In 1821, at the age of 23, Calvin Fletcher moved west from Ohio to Indianapolis, Indiana, the new state capital. There, he served as the Marion County prosecutor, earning a marketable reputation which he in turn converted into a lucrative if sometimes unpredictable private law practice that occupied his attention for the next twenty-two years. During that time, Fletcher led numerous young law students through the "bramble bush" of Blackstone's Commentaries and into the legal profession.
Calvin Fletcher's extraordinarily detailed diary tells us who these apprentices were, where they came from, how they gained admission to the legal profession, and what became of them when they ventured forth on their own. By piecing to-ether their stories, this paper will illuminate the apprenticeship system, the practice of law, and the developing social order on what then constituted the American frontier.