USA > Illinois > Kane County > History of Kane County, Ill. Volume I > Part 42
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The years 1871-73 he spent in the state of Utah in the gathering of evi- dence for the trial of one of the most celebrated mining cases ever tried in the west, the famous "Emma Mine" case. Colonel Joslyn secured a verdict and judgment for his client, R. B. Chisholm. and gained for him a sum said to be in excess of one million dollars. At the final trial Colonel Joslyn made a speech still spoken of in Salt Lake City which occupied days, during which time friends of both stood in the courthouse with pistols ready for instant service. That the case won was due to the work of Colonel Joslyn, who went among the miners as a miner and gathered evidence, made speeches to the people to become acquainted with them and gain their sympathy. This was doubtless the most important case ever handled by a Kane county lawyer. Upon his death, October 5. 1885. resolutions were offered by the Kane County Bar Association. and a splendid monument was erected in the cemetery at Elgin by that association.
Before the war Colonel Joslyn was a democrat, and during the war fought for the Union. but owing, it is said, to the influence of Stephen A. Douglas, whose close friend he was, he remained a democrat after the war, not becoming a republican as did so many who had been his political asso- ciates. It is said that had he become republican at that time he might subse- quently have held any office within the district, so great was his general popularity and the power of his eloquence as a speaker.
Frank W. Joslyn, of Elgin, studied law in the office of his father, Colonel E. S. Joslyn, and was admitted to the bar at Ottawa, Illinois, May 23, 1883. He served two terms as Elgin's city attorney and two terms as state's attor- ney. He has for many years been supervisor from Elgin, and at present holds the position of assistant attorney general of Illinois. He has made an enviable reputation as a criminal lawyer-few large cases that he is not on one side or the other. As an orator he follows his father, and has been in continual demand in every part of the county.
R. Waite Joslyn studied law at Michigan University, graduating from that institution in 1891 with the degree of Master of Laws (LL.M.). He then went to Chicago. where he practiced with success for ten years. Return- ing to Elgin. he became associated with his brother. Frank W. Joslyn, where they enjoy one of the largest practices of the city.
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Mr. Joslyn is the author of a law book entitled "Joslyn on Personal Injuries," which was published this year ( 1908) by T. H. Flood & Company, of Chicago, and has a large sale. This work is highly commended by attor- neys and will doubtless require many editions. Mr. Joslyn is now engaged in compiling another law book on "Corporation Law in Illinois," which promises to be as successful as his first venture.
Charles H. Wayne studied law with A. B. Coon at Marengo, Illinois, and was admitted to the bar before the appellate court at Ottawa, Illinois, in December, 1882. He at once began practice in Elgin and succeeded so well by virtue of his native ability as a lawyer that he enjoys a very large practice and the reputation of being one of the ablest of Kane county attorneys. He is now senior member of the firm of Botsford, Wayne & Botsford, Judge Botsford dying this year. In 1895-6 he was mayor of Elgin, but has since sought no public office.
Robert S. Egan, now one of the leading trial lawyers of the county, was born in 1857 at Sycamore. He studied law with Judge H. B. Willis and was admitted to practice in 1882. In 1883 he became a member of the firm of Irwin & Egan. In 1883 he was city attorney and from 1903 to 1907.
Charles R. Hopson studied law and graduated at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was admitted to the bar both in that state and Illinois in June, 1877. He has since been in practice at Elgin.
John H. Becker studied law at Elgin, where he now resides, graduated at Union College in 1861, and was admitted to practice by the supreme court of Illinois, Chicago, examination, May II, 1886. He has been a justice of the peace in the town of Elgin since 1877, and at present is police magistrate.
James Coleman studied law for liis profession at Elgin with Colonel E. S. Joslyn, and was there admitted to the bar by the superior court in 1863. He was city attorney from 1863 to 1865, and in April, 1886, was elected police magistrate. Mr. Coleman also dabbled to some extent in newspaper work. He was an able lawyer. His death occurred in -
Robert M. Ireland studied law at Chicago and was admitted to the bar on diploma of the Union ( ollege of Law of Chicago at the June, 1876, term of the supreme court at Mount Vernon. He was elected to the state legislature. Died in 1897.
Judge Clinton F. Irwin, now of Elgin, studied law in the office of W. H. H. Kennedy, at Maple Park, and was admitted to the bar at Chicago in April, 1879. He first practiced at Maple Park, and in 1881-82 was supervisor of Virgil township. Subsequently removing to Elgin, he was assistant super- visor of that township in 1885-86. In 18- he was appointed a federal judge to Oklahoma, where he sat with great success for some years, returning to Elgin in 1907. He is now the head of the firm of Irwin & Egan.
Oscar Jones prepared himself for his profession at Sycamore, Illinois, and was admitted to the bar at Ottawa May 16, 1883. He had previously been successfully engaged as a teacher at St. Charles and elsewhere. Since September, 1883, he has been master in chancery of the city court of Elgin.
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John P. Mann is a graduate of the University of Michigan, class of 1882. He was admitted to the Michigan bar April 11, 1882, and to the Illinois bar at Ottawa. upon motion, September 17, 1885. He resides at Elgin.
Thomas J. Rushton studied law with Judge Smith at Woodstock and graduated from the law school of the State University of Iowa at Iowa City in June, 1880. He took the degree of LL.B., was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1880, to the Illinois bar in 1881 and located at Elgin in June. 1882, where he is a law partner with C. A. Van Horne. The latter is also a graduate of the Iowa State University (June, 1880) ; took the degree of LL.B. ; admitted in Iowa in 1880, in Minnesota in 1881, and in Illinois in 1884. He came to Elgin in June, 1887, and still practices there.
Hon. John W. Ranstead, who is a native of Kane county, was graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan in 1866, and in the same year was admitted to the bar at Ottawa, Illinois. He is a lawyer of marked ability, and from 1873 to 1882 served as county judge of Kane county. As the county is overwhelmingly republican and Judge Ranstead is a democrat the compliment can be readily appreciated.
Charles Stephen Reeves, of Elgin, is a graduate of the University of Michigan and has been admitted to the bars of both Michigan and Illinois.
Ezra Rue, a native of Steuben county, New York, came to Elgin in 1858 when a boy. He was admitted to the bar in 1876.
David B. Sherwood, one of the most prominent members of the Elgin bar, studied law at Galveston, Texas, where he was admitted to practice in November, 1870.
John H. Williams, a graduate of the Iowa State University, was ad- mitted to the bar at Ottawa, Illinois, in 1881, and in 1882 located at Elgin, where he still resides.
William H. Wing studied law with Hon. S. Wilcox at Elgin in 1865-66; was admitted to the bar for Illinois at Elgin in the spring of 1867 and later at Chicago for the United States courts. He was city attorney of Elgin in 1871-72; treasurer of the Illinois Northern Hospital for the Insane for five years from April 1. 1880, and for four years was director of the First National Bank of Elgin, over which he had his office. Mr. Wing came to Elgin in 1846. For four years he was a law partner with Colonel E. S. Joslyn. Died in 1902.
William H. Wilcox, a native of Montgomery county, New York, came to Elgin with his father, General Elijah Wilcox, in 1842. He served with distinction in the Union army during the war of the rebellion. His connection with the legal profession dates from 1871, when he was admitted to the bar.
Hon. Henry B. Willis is a native of Bennington, Vermont. He located at Sycamore, Illinois, in 1852, when a child, and in July, 1872, came to Elgin. He had graduated in the previous year at Albany, New York, and was, the same year, admitted to the bar of that state. His admission to the Illinois bar occurred in 1872. He has been several times elected to responsible and honor- able official positions, among them supervisor of Elgin township, and city attorney and mayor of the city of Elgin. He was succeeded as mayor by the present incumbent, V. S. Lovell, in the spring of 1887.
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Judges R. N. Botsford and A. H. Barry have been previously noted among the lawyers of St. Charles, where they were for many years engaged in practice.
Colonel John S. Wilcox, a native of the state of New York, came to Elgin with the family of his father, General Elijah Wilcox, in 1842, when nine years of age. He began the study of law about 1852 with his brother, Judge Silvanus Wilcox; was admitted to the bar in 1854 and entered upon the practice of his profession. Colonel T. WV. Grosvenor (afterward killed in Chicago), Judge E. C. Lovell and Justice A. T. Lewis, of Elgin, were among the students in his office, and Mr. Lewis was for a time in partnership with him. In the fall of 1861 Mr. Wilcox entered the United States service, enlisting in the Fifty-second Illinois Infantry. He went into camp as cap- tain and was promoted successively to lieutenant colonel (going to the field with that rank ) and colonel. He resigned in 1864 to take the stump in behalf of President Lincoln's reelection, and made able speeches in numerous por- tions of the state. He held a brevet brigadier general's commission at the close of his service. In the spring of 1864, after his resignation, he took command of the camp of organization of the One Hundred and Forty-first Illinois Infantry, a three months' regiment, and continued until the command was ready for the field. This service was gratuitous to the state. He was elected mayor of Elgin in 1865, and also resumed the practice of his profes- sion, being in partnership one year with his brother, Judge Wilcox. In the fall of 1871 he became a director in and general solicitor for the Chicago & Pacific Railroad Company, continuing in that position over six years, since when he has not been in practice. He is now living retired in Elgin. In 1904 he completed a history of Kane county, and is in constant demand as a public speaker.
Hon. Edward C. Lovell, present county judge, read law in the office of Colonel J. S. Wilcox, and is a graduate of the University of Michigan. He was admitted to the bar at Detroit in April, 1870. He was a fine scholar, an able lawyer and an honored citizen, and was long identified with the educa- tional interests of Elgin and with the upbuilding of her splendid free public library, of which he was a director during the first six years of its existence. He served two terms as judge of the county court of Kane county, having first been elected in 1882. He was also mayor of Elgin in 1877, member of the Illinois legislature in 1879 and city attorney of Elgin in 1879-80. He died in Elgin in 1902.
John A. Russell is one of the successful trial lawyers of Elgin. He studied with Messrs. Botsford & Barry, and, after his admission to the bar, became a partner with them-thus continuing several years. In the fall of 1884 he was elected state's attorney for Kane county, on the republican ticket and proved an energetic and efficient officer. He was appointed solicitor general of Porto Rico in 1900, but owing to ill health returned to Elgin, where he has since practiced with large success.
Carl E. Botsford, son of Judge R. N. Botsford, studied under the guid- ance of his father, and is a graduate of Harvard University. He turned his attention in the early part of 1887 to newspaper editorial work in the office of
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the Elgin Democrat, but later became a member of the firm of Botsford, Wayne & Botsford, where he still continues, enjoying a large practice. Though a democrat, lie was elected mayor in 1905 by a large majority and served one term.
Albert T. Lewis read law in the office of Colonel J. S. Wilcox and was admitted to the bar at Ottawa, Illinois, January 31, 1868. He was a justice of the peace over six years. Died in - -.
Hon. Samuel Drake Lockwood, who located at Batavia in 1853 and died there April 23, 1874, was licensed to practice law in February, 1811, and opened an office at Batavia, New York. In the fall of 1818 he settled at Carmi, Illinois, entered there upon the practice of his profession, and in 1821 was elected attorney general of the state. In 1823 he became secretary of the state upon Governor Cole's nomination, but resigned soon afterward to accept a commission from President Monroe as receiver of public moneys at the land office in Edwardsville, Illinois, both positions being unsought and a surprise to him. In 1824-25 he was elected by the legislature as a judge of the su- preme court, holding until 1848, when the new constitution placed the election of supreme judges in the power of the people. Besides other important posi- tions which he filled he was, in 1851, appointed by the legislature trustee of the land department of the Illinois Central Railroad, which position he held until his death. He was one of the founders of the republican party, and during his early term as state's attorney succeeded in bringing to punishment the survivor of a fatal duel-the only one ever fought in the state. He assisted in revising the state laws in 1826-27.
W. H. H. Kennedy, now deceased, was a promising lawyer, who for- merly resided at Maple Park (then Lodi), where he located in 1857. He was admitted to the bar in 1860, and for several years represented his township on the board of supervisors.
James O. McClellan, a graduate of the Columbian College Law School, at Washington, District of Columbia, was admitted to the bar in Illinois September 13, 1869. He is a well known lawyer, of recognized ability and has held the position of master in chancery of the circuit court of Kane county since 1875. He resides at Batavia.
Thomas Cincinnatus Moore, also of Batavia, is an old and respected member of the bar. He studied law at Marshall, Illinois, where he was ad- mitted to practice in May, 1843. He has been a well known figure in the courts of Kane county for many years. His practice has been extensive.
Charles T. Barney, now attorney for the United States Wind Engine and Pump Company, located at Batavia, studied law at Burlington, Vermont, and Albany, New York, and graduated at the Albany Law School in the class of 1883. He was admitted to the Vermont bar at Burlington at the September term, 1883, and to the New York bar at Albany at the November term in the same year. Was city attorney of Hoosick Falls, New York, in 1884-85.
F. G. Garfield, of Campton, who came to Kate county in 1841, com- menced the practice of law about 1857, although he was not regularly admitted to the bar until 1865. There is scarcely a man in the county who
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has become a more familiar visitant in the court rooms at Geneva, and his native shrewdness has assisted more than once in the discomfiture of an oppo- nent. Though "Green" by name, he is scarcely so by nature, and in his advancing age he enjoys a fine competence.
Ebenezer Barry, of Burlington township, brother of Judges W. D. and A. H. Barry, has been for many years a resident of the county, and, while his principal pursuit has been farming, he has found time to practice law to a considerable extent. Perhaps no man in Kane county enjoyed a racy suit before a justice of the peace better than Mr. Barry, although there are numerous others who are not far in the rear. He has retired from practice.
WV. R. S. Hunter, of Elburn, studied law under the direction of Hon. W. D. Barry, W. J. Brown and W. H. H. Kennedy, and was admitted to the bar at Chicago March 24, 1880. He was deputy sheriff under Sheriff Ethan J. Allen; postmaster at Blackberry Station under President Lincoln; local attorney for the Chicago & Northwestern Railway; corporation attorney of Elburn, and once ran for justice of the peace. He still practices and is one of the oldest practitioners in the county.
At Aurora there has been a long list of attorneys and inany of them have been very prominent not alone at home but in state and national affairs. A few of them have been already named.
Leander R. Wagner came to the place with his parents in 1837, when a small child. He studied law in the state of New York with his uncle, Peter J. Wagner, also with W. B. Plato at Geneva and with A. B. Fuller, being ad- mitted to the bar in 1857. He was a brilliant and gifted lawyer, and was district attorney for the district including Kane county from 1864 to 1868. He died of consumption March 29, 1869.
John M. Little, a practitioner residing at Aurora, died of consumption August 21, 1868, and was taken to his father's home in DeKalb for burial.
Hon. William B. Plato, now deceased, was an exceedingly able lawyer, an eloquent speaker and possessed a reputation second to that of no lawyer in the state. He was a tailor by trade and settled at Aurora in 1839. He soon after took up the study of law and subsequently removed to Geneva, where he was for a time in partnership with Judge Wilson.
James G. Barr, a native of Pennsylvania, came to Aurora when seventeen years old, in 1844, with the family of his father, Oliver Barr. He studied law with W. B. Plato in 1846 and was subsequently admitted to practice. He was superintendent of schools in Kendall county in 1849, but located perma- nently in Aurora in 1851. He was the first justice of the peace elected from Aurora under the township organization; was town clerk two years; first city clerk, holding six years; four years clerk of the Aurora court of common pleas, etc. He died January 27, 1872, and was at that time and had been for seven years assistant United States assessor for southern Kane county.
Charles J. Metzner, a fine lawyer and a thorough gentleman, was a native of Saxony and came to Erie, Pennsylvania, when three years old. He afterward removed to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, thence to Naperville, Illinois, and in 1856-57 to Aurora. He first worked at blacksmithing, but was forced to give up the trade because of an injury to his eye from a flying spark from
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the anvil. He studied law with B. F. Parks and was admitted in 1859. He was state's attorney four years, and died at Aurora August 8, 1874, aged forty years.
Sewell W. Brown, a native of Jefferson county, New York, was educated at Watertown, its seat of justice, studied law and practiced several years in the south. He came to Aurora in 1858 and practiced until his death, which occurred March 13, 1878.
Hon. Alexander C. Gibson had been a prominent practitioner and citizen in Washington county, New York, before coming to Aurora in 1847. After one and a half years in town he located on a farm in the vicinity of North Aurora. He was interested in railroad and agricultural society matters; edited the Daily Beacon during the Fremont campaign in 1856, and in 1857 was chosen the first judge of the Aurora court of common pleas, holding the position two years. He then retired to his farm, where he died fifteen years later, August 14, 1874, aged eighty years. He was a man very greatly respected. He had come west originally to look for some property interests he had in the region, having furnished at an early date the funds with which his brother Hugh purchased a quantity of land for him and stocked and carried on stores at Clybournville (Mill Creek) and other places.
Hon. John C. Sherwin, a native of St. Lawrence county, New York, came to Kendall county, Illinois, in 1856, and during the war of the rebellion served in the ranks of the Eighty-ninth Illinois Infantry. He located at Aurora in 1865 and studied law with Wagner & Canfield. After being ad- mitted to the bar he continued in practice until 1873, when he was elected county clerk, a position to which he was reelected in 1871. In 1878 he was the successful candidate of the republicans of the then fourth district for congress, resigning as county clerk. He was again elected to congress in 1880, serving altogether four years. He removed to Nebraska in the fall of 1883.
Hon. Benjamin Franklin Parks is a native of Oakland county, Michigan, and was graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1848. He studied law with Ferry & Searles at Waukegan, Illinois, and was admitted to the bar in 1850, coming to Aurora the same year. Mr. Parks was for many years regarded as one of the ablest lawyers in the Fox river valley. He was the first city attorney of Aurora; was elected judge of the city court in 1859, and served four years; and was mayor of the city in 1869. He also represented his district in the Illinois legislature. Judge Parks met with a severe accident upon a winter day, falling upon an icy sidewalk in Aurora and sustaining injuries of a permanent character.
B. F. Herrington, now of Kendall county, was located in Aurora for some time, dating from June, 1876. He had an office with Eugene Canfield, and had studied law and begun practice in the state of New York.
Hon. Charles Wheaton is a native of Rhode Island and a graduate of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, in 1849. He read law with Hon. Benjamin F. Thomas at Worcester, Massachusetts, where he was admitted to the bar September 7, 1851. Removing to Illinois in the fall of 1854, he was located five years at Batavia and removed to Aurora in the spring of 1859,
BC PAYNE
LIVERY STABLE
GROVE AVENUE, ELGIN, LOOKING NORTH, ABOUT 1870.
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opening an office and engaging in what has proved a very successful practice. In 1873 he established an office also in Chicago. Mr. Wheaton was elected mayor of Aurora on the prohibition ticket in 1864, but resigned after one month, as his views and those of the council did not coincide upon the question of license. He was long prominent. Died 1906 at Aurora.
Captain Alexander C. Little, of Aurora, is a native of Rome, New York, and a thorough student in both law and medicine. He studied medicine in Joliet, Illinois, with Doctors Harwood and Danforth, commencing in the fall of 1855; read the next year with Doctors Young and Hard in Aurora; matriculated in the fall of 1856 in the medical department of the Iowa Uni- versity at Keokuk, and attended one course of lectures. He returned to Joliet in 1857, and while still continuing his studies began practice with his first preceptor, Dr. Willis Danforth. He graduated from the Iowa University in the spring of 1858, receiving his diploma and the degree of doctor of medi- cine. The study of law was commenced by him at Aurora with Hon. Charles Wheaton in 1866, and after attending the law school at Ann Arbor, Michigan, he was admitted to the bar of Kane county in August, 1867. He was elected city attorney of Aurora in 1873 and mayor in 1874. He won an honorable record in the war of the rebellion as an officer in the One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Illinois Infantry.
Hon. Eugene Canfield, another Vermonter, and one of the best educated lawyers in the west, located at Aurora in 1860. In 1861 and again in 1872 he served as city attorney, and was subsequently chosen from this district to the state senate. For a number of years he has been much of the time in the state of Washington, where he has considerable property and has become prominent in connection with state affairs.
Among the earlier lawyers in Aurora we find H. C. Kelly occupying the field in July. 1848, and he had probably been here for some time at that date. W. C. Taylor and R. G. Montony had their cards in the local papers in 1850, the former on the west side and the latter on the east side of the river.
Judge Richard G. Montony, one of the most careful and painstaking lawyers who ever made Kane county his home, has resided in Aurora since 1846 and been engaged in practice since 1849. Mr. Montony is a native of New Jersey. He came to Chicago September 1, 1845; taught school at Newark the following winter, and located at Aurora in May, 1846. He read law with O. D. Day and was admitted to the bar in June, 1849. In 1858 he was city attorney of Aurora. From 1873 to 1886 he had an office in Chicago. He has now retired from practice and lives in Chicago, over eighty years of age.
D. W. Poindexter was practicing in Aurora in the beginning of 1855, as was also N. J. Smith, who had but lately arrived from Worcester county, Massachusetts. A. B. Fuller was practicing in the place in the spring of the same year. In the summer of 1858 we find William R. Parker and Daniel Eastman on the list. The latter had temporarily relinquished the medical profession and turned his attention in a successful manner to the law. Mr. Parker was a gifted lawyer and somewhat of a politician, becoming a promi-
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