Sunday, May 4, 2014

MAY 4, 1814

200 years today the Circuit Court of Washington County, Indiana Territory was still meeting at William Lindley’s house south of the plat of Salem which was still being cleared and was practically inaccessible to most of the new settlers. To alleviate this problem, Governor Thomas Posey appointed 19 residents of our new county to act as Justices of the Peace in April 1814. These appointees could read and write and were able to prepare basic legal documents, conduct marriages, rule on disputes with a value of less than $5 and enter convictions for minor crimes and impose nominal fines. They conducted these proceedings in their homes and were located throughout the County from the Harrison County line to the Driftwood River. Their decisions could be appealed to the Circuit Court. These Justices of the Peace were: Jesse Spurgin; James Young; Robert Ellison; John Wright; David Fouts; Robert Catlin; Amos Thornburgh, William Robertson, Jesse Roberts, Samuel Chambers, Zachariah Lindley, Edmund Hunter, John Beck, Enoch Parr, John Coleman; Godlove Kamp, Samuel Huston, John Ketchum, and Cornelius Williamson.




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