Old Missoula

Judge Duncan, Retiring At Midnight, Is Next to Oldest Jurist in Service

Veteran Official Leaving Bench After 24 Years Of Active Duty in This Judicial District.

Judge Asa L. Duncan, next to the oldest trial judge in Montana in continuous service, retires from the bench of the Fourth Judicial district at midnight tonight. He will be succeeded as judge in the district Monday morning by Ralph L. Arnold, elected in the general election in November.

Judge Duncan is retiring after 24 years of active service. His service on the bench is antedated by only one jurist, Judge Harry H. Ewing at Great Falls. Judge Duncan recalled Saturday that Judge Jeremiah Lynch of Butte was serving in Butte in Silver Bow county when he went into office, but that he had been out of office for four years since then.

Judge Duncan has served on the bench in the Fourth Judicial district twice as long as did the late Judge F. C. Webster and three times as long as the pioneer judge, Frank H. Woody.

His Work Finished.

Although his term does not expire until midnight tonight, he believes his last official acts were carried out Saturday. “There are a few certain matters upon which a judge can officially act on Sunday, but it is unlikely that anything will come up Sunday,” Judge Duncan said.

Judge Duncan was not a candidate for reelection this year. Saturday he said he was glad to be retiring from the activity of his office to private life to rest. “The strain of court business for the past few years has been very heavy and I have spent long hours at night in my chambers at the courthouse in handling the many legal documents which are presented in this district. I have felt the weight of the work in recent years, and now am going into retirement.”

During the past few days Judge Duncan has been packing up his law library in the courthouse chambers. There were between 1,200 and 1,500 volumes of legal reference books which he had at his command. “Oh, yes, I have referred to them many times and they have been very valuable to me. They have represented a heavy investment and an accumulation of years,” Judge Duncan said Saturday when asked what a jurist would do with so many books. “There are a lot of angles in law and the books have been very handy,” he said.

When Judge Duncan was elevated to the bench his office occupied the quarters now used by the clerk of the court. The present chambers of department No. 2, where Judge Albert Besancon has been presiding, was the clerk of the court’s office, and the present chambers of Judge Duncan were the jury room.

A General Shifting.

However, there was a general shifting around when another judge was added to the district. The second department took the old clerk of the court’s quarters; the clerk of the court took the judge’s quarters and Judge Duncan took the jury room quarters.

Judge Duncan has seen two more district court tribunals set up in the Fourth Judicial district since he went onto the bench. The first was in Mineral county and the second in Lake county. Both of the divisions were originally in his jurisdiction as judge of the Fourth district, but they did not have separate courts as now. The Fourth district is made up of Missoula, Ravalli, Sanders, Lake and Mineral counties, each of which has its own court. The two Missoula resident judges preside at the court sessions in the various counties.

Judge Duncan recalled Saturday that he had held the first session of court in Mineral county after its creation.

Here From Virginia.

Judge Duncan came to Missoula from Franklin county, Virginia, in 1892 and entered into the law business with Charles M. Crutchfield and E. D. Matts, both well-known attorneys of those days in Missoula and Western Montana.

“Incidentally Matts was elected state senator for Missoula county,” Judge Duncan recalled, “and he was responsible for the establishment of the State University at Missoula. He did it with the help of Marcus Daly.

“There was a great fight on in the legislature and Great Falls was ready to give more land than Missoula men had offered and was ready with other offers. However, the fighting Matts swung the legislature to the Missoula location, where A. B. Hammond and Captain Higgins had offered 40 acres of land.

“At the same time Bozeman was selected as the site of the State College and Dillon as the site for the normal. Bands and delegations met the representatives of those districts upon their return from the legislature. When Mr. Matts stepped from the train here on his return after getting the University definitely located in Missoula, two men were at the train to meet him. They were Colonel Crutchfield and myself, his law partners. In those days Missoula did not realize the significance of the University and it would have gone to Great Falls had it not been for E. D. Matts.”

Judge Duncan as a young man was the commandant at the Virginia Military Institute and was commissioned a major. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war in 1898 he was appointed by Governor Smith of Montana as a captain of Company L of the First Montana volunteer infantry. He served in the Philippine Islands until mustered out in 1899.

Judge Duncan had served as city attorney and county attorney before being elevated to the judgeship.

Judge Albert Besancon will begin his elective term as judge for the Fourth Judicial district Monday, also. He was appointed in December, 1935, by the late Governor Frank H. Cooney to succeed the late Judge Theodore Lentz. In the November election Mr. Besancon was elected and he will continue with his duties.

 

The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on January 3, 1937.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/349259007/

 

Judge Asa L. Duncan died in Virginia on July 9, 1937. He was born in 1857 at Halford, Virginia. He married Gertrude Hathaway of Missoula in 1900. They were parents of two sons, Thomas and Asa L. Duncan Jr. Duncan Drive in Missoula is named for the Judge. His papers are currently available through Archives West at the website linked below:

http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv27021