WASHINGTON COUNTY BENCH AND BAR
BY
HON. HIRAM A. HUSE
 

COUNTY LIMITS

      The Indians exercised practical jurisdiction overall the lands now included in Washington county till 1781 or 1782, when Thomas MEAD made the first permanent white settlement in Middlesex, a mile or more below Montpelier. White men had, however, before that taken to themselves paper or parchment title -- what Col. Orange FIFIELD would call "a paper front" it describing their invasion -- to a good many acres.

      The following charters had been granted by New Hampshire: Berlin, June 7, 1763, to Chauncey GRAYHAM and others; Duxbury, June 7, 1763, to Isaac BROWN and others; Middlesex, June 8, 1763; Moretown, June 7, 1763, to Jonah FOSTER and others; Waterbury, June 7, 1763, to John STILES and others; and Worcester, June 8, 1763, to Joshua Mason and others.

      Grants of other towns had been given by Vermont: In 1780, Barre (under name of Wildersburgh, changed to Barre in 1793), Cabot, Calais, Montpelier, Northfield, Roxbury, Warren, and Woodbury (name changed to Monroe in 1838 and back to Woodbury in 1843); and in 1782 Vermont granted Fayston, Marshfield, and Waitsfield, and in 1788 Plainfield (called St. Andrews Gore till 1797).

      New York had also granted, under the name of Kilby, a township of land including a part of Montpelier, Berlin, and Barre. No attention seems to have been paid to this grant except that knowledge of it angered still more the ALLENS and others who were resisting the New York claims.

      New Hampshire began granting towns in 1749, and in 1764 had granted 138 towns in what is now Vermont territory. In 1764 an order of the King in Council made the western bank of the Connecticut river the boundary between New Hampshire and New York, and New York began granting not only lands not before granted by New Hampshire, but also regranting such granted lands on which settlements had been made. This granting by New York was forbidden by the king in 1767, but the New York authorities construed the order to apply only to lands already granted by New Hampshire.

      The jurisdiction of New Hampshire courts may at some time have been exercised over Vermont lands or persons, but where and when does not clearly appear. In fact, till about 1769 or 1771, New Hampshire was not divided into counties, and between 1749 and 1764 her courts appear to have been held wholly at Portsmouth. So the grantees of the six Washington county towns chartered by New Hampshire in 1763 would have had to repair to the shores of the Atlantic to find legal adjudication in respect of their Vermont property. The order of the king in 1764 put Vermont territory under control of New York, although it may have left the New Hampshire charters valid, and then all Vermont was (on paper) in Albany county, and her inhabitants would (on paper again) have to "tend court" at Albany on the banks of the Hudson instead of at Portsmouth. As a matter of fact they settled land titles and administered justice nearer home with the "beech seal."

      New York soon took measures for the administration of her laws in the territory thus declared within her jurisdiction, and beginning in 1766 took measures to establish the county of Cumberland, and effected this finally by a charter of March 17 or 19, 1768, -- the boundaries were the west bank of the Connecticut, thence twenty-six miles to the southeast corner of Stamford, thence north fifty-six miles to the northeast corner of Socialborough (Clarendon), thence north fifty-three degrees east thirty miles to the south corner of Tunbridge, thence by the south line of Tunbridge, Strafford, and Thetford to the Connecticut. The county seat was first Chester, then Westminster.

      By a New York ordinance of March 16, 1770, Gloucester county was established out of that part of Albany county lying north of Cumberland county and east of the Green Mountains, and May 29 of that year, at Kingsland (or Kingsborough), now Washington, the first court for Gloucester county was held. A full account of this may be found in Child's Gazetteer of Orange County,. The next winter the Judges and sheriff going to hold this court found themselves "far in the woods," and court "opened on the spot," and court, "if one," was adjourned till May. Some courts were afterward held for Gloucester county at Newbury, and Washington county was included in Gloucester's territory, but it had no white inhabitants. Charlotte county was established west of the Green Mountains, March 12, 1772, but its doings do not concern the east side. In fact, the New York jurisdiction was so hated by a large portion of the inhabitants that it had a hard time of it generally.

      When Vermont came into her own, and, as one old mapmaker has it, her inhabitants held their lands "by the triple title of honest purchase, of industry in settling, and now lately that of conquest," she organized the new state into two counties, on the 17th day of March, 1778, and called them Bennington and Unity. The name of Unity was changed to that of Cumberland, March 21, 1778. Cumberland included the territory east of the Green Mountains, and was divided into two shires by "the ancient county line." The "shire of Newbury" had, by act of March 24, 1778, for its Judges: Gen. Jacob BAILEY, 1st Judge; Mr. Jacob BURTON, 2d; Mr. William HEATON, 3d; Mr. Reuben FOSTER, 4th; and Capt. John FRENCH, 5th; --so these were the first Vermont Judges over territory that is now Washington county, and the reader is referred to the Gazetteer above named for some account of them. But as yet Washington county had no white folks within its borders, and it was indeed more than two years after this that the Indians, returning from the burning of Royalton, camped with their prisoners near Dog river in Berlin. The Westminster shire was sometimes called the Cumberland shire, and the Newbury shire sometimes called the Gloucester shire.

      February 11, 1779, Bennington county and Cumberland county had their dividing line rearranged, Bennington county gaining some territory by the new bounds. Some of what is now Washington county fell to Bennington county, and some remained in Cumberland county, as the line between the counties ran in the northerly half of the state from "fifty miles east of Lake Champlain's center channel south to the northeast corner of Worcester and along the easterly lines of Worcester, Middlesex, and Berlin, to the southwest corner of Berlin and then to the northwest corner of Tunbridge." Not an easily traceable line, but there was nobody within the present limits of Washington county to quarrel about it.

      It may be here observed that the present Washington county is not the first Washington county that Vermont has had. When the new state was annexing parts of New Hampshire and New York at its April session of 1781, the Vermont legislature established a county by the name of Washington from the towns it had annexed east of the Connecticut river: that Washington county had for its northerly towns Claremont, Newport, (N. H.,) Unity, and Wendal; but when the forty-five New Hampshire towns were restored, February 21, 1782, to their own state, of course the earlier Washington county ceased to exist, but its even temporary establishment was a very timely compliment to Gen. Washington.

      At the February session, 1781, Bennington county was divided into two counties- Bennington substantially as now existing, and Rutland embracing the territory to the north that was formerly in Bennington county; and Cumberland county was divided into three counties -- Windham and Windsor substantially as now existing, and Orange comprising all territory to the north of Windsor and east of Rutland counties to the Canada line. Thetford and Newbury were constituted "half shires " for the county of Orange, and that county, by the way, till 1787, had for one of its towns Kingston, now Granville. October 18, 1785, the county of Addison was established, and the western part of Washington county was included therein. This lasted till the act of October 22, 1787, establishing Chittenden county, went into effect, after which the western towns of Washington county were part in Addison and part in Chittenden county. November 5, 1792, the counties of Franklin, Caledonia, Orleans, and Essex were established, but all the original territory belonging to Orange county was to "continue to be annexed" to Orange county till October 1, 1796. After Caledonia county was in running order its courts were held at Danville till after the organization of Washington county under the name of Jefferson, in 1811. So from the organization of Chittenden county to December c, 1796, (when Caledonia county became a working entity,) Washington county towns were divided between three counties, and from December 1, 1796, to December 1, 1811, our present territory was in four counties; the towns of Barre, Berlin, Northfield, and Roxbury being in Orange county-Cabot, Calais, Marshfield, Montpelier, Plainfield (till 1797 called St. Andrews), and Woodbury being in Caledonia county Duxbuiy, Fayston, Middlesex, Moretown, Waitsfield, Waterbury, and Woodbury being in Chittenden county, and Warren in Addison county.

      November 1, 1810, -- a couple of years after Montpelier had become the capital of the state, -- Jefferson county was incorporated after ineffectual attempts to amend the bill and to refer it to the next session, which last proposal was defeated by a vote of 90 yeas to 101 nays. John PECK, Gershom PALMER, and Nicholas BAYLIES were appointed a committee to designate the place of building a jail and court-house, and to procure subscriptions and build. The new county was set going by acts of the session of 1811. One, passed October 16, of that year, fixed the place of holding courts at Montpelier; the term of the Supreme Court to be held on the 5th Tuesday after the 4th Tuesday of August, and the terms of the County Court to be on the first Mondays of December and June. By an act of October 30, 1811, Ezra BUTLER, justice of the peace, was authorized to issue a venire, directed to the sheriff of Chittenden county, to summon fifteen jurymen, being freeholders, from Waterbury, Moretown, Duxbury, Stowe, and Middlesex, to serve as petit jurors for the first term of court beginning the first Monday of December, 1811.

      The territory embraced in the county of Jefferson was nearly that of the present county of Washington. The territorial changes since made are as follows: Stowe remained in this county till 1836, when it was set to the new county of Lamoille; Elmore was annexed to this county in 1821, and remained a part of it till 1836, when Lamoille county was established; Roxbury was annexed (from Orange county) in 1820; Warren (from Addison county) in 1829; and Woodbury (in 1835) and Cabot (in 1855) from Caledonia county. Montpelier's division into Montpelier and East Montpelier, in 1849, gave the county another town without increase of territory. Goshen Gore by Plainfield (annexed to Plainfield in 1874) and Harris Gore were annexed (from Caledonia county) August 1, 1863.

      November 8, 1814, an act was passed changing the name of Jefferson county to Washington county, and on the 1st day of December following this act took effect.

      A lawyer's successes are written on the shifting sands of tradition. The place where they are won soon knows them no more; and is often itself speedily forgotten. But as long as the tradition lasts the setting of the legal drama has an interest.

      The dramatic possibilities of a trial receive full recognition by playwrights and actors in their frequent attempts to reach what seems curiously unattainable-a realistic court scene. How they succeed in getting up so many variations of failure is a mystery-but they do it all the same, and all the time. I have seen, when Edwin Booth was on the stage, one of the "attendants with torches" actively open the scene by setting Othello's plume on fire, and have heard, when Joseph JEFFERSON was "Rip" in the Catskill Mountains, the stage thunder get out of repair to that degree that better could have been made on an average sap pan-but never anything so unreal with stranger, new forms, "both horrible and awful," of unreality as a stage trial.

      The school-house in the shadow of Camel's Hump, where George F. EDMUNDS and Matt CARPENTER had their night contest, when they were students, before a justice jury, was a sample "temple of justice," in the like of which many of the best lawyers say they got their best training. These justice jury trials are pretty much gone by and the habit of having them was better for the training of lawyers than for the business progress of the communities; but all is not lost, for the justice courts -- and the Supreme Court for that matter -- are still "on wheels," and shed more or less benignant judgments here and there as the convenience of the plaintiff's lawyer and the supposed convenience of the parties and witnesses dictate.

      There are compensations in other directions, too, in the changes that time has made. When Judge POLAND, who was in the legislature ten years ago, had had procured the passage of a law providing for the appointment of "masters to find and report the facts" in chancery cases, Judge PECK gave him a Scotch blessing for having "destroyed the Court of Chancery -- the growth of and the product of the wisdom of hundreds of years." Judge POLAND's law seems to work well, however, as his new pauper law may if the Supreme Court's period of incubation over its interpretation is ever determined, and besides we have efforts toward an assumption of chancery powers in unexpected quarters, the late equitable judgment .of a Washington county justice of the peace for the plaintiff to "recover eighty-five-dollars and a gigg " having been within a few days equaled if not excelled by a Rutland County Court jury, which in a flowage case added to their verdict for damages an order that the defendant should remove from his dam "within ten days" the boards causing the flowage.

      But this hardly describes our Montpelier court-houses; and indeed, were it not for one of our profession whose memory goes back to its days, I could hardly describe the first one at all. The committee at first appointed to build a court-house do not seem to have made progress, for November 9, 1812, the use of the hall of the State House was granted for the holding of courts for the year ensuing. And upon such grants, or without them, the courts for this county were held, till the latter part of 1818, in the old State House which, first occupied in 1808, was upon the completion of the second State House, about 1837, moved away and its timbers were bought by A. A. SWEET, and many of them used by him in the construction of the house sometime known as the E. M. BROWN house, now the property of the estate of Capt. A. A. MEAD.

      November 6, 1817, Chapin KEITH, George WORTHINGTON, and John PECK were appointed a committee to build a court-house, and on the 18th of that month they contracted with Salvin COLLINS and David HERRINGTON for its erection. The contractors were to build and did build "near the northwest corner of the State House common." That common at that time did not extend as far west as now, so that the old court-house was nearly in front of the present State House. At that time the turnpike to Burlington ran along petty near where the State House now is, and State street, at least below the Pavilion, did not exist. The court-house was thirty-four feet wide and forty-eight feet long, and there were by the contract to be "three door steps twelve feet long and hewed of the Barre ledge stones." Our Barre neighbors -- they of the booming town of Vermont -- can see that even then their product was prized, but think of calling the now famous Barre granite just the Barre ledge stones!"

      The court-room was 33 by 34 feet, "arched above," and "21 feet between joints." There were four "jury-rooms" in the front of the building, two on the first and two on the second floor; back of these was the court-room reaching to the roof. There were in the court-room "nine windows of forty lights each," and in other parts of the house "seventeen windows of twentyfour lights each" -- all the lights to be of "good 8 by 10 glass." The building was to be completed September 1, 1818, and was occupied the fall of that year, though the contractors and the committee had a falling out about the amount due, as it was claimed and so decided that in some points they had failed to build according to the contract, though in others they had builded better than required by its terms.

      This court-house remained where erected till about 1837, when it was moved to where it now stands. It continued to be used as a court-house till the fall of 1843, after which it was for a time used by the Catholics as a church, and of late years has been tile residence of the priest in charge of St. Augustine's church.

      The first trial for a capital crime ever had in this county was in the days of this old wooden court-house, but was not held in it, but in the hall of the old State House. This trial began April 21, 1836, and was that of Michael MORICEY (or MORRISEY) for the murder of John CORRIGAN, at Montpelier, April 2, 1836. The crime was committed at MORICEY's house near the lower end of Barre street, and was by hitting CORRIGAN with a club so that he died in a few hours from the effects of the blow. The trial was concluded the day after it began, and the accused was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Paul DILLINGHAM was state's attorney, and MILLER and UPHAM were counsel for the respondent.

      In 1843 a new brick court-house was erected, at a cost of about $3,500, on Elm street and partly on the site of the present court-house. At the first term of court held in the new building it caught fire and was burned about 3 o'clock in the morning of Tuesday, November 28, 1843. The files in pending cases were burned and one volume of old records. Court was continued in Masonic hall, and nobody seemed to regret the loss of the house, as it was very unsatisfactory in both location and construction.

      The property on the corner of State and Elm streets was procured by subscription, and when a new court-house was erected it was made to front State street, and proved a very satisfactory building. The Judge's desk was in the west part of the court-room and had a very resonant top which Judge PECK now and then used to strike with vigor. That desk top was, as Judge PECK used to say some old lawyer told him the statement of a legal proposition ought to be, "as hard and dry as a pine knot." It was this he struck when he commanded Col. RANDALL to "stop!" -- and the same that resounded to his blow when he roared out at the witness Rockwell, "answer his questions or I'll commit you to jail," and ROCKWELL shrunk down in his chair saying, " Lord, have mercy!" The jury box was in the northwest corner, the jury facing the south and so unable to see the "Goddess on the State House" that caught the eye of the excited advocate who was painting the heartlessness of the persecutor of his client; waving his hand toward the window from which he but not the jury could see the statue, the climax came, "heartless as the brozen image that now stands before you."

      In 1878 an addition to this court-house was authorized, and in 1879 it was built and the old part of the house remodeled at a cost of $10,000. The court-room then obtained was never surpassed in acoustic properties. May 25, 1880, the court-house was burned, but the walls left standing. The same year it was rebuilt in its present shape, the building now being twenty-two feet longer than before the addition made in 1879.

      The Supreme Court has, beginning with May, 1887, held its term for Washington county and its General Term in the court-room of the library annex to the State House, which was built in 1885-86.

      There is now building just west of the county court-house a large and elegant postoffice and court-house for the united States government-a structure that will be largely a monument to the untiring industry of Senator MORRILL, and to the great esteem in which he is held by his fellow legislators in the national capital.

      From the organization of the county till the third Tuesday of October, 1825, the Supreme Court consisted of one chief Judge and two assistant Judges, chosen by the legislature each year. This court had only appellate jurisdiction in civil cases (except where the state was a party); in criminal cases it had both appellate and original jurisdiction, the latter in the graver crimes, such as treason, murder, arson, rape, burglary, robbery, perjury, adultery, forgery, horse stealing, counterfeiting, &c., &c. The Judges of this court did not, till 1825, preside in County Court.

      The county courts, up to October, 1825, consisted of one chief Judge and two assistants, chosen yearly by the legislature-from 1825 the present law, by which a Judge of the Supreme Court presides in County Court, has been in force, except during the Circuit Court experiment, which lasted from 1850 to 1857. The Circuit Court was helped out of existence, or into it, I have been told, by Stephen HERRICK, of Middlesex, who had a lawsuit about a railroad contract and was persistent in litigation as in all other things. The County Court, as it existed at the organization of the county, had cognizance of such criminal and civil matters as was not given to the Supreme Court or Justices of the peace. The jurisdiction of justices of the peace was limited in criminal cases to those where the fine did not exceed seven dollars, and where the corporal punishment did not exceed ten stripes, and in civil cases (except for slander, replevin, trespass on the freehold, and some others) where the matter was less than thirty-three dollars, and in some cases (on note, settled account, etc.) up to fifty-three dollars. The pillory and whipping were; it is true, not used as late as 1811, but they were on the statute book, if not as usable punishments, yet as jurisdictional lines. They went out of use by the act of November 9, 1808, which enacted that whenever a conviction should be had for a crime in which part of the punishment was pillory or whipping, the courts "may in their discretion dispense with the pillory and whipping, and in case of crimes hereafter committed against the statute last aforesaid, said court shall omit the pillory and whipping." The county courts were entirely distinct from the supreme courts.

      When the county was organized John MARSHALL was chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. Joseph STORY was a member of that court, and Elijah PAINE was United States district Judge for the district of Vermont. Royal TYLER, who had written a novel and a drama, was chief Judge of the Vermont Supreme Court, and his assistants were Theophilus HARRINGTON (who would not hold one man could own another without the "production of a bill of sale from Almighty Go "), and David FAY, who was the youngest son of Stephen FAY, and a brother of Jonas and Joseph FAY, and who himself, when fifteen years old, served as a fifer in Capt. ROBINSON's company at the battle of Bennington. Nathaniel CHIPMAN, Asa ALDIS, Richard SKINNER, Dudley CHASE, C. P. VAN NESS, and Richard SKINNER again followed in pretty quick succession as chief Judges before the court was increased to four Judges in 1825, and to five Judges in 1828. Within twenty years alter the organization of this county three members of its bar had been upon the Supreme Court bench -- James FISK, of Barre, and Samuel PRENTISS and Nicholas BAYLIES, of Montpelier.

      Monday, December 2, 1811, the first term of County Court for Washington county was convened. Ezra BUTLER, of Waterbury, afterwards governor, was chief Judge, and his assistants were Salvin COLLINS and Bradford KINNE. Clark STEVENS, the good Quaker of Montpelier, had been elected Judge by the legislature of 1811, but he did not wish to be a Judge, and Mr. COLLINS was elected upon his declining to accept the office. With Judge BUTLER, however, it was not a case of "nolo episcopari," for he was a Baptist clergyman, and was willing to overlook and Judge things both temporal and eternal.

      The jurors summoned were Richard KNEELAND, Chester MARSHALL, and Joseph DARLING, of Waterbury; John L. KENEDY, Adonijah ATHERTON, and Jason CROSSETT, of Duxbury; Nathan BENTON, Jr., Ebenezer MAYO, and Eliakim HAWKES, of Moretown; Samuel MANN; Samuel MONTAGUE, and Lovel WARREN, of Middlesex; and Joseph CHURCHILL, Simeon BURKE, and Reuben WELLS, of Stowe. The first jury trial was on the second day of the term, and was in the case of Jonathan F. GIBSON vs. Charles HUNTOON, and the jury was composed of the above named jurors, with the exception of KENEDY, who was absent, and BURKE and WELLS, who were excused. Timothy MERRILL was for the plaintiff, and PRENTISS & VAIL for the defendant. The jury did not agree and the "papers were taken back," and the case continued.

      The number of cases on the "old docket " was 138, and the new entries were 140. The old docket was made up of cases sent from Orange, Caledonia, and Chittenden counties. There were eight cases on the old docket and five cases of the new entries tried by jury. There were agreements in all the other cases tried by jury; these were on the old docket: No. 8, PRENTISS & VAIL and Dudley CHASE for plaintiff, and MERRILL and Cyrus WARE for defendant, verdict for plaintiff $41.37 and costs ($40); No. 20, Denison SMITH for plaintiff, and Dudley CHASE for defendant, verdict for defendant to recover his costs ($35.39); No. 65. Nicholas BAYLIES for plaintiff, and BULKELEY & LOOMIS for defendant, verdict for plaintiff for $198.17 and costs ($41.96); No. 70, PRENTISS & VAIL for plaintiff, and Dudley CHASE for defendent, verdict for plaintiff for $139.00 and costs ($42.62); No. 74, PRENTISS & VAIL for plaintiff, and BULKELEY & LOOMIS for defendant, verdict for plaintiff for $76.58 and costs ($30.87); No. 87, Dan CARPENTER for plaintiff, and BULKELEY & LOOMIS for defendant, verdict for plaintiff for $12.50 and costs ($10.33); NO. 57, BULKELEY & LOOMIS for plaintiff, and PRENTISS & VAIL for defendant, verdict for plaintiff for $2,573.42 and costs ($30,42). The new entry cases tried by jury were No. 17, PRENTISS & VAIL for plaintiff, and Cyrus WARE for defendant, verdict for defendant to recover his costs ($15.90); No. 28, Cyrus WARE for plaintiff, and PRENTISS & VAIL for defendant, verdict for plaintiff for $10.63 and costs ($29.90); No. 71, BULKELEY & LOOMIS for plaintiff, and PRENTISS & VAIL for defendant, verdict for plaintiff for $56.00 damages and defendant appealed; No. 80, BULKELEY & LOOMIS for plaintiff, and Cyrus WARE for defendant, verdict for plaintiff for $40.00 damages and defendant appealed ; and No. 86, BULKELEY & LOOMIS for plaintiff, and PRENTISS & VAIL for defendant, verdict for $47.37 and costs ($20.60).

      Of the 138 cases on the old docket there appear, by the docket on the plaintiffs' side, to have been entered forty-nine by Dan CARPENTER, of Waterbury; one by Dan CARPENTER and G. ROBINSON; (I find the name of no such lawyer as G. ROBINSON in any county in 1811 -- perhaps he was "empowered" by the plaintiff under the 23d section of the judiciary act of 1797, and had "filed his power with the clerk," in which case he could appear for a party, doubtless "without the bar," as will be seen in Judge KINNE's case hereafter.) twenty 'by Denison SMITH, of Barre; three by Denison SMITH and BULKELEY & LOOMIS; twenty-six by BULKELEY & LOOMIS; eleven by PRENTISS & VAIL; five by T. MERRILL; one by S. PRENTISS, Jr.; three by Nicholas BAYLIES; three by Cyrus WARE; and other scattering names from other counties including Dudley CHASE, of Randolph, Horace EVERETT, of Windsor, Roger G. BULKELEY, of Williamstown, Moses CHASE, of Bradford, KEYES, FOOT, and ADAMS, of Burlington, and some others.  The principal entries for defendants were BULKELEY & LOOMIS in twenty-eight cases, PRENTISS & VAIL in twenty-one cases, Dan CARPENTER in seven cases, T. MERRILL in eight cases, Denison SMITH in five cases, C. ADAMS in four cases, Dudley CHASE in four cases, and C. P. VAN NESS in two cases.

      Of the 140 cases on the new docket -- or the "new entries" -- Dan CARPENTER entered twenty-one, BULKELEY & LOOMIS fifty-one, PRENTISS & VAIL fifteen, Denison SMITH sixteen, MERRILL nine, N. BAYLIES thirteen, Cyrus WARE two, and other scattering entries. PRENTISS & VAIL appeared for the defense in forty-seven cases, MERRILL in sixteen cases, BULKELEY & LOOMIS in ten cases, Cyrus WARE in nine cases, Denison SMITH in five cases, and Dan CARPENTER in one case, with other scattering entries of other attorneys.

      The jury this term were paid $160.58, and talesmen received $4.50. Judge BATTER received for his labors for the term $104.90, Judge COLLINS and Judge KINNE $83.93 each. The state received cash for entries $65.25, cash for jury fees $90.00, cash for reviews and appeals $33.50, and cash for licenses $72.50. The June term, 1812, was not as costly, the jury receiving then $ 105.90, Judge BUTLER $101.93, and Judges COLLINS and KINNE $81.54 each. The first term had about two weeks' work in it, the court sitting on the 2d, 3d, and 4th of December, then adjourning to the 16th and sitting till the 28th. Imprisonment for debt continued till 1839, and. at the first term the entry of "defendant committed" is found on the docket in seven cases.

      The first year's licenses "to keep a tavern " were to Ziba HALL, Lovel KELTON, Thomas DAVIS, Obadiah EATON, Sally HUTCHINS, Jonathan SNOW, and Michael HAMMETT, at Montpelier; to William F. MEEDS, John FARRAR, and Ludowick LUCE, at Moretown; to Samuel JONES and Mehitabel WOODBURY, at Berlin; to Joshua HILL, Libbeus SHERMAN, and Stiles SHERMAN, at Waterbury; Silas WILLIAMS, at Plainfield ; and Gideon WHEELOCK, at his house in Calais. Licenses "to sell foreign and distilled spirits" were granted to various parties in Montpelier and Barre, also to sell wines and to "retail foreign and distilled spirits and wines." The licensing of peddlers does not appear at this early day, however, nor do the county clerk's records of that time show as now, under the beneficent provisions of No. 104 of the laws of 1888, the pedigrees of stallions. Truly the law is a growth.

      The field of operations of the earlier lawyers is worth a moment's attention. The towns that went to make up the county had, in 1800, a population of 5,651, and in 1810 of 10,524. Barre increased in those ten years from 919 to 1,669; Berlin, 685 to 1,067; Calais, 443 to 841; Duxbury, 153 to 326; Fayston, 18 to 149; Marshfield, 172 to 513; Middlesex, 262 to 401; Montpelier, 890 to 1,877; Moretown, 191 to ,405; Northfield, 204 to 426; Plainfield, 256 to 543; Stowe, 316 to 650; Waitsfield, 473 to 647; Waterbury, 644 to 966; and Worcester, 25 to 41. Cabot, then in Caledonia county, increased in the same time from 349 to 886; Woodbury, also in Caledonia county, from 23 to 258; Roxbury, then in Orange county, from 113 to 361; and Warren, then in Addisen county, from 58 to 229. The comparative wealth of the counties is shown by their grand lists for 1811, when the grand list of Washington, then Jefferson, county was about one fourth that of Windsor county, one-third that of Windham county, two-fifths that of Orange county and of Addison county; and one-half that of Bennington county and of Chittenden county.

      Law-breakers were "loungin' round and sufferin' " in those days after pretty much the same fashion as now. In the first two or three years we find respondents answering to charges of theft, blasphemy, perjury, not procuring standard weights and measures, passing counterfeit money, breaking jail, riot, and "keeping a nuisance."

      A great source of income to lawyers in those days was from collection suits that came from the general custom of the people of buying on credit and paying when sued. Sheriff KEITH used to go out with his saddle-bag full of writs about every year -- justice writs that were principally in mere collection suits. And the County Court docket was also amazingly full, containing, as we have seen at the first term, 138 old cased and 140 new ones. June term, 1812, it had 138 old cases and 169 new entries; December term, 1813, 108 old cases and 190 new entries. But as the "War of 1812" went on, law and possibly the lawyers became somewhat silent amid arms. June term, 1814, there were eighty old cases and 103 new entries; December term, 1814, showed fifty-four cases on the old docket and ninety five new entries; and June term, 1815, there were but fifty-three old cases, while 124 new ones appeared, business starting up after the war was over. And soon after it started up with a vengeance, for the March term, 1817, showed 131 old cases and 274 new entries. It is very likely that the hard times following the war were intensified by the fearful weather of the summer of 1816. That summer was so severe that it drove the inhabitants out of Worcester, but one or two families remaining, and for two or three years broke up the work of settlement there. The writing in an old almanac before me shows the reasons why the farmers "got left" in 1816. The minutes were evidently made by David M. CAMP, who afterwards became lieutenant-governor. They are: "May 14, snow; May 29, snow; May 30, very cold; May 31, hard frost; June 5, warm, sultry, thunder, etc.; June 6, snow and hail in the morning, continued snowing all day; June 7, frost, snow all day, water froze an inch thick; June 8, snow all day; June 9, more moderate; June 10, cold in the morning, ground considerably frozen; very dry season; August 22, frost seen in some places; August 24, frost somewhat harder." Mr. CAMP's old almanacs also show that in September, 1815, a "frost killed everything," and that in 1817 there was "snow, 16 June; hard frost, 17 June." It must have been rather a cold June term, that of 1816. Up to I817 county courts began the first Mondays of June and December; in 1817 the time was changed to the second Mondays of March and September, and there have since been various changes, till now the second Tuesdays of March and September are for a long time settled upon. Many years the terms began in April and November.

      When the county was organized the old Vermont Register and Almanac for 1812 gives eight practicing attorneys and four clergymen as the number in its borders. Two attorneys and two clergymen were omitted in that enumeration, however. There were then ten lawyers in Washington county and 179 in the state; there were six clergymen in this county and 131 in the state. Of the 131 clergymen two were Presbyterians, two Episcopalians, forty-three were Baptists, and eighty-four were Congregationalists, and one of the latter was the Rev. Publius V. BOOGE. The six Washington county clergymen were Judge BUTLER, of Waterbury, and Rev. Mr. PERRY, of Barre, Baptists; and Aaron PALMER, of Barre, James HOBART, of Berlin, Chester WRIGHT, of Montpelier, and Amariah CHANDLER, of Waitsfield, Congregationalists. James FISK, of Barre, then in Congress, had preached universal salvation, but had got into politics and out of the practice of law if not of gospel.

      Spotted fever, typhus fever, and politics were contagious and flagrant in the early history of the county. The first named disease was very fatal in other parts of .the county in the winter of 1810-11, but found but three victims in Montpelier, the physicians of the town being very successful in treating their many patients. The second was very fatal at the county seat, seventy-eight persons dying in Montpelier in 1813, one of them being the wife of Capt. Jeduthun LOOMIS, a leading lawyer. The funeral sermon preached on the occasion of her death, by Rev. Chester WRIGHT, is extant, as well as one on the death of Sibyl BROWN, a little girl who suddenly died of the spotted fever. While Mr. WRIGHT was "improving" these occasions to call the minds of the people from things temporal to things eternal, the minds aforesaid pretty largely "stuck in the bark" of the war. And Mr. WRIGHT got himself prayed for by Elder Ziba WOODWORTH, who had served in the Revolution, and who was called on to pray at a war meeting which Mr. WRIGHT had not seen his way clear to pray at when invited. "Uncle Ziba" prayed temporal damnation on the heads of opponents of the war as heartily as the other good parson preached eternal woe to the unregenerate. Curiously enough Mr. WRIGHT's grandson has for years been pastor of the Unitarian church in Montpelier, a good man, liberal as his good grandfather was orthodox, while just now his grandfather's old church has called to its still orthodox pulpit an eloquent clergyman who was a few years ago a Unitarian preacher. The uncertainties of the law are still subject-matter of discourse, however.

      In February; 1812, there was a meeting, described in Thompson's History of Montpelier, of interest to lawyers. It was a mass meeting to consider the policy of the government then aiming at war. The Democrats first obtained control and chose Ezra BUTTER, the preacher and the Judge, to preside; the Federalists came in soon in strength and reorganized and put Charles BULKELEY, a lawyer, in the chair. The Democrats rallied and finally controlled the meeting, their cause being championed by James FISK, and the Federalist side by Nicholas BAYLIES, both afterwards Judges of the Supreme Court. Jeduthun LOOMIS, another lawyer, was captain of the Montpelier Light Infantry, and although a Federalist was earnest that the company should do good service when war was once declared. J. Y. VAIL, another lawyer, was an earnest Democrat. Two students in his office appear on the muster roll of the company that went from the village at the time of the battle of Plattsburgh, Alanson ALLEN and Henry F. JANES. On the roll of the same company is the name of George RICH, the first clerk of the court, and of Cyrus WARE, then a lawyer of mature years, and of Thomas REED, Jr., who was then a boy who had net even begun the study of law. Joseph HOWES, soon after a Judge of the County Court, was second lieutenant; RICH was a sergeant; ALLEN, the law student, was a corporal; JANES, the other law student who was afterwards a member of Congress, was among the privates, as were Judge WARE and young REED. Thomas BROOKS, grandfather of Gen. W. H. H. BROOKS, of the war of the Rebellion, was also a private in this company. The old muster roll throws an illuminating side-light on the men of that day, and it rather suits the mind's eye to see Judge WARE and young REED plodding together toward the lake and the sound of battle. Another coming Montpelier lawyer was on the same journey in the Randolph company -- J. P. MILLER, who also served in the Greek revolution.

      Lest Mr. CAMP's old diary of the cold June of 1816 should discourage immigration, and cause a dearth of laborers in the granite harvest time, it is well to note that he lived "clean up in the north part of the state, e'enamost to the Canada line." It was wasn’t in this neighborhood at all -- but even if it had been, what then? “Why, there 't is!" as Charles DAVIS used to say to the Supreme Court. Every time and clime has its own worries and its compensations. If we have haven't iron mines or marble we have granite quarries, and if, for one year, the "perfect day in June" was not found in its perfection in Vermont, it has since taken up its regular abode here and is only surpassed by one of our October days with its mountain forests dyed from the paint pot of the Gods. Horace Greeley's "go west, young man" has been acted on long before he said it, too -- by many of our county people and in high degree by our lawyers. There they flourish and after a time return in glory, and the consolation of those that remain is that those who go are good fellows and deserve their success, together with a sense of safety from cyclones and fire blizzards. The Vermonter disgusted with the West forty years ago may have been a Washington county emigrant.
 

"Great Western waste of bottom land! Flat as a pancake, rich as grease, Where gnats are full as big 's your hand And 'skeeters' are as big as geese! I'd rather live on Camel's Hump And be a Yankee Doodle beggar, Than never see a tree or stump And shake to death with `fever 'n' agur.' "

      But pretty quick after those lugubrious lines appeared Matt CARPENTER struck out from the very shadow of the Hump and got along rather well out West-though he had to get rid of some of the impediments of his name to make the race.

      None of the lawyers who occupied the bench will be described under this head, but only some, laymen who from their good sense were chosen to administer the law. The system appears to have worked well, and indeed being a county Judge appears to have become quite a profession by itself. Now and then a lawyer was elected, but ordinarily in this county the lawyers kept within the bar.

      Ezra BUTLER, of Waterbury, was the first chief Judge of the County Court. He was born in Lancaster, Mass., September 24, 1763. At six years of age his father moved to West Windsor, Vt., where Mrs. BUTLER, whose maiden name was MCALLISTER, soon died. Ezra remained in West Windsor till he was fourteen, most of the time living with an older brother, Joel. Then he went to Claremont, N. H., where he lived with Dr. STEARNS for seven years and had the management of the Doctor's farm. He served six months in the army when he was seventeen. In 1784 he went to Weathersfield for a few months, and in the spring of 1785, with his next older brother, Asaph, came to Waterbury. They came as far as Judge PAINE's in Williamstown with an ox-team, and the rest of the way (some over twenty miles) they traveled on snow-shoes drawing their effects on a hand sled. They went to the house of the only settler who had preceded them, James MARSH. No other settler came to that town for a year and a half after BUTLER's arrival. The BUTLERs "made their pitch," cleared a little land, planted some corn, and returned to Weathersfield, where, in June, Ezra married Tryphena DIGGINS. They soon went to Waterbury, where Ezra changed his pitch and built a log house on, what has lately been known as the Reform School farm, just below the village, and into this residence the young couple moved in September, 1786. The pair "moved" from Weathersfield on horseback. Ezra was the first town clerk (1790); was town representative, 1794 to 1805 (except in 1798); was a member of the council from 1807 to 1825, inclusive, except when in Congress in 1813, 1814. He was elected to Congress in 1812 and served one term. He was a member of the Council of Censors in 1806, and of the Constitutional Convention of 1822. In 1826 and 1827 he was elected governor of the state, and in 1828 declined a reelection.

      He was no novice at the Judge business when this county was organized. He had been assistant Judge of Chittenden County Court by three elections, in 1803, 1804, and 1805; and had been chief Judge of that court from 1806 till his town was set off to the new county. He was chief Judge of this county from its organization till the old system of county courts went out of existence in 1825, except from December 1, 1813, to December 1, 1815, the Federalists controlling the legislatures of 1813 and 1814, and Judge BUTLER being also at that time a member of Congress.

      He was, when he went to Waterbury, a vigorous and somewhat profane early settler; in a few years he was converted and became a member of the Baptist church, and from about 1800 to within a few years of his death was the pastor of that church in Waterbury. His early hardships gave him a somewhat stooping form, his complexion was dark and sallow, and his eyes black. His character and mind deserved the honors given him, and he gave good service in all the positions to which he was called.

      A more extended sketch of Gov. Butler may be found in Hemenway's Vermont Historical Gazetteer, Vol. 4, p. 816. Poore's Congressional Directory says he was "born in Conn.," (he wasn't); "in 1762," (he wasn't); "received a good English education," (he went to school only six months-self-educated in manhood he clearly was); "studied law," (he didn't, except as he helped make it and administer it); "was admitted to the bar," (he never was); "and commenced practice in Waterbury, Vermont, in 1786," (he never commenced practice and there was but one other family in Waterbury in 1786); "he died July 19, 1838," (he did die, but before that day). This historical item from Poore strikes me as a mighty poor historical item. Gov. BUTLER died at Waterbury, July 12, 1838.

      Clark STEVENS, of Montpelier, who was the first assistant Judge of this county ever elected, declined to serve, and indeed declined all other offices except that he was persuaded to be town clerk one year. He was born in Rochester, Mass., November 15, 1764, and after coming to Montpelier in 1790 married Huldah FOSTER, of Rochester, December 13, 1792, and brought her to his log house here. Soon after that he built a log meeting-house, and that was the first church edifice in the county. He was a Quaker and a minister of the gospel. He was full six feet tall, and of noble form and like character. Thompson says of him, "he was a prince in appearance, but a child in humility." He died December 20, 1853. 

      Salvin COLLINS, the first assistant Judge of the County Court, was born in Southboro, Mass., March 6, 1768, and about 1791 came to Berlin, where he lived till he removed to Montpelier in 1811. He was reelected assistant Judge in 1812, and was Judge of probate from 1815, five years. After that he was for many years a trial justice of the peace. His first wife (Rebecca) died in 1816, and March 6, 1817, he married Mrs. Lucy CLARK. In Thompson's History of Montpelier (p. 225) is an appreciative sketch of Judge COLLINS. he died November 9, 1831.

      Bradford KINNE, of Plainfield, was second assistant Judge of the county for its first two years. He was born in Preston, Conn., about 1764, and moved to Plainfield from Royalton, Vt., in 1795. Judge KINNE went about at times to preach -- Judge COLLINS being the only Judge of the first County Court who didn't have that habit upon him, and he was a zealous member of the Congregational church. Judge KINNE also practiced law, but not having been "admitted to the bar" he had to address the court and the jury from without the bar.

      Judge KINNE was not prepossessing in appearance; he had a long nose and a long chin, and, being withal somewhat toothless, the two made near acquaintance as he talked. In the days of his practice imprisonment for debt was the rule, and the "liberties of the yard" extended only a mile from jail. Judge KINNE defended in a suit brought for an escape, but all the other side was able to show towards the escape was that the prisoner lived in Plainfield, and that about daylight one morning he was discovered about one rod inside the jail limits running down Clay hill towards the jail as for dear life. It looked very much as the truth was that he had made a visit home and had not got back under cover of darkness. Judge KINNE, from without the bar, addressed the jury -- "Gentlemen of the jury, the plaintiff in this case has taken every method to prove my client within the limits of the jail-yard, and I shall take no manner of means to prove him out." And tradition is that the law was more severe than the administration of it, and that juries considered "all intendments in favor of liberty." At any rate that jury was all right. Judge KINNE died in Plainfield in 1828.

      Charles BULKELEY, of Berlin, who was chief Judge from December 1, 1813, to December 1, 1814, was a lawyer, and an account of him will be given among the sketches of the lawyers.

      Denison SMITH, of Barre, was chief Judge from December 1, 1814, to December 1, 1815, and was a lawyer, and will be sketched among members of the bar.

      Both the above named gentlemen I take it were Federalists ; BULKELEY certainly was. But it is not certain how much politics had to do with the choice of county Judges, for we find Stephen PITKIN elected in years when opposing parties had control of the legislature.

      Seth PUTNAM, of Middlesex, succeeded Salvin COLLINS as assistant Judge, and served from December 1, 1813, to December 1, 1814. Judge PUTNAM came with several brothers to Middlesex at a very early day, and was town clerk and a colonel; he was an uncle of C. C. PUTNAM, of Putnam's Mills. There is what purports to be a sketch of the Judge in Hemenway's Gazetteer, but on examination it consists so far as facts are concerned in the statement that he had three sons, Holden, Roswell, and George. So it proves to be very much like the introduction that made Judge Alfred CONKLING so indignant. After Roscoe had become popular, his father, the Judge, from whom the son honestly came by both his brains and haughty bearing, was invited to speak at some large meeting. When the time had come the usual committeeman introduced to the audience "Judge CONKLING, the father of Roscoe CONKLING"; whereupon the irate Judge bade the astounded committeeman "good evening, sir?" and left, saying he would be -- if he would address a crowd to whose attention his only title was that he was the father of somebody.

      Stephen PITKIN, of Marshfield, succeeded Judge PUTNAM and was assistant Judge from December 1, 1814, to December 1, 1820. He represented his town thirteen years in the legislature. He moved into Marshfield March 1, 1795, and died there May 22, 1834, aged sixty-two years. Judge PITKIN was a man of commanding presence and influence in his town. In the cold season of 1816 and 1817, when almost no provision was raised, he was of great help to his neighbors in procuring food to tide over the evil days -- fish it was that helped out the hungry people. Gen. P. PITKIN, of Montpelier, is a grandson of Judge PITKIN. 

      Stephen PIERCE, of Waitsfield, succeeded Judge KINNE, December 1, 1814, and served one year. I am unable to give account of him further than this, and that he was a justice of the peace in Waitsfield.

      Warren ELLIS, of Barre, became assistant Judge December 1, 1815, and served the next three years, and again for awhile after the system was changed in 1825. He came to Barre from Claremont, N. H., about 1803; he was born in Claremont, May 24, 1777. Judge ELLIS was a saddler by trade, and withal a good musician. He represented Barre seven years. His son Warren H. went to Waukegan, Ill., and a daughter married D. H. SHERMAN, and went West. Judge ELLIS died in Barre, June 10, 1842.

      Joseph HOWES, Of Montpelier, was assistant Judge from December 1, 1818, to December 1, 1825, and at times thereafter. He was born March 28, 1783, in Lebanon. Conn., and came to Montpelier in 1808. In the War of 1812 he served two years as adjutant. He was second lieutenant of the company that started for Plattsburgh. Judge HOWES was prominent in all town affairs and a justly respected citizen. He died April 26, 1863.

      Josiah B STRONG, of Northfield, was assistant Judge from December 1, 1820, to December 1, 1825, but I have found no other account of him, except that he was sometime justice of the peace. 

      This closes the list of the Judges of the old County Court. December 1, 1825, substantially the same system as now exists came into being.
 
 
 

Gazetteer Of Washington County, Vt. 1783-1899, 
Compiled and Published by Hamilton Child,
Edited By William Adams.
The Syracuse Journal Company, Printers and Binders.
Syracuse, N. Y.; April, 1889.
Pages 40-58

Transcribed by Karima Allison, 2003