1962 10th Circuit Bench and Bar

A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF LAKELAND BAR ASSOCIATION THE 1962/63 COMPOSITE PICTURE; AND THE FLORIDA BAR

By Retired County Judge Mary Catherine Green

THE LAKELAND BAR ASSOCIATION
The Lakeland Bar Association (hereinafter “LBA”) was formed and began its regular meetings in 1915, with the first annual banquet on or about March 15, 1916.¹ Judge Epps Tucker was the speaker and began with a history of the bar ² in Lakeland prior to the formation of the LBA. At the conclusion of his speech, the LBA honored certain members such as Judge Clarence A. Boswell who served on the County Court ³ and Governor Park Trammell. ⁴

According to the records of the Department of State, Division of Corporations, the Lakeland Bar Association Inc. was first filed as a nonprofit corporation on March 8, 1971.

THE 1962 COMPOSITE PICTURE

Forty-seven years after the formation of the LBA, a composite photograph was taken of the 1962/63 Lakeland Bar Association Polk County Florida, the Tenth Judicial Circuit Bar Association, and the Winter Haven Bar Association (hereinafter “composite”). (see page 15) Oliver Green helped organize the composite across the three associations. He was an attorney with the Oxford and Oxford Law Firm and Secretary of the LBA.

In 1962, Florida had one of the most complex patchwork of courts in the United States.⁵ In addition, all judges, including on the Florida Supreme Court, were nominated by their political parties and the elections were partisan. AGO 75-132 (May 5, 1975). Many years ago, retired Florida Supreme Court Justice James Calhoun Adkins, Jr. told me he placed a circus elephant in front of his Gainesville law practice as a publicity stunt for his campaign for the Supreme Court which, apparently, worked.

In this different world, the people in the composite would come to change our country, shape our court system, form international law firms, influence the development of the State University system, and pioneer in the practice. In the composite, Chesterfield Smith is designated as President Elect of the “Florida State Bar.” He would later serve as Chairman of the Florida Constitutional Revision Commission which drafted the 1973 revision of Article Five creating our current court system. Senator Spessard L. Holland was Florida’s Governor during World War II, established Everglade National Parks, and served as State Senator to four six-year terms. D. Burke Kibler ⁶ and Thomas Bryant were prominent trial attorneys in the Tenth Circuit.⁷ The Holland & Knight law firm owes its creation to many of these men.

J. Hardin Peterson, Sr. was in Congress from 1933 to 1951, and his son J. Hardin Peterson, Jr. was General Council to Governor Lawton Chiles.⁸ He was beloved by all who knew him and is still missed. His legacy continues as one of the founding members of Peterson & Myers law firm.

Mattie W. Thompkins was profiled in the book Celebrating Florida’s First 150 Women Lawyers by the Florida Association for Women Lawyers and The Florida Bar. She was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1925 and had a general practice in Avon Park. Her picture is beside one of her law partners S.C. Pardee. Mada F. Babcock (admitted 1932) and M. Alice Crano (not featured in the book but her oral history is locally available) were the Circuit’s first female judiciary serving as municipal judges for Lake Wales.

The composite demonstrates the LBA has a history of family memberships, including for our current Chief Judge Jay Yancey, as the composite contains the picture of his father Quillian Yancey who would later be elected State Attorney. Walter Manley pioneered family practice in Lakeland, and his son Walter Manley, Jr. would later be an LBA president and co-authored books on the history of the Florida Supreme Court.

The people contained in 1962 composite deserve much more honor and attention than provided in this brief history: Clarence Boswell of Boswell & Dunlap; Robert Trohn, and Judge Clifton Kelly just to name a few. I recommend the Composite be placed on the LBA website with encouragement for people to contribute remembrances. It is also a powerful reminder that recording our history begins now with applause to the LBA for the recent photograph of its past presidents.

THE FLORIDA BAR

According to the Florida Bar website under “History”, in the 1930’s (approximately 15 years after the LBA was formed), the Florida Bar Association was created to enhance the quality of representation and discipline unethical attorneys. In 1950 (approximately thirty-five years after the LBA was formed) ⁹, the name of the Florida Bar Association was shortened to the Florida Bar and it became an integrated, or mandatory, bar association. See, “History,” Florida Bar website.

Fifty-eight years after the LBA was formed, our current court system was created by the revision of Article V to the Florida Constitution in 1973.

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

This research raises a possibility that the LBA may be one of the oldest voluntary bar associations in the State of Florida, possibly even the oldest to have had regular meetings.

Upon studying the 1962 composite, it appears that the judiciary and local bar leaders composed the Tenth Judicial Circuit Bar Association (which included the smaller towns such as Avon Park and Auburndale). It includes a sizeable group of attorneys from Bartow, but that was also the place for the main courthouse in the Circuit.

The LBA and the Winter Haven Bar Associations’ membership appears to have a different representation of attorneys, many who appeared in the larger municipal courts in Polk County ¹⁰ and the Lakeland appellate court.

It would be interesting to understand the history and relationship among these three organizations, especially in context of the formation and development of the Florida Bar.

FOOTNOTES
¹ See, “Tampa Tribune,” March 9 and 16, 1916 and January 19, 2024. Gratitude to the Lakeland Library History and Culture Center for locating this information.
² According to “History” on the section on the Florida Bar website, the term “bar” dates to the 1300’s in England on reference to the square logs that surrounded court sessions sometimes held in fields. A person would have to have official business with the Court to enter through the barriers, thus enter past “the bar.”
³ Judge Epps speech characterized this as an elected position to “Country Court.”
⁴ The Park Trammell Building is on the shore of Lake Morton and houses the Greater Lakeland Chamber of Commerce.
⁵ Reference the “History” section of the Ninth and Tenth Judicial Circuit of Florida websites.
⁶ Burke Kibler’s oral history is on the Florida Southern’s Lawton M. Chiles Center for Florida History website.
⁷ Thomas Bryant was a state legislator and served on the State Board of Control which oversaw the University system. His legacy includes the Lakeland promenade, Bryant Stadium, Thomas Bryant Space Science Center, University of Florida and, my favorite, Bryant Block in downtown Lakeland at the location of his former law office.
⁸ Notice that Lawton Chiles is mentioned in the Composite in “Photos Unavailable,” he was a State Representative at the time.
⁹ For purposes of this article, the LBA was formed when it began regular meetings as an established entity of the local bar in 1915.
¹⁰ There were also magistrate courts in the smaller towns around Polk County presided over by local people who were trusted by the community but not necessarily law school graduates or members of the Florida Bar.