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CHAPTER 23 1845 URING the year in which Florida became the twenty-seventh state and Tex^as the twenty-eighth, De Kalb County received a partial new deal in Inferior Court Justices; Marthasville, a practically new slate of Town Commissioners, and the State of Georgia, a Supreme Court. John N. Bellinger, the lawyer, and William Hairston, planter, continued as Justices of the Inferior Court, while Lawrence S. Morgan, Ezekiel A. Davis, and our old friend Lochlin Johnson donned the judicial ermine on January 15, 1845.1 During the same month four of the original Commissioners of Marthasville were retired. Their successors were Ambrose B. Forsyth, Stephen Terry, James Loyd, and James A. Collins. Willis Carlisle succeeded himself, the only heldover.2 A stronger group than these five men could hardly have been found in Marthasville. Yet their efforts to govern the community were no more effective than those of their predecessors. The twenty or so families of the town simply did not take municipal ordnances seriously, and efforts to collect taxes with which to make the ordnances effective proved unavailing. Under the judicial system in effect in Georgia prior to 1845, all cases were tried in the county where the case arose. There was no provision for appeal to a court outside the county. The constitution of Georgia was amended in 1835 authorizing a Supreme Court. However, it was not until 1845 that the Legislature passed an Act providing for the actual establishment of such a court. It was originally constituted as a circuit court in that it was to "sit at least once a year . . . in each of five judicial districts," and, secondly, it was to "dispose of and finally determine . . . every case on the docket . . . at the first term after such writ of error was brought," a provision that necessitated dismissal of many cases before they could be adjudicated.3 The Act of 1845, creating the Supreme Court, divided the ten existing superior court circuits into five districts and designated nine cities where the court should sit at specified dates. The cities were: Savannah, Hawkinsville^ Talbotton, Americus, Macon, Decatur, Cassville, Gainesville, and Milledgeville. This schedule required the judges to travel more than 1,000 miles a year at their own expense.4 The first Supreme Court was composed of able jurists: Joseph Henry Lumpkin, Hiram Warner, and Eugenius A. Nisbet. Judge Warner had previously , 1836-1840, presided as Superior Court judge, over the Coweta Circuit, and, in this capacity had frequently held court in Decatur. The first term of the Supreme Court. January, 1846, was held in Talbotton. The seventh term, August, 1846, found the Court sitting at Decatur. During this term the following members of the bar were admitted to practice in the Supreme Court: James M. Calhoun, Decatur Washington Poe, Macon George D. Rice, Marietta John R. Alexander, Lawrenceville Charles J. McDonald, Marietta John Collier, Decatur Leonard C. Simpson, Decatur William W. Clarke, Covington Thomas F. Jones, Covington Isham J. Wood, Decatur William Ezzard, Decatur James P. Simmons, Lawrenceville William H. Dabney, Decatur J. S. Pinckard, Forsyth D 214 ATLANTA AND ITS ENVIRONS Edward Cannon, Luther J. Glenn, McDonough W. D. Alexander, Greenville P. B. Cox, Griffin Augustus C. Ferrell, La Grange L. T. Doyal, Culloden Jared I. Whittaker, Fayetteville William W. Arnold, Zebulon John Huie, Fayetteville William Dougherty, Columbus Orville A. Bull, La Grange Charles Murphey, Decatur5 Obadiah Warner, Greenville A number of these gentlemen became citizens of Atlanta a few years later. The De Kalb County Grand Jury for the March term, 1845, found improved moral conditions. It said: "We are gratified to find that our Superior Court has not been crowded with the usual number of Indictments for minor offences which has been frequently returned, and evinces a state of harmony and friendly feeling among our citizens, and shows an evident improvement in the moral condition of our community. Notwithstanding our County is not free from crime yet. The commission of offences are mostly confined to foreigners and other transient persons engaged on the Rail Roads. "Our roads are generally in good order with the exception of those places where they are in contiguity with the Rail Road." "LOCHLIN JOHNSON, Foreman."6 During the same term of the Superior Court, a number of so-called "foreigners" were naturalized. All were Irish. Their names were: Alexander McWilliams, James Burns, and John Moore, of County Antrim; Thomas Burke, of County Armagh; Patrick Duffee, of County Meath; John Fitzpatrick, of County Limerick, and Michael Nowland, of...

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