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 s decision 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...