USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Historical review of Chicago and Cook county and selected biography, Volume II > Part 32
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Chicago, gave him most of his educational advantages, and after graduation from the Hyde Park high school in 1877 he entered his father's office and began the study of law. He attended lectures at the Union College of Law in 1879, and on examination was ad- mitted to the bar in 1880. Mr. Bennett has lived in Chicago since 1872, and was in active practice until 1890. Since then he has done only an office practice, and gives his attention to the duties of public office and real estate business. On the south side Mr. Bennett has been a leader in promoting the real estate activity and in laying out new subdivisions. He has constructed over 450 homes in Chicago, most of them in the Hyde Park district. He served as assessor for the town of Hyde Park in 1888, and was first elected to the city council in 1897, having recently entered upon his sixth term of service. During his career as alderman he has served as chairman of the judiciary, local transportation and the finance committees, the three most important committees of the council. He has always allied himself with the progressive and really public-spirited element of the council, and by his influence and active efforts has helped in converting the council to a clean, representative civic body. In politics he is Republican.
Mr. Bennett has had membership relations with the Union League, the Hyde Park, the Kenwood, the Woodlawn Park, and Hamilton clubs, the Chicago Bar Association, and is a member of the First Presbyterian church of Hyde Park. He married, in 1884, Miss Anna H. Cortright, daughter of Lewis D. and Melicent G. Cortright, old citizens of Chicago. Their two children are Lewis C., born in 1885, and now attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at Boston, and Ira F., born in 1888, and attending Hobart College, Geneva, New York.
John Paulsen Ahrens, LL. B., for over thirty years engaged in the practice of law in Chicago, was born near Hamburg, Germany, on
JOHN P. the Ist of October, 1851. His parents, Edward A.
and Elizabeth M. (Paulsen) Ahrens, came to
AHRENS. America in 1855, locating in Davenport, Iowa. He was educated in the grammar and high schools of Davenport, and in 1869-72 was a school teacher in Scott county, Iowa.
Mr. Ahrens read law with General Joseph B. Leake of Daven- port (now of Chicago), came to this city in May, 1872, and was ad- Vol. 11-21
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mitted to the bar in June of the following year. In 1882 he was admitted to practice before the United States supreme court. The first three years of his residence in Chicago were spent as deputy clerk in the superior court of Cook county, and in January, 1875, he commenced the practice of his profession here. Until October, 1879, he was alone and from that date until January, 1891, was a member of the firms of Bisbee and Ahrens, and Bisbee, Ahrens and Decker. Since the time mentioned he has been an independent prac- titioner. His office is at No. 70 Dearborn street.
In the beginning of his practice Mr. Ahrens was associated with Rosenthal and Pence, as attorneys for the International Bank in its extensive litigation against Samuel J. Walker. Later he was at- torney for that institution in the suit entitled International Bank versus Anthony, involving the constitutionality of its charter, which the supreme court of Illinois held to be valid, and also represented one of the parties in the case of Howe versus South Park Commis- sioners, this suit involving the title to a large part of Jackson park. As a member of the firm of Bisbee, Ahrens and Decker, he was en- gaged in the litigation against the Chicago Board of Trade to test its right to control its market quotations, which was decided in favor of the board by the lower courts, but adversely to it by the state supreme court. Mr. Ahrens was attorney for the plaintiff in Pick- ering versus Lomax, involving the title to a large tract of Indian lands in Robinson's Reserve, under a treaty between the United States and the United Nation of Chippewa, Ottawa and Pottawata- mie Indians, which provided that the lands should never be leased or conveyed by the Indians or their heirs to any persons whatever without the permission of the president of the United States. The principal question in the case was as to the legal effect of the ap- proval by the president of a deed by the Indian long after that instru- ment was delivered (under which Pickering claimed title through mesne conveyances), the contention of the plaintiff being that the subsequent approval by the president had the same effect as if the deed had been approved by him before it was delivered. The case was decided adversely to the plaintiff by the superior court of Cook county and by the state supreme court, but the United States supreme court reversed the decision of the latter tribunal, and the case was remanded to the superior court for a new trial. On the second trial
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the defendant produced a subsequent deed from the same Indian, which had also the approval of the president ; but the approval of this deed was subsequent to the approval of that under which Pickering claimed title. But Pickering's approved deed was not recorded in the recorder's office until after the recording of the subsequent Indian deed, which had also been approved by the president. On the second trial the superior court decided in favor of the plaintiff, which action was affirmed by the Illinois supreme court. The defendant then took
JOHN P. AHRENS.
the case to the United States supreme court, where it was finally de- cided in favor of the plaintiff. Pickering. Mr. Ahrens was also one of the attorneys for E. B. Leigh in the recent litigation between him and Henry D. Laughlin, in a large number of suits in both the state and federal courts, including the appellate and supreme courts of Illinois, the United States circuit court of appeals and the United States supreme court.
Besides being engaged in a substantial and important practice, Mr. Ahrens is an able and popular lecturer in the Chicago Law School, and is an active member of the Chicago Bar Association and
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the Chicago Law Institute. Fraternally, he belongs to the Masons, the Royal Arcanum (of which he served as grand regent of Illinois during 1885-6), Royal League and the National Union. He is a member of the First Baptist church of Chicago and in politics is a" Republican.
On October 24, 1877, Mr. Ahrens was united in marriage with Miss Fannie Hamblin, daughter of Edward and Mary J. Hamblin. Her father was a prominent wholesale merchant of Portland, Maine, and upon his retirement from business in 1871 came to Chicago, where he died in July, 1880, at the age of sixty-eight years. Mrs. Hamblin also died in this city, surviving her husband until June, 1902, when she had reached the age of eighty-four. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Ahrens are as follows: Edith L., now the wife of Robert E. Kenyon; Leila M., Edward H. and John P. Ahrens, Jr. Mrs. Ahrens is a native of Portland, Maine, has received a liberal education, has been for many years an active worker in the First Baptist church of Chicago, and is in every way a valued mem- ber of the community.
Morton Taylor Culver is a leading lawyer of Chicago, influen- tially identified with the civic administration of his resident village of
MORTON T. Glencoe. He is a native of Chicago, born on the
CULVER. 2nd of December, 1870, to Morton and Eugenia M.
(Taylor) Culver, and received his preparatory edu- cation in. the public schools of Glencoe, whither his family moved when he was quite young. After a preliminary course at Northwest- ern University Academy, he entered the law department (then known as the Union College of Law), from which he was graduated in 1890 with the degree of LL. B.
Mr. Culver was admitted to the Illinois bar by the state supreme court in January, 1892, and at once entered into active practice with his father, Morton Culver, and his brother, Harry N. Culver, engag- ing also in the real estate business. Two years afterward the father retired, the real estate branch was discontinued, and the new law partnership then formed by the two brothers continued until 1898, when Harry N. Culver withdrew for service in the Spanish-American war, after which, for several years, Morton T. practiced alone. He is now senior member of Culver, Byron and Culver, which was or-
Thorton Pulver
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ganized in 1908. Ilis early training in his father's office and his later experience as a practitioner have peculiarly adapted him to real estate law, which is his specialty and in which he is an acknowledged expert. His practice has been so largely devoted to this field, and with such success, that he has had the handling of many important estates and in the interest of his clients, deals considerably in city real estate and farm property in Illinois and neighboring states. Mr. Culver's offices are now in the Stock Exchange building.
For nearly ten years Mr. Culver was a leading member of the First Regiment, Illinois National Guards, joining that command in 1887. In 1894 he served as a sergeant in Company L, during the Pana and Pullman strikes. During all this period he was noted for his fine marksmanship and qualified as a distinguished sharp- shooter within a short time after his. enlistment.
In politics Mr. Culver is a Republican, and from April, 1900. to April, 1902, served as president of the village of Glencoe, where he has resided for so many years. He has also been attorney for the village for about ten years. Outside of his professional relations, he was for several years president of the Law Publishing Company, and is well known in legal publishing circles.
At Geneva, Illinois, on the 17th of June, 1899, Mr. Culver was united in marriage with Florence M., daughter of Thomas Hawkes. at one time a prominent architect of this city. He is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association, a life member of the Press Club of Chicago, and also belongs to the Masonic and Royal Arcanum fraternities, being a member of A. O. Fay Lodge No. 676, A. F. and A. M., Highland Park; Evanston Chapter No. 144, R. A. M .: as well as "I Will" Council, Royal Arcanum, Chicago. He is also identified with Unity Council, National Union, of Evanston, and the Central Y. M. C. A.
"True success, such as Mr. Culver has won," says a just review of his career, "does not come to a man possessed of ability and perse- verance alone. Back of these necessary qualifications must be de- votion to clients, and honesty of purpose which looks beyond the mere winning of one case to the client's future. Counsel and advice which money cannot pay for and which never appear in the attorney's bill for services, must be ever present."
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Edward P. Eastman, second member of the widely known law firm of Eastman, Eastman and White, of Chicago, was born on a
EDWARD P. farm in Sheffield, Ashtabula county, Ohio, on the 17th of May, 1868. The earlier members of the EASTMAN. family located in New York, the paternal grand- parents, Porter J. and Phoebe C. Eastman, migrating from the Em- pire state to Ohio in 1832. In early life the grandfather gave his attention to farming and stock raising, realizing a sufficient com- petency for himself and family in the declining years of his life. He was a high-minded citizen, of independent ideas, and was a stanch Abolitionist and supporter of the "underground railway" when it involved considerable personal risk to be thus identified. The maternal grandparents, Nathan and Lucy (Whitney) Parrish, were pioneers of Ashtabula county, Ohio, the former being a leading merchant of that county. The parents of Edward P. Eastman are Henry A. and Sarah F. (Parrish) Eastman, his father crossing the isthmus of Panama in 1852 as one of the early adventurers into the California gold fields. Having met with fair success, he came to Chicago in the sixties and, with his cousin, Edward P. Eastman, founded the Metro- politan Business College, located in the old Metropolitan Block. In 1872 he became a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, and for many years was identified with that institution, but, like many others, he left that exciting field in favor of more quiet lines of business.
Edward P. Eastman acquired his early education in the public schools of Kingsville and Ashtabula, Ohio, and then entered the high school of the latter city, but left during the last year of the course to enter business. For a short time he was employed in the freight department of the Lake Shore Railroad at Cleveland, Ohio, coming to Chicago in 1886 to become identified with the Chicago Trust & Savings Bank. This latter service, however, he considered only tem- porary, as he now only awaited the opportunity to enter the office of some member of the bar. His wish was realized through the firm of Clifford, Smith and Frye, and in 1889, while still in their employ, he was admitted to practice before the appellate court.
In the year following his admission to the Illinois bar Mr. East- man became connected with the office of George W. Woodbury, with whom he remained until 1892, when he formed a partnership with John J. Schwarz, the firm opening offices in the Unity building
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Clyde Z. Day
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under the name of Eastman and Schwarz. This partnership existed until 1894, when the senior member was appointed by Abijah Cooper (then clerk of the probate court ) as one of the assistants to Christian C. Kohlsaat, judge of that bench. In this capacity Mr. Eastman served four years, following which he formed a partnership with his brother, Albert N. Eastman, under the style of Albert N. and Edward P. Eastman, with offices in the Woman's Temple. This part- nership continued until 1905, when by the admission of Harold F White the firm was constituted as at present. Since coming to Chicago as a young man, Mr. Eastman has been closely and actively identified with the Republican party. In national elections he has always voted the party ticket, but in municipal affairs bases his sup- port upon the individual qualifications of the candidates for office. He is a life member of both the Hamilton and Press clubs of Chi- cago, and a progressive and liberal-minded citizen. In 1895 he mar- ried Helen A. Baker, daughter of Rev. Dillon P. and Mary C. Baker, whose parents were old residents of Du Page county and Whiteside county, Illinois.
Clyde L. Day, assistant corporation counsel of the city of Chi- cago, is a native of Paxton, Illinois, born on the 25th of June, 1869.
CLYDE L. His father, Samuel L. Day, is a native of Ohio, an
DAY. old settler of Paxton, the first circuit clerk of the
county and a prominent citizen in many respects. Both he and his wife are now residents of Chicago. Their three sons are also all living here, viz. : Mark L., Fred L. and Clyde L. Day.
The last named, who is the youngest of the children, first at- tended the public schools of Paxton, but in 1880, at the age of eleven years, came with his parents and the other members of the family to Chicago. Here he continued his education in both the public and high schools, and in 1885 returned to Paxton and there pursued a course of three years at the Rice College. He then began the study of law in the office of Cook and Moffett of that city, and remained under their tutelage for about two years. In 1889, before he had reached his twentieth year, Mr. Day creditably passed his examina- tion, but was not admitted to the bar until he became of age. June 25, 1891.
Mr. Day at once commenced practice at Paxton, in partnership
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with John H. Moffett, the firm of Moffett and Day transacting a substantial business until 1895, when it was dissolved because of the removal of the junior member to Chicago. Here for six years Mr. Day continued a growing practice alone, in 1901 forming a partner- ship with Samuel E. Knecht, a leading lawyer and since 1903 secre- tary of the State Bank of Chicago, and later was placed in charge of the trust department of that institution, the partnership was dissolved and Mr. Day resumed practice alone. He thus continued until April 15 1907, when he was appointed to his present position as assistant cor. poration counsel. Besides conducting his official and private prac tice in the law, Mr. Day is interested in the firm of Day Brothers, dealers in farm loans, with offices in the Chamber of Commerce build- ing.
In June, 1893. Mr. Day was united in marriage with Miss Mar- garet Gillespie, daughter of Joseph M. Gillespie, one of Chicago's pioneers. Three sons have been born to this union, Mark G., Paul L. and John W. Mr. Day is a Knight Templar and a Royal Arch Mason, belongs to the Chicago Athletic Association, the Hamilton and the South Shore Country clubs, and is an earnest and stanch Re- publican.
Milo Lester Coffeen, member of the firm of Tenney, Coffeen, Harding and Sherman, commenced his professional career in Chi-
M. LESTER cago nearly forty years ago, and both as a lawyer
COFFEEN. and a citizen has earned a substantial and honor-
able reputation. He comes of an old and stanch New England family, his great-grandfather, Captain John Coffeen, removing from Topsfield, Massachusetts, to the Green Mountain state prior to the outbreak of the Revolutionary war. He was the first settler in Cavendish, Vermont, was. an ardent patriot, sat in the first constitutional convention of the state with Cephas Kent, who was the great-grandfather of Horace Kent Tenney, head of the above firm, was repeatedly elected to the legislature, and for many years was one of the most prominent citizens of the commonwealth. Cap tain Coffeen married a Massachusetts lady, and their son, William, was born and married in Cavendish. The son by his union with Abigail Green Lyndes was William L. G. Coffeen. The latter mar- ried Helen E. Lester, daughter of Milo Lester, and at Antwerp,
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Jefferson county, New York, on the 20th of December, 1850, was born their son, Milo Lester Coffeen.
The Coffeen family came to Illinois early in the boyhood of Milo, and he commenced his education in the public schools of Libertyville in 1867-69 pursuing courses in the Waukegan Academy and the Illi- nois Normal School, at Normal. Deciding in favor of the law, how- ever, he became a student in the Union College of Law. Chicago, and after a course covering the years 1869-71 graduated with the degree of LL. B.
While pursuing his studies in the law school Mr. Coffeen was employed in the office of Van Arman and Vallette, and soon after his admission to the bar in the summer of 1871 was appointed to a clerkship in the superior court of Cook county. After the great fire of October hie assisted in restoring the court records, was advanced to be chief deputy clerk and held the latter position until 1879. In the latter year he formed a professional partnership with Emery A. Storrs, the brilliant advocate, and after about a year entered upon an independent practice, which continued until 1887, when he en- tered the firm of Tenney, Bashford and Tenney. Soon afterward George Driggs came into the firm, and soon after his election as judge of the superior court the style was changed to Tenney. Church and Coffeen. In 1895 Judge Samuel P. McConnell resigned from the circuit bench, and his admission to the firm made it Tenney, Mc- Connell, Coffeen and Harding (Charles F.). In 1898 Judge Mc- Connell removed to New York, and subsequently James H. Wilker- son was received as a partner but his retirement in 1907 transformed it to its present style of Tenney, Coffeen, Harding and Sherman, Mr. Roger Sherman taking the place of Mr. Wilkerson. The firm has always transacted a large general business and has appeared in many of the most important cases passed upon by the state and fed- eral courts of Illinois, with marked results as to honorable success.
Personally Mr. Coffeen is a member of the Chicago Bar and the Illinois State Bar associations. Besides performing a large share of the professional work of his firm he is a director and has an in- fluential interest in the Kellogg Switchboard and Supply Company and other corporations. His legal training and current knowledge, along professional lines, make him a typical modern lawyer. He is also widely and deeply read on historical subjects, has carried his
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researches to personal investigation by several visits to the European countries, and is an active member of the Chicago and the American Historical societies.
On the 13th of December, 1877, Mr. Coffeen was united in mar- riage with Miss Martha Martin of Chicago, and their family con- sists of two daughters, Mae and Lester, the former being the wife of Professor Lucius Hopkins Miller, of Princeton University, Prince- ton, New Jersey. Henry Martin Coffeen, the son, graduated from Yale University with the class of 1902, engaged in business in New York City until overcome by illness and died at his father's home in Chicago May 15, 1906. Mr. Coffeen has a handsome city residence at No. 3133 Calumet avenue. His club membership is with the Chicago, City and South Shore Country clubs.
Philip Richard Barnes is one of the able lawyers of Chicago, and also one of its versatile, broad and strong citizens. He was born PHILIP R. BARNES. on an island in the Hudson river, near Albany, New York, on the 5th of June, 1856, son of Samuel and Kate ( Veer) Barnes. His early edu- cation was obtained in the public schools, and he completed his literary training as a graduate of the State Normal School at Oshkosh, Wis- consin, in 1881. Mr. Barnes' career in the educational field was one of continuous advancement and increasing reputation, his successive positions being as follows: Principal of a public school at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and of the Mauston (Wis.) high school, and lecturer on commercial law at Daggett Business College, Oshkosh.
In 1884 Mr. Barnes graduated from the Law School of Union College, Albany, New York, taking the highest honors of his class, and since 1890 has been a resident of Chicago, having made an especially high reputation in medical jurisprudence in its bearing on insanity. He is recognized by the medical colleges as a profound and interesting lecturer in this department, and in his legal capacity has often been called upon both as a counselor and in the active conduct of cases. He has been identified with several noteworthy murder trials in which he has sustained his defense of insanity, and acted as special counsel for the late John Alexander Dowie in the Zion City interests.
In national politics Mr. Barnes is a Republican, but acts inde- pendent of party in the consideration of local affairs. Since its organi-
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zation in 1904, he has been the general counsel of the Cook County Truck Gardeners and Farmers Association, one of the largest and most influential organizations of the kind in the state. It owes its existence to an address which he delivered on the subject several years ago, and he is recognized as one of the most popular speakers in the northwest before farmers' institutes and similar bodies. This reputation, added to his standing as an orator on legal and political subjects, makes his standing as a public speaker unusually broad and high. He is also much interested and is active and influential as a promoter of much beneficial constructive legislation. Locally, he has served as president of the Twenty-seventh Ward Associated Improve- ment Clubs and president of the Dr. Thomas Literary Society and is identified with the Irving Park Country Club. He is liberal in his religious beliefs and was long a member of the Peoples' church, of which Dr. H. W. Thomas was pastor.
On the 3Ist of December, 1895, Mr. Barnes was united in mar- riage with Miss Lola Norman Strong, and their child is Norman R. Mrs. Barnes died December 22, 1904. She was a woman of broad culture and practical philanthropy, being one of the founders of the Emmeline Thomas Day Nursery.
Frederick Anson Brown, a well known lawyer of Chicago, although he has been engaged in practice here for less than a decade,
FREDERICK A. is a native of the state, born at Decatur, on the
9th of August, 1867. He is a son of Josiah and
BROWN. Sarah Elvira Brown, and after receiving a pre- paratory education at home, entered the University of Michigan for the purpose of pursuing a law course. In 1889 he graduated there- from, with the degree of LL. B., and, being admitted to practice at the Illinois bar in that year, began his professional career in the city of his birth.
After practicing for about a year at Decatur, Illinois, Mr. Brown removed to Tacoma, Washington, and there engaged in successful professional labors for some eight years. He removed to Chicago in 1898, and in 1902 formed a partnership with Charles Alling, Jr., and under the firm name of Brown and Alling conducted a business of high grade and substantial proportions until 1904. The con- nection was then dissolved by mutual consent, and Mr. Brown is now alone.
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