Viewing Kermeth W. Northwick, "The Controversial Sherman Page" (1970).

Kermeth W. Northwick, "The Controversial Sherman Page" (1970).

Judge Sherman Page (1833-1918) is recalled today because of his famous impeachment trial in 1878 in the Minnesota Senate, which acquitted him. A three volume transcript of those proceedings was published that year. But there is more to his life than this trial, and for additional biographical information we have Kermeth W. Northwick's "The Controversial Sherman Page," a paper he researched and wrote for his Master's Degree at Mankato State College in 1970.

As Superintendent of Schools in Mower County in 1867, Page axed a door at the school house to hold a meeting the county board had forbidden. More controversy followed his election to the new Tenth Judicial District in 1872; his conduct on the bench led to his impeachment trial in 1878 and his lopsided defeat in his bid for re-election by John Q. Farmer in 1879. Most interestingly, Northwick gives a brief account of the trial of John Riley, who was charged with attempting to murder Page in 1880 (Page was counsel for the prosecution before the grand jury that indicted Riley). Several years after this trial Page moved to California, where he died on January 5, 1918, at age 85.

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