Judge John Test of Brookville, Indiana was born in Salem, New Jersey about 1781. The exact date of his birth is in question. Since his father--Francis Test II--was "read out" of the Society of Friends (because he fought in the Revolutionary War, and because he married a girl who was not a Quaker), the usual Quaker records of births and deaths are non-existent for this John Test. The year 1781 agrees with statements of his eldest son, Judge Charles Henry Test, and comments from Edmonia Test Hammitt who was descended from Judge Charles Henry.
In articles in the Richmond "Palladium-Item", John Test is referred to as one of the outstanding lawyers of his day in Indiana. [11]He was described by his eldest son as a gentleman, raised in Philadelphia, was married and moved to Wilmington, Delaware where his first child was born in 1802. Judge Charles Test writes, "He moved from there to the western portion of Pennsylvania in Fayette county, to what was called Fayette Chance Furnace at the foot of the Laurel Hill mountains. He ran that furnace perhaps two or three years and made it successful and made some money out of it. He finally sold out and went up to Cheet river in Western Virginia and undertook to build up an old furnace but failed to make it profitable and sold out. He build a flat boat and ran out of Cheet river down the Ohio river in 1809. He lived about a year in Cincinnati. That was a very small town then. He came from there to Indiana to White water and settled at Brookville. [12]
"At that time there were only two houses and they were log houses. He came there about 1810, rented an old log mill. People came there as far as thirty miles off. He had one pair of stones to grind wheat and another to grind corn. He studied law there. Studied on his own hook. He would carry in the sacks and while the grist was grinding would look over his book, and soon began to acquire some knowledge of the law. Isaac Blackford, afterwards judge of the Supreme Court came there just after my father in 1812. He came from New Jersey, and they were great friends. Blackford and my father finally concluded to go get a license to practice law. Indiana was then, with the exception of Vincennes and a few military posts, an unbroken wilderness. The judge of the court lived at Vincennes but they dug out a canoe and concluded they would go down the Whitewater river to the Ohio and then paddle up the Wabash.
"They fixed up this arrangement all nicely for the trip. When they got about nine miles below Brookville the canoe turned them out into the river and they lost all their provisions. They walked from there to Vincennes. This was about 1812, I think. I know we were then in the middle of our Indian troubles. [13] It was a long trip but they walked it. Blackford used to tell the story himself and laughed about the trip. Blackford was a little conceited and making some mistake in his examination, the judge told him he was mistaken in his answer on that subject. Blackford got a little huffy and disputed his word and began finally to question the judge as if he had no confidence in his knowledge of law. The judge told him he was examining him and he didn't choose to answer his questions. They had a few words and finally the judge told Blackford he was no gentleman and he would not give him a license. He licensed my father, however.
"My father was an easy man to get along with. Father stayed there (Vincennes) hating to go away without Blackford getting a license. He saw some of the citizens and they prevailed on the judge to give Blackford a re-examination and this time he got his license, and they started home (Brookville). As they were coming along through the wilderness between the Wabash and the White rivers following some trace, they got into a dispute about some law question and quarreled. Blackford told my father he was no gentleman and he wouldn't walk with him. So he dropped behind and father walked on ahead some distance. As they were going on as well as they could father thought he saw something, and didn't know but that it was Indians. So he stepped behind a tree to take a good look at what he supposed would cross the trace. He kept peering one side and then the other till Blackford came up and seeing him behind a tree, asked what the matter was. This was the first word since the quarrel. They concluded it was a flock of turkeys, and after that got along quietly to Brookville.
"They both settled here; father relinquished the mill and commenced to practice law. [14] James Noble, who was afterward elected to the U.S. Senate, was practicing there then. Sometimes they had a pretty fair bar there. Blackford did not stay there long. My father was elected judge of the Circuit court about 1818 or '19, then clerk of the Circuit court. Then in '23 he was doing a very profitable professional business. He was a candidate for congress in 1823 and was elected and took his seat in '24. He was also elected in 1825, ran against James B. Ray who was in the senate at that time. That was in the session of '26 and '27. He ran again in 1827, then in 1829 he ran and was elected. [15] He was a great friend of internal improvement and in his second term after his election in '25 they got up this Wabash Canal project. After this he went to Mobile and practiced law eight or nine years, where he was stricken with paralysis. He returned to Indiana. He stayed part of the time at my house and part with Mr. Raritan who had married my sister, Mary. He died at Mr. Raridan's, was buried at Cambridge City. [16] "He was about five feet ten and a half inches in height, well-made but not portly nor large but of good ordinary size. Was easy in his manner. Wore a queue. Was rather precise in his dress and his personal appearance. He was a fair talker, though you couldn't consider him eloquent, a manner that impressed a jury that he was fair and honest".
Judge John Test's first wife, Lydia, died, and in 1841 he married a second wife--Penelope Gay Sawkins, in Mobile, Alabama. They had three children. The eldest was William Francis, father of Laura Test Mack who taught school in Akron, Ohio. Miles Hendrix died during the Civil War of "camp fever" when he was in his teens, and Laura Virginia died in Washington D.C. when she was still in her teens, of smallpox. John Test died in 1849 when these three children were still quite young.
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