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Des Moines County >> 1915 Index History of
Des Moines County, Iowa... D Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Dick Barton. There was a class of old time lawyers who lived in the county and practiced before justices of the peace. In writing a history of Des Moines County we cannot pass by this class of the profession. They were an outgrowth of the times in which they lived; but which in Des Moines County have long since passed away. We knew one, A. J. Dillon, commonly called "Jack Dillon." He was among one of my best school teachers. He taught school in the winter, farmed a little in the summer, and between times on Saturdays tried hog stealing and other misdemeanors, including assault and battery cases, replevin cases, and other minor disputes within the jurisdiction of the courts of justices of the peace. Their law library consisted of three books, one that was called the "Blue Book," because it had a blue cover, and contained the Revised Statutes of Iowa up to 1843. This was sufficient for all purposes until the adoption of the Code of 1851. They had a book of forms, containing forms of criminal procedure and forms for replevin and attachment cases. They knew that to steal, take and carry away with the felonious intent to convert to one's use was larceny. That to break and enter one's house with the felonious intent to take the property of another and appropriate the same was burglary. That to strike another with the intent to injure him was assault and battery, etc. These men had lots of "common sense." They cared little for the rules of evidence, always claiming it was the truth they wanted, and by so claiming before a country justice, the "town lawyer" had little show. Where country lawyers met country lawyers in legal combats, their tactics changed, then they were the greatest sticklers for technicalities. Dillon was in his element in one of these contests. With proper training he would have made a lawyer of ability.
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