DISTRICT AND CIRCUIT COURTS.

Winneshiek county is a part of the 10th judicial district, the balance of the district being comprised of Howard, Chickasaw, Fayette, Allamakee, and Clayton counties. The territories of the district and circuit courts coincide, or in other words, they have concurrent jurisdiction, in all the judicial districts throughout the State.

The District Court exercises general and original jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, where not otherwise provided, and appellate jurisdiction in all criminal matters; and it has a general supervision over all inferior courts and officers in all criminal cases, to prevent and correct abuses where no other remedy is provided. One district judge elected by the people, holds court alternately at each county seat at times specified by the district and circuit judges, and a clerk of the District Court, who is ex-officio clerk, also of the Circuit Court, is elected once in two years in each county.

The Circuit Court exercises original jurisdiction concurrent with the District Court in all civil actions and special proceedings, and exclusive jurisdiction in all appeals and writs of error from inferior courts, tribunals and officers, and has a general supervision thereof in all civil matters. All probate business is also done by the Circuit Court.

For nearly seventeen years the District Court had charge of the business now transacted by both courts. But the business here, as well as in other districts of the State, became so great as to be burdensome and cause delay; and the 12th General Assembly enacted a law signed April 3d, 1868, creating Circuit Judges, the act taking effect Jan. 1st, 1869, except that the judges should be elected in November, 1868.

The first term of District Court for this county was held in Decorah on Friday, the 9th day of July, 1852. Present-Hon. Thomas. S. Wilson, Judge; Geo. Bachel, Sheriff; and Wm. F. Kimball, Clerk; Reuben Noble, B. W. Poor, Jno. McKay, and Jno. W. Ramine were admitted to practice as attorneys. They had previously been admitted to the bar in other States. Jno. D. McKay, on application and examination was admitted for the first time to practice as an attorney and counselor-at-law. The first grand jury empanneled consisted of the following named persons: Nathan S. Gilbert, foreman; Isaac Callendar, J. H. Gilliband, Omri Emery, Rupel Dean, D. W. Carrier, Henry McSwain, Wm. Campbell, Levi Moore, Adam Heckart, Wm. Clark, Lewis Eddy, Dwight Rathburn, David Frazier and Philip Howe. Judge Wilson continued in office till the commencement of 1855, when Samuel S. Murdock, of Clayton Co., having been chosen at the regular election the latter part of the preceding year, took the bench and occupied it for a term of four years. The District Judges since that time-the opening of the year 1859-have been:

Elias A. Williams of Clayton county, two terms, to 1867. Milo McGlathety, of Fayette County, two terms, to 1875. Reuben Noble, of Clayton County, held the first session of his first term in Feb., 1875. He was elected to a second term at the fall election of 1878, and held the office till the latter part of 1879, when he resigned.

E. E. Cooley, of Decorah, was appointed by Gov. Gear to fill the vacancy till the election the following year. He took his seat in December, 1879.

At the election in the fall of 1880, Mr. Cooley was chosen to fill the remainder of the unexpired term, and still occupies the bench.

The first Circuit Court Judge was chosen at the election in November, 1868, his term commencing, according to the law previously referred to, on the 1st of January, 1869.

The Judge chosen was M. V. Burdick, who has been previously referred to in this history, and to him belongs the honor of being the first Circuit Judge of the Tenth District. He was an early resident of Decorah, and has been here much of the time since, though now living at Lansing, Allamakee County. He held the office for one term of four years.

The second Circuit Judge was C. T. Granger, of Waukon, Allamakee County, who came upon the bench at the opening of the year 1873, for a term of four years. He was re-elected in the fall of 1876 for a second term, and again in 1880 for a third term, in which he is now serving.

The preceding record of elections shows who were Clerks of Court for Winneshiek County up to 1860, when S. W. Matteson held the office. He was re-elected in 1861, again in 1862, and again in 1864. The following is the date of election of Clerks of Court for this county since that time:

Dan Lawrence in 1866.

M. P. Hathaway in 1868.

S. E. Tubbs in 1870 and 1872.

A. W. Brownell in 1874.

E. B. Hutchinson in 1876 and 1878.

M. W. Harden in 1880, being the present incumbent.

The important office of District Attorney for the Tenth District has been held successively for the last two terms by Winneshiek County men. Orlando J. Clark, elected in 1874, and whose term expired January 1st, 1879, was succeeded by the present incumbent, Cyrus Wellington, elected in the fall of 1878.

STATE LEGISLATORS.

Our State Senators since Dr. H. C. Bulis, with whom our previous record leaves off, have been:

M. V. Burdick, elected in 1861.

H. C. Bulis, again elected in 1865; was re-elected 1869, and resigned in 1871, when he was elected Lieutenant Governor of the State.

Hon. G. R. Willett was chosen to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Dr. Bulis, and was in 1873 re-elected for a four years term.

"Hon. G. R. Willett was born in Lacadie, Province of Quebec, November 11, 1826. Though born in Canada, yet both his parents were Americans. He spent the early part of his life in Canada, and received his education there. He studied law at Champlain, New York, and graduated at the Albany Law School. He was admitted to the bar in that city in 1856. He practiced law in Champlain until 1857, when he came west and settled in Decorah. He raised the first company of volunteers to fight for the Union, namely, Company D, Third Iowa Infantry. He was wounded in the knee in 1861, which so disabled him that he was obliged to resign and return home. In 1864 he was elected County Judge. During the winter of 1874 he was elected President_pro tem. of the Senate. He was Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, and during the session of 1875 he was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He was also a member of the Committee on Railroads, Insurance and Judicial Districts. From 1868 to 1872 he was President of the Winneshiek Woolen Manufacturing Company. He was married at the age of 21 to Miss Alinda C. Kellogg, in Champlain, New York. Mr. Willett has occupied many high positions within the gift of the people, and has always discharged his trust honorably and faithfully. His legal ability is recognized abroad as well as well as at home. As evidence of this fact, the reader is referred to his appointment as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee."

Mr. Willett and wife can now be reckoned as comparatively old residents, as they are among our most active, liberal and publicspirited ones. Their oldest son, Mahlon, is a successful minister to a church on the Pacific coast, while the second son, Norman, is a partner of his father in the law business, and reliable and successful.

M. N. Johnson was elected in 1877. Mr. Johnson is a son of Nelson Johnson, an old pioneer previously referred to. He graduated at the State University in 1873, and at the law class there in 1876. He was elected State Representative in the fall of 1875, and a presidential elector in 1876. He is now in partnership with his younger brother in the law business in Decorah.

H. A. Baker was elected in the fall of 1882. He is a prominent young business man of Ossian, popular, enterprising, and thriving. His present term will hold through the next session of the legislature-the winter of 1883-4.

Since our record, closing with 1860, the following have been elected as State Representatives; the elections being for but one biennial session.

W. H. Baker and Ole Nelson in 1861.

Ole Nelson and James H. Brown in 1863.

H. B. Williams was elected in 1864 to fill vacancy caused by the death of Ole Nelson.

Jas. H. Brown and H. B. Williams, elected in 1865.

H. B. Williams and J. T. Atkins, in 1867.

H. B. Williams and O. A. Lommen, in 1869.

Knudt Berg and Warren Danforth, in 1871.

Knudt Bergh was born in Norway, and came to America when a boy, with his father, and settled in Highland Township. Mr. Bergh early appreciated the value of an education, and strove with all his energy to attain the high place which he afterwards reached in educational circles. An adopted citizen, he became an American in all that the name implies. He was an exemplary man, and revered by all who knew him. In the legislative halls of the State he served his county with fairness and ability. Mr. Bergh was a graduate of the University of St. Louis. He afterward became one of the professors in the Norwegian Lutheran College. His health failed him, and in 1873 he visited his native country, where he died of consumption, on the 16th of June, 1875, at Eide. Hardanger, Norway.!

Warren Danforth and Jno. DeCow in 1873.

Warren Danforth and M. N. Johnson in 1875.
H. A. Baker and H. C. Manning in 1877.
H. A. Baker and Levi Hubbell in 1879.
Levi Hubbell and D. (). Aker in 1881.

REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS.

It was not till 1877 that the Representative in Congress for this district was chosen from Winneshiek County. From soon after the organization of the State to 1863, there were but two Congressional Districts in Iowa, and after that time till 1881, Winneshiek County has been in the Third Congressional District, although the number of districts have been increased from time to time. Wm. B. Allison, of Dubuque, was our Representative from 1863 to 1871, and ceased to be Representative to become United State Senator, which position he now holds.

W. G. Donnan, of Independence, was Representative to the Forty-second Congress-1871 to 1873, and also to the Forty-third Congress-1873 to 1875.

For the Forty-fourth Congress-1875 to 1877-a Democrat; L. L. Ainsworth, of West Union, was elected by a very small majority after a close contest; C. T. Granger, of Waukon, being his Republican opponent.

The Third Congressional District embraced the counties of Allamakee, Buchanan, Clayton, Delaware, Dubuque, Fayette and Winneshiek.

At the Congressional Convention held at McGregor Sept. 6, 1876, Theodore W. Burdick, of Decorah, who had not sought the office, went into the convention supported by nineteen delegates from the Winneshiek County Republican Convention, who stood by him through the Convention, until he was nominated on the 22d ballot. J. M. Griffith, of Dubuque, was his Democratic opponent, and the contest was a fierce one, intensified by the fact that a Democrat had been elected for the preceding term. Mr. Burdick was elected by a majority of 1,267, his own county leading the list of Republican counties by a majority of 1,265. He was a faithful and efficient working member of Congress, and at the close of the term positively declined a re-nomination. Since the previous biographical sketches in this volume have been put in the hands of the printer, it has been decided to give more complete sketches of prominent men elsewhere in the volume, so that it will not be necessary to give them at length in the regular history, but the following from Andreas' Atlas of Iowa, published before Mr. Burdick's election, is worthy of reproduction here.

"Theodore W. Burdick, cashier of the First National and Savings Banks of Decorah, is a native of Pennsylvania, born October 7, 1836. He removed with his parents to Winneishiek County at the age of 17, having previously acquired a good English education, his father having intended him for a collegate course at Oberlin. The removal to the west, however, interfered with that arrangement, and on their arrival at Decorah, in the spring of 1853, he was employed as the first school teacher in the place, the first school-house having just then been completed. The following spring his father was elected County Treasurer, and he took charge of the office and also that of County Recorder, discharging practically the duties of both until he became of age, in 1857. At the next election following he was elected County Treasurer, and filled the office in a most faithful and satisfactory manner till 1862, when he resigned to enter the army. He was commissioned Captain of Company D, Sixth Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, in which capacity he served for three years-till 1865. Four brothers besides himself were in the army, and three of them lost their lives in their country's service. On his return from the army Mr. Burdick purchased an interest in the First National Bank of Decorah, of which he was elected Cashier in 1866. Since the war he has held no public office, but has devoted himself exclusively to business. Both in his public and private relations, for a period of over twenty years, since he became a citizen of Decorah, he has been noted as a gentleman of honor and integrity, of good business talents and irreproachable character."