European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on your blog. Note: I'm not savvy enough to know about blog cookies; if there's a concern on your part, it's probably best not to visit my pages.
An April, 2013, newspaper article about the Dred Scott and the Blow Family historical marker can be found here.
The marker is located in Southampton County, Virginia, "[at the] intersection of Route 58 and Buckhorn Quarter Road near the Blow Plantation where he [Dred Scott] grew up."
Note: We saw this marker while driving south from Virginia Beach, but did not get a photo of it.
*The Dred Scott case was held in St. Louis. It was described by the National Park Service as follows: "One of the most important cases ever tried in the United States was heard in St. Louis' Old Courthouse. The Supreme Court decided the case in 1857, and hastened the start of the Civil War." [Source]
"His [Horace Bell's] adventures in the role of an overlander to California during the gold rush...; a filibusterer with William Walker in Nicaragua; a participant in abolitionist activities in Kentucky...spy in Cuba...compose a tale of a life that is as strange as fiction." [Source]
There is a story of how the Bells were distressed over the slave trade just across the border line of their state [Indiana], and that they won the ill will of the slave-traders by their denunciation of the Dred Scott decision and fugitive slave law.
A letter was sent to Horace Bell that he would be shot the moment he set foot on Kentucky soil. This message, however, had little effect on tho young man... .
Harrison County, Indiana, Map - LOC
Also See Brandenburgh
The authorities of Kentucky knew something of the man who had made this threat, and they took the precaution of ordering to Brandenburg a battalion of militia. The commander of that battalion, however, had served under Horace Bell at Nicaragua, and was not anxious to take up arms against his former commander, so he was not over-vigilant in watching for any outbreak that might be expected. [Source]
Davenport Past And Present indicated that George Davenport was an Indian Agent with Farnum & Farrar. He was born in England and that helped with the Native Americans. Davenport arrived at Fort Armstrong (at Rock Island, Illinois) as a contractor for the military troops in 1816. His wife was one of the first white women to settle there.
Davenport House (Rock Island, Illinois)
When the Black Hawk War was imminent, U.S. Army General Gaines arrived at Fort Armstrong for a council with several chiefs:
Note: Historical events converged at Rock Island, Illinois. Army doctor John Emerson, who owned Dred Scott, the named party in the infamous U.S. Supreme Court's Dred Scott Case [a Civil War precursor], had property near the Davenport house. [Emerson owned Scott when they moved from slave state Missouri to Illinois (where slavery was illegal)]
The courthouse in Metamora, Woodford County, Illinois, was frequented by Abraham Lincoln as he practiced law. The picture of the courthouse as well as the signage were found in Metamora Square, directly across from what is now the Historic Metamora Courthouse.
THE CIRCUIT LAWYER
Twenty-Two Years Before The Sixteenth President Died Of a gunshot wound to the head--after restoring the Union
of our broken country--a disheveled thirty-four-year-old country lawyer named Abraham Lincoln traveled on horseback through the prairie and wilderness among the counties that made up the Eighth Illinois Circuit Court. His journey covered more than four hundred miles and included Hanover, later named Metamora, in Woodford County. Court sessions were held in the spring and the fall and Mr. Lincoln participated in most through 1858. He handled more than seventy cases here, including numerous debts and business suits, eviction, paternity, gambling, perjury, trespass, and rights of way cases, and several guardianships. He was the defense attorney for two abolitionists charged with harboring slaves and for two people accused of murder. Local legend also has Lincoln mediating disputes in the Metamora Square to discourage litigation, as he often considered court a waste of time and money. Many of his cases took place before his friend and future Supreme Court Justice, Judge David Davis.
Lincoln occasionally acted as a judge pro tem when Judge Davis was not able to conduct business (the curator at the Metamora Historic Courthouse speculated that Davis may have suffered from diabetes).
One of Lincoln's clients charged with murder was Melissa Goings (Monica in the 1850 IL census Woodford Co.) was living in Guthrie County, Iowa, in the 1860 census. She is thought to have died in Tehama Co., California, ca 1865.
A biography of Armstrong Goings, son of the murdered Roswell Goings, can be found here.
Lincoln was the plaintiff's attorney in an 1854 lawsuit involving the Goings family. Davis was the judge, Josephus Goings the defendant, and Roswell Goings a surety.
The Lincoln Log is a comprehensive website where Lincoln's cases can be searched and even has a feature "This Day" (in this case September 26th).
The excerpts from the letters to Sarah Davis (1814-1879), Judge David Davis's first wife, on the sign below, were part of an exhibit at the Historic Metamora Courthouse in Woodford County, Illinois.
An earlier blog post at my "Relatively Fiction" blog featured the husband of Judge Davis's second wife, Adeline Burr. Her second husband, Wharton Green, was a Confederate officer in the Civil War. So Judge Davis, who was a friend of Abraham Lincoln's (Lincoln is mentioned in three of the five letters to Sarah) and an executor of Lincoln's estate, married a woman who as Davis's widow, married a Confederate officer. Another blog post at "In Deeds" has a bit more information about Wharton Green and Judge David Davis.
"MY DEAR WIFE"
A vivid picture of life on the Eighth Circuit comes from letters Judge David Davis wrote to his wife Sarah and son George. They show that living conditions did not compare will with those he was used to.
From Pekin September 22, 1851 "The tavern at Woodford is miserable, but it may be that Mr. Cross may take compassion on us & take us in his house."
From Springfield, September 7, 1851 "The Thermometer for the last four days, has [been] over 90, and in fact the entire two weeks has been as oppressive. Holding courts in such weather, has exhausted lawyers, jurors, witnesses, & Judge too. If such weather continues....the prospect in Pekin will be anything but agreeable--Mosquitoes prevail there, and a body will have to be in a constant state of warfare."
From Shelbyville, May 24, 185_ "The road from here to Charleston is horrid. We have met no such road any where round this circuit. My horses were very tired & Mr. Lincolns old horse nearly gave out."
From Clinton, April 24, 1851 "The tavern in Pulaski is perhaps the hardest place you ever saw. A new landlord by the name of Cass, just married--every thing dirty, & the eating Horrible. Judge Robbins, Lincoln, Stuart & every body else from Springfield. The old woman looked as we would suppose the witch of Endor looked. She had a grown daughter who waited on the table--table greasy--table cloth greasy--floor greasy and every thing else ditto. The girl was dressed in red calico, with a black silk cardinal over it, with a wreath of artificial flowers...around her head--waiting among greasy things. Think of it. I wonder if she ever washed herself. I guess the dirt must be half an inch thick all over her."
From Clinton, May 6, 185_ "Mr. Lincoln is with me & sends his love to you. He says [his horse] 'Old Buck' is alive. We don't use buggies so much in travelling since rail roads have come in vogue."
A letter Judge Davis wrote to his son, George Perrin Davis, mentioned Judge Davis's cousin, David Davis Walker. David Davis Walker's granddaughter, Dorothy, married Prescott Bush; they were George H. W. Bush's parents. More ancestry can be found here. The story of David Davis's early years can be found here.
Judge David Davis worked closely with Abraham Lincoln when Lincoln was practicing law in Illinois. One of the courtrooms used by both was in Metamora, Woodford County, Illinois. The historic courthouse in Metamora displayed a gavel in tribute to Judge Davis as well as Judge David Davis's actual chair and desk. David Davis was a United States Supreme Court Justice as well as an executor of Abraham Lincoln's estate.
See Jim's blog post in "Palms-Americana" for a few more details about Metamora, Lincoln's unique experience in the courthouse, and the third prominent person who practiced there (Abraham Lincoln and David Davis being the first two) as well as other pictures from our trip to the Peoria area.
The innocent looking little will abstract below blew up into a major court case before the U.S. Supreme Court. The will was dated 30 October 1833; Duncan McArthurdied 12 May 1839 and the case regarding the probate of the McArthur will was argued (& reargued) in 1884 and decided in 1885. Mrs. Nancy McArthur predeceased her husband, dying on October 23, 1836.
To…John Allen Kercheval $60 per year during minority and at 21 $1000
Daughter Margaret Campbell Kercheval, deceased
When I copied the above abstracted will, it was the "Kercheval" name that intrigued me, not McArthur, because of Kercheval Street in Detroit (an earlier blog featured Benjamin Kercheval).
I was amazed that Duncan McArthur was a Brigadier General in the War of 1812 and was an instrumental figure in the war's Detroit theatre.
McArthur was Governor of Ohio 1830-1832; other details of his political life can be found here; other biographical information is here.
In 1793 General Nathaniel Massie led a team to survey the Scioto River area of Ohio; Duncan McArthur "accompanied this party as a chain bearer." See the book about Generals Massie and McArthur written in 1838 here.
31 May 1857 - HENRY BAINBRIDGE died when the Louisiana sunk in Galveston Bay Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, 1857-1858 FRIDAY, January 15, 1858. The following petitions and memorials were laid upon the Clerk's table, under the 23d rule of the House, to wit: By Mr. Chaffee: The petition of Mary Bainbridge, widow of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Bainbridge, praying Congress to grant her a pension for the services of her husband in the United States army. [http://memory.loc.gov/]
