USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume II > Part 23
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Hon. James Herbert Wilkerson, member of the firm of Tenney, Coffeen, Harding and Wilkerson, is not only a leading lawyer of JAMES H. WILKERSON. Chicago, but among the most prominent Republi- cans of this section. He is a native of Savannah, Missouri, born on the 11th of December, 1869, bc- ing a son of John W. and Lydia (Austin) Wilkerson. He is a grad- uate of DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, in which he made a brilliant record and in 1889 obtained the degree of A. B. It was during the senior year that he so successfully represented Indiana in the interstate oratorical contest. After leaving college he was ap- pointed principal of the high school at Hastings, Nebraska, serving in that capacity for about a year, and in 1891 becoming an instructor at DePauw University.
In 1893, after Mr. Wilkerson had been identified with the faculty of his alma mater for some two years, he came to Chicago to con- tinue the study of the law and enter into its practice. In the year named he was admitted to practice at the bar of Illinois, first asso- ciating himself with Myron H. Beach. In 1894 he became connected with Tenney, McConnell and Coffeen, and in 1900 was received into partnership by the members then composing the firm, thereby mak- ing the style Tenney, Coffeen, Harding and Wilkerson.
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Mr. Wilkerson has been earnestly concerned in Republican poli- tics and the public affairs of the state for many years, and in 1902 was elected to the Illinois legislature for the thirteenth district. He conducted the fight for a state civil service law, and introduced and secured the passage of the constitutional amendment for a new Chi- cago charter. In 1903 he was appointed county attorney for Cook county, and in that capacity conducted much important litigation, es- pecially that which involved the taxation of the capital stock of cor- porations. At the conclusion of his term he entered private practice, and since assuming his duties under United States District Attorney Sims has conducted a number of cases in behalf of the government. In the world-famous Rockefeller cases upon which the United States department of justice concentrated its best available talent in this district, Mr. Wilkerson abundantly proved his stability and resource- fulness as a lawyer.
On the 21st of August, 1891, Mr. Wilkerson was united in mar- riage with Miss Mary Roth, and they reside at No. 6648 Minerva avenue. As to club circles he is identified with the Law, Hamilton and Woodlawn Park organizations.
William H. Sexton is a leading Chicago lawyer of the younger generation, born in this city March 22, 1875, the son of Austin O.
WILLIAM H. and Mary I. (Lyons) Sexton, both of whom were
natives of Chicago. His father was a well-known
SEXTON. lawyer engaged in active practice until his death January 9th, 1908.
Since the fall of 1906 William H. Sexton has been a member of the firm of Tolman, Redfield and Sexton, the senior partner of which is Major Edgar Bronson Tolman. This firm is one of the strongest which has been formed in recent years, its business being largely de- voted to litigation concerning corporations and municipal matters.
William H. Sexton is a Chicagoan from first to last. His men- tal character was molded in its public schools and the Lake View high school, his graduation from that institution occurring in 1893. He had already studied law to some extent under his father's guid- ance, which he continued after he became a student at the Chicago College of Law, of which the late Judge Thomas A. Moran was dean. He was admitted to the bar in 1895, and thereafter, until May I, 1897, was associated with his father in the practice of his profes-
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PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
Jours Sincerely Come mason
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sion. At that time Mr. Sexton was appointed assistant corporation counsel by Mayor Carter H. Harrison II., and served as such, with invariable faithfulness, ability and professional credit, under Charles S. Thornton, Charles M. Walker, now judge of the circuit court. Edgar Bronson Tolman and James Hamilton Lewis. He was ap- pointed first assistant corporation counsel by Mr. Walker and con- tinued in that position under Major Tolman and James Hamilton Lewis. The official relationship between him and Major Tolman brought them into such close contact that the elder lawyer formed a high opinion of his associate both as an attorney and a man. In November, 1906, therefore, Mr. Sexton resigned his position, and, with Robert Redfield, formerly attorney for the board of local im- provements of the city of Chicago, entered into partnership with Major Tolman in a harmonious and mutually advantageous associa- tion, which is rapidly spelling a noticeable success even among the strong law firms for which Chicago is noted.
In October, 1898, William H. Sexton was united in marriage with Miss Alice M. Lynch, daugther of Andrew M. and Mary Lynch. and they are the parents of one child, Andrew Lynch Sexton, now .six years of age. The pleasant family home is at 2527 Kenmore avenue, Edgewater.
Mr. Sexton has always been an active Democrat, and consequent- ly is a stanch member of the Iroquois Club, of which he is now vice president. He is also a member of the Law Club, the Chicago Asso- ciation of Commerce and of several fraternal societies. As a lawyer he is thorough and practical, well versed in the law and, what is of equal importance, is a good judge of human nature. In his domes- tic and social relation, he is kind and companionable, and his attrac- tive qualities as a man, added to his substantial traits as a lawyer, are a guarantee of continued popularity and advancement.
Hon. William Ernest Mason has been a prominent practitioner at the Chicago bar for thirty-five years. and during a large portion of that period has been a leading figure in public
WILLIAM E. MASON. life, having served for many years as a legislator in both branches of the state legislature and the na- tional Congress. His public service has been of great practical value to his constituents, and although an enthusiastic Republican, his fearless independence, both of speech and political action, has some-
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times brought him into conflict with certain leaders of his party, while decidedly raising him in public estimation. Personally he is a liberal-minded, whole-souled and popular man, his geniality of manner adding a special charm to a clear mind and a broad legal and statesmanlike ability.
Born in Franklinville, Cattaraugus county, New York, on the 7th of July, 1850, William E. Mason early evinced those manly, in- dependent and popular qualities which, coupled with his natural abil- ity and acquired talents, earned him so substantial a reputation in later years. His father, Lewis J. Mason, was a merchant of the ' town, a man of high character and an active abolitionist. He early identified himself with the Republican party, was an ardent supporter of John C. Fremont for the presidency, and his attitude on the ques- tions of the day had much to do with forming the general political character of the son, although the latter, at the age of fifteen, vir- tually became his own master.
When William E. Mason was a boy of eight the family removed from Franklinville, New York, to Bentonsport, Iowa, where they remained until 1865, and he received an academic education. After the latter year he was thrown virtually upon his own resources, re- ceiving further educational privileges from the public schools and from the Birmingham College, where he pursued a two-years' course. His education was so far advanced, however, that, while continuing his studies he taught school at intervals from 1866 to 1870, during the last two years being located at Des Moines, Iowa. His law stud- ies also overlapped his career as a teacher, and he finally entered into the field systematically by placing himself under the tutelage of Thomas J. Withrow, an eminent corporation lawyer, who was soon after made general solicitor of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company, with headquarters in Chicago.
Upon the removal of Mr. Withrow to Chicago, Mr. Mason ac- companied him in order to have the benefit of his instruction and advice in the prosecution of his law studies, and this was his intro- duction to the city which he has since made his home. After an- other year with Mr. Withrow, he entered the office of John N. Jewett, long in the fore rank of Chicago lawyers, with whom he remained for several years.
Mr. Mason was admitted to the bar in 1872, practicing alone
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until 1877, when he formed a partnership with M. R. M. Wallace, in which connection he attracted such general attention by his abilities that he obtained an assured position among the best of his . fellow practitioners. Soon, also, he came into political prominence, com- mencing his public career in 1879 by his first service in the Illinois General Assembly. Afterward he became senior member of the firm of Mason, Ennis and Bates, and since 1898 has been in partnership with his son, Lewis F. Mason, under the firm name of Mason and Mason.
As stated, Mr. Mason's public career began in 1879, when he was elected to the Illinois general assembly, where his record was of such a character as to earn him an elevation to the state senate in 1881. He served in the upper house of the legislature for four years. In 1887 he was chosen to Congress as a representative of the third district, being one of the three successful Republicans returned from Cook county. In this capacity he was noted as one of the most serv- iceable members of Congress-ready and logical in debate and yet alive to all the practical demands of his district and industrious in pushing forward all needful legislation. His first term expired in 1889, and his record was indorsed by re-election. In the interim be- tween his service as a congressman and a United States senator, Mr. Mason was deeply interested in the affairs of the World's Colum- bian Exposition, and had much to do with its location at Chicago and its final inauguration. For several months prior to its opening the public was considerably agitated over the Sunday question. Sev- eral cases were brought in the United States court of The People versus the World's Columbian Exposition to restrain the manage- ment from keeping open on Sunday. A temporary injunction was granted and the matter went to the United States court of appeals, which sat in Chicago in June, and, with Chief Justice Fuller presid- ·ing, dissolved the injunction.
In the meantime other cases were progressing in the lower courts. In May an action had been brought by one Clingman against the exposition to restrain the defendants from closing the gates on Sun- day. Through Mr. Mason, his attorney, he brought the action both in the capacity of a stockholder of the exposition company and a tax payer of the city of Chicago. On the 29th of May the case came before Judge Stein of the superior court, Edwin Walker representing
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the defendants. Judge Stein granted the injunction on the conten- tion advanced by Mr. Mason that Jackson Park had been dedicated by an act of the legislature (1869) to be held, managed and enjoyed as a public park, for the recreation and the health of the public, and "to be open to all persons forever." He held that this condition had not been invalidated by any of the legislation in refer- ence to the exposition and, indeed, that it was beyond the power of the legislature to dispense with it. Afterward, finding that the Sun- day attendance did not make the opening profitable, the exposition managers voted to close and were individually fined by Judge Stein for contempt of court, and, on appeal to the superior court, the in- junction was sustained. The Fair was kept open thereafter on Sun- days.
William E. Mason served as United States senator from 1897 to 1903; was a delegate to the national Republican convention in 1904, and was on the ticket for presidential elector. His record as a national figure is of such recent date that a detailed review of it would be superfluous. It is sufficient to remember that while he lost some ground with some of his party, he made many friends by an earnest, straightforward expression of his opinions, irrespective of his political future. He has since been engaged in the practice of his profession, which carries him almost entirely into the higher courts.
On June 11th, 1873, Mr. Mason married Miss Edith Julia White, daughter of George White, of Des Moines, Iowa. He had met his wife while he was teaching in that city and married her the year after his admission to the bar at Chicago. Of their large family of children Lewis F. Mason, as stated, is in partnership with his father. William E. Mason is a leading and popular member of the Hamilton, Marquette and Menoken clubs. The family residence has for many years been on Washington boulevard, near Garfield Park, where his cultured home and bright children have been the centers of much social enjoyment and intellectual improvement.
When Clyde A. Morrison became chief assistant city attorney of Chicago the substantial qualities of one of the younger members of the legal fraternity were fittingly recognized. It
CLYDE A. MORRISON. was but another verification of the statement re- garding the important affairs of Chicago in all its
THENEWYORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR. LENOX AND
Faithfully yours, Charles Alling, Jr.
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varied life as a city-that there is no great municipality in the world in which so many young men are guiding its machinery and its poli- cies. Mr. Morrison is also master in chancery for the superior court of Cook county, having been appointed February 2, 1907, by Judge Ben M. Smith.
A native of Illinois and resident in Chicago since he was an in- fant, Mr. Morrison was born in Peotone, March 12, 1876, receiving his elementary and literary education in the grammar and high schools of his adopted city. Later he pursued higher courses at the University of Virginia (Charlottesville) and returning to Chicago was employed in the legal departments of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad and the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Rail- way Company. As a legal practitioner he was subsequently a mem- ber of the firms of Pam, Calhoun and Glennon: Wetton and Morri- son; Eddy, Haley and Wetton; and associated with Calhoun, Ly- ford and Sheean, and afterward engaged in independent profes- sional work.
For a number of years Mr. Morrison has been actively and in- fluentially engaged in politics, being among the best-known Repub- licans of the younger generation. He was secretary of the Charles C. Dawes campaign committee, when that gentleman was a candi- date for United States senator, and subsequently served in the same capacity during the gubernatorial campaign of Governor Deneen. In the last national election he was associated with the Republican com- mittee at the Auditorium, under the direct supervision of National Committeeman David W. Mulvane. He was secretary of the Busse campaign committee, and is vice president of the Illinois League of Republican Clubs. He is also a leader in the local politics of Hyde Park, being the owner and publisher of the Hyde Park Republican, and the editor-in-chief of the Hamiltonian, the latter being the offi- cial publication of the Hamilton Club, Chicago. Mr. Morrison is a member of the Hamilton, Press, City, Colonial and Waupanseh clubs.
There are some men who always seem to "have time" to attend to good works, whether of a private or public nature. Mr. Alling is
CHARLES pre-eminently one of this class, and, fortunately for the advancement of the best interests of Chicago. does not stand alone. He belongs to the group of
ALLING, JR.
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able citizens whose civic interest is equal to their business enterprise, and who are devoting every energy possible to the perfection of our municipal laws and the improvement of the public service. A man of broad education and fine, sympathetic nature, as well as of strength and bravery, he is admirably fitted to be identified with the progres- sive guard of such a city as Chicago.
Charles Alling, Jr., was born at Madison, Indiana, on the 13th of December, 1865, and is descended in the tenth generation from Roger Alling, first treasurer of the New Haven Colony of the Pil- grims, who emigrated from England in 1638. A grandson of the emigrant removed from New Haven to Newark, New Jersey, at the end. of that century, and his descendants became officers in the Revo- lutionary war. John Alling, the grandfather, graduated from Prince- ton College, and migrated from Newark to Madison, Indiana, about the year 1826. The mother of Mr. Alling was Harriet Ann Scovel, a daughter of Rev. Sylvester Scovel, D. D., who was president of Hanover College, Indiana, from 1846 to 1849; of this institution Charles Alling, his father, has been a trustee for twenty years. Com- ing thus from a vigorous and educated line of ancestors, in whom earnestness, faithfulness and the highest order of intelligence were predominating traits, Charles- Alling, Jr., has a natural inheritance of stanch and useful qualities.
Charles Alling, Jr., graduated from Hanover College in 1885 with the degree of A. B., the same institution, four years later, honor- ing him with A. M. In 1888 he completed his law course at the Uni- versity of Michigan, securing the degree of LL. B. Soon afterward he came to Chicago and was admitted to the Illinois bar, and has since been actively engaged in the practice of his profession here and in the manifold duties of good citizenship. For ten years of his earlier practice he acted as the attorney for the Protective Agency for Women and Children, and afterwards became also attorney for the Bureau of Justice, and his joint attorneyship led to the consolidation of these two effective legal charities into the Legal Aid Society. His personal. law business grew so fast after his retirement from aldermanic duties that he relinquished the attorneyship of the society in the fall of 1905, but he still shows a warm interest in its good work by serving with- out compensation as chairman of its legal committee. He suggested
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and was largely instrumental in securing our excellent statute, "To define and punish crimes against children."
In politics Mr. Alling has been a leading Republican for many years. In 1897 he was elected to represent the Third ward, which afterwards became the Second ward, and continued in the city council for eight years, where he was a member of its most important commit- tees. He served on the judiciary committee from 1897 to 1905, and was a member of the finance committee from 1899 to 1900. He was chairman of the committee on streets and alleys (south) from 1900-01; and one of the two aldermen who participated in the New Charter Convention in 1902-3. This latter appointment was virtually a formal declaration on the part of the city council that Mr. Alling was its pioncer on charter reform. He established and was first chair- man of the committee on state legislation, which secured the munici- pal courts and the extension of the mayor's term from two to four years in 1905.
In 1906 Mr. Alling made the race at the primary election for the office of county judge of Cook county, and, while he received the popular plurality of the county at large, the dominant faction controlled the delegates of the convention and gave the nomination to Judge Lewis Rinaker. Mr. Alling refused strong solicitation to become an independent candidate and earnestly supported all the nominees of the convention.
He has taken much interest in the military organizations of the state, and at the present time is judge advocate of the First Division, Illinois National Guard, with the rank of lieutenant colonel, his com- mission being dated May 6, 1902. He is a popular and prominent figure in Masonry, affiliated with the Chevalier Bayard Commandery. Knights Templar and the Mystic Shrine; he is also a Knight of Pythias. He is also a member of the Union League and University clubs and the Chicago and Illinois Bar associations.
Colonel Alling has retained his close and leading position with his old college fraternity, having been grand tribune of Sigma Chi from 1888 to 1900 and editor of the Sigma Chi Quarterly from 1888 to 1895. He was elected to its highest office, grand consul, at Old Point Comfort, Virginia, on August 2. 1907. For many years he has been deacon of the First Presbyterian church and is now a mem- ber of the executive committee of the Cook County Sunday School
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Association and the Young Men's Presbyterian Union. He is widely known for his speeches in this and other states advocating the teach- ing of practical duties of citizenship in churches and schools.
In 1906 Mr. Alling became proprietor of the Chicago Business Law School, which has had a decade of useful history. The demands of his clients both for office consultation and court work became so insistent that he parted with his financial interest in the school, but still finds time to lecture once a week in the evening. His practice is general, which, with a love of legal study, makes him one of the most widely read lawyers at the bar.
In August, 1907, Governor Deneen appointed him attorney for the State Board of Health.
George Peck Merrick, for several years a partner of Hon. El- bridge Hanecy, is known as a general and corporation lawyer of high
GEORGE P. standing, who has come most prominently before
MERRICK. the public because of his leading participation in the Lake Front litigation. He is an Illinoisan, born October. 4, 1862, the son of Dr. George C. and Mary (Peck) Mer- rick. He received his first professional training in the office of Judge Hanecy, having graduated from the Northwestern University in 1884.
In May, 1886, Mr. Merrick was admitted to the Illinois bar and in the following November secured a position with the Atchison, To- peka & Santa Fe Railroad Company as assistant attorney, with head- quarters in Chicago. He continued to perform his duties until 1889, when he assumed partnership relations with Mr. Hanecy, which were severed by the election of the latter as circuit judge in 1893. Subse- quently Mr. Merrick practiced alone, then as senior of the firm of Merrick, Evans and Whitney. Personally he has been identified with many important cases, notably those of the Lake Front, in which he secured the decisions of the supreme court establishing the Lake Front as a park.
Mr. Merrick is a member of the American Bar Association, the Illinois Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association, the Chicago Law Institute and the Chicago Law Club. He is especially promi- nent in the social and public affairs of Evanston, which is his place of residence. Mr. Merrick has served as alderman and civil service commissioner of that classic suburban city and as president of the
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Alumni Association of Northwestern University, and at the present time is a trustee of his alma mater and president of the Evanston board of education. He is a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and of the University, Chicago, Evanston and Glen View clubs. In his social and athletic habits he brings his school days into the strenuous life of today, both for the love of former associations and the mainte- nance of his collegiate vigor of body and mind.
Mr. Merrick's professional and public activities find repose in the midst of a harmonious domestic circle, the center of which is a cul- tured wife (nee Grace Thompson, of Galesburg, Illinois), whom he married in 1885. The children of the family are Clinton, Grace W. and Thompson.
John Edward Owens is a popular and able lawyer and a leading Democrat, who, since his admission to the bar eleven years ago. has
JOHN E. been almost continuously before the public either in
municipal or judicial positions of responsibility. He OWENS. is a native of Chicago, born June 22, 1875, and is the son of Patrick Henry and Mary (Clarke) Owens. The father was born in Illinois.
John E. Owens received a thorough education at St. Stephen's Parochial School, St. Patrick's Academy, and the Christian Brothers' School before taking up his professional studies in the law depart- ment of the Lake Forest University. From the last named institu- tion he was graduated in 1896 with the degree LL. B., and in the fol- lowing year commenced active practice. Prior to his admission to the university he had read law in the office of his brother, Thomas H. Owens, who died April 12, 1905.
The first two years of his private practice brought Mr. Owens' strong points as a lawyer so favorably before the city administration that in February, 1898, he received the appointment of assistant prose- cuting attorney, and in 1900 he was advanced to the position of chief assistant. He creditably filled the office of city attorney from Sep- tember, 1901, until April, 1903, and then after a few months of private professional work he assumed his present post of judicial responsi- bility. On December 1, 1904, Judge Edward O. Brown, of the circuit court, appointed Mr. Owens master in chancery, and he was again promptly honored with the position in December, 1906.
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