The Editor's Bag
603
A PIONEER COURT
whipped him, Ben, and if you stole a hog
LITTLE off the road leading from Xenia to Dayton, Ohio, was the first court-house in that county, stand
I'd whip you, too!" This was too much for the Court, and the sheriff was ordered to go out and find the witnesses to the affray and take them before the grand jury. The mil
ing with Owen Davis's mill on one side of it, and ablockhouse on the other bank
of the stream. It was in 1803 that this spot was selected by the court as the seat of justice, and the first session was held to complete the county organ
ization. The court opened with a perfectly clean docket, and for a short time it looked as if it would have nothing to do. It might have proved an inglorious
ler's performance, however, had proved contagious, and when the sheriff got outside, he found a free fight going on, and the grand jurors watching it. Every body who had a grievance, or thought he had, was trying to settle it in this irregular fashion.
By the middle of the afternoon nine indictments for affray and assault and battery were presented in court, and be
failure had not Owen Davis, the miller,
fore evening the court found itself in
come to its rescue.
funds to the amount of forty dollars.
Everybody took advantage of court
day to drive to mill with his grist. Among those who came from a distance was a certain Smith from Warren County, who
had the reputation of helping himself to pork wherever he found wild hogs in the woods. Davis, having turned out the grist for his friend, concluded to admin
ister a little pioneer law on his own ac count, leaving the court to proceed in a more conventional manner.
A FINGER'IIN EVERY PIE OME years ago, during the lifetime of the late Gen. A. S. Twitchell of Gorham, N. H., a little incident arose in
court at Lancaster which madea laugh for a moment. Lancaster is the shire town of Coos county, N. H., and on this
Accordingly he gave the unfortunate Smith a sound drubbing, and having
particular occasion the court was in ses sion with the late Justice Blodgett of the Supreme Court on the bench. The docket was being called on the first day
finished it, burst into the primitive court
of the term, and it seemed to some of those
room, where the judges sat round a deal table in solemn state and awful dignity. “Well," said he, "I’m damned if I haven't done it." "Done what, sir?" demanded one of the associate justices. "I've whipped that hog-thief from down the country, Ben, and l’ve made
a good job of it! What's the damage, anyhow? What's to pay?" Whereupon he pulled out a roll of money and counted down several bills. The Court looked on
in silence, too
deeply horrified for speech. "It's a fact," continued Davis, "I've
present that General Twitchell was in every case that came along.
He repre
sented either the plaintiff or the defend ant, or else he had been requested by ‘‘Brother So—and-So, who was unavoid ably detained from attendance, to ask
his Honor" that the case might be set ahead one term, or marked for trial, or entered neither party, or whatever else it happened to be. Finally they came to a case of, say
Smith v. Smith. There was a dead pause for some time after Moses Hastings, the veteran clerk of the court, called it out.
He repeated the call and gave the num
