The first court — Chapman's fifth chapter read first-hand: the first term, the first indictment

October 22, 1832 – 1833

The banked pull: The Crime note logged the pioneer circuit court's first terms and first indictments to Chapman's fifth chapter (pp. 374–378), unread in that pass. This pass read the chapter entire in the 1880 volume.

The first term: On its organization St. Joseph County was made part of the First Judicial District; the reorganization of 1833 put it in the Eighth, the spring of 1837 attached it to the Ninth, and in 1873 the county was united with La Porte as the Thirty-second. The first session of the Circuit Court was held on the 22d day of October, 1832, at the tavern of Calvin Lilley in the village of South Bend, Hon. John R. Porter presiding. Eighteen grand jurors were empaneled — Lowdy Stevenson, Eli Roe, Pleasant Harris, Nathan Green, Robert Redding, Peter Johnson, George Wilkinson, Anthony Defrees, John Smith, Sr., Stanton Porter, John Massey, William P. Howe, Frederick Benter, William Runnion, Peter Russell, Jacob Harris, George Holloway and Jacob Bowman — and the court appointed George Holloway foreman. The first case called for trial was a divorce, Matthias Redding and Hannah Redding, continued to the June term of 1833 and then heard and granted; the second case was one of chancery, the third libel, and the fourth slander, the two last dismissed at the cost of the plaintiffs. Nine cases stood on the docket in all — one divorce, one libel, one slander, one selling liquor unlawfully, and five chancery.

The first indictment: The term's criminal business is one named case. Sarah McLelland was indicted by the grand jury for selling liquor to Indians, and was tried at this term of court; a fine of five dollars and the cost of suit was assessed against her, and she was committed to jail, by order of the court, until the fine was paid. The second term of court was held in June, 1833, Judge Gustavus A. Everts presiding, and its first case docketed was another divorce, William Antrim v. Elizabeth Antrim, granted. The chapter's remaining court matter — the Court of Common Pleas created in 1852 and abolished in 1873, and the Probate Court, whose first commissioned judge in this county, James P. Antrim, held his first term in February, 1833 — stands at the size Chapman gives it; the crime file's interest is the first term, and the first term is settled.

Sources:

1. C. C. Chapman & Co., History of St. Joseph County, Indiana (Chicago, 1880), ch. V, pp. 373–378 — read first-hand from the archive.org copy (historyofstjosep00chap): the district succession, the first session of October 22, 1832, the grand jurors, the nine cases, the McLelland indictment and its disposition, the second term.