History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I, Part 47

Author: Downer, Harry E
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1042

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OTHER MEMBERS.

"It is not the purpose of this retrospect to speak of those who may speak for themselves. Of the active members of the society there are not a few who are making for themselves a worthy record which, when another half century shall have gone, will cause them to be remembered with affectionate pride. But there are some, not among the earlier members, who have come and gone, either to other fields or to their final rest, after winning an honored place among the successful physicians of Davenport. Of these there is only space for brief mention of a few.

"Dr. Edward H. Hazen, who became a member of the society in 1868, was the first to make a specialty of the eye and ear in this city. He was also one of the first faculty of the State University of Iowa medical department, and was promi- nent in the activities of the community a score of years ago. Removing to Des Moines he became one of the medical faculty of Drake University, and continues the practice of his specialty there.

"Dr. Margaret A. Cleaves, who, as before stated, has won for herself a prom- inent place in the profession of New York City, was an early graduate of the State University of Iowa and became a member of the Scott County Medical So- ciety in 1876. She engaged for a time in general practice here, was connected professionally with the hospital for the insane at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and later with that of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and has attained national prominence in the application of electricity to medical practice.

"Dr. Richard Winter Hill, whose boyhood and all too short professional life were passed in this city, graduated in medicine in 1883, under the instruction of his warm friends, Drs. Middleton and Peck, with whom, and Dr. Grant, he had come to rank as one of the four best surgeons Davenport has produced when,

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in January, 1902, alone in his office, he met death's sudden, untimely summons. Reticent and of a strongly individual character, he was not very active in the councils of the society. Though admitted to membership in 1888, and always loyal to its interests and those of the regular profession, he but seldom attended its meetings. To exceptional talents as a surgeon there were joined in Dr. Hill a warm heart and the noblest instincts of the courteous gentleman.

"Dr. William West Grant, son of an Alabama physician and nephew of Judge James Grant, who was prominent in the early history of this city, graduated at Long Island College Hospital in 1869, at the age of twenty-three, and began the practice of medicine in Nebraska City. Coming to Davenport in 1871 he at once became a member of the county society and soon took rank as one of our most progressive and successful physicians, also filling the place of post surgeon at Rock Island arsenal for several years. On January 4, 1885, he performed the first recorded laparotomy for appendicitis, the writer hereof administering the anaesthetic. In 1889 Dr. Grant removed to Colorado and is today one of the foremost surgeons of Denver.

"Dr. Charles M. Robertson, who graduated in 1888 from the State University of Iowa medical department, of which his father was one of the honored founders, practiced in this city for a time, being very successful in his specialty of the eye and ear, but removed to Chicago some years ago, leaving many warm friends in Davenport.

"Were it within the scope of this article to recall, not the members of the county society only, but all doctors who have been active in the life of the com- munity, much more space must have been allotted than is at the writer's disposal. Older citizens will remember distinctly, and many of them with feelings of kindly regret, Drs. Emeis, Olshausen and Hoepfner (the latter but recently de- ceased), Drs. R. F. Baker, Worley, Wessel and many others more or less promi- nent though not connected with the regular profession. These, together with the dentists and druggists of the early days, might well be made the subject of a separate chronicle.

ALTERED CONDITIONS.

"The conditions of practice when the Scott County Medical Society was or- ganized were very different from those of today. Even so late as 1873, when the writer, just graduated from the State University of Iowa, began practice here with cholera victims for his first patients, Davenport, with less than half its present population, was scarcely more than a village. Its buildings, though scattered over much ground, were few of them more than two stories in height. Where the Masonic temple now stands was a cottage in which dooryard (on the immediate corner) was the one-story brick office of Dr. Emeis. Another old- time cottage home, set back in its green yard, occupied the present site of the United States express office on the northeast corner of Third and Brady ; while Main street, almost from Second to Fifth, presented a beautiful colonnade of tall, spreading elms. The old brick court house, with its high-columned porch and its surmounting wooden ball (now a relic in the Academy museum) still stood in the midst of its shady grove; the city council had its modest assembly room

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on the corner of Brady and the alley above Fifth; the postoffice rented quarters on Perry and Third streets, in the same building with the Gazette, which was gotten out with no assistance from linotype machine or Hoe press ; the Academy of Sciences had not found a settled home; and the dream of a free public library had yet long to wait for its realization. There were no granitoid walks in the city then, and no paved streets; the business regions, indeed, and some others had the so-called 'macadam,' soft and uncurbed, but it sank out of sight often faster than it could be renewed. There were no telephones, electric lights or electric cars, tri-city or interurban. Little 'bob-tail' horse-cars, indeed, jogged along Third and what is now East River streets, or climbed Brady hill with much urging of the over-worked power, especially on those days when the masses were attracted by the then popular county fair to the site of our Central park. There was but one railroad and one important productive industry --- lumber ; this beside caring for the money and supplying the wants of the pros- perous farmers of the county. The passing of the sawmills, with their array of improvident winter idlers, has been gladly welcomed by the long suffering doc- tor! The physician's office has had several distinct stages of evolution from its simple estate in those days ; and his then rather honorable mud-covered buggy and horse have mostly given place, if not to the shining closed carriage or automobile, at least to rubber tires and the convenient 'wheel.' Then he had no X-ray to confirm his diagnosis, and no anti-toxin for prevention or treatment; but he did his best then as now to save life and limb, and to win the gratitude of such of his patients as were capable of appreciating the value of his services and the ex- tent of his self-sacrifice."

The following physicians are members of the Scott County Medical Society at this time, with the officers : President, Dr. G. F. Harkness; vice president, Dr. E. S. Bowman; secretary-treasurer, Dr. J. V. Littig; delegate to the annual meeting of the Iowa State Medical Society, Dr. Edward Strohbehn; alternate delegate, Dr. G. M. Middleton ; Drs. William L. Allen, George W. Banning, G. S. Bawden, P. A. Bendixen, J. D. Blything, E. S. Bowman, H. U. Braunlich, J. F. Baker, J. D. Cantwell, O. S. Dahms, J. A. DeArmand, George E. Decker, A. P. Donohoe, Sadie C. Doran, A. W. Elmer, E. O. Ficke, Lucius French, C. E. Glynn, L. F. Guldner, A. L. Hageboeck, J. T. Haller, G. F. Harkness, C. C. Hetzel, C. F. Jappe, C. T. Kemmerer, T. W. Kemmerer, J. F. Kempker, O. W. Kulp, Ray R. Kulp, Frederick Lambach, J. V. Littig, D. J. McCarthy, Jennie McCowen, Carl Matthey, Henry Matthey, E. D. Middleton, G. M. Middleton, J. C. Murphy, Frank Neufeld, L. J. Porstmann, J. R. Porter, C. H. Preston, William H. Rendleman, F. E. Rudolf, O. P. Sala, B. H. Schmidt, P. H. Schroeder, Anne M. Shuler, T. D. Starbuck, Edward Strohbehn, William A. Stoecks, K. H. Struck, William F. Skelley, Anton Sauer, Karl Vollmer, J. S. Weber and Lee Weber, of Davenport ; William W. Bailey and F. C. Skinner, of LeClaire; W. F. Bowser, of Blue Grass; William S. Binford, of Dixon ; J. B. Crouch, of Eldridge ; E. T. Kegel, of Walcott ; and J. C. Teufel, of Buffalo.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SCOTT COUNTY BAR.

THE BENCH AND BAR OF SCOTT COUNTY-EARLY LAWYERS, MANY OF THEM MEN OF GREAT ABILITY-THE EARLIER COURTS- SUPREME COURT SESSIONS IN DAVEN- PORT- THE DISTRICT, CIRCUIT AND COUNTY COURTS MEMBERS OF THE BAR OF TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO-THE PRESENT BAR-DIVERTING INCIDENTS OF THE LEGAL RECORD SINCE COURTS WERE ESTABLISHED-JUDGE GRANT'S TOOTHPICK.

Perhaps no body of men, not excepting the clergy, may exercise a greater in- fluence for good in a community than those who follow the profession of the law, and it must be admitted that to no other body, not even to the so-called criminal classes, are committed greater possibilities for an influence for evil. What that influence shall be depends upon the character of the men who constitute the bar of the community-not merely on their ability or learning but on their character. If the standard of morality among the members of the bar is high, the whole community learns to look at questions of right and wrong from a higher plane. If the bar consciously or unconsciously adopts a low standard of morality, it al- most inevitably contaminates the conscience of the community. And this is true not only in the practice of the profession itself, not only because of the influence of members of the bar as men rather than lawyers, but in the effect upon other professions and occupations to which the bar acts as a feeder. The members of the legislature are recruited largely from the legal profession. How can legisla- tion, designed solely for the welfare of the public, be expected from one whose honor as a lawyer has not been above suspicion? And since lawyers, outside of the legislature, have a great influence in shaping the law, how can the people ex- pect that influence to be exerted in their behalf when the bar itself is unworthy ? Still more does the character of the bar effect the judiciary, which is supplied from its ranks. It is not always, perhaps not generally, the case that members of the bench are chosen from those lawyers who have attained the highest rank in their profession. If a judge be industrious and honest, but not of great ability, or if he be able and honest, though lacking industry, the rights of the litigants are not likely to suffer seriously at his hands. But there have been instances where judicial office was bestowed solely as a reward for political service; and

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while it is sometimes realized that one who has been a strenuous and not too scru- pulous politician up to the moment of his elevation to the bench, has thereafter forgotten that there was such a trade as politics and has administered justice without fear or favor, the experiment is a dangerous one. No one need be sur- prised if in such a case the old maxim holds true: "He who buys the office of judge must of necessity sell justice." Let our judges be men who are subject to other influences than those of the facts submitted to them and the law applicable to those facts, let them lack that independence which is an imperative requisite to one who holds the scales of justice, let a well founded suspicion arise that their decisions are dictated by something outside of their own minds and consciences, and the confidence of the people in the maintenance of their rights through the agency of the courts is destroyed.

It has been the good fortune of the city of Davenport and the county of Scott that the members of the bar here have been, for the most part, men of high char- acter as well as of ability and learning, so that its bar has won a high and honor- able reputation throughout the rest of the state and because of the high character of the bar it has followed that those of its members who have been elevated to the bench have enjoyed the confidence and respect of the public and have been hon- ored not only in their own locality but in many cases throughout the state and in other states.

Yet the preparation of a history of the bar, so far at least as that part of it which lies back of one's own generation is concerned, is attended with consider- able difficulty. Probably few men who in their time play important parts in the community or even in the state or nation, leave so transient a reputation as lawyers do. A writer on this subject who took for his text the Lawyers of Fifty Years Ago, said: "In thinking over the names of these distinguished men of whom I have been speaking, the thought has come to me how evanescent and lim- ited is the lawyer's reputation, both in time and space. I doubt very much if a lawyer, whatever his standing, is much known to the profession outside of his own state." Those who attain high rank in the profession must realize that with rare exceptions their names are "writ in water." One may turn over the leaves of old reports and find repeated again and again as counsel in different cases the name of some lawyer who must have been in his time a power in the courts, only to wonder if he has ever seen that name outside of the covers of the dusty reports in which it appears. Hamilton, in the conventions, in the Federal- ist and in the treasury, and Webster, in the senate and in public orations, have perpetuated and increased the fame of lawyers Hamilton and Webster; but were it not for their services outside the strict limits of their profession one might come upon their names at this date with much the same lack of recognition as that with which one finds in a reported case the names of some counsel, great perhaps in his own time, but long since forgotten.

And there is another difficulty in preparing such a history as this, brief and therefore necessarily limited to a few names, and that is that some may be omitted who are quite as worthy of mention as those whose names appear. It is not often that any one man stands as a lawyer head and shoulders above the other members of the profession; and the same may be said of any half dozen men. In many cases the most careful measurement would fail to disclose a dif-

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ference of more than a fraction of an inch, if any. Lives of eminent men who have at some period been practicing lawyers have contained the assertion that while they were engaged in the practice of their profession they were the "leaders of the bar;" but there is almost always room for doubt as to whether the title is now a brevet bestowed by the biographer alone. Therefore the mention in this article of certain lawyers must not be taken as any disparagement of those who are not mentioned, and, finally, it is to be observed that this article, so far as the bar is concerned, will treat not only of those members who are past and gone but will make mention of some of those now in the flesh.

THE EARLY BAR.

In the history of Scott county issued by the Interstate Publishing Company in 1882, the following well written and authentic article on the early bar of Scott county appears. From that narrative the following excerpts have been freely taken :

Scott county was organized in 1838, but previous to this time several members of the profession had settled in the county, first of whom was Gilbert C. R. Mitchell, who subsequently became judge of the district court and who, for many years, until his death, was an honored member of the bar of the county. A sketch of Judge Mitchell will be found in another part of this work.

Alexander McGregor came about the same time as Judge Mitchell. It was not Mr. McGregor's intention, when he settled here, to engage in the practice of law. He first went on a farm, remaining there several years, and then re- moved to Davenport where he hung out his shingle and practiced the profession for which he had fitted himself. Mr. McGregor served a term in the general assembly of the territory. He died about 1859.

S. B. Hastings came to the county in 1836 and settled at Buffalo, then the metropolis of the county, where he remained but one year, and then removed to Muscatine county. He was a good lawyer and afterward rose to high rank in his profession and on the bench. He served as judge of the supreme court in this state for some years and during the gold excitement in California he moved to that state, where he later distinguished himself as judge of the supreme court.

At the first term of the district court of Scott county Simeon Meredith ap- peared and was admitted to practice law by the motion of Judge Mitchell. He lived for a short time thereafter in Davenport and then left for other parts but has long since died.

James Grant came to Scott county for the sake of his health and settled in Blue Grass township about 1838. He had already been admitted to the bar and, tiring of the farm, his ambition compelled him to resume the practice of his pro- fession. He was born in Halifax county, North Carolina, on the 12th of Decem- ber, 1812. He entered college at the age of fourteen and graduated at eighteen. He then taught school in Raleigh three years and in 1834 opened a law office in Chicago. Soon thereafter he was appointed prosecuting attorney of the sixth district and in 1838 removed to Davenport, settling on a farm near the little vil- lage. In 1841 he was chosen to represent Scott county in the legislative assem- bly and in 1844 was sent as a delegate to the first constitutional convention

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and took an active part in framing the constitution which was later re- jected. In 1846 he was a member of the second convention and was the author of the "bill of rights" in that instrument under which Iowa became a state. In 1847 he was elected judge of the district court, serving five years. In 1852 he was again elected to the legislature and chosen speaker of the house. When a young man he began to acquire a law library and continued to add to it through mature life until he had secured the largest and best selected collection of law books in the west. He became one of the great lawyers of the country and was employed in some of the most important land and bond cases in the west. In one railroad case he won for his clients $1,000,000 and received for his services $100,000. In politics he was a life-long democrat. On the 14th of March, 1891, Judge James Grant died at Oakland, California, and when the news of his death was passed from one to another at his home in Davenport. Iowa, "almost every- one in Davenport," said the Daily Democrat, commenting editorially on his death, "felt that he had lost a personal friend." He was a fine classical scholar and turned to the classics even in his later years for diversion from business and other affairs. As a judge on the bench he was noted for his prompt discharge of pub- lic business and the broad common sense and equity of his decisions. As a prac- titioner, zeal, courage, resourcefulness and a felicitous power of expression were his distinguishing characteristics. He was a man of strong and tender emotions. "When the subject was such as to enlist his feelings," says an old member of the Iowa bar, "he was truly eloquent in the highest sense of that expression."

At a meeting of the Scott county bar, held soon after Judge Grant's death, S. F. Smith, for many years his law partner, paid a glowing tribute to the departed lawyer and jurist.

Ebenezer Cook was the son of Captain Ira Cook and was born at New Hart- ford, Oneida county, New York, February 14, 1810. While yet a boy his father moved to Broome county in the same state, where he was extensively engaged in the lumber business. Ebenezer at the age of seventeen went to Ithaca as con- fidential agent of Hiram Powers, in a wholesale house there. When twenty- three years of age, at Undilla, he married Miss Clarissa C. Bryan, and soon after went into the mercantile business at Vienna, Ontario county. In May, 1835, with his old friend and earliest patron, Hiram Powers, he traveled by way of the lakes to Green bay, then on horse-back through the Indian county to Ga- lena. There they heard such glowing accounts of Iowa and the opposite shore of the Mississippi that on returning to New York state the entire family decided upon leaving their home for a new one beyond the Mississippi. Ebenezer did not accompany them, but followed in December, 1836. Mr. Cook commenced reading law with Judge Williams and was appointed clerk of the federal court in 1839 and was admitted to the bar in 1840. He soon secured an extensive and lucrative practice. Under the act of congress of 1845 he commenced the locating of land warrants in 1847, which led him to active operation in real estate, which he successfully continued until the question of a railroad became almost the sole topic of discussion in the years 1851-52-53. when he took an active part in the new movement for the advancement of the state by means of railroad communication with the eastern markets, becoming a director of the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad from its first organization. He was also elected

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secretary and vice president of the old Mississippi & Missouri road which was later merged into the Rock Island, and later he became treasurer, afterward vice president and was at the time of his death acting vice president of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company. While engaged in the handling and locating of land warrants large sums of money came into his pos- session, which induced him to become a member of the banking firm of Cook & Sargent, remaining with this concern until 1859, when he withdrew to de- vote his whole attention to the interests of the railroad. He never solicited or sought any office in his life, although he was always a consistent and patriotic member of the party with which he was affiliated. In 1851 and in 1854 he was a member of the common council of Davenport and was elected mayor of the city in 1858. In the sixty-second year of his age he died at his home in Davenport, on the 8th day of October, 1871.

John P. Cook was an able member of the Scott county bar. He was a native of the state of New York, having been born in Whitestown, Oneida county, in August. 1817. At the age of nineteen years he came to Davenport with his father and with him settled on the "Cook farm" within the present western boun- dary of this city. At the age of twenty-one he entered the office of his brother, Ebenezer Cook, and in 1842 was admitted to the bar. The same year he mar- ried Eliza A. Rowe, of Pleasant Valley, Scott county. Prior to this he had lived a few years in Tipton, Cedar county, where he was admitted to the bar, and in 1851 returned to Davenport, where he lived to the day of his death. Subsequent to his settling here he was elected to congress. On the breaking up of the whig party he affiliated with the democratic party, the principles of which he labored earnestly to sustain and promulgate, even to the end of his days. His life had been one great energy and industry. He was by natural instinct a true western man-a wide awake and thoroughly active pioneer who never saw the time when he could lay aside the business harness and who apparently never wanted to. As a lawyer he had few superiors and was always a ready, able and alert advocate, and with these qualities were combined energy, tact and industry. For many years, up to the time of his demise, no law firm in the northwest stood in higher repute than that broken by his death. But a few months before this took place his brother, Hon. Ebenezer Cook, had been called to his last ac- count and to John P. his brother Ebenezer was most devotedly attached. They had been together almost constantly from boyhood. All their business plans were conned over together, neither ever taking an important step without con- sulting with the other. His illness was of long duration, but he bore up to the last with the courage of a brave soul. He died at his residence in Davenport, ' on the corner of Sixth and Main streets, April 17, 1872.

He was one of the founders of the Scott county Pioneer Settlers Association and always took the greatest interest in its gatherings. No old settler was more missed in their annual social picnics than he. At the time of his death he was fifty-five years old.

Charles Weston early came to the county and purchased a farm, but also engaged in the practice of the law. In 1857 he was elected county judge and served two years. He was born in May, 1811, in Washington county, New York. He was the youngest son of Hon. Roswell Weston, judge of the court

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of common pleas. He graduated at an early age from the Rensselaer Institute of Troy, and in 1832 commenced reading law under his father and General Orville Clark, who were then in partnership. He remained with them some two years and then transferred his studies to the office of Hon. Esec Cowen, who was afterward one of the justices of the supreme court of this state.

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History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I, Part 47

Author: Downer, Harry E Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Number of Pages: 1042

Author: Downer, Harry E
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1042