The Virginia passing under the Wabash Bridge note the stacks (From the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
In the Journal of In-Chambers Practice, Ira Brad Matesky has built upon the work of Cynthia Rapp who collected unpublished in-chambers opinions (ICOs) by the Justices of the Supreme Court of the US. By 2016, the Journal of In-Chambers Practice collection had accumulated 525 opinions. Hard to find. Widely scattered. The records of the Supreme Court and some of these ICOs are stored at The National Archives. Other ICOs are housed with personal papers of individual justices at the Library of Congress and other libraries throughout the country.
My interest is in footnote 2 of an introduction by Ira Brad Matesky in The Continuing Search which addresses The Wheeling Bridge Case and a rare pamphlet with an opinion authored by Justice Roberet Grier in 1849. Footnote 2 flowing over two pages follows:
2 For a detailed treatment of the Wheeling Bridge Case, see ELIZABETH BRAND MONROE, THE WHEELING BRIDGE CASE: ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN AMERICAN LAW AND TECHNOLOGY (Northeastern University Press 1992). For an earlier treatment, see James Morton Callahan, Semi-Centennial History of West Virginia, App. A (1913), available at www.ohiocountylibrary.org/wheeling-history/5279. For some non-legal background, see Francis W. Nash, “A Glance at the Wheeling Bridge Case,” availa-
ble at georgetownsteamboats.com/gs/2010/02/06/a-glance-at-the-wheeling-bridge-case/. Allegations that Justice Grier acted improperly during this litigation (he was exonerated by the House Judiciary Committee) are discussed in Daniel J. Wisniewski, Heating Up a Case Gone Cold: Revisiting the Charges of Bribery and Official Misconduct Made Against Supreme Court Justice Robert Cooper Grier in 1854-55, 38 J. Sup. Ct. Hist. 1 (Spring 2013).
The GeorgetownSteamboats post added color to the The Wheeling Bridge Case not provided by the legally intense IOCs. The str Hibernia No 2 was damaged in the collision with the bridge structure on 11 Nov 1849. Its stacks were torn off. It was one element of the initial legal action. The str Hibernia No 2 was owned by Capt George W Ebert, my double great grandfather.
After the bridge was blown down by wind in 1854, str Pennsylvania lowered her stacks approaching Wheeling with no bridge to lower them for. A derisive salute. A mob gathered on shore and pelted the packet with stones. (Mark Twain’s younger brother aboard the str Pennsylvania was scalded and died after the boilers exploded on 21 Jun 1858.
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