St. Clair County
Circuit Court Records

St. Clair County newspaper
Date unknown
By B.F. Lawler

Reminiscence:
Many names, places and occurrences have already been mentioned in these papers but it may be of some value to review the circuit or district courts in the early days in St. Clair County.
1841 – The first recorded court session in the county was in March 1841, in the home of William Gash, Esq., now owned by Joe Smith twelve miles south of Osceola. There was a second term in August, the judge being Foster P. Wright; Charles P. Bullock, clerk; and John Smarr sheriff. In November the court was in session in Osceola, which became the county seat.
Many of the names appearing in the records were those of Administrators of estates or partition suits, or litigants in common law. In this court William Denson, Abraham Stow, Richard Keeny, James N. Delozier, Tandy H. Trice, Pleasant M. Cox (doctor Cox), Richard Crutchfield, Philip and Henry Crow, John G. Hammon, Roderick McCullock, and Henry Earl had business.

1842 – James Boles, William McClanahan, Samuel W. Harris (major Harris), W.F. Carter, Phocian McCrary, and John Tevis are in court. Major Harris owned the great farm now owned by Mr. John Adamson, and Mr. McClanahan owned the next one North of Mr. Adamson.

1843 – In this year Joseph Waldo, Daniel Grant, L.R. Ashworth, and David Huffman. Ashworth was a fine preacher and lived close to Huffman’s Ferry on Osage River. Huffman’s Ferry was known far and near in the early settlements of the country.
William Armanton, John Perry, John Bedell, Randolph High, Calvin Copenhaver, John F. Weidemeyer, Thomas Dray, Joseph Cox (Colonel Joe Cox), and Joseph Brown are mentioned in court proceedings.

1844 – Avery B. Howard, Albon D. Abstor, Robert N. Burch, Eliza Huffman, John L. Traborn, William H. Clark, Robert Marable, Hugh Galbreath, William Moon, Earnest Lamy, Abner Tyne and Josiah Culbertson.
In that year Osage River was full of water and steamboats were busy. I stood a little south of the old mill place and watched men unloading the boats and I was told they were paid 10 cents an hour for that heavy work, colored men managed each to carry a sack of salt weighing two hundred pounds. Many men then worked on the farm for less than fifty cents a day.

1845 – Alexander Moore, (space) Corbin, John F. Thompson, and George Price were in court. John Thompson was postmaster on Hogles Creek later, but I do not know that he is the same man.

1846 – Robert Anderson, Theodrick Snuffer, Robert Sprowell, Abraham Ditty and Richard Bowman are added.

1847 – Zachary Lilly is now Sheriff, William J. Mayo was Editor of the Osceola Whig, but spelled Oseola without the c, which was common at that time. John Beale, Warrick Gatewood, Mrs. Stracy whose husband was agent so long at Vista was Jennie Beale.

1848 – William Kean, Andrew Fudge, Ebenezer Gash, Alfred Gash, Mr. Gatewood, and Elizabeth Sams, Eleanor Cain and William Duckworth had business in court. After the death of the husband of Mrs. Sams, she often visited my parents as she was very lonesome. She rode a great horse called Melzar: he was a chestnut sorrel, with white, flowing mane and tail. I had many an enjoyable ride on his noble back.

1849 – William Brown, Andrew Brown, Martha Philip, Mark Allinson, Franklin Barger, Peter Shumaker and Marcus L. Largent appear in court. At that time De Witt C. Ballew was district Judge.
William Martin, Mathew Arbuckle, William Owsley, James Rily, James F. Christy, William Loony and James Breckenridge were in court. George Preston was sheriff that year; he was Father to Mrs. Mary Barnes, so well and favorable known in Osceola and St. Clair county. Andrew Baker, John T. Hammon, John T. McClain, Christopher Corbin and Louis Fournier are added to the long line of court people. Also Daniel B. Kidd, Taltor T. Barnes, William Dean, Caleb Rollin, Edwin B. Calhoun, Luther B. Challis and William D. Muir.

Many people will recognize these names as being their own people and we are glad to help them preserve recollections of them and we ask the indulgence of strangers. In these nine years we find but one murder case and one libel suit, and I think the fifties will show even better. I do not remember a single man sent to the penitentiary before the war, though there may have been one or more.
William Ousley mentioned here was from Johnson county and was in court concerning the estate of Burdett Sams whose widow he had married. This review of court proceedings distributes the names of people in all the county better than any paper so far, and yet, many names are very familiar to me partly through what father and oldest brother had to say at supper table when they got home from the City; and partly because many were neighbors to us. Many of them deserve special mention. There was academic school in Osceola in the fifties, and a grammar school a few miles North of the river conducted by a teacher whose name was Speed, but I am not familiar with the facts concerning either school. This is a great age for storing up historic matters.
B.F. Lawler