22, 1882 — November 22, 1886. Louis T. Michener, November 22, 1886 — November 22, 1890. Alonzo G. Smith, November 22, 1890 — November 22, 1894. William A. Ketcham, November 22, 1894 — Supreme Court Commissioners. The business in the Supreme Court previous to 1881 had so accumulated that the Court was over two years behind with the docket. It was felt that this condition of the affairs of the Court was a virtual violation of that clause of the Constitution which requires that "Justice shall be administered freeh- and without purchase ; completely, and without denial ; speedily, and with- out delay." Previous to the adoption of the constitutional amendments of 18S1 no Court could be created which would have the power to entertain an appeal from the Circuit Courts ; for that instrument vested the judicial power of the State in a Supreme Court, in Circuit Courts, and in such inferior Courts as the General Assembly might establish. The supposed adoption of the amendments in 1879 ^^^ failed, according to the decision of the Supreme Court in State v. Swift, 6g lud. 505 ; and when the General Assembly met in the following January there was no provision authorizing the creation of a Court of Appeals. A dictum in the opinion in that case contained a declara- tion that the amendments might be submitted to a popular vote ; and this accordingly was done on March 14, 1881, by an act of the 21st of the previous month. These amendments were adopted by an exceedingly light vote. But in the meantime a bill had been introduced to create five Commissioners of the Supreme Court ; and it became a law on April 14, 1881. The office of Commissioner was to last only two years ; and the incumbents were to be appointed by the Supreme Court. The members of that Court came to an understanding without, however, expressly admitting that the charge of such an understanding was true, to the effect that each one should select a Com- missioner, and the Court should follow it up by appointment. Each Judge selected a Commissioner from his own district. From the First (Niblack's) District was appointed "William M. Franklin; from the Second (Howk's), George A. Bicknell ; from the Third (Elliott's), Horatio C. Newcomb ; from the Fourth (Worden's), John Morris ; and from the Fifth (Wood's), James I. Best. There was nothing in the statute requiring it, but the Commission consisted of three Democrats and two Republicans. The plan of the work of the Commission was for each member to receive the assignment of a case, and, after having examined it, to prepare an opin- ion. The Commission met in the forenoon, at the same time the Supreme 60 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Court met, but in a diifereut room, and the opinion was then submitted to it, and if not approved another opinion was prepared to meet the views of the majority. When that was obtained the opinion was taken before the Supreme Court sitting in joint session with the Commission ; and if a majority of the members of the Supreme Court approved it, the opinion became the opinion of the Court. Upon the final vote the Commission had no voice except to present the views of its members for or against the prepared opinion. The opinion of the Commission became the opinion of the Supreme Court by adoption ; and the usual order of the Court was that it was " ordered, on the foregoing opinion that the judgment below be and is in all things," affirmed, at the cost of the appellant, or reversed at the costs of the appellee, with proper instructions in the latter event. The Commission was not altogether satisfactory. It was soon discovered that some members of the Court had paid off political debts in making the selection ; and not as good selections in all of the Commissioners had been made as was desirable or as could have been made. By many members of the bar it was considered that a litigant had a constitutional right to have the record examined and the opinion prepared by one member, at least, of the Supreme Court ; but according to the method pursued few, if any, of the records before the Commission were examined and none of the opinions were prepared by a member of the Court. Upon capital cases and cases involving constitutional questions the Commission did not pass. By an act of 1883 it was continued until 1885. It expired April 14, 1885. At that time the Su- preme Court had the docket well in hand ; aud there was every appearance that it would be able to keep pace with the filing of new cases. By 1889, however, the Supreme Court was again hopelessh- swamped. Some measure of relief was necessary. Politics, however, at that time ran high. The Republicans at the elections of 1888 had carried the State, elect- ing all the State officers and three members of the Supreme Court ; while the Legislature in both branches was Democratic. The Legislature provided for a Commission of five members ; and desiring to secure members of its own political faith, provided that the General Assembly should make the appoint- ments. There was also an apprehension of fear on the part of the majority of the members of the Legislature that the Governor would decline to com- mission such appointees ; and so it was provided that the certificate of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, countersigned by the Secretary of the Senate, should be sufficient evidence of the appointees' authority to act as such Commissioners. These Commissioners were to hold their office four years, and receive the same salary as the Judges of the Supreme Court. Rooms were to be assigned them in the Capitol, provided with furniture, books and stationery. In all outward appearance they were a new Supreme Court. The duties and the work to be performed by them were, however, such as the Supreme Court might assign or appoint ; but in no event was their work to be binding upon the Supreme Court. In this respect the Com- mission of 1881 was the one followed ; and it was the expectation that THE BENCH AND BAR OK INDIANA 61 tlie methods pursued b}- that would be the methods pvirsued }>y this Com mission. The General Assembly appointed William V.. Niblack, of the First vSu- preme Court District ; Jeptha D. New, of the Second ; John R. Coffroth, of the Third ; Robert J. Lowry, of the Fourth ; and Mortimer Nye, of the Fifth. The Supreme Court refused to recognize the Commission, and held the statute unconstitutional (in State ex rel. Hovey 2'. Noble, ii8 Ind. 350) upon the ground that " the power of deciding, the dut}- of deciding, and the duty of writing the opinions, are specially imposed vtpon the Court ;" and " a duty imposed upon a department of government must be performed by the chosen ofiicers of that department, and it can be neither delegated nor surrendered." Thus the Commission fell to the ground. Nothing was left but to create a new Court of appeal ; and in 1891 the Legislature created the Appellate Court. (under act of APRIL 14, 1881.) George A. Bicknell, April 27, i.SSi — April 14, 1885. John Jlorris. April 27, 1S81 — November i, 1883. William JI. Franklin, April 27, 1881 — April 14, 1885. Horatio C. Newxomb, April 27, 1881 — May 23, 1882. James B. Black, May 29, 18S2— April 14, 1885. James I. Best, April 27, 1881 — April 14, 18S5. Walpole G. Colerick, November 9, 1883 — April 14, iSiSs. (under act of FEBRUARY 22, 1889.) William E. Niblack, 1S89. Robert J. Lowry, 1889. Jeptha D. New, 1889. John R. Coffroth, 1889. Mortimer Nye, 1889. (Act declared unconstitutional. iiS Ind. 350.) Sketches of the Old Indiana Supreme Court Bar. By John Coburn. [The author as a youth had peculiar advantages in making the personal acquaintance of the gentlemen whose names are mentioned in these short sketches. They are not in any sense biographical, but descriptive of the striking characteristics, peculiarities and traits of the persons named as they appeared to him, and of some of the facts of their subsequent careers.] The first Thursday after the fourth Mondays in May and November, of each year, was the day for the general call of the docket of the Supreme Court. On that day, the bar, from all parts of the entire State assembled to attend the call to submit causes and to make motions. Almost every lawyer of prominence in the State was present. Many of them made the journey to the Capitol on horseback, or in private conveyances, or by mail stages, coming distances of from one to five days travel. They were almost, without excep- tion, men of fine health, vigorous and powerful. They assembled in the Supreme Court room in the southeast corner of the old State House, large enough to seat three hundred men. On the fourth Thursday of November, 1843, might have seen Judges Black- ford, Dewey and Sullivan on the bench, each man, apparently, in the prime of life. Blackford, small, erect, active, alert ; the type of nervous energy, with a handsome, oval face, sat in the middle. On his right sat Dewey, of pow- erful physique, with a massive head projecting in front, cliff-like, with strong- set jaw and small eyes ; a combination of features indicative of great power. On his left, sat Sullivan, almost the equal of Dewey in frame and port ; ten 3'ears younger, with a mild and benignant countenance and calm demeanor. The bar was present with an unusual attendance. There might have been seen John Pitcher, a short and well-proportioned man, with keen, dark eyes, from Mount Vernon, in the extreme southwest ; a well-read lawyer, with a satirical tongue, side by side with Joseph L. Jer- negan, of South Bend, a small, stout man, with light complexion, then famous for learning and eloquence, who ended his career in New York city. Near them sat Samuel Judah, of Vincennes, the great lawyer of that region, a quick, wide-awake man of great acumen, learning and force of character, with bald head, aquiline nose, and keen, black eyes. Near Judah sat Calvin THK Bi:XCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 63 Fletcher, a short, iirmly huilt niau from the Capital, with 1)no-ht counteuaiice, pale complexion, l.lue eyes, and a restless and indomitable air— a very bnsy and successful lawyer. In another group could be seen the massive form of Oliver H. Smith, from the Capital, whose great broad head towered above his fellows, full of energy, ready for any contest ; a man strong in argument and laconic in style ; an untiring student ; grasping the main points of his cases ; driving his business through with a powerful hand. He had few eipials in the State. He had been a Representative and Senator m Congress. Near 1>\-, sat Caleb B. Smith, of Counersville, almost youthful in appearance, under medium height, with smooth and oval face, already a famous orator at the bar, m the Legislature and on the stump ; after\vards a mighty power in Con- gress, and in Lincoln's Cabinet. Mr. Smith, for fluency, rajuditv, force and The Old St.\te C.apitoi, .^t iNDiAX.APoras, 1835 to 1S79. point, has rarelv been equaled bv an}- jiulilic speaker. His speeches found in the Congressional Globe confirm this view. When he died, in 1865, he was the foremost orator of the Republican party in tlie Nation. By his side, sat Samuel A\'. Parker, also of Counersville, with pale countenance, thin lips, and satirical e.vpression ; a thin, nervous man with great fire and force of eloquence, then just emerging from ob- scurity ; afterwaril an orator almost without a ])eer. There was Randall Crawford, the great lawj-er from New Albanv, pale ;is a ghost, without a beard or hair on his head, Imt for a \vig ; a tall, feeble-looking scholarly- man, whose learning, acumen and skill had no match in his circuit. Bv him sat William T. Otto, a young man, since famous, wdiose keen eyes, firm jaw, 4 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA massive head and erect port told of the vigor and intellect that has found a field at the bar and on the bench, and in the general public service. There, sat near him, his friend of the bar, John W. Payne, of Corydon, a tall, pale, sickly and consumptive man, with great forehead and bright eyes, a quiet and studious lawyer. Not far off sat George G. Dunn, then not long at the bar; tall, spare, muscular, with great Roman nose and broad forehead, proud and quiet in his bearing, just beginning to display the rare, powerful and deliberate eloquence that became renowned in Courts and Legislative halls — State and National. Near him sat the men from Terre Haute. Amory Kin- ney, with white hair, short stature, and aged form, yet vigorous, a keen and learned lawyer ; Samuel B. Gookins, his partner, ambitious in his profession, much younger, a vigorous, well-proportioned man, whose patience, skill and energy put him in the front rank at the bar and on the Supreme bench. William D. Griswold and John P. Usher were with them. The former, a small, quick man, with bald head and mild and kind expression of counte- nance, indicative of shrewdness and energy; an excellent lawyer, afterwards President of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad Co. The latter, a man of large frame, with blonde hair, light blue eyes, and the fairest complexion, ruddy with health and hope, a man of much force, ambition, patience and learning, afterwards Secretary of the Interior under Lincoln ; a man whose courage, vehemence and pertinacity at the bar, gave him great influence. From Terre Haute also came James Whitcomb, a man of marked appearance, broad shouldered, erect, with black hair and 4ark complexion, prominent features, aquiline nose and high forehead, of dignified bearing. He had a high repu- tation for learning and skill at the bar. He became Governor and died a member of the United States Senate. His career as Governor was marked by the settlement with the bondholders by the State, in which several millions of State debt were paid off. He was the first Governor who fearlessly advo- cated a liberal free school system — one of our great Governors. There too, sat Tilghman A. Howard and Joseph A. Wright, of Rockville. The former, the greatest of the Democratic orators of Indiana ; an eloquent and impressive speaker at the bar. His physical proportions were of the grandest type ; over six feet high, straight and active ; he was a most remark- able figure in any assembly. His hair and eyes were black ; his complexion dark, his demeanor calm ; all combined to give him a vast advantage over physically smaller men. His countenance was marked with energy and intel- ligence, a Roman nose, a firm jaw, a well-formed mouth and a benignant eye, gave force to his iitterances. For a time, his influence in his party was un- bounded. He favored the annexation of Texas early in 1844, when Van Buren and Clay opposed it. He was a "manifest destiny man," believing that the mission of this nation was to acquire and organize the North American Conti- nent into one grand Republic. He was a man of genuine piety. A Presbyterian and an active member of that great organization. A letter is in existence, in answer to a question propounded concerning a revival of religion at Rockville, as follows : "Is this enthusiasm or is it reality?" in which he says : " It is a THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 65 reality!" and then proceeds in a few sentences to express his faith in God's goodness and mercy in a sublime strain. It is fit to be put in lofty places for all men to read and remember. He was elected in 1838 to Coni^ress, but resigned in 1S40 on being nominated for the office of Governor. He made a brilliant campaign, being a powerful popular speaker. Added to fluenc}-, his air of candor, sincerity and courtesy won the hearts of the people. Richard W. Thompson, of Terre Haute, a Virginian by birth, a striking and brilliant looking young man ; a little over thirty-three 3-ears of age ; pale and delicate in appearance ; with regular, handsome oval features ; erect in form, spry in movement, ready of speech, whether in conversation or at the bar. Affable, happy, polite, genial ; his winning manner, his cordial greet- ing, his keen sense of propriety, gave him an unusual advantage over his associates at the bar, or in politics. He had a fine reputation as a rising law- yer, and had been in the house of Congress, where he made a good name for so voung a man. Afterwards he acquired fame as a stump speaker. His was a melodious and ringing voice, that never became hoarse, whether he spoke three hours against a wind, or to a crowd of ten thousand. And the Court houses in his circuit rang with the eloquent tones of his speeches to juries. He was a Whig until that party dissolved. He then became an American and then a Republican. He acted with the partv that was indifferent to the attempt to extend slaverv into the territories, and that was willing to stand on a platform which ignored that question. He opposed the Republican party from 1854 until after the beginning of the Rebellion. He lead the American party in Indiana w-hen, in 1856, Filmore and Donelson were candidates for President and Vice- President, and in i86o, when Bell and Everett were candidates of that party for the same places ; opposing the election of Fremont in 1856, and Lincoln in i860, and dividing the opposition to the Democracy. The war exploded the theories of all conservatives and left them no ground upon which tO' operate. Mr. Thompson became a Republican and was honored by an ap- pointment to the office of vSecretary of the Navy, under President Hayes. He has not for many years practiced law, and very recently has published two volumes of interesting reminiscences of public men and events, covering an unusually long career, and a work on Catholicism. James Lockhart, of Evansville, was then a man of the finest physical development, over six feet high, athletic and powerful, looking thirty-five vears of age. with ruddv cheeks, regular, oval features, and an expression of courage and kindness. He had been in the Legislature some years before, when quite a young man, when the sessions were held in the old Court house. One day, during a session, the roof was found to be on fire at a point below and near the cupola ; it was practically inaccessible from below ; from above, the water could be thrown from the cupola, some twenty feet over the fire by a man standing outside on a narrow platform. No one would venture out but Lockhart. He promptly took the dangerous post with a rope around his waist holding him from falling over and down to death ; water buckets were passed 66 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA up rapidly and lie stood there alone in the wintry wind fighting the flames ; as the buckets came he emptied them skillfully on the fire and saved the Court house. He was deservedly the hero of the day. He did what few men could, or would have dared to do. He was afterward a Judge of the Circuit Court, and a Representative m Congress. A good lawyer, an earnest and honest man, whose word was good, and whose judgment was sound. Joseph A. Wright, also from Rockville, tall, spare and bony in frame, with an alert blue eye, nervous, restlessness, large head and prominent aquiline features was a striking figure. A ready and rapid orator, earnest aud impulsive, he soon rose to distinction in politics, becoming Governor, Senator and Foreign Minister, resident at Berlin In another group sat Henry S. Lane, Samuel C. Willson and Robert C. Gregory, of Crawfordsville ; Edward A. Hannegan, of Covington ; John Petit, Rufus A. Lockwood, Albert S. White, Daniel Mace, Zebulon Baird and Godlove S. Orth, of Lafayette. Henry S. Lane, a tall, young man of about thirty, with small head, pro- jecting forehead, deepe.st eyes, small features, stror:g chin. His rugged face was marked with firmness, quickness, energy and intelligence. His gait was swinging, and his air careless. A great, long-limbed, bony man, whose ready smile, quick repartee and fund of anecdotes made him the center of any group of talkers. He had already became famous as a stump orator, whose brilliant wit and fiery el jquence put him in the forefront of political speakers. He had been two terms in Congress, elected by the Whigs in 1840 and 1842, where he made a strong impression. He was very successful before juries, often carrying them away by his earnestness and powerful appeals. Afterwards he attained great conspicuity in political life. In i860 he was elected Governor, and in i85i United States Senator. In the National Con- vention of i860 he and Andrew G. Curtiu, of Pennsylvania, virtually nomi- nated Lincoln over Seward for President. His career was marked by honesty, manliness and scrupulous integritj^ He was a Methodist and a sin- cerely religious man. Mr. Willson, a large, burly man with a very pale face and rugged features, full of energy and perseverance. A cool, quiet, patient and laborious lawyer. Robert C. Gregory, a handsome, bright faced man, with a dark eye, black hair, and winning smile, as large and powerful as Willson, coming from a race of pioneers. A painstaking lawyer, watchful and faithful to his clients, who became a Supreme Judge. Edward A. Hannegan, a short, ruddy, prematurely gray-headed man, with broad Irish features, square head, and bright, clear, blue eyes ; a fluent and flowery orator, depending solely upon his eloquence for influence in Court and on the stump. He became a Representative and Senator in Con- gress and Foreign Minister. John Pettit, a person with'immense breadth of shoulders, massive globular head, short and fleshy, with pale face and blue eyes — one oblique. A man of strong, common sense, sound judgment, self-reliant and independent. A THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 67 forcible, plain and clear speaker ; a law3'er looking strongh' to general prin- ciples ; afterward in both houses of Congress and on the Supreme bench of the State. A very capable Judge. But it is said that when he began to investigate a case he looked carefully for any defect in the transcript or pleadings that he might dismiss the appeal and save labor. Rufus A. Lockwood, a young man with towering frame and very pi-omi- nent and herculean shoulders ; a head low and broad with beetle brows pro- jecting over a small pair of ej-es, always hidden with glasses, with prominent cheek bones and a rude, strong and defiant expression, .'^.n iron wedge of a face, forcible, wilful, intelligent, wily. He could hold his attention to his books, or a case, twenty-four hours without flagging ; he could wear out with labor any of his associates at the bar. He acquired great fame and power with the Courts, and going to California, as a lawver, carried through with success the great ^Mariposa claim of Gen. Fremont, earning a fee of J(ioo,ooo. He defied the famous vigilant committee of San Francisco and defended a criminal they had arrested under the threat of death if he should appear in Court for him. He went down with the wreck of an ocean steamer, putting his family in one of the small boats. A more unique and powerful lawyer never lived in Indiana. A man of great learning and research; great in argu- ment before both Court and jury. Albert S. White, a small, wiry, wide-awake, nervous man, with a great aquiline beak and thin visage ; near-sighted eyes, and with the quiet air of a student, a man learned in his profession, of fine literary taste, a genial com- panion ; he became a Congressman in both houses, a Judge of the District Court of the United States, and a railroad president. Withal he was the type of modest, simple-hearted gentility. Daniel :\Iace, a frank, free-hearted, friendly man. ,\ model electioneerer; the prince of handshakers, powerful with the juries, forcible, pointed and laconic of speech, a bold, .stalwart, out-spoken man of the people. Withal a sound lawyer, grasping the strong points of a case, driving his arguments home with great force. He was of medium size, with head somewhat droop- ing forward and a well-shaped, oval face, beaming with humor and drollery, a boon coTipanion with all the good fellows on the Wabash. He became United States Attorney and a member of Congress, breaking first away from his Whig friends and in after years, from his Democratic friends ; finally achieving great prominence as a Republican leader. Zebulon Baird, a young, pale-faced delicate man, with feminine features, finely chiseled, with soft hair and mild blue eyes, a scholar, an aciUe reasoner, a well read lawyer, whose spoken arguments were in the style of the best law- writers ; precise, finished, comprehensive, forcible and clear. He was well matched with the best lawyers on the Wabash and in any English-speaking Court anywhere could have ranked among the highest. He studied law with Thomas Corwin. Godlove S. Orth, a young and jolly man, with round face, plump and manlv form, active, energetic, diligent in business, a good speaker, easy, fluent 68 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA and winning in manner, well educated and well read in his profession, a stu- dent with Thaddeus Stevens. A man of force, affable, eloquent and sociable ; he became a member of Congress and a Foreign Minister. He had great in- fluence as a member in the House of Representatives. He was a radical Republican. Near the group sat two remarkable young men, Daniel D. Pratt and Horace P. Biddle, of Logansport. Pratt, a giant in height, with a bright and frank countenance, a fine, large, dark eye, regular features, smooth, oval and handsome ; he would attract attention anywhere. His voice was deep, clear and sonorous. A careful student and laborious in the study of his cases. A powerful orator, a scholarly man, reading much beside his law books ; he afterwards made a great fame at the bar, and became a Congressman in both houses, and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue under Grant. Horace P. Biddle, a small, wiry, active, pale-faced, nervous man, with dark eyes aud lofty forehead, of scholarly appearance and retiring habits. But a most genial companion to his friends. Hopeful and ambitious, he looked forward to a great future. A keen and careful practitioner, putting his points with great clearness and force ; he was a formidable advocate and became a famous lawyer, a Circuit and Supreme Judge. His poems, like his briefs and opinions, are marked with the taste, point and precision of the student. He could speak with great force on the stump, before a jury or to the Court. From the north of the State there sat John B. Howe, of Lagrange ; John B. Niles and Andrew L. Osborn, of Laporte ; Henry Cooper, Wm. H. Coombs and Robert Brackenridge, of Fort Wayne ; John U. Pettitt, of Wabash ; and David Kilgore, of Delaware. John B. Howe, a tall, stout, young man, with broad and heavy face, florid complexion and blue eyes ; a quiet, silent, dignified gentleman, whose argu- ments, whether on paper or verlial, were condensed, pointed, clear and sound. He was a most sententious and pithy writer of briefs and did all things in the most quiet and unostentatious manner. Such was the nature of his career, an honest, reliable, influential and powerful lawyer. John B. Niles, a lawyer and professor of Chemistrj- in a Medical college. A most gentle and mild-mannered man, of fine literary taste, scholarly in all his habits ; one whose integrity and moral worth were unquestioned, whose standing in his profession was always in the front rank ; he led a quiet and unobtrusive life. Physically he was far from robust, with a slender form, tall, flat-chested, slightly stooped, with swinging gait, he seemed to lack strength, which impression was borne out by his voice. His face was always lighted with a kind and benign expression. Andrew L. Osborn, a small, dark-faced young man with curling black hair and black eyes, prominent nose and receding forehead and chin, had a Jewish cast of countenance. His readiness of speech, keenness of intellect, and courageous demeanor supplied the lack of force created by his small and feeble looking form. He was a great power in Court, learned, active and THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 69 painstaking in his profession. Having afterward important employinenls in railroad cases and serving on the Supreme bench, Henry Cooper, of Fort Wayne, a round-faced, large eyed and thick set man, careless in his dress, hasty of speech and illy prepared in his arguments, came into Court under the great disadvantage of a slovenly appearance and a countenance and manner lacking dignity and self-possession. He had many cases at home and in the .Supreme Court, but made little impression as a man of force or a lawyer of learning He was the oldest member of the bar from the north. His associates gave him the credit of immense legal knowl- edge which he \\as unable to apply in his practice. To young men he was ever kind ; he is remembered gratefully by many who profited by his ailvice and information. David H. Colerick, of Fort Wayne, a tall, graceful and elegant man with blue eyes, a delicate, florid complexion and aquiline features, made a striking figure. He was an eloquent speaker, fluent, and passionate at times, but somewhat indolent in preparation ; who rarelv created the impres- sion that he was at his best. A great reader, both of law and literature, and a genial companion, whose conversation was charming. Will. H. Coombs, the partner of Colerick, was the wheel-horse of the firm; a diligent, painstaking and careful practitioner of good parts, who conscien- tiously plodded through his practice with more than average success. He was a reserved and silent man. He was tall, slender, with dark complexion and long face, inclining to melancholy. He was fully the equal of any one at the Fort Wayne bar. Robert Brackeuridge seemed scarcely beyond the age of boj'hood, with his handsome oval face and regular features. A bright, hopeful and happy young man with a large and growing practice, which he attended to with great diligence and vigor. John U. Pettitt, of Wabash, was ju.st beginning his career as a lawyer, a voung man of delicate features, slender in form and graceful ; with excellent powers as a speaker, with admirable preparation as a scholar, he appeared to great advantage in the Supreme Court, on the stump, and in Congress in after years. David Kilgore, the " Delaware Chief," as he was called, a man of rough exterior and tall form, with an independent and manly bearing, was a strik- ing figure. His powers as a stump speaker and as a jury lawyer were even then famous. His strength of character, common sense and strong reasoning powers made him a man of note in any Court and in Congress. His com- plexion was fair, his eyes blue, his head narrow and high, his features were regular. His practice was lucrative. He served many years in Congress, where he took a high position. He had previously served as Circuit Judge in what was called the " ISIud Circuit," now the Natural Gas Region. James Rariden, John S. Newman, James Perry and Charles H. Test, from Wayne, were there. 70 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA James Rarideii, with his "good gray head," prominent in the assembly, the leader of the Wayne Bar, a self-made, self-reliant man, who had by study, ambition and great labor come up to a lofty position from poverty. He seemed to be about fifty years of age. A finer head never crowned human shoulders. His form was portly, his vigor great, his wit keen, his courage unflinching, his common sense strong, his \yhole demeanor that of a man of great power, of unbending will and genial nature. He was in conversation, a master ; on the stump, forcible ; at the bar he had great influence. A Kentuckian by birth, his father brought him while a boy in 1810 to Franklin county, in this State. He located at the county seat in Wayne county in iSry, where he lived until his death in 1856. Here he began the practice, and as a sound and skillful lawyer was widely known. He served seven years in the Legislature, four years in Congress, retiring from politics in 1841. In 1850 he was a member of the Constitutional Con- vention and took an active part. He was a Whig and afterwards a Repub- lican ; always ready to measure swords with an opponent. By friend and foe he was ever3'where esteemed as an honest man, true to his friends, faith- ful to his clients and devoted to the welfare of his familv. John S. Newman was in the prime of life and on the high road of profes- sional success. His was a striking figure; his complexion was ruddy; his fea- tures Jarge and regular ; his form powerful and robust ; his eyes blue ; his bearing dignified. His speech was sententious and laconic ; every word to the point. His briefs were of the same style, strong in argument, well svistained by authority and commanding the confidence of the Court. He served in the Constitutional Convention of 1850, and took a very important part. He left the bar to become a railroad and bank president. He was a man of affairs. James Perry, then one of the oldest members of the Wayne county bar, was there ; a small and active man of dark complexion and black eyes ; of mild demeanor and careful dress. His features were regular, his face round, his step quick and his whole bearing energetic. He was a conscientious, careful, painstaking and laborious lawyer. Whatever of ability, learning or influence he had, he put forth for his clients. He served as Circuit Judge with the respect of the bar and the community. There was Charles H. Test, a slender, care-worn man in appearance; about forty years of age, who had been on the bench before he was thirty years old, when his circuit extended from the Ohio River to the State of Michigan ; he having organized the Circuit Courts in northern Indiana. His residence was for many years on the farm ; first in Wayne county near Centerville, after- wards in White county in the open prairie. He was fond of country life, fond of his cattle and horses ; of fields and woods ; of the fresh air and the wide sky. Fond of his gun and dogs and fishing tackle ; full of enthusiasm for the wild and free life of early Indiana. A good fellow in the woods long ago when deer could be counted by the hundred near Brookville, or where fifty years later he shot prairie chickens in White county, or caught bass out of the THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 71 Kankakee and Tippecanoe. His whole bearing indicated qnickness, self- reliance, energy and intellectual power. His life from boyhood had been spent in Court ; he was a fluent talker, both to the Court and the jury, and whatever he knew of legal principles was at his fingers' ends. At times his speeches rose into fiery and intense eloquence. He had a wide range of practice, civil and criminal, and was an active practitioner in all the Courts. He afterwards became a Legislator, Secretary of State, and served both as Circuit Judge in the Lafayette circuit and Judge of the Criminal Court in Marion county. He was a genial man, humorous and kind, full of anecdotes and fond of all amenities of social life. In his earlier career he took a verv active part in politics as a Whig, afterwards as a Democrat ; later he became an active Republican. He was a power on the stump. In his boyhood he was a Quaker, in early manhood a. Methodist, in old age he returned to the Society of Friends. There sat Pleasant A. Hackleman and Samuel Bigger, of Rushville. Hackleman was very tall, erect and thin in form, with a melancholy expres- sion of countenance. His features were well proportioned, his eyes seemed to be cavernons under his square and projecting forehead and black curling hair. His bearing was quiet and unobtrusive, but when aroused he became a powerful and violent orator. His language became impassioned, his ges- tures indicated intense feeling. He was a studious and diligent lawyer who led a quiet life, never seeking office, or fame, or wealth ; but when the ques- tions concerning slaver}- arose he became greatly aroused, and at the begin- ning of the Rebellion entered the military service, in which he was slain at the battle of luka, while in command of his troops. He was a sound lawyer, a good citizen and a heroic soldier. His rank was that of Brigadier-General when he fell. Samuel Bigger was then Governor of the State, a large and powerful man who had been a Circuit Judge in the White Water region. A solid, honest, fearless man, who administered justice to the satisfaction of the people of his circuit. He was a plain, common-place man, without ambition or the gnawing appetite for place and power that afflicts man}- small men. He was a good lawyer, faithful as a dog to his clients, with fair ability to speak in Court or on the stump. He was a strict and active Presbyterian. A man of nnaffected piety, and far above any suspicion of religious demagoguery. James Whitcomb beat him for Governor in 1843. He went to Fort Wayne to practice, but died soon after. Near him on that day sat Jehu T. Elliott, of New Castle, afterward a great Supreme Judge of the State. He was ruddy of face, an English beef eating looking man, with big round head and massive body, mild and genial in manner. A very sound and able lawyer, an honest, conscientious and capable man. Few better have ever appeared at the bar of Indiana. Scorn- ino- the quibbles and technicalities of the practice, he stood on the bed-rock of general principles. His opinions are among the best of Indiana Judges, concise, pointed and luminous. 72 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA There, too, sal George H. Dunu, John D. Howland, John Ryman, George Holland, Philip L. Spooner, Daniel S. Major, David Macy and John and Ebenezer Diimont of the lower White Water Bar, living in Brookville, Lawrenceburg and Veva}-. George H. Dunn, of Lawrenceburg, a small and delicate man with an air of refinement and gentility, carefully dressed, precise in his manners, with regular features and a well-balanced head. He seemed to be approach- ing fifty vears of age. His form was wiry, his address excellent and his smile genial. He had been in Congress. An excellent lawyer, accurate, laborious, careful and faithful. He stood at the head of the bar in his circuit. He had the confidence of Courts and juries, and his inflvieuce at the bar was VL-ry great. His integrity and purity of character were models for young men. He afterward became Treasurer of State and a railroad president. In politics he was a Whig. He was an Episcopalian and a most exemplary Christian, a noble specimen of manliness, intelligence, faithfulness and magnanimity. John D. Howland, of Brookville, a very young man, bright, energetic, scholarly and ambitious, with small, delicate features, ruddy face, narrow htad and nervous frame, pushing forward into the ranks of older men with eager energy. He removed to Indianapolis and became a very prominent and powerful practitioner. Afterward became Clerk of the United States Court. He was one of the founders of the Public Library of Indianapolis; a man of fine literary taste and a model of gentle and winning manners. George Holland, of Brookville, a more staid and quiet man than How- laud; small in form, with puny voice and modest bearing, he took good care of his business and faithfully gave to his clients the results of assiduous thought aud untiring labor. His dark complexion, long face, narrow chest and short stature put him to a disadvantage with more robust and portlv men. John Ryman stood six feet high, an athlete in appearance, with finely chiseled and regular features, a man of sanguine temperament, energetic, patient, careful, a dry and cold speaker, confining himself to the facts and the law strictly, with no flourish of oratory or sparkle of wit. He knew his points. He made them clear and trusted his cases to Judges and juries upon their merits, confiding in their sense of justice for a judgment in his favor. And in this a very model for the rising generation of verbose lawyers. His partner, Philip L. Spooner, was of the same mould intellectually and pro- fessionally; physically a very small man, unobtrusive, calm, fearless, firm and unshaken in his faith in the strength of his legal positions and principles. He stood in the front rank of Indiana lawyers. Moving to Wisconsin he took high rank there; a just, brave, strong lawyer; an honor to his profession and an example of its true dignity. David Macy sat near him. An energetic Rud solid man of sound judg- ment, strong will, and a first-rate mone.v-makiug capacity. Withal an excel- lent lawyer, who drifted into railroad management, pork packing and bank- ing. A man of massive head, cool bearing, quiet deme mor and having the great advantage of reserve and silence in important affairs. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 73 Near hiiu there sat Daniel S. Major, a tall, thin and sallow man with keen black eyes and solemn visage. He was a diligent and carefnl lawyer, who spent a quiet life amongst his books and papers and was rarely seen except in Court or in his office. There WAS John Dumont, a siiall man with pea eves, a keen glance, a sharp voice and an uncommonly quick and sarcastic tongue. A well-in- formed lawye-, of extensive practice, who lived in Vevay. A book-worm, a pleasant and witty companion, full of information on many subjects, fond of his trees, vines and shrubbery. A lover and observer of nature ; a sensitive and irritable man, not made for a uew country, but would rather have been at hom? among more cultivated people than the early settlers with whom he lived and died. He had been a candidate for Governor against David Wallace in 1S37, advocating a classification of the public works and gradual construction, then being begun, rather than a general system. He was de- feated and the general system broke down for lack of money, proving his wisdom to 3 late — leaving many object lessons scattered over the State in the shape of canal banks without water, ruined locks, deserted railroad tracks and grass grown patches of turnpikes. His son, Ebenezer Damont, was there, a small, youthful, nervous pat- tern of n man, sickly in appearance, but of great mental vigor and ambition. An orator all but the voice, a witty, a pungent and powerful reasoner, having great weight with Court and juries. He served in the Legislature; also as President of the State Bank, and as a Colonel and General in the Mexican and Rebellion wars ; a brave, active and capable officer ; fighting sickness and weakness while he fought the enemies of his country. Being appointed Governor of Idaho he died soon after, not having taken his office. Joseph G. :\Iarshall, of :\Iadison. A very tall and powerfully built man, with florid complexion, sandy hair and blue eyes. His head was well pro- portioned, very large and massive, with loftv front. His features were regu- lar and prominent, the wdiole combination indicative of strength, firmness and intelligence. \\'lien roused, the calm demeanor vanished and those who knew him be?t called him the sleeping lion. This was the leader of the Madi- son bar ; a man forty-three years old, who would talk quietly to the Court in a common-sense manner, until opposition brought his forces into play, when his whole nature seemed changed and with powerful voice, earnest mien and convincing arguments he seemed capable of surmounting any obstacle. His sense of justice, his knowledge of gineral legal principles, his clear per- ception of the points in his cases gave him an immense advantage in a contest in Court. He was a student, a carefnl thinker and a conrageous ad- vocate, who, while he deferred to the decisions of Courts, fought out everv position of advantage from first to last. He inclined to political contests and discussions. On the stump he held his audiences by his T'owerfnl reasoning, his earnest manner, his candid and manly bear- ing. His oratory was like a rapid stream ; clear, powerful, vehement. He indulged in no play of words and no flight of fancy. He had no 74 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA time for digressions, but swept through subjects with a simplicity, plain- ness and force that carried conviction. He was at the head of the Whig electoral in 1840 and 1844, once elected and once defeated. He was unsuc- cessful in obtaining official positions. In early life, he was a Probate Judge, and later, a member of both branches of the Legislature. He was once a candidate for Governor and twice a candidate for the United States Senate, but was defeated. He refused an appointment as Governor of Oregon Terri- tory, offered by President Taylor. He died in middle life, leaving behind him a great reputation for ability, integrity, courage and manliness. There, also, was Michael G. Bright, of Madison, a portly, well-developed man, large and muscular, with dark complexion and eyes, having the coun- tenance of a good liver, with great breadth of shoulders, and round and smiling face. A most courteous and affable gentleman, with soft voice and winning manners. A strong law3-er, indefatigable, wide-awake, resolute and full of resources. His influence in Court was great, growing out of industry, com- mon sense and strength of will. He had the money-making faculty, and with a competency retired, having won and maintained the respect of his neighbors and colleagues at the bar of the State. Stephen C. Stevens, of Madison, the very opposite of Bright in face and form, tall, angular, with sharp and harsh features, narrow forehead and small eyes. His look and expression of countenance were indicative of severity of character worn by study and intensified by the battles of life. There, also, sat William Herod, of Columbus, a large, erect and sturdy man, of quiet manners. His features were regular, lare-e and strong, his voice heavy, his style of oratory to juries and on the stump impressive. With a comprehensive mind, well trained for the bar, he stood fairly the most prominent in his section of the State. He had the confidence of all who knew him for integrity, candor and manliness. He had been in Con- gress from his district and made an honorable name there. Fabius M. Finch, of Franklin, was there, tall, slender, graceful; with handsome, oval face and large, brilliant black eyes ; a happy looking young man, afterwards having a large and lucrative practice and filling the circuit bench with great credit to himself. An honorable attorney, capable and faithful to his clients, taking life leisurely without fretting for place or wealth or fame. Still enjoying a serene old age. Hiram Brown, of Indianapolis, a square built, solid man, of over fifty years, with a broad and strong face, wide and high forehead, and firm expres- sion. A gentleman who studied law and practiced in Lebanon, Ohio, and had made in his practice here a great reputation as a trier of cases before juries. He was a fluent, witty and eloquent speaker, having a clear voice and a calm and dignified bearing. He had an extensive practice in the circuit composed of eight or ten counties in Central Indiana. He was a master of satire and irony and a dangerous opponent when provoked by a hostile demonstration. Mr. Brown had a taste for tree planting and cultivation. He planted a great orchard of all kinds of fruit some four miles south of THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 75 ludiauapolis. lu the city, his home was surrounded by trees and shrubbery of his own planting. Many a time he came in from the circuit carrying on horseback a tree or vine. In mature life he became a member of the Methodist Church. Few men at the Indianapolis bar ever had a greater influence in Court than Jlr. Brown when he was in his prime. He was a most charming man in conversation, full of information, and of saving common sense. Hiram Brown was an honest man and a first-rate citizen. Philip Sweetser, a large and fine lookingman, of sanguine temperament, with regular features, dark eyes, prominent nose and massive head. He had the air of a man of power. He came from Massachusetts, was a graduate of a college and a finely educated lawyer. He had lived in Columbus, but came to reside in Indianapolis. A man of few words, who could condense an argument or a brief with more ease and precision than any one at the bar. A strong advocate, an excellent pleader, a skillful reasoner, a fearless de- fender of the rights of his client. His reading of the law had been extensive and his practice varied before he came to the Indianapolis bar. He stood high in the Supreme Court, because of the brevity, force, point and learning in his arguments. He was an Episcopalian in religion, and a Whig in poli- tics. A man of singular firmness and rectitude of character. James ilorrison, a man of medium height, with very strong and promi- nent features ; his face was long, his forehead fine and high ; his whole bearing dignified. A Scotchman by birth, full of fire, energy, nerve and passion ; always ready for the fray ; well informed, resolute and pugnacious, he was an opponent whom many dreaded and no one met safely without preparation. He had been Judge of the Circuit Court; and in after life was President of the State Bank. He was not popular, but no man ever im- peached his integrity or denied his abilit}'. He stood alone, defying all coiners, and fought to the finish many a famous battle at the bar. He said to a young member of the bar, in one of his gentler moods : " I am ashamed that I have to practice law at the age of sixty-six, but I have no faculty to make money except by mj- profession." He was a strict Episcopalian, a leader in his church and a good member of sot iety. With all his pride and ambition he condescended to join a military company called the Marion Guards, and carried a musket many a time on drill and on public occasions. He was a haughty, over-bearing, ambitious, honorable, virtuous and a religious man. William W. Wick, "the best-looking man about town," as he was called. He had a grand and commanding figure — a great, massive head, a lofty and columnar forehead, projecting far over a pair of bright eyes. His voice Avas deep and sonorous, his whole presence impressive. He was about fifty years of age. He had been Judge of the Circuit Court and a member of Congress. On the bench he presided with great ease and dignity. He often said that his salary being small he was " only paid to guess at the law, and was not bound to know it all." He was indolent, good-natured and careless in business matters. He took life in an easy way. Never acquired valuable 76 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA property or seemed to care for its possession or strive to obtain it. He had a fair knowledge of the law ; and when he chose to make an effort at the bar or on the bench, rose easily into the sphere of a strong man. He had the abilities to be powerful, bvit put off the day of achievement. President Pierce was his warm friend, and appointed hira postmaster at Indianapolis He ex- celled in conversation. He had read much, had a good memory; he had talked much and was adroit in expression, often humorous, always entertaining. William Quarles, a tall, spare man, thin and lank in form, with a great forehead and large, round bald head, of sanguine temperament. He was about forly-five years of age. A noisy speaker, given to much repetition in his speeches, prolix in his arguments, but recurring ajain and again to the same points, he made at last a strong impression on Courts and juries. At times his impassioned declamation was reallj' powerful. He had an extensive criminal practice. In his dress he was careless — the very opposite to Judge Morrison. His great forte was in the cross-examination of witnesses ; no member of the bar excelled him in that line His labors in Court were ex- cessive ; he was generally under great excitement. He died soon after the trial of a prolonged murder case He was urged to accept the nomination for Governor at one time by his Whig friends, but peremptorily declined. David Wallace, or as he was generally called. Governor Wallace, had been a member of the Legislature in 1828 to 183 r, Lieutenant-Governor six years to 1837, Governor from 1837 to 1S40, and two years a Representative in Congress from 1841 to 1843. He began the practice of law in 1823 at Brook- ville, and resumed it after his defeat for Congress in 1843. Politics had en- grossed his attention for fifteen years, but cheerfully he returned to his pro- fession full of vigor and hope. In person, of medium height, with handsome and delicate features, dark, sparkling eyes and a winning smile, he attracted anywhere the attention of the people. His manners were kind ; always genial and approachable, he made friends of all who met and became ac- quainted with him. At that time (1S43) ^^ had just emerged from political life, and a new field was before him in Central Indiana. He had the advan- tage of most men as a speaker. He was eloquent, fluent and dignified; at times full of earnestness and fire. Subsequently he acquired a good practice, and left it for the bench in 1856. Both as a lawyer and a Judge he won the esteem of the bar and the public. He delivered several orations at various times, which are very fine specimens of eloquence. No man in the State has excelled him in the beauty, force and finish of his public addresses. He died very suddenly at the age of sixty in September, 1859. He was a sensitive, honorable, fair, upright and candid man ; one who looked or) the bright side of life and cheerfully bore every burden imposed upon him. He did not amass a fortune and never coveted or envied those who were more lucky in this respect. What he did at the bar he did well, whether in pleadings or arguments, spoken or written As a Judge he was fairness itself. Ovid Butler was a man of medium height, sturdy form, with a pleasant face, a very bright eye and an expression of intelligence and kindness not THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 77 to be forgotten. He had almost infinite patience and labor in the prac- tice, which, for his firm, was the most lucrative in the State. He had no ambition as an orator, made no effort for display of any kind, but was as independent in social, political and religious affairs as any man could be. He grappled his cases firmly, made his points clearly and pushed his busi- ness with energy. His oral arguments and briefs were the result of thorough study and careful thought and had great weight with the Courts. In politics he was a Democrat until slavery was advocated as a national institution. He then helped to organize the Free Soil party and was its foremost leader in Indiana. He advocated the annexation of Texas, because he thought it was the manifest destiny of this country to absorb the continent and make the model republic of the world. He afterwards looked at the annexation scheme in a different light. But this did not cure him of his optimism. He almost idolized Kossuth and, later, John Bright as patriots and philanthropists. He spent his time, his labors and his money liberally to further his political projects and sentiments. He largely endowed Butler Universitv and put it into active operation. He was a professed Christian, a man of the purest character, and of practical religion in his everj'-day walk and conversation. Henry P. Coburn was a native of ^Massachusetts and about fifty years of age, a graduate of Harvard College in 1812, who studied law in that State, and came to Indiana in 1816. He had practiced some years in southern Indiana and in the Central Circuit. He was the Clerk of the Court. A quiet, unassuming and capable man, whose knowledge of the law was wide and thorough and whose judgment was sound. Not given to long arguments or rambling repetitions, but speaking briefly and to the point. A man of very extensive information, a great reader and a good talker ; honest, independent and benevolent. He had a taste for trees and flowers ; he was prone to wander in the big woods ; he loved an orchard and a garden. He had them. He delighted in talking of his boyhood home on the Merrimac. Many a happy hour he and his friends, Hiram Brown, the lawyer ; Aaron Alldredge, the nurseryman, and later Henry \V. Beecher, the preacher, spent in talking of the fruits, plants, vines, flowers, shrubs and forests of Indiana. Ke loved bovs and had manv friends among the good boys of Indianapolis. He was a little below the medium height, compact in form, and active in movement ; his complexion was pale, his eyes deep blue, his features regular, his head one of ideal proportion. He was a religious man, a Presbyterian ; not much of a sectarian. John L. Ketcham, of Indianapolis, a man of powerful frame, approach- ing middle age, whose broad and regular features, calm demeanor and firm bearing, betokened a person of both physical and intellectual strength. His complexion was dark, his eyes hazel, his voice remarkably musical, clear and strong. As a speaker he was forcible, driving to the point with great directness. He worked incessantly at his profession, sparing no pains and shi inking from no labor. Somewhat irascible in temper and impatient of opposition he controlled himself well, and often cut short in his contest . 78 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA what a more imprudent man would have hastily uttered. He was a zealous Presbyterian ; always active, prominent and thoroughgoing in the work of his church. Hugh O'Neal, of Indianapolis, a small, neit, quick, alert young man, whose flashing eyes, finely cut features, firm mouth and ringing voice indi- cated his positive nature. Not much given to general studies, either of his profession or of literature. He prepared his cases carefully and laboriously, and his quick wit, unfaltering pugnacity and presence of mind made him a formidable opponent in any Court. He had a strong inclination to political life, taking a part in many campaigns on the stump with great distinction, but never held an office, except that of Prosecuting Attorne}' of his circuit, and District Attorney of the United States Court for Indiana. He drifted to California on the great wave of emigration, but returned to Indianapolis and soon after died. He had no faculty to make money, or to get or hold on to property. IvUcian Barbour, of Indianapolis, a tall and stalwart young man, whose florid complexion and reddish brown hair were indications of health and vigor. His head was large and his countenance cast in the mould of decision and firmness of character. Full of exuberant spirits and activity, he very soon after this won a high position at the bar. Some ten years afterward he was the leading member of a commission composed of himself, Walter March and George W. Carr, which prepared and reported the code and statutes of 1852. A patient, careful, studious and very capable lawyer, becoming the first candidate for Congress nominated by the Republican party and elected in 1854 over Thomas A. Hendricks, whose vote in favor of the Nebraska bill, for the time, destroyed his influence. Simon Yandes, of Indianapolis, who had but recently griduated at the Harvard Law School with high honors, was there. He towered above the entire bar in height ; slender bvrt active and energetic. His pale and almost beardless face, light blue eyes and shy manner, gave him a youthful appear- ance. He had recently entered the firm of Fletcher & Butler, which had a very heavy and important practice. He shouldered his burdens with ease and continued at the bar some twenty years. A man of great common sense, of extensive reading, of keen discrimination and of unusual capacity to make his points and to toe the mark in legal contests. A good talker, an interesting speaker with a fine memory and ready for the emergencies of the practice, he was devoid of ambition ; avoiding all efforts at display. He retired from his profession just as his powers had been matured and his in- fluence in the Courts firmly established. He was a candidate for Supreme Judge in 1858 on the Republican ticket. Since then he has given largely of his means in establishing a great library at Wabash College. He has for many years been interested in Sunday-school work. Only three of these men survive, the greater part died before or in middle life— Richard W. Thompson, Fabius M. Finch and Simon Yandes, live. To each of them be it said in the words of Horace, " Serus in caelum redeas." The Appellate Court. The Supreme Court Commission of 1889 wascreated to relieve the Supreme Court of the business that had gradually accumulated since April, 1S85, when the Commission of 1881 had expired. It failed, because unconstitu- tional. The Court was then without relief. The facility with which an appeal may be taken in this State had the effect to over-load the docket of the Supreme Court. Every case must be decided upon a written opinion. This has its advantages and its disadvantages. The rule compels the Court, or at least th? Judge to whom the case is assigned for consideration, to carefullv examine the record and the questions involved, and to give his reasons for so deciding the case. The labor of preparing the opinion is probably greater than any other part of the Judge's work. Another advantage derived from the rule is that it brings out and exposes inconsistencies and erroneous views of the law that would otherwise be hidden, and which the bar would never other- wise be able to combat. The disadvantages are that it consumes the larger part of the Judge's time, requiring him to consume time that might be spent in the examination of other cases. It also loads down our law books with reported cases, which multiph- so rapidly that the practicing attorney cannot keep pace with them. The temptation to the Judge who desires to write himself into fame is considerable ; and very often an opinion reads like a leading article on the same subject from a journal of legal literature. The tendencv, however, is decided!}- towards the requirement of written opinions in everv case decided by an Appellate Court ; and few Judges are able to resist the temptation to write. The Legislature of iSgr, the Commission of 1889 having been declared unconstitutional, created the Appellate Court, giving it final jurisdiction in a large number of cases. The amendment to the Constitution of 1881 permitted this ; but previous to that date the Legislature had only power to create a Court inferior to the Circuit Court, so that a tribunal could not be created that would have the power to entertain an appeal from that Court. The amendment obviated that difficulty. The creation of the Court was stoutly resisted, especially from the country members, on the superficial pleas that it would cost the State several thousand dollars n year. Better counsels pre- vailed, and the Court was created by the Act of February 28, 1891, with five 80 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Judges, one from each of five designated districts. The term is for four years; the Court, however, expires March i, 1897. The salary of the Judge is 13,500. The Clerk and Sheriff of the Supreme Couit are like the officers of the Appellate Court. The practice is the same as the Supreme Court. The Court has final jurisdiction in all matters coming before it ; no appeal from its decisions lying to the Supreme Court. It has original jvirisdiction of all appeals in matters concerning decedents' estates and guardianships. It has also jurisdiction to foreclose statutory liens. By the Statute of 1891 the limit of its jurisdiction in actions to recover on contract or for a tort was |i,50o; but in 1S93 the amount was raised to $3,500, in order to more equally divide the business between it and the Supreme Court. Even this increase of the jurisdiction has not divided the business equally between the two Courts. It is a common saying that small cases involve just as difficult questions as large ones ; and while this is true in many instances, it is not universally true. The general rule is that the more there is involved in the case, the more intricate and difficult are the questions that arise. Such has been found to be the general rule with reference to the cases in the Supreme and Appellate Courts. The Statute requires a written opinion upon every material question decided where a case is reversed ; but none is required where a case is affirmed. When new and important questions are decided, and an opinion filed, the statute requires the publication of such opinion in manner and form as the reports of the Supreme Court are published. The Judges of the Court have the power to determine what opinions shall be published. Notwiih- standing the opportunity thus afforded to relieve themselves of the labor of preparing opinions in cases affirmed, the Judges, without exception, it is believed, have declined to accept the benefit of the provisions of the statute. They have also declined to make any selection of opinions ; and as a conse- quence all their opinions have been published, now making nine volumes, uniform with the reports of the Supreme Court. The first Judges of the Court were George L. Reinhard, of Rockport; Jeptha D. New, of Vernon ; Milton S. Robinson, of Anderson; James B. Black, of Indianapolis, and Edgar D. Crumpacker, of Valparaiso. The objections raised at first to the Appellate Court have not been con- tinued. Those objections arose chiefly from ihe fact that the decisions it rendered, while from the Court of last resort as to the cases in whicb they were rendered, weie not from the Court of last resort in the State. Appeals have become so frequent that a dissatisfaction exists among the rank and file of the bar until a cause has been disposed of by the highest tribunal ; and this had to be met by the Appellate Court and overcome. Happily, much of it has disappeared. The large number of cases appealed shows that the Court must be continued or other methods of disposing of the business provided. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 81 JUDGES OF APPELLATE COURT. James B. Black, March 12, 1891 — Januan- 2, 1S93. Jeptha D. New, March I2, 1891 — Jiilv 11, 1892. (Died). Miltou S. Robinsou, ^larch 12, 1891 — ^July 28, 1892. (Died). George L. Reinhard, :\Iarch 12, 1891. Edgar D. Crumpacker, March 12, 1S91 — January 2, 1893. AVillard New, August 20, 1892 — January 2, 1893. Heury C. Fox, August 25, 1892 — ^January 2, 1893. Frank E. Gavin, January 2, 1893. Theodore V. Davis, January 2, 1893. Orlando J. Lotz, January- 2, 1893. George E. Ross, January 2, 1893. The Circuit Courts. By W. W. Thornton. B3' the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787 Congress had the power to appoint a Governor and three Judges for the Northwest Territory. The clause relating to the Judges is as follows : " There shall also be appointed a Court to consist of three Judges, any two of whom to form a Court, who shall have common law jurisdiction, and reside in the district, and have each therein a freehold estate in 500 acres of land while in the exercise of their offices ; and their commissions shall continue in force during good behavior." These Judges constituted the General Court, with power to try causes, liy an Act of Congress of 1792 any one of them, in the absence of the other Judges, was authorized to hold a Court. This Court is treated at length in an article presented elsewhere in this volume, to which the reader is referred. The Governor and Judges had also Legislature functions until a General Assembly was organized. That body was organized in 1790. In the Ordi- nance of 17S7 it was provided as follows : " Previous to the organization of the (Tcneral Assembly, the (Governor shall appoint such Magistrate and other civil officers, in each county or township, as he shall find necessary- for the preservation of the peace and good order in the same. After the General Assemoly shall lie organized, the powers and duties of Magistrates and other civil officers shall be regulated and defined by the said Assembly ; but all aiagistrates and civil officers, not herein otherwise directed, shall, during the continuance of this temporary government, be appointed by the Governor." The Governor was also authorized to lay out the territory into counties and townships, Avherever the Indian title should be extinguished. .Shortly after the Constitution of the United States was in force, Congress enacted a law adopting the Ordinance of 1787, and provided that the President should nominate, and the Senate confirm, all officers who were to have been appointed by the United States in Congress assembled under the ordinance. The first law published Ijy the Governor and Judges was for the organi- zation of the militia, and the second "for establishing General Courts of Quarter Session, and for establishing County Courts of Common Pleas." The THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 83 first law was published July 25, and the second, August 30, lySS, It will be observed that the word " published " is used and not the word "enacted " or •'adopted." That is the language of the Statvite. The Statute provided for holding a Court in each county styled the " General Quarter Sessions of the Peace," to be " held in and kept four times in every year in each county." The times of the beginning of the terms were fixed only for Washington county, of which Marietta was the county seat. The Governor was authorized to appoint "a competent number of Justices of the Peace" for each county. At least three and not to exceed five of those appointees must be "specially named in a general commission for holding the said Courts of Quarter Sessions of the Peace," and any three Justices of the county, so long as one of their number was one of those so specially named, could hold a general and also a special session as often as occasion required it. Previous to the creation of this Court, the territory was practically without a Court to punish offenders, and lynch law in a measure prevailed; for, the General Court, although it possessed plenary power to tr3' all offenders and settle disputes, could not be expected to try all offenders scattered throughout the vast domain of the Territory. These Justices, both in and out of session, had power to recognize offenders to the Quarter Sessions, or to the General Court, according as these Courts had jurisdiction of the offense ; and to also certify to the proper Court all forfeited recognizances. A clerk was provided for the Quarter Sessions Court, and the sheriff of the county requested to attend. This Court had jurisdiction to "hear, determine and sentence, according to the course of the common law, all crimes and misdemeanors * * the punishment whereof doth not extend to life, limb, imprisonment for more than one year, or forfeiture of goods and chattels, or lands and tenements to the Government of the Territory." This Court, it will be seen, was strictly a Criminal Court. This same Act also authorized the Governor to appoint, not less than three nor more than five in each countj-, suitable persons "to hold and keep a Court of record, to be styled, the County Court of Common Pleas." These Judges, or a majority of them, could hold "pleas of assizes, scire facias, re- plevins, and hear and determine all manner of pleas, actions, suits, and causes of a civil nature, real, personal and mixed, according to the Constitu- tion and Laws of the Territory." Any one of them could hear a cause alone for a mone3- judgment if the amount demanded did not exceed five dollars. We have here the origin of the civil jurisdiction of both our Circuit Courts and of our Justices of the Peace. No appeal from a judgment of a writ of error to this Court was provided for ; but the General Court possessed the power, under its common law jurisdiction, to issue such a writ. The Court sat only twice a year. Only the terms of Washington county were fixed, one upon the third Tuesday in March, and the other on the first Tuesday in September. The reason for this apparent omission was that Washington was the only county then organized. The second county organized was Hamilton, at Cin- cinnati, January, 1790 ; the third, St. Clair, at Kaskaskia (divided into three districts, Cahokia, Prairie-du-Rocher and Kaskaskia); and the fourth Knox, 84 . THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA at Post Vincenues, July, both in the same year. On the fourth of the follow- ing November it was enacted that the General Court should sit once a year on the first Tuesday in Ma}' in the county of Knox ; and two days latter it was also provided that four terms of the County Court of Common Pleas should be held in each county — those for Knox county on the first Tuesdays in Feb- ruary, May, August and November. By this same statute the Governor was authorized to increase the number of Judges to seven for each county, and the number of the Justices of quorum to nine, if he saw fit. It was also pro- vided that all the laws with reference to the organization of the Courts in the four counties named should apply to any new county thereafter created by the Governor. By an Act of 1792 the Judges of the Common Pleas were required to appoint a certain number of taix commissioners to apportion out the taxes of the county, and also to appoint three assessors for each township or town. As soon as a sufficient amount of revenue was derived under this statute, these Judges, by another statute of the same year, were required to appoint two commissioners to superintend the erection of a court house and jail ; but the Court of Quarter Sessions was required to certify to the Governor and Judges the probable cost of such structures, so that the latter might order a tax levy for that purpose. The tendency to load upon the Courts the administration of the laws was then as prevalent as now. Subsequently the appointment of these tax commissioners and assessors was devolved upon the Quarter Ses.sions. The method of compensating the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas for their services was by a schedule of fees taxed for services rendered. There was one schedule where the Judge sat alone trying a small case, and another where he sat in banc with his associates. As a single Judge his fees were slightly below that of a Justice of the Peace of the present day. When sitting with his associates they were slightly higher. Even the Judges of the General or Supreme Court, notwithstanding the fact that they drew an annual salary of f 800 a year, were entitled to fees. Certain fees were also allowed counsel in all the Courts. These fees were fixed by the law of 1792. On the sixth of June, 1795, the laws with reference to the creation and jurisdiction of the Courts of the Territory were revised, few substantial changes, however, having been made. The Quarter Sessions were lim- ited to a term of seventy-two hours at a general session, and writs of error were provided for, to run all the Courts, and returnable to the General Court. The Court of Common Pleas could send writs into adjoining counties. It was provided that upon an issue joined in the General Court it "shall be tried in the county whence the cause was removed, before the Judges afore- said, or any one of them, as a Circuit Court." This is the first time that the words Circuit Court are used ; but is frequently used after this date. The statutes also provided that the Judges of the General Court should, if occasion required, go the circuit, twice every year, into the counties of St. Clair and Knox, and such other counties as might thereafter be created. The Judges were charged to make a general jail delivery from time to time. Their THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 85 expenses in the counties wherein thev resided were payable out of the Terri- torial Treasury ; but any occasioned by going to another county to hold Court were payable out of that county's treasury. They, with their servants and the Attorney-General, had the right to the use of any ferry free of charge. This privilege did not extend, however, to the Justices of the Court of Com- mon Pleas, nor of the Quarter Sessions, nor of the Probate Court. These trips are what lawyers usually term " Riding the Circuit." From 1796 to 1803 (when Ohio became a State,) it was no uncommon thing for mem- bers of the bar of Cincinnati to attend the General Court at Marietta, Detroit and Vincennes. " The journeys of the Court and bar," says Judge Burnet, in his notes on the Northwest Territory, "to those remote places, through a country in its primitive state, were vmdoubtedly attended with fatigue and exposure. They generally traveled with five or six in company, and with a packhorse to transport siich necessaries as their. own horses could not con- veniently carry, because no dependence could be placed on obtaining supplies on the route; although they frequenth' passed through Indian camps and vil- lages, it was not safe to rely upon them for assistance. Occasionally small quantities of corn could be purchased for horse feed, but even that relief was precarious, and not to be relied upon. In consequence of the unimproved condition of the country, the routes followed by travelers were necessarily circuitous, and their progress slow. In passing from one county seat to another, they were generally from six to eight and sometimes ten days in the wilderness ; and, at all seasons of the year, were compelled to swim every water course in their way, which was too deep to be forded ; the country being wholly destitute of bridges and ferries, travelers had therefore to rely on their horses, as the only substitute for those conveniences." On Jlay 7, 1800, the Northwest Territory was divided by an Act of Con- gress, and Ohio was no longer a part of it. On the twentieth of the following January, the Governor and Judges of Indiana Territory adopted a resolution modifying the law providing what qualifications a lawyer should possess before being admitted to practice ; for the laws of the Territory, enacted, adopted or published previous to its division, were considered to be in force. On the same day they adopted a statute from Kentucky for the regulation of the practice in the General Court; three days later, from Pennsylvania, another for the creation of the office of Justice of the Peace, Courts of Quarter Sessions, and Courts of Common Pleas. Under these statutes the practice as it existed before the division of the territory was not changed ; nor was the constitution of the Courts. Both the Courts of Quarter Sessions and the Common Pleas met in the same county on the same day : in Knox on the first Tuesdays of February, May, August and November; and in Randolph on the same days of March, June, September and December. Appeals and writs of error to the General Court were provided for. Three days later an Act was adopted repealing the right of the General and Circuit Courts to grant divorces. So strong had the distinction grown between the sessions of the General Territorial Court and the sessions held by the Judges of that Court when on 86 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA the circuit, that in 1803 a separate schedule of fees was provided for the clerk who attended them at the sessions on the circuit. Each county had its clerk, while there was also a clerk who resided at Viucennes and in a measure represented our present Supreme Court Clerk. In this law the latter is styled the "Clerk of the General Court," while the former is the "Clerk of the Circuit Court." Fees were also provided for Justices of the Com- mon Pleas, for Justices of the Peace, Prothonotaries (who were the clerks of the Common Pleas Courts) and for clerks of the Quarter Sessions. While fees are provided for attorneys in the General Court, none is provided for them in the lower Courts ; and all previous laws on the subject are repealed. The same year a tax on the process of Courts, for the benefit of the county, was imposed. By a resolution of this year, to take effect September 22, 1804, a Circuit Court was ordered held in the counties of Clark, Dearborn and Wayne ; and the Judges of the General Court, or some one of them, were required to go the circuit once in every year if necessary into these counties. By the Act of August 24, 1805, a radical change was made in the organi- zation of the Courts of the Territory. It was enacted that on the first of January, 1806, " all the powers vested in and exercised by the Courts of Common Pleas, Courts of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, and the Orphans' Courts," should be vested in a Court to be established in each county under the name of the Court of Common Pleas. The Governor was required to appoint three Judges for each county, two of whom should constitute a quorum, who should serve during good behavior. Each Court was required to hold six sessions, at three of which business properly belonged to the Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions only should be transacted. The. Court, however, was open at all terms for any other kind of business usually transacted in either of the Courts. The terms of the Court for business cognizable before in the Common Pleas, and such as had been cognizable in the Quarter Ses- sions of a criminal nature, commenced in Dearborn on the second Mondays of Janviary, May and September ; in Clark, the first Mondays of January, May and September ; in Knox, the last Mondays of March, July and November ; and in Randolph, the third Mondays of April, August and December. Differ- ent dates were provided for the holding of the three other criminal sessions, at which no proceedings could be had in suits or process of a civil nature. The Judges received " two hundred and fifty cents " a day while holding Court ; and the fees they had previously been entitled to were col- lected by the sheriff and covered into the county treasury. A clerk for each Court was appointed by the Governor. All proceedings pending in the three old Courts were transferred to the new Court. The terms of these Courts, with the exception of Randolph county, were slightly changed on the follow- ing year ; and the proceedings of Dearborn legalized, that Court having been held at improper times. By an Act of 1806, the Chief-Justice or one of the Judges of the General Court was required to hold a Circuit Court and Court of Oyer and Terminer and general jail delivery once a year in Clark and Dearborn counties, in the THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 87 same places where the Court of Common Pleas were held, in the former on the first Jlonday of June, and in the latter on the third Monday of the same month. Whenever a capital offense had been committed in a county, and the criminal was confined in prison, the Judge was required to hold a special session of Court, under the commission of the Governor. In iSoy, the laws of the Territory, pursuant to resolutions of the Legisla- ture of the previous year, were revised by John Rice Jones and John Johnson, and enacted as revised by the Legislature. Few changes in the practice were made, the most marked being with reference to the settlement of decedents' estates and with reference to guardians and orphans. The Common Pleas Court had absorbed the Orphans' Court and this revision was necessary. The Clerks of the Common Pleas Courts seem to have carried their offices around in their hats ; for on December 17, iSio, it is enacted that they must keep them at the seats of justice of their respective counties, "custom or usage to the contrary notwithstanding." By the Act of March 11, 1S13, the Legislature provided for three sessions a vear of the Court of Common Pleas in each of the several counties, showing an increase of population and busi- ness throughout the State, and by the same Act providing for one session a 3-ear in each county of the General Court. The year 1813 brought great changes in the formation of the Courts of the Territory. By a law enacted on the last day of that year the Courts of Com- mon Pleas and the Circuit Courts were abolished ; and all their powers were vested in the new Circuit Courts. The Associate Judges of the new Court were required to transact all the county business, just as the Judges of the Common Pleas had done. The counties of Knox, Gibson and Warrick con- stituted the first Circuit; Washington, Harrison, Clark and Jefferson the second ; and Dearborn, Franklin and Wayne the third. To each Circuit was assigned one of the Judges of the General Court : to the first, Benjamin Parke; to the second, Waller Taylor for the first year; and to the third, James Scott. The latter two were required to alternate each year. The Governor was required to appoint four Associate Judges for each county, who held their offices during good behavior, and were paid by the county. Any two of them could hold Court in the absence of the Circuit Judge ; and the latter could alone hold Court. The Clerks of the Common Pleas became the Clerks of the new Circuit Courts, and held their office during good be- havior. The Court was given full criminal, civil and chancery jurisdiction. Appeals lay to it from Justices of the Peace. As the Judges of the General Court were required to ride the circuit, the terms of the Court were reduced to one a year, on the first Monday in September. The times and places of holding the new Courts were arranged and designated. The Judges were empowered to call special terms. All cases standing for trial in the General Court, except in the county where it then sat, were transferred to the coun- ties wherein the venue was laid. Section 17 is a remarkable one to us, now so far removed from the cause demanding its enactment. It provides "That no practicing physician shall in future be eligible to act as a Judge of the 88 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Superior or inferior Courts of record within this Territory, under a penalty of five hundred dollars." Upon the enactment of this law a crisis arose. The three Judges, who composed the General Court, deemed it unconstitutional, and addressed a letter to Governor Posey to that effect. In August a session of the Legisla- ture was called and a new act, substantially as the one enacted in January, was adopted. The Judges of the General Court were not assigned to circuits ; but in their stead a Judge "learned in the law" was provided for each cir- cuit. He was given two associates (who need not be learned in the law). Either the Judge or his two associates together could try a cause. The sec- tion concerning physicians was omitted. A subsequent statute deprived the Judges of the General Court of all power to sit at the Circuit Courts. By the Act of September lo, 1814, the chancery side of these Courts was greatly extended. Thev became Chancer}' Courts in the full sense of the word. We have now reached the end of the Territorial period. The counties of the State were Knox, Randolph, Clark, Dearborn, Harrison (organized December i, i8o8), Jefferson (February i, 1811), Franklin (February i, 1811), Wayne (February i, 1811), Gibson (March 9, 1813), Warrick (March 9, 1813), Washington (January 17, 1814), Posey (November i, ]8i4). Perry (November I, 1814) and Switzerland (October i, 1814). In all these, Circuit Courts, of course, had been organized. These Circuit Courts had absorbed all the powers of the Common Pleas, of the Judges of the General Court when on the circuit, of the Probate, of the Orphans' and of the Quarter Sessions. The Associate Judges attended to the county affairs, having very near the same powers of otir present Boards of County Commissioners. The only Courts left intact were the Justices of the Peace. It was not until December 4, 1810, that the office of Prosecuting Attorney was established. Previous to that time prosecutions for minor offenses, such as were cognizable in the Common Pleas, were conducted bj' some member of the bar and his compensation was the fees allowed by statute. The graver offenses, not cognizable in that Court were tried before the Judges of the General Court when on the circuit, and in these instances the Attornej'-General was the pros- ecuting officer. As his salary was small and the fees not exorbitant, he prob- ably did not always go on the circuit, and the Court was compelled to rely upon local counsel. A singular feature concerning bills of exception, pro- vided for by the Act of December 24, 1813, is worthy of notice. If the Judge and attorney could not agree upon the facts to be set out in the bill, then the latter could appeal to two creditable bystanders, and whatever they agreed upon and signed, that should be the bill and it should be filed and become part of the record. The Constitution of i8i6 provided Circuit Courts for each county. When this instrument was adopted there were only one dozen counties in the State, viz: Clark, Dearborn, Franklin, Gibson, Harrison, Jefferson, Knox, Perry, Posey, Switzerland, Washington and Wayne. These counties covered the whole territory of the State. The inhabitants of the State numbered 63,897. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 89 There were between fifty and a hundred lawyers in the State. The State was divided into three circuits on the twenty-fourth of December, 1816. Between the adoption of the Constitution and that date three new counties had been formed. The first circuit was composed of Knox, Gibson, Warrick, Posey, Pike and Daviess ; the second, of Harrison, Clark, Washington, Jackson and C 'range ; and the third, of Wayne, Franklin, Dearborn, Switzerland and Jef- ferson. Two years later an additional circuit was added. The Judges of the Circuit Court were a President Judge and two associates. The former was required to reside in his circuit. Each county elected the two associates who sat only for their county ; but the president was elected by both branches of the Legislature. He held his office for seven years. The clerk of the Court was also elected, and likewise held his office for seven years. The provision for the election of the Judges by the Legislature occasioned great scandal before it was abrogated. It provided occasions for the greatest "log rolling" ever witnessed in the State. No political convention ever equaled them. By it the State did not secure the best men for Judges ; for candidates, having a proper regard for themselves and the dignity of the office, were thrust aside by others of less compunctions and delicacy of pro- priet}'. The Constitution of 1851 was welcomed as a relief from the scandals thus occasioned. It has always been a question whether our present mode of selecting Judges is the best. It is unquestionably the case that by it we do not secure the best material for the bench. Very often the man who is a bet- ter politician than lawyer or Judge secures the nomination. But it must be also borne in mind that the Circuit Court, nor even the Supreme Court bench, does not always command the best talent, because of the shortness of the terms of offices and the low salaries. Attornej-s who are able to secure fees annually amounting to the salary of a Judgeship are loathe to accept office, and at the end of six years find themselves out of office and out of clients. The claim has often been made that some selection by appointment would be better. In the case of the Legislature, it was a failure If we may judge of the many appointments made by the Governor to fill vacancies in the Supreme and other Courts, we cannot say with certaint}- that that method would be better than selection by popular vote. Indeed, the appointment of some of the Commissioners of the Supreme Court, by that body under the Act of 1881 providing for them, was severely criticized by manj' members of the bar, the charge being made that favorites were selected in some in.stances rather than men of ability. It is yet a problem how to select and secure the best material for the bench ; and the only near approach to a solution of the question is the method of selecting Federal Judges, appointment by the President and ap- proval by the Senate. The jurisdiction of the new Circuit Courts embraced prosecutions for all crimes committed within the county, and all actions at law and suits in chancery. Until the Probate Court wa,s established in 1829, they had probate jurisdiction. The common law practice was, however, kept distinct from the chancery 90 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA practice; or, as it has been often said, there was both a common law and a chan- cery side to the Court. If the President Judge was interested in a chancery cause, by an act of 1819, it was transferred to the Supreme Court, and then heard by one of the Judges the same as if it had been an original case began in that Court. By the Revised Statutes of 1824 the Circuit Court appointed a Prosecuting Attorney, until August, when the Governor appointed one. He held his office one year, and received a salary of two hundred and fifty dol- lars and fees, which salary three years later was reduced to one hundred and fifty. The President Judge received seven hundred dollars per annum, and each of his associates three dollars a day while sitting. The Revised Statutes of 1831 provided that the Prosecuting Attorney should be elected by the Leg- islature ; and this continued until the people of the county were given the privilege of electing him, by the statute of February 11, 1843. In 1851 it was made a constitutional office. Few changes were made in the general outlines of the Circuit Courts pre- vious to May 6, 1853, when the Revised Statutes of 1852 went into force. The insane delusion of special legislation, however, had wrought havoc with the uniformity of the practice. Provisions were enacted providing how many jurors should constitute the grand jury in a particular county ; how the petit jury should be drawn in another county ; how summonses should be served in an- other ; what a declaration should contain in a particular action in another ; how a rule to plead should be entered in another ; what the judgment should be in ruling on a demurrer in another, until the practitioner, going from one county to another, was almost as much at a loss as if he had gone into another State. The common law and chancery practice prevailed, and yet statutes elaborate and sufficient enough in number were in force to make a civil code. All this special legislation and these statutes were swept away by the new constitution and code of practice. The State was divided, at that time, into ten circuits, covering eighty-two counties ; and of course the circuits were not small. The Constitution of 1851 especially provides for Circuit Courts, that the Judges shall hold their offices six years, and their salaries shall not be di- minished during the term for which they are elected. A statute prohibits their practicing law. The Constitution also provides for a revision of the law. Commissioners were provided for by that instrument for the revision, and three were appointed by the Governor. These three were George W. Carr, Lucien Barbour and Walter March. They reported to the Legislature of 1852. As the result of the joint labors of this Commission and the Legisla- ture we have the Revised Statutes of 1852. The new codes were not received with favor by all the bar, especially by the older members of that body. They feared to leave the old landmarks and moorings, and venture upon unexplored waves. There were a few who thought it made the law too cheap ; and a few who were selfish enough to desire to prevent a spread of the practice so that they might have a monopoly of the legal business.* The debates in the Con- stitutional Convention on this subject are very interesting, especially in the THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 91 light of the results. Few if anj' of the predictions of disaster made in the addresses delivered before that body had been verified. These predictions are excellent examples of imaginary- impossibilities which can be raised by those opposing proposed innovations upon old and established practices and customs. The new Circuit Courts did not have Probate Jurisdiction ; that was con- ferred upon the Court of Common Pleas. Consequently the Circuits were fewer in number and larger in territory than thev would have otherwise beeu. Courts of Common Pleas. In the article ou the Circuit Courts reference was made to Courts of Com- mon Pleas created early in the history of the Northwest Territory, and their absorption by the Circuit Courts in 1814. From that time until February 18, 1848, there was no Common Pleas Court in this State. At that date one was created for Tippecanoe county ; and on the fourth of the following January one for the county of Marion. The Judge of the Common Pleas Court, of the former county, was elected for seven years by the Legislature. His salary was one dollar per annum ; but before any one could file a declaration in the Court he had to pay three dollars, for the use of the Judge, and five dollars for the same purpose, on filing a bill in chancery. The Judge was also allowed to practice law. The Court had the same jurisdiction as the Circuit Court, with an appeal either to the Circuit or Supreme Court. Appeals lay to it from a Justice of the Peace of that county. The Common Pleas of Marion county had a like jurisdiction. The Judge was ex-officio its Clerk. He could practice law, but not in Marion county. He received no salary, but did receive certain fees which were not collectible until after the case was decided. On February 13, 1851, a Common Pleas Court was created for Jeffer- son county. By an Act of May 14, 1852, (which went into force May 6, 1853) ^ Common Pleas Court was established in every county in the State. The counties were arranged in forty-three districts. These Courts were virtually Probate Courts, for the}' had exclusive jurisdiction of all matters relating to the probate of wills, of decedents' estates, and guardianships. Except for libel, slander, breach of marriage contract, action on official bond, where the title to real estate was in issue, and where the amount in controversy exceeded one thou- sand dollars, they had concurrent jurisdiction with the Circuit Court. Ap- peals lay from these Courts to the Circuit or Supreme Court, at the option of the part}' appealing. These Courts also had exclusive jurisdiction of criminal prosecutions not amounting to felonies, and under certain circumstances of a felony not punishable with death. In the vacation of the Circuit Court the Judge could grant restraining orders, injunctions and writs of ne-exeat ; and, at any time, writs of habeas corpus. Four terms a year were held in each county, and the length of the term was measured by the population of the THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 93 county. The Judge was allowed to practice law, but not in his own Court nor in any matter that had been adjudicated before him. His salary varied from three to eight hundred dollars per annum, according to the population of the district. The Clerks of the Circuit Court were the Clerks of the Common Pleas. These Courts lasted not quite twenty years ; for they were abolished by the Act of ilarch 6, 1S73, and the Circuit Court iy the President Judge in his journe^-s from one Court to an- other, we may easily see that the associates might be more frequently called upon to try causes than would be good for the service. When the fact did happen, the lawyers did not in general scruple to make the most of their opportunity. During a trial in the Johnson Circuit Court before the associates, Fabius M. Finch, of the F'ranklin bar, and Stephen Major, of Indianapolis, each of whom subsequently served as Judge of the circuit, were on opposite sides. A question as to the admissibility of certain evidence was sprung, and in the argument that followed one of the counsel hinted at an exception in case the decision was adverse to him. At once his opponent flared up and de- clared that as for himself he would most certainly except if it were against him. And now each side held over the hesitating Court the dire threat of an exception. The Judges consulted, moved uneasily in their seats and looked anxiously around. Judge Moore was the spokesman that day, and he was a man who was not used to being threatened. If he knew little or no law, he knew not fear. " Well ! " said he, speaking rapidly and spitting viciously, " One of 5-0U will have to except, and that mighty quick ! We decide accord- ing to the way Mr. Finch states it." On another occasion when the Associate Judges of the same county were sitting in the absence of the President Judge, the phrase " Oyer and Termi- ner" was used in the proceedings. The Judges not knowing its meaning, asked the lawyers. But they affecting ignorance, the Judges refused to pro- ceed further till the meaning was found, and so the books were brought in and the search was begun and kept up until the Judges were enlightened. The Associate Judges were not in the habit of overruling their superior, but they did it on occasion. The law which made them possible as officers, existed, no doubt, because of the jealousy in the lay mind against the pro- fessional man. There was a fear that the lawyer Judge would lack in sympa- thy for the la^- litigant and that he might in consequence become oppressive in his rulings. The lay Judges, it was believed, would serve as checks upon him to keep him from going wrong. So it became necessary for the lay Judges to overrule their President, now and then, to justify their existence. At any rate, they did it. Mr. Smith gives an amusing account of such a case. The associates gave a most preposterous reason for their ruling, and on ap- peal their decision was su.stained, but on other and tenable grounds. In an early murder case, tried in the Wayne circuit, the defendant was convicted, and a motion for a new trial was sustained bv the lay Judges over the protest of the President, Judge Eggleston. .-\n old ex-associate once gave the writer an account of a Court held by himself and his fellow associate, in the absence of their chief. " The de- murrers," he said, " we guessed off as best we could. Questions of evidence THE Rp;nCH and bar of INDIANA 137 we decided by what seemed the common sense of the thing. One of our cases in which we had overruled a demurrer to a pleading, went to the Supreme Court, and our ruling was sustained. We had guessed right." The reader of the " Early Indiana Trials and Sketches " will hardly fail to note the ingenuity of counsel in taking advantage of the Associate Judges' lack of legal knowledge. Take for instance " 'Trover' for stealing a log- chain," which case came off before the Jennings county associates. Mr. Carpenter moved to quash an indictment for stealing a log-chain on the ground that the action should have been trover, and in his argument to the Court he said, "The indictment says ' One log-chain then and there bei7iv. found, the property of John Brady,' the very language of trover. How could he be charged with stealing it if he found it ?" The argument in the opinion of the Associates was unanswerable and they promptly quashed the indict- ment. The argument was certainly a most ingenious one, for the counsel read into the indictment a comma after the word " found " that did not be- long there. Xo doubt the occasion furnished much amusement for the law- yers present, but at this distance it looks as if INIr. Carpenter came danger- ously near the line of pettifogging. And the same may be said of so many of the bar stories that have come down from that day to this, that it is hard to resist the belief that the lawyers of that period quite generally availed themselves of their opportunity. In- deed, it is curious to note that it never seems to have occurred to the gossip^' and delightful author of the "Early Trials and Sketches," that the practice was hardly legitimate. He himself, it is evident, did not scruple, at least when "young and mischievoiis," to cause an indictment for obstructing a highway with "trees and logs" to be quashed by the associates on the ground that the words were " hens and hogs." Whatever may have been the standing of individual lawyers during the period intervening between the adoption of the old and the new Constitu- tions (and we know there were those whose standing as tested by the best standards '.vas ver^- highj, it is certainly true that no just estimate of the bar as a whole, during that period, can be formed without considering the char- acter of the Judges of the period and of their legal learning or want of it. Another fact must be borne in mind in this connection : The decisions of the Judges on questions of law that were made during the trial of a cause, even when the decision voiced the opinion of the President Judge, as was usually the rule, counted for less in general than is the case now. To the lawyer of to-day the record is of the greatest importance. No matter what the step taken, he looks through the decision of the nisi prius Judge up to the Supreme. He never loses sight of the probability of an appeal by him- self or his adversary. The old lawyers were in general, it is believed, less concerned as to the record made in their cases. It is certain that much less time was consumed in making the issues and in the argument of questions than is the case now. The verdict was the main thing tliev- were after. As far as an incidental matter might influence the jury in 138 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA making the verdict, the old lawyer deemed it worthy of his particular atten- tion. One reason for the potency of the verdict in the old days may be seen in the fact that the stake at issue was usually too insignificant to justify an appeal to a higher Court. In the language of the times, if the litigant could get anything like a " fair flop," he was content, whether he won or not. .\nd so I think it may safely be said that to the old lawyer the jury was a more important factor in the administration of the law than it is in general re- garded bj- the modern lawyer. As a consequence, it may be said that every step taken in a cause was with direct reference to the jury. This must more or less be true of all jury cases, but the old lawyers, as a general rule, depended less on the skirmishing pre- ceding the trial than do their successors. The modern lawyer most carefully makes preparation for the issues that may arise ; the old lawyer most care- fully made preparation to meet the jury. We hear of great legal argu'uents nowadays more frequently, I believe, than we do of great jury arguments; in the pioneer days the great jur}' arguments were the ones most talked about, and in those days, it is safe to say, they were in general the argu meuts most worth}' of being talked about. I think it safe to say that verdicts were more often won by argument during the first half of the present century than since. This may be due to a certain extent to the character of the jurymen themselves. With the men of the woods the emotions dotibtless counted for more in making a verdict than the)' do now. But the cause was due in large measure to the peculiar power of the lawyers. While the modern lawyer delves into his books in search of rules and precedents, the old studied men and the effects of lan- guage, tones and gestures. They knew how to win by argument, how to per- siiade, how to drive. They were masters of invective ; they could move men to compassion, to hate, to revenge. Such at least was the reputation made them by their contemporaries. It may be fortunate for that reputation that so little is now known of their forensic efforts, for it would doubtless be found on application of the modern rules of- criticism that the best of them fell far short of being works of art. If the following, written to Dr. Andrew Wylie, President of the State University in 1839, by General T. A. Howard, then a member of the United States Senate, is an example of a thing being neatly said and well said and forcibly said, and thus in some sort becomes a specimen illustration, well ; but if it serve not that purpose, then let it stand as a characteristic letter from one who stood at the head of the Indiana bar during the early circuit riding period of the State's history. Dr. Wylie was the friend of Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, and of Tilghman A. Howard, of Indiana, both of whom were United States Senators, and, character- istic of him, he greatly desired that his two friends should be friends of each other ; and so he wrote to Mr. Howard to that effect, and this is the answer he received : "I received your letter to Jlr. Wise and delivered it to him. We are friends now and I hope will continue so, but that will depend on circum- THE BENCH AXD BAR OF INDIANA 139 stances. If he treats me well, well ; if he acts toward me as I have seen him toward others, I will shake him off, not as the lady shakes the dew from the newly plucked rose, but as the bison shakes the wild dog from his mane." If the pioneer lawyers of the State had a less profound knowledge of substantive law than characterizes the profession in these days, it is certain they were not less skillful in its practice. They were indeed masters of the art. Their very want of manuals, with which the profession nowadays is so liberally supplied, begot in them a spirit of self-reliance and ingenuity that made them formidable as trial lawyers. They were wary, crafty and ever on the alert. :\Ir. Smith says they were "ready, off-hand practitioners, seldom at fault for the occasion." They were dramatic. When they struck the key- note of interest in a case they kept the interest up to the end. They never suffered their cases to drag, nor their juries to nod. Their victories were in the main won or lost in short, sharp, dashing encounters. This was one reason why the people crowded the court rooms in the early davs. The plav was worth seeing and they could in general see it through to the end. The long-drawn-out trials came in after the war. It was seldom in the early days that a trial lasted longer than a day. The importance of most of the business no doubt warranted brevity, but the trials of important causes were notably short in comparison to the trial of important, or sometimes even of unimportant, causes at the present. The fact will appear from the Circuit Court records of any of the older counties. The terms of Court were short, and in almost every important trial lawyers living at a distance were engaged. As a consequence cases were rapidh' disposed of. There was more or less hnrn,- and confusion from the first calling of the docket till the last. The old lawyers all bore testimou}- to the arduous nature of their work while on the circuit. The trial of the first man condemned to death for murder in Vanderburgh count}- was begun and ended in one daj-. A noted old-time case was that of William Henry Harrison t. William Mcintosh, tried at \'incennes about 1S12. 3Ir. Woollen, in his " Biographical Sketches," tells us that the trial began at ten o'clock of the forenoon and continued till one o'clock at night. When trials were prolonged, as was sometimes the case, it was quite often on account of the lengthy arguments of the lawyers. It is related of Rufus A. Lockwood that he spoke for two days in the Tippecanoe Circuit Court in de- fense of John H. Frank for the murder of John Woods. vSmith tells of one four-day speech in the Third Circuit. The old-time lawyers were not exempt from the hardships incident to life in the backwoods. Their manner of life was peculiarly exacting. They traveled the circuit — rode from county to count}-, suffering all the incon- veniences and hardships peculiar to travel in that day. It needs no word-painter to present a picture of the toiling incident to circuit practice in those days. If we will but keep before us the great dis- tances they sometimes had to travel and the execrable condition of the roads during certain seasons of the year, we may catch a glimpse of the hardships, 140 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA not to mention the occasional perils that were encountered by the circuit rider of the pioneer days. A circuit practice was built up in much the same way that a home prac- tice is now built up — by a strict attention to business. The circuit journeys must be made whatever the condition of the weather or roads. Judge Burnet, in his " Notes," tells us that from 1796 to 1803, Mr. St. Clair, Mr. Symtnesand himself, resident attorneys of Cincinnati, attended the Courts at Marietta and Detroit, and notwithstanding the great distances of these places and the evi- dent perils incident to their journeys, they never missed a term of either of those Courts during the seven years. John Rice Jones, who lived at Vincennes, we are told by Mr. Woollen, practiced in the Courts at Kaskaskia, at Vincennes and at Clarksville. After the Indiana Territory had been pared down in iSog'by detachingthe Territory of Illinois, Benjamin Parke, who resided at Vincennes, was ap- pointed Territorial Judge. In iSii he held his first term of Court in Wayne count}', both judge and jury, as Ave are informed, occupj-ing seats on logs under the shade of a forest tree. Only one case was on the docket and it was tried. A boy was indicted for stealing a pocket-knife of the value of twent}-- five cents, but he was acquitted on the ground that the proof failed to sustain that particular averment in the indictment, which declared that the larceny was committed with " force and arms." To reach the Wayne Court, Judge Parke traveled the "Cincinnati Trace" (which was the first road cut through from the Miami to the Wabash) as far as Lawrenceburg probably, where he turned to the northward up the White Water Valley. At the time of the organization of the State three circuits were created, but other circuits were added from time to time as the State was settled. Two terms of Court a year were held in each county, and the business was so ar- ranged that in general one term was held in the spring and the other in the fall. The spring Courts usually began in each circuit about the first of March and lasted till about the first of June, and the fall Courts usually began about the first of September and continued till about the last of November. By this arrangement, which lasted for many years, it will be seen that the Judges and lawyers could be at home during the winter's cold and the summer's heat. But during the spring riding the roads were at their worst, and during the most of the fall riding the roads at that day were often in as bad con- dition. Hugh JlcCullough visited Indianapolis for the first time in the latter part of May, 1833. He made the journey from Madison in a stage-coach, and " svrch was the condition of the road that it required two firll days to com- plete it." How long it would have taken him to make this journey of some- thing over eighty miles had he traveled on horseback he does not say. We may assume, however, from what we know of the southern Indiana climate, that in the latter part of May the mud was drying and the roads were in a greatly improved condition. In March and April they were next to impassa- ble. There was no travel anywhere in Indiana during these months save on THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 141 foot or on horseback. In 1836 John and Samuel Orchard, of BloomiDgton, ■undertook to carry the mails between the towns of Leavenworth, on the Ohio, and Indianapolis, by the way of Salem, Bloominglon and Jlartinsville. Dur- ing the summer and early fall seasons they carried the mail bags in stage coaches, but in the winter and spring seasons they found it impossible to run the coaches. But the mail between Bloomington and Indianapolis was too heavy to be carried on horseback, and so the contractors brought into their service the two fore wheels of a road wagon drawn b}- two good, strong horses, on which the bags were carried. During the spring months in these times it was a hard day's ride from Indianapolis to Greenfield, Shelbyville, Franklin or ilartiasville, and two days ride to Columbus or Bloomington. In the fall of 1S31 Aquilla Jones was two days' on the road between Columbus and Indianapolis. Jleridian street, by which he entered the latter place, he found a " swampy road." Mr. McCullough says that when he came the streets of the town for most of the vear were knee deep in nmd. In the fall of 1836 ;\Ir. Perkins, who in subse- quent vears became the well known Judge Perkins, arrived on foot at Rich- mond, near the Ohio line, on his wav from Buffalo to Indianapolis, but he found the roads so very bad that he could go no further. In 1839 Elias Man- ford, engaged in the work of the ministry, rode from Cincinnati to Chicago, and that during a season when the roads were in general at their best. He was two weeks making the journey. "Then," says IMcCuUough, writing of 1833, " it required three or four days of hard horseback riding for the inhabi- tants of the remote counties to reach the capital," and we may qualify this by saving that the roads would have to be at their best, and even then it would have taken hard riding. There w-as no very marked change in the condition of the highways in the State, save in a few favored localities, till after the War of the Rebellion. In 1850 Dr. \V. C. Foster, a delegate to the Constitu- tional Convention, said in his place, " within a very few years a person can start from his home in any part of the State on or after Monday and be in In- dianapolis before Thursday." The doctor had the faith to believe that there woulil be both railroads and improved highways in Indiana in due time. Not only were the roads often next to impassable, but the streams were usually bank full during the spring season, and many of them were not pass- able save by swimming. The statement is made in " Jlen and Measures of a Half Century," that in 1833 there were but two bridges in the State. Every traveler selected his horse with a view to his good swimming powers. Calvin Fletcher, who emigrated to Indianapolis in 1821, at once "commenced the practice of the law, and for about twenty -two years traveled over, twice an- nually, nearly one-third of the north-western part of the State, at first with- out roads, bridges or ferries." * Oliver H. Smith gives a graphic account of a journey he made from Con- nersville to Madison county by the way of Indianapolis in the winter of 1825. ' Biographical and Historical Sketches of Early Indiana, by W. W. Woollen, Esq, 14Z THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA "The da^' was dark and drizzlintj. My path ended some ten miles above Indianapolis in a thicket. I could {{et no further in that direction. Turning the head of Fox west, the creek with its muddj- waters and rapid currents overflowing the opposite bottoms was soon in sight. I had twenty miles to ride and no time to be lost. Giving Fox the rein he approached the bank, and without a moment's hesitation, with a quick step, plunged in and swam beautifully across the main channel ; but the moment he struck the over- flowed bottom on the opposite side — the water about four feet deep — he began to sink and plunge. The girth broke ; I seized the stirrup leather, to which ni}- saddle-bags were fastened, with one hand, the long mane of Fox with the other, disengaged my feet in a moment, and was gallantly dragged through the mud and water to dry land. My hat was gone, but it was too early in the season for mosquitoes, and it made little difference, hat or no hat, so that I got to Court." * Judge Wick used to tell this story : "I was traveling from the southern part of the State to Franklin in September to convene the Johnson Circuit Court. I was on Berry's trace, which ran up through the county into Marion and thence on up as far as Indianapolis. It was growing late in the afternoon and a cold drizzling rain was falling. Not far from sundown I found myself at the cabin of William Burkhart, on Burkhart's creek. His was the only cabin till I reached Franklin, and there was no road — nothing but a blind trail after leaving the trace. I called to the occupant of the cabin and asked for lodging. Burkhart informed me that his wife was not at home, that he had nothing for my horse to eat except pumpkins and nothing for me except venison ; ' but 3'ou can stay, and welcome. Judge, if you like,' he said. Of course I stayed, and after being well warmed and my clothes dried, I never made a more satisfactory supper in my life than I did that night off ribs of venison wrapped in cabbage leaves and roasted in a bed of live coals." Notwithstanding the years that have passed since the Indiana lawyers ceased to ride the circuit are not so many Vnit there are many men ytt living who were old enough to have observed something of the law3'er's life on the circuit, and a few survive even of the old lawyers themselves who took part in the final ridings, very little is really known of circuit life. It is only a glimpse of that life which the student of the times can here and there obtain. To the Hon. Oliver H. Smith, who may be said to have fairly begun at the beginning and to have fairly continued down to the close, and who in his old age recalled and recorded so many of the incidents that occurred during the }'ears of his active practice, and which incidents illustrate so well the lives and characters of the lawyers of the time, as well as the character and stand- ing of the early Courts, the present generation of lawyers owe a lasting debt of gratitude. We read between the lines of his lightest and most humorous stories sober history of the times, but the pleasure we derive from his narra- tives is tinged with regret that every circuit did not have its Oliver H. Smith. ^ Early Indiana Trials and Sketches, p. 176. TIIK KENCH AXD BAR OF INDIANA 143 It needs no chronick-r of the times to tell us that the lawyers who rode the circuit as a ,i;eneral rule traveled in a body from county to county in search of their fees. Nevertheless we read with interest the few and meager accounts that have come down to us of the knights of the law on their travels. Sandford R. Cox, in his " Recollections of the Early Settlement of the AVabash Valley," pays a tribute to the pioneer bar of Lafayette. It had, as had every bar in the State at the time, its local and its foreign members. .Among the latter he instances John Law, of Vincennes ; Calvin Fletcher, of Indianapolis; James Rariden, of Centerville ; Caleb B. Smith, of Conners- ville ; E. ^I. Huntington and James Farrington, of Terre Haute, and some others. The author of "Recollections" hail, it is evident, been witness to the lawyers on their travels. Following his enumeration of the mendiers of the Tippecanoe bar, he says : " From this e.xhibit the reader will perceive that our early lawyers considered the whole Slate as one vast circuit, which they traveled on horseback, sometimes alone and sometimes in squads. * * ' To witness a troop of those early attorne3's entering a village as they traveled the circuit, themselves and their horses bespattered with mud, and their huge portmanteaus surmounted with overcoat and umbrella, they resembled a forlorn hope of a company of mounted rangers entering upon some daring and almost hopeless charge, or a caravan emerging from the desert of Sahara, blackened with heat and covered with dust. * * * Their long rides on horseback, along blind paths and dimly defined roads, crossing unbridged streams, sleeping in the open air, as they frequently had to do, and leading colts and driving steers home, taken on fees, fully developed their phvsical and intellectual energies and gave them a vigor and self-reliance possessed b}- few of the modern students." * * * From all that may be gleaned, life in the circuit fiom the beginning to the close of circuit riding was to the majority a reckless, jolly sort of life. The lawyers not onlv traveled together, but they were entertained at the same taverns, ate at the same tables, sat around the same firesides, and too often, if reports be true, drank out of the same bottles. Hugh McCullough, who began his life in Indiana as a lawyer, and had a personal knowledge of what he records, thus paints the picture : "In these long journeys through sections sparsely settled, these circuit-riding lawyers were frequently under the necessity of stopping for the night at cabins lighted only by candles or bv blazing wood in the ample fireplaces, and to while away the time story- telling was resorted to, in which not only memory but imagination was brought into livelv e.xercise. To be a good story-teller under such circum- stances was a necessary qualification for agreeable companionship. To this practice is the country indebted for many of I\Ir. Lincoln's apt and original stories." That the old lawyers entertained in general a tender and loving regard for each other needs no proof. Men whose avocations called them from home and kept them in association under circumstances of hardships wdiile on the road, and of intellectual rivalry in the forutn, would necessarily be 144 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA drawn together in firmest friendship. What Oliver H. .Smith beautifully says of James Rariden — "he was for years my circuit companion; we rode through the wilderness together, ate together, slept together and were just as near one man as two could be" — was true of many others of the old-time lawyers. The existence of this genuinely brotherly feeling between the old lawyers made possible the storj' about Judge Perry, which Mr. Smith tells: "We sometimes had a little sparring in our cases in trials, but it ended there, and we stood banded together like brothers. At the Rush Circuit Court my friend Judge Perry bargained for a pony for twenty-five dollars, to be delivered the next day, on a credit of six months. The man came with the pony, but required security of the Judge for the twenty-five dollars. The Judge drew the note at the top of a sheet of foolscap and signed it. I signed it ; James Rariden signed it and passed it on, and on it went from lawyer to lawyer around the bar till some twenty of us had signed it. I then handed it up to the Court and the three Judges put their names to it." Thus far the story well illustrates the brotherhood of the bar ; but the sequel may illustrate another and a less commendable characteristic. As a general rule the old lawyers were not careful about money matters. Judge Perry presented the note to the man with the pony, but he promptly refused to receive it. " Do you think I am a fool, to let you get the Court and all the lawyers on your siile ? I see you intend to cheat me out of my pony," and, mounting the animal, we are told that he left for home at a gallop. Whether the reason assigned by the man for not taking the note was the true one or not, it is quite true that the manner of life led by the old circuit riders was in general calculated to make them careless in the use of money. I think it true of lawyers of the present, that the majority are inclined 1o show more zeal in the management of the client's business than of their own. This was certainly true of the old lawyers. It is a painful fact that an undue proportion of those of them who lived to old age found their own accumula- tions barely sufficient for the merest necessaries of life, or else were depend- ent in part or in whole upon others for their support. But life on the circuit was attended with a more malevolent influence that the loose habits in regard to money which it unquestionably engendered. Living in an age, as the early lawyers did, when the habit of drinking intox- icants (except to excess), was regarded with little disfavor, it need surprise no one to be told that the circuit riding members of the old bar dissipated to an extent that if done by members of the profession at present, would call down upon the offenders the severest censures. When Mr. Smith began riding the Third Circuit, he says, " It was the universal custom of the Judjies and bar to meet after supper in some upper room of the tavern and play cards and drink, sometimes till near morning." It is believed that the cus- tom was kept up in some counties, at least, as long as lawyers rode the cir- cuit. The writer attended a term of Court in the old Sixth Circuit on one oc- casion during or about the close of the War of the Rebellion. An old time THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 145 Circuit Judge occvipied the beuch— one who believed in the old time sociabil- ity of the bar. It seemed to be the haljit to meet at the Judge's room every evening during the term and play at cards and drink \vhisk> till a late hour. The game most affected was called "Snorts and Smells." At the close of each game the bottle was passed around and the winning parties were privi- leged to drink, that is, to take a "Snort," while the losing ones could only take a "Smell." The first term of the Johnson Circuit Court was held at the cabin of John Smiley, on Sugar Creek. His was a double or "two-room" cabin, and the Court occupied one room and the grand jurv the other. INIrs. vSmilev lav sick at the time in the room occupied by the grand jury. 1 >auiel B. Wick, l)rother of the Ju'ge, was the Prosecuting Attorney, and while the Court was in ses- sion, he drew from the capacious depths of a pocket a bottle of whitky, and first gallantly tendered the bottle to the sick woman. He ne.xt passed it round to the jury, and the sick woman always maintained that she was the only one who decliue4 ; toiu down, i.Nyo. Our court house in Iuiliana]iolis was a plain two-storv brick building, sixty feet square, built about 1S24, ami stood in the middle of the square. The lower story had a large room on the north side of, sa\-, 57 b}' 45 feet, iu which the Circuit and other Courts were held for the trial of civil and crim- inal cases ami the transaction of probate and countv business ; and the secoml story had a large room, about 57 by 30 feet, on the north side, which was used Ijy grand and petit juries ; and there were a few smaller rooms. The Stale Legislature commenced its sessions at Indianapolis as soon as this court house was finished, and the House of Representatives, consisting of seventy-five members, occupied the large room of the first storv : and the vSenate, of thirty members, the large room of tlie upper story up to the time our first .State house was finisheil, some twelve years later. The court house was built on a plan to suit the recjuirements of the Legislature. In THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 151 the same sijuare was the office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court, in a little oue-story brick building, in the midille of the west side of the square, and near it a one-story brick building, a little larger, occupied as the offices of the Clerk and the Recorder of Marion county. In the northwest part of the square was the jail, built of large square-hewed logs of double thickness, through the walls of which prisoners occasionally escaped by boring out with large augers. This square was also a favorite place to play town ball and other popular games. The court house was also used for holding political and other public meetings, and manj' sermons were there preached. In comparing the old times with the present, a prominent contrast was the traveling the circuit on horseback, oflen through deep mud, equipped with saddle bags and leggius. The lawyers were given the best rooms at the taverns, but three or four were often crowded into a single room, with per- haps a bed in each corner. The lawyers were then thrown into close social contact, and not uufrequentJy developed very good fun. The following are specimens of such merriment : Judge Wick had a brother Daniel, who like himself was a humorist. At one of the early Courts at Lebanon, the accommodations of the only tavern were very inadequate. The landlord was Mr. Fish. Half of the lodgers only could be accommodated at once, and it was arranged that the first half, consisting of farmers who are used to earh- hours, should occupy' the beds until two o'clock, and then the others. The lawvers improved their time by getting acquainted with their clients and the particulars of their cases. But still a long time had to be occupied in the best way that could be devised. It was then agreed that the legal fraternitv should entertain the crowd by speeches, declamations and songs; and that Daniel Wick, whose father had been a Presbyterian clergy- man, should preach a sermon, and he made the sermon the best part of the entertainment. His text was, "And (iod created great whales." He took up his lawyer associates in detail, all of whom he said thought themselves great whales, but he would proceed to show that they were very much mis- taken. He then specified the points wherein they were not great whales, and that gave him the opportunity of saying all the cutting things he could think of, to the great entertainment of the audience, none of whom seemed to be so much pleased as Mr. Fish. In conclusion he turned his whole force on ISIr. I-"ish, criticising everv defect of his rooms, beds, table and stable, to the enjoy- ment of all his auditors except Mr. Fish ; and wound up by saying that the landlord, instead of being a great whale, was only a little fish. Another specimen occurred on .Mud circuit, east of ours, where there was a practical joke at the expense of Hon. James Rariden. He was the leading lawyer on that circuit, and had been a member of Congress. Ex-Judge David Kilgore and ex-Judge Charles H. Test were also leaders, and there were other good lawyers. Rariden was fond of sparring and did it very well, and the other lawyers conspired against him. It was on the circuit and a large fire of logs was built in the large fire place, of the large office and bar-room com- bined, of the tavern. The lawyers had the front seats and the rear was filled 152 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA \yiUi the townsmen of their acquaintance. Rariden arrived late, but prompt- Iv after supper, when the audience had come in, he opened up upon his asso- ciates in his usual sprightly- and satirical manner, and the audience, asusua), cheered him ; in fuct it was the custom of the lobby to take his side. The con- spiracy was that Kilgore should contest with him, and that the other lawyers should cheer for Kiigcre, whatever he said, and hhould not notice what Rari- den said. Tlie first round or two the lobby applauded Rariden as usual, but as the law3'ers did not join them, but evidently preferred very decidedly the w't of Kilgore, the Rariden party fell off, so that presently everybody was for Kilgore. Rariden was irascible, and he felt that injustice was being done him, and he jumped to his feet and pronounced the whole crowd a pack of fools, and hurried off to his room amid the loud laughter of everybody, and he did not understand the trick until next day when confession was dulv made. The public crowded the court houses, attending not only as parties and witnesses, but as spectators, and to hear the sparring and speeches of the law- yers, and to talk politics and the general news. Like the camp meetings, the Courts had great attractions second only to the circusses and shows of wild animals. The earlj' practice could not have many important civil suits, for it was remarkable how little ^yealth there was in the State. The first immi- grants were as a class poor men, who lived in a very plain way, usually in log cabins in the country and in small frame houses in the towns. A large part of the cases to be tried were criminal cases, and they took precedence on the docket, while civil, equity and tort cases came later. Hogs at this time ran wild in the woods, and fattened on the mast, and were tempting to thieves, whose first business was to cut the ears off and liidethem, so that the ownership could not be identified. Then there would be an occasional murder trial aud other criminal and tort trials to fully entertain the lobbies which filled the court houses. And the lawyers would occasionally address their remarks to the audience and the jury jointly. Slander suits were prom- inent. The verdicts in such rases, if the plaintiff succeeded, w^re generally small, ranging from one cent to fcoo. In a slander case in Morgan county where two of our best law\ ers were opposed the verdict was for .fcoo- The lawyer for the defense pressed Hiram Brown to give his opinion of the man- agement of the case. He said he thought if the case had been well prosecuted the plaintiff would have recovered #1 ,000, and that if it had been well defended he would not have recovered anything. Of course different persons would rate the members of our bar differently, and I can only state my own impressions. I\Ir. Fletcher left the bar in 1843, and was the leading practitioner, but probably Oliver H. Smith occupied the fir=t place. In iS39 Mr. Smith was forty-five years of age, in the best of health and spirits. He had an established reputation on the east side of the State, before he came here, and was our only lawyer who had been a I'nited States Senator. When his term in ihe Senate expired in 1843, he became the lead- ing practitioner in our United States Courts. He was strong before both the C mrt and jury, and, like ;\Ir. S%yeelser, had immediate command of all his THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 153 forces — sometimes entering difficult cases after the jury was sworn and seizing the governing point at once. His mind was sprightly and humorous as well as logical, and his temperament was of intense activity. He was fond of conversation, and when not engaged in business had a circle of listeners around liim. His volume of Reminiscences now sells higher than when first published. He was unusually amiable, but no man could be more sarcastic than he when he emploj-ed that formidable weapon. (lOv. Wallace and he revolutionized the manners of our bar. Up to their advent we had a great deal of quarreling. But when a change was made we became so courte- ous and liberal that in some cases there was a want of push and energy in pressing cases to trial. Gov. Wallace was very prominent. He had been Governor of the State and member of Congress, and was a gentleman of fine personal appearance and of remarkable eloquence. He transmitted his qualities to his sons, William and Lewis, the latter of whom has become one of the most distin- guished and popular authors in the United States. Gov. Wallace had great amiability and the most sterling honesty. His talent developed early in life and good judges claimed for him that at the age of twenty-five he was in full possession of his powers. He came from the White Water bar. Indian- apolis being the capital, a large number of the State officers from different parts of the State, after serving here in office, became residents. In that way we acquired Gov. Wallace, Judge Wick and Judge Morrison. Gov. Wallace was not a man of restless ambition. His public offices came to him without anv great effort on his part. He was a native of Pennsylvania. Calvin Fletcher was a native of \"ermont, and came to Indianapolis in 1 82 1. He was eminently a man of clear, practical judgment, of great indus- trv and executiveness in the law, in banking and farming, and was a decided success in all of his different pursuits. He had a high standard of character, and commanded the confidence and good opinion of the public. Of his eight sons, six are yet living, and although the majority of them have not inherited his financial talent and business success, it has been said by a good and im- partial judge that Calvin Fletcher's family, all things considered, stand at the head of all the families -lected Lieutenant-Governor, endeavoring 10 assume the chair, there followed one of those scenes which has to often disgraced State Legislatures. The President pro tempore of the Senate, in course of time, filed a quo warranto to test the legality of Colonel Robertson's election, and applied for an injunction to re- strain him from intruding into the office. On appeal to the Supreme Court, General Harrison made the principal argument for Colonel Robertson. Perhaps there never was delivered before that tribunal an argument as able as that of General Harrison, and none ever excelled it. Nor, perhaps, did ever General Harrison excel it. The Court decided it had no jurisdiction ; THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 211 and although the victory rested with General Harrison and his client, it bore no fruit. In 1888 General Harrison was nominated at Chicago by his party for the Presidency and elected by an overwhelming vote of the Electorial College. In 1892, at Jlinneapolis, he was re-nominated, and as overwhelm- ingly defeated as he had been elected. Of his career as President it is not nec- essary to speak. It is a matter of history. It was a period of no great political strife. Upon matters involving our relations with foreign countries, he demonstrated his ability to deal with them skillfully and wisely. He showed a supreme soundness of judgment and comprehensive grasp of those ques- tions, which won for him the confidence of the people. The geographical isolation of our country and our policy of standing free from foreign compli- cations has not given opportunity for the brilliant diplomacy of foreign countries. While it is true that his Secretary of State was a man of learning and ability, it is also true that in the counsels of his cabinet Mr. Harrison was the dominant force. His success in dealing with foreign questions was shown in the case of the Behring Sea controvesry ; the Italian complication, arising from the riots at New Orleans ; the complication with Chili, as well as other emergencies which called forth the qvialities which have characterized him in all phases of his career — sound judgment and an inflexible conscience. No great measures stirred the country. Peace and prosperity reigned on every hand. Such times do not call forth great display of ability, great personalities. One of the most marked acts of Gen. Harrison's administra- tion was the excellency of his judicial appointments. With a single excep- tion, these appointments were almost universalh- approved. It was here that his schooling as an attorney served him well. The administration of John Quincy Adams has long since been deemed a model by writers and thinkers on political subjects. The more it is studied the better it grows in the estimation of the student. If there is any one administration above another with which Mr. Harrison's may be favorably compared, it is that of Mr. Adams ; and few could ask a higher endorsement. It was in the White House, in October, 1892, that Mr. Harrison lost his estimable wife. After his retirement from office, he took up his residence in Indianapolis. In the early spring of 1894, he delivered a series of popular lectures on the Consti- tution of the United States before the students of Leland Stanford Jr. Univer- sity, of California. He has also, in a measure, resumed the practice of the law, and is now engaged in a number of important cases. The following is an account of Gen. Harrison's career as a lawyer, from 1854, when he settled in Indianapolis, to 1888, and an estimate of him as a public speaker, from the article from which quotation has already been made: "When he came to Indianapolis, which was then a town of 8,000 inhabitants, the practice of the law was peculiar. The leaders of the bar were nisi prius lawyers, who had been accustomed to travel the rounds of the circuit with the presiding Judge. There were no specialists then in corporation, patent, and commercial law. All sorts of fish came to the lawyer's net. He took everything that came, from a $5 case before a country Justice to a railroad foreclosure suit in the 212 . THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA United States Court. It was not an uncommon thing for sages of the law like Judge Morrison, Judge McDonald and Oliver H. Smith to begin the morning with a scrimmage in Squire Sullivan's Court about the ownership of a flock of vagrant geese, and wind up the day with a high debate before Justice McLean of the Supreme Court of the United States in a case involving large interests and important principles of equity jurisprudence. That sort of practice had its advantages and drawbacks. The fees were not large, but they were numerous, and the clients of all sorts and conditions gave the lawyer an enlarged acquaintance with his fellow-citizens, and afforded ample opportunity for the study of human nature. The effect of that kind of pro- fessional life is to give strength, breadth, and adaptability to the intellectual powers. The lawyer who secludes himself with a few briefs in important cases, and whose mind is absorbed in the study of a few questions, will be formidable in his line, but he will lack the breadth and comprehensiveness which are to be acquired only in a wider and more varied range of thought. For a man gifted as Benjamin Harrison was with intellectual abilities of a high order, the school of miscellaneous practice at the Indiana bar was the best possible school. To mount a hard trotting horse and ride through niiiddy roads ten miles into the country to try a case for a five-dollar fee, before a country Justice of the Peace with a wily rural pettifogger for an opponent, may not seem to be an attractive employment ; but the young lawyer of those days who had stuff in him was glad of the chance, not for the fee's sake only — thovigh that was a consideration — but more for the oppor- tunity it gave him for extending his acquaintance and exercising his ability in the arts of examining witnesses and addressing Courts and juries. Gen. Harrison has never been afflicted with the " curse of fluency ; " but from boyhood he has possessed that remarkable aptness and clearness of speech of which the public have had so many examples during the recent campaign. In his early professional conflicts he won the confidence of his clients and the respect of the Court and bar. He was courteous to an opponent, but did not waste words in effusive and insincere compliments. The lawyer who met him, even in those early days, learned that he must fight hard if he won his case — he could never safely presume upon the slips of his adversary. Clients multiplied, and the young lawyer soon had his hands full of work. He naturally took to politics, as it was customary then for promising lawyers in the West to do. In the campaigns of 1856 and i860 — in the latter year more especially — he was foremost among the young campaigners of the Western States. His first encounter with Governor Hendricks was in that year. Gen- eral Wallace has mentioned it in his Life of General Harrison. During the last summer I got the story fresh from some old citizens of Rockville, who were present at the time. Mr. Hendricks was Commissioner of the Land Office during Buchanan's administration, and had come home to canvass Indiana for Douglass. By some mistake he and Harrison were announced for speeches at the court-house in Rockville on the same day. Mr. Hendricks had not met Harrison, but desiring probably to witness a sophomoric THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 213 performance by a newly-fledged orator, suggested that Mr. Harrison should follow him and address the same audience. The local Republican managers had some misgivings about the matter, but when Harrison expressed a will- ingness for the joint debate, they plucked up courage, and the proposal was accepted. Mr. Hendricks made his speech, closing it with some courteous allusion to his youthful opponent, whom he introduced to the audience. The Democrats had filled the court-house, while a few Republicans, who were not quite sure of their man, strayed into the lobbies or peered in at the windows. It was not long before the tide turned, and enthusiastic Republicans were crowding into the building to cheer the young orator, who seemed to be per- fectly at his ease while dealing with the great issues of the campaign. In short, it was a complete triumph for Harrison — so complete that Mr. Voorhees, who was in the audience, sprang to his feet when Harrison was done and announced that he would answer the speech in the evening. From that day Mr. Hendricks always entertained and expressed the highest opinion of Gen- eral Harrison's abilities. They had many encounters at the bar during the twenty years they both resided at Indianapolis, and they were never heard to disparage each other's ability. At the State Bar meeting, on the occasion of Vice-President Hendricks's death. General Harrison pronounced a discrim- inating and appreciative eulogy upon the character of the dead statesman. It is the good fortune of lawyers who are thrown together in the forensic arena to be able to judge their associates fairly. All lawyers who have met General Harrison in legal battles have come out of them with an exalted opinion of his intellectual power and professional attainments. The miscellaneous practice in which he was engaged developed him on many sides. I think that to-day and for ten yea-^s past he has been ranked by his brethren of the bar as the ablest lawyer in Indiana, and as one of the best in the United States. What is especially noteworthy is the fact that he shows such aptness and strength in so many lines of professional work. In the preparati'in of a case for trial, in mastering and marshaling the facts, in the preliminary statement of a case to the jury, in the examination and cross-examination of witnesses, in the discussion of questions of the rele- vancy and competency of evidence, in the final argument to the jury, in the preparation of charges for the jury, in oral and written arguments in the Appellate Courts, he has no sup rior at the Western bar. He has the virtue inculcated by Marcus Aurelius of never carrying things to the sweating point. It will be difficult to stampede him into any sensationalism, as has marked the recent conduct of the present administration. The way and manner of his going are of his own choice. Attentive to suggestions, he will be on the alert to gather useful information from all quarters, but the opinion he forms will be his own. He has a deliberate mind, not of the hair-trigger kind. I .saw him once in a towering passion, and that was at a time when the occasion justified it. With quivering frame, cheeks blanched, and tears streaming down his face, he swore as some of his comrades say he swore when leading a charge into the enemy's works at Resaca, or as Cromwell 214 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA might have sworn when leading the Ironsides at Marston Moor. But it is not his wont. It is well enough to have it known, however, that our President- elect is a man who may prove himself to he somewhat difficult to those who imagine that he will look with indulgence upon officials who should bring discredit upon his administration. As he once remarked to a friend who thought him a little blind to the faults of others, he is " not fond of a row,'' but he will guard with jealousy the fame of his party, and will see to it that any rascal who banks upon his indulgence will lose his venture. I have said that he was a man of method and thoroughness. These are indispensable to an executive. The worry and fret of having a hundred things half done — this is what steals time and distracts a man. Gen. Harrison has less of that fault than any other man I know. He never was a slovenly lawyer, who had hooks and boxes full of dusty memoranda labelled " immediate attention," " urgent," or the like. He takes up things one at a time and finishes them. His old preceptor, Dr. Bishop, was always dinning in the ears of the boys the necessity for classification. He used to say a man could make his mind like a well-arranged set of pigeon-holes, where all the facts he lea-ned could be classified without jumbling or crowding — always ready for use. Gen. Har- rison knows how to do that. I imagine that to-day the public is giving itself more concern about the new Cabinet than he. At the proper time he will take up that business in detail, and dispatch it without fuss or worry. He has been unjustly censured for his apparent lack of sociability. The law is a jealous mistress. A man wins eminence in the profession by dint of a strength acquired at the expense of some qualities which go to round out and symmetrize the character. Probably it would have seemed better in the eyes of some if General Harrison had sacrificed a little more to the graces ; but it remains to be seen if the country is not to be congratulated upon having a chief executive with the great virtues emphasized, even if there should be a lack of that able-bodied joviality which invites the approaches of the back- slapping Toms, Dicks and Harrys who make a market of their assumed familiarity with men high in office. General Harrison has personal dignity and a commendable self-respect, which upon occasion can repel unwelcome intrusion. More lias been made of his supposed lack of kindly courtesy than the facts warrant. I saw him once hurrying to the court-house in answer to a summons from an impatient Judge. A gentleman much given to volubility offered to stop him on the sidewalk and engaste him in conversa- tion, but the General, with a simple nod of recognition, passed on. The gentleman was offended. To persons not cognizant of the facts it looked like an affront, but nothing was further from his mind. It was the putting aside a minor dutj' for one that was imperative. The interests of his clients were more important to him than the observance of a mere matter of courtesy. There was absolutely nothing in the fact or manner to give offense to a rea- sonable man. Hugo's paradox comes to my mind : " He was absent-minded — on the contrary, he was attentive." It is hard for a lawyer to submit gracefully to an adverse judgment or verdict. General Harrison is not in the THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 21 S habit of "gioiiig down to the tavern and swearing at the Judge and jury- in such cases. If he cannot convince the Court that he is entitled to a new trial, he goes to the Appellate Court, if in his judgment there exist good grounds for an appeal. Many otherwise great lawyers mar their fame by gettiug into a passion and accusing Courts who decide against them of being influenced by improper motives. Not only does ('eneral Har- rison know how to treat the Court and his opponent with respect and courtesy, but he possesses that rarer grace of knowing what is due to his colleagues. He has no fussy anxiety about points of precedence in the conduct of a case. When the post of honor or leadership is assigned him, he accepts the respon- sibility, but he shows no disposition to shoulder himself to the front. I remember a case involving large interests, which was tried in the Federal Court at Indianapolis twenty years ago. Judge Charles Coffin of Cincinnati, was senior counsel, and Gmeral Harrison was associated with him. On the other side were Senator McDonald and that old veteran of the Cincinnati bar, Mr. J. D. Lincoln. As the case progressed, many questions of law were argued to the Court, the discussion of which tor a time was left almost whollv to Judge Coffin and the opposing counsel, General Hnrrison modesth' making suggestions to his senior now and then. After two or three days had passed. Judge Coffin called a council of war, and frankly said that his young colleague evidently understood the case better than he did and expressed his determi- nation to step to the rear and give junior coimsel the post of responsibility. This was done over General Harrison's protest, but he finally consented and bore himself gallantly and victoriously through the case. But the glory of victory was his only reward. His rascalh' client, who gained many thousands of dollars by the verdict, took the benefit of the Bankrupt Law and cheated his attorneys out of their fees. With such a practice as he has had, why is not General Harrison a rich man ? As he said in one of his reception addresses, the Harrison famil}' have had better luck in transmitting a good name than in accumulating fortunes. He is not an avaricious man and has neither taste nor talent for speculation. His income has been large for an Indiana lawver, and his purse has been at the service of his family and rela- tions. He lives generously without ostentation, and it is a rare thing to find his family at home without some visiting friends sharing the hospitality of his household. I suppose that .5^50,000 will cover the value of his entire property. He is a strong partisan, and has always been so since be began to vote the Republican ticket in 1856. From that time till the present he has held a brief for his party, and has held it with the unswerving fidelity which has always characterized his devotion to a client who committed his life or for- tune to his hands. This may not, in the estimation of some, show the high- est type of man, but it is the plain truth. Gen. Harrison is an uncompro- mising Republican because he believes that the principles, instincts, and general tendency of his party are right. Mistakes of administration do not shake his allegiance. At its worst he has always believed that Republican- ism is better than Democracy at its best. He has faith in the ability of the 216 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA conscience of his party to assert itself. These convictions have been strengthened by the peculiar aspects of Democracy as presented in the State of Indiana. An old Democrat, a client of his, came up from Mississippi in 1880 on election day, and while the returns were coming in, he went back and forth between the headquarters of the State committees, and next day he said to some Republicans: 'Gentlemen, if you all lived where I do, you would be Democrats, and if I lived in Indiana, I would be a Republican.' The fact is, there is a peculiar, indefinable flavor about the Indiana Demo- cracy that is not palatable to persons who believe there is a distinction between right and wrong. And aside from questions of right and wrong, there is, so to speak, a certain grossness or lack of taste displayed by the Democratic leaders which is shocking even to some people who are so unfor- tunate as to live in the rowdy West. For instance, when Senator Voorhees was elected by the Indiana Legislature, James H. Willard, a State Senator, was selected by the Democratic caucus to present his name to the joint con- vention. In the course of his remarks he used substantially the following language : ' Senator Voorhees is as pure as the dove that descended from the bosom of the Father and rested upon the head of the Savior at the baptism in the River Jordan.' I have been told that Senator Voorhees, who is given to fioridity of speech, himself regarded Senator Willard's panegyric as some- what stilted. But it is not necessary to particularize further. Against this peculiar type of Democracy Gen. Harrison has been fighting since he bef;an his political career, and while he has many personal friends among his political opponents, he has never spent much time in inventing soft phrases for the party to which they belong. But a man can be a just magistrate and a strong partisan too, and if we may predict his future conduct from the qualities of the man, there need be no apprehension that our new President will do scant justice to his political adversaries." HENDRICKS, THOMAS A. "To live in hearts he left behind, is not to die." There is so much of the true, the beautiful and the good in the life of Thomas A. Hendricks, his record in public affairs so great, his attainments in scholarship and his legal labors so conspicuous, so charming the personal qualities that adorned his life, that no historian or reviewer can do justice to his memory and express the value of his services to his country. Thomas A. Hendricks was born September 7, i8ig, on a farm near Zanesville, Ohio. His father, John Hendricks, was a native of Western Pennsylvania. The Hendricks family was one of the first to settle in the Ligonier Valley, in Westmoreland county, where th'ey took an active part in the administra- tion of public affairs. The mother of Thomas A. Hendricks, Jane Thomson Hendricks, was of Scotch descent. Her grandfather, John Thomson, emi- grated to Pennsylvania before the Revolution, and was conspicuous among the pioneers of that date for his intelligence, enterprise and love of country. When the subject of this sketch was six months old his parents removed ^J^Wy^^s^A^A^tJ^ %H^^^^A^*-^( ay^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 223 MCDONALD, JOSEPH EWING. In the subject of this sketch, we have a fine example of the effect of the blending of races. His father, John McDonald, was a Scotchman, and his mother, Eleanor (Piatt) McDonald, was a French Huguenot. His father died when Joseph was an infant. Joseph's mother possessed more than ordinary ability, having suffi- cient literary skill to write acceptable songs and sketches with which she entertained her children. They belonged to the United Presbyterian Church. Joseph was born in Butler county, Ohio, August 29, 1819. After his father's death, his mother married John Kerr, a man of sterling integrity and sense and they moved to Montgomery county, Indiana, in 1826. Kerr lived until 1856. Joseph received such education as the common schools and a short course at Wabash College afforded. Having to make his own way, he was apprenticed to a saddler at Lafayette, and worked at the trade nearly six years. During this time, he had access to a very excellent library owned by Dr. Isaac B. Canby, and improved the opportunity by reading many books, especially those relating to history. Having an excellent memory, he was greatly benefitted by this course. In 1840, he served on an engineer corps in surveying the Wabash & Erie Canal, and the latter half of the year attended college at Asbury (now DePauw) College at Greencastle. The next year he was at Williamsport clerking in a store. In 1842, he went to Lafayette and read law with Zebulon Baird. In 1843, he was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the State, and the same year was elected Prosecuting Attorney. December 24, 1844, he married Nancy Ruth Buell, at Williams- port. In August, 1845, he was again elected Prosecuting Attorney. In 1847, he moved from Lafayette to Crawfordsville, and remained there until 1859. In August, 1849, he was elected to the Fifty-first Congress and served one term. In 1856, he was elected Attorney-General of the State, and again in 1858. In 1859, he moved to Indianapolis, and formed a partnership with Addison L. Roache, who had resigned from the Supreme Court bench. In 1864, he was nominated on the Democratic ticket for Governor, but was de- feated by Governor O. P. Morton. On September 7, 1872, his wife died. September 15, 1874, he married Miss Aramanth W. Vance, and she died February 2, 1875. In the winter of 1874-5, he was elected United States Senator in place of Hon. D. D. Pratt. In 1880-1, he was a candidate for re-election, but was defeated by Hon. Benjamin Harrison. In 1884, he was a prominent candidate for the nomination of President before the Democratic National Convention held at Chicago, but was defeated by Grover Cleveland. He married a third time, the last time being to Mrs. Josephine Barnard. Senator McDonald was a great lawyer in the true sense of the term. He had the stamp of judicial mind which so eminently characterized Judge David Davis— a mind eminently imbued with good sense and judicial poise, though lacking in breadth of language. He was employed in many cases of import- ance, one of the most noted being the celebrated Bowles-Milligan case. He died June 2r, 1891. The last fifteen years of his life, he and Hon. John M. Butler were associated together in the practice of the law. 224 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA HENDRICKS, ABRAM W. In 1850 many of the greater lights of the early Indiana bar had passed away or had reached the time of life when their professional careers might be expected soon to close. It was about this time that Abram W. Hendricks began the labors that were justly to entitle him to a high rank among the lawyers of Indiana. He was born near the village of Ligonier, in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, on the 12th of October, 1822. In the spring of 1836 he moved to Madison, Indi- ana, with his brother Joseph, where he was employed for somewhat less than two years in his brother's mercantile establishment. In May, 1838; he en- tered the preparatory department at South Hanover College, Indiana, now known as Hanover. He remained at this institution until September, 1840, when a trifling infringement of the, rules caused his withdrawal. He then entered the sophomore class at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania. After his graduation in 1843, ^^ returned to Madison and began, in November of that year, the study of law in the office and under the instruction of his uncle, William Hendricks. His apprenticeship in that office was of the greatest value to him. William Hendricks was- not only a lawyer of distinction, but was as well a man of note in public life. He had been the second Gov- ernor of Indiana, and had also served three terms in the United States House of Representatives and two in the United States Senate. It was he who established the second newspaper published in the State, and who, in 1824, compiled and printed the first Revised Statutes of Indiana. In the early fall of 1844 Abram W. Hendricks was admitted to the bar, but in November, feeling his legal education to be incomplete, he entered the senior class in the law department of Transylvania University in I,exington, Kentucky, and received its diploma in the latter part of February, 1845. In the meantime his parents had moved to the town of Rising Sun, Indiana, whither he went from the law school. In the following April he received his license and im- mediately opened a law office. A brief auto-biographical sketch tells of the embarrassments he felt during his early life at the bar and describes the June term of the Circuit Court as "an awful crisis."' Professional experi- ence, however, gave him confidence in his powers and wore away the diffi- dence from which he at first had suffered. In January, 1847, he returned to Madison. His first partnership was with Mr. George S. Sheets. This lasted but a few months, and in 1847 he became a partner of Hon. William McKee Dunn, afterwards member of Congress from the Madison district, and later Judge Advocate General of the United States Army. This partnership lasted until the breaking out of the civil war. Shortly after the opening of hostil- ities, Mr. Hendricks was instrumental in raising and organizing the Jeffer- son County Cavalry Company, of which he was chosen captain. This com- pany afterwards became part of the old Third Indiana Regiment. It was mustered in and went into camp at Camp Noble, Indianapolis, but before it took the field Mr. Hendricks was appointed a paymaster of the Volunteer force and served in that capacity until he was mustered out in November, 1865, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. At the close of the war he re- '{^yd'.z^ .t^ 1^5 l.S 226 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA turned to Madison, and shortly afterward he was invited to become a mem- ber of the law firm at Indianapolis then composed of his cousin, Thomas A. Hendricks and Oscar B. Hord. In 1872 Thomas A. Hendricks retired from the firm to assume his duties as Governor of Indiana, and ex-Governor Conrad Baker became a member under the firm style of Baker, Hord & Hen- dricks. After the expiration of his term Governor Hendricks re-entered the firm, but the style remained the same, and although its personnel was sev- eral times changed by the later withdrawals of Governor Hendricks to fill political positions and by the admission, in 1883, of Mr. Albert Baker and Mr. Edward Daniels, the old name was retained until the death of Mr. Hord, the last surviving member of the original firm, in 1888. Probably no law firm in Indiana has ever been more widely or favorably known. Mr. Hen- dricks died at his home in Indianapolis, on November 25, 1887. His life, save for the four years of the war, was almost wholly devoted to the law, and he was rewarded by having entrusted to his charge some of the most important litigation that has ever received the consideration of the Federal and State Courts of Indiana. He held but one political office, that of Rep- resentative in the State Legislative session of 1852-3, to which he was elected upon the Whig or Union ticket. During that session he served upon the Judiciary Committee. Of the positions he took during his brief career as a legislator, two were exceedingly unpopular and amounted to political sui- cide ; one, the advocacy of a bill permitting the testimony of negroes to be taken in court ; and the other, the opposition to a measure instructing mem- bers of Congress to vote for a homestead law. In 1858 he was nominated by the Republicans as Judge of the Supreme Court, but was defeated with the remainder of the ticket. While obedient to the demands of a large practice, he yet found time for much reading outside and beyond that his profession demanded, and the breadth of his culture is shown by the excellence of the many public addresses he delivered. Nor were his services to the city of his residence solely of a literary character. As an instance, it may be said that during the great railroad strike of 1877 he was a member and served as Secretary of the Committee of Safety appointed to aid the municipal authorities in protecting life and property. The following extract from the memorial adopted at his death by the Indianapolis Bar Association, does not more than do him justice : " The Bar of Indiana has long regarded Abram W. Hendricks as a type and expression of its best aspirations. Its noblest impulses were personified in him. He was the ideal lawyer — the exemplar of professional learning and accomplishments for its younger members. In him were united thorough intellectual equipment and absolute purity of character. He had a strong, alert and penetrative intellect, whose native vigor was increased by his training at the Bar and researches in the library. In forensic argument he had not only the power of compact and logical state- ment, but he exhibited a wide insight, beyond and above mere skill in dialec- tic force, which illumined the most intricate and abstruse subjects, and brought them within the comprehension of every mind. With an aptitude THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 227 for the details of practice, he had a broad and firm grasp of the general prin- ciples of legislation and judicature which lie at their base. With a rugged honesty which entered into and controlled every act of his life, he had a. nice and discriminating ethical sense which was unerring in its judgments. He had the highest intellectual as well as moral integrity, with the courage of both, and he refused to accept the opinions that were prescribed by politi- cal or ecclesiastical bodies, unless they obtained the full approval of his own conscience and judgment. His demeanor was marked by a sensitive consid- eration for the rights and feelings of others, and is inadequately described as chivalrous or courtly because it was more sincere and less pretentious than that to which these terms are ordinarily applied. He was deferential with- out being obsequious, and his politeness was never extended to the sacrifice of his convictions, nor was it ever a device for the promotion of personal ends. It was the emanation of a noble and generous spirit — its natural and appropriate manifestation and investiture — and it entitled him to wear Without abuse The grand old name of gentleman Defamed by every charlatan, And soiled with all ignoble use. He was not a mere lawyer. His active and inquisitive mind was not fully satisfied by the petty details of courts and cases. While deeply occupied with the drudgery of a laborious and exacting profession, he found time to gratify his love of literature and philosophy. Even in these upper realms of his vocation, his eager and catholic intellectuality was not content to rest. His conversation and public addresses furnished ample evidence of a wide and liberal culture, for he took all knowledge for his province, and was not confined to any single department of it." BUTIvER, JOHN M. The parents of Mr. Butler were Calvin and Malvina (French) Butler, both born in Vermont, and the latter a descendant of Governor Bradford, an early Colonial Governor of Massachusetts. His father was a graduate of Middlebury College and Andover Theological Seminary, and as a Presbyterian minister established a church of that de- nomination at Evansville, in this State, and was instrumental in organizing other churches in Southern Indiana. John M. Butler was born at Evans- ville, September 17, 1834, and the family of his father being large and the salary small he was soon thrown upon hi3 own resources. At eleven years of age he was a clerk in a store ; but by dint of earnest effort he prepared himself sufficiently to enter Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, where he was graduated in 1856. Shortly after his graduation Mr. Butler was elected President of the Female Seminary, at Crawfordsville, and after remaining at the head of this institution for about two years he was elected Principal of the High School of that city— the city having purchased the grounds and building of the Female Seminary. Mr. Butler was not born to be a teacher ; THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 229 he only engaged in teaching as a means of support while studying law. By study out of school hours he prepared himself for the practice of law, with- out the aid of any instructor. In the fall of 1859 he took an extensive trip through the Western and Northwestern States, in search of a location for the practice of his chosen profession. Finding no country better or more to his liking than Indiana, he returned to Crawfordsville, and there opened an oflSce in the month of November of that year. At that date Crawfordsville had a noted bar. There was Henry S. Lane, just then elected Governor of the State, and shortly afterward United States Senator, who had an exten- sive practice, and his partner, Samuel C. Wilson, a lawyer of considerable notoriety ; there was also Lewis Wallace, then in his prime as a lawyer ; and James Wilson, then in Congress, and afterward our Minister to Chili, whom but few excelled in speech ; and lastly Joseph E. McDonald, who afterward became Mr. Butler's partner. His first case was a noted one, and he won it both in the lower and in the Supreme Court. Success in the law attended him from the first. In 187 1, at the request of Mr. McDonald, he removed to Indianapolis, and became a partner with Mr. McDonald, which relation was dissolved by the latter's death, in June, 1891. No firm attained wider celebrity throughout the State than they enjoyed. Their practice was extensive and lucrative, much of it being in the United States District and Circuit Court, and in the Supreme Court of the United States, on appeal. Of the many noted cases in which Mr. Butler has been engaged the following ought, perhaps, to be mentioned : In the foreclosure suit against the Indi- anapolis, Bloomington and Western Railway Company, in the United States Circuit Courts of Indiana and Illinois, Mr. Butler advanced, and strenuously contended in support of, the principle that claims for labor, supplies and materials, accrued in the operation and maintenance of a railroad during a period of at least six months next prior to the appointment of a receiver at the instance of mortgage bondholders, should be paid out of proceeds of sale in preference to payment of mortgage bonds. In this contention Mr. Butler was successful. The establishment of this principle wrought a revolution in railway law. After establishing the principle in the case above mentioned, Judge Drummond entered like rulings in other cases, one of which — Fosdick V. Schall, 99 U. S., 235— was immediately appealed to the United States Su- preme Court. At the earnest request of Judge Drummond, Mr. Butler vol- unteered in that case, and both briefed and orally argued it in the Supreme Court, in behalf of appellee, Schall — Mr. Butler's work in the case passing into the printed report to the credit of R. Biddle Roberts, who was counsel of record for Schall. The decision in this case, which was in Mr. Butler's favor, finally established the principle, which has proved a safeguard and blessing to thousands of railroad operatives and laborers. Mr. Butler's intellectual qualities are of a high order. Few men in the court room are his equal. It is not by the powers of persuasion that he wins a case — for in that quality it may be said that he is singularly deficient; but it is by the irre- sistible force of his argument. He drives the jury and court before him, and 230 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA by the force of his reasoning compels them to yield to his view of the cause. He prepares his cases with the greatest of care ; nothing escapes him. He is not only critically exact, but painfully so, even to the crossing of a t or the dotting of an i. But in this lies one of the elements of his success ; for in his court papers are found no errors. He has been a Republican ever since that party was in existence, just as his partner was a life-long Demo- crat. By speech and advice he has always stood ready to aid his party. There is scarcely a county in the State in which his voice for his party has not been heard, and in many of them many times over. By the thoughtful, his speeches are always appreciated. TURPIE, DAVID. David Turpie studied law at Logansport, Indiana, in the office of Hon. Daniel D. Pratt, and was admitted to practice at Logans- port, this State, in 1849. The same year he located in the adjoining county of White in the town of Monticello, and soon gained an excellent practice. In 1854, Governor Wright appointed him Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the district of which White formed a part. He, soon after accept- ing it, resigned the ofl&ce. In 1856 he was appointed Judge of the circuit to which White county belonged, but, soon after ascending the bench, resigned. Previous to this he had taken an active part in politics, and had been sent to the Legislature, to the House, in 1853. In 1858 he was again re-elected to that House. During the two terms he served in the Legislature, he gained an acquaintance with the leading politicians throughout the State. By his studious habits he had gained a vast fund of knowledge, both in the law and in a general way, that served him well in the Legislature and on the stump. In i860 he was nominated as a candidate for Lieutenant-Governor, and made a joint canvass with Oliver P. Morton for that position. At this time he resided in the Congressional district represented by Shuyler Colfax, of South Bend, who was Speaker of the House and afterward Vice President. Mr. Turpie was then, as he has always been, a Democrat, even uncompromisingly so. This district was heavily Republican, and Colfax's popularity and genial ways won for him hundreds of votes that almost any other man would never have gained. The war feeling was high, and it may well be stated that a Democratic candidate in that district had "up-hill work " to even hold his own. Judge Turpie was his party's choice as a candidate against Colfax. He made three runs against him, in 1862, '64, '65. Although he well knew that defeat was his lot, he did not hesitate to respond to his party's call. The duty was not an unpleasant one. The measures he advocated were unpopular ; and his opponent not only advocated popular measures, but was himself popular. These were the days of joint debates, with all the intensity of feeling they engendered. Of course his opponent carried the popular applause ; but we, in these later days, although differing with him in politics, can, as an act of justice, testify to the fact that Judge Turpie's speeches were far from being excelled by his popular antagonist, however we ^(huyxxL JaaA^-Jujl 232 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA may differ from his conclusious. He was then in his prime, and spoke with great force and precision. Once grant liim his premises, and his antagonist was overthrown. His career as a politician attracted to him so wide a repu- tation that the Legislature of 1863 elected him, January 7, 1863, United States Senator. Gov. Wright had been appointed by Governor Morton to fill the vacancy occasioned by the expulsion of Jesse D. Bright from the Senate. That was in March, 1862. The Legislature of 1S63 was Democratic, and as Wright was then acting with the Republicans, the Legislature refused to elect him. Judge Turpie served in the United States Senate until March 4, 1865. In 1868 Judge Turpie removed from Monticello to Logansport, and began the practice. In 1872 he removed to Indianapolis. In 1874 he was again elected to the House of State Representatives from the county of Marion, and served as Speaker in the session of 1875, the last session in the old State House. The Legislature of 1879 provided for a board to revise the laws of this State and authorized the Supreme Court to appoint for it three commissioners. The Court appointed James S. Frazer, of Warren ; John H. Stotsenburg, of New Albany, and David Turpie, of Indianapolis. The commission served three years, and compiled many lav/s which they submitted to the Legisla- ture. Many of them were adopted, and many of them were not. Among those thus compiled and adopted were the present Civil Code, Criminal Code, Decedents' Estate Law and Tax Law. After the session of 1881, the commis- sion prepared and superintended the printing of the Revised Statutes of 1881. In all this work Judge Turpie gave his undivided attention. He prepared many notes for the text which, unfortunately, the restricted size of the volume compelled the commission to omit. No State, it may be safely said has ever had a revision of the statutes that excelled our Revised Statute of 1881 in arrangement, or, taking into consideration the many divers laws, inaccuracy, in compactness and in convenience. In 1884, Judge Turpie was a candidate for the nomination for Governor on the Democratic ticket, but was defeated by Hon. Isaac P. Gray. In 1885 he was appointed by President Cleveland United States Attorney for the district of Indiana, and served until March 4, 1887, when he resigned. In 1887 he was elected United States Senator. In his own party his chief opponent was Hon. William E. Niblack. After a memorable struggle, he was successful in the election. His Republican opponent was Hon. Benjamin Harrison. It was a contest that will long be remembered in the legislative and political history of the State ; a struggle that defeated Benjamin Harrison for re-election to the Senate, and may have sent him to the Presidential chair. In 1893, Senator Turpie was re-elected to the Senate without opposition. Judge Turpie has always been a close student, and whatever subject he takes up, he exhausts ; and we say this without intending to use the usual fulsome language of an uncritical biogra- pher. He possesses a most retentive memory. Perhaps as celebrated argu- ment as ever took place before our Supreme Court was the one over the Lieutenant-Governor contest in 1887. It was a debate that went to the very foundation of the Government, and called for the highest order of legal THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 233 reasoning and acumen. A United States Senatorship was also one of the prizes. Upon the one hand was Benjamin Harrison, candidate for re-elec- tion, and on the other Judge Turpie, also a candidate. The debate lasted many hours, attracted many of the leading members of the bar of the State, and called for the exercise of all the powers of the memory. The notes that Judge Turpie used on this occasion were written on two pieces of paper, not larger than a man's hand, unintelligible to any other person than he. He has the very excellent habit of attending strictly to his Senatorial duties In 1851 he was married to Miss Mary Imes, of White county, Indiana, who died in 1863. In 1872 he was married to Miss Alice Partridge, of Logansport, a most accomplished woman, who died in 1884. Judge Turpie is not a grace- ful speaker. In fact, it may be said that he is not a popular speaker. But he who does not care particularly for the flowers of rhetoric and prefers the substance to the shadow, will always find in Judge Turpie's public addresses, discussions worthy of his attention and careful consideration. His command of language is unusual — often astonishing. His addresses are not alone on political subjects, but cover many other topics. MILLER, WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, Ex-Attorney-General of the United States, was born at Augusta, Oneida county, N. Y., Sep- tember 6, 1840. His ancestry is English and Scotch. He grew up on his father's farm, attending the country schools and Whitestown Semi- nary, and was graduated from Hamilton College in 1861. After teaching school at Maumee City, Ohio, for a short time, he enlisted in May, 1862, as a Second-Lieutenant in the 84th Ohio Infantry, a three months' regiment. Being mustered out in September, he took up the study of law in the office of Chief Justice Waite. His studies were cut short, however, by financial necessities, and after acting for a few months as clerk in a law office he ac- cepted the superintendency of the public schools of Peru, Ind. He read law during his leisure and was admitted to the bar at Peru in 1865. He practiced in that city for a short time, holding the office of County School Examiner, the only office he ever held until appointed Attorney-General. In 1866 he moved to Fort Wayne, Ind., and undertook there, among strangers and with- out any influential connections, the practice of law. He formed a partnership with William H. Combs, a lawyer of ability, but of small practice. The business of the firm increased so rapidly that a third partner was soon added. In conducting business before the Federal courts at Indianapolis, Mr. Miller formed the acquaintance of Gen. Harrison, and on the retirement of Albert G. Porter from the firm of Porter, Harrison & Hines in 1874, he was invited to enter that firm. From then, until his appointment as Attorney-General, Mr. Miller was exclusively engaged in the practice of the law. As his was one of the two or three leading firms of Indiana, he was engaged in the most important litigation before the United States Courts and the Supreme Court of the State. Taking rank with the leaders of the bar, he was known as a man \0 V^~U i THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 235 of unquestioned integrity and exceptional industry, and as a lawyer well grounded in the principles and well informed in the precedents of jurispru- dence. His work in the firm was general, including all duties required of a lawyer in a large practice. He had no outward connection with politics, but was the trusted adviser of party leaders on politico-legal questions, and whenever political controversies came before the courts he appeared as one of the counsel for his party and its candidates. Among other controversies of this sort, he appeared in the case on the adoption of the amendment of the State Constitution in 1878 and the lieutenant-governorship contest in 1886. For many years, and particularly during the campaign of 1888, he was a confidential adviser of Gen. Harrison, and so was naturally chosen to a place in the Cabinet when General Harrison was inaugurated President. Though well-known as a lavpyer in his own State, Mr. Miller came to the posi- tion of Attorney-General without national reputation and untried as an ad- ministrative officer. At the out-set; matters of exceptional importance and difficulty, both in a legal and executive aspect, presented themselves. In the Terry case his bold and fortunate action early attracted public atten- tion. On hearing that there was danger that David S. Terry, a very promi- nent and somewhat notorious lawyer of California, would attack Justice Field, of the United States Supreme Court, when the latter should go on the California circuit, Mr; Miller promptly directed the U. S. Marshal to protect him. In compliance with this order a deputy-marshal was detailed to at- tend Justice Field. Terry was killed in the very act of making a deadly assault on the venerable Justice. The authority of the deputy-marshal being questioned, and an attempt made to prosecute him by the authorities of Cal- ifornia, Mr. Miller avowed the act, and directed the defense of the deputy- marshal on the high ground that, independently of all statutes, it was the constitutional duty of the Executive to protect the judiciary. On tnis high plane the issue was fought and the Attorney-General sustained, both in the United States Circuit and Supreme Courts, before which latter tribunal he ar- gued the matter in person, greatly adding to his reputation. During his occupancy of the position of Attorney-General he maintained a close super- vision of all government cases before this Court, and was personally engaged in an unusual number of difficult and important ones, among them the Bering Sea litigation, the constitutional validity of the McKinley tariff law, the interstate commerce and anti-lottery laws. On three occasions he was called to present to the Supreme Court resolutions of the bar on the death of members of the Court. His addresses on these occasions were character- ized by an absence of the ornate and high sounding, but were marked by that genuine and greater eloquence which has the quality of severe simplicity, self-restraint and directness. In the administrative functions of his office he inaugurated a vigorous policy, and endeavored, effectively in many instances, to correct the abuses in the enforcement of the laws, and to secure their im- partial administration. He exercised particular care in recommendations to the President for the appointment of United States Judges — an unusual num- 236 THE BENCH AND BAR OE INDIANA ber of whom were appointed under this administration — with the result that the selections were generally commended by members of all parties. After Gen. Harrison and Mr. Miller went to Washington to take up their public duties, Mr. Elam, the remaining member of the firm of Harrison, Miller and Elam, formed a partner? hip with Ferdinand Winter under the firm name of Winter and Elam. At the close of President Harrison's administration, Mr. Miller returned to Indianapolis and resumed the active practice of the law at the head of the firm now known as Miller, Winter and Elam, in which he is still engaged. In 1863 Mr. Miller married Gertrude A. Bunce, of Vernon, N. Y. Three children of this marriage, a son and two daughters, are lifing, In 1889 Hamilton College conferred on him the degree of I<. t,. D. HINES, CYRUS C. Cyrus C. Hines, born in Washington county, New York, December 10, 1830, was the eighth in direct descent from his ancestor Roger Williams. He came to Indianapolis, arriving there about April 19, 1854, and soon after commenced the study of the law with Simon Yandes. In December, 1855, he was admitted to the practice in Marion Circuit Court, and became the partner of his preceptor under the firm name of Yandes & Hines. Mr. Yandes retiring from practice in i860, Mr. Hints associated himself with Upton J. Hammond under the firm name of Hines & Hammond. On April 19, i86i, at the breaking out of the Rebellion, he enlisted in the Eleve.ith Indiana Volunteers, and was appointed Second Sergeant of Company H, of that regiment. Shortly afterward he was detailed as orderh' to Gen. T. A. Morris and served in the Western Virginia campaign in 1861. While in the service he was promoted to a captaincy, and made aid de camp to Brigadier-General Morris. In August following he was commissioned as Major of the Twenty-fourth Indiana Volunteers, and in February following as Colonel of the Fifty-seventh Indiana Volunteers. He was wounded by a cannon shot December 31, 1862, at the battle of Stone River, the wound resulting in his resignation August 28, 1863. In May, 1866, he resumed the practice of the law in Indianapolis, in partnership with U. J. Hammond and Livingston (afterward Judge) Howland. In October, 1866, he was elected Judge of the judicial circuit composed of Marion, Hendricks and Johnson counties, and served until December, 1870, when he resigned and shortly afterward became the partner of Albert G. Porter and Benjamin Harrison, under the firm name of Porter, Harrison & Hines. Mr. Porter retired from the firm in 1873, ^nd the firm became Harrison & Hines until in 1874, when W. H. H. Miller became the junior partner. In 1883 John B. Elam became a partner, and in May, 1S84, Mr. Hines retired from the prac- tice, one of his brothers being in feeble health and des'ring his assistance in his business matters. His brother died November 10, 1885, when the care of the whole of his large estate devolved upon Mr. Hines, and until its final ^-^ ^^^c_ 238 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA settlement in 1892 was administered by Mr. Hines as executor and trustee. Since 1885 Mr. Hines has made his residence in New York City, where he still resides. Judge Hines, while on the bench and in active practice, was always recognized by the bars of Indianapolis and the State as having legal ability of a high order. His associates in the practice were men who stood on the very top rung of the ladder. Of the few partners he had, one became Governor of the State, another Attorney-General of the United States, and a third President. Judge Hines' ambitions were not political, but rather judicial, an exceedingly laudable ambition in any lawyer. HORD, OSCAR B. Oscar B. Hord belonged to a family of lawyers. His father, Francis T. Hord, was a lawyer and Judge of a Kentucky Circuit Court. He resided at Maysville, Ky., where his son was born August 31, 1829. Oscar read law in his father's office, and when twenty years of age he located at Greensburg, Ind. In 1852 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney. He formed a partnership with Colonel Gavin, of that city. These two gen- tlemen prepared what is known as " Gavin & Hord's Statutes " of this State, in many respects the best statutes ever published, not being excelled by any unless it is the Revision of 1881. November i, 1859, he married Miss Mary J. Perkins, daughter of Samuel E. Perkins, then Judge of the Supreme Court. Of this marriage only two children are now living — Henry E. and Francis T. Hord. In i860 he was the Democratic nominee for Attorney-General, but he and his party were defeated ; in 1862 he was again nominated and elected. Retiring from the office in 1864, Judge Perkins (who was also defeated that year) and Thomas A. Hendricks formed a partnership at Indianapolis, Ind. Judge Perkins soon retired ; and some time after Colonel A. W. Hendricks and Conrad Baker were admitted as partners under the firm name of Baker, Hord & Hendricks. This partnership continued until it was dissolved by death, with the exception of the period from 1872 to 1876, when Thomas A. Hendricks was Governor. It, perhaps, was the strongest firm ever in the State. Mr. Hord was noted for his great familiarity with the statutes of the State and with their origin and history. He had an extraordinary memory for precedents, and could readily recall them when needed. In the trial of a cause he was unusually tenacious, and conducted his client's cause with great firmness. He died January 15, 1888. Of him General Harrison said: "As a lawyer he was not only his client's counselor, but his faithful friend as well. I think his death will reveal more memorandums of citations than that of any other lawyer in the State. Mr. Hord tried his cause laboriously, and I cannot conceive how a lawyer can try a case well otherwise. The fact that with the death of Mr. Hord one of the greatest law firms that ever ex- isted is extinct is certainly a sad one. I knew and loved Oscar B. Hord. He was always a strong adversary and a true friend." ' 240 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA GEAY, ISAAC P. Ex-Governor Gray was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, on the i8th day of October, 1828. His father, John Gray, was born in the same county. His mother's maiden name was Hannah Worthington. His ancestors belonged to the Society of Friends. His great-grandfather, on his father's side, came from England with William Penn, and was for many years a member of the provincial government of Pennsylvania. In 1839 his parents moved to Montgomery county, Ohio. He was educated at Dayton and New Madison, of that State. On the 8th day of September, 1850, he and Miss Eliza Jaqua were united in marriage in Darke county, Ohio. Five years later he settled at Union City, this State, and a few years thereafter opened an oflBce for the practice of the law, which he followed with success until elected Governor. When the War of the Rebellion broke out he was appointed Colonel of the 4th Indiana Cavalry, and served until ill-health compelled him to resign and return home. Having recovered his health, he recruited and organized the 147th Indiana Infantry Volunteers. In 1866 he was nominated by the anti-Julian party of the Sixth District for Congress, but was defeated by Hon. George W. Julian. In 1868 he was elected State Senator, and served four years. In 1870 he was appointed by President Grant Consul to St. Thomas, and confirmed by the Senate, but he declined the appointment. In 1876 he was nominated by ac- clamation, by the Democratic party, for the office of Lieutenant-Governor and elected. Governor Williams dying about two months before the end of his term, Mr. Gray became the Acting Governor until Governor Porter was inaugurated. In 1880 he was again nominated by acclamation for Lieuten- ant-Governor. In 1881 he was the caucus nominee of his party for United States Senator, but his party being in the minority, he was defeated by Hon. Benjamin Harrison. In 1884 he was nominated on the first ballot by over two-thirds of the vote of the convention, for Governor, defeating Hon. David Turpie and Gen. M. D. Manson, and ele^cted, running nearly 1,000 votes ahead of the National ticket. His term of office expired in January, 1889. He was a candidate for the nomination of Vice-President before the National Democratic Convention of 1888, held at St. Louis, but defeated. In 1892 his name was prominently canvassed before the Democratic National Con- vention for President. On the loth day of March, 1893, ^^ ™^s appointed by President Cleveland and promptly confirmed by the Senate, United States Minister to the Republic of Mexico, which position he held at the time of his death on the fourteenth day of February, 1895. High honors were paid to his memory by the Government of Mexico. His remains were brought to the City of Indianapolis and lay in state a day and a night in the rotunda of the State Capitol and was viewed by thousands. The next day his remains were interred at Union City in the midst of a great concourse. His appointment as Minister to Mexico was the first made after the Presi- dent's inauguration, which is always considered a very high compliment. Few men in Indiana ever held more offices than Governor Gray ; and few men ever had a stronger hold on the rank and file of his party than he. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 241 [By Frank H, Blackledge.] PORTER, ALBERT G. Albert G. Porter was born April 20, 1824. His father, Thomas Porter, was a native of Pennsylvania. At the age of eighteen he enlisted in Ball's Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers for service in the War of 1S12. At the engagement of Missesinnewa, in the then Territory of Indiana, he was severely wounded, from the effect of which he never fulh- recovered. His father had in the meantime moved from Penn- sylvania to Belleview, an island in the Ohio River belonging to Kentucky, and after the close of the war Thomas joined his family there. The mother of Albert G. Porter was ]\Iyra Tousey, a daughter of Closes Tousev, who early in the century came with his family from the State of New York and settled in Kentucky, purchasing a farm on the Ohio River opposite to the town of Lawrenceburg, Indiana. The parents of Albert G. Porter, soon after their marriage, settled at Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Thomas Porter was for several years cashier of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank, of Lawrence- burg, Indiana, and was subsequently Recorder of Dearborn count}'. After the death of his wife's father, Thomas Porter purchased the Tousey farm and moved there with his familj'. He was a man of excellent character, earnest and honest, and, moreover, possessed of a keen sense of humor, which was transmitted to his son. Myra Porter was a woman of good mo- tives and excellent judgment, and did much in every way to inspire her children to definite aims and worthy deeds. She died at the age of thirty- seven, when voung Porter was about thirteen ye-irs of age. The farm owned by Moses Tousey had attached to it a ferry, which, when Thomas Porter came into possession, he operated between the Kentucky shore and the town of Lawrenceburg. The ferry was placed in charge of young Porter and a brother. At the age of fifteen he had saved enough from his earnings to enter college, and at the earliest opportunity, therefore, he was enrolled in the preparatory department of Hanover College. His money, however, was soon exhausted, and he would have been compelled to return to the ferry had not his uncle, Omer Tousey, who was financially able, proposed to "see him through." This generous offer to assume the burden of his education was accepted, and he accordingly entered Asbnry College, at Greencastle, Ind., from which he graduated in i«43. In 1844 he came to Indianapolis. He wrote an unusually clear, legible hand ; the same handwriting has been transmitted from his grandfather through his father to himself. He found employment in the office of the Auditor of State, and so acquitted himself as to invite the commendation of Governor Whitcomb, whom he assisted for a period in the duties now performed by the Governor's private secretary. Governor Whitcomb was a man of scholarly attainments and studious habits, and the association left a deep impress on the mind of young Porter. He returned however to Lawrenceburg and renewed the study of law in the office of Philip Spooner, Esq., father of ex-Senator Spooner, of Wisconsin. He returned to Indianapolis in 1845. He had made the acquaintance of Mifs Minerva V. Biown while in the office of the Auditor of State, to whom in 16 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA £43 1S46 he was married. She was a woman of excellent character, of retiring disposition, and wholly devoted to the interests of her family. She was a member of Roberts Park Methodist Episcopal Church at the time of her death, which occurred in the year 1S75. Mr. Porter began the practice in iS45, shortly after he was married. From 1851 to 1853 he was Attorney of the City of Indianapolis. In 1853 a vacancy occurred in the office of the Reporter of the Supreme Court, occasioned by the death of Horace Carter, and he was appointed by Governor Joseph A. Wright to fill that vacancy until the next ensuing election. He had as a young man reported the decisions of the Supreme Court for the newspapers, and had so care- fully prepared them as to cause the Supreme Court unanimously, though un- solicited, to recommend him. There remained, however, after the election, about two years of the official term of Mr. Carter, and Mr. Porter was made the nominee of his— then the Democratic— party. He was elected by fourteen thousand majority. From 1857 to 1859 he was a member of the Common Council of the City of Indianapolis. Mr. Porter in 1854 became dissatisfied with the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and in 1856 was convinced that free elections would not be permitted in the Terri- tories, and, though previously a member of the Democratic party, he, to- gether with many other of its prominent men, united with the Republican party and voted for Fremont. In 1858 Mr. Porter, though not a candidate, was nominated for Representative in Congress. The district had previ- ously been carried by eight hundred Democratic majority ; he was never- theless elected by a majority of one thousand, and at the expiration of his first term he was re-elected by approximately the same majority. He served from March 4, 1859, to March A, 1863, and was a member of the judiciary and other important committees. He made speeches strongly favoring the abolition of the franking privilege and the vigorous prosecution of the war. Though urged to accept a nomination a third time, prior to the convention he wrote a letter declining further service in Congress. This determination was due to the demands of his famil}- and his profession, to which he devoted himself assiduously until 1877, when, at the suggestion of Senator John Sherman, he was appointed bj- President Hayes First Comptroller of the Treasury. This position is judicial in its nature, and at that time placed on that officer peculiar responsibility, by reason of the fact that large and important claims against the government were presented to him for allowance, many of which were inaccurate or altogether spurious. His decision was final and could not be reversed by appeal, even to the Secretary of the Treasury' or to the President. Mr. Porter was admirably qualified for the duties of the office, being an excellent lawyer and habitually accustomed to the most careful and conscientious scrutiny of matters under investigation. That he should have administered his office with distinguished credit to himself and advantage to the government was therefore a natural result. In 1880 he was urged to permit his name to be presented for the nomination of Gov- ernor. General Streight was a candidate for the office. Mr. Porter replied 244 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA in a letter to immediate friends stating that so long as the nomination of General Streight seemed possible he could not permit the use of his name. When, however, the contest in the convention had assumed an intensity which seemed to require a nomiree who could bring into hearty accord the friends of all candidates, he was urged to allow his name to be presented. To this he agreed and was promptly chosen. He was then in Washington and the result was immediately made known to him. His response accept- ing the nomination was received with great enthusiasm. Hon. Franklin Landers, the nominee of the Democratic party, was his opponent. He had a sort of prescience of the popular mind, and of the effect of the presentation of political issues, such as a lawyer of long experience in presenting causes to juries might acquire. He entered upon the campaign with great earnestness and enthusiasm ; his voluntary defense of railroad strikers in the memorable riot of 1877 gave him the friendship of the laboring classes. His appeal was always directly to the masses ; he avoided the acrimony of political contest, and sought to make full impress of his personality upon the people. When he reached across the party line to shake hands with a Democrat, which he did countless times, that man generally followed him over the line as a friend and supporter. His evident sincerity, his frankness, his heartiness, his compan- ionable nature and his facility in anecdote and happy illustration invited approach. Large crowds from the ranks of all parties greeted him every- where. His discussion of political issues was fair and broad and vigorous. No breaches were left for the attacks of the opposition. The result of the campaign was a pronounced victory ; he was elected by a majority a few votes less than seven thousand, being a larger majority than was received by President Garfield. This election demonstrated that he was what his friends believed him to be — a prince of campaigners. His inauguration as Governor occurred January 10, i88i. His messages to the General Assembly were practical, suggestive and scholarly. His first message especially may be considered, among state papers, a classic in the clearness, simplicity and correctness of its style. His recommendation therein for an appropriation to pay the expense of a survey, with a view to the drainage of the Kankakee and other marshes, was complied with, and an appropriation of iive thousand dollars made for that purpose. Although an act was passed in 1869 for the same object, it was immediately repealed. The act of 1881 was the first permanent step taken toward the reclamation of about 800,000 acres of the most fertile land in the State. In this as well as his following messages he evinced a freedom from bias, and breadth of view equal to the largest inter- ests of the commonwealth. The many and difficult questions submitted to him — appointments to office, petitions for pardons and countless requests for aid in matters wholly outs-ide of his official duty — were entertained and determined with tact, respectful consideration and sound judgment. By a happy coincidence his inauguration as Governor was preceded, only a few dajs, by his marriage to Miss Cornelia Stone, of Jamestown, New York. He became acquainted with her at Washington while First Comptroller of the Treasury. She was a woman of mature years, extensive travel and of un- THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 245 usual cultivation and refinement. In the social duties which devolved upon the Governor she presided with gentle dignity and charm. In his historical studies, to which he turned his attention upon retirement from office, in ibSs, her scholarly attainments enabled her to be a most discerning critic and helpful aid. In that year, however, her health began to fail, and, although she received every attention vphich solicitous care could bestow, she could not withstand the onset of disease. She died in November of that year. In i88i it became the duty of the General Assembly to elect a suc- cessor to Hon. Joseph E. McDonald in the United States Senate. Mr. Porter was strongly urged to allow his name to be used for that office. He had just led the part}- to a brilliant victory and was naturally looked to as the logical candidate. There is little doubt if he had conceded the wishes of his party friends that he would have been chosen. He stated, however, to all such im- portunities that he had been elected by the people with the expectation that he would perform the duties of his office, and that he furthermore felt that it would be unjust for him to permit the use of his name in a manner likely to interfere with the aspirations of gentlemen who were avowed candidates and who had rendered the part}- great and efficient service. Hon. Benjamin Harrison was elected. From 1885 to 1888 were years of retirement and quiet study. In 1888, when Senator Harrison became a candidate for the Presidential nomination by the National Republican Convention, Gov- ernor Porter was chosen as one of the State delegates-at-large to that con- vention, and upon him was placed the responsibility of presenting the name of General Harrison. He did this in a speech of great earnestness, sim- plicity and strength. The impression made upon the convention in behalf of his candidate was most favorable, and the result has become a part of history. He was again urged in 1888 from all parts of the State to permit his name to be presented in the State Convention for Governor. Certain candidates had, however, entered the race after receiving assurances from him that he would not under any conditions permit the vise of his name. He accordingly declined such request, because to concede it would have been a violation of good faith. Soon after his inauguration, among the first of his political appointments, President Harrison offered to Governor Porter the position of Minister to Italy, which was accepted. He had always been an extensive and discriminating reader. It gave an excellent opportunity for one interested, even in a general way, in the arts and classical literature to acquire a more particular and intimate knowledge. No questions of great importance arose during his term of office until the riots at New Orleans, in which several Italians were killed. This threatened to cause serious difficulty and resulted in the recall of Baron Fava, the Italian Minis- ter to the United States. The conduct of Mr. Porter toward the Italian Government throughout this affair was courteous and dignified, and his presentation of the position of the United States had very much to do with bringing about a just and amicable view of the matter upon the part of the Italian Government. His services in this respect were afterward acknowl- edged by the President in a letter to Mr. Porter. Since his return from 246 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Italy his time has been occupied upon a history of Indiana, which has been for him not only a pastime, but a serious employment. Governor Porter, among men who who have attained political eminence in this State, is peculiar in the respect that, though he has held numerous offices, he has never at any time been a candidate. While his forecast of a political contest was excellent and accurate, yet he possessed none of the qualities necessary to machine methods or political intrigue. With the maf ses, from the lowest to the highest, there was the instant recognition of a mutual sympathy. His own hard struggle as a youth rendered him keenly conscious of the helpful quality in men. Though cautious by nature, when once convinced of the justness of his position he is zealous in its advocacy. The spirit of gentle- ness is inbred, but it is entirely consistent with the quality of firmness. In his conversation, as in his life, he is singularly pure. His manner is always courteous and inviting. No man in the humblest position in life fears to approach him, knowing that he will receive a hearty welcome. In no two men in public life in Indiana are the lines of personal characteristics so nearly parallel as in Governor Hendricks and Governor Porter. They both blend a high-bred dignity with a winning fellowship; courteous, but not austere. They were both men of large sympathy, of scholarly tastes, of cautious and mature judgment. They were both popular favorites of their respective parties. Governor Porter never engaged in the practice of law after his appointment as First Comp- troller of the Treasury. From 1845 to 1858 he was associated as junior partner successively with Mr. Hiram Brown, Lucien Barbour, Esq., and Judge David McDonald. After his term of service in Congress he was senior partner with Hon. Benj. Harrison, Hon. W. P. Fishback, Judge Cyrus C. Hines, and his son, George T. Porter. As a lawyer, Governor Porter from his young manhood took first rank. His preparation of a cause was most careful and laborious. He adopted a theory of his case and urged it upon those lines. His experience as Reporter of the Supreme Court had impressed him with the importance of avoiding error, and he was therefore extremely careful in the drawing of entries and in the preparation of the record and the brief. He stood in the front rank of jury lawyers, and was regarded as most formidable in presenting causes involving rights of the oppressed. His power of persuasion and his control of the sympathies of a jury were remarkable. If he desired to cast ridicule upon the opposition, his fund of anecdote was inexhaustible ; if he sought to evoke sympathy, his appeal to sen- timent was all but irresistible. The same qualities that made him eminent as a speaker at the bar placed him among the foremost orators of the State. He never, however, spoke at random; his facts were always verified; he never indulged in "bursts " of oratory, but there was a play of humor and a magnetic touch that gave wing to his thoughts and lodgment in the mind. His public addresses and his political speeches, of which he delivered many, are justly regarded as among the best examples of such productions. His life in every way has been eminently successful, and has brought honor to himself and to his native State. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 247 BROWN, HIRAINI. The leading lawj'er and advocate of his time in cen- tral Indiana, came of an old Welsh famil)', Bruu or Bruen, which emigrated to America at the time of or shortly after Lord Baltimore's colony to Maryland, settling at Welsh Flats, near the present site of Phila- delphia. His great-grandfather, Wendell Brown, with his two sons, Thomas and Basil, trading with the Indians, had crossed the mountains to the Monongahela Valley in 1752, and Washington, on his journey to Presque Isle in 1753, had met one of them at the mouth of Wheeling Creek on the Ohio River, when Brown warned him that the Indians were preparing for war. Thomas Brown had shortly before the Revolution bought of Col. Michael Cresap a house and 700 acres, including "Redstone Old Fort," at the mouth of Nemacolin's Creek, and having perfected the title bv purchase from the State in 17S5, he laid out the town of Brownsville. He died in 1797, and was buried in the middle of the old fort, his headstone stating that "he is the proprietor of this town." His oldest son, Ignatius Brown, early in 1791 married Elizabeth Gregg, a woman of great beauty and force of char- acter, and to them at Brownsville, on the rSth of July, 1792, their first child, the subject of this sketch, was born. The family, though holding large landed interests, was hospitably inclined, of extravagant habits and insuffi- cient income. They became pecuniarily embarassed, and scattered through the West, leaving few or none of the name in the old home. Ignatius Brown with his family floated down the Ohio to Maysville, Kentucky, where he bought land and taught school. His title proving defective he went to the "Symmes Purchase" and bought land near Deerfield, Warren county, Ohio. Exposure to wet and cold on the return journey produced paralysis of the optic nerves, resulting in sudden and total blindness, and his wife and chil- dren had to remove to the new home and open up the farm almost without assistance. He was appointed Justice of the Peace and afterwards Judge of the County Court, and remained in office till his death, in 1834. His eyesight slowly returned in his later years. His wife, a woman of great energy and determination, aided by her oldest son, succeeded in managing the farm, educating the children and supporting them to maturity. To effect this Hiram was kept steadily at work, receiving very little schooling, but by studying at night, and in subsequent years by reading the best authors, he acquired a rare mastery of pure English, and his speeches, generally im- promptu, were distinguished for flttency, force and perfection of style. Hav- ing determined on a mercantile life he entered a store in Lebanon, Ohio, but the change so impaired his health that a fatal termination was feared. He at once returned to the farm and to milling, a work in which he delighted, and in time fully recovered, so developing his bodily strength, that he was easily champion of that section in all athletic exercises. This great strength and activity stood him in good stead in later years, when undergoing the hardships of circuit practice. The present generation has no idea of those hardships. "Riding the circuit" was then a campaign involving weeks of absence from home, traveling faint trails through miles of swampy woods, -■* *'/■'' Cy^M^mK, ^^^7T^*<*«^^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 249 from one couuty seat to another, in rain, snow or intense cold; swimming unbridged streams, making but a few miles distance after a long day's struggle, and sometimes sleeping in the woods without food or fire. To undergo such a life required great strength and an iron constitution. His business enterprises being very successful, he was married in 1817 to Miss Judith Smith, daughter ot James Smith, one of the earliest Methodist minis- ters, and a lady of great beauty and most amiable disposition. They lived happily together for thirty-six years, rearing a family of eight children to maturity. She died in January, 1859, deeply mourned by her family and friends. After his marriage he largely extended his business enterprises, but the commercial panic of 1820 and following years wrecked his fortune with those of thousands beside, and he was left almost stranded After settling his affairs, and acting on the advice of his friend, Thomas Corwin, he entered the office of the latter, and by close study of the law for six months, was admitted to the bar. Declining Mr. Corwin's invitation to unite with him in business, he removed to Indianapolis in November, 1823. He soon took high rank, being engaged in all important cases. Calvin Fletcher being on one side and he on the other. He was regarded as being very strong before a jury. He was intended by nature for an advocate, for being ardent and hopeful in temperament. He identified himself with his client's interests and made their cause his own. He was of medium height, squarely built, limbs tapering and well knit, small hands and feet, massive head, regular, clear cut features, firm mouth, blonde complexion, kindly light blue eyes and brown hair. Symmetrically formed, he was graceful and quick in action or gesture ; strong and mobile featured, his face expressed each passing emotion ; his clear, ringing voice could be heard, even in whisper, to the limits of the room. His manner before the jury was cordial and easy ; his gestures apt and quiet ; his statements of fact frank, and fair to his opponent ; he quickly grasped the strong points in a case, and pre- sented them again and again, but in such different lights that they were pressed deep into the juror's mind without wearying him by the repetition. His witty and humorous comments on an opponent's case often presented it in so ludicrous a phase that it was practically "laughed out of Court," and his clients were often saved from just punishment by the same means. In the early days "Court week" attracted a large part of the population to hear the news and the " lawyers plead," and when he was to speak the room was always crowded. A volume might be filled with the anecdotes told of his professional career, detailing his wit, humor and stinging repartee Many of these have been published, but most of them have perished with those who have heard and enjoyed them. He was in active practice from Novem- ber, 1823, to July, 1853, when he died " the father of the bar," and though he had made a great dejl of money, his negligence in collecting fees, and his hospitality to clients and friends had been such that he had but a moderate competency at his death. He seemed to care little for money for its own sake, saying that " a man has owned only the dollars he has spent." Mr. 250 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Brown never held office, except as Prosecuting Attorney in the early days. He was a supporter of Mr. Clay and his policy and made speeches in his favor, but was no politician. He was solicited to become a candidate for Congress by the anti-Masons, when success seemed to be certain, but refused to enter political life. His habits and tastes were entirely opposed to such life. He delighted in his home, in the society of relatives and friends, where his fun-loving nature had free rein, and his wit and humor were lav- ished on all around him. Only those who knew him under such conditions, could properly appreciate the sterling worth and honesty of the man. He was an enthusiastic pomologist at a time when few were interested in that industry, and collected at large expense many varieties of fruits and grapes, planting a large orchard of the choicest varieties. He thus drew attention to the subject and aroused others to do the same. This devotion to fruit culture was the proximate cause of his death, for he exposed himself in his orchard all day on June 5, 1853, to the hot sun ; was prostrated by the heat, and died on the evening of the 8th. His unexpected death came as a shock to the community, and his funeral was attended by the Courts, the members of the bar, and all the older citizens. He now lies in Crown Hill Cemetery at the eastern base of the hill, among his old neighbors and friends. He had nine children, eight of whom survived him. Eliza S. married James C. Yohn (now deceased); Minerva V. (now deceased,) married Albert G. Porter; Angeline died an infant; Martha S. (now deceased,) married Samuel Delzell; Clay (now deceased,) died from overwork as Assistant Surgeon of the Eleventh Indiana Volunteers, at Fort Donaldson; Matilda A. married Jonas McKay (now deceased) ; Ignatius married Elizabeth M. Marsee (now deceased) ; James T. (now deceased,) married Julia Forsythe ; Mary E. married Barton D. Jones (now deceased). [By Albert G. Porter. J GORDON, JONATHAN W. One of the ablest, most conspicuous and most widely known members of the Indianapolis bar in recent years was Jonathan W. Gordon. He was born in Washington county, Pa., in 1820, and was of Scotch-Irish parentage on the father's side. The family removed to Ripley county, Indiana, when Jonathan was a lad of fourteen, and here he was given a common-school education. When a youth he attended Hanover College for a single term, afterward studied law, and in 1844 was admitted to practice at the bar. He volunteered as a soldier at the beginning of the Mexican War and was given an officer's commission, but being taken sick at the mouth of the Rio Grande he was sent home and saw no service in the field. Previous to entering the army he had studied medi- cine, and upon his return from Mexico he resumed the study, and in the winter of 1847-48 he attended lectures at the Rush Medical College, at Chicago. He practiced this profession with success for some two years, but being dissatisfie'd with medicine he came to Indianapolis in 1852 to begin the practice of the law, and thenceforward made Indianapolis his home. In his 'r4> ,' , ng-t/L^^ "ZcH^ 252 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA early days at the bar, to piece out his income, he was engaged as a news- paper reporter and as editor of a paper called the " Chart," which was under the patronage of the "Sons of Temperance" In 1853 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney for Marion county, but after a while resigned the office in order to give closer attention to his growing law practice In 1856, 1858 and 1878 he was a member of the State's House of Representatives, and in 1858 was the Speaker at both the special and regular sessions of that body. In 1861 he was elected Clerk of the House of Representatives, but when news came of the firing upon Fort Sumter he took a vigorous stand for the defense of the Nation and the upholding of the Union and resigned his office, and at a great public meeting held in Indianapolis is said to have placed his name first on the list of those volunteering to go to the field. After a short service in West Virginia as a non-commissioned officer in ihe Ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, where he rendered good service, he was appointed by the President a Major in the Eleventh United States Infantry. He was assigned to duties in Massachusetts and afterwards in Indiana, and in September, 1863, was sent to the front for service with the Army of the Potomac. He resigned his com- mission in the spring of 1864, upon the grouud that the pay as an officer was not sufficient to enable him to support his family, and soon afterwards he re-engaged in the practice of the law. In his later years, when his health was broken and he was unable to practice his profession, he was offered the place of Clerk of the Supreme Court, to fill a vacancy, and accepted it with warm gratitude. He was twice married, his fir=t wife being being Miss Catharine Overturf, of Ripley county ; his second wife being a daughter of Col. Ebeuezer Dumont, of Indianapolis. He died April 27, 1887. In per- sonal appearance Major Gordon was tall, well-formed, militarj'-looking, and when in good health he had a strong physique and an active and vigorous manner. He was indeed a picturesque fi .jure. Possessing a strong and deep voice, with a face and an eye that would shine approval and sympathy when he felt them, and that would show scorn when he felt scorn, with vigorous gesture, fervent manner, with fine command of language, with a mind stored with the best poetry and prose, familiar with the Scriptures, with humor, anecdote, imagination, fancy, it was a pleasure and it was a profit to see and to hear him. A man of tender sympathies, an appeal from the weak or the poor or the friendless, whether for money help or help from him as a lawyer, he could not resist. He took and conducted many cases purely out of sympathy for the poor, the weak or the oppressed, as they seemed to him, and gave his best and unremitting service. He was a steadfast friend, and to young men, especially, whether lawyers or not, he delighted to give aid. He was honorable and manly in the practice of his profession and in his intercourse with his fellowmen. In the conduct of his cases he was ever a hard student and an early and late and tireless worker. He was thoroughly well grounded in the reasons and the science of the law and was never content with a superficial knowledge of anything. His practice was largely — perhaps chiefly — in the trial of cases before juries, and in his maturer years he was remarkably able and successful, and attained to a high reputation, as a lawyer THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 253 in criminal cases. This seemed to his friends to be the field where his studies, his qualities of mind, his talents, his strong and fervid oratorical powers found their best play. His knowledge of the criminal law was indeed pre-eminent, and he was deeply grounded, also, in the principles of constitu- tional law. Some of his masterly arguments on questions of purely legal character (as in the " Treason Trials " in the United States Court at Indiana- polis iu 1864) will long be remembered for their depth and breadth of research, their logical force, their eloquence, and their solemn earnestness. He was a frequent and vigorous controversial writer on political questions. In political campaigns he was a forcible speaker, but he had a tendency to pursue arguments of his own, though they might not harmonize with the party policy or the policy of the leaders. He was therefore not always in full fellowship with party men. He could not be led by arguments which seemed to him to be fallacious or to be far less strong than his own. His literary style was clear, rapid, vigorous ; and his choice of fit word and phrase evidenced the fine quality of his mind. He wrote verses which were received with favor and commendation. The writer first knew Major Gordon at Hanover Col- lege. He was a poor and awkward-looking country boy, but was stirred by ambition, and he then possessed the characteristics which were his through- out his whole life — a great fondness, early acquired, for reading the best literature and a fine appreciation of such literature, a remarkably well- stored mind and a highly retentive memory, diligent application to the thing in hand, an aptness and a love for oratory, warm heartedness, quick and generous sympathy for the humble and the oppressed, a fervid imagina- tion, a somewhat enthusiastic and romantic nature, impulsiveness in friend- ships and dislikes, but no lasting rancor. To stories of distress he was ever credulous, and he could never resist an appeal so long as he had a farthing that he could bestow. He had therefore no faculty for saving money. This was indeed his besetting fault, and he was too often a debtor. But it gave him great pleasure to be able to pay off his debts. An instance is recalled ; Much involved in debt and feeling great anxiety about it, he received some- what unexpectedly a considerable fee due him from the Government. He sat down at once and made an accurate list of what he owed, computed inter- est on the sums owing to persons of narrow means, looked up all his creditors and paid all to the last farthing. Happy and buoyant though he often was, the writer never saw him so happy and buoyant as when he told what he had done, although the payment of his debts had probably used up all the money he had received. In the midst of his law practice he kept up his miscellaneous reading. He was fond of the society of his professional brethren and of intelligent men and women generally, and in conversation he was always spirited, brilliant and interesting. His first-born son was Joseph R. T. Gordon. While yet a youth he volunteered as a soldier in the War of the Rebellion, and not long after was killed in battle in West Virginia. The death of this loved boy, to whom he was tenderly attached and for whom he had builded high hopes, greatly saddened the father and was a blow that he felt deeply for the remainder of his life. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 255 ELLIOTT, BYRON K. The grandfather of Judge Elliott moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio in 1799. His christian name was James. It was in this State, in Butler county, near Hamilton, September 4, 1835, that the subject of this sketch was born. He attended, among other schools, the Hamilton Academy, Furman's Academy and a school taught by Prof. F. M. Slack, a noted teacher of his day. He had as a class-mate W. D. Howells. In 1S49 he went to Cincinnati, and there remained over a year, and in Decem- ber, 1S50, with his father, Gen. William J. Elliott, came to Indianapolis. There he attended school at the " Old Seminary." After having pursued the usual course of study, he was admitted to practice in February, 1858. In May, 1859, he was elected City Attorney, a high compliment for one so young in his profession. During the war of the rebellion he was in the One Hundred day service as a Captain in the I32d Indiana Volunteers, and afterward served as Adjutant-General on the staff of Gen. Milroy. In 1865, 1867 and 1869, he was successively elected City Attorney of Indianapolis, receiving in two elections the votes of all the municipal councilmen, and in the other election all the votes except one. In October, 1870, without opposition, he was elected Judge of the Marion county Criminal Court, and resigned the office of City Attorney. In November, 1872, the common council created the office of City Solicitor and unanimously requested him to accept that office. He resigned, in November, 1872, the office of Judge of the Criminal Court and again assumed control of the legal department of the city of Indianapolis as City Solicitor. This office was discontinued in 1873 and he was unani- mously elected City Attorney in 1873 and served until 1875. In 1876 he was elected Judge of the Superior Court of Marion county, without solicitation, while absent from home, and was renominated by acclamation in 1880, but declined the nomination in order to accept the nomination for Judge of the Supreme Court. To this position he was elected and took his seat on that bench January 3, 1881, to which position he was re-elected in 1886. In 1892, he was again nominated but went down with his party. Notwithstanding the arduous duties these public offices entailed upon him, he yet found time to deliver lectures to the law classes of Butler University, of Central Law School, both at Indianapolis, of DePauw University, at Greencastle, Ind., and at the Northwestern University, located at Chicago. He is also one of the promoters and lecturers in the newly organized Indiana Law School, of Indianapolis, of which he is the President. Judge Elliott, with his only son, William F. Elliott, resumed the practice at the latter city on his retirement from the bench in January, 1893. He and his son are the joint authors of " The Work of the Advocate," published in 1888, a practical treatise con- taining suggestions for preparation of trials. This work had a wide sale, and was well received by the profession, especially by the younger members of the bar, to whom it is a great assistance. It was given more than the usual attention by the law journals of the country. In 1890 these two authors published a volume on "Roads and Streets," which was also un- usually well received, having a wide sale. This book is quoted by the courts 256 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA throughout the country and stands high with Judges and text writers. In 1892 they published " Appellate Procedure," a large volume of nearly nine hundred pages, devoted to practice in a Supreme or Appellate Court. This book is recognized as a standard authority and is often cited by the Federal and State Courts. It was a. labor of love, for no author can hope to secure adequate renumeration for the amount of labor of necessity bestowed on such a work. Judge Elliott and his son have also written a work on " General Practice " in two large volumes. This work is founded on the " Work of the Advocate," which has been out of print for more than five years. Besides these works of his pen, Judge Elliott has delivered many public addresses. In August, 1890, he delivered an address before the National Bar Association, that met at Indianapolis, on "Local Self-Government," which attracted wide attention. Probably as artistic work he has ever done was a memorial address delivered in Goshen, Indiana, in December, 1890, on the life of Judge Joseph A. S. Mitchell. The opinions of Judge Blackford run through thirteen volumes of the Indiana Reports ; of Judge Worden, seventy-four ; of Judge Perkins, forty ; and of Judge Elliott, sixty. But unless it be Black- ford, Judge Elliott has prepared more opinions disposing of cases than any Judge who ever sat upon the Supreme Court Bench of this State. He was upon the bench twelve years. It is beyond possibility, in the space allotted to this sketch, to enumerate here the many opinions of importance that have been prepared by him ; and to enumerate any as im.portant is almost inevita- ble to omit others of greater importance'. In some important cases he dis- sented from the majority opinions and in all the cases where the questions upon which he dissented have come under review of other courts, his dissent- ing opinions have been approved. The June number, 1892, of the " Green Bag," contained the following, written by Mr. W. W. Thornton, concerning the subject of this sketch : " The exceptional opportunities enjoyed by Judge Elliott before he ascended the bench of the highest tribunal of his State well fitted him for that exalted position. He began the practice in the capital of his State, then a rapidly growing and now a large city — the largest in the State — of which he was for many years City Attorney. His practice was such as a large city brings to a successful and general practitioner. His experience on both the criminal and nisi priushsncii was of great advantage to him. He possesses an unusual command of language, that in early man- hood threatened to overwhelm him with its exuberance, and which he happily corrected by the reading of authors of strict and severe expression, such as Aristotle, Locke and Kant. He has that happy faculty, deemed so valuable in the legal profession, of stating a proposition two or three times in the same connection, yet in language so different each time that he can not be charged with redundancy. This is a rare gift, and its right use is highly prized by the lawyer who is so happy to discover a controverted or rare question thus discussed. His memory of cases reported, and the princi- ples enunciated in the opinions, is remarkable, often citing them from memory alone. From this fact he derives great aid, and by his untiring THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 257 energ)' and perseverance disposes of an amount of work that is a continual surprise to his oldest friends. His opinions contain not only many, but a wealth of citations that entailed upon him great labor. They are free of long extracts taken from the record, and in opening he often proceeds to the discussion of a controverted proposition without a preliminary statement." September 5, 1S55, he and Harriet A. Talbott were married ; and two chil- dren have been born to them, a son and a daughter. Will 'am F. Elliott, his law partner, and Mrs. Robert C. Wright, who now resides in Columbia, South Carolina. HARRIS, ADDISON C. At the time George Fox was preaching through Wales, the ancestors of Mr. Harris joined the Society of Friends. The family was originally from Cornwall, England, and the tradition is, were miners. Soon after William Penn founded the colony at Philadel- phia, the family left Wales and settled in Pennsylvania. When in the last century the great emigration set oat to Virginia and North Carolina, several members of the family left Pennsylvania and settled south of the Potomac. Mr. Harris' ancestor took up his home in Guilford county, North Carolina. About the beginning of this century, the Quaker Yearly Meeting issued a letter to the effect that a member of the Society of Friends ought not to hold slaves. In pursuance of thi-s, Obadiah Harris, a North Carolina Quaker preacher, manumitted his slaves and brought them with him to the Territory of the Northwest, settling them according to his best means on lands in Ohio. He, himself, pushed further to the frontier, and about the year 1810, estab- lished his home in the forest a few miles north of where the city of Rich- mond, Indiana, now stands. During the war of 1S12 which soon followed, his cabin was often visited by both Indians and whites engaged in the strife, but his reputation for peace secured him against any molestation or harm. He took an active part in the memorable struggle in 1815 which resulted in the election of Governor Jennings, and the admission into the Union, unstained by the institution of slavery. He had a large family of sons and daughters, most of whom resided in Wayne county, but his oldest son, Obadiah Harris, was one of the early pioneers of Marion county, to which he came in 1821. Addison C. Harris, the subject of this sketch, was born on a farm a few miles northwest of Richmond, in October 1840. His father, Branson L. Harris was the grandson of the old Quaker pioneer. In connec- tion with the common school system, the Quakers of the neighborhood maintained an excellent common school, which the son attended for several years, except during the summer, when he worked upon the farm. After- wards he entered the Northwestern (now Butler) University, graduating in 1862. After a course of reading in the law at home, in the office of Barbour & Howland, and a course of law lectures given by Judge Samuel E. Perkins, one of the Supreme Justices of the State, Mr. Harris was admitted to the bar in 1865, and entered upon the practice of his profession in the city of Indian- 17 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 259 apolis, where lie still resides. In 1876 he was nominated by the Republicans for State Senator, and elected, serving iu the sessions of 1877 and 1879, during both sessions being a member of the Judiciary Committee. On the floor of the Senate he was one of the leading speakers. His father was at the same time a member of the House. In 1879. the partnership he had several years before formed with John T. Dye, Esq., was dissolved, and ever since then he has practically conducted his practice alone. At the present time he is unquestionably n')t only one of the leading lawyers of the Indian- apolis Bar, but also of the State. His practice is largely in corporation law. In cases involving the validity of wills he has had much experience. He has been engaged in many cases involving constitutional law, and the validity and construction of statutes, and he has great faith in juries doing the right thing and likes to win his cases before the panel. As a conversa- tionalist, Mr. Harris is graceful and entertaining, having readily at his com- mand a large fund of information gathered through years of an omnivorous and wide range of reading ; as a public speaker, outside of his professional work, he is forcible and eloquent, often being one of the speakers on public occasions at his home when addresses are delivered. In 1868 he married India Crago, a graduate of the Northwestern University, and a daughter of Henry Crago, Esq., of Connersville, Ind. They reside in one of the most beautiful residences in Indianapolis, on North Meridian street. WICK, WILLIAM WATSON. To the present generation the name of William W. Wick is scarcely known ; and yet throughout the of&cial records of the State, Legislative reports, and session laws, few names appear more frequently than his. He was one of the pioneers of the State, and was the first lawyer to settle in Fayette county. His birth place was Cannonsburg, Washington county, Pa., where he was born February 23, 1796. His father, William Wick, was a Presbyterian Minister of fine education, who in 1800 had settled in what has been said to be the poorest town- ship in the Western reserve of Ohio — a township adjoining the "State of Pennsylvania. Here in 1791, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Col. Daniel McFarland, of the Revolutionary War ; she was of Scotch and Puritan, he of Dutch and English descent. Rev. William Wick, and his brother Henry, settled in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1801, where the one labored earnestly as a missionary, while the other was successful in securing an abundance of this world's goods. The elder William was not successful in persuading his son to become a minister. The son turned a deaf ear to the teachings of Calvin- ism, and in that day no man could hope to enter the Presbyterian ministry without an explicit belief in that doctrine. Showing a greater love for books than did his brothers, he was sent to college, where he acquired a good academic education. At his father's death, iu 1814, he immediately made over to his mother, so far as his minority would allow, all his interests in his father's estate, consisting of about $3,000, and leaving college, set out in M^^-^.^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 261 quest of his fortune, teaching in his native county viutil i8i6, when he descended the Ohio in a "broad horn " to Cincinnati, where he taught school by day, and studied medicine at night, principally by the light of log-heaps in a clearing. Not caring for medicine, he later began the study of law' for which purpose he entered the office of Hon. Thomas Corwin, in Lebanon, Ohio. In December, 1819, he settled as a lawyer in Connersville, Ind. In 1820, he was chosen Clerk of the House of Representatives, and served until January, 1822. In those days the Legislature met annually in December, and December 31, 1821, that body created a new circuit for Marion county, and a few days later elected Wick its first Judge. He was the first Judge of the "New Purchase." Up to that time Corydon was the capital of the State. The removal of the capital to Indianapolis rendered necessary a new circuit. Perhaps no better testimonial could be asked touching his legal ability than this early preferment of Judge Wick, although he had been but a little over two 3-ears in the State, he was elected to the responsible position of Circuit Judge. The circuit was composed of the counties of Lawrence, Monroe, Morgan, Greene, Owen, Marion, Hendricks, Rush, Decatur, Bartholomew, Shelby, Jennings and Johnson It would be appalling to any Judge of to-day to contemplate holding Court in each of these counties for a few days in the year, even with all our railroad facilities ; how much more must it have been then, when the trip was made on horseback through miry roads and bottom- less swamps. In the spring of 1822 Judge Wick settled permanently in Indianapolis. While Judge, in Nove'tober, 1824, he tried Bridges, Hudson, and the elder and younger Sawyers, for the killing, in a most brvital manner, of a number of Indians — men, women and children — on March 22d of that year, on Fall Creek, about thirty miles above its mouth. All four were sen- tenced to be hung, and the sentence was inflicted upon all except the younger Bridges, who, upon the scaffold, was orally pardoned by Gov. Ray, in a long address delivered by him, in full uniform, from the scaffold. The executions are notable ; for they are the first instances of the execution of white men for the murder of Indians. The trial took place at Anderson and attracted great attention. Judge Wick held Court in Indianapolis, on September 26, 1822. The first session was held in Gen. Carr's house, opposite the western side of the present entrance to ths court house. Harvey Bates was the Sheriff. James M. Ray was Clerk, and Calvin Fletcher, temporary Prosecutor. As soon as Court convened, an adjournment was taken to the house of Jacob R. Crumbaugh on the north side of Washington street, just west of the canal. The second session was commenced at Gen. Carr's house. May 5, 1823, but adjourned to the Washington Hall Tavern. The third also commenced at Gen. Carr's house on November 3, 1823, but adjourned instantly to James Mcllvaine's cabin, just north of the Governor's Circle, now Monument Place. The fourth and fifth sessions likewise met at Gen. Carr's residence, but on the last meeting the adjournment was to the newly con- structed court house. Such were the beginnings of the Courts at the capital of the State. The salary of Judge Wick was ridiculously small ; at the close 252 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA of the )'ear 1824, be resigned, in order to escape starvation. He was at once chosen Secretary of State, and took his office in the new court house. He served four years, and was then elected Prosecuting Attorney of the circuit, and in 1834, and 1850 again, Judge. In 1835 he became a. Jackson Demo- crat. Previous to that time he had been a Whig, or follower of Clay. Judge Wick, in an autobiographical note, written in the third person in 1848, says of his change in politics and in holding office: "He has committed much folly in holding offices, and only escapes the condemnation of his own judgment in consideration of the fact that he never accepted a seat in the State Legislature. In 1835 he changed his politics ; his party did not leave him — he left it. In 1839 he was chosen a member of Congress as a Democrat, also elected in 1845 and 1847. He was a Whig candidate for Congress in 1831 and got beat. Right. He was once a Clay candidate for Elector and got beat. Right. In 1849 he was a Democratic candidate for Elector — successful — right." In 1845, Gov. Whitcomb nominated him forjudge of the Supreme Court with James Morrison, but the Senate failed to confirm him. President Pierce appointed him Postmaster at Indianapolis; he served four years and then resumed the practice of law. When the question of the admission of Kansas as a State under the Lecompton Constitution became an issue before the country, he stood with the so-called anti-Lecompton Democrats, and wrote frequent letters on the subject to his friend, Hon. William H. English, then a member of Congress, from which the following extracts are taken : "I am opposed to the admission of Kansas on the Lecompton Constitution solely on the point of honor," and at some length he goes on to show that the honor of the Democratic party demands the submission of the Constitu- tion to the people; he begs of Mr. English not to "risk his all " by voting for a bill whose passage would bring dishonor upon his party. " ' The wise man forseeth the evil and hideth himself, the fool passes on and is punished.' I would not expect you to be a fool, but on the contrary would expect your wariness, clear-sightedness and high sense of honor to save you from minis- tering to the ambitious plans of others, by surrendering yourself to be led blind- fold into the pit. I fee it is likely I shall not be deceived. I congrat- ulate you." For forty years Judge Wick was a public man, for more than sixteen years of which time he was acting Judge. Coming to the State only four years after its entrance into the Union as one of the sisterhood of States, when the soil was fresh, the land cheap, and the opportunities of an ener- getic, and acquisitive man great, he might have built up, as many of his legal brothers and associates did, a considerable, if not indeed a great fortune, but Judge Wick's disposition to accommodate his friends, by going security, and also in other ways, as well as an inclination to spend money freely himself, prevented the accumulation of property, and he died comparatively poor. Judge Wick was a man of culture. Wherever found, or in whatever association, he was the leader in conversation and in the flow of wit. "Judge Wick," says Mr. W. W. Woollen (who knew him well), "like Yorick, was a ' fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy ! ' His exuberant humor THE BK\'CH AND BAR OF INDIANA 263 often ' set the table in a roar,' making him one of the best and most jolly of companions. Fun and hilarity abovmded wherever he was, not even leaving him when on the bench." In 1848, he hnmorously said of himself : "At the present writing Jlr. Wick is fifty-lwo years of age ; fair, a little fat, having increased since 1S33, from 146 to 2to pounds — six feet and one inch high, good complexion, i-orth- — has been called the best looking man about town — but that was ten years ago — not to be sneezed at now — a little gra3' — has had chilis and fever, bilious attacks and dj'spepsia enough to kill dozen common men, and has passed through misfortunes sufficient to humble a score of ordinary specimens of human nature. * * * jjg acquired a good deal of miscellaneous knowledge, loves fun, looks serious, rises early, works much, and has a decided penchant for light diet, humor, reading, business, the drama, a fine horse, his gun, and the woods. Wick owes nothing, and were he to die to-day, his estate would inventory $800 or ^900. He saves nothing of his per diem and mileage and yet has no vices to run away with money. He 'takes no thought for to-morrow,' but relies upon the good Providence to which he is debtor for all. Wick would advise young men to fear and trust God, to cheat rogues and deceive intriguers by being perfectly honest (this mode misleads such cattle effectually), to touch the glass lightly, to eschew security and debt, tobacco, betting, hypocrisy and federalism, to rather believe or fall in with new philosophical and moral humbugs, and to love woman too well to injure her. They will thus be happy now and will secure serenity at fifty-two years of age and thence onward." In 1821, Mr. Wick married Miss Laura Finch, a sister of Hon. Fabius M. Finch. Mrs. Wick was the mother of four children, one of whom, Mrs. William H. Overstreet, is now living in Franklin, Ind. The first Mrs. Wick died in 1832. In 1839, Judge Wick married Miss Isabella Barbee of Kentucky, who survived her husband seven vears. Mrs. Frederick G. Volmer, of Philadelphia, and Miss Alice B. Wick, of Indianapolis, were of this marriage. While with his daughter in Franklin, Judge Wick died. May 19, 1868, and was buried in the cemetery of that place. Judge Wick was unusually kind and affectionate to his family. A letter written to his youngest daughter, now lying before the writer, is full of loving sentences of tenderness and affection. John H. B. Nowland, in his early reminiscences of Indianapolis, says of him that "he left many friends throughout the entire State and no enemies. In all the relations of life he was kind and affable." He possessed literary ability. The autobiographical note shows a vigorous style. Two sketches now before the writer — in his own handwriting — show decided taste for literature and more than ordinary ability as a writer. He wrote a fine hand. Judge D. D. Banta says of him : " He was a good lawyer and made an excellent Judge. It is remembered that he was not garrulous when on the bench, heard counsel patiently, decided all questions promptly, and seldom gave any reasons for his decisions. He wrote all bills of exceptions, and did it with fairness to all. He was a very tender-hearted man, and always gave the accused the benefit of the doubt. This brought unfriendly criticisms sometimes but it did not change his course. 254 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA He was cool and deliberate while ou the bench ; he seldom showed temper. He was kind to young lawyers, was respectful to the old, and never suffered any one to go beyond the bounds of professional courtesy in their treatment of himself." He and Hon. Lucian Barbour prepared the first legal treatise published in the State, known as "Barbour and Wick's Treatise for Justices of the Peace " Hon. W. P. Fishback, in the Indianapolis Daily Journal, January 28, 1894, speaks of him as follows : "'Last Sunday I spoke of Judge Wick in connection with Judge Morrison. Wick was a man of powerful frame, very tall, of dignified carriage and sedate and deliberate in his manner of speech. He made light of the small annoyances of life. Coming home from Washington at the end of a session of Congress, of which he was a member, he applied for board and lodging to Mr. Pyle, the proprietor of the Pyle House, which was then located where the Grand Hotel stands. The only vacant room was in the attic and the only outlook was through a dormer window in the west roof. There was no hotter or more uncomfortable place in town. Judge Wick took it without grumbling, remarking that there were ' only about one hundred hot days in the summer anyhow.' I have seen him pacing the streets with his measured step, which was not accelerated in the least by the fact that the rain was pouring down upon his silk hat and broad- cloth suit. He said he would not be bothered with an umbrella. I think he succeeded Judge Peaslee on the Circuit bench, and Peaslee resumed the practice. In one of his first cases before Wick, Peaislee cited some case in which he, when Judge, had decided a legal question bearing on the contro- versy. ' That may have been a good law when you were on the bench. Judge Peaslee, but there is another man 'guessing' at the law in this Court now,' remarked Judge Wick. And he was a good guesser. Possessing a large fund of common sense, a rare instinct for gifting at the justice and merits of a controversy, aud being thoroughly grounded in the elementary principles of the law, he was an able and efficient Judge. He tried a case as special Judge after I came to Indianapolis. It was a very old equity case which had stood as a snag in the docket, and, as the regular Judge had beerr dodging it for several terms, counsel had Wick appointed to try it. The argument, which consumed a whole day, was patiently listened to. The next morning Judge Wick came upon the bench with the bulky papers done up in a red tape, which had probably not been untied, and proceeded as follows: 'Well, gen- tlemen, this case has bothered me a good deal. I went home last night and sat by the fire and thought it all over for an hour or two, and couldn't make up my mind. I then went across the street to Henry's bowling alley, and after a glass of beer rolled a game of nine-pins, and went home and went to bed. After a good night's sleep my mind cleared up, and I think now I understand this case — at any rate, I will give you the best guess I can about it.' He then went on with a most lucid statement of the facts and the law as applied to them, so that the lawyers, in spite of all the Judge had said, were satisfied that their case had been carefully considered. Judge Wick had been a prominent Democratic politician, having served in Congress, and having THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 265 held the office of Postmaster at ludiauapolis (luring Pierce's administration. Like most of his professional brethren, he lacked what Hugh O'Neal called the 'ground-squirrel instinct of acquisitiveness,' and died a poor man." FAIRBANKS, CHARLES WARREN, was born near Unionville Centre, Union County, Ohio, May ii, 1852. His parents, Loreston M. and Mary A. (Smith) Fairbanks, were born in Barnard, Vt., and Green River, Columbiana County, N. Y., respectively. They emigrated to Union County, Ohio, in 1836, and helped to carve that part of the State out of the wilderness. Charles worked on the farm and attended district school during his boyhood. From the district school he entered the Ohio Wesleyan Uni- versity, at Delaware, Ohio,' from which he was graduated as a classical student in 1872. During his senior year he was editor of the "Western Collegian," a journal published by the students of the University. Mr. Fairbanks decided to become a lawyer before he entered college, and worked and studied with that end in view. He was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio in 1874, and later in the same year moved to Indian- apolis. In October, 1874, he was married to Cornelia Cole, daughter of Judge P. B. Cole, of Marysville, Ohio. His wife was graduated from the same college the same year as Mr. Fairbanks. They have five children. Mr. Fairbanks has been a successful practitioner, and has practiced extensively in the Federal and State Courts in Indiana and in the adjoining States. He has been engaged in many important cases. He has been a trustee of the Ohio Wesleyan University for a number of years, taking an active interest in the welfare of his alma mater. He is one of the trustees of the Meridian Street Methodist Episcopal Church, although not a member of any religious denomination. He is also a director of the Consumers' Gas Trust Company, created by the citizens of Indianapolis to secure cheap fuel. He takes an active part in all matters which tend to advance the interests of the public or his neighbo s. He is one of the founders of the Indiana Law School, and a member of the faculty. He is a member of a number of literary clubs and societies, and has delivered many addresses before Universities and assemblages. Mr. Fairbanks has never held nor sought any political office, preferring to devote himself to his family and chosen profession. He has been an ardent advocate of the principles of the Republican party, and has spoken much in the campaigns of Indiana and other States. In 1892 he was chairman of the Republican State Convention, and delivered an address which was published as the " Campaign Key-Note." In 1893 he was the unanimous choice of the Republicans for United States Senator in opposition to the Hon David Turpie, who was the Democratic choice. Upon the return of President Harrison at the close of his term of office, Mr. Fairbanks delivered the formal address of welcome on behalf of the citizens. Jlu^Jfux^ C Ur . THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 267 WALKER, LEWIS C, was born on a farm near Wilmington, Ohio, December 4, 1S37. His ancestors came from England at an early day and chose the beautiful and fertile valley of the Shenandoah of Virginia for their home. His grandparents, however, had heard charm- ing descriptions of the free soil of Ohio, and deciding to make it their new home came West and selected a large tract of Ian 1 in the great Ohio Valley. Here Mr. Walker was born and grew to manhood. All the hard work of farm life luckily fell to his lot. Luckily, because it gave him regular and industrious habits, good health and a discipline that rounded him into a self-reliant, manly man. Attending the common schools in the winter he obtained a fair English education. A little learning, however, created a taste for more and he determined upon a collegiate course. He had deter- mined to leave the farm and seek distinction in one of the learned profes- sions, a good foundation for which he thought could only be laid by the mental training of the college. He first went to the Wilmington Academy, and after finishing there, went to the South- Western Normal at Lebanon, Ohio. Here he took the highest college course of study and graduated with distinction and honor. Being now thoroughly equipped for the study of law, he entered the office of Judge A. W. Doan, of Wilmington, a distin- guished practitioner and a learued Judge, and entered with enthusiasm upon his studies. He was soon admitted to the bar and his preceptor was so pleased with his progress and promise, that he took him into partnership with him. Mr. Walker's intercourse with the people soon developed the fact that he was to become a popular man with them, and that he was in danger of being tempted from the practice of the law, to which his whole ambition and every thought were turned, by the allurements of public ofiice. Against his wishes and inclinations, he was nominated and elected Mayor of his city. Following his term as Mayor, he was twice elected Prosecuting Attorney. This was more to his taste and in the line of his chosen profes- sion, and in this official position he was thrown into contact with the ablest men at the bar and was schooled in the trial of cases as many of our best trial lawyers have been. Probably the best discipline in trying cases a young lawyer can have is in this office, as the brightest, keenest and ablest lawyers are employed in the defense. During this period he served as Chairman of the Republican County Committee. His early life on the farm gave him a deep interest in agricultural matters, and he found time to serve as Secre- tary of the District fair for some years. Successful as he has been at Wil- mington, he had seen and become charmed with the beauties of the White- water Valley of Indiana, and in 1869 he moved to Richmond to make that beautiful city his new home. He entered into practice with his brother, Hon. Calvin B. Walker, late Deputy Commissioner of Pensions. The firm at once took front rank at the bar, and were soon favored with a fine prac- tice. In 1872 Mr Walker was elect( d to the General Assembly and served two sessions. Besides being on several other committees, he was appointed Chairman of the Judiciary of both sessions. Two things were done, to ac- ^^yU^y?a j^ >^:^/t^e^vK cHtUTAT^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 301 his }-outh, he -was among the first who enlisted in Madison in one of the com- panies formed to enter the service under the proclamation of President Lin- coln calling for 75,000 volunteers for three mouths. The company in which Mr. Holstein enlisted, in the organization of regiments was attachel to the Sixth Indiana Volunteers, Colonel T. T. Crittenden commanding. Notwith- standing the extreme youth of Mr. Holstein, Colonel Crittenden recognized the advantage of his military education, appointed him Sergeant-Major of the regiment, which at once marched to Virginia, where it participated in all the movements of the opening campaign of the war. Here Mr. Holstein was distinguished by his untiring zeal in the scouting service, which was organ- ized of volunteers in the absence of cavalry. Upon the expiration of the service of the Sixth Indiana, Mr. Holstein, in recognition of his meritorious service in that organization, was appointed First Lieutenant and Adjutant of the Twenty-second Regiment Indiana Volunteers, Colonel Jefferson C. Davis commanding. In this position he discharged his duties in such satisfactory manner that when Colonel Davis, known as one of the most exacting officers, was promoted to Brigadier-General, he appointed Mr. Holstein his acting Assistant Adjutant-General, in which position, one of great responsibility, he was continued by General Davis when he assumed command of a division. In this position Mr. Holstein participated in the battle of Pea Ridge, Ark., and was mentioned in the official reports of that affair for conspicuous gal- lantry oa the field and for other meritorious and distinguished services. After the battle of Pea Ridge Mr. Holstein was recommended for promotion to the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of the Twenty-second Indiana, in place of Lieu- tenant-Colonel Hendricks, deceased ; but owing to his youth and other influ- ences he was not appointed. After this he participated as acting Assistant Adjutant-General of General Jeff C. Davis' division in the campaigns in Ar- kansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. In Octo- ber, 1862, he was tendered the commission of Major of the Twenty-second Regiment Indiana Volunteers, which he declined and continued his service with General Davis, upon whose recommendation he was by President Lincoln appointed Assistant Adjutant-General of Volunteers, with the rank of Captain, and assigaed to duty with the division commanded by General Davis until the latter part of 1863 ; after having been recommended by General Davis and other officers of rank in the division for the command of a regiment Governor Morton declined to appoint Mr. Holstein on account of his extreme youth. Having now served nearly three years in active service, there being no prospect of promotion, and his health being affected, Mr. Holstein resigned from the service and returne 1 to his home rt Madison, ac- companied by the sincere wishes for his future success by all who came in contact with him during his military service. Ge:ieral Davis told the writer of this sketch that he knew of no young man who entered the army from civil life who adapted himself better t-> all the exigencies of a milit iry career in time of war than Mr. Holstein ; that he regretted very much that he re- tired from the service for which he was so eminently fit, and took occasion ^ ^, ^ c4'Cl\ tx^x . THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 303 to deprecate the idea that important commands were withheld from young officers on account of their youth, when possessed of other qualifications eminently fitting them for a military life and the command of troops in the field, which mistaken policy in its results was detrimental to theefficiency of the army. On his return home from the service he re-entered Hanover Col- lege and completed the course of education in that institution and was grad- uated. To further his education and fit himself for the profession of the law, for which he exhibited much aptitude, he entered the Law School of Harvard College, where he graduated after pursuing the regular course. In the latter part of 1866 he removed to the city of Indianapolis and entered the law office of the well-known firm of Hendricks, Hord & Hendricks, of which the late Thomas A. Hendricks, Vice-President of the United States, was the leading member. In the fall of 1868 he formed a partnership in the practice of the law with the Hon. Byron K. Elliott, who until recently was one of the most distinguished Judges of the Supreme Court of the State of Indiana. This partnership continued until the election of Mr. Elliott as Judge of the Marion Criminal Court, when that gentlemen retired from the firm of Elliott & Hol- stein, and Mr. Holstein continued the practice alone with much success until August, 1871, when he was appointed by the Attorney-General of the United States assistant to General Thomas M. Browne, the United States District Attorney for Indiana. His official duties not demanding full time, in Janu- ary, 1874, Mr. Holstein became a member of the law firm of Hanna & Knefler, which thereafter was known as the firm of Hanna, Knefler & Holstein, in which he continued the practice of the law, until compelled by the prosecu- tion of the Whisky Conspiracy cases to sever his connection with the last- named firm, as his time was fully taken up with the pursuit of his official duties to the government. In these prosecutions Mr. Holstein distinguished himself by his untiring efforts in behalf of the government, which greatly contributed to the successful result in convicting the offenders and elicited the well-merited commendation of the Department of Justice, and placed Mr. Holstein in the front ranks of the profession in Indiana, a rare achievement for so young a member of the profession. So well did Mr. Holstein perform his duties in these prosecutions' of the conspiracy cases in Indiana that upon their conclusion the Attorney-General of the United States, in recognition of the valuable service rendered, complimented him by the appointment as principal counsel for the government in similar prosecutions at New Orleans, which gratifying distinction Mr. Holstein was compelled to decline on ac- count of ill health caused by arduous and exacting labor in the prosecution of the Indiana conspiracy cases. Mr. Holstein continued with marked suc- cess his duties as Assistant District Attorney in the prosecution of numerous counterfeiting, revenue and national bank cases in that Court until the death of Colonel Nelson Trussler, the District Attorney, in February, 1880, when, in recognition of the valuable services rendered by him to the government, upon the recommendation of the Department of Justice, he was appointed by President Hayes United States Attorney for the District of Indiana, in which 304 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA position he was continued by President Arthur, and remained in that posi- tion, discharging the duties thereof with conspicuous ability until the change of administration in 1885. Though Mr. Holstein was the youngest in years of the gentlemen who occupied the position of District Attorney, no one did it more successfully to the satisfaction of the Bench and Bar of Indiana. After this Mr. Holstein continued in the practice of the profession at Indian- apolis until 1887, when he entered the law firm of Flower & Remy, at Chi- cago, which by his accession became the firm of Flower, Remy & Holstein, enjoying a large and lucrative business ; he remained in Chicago until 1890, when he returned to Indianapolis and again resumed the practice in that city. Since his return to Indianapolis Mr. Holstein has associated himself with Mr. Barrett in the practice, the firm being known as Holstein & Barrett, is largely engaged in real estate and corporation business, and enjoys an ex- tensive and lucrative practice in Indiana and adjoining States in the State and National Courts. Mr. Holstein is much esteemed among his friends as a poet of more than ordinary merit ; in his leisure moments, when not ab- sorbed by professional business, he has found time to cultivate the muses, and some of his productions are gems of poetical genius ; among them of recent date "Richard W. Thompson" and "The Drums" have attracted much attention and favorable comment. Mr. Holstein was married to Miss Maggie Nickum, the accomplished daughter of Mr. John Nickum, one of the most successful and prosperous business men of Indianapolis, December 17, 1868; he resides in Indianapolis, where his home is known for refinement, elegance and generous hospitality, and is much resorted to by the cultured people of the city. McBRIDE, ROBERT WES, was born January 25, 1842, in Richland County, Ohio. His father, Augustus McBride, was of Scotch-Irish, and his mother, Martha Ann Barnes, was of English descent. On his father's side, his ancestors came to this country a short time after the Revolution. They at once became thorough Americans, and in the War of 1812 they fought for their adopted country. One of the family — Robert Bruce McBride, an uncle of Augustus — commanded a company of Pennsyl- vania troops during that struggle with Great Britain. On his mother's side, his ancestors fought under Washington in the War of the Revolution, and also served with credit in the War of 1812. His father, Augustus McBride, was a soldier in the war with Mexico, and died in the service of his country in the City of Mexico, in February, 1848, where he now fills a soldier's grave. His mother died July 6, 1894, in Richland County, Ohio, aged 73 years. Robert W. lived in Richland County, Ohio, until he was 13 years of age. when he went to Iowa, where he remained until he was 20 years of age. His education, as far as the schools were concerned, was obtained in the common schools of Richland County, Ohio, and of Mahaska and Wapello Counties in Iowa, and in a private academy maintained in Kirkville, Iowa, ^ w9S^. 20 306 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA in the years 1856, 1857 and 1858 by a Prof. Patterson. The training of the schools was supplemented by hard study at home, and in 1859 he was licensed to teach in the public schools of Mahaska County. He taught school in that County for three years, and in 1862 he returned to his home in Ohio. He had tried without success to enter the service of his country as a soldier while in Iowa, and in 1863 he enlisted and was mustered into service as a member of the Seventh Independent Squadron of Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, known as the Union Light Guard, or President Lincoln's Mounted Body Guard, of which company he remained a member until mustered out with it September 9, 1865, by reason of the close of the war. During the last year of his service he was disabled from active duty and served on detached duty as a clerk, the last six months being in the Adjutant-General's Office, at Washington, D. C. When mustered out of the service he was immediately appointed to a clerkship in the Quartermaster-General's Office, but after holding the position two months he resigned and returned to Richland County, Ohio, where he taught school in the winter of 1865-6. In the spring of 1866 he came to Indiana, and located at Waterloo, in DeKalb County, where he was employed by R. M. and W. C. Lockhart, lumber dealers, keeping their books and otherwise assisting them in their business. At the age of 16 he obtained possession of a copy of Blackstone's Commentaries, which had belonged to his father, and read it. This determined his voca- tion, and he thereafter, whenever opportunity offered, studied such law books as he could have access to. In the winter of 1866-7 ^^ served as one of the clerks of the Indiana State Senate. In April, 1867, he was admitted to the bar at Auburn, DeKalb County, and on the ist day of September, 1867, commenced practicing law at Waterloo in partnership with Hon. James I. Best. The partnership with Judge Best was dissolved July i, 1868. He thereafter practiced alone until December 13, 1870, when he formed a partnership with Joseph L. Morlan. In 1876, Wm. H. Leas was admitted to the firm as a partner. The partnership was dissolved by the death of Mr. Morlan, which occurred August 23, 1878. He then practiced alone until he was elected Judge of the Thirty-Fifth Judicial Circuit in November, 1882. He served as Circuit Judge for the full term of six years, during which time he gained an enviable reputation for learning and ability as a Judge, and for energy, industry and executive talent. He was fearless in his efforts to enforce the criminal laws — especially those relating to gambling in all of its forms, and the illegal traffic in intoxicating liquors — and enmities thus engendered caused his defeat as a candidate for re-election in 1888, his opponent being elected by a majority of seven votes. In June, 1890, he removed from Waterloo to Elkhart. The Republican State Convention of 1890 nominated him for Judge of the Supreme Court. He made the race against Judge J. A. S. Mitchell, and shared the fate of his ticket, being defeated. In December of 1890, he was appointed by President Harrison a member of a. Commission, with Judge Drake, of Washingtorf, D. C, and THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 307 Judge Kinkead, of Kentucky, to investigate and report upon certain matters in relation to the Puyallup Indian Reservation at Tacoma, Wash. While in Washington, D. C, on his way to enter upon the duties of this position, he was recalled by a message notifying him that Governor Hovey had appointed him Judge of the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Mitchell. He at once returned, accepted the appointment, and served as a member of that Court from December 17, 1890, to January 2, 1893. He was nominated by his party convention, in 1892, by acclamation to be his own successor, but, as in 1890, the fates were not propitious, and he shared defeat with all of his associates. In this campaign he had the satisfaction of rereiving next to the highest number of votes of any candidate on the ticket, his associate, Judge Byron K. Elliott, alone leading him by eighty- four votes. After the expiration of his term of service on the Supreme Court, fie removed to Indianapolis, and formed a partnership with Hon. Caleb S. Denny for the practice of law in that city. This firm is still (1894) in active practice. His success as a practitioner has always placed him in the front rank, and in Northeastern Indiana, where he has practiced most, he is rated as one of the ablest trial lawyers in the State. As a nisi prius Judge he had no superiors. His opinions while on the Supreme Court show great learning in the law, a facility for clear and vigorous expression, and absolute and fearless independence in the expression of his views. In cases where he was unable to agree with his associates he did not hesitate to dissent, and the reports show several very vigorous dissenting opinions. He was married September 27, 1868, to Miss Ida S. Chamberlain, eldest daughter of Dr. James N. Chamberlain, of Waterloo. His wife is a most estimable, intellectual and cultured lady. She is a Past Department Presi- dent of the Woman's Relief Corps, Auxiliary to the G. A. R. They have four children, Daisy I., now Mrs. F. C. Starr, of Indianapolis, Charles H., Herbert W., and' Martha Catherine, all living. He is an active member of several secret societies, including all of the grades of Free Masonry, Odd Fellowship, Knights of Pythias, Ancient Order of Red Men, Ancient Order of United Workmen, and Grand Army of the Republic. For several years he has been Chairman of the Committee on Grievances and Appeals in the Masonic Grand Lodge, and of the Committee on I,aw and Supervision in the Grand Lodge Knights of Pythias. He is and has been a member of the M. E. Church for nearly thirty years, and of the Theosophical Society for more than ten years. He took a very active part in the re-organization and re-habilitation of the militia of the State, having been actively connected with it for twelve years. He was the first Lieutenant-Colonel and Second Colonel of the Third Regiment of Infantry, Indiana Legion. He was in command of the Regiment when appointed Judge of the Supreme Court, and resigned when he qualified as Judge of that Court. He served as a member of Lieutenant-General Phil. Sheridan's honorary staff at the dedication of the Washington Monument at Washington, D. C. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 309 DENNY, CALEB S. The ancestors of Caleb S. Denny, the subject of this sketch, were mostly natives of Virginia. Some of them served in the Revolution under Washington. His grandfather, John Denny, went from Virginia to Mercer county, Kentucky, during the latter part of the last century. He was a practical surveyor, and assisted in making the gov- ernment surveys of much of the public domain in central Kentucky. He finally settled on a large plantation near Harrodsburg, in the blue grass region. It was here that James H. Denny, the father of Caleb, was born, in 1802. He was much opposed to human slavery, and for that reason left Kentucky and settled in Indiana, first locating in Warren, afterward Monroe county, and finally in Warrick county. Caleb was the youngest of eleven children. His mother's maiden name was Littrell. Caleb was born in Monroe county, Indiana, May 13, 1850. In 1853 his father moved to Warrick county, Indiana, settling on a farm near Boonville. Here Caleb was reared. His father died in 1861, after the breaking out of the war. One of the boys had already gone to the front. The others who were unmarried went in 1863, as soon as they were old enough, leaving their mother and the subject of this sketch to look after the farm. After one year's trial, however, they thought it best to rent the farm and move to town until the war should end. This they did, and there being no schools in session, Caleb was apprenticed to the tinner's trade. He had previously only been able to go to school during the winter term, which was all the common school fund provided in that day. After working at his trade for nearly a year, however, a graded or select school was started in Boonville by a professor from the East. After due con- sideration, the boy asked his mother's consent to quit his trade and start to school, promising to fit himself for college in two years. This was readily granted, and also that of his boss to cancel the contract under which he was working. After attending the school at Boonville and a similar one at Ed- wardsport, Indiana, for two years, he entered the Freshman class at Asbury (now DePauw) University, at Greencastle, Indiana, in the fall of 1866, at the age of sixteen. He remained there two years, passing through his Sopho- more year, and was unable to return for lack of funds. For the next year he taught school, expecting to return to college and be graduated if possible, the following year. But while teaching he was tendered the position of Assistant State Librarian by Moses G. McLain, who had been elected to the office of Librarian at the session of the General Assembly in 1869. He accepted, and as soon as the term of school that he was then teaching ended, he came to Indianapolis, where he has since resided. Mr. Denny commenced to read law while teaching, under the tutorage of Judge John B. Handy, of Boonville. He continued his legal studies while in the library, and on leav- ing there, in the spring of 1871, entered the law office of Judge Solomon Blair, at the age of twenty-one. He afterward studied in the law office of Test & Burns. He was admitted to practice in the county courts in 1872, and in the Supreme and Federal Courts in 1873. In the latter year he was ap- pointed Assistant Attorney-General of Indiana, and served for two jears. 310 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA After leaving the Attorney-General's oflfice, lie entered the active practice of law in Indianapolis, being associated until 1884 with Judge David V. Burns, now of Denver, Colorado. In the fall of 1881 he was elected City Attorney of Indianapolis for a term of three years, beginning January i, 1882. His Democratic opponent was the late Judge Napoleon B. Taylor. His success in handling the city's legal business was so successful, that he was again elected in 1884, defeating Judge Byfield. After serving one year of his new term, the Republican city convention, held in August, 1885, nominated Mr. Denny for Mayor. His principal competitors before the convention were Hon. John L. McMaster, the then incumbent. Gen. George F. McGinnis and Harvey Stout, and although Mr. Denny had only consented to allow the use of his name a few days before the convention was held, he was nominated on the second ballot. His Democratic opponent was Hon. Thomas Cottrell. After one of the most exciting campaigns in the history of Indianapolis poli- tics, Mr. Denny was declared elected, and entered upon the duties of the office January i, 1886. The campaign was fought upon the question of "law and order," as espoused by Mr. Denny, against the so-called "liberal policy" favored by Mr. Cottrell. The bold stand taken by Mr. Denny in favor of a strict enforcement of the laws, lost him the support of a large element of his own party, but he won the support of enough Democrats to win the first victory on the issue favored by him that any one had ever won in Marion county. Before entering upon the discharge of his duties as Mayor, Mr. Denny submitted to the Common Council a report of his four years' service as City Attorney, which the writer has examined, exhibiting a wonderfully suc- cessful record. It appears therefrom that out of 147 cases defended by him, in which the aggregate claim for damages was about Jj!400,ooo, the city had only been called on to pay |2, 166.84. The administration of the office by Mr. Denny has always been regarded with great favor by the bench and bar of Indianapolis, as well as by all the city officials of these years. After Mr. Denny had served his first term as Mayor, he was unanimously re-nominated by his party for a second term. The Democrats nominated their strongest man, in the person of Dr. George F. Edenharter, at present the efficient Su- perintendent of the Indiana Hospital for the Insane. Dr. Edenharter had served several terms as Councilman with great credit to himself, and his de- served popularity made him an opponent to be feared. Many of Mayor Denny's friends, as well as practically all of his political opponents, pre- dicted his defeat, basing their judgment on the fact that during his term in office, he had faithfully kept his promise to enforce all laws without fear or favor, which had always been looked upon as political suicide by the politi- cians in Marion county. When the election occurred, however, his majority was more than seven hundred larger than his first. He pursued the same policy during the next two years that he had the last two, and won the com- mendation of all law-abiding people. He declined to allow his name to be used for a third term, having declared his purpose to return to the active practice of the law at the end of his second term, when elected. During his THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 311 incumbency as Mayor, he did not abandon the practice entirely, having re- tained his partnership with William F. Elliott, with whom he formed an alliance while serving his last term as City Attorney. He did very little active court practice, however, as during his two terms in the Mayor's office he acted as ex-officio Police Judge, which took the greater part of his time not otherwise occupied with his official duties. During these four years he disposed of over 20,000 cases with eminent satisfaction to the bar and the public. January i, 1890, Mr. Denny returned to the practice and continued therein with Mr. Elliott for three years. Since 1893 he has had Judge Robert \V. McBride, late a Justice of the Supreme Court of Indiana, as a partner in the practice. In July, 1893, Mr. Denny's party friends insisted that he must again make the race for Mayor. He was not ambitious to do so, and declined to enter into a personal canvass for the nomination, although he reluctantly consented that his name might be presented to the convention. He was nominated on the first ballot over a number of strong competitors. His op- ponent before the people was Hon. Thomas L. Sullivan, who, four years before had been elected Mayor by 1,700 majority, and two years before by 2,800, over strong competitors. The same issue was formed between the parties that had been joined in 1885, when Mr. Denny was first elected. With nearly 3,000 majority of two years before to overcome, the outlook was not encouraging, and very few of Mr. Denny's friends thought he could do it. But he at once opened the canvass, visiting all the factories and stores on foot by day, and holding neighborhood meetings at night, often speaking two and three times the same evening in different wards. No one else has ever made so thorough a personal canvass of the city, perhaps. While Mr. Denny's election was predicted by many during the last weeks of the cam- paign, no one expected his majority to reach a thousand. Instead, it was nearly 3,200, the largest ever received by a candidate for Mayor in the history of the city. Perhaps no city in the land is freer of the vicious elements of society than Indianapolis under Mayor Denny's present administration. Under the new city charter the Mayor has much broader powers in reference to police government than he possessed under the old law, and the full limit of that power has been brought into requisition by Mayor Denny to prevent all kinds of law violations during his term. The candid reader and observer must admit that Mr. Denny has had an unusual career of success in munici- pal affairs, as Attorney and Mayor. It is understood that he is anxious to return to the active practice of the law at the end of his present term. In religion. Mayor Denny is a Presbyterian, being an officer in the Second Church of Indianapolis. He is an Odd Fellow, having been a Representative to the Grand Lodge. He is also a Past Chancellor Commander of Indianapolis Lodge, No. 56, Knights of P3rthias, a member of the Grand Lodge of the State, Colonel and Judge Advocate-General of the Indiana Brigade of the Uniform Rank of the Order, and has been prominently connected from the first with the movement to erect a grand Pythian Castle Hall in Indian- apolis, which is now expected will soon be accomplished. Mayor Denny 312 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA was married in 1874 to Miss Carrie Lowe, a lady of unusual grace of manner. They have one son and two daughters, and reside on North Pennsylvania street. PEIRCE, ROBERT B. F. Mr. Peirce is a native of Indiana, having been born at Laurel, Franklin county, February 17, 1843. His parents were Henry and Mary Frazier Peirce. His paternal ancestors were English, having settled in Massachusetts before the Revolutionary war ; his maternal, Scotch. When a mere boy he listened to the leading lawyers of the Whitewater Valley, who then led the bar in forensic ability and legal learning, and determined to be a lawyer. To fit himself for the study of his chosen profession he determined to have a full collegiate education, includ- ing Latin, Greek and Mathematics, and at the age of eighteen he entered Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, for that purpose. He had no means, and was compelled to make his way through by working at odd jobs on Satur- days, and at such hours through the week as could be spared from his studies. For two years he sawed all the wood used by one of the hotels for his board. He graduated with the highest honors of his class, and two years after the College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts, and selected him to deliver the annual Master's oration. While in College he enlisted in the 135th Indiana Regiment of Volunteers, and was chosen Lieutenant in Company H. After serving five months his Regiment was mustered out of the service, and he returned to his studies. After graduating from College he went to Shelby ville, Ind., and read law with Hon. B. F. Love, and was elected City Attorney. Deciding to remove to Crawfordsville for permanent residence, he resigned the position to which he had been chosen, and located in that place in June, 1867, for the pjractice of the law. The Crawfordsville bar has always been an exceptionally strong one, and at that time had some of the best lawyers in full practice. Among th»se men Mr. Peirce was compelled to contest his way, but soon had a fine practice and reached the front rank. The Judicial Circuit was then composed of Montgomery, Fountain, Warren, Clinton and Boone counties. In 1868, 1870 and 1872 Mr. Peirce was nominited by the Republicans and elected Pros- ecuting Attorney. In this field he was unusually successful, though fre- quently opposed by the leading criminal lawyers of the State. At one spring session of the court he tried five cases for murder in the first degree, and succeeded in getting convictions in four of themi, one of the defendants re- ceiving the death penalty. While serving as Prosecutor the case of the State against Nancy E. Clem, indicted for murder in the first degree, was taken on change of venue by the defendant from Marion county to Boone, and it became his official duty to prosecute her. This was the most noted criminal case ever tried in Indiana, and Mr. Peirce had associated with him in the prosecution General Benjamin Harrison and Hon. Jno. T. Dye, of In- dianapolis, while the defendant was represented by Major J. W. Gordon, Cenator Vorhees, Hon. W. W. Leathers, Hon. John Hanna and others. The 314 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA case was tried twice at Lebanon, the first trial resulting in a disagreement of the jury, and the last trial resulting in a conviction with imprisonment for life. In 1873 Mr. Peirce was elected General Counsel for the Logansport, Crawfordsville and Southwestern Railway Company, and afterwards a Director of the Company, and remained in its service until its sale on fore- closure and its absorbtion by the Vandalia system. In 1880 Montgomery county found itself in a new Congressional District, having with it Vigo, Clay, Vermillion, Fountain and Warren. It was supposed to be certainly Democratic, having been made specially for Hon. Bayliss W. Hanna, who was nominated unanimously by the Democrats. The Republicans chose Mr. Peirce, who entered actively upon his campaign and addressed over a hun- dred meetings. He defeated Mr. Hanna by over 2,200 majority. He served a full term in Congress, and was placed upon the Committee for the District of Columbia, the Tenth Census and Enrolled Bills. As a member of the Committee of the District of Columbia he took a lively interest in advancing every movement for improving and beautifying the National Capital. He was renominated for Congress in 1882, but the tidal wave that swept over his party left him defeated by less than three hundred majority. Returning to his law practice, which had suffered by his absence, he was soon favored with a large and lucrative practice, chiefly corporation and railroad busi- ness. In 1885 he was chosen General Counsel of the Indianapolis, Decatur and Western Railway, and elected one of its Directors. His business had grown away from Crawfordsville, and the more conveniently to manage it, in 1888 he removed to Indianapolis, where he has since that time resided. In 1889, as one of the Trustees under the first mortgage, he took possfession of the Indianapolis, Decatur and Western Railway, and conducted and man- aged its business until May, 1894, when the road was sold. The new com- pany were so well pleased with the record of his management that he was asked to remain in charge, and is now General Manager of the property. Mr. Peirce has always been and is now a staunch Republican. In 1892 he was unanimously chosen by the State Convention, at Ft. Wayne, to head the Electorial ticket at the election that year as an Elector at Large. He is a Master Mason, Knight of Pythias, a member of McPherson Post, G. A. R , a member of the Gentlemen's Literary Club, and a member of other clubs and societies. He has been married twice, in 1866 to Hattie Blair, daughter of John W. Blair, of Crawfordsville, who died in 1878. Of this union two children survive ; a daughter, Lois J., who married William J. Hughes, and now lives in Omaha, Neb., and a son, Edwin B. He was married the second time in 1886 to Mrs. Alice W. Van Valkenburg, of Plymouth, a daughter of Hon. Amzi Wheeler. Mr. Peirce is a notable and attractive man in any gathering. He is six feet in height, pleasing in appearance, genial and urbane in his manners, considerate of the rights and feelings of others, a favorite among his acquaintances, sincere and true as steel in his friend- ships, ready always with a helping hand for those needing his assistance, and a public spirited citizen willing to assist in every proper public enter- prise. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 315 RAND, FREDERICK, the son of Ezekiel and Mary Rand, was born in Greensboro, Orleans county, Vermont, June 6th, 1819. His youth was spent on his father's farm in company with three brothers, all of whom became lawyers of distinction in Orleans county ; besides he had the compan- ionship of his grandfather and uncles who had been soldiers and oiBcers of the Revolution. He was educated in the common schools of Greensboro, and in the neighboring academy at Peacham. When twenty he began the study of law in the ofl&ce of Gov. and Gen. John Mattocks, and at twenty-one went to Fleminsburg, Kentucky, where he continued his studies in the office of Hon. Thomas Throop, and in 1843, was admitted to the Kentucky bar and began to practice law at Owingsville, where he continued to reside and practice his pro- fession until 1856. In 1848, he returned to Vermont and married Emily, the daughter of Judge Robert Harvey, of Barnett, and removed at once with his young wife to Kentucky — where his children were born. This is the period that Judge Rand always refers to as the happiest part of his long life. He was a Democrat and a slave owner, but had no sympathy with the institution of slavery, and in 1856, seeing the storm that was sure to come, he freed his servants and came to Indianapolis and purchased the home where he now lives. This home, quite elegant, and upon the outskirts oi the city, nearly forty years ago, has long since been outstripped in relative distance and by the more elegant and costly residences of the Indianapolis of to-day. But Judge Rand has always refused to abandon the old home, saying : " It is good enough for me and, besides, when I purchased it I vowed I would never leave it until the day the sheriff sold me out, or I was taken out, feet foremost." Happily, neither of these dread things has yet occurred. His two children were born in Kentucky ; Caroline, now the wife of John Eugene Baum, of New York, and Katherine, the wife of J. M. Winters, of this city. His first law partnership was with the late Reginal Hall, which continued until 1871, when he was appointed by Governor Baker as one of the first three Judges to preside on the bench of the then created Marion Superior Court. His colleagues being Solomon Blair and Horatio C. Newcomb. He held this office until August, 1872, when he resigned and again entered upon the more lucrative practice, forming a partnership with the late Judge Napoleon B. Taylor. This partnership continued for ten years until Judge Taylor was elected to preside over the same bench in 1882. In 1884, in company with Governor and Mrs. Hendricks he went to Europe, and since that time has not been active in the practice of his profession. Aside from his law practice Judge Rand had large business interests in connection with the late Gen. John Love and their interests in common are still intact. In connection with Gen. Love, Dr. Gatling and others he organized the Gatling Gun Company and was its attorney for many years. Judge Rand was in no sense an orator. An affection of the throat prevented all that. His power lay in logic and a faultless memory. Once a fact in mind, it was always in mind, and it is true to say that no lawyer ever practiced at the bar of Marion county who was always so ready "ZTn^^^j^/x . c^t jO-^ cC^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 317 and well prepared to try his cases. No rule could well be taken against him for he was always on hand and pushing his adversary ; upon being asked how he did it, his answer was: "I am a minute man." His power lay in this readiness, and his pleadings and arguments were always short and to the point, and though often wanting in elegance and ornamentation the substance and necessary facts were always present. Seldom, indeed, in his long practice did he amend a complaint or answer, but stood by it until sustained by the Supreme Court. In this respect the record of his cases appealed to and defended in that court is exceptional. It is well known that correctness of memory is fed and kept alive by careful reading, and this is true of Judge Rand. Of history, science and poetry he was an omniverous reader, and his memory of dates and lineage and the orderly sequence of events was marvelous. He devoted no time and apparently no thought to business out of business hours, but every evening found him at home reading by the side of his invalid wife. It was this that for nearly twenty years of his vigorous manhood withdrew Judge Rand from public notice until old age came on, when he took no pleasure in public affairs, and felt that he could be of no assistance to the younger and more active. He is now in the 75th year. The partner of his life, long since gone, he still sits, book in hand, or grandchild in lap, by the old fireside in the light and mem- ory of other days. TAYLOR, NAPOLEON B., was born in Campbell county, Kentucky, on the i8th day of October, 1820. He was of English descent. His pa- - ternal grandfather, Robert Taylor, was a Revolutionary soldier, and was Orderly-Sergeant in Captain Ball's company under General Steuben at Yorktown, and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis. Immediately after peace was declared in 1783 he moved to Kentucky and was in the Indian wars in that State, and with General Wayne in his Indian campaigns. He was a man of superior education and common sense, widely known and very popular. He taught school in addition to his work as a farmer, and gained decided repute as an educator. The father of the subject of this sketch, Robert A. Taylor, was a native of Mason county, Kentucky, but was reared in Pendleton county until he was seventeen years old, when he entered the army of the War of 1812, serving in Captain Childer's company of mounted riflemen in command of General William Henry Harrison. Returning to Kentucky after peace was declared he learned the trade of brick-mason, which trade he followed all his life. The mother, Mary Vyze Taylor, was a native of Virginia. Robert A. Taylor, in January, 1826, removed with his family from Kentucky to Indianapolis, then a small village of three hundred in- habitants. He was one of the earliest brick-masons of the county and be- came a prominent contractor ; and as a pioneer of the county and a man of ripe intelligence, with deep convictions upon every subject of general inter- est, he could not fail of being widely known, and all v, ho knew him respected him. In politics he was a Democrat of the Jacksonian school and in religion ■T^^, /^/^jf^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 319 he was a devout member of the Christian Church. And in both politics and religion his convictions were especially earnest, and he had the courage to express his views whenever the occasion seemed to require it. Napoleon B. Taylor was the oldest of a family of six children, and was five years old when his parents settled in Indianapolis. From thence forward he was at all times a citizen of Indianapolis. He was given the schooling that was obtainable in those days at the private schools and afterwards at the Marion County Seminary. He took a full literary and scientific course, pursued studies of his own accord out of school, and became a very good Latin and French scholar, reading both languages readily. In those days men were inured to the hardest kind of toil, and he was taught to work because it was a ne- cessity, that it was honorable, and to respect his work. Very early in his boyhood he learned the trade of his father, that of bricklaying, and worked at the same diligently out of school hours, and when the duties of the farm would permit. He early formed an ambition to adopt the legal profession for his life's work, and when twenty-two years of age began the study of the law under the well-known firms of Fletcher & Butler and Quarles & Bradley. And even then his studies had to be pursued in the privacy of his own home in the late hours of the night. He was admitted to the bar on the 27th day of April, 1844, having passed a successful examination before the Supreme Court. The conditions of his life were such that he was not able to entirely devote himself to the practice of his chosen profession until his twenty-ninth year, from which time and up to the time of his death he was known to the people throughout the State of Indiana as an honest lawyer at the bar and a fearless Judge on the bench. Soon after his entering upon the practice of the law he was elected City Attorney of Indianapolis, which position he held for consecutive terms from 1853 to 1856. This was at a time when many new and important questions were agitated in Indianapolis, and Judge Taylor aided in instituting some important reforms in the management of the affairs of the city. Previous to his City Attorneyship, and in the year 1849, ^^ formed a law partnership with the late John L. Ketcham, then one of the most prominent practitioners of the State, which lasted two years, and in 1853 he became associated with General John A. Coburn, 'which partnership continued until 1856. From 1856 until 1869 he practiced alone, but in that year his son, Edwin Taylor, was taktn into partnership with him, and this continued until 1872, when Frederick Rand, of the Superior Court Bench, resigned the Judgeship and the firm name became Taylor, Rand & Taylor. This last firm continued until the election of Judge Taylor to the Bench, which occurred in 1882. Napoleon B. Taylor had an honorable career at the Bar of more than thirty years before his election to the Bench. While not so brilliant as some of his compeers, he was a thorough lawyer, and as strong and powerful as any of them. He had a peculiar ability in preparing cases for the Supreme Court. He was a close student and unwearied worker. By nature and habit he was a lover of justice and a partisan of the right. He stood for the right as he believed it to exist with unflinching courage. No 320 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA consideration of policy nor desire for popularity ever moved him from wh t he conceived to be his duty. He was a man of spotless integrity and of earnest convictions, frank and outspoken. Sometimes indeed brusque and almost harsh in his vpords, he was yet as tenderhearted as a woman. He was as a " lusty winter, frosty but kindly." He despised a mean act, but honored an open and honest one, even though it crossed his own convictions. Hav- ing been nominated by the Democratic party as a candidate forjudge of the Superior Court of Marion county at the convention held in Indianapolis in the summer of 1882, Napoleon B. Taylor was in November of that year elected, and took his seat of office on the 20th of November, 1882, presiding in Room No. I of that Court. In the election of that year Judge Taylor received the highest vote of any candidate upon either ticket. And in the succeeding elections of 1886 and 1890, when Judge Taylor was re-elected to the same po- sition, he again each time received the highest vote cast for any candidate. There are probably few men who have been elevated to the bench in this State to whose lot, within a single decade, has fallen the burdensome re- sponsibility of considering and deciding a larger number of gravely impor- tant causes in litigation, and one has but to refer to the Indiana Supreme and Appellate Court Reports to learn that during his long term of office there have been few Judges in Indiana whose decisions have been so generally affirmed by the Supreme Court of the State as those of Judge Taylor. It would be in- teresting to advert to some of the more important of them, and to trace their influence in the deliberations and conclusions of other Courts. But the limits of this brief sketch do not admit. Two or three general characteristics are all that can be mentioned. There are lawyers who, strong in principles and vigorous in deductive reasoning, too little regard the light and the learning afforded by the labors of others. There are those, on the other hand, who know little but cases, and can be brought to almost any conclusion that seems to be sustained by what is called authority ; by whom the reported decision of a Court can never be answered except by the counter decision of some other Court. Between these two classes of lawyers Judge Taylor occupied very fortunately a middle ground. A diligent student at all times, thoroughly acquainted with the course of the published decisions, drawing largely upon their reasoning, and in no respect undervaluing their authority, established principles, and a strong sense of justice and of right, were after all the con- trolling elements in bringing him to results. He was never brought "by learned reasons to absurd degrees." Technicalities were not allowed to sub- vert justice when by fair means they could be surmounted or escaped. He regarded the general field and current of decision rather than those isolated cases always to be found, which constitute the ignes fatui of the law and serve to lead weak minds astray. He followed authority, but he questioned the validity of that authority which perverted sound principles or conducted to unsatisfactory judgments. His views of the law were always elevated. He did not look upon it as an aggregation of arbitrary rules and disconnected machinery, but as a broad, fair and noble science, that ought to pervade with THE BENCH AXD BAR OF INDIANA 321 a salutary and wholesome influence all of the affairs of human life ; as not merely the protector of private right, but equally the conservator of public liberty-. Neither his reading nor his thought was circumscribed by the nar- row channel of the subject actually in controversy before him. He made himself familiar with the higher branches of jurisprudence, its constitutional foundations, its history, its philosophy, its morality, its literature, its connec- tion with the framework of society and of government. He became not only a lawj-er, but a jurist in the true sense of the term. Such studies enriched the administration of the law in his Court, with a many-sided scholarship, and gave to it an elevated and dignified sentiment. Judge Taylor was of a strong and commanding presence ; of almost six feet in height and built in proportion ; with brown e} es that never lost their youthful brilliancy, with strong yet handsome features, high forehead and white, silky hair, that approached curliness, with a. pleasant smile, but which could turn into a look of the severest, he impressed himself upon all those who met him as a man of deep, earnest and strong character. He was a man of such strength, so it is related of him, in his younger days when physical prowess was often tested between the young men of Indianapolis, that not enough men could get hold of him to control him. Though his Court was an inferior one, its decisions came to be widely known and much respected in other tribunals. But the written records of his labors as a Judge can exhibit nothing of those qualities of the man which enter so largely into the real usefulness of a magistrate. His unfailing courtesy and kindness, his tinquestioned and un- questionable purity of character, his patience in hearing, the unassuming dignity and quiet decorum with which he invested the proceedings of his Court, the practical sense and sagacity with which he encountered questions of fact, these qualities which will always be remembered by those who ap- peared before him, but of which the memory must die, when the witnesses are gone. He presided with tact and acceptance. Under his guidance a jury seldom went astray. And the most disappointed suitor carried away a feeling of respect for the Judge. No man was ever more capable of appreciating and profiting by a good argument or was more candidly open to his influence. Judge Taylor died August 14th, 1893, and before he had completed the term of Judgeship to which he had been elected in 1890. The day following his death the members of the Indianapolis Bar held in his old court room a meeting in his memory. The attendance was probably the largest ever seen in the city on a like occasion, and the expressions of respect were sincere and in many cases marked by evidences of deep emotion. And it seems fit- ting to close this sketch with an extract from tlje remarks made at that me- morial meeting by General John Coburn, who had been playmate, friend, law partner of the late Judge Taylor. He said: "We grew up together m school. He was a very diligent student, very regular in his attendance and always had his lessons. We were also in the same Sunday-school. We went to the Old Seminary together. I never knew him to be guilty of one single infraction of the rules or one single delinquency or one single deviation from 21 ill THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA the path of rectitude. With all that, however, and with his success in school, he was modest and retiring. Perhaps few men who have gained conspicuity at the bar have had to struggle against so much diiiidence, so much of that embarrassment, that a distrust in one's own ability brings about ; but he overcame all of that ; he became a fine talker ; he became a good reasoner ; he became a Judge who could announce as forcibly, as clearly and as point- edly his opinions as any Judge who ever presided in the Courts of Marion county — and that is saying not a little. I have been in and about the Court House of Marion county for many years, I have known every distinguished Judge that we have had here, and I say what I do of Judge Taylor with per- fect knowledge of every great Judge that we have bad here. We have asso- ciated with him familiarly so long that I think we hardly appreciate his ability and his devotedness to his profession and to his official duties. I have thought that he wore himself out in the discharge of his arduous duties as Judge ; I think his life was shortened by that. When I recollect the won- derful energy of his nature when a young man, and the physical power he had, his rugged form, his tremendous strength, his great vitality, surpassing that of any other member of the bar, with the courage that he had and the ambition that he had, I almost wonder that he wore out at the age of seventy- two years. He was descended from a race of men that were gigantic in their forms ; from a race of men in Kentucky whose courage and whose muscle and whose physical power were tried in the rudest manner among the pio- neers of that State. Some of his relatives here were most remarkable for their physical power, strength and activity, and he was a fair type of the most physically powerful men that we have ever had here. With all that, he was careful in his habits, temperate in all the walks of life, conspicuously careful to preserve his health. He has gone really before his time ; he was entitled to more than three score years and ten. It will be many years before his superior in natural ability, bodily and mentallj-, will be upon the bench. He was an exceptional man in his energy, in his mental ability, in his quiet reserve, in his lack of desire for display, in his studious habits, in his con- stant devotion to duty, and to his scrupulous care and integrity in every step he took." TAYLOR, EDWIN. Edwin Taylor was born in Indianapolis, October 2d, 1848. He is a son of Hon. Napoleon B. Taylor, late Judge of the Superior Court of Marion County. He attended the public schools of Indianap- olis ; afterwards entered the Northwestern Christian University, now Butler University, at Irvington, Ind., and, after having taken a full classical course, was graduated June 19, 1868. He was a charter member of the Rho Chapter of Sigma Chi Fraternity. He entered the law office of his father, September 1868, and October 2, 1869, was admitted to practice in the local courts, and later in the Federal and State Supreme Court at Indianapolis. On January i, 1870, he formed a partnership with his father in the law practice, which con- tinued until August, 1872, when the firm of Taylor, Rand & Taylor, consisting ^clca-u^ ^(Uf^ 324 THR BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA of Napoleon B. Taylor, Frederick Rand, and the subject of this sketch, was formed, and which firm continued in the practice until November, 1882. On the 19th of July, 1875, he was married to Miss Annie E. Iglehart, daughter of Judge Asa Iglehart, of Evansville, Ind. On January i, 1883, he removed to Evansville, Ind., and became associated with the law firm of Asa and J. E. Iglehart, and on January i, 1884, he became a member of the firm, under the style of Iglehart & Taylor, which continued until February, 1887, when upon the death of Judge Asa Iglehart, and since which time, a partnership with John E. Iglehart, under the firm name of Iglehart & Taylor, has continued. He was President of the Evansville & Indianapolis Railroad Company from June, 1884, to February, 1891. The firm of Iglehart & Taylor has been gen- eral counsel of the Evansville & Terre Haute Railroad Company, and the Evansville & Indianapolis Railroad Company, since 1884 ; also general coun- sel for the Louisville, Evansville & St. Louis Consolidated Railroad Company since 1890. He has practiced in all the courts along the line of said railroads, and in the United States, Supreme and Appellate Courts of Indiana and Illi- nois. Mr. Taylor in a quarter of a century has reached the front rank of the bar of the State. He inherited much of his father's adaptability for the law, and in twelve years' time has become one of the leading lawyers of Evans- ville. His pronounced success at the bar, as a lawyer, is the true criterion of his legal ability. MITCHELL, JAMES L. A citizen of Indiana during almost his entire lifetime, and for over thirty years an honored member of the Indian- apolis bar, Major James L. Mitchell was by birth a Kentuckian. He was born September 29, 1834, in Shelby county, Kentucky, being the eldest of eight children born to Pleasant L. D. and Mary A. (Ketcham) Mitchell. His parents were of old Virginia stock, and their families for generations had been composed of. worthy, patriotic Americans. His grandfather, Thomas Mitchell, took an honorable part in the war of 1812, and his maternal grand- father, John Ketcham, was an early settler in Indiana, a brave, hardy fron- tiersman and Indian fighter. The Mitchell family moved from Kentucky about 1840, traveling in wagons, and located upon a fine tract of land in Monroe county, Indiana, a few miles south of the present city of Blooming- ton. There the boy grew to manhood, familiarized with the hardest labor of farm life, and trudging in winter to the distant country school, to obtain the rudiments of his education. At eighteen he entered the Indiana University preparatory department, and, earning his own way, graduated from the insti- tution in 1858. For a year he attended the Indiana University Law School, reading in the office of Judge Samuel Buskirk the while. On December 29, 1859, ^^- Mitchell took up his residence in the city of Indianapolis, arriving with a cash capital of exactly ten dollars. He at once entered the law ofiSce of Ketcham & Coffin as a student, and, after a year's study, was admitted to practice, and formed a partnership with his uncle, John L. Ketcham, which 326 THR BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA continued until the outbreak of the war. At its close Major Mitchell resumed the practice of law with Mr. Ketcham, and later William A. Ketcham, son of John L., became a member of the firm.. Upon the death of the senior Ketcham in 1869, his place in the firm was taken by Horatio C. Newcomb until the election of Judge Newcomb to the bench. In 1862 Mr. Mitchell was com- missioned Adjutant of the 70th Regiment Indiana Volunteers, commanded by Benjamin Harrison. He fou;;ht with the regiment until after the capture of Atlanta, in September, 1864, and took part in all the hard fought battles of that campaign, having his horse shot from under him at the battle of Peach Tree Creek, but escaping injury. He was one of the most popular men in the regi- ment, a brave officer, and always able to secure from his subordinates a ready compliance with orders without severity. Cheerful and jocular amid hardships, he did more than any other one man to keep up the spirits of the regiment. On October 4, 1864, at New Albany, Ind., he was united in marriage to Miss Clara E. Carter, a niece of Hon. George G. Dunn. Returning to the front, he was assigned to duty on the staff of Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau, and served till the end of the war, taking part in the battle of Nashville, and was mustered out in 1865 with the rank of Major. In 1873, after an unsought nomination, made during his absence from the city. Major Mitchell was elected mayor of Indianapolis, defeating Capt. W. D. Wiles by a majority of 778 votes. He was the only Democrat on the ticket elected, and the first Democratic mayor of the city since the beginning of the war. In 1886 he was elected State Prose- cutor of the 19th Judicial Circuit, composed of Marion and Hendricks coun- ties (a strong Republican district), by a handsome majority. During his term of ofiice his faithful prosecution of certain political and other offenders aroused the determined opposition of certain elements within his own party. In the face of this fight, entirely creditable to himself, he was renominated in 1888, and such was the confidence of the community in him that in a year of strong political prejudice, when Hendricks county returned a majority of over 1 , 100 for the Republican presidential candidate, despite the loss of prob- ably 1,000 votes from the Democratic opposition mentioned, he was re-elected by a safe majority. In both races he led his party's ticket. In 1883 he was elected by the State Board of Education one of the trustees of the Stata Uni- versity, which ofiice he filled to the time of his death. In a business way he was often called upon to fill positions of trust, notably as one of the three executors of the large estate of Emma Abbott, the sweet singer, whose esteem had been drawn to him in a friendship of some years. From 1876 to 1891 Major Mitchell was not associated with any one in the practice of his pro- fession, but in the latter year his only son, James E. Mitchell, Jr., upon grad- uating from the University of Michigan Law School, at Ann Arbor, returned to find the firm of Mitchell & Mitchell announced, with fatherly pride, to the public. A year later the robust constitution of the older lawyer began to break rapidly, and February 21, 1894, after a long, brave, patient struggle against the inevitable, life departed. In Major Mitchell the legal profession had a noble representative. Rising from the ranks of the common people, a THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 327 true "self-made" man, he carried to a position of eminence a genial, demo- cratic nature, unchanged bj' sue cess, that drew and welcomed friends from all classes of society. Always a Democrat in politics, he was thrice elected to office in strongly Republican districts. As a public officer he was faithful in the discharge of every dut}-, following the course he believed to be right with a firmness that no influence could weaken. His perfect honesty and integrity were well recognized wherever he was known. As a lawyer his client's case was his own, and was fought with a vigor and aggressiveness that made him a formidable opponent. He was a good judge of human na- ture, and before a jury had few equals. Of a frank and open disposition, despising shams, hypocrisy and all dishonorable methods, he carried his personality into his legal contests, and his appeals in behalf of his cause were made with a force and earnestness born of a sincere belief in its justice. His mind was stored with anecdotes and reminiscences that he knew well how to relate with telling effect ; yet he did not indulge in story telling for the amusement of the crowd, he spoke to the jury alone ; but woe to the dis- honest witness that roused his scorn or ridicule. Some of the most eloquent pleas ever made in the courts of the State's capital city fell from his lips. His domestic life was of the purest. For eighteen years before his death his invalid wife was unable to leave her room without assistance, and his devo- tion to her and affection for their only son were the strongest traits and the brightest spot in a thoroughly admirable character. On account of his home surroundings he refused employment throughout the State that would require his absence from home, and spent his evenings with his family, rarely mingling in the social gatherings in the city. Yet his acquaintance through- out the State was large, and no citizen was better known in the community where he lived or had more friends than he. His loss was generally felt. CAVEN, JOHN. The father of the subject of this sketch was William Caven, and the mother, Jane (Longhead) Caven. The former was of Scotch-Irish, and the latter of English-Scotch descent. They resided in Allegheny county, Pa., where their son John was born April 12, 1824. Such an education as he received in his youth was obtained in a log school-house, with inexperienced teachers and imperfect text books ; but what he learned he did so thoroughly. He inherited none of the advantages of wealth, but did inherit what was far better — a healthy body, sound mind, reverence for the good, the beautiful and the true. As his years increased, his thirst for knowledge became more intense, until at last the perfection, grace and beauty of his expression led to the conclusion that some renowned university was his alma mater. His youthful surroundings were such as io develop the best traits of his physical and mental organization. He worked in the coal mine, in his fathers salt works, and at the oar of a salt flat-boat in carrying the product of his father's works to the market. In this way he gained an insight into the thoughts, views and feelings of workingmen which served him well in after life. Three days before he attained his majority, he left his native THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 329 county for the west, and arrived at Indianapolis, September lo, 1S45. The year following he served as a s-alesman in a shoe store. Resolving to reail law, he entered the office of Smith & Yandes, in 1847, for that purpose. At that time this firm was probably the leading one at Indianapolis, the members being Oliver H. Smith and Simon Yandes. Four years later he went to Clay county, this State, and engaged for one year in mining coal. This was the year the present State Constitution was adopted. At the end of that period he returned and entered upon the active practice. Shortly afterward the new code of civil procedure was adopted, which practically required all lawyers to again begin their studies of the law. In politics Mr. Caven was a Republican. Of a genial nature, he soon became popular ; so much so that in 1863, his party nominated him for Mayor of Indianapolis, and he was elected without oppo- sition. Two years later the same thing occurred. In 1868 he was elected State Senator from Marion county. In the session of 1869 he was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and he well maintained, at its head, the high reputation for ability, he had already entertained. While Senator, he voted for the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and supported the bill providing schools for colored children. In 1875 he was a third time elected Mayor of the City of Indianapolis, and succeeded himself for two succeeding terms. While Mayor he advanced and advocated the construction of the Belt Railroad, and sent in a message to the City Council on the subject, pointing out the great advantage the City would derive from its construction. He advocated its construction rather than a resort to via- ducts and tunnels. At this day the citizens of Indianapolis scarcely realize the great benefit the construction of this road brought to their city, and the debt they owe to Mr. Caven in advocating, as the official head of the city, its construction. It was also during his administration as Mayor that the great railroad strike of 1877 occurred. As a great railroad center, Indianapolis was drawn into this memorable event ; but by the consumate address, tact and skill, largely on Mr. Caven's part, the bloody and destructive scenes of Pitts- burgh were averted. Too much praise cannot be given for his work and skill during those dark days. He himself having been reared as a. workingman, enjoyed exceptional advantages in appreciating the strikers' views of the sit- uation, and was able to know their feelings and prejudices. Out of his own pocket he supplied bread for many a workingman's family until he could find work. Through his efforts hundreds were placed at work in the construction of the Belt Railroad, thus supplying their immediate wants. In 1886 he was elected Representative to the lower house of the Legislature of the State, and served as Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. In recent years he has been interested in electric light companies, serving as President (1881) of the first company in this State. Under his supervision the company erected a large plant in Indianapolis, and made the first offer to that city ever made to light an entire city with electricity. Mr. Caven has taken a great interest in secret orders. On July 28, 1863, he took the third degree in masonry, and afterwards served five terms as Master of Mystic Tie Lodge, No. 398. On 330 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA March 3, 1864, he attained his thirty- second degree in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. May 19, 1866, he took his thirty-third degree. He took the chapter degrees in Queen Esther Chapter, No. 3, November lo, 1865 ; the council degrees in Indianapolis Council, No. 2, March 8, 1866 ; and the com- mandry degrees in Raper Commandry, No. i, January 4, 1866. On July 24, 1869, he took his third rank as a Knight of Pythias of Marion Lodge, No. 1. On October 20, 1869, he was elected Grand Chancellor, serving as the first chancellor of the Grand Lodge of Indiana. The following January he was re-elected, serving until 1872. In September, 1877 he was elected the first President of Indianapolis Division, No. 2, Uniform Rank. Physically Mr. Caven is a fine specimen of manhood, standing six feet high and weighing over two hundred pounds. Time has dealt gently with him. Although a bachelor, he is not a recluse nor a cynic, and he loves home and social enjoyment. In all things he is a Christian gentleman of broad and expan- sive views. He is one that has not lived exclusively for himself, but for others and for others' welfare and happiness. " May his shadow never grow shorter." MORROW, WILSON, was born in Rush county, Ind., October 11, 1823. His boyhood days were spent in assisting in clearing out the dense forest, opening out a farm, and attending school in the winter months, as he could be spared from work. Having a great desire for a better education than the common school then afforded, in early manhood he entered Asbury (now DePauw), University, at Greencastle, but was com- pelled to leave school for lack of means before completing his collegiate education. He returned home and resumed work on the farm. This occu- pation not satisfying his ambition, he resolved to become a lawyer, and in 1850 he went to Brookville, the county seat of Franklin county, and entered the office of George Holland. In 1852 he passed an examination in the Circuit and Supreme Courts, then required, was admitted to the bar of the several State Courts, and at once opened an office in Brookville, at that time the home of some of the leading lawyers of Indiana. By hard labor, close attention to business, an indomitable will, and a determination to succeed, he soon reached the front rank as an attorney at law, and continued prac- ticing in Brookville and the surrounding counties until the year 1865, when, desiring a larger field of work, he moved to Indianapolis. He formed a partnership with William H. Hay, and soon after with Col. Nelson Trusler, who soon after became District Attorney of the United States for the District of Indiana. This partnership continued until the death of Col. Trusler, after which Mr. Morrow continued the practice alone. Mr. Morrow became a very prominent and successful lawyer in Indianapolis, being engaged in many very important cases in both State and Federal Courts. He has reached the front ranks of the bar in both State and Federal Courts, and has accumulated a competency of this world's goods for his declining years. In ^, Missing Page ^/ c/ /V^CvC^^t^A— 334 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA stant use in his law practice. In 1886 Mr. Michener was elected Attorney- General of Indiana, and was re-elected in 1888. The duties of that office, at all times high and responsible, were doubly so during Mr. Michener's incum- bency, for it fell to his lot to appear as the representative of the people in a large number of the most important cases in which the State has ever been involved. Space will not permit the giving of even a resume of this litiga- tion, but among the leading cases in which he represented the State may be mentioned the Lieutenant Governor Cases ; the Sleeping Car Taxation Case ; the Beaver Lake Riparian Cases ; the School Book Case ; the State Loan Case ; the Goetlosquet Mandate Case ; the Supreme Court Commission Case, and the cases growing out of the memorable contest between Governor Hovey and the Legislature over what he regarded as legislative usurpations of executive power in appointing to office. At the close of his term of office as Attorney-General of Indiana, Mr. Michener removed to Washington, D. C, where he formed a partnership for the practice of law with Hon. W. W. Dudley. This partnership still exists. The firm has offices in Washington, with a corps of assistants and clerks, and its business requires its members to appear both before the various departments at Washington on behalf of clients having law business with the government, as well as before the vari- ous courts of the District and the Court of Claims, including no inconsider- able practice before the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Michener has fine perceptions of the ethics of his profession, and is deservedly popu- lar with both bench and bar. His methods in the conducting of law suits are to be characterized as practical rather than brilliant. The traditions of the bar of Indiana do not credit him with any speech of exceptional elo- quence, but his knowledge of the precedents and his unflagging industry in the study of the law and the examination of the facts of his cases, together with his strong common sense, combine to make him a case winning lawyer ; those who contend with him at the bar find that to succeed as against him they must make what in base-ball nomenclature would be called an " earned run." His mental and physical make up eminently fit him to carry the bur- den of a great practice as he is doing now, with, apparently, a quarter of a century before him in which to strive for its laurels and its emoluments. Measured by any standard and Mr. Michener's professional life must be called a success, and yet with all of its activities he has found time to devote much effort to the practical game of politics. Although not a hide-bound partisan, he is a firm believer in the traditions and the principal tenets of the Republican party and his loyalty to it is quite exceptional. But for his almost unlimited capacity for hard work together with unusual executive ability, he would not have been able to devote so much time to politics as he has, except to the serious neglect of the law. His devotion to his party sug- gests something of the single-heartedness of the old man — and we speak of the latter's devotion with reverence — who said, in response to an inquiry as to what his business was, that his business was to serve the Lord, but that he mended shoes to pay expenses. Mr. Michener became active in politics at THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 335 the age of eighteen, and from the time he was twenty-two he aided his party in every campaign, both by his services upon the stump and as a member of a committee. In 1884 he was a delegate to the Republican Na- tional Convention and helped to nominate Mr. Blaine. He was chairman of his county committee from 1882 to 1884 ; during the campaigns of 1884 and 1886, he was Secretary of the State Committee ; he was at the head of the Executive Committee of the State Committee in the campaign of 1888, and was Chairman of the State Committee from July, 1889, to January, 1891. In 1888 and 1892 he was chairman of the committee having in charge the con- vention campaigns of General Benjamin Harrison, to secure his nomination as the Republican candidate for the presidency, and had charge of the move- ments which resulted in his nominations. There is perhaps no man to whom General Harrison is under greater political obligations than Mr. Michener, and many who were familiar with the facts expected that he would secure the highest preferment under President Harrison's administration. In this Mr. Michener's friends were disappointed, but they can only infer from the very cordial relations which continued between the two throughout Presi- dent Harrisons term, and still continues, that they thoroughly understood each other, and that Mr. Michener was entirely content to forego the asser- tion of any claim which he might have felt that he possessed upon the Presi- dent. It is probable that Mr. Michener preferred to build upon the founda- tion of a great and growing law practice rather than to lead a brilliant but perhaps ephemeral political career. The horizon of Mr. Michener's acquaint- ance and influence with public men has been constantly widening for many years, but his services as the chairman of the committees which had General Harrison's nomination in charge, in particular, had the effect to make his name a familiar one among public men throughout the United States, and he is recognized as one of the most potent forces in national politics to-day. Mr. Michener's social instincts are quite strong. He is a 32-degree Mason, a Knights of Pythias and an Odd Fellow ; has held nearly all of the offices in the latter order within the jurisdiction of Indiana. He was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows of Indiana from November, 1887, to Novem- ber, 1888, and he was a representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge of that order in 1889 and 1890. He is a member of the Methodist Church, and has been active in Sunday school work. He was a delegate in the National Edu- cational Convention, which met in Louisville in 1885, upon the appointment of Gov. Albert G. Porter ; and in 1889, he was one of the three commissioners representing his State at the Centennial Celebration, in the city of New York, of the inauguration of George Washington as President of the United States. This is a brief summary of a life upon which the sun still shines at its meridian ; what there may be still in store for the subject of our sketch it is useless to conjecture ; others may have carved their names in bolder characters in the temple of fame than he has or will do, but at least one thing is certain, and that is that he has already firmly established his place as a lawyer of excep- tional ability and as one of the influential men of the Nation. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 337 [By Leon O. Bailey,] SMITH, ALONZO GREENE, the subject of this sketch, was born ou the 6th day of September, 1848, on a farm in Meigs county, Ohio, and came to the State of Indiana in 1867, where he located at the town of North Vernon. He was admitted to the bar in 1869. His father and mother were both natives of Meigs county. His education was obtained in the common schools of Ohio, supplemented with a partial course at Franklin College, Ohio. In 18S4 he was elected to the Indiana State Senate from the counties of Jackson and Jennings, and served in the sessions of '85 and '87, being President of the Senate during the latter session. At the session of 1889 he was elected Secretary of the Senate. In 1890 he was elected Attorney-General of the State of Indiana and served from November 22 of that year to Novem- ber 21, 1892. In 1892 he was re-elected Attorney-General of the State and continued in office until November 21, 1894. Mr. Smith, in the severest sense, has been the architect of his own fortune. His parents being poor, from early childhood he was compelled, not only to make provision for him- self, but as well to contribute to the maintenance of other members of his own family. The story of his boyhood and early manhood presents many instances of extreme privation and burden. Born of a sturdy stock, however, he never faltered in his ambition to obtain an education and materially better his own surroundings. In the < arly years of his career his meager income was obtained by means of the hardest manual labor and by teaching country schools during the winter seasons. As is usual in such cases, his leisure hours were devoted to study, and after having determined upon the law as a profession, he conscientiously applied himself to that line of research which would best fit him for his chosen field of labor. His law business gradually increased to a point far beyond that enjoyed by the usual practitioner in Southern Indiana, extending in a few years, as it did, into all the circuits adjoining his own. As a lawyer Mr. Smith is thoroughly familiar with fundamental principles, and his skill as an advocate has been acquired from a long and varied experience in actual court contests. The knowledge obtained from such a school gave him ample preparation to grapple with the larger questions and more distinguished opponents, which he afterwards met as Attorney-General of the State. His course in that office was one of un- usual brilliancy, for, during his four years as chief law officer of Indiana, the volume and importance of the State's business was far greater than ever before. Largely through his efforts the General Tax Law of 1891 was main- tained in the several State courts and finally in the Supreme Court of the United States, and millions of dollars, as an immediate result of the Indiana Railway Tax cases, were turned into the State Treasury. In these, as in other matters of great magnitude, Mr. Smith manifested a familiarity with legal principles and evinced a ripeness of learning which attracted much admira- tion from the profession throughout this and other States. As an advocate he is logical, eloquent and convincing. Throughout his official terms he displayed the strictest devotion to duty and the interests of the people. The 22 338 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA legal triumphs of the State during this period are largely attributable to his indefatigable energy, relentless perseverance, unflinching resolution and splendid learning. It is conceded that covering this time the corporations were compelled to do more strict obedience to the law, and that popular interests were more completely conserved than ever before. In politics, Mr. Smith has always been an uncompromising Democrat, and his time, talents and money have been generously devoted to the maintenance of his party's principles and the success of its candidates. As a legislator he took high rank among his colleagues and performed an important part in the work of the sessions with which he was connected. In 1885 he was chosen by his associates as President of the Senate and, owing to the resignation of Gen. Mahlou D. Manson as Lieutenant-Governor, became the presiding officer of that body during the session of 1887, which was one of the most notable and stormy in the history of the State. It was at this session that David Turpie, caucus nominee of the Democratic members, pitted against Benjamin Harri- son, Republican nominee, was elected to the United States Senate, a result which was probably made possible by the coolness, courage and wisdom of Mr. Smith as presiding officer. As a friend, Mr. Smith is loyal to the last degree and although much misunderstood by those slightly acquainted with him, because of an apparent abruptness in manner, he is, in fact, a gentle- man of genial quality and of m.ost charitable, generous and forgiving dispo- sition. Those who know him well assert that no worthy friend or cause ever applied or was presented to him in vain. He has learned well the lesson of poverty and disappointment and enjoys thoroughly the opportunity of aiding and encouraging those who are oppressed. This characteristic has been shown in all his legislative, official and professional relations, and has justly distinguished him as the friend and advocate of every man or measure entitled to assistance. KERN, JOHN WORTH, was born on the 20th day of December, 1849, on a farm at the village of Alto, in Howard county, Ind. His father, Dr. Jacob H. Kern, was one of the prominent figures in the early history of Howard county, where he practiced his profession with great success for many years. He is yet living and resides in a picturesque mountain home near the city of Roanoke, Botetourt county, Va. Mr. Kern's mother, whose maiden name was Nancy Liggett, died when her son was very young. As a boy John's love for his books led him to regard with disfavor his father's desire that he should remain upon the old homestead and adopt medicine as a profession. Acquiring all the advancement he could in the common schools of that day, he completed his education at Ann Arbor, at which institution he also graduated in law and entered into active practice when slightly under twenty years of age. He was first admitted to practice in Kokomo, in May, iS6g, and still remains a member of that bar. In 1870, Mr. Kern was united in marriage to Julia Anna Hazzard. There were born of this union, which proved to be an exceptionally happy one, two children, a daughter Julia, now about eleven years of age, aud a son Fred, who is in 340 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA his twenty-second year. Mrs. Kern died in August, 1884, and in December, 1885, he was married to Araminta A. Cooper, a daughter of Dr. William Cooper, of Kokomo In politics Mr. Kern is an enthusiastic Democrat, and has done much to maintain the principles of his party in Indiana. From 1872 he has participated in every general campaign and there are few, if any, counties within which his eloquence has not been heard in support of his party's candidates. While in Kokomo he occupied the office of City Attorney from 1871 to 1884, for a period of seven years in all, although at no time was the appointing power held by those of his political faith. In 1884 he was on the Democratic State ticket for Reporter of the Supreme Court, and after a brilliant campaign was elected by a handsome majority. During his incum- bency there were issued seventeen volumes of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Indiana, which bear his name and give evidence of the care with which he performed the duties of that office. At the expiration of his term as Reporter, he took up his residence in the city of Indianapolis where he now lives. In 1892 Mr. Kern was elected from Marion county as a member of the State Senate, a position which he still occupies. In 1889 he became a mem- ber of the well known law firm of Kern and Bailey, a partnership with which he is at present connected in the practice of the law. As a lawyer he has long been recognized as one of the most learned and eloquent in the State of Indiana. Of studious habits, an analytical mind, strong emotions, an eloquent tongue, genial manner, wide experience and an excellent judge of human nature, there are few, if any, advocates who surpass him in the man- agement of a legal contest. In his earlier career much of his time was de- voted to what is known as Criminal Practice, and his name has been connected with many important trials of this nature, but latterly his services have been almost wholly given to the civil practice, a field of labor not only more profitable but much more agreeable to his professional taste. His last engagement in the role of prosecutor was as a special assistant of the United States government iu the indictments returned against those charged with wrecking the Indianapolis National Bank, wherein he manifested great skill in presenting the intricate questions involved and in coping with the dis- tinguished opposing counsel engaged in those celebrated cases. Mr Kern has shown himself to be a legislator of great value to his constituents. Al- ways free from entangling alliances, he has watched every question of public interest with untiring zeal and intelligence. His future advancement to a point of great eminence, it would seem, can only be retarded by events un- foreseen and beyond the line of human probability. His uniform courtesy and consideration is a distinctive feature of his character and is always mani- . fested with such grace and generosity as to render him a favorite with all his associates. In everj' relation of life his conduct is marked with absolute honor and perfect charity. Even his political and professional opponents admire and trust him. Affability is likewise a conspicuous attribute of his nature and a fund of anecdotes, seemingly inexhaustible, whether in the court room, his office, or a party of friends, is always skillfully turned by him to advantage. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA. 341 BAILEY, LEON O., the subject of this sketch, was born on the 21st day of June, 1857, on a Pennsylvania farm near Wellsborough, the county seat of Tioga county. His father, John W. Bailey, was a prosperous manufacturer and business man of that State, and his mother, whose maiden name was Margaret Lewis, came to this country from Wales when a girl about fifteen years of age. When but a child Leon evinced a fondness for books and as a boy was well advanced in the higher branches of learning. At the age of eighteen years he occupied a position as instructor of lan- guages and mathematics in the high school of his Pennsylvania home, and largely by his own efforts secured the opportunities of a college education, which he obtained at Cornell University. He began reading law in the office of Hiscock, Gifford and Dohaney, of Syracuse. N. Y., but in October, 1879, came to Indianapolis, where he resumed his studies with Baker, Hord and Hendricks. In 1880, he received the title of L. L. B. from the Central Law School of Indiana, and made his first venture in the law business with William A. VanBuren, under the firm name of Bailey and VanBuren. In 1883, he formed a partnership with Major Jonathan W. Gordon, with whom he continued in business until the former's death. Mr. Bailey is now the junior partner of the firm of Kern and Bailey, whose legal engagements are among the most numerous and profitable of any law firm in the State of Indiana. In politics Mr. Bailey is an ardent Democrat and has devoted much time to the support of his party. The late Vice-President, Thomas A. Hendricks, who took a deep interest in his advancement, in 1884 induced him to become a candidate for the State Senate from the Capital District of Indiana. This initiatory step in public life proved successful, for while his Republican predecessor had been elected by a large majority, young Bailey defeated his opponent by nearly 1,200 and entered the Senate of 1885 the junior member of that body by several years. With a trained mind, ready in debate, ambitious to excel, he soon took rank as a Legislator, and the Capital District has never had a more vigilant, conscientious, effective rep- resentative in the hall^ of the State Senate than Leon O. Bailey. During the two sessions in which he served (1885 and 1887), he was chairman of the Labor Committee, which was first created as one of the standing committees of the Senate through a resolution offered by him. He was conservative, consistent, mindful of pledges to the people, vigorous, and to him the labor- ing classes of Indiana are indebted for numerous laws now upon the statute books intended for their betterment. In 1887 he was also chairman of the Elections Committee, which, during that session, was of vast importance, having before it as it did some nine or ten contests. It was in connection with the trying and even threatening scenes of that year that the young Senator manifested his great leadership and parliamentary tact. To the wisdom of his counsel much of the credit is given by his party leaders for the election of David Turpie to the United States Senate over ex-President Harrison, his Republican opponent. During President Cleveland's first term of office. Senator Bailey was appointed Assistant United States Attorney 342 THE BEKCH AND BAR OF INDIANA for the District of Indiana, and at the close of the former's incumbency, but after Mr. Harrison's election, Mr. Bailey, as a recognition of his efficient services, was appointed by Mr. Cleveland as United States Attorney, although, of course, he was not confirmed. It was while Mr. Bailey had charge of the office of United States Attorney that the famous " blocks-of-five " Dudley letter was brought to light and several hundred alleged offenders against the federal election laws were indicted. In 1886, Mr. Bailey was a candidate before the Democratic convention of the seventh district for Congressional honors, and upon a division, both he and Mr. Bynum were nominated, but after a contest lasting several months, and a re-assembling of the delegates under order of the Democratic State Central Committee, although Mr. Bailey had publicly announced his withdrawal, he was defeated on the only ballot which could be regarded as a test of strength between the opposing factions (the one for permanent chairman), by one and one-half votes; but once decided, no one labored more faithfully for his opponent's success than he. In the fall of 1890, Mr. Bailey was chosen, over many competitors, as City Attorney o) the city of Indianapolis, and discharged the very exacting and responsible duties of that office in a most skillful manner until the close of his term in January, 1893. Also in November, 1890, his old friend and senatorial colleague, Alonzo Greene Smith, having been elected as Attorney- General of Indiana, insisted upon Mr. Bailey accepting the place of Assistant Attorney-General, an office which he still holds. Mr. Bailey is an excellent lawyer, and as such enjoys a lucrative practice. As a speaker he is fluent, entertaining and logical, and for so young a man enjoj-s unusual distinction on the stump. His services are always in demand during general campaigns and there are few of the counties in Indiana which can not bear testimony to his eloquence and power, likewise many cities in other States. In 1888, his severe and eloquent analysis of General Harrison's record in a speech first delivered in Indianapolis, was publishel on the following day in nearly all the great dailies of the country, which at once brought him into great prominence as a speaker. Owing to his sagacity as a manager and his aggressive manner in everything he undertakes, he has probably been the target for more abuse by the Republican press of Indiana and elsewhere than any man of his age in the State, though no one has ever been able to point to a blemish on his personal, professional or political character, or assail his absolute integrity of purpose. He is distinctly of the people, having risen to his present position by force of his own energies ; he is never happier than when fightiijg for the oppressed ; he sympathizes with the people in their afflictions and glories in their triumphs. Though long in official posi- tion he enjoys the confidence of the people for whose interests he always labors, and with whom he never resorts to deceit. As a friend he is very tenacious ; always affable, generous and faithful. Those worthy of assistance never seek his aid in vain. He is a. member of the order of Masons, and likewise prominent in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His political and professional future are exceedingly promising. Before coming 344 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA to Indiana, Mr. Bailey married Miss Rosamond Paty Coggeshall, a young lady of rare literary and social accomplishments. Mrs. Bailey, the youngest daughter of William Boylston Coggeshall and Ann Maria Jenkins (Coffin;, was born on the now famous island of Nantucket in August, 1858. On her mother's side she numbered among her ancestors in direct line Benjamin Franklin, Lucretia Mott, Maria Mitchell and Tristam Coffin. The " Coffin " Sc^ P^ y'^c^^^^r^^C^.^.^ 348 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA while yet a very young boy. Before he was sixteen he went to the logging camps, and by sixteen was in charge and command of a camp of loggers. This incessant toil on the farm and in the forests continued until he was twenty-one years old. During this time he was an omniverous reader and student, studying far into the night and rising early in the morning to con- tinue his reading until sunrise. After struggling to earn money enough to enter college he at last succeeded and found his way to Greencastle, Indiana. Here he matriculated at Asbury, now DePauw University. The writer of this sketch remembers well the appearance of young Beveridge when he entered the University. He was thin and wan with a heavy growth of fair hair and very brilliant eyes. He was the second strongest man, physically, among many hundred students. From his first appearance in college he was a marked man. During the entire course he maintained himself by the prizes he took in oratorical and scholarship contests and by the work he did during the summer vacations. He was immediately accorded a front rank among the students, being indefatigable in his studies, ever ready for intellectual contests and equally ardent in college sports. Of an intense nature and hav- ing the power of concentration to an unusual degree, with an ambition to excel, he won in every contest. His industry was phenomenal. He was continuously at work, mastering his lessons, improving his literary style, perfecting his oratory, reading all accessible literature, pursuing some special study or engaged in such physical exercise as promised the best results for his health. In addition to the regular course, he took several special courses, being the only student in the University who, by the special permission of the faculty, ever pursued an extraordinary course in history, unprovided for in the college curriculum. He wrote many originai theses upon the phi- losophy of history ; and many of the faculty urged young Beveridge to adopt historical authorship as his life work. The writer of this sketch was for awhile his room-mate. Every moment of the day was filled in and a good part of the night. Many a time the writer has left him after dinner, working at his studies or at some special task he had set for himself, and upon return- ing found him still at it at midnight ; and has been awakened before the sun was up by the rustle of turning leaves, as his room-mate, in his keen pursuit of knowledge, pored through books untouched by the other students. He examined and analyzed the style of orators and writers of prose and poetry. He wrote a finished translation of Cicero which many of his fellows used as a help. Even in his conversation he was ever gathering new ma- terials to forge in the weapons with which to win his way. With all this fervid application he was always a ' ' good fellow, ' ' always ready to leave his work to help a fellow student, a democrat in the true, aristocratic sense of the word. He was generous to a fault, and his purse was always open to his friends. Many a time the boys had among them every cent that Beveridge had saved up to pay his way. In those days college politics were a large part of college life, and he was the unquestioned leader of one side, obeyed unhesitatingly by his party, winning always, and winning, not by cunning ,v^ 350 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA artifices and trickery, but by -well-planned campaigns and irresistible assault But his greatest triumph at this period of his life was when he successively won the college State prize in oratory, the State contest at Indianapolis, and finally carried off the highest prize at the Inter-State contest in oratory at Columbus, Ohio. The writer remembers his home-coming, •w;hen faculty and students gathered, with music, flags, cannon and the military battalions of the college, and carried the champion on their shoulders to the carriages and to old Meharry Hall, and welcomed him with cheers, speeches and every demonstration of delight, for the honor he had won for the college. He was graduated with first-class honors. His health was somewhat impaired by the work of his college life and the still harder work he did during the summer vacations. He therefore went for a season to the western plains, where he rode with the cowboys and lived in their camps and in the sod houses of the pioneers. His health restored to greater vigor than ever, he returned to Indiana and located at Indianapolis for the study of his chosen profession, the law. He became a student in the office of McDonald, Butler & Mason, where he also served as a clerk. This was in the winter of 1886-7. He had little influence and less money ; but the courage and the abilities which had carried him through college so successfully, served him equally well here. He was still self-reliant, still intense, still absolute ; and these when combined conquer all things. Soon he was admitted to the bar, and when the firm was re-organized as McDonald & Butler he became managing clerk at the largest salary ever paid in a similar position in Indianapolis. The work which this important firm entrusted to his charge was conducted with such ability that it was not long before he was arguing cases in the Supreme Court of the State, appearing alone. He won his first case in the Supreme Court, involving the construction of an important and complicated statute. Between Senator McDonald and John M. Butler and their young clerk a great affection grew up which lasted during Senator McDonald's life and still endures between Mr. . Butler and him. Senator McDonald admired Mr. Beveridge greatly and once said to the writer that he was the ablest lawyer for his age he had ever known. His first jury case was with Senator McDonald in the Federal Court, where they were pitted against General Harrison and his firm on the other side. "While in the midst of this trial the day set for his mar- riage with Miss Catherine Langsdale, of Greencastle, arrived. The court adjourned for that day and the next day he was back in court conducting the case. During all the year of 1888 he was almost continuously in the Supreme and Federal Courts, and his reputation soon became such that he felt justified in entering upon the practice for himself. This he did in January, 1889, less than four years after leaving college, by opening an office in a back room of the same building with his old firm. He had a desk, a very few law books and less money ; the clients were yet to appear. Five years have elapsed. To-day, he has the splendid suite of rooms in front, formerly occupied by his old firm, and one of the fine law libraries of the State. His practice has steadily increased from the first, his cases being among the most important of the THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 351 State. When the memorable contest came between the State Executive and the Legislature, brought on by Governor Hovey's challenging the constitu- tional right of the General Assembly to appoint several important officials of the State, Mr. Beveridge was retained by the Governor's appointees. This fight lasted more than two years, and was one of the most savage contests ever waged in the tribunals of Indiana. One of these cases went through the Supreme Court three times. All of them involved the most important ques- tions of constitutional law. When it was over Mr. Beveridge's clients had won, were in office and in possession of their official salaries. During this litigation Governor Hovey and Mr. Beveridge became devoted friends, and from that time the young lawyer became the old Governor's personal attorney' and counsel, the Governor submitting to him for suggestion every veto, message or other important official act. He was fond of saying that Mr. Beveridge was one of the soundest constitutional lawyers in Indiana. After the Governor's death his family selected Mr. Beveridge to deliver the me- morial address at the laying of the foundation of his monument, before a great audience of his old soldiers who had gathered from Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky. His next important constitutional employment was in the State Railway Tax Cases, in which he was of counsel who assisted the Attorney-General. Taxation on more than $150,000,000 worth of property was involved in this series of cases. They were taken through the Trial Court, the Supreme Court of the State and finally to the Supreme Court of the United States Under the generalship and management of Attorney- General Smith, the State was everywhere successful. Throughout this liti- gation Mr. Beveridge bore an important part, making several oral arguments and preparing briefs — particularly the brief in the Supreme Court of the United States in the P. C. C. & St. L. case. As was the case with Senator Mc- Donald, John M. Butler and Governor Hovey, so with Attorney-General Smith, a great and mutual friendship sprang up between him and Mr. Bev- eridge during this litigation. No attempt will be made, nor is it necessary in this sketch to follow all the cases in which Mr. Beveridge has been engaged in the highei courts. His work in several difficult constitutional and cor- poration cases has attracted attention as far east as New York, the home of the writer. Perhaps the case which has engaged the widest interest in Indianapolis was the suit he won for John C. Shaffer, involving the sale of the Indianapolis Street Railway to H. Sellers McKee, the millionaire magnate of Pittsburgh, and his associates. It was fought out in the United States Court, and Mr. Beveridge joined battle alone with those who are recognized as among the most eminent lawyers of the Indiana bar, Ex-Attorney-General W. H. H. Miller, Hon. Ferdinand Winter and the Hon. John B. Elam. At the beginning the odds appeared greatly against Mr. Beveridge ; but at the end the victory was his. Notwithstanding all these battles in his profession, to which he has clung in spite of alluring offers in politics, he has found time to secure wide fame as an eloquent and effective political speaker. He is depended upon by his party to bear a heavy share of the campaign work 352 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA during great Dolitical contests, and his services are in demand as far east as New England. The Union League Club of Chicago unanimously selected Mr. Beveridge as one of its speakers on the occasion of its great Washington Birthday banquet on the 22d of February, 1895, which is the greatest func- tion of its kind held in the United States. This is the iirst time this honor was ever bestowed upon an Indianian. The past summer, that of 1894, Mr. Beveridge made a trip through western Europe, from which he returned with renewed health. Since he came back he has written, as a sort of pastime, observations on his trip abroad, concerning which an eminent New York journalist said to the writer, " I am surprised at the freshness, accuracy and extreme fairness of these observations. I have never read such engaging and accurate studies of European life, and I bring myself with difficulty to believe that the author was a hasty traveler, going over the ground for the first time. ' ' Mr. Beveridge has a strong, clean-cut face, with smooth, almost colorless skin and abundant, fair hair over a bold forehead. A strong chin and lower jaw and keen blue eyes bear out his character, while his physique gives the impression of inexhaustible energy directed by a strong intellect, with a force that is always under perfect control. He is, if possible, a harder student now than he was in college. Every spare moment is devoted to special study. He is deeply learned in constitutional law and has been employed in many constitutional cases. This, and corporation law are his specialties, although his practice is general. He has given particular attention to Federal prac- tice, with which he became thoroughly familiar in his student days, and enjoys a large and growing practice in the United States Courts. Success in winning cases has also brought a large consultation employment, which has grown into one of the most important branches of his practice. Through all Mr. Beveridge has retained all the good fellowship and comradery of college days, and loyal and devoted friends all over the country watch, with affec- tion, his career. RITTER, LEVI. Levi Ritter was born in Hendricks County, in this State, on the 14th day of May, 1830. His parents were among the earliest pioneers in that part of the State. He came of a sturdy Quaker stock, and throughout his entire life he displayed his inheritance in his character as a man and the quality of his citizenship. His early education was in the country school, supplemented by a partial course of study at the Indiana Asbury University. , Before he had attained his majority he had completed his course of study in medicine and graduated from the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, O. He immediately entered upon the practice of his profes- sion a§ a country doctor, and soon had an extensive practice. One of his competitors in this early practice was destined to become of national reputa- tion, the late Thomas B. Harvey, of this city. An intimate friendship sprang up between these two young men which ended only with their lives. The arduous labors then incident to the medical profession after a few years 23 354 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA so exhausted his constitution, which was naturally rarely vigorous, that he found he was compelled to choose some other calling. He turned his atten- tion to the study of law. In 1858 he was elected as Representative from Hendricks County to the lower house of the General Assembly of the State and served one term. In the fall of i860 he was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court of Hendricks County, and in 1864 was re-elected to that office. Prior to taking possession of his office as Clerk he had completed the regular course of study and graduated from a law school then conducted at Cleve- land, O. Just at that time his health seemed to completely give way; he had repeated and severe hemorrhages from his lungs, and it was thought that his death was but a question of a few months. He, however, almost com- pletely recovered his former strength, although always thereafter his voice retained a certain huskiness which will be remembered by those who heard him speak. At the close of his services as Clerk, he at once entered upon the practice of the law at the Hendricks County bar, and was, from the be- ginning, more than ordinarily successful both in securing and disposing of causes, and appeared in most of the important trials in that court. After four years thus employed, he removed to this city and formed a co-partner- ship with his brother. Col. Eli F. Ritter, with whom he was associated until he retired from practice. Beginning with the year 1873, for a period of more than seven years, L. C. Walker was connected with them, under the firm name of Ritter, Walker & Ritter, and which relation continued until Mr. Walker was elected to the bench. In June, 1891, while engaged in the trial of a cause, he was prostrated by an acute attack of inflammation of the blad- der, which developed such constitutional infirmities as to preclude any re- turn to the active duties of the profession. For a time he traveled, hoping to receive benefit, but, not realizing his expectations, he returned to his home at Irvington. He submitted to three surgical operations, the first two of which it was believed gave partial relief, and it was hoped that a third would effect a permanent cure ; but in this he was disappointed, and on March 14, 1893, at II o'clock p. M., he died. In all the relations of life, whether as physician, as a lawyer or citizen, he had the confidence and the respect of all good men with whom he came in contact. He was of a kindly, genial na- ture, that made him an admirable companion. He was a quick and close ob- server of men, and of things, and of the times ; he was well balanced and of sound judgment ; he was thoroughly honest. He had a good understanding of fundamental principles of the law, a clear insight as to the right or the wrong of a cause, and quickly seized the salient points in a case presented to him, and his judgment as to the applications of the law to a given state of facts was good. He was a direct and forcible rather than an eloquent speaker. He had much mother wit, and was quick in apt and striking illustrations of that character which brought the subject matter under discussion vividly to the minds and within the comprehension and understanding of common people ; this was particularly true in his political speeches. In this regard he had but few equals. In politics he was a Republican, in religion a Meth- THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 355 odist ; but in both politics and religion lie was catholic and free from bigotry. He was a good man, and the world is better for his having lived in it. He loved and served God ; and he loved and served men. He had his reward, for he was beloved of God and of men. As he lived so he died, at peace with God and with men. In his life and in his death he fulfilled the injunction— " So live that when thy summons comes To join the innumerable caravan which moves To the pale realm of shade, where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, as the quarry slave at night. Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him and lies down to pleasant dreams." [Memorial adopted by the Bar Association of Marion County, Indiana, March i6, 1893, npon the report of a committee composed of Hons. Charles W. Smith, Lewis C. Walker and Robert N. Lamb.l HEROD, WILLIAM, was born on the 31st day of March, 1801, in Bourbon county, Ky. His father was Wiiliam Herod, who moved to Boone county, of the same State, when William was about four years old, where the latter grew to manhood. William read law with Hon. Edward Armstrong, at Burlington, Ky., and was there licensed to practice. In 1824 he moved to Columbus, Ind., and there opened an office, following his profes- sion at that place until his death, which occurred in October, 1871. Mr. Herod was a Whig, and as such he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of the Fifth Judicial Circuit. In 1836 he was elected to Congress to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Hon George L. Kinnard. He was re-elected in 1837, and served with distinction. He also served his county several terms in the House and Senate of the State of Indiana. In 1859 he was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court, which office he held until 1863. His first mar- riage was at Columbus, to Mrs. Cassandra Knight, a daughter of Brigadier- General John Wingate. They had born to them two sons, Edward A. and William Wirt — the former now of Chicago, 111., and the latter of Indian- apolis, Ind. His second wife was Miss Rhoda W. Ferris, of an old family from Dearborn county, Ind., by whom he had one son, who is now assistant cashier of the First National Bank, of Columbus, Ind. This marriage occurred in 1866. Mr. Herod practiced at a time when lawyers stood out in public view on distinct individualities, and every man rose by reason of his own qualifications. Such a man was Mr. He.od. He rose to prominence, and was a distinguished member of his profession. He enjoyed the respect of all who knew him and possessed the confidence of the people, and, partic- ularly, for his political consistency, of which no better evidence can be given than the many times he received the favor of their franchises, irre- spective of party affiliations. ^^CO^ui^f^f^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 357 HEROD, WILLIAM WIRT. The sous of lawyers are very apt themselves to become lawyers. In this Mr. Herod is a verification of this state- ment. His father was William Herod, a distinguished lawyer and poli- tician of Columbus, Ind. His mother was Mrs. Cassandra (Knight) Herod, a daughter of Brigadier-General John Wingate. William W. was born at Columbus, Ind., February 8, 1835, and there grew to manhood. He was edu- cated in the public schools of Columbus, and read law in his father's office. He was graduated from the Law School at Louisville, Ky., in the spring of 1861, and began practicing law at his native town in connection with Colonel Simeon Stansifer. At that time his father was clerk of the Circuit Court of Bartholomew county, which he held from 1859 to 1863. In the latter year he and his father formed a partnership for the practice of the law, and continued until the death of the latter in 1871. In October, 1871, he and Hon. Ferdi- nand Winter formed a partnership at Columbus, under the style of " Herod & Winter," and continued there until March, 1875, when they moved to In- dianapolis, the partnership continuing until August, 1883. After the firm was dissolved Mr. Herod practiced alone until 18S6, when he and his son, William P. Herod, formed a partnership, which still continues. In i865 Mr. Herod was nominated by the Republicans of Bartholomew county for State Senator, but was defeated by Col. Thomas G. Lee, by a small Democratic majority. In 1872 he was nominated by his party as Representative to Con- gress for the Third District. His political opponent was Hon. William S. Holman (now in Congress). The district was overwhelmingly Democratic, and he went down with his party. In 1878 he was elected Representative to the State Legislature from Marion county, and in 1891 was the Republican nominee for Mayor of the city of Indianapolis. After passing through a most exciting campaign he was defeated by his political opponent, Thomas L. Sullivan. During his partnership with his father at Columbus they were engaged on one side of almost all important litigations in Bartholomew county. The same was true of Mr. Winter and him during their partner- ship there. June 20, 1861, he married Miss Susan C. Rogers, on the old farm, Bryant's Station, Fayette county, Ky. Their family now consists of four children, two sons and two daughters. The elder son, William P., is his present partner, and the younger son, Joseph R., is now Second Secretary of Legation at Tokio, Japan. The elder daughter, Elizabeth, mar- ried Frank M. Baldwin, and the younger, Lucy, is at home. Mv. Herod is eminently a lawyer, possessing qualifications decidedly more than ordinary. Few have his equal in the trial of causes. His influence with the jury is proverbial. Possessing a tenacious memory for names and face', with ready speech, there are not a few who find themselves at a disadvantage when pitted against him. As a public speaker, on the rostrum or on the "stump," he has few equals in the State. In personal contact he is always genial and urbane, with an ease of manner attractive to all who meet him. icrunf'^^^^-'^ 360 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA HEROD, WILLIAM PIRTLE. Mr. Herod was born at Columbus, Ind., July 27, 1864. His father was William W. Herod, his grandfather William Herod, and his mother's maiden name was Susan C. Rogers. He received his education in the public schools of his native town and of the city of Indianapolis, to which place his father moved in March, 1875, until he entered the celebrated Classical School of the latter place, conducted by Prof. T. L. Sewall, from which he was graduated in 1882, and the same year entered Yale University, where he completed his education. After returning from college he read la^v in his father's office, at Indianapolis, and entered into a partnership with him in 1886, which has continued until the present time. Although engaged in the general practice, he makes a specialty of patent litigation. As one of the younger members of the bar, he has had ex- cellent success, and stands well with the members of his profession. He is of the third generation of successful lawyers in the family, and gives fair promise of maintaining the standard his ancestors have established. June 5, 1890, he was married to Miss Mary Beaty Applegate, the only daughter of Mr. Bergen Applegate, a member of the wholesale grocery firm of Severin, Ostermeyer & Company, of Indianapolis. He has never been an aspirant for political office, although frequently having taken active part in the political campaigns as a Republican, the political creed of his family. Socially he is a dignified gentleman, but pleasant an 1 agreeable to all with whom he meets. BROWDER, WILBUR FISK, son of Parker S. Browder and Susan J. Browder (nee Dakin), was born November 29, 1850, at Jamestown, Ohio, being the third child of seven. His parents removed to Greencastle, Putnam county, Ind., in 1858, where the subject of this sketch resided with his parents on a farm adjoining the town. His youth was occupied with the usual farm work, cultivating crops in the summer and attending school in the winter. When he was fifteen years old he entered the Asbury University (now DePauw) , where he continued until his graduation in 1872. His studious habits gave him high rank in scholarship, and he was graduated with the highest honors, being valedictorian of the class of 1872. October 14, 1872, he removed to Indianapolis, where he has ever since resided. Soon after his removal he was appointed Assistant Reporter of the Supreme Court of Indiana by Hon. James B. Black, the then State Officer. He displayed such aptitude and ability in the work of revising, correcting, proof-reading and otherwise editing the decisions of the Court, that the Justices of the Supreme Court, unsolicited on his part, requested Judge Black's successor, Hon. A. N. Martin (Congressman from the Eleventh District), to appoint him his deputy, not- withstanding the fact that the Court and Mr. Martin were Democrats, poli- tically, while Mr. Browder was a Republican. He was appointed. His services were continuous from that time, during the terms of office of Hon. A. N. Martin, Hon. Francis M. Dice and Hon. John W. Kern, until his resigna- tion in 1887. His work in the Reporter's office was and is of immense value ^X-^A^r a'^.e^/c ^T'^.^i^Ti^f 362 THE BENCH AKD BAR OF INDIANA to the bench and bar of the State, and will not and cannot be appreciated by those not familiar with the onerous duties of his position and the trust and confidence reposed in him by the Supreme Court. In literary criticism and judgment he was .for years accorded the first position among the officers about the State building. His services commenced with volume 35 and ended with the Ii6th Indiana Reports. He assisted Judge Samuel H. Buskirk in the publication of his work on " Practice in the Supreme Court," revising and correcting it while in press. He has also assisted in the publication and proof-reading of books by other authors, notably W. W. Thornton, Esq., the well-known legal author. September 10, 1887, he resigned his position, to enter the practice of the law at Indianapolis, Ind. He formed a partnership with Vincent G. Clifford which has since continued under the firm name of Clifford & Browder. They have made a specialty of natural gas litigation and build- ing association business. December 4, 1873, he was married to Ella J. Jones, daughter of R. W. Jones, of Greencastle, Ind. BLACKLEDGE, FRANK H., was born November 21, 1857, at Bluffton, Wells county, Indiana. His father, Thomas G. Blackledge, was de- scended from English and Welsh ancestors, who located originally in Pennsylvania, and afterward settled in Columbiana county. Ohio. His mother, Susan Kenagy, was of German descent. Her family also fol- lowed the same course of migration from Pennsylvania through Ohio into Indiana. His father was a physician, and was until the date of his death, October 9, 1884, in the practice of his profession. After a short residence in Illinois, his family located at Rockville, Parke county, in this State, but subsequently moved to Franklin, in Johnson county. His childhood and youth were passed in those towns. He went to Indianapolis when sixteen years of age, and has since then resided continu- ously in that city. He was educated at the high schools of Franklin and Indianapolis and at Franklin College. He had very early formed a desire to enter a profession, but domestic obligations compelled him to abandon such purpose, at least for a time, and to take such employment as promised immediate returns. He was therefore employed from the time he came to Indianapolis, in 1873, until the latter part of 1880 as an accountant in wholesale mercantile houses of that city. The time not occupied in his business was, during this period, devoted to the study of law and stenography. In 1880 Hon. Albert G. Porter was elected Governor, and in December of that year he appointed Mr. Blackledge private secretary, which position he held for a period of four years from the loth day of January, 1881. The position is one requiring tact, discretion and acquaintance with men and affairs. Upon his retirement from office, in 1885, he was com- mended, by newspapers representing the opposite party, for the manner in which he had discharged the duties of his office. He then entered the law office of Harrison, Miller & Elam and continued the study of law until the ^■-^'^^-^^-^(^^ -^Ioj^z^lcl^^ 364 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA latter part of 1886, wheu he opened an office and has since been engaged in the practice of his profession. He continued in the practice alone until July I, 1893, at which time he formed a partnership with William W. Thorn- ton, which still exists. Mr. Blackledge is a thorough student of the law. No man investigates a legal question with mote care than he. He is not satisfied until he has examined all the authorities, often devoting days to that end. He exhibits great tenacity in securing the interests of his clients ; but is imbued with a high sense of honor and integrity that forbids a resort to tricks and questionable practice. His experience in public affairs has been of great benefit to him, and places him high up in the rank of the younger members of the bar. Mr. Blackledge now holds the office of School Commissioner from the First School District of the city of Indianapolis. He was chosen at a popular election June 9, 1894, his opponent being Mr. John P. Frenzel, then, and for twelve years prior thereto, commissioner from that district. The contest in this district evoked a stronger and more general interest in school elections and the management of school affairs than has ever been known in the history of the city. The interests under the control of the School Board are large and important. Since he has been a member of that board Mr. Blackledge has strongly advocated sound and conservative business methods. On the 17th of October, 1888, he was united in marriage to Mary Elder, daughter of John R. and Amelia A. Elder. The Elder family has resided in Indianapolis since 1833, and is among the oldest, as well as the most highly esteemed, of that city. They have one child, John Elder Black- ledge, born February 7, 1891. In politics Mr. Blackledge is and has always been a Republican, and actively interested in the advancements of the prin- ciples of his party. His ancestors upon both sides were Whigs, and at the close of the War of the Rebellion were represented in the ranks of the vet- erans of the Union army. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church at Indianapolis, and also of various clubs and societies of that city, social, political and literary. Mr. Blackledge is a lover of polite literature, is culti- vated in his tastes, and surrounds himself with books which he greatly enjoys. Few men of his age are better read than he, and few read with greater discernment and better discrimination. BAKER, JAMES P., was born on the 27th of August, 1844, near the vil- lage of Azalia, in Bartholomew county, Indiana. The community was largely composed of Quakers and were order-loving and law-abiding. His parents, Samuel and Jincy Baker, were born in North Carolina and re- moved to Indiana in 1831. They were Whigs in politics, members of the Methodist church and devout christians. James was the next to the youngest of their seven children. His father died in 1849 and his mother, left with several dependent children and slendor means of support, had a hard struggle to rear her family, but she was a woman of strong character, great industry and unfaltering faith in God, and did the best that was possi- /^^iy/a.^^ 366 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA ble under the circumstances. The subject of this sketch lived on the farm, working in the summer and going to school in the winter until the spring of 1861, when he entered the Academy at Columbus, Ind. He remained there until the summer of 1863. In the fall of that year he entered the State Uni- versity at Bloomington and graduated in the class of 1866. Afterward for two years he taught school, first at Marshall, Illinois, and then at Blooming- ton and New Albany, Indiana. In the summer of 1868 he located at Indian- apolis and in the fall of that year began the study of law, attending the law school conducted by Judge Perkins and the Hon. I,ucien Barbour. In 1871 he was admitted to the Indianapolis bar, where he has since practiced his profession. In 1879 he was married to Mary R. Parvin, daughter of Theophelus Parvin, M. D., and has three children living and two dead. Mr. Baker has held no office, but has devoted himself to his family and his pro- fession. As a practitioner he is diligent and faithful in the cause of his clients and merits the success which has attended him. COX, MILLARD F., was born on a farm in Hamilton county, Ind., thirty- eight years ago, being the sixth child of Aaron and Mary A. Cox. His father was of Quaker stock and a native of Ohio, to which State his people had come from North Carolina early in the present century. His mother was a native of Kentucky. Her grand-father on the paternal side came into that State with Daniel Boone. On the maternal side her people wer; residents of Tennessee, coming into that State from South Corolina, and were supporters of and soldiers under Andrew Jackson, in his Indian cam- paigns and at the battle of New Orleans. Aaron Cox came to Indiana in 1840, when twenty years old, on a prospecting tour, and ten years later moved to this State with his family and settled in Hamilton county. Millard received a high-school eduation. Between school terms he worked in a weekly newspaper office and there learned the printer's trade. When eighteen years old he taught one term of school of five months. About this time he com- menced to read law under the direction of his uncle. Judge N. R. Overman, of Tipton, and of his older brother, Jobez T. Cox, now Judge of the Miami Circuit Court. Shortly after the expiration of his school term he came to Indianapolis with letters of recommendation to Hon. Jonathan W. Gordon. At Major Gordon's instance he entered the law office of Hon. P. W. Bartholo- mew, with whom and Major Salmon A. Buell he spent about one year. He then went into the office of Francis M. Trissall, Esq., then practicing in Indianapolis, but now of Chicago. About a year later he went into the office of the Reporter of the Decisions of the Supreme Court, as an assistant. Shortly after he was of age he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court and passed an examination and was recommended for admission to the United States Courts. In 1880 he opeaed an office in Indianapolis. In January, 1881, he went to Tipton, to enter into the practice there, and in a few months, upon the recommedation of the entire bar, was appointed Master Commissioner of 368 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA the Circuit Court, under the law of 1881, which position he held for about eighteen months and resigned. In 1882, without solicitation on his part he was nominated for Prosecuting Attorney, but was defeated with his party ticket in the election of that year. In January, 1885, upon the accession of Hon. John W. Kern to the office of Supreme Court Reporter, Mr. Cox became First Assistant Reporter and did much of the important work of that respon- sible office. At the expiration of Mr. Kern's term of office, Mr. Cox, at the request of his successor, Hon. John L. Griffiths, aided that official in the pre- paration of his first three volumes. His work during the period of his services embraced twenty volumes of reports, from the iioth to the 129th. In January, 1890, he again opened up an office in Indianapolis for the practice of the law. In November of that year he was elected Judge of the Criminal Court of Marion Covinty. In 1894, declining to again be a candidate for that office, he was nominated for Judge of the Superior Court, but, with the whole party ticket, was defeated. He is no^y practicing law. He is married, his wife having been Hattie Pressly Weed, and they have one child, a daughter, Mar- garet. McCRAY, FRANK, was born March 30, 1855, in Wayne township, Marion county. He is the son of Aaron and Caroline McCray. From his earliest boyhood he developed a disposition to toil, and through all the earlier years of his young manhood was known for his habits of industry. He worked on a farm and in brick-yards until he reached the age of twenty years. He attended the common schools of the county, took a thorough course at the normal school at Valparaiso, and afterwards completed his education at the Dennison University, at Granville, Ohio, one of the best known educational institutions in Ohio. After graduating he taught school for five winters, and then entered the law office, in this city, of Byfield & Howland, where he read law until he began practice in Indianapolis, Decem- ber, 1883. Mr. McCray was the Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in the lower Courts for one year, and afterwards was appointed Attorney for the Poor of this county by the Board of Commissioners during the year 1885. He prac- ticed his profession in this city until November, 1894, when he was elected Judge of the Marion Criminal Court. One of the first cases he was called upon to try was the very important one of Winifred E. Smith for the murder of Weston B. Thomas. Judge McCray came from a sturdy and honorable parentage. His mother was Caroline Bridgeford. She was born in 1825 in Fayette county, Indiana, and was the daughter of William Bridgeford, oue of the pioneer farmers of this county. He came here and cleared the farm known as the George Carter farm, in Washington township. He was for many years a Justice of the Peace, and served as the administrator in the settlement of many valuable estates in the early history of this county. For more than a score of years he was known as one of the most prominent citizens of Marion county. The Bridgefords came originally from England, ^^^^K^ .^..u^ 7kfr.C2^ 24 370 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA settling at first in Virginia, and emigrating thence into Ohio and Indiana. Aaron McCray, father of Judge Frank McCray, was born of Scotch-Irish parentage in Fayette county, Indiana, in 1820, and came with his father, Samuel McCray, to Marion county in 1833, settling on the Pressly farm west of the city. He was the Township Trustee of Wayne township before the war, and was afterwatds elected to the Board of County Commissioners of this county. While a member of the board he was active in the construction of the court house and county asylum, and also the many perfectly con- structed iron bridges now standing throughout the county. Judge Frank McCray was married to Clara W. Pugh, of Peru, Ind., November 21, 1888. She died within fifteen months after their marriage. He was again married October 11, 1893, to Kate E. Lamprod, daughter of William and Sarah Lamprod, of Plaiufield, Ind., who came from England in 1881. THORNTON, WILLIAM W., was the first child of John A. and Ellen B. Thornton (daughter of Giles W. Thomas), and was born on the south bank of the Wabash River, two miles west of Logansport, this State, June 27, 1851. When he was an infant his parents moved to Bureau county. Ills., but returned to Cass county, where he grew to manhood. His school was that of the country district, the old seminary in Logansport, and Smith- sonian College, a Universalist institution on the heights north of that city, which college is long since numbered with the things of the past, to the deple- tion of the pocket-books of many well-meaning persons. He did not graduate. April, 1874, he went to California and spent the summer teaching school, the stepping stone of many professional men. In Octoberhe returned home for the purpose of reading law, and entered the office of his uncle, Henry C. Thorn- ton, in Logansport. He was shortly afterward admitted to the bar, but did not begin the practice until April, 1876. In that month he graduated in the Law Department of Michigan University, located at Ann Arbor, Mich. In November, 1880, he was appointed Chief Deputy by Hon. D. P. Baldwin, Attor- ney-General, and served acceptably two full years. Retiring fromthis office he located in Crawfordsville, this State. In January, 1882, he was married to Miss Mary Fre3rtag, youngest daughter of the late Judge Robert F. Groves, of Logansport, Ind. He continued the practice of law at Crawfordsville until August, 1889, during which time he served two years as City Attorney, when he moved to Indianapolis, where he is now engaged in the practice of law. As a writer upon legal topics he has achieved considerable reputation. Jones' Index to Legal Periodicals shows that in 1888 he had written more articles for legal periodicals at that date than any other writer in England or America, with two exceptions, and one of these has been the editor of an American law journal for a quarter of a century. These articles are published in the "Central Law Journal," the "Albany Law Journal," the "American Law Register," "The Green Bag," the "Southern Law Review," and the "Ameri- can Law Review," the leading magazines and journals of the country, be- sides in several others. In 1887, he published his first legal work, " Statutory ~? 372 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Construction," a work which is a complement to the Revised Statutes of 1881, containing citations of decisions of the Supreme Court construing the various sections of that revision of the Statutes, and showing the origin, in the session laws, of many of its sections. The work was first prepared for private use, and was printed at the request of the publishers. It represents the results of ten years of labor given at such moments as he was not occu- pied in the active labors of his profession. In 1890 a supplement to it was published. In 1883, he edited the "Universal EncycIopEedia," a large work of over fourteen hundred pages, based on an English work of like character. He wrote, however, fully one half of the work. It was afterward published in two large volumes with notes. This work suggested to the publishers the idea which crystalized in the "American and English Encyclopaedia of Law," and for which Mr. Thornton prepared several articles. In 1888 he wrote "Juries and Instructions," a local work for this State. In 1889 he and Messrs. T. E. and E. E. Ballard published their "Annotated Code," a work on the Civil Code of this State ; and in 1893 he prepared a new edition of this work. His first work beside the Encyclopaedia, of a general character, was a small volume, entitled "Lost Wills," published in 1890, the only work on that subject. During the year 1891 he brought out " Indiana Municipal Law;" and a second edition in 1893. In 1892 he published " Railroad Fences and Private Crossings," a work of a general character. In 1893 appeared two volumes of "Indiana Practice Forms for Civil Proceedings," and the same year " Gifts and Advancements," the latter a pioneer work on these subjects. Besides these he has edited at least two editions of the School Laws and several pamphlets on legal subjects. These works attest the record of a busy life, representing toil that only an author can appreciate. Besides all this labori- ous work he has been almost constantly engaged in active practice, both in the nisi prius and Appellate Courts, in charge of cases involving questions of great interest. He is now one of the lecturers in the Indiana Law School, located at Indianapolis. (Bv B. S. HiGGIKS.l TERHUNE, THOMAS J. The subject hereof was born on a farm in Greene county, Indiana, on the 8th day of March, 1848, of David and Sarah Terhune. On arrival to proper age he was sent, during the win- ter months, to the free school of his neighborhood. In 1867, a number of young men of whom Terhune was one, influenced by a desire lo obtain a bet- ter education than the facilities of their neighborhood afforded, associated themselves together and securing the use of a church, employed Mr. Jesse Hanna, who was a graduate of the Asbury LTniversity, to give them instruc- tion. The instruction given here was such as that the students were pre- pared to enter freshman at college. Terhune remained at this school for two years. In 1869, at the September term, he entered the Indiana University, where he graduated in the literary department, four years thereafter. The next year he obtaned his degree in the law department of the University. 374 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA In 1874, he went to Lebanon, Indiana, and there became a member of an old and well established law firm consisting of A.J. Boone and R. W. Harrison. Mr. Boone d}'ing soon after young Terhune became a member of the firm, he then formed a partnership with John W. Clements, who was about the same age of Terhune. This was a strong iirm. Both members being young, ambitious, of unusual ability, they at once had charge of a large and lucrative business This partnership continued until Terhune was elected to the bench in 1878. The fact, which more potently than any other raised Teihuue to the Bench, was the ardor, courage and abilitj', that he displayed acting under an appointment of the Court, in prosecuting for disbarment one W. B. Walls, who was charged with unprofessional conduct. Walls at the time was a prominent member of the Boone County Bar. Because of the nature of the case, and the distinguished counsel engaged in the defense of Walls — Ex- Supreme Judge S. H. Buskirk, acting for defendant — the trial became very notorious, attracting the attention of the Bar throughout the State. The prosecution was successful and Walls was disbarred. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court and affirmed. A motion for a rehearing was filed and this was overruled. The case was stoutly and vigorously fought at ever3' point, but Terhune never met defeat. It is the leading case in our State on the questions therein involved. It was passed upon in appeal by Perkins Judge, Ex-parte Walls, 64 Ind. 462. In 1884, Judge Terhune was re-elected, and remained on the Bench until November, 18S8, when he resigned, and entered the practice, forming a partnership with the writer of this sketch. Since quitting' the Bench he has given his attention unremit- tingly to his profession. Many important causes came before Judge Terhune while he was on the Bench, but there was one, which I deem it not improper to direct special attention to, as being of pe- culiar interest within itself, as v ell as to the profession. It is iso- lated in the jurisprudence of our State decisions; the question therein in- volved was without an example in our reports. It involved the question of " Gift-Causa Mortis." The delivery thereof to a third person without the knowledge of the donee. Also the question of the competency of the trustee of the donee to testify as to statements made to the trustee by the donor. Judge Terhune made special finding of the facts and founded thereon his con- clusions of law; he held the gift valid, and by a very elaborate and learned opinion by Judge Mitchell, he was sustained in the Supreme Court. The case is reported in " Duval vs. Dye, 123 Ind. 322." Since retiring from the Bench, Judge Terhune has participated as counsel in some very notable trials; among these is the celebrated Mt. Tabor Baptist Church Case, involv- ing the question of the right and authority of the Civil Jurisdiction to inter- fere with Church polity, the limits thereof, and kindred questions relating thereto. This case is before the Supreme Court at this time. Judge Terhune's brief in the case is worthy the perusal of any lawyer. Another notable trial in which he has recently been engaged, was "State vs. Brown, on charge of murder." Brown shot and killed C. S. Wesner, in the court room, at Dan- THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 375 ville, lud., in the presence of the presiding judge and quite a number of other persons. Brown was a defendant to a suit that was being prosecuted against him by Wesner, counsel for the plaintiff. Brown took offence at some re- marks Wesner had made, in argument against him; a few words of an angry character passed between them, and Brown drew his revolver and shot Wes- net twice. He died on a table in the court room. Brown pleaded "Self- defense," claiming that Wesner had first drawn a Bowie-knife on him. Judge Terhune's address to the jury in Brown's behalf was masterful and effective, argumentative and eloquent. Brown was acquitted. Judge Terhune was an excellent arbiter in the affairs of men, for he knew the law, and possessed a quick sense of equities; so he was enabled to protect the interest of parties when often their own counsel would fail. But much as was his success on the Bench, he has not been less successful at the Bar. There is a good fortune when fate so administers the affairs of men, that he who has natural adapta- tion is set to work in the line of his abilities. The fortune is good for him that is called, and is good for mankind in general; it insures a field well tended, an abundant harvest, and the toiler is not tired of his labor, but gath- ers pleasure from his employment. It is the harmony of the surroundings, natural selection, or to express the idea in the language of another, " It in- sures the survival of the fittest." Mankind is the looser when one with the eye of an artist, or genius of a poet is set to pumping at the bellows. So when the mould was fashioned wherein was given form, and turn, and char- acter to the mind of Thomas J. Terhune, nature said : " This is the cast for a lawyer's mind." Nature does not waste her energies, or employ them to useless pvtrposes, but men often let slip their opportunities; but here talents found their place, and the subject of this sketch became — only what he could — a lawyer. The gifts which nature gave him he enriched with knowl- edge, and improved by study; so he became learned, not alone in the knowl- edge of the legal rights of men, as applied in our own times, but he also made himself acquainted with the history of law, and with the reasons upon which its rules are founded. He read not only the leading authorities on Ameri- can jurisprudence, Kent, Story, Greenleaf and Washburn; but with industry he pursued the laws of our mother country, as set forth by Chitty, Black- stone, Coke on Littleton, and Bacon's Abridgement. Still not being content, he sought legal lore in the "Institutes of Justinian," and other writings upon " Civil Law." With unusual clearness of mind, he is possessed of the rare ability to know when he fully comprehends a subject, and if not fully and clearly comprehended, he knows wherein the deficiency lies. Things do not lie in his mind vague, indefinite and darkling, so as he pushes inquiry, dark- ness is dispelled, and he is not required twice to plow the same ground. Being thus possessed of perspicacity of intellect, intricate facts are at once disentangled and each separate fact laid in its proper place, that the principle of law relating thereto may be certainly applied. Therefore his judgment as to the law upon a given state of facts is seldom erroneous. So well were litigants and counsel assured of the correctness of his judgment, while he sat THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 377 as Circuit Judge, that but few appeals were taken from his decisions; and it is equally true that of the fewcases appealed, fewer still were reversed by the Ap- pellate Court. The singular characteristic of Judge Terhune is that while being possessed ofsuchdirectnessof intellect, and mathematical analysis of mind, he is, notwithstanding, easily excited and of highly nervous temperament. This unusual combination renders him very formidable in debate. To clearness of statement he adds vigor of declamation; to the authority of logic he adds the influence of zeal, and conviction of sincerity; and while he is impetuous, he is alwaj-s orderly and systematic. It is true that he has labored in the learn- ing of his profession with more than ordinary diligence and assiduity; still he has not wholly neglected to glean other departments of knowledge. He has fair, general, entertaining information upon almost all topics which culture and gentility would suggest. He is a modest,unassuniing, agreeable gentleman. Moral, without pretention to religion. Honest, without being a member of church. Patriotic — and a Democrat. He was married to Miss May Knisell, of Lebanon, Ind., November 20, 1875. Three children have been born to them, all of whom are living. Judge Terhune is a resident of Indianapolis at this time, and of course, a member of the Marion County Bar- AIvLEN, HENRY CLAY. Mr. Allen was born July 15, 1844, in Putnam county, Indiana. His father, Robert Newton Allen, was a. native of Kentucky, of Scotch-Irish descent. His mother, Elizabeth Talbott, was a native of Kentucky, of English descent. They were married in Putnam county on the gth day of April, 1826, shortly after their removal from Ken- tucky. His father was a farmer and one of the associate Judges of the Cir- cuit Court of Putnam county. Henry entered the college at Greencastle, then known as " Asbury University," now DePauw University; but in 1862 he enlisted in the i6th Regiment Indiana Volunteers and served until the close of the war. April 8, 1864, at the battle of Sabine Crossroads, he received a gun shot wound in the right arm, resulting in an aneurism of the main artery which disabled him from further active service. From the time he enlisted till he was wounded, he was in every engagement with his regiment, among which were the following : Richmond, Ky., August 30, 1862 ; Sher- man's first assault on Vicksburg from the Yazoo River ; Arkansas Post, Jan. II, 1863 ; the entire campaign and siege of Vicksburg until time of surrender ; the battles of Port Gibson, or Magnolia Hills ; Champion Hills, and the at- tack at Jackson after the surrender of Vicksburg. At the close of the war he returned to college, where he graduated in the class of 1869. After his graduation he moved to Kansas and studied and practiced in that State until 1876. He was elected County Attorney of Neosho county in 1874, and held that office until he moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1876, where he entered into a general practice of the law. In 1880 he was employed as attorney for the company owning the entire Street Railway System of the city of Indian- apolis and its suburbs, and continued in this position until the year 1894. O^-v^'-*- yV(rX)jiKJtAr^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 389 located at Indianapolis, but now, under the name of Butler University, located at Irvington. He was also one of the founders of the Central Law School, located at Indianapolis, and was a professor in it during its existence. He greatly enjoj'ed this work, becavise he loved to instruct. He always took a great interest in the study of the sciences, and was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as the Indiana Archaeological Society. He was President of the State Sunday-School Con- vention (Baptist), and of the Indianapolis Young Men's Christian Association. He was an earnest man in his religious convictions and in continuous, active religious work. He belonged to the Phi Delta Theta Greek society, and was honored with the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts. From 1S79 he did not seek a general practiv;e, but devoted himself exclusively to patent law, building up a large and lucrative business. In the course of his practice he argued quite a number of difficult cases before the United States Supreme Court, and was unquestionablj- the leading patent lawyer of the State. He was a member of the First Baptist Church of Indianapolis, and for a long time was superintendent of the Sunday-school. He devoted much time to the pursuit of general and scientific knowledge, not content, like so many la\\'}-ers, with only a knowledge pertaining to his profession as the sum total of his attainments. At his residence on North Delaware street, which he built about 1872, he maintained a private observatory, the only one in the city. He greatly enjoyed entertaining his friends in this observator}', point- ing out stars, clusters, spots on the sun and moon, etc. In the summer of 1888 he made a long journey through many of the principal countries of Europe. He married Miss Helen Gillet, daughter of Prof. H. S. Gillet of Indianapolis, December 20, 1866. She died in October, 1S77. In 1879 he married Miss Amanda Shoemaker, of the same city. While in the apparent full vigor of health and active work, he was unexpectedly obliged to lay aside his work, Bright's disease having stolen upon him as a thief in the night. He immediately began to prepare to go abroad for a vacation of two 3-ears, but was never able to leave the house, except to ride. He was ever patient, cheerful and hopeful. After a painful illness of five months, he died on the 25th day of May, 1892, at his residence in Indianapolis, leaving surviving him a widow, three daughters and two sons. Mr. Jacobs was an attractive and pleasing gentleman, fond of his friends and fond of society. His wide range of reading, his accurate knowledge and his pleasing powers of expression, aided by a bright and noble countenance, made him an agreeable and accept- able companion. He was a fine extempore speaker, fluent, pointed, forcible, and both humorous and eloquent at times without apparent effort. He was independent and self-reliant, full of resources, having his knowledge at his fingers' ends in any controversy. He was a good neighbor, a kind friend and a public-spirited citizen. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 391 PICKENS, WILLIAM A. William A. Pickens, of the Indianapolis Bar, was born July 22, 1858, on a farm in Owen county, Indiana. He was educated at the Indiana State University, and at the Law School of the Columbian University, at Washington, D. C. He was admitted to the bar at Spencer, Indiana, in June, 1S81, and practiced his profession in Owen and adjoining counties until July, 1893, when he removed to Indianapolis. He has given much attention to corporation law, having served for twelve years as local counsel for the Indianapolis and Vincennes Railroad, at Spencer, Indiana, and for six years as local counsel of the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railway Company, at the same place, in addition to representing the legal interests of various stone and quarry companies. He is now the legal counsel for Indiana of a number of insurance companies. He engages in the general practice. Mr. Pickens has always taken an active part in social and economic reforms. He was one of the leaders in the organization of the Indiana Tariff Reform League in 1889, and a contributor to the literature published by that organization. He also took a prominent part in the reform of the ballot law of the State, the bill known as the "Andrews Bill," which constitutes almost the entire body of the present election law of the State, having been drafted by him and Jacob P. Dunn, Jr., of Indianapolis. He has lately been advocating a reform of the laws of land conveyancing. JAMESON, OVID B., is a native of Indianapolis, having been born in that city, July 17, 1854. His father is Dr. P. H. Jameson, one of, if not the leading physician of that city, where he has practiced medicine over fifty years, and filled important public offices — onetime a member of the City C uucil, for eighteen years a member of the State Board of Benevolent Institutions (of which he was several years President), and at another time President of the State Medical Society. He married, in 1850, Maria, the mother of Ovid, daughter of Ovid Butler, once a distinguished citizen of Indianapolis and after whom the University at Irvington was named. These are ancestors of whom any one might well be proud, and in whom traits of character belonging to both families might well be expected. Such is the case with Mr. Jameson. As is almost universally true in this country he re- ceived his early education in the public schools, and afterward graduated at Butler University. He was then sent to Heidelberg and Berlin Universities, remaining abroad from 1870 to 1876. On his return home he studied law at his native city with Hon. John M. Judah, now of Memphis, Tenn., and was admitted to the bar in 1879. In the study of the law his superior education was of great benefit to him, and he very rapidly acquired an enviable stand- ing in his profession and a remunerative practice. In 1884 he was a candidate on the Republican ticket for the Legislature for Marion county, and elected, serving in the Legislature of 1885 with distinction and to the approbation of his constituents. On November 10, 1886, he married Miss Mary Booth Tarkington, and they reside in a beautiful house on North Pennsylvania street. »' Ot^2^ S ^ ^^y^^^^-o^'-^^^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 393 IGLEHART, ASA. Judge Iglehart is a fine illustration of the triumph of mind and its inclination over the environment of its possessor. There are few men whose vocation is not determined by their surroundings ; fewer by far than is generally admitted. There are few men, too, who begin the study of law after thirty years of age and make a success in its practice. Judge Iglehart was a distinguished exception to this rule. His grandfather was John Iglehart. His father, the fifth son, was Levi Iglehart, born in Anne Arundel county, Maryland, August 13, 1786. He married Miss Anne Taylor and about 1815 emigrated to Ohio county, Ky., where Asa, the eldest son, was born December 8, 1817. They were people in the ordinary walks of life, with few of the world's goods, who came West to better their condition and to seek the cheap and wonderful fertile lands of the newly opened country. Eight years afterward, still embued with the fever of emigration, they moved farther West and settled in Warrick county, Ind. His father was a farmer ; and, in fact, there were very few men in Indiana at that day who were not farmers. Farming was a necessity from which few escaped. At that date there were few roads in Warrick county and few wagons to travel those laid out. Bridges were unknown, and ferries few. Log houses were almost universal, for there were only two frame houses in the county. The ' ' openings ' ' and ' ' clearings ' ' were few and far between, and the whole county was practically a wilderness. The opportunities for an education were indeed slender. The schools were only schools in name ; even the text-books are at this day regarded as curi- osities, just as we now regard the dress customs of that day. Judge Iglehart's parents, however, believed in educating their children. Such schools as they could send them to they did, but they relied upon the weekly newspaper and instruction in the family from such few school books as they could secure. " One of the sources of education and stimulation," says Judge Iglehart him- self, "was the early Methodist preachers, who found their way as well to the wild woods of Warrick county as everywhere in this country which has been reached by civilization. They were generally better educated than most of the people in the country then were, and they stimulated us to seek for better educational opportunities ; and, though none of us ever went to college, we obtained all the education which was obtainable in those early days without going to college." When we see such characters as Judge Iglehart, without an education as we to-day would term it, without a collegiate training, rising above almost insurmountable difficulties and becoming one of the leading members of his chosen profession, we involuntarily inquire : "How much more could he have accomplished and how much higher could he have arisen if he had been thoroughly trained inhis youth? " The world will never know when a man thrusts himself to the forefront by the aid of the untrained nat- ural powers of his mind what it has missed in the fact that he was without an educational training. The man who educates himself while pursuing his vocation in life does it at a great expenditure of labor and force which he could otherwise hare expended in the pursuit of his calling. With the edu- cated man of equal fibre and intellectual powers he has an unequal race. 394 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA When twenty-four years of age Judge Iglehart married Miss Ann Cowle, a woman of intelligence and culture, both literary and social, above her sur- roundings. She was of English descent. He was still a farmer, but how good a one we have no record ; though we may well surmise that the farmer life had few charms for him when his passion was to study the law. He procured some books on the law and began reading them. He even carried them afield that he might peruse them at such moments as he could snatch from his labors. Good husbandry and such tastes seldom go hand in hand. He said of himself that "by seemingly irresistible passion for reading the law, I commenced the study while on the farm, and pursued it with great enthusi- asm, little short of romance, and, having been admitted to the bar at thirty- two, changed my vocation and life, and adopted the profession of the law." In 1849 he located at Evansville, and at once entered the firm of Ingle, Wheeler & Iglehart. He remained in this firm until 1854, when he was ap- pointed Judge of the Court of Common Pleas to fill a vacancy ; and at the succeeding election he was elected to the office without opposition. His work on the bench was eminently satisfactory to his constituents and to the bar. This office was the only one he ever held. In 1858 he resumed the practice, greatly benefited by his four years on the bench. They were four yeais of great schooling to him. His industry was great, his labors without ceasing. He brought to the practice all the great powers of his mind, not so much with a view of winning his case, but a view of developing the facts and then ap- plying the correct principles of the law, let the sword of justice fall where it might — the true duty of a lawyer. He soon attained a wide acquaintance with the bench and bar of the State, especially in Southern Indiana. He eschewed politics ; whatever fame he acquired, whatever renown he pos- sessed, was as a lawyer learned in the law and as a jurist of a high order. He was the first President of the State Bar Association and one of the original promoters of the American Bar Association. He did not consider it beneath his dignity and standing as a lawyer, as so many lawyers unjustly do, to enter the field of legal authorship or to contribute to the law periodical of the day. For many years he was one of the contributors to the Central Law Journal of St. Louis. In the multiplicity of duties and cares he found time to revise McDonald's Treatise and issue it under the title of "Iglehart's Treatise." With great labor he prepared a work on "Civil Pleading and Practice in Indiana." These works, and especially the latter, were of great value to the profession, and showed.decided and original methods of dealing with the practice in this State. For many years his practice in the Supreme Court was great, and his views were always received by that Court with respect. Until a Federal Court was established at Evansville he practiced regularly in the Federal Court at Indianapolis, meeting such lawyers as Harrison, Hendricks and McDonald. He frequently appeared before the Supreme Court of the United States, conducting cases before it with great ability. When conduct- ing a case in Court, and especially in the higher Courts, he never wearied in his researches, not contented until he had exhausted the subject and exam- 396 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA ined and sifted every authority he could obtain. An able member of the Evansville Bar has said of him: "He was no ordinary man. In native breadth and strength of mind, in his accurate and extensive, I might say overwhelming, knowledge of the law, in his capacity for work — a quality which often supplies the place of genius— he was one of the most remarkable men with whom I have ever met. This was my deliberate conviction when I first met him, more than fourteen years ago, and years of association with him only strengthen this conviction. The privilege of conversing with Judge Iglehart, of hearing him discuss legal questions in the Courts, was in itself, if improved, a liberal education. I never left him but what I felt I had been the gainer. His grasp upon legal principles was sure and firm. In this day, when the multiplication of reports has become an intolerable burden, the tendency in all of us is to become mere case lawyers. Too many of us bow down to the authority of a case or a dictum, no matter how ill-considered it may be, with almost cringing servility. Judge Iglehart, without the advantage of early education, who was a self-taught man, might have been pardoned had he thown this tendency. But of all men he was the freest from this bondage. He sought always to found his contention upon the bedrock of legal prin- ciples, and when he found his sure foundation he brushed aside the decision, or even the text-writer, which stood in the way of his maintenance of those principles, with little ceremony." Another member of the Evansville Bar has said of him : "He loved the law and devoted his entire mind to the study, not only in the early years of his practice, but throughout his entire profes- sional life. The study of the law was a passion. I know of no lawyer who gave so much of his time to the law as he did. And he was rewarded by a lucrative practice and a leading position at the bar. He was a clear, strong and vigorous reasoner, and was surpassed by no lawyer in the State in the presentation of law questions to the Courts. With a strong will and a great courage, and with a sublime confidence in his own judgment, ever hopeful and confident of success, he fought every case to the end. The judgment of the lower Courts, when against him, never seemed to shake his confidence in his positions, and with renewed zeal and vigor he carried his cases to the highest tribunals and there renewed the battle ; and it is not too much to say that no lawyer ever succeeded oftener in reversing the decisions of the lower Courts. 'It was at the bar that he excelled, ' was the testimonial of the Evans- ville Bar. It was there he made for himself the name which we cherish. As a commercial or corporation lawyer, he was without peer in Indiana ; as a special pleader, he had no rival. He was master of all the branches and in- tricacies of our jurisprudence. For twenty-five years he was leader of a bar made famous by the names of Blythe, Jones, Chandler, Baker, Law and oth- ers, dead and living. In the history of Indiana, Asa Iglehart will always rank with Willard, Judah, Morton and Hendricks, as one of her great men." He was a devoted member of the Methodist Church, taking great interest in its advancement and welfare. Not having enjoyed the advantages of an early education he took a deep interest in that subject, and for many years was one 398 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA of the Trustees of the Evansville Public Schools and for twenty years Trustee of DePauw University. He had a commanding personal appearance. He was very stout in frame, and his massive head was for many years covered with silver-white hair, crowning the impressiveness of a noble presence. Ill health compelled him to retire from his work several years before his death, which occurred February 5, 1887. Two sons and a daughter survive him : Rev. Fred. C. Iglehart, D. D., now pastor of Park Avenue M. E. Church of New York City (who is also well and favorably known as a writer, lecturer and orator), and J. E. Iglehart and Mrs. Annie Taylor, both of Evansville. IGLEHART, JOHN EUGENE. The love of the father for the law was in- herited by the son, and Asa Iglehart (whose biography is printed elsewhere in this volume) may well, in his lifetime have been proud of the legal ability of his son. John E. Iglehart was born in Warrick countj-, this State, August 10, 1848. "When John was an infant, his father moved to Evansville, to enter upon the practice of the law. Evansville then had excellent schools, and these the son attended. He entered Asbury (now DePauw) University, at Greencastle, from which institution he graduated in the classical course before he was twenty years of age. As soon as the constitution of this State would permit it, he was admitted to the bar, and shortly afterward entered upon the practice of the law at Evansville. All his time since then has been devoted to the practice of the law, following it with all the zeal of an enthu- siast. When he entered upon the practice, he and his father formed a part- nership ; and after the latter's death, he and Mr. Edwin Taylor formed a part- nership under the name of Iglehart & Taylor. Mr. Iglehart has practiced extensively in all the counties of southwestern Indiana, in the Supreme and Appellate Courts of this State, and as well as in the Federal Circuit Court and Supreme Court. He has been engaged largely in corporation practice, and for many years has, in addition to a general practice, held the position of general counsel to a number of railroads which have their general offices in Evansville He has taken an active part in educational matters, and has held the position of Trustee of the public schools of Evansville ; and for eight years has been one of the Trustees of DePauw University. Mr. Iglehart is an indefatigable student of the law and a tireless worker. For zeal in his client's cause few excel him. No better evidence of his ability could be desired than his retention for many years as the general counsel of great corporations. RICHARDSON, ROBERT DALE. Added to ability and integrity Judge Richardson possesses in an eminent degree those humane impulses which prompt one to temper justice with mercy. It has been his rule to be lenient with youthful offenders brought before him for the first time; his theory being that such cases may be easier and more surely reclaimed to honorable paths by surrounding them with proper influences, than by sub- jecting them to the associations of hardened criminals which extreme peu- alties would necessarily involve. He has not hesitated even at times to set 400 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA aside the verdict of juries that were plainly excessive, whether from miscon- ceptions of the true import of testimony from sudden impulse, or from any other cause whatsoever. Yet where the stern decree of the law has seemed to be the only atonement for outraged justice, his decisions have never lacked the firmness and severity which the true minister of the law must know when and how to use. Judge Richardson belongs to that large class of men of distinction and public usefulness who were born to the soil. The father of Mr. Richardson is a man of prominence in his county. His name is William B. Richardson, and his wife Mary A. Richardson. In the shaping of events in the history of his county he was a potent factor. He possessed the best traits of manly character and the highest qualities of citizenship. Three times he served in the State Legislature, twice a member of the Lower House, and the other as a Senator from Warrick, Posey and Spencer counties. He is still living, in his 87th year, his wife having died in 1883. Robert is a native of Indiana, having been born in Luce township, Spencer county, Jan- uary 13, 1847. His early years were spent upon his father's farm in Spencer county, and his first instruction was received in the country school house. Later he entered the high school at Rockport from which he graduated after finishing the regular course. At the early age of sixteen he entered the State University at Bloomington, where he devoted himself assidiously to acade- mic studies and received his diploma at the end of the four years' course, graduating with high honors in the literary and law departments in 1867-8. Soon after leaving the university he was married to Miss Mary E. Bollman, a daughter of Hon. Lewis Bollman, at that time one of the most accomplished men of the State and the first statistician of the Department of Agriculture. The young couple, in 1868, removed to Evansville, where he began the prac- tice of the law. They were not endowed with wealth, but both were educated, ambitious and gifted with all of the qualities necessary for happy and suc- cessful lives Judge Richardson first associated himself with Mr. James B. Rucker, and the firm of Rucker & Richardson continued for about a year. In 1870 he was nominated for Prosecuting Attorney of the Criminal Court of Vanderburgh county, a tribunal that only lasted a few years, but was defeated with the rest of the ticket. He then entered into partnership with Gen. James M. Shackleford and the firm of Shackleford & Richardson continued for seven years, enjoying a large practice in this and adjoining counties, as well as in the Supreme Court of the State and Federal Court. Subsequently he formed a partnership with Mr. James T. Walker and was the head of the firm of Richardson & Walker at the time of his appointment to the Circuit Bench by Governor Gray, in January, 1889, and elected in 1890 to a six year term. At different times Judge Richardson was a member of the Board of Trustees of our common schools, and in 1879 he was elected one of the trustees of the State University, and has served as a trustee thirteen years continu- ously. Judge Richardson is the father of two sons who have inherited the studious habits and sterling mental qualities of their parents. Both are graduates of the State University, and both finished post graduate courses in y^' ■% j'i <^^ y£Y^^^^^^ Zfj 402 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Leland Stanford, Jr., University, California, where they received the degree of A. M. Both have chosen the law for their profession, and Owen Dale Richardson is now attending Cornell tTuiversity Law School, and the other son, Emmet Lee Richardson, is now in Harvard University Law School. Emmet completed a course in the French University, at Paris, and was professor of French in Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, for a year. Both are an honor to their parents, and their past record is an assur- ance of their future success and usefulness. Judge Richardson is still in the prime of life, and it is the sincere hope of all who know him that he may long be spared to administer justice and as an example of official probity and good citizenship. MAIER, PETER, late Judge of the Superior Court of Vanderburgh county, was born August i, 1834, in the Principality of Hdhenzollern, which, since 1849, has been a province of Prussia. He received the rudiments of his education in Germany, and in 1848 emigrated to this country with his parents, locating in Cincinnati. He was thrown at once upon his own resources, and worked in the vicinity of that city until twenty jears of age, when he saved sufficient out of his earnings to start upon a collegiate course in the Ohio Wesleyan University located at Delaware, Ohio. He taught school and attended the University alternately until 1858, when he graduated and commenced the study of law in the office of Sweetser & Hall, in Delaware. While preparing for the legal profession he occupied the position of Principal of the public schools in that city. Up to this point in his career his life had been anything but a bed of roses. It was the old story of an ambitious but poor young man, struggling to reach his first rung on the ladder which leads to ultimate prosperity. And the natural result which follows energy, application and indomitable will-power came to pass. He was admitted to the bar in i860 at Delaware, Ohio, and upon the advice of a friend went to Evausville, where his star soon commenced to shine in the ascendant. In 1864 he began the publication of the Evansville Democrat, one of the most substantial German newspapers to-day in the country. He sold it to the Lauenstein Brothers in 1866. In 1865 he was nominated by the Democratic party for Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, but it was a time when Democratic stock was low and he suffered defeat. In 1872, during the famous Greeley campaign, he was nominated for Judge of the Criminal Court, but the entire Democratic ticket was defeated. In 1874 he was ap- pointed City Attorney. While attending the Centennial m 1S76, he was nominated for State Senator. He declined the nomination but his party insisted and the Republican party pitted against him Wm. Heilman, the strongest man in its walks, with the result that he was defeated. In 1882, just when he was about to start for Europe, he was appointed without .solicita- tion, City Attorney, and served one year. He continued the practice of law until 1890, when he was nominated lor Judge of the Superior Court and 404 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA elected. Judge Maier brought to the bench the experience of many years hard study, and he was euiiueutly fitted to preside over the deliberations of his Court. He is one of Evan sville's most prominent and representative citizens, and a gentleman enjoying the respect and esteem of all, regardless of party. In 1894 he was renominated for Judge of the Superior Court; but weut down with the universal deluge that overwhelmed his party that year. Retiring from the bench he resumed the practice, forming a partnership with Louis J. Herman. While on the bench Judge Maier decided many important cases and was considered one of the most painstaking, impartial and fair- minded Judges Vanderburg county ever had. He married Miss Eliza M. Willey in 1864, and six children have blessed their union. WILKINSON, RANE CLAY. The subject of this sketch is a native of this State. He was born June 6, 1844, in Gibson county. He was a farmer lad, and lived on the farm until the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion. Such education as the neighborhood schools afforded he received. He entered the army as a private, serving in Company F, of the Eightieth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, for three years. During that time he was in the battle of Perryville, Ky., October 8, 1862, and in that of Resaca, Ga., May 14, 1864. In the latter battle he was wounded three times. He was mustered out of the service in June, 1865. After leaving the army he entered a commercial school in Evansville and graduated January 6, 1866. He then entered a select school at Cynthiana, Ind. Leaving this school he was book- keeper for the Evansville Journal, and served in this capacity for four years. In 1872, he began reading law with the firm of Warren & Mattison, and later with Mattison & Gilchrist, both located at Evansville. He then entered into a partnership with Major Mattison which continued until April, 1883, since which time he has been in the practice alone. He has paid particular atten- tion to commercial law, and has made a decided success as a lawyer. POSEY, FRANK B. John W. Posey was the father of the subject of this sketch. He was born April 10, 1801, in South Carolina. His wife's maiden name was Sarah Blackburn, a native of Kentucky, born August 12, 1812. John's parents moved to Indiana in 1804. In Pike county, this State, April 28, 1848, Frank B. Posey was born. Such facilities as the schools of that county afforded he enjoyed. He entered Asbury (now DePauw) Uni- versity, but did not graduate ; but in 1869 he graduated from the Law Depart- ment of the Indiana State University, and in February of the same year was admitted to the bar. Three years later Governor Baker appointed him District Attorney for the Court of Common Pleas of Pike county. Mr. Posey always took an active part in politics, and began early in life. In 1880 he was elected Presidential Elector ; and in 1884 a delegate to the Republican 406 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA National Convention at Chicago. In 1888 he was nominated for Congress. The district cast 40,640 votes ; and although the Democratic party had a clear plurality of 1,500 votes, yet he was defeated by only twenty, a striking illus- tration of his popularity. Shortly afterwards he was nominated to fill a vacancy in the Fiftieth Congress, occasioned by the resignation of Governor Hovey, and was elected over the same competitor by 1,270 majority. In the practice of his profession in the county of his birth, he quickly became prominent, and there was no case tried of large importance in which he was not engaged. In 1892 he removed from Petersburgh to Evansville, where he opened an office for the practice of the law. Frank B. Posey is more than the ordinary speaker — he is an orator. Few men in southwestern Indiana are his equal, either before the jury or on the stump. He possesses that person- ality that is so attractive to an audience, and without which no public speaker can hope to succeed in more than an ordinary degree. In full health, and in the full powers of manhood, he yet has an evidently bright future before him. GARVIN, THOMAS EDGAR, attorney at law, Evansville, Ind., was born at Gettysburg, Adams county, Penna., September 15, 1826. He is a son of John and Providence Garvin, of Presbyterian faith, and of Scotch-Irish extraction. At the age of fourteen he entered Mount Saint Mary's College, at Emmettsburg, Md., where he completed the course of study, after four years' diligent application, and graduated June, 1844. In the autumn of the same year Mr. Garvin removed to Evansville, Ind., where he has ever since resided. He has seen the city of his adoption gradually grow and increase in commercial importance till it ranks among the great industrial places of the country, and second in population to none, except the capitol, in the State of Indiana. Soon after Mr. Garvin came to Evans- ville he began the study of law in the office of his relative, the Hon. Conrad Baker, afterwards Governor of the State of Indiana, and one of the leading lawyers of the country. As a teacher in the public schools he realized all the experiences made so famous by Edward Eggleston in his " Hoosier School Master." Mr. Garvin has a vivid recollection of the pioneer times, which he now considers as forming an interesting epoch in his career. March 27, 1846, after an examination, he was licensed by Judge James Lock- hart and John Law, of the Fourth and Seventh Judicial circuits, respectively, and entered regularly upon the practice of law. Immediately after this event Mr. Garvin formed a partership with Conrad Baker, before mentioned, under the firm name of Baker & Garvin. This partnership was pleasantly and profitably continued for eleven (11 years, and while it lasted these gentle- men were employed as counsel in some of the most important cases ever adju- dicated in the State. Mr. Garvin has always been esteemed as a careful and vigilant attorney, in whose hands it was safe to trust the most intricate and complicated litigations, and in consequence his clients have been among the ^^^ ^^uA Z. . v^-^?'"'^^^;?^^ 408 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA most promineut and influential citizens of Evausville and contiguous country. November ii, 1849, he was married to Miss Cornelia M. Morris, at Penn Yan, Yates county, New York. Mrs. Garvin is a direct descendant of the Morris family of Morristown, New Jersey, and of Revolutionary fame. In 1862, Mr. Garvin, was elected to represent Vanderburg county in the State Legislature, where he served his constituents with credit to himself and the community which had elected him. Mr. Garvin was among the first stockholders of the First National Bank of Evansville, and for many years one of its directors, a position he still holds. In 1876, his alma mater. Mount Saint Mary's Col- lege, Maryland, conferred upon him the degree of LL. D., a distinction rarely granted, and of which Mr. Garvin should feel justly proud. The later years of his life have been mainly spent as a real estate attorney. He is a man of much application and greatly devoted to the interests of those who intrust their business to him. It is not alone in the legal profession that Mr. Garvin has distinguished himself. In the department of polite literature and natural history he takes high rank. He was one of the original trustees of the Wil- liard library, and one of the board to whom the property was deeded. He has always taken a lively interest in the welfare of this institution, and has been for many years its President. He is well known in Indiana, and has many warm personal friends. Mr. Garvin served on the National Board as Commissioner in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition and and also as National Commissioner for Indiana at the World's Fair. As an example of self-made men, Mr. Garvin furnishes us a rare type. All in all, his career has been one of uniform success, and there are few citizens in the State more entitled to a place in American biography than Thomas Edgar Garvin. CUNNINGHAM, GEORGE A. Joseph Cunningham and Mary Jane Arbuthnot belonged to two of the pioneer families of Indiana. Born in Gibson county in the early part of the present century, they both lived to see their native county emerge from the forests in the garden spot of the State. Of their marriage were born ten children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the ninth. George A. Cunningham was born April 4, 1855, on a farm a few miles south of Princeton. The forest, the field, the country school and meeting-house were his early associations. The primitive log school-house was with him an actual, though brief, experience, for it began to give way to the modern structure in his early school days. These were the influences that moulded his character and gave form and direction to his future life. Although he subsequently attended college, he attributes his education to the common schools of the county, which have always been of a high order. These he attended regularly during the winter seasons, pur- siiing not only the common branches but higher mathematics and language. In the fall of 1874 he entered the sophomore class at Asbury (now De Pauw) University, taking the classical course, remaining there one vear. Returning home he taught school, the village as well as the district, until the spring of 410 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 1877, when he removed to Evansville and became a law student in the office the Hon. Thomas E. Garvin. Whatever else may be said of Mr. Cunning- ham, it will not be disputed by any one who knows him that he is a hard student. With him the law is a science to be mastered only by the hardest labor — a mistress to be courted with undivided attention. He was admitted to the bar in 1878 ; subsequently formed a partnership with his old preceptor under the firm name of Garvin & Cunningham, and has ever since been a member of that firm. In 1881 he married Miss Susan Shaw Garvin, to whose character and womanly sense he owes much of what he has attained. In politics he is a pronounced Republican, takes an active interest in the affairs of his party, and when the campaign is on is usually at the front. As a lawyer it might perhaps be sufficient to say that he is successful. In Evans- ville he is regarded as being in the front rank of his profession. Dev>>ting himself almost exclusively to civil business, he finds that sufficient to occupy his time. For the past three years he has been City Attorney, and has filled that position to the entire satisfaction of the people. In conclusion, it may be said that no lawyer at the bar of Vanderburgh county has entrusted to his care business of more importance or possesses in a greater degree the con- fidence and respect of his clients. CLARK, ANDREW J. Andrew J. Clark was born in Clark county, Indiana, on the 22d day of March, 1865. His parents' names are Joseph and Mary A. Clark. His father was a farmer and railway supply contractor. Andrew worked on the farm with his father, purchasing ties, lumber, etc., for railroads until he was fifteen years of age. Up to this time he attended the sessions of the public schools ; then for a term he attended the graded schools at Henryville, Indiana, after which he attended the Normal Collegiate Institute, at Lexington, Indiana, for two terms. He attended the Richmond Normal School, at Richmond, Indiana, in 1883; taught school in 1884, and returned to Richmond again in 1885. He then taught in the fall and winter of 1885 and 1886. He was connected with the Scott & Lyle R. R. Construction Company in 1887 and 1888. While teaching he read law and was admitted to the bar of Scott county in 1889 and later in the same year to the Clark county bar, and located in Jeffersonville, forming a partnership with C. B. Harrod, of Scottsburgh, Indiana, and T. J. Patterson, of Charlestown, Indiana, under the firm name of Harrod, Patterson & Clark. On the ist of March, 1890, he located in Evansville, Indiana, where for a year he practiced alone. He then became a member of the law firm of Mattison, Posey & Clark, which partnership was continued until January i, 1895, when it was dissolved because of his election to the office of Prosecuting Attorney for the First Judicial Circuit. Mr. Clark has always been a working Republican, and immediately after locating in Evansville, he took an active part in his party's organization. In January, 1891, he was elected Chairman of the Republican County and City Committee 412 THR BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA and re-elected in 1892, representing the Harrison forces. Evansville at that time was one of the Blaine strongholds of this State. The party in Vander- burgh county met with crushing defeat in 1890, while the city had been lost to the Democracy in both 1889 and 1890. His first municipal campaign was in 1891, when the officers elected were evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. In the municipal campaign of 1892, the city was carried for the Reptiblicans by over 1200 majority, electing every man on their ticket. The fall campaign of 1892 was Successful, carrying the county for Harrison, the State ticket. Congressman, and almost every man of the county ticket. In April, 1892, he was elected a member of the Board of Public Safety, which position he now holds. He has been president of the Board for the last two years. In June, 1894, he was nominated as the Republican candidate for Prosecuting Attorney for the First Judicial District, composed of the counties of Vanderburg and Posey. Notwithstanding the district is about 600 Demo- cratic, he was elected by a majority of 258 at the last November election. MORRIS, JOHN. The father of Mr. Morris was Jonathan Morris, a Welshman. His mother's maiden name was Sarah Snyder. She was of German descent. His father was born in 1788, and his mother in 1790. The parents of his mother settled in Columbiana county, Ohio, in 1800, bringing their daughter with them; and the parents of his father settled in the same county two years later, bringing with them their son Jonathan. They all came from Loudon county, Va. , and thus became pioneers in the Great West. It was only in 1800 that Ohio was formed as a separate territory, separate and apart from the Northwest Territory; and it was not until 1803 that it was admitted to the Union. Judge Morris's paternal ancestors belonged to the Society of Friends, or, as more usually called, Quakers. His maternal ances- tors were Baptists. He was born on the 6th of December, 1816, and was the fourth child of a family of a dozen children. His paternal ancestors were long lived. His grandmother lacked at her death qnly a few days of being 102 years of age, and his maternal grandmother reached the ripe age of ninety-one. He received such education as the schools and seminaries of his native county afforded. He was reared on a farm. After having read law and passed the usual examination he was admitted to the bar at New Lisbon, in 1841. In November, 1844, h^ moved to Auburn, this State, and opened an office for the practice of the law. - It 1856 he moved to Fort Wayne, which gave greater promise of being a large city than Auburn. Four years before this last removal he had been elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for DeKalb and Steuben counties. Upon his removal to Fort Wayne he found a partnership with Charles Case and Warren H. Withers. In 1881 the Legislature provided for a commission for the relief of the Supreme Court. That Court was at least three vears behind in its work and this 414 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA measure was resoited to relieve the docket. It provided that the Court should appoint five persons to serve as commissioners. By the terms of the statute the Court itself was to make the selections and appointments; but, in fact, each Judge of the Court selected one member from his own judicial dis- trict and the Court simply confirmed his selection. From the first district William M. Franklin, of Spencer, was selected by Judge Niblack; from the second, George A. Bicknell, by Judge Howk; from the third, Horatio C. Newcomb, by Judge Elliott; from the fourth, John Morris, by Judge Worden, and from the fifth, James I. Best, by Judge Woods. Three members of the Supreme Court were Democrats, but three of the Commission were Republi- cans. Judge Worden, although a Democrat, chose Judge Morris, nothwith- standing he was a Republican, a high compliment to his ability. His com- mission bore date April 27, 1881, but on the ist day of September, 1883, he resigned and resumed the practice at Fort Wayne. And, although now over seventy-eight years of age, he stands at the head of one of the strongest firms in that city and daily bears his brunt of the work. [KXTRACT FROM A SKETCH IN " HISTORY OF MAUMEB VAI.LEY." WRITTEN BY JUDGB John Morris. | ZOLIvARS, ALIyEN, the subject of this sketch, was born in Licking county, Ohio. The ancestors of Mr. ZoUars were German, and mi- grated from Prussia to this country at an early period. They con- tributed their share in the struggle for independence. His paternal great grandfather was an officer in the war of the revolution, and served his coun- try with distinction, for more than five years. Mr. ZoUar's father was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and at twelve years of age removed with his parents to Ohio. He was a man, not only of remarkable health and strength physically, but also as self-educated, a man of strong mental power and extended reading. In early boyhood the subject of this sketch attended the common schools of the neighborhood, and after going through them, he was placed in a private academy, and there thoroughly prepared to enter college. He entered Dennisou University at Granville, Ohio, pursued a classical course, and graduated in 1864, receiving the degree of A. B. Three years later the university conferred upon him the honorary degree of A. M., and in 1888, the degree of LL. D. Having finished his college course, he entered the law office of Judge Buckingham, of Newark, Ohio, where he studied law for a while. He then entered the law department of the Uni- versity of Michigan, and graduated in 1866, receiving the degree of LL. B. Being thus prepared for the practice of his chosen profession, Mr. Zollars located at Fort Wayne, Ind. In November, 1867, he was married to Miss Minnie Ewiug, of Lancaster, Ohio. In 1868 he was elected to the legislature. He took a prominent part in the debates of the house, and was much esteemed as a member of that body. In May, 1869, he was chosen city attorney of Fort Wayne, and continued to serve in that capacity for six years. Upon 416 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA the establishment of the Superior Court of Alien county, he was appointed by Governor Williams Judge of that Court. He held that office for a short time and then resigned in order to resume the practice of his profession. In 1882, Judge Zollars was nominated by the Democratic party of the State as a candidate for Supreme Judge. He was elected, receiving- in the northern part of the State, where he was best known, much more than the party vote. He was nominated by his party for the same office in 1888, but was, with the rest of the Democratic ticket, defeated. As Judge of the Supreme Court, Judge Zollars more than met the high expectations of his friends, and so dis- charged the duties of his high office as to receive the hearty approval and warm commendation of the bar of the State, without regard to party. As a Judge he was industrious, careful and singularly painstaking. In his high office he was independent, fearless and honest. It is but just to say, and it is infinitely creditable to Judge Zollars that it may be truthfully said, that no political bias, prejudice or zeal could deflect or move his mind from its honest and intelligent convictions. The written opinions of Judge Zollars found in more than thirty volumes of our reports, attest his fitness for judicial position. His style is lucid, unrestrained and vigorous ; his statements full and com- prehensive ; his analysis perspicuous and complete. His opinions show great research, industry and care. They challenge approval, and must com- mend themselves to bench and bar. The writer is somewhat acquainted with the bar of the State, and he has yet to hear an unfavorable criticism of any opinion prepared by Judge Zollars. As a lawyer. Judge Zollars has always stood high. He has had a large practice, and has been unusually successful. He has argued many cases in the Supreme Court and lost but few. No one knows better than Judge Zollars the necessity for thorough preparation in the trial of cases, and no one more industriously prepares his cases than he. Though of a warm and ardent temperament. Judge Zollars is, in the trial of a cause, always master of himself. He is rarely not at his best. He is always courteous and deferential toward the Court ; kind and forbearing toward his adversaries. He examines a witness carefully and thoroughly, but treats the witness with respect, and, as a general rule, so as to secure his good opinion and make him feel that he has been treated kindly and forbearingly. While subjecting the witness to the most severe tests, he so questions him that the witness never seems to realize the fact. As a speaker Judge Zollars is always direct, logical and forcible. His treat- ment of his case is always full, comprehensive and accurate ; his analysis of the facts is clear and exhaustive. He sees, without effort, the relation and dependence of the facts, and so groups them as to enable him to throw their combined force upon the point they tend to prove. Judge Zollars is in the prime of life, is rather below the medium size ; his head and chest are large, his frame is compact and vigorous. He is graceful in action, in manner courteous, forbearing and genial. He is popular with the people, and his future is full of promise. /A 418 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA TAYLOR, ROBERT S. Robert Stewart Taylor was born near Chillicothe, Ross county, Ohio, May 22, 1838. He was the oldest of the eight chil- dren of Isaac N. and Margaretta S. Taylor, son and daughter respec- tively of William Taylor and Robert Stewart, pioneer farmers of the Scioto Valley. I. N. Taylor was a Presbyterian minister in the service of the Sun- day-School Union and the Home Missionary Society, and labored successively at Chickasaw, St. Mary's and Celina in Mercer county, Ohio, and afterward near Corydon in Jay county, Indiana. After two years at Fulton, a suburb of Cincinnati, he returned to Jay county, and after a year or two at Portland, teaching and preaching, founded a school at Liber, near Portland, known as Liber College, which was opened about 1853. Here the son Robert com- pleted his education, graduating in June, 1858. He began the study of law with Judge Jacob M. Haynes, of Portland, and in October, 1859, removed to Fort Wayne, where he has resided ever since. In November, i85o, he entered the office of Lindley M. Ninde, and two years later the firm of Ninde & Taylor was formed, which lasted until he was appointed Judge of the Common Pleas Court, in October, 1867. In 1870 he was chosen to represent Allen county in the House of Representatives. In 1881 he was appointed by Presi- dent Garfield member of the Mississippi River Commission to take the place of General Benjamin Harrison, elected United States Senator, which office he has continued to hold since. Judge Taylor is a Republican in politics, and has been active in the service of that party. He has missed taking part in only one campaign since i860, and that was because of disability by sick- ness. He has been twice candidate for Congress — 1874 and 1880, and on each occasion came creditably near election, considering the heavy adverse majority he had to encounter. He is not, however, a partisan in the offen- sive sense of the word, but an advocate of civil service reform, advanced standards and methods in politics and the utmost individual independence in political matters. His numerous published addresses on political ques- tions embrace discussions of all the political issues of the past twenty years in dispassionate and argumentative style. He was married June 30, 1858, to Fanny Wright, daughter of Solomon Wright, a pioneer farmer of Randolph county, Indiana. Their one child is Frank Bursley Taylor, born November 23, i860, who is a scientist and geologist, well known to the profession by his work and writings as an observer and investigator of promising ability. ROBERTSON, COL. ROBERT S. Robert Robertson, a native of Scot- land, born in October, 1756, emigrated from Kinross-shire in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and settled in Washington county, N. Y., where he died November 6, 1840. His son, Nicholas Robertson, was born at North Argyle, Washington county. May 12, 1803, and was for many years a Justice of the Peace and Postmaster of his town. He married Martha Hume Stoddart, of New York City, who was born March 20, 1812, and died January 20, 1867 Their son, Roberts. Robertson, now a distinguished citizen of Fort Wayne, was born at North Argyle, April i6, 1839. His early life was spent /^. 420 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA under the influences of a strict Scotch Presbyterian element planted in that region ol New York about 1764, by Capt. Duncan Campbell, under the patron- age of the Duke of Argyle. He studied in the common schools and at Argyle Academy, and when not so engaged worked with his father in the saw-mill and grist-mill of the latt er. Early in 1859 he entered the office of Hon. James Gibson, at Salem, N. Y., and commenced the study of the law, and at New York City continued his studies until December, i860, under Hon. Charles Crary. He was admitted to the bar in November, i860, his examination being conducted by Hons. J. W. Edmunds, E. S. Benedict and M. S. Bidwell; Judges Josiah Sutherland, Henry Hogeboom and B. W. Bonney presiding in general term. He then settled at Whitehall, N. Y., but in the summer of i86i commenced raising a company for the war. The recruits as fast as enlisted, were placed in barracks at Albany, where in the winter of 1861-62 an order was received to consolidate all parts of companies and regiments and forward them at once to Washington. Under this order, his men were assigned to Company I, Ninety-third Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry, but refused to go unless Robertson would go with them. Rather than desert the men he had enlisted, he at once mustered into service as a private, but was soon made Orderly-Sergeant of his company, and donning knapsack and shouldering his musket went to the fiout with his regiment. In April, 1862, he was commissioned Second L,ieutenant, and in February, 1863, was pro- moted to First Lieutenant, Company K. He was in all campaigns of the army of the Potomac until discharged from service. For a time, and during the Gettysburg campaign, he was Acting-Adjutant of his regiment. Soon afterward, m 1863, while his regiment was guard at the army headquarters, he was tendered, and accepted the position of aide-de-camp on the staff of Gen. Nelson A. Miles, then commanding the fighting First Brigade, First Division, Second Army Corps. While on this duty he was twice wounded, once in the charge at Spottsylvania, May 12, 1864, when a musket ball was flattened on his knee, and again on the 30th of May at Totopotomoy Creek, when he was shot from his horse in a charge, a minie ball passing through his abdomen from the front of the right hip to the back of the left, at which time he was reported among the mortally wounded. With a strong constitu- tion he recovered sufficiently to go to the front before Petersburg, but his wound broke out afresh and he was discharged September 3, 1864, " for dis- ability from wounds received in action." For his services he was the recipient of two brevet commissions, one from the President confeiTing the rank of Captain by brevet, and another from the Governor of New York, con- ferring the rank of Colonel, both of which read " for gallant and meritorious services in the battles of Spottsylvania and Totopotomoy Creek." He was in eleven general engagements and numerous skirmishes, and was never off duty until he received his second wound. During the two years following the war he was engaged in the practice of law at Washington, D. C, and while living there was married, July 19, 1865, at Whitehall, N. Y., to Eliza- THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 421 beth H. Miller, whose grandfather, Alexander Robertson, immigrated from Blair Athol, in 1804. They have five children: Nicholas, Louise, Robert, Mabel and Annie. The residence of Col. Robertson and family at Fort Wayne began in 1866. His ability and devotion to the cause of the Republi- can party at once made him prominent, and in 1867 he was elected City Attorney for two years. In 1868 he was nominated by his party for State Senator from the counties of Allen and Adams, and made a thorough canvass in the face ot overwhelming odds. In 1871 he was appointed Register in Bankruptcy and United States Commissioner ; the former office he resigned in 1875, and the other in 1876. When the Republican State Convention met in the latter year, he was nominated, entirely without his seeking, for the office of Lieutenant-Governor. In 1886, there having been a vacancy created in the office of Lieutenant-Governo'- by the resignation of Gen. M. D. Manson, both the Republican and Democratic parties nominated candidates for the office, and after a memorable campaign. Col. Robertson was elected. At the time appointed by law he was declared elected and took the oath of office as Lieutenant-Governor in the presence oi the General Assembly. By this time, however, the opposition had decided to regard the election for that office as unauthorized by law, and as it had the majority of the Senate, over which, by virtue of law, the Lieutenant-Governor was the presiding officer, Colonel Robertson was forbidden to assume the function of his office. Attempts were made to obtain a judicial decision, by the opposition, by means of two injunc- tion suits, but these ended in the ruling of the Supreme Court that the Legislature had exclusive jurisdiction. Upon a second demand for the rights of the Lieutenant-Governor, Col. Robertson was forcibly excluded from the Senate Chamber. Great excitement resulted, in which the calm, dignified and courageous bearing of Col. Robertson had great effect in preventing a calamitous outcome of the deplorable affair. He counselled that no attempts at force be made in his behalf, but that the question should be submitted to the peaceful arbitration of the people, and doubtless prevented a serious out- break which might have proven disastrous to the welfare and dignity of the State. In all functions of the office to which he was elected, Lieutenant- Governor Robertson performed his duties without hindrance. While holding this office, he was for two successive years elected President of the State Board of Equalization, by that body, an office theretofore always held by the Governor. From 1883 to 1894 he served as a Trustee of the Indiana University, and as Chairman of the Library Committee has done much creditable work in re-placing the library destroyed by fire in 1883, by a new one consisting of some 15,000 well selected volumes, and in planning the beauti- ful library building now in use. Col. Robertson has devoted much time to historical and scientific studies, and has a collection of minerals, fossils and pre-historic curios of great v. lue. He is a member of a number of literary, ccientific and fraternal societies, and his papers appeared in the Smithsonian reports, Magazine •/ American Hiitory, IVortk American Review, and other THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 423 publications. He has also made valuable coutributious to the war history publications of the Loyal Legion. Soon after the inauguration of President Harrison, Gov. Robertson was tendered the position of Judge of the Indian Territory. This he declined, and in May, 1889, accepted the unsolicited appointment as member of the Board of Registration and Elections of the Territory of Utah, from which he was removed by President Cleveland, in April, 1894. He was the Republican candidate forjudge of the Thirty-eighth Judicial Circuit in that year, and was defeated by a plurality of 824, where Cleveland's plurality two years before was 4,524. BELL, ROBERT CLARK, was born in Clarksburg, Decatur county, Ind., July 13, 1844 ; is of American parentage, both parents having been born in Kentucky, and grandparents on both sides in Virginia ; remotely he is of Scotch-Irish descent ; was educated in the common schools, and at the University of Michigan; began the practice of the law at Muncie, Ind., in 1867, as the partner of Hon. Alfred Kilgore, who was then United States Dist;-ict Attorney for Indiana, and Mr. Bell was made assistant, and the first few years of his practice was mainly as such in the Federal Courts at Indian- apolis, though the law office of Kilgore & Bell was at Muncie, where the members resided. In the early part of 1871, Mr. Bell removed to Fort Wayne where he has since resided and practiced as a member of the following law firms, successively : Colerick & Bell , Coombs, Miller & Bell ; Coombs, Mor- ris & Bell ; Coombs, Bell & Morris ; Bell & Morris, and Morris, Bell, Barrett & Morris, of which last firm he is still a member. Although he has been very active in the practice of his profession continuously from the begin- ning, he has to some extent participated in local and State politics, always as a Democrat. He was elected in 3874 to represent Allen county in the State Senate. Again in 1880, he was elected Joint-Senator for the counties of Allen and Whitley. During his first term in the Senate he was a member of the Committee on the Judiciary, and was Chairman of that committee during the whole of his second term. He was one of the delegates-at-large for Indiana to the National Convention at Chicago, in 1884, which nominated Cleveland and Hendricks. LOWRY, HON. ROBERT. Hon. Robert Lowry, of Fort Wayne, is of Scotch-Irish descent, and a native of Ireland. His early boyhood was spent in Rochester, N. Y. Here he commenced the active duties of life by serving, while yet a youth, as librarian of a large literary institution. Subsequently he commenced there the study of the law. Removed afterward to Fort Wayne. While yet under age he was elected by the Common Council, City Recorder ; was re-elected, but declined. After being admitted to the bar he commenced practice at Goshen. Was appointed by the Governor six years thereafter Judge of that (the then tenth) Circuit, to fill a vacancy for an unexpired term. While sedulously devoting himself to the practice of his at*"*^ > Jc^/!-{UaX^ ca^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 425 profession, he was, in 1856, unexpectedly nominated by the Democratic party, of which he was a very active and zealous member, as a candidate for Con- gress in a district wherein the opposition had greatly the ascendency, and, although the canvass was an animated and earnest one, a sufficient decrease of the adverse majority to effect a change was not secured. In i860 he was President of the Democratic State Convention and one of the four delegates- at-large to the Democratic National Convention. In 1864, though not a candi- date in advance of the convention, he was nominated over two aspirants who were competing for the position, and elected Circuit Judge in the circuit com- posed of the counties of Elkhart, Lagrange, Steuben, Dekalb, Noble, Kosciusko, Whitley, Allen, Adams and Wells. In i886, in the same Congressional Dis- trict as before, and in 1888, in a district composed of different territory, and still more largely Republican, he again represented his party in each canvass as a candidate for Congress, but the adverse majority, as anticipated, was still too large to overcome. Having, in 1867, resumed his residence in Fort Wayne, and the circuit in which he had been presiding being shortly there- after divided by Legislative enactment, he was in 1870, on the expiration of his former term, re-elected Circuit Judge without opposition. In 1872 he was one of the four delegates-at-large from Indiana to the Democratic National Convention. In January, 1875, he resigned the Circuit Judgeship and organ- ized and became a member of the law firm of Lowry, Robertson & O'Rourke, thus resuming the practice in Fort Wayne. In 1877 he was appointed by the Governor on the unanimous recommendation of the bar of the city as Judge of the then recently established Superior Court of Allen county, and afterward elected for the full term without opposition. In July, 1869, he was elected, upon the organization of that body. President of the Indiana State Bar Asso- ciation. In 1882, he was elected to Congress from the Twelfth District, and re-elected in 1884. While in Congress he was continuously a member of the Committee on Elections, was Chairman of the House branch of a commission to investigate and report concerning the condition and expediency of a re- organization of the several scientific bureaus of the Government, namely : The Coast and Geodetic, the Geological, the Meteorological, and the Hydro- static Bureau of the Navy Department. During his last term he was also Chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Treasury Department. As a member of the Committee on Elections he exhibited on all occasions the same eminent quality for which, amongst others, he was invariably given the highest credit when on the bench— that of the utmost judicial fairness, and of acting with entire freedom from all party bias, and without regard to mere partisan considerations or interests. In this capacity of a member of the Com- mittee on Elections it was incumbent upon him to argue in the House the legal aspects of a number of the more important cases which came before that body. The rectitude of his course on such occasions, and the correctness of his judgment, independently of any question as to the degree of ability displayed, is manifested by the fact that whether espousing the cause of one who was or 426 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA was not in accord, politically, with tne predominant sentiment of the body, the side with which he thus became identified in no instance failed to prevail. He zealously interested himself in the proceedings of the Commission which has been referred to, and which consisted of three Senators and three Repre- sentatives, and co-operated in making the report submitted by it, which met the approval of Congress. At the time his Congressional service com- menced, provision had been made for the commencement of the construction of a Government building at Fort Wayne, but after paying for the plat of ground which had been purchased, only some $23,000 of the jJso.ooo which had been appropriated remained with which to start the building, and it was provided that the entire appropriation therefor should be limited to f 100,000. Judge Lowry procured this to be enlarged to $200,000, caused an additional amount of ground to be purchased equal to that bought at first, the plan of the building to be changed, and the size greatly enlarged beyond that origin- ally designed, and secured the additional appropriation of $150,000, together with some $15,000 besides for approaches and heating and hoisting apparatus. The result is the largest Court House and PostofiSce building in Fort Wayne that there is in any city of its size in the United States, and the handsomest. When engaging in debate in Congress, Judge Lowry never failed to success- fully maintain his position, and on more than one occasion, when, as is often unavoidable, such little rencounters assume more or less of a personal turn, the adversary has been put by him somewhat decidedly, though quite decor- ously, hors du combat. When in Congress, as when engaged in his profession and on the bench, the subject of our sketch was noted for his close applica- tion and constant attendance to the duties of the position. Hard work seemed to be his principal enjoyment. In making the rounds of the depart- ments, wrestling with the details of committee room business, or disposing of correspondence, he was proverbially punctual. It was a common remark of the attendants about the building, that the room in the Capitol where his work was principally done was usually the last to be vacated at the close of the day's labor. It was made an especial point by him to reply to all corres- ^pondence, and fulfill all requests therein, with great promptitude. Seldom a day passed without all letters being answered on the date of their receipt. The just claims of meritorious soldiers had most vigilant attention, and this class of his correspondence consequently became large, not only from his own district, but many other places. As has been said by another elsewhere, his " career in Congress was characterized by unwearied diligence in the interest of the people," and, it is further added, he "was always found on the side of the people on all questions." On retiring from the public service in Congress, to which, while so engaged, he had given his entire attention , Judge Lowry re- entered the ranks of his profession at Fort Wayne, and, endowed as he is with a vigorous constitution, and favored with uniformly robust health, has been since then, and is now, engaged in the active duties of his favorite pur- suit — that of the law. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 427 [ By Judge Allen Zollars.J From History of the Upper Maumee Valley, Vol. 2, page 483, etc. COLERICK, HON. WALPOLE G., was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, August I, 1845. He belongs to an honorable and distinguished family, on both his father's and mother's side. He is a son of the late Hon. David H. Colerick, and his mother's name before marriage was Elizabeth Gillespie Walpole. He also belongs to families of lawyers. Three of his mother's brothers were lawyers. John G. Walpole was a practitioner at Fort Wayne, where he died many years ago, and Robert I,, and Thomas D. Walpole were distinguished lawyers at Indianapolis. He is one of six sons of the late Hon. David H. Colerick, all of whom were successful lawyers. His father was a leading member of the bar of Indiana, and with hardly an exception was the most graceful and accomplished speaker in the State. His older brother, the Hon. John Colerick, one of the most prominent men in the State, died March 7, 1872. David Colerick, another older brother, and a lawyer of ability, and promise, died June 10, 1872. Each of these brothers had, in early life, been trusted and honored by the people, not only by a large practice in their profession, but by the bestowal of public oflBce. Still later Thomas W. Colerick, a younger brother, died when a young man, and when he was entering upon what promised to be a successful and brilliant career as a lawyer. He was not only a young man of fine ability and char- acter, but he had the industry and methods of study which always bring their reward by way of success in the learned professions. Henry Colerick and Philemon B. Colerick. younger brothers, are both practicing and successful lawyers in Fort Wayne. The former was attorney for the city of Fort Wayne for fourteen years, and the latter is and has been since October, 1891, Prose- cuting Attorney of the 38th Judicial Circuit. The subject of this sketch was educated in the city schools of Fort Wayne, the course of which is equal to that of many colleges. He, however, did not, and has not, depended upon what may be learned in pursuing the ordinary course of study provided by institutions of learning, but has pursued such reading and study as was best calculated to fit him for the learned profession of his choice. He has had advantages which not many enjoy, in preparing for and entering upon the duties of a profession. He not only had the benefit of his father's learning, experience, example, advice and encouragement, but also the help, advice and encouragement of a mother of fine ability and culture. He had gone through a course of study in the law, been admitted to the bar and became a partner with his father before he was twenty-one years of age. From that time until now he has been one of the leading and most successful practi- tioners of the Allen county bar. He is able and patient in the preparation of his causes for trial, and in the trial of them he is skillful and successful. In the preparation of a cause and in presenting it to the court and jury he has few equals in discovering in advance the controlling points, and in so marshalling the testimony and handling it in the argument, as to produce the conviction that the cause of his client is just and ought to prevail. He is a good judge of human nature, and is remarkably conversant with the modes of thought on the part of jurors. With these qualifications and his UJ^, '^Ch&u^^^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 429 natural facilities in the way of a public speaker, he is forcible and successful as an advocate in jury cases. Added to his other elements of success is that of sincerity, which has no little weight with both the court and the jury. Mr. Colerick has always been popular with the people, and has been peculiarly fortunate in having many friends among them who, on all occasions, are ready to make his cause their own. In 1878, when but thirty-three years of age, he was nominated over a strong competitor, and elected to Conj^ress from the Fort Wayne discrict. He was re-elected in 1880 over Hon. Robert S. Taylor. In these campaigns, whether alone, or in joint debate with his competitor, Mr. Colerick more than met the expectations of his friends in the eloquent, learned and logical manner in which he discussed the questions at issue. As a member of Congress he was able, faithful and diligent, always in his seat, or at work with committees. And although he was of the party in the minority and voted with it upon all questions dividing the two parties and made earnest and strong speeches in advocacy of its principles, he was popular with the opposition, and was thus enabled to get favors from them in the way of help in the passage of measures in which his people were interested. It was thus that he was enabled to procure the passage of the law providing for the holding of terms of the Federal courts at Fort Wayne, and for the construction of the government building for the accommodation of these courts, the postoflfice and other government offices. After retiring from Congress he was engaged in the practice of the law in Fort Wayne until November, 1S83. In that month the Supreme Court of the State, without solicitation on his part, and without his knowledge in advance, tendered him the position of Supreme Court Commissioner. While the position was sub- ordinate to that of a Judge of the Supreme Court, it required no less ability and learning to fill it properly. Causes were distributed to the commissioners for examination, decision and the writing of the opinion of the court. And while the Court ultimately decided the causes, by adopting or rejecting the opinion prepared by the commissioners, very much depended upon their work. After some hesitation, Mr. Colerick accepted the preferred position, and entered upon the discharge of its duties on the 9th day of November, 1883, and served until the expiration of the commission, by operation of law, in 1885. In that position Judge Colerick again more than met the expecta- tions of his friends, and of the Supreme Court. His opinions from the first showed that he had the ability, learning and habits of industry and care, to render him a reliable and valuable judge upon the bench of the Supreme Court. The qualities at once commanded confidence upon the part of the Supreme Court, and the bar of the State. His statement of causes are con- cise and clear, and his opinions upon the law applicable and controlling, are able, accurate and forcible. His written opinions are singularly free from circumlocution, unnecessary matter, or dictum which might tend to mystify or mi'ilead. When they are read by a lawyer, there is left no doubt as to what the case was, nor as to the law therein declared. Since retiring from the bench. Judge Colerick, in the vigor of mature manhood, both physical and mental, has been engaged in a large and important practice at Fort Wayne. cy^'^f ^^^ THR BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 485 during which time he decided more than twelve hundred cases, out of which but two were reversed. Retiring from the bench he resumed the practice, and soon formed a partnership with Messrs. Sauford M. Keltner and Edgar E. Hendee, under the firm name of Chipman, Keltner & Hendee. In politics Mr. Chipman is a Republican; and has always taken an active part in the interests of his party, both on the rostrum and in its councils. He has always taken great interest in Odd Fel- lowship ; and at present (1895) is Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State of Indiana. Mr. Chipman is a sociable and agreeable gentleman, one whom having once met you desire again to meet ; and the day his acquaint- ance you make you cherish as one of the "red letter " diys of your life. In the trial of a cause he is quick to discern the turning points of the case, and presents the case to the jury with force and precision excelled by few. On the 22d day of June, 1875, he and Miss Margaret Belle Buskirk were united in marriage. KELTNER, SANFORD M., a member of the firm of Chipman, Keltner & Hendee, attorneys, at Anderson, was born in West Baltimore, Preble county, Ohio, July 10, 1856. He spent his childhood years prior to the age of nine in his native village, where he gained the rudiments of his edu- cation in a large frame building, originally used as a cooper shop, but after- ward converted into a schoolhouse. In March, 1865, he accompanied his parents to Darke county, Ohio, and settled on a farm two miles east of Green- ville, where his mother died July 22, 1867, leaving him an orphan at the age of eleven. After his mother's death, Mr. Keltner was taken into the family of James P. Burgess, one of nature's noblemen, who resided two miles south of Richmond, Wayne county, Indiana. With his kind protector our subject found a pleasant home until he was fifteen years old, and then came west to Pierceton, Ind., where he learned the trade of a carpenter with his father. In that place he also attended school, and under the wise tuition of his precep- tor. Prof. Goss, he gained much beneficial knowledge, and, better than that, his latent ambition was developed and he determined to accomplish some- thing in the world. So rapidly did he advance in his studies, that at the age of sixteen he secured a certificate to teach school, and for a time followed that profession at Mt. Pleasant, Kosciusko county. It was Mr. Keltner's custom to work at his trade in the summer and teach school in the winter. One winter, while attending school, he remained absent from his classes a short time and went in the woods. In spite of the fact of the ground being covered with six inches of snow, he labored industriously in cutting wood, for which he received seventy-five cents per cord. With the money thus earned he pur- chased a suit of clothes and returned to school, where he continued his studies uninterrupted. In 1876 he entered the Indiana State Normal at Terre Haute, where he remained two years. Upon leaving school he accepted the principal- ship of the Walton school, in Cass county, Ind., where he remained for three THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 487 3'ears, meautime teaching in the Cass County Normal in the summer, also the Fayette County Normal. The autumu of 1880 witnessed the arrival of Mr. Keltner in .\uderson, where he was appointed principal of the Second Ward School at a salary of $50 per month. During the two ensuing years he was principal of the First Ward School, receiving $75 a month. At the solicita- tion of Col. Milton S. Robinson, he entered the law office of Robinson & Lovett as a student. He was soon admitted to the bar, and three years after associating himself with the firm he was admitted into partnership, the title being Robinson, Lovett & Keltner. This connection continued until Col. Robinson was appointed Judge by Governor Hovey and assumed his position on the bench of the Appellate Court. Lovett & Keltner purchased his inter- est in the business and remained in partnership until May 22, 1893, when our subject purchased Mr. Lovett's iutere.st. June i, 1893, Judge Chipman, San- ford M. Keltner and E. E. Hendee formed a legal partnership. The members of the firm are men of eminent ability, thorough knowledge of the law, and versed in its deepest intricacies, and the firm is the strongest in this part of the State. Mr. Keltner in addition to his responsible legal duties, is serving his third term as President of the School Board, to which position he was unanimously elected. He was elected a member of the Board of Trustees by the unanimous vote of the City Council. He has materially advanced the educational interests of the place, and it was largely through his instrumen- tality that the present commodious and substantial buildings were erected. Socially, he is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias and a member of the Order of Red Men. He was born with the Republican party, and has been an active worker in the party's interest since he cast his first vote for President James A. Garfield. Mr. Keltner was the first President of the Young Men's Repub- lican Club at Anderson. The family residence is located on the corner of Thirteenth and School streets, and is presided over by Mrs. Keltner, an accomplished lady, formerly known as Alice May Cockefair. She was born near Everton, Fayette county, Ind., and her father, Sylvanus Cockefair, first opened his eyes to the light in the house, where, many years afterward, she was born. Her grandfather, Elisha Cockefair, emigrated from New York to Indiana and opened a large woolen factory near Everton, accumulating a large fortune as the result of his industrious labors. Sylvanus Cockefair resides on a farm near Everton, where he and his wife, whose maiden name was Mary A. Brookbank, are tranquilly passing their declining years. Two children, Ruth and Mary, have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Keltner. Upon the death of Col. Robinson, July 28, 1892, our subject was made the guardian of his only son, under ^50,000 bond, and is the only man living who understands the details of the extensive business conducted by the late Judge. Mr. Keltners father is Joseph C. Keltner, who is yet living at the age of nearly seventy-eight in the city of Anderson. His mother's name was Rachel Paulus. Mr. Keltner's father was born in Dayton, Ohio, when that place was a village. His mother was born near West Baltimore, in Preble county, Ohio, the ances- tors of both his father and mother being Pennsylvania German people. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 489 HENDEE, EDGAR E., of the law firm of Chipman, Keltner & Hendee, of Anderson, Indiana, is the youngest of five children and was born at Warsaw, Ind., March 6, i86i. His father, Caleb Hendee, was born at Wayland, Steuben county, N. Y., in 1827. He came west when the coun- try was comparatively new and settled with his family in Indiana. He died at Warsaw in September, 1892. In politics he was a Republican. By trade he was a boot and shoemaker, and opened the first shop in Warsaw. Mr. Hendee's mother was Abigail Bush, a native of Canada, and of French and German ancestry. She still resides at the old homestead in Warsaw. The grandfather, George Hendee, was of Scotch-Irish descent and was an early settler of Steuben county, N. Y. Edgar E. Hendee spent his boyhood days in Warsaw, where he obtained a rudimentary education in the common schools, and where he graduated from the high school in 1879. ^^ the same year he entered the Freshman class in Asbury (now DePauw) University, at Greencastle, going through the full four year course and graduating in June, 1883. Following this he was Superintendent for one year of the schools of Winamac, Pulaski county. In 1878 he began the study of law in the office of Robert B. Encell, and later in the office of Frazer & Frazer, at Warsaw. In January, 1886, Mr. Hendee located in Anderson to engage in the practice of his profession, entering into partnership, which lasted one year, with Albert A. Small. He then continued the practice independently until 1890, when he formed a partnership with the Hon. Charles L. Henry. At the end of a year Mr. Hendee bought the business of the firm, and Mr. Henry retired in order to devote his attention to the various properties which he controlled, including the Anderson Electric Street Railway. Mr. Hendee "went it alone" again until June i, 1893, when the law firm of Chipman, Keltner & Hendee was organized, forming an exceptionally strong combination, par- ticularly so far as corporation and commercial business is concerned. In April, 1886, Mr. Hendee and Miss Mattie O. Thayer, of Warsaw, were mar- ried. In politics Mr. Hendee has always been identified with the Republican party, and has regularly in campaign years advocated the principles of that party from the stump. His counsels are sought by the leading men of this section of the State in shaping its policy. As a lawyer Mr. Hendee is thor- oughly read in law. He is an able counselor and advocate, especially strong before a jury and in the examination of witnesses, and is painstaking and careful in the preparation of his cases. He and his wife are both members of the Methodist Episcopal church. KITTINGER, WILLIAM A. Perhaps few starting out in active life have overcome the obstacles that the subject of this sketch has been called upon to surmount, and few there are who could overcome them as bravely as he. He was born October 17, 1849. in Wayne county, Indiana, near Richmond, on a farm. His father was John Smith, a native of Ger- many, and a shoemaker by trade, who emigrated to America in his, early manhood, settling in Richmond; there he married Miss Delilah Turk, a S THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 491 native of Virginia, whose father died in the old Dominion. Her mother sub- sequently brought the family to Wayne county, where she was reared to womanhood. After the death of his wife, in 1850, John Smith returned to Germany to secure an estate, but he was never heard of after leaving Indiana. His fate is uncertain. William A. is one of two children, the elder of whom (Thomas; died when three years old. He was left an orphan when a babe and was taken into the house of William L. Kittinger, whose surname he adopted. Mr. W. L. Kittinger in 1855 removed to Henry county, Indiana, settling near Middletown, where he operated a sawmill and engaged in farm- ing. The orphan boy enjoyed few advantages in his youth and his time was devoted almost wholly to agricultural work. At the age of eighteen he taught school in Uniontown, Madison county. Later he was similarly employed in Lafayette and Uniontown, Madison county, during winter seasons, while his summers were spent in farm work and in reading law. In early manhood Mr. Kittinger was licensed to preach in the Christian Church, receiving his first license in Darke county, Ohio, and his second one in Richmond, Ind. For two summers he was engaged in supplying vacant pulpits, and afterward he studied law under Judge E- B. Goodykooutz, of Anderson, Ind. August 2, 1872, he was admitted to the bar and immediately opened an office at Bolivar, Polk county, Mo. A short time after locating in that city he was startled by a telegram announcing that the bank in which his money was deposited had failed and was in the haiids of a receiver. He at once returned to Anderson and here commenced the practice of his profession. In October, 1880, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of the Twenty-fourth Indiana Judicial Cir- cuit, including Hamilton and Madison counties. He was re-elected in 1882 and served four years altogether. He then formed a partnership with Judge R. Lake, which was dissolved six months later. Mr. Kittinger then fitted up an elegant office on the south side of the square, but again misfortune over- took him, for, twenty-seven days after moving into it, the office burned to the ground, causing him a heavy loss. On the ist of February, i885, he formed a partnership with L. M. Schwinn, Mr. Schwinn retiring on May i, 1894. Mr. Kittinger and John E. Reardon formed a partnership at Anderson, Ind., November i, 1894. At Columbus Grove, O., on September 9, 1874, Mr. Kittinger married Miss Martha E. Kunneke, who was born in Dayton, O., and married in Columbus Grove. They had three children, Theodore A., Leslie F. and Helen M. His wife died September 16, 1894. Socially our subject is a member of F. & A. Masons, Knight Templars, Orange. Tribe of Red Men, the Elks, and Daughters of Rebecca and I. O. O. F. Politically he was a Democrat until 1878, when he became a Republican. In 1888 and 1890 he served a's the Secretary of the Republican County Central Committee, and in 1888 he was nominated by the Republicans for Representative to the Legislature. He received about 125 more ballots than any other candidate on the ticket, but he went down with his party. Mr. Kittinger is a man of great ability, keen insight and shrewd discrimination, and has remarkable success at the bar. '^-I^^XJ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 493 KOONS, GEORGE H. George H. Koons was born April 2, 1848. He is a native of Henry county, as were his parents, Peter and Catherine (Rinard) Koons. He is of German and English descent ; his ancestors being farmers, and possessed of the virtues of that class — hospitable, thrifty and honest. Judge Koons was educated in the common schools, at the New- castle Academy, and the State University at Bloomington. While still a student at the Newcastle Academy — being then but fourteen years of age — he began teaching in the country schools during the winter. After his comple- tion of the course of study in the academy he accepted the position of super- intendent of the Middletown schools, at Middletown, Henry county, Indiana, in which position he demonstrated his thoroughness and capacity as an in- structor. He read law for a time in the office of Messrs. Brown & Polk, attorneys, of Newcastle, and in 1870 entered the law department of the State University, from which, in 1871, he was graduated in a class of thirty-three, wi.h honors, receiving the degree of L. L. B. After leaving the university he continued the study of law under the instruction and guidance of Hon. Jehu T. Elliott, of Newcastle. For a year prior to entering the practice of law he held his former position of Superintendent of the Middletown schools, after which he began the practice in that town. In 1874 he removed to Muncie, where he has since lived. His success in his new field was not immediate, but, as with many other young men of his profession, it came slowly but surely as a result of patient, persistent industry and intelligent effort. He now ranks among the leaders of the Delaware county bar. He is a Republi- can in politics. In 1880 he was a candidate for the nomination by his party for the State legislature, but was defeated by Hon. John W. Ryan. In 1892 he defeated the Hon. James N. Templer at the Republican primary election for the nomination for Judge of the 45th Judicial Circuit in this State, and was elected over his Democratic opponent by a majority of 2,024 votes. He immediately assumed the duties of his office, and has continued to discharge the same with the ability and dignity expected of him by the people. He has in a high degree those qualities which are so necessary to success in the profession of law, and has been recognized for many years as a sound advo- cate, and an able, safe and wise counselor. He is a man of broad, humani- tarian views, thoroughly democratic in bearing, and in close sympathy with his fellow-men. A lover of all that is real, noble and good in humanity, and a steadfast friend of humble, lowly, well meaning people in all the walks of life. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and of the Improved Order of Red Men. While at college he became a member of the Phi Kappi Psi Greek Fraternity. He was a charter member of the Literaiy and Scientific Association of Muncie, out of which grew the Literary Home Circle, and finally the Ethical Society, of which his wife was also a member. He was married September 6, 1871, to Josinah V. Hickman, daughter of Wm. H. and Clarissa (Williams) Hickman. They have four children, three of whom are still living — two girls and a boy. Judge Koons is a kind husband and father, and his home life is beautiful, quiet and happy. --i^- r,. ^—y^-f,-*.!^^^^ ^Hs^^XfiiJ^ 74^ f~CU-a-nAj^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 495 TEMPLER, JAMES N. The subject of this sketch was born February 8, 1836, on a farm in Greene count}-, Ohio, of poor but respectable parents. When he was eighteen months old his parents removed to and settled upon a farm near New Mount Pleasant, in Jay county, Indiana. That county was then practically a wilderness with few settlers, no roa.ls, churches or schools. In 1844 his father, George W. Templer, was chosen County Recorder of his county, and with his family removed to Portland, the county seat, where the boy attended the common schools and the county seminary and grew to manhood ; studied law with Hon. Jacob M. Haynes, for many years Common Pleas Judge, afterward Circuit Judge, and later a banker, still living, respected by all. On April 6, 1857, the young man was admitted to the bar in the Circuit Court of Jay county, Judge Jehu T. Elliott presiding, and at once entered upon a lucrative practice, and soon became an equal partner with Hon. John P. C. Shanks, the firm name being Shanks & Templer. This partnership enjoyed a busy and prosperous career for ten years and was then dissolved to enable the senior partner to accept the Colonelship of the Seventh Indiana Cavalry in the war of 1861, which was then organized and went to the front and did valiant service in aiding to sup- press the Rebellion. Col. Shanks became Brigadier-General, commanded a brigade, and at the close of the war was mustered out of the military service with the rank of Brevet Major-General and still survives, enjoying a good old age and the esteem and respect of his hosts of friends. Col. Shanks repre- sented in the United States Congress for many years, before and since the war, the Eleventh Indiana District. In 1861 Mr. Templer was chosen Prose- cuting Attorney of the Twenty-Fifth Judicial Circuit of Indiana, comprising Jay, Randolph, Henry and Wayne counties, and was twice re-elected, serving three terms of two years each. In the discharge of the duties of his office he was painstaking, industrious and very successful, The bar of this circuit was a very strong one and while in office Mr. Templer frequently met in the trials of important criminal causes the very best criminal lawyers of the State and many from Ohio. Such men as Thomas M. Browne, Oliver P. Morton, Joshua H. Mellett, Elijah B. Martindale, Moorman Way, David Kilgore, Walter March, Asbury Steele, John Colerick, John P. C. Shanks, William Grose, John F. Kibbey, Nimrod H. Johnson, William A. Bickle, John H. Popp, Jesse P. Siddall, Charles H. Burchenal, Jonathan W. Gordon, Alfred Kilgore, Careleton E. Shipley, and many others of the Indiana bar ; Thomaj A. Logan, Frederick P. Cuppy, and many other Ohio lawyers, most of whom are now dead. All of these were formidable and it required good work to prevent defeat at their hands. Mr. Templer soon developed into a fine trial lawyer and so well and successfully did he prosecute the pleas of the State that very few jury or court trials resulted to his disadvantage. It is a fact worthy of note that during his official term more important criminal causes were tried in his circuit than during the same period of time before or since. It is also a fact that he was successful in more of his causes, his whole term Missing Page THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 497 through, than was usual in county circuits, and although many of his causes were appealed to the Supreme Court no judgment was ever reversed by that Court for any error committed by him. But his practice has not been con- fined to criminal causes. He has always enjoyed a full share of the practice in civil causes and his record is such wherever he is known that he justly stands accorded by all as one of the best and foremost lawyers of Indiana. In 1S71 he removed to Muncie, Indiana, his present home, and became the senior partner of the then leading law firm of Templer & Gregory, which for ten years did an extensive law practice in eastern Indiana. In 1881 he removed, for the benefit of his health, to Colorado, and remained there living at Leadville, Lake county, until, with the aid of the pure mountain air and water, he fully regained his health and returned to Muncie, Indiana, where he still resides enjoying excellent health, and with his son, Mr. Ed- ward R. Templer as his partner, the firm name being Jas. N. Templer & Son, has built up and has a fine law business. Mr. Templer fosters educational interests to the extent of his ability and favors a system of compulsory edu- cation. He is not identified with any church, but is friendly to all churches; a firm believer in the orthodox doctrine of Christianity as taught in the New Testament, and violently opposed to sectarianism, he desires the union of all the churches. A selfish indifference to the public good has no place in his nature, and schools, religious institutions, and all movements looking to the advancement and improvement of the city, county and State, receive his cordial support. He has long been connected with the Masonic fraternity, has been High Priest of the chapter and is now a Knight Templar. In Odd Fellowship he is a member of the encampment. His nam.e is also enrolled on the records of the Improved Order of Red Men, the Knights of Pythias and the Murphy Temperance Society. James N. Templer is the peer of his fellows as an advocate, and has few equals and no superiors in the prepara- tion and management of cases in Court. As a writer, he is terse, racy and fluent, and as a speaker clear and concise in statement, logical and convinc- ing in argument, rising at times to eloquence. He is all this from natural endowments and self-culture, and has obtained his present position solely through the impelling force of bis own genius. He possesses not only those powers that render men efficient in the courts and political arena, but also those gentler traits that mark refined social intercourse. In all his daily affairs he manifests a generous regard for others, and a strict allegiance to principles of honesty and honor, and no man in Delaware county more fully merits and commands the hearty good will of the people. Edward Routledge Templer, the junior partner of the law firm of Jas. N. Templer & Son, is the only son of the senior partner and is a young lawyer of much promise. He studied the law under his father and was admitted to the bar in 1890, and became a partner in the firm January i, 1892. This law firm already has a fine practice which is constantly growing, and its future seems to be very promising. 32 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 499 MELLETT, JUDGE JOSHUA H., of New Castle, illustrated in his life, character and attainments the genius of our free institutions, which offer opportunities for every child of the republic, and confer no special privileges of rank or estate upon any. His was the spirit that ani- mated the best men of the early West, and enabled them to surmount the hardships of pioneer life, and win their way to usefulness and honor in the face of diflSculties that would have appalled less courageous souls. He was bom in Monongalia county, Va., April 9, 1824, and died at his home in New Castle, October i, 1893. Soon after the close of his school life he took up the study of the law, and passed the examination which was then required for admission to the bar with such ease and evident mastery, that he was admitted to the bar before he attained his majority. He commenced the practice at what was then the straggling village of Muncie in connection with Judge Joseph S. Buckles. This arrangement lasted but a short time, and he re- turned to New Castle, where, about the beginning of 1845, he commenced earnestly a professional career which closed only with his life. In 1848 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney for a circuit composed of a large number of the counties of Eastern Indiana. He practiced law in partnership with Gen. William Grose, the late Judge Jehu T. Elliott, Hon. E. B. Martindale, Judge M. E. Porkner and Eugene H. Bundy, successively. In 1858 he was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives, and in i860 to the Indiana Senate, serving in the exciting and stormy sessions of 1861 and 1863. He served one term as Circuit Judge for the circuit composed of the counties of Henry, Han- cock, Delaware and Grant, having been elected in 1870. In 1876 he declined a re-election and resumed the practice. One of his striking characteristics was his utter indifference to personal political preferment. He repeatedly declined to stand as a candidate for political office where there was no doubt of an election. This arose not from a lack of interest in political affairs, for he was a keen and earnest advocate of the political faith which he held, but he was wedded to the practice of his profession, and believed in it above all other earthly pursuits. From the time he left the bench until his death he pursued steadily the line of his profession without even a temporary departure therefrom. I-Ie loved the law. lie hated the trickster and shyster of the profession Fidelity to the cause of his client, absolute integrity, zeal in the advocacy of his side of the case, and industry in seeking the principles and authorities to sustain it, were some of his strong characteristics as a lawyer. He was not often taken unawares, and his resources in the trial of an intri- cate case seemed to his opponent to be inexhaustible. From his early prac- tice up to the time of his death he sustained a reputation as one of the ablest members of the White Water Bar, and, taking into account all the qualities he possessed, which combine to make a strong lawyer, it may be truthfully said that the entire Indiana bar has had few abler members than Judge Mel- lett. U(. ^ /^Lc^r^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 501 BUNDY, HON. MARTIN L. A biographical sketch of the public careei of the Hon. JIartin L. Bundy, of New Castle, presents a very strong- illustration of the success accomplished by individual effort without adventitious aids, which marks the career of many of the older members of the Indiana bar. Born in Randolph county. North Carolina, in 1818, and brought to Indiana while yet an infant, and thrown early in life upon his own resources, he laid the foundation for a successful career under the most discouraging circumstances. He was a mail-carrier through the wilderness, a deputy in the County Recorder's office, secured such education as the com- mon schools of the day afforded, spent one year at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and in 1839 entered the law office of Hon. Jehu T. Elliott (whose sister he married), and commenced the study of the law. Admitted to practice in 1842, in the ten years following he achieved success at the bar, iu competition with the great lawyers of that day whose names grace the roll of the Eastern Indiana Circuit, among whom were Oliver P. Morton, Charles H. Test, Oliver H. Smith, Samuel \V. Parker, James Rariden, and many others. After a period of ten years of active and successful practice, during which he was connected with many of the celebrated causes of that time, he was elected Judge of the Common Pleas Court in 1S52, re-elected in 1856, and served until i860, when he was elected to serve his county as a member of the war legisla- ture of 1861. At the close of this legislature he was appoin ed by President Lincoln a paymaster in the army, and served as such until the close of the war. After the war closed he devoted himself more to a general business than to the profession of the law, although he did not retire from active practice until ten years later. He organized the First National Bank of New Castle, The Bundy National Bank of New Castle, Ind., and was Bank Ex- aminer of Indiana from 1867 to 1874. He has iilled many positions of public trust with honor and credit. He was, during his active career, a member of many national political conventions. He was a member of the "Whig National Convention of 1848, which nominated Zachary Taylor ; of the Philadelphia Convention in 1856, which organized the Republican party and nominated John C. Fremont; and of the Philadelphia Convention of 1872, which nomi- iiated Gen. U. S. Grant. He has now retired from active business life, and in the enjoyment of his comfortable home, the companionship of his books and the society of his friends, with keen interest in current questions, and engaged in agricultural and literary pursuits, he is living a serene and happy old age. BUNDY, JUDGE EUGENE H., of New Castle, is a native Hoosier, having been born at New Castle October 10, 1846. His father, Col. M. L. Bundy, whjse sketch appears elsewhere, being one of the pioneers of Eastern Indiana, and one of the oldest living members of the Indiana Bar. In 1864 Judge Bundy, having gone through the common school course, entered Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, remaining three years. Spent one year at Union THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 503 College, Schenectady, N. Y., and returned to Miami University, where he graduated as a member of the class of 1869. After graduation he returned to New Castle and entered upon the study of the law in his father's office. He was admitted to the bar in 1870, having just before his admission been mar- ried to Miss Bettie M. Mellett, the only daughter of Judge J. H. Mellett. Soon after his admission he formed a partnership with Hon. M. E. Forkner, and entered actively upon the practice of his chosen profession. This part- nership continued for six years, and he then associated himself with Judge Mellett and continued in the practice with him until his appointment to the circuit bench in 1889. In 1880 he was nominated and elected by a majority of over five thousand to the Indiana State Senate from the Senatorial District composed of the counties of Henry, Delaware and Randolph, serving through the sessions of 188 1 and 1S83. In 1884, at the Republican State Convention, he was made the candidate of his party for Lieutenant Governor, and as such made a canvass of the State, his opponent being Gen. Mahlon D. Manson. He was defeated with his party. In 1887 he was appointed by Governor Gray as one of the commissioners for the construction of the additional hospitals for the insane, located at Evansville, Richmond and Logansport, which posi- tion he occupied until the hospitals were completed, and then resigned. In February, 1889, the assembly having divided the circuit of which Henry county formed a part, he was appointed by Governor Alvin P. Hovey judge of the new circuit, the fifty-third, and served under this appointment until the general election in 1890, when he was elected by the people for the term of six years, which he is now serving. MASON, JAMES L., (deceased), Lawyer, Legislator, and successful financier, Greenfield, Hancock Count)', Indiana, was born on a farm, the old homestead, two miles north of Brownsville, Union County, Indiana, April 3rd, 1830, and was the youngest of six children, (Jane, Robert, Jr., Isabel, Margaret, John K., and James L.\ born to Robert Mason and Mary Kirk, who emigrated to this country from Alloa, Clackmannan County, Scotland, and settled on a farm in Union County; the followingyear their son James L. was born. They were descendants of honored and res- pected ancestry, and possessed to a remarkable degree that serious, economi- cal, and indomitable character, which, added to the sterner virtues of their social and religious system, has made the Scotch so successful in every land. They carried their perseverance, frugality, and intelligence into agricultural operations in which they engaged upon coming to Indiana, and were known throughout the entire country as the best pioneer representatives of that sturdy, honest, and industrious people from the "land of Robert Burns." The subject of this sketch received his preliminary education in one of the first log school houses in the country, furnished with slab benches; and boards resting on wooden pins driven into the logs forming the wall, served as desks. He attended these common schools at intervals until he was four- d(^ /^td^uiU'^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 505 teen j-ears of age, when be entered Farmer's (now Gary's) College, near Cin- cinnati, Ohio. He pursued academic studies in this institution for one year, after which he went to Bloomington, Indiana, and entered upon a thorough and extensive literary course of study in the State University, where he soon made an enviable reputation among his classmates as a careful and indus- trious student. When be had progressed through the Junior year, he quitted the University, for a time, and returning to Brownsville, his native town, taught two terms of school in that place, serving by election at the same time in the capacity of Surveyor of Union County. He studied law for several months with Hon. John S. Reid, of Connersville, Fayette County, Indiana, and then returning to Bloomington, re-entered the State University and com- pleted the course in the Law Department, graduating with high class honors, February 23rd, 1855. He subsequently taught school at Abington, Wayne County, Indiana, and soon afterward removed to Greenfield, where he was for many years Principal of the Public Schools, and County School Examiner. He assiduously pursued his legal course all this time, having looked forward from a very early age to the adoption of law as his lifetime profession ; and, at the close of his engagement with the Public Schools, entered the law office of Hon. Thomas D. Walpole, a noted lawyer and politician, of Greenfield, where he prosecuted his reading with vigor, and soon after began the practice of his chosen profession, in which he early distinguished himself as an apt and accurate student, and a skillful barrister. His frank and manly traits of character, and the marked inheritance of that indomitable Scotch pluck and perseverance that shown so brilliantly in his successful connection with the legal business of Hancock County and its surroundings, rapidly enlarged his sphere of acquaintance, and won for him the high esteem and warm affection ol a very large circle of prominent and influential friends ; and in 1862, he was elected Joint Representative of Hancock and Shelby Counties in the State Legislature, by several hundred votes over his opponent, George W. Hatfield, a very popular gentleman. Here he soon rose into the first rank of the ablest debaters and law-makers, among whom he served with dignity and honor, and to the complete satisfaction of his constitueucy, as was evidenced by his subsequent election to the State Senate, in 1S64, by eight hundred votes over Hon. Eden H. Davis, a prominent attorney of Shelbyville. He still further distinguished himself as a Legislator, and his powerful and unswerving advocacy of the principles of right and justice in . framing legislation soon found him serving on the Judiciary and other im- portant Committees of the Senate with rare ability. In 1866, in the Con- gressional Convention of the Counties of Hancock, Shelby, Marion, Johnson, and Morgan, he received the unanimous endorsement of these counties for Congress, but declined the honor thus attained. He was never defeated for any public office for which he was a candidate before the people. While in- terested in all the great questions of government and State, yet he always preferred the quiet and domestic life of a private citizen to the turmoil of political struggles. Nor did he during all this time neglect the home inter- 506 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA ests of his County, but, extensive as were his various business enterprises and a large and growing legal practice requiring his constant attention, he found opportunity and cheerful disposition to take an active part in every public undertaking tending toward the material development, social improve- ment, and industrial progress of his own town and environments. His deep- est sympathies being with the farmer, he was always interested in the agri- cultural advancement of his community, and was one of the four public- spirited citizens who canvassed the county and secured the organization of the Hancock County Agricultural Society. September 12th, i86i, James L. Mason was married to Miss Emma R. Millikan, daughter of Mr. Samuel R. Millikau, of Washington C. H., Ohio, but suffered her death six weeks later, October 26th, 1861. She was a beautiful, gifted and cultivated young woman, and enjoyed a large circle of acquaintances. December 12th, 1867, Mr. Mason was again united in marriage, at Centerville, Indiana, to Miss Rebecca J. Julian, daughter of Judge Jacob B. Julian, of Indianapolis, but was again bereft of his companion ten years later, October 22nd, 1877. She was a most excellent, noble, cultured woman, queen of his affections, and a true Christian. No children blessed their union, Mr. Mason was, physically, strong, robust, tall, of handsome appearance, and possessed a wonderful capacity for work ; a gentleman of refined, and cultured literary taste, he was an earnest advocate of education, and passionately fond of music and poetry. He was an honored member of the Masonic fraternity, having joined that society in 1853. He belonged to no Church organization, but held very lib- eral religious views of strong Presbyterian proclivities, and on Sundays was always found in his pew in the First Presbyterian Church, of Greenfield. He gave liberal aid and encouragement to Schools, and all worthy enterprises of his adopted home. A typical self-made man, he manifested great interest in poor, ambitious, and deserving young men of his community ; and it was claimed that he had, during his long career, more law students in his ofEce than any other lawyer in the State, many of whom now rank among the leading members of the Hancock County Bar. By sound, strictly economi- cal, and conservative business methods, he early laid the foundation for a large fortune which he accumulated, and to which he devoted his entire time for the last ten years of his life, and at the time of his demise, owned about 3,000 acres of choice land and other valuable real estate located in several States. In politics, he was an unflinching, steadfast, and lifelong Democrat : a pronounced believer in the doctrine of tariff reform ; an eiBcient worker for the interests of his party, he was always engaged as a campaign speaker ; and during his twenty-five years of active practice at the bar and interest in public affairs, he achieved great success as an earnest and powerful expounder of the principles of Democracy. He was an orator of no ordinary type; eloquent, gifted in speech, trained by the unfailing school of wide experi- ence, and was always in demand for formal addresses at various Old Settlers Reunions, dedicatory exercises, and memorial services throughout the State. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 507 James L. Mason's career stands out as one of marked prominence ; eminently successful in all branches of his profession, his place in the Hancock County Bar is that of one of the most distinguished in the long line of leading names that adorn its history. Law was his vocation ; he took great delight in its practise ; he never failed to familiarize himself with his client's cause, and carefully made himself conversant with all the technical rules bearing on the case ; and possessing natural ability as a lawyer, his judgment was invariably sound ; all his operations being conducted with a spirit of deter- mination and fairness. Of the many arts of the successful advocate, he was a rare master ; his keen and thorough knowledge of human nature, together with natural shrewdness, equipped him with unusual advantages at the counsel table. He was second to none in his county in the examination of witnesses, and what remained in the mind and heart of a witness relating to his side of a case, after he had examined or cross-examined him, was value- less. Cool and collected at the Bar, and with a thorough preparation of all his plans, he was never taken unawares. He possessed a fine faculty of illus- tration that always appeals so strongly to the average occupant of the jury- box. Ingenious in method, fertile in resource, untiring in his efforts, of great enduring powers, he brought out before a jury all the convincing evi- dence on his side of a case with most tremendous power. He had a lofty conception of his profession, and a deep contempt for those who would debase it. In short, he possessed that rare art of addressing a jury — an in- dispensible accomplishment to a lawyer's success. He died January 2, 1894, aged 63 years, 8 months and 29 days. His remains rest in the beautiful New Park Cemetery, at Greenfield, and on either side are interred those of his two wives, whose spirits his has joined in that better world, where they enjoy his smiles and blessings forever, for, to quote a favorite verse of his — " Beyond these chilling winds and gloomy skies, Beyond death's cloudy portal, There is a land where friendship never dies. Where love becomes immortal." GOODING, JUDGE DAVID SANDERS, eldest son of Asa and Matilda Gooding, and grandson of the late Captain David Gooding, is a native of Fleming county, Kentucky. His mother was one of the numerous Hunt and Alexander families of Kentucky. He was born January 20, 1824, His father removed from Fleming county, Kentucky, to Rush county. Indiana, in 1827, and thence to Greenfield, Indiana, in 1836, and died there in December, 1842, leaving his widow, Matilda Gooding, and five sons and three daughters surviving him. In the fall of 1839 David became a student at Asbury (now DePauw) University, at Greencastle, Indiana, before the college building was ready for use, and when the Old Seminary building was used for college purposes, and soon after Bishop Simpson became the Presi- dent, and when Harlan, Booth, Porter, McDonald and several others after- t^i.yZy'^—cA^ "S/^-^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 509 wards distinguished in public affairs were his associate students. While at Asbury University he was elected and served as President of " Philogical Society." That President Simpson (afterwards Bishop Simpson, of the M. E. Church) made a marked impression on the mind and heart of Judge Gooding was unquestionable. Simpson was truly a great and good man, and was greatly beloved by all the students. In the spring of 1843, without gradu- ating. Judge Gooding, in consequence of the death of his father, was com- pelled to return to his home and take charge of his father's affairs and family. He subsequently studied law in the ofBce of the Hon. George W. Julian, who was at that time a citizen of Greenfield, Indiana. On March 12, 1S44, he married Frances Maria Sebastian, a daughter of William Sebastian, a noble. Christian woman, with whom he lived until her death, January 6, 1895. In the fall of 1845 he passed an examination by a committee, consisting of Simon Yandes, Lucien Barbour and Hugh O'Neel, for admission to the bar, and obtained a license to practice law, signed by two Circuit Judges, Peaslee and Kilgore. At that time he was the owner of no real or personal estate, excepting wearing apparel and household goods ; nor even a law library. However, he commenced the law practic e in Green- field, Indiana, of which city he is now the oldest continuous male inhabi- tant, but not by several years the oldest man. Every lawyer then in the practice in Hancock county, Indiana, is now dead, excepting Hon. George W. Jn ian and Judge Gooding. His law practice has been continuous, ex- cept when acting as a Judge or as United States Marshal for the District of Columbia. In 1847 he was elected a Representative in the Indiana Legisla- ture, when twenty-three years of age. In 1848 he was elected County Prose- cuting Attorney for a term of three years. In 1851 he was elected Circuit Prosecuting Attorney for the counties of Hancock, Mai ion, Boone, Hen- dricks, Johnson and Shelby for a term of two years, defeating ex-Governor David Wallace. In 1852 he was elected Judge of the Common Pleas Court, for the counties of Hancock and Madison, for the term of four years, defeat- ing Hon. John Davis. In 1856 he was elected a State Senator from the coun- ties of Hancock and Madison for the term of four years. In 1861 he was elected Judge of the Common Pleas Court for the counties of Hancock, Madi- son, Henry, Rush and Decatur for the term of three }ears, to fill a vacancy, defeating Judge Elijah B Martindale. Immediately after the commencement of the War of the Rebellion he openly and actively avowed himself a sup- porter of the Government for the suppression of the rebellion, and in 1862 and in 1864 and until the close of the war acted with the then Union party, and in support of the administration of President Lincoln for the suppression of the rebellion and the restoration of the Union, making as many, if not more, speeches therefor in Indiana than anv other man. He was never a Republican, but a War Democrat. When the State of Indiana was invaded by General John H. Morgan's rebel forces he volunteered as a private soldier, and, al- though only a few days in the service, was seriously wounded. In 1864 he was a member of the Union State Committte, which reported resolu- 510 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA tions for the nomination of Lincoln and Johnson for President and Vice- President, and was Presidential Elector-at-Large for this State, together with Hon. Richard W. Thompson, and as such headed the electoral ticket, and was elected and voted accordingly. In the winter of i864-'5 President Lin- coln sent his name into the United States Senate for an Associate Judgeship in the Territory of New Mexico, which nomination was withdrawn at the request of Judge Gooding, he preferring not to go to New Mexico. In Janu- ary, 1865, he was recommended to President Lincoln for Minister to the Gov- ernment of Chili by Governor Morton and Governor Baker, and all the State officers, including the Judges of the Supreme Court, and the caucus of the Union members of both Houses of the Legislature of 1865, and by ex-Gov- ernors Joseph A. Wright and Alvin P. Hovey, Hon. Richard W. Thompson and several others of the most prominent men in the Union party. Before any action on this recommendation Lincoln was assassinated. In June, 1865, President Johnson by telegram tendered Judge Gooding the appointment of United States Marshal for the District of Columbia, which appointment was accepted, and he continued in the office until about one month after Presi- dent Grant's inauguration, when he tendered his resignation, and Dr. Sharp, a brother-in-law of President Grant, was appointed his successor. In 1866 he was a delegate from the State of Indiana to the first Union National Convention after the war was over, held at Philadelphia, Pa., in which President John- son was indorsed, and which by its opponents was called the "Arm-and-arm Convention," because ex-Rebel and ex-Union officers marched " arm in arm " into the convention and unanimously indorsed President Johnson's policy for the restoration of the Union. On the 4th of December, 1867, on motion of Attorney-General Stanberry, Judge Gooding was admitted as an attorney at the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1870 he was the Democratic nominee for Congress in the Eastern District of Indiana, with Judge Jeremiah M. Wilson as his Republican competitor, resulting in the official returns of the election showing a majority in the district of only /,ur votes in favor of Wilson. Judge Gooding contested the election, insisting that there was error in the official returns, and that a true return would show him elected by at least seventeen majority, but Wilson retained the seat, on which there was a strictly party vote in the House of Representatives. In 1872 Gooding and Wilson were again competitors, re-nominated by their respect- ive parties, and resulting in the election of Judge Wilson. This was a year of general Democratic defeats, and the Judge attributed them mainly to the nomination of Horace Greeley, a Liberal Republican, as the Democratic can- didate for the Presidency. Many Democrats refused to vote. In 1874 he was a member of the Democratic State Central Committee with Hon. Joseph E. McDonald, Governor Gray and others. In 1875, on invitation of the Ohio Democratic Central Committee, he made quite a number of speeches in that State with Governor William Allen and Governor Samuel F. Carey. This was known as the " Rise-Up William Allen " campaign ; and again in 1879, on a renewed invitation of the same State Committee, he made numerous THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 511 campaign speeches in Ohio in support of Hon. Thomas Ewing for Governor of Ohio and in advocacy of the theory that the Government of the United States should coin and issue all money authorized by our laws to the exclusion of all banks, and that all money should be legal tender. January 8, 1877, Judge Gooding was President of the Indiana State Democratic Convention, held for the purpose of considering what action, if any, should be taken in regard to the contested Presidential election between Tilden and Hayes. In 1878 he was a candidate before the Democratic State Convention for Secretary of State and received the highest vote on the first ballot, and on the second bal- lot he withdrew his name and Hon. John G. Shanklin was nominated. In 1880 his name headed the Presidential electoral ticket for Hancock and Eng- lish, in which campaign he made a general canvass of this State. In 1884 he was nominated and elected as a Representative in the Legislature, and was subsequently a candidate for the Speakership of the House of Repre- sentatives and was defeated in caucus by the Hon. Charles L. Jewett. In 1888 he was a candidate on the Cleveland and Thvirman district Presidential electoral ticket. His last office was that of President of the School Board of the City of Greenfield for three years, ending in 1894. Notwithstanding his almost constant and active participation in politics and official life, for the greater part of the time he had a large law practice and engaged in much important litigation. He was considered specially able in the management and argument of high character of criminal cases. He is still in active practice, with his old-time zeal and energy, and now has a law office in the City of Indianapolis. As a popular stump speaker he has but few superiors in this State. In the last two Presidential campaigns he was invited in a highly complimentary manner by the National Democratic Committee to make a campaign in other States, and did in 1888 make a very satisfactory campaign in the State of Maine. Since then he has retired from active par- ticipation in political campaigns. Religiously he is liberal and charitable in spirit, believing that all churches and sects do some good ; some more than others, and none as much as it ought. He is a firm believer in God and the Christian religion. M' ARSH, EPHRAIM. On his father's side Mr. Marsh is of English- Quaker descent ; on his mother's, Scotch-Irish. His mother's name was Katherine Kennedy ; the given name of his father, Jonas. The latter moved from Washington County, Tenn., to Hancock County, this State, in 1837, and there settled on a farm in Brown Township, where Ephraim was born, June 2nd, 1845, and on which he was brought up, attending the neigh- borhood school, until he was eighteen years of age, when he entered Knights- lown Academy and remained one year. He then entered Asbury, now De Pauw University, at Greencastle, and graduated there in 1870 in the lit- erary course. Having began reading law, he was admitted to the bar the year following, but continued to read under Captain Riley, the father of 6^--- <^' >(9'^^v^J 556 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA on his father's farm and was full of trials and adventures incident to a new and sparsely settled country, through whose immense forests the Indian still roamed as the suspected and dreaded enemy of the white settlers. Mr. Milli- gan's opportunities for securing an education were indeed limited, but he managed to secure and use some books and to master the primary branches of an English education to such an extent that, at nineteen, he was able to teach school. At that age he engaged in teaching and was fortunate enough to find a competent friend with whom he studied English grammar, geo- graphy, geometry, etc., and with whom he read such books as could be pro- cured. He taught school and taught himself for two years, and, at twenty- one years of age, entered the law office of Shannon & Alexander, at St. Clairsville, O., for the purpose of reading law. He read law for two years, taking at the same time a course of historical reading. On the 27th day of October, 1835, Colonel Milligan was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio. On the committee which was appointed to examine the class applying for admission were such lawyers as Governor Shannon, Judge Ben- jamin Cowen and others. Edwin M. Stanton, Thomas West, George Shannon, L. P. Milligan and others constituted the class. Mr. Milligan was especially complimented for his thoroughness and complete preparation by that distin- guished lawyer, scholar and orator, John M. Goodenow, in his report of the examination to the court. Mr. Milligan, immediately after his admission, engaged in the practice of law in his native State. Such lawyers as Benjamin S. Cowen, John C. Wright, John M. Goodenow, Daniel Colyer, John A. Bing- ham, Andrew W. Loomis and others equally distinguished attended the courts. Mr. Milligan heard these men, associated with them and learned from them, so that, when ten years afterwards, he came to Huntington, Ind., and began the practice of law, he was thoroughly prepared and was at once recognized as among the ablest lawyers of Northern Indiana. At that time David H. Colerick, William H. Combs and Robert Breckenbridge, of Fort Wayne; John U. Petitt, of Wabash, and Daniel D. Pratt, of Logansport, attended the courts of Huntington county and all recognized Mr. Milligan as their equal. Among Mr. Milligan's local competitors we mention only John R. Coffroth, whose ability and learning as a lawyer are known and appreci- ated throughout the State. Each thought the other his equal, and when they were together, as they often were, they seemed to be invincible. Mr. Milli- gau did not pretend to be a finished rhetorician nor a brilliant orator. He was, however, a clear, terse and forcible speaker. He was not voluble nor diffusive; he was direct, earnest, logical and clear. He hardly attempted to persuade, but earnestly endeavored to convince. He had the command of pure, vigorous English and but few could use it more effectively than he. He was always in earnest and spoke from conviction, not to please, but to convince. His antagonist for this reason always felt a little dread of his power and never felt assured of his cause until the result was announced. Mr. Milligan never resorted to mere technicalities, he was not a technical lawyer, and never consciously and purposely sought to make " the worse appear the better reason." He was very familiar with the elementary princi- THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 557 pies of the law, and was, in the true sense of the word, an able and broad- minded lawyer. The trials and difficulties of his early life deeply implanted in his mind and heart a genuine and active sympathy for and with the unfortunate. As a lawyer this sympathy never left him. In the right he was singularly earnest and strong; when on the wrong side he was indifferent and sought to avoid the conflict. Mr. Milligan's power of analysis was vigorous and clear. He readily saw and appreciated the true relation of facts and was always able to present, with clearness and force, their combined strength. He distinguished with rapidity and ease the incidental from the essential facts, and was able to make others see as he saw. A more kind- hearted man than Mr. Milligan lived not in the State. As a friend he is as true as steel; he is open, frank and sincere. He is free from sham, pretense and fawning. He wishes to be seen and known as he really is and not other- wise. Mr. Milligan is nearly eighty-three years of age. He is in active practice, with all his faculties seemingly unimpaired. He is universally respected and esteemed by all who know him as one of the best of men. In all the relations of life as parent, husband and friend he is esteemed to be a true and noble man, and when the time for his c^eparture comes he will carry with him the love and esteem of all who know him, the ill will of none. SAYLER, JUDGE HENRY B., of Huntington, Ind., was born in Jlont- gomery county, Ohio, on the 31st day of March, 1836. His parents were Martin Z. and Barbara Sayler. He is the oldest of a family of five chil- dren. His earliest American ancestor emigrated to Pennsylvania from Neu- enburg, Germany, in 1730. His grandfather, Daniel Sayler, was twice a mem- ber of the Ohio Legislature prior to 1820. His maternal grandfather, Henry Hippie, was for years a leading merchant, and from 1832 to 1836 an Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery county, Ohio. The Judge's father was a member of the Indiana Legislature in 1840 and again in 1841. He was one of the few Democratic members of that body at that time, and was a very prominent and active politician. He, with his family, moved to Indiana in 1836, when Judge Sayler was an infant, and settled in Clinton county, where he established a large practice as a physician. Judge Sayler's education was almost entirely that of the common school. He attended the Illinois Wesleyan University, at Bloomington, 111., one year only (i852-'53), when he was obliged to suspend his studies on account of diseased eyes. He shortly afterwards began teaching school and reading law in Fulton county, Illinois. In 1855 he went to Preble county, Ohio, where he continued teach- ing school and reading law, and on the 24th day of February, 1859, he was admitted to the Bar of Ohio by the Supreme Court of that State. On the 31st day of March, 1874, he was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States on motion of Hon. Luke P. Poland, of Vermont. He is a mem- ber of the American Bar Association. In March, 1859, Judge Sayler, with his family, removed to Indiana, and, after remaining a few weeks at Delphi, he located at Huntington and has lived there since, except a few mouths in In- a.^^ II THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 559 dianapolis and Conuersville. In 1872 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives in Congress from the Eleventh District of Indiana as a Republican. He became distinguished in Congress in connection with the subject of patents, and was largely instrumental in relieving the country from the great exactions of the sewing-machine combination, which was a powerful trust in those days. On the 15th day of July, 1863, Judge Sayler joined the Union army and was mustered as a First Lieutenant. On the 28th day of the same month he was promoted and mustered as Captain of his com- pany, and on the 3d day of September following he was promoted and mus- tered as Major of the One Hundred and Eighteenth Regiment Indiana Vol- unteers. With his regiment he was mustered out of service on the ist day of March, 1864, having been in East Tennessee during the occupancy of that country by General I,ongstreet and taking part in the battles of Blue Springs, Tazewell and Walker's Ford and a number of skirmishes. He was slightly wounded in the battle of Walker's Ford. Judge Sayler is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and has passed the chairs of the subor- dinate lodge and encampment. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and is a Companion of the Indiana Commandery of the Military Order of th; Loyal Legion. On the 15th day of August, 1881, Governor Albert G. Porter appointed Judge Sayler Judge of the Twenty-eighth Judicial Circuit, composed of Huntington, Grant and Blackford counties, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge James R. Slack, which had then re- cently occurred. In November, 18S2, Judge Sayler was elected Circuit Judge to succeed himself, running ahead of his ticket in the circuit, and served the full term of six years on his election. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church of Huntington, of which he has been an elder since 1868. In 1890 Fort Wayne Presbytery sent him as its lay commissioner to the General As- sembly of the Presbyterian Church, which met at Saratoga Springs, N. Y. He was placed on the standing Judicial Committee of that body and served on several of the most important special committees of the General Assembly. He was selected by the General Assembly as one of the " General Assembly's Committee on the Revision of the Confession of Faith, ' which was composed of fifteen ministers and ten elders, and served on the committee two years. Fort Wayne Presbytery again sent him as its lay commissioner to the General Assembly at its meeting at Portland, Oregon, in 1892. Wabash College, in 1890, conferred on Judge Sayler the honorary degree of LL.D. In 1892, for reasons that were conclusive to him. Judge Sayler changed his political party associations and has since that time acted with the Prohibition party. On the 17th day of January, 1856, he was married to Isabella Hart in Preble county, Ohio. He was singularly fortunate in his marriage. His wife is a woman of lovely character. She is and always has been zealously loyal to her husband's interests and aspirations, and he takes special pleasure in crediting her with whatever has added to his usefulness and distinction. They have two children, both sons and members of the Bar. They and the Judge comprise the law firm of Sayler & Sayler, at Huntington. Judge Say- ler's life has been a busy and successful one. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 561 W ATKINS, CHARLES W., Judge of the Fifty-Sixth Judicial Circuit of Indiana, -was boru iu Jefferson towuship, Logan county, Ohio, on May 3, 1849. He was the second of ten children born to William W. and Rebecca (Elliott) Watkins. His boyhoo 1 was spent working on the farm of his father and attending the district schools in the winter. On the 23d of January, 1864, he enlisted at the city of Cleveland, Ohio, in Company D, 124th Ohio Volunteers and was forwarded at once to Chattanooga, Ten- nessee, and assigned to the second brigade, third division of the fourth army corps. He joined his command iu February, near Knoxville, Tennessee, whither the fourth corps had gone to the relief of Burnside. He shared the hardships of that unusually severe winter campaign in East Tennessee, and on the 3d day of May, 1864, he, with his command, became a part of Sher- man's army iu the great Georgia campaign, and in this he participated as a combatant in the battles of "Rocky Face Ridge," "Resaca," "Pickett's Mills;" was present at the assault on Kennesaw, Teach Tree Creek and the siege of Atlanta. When the grand army separated his command was as- signed to Thomas, and he was engaged in the campaign in middle Tennessee — was in reserve at Franklin, and at the battle of Nashville he was in the second (Post's) brigade, third (Beatty's) division of the fourth corps. He was mustered out in Jul}', 1865, and returned to his home. He attended and taught school until 1871, when he began to read law with Hon. William Lawrence, of Bellefontaine, Ohio, and was in the office of that eminent lawyer for over two years ; was admitted to the bar at Kenton, Ohio, Septem- ber, 1873. IJ^ March, 1874, he located at Huntington, Indiana, and became associated with Hon. J. C. Branyan, under the firm name of Branyan & Watkins, which partnership lasted nine years. He was also associated at different times with B. M. Cobb and M. L. Spencer. In 1878 he was elected Circuit Prosecutor for the old Twenty-Eigh'h Judicial Circuit of Indiana, composed of the counties of Huntington, Grant aiid Blackford, and in 1880 he was re-elected. In 1884 he was a candidate before the Republican con- vention for Reporter for the Supreme Court, but failed of nomination. In the campaign of 1894 he was the Republican candidate for Circuit Judge and was elected by a majority of 668, taking the oiBce November 10, 1894. He was married November 8, 1877, to Irene Wickersham, of Logan county, Ohio, and has two daughters, Cosette Irene and Grace Abigail. McCLELLAN, HON. CHARLES A. O., has been for many years a promi- nent citizen of Auburn, DeKalb county, Ind. He was born May 25. 1835, at Ashland, Ohio. His parents, William and Eliza ^Wiggins) McClellan, were natives of New Jersey. His mother was of German descent, and his father of Scotch-Irish extraction. The father was a mechanic, and followed his trade during his life, excepting the last ten years, during which time he was engaged in publishing county maps in Ohio and Indiana. In youth Judge McClellan enjoyed only such advantages of education as were furnished by the common schools of that day, and at the age of sixteen. 36 J/L4^fMJ^^ ^:>2/'iyz.^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 563 entered the shop to learn the trade of his fattier. During the time of his apprenticeship, he became an expert penman by attending evening schools, and for two years, gave instruction in penmanship during the winter, and during the summer worked upon a farm. In 1856 he came to Indiana, arriv- ing at Auburn the first day of April, where he had an uncle, who was then Auditor of DeKalb county. He was at once appointed Deputy Auditor by his uncle, which position he held for four years. During this time he ac- quired a taste for the profession of law, and during leisure hours and eve- nings, devoted his time to its study. He was married in the fall of 1859 to Elizabeth A., daughter of Samuel D. Long, one of the pioneers of DeKalb county. To this union three children have been born : Jennie L., now wife of Don A. Garwood, of Auburn, Ind.; Delia, now wife of Dr. E. L. Siver, of Ft. Wayne, and Charles, of Auburn, Ind. In i860 he was appointed United States Deputy Marshal to take the census of DeKalb county, which duty was per ormed to the satisfaction of the government. In the spring of 1861, he moved to Waterloo, and engaged in the real estate business, at the same time pursuing his law studies. He also published a map of DeKalb county and made an abstract of the records of said county during that time. In 1862 he was admitted to the bar, and 1863 entered into co-partnership with Judge James I. Best for the practice of law, and formed the firm of Best & McClel- lan, which became one of the most noted law firms of the State. For ability and conscientious fidelity, as well as for successful effort and magnitude of business, they were excelled by few. In 1872 he was appointed Judge of the Fortieth Judicial Circuit of Indiana, and until the end of his term discharged the varied and important duties of that office in such a manner as to win the respect and esteem of the bar, as well as the confidence and commendation of the public. Judge McClellan as a lawyer occupies a distinguished posi- tion, and in the trial of causes has been unusually successful. He has always been a leader in public improvements ; was a stockholder and director of the Fort Wayne & Jackson Railroad Company, and in 1868, in company with James I. Best, built the Star flouring mills, of Waterloo, which were in opera- tion but a short time when they were destroyed by fire. In 1873 he estab- lished the DeKalb Bank, of Waterloo, which has always had and still com- mands the confidence of the people. In 1880 he moved his family to Ann Arbor, Mich., for the purpose of educating his children, and in 1885 moved from there to Auburn, and in the same year became a stockholder and Presi- dent of the First National Bank, of Auburn, which position he holds at the present time. He has, however, never given his personal attention to the banking business, but has applied himself almost exclusively to his profes- sion. He has been the builder of his own fortune, and his position is assured. Judge McClellan is orthodox in sentiment, but is a member of no church. He has always been a pronounced Democrat, ready and earnest in the support of his political convictions. He served two years as Chairman of the Democratic Committee of the Twelfth Con^^ressional District, two years as a member of the State Democratic Central Committee and for four years 564 THE RRNCH AND BAR OF INDIANA was a member of the Executive Committee of the National Democratic Cou- gressional Campaign Committee, composed of Sena'ors and Representatives Mitchel, of Wisconsin; Butler, of South Carolina; Colquett, of Georgia; Blackburn, of Kentucky ; Jones, of Arkansas ; Bate, of Tennessee ; Faulkner, of We^t Virginia ; Blodgett, of N' w Jersey ; Barbour, of Virginia ; R. Q. Mills, of Texas ; Turpie, of Indiana ; Governor McCrarey, of Kentucky ; McMillin, of Tennessee ; Governor Flovper, of New York, ei al. On the 9th day of August, 1888, at Kendallville, Ind., he was nominated on the fourteenth ballot by the Democratic party as its candidate for Congress in the Twelfth Congressional District. Hon. R. C. Bell, P. S. O'Rourke, M. V. B. Spencer, of Allen county, C. K. Green, of Noble, and William F. McNagny, of Whitley were candidates in the convention. Judge McClellan was successful at the election by a plurality of 1,311 votes over the Hon. J. B. White, the Republi- can candidate. He was unanimously renominated for a second term and was re-elected to the Fifty-Second Congress over Jaques N. Babcock, Republican, by a plurality of 4,050, the largest plurality ever given in the district. On account of a rule prevailing in his party in his district he was not a candi- date for re-election. In congress the Judge was a careful and conservative member. He was one of the first members to advocat^p an income tax, and introduced a bill in the Fifty-First Congress for that purpose ; he also intro- duced the first bill in Congress to tax greenbacks, both of which measures were afterward passed, and are now the law. In Congress he served on the Committee of Railways and Canals, Election of President and Vice-President and was Chairman of the Committee of Expenditures in the Navy Depart- ment. He is a member of the Masonic Fraternity ; was Eminent Commander of Apollo Commandry, of Kendallville, Ind., and has received the thirty- second degree in the Scottish Rite. He is also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. Judge McClellan is yet in the prime of manhood, and associated with his son-in-law, Don A. Garwood, and son, Charles McClellan, is enjoying a lucrative practice in his chosen profession at his old home, Auburn, Indiana. P ENFIELD, WILLIAM L. The home of the ancestors of Mr. Penfield was in the Eastern part of the United States. His father, William Penfield, was born in Connecticut, and his mother in New York. About a year after their marriage they moved to Lenewee county, Michigan, where he was born April 2, 1846. His father whs a farmer, and on a farm the son was born, reared and educated. It is only those reared upon the farm that can fully appreciate the habits, modes of thought, feelings, and the views of the people of the country. This advantage Mr. Penfield enjoyed. He attended the district country school. He prepared himself for college by attending school at Hillsdale, Michigan, and then entered Adrian College. Without graduating from this college, he entered Michigan University, tak- ing the classical course, and graduating in 1870 with high honors ; for out of a class of seventy-six he was chosen by the college faculty one of the class speakers on Commencement Day. After his j^raduation he was tendered the /r^^^^-/^:^ 566 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA chair of the German and Latin languages in Adrian College, which he accepted. During this period he studiid law, and in 1872 he was admitted to the bar at Adrian. He settled iu January, 1873, at Auburn, this State, and there opened an office. He has built up a large and lucrative practice, both in the State and Federal Courts, having continuously resided at Auburn and pursued the practice of his chosen profession. In politics he has always been a Republican, taking an active part in the welfare of his party. In 1884, the memorable Blaine campaign, he was a member of the Republican State Central Committee. In 18S8 he was elected a presidential elector and was chosen by the Electoral College of this State its messenger to the city of Washington, to carry the result of the State on the election of a President. In 1892 he was chosen as a delegate from the Twelfth Congres- sional District to the Republican convention held in Minneapolis, after a long and warm contest. He has alwaj-s been a warm supporter of ex-Presi- dent Harrison in his political career. In 1894 he was nominated by his party for the office of Judge of the Thirty-fifth Judicial Circuit, and elected. In his own city he ran 178 votes ahead of the State ticket, and 220 ahead in the (DeKalb) county. He was elected by a plurality of 1,678. This was the largest plurality ever given a Judge in the circuit. His term of office began on the i6th day of November, 1894. Since he was twenty years of age, Mr. Penfield has taken an active part in every campaign. State and National, delivering campaign speeches with marked success in all parts of the State. Excepting his campaign work, his whole life has been given to literature and the law. He has contributed many arlicles on legal subjects to the Central Law Journal and the American Law Review of St. Louis, as well as essays to literary magazines and periodicals. Mr. Penfield is a gentleman of much culture, a lover of liternture, a hard student of the law (a combination in the individual so often lacking in the members of the legal profession); a public speaker of pleasing and forcible address ; a man of honesty and probity, and is well-liked by the citizens of his neighborhood and county. FRAZER, JAMES S. Few men possessed more eminently than Judge Frazer that quality of mind essential to the making of a great Judge ; and he is one of the very few men who have occupied a seat on our Supreme Court bench that has attained a reputation beyond the boundaries of this State worthy of note. His opinions are models of judicial writing, devoid of all unnecessary language, and free from a straining to display erudition and breadth of reading. The copies of his opinions on file in the office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court show that he prepared them with the greatest care and after a most careful consideration. Though usually short, they contain all that was essential to the disposal of the case. He was born at Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, July 17, 1824, and died at Warsaw, Ind., February 20, 1S93. His parents were Scotch descent, and being possessed of J ^s. S 568 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA more than the ordinary amount of this world's goods, they gave their sou a good education. In 1837 they moved to Wayne county, this State. Three years later their son, though but sixteen years of age, entered the office of Hon. Moorman Way, of Winchester, and began reading law. During the winter he taught school. In March, 1845, he was admitted to the bar, though lacking nearly four months of having attained his majority. The next month he opened an office at Warsaw, and there continued to reside the re- mainder of his life. In politics he was a Whig in his early days, and when that party dissolved, he became a. Republican. In 1847, 1848 and 1854, he was elected a member of the lower house of the State Legislature. The Leg- islature of 1855 was confronted with a task of great importance. The school law had been declared unconstitutional, and the State was left without pub- lic schools. Judge Frazer took a great interest in public education, and set about drafting a new school law. The result was the school law of 1855 ; which, though clipped and changed (often without proper consideration and attention to the existing law) is substantially the school law of to-day. In 1852 he served as Prosecuting Attorney, and ten years later was appointed Assessor of Internal Revenue, retiring in 1864. The year he retired he was elected Judge of the Supreme Court, taking his seat January 3, 1865, and serving until January 3, 1871. After retiring from the bench he was ap- pointed by President Grant as one of the three commissioners under the treaty of the United States with Great Britain, dated May 8, 1871. By the laws of this treaty three commissioners — one for this country, another from Great Britain and a third from Italy — were appointed to adjust claims against the United States held by English subjects, and those held by citizens of the United States against Great Britain, arising out of the Civil war. The English com- missioner was Right Honorable Russell Gurney, and the Italian, Count Louis Corti. The claims passed upon amounted to at least two hundred and twenty million dollars, and occupied the attention of the commissioners dur- ing the years 1873, 1874 and 1875. During this period Judge Frazer resided in Washington. In 1879 the Legislature of the State enacted a law for the revision of the statutes of this State, providing for the appointment of three commissioners. It was the duty of these commissioners to prepare such laws as they deemed necessary, and to present them to the Legislature of 1881. The Supreme Court appointed Hon. John H. Stotzenberg, Hon. David Turpie and Judge Frazer. As a result of their labors we have the Revised Civil Code of 188 1, the Revised Criminal Code and the Offense Act of the same year, together with many other statutes. After the Legislature of 1881 adjourned the commissioners prepared the revised statutes of 1881, the most satisfactory statutes this State ever had. Judge Frazer gave the publication of these statutes his closest attention, spending many mouths at the Capitol in their preparation, giving especial attention to the publication of the re- vision. In 1889 Judge Frazer was appointed by Governor Hovey Judge of the Kosciusko Circuit Court, and he served about one year. He took an interest 570 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being a charter member of Kosciusko Lodge, No. 62. Although not a member, he always attended the Presbyterian church. On October 28, 1848, he and Miss Caroline Defrees were united in marriage at Goshen. Mrs. Frazer was a daughter of James Defrees, and a sister of John D. Defrees, once printer for the United States, and of Joseph H. Defrees, who once represented in Congress the Tenth Con- gressional District of this State. For many years Judge Frazer, and his son, William D. Frazer, were partners in the practice of the law. ROYSE, LEMUEL WILLARD. The father of Mr. Royse was George W. A. Royse ; he was a native of New Hampshire. His mother, Nancy (Chaplin) Royse, was a native of Vermont, and was born near the Ben- nington Battle Ground. The elder Royse was a blacksmith, and married Miss Chaplin in Wood county, Ohio, in 1835. In the same year they were mairied they located in Kosciusko county, Indiana. On the 19th day of January, 1847, Lemuel was born near Pierceton, in Kosciusko county. When he was six years of age, his parents moved to Larville, Whitley county, this State. Six years later his father died, and he was then taken by a farmer, for whom he worked until sixteen years of age— at that age he was able to render support to his widowed mother and the family. He attended public school in the neighborhood and pursued his studies at home. At eighteen years of age he began teaching school during the winter and kept it up for eight successive winters, working on the farm in the summer. While teach- ing he began reading law, and in the spring of 1872 he entered the ofBce of Frazer Sz: Encell, at Warsaw. He read law in their office for two summers and was admitted to the bar in September, 1873. The following summer he began the practice of law at Warsaw. In 1875, he and Edgar Hammond formed a partnership which continued until the latter was elected Judge of the Thirty-third Judicial Circuit in 1890. Mr. Royse is a Republican. lu 1876 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney for this circuit, composed of the counties of Kosciusko and Whitley, serving two years. In 1894, he was elected to Congress for the Thirtieth Congressional District by a plurality of 4,141. On July 10, 1883, he and Miss Belle Mclntyre, of Hillsdale, Michigan, were united in marriage. They have a son, James, their only child. Mr. Royse is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and has passed through all the chairs of a subordinate lodge. His life is a fine example of what an American youth, with pluck, energy, and determination may accom- plish in this country. Without aid, and in fact helping a widowed mother in the support of the family, he has made for himself a place in the history of his State and county, of which others may well envy and emulate him. He was elected Mayor of the City of Warsaw in May, 1885, and again in 1887 and 1889. He was a member of the Republican State Central Committee from 1886 to 1890, and also a delegate to the Minneapolis convention which nominated Harrison for the second time. 2^^;^^^^ ..A^^W'i-d^^^^C^ 572 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA HESS, ALEXANDER, was born in Richland county, Ohio, September lo, 1839. He removed to Wabash, Ind., in 1849 ; received a common school education, and followed school teaching prior to the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion. He served three months as a private in Company H, Eighth Indiana Infantry Volunteers, re-enlisting for three years on Sep- tember 12, 1861, in Company F, Second Indiana Cavalry, in which regiment he served as Orderly-Sergeant until April 15, 1862, when he was promoted to the position of First Lieutenant of his company. He was taken prisoner at Hartsville and confined in prison at Atlanta, Ga., for three months, when he was removed to "Libby." And while he was confined in prison at Atlanta he became acquainted with an attorney of said city who was then acting as Adjutant of the Post. He informed said attorney that he himself expected to read law and qualify himself for the practice as soon as he got home. To his great surprise and gratification, the rebel oflScer kindly proffered him the use of his law library which Mr. Hess accepted, and during the three months he was confined there he read "Parsons on Contracts" and " Greenleaf on Evidence." March 8, 1863, he was promoted to the Captaincy of his company. July 30, 1863, he was again taken prisoner and was confined at Macon for a time and then removed to the Charlestown jail. Octo- ber 9, 1864, he was mustered out of the service, returned to Wabash and com- menced the study of law with Judge J. D. Conner ; was admitted to the bar in April, 1865, and commenced the practice in January, 1866, at Wabash. In 1870 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney for the circuit composed of the large and populous counties of Carroll, Cass, Miami and Wabash, and by reason of his efficiency and popularity was re-elected in 1872. Mr. Hess served three times in the Lower House of the Indiana Legislature, iu 1879, 1889 and in 1891. During the latter session he was the Republican nominee for Speaker of the House. For twenty-nine years he has been an active and successful practitioner of the law. His motto has been : "Keep your office, and your office will keep you." At the Republican State Convention, held April 26, 1894, he received the nomination for Clerk of the Supreme Court Novem- ber 6, 1894, he was elected by over 46,000 majority, and took the ofiice-No- vember 22, 1894, for a term of four years. CORBIN, HORACE. Horace Corbin is of English and Irish descent. His father, Horace Corbin, and his mother, Frances (Wright) Corbin. The father died when his son was an infant, and left him to fight his own way in the world. The subject of this sketch was born May 21, 1827, in Tioga county, N. Y. Until eighteen years of age, he attended the common schools of his native county in the winter, and worked on the farm in the summer. One of his terms was taught by B. F. Tracy, who was afterward one of President Harrison's Cabinet. He early evinced a great fondness for read- ing and the acquisition of knowledge beyond the limited opportunities afforded him. In this way, he gathered many facts long before his majority ; JGo->cL.<£^_ <:po^/c^ 574 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA which are unusually found in men of mature age. At nineteen he entered, the academy at Owego and continued for two terms, and rounded up by teaching a district school one term in that vicinity. By the good offices of his uncle, James Wright, then a banker at Owego, he was enabled to do this without resorting solely to his own efforts for support. At twenty-one years of age, he went to Wyoming county, Penn., by request of another uncle who resided there, and began reading law with Hon. John Brisbin, then a member of Congress, and after two years' reading, he passed a rigorous examination, required by the laws of that State, and was admitted to practice before the Pennsylvania Courts. While engaged in his law reading, he was interested with an uncle in the construction of the North Branch Canal. While thus engaged he became acquainted with the elder Cameron, then Canal Commis- sioner. On his admission to practice he started west in the fall of 185 1, and entered Chicago by stage coach, there being no railroad entering that city from the east at that time. He returned from there to South Bend, and by the advice of Judge Stanfield, of that place, he located at Plymouth, Ind. In 1852, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney ; in 1862, State Senator for Mar- shall and St. Joseph counties, serving four years, and four sessions of that body. In 1873 he was elected the first Mayor of Plymouth, without opposi- tion, and was largely instrumental in framing a code of laws for its future government. His impartial administration, and able financial management of the city affairs, won for him the approbation of all parties and citizens, and at the close of his administration, he left the city upon a firm financial basis, and one of the most moral and well-behaved cities in the State. In 1875, Governor Hendricks appointed him Judge of the Forty-first Judicial Circuit, composed of Marshall and Fulton counties. His judicial career was marked with that integrity and ability which honored the bench. At the fol- lowing election, he received the unanimous nomination on the Democratic ticket, but was defeated, by an Independent Democrat running for the same office, securing the election of the Republican nominee. Judge Corbin has not confined his business exclusively to the law. His early training on the farm led him to interest himself in farming, and for thirty 3'ears he has owned and operated a farm of 160 acres near Plymouth. He has also been a member of a firm dealing in real estate for many years, and in the early day of its history he was Secretary of the Indianapolis, Peru & Chicago Railroad Company. For forty years he has been a member of the Masonic fraternity, having taken all the degrees up to the Scottish Rite, and was one of the charter members of Plymouth Commaudery of Knights Templar, and is an honorary member of the Ancient Preceptory of York, England. He has traveled widely, and thereby accumulated a fund of knowledge obtainable in no other way. In 1883, he accompanied an excursion of Knights Templar to Europe, and ex- tended his tour through England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland and Scotland. For twenty-five years he has bpen a member of the Episcopal Church, and much of that time one of its vestrymen. On May 15, 1855, he and THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 575 Miss Catherine Houghton intermarried. She is the daughter of John Hough- ton, an Englishman by birth and education, the first Count}- Treasurer of Marshall county, and was a Commissioner for Indiana to the World's Exhi- bition at London, in 1851. They have five sons living, all engaged in business in Plymouth. Judge Corbin has always taken an active interest in all the affairs of his adopted city, and stood in the front ranks as a lawyer, and prominent in all public improvements and moral reforms. While his life has been a busy one in the line of professional and business interests, he has, unaided, carved out for himself a moderate fortune. And while incredulous and diffident of his literary acquirements, he has at different periods re- sponded to the call of his Masonic brethren, and literary societies of his city, and honored them with very creditable papers on various subjects of Masonic interest, and travel. In politics he always held to the faith of Jefferson and Jackson. K ELLISON, CHARLES. The subject of this sketch was born in the vicinity of Hornellsville, Stuben county, New York, June 17, 1850. He was the youngest of seven children. His parents were James and Elizabeth (Meek) Kellison. He was a farmer's boy and spent his youth on the farm, enjoying only such facilities for early education as a country com- mon school affords. He had a strong liking for language, history, science, mathematics and poetry ; and by employing his unoccupied hours and even- ings, and by the closest application when at school, he acquired a knowl- edge of these branches of study far in advance of the average person of simi- lar opportunities. He attended school a few years in Hornellsville, and at the age of eighteen he possessed mental acquirements equaled by few persons having the advantage of a collegiate course. At this age he possessed some knowledge of German, and was a fair Latin scholar. Early in life he had ?n ambition to be a lawyer ; and when he left school he decided that prepara- tory to the study and practice of the law he would take a scientific and medical course in a college. For that purpose he entered the Universit}' of Michigan, located at Ann Arbor of that State, and at the age of twenty-two received his degree as Doctor of Medicine. He located in Scio, Allegheny county, N. Y., and practiced medicine for two years with success, gaining considerable reputation as a surgeon. By this practice he earned the means with which to prosecute his legal studies. In 1874 he left what was then a promising medical practice to follow out his original plan of studying law, removed to Decatur, Adams county, Indiana, and began reading law in the office of Judge Studebaker. He was admitted to the bar in 1876. Several years of his busy life he spent in teaching public schools in both his native and adopted States, and was, before his admission to the bar, employed as a teacher in the grammar department of the Decatur public schools. In 1877 he settled in Plymouth, this State, where he has resided ever since, and en- i^^xy^^^^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 577 gaged in the practice of the law. In politics he has always been a Democrat, and as such has been twice elected as a member of the lower house of the Legislature from Marshall county. In 1885, during his first term in the House, he came at once into prominence as a strong debater and excellent parliamentarian. His strongest characteristic was his fearlessness and honesty, especially as displayed in opposing the apportionment bill of that year, usually called the gerrymander, a measure of his own party. He set himself in opposition to it in a strong speech, predicting the defeat of his party if it passed it, which prediction was fully verified in 1886. Some of his constituents were displeased with his stand on this measure, and sought to accomplish his defeat by bringing against him three candidates at the primaries. The Democratic voters of his district, however, were pleased with his loyalty to Jeffersonian principles, and he received more than eighty per cent, of the entire vote. As a result he was renominated by acclamation in the delegate convention which followed. He was re-elected by an in- creased majority. At both his first and second elections he received a ma- jority of all votes cast for Representative, a thing that had not occurred to the candidate for that office for eight or ten years previous. During his second term in the House he supported Mr. Turpie for the United States Senate, being largely instrumental in securing his election, and was one of the fore- most figures on the Democratic side. He was one of three Democrats to whom the members of his party looked for leadership and political guidance. The two besides himself were Jewett, of Floyd, and Gordon, of Putnam coun- ties. As an orator few equaled him in the House. So well recognized was his ability as a public speaker, that at the Emmett Anniversary of 1887 he was selected to take Hon. D. W. Voorhees' place, and with only a few hours for preparation gratified his friends with a display of oratorical powers not often witnessed. In the Legislature he bent his every energy to secure laws bettering the masses of the people. He endeavored to secure a law exempt- ing persons whose property had been encumbered with valid liens, from pay- ing taxes on that which they owed. He advocated a law to reduce the rate of interest to six per cent. , leading the great struggle in the House of that year on the bill introduced by him to secure that end. The bill was defeated by only a few votes. His speech was published in full in the Indianapolis Sentinel, and more than five thousand extra copies were purchased and dis- tributed by the friends of the measure in the House and in the Senate. In 1888 he declined a third nomination, although he could have received it without opposition. His name has been used as a possible candidate for Con- gressman from the thirteenth district, although he h is never been a candi- date. He has universally refused to personally push himself for office. In all his business transactions he is straightforward, is painstaking and indu- trious. Before a jury there are few better or more effective advocates in northern Indiana. Mr. Kelli<;on has always prized honorable professional success above mere money making. His practice is to refuse employment where there is no merit in a cause. He is generous, charitable to the un- 37 '^ f- f THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 579 fortunate and friendless, and has been known to make several of the strongest legal efforts of his life without compensation, and as a gratuity for those whose wrongs enlisted his sympathies. He has been married twice, first in 1877, and again in 1894, and has two children living by his first wife. He has always taken a deep interest \a public affairs, but on account of the demands made upon his time by n large and growing law practice, he has been for the past six or eight years unable to take as active a part in politics as his inclinations otherwise would lead him to do. In 1892, being dissatis- fied with Mr. Cleveland's views on several important questions, chief among which was his views on financial matters, Mr. Kellison, for the first time in his life, refused to vote the Democratic national ticket. He still claims to be a Jeifersonian and Jacksonian Democrat, but declares that he never can give the Democratic party an enthusiastic support unless it gets back to the principles of those great leaders. He believes in some of the political doc- trines of the more conservative leaders of the Populist party because they bear the stamp of Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democracy. He upholds the principles of protection to American industries, but does not believe in pro- tection run mad, and is in favor of a thorough American policy in all national affairs. While he has never united with any church, he nevertheless believes in the fundamental principles of Christianity as taught by its Great Author. His religious belief is not circumscribed by any creed. He believes that professions, unaccompanied with good works and honest practices, are a mockery in the sight of the Almighty. In fine, he has no love for, or part in, any religion that does not recognize in practice as well as in precept the doc- trine of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. NILES, JOHN B. The grandfather of Judge Niles was Nathaniel Niles, an early settler in Vermont. He was the fifth in descent fron an orig- inal Puritan settler of New England. For the first twenty-seven years of its existence he was Trustee of Dartmouth College, and was a member of Congress when Washington was President. His son, William Niles, was the father of the subject of this sketch. He was -a. graduate of Dartmouth, and a farmer. John B. was born September 13, 1808, at West Fairlee, Orange county, Vermont. He worked on his father's farm, and grew up a strong and almost physically perfect man, but an attack of measels after maturity weak- ened his constitution. He graduated at Dartmouth in 1830. He taught school for some time, and then read law in the office of Gilmore Fletcher of New York City. He started west to locate at Cincinnati, but on reaching Dayton, ascertained that cholera was raging at the former place, and at once deter- mined to change his place of location to Chicago. On reaching Laporte, of this State, he was struck with the remarkable beauty of the place and the surrounding country, and at once determined to locate there, which he did one year after the town was fiist laid out. This entire journey he performed THE BUNCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 5S1 on horse-back. He was admitted to the bar December i6, 1S33, at Laporte, and at once opened an office. Ten years later Gov. Samuel Bigger appointed him Judge to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Samuel C. Sample. Just one year to a day after he was admitted to the bar, he married Mary, daughter of Judge William Polk, who was one of the first settlers of this State, and a member of the Constitutional Convention of 18 16, under which this State was admitted into the Union. Judge Niles himself was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1850. In 1864 he was elected State Senator, and served one term. Incongruous as it may seem to us, he was a professor in a medical college for twelve years. That college was the Indiana Medical College, located at Laporte. He held the Chair of Chemistry from 1840 to 1852, not only nominally so, but with remarkable success in his teach- ing and demonstrations. In 1850, the date of its organization, he was elected attorney of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, and held the position until his death. In more than one respect Judge Niles was a remarkable man. In every way he was a successful lawyer. Had he settled in Chicago, riches without measure would have been his. He was noted throughout the entire Northern part of this State and Southern Michigan for his analytical powers. He was extremely cautious, though not timidly so. He examined every question with great care, probing it to its farthermost recesses. Of him a brother lawyer said : "In trying a case against him it was never safe to trust anything to chance, or calculate that any weak point would escape his attack." He not only stood high in the community, but stood at the very front of the bar, both for his ability and his integrity. His practice was extensive, not being confined to his own county. He hated show, and shunned display. He had a fine presence, few excelling him. In early life he was connected with the Presbyterian Church, but from middle age on he held firmly to the faith of the New Church, and was a charter member of "The General Convention of the New Church in America," incorporated January 29th, i86t, by Act of the General Assembly of the State of Illinois. He had five children, two only of whom are alive, a son, William Niles, and a daughter, Mrs. E. H. Scott. He died at Laporte, Sunday afternoon, July 6th, 1879. NOYES, DANIEL. Like so many of the inhabitants of Northern Indiana, Daniel Noyes comes from healthy and sturdy New England stock. He was born June 27, 1830, at Poultney, Vermont. After receiving such education as the common schools of the neighborhood afforded, he entered Union College, situated at Schenectady, New York, and graduated from it in 1848. After this he entered the oiHce of Clark & Underwood in Auburn, of the same State, for the purpose of reading law. In those days more time was given by students to preparation for the practice than is given now, and it was not until 1851 that Judge Noyes was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court, which authorized him to practice in all the Courts in the State. Resolving upon leaving the scenes and friends of his youth. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 583 and to cast his fortune among strangers, he left for the West, as this part of the country was then known in the East, and in March, 1852, settled in Laporte, Indiana. He at once opened an office in that city (then scarcely more than a village), and has resided there ever since. In 1873 ^^ was elected Judge of the Common Pleas Court of the district of which Laporte county formed a part, and served until that Court was abolished. Three years later he was elected at the October election. Judge of the Thirty- second Judicial Circuit, then and now composed of Laporte and St. Joseph counties, and continued to serve until he retired in November, 1894. On retiring from the bench he again entered unou the practice of law at Laporte. NYE, MORTIMER. Mortimer Nye was born November ra, 1838, at Wads- worth, Ohio. His father wa-i Ira C. Nye, of Tolland, Connecticut, and his mother, Elizabeth (Pardee) Nye, of Syracuse. New York. Ira C. Nye moved to Springfield, Springfield township, LaPorte county, when Mortimer was a child. He followed his trade, that of a tanner, for several years, with success. Subsequently, however, he purchased a farm and com- bined the vocations of a farmer ard tanner. Young Nye assisted his faiher in the work of the farm and tannery. Mortimer Nye was the second of a family of eleven children. He attended school in the public schools of LaPorte county. Being naturally of a studious disposition, his tastes led him to teaching. In his case, as with many other eminent men of our bar, the vocation of teaching was simply an avenue of approach to the study and practice of law. He was possessed of qualities eminently fitting him for the law; a man of sound judgment, of thorough integrity and of dignified and kindly address. He prosecuted his studies under the tutorship of Judge M. K. Farrand, a. jurist of high reputation in Northern Indiana, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1862. After his admission he formed a law partnership with Judge Farrand, which continued until 1869. He is a Democrat, and though not actively aspiring to office, he has several times been honored by his party. In 1873, 1883 and 1885 he was elected Mayor of LaPorte, and after the expiration of the last term, declined another nomination for the office. He also served as City Attorney. County Attorney and member of the School Board of that city. In 1884 he was chosen a Presidential Elector, and mes senger to convey the vote to Washington. In 1891 he was appointed a mem- ber of the Supreme Court Commission. In 1892 he was a candidate before the Democratic convention for Governor. The considerations, geographical and other, often without merit, which frequently control the choice of con- ventions, prevailed and he was defeated. His political strength, however, was recognized, and he accepted the nomination for Lientenant-Governor at the urgent request of his parly, and was elected. His course as presiding officer of the Senate has been firm and just and has merited general com- mendation. Mr. Nye was, on the 13th day of April, 1871, united in marriage THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 585 to Miss Jennie T. Meeker, daughter of Dr. Daniel Meeker, a prominent phy- sician and surgeon of LaPorte. They have two children, a son, Daniel M. Nye, and a daughter, Laura M. Nye. Mr. Nye became a member of the Order of Masons soon after he became of age. He became a thirty-third degree Mason in 1888, aud has for years been prominent in its councils. He is a man of wide reading and a fluent speaker. TUTHILL, HARRY B. The ancestors of Mr. Tuthill came to this coun- try as early as 1640. That year two brothers, John and Henry Tuthill, settled on Long Island. The original name was spelled "Tuthill," but Henry, after arriving in this country, spelled his name " Tuttle," and it is a tradition in the family that all the "Tuthills" and " Tuttles " spring from these two brothers. The father of the subject of this sketch was Cyrus Tuthill, and the mother Frances (Beakes) Tuthill. Both were born in Orange count}'. New York. The mother was reared in the county of her birth. The parents of the father, when he was quite young, moved to Tompkins county, in the same State, where he grew to man's estate. The father was a merchant in early life, at Howells, New York, and then at Dowagiac, Michi- gan ; but forsook the business for farming. It was in the latter place, on August 2, 1858, that Harry B. Tuthill was born. He, like nearly all his an- cestors, was reared on a farm. In the winter he attended the common schools of the neighborhood, and spent the summers at work on the farm. He taught school two winters, refusing a third term. He attended the High School at Dowagiac, and, although obliged to work on the farm each sum- mer, was able to keep ahead of his class, even passed two classes, and graduated in 1878, standing at the head of his class and was the valedictorian. The particular event that determines a man's choice of a profession or voca- tion is often very trifling. Perhaps the majority of men look back to the turning point and marvel at its insignificancy, and even express wonder why it was so potent then, when now it would be so weak. Mr. Tuthill is not an exception in this respect. One year before he had graduated he was plowing for wheat in August on his father's farm. Stopping to let the horses rest (and school boys who like their studies are wont to let the horses rest when plowing) he went to the house and said to his father : " If you will let me put in this wheat myself, I will teach school this winter aud then rent the farm of you in the spring." His father answered : "You have only one more year before you graduate. Go to school and graduate and then we will talk about your renting the farm." The boy replied: "If I go to school and graduate I shall study law." The father rejoined : " Go to school and gradu- ate." In this language there is nothing significant ; aud yet on it turned the work of a lifetime ; and an embryo farmer was turned into a lawyer. After graduating he entered the office of Spafford Tryon, of Dowagiac, and read law. The course of reading complete he opened an office in Michigan City, THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 587 this State, where he has since practiced. Believing that a lawyer could no more practice without books than a mechanic could work without tools, he has built for himself a valuable law library, the finest in the city ; and as one of the results has a large clientage, being employed in nearly all the heavy cases arising in that vicinity. He is now City Attorney of Michigan City, the only ofHce he ever held. Mr. Tuthill has taken all the higher Orders in Masonrj', being a Scottish Rite Mason, and a Shriner. He is also a mem- ber of the Knights of Pythias, and is prominent in both Orders. ANDERSON, ANDREW. Mr. Anderson is a native of New York, having been born in the State, at Whitehall, at 2 p. m., on October 6th, 1830. His father, Andrew Anderson, was a Scotchman, and his mother of Puritan descent. He attended Union College, located at Schenectady, N. Y., several terms, but did not graduate. He then attended the Albany Law School, of that State, and graduated from it in December, 1855, taking the first prize for an essay on "Mortgages." January 1st, 1856, he opened an office for the practice of law in South Bend, this State, then a city of three thousand inhabitants. He soon established himself in a lucrative business. Although he has all his life taken little part in politics, yet in 1862 he was elected a member of the lower house of our Legislature, and served in the session of 1863. He had previously entered the army, serving as Captain of Company I of the Ninth Indiana Volunteers, in the three months' service. The first ten years of his practice, he and Hon. Thomas S. Stemfield were in partnership, under the firm name of Stemfield & Anderson. He has always had and now enjoys a first-class law business, and has had charge of many of the most important cases arising in the Northern part of the State. No better evidence of his ability as a lawyer could be desired than this fact. Ever since his location at South Bend he has practiced law incessantly, and has probably done more work, and had more business than any other lawyer in that vicinity. At present he is perfectly independent of any political fac- tion or party. BRICK, ABRAHAM L. Abraham L. Brick was born May 27th, i860, on a farm near South Bend, Ind., and was educated in the common schools of the county, and the high school of that city, from which he was graduated. He afterwards attended Cornell, Yale, and Michigan University, graduating from the Law Department of the latter institution in the year of 1883. Immediately after leaving the law school he started in the practice of the law for himself, at South Bend, Ind., and has been in the practice unin- terruptedly ever since at that city. He has never been associated with anyone in business. He was elected Prosecuting Attorney for the Thirty-second Judicial Circuit (embracing the counties of Laporte and St. Joseph), in the year of 1886, on the Republican ticket, overcoming a Democratic majority of THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 589 about 1,500. Since tbcn he has served one term on the Republican State Central Committee. He has taken an active interest in politics until the last two years, but is now very little in politics, confining himself entirely to the practice of the law. 'Without resorting to exaggeration, it is easy to saj' that Mr. Brick is one of the leading lawyers of South Bend, being employed in about all the cases of note brought at that bar, notwithstanding the fact that he has not been engaged in the practice over a dozen years. In 1884 he was married to Anna Meyer. DODGE, JAMES SHAW, is descended from ancestry noted for steadfast- ness of purpose and sterling worth. On his father's side the stock was Scotch — earnest, genuine, reliable ; while his mother was a de- scendant of the pious, benevolent Pennsylvania Quakers, and was a Quakeress herself. He was born August 24, 1846, in Morrow county, Ohio, one of the five children of Charles and Milissa Shaw Dodge. Two years later the family removed to Elkhart county, Indiana, and settled on a farm. In 1850, when only four years old, the death of his mother deprived him of the care and tenderness, love and sympathy which children so much need, but never find in any other person than a mother. Six years later his father died, leaving him an orphan indeed at the age of ten. For the seven years fol- lowing he lived with relatives in Ohio, working on a farm and obtaining the rudiments of an education in the common schools. In June, 1863, two months before reaching the age of seventeen, he enlisted as a recruit in the Third Ohio Cavalry. It was the time when war meant serious business. The flower and pride of the rebel army under General I,ee had invaded Pennsyl- vania ; Vicksburg was holding out against the assaults of Grant's army ; Hood and Johnson were having their own way in Tennessee. It was the period of doubt and forboding for the Union cause. The situation called for brave men imbued with patriotism. Young Dodge, a boy in years, but a man in courage and inflexibility of purpose, reached his command in the field near Chattanooga only two days before the desperate battle of Chickamauga. He knew nothing of discipline, nothing of tactics, nothing of army life ; but he did know the issue that depended upon the gage of battle, which had been accepted as the arbiter. He knew that the integrity of the Union was threatened ; that patriotism was engaged in the conflict against treason. So he entered the battle with the spirit of a soldier and the awkwardness of a recruit ; and came out with a little saber cut scarcely dignified with the name of a wound. From that time on until the close of the war he was with his regiment in camp, on the march and in battle, never missing a roll-call or shirking a duty. Snake Creek Gap, Buzzard's Roost, Resaca, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta and other historic fields found him among the fighters. He was with Kilpatrickon his famous raid, and with ' Pap" Thomas in the battle of Nashville, and in the pursuit of Gen. Hood southward. He was at Selma, Alabama, and Columbus, Georgia, aiding in liberating the last of the Union THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 591 prisoners of Andersonville, and in the capture of Jeff Davis when fleeing in disguise. When the last battle had been fought and the last rebel army had surrendered, he was mustered out at Nashville, with the rank of Orderly Sergeant, which he had held during the closing year of the war. He re- turned to Elkhart in September, 1865, attended the high school for a term of years in order to qualify himself for teaching ; then taught a district school during the two winters next ensuing, and studied medicine in the summer with Dr. Haggerty. In the fall of 1867 he entered the University of Michi- gan, where he pursued a professional course for two years, attending the lec- tures and receiving his diploma as a doctor of medicine in 1869. He began practicing in Elkhart, where he remained until 1876, and then removed to Bristol, in the same county, continuing to practice medicine and surgery until 1884. Two years before that time it became evident to him that he would be obliged to abandon the practice on account of the recurrence of rheumatism, which he had contracted while in the army at Gravely Springs in 1864. He thereupon began to study law, and in 1884 was prepared to ac- cept clients instead of patients. On his admission to the bar in that year, he returned to Elkhart, which has been his home ever since. He is a strong lawyer and a forcible advocate. Mr. Dodge has never held political office, though he has always been active in politics By natural selection, educa- tion and association he is a Republican. His voice has been potent on the stump in every campaign since he attained the age of thirty. His style of public speech is argumentative, earnest and convincing. His appeal is effective. In voice, language and manner he is eloquent. His services are sought by the State Committee, and freely rendered at the sacrifice of per- sonal comfort and private interests. In 1892 he received the nomination of his party as candidate for congress in the Thirteenth district. It was the year of reaction and surprises ; a Democratic year, characterized by one of the memorable periodical landslides or tidal waves that serve to emphasize the varying moods of electors in a government by the people. It was a Waterloo for Republicans, followed by temporary banishment and exclusion from the oflScial table. Mr. Dodge was simply one of the victims of the unwholesome atmospheric conditions. It was not a personal defeat, but a partisan disaster. His followers in the district fought as valiantly as any, but cotUd not resist the tide. The result affected neither his temper nor his party fealty. In 1894 he was fully equipped for campaign service and entered the field with his accustomed zeal. He is a man of large proportions and impressive per- sonality, pleasing address and courtly manner. He is capable of entertain- ing the company drawn together by comradeship or fellowship, as well as the popular assembly. He has at all times taken a deep interest in promot- ing the Grand Army of the Republic ; was a charter member of the Harrison Cathcart Post, No. 96, at Bristol, and served four years as Post Commander. His present membership is in Elmer Post, No. 37, of Elkhart. He is Aid-de- Camp on the staff of the Department Commander of Indiana ; he is a mem- ber of the Century Club and a regular attendant on the services of the Protes- 592 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA tant Episcopal church, of which the members of his family are communicants. Mr. Dodge was married May 12, 1875, to Miss Jeannette J. Peck, daughter of Charles H. Peck, of Elkhart. Their children are Jamie Sayre, born July 2, 1876, Bernice Frances, born June i, 1884. His tastes and affectiotjs are strongly domestic. His highest social pleasure is found at home in cheerful and happy association with his interesting family. HUBBELIv, ORRIN Z. Like many another family name, that of Hubbell is derived from a locality. The history of it is interesting. More than a thousand years ago, to- wit, A. D. 867, the Danes under the leadership of Hubba invaded England. It was their custom to camp on the hills, which they fortified for defense. Every hill used for a purpose of en- campment by the invaders was thereafter called Hubba's Hill, subsequently contracted to Hubhill. And then, for the sake of euphony the etymology was changed to Hubbell. The facts here stated may be verified by reference to a standard etymological dictionary of family names. It is evident, there- fore, that the Hubbell family is of Danish origin, though the name was mod- ified by the circumstances attending their advent and settlement in England. The first representative of the family who emigrated to America was Richard Hubbell. He was born in England in 1627 ; settled at Guilford, Conn., in 1645 ; took the oath of allegiance to the New Haven Colony, March 7th, 1847; became a resident of Fairfield, Conn., October 13th, 1664, where he died October 25, 1699. His descendants have been noted for patriotism, integrity, honorable public services and success in business or professional occupations. Some of them have been enrolled in the military service of the Government in every war, beginning with the revolution. Collateral branches of the family, as well as the descendants of this first settler by direct lineage, have won renown in war and peace, in literature and the professions. William Hubbell, who was born in Vermont, served five years and a half in the army of Washington, and removed to Kentucky, where he lived until 1835. Martha (Stone) Hubbell, of Connecticut, was an author of high reputation, one of her books reaching a sale of 40,000 copies in a single year. Others of the family have become distinguished as lawyers and jurists. Orrin Zeigler Hubbell, is the eighth generation, by direct descent, from Richard Hubbell, the English emigrant who settled in Connecticut early in the Seventeenth Century. He is the only son and one of the four children born to William H. and Sarah (Zeigler) Hubbell. His father was a native of Medina, Ohio, though he passed his boyhood and early manhood in Vermont, the home of his immediate ancestors. He was educated in the public schools of the Green Mountain State, and in Harvard University ; became a, civil engineer and pursued his profession with great profit in locating and constructing railroads m Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. His residence was in Northeastern Indiana for many years, though in later life he removed to Missouri and died there. The mother of Orrin Z. was a native of Tuscarawas, Ohio, a lady of German descent, estimable character and unusual refinement. She is still living. 38 594 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Our subject, Orrin Z. Hubbell, was born in Huntington county, Indiana, March 30, 1859. As may reasonably be assumed from the character of his ancestors, he possessed more than average natural ability, and his inherited tendencies were in the right direction. In childhood he removed with his parents to Butler, Indiana, passed through the common school and was gradu- ated from the high school of the town on completion of its course of study in 1873. At the early age of fourteen he was admitted to the freshman class of the Indiana University. About this time the panic and financial depression throughout the country stopped railway construction and occasioned severe losses to his father, whose investments were in that kind of enterprises. He was therefore obliged to rely upon his own resources in acquiring an educa- tion and qualifying himself for the actual business of life. He pursued the regular classical course of the University, from which he was graduated in 1877 with the bachelor's classical degree. He was then young, as measured by j'ears, but by no means immature. His reading from early boyhood had covered a wide range of subjects ; his associations had been elevating, and he was qualified to take his place among educated gentlemen. Without delay he began the study of law in the office of Captain R. A. Franks, of Butler, and prosecuted it with diligence for six months. During the same period he was editor of a weekly newspaper, the Butler Record. Without for a moment abandoning his purpose to become proficient in the law, he turned aside for a while to engage in teaching, first as principal of the public schools at Monroeville, and then as Superintendent of the public school at Butler. In this avocation he passed three years, at the end of which he went to Auburn and assumed control of the Dekalb County Republican, as editor. Soon after- ward he was nominated as the Republican candidate for Joint Representative in a district strongly Democratic, made a very creditable race, and was defeated by only thirty-six votes. This was in 1882. Immediately after the election he located in Elkhart for the practice of law, and at the same time pursued the course of study in the law department of Notre Dame University until graduation with the degree LI*. B. Mr. Hubbell has continued in the practice of his profession in Elkhart, until the present time, and has built up a valuable clientage. He has also built up a reputation for legal ability not excelled by any lawyer of his age in the State. Having a genius for politics he is not allowed to remain in private life. In 1888, he was nominated as the candidate of his party, and in November was elected State Senator. The result of the ballot was no less a personal compliment than a partisan triumph. The number of votes cast for him was larger by three hundred than the number cast for his party ticket in the same district. It was a tribute alike to his popularity and his worth. In the Senate he naturally took the rank to which he was entitled by reason of his talents, knowledge of law, aptness for the dispatch of business and political sagacity. He was selected for membership on the judiciary committee at both sessions of the Legislature of which he was a member, and rendered important service. His course was such as to deserve hearty approval of impartial men and secure THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 59J the unstinted encomiums of the public press. Partisan opponents recognized his capacity and applauded his liberal views on subjects of general legislation which are not controlled by the caucus. It is in evidence that the Fifth-sixth and Fifty-seventh Sessions of the General Assembly of Indiana held no member more wide-awake, more capable of discussing all the questions con- sidered by that body, or one more conscientiously devoted to the welfare of the State and the interests of his constituents than the Senator from Elkhart. Mr. Hubbell not only takes care of a general legal practice, but is retained as solicitor of some private corporations. He is the attorney for the Fidelity Building and Savings Union, of Indianapolis, and the People's Mutual Bene- fit Society, of Elkhart. In politics he is highly esteemed for valuable services on the stump as well as in the secret councils of his party. He is a popular orator, presenting the issues with clearness, eloquence and logical argument in every canvass. He has for some time been a member of the advisory coun- cil of the Republican State Central Committee. His carefully selected library suggests literary taste, and his liberal culture is the result of careful reading. He studies literature and history as well as politics and law. He has regard for social and moral attributes in character and believes in their cultivation by organization, association and the exercise of benevolence in accordance with an approved system For the promotion of these ends he holds mem- bership in the numerous Masonic bodies up to and including the Command- ery, and the Scottish Rite (32d degree); in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows ; in the Knights of Pythias. He is also a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, with his family. He was married in 1886 to Miss Cora E. Congdon, daughter of Dr. Jos. R. Congdon, for many years a prominent phy- sician of Bristol. This union has been blessed with two children, Harold Congdon and Minnie Sara. In 1887, Mr. Hubbell, accompanied by his wife, traveled abroad, visiting the interesting places of Great Britain as well as the continent of Europe. He has since written and published his observations of his tour in a very interesting volume entitled "A University Tramp." The Hubbell home with its accessories and evidence of culture is one of the most delightful in Elkhart. Orrin Z. Hubbell is a. man possessed of broad and generous endowments. As a financier he has been remarkably success- ful. As a lawyer he is liberally equipped, both in knowledge of the law and capacity to utilize the knowledge in practice. He expresses his views, whether in speech or on paper, easily, gracefully, forcibly. His perception is acute, his power of analysis strong, and his facility of expression excel- lent. His individuality is very marked ; his manifestations of it are observed in his independent thought, prompt decision and determined action. Though of Danish origin in the remote past, he possesses none of the characteristics of "the melancholy Dane," except a keeness of intellect with superior pow- ers of penetration, and a refinement of manner. The elements of character that attract and hold friends are predominant in him. He is cordial, liberal, generous and hospitable. In the attributes essential to genuine manhood he is clean, brainy, honorable. Estimated by character and prominence, he has only crossed the threshold of a career whose possibilities are great 596 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA MITCHELL, JOSEPH A. S. Judge Mitchell was bora near Mercers- burg, Franklin county, Pennsylvania, December 2i, 1837. His father, Andrew Mitchell, was of Scotch descent, and by occupation a farmer, of moderate means, but of eminent respectability. His mother, whose maiden name was Sarah Lecron, was of French extraction, but had her birth and early years in Maryland. Jn his character. Judge Mitchell exhibited a rare blending of the distinguishing features of the people of the ancestral lands of both his father and mother ; sterling integrity, rigid adherence to what he conceived to be right, steadfastness and independence of opinion, these are characteristic of the Scotch ; suavity, cheerfulness, courtesy of manner, these are native to the French. His father died while he was a child and he was left to make his own way through the world, which, as his career shows, he did manfully. His boyhood was spent on the home farm, until he reached the age of seventeen, when he came west, as far as Illinois, and by a short course in the academy at Blandinsville, supplemented by the meagre educa- tion he had received in the common school of his native State, sufl5.'iently fitted himself to become an acceptable teacher. The profession of teaching, however, if at that time it could have been dignified by being dominated a profession, he used as a stepping stone to that vocation he had already chosen as his life-work. At the age of nineteen, he returned to Pennsylvania, and began to study law in the office of Riley & Sharp, at Chambersburg. Three years later he was admitted to practice at the bar, and after several months of travel in the south, removed to Ooshen, this State, in i860, and established an office, whose doors, however, were soon closed by the depart- ure of the young attorney for the battlefield. His country's peril called him to arms, and he enlisted in the Second Indiana Cavalry, in which rej;iment he served two 3-ears. After his promotion to the Captaincy, he was assigned to duty on General McCook's staff as Inspector-General, which position he held until the close of the war. As a citizen, he was patriotic and faithful in the discharge of all duties entrusted to him. He was loyal to his adopted city and State, and when his country called him, he abandoned his own for the interests of his country, and remained at the post of duty until the contest ended and the danger was over. He was always a gentleman ; always ready for duty ; never complaining if that duty seemed hard ; leading his company wh rever duty called. His command was amed with repeating rifles, and this fact led to its being often called on for unusual duty. At Shiloh he was in the thickest of the fight ; then sick and in the hospital for many weeks, he shared the favors shown his rank with the private sick in the same room. Then, with his command in the memorable five months, sweeping over Ken- tucky and Tennessee, in the heat and fire of battle at Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, Kennesaw Mountain, Chattanooga and elsewhere, he was ever at his post of duty and acquitted himself with honor. When Kilpatrick's command (with discharges in their hands) volunteered to cut off the enemy's supplies in the rear of Atlanta, Captain Mitchell was one of that band, which, severing all conuectioa with the Union Army, and <:>4^;? -UiO^,,^ 598 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA shaking hands with friends and comrades, dashed into the rear of the enemy's forces, tearing up railway tracks here and there, and firing supplies as thev went ; fighting for weeks against superior forces — sometimes retreat- ing and then advancing, sometimes so hard pressed on retreat that it was necessary to call for volunteers to act as rear guard, who, when resistance was no longer possible, would suffer themselves to be taken prisoners, thereby detaining the enemy till the main body of this devoted band could retreat to safety without annihilation or capture. This is known as " Stoneman's Raid ;" and in all this. Captain Mitchell participated, and shared his portion of the burdens and dangers of the service. Returning from the war, he again entered the practice at Goshen. In November, 1865, he married Miss Mary E. Defrees, daughter of the Hon. Joseph H. Defrees. He also formed a partnership for the practice of the law with the Hon. John H. Baker, now Judge of the United States Court for the District of Indiana. The name of the firm was Baker & Mitchell, and it became and remained, until Judge Mitchell ascended the bench, the leading law firm of Northern Indiana. In 1872, Captain Mitchell was elected Mayor of Goshen, and again in 1874. He had, before these dates, served as Deputy-Prosecuting Attorney. He com- manded success at the bar and rose rapidly to eminence, for he was a vigorous reasoner, a learned lawyer, and a. sagacious advocate. He was honored by the State Bar Association by being chosen as one of its represen- tatives to the convention at Saratoga in 1879. His colleagues were Benjamin Harrison and Azro Dyer. In 1880, the Democratic party nominated him for the office of Judge of the Supreme Court of the State, but, in common with the other candidates of his party, he was defeated. In 1884, he was a suc- cessful candidate, and in November, 1890, was elected for a second term. Death struck him down while yet serving his first term. The first term was productive of rich fruitage ; but with his judgment ripened by experience, and his mental powers trained by discipline, the fruitage of the second term, could he have been spared to fill it, would have been still greater and richer. Before his elevation to the bench, he had served for many years as counsel for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company within this State. Though reared in the faith of Calvinism, he early found a congenial home in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for twenty years and more he was a leading member of the First Church of that denomination in Goshen ; a Trustee of the society and also a Trustee of DePauw University at Green- castle. In the morning of December 12, 1890, after a brief illness, he died, leaving a devoted wife and two children, Harriet and Defrees, aged seventeen and seven, respectively, to mourn his loss. In a public address on the life of Judge Mitchell delivered at Goshen, Sunday, January n, 1891, Hon. Byron K. Elliott, associated with Judge Mitchell nearly six years on the bench, said: "It is not too much to say that no man in our time had a higher appreciation of the judicial office, or a keener and truer sense of its responsi- bilities and its requirements than Judge Mitchell. His sense of judicial propriety was exquisitely delicate, and his conception of judicial duty ex- THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 595 alted. If he erred at all, his error was in too highly valuing the judiciary. To his mind, the judicial department was, indeed, one ' Whose steps are Kquity, whose seat is Justice.' " The courage required of the Judge is more than physical valor. The courage befitting the Judge is, indeed, ' An independent spark from Heaven's bright throne, By which the soul stand-i raised, triumphant, high, alone.' " So stood the soul of the brave Judge to whose memory we pay this day's high tribute of respect. He stood as stands a shaft of granite upreared by a master's hand, four square to all the winds that blow. His independence was a conspicuous feature of his well-rounded and symmetrical character and kept him manfully in the path of duty ; that path from which no bland- ishments of flattery can seduce nor any fear of censure or any selfish hope turn the upright Judge. This fearless independence gave to his pure and spotless integrity an exalted strength and brought him the respect of those who honor the true nobility of manhood. A stern and determined Judge when occasion demanded, he was yet kind and merciful ; he felt, I know, that if he m.ust err, it should always be on mercy's side. Inflexible as he was at the demand of duty, the voice of entreaty moved him deeply, although it never carried him from duty's path. He was a merciful Judge and he knew that : " If thou wilt draw near Ihe nature of the Gods Draw near them in being merciful." " His high esteem for his office and his enthusiastic love for his profes- sion made him a student of the law from inclination and conviction, and not from expediency or policy. He was one of the men ' whose delight is where their duty leads.' He delighted in his duty because of his deep reverence for jurisprudence. He knew, too, that the unlearned man who assumes the functions of a Judge degrades the profession and the office ; and for his life he would not have brought reproach upon either by any culpable fault or omission of his own. This high conception of duty moved him to the sever- est and most determined work. He studied resolutely and as able men study, 'unbiased and unbewildered.' Himself he did not spare ; he knew and he heeded the demands of his office, and he gave to it the best days and nights of his life. His predominant mental characteristic was power. The light which fell from his mind upon the case brought before him for judgment was not the flickering gleam of the twilight of feeble intellects, but the strong, clear light of the sunbeam. Difficulties melted before it as mists before the sunlight and sophistries perished in its glare. It penetrated dark nooks, pierced cloudy and foggy places, illumining the whole field of strife, so that even the dim-visioned might see it in all its parts. His mind was spacious, big and loftily domed. In it thought had free play ; ideas attained full stat- ure, neither dwarfed by pressure nor lost in a crowded throng. There was ample room for evolution and development. The freedom with which such minds act develops ideas that feeble minds may, perhaps, perceive when 600 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA apparelled in words, but which they can never originate or create. His capacious mind, with its wide reach of thought, enabled him to securely grasp and firmly hold all the elements of a forensic controversy, so that he was able to marshal them in orderly array and keep them fully in the light until they were seen and known in all their depth and scope. A close stu- dent, reading much and reading deeply, he was not the unreasoning follower of precedent. With precedents he consulted as an equal with equals, not as a. servant with a master. The paralysis of precedent did not wither his fac- ulties nor fetter the free play of his reason. He respected precedents, as all just Judges must do, and studied them with an earnest and intelligent pur- pose ; but so strong was his anal3^ical power, so keen his discrimination and so sound his judgment that the bad did not mislead him nor the indifferent prevail over his conception of legal truth. He studied authorities as he gave judgments, with rigid impartiality and without bewilderment or confusion. A bold and original thinker, he was, nevertheless, a conservative Judge, for he knew that the Judge's duty is to interpret and enforce the law, not to make it. His delicate sense of honor would not suffer him to become an innovator or an image breaker for the sake of gaining credit for originality, although he was conscious of his own great capacity to construct and create. His thoughts were strong and they found expression in language befitting their massive strength. His diction corresponds to his matter ; in both there is crystal clearness and granite strength. The virtues of thought and diction give permanency to his judicial opinions, and the world will be ages older before they lose their place in legal literature. L,awyers and Judges for many generations will look to them as repositories of principles and as models of judicial style. Many of them indeed, sparkle with gems of thought framed in the rich brocade of faultless rhetoric. He was a Judge from choice and he turned from places of higher rank and greater emoluments that sought him without reluctance or regret. His ambition was to be a great Judge, and seldom has a laudable ambition been so fully gratified. Although his work had barely begun, his rank is amon^ the foremost Judges of the land. His virtues and his talents fitted him as few men were ever fitted for the office of his free choice, and the rank he so quickly gained vindicated the wisdom of his selection ; but so eminent were his virtues and so splendid his talents that he would have adorned the highest stations in the land, and, had he entered them, he would there have won a wider renown and greater popular applause than a Judge can ever hope to gain. But in his time and in his place no man could have earned a truer fame. We may, indeed, well despair of finding another who shall so truly grace the judgment seat. ' We seek the strong, the wise, the brave. And, sad of heart, return to stand In silence by a new made gfrave.' " i>h i3~ 602 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA WILSON, HENRY DANIEL, was born in Champaign county, Ohio, October 3, 1829; with his farmer parents he settled in Noble county, Indiana, in the year 1836, and spent with them his early boyhood and childhood days in assisting to subdue the forests of Noble county, and by upright and conscientious parents was taught habits of industry and the foundation laid for a character of integrity that has clung to him through life. His academic education was received at the Ontario Collegiate Insti- tute, La Grange county, which was then considered a fair institution of learning, conducted and managed by that then well-known educator, Rufus Patch. A higher degree of education was sought by him at the University of Indiana, which he attended in 1850 and for two following years. His col- legiate education was finally concluded at Wabash College in 1854, where he graduated in the classical course, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, which thereafter in 1857 was supplemented with the degree of Master of Arts from the same institution. After graduation, he was chosen Principal of the Seminary at Salem, Ind., and still later he was President of and principal instructor in an Academy in Dubuque county, Iowa, for a number of j'ears. As an educator, he won universal respect and esteem from both parents and pupils wherever he was engaged as an instructor. Judge Wilson returned to Indiana in i860, was admitted to the bar of Whitley county on June 25. He entered into partnership with the Hon. A. Y. Hooper, and continued in the practice of law at Columbia City in said partnership, and by himself, until November, 1864, when he removed to Goshen, Ind., where he has since continuously resided. Mr. Wilson was elected the first Mayor of the city of Goshen in 1868, and his painstaking and official fidelity and ability are manifest in a number of city ordinances prepared under his supervision that are still iu force unchanged. With the exception of a short interval, when he was compelled by reason of ill health to retire from active business, Mr. Wilson has continued in the practice of his profession continuously from i860 until his election to the bench in November, 1894. Mr. Wilson has for years been recognized as one of the foremost members of the legal fraternity in Northern Indiana. He possesses a logical mind, a retentive memory; he is well posted in scientific, historical, political and religious subjects. His scholarly attainments and natural accomplishments fit him in an eminent degree for success in his chosen profession. His speeches and orations are fluent, convincing and most pleasing. The facts in his addresses are recalled and spoken with such fluency and readiness, and with such wealth of language, that his audiences are entertained until the last sentence is uttered. His professional acquirements, his oratorical power, and his pleasing address made him a giant before a jury. His knowledge of the law, and his ability to impart his learning to others, have been repeatedly recognized by aspiring young men, as students of law under his tuition. All who have ever studied with him, as well as all those who have been associated with him in profes- sional relations are yet his fast friends. On April ist, 1878, Mr. Wilson formed a law partnership with ex-Senator W. J. Davis, which partnership 604 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA continued until he was elected Judge. During the later years of this firm his son Harry C. Wilson was also associated with them. This partnership is believed to be the longest in duration of any legal firm in the county of Elkhart. Mr. Wilson united with the Presbyterian church in March, 1854; he was elected a ruling elder of that church in 1856, and has adorned that ofiice in the spirit of the Master for now nearly forty years. He has many times represented the church of his choice in Presb3^ery and Synod, and twice, in 1881 and in 1889, was the lay commissioner of his Presbytery in the General Assembly of that church. His seat at the stated services of the church is rarely vacant. He has been a member of the Masonic Order for over thirty years. Mr. Wilson was united in mar- riage with Ann Jeannette Trumnbell at Fort Wayne, Ind., April 26, 1855; since then they have walked together in peace and harmony, and much of his success in life is due to the wifely devotion, the patience, the prudent counsel of the partner of his joys and sorrows. Five living and adult children reverence and honor them as children rightly trained appreciate and respect faithful and conscientious parents. Upon urgent solicitation, in the summer of 1890, Mr. Wilson allowed his name to be presented to the voters of the Thirteenth District as the Republican nominee for Congress; but the tidal wave against his party caused mainly by the recent enactment of the misunderstood tariff law encompassed his defeat, together with hun- dreds of other Republican candidates. At the election of 1894, Mr. Wilson was elected Judge of the Thirty- fourth Judicial Circuit of Indiana, composed of the counties of Elkhart and La Grange, and immediately thereafter qualified and entered upon the duties of that office. His experience as a ripe lawyer, a candid and conscientious advisor, having a well founded sense of right and justice between man and man, whose life has always been measured by the rule of doing to others as he would have them do to him, a man who knows equity, and conscientiously knowing it, does equity — all these fit Judge Wilson in eminent degree for the right discharge of Judicial duties. VANOSDOIv, ARGUS D. Argus D. Vanosdol, of Madison, Indiana, was born September 18, 1839, in Jefferson county, Indiana. He resided with his parents upon a farm in his native county and the adjoining county of Switzerland until he attained his ninth year, when his parents re- moved to the town ot Vevay, where he pursued his education, his instructors being Rev. Hiram Wasou and Mrs. Julia Dumont, mother of the late Gen. Ebenezer Dumont. Completing his education in the common and village schools, he eue;aged in teaching for about three years, leaving the school room to pursue the study of law. August, 1859, found him as a student in the law office of Hon. Alexander C. Downey, at Rising Sun, Indiana. Remaining with Judge Downey until the beginning of hostilities in the Civil War of i86r, he enlisted in Company A, Third Regi- ment Indiana Cavalry, and served in that Regiment as Sergeant, Major, Adju- tant and Captain, until disabled at the battle of Stone River, in January, 1863. ^ . 606 THE BRNCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Being partially restored to health he re-enlisted and served with his com- mand, the 156th Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, until August, 1865, when his health improved to such an extent as to warrant him in resuming his law studies. He entered the law school of the State University, at Bloom- ington, Indiana, and graduated there in March, 1871. The following May he located at Madison, and continuously since then has been engaged in the prac- tice of his profession. In February, 1881, he formed a co-partnership with Hiram Francisco, Jr., and the law firm of Vanosdol & Francisco has occupied a prominent position in the profession, being one of the leading firms in south-eastern Indiana. He was married August 3, 1862, to Miss Mary, daughter of Hon. David Henry, of Switzerland county. VOIGT, GEORGE H. Mr. Voigt is a native of this State. He was born at Jeffersouville, July 27, 1859, and has lived there all his life. In 1880 he graduated from the Law Department of the University at Louisville, and at once entered upon the practice of the law in his native city. In 1885 he was elected City Attorney ; and in 1886, Prosecuting Attorney of the Fourth Judicial Circuit, then composed of Floyd and Clark counties. Two years later he was re-elected. In 1890 he was elected a Representative in the lower house of the State Legislature, and served with distinction. In 1892 he was chosen a Presidential Elector on the Democratic ticket for the Third Congressional District. Two years later he served as Chairman of the Demo- cratic Central Committee for Clark county. He is now the senior member of the firm of "Voigt & Stotsenburg, with ofiices in Jeffersonville and New Albany ; and is engaged in the general practice. HERTER, JACOB. Jacob Herter was born February 3, 1842, in Germany, and came with his parents, in the spring of 1846, to Harrison county, Ind., where they settled on a farm. His father was Michael Herter and his mother Anna M. Herter (nee Weidner). He attended the country schools in Harrison county for a short time prior to and in the spring of 1857. In the autumn and winter of 1857, and during 1858, 1859 and the spring of i860, he attended the city schools at Chicago Ills., and in 1861 and 1862 the seminary at Corydon, Ind. On June 8, 1863, he commenced the study of the law with Messrs. Smith & Kerr, at New Albany, Ind., and was admitted to the bar in 1864, commencing the practice in 1866. His first partner was Robert J. Shaw, who is now dead. David W. LafoUette was his second partner, and he is also dead. William W. Tuley, who is still in the practice at New Albany, was his third partner. He was elected Judge of the Fifty-second Judicial Circuit at the November election of 1892, and holds a commission for six years from November 25, 1892. He was married on February 21, 1869, to Margaret Steger. Their children are Ferdinand M., born November 26, 1869 ; Gustav J., born September 6, 1871 ; Martin P., born February 2, 1875 ; Katie E., born January 8, 1881 ; Anna M., born February 14, 1885 ; Mary G., born November 2, 1886, and Henry J., born May 12, 1890. /^-^^ /%^^^:^ 608 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA CARDWILL, GEORGE BENNETT, was born September 17, 1846, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father, John Henry Cardwill, of Vermont birth and New York rearing, belonged on the maternal side to the Train family of Massachusetts, which dates its American ancestry back to 1634; on his paternal side, he came of English blood made American by several gen- erations' residence in this country. When a young man, Mr. Cardwill, senior, went to Cincinnati, where he married Caroline B. Montgomery, who traced her Irish-American lineage to the Sweesey and Tuthill families, who settled in New York and Long Island little less than two centuries ago. Both Mr. Cardwill and his wife received an additional birthright in America through revolutionary grandsires, one of whom, Isaac Train, as a boy of seventeen, joined the Continental army at the inception of the war, and con- tinued to re-enlist, at the expiration of each time of service, until peace was declared. It is not strange that the subject of this sketch, springing as he does from such antecedents, exhibited from a child an intense patriotism and love for freedom and for humanity. These feelings were fostered by his home training and education. Before he could speak plainly his mother had made him familiar with the names of Christopher Columbus and of the Father of his Country, and the events connected with the discovery and settlement of America, and its establishment as a nation. George's parents were among the first abolitionists, and a residence with them in Louisville, Ky., from his fifth to his ninth year, enabled him, at the most impressionable age, to have the evils of negro slavery fixed upon his mind by practical examples. The color Hue was as closely drawn, though slavery of course did not exist, in New Albany, Ind., where Judge Cardwill's life has been spent since his ninth year. His innate spirit of reform, thus, throughout his boyhood, never lacked the impetus of the friction attached to opposition to human freedom. Though too young to enter the armj' during the Civil war, he was prevented from doing so only b)' the objections of his parents, who could not, however, keep him from joining a volunteer company raised to protect Southern Indiana at the time of the John Brown raid. Judge Cardwill was educated in the best private schools in Louisville and New Albany, and spent one year at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Ind. He had looked forward from a boy to a University training at Harvard or Yale, but his father's financial reverses rendered this impossible. He inherited intellectual tastes from both of his parents, and from childhood was a great reader of books. He tried a business life for about eight 3'ears, but it proved dista.steful to him and he gave it up and began to study law in the office of Stotsenburg & Brown, a leading firm in New Albany, in 1872. Several years later, he was admitted to the bar. A born politician, at an early age he attracted crowds of boys around him to listen to his political harangues. A staunch Republican, he has ever been a faithful and effective worker for his party through the continuous discourage- ments of hopeless struggles in a community largely opposite on political opinions. Several times his name appeared as a candidate on his party's ticket and he made vigorous canvasses in the face of almost certain defeat. ^^^ ^. A 19 610 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA His first political reward was his appointment by Gov. Chase to the office of Judge of the Floyd Circuit Court, after the death of Judge Howk in 1892. His term lasted one year only, but in that time he gained an enviable reputation for his courtesy to the bar, his promptness in dispatching the business of the Court, his unquestioned probity and the wisdom of his decisions. His official record, as Judge, is uncommon in two respects. First, he decided a great number of cases, some of them "paper" cases of considerable importance, left by the two last previous Judges, and also finished all work upon new cases brought before him, leaving a clean docket to his successor. A second and perhaps still more unusual experience, and a special tribute to his good judgment, was, that of the cases appealed from him, in one only his opinion failed to be sustained by the Supreme Court. In the summer of 1894, Judge Cardwill received the nomination as candidate, on the Republican ticket, for Joint Representative of Floyd, Harrison and Crawford counties, three counties hitherto strongly Democratic. His zealous canvass, wholly for the party, resulted in an unexpected victory for himself ; his success is looked upon as perhaps the greatest in the district, since he overcame a majority of usually 2,500 or more Democratic votes and won by about 300, leading his ticket in Harrison county. Though uuswerving in his loyalty to his party, Judge Cardwill is not, nor has he ever been, a partisan in the sense of clinging to whatever the party dictates or does, whether it be right or wrong. He is an ardent believer in Civil Service Reform and in restricting politics to its proper sphere. For years he has been specially interested in municipal reform and through his efforts in that direction has become a power in his community. His predilection for politics is equalled only by his public spirit. Every public work in New Albany finds in him an active supporter, often a leader. Several Building and I/Oan Associations owe their existence largely to him. He was one of the organizers of the Commercial Club and its third President. The Public Library gained its first incentive from him and two or three other like-minded men ; for a number of years he served the Book-Committee as its Secretary, and in 1894 became its President. His attention was called to University Extension Work in 1892, and he accepted the office of Chairman of the committee then formed to introduce and carry it on in New Albany. Since that time University Extension Lectures have been an established part of the city's advantages. The New Albany Charity Society, organized in 1893, has found in him a zealous director and many other lesser philanthropies and reforms know him as an active friend. After a life so colored by efforts for progress and for the welfare of mankind it was natural that he should take his place as the "radical " of the Legislature and that the measures he intro- duced should be called revolutionary. He is far-sighted and has a ready, clear and logical intellect, great practical sense and executive ability. As a speaker he is plain and sensible and straightforward, at times almost to bluntness, but ever carries conviction by his earnestness and wisdom. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 611 HOWK, GEORGE VAIL. Judge Howk was of pioneer stock, his father, Isaac Howk, having come to Indiana at an early day, and settling in Clark county in 1817. He, too, was a lawyer. In 1S20 he married Miss Elvira Vail, a daughter of Dr. Gamaliel Vail, and September 21, 1824, the subject of this sketch was born of this marriage. In 1833 Isaac Howk died, and his wife devoted her life to the education and comfort of her two children. She died in New Albany, September 16, 1869. Charlestown, the county seat of, Clark county, was the birthplace of Judge Howk, and there he was educated aud grew to manhood's estate. He attended Asbury (now DePauw) University, and graduated from it in 1846. He then studied law in the office of Charles Dewey, who was a Judge of the Supreme Court of this State for ten years and one of its ablest jurists. On November 27, 1S47, he was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of this State, and the same year settled in New Albany, where he continued to reside until the day of his death. On December 21, 1848, he was united in marriage to Miss Eleanor Dewey, daughter of Judge Dewey. Of this union two children were born — Charles Dewey Howk and Jane S. Howk — who died long before their father. His wife died April 12, 1853, leaving surviving her these two children. On September 5, 1854, he married Miss Jane Simonson, daughter of General John S. Simonson, U. S. A. military commander at Indianapolis during the War of the Rebellion, who still survives him. Six children were born to them — four sous and two daughters — of whom only two sons, John S. aud George V. Howk, Jr., lived to adult age. The latter died two years before his father; the former is a minister of the Presbyterian church, and is now located at Pocomoke City, Maryland. An only sister of Judge Howk, Margaret S. Howk, who had always resided with him, still survives. The public services of Judge Howk were long and varied. As early as 1851 he was elected City Judge of New Albany, and served two years. Duriug the period from 1850 to j854 he served several terms in the Common Council of that city. In 1857 he was elected Judge of the Common Pleas Court of Floyd county, serving two years ; and in 1862 he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature, serving in the stirring session of 1863. In 1866 he was elected State Senator, serving in the sessions of 1867 and 1869. In 1876 Judge Howk was nominated for the office of Supreme Court Judge for the Second Judicial District and elected, taking his seat in January, 1877, on the bench of that high tribunal. He served twelve years, being re-elected in 1882. He was a candidate a third time, in 1888, but was defeated with his party. Fine oil paintings of himself and Judge Dewey hang in the Supreme Court room, the gifts of his family. On retiring from the bench he again opened the office so long closed, for the practice of the law, and was thus engaged for two years. On the death of Judge George A. Bicknell, whom he had once selected as a Supreme Court Commissioner, Governor Hovey, although a Republican and of opposite politics, appointed him Judge of the Floyd Circuit Court. Judge Howk took great interest in the Masonic fra- ^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 613 ternity. He was a member of the Jeffersou Lodge as early as 1S51, filling every office in the lodge, and being Worshipful Master thirteen successive rears. He belonged to New Albany Chapter No. 17, of which he was, at his death, Past High Priest ; and also of the Royal and Select Masters. He was a Knight Templar of New Albanj' Commandery No. 5 from the date of its organization, in 1854, and was a Past Eminent Commander. He was also a Scottish Rite Mason, having taken his thirty-second degree, and was, at his death, a Past Sovereign Grand Commander. Judge Howk was an inces- sant laborer when on the bench. Upon questions of practice in the Supreme Court he was an authority among his brother Judges. Many of his opinions are excellent expositions of the law. The long, successful and eminent career of Judge Howk at the bar, and in the various judicial positions held by him, is remembered with feelings of grateful satisfaction by his associates and friends. In each and all of these positions his duties were performed with conscientious care and fidelity, and with rare intelligence and discrim- ination. In the records of every Court of his county are to be found lasting evidences and honorable testimonials to his industry, professional skill and accuracy, while the Reports of the Supreme Court of the State for the long period of his service upon its bench constitute an enduring and noble monu- ment to his fame, his learning, the breadth of his understanding and his simple love of justice. The graces that adorned his life shone best in his do- mestic life and around his own hearthstone. And as one by one his children, to whom he was devoted, passed out of this life the severance of the dear ties seemed only to bind him the more closely to the survivors, and to bring him more intimately into relation with the charmed circle of home. He was a man of tender affections, and loved his home and those it sheltered. And even after death had robbed it of three of its brightest ornaments, two sons and a daughter, and the duties of life had removed the only surviving child to a distant field of ministerial duty, there still remained in the home a charm to him. The public buildings of the city of New Albany were draped in mourning in token of sorrow at his decease. DIXON, LINCOLN, of North Vernon, Jennings county, Indiana, was born at Vernon, Jennings county, February 9, i860. He received his early education at the Jennings Academy at Vernon, and in 1876 entered the freshman class at the Indiana State University at Bloom- ington, from which institution he graduated in 1880. While in college he repeatedly represented his literary society and class in their public perform- ances, and in 1879 received second honors in the oratorical contest of ihe university. In 1880 he was the successful contestant in the oratorical con- test at the university, and represented his college in the State oratorical contest at Indianapolis and received first honors, which made him the representative of the State at the Inter-State contest, at Oberlin, Ohio, in oZcI'^-e^^'-^^ - c<3->^-y^^5--^ THR BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 615 which contest, with eight States represented, he received third honors. After graduation he occupied a position in Washington City for a year, and then began the study of the law with Hon. Jeptha D. New, at Vernon, with whom he remained until he began the practice of the law, establishing an oflSce at North Vernou, and has remained there since. He was Reading Clerk for the Indiana House of Representatives in the session of 1883. In 1884 he was nominated by the Democratic party as their candidate for Prose- cuting Attorney for the Sixth Judicial Circuit, composed of the counties of Ripley, Scott and Jennings, and was successful in the election ; renomi- nated and re-elected in 1886. He was unanimously renominated for the third term in 1888, and after the hot political contest of that year was again success- ful and was elected by a majority of over two hundred, although the Repub- licans carried the district by a large majority. Again in 1890 he was renom- inated and elected by a majority of 651, being the only Democratic candidate who ever carried the three counties in an election, and the only person who ever held the position for four consecutive terms. He was not a candidate in 1892. During his term of office, Thomas Foster, the notorious horse-thief of Osgood, was convicted and sent to the penitentiary, and Ripley county freed from the horse-thief gang led by this notorious leader. He has repeatedly acted as chairman of the Democratic committee of his county, and been prominent in Democratic politics of his district. His father, Samuel Dixon, was a man of prominence in his day. During the war he was Provost Mar- shal, and was for eight years Sheriff of his county. His death occurred in 1869. NEW, JEPTHA DUDLEY, was born in Vernon, Jennings county, Indiana, November 28, 1830. He was descended from Revolutionary stock, his grandfather, Jethro New, having served in the War of Independence. Jethro New was a native of Delaware, and settled in Gallatin county, Ken- tucky early in life, and in 1822 removed to Jennings county, Indiana. He was the father of twelve children, of whom Hickman, the father of the sub- ject of the pre.«ent sketch, was the youngest. He died at the advanced age of eighty-four years. He was a cabinet-maker by trade, and also a well- known and highly respected minister of the Christian Church. He was one of the pioneer members and ministers of the Christian Church in southern Indiana, and by his industry and application to books, together with talent of a high order as a speaker and a reasoner, soon took front rank as an advocate and resolute defender of the faith of that church. Having experi- enced the want of a liberal education himself, he determined that his children should have all the educational advantages his means would afford. Jeptha D. New was educated at the Vernon Seminary and at Bethany College, Vir- ginia, an institution founded by the celebrated Alexander Campbell, one of the ablest theologians and debaters of the nineteenth century. While pre- Jj^Ju U^a^ (l^, yp-/^^. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 617 paring for college Judge New assisted his father much of the time by working in the cabinet-shop, and he did so much of this kind of work that he became a good workman at that trade. He left college in 1850, and for the next two years was engaged in school teaching and reading law. Subsequently he studied law for a time in the oiEce of the Hon. Horatio Newcomb, of Indian- apolis, but his preparation for the practice of his profession was mainly in the office of Lucius Bingham, Esq., of Vernon, at the time an eminent mem- ber of the legal profession. In the summer of 1856 Judge New and the Hon. Thomas W. Woollen, afterward Attorney-General of Indiana, formed a part- nership for the practice of law, and opened an office at Franklin, Ind. That fall he was nominated by the Democracy of that circuit for Prosecuting Attorney, but the Republican majority was so large that it could fiot be over- come. In the spring of 1857 he returned to Vernon and opened a law office there. The same spring, on the 5th of April, he was married to Miss Sallie Butler, who had been a pupil of his in the first school taught by him after leaving college. Their marriage proved to be a most happy one, and they resided at Vernon until her death, with the exception of a few months' resi- dence in Minnei^ota in the fall of i860 and spring of 1861. In 1862 he was elected District Prosecuting Attorney, and served as such until the fall of 1864, when he was elected Common Pleas Judge, and served out the term of four years, but declined a re-election. In the summer of 1872 he was nomi- nated for Congress by the Democracy of his distiict and elected. The nomi- nation was not sought by him ; on the contrary, he declined it in a card published throughout the district, and he also protested against making the race while the convention was in session which nominated him. Notwith- standing this he was conscripted into the service. In politics he had always been a Democrat and a very active worker in his party's cause, but was not inclined to accept political office. Jennings county presented him as a candidate for the Congressional nomination in i860, but he declined to stand. When nominated in 1874 he had a majority of seven hundred to overcome, but he was elected by a majority of thirteen hundred. Tl ere were eight counties in the district, all of which had always been reliably Republican except two. He carried every county except Ohio county, where he was beaten five votes. He was the first Democratic candidate for Congress who ever carried Jennings and Jefferson counties. In 1876 he was unanimously renominated for Congress, but declined. In 1878 he was urged to accept the nomination, and did so. He was elected after the hottest Congressional con- test ever known in Indiana in an off year. One hundred and thirty-two more votes were polled for the candidates for Congress in that district than had been cast at the Presidential election two years before. His majority was four hundred and ninety-one, although the same counties gave the RepulDlican State ticket a majority. Judge New's remarkable vote testified to his popularity in a district he had before ably represented. In the Forty- fourth Congress he was on the Committee on War Claims ; he was also on 618 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA the special committee to investigate the real estate pool in the District of Columbia, and the indebtedness of Jay Cook & Co. to the government, out of which grew the celebrated Hallet-Kilburn contempt case. He took the lead on behalf of the committee and argued the whole question fully in the House. The New York World at the time editorially noticed the argument of Judge New in these words : '-Judge New has added greatly to an already good reputation in his career in Congress, and di.stinguished himself, espe- cially by his able legal argument on the question of the jurisdiction of the House over Kilburn. His thorough exposition of an intricate legal problem was much admired." In the same Congress Judge New was one of a special committee sent to New Orleans to examine into the conduct and manage- ment of thfe Federal offices there. He prepared and submitted to CongrefS the committee's report. After the Presidential election of 1876 he was one of the committee of fifteen sent to Louisiana to investigate the election there. After reaching New Orleans the committee was subdivided, and Judge New was made chairman of the committee that went into the parishes in which the notorious Weber and Jim Anderson reigned. When the finding of the Electoral Commission was made as to Louisiana he was one of the six mem- bers of the House selected by the Democratic members to argue the objections filed to that findinjj. Before the close of that session he discussed the Louisiana election of 1876 at length, and with much force and ability. In the Fifty sixth Congress he was a member of the Judiciary Committee and of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Justice. He was also chairman of the special committee raised to investigate the charges preferred again.st Mr. Seward, our Minister to China. He was on the special committee sent to Cincinnati in 1879 to investigate the Congressional election in that city. The Indiana Morgan raid claims received special attention from him, and he was mainly instrumental in having them trantferred from the office of the Adjutant-General of Indiana to the War Department at Washington just in time to save them from being barred by the statute of limitation. At the long session of the Forty-sixth Congress he took active part in the prep- aration and advocacy of a bill amending existing laws as to the jurisdiction of the Federal Courts, which passed the House. In 1882 Judge New was elected Judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit, composed of the counties of Jen- nings, Scott and Ripley, and served the full term of six years. In 1889 the Legislature attempted to create a Supreme Court Commission, and selected Judge New one of the Commissioners, but the Supreme Court decided the statute creating the Commission unconstitutional. In 1891 the Appellate Court was created, and Governor Hovey, on March 12 of that year, appointed him one of the Judges. No Judge on an Appellate Court bench ever devoted himself more earnestly and unceasingly to the duties of his office than did Judge New. He was an incessant worker and apparently never wearied in the examination of authorities. He died July 11, 1892, and was suc- ceeded by his son, Willard New. His wife survived him. The fore- @^ ^1-^. 620 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA going is a brief outline of Judge New's public career. It was creditable to him and to his State. No member of Congress from Indiana ever took higher rank in the same time. He was a hard worker from boy- hood — in the cabinet-shop, in the school-room, in the law office, on the bench and in Congress. His industry, pluck and perseverance, added to natural talent of a high order, together with a thorough education, won for him a front place among public men of the State. As a public speaker he was accvirate, logical and fluent. He was on two occasions spoken of quite prominently for Governor. Judge New's home was a most pleasant one. He had three children — Mary, Willard and Burt. He had a sister and brother. His mother, whose maiden name was Smyra Ann .Smitha, died in 1879 at the age of seventy years. Mr. New was successful in accumulating property by the practice of his profession, and also by outside ventures. He had the faculty of discerning what business was profitable and what was not. His habits were unexceptionable. He used no spirituous liqxiors or intoxicating drinks of any kind, and was the very picture of robust health, physically and mentally. He was five feet eleven inches high, florid complexion, black hair and beard and weighed 238 pounds. Such was Jeptha D. New, one of the self-made and rising men of Indiana. NEW, WILLARD. Willard New, a son of Jeptha D. New, was born De- cember 4, i86i, in Vernon, Indiana. He attended school at Vernon and graduated from the Indiana State University in 1881. Immediately after leaving college he returned home and commenced reading law in his father's office. He was admitted to the bar in 1882. March 13, 1883, he was elected Mayor of the City of Vernon, and held the office for two years. He continued to practice law until the death of his father, July 9, 1892. He was then appointed, August 20, 1892, by Governor Chase, Judge of the Appellate Court, to fill out the unexpired term caused by the death of his father. He held the office until January 2, 1893. He resumed the practice at Vernon until nominated and elected Circuit Judge November 7, 1894, on the Demo- cratic ticket, of the Sixth Judicial Circuit, for the counties of Ripley, Jen- nings and Scott. He carried his own county by 121 majority, against a Re- publican majority of 554. He was elected by a majority of 37, against a Republican majority in the circuit of 752. His brother, Burt New, is prac- ticing law at Vernon and was his partner until he was elected Circuit Judge. Judg-e New's term on the Appellate Court bench was short, but even though it was short he demonstrated that he was an able lawyer and in all respects equal to the situation. His opinions are strong and rank with the best. As a trial lawyer he has far more than ordinary ability, being a speaker of great force and much ability. 622 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA EWING, CORTEZ. Cortez Ewing was born on a farm in Decatur county, near Greensburg, September 14, 1862. He left the farm in 1874, went to Greensburg and attended school until 1879. He commenced the study of the law in 1879 with his uncle, Cortez Ewing, Sr , then alive and a man of some distinction. February 14, 1883, several months before he was of age, he was admitted, ex gracia, to the practice of the law at Greensburg, by Hon. S. A. Bonner. He was again admitted September 13, 1883. From that time until his accession to the bench in June, J 893, he practiced law in partnership with Judge J. K. Ewing. After that time he was alone in the practice till 1895 when lie formed a partnership with Davison Wi sou, the firm now being Ewing & Wilson. Until the present time he has been actively engaged in politics, local and State, being from 1884 to 1894 Chair- man of the County Central Committee, and also participating in every State convention. At a special election held for that purpose, he was elected by a large majority to the State Senate, and served from 18S9 to 1893, declin- ing a re-nomination. He made a very active canvass, the Senate being about a tie, he being a Democrat and his predecessor a Republican, hav- ing secured a majority of votes in the district at the former election. In the spring of 1891, on the organization of that board, he was, by Governor Hovej, appointed a member of the Board of Managers of the World's Fair for Indiana, and served during its existence. June 18, 1890, he was, at the family home, "Hazel Bluff," married to Miss Mary Fletcher Matthews, eldest child and daughter of Governor Claude Matthews, and grand-daughter of Governor James Whitcomb, who was Governor of Indiana from 1843 to 1848, and United States Senator from 1848 to 1851, when he died. Mr. Ewing has two children, Claude Whitcomb (named for the two Governor grandfathers), aged three, and Helen Nan, aged one. No one at Greensburg enjoys a more lucrative practice of first-class clients than he. He has been engaged in almost every case of importance there for ten years, and he is now attorney for the Big Four Railway Company and other corporations. He was engaged as counsel in the famous tax cases before the State Tax Board, testing the law of 1891 He has an acquaintance throughout and beyond the State. GIBSON, GEORGE H. D. George H. D. Gibson, born at Charlestown, Clark county. State of Indiana, on the 9th of September, 1851, is a son of Thomas Ware Gibson and Mary Goodwin Gibson. He was educated at the Kentucky Military Institute at Frankfort, Kentucky, and studied law at Louisville, Kentucky. He graduated at the Louisville Law School in March, 1874, and began practicing law at Charlestown, Indiana. He was elected Prosecuting Attorney for Clark and Floyd counties in No- vember, 1876. In 1S80 he was elected to the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, and re-elected to that body in 1882. From September, 1877, until September, 1891, he had his oiSce and practiced his profession in the city of Louisville, but resided at the town of Charlestown, Indiana. In November, 1892, he was elected Judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit, of the State of Indiana, and is now serving as such. Judge Gibson is a Democrat in politics. .,^.^^^'$^'^'^^^--<^^ 624 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA [By C. S. Mercer.j KOCHENOUR, DAVID ARCHER, was born in Harrison county, Indiana, on the 7th day of February, 1844, of purely German parentage, Ameri- canized by four successive generations. He received a common-school education, followed with a. course at Hartsville College. Later he entered the Indiana University, at Bloomington, where he finished his school career and received the degree of Bachelor of Law in 1871. In the year following he was admitted to the bar, and commenced the active practice of law at Paoli, Orange county, as partner to Major J. Wesley Tucker. On the 20th day of May, 1874, he was married to Miss Anna Kagey, in Shenendoah county, Virginia. In the same year they removed to Brownstown, Jackson county, Indiana, where he has since resided in the uninterrupted practice of his profession. He is at present County Attorney of Jackson county, a posi- tion he fills with ability. He was City Attorney for Brownstown for sixteen consecutive years. Aside from certain municipal ofl&C2S he has neither sought nor held public office, though frequently urged by the Democracy of his county to stand for election to the office of Prosecuting Attorney and legislative offices. He is a firm advocate of Democratic principles and doc- trines, in which he is thoroughly imbued. He is an eloquent speaker, and combines logic and oratory very successfully. He is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and his walk in life is thoroughly con- sistent with his profession. He is an alumnus of Indiana Alpha of the Phi Delta Thcta fraternity, is a Past Master in the Masonic fraternity and Past Chancellor in the Knights of Pythias. In stature he is proportioned well and has an excellent physique. His health is perfect, and, though actually past fifty-one years, yet in appearance he is not above forty. He developed a strong love for literature and higher classics early in life, and is well read on general topics. As a constitutional lawyer he has no superior in the Courts before which he is called to practice. He possesses rare judicial qualifications and manages his cases with skill and fairness. He has built up a lucrative practice and enjoys to the fullest extent the friendship of the members of the bar and confidence of his clients. MONTGOMERY, OSCAR H. Oscar H. Montgomery was born on a farm in Jackson county, near Seymour, April 27, 1859. His parents were Theophilus W. and Susan H. Montgomery. He attended country schools until t'.ie fall of 1876, when he entered the senior preparatory class in Hanover College, Hanover, Ind. He filled numerous positions of honor dur- ing his college course, including that of President of the Inter State Oratorical Association during the year of 1880-1 ; and graduated with second classical honors in June, 1881. He taught school in Hancock county, this State, in the winter of 1878-9, and after his graduation, at Reddington, Medora and Cort- land, in Jackson county. During the same time he studied law in the office of Hon. Albert P. Charles, at Seymour. He was admitted to the bar of the Jackson Circuit Court, April 22, 1884 , and immediately afterwards located at Greenfield, Ind., and became a member of the firm of Reynolds & Montrom- 40 626 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA ery, and remained there in the practice of the law until February i, 1885, at which date he removed to Seymour and opened an office alone ; and ever since has practiced without a partner. At the May election of 1886 he was the Republican candidate for Mayor of the City of Seymour, but was defeated by a party vote. Afterwards he was elected City Attorney, and continued therein six years. October 27, 1886, he was married to Ida E. Harding, daughter of Samuel V. Harding, of Seymour, Ind.; and they now have a family of three children. From the time of location at Seymour in the practice of law he has enjoyed an active and lucrative practice and has been con- nected with almost all the important litigation arising in the county, both civil and criminal ; and now has among his clientage many of the corporations and moneyed institutions of the city. He acted as special Judge in several cases ; and his practice extends into most of the adjoining counties. He has been in politics, taking a part on the stump in every campaign, having served as Chairman of the Republican County Central Committee, and stood next to the successful candidate for the Congressional nomination in 1894, in the Third Congressional District of Indiana. GARDINER, WILLIAM RAY, was born of New England parentage, the i8th day of January, 1837, a short distance from the west shore of Seneca Lake, in the State of New York. He lived and worked upon the farm where he was born until he was seventeen years old. His educa- tion was such as could be obtained from attendance at the district school and a few terms at the Dundee Academy and Starkey Seminary, in the vicinity of his birthplace. At the age of seventeen he taught a district school in the village of Hopeton, in Yates county. New York. The following summer, after attending his last term of school at Starkey Seminary, he went to Boiirnville, Ohio, where he engaged in the study of medicine for two years. In the fall of 1855 he taught school in Ohio to obtain funds to pay his expenses at the medical college, which he attended in the winter of 1855-56 at Cincinnati. The following winter he attended medical college at Cleveland. In the autumn of 1857 he abandoned the study of medicine and came to Indiana, where for the next four or five years his time was divided between railroading and teaching. He commenced reading law under the direction of the late Judge M. F. Burke while engaged in teaching at Wash- ington, this State. For a short period in i85i he was engaged with Mr. E. A. Lewis in the publication of a newspaper in Washington, and in November, 1862, he entered the law office of Mr. J. W. Burton, at the same place, as a student, being admitted to the bar there March 9, 1863. One year after he entered the office of Mr. Burton he opened a law office at Dover Hill, then the county seat of Martin couuty, Indiana. On the fourteenth day of February, 1865, he was married to Miss Laura A. Gibson, a lady of rare culture and lovable nature, a daughter of the late Thomas M. Gibson, for many years a leading citizen and wealthy merchant of Martin county. To them were born six children, of whom three died in early childhood and three — two sons and one daughter — are still living. In 1869 he moved to 628 THE BRNCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Vincennes and formed a partnership with the late Col. C. M. Allen and Nathaniel P. Usher, in the practice of law ; and in 1872 he returned to the city of Washington, Indiana, and formed a partnership with the late Hon. S. H. Taylor, with whom, except iut a short time that Col. Taylor was en- gaged in banking, he continued in the practice of law until 1893. For the last fifteen years Mr. Gardiner has been a familiar figure in politics in southern Indiana and is widely known throughout the State as an able and ardent Republican. As a campaign speaker he stands in the front rank of his party in Indiana, a fact evidenced bv the heavy demands upon his time in campaign years. lu 1864 he left the Democratic party, with which he had hitherto affiliated, and joined the Republican party, taking an active part in the advocacy of the re-election of Mr. Lincoln. In 1872 he espoused the cause of the Liberal Republican party, but as soon as he discovered that the trend of that organization was toward the Democratic camp he returned to the fold of the Republican party, whose principles he has faithfully and eloquently advocated in each recurring campaign. While he has always, since attain- ing his first degree of success as a practicing lawyer, been averse to standing as a candidate for oflSce, so entirely wrapt up has he been in his chosen pro- fession, and recognizing as he has the value of an uninterrupted practice, he has often been urged to do so by his friends. When he was just entering upon the practice of the law. Governor Morton appointed him Prosecuting Attorney in 1866, for the then Third Judicial Circuit, to fill a vacancy occa- sioned by the resignation of Hon. R. A. 'Clements, Jr. He had already served as corporation clerk and attorney for the old town of Washington. In 1867 Governor Baker appointed him Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the Second district. For many years he has attended the National Republican conventions, either as a delegate or an active partisan. He was a delegate from the Second Congressional District to the Republican National Conven- tion of 1884 that nominated Mr. Blaine for the presidency, and enjoyed the distinction of being the only delegate from the State of Indiana that addressed the convention in any other way than to cast his vote. In 1888, though not a delegate in the convention, he attended it and participated actively in the movement for General Harrison's nomination, which conduct on his part was repeated in behalf of the same candidate in the convention of 1892. He has been repeatedly and strenuously urged by influential friends and promi- nent politicians to make the race for Congress in the second district, but has always declined. In 1886, when his party desired to make an extraor- dinary effort to secure the Legislature in order, if possible, to return General Harrison to the United States Senate, they insisted on running him for the Legislature and nominated him over his earnest protest. Although the county, Daviess, was regarded as solidly Democratic, he was elected by over three hundred majority. Through the stormy scenes of the session of 18S7 he was the recognized leader of the Republican side of the House. In 1880 his name was placed upon the Republican ticket, without solicitation on his part, for the office of Judge of the Circuit Court in the circuit then composed of the counties of Knox and Daviess, against the incumbent, Hon. N. F. 630 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Malolt, and at the election he ran nearly six hundred ahead of his ticket. Again, in 1892, the Republican Judicial Convention in the circuit composed of Daviess and Martin counties unanimously nominated him for Judge, but he declined the nomination. His sons, Charles G. and William R., Jr., were educated in the city schools of Washington, at the Indiana Uni- versity, and at Cornell University. Charles is also a graduate of the Cincinnati Law School. William R., Jr., was appointed by President Har- rison as Second Secretary of Legation at Tokio, Japan, while he was on the reportorial staff of a cosmopolitan newspaper, where he went in 1889 and remained about three years when he resigned and located in New York City, where he took a position in the law office of Miller, Peckham & Dixon, and later engaged in newspaper work. They are now, in 1895, both partners with their father in the law practice at Washington. The firm represents the B. & O. S. W. Ry. Co., the E. & I. R- R. Co., and are chief counsel for the Receiver of the E. & R. R. R. Co., and enjoy a large practice btsides these sp cial employments. Judge Gardiner has for many years been a lead- ing lawyer in Indiana, and as an advocate has few equals anywhere. To illustrate his power and rank in this regard, he was engaged with Hon. Ben- jamin Harrison and Hon. Joseph E. McDonald, together with DeWolf & Cham- bers and J. H. Hays, in the trial of an important w'U case in 1888. They had tried it once before Mr. McDonald was engaged in the case, and had, as a result, a " hung " jury, after seven weeks .spent in the trial. Upon the second trial he was, by the unanimous voice of his associates and their clients, selected to make the closing argument to the jury on their side of the case, in the argument of which Messrs. Chambers, McDonald and Harrison, in the order named, also participated. He has participated in the trial of very many of the most important civil and criminal cases in his part of the State, and i.s, at times, called to other parts of the State and Illinois in important litigation. His practice also extends to the Appellate and Supreme Courts of Indiana, where he has an extensive practice, and to the Federal Courts as well. He is public spirited and aggressive i'l his efforts to advance the interests of the State of Indiana and especially of the locality of his home. SHAW, GEORGE W. George W. Shaw was born June 20, 1853, in Camp- bell county, Ky. His parents came of that stock which has contributed so much American greatness. — the Scotch-Irish. His father was a farmer, and the young man assisted in the work of the farm until he reached the age of twenty-one. He was educated in the schools of Campbell and Pendleton counties, Ky., and at Georgetown College in that State. For five years prior to entering on the practice of the law, he taught in the public schools of Pendleton county, Ky. During this period he was a student of law and laid the foundation for a successful practice. In 1879, he located at Vin- cennes and continued his law studies in the ofi&ce of Judge F. W. Viehe and R. G. Evans, and on the 29th of October, 1880, w s admitted to practice. An Act of the General Assembly of 1881, authorized the appointment of Master Commissioners by the Judges of the several Circuit Courts. Mr. Shaw was 634 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA his profession at that place, in which he has ever since been engaged at the bar and on the bench. From 1S53 to i860 he held the offices of Township Asses- sor, Township Trustee, and County Commissioner, but has held no political office since. He served as School Trustee of Princeton for two years, and as Deputy District Attorney for a like period. In 1870, he defeated the applications of all ihe saloon-keepers of Princeton for licenses ; closed every saloon in town; prosecuted the keepers for illegal sales, and at one time had every saloon- keeper of the town under bond, but one and had him in jail'. In 1872 he wss appointed by Governor Baker, Judge of the First Common Pleas District of Indiana, composed of the counties of Gibson, Posey, Vanderburgh and War- rick, and filled the office to the satisfaction of the bar and of the people. He has since served as Special Judge in the Gibson, Pike and Warrick Circuit Courts, and the Vanderburgh Superior Court. In the latter Court he presided as Judge on the trial of the celebrated case of the late ex-Congressman William Heilman and Watkins F. Nesbit vs. Reiley and Evansville Courier Company, for libel, with an array of counsel, that for ability has seldom, if ever, been excelled in this State. Judge Land has been a member of the Gen- eral Baptist Church, and prominent in the denomination, since 1857 ; is a Noble Grand in the fraternity of Odd Fellows, having been a member of the Princeton Lodge, No. 64, since 1868, and has long been an earnest and active advocate and worker in the temperance cause ; was Vice-President of the Grand Council of Temperance of the State of Indiana, and did active service in the Constitutional Amendment campaign with Dr. Gerrish and others. In politics Judge Land was a Democrat of the Jackson school up to 1862, when he joined the Republican party, which he actively supported until 1884, but has since that tima supported the Prohibition party. He was the nominee for the latter party for Attorney-General, in 1886 ; for Supreme Judge, in 1888 ; for Congress, in 1890, and for Supreme Judge again in 1894. Judge Land is the oldest attorney in the Gibson county bar, and has always been liberal in assisting law students, and several Princeton attorneys and others received their legal education in his office. He is the senior partner of the widely known law and collection firm of Land & Gamble, which has a large and lucrative practice. The junior partner of Judge Land's firm, James B. Gamble was formerly a law student in his office, and is his son-in-law. Mr. Gamble was born in Carmi, 111., in 1853 ; received his education at the Fort Branch High School, and engaged in teaching for some time. In 1877 he began the study of law with Judge Land, and formed a law partnership in 1879 with T. J. Stott, which terminated on the death of the latter in 1880. He then became a member of the firm of Gamble & Gudgel, until 1882, when he became a member of the present firm of Land and Gamble. In 1883, Mr. Gamble was married to Oma J., the only daughter of Judge Land, and they have one child, a boy, Vesper Laud Gamble, seven years old. Mr. Gamble is Mayor of the city of Princeton, and at the end of his present term will have served in that office six years. He is a ready business man, a good lawyer, one of the most successful collectors in the State, and in politics is an active Republican. 636 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA [By C. Danielson.] AXTELL, S. W., the subject of this sketch, was born in Knox county, Ohio, June 17, 1850, and is one of three surviving children of George R. and Amanda (Farnham) Axtell. When six years old he moved with his parents to Greene county, Indiana, locating in Buck Creek town- ship. Here he received such instruction as the common schools there afforded. In 1871-72 he entered the State University, and during the panic of 1873 he was reduced to such extremities that for a period of six months his daily fare consisted of bread and water. This did not, however, deter him from pursuing his studies with unabated energy, and in 1874 he graduated from the law department of the institution. Immediately afterwards he located in Bloomiield as attorney at law, and has ever since resided there. In 1876 he was elected County Superintendent, and in this office he displayed the characteristics which have marked his career — namely : indomitable will- p:)wer, tireless energy, promptness of action, fertility of resources, and ad- vanced, clearly defined ideas. To him belongs the honor of first having intro- duced the graded system in the schools of the county, in spite of an almost universal and stubborn opposition. He filled the office for several terms, and left the schools in an excellent condition. At the same time he followed his chosen profession, never missing a term of Court, and during this period he completed the first set of abstracts of title of lands in Greene county. He was at one time a member of the firm of Pickens, Axtell & Moffett. After its dissolution he pursued his profession in his own name, with constantly in- creasing success. He has established an enviable and well-earned reputation as an absolutely safe and reliable counselor, one who makes the client's case his own. The natural result is that he has accumulated a considerable amount of this world's goods. Several young men have studied law in his office ; among them Joseph A. Phillips, Lealdes Forbes, William Pigg and the present student, Seymour Ridnle. As a citizen, he is an earnest advo- cate of all measures that tend to build up the community in which he lives. He has taken a conspicuous and successful part in the fight for construction of gravel roads in the county and in the town of Bloomfield. With him, to believe in anything is to work for it. His arguments, whether presented to the public or to a jury, are always convincing. He is a prominent and faithful member of the Christian church, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Sunday-school Association of the State. In politics he is a Democrat. In 1884 he was nominated and elected as Prosecuting Attor- ney for the Fourteenth Judicial District, an office he filled to general satisfaction. In 1892 he was the second of six candidates for Lieutenant- Governor. In- 1894 he issued a card in which he declined all further offices thatmight.be tendered him, expressing in strong terms his disapproval of the prevailing political methods. He now devotes his whole time to his I rofession and his clients. THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 637 TBy M. D. Emig.I HORD, FRANCIS T., was born on the 24th day of November, 1835, at Maysville, Mason county, Kentucky. His father was Francis T. Herd, who was one of the leading lawyers of Kentucky, engaged in all of the important litigation in the northeastern part of the State. Mr. Hord, the subject of this sketch, was educated at Maysville and studied law with his father. In 1857 he located at Columbus, Indiana, for the practice of his profession. His learning, ability and eloquence soon attracted public attention. In 1S58 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney in his judicial dis- trict, and made a forcible, vigorous and successful officer. He was nominated in i85o for the same office, but he declined the nomination, believing that his profession would be more remunerative without it. In 1862 he was elected to the Indiana Senate, and his ability gave him a conspicuous posi- tion in that body. He was the author of many important bills, and partici- pated in the discussion of all important measures. He held this position for four years ; was renominated in 1866, and declined the nomination that he might give his whole attention to his profession. His business in the practice of law was extensive, and no lawyer in Indiana has caused the Supreme Court to settle more important questions than Mr. Hord. He was for twenty years County Attorney for Bartholomew county, and four years City Attorney for the city of Columbus. In 1876 he was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention, held at St. Louis, that nominated Tilden for President and Thomas A. Hendricks for Vice-President. In 1880 he was made temporary chairman of the Democratic State Convention, held at Indianapolis, and as such chairman, he delivered one of his characteristic speeches, replete with a splendid eloquence. Such was the effect of it that the vast audience, several times during its delivery, rose to its feet and cheered for several minutes at a time. The same convention nominated him as a candidate for Presidential Elector from the fifth congressional district, (Hancock and English being the candidates for President and Vice-Presi- dent.) In 1882 he was elected Attorney-General of the State of Indiana and was re-elected to the same position in 1884. While Attorney-General he attended to much State litigation of public interest. In the case of the State of Indiana against the Portsmouth Bank (106 Ind. 436), in which an action was instituted by the State to recover Beaver Lake, embracing about 25,000 acres, which had been drained and appropriated by individuals, he settled the question of the right of the State to the lake beds of Indiana. As Attorney- General he wrote a volume of opinions upon important State questions, which was published by the State for the use of its officers. His opinions as to the constitutionality and construction of statutes are of a high order. The General Assembly of Indiana, for fifty years had been in the habit of making hasty appropriations out of the Treasury by joint resolutions. An appropriation was made to Mrs. Edwin May for Jio,ooo. By the request of the Auditor of State, as to the validity of the appropriation, Mr. Hord gave an opinion that under the Constitution of Indiana, an appropriation could Ad^^cu^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 639 be made only by law, and that laws should be enacted by bill, and that money could not be appropriated by joint resolution ; that the Auditor could not issue a warrant for money so appropriated. Mrs. May, by her attorney, Hon. T. A. Hendricks, brought suit to compel the Auditor to issue his war- rant. The case went to the Supreme Court, and that tribunal sustained the constitutional construction given by the Attorney-General in 91 Ind., 546. This decision corrected an evil and unconstitutional practice of the General Assembly. Isaac P. Gray, as Governor of Indiana, submitted to him, as Attorney-General, this question: "In case of a vacancy in the office of Lieutenant-Governor, should there be an election to fill such vacancy at the next succeeding election? " Mr. Hord gave an able and elaborate opinion in response to the question, in which he held that a vacancy in the office of Lieutenant-Governor should be filled at the next general election. The State oflBcers, the bar of the State, end the different political parties acquiesced in the opinion, and the different political parties in the State nominated candidates for Lieutenant-Governor in 1886. The Republican candi- date for Lieutenant-Governor was elected, and the opposite party forcibly held possession of the Senate and refused to allow the Lieutenant-Governor-elect to perform his functions as presiding officer of the Senate, which produced a feeling and excitement in the State hitherto unparalleled. Judge Roberts, the representative from Dearborn county, a former judge and able lawyer, in addressing the General Assembly in 1887, said: "When General Hanson's acceptance of the office of Collector was known, the Governor of this State solicited the opinion of Hon. Francis T. Hord, then Attorney-General, who, after careful consideration, gave it as his opinion that a. vacancy had occurred in the oflSce of Lieutenant-Governor, and that it was right and pro- per that it should be filled by the people at the ensuing November election. Of the eminent ability of the Attorney- General I need not speak, for it is recognized by all. Not a voice from any quarter was raised adverse to the able opinion of the Attorney-General. Men of all parties acquiesced in it. The Democratic State Convention met in Tomlinson Hall, in this city, made up of such distinguished Democratic jurists as McDonald, Holman, Voorhees, Coffroth, the Hords, and many others, and without even questioning the right of the people to fill the vacancy by a proper election, according to law, and as a result Colonel John C. Nelson was placed in nomination for Lieu- tenant-Governor. The Republicans followed with their State Convention, which placed in nomination for that office Colonel Robert S. Robertson. No question was raised by the Republican Convention as to the right of the peo- ple to elect a competent person to that office. The National Labor and the Prohibition party did likewise. The canvass was spirited, and up to the election, November 2, i886, no one any where doubted the right of the people to elect. I did all I could to elect Col. Nelson, and the entire Democratic ticket. The people believed, and I believed with them, that they had a right to elect a Lieutenant-Governor. I never cast a vote in better faith in my life. I believed I had the same lawful right to vote for Nelson that I THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 6n had to vote two years before, for Cleveland for President. * * * * Sir, the people have spoken in this matter. They have said, at a free and untrammeled election, held according to law, that Robert S. Robertson is their choice for Lieutenant-Governor, and as much as I regret the result and as anxious as I was for the election of Colonel Nelson, yet I bow with becom- ing reverence to the sovereign will of the people, as expressed at the ballot box on the 2d day of November, 18S6. * * * * -^g must submit to the will of the majority lawfully expressed, for in this way only can we maintain popular liberty and free institutions." In 1892 Judge Hord was elected Circuit Judge for the Ninth Judicial Circuit, and he brought his fine legal attainments to the performance of the duties of this office. He pos- sesses a strong sense of justice ; is a strong, rapid thinker, and is prompt in his decisions. He was always a great student, and is a profound lawyer, an eloquent speaker, and a gentleman of the old school. EMIG, MICHAEL D. Mr. Emig is a native of this State, and was born at Columbus, November 11, 1852. His father was Michael Emig, and his mother Parmelia Emig. He attended the schools of his native town ; entered Asbury (now DePauw) University, located at Greencastle, this State, and graduated in the class of 1870. He then entered the law office of Hon. Francis T. Hord, and was admitted to the bars of the Circuit and Su- preme Courts in 1873. After Judge Hord retired from the office of Attorney- General, in November, 1886, Mr. Emig and he formed a partnership, which continued until Judge Hord was elected Judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit in 1892. Since then Mr. Emig has continued the practice alone at Columbus. In politics he is a Democrat. He was selected by the Board of Commissioners of Bartholomew county as their attorney in 1889, and has held the position of County Attorney since that date. KEYES, NELSON R. Judge Nelson R. Keyes, of Columbus, Indiana, now deceased, was born on a farm near the city of Lexington, Ky., March i, 1849. He received some preliminary training in the common schools, and completed his education in the university at Lexington, where he attended during the years 1866, 1867 and 186S. He was afterward engaged in teaching school during the winter months, but having determined to pursue the legal profession, he dt voted his vacations to the study of the law. He was related by marriage both to the Hon. William W. Herod and Hon. Ferdinand Winter, who were in 1872 engaged in the practice of law at Columbus, Indiana. This fact doubtless determined his location. In the summer of 1872 he established himself in that city, and on the 5th day of August of that year he was admitted to the bar. Here, however, he found 41 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 643 himself a stranger, and without means, face to face with the same or even greater difficulties than those which confront every aspiring young lawyer. The Columbus bar at that time was a strong one, some of the members having since obtained a national reputation in their profession. He was therefore obliged temporarily to accept employment as deputy to the Clerk of the Circuit Court ; but he did not remain in this position long, for with the opportunities here afforded him he soon made the acquaintance and ob- tained the confidence of most of the prominent business men of the com- munity, and soon afterward entered into the practice of his chosen profes- sion. He seems to have succeeded from the very start, for it cannot be remembered by those who knew him best that there was any time when he was not almost constantly employed. He was an industrious, painstaking and successful lawyer. The secret of his success was the earnest and deter- mined manner with which he pressed the claims of his clients. To this might be added also that he had the confidence both of the Court and the jury. In 1884 he was nominated by the Democratic party for Judge of the Circuit Court and was€lected without opposition. In 1890 he was re-elected — this time also without opposition, receiving the additional compliment of Republican endorsement. At this period, owing to the high estimation in which he was held as a Judge of the Circuit Court, he was prominently men- tioned as a probable candidate for the Supreme Bench in the State of Indiana, and it is known that there was a general understanding among lawyers in that part of the State that he could have had the nomination if he so desired. Unfortunately, however, his health began to fail, and he was obliged to with- draw his name from consideration in that connection. We are unable to bestow more fitting tribute to his character and ability as a Judge than to quote the following language of the Hon. George W. Cooper, written from Washington to the Columbus Herald, upon this subject : " When he became Judge, those of us who had met him in the capacity of a lawyer and knew something of his ardent temperament felt some solicitude for him in his new field of action ; but we were not long in doubt or suspense, for he imme- diately rose grandly to the dignity and solemnity of his high office, and all the zeal and earnestness which he had before manifested for his clients he now employed in his efforts to get at the very truth, and to administer justice accordingly. He brought the business of our Courts out of chaos, decided our cases promptly, established confidence, and restored that friendly feeling between the bar and the Court which produces harmony and concert of action, and relieved our work of half of its burden by the kindness and courtesy of his behavior. Very few appeals were taken from him, and in those taken he was seldom reversed by the higher Courts. And in all the multitude of causes that came before him, reflecting all the multifarious phases of human life, springing from weakness and passion, he was trusted by all, and not once — not even one man in all that time, to my recollection — ever asked for a change of venue from him. There is nothing that I could 644 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA say that would be more to his credit than this: everybody trusted him." Judge Keyes died January i6, 1892. His death cast a profound gloom over the entire community. There was scarcely a citizen in either of the counties of his judicial circuit, either of high or low degree, who did not suffer a sense of personal bereavement. He was married May 5, 1875, to Miss Lizzie Mooney, daughter of William W. and Eliza (Berryman) Mooney, and she and their four daughters^Mary, I/ila, Katelouise and Cornelia — survive him. [By John C. McNdtt.] COOPER, GEORGE W., of Columbus, was born in Bartholomew county, Indiana, on a farm, on the 21st day of May, 1851. At the age of eight years he removed with his father to the town (now city) of Columbus. Here he entered the public schools, in which he received his preliminary education. In 1868 he entered the State University, at Bloomington, from which institution he graduated four years later in both the literary and law courses, receiving the degrees of A. B. and B. L. After his graduation Mr. Cooper at once entered upon the practice of his chosen profession, the law, and the same year was elected to the office of Prosecuting Attorney of the Common Pleas Court for the district composed of the counties of Bartholo- mew, Jackson, Jennings and I,awrence. The Common Pleas Court having been abolished by the Legislature in 1873, Mr. Cooper was appointed by Governor Thomas A. Hendricks Prosecuting Attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit, composed of the counties of Bartholomew and Brown. He was elected Mayor of the city of Columbus in May, 1877, which office he held for a term of two years. He was City Attorney of Columbus from 1879 to 1883. In 1885 he was retained by the County Commissioners of Bartholomew county as their legal adviser, in which capacity he served until 1889. As a lawyer, Mr. Cooper ranks with the leading members of the bar of Indiana, and as an advocate he has few equals and no superiors. In 1888, at the Democratic convention of the Fifth Congressional District, composed of the counties of Bartholomew, Brown, Johnson, Hendricks, Morgan, Monroe, Owen and Putnam, held at Martinsville, Mr. Cooper was unanimously chosen as the Democratic nominee for Congress. At the election following he was elected as a member of the Fifty-first Congress by a majority of 704 over H. C. Duncan, of Bloomington. He was again unanimously nominated by his party for Congress at the Congressional convention held at Franklin, in 1890, and was elected by a majority of 1,715 over J. W. Dunbar, of Greencastle. In 1892, at the Democratic Congressional convention at Greencastle, Mr. Cooper was again nominated without opposition, and elected by a majority of 1,083 over John Worrell, of Clayton. In 1894 Mr. Cooper was again the choice of his party for Congress, but was defeated at the polls. As a campaigner, Mr. Cooper has proven himself to be one of Democracy's strongest advocates. His services have always been in great demand, and he has found time to 646 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA serve his party outside of his own State and district on many occasions. As a representative of the people, by his courage and ability, he has made for himself an enviable national reputation. Since his graduation from college he has always had advanced views on the tariff question, having in every campaign since 1872 advocated a reduction of the tariff to a revenue basis, and after entering Congress taken his stand by the side of the most promi- nent tariff reformers, and being one of the last to agree to a modification of the present tariff law, as originally drafted. During the present administra- tion Mr. Cooper has been in close touch with President Cleveland, and has been an earnest supporter in his efforts on behalf of sound money, both by his votes and speeches. As was said, Mr. Cooper was defeated for Congress at the election of 1894, as was every other Democratic candidate in Indiana, but by a reference to the tabulated vote in the several districts it will be seen that Mr. Cooper lost fewer votes, compared with the vote of 1892, than any other candidate of his party in this State. Mr. Cooper is yet a young man, full of energy, courage and honesty, and it is to such as he that his party must look for future leaders and success. NORTON, WILLIAM FRANKLIN. William Norton, the father of Wil- liam F. Norton, was born in Virginia in 1798. He was descended from the Norman French, the first of the name being an officer under William, the Conqueror, who, after the Conquest, branched off to the Rhine (German}'), from whose ancestry the grandfather of this sketch emigrated to this country about the beginning of the Revolutionary War. He served under the immediate command of Gen. Washington until after the peace with England, when he settled in Virginia, where he resided until about 1809, when the family moved to Ashtabula county, Ohio. There he met and married Bulah C. Thayer, the mother of this sketch, who was of English descent, her ancestry having come from Braintree, England, and settled in Massachusetts, where they established the town known by that name. His parents resided in Ohio until the spring of 1832, when, with four children, they removed to Bartholomew county, Indiana ; and there, on December i, 1844, their thirteenth child, William F. Norton, was born. In the family there are sixteen children. At the age of fourteen, while listening to a Methodist minister deliver a sermon in a country log cabin, he conceived the intention of practicing law, though no reference was made thereto by the minister, and, with this object in view, induced his father to give him his time at the age of sixteen. He devoted himself to manual labor, improving his leisure moments in study, and carefully hoarding his earnings in order to the furtherance of his cherished purpose of entering the legal profession. On May 2, 1864, he enlisted as a private in Company A, 147th Ohio V. I., and after being honorably discharged on August 30, 1864, returned to Bartholo- mew county, where he remained until the fall of 1864, when he entered the Indiana Asbury University, (now DePauw) at Greencastle, Indiana, where he graduated on June 30, 1870, having completed' his collegiate course with- 648 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA out receiving a dollar from any source save as the result of his own labor. In 1871 Mr. Norton entered the law office of Col. S. Stansifer, of Columbus, Indiana, as a student. In the fall of that year he was elected Principal of the Columbus High School, discharging the duties of that position with honor, prosecuting his legal studies when not engaged in the school-room. In the summer of 1872 he was admitted to the bar. January 8, 1873, Mr. Norton was appointed Register Clerk of the Indiana Senate, at the adjourn- ment of which he returned to Columbus, Indiana, where he opened a law office, September i, 1873, with no resources whatever, save his own industry, integrity and talents. On the motion of Judge Francis T. Hord, he was ad- mitted January 17, 1874, to practice in the Supreme Court of Indiana. On November 19, 1886, he was admitted to practice in the United States Court for the district of Indiana. Early ambition never had a more striking evi- dence of propriety than in the life of William F. Norton. Young men of to-day who are surrounded with all luxuries, cheap schools and plenty of them, know nothing of the privation and poverty endured by such men as the subject of this sketch. He passed through enough to quail the stoutest hearts. The career of Mr. Norton as a lawyer has been one of vigorous growth. At a bar distinguished for its legal ability, he has taken a leading rank. His industry and studious energy, united with a conscientious regard for the best interests of his clients, make him a safe and reliable counselor, while his energy and skill in the management of his cases in court render him an able and formidable lawyer at the bar. As a public speaker he has few superiors, his style being vigorous and cultivated, while his delivery is characterized by ease and fluency. Mr. Norton is enjoying a renumerative practice in his profession, constantly increasing, as the result of business energy, industry and integrity ; and he is found on one side or the other of many of the cases in the local courts. This is the young boy of fourteen who never lost sight of his ambition, and of whom it can truly be said : A self- made man, and well made at that. He has been active in many campaigns for his (the Republican) party. He was particularly active in the campaign of 1888. On April 20, 1876, he married Miss Ursula J. George, eldest daughter of Jeremiah H. and Matilda George. On February z, 1877, their only child was born, a son, Raleigh Jefferson Norton, at Columbus, Indiana, where Mr. Norton still resides and pursues his chosen vocation. GRUBBS, GEORGE W. The subject of the sketch is a native of the State, and was born in Franklin, Johnson county, September 26, 1841. He graduated from Franklin College June, 1861, before he was twenty years of age. For the year ending June, 1862, he was principal of Franklin Academy. In August, 1862, he enlisted as a Volunteer in Company I of the Seventieth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, and went with the regiment to the field on the 12th of that month, remaining at the front until November 15, 1864, and participating in all the marches and battles in which that regiment was engaged. He was elected Second Ser- ^C-/-/r/ 650 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA geant of his company, and successively promoted to First Sergeant, Sergeant- Major and Second Lieutenant. He was then transferred to Company F and became First Lieutenant, commanding his company in some of the severest engagements of the Atlanta campaign. In August, 1864, he was promoted and made Assistant Adjutant-General of the First Brigade of the Third Di- vision of the Twentieth Army Corps, the brigade being commanded by Gen- eral Benjamin Harrison. November 20, 1894, he was commissioned Major and transferred to the Forty-second United States Colored Infantry. He as- sisted in organizing the regiment and preparing it for the field. He was with the regiment during the remainder of the war, commanding posts at Huntsville and Decatur, Alabama, and was mustered out March i, 1866. After returning from the war he read law, entered the Central Law School, and graduated in 1868, having, during that period, been a student in the law office of Porter, Harrison & Fishback. The same year he located at Martins- ville, this State, and began the practice of the law, and has belonged suc- cessively to the firms of McNutt & Grubbs, Grubbs & Montgomery and Grubbs & Parks, taking part, practically, in all the important litigations, civil and criminal, in Morgan, Owen and adjoining counties with the ex- ception of Marion. In 1874 he was elected Representative from Morgan county to the State Legislature, and served during the session of 1875. ^^ 1876 he was elected Joint Senator for Marion and Morgan counties, and served during the sessions of 1877 and 1879, serving as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He was an active supporter of the movement to build a new State House, and for a general revision of the laws. In 1880 he was nominated for Congress from the Fifth Congressional District, making the race against Col. C. C. Matson, but was defeated with his party in that dis- trict. In 1888 he was elected Judge of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, com- posed of the counties of Morgan and Owen. In 1894 he was re-elected by an increased majority. In politics Judge Grubbs is a Republican. He is mild but firm in his manner ; stands well in his community as a Christian gentle- man, and ranks high among the members of the bar as an able lawyer and just Judge. I By Judge George W. Grubbs.] HARRISON, WILLIAM R., was born in Knox county, Tenn., near the boundary line dividing that State and Kentucky, of Yankee parents, his mother coming from Connecticut and his father from Massachusetts. Soon after his birth, the family emigrated to the northern part of Kentucky, where he grew up to manhood, with the exception of about two years, which were spent in the central part of the State of Ohio. His father died when he was seventeen years of age, when he was thrown on his unaided resources, and his mother removed to her relatives in Delaware county, Ohio. His early education was only such as could at that early date be obtained in the subscription log-house school, except that he was aided some by his father and mother, both of whom had been educated in the East, at such times as they and he had leisure. Later in his twentieth year, he joined his mother THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 655 twenty years old, when he began work for himself. From this time till he was twenty-two years old, he taught three terms of three months each of a country school, and acted as Deputy Surveyor for the county. During his spare time he read law, having chosen the legal profession for his life's work. His progress in his studies was so rapid, that he entered the senior class of the law school at Louisville, Ky., in the fall of 1857, and graduated from that institution in 1858, receiving his diploma in May of that year. In September, 1858, he went to Franklin, Johnson county, Indiana, to remain a few months with his uncle, Gabriel M. Overstreet, preparatory to entering the practice of law in Indiana. In November of the same year, he located in Martinsville, Morgan county, Indiana, and opened a law office. From that time till the present, January, 1895, Mr. Shirley's interests have been one with the interests of his adopted State and town. Like most Western boys of earlier years, Mr. Shirley had but little property when he started out in life. Nearly all of his savings had been spent in preparing for his work. Without money, without influential friends, without experience in law practice, in a strange community, he felt the need of all the reserved force, and the steady habits he acquired while a farmer boy. His history for the few following years is the history of all who have struggled and won. That history is the life of the individual. The struggles, the internal conflicts, the disappoint- ments, the triumphs, none can know except those who have experienced them. By hard study, close application to business, rugged honesty, un- swerving fidelity to his clients and their cause, he soon gained the confidence of the public, and the esteem of the court and bar. In 1862, he formed a partnership for the practice of law in Martinsville with the Hon. W. R. Harrison, which continued till 1874. In 1874, he formed a partnership with Hon. J. C. Robinson, of Spencer, Ind., which continued until 1876.° Robin- son having been elected Judge of the Circuit Court in the fall of 1876, the partnership was dissolved. From 1876, to the present, Mr. Shirley has not been associated with any partner in the law practice. For many years, how- ever, he has had young men associated with him in his office as students and assistants. His advice and encouragement have helped many young men to start successfully in the law practice. In 1872, Mr. Shirley was elected joint Representative of Morgan and Johnson counties, and served in the Special session of the Legislature of 1S72, and in the regular session of 1873. He has been active in politics as a Democrat, and in 1892 was appointed as one of the avowed Cleveland delegates from the Fifth Congressional District, to the National Democratic Convention, which was held in Chicago, 111., in June of that year. In that memorable convention, Mr. Shirley's influence was a strong factor in holding the Indiana delegation for Mr. Cleveland. After the election of Mr. Cleveland, Mr. Shirley was a candidate for the appointment to the ofiice of District Attorney for the State of Indiana. Many of the most prominent attorneys of the State, irrespective of party, urged his appoint- ment. The same sense of honor and courtesy that has always characterized Mr. Shirley as a lawyer, has guided him in his political career. He is a 656 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA strong champion of the truth as he sees it, and he delights in victory, but he does not stoop to conquer. His private life has been a happy one. His mother was a member of the M. E. Church, South, and urged him to join the church early in life. He heeded her advice and joined the church of her choice at the age of sixteen, and remained faithful to the same until he located in Martinsville. He then obtained a letter from his church and on this was admitted to full membership of the M. E. Church at Martinsville, of which church he has been a faithful and consistent member. He was first married to Miss Martha J. S. Meginnis, daughter of Rev. \Vm. Meginnis, of Bloom- ington, Ind., November 28, i86i. To them were born three children — two girls and one boy. The boy died in infancy ; the daughters are still living. His first wife died on the 20th day of November, 1867. On the 14th day of January, 1869, he was married to Miss Sarah M. Conduitt, daughter of Alex- ander B. Conduitt, of Indianapolis, Indiana. To them have been born four children ; three girls and one boy. By prudent management and successful business transactions, Mr. Shirley has amassed a competency of this world's goods, and he now enjoys the pleasures of a happy home and family, and the esteem of the community in which he is so well known. RENNER, CHAS. G., was born at Cope, Morgan county, Ind., November ^, 1853, of German parentage. His father, Adam Renner, was a wagon maker and came to the United States from Germany in 1848. After working at his trade for three years at Wilmington, Delaware, he immigrated to Morgan county, Ind., where he was naturalized, and then married Miss Ann Miller, in 1852. When Charles was two years old his father removed to a farm, and after that he was a farmer's boy, attending school during the winter and working on the farm during the summer. He early evinced a desire for an education, and his parents desiring to encourage him, in 1866, at the age of thirteen, sent him to an uncle at Cedar Falls, Iowa, there to enter the graded public school, where he remained for one year. He returned to his Indiana home and thereafter, for several years, spent the summer working on the farm and the winters in attending the high school at Mar- tinsville, Ind. In 1872 he became a clerk in the dry goods store of S. M. Mitchell & Son in Martinsville, and served in that capacity until 1878, when he formed a partnership with Milton Hite, Jr., under the firm name of Hite & Renner, and conducted a dry goods store in his own interest for two years. He was a student while engaged as a merchant, and devoted his spare hours to the study of the law, becoming so much interested that in 1880, over his father's strong opposition, he sol^ out his store and commenced the system- atic study of law with a view of entering the profession, and in the fall of that year, he entered the law department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, where he devoted two years to hard study, and graduated in March, 1S82, receiving the degree of LL. B. He returned to Indiana with the intention of locating at Shelbyville, to begin the practice of his chosen 42 658 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA profession, but was offered and accepted a partnership with Major Levi Ferguson at his old home, which firm continued until Major Ferguson's removal from Indiana in 1887. Since then he has been alone, except in 1894, when he was senior member of the firm of Renner & Bain. Mr. Renner was admitted to the bar in 1882, and from the beginning of his practice has been very successful. His practice has gradually increased to one of the largest in his city, being found engaged on almost all important cases filed in the courts at Martinsville. He is a member of the Chribtian church, and also a Mason, being now Master of Martinsville Lodge, No. 74, F. and A. M. In politics he is a Democrat, but has never held an office. In the convention of the 15th Judicial Circuit, in 1894, he was a prominent candidate for Circuit Judge, but was defeated by the Hon. W. M. Franklin by one vote. He was married November 11, 18S4, to Lissa Clapper, daughter of George W. Clapper, Esq., of Martinsville. He has one child, a bright daughter, now seven years old. Socially he is devoted to his family, but is not much of a society mixtr, having his strongest attachments to his profession, his f imily and his home. He is a bard and indefatigable worker, a true friend and able lawyer, and whatever he is or may be in life is due to his indomitable will and untiring energy. FRANKLIN, AVILLIAM M., Attorney, Spencer, Indiana, is a collateral descendant of Benjamin Franklin, the illustrious statesman and phil- osopher. In tlie }?ear 1S16 his p irents emigrated from North Carolina, and located in IMonroe couxity, Ind , where on the 13th day of February, 1820, the gentleman whose life forms the subject of this sketch was born. Indiana at that time was literally a howling wilderness, infected with wild beasts and wilder men. In 1822 his father moved to Owen county, Ind., where he con- tinued to reside until 1847. He was raised upon a farm and learned habits of industry and economy. At the age of eighteen he entered the Asbury University at Greencastle, where for three years he took a literary course. As a boy he was studious and thoughtful, caring less for frivolous amusements of his companions than for the society of older and wiser people. He applied himself industriously to his books and speedily gleaned from them all that was valuable or noteworthy. On leaving college he began the study of law, supporting himself meanwhile by school teaching and farm labor. At the age of twenty-four he was admitted to the bar, and, locating in Spencer, began at once the practice of his profession. Unlike the majority of young aspirants for legal honors, who starve as briefless barristers for a certain number of years, he was successful from the outset in a marked degree. Five years from the period which marked his entry into Spencer found him repre- senting his county in the Legislature. In that body his services were of such a nature as would have been creditable to an older and more experienced member. This was the beginning of a public career that extended over a quarter of a century. On his retirement from the Legislature he was elected '/^- ^^^^w.^.^^^. \ynyO 660 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Prosecutor of the Seventh Judicial Circuit, then presided over by Judge David McDonald. Two years later he was elected Judge of the Common Pleas Court for the district composed of the counties of Greene, Owen, Sullivan and Clay, serving four years. In iS6o he was again elected to the same position, and in 1870, was elected Circuit Judge. His circuit, the Fifteenth, embraced the counties of Greene, Owen, Clay, Putnam, Morgan and Monroe. This term lasted six years. In 1881, he was appointed by the Governor of Indiana, us one of the Supreme Court Commissioners, in which capacity he served four 3'ears. In addition to aiding all the local enterprises of his town and county, Judge Franklin was one of the projectors of the Indianapolis and Vincennes Railroad, and gave material aid in securing donations and the right-of-way for that purpose. He superintended its construction and for several years was its Vice-President. He has never been a member of any secret organiza- tion. He has at different times visited nearly all the Atlantic States and has made one trip to California. He united with the Christian Church in 1841, and is still a devoted and zealous member thereof. He is a life-long Demo- crat of the Jeffersonian school ; and in 1856 was a delegate to the National convention that nominated James Buchanan for President. He was married May 6th, 1844, to Miss Mary D. Ritter, of Jessamine countv, Ky. Three daughters and two sons constitute the family. Since his service as Commis- sioner of the Supreme Court, he has principally retired from an active business life. As a jurist. Judge Franklin ranks with the ablest men in Indiana, and it is not alone in the law that he excels. His labors in behalf of his party as a successful speaker have been earnest and succe.-sful, and is exceedingly popular with the masses. He is a man of high honor and un- tarnished reputation. BEEM, DAVID E., was born in Spencer, Owen county, Indiana, June 24, 1837, and was the sixth of twelve children of Levi Beem and Sarah (Johnson) Beem, the former a native of Kentucky, the latter of Vir- ginia. Levi Beem came to Indiana Territory with his father, Daniel Beem in 1810, and then only a lad of seven years lived in a stockade fort near Brownstown, Jackson county, at the time of the battle of Tippecanoe, in i8ri. The Beem family settled in Owen county in 1817, having entered the land where the town of Spencer now stands. David Johnson, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, on the mother's side, moved from Ohio to Indiana in 1816, and in 1818 also entered land adjoining the present site of Spencer. Levi Beem and Sarah Johnson were married at Spencer in 1825, where they lived until the time of their death, loved and respected by all. The former died in 1888, the latter in 1889. Having been born on a farm, our subject continued thereon, and was accustomed to all sorts of farm labor until he was nineteen years of age. Having made suitable proficiency in the schools of his native town and by study at home, he entered the State University, at Bloomington, Ind., in 1856, and graduated from that institution in i860. /V5^^-Z.-i^^ 662 THE BENCH AND BAR OP INDIANA Having chosen the law as his profession, he was admitted to the bar in the fall of i860. He formed a co-partnership with the Hon. Samuel H. Buskirk, of Bloomington, and opened an office in Spencer. The war of the Rebellion, however, broke out, and unsettled for a, time his life purposes, as he felt it his duty to respond lo the President's call for troops. He assisted in the organization of the first company that was raised in Owen county. On the 19th day of April, 1861, five days after the fall of Fort Sumter, he enlisted as First Sergeant in the first company organized in Owen county. The com- pany was raised in response to the call for three months' troops, but the quota for Indiana being full, it was finally mustered into the service for three years, June 7, 1861, as Company H, Fourteenth Regiment Indiana Volunteers. He was the first man to enlist in Owen county. On the loth day of July, the regiment arrived at Rich Mountain, Va., and composed the reserve force during the battle next day at that place, joining in the pur- suit of the rebels after that successful engagement, as far as Cheat Mountain, Va. The regiment remained there until October, 1861. In August, 1861, Sergeant Beem was promoted to First Lieutenant of his company. After having participated in numerous skirmishes, and having endured many hardships through the winter of i86i-'62, the regiment was transferred to the Shenandoah Valley, and took an active part in the battle of Winchester on March 23, 1862, where Lieut. Beem received a severe wound in the chin. On a surgeon's certificate, he received sixty days' leave of absence and returned home. At the expiration of his leave he rejoined his command and, in May, 1862, was promoted to Captain, which position he held until the expiration of his term of service, in June, 1864. After arduous and faithful service in the Shenandoah Valley, Captain Beem's command was transferred in July, 1862, to the Army of the Potomac, and from that date to the expiration of its term of service the Fourteenth Indiana Infantry participated in all the great battles fought by that army. At Antietam, Captain Beem's company lost in killed and mortally wounded just one-sixth of its number ; and at Fredricks- burg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spotlsylvania, Cold Harbor, and many minor engagements, in all of which he bore a part, the Fourteenth Indiana fairly earned its reputation as a fighting regiment. In August, 1863, the regi- ment was sent to New York to aid in quelling the draft riots which occurred there at that time. The number of officers and men killed in battle or who died from wounds received in batt e in Captain Beem's Company was nine- teen. Only two of this number were killed while the Captain was not on duty with and in command of the company. On his retui n from the service. Captain Beem resumed the practice of law at Spencer, in which he has con- tinued to the present time. Mr. Beem has been foremost in the business and local enterprise of his town. In 1870, he organized the banking firm of Beem, Peden & Co., and has been its managing member continuously to the present time. In 1873 he embarked in the pork packing business at Spencer, but the same did not prove to be a success, as the business of summer pack- ing resulted in destroying country packing houses, and the business was THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 663 concentrated in the large citie";. David E. Beem has held no public office of consequence, but has alwa^'s been an active and zealous member of the Re- publican party. He served his party as chairman of its County Central com- mittee during three political campaigns. In iS8o he was a delegate from the Fifth Congressional district in the Reptiblican National convention which met in Chicago, and after voting thirty-four times for James G. Blaine, he finally cast his vote for James A. Garfield for the nomination for President. In i8SS he was chosen Presidential elector for his Congressional district, and in the electoral college voted for Benjamin Harrison for President. He was in i885 a candidate before the Republican State Convention for the nomination of Treasurer of State, but was not successful, although he received votes from sixty-three counties. He served for many years as school trustee, and as such aided in organizing the graded and high schools of Spencer, now among the best in the State, and was largely instrumental in causing the construction of the high school building, which is the pride of the town. In i860 he united with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he has been an active member ever since. He represented the Indiana Conference as a lay delegate in the general conference of the M. E. Church which met in New York, May, 1888. Captain Beem is proud of the fact that he was a soldier in the Union Army, and takes great interest in the Grand Army of Republic. He is a charter member of Gettysburgh Post at Spencer, and was its first commander. He attends almost all of the Department and National Encampments' of the Order, and at present (i894«) is the Jtidge Advocate of the Department of Indi- ana. In 1862, he was married to Miss Mahala Joslin, daughter of Dr. Amasa Joslin, one of the pioneer physicians of Spencer. They have been blessed with three children, all of whom survive, to-wit : Minnie Montrose, Levi A. and David J. Mrs. Beem is a devoted and consistent member of the M. E. Church, and is active and useful in church, benevolent and charitable work. HICKAM, WILLIS. The subject of this sketch is a native of Owen county, Indiana. He was born on a farm a few miles south of Spen- cer, December 9, 1852. His father, Edley Hickam, one of eleven brothers, was born in Scott county, Tennessee, and came to Owen county in the year 1847, settling on the farm, which his widow still occupies. There he first met Martha Bray, the daughter of his neighbor, Moses Bray, and they were married in 1848. The Hickam family are of Scotch-Irish descent, but the genealogy has not been carefully preserved. Mrs. Hickam, mother of Willis, is the direct descendant of Sir Nathan Bray, who came from Scotland and settled in North Carolina before the Revolutionary War. Moses Bray, great-grandson of S'r Nathan, came from North Carolina to this State in 1834. At that time his daughter Martha was a child, only a year old. The parents of Willis passed all the years of their wedded life on the farm above mentioned, the father dying in the year 1875. Willis is one of eleven chil- dren born to the pair, and remained a member of that household until he was c^^^-"^— ^^^^ 'SSL; ,^6^«^^^, THR BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 665 seventeen years of age. His early experiences were those common to the great multitude of farmer's boys, born to parents of only moderate means. The common school and the accustomed rounds of farm labor contributed in the usual way to vary, as well as to constitute the monotony of life. At the age of seventeen Mr. Hickam struck out for himself and attended a course in the high school of Mattoon, Illinois, and afterwards spent two years in Lee's Academy, at Stockton, Illinois. After teaching a year he was tendered and accepted the position of editor of the Mattoon Commercial, which place he occupied for one year. He then began the study of law, and in 1876-7 at- tended the law department of the Indiana University. He was admitted to the Owen County Bar in October, 1877, and has been continuously in the practice ever since. His success was immediate and his advancement un- usually rapid. He brought to his work a mind matured far beyond his years, and thoroughly disciplined to study and endurance, together with such per- sistent determination, industry and energy as to make him a most aggressive and formidable adversary. Mr. Hickam has always been a, close student and investigates with great thoroughness. His range of reading and study ex- tend much beyond the lines of his profession. He has a strong, terse, in- cisive style, both of writing and speaking, that enables him to express himself with vigor and clearness. No lawyer in his section of the State occupies a more prominent place at the bar, or has a larger practice. Mr. Hickam is a Democrat in politics; has served two terms as a member of the State Central Committee, and was elected as Presidential Elector in 1884, casting his elec- toral vote for Grover Cleveland. Beyond this he has never accepted politi- cal preferment, but has participated actively, both with pen and " on the stump," and in the party councils, in political campaigns. He has been County Attorney of Owen coun'y for many years and still holds the position. He was married September 4, 1884, to Miss Sarah Meek, daughter of Captain James S. and Mary Joslin Meek, of Spencer, Indiana, J THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 669 Indiana, where he purchased a tract of laud near Franklin, and with the aid of his sons went through the labors incident to making a farm "in the green." Gabriel was fifteen years old at the time of the moving from Kentucky, he having been born on the 21st of May, 1819. He was a withy, athletic young- ster, and by the time he was twenty he was well inured to the hardships in- cident to pioneer life in Indiana. His bringing up was much the same as was that of most boys of the period. In both Kentucky and Indiana he at- tended the winter schools, as opportunity afforded, and in the spring, sum- mer and fall he was kept busy after coming to Indiana, in the clearings and in the fields. When about twenty years old his father made an advancement to his several children, and Gabriel at once determined upon using his por- tion, six hundred dollars, in securing an academic and legal education. En- tering the Franklin Labor Institute he spent a year at his preparatory studies, and in the fall of 1840 he became a student in the university at Bloomington, where he took his bachelor's degree in 1844. During his college days there were few students who were not compelled to practice the most rigid economy in money matters. Overstreet was no exception. The long vacation was the fall vacation during his collegiate life, and these vacations were not spent by him in idleness. He turned himself to whatever he could — to labor as a farm hand, as a salesman in a store ; and one vacation he cleared a tract of land, for which he received forty dollars, no inconsiderable sum in those days. But be as economical as he would, he now and then found himself in a strait for money. At the close of one term, after paying all his bills, he had twenty- five cents, and no more, left in his pocket with which to defray his expenses home. It was all of forty miles from Bloomington to Franklin as the roads ran, but early one late summer morning he set out on foot, expecting to reach Morgantown in time to spend his money for his dinner. But before he came to Morgantown the sun had passed the meridian and it was still fifteen miles to Franklin. To the traveler it began to look as ii his "quirter " might be of more service in paying for a night's lodging than for a cold dinner, and so he kept it and, to use his own language, "polled ahead." By bed time he was at home and with the money in his pocket. Over four years passed by after his leaving college before he began to practice. But these were a young man's busy years, and fruitful they were to him in experience. He taught a country school, clerked in his brother's store, practiced at sur- veying, did the civil engineering for a plank road company, was a law stu- dent in the law office of Gilderoy Hicks, Esq., for a year, and spent the win- ter of 1846-7 in the law school at Bloomington under the instruction of Judge David McDonald. On the 21st day of February, 1849, the partnership of Overstreet & Hunter was formed, a partnership that had an uninterrupted existence until dissolved by the death of Mr. Hunter more than forty two years afterwards. This was a firm that connected the past with the present, and is deserving of more than passing notice. It is not noted for its longevity only, but the lawyers composing it were the peers during their prime of any who practiced at the Indiana bar. Their original partnership articles are still in existence, and an inventory of the personal property contributed to 670 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA the joint concern shows that it was valued at $16.80, exclusive of their books. Of the articles mentioned is a candlestick and a sand box, neither of which would be considered as a necessary part of the equipment of any modern law office. It is moreover interesting to note the books these lawyers began with. Blackstone's and Kent's Commentaries, Greenleaf's Evidence, Wharton's Criminal Law, Chitty's Contracts, Stephen's and Chitty's Pleadings, the first seven volumes of Blackford's Reports (all then out) and the Revised Statutes of the State, composed their library. The young lawyers had their period of waiting. It was two years before clients began to visit them in sat- isfactory numbers. But in the fall of 1849 Mr. Overstreet was elected Prose- cuting Attorney, and the manner in which he discharged the duties of this office advanced him at the bar and brought him into favorable notice. The young prosecutor's knowledge of pleading was no doubt somewhat limited, and manuals of practice were less numerous then than they are now. Under the spur ci necessity the young prosecutor compiled a book of forms for him- self. Among the files in the Clerk's office he found an assortment of indict- ments, the accumulations of many years, and selecting such of these as ap- peared to be the most skillfully drawn, or, as he discovered from the records, had withstood motions to qviash, he copied them into a book of forms of his own, which book was doubtle,ss worth more to him than would have been the most carefully prepared book by any other. Rarely to be found a; e two men as well mated as were Overstreet and Hunter. Nature sent them out of her workshop so formed that they worked in partnership harness in perfect ac- cord from the beginning. They always stood together. Neither ever went into Court to manage and try a case without the assistance of the other. On the contiary, every cause on the docket was, in every sense, Overstreet and Hunter's cause, and, if special preparation were needed, each made the prep- aration beforehand with scrupulous care. Overstreet in his earlier year-s had been a close student, and he was better grounded in the elements of the law m beginning the practice than were most j-oung men of the day. Later, how- ever, he became less a. student than was his associate, but, being quick of ap- prehension and possessing a well-stored and discriminating mind, the slight- est hint from his book-reading partner was enough for him. The strength of the firm lay in the differences between the two men. Nature intended Hun- ter for the counsellor and Overstreet for the advocate, and nature had her way ; not that Overstreet was not safe as a counsellor, but he was exception- ally strong in all the qualities that go to make the advocate. He was skillful in the examination of witnesses. He knew men and could accommodate him- self to their understandings and peculiarities as few men could. As a jury lawyer, in his prime, Overstreet stood in the front rank. He was earnest, ingenious, plausible, vigorous and forcible in his jury arguments. For forty years Overstreet & Hunter stood at the fore in the practice of the law and it is not too much to say that they jointly did more legal business during their time than was ever done by any other two men in partnership in the State. Mr. Overstreet has never been much of a politician. He was elected by the Democrats as Prosecutor, but on the rise of the anti-slavery party he became THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 671 a Republican. Tn 1882, lie was a candidate for State Senator for his district, and although there was a. Democratic majority against him, he was elected. On the call for the " one hundred " volunteers near the close of the late Rebellion, he enlisted and carried a musket as a soldier in the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. In November, 1849, he was married to Miss Sarah L. Morgan, a daughter of the Rev. Lewis Morgan, and to this union seven children have been born, all of whom are living. In his religious views he adheres to the Presbyterian faith. For many years he ■was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church. Since the death of Mr. Hunter, Mr. Overstreet has associated with him in the practice, his son, the Hon. Jesse Overstreet, Congressman-elect from his district ; and although the father has arrived at an age when most men have such a desire for repose as to shun the conflicts of the bar, he is as zealous in the preparation and trial of a cause as ever, and abating a failure of voice, shows no diminution of power. [By Judge D. D. Banta.; HUNTER, ANDERSON BARNES. Anderson B. Hunter once said to a friend, "When I am dead my biographer will have a short story to tell : 'Anderson B. Hunter, born October i, 1826,' is all there will be of it." The friend did not at the time accord with this estimate of the littleness of the man's life as made by himself, nor does he now as he sits down to write a sketch, presenting something of him as man and lawyer, worthy of being kept in remembrance. A favorite author of Mr. Hunter once wrote: "We call the large majority of human lives obscure. Pre- sumptuous that we are ! How know we what lives a single thought retained from the dust of nameless graves, may have lighted to renown." Anderson Barnes Hunter was of feeble frame as boy, youth and man, but he had what was better, an active brain and a big soul. His father, Ralsamon Hunter, a farmer in moderate circumstances, lived in Oldham county, Ken- tucky, where the son was born, and continued to reside there till 1840, when the boy was fourteen years old, at which time he migrated to Indiana and settled with his family in Hensley township in Johnson county. It goes without saying that the lad's early school privileges were limited. The country schools everywhere in that day were usually of little consequence, and Hunter never kneiv any other than a country school. In Kentucky he attended as he could till he was fourteen. In Indiana he attended just one quarter and that at a school whose teacher did not profess to know any more of what was taught in the district schools than Hunter himself knew. 'Squire Lyman could cipher to the single rule of three and Hunter learned that much in Kentucky. Nevertheless he was a pupil for one winter in 'Squire Lyman's school and that winter under the admiring eyes of the teacher, but without his assistance, he ciphered clear through the arithmetic. Hunter not only had a feeble constitution, but he was born with defects of eye and eyesight that were a source of disquiet to him as long as he lived. Those THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 673 who ever saw him in the court-room passing a book back and forth within two or three inches of his eyes, can form some estimate of the labor it must have been for him to read. But worse than that, his nerves of vision were so delicate that there was an ever present menace of total blindness to him and for years before he died, one tremulous, feeble eye sustained all the burden while reading the printed page. Notwithstanding his defective eyesight and lack of physical strength, he was not during his boyhood exempt from the toil and hardships incident to the farmer boy's life in his day. Speaking in after years of this he was heard to say, " I did the best I could and gen- erally managed to keep up." He was as a child more than ordinarily pre- cocious. He had a natural love for knowledge and his very infirmities con- tributed to this love. The outdoor world v^as at best but a half opened book to him even in childhood, and so nature wooed him and necessity drove him to printed books. The great want of his boyhood was not so much the want of school privileges as the want of books, for supplied with these, he was schoolmaster to himself. But books were "few and far between" in his neighborhood. He had borrowed and read all the books to be had in the neighborhood, when some one told him of a marvelously interesting book that had recently come into the possession of a man living some six or more miles distant. At once he importuned his father for a horse that he might go and see the owner and his book, and in a few days he mounted and rode off on his errand. The man was found and the book borrowed, and what a revela- tion it was to the young reader. It was a tale from the pen of the ' ' Wizard of the North " — it was Count Robert of Paris, the first of its kind the lad had ever read, and till the day of his death he keenly remembered the spell it cast over him. In his eighteenth year he began teaching, the first license by the School Examiners of the county being before me and testifying to his qualifications to teach "reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar and geography." We have seen under whose instruction he mastered the arithmetic, and under the same instructor, himself, he learned his English grammar and geography. His first school was taught in a neighbor's smoke house which had been swept and white-washed for the occasion. In his twentieth year he conceived the idea of studying law and at once made an arrangement to that end with Mr. Gilderoy Hicks, of Franklin. Their agreement, written by Mr. Hicks, it was characteristic of Hunter to preserve and it is before me. By its terms Hunter was to " read and study the profession of the law " and was to have the use of the old lawyer's library " except that he is to furnish himself with Blackstone and Chitty's Pleadings," and when admitted to the bar he was to pay Hicks forty dollars. The lawyer was to " pay reasonable attention " to his student and it may be presumed that he did so, for the instrument has indorsed upon it two years after its execution a receipt in full. Up to November, 1848, the law student kept to his books either in his preceptor's office or at his father's home as closely as the state of his health would per- mit. In November he entered the Daw Department of the Indiana University and became a student in the senior class under Judges McDonald and Otto. 43 674 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA At the close of his law term in the following February, he returned to his home with a certificate signed by the two law professors, who were Circuit Judges, authorizing him to practice " in all the circuit and inferior courts of the State." The practice he did not begin for a year after his return, part of the intermediate time being spent in study and part as an assistant in the County Treasurer's office. In the spring of 1849, he and Mr. G. M. Overstreet united in the practice under the firm name of Overstreet & Hunter, and in that capacity he continued the practice till his death. Of this firm, mention is made in the sketch of Mr. Overstreet and it will not be repeated here. Mr. Hunter had the qualities of mind which made him an invaluable aid to the jury lawyer. He was a close and painstaking student and he seldom failed to reach a true conclusion as to the law of a case. He was a safe counsel- lor, a good pleader, wrote an excellent brief and had the power in a high degree of presenting a legal question to the Court in a clear, logical and con- vincing manner. He had not the gift of swaying juries as had his associate, but he was no less forcible in an argument addressed to the Court than was his associate. Mr. Hunter was a man of wide reading. By reason of his infirmity of vision the world out doors haM few charms for him. He never traveled save on business and not until the last years of his life did he ever seek for any kind of out-door recreation. When not in his oflSce he was rarely to be found elsewhere than at his own home, surrounded by his family and his books. His library was extensive and of the best and he was more than a mere reader, he was a student as well. He never wrote for the press nor could he be persuaded to deliver public addresses, but he was recognized by all who knew him, as a man possessing a wide general knowl- edge and a well cultivated literary taste. As a tribute to these qualities as well as to his professional learning, the faculty of Franklin College toward the close of his life honored him by conferring upon him the honorary degree of "Doctor of Laws." Mr. Hunter was one of the most genial and com- panionable of men. He loved a good story and could himself tell one well, but "among the jostling crowd where the sons of strife are subtle and loud " his habit was one of silence. In his own or in a friend's office during the hours when clients were few and work slack, how beautiful was his companionship, how delightful his conversation! Mr. Hunter was mar- ried twice, the first time, September 19th, 1850, to Miss Nancy J. Alexander, and the second time, November 3rd, 1854, to Miss Eliza C. Donnell. As a result of the first marriage was born a son, who died in infancy ; and about the same time the mother died. Two daughters were born to the second marriage, one of whom died when almost a woman grown, and the other, Mrs. Leila H. Vawter survives. The second wife's death preceded his by twenty- six years. On the 14th day of August, 1891, after a long illness, Anderson B. Hunter himself died. In his politics he was a. Republican ; in his religious belief a Presbyterian. He was a true man, a devout Christian and a lasting example to youth of what a determined man can accomplish in spite of adverse circumstances. THIC BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 675 I By Judge T. W. Woollen.J BANTA, DAVID D. Judge Banta is descended on his father's side from a Frisian family that emigrated from Holland to America in 1659, and settled at Harlem, near New Amsterdam, now New York City. On his mother's side, he is descended from a French family, the Des Marests, (now Demarests in the East, and Demarees in the West) that fled from Picardy into Holland during the Hugenot persecutions, and which emigrated to America in 1674, and settled near the present site of Hackensack, in New Jersey. Shortly before the commencement of the war of the Revolution, certain representatives of the New York and New Jersey Dutch and French families set out for the Kentucky wilderness to found a colony, but stopped at Cona- wago, near Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania, until the war was over, when they resumed the journey, reaching Harrod's Station during the winter of 1779-80, near which place their colony was founded. Jacob Banta, the grandson of one of these emigrants, and Sarah (Demiaree) his wife, grand-daughter of another, the father and mother of Judge Banta, moved from Henry county, Ky., to Johnson county, lud., in the fall of 1832, where they began life in the wilder- ness. On the 23d of the following May, David was born. Jacob Banta was over six feet tall, well proportioned and possessed of great physical strength and vigor. In the western part of Johnson county, in the locality where Jacob Banta settled, there were several families of Presbyterians, and being zealous church members, they formed a society, built a house of wor- ship, and called it "Shiloh." This gave the name to the neighborhood, and although the little " Shiloh " building has no pastor now, the neighborhood still retains its name, and its people still cherish the recollection of its found- ers. Not only did these persons establish their church for the cultivation of their spiritual welfare, but the school house was also built that their children might obtain the education necessary to make them useful men and women. Soon after the death of Jacob Banta, the widow was joined by her mother and a maiden sister, and all remained on the farm, where the subject of this sketch grew up. He witnessed the change from an almost primeval forest to the clearing up of the country into numerous splendid farms, and in this magic change, being a healthy, vigorous boy, he actively participated. When not in school he was laboring on the farm. He belonged to the first crop of school children of the Shiloh settlement, and was the first scholar to reach the little log school house on the first day of the first school in the neighborhood ; and thence on until nearly grown he attended every term. The country, neither here nor elsewhere in Indiana, afforded very great opportunities for reading in those days. Books were scarce, and a man could have carried all there were in Shiloh neighborhood in a bushel-basket, save the bibles, hymn books and school books. Young Banta knew of every book accessible and borrowed and read every one that it was possible for a vigor- ous, healthy boy to read — read all except the books of sermons and some of the morehighly wroughtdevotional ones; and he even ranged beyond his neighbor- hood in search of reading matter. After closing his school days at the country THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 677 schools, in his eighteenth year, he taught school a while in his native county, but only for a term or two, and the next year, impelled by a boyish desire to see something of the world, in company with a kinsman of his own age, he ■went to the then new State of Iowa, where he spent several months in cutting cord wood, working in a saw-mill and tramping through some of the more sparsely settled counties of the State. On tiie fall of the first winter snow he entered a law office in the tawu of Fairfield and began reading Blackstoue. The time spent in this office, he says, " was not wholly wasted. It fixed me in my determination to make the study of the law a serious business, and it opened my eyes to the fact that I needed further preparation for it. " So, early in the following spring (1S53) he returned to Indiana and became a student in the Franklin College, where he remained till fall, and then went to Bloomington and entered the State University; and maintained his student connection with it until the spring of 1857, during which time he earned his academic and his law degrees, the latter under the instruction of Judge James Hughes. In the fall of the same year, he returned to Franklin, and at once began the practice. Previous to this, however, in 1856, while j-et connected with the University, he was married to Mrs. M. E. Perrin, daughter of the late James Riddle, Esq., of Covington, Ky. Three children have been born to this marriage — two sons and a daughter, all of whom are living. For some time before the beginning of the civil war the profession of the law was very dis- couraging to the young man about to enter upon the attempt to get business. Getting into practice was slow work ; the more so as the country was greatly agitated with political controversies that eventually culminated in the beginning of the hostilities between the two sections. This left Judge Banta with abundant opportunities to read and he availed himself of it. The law was his mistress, but nevertheless he found time to collect the material for a local history, which has subsequently been written and published, and during the waiting he did a good deal of gratuitous newspaper writing. To keep the pot boiling, he had charge of the Recorder's office for nearly two years, the law at that time not forbidding practicing attorneys from serving as deputies for county officers. During these waiting years, he served a term as District Attorney of the Common Pleas Court, an office, which if not prolific in fees, was in experience. He was also Division Assessor in the United States Revenue Department for about two years, an office that paid in both experi- ence and money. He held the office of School Examiner for the count)' and Trustee for the city schools at one time or another. He had friends — friends zealous for his success — during these waiting years, as most other young lawyers have. At a term of court about the time he began to get something like his share of the business, he noticed that the luck was with him in the matter of verdicts. Meeting one of the regular jurors on the court-house steps one day toward the close of the term, the juror, after looking furtively around to see that no one was in hearing, said: -'Stand up to those old lawyers, Davy; stand up to 'em! The jury is standing up to you." And it seemed that it was. During the first half of the war, the courts of Johnson county 678 THE BENCH AND BAR OE INDIANA were comparatively idle, but toward the close, business began to revive and the battle for the waiting ^-ouug lawyer was won. Thence on, there was no lack of cases. The fifteen or twenty years after the close of the war were the lawyer's flush times in Indiana ; money was plenty, dockets were crowded and lawyers were generally driven by work. In 1870, he was a candidate on the Democratic ticket for Judge of the Twenty-eighth Circuit, composed of Johnson, Shelby, Bartholomew and Brown counties, and was elected without opposition. Two years after, on the abolishing of the Court of Common Pleas, the Circuit became the Sixteenth and was cut down to two counties, Johnson and Shelby. In 1871 he had a virulent attack of fever which left him with shattered health and a broken-down, nervous system. There were many months during which it was a serious question with the doctors whether he would pull through or not. On the advice of his physician, he ultimately went to the pine woods of Michigan, where he spent several weeks camping, and thus his health was restored. He has never failed to take a yearly outing since to keep it restored. On retiring from the bench in 1876, he began the practice in partnership with the Hon. Thomas W. Woollen, and continued in it with him up to the fall of 1889, when he withdrew to exiter upon his duties as Dean of the Indiana University Law School. In 1877, shortly after his term as Judge expired, he was appointed a member of the University Board of Trustees, a position he held for eleven years, seven of which he was President of the Board. In 1889, the Law School of the University which had been suspended since 1877, was revived, and he was appointed Professor of Law and Dean of the School. This necessitated the abandonment of the practice and ultimately compelled the removal of himself and family to Bloomington. He is still in charge of the Law Department. He has made the law, as law- yer. Judge and teacher, the main pursuit of his life. Nevertheless, he has always kept in sight some one ( r more incidental vocations or pursuits. He has been a student of good literature as well as of law, and has written much for the newspapers and some for the magazines, chiefly on local, historical and on out-of-doors subjects. He gets recreation out of doors, hunting, fish- ing, tramping and camping. His associates outside of his family are gener- ally men younger than himself. He never shoots, fishes, camps or tramps with one older or even as old as himself. Whatever of success he has met with in any way, he owes to hard work and the Dutch gift of " hanging on." In 188S, the faculty of Franklin College honored him with the degree of LL. D., for which mark of appreciation he was not insensible. In his religious faith, he is a Presbyterian ; in political. Democratic. He has always liked teaching— likes it today better than he ever did the practice. " If I have any knack at it, 'he says,' it lies in being able to interest my students and thus securing from them their best work." Judge Banta's mind is eminently logical. No argument impresses him unless it will bear the closest inspec- tion, and is found to be based upon a firm foundation. Glittering generalities and mere tricks of rhetoric have but little influence with him, but solid truths, founded upon logical reasons, command his attention and respect. The THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 679 characteristics of his mind are rather substantial than brilliant. He comes to his conclusions by reasoning rather from principles than authority. While he searches for authorities with great patience and perseverance he is never satisfied unless he can reconcile them with the underlying principles involved. His social qualities are of the first order. To those who know him best he is greatly prized for his entertaining conversation and his steady friendships. Being a close observer of whatever passes around him, he sees a great many things that most people would not notice, and his relation of them in his con- versation becomes extremely inte-esting. His experience in his many outings, handled in his pleasing manner, furnish material for the edification of his friends in many a social gathering. In closing this brief sketch, the writer may add that Judge Banta's life so far has been a well rounded one. He is a type of many who, beginning life amidst the pioneer surroundings of the early days of our State, with few advantages of education or influential friends, surmounted all difficulties, and carved out for himself a reputation for integrity, ability and culture. In his profession at the bar, he stood along side of the first; in his work as teacher of the law he sustains himself as worthy to be at the head of the State's law school. The young law student of to day will have no such difficulties to surmount as environed the subject of our sketch ; but few, we apprehend, will attain a greater degree of success. Whatever may be in store in the future for him we may not know, but what- ever shall happen, it will not be said of him that he passed through life without leaving his impress on the times in which he lived. OYLER, JUDGE SAMUEL P., is a native of England, he having been born August 26th, 1819, at Hawkhurst, in Sussex county, in that King- dom, and is the second son of Samuel and Sophia (Rabson) Oyler. His early life was passed in the city of London. In 1834, he emigrated to the United States and settled at Rochester, in the State of New York ; here he continued his studies and education, and although he never enjoyed the benefits of a college course of study, he has by his studious habits, filled out an education well begun upon the foundation laid in the best schools, and advantages of his early youth ; so that by close and arduous study, a varied and extensive reading, at his majority in 1840, he was fully equipped for the battle of life, and to make some pretentions to what " Bacon " styles "a full man." In 1841, taking the advice of Horace Greeley, he moved West, and settled in Tippecanoe county, Ind., "to grow up with the country," where he deversified his labors upon the farm by the study of Theology and united himself with the Universalist Church, was duly licensed to preach in that denomination ; a calling well followed by him for eight years, preaching to good acceptance in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. In the later years of which he made an earnest and diligent study of the law, and in 1850, he removed to Franklin, Johnson county, Ind., and entered the t^,,..-..^ f dy^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 681 oflace of Gilderoy Hicks, then the leading attorney of that county. In 1851, he was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of his chosen pro- fession, in which city and county he has continued in active practice up to this time, and in which he has gained an enviable reputation and achieved deserved distinction. In 1852, he was admitted to the Supreme Court of Indiana, and in the following year to the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1852, and again in 1854, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney in his district, and devoted himself zealously to the practice generally in all the counties of Central Indiana ; until the breaking out of the Rebellion in i86i, when he, by his personal effort, raised a company of Volunteers of which he was elected and commissioned as its Captain, and upon the organization of the Seventh Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry, he was commissioned Major of the regiment, and served during the campaign in Western Virginia under General McClelland, until August of that year, when he returned to the practice of his profession. In August, 1862, he again entered the service of his country, and having raised two companies of men for the Seventy-ninth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers ; upon the organization of that regiment he was commis- sioned Lieutenant-Colonel of that regiment, and with his regiment, assigned to duty in the Army of the Cumberland, then under the command of Gen- eral Buel, afterwards under the command of General Rosencranz, and in their campaign through Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia, he served with credit and honor. At the Battle of Chickamauga, after that bloody conflict in which his regiment suffered severely, he returned to Chattanooga in command of 1900 men, the remnant of the Twenty-first Corps, he being the ranking officer left on the field. At the battle of Chattanooga, his regiment consolidated with the Eighty-sixth Indiana Volunteers, led the charge upon Mission Ridge and captured the works of the enemy. During the winter of 1863 and 1864, he was stationed in the valley of Tennessee, and in the summer following, joined in the march to Atlanta, under the command of General Sherman. Having become disabled in July of that year, he was sent to the hospital at Lookout Mountain, and in August, compelled by his disability, he resigned his commission, and returned home. He was elected by the Republicans and the loyal voters of his district, to the Senate for two general and one special session and served with distinguished success, and was amongst the foremost in work and labor in those eventful sessions ; serving as Chairman of the Committee on organization of Courts, also as a member of the Judiciary Committee. At the close of his term as Senator, in 1868, he was appointed Judge of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit of Indiana, and served until 1871, since which time he has been engaged in practice, having followed his pro- fession (with the exception of the time spent in the military service of the country) for forty-four years. In 1892, he was elected Mayor of the goodly little city of Franklin, where he has made his home for forty-five years ; now in the enjoyment of a hale and hearty old age, with the respect and confi- dence of his neighbors and the esteem of the friends of a half century. 682 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA [By Judge D. D. Banta.J WHITE, JACOB L. Jacob Leroy White was born in Johnson county, Ind., December 15th, 1849. His father, George B. White, a native of Shelby county, Ky., in 1830, when only thirteen years old, moved with his widowed mother from that county to Bartholomew county, in this State. At the age of seventeen, he changed his residence to Nineveh, John- son county, where he continued to reside till his death, which occurred a few years ago. On attaining his majority, Mr. White married Miss Rachel Lane, a native of Bartholomew county, who is the mother of Jacob L., and is still living. George B. White was a farmer by occupation and died on the farm, which largely through his labors was chopped out of the wilderness. Of the eight children of George B. and Rachel White that lived to be men and women, Jacob I,, was the oldest. He was physically the weakest. As boy and man he was never robust and able-bodied. So marked was his lack of bodily strength during the years of his youth, that he was never able to bear the heat and burden of the day on the farm, as were the majority of the lads of his time. It would seem, however, that there was no detriment to him in this want of a robust constitution, from an educational point of view. He early developed a love for the school and he was permitted to attend every term taught in his district, from the time he was old enough to find his way to the school house, up to his seventeenth year, save during one year, during which an affection of the eyes compelled the closing of all printed booKS to him. As he grew toward manhood be gained somewhat in bodily strength, and when he was seventeen, he entered a private academy in Williamsburg, the township village, and for three years was under the instruction of Elder John C. Miller, a gentleman of great scholastic attainments and of much success as a teacher. In the fall of 1869, he entered the National Normal Institute of Lebanon, Ohio, where he remained one year and this ended his training at the hands of the school-masters. He reached home in 1870 in time for the opening of the fall schools and thence on for two years he was engaged the most of his time in teaching. Part of this time he was principal of the Edinburg public school. During his school days the desire had come to him to make the law his vocation, and during his vacations while teach- ing, we find him at the home farm with a. volume of Blackstone conning over the " Nature of Laws " and the " Laws of England," but it was not till in the spring of 1872, he then being in his twenty-third year, that he began the study in real earnest. Entering the law office of Woollen & Byfield, of Franklin, he remained with them as a law student for about a year and a half, when he was admitted to the bar. About this time Mr. Byfield moved to Indianapolis, when Mr. White engaged in the practice for about one year in partnership with Judge Woollen, one of his former preceptors, and with Mr. R. M. Johnson, an old schoolmate. The young lawyer was not satisfied with his legal acquirements on his admission to the bar. His law student days had been too few to satisfy his craving for knowledge and after commencing the practice he wisely kept on at his law books the same as before. Like the 684 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA great majority of young candidates for legal success, he found it slow coming, but he never lost confidence in himself nor in the future. He kept at his books and as business came to him, he found himself able to manage it with profit to his clients as well as to himself. He and Mr. Johnson practiced together till in 1880 when he formed a partnership with Mr. William J. Buckingham (now Judge of the Sixteenth Circuit) which relation continued till dissolved by his death. But let us not anticipate. On the nth of August, 1^75) Jacob L. White and Miss Augusta F. Payne, a, daughter of Mr. Mansfield Payne, of Hamilton, N. Y., and a brother of the former United States Senator Payne, of Ohio, were married. One child, a son, Walter Payne, was the result of this union, who was born July 19th, 1878. In that same year of 1878, Mr. White was appointed Deputy State's Attorney by Mr. L. J. Hackney, now one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the State, which posi- tion he held during the term of his principal, when in 1880, he was himself elected the Attorney for the Sixteenth Circuit, and he served therein for the al- lotted term of two years, thus making four years in all that he prosecuted the pleas of the State, during which time he discharged the delicate duties of prose- cutor with signal ability and fidelity. He merited and received the unquali- fied approval of the general public. Jacob L. White was not a politician in the usually accepted sense of the word. He was a lawyer rather than a poli- tician. Yet he met with political preferment — greater preferment than falls to many a man who craves it more than did he. It is true he was ambitious to fill the ofiice of Prosecuting Attorney for his circuit, but this was an ambi- tion that well becomes any young lawyer who aspires to rise in his profession. It is a professional office and any young lawyer possessing the requisite qualifications for the discharge of his duties, may reasonably hope that it will be an aid to him in his struggle for success at the bar. But Mr. White was the recipient of other political honors than fell to him as a mere lawyer. In 1886, he was elected by his party, the Democratic, to represent the county in the Legislature of the State and with such general approval did his acts as a Legislator meet, that on being renominated by his party in 1888, he was elected without even a party opposition. Modesty was a characteristic virtue of Mr. White, but not that modesty which would lead him to shirk a duty, rather was it that modesty which would restrain him from acting when he thought the duty might be as well or possibly better performed by another. It is very hard for some men to restrain themselves when there is an oppor- tunity given to talk but it was not so with him, although he talked easily and well. As a member of the General Assembly he was not often on his feet. He was what is called a "working," rather than a "talking" mem- ber. As a member of the Legislature of 1889, he took part in some of the most important acts of legislation that the State has known for years. He was the Chairman of the Committee on Benevolent Institutions and a member of various other committees. It is in testimony that he was held in high esteem as a counsellor and advisor by those with whom he was associ- ated during that eventful session. But it is of him as a lawyer that we are ^ urv-idc^t^. A.-CyC^ C86 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA most concerned. While yet a boy he formed a habit of reading which clung to him through life. No matter what the pressure of business, he never ceased to be a student. He never felt that he v?as so familiar with the ele- mentary rules of the law that he could afford to give up systematic reading. After success came, there was no relaxation. He continued to be the law student and as a necessary consequence he never failed to painstakingly prepare his cases for trial. It was said by an older professional brother at the meeting of the bar on the occasion of his death, that " One of the most pleasant recollections I have of him, is seeing him pass my ofiSce window on his way to his home of afternoons with a law book under his arm." He re- turned from his last Legislative term broken in health. His Legislative labors and his changed mode of life made the conditions favorable for disease. It was hoped that with the advent of the mild spring weather he would recover, but, instead, typhoid fever set in, and on the 13th day of May, 1889, and in the fortieth year of his age, his spirit took its everlasting flight. In his early youth he became a communicant of the Baptist Church. As a lawyer, Jacob L.White was combative, forcible and vigorous, and yet as a man he was gentle, loving and lovable. He was generous to a fault and as just as he was generous. He was never known to be guilty of a dishonorable act as a lawyer, politician, or man. He never availed himself of the so-called lawyer's privilege, to malign a witness or a party. On the contrary he dealt as tenderly with the feelings and characters of those who stood in opposition to him in the legal or in the political arena, as he would have had them deal with him. So offensive were slanderous words when spoken of any one to him, that he prepared a bill and advocated its passage, while a member of the Legislature, to make personal slander a criminal offense. BUCKINGHAM, WILLIAM J. William J. Buckingham was born in Hamilton counfy, Ohio, December 4, 1849. His parents moved to Franklin county, Ind., in the following spring. He attended the com- mon schools of the neighborhood until fourteen years of age, and then attended for one year a graded school at Mt. Carmel, this State. After this he entered the Methodist Seminary, located at Brookville, for three years, during which time it was presided over by Rev. William A. Goodwin and Prof. John Martin. Dr. Johns, now President of the DePauw University, was then one of the instructors in the Seminary, being a teacher of mathematics. Judge Buck- ingham began teaching in his eighteenth year in the common schools and taught for ten years. During that time he studied law under the direction of Hon. D. D. Banta, now Dean of the Law School of the Indiana University. August I, 1877, he opened an office in the city of Franklin, Ind., for the prac- tice of the law, and continued in the practice until November 17, 1894, when he ascended the bench of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit, having been elected on the Democratic ticket Judge of that circuit at the general election held ifti"' 688 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA that month. His nomination for the office of Judge was by acclamation, there being no other candidate for that office before the convention. During the time between his admission to the bar and ascending the bench, he served one term as Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, and also one term as Attor- ney of the City of Franklin. He secured a fair law practice, at the Johnson county bar. MIIvLER, ROBERT M. Robert M. Miller was born on a farm in Fugit township, Decatur county, Indiana, on April 14, 1845. To his parents, George and Margaret J. Miller, were born six sons, three of whom died during their minority. The surviving sons are: Judge John D. Miller, of Greensburg, Indiana ; E. C. Miller, Cashier of the Franklin National Bank, of Franklin, Indiana, and the subject of this sketch. In i860 (the father having died before that time) the mother moved with her bo3'S to Hanover, Indiana, for the purpose of securing the educational advantages at that place. In 1865 Robert M. graduated from Hanover Col- lege, obtaining the degree of A. B., and a few years later his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of A. M. Immediately after his graduation he engaged in the study of law and teaching until June, 1870, at' which time he was admitted to the bar of Johnson county, Indiana. On September 28, 1870, he was married, near Kingston, Decatur county, Indiana, to Miss Angeline Donnell, with whom he is still happily living. To this union there were born five children, four of whom are living — Ethelwyn and Marcia are alumnae of Franklin College ; Bertha and Gladys are still pursuing their studies. Their only son died in infancy. Since his admission to the bar Robert M. Miller has continuously been a member of the same, residing at Franklin, Indiana, which is now his home. During the first five years of his practice two different partnerships were entered into by him — one with Hon. W. W. Browning and the other with W. C. Sandefur, Esq., both of whom are now dead ; but finally on November 23, 1875, a partnership was formrd with Henry C. Barnett, Esq., under the firm name of Miller & Barnett, which partnership has continued with the greatest harmony between the members and utmost confidence until this dav. BARNETT, HENRY C, the junior member of the law firm of Miller & Barnett, of Franklin, Indiana, was born on a farm near Edinburg, in Johnson county, Indiana, on the 12th day of December, 1848. At the age of five years, with his father's family, he removed to a farm just west of Cicero, Hamilton county, this State, returning to Johnson county in March, 1864, where he has ever since resided. During childhood his time was devoted to work on the farm in summer and attending the district school in the winter months. At the age of eighteen he attended the high school at Nineveh, Ind., taught by Elder John C. Miller, of the Christian church, and at nineteen taught his first school. After this he taught in Johnson, Bar- 44 690 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA tholomew and Hamilton counties. After he commenced teaching he attended the Southwestern Normal School, at Lebanon, Ohio, and a short term at Franklin College completed his school days. Mr. Barnett is, therefore, not a college-bred man, but has attained his present excellent standing as a . lawyer and a man by hard work and self-culture, and is another example of those who make their opportunities and grow to the front. Our subject came from that old stock of frontiersmen who came over the mountains from Virginia to the wilderness of Kentucky in an early day. Among such immi- grants came the grandfather on the paternal line, John P. Barnett, who had been a soldier in the Revolutionary War and who had fought at Yorktown. The father of John P. Barnett was a native of Scotland. John P. Barnett was married to Elizabeth Self soon after the close of the War of Independ- ence, and on the 24th day of July, 1809, in Nicholas county, Kentucky, Ambrose D. Barnett, the father of our subject, was born. In the spring of 1821 or 1822, the father and grandfather came to Indiana, settling in Johnson county, and in whose soil they both were buried, the father dying on the 2oth day of May, 1885, at the age of seventy-five years. The father was a man of much native ability and energy, and, though having scant opportu- nities, yet ranked far in advance of the men of his day and opportunity. The mother, Sophronia Riggs Barnett, was born in Genessee county. New York, on January 23, 1817, and with her father, Ransom Riggs, Sr., came to Indiana in an early day, the father dying in Johnson county in 1863. The Riggs family were natives of Connecticut, coming to New York, thence to Indiana. Ransom Riggs was married to Sarah Tremaine in the State of New York, and the mother of our subject is the oldest child of this union. The maternal and paternal grandfathers of Mr. Barnett were both ministers of the Old-school Baptist Church and influential members of this denomina- tion. The mother, Sophronia Barnett, is now living near the old home, at Nineveh, well preserved in mind and body, the heritage of a well-spent life. April 25, 1872, Henry C. Barnett was married to Miss Kate Tucker, and they now have a family of seven children — Minnie May, Georgia June, Emmett Tucker, Oral Stanley, Bessie Jennetta, Laura Marie and Alice Marjorie, the two latter being twins, now six years old, and so near alike in looks and ap- pearance as to be almost indistinguishable one from the other. The father of Mrs. Barnett was John T. Tucker, a prominent farmer and stock trader of Johnson county, but who died on the 17th day of June, 1863. Mr. Tucker was a native of Hardin county, Kentucky, and was born June 6, 1818. Com- ing to Indiana in an early day with his father, Clark Tucker, he settled in Johnson county and became one of her most respected citizens. He was married to Jennetta A. Hibbs in said county and reared a large family of children, of which Mrs. Barnett is the fourth child. Mrs. Tucker, mother of Mrs. Barnett, was born in Nelson county, Kentucky, on July 10, 1825, and is now in her seventieth year. She was a daughter of William and George Ann Hibbs, the former dying many years since in the State of Kentucky, but the latter is now living in the State of Missouri at the advanced age of ninety- THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 691 three. Mrs. Barnett is noted for her great energy, business capacity and her charitable attention to the sick and distressed, and in the struggles of her husband to attain success in his chosen profession, she has been a bulwark of strength and support. She is a native of Johnson county, where she was bom May 20, 1853. Henry C. Barnett moved to Franklin, Indiana, Novem- ber 12, 1874, and commenced the study of the law in the office of Judge T. W. Woollen, and was admitted to the bar in February, 1875. On the 23 1 day of November, 1875, he entered into a co-partnership with Robert M. Miller, who had been in the practice for a few years preceding, and which co-part- nership has continued without break or interruption to this time, now being the oldest law firm in Johnson county. It is, perhaps, no flattery to say that this firm has constantly increased in its professional standing until it ranks among the best and strongest in the State. Mr. Barnett is a member of the Christian church, and in politics was a Democrat for some years, but seeing the wrongs of the common people by reason of the encroachments of capital, he united with the Peoples Party and arrayed himself against the monopolies and concentrations of money and wealth and all those who would " shut the gates of mercy on mankind." Neither member of the law firm of Miller & Barnett has ever held any political office, nor have they de- voted their time to politics, realizing that the practice of the law and politics go not well together, and those who succeed well in the one will most likely fail in the other. Mr. Barnett, being a man of regular habits, enjoys excel- lent health, and may look forward to a useful future. (By Judge D. D. BANT.i.| MIERS, JUDGE ROBERT WALTER. The subject of this sketch was born in Decatur county, Ind., on the 27th of January, 1848. His parents were natives of the same county and they lived and died in the neighborhood of their birth. The son inherited German blood as well as a German name from his father, while from his mother came a strain of Irish. His father was a thrifty farmer whose broad acres lay amidst the level lands between Cliffty and Sand creeks, in the western part of the county. The son was brought up on a farm, and being a stout and rugged lad, he was early put to work by his prudent parents and kept at it except during the late fall and winter seasons, till he was nineteen years old, when he was sent to college. His educational opportunities were in the main good for the time. While the common schools of his neighborhood were probably no better than were the common schools elsewhere, there were other and accessible schools to him, that were better. One of these, the Milford High School, after running the round of the studies taught in the common schools, he attended two terms, and the other, the " Hartsville University," an academy that was extensively patronized about that time, he attended through three winter terms. In addition to this schooling, he taught one or two terms, commencing when he was seventeen years of age, in his home district. Robert W. Miers was an apt and quick-witted boy at school and learned readily. In mathematics he THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 693 was gifted to a rare degree. He never studied arithmetic as children almost universally are required to do in order to master it. The mental process of adding, svibtracting, multiplying and dividing he cannot remember of ever having learned. When a small boy, arithmetical results that the ordinary business man had to "workout" mor? or less laboriously with paper and pencil, he would announce with such promptness and correctness as to lead many of those who were witnesses to his skill, to the conclusion that he had an intuitive knowledge of the subject. To the many who do not possess the power, it is difficult to understand it, but to him, it is as easy to multiply or divide tens or hundreds by tens or hundreds as it is for others to multiply or divide units by units. Most men's multiplication table ends with 12 times 12 ; his is without limit. Now to this power of making intricate mathematical computations with almost lightning-like swiftness, add the power of reaching results without mental confusion and we have a gift that is next to genius ; one that gave him great advantage as a student from the beginning to the ending of his school days ; and that has been invaluable to him throughout his professional life. In the fall of 1867 he entered the sophomore class of the Indiana University, where he explored the regions of the higher mathe- matics, under the guidance of that celebrated mathematician and astronomer. Dr. Daniel Kirkwood. During his senior year in college he found time to keep up his other collegiate studies and to take the junior law course also. His academic degree he received in 1870, and the following winter he devoted his time exclusively to the law under the instruction of Judges Perkins and Rhodes, who were iu charge of the Law School at that time ; and at the ensuing commencement he was granted a law degree. Mr. Miers was twenty- three years old when he closed his connection as a student with the University. He had most likely already made up his mind to become a permanent resident of the town, for the next April term of the Circuit Court he was admitted to the bar, and in a month after that was married to Miss Anna Belle Ryors, of Bloomington, a daughter of the Rev. Alfred Ryors, D. D., a former President of the University. By this marriage two children have been born, a son and daughter, both of whom are living. Mr. Miers' experience as a young lawyer was not an unusual one. Clients were less numerous at first than they after- ward were. In 1875 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney on the Democratic ticket for the counties of Monroe, Orange and Lawrence, and it was not till after he entered upon the duties of this office that he began to feel that the foundation was firm under him. He was fairly well grounded in the ele- mentary principles of the law and had familiarized himself to a considerable extent with the rules of practice, and when his opportunity came he was able to prosecute with such power, that nothing stood in the way of his re- election to a second term on the close of his first. This occurred in 1877, and in the same year he was appointed by the State Board of Education, a mem- ber of the Board of Trustees, by his alma mater, an office that he held up to 1891. On the close of his second term as State's Attorney, he was elected to represent Monroe county in the General Assembly of the State, and served as 694 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Chairman of the House Committee on Education in 1880. On the close of his Legislative term he returned, to his clients and kept closely at his practice till April, 1882. The death of the Hon. Francis Wilson, Judge of the Tenth Cir- cuit, occurring at that time. Gov. Gray appointed Mr. Miers to the vacancy thus created and he held up to November, 1883. The following year he received the nomination at the hands of the Democratic party for Secretary of State, and two years after that (1886) he was again nominated to the same office, but on both occasions the Democratic ticket was defeated. In 1890 his party put him in nomination for the office of Judge of his circuit, and notwith- standing the circuit was Republican by a usually safe majority, he carried the day and was elected, since which time he has given his time and attention to the duties of his office. Nature dealt kindly by Judge Miers. She gave him an even temper, a sound mind, a commanding presence and a sound body. He is recognized as one of the leading lawyers in his section of the State. As a lawyer he sees quickly through a case and seldom fails to accurately note the strong and weak points on both sides. He is ready, clear and forcible in debate, and taken all in all, he is a formidable, all-round lawyer. As a Judge, he is pleasant, approachable, a good listener, patient and painstaking. He is not technical, is quick to see a point and he seldom makes a wrong de- cision. In his religious faith Judge Miers adheres to the Presbyterian Church. [By Joseph E. Henley.] ROGERS, WILLIAM P., was born on the 3rd day of March, 1857, in Brown county, Ind. He descends from a rugged and hardy race of people, the influence of whose lives and actions is ineffaceably impressed upon the history of Monroe, Brown, Lawrence and Jackson counties, and intimately interwoven with the social, material and moral growth of that portion of the State. His father, William K. Rogers, a native of Jackson county, Ind., and his mother, Sarah (Boruff) Rogers, a native of Monroe county, Ind., were pioneers of the State, and each is a representative of a family of people whose direct and collateral branches include an ever widen- ing circle of staunch and familiar names in south-central Indiana. The parents of the subject of this sketch were married in Monroe county, in December, 1841, by Rev. James Mathes, and followed the business of farming in that county for five years, when they removed to Brown county, to engage in the same pursuit. They continued to reside on a farm in Brown county until 1875, at which time they again settled inMonroecounty, where they con- tinue now to reside. William P. Rogers was reared in Washington township, in Brown county, until sixteen years of age, when he entered the High School at Bloomington, Ind., pursuing his studies for two years. For lack of neces- sary means he could no further prosecute his studies at that time, but engaged in teaching in his native county in 1875 and 1876. In the fall of the latter year he matriculated in the Indiana University, remaining at that institution for three years. Having chosen law for his profession, he immediately entered the law office of Messrs. Buskirk & Duncan as a student and assistant. 696 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA In September, 1879, he entered the active practice of the law in partnership with E. E. Sadler, Esq., and remained in that connection for nearly a year. Then, alone, he continued in the practice until September, 1881, at which time he entered into partnership with Joseph E. Henley. This business association continued for five years and until Mr. Henley went to "Wichita, Kas. In 1886, he became a partner of J. H. Loudon, Esq., under the firm name of Loudon & Rogers. This firm continued until November, 1892, being dissolved at that time by the election of Mi. Rogers to the professorship of Law in the Indiana University, a position he has continually occupied to this time. The branches assigned to Prof. Rogers for the senior class are Equity, Jurisprudence, Real Property and Private Corporations ; and for the junior class. Elementary Laws, Personal Property, Criminal Law, Sales and Municipal Corporations. Of these various branches, he is especially interested in Equity, Jurisprudence and Private Corporations, but in all the branches of his department he brings into requisition scholary attainments, ripe experi- ence and intense enthusiasm, which render him a valuable and effective teacher. In 1892, the degree of LL. B. was conferred on Prof. Rogers by the Indiana University. He was married at Bloomingtou, on the 30th day of March, 1882, to Miss E. Belle Clark, daughter of William A. Clark, one of Monroe county's most respected and substantial citizens. This union has been blessed with four children, Ethel B., Norine F. and Clark W., living, and Maurice W., who died at the age of three years. Prof. Rogers is a Republican in politics, though never a candidate for a political office. In 1881, he was elected City Treasurer for the city of Bloomingtou. and was re- elected in 1883. Both he and his wife are prominent members of the Christian Church. As a law3er, Mr. Rogers has taken front rank at the Bloomingtou bar. During his active practice, his advice was sought in the most difficult and intricate controversies, and in the forum his eloquent voice and logical reasoning were generally heard in the most important legal contests. He has been connected with some celebrated cases, among which might be mentioned the " Chambers' Express robbery and attempted murder case," the story of which has recently been woven into an interesting novel. This case was tried in the Monroe Circuit Court and created the most intense excitement and factional bitterness ever known in the county. Prof. Rogers was retained for the prosecution, and was accorded leadership in the trial. He conducted the prosecution with great vigor and consummate tact during a long and tedious trial, and at the close of all the evidence he made an argument which, for eloquent denunciation and logical force, stands without a superior in the criminal annals of Monroe county. As a business man he is counted prudent and progressive. He has great faith in Monroe county and her ma- terial possibilities. He is one of the pioneers in the development of the stone interests in Monroe county, and is now extensively connected with various enterprises in that line. As a citizen he is typical and representative. He takes an active interest in all efforts to promote social purity and moral excellence. Mentally he is quick, active and impulsive, but his every action, thought and impulse is based upon truth and right. r -/ — . 698 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA CORR, EDWIN. Edwin Corr was born on the last day of the year i860, upon a farm in Monroe county, Indiana. His early life was that of a farmer's lad, working upon the farm and attending the district school. When he was sixteen years old he entered the preparatory de- partment of the Indiana University and graduated in June, 1883, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Letters. He then taught school part of the time during the succeeding three years, in the meantime reading law and attend- ing the law department of DePauw University, from which he graduated in 1885. The year following he entered upon the practice of his profession at Bloomington, this State. One year later, 1887, he was appointed Deputy Prosecuting Attorney of Monroe county. In 1891 he was elected trustee of the Indiana University by the alumni, and again in 1894. On the 20th of April, 1893, he was appointed Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Indiana, and now holds that position, filling the ofBce with credit to himself and the people of the State. Soon after beginning the practice of his pro- fession he took high rank among the members of the bar at Bloomington- Few men have a brighter future before them than he has at the present writing. [By John Clark Ridpath.] WIDDIAMSON, DELANO ECKELS. Delano Eckels Williamson was born in Florence, Boone county, Kentucky, on the 19th of Augvist, 1822. At the age of eight he removed with his parents to the city of Covington, and in 1833 the family emigrated to Illinois and settled in Vermillion county, in that State. The father was Robert Williamson, a descendant of Elliot Williamson, of Ireland, who immigated to America just prior to the Revolution. In our struggle for independence this ancestor was a soldier, serving in the patriot army through the war. The mother of Delano E. Williamson was Lydia Madden, whose descent ran up througrh that family of Hollingsworths which came with the Quaker colonists under Penn. In his nineteenth year young Williamson removed to Greencastle, Indiana, which was destined to be?.ome his future home. He went there to enter the university, but abandoned the idea after staying in the town for a fortnight, and went to Bowling Green, where he accepted the position of deputy in the office of the County Clerk. Here he found his first bias in the direction of his future profession. His education tip to this time had been such only as he had obtained in the common schools of Illinois. In March, 1842, he took in marriage Elizabeth Elliot, a .sister of the County Clerk, in whose office he was employed. During his residence in Bowling Green, ex- tending over a period of nearly two years, Mr. Williamson devoted his leisure moments to the study of law. In February, 1843, he retvirned to Greencastle, where he entered the office of Eckels & Hanna with a view of prosecuting his studies and becoming a lawyer! At that time admission to the bar was attended with serious difficulties. The 3 oung aspirant must ^^^. 700 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA climb up to the coveted distinction by a greater effort than is required at the present. The examining committee in the case of Mr. Williamson was com- posed of General Tighlman A. Howard, Joseph A. Wright (afterwards Governor of Indiana and Minister to Germany). Delano R. Eckels (after- wards Supreme Judge of Utah) and Henry Secrist, noted for great abilities. This committee reported favorably, and a license was issued, signed by Judge Bryant, of the Circuit Court. The admission, however, was not yet com- plete. The candidate proceeded to Owen county, where he was a second time examined by Judge David E. McDonald, from whom he also obtained a license. Mr. Williamson located as a lawyer first in Clay county, where he entered upon the practice of his profession. There he remained until 1850, when he was elected to the Legislature as a Representative from that county. He was chosen on the Democratic ticket, and received six hundred majority over his two competitors. Among his associates in the House were Ashbel P. Willard, afterwards Governor ; John P. Usher, afterwards Secretary of the Interior ; and Daniel D. Pratt, afterwards Senator of the United States from Indiana. In the year 1853 Mr Williamson moved to Greencastle, and there made his home. In 1858 he was again nominated as a Democrat for the Legislature, but owing to a division in the party was beaten by five votes. Meanwhile he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the State, and, traveling through the adjoining counties, he became well and favorably known, not only as an advocate, but also as a prominent and influential citizen. In the Presidential contest of i860 he was a devoted adherent of Douglas. He took an active part in that campaign and cast his last Demo- cratic vote in that epoch for the " Little Giant of the Northwest " In July, 1859, he formed a legal co-partnership with Hon. Addison Daggy, of Green- castle, with whom he remained associated forthirty years. The firm name was Williamson & Daggy — a name well-known in the legal history of western In- diana. The partners were well balanced in their characteristics and talents, and soon acquired one of the largest and most lucrative practices in the State. In 1861, immediately after President Lincoln's call for troops to suppress the insuirection. Mr. Williamson, never flinching in his devotion to the Union, became an active supporter of the government and the administration. He devoted himself for the next twelve months with patriotic zeal to the promo- tion of the war spirit in his own and adjoining counties. He pressed his loyalty to the extent of producing a rupture between himself and the Demo- cratic party, and he was excluded from its councils and leadership. In June. 1862, at the Union Convention of the State, composed of the Repub- lican party .and the Union Democrats, he received the unsolicited nomination for Attorney-General of the State. Among his five competitors in the con- vention were ex-Senator Pratt and Judge Smith. The war spirit widened the breach between the adherents and the opponents of the government. Men became estranged. Party feeling ran high, and was intensified with the prosecution of the war and with the issuance of the emancipation proclama- tion. At intervals the Democratic party in Indiana gained the upper hand ; THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 701 but the Union cause held on to final triumph. In 1864, 1866, and again in 1S68, Mr. Williamson was re-elected Attorney-General of the State — three terms. In 1S70 he refused a renomination. No better evidence of his pro- fessional skill and unblemished reputation as a man of honor can be given than the unqualified support of his party for the highest legal office in the State for a period of ten years. In 1872 he accompanied Senator Morton in his great canvass through the middle and southern counties of Indiana, participating with great ability in the campaign. In 1876 he was a candidate for Congress before the Republican nominating convention at Greencastle ; but owing to local divisions iu the party he was defeated for the nomination, and John Hanna was chosen as standard-bearer. On the 3d of January, 1861, Mr. Williamson took in second marriage Miss Carrie Badger, of Greencastle, daughter of Elder Oliver P. Badger, a distinguished minister of the Christian Church. Of the children of his first marriage, Robert E., the eldest son, served in the Fourteenth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, participating in the battle of Antietam and in the severe winter campaign that followed. Politically, Mr. Williamson continued to act with the Republican party until the year 1892. By that time the issues of revenue and finance had been clearly announced. On these questions Mr. Williamson had always held the principles of the Democratic party. During the war epoch and the period of reconstruction he espoused the principles of the Republican party as paramount to all questions touching the tariff and the financial manage- ment of the country. The reconstruction period being closed, his old-time sympathies with Democratic doctrines revived, and being unable to influ- ence the doctrines and tendencies of the Republican party, he ceased to act with that organization. He was eagerly welcomed by his old political associates, and in 1894 was nominated by the Democratic party as Joint Representative for the counties of Putnam, Clay and Montgomery. He made a gallant canvass, but owing to the political revulsion of that year was not elected. Before this time, for a period of about four years, Mr. Williamson had been in very ill-health. It appeared at times that his vigorous and active constitution was giving way under the impact of disease and advancing years. From all this, however, he made a splendid rally, and his friends welcomed him back to activity and usefulness. In 1892 he resumed the practice of law, taking in with him, vmder the firm name of Williamson & V/illiamson, his promising son, Badger Williamson, upon whom the more active and aggressive part of the practice now devolves. Delano E. Williamson has attained his place in society and the public life of the State by the possession and exercise of very superior abilities. He has won his position without adventitious aid or artificial contrivance. His success has been the result of individual exertion and persistency, energized by high talent and character. Mr. Williamson is a public speaker worthy the title of orator. His influence has been in a great measure attained by his speech, both at the bar and on the political platform. His manner of address is at once forcible and elegant. He takes to the bar or rostrum a perfectly natural 70Z XHE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA manner, a clear, ringing and agreeable voice, with an unusual ability to think on his feet. With a pleasing style of utterance and perfect gestures, he combines a large measure of that commanding oratorical style which is one of the best inheritances from the great speakers of the middle of the century. Religiously, Mr. Williamson is a member of the Christian Church, in which body he has a great local influence. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and has taken tlie degree of the Royal Arch. In stature, he is about five feet eleven inches in height. He wears no beard, and bears him- self like a young man just entering the contest of life. He is as erect in his carriage as a Shawnee chieftian, and is regarded as singularly good looking and remarkably alert in both thought and action. His face bears the stamp of refinement and culture. He is sociable to a degree. His manners and person are such as to make him a noted figure in any assembly of distin- guished men. His success in life has been attained by steadfastness of purpose, honesty, intelligence and a remarkable force of character. HAYS, SILAS A., was born on a farm in Scott county, Ind., October 20, 1850. He lived with his parents, Alfred and Permelia (Reed) Hays, on the farm until fifteen years of age, when they removed with their family to Greencastle, Ind. , to secure the better school advantages to be had in that city. The subject of this sketch entered the preparatory department of the Asbury University in September, i865, and graduated in the regular college course in June, 1872, receiving the degree of A. B. He stood second in a class of twenty- eight and delivered the salutatory for the class. The year after his graduation he began the study of law in the office of ex-Judge Fred. T. Brown, in Green- castle, but did not begin the practice at once. He served for two or three years as city editor of the Greencastle Banner, then published by George J. Langsdale. In February, 1876, he was elected City Clerk of Greencastle, and held the position until September, 1880, having been twice re-elected. In January, 1879, he formed a partnership for the practice of the law with Hon. Thomas Hanua (afterward Lieutenant-Governor of Indiana), which was con- tinued for about four years. In 1879 the firm was employed to defend one Greenberry Thompson, on the charge of having murdered and robbed a rich old fellow by the name of Staley, in the south part of Putnam county. The case was prosecuted with vigor. Colonel Matson being engaged to assist the regular Prosecuting Attorney, and the firm of Hanna & Hays made consider- able reputation in the trial, which was very exciting, lasting for nearly two weeks and resulted in the acquittal of Thompson. Since then Mr. Hays has been employed in nearly every murder case tried in Putnam county, the most noted being the prosecution of Noah R. Evans for killing of one Dick Adams on the streets of Roachdale, Ind., in 189 1, and the defense of City Marshal William E. Starr, for killing a young man named Ruark, while trying to make an arrest one night in 1892. Evans was convicted of murder in the first degree, and is now serving a life sentence in the Prison South, and the City -.4. ^^^r^^Vl^ /?, Pc\/^& I 704 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Marshal, after a very exciting and hotly contested trial in which, in addition tT the Prosecuting Attorney and his deputy, the Hon. D. E. Williamson, ex- Attorney-General, ex-Congressman Matson, and the Hon. George A. Knight, of Brazil, were engaged in the prosecution, was triumphantly acquitted. From January i, 1889, to January i, 1893, Mr. Hays was a partner of Hon. H. H. Mathias in the law practice. In i884, Mr. Hays was the Republican nominee for the Legislature in Putnam county, but the county being largely Democratic, he was defeated by the Hon. John R. Gordon. In 1886 Mr. Hays made the race for the Legislature in the counties of Clay, Putnam and Hen- dricks against Fred. J. S. Robinson of Clay county, the latter being elected by a combination of Democrats and Grangers, or Greenbackers. In 1888, Mr. Hays was elected State Senator from the counties of Putnam and Hendricks, serving in the session of 1889 and 189 r, being a member of the Judiciary Com- mittee in both sessions. Mr. Hays has always taken an active interest in politics, and like his father, who was an original abolitionist, and one of the organizers of the party in Indiana, has always been an ardent Republi- can. He served as a member of the Republican County Committee for several years and was Chairman during the campaigns of 1886 and 1888. He was an alternate delegate from the Fifth District to the Republican National Conven- tion in 1892, and worked hard for the nomination of General Harrison ; was an instructor in the Law School of the DePauw University in 1893-4 ; is a Director of the Central National Bank of Greencastle, Ind. He was married October 5, 1881, to Miss Lillie A. Farrow, of Greencastle. His wife is a daughter of Richard S. Farrow and Sarah E. Farrow, formerly of Greencastle. Her father served two years as Treasurer of Putnam county. COFFEY, SILAS D. Judge Coffey, who has just retired from the Supreme Court Bench, is a native of this State, having been born on a farm in Owen county, February 23, 1839. His father and mother were Hodge R. and Hannah Coffey. The former came from Tennessee, where he was born, and was of Irish descent ; the latter was born in North Carolina, and was of English extraction. Judge Coffey was reared on a farm, received such education as the common schools of the country then afforded, and enterf-d the State University, at Bloomington, in i85o. When the war of theRebellion broke out, he enlisted in the three months' service, on the 19th day of April, i86i, but when his company reached Indianapolis, it was ascertained that the call for three months troops was filled. His company, with others enlisting under similar circumstances, were at once mustered into the State service for the service of one year, but upon the first call for three years' troops they entered the United States service for that period, as the 14th Indiana Regiment ; and he remained with them until June, 1863, when, owing to ill-health, he was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corp.s, where he remained until the next year. While serving in the army he carried a. copy of Blackstone in his knapsack, and perused its musty pages ilj-^y-^ L\juA^erip^II^ rit^^^.^ Ji cJi 45 706 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA when time in the camp hung heavy. After returning home, he pursued his legal studies diligently, and soon opened an oiEce at Bowling Greene, then the county seat of Clay county, this State. In 1865 he made an unsuccessful race for Prosecuting Attorney of his district, but was defeated by John C. Robinson, of Spencer, the district being Democratic and he being a Repub- lican. The district was then composed of Green, Clay, Owen and Putnam counties. He had a partnership at Bowling Greene with Hon. Allen T. Rose, a very successful lawyer and one widely known. No railroad extended through this town, and for many years there was an agitation to move the seat of justice to Brazil, an enterprising town lying on the Indianapolis & Terre Haute railroad (usually now called the "Vandalia.") In 1877 this was accomplished, and in the same year Judge Coffey moved to Brazil, where he has ever since resided. He and William W. Carter formed a partnership in the year 1868, which continued until the former ascended the bench. In 1873 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Judge of his circuit, being beaten with his party, his opponent being Judge Solon Turman. In 1881 Governor Porter appointed him Judge of the 13th circuit, to fill the vacancy occa- sioned by the death of Judge Solon Turman. In 1882 he was nominated for this position and elected by 665 majority, though the circuit had at least 600 Democratic majority. In this race he ran 1,218 votes ahead of his party in his own county. In 1888 he was nominated by the Republican State Con- vention for Judge of the Supreme Court, and elected. He took his seat January 7, 1889, and served until January 7, 1895. While on the Supreme Court Bench many grave constitutional questions came before the Court. The legislature of 1889 was Democratic, although the State had gone Repub- lican on the general ticket Necessarily not the best of political feeling existed between the Legislature and the Executive branch of the government, and in this tactic hostility the Judiciary did not escape. A Supreme Court Commission was created, and the members of it appointed by the Legisla- ture. The Court found itself compelled to declare it unconstitutional, and in this the bench was united, although one of them was a Democrat. Stat- utes were passed to secure control of cities whose administration was then in the hands of the Republicans. The validity of these statutes came before the Court and were declared invalid, because an invasion of that local self-gov- ernment secured by the constitution. Not content with the patronage allowed it in appointing officers to serve it, the Legislature sought to wrest from the hands of the Executive, the power to appoint a State Geologist and a Stale Statistician. This, Gov. Hovey resisted, and appointed persons to fill the vacancies, notwithstanding the fact the Legislature had passed a law over his veto and itself filled such vacancies. This, necessarily, brought on a strife between the several appointees, and resort was had to the courts to settle the controversy. The Supreme Court decided those statutes invalid, and held that the vacancies should have been filled at the last general elec- tion, instead of resort to the appointing power of the Governor. The effect of these many decisions was to create an intense political feeling in the THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 70'/ Democratic ranks ; and in the State platform of that party for 1890, Judges Coffey, Olds and Berkshire were denounced by name and charged with hav- ing rendered partisan decisions. It is scarcely necessary to say that this was untrue ; and time will amply refute the charges. A few individual hot- heads of the party seem to have secured the reins of the convention, and an always willing popular audience, when extreme and violent views are taken, applauded to the letter. In 1891 the Legislature gerrymandered the State in an outrageous manner. The validity of the statute was attacked, and the court declared it unconstitutional. Judge Coffey writing the opinion. This opinion called down on him the maledictions of the Democratic party. The validity of the statute providing for the "Australian Ballot" system of vot- ing was attacked, and Judge Coffey in an exhaustive opinion held it valid. In the construction of this statute, and the method of voting, he rendered an opinion which is regarded as one of the leading opinions in the United States, being cited in many courts even at this early date. The Legislature of 1891 enacted a fee and salary law, placing all State and county officers upon salaries and requiring them to pay over their fees to the public treasuries to provide a fund for their compensation. This statute was enacted in the face of the strongest and most determined lobby that ever surrounded a Legislature in this State. It was assailed in the courts on many alleged errors, chief of which was the omission to provide salaries for the Auditor, Treasurer and Recorder of Shelby county. The enemies of the law were unfortunate in selecting their first point of attack, the suit being brought by the Sheriff of Vigo county. But inasmuch as all the sheriffs of the State were provided wi h salaries, the court held that this sheriff could not complain because of the fact that the Auditor of Shelby county had no salary provided for him. The other objections were decided adversely to the relator. Judge Coffey wrote the opinion in this case. It was immediately met with a storm of abuse. Almost every county officer in the State was aroused. The law did not apply to those persons in office, or who had been elected to office when it went into force, but only to those who were there- after elected. Every officer assailing the law had accepted his nomination, invested his campaign funds, made his race and accepted his office with full knowledge that this law was upon the statute books of the State ; and they had no reason to complain of this decision holding it valid. This decision was rendered in January, 1894. It was announced that Judge Coffey would be a candidate for re nomination, and soon there were rumors of a county officers' Republican organization to defeat him in his re-nomination. When the State convention met in April, 1894, the members of this organization were on hand in force. They were the most influential persons, as a rule, from their respective counties. While denying that there was such an or- ganization, they were still the best organized force in and surrounding the convention. The ticket to be nominated was a long one, the convention composed of over one thousand delegates, and the roll-calls were long and laborious, these many candidates for each office, requiring many ballots. 708 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Although the convention was called early in the forenoon, it did not con- clude its labors until the next morning after three o'clock, a continuous session. Nominations for Judge were not presented until near the end of the ticket and were not made until two o'clock in the morning. Many of the delegates, worn out with the protracted session, had left, and not one-third of those sent to the convention remained. Many of those remaining were Judge Coffey's most active opponents, the members of the organization to secitre his defeat, and they accomplished their designs, but by only a majority of two votes. This is certainly a sad commentary. For here was a judge bound by his oath to support the constitution of his State, and who, after patient study and careful consideration of the matter, decided a case as his judgment and conscience dictated ; and yet for having followed his con- science and judgment, was turned down at the behest of a class of men whose sole grievance was that he would not declare a statute unconstitutional so that they might put a thicker lining in their pocket with the fees extracted from an already suffering public, and that too in the face of the fact that they all accepted their nominations, made the race and accepted their office with full knowledge of the provisions of the statute upheld. It is to be hoped that this State may never again see an attempt to coerce or turn down a judicial officer for having done his duty as he honestly sees it. November I, 1864, Judge Coffey married Miss Caroline L. Byles, daughter of William and Sarah Byles, of Baltimore county, Maryland. They have one son and three daughters. He now resides in Brazil. Judge Coffey is a thirty-second degree Mason. His opinions do not exhibit as great learning as the opinions of some judges. They are written in few words for the number of points decided. There are very few, if any, dicta. But no one reading them can fail to appreciate that this author was master of his subject and the case. His services in the consultation room were highly valued by his brother judges. MCGREGOR, HON. SAMUEIy M., from a log cabin in his youth, to pros- perity, honor and distinction in later life ; from the green country at fourteen, to the shrewd business man, skilled lawyer, respected citizen and just Judge at forty-five, is, in brief, the history of Hon. Samuel M. McGregor, Judge of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit of Indiana. One of the greatest guarantees to the permanency of our institutions is the fact that the highest stations, political and social, are open to any citizen who possesses the ability, industry and moral worth to obtain them. These necessary elements to success are possessed in high degree by Judge McGregor, and his life, since early manhood, when the writer first formed his acquaintance, has been a series of triumphs. Uneventful was his early life. Born January 17, 1843, in a log cabin in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, he alternated between farm and town life in that county, attending school in the winter months, until fourteen years of age, when his parents, in 1863, left Ohio and located at Flora, Clay county. Ills. During their short residence of but two years at 710 THE BRNCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Flora, the young man gained some experience in business matters, being employed as clerk in a grocery store, and later in a drug store in the same capacity, when not actually in attendance at school. In 1865 his parents removed to Poland, Clay county, Ind., when his father. Dr. John C. McGregor, engaged in the practice of medicine, and his brothers, an elder and a younger, entered into the general mercantile business, while the sub- ject of this sketch procured a teacher's license and between that time and 186S taught two winter terms and one summer term of school iu Clay county and one winter term in Putnam county. When not engaged in teaching, he employed his time in the study of medicine iu his father's office, until the fall of 1868, when he entered the Wabash College at Crawfordsville, Indiana, as a student, and remained there three years, until the spring of 1871, when ill health made it necessary for him to retire and seek other employment. His fellow students speak in the highest praise of his college career. He was a close student, applying himself diligently to his studies and soon took high rank and advanced station iu his class. The advantages for debate and literary training afforded by the literary societies of this excellent institu- tion of learning were taken advantage of, and in a very short time he gxined favor as a speaker and debater. At one time he was selected as the repre- sentative of his class in prize oratorical contest in which much interest centered, and succeeded iu gaining first honors and capturing the prize. Af- terward he was selected as the representative of his class in a debating con- test in which college circles were equally interested, but before the time for the discussion arrived, he was compelled to reluctantly give up college life. On the 1st day of July, 1871, he entered the law office of Enos Miles, at Bow- ling Green, Indiana, as a law student, and on the tenth day of the same month was admitted to the bar. In June, 1872, he received the nomination for District Attorney, at Spencer, Indiana, before the Democratic con- vention, the Common Pleas District then being composed of Putnam, Clay, Owen and Greene counties, and was elected, when, by act of the Ivegislature, the Common Pleas Court was abolished, thus relieving him of his office. Immediately thereafter he entered into the practice of law at Bowling Green, soon building up a lucrative business. On Septem- ber 19, 1875, he was married to Miss Belle Major, of Bowling Green, and his family now consists of his wife and their daughter Maude M., born September 17, 1876, and a son, John V., born August 26, 1882. In 1876 he was a candidate for State Senator before the Democratic convention of Clay and Owen counties, there being two other candidates from Clay county and the nomina- tion being conceded to Clay county by Owen. At this time there was a bitter county seat war being wage!, in which practically all the citizens of the county were engaged. An effort was being made to change the county seat from Bowling Green to Brazil, and a legal contest which had been protracted through a number of years was rounding up favorably to the change. After a long continued and stormy convention, and after repeated balloting, it was ascertained that McGregor had a majority of the votes, but being a resident THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 711 of Bowling Green, and presumably favorable to the county seat remaining at that place, the delegates from the north part of the county, in which Brazil is located, asked and obtained leave to change their vote, and gave it to Owen county, which, with the Owen county vote, secured the nomination of Hon. Inman H. Fowler. In 1877 the county seat was changed from Bowling Green to Brazil, and that memorable contest came to an end. The attorneys, most of them, followed the records and took up their residence in Brazil. Judge McGregor was among the first to come, and very soon thereafter formed a partnership with Senator Isaac M. Compton, under the firm name of McGregor & Compton. This business relation continued until the death of Mr. Compton, which occurred in July, 1886. During all this time the firm had a large and lucrative practice and extended clientage. In 1882, Judge McGregor again entered politics, being chosen as the candidate of the Demo- cratic party for the position of Prosecuting Attorney of the Thirteenth Judi- cial Circuit, composed then, as now, of the counties of Clay and Putnam. He was elected and served the public so well that when renominated for the same position two years later, the Republicans paid him the high tribute of placing no one in nomination against him. During the four years that he held this position, he discharged his duties with great efficiency, and the people of this district were never better guarded against the criminal classes than during his term of office as Prosecuting Attorney, when the public came to know and appreciate his merits and ability, and in 1888, when the Demo- cratic convention of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit met for the purpose of nominating a candidate for Circuit Judge, with one voice and as one man they took up his name and gave him the nomination, although he was not a candidate and had not solicited the position. His opponent on the Republican ticket was the Hon. Delano E. Williamson, a former Attorney-General of the State, and a man renowned as a lawyer and eminent as an advocate. At this time Hon. Silas D. Coffey, late Judge of the Supreme Court of Indiana, occupied the Circuit Bench in the Thirteenth District, having been, six years before, elected as a Republican by a majority of about one thousand. Not- withstanding this fact, Judge McGregor was elected as a Democrat in the same district to succeed Judge Coffey, by a majority of about eight hundred over his distinguished opponent, and during his first term of six years, dis- charged the duties of that responsible position with such satisfaction and acceptance to the public, that when his name was presented in 1894 to the convention for renomination, he received the unanimous vote of both Clay and Putnam counties on the first ballot, although three others, likewise honorable and worthy gentlemen, sought the position. The Republicans nominated Hon. J. A. McNutt, of Brazil, and notwithstanding the memorable political landslide of 1894, when Clay county gave an average Republican majority of two hundred and fifty, the Judge carried the county by a majority of thirty-four and the district by a majority of one hundred and thirty-three, and is now serving on his second term as Circuit Judge. In his private 712 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA business affairs, as well as in public life, Judge McGregor has been success- ful. He has accumulat ed a small fortune, from the profits of which he could live at ease during the remainder of his life. He is the owner of the McGregor opera house, an imposing three-story structure, which occupies the centre of the busines portion of Brazil. He owns other valuable city property, and several farms, including coal lands of much value. He has secured plans, and let the contract, for what will be one of the most imposing and complete dwellings in the city, which he will occupy as his family residence. His business ability was well displayed in the management of the largest estate ever settled in the county, that of the late Benjamin F. Shattuck, deceased, the management of which was placed in his hands as executor of the will, in i885. As such executor he platted Shattuck's fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth addition to the City of Brazil, placing the lots on sale, and finally, in the settlement of the estate, distributing funds and assets of the value of two hundred thousand dollars, to the satisfaction of all the heirs and in accord- ance with the term of the will. As a man. Judge McGregor is sociable, affable, and upon any and all occasions may be approached by the most humble citizen, with assurance of kind treatment and due consideration. He has a high regard for the personal feeling of others, and would not know- ingly by word or deed give insult or inflict pain. The best index to a man's nature and proof of his true worth is his treatment of his fellow-man. One may be great as a lawyer, excel as an author, grow famous as a statesman, orator or divine, but when stripped of his specialty, and the man only is seen, he is small indeed and much deformed who mistreats his fellow-man and has no respect for the feeling and rights of others. Viewed from this standpoint, and measured as a man. Judge McGregor takes high rank among men. As a citizen he is progressive, public-spirited and awake to every effort at public improvement. Every enterprise that has for its purpose the, elevation of society and advancement of the community, receives his sup- port and encouragement. As a lawyer he was true to his client, honest in his dealings, studious in his habits, thorough in research, careful in pleadings and strong in-argument. He always mastered his case and presented it in the very best possible manner. As a Judge he is clear-headed, logical and firm, administering and applying the laws with impartial hand. His rulings upon law and facts are invariably accompanied with a clear and concise statement of the premises from which conclusions are reached. These re- views of evidence and application of law and fact, are frequently so thorough and masterly, and the conclusions attained so evident and irresistible, that attorneys, while suffering defeat, are often forced to admit the weakness of their cause. It is sometimes said of successful men that luck has been with them, and their attainments and prosperity are the result of chance and good fortune. Not so with Judge McGregor. His enviable position among men is the result, not of luck, not of chance, but of industry, ability and true worth. We live at a time when men must battle for what they get, must fight for wealth and war with the contending elements and forces that sur- THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 713 round them for station and success. The man who relics upon chance and luck for success and fortune -will be a failure. There are no flowery crowns of success, ready-made, and to be reached without an effort ; each bud and leaf and flower that enters into such a crown must be plucked with the naked hand, and is found among thorns and growing in difficult places. Judge McGregor is still a young man, and we predict for him a still more prosperous future. [By Hon. D. E. Williamson.] KNIGHT, GEORGE A., the subject of this sketch, was born in Mount Sterling, Muskingum county, Ohio, May 7, 1840. His father, Austin W. Knight, and Achsah (Croasdale) Knight, his mother, were both descendants of English Quakers, from whom they inherited those sterling qualities that characterized them through a long life. Dr. Knight, with his family, emigrated to Indiana in 1853 ^iid settled at Brazil, Clay county. There their son George grew to manhood, and to the present time has made that his home. His early education included a common-school course, and later a medical study under his father's teaching. His active mind and retentive memory enabled him to seize and retain all that came within his mental vision ; his subsequent life has been one of study and mental culture. At the age of nineteen years he began the study of law with the desire to make that his life profession. His reading was dictated and directed by James M. Hanua, one of the late Supreme Judges of the State. Not being willing to avail himself of the modern easy access to the bar, he returned to Ohio and entered the oifice of FoUett & FoUett, an able legal firm of Newark, Ohio, and there continued his legal course under their tuition until com- pleted and he felt himself able to enter the practice. In i85i, shortly after his return to this State, he applied and was admitted to the bar in Clay county, and took his professional oath as an attorney and counselor at law. He at once received a good professional patronage and soon acquired a lucrative practice in all the Courts of that county. In 1871, ten years later, he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the State, and again in 1881 was admitted to practice in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Indiana, and in 1892 was admitted to the bar of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, and finally, as a last step in the line of pro- fessional promotion, January 28, 1895, was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. On the 13th day of May, 1862, he was married, at Brazil, to Miss Lucia E. Hussey, a young lady of finished literary educa- tion, having just graduated with honor at Oxford, Ohio. She was a lady of great personal beauty, more than usual force of character, moral worth and purity of life. Their union was blessed by the birth of five children — Miss Grace Louise, the wife of Mr. W. E. Houpt, a lawyer of Buffalo, N. Y.; Austin W. Knight, a young lawyer of promise, of Brazil ; Helen E., the wife of Mr. David Kahn, of Indianapolis; Lucia M.,the wife of Mr. G. G. Ker- foot, of Brazil ; Edward H. Knight, the youngest child, now attending THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 715 Wabash College, Crawfordsville, lud. Mr. Knight has given all his children the benefit of a college education — the sons at Wabash and the daughters at Oxford, Ohio, the alma mater of the mother. Mrs. Knight was a lady of domestic habits ; her good taste and attachments to husband and children made her house an ideal home. She died December 21, 1892, an irreparable loss to the husband and children, all of whom are yet living. Mr. Knight resides in his elegant home at Brazil with his daughter, Mrs. Kerfoot ; his home is maintained in every particular as his wife left it at her death. In politics Mr. Knight is a lifelong, consistent Democrat, but has never asked nor accepted office ; his life has been one of close study and application to his professional pursuits. He has an extensive criminal and civil practice, and several of his clients charged with murder owe their life and liberty to his legal and forensic ability. In Court he contests every step from the writ to the formal judgment on the verdict, only yielding finally to the inevitable. Mr. Knight is now the attorney for the large manufacturing interests of Brazil and six railroads centering at Brazil or running through that county. His ample fortune and extensive practice require all his time. He is emi- nently social and liberal in his intercourse with society ; faithful and devoted to his friends. In person he is below the medium stature, full-chested and broad-shouldered, light, curly hair, large blue eyes, a noble countenance, capable at his pleasure of expressing all the emotions of the heart, all of which he brings into force in his advocacy at the bar. BIDDIvE, HORACE P. On March 24, 18 11, Horace P. Biddle was born, twelve miles below Lancaster, Ohio, in what is now Hocking, but then Fairchild county. His father's given name was Benjamin, and his mother's maiden name Abigail Converse. The former was born in Connecti- cut, came to Ohio in 1788, and died in 1829 ; the latter died in 1817. Horace was the youngest son. When he was sixteen years of age he went to Mus- kingum county and clerked in his brother's store. He did not begin reading law until 1836, when he was in his twenty-fifth year. The common schools, poor at that day, were only his alma mater. He had, however, a great thirst for reading, and perused every book within his reach, obtainable, and upon the advice of United States Senator Thomas Ewing, Sr., he entered the office of Hocking H. Hunter, and read law at Lancaster. He was admitted to practice at Cincinnati in April, 1839, and at Columbus, in the following October, to the Federal Courts. During the next few months after April he made the circuit, as was then the practice, and received a decided benefit from his experience. He located at Logansport, Ind., October 18, 1839, and opened an ofEce. In a year's time he had a lucrative practice. In 1844 he was nominated as Elector on the Whig Presidental ticket, and made many speeches throughout the northern portion of the State for Clay, with whom he had more than a casual acquaintance. In the year 1845 he was nomin- Jf(r^^^CJ^:o\>*^-. (a- 6L^M-(xa^^ t^Vi- ^-""Vt^ THE BENCH AXD BAR OF INDIANA 737 the Democratic party, it was thought that they should have recognition ; anri it was sought to give them this recognition by the election of Hammond. At the October election Willard and he were elected. As a presiding officer over the Senate he was recognized as eminently fair. On the 5th of October, i860. Governor Willard died at St. Paul, Minn., where he had gone to recu- perate his health. He was the first Governor of this State to die in office. In 1822 Lieutenant-Governor Boone had become Acting-Governor, succeeding Jonathan Jennings, who resigned to take a seat in the lower House of Con- gress. In 1825 James Brown Ray, though only President of the Senate, became Acting-Governor, when William Hendricks resigned to accept a seat in the Senate of the United States. Since Hammond's time the office of Governor has been filled three times by the Lieutenant-Governor — on the resignation of Lane, and on the deaths of Williams and Hovey. On the nth of January, 1861, Governor Hammond retired from office, Henry S. Lane succeeding him. Two days after his inauguration. Lane resigned to accept a seat in the Senate of the United States, and Oliver P. Morton became Act- ing-Governor. Thus in 103 days Indiana had in fact four Governors. In his first and only message to the Legislature, Governor Hammond recommended that the ballot box be protected by better and more stringent laws ; and that the collection of debts due the State be made in gold and silver. In this we hear an echo of the days of unstable currency, a thing the present generation can scarcely realize. He also recommended a sub-treasury for the State ; and also a House of Refuge for the reformation of juvenile offenders, to be built on a farm located four miles west of Indianapolis, purchased for that purpose. No such house, however, was built, until the present one, during Gov. Hendricks' administration, was Ic'Cated at Plainfield. Gov. Hammond also favored a peace convention, for the purpose of reconciling the differences between the Northern and Southern States, and approved the Crittenden Compromise. In pursuance of his recommendations the Legislature passed a resolution for the appointment of Peace Commissioners, and Gov. Morton appointed such. Shortly after retiring from office Gov. Hammond's health failed him. He was severely attacked by rheumatism, so much so that he had to use crutches. In 1874 he went to Colorado, thinking that the bracing atmosphere of that region would be of benefit to him, but he died in Denver, August 27, 1874. Fcur days later his remains reached Indianapolis. Gov. Hendricks issued a proclamation closing the State offices. He was laid at rest in Crown Hill Cemetery. Hon W. W. Woolen says of him, that he "was not a showy man, but he was an able one, much abler than the public gave him credit for. He had an analytic and logical mind, and was remarkably clever in stating his position and drawing his conclusions. He had not great learning, but was a close observer of events, and during his life gathered a mass of information not found in books. He was not particularly well read in the law, but he was a good lawyer, for he comprehended principles and was able to apply them in his practice." He was of a restless disposi- tion, not content to sit in his office and wait for a client ; and it is now dififi- 47 738 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA cult to understand how he attained much practice. The same writer says of him : " Until he became afflicted with rheumatism, Gov. Hammond was an unusually fine speciman of physical manhood. He walked with a spring and moved with the agility of an athlete. He was of medium height, com- pactly built, and of dark complexion. His head was large and well shaped. While the expression of his countenance was kind and gentle, it never be- trayed passion or emotion. He was cool, deliberate and self-possessed, keep- ing his feelings and temper under perfect control. He was frank in his manners, honorable in his dealings and dignified in his deportment. Although not one of the most learned Governors of Indiana, he was, by nature, one of the ablest." Judge Hammond's widow, Mary B. (Amsden) died at Denver in 1889. His only surviving child, Mrs. Georgie Sweeney, whose husband, Anthony Sweeney, lately deceased, was one of the most prominent and prosperous men of Denver, resides in that city. JOHNSON, RUEL M., was born in Erie county, Pennsylvania. He was one of six children born of the marriage of Solomon A. Johnson and Miss Minerva Powell, both of whom were natives of Chittenden County, Vermont. At an early age his parents moved with him to Indiana, and here he was reared and educated. The country where they settled was then new and wild, and no one not passing through the experiences they had can have an idea of the self-denial and hardships which the early settlers of this State endured. By the death of his father, Mr. Johnson was thrown upon his own efforts at the early age of twelve years. He attended school in the winter and worked on farms in the summer until he was fitted for college. Enter- ing Michigan State University at Ann Arbor, of that State, he graduated in 1858 with high honors. While attending the University he, part of the time, supported himself by sawing wood, sweeping the recitation rooms and by other like humble work, living in the plainest manner possible ; the third year he secured a position with the professor of astronomy in the Detroit Observatory, and thence fared better. While he was in attendance at the University the subject of co-education arose, and Mr. Johnson took active ground in its favor, corresponding with many leading educators, and placing their views before the regents of the University. He was thus instrumental in bringing about an early adoption of the plan of co-education by the Uni- versity. He returned to Elkhart county and read law with Hon. Robert Lowry, and upon admission to the bar became his partner. After his return from the war he formed a. partnership with Capt. A. S. Blake, at Goshen, and there continued in the practice of the law with marked success until 1886, when he went to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to serve as clerk of the Supreme Court and clerk of the United States District Court, having been appointed by the Chief Justice of that territory. In 1878 he went to Europe and there remained three years, traveling chiefly in Germany, studying the language of that country, and taking lectures on law and history in the famous Uni- 740 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA versity of Leipsic. In 1888 he resigned his position as clerk, receiving the commendation of the Chief Justice for his faithful and conscientious attend- ance to the work of his office. While clerk of the Supreme Court of New- Mexico, although a Democrat, he was elected by the Republican Legislature, of that territory, reporter of that Court ; and under the appointment edited and published the third and fourth volumes of Supreme Court reports of that territory. On retirement from the office of clerk he opened an office for the practice of the law in Las Vegas, but returned to Elkhart county in May, 1890, where he still resides. Col. Johnson's career as a civilian is one of which he may well be proud ; but it is his career as a soldier that is dearest to his heart. In the month of August, 1862, when the Union armies were being driven before the enemy, he, within a period of five days, raised a company of one hundred men. It became Company D of the One Hundredth Indiana Volunteers, and he was elected its Captain. This regiment formed a part of the Fifteenth Corps, commanded by General \V. T. Sherman, consti- tuting a part of the army that besieged and took the city of Vicksburg. It took part in the campaign to relieve the garrison at Chattanooga, and was among the first to reach the crest of Missionary Ridge in that famous charge. In this charge Colonel Johnson led his regiment, having been promoted to the rank of Major. His horse was shot under him, and he received four bullet holes through his coat and was slightly wounded in the cheek by a piece of shell. Shortly after the regiment was detailed to relieve Burnside at Knoxville. When the spring of 1864 opened the armies in Tennessee and the neighboring States began the advance upon the forces of the enemy. The One Hundredth was engaged in many of these battles, such as Snake Creek Gap, Resaca, Dallas, New Hope Church, Big Shanty, Kennesaw Moun- tain, Nickajach Creek, Chattahoochie River, Decatur, Cedar Bluffs, Jones- boro, Lovejoy and Atlanta. At Resaca he was particularly commended by General McPherson for his bravery and generalship in handling the attacking skirmishes which he commanded. At the battle of Atlanta, on July 22, 1864, he was captured by the enemy. He was forwarded to the rebel prison at Macon, Georgia, but on the way escaped, only to be recaptured and forwarded to that prison. From here he was transferred to Charleston, South Carolina, and with other Federal officers was placed in line of fire from the Union batteries in order to deter the Union forces from firing on the city. This was unavailing, but fortunately no one was injured. In a special exchange of prisoners General Sherman selected Major Johnson as one of the prisoners to be exchanged, thus testifying to his efficiency as an officer. Returning to Atlanta he resumed the command of his regiment, and thence marched with Sherman to the sea. From Savannah he marched through the Carolinas, being in the battles of Branchville, Congaree Creek, Columbia and Benton- ville, and arriving at Goldsboro, North Carolina, March 24, 1865, thus marching with his regiment some thirteen hundred miles and engaging in some seventeen heavy battles. With his regiment he was the first to enter Columbia, South Columbia, and there witnessed the spread of the fire started THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 741 bv the rebels to destroy the cotton iu store, iu order to prevent it falling into the hands of the Federal forces. Of his knowledge he is able to testify that the cit}' was set afire b}' this biirning cotton and not bv the Federal troops. With his regiment he led the grand review of Sherman's arm}- at Washington. His army record is as follows : Commissioned Captain, Atigust 22, 1S62 ; Major, August iS, 1S63 ; Lieutenant-Colonel, January 9, 1S64; Colonel, May 2, 1865. General Logan tendered him the office of chief of staff, but he declined, preferring to remain with his old regiment. On February 26, 1891, he wedded Miss Jeaunette, daughter of Elias and Rachel (Felkner) Gortner. He is a Democrat, and was so before and during the war, supporting Stephen A. Douglas for the Presidency in 1S60. He is a Knight Templar, a Scottish Rite (32") Mason, a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and of the Loyal Legion. He is yet, comparatively speaking, a young man, and of him it may well be said that he hqs a bright, prospective future before him. He is en- terprising, public spirited, honorable and a conspicuous citizen of the State. Of him it has been said : " When to his magnificent military history is added his clean, able record as a civilian and his acknowledged worth as a man, there is presented to the world a good representative of model American citizenship." MASON, AUGUSTUS LYNCH, one of the yourgest citizens of Indian- apolis, vpas born February 10, 1859, in Bloomington, Monroe county, Indiana. His grandfather, Tho-nas H. Lynch, was a Methodist preacher well-known in Indianapolis for the last 1 alf century. At the time of his birth his father, William F. Mason, was a Methodist minister, and the birthplace of the ^-oung man was the Methodist parsonage at Bloomington. His boyhood was passed in Cincinnati, where he attended the public schools. In 1872 his parents removed to Indianapolis, where he entered what was then known as the Northwestern Christian University, now known as Butler University, attending there for two years. In 1876 he entered Indiana Asbury University, now known as DePauw, at Greencastle, Indiana, where he grad- uated in 1879. On leaving college he entered the law office of McDonald & Butler, at Indianapolis, for the purpose of studying law. At that time the firm had the largest practice in the State, and Mr. Mason was the youngest of a series of six clerks and students. By good fortune, in the course of two vears he became chief clerk for the firm, and began to take part in important litigation. In 1882 Judge Robert N. Lamb, of the Indianapolis bar, took Mr. Mason into partnership with him, a business relation which continued for a year. During this year Mr. George C. Butler, a brilliant young lawyer, well- known at the time to Indianapolis lawyers, junior member of the old firm of McDonald & Butler, died, and Mr. Mason was invited to become his successor m the firm. The arrangement was consummated May i, 1883, and the firm continued to he known as McDonald, Butler & Mason until the latter part of 1887. At the time of entering the McDonald firm, Mr. Mason gave consider- THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 743 able attention to writing, being spurred thereto by the necessity of money. He wrote a large part of the "Life of Garfield " within thirty days of the statesman's death. The book was published under the name of John Clark Ridpath, by whom Mr. Mason was employed to assist in the preparation of the book. So successful were the chapters in the "Life of Garfield" pre- pared by Mr. Mason, that at the close of this work he was invited to prepare a popular history of the famous Indian warriors and frontiersmen of North America, which offer was accepted. In eight months he produced a work of a thousand pages known as "The Pioneer History of America," and pub- lished at Cincinnati. The book met with a very large sale at the hands of subscription book agents. In the preparation of the work Mr. Mason read and annotated some 500 volumes, from which he drew his information. His only regret concerning the book developed a year or two since, when a prominent politician of this State met him in a train and declared that the book had caused his youngest son to run away for the purpose of fighting Indians and it cost him fooo to recover the youth. In the latter part of 1887 Mr. Mason had the misfortune to feel the effects of overwork and found that his health was seriously impaired. By the advice of physicians he was com- pelled to retire from business and spent a year in travel, visiting practically every part of the United States. In January, 1889, he returned to Indian- apolis much improved in health and reopened his law office. While engaged in general practice he was chosen by a committee of the Commercial Club and the Board of Trade for the purpose of investigating the condition of the laws governing the city of Indianapolis at that time. After careful study of the subject he made a report pointing out the unsatisfactory conditions of the laws governing the city as the source of many of the evils then existing in the government of the city, and recommended that an entirely new charter be prepared for the city and presented to the new Legislature covering the whole field of the government of the city. After a month or two of hesitation this report was adopted, and in connection with a committee of eight other members, well-known business men, the work of reconstructing the charter was commenced. It occupied nearly a year, and was based on the latest approved notions of municipal government as tested by other cities, as well as introducing many ideas heretofore untried in this country. It was re- marked to Mr. Mason when the bill passed the Legislature that it would have been better for his reputation had it failed, for the reason that much of it would undoubtedly be held unconstitutional. A large number of suits have gone to the Supreme Court involving the validity of various provisions of the charter, but up to this time not one line of the charter has been held invalid by the Supreme Court. A lower Court held the provision invalid which gave to the Mayor the power to revoke liquor licenses. It is under this law that the entire executive and administrative authority of the city is lodged in the Mayor. Under its provisions also the improvement of streets and the con- struction of sewers, levees and viaducts, the sprinkling and sweeping of improved streets, are paid for by abutting property holders whose property is 744 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA benefited. The city is also authorized to build and own its own water, gas and electric light works, as well as its street railways. None of these last- named powers have yet been exercised. Mr. Mason regards the preparation of the "Reform Charter" as by far the most important work of his life. Pending the preparation of the charter he was elected dean of the law school of DePauw University, at Greencastle, Indiana. The work brought him in contact with young men and proved to be of the greatest interest to him. Although carrying on the burden of his law office, he found time to prepare and deliver many lectures before the law school during a period of three years. During his practice he has acted as attorney for the American Bell Telephone Company, the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Indian- apolis, Decatur and Western Railway Company, and has been employed in eleven railwaj' foreclosure suits. His connection with corporation matters led him to various employments looking to the construction of new street railroad lines in Indianapolis, as well as to the purchase of the old ones. In the spring of 1893 Mr. Mason accepted, for the time being, the presidency of all the street railroad lines in the city, in which position he still continues, although spending part of every day in his law office. His tastes are literary, and he believes in the gospel of hard work. In politics he is a pronounced Republican, and in religion a member of the Methodist Church, although inclining strongly to the most liberal religious opinions. On January 25, 1893, Mr. Mason married Miss Annie D. Porter, the only daughter of Hon. Albert G. Porter, ex-Governor of Indiana and ex-United States Minister at Rome, Italy. HORD, KENDALL MOSS. The ancestors of Mr. Hord originally came from Sweden and settled in Virginia, where Elias, the grandfather of Kendall M., was born, grew up and married, and then moved to Mason county, Kentucky, where he spent the latter part of his life. His son, Francis T., was born in Mason county, where he grew up to manhood and married Elizabeth S. Moss, a native of Virginia, who had come to Kentucky with her parents in girlhood. Nine children were born of this marriage, Kendall M. being the sixth son and seventh in the family. He was born at Maysville, Kentucky, October 20, 1840, and his youth was passed in that county. His father was a lawyer of unusual ability and transmitted much of that ability to his sons, three of whom became lawyers of the Indiana bar. The subject of this sketch graduated at nineteen from the Maysville Seminary. In 1859 he began reading law with his father, teaching school at intervals to support himself. In the spring of 1862 he passed his examina- tion, was admitted to the bar, and began the practice at Flemingsburg, Ken- tucky, where he remained until the fall of 1863, when he went to Indian- apolis and entered the office of Hendricks & Hord for the purpose of famil- iarizing himself with the code practice of Indiana. In the winter of 1863 he located at Shelbyville, Indiana, where he has ever since resided. The fol THE BENCH AND EAR OF INDIANA 74S loAviiig year he was elected Oistrict Attorney of the Common Pleas Court, holdino; t e office for two years. In iS66 he was elected on the Democratic ticket Prosecuting Attorney of the Circuit Court, which he also held two years, during which time he was recognized as one of the leading lawyers of the Shelby county bar. August 20, 1867, he married Miss Emily McFarland, to whom he has one son born — Luther J. Miss ilcFarlaud was born in Spring- field, Ohio ; her parents' names were John and Betsey McFarland, who settled in Shelbyville about 1S55, and there resided until their death. In 1S72 Mr. Hord was again elected Prosecuting Attorney, and in 1876 Circuit Judge, which position he held twelve years, two full terms. Retiring from the bench in the fall of 1888, he formed a partnership with E. K. Adams, with whom he is yet associated in the practice of the law. In his practice as a lawyer and in his experience as a Judge he has exhibited a keenness of perception, a firmness of grasp upon legal propositions and a power of analysis which are given only to the natural jurist. Few lawyers excel him in power in the Court room, and few have clearer perceptions of the legal principles applicable to the case. He is a lawyer of uncommon parts and of uncommon abilitv. GLESSNER, OLIVER J. The grandfather of Judge Glessner was born in Germany. His given name was John. He immigrated to this coun- try at an early period in its history, and settled in York county. Pa. There was born his son John, the father of Judge Glessner, who, soon after reaching his majority, moved to Baltimore, Md., and settled. He there married Miss Ellen Giddlemau, daughter of John and Mary Giddleman — the former a native of Maryland, the latter of London, England. After their marriage, John and Ellen settled at Frederick, in the same State, and there their son Oliver was born on October ir, 1828, being the third child. Eight children were Ijoru to his parents after his birth. In 1836 his father removed to Indianapolis, where Ihey resided but a short time, and then moved to Morgan county, this State, settling on a farm near Martinsville. His father resided on this farm until i865, when he died in his sixty-sixth year. Oliver resided with his parents until he nearly attained his majority, and left home chiefly to obtain educational advantages, those in his neighborhood being quite meager. He took private lessons under a retired Irish schoolmaster of considerable culture; and then began reading medicine. He was persuaded to abandon the study of medicine and take up the law in its place. He entered the law office of Hon. W. R. Harrison, and soon after the law department of the State University, then under the charge of Judge James Hughes, and was graduated in February, 1856. He at once opened an office in Martinsville and met with unusual success. On December 19, i860, he married Miss Louzena B. Moore, daughter of Nelson and Annie Moore, of Georgetown, Vermillion county, Illinois. Five children have blessed their {yU^-zr-2^^ •y^ ^^-^>Cc " he is a self-made man." Mrs. McNutt is a daughter of Jacob M. and Sarah A. (Prosser) Neely, now of Martinsville, Ind., and is a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal church. Mr. McNutt's chief characteristics are generosity, fidelity, truthfulness and devotion to his family. To those who rendered him aid when he began his professional and political career, he has always been grateful and has improved every opportunity to reciprocate. Since Mr. McNutt has been called to the high position of Librarian 'of the Supreme Court Library he has come in contact with many members of the bench and bar of the State and is deservedly popular with them. HOLMAN, GEORGE WILSON, was born on a farm in Kosciusko county, Indiana, September 30, 1850. His father, Charles W. Holman, was of English descent; his mother was a great-granddaughter of Tarens Burns, of Scotch-Irish descent. His early education was obtained in the country schools, which he attended until in his sixteenth year, when he entered the University of Notre Dame at South Bend. Judge Howard, of the present Supreme Bench of Indiana, was one of his instructors while at college. From Notre Dame he went to Warsaw, Indiana, and entered the law office of W. S. Marshall, as student, with whom he remained a little over a year, and then went to Bloomington and entered the law department of the Indiana University. At that time Judge Cyrus F. McNutt was President of the University, and Judge A. K. Eckels and B. E. Rhoads were the professors in charge of the law department He graduated in the department of law in March, 1873, and soon after his return home located for the practice of his profession in Rochester, Indiana, being admitted to the bar of the Fulton Circuit Court in June of that year. On the loth of May, 1874, he formed a partnership with Hon. M. L. Messick, which continued until May 10, 1884, a period of ten years. On the dissolution of the firm he continued in the practice alone until in the year 1887, when he formed a partnership with Rome C. Stephenson under the firm name of Holman & Stephenson. This ■'"'^'v. 830 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA partnership still exists (1895). He has never held any judicial office, but has frequently beea called to the bench for the trial of special cases. Mr. Holman was appointed National Bank Examiner for Indiana on recommendation of President Harrison ; his commission bearing date of March 11, 1890, and signed by Secretary Windom and Comptroller Lacey. Following the election of 1892 he placed in the hands of the Comptroller his resignation, to take effect at the expiration of President Harrison's administration. He filled the duties of this office with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his superior officers. In the year 1892 Judge Woods, of the Federal Bench, appointed him United States Commissioner. In the year 1884 he was given political recognition by his party in his appointment to represent his district in the Republican National Convention. It may be said that the subject of this sketch was born a Democrat. His first Presidential vote was cast for Tilden, but for some time be/ore this he began questioning the soundness of his views, and began a systematic study of the records of the different polit- ical parties. Up to this time he had never given the subject much thought, but had accepted for his own the opinions of his friends. Through much reading and careful study he reached the conclusion that neither in sympathy nor in belief was he a Democrat, and then occurred one of those episodes in his life which marked the character of the man. He found the work of the Republican party in the past much more in accord with his views, and that his faith in its ability to successfully govern the country was stronger than in any other party. This being the case, to remain in the ranks of his old political friends would be hypocritical ; but to leave them would subject him to all manner of misrepresentation. Notwithstanding this he had the courage to declare his conviction, and then came a torrent of abuse and villification that well might cause a faint heart to quail. It was then his friends realized that " Brave hearts are more than coronets, and simple faith than Norman blood," to sustain a man under trying difficulties. Mr. Holman was married December 24, 1874, to Miss Louise Ely Brackett, a daughter of Dr. Charles Brackett. one of the most skillful surgeons in northern Indiana before the war — who, during the war, was a surgeon of the Ninth Illinois Cavalry, filling this position at the time of his death, in 1863. That he might be with his brothers, three of whom were officers in the Ninth Illinois Cavalry, Dr. Charles Brackett resigned his commission in an Indiana regi- ment. To Mr. and Mrs. Holman four children were born — Minnie Lucille, Hugh Brackett, Grace Marguerite and Georgiana. He is a Baptist, a firm believer in the power of the Christian religion to uplift all who embrace it. He is an Odd Fellow, a Mason and a Knight of Pythias. His record as a lawyer is one of success. In his work before a jury there is no effort at oratorical display, no endeavor to be witty, no attempt to amuse the audience, but a steady, persistent effort through a logical presentation of the facts, to convince the twelve men before him that his view of the case is the correct one. He has gained an unusually large law practice, and his services are THE BENCH AND BAR'OF INDIANA 831 uot only constantly in demand in important litigation in his own county, but he is frequently called into litigated cases in the surrounding counties ; and his ability as a litigant lawyer is well recognized. His firm has charge of the local business of the two railroads entering his town. He is a hard worker, of strict integrity, and ever watchful of his client's interest, a thorough and well-informed law3'er ; a public-spirited man, interested in everything that tends to improve the town ; affable, courteous, but persistent and energetic in all he does ; a true friend and a generous foe after the heat of the quarrel has subsided. Indiana's First Law Printer. • A SKETCH OF ELIHU STOUT AKD HIS WORK. [Henry S. Cabthorn, Jr., in the Indianapolis News, March 4, 1895] About sixty years after James Franklin had founded the New England Courant, which was the second newspaper established in America, a child was born in Newark, N. J., who was destined when grown to be to the great Northwest what the Franklins were to Boston and the East. He was to be- come a printer, carrying his art beyond the Alleghanies and establish and publish a newspaper among the pioneers in what was then known as Indiana Territory. The object of this paper is to record and describe the trials and labors of this pioneer printer iu founding and publishing his paper — the first one in Indiana Territory and the second in the Northwest. Elihu Stout, the son of Jediah and Polly Stout, was born iu Newark, N. J., April i6, 1782. He came of English parentage, who had left "Merry Old England " to seek a home in the new world. He attended the schools of his native place and obtained a good common school education. At an early age he left Newark and emigrated to Lexington, Ky., where he located, and there found work as a compositor on the Kentucky Gazette, a newspaper published by the Bradfords. He remained at Lexington with the Bradfords until 1804, when he determined to start a paper of his own, and chose Vin- cennes, the capital of the Indiana Territory, as the place of its publication. It may not be amiss to say a few words about the Indiana Territory, which was to be the field of the paper. One of the acts of the old Confed- erate Congress was the passing of the ordinance of 1787, creating all that part of the lands of the United States northwest of the Ohio river into a territory to be styled and known as "The Territory of the United States Northwest of the River Ohio." Among the provisions of that celebrated ordinance was the forbidding of slavery and the encouragement of schools, and that out of it should be formed no more than five nor less than three States of the American Union. The extent of this territory was enormous. It took in all of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. By an act of Congress passed in the spring of 1800, and taking effect in July of the same year, the territory was divided. A portion of Indiana, a THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 833 portion of Michigan and the whole of Ohio was called the Northwest Terri- tOTY, and the rest of the original, comprising the remainder of Indiana and Michigan and the whole of Illinois and Wisconsin, became known as Indiana Territory. Two years later, when Ohio became a State, all the rest of what was then called the Northwest Territory was attached to Indiana Territory. The capital of Indiana Territory was Vincenues, a small place situated on the east bank of the Wabash in Indiana. In the beginning of the present century it was one of the most important places in the West, and was visited by many French noblemen, among whom was the great and distinguished La Fayette, when on his tour of the United States in 1824. Being the capital of the Territory it attracted to itself men eminent in science, art and letters. It was the home of General William Henry Harrison, Governor of the Terri- tory, who afterward fought the battle of Tippecanoe, and in 1840 was elected ninth President of the United States, and it was also the place of residence of General Zachary Taylor, afterward President of the United States, and Jefferson Davis, both celebrated in the history of the country. So much for the Territory and its capital where Stout contemplated the setting up of a press and publishing a newspaper. The young printer soon found that his task was an arduous one. The founding of a newspaper in those da^'s was not by any means an easy matter. But jMr. Stout persevered, and about the last of March, having bought at Frankfort, Ky., a press and material, he shipped them by means of a small water craft to Vincennes. The route lay flown the Ohio till reaching the mouth of the Wabash, and then up the Wabash to Vincennes. The boat was three months on its wa3-. Mr. Stout came through on horseback over the "Buffalo trace," a track through the forest so-called on account of having been made by the great number of buffalo which annually roamed from the rich and fertile prairies of Illinois to the blue gra.ss regions of Kentucky. He arrived at his new location in the beginning of the month of April, but the press and material were still on the waj'. At length, about the beginning of June, the long- looked- for press and printing material arrived and were at once placed in position, preparatory to issuing the paper. Mr. Stout had already built a small dwelling-house on the corner of First and Buntin streets, in Vincennes, a part of which was used as the printing-shop. Here on the 4th day of July, in the year 1804, was issued the pioneer paper. It was called the Indiana Gazette, in honor of Bradford's paper, the Kentucl;y Gazette, and was to be to Indiana Territory what Bradford's paper was to old Kentucky. There remains none of the old pioneers left to tell vis how the paper was received. But we may be sure it was heartily welcomed b}- those who could read its pages, and though it brought news of the great outside world — news that had long been forgotten in the places of its occurrence, yet it was news to those who dwelt by the Wabash at Vincennes. It was the period before the telegraph and train. No cable then linked the old world with the new. No ship that sailed the sea but spent not days 53 834 THR BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA but weeks in crossing. None of those great newsgathering and news- distributing agencies were the faithful servants of man. Science still had locked her treasure house and Genius was not searching for the key. Mr. Stout labored hard to place the paper on a firm foundation. With that of editor he also held the position of compositor, proof-reader and press- man. He even did his own delivering, carrying in person his paper to its subscribers. But as his business increased he taught others the printers' art, and they worked at setting the types and printing the paper while he confined himself to editing, writing news and editorials. The paper no sooner had a good start than it had a good set back. In ■ January, 1805, the dwelling and office were consumed by fire and everything was totally destroyed. It was enough to discourage a more courageous man than Stout. But he had opened a good journalistic field and he was deter- mined to develop it. And so he went again to Kentucky in search of press and material. On the fourth day of July, 1807, the paper reappeared, but under another name — that of the Western Sun. Up to the year 1819, with the exception of a few months, from August i to November 17, when George C. Smoot was a partner, and from November 17 to December 23, of the same year, when Jona- than Jennings, the first Governor of this State, was a partner. Mr. Stout was sole editor and proprietor. In 1819 the name of the paper was changed from Western Sun to Western Sun and General Advertiser. In iSig John Washburn became a partner in the business, but soon retired, and it was not until 1839, when Mr. Stout took another partner, this time be- ing his own son Henrj-, the firm became known as E. Stout & Son. The method of printing was the old slow hand process, the type being inked by buckskin balls rubbed with ink and daubed on the type, which was locked in an iron form. The paper was then laid on the type, and paper and form run under a press and pressure applied by a lever. It was, indeed, a very slow process, but fully met the requirements of the times. Editors and printers have to live like other people, and yet many persons were not aware of that fact. This is evident from the frequent notices in the papers stating that ras.\\y subscribers were in arrears. Many were eight or ten years behind in their accounts. Pa3'ment was made in rags, wood, pota- toes and merchandise, as well as money, and these satisfied the printer's bill and pleased the printer's heart. Mr. Stout ran the paper until 1845, when he was appointed by President Polk postmaster of Vincennes. He then upon taking his office, sold the paper and retired from the business. The Western Sun was the official organ of the Territory, and was the chan- nel through which the learned men of the time dwelt upon the leading topics of the times. The old files of the Sun are still in existence, and are frequently resorted to by historical students to inquire into some early events that hap- pened in Indiana before she was a State. Mr. Stout was married April 24, 1805, at Ivouisville, Ky., to Miss Lucy THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 835 Sullivau, davighter of James and Susan Sullivan. To them were born five children, all of whom are now dead. In personal appearance he was of me- dium height, of a wiry frame, posse«isiug a massive head, and wore his hair long and combed back, as was then the custom. He was of a quiet and mod- est disposition, and intellectually equal to the men of his time and of his place. He held many positions of honor and trust, conferred upon him by his fel- low citizens, having been a justice of the peace, deputy postmaster, postmas- ter, recorder of Knox county, treasurer of the common fund of the borough of Vincennes, and clerk of the Board of Trustees of theborough of Vincenues, besides manj^ other honorable positions. :Mr. Stout died at the residence of his grandson, Henrj- S. Cauthorn, in the city of Vincennes on June 22, i860, and he was buried at Vincennes in the city cemeter}', where a modest stone marks the last resting-place of the first editor of Indiana. Great strides have been made in the art of printing since Elihu Stout set up his press and issued his pioneer newspaper. Better type, better ink, bet- ter paper has been a great factor in the change. The invention of electro- tvping and stereotj'ping, the perfection of wood and steel engravings, have steadil}' advanced it among the arts. The slow hand- press inked by buckskin balls, has given wa}' to the cylinder press, which throws off with almost lightning speed copy after copy of the modern newspaper. And while we all admire the enterprise of the papers of to-day, we must not forget the old pioneer printers, who, together with their methods, have passed awa}'. [Mr. Stout was also the first law printer of Indiana Territory, and also of the State. See article on the Laws of Indiana, page 110.] GENERAL INDEX. PAGE Abbott, Benjamin V., .. 116 Adams, E. K 745 Adams, Jay H 728 Adams, John 27 Adams, Thomas B 158, 332 Adkinson, Francis 119 Aldi-ich, Charles H 433 Allen, C. M..--- 628 Allen, Henry Clay 376 Amendment to Constitution - - SO Anderson, Andrew 586 Anderson, J. J 652 Anecdotes 156, 159 Antrim, Xott N. 807 Appellate Court 55, 79 Armstrong, John . - .22 Arthur, Chester A... .. .. 17, 174 Associate Judges .. 136 Attornej'-Generals 58 Attorneys' fees 121,125, 134 Attorneys, number in 1816 89 Attorneys, number in 1890 1'6 Attorneys' qualifications- - 120, 125 Attorneys, ridins^the Circuit, 122, 127 Axtell, Samuel \V 635 Ayres, Alexander C 291 Babb, James E Bailey, Leon O Bail d, Samuel P Baird, Zebulon.. . 66, 67, 223, 722, Baker, Conrad, 40, 50, 167, 189, 229, 2SK. 406, Baker, Francis E. Baker, James P Baker. John H.. 19, 180, 181, 598, Baldwin, Daniel P 58, 117, Ballard, T. E. & E. E 118, Banta, D D., 127, 165, 166, 263, 449, 667, 671, 682, 686, 691, 21 341 725 723 634 ISO 364 177 370 675 PAGE Bar of Indianapolis 149 Bar of State 127 Barbour, Lucien, 44, 78, 90, 113, 116, 149, 154, 246, 257, 264, 366, 387, 652 Barnett, Henry C 688 Barrett (& Holstein) 304 Barrett, James M. ... 431 Bartholomew, Plinj' W. . 366 Bassett, Horace 15 Beach, William B 57 Beasley.JohnT 467 Beecher, Henry Ward 89, 77, 467 Beem, David E 660,667 Bell, Milton 809 Bell, R. C 156, 423, 433 Berkshire, John G 53, 55 57 Best, James 1 51, 59, 61, 306 563 Beveridge, Albert J 346, 756 Bicknell, George A 61, 165, 611 Biddle, Horace P., 46, 50, 51, 56, 68, 715 Bigger, Finley 275 Bigger, Samuel 71, 112, 113, 159 Bingham, Lucius 617 Black, James B., 51, 57, 59, 61, 80, 81, 116, 119, 167, 270, 360 Blackford, Isaac, S3, 40, 43, 56, 62, 119, 149, 164, 256 Blackledge, Frank H 362 BlacUlidge, J. C 823 Blacklidge, W. C 826 Blair (of Hord & Blair) 189 Blair, Solomon 309 Blake, A. S 738 Blake, Thomas H 18 Board of County Commissioners, 107 Bobbs, W. C... 167 Bonner, S. A 622 Boone, A. J 374 Borden (Judge) 159^ THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA S37 PAGE Bosserou, Francis F 21 Brackeuridge, Robert . 68, 6q, 1,59 Bradley, John H... .. 735 Brady, Johu 137 Brandon, A. & J... . 112 Branyan, J. C 561 Brick, Abraham L.- - 58, Bright, :Michael G 74, / / Browder, Wilbur Fisk 116, 360 Brown, Edgar A. 293, 295 Brown, Fred. T. 702 Brown, Hiram, 74, 77, 114, 129, 147, 149, 152, 154, 246, 247, 652 Brown, James M 805 Brown, Joseph H 778 Browne, Thomas M. . 303, ' 513, 534 Browning, \V. W 688 Bryant, James R. i\I 165 Buckingham, William J. 6S4, 685 Buff, George W -461, 467 Bundy, Eugene H... .501 Bundv, Martin Iv 501 Burctienal, Charles H. -469, 473 Burkhart, William 142 Burke, Frank B.. . 346 Burke, M. F 626 Burnet (Judge) -14, 123 Burns, David 310 Burns, Harrison -116, 118 Burns, Robert . 149 Burton, J. W 626 Buskirk, Clarence A 58 Bubkirk, .Samuel H., 50, 56, 117, 324, 344, 362, 374, 652, 662 Butler, George C 741 Butler, John M.- ZZS, 227 Bu ler, Noble C. "l9 Butler, Ovid. . . 7C, 149, 154, 155 Byfield (Judge) 310 Cameron, Archibald 146 Campbell, L. M 653 Capicol at Corydon.. . 18 Card well, George B. 608 Carr, Grorge W 44, 7S ;, 90, 113 Carter, W. W. . . . 706 Carter, Horace E. .57, 119 Case, Charles 412 Cauthorn, Henry S 832 Caven, John 327 Central Lnw School 167 Central Normal College - 168 Chambers, Smiley N.-. 289, 628 Chambers, Frank 652 Chancery, Court uf 95 PAGE Chancery, Masters in 100 Chapin,'A. A 430 Chase, Ira J 53,610, 620 Chase, Salmon P. 110 Chipman, ]\I. .\. 483 Cincinnati Trace - ... 140 Circle, Governor's 18 Circuit Courts 82 Cities, incorporated 101 City Court.. 102 Civil Code 44 Claims, Courts of 103 Clark, Andrew J... 410 Clark, George C. 52S Clark, J. L... . . 168 Clark, Thomas JI. .. . 117 Clarke, Genrge Rogers 20, 27 Clarke, William.. 24, 25, 26, 27 Clay, Henr\-, 15, 38, 3,3, 35, 64, 149, 154, 1.59 Clay, James B 155 Claj-pool, Benjamin F. . 526 Cla3-pool, Jefferson H. . ... 528 Clerks of Supreme Court . 57 Clements, John W. . .. 374 Clements, R. A. . . . 628 Clifford, Vincent G. . .362 Cobb, R. M .561 Coburn, Henry 19, 57, 77, 149 Coburn, Johu, 32, 62, 276, 282, 288, 2S9, 319, 321, 4.50 Code, Maxwell's 110 Codes 41, 113 Codes, Revised . .. 51 C 'dification of 1824 29 Coffey, Silas D. 53, 55, 15,, 704, 711 Coffroth.John R. 61,556,639 Colerick, Henr}' . .. 427 Colerick, Walpole G 51, 61, 427 Colerick, Phineas B 427 Colerick, David H 159,427 Colerick, Thomas W 427 Colerick, John.. .. . 155 Colfax, Schuyler 270 Coombs, William H., 51, .56, 68, 69, 159, 233 Comstock, Daniel W 477 Co'iimissioners of County. .. 107 Commissioners of Probate - 100 Commissioners of Master 100 Commissioners of Supreme Court ,5'; Common Pleas Courts .92 Compton, Isaac M... 711 Conner, J. D 572 Conciliation, Courts of 98 Cook, William W. . . .513 838 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Cooper, Heni}' Cooper, George W. Corbin, Horace Corr, Edwin Corwin, Thomas. .. Counsellors . - . 68, 69 644 .... 572 698 .15, 249 121 Court House of Marion County... 150 Court, Circuit 82 Court, Chancery 95 Court, City 102 Court, Claims . 103 Court, Common Pleas 92 Court, Conciliation 98 Court, County Commissioneis. ... 107 Court, Criminal 98 Court, General, of Northwest Territory 20, 24 Court, Impeachment 94 Court, Justice of the Peace, 83, 104, 107 Court, Johnson Circuit 132 Court, Mayor's 101 Court, Monroe Circuit 133 Court, Police 101 Court, Orphans' 96 Court, Probate 96 Court, Quarter Sessions . .83, 104, 107 Court, Superior 93 Court, Supreme 32, 42 Court, United States Circuit. .. 9, 12 Court, United States Appeals 13 Court, United States District 14 Cox, Charles E 163 Cox, Jabez T . 366, 803 Cox, Millard F. 366 Cox, Sandford E 135, 143 Cox, Linton A 299 Crawford, Randall .63 Criminal Code 44 Criminal Court 98 Cropsey, James M 163, 379 Crumpacker, EdgarD.,SO, 91, 204, 756 Crumpacker, Peter 758 Cullop, W. H 632 Cunningham, George A... 408 Curtin, Andrew G 66 Daggy, Addison 700 Davidson, Robert P 729 Davidson, Thomas F ...117, 776 Davies, Jo 28, 30 Daily, Joseph S 56, 57, 545 549 Davis, David 10, 12, 17 Davis, Eden H 505 Davis, Edwin A... 113,116 Davis, George M . ... 4S» Davis, Jefferson C 301 Davis, John 479, 509 Davis, Sydney B 456 Davis, Theodore P 81, 194, 799 Davis, Thomas Terry 27, 28 95 Davis, W.J 602 Davison, Andrew 43, 56 Dawfon, Charles M 436 Dawson, Reuben J 436 DeBruler, L. Q 203 DeMotte, Mark L 167 Denny, Caleb S 307, 310 Denny, James C 58 DePauw University Law School.. 167 DeWolf, William H 291. 628, 630 Dewey, Charles, 18, 34, 36, 40, 43, 56, 62, 155, 611 Dice, Francis M 57, 119, 360 Dixon, Lincoln 613 Dodge, James S 589 Donald, Alexander C 632 Dougheny, H. H 117 Douglass, Robert L 159 Downey, Alexander C 50, 56, 604 Downey, Samuel R 114 Doyal, Samuel H 752 Drummond, Thomas B 12 Dudley, W. w 175, 334 Dumont, Ebenezer 72, 73 Dumont, John 72, 73 Dunbar, John W 19, 644 Duncan, H. C 644 Duncan, Robert 155 Dunn, George G 64, 155, 326, 652 Dunn, George H. 72, 112 Dunn, William 18 Dunn, William McKee 224 Duy, George C 459 Dye, John T 259, 312 Eccles, Delano R. . .165, 652, 698, 700 Eddy, Norman S 717 Edeline, Louis 21 Eggleston, Miles G., 136, 148, 164, 166, 279 Eggleston, William 117 Elam,John B 236, 351 Elliott, Byron K., 51, 52, 55, 56, 59, 118, 167, 255, 279, 293, 303, 307, 598 Elliott, James F 814 Elliott, Jehu T., 48, 56, 71, 493, 499, 501, 538 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 839 Elliott, William F., 114, 117, 118, 167, 2.SS, J57, Emig, M. D. .. 637, Encell, Robert B. . . . English, William H. Enuis, Alford Evans, Robert G. Evansville, iucorporaied . .. Ewing, Charles W'aviie Ewiug, Cortez Ewing, J. K Ewing, Thomas, Sr.. Fairbanks, Charles W. . . 167, Paris, George W _ Farrand, M. K... _ Farrar, JohnL Farrar, Josiah Farrington, James Fees of Attorney? 121, Females admitted to practice - -. Ferrall, William 110, Field, Stephen J Finch, Fabins M., 19, 74, 7S, 135, 155, 263, 273, Finch, John A Fi=hback, W. P., 167, 207, 246, 264, Fletcher, Calvin, 62, 12S, 143, 146, 149, 152, 153, 155, 249, Forkner, M. E 499, Fort Wayne, incorporated Foster, W. C - Fowler, Inman H.. Fox, Henry C. . France, Charles JI. France, John T. . Francisco, Hiram, Jr. Frank, John H Franklin, William M. .667, «1, 51, 59, 61, 652, Frazer, James S., 48, 51, 56, 113, Frazer, William D. Fremont, John C. . Gage, General Gamble, James B. Gamelin, Pierre Gardiner, William R. Garrigus, Milton -- . Garvin, Thomas E..- Garwood, D. A. Gavin, Frank F 311 640 489 262 449 630 102 433 621 622 715 265 459 583 799 SOI 143 125 125 111 17 662 276 271 261 503 102 141 771 476 543 543 605 139 658 24, 25, 117 Gavin, James 113, 116, 197 General Conrt of Indiana Terri torv General Court of Noithwest Ter ritory Gibson, George H. D. Gibson, John Gilbert, Curtis Gillett, Hiram A Gillelt, John H. Gilman, John Gilman, Nichols. . .. Glessner, Oliver J. Gooding, David S Goodykoontz, E- B... 479 Gook'iDS, S. B 43, 46, 55 Gordon, Jonathan W., 57, 250 312, 341, 515, Gould John H. Governor's House Graliam, John Gray, Isaac P., 52, 18, 210, 232, 240, 455, 632, 639 Gregg, Harvev Gregory, R. C 48, 56, Gresham, W. Q 12, 13, 17, 19, Griffin, Charles F. Griffin, John. 24, 26, 27, Gntfiths, John L. . 57, 119, 157, Griggs, A. S Griswold, William D Groscup (Judge) Groose, William Groves, Robert F... Grubbs, George W. Gullett, A... .648, PAGE 238 30 622 111 95 756 756 745 507 491 64 552 770 43 163 694 146 66 144 759 28 368 652 64 175 499 370 650 519 Hackleman, Pleasant A. Hacknev, Leonar J., 55, 57 Hall, Bavard R. .. Hamill, 'Maxwell C. Hamill, Samuel R. 187 232, 556 Hamilton, Robert . .570, 783 Hammond, Abram A. 10, 65 Hammond, E. P. Hammond, Edgar.. Hammond, U. T. . . 20 Handy, John B 6;2 Hanly, J. Frank 21 Hanna, Bayliss W. 626 Hannii, Henry C. 817 Hanna, John 406 Hanna, James H. Ff4 Hanna, Thomas ..81, 197 Hannegan, Edward A 51, 57 58, 48 . .^6 303, 16 71 684 134 467 462 26 735 732 570 236 309 78'J 314 7.^C 312 713 702 66 840 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA Hardin, Franklin - - 13S, Harding, Stephen Harlan^ John M. - 11, Harlan, Levi Harri?, Addison C. .. 167, Harrison, B> njamin, 11, 48, 57, 119, 174, 205, 223, 232, Zii. 235, 236, 23S, ?40, 245, 246, 205, 271, 312, 335. 515, Harrison, William H. 24. 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 35. 139, Harrison, W. R. 374, 650, Harrod, C. B.. . Harvev, Lawson INI. . .293, Hatfield, Edwin R Hay, William H. Haj'nes, Jacob M. .. . . 418, Hays, J. H Hays, vS. A.. Heihnan. William Heiner, P Heller, D. D Hendee, Edgar E. . Hendricks, Abram W. -- 224, Hendricks, Thomas A., 51 78, 212, 213, 216, 226, 238, 246, 303, 315, 440, 515, 637, 639, 644, Hendricks, William 18, 39, 224, Henley, Joseph A 694, Henry, David W. Henry, Charles L.. Henry, George .\. - Henry, Patrick-. Herod, William Herod, William W. Herod, William P. .. . Herriott, Samuel. -- Herter, Jacob.. . . Hess, Alexander Hester, Craven. .-- He.ster, Jame? . 113, 131, Heth, Richard M. Hickman, Willis.. Hicks, Gilderoy . .669, 673, Hia;gins, R. S. Highland, George Highways in Early Days 140, Hines, Cyrus C. . 23, 155, 236, Holden, Parsons.. Holland, George Holman, George W Holman, Jesse D., 14, 19, 32, ^i, 35, 40, 15, 3.57, 515, 528, PAGE 146 148 12 383 620 317 655 410 297 203 330 538 630 702 734 163 .541 489 ■ V4, .357, 57, Holman, AV. A. Holman, William S. 6.52 737 695 444 489 117 20 355 641 360, 130 606 571 131 .652 18 663 681 372 26 141 246 ZZ 72 828 56 639 535 Holstein, Charles L.. . . Hooper, A. G.. - - Hooper, Paul G Herd, Francis T., 58, Hord, Kendall M Hord, Oscar B., 58, 113, Hord, Oscar B., Jr.. Hord, Frank . . - Hovev, Alvin P., 46, 55 345, 611, 618, Howard, Tilghman H., Howard, Timothy E.,- Howe, Daniel W. . . - Howe, John B. Hovvk, George A'., 50, 5 Howland, Livingston, Hovd, David Hubbell, Orrin Z.. . . Huffcut, E. W Hughes, James Hughes (Judge) . Hughes, Young L. ... Hunt, Nathaniel Hunter, Anderson B Hunter, Craiy Hunter, Morton C Hunter, W'lliam Huntington, ElishaW... Hurst, Henrj' 210, 637, 641, 116, 197, 226, 238, P ^GK . 299 . 602 ., 541 648 744 238 6.52 652 , 56, 272, 622, 706, 64, 138, 164, . .55, 57, 43, 68, 2, 56, 59, 610, 101, 236, 257, 165, 67; .15, 19, .18, 25, 700 183 111 159 611 346 18 592 165 745 652 95 18 671 454 454 111 143 57 Iglehart, Asa 116, 324, 393 Iglehart, John E 398 Impeachment, Court of 94 Indiana Gazette -- - 835 Indiana Territorial Court 28 Indiana University Law School.. 164 Indianapolis, incorporated 102 Indianapolis Law Schools 167 Jackson, Andrew 9, 10, 38, 143 Jacobs, Charles P 167, 387 Jameson, Ovid B Jeffersonville, incorporated Jenkins, James G. . . Jenkinson, Moses Jennings, Jonathan... 28, 3Z, Si Jernegan, Jose h L. -. Jewett, Charles L. Johnson, James . 391 105 13, 17; 44( 73: 6; 5i: zt THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA S41 PAGIS Johnson, John. .29, 32, 33, 56, 87, 111 Johnson Circuit Court 132 Johnson, Ruel il 738 Johnston Gabriel Jones 26 Johnston, General W., 26, 29, 31, 111, 161 Johnston, James T. 458, 461, 465, 774 Jones, Aquilla O... . . . 293 Jones, Aquilla ... 141 Jones, James G 58 Jones, John Rice, 28, 29, il. 57, 58, 87, 111, 140 Jordan, James H. 56, 57, 192 Judah, John M 391 Judah, Samuel 62 Judges, Associate. 136 Judges of Appellate Court 81 Judges of Supreme Court 56 Judges, election by Legislature . . 89 Judges' Salaries 90 Julian, George W 24t), 509 Julian, Jacob B . . 506 Justices of the Peace.. ... ... 83, 104 Justice Trial, anecdote 156 Kane, Ralph K 799 Kane, Thomas E ... 799 Kane, Thomas J .194, 797 Kellison, Charles.. . 575 Keltner, Sanford M. 485 Kelso, D 129 Kennedy, Andrew... . 129 Kennedy, Dumont 787 Kennedy, Peter S . . 783 Kennedy, Schuyler C 787 Kern, John \V.' . . 57, 189, 338, 360 Kerr, Michael C. . . 48, 57, 119 Kessinger, C. B. 632 Ketcham, John L., 77, 149, 319, 324, 652 Ketcham, William A 58 Keves, Melson R.. . 641 Kilgore, Alfred 423 Kilgore, David ...68, 69, 151, 1,52, 538 King, George 145 Kinnard, George L. . 355 Kinney, Amory. ... 64 Kirkpatrick, Lex J 812 Kirk wood, Daniel. . . . 693 Kittinger, William A.. .489 Knefler, Frederick. . .299, 303 Knight, George A. 704, 713 Kochenour, D. A. 624 Koons, George H .493 PAGE Lafollette, Daniel AV. 155, 606 Lamb, John E 463 Lamb, Robert N.. . . 515,' 741 Lamb, William C. 163 Land, William M. 632 Landers, Frank 652 Lane, Henry S. . . 66, : 155, 219,' 229 Law, John .'.. 143, 164, 406 Law Librarj- 49,. 161 Law Schools of Indiana 164 Law Writers 116 I^aws Adopted by Judges 25 Laws, Printing 110 Laws, Reporting 114 Laws of 1807.. 111 Laws of 1818 112 Laws of 1824 112 Laws of 1831.. 112 Laws of 1838.. 112 Laws of 1843 112 Laws of 1852 113 Laws of 18S1 113 Laws of 1894.. 114 I,awyers .... "120, 127 Lawyers, fees izi, 125, 134 Lawyers, numbtr i2e Lawyers, qualifications... .120, 125 Lawyers, riding Circuit . .122, 127 Lawrenceburgh, iucorpo rated.. . . 102 Leas, William H 30f Leathers, W. W 312 Legal-tender decisions. . 4? Legislature, where held i.=;c Legras, J. M. P 21 Lester, Jonathan A. Hi Lewis, E. A. 62C Lincoln, A., 10,15, 16,64 ,66^ ,143, 14c Lockhart, James, . . 65, 406 Lockwood, RufusA. ...66, .67, 139, 73,- Lockwood. Virgil H 38,: Logansport, incorporate< i . '-- 102 Lotz, Orlando J. .81, 193 Louden, J. K. .. . m Love, Benjamin V. 312 Loveland. E. P. 71.'^ Lovett, John L.. 48/ Lowry, Robert.. . 61, 423, 73S Lymmer, Daniel 5/ McAdams, C. V 791 McBride, Robert Wes., ' 55, ! "56,' 57, 311, 30<1 McCabe, Edwin F. 794 McCabe, James ... .55, '"57, ,187, 79." McClellan, Charles A. O. 564, ,561 842 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA McConnell, Dyer B. 197 McConiiell, Stewart 720 McCoy, Frank 57 McCray, Frank 368 McCullough, Hugh 140, 141, 143 McCullough, James E 344 McDonald, David, 16, 17, 19, 43, 116, 164, 165, 166, 212, 246, 271, 281, 652, 669, 673, 700 McDonald, Ebenezer 19 McDonald, Joseph E., 58, 176, 215, 223, 229, 245, 350, 630, 639 McGregor, Samuel M 708 Mcintosh, William 27, 30, 139 McKinney, John T., 19, SS, 35, 56, 279 McLain, Moses G 309 McLean, John 9,10, 12, 15 McMaster, John L 310 McNutt, Cyrus F., 165, 166, 440, 447, 653 McNutt, Finley A 449 McNutt, John C 163,644, 826 McNutt, J. A - 711 McNutt, John G 449 Mace, Daniel 65, 67 Mack, William - - 459 Macv, David 72, 279 Maier, Peter _ 402 Major, Daniel S 72, 73 Major, Stephen 136, 218, 797 Malott, Nelson F 630, 632 Malott, V. T 281 Manford, Elias 141 March, Walter 47,90, 113 Marion County Court House 150 Marsh, Albert 517 Marsh, Ephraim 511 Marshall, Joseph G 73, 155 Martin, A. N 57, 360, 547 Martindale, E. B 499, 509 Martindale, Charles 381 Mason, A. D 167, 741 Mason, James L 503 Mason, M. D 52 Master in Chancery 100 Master Commissioner 100 Matson, C. C 650, 702 Mattison (Major) 404 Mathews, H. H 704 Matthews, Claude 622 Maxwell, Ovid H 18 Maxwell, Samuel F 452 Maxwell's Code 110 Mayor's Court 101 Meigs, Return Jonathan.. .. .. 22 Mellett, Joshua H 499 PAGE Merrill, Samuel 145 Merryman, James F 543 Messick, M. L 828 Michener, Louis T 58, 33,1, 756 Miers, Robert W 691 Miles, Enos 710 Miller, John C 682, 688 Miller, John D 55, 57 197 Miller, John H 344 Miller, Robert M 688, 691 Milligan, Lambdin P 554 Miller, W. H. H .233, 351 Mitchell, D. C 454 Mitchell, James L 324 Mitchell, James L., Jr 326 Mitchell, Joseph A. S., 51, 55, 57, 256, 306, 596 Mock, Levi 547 Monks, Leander J 56, 57, 181 Monroe Circuit Court 133 Montgomery, O. H 624 Montgomery, W. A 653 Monument Place 18 Moon, Sidney R 57, 119 Moore, Alfred 117 Moore, Harbin H. .. 18 Moore, John E 822 Moores, Charles W 117, 291 Morlan, Joseph L 306 Morris, John, 51, 52, 59, 61, 412, 433,436, 554 Morris, John, anecdote by 159 Morris, Samuel L 433 Morrison, James, 58. 75, 153, 159, 154, 212, 262, 264 Morrow, Wilson 330 Morton, O. P., 16, 47, 177, 223, 230, 628 Nave, C. C ...653, 754 Neal, Stephen 763 Nelson, John C 52, 639 Nelson, Reuben R 19 Nelson, Thomas H 461, 735 New, Jeptha D., 61, 80, 81, 204, 615, 620 New, Willard 81, 618, 619 Newby, Leonidas P 523 Newcomb, Horatio C, 17, 51, 59, 61, 271, 326 Newman, John S 69, 70, 469 Newspaper — tirst in Indiana 832 New Albany, incorporated 102 Niblack, William E., 50, 51, 53, 56, 59, 61, 232 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 843 Niles, John B... . .68, 579 Ninde, Lindley JI. . . 418 Noble, James IS, 18. 36 Noble, Lazarus 57 Noble, William T 57 Northwest Territory, divided 85 Northwest Territory, laws of 25 Northwest Territory, General Court _ 20 Norton, Pierce 379 Norton, 'William F.- 646 Northern Indiana Law School 167 Nores, Daniel 581 76, 465, Xve, Mortimer. 61, 583 Pierce, Robert B. V. Pitcher, John Police Court Porter, Albert G., 57, 119, 233, 236, 240, 241, 250, 276, 335, 362, Porter, George .. Porter, William A Posey, Governor, Posey, Frank B Pratt, Daniel Darwin, 68, 223, 230, Printer — first in Indiana .. . Probate Commissioner. Probate Court. . . Putnam, Rufus.. 312 62 101 652 246 192 31 404 700 832 100 96 O'Neal, Hugh, 78, 149, O'Rourke, Edward Olds, Walter, 53', 55, 56, 154, 155, 265, 652, 57, Orchard, John Orchard, Samuel Orphans' Court Orth, Godlove S Osborn, A. L Otto, William T.-. Overman, N. R.. . . Overstreet, Gabriel M. Owen, R. D Owen, Athelstone . .. Oyer and Terminer -- Oyler, S. P 181, 545, 65, 67, . -. 50, 56, ...63, 165, 366, .655, 667, -652, 434 759 141 141 96 516 58 673 805 674 164 652 136 679 Ouarles, William Quarter Sessions Palmer, Truman F 770 Parke, Benjamin, 14, 18, 19, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31. 3,2,, 38, 58, 87, 95, 112, 140, 161 Parks, P. M 653 Parker, Samuel W 63, 129 Patterson, T. J 410 Payne, John W 15, 64 Payne, Thomas C 652 Peaslee, William J 264, 74S Peelle, William A 513 Penfield, William L 564 Perkins, Samuel E., 34, 38, 43, 45, 46, 48, 50, 56, 116, 127, 141, 165, 251, 256, 366, 693 Perry, Jame-' 69, 70, 144 Pettit, John 50, 56, 66 Pettit, John U 68, 69, 165 Phillip, Joseph A 536 Pickens, Samuel 293 Pickens, C. W 291 Pickens, William A 391 76, 149, 154 83, 104, 107 Rabb, Joseph M. .. 793, 797 Ralston, Samuel M 764 Rnnd, Frederick 295, 315, 319 Randolph, John 30 Randolph, Thomas 30,31,32, 58 Rariden, James... 69, 70, 143, 151, 152 Ray, Charles A .48, 56 Rav, James B 32, 737 Reardon, John E 491 Reid, John S 505 Reinhard, George L., 80, 81, 117, 199, 458 Renner, Charles G ----- 656 Reporters of Supreme Court..-. . 57 Re-Printing Laws 114 Revision of 1807 Ill Revision of 1818 112 Revision of 1824 . Z9, 112, 114 Revision of 1831, 112 Revision of 1843 112 Revision of 18.S2 113 Revision of 1881 113 Revision of Laws 90 Reynolds, Alfred W. 768 Rhoads, Baskin E. 165, 166, 452 Rhoads, Jacob. - Ill Rice, John 26 Rice, Thomas N 776 Richardson, Robert D - -- 398 Richmond, incorporated 636 Riddle, Seymovir 636 Riding the Circuit - .. 127 Ripley, Warrick H 116 Ridpath, John Clark 698, 743 Ristine, Ben T 780 Ristine, Rosea H.. 783 844 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA PAGE Ristine, Theodore H 783 Ritter, Eli F 354 Ritter, Levi 352 Roache, Addison L. . . 43, 46, 56, 223 Robertson, R. S..52, 53, 210, 418, 639 Robiusou, Fred. S 704 Robinson, John C 447, 655, 706 Robinson, Joseph 481 Robinson, Milton S. . .80, 81, 204, 481 Robinson, Woodford S 118 Rockwood, Charles B 295 Rogers, \\. V 165, 494 Rose, Allen T. 706 Ross, George Ewing .81, 195, 718 Ross, Nathan 195, 718 Royse, Daniel. 57 RoYse, Lemuel W 569 Rncker, James B. 400 Ruffner, Joseph 117 Rupe, John L 475 Rj'an, W. S 295 Ryan, John W 493 Ryors, Alfred 693 Sample, Samuel C 581 Sandefur, W. C 688 Sayler, Henry B 557 Schmuck, Gabriel 57 Schwinn, L. M. ... 491 Scholl, Charles 57 School Law 45 Schoonover, Isaac E 796 Scott, James, 29, 31, 32, 35, 40, 56, 87 Scott, John T 55, 56 Secrist, Henry 652, 700 v'-ession Laws 110 Seventh United States Circuit Court 9, 12 Seward, W. H 66 Sexton, Gates 534 Shanklin, John G 511 Shanks, John P. C 495 Shaw, George W 630 Shaw, Robert J 606 Sheerin, S. P. Sheets, George S. . Shirley, Cassius C. Shirley, William S. 57 224 824 653 Shroeder, Loui'i 116 Slack, James R 559 Slaughter, Thomas C 192 Smart, James H .119 Smilev, John 145 Smith, Alonzo G. . . 52, 58, 337 Smith, Caleb B...15, 19, 63, 143, 155 Smith, Oliver H., 15, 19, 63, 127, 128, 130, 131, 134, 136, 139, 141, 142, 144, 145, 149, 152, 155, 212, 329, 471, 526, 652 Smith, Thomas L., 34, 40, 43, 56, 119 Spencer, Charles C 772 Spencer, M. V. B. 440, .561 Spencer, Philip 72,241 St. Clair, Arthur G 23, 122, 140 Stansifer, S 648 Statutes, Revisions 110 State House 49 State Law Library 161 Stemfield, Thomas S 587 Stephenson, Rome C 828 Stevens, Stephen C 33, 74, 279 f^tolt, T.J 634 Stotsenberg, John, 51, 110, 111, 113, 232, 606 Stout, Elihu Ill, 112, 832 Straight, David E 762 Studebaker, David 440 Sulgrove, B. R 129 Sullivan, Jeremiah ... 39, 56, 62 Sullivan, Thomas L. . • . .295, 311, 357 Sullivan, Squire 212 Superior Courts 93 Supreme Court 17, 56 Supreme Court Clerks 57 Supreme Court Commissioners, 51, 53, 59 Supreme Court Reporters 57 Swaim, Walter B 523 Swayne, Noah H 10, 12 Sweeney, A. M 57 Sweetser, Phillip, 75, 146, 149, 152, 1.54 Swift, Ferdinand S 750 Symmes, John Cleves 22 Talbot, Moses 19 Tanner, Gordon 58, 119 Tax Commissioners 107 Taylor, David N 454 TaVlor, Edwin 319,322, 398 Tavlor, Henry . . 652 Taylor, John D 652 Tavlor, Napoleon B. , 295, 310, 315, 317 Taylor, Robert S 418, 429 Taylor, S. H 628; Taylor, Waller ... 27, 28, 30, 87, 95 Temperance Law. .. .... 45 Templer, Edward R 497 Templer, James N 49.^ Terhune, Thomas J 372 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA 84S PAGE Terrell, Edwin H 387 Test, Charles H., 69, 70, 151, 279, 282 Thomas, A. D 787 Thomas, Jesse 30 Thompson, Charles N 119 Thompson, Howell D 479 Thompson, J. W. .... 117, 520 Thompson, Richard W., 65, 78, 155, 164, 440 Thompson, William B 19 Thompson, W. A 519, 522 Thompson, W. C. 826 Thornton, W. W., 9, 14, 20, 24, 42, 82, 117, 120, 163, 167, 177, 256, 362, 364, 370, 371, 372 Tipton, John 15, 33 Todd, Jacob J 551 Todd, John 21 Todd, Nelson K 554 Towns, incorporated 101 Trissall, F. M 366 Trussler, Nelson 303, 330 Tuley, William W 606 Turner, Geor6;e ... 22 Turpie, David 51, 113, 230, 265, 338 Tuthill, Harry B 584 Usher, John P. . . .58, 64, 628, 700 United States Circuit Court 9 United States District Court. .14, 17 Vanderburgh, Henry, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 129 Van Fleet, John M. .... 118 Vanhook, J. P .... 37 Vanosdol, Argus D 604 Varnum, James M 22 Vaughn, Edwin C 545 Vawter, John 18 Viehe, F. W 630 Vincennes, incorporated 101 Voigt, George H 606 Voorhees, Daniel W., 213, 216, 312, 577, 639 Voss, Gusfavus H 797 Walden, Ariel 159 Walker, Calvin B 267 Walker, James T 400 Walker, Lewis C 267, 354 Wallace, David .... 76. 149, 153, 509 Wallace, Louis 229,776,783 Waller, Harry 652 Walpole, John G 427 Walpole, Robert L 427 ,519, Walpole, Thomas D Watkins, C. W Watson, E. L Watson, James E Wesner, C. S. . . Western Sun Whitcomb, James, 40, 64, 71, White, Albert S 16, 19; White, Jacob L Wick, W. W., 19, 75, 116, 145, 146, 149, 147, 149, 153, 154, 259, Widenev, S Wiley, U. Z Wilkins, John Wilkinson, R. C Willard, Ashbel P Willard, James H. .... AVilliams, Joseph W Williams, Elmer F Williams, A. B Williamson, Delano E., 58, 652, 698, 704, Wilson, D. L Wilson, Davison Wilson, Edwin R Wilson, Francis Wilson, Henry C. . . ... . Wilson, Henry D. Wilson, J. L. • Wilson, John R. Wilson, (>. M. Wilson, Samuel C. Wilson, William C Winter, Ferdinand, 117, 236 427 532 127 , 66 PAGE 505 561 534 532 374 835 622 6/ 682 142, 151, 275, ,46, 458, 711, 66, 229, 351, 357, Wise, Henry A Withers, Warren H. . . . Women admitted to practice Woods, John Woods, William A., 13, 19, 56, 59, Woollen, Thomas W., 48, 617, 675, 678, Woollen, W. W. ..117, 139, Woollen, W. W. Worden, James L., 46, 50,51,5' Works, John D Worrell, John Wright, Joseph A., 64, 66, 444, 549 Wyle, Andrew. . . . 51, 174, 449, 682, 140, 6,59, 243, 551, 134, 652 159 760 20 404 700 216 665 454 467 713 522 622 549 664 f04 602 551 167 119 776 726 641 138 412 125 139 747 141 379 256 119 644 700 138 Yandes, Simon, 52, 78, 149, 155, 236, 329 ZoUars, Allen,.., 51, 53 57,414, 427 INDEX TO PORTRAITS. PAGE Allen, Henry Clay 376 Anderson, Andrew 586 Antrim, Nott N . . . ; 808 Axtell, Samuel W 635 Ayres, Alexander C 292 Baird, Samuel P 725 Baird, Zebulon 723 Bailey, Leon 343 Baker, Conrad .... 4 Baker, James P 365 Baker, John H 178 Banta, D. D. 676 Barnett, Henry C 689 Barrett, J. M 432 Beasley, John T . 466 Beem, David E. 661 Bell, Milton 810 Bell, Robert C 422 Beveridge, Albert J 349 Biddle, Horace P 716 Black, James B 270 Blackford, Isaac 6 Blackledge, Frank H 363 Blacklidge, J C 823 Brick, Abraham L. ... 588 Browder, Wilbur Fisk 361 Brown, Edgar A 298 Brown, Hiram 248 Brown, James M 806 Browne, Thomas M 514 Buckingham, W. J 685 Bundy, Eugene H 502 Buudy, Martin L 500 Burchenal, Charles H 474 Burke, Frank B 347 Butler, John M 228 Cardwill, George B 609 Caven, John 328 Chambers, Smiley N 290 Chapin, A. A. .' 430 PAGE Chipman, Marcellus A 486 Clark, Andrew J 411 Clark, George C 529 Claypool, Benjamin F. .... 527 Coburn, John 283 Coffey, Silas D . 705 Colerick, W. G 428 Comstock, Daniel W 478 Corbin, Horace 573 Corr, Edwin 697 Cooper, George W 645 Cox, Jabez T. 804 Cox, Millard F 367 Cunningham, George A 409 Dailey, Joseph S 546 Davidson, R. P 730 Davidson, Thomas F 777 Davis, Sydney B 457 Davis, Theodore P 193 Dawson, C. M 437 Denny, C. S 308 Dewe)', Charles 6 Dixon, Lincoln . . 614 Dod;,'e, James S 590 Doyal, Samuel H 753 Elliott, Byron K 254 Elliott, James F 815 Emig, M. D. 640 Ewing, Cortez 621 Fairbanks, C. W. 266 Faris, George W 460 Farrar, John L 800 Farrar, Josiah ■ 802 Finch, Fabius M.. 274 Finch, John A 277 Fox, Henry C 476 France, John T 544 Franklin, W.M 659 Frazer, James S 567 the; brnch and bar of Indiana 847 Gardiner, W. R. Garrigiis, Miltou Gavin, Frank E. Gibson, George H. D. Gillett, John H Glessner, Oliver J. . . . Gooding, David S. ... Gookins, Samnel B. . Goodykoontz, E. B.. . Gordon, Jonathan \V. , Gray, Isaac P. Grubbs, George W. 629 818 198 623 7,S7 746 508 6 480 251 239 649 Hackney, Leonard J 188 Hamill, M. C 468 Hamill, Samuel R. 462 Hammond, Abram A 736 Hammond, Edwin P 733 Hanlev, J. Frank 790 Harris', A. C 2.^8 Harrison, Benjamin 206 Harrison, W. R 651 Harlan, Levi P 384 Harvev, Lawson ;M.. 300 Havnes, Jacob JI. 539 Hays, Silas A 703 Heller, D. D. .542 Hendee, Edgar E 490 Hendricks, A. W 225 Hendricks, Thomas A 217 Hess, Alexander 571 Herod, William 356 Herod, William P 359 Herod, William W 358 Herter, Jacob 607 Hickom, Willis 664 Hines, Cvrus C. , 237 Holman.'George W 829 Holstein, Charles L 3U2 Hord, Francis T 638 Hord, Os-.car B 4 Hovev, Alvin P 4 HowaVd, Timothy E 184 Howe, John B. ' 4 Howk, George V. . 612 Hubbell, Orrin Z 593 Hunter, A. B 072 Iglehart, Asa 395 Iglehart, J. E 397 Jacobs, C. P 388 Jameson, Ovid B 392 Johnson, Ruel M 739 PAGE Johnston, James T 775 Jones, Aquilla Q. . 296 Jordan, James H 191 Kane, Thomas J 798 Kellison, Charles 576 Keltuer, S. M 488 Kirkpatrick, Lex J 812 Kennedv, Peter S 784 Kern, John W ^ 339 Keyes, Nelson R 642 Kittinger, W. A. 492 Knight, George A 714 Kochenour, David A 625 Koons, George H 494 Lamb, John E 464 Land, W. M 633 Lane, Henry .S 4 Lockwood, V. H 386 Lotz, Orlando J 200 Lo\vr}', Robert 424 McAdams, C. V 792 McBride, Robert W 305 McCabe, E. F 794 McCabe, James 186 McClellan, C. A. 562 McConnell, Stewart T 721 McCray, Frank 369 McCullough, James E. ... 345 McDonald, Joseph E 222 McGregor, S. M. 709 McNutt, Cyrus F 448 McNutt,JohnC 827 Maier, Peter 401 Macv, David ... 280 Marsh, Albert 518 Marsh, Ephrami 512 Marshall, Joseph G 4 Martindale, Charles 382 Mason, Augustus L 74? Mason, James L 504 Mellett, Joshua H 49S Michener, Louis T 333 Miers, Robert W.. 692 Miller, R M. 687 Miller, W. H. H 234 Milligan, Lambdin P 55,'^ Mitchell, J. A. S 597 Mitchell, James L 32J Monks, Leander J 182 Montgomery, O. H 627 THE BENCH AND BAR OF INDIANA PAGE Morris, Johu 413 Morrow, Wilson 331 Morton, Oliver P 4 Nave, Christian C 755 Neal, Ste^jheu 763 New, Jeptha D 616 New.Willard 619 Newby, Leonidas P 524 Newman, Johu S 470 Niles, John B 578 Norton, Pierce 378 Norton, William E 647 Noyes, Daniel 580 Nye, Mortimer 582 O'Rourke, Edward 435 Overstreet, G. M 668 Oyler, Samuel P 680 Palmer, Trumau F 771 Peaslee, William J 749 Penfield, W. Iv 565 Pettit, John 6 Pickens, Samuel 294 Pickens, William A 390 Pierce, R. B. E 313 Porter, Albert G 242 Posey, Frank B 405 Pratt, Daniel D 4 Rand, Frederick 316 Ralston, S. M 765 Reinhard, George L 203 Renner, Charles G .657 Reynolds. A. W 769 Rhoads, Baskiu E 453 Richardson, Robert D 399 Ristine, Ben T 781 Ritter, Levi ' 353 Robertson, R. S - 419 Robiuson, Milton S 484 Rogers, W. P. 695 Ross, George E 196 Ross, N. 719 Royse, L. W 569 Sayler, Henry B 558 Schoonover, I. E 796 Shaw, George W 631 PAGE Shirley, Cassius C 825 Shirlev, W. S 654 Smith^ Alonzo G 336 Smith, Caleb B 4 Smith, Oliver H 4 Spencer, Charles C 773 Spencer, M. V. B 439 Sullivan, Jeremiah 6 Swift, Ferdinand S 751 Taylor, Edwin 323 Taylor, David N 455 Taylor. Napoleon B 318 Taylor, Robert S 417 Templer, James N 496 Terhune, Thomas J 373 Thomas, Albert D 788 Thompson, Howell D 482 Thompson, J. W 521 Thompson, Richard W 442 Thornton, W. W 371 Todd, J.J 552 Turpi e, David 231 Tuthill, Harry B 584 Usher, John P. . . 4 Vanosdol. A. D 603 Vaughn, Edwin C 548 Voigt, George H 605 Walker, Lewis C 268 Watkins, C. W 560 Watson, James E 533 Wick, William W 260 White, Jacob L 683 Wiley, Ulric Z 761 Wilkinson. R. C 403 Williams, Joseph W 666 Williamson, D. E 699 Wilson, Edwin R 550 Wilson, Henry D 601 Wilson, W. C 727 Woods, William A 173 Woollen, W. W 380 Zollars, Allen 41& KF 35^ 15 T23 Author Vol. Taylor, COias W. Title Copy The Bench and Bar of Indiana Date Borrower's Name