USA > Illinois > Kane County > History of Kane County, Ill. Volume I > Part 41
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LIST OF LAWYERS WHO HAVE PRACTICED IN KANE COUNTY.
Among the first lawyers to locate in Kane county were Caleb A. Buck- ingham and H. N. Chapman, at Geneva, about 1837, and S. S. Jones, at St. Charles. Buckingham was a young lawyer of fine promise, who acquired some prominence in his profession and in other directions, but was cut off by death about 1841 at Chicago. Chapman married and removed, it is thought, to Racine, Wisconsin. Jones had visited the region in 1837, and in 1838 located with his family at St. Charles, coming by way of Naperville. He had been admitted to the bar at Montpelier, Vermont, about 1835, and opened an office upon his arrival at St. Charles. He became a prominent attorney, but finally relinquishied the profession to engage in newspaper pub- lishing, his death occurring some years since in Chicago. He was the first lawyer to locate at St. Charles.
A. R. Dodge is said to have hung out his shingle at Aurora as early as 1837. He was a good speaker and a man of considerable ability, and at a later date was sent to the legislature from Kendall county.
Orsamus D. Day settled at Aurora in 1839, and in the following year published his professional card in the nearest newspaper-the Joliet Courier. He died in the fall of 1861, having been elected mayor in 1860.
Among the early lawyers and well-known residents of Geneva were Will- iam B. Plato, who removed there from Aurora; Joel D. Harvey, who subse- quently became a prominent citizen of Chicago, and Charles B. Wells, who won fame not only as a lawyer but as a soldier.
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Edward E. Harvey was an honored pioneer lawyer of Elgin, who volun- teered at the breaking out of the war with Mexico and gave his life for the country during that struggle.
Paul R. Wright, a native of Oneida county, New York, moved to Illi- nois in 1837, when eighteen years of age. He taught school five years, and during that time studied law. In 1844 he entered the office of E. E. Harvey, at Elgin, was admitted to the bar a year later, and opened an office in that place. In 1856 he was chosen circuit clerk on the Fremont ticket and removed to Geneva. At the expiration of his term he resumed practice, but moved in 1862 to a farm in Union county, and thence in 1874 to Jonesboro, where he again entered practice.
Charles H. Morgan, the first judge of the Elgin court of common pleas, became subsequently a United States judge in one of the territories, and was a very able lawyer. His residence was also at Elgin.
Edmund Gifford, one of the early lawyers of Elgin, was well and favor- ably known for his legal ability, and became in after years a judge at New Orleans, Louisiana.
William D. Barry, who had been admitted to the bar in Henry county, Ohio, in 1836, located at St. Charles in the spring of 1840, and is now the oldest practicing lawyer in Kane county. Although nearly eighty years of age he continues in the field, the weight of years, however, rendering it im- possible for him to transact the amount of business he was accustomed to in the palmy days of his practice. He was long judge of the Kane county court. During the early days of his residence here he conducted many hard criminal trials, among them being the defense of Taylor Driscoll, of Ogle county, for the alleged murder of one Campbell during the dark days of horse stealing and kindred crimes. Driscoll was tried at Woodstock, McHenry county, on a change of venue, and through Judge Barry's efforts acquitted.
Joseph W. Churchill, a young resident of Batavia, was one of the first lawyers in the county. In 1837 he was chosen to a position on the board of county commissioners, and was otherwise prominent.
A good story of practice in the early days was related a number of years since by Henry B. Peirce, now deceased. It seems that Churchill's estimate of his own ability was very great. A. M. Herrington, whom everybody knew most familiarly as "Gus," was then a law student in the office of Ralph Haskins, Esq., at Geneva, and had access to the latter's fine library. He had picked up many points in law, and was especially familiar with the decisions and opinions in "Coleman on Contracts." He had been engaged to try his first case before Squire McNair, in Blackberry precinct, one in which suit had been brought for breach of contract. He took along his book, but hid it under a fence before entering the judicial presence. He had walked from Geneva, carrying his brogans over his shoulder until he had nearly reached his desti- nation, when he stopped and put them on. The aforesaid Churchill was opposed to "Gus" in the case. After the evidence was heard Herrington claimed a verdict by virtue of the law, which he quoted after bringing his authority into court. Churchill claimed the case for the plaintiff, stating that the law as read by the defense was not applicable to the case at all, and that
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the mere boy who had offered it had no educational advantages and could not be expected to know the law or its application. Churchill sounded his own trumpet after the following manner: "May it please the court, my father spent a thousand dollars to give me a collegiate education and fit me for the bar, and, of course, I ought to and I do know the law in this case."
After Churchill had finished his plea and taken his seat, young Herring- ton arose and said: "May it please the court, the counsel for the plaintiff has stated to you that his father spent one thousand dollars to give him an education. Now I submit to the court and the jury that, in view of the facts proven in this case, the bearing of the law thereon, it was a mighty poor in- vestment and would have paid better if he had put it into wild land at one dollar and a half an acre." The jury rewarded the young counsel by decid- ing the case in favor of the defense, and his first legal fee was paid him- two new five franc pieces-which he coolly placed in the pocket of his tow trousers and proceeded homeward. When he was out of sight of the scene of triumph he took out the coins, looked at them with a smile, and clinked them together in true boyish satisfaction, and it is safe to say that he never afterward earned a fee which gave him so much genuine pleasure.
Augustus M. Herrington, the hero of the foregoing incident, came to Kane county with his father, James Herrington, in 1835, the family locating at Geneva. He studied law during his leisure moments, and was admitted to the bar in 1844. In 1856 he was an elector on the democratic ticket and in 1857 was appointed United States district attorney, a position he held until removed by President Buchanan for being a friend to Stephen A. Douglas. In 1860 he was a delegate to the national democratic convention, and to simi- lar bodies in 1864 and 1868. For many years he was attorney for the Chicago & Northwestern Railway. Mr. Herrington was a man of positive likes and dislikes, and, while he would go to almost any length to favor a friend, his enemies knew they could expect nothing from him. He was a fine lawyer and an impressive speaker, and was possessed of purely original character- istics. He died August 14, 1883. Many stories are related of the tilts between himself and John F. Farnsworth. Herrington's cutting remarks were often met by an exercise of physical force on the part of Farnsworth, though never with any damaging result to either party.
John F. Farnsworth, a native of Eaton, Canada East, was born of New England parentage, and removed with the family to Livingston county, Michi- gan, in 1834. There he assisted his father in surveying, studied law and was admitted to practice. He read in the office of Judge Josiah Turner at Howell in 1842-43 and was admitted to practice in 1843. He pushed at once for a new field in which to begin his professional labors, locating in the same year at St. Charles, Kane county, Illinois. The stage upon which he was journey- ing from Chicago stuck in a slough, and he being, in his own language, unable to wait and without money, friends or library, took his trunk on his back, waded out and made his way to his new home. Previous to 1846 Mr. Farns- worth was a democrat in politics, but in that year left the party and assisted in the nomination of Owen Lovejoy for congress. In 1856 and 1858 he was elected to congress by large majorities on the republican ticket from what
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SWEDISH LUTHERAN BETHLEHEM CHURCH, ELGIN.
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was then called the Chicago district. His speeches were widely copied by the newspapers and he swept all opposition before him. In 1860, at the Chi- cago convention, he assisted in nominating Abraham Lincoln for president. In October, 1861, he left St. Charles in command of the Eighth Illinois Cav- alry, a regiment of twelve hundred strong, which he had raised and rendez- voused at St. Charles. It was one of the finest regiments which entered the service during the war of the rebellion. In November, 1862, Colonel Farns- worth was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and commanded the First Cavalry Brigade until after the battle of Fredericksburg in December following. By being almost constantly in the saddle he had contracted a severe lameness and was obliged to obtain leave of absence for medical treat- ment. Having been again elected to congress in the fall of 1862, he resigned his commission in the army March 4, 1863, and took his seat once more at Washington. In the fall of 1863 he was authorized to raise the Seventeenth Illinois Cavalry, with officers from his old regiment, the Eighth, and carried out the plan. By successful elections he was returned to congress term after term until 1872, when he was defeated in the convention after a large num- ber of ballots by General Stephen A. Hurlbut, of Belvidere, who also had an enviable war record. In congress, where he served for fourteen years, Gen- eral Farnsworth was active and prominent and held numerous important committee chairmanships and positions. After his defeat in the republican district convention, in 1872, he espoused the Greeley cause, and about 1879 removed from St. Charles to Chicago. He was several times a candidate for office after 1872. In 1876 he was defeated for congress in his old district by Hon. William Lathrop, and met defeat subsequently at Chicago as a democratic candidate for congressional honors. He later removed to Washington, District of Columbia.
Benjamin F. Fridley is really entitled to the honor of being the first lawyer to locate within the present limits of Kane county. He had studied law in the east. Coming west in the fall of 1834 he joined his friends, the Gartons and Wormleys, near Oswego, November I. making his home with them for some time. He subsequently located a claim on the east side of the river in Aurora township, next north of that taken by William T. Elliott. afterward selling out to Charles Wagner. Mr. Fridley came to Aurora in 1835. In 1836 he was elected sheriff of Kane county, being the first to serve in that capacity. It is said of him that his experience while sheriff assisted him greatly in obtaining a knowledge of legal matters, which, combined with his native wit and judgment, enabled him to stand so high among the pioneers of the bar in this region. His term as sheriff closed in 1839, and he immedi- ately entered upon the practice of his profession. From 1840 to 1846 he was prosecuting attorney of the district, which included twelve counties, extend- ing from Ogle to Peoria, in each of which two and in some of which three terms of court had to be held annually, making the officer's work very labori- ous. Mr. Fridley was located at Geneva during his official career, and had an office with Mark W. Fletcher. In his travels over the circuit he used his own conveyance, and was usually accompanied by the judge or some member of the bar. He subsequently lived for a short time at Oswego, but returned to
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Aurora in 1857. Besides the business which naturally came to him as a resi- dent lawyer a large amount was placed in his hands by attorneys at Chicago who did not desire to travel the circuit and who were aware that their mat- ters would be faithfully attended to by him. In short, he had one side of pretty much all the good cases in the twelve counties composing the district. He stated that at the first term of the circuit court (June, 1837) there were no practicing lawyers in Kane county, although both he and Mr. Fletcher, who still resides in St. Charles township, were members of the profession. He died at Aurora in 1898.
Mark W. Fletcher, who, previous to coming to this region, had practiced law in the east, never engaged in practice here because of being elected to office and continued therein for years. He is a native of Orange county, Vermont, and read law in Genesee, Livingston and Ontario counties, New York. He located a claim in the township of St. Charles in May, 1835, and resided upon it for many years after his official duties at the county seat were ended. He was the first county surveyor, first clerk of the commissioner's court and the second circuit clerk of Kane county. He died at Geneva in
Aside from the lawyers mentioned as having been in practice at Geneva we find that C. H. McCubbin located quite early at that point, probably about 1841-42; but after remaining a short time he removed to Kendall county. Joseph W. Helm, of Yorkville. was also an early practitioner in the courts of Kane county.
Major J. H. Mayborne, who studied law in the state of New York, lo- cated at Chicago in 1846, and in 1848 removed to Geneva, where he practiced many years. During the war of the rebellion he occupied the position of paymaster from 1863 to 1866, with headquarters at St. Louis, and has since served in the Illinois state senate, having been elected in 1876. He also served a number of years as supervisor of Geneva township and was prominent in politics after the formation of the republican party in 1854.
William J. Brown, who first practiced in the western part of the county, afterward located at Geneva. He was for some time master in chancery and a popular lawyer. He removed farther west a few years since, but returned to Geneva, where he still resides at the age of
A. P. West, the well-known Geneva justice of the peace, practiced in Kane county.
William Augustus Smith, a graduate of Wesleyan University, at Mid- dletown. Connecticut, opened a law office in Geneva about 1857 and practiced nearly two years. He then abandoned the law and took up theology, becom- ing a noted Methodist minister. He was for sixteen years secretary of the Rock River Conference, and died suddenly at his home in Rockford during a session of the conference, September 30. 1887.
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At St. Charles the number of lawyers who have been residents at various periods is considerable. S. S. Jones, the first one, has already been mentioned, also Hon. W. D. Barry and Hon. F. J. Farnsworth. William J. Miller located at the place in 1841, but removed subsequently to Carroll county, Illi- nois, and later to Chicago. Ralph V. M. Croes, who was at first engaged in mercantile business, afterward studied law and was admitted to practice; he was an early resident of the place. S. G. D. Howard practiced at St. Charles previous to 1846, in which year he removed from the place. Van H. Higgins was also a resident attorney previous to 1845. An attorney named Van Wormer, from Genesee county, New York, located at the same place with his family about 1846 and opened an office. His dealings were not looked upon with favor by the people, he having stirred up enmity among them in about the same manner a boy would disturb a hornet's nest. Finally Van Wormer was employed in a suit which brought matters to a focus and re- sulted in his obtaining a not very sleek coat of tar and feathers. The offenders in the case were brought before the grand jury at its next session, but that body refused to consider the matter, and Van Wormer, recognizing at last that the prejudices of the community were decidedly not in his favor, soon after left the place. He removed to Algonquin. McHenry county, abandoned his family, and added still further to his record as an unprincipled villain.
James P. Vance located at St. Charles about 1845 and practiced law for several years in Kane county. He afterward changed his profession for the clerical and removed from that place. In 1871 he was residing in Batavia.
H. F. Smith, from Wyoming county, New York, opened a law office in St. Charles in 1846, but, finding business dull, engaged for a time in peddling maps and canvassing for a life of John Quincy Adams. In the course of his journeyings he reached Elkhorn, the seat of justice for Walworth county, Wisconsin, where he formed a partnership with a local attorney and where he afterward practiced.
John H. Ferguson, one of the ablest of the many able members of the Kane county bar, located at St. Charles about 1850-51, coming from the state of New York. He was for a time in partnership with J. F. Farnsworth, and "it was often remarked," says the editor of the St. Charles Valley Chronicle, in a brief mention, "that the two constituted the strongest legal team in the county. Ferguson was perhaps the best informed in legal authorities of any practicing attorney in the county, and his knowledge, reinforced by Farns- worth's oratorical powers before a jury, constituted a combination of talent which was well nigh irresistible." Mr. Ferguson opened an office in Chicago in 1855 or 1856 and died in that city suddenly of a malignant throat disease December 3, 1857.
David L. Eastman, a native of Washington county, Vermont, settled at St. Charles about the fall of 1848. He formed a law partnership with S. S. Jones, and later, in Chicago, with the present General and ex-Governor John L. Beveridge. He rose very rapidly in his profession, and had he lived would undoubtedly have won name and fame; but he fell a victim to consumption in
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1860. During the few years of his residence in Kane county he became one of its brightest legal lights, and those who knew him yet do honor to his memory.
Lewis A. Norton, William and Warren Brown all studied law in the office of Judge Barry at St. Charles and were admitted to the bar. Norton removed subsequently to California, of which state he is still a resident and in which he has risen to prominence in his profession.
Alonzo H. Barry, brother of Hon. W. D. Barry, studied in the office of the latter and was admitted to practice in Kane county in 1853. Until 1870 he continued to reside at St. Charles, but in that year removed to Elgin and formed a law partnership with Judge R. N. Botsford and Joseph Healy. The latter gentleman died, and E. C. Lovell, the present county judge, was a member of the firm for two years. John G. Kribs and John A. Russell were afterward law partners at different times with Messrs. Barry and Botsford. In the spring of 1883 Mr. Barry was elected judge of the city court of Aurora and Elgin, a position he filled with such great ability that he was reelected at the end of his term in 1887. Judge Barry opened an office in W. J. Meehan's block at Elgin in 1885. He has also an enviable military record, having been elected major of the Thirty-sixth Illinois Infantry in 1861, with which command he served over two years. Previous to the war he had served as captain of the St. Charles cavalry, to succeed P. J. Burchell, elected major of the battalion. Judge Barry was one of the ablest criminal lawyers in the west, and on the bench administers justice in an impartial manner. He died at Elgin in -
A. S. Babcock, who had previously practiced a few years at Blackberry Station (now Elburn), was located at St. Charles from 1868 to 1872 in the law and insurance business. He subsequently practiced at Sycamore, and in 1876 removed to Oregon, Illinois, from whence he journeyed, a year or two later. to California. He died at San Jose, in the latter state, September II, 1887.
John McGuire and John J. Flannery studied in Mr. Babcock's office at St. Charles and both were admitted to the bar. Mr. Flannery also studied in the law department of the University of Michigan, and with A. M. Herring- ton at Geneva, and was admitted to the bar in September, 1873. He removed subsequently to Sycamore.
T. E. Ryan studied law in Judge Barry's office, and was admitted to the bar in 1870. He opened an office of his own in 1876. In 1880 he was elected state's attorney for Kane county, serving four years, and he has also been prominently engaged as attorney for several railway companies. He still resides and practices in St. Charles, to which city he returned in 1905 after a sojourn for many months in the west.
Wilbur C. Hunt, George F. Ross and Edward H. Bowman are later attorneys. Mr. Hunt served several years as city attorney for St. Charles, as did also Mr. Ross, who removed to Omaha, Nebraska, in the autumn of 1887. Mr. Bowman graduated from the University of Michigan and the Harvard Law school.
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Richard Nichols Botsford, a native of Connecticut, located at St. Charles in 1851 and taught in a select school. He taught later in Missouri and else- where, and in 1856 began the study of law with C. C. Pope at Black River Falls, Wisconsin, being admitted to the bar in 1857. Returning to St. Charles, he was for a time engaged in the publication of the Argus at that place, but disposed of it and opened a law office in partnership with D. L. Eastman. After the latter's death in 1860 Mr. Botsford associated himself with S. S. Jones, thus continuing until 1865. In 1861 he was elected judge of the county court, a position he filled with great credit for four years. He removed to Elgin in 1867, and made that his home until his death this year (1908). Judge Botsford was recognized as one of the ablest lawyers in the district. It has been said of him that he was always ready for trial when his cases were called, and that in every matter his word was as good as his bond.
Captain J. F. Richmond, who served during the war of the rebellion in the One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Illinois Infantry, studied law subse- quent to the close of his term of service. About 1870 he removed to Chicago.
J. L. Ward, also of St. Charles, studied law at an early day and was admitted to the bar, but never regularly practiced the profession.
In Elgin the first representative of the legal profession was Edward E. Harvey, who has been already mentioned. He located in the place in 1840, having been previously a student in the office of Joseph W. Churchill at Batavia. He is remembered as an able and eloquent lawyer.
Isaac G. Wilson, for many years judge of the circuit court, was the next to hang out his professional shingle in the aspiring young city, becoming a resident in 1841 and removing a few years later to Geneva upon his election to the bench in the county court. From 1846 to 1850 he was a law partner with Silvanus Wilcox, who has already been mentioned. A former writer says: "The practice thus ably commenced was continued by Edmund Gif- ford from 1845 to 1861; Paul R. Wright, A. J. Waldron and Charles H. Morgan from 1847 to 1863; E. S. Joslyn from 1852 to the outbreak of the rebellion; John S. Riddle from 1857 to 1862; Thomas W. Grosvenor from 1858 to 1861 ; Joseph Healy, E. W. Vining, A. H. Barry, R. N. Botsford, J. W. Ranstead, William H. Wing, W. F. Lynch, Engene Clifford, Henry B. Willis, Cyrus K. Wilbur, John McBride and others. Many of the above left their professions to serve their country in the late war and some died from wounds received upon the battlefield."
Eugene Clifford, now practicing in Chicago, studied in Elgin law offices and was admitted to practice by the Illinois supreme court in March, 1871; was town clerk of Elgin in 1872; city attorney, 1873 to 1877, inclusive; mas- ter in chancery of the Elgin city court, and in 1882 revised the Elgin city ordinances. He at present practices in Chicago, but resides in Elgin.
Oliver P. Chisholm, from Grant county, Wisconsin, came to Illinois in October, 1862, and was a member of Company C, One Hundred and Fifty- third Illinois Infantry, in the war of the rebellion. He represented his town- ship on the board of supervisors and was otherwise prominent for many years. He removed to Manitoba in the eighties.
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Colonel Edward S. Joslyn, father of Frank and R. Waite, was one of the ablest lawyers and readiest and most eloquent speakers who ever practiced in the courts of Kane county. Before the war he was active as a progressive citi- zen of Elgin, where he was mayor in 1861 and alderman from 1855 to 1878, member of the board of education and city attorney. He was one of the early state's attorneys of Kane county. In 1861, on the call for volunteers, he was mustered in as captain of Company A of the Seventh Regiment, which com- pany was the first in Illinois to answer the call for troops. On the organiza- tion of the Thirty-sixth Illinois he was elected its lieutenant colonel. Of upright honor and integrity, he did much to establish the standard of legal ethics and practice among lawyers that today makes the word of a Kane county lawyer trustworthy. Many who strayed from the path of professional rightness felt the sharp sting of his sarcasm and wit.
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