USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. I > Part 17
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Besides Messrs. Masquerier and Williams-the one, who dropped so soon out of sight, and the other who proved so enduring a factor in the upbuilding of the community-the members of the local bar, in 1831. comprised J. H. Ralston, who became eirenit judge in 1837, and Orville H. Browning. This seleet array was augmented later in the former year by Richard M. Young, who came to accept his appointment as eirenit judge, and by Thomas Ford, the proseenting attorney of the cirenit, who afterward became governor of the state. Adolphus F. Hubbard, the cecentrie, whose ambitions so far exceeded his abilities and who had already served as lieutenant governor under the courtly and able Edward Coles, also joined the legal group at the county seat ; with Henry Asbury and James W. Whitney, the latter popularly designated as "Lord Coke."
CALVIN A. WARREN
Calvin A. Warren, able himself and the associate of several of the ablest members of the profession in Western Illinois, transferred
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his residence from Ohio to Quincy in 1836. He was a native of New York as a youth and young man, mastered the printer's trade ( work- ing with Horace Greeley for a time) ; supported himself thus, while studying law, and in 1834 graduated from Translyvania University, Kentucky. Reserving his diploma and license to practice from the Supreme Court of Ohio, he commenced active professional work at Batavia, that state, in partnership with Thomas Morris, afterward United States senator from Ohio. Senator Morris was the father of Hon. Isaae N. Morris, well known to the Quiney bar.
Although Mr. Warren first settled at Quincy in 1836, after a year's practice there he moved to Warsaw, but returned to the county seat of Adams County in 1839 and formed a partnership with J. II. Ralston, who had recently resigned from the Circuit Bench and was then making the canvass for a seat in the State Senate. Mr. Warren was also associated with Judge O. C. Skinner, Alexander E. Wheat and George Edmunds. Jr., of Hancock County. Ile also served for a time as prosecuting attorney. His death occurred at his home in Quincy February 22, 1881.
NEHEMIAH BUSHNELL
The partnership between O. H. Browning and Nehemiah Bushnell was historical, both for the length of time it endured and from the fact that the association was between men of marked abilities and constantly increasing reputation. They were both young men when they formed it in 1837-Bushnell a graduate of Yale and an energetic and edneated Yankee, and Browning a genial, polished, eloquent and ambitious Kentnekian. Mr. Bushnell located in Quiney soon after being admitted to the bar in 1837. Mr. Browning had been elected to the State Senate a few months previous and had higher political ambitions. They joined issues instinetively, as from all contempo- raneous accounts and the trend of their subsequent careers. Mr. Bush- nell was content to devote his talents solely to the prosecution of professional practice. He had neither inclination nor talent for pol- ities or public affairs, although for a short time after coming to Quincy he conducted the editorial columns of the Quiney Whig. The result was that their association was one of ideal strength and harmony and was only dissolved by the death of Mr. Bushnell in 1874-a period of some thirty-seven years. The modest field to which he confined his gifts did not detract from the admiration of the able men of other temperaments who had felt his rare influence and perhaps been un- consciously moulded by it. Hon. O. C. Skinner referred to him as an "example of a life of patient, publie and professional labor, publie usefulness and unsullied fame, distinguished alike by learning and talent-a great and good man." Hon. W. A. Richardson said : "He could have adorned the presidency of any institution of learning in the land. ITe was qualified to have discharged the duties of any depart- ment of their institutions. Ilis talent, his learning, his sense of
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justice, would have made him conspicuous and eminent on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States." Judge Sibley said : "The needy always found him a generous giver, the unfortunate a ready sympathizer, and the intelligent conversationalist a mind stored with the richest fruit of miscellaneous knowedge."
ISAAC N. MORRIS
Isaac N. Morris studied law; was admitted to the bar in his native state of Ohio; in 1836 settled at Warsaw, Illinois, and in 1838 at Quincy. He formed a partnership with C. A. Warren and Judge Darling, and in 1839 edited the Quincy Argus, to eke out his finances, which were none too plump at that period. Mr. Morris became president of the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1841; served as a member of the Legislature in 1846 and held a seat in Congress from 1856 to 1860. Subsequently, by appointment of President Grant, he rendered valuable service as commissioner of the Union Pacific Railroad. His death occurred at his home in Quincy October 29, 1879.
PHILO A. GOODWIN
Philo A. Goodwin, a Connecticut man, located at Quincy about 1840 and practiced his profession there until his death in June, 1873. He was a sound lawyer and a good citizen.
Mr. Goodwin's partner, Horace S. Cooley, resided in Quincy for a number of years, and, although comparatively a young man at the time of his death, had attained public prominence as secretary of state and adjutant general of Illinois. Mr. Cooley was tall and hand- somne, a popular speaker and generally attractive, but his election to public office forced him to change his residence to Springfield. He was appointed secretary of state by Governor French in December, 1846. Mr. Cooley had become the owner of the ten acres afterward held by the Collins Estate, corner of Maine and Eighteenth streets, which he intended to improve as a permanent homestead. But he died in April, 1850, before his return to Quincy and this beautiful tract was sold. Mr. Cooley had fought his way to the front ranks of his profession. He was a man of education, as well as natural talents, and came from the New England locality which sent forth Bushnell and others of the Quincy bar who gave such a good account of them- selves.
EDWARD H. BUCKLEY
Edward H. Buckley may be said to fall in the class of the second immigration of legal talent to add to the strength of the Adams County bar. He was among the arrivals of the early '40s. Before he finally settled on Quincy as his home he had quite a varied ex- perience in the West of his day, east of the Mississippi River, and
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he did not at onee locate in the county seat, as, for a number of years, he was the strongest champion lined up for Columbus, of which he was the resident lawyer. But when he saw the fight was hopeless he moved to Quiney. Mr. Buckley was a Connectieut man; went to Chieago when eighteen years of age, and in 1834 located at Rieh- mond, Indiana. There he taught school and studied law until 1839, when he was admitted to the bar. In 1841 he located in Columbus, and in 1846-47 was a representative of the new County of Marquette, which had been taken from the territory of Adams but remained attached to it judicially. In 1848 he moved to Quiney, where he com- meneed praetiee and served as deputy under County Clerk J. C. Ber- nard. After reorganizing the records under the new constitution, he was appointed eity elerk by Governor Wood in 1852-53. Mr. Buekley formed a law partnership with S. P. Delano, in 1857, and at the death of the latter the firm became Buekley, Wentworth & Marey. Went- worth retired in 1865 and Buckley & Marcy dissolved in 1870. Mr. Buekley himself died January 14, 1890. and at his passing had given to the county nearly half a century of his professional and publie life and good citizenship.
ALMIERON WHEAT
Almeron Wheat, deceased, was for many years one of the promi- nent attorneys of Quiney and a man of influence in the community. He was born near Auburn, New York, on the 7th of March, 1813, and was a son of Luther and Elmira (Marvin) Wheat. His father was a native of the same state, being born near Albany, and from that place removed with a brother to a farm near Auburn, where he carried on agricultural pursuits until his death.
Almeron Wheat began the study of law in Auburn, New York, but shortly afterward removed to Columbus, Ohio, where he made his home until 1839, his time being devoted to the profession which he had chosen as his life work. In the latter year he decided to locate in Springfield, but on hearing of his intention Drs. Hiram and Samuel Rogers, who were pioneer physicians of Quiney, went to see him and induced him to settle in that city. There he successfully engaged in the practice of law up to the time of his death, which occurred on the 12th of July, 1895.
At the time of his death Mr. Wheat was the oldest member of the Adams County bar both in age and practice and always ranked with the highest in the profession. It was said of him that he was possessed of a powerful, analytical and logical mind and indefatigable industry. These qualities made him a strong character, an excellent lawyer and a formidable opponent in the management and trial of a ease before either court or jury. In all his dealing with the profes- sion he was fair and courteous but unyielding so far as the rights of his clients were concerned. Both as a lawyer and a man he was actuated by the strietest integrity and had no patience with any Vol. 1-11
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kind of dishonesty, frauds or shams. Mr. Wheat's practice in the courts of this state extended through a period of more than half a century, all of which time he devoted exclusively to his profession, eschewing all other pursuits and especially political preferment. He never sought nor held any office except that early in his career he was elected to the Legislature and by his efforts in that body the removal of the county seat from Quincy was prevented. It was a well known fact that Mr. Wheat spent hundreds of dollars of his own money to do this and when on account of the decision that Quincy was to con- tinne as the county seat the county was divided, it was due principally to his efforts and expenditures that the county was again united. Subsequently, although a member of the dominant party, which could and would have given him any position he sought, he always re- fused to be a candidate for any office, preferring to devote his ener- gies to his profession. He was, however, county attorney for over twenty years.
Alexander E. Wheat, a brother of Almeron, was also a prominent early member of the bar. In 1857 he was appointed city attorney, five years later, while still a young man, was sent to the Legislature, and was long a member of the law firm, Warren & Wheat. His death occurred September 2, 1885.
HOPE S. DAVIS
Hope S. Davis, who was the oldest member of the bar in Quincy at his death December 21, 1905, was born in New York in 1828, studied law in Rochester, and soon after his admission to the bar in 1852 settled in this city. From 1856 to 1862 he served as city superintend- ent of schools and was the author of the legislative act creating the Board of Education. He served four years as county superintendent of schools, 1862-66, and was sent to the Assembly in 1876.
COL. WILLIAM A. RICHARDSON
William A. Richardson had become a leading figure in military matters, as well as state legislation, when he succeeded Judge Douglas in Congress during 1847. At the time of his election Colonel Richard- son was a resident of Schuyler County, which he had represented almost continuously in the Legislature and had just returned from the Mexican war with a well earned reputation for bravery and skill. As the successor and confidential associate of Judge Douglas, and from his own inherent force of character, his position and influence in the national councils was always high. At the August election he carried Adams County over N. G. Wilcox, the whig candidate, by 819 ma- jority.
But little political feeling was manifest in this election, although, during the canvass, the merits of the Constitution which was to be voted on during the following spring were much discussed. The
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elective judiciary was an experiment about which many had doubts, and the proposed change in the County Court system was another inno- vation which was by no means unanimously favored.
At the time of his election to the United States Senate after Stephen A. Douglas' death in 1861, Senator Richardson had made history as governor of the Wild-West Territory of Nebraska, and the eonelusion of his terms as United States senator in 1865 terminated his publie services as a national character. He died in Quincy, De- cember 27, 1875, having made that eity his home for the preceding twenty-six years. Quincy and Adams County are therefore especially proud of his prominence and stalwart personal character.
Colonel and Senator Richardson, for he was fairly entitled to both designations, was a Kentuekian born in Fayette County in 1811. Ile was a graduate of Transylvania University, Lexington, and was quite liberally educated for one of that period before he studied law. Soon after his admission to the bar, in 1831, he located at Shelbyville, Illinois, but had not seeured any business of consequence before he felt called upon to volunteer for the Black Hawk war. After serving thus about four months, he located at Rushville, the county seat of Schuyler County, where he continued to reside until 1849, when he moved to Quiney. This period of fifteen years-from the time of the Black Hawk war to the year of Mr. Richardson's coming to Quiney- was bristling with events. In 1835 he was elected state's attorney of Sehuyler County, resigning that office in the following year to take his seat in the Assembly. He was sent to the State Senate in 1838; was a presidential eleetor in 1844, and in 1846 raised a company in Schuyler County for service in the Mexican war. As captain of that organization, he joined the Illinois troops at Alton and was placed in the first regiment under command of Col. J. J. Hardin. During the war the regiment saw considerable active service, and at the battle of Buena Vista he was promoted from the captainey of his company to the lieutenant-coloneley of the regiment.
In 1847, as stated, Colonel Richardson was elected to Congress and continued to serve in that body until 1856. In the latter year he resigned his seat to canvass the state for the governorship, but owing to the unpopularity of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which he de- fended, he was defeated by 4,000 votes in a total poll of 240,000. And that was his first and only political defeat. In 1857 President Buchanan appointed him governor of Nebraska; and he found the territory in the wildest confusion ; as neither eivil nor criminal laws were in force. Before leaving his difficult post, however, he had the satisfaction of establishing in that troubled country the criminal code of Illinois and the civil practice of Ohio. In 1860 Governor Richard- son returned to Quincy and was re-elected to Congress from that dis- triet, which he served until called to the United States Senate in 1861 to sneceed the lamented Douglas. At the expiration of his senatorial term in 1865 he resumed his residence in Quiney, and among his last publie aets performed was, as county supervisor, in using his
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potent influence to permanently retain the seat of justice at Quincy. The last effort to remove the county scat was made only a few months before his death.
A character of great personal magnetism, a powerful and com- pelling speaker and a stalwart democrat, Senator Richardson was, nevertheless, so tolerant of the opinions of others and so considerate in both his mental and physical bearing toward those who differed from him, that while he raised up many opponents in the course of his long and active career, he passed away with few enemies. His strength and his influence for good spread over a wide area of the country, from Quincy as the home center, and no personality who has woven himself into the progress of Adams County is remembered with more profound respect than that of William A. Richardson.
WILLIAM G. EWING
Mr. Ewing, who was admitted to the bar at Bloomington, came to Quincy in 1863. He was elected city attorney in 1866 and the city council appointed him superintendent of public schools in Angust of the same year. Mr. Ewing was re-elected city attorney and in 1868 prosecuting attorney for the district comprising Adams and Hancoek counties. In the carly '80s he moved to Chicago where he also held judicial positions.
COL. WILLIAM H. BENNESON
But Col. William H. Benneson was generally designated as the last member of the old Adams County bar to survive. Ile died at his home near Quincy January 27, 1899. He was a native of Delaware. and in 1843, after receiving a collegiate education in that state and teaching for several years in Virginia, was admitted to the practice of the law and opened an offiee in Quincy. His first partner was Stephen A. Douglas, who in June of that year had resigned from the Supreme bench of Illinois, and was being drawn into his remark- able career of politics and statesmanship. The close friendship thus formed continued through life. In 1849 Mr. Benneson went to Cali- fornia, mined for three years, and then resumed practice at Quiney. From 1853 to 1861 he was master in chancery under Judges Skinner and Sibley, and during the Civil war Governor Yates appointed him colonel of the Seventy-Eighth Illinois Infantry. Ill health compelled him to resign and he resumed his law practice. He was not active either in professional work or public life during his last ten or fifteen years, but he had already made a reputation for substantial ability which endured to the last.
Charles Gilman was also a member of the pioneer bar, who was cut down by the cholera seourge of 1849 as a young man of great promise. He had already made a name as a leading loeal practitioner and through his record as a reporter for the State Supreme Court.
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Capt. Wellington S. Lee, a soldier of two wars, practiced in Quincy for some time previous to the War of the Rebellion. He was born on a Pennsylvania farm and, as a youth, served in the Mexican war before locating in that city during 1850. In the summer of 1861, after praetieing for more than a decade, he enlisted in Company F. Third Illinois Cavalry, and within the succeeding two years was promoted to a eaptainey. Ile died August 21, 1863, from the effects of the acci- dental discharge of a pistol in the hands of one of his own men. His only regret at his approaching death was thus expressed : "Oh, why could I not have fallen in battle?"
GEN. JAMES W. SINGLETON
Gen. James W. Singleton did not practice law in Adams County for many years; he loved excitement and the rush of active politics too much to confine himself to any one profession. He was a Vir- ginian, but in early life moved to Sehuyler County, Illinois, where he praetieed medicine and studied law. General Singleton represented that eounty twice in the State Legislature and as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1848. During the Mormon troubles, he had charge of the military at Nauvoo, probably as brigadier general in the state serviee. In 1852 he became a resident of Quincy : con- structed the railroad from Camp Grant to Meredosia; served a term in the Legislature from Adams County ; was an emissary of President Lineoln to the Southern Confederacy on a peaee mission; was de- feated for Congress in 1868, elected in 1878 and failed of a re-election for the succeeding term. He died in Baltimore, Maryland, April 23, 1892, admired for his versatile talents, respected for his integrity, and loved for his generosity and warm personality. During the years of General Singleton's residence in Adams County, there was no spot within its limits which was more the center of eharming hospitality and unaffected friendliness than Boscobel. his country home just east of Quiney. If such was his brand of polities, it was certainly of the elevating kind.
JOSEPH N. CARTER
"Joseph N. Carter was born in Hardin county, Kentucky, March 12, 1843: graduated at Illinois College at Jacksonville, in 1866, and entered the law Department of the Michigan University in the fall of the same year; graduated in that institution in 1868; was admitted to the bar in this city in 1869; elected to the State Legislature from this county at the November election, of 1878; Republican in politics and senior of the firm of Carter & Govert, attorneys at law. "-Murray, Williamson & Phelps' History of Adams County (1879).
Judge Joseph N. Carter: "Quincy has given many eminent men to the public service of the state and nation, and among these is JJoseph N. Carter, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois. Judge Carter
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is a quiet and unostentatious gentleman, always the same to friends old and new, and yet he ranks as one of the ablest jurists in the country.
"Judge Carter is a republican in politics, and in 1878 was elected as a member of the lower house, &c.
"In 1894 Judge Carter was nominated by the republicans of the Fourth supreme judicial district as their candidate for the supreme court to succeed Judge Simeon P. Shope; the district was democratic by 12,000, being composed of twelve counties. Judge Carter's abilities were so fully recognized and his personal popularity was so great that that majority was overcome and he was elected by 4,500. The campaign attracted attention all over the country, and Judge Carter at once sprang into national fame. His services on the supreme bench have been brilliant, and in 1898 he became chief justice of that august tribunal."-Wilcox's Representative Men, 1899. He died on Feb- ruary 6, 1913, as the ultimate result of a stroke of apoplexy suffered five years before.
Rufus L. Miller, a native of Maryland, came to Quincy in his boy- hood, and was admitted to the bar in 1854. During the Civil war he served in an Iowa regiment, but afterward returned to Quincy and practiced there until his death in 1881.
BERNARD ARNTZEN
Bernard Arntzen, a Prussian, came to Quincy with the rush of German revolutionists in 1849 and established a drug business. But he had a legal mind and political ambitions, studied law, was graduated from the Cincinnati Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1857. Mr. Arntzen was elected city attorney in 1858; was the democratic candidate for state auditor in 1860 and in 1874 was elected state senator, serving in the last named capacity for four years. Afterward he was appointed special agent of the Interior Department to allot lands to Indians, and while engaged in that line of work in Nevada had a physical break-down. During his last years he lived in Duluth, Minnesota, where he died in 1895.
JACKSON GRIMSHAW
Jackson Grimshaw, a partner of Archibald Williams in 1857, the year of his coming to Quincy, was a Philadelphian, and in his youth and early manhood a railroad engineer on the New York & Erie line. In 1843, soon after his admission to the bar, he located for practice in Pike County, whence he moved to Quincy, as stated. He was a leading member of the Bloomington convention of 1856 which or- ganized the republican party ; was collector of internal revenue from 1865 to 1869, after which he resumed the practice of his profession. His death occurred at Quincy in 1875.
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STERLING P. DELANO
Capt. Sterling P. Delano was another promising young lawyer of the Quiney bar whose record was closed by the stern hand of war. When nine years of age his parents brought him from Vermont to Indiana, and in 1848, then a youth of eighteen, he went with the family to Ilaneoek County, Illinois. In 1855 he located at Quiney and entered the law office of Browning & Bushnell, while in 1858 he formed the law partnership with E. H. Buekley. During the Civil war he enlisted in Captain Mead's Home Guards, of which he was afterward elected captain. He died in 1862 from the effects of a wound accidentally received while in the military service of his country.
ACTIVE LAWYERS IN 1869 AND AFTER
In his "History of Quiney and Its Men of Mark," Pat. II. Red- mond, son of that prominent and sturdy pioneer, Hon. Thomas Redmond, gives a list of the men who were engaged in professional activities at Quiney in 1869, the year of the publication of that work. The attorneys at law then active were Arntzen & Richardson, Benneson & Janes, Browning & Bushnell, E. HI. Buekley, J. M. Cyrus, Duff & Tyrer, Emmons, Butz & Prentiss, W. G. Ewing, Goodwin & Davis, Jackson Grimshaw, E. B. Hamilton, U. H. Keth. J. H. & J. W. Me- Gindley, E. Prinee, G. J. Richardson, Seoggan & MeCann, Skinner & Marsh, J. C. Thompson, R. K. Turner, Warren & Wheat, Wheat & Marcy, J. II. Williams, Henry Asbury, G. W. Fogg, F. S. Giddings, C. Greely, H. H. Jansen, R. L. Miller, I. M. Moore, II. T. Patten and A. Wheat, Jr. This list is re-published, as 1869 seems to be a sort of a half-way post between the old order and that of today. A new generation of lawyers-several generations almost-has been raised up since the lawyers mentioned were the strength of the Adams County bar. None of those mentioned are now living.
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