Fifty Years In The Northwest: With An Introduction And Appendix Containing Reminiscences, Incidents And NotesFolsom, William H. C. (William Henry Carman)
History
Fifty Years In The Northwest: With An Introduction And Appendix Containing Reminiscences, Incidents And Notes
Folsom, William H. C. (William Henry Carman)
Minnesota -- History; Wisconsin -- History
CHIEF JUSTICE CHARLES DUNN.--When Wisconsin Territory was organized in
1836, Charles Dunn was appointed chief justice. He served as judge
until Wisconsin became a state in 1848. He was of Irish descent and
was born in Kentucky in 1799. He studied law in Kentucky and Illinois,
and was admitted to practice in 1820 at Jonesboro, Illinois. He was
chief clerk of the Illinois house of representatives five years. He
was one of the commissioners of the Illinois and Michigan canal. In
1829 he was one of a party which surveyed and platted the first town
of Chicago, and superintended the first sale of town lots there. He
was captain of a company during the Black Hawk War in 1832, and was
severely wounded through mistake by a sentinel on duty. In 1835 he was
a member of the Illinois house of representatives. In 1837, as judge,
he held his first court in Crawford county. In this court, in 1838,
indictments were found against certain individuals for selling liquor
to whites and Indians contrary to law, when, by evasions, continuances
and technicalities, the suits would go by the board. In one case the
charge given to the jury by this dignified and courteous Judge Dunn
was as follows: "Gentlemen of the Jury: Unless you are satisfied that
the defendants in this case did deal out, in clear, unadulterated
quantities, intoxicating drinks, it is your imperative duty to
discharge them." The jury, of course, discharged the defendants.
Aside from his drinking habits, which interfered much with his
usefulness, he was a genial gentleman and regarded by his associates
as an eminent jurist. He sometimes kept the court waiting till he
should become sober, and on one occasion came near losing his life in
a drunken spree. He jumped through an upper window of Tainter's hotel,
and escaped with only a broken leg. Judge Dunn was a member of the
second Wisconsin constitutional convention. He was state senator in
1853-4-5 and 6. He died at Mineral Point, April 7, 1872.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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