On November 9, 1902, the St. Paul Sunday Globe published a "remembrance" by William Pitt Murray of a term of the territorial district court in Sauk Rapids in June 1851.
Judge Bradley B. Meeker presided. Henry L. Moss was the prosecuting attorney while several young lawyers, including Murray and Rensselaer R. Nelson, were there looking for work. Criminal charges were brought against several local settlers for selling liquor to Indians. It quickly became clear that a jury of white men would never convict a fellow settler of such a crime, particularly when based on the testimony of Natives. Moss reluctantly dismissed charges against other defendants. After court was adjourned, the three lawyers, Moss, Nelson and Murray, canoed down the Mississippi River to St. Paul, a trip that took three days.
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