![]() A grumpy rival publisher wrote the only bench Delahay was suited for was one with two holes in it. A buddy of Abraham Lincoln, he was eventually nominated for the federal bench by the president. Mark Delahay came to Kansas as a publisher in Leavenworth before the Civil War. Judges were appointed - usually by the president or the governor. Those who were lawyers often were not the best lawyers. The background of a judge was all over the lot. On the frontier, and until the 1920s or so, most would-be lawyers “read law.” That is, they clerked in offices of other prominent lawyers until they learned enough law to go out and “kill their own snakes.” There were few law schools, none in Kansas. The protest “objection!” might be followed by the objector whacking flat the other attorney’s hat - which in them days was fighting words!įew early Kansas lawyers had formal legal educations. Sometimes the arguments between lawyers turned to fisticuffs. The term for it was the new lawyer had to learn “how to kill his own snakes.” They had to learn how to try cases by watching others and seeing what seemed to work. Rarely did they ask colleagues for opinions on how to try a case or to get certain evidence into the case. However, there were no mega firms on the frontier. Until then, the town’s largest rooms - Masonic buildings or local saloons - served as the borrowed courtrooms. County seat towns were settled, and then courthouses were built. The state Supreme Court told the lawyer to stop that and play nice.Ĭourtrooms were not always available. In the 1890s in Marquette, Kansas, a local lawyer was accused of “bill collecting by pistol,” waving a pistol in the debtor’s face to convince him to pay up. senator on the back of having mistakenly been cheered as the man who shot the gunslinger Liberty Valance.įrontier lawyers were somewhat akin to cowboys or sheriffs. ![]() Or you get a Jimmy Stewart character, Rance Stoddard, who rides his law training into a long career as a U. Or Gary Cooper facing down several gunmen at “High Noon.” Or John Wayne in “The Shootist” or “True Grit.” Or Kevin Costner in “Dances with Wolves” (in my opinion one of the best and most accurate Westerns ever). Who wouldn’t want a grown-up buddy like that! Consider Shane: He has no first name but attracts the eye of the mom and becomes a hero to her boy when he fan fires a Colt revolver with uncanny accuracy. Most Westerns feature the cowboy as the self-reliant loner who comes along in time to save a town from marauding outlaws. I like the work of Elmer Kelton, Zane Grey, C. Ron Smith is a fifth-generation Kansan, a native of Manhattan, an attorney practicing in Larned, a grandfather several times over, a Vietnam veteran and a civil war historian. Kansas Reflector welcomes opinion pieces from writers who share our goal of widening the conversation about how public policies affect the day-to-day lives of people throughout our state.
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