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Photographs personal residences of lawyers and judges in Minnesota.
Photographs of Historic Federal Courthouses in Minnesota.
Photographs of Historic County Courthouses in Minnesota - Part One.
Photographs of Historic County Courthouses in Minnesota: Part Two.
Photographs of Historic County Courthouses in Minnesota: Part Three.
Photographs of the St. Paul City Hall-Ramsey County Courthouse. (1932).

























































































Viewing H. L. Gordon Recalls Trials in the 1860s and 1870s. (1911).


H. L. Gordon Recalls Trials in the 1860s and 1870s. (1911).

Hanford Lennox Gordon (1836-1920), a Civil War veteran, practiced law in Wright and Stearns Counties in the 1860s and 1870s, and later in Minneapolis in the 1880s. He was also a poet, and published several volumes of verse, most pertaining to Minnesota. In 1915 he donated his papers to the Minnesota Historical Society. Among them is a fourteen-page letter dated September 18, 1911, to a family friend in which he recalled several trials in the 1860s and 1870s. As he describes these trials, he relives them. He recalls his summation in a murder case he prosecuted as Wright County Attorney as if he delivered it yesterday. Defense counsel, Eugene Wilson, had given an emotional plea to the jury. Gordon writes:

"I said to the jury with my voice full of tears: 'Gentlemen of the jury, I feel like crying too. I feel like crying for our poor dear innocent state of Minnesota;' and turning to Wilson, I said: 'Mr. Wilson, if you will kindly lend me that onion you had in your handkerchief I'll blubber like a baby too.'"

H. L. Gordon's trial anecdotes follow. Enjoy.

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