southwest of Knoxville; another is situated in the northwest corner of section 28, about four miles northeast of Knoxville and near the Polk Township line; and Valley Church is situated near the Scott school, in the northwest corner of section 33, five miles south of the City of Knoxville.

Perry Township has but one church shown on the map, viz.: Pleasant Hill Church, which is a half mile south of the Jasper County line and a mile west of the eastern boundary of the township.

It is this class of churches referred to in the opening paragraph of this chapter. The men and women who founded many of them have passed away, the records have been lost or imperfectly kept, so that it is impossible to give any accurate history of them. They are of different denominations and have been attended by men and women as sincere in their convictions as those who belong to the larger churches in the towns and cities. Taken by and large, Marion County is as well supplied with churches as most counties of similar area and population. The pioneers were, as a rule, people who believed in the principles of the Christian religion, though they may have differed in their creeds, and took steps to establish churches in which their descendants might have the privilege of worshiping God "according to the dictates of their own conscience."

Vol. 1-19

CHAPTER XVII

THE BENCH AND BAR

IN

PURPOSE OF THE COURTS-THE LAWYER AS A CITIZEN-FIRST COURTS IN IOWA-FIRST DISTRICT COURT IN MARION COUNTY-JUDGE WILLIAMS JUDGE MCFARLAND-JUDGE STONE-CHANGES JUDICIAL DISTRICTS-JUDGE AYRES THE CIRCUIT COURT-THE BAR-BRIEF SKETCHES OF EARLY LAWYERS-PRESENT-DAY ATTORNEYS.

In his cantata of "The Jolly Beggars," Robert Burns, the Scottish poet, describes a gathering of a band of vagabond characters at the house of "Poosie Nansie" for a general good time. In the course of the evening's entertainment a strolling tinker sings a song with the following refrain, in which the company join lustily:

"A fig for those by law protected,

Liberty's a glorious feast;

Courts for cowards were erected,

Churches built to please the priest."

There may still be some "jolly beggars" who entertain similar views regarding the courts, but the fact remains that courts were not erected for cowards-were not intended to restrict the liberties of the people, but to protect them. Liberty without law, instead of being a glorious feast, would be unbridled license; a liberty that would not recognize the rights of others, and, if such a condition could be brought about, the chances are that the "jolly beggar" would be the first one to wish for some law to protect him.

Much of the history of every civilized country centers about its laws and the manner in which they are enforced. "To establish justice" was written into the preamble of the Federal Constitution by the founders of the American Republic as one of the primary and paramount purposes of government. The forefathers also showed their wisdom when they divided the functions of government into three departments—the legislative, the executive and the judi

cial-the first to enact laws, the second to execute them, and the third to settle all disputes that might arise over their interpretation. States have copied this system, so that in every state of the American Union there are a Legislature to pass laws, courts to interpret them, and a governor as the chief executive officer to see that they are fairly and impartially enforced.

The law is a jealous profession. It demands of the judge on the bench and the attorney at the bar that they make every careful and conscientious effort to secure the administration of justice"speedy and substantial, efficient, equitable and economical." Within recent years there has been much adverse criticism of the courts for their delays, and a great deal has been said in the public press about "judicial reform." Concerning this tendency to criticize our judicial system, one of the justices of the Ohio Supreme Court recently said:

"A reasonable amount of criticism is good for a public officereven a judge. It keeps reminding him that, after all, he is only a public servant; that he must give account of his stewardship, as to his efficiency, the same as any other public servant; that the same tests applied to private servants in private business should be equally applied to public servants in public business, whether executives, legislators or judges at least, that is the public view. Would it not be more wholesome if more public officers, especially judges, took the same view?"

No doubt some of the criticisms passed upon the courts, or rather on certain judges, have been founded upon reason, but should the whole judiciary system of the state or the nation be condemned as unworthy because some judge has failed to measure up to the proper standard of his high calling? Or should the legal profession be brought into general disrepute because some lawyer has adopted the tactics of the pettifogger? It should be borne in mind that some of the greatest men in our national history were lawyers. John Marshall, one of the early chief justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, was a man whose legal opinions are still quoted with reverence and respect by the profession, and his memory is revered by the American people at large. Even the courts of England have referred to his decisions as high examples of law and equity. Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston, who negotiated the Louisiana Purchase and gave to the United States a territory far greater than that of the original thirteen colonies, were all lawyers and stood high in their profession. Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Stephen A. Douglas,

Salmon P. Chase, and a host of others who might be mentioned, were men whose patriotism and sense of justice were unquestioned. And last, but not least, was Abraham Lincoln, self-educated and self-reliant, whose consummate tact and statesmanship, as well as his knowledge of the law, saved the Union from disruption.

When the Territory of Iowa was established in 1838, Charles Mason, of Burlington, was appointed chief justice; Thomas S. Wilson, of Dubuque, and Joseph Williams, of Pennsylvania, associate justices of the Supreme and District courts of the territory, and these gentlemen continued to hold courts until Iowa was admitted as a state. Section 17 of the act of June 10, 1845, under which Marion County was organized, provided that the county should constitute a part of the Second Judicial District. Under this provision the first term of the District Court was held in Knoxville in March, 1846. As this was the beginning of Marion County's legal history, it is deemed appropriate to give here the first entry upon the court record:

"TERRITORY OF IOWA, "MARION COUNTY.

"As a District Court in and for the County of Marion, in the Territory of Iowa, begun and holden at Knoxville in said county, on the thirtieth day of March, A. D. 1846; present the Hon. Joseph Williams, judge of the Second Judicial District in and for the said territory, and Thomas Baker, for the United States, district attorney, and John B. Lash, for the United States, marshal of said territory, L. W. Babbitt, clerk of the District Court, and James M. Walters, sheriff in and for said county; whereupon said sheriff returned his venire for a grand jury on the part of the territory, and the marshal aforesaid returned into court his venire for a grand jury on the part of the United States, whereupon the following persons, to-wit, John B. Hamilton, Asa Koons, Wilson Stanley, Samuel Buffington, Edward Billaps, Joseph S. West, Samuel H. Robb, Ose Matthews, James Chestnut, Andrew Stortes, John P. Glenn, John H. Bras, John Conrey, Nelson Hill, Martin Neel, Stanford Doud, Alexander May, William Carlisle, Andrew C. Sharp, David Gushway, Thomas Gregory, Benajah Williams and Lawson G. Terry, all good and lawful men, being duly elected, impaneled, charged and sworn on the part of the United States and Territory of Iowa, retired in charge of Allen Lowe, who being duly sworn as constable in charge of said grand jury, to consider of such matters and things as may come to