USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume II > Part 31
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On New Year's day of 1895 Mr. Cameron was united in mar- . riage with Miss Anna M. Iverson and they have had three children- Alan C., Juliette A. and Anita C .- of whom the second named is de- ceased. From 1869 to 1896 Mr. Cameron lived in Chicago, but since the latter year his home has been in Riverside, of which village he was a trustee from 1901 to 1905, and was elected president in 1905
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and re-elected in 1907. Otherwise, he has never been an office holder or candidate for any public position.
The law practice of Mr. Cameron has not been confined to any special or narrow field, but has been of a broad and general charac- ter, and his advice is sought by a number of the leading business in- terests of Chicago.
Howard O. Sprogle, LL. B., J. B., was born at Franklin, Penn- sylvania, August 1, 1855. While still a little boy his parents re-
moved to Philadelphia, and later to Illinois, where HOWARD O. his father was engaged in business as a banker. He
SPROGLE.
was educated at St. Ignatius College and the old Chicago University. After a year spent in Europe he took up the study of law in the office of Hoyne, Horton and Hoyne, Chicago, concluding his law studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Phila- delphia, where he was admitted to the bar in January, 1878, and began the practice of law. In 1879 Mr. Sprogle went to Denver, Colorado, where he became assistant district attorney. He was act- ing district attorney at Leadville during the height of that great min- ing camp's, boom. After the several years in Colorado he returned to Philadelphia and later practiced in Virginia for a while.
In 1890 Mr. Sprogle married Ema Katherine Hopson of Chi- ยท cago. In 1893 he removed with his family from Philadelphia to Chicago. When Charles S. Deneen was elected state's attorney in 1896 Mr. Sprogle became assistant state's attorney and for seven years was in charge of the grand juries, besides being engaged in trial work. In 1903 he was nominated for the circuit court bench and was defeated with the rest of the Republican ticket at the judi- cial election that year. At the end of the same year he resigned from the state's attorney's office and engaged in private practice. He was also on the independent judicial ticket, headed by ex-judge Gwynne Garnett, for the municipal bench in 1906.
Many of the provisions of the new municipal code were drafted by Mr. Sprogle at the request of the Civic Federation, and the com- pilers of the code. He has been a member of the executive commit- tee of the Civic Federation for several years and in that connection has been identified with the proposed legislation for jury and revenue reform. He is professor of the law of crimes at the Chicago Law
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School and assistant professor of medical jurisprudence at the Amer- ican College of Medicine and Surgery.
Mr. Sprogle is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association and of the Chicago Bar Association. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Shrine. His family consists of a wife and three children, two daughters and a son.
William Sidney Elliott, Jr., was one of the ablest, most suc- cessful and kindly lawyers ever engaged in the practice of criminal
WILLIAM S. law in Chicago. Quiet, determined and industri-
ELLIOTT, JR. ous, at the same time a brilliant and original speak-
er, he possessed a convincing directness, which made him a remarkable advocate and a strong citizen of Chicago. Mr. Elliott was a native of Niles, Michigan, son of William Sidney and Caroline (Morse) Elliott, and was born at Niles, Michigan, on the Ist of May, 1849. One of his famous ancestors was John Eliot, the Indian missionary.
When he was eight years of age his parents moved from Michi- gan to Quincy, Illinois, where he received an education in the public schools and at a local academy. At the age of sixteen he was obliged to leave school and take a clerkship in a Quincy bank, which he held for about four years. Coming to Chicago in March, 1869, he imme- diately secured a position with the old State Insurance Company. At the end of a year's service with that company, the young man opened an office of his own in the line of insurance brokerage. For ten years thereafter he conducted one of the largest and most prosperous enter- prises of the kind in the city. As his financial condition now enabled him to prepare himself for a legal career, and his inclination in that direction had been warmly encouraged by Luther Laflin Mills, his friend, in 1879 he entered the office of the late Emery A. Storrs to take up his professional studies. He continued there for three years as a student, in 1882 was admitted to the Illinois bar and was at once received into partnership by his former preceptor. Quite dis- similar in temperament, but close friends and unfeigned admirers of each other's distinctive abilities, the two formed an ideal firm, and continued associated until Mr. Storr's death in 1887.
Soon after the death of his friend and partner Mr. Elliott was ap- pointed assistant state's attorney under Judge Longenecker, and dur-
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ing the five years in which he held the office he conducted nearly six thousand cases. This is considered the best record yet made in the conduct of that office, and his resignation called forth the warmest words of praise and regret from the bench, bar and press of the city. Despite his notable successes of later years, there was probably no lawyer in Chicago who assumed more cases for the conduct of which he neither asked nor expected financial compensation.
Mr. Elliott's manner of pleading a case differed greatly from the ordinary. He rarely prepare 1 a brief or quoted authorities, but de- pended largely upon gaining the sympathy of the judge and jury by the intrinsic merits of his cause. He made the case of his client a personal one with each juror, compelling him to feel that it was his own, and when he had finished the jury was won as a body. Per- haps his magnetic influence did not wholly lie in what he said, for, associated with his words were a splendid physique and a glowing countenance which few could resist. Mr. Elliott's death occurred on the 23rd of February, 1908, at his residence, No. 767 West Adams street.
The deceased was one of the early promoters of the Apollo Music Club of Chicago, whose fame became widely extended. He was a favored leader in the fraternities, having been a Knight Templar Mason and a Shriner; regent of Garden City Council, Royal Arcan- um ; president of Stephen A. Douglas Council. National Union ; arch- on of Alpha Council. Royal League: first chief ranger of the An- cient Order of Foresters of America. He was an earnest and an active Republican, and a remarkably strong campaign orator, but never held office. He was also a member of the Illinois, Menoken, Marquette. Hamilton and Lincoln clubs.
On the 14th of October. 1871. Mr. Elliott was united in marriage with Miss Alinda Caroline Harris, daughter of James and Salome Harris, of Janesville, Wisconsin, and' the children born to them are as follows: Lorenzo B., Daniel Morse, Emery S .. Jessie Florence. Berdie Leon and Charles Sumner (now deceased). The widow and five children survive the death of their beloved and honored husband and father, two of the sons. Lorenzo B. and Daniel M. Elliott, being practicing lawyers and for a number of years associated with the elder under the firm name of W. S. Elliott and Sons.
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Perhaps no name is better known in the legal profession of Cook county than is the name of the subject of this sketch, Hon. William
WILLIAM J. J. Hynes. For over thirty years he has held a com-
manding position at the bar in the city of Chicago, HYNES. and his fame as a great trial lawyer has extended generally throughout the country. His skill as a cross-examiner, and the convincing style of his eloquence as a pleader at the bar have been the subjects of comment and admiration among his professional brethren for many years. Indeed, it is a circumstance worthy of note, that while Mr. Hynes' professional duties have brought him constantly into the activities of trial work where controversy and contention between opposing counsel necessarily prevail, his great- est admirers, among his professional brethren, have been those who at one time and another have had occasion to meet him at the bar and feel the force of his power as opposing counsel in the case.
Mr. Hynes, like so many of our great lawyers, is a native of the Emerald Isle-"the land of wit, wisdom and eloquence," having been born at Kilkee, in the county Clare, on the 31st day of March, 1842, and was the only son of Thomas and Catherine (O'Shea) Hynes. His father, who was a well-known architect and builder, died when he was six years old, and five years later (1853) his mother brought the family to the United States, settling at Springfield, Massachu- setts. Here the boy regularly attended school until the necessity of assisting in the support of the family compelled him to seek employ- ment, which he found in the office of the Springfield Republican, a well-known newspaper of that place. The fact that he was thus obliged by a sense of duty to give up school and seek employment did not force him to abandon his purpose of acquiring an education or discourage him in his plan to ultimately fit himself for the legal profession, and consequently, while he was thus engaged in the news- paper office and advancing step by step in newspaper work, he was likewise engaged in pursuing his school studies outside of working hours, and by his industry and aptitude he was able to complete the regular high school course, while continuing his employment in the newspaper office. The advantage to one who is equal to it of thus combining a regular course of study with newspaper work, which is in itself both educational and practical, is apparent, and found marked expression in the subsequent life of this young man, who thus 'early
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learned that the things worth having are worth striving for, and that the efforts put forth in surmounting obstacles give increased strength to the forces that produce success.
The responsibilities that rested upon his young shoulders at this time prevented him from immediately continuing his studies for ad- mission to the bar, so he continued for the time in newspaper work. in which field of endeavor his splendid abilities gained him 'wide recognition as a clear thinker and forceful writer upon the current topics of the day.
It was during this period of his career that he developed the great powers of oratory for which he has since become noted, and although quite young in years, acquired an extensive reputation as an orator of great force and persuasive power. His ambition, how- ever, was centered upon the practice of the law as his life work, and as soon as he found his way clear to do so, he laid down his news- paper work and entered the Columbian University Law School, at Washington, D. C., where he pursued his legal studies with the same diligence that marked his previous studies, until his admission to the bar in 1870.
After his admission to the bar, Mr. Hynes, following the custom of young lawyers of that day, turned his face to the west in search of "an opening," and finally located at Little Rock, Arkansas, as a likely place in which to "hang out his shingle." Here his talents met with immediate recognition, and it was not long before he was in the enjoyment of a good law practice, and at the same time active- ly engaged in politics, as was the practice of lawyers in those days.
Mr. Hynes had always been a warm admirer of Horace Greeley, and heartily endorsed the movement headed by such men as the great editor of the New York Tribune, Charles Sumner, and Carl Schurz. He became very prominent in support of the reform move- ment headed by these great men, which led to his being nominated and elected in 1872 upon the Greeley ticket as a congressman-at- large from the state of Arkansas. In 1874 he was re-elected to Con- gress by popular vote of the electors of the district created by the legislature, but a so-called constitutional convention called by the de- posed Governor Baxter passed an ordinance restricting the state, and his "government," supported by an armed force, refused and
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failed to return the votes cast in the legislative district, thus depriv- ing Mr. Hynes of the legal evidence of his election.
With the broadening of his experience he felt, after his term in Congress, that he would like a wider field in which to pursue the practice of his profession, and while he was considering whether he should locate in New York City or Chicago, he received and accepted an invitation to come to Chicago and deliver a Memorial Day_address. The encouragement that he received on that occasion to locate in Chicago determined his mind in favor of the latter city, and he ac- cordingly came here in 1875, and formed a partnership with the late Chief Justice Walter B. Scates. He was subsequently for several years at the head of the firm of Hynes, English & Dunne. The great success that has crowned his efforts as a lawyer since coming to Chi- cago can certainly leave no room for regret on his part, although it is fair to presume that his high talents and capabilities would have brought him equal, if not greater, success in the great metropolis of the east, had fortune turned him thither.
His success at the bar in Cook county was almost immediate. At the time he came here there was a coterie of lawyers practicing at the bar, whose great legal acumen, eloquence and brilliancy of wit made it seem as though there was little room at the top of the pro- fession for another, and yet, within a short time after Mr. Hynes' advent, it was made manifest to all that a new star had been added to the brilliant galaxy that was destined to shine with undimmed lus- ter long after the others, one by one, had ceased to illumine the pro- fession. To enumerate all of the interesting cases in which Mr. Hynes took a leading part as counsel on one side or the other since coming to Chicago would be to catalogue a majority of the celebrated cases that have been tried in and around Cook county during the last thirty years. Although devoting himself chiefly to civil practice he has equally distinguished himself in both the criminal and civil courts, and has displayed rare skill in the handling of litigation, whatever happened to be its nature.
During the past twenty years or more he has been the leading trial lawyer of the Chicago City Railway Company and is the attorney of record for that corporation in all of its vast amount of litigation. In times past some of the cases which are still well remembered by the public, in which Mr. Hynes took a distinguished part' as counsel
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are the C. B. & Q. R. R. dynamiters case, and the first trial of the Dr. Cronin murder case, in both of which cases Mr. Hynes was leading counsel for the state. And within the last couple of years some of the cases which attracted wide attention are the beef trust case and the John R. Walsh case in the federal courts, in both of which he appeared for the defense, and the condemnation proceed- ings involving millions of dollars instituted by the C. & N. W. R. R. Co. for the condemnation of land for the site for its new depot, in which litigation he appeared for the railroad company.
While Mr. Hynes has devoted himself to the practice of his pro- fession he has always taken a keen interest in the land of his birth, and from his early youth he has been prominently identified with movements in this country and Ireland seeking the freedom of his native home from English misrule. In times past his oratory was never quite so eloquent as when he was upon the rostrum pleading Ireland's cause, and during the activity of the Irish movement in this country some years ago, his voice was heard in behalf of Ireland in every part of the country. He freely gave his heart and talents to what he believed to be a just cause, and still has an abiding faith that he will live to see the hope of his youth fulfilled and Ireland take her place among the nations of the world.
In religious affiliation Mr. Hynes has always been and is a devout and consistent member of the Roman Catholic church. He belongs to a number of social organizations and clubs, among which may be mentioned the Chicago Athletic Association, the South Shore Coun- try Club, the Chicago Golf Club and the Chicago Historical Society, in most of which he has served in an official capacity.
Mr. Hynes was married in September, 1871, to Miss Jennie Way, daughter of Judge George B. Way, of Ohio, and his domestic life has always been in keeping with his high character as a citizen and a man.
Sidney Corning Eastman, who has been a member of the Chicago bar since the 4th of July: 1876, was born in a house on Dearborn
SIDNEY C. street, where the Tribune building now stands, on
January 26, 1850. Of New England Puritan an- EASTMAN. cestry. his father was Zebina Eastman, originally from North Amherst, Massachusetts, and long prominent in public and business affairs in Chicago. Zebina Eastman was one of the pio-
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neers of the Chicago press and a leader in the anti-slavery movement in the northwest. He edited the Western Citizen between 1840 and 1850. His mother was Mary Jane Corning, of Burlington, Vermont. Mr. Eastman first attended school in the Jones school, on Harrison street, where many other well-known Chicagoans learned their first lessons. In 1861, his father having been appointed consul at Bristol, England, by President Lincoln, he lived in that city until 1869 and in the meantime prepared for college. One winter was spent in study at Geneva, Switzerland. On his return to the United States he en- tered Michigan University and was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1873. He then took up the study of law, at first in the office of Gookins and Roberts, and later with the late Judge Daniel L. Shorey, being admitted to the Illinois bar on July 4, 1876. In December, 1898, he was appointed referee in bankruptcy by Judge Peter S. Grosscup, of the federal judicial district of Northern Illi- nois, and has served since by reappointments from Judges C. C. Kohl- saat, Kenesaw M. Landis, and S. H. Bethea. Mr. Eastman was one of the founders of the Chicago Union League Club, and is also a member of the Hamilton, the Glen View Golf, Caxton, Law and Church clubs, and the American Bar Association, the Illinois Bar Association and the Cook County Bar Association; also a member of the Psi Upsilon Society of Michigan University. Mr. Eastman mar- ried, June 9, 1886, Miss Charlotte Hall, daughter of Israel Hall, of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Their home is in Kenilworth.
Charles Henry Aldrich, ex-solicitor general of the United States, has for more than twenty years been a leading practitioner of the Chicago bar and has long been placed among the
CHARLES H. ALDRICH. lawyers of national repute. He was born on a farm in Lagrange county, Indiana, son of Hamilton M. and Harriet (Sherwood) Aldrich. The years of his early youth were spent in farm work and in acquiring an education such as was af- forded by the district schools of agricultural communities, but when he was sixteen his parents determined to give their children better educational advantages than these, and for this purpose removed to Orland, Steuben county, Indiana.
As Charles H. was of an especially studious temperament, the placing of such superior opportunities within his reach proved detri- mental to his health and, fearing the consequences, his father refused
harles Flemich.
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to furnish him with the means for pursuing a college course. But the determined and ambitious youth left home, worked for his board, prepared for college, and had partially completed his course at the University of Michigan, when an interested friend advanced him suf- ficient funds to finish it without subjecting himself to such a con- tinnous strain, and continued his practical assistance during the course of his professional studies. Mr. Aldrich finished his classical course at the University of Michigan in 1875 and in 1893 his alma mater conferred upon him the second degree, that of Master of Arts. Admitted to the bar in 1876, he commenced the practice of his pro- fession at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and at once won a good standing. At this period of his career he was honored with the friendship of such distinguished members of the Indiana bar as Thomas A. Hen- dricks, Colonel Abram Hendricks, Benjamin Harrison, W. H. H. Miller, Joseph E. McDonald, John M. Butler, Oscar B. Hord, Noble E. Butler, W. P. Fishback, R. S. Taylor and Allen Zollars. In 1884 he was urged to become a candidate for the office of attorney general of Indiana and, although he made no canvass in his own behalf, he lacked but a few votes of receiving the nomination.
In April, 1886, Mr. Aldrichi came to Chicago, and by tacit con- sent took his place among the leading lawyers of the western metro- polis. In 1890 he was appointed special counsel for the United States in its Pacific railroad litigations, growing out of the so-called Ander- son act. He was successful in both cases, which he argued in the cir- cuit courts of Nebraska and California, being opposed by some of the leading counsel of the country, and the notable outcome led to his selection as solicitor general of the United States to succeed Wil- liam H. Taft, who, in 1891, was appointed a judge of the United States court of appeals. In the position named Mr. Aldrich's name is especially associated with the famous Chinese, Cherokee and Hat- trimming cases, in two of which he won decided victories in the face of masterly opposition, and in the other his argument was said by a member of the supreme court to have been one of the most note- worthy ever addressed to that tribunal. The opinion prepared by Mr. Aldrich upon the power of the national government in matters of public health and quarantine regulations, and also that on the scope and effect of the election law, showed a broad grasp of facts and prin- ciples and met the cordial approval of those most competent to judge,
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while his opinion that the administration might issue bonds to main- tain resumption and keep the money of the United States at par, was practically adopted and acted upon during President Cleveland's sec- ond administration. Since retiring from the office of solicitor general to engage in private practice, Mr. Aldrich has been several times re- tained by the United States in important and intricate litigation, and his large practice is now almost confined to the federal courts. He also participated in the discussion of the constitutional questions grow- ing out of the war with Spain and won notable victories in the Insular and Kepner cases. His reputation is national and his leadership is acknowledged by the professional associations with which he is iden- tified, such as the American Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association.
Although the scope of his professional work has always been broad, Mr. Aldrich has given close consideration to the civic, social and municipal problems of his resident city. Since coming to Chi- cago he has been a member of the Civic Federation and has never omitted an opportunity to do what he could toward the improvement of the municipality. Both on local and national issues he believes that the most good comes from a consistent support of the Republican party. He is a leading member of the Union League, of which he has served as vice president. On the 13th of October. 1875, Mr. Aldrich was united in marriage with Miss Helen Roberts and they are the parents of three children, who have been most carefully educated in the best schools of this country.
Frank Ira Bennett, for the past ten years representative of the Seventh ward in the city council, and as chairman of the finance
FRANK I. committee being the most powerful member of that
BENNETT. body, well known in real estate and busines affairs,
was born on a farm in Henry county, Illinois, near Galva, October 17, 1858. His father was the late John I. Bennett, for many years one of the leading members of the Illinois bar, moving from Galva to Chicago, and for a long time was master in chancery in the United States courts and held other positions of honor and trust. His wife was Maria E. (Reynolds) Bennett.
Frank I. Bennett spent most of his boyhood in a country town, where he developed a fondness for outdoor life and sports that has never deserted him. The public schools at Galva and of Hyde Park,
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