History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 64

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875

USA > Illinois > Cook County > History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time > Part 64

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Dighed by Google

260

HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY.

and admitted to the Bar of Illinois January 7, 1857, who removed to Washington about 1864, and became a member of the law firm of Hughes, Denver & l'eck ; Mrs. Edward Wright, and Mrs. Perry Trumbull, an adopted daughter. At the memorial meeting of the Bar, convened May 26, and adjourned tu the 30th, when they again assembled, speeches were made by several of the Judge's late associates, from which are excerpted the following estimates of his character and powers :

" It could be truthfully said of Judge Peck," re- marked Judge Drummond. "that he was an honest, self-reliant man, whose judgment and counsel went rarely astray." " A man," said B. C. Cook, chairman of committee on resolutions, "of carnest convictions and had the courage of his convictions, *

a judge whose decisions will stand as clear, profound, and faithful expositions of the law. * * * He has left the impress of his character upon the eventful time in which he lived. His influence has been marked and bene- ficial in the history of the city, the State and the Nation." * * * "It was fortunate," says Judge Caton, "that he was rarely wrong. Whenever his mind was fully made up on any subject, I never knew him to change it, and this whether it were on a question of law or ethics, the use of a word or the structure of a sentence. * * It was not obstinacy, for he was anxious to be convinced and to agree with us. It was simply con- viction, from which he would not be moved to ohlige anybody." " Judge Peck," says Mr. Ashton, "was no ordinary man. As a lawyer and judge he had few superiors; as an adviser and counselor I doubt if he had his superior. He was not a 'case lawyer,' although when inclined, he was a fine advocate. He was a lawyer in the fullest sense of the term. * * * He always reached his conclusions hy analysis and from principle. * * He disliked the drudgery and routine of the office, but when necessary he could ac- complish as much labor in a short time as any man I ever knew." " Ile was," said Judge Trumbull, "out- spoken in his opinions, and never pretended what he was not. With hypocrisy, shams and deceit he had no patience. He was a man of great kindness of heart, full of sympathy and hospitality. *

* His family circle was one of the happiest and brightest in which it was ever my privilege to mingle. Even in later life, when pain and sorrow came, and his physical system was broken hry disease, his hope and cheerfulness did not forsake him. *

. * He lived a pure life, was kind, true and faithful in all its relations, and died an honest man."

ALONZO HUNTINGTON was born in Shaftsbury. Vt., September 1, 1805. He was a grandson of Amos Hunt- ington, a Captain in the Revolutionary War, and on his mother's side a grand-nephew of Governor Galusha, of Vermont. After receiving his early education in the schools of his native State, he removed, in early man- hood, to western New York, where he worked some years at his trade of mason, and afterward studied law under the Hon. I. T. Hatch, of Buffalo, In 1833, he returned to Vermont, where he married Patience Lorain Dyer, a native of Clarendon, Rutland County, and a sister of the well-known Dr. Charles V. Dyer, of Chi- cago. For two years after his marriage he resided in Wayne County, N. Y., of which Lyons is the county- seat, when he removed to Chicago in the fall of 1835. He was chosen State's Attorney for the Seventh Circuit in 1837, his competitor, Albert G. Leary, a member of the Bar, being rejected by a majority of the General Assembly, because he was himself a member of that

body. In 1839, Mr. Huntington was again chosen State's Attorney. Admitted to the Bar in New York, he is not found enrolled on the list of the Supreme Court of Illinois until January 14. 1840, The most remarka. ble criminal case prosecuted by him was the People Fr. John Stone, for the murder of Mrs. Lucretia Thump- son, at the spring term in 1840, and excited some rhe-

CA. YO untington

torical but undeserved animadversion as a prosecutor of the Press, for performing under the orders of the court the perfunctory duty of entering suit against the editor of the American for contempt. At the expiration of his second term in 1841, he resumed the practice of the profession as a member of the Chicago Bar. As prose. cutor and advocate he was recognized as of great in- dustry rather than great talents, of conscientious fidelity to the interests of his clients rather than oratorical abil- ity, and of unquestioned integrity rather than showy pretension or display of legal lore. In his official posi- tion he wasfairly successful, especially during his second term. To his neighbors and acquaintances he was cor- dial; to his family, kind, generous and self-sacrificing. To stand by his own was the cardinal principle of his life, and in the varied relations of son, brother, husband and father he has seldom been surpassed. He died at his home in Chicago, November 17, 1881, aged seventy- six years. His wife had preceded him twenty years, having died October 23, 1861, aged sixty. They had six children, of whom only two, a son and a daughter, survive. Henry Alonzo Huntington, the son, was born in Chicago, March 23, 1840, served as an officer in the Fourth United States Artillery in the Rebellion, and is

261

THE BENCH AND BAR.

now better known as Major Huntington, of the editorial staff of the Chicago Tribune. The daughter, Frances, born in Chicago October 23, 1844, is the wife of Ben- jamin M. Wilson, of the law firm of Wilson & Collier, of this city.

JONATHAN YOUNG SCAMMON, also a member of the early Bar of Chicago, being admitted December 7, 1835, is sketched in the field of perhaps his greater fame as an early banker.

JOSEPH N. BALESTIER was born in 1815 at Brattle- boro, Vt., whence he emigrated to Chicago some time in 1835. He soon formed a partnership with Thomas R. Hubbard, and the firm is found advertising " money to loan" in the Chicago American of December 5, of that year. Both were recognized as lawyers though neither seems to have taken the trouble to obtain a license to practice in Illinois. In 1836, Mr. Balestier "realized $500 per day," says Harriett Martineau, "by merely making out titles to land."* Hubbard & Balestier ad- appear in the reprinted "directory of 1839." January 21, 1840, Mr. Balestier delivered before the Lyceum his now celebrated lecture " The Annals of Chicago." re- printed in 1876, with an introduction by himself, as No. I of the Fergus Historical Series. On or before Sep- tember 25, 1840, he formed a new partnership with E. Webster Evans, a young lawyer, just arrived from the East. But within a year, September 23, 1841, we find Mr. Balestier advertised as a lawyer at No. 58 Wall Street, New York ; and his Introduction to the Annals, already referred to, is dated Brattleboro, Vt., January 1, 1876, where he now resides.

GEORGE ANSON OLIVER BEAUMONT was born in Columbia, Tolland Co., Conn., about 1811. Reach- ing early manhood, he studied law at the New Haven law school, where he received a diploma, equivalent to a license to practice in the courts of the State. In 1836, accompanied by his inother, widowed in his in- fancy, he removed to Chicago. He formed a partner- ship with Mark Skinner August 6, 1836, and the firm held a respectable rank in the profession. Mr. Beau- mont was not enrolled on the Supreme Court list as a licensed lawyer until December 11, 1839, though prob- ably admitted to the Bar here as early as 1836. In 1842 he was appointed Commissioner in Bankruptcy for Cook County. On February 3, 1842, before the Young Men's Association, he delivered a lecture on " American Literature." In the spring of 1844 his health became impaired, and Mr. Skinner being appointed United States District Attorney, the firm was dissolved that summer. In the ensuing spring Mr. Beaumont was taken by his mother to the home of his youth, but the change did not avail, and he died of softening of the brain, December 18, 1845. He was a tall, slim man, of delicate organization, unfortunately subject from his youth to nervous disorders, which despite a fair intel- lect, an excellent education and industrious habits, re- tarded his professional progress; and although Mr. Beaumont attained respectable rank in the early Bar of Chicago, he made no permanent impression on the pub- lic mind, and his existence is almost forgotten.

FISHER AMES HARDING, a native of Rhode Island, where he was born about 1812, and a graduate of Brown University made a brief sojourn in Chicago as a lawyer, though not on record as admitted to the Bar in Illinois. He is first mentioned here as disputant before the Ly- ceum, February 20, 1836, and next, as partner of Henry

. Mrs. Martineau was very deaf and mistook $go for $500.

Moore, March 12, of the same year. Moore & Hard- ing dissolved May 19, 1837, and Mr. Harding became associated with Fletcher Webster. The firm of Webster & Harding soon removed to Detroit, Mich., where after a few years Mr. Harding became editor of the Detroit Daily Advertiser. He found in journalism a more con- genial sphere, and filled the position of editor with dis- tinguished credit until his early death in 1856.

FLETCHER WEBSTER, a son of Daniel Webster, born in 1812, and a graduate of Dartmouth, was as above stated the head of the law firm of Webster & Harding of Chicago for a brief interval in 1837, while residing at Peru ; but as he was never enrolled among the licensed lawyers of Illinois, and as the firm soon removed to Detroit, his connection with the early Chicago Bar is sufficiently noticed by this brief mention.

HENRY BROWN was born in Hebron, Tolland Co., Conn., May 13, 1789. The father, Daniel, was a commissary in General Greene's division, in the vertised as a firm as late as August 16, 1837, and both . Revolutionary War, and was granted a pension for his services. He provided a liberal academic and collegiate education for at least two of his sons. Henry graduat- ed at Yale, and when of age removed to New York, where he studied law, first at Albany under Abram Van Vechten, afterward at Canadaigua under John Gregg, and finally under his own elder brother, Daniel, at Batavia. Admitted to the Bar ahout 1813, he settled at Cooperstown; and in 1816 was appointed Judge of Herkimer County. After quitting the Bench, about 1824, Judge Brown continued the practice of law in .Cooperstown until he removed to Chicago in 1836, Mr. Brown was elected Justice of the Peace May 20, 1837, THOMAS R. HUBBARD Went to New York about 1839, and became secretary to a banker. vice E. E. Hunter resigned. His son Andrew Jesse, born in Springfield, N. Y., in 1820, arrived in Chicago in 1837, and Mrs. Brown and four daughters followed,

OH my Brown

in 1838. In 1839, his term as Justice expired, and he returned to his profession, to which, and some literary work, he devoted the remainder of his life. He was chosen City Attorney in 1842, and appointed, in 1843, upon the resignation of George Manierre. In March of the later year he announced that he was preparing to publish a history of Illinois, which was issued in New York City in 1844, and on which he had spent a year. His name does not appear on the Illinois list of licen- sed lawyers until February 27, 1845. Later in that year he took into partnership his son, who had studied law with him but had removed to Sycamore, DeKalb County, where he was admitted to the Bar December 27, 1842, and who had returned to Chicago in 1845.

January 20, 1846, Judge Brown as president of the Lyceum, delivered an inaugural on "Chicago, l'resent and Future,"* which has become historic, and which evinces deep thoughtfulness, great breadth of view and a quite marked foresight of Chicago's destiny. He died in 1849, three days after his sixty-first hirthday, of cholera, being the first case in that year, and not sus- pected until after the disease had become epidemic. He was buried with Masonic honors, having stood high for many years in the confidence and respect of that fraternity. One of his earliest literary efforts was a defense of the order against the attacks of the anti- Masonic party, based on the alleged abduction of Mor-

.Published as part of No. 6 of Fergus's Historical Series.

Dighed by Google

262

HISTORY OF COOK COUNTY.

gan and other prejudices. It was published in Batavia while Mr. Brown resided there, forming a duodecimo of two hundred and forty pages. Judge Brown was one of the kindliest of men, very cordial in his intercourse with his fellows, and utterly devoid of pretension or vanity. All affectation of dignity and assumption of un- necessary gravity by others excited his ridicule, as he conceived such airs to be but an ingenious contrivance to conceal deficiency or impairment of brain power. Such was his habitual industry that during the greater por- tion of his life he labored at his duties or his studies sixteen hours out of the twenty-four. He was a man of the most extensive and varied reading, and had learned to cull flowers of fancy and gems of thought from all the literatures of mankind. He was of frank truthfulness and childlike candor, aud was universally respected for his many excellent qualities of head and heart. He was large and imposing of stature, weighing over two hundred pounds, and of dignified appearance. In politics Judge Brown was a Democrat, and enter- tained Mr. Van Buren during his visit to Chicago, July 4, 1842, and with him became a Free-Soiler in 1848, but he was too transparent to be a successful politician, and too broad to be a blind partisan. Besides the son al- ready mentioned, his wife and four daughters survived him. The eldest child, Cornelia A., born in Springfield, N. Y., August 12, 1818, married William H. Stickney, of Chicago, February 19, 1852. The second daughter, Julia, borne in Danube, Herkimer Co., N. Y., in 1822, married George W. Dole, of Chicago, March 30, 1853, and died October 16, 1865. Sarah, born June 13, 1824, married Dr. William Butterfield, October 23, 1844. Caroline, born August 1, 1826, married Thomas L. Forrest, July 10, 1848.

FRANCIS PEYTON, was a member of the early Bar of Chicago, though never formally enrolled as a lawyer in Illinois. He was a partner of James Grant in the spring of 1836. In the notable meeting of January, 1837, to promote internal improvements he was chair- man of committee on resolutions. In May of the same year he was chosen member of the first board of school inspectors of the new city. In the winter of 1838-39, he was attorney for Colonel Beaubien in the final effort to secure his claim to the Fort Dearborn Reservation. He conducted some law business before the Circuit Court in the spring term of 1839, and was one of the speakers on the occasion of a notable excursion on the steamboat " Great Western," August 13, of that year. He afterward came here in 1840 to assist State's Attor- ney Huntington in the Stone murder trial.

SAMUEL LISLE SMITH was born in Philadelphia in 1817, of wealthy parents. His early advantages, edu- cational and social, were exceptionally good. Preco- ciously talented, he had studied law at Yale and passed the examination entitling him to a diploma or license to practice before he was of sufficient age to receive it. In 1836 he came to Illinois to look after the interests of his father, who owned some choice tracts of land near Peru. With abundant resources drawn from the parental treasury, young Smith associated with the many gay pleasure-seeking young men who then thronged this Western center of speculation, and naturally fell into habits of life which somewhat marred his career. Re- turning East, he shook off this premature pursuit of pleasure, sought and obtained his diploma as a lawyer, and was married to a Miss Potts of Philadelphia. In 1838 he again set out for the West and settled in Chi- cago. He made his headquarters in the office of But- terfield & Collins, where he familiarized himself with the laws of Illinois. He gradually slipped into his

former convivial habits, and in 1839 was chosen City At- torney, a position which funished abundant occasion for the exercise of his genial and generous hospitality. Coupled with the continuous stream of his eloquence, wit and mimicry, his convivial spirit enhanced his popu- larity, while it did not seriously impair a fortune derived mainly from his father. He was at this time at the very height of his reputation as an orator. The Hon. I. N. Arnold, one of his hearers, at the Whig State Con- vention at Springfield, in 1840, thus refers to his powers: " I heard for the first time stump-speeches from Lin- coin, Harden, Baker, and others, but the palm of elo- quence was conceded to a young Chicago lawyer, S. Lisle Smith There was a charm, a fascination in his

SAMUEL LISLE SMITH.

speaking, a beauty of language and expression, a poetry of sentiment and of imagery, which in its way sup- pressed anything I had ever heard. His voice was music and his action studied and graceful. I have heard Webster, and Choate, and Crittenden, and Bates of Missouri ; they were all greatly his superiors in power and vigor, and in their various departments of excellence, but for an after-dinner speech, a short eulogy or commemorative address, or upon any occasion when the speech was a part of the pageant, I never heard the equal of Lisle Smith." In 1844, he took an active in- terest in the presidential campaign, the third attempt of the Whigs to elect Henry Clay, of whom he was a great admirer and supporter. In 1847, at the River and Har- bor Convention, at Chicago, he signally distinguished himself among some of the best speakers of the nation. Horace Greeley said he was "the star of the vast as- sembly, and stood without a rival; " and Henry Clay did not hesitate to write that Mr. Smith "was the greatest orator he had ever heard." His mag- netic power over an audience, as testified by sev- eral surviving witnesses, was something wonderful,

D Jeedby Gang

263

THE BENCH AND BAR.

his voice was sweet and clear, his fancy glowed with sublime and matchless imagery, and he was equally at home in pathos or invective. His language was not only choice but phenomenally exact, his memory abso- lutely marvelous, and his power of mimicry no less so. His imitations of Calhoun, Clay, Preston and Wehster are said to have been so curiously life-like as to mislead those most familiar with the peculiarities of these great speakers. His keen sense of the ludicrous and gro- tesque, joined to a vast fund of humor and innate as well as acquired wit, filled the measure of his phenomenal adaptability to become a great orator. He lacked but two elements of the highest possible success in that line, a more portly physique and a less ardent pursuit of pleasure. He was handsome and graceful but small of stature, rather below the middle size, with a florid com- plexion and light hair. A third drawback has been found in his inherited wealth, but had he remained nas- ter of himself, this would not have proved an obstacle, but a valuable auxiliary. Besides the speeches men- tioned, his addresses on the following occasions are singled out as specially noteworthy : At the organiza- tion of the Excelsior Association, or Sons of New York, the Society of the Sons of Penn, the Reception of Web- ster, the Irish Relief Meeting, the Obsequies of John Quincy Adams, and of Henry Clay. Short-hand facil- ities were not extensive in the Chicago of his day, and it is said, "he never wrote a single word even at his greatest efforts," in enduring form, though we are assured his ordinary preparation embraced not only a rough sketch but a critical weighing of words, phrases and quotations. What is probably correct is that not a single speech was ever written out in full ; nor was he so identified with any great law case as to have had either argument or speech preserved in any court record. Altogether his career was rather brilliant than powerful, and has had no influence on the jurisprudence of the State, though it deeply affected the memory, imagina- tion and feeling of his contempotaries. He was genial, generous and hospitable ; a kind neighbor, a good citi- zen and a thorough friend ; a perfect gentleman, a ripe scholar and an eloquent advocate of whatever social, legal or political question he espoused ; a well-read lawyer and popular among his brethren, and at home a devoted husband and father, Had his self- control been equal to his talents he might have risen to eminence; as it was, a feeling of regret, if not pity, mingles with enthusiasm of his admirers. He died of the prevailing epidemic, cholera, July 30, 1854, before he had reached the age of forty. His wife and two sons survived him. Mrs. Smith was a daughter of the Rev. Dr. Potts of Philadelphia, and a sister of the perhaps better known Rev. Dr. Potts of New York. She died in August, 1871. "The memory of the eloquence of the gifted orator," said the Daily Press, in notice of his death, "will not soon fade from the public mind, which he could at any time sway with the wand of a magician. * * * For those who mourn the sudden rupture of the most tender ties, there is no language to express their grief." In the Recorder's Court, a week later, the following resolutions were in- troduced by D. Mellroy and seconded by E. W. Tracy : "That in the death of S. Lisle Smith the profession have lost an eminent brother, distinguished for his superior education, his fine and practical intellect, and his elevated moral character; and the entire community, especially the poor, have lost an affectionate and sin- cere friend." "He was," says Judge Goodrich, "of me- dium height, a ruddy countenance, a large and finely formed head, a face that gave expression to the feeling

without words. His eyes were dark and shone out from under 'a square, projecting brow' luminous with the fires of intelligence, and when kindled by passion or the inspiration of his theme, they glowed with the emo- tions that stirred his soul. His motions were full of grace, his gestures eloquent in expression. In his voice there was a magic and charm beyond description. It was rich and sonorous, as flexible in tone and modula- tion as the melodies of a musical instrument, descend- ing to the lowest tones and rising to the highest pitch without a break, as clear and ringing as an Alpine horn, He could startle with the tones of an angry god, or soothe with the softest cadence of rippling waters. His eloquence was faultless, his style chaste and classical, his language rich and copious, his illustrations apt and brilliant; and when he gave the reins to his imagina- tion, he conjured up such marvelous fonns of beauty, such enchanting creations of fancy, and clothed his thoughts and images in such elegance of expression, that his hearers were entranced with wonder and ad- miration. His speeches were not the mere affluence of sounding words which like the jingling of bells delight the ear, but do not move the heart. They were often full of profoundest thought, and rich in sentiment, and sometimes severely logical. He was admired by the great men of his day." A surviving admirer of Mr. Smith fully indorses this beautiful tribute of Judge Goodrich, and assures the writer that it is an entirely truthful characterization of the greatest orator Chicago has ever known.

JUSTIN BUTTERFIELD was born at Keene, N. H., in 1790. Educated in his carlier years at the common school, and prepared for college by the local minister, he entered Wiliams College in 1807, and about 1810 be- gan the study of law under the future Judge Egbert 'T'en Eyck, at Watertown, N. Y. During these years of advanced education he eked out his scanty resources by teaching school in winter; and was admitted to the Bar in 1812. He began the practice of his profession in Adams, Jefferson Co., N. Y., where he soon ex- hibited that professional aggressiveness and courage so characteristic of his later career. In July, 1813, during the second British war, he sought to obtain the release by habeas corpus of his client, Samuel Stacey, Jr., a native of Madrid, in the adjoining county of St. Law- rence. Stacey was held several weeks by the military without trial on suspicion of disloyal intercourse with the enemy across the border. Mr. Butterfield served the writ on the commanding General, who evaded compli- ance, with the result to the young lawyer that his purely professional effort for a client reacted on his own repu- tation, his position being regarded as unpatriotic in the heated condition of the public mind." It was the remem- brance of this blind prejudice which led him to exclaim, a generation later, when asked if he was opposed to the Mexican War: "No, sir ! I oppose no war ; I opposed one and it ruined me. Henceforth I'm for war, pesti- lence and famine!" He practiced some years in Sackett's Harbor, where he married about 1814. He then removed to New Orleans, where he quickly ob- tained a lucrative practice and high rank in his profes- sion. In 1826 he returned to Jefferson County, N. Y., set- tling this time in Watertown, where he remained several years. In 1834 he came here to reconnoiter, soon re- turned to Watertown to wind up his business, and set- tled here permanently in 1835, forming a law partner- ship with James H. Collins as early as July 16 of that year. Mr. Butterfield soon hecame a recognized leader not only at the Bar, but in the broader relations of civil

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Cook County, Illinois From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Part 64

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas Number of Pages: 875

Author: Andreas, A. T. (Alfred Theodore), 1839-1900
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : A.T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 875