The Justice of the Peace is familiar to many people as the person in a community who could perform marriages and was often sought out by eloping couples who wanted or needed a quick wedding ceremony. However, under Missouri law, the JP had more obligations and duties than simple performing marriages. According to local historian William Claycomb, the JP was expected to hold court anytime an event requiring his services occurred. The JP as paid fees set by Missouri statutes for their services.
Fees ranged from 5 cents to $1, except for the $2 fee for performing a marriage and the $5 fee for viewing a dead body. These fees were substantial, considering that many working class men were paid only $1 to $2 per day for working a 10to 12 hour day.
The duties of the JP, Claycomb notes, included having jurisdiction in small civil cases and in cases against railroad for damages to livestock. The JP could issue arrest warrants, try misdemeanors, and set bond to insure the appearance of an accused felon in the circuit court or before the grand jury. The JP could send people to jail, and could, with certain restrictions, call a six man jury to hear cases.
Each township could have two Justices of the Peace. The Portrait and Biographical Record of Pettis and Johnson Counties identifies Martin V. B. Paige as Justice of the Peace in Green Ridge in the 1890s. Paige had held a civil office before, having been appointed as postmaster in Green Ridge in 1889 by President Benjamin Harrison. He served in this capacity until 1893, when he became Justice of the Peace.
Paige was born in New York in 1842, second son of Anson and Mary Flanders Paige. When he was 18, the Civil War began. Paige enlisted in Company C of the 92nd New York Infantry at Potsdam, New York. After serving four years, he re-enlisted and was transferred to Company D of the 96th New York Infantry. Shortly after his transfer, he was captured. After spending two weeks in Libby Prison, he was sent to Salisbury, North Carolina, to a prisoner of war camp there known for the hardships its inmates endured.
Following his release from prison, he was promoted to sergeant and at war’s end, was made Commissary Sergeant. He in the service until February 1866.
Paige married Marilla Austin of New York in 1865. He and family settled on a farm near Green Ridge in March 1866. Marilla died in 1867, and in 1869, Paige married her sister Mariette Austin. The couple had eight children, seven of whom survived.
His experiences in the prisoner of war camp had affected his health, and Paige was not able to continue the arduous labor of farming. In 1883, he and his family moved into Green Ridge, where they lived in a “comfortable home” where the family lived in “ease and enjoyment.”
Paige had an “unblemished reputation as a man of honor and integrity.” He had been a popular Postmaster and served the people well in his position of JP. He and his wife were active members of the Congregational Church. He was a member of the E. D. Baker Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, a Union Army veterans association, and a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
