Page:Bench and bar of Colorado - 1917.djvu/20

16 nature, the following which directly affected the administration of justice: establishing a judicial system composed of a supreme, district, county, and justice of the peace courts, and defining the jurisdictions of each of these courts; appointing notaries public; providing docket fees; fixing terms of court; regulating and authorizing writs of attachment and garnishment; providing for the recovery of property by writs of replevin, and so forth. The legislature even authorized the appointment of commissioners for the codification of the laws.

While the men responsible for and active in the conduct of the "government" of the Territory of Jefferson were thus engaged in creating courts and enacting laws, a considerable portion of the citizens then living in this region, and not the least influential, absolutely refused to recognize the territorial government and the courts which had been created by the territorial constitution and the legislature. They maintained, and rightfully so, that the whole Rocky Mountain country was still a part of Kansas and that only officers elected under Kansas laws legally held office.

When the movement for the establishment of the Territory of Jefferson had assumed considerable momentum, the authority of the first probate court, presided over by Judge Wagoner, had begun to wane. As the territorial movement gained momentum, the people paid less and less attention to Wagoner and his court, until finally it passed completely out of existence. The disappearance of this court, recognized by them as the only court doing business legally within the territory, gave the champions of the Kansas cause their opportunity. They held an election in November, 1859, and elected a full set of officers, including a probate judge, for "Arapahoe County, Kansas."

About the time these Kansas officials assumed the duties of their office, courts under the Jeffersonian constitution were organized. The natural result was conflict between the two courts. To add to the confusion Denver City, under an act passed by the legislature, had organized an Appellate