History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I, Part 48

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

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John F. Dillon was born in Montgomery county, New York, December 25, 1831. His parents removed to Davenport in 1838, then a frontier village in the new territory of Iowa. Here the son was educated in the common schools and when seventeen began the study of medicine with Dr. E. S. Barrows. He at- tended medical lectures at the Keokuk Medical College but finally concluded to study law. He entered the office of John P. Cook and pursued his legal studies until admitted to the bar in 1852. Soon after he was elected prosecuting at- torney and rose rapidly in the profession until, in 1858, he was elected judge of the seventh district. He served with distinction four years and in 1863 was nominated by the republican state convention for judge of the supreme court. He was elected and in 1868 became chief justice. In 1869 he was re-elected for six years but before qualifying was appointed by President Grant United States circuit judge for the eighth circuit, consisting of the states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska, Minnesota and Colorado. In 1869 he was made lecturer on legal jurisprudence in the State University of Iowa. He was the founder and editor of the Central Law Journal and author of a "Digest of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of Iowa," as well as five volumes of United States Circuit Court Reports from 1871 to 1880. In 1879 he resigned the cir- cuit judgeship (a life appointment) and removed to New York City where he had been chosen professor of real estate and equity jurisprudence of the law department of Columbia College. In 1891-2 he was lecturer on municipal law in Yale College. In 1892 he was chosen president of the American Bar Associa- tion. He has long had charge of the legal business of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, the Western Union Telegraph Company and the Manhattan Elevated Railroad Company. He has found time to continue his law writing as the author of a "Commentary on the Law of Municipal Corporations," published in 1872, which has run through four editions; "Removal of Causes from State Courts to Federal Courts," published in 1875, which has passed through three editions ; "Laws and Jurisprudence of England and America," being a series of lectures delivered before Yale University, published in Boston in 1895. Judge Dillon's works have had a large sale in England as well as in America, some editions having been published in London. In this country they were from the first recognized as standard legal authority. He is the author of many pamphlets on, legal and historical affairs, and one of the most elegant memorial volumes that has appeared in this country, in memory of his wife and daughter who were lost at sea in July, 1898. His wife was the accomplished daughter of Hon. Hiram Price, long member of congress from the second Iowa district. From a boyhood of poverty and obscurity, but endowed with remarkable intellectual powers and untiring energy, John F. Dillon has by force of character, during a life of con- tinuous work, reached the summit of the American bar.

John L. Davies moved to Iowa in March, 1841, and settled in Davenport. Upon arriving here he immediately purchased property and built a small house

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where he resided and from which he was carried to his last resting place. He practiced at the Scott county bar for several years. He died March 28, 1872, in the fifty-ninth year of his age.

Samuel Francis Smith was born at Waterville, Massachusetts, on the 5th of September, 1836, and was the son of the Rev. Samuel Francis Smith, D. D., a distinguished Baptist clergyman of Newton, Massachusetts, and Mary (White) Smith. On both sides he was descended from Puritan ancestry who settled in Massachusetts early in the seventh century, from whom have sprung some of the noblest names that adorn the annals of their country. His father was the author of the national hymn of the republic, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," an ode which has found a merited response in every Christian heart not only in this "sweet land of liberty," but throughout the globe, which has been rendered in the dialect of almost every civilized country in the world and which is sung as frequently in the Alpine valleys and on the slopes of the Himalayas as in the fair land which gave birth to its venerated author. To be the author of that hymn is glory enough for one man and one life-time. Samuel F. Smith spent one year at Harvard College, but on account of ill health, at the age of nineteen, he started for the west, spending a few months in Chicago and afterward settling in Daven- port. Here he entered the law office of James Grant and in 1858 was admitted to the bar. Two years later he became a partner of his preceptor, Judge Grant. He died in 1909.

Hans Reimer Claussen was a native of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where he was born February 23, 1804. There he was raised on a farm until he had reached the age of sixteen years, when he entered the college at Meldorf. In 1824 he matriculated in the university of Kiel. In 1829 he passed his examina- tion as a law student and in 1830 was admitted to the bar. He practiced his profession in the neighborhood of his birthplace until 1834, when he located at Kiel. In 1851 he was exiled by the king of Denmark who then ruled over Schleswig-Holstein, which is now an integral part of the German empire. From 1840 until 1851 he was a member of the Holstein legislature and in 1848-49 was a member of the German parliament which convened in May, 1848, at Frankfort- on-the-Main, and framed the constitution for the united Germany. The reason of his exile was on account of his participation in the struggle of Schleswig- Holstein for independence from the Danish king. He came to the United States in 1851 and located in Davenport in the fall of that year. He then began the study of the English language and at the same time read law and was admitted to the bar two years later. For a short interval he was in the milling business, in which he lost all that he possesed. His law business soon began to increase and then he took his son Ernst into his office as a partner. He served his county in the state senate four years, was a member of the judiciary, university, orphans' home and constitutional amendment committees of that body, and took an active part in the revision of the code in 1873.

Ernst Claussen commenced the practice of law in 1860. He was a native of Holstein, Germany, and was born in 1833 and educated in that place. He fought in the revolutionary army of Schleswig-Holstein, although quite young, and in 1851 he came to America, first taking up his residence for two years in St. Louis. He came to Davenport in 1853. He enlisted at the first call of President

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Lincoln for 75,000 three months' troops as a member of the First Iowa Infantry, and served as first sergeant of Company G during the term of his enlistment. He then retired from the service and resumed the practice of his profession, in which he was eminently successful.

Jacob W. Stewart came to Scott county in the spring of 1853. He first asso- ciated himself with J. W. Sennet for about two years, and in 1859 formed a part- nership with James Armstrong, which was dissolved in 1873. In 1875 he be- came associated with William K. White. In 1856 he was elected prosecuting attorney and in 1866 was appointed collector of internal revenue for the second congressional district by Andrew Johnson. He was elected mayor of Davenport in 1874.

George E. Hubbell is a native of Salisbury, Connecticut. His maternal grandfather was sheriff of New Haven county, Connecticut, for many years. Mr. Hubbell was reared and educated in Connecticut and graduated from Yale Law school in 1851, after which he practiced his profession in New Haven for about a year. Soon after his marriage, which took place in 1852, he opened a law office in New York and practiced there in the company of such noted legal leaders as Charles O'Connor, James T. Brady and others. Health failing him, he came west and located in Davenport in 1853. In the spring of 1864 he entered into partnership with his brother, Judge S. A. Hubbell, which relation continued a year, the judge having been appointed judge of the territorial court of New Mexico, dying there in 1879. When Mr. Hubbell came to Davenport it con- tained 4,000 souls.

John C. Bills was a native of Wyoming county, New York, where he was born in 1833. He became a member of the Scott county bar in 1856, after which the law firm of Bills & Block was formed. He was a very active and prominent member of the bar at this place and twice was elected mayor of Davenport on the republican ticket.

The senior member of the firm of Brown & Campbell was Samuel Edward Brown, who began his professional career as an attorney in Davenport in 1855. In 1860 Mr. Brown was offered a partnership in the law firm of Corbin & Dow, which he accepted. Mr. Corbin soon afterwards retired from the firm. A year or two later Mr. Dow retired, leaving Mr. Brown alone. He then took into part- nership with him Alfred Sully, in 1864. In June, 1870, James Campbell was ad- mitted, the firm becoming Brown, Campbell & Sully. Mr. Sully retired from the firm in March, 1874, and George E. Gould was taken as a partner into the firm, which continued until 1876, when the firm ceased to exist. Finally Mr. Brown applied his energies mainly to railroad business, to federal courts, and had an: extensive practice over a circuit that embraced Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, looking after foreclosure of mortgages, railroad matters and municipal bonds.

On December 9. 1826, Daniel B. Nash first saw the light of day in Jackson- ville, Illinois. He graduated from Illinois college in 1854, studied law with his cousin, Chauncy Nash, in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, and was admitted to the bar in 1855. He entered into partnership with his cousin there, which continued three years. He then moved to Davenport where he engaged in the practice of his profession. In 1875 he was appointed register in bankruptcy for the district of Iowa.

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

John W. Thompson was born in Huntington county. Pennsylvania, October 14. 1823. He attended school until nineteen years of age and taught school until twenty-one, when he began the study of law in Huntington, Pennsylvania, in the office of Thomas P. Campbell, and was admitted to the bar when twenty-three years old, in 1847. He practiced law in Williamsburg and Holidaysburg, Penn- sylvania, for several years. In the spring of 1855 he located in Davenport and formed a partnership with Horatio B. Barner, which continued until 1861. In 1866 he and J. D. Campbell joined hands as partners until 1870. In 1877 a part- nership was formed with Nathaniel French. He was elected on the republican ticket to the Iowa legislature in 1857 and to the senate in 1859, and was a member of the convention of 1860 which nominated Lincoln for president, and also was a member of the convention of 1880 that nominated Garfield for president.

Edward E. Cook, senior member of the old firm of Cook & Dodge, now Cook & Balluff, began practice in the courts in the spring of 1863. He was born in Scott county, Iowa, August 13, 1843, and is a son of John P. Cook, mention of whom is made in another part of this work. Mr. Cook is a college bred man and in May, 1863, graduated from the Albany Law School and was admitted to prac- tice in the supreme court of New York. Returning home he entered the office of his father and in 1865 became a member of the law firm of Cook & Drury. In 1871 the firm changed to Cook & Bruning. This relation continued until the death of J. P. Cook. In 1872 Mr. Cook formed a partnership with Judge J. S. Richman, under the firm name of Cook, Richman & Bruning. This partnership continued until 1865, when Mr. Bruning retired and the firm remained Cook & Richman until 1880, when Mr. Cook formed a partnership with Frank L. Dodge. In 1909 Mr. Dodge removed to Salt Lake City and the firm became Cook & Balluff.

W. A. Foster began the practice of law in Scott county in October, 1866. He was born in the county in 1842, was educated in Davenport and read law with Davison & True, and was admitted to the bar in 1866. He attained a reputation of no inconsiderable importance as a criminal lawyer.

The senior member of the law firm of Martin, Murphy & Lynch was W. M. Martin, who read law in Tiffin, Ohio, with General William H. Gibson. He lo- cated in Marengo, Iowa, and practiced there until 1867, and in June of the same year formed a partnership with J. H. Murphy at Davenport. To this firm in 1876 was added William 'A'. Lynch. He was a member of the ninth general as- sembly and city attorney from 1873 until 1881.

Herman Block, of the firm of Bills & Block, began his professional career at the Scott county bar in 1865. He was born in 1840 in the duchy of Lauenberg, Germany. At the age of eighteen he emigrated to the United States and located at Davenport. In 1865 he was admitted to the bar and was given desk room in the office of Parker & McNeil the first year. He practiced alone until 1870, when a partnership was entered into with John C. Bills. This firm was one of the ablest and most prosperous in this part of Iowa.

Stewart & White were a well known legal firm in Davenport. William K. White, the junior member, began practicing here in 1868. He was born in Sara- toga Springs, New York, in 1844. He read law with Chancellor Reuben H. Walworth, of New York City, and with J. A. Shoudy, a prominent attorney of

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New York state. He was admitted to the bar in the early part of 1865 at the general term of the supreme court at Plattsburg, New York. After the war he went south and served by appointment as assistant in the freedmen's bureau. He filled this position until 1868, when he came to Davenport and formed a partner- ship with John Ackley, which continued a year. He then practiced alone until 1873, when he was elected clerk of the district and circuit courts, serving one term. During this time he formed a partnership with Jacob W. Stewart.

John W. Green became a citizen of Scott county in 1852 and was admitted to the bar in 1868. He was born in Vernon, Indiana, in 1842. He received his education at Monmouth College, Illinois. He fought in the Civil war as a pri- vate in the Eighty-third Illinois Infantry and served three years. He attained the rank of adjutant in 1863. After the war he went to Albany and entered the law school there, graduating in 1867. He returned to Davenport and read law with Putnam & Rogers. In 1874 he formed a partnership with Bleik Peters. Mr. Green served in the Iowa legislature in 1870 and 1872, and a special session of 1873. He was elected city attorney of Davenport in 1869, and was appointed United States collector of internal revenue by James A. Garfield in 1881.

One of the members of the law firm of Martin, Murphy & Lynch was William A. Lynch, who was a native of Virginia, where he was born in 1846. His pa- rents moved west in 1849 and settled in Mount Pleasant, Henry county, Iowa. There Mr. Lynch attended the Iowa Wesleyan College, read law in Mount Pleas- ant one year, and then entered the law department of the Iowa State University, from which he graduated in 1871, locating in Davenport one year later. He became very successful at the bar. He voted the democratic ticket but avoided politics.

There came from Germany in 1845 or 1846 B. and Margaret Heinz, the parents of Fred Heinz who was born at St. Louis, May 8, 1852. In 1855 they removed to Davenport. Fred Heinz was educated in the city schools and Gris- wold College, and when sixteen years of age began reading law in the office of Parker & McNeil. A year later he took up his law studies in the office of Bills & Block, where he remained for three years. In 1873 he was admitted to the bar, and at the end of six months formed a partnership with Ernst Claussen, which continued until 1880. He was a democrat and became active in politics serving the city as mayor and was also very successful in his chosen profession.

Nathaniel S. Mitchell was born in Davenport, February 18, 1853, and was a son of Judge Gilbert C. R. Mitchell, whose sketch may be found in another part of this work. Mr. Mitchell read law in Davenport with John W. Thompson, after having graduated from Notre Dame University in 1872. He was admitted to the bar in 1875 and began a practice which eventually proved gratifyingly suc- cessful.

H. A. Ascherman was born in Warburg, Prussia, in 1852. He came to the United States with his parents in the fall of 1856, the family locating in Milwau- kee. They remained there but a few months and then came to Davenport. Mr. Ascherman completed his education in Griswold College. He attended lectures at the Iowa State Law College and commenced reading law at the age of twenty- one years, with the firm of Putnam & Rogers. He was admitted to the bar in 1875.

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HISTORY OF SCOTT COUNTY

Peter A. Boyle was the junior partner of the firm of Waterman & Boyle, and began the practice of his profession in Davenport in 1876. He came to Scott county when sixteen years old and was educated in Griswold College, graduating therefrom in 1870. He graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1872 and was admitted to the bar in the fall of that year. He entered the law office of Davison & Lane and remained until 1876, when he formed a partnership with Charles M. Waterman.

Charles A. Ficke became a member of Scott county bar in 1877. He is a na- tive of Mecklenburg, Germany, and came to this county in 1832. An extended sketch of Mr. Ficke will be found elsewhere in this volume.

William O. Schmidt was born in Davenport June 9, 1856. His parents, John and Margaretta Schmidt, natives of Bavaria, came to America in 1834 and lo- cated in Davenport about 1849. John Schmidt was one of the important mer- chants for many years of Davenport and was one of the founders and a member of the first board of directors, of the First National Bank of this city, which was the first institution of the kind organized in the United States. His son, Wil- liam, was a graduate of the public and high school of Davenport. He graduated from the law department of the Iowa State University in 1877 and was admitted to practice in the supreme court in June of that year. He read law with the firm of Putnam & Rogers. He was a member of the Iowa legislature. He be- came a successful lawyer.

Frank L. Dodge was the junior member of the firm of Cook & Dodge. He was admitted to the bar in June, 1877, after which he was given employment by the firm of Cook & Richman until its dissolution. He entered into partnership with E. E. Cook in 1880. Mr. Dodge's father came to Iowa in 1832 and became a citizen of Davenport in 1836. Frank L. Dodge graduated from the Iowa State University in 1875 and from the law department of that institution in 1876.

The law practice of the firm of Gannon & McGuirk was noteworthy at the time this article was written. The junior member of the firm, Ambrose P. Mc- Guirk, began the practice of his profession at Davenport in 1878, at which time the above mentioned partnership was entered into. Mr. McGuirk took a law course at Ann Arbor, from which institution he was graduated in 1878, and was admitted to the bar. He was a native of St. Marys, Canada, where he was born in 1854. He received his early education at that place and in an academy at London, Ontario, from which he graduated in 1876. He came to Davenport in 1878 and he has been closely identified with various Catholic societies.

Judge J. Scott Richman was born in Somerset, Ohio. He came to Iowa and occupied the bench of the seventh judicial district from 1863 until May, 1872, when he resigned the office and on the death of John P. Cook he formed a law partnership with his son, E. E. Cook, which relation continued about eight years. Upon the dissolution of that firm Judge Richman entered into a partnership with W. B. Burk and J. J. Russell under the firm name of Richman, Burk & Russel., in Muscatine, in 1880, and divided his time between Muscatine and Davenport. He carried on a general and extensive law practice in the several courts, largely in the federal court. He first made his appearance in Davenport in 1872. He began practice on his own account in 1880. Judge Richman was clerk of the Iowa house of representatives at one time and was a member of the constitu-

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tional convention which framed the first constitution adopted by the state of Iowa. He was also a member of the Iowa house in the extra session of 1856.

William H. F. Gurley was born in Washington, D. C., in 1840. When a lad he was chosen clerk of a committee on which Abraham Lincoln, who was a mem- ber of the house of representatives, was serving. He was a favorite with the tall, awkward member from Illinois, who never forgot the bright, black-eyed boy clerk of his committee. When but sixteen years of age young Gurley ac- companied Dr. Owen of the United States geographical survey on one of his exploring expeditions to the far west, where he obtained his first view of the great, wild prairies of Iowa as they were in 1846-7. He was so fascinated with the beauty of the picturesque rivers, woods, bluffs and rolling prairie that he then determined some day to return and make his home in the new state. In 1854 he came to Davenport and opened a law office. He was an active republi- can and in 1859 was nominated for representative in the eighth general assembly and elected. He was made chairman of the committee of ways and means and drafted the revenue system which for many years has been so successful in pro- viding funds for the state expenses. Soon after the election of Abraham Lin- coln, the first republican president, he tendered to his former committee clerk the position of United States district attorney for Iowa. His health failed under the pressure of the exacting labors of that position, after a few years, and he found it necessary to resign. He was appointed consul to Quebec, but a fatal malady had overtaken him and after a short term he died. He was cut down on the threshold of what promised to be a useful and brilliant career at the early age of thirty-five.

James T. Lane was born at Freeport, Pennsylvania, on the 16th of March, 1830. He was educated at the University of Lewisburg in that state, studied law, was admitted to the bar and came west in 1854 in search of a location. He stopped in Davenport, then a flourishing little city on the upper Mississippi river. Here he located on the 23d of February, 1854, and opened a law office, making it his permanent home. He soon acquired a good practice and upon the organiza- tion of the republican party on the 22d of February, 1856, Mr. Lane took an active part, serving as a delegate from Scott county in the first state convention which met at Iowa City and was one of the secretaries of that gathering which brought a new party into existence. He entered into partnership with Abner Davison, upon the death of D. S. True, and Davison & Lane was for many years one of the leading law firms of Davenport. In 1861 he was elected on the re- publican ticket to the house of the ninth general assembly and took rank among the leading members ; was made chairman of the committee on military affairs, then the most important of the standing committees, as the country was in the midst of the great Civil war. In 1873 Mr. Lane was appointed by President Grant United States district attorney for Iowa, serving with distinction until 1882. He died on the 19th of March, 1890.

Joseph R. Lane was born in Davenport, Iowa, on the 6th of May, 1858, the son of Hon. James T. Lane. He was educated at Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, attended the law department of the State University and began to prac- tice law in Davenport in 1880. In 1898 he was elected to congress on the re- publican ticket in the second district, serving but one term, as he declined a re-

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election. He has long been one of the active republican leaders in the second congressional district, but prefers the line of his profession to official positions.

Charles M. Waterman was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, on the 5th of Jan- uary, 1847. His education was acquired in the public schools and in a private academy. He came to Iowa in 1854 and studied law. The first office he held was that of city attorney of Davenport. In 1877 he was chosen one of the represen- tatives in the house of the seventeenth general assembly on the republican ticket. On the 28th of June, 1887, he was appointed by Governor Larrabee to fill a va- cancy in the office of judge of the seventh judicial district, caused by the death of Judge John H. Rogers. He was elected for a full term in November of that year and re-elected in 1890 and 1894. In the summer of 1897 he received the nomination at the republican state convention for judge of the supreme court and was elected in November, taking his place on the bench the Ist of January, 1898. Later he resigned from the supreme bench to form with Ex-Congressman Joe R. Lane, the legal partnership Lane and Waterman. Judge Waterman serves this community most wisely and well as president of the board of trustees of the Davenport Public Library.

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History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I, Part 48

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