All of which Uncle Sam had to pay himself, as he undoubtedly did.  Thus ended the first criminal prosecution in the Scott county district court.  Nobody convicted, nobody responsible for costs, but the government. Next followed an indictment for perjury.  Then the grand jury retired, but, finding no further business, was discharged with two days' fees and mileage, excepting John Work, who, having taken himself off without leave, stood attached to appear at the next term of court for contempt. As previously stated, the first case docketed in Scott county district court was entitled:  "Jabez A Birchard, Jr., administractor, vs. H. G. Stone, C. C. Applegate, William Stacey and Alfred White."  The suit was brought on a certain promissory note of defendants, made to the plaintiff, as administrator of the estate of one Daniel Wyman, deceased, whereby they "jointly and severally promised to pay five hundred and fifty dollars without defalcation or stay of execution, value received in a quit-claim to a certain tract of land lying at the mouth of Sycamore creek."  The note was drawn July 1, 1837, payable nine months after date.  It was not paid as agreed, and suit was brought for the October term, 1838 - the first court held in the county.  James W. Grimes, of Burlington, was the plaintiff's attorney, and G. C. R. Mitchell and Jonathan W. Parker, of the law firm of Parker & Mitchell, of Davenport, for defendants. The musty old papers in the office of the clerk of the district court contain the usual proceedings - the original petition in the lawyer-like handwriting of the future governor of Iowa and senator of the United States; the answer of the defendants in the more plain and leisurely written hand of hte future judge, Mr. Mitchell.  The subpoena by which Roswell H. Spencer, Andres J. Hyde, Medad J. Lyman, George Carpenter and Ira F. Smith were summoned to appear, is made out on a roughly printed blank from the Iowa Sun printing office, by D. Hoge, clerk of the court in the May term of 1839. The answer contains the usual denials, denying everything that the plaintiff's petition contains, slick and clean.  The case went for the plaintiff, and execution was issued for the sum of $353.73, which was paid July 5, 1839, to Mr. Birchard, and the execution was declared satisfied in full, by A. H. Davenport, sheriff, by Richard Hamer, deputy.  The entire cost of the suit amounted to $17.12 1/2.  This would be considered a very moderate bill in these late days of more expensive litigation.  A scrap of paper in the bundles shows that the witness, Carpenter, did not live to collect his witness fee, but that it was collected into the estate after his decease by William Nichols, administrator. In December, 1873, the Democrat of Davenport had this to say of this case:  "Thirty-five years have elapsed since James W. Grimes drew up the petition and Ebenezer Cook filed it.  The judges, the two clerks of the court (Ebenezer Cook and David Hoge), the attorneys on both sides, the plaintiff and two of the defendants (Stacey and White), have passed beyond the bench and bar of earthly tribunals; the two sheriffs and two of the defendants are yet among the living.  Frazer Wilson, the first sheriff of Scott county, is a resident of Rock Island, we believe; and A. H. Davenport is a merchant residing in LeClaire, where also lives Applegate, and (we believe) Mr. Stone.  Two of the witnesses, Roswell H. Spencer and Andrew J. Hyde, are yet living, the former in Rock Island, the latter on the same farm of many broad acres on which he lived at the time which we write.  The original papers before us, in all their mustiness, seem not to have been opened out to the light for a third of a century.  The paper is coarse, dingy white, rough of surface and guiltless of ruled lines.  The seal bears the impress of the 'silver quarter,' and wherever used is denominated the 'temporary seal.' "Exceedingly has the business of this court swelled since the filing of these original papers.  Numerous judges have occupied the same bench since then, one of them, G. C. R. Mitchell, one of the attorneys in the case.  Lawyers by the hundreds have appeared within the bar since them, and clients by the thousands have sought justice thereat, sometimes in vain, more often, let us hope, sought and found; millions have rained from the pockets of those who thought to secure their rights or defend their wrongs, and still the court sits on, the suing and the sued; lawyers and clients gain in numbers year after year as the earth revolves, and the world increases in light and knowledge.  So it has and does; so it will until the mystic millennial day, when the lion plaintiff and the lamblike defendant shall lie down together in peace, and the child-like lawyer shall lead them - no more forever." The second session of the district court of Scott county was opened May 27, 1839, and as before, in St. Anthony's church.  Hon. Thomas S. Wilson had succeeded Judge Williams upon the bench; A. H. Davenport had been appointed sheriff by the territorial legislature; and at chambers in Dubuque, on the 21st of the previous February, Davis V. Berry was appointed district attorney.  This was an entire re-organization of the tribunal of justice in this judicial district, which  embraced the counties of Scott, Clinton, Dubuque and Johnson.  There was no lack of business on the docket.  In fact, for a community so young and a population so sparse the alacrity with which it embraced the courts was highly gratifying - to the lawyers.  On the first day of the court James Grant, an attorney for the village of Rockingham, moved that "this court do not remove to the village of Rockingham, for reasons by him filed."  The records assert, "Therefore, the court, after havingheard the argument of the counsel on the part of the motion and that of counsel opposed, took the same under advisement until tomorrow morning."  Again we quote the Democrat: Debbie Clough G-erischer G-erischer Family Web Site http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/ Assistant CC, Iowa Gen Web, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ List Manager for: IASCOTT-L * G-erischer-L * D-encker-L Fitzpatirck-L * V-lerebome-L * Huntington-L * Otis-L * Algar-L EIGS-L * Pickens-L * McNab-L * Patris-L - Rankin-L