Red River County Louisiana Archives News.....The First Courts, Early Red River Cases 1890 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Carolyn Shank Carolynshank@msn.com January 5, 2008, 7:15 pm Biographical And Historical Memoirs Of Northwest La. 1890 The first session of the disrict court was held at Coushatta (then in the Eighteenth District) Sept. 4, 1871. JUDGE L. B. WATKINS, presided. The first grand jury comprised: HENRY PICKETT, ROBERT ANDREWS, JUDGE WARREN, WILLIAM BEDFORD, EDWARD CASON, DAVE AUSTIN, RICHARD WILLIAMS, ZION CARROLL, GEORGE ABNEY, GABRIEL GRAPPE, DAVID POWELL, WILLIAM BRYANT, W. ALLEN, HENRY ARMISTEAD, W. O. GARRISON. AZRO ARMSTRONG, WILLIAM MOUNTJOY, G. W. SHERROD, BEVERLY TURNER, J. H. COLEMAN, S. J. JACKSON, G. A. FRIEND, BENJAMIN AUSTIN, ROBERT LONG, JOSEPH DIXON, ISAAC WHITNEY, JORN BRUNNER, HENRY BECK, REUBEN WILLIAMS, ISHAM HOUSE, LEWIS COS, ABRAM BAKER, RICHARD CUNNAGAN, J. L. DENSON, ANDERSON SMITH, SAMUEL BRANCH and HENRY DOWDEN. The first Clerk was T. E. PAXTON. In August he was appointed district attorney and was succeeded before the close of the year by D. H. HAYES. JOHN T. YATES, was sheriff at this time. In May, 1872, WILLIAM PATTERSON was indicted for murder. The spring term of 1873 was opened by JUDGE JAMES E. TRIMBLE of the Eleventh District, who disposed of a number of serious criminal cases. In September of this year resolutions on the death of JOHN R. GRIFFIN, a lawyer of Bossier, were adopted and the report of the grand jury received. This report condemned a report by the former grand jury, and declared that the court house was not yet completed. On the condition of the parish, the jurors affirmed that in the midst of the political excitement of the times, Red River Parish was comparatively free from crime and disturbance. J. M. HYAMS was then district clerk, with D. H. HAYES, deputy. There is no record of court for 1874, nor was there a term of court opened until September, 1875, when JUDGE C. CHAPLIN presided. ANTHONY EASTON, HENRY NICHOLSON and GEORGE NICHOLSON were found guilty of murder killing a ... peddler, and sentenced to death; but of the trio, HENRY NICHOLSON was the only one who suffered the extreme penalty, A. J. McCORD being executors, the others having escaped from jail. WILLIAM TEARY and J. D. LACY were indicted for murder, and the case of the State vs. M. H. TWITCHELL was dismissed. The colored desperado, "BANJO JOE," was killed by H. C. STRINGFELLOW in April 1870, while opposing arrest. In May, 1877, JUDGE PIERSON succeeded JUDGE CHAPLIN, and in June, judgment was given for the plaintiff in the case of J. W. CARNES vs. RED RIVER PARISH, but his demand for the special decree for the assessment and collection of a special tax was denied. On July 14 jury commissioners were appointed, viz: GEORGE W. CAWTHRON, A. S. B. PIOR, J. P. DICKSON and P. L. COLLINS, and in November a number of indictments were returned against road defaulters. A year later, JIM MOSS, colored, was convicted of manslaughter, but excaped from jail. In November, 1879, resolutions were adopted by the bar and officers of court expressing sorrow for the separation of Red River from Natchitoches, and the consequent separation of the presiding judge from the parish. The resolutions were signed by L. B. WATKINS, W. P. HALL, district attorneys; J. J. SPRAWLS and J. D. ROACH, lawyers; W. P. PECK, clerk; D. H. HAYES, deputy clerk, and J. A. BELL, sheriff. JUDGE JAMES L. LOGAN presided here in May, 1880. JOHN D. ROACH was admitted to practice here, and in November, JOHN A. HUNTER was sheriff. The tragedy of Dec. 30, 1881, at Bonnie Doon, near Coushatta resulted in the suicide of ROBERT LEWIS, after his attempt to kill the widow of his brother, MRS. W. S. LEWIS, and her sister, MRS. THOMPSON. the suicide shot CLARENCE PRATT in a duel after the war. PRATT was, at the time, a member of the Legislature from Claiborne Parish (Webster not then being known). For the effects of this wound PRATT died. MRS. LEWIS died at the Hotel Dieu, New Orleans, about a month after receiving the wound. the indictment against JOE McGEE for murder was returned in November 1883; he was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged April 4, 1884. The return of this execution was made by SHERIFF HUNTER, and witnessed by H. A. HUNTER AND W. H. WAMSLEY. LEWIS M. HOWARD qualified as clerk in 1880. In July, 1884, W. P. HALL succeeded J. L. LOGAN as judge of the Tenth District, and is today presiding judge of the new Ninth District, comprising Red River, De Soto and Sabine. It is fortunate for him, as it is for the district, that the lawlessness that prevailed here during the decade ending in 1884, had almost disappeared before his commission was issued, and that the criminal docket of today is as light as in any district of equal population in the State. J. M. T. ELLIOTT succeeded JOHN A. HUNTER as sheriff in 1884, and in 1888 T. E. PAXTON succeeded F. B. WILLIAMS as clerk of the district court; SCHEEN is deputy clerk. The court of appeals for the First Circuit was opened here in May 1880 by JUDGES MONCURE and GEORGE. The last record of the parish court was closed March 31, 1880, and signed by parish JUDGE A. BEN BROUGHTON. It was opened May 29, 1971, by A. O. P. PICKENS; he was succeeded in 1874 by O. S. PENNEY and he, in 1875 by A. BEN BROUGHTON. The bar of Red River Parish in 1890 comprises: J. C. EGAN, J. F. PIERSON, J. C. PUGH, J. D. ROACH and WILLIAM GOSS. Five years before the names of S. A. HULL, M. S. JONES, J. F. STEPHENS, J. J. SPRAWLS, L. B. WATKINS, J. L. LOGAN and many of the lawyers named in the history of adjoining parishes appeared on the records. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/redriver/newspapers/thefirst90gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/lafiles/ File size: 6.1 Kb