USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume II > Part 17
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Anthony and Galt, of whom the last named (A. T. Galt) is still alive and in practice with his son. Elbridge Hanecy remained with that firm until he was prepared for practice, his admission to the bar oc- curring September 11, 1874. He immediately entered upon active professional work, and practiced alone until 1889, when he formed a partnership with George P. Merrick, who had also been a student under the preceptorship of Hervey, Anthony and Galt. The firm of Hanecy and Merrick thus formed conducted a successful business and remained intact until the election of the senior member to the circuit bench of Cook county in November, 1893.
After an able and most satisfactory service of nearly two years Judge Hanecy was assigned as chancellor of the circuit court, in July, 1895. He was re-elected to the circuit bench in June, 1897, for a term of six years. His judicial decisions were marked by clearness. force and thoroughness, and, while positive, his manner was always dignified. That the general public had the utmost confidence in him both as a judge and a man is evident from various circumstances which occurred without the pale of his court; since three times dur- ing his occupancy of the circuit bench he was selected as umpire of the board of arbitration-the second and third years unanimously- for the adjustment of differences between the bricklayers' and stone- masons' associations and their employers. When it came to entering the domain of "practical politics," however, it may be that Judge Hanecy was too outspoken; at all events in his race for the mayor- alty, as a Republican candidate in 1901, he was defeated. Since that time he has served an unexpired term on the superior bench, from January to December, 1904, and is again engaged in private practice. As a lawyer he has ever been a master of details and of fundamental principles, incisive and logical in his arguments, effective in his deliv- ery and straightforward in his methods and manner.
On the Ist of March, 1876, Judge Hanecy was married to Miss Sarah Barton, a daughter of William A. Barton, and they have six children : Olive, now Mrs. R. H. Neumeister ; Edith, Ruth, Myra, Hazel and Harriette. Their only son is deceased. The judge is prominently identified with a number of social and political clubs, including the Union League, Hamilton, Chicago Athletic, Marquette. Mid-Day and Washington Park clubs. Those who know Judge Hanecy need not be told that he is a broad-minded citizen of sterling
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worth, steadfastly interested in all public measures which promise to be of practical good, and those who are not acquainted with him may have the full assurance of his legion of friends to that effect.
One of the youngest and most efficient members of the bench in the state, Lewis Rinaker comes naturally by his ability and sturdiness LEWIS of character. The county judge of Cook county was
RINAKER. born at Carlinville, Illinois, in the year 1868, and is
the youngest of four sons comprising the family of General John I. and Clarissa (Keplinger) Rinaker. His father, who
LEWIS RINAKER.
for many years has been an eminent lawyer and public man, as well as an honored veteran of the Civil war, is a native of Baltimore, Mary- land, where he was born in 1830. By the death of his parents he was thrown upon his resources at a very early age, coming to Illinois when six years of age and living with John T. Alden, in Sangamon, until 1840. Subsequently he was employed on a farm near Franklin, Morgan county, where in the winter he attended the district school. For a time he was a student at McKendree College, Lebanon, Illi- nois, from which he was graduated in 1851. In the winter of 1852
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he became a law student in the office of John M. Palmer, then a prac- titioner of Carlinville, and was admitted to the bar in 1854, continu- ing in professional work until the outbreak of the Civil war.
Although in the midst of a lucrative and growing practice, Gen- eral Rinaker soon demonstrated that his patriotism took precedence of all business considerations, and before he went to the front he was recognized as one of the most ardent supporters of the Union cause. In 1862 he raised a regiment which in August of that year, at Camp Palmer, Carlinville, was mustered in as the One Hundred and Twenty- second Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He was elected and commissioned colonel, was mustered into the service September 4th, and continued honorably and bravely at the head of his troops until the conclusion of hostilities. He was wounded at the battle of Parker's Cross Roads, December 31, 1862, and was appointed brig- adier-general by brevet for gallant and meritorious service in the field, to take rank from March 13, 1865.
After the close of the war General Rinaker resumed the practice of his profession at Carlinville. He early rose to prominence in his calling, and he has ever maintained a foremost standing as an effective speaker before court and jury. In politics he was a Democrat until 1858, when he united with the Republican party, for which he has rendered splendid service in many local and state campaigns. The general has both received and declined various offices of trust and re- sponsibility which have been tendered him by his constituents, among the latter being the United States district attorneyship for the south- ern district of Illinois. In 1872 he served as presidential elector for his district; was elector at large in 1876; was defeated for Congress in 1874, in opposition to William R. Morrison, although he ran sev- eral hundred votes ahead of his ticket in Macoupin county ; was de- feated for the gubernatorial nomination in 1880; served as railroad and warehouse commissioner from 1885 to 1889, and in 1894 was elected from the sixteenth district as a representative to the Fifty- fourth Congress. This record both of successes and defeats is a tell- ing demonstration of General Rinaker's substantial standing as a public man, and add to this his career as a gallant general and a practicing lawyer.
Lewis Rinaker, the son, is upholding stanchly the bright and hon- orable name of his father. He was educated at the public schools and
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at Blackburn University, Carlinville, Illinois, from which latter insti- tution he received the degrees of Bachelor of Science and Master of Science. As a student at the University of Illinois and a teacher he then passed two years. He had already taken up the study of the law under his father's careful tutelage and subsequently entered the law department of the University of Michigan, from which he graduated in 1893 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Being admitted to the Illinois bar, he commenced the practice of law in Chicago in May, 1894. In 1896 he formed a copartnership with S. W. and F. D. Ayres, under the firm name of Ayres, Rinaker and Ayres, which proved one of the strongest professional combinations in the city, and until his elevation to the county bench in the fall of 1906 he continued to do his full share in earning and maintaining its high reputation. Prior to the assumption of his judicial duties Judge Rinaker was master in chancery of the superior court of Cook county, and his prompt and able discharge of his responsibilities in the chanceryship brought him into favorable notice for the higher and broader office.
Judge Rinaker has also a substantial record as a legislator, al- though he served but one term in the lower house of the General Assembly of the state, being sent by his Republican constituents of the Thirty-first senatorial district, He was unequivocally recom- mended by the Legislative Voters' League, and stanchly upheld the good judgment of that organization by his effective activity in the state house of representatives in the matters of the Chicago charter, civil service, municipal court bill, practice commission bill and primary election bill. In the middle of the session of the Forty-fourth Gen- eral Assembly he was accorded the unusual honor for a new member of being appointed by the speaker to a place on the steering committee. At the conclusion of his legislative service the league (report of 1906) said: "He is faithful and industrious; it is seldom that one makes so strong a mark in his first terni." Later Judge Rinaker was a valued member of the Chicago charter convention, serving therein on the committee on law and in other important capacities.
The judge's domestic life is based upon his marriage, in 1896, to Miss Ollie M. Vaneil, and their family consists of one son and three daughters. The duties of his profession and his happy family life have prevented his participation to a great extent in club life, and his club identification is confined to his membership in the Chicago
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Athletic Club, Hamilton Club and in Camp 100, Sons of Veterans.
As a strong and active member of the Chicago bar during the greater portion of the past forty years, Mr. Lyman wields an influ-
DAVID B. ence in Chicago that only men of unusual strength LYMAN. of character and power can exercise in a community of two millions of people.
Of real New England Puritanism by lineage, the circumstances of birth makes Mr. Lyman a native of Hawaii. His parents were Rev. David B. and Sarah ( Joiner) Lyman, who after being married in Vermont sailed for Hawaii in 1831 and until 1884, over half a cen- tury, were faithful laborers for Christianity among the natives. This accounts for Mr. Lyman's birth on the island of Hilo in the Sand- wich Islands, on March 27, 1840. He spent youth and young man- hood on those islands, acquiring his education largely from his cul- tured parents and by serving in several positions under the govern- ment earning the money with which he was able, when twenty years old, to continue his education in the United States. Arriving in this country in 1860, he entered Yale College, from which he graduated in 1864, and two years later graduated from the Harvard Law School, being admitted to the Massachusetts bar in the same year. At the law school he was awarded one of the two prizes for the best legal essays.
Coming to Chicago, he was clerk in a law office two years, and then entered into a partnership with Huntington W. Jackson, that. as Lyman and Jackson, enjoyed a record of continuous existence up to 1895, which makes it memorable in the history of the bench and bar of the city.
For a number of years Mr. Lyman has been identified with the financial affairs of Chicago. In 1891 he became president of the Chi- cago Title and Trust Company, and for ten years remained at the head of this institution. From 1895 to 1901 he devoted his entire time to the direction of the business. In 1901 the Security Title and Trust Company, the Title Guarantee and Trust Company and the Chicago Title and Trust Company were combined as one company under the name of the Chicago Title and Trust Company, of which Mr. Lyman has since been a director.
The lengthy interruption to Mr. Lyman's law practice was the time he gave to the direction of the trust company from 1895 to
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1901, having during the first four years of his presidency of the com- pany carried on his practice. Since 1901 he has practiced with special attention to real estate and corporation cases. His offices have been in the Chicago Title and Trust Company's building since 1891. From October, 1901, until 1906 he was senior member of the firm of Lyman, Busby and Lyman. A reorganization was effected in 1906, the firm becoming Lyman, Lyman and O'Connor. Among the important trusts with which Mr. Lyman is connected as trustee are the Pullman Land Association and the Grant Land Association, and he holds other im- portant trust positions.
Mr. Lyman in 1891 became the first president of the first church club in Chicago. Since 1889 he has been a delegate to the General Conventions of the Protestant Episcopal church. The causes of edu- cation and charity have also gained his constant and loyal support. He was for thirty years a member of the board of education in his home town of La Grange, and at one time its president, and has been largely instrumental in developing the educational interests of La Grange to its generally acknowledged high standard. He is a mem- ber of the board of directors of St. Luke's Hospital, Chicago. He is a member and ex-president of the Chicago Bar Association, member of the Union League, Chicago, University, Country and Suburban (La Grange) and Chicago Literary clubs.
October 5, 1870, Mr. Lyman married Mary E. Cossitt, daughter of F. D. Cossitt, of Chicago. Their children are D. B., Jr., a mem- ber of the law firm with his father, and Mary Ellen, now Mrs. Mur- ray M. Baker, of Peoria, Illinois.
A man of letters, as well as a lawyer of repute and high personal character, Max Eberhardt was born in Germany, being a mere boy
MAX EBERHARDT.
when he came with his parents to the United States.
After attending a private college in the east, where he laid the foundation of a classical education, he came west with the family and settled in Cincinnati. At an early period of his life he had evinced a decided tendency toward literary pursuits, and contributed articles to the various publications of the day. At this time he had also won the intimate friendship of Judge J. B. Stallo, United States ambassador to Rome under the Cleveland regime, who exerted a controlling influence upon his mental develop- ment. The uncertainities attaching to literature as a life profession,
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however, induced the young man to embrace the legal profession as a vocation. He therefore commenced the study of the law in Cin- cinnati, was admitted to the bar and then came to Chicago to reside and practice. Still quite a young man, he was elected and repeatedly appointed one of the justices of the city. While in office he gained an excellent reputation as a fair minded, strictly honest and impartial judicial officer, and was frequently urged for advancement to a higher and more responsible position on the bench. Feeling the need of a more systematic course in the science of law, he attended the law department of the Lake Forest University, from which he graduated with the degree of LL. B., subsequently adding LL. M. and D. C. L.
Mr. Eberhardt is a member of both the Chicago and the Illinois State Bar associations, and the tendency of his many years of literary labors, which have earned him a broad reputation, is indicated by his membership in the American Historical Association, the Chicago and State Historical societies, and the German-American Historical So- ciety of Illinois, of which he is now president and which has won recognition and favorable comment from various university and liter- ary societies in Germany. Mr. Eberhardt has lectured and written upon various topics connected with law, history and sociology. He is an indefatigable worker and a man of sustained intellectual activ- ity, who in his long professional life has never taken a vacation. Among other standard publications to which he has contributed are the Journal of Speculative Philosophy, published and edited by Hon. William T. Harris, until recently United States commissioner of edu- cation, and Lalor's Encyclopedia of Political Science, of which the editor-in-chief was the late John J. Lalor. Mr. Eberhardt largely assisted him in devising and arranging the plan for this comprehen- sive work, and his article on the German Empire was noticed and commented upon by the New York Nation as one of the best in the book.
As indicative of the scope of Mr. Eberhardt's literary work it may be stated that he has written and lectured upon the following topics : Art in its Relation to Civilization; German-American His- toriography ; The Legal Position of Married Women; Primitive So- ciety and the Origin of Property ; Socialistic and Communistic Move- ments Among the Ancients; Some Leading Ideas of Modern Social- ism and the Ethical Element in Law. He has also frequently deliv-
-
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ered addresses, both in English and German, upon other literary and public topics. In 1906 Mr. Eberhardt was elected to the municipal court bench of Chicago by one of the largest majorities given to any candidate on the ticket and his record on the bench has been one of the best.
George Kersten was elected a judge of the circuit court of Cook county in 1903. During twenty years previous to that he had been
GEORGE justice of the peace and police magistrate on East
Chicago avenue. For nearly a quarter of a century
KERSTEN. it has been his business to discern the actions and purposes of men, and it is generally recognized by practitioners and litigants that no one on the local bench is better informed on criminal procedure or inspires greater confidence in the prompt and impartial administration of justice than he. With all his years of experience with the delinquent element of human society, while it has sharpened his insight of the faults and guile of mankind, Judge Kersten has pre- served and constantly manifests a kindliness and sympathy in his dealings with litigants that make him one of the most esteemed judges in Cook county. His unfailing common sense saves him from the pedantry of law, and having been a close and thorough student under the impetus of his own determination, he has become fully and prac- tically equipped to meet any emergency within the scope of his judicial cluties.
Born in Chicago, March 21, 1853, a son of Joachim and Sophia (Elsner) Kersten, he was educated in the public schools, in Standon and Wiedinger's Educational Institution and Eastman's Metropolitan Business College. He read law with the firm of Rubens, Barnum and Ames, and was admitted to the bar by the appellate court examina- tion in 1886. Already, in 1883, he had been appointed justice of the peace and police magistrate, and held those positions uninterruptedly until 1903. The strength of his record made him one of the logical candidates of his party, the Democratic, for various offices at the head of the county ticket. He was nominated for sheriff in 1886, but declined the nomination, and in 1898 was nominated for the same office, but was defeated. In 1893 he was an unsuccessful candidate for judge of the superior court. In 1902, after a bill had passed the legislature providing additional judges for the Cook county circuit court, he was nominated by his party for one of the judgeships, but
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shortly afterward the bill was pronounced unconstitutional. In 1903 he became the regular candidate of his party for judge of the circuit court, and his fitness for the position was affirmed by independents and partisans alike at the election. In the circuit court he has pre- sided over several important cases. notably the following: Harvey Van Dine, Gustav Marx, Peter Niedermeyer, car barn murder case ; Johann Hoch case; Paul Stensland, embezzlement case ; Roberts case, and the Inga Hansen case. . All of these cases are prominent and at- tracted much attention throughout the county.
Judge Kersten is a member of the Iroquois Club, and the County Democracy; a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of Medinah Temple ; the Columbian Knights and Royal Arcanum; member of the Germania Club, the Orpheus Singing Society, the Chicago Turn- Gemeinde and Fritz Reuter Lodge of Plattdeutsche Gilde. When vacation time approaches the judge invariably plans hunting as the primary sport. He is a member of the Chicago Sharpshooters' Als- sociation and of the Lake Poygan Gun Club; also of Pistakee Yacht Club. Judge Kersten married, September 4, 1875, Miss Julia Baierle. daughter of Adam Baierle. Their children are Walter, George and Lillian, the former being deceased.
Hugh O'Neill, orator, lawyer and writer, was born in the County Derry, Ireland, October 5, 1867, the son of Hugh and Ann (Smyth ) O'Neill. He was educated in Ireland and at the HUGH O'NEILL. University of Notre Dame, Indiana, receiving the degrees of A. B., LL. B., B. L. and LL. M. Mr. O'Neill has devoted much time to literature, science, political economy, history and public speaking. A student by nature and gifted with a large and striking physique, magnetic with nervous energy and en- thusiasm, he is a combination of the philosopher and the executive and is well qualified as a leader. Typical of the celebrated ancestor whose name he bears, he is a loyal Irish patriot of the radical sort, a Nationalist in sentiment and an eloquent defender of everything Gaelic. There is probably no one in the United States better informed on Irish affairs. He made a life study of comparative history almost for the sole purpose of arriving at an estimate of Ireland's future political value, relatively among nations, and has earned a reputation as an authority on it and kindred subjects. As an orator, his easy flow of diction, strong, clear style, fervid patriotism and fine declama-
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tion make him captivating on Celtic occasions and the popular idol of such organizations as the A. O. H., who like both the substance and color of his arguments.
He is a litterateur of national note and is a constant contributor to the magazines. Too much of a student to be a bibliomaniac, yet he has one of the best private reference libraries in America, practi- cally complete in the fields of research in which he is most interested. It is all excellent testimony of the character of the man. When he first entered Notre Dame, instead of using his fairly liberal allowance from home in the usual small luxuries of college men, he resolved to put into books every week what would otherwise go for cigars. . The thoughts of youth are "long, long thoughts" and the years have brought him a valuable collection of books in place of the profitless dreams of burnt tobacco. He familiarized himself with three his- tories of the United States before he took passage for this country.
O'Neill is the author of a comprehensive series of discourses on the "American Courts," "English Courts," "French Courts," which were read at the University of Louvain, Belgium; speeches on "Amer- ican Ideals," "What of Ireland and America?" "Ireland a Nation," "Three Revolutions" and "American Independence," and besides be- ing a distinguished writer on Irish and American themes, he has pub- lished much on socialism, labor, orators and oratory, and the growth of law and its philosophy. Admitted to the bar in 1892, two years later he joined with L. Bastrup in the firm of Bastrup and O'Neill, Reaper block, and together they have built up a lucrative practice. Married in 1898 to Regina O'Malley, Cresco, Iowa, he has a daughter, Regina, and a son, Hugh. He is a member of the American Bar As- sociation, Chicago Bar Association, the Notre Dame Alumni, and the Hamilton, Charlevoix and Irish Fellowship clubs. Republican and Roman Catholic in politics and religion. Residence, 2500 Lakewood avenue.
Louis Bastrup, author, historian and lawyer, was born in Kold- ing, Denmark, on July 8, 1856. His parents were wealthy people of refinement, who lavished on him every educational LOUIS BASTRUP. advantage. After taking a preparatory course in the best school of his native town, he was sent when only thirteen years old to the famous Johaneum College at Hamburg, Germany, where he proved himself more than equal to his oppor-
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tunities-being graduated there in 1872, after having had conferred upon him some of the highest honors that had ever been attained by any other student in the history of the institution. He entered law practice, but his father's testament made it necessary for him to pur- sue a mercantile calling for a time, though the monotony of the routine of mercantile business was distasteful to one so naturally studious and inclined toward the professional. The law was resumed as soon as possible. He came to Chicago in 1886. For a period he was connected with the credit department of a large mercantile house in an advisory capacity. In the meantime he was familiarizing him- self with American law. John Gibbons, now and for many years judge of the circuit court of Cook county, took him into partnership. Mr. Bastrup soon became a legal light not because of any special elo- quence as a pleader but rather on account of his conservative, self- assured, well-prepared, clean-cut and successful handling of his cases. He has the Napoleonic build, physically, and it is typical of his mentality. And he is a general who overlooks no detail of likely im- portance. He early won enviable eminence as a lawyer. On May I. 1895, he formed with Hugh O'Neil the law firm of Bastrup and O'Neill, Reaper block, still existing.
Aside from his legal work. Mr. Bastrup won most distinction by his historical investigations and his written discussions on the phi- losophy of history, viewed analytically and comparatively. He has not confined his researches to any particular epoch but has followed the whole range of ancient and modern politics. He is now working on an extensive review entitled "Gustavus Adolphus: The Reasons and the Effects of His Interferences in the Thirty Years' War." The fact that he is a linguist of repute, speaking and writing fluently to a literary degree all of six languages, has made his historical inquiries doubly valuable. He has wide practice in chancery and is a special- ist in international and insurance law. His treatise on marine insur- ance is also considered as an authority. The degree of LL. M., honoris causa, was conferred on him in 1894 by the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.
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