Studying Law in the 1850s in Kentucky and Illinois

[Jim McMillan]

This is a question for those on S-C list who have studied law. My research interest, J S Sweeney studied law in Kentucky at age 19 (1850 or so) at a place called Hancock Academy. (After he moved to Illinois circa 1853, he also studied law.) I've also located some information on JSS attending a place called Sanders Academy in Kentucky, but all of the information so far points to these academies as being "boys schools."

In your law schools, did any of your courses touch upon the history of "law schools" or the changes (from 1850 to 1900) in the educational requirements to practice law? Are you aware of the word "academy" being used to describe a "law prep" school? 

 

Thanks for any recollections/references that may help!

Jim

--

Jim McMillan

 

Research Interests:

 

- John Steele Sweeney

- Stone-Campbell Movement Bibliography

- Indexing of Stone-Campbell Movement Publications

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[Jim]

I was partially able to solve a puzzlement regarding John Steele
Sweeney recently and thought the source of the new information might
be useful for those of you who are doing research related to
Kentuckians.

In the section on JSS, the History of the First Christian Church,
Paris, Kentucky, states:

"At the age of nineteen he entered Hancock Academy in Columbia,
Kentucky, to study law."

[Columbia, Kentucky is in Adair County.]

Try as hard as I could, I could not turn up any information on Hancock
Academy. I did find a brief reference to a Columbia Academy, a school
for boys, which was built in 1812 and closed in the 1850s. But this
did not seem to be the kind of place where JSS would have studied law.

While searching the Kentuckiana online newspaper site (http://
kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?xg=0;page=simple;g=news) for
information on JSS's short career as Auditor for the Commonwealth of
Kentucky, I happened on this bits of news:

"Eld. John S. Sweeney, whose serious illness was mentioned in last
week’s News, has gone to his rest. The deceased was born and reared at
Liberty, Ky., and partially educated at the Sanders Academy, this
county. For many years he had made his home in Paris, Ky., where he
died. He was perhaps the most widely known minister of the Christian
Church in Kentucky." (Adair County News, Wednesday, October 28, 1908,
page 1)

A subsequent search on "Sanders Academy" turned up another bit of
information on JSS that would have been nearly impossible to turn up
without considerable time and expense. The article is lengthy enough
that I will post it later when I have the time to digitize it.



Note: The Kentuckiana site contains a significant number of Kentucky
newspapers, with good results for searching if you use the link above
to access the list of newspapers.

On Jan 7, 7:02 pm, Jim McMillan <james.l.mcmil...@gmail.com> wrote:
> This is a question for those on S-C list who have studied law. My research
> interest, J S Sweeney studied law in Kentucky at age 19 (1850 or so) at a
> place called Hancock Academy. (After he moved to Illinois circa 1853, he
> also studied law.) I've also located some information on JSS attending a
> place called Sanders Academy in Kentucky, but all of the information so far
> points to these academies as being "boys schools."
> In your law schools, did any of your courses touch upon the history of "law
> schools" or the changes (from 1850 to 1900) in the educational requirements
> to practice law? Are you aware of the word "academy" being used to describe
> a "law prep" school?
>
> Thanks for any recollections/references that may help!
> Jim
> --
> Jim McMillan
>
> Research Interests:
>
> - John Steele Sweeney
> - Stone-Campbell Movement Bibliography
> - Indexing of Stone-Campbell Movement Publications

> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------­------------------------