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September 13, 2008

Historical Perspective: The versatility of Judge Samuel Barnes Gookins

By Mike McCormick

Newspaper editor and publisher, attorney, state legislator, author, poet, circuit court judge and justice of the Indiana Supreme Court, Samuel Barnes Gookins was one of Terre Haute’s most esteemed citizens for more than a half century.

The youngest son of William and Rhoda (Murger) Gookins, S.B. Gookins, as he became known, was born May 30, 1809 in Rupert, Vt. His father died when he was 5 and his mother brought Samuel and older brother Milo to Indiana in 1823.

Sam and Milo were orphans upon his mother’s death in 1825. She was one of the first pioneers interred at Terre Haute’s Grandview Cemetery. The boys resided briefly with the family of Capt. Daniel Stringham, father of Rear Adm. Silas Stringham.

Milo Gookins, born in 1800, moved to Vermillion County in 1826, the year Sam apprenticed himself for four fruitful years to pioneer Terre Haute newspaper publisher John Willson Osborn. Gookins wed Osborn’s daughter Mary Caroline on Jan. 23, 1834.

After brief stints as editor of the Vincennes Gazette, the Western Register and Terre Haute Advertiser, Sam studied law under Terre Haute lawyer Amory Kinney, perhaps Indiana’s first abolitionist.

Admitted to the bar in 1834, Gookins was in a partnership for several years with Kinney and Terre Haute lawyer Salmon Wright. In July 1850, following the resignation of Judge John Law, he was appointed president judge of the First Judicial Circuit, which included several counties including Vigo. The appointment lasted through January 1851.

Acquiring scenic acreage noted for its abundance of wild strawberries east of Third (then Market) Street and north of Hulman Street, Judge and Mary Gookins embellished the tract with spacious and attractive buildings, later acquired by Coates College for Women.

Known for many years as “Strawberry Hill,” the Gookins’ home became a haven for intellectuals.

After serving one term (1851-52) in the Indiana House, Judge Gookins was elected justice of the Indiana Supreme Court on Oct. 10, 1855. He resigned effective Dec. 10, 1857, citing the inadequate salary he was being paid while living in Indianapolis during the week and maintaining a family residence in Vigo County.

Gookins founded the Chicago law firm of Gookins, Roberts & Thomas in 1858 and continued to commute by rail on weekends to Terre Haute until retirement in 1875. The Gookins had four children; two died in infancy. Son James Farrington Gookins, co-founder of the Ulyssean Debating Society which met at Strawberry Hill, became a celebrated artist. Daughter Lucy wed George C. Duy in New York City on June 16, 1870. The Duys also resided at Strawberry Hill.

When the Rev. Lyman Abbott of the Congregational Church and his wife Abby were invited for tea at the Gookins home in 1861, then situated one mile south of the city limits, they deemed it a high honor.

Upon retirement, Judge Gookins chose to reside permanently in Terre Haute and obligated himself to write the history of Vigo County as part of Henry W. Beckwith’s History of Vigo and Parke County. He died unexpectedly June 14, 1880, a few months before the book was published.

Poetry was one of Gookins’ talents. Though published in national periodicals, his poems are not easy to find. Here is a snippet from his farsighted, and much longer, poem, “How Mr. Lincoln Became an Abolitionist,” published in Continental Magazine in 1863.

“The woodman one night was aroused by a clatter,

Each one in the house crying, ‘Ho! what’s the matter?’

All jumped out of bed and ran hither and thither,

Scarce knowing amid their alarm why or whither;

But soon it was found ‘mid the tumult and din

That burglars were making attempts to break in.

And now there arose o’er the turmoil and noise

The woodman’s loud summons addressed to ‘the boys.’

‘The boys’ quickly came, and on looking around,

At one of the windows a ladder was found,

And on it a burglar, who, plying his trade,

A burglarious opening already had made.

Now the woodman, though making this nocturnal sortie

All armed and equipped at the rate of ‘two-forty,”

Called a halt, and proposed, before firing a gun,

To question with care what had better be done.

Forthwith he assembled a council of war,

To gravely consider how fast and how far

In a case of this kind it was lawful to go.

Some said, ‘Smash the ladder,’ but others said, “No,

There were many objections to that, and the chief

Was the constitutional rights of the thief;

That the ladder was property all men agreed,

And as such was protected, secured, guaranteed;

And if ‘twas destroyed, our greatest of laws

Could not be upheld and maintained, ‘as it was.’”

But others replied, ‘That ladder’s the chief

Supporter, as all men may see, of the thief;

Let’s aim at the ladder, and if it should fall,

Let the burglar fall with it, or hang by the wall

As well as he can; and by the same token

Whose fault shall it be if his neck should be broken?’

To which it was answered. ‘That ladder may be

The chattel of some honest man, d’ye see.’

‘Well, then, we will pay for’t.’ ‘No, never!’ says V.,

To be taxed for that ladder I’ll never agree;

You have brought on this fuss,’ said V., mad and still madder;

‘You always intended to break that man’s ladder;

You have been for a long time the people deceiving

With false and pretended objections to thieving;

You never desired to having robbing abolished;

You only have sought to have ladders demolished.’”

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