justice / Justice of the Peace

justice. (1) The quality of being just; the rendering to every one his due, right, or desert; practical conformity to the laws and to principles of rectitude in the dealings of men with each other; honesty; integrity in commerce or mutual intercourse; strict conformity to right and obligation; rectitude; integrity impartiality. (2) A person duly commissioned to hold courts, or to try and decide controversies and administer justice. — Webster, 1882

Justice of the Peace. An elected or appointed lower court officer whose duty was to preserve order.

Justice Ingalls has sustained the dignity of court and the majesty of the law in large chunks of late. – De Smet Leader, January 27, 1883.

Hizzoner Justice Ingalls is kept comfortably busy propping up the majesty. – De Smet Leader, December 15, 1883.

     
In the Little House books, Laura Ingalls Wilder mentions justice twice, when a character expresses their belief in what is right, or just. In Little House on the Prairie (see Chapter 17, “Pa Goes Away”), Mrs. Scott visits Ma while Pa is away, and she says she hopes there won’t be trouble with the Indians, telling Ma that “it’s only common sense and justice” that the land belongs to those who will farm it, clearly meaning the squatters and not the Osage, who did plant corn and pumpkins and other crops on the land. In The Long Winter (see Chapter 29, “The Last Mile”), when the townsmen gathered at Mr. Fuller’s store learn that Mr. Loftus is charging three dollars a bushel for wheat that he financed Cap Garland and Almanzo Wilder to buy, with them paying Mr. Anderson a dollar and twenty-five cents per bushel (with no hauling fee charged), the men want to angrily confront Mr. Loftus, but Pa says they should reason with him, further clarifyin that he was “talking about reason and justice,” not taking the wheat outright as some suggested. Neither book example is found in the hand-written manuscripts.

In Little Town on the Prairie (see Chapter 8, “Fourth of July”), Lawyer Barnes (unidentified in the book as the speaker, but named in the manuscript) reads aloud the Declaration of Independence, which both Laura and Carrie know by heart. Much of the Declaration is transcribed in the book, but only one of the three appearances of the word justice is included. It’s widely agreed among Little House scholars that Rose Wilder Lane added the section about the Fourth of July to Little Town on the Prairie, perhaps she, too, is responsible for the LHOP and TLW additions of the word justice?

Justice of the Peace. During the Little House years in Minnesota and Dakota Territory, the duties of an elected or appointed Justice of the Peace varied according to current law. In general, justices could collect fines assessed by the county commissioners, was authorized to act as coroner in relation to dead bodies in cases where the coroner was absent or unable to perform his duties, could assist the clerk of courts in canvass returns of an election, and could swear in persons who were appointed to take the place of judges or clerks of court (no fees were collected in this case). They heard cases of misdemeanor crimes involving smaller sums of money (usually under $100), and their compensation was determined by the county or township commissioners. Justices could perform marriages, but there’s no indication that Charles Ingalls ever did.

A justice followed the law in each case heard or tried, and there were township manuals published regularly that spelled out the duties of each official under current statutes. The 1874 Minnesota township manual can be read HERE. There were also separate manuals published for individual offices: THIS manual is from 1875 and outlines the duties of constables and justices of the peace under Minnesota statutes. Similar manuals were published for Dakota Territory, and include samples of how documents were to be worded, such as a warrant, summons, or account of property that came into his hands.

Charles Ingalls as Justice of the Peace in Redwood County, Minnesota. The historical fact that Charles Ingalls served as a Justice of the Peace in Walnut Grove is mentioned in Wilder’s Pioneer Girl memoir, but not in the published Little House books. In the Redwood Gazette (published in Redwood Falls, Minnesota), March 22, 1877, township election results were reported as follows:

In the Redwood Gazette, March 21, 1878, township election results for Springdale Township (North Hero wasn’t reported) were reported as follows:

Note that this is for Springdale Township (T109N-R39W), not North Hero Township (T109N-R38W, the location of Charles Ingalls’ preemption and tree claim/homestead), which didn’t include the original village of Walnut Grove but did include the newly-platted six blocks of Masters Addition to Walnut Grove (where the hotel Laura worked in as a child still stands). On April 26, 1878, the dedication and surveyor’s certificate for Masters Addition was signed before “C.P. Ingalls, Justice of the Peace.” Wilder wrote in Pioneer Girl that Pa purchased a lot from William Masters (there is no record of this in the deeds) and the Ingallses lived in a house built there until the family moved to Dakota Territory. All of the other men named as township officers above definitely had claims or owned property in Springdale Township. If you’re more familiar with the Walnut Grove area than the plat maps, 8th Street / County Road 5 is the north/south line between the two townships: If you’re at the Museum, the gift shop is in North Hero Township (east of 8th Street), but the Masters Hotel (across 8th Street to the west) is in Springdale Township.

One document showing Charles Ingalls acting in his capacity as a Justice of the Peace in Redwood County was discovered by accident when I was researching the Ray / Leonard / Welch families from Pioneer Girl, the story of which was also the inspiration for Rose Wilder Lane’s short story, “Object Matrimony,” published in Saturday Evening Post, September 1, 1934. One of the Ray / Leonard property deeds was executed by Charles Ingalls as Justice of the Peace in August 1879 (rather than them going to the county seat in Redwood Falls), and the transaction was witnessed by Caroline Ingalls.

In Pioneer Girl, Laura wrote that during the time that Pa served as a Justice of the Peace in Minnesota, their old neighbor, Eleck Nelson, had opened a saloon in town, a rough place because of all the drinking and fighting, with Mr. Nelson doing his share of the drinking there, as did Will Masters (William’s son). She described an incident where Mr. Nelson was about to be arrested by the constable, but Mrs. Nelson came and took him away drunk in the back of a wagon, for which Pa was glad, since it meant he wouldn’t have to try the case. Nelson supposedly had a saloon in Walnut Grove in 1878, but it would have had to be earlier in 1878 than the vote of no license in March, unless Laura got her years confused. License was voted in the following spring and a saloon was under construction and almost finished in April 1879 when a severe storm totally demolished the building. It wasn’t a week before the saloon had been rebuilt, and the April 17 paper reported that business “commenced pretty lively.”

The county records haven’t been examined for payments made to Charles Ingalls for his services. The Redwood Gazette from 1873-1879 only records one payment made to him: $21.54 in January 1879 for “sundry bills in justice court.”

Click to view.

Charles Ingalls as Justice of the Peace in Kingsbury County, Dakota Territory. In By the Shores of Silver Lake, Laura wrote that Pa pretended to act as a justice (or keeper of the peace) while living in the Surveyors’ House when he used some of his “old justice blanks” (which had to have been from Walnut Grove) and he filled out “official-looking” paperwork threatening the arrest of a man if he didn’t return the horses he neglected to pay for. The paper would be “served” by a pretend sheriff. Wilder was incorrect that the there was no “law” in the unorganized county; at the time, it was under the legal jurisdiction of neighboring Brookings County.

When Kingsbury County government was organized on March 9, 1880, at the home of Amos Whiting with Pa in attendance (see Little Town on the Prairie, Chapter 3, “The Necessary Cat”), officials were appointed as follows: Lars Fieldby (sheriff), Lynn W. Barnes (accessor), V.V. Barnes (probate judge), John Anderson (treasurer), A.J. Lathrop (surveyor), H.A. Whiting (coroner), Amos Whiting (superintendent of schools), Peter Christianson, Horace Gould, A.J. Lathrop, and E.W. Smith (Justices of the Peace), and F.P. Remington, Charles B. Cooke, and C.P. Ingalls (constables). Note that Charles Ingalls was not one of the first justices in Kingsbury County, as is often reported. However, when Smith moved out of the county, Charles Ingalls was appointed to take his place and was elected the next term.

The register of payments to county officials show that Charles Ingalls was paid very infrequently for his justice duties; he may have performed some official duties that required no payment. January 3, 1881, is the first payment recorded (suggesting that he may have taken over Smith’s duties in 1881, not 1880 as has been suggested): $5.30 in justice fees. The only other justice payment recorded that year is to Jerome Woodruff for $27.25 in July. Charles Ingalls was paid $5.75 monthly when his building was used as the county offices, and in November, he was paid $2.00 to oversee the election.

The only payment Charles Ingalls received in justice fees during the year 1883 was $8.35 in October. 1884 was his busiest year: $41.85 being the total of payments for three separate cases. In 1885, Ingalls received $14.75 in April.

The first mention of Charles Ingalls being elected as a Justice of the Peace in Kingsbury County (in surviving De Smet newspapers) is in the first issue published of the De Smet Leader, January 27, 1883, with C.P. Ingalls, A.M. Baker, J.C. Gibson, and Lewis Hammond listed as justices in the Official Directory. The Lake Preston Times, September 20, 1883, reports that “C.P. Ingalls was nominated as Justice of the Peace from the 3rd Precinct.” December 15, 1883, the Leader reported: “John Carey arrested for selling liquor, Justice Ingalls tried the case.”

Charles Ingalls was defeated in his bid to be a Justice in 1884, but he was elected again in 1885, which seems to be the last year he served. The 1884 “justice blank” document filled in by Charles Ingalls shown above is in the Clerk of Courts records in Kingsbury County. Charles Ingalls had received information that Nordland (now Arlington) resident, John Abbott, had sold intoxicating liquors in an amount of less than five gallons without a license, and Ingalls was issuing a warrant for Abbott’s arrest.

     

justice (LHOP 17; TLW 29; LTP 8), see also The Declaration of Independence
     Justice of the Peace (PG)
     Pa’s front room office in De Smet (PG)
     Pa’s Justice office in Walnut Grove (PG)
     justice blanks (PG) – A pre-printed paper document that has not been filled out by an official. It supplies prompts for information to be added and spaces are underlined showing where ink responses are to be written. See also legal cap; writ of attachment