G. L. WATTERS, D. V. M., succeeded Dr. Krenz, locating in the present Kelsey offices. He was assistant state veterinarian in 1920.
JAMES A. OWENS, D. V. M., purchased the practice of G. L. Watters. He came from Indiana and was active in local school and civic affairs. An outdoor man, he and his wife were drowned in Corner Lake while on a fishing trip in Canada.
E. E. KELSEY, D. V. M., is a graduate of Iowa State College of Veterinary Science and began practice in El Paso in 1946 following the drowning of Dr. Owens. He has practiced continuously since that date from offices in rear of his residence at 131 West Main Street.
G. E. SCOTT, D. V. M., was a graduate in the first class of the University
of Illinois College of Veterinary Science in 1952. He associated with Dr.
E. E. Kelsey for a year and a half, but recently located elsewhere.
LAW AND LAWYERS. Legal practice in this area commenced in the sixties, but our legal background had its beginnings with the formation of Woodford County and the establishment of the courts. Versailles was named as the temporary seat of justice for two years. The commissioners’ court, now the county court, was in session in June, 1941 and the first session of the circuit court was held September 24, 1841 with Hon. Samuel H. Treat of the State Supreme Court presiding. Chancery court was established in 1842. The next year on June 17, 1843, Hanover, renamed Metamora within a year or two, was selected as the permanent seat of justice.
Woodford County was assigned to the Eighth Judicial Circuit, which in 1845 included fifteen counties, a territory about 150 miles long and as many broad. Hanover was the name of a land company which owned some 12,000 acres of land near the town, and whose members had taken an active part in securing the county seat. The courthouse was built in 1845 of local materials. The Hanover Company which had secured the contract, sublet it to David Irving of Metamora for $4,400. Mr. Irving burned the brick, cut logs in neighboring woods and hauled them to Park's sawmill at Partridge Point, and there had them sawed for joists and floors. The finishing lumber was white walnut from Johnson's mill near Spring Bay. The shingles were made of black walnut from the woods near the town. The lime had to be found elsewhere, and was hauled in wagons from the Kickapoo bluffs beyond Peoria.
Until the Court House was completed, court was held in a little house which stood at the southeast corner of the square, afterwards used for law offices. When a private consultation was needed, the lawyer met his client in the corner of a room, in the shade of a park tree, or on the sunny side of a building. The old Metamora House tavern was located on the northeast corner of the block just south of