USA > Illinois > Champaign County > A Standard history of Champaign County Illinois : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, civic and social development : a chronicle of the people, with family lineage and memoirs, Volume I > Part 20
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he concluded to go alone and inspect the wheel. He soon reached the mill, but found no wheel in it. The smoking embers of a bonfire near by plainly showed that the wheel and all evidence of its character, had been reduced to ashes. The evidence from which to base a suit was gone, and the suit thus settled by peaceable means."
ARCHA CAMPBELL, LAST PROBATE JUDGE
Archa Campbell, the last of the probate justices, was also self-edu- cated and a practical man, but of broader character than Mr. Brown- field. He was a New Yorker, one of those traveling merchants, whose store was his wagon, and in the course of his business wanderings through Indiana and Illinois, in 1839, stopped overnight at Urbana. In 1842 he returned to that locality to make it his home. He not only held the office of probate justice, but was one of the three commissioners who managed the county affairs. It was during his term as commis- sioner that the second courthouse, the frame building, was moved from the public square and the three thousand dollar brick courthouse was completed. With his associates, he had to weather a somewhat violent uprising on the part of some "thrifty" taxpayers who rebelled at such reckless extravagance. Mr. Campbell was the first mayor of Urbana, president of the Urbana Railroad Company which did the preliminary work on its first street railway, and one of the first to join the new Republican party. Although specifically a Methodist, he was a friend and practical helper to other religious denominations and many char- ities, as well as a constant promoter of kindliness in his private rela- tionships.
COUNTY JUDGES
In 1848 the new constitution authorized the organization of a County Court, comprising a judge and two associates, which constituted the governing body of the county. Under that law, in 1849 John B. Thomas was elected county judge; Jesse W. Jaquith and Matthew John- son, associates. In 1853 Elisha Harkness was chosen judge, with M. D. Coffeen and William Stewart, associates. Edward Ater was elected judge in 1857; Lewis Jones and John P. Tenbrook, associates. Field- ing L. Scott was elected in place of Mr. Jones, in 1859. Of the fore- going, Judge Tenbrook was widely known in the western part of the county, coming from Piatt County in 1850 and locating at Sadorus. He resided in that village for many years, his being the first house erected there. After the county adopted township organization, he
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served several times as a member of its Board of Supervisors and was widely honored and popular.
Fielding L. Scott was a much earlier settler, coming from Vermilion County in 1830. He settled on a farm near the present village of Mahomet, where he resided until his death in 1877. He was a stanch Union man, and one of his sons was killed and another repeatedly wounded in the Civil War.
JUDGE J. O. CUNNINGHAM
Under township organization, J. O. Cunningham was elected the first county judge in 1861. During the four years that he held the judgeship he saw the necessity for some well considered work on probate law, and some years afterwards assisted in editing and publishing the standard book entitled "County and Probate Court Practice," by Jones and Cun- ningham. Judge Cunningham was a versatile and graceful writer, espe- cially on political and historic topics ; was for several years after coming to Urbana editor and part proprietor of the Urbana Union, and was aft- erwards connected with the Union and Gazette. He was also identified with the early building of the State University; but his main business in life was the practice of the law. He was able, generous, sympa- thetic and philanthropie, and the "Cunningham Deaconess Home and Orphanage" will long stand as a tribute to such qualities. As a Meth- odist, a Mason and a man of ability and practical spirituality, the Judge rooted himself into the hearts of the people of Champaign County for sixty-four years, and his death in April, 1917, caused keen and wide- spread sorrow. The details forming the life of this sound and good man will be found in a more extended biography elsewhere.
Judge Cunningham was succeeded by Alexander M. Avers, who came to Urbana in 1855 and resided there until his death in 1900. Ile had served during the last three years of the Civil War in the quarter- master's department, and was elected county judge upon his discharge from the Union service in June, 1865. He served continuously in that office until 1873; in the following year was appointed postmaster of Urbana, holding that office until 1878, and thereafter practicing law during the remainder of his active life.
The successor on the County bench of Judge Ayers was Joseph W. Sim, who served from 1873 until the conclusion of his term of four years. When he was a young man of twenty-three the Sim family had settled on a farm about a mile east of Urbana, and after serving as principal of the village school for a time commenced the study of law
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with the pioneer lawyer and newspaper man, Colonel William N. Coler. Upon examination he was admitted to practice, and at once formed a partnership with his preceptor, as Coler & Sim. He afterward formed a professional connection with J. O. Cunningham. In 1864-66 he served as mayor of Urbana. In the late '60s he withdrew from practice, because of ill health, and engaged in farming and stock-raising. He was thus employed when he was selected judge of the County Court, in the fall of 1873. His death occurred on April 16, 1890.
Judge Sim continued on the County bench until 1877, and his suc- cessors have been elected as follows: James W. Langley, in 1877; Cal- vin C. Staley, 1890; Thomas J. Roth, 1906; William G. Spurgin, 1910; Roy C. Freeman, 1914.
In the foregoing pages a rapid survey has been taken of the courts identified with Champaign County as institutions, and the personnel of the judges which have given them so enviable a standing. Some of the early leaders of the bar have also been noticed and a few connected with the history of the later times. Among the practitioners of note whose names have not fallen naturally into the course of the narrative are the following :
WILLIAM D. SOMERS, FIRST RESIDENT LAWYER
William D. Somers, of Urbana, was the first resident lawyer to practice in Champaign County, and because of his practical ability, eloquence, scholarship and his genius for imparting his knowledge to others, was the honored preceptor of most of the members of the bar who received their preliminary training in the county. No member of the profession had more fast friends than Mr. Somers throughout the long period of his active and honorable life. Although he had the mis- fortune to lose his mother during his youth, resulting in the dispersal of the family, Mr. Somers had the good fortune to be received into the household of Major Joe Williams, of the prominent and highly edu- cated North Carolina family of that name. During that period of seven years he studied medicine, and practiced that profession in part- nership with his brother Winston for two years in the state named. In 1840-46 they continued together, as practicing physicians at Urbana, but in the spring of the latter year William D. Somers commenced the study of the law under Judge David Davis of Bloomington.
In November, 1846, Mr. Somers was licensed to practice law, and at once commenced active work in that field. In 1855 he was appointed local attorney for the Illinois Central Railroad, a position he held for
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many years. During the Civil War he served the township of Urbana as supervisor and faithfully cared for many dependent families of soldiers at the front. He acted with the Whig party until 1859, and thereafter supported the Democracy, although some of his most stead- fast friends were Republicans. In the days of his legal activity, his power with a jury was acknowledged by even the great masters in that field. He was associated with such as Abraham Lincoln, Leonard Swett, O. B. Ficklin and other distinguished lawyers, and often crossed swords with them in the legal arena with results not to his discredit. His deep knowledge of the law enabled him also to maintain his supremacy before the judges as well as before the juries. Mr. Somers introduced Lincoln to the first audience he addressed in Champaign County, and was on intimate terms with him for many years. During the later years of his life the Nestor of the county bar retired from active practice to the charms and rest of his host of friends, both human and literary.
COL. W. N. COLER, SECOND LAWYER
Colonel William N. Coler was the second lawyer to locate in the county. He was also one of the founders of the Urbana Union, the first number of which pioneer newspaper was issued in September, 1852, and he started the Grand Prairie Bank, the first institution of the kind in the county, and which failed as a result of Secession. Colonel Coler earned his title in the Civil War, and about seven years afterward moved to New York City, where, with his son, the well-known Bird N. Coler, he established a successful bond-brokerage business. He died in 1914. Colonel Coler was a native of Ohio, and when nineteen years of age became a member of the Second Ohio Regiment of Volunteers for service in the Mexican War, returning after the full term of enlistment, three years. He studied law in the office of his old commanding officer, Colonel G. W. Morgan, of Mount Vernon, and under Amzi McWilliams, the prominent Bloomington lawyer. He came to Urbana in 1852, the year after his admission to the bar, and on the 23d of September of that year, with H. K. Davis, issued the first number of the Urbana Union. Soon afterward he commenced the active practice of the law, in connection largely with real estate transactions. A leading Demo- crat, in the summer of 1861 he recruited from Champaign and adjoin- ing counties the Twenty-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, of which he was colonel until the fall of 1862, when he resigned and resumed bus- iness, with headquarters in Champaign. There he continued, largely
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engaged in the real estate and loan business, until he moved to New York City in 1872.
JUSTICE JAMES S. GERE
James S. Gere, who came to Urbana from New York in the fall of 1836, was one of the early justices of the peace, holding the position for many years. He kept the old Champaign House and a general store in the Big Grove and later became quite an extensive contractor in furnishing ties and wood to the Illinois Central and other railroads. Mr. Gere died in 1858.
JAMES W. SOMERS
James W. Somers, son of Dr. Winston Somers, was ten years of age when his father and uncle moved from North Carolina to Urbana to engage in the practice of medicine. He was a pupil of the eccentric Samuel C. Crane, the pioneer teacher of that place, and in his youth attended what is now De Pauw University at Greencastle, Indiana. About 1854 he began the study of law in the office of his uncle, Judge William D. Somers, continuing his classical and literary studies under the direction of Rev. Dr. Janes, a local educator. After a course at the Union College of Law, Chicago, he was admitted to the bar in 1856 and became the junior partner in the firm W. D. & J. W. Somers. Judge Somers gave it a solid standing from the first and the younger attorney soon increased its reputation. He was a ready and forceful writer, as is attested by the early issues of the Urbana Union, and was one of the most enthusiastic founders of the Republican party in Cham- paign County. He filled the position of corresponding secretary of the county central committee of the young party for several years, and his services were often utilized in the various campaigns which agitated the county and the state. A growing deafness, however, blocked many of his ambitions, and in 1861 he accepted an appointment from President Lincoln in the Department of the Interior. He afterward occupied a position as a member of the Board of Review in the Pension Office, and for more than thirty years was in continuous official service at Wash- ington. In view of such length of service, his scholarly attainments and engaging personality, he became a well known figure in the national capital. Neither did he ever forget Champaign County and his many friends therein, and during the lifetime of his parents his visits to his old home were frequent. For a few years preceding his death he resided in California. His life was cut off by an accident at Hollywood, a
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suburb of Los Angeles. As he was returning to his home in that city, June 6, 1904, he was run over and killed by an electric car.
Henry C. Whitney, author of "Life on the Circuit with Lincoln," thus refers to Mr. Somers: "The most promising orator on our circuit of the young men was James W. Somers of Urbana. Of an engaging personality, debonair and suaviter in modo, and bold and trenchant in debate, he joined to accurate and exhaustive knowledge of current poli- tics an exuberant imagination, which rendered him one of the most captivating political speakers in the ranks of the young men. Originally designed for the law, he would have taken rank with the foremost jury advocates, but for an impairment of hearing, which led him to accept a position under his friend Lincoln's administration; and he has con- tinned in the public service since, a credit to himself and his highly influential family-his legal education peculiarly fitting him for his duties, which are of a high and quasi-judicial character."
HENRY C. WHITNEY
The first lawyer to locate at West Urbana was Henry C. Whitney, who moved thither from Urbana in 1855. His father, Alfred M. Whit- ney, built a residence at the southwest corner of Market and Main streets, and upon the same lot built an office, which was occupied by the two. Major Whitney is widely known as the author of that graph- ically written and valuable book, "Life on the Circuit with Lincoln," his relations with that great man being especially friendly.
JAMES B. MCKINLEY
James B. McKinley and James S. Jones were the next of the pro- fession to locate in that place, and they spent the remainder of their lives there as active and leading lawyers and business men. Mr. Me- Kinley, who was an uncle of the Illinois Congressman, W. B. Mckinley, and a relative of the famous Ohio family which has given a President and other distinguished citizens to the nation, spent his earlier years in his native county of Ross, Ohio. While teaching in the neighbor hood of Hennepin, Illinois, he began reading law and finished his pro- fessional studies at Petersburg, where Lincoln was at that time weli known. He practiced at Clinton for several years, and during his earlier life had frequently associated with him, David Davis and other noted members of the state bar. For some years he was in partnership with the late Judge Lawrence Weldon, afterward a member of the United
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States Court of Claims in Washington. Mr. Mckinley was in general practice at Champaign in 1857-60, but afterward, until his death, Octo- ber 23, 1903, engaged in the loaning of money to Illinois farmers and in general banking business during the later portion of that period in partnership with his nephew, William B. McKinley. He was one of the founders of the Champaign National Bank, at one time mayor of the city, and an honorable citizen of fine financial and executive ability.
S. B. RADEBAUGH
S. Barclay Radebaugh was another of Judge Somers' "boys." He came to Urbana with his parents in 1861, during the Civil War was connected with the office of Capt. William Fithian, provost marshal of Danville, and did not resume his law studies until 1864. He theu studied in the office of William D. Somers until his admission to the bar in 1865. Mr. Radebaugh practiced successfully for twenty years, during which he served as city attorney of Urbana for five terms, and was appointed postmaster in August, 1885. He was a Democrat and continued in office during the Cleveland administration.
GEORGE W. GERE
George W. Gere, son of one of the pioneer merchants of Urbana, was a lawyer of a comparatively late period. Five years after his gradua- tion from the University of Chicago Law School, in 1870, he formed a partnership with General John C. Black, under the firm name of Black & Gere, and opened an office at Champaign. Five years later General Black moved to Danville, and Mr. Gere was afterward asso- ciated with Henry M. Beardsley and Solon Philbrick. He died June 15, 1911.
JOHN C. BLACK
General Black, who had been admitted to the bar in his nineteenth year and reached the rank of brevet brigadier-general at the age of twenty-six, practiced in Vermilion and Champaign counties for twenty years. In 1885 he was appointed commissioner of pensions, serving until 1889, when he moved to Chicago. He became head of the Grand Army of the Republic, was president of the United States Civil Service Commission, and one of the strong characters of the nation. He died
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August 17, 1915, and it is with pride that this history claims even a short identification with the life lines of General John C. Black.
MILTON W. MATHEWS
Milton W. Mathews made a fine record as a lawyer, a state legislator and an editor. While studying law at Champaign he taught school for a time, and in 1867 located in Urbana, where he continued his profes- sional training and was admitted to the bar in August of that year. G. W. Gere was his preceptor, with whom he formed a partnership which lasted for two years. Thereafter Mr. Mathews practiced alone and became a leader of the central Illinois bar. Besides gaining distinction in his private work, he made a signal official record by his service of nine years as master in chancery of the Circuit Court and eight years as state's attorney of Champaign County. In 1888 he was elected a member of the state Senate, and during the session of 1891 was presi- dent pro tem. of that body. As a presiding officer and legislator he was vigorous, decisive and eloquent. During this period of his career Gov- ernor Fifer appointed him a member of his military staff, with the rank of colonel. In 1879, Colonel Mathews purchased the Champaign County Herald, of which he continued as owner and editor until his death May 10, 1892. He was twice president of the Illinois State Press Association, and for many years was a Republican leader. He was iden- tified with the banking interests of Urbana, for many years was a lead- ing fraternalist, and in every way an inspiring influence.
ROBERT C. WRIGHT
Robert C. Wright came from Indiana with his parents when he was an infant, in 1830, the family settling northeast of Homer in the edge of Vermilion County. When a boy he made his home with his uncle, David C. Wright, in Champaign County. While obtaining his educa- tion he taught school, and had acquired considerable political standing in the county before he was admitted to practice. The Republicans elected him sheriff in 1860; he held the office for the term of two years ; was admitted to the bar in 1863; in 1870 was chosen to represent his district in the Legislature, and thereafter, for twenty years, was a leader both at the bar and in politics. Mr. Wright was elected state's attorney of Champaign County in 1892, and his four years' tenure of office was marked by a vigorous and successful prosecution of criminals, and gen- eral efficiency in his department of the county government.
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COLONEL JOHN S. WOLFE
One of the most original and noteworthy men who ever practiced law in Champaign County was Colonel John S. Wolfe, who came from Car- linville in 1860, and took up his residence in Champaign. He had been admitted to the bar in 1859, and he practiced in the courts of Cham- paign County continuously, except for the time spent in the military service during the Civil War, until his death at his home in Champaign, June 23, 1904. Colonel Wolfe was a man of excellent literary taste and studious habit. He was a wise counselor, an able advocate, a good speaker, and a first-class citizen.
WILLIAM B. WEBBER
During the active years of his practice and his service as a public man, William B. Webber was of particular prominence as a direct link of connection between the founders of the county and the early forma- tion of its bar, with the government and the profession of the present. His father, Thomson R. Webber, whose official duties in county service were, as a whole, of more importance and covered a longer period than those of any other one man and, as a member of two constitutional con- ventions, also was a real force in the consolidation of the state govern- ment, died at his home in Urbana, as a most honored citizen, in 1881. Nearly twenty years before, the son had been admitted to the bar, after having enjoyed the professional guidance of Judge William D. Somers, and was associated both with his preceptor and with the late Judge J. O. Cunningham. In 1884, he was elected to the Thirty-fourth Gen- eral Assembly and attained much prominence in connection with the drainage laws of the state, which he initiated and formed into a system of wast importance to the farmers of Illinois. Ile served as chairman of the House Drainage Committee and was also at the head of the com- mittee which directed the legislation through both houses of the Legis- lature. Mr. Webber revised what was known as the Drainage and Levee Act, drafted the new bill and secured its passage; also reported to the House and secured the passage of the Farm Drainage Act, which origin- ated in the Senate. He was also an influential friend of the University of Illinois, securing for that institution a large appropriation and being instrumental in eliminating its old name-Illinois Industrial Univer- sity-which no longer described the grandeur of its scope. He died at his home in Urbana, September 8, 1916.
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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION
The physicians and surgeons of Champaign County have always maintained high rank; those of the early days faithful and cheerful in the midst of their long and difficult journeys and crude appliances, and those of later period well educated, ethical and progressive. As an illus- tration of what was often required of the old-time country doctor, it is related that Winston Somers, the pioneer physician, was compelled to amputate a limb at once to save the life of a patient, and that in lieu of the proper surgical instrument, used a common hand saw; yet the operation was a success.
CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1834
But the first physicians of the county appeared almost simultaneously with the Asiatic cholera at Big Grove, in 1834. The scourge, which had broken out among the soldiers at Fort Dearborn two years before, had spread terror in the minds of settlers in the interior, especially those who had been in the habit of visiting the Chicago district for family supplies. The pioneers of Champaign County were therefore panic- stricken when cholera appeared in the family of James Moss, near the north end of the Big Grove, and within a few days took the father and three of his children. Mary Heater, the mother of Jacob, and the wife of James Johnson, with two of her children, also were victims. Others fell before the plague, although its ravages were not as severe as in more settled districts.
DR. T. FULKERSON, FIRST RESIDENT PHYSICIAN
At the time of the first visitation of cholera to Champaign County, the only resident physicians within its limits were Dr. T. Fulkerson and Dr. James H. Lyon. Dr. Fulkerson, rather an irresponsible unmarried man who boarded at the Widow Coe's not far from the Moss family, had been practicing in the Big Grove region since 1830, and is generally recorded as the first of his profession to appear in the county. He remained but a short time, and is chiefly known to fame and authentic history as defendant in a snit brought by the county authorities to col- lect $? in default of work upon the public road. He paid the judgment obtained, as the records show, and is believed to have left the county soon after.
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DR. JAMES H. LYON
Dr. Lyon, who came a little later than Dr. Fulkerson, made his home with Mijamin Byers, the justice of the peace, who lived two miles east of Urbana. He remained at the Big Grove but a short time, but made his permanent home at what was then known as Nox's Point. In 1837, he became one of the proprietors of the town of Sidney, where he raised a family and reached prominence, both as a physician and a public man.
VICTIMS OF MIASMIA
But the permanent scourge of the pioneers of Champaign County, which mowed down its victims, young and old, for a period of fifty years, was represented by the miasmatic diseases, caused largely by undrained sloughs and swamp lands. These troubles largely disappeared with systematic drainage and greater care as to public sanitation and personal hygiene. Among the early settlers who died of this class of diseases were James Brownfield, father of Robert and Samuel; Mrs. Isaac Busey and her son John; Nicholas Smith, father of Jacob; Wil- liam Boyd, father of Stephen; David Shepherd, father of Paris; John Brownfield, father of John, and William T. Webber, father of the old- time County and Circuit Court clerk, and ancestor of the large family by that name.
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