USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume II > Part 3
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judgment of a tribunal that decides against him; the supreme court of the United States is rebuked and reproached as are all judicial tribunals. The system under which justices and constables received no compensation save through fees and personally paid room rent and all other expenses of their offices was bad, the method unsuited to a great city and the law under which the justices acted inadequate to the needs of the community or adapted to the conditions presented in Chicago. The municipal court act greatly enlarged the powers for- merly possessed by the justices and is incomparably better fitted to the needs of Chicago than was the statute under which the justices acted. The justices could not provide for uniform rules of procedure, as there was no way of enforcing conformance thereto if they had been made. The municipal court act provides for uniform rules and adherence thereto. The judges are under no suspicion of shaping their action with a view to obtaining business or revenue. The courts are held at well known places, easily reached and found. The court surroundings are such as to elicit respect and inspire confidence. The humblest, the most wretched and the poorest are likely to be' im- pressed by the surroundings with the feeling that their grievances, troubles and offenses, if such there are, will be seriously considered and judged in accordance with a rule, which, however much they may disapprove of, they feel is applied to all, and one to which they may at any time appeal. In the administration of justice it is not only necessary to be firm, patient and considerate, but to appear to be so.
The subject of the proper attitude of the state toward "neglected and delinquent children," is one to which the increased attention given JUVENILE COURT. in recent years resulted in this state in a statute which went into force July 1, 1899, under a title popularly known as the Juvenile Court Law. The leading features of the original law may be stated to be as follows : It contains a comprehensive definition of neglected, dependent and delinquent children; confers on the circuit and county courts original jurisdiction concerning such children; provides that in counties hav- ing over 500,000 population the judges of the circuit court shall designate one of their number to hear cases coming under the law ; provides that children's cases coming before a justice of the peace or police magistrate shall be immediately transferred to the judge so designated ; provides for a simple mode of procedure by petition and
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otherwise ; and provides for the care of neglected, dependent and de- linquent children while their cases are pending in court and after- ward. It prohibits the commitment of children under twelve years of age to a common jail or police station ; recognizes all approved child-saving societies and institutions, and gives validity to their con- tracts in reference to surrendering and adopting children; and pro- vides for a system of supervision by the state board of charities over children placed in homes throughout the state. The last section reads as follows: "This act shall be liberally construed, to the end that its purpose may be carried out, to-wit: That the care, custody and discipline of a child shall approximate as nearly as may be that which should be given by its parents, and in all cases where it can properly be done the child be placed in an approved family home and become a member of the family by legal adoption or otherwise."
The founding of the juvenile court as one of the beneficent insti- tutions of Chicago has beein regarded with general satisfaction by members of the bar and people interested in the welfare of children. The juvenile court, practically, had its origin as a distinctive institu- tion in Chicago, and its founders deserve recognition among those who strive to help, to give opportunity to each, to let none fall by the wayside for lack of guidance.
The separation of children from adults in court had made some progress in other states before the comprehensive law just consid- ered was passed by Illinois. Massachusetts, in 1863, enacted a law separating the child in court charged with an offense from an adult. New York, in 1877, moved by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in New York City, passed the first concise law to effect this object, and followed this up by progressive laws that finally involved almost a complete separation of children from the environment and procedure that characterized the trial and commit- ment of adults. In other states the movement had made progress. but Illinois was especially backward in this matter, and it was not until 1898 when the charitable people of the city and state were aroused to action. The practical origin of the movement was in the State Board of Charities, where several members, notably Mr. Eph- raim Banning, frequently conferred on the subject of the care of delinquent children. Finally Mr. Banning was requested to present the matter to the Chicago Bar Association, through whose agency
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some effective and definite scheme might be set in operation. In answer to the resolutions presented to the bar association at its an- nual meeting of October 22, 1898, a committee was appointed to investigate the conditions complained of and to recommend legisla- tion for the cure of existing evils. This committee consisted of five notable men in the history of Chicago's charitable and civic progress -Ephraim Banning, Harvey B. Hurd (deceased), Edwin Burritt Smith (deceased), John W. Ela (deceased), and Merritt Starr. This was the first concisive action taken by any person or association inaugurating the movement which resulted in the juvenile court. The committee appointed by the bar association held several meetings and the members, especially Mr. Banning and Judge Hurd, gave unremitting attention to the drawing up of a bill which might be presented to the legislature providing for a court procedure for chil- dren. In the meantime the agitation was continued in other chan- nels and the State Conference of Charities, at Kankakee, held No- vember, 1898, took up the question as a part of its program and several bills were made for a system of laws that would entirely sepa- rate the children from the adults. One of the meetings which were held during the preliminary work of promoting this legislation, was in Judge Hurd's office on December 10, 1898. At this meeting there were present some of the men and women whose names are especially worthy of recognition in this movement-Harvey B. Hurd, Lucy A. Flower, Julia C. Lathrop, all of the State Board of Charities; Presi- dent T. D. Hurley, of the Visitation and Aid Society; Hastings H. Hart, president of the State Home and Aid Society; State Repre- sentative John C. Newcomer; Superintendent A. G. Lane, of the public schools; County Jailer John L. Whitman, and Frank G. Soule.
It was from the suggestions offered at this and similar meetings calling for a discussion of the subject that Judge Hurd was enabled to make the first draft of a bill. This bill was then submitted to the members of the societies and the individuals who were interested in the movement and when the bill was finally completed it contained a total of twenty-one sections. It was decided to announce it as a bar association measure, the opinion being held that under such auspices the legislature would be more likely to regard it favorably than if it appeared as a bill prepared by some charitable organization. After the bill had been chosen it was presented in the house of representa-
PUBLIC LIBRARY
OLUR LENOX AN NEATIONS
Richard S Jutbiel
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tives February 7th, 1899, by John C. Newcomer and was introduced in the senate by Senator Case February 15th. Both bills were re- ferred to the committee on judiciary. In the house the bill, after being amended in some minor particulars, passed by yea and nay vote of 121 to o on April 14th, and the bill passed the senate the same day. The Juvenile Court Law became effective on July 1. 1899. and the first judge assigned to the new court and who for a long time continued to preside over the bench was Richard S. Tuthill.
Honorable Richard S. Tuthill, for more than twenty years one of the judges of the circuit court of Cook county, was born November
10, 1841, at Tuthill's Prairie, Jackson county, Illi-
RICHARD S. TUTHILL. nois. His Puritan ancestors emigrated to New
England prior to the year 1640. In 1829 his father moved from Vermont to southern Illinois, where he estab- lished a school of high reputation. By virtue of the law of inher- itance. Judge Tuthill became a soldier, a lawyer and a jurist. His fathers did valiant service in the war of the Revolution and that of 11812. His great uncle, Major General Samuel Strong, commanded the twenty-five hundred Vermont volunteers who participated on Sep- tember 9, 1814, in the memorable battle of Plattsburg, a contest on lake and land which, in its effect, was the most decisive victory of the war, putting to an end, as it did, all hope of a successful invasion of the states from Canada.
Our future jurist had no sooner received, in 1863, from Middle- bury College. his degree of A. B. than he was on his way to Vicks- burg, where his brother, Lieut. John L. Tuthill, was then command- ing the war vessel known as the "Queen of the West," and where his father's friend for many years, General John A. Logan, was com- manding a division. The general gave him a position as a volunteer citizen scout in a company attached to his headquarters, a place full of adventure, excitement and danger, and shortly afterwards secured for him a commission in Company H. of the First Michigan Light Artillery (known als) as De Golyer's Battery), a company then and thereafter known as one of the most efficient batteries in the western army, and of which General Frank P. Blair, commanding the Seventeenth Army Corps during the Atlanta campaign, Septem- ber 4, 1864, in a special report concerning the battle of Lovejoy Sta- tion, said :
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"I desire to call attention particularly to the part taken by H Com- pany, First Michigan Artillery, in this action. This battery has been conspicuous in its efficiency and the gallantry of its officers and men in every engagement of this campaign in which it has participated."
At the conclusion of the war, Lieutenant Tuthill renewed his study of the law which he had begun a number of years before, and having been, in 1866, admitted to the bar, was, in 1867, elected state's attor- ney of the Nashville (Tennessee) circuit. Early in 1873 he came to Chicago, where he has since lived. From 1875 to 1879 he was city attorney of Chicago, and in 1884 was appointed by President Arthur United States district attorney for the northern district of Illinois, with headquarters at Chicago. In 1887 he was elected judge' of the circuit court of Cook county, which position he has since filled, hav- ing been five times chosen to that high office.
While a student in college, Judge Tuthill became engaged to Miss Jane Frances Smith of Vergennes, Vermont, to whom he was married in 1868. She died at Nashville, December 22, 1872, leaving a daughter. He was married a second time January 2, 1877, to Miss Harriet McKey, daughter of Mr. Edward McKey, a leading dry goods merchant of Janesville, Wisconsin. His daughter, Eliza Strong, by his first wife, married Mr. Frank D. Ketcham, now of New York City. Judge and Mrs. Tuthill have now living five daugh- ters, Zoe Gertrude, married to J. M. Fiske, Jr., of Milwaukee; Mary Elizabeth, married to Alfred Borden, of New York City; Lilian Mc- Key, Genevieve Harmon, Harriet McKey, and one son, Richard S., Jr.
Judge Tuthill, yet in the prime of life, is active in every move- ment which has for its object the general welfare of the city in which he lives, and is closely identified with charitable organizations seeking to promote the moral and mental training of poor and destitute chil- dren. His religious affiliations are with the Episcopal church. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, of which he was commander in 1893, the Grand Army Hall and Memorial Association, the Church, Union League, Illinois, Lincoln, Hamilton and other clubs, as well as with the Irv- ing Literary Society. He is a hard worker, a diligent student and an able and forceful speaker.
The judicial office is ordinarily not fruitful of events long re-
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membered or upon which historians are likely to dwell. Indeed, it may be said that, as a rule, the less conspicuous is the work of the judge and the more transient the comment which his judicial acts produce, the better it is for the land in which he serves. Judges are not ordained to make, but to administer the law. Nevertheless, it is the case that in the discharge of judicial duties imposed by law upon him, Judge Tuthill has become known and honored not only throughout the United States, but in the greater part of Europe. In 1899 what is now known as the juvenile court of Illinois was created by act of the legislature, and by the unanimous vote of his associates upon the bench, Judge Tuthill was selected to preside over that court. As afterwards proved, a better choice could not have been made.
Patient, considerate, ready to listen to all that the humblest had to say, broad minded and sympathetic, he took up the work as a labor of love. The report of inspectors and policemen, the plaint of fathers and mothers, the appeal of the poor and the outcast, the little child and the hardened hoodlum were heard by him with that tender consideration and intelligent regard to the welfare of com- munity, parent, friend and child, which only a man of his great learning, wide experience and profound knowledge of human nature could give.
The juvenile court was, from the outset, under his administra- tion a triumphant success, vindicating the faith of its projectors and realizing the hopes of the humane men and women who had called it into being. An incident worthy to be remembered in this con- nection was the raising of $100,000 with which a spacious farm of nearly a thousand acres was bought and presented to the state as a site for the St. Charles School for Boys, near St. Charles, in Kane county. On this site have been erected appropriate and beautiful buildings. Here the delinquent boys of Illinois are receiving, instead of punishment too often tending to make criminals, a kindly parental care which develops character and tends toward the making of good citizens. This much-needed and admirable institution will serve to perpetuate the memory of the work done by Richard S. Tuthill for the youth of our country.
Judge Tuthill became in universal demand as a writer, speaker and councilor for those who wished to establish a tribunal wherein could be judicially determined what had best be done for neglected.
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dependent and delinquent children; and to his efforts, his zeal and experience more than to any other person is due the painstaking, in- telligent, humane and tender care which juvenile courts now exercise concerning the multitude of juvenile waifs living, growing and dying about us. Of him most truly is it said "Justum virum fortiter in re."
The Cook county probate court dates from 1877, when it was established under the law granting such a court to counties with more than 70,000 population. The first judge of the probate court was Joshua C. Knickerbocker. Thoroughly versed in the primary duties of his position, he also did much to uphold the power and scope of the court during the first years when the existence and rights of the court were in dispute.
In 1878 Judge Knickerbocker received a law student in his office at Chicago. This aspirant for the legal profession was at that time
CHARLES S. and had been since 1874, principal of the high school
CUTTING. at Palatine, in Cook county. Previous to that he had been assistant editor on the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Times, having begun that work shortly after finishing his education in a high school and at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. He continued two years as a student with Judge Knicker- bocker, whom he regards as one of his ablest advisers and guides of his early years, and in 1880 was admitted to the bar.
As a lawyer Mr. Cutting soon made a record that fulfilled the anticipations of his friends, who had regarded his success as high school principal and newspaper man as a guarantee that he would achieve something worthy in the law. His early practice was prob- ably as varied in the civil law as that of any lawyer in the city. He was retained in many important suits, involving many diverse cases of law. He represented the town of Cicero in its long course of liti- gation with the municipality of Chicago. From 1887 to 1890 he was master of chancery for the Cook county circuit court. In 1890 C. C. Kohlsaat was elected judge of the probate court for Cook county. By re-election he held this office until he was elevated to the federal bench in 1899. To fill Judge Kohlsaat's unexpired term Mr. Cut- ting, whose unqualified success as a lawyer and recognized prominence as a citizen recommended him for the place, was appointed, and at the regular election in 1902 he was retained in office by a popular majority. In 1906 his plurality was nearly sixty thousand, the larg-
Carls S.Cung
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ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
THENEWYORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND FILDEN FOUNDATIONS
Hesterne,
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est of any of the Republican candidates of that year. Judge Cut- ting's thorough integrity has never been questioned, but all who have become familiar with his record as probate judge have had occasion to remark and admire his positive impartiality. His mental poise is perfect, and though his attitude while on the bench is judicially strict, approaching almost to sternness. among friends he displays a per- sonality of rare charm and versatility. In January, 1907, the Union League Club elected him president, and he is well known for his ac- tivity in various other organizations. He belongs to the Chicago Bar Association and the Law Club, and is a prominent Mason; has membership in the Hamilton, City, The Oaks (Austin), Twentieth Century and Westward Ho Golf clubs. During his residence at Pala- tine, Cook county, he was a member of the board of education, and has been a member of the Cook county board of education nine years, serving as its president at this time and having held the same position once before.
In all his career of varied activities Judge Cutting has succeeded along the direct line of his purposes, and has impressed his influence on numerous positions and endeavors. Of a worthy New England family, he is a son of Charles A. and Laura E. Cutting, and was born at Highgate Springs, Vermont, March 1, 1854. Most of his boy- hood was passed in the far west, where he obtained his literary edu- cation. The degree of LL. D. of the University of Michigan was con- ferred on Judge Cutting June 20, 1907. Since entering practice in 1880 he has been a member of the following law firms: Tagert and Cutting ; Williamson and Cutting ; Cutting and Austin ; Cutting, Aus- tin and Higgins; Cutting, Austin and Castle; Cutting and Castle, and Cutting, Castle and Williams. Judge Cutting married, in 1886, An- nie E. Lytle. They have one son, Robert M.
Thomas Hoyne. the elder, gave his strength, mind, heart and soul to the upbuilding of Chicago from the period of his early manhood
THOMAS HOYNE. until he was so suddenly snatched away in a vigor- ous old age. He was one of the fathers of the city, who assisted in laying its material foundation broad and deep, and at the same time gave his best efforts toward the es- tablishment of an honest public administration. His nature was both practical and ideal, and founded upon a fine enthusiasm based upon common sense. It was such men as he that Chicago needed in the
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early times, and to them, more than to all else, must be credited the remarkable impetus which the city acquired even in the pioneer per- iod, and fortunately has never lost.
The parents of Thomas Hoyne were Patrick and Eleanor M. Hoyne, who were obliged to leave Ireland about 1815 because of the husband's pronounced political views regarding the British gov- ernment and his unvarnished presentation of them. The refugees found an asylum in the city of New York, where their son, Thomas, was born on the IIth of February, 1817. He obtained his early edu- cation at the Catholic school attached to St. Peter's church, and while quite young was apprenticed to a manufacturer. This latter fact proved fortunate, as the boy was left an orphan at an early age and thrown entirely upon his own resources for a livelihood. Rather spurred than disheartened by such adversity, the youth not only faithfully performed his work as an apprentice, but joined the Liter- ary Association, which included in its membership such men as Hor- ace Greeley, George Manierre and Charles P. Daly. Illustrative of his attractive personality, even at this early period of his life, is the fact that, notwithstanding his firm faith in Catholicism, which was a tradition of his family as far as it could be traced, his stanchest friend, adviser and assistant at this time was Rev. Dr. Archibald Maclay, a Baptist minister, who loved and treated him as a son. It was amid such surroundings and in such a school that Thomas Hoyne acquired the rudiments of that art which, combined with his perfect · sincerity and manliness, made him in later years one of the most charming speakers and most telling orators who ever did honor to Chicago. As an apprentice he also attended two night schools, in one of which he made a special study of English grammar and elocution, and in the other gave particular attention to Greek and Latin. When he was eighteen years of age young Hoyne became a clerk in a large jobbing house in order to earn money to continue his education, and in 1836 began the study of the law in the office of Hon. John Brin- · kerhoff.
The reports of his fellow debater and old friend, George Ma- nierre, who had been a resident of Chicago for two years, were of such an encouraging nature that Mr. Hoyne decided to join him in the raw young city of the sloughs and plains. Late in the year 1837 he started for the west, at Detroit boarding the brig "John H. Kin-
.
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zie" for Chicago. Two weeks of a tempestuous voyage brought him to the Lake House dock, he crossed the muddy Chicago river by way of the Dearborn street bridge (raised by chains and a crank), and soon was in the large upper room of the wooden court house in ear- nest consultation with Mr. Manierre, who was clerk of the circuit court, and found a way to have Mr. Hoyne assist him at ten dollars per week. They both continued active participation in literary mat- ters, through the local society, and Mr. Hoyne devoted his "spare hours" to the study of Latin and French. In the autumn of 1838 he took charge of a public school on West Lake street, when he first met Jolin Wentworth, as school inspector, but soon afterward en- tered the law office of J. Young Scammon as a student. Both of these men, so many years bitter personal enemies, continued during his lifetime the warm friend of Mr. Hoyne; this faculty he possessed, in a remarkable degree, of cementing and holding the friendship of the most diverse characters.
Mr. Hoyne was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1839, and from that time until his death, except during the two years spent at Ga- lena, he practiced his profession in Chicago, making a brilliant record at the Cook county bar and often appearing before the supreme court of Illinois and the United States supreme court. He early associated himself with Benjamin F. Ayer, and in January, 1864, Oliver H. Horton entered the partnership, of which Thomas M. Hoyne, the son, became a member in 1867, the style of the firm being thus changed to Hoyne, Horton and Hoyne. The firm remained un- changed until the death of its senior member.
Soon after coming to Chicago, Thomas Hoyne became acquaint- ed with Dr. John T. Temple, an early practitioner and an enterpris- ing and public-spirited man. At that time he was well known as the proprietor of the Temple building, but in later years as the father- in-law of Mr. Hoyne, whose daughter, Miss Leonora M. Temple, became Mrs. Hoyne. The marriage occurred September 17, 1840, and soon afterward, on account of the stringency of the times in Chicago, Mr. Hoyne took his young bride to Galena, Illinois, as busi- ness in the lead-mine district was still flourishing. While there, his son. Thomas M. Hoyne was born, but after two years in that re- gion the family returned to Chicago and made the city thereafter their permanent home.
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