University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1910-08-23
IN THE PRIMITIVE COURTS
How Justice Was Administered in
Rude Surroundings.

In the days of which | write the
judicial system, like the country, was
In its infancy. The circuit court was
composed of president judge, elected
by the legislature, and who presided
at all the courts in the circuit, and
two associate judges, elected in each
county by the people. The president
judge was always a lawyer of some
experience. The associate judges were
not lawyers and they made no claims
to legal knowledge AS rule they
were typical representatives of the
backwoodsmen and very illiterate, yet
they had the power to override the
presiding judge and give the opinion
OF the court, and they often did so. In
such instances their reasoning was
| likely to be of a most ludicrous char
acter. However. they made up in hon
esty what they lacked in other drec-
| tons. and the results were not as bad
as might be imagined. They were
usually elected because of their popn-
larity and their well known integrity,
and though they occasionally went
wrong their constituents did not
strongly censure them because of their
mistakes.
The clerks of the pioneer courts
We're seldom qualified for their duties.
and many old time records are the
living proofs of this statement. They
twere uneducated. and some of them
barely had the ability to scrawl their
own names. yet they did not lack ma.
tive shrewdnesS. There was clerk in
one of the pioneer settlements Of Cen
trail Indiana who boosted of his super.
ior qualifications by declaring that he
been sued on every section of the stat
lutte. and therefore knew the law. while
his opponent had never been sued and
therefore could not know the law. He
was elected on this platform.
The sheriffs were chosen by the
people. and the man who could send
his voice farthest in the woods from
the courthouse door was often the sue
cessful candidate A stentorian voice
physical strength and tried courage
were the principal qualifications fol
this important office. When the court
ldesired the presence of John Smith
as petit juror or as witness. il
was the sheriif's duty to stand outside
the courthouse or poke his head GU
of window and cry three times an(
with all the power of his lungs. '.IOhI
Smith. come to COURT" and John gen
orally heard the call and obeycd. L
he happened to be SO remote that h
did not hear, there We're always plCni!
of loiterers who esteemed it an homo
: to go after him. A written summons
was seldom resorted to. 1t was re
garded as waste of material ant
time, to say nothing OF the stupendou
: task which the preparation of such
J document would place upon clerl
who could hold pillow handle or
: rife much more effectively than per
BY far the most important men VIII
attended the sessions of the court
were the lawyers, especially the young
I er ones. But nobody called them law
I yers. They were squires. To see
lyOung squire with qeue three fee
long dangling down his back and tie
with an eel skin, strutting backwar
and forward over the roughhewn slab
that formed the floor of the ordinar
: log courthouse, brought the woodsme
from near and far; and to hear hill
l''plead" was worth a wearisome foe
journey over ice and snow across swo
: len rivers and creeks, through an il
terminable fOrest-CaSe and Con
ment.