Page:Bench and bar of Colorado - 1917.djvu/25

Rh officers, especially all judges, surrender their commissions and abstain from the exercise of the duties of their office.

With the inauguration of the territorial government in 1861 order was brought out of the judicial chaos into which the adherents of Jefferson Territory had plunged the whole Rocky Mountain region. All courts, whether Jeffersonian or Kansas, or holding authority from the various miners' districts or the City of Denver, ceased automatically to exist on the day the territorial officers took charge of affairs.

The organic act creating the new territory ordered the legislature, to be elected under it, to divide the territory into three judicial districts; each district to be presided over by a judge who was to have his residence in the district. These judges, the act provided, should sit separately as district judges in their respective districts, and jointly as supreme court judges.

The first three district and supreme judges appointed by President Lincoln were: Benjamin F. Hall of New York, Chief Justice; Charles Lee Armour of Ohio and S. Newton Pettis of Pennsylvania, Associate Justices. Chief Justice Hall's commission was dated March 25, 1861 while Justices Armour and Pettis received their commissions three days later. The court was organized on July 10, 1861.

When the legislature convened it created three judicial districts in accordance with the provisions of the organic act. The first district was known as the Central City District, with Judge Armour as its judge. The second district was known as the Denver District, with Denver as its headquarters; Chief Justice Hall presided over it. Judge Pettis was assigned to what was known as the Southern District. Canon City was originally named as the residence of the judge of this district, but later the legislature first changed it to Colorado City and then to Pueblo. The creation of the judicial districts was followed by the adoption of a code, which remained in force until it was amended in 1868.

Though the new territory had three judicial districts and three judges, some time elapsed before the courts got into