USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. I > Part 18
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Among the attorneys of that generation, and perhaps the last to pass away was Albert A. Wells, who came from the State of New Jersey and located in Quincy in 1870, and soon after formed a partner- ship with Lawrence E. Emmons which partnership continued as Emmons & Wells to the death of the latter which occurred in 1897. Mr. Wells was twiee eleeted to the Legislature from this district and also to the State Senate of which body he was a member at the time of his death. Mr. Wells had a splendid physique and was a fine look- ing man. He was a good lawyer and an able advocate. He preferred office duties rather than the excitement of the court room. He is better known and will be remembered longer for the work he did in the Legislature and Senate. He was the father of the Labor Day Law in Illinois.
There are doubtless others of broad caliber and staneh professional fiber, who threw their fortunes with the Adams County bar at a com- paratively early day. In fact, several are recalled before this sentence
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is fairly complete-Abraham Jonas, a Kentuckian, who served in the Legislature of that state before he came to Quincy, repeated that part of his record in the Illinois House, was also master in chancery and died in 1864; J. H. Richardson, the Indiana lawyer, who practiced in Quincy from 1862 until his death in 1891, was city attorney and served in the State Senate; Judge Joseph C. Thompson, who occupied the county bench with credit from 1873 to 1877, who had practiced law for fourteen years before coming to Quiney in 1868, was a leading democrat and at the time of his death in 1893 was serving as post- master; Col. W. W. Berry, who had made a brilliant military record as commander of the Louisville Legion of the Army of the Cumberland before he located in Quincy as a lawyer and afterward became com- mander of the Illinois Encampment of the Grand Army of the Re- public and an influential republican leader ; Ira MI. Moore, who resided in Quincy for a third of a century as a member of the local bar, a representative of the Legislature, justice of the peace and author of several standard legal works, who died in 1905; and George A. Ander- son, a Virginian who located at Quincy soon after his admission to the bar in 1879, was a lawyer of rare ability, city attorney and mem- ber of the Fiftieth Congress. Mr. Anderson died in 1896.
Gen. E. B. Hamilton, who died March 20, 1902, was a Civil war soldier and officer from Hancock County, Illinois, and in 1866 moved to Quincy. He was admitted to practice in 1869 and in 1877, in recog- nition of his services as colonel of the Eighth Illinois Infantry at the great railroad strike in East St. Louis, was commissioned brigadier general. He was afterward inspector general of the Illinois militia. General Hamilton was an eloquent orator and an able lawyer. He died March 20, 1902.
Frederick V. Marcy, a Dartmouth College young man, came to Quincy before his admission to the bar. After completing his studies with Wheat & Groves he became a member of the firm. He was a classical scholar and a broad-minded attorney. He died July 14, 1884.
Other members of the Quincy bar who have practiced law in Adams County and have won for themselves more or less distin- guished records and who are now deceased-and whose history for lack of space, cannot be given in detail here, are:
Thos. H. Brooker, J. E. Balthorpe, L. H. Berger, C. A. Babcock, W. Clay Crewdson, Sterling P. Delano, Isaac MI. Grover, Chas. M. Gilmer, John F. Gilmer, Abraham Jonas, H. H. Jansen, Geo. M. Janes, Aaron McMurray, Ira M. Moore, Edward Prince, Geo. J. Richardson, Jas. N. Sprigg, Jos. A. Roy, Almeron Wheat, Jr.
THE QUINCY BAR ASSOCIATION
With very few exceptions the lawyers of Quincy have numbered the leading attorneys of Adams County ; so that they have never felt called upon to formally extend the scope of their organization. As
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it is provided in the constitution, however, that "judges of courts of records in Illinois and members of the Bar of Illinois, may likewise become members, " no lawyer of good standing in the county is really barred from participation in its deliberations.
The certificate of incorporation of the Quiney Bar Association was filed by Joseph N. Carter, Hope S. Davis and Rufus L. Miller, on the 18th of January, 1876. It is stated that its particular object is "to establish and maintain the honor and dignity of the profession of the law, to cultivate social intercourse among its members, and to increase its usefulness in promoting the due administration of justice." The names of the managers selected for the first year were Orville HI. Browning. Alexander E. Wheat, Frederick V. Marey, William Marsh, .John Il. Williams, Ira M. Moore and Henry Asbury. Mr. Browning was the president ; Messrs. Marsh and Wheat, viee-presidents; Rufus L. Miller, secretary, and JJames F. Carrott, treasurer.
After a considerable period of official life, the association became inactive, but was reorganized April 5, 1902. Since that year Joseph N. Carter and Samnel Woods have served as its presidents. Its first vice president is F. M. MeCann ; second vice president, John E. Wall : secretary, Walter II. Bennett ; treasurer, George W. Govert.
The following are the names of the present members: J. L. Adair, Albert Akers, Edward P. Allen, Charles L. Bartlett, Walter II. Ben- nett. A. J. Broekschmidt, M. F. Carrott, L. E. Emmons, Sr .. L. E. Emmons, Jr., Carl E. Epler. W. G. Feigenspan, J. Frank Garner, William H. Govert. George W. Govert, Joseph HI. Hanly. S. A. Hub- bard, John T. Inghram, Roy D. Johnson, U. H. Keath, W. E. Lan- easter. W. P. Martindale, F. M. MeCann, Lyman MeCarl. F. B. Me- Kennan, W. Miller, S. B. Montgomery, F. W. Monroe, Frank .J. Penick, Elmer C. Peter, Thomas P. Petri. T. C. Poling, Arthur R. Roy, Thomas A. Seherer. P. J. Schlagenhauf, William Schlagenhanf, H. E. Schmied- eskamp. Maurice Vasen, R. M. Wagner, John E. Wall, George H. Wilson, J. M. Winters, Fred Wolfe, C. II. Wood, Samuel Woods.
URIAN II. KEITH, OLDEST LIVING LAWYER
Uriah H. Keath, with one exception the oldest practitioner at the Quiney har, was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, November 3, 1831. His father. Gabriel Keath, was born in Montgomery County, Kon- tneky, October 13, 1807, and died in 1865. Hle was a farmer and stock-raiser. He first visited Illinois in 1828, but afterwards re- turned to Kentucky and it was not until 1832 that he became a resi- dent of Adams County, locating at Columbus. There he remained until the spring of 1834. when he removed to U'rsa Township, where he purchased a farm, residing thereon until his death. There he reared his family and in the management of his farming interests he displayed good business ability. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he served as elder and in the work of which he took an active and helpful part. His early political support
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was given to the whig party and upon its dissolution he joined the ranks of the new republican party. He married Lucinda Randolph, daughter of James Randolph and a cousin of John Randolph of Roanoke. She was born in Kentucky and it was in 1879 that she was called to her final rest at the age of seventy-eight. Gabriel and Lucinda Keath were the parents of eight children, four sons and four daughters.
To the public school system of Adams County Uriah H. Keath is indebted for the early educational privileges he enjoyed. In 1849 he entered MeKendree College, at Lebanon, Illinois, and on leaving that institution in 1852 he went to Kentucky, where he was engaged in teaching for several months. Following his return to Adams County, he again taught school for a time and then took up the study of law in the office of Archibald Williams and C. B. Lawrence of Quincy, being admitted to the bar on the 5th of February, 1855. He began practice at Sigourney, Keokuk County, Iowa, and was thus engaged at the outbreak of the Civil war in the spring of 1861. He was then commissioned by Governor Kirkwood as a recruiting officer and assisted in raising three regiments. He was made first lientenant of Company F, Fifth Iowa Infantry, under the command of Col. W. H. Worthington, and a year later was promoted to the rank of captain in September, 1862, having command of his company until mustered out of service on the 27th of October, 1864, at Atlanta, Georgia. He served in all of the campaigns in Missouri under Generals Fremont, Pope, Hunter and others and during the greater part of his connec- tion with the army was with the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps. He was in twenty-one battles, among which may be mentioned New Madrid, Island No. 10, Inka, Corinth, Vicksburg, Knoxville, siege of Corinth, Missionary Ridge and the Atlanta campaign, and he did his full duty as a soldier, being most capable and loyal in the discharge of every task that devolved upon him.
"On leaving the army Mr. Keath returned to his home in Iowa, but in 1865 became a resident of Quincy, where he at once opened a law office and has since practiced in all the courts. He enjoys the enviable reputation with court, counsel and client of a practitioner scrupulously accurate in statement and in every action or position governed by the nicest sense of professional honor. His political support is given to the republican party and he has exercised consider- able influence in political circles. He served as United States deputy collector of revenue under President Harrison, being appointed in 1889, and was assistant superintendent of the public schools of the county from 1865 until 1869. He served for several terms as chair- man of the republican executive committee of Adams County and has been a member of the state central committee. ** *
* His time and attention, however, have been principally devoted to the practice of law and he is today the oldest member of the Quincy bar in continuous practice with the exception of Hope S. Davis (Editor: Mr. Davis las since died). As a man he is of genial nature and social tastes and
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these qualities have won him a host of warm and devoted friends." -- Wilcox's Representative Men.
(Since the death of Judge Williams and Mr. Davis, Mr. Keath is the oldest living member of the bar. He is still living, May 20, 1918- Note by W. A. Richardson.)
VETERAN LAWRENCE E. EMMONS
"Lawrenee E. Emmons was born in New York city, October 1, 1836; was married to Miss Eliza H. Fletcher in 1856; she was born in Savannah, Georgia; they have two children, Lawrence E. and Lilly F .; he studied law in the Chicago Law School; was admitted to the bar in 1861; and removed to Bristol, Kendall county, where he prac- ticed law until 1865, when he was commissioned First Lieutenant of the 147 Regt. Illinois Infantry, with which regiment he served until the spring of 1866; after being mustered out he came to Quiney and engaged in the practice of his profession, and has, by elose attention, built himself up an enviable reputation and very lucrative business. He is Republican, and a member of the Episcopal Church."-History of Adams County, 1879.
"Mr. L. E. Emmons, the eminent attorney, was born in New York City, but came west when quite a boy, and was reared on a farm near Bristol, Illinois. He went to the district school in the winter time, and attended two terms at Mt. Morris Seminary. At twenty-three he com- meneed the study of law in the law department of the old Chicago University, graduated in 1861, and was admitted to practice by the supreme court the same year. He practiced his profession in Kendall county until 1864, when he enlisted in the army and helped to organize the One IInndred and Forty-seventh Illinois Infantry. He was com- missioned First Lieutenant, but was assigned by the department to detached service as ordnance officer, subsequently as assistant com- missary, in which position he served until discharged in March, 1866. He was married to Miss Fletcher in Marietta, Ga., in May, 1866, and came to Quiney in September of that year. He at once opened a law ofice and has been in active practice here ever since, rising to a most eminent position at the bar, a place which has been won by his eom- prehensive knowledge of the law and his conscientious care of the in- terests of his clients. His first partners were Gen. B. M. Prentiss, the hero of the battle of Shiloh, and M. R. Butts. In 1873 Mr. Emmons formed a partnership with the late Senator Albert W. Wells, which continued to the death of the later in 1896, and he then took his son, L. E. Emmons, Jr., as a partner."-Wilcox's Representative Men, 1899. Mr. Emmons is still living.
WHEN BENCH AND BAR WERE PICTURESQUE
Gen. John Tillson, whose fame is more of a military, literary and publie man than that of a lawyer, nevertheless practiced among the
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earlier members of the local bar, and is well qualified, from close con- tact and broad observation, to give a picture of the pioneer period of the bench and bar. He has thus laid on the rich colors in his "History of Quiney": "Well was, and is it known that during the earlier periods of our state history, the prominence of the Quiney, or Bounty Tract bar, was an admitted Illinois fact. Here were taught, needed, developed the stalwart qualities that attach to and betoken the most complete fruition of legal excellence, as attained in the recogni- tion, study, comprehension and application of the obtuse and limitless principles and history of that noblest portion of jurisprudence-land law. On this broad field, years sinee inviting and fast filling with adventurous immigration, where existed land titles of every shade, affected by conflicting legislation, varying as the years, was gained the rare training and reputation of our legal athletes-an arena such as was found in no other section of the state; and in addition to these advantages, themes of practice, the professional necessities of the bar vastly aided its members in their advance to self-reliant supremacy. The reasons for this are novel, but conclusive.
"Law, in those past-off days, demanded of its votaries different qualities from now. It exacted the instincts of the smarter men, of genius, and nerve and novelty. It was the intellectual over the edu- cated that led the van. Of books there were few. Authorities and precedents slumbered not in the great handy libraries. The entire resources of the Bounty Tract could hardly to-day fill out the shelves. of one ordinary lawyer's library. Hence alike, whether engaged in counsel or litigation, native resources, remembrance of past reading, but mainly the readiness and aptitude with which legal principles, drawn from rudimentary reading or educated by intuition, could be applied to any interest or exigence in 'the infinite variety of human concerns,' were the only armories whenee were drawn their needed weapons of assured success. He was a luckless lawyer who had to hunt his books to settle a sudden controverted point, or answer a bewildered client's query ; and he was a licensed champion who, theorizing from his instored legal lore or instinctive acumen, knew on the instant where best to point his thrust, and was equally ready with every form of parry and defense. The off-hand action and advice of such men, nerved by necessity and skilled by contest, became of course to be re- garded almost like leaves of law.
"One can thus somewhat realize what keen, pliant, ineisive re- source was attained by such careers; how inspiring and attractive were their conclusions; how refined, subtle and sharpened their in- tellects must have become.
"It should not be supposed that looseness, lack of accuracy or legal formula marked the rulings of the bench and bar. There was friendship and familiarity, it is true ; because everybody knew every- body. The court houses were shambling great log houses; their furni- ture, chairs and desks, split bottomed and unplaned, would have set a modern lawyer's feelings on edge; but the bench was always filled
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with character, knowledge and dignity, and the forensic ruling and requirement were governed by as much judicial precision and profes- sional deferenee as would mark the records of the most pretentious tribunal in the Jand.
"The bar in those early days was a sort of a family to itself. There was mutual acquaintance. All traveled the circuit, went to every county ou court week, came from all quarters. Egypt and Galena had their representatives. Some went there because they had business ; some because they wanted to get business, and all that they might learn.
"In court, by practice and observation, was acquired much of knowledge that the paucity of books denied the student and young practitioner. Out of court their associations were like those of a de- bating society or law school. They mingled in common; ate, drank, smoked. joked, disputed together. The judge, at the tavern, had the spare room, if sneh a room there was, and the lawyers bunked cozily. dozens together, in the 'omnibus,' as the big, many-bedded room was called, and there they had it. Whatever of law point, past or present. pending or probable, could be raised, they went for it, discussed, dis- seeted, worried, fought over it, until whether convinced or not. all knew more than when they first commeneed; and thus struggling over these made-up issues of debate became sharpened, by mutual attri- tion, the legal faculties that were panting for future and more serious contests.
"These lawyers were on exhibition, and they knew it. Every man in the county came to town court week, if he could. There were but few people in the county then, and court week was the natural period- ieal time for the farmers to meet, swap stories, make trades, learn the news, hear the speeches, and form their own opinion as to which of the 'tongue fellows it is safest to give business to, or vote for the Legislature.' A pretty good idea of how universal was the gathering. of necessity at the county seat in those primitive days, may be gleaned from the fact that at the assembling of the first court in Adams County, every man in Adams and Haneoek (then a part of Adams) was either on the grand or petit jury, except two-and one of them was, and perhaps both, under indietment. Most of them were young. They had jolly old times-those limbs of the law-jolly in- deed! All were instinet with the very cream of zeal, enterprise and originality that inheres to a new community ; and among them jibe. jest and fun, yarn and repartee, were tossed about like meteoric showers.
"An amusing ineident is told, in which the judge, prosecuting at- torney and another member of the bar were traveling over the prairie. and, while lighting their pipes, either thoughtlessly or accidentally, set the grass on fire. It spread, swept toward the timber, destroyed a settler's fences and improvements, and some liekless wight was in- dieted for the offense. The lawyer who formed one of the traveling party defended the culprit. The prosecuting attorney, of course, had
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his duties to perform in the furtherance of the ends of justice. The judge had the outraged interests of law to protect under the solemnity of his position and oath; but it required all the earnest efforts of the gifted counsel, all the gencrous rulings of the judge, all the blundering action of the prosecuting attorney-the united sympathies, in fact, of this secretly sinning legal trinity-to prevent the jury from finding a verdict against the innocent accused."
THE PHYSICIANS
The character of the physicians who first settled in Quincy and throughout the county was fully up to the best standard of the coun- try doctor of the West; and no more faithful soul could anywhere be found in that wilderness country. As with the lawyers, the cream of the medical and surgical profession gathered at the county seat-the Rogers brothers, Doctor Hornsby, Dr. J. N. Ralston, Dr. Richard Eels and others.
Dr. Samuel W. Rogers, the elder of the brothers, was the first phys- ician to settle in Quincy, if not in the county. Like most members of his profession in a new country, if possessed of really strong character, he became prominent in the public affairs of the locality. He was a democrat of radical convictions and considerable influence and held the Quincy postmastership for some time. Doctor Rogers died about 1900 at his daughter's residence in New Hampshire. He commenced practice at Quincy in 1829, and lived to a venerable age.
Dr. Hiram Rogers, the younger brother, was also a physician of education and skill, and came from New York to Quincy in 1843. He first engaged in the drug business with Dr. J. N. Ralston, who had been residing at the county seat for more than a decade. This Doctor Rogers was register of the land office from 1845 to 1849 and died in Quincy about twenty years ago. He married a danghter of Capt. Nathaniel Pease, the Boston merchant and capitalist who came to Quincy in 1833 to embark in the packing business and, after making a great success of it and forming many warm friendships in the town and county, died in 1836. His daughter, the widow of Dr. Hiram Rogers, lived in Quincy many years after the death of her husband.
Dr. Joseph N. Ralston was a native of Bourbon County, Kentucky, and spent his early manhood as a farmer. At the death of his first wife he commenced the study of medicine and after attending medical lectures at Lexington obtained his license to practice, and in 1832 settled at Quincy for that purpose. For nearly forty-five years, or until his death in June, 1876, he gave a large measure of his strength and talents to the practice of his profession, and during that long period always maintained an acknowledged leadership both as a prac- titioner and a public spirited citizen of practical worth and high ideals. He was one of the founders and the first president of the Adams County Medical Society and was re-elected to that position several times afterward. From its organization in 1850 until the year
1
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of his death, he generally held some position of honor or trust in the society.
Dr. Ralston also was pleased to devote his time and abilities to public local affairs quite divoreed from any professional considera- tions. In the carlier history of the eity he served in the Common Council, and later assisted in the establishment of the Catherine Beecher select school at Quiney and the college placed under the con- trol of the Methodist Church. IIe was a devoted Mason and rose high in that order, being one of the founders of Bodley Lodge No. 1 of Quiney and of the Grand Lodge of Illinois. Few citizens of the county have had a wider or warmer acquaintance than Doetor Ralston. Phys- ically, he is deseribed as "rather tall and spare in figure, dignified in carriage, courteous almost to punetiliousness in manner, elean and precise in specelı."
CHOLERA IN 1833
The elder Doctor Rogers and Doctor Ralston were the bulwarks of the profession against which the cholera epidemic of 1833 fiercely dashed itself. It first appeared in Adams County on the Fourth of July of that year, and two days later a meeting was held at the court house to determine what general measures should be taken to prevent its spread. William G. Flood was appointed chairman of the meeting and O. H. Browning secretary. The town was divided into three districts, with J. F. Holmes, O. H. Browning and R. S. Green as ehairmen of the respective vigilanee committees. Together, these gentlemen constituted an autocratic health board, as the matter which they had in hand was one of life and death. They were instructed to meet daily, or oftener if necessary, procure attendance and nourishment for the sick, and superintend the burial of the dead. The disease spread with great rapidity, despite these precautions, and this was all the more noticeable in a small and thinly settled country. On the 7th of July there were forty-three cases of sickness-not all, however, of cholera. There is no reliable record of the actual number of deaths which oeenrred from cholera alone, but from the best authority to be obtained it is believed that between thirty and forty died in Quiney out of a population of about 400. In that day the people were not so well prepared, either with means or remedies, to battle with an epidemie as they were at a later period, when they possessed a contingent fund to draw upon. Their means of communication were also sadly deficient. During the progress of the first epidemie, the expenses of preventive and curative measures were borne by public subscription, and the report of Levi B. Allen, treasurer of the relief committee, for July 10th, shows that he had then received $26.95 and disbursed the sum of $4. But in spite of these days of small things of a material nature, the hearts of the citizens and the little band of physicians who were holding the sanitary line against the enemy were large and stout.
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