People
Meet the many people who argued for and against carceral, institutional, and interpersonal confinement in the petitions filed in County and District Courts throughout the American West over the long nineteenth century. Browse or search people by name, demographic characteristics, case role, and/or relationships described in each petition. Our encoding practice for people features data pulled from the available case files and in some instances additional data from supplemental sources is also included. Only people with case roles are indexed here, while all persons named in a case are listed on the case page. The Glossary defines the attributes used to structure data from the habeas petitions. The Code Book explains the relational structure of the data and functionality of the database website.
Featured story: Lucía Martínez: Yaqui Arizona, 1854-1900
Basic Search
Simply enter the word you wish to find and the search engine will search for every instance of the word in the journals. For example: Fight. All instances of the use of the word fight will show up on the results page.
Wildcard Searches
Using an asterisk (*) will increase the odds of finding the results you are seeking. For example: Fight*. The search results will display every instance of fight, fights, fighting, etc. More than one wildcard may be used. For example: *ricar*. This search will return most references to the Aricara tribe, including Ricara, Ricares, Aricaris, Ricaries, Ricaree, Ricareis, and Ricarra. Using a question mark (?) instead of an asterisk (*) will allow you to search for a single character. For example, r?n will find all instances of ran and run, but will not find rain or ruin.
Capitalization
Searches are not case sensitive. For example: george will come up with the same results as George.
Phrase Search
Searching for a specific phrase may help narrow down the results. Rather long phrases are no problem. For example: "This white pudding we all esteem".
Subsequent Searches
Because of the creative spellings used by the journalists, it may be necessary to try your search multiple times. For example: P?ro*. This search brings up numerous variant spellings of the French word pirogue, "a large dugout canoe or open boat." Searching for P?*r*og?* will bring up other variant spellings. Searching for canoe or boat also may be helpful.
Filter by:
Birth Place
- Unknown 3
- Delaware 1
- Indiana 1
- Iowa 1
- Ireland 1
- New York 1
- Polk County, Oregon 1
- United States 1
Age Category
- Adult 5
- Minor 3
- Unindicated 2
Cases
- Abner S. Nancy v. Capt William M. Matthews 1
- Application of Robin Holmes for a Habeas Corpus directed to Natheniel Ford to bring up the bodies of Jenny or Mary Jane Holmes, Roxanna Holmes and James Holmes, children of said Robin Holmes 1
- Habeas Corpus in the matter of John Medford 1
- In matter of application of Mortimer Fox by Parke Godwin for writ of Habeas Corpus 1
- In re application of Gustav Rittmaster for writ of Habeas Corpus 1
- In the application of Ed. Collins for a writ of Habeas Corpus 1
- In the matter of J.H. Foster for Writ of Habeas Corpus 1
- In the matter of the application for a writ of Habeas Corpus for Mertie L. Young upon relation of Evaline L. Young 1
- In the Matter of the Application of Alice McKay for a Writ of Habeas Corpus for the Body of Mary McKay Her Infant Daughter 1
- In the Matter of the Application of Euphemia Eastwick for a Writ of Habeas Corpus 1
- In the matter of the application of Henry Howard for a Writ of Habeas Corpus 1
- In the Matter of the Application of John Breen for a Writ of Habeas Corpus 1
- In the Matter of the Application of John P. Whitney for a writ of Habeas Corpus 1
- In the matter of the Application of L.S. Bartlett for a Writ of Habeas Corpus 1
- In the matter of the application of Paul Thomas for a writ of Habeas Corpus 1
- In the matter of the application of Robert White for a writ of habeas corpus and admission to bail. 1
- In the matter of the application of Thomas F. Kelly F.A. Kane and Wiley Compton for a writ of Habeas Corpus 1
- In the matter of the application of William Prido for a Writ of Habeas Corpus 1
- In the matter of the Habeas Corpus of Patrick Melia 1
9 results
Download JSON Download CSVHolmes, James R.
- Birth date: January 1, 1845
- Birth place: Polk County, Oregon
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: Black
- Case role(s): Bound party
Nancy, Abner S.
- Birth date: January 1, 1845
- Birth place: Unknown
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: Unknown
- Case role(s): Petitioner, bound party
Lichtenberg, Isaac J. (Charles Westerfield)
- Birth date: January 1, 1845
- Birth place: New York
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: White
- Case role(s): Judge
Cooper, J.K.
- Birth date: January 1, 1845
- Birth place: Delaware
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: White
- Case role(s): Authority ordering detention, justice of the peace
Medford, John
- Birth date: January 1, 1845
- Birth place: Unknown
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: Black
- Case role(s): Bound party
Eastwick, Euphemia M.
- Birth date: January 1, 1845
- Birth place: Unknown
- Sex: Female
- Race or ethnicity: Unknown
- Case role(s): Petitioner
Melia, Patrick
- Birth date: January 1, 1845
- Birth place: Ireland
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: White
- Case role(s): Petitioner, bound party
Hopewell, Melville Reeves (M. R.)
- Birth date: March 27, 1845
- Birth place: Indiana, United States
- Sex: Male
- Race or ethnicity: Unknown
- Case role(s): Judge
Tharpe, Irena
- Birth date: May 1, 1845
- Birth place: Iowa
- Sex: Female
- Race or ethnicity: White
- Case role(s): Respondent, responding party, holding party
