Squire Grimsley
The Unique Squire

from "Southeast Corner of Tarrant County Before the Civil War"
by Sallie Hodges McKnight


Judge Bean, dispensing his law west of the Pecos, had nothing on Squire Grimsley who was Justice of the Peace and the law itself in this end of the county at this early time. He left technicalities strapped up in his saddlebags on his old gray mare and dispensed justice without any frills. He was a great stickler for the dignity of the court, and upon an occasion when John Hayter, a rising young lawyer, asked for a new trial on account of error of the court, he indignantly called out, "John Hayter if I ever again hear you so much as cheep about an error in this court I'll fine you ten dollars!"

He gave everybody a square deal in spite of the law, if necessary, remarking that he might not know all the legal twists and turns but that he did know, "By Gatlins," the difference between right and wrong. He also tempered justice with mercy, as in the case of a rather well known citizen found to be in illegal possession of a cow. After due consideration, he rendered the following opinion and decided the case accordingly. "If I try you under the new statute, you'll go to the penitentiary in spite of hell and high water, so I'll just try you under the old statute which makes it a finable offense."

If his docket was crowded he held night sessions wherever the case might be, on a goods box by the light of a tallow candle.

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