- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- 1. Introduction: The structure of the United States district courts in Arkansas - Richard S. Arnold and Michael B. Heister
- I. District of Arkansas (1836-51):
- 2. Benjamin Johnson (1836-49) - Lynn Foster
- II. Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas (1851-71):
- 3. Daniel Ringo (1850-61) - L. Scott Stafford
- III. Eastern District of Arkansas (1871-1969):
- 4. Henry Clay Caldwell (1864-90) - Richard S. Arnold and George C. Freeman III
- 5. John Apps Williams (1890-1900) - Henry Woods
- 6. Jacob Trieber (1901-27) - Gerald W. Heaney
- 7. John Ellis Martineau (1928-37) - Stephen M. Reasoner
- 8. Thomas Clark Trimble III (1937-57) - Elsijane Trimble Roy
- 9. Gordon Elmo Young (1959-69) - David Young;
- IV. Western District of Arkansas (1871-1967):
- 10. William Story (1871-74) - Frances Mitchell Ross
- 11. Isaac Charles Parker (1875-96) - Morton Gitelman
- 12. John Henry Rogers (1896-1911) - Morton Gitelman
- 13. Frank Abijah Youmans (1911-32) - Morton Gitelman
- 14. Heartsill Ragon (1933-40) - Heartsill Ragon III
- 15. John Elvis Miller (1941-67) - Susan Scafidi, Susie Margaret Ross, and Bradley J. Nicholson
- V. Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas (1939-75):
- 16. Harry Jacob Lemley (1939-58) - Susan Webber Wright
- 17. Jesse Smith Henley (1959-75) - Susan Webber Wright
- Notes
- Contributors
- Index.
The essays in United States District Courts and Judges of Arkansas, 1836- 1960 one each for a judge and his decisions-come together to form a chronological history of the Arkansas judicial system as it grew from its beginnings in a frontier state to a modern institution. The book begins with statehood and continues with Congress'sdecision to expand jurisdiction of the original 1836 District Court of Arkansas to include the vast Indian Territory to the west. The territory's formidable size and rampant lawlessness brought in an overwhelming number of cases. The situation was only somewhat mitigated in 1851, when Congress split the state into eastern and western districts, which were still served by just one judge who travelled between the two courts. A new judgeship for the Western District was created in 1871, and new seats for that court were established, but it wasn't until 1896 that Congress finally ended all jurisdiction of Arkansas's Western District Court over the Indian Territory. Contributors to this collection include judges, practicing attorneys, academics, and thoughtful and informed family members who reveal how the judges made decisions on issues involving election laws, taxes, civil rights, railroads, liquor and prohibition, quack medicine, gang- sters, bankruptcy, personal injury, the draft and Selective Service, school desegregation, prisons, and more. United States District Courts and Judges of Arkansas, 1836-1960 will be of value to anyone interested in Arkansas history-particularly Arkansas legal and judicial history as it relates to the local and national issues that came before these judges. This project was supported in part by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas and the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
