HISTORICAL
Allamakee county was organized by legislative act in
1849. The county-seat was first located at Columbus,
where it remained until 1853, when it was re-located at
Waukon. In 1861 it was removed by vote of the people to
Lansing, the citizens of that town erecting a stone court
house and donating it to the county. The countyseat
remained at Lansing until September, 1867, when it was
again re-located at Waukon, and where it still remains.
The first election of county officials was in 1849, when
officers were elected as follows: James W. Sumner and
Joseph W. Holmes, county commissioners, Elias Topliff,
treasurer and recorder, Stephen Holcomb, county clerk,
John W. Remine, county attorney, and L. W. Hays, sheriff.
Two years later, in 1851, Elias Topliff was elected
county judge, being the first in that county to hold that
office. The first court was held at Columbus, July, 1852,
by Judge Thomas S. Wilson.
The first term in Waukon was set for Monday, June 6,
1853; but we find from the record that "The
presiding judge in order to give time for the preparation
of a suitable place at Waukon, the newly selected county
seat, by written order, directed the court to be
adjourned till tomorrow." June 7 there was no
business and the court was again adjourned one day. Much
delay in the business of the court was occasioned by the
fact of jurors and witnesses having been summoned to
appear at Columbus. In 1851 a county court was created.
The act creating this court gave the county judge
jurisdiction of probate affairs, and clothed him with all
the powers previously exercised by the Board of County
Commissioners. In short, it legislated the commissioners
out of existence.
County judges were Elias Topliff, 1851 to 1857; Geo. M.
Dean, 1857-59; John A. Townsend, 1859-61; O. S. Conkey,
1861-67; M. B. Hendrick, 1867 to 1868, when the office of
county judge was discontinued and Judge Hendrick became
ex-officio Auditor until the close of his term, December
31, 1869.
The Second Judicial District of the State of Iowa after
Allamakee was added in 1847, comprised the counties of
Buchanan, Clayton, Clinton, Delaware, Dubuque, Fayette,
Jackson, Jones, Muscatine, Scott and Winneshiek. Judge
James Grant, commissioned November 15, 1847, to May 8,
1852, when Judge Thomas S. Wilson qualified, who remained
judge of this district till after Allamakee was withdrawn
to help form the Tenth Judicial District, created in
1855, comprised Allamakee, Cerro Gordo, Chickasaw,
Clayton, Fayette, Floyd, Howard, Mitchell, Winneshiek and
Worth. Judge Samuel Murdock, of Clayton county, 1855 to
1858. With the exception of Cerro Gordo and Worth and the
addition of Bremer and Butler, this territory became the
Tenth Judicial District. In 1858 Elias H. Williams of
Clayton county was elected judge, and served until Milo
McGlathery of Fayette county was elected in 1866 and
served from 1867 to 1874 inclusive. Judge Reuben Noble
served from 1875 to November, 1879, when he resigned and
the governor appointed in his stead Ezekiel E. Cooley,
who was elected at the general election in 1880. The
Thirteenth Judicial District comprises the counties of
Allamakee, Chickasaw, Clayton, Fayette, Howard and
Winneshiek and the judges are L. E. Fellows, A. N.
Hobson, H. B. Crosby and W. W. Comstock.
BIOGRAPHICAL
Charles T. Granger was born in New
York State October 9, 1835. When he was but a child his
parents moved west, locating at Waukegan, Ill. Here he
received his education. He worked on his father's farm,
read law and was admitted. In 1854 he came to Iowa,
locating in Allamakee county, teaching school winters. In
1860 he began to practice law at Mitchell, Iowa. In 1862
he entered the army and was made captain of Company K,
Twenty-seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and served three
years. On his return from the war he located at Waukon,
Iowa. In 1869 he was elected district attorney, serving
four years. In 1873 he was elected judge of the circuit
court, which office he held until 1887, when he was
chosen district judge, serving until January, 1889. He
was elevated to the supreme bench and was chief justice
in 18941895 and associate judge until January, 1901.
Judge Granger has voted the republican ticket since the
organization of that party.
Liberty E. Fellows has been elected four
times judge of the Thirteenth Judicial district. The last
time was at the November election, 1906. The democrats in
1865 elected him to the house of representatives of the
Eleventh general assembly. After serving his term in the
house he was elected to the senate, serving in the
Twelfth and Thirtenth general assemblies. Judge Fellows
was appointed in 1889 judge of the Twelfth district to
fill a vacancy. For ten or twelve years he was a member
of the board of trustees of the Hospital for Insane at
Mt. Pleasant and for a number of years regent of the
State University. For two years he was Grand Master of
the Masonic Grand Lodge of Iowa. He was a democrat up to
1883, but now belongs to the republican party. Judge
Fellows was born in Vermont August 22nd, 1834, and
removed to Iowa, locating on a farm near Lansing in 1857.
He was admitted in 1862, and at once began the practise
of his profession. His home is Lansing, Iowa.
The members of the Allamakee County Bar
at this time are the following: W. W. Bulman, Henry
Dayton, J. F. Dayton, H. L. Dayton, D. Deremore, Wm. S.
Hart, Bert Hendrick, M. B. Hendrick, D. J. Murphy, A. M.
May, J. E. O'Brien, H. H. Stilwell, C. S. Stilwell, C. M.
Stowe, H. E. Taylor, F. S. Burling, P. C. Church, Wm.
Shepperd, W. C. McNeil, J. P. Conway, Frank May.
~~
Biographies of others with Allamakee co. connections,
from other sections of Vols I or II:
(pg 227-228. Vol I)
Leander O. Hatch was a native of Ohio,
where he received a moderate education, which was
supplemented and improved by teaching school and one term
in an academy. His knowledge of the law was acquired by
private study with such aids as could be secured from
attorneys within his practical reach. He was admitted to
the bar in Ohio in 1849, and practiced law in Cuyahoga
county until 1853. He moved to Iowa and located at
Waukon, the then new county-seat of Allamakee county. He
opened an office there and continued the practice until
1869, when he removed to McGregor, and there continued
the practice in partnership with Ruben Noble, and
afterwards with Judge Granger, later of the supreme
court.
The business of the firm of Noble, Hatch and Frese was
very extended and lucrative. In 1866, while living at
Waukon, he was made district attorney of the Tenth
judicial district, the duties of which he discharged
faithfully and efficiently until he resigned, which was
after the middle of his term. He was afterwards elected
judge of the Thirteenth judicial district, and made
confessedly one of the best judges that district ever
had. Judge Hatch was a man of very great clearness and
penetration of mind, and on the bench he seemed to
comprehend with readiness and exhaustiveness the
questions involved, and his instructions to the juries
were always very luminous. He was a man of most decided
ability, excellent character and abiding faithfulness.
His impress upon the jurisprudence of his district and
state was marked.
(Chapter XLII, pg 341-342, Vol I)
James H. Trewin was born in Illinois and
there acquired his education, common school and academic,
and graduated at Lenox College, Iowa. He studied law, and
was admitted to the bar in 1882, and settled in the
practice of his profession in Allamakee county. His
practice from the first was good and remunerative, and it
grew in the number of cases and in the importance of
each. He was elected to the house of the general assembly
in 1893 from Allamakee county and took rank at once as a
leading member. Two years later he was elected senator
from the district composed of Allamakee and Fayette
counties. He discharged the duties of senator with such
decided ability and efficiency that he was by his
constituents unanimously renominated and was elected to
the senate again in 1899. Senator Trewin was well and
properly denominated one of the leaders of the senate,
and he was foremost in efficiency in securing important
legislation affecting the entire state. He was chairman
of the committee which supervised the publication of the
Code of 1897. Since the close of his last senatorial term
he has removed to Cedar Rapids and engaged in the
practice of the law, and has the recognition there, as he
did in his former location, as a leader of the bar. Mr.
Trewin is a very active, industrious and most influential
man.
(Jasper county, pg 720, Vol II)
E. C. Ogg, Newton, Iowa,
was born in Pennsylvania January 13, 1851. He spent his
boyhood in Allamakee county, Iowa. He attended the common
schools and graduated from Iowa State University in 1878.
He read law in the office of S. C. Cook, Newton, Iowa,
and was admitted before the supreme court in the spring
of 1880. He formed a partnership with Cook & Ogg,
which continued four years. He then formed a partnership
with O. C. Meredith, which continued until 1900. Since
that time he has been alone in the practice of law. He
has been a member of the school board for fifteen years.
Mr. Ogg is an able lawyer and influential citizen.
(Jasper county, pg 882, Vol II)
Orlando J. Clark was born at Rome, New
York, March 11, 1843. His parents were John T. and
Elizabeth (Blakeslee) Clark. At the age of ten years his
parents removed to Waukon, Allamankee county, Iowa. In
January, 1860, he removed to Decorah, Iowa, and remained
until 1885, with the exception of about three years
during the War of the Rebellion, after which he located
in Sibley, Iowa, where he now resides. He studied law in
his father's office in Decorah, and was admitted there at
the June term of the district court in 1868. He at once
entered into partnership at Decorah, with John T. Clark
& Co. He was appointed district attorney of the old
Tenth judicial district (north east Iowa) in January,
1873, and was then elected for two terms, but refused to
take another term. He then retired from official life,
but is now in active practice. Mr. Clark entered Company
E, Thirty-eighth Iowa Infantry, August 4, 1862, and was
promoted to corporal, sergeant and orderly-sergeant of
said company. In January, 1865, his regiment was
consolidated with the Thirty-fourth Iowa Infantry, and
his company and Company "F," Thirty-fourth
Iowa, became Company "K," Thirty-fourth Iowa,
and he was promoted to second lieutenant thereof; and
later, in September, 1865, they were mustered out. In
politics Mr. Clark is a republican, and he has served as
alderman, mayor and city solicitor of Decorah, Iowa.
(Webster county, pg 1094, Vol II)
Thomas D. Healy was born May 25, 1865,
in Lansing, Iowa. He was educated in Notre Dame
University, Indiana. He read law at the University of
Michigan, and was admitted before the Iowa supreme court
in October, 1886. He opened an office soon after being
admitted at Fort Dodge, and has been in practice there
ever since. He is of the firm of Healy & Healy. Mr.
Healy has served as city attorney of Fort Dodge. He was
elected state senator for the district composed of the
counties of Calhoun and Webster, and served from 1896 to
1904. He is an active republican, and served on the
committee on resolutions in the republican state
convention of 1893.
(Webster county, pg 1095, Vol II)
Michael F. Healy is a native of Iowa,
being born at Lansing April 1, 1863, and is a son of
Michael and Catherine (Murphy) Healy. He attended the
public and sisters' schools of Lansing, and Notre Dame
University, Indiana, Harvard College law school and the
law school of the University of Michigan. He was admitted
to practice before the supreme court at Dubuque, Iowa, in
October, 1885. He began to practice law at Fort Dodge in
January, 1886. In August of the same year he formed a
partnership with Thos. D. Healy, under the firm name of
Healy & Healy, and they are engaged in general
practice. In politics he is a democrat.
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