Gabriel Carpenter, a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was born in 1801. He arrived in Cedar Rapids in 1852 and invested all his funds in 500 acres of land in what has now become the heart of the city. Various additions in this city have been named in honor of this early real estate owner, who devoted all his time in the upbuilding of this city until his death in 1881. Mr. Carpenter saw many hardships in his early career in life, but with great perseverance overcame all. The first lumber he used was hauled by oxen from Muscatine. He became early interested in various enterprises in the city. He always gave liberally of his means to all worthy objects and assisted in advancing all public enterprises which he believed would prove a benefit to the city. His widow, Mrs. Maria Carpenter, born in 1820, is still living and resides in this city, honored and respected by all.

Dr. S. D. Carpenter was born in 1826, and is a son of Gabriel Carpenter. In the early fifties he came to Cedar Rapids and located here for the practice of medicine. He soon gave up medicine for the more exciting and more lucrative vocation of railway building, banking, and handling of real estate. He now resides in Chicago.

John E. Kurtz was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1817, emigrated to Iowa in 1847, and became one of the founders of Lisbon. He was for more than half a century a well known farmer, merchant, and miller. In early life Mr. Kurtz was a whig in politics, later going over to the republican party. A large number of his descendants still reside in this county.

Peter D. Harman was a native of Adams county, Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1816. In 1840 he came to Iowa City, locating in Linn county two years later. Mr. Harman assisted in the building of the state capitol at Iowa City, and also in the erection of the first court house in Linn county. In his day and generation Mr. Harman was considered one of the most skillful stone and brick masons in this part of the country. He died in Bertram township in 1896, and is survived by a number of children who are residents of this county.

Barnett Lutz came to Linn county in 1839 and was one of the best known of the old settlers. At the time of his death in 1901 he was one of the oldest pioneers in the county. Mr. Lutz was a true pioneer, and did much in building up the new country.

C. J. Ives was not a pioneer settler in Linn county, but he was a pioneer in developing railway properties in the state. Mr. Ives was a native of New England, coming to Lee county in 1847, drifting into mining in Colorado, and not till 1862 did he turn his attention to railroading. He was for a number of years president of the B., C. R. & N. railway, which he developed into one of the best paying railway properties in the west. He resigned when that road was absorbed by the Rock Island system. Mr. Ives during his long residence in Linn county was deeply interested in the welfare of his employees, and in the upbuilding of Cedar Rapids. He was also interested in banks, electric light companies, and other large enterprises. He was a practical business man, capable and forceful, with a mind ever active in planning and executing great things. He was universally respected by his employees, and never forgot in word, act, or deed that he was only an associate and not a superior. No railway official at the time of his death a few years ago had more friends among the railroad men than Mr. Ives.

David W. King, the founder of Kingston, settled in Linn county in 1839 when Indians were numerous and the white settlers scattered. Mr. King was a native of Westmorland county, Pennsylvania, who went to Michigan early and from there drove an ox team across the country to Iowa, entering land on the west side of the river, which land is now a part of Cedar Rapids. Mr. King operated the first ferry across the Cedar river and had to obtain his material for the erection of the same from Dubuque and Muscatine, all of which was hauled in wagons across the country. The cable used in operating the ferry was of wire, which was brought from Dubuque on horseback. The town of Kingston he platted in 1850. Mr. King was a real promoter, who early comprehended the future of Cedar Rapids. In order to induce people to locate on the west side of the river he was liberal and public-spirited, giving away many lots for factory sites and other enterprises. He passed away in 1854 at the age of forty-six, just at a time when he had attained to a prominent place as one of the leading citizens of the town, in the promotion of which he had devoted all his time and versatile talents.

Robert Smyth, who died in 1898 at his home at Mount Vernon, was in many respects one of the most enterprising men in Linn county. Born in Ireland in 1814, and emigrating to America in 1834, he drifted into Linn county in 1840 and soon became an extensive dealer in real estate, as well as a banker, and during all his life took an active part in politics. He was a member of the Sixth Territorial legislature in 1843-44, a member of the state legislature in 1846-48. Mr. Smyth was also paymaster of the United States army, disbursing more than $10,000,000.00 during his term of office. In 1868 he was once more returned to the state senate where he served for four years, and in 1884 served another term in the house. He was also delegate to many state conventions, and outside of the late Charles Weare knew more of the public men of Iowa than any other man in Linn county. Mr. Smyth was a brother of William Smyth, the well known jurist, who died a member of congress from this district.

Edward M. Crow, by some people believed to be the first actual white settler in the county, was born in Orange county, Indiana, in 1816 of ancestors who had previously emigrated from North Carolina. John Crow, the father, came to Linn county to the neighborhood of Viola in 1838, and there he died in March, 1841. It is thought that Ed Crow crossed the Mississippi river in 1837 and on July 4th laid claim to a tract of land on section 13 in Brown township. Thus, it would seem, that Abbe preceded him by several months. In company with Crow at that time there came Harrison Crow, a brother, as well as James Dawson, who built cabins on what is now known as Crow's creek near Viola. They also put up a little hay that fall. Thus, while these were among the first settlers, it must be conceded that they did not precede Abbe, Haskins, or Hahn in locating in Linn county. Ed Crow, it is true, was one of the early settlers and well known, a typical pioneer, but he was not the first settler, although he arrived in the historic year of 1837, when the white settlers were beginning to move into the territory not yet vacated by the red men.

In mentioning the men who were factors in the upbuilding of Iowa, Theodore S. Parvin should not be omitted. During his residence in Linn county he devoted most of his time to the upbuilding of a unique Masonic library. He was known throughout the United States as one of the leaders of that order. Mr. Parvin's love of collecting together many things was only one of the many sidedness of a remarkable personage. Mr. Parvin was born in Cedarville, New Jersey. Educated in the east, he drifted west to Cincinnati and there met Robert Lucas, recently appointed governor of Iowa Territory. Mr. Parvin had been a teacher and had been admitted to the bar so he was well qualified for his mission as secretary to the governor. After coming to Burlington Mr. Parvin was United States attorney, clerk of the federal court, registrar of the state land office, and for many years professor and regent of the State University of Iowa. During all these years he lectured and wrote much. He died June 28, 1901, one of the most widely known and most honored men in the state. "Steadfast in faith, without trace of cant, he walked the ways of life with simple trust in the Infinite wisdom and passed to his death relying on the guidance of an unseen hand," says his biographer.

Julius E. Sanford was one of the platters of the city of Cedar Rapids, and was a wide-awake, enterprising young man who for a while was in partnership with N. W. Isbell. Mr. Sanford was a native of Connecticut and was well educated on coming west where he took up the practice of the law and engaged in real estate. He removed to Dubuque in 1845, where he died in 1847, leaving a widow, Henrietta E. Sanford, who in 1848 married David Wilson. She died in 1898. Perit Sanford, who figures in early real estate transfers, was the father of Julius Sanford, and heir of the estate, as the son died without children.

Thomas Craig was an old settler in Linn county, and one of the best known men in the community. Mr. Craig was odd in some ways. He wore a white overcoat and had a fondness for horses. He was a stanch Methodist, and at times would be reprimanded, for he refused to lead in prayer. Mr. Craig died many years ago, respected and honored by all with whom he had come in contact. One of his daughters was married to N. B. Brown and another to Jesse Beechly, who recently died in his old homestead in Franklin township.

Dr. Eber L. Mansfield was born in Canaan, Ohio, in 1821. He received a classical education and also took a medical course later. On leaving home his father gave him a horse, saddle-bags, and an outfit, and he started out for himself. He taught school in Kentucky and then came overland on horseback to Iowa in 1847, crossing the Cedar river near the lower bridge. He was assisted by W. W. and M. A. Higley, two young men who later became his friends and fellow workers in the upbuilding of Cedar Rapids. The gold fever of 1850 took the doctor away from his practice, and by August, 1850, he had arrived at the gold diggings. On the way he had made money, as he doctored a great many who were sick with fevers. He purchased two teams and did teaming from Sacramento to Shaw's Flats for about two years when he got tired and sold out, returning by way of Panama and New Orleans. He came back to Cedar Rapids, which city remained his home until his death. Dr. Mansfield was one of the best known and most successful physicians of his day and generation. He invested in city real estate, in bank stock, and was stockholder in insurance companies. His was a rugged, strong character. He early saw the possibilities of the city, and was one of the first to invest in its real estate. He erected brick buildings in the heart of the city which are now owned by his children, and are very valuable.

William Rogers, a native of Ohio, where he was born in 1830, came to Linn county and settled in Rogers Grove in the early forties. Mr. Rogers was an enterprising man and was one of the first to erect a saw mill and to raft lumber down the river to Muscatine in order to find a market for it. In an age when straw sheds were common he went to work and erected one of the best and largest barns in the country. In this barn he stacked his grain and threshed it by walking the horses over it, the wheat dropping through the floor to a floor below where it was cleaned. Mr. Rogers died many years ago, one of the best known men in southern Linn county. His widow, Elizabeth McNie, is still living, making her home with her son, James M. Rogers, of Fairfax township.

Chandler Jordan, born in 1820 in the state of Maine, came to Linn county in 1844, where he made his home until his death a short time ago. Mr. Jordan was a lifelong member of the Baptist church, which he supported and in which he was an active worker all his life. He was interested in the public schools, and in public affairs in general. Jordan's Grove is named in honor of this sturdy old pioneer.

G. W. Matsell, for many years a resident of Buffalo township, where he owned some 2,000 acres of land which he purchased at an early day, was a well known character in New York city in the old days of Tammany Hall. He was chief of police and a prominent politician for many years till the breaking up of the party with which he was closely associated. Then he came here where his family still resides. Mr. Matsell of course spent much time in New York, where he had financial interests, but he liked the west and enjoyed the summers in Iowa. He was a democrat of the old school, but never entered into the game of politics after coming west, having had his fill of it in the New York political ring for many years.

The Matsell home was a hospitable one and many were the people George Matsell entertained during his residence in Iowa. Visitors came from all over the country, for he was well known. Mr. Matsell entertained royally and knew how to entertain. The history of New York city cannot be written without the mention of G. W. Matsell, police chief, a member of the Committee of Seventy, and a well known character for many years during the stormy days of the Civil war. His son still resides on the old homestead.

Robert Safely was a native of Scotland. He emigrated to New York at the age of fourteen. He saw the first engine to run with steam in the state of New York. For many years Mr. Safely was master mechanic for the old B., C. R. & N. system, and was a familiar figure on the streets of Cedar Rapids up to the time of his death, a short time ago. Mr. Safely was an expert mechanic and up to the time of his death was interested in everything pertaining to mechanical science.

Many of our earlier citizens only remained here for a shorter or longer time and left for other parts where they later attained to prominence. Who does not remember W. H. Ingham, one of Kossuth county's pioneers, who lived in this county in 1850 and for five years was engaged in surveying and locating lands for early settlers? Judge Thomas Burke, a noted character of Seattle and now wealthy, tried his luck at the law here waiting for clients who never came. When Mr. Burke was picked up by J. J. Hill on the coast then every one wanted this once briefless barrister as his legal adviser. Bishop C. C. McCabe lived here for a number of years, and no one had any idea that the rollicky, fun-making, joking young beardless lad in the employ of Judge Greene and others would develop into a great lecturer and a Methodist bishop. Dr. J. T. Headley, of lecture fame, practiced medicine here in the late sixties, and was a quiet, unassuming man, who minded his own business and devoted days and nights to books and science. Here lived for some years the eloquent divine, Rev. Fawcett, a person of great eloquence and force of character who left Cedar Rapids better for having lived in it. One cannot forget Rev. Elias Skinner, now living in Waterloo, also a Methodist minister of force and eloquence who at various times lived in Linn county. Rev. Skinner, despite his eighty-three years, is well and hearty and can relate many things which occurred in this county in the fifties and sixties. He writes as follows:

COL. DURHAM TO THE OLD SETTLERS—ADDRESS BEFORE ASSOCIATION.
AUGUST 1902

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Old Settlers' Society: In calling this assemblage to order I wish to say to you all, to the new-comers, the strangers who honor us with their presence, that, in the name of our society, we bid you a most hearty welcome and say as a good hostess would, come again.

Many of you I knew in territorial times, when we were seeking and establishing new homes, in the far new country beyond the Mississippi, and aiding in our humble way to lay the foundation of the present famous commonwealth of Iowa. The first settlements were made along and near the Mississippi river. There were but two counties, Dubuque and Des Moines, and the country was called the Black Hawk Purchase. The purchase negotiated with the Sac and Fox Indians, by General Scott and Governor Reynolds, at the close of the Black Hawk war, consisted of a strip averaging about fifty miles wide, beginning in the northeastern part of the state and running to the north boundary of Missouri, though not on a straight line, at a point fifty miles west of the river. It was under the jurisdiction of the territory of Michigan, and was represented in congress, as a territorial delegate, by George Wallace Jones.

In 1837 a few townships in the northwestern part of this county were surveyed by a surveyor general deputy named Haight. And soon thereafter Edward Crow and a few other adventurers came. Their only roads were fragments of Indian trails. They were delighted with the country and the smooth, polished surface of the unbroken prairie in all the grandeur and sublimity of its primeval state. Sages have sung of the charms seen in the face of such solitudes and I would say that I never felt nearer the great Creator and Ruler of the universe than when in regions before untrod by civilized man, where the forces of nature reigned supreme, and no sounds broke the silence except the hoo-hooing of owls, the drumming of pheasants, the bugle notes of the swan, the quacking of smaller fowls, the barking of prairie wolves, and in a timbered country, the hungry, desolate howl of the large wolf, and sometimes, though seldom, the piteous wail of the panther. It's no wonder that Moses retired to the top of a distant mountain with the roar of thunder and the flashes of lightning beneath him to talk with God.

In 1838 another strip of country was acquired from the Indians, embracing the remainder of Linn county. Possession was given in 1839, when a continuous immigration commenced, which dates back to the coming of many of the families represented here today, our respected secretary among them, and not long after that our treasurer. Previous to its organization in 1839, Linn county was, with Jones county, attached for judicial, revenue, and election purposes to Jackson county. In 1838 the territory of Iowa was struck off from Wisconsin, Robert Lucas was appointed governor by President Van Buren, and William Wallace Chapman was elected first delegate to congress, with both of whom I was acquainted in the constitutional convention in 1844. Governor Lucas was a Virginian by birth, though raised in Ohio, where he had served as governor. He was one of nature's noblemen, not for pomposity and fine equipage, but for all the traits that make up true manhood—modesty, courage, honesty, integrity, patriotism, and morality.

Soon after the organization of the territory the Missouri war began. This related to the boundary line between the two states. It lasted some time, but like the Ohio and Michigan war, was bloodless, though a good deal of patriotism and red tape and military titles were shed. The trouble was finally settled by the surveyors and the courts.

In 1839 Linn county was organized. The first officers were John C. Berry, commissioner's clerk or auditor; Hosea W. Gray, sheriff; Dr. Tryon, clerk of the court; Luman W. Strong, Samuel C. Stewart, and Peter McRoberts, county commissioners. Squire Strong was a potential factor in all Linn county affairs. Mr. Stewart was distinguished for his piety. His wife was a sister of those sturdy pioneers, the Scott brothers. In 1840 the territory contained 43,000 inhabitants; Augustus C. Dodge was elected delegate to congress, and George Greene a member of the territorial council, or senate, to represent Cedar, Linn, and Jones counties. In 1841 the remainder of Linn county was surveyed by the United States deputies, with all of whom I was acquainted and in their camps—but chiefly with Mr. Welden.

After these surveys were made, claim-making and improving and trading became very lively, and the ratio of immigration increased all the time. There was more disturbance and trouble and fighting about claims than from all other causes put together. I will give only a few instances of the many with which I am acquainted. A man by the name of Wolcott, near Mount Vernon, had his claim entered. He reported it to the claim association. They sent a committee of three men to the intruder and demanded that he should release and cancel his purchase, which he refused to do. Whereupon they procured a conveyance and told him that he must go to Dubuque with them. Knowing the settler's law was against him, he made no further resistance, but went before the register and receiver, cancelled his entry, and his money was returned to him. The matter came up shortly after that before the grand jury at Marion on the charge of coercion and kidnapping. Samuel Hunter, Sr., of Hunter's Cross Roads, was one of the jury, Joseph Williams was judge, P. W. Earle, clerk, and Nathan Peddycord, of Yankee Grove, was another juryman, and I was foreman. William Abbe and Squire Waln of Mount Vernon were witnesses. Robert Smith was secretary of the claim association and Oliver Day or Allison Willits president. No bill was found and the matter stopped and never reached the supreme court.

Another claim case originated in the Dry Creek country, and came to a climax in a rather exciting way. There were a number of us attending an Indian banquet and pow-wow at a place called Wick-i-up Hollow, near the Cedar river, two or three miles south of the Oliphant and Ashlock neighborhood. The regular guests were seated in a semi-circle in the wick-i-up; we were only callers. The exercises consisted of short talks, chants and choruses, each keeping time with a deer's bladder dried and filled with air and some buckshot in it to make it rattle, all accompanied with the music of a sort of home made fife. The banquet or dinner to follow was being cooked by the women. It consisted, as far as I could see, of dried venison, stewed dog meat, beans, and pancakes. Before the dinner was ready some of our party went outside and renewed a quarrel that had been pending for some time about their claims. Pretty soon the lie was passed, and it was immediately followed by a blow, and directly five or six were in the fight all at once. The struggle and angry shouts of the combatants frightened some of the Indian women who were near and they ran screaming away. This broke up the exercise in the wick-i-up and the braves rushed out, thinking that their women were being misused, for a brave man will always resent an insult to his wife. The fight so disrupted everything that we left without waiting for dinner, especially as some had to withdraw for repairs. The Chambers were in it. William Garrison and some of the Nations were in it, but not Carrie with her little hatchet. John Hunter and, I think, Dyer Usher, were there, but not in the fight. The case came up before his honor, Aaron Usher, a justice of the peace, who fined some of the participants $1.00 each, which ended the litigation and the claim dispute.

The last claim case I will mention was of much greater magnitude, and out of it originated the Bill Johnson war, in which several lives were lost, including one Indian. It began in Buchanan county. William Bennett and a man purporting to be Bill Johnson of the Canadian patriot war were the principles in the extensive trouble. Bennett was an enterprising, public-spirited man and had a quantity of workmen and retainers helping build the first grist mill at Quasqueton, on the Wapsipinicon river. He was a man of sturdy muscular frame, swarthy complexion, dark eyes, strong jaws, a man who would be a good friend or a bad enemy. Johnson was older, tall and angular, with black bushy hair, on whose lips shone no smile, under whose brow lurked treason, stratagem, and spoil. I became acquainted with Johnson in a rather romantic way, which you will excuse me for relating, as it shows some of the perils and hardships incident to the settling of a new country. On the 12th of November, 1842, a deep snow fell and remained till the next April, with additions during the winter. It has always since been called the hard winter of 1842 and '43.

During the winter my friend, Anderson Chambers, later a prosperous business man of Muscatine, and I had been up in the country between the Wapsipinicon and the Volga. The snow drifts were so deep and the day so dark that night overtook us several hours ride from any human habitation. Before dark we went into a little scattering timber on a small stream and under the bluff hitched our horses to a bush. We found some dry poles and got some dry rotten wood out of a tree, scraped away the snow with our feet, and with the aid of a flint and some tow and powder, we managed to start a little fire. Matches were not then in use. We cut some brush and laid it on the ground, spread one horse blanket on that to lie on, and with another to cover us and our saddles for pillows, we slept through the long night until daylight, when we resumed our ride. About the middle of the forenoon we came in sight of an improvement in the edge of the timber, and I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled that a frontiersman's log cabin was there. We went into the house, which was neat and clean, and told them of our hard experience during the preceding night and day. They kindly sympathized with us and soon made us comfortable. It proved to be Bill Johnson's place. Kate Johnson and another young lady, Miss Kelso of Davenport, were there. They busied themselves about setting us up a fresh, warm, ten o'clock breakfast. I relished it more than any other breakfast I ever ate, the zest of which was no doubt heightened by being served by so charming a hostess, and me a susceptible bachelor, too.

Johnson explained his being there in this wild region by saying that he had participated actively in the Canadian patriot war against the Dominion of Canada, that the attempted revolution had failed, that he had lost all his property by it, and had been driven and chased all through and among the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence river in his boat with his daughter Kate, that a reward had been offered for him, that he had given up all hope of success and determined to seek safety and quietude by coming to this country. All this seemed plausible, as I heard the brave deeds of the patriots rehearsed in song and poetry. But in escaping that trouble he ran into the jaws of another at the outset. It seemed that in coming into a strange neighborhood, instead of making the people his friends by conciliation and prudent conduct, he got into trouble at the start by taking possession of the claim of one of the Bennett party. They remonstrated and he promised to pay for the claim, but never did, though Johnson claimed that the trouble was about the location of the county seat. Not long after I was at his place, after giving him notice, they determined to oust him. They took him out in the brush and gave him a very severe flogging, loaded him and all his belongings into sleds and sent him out of the country. He applied for aid at Marion and Dubuque, and Surveyor General Wilson, a New Hampshire man, took him and his daughter Kate to Iowa City, in his fine Boston made sleigh, to interest Governor Chambers in his behalf. When the hostilities came to an end, the result was disastrous to both parties. Bennett became a fugitive and his mill building was stopped. Johnson was shot. Kate found her a loving, trusting husband. Hosea Gray made considerable money out of it; Ormus Clark, the first permanent settler of Central City, spent a lot of money for defense, and Colonel Preston laid the foundation of his splendid fame and fortune as an attorney from it.

The public land sales had been advertised for this winter and the people were illy prepared to go to Dubuque to enter their claims on account of the deep snow, some for scarcity of clothing, and all for scarcity of money. Many had saved their last 12-1/2 and 6-1/2 cent silver coins and their 5-franc pieces to make up the necessary sums. In view of the difficulties in the way, a mass meeting was held, and George Greene was appointed a special agent to go to Washington City for the purpose of having the land office removed to Marion. He went and saw the commissioner of public lands; he saw Stephen A. Douglas, chairman of the committee on public lands, and President Tyler, and came back with an order for the temporary removal in his pocket, which I doubt if any other man could have done. He stood luminous among all the bright men who first settled in Linn county, or the territory either. The people of Linn county, and of Cedar Rapids especially, should ever remember his labors and efforts in those early days which brought them prominence and prosperity. All now acknowledge Linn county to be without a peer and Cedar Rapids is the best interior city in the state, except Des Moines with its immense coal beds.

The land office was located in the first, and then only brick house in Marion. Judge Berry afterwards dispensed boundless hospitality in it. It was built and owned by William H. Woodbridge, or "Democ Woodbridge," a very enterprising young man. He was one of five from this county who enlisted in the Mexican war. He was with Scott's army of invasion and the Mexicans "welcomed him with bloody hands to a hospitable grave." Another of the five, Major McKean, as he was then known, who was a member of the first constitutional convention in 1844, and later a brigadier general in the union army, lies buried in the Marion cemetery. Another of the five, Captain Sausman, who gallantly bore the flag at Chepultepec, died in California. Captain Gray is alone, and alive and likely to be, as you would think if you could see him running an intricate surveyor's line through a section. The fifth one, Samuel D. Thompson, is with us amply provided for in his declining years by a munificent government, in recognition of his military service in nearly all the wars since the time of Anthony Wayne, and as the old song says:

The land sales drew large numbers from all the surrounding country, and made lively times here. Joseph F. Chapman and Oliver S. Hall, Sr., hotel keepers, flourished. Those who had the money got titles to their lands, and those who had not still held their claims until such time as they could enter them at private sale. In the spring the land office was moved back to Dubuque.

In 1844 the first constitutional convention was held at Iowa City. The constitution failed of ratification. In 1846 another convention was held and the state fully admitted under that with our present boundaries. Iowa was then the most western state, and a line drawn south from Sioux City, its western limit, would have run further west than any other state or territory, except Texas, which was annexed the year before. It now occupies a conspicuous central position in the American union, and a leading one in agricultural productions. It is honored with two members of the president's cabinet and the most influential member of the American senate.

After our acquisition of California the waves of emigration westward began, sweeping over the great American desert, as it had been called, planting agriculture and industry in its path, forcing its way through the mountain passes and over the sun-dried plains, to the Pacific ocean at the Golden Gate, where floats the commerce of oriental Asia.

When I look in the faces of this multitude I see before me but few who were men and women grown when I first came here. Some of you gray-haired ladies and gentlemen were then, as the Indians called them, petite squaws or skinneways. Your fathers were Niseshin Shomoko men. But I think scarcely more than a dozen are now living in this county who were then men and women. And

CHAPTER XX

Early Linn County Lawyers and Courts

BY JUDGE MILO P. SMITH

Fifty years ago the judiciary of this county, as well as of the entire country, was quite different from what it now is. There were but two terms of court in a county, and Linn being a large county, terms here lasted about two or three weeks. In the smaller counties, one week or less was sufficient for the transaction of all the business. The grand jury was composed of fifteen men instead of five or seven, as at present, and twelve out of the fifteen had to concur in order to find a bill of indictment. At present the concurrence of a less number than the whole is sufficient. The members of the grand jury selected their own clerk from their own number. They had no authority to act on the minutes of the examining magistrate, but it was obligatory on them to have the witnesses before them, and to examine them personally.

There was no official shorthand reporter to take down the evidence on the trial of cases in court. If the attorneys desired to perpetuate the testimony, or any part of it, they either wrote it down in long hand themselves, or selected some outside person to do it; generally some young lawyer. And sometimes the judge would make the only minutes of the trial that were kept. From these imperfect notes, however taken, the judge was required to determine what should go to the supreme court when he came to settle the bill of exceptions: no easy task. When court opened on the first day of the term—which was done with great outcry—the judge at once empaneled the grand jury, and then proceeded to make what was called a "preliminary" call of the calendar, at which cases that were not for trial were dismissed, continued, marked settled, or otherwise disposed of. When that call was completed, he then made the "peremptory" call, and all cases that were for trial were then disposed of as they were reached. There was no assignment of cases for trial as now practiced, but the lawyers had to be ready in each case when reached.

Court week was generally regarded by the people as a sort of a picnic or holiday, and they came in from the country for several miles around to hear the lawyers spar with each other, and catch the "rulings of the court." The court room was generally packed with listeners. Then political meetings were generally held during that week when everybody was there and lawyers ready to do the speaking; and they furnished fine entertainments indeed.

The bar of Linn county in the early fifties was an unusually strong one, said by some to be the strongest in the state. There were Judge N. W. Isbell, Judge Isaac Cook, Judge George Greene, Judge William Smyth, and Col. I. M. Preston. A little in the rear of the above worthies were N. M. Hubbard, R. D. Stephens, Wm. G. Thompson, J. H. Young, Thomas Corbett, and J. W. Dudley. Except Judge Greene and J. W. Dudley, all of these persons lived in Marion.

N. W. Isbell, the first county judge in this county, was selected by the legislature in 1855 as a member of the supreme court, and filled the position with honor and credit to himself and the state for several years, and was afterwards appointed judge of the district court during the Civil war, but resigned both positions on account of ill health. He was a very learned man and a profound lawyer. He greatly enjoyed the investigation of legal questions, possessed an acute and analytical mind, and one richly stored with the results of historical and general reading. In the practice he was not partial to jury trials, much preferring the presentation of legal questions to the court. He had quite an aptitude for affairs, and became successful as an enterprising railroad builder, projecting the old "Air Line" Railroad, the pioneer of the present route of the C., M. & St. P. Railway across the state. He left a comfortable estate to his family, dying about the year 1865. He was of small stature and insignificant in appearance, but with a large head, though small features. Indeed he very much resembled the Hon. Wm. H. Seward in face, head, and stature. He was rather of an irascible temperament and consequently easily thrown off his balance—but no member of the bar was more highly respected than was Judge Isbell for uprightness, honesty of purpose, general intelligence, deep reading in general literature as well as in the law; and his blameless life made him a beloved citizen.

I omit further mention of Judge Greene as there is elsewhere in this work a lengthy sketch of him.

Isaac Cook was born and raised in eastern Pennsylvania and became the possessor of a sound education as a basis for the legal studies he afterward pursued. He served quite a while on the district bench, and was there noted for the care, time, and fairness he devoted to the cases he was called on to hear and decide. His mind was not so quick or rapid in its movements as some others, but it was very accurate in its conclusions. He was a fine chancery and corporation lawyer, and no better pleader ever drew a petition than Judge Cook. He was for many years toward the close of his life general counsel for the predecessors of the C. & N. W. Railway Company and the Iowa Railroad Land Company in the state of Iowa. Though he had an office first in Marion and then in Cedar Rapids, he always lived on his farm just south of the former place, in a plain, comfortable brick house. He was a broad shouldered, stock-built man of a dark complexion, and chewed an immense quantity of tobacco. He had, we believe, more practice in the supreme court of the United States than any other lawyer in Iowa in his day.

William Smyth, first county attorney of Linn county, was appointed judge of the district court to succeed Judge J. P. Carleton about the year 1854, when he was but thirty years of age. He was regarded as an ideal judge. He was of Scotch-Irish descent, and had received a thorough education when young. His education was perhaps more thorough than broad, owing no doubt to his early surroundings. His legal lore was as near exact and profound as was possible, and covered completely the whole circle of legal learning. One who knew him well said, that in commercial law, the law of real estate, and in pleading, he had no superiors and but few equals in the state. He was a trial lawyer in the fullest sense of that term. Careful in the preparation of his cases, methodical in the introduction of his testimony; and in his presentation of his client's cause to a jury, his arguments were close and convincing, logical if not eloquent. He was, perhaps, after his retirement from the district bench, generally regarded as the head of the bar of the county. His knowledge of the affairs of the nation, and the principles of our government was most exact and comprehensive. For wealth of general information, profundity of legal learning, and urbanity of manner and dignity of deportment, he was not surpassed by any man in the state. Indeed he was early recognized as one of the leaders in affairs as well as of the bar of the state. He and the firm of which he was a member had the largest practice and the best clientage in the county. His practice extended to many of the neighboring counties, such as Benton, Tama, and Iowa, where he had local partners, and where he attended the terms of court. He was a valuable member of the committee that revised the laws of the state as embodied in the Revision of 1860. He was offered a place on the supreme court bench but declined it. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1860—having been a democrat before the slavery question gave rise to the republican party, he naturally sided with Governor Chase, whose political path led in the same direction as his own, and gave that statesman his earnest and persistent support in the convention, voting for him to the last as his choice for president. He was a formidable competitor of Governor James W. Grimes when the latter was elected to the United States senate in 1858. In 1868 he was elected to congress from this district and died while such member in 1870, at the early age of forty-six. Of all that goes to make up a first rate man and citizen—intelligence, ability, industry, perseverance, honesty, and morality, he was in full possession, and enjoyed the confidence of the people to a greater degree than any other citizen in the county. He was patriotic and brave and served during the war of the rebellion as colonel of an Iowa regiment, and while so serving, he contracted the disease that caused his early death. He was the fortunate possessor of a splendid frame, being nearly six feet in height, and had a large, well formed head—his carriage erect and movements stately and deliberate. He was a model christian gentleman, courtly and polite, with a winning personality. He too was a man of affairs and left a comfortable estate to his family.

Colonel I. M. Preston, born in 1813, was in many respects a remarkable man. Thrown on his own resources when quite young, he learned the trade of carpenter and joiner, but read law while working at his trade, was admitted when about thirty years of age, came to Marion, opened an office, and at once took a position in the front rank of trial lawyers. He was particularly successful as a criminal lawyer. He possessed a very quick, subtle, and keen mind, and was remarkably resourceful in expedients in the trial of cases. Some lawyers were better pleaders others more learned in the law, but none more apt in furnishing the facts to fit the case, and but few, if any, excelled him in marshalling those facts in his presentation to the jury. In time he acquired great fame throughout the state as a lawyer and public speaker. He was early appointed district attorney for the district in which he lived, and in 1846 was commissioned by Governor Clark colonel of an Iowa regiment of militia. He also served as county judge of Linn county, and at different times served in both branches of the legislature. He was the father of Judge J. H. Preston and E. C. Preston, both members of the bar, and residents of the city of Cedar Rapids.

N. M. Hubbard, later known as Judge Hubbard, was certainly the most brilliant and noted lawyer that ever lived in or graced the bar of this county. He was appointed in 1865 judge of the district court, and served till January 1, 1867. With a mind keen, bright and luminous, a sound understanding, a rich store of observation, an unparalleled command of language, a readiness in repartee, and unlimited power of invective, he was unsurpassed by any man in the state, and by but few in the nation. He was for thirty years general attorney for the C. & N. W. Railway Company in Iowa, and upon his death left a generous estate.

Hubbard's early partner, R. D. Stephens, while a good lawyer, was certainly a past master in finance, and was better known as a banker than lawyer. He established the First National Bank at Marion, and the Merchants National Bank in Cedar Rapids. He died several years ago, quite wealthy. Both Hubbard and Stephens came to Linn county from the state of New York in 1854. In the political campaign of 1856, Hubbard edited the Linn County Register, predecessor to the Marion Register.

Major J. B. Young was probably the possessor of the best education of any of the lawyers of his time, and was a well read lawyer, a strong advocate, careful and painstaking, but unfortunately possessed an irritableness and quickness of temper that was not calculated to advance the cause of his client in a law suit. He died when comparatively young, when on his way home from California where he had gone on account of his failing health.

W. G. Thompson, better known as Major Thompson or Judge Thompson, still resides here at the ripe old age of eighty-one. But few of the present generation know all there is about Judge Thompson. Born and reared in the state of Pennsylvania of Scotch parentage, with a fair academical education, admitted to the bar when a little past twenty-one, he came to Linn county in 1853, and at once leaped into prominence as a lawyer and politician. In quickness of mind, versatility in extremity, readiness of retort, flashings of wit, volubility of speech, touches of pathos, flights of eloquence, and geniality of disposition, and popularity with the masses, he had no superior in eastern Iowa, if he had an equal. It has been said of him that he could sit down to a trial table in a case of which he had never before heard, and try it just as well as though he had had months of preparation. He has been county attorney, state senator, presidential elector, major of the Twentieth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, district attorney, chief justice of Idaho, member of the legislature, member of congress, and judge of the district court. And in filling all of these positions, he has served the people faithfully and well. And in private life and as a practitioner he has surely been "a man without a model and without a shadow."

J. W. Dudley lived in Cedar Rapids as Thomas Corbett did in Marion. They were both careful, pains-taking, and judicious lawyers, not particularly noted in any special respect, but safe, sound, and trustworthy. They have both been long since dead.

J. J. Child and I. N. Whittam were also members of the bar in the early '50s. They both lived in Cedar Rapids. Judge Whittam was noted for his industry, care and patience in regard to any matter in which he became engaged. He did not claim to be a man of mark or a great lawyer, but certainly acquired and retained the confidence as an advisor of many of the best citizens in Cedar Rapids and vicinity.

J. J. Child, long since dead, was said by those who knew him best to be one of the best lawyers in the state. Though not an advocate, his learning in law was wide and deep, and no client ever made a mistake in following his advice. Unfortunately his habits of life seriously impeded the good results that could have flowed from such a prolific source.

After these, came others to fill their places, but the most of them are here now, and have received special reference and personal mention in these pages.

The entire state in 1857 was divided into twelve judicial districts, with one judge in each district. Accompanying the act was the constitutional provision that new districts could not be created oftener than one new district in four years. Within about ten years the business in court became so congested that relief was necessary and was sought in all directions. Finally, in 1868, the legislature passed a circuit court bill, which by its terms divided every district into two circuits and provided a judge for each circuit. The circuit court had concurrent jurisdiction with the district court in all cases at law and in equity, and sole jurisdiction in probate matters and in appeals from justices of the peace, but it did not have jurisdiction in criminal cases. The same legislature abolished the county court that formerly had jurisdiction of probate matters. In further defining the duties and powers of this court, the law created what was called a general term, to which all appeals from, and application for the correction of errors by the district and circuit courts would lie. The personnel of that court consisted of the judge of the district and the two circuit judges, and it sat twice a year. In this district one of the sessions was held in Marion and the other in Iowa City. The district comprised the counties of Jones, Cedar, Linn, Johnson, Benton, Iowa, and Tama. The first three counties constituted one circuit, and the latter four the other one. The limitation of the right to appeal when the amount in controversy was less than one hundred dollars was then passed. An appeal finally lay from the decision to the general term of the supreme court. When a case was decided at the general term, the judge to whom it was referred for a decision wrote out the decision in an opinion as the supreme court judges do, but the opinions were not reported in the books.