History of Oakland County Michigan a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, its principal interests / compiled from the official records of the county, the newspapers and data of personal interviews, under the editorial supervision of Thaddeus D. Seeley.

180

HISTORY OF OAKLAND COUNTY

though now upward of eighty years of age, is yet in the active practice
of his profession, and within the present year argued a case before the
court, over which I have the honor to preside, with a degree of learning
and energy which would have done credit to a much younger man. It
is also a source of pleasure to know that the presiding judge, Josiah
Turner, is still living and within a comparatively short time read a very
interesting paper before the annual meeting of the State Association of
Judges.
"The judges who have presided over the circuit court for the county
of Lapeer within my recollection are Josiah Turner, James S. Dewey,
Levi B. Taft, Augustus C. Baldwin, Silas B. Gaskill, William W. Stickney, Joseph B. Moore and George W. Smith. The list for the Oakland
county circuit is the same as the above except that the name of Sanford
M. Green should be substituted for Josiah Turner. All these gentlemen
are dead except Josiah Turner, William W. Stickney, Joseph B. Moore
and George W. Smith.
"On Friday, May 20, 1904, the last session of the court was held in
the Oakland county court house, previous to tearing it down to make way
for a one hundred thousand dollar building which should be more in
keeping with the growth and prosperity of that great county. As I had
been presiding judge of that circuit for eight years, I was honored with
an invitation to be present. The local paper reproduced the address
which had been made by Hon. Michael E. Crofoot at the dedication of the
building in March, 1858. In that address it was stated that while nearly
all the county was yet a wilderness such was the regard of the people for
law and order they deemed it necessary to provide a building in which the
law might be administered, and as early as 1820 Chief Justice Thompson
and associate Justices Bagley and Bronson met in a court house built of
logs and where, because of the poverty of the people, those modern appendages, doors, floors and windows, were entirely lacking.
"Judge Crofoot made a most masterly address, tracing the origin of
our system of laws and insisting upon it that, in the adoption of the
common law of Great Britain and in the organization of the government
into three distinct departments, the executive, legislative and judicial,
the fathers had formed a government which he described, namely pure
democracy, where sovereign power was lodged in the aggregate assembly
of all the free members of the community to be exercised in person;
second, aristocracies, where it is lodged in an assembly of delegates, and
lastly in monarchies. where it is lodged in the hands of one whose will is
law, with power to decree, design and execute. Judge Crofoot insisted
then, what is equally true now, that no profession demands higher integrity, honor and uprightness than the legal profession; that no position in
society requires.higher moral and more thorough education, and no calling
in life more honorable dealing. He insisted that the men of eminence in
the legal profession are men of integrity who are not disposed to stir up
law suits for trivial and imaginary wrongs, but men who are inclined to
dissuade from unnecessary litigation and to take only meritorious causes.
"As I listened to the able and scholarly address of Hon. Aaron Perry,
prior to adjourning court for the last time in the old court room, a flood
of recollection came to me. My mind ran back forty-seven years to the