December 2003 - #16. YANKEE JUSTICE: THE LIGHTER SIDE OF VERMONT LAW George Brockway: From Janitor to Clerk of Windsor County Court.

Vermont Bar Journal

2003.

December 2003 - #16.

YANKEE JUSTICE: THE LIGHTER SIDE OF VERMONT LAW George Brockway: From Janitor to Clerk of Windsor County Court

Vermont Bar Journal - December 2003

The following profile of George Brockway is the seventh in a series published in the Journal under the general title of "Yankee Justice." The profiles are based on interviews of members of the bench and bar conducted by freelance writer and oral historian Virginia Downs in 1978 and 1979. The project was proposed at a meeting of an ad hoc committee of the Vermont Bench and Bar in April of 1978 to tie in with planned bicentennial celebrations of the state's legal beginnings in 1779. It was in that year that Stephen Bradley and Noah Smith were sworn in as Vermont's first official lawyers. The profiles include biographical material and anecdotes from the interviewees' legal activities.

When George Brockway was ready for high school, he lived with his sister in Woodstock, so he could walk to school. At the time his sister's husband was county clerk. During his junior year, there was a vacancy in a janitorship at the courthouse. Young George was hired to take over, a job he held for the next two years. "That was my first connection with the county court," was his comment.

Later, when he was attending Boston University, he worked summers at the courthouse until his graduation in 1927. That fall, County Clerk Carl Pember wanted to go to Arizona to see if he could get relief from his asthma. He asked George if he would take charge of the office while he was gone. George agreed. In January of 1928, Mr. Pember fell ill with pneumonia and died in Arizona.

"The judges at that time asked me if I wouldn't continue on in the clerk's office. And I said I'd be glad to on a temporary basis, because I had my heart set on going into the hotel business. I stayed on as county clerk and pretty soon forgot about the hotel business. I enjoyed my work there tremendously. I was a clerk for forty-five years and was connected with the courthouse, all total, for about sixty years.

"The manner of operating courts has changed a lot since the Twenties and later years. The Twenties, of course, were the days of Prohibition. They were trying to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment, barring the sale of liquor and furnishing liquor. started work in the courthouse as janitor in October of 1920 and the Amendment was in effect then. But it was a very difficult thing to try to enforce.

"There was one case in particular that stands out in my memory. A man had come into White River Junction on the train. The police officers were looking for him because he was a notorious bootlegger. He got off the train and went to hide in a room in the hotel. He had a bottle of liquor with him, which the officers knew. They rapped on the door and he said, 'come in." They went in and asked him, 'where's your liquor?' 'Well,' he said, 'right there on the table, boys. Help yourselves.'

"The officers arrested him and the state's attorney brought an action against him for possessing liquor, which, of course, was an offense. The case was tried in Windsor County Court and a person who was notorious as a good trial lawyer defended him. He argued that it was nonsense to prosecute a man because he had part of a bottle of liquor in his hotel room. But the court charged that if the jury found that it was true that he had that liquor in his possession, he was guilty of possessing an intoxicant, which was against the law. The jury retired and came back, finding him not guilty. As frequently happened, a leak came from one of the jurors about how they could find him not guilty. It was because he admitted that it was his liquor. The jurors came back and said that when he said that it was his liquor, they didn't believe him. So they brought in the verdict of not guilty."

"Back in those days, the judges were very formal in their conduct and none of the...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT