LAW

Mr. Hamlin was the first lawyer to settle in DeLand (1883). His office on the eastern side of the Goodrich building was a busy center of activity. Beside his private law business, he was Mr. Stetson's and my father's agent in many of their enterprises, attorney for the Town Council and a member of various committees, promoting public undertakings, such as the bank, the railroad, the court house and the university. Isaac A. Stewart came in 1885. Mr. Hamlin and he were partners for several years. Later he formed a partnership with Egford Bly. Now the firm is Stewart & Stewart, father, son and daughter, practicing law where Judge Stewart began forty-two years ago. For twenty years, he was Judge of the Criminal Court and at one time a member of the County Commissioners. He was instrumental in moving the county seat from Enterprise to DeLand and has exerted politically a wide influence in the

county. Herbert H. Gibbs was studying law with Mr. Hamlin.

He tells the following incident: I recall the 'high sheriff' of Volusia County. He was a cowman and frequently came to town to fill up as soon as possible on the particularly bad whiskey dispensed in the place. On one hot summer day I looked up from my desk in our little office to see the drunken old villain pointing his rifle at me through the window with his gun finger on·the trigger. In fear of my life I engaged him in conversation, and cajolled and mollified him by flattery until he finally staggered away for another glass or two of Florida fire water, presumably with the customary sliver of pine pitch in it, to give it an additional 'kick.' On that same afternoon when still more drunk, our brave city marshal had him escorted to the city lockup by two stalwart negroes. The marshal was diplomatic. He took care that the sheriff should be carefully deposited on the floor, with his emptied rifle at hand and left him there with the door ajar, so that when the minion of the law awoke, he walked out, hardly knowing that he had been humiliated by incarceration in the city jail; nevertheless the negroes were told to leave the town and they did so quite promptly, 'trekking' to unknown parts, and they never returned. This attempt on my life was in revenge for the part I took in seizing a gigantic mule by legal process from a cracker partizan of the sheriff. The growth of towns interfered with the business of the "crackers" whose cattle had been allowed for years to graze through the woods. Florida furnished during the Civil War practically all the beef for the Southern army. The cattle kept on coming into the streets of DeLand. They went into the yards and ate up the green things. A pound was established. The owners threatened to come and let out the cattle, but the citizens assembled and prevented them. One man rode up into Mr. Stockton's store on his horse. The marshal arrested him and put him in jail and sat outside with his gun. This ended their depredations.

Excerpt from, The Story Of DeLand And Lake Helen, Florida 

Written by; Helen Parce DeLand