< Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 04.pdf
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The Green Bag.

Vevay had been laid out only three years, and had eighty-four dwellings, besides thirtyfour mechanics' shops, a brick court-house, brick jail, brick schoolhouse, brick markethouse, brick church, eight stores, three tav erns, two physicians, a library of three hun dred volumes, " a hterary society " in which were " several persons of genius, science, and literature," and "two lawyers." (How lonely these two must have been!) Madison had sixty or seventy houses and a bank; Jeffersonville, having been laid out in 18ii,had one hundred and thirty houses, a post-office, and a land-office. Clarksville, just below it, had only forty houses, " most of them old and decayed." New Albany, says an old chronicle, " a short distance below Clarks ville, has been puffed throughout the Union, but has not yet realized the anticipations of its proprietors." Corydon had been a town only seven years, but had a stone court house; and Paoli was just settled. Vincennes had a hundred houses, a population of about 1,000; and Terre Haute had just been laid out. Lawrenceburgh had about three hundred inhabitants, but was consid ered a town of much importance. Rising Sun had less than one hundred houses; New Lexington, fifty; Charlestown, one hundred and sixty, " chiefly of brick, a handsome court-house; " and Salem, eighty. The cities of Indianapolis, Crawfordsville, La Fayette, Frankfort, Logansport, Peru, Wabash, Huntington, Elkhart, South Bend, Kokomo, Anderson, Muncie, and Richmond, with many others in the northern part of the State, were unknown and undreamed of; and even Fort Wayne was only a trading-place. There was but little wealth, and land was too cheap and plentiful to se riously engage one in a legal contest for its possession. How many lawyers there were within the State it is impossible to state; but we have seen that Vevay had only two, and as that was the only town within the county, we may safely conclude that that county had within its borders only those two.' Knox County, being the oldest and

wealthiest, had more attorneys than any otherVpounty; but even here, if we may judge oF.,the number, as shown by its rec ords, admitted by the General Court of the Territory to practice, they were scarcely more than a dozen in number. In the en tire State there were scarcely over fifty attorneys, — at the very most, far belowone hundred. Governor Jennings appointed James Scott, John Johnson, and Jesse L, Holman as the first judges of the Supreme Court of In diana. Their commissions bore date Dec. 28, 1816 "On the 5th day of May, 1817, the day appointed by law for the commence ment of the first term of the Supreme Court, the judges appeared and took their seats," says Blackford. This was at the court-house of Harrison County, situated in Corydon. Henry Hurst, the clerk of the old territorial General Court, and afterwards of the United States Court for the District of Indiana;, was the first clerk. But two cases are reported as decided at this term, one on the 6th, and the other on the 7th of May, and tfpese cases were upon routine matters.

During the first vacation of the coiirt, Judge Johnson died at his residence in Knox County, " universally esteemed," salys Blackford, " as an honest man, and as an in dependent, intelligent judge." Isaac Blacksford, Sept. 10, 18 17, was appointed hisj successor, and took his seat at the first day1 of the December term, 1817. The court continued to sit at Corydon un til the seat of government was removed to Indianapolis by the Act of Jan. 20, 1824. The General Assembly convened at the lat ter place Jan. 10, 1825; and the Supreme Court, May 2, 1825. In 1819 the Decem ber term was changed to November; and from that time to the present the terms of the court have commenced in May and November. At the end of their first terms of office Judges Scott, Holman, and Blackford were reappointed, and continued to serve until Dec. 28, 1830, when their terms ex

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