The Courts and Legal Profession of Iowa.
Volume I.
by Hon. Chester C. Cole, Historian.
Hon. E. C. Ebersale, Editor.
Published in Chicago, Ill.: H. C. Cooper, Jr., & Co., 1907, pages 974-976.
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SHELBY COUNTY.
The county was organized in 1853. Among the first officals [sic] were James M. Butler, county judge; V. Perkins, county clerk, and Andrew Fontz, sheriff. At this time Crawford and Carroll counties were attached to Shelby for judicial and other purposes. The first term of the district court for the three counties was held by Judge Samuel H. Riddle in a small grocery store. Among the attorneys present were H. P. Bennett, of Glenwood, and L. M. Cline, A. C. Ford and David Price, of Council Bluffs.
Mansel Wicks was elected county judge August 7, 1854. He was succeeded in 1855 by David Baughman. In 1857 H. A. Tarkington was elected county judge. In 1859 he was succeeded by William Wyland. In 1861 Samuel Dawell was elected to the office and re-elected in 1863. Then in 1865 Nelson Ward was elected. L. Woods held the office one term, being elected in 1866. Nathan Lindsey was elected in 1867. In 1868 H. C. Holcomb was elected and held the judgeship until it was abolished.
James Ward was elected prosecuting attorney in 1854, and in 1856 he was succeeded by Nelson Ward, and in 1857 M. P. Bull was elected to the office. About this time the state judiciary was reconstructed and this office abolished and that of district judge and district attorney created.
THE PRESENT BAR.
The practicing attorneys of Shelby county at this writing are the following: Byers, Lockwood & Byers, Cullison & Yackey, D. O. Stewart, Smith & Perkins, J. B. Whitney, N. S. Westroye and E. S. White.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
Nathan W. Macy is now filling his fifth term as judge of the Fifteenth judicial district. He was born in Knightston, Ind., March 25, 1848. He spent his boyhood at the place of his birth, and moved to Iowa in the fall of 1861, settling at Springdale. Judge Macy is a graduate of the collegiate, normal and law department of the State University. He completed his legal course and was admitted at Iowa City in June, 1875. He began to practice his profession at Adel, Iowa, as a member of the firm of Willard, Callvert & Macy, in August, 1875, and left there in October, 1876, on account of eye trouble. Thereafter he had charge of the public schools of West Branch, Iowa, until June, 1879. He moved to Harlan, Iowa, in October, 1879, and on the fifth of June, 1880, resumed the practice of law as a member of the firm of Macy & Smith. In December, 1880, Mr. Smith retired and became deputy state treasurer. In 1881 Mr. Macy formed a partnership with Mr. Warren Gammon, under the firm name of Macy & Gammon, and continued until January, 1889, when Mr. Macy was elected one of the judges of the Fifteenth district of Iowa, and he is still serving as judge of that district. In politics he is a republican.
J. B. Whitney, ex-judge of the Fifteenth judicial district (having occupied the district bench two terms), was born in Marshall county, April 11, 1863. Until he was thirteen years of age he lived upon a farm in that county, when he moved with his father to Shelby county, Iowa, where he continued his agricultural labors and his education. He read law at the University of Iowa City and was admitted in 1887. Mr. Whitney immediately located in Harlan and has practiced there with good success. His business has been of a general nature. In 1888 he was elected county attorney and re-elected in 1890. Since the close of his second term he has held no political office except that of city solicitor, which he held for two terms.
Thomas H. Smith was born in Appanoose county, Iowa, September 30, 1854. He spent his boyhood on a farm in Davis county. Thomas attended the Southern Iowa Normal Institute at Bloomfield after leaving the common schools, and later he taught school during the winter months and studied in summer. He read law in the office of M. H. Jones in Bloomfield, and in May, 1878, was admitted to the bar, and soon afterward settled at Harlan and began the practice of law. He was county attorney of Shelby county in 1887-8. He was a candidate in 1897 on the republican ticket for state senator from his district, but was defeated by thirteen votes. He is a member of the Methodist church and of the Masonic order.
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