American law grows out of response to situations

     The failure of King George to allow the colonies to establish their own system of law independent of Britain and the suspension of the right to trial by jury were among major causes for the colonists to write the Declaration of Independence.
     The Declaration is filled with phrases, "For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses," "for abolishing the free system of English laws..." and "for obstructing the administration of justice, by refusing the Assent to Laws for establishing judiciary powers....and for making judges dependent on his (the king's) will alone for the tenure of their offices and the amount and payment of their salaries."
     Although American law, in most instances, had been based on British common law, law in this country has primarily developed in response to situations as they arose through the past 200 years.

Stands apart from Europe

     American and British law stands apart from that of most European countries. Common law left judges with power to change a law or interpret it by "general custom." Common law was judge-made and in practice, judges relied on their own past actions which they modified to stay in line with changing times and methods of litigation.
     Common law foundation, then, was set upon past practices or on precedent set in previous cases; much as today's decisions are based on previous decisions.
      These decisions have led to codifying so that courts across the country apply the same principles.
      However, it wasn't always that way.
      Laws laid down in the early colonies were much like military commands. Most serious crimes were those of misuse of public stores. The need for supplies was so great that punishment for embezzlement and neglect were harsh.
      Laws were made and enforced by the same persons who governed the colonies.
      Early law in Massachusetts depended on the laws and enforcement decided upon by the governor and his assistants.
      The most serious offenses included the taking of another's canoe. Since the canoe was a valuable transportation means, this was also held as a severe crime in early Virginia.

Precedent moves westward

     This precedent continued during the development of the country. Horse thieves were hanged because theft of a horse deprived a man of his mode of transportation.
     Mistreatment of the Negro slave stemmed from the property law code of Virginia. In the mid 1600's, men were ordered whipped for ill speech and misbehavior toward their masters.
     In Massachusetts, a seven-year-old boy was bound over with his father's consent and ordered by a five-county court commission to serve another man until the youth reached the age of 21.

Tossed in stocks

     Also, men found to have been drunk and swearing and cursing in public were ordered placed in stocks.
     There followed in the colonial period a number of hysterical acts including the Salem witch trials of 1692, when 19 persons were put to death and 50 more tortured until they confessed "witchcraft" antics. Bloodletting also followed servant or slave riots in the more southern colonies.
     Colonial courts borrowed from various codes, primarily the British system, and incorporated a few laws aimed at problem areas resulting from rapid development of frontier America.
     After the Revolution, and for hat matter during it, there was no central court system and the military could conscript almost any property it felt it needed. it was not uncommon for the troops of both the colonies and the British to take stores, horses and wagons, forcing the owner to come with them.

Early vigilantes

     The early vigilante movement of this country may well have started during the Revolutionary era. Patriots would often seize Tories or British collaborators and tar and feather them.
     Boycotts were urged when a person was suspected of aiding the British. The same circumstance could befall a patriot in British-held areas.
     The term "lynch law" was born in the Revolutionary period from he way a Bedford County, Va., justice of the peace named Charles Lynch handled his tory neighbors.
     The principle of dividing the federal government into executive, legislative and judicial branches was carried through the organization of the original 13 colonies.

Enforced by military

     The court system and laws moved slowly into the western part of the country, and most laws were enforced by the military.
     Sometime prior to 1818 a justice of the peace was appointed by the governor of Illinois territory -- then including much of Wisconsin -- to serve at Prairie du Chien.
     Until 1823 minor cases were handled by these justices, but military courts often took over where civil courts were inadequate and in almost all incidents with Indians.
     Major cases were sent to Detroit, then the territorial capital.

Judge appointed in area

     More formal organization came after 1823 when a judge was appointed for three courts in the upper Midwest. The judge held court at Prairie du Chien in May, Green Bay in June and Mackinak in July.
     James Duane Doty, Detroit, was the first judge and Henry S. Baird of Green Nay the first district attorney.
     The first organized court for Wisconsin started in 1836 when Congress established the territory of Wisconsin. When statehood was granted in 1848, the constitution provided for a Supreme Court, circuit courts, courts of probate and justices of the peace, a system with some modifications, that is still in operation today.
     The legislature was given power to create other courts, such as county, municipal and administrative courts, as it deemed necessary.
     From 1860 until 1949, each session of the legislature brought some change in statutory courts.
     Reorganization of the Wisconsin system, beginning in 1900, has been an ongoing topic, but little was done in the first half of the century.

Many special courts

     By 1954, in addition to 22 circuit courts there were 71 county courts, of which 45 had some special statutory jurisdiction. There were also 34 miscellaneous inferior courts including superior court, civil court, district court, small claims courts and others.
     There were more than 800 justices of the peace. They were abolished by constitutional amendment in 1966.
     In 1959, as result of active attempts at reform, the legislature abolished most of the special courts and gave to county courts most of the jurisdiction they have today.
     Law in the Eau Claire region developed as the area and citizens demanded a legal system which was responsive. Need to travel great distances to reach a court was the primary reason for breaking up of large counties. For instance, Crawford County was split to form smaller Chippewa and St. Croix Counties. In turn, those counties were later subdivided.
     Demand for courts is also the reason the seat of government of each county is in a "courthouse."

Felt it was needed

     In the late 1840's, there was "no law" in the Chippewa Valley. Some felt it wasn't needed.
     Thomas Randall in the "History of the Chippewa Valley" wrote:
     "...the country (1849-50) still continued without any administration of law except when very grave questions arose. The parties went to Prairie du Chien for justice, the whole intervening country still comprising a part of Crawford County. Disputes and personal assaults were, however, speedily settled by reference to mutual friends and the social condition of the settlements, notwithstanding the heterogeneous complexion of the people, was daily improving and many began to think that law was an unnecessary evil."
     Leaving town or "out of sight, out of mind" appeared to be the best punishment for a crime.

First murder of a white

     One of the first recorded murders of a white man in the valley took place in 1843 at Dunnville, where a man named Sawyer shot and killed Arthur McCann following a dispute. McCann answered a call at his own cabin and Sawyer shot him.
     Sawyer made his way up the river to Eau Claire, then to Chippewa where his pursuers lost him. He was never found although a large reward was offered.
     The world was so large and the cities so small, and there were none of the modern crime-solving techniques like fingerprints and quick communications.
     Another account notes that when a man had killed a troublemaker, the sheriff was called, saw the victim and remarked "that fella needed killing'." He then asked which way the murderer had gone. Told he had gone north, they sheriff went south.
     In 1849, several whites surrendered to authorities in Chippewa after lynching an Indian who had stabbed a man in defense of the Indian's wife.
     The men were transported to Prairie du Chien for trial, but when the Chippewa Indians refused to cross into Sioux territory to give testimony, the men were released and reportedly never returned to the valley.
     Martial Cazobia, the stabbing victim, recovered and left the country, for his and the country's good.
     There were several incidents when law was not enforced, particularly in major crimes, because of procedural or jurisdictional clashes.
     Jacob W. Bass had been appointed a justice of the peace and resided in Chippewa Falls in the mid-1840's, having an interest in the H.S. Allen mill. When he left, there was no administration of legal justice in the valley and cases were to be referred to the Jackson County district.
     However, this reportedly happened. A man was accused of manslaughter in the first degree and was taken to Black River Falls for trial. But since the law creating the new district had just passed, there was a jurisdiction question and the man was discharged. he never was tried.
     There were other cases where men accused of crimes never reached trial. Several of them were held in inadequate jails until they escaped, never again to be seen in the region.

Mixup sets man free

     In another case, a man named William Wylie in 1857 killed another in a jealous quarrel. Through a mixup in procedure between the justice of the peace and the judge, the man was released on bond, and "took himself to parts unknown."
     Not all cases went untried. "Eau Claire Free Press" records of the late 1850's note several men drawing jail terms from four to seven years for various crimes.
     Organization of a circuit court district started with the election of Judge S.N. Full to the bench. The first circuit court was held in Chippewa Falls in January of 1854.
     As population expanded with the growth of the lumber industry, there came a new demand for legal counsel and the beginning of more civil litigation involving lumbering interest. 

Hard struggle

     Prior to that, Randall wrote:
     "Lawyers, it is said, are a necessary evil, but on the principle that opposing evils correct each other, society is compelled to tolerate a good many of them...and like all other men in a new country, the lawyers had a pretty hard struggle to get started. The profession was poorly represented at first."
     Rise of arguments over timber rights, trespassing, river rights and similar issues gave new prominence to courts, and the resultant rise of some lawyers to state offices.
     Influence had its day, too, on direction of state laws. in 873 the state legislature passed a law governing the toll improvement and driving monopoly on the lumbering streams despite an 1871 constitutional amendment which banned special legislation conferring corporate powers.
     The bill passed with a smoothness which indicated it had knowing and powerful supporters. It was introduced by Eau Claire lumberman and then State Sen. J.G. Thorp and was referred to a committee of which Thorp was a member; his committee recommended it and it passed after a suspension of rules requested by Thorp. It then went through the Assembly without being referred to committee.

Charges personal bill

     Chippewa interests opposed to the bill claimed it had been enacted at the request of a single person or corporation and without consent of, or consulting the wish of, the whole of Chippewa County or of the Chippewa Valley.
     Andrew Gregg Sr. was the first attorney to arrive in Chippewa Falls and found very little to do for the first years. He was hired by the corporations which ran the mill.
     During this period there were several suits and cases "rigged" up to give lawyers something to do. One such case was a Kangaroo Court in Eau Claire where a man was picked up and charged with stealing his own pig, which he had brought to town to sell.

Victim of ploy

     The poor man was a victim of the ploy and just as the mock jury was about to return a verdict, his lawyer told him to make his escape. The man fled believing he had been convicted.
     Also, during the winter months fictitious lawsuits were often brought in Chippewa Falls to determine who was the best lawyer. These cases usually pitted Gregg against another early lawyer, Stephen McCann.
     At one time, everyone attended these lawsuits because they were the only "entertainment" the people of the community could afford.
     Another early court story from Chippewa Falls told of Judge Barron and W.P. Bartlett of Eau Claire.
     The story goes that Bartlett felt Judge Barron didn't have the training to handle his office and one day informed the judge of such.
     The judge fined him and Bartlett stood up, bowed to the judge and asked if he should pay him the money. The judge, reportedly rising from his bench, repeated the dialogue between Brutus and Cassious, "O, ye gods! Ye gods! Must I endure all this?"

Becomes state court justice

     The logging industry led to the rise of Roujet D. Marshall of Chippewa Falls who through his success in handling some of Frederick C. Weyerhaeuser's early problems, became the firm's top legal counsel.
     From that position, Marshall gained a circuit court judgeship and in 1896 advanced to the state Supreme Court. Later his successor at Chippewa, Judge A.J. Vinje, would become chief justice of the state Supreme Court.
     Currently, Bruce Beilfuss, Clark County native, is chief justice; Connor Hansen, a former Eau Claire County judge, and Roland Day, former Eau Claire resident, are members of the state's highest court.
     Vinje and Marshall have been recognized among the justices making enormous contributions to the state.
     Law in the first part of the 20th century dealt mostly with corporate matters, but moved into more legislative matters toward the middle of the century, when, by administration orders, new policies were established dealing with many areas not formerly covered in the courts. For instance, welfare cases, civil rights and other areas in which the legislature itself has not acted, or would not, has led to the turn to the courts to solve problems.

Courts become more involved

     As the law moves toward the last quarter of the 20th century, courts find themselves dealing with a much wider range of issues than those of 125 years ago. Then courts dealt only with major crimes and property rights.
     Today the courts hear cases from driving violations to kidnappings, from discrimination claims to civil suits involving millions of dollars.
     In the future, courts will probably hear more malpractice suits and consumer-oriented suits.
     Also, as Chief Justice Warren E. Burger of the U.S. Supreme Court has written: "...in this supermarket age the courts in the 1970s are relying on the attitudes and methods of the old fashioned corner grocery store...The increase of litigation, the complexity and fantastic growth of government , the changes in society and interpersonal relationships and transactions and the essential intervention have placed an enormous strain on the structure of both substantive law and on the institutions provided to implement it.
     "Many responsible people have concluded that collectively, we are asking more of government than it can reasonably do for us. And many also think that one segment of government -- the judiciary -- is being asked to perform tasks that it is not equipped to perform and to resolve issues that could be better resolved by other and less complicated, less costly, less time-consuming means.

-- Arnie Hoffman

Extracted from the Eau Claire Leader Telegram
Special Publication, Our Story 'The Chippewa Valley and Beyond', published 1976
Used with permission.