There was no official shorthand reporter to take down the evidence on the trial of cases in court. If the attorneys desired to perpetuate the testimony, or any part of it, they either wrote it down in long hand themselves, or selected some outside person to do it; generally some young lawyer. And sometimes the judge would make the only minutes of the trial that were kept. From these imperfect notes, however taken, the judge was required to determine what should go to the supreme court when he came to settle the bill of exceptions: no easy task. When court opened on the first day of the term--which was done with great outcry--the judge at once empaneled the grand jury, and then proceeded to make what was called a "preliminary" call of the calendar, at which cases that were not for trial were dismissed, continued, marked settled, or otherwise disposed of. When that call was completed, he then made the "peremptory" call, and all cases that were for trial were then disposed of as they were reached. There was no assignment of cases for trial as now practiced, but the lawyers had to be ready in each case when reached. Court week was generally regarded by the people as a sort of a picnic or holiday, and they came in from the country for several miles around to hear the lawyers spar with each other, and catch the "rulings of the court." The court room was generally packed with listeners. Then political meetings were generally held during that week when everybody was there and lawyers ready to do the speaking; and they furnished fine entertainments indeed. The bar of Linn county in the early fifties was an unusually strong one, said by some to be the strongest in the state. There were Judge N. W. Isbell, Judge Isaac Cook, Judge George Greene, Judge William Smyth, and Col. I. M. Preston. A little in the rear of the above worthies were N. M. Hubbard, R. D. Stephens, Wm. G. Thompson, J. H. Young, Thomas Corbett, and J. W. Dudley. Except Judge Greene and J. W. Dudley, all of these persons lived in Marion.