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The Supreme Court of Indiana. family, — the Racines. As early as 1794 he was probate judge and justice of the peace for Knox County. He was a man of much natural ability, and was the only member of the Council selected by President Adams from outside of Ohio in 1798, of which he became the president. In 1804 he approved the advance of Indiana Territory from the first to the second grade of territorial

government. He seems to have been a political bed fellow with William Mcintosh, who be came involved in a slander suit with Gov ernor Harrison. He was a slaveholder, and a man of some temper. Thomas Terry Davis first appeared in court as judge Sept. 6, 1803, when Benjamin Parke was the administra tion's candidate for Congress. Davis was recommended, al though then judge, as the opposition candi date, and was beaten by a majority of only three votes; and yet it is quite evident that CHARLES he did not actively op pose the Governor, for • on March 1, 1806, he was appointed by that official Chancellor of the Territory, in place of John Badollet, resigned. He died at Jefferson ville, Nov. 17, 1807. Waller Taylor succeeded Davis, and first appeared in court as judge Sept. 8, 1806, and continued as such until the court was dissolved by the admission of Indiana Terri tory as a State. Taylor was born before 1786 in Lunenburgh County, Virginia, and died there Aug. 26, 1826. He had only a common-school education. He served one or two terms in the Virginia legislature as

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a representative of his native county. In 1805 he settled in Vincennes. Nov. 24, 1807, on the death of Thomas T. Davis, he was appointed by the Governor Chancellor of the Territory. On his appointment by the President as judge of the territorial court, he resigned the office of chancellor. He succeeded John Griffin. Taylor was a proslavery man of decided cast, and trained with Harrison. In 1 811 he was Jonathan Jennings's opponent in the race for Con gress, but wasdefeated. At the battle of Tip pecanoe he was a major., and served as aid-de-camp to Harri son. On the admis sion of the Territory as a State, Taylor, with James Noble (after wards Governor), was elected, Nov. 8, 18 16, to represent Indiana in the Senate of the United States, and was re-elected, serving un til March 3, 1825. Benjamin Parke, an intimate friend of Henry Clay, was one of the strong men of DEWEY the State. He was born in New Jersey With his young wife, whom he in 1777 married at Lexington, Ky., he settled in Vincennes in 1801, where he opened a law office. Parke must have very early given evidence of ability; for he was appointed Attorney-General of the Territory, and first appeared as such at the September Term, 1804, succeeding John Rice Jones. He was a member of the first territorial legislature, which met July 20, 1805, and served in that capacity until he was appointed by the Presi dent a territorial judge. He took the bench Sept. 6, 1808, succeeding Thomas T. Davis.