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Mid-1800s to Early 1900s: Practicing in the Wilds of Manitowoc County

We were in a quandary what to do. I favored throwing up the whole business and later giving notice before some competent officer in Kewaunee. Mr. Nash declared he could not and would not come back again. We finally agreed that we would have the justice administer the oath to the witness, I would examine him and Mr. Nash would write down the testimony and his objections thereto. In turn he would cross-interrogate while I wrote down the cross-examination with my objections. All this was accordingly done. We entered into a stipulation waiving all objections to the manner of taking the deposition and agreeing that it should be used on the trial subject to the objections taken at the hearing. The justice duly certified that the deposition had been taken before him and had been reduced to writing by "a competent person" in his presence and under his direction.

The question of the expense of the proceeding fell to me as attorney for the moving party. I urged the justice to name the amount he thought would compensate him. He hesitated a long time and at last said "I don't know, you fellows done all the work." "Do ye think 75 cents would be too much?"

I nearly fainted, but recovered my presence of mind in time to hand him a two dollar bill, and shifted the burden to him. He was simply overwhelmed at my munificence.

It was about 4 p.m. when we got through and we determined to hitch up and push as far as we could in the direction of home. There was no hotel where we had been staying and we had slept the night before in the attic of an unplastered board shanty which housed the family of the manager of the little saw-mill. We had bunked together on a straw-tick and while I had spent many nights in worse quarters down in Virginia in [Civil] war time, I had again become accustomed to better surroundings. Mr. Nash had roughed it less than I and was even more fastidious.

My little family horse made good time in spite of rough roads. We got supper at Kewaunee and pushed on. Between that city and Two Creeks the night shut down black as pitch and soon we were compelled to go at a walk. We finally got to a wayside tavern kept by a Bohemian named Joe Bartosch about a mile and a half from Two Creeks and stopped.

They had retired for the night but we rattled and knocked until they finally let us in. I saw my horse cared for and we got ready for bed. I was just ready to turn in, when Mr. Nash came into my room writhing with pain and declared we must at once hitch up and get to Two Rivers, that he could not stand it and must have medical help. I protested and pointed out that we would have to walk the horse the whole way, if we did not break down before we got a mile on the road. He declared he could not stand it and would start out on foot alone, to where he could get a doctor. Of course I could not consent to that. His limbs were spotted with red blotches from the ankles up, which burned like fire. I could see that he was seriously alarmed. As I looked I recognized the well defined traces of old acquaintances I had met several times in my army life and began to laugh. Until then I had not felt anything much, but suggestion compelled my attention and I found on my person half a dozen or more samples which matched exactly.

What had happened was that our sleeping place the previous night was placed directly against the board partition walls, and during the night a procession of insects, genus lectularious, (Anglice - bed bugs) had made a bridge of the bed clothes and marched over. They found my friend Nash plump and very much to their taste and stayed with him. As I was dry picking, being rather attenuated in those days, I escaped except where some samples had been taken.

Brother Nash's mind being now relieved from the visions of Scabies, Erysipelas, Small-pox, etc. which had begun to haunt him, asked if I did not know of something we might use to alleviate the pain and itching we now both felt. I recalled an old and rather rough remedy we used in the army when bitten by wood-ticks and like poisonous insects, the foundation of which was the strong salt brine from our pork barrels. He routed up the landlady, got a pitcher of boiling water and a bowl of salt, with a couple of other simples, from which we concocted an imitation which we rubbed vigorously into our sore spots. Mr. Nash went to his room. I waited about 15 minutes and taking my candle went to his room. I found him sound asleep, sleeping the sleep of the weary and unbitten. I followed his example.

Next morning we were up betimes. Mr. Nash declared himself perfectly cured. We had breakfast and had our horse and buggy brought around immediately after.

Nearly all the way to Two Rivers the road was a mass of clay half-dried and cut up into ridges and ditches, which tossed our buggy up in the air and from side to side, so that we were compelled to go slowly and exercise the greatest care. We realized then what would have resulted had we attempted to pass over it in the blackness of the previous night. It was well into the afternoon when we reached Manitowoc, too late indeed to do any effective work that day. That deposition had cost us three days' work with its attendant discomfort.

Saving Appearances in the Dead of Winter

The following winter I had another unpleasant experience. I had a case pending in the U.S. Court at Milwaukee involving the validity of municipal bonds issued by a town in aid of a railway.

It was necessary for me to obtain certified copies of the proceedings as recorded in the town books. I left Manitowoc by railroad about 10 o'clock p.m. and got to New London junction about two o'clock next morning. It was terribly cold, the mercury in the thermometer showing a good many degrees below zero. I had to spend about three hours in the station waiting for an early morning train to Green Bay. I paced the floor to keep from chilling. I finally got to my destination, a little way station about half way to Green Bay, and was dumped out on the snow to shift for myself as best I could.

No one was stirring and in the grey morning I wandered from house to house until I came to a sign which intimated that fluid refreshments and warm meals could be had within. I pounded vigorously on the door and finally a sleepy looking half dressed man let me in. He reckoned "it was cold out," and I confirmed his reckoning with emphasis. He proceeded to build up a fire in what was evidently a combination of bar-room and waiting room, and in due time a plain but substantial and bountiful breakfast was served in a small, but cold and fireless, dining room. After breakfast I made inquiry and found that the town clerk lived "out in the woods" about three or four miles. I tried to get some one to drive me out there in a sleigh of any sort, but nothing of that kind was to be had though I declared myself ready to pay almost any price. There was nothing left except for me to proceed on foot to interview him. The last half of my journey was through unbroken snow nearly up to my knees.

I found my man just as he was getting ready to go to work for the day. He was suspicious that I was about to take some advantage of him in the pending lawsuit of the town, but I assured him that I asked nothing but what I had a right to take if I paid him his fees. I urged him to stay and help me, offering to pay him more than twice as much as he could earn in the woods, but to no avail. He had promised to go and the crew was short two men already, and go he must. He consented to allow me to take the copies I wished and his good wife fitted me out with a small table in the kitchen (the only warm room in the house) and there I worked all day and far into the night copying records, and preparing certificates for him to sign.

Early in the evening he returned and after supper we worked till nearly midnight comparing and certifying the copies. Incidentally he told me that he had gone straight to the town chairman to find out what right I had "to go over them books" and that the chairman had told him everybody had a right to look over the books, but to be careful and see that the copies were right before he signed any certificate. He was much more affable than in the morning, and as it was very late I was invited to stay all night. The cold was still intense, the night dark. I had no inclination to face a tramp of four miles through the woods with a good chance of losing the track and wandering about till daylight, in order to reach the little hotel at the station.

In due time I was conducted up stairs to the guest chamber which as usual in such houses was the furthest possible from the influence of any fire. It was a chamber of horrors. The bare plastered walls were covered an inch deep with ice and white frost from the frozen vapors, from the rooms below, the windows thick with ice and frost.

I prepared myself and tumbled into bed but the frozen sheets seemed to extract every particle of heat from my body, and my teeth rattled like castanets. After a little, I jumped from the bed, dressed myself, with the exception of my boots, put on my heavy overcoat, buttoning it tight. I even put on my fur cap drawing it down over my ears. I indulged in a series of active calisthenics, swinging my arms and lower limbs, pounding by body with my fists to induce circulation of the blood and then rolling myself in all the bed clothing threw myself on the bed and awaited results. I felt myself accumulating a little warmth and fell asleep. Several times I woke up and though I felt the cold was able to endure it.

At last I heard the family stirring. I threw off the bed clothes, took off my overcoat and cap to save appearances, put on my boots and went down stairs where I joined the family crowding around the kitchen stove. After a time we had a plain and substantial breakfast. I gathered my papers and other matters together, and settled with my friend the clerk for his fees and costs of certificates. He did not want to accept my compensation for his hospitality but I insisted on it. They had done the best they could for me, but I look back upon that night as one of the most miserable in my life. Taking my satchel in my hand I walked to the station in the sharp frosty air getting warmed up by the fast walk. After an hour or so of waiting, I got a way train to Green Bay. Another long wait of several hours, then a train to Appleton Junction. Another wait of long hours and near evening a train for Manitowoc where I arrived thoroughly exhausted from work and loss of sleep.

These two instances are simply two out of many similar ones. They were the same in the experience of every lawyer in general practice. That was 46 years ago. Pioneer days and ways were still existing. Railways alleviated matters somewhat where they existed, but connections were bad and even where there were railroads, for work within a radius of 40 miles a good driving horse was generally preferable.

In either case lawyers who practiced in those days could tell of many instances of real hardship.

Finis

In September 1921 I counted 69 years that I have called Manitowoc county my home. I saw it as practically a wilderness; I see it as it is now. I knew most of the men who brought about these changes, and considering them by classes, I do not know of any other body who did more than the small group of lawyers who constituted Manitowoc bar from 1848 to 1870.

The immigration of the early day was largely composed of people alien to the institutions and principles upon which our government had been established. They were good people, well meaning but ignorant of the language and laws of the country. They were law-abiding and looked to the lawyers for leadership in building up the local governments necessary to be organized in a new country. In the lands they came from they had no experience in self-government. Road districts were to be formed and roads laid out. School districts were to be organized and schools built. New towns were to be created from the division of old ones. In all these things the opinion and assistance of the lawyers were sought, not as matters of legal work or interest only, but as matters of personal assistance. Many times have I seen assessors, town officers, treasurers, and the like, carry their books into the law office, and ask, "Will you please help me a little?" "Will you show me how I should do this," or that. These, of course, were mere personal matters for which no charge was made to a town or district officer.

The lawyers became natural leaders, and their help and influence were sought in all projects, not only political and governmental, in business matters as well. If a road was sought to be laid out, it was talked over, and the question asked, "What does Jim Kyle say about it?" "Have you talked with S.A. Wood about this thing? If a party came here with a proposition to build a little factory or a machine shop and asking for a site, or financial help, the first thing would be, "Let's go and talk it over with Markham." They worked for Manitowoc freely without reward, in social matters. In the '50s winters were dreary, snowdrifts and storms would cut the mails off for a week, sometimes.

In 1856-57 the lawyers under the lead of Charley Walker organized a course of lectures wholly from home talent, one being given each week. ... In other matters which go to the upbuilding of society, churches, private educational institutions, the members of the bar were always helpful. None were wealthy but they were always ready with assistance and encouragement.

But it was as friends of the public schools that the lawyers were active. Almost without exception they had been teachers while working their way up to their chosen profession and they sympathized with the schools without limit. In short, I may say that the bar of Manitowoc county has always strongly supported all those things that go toward the uplift of humanity. In war time it has been loyal and true to the government. In peace no less loyal and obedient to the law.

When I began these papers, I announced my intention to simply write a few sketches covering the earliest period of our history, and telling what I knew and could gather in relation to the founders of our present institutions. It was simply my desire to preserve some word pictures of the primitive conditions under which these men labored and to rescue their names from the oblivion which had almost surrounded them, and make what little was known of them available. I expected to write about eight or at most 10 of such weekly sketches. But as I worked my interest in the matter deepened and widened.

The result was that I have brought the history down almost intact to the year 1880, and have written more than double what I expected. From that point to the present the materials for a history of the bar are easily available. The court records are better kept. Newspaper files are existent and available. Histories of the county have been published, and other sources of information exist.

I have been writing of personalities who died a generation ago, of events which occurred before roads were made, with no newspapers to record the happenings of the time. I have gleaned data from old and forgotten town and village records, minutes of courts, and copied dates from old and weather worn tombstones. But that which has served me best, is what Shakespeare calls "a good sprag memory," which the wear of time has impaired but little, and I have lived over the years again as I have written, and enjoyed them.

I have written tenderly of the old forgotten pioneers, bearing in mind the old Latin motto, "De mortuis nil nisi bonum," of the dead say nothing but good, and yet recalling that other paraphrase of it, "of the dead say nothing but the truth" (verum).

For a time, at least, I lay aside my pen.