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Chapter 5: The Circuit Court |
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In the development of the United States the English tradition of rule by law closely followed the frontier. In Missouri the county was the unit of law enforcement; but since most counties did not have enough legal business to occupy the full time of a judge, several counties were grouped together by the General Assembly to form a judicial circuit.
Each circuit was presided over by a judge who "rode the circuit," holding court in each county each term for as many days as the number of cases on the court docket required. It is not a mere figure of speech to say, "The judge rode the circuit." Sometimes he could use a carriage, but usually he had to ride horseback from county seat to county seat, carrying with him whatever papers and extra clothing he just had to have. The roads were poor; some of the larger streams could be crossed by ferry, but the smaller streams had to be forded as there were only few bridges. Eating and sleeping accommodations were almost nil especially in the newer and more remote counties. Carl Sandburg, to his great work on Abraham Lincoln, "The Prairie Years," gives this description of "riding the circuit," by the frontier lawyers in our neighboring State of Illinois, "Sometimes the circuit lawyers drove across the prairies on trails through sloughs where mud was up to the hubs, or creeks swollen by rain, through sleet and snow, with mittens soaked wet." "Riding the circuit," was a hard and arduous life for the judge and for the lawyers who also had to follow the circuit.
Butler County was born into the Tenth Judicial Circuit as the parent county of Wayne belonged to that circuit when Butler County was organized in 1849. With the formation of Butler County the Tenth Circuit included the following counties: New Madrid, Cape Girardeau, Scott, Madison, Stoddard, Wayne, Ripley, Dunklin, Mississippi and Butler. The circuit was larger in square miles than the same counties now, as Carter, Pemiscot, Bollinger and Iron Counties were organized, all or a part, from some of the counties once in the Tenth Circuit. The judge of the circuit was Harrison Hough who lived in Wolf Island Township in Mississippi County. He was a native of Hardin County, Kentucky, an able and successful lawyer, and very popular with the bar and with the people; in the Civil War struggle he was a Union man and was a member of the Peace Conference which met in Washington, D.C., in February, 1861, in an attempt to prevent civil war.
In 1849 the General Assembly directed that the Courts of Butler County should meet at the house of Thomas Scott. We do not know the exact location of this house, but it was near the present Cane Creek School, about ten miles west of Poplar Bluff, and was on or near the Military Road, which made it accessible to most people having business
with the Courts. The first and only session of he Circuit Court at the house of Thomas Scott was the September Term, September 15, 1849, with Judge Harrison Hough presiding. Only two items of business were transacted by the Court during this term. In the first item, Newton Wallace, the first sheriff of Butler County, presented his bond which was approved. His bondsmen were John Macom, Samuel Morrison, Isaac Shipman, John Stevenson, Ephriam B. Keener and B.F. Hill.
The second item of business resulted in the most important decision every made in Butler County. John F. Martin and John Stevens, two of the commissioners appointed by the General Assembly to select a site for the permanent seat of government, appeared before the Court, reported their selection of a site and gave its legal description. The site chosen was about 150 acres of uninhabited wilderness land in the public domain on the banks of Big Black River and near the geographical center of the county. The Court approved the report and ordered that as soon as title to the tract could be secured from the United States, it was to be the site of the permanent seat of government of Butler County.
The Court then adjourned with the following order: "Ordered that the Court do now adjourn till Court in course." (signed, H. Hough).
Thus the brief and direct court order of September 15, 1849, approved a site for the county seat of Butler County; but the drama, the romance, the human interest and the pioneer setting which surrounded the Court that day are unrecorded and can be reconstructed only in the imagination. The house of Thomas Scott was probably a one room log cabin with the furnishings common to the frontier: loom, spinning wheel, fireplace and handmade tables, chairs and beds. Here in the clearing in the woods Judge Hough held Court one hundred and fifteen years ago. If the weather was fair, as is often the case in September, perhaps Court was held outside the cabin. Was the Judge provided with a chair or did sit on a split log bench or possibly on a log or stump? Did he have a table, perhaps of split logs with legs cut from saplings?
"Court Day' was always an excitement on the frontier. The trials and hearings were of great interest to the people as they concerned neighbors, friends and relatives. Also it was considered a great honor for the Judge to come into the community. When not on the bench the Judge shook hands, visited, made friends and brought news to a people starved for news. He was a man of stature from the outside world. What would we give for an eye-witness account of this Court session on the banks of Cane Creek? What would be our thrills if we could see and hear Sheriff Wallace calling Court into session in this clearing in the forest, see the Judge taking his place, see the settlers standing or sitting wherever they could and then witness John F. Martin of Ripley County and John Stevens of Cape Girardeau County face the Court and report their decision for a site for the permanent seat of Government of Butler County? High drama. Of course it was. It was the greatest decision ever to be made for the County. The citizens wanted a county seat, a place to go to transact their business with the county government. Of course the site was miles from the homes of most of the settlers, a place in the wilderness where Big Black River broke away from the hills and meandered southward through the vast and fertile delta lands of the Mississippi river, a site still a part of the public domain because it was so isolated and unattractive that a settler had never thought it worth claiming. On this day destiny roade with Judge Hough, John F. Martin and John Stevens, for on the site selected would one day be built a fine Court House for the business of the County and beyond the Court House in all directions would rise one of the fine cities of Missouri, by name, Poplar Bluff.
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