USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of representative men of Chicago, Minnesota cities and the World's Columbian exposition : with illustrations on steel. V. 2 > Part 56
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ity of four hundred votes in a county that gave the Democratic candidate for governor sixteen hundred majority the same year. He was vice- president of the Republican State League of Minnesota from February, 1888, until March, 1891. He was chairman of the Republican county committee from 1886 until 1890, and a member of the State Central Committee at the same time. In the senate he was a member of the judiciary committee, and was the principal opponent of Ignatius Donnelly and other honor- able gentlemen in their attempted "wildcat" legislation.
Mr. Tawney married on December 19, 1883, Miss Emma Newell, a lady highly educated and accomplished. They have three children.
HON. MARCUS J. DAVIS,
DULUTH, MINN.
M ARCUS J. DAVIS was born in Oswego, New York, on May 29, 1842. He was edu- cated in the public schools of Oswego, and at the age of sixteen he began the battle of life by renting a farm in Clinton county, Iowa, and work- ing it himself. In 1863 he removed to Lynn county, in the same state, and continued the oc- cupation of farming. His next occupation was as clerk in a general store at Hudson, Wisconsin. In 1865, while on a railroad train, he casually overheard a conversation between two gentlemen, one of them a congressman from Minnesota, re- garding the great future in store for the head of Lake Superior. Acting upon the suggestion thus received, he made a tour of inspection to that part of the country, and visited the present site of Duluth. It pleased him, and he purchased a tract of timber land there for sixty cents per acre. He then returned to Hudson and remained there until 1870, when he removed to Duluth, and he has resided there permanently since. He dealt in wheat until 1886, when he began real-estate operations, and he has been interested in that line since then. He has been successful as a dealer in real estate, but has always been very conservative. In 1873, with the other early resi- dents of Duluth, he suffered from the effects of the financial depression, which made him cautious
and conservative. Mr. Davis has large interests in the lead-mining region of southwestern Missouri and eastern Kansas, and frequently visits that section in looking after these interests.
In national politics he has always been a staunch Republican. He, however, believes in abolishing party lines in municipal affairs. The following extract from a newspaper of May 20, 1890, speaks for itself :
" Duluth, that marvelous city that is destined to become a great metropolis, is officially presided over by Hon. M. J. Davis, one of the oldest set- tlers and one of its highly respected citizens. He has taken an intense interest in its growth and wel- fare, and in appreciation of his public spirit, last year he was elected alderman of the third ward on the independent Republican ticket. So well did he discharge the responsibilities of city legislator, that his name was presented and warmly sup- ported in the Republican convention for mayor. He failed, however, of the nomination, but his friends insisted that he should stand for the office in any event, and announced himself as an inde- pendent aspirant for the place. His action struck the popular chord, and attracted to his standard the laboring and temperance classes, who gave him a plump majority over the Republican and Democratic candidates.
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" During the administration of his predecessor, the high license laws were only partly enforced, especially in regard to early and Sunday closing of saloons. One of the first acts of Mayor Davis was to insist upon a compliance with the law, and he has adhered to this to the satisfaction of the masses. He will not swerve from the policy laid down, as he values the good-will of the com- munity with his reputation for sterling integrity and manly bearing at all times.
" Mayor Davis is a prominent member of the
Methodist Church, and his life reflects credit upon the denomination he is associated with. He is also a Free Mason of high standing, Duluth will never liave to blush for any act in Mayor Davis' supervision of local affairs."
Mayor Davis has been twice married. In 1861, in Clinton county, Iowa, he married Miss Weston. Three children, all married and now residing on Pugent Sound, Washington, survive their mother. In 1886 he married Miss Kate N. Tousley, of Galena, Kansas.
JAMES WETHERBY LAWRENCE,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
T HE subject of this sketch, like most of our successful men, has risen from a humble position, and his life is a happy illustration of what an energetic man may do under adverse circumstances. Step by step he has risen in his profession to eminence, which ever follows a career of industry, honorably and persistently followed, in the legal as in every other field of useful occupation.
On the 9th of August, 1846, in the town of Tully, near Syracuse, New York, James W. Lawrence was born. His father, James A. Law- rence, was at that time a highly respected attorney, practicing in Syracuse,
Mr. Lawrence inherits much of his taste and ability for the profession of law, as his grand- father, James A. Lawrence, was an eminent prac- titioner before the bar at Syracuse when the organization of the town was effected.
In 1856 Mr. Lawrence, Sr., removed with his family to St. Anthony, and forming a partnership with Judge William Lochren, under the firm name of Lawrence and Lochren, began the prac- tice of law. He remained there until the opening of the civil war, and during his residence of nearly six years, earned an enviable reputation as an able jurist and thoroughly capable lawyer. A man of keen perception and thoroughly versed in all the arts of his profession, he entered into every contest with that grim determination so characteristic of the man, that won for him many a hard-fought battle.
In 1862 the family returned to Syracuse, and
Mr. Lawrence enlisted in the Union Army. He was in Banks' corps, and participated in a number of engagements. On April 1, 1863, Mr. Law- rence, Sr., died at La Fourche, Louisiana, from fever contracted in the service. At the time of his death he held the rank of first lieutenant.
The early education of James W. Lawrence was obtained in the public schools of Syracuse and St. Anthony. At the age of eighteen he entered Hamilton College, at Clinton, New York, taking the course in law as well as in the classics, and was graduated in 1868.
After his graduation he accepted the principal- ship of a large private school at Hoboken, New Jersey, remaining there one year, and devoting his spare moments to his law studies. Late in 1869 he entered the law office of Messrs. Shel- don and Brown, in New York city, remaining until 1870, when he returned to Minneapolis.
Mr. Lawrence immediately entered the office of Messrs. Lochren and McNair, and continued there some six or eight months, familiarizing him- self with the methods of practice in Minnesota.
Subsequently he formed a partnership with Mr. Eugene Wilson, under the firm name of Wilson and Lawrence, and began in earnest the practice of law. This partnership lasted until the death of Mr. Wilson in April, 1890, since which time Mr. Lawrence has continued the business alone.
No profession presents the obstacles and hard- ships to the young man as does that of law, and he who rises, by his own unaided efforts, to a position of eminence in that profession, may
Your Yas. H. Lawrence.
1
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justly be proud of his success. In the beginning of his professional career, Mr. Lawrence had much to contend with. He was young and com- paratively unknown, and was entering a field of labor already well supplied. But energy, in- dustry and determination, combined with natural aptitude, quick conception and ready judgment, have carried him over many a seemingly insur- mountable barrier. His high sense of honor and conscientious regard for the interests of his client have earned for him an enviable reputation ; and his profound knowledge of the law and thorough . comprehension of all its intricacies place him in the front rank of Minnesota's able lawyers.
In political sentiment Mr. Lawrence is a Dem- ocrat, and as the representative of that party, has been called to fill various offices of honor and trust. From 1872 to 1876 he served as county attorney. At the time of his election, but one other candidate on the Democratic ticket was elected. Mr. Lawrence was chairman
of the State Central Democratic Committee for the years 1888 and 1889, and is now (1892) a member of the executive committee of the same body. He is also a member of the Minneapolis Board of Park Commissioners.
On the 18th of June, 1873, at Minneapolis, Mr. Lawrence married Miss Mary Sidle, daughter of Jacob K. Sidle, who was one of the oldest and most highly respected citizens of Minneapolis, and one of the founders of the First National Bank. To Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence have been born four bright boys, all of whom are living.
Mrs. Lawrence and her husband are active members of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, giving freely of their time and means to this, and to every worthy charitable and benevolent object.
The life of Mr. Lawrence furnishes another illustration of the power of patience, perseverance and conscientious effort, in elevating the character of the individual, and crowning his labors with the most complete success.
STANLEY C. OLMSTEAD,
ST. PAUL, MINN.
THE gentleman whose name heads this sketch is favorably known at the St. Paul bar as a thorough lawyer, who has attained high rank in his profession by the exercise of industry and perseverance, and by strict adherence to principles of integrity. He is thoroughly con- versant with the law, and perhaps no man in the profession keeps more thoroughly abreast of the decisions of the courts of last resort, both State and Federal, than he. His retentive memory and systematic methods of study and business enable him to draw from his accumula- tions of knowledge authority to support his propositions in every case. He possesses the power of keen analysis to a high degree, and grasps the salient points of a question with great ease. He always conducts his professional affairs in accordance with the highest standard of pro- fessional ethics. He is an excellent trial law- yer, self-poised and dignified, thoughtful of the feelings and respectful towards the opinions of others, and honorable in the highest and best sense, possessing those delicate instincts and
tender feelings which always characterize the true gentleman.
Mr. Olmstead is a native of the Empire State, and was born in East Bloomfield, November 28, 1853. His father, Charles Olmstead, was a farmer, and was descended from an old American family of that name at Hartford, Connecticut. The mother of our subject before marriage was Miss Mary Ross. Several of his paternal ancestors were soldiers in the Revolutionary war, and also in the war with Great Britain of 1812.
Stanley was raised on his father's farm, attend- ing school winters. He also attended the East Bloomfield Academy, established by the New Eng- landers in Western New York, at an early date, and afterwards the Geneseo State Normal School, where he obtained a good classical and scientific education. He studied law in the office of Judge Harlow L. Comstock, in Canandaigua, New York, and further pursued his legal studies with the Hon. Edwin Hicks of the same place, and was admit- ted to the bar at Rochester, New York, in 1880, and began practice immediately at Clifton Springs
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in that state. In June, 1887, he removed to St. Paul, where he has been in the successful practice of the law ever since that time.
In religious matters Mr. Olmstead was origin- ally of the Presbyterian faith, but he is now a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and held the office of vestryman and treasurer of the church of St. John the Evangelist in St. Paul from March, 1878 to March, 1891. He be- belongs to the Knights of Pythias, having joined
Clifton Springs Lodge in 1886. He is now a past chancellor of Terrace City Lodge, No. 38, St. Paul.
Mr. Olmstead married, at Clifton Springs, in 1880, Miss Emma J. Hahn, daughter of Dr. - Hahn, formerly of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is an estimable lady of rare accomplishments and attainments. She is an alumna of Pennsyl- vania Female College. They have three children, viz .: Clara H., ten years, John H., six years, and Mary P., two years old.
HON. WILLIAM WALLIS ERWIN,
ST. PAUL, MINN.
T "HE subject of this biography is well and favorably known throughout the north- west as an eminent lawyer; a ripe scholar, vigi- lant, zealous and industrious, how could he be otherwise than successful! In illustration he is peculiarly happy, and vision, personification, hyperbole, simile, contrast, allusion and antithesis succeed each other in rich and varied profusion ; his manner and actions are energetic without verg- ing on extravagance. Accomplished in literature, learned in jurisprudence, proficient in political philosophy, familiar with economic science, acute and alert of mind, a master of brilliant and lucid expression, William W. Erwin, whether as lawyer or politician, advocate or orator, citizen or soldier, has been useful to his country and an ornament to the state. With a trenchant pen and a clarion voice, he has battled for the right, as he under- stood it.
He is a native of the Empire State, and he was born in the town of Erwin, Stuben county, July 12, 1842. His paternal grandfather, General Arthur Erwin, was an officer of the patriot army in the American Revolution, and about the close of the war purchased the Erwin township, within which lies the confluence of the Cohocton and Tioga rivers, thus forming by their union the Chemung river, the upper western great branch of the Susquehanna. General Erwin lived at Er- wina, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and was assas- sinated by some squatters whom he had dispos- sessed of some lands in the town of Athens, which town also he owned at the time of his death. General Erwin's father immigrated to America
from Ireland many years before the war of the Rebellion. The family had been domiciled in Ireland for about three centuries, and claimed lineage from William de Irwyn, the armor bearer of Robert Bruce of Scotland. It is certain that the three holly leaves, with the motto sub sole umbra virens, was received by the family by reason of their services to Robert Bruce. The Irwyns of Scotland claimed a Scandinavian line- age, and the traditions of the family related that the ancestors, with other Vikings, had seized the Orkney Islands, north of Scotland, and had slowly passed into a Scottish family. The Scandinavian name of the family is claimed to have been Erinoeine. Mr. Erwin's grandfather was Captain Samuel Erwin, who commanded a company in the war of 1812, and served with gallantry at Lundy's Lane. Captain Erwin was in many res- pects a remarkable man. It is related that he avenged the murderer of his father by blood atone- ment. He followed the assassin from Pennsyl- vania to Georgia. There were no extradition laws by which the murderer could be returned to Pennsylvania and justice avenged. He was a powerful man, and was known along the Susque- hanna by the name of " King of the Susquehanna." He lived at the village of Painted Post, where he reared a large family. His wife was Rachel Hackman, of Easton, Pennsylvania, of one of the old Holland colonist families. Among his sons were William Erwin, born in 1813, who was grad- uated from Union College, Schenectady, New York, in 1837; the late Hon. Arthur H. Erwin, the late General Francis E. Erwin, of New Jersey ;
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the late Judge John Erwin, of Cleveland, Ohio ; the late Captain Samuel Erwin, and the Hon. Charles H. Erwin, now residing in the family mansion at Erwin, New York. Mr. William Erwin, after his graduation from Union College, studied law and was admitted to the bar, but never entered into a regular practice. He is a man of great learning, logic and research, and author of many pamphlets and several books on the subject of Biblical study. In 1839 he married Mary Evans, daughter of Honorable John Evans, a distintinguished lawyer, living at Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, and of this union was born the sub- ject of this sketch. Mrs. Erwin is a woman of varied accomplishments ; her children inherit their ambition from her. She is a noble Christian woman, and has always been a shining example of womanly virtues. Her only brother is the Hon. Thomas W. Evans, now living in German- town, Pennsylvania, who has been said to be Philadelphia's greatest importer. Her oldest sister, Elizabeth, was the wife of Judge John Cooper, of Cooper's Plains, New York. Her sister Grace was the wife of the Rev. Dr. Morgan J. Rheese, of Brooklyn, New York. Her sister Jane was the wife of the late Dr. Aiken. Her sister Margarette was the wife of the Hon. Miller J. Fox, of Towanda, Pennsylvania, a distinguished engineer. Her mother's name was Wallis, which name she gave to her son William. The Evanses of Pennsylvania are of the same family as the Evanses of Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia, and are of Welsh origin, and are highly connected with the old families of Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Mr. Erwin, the subject of this sketch, attended the academy in Plattsburg, New York; also at Alfred, New York, and he completed his fresh- man year at Genesee College at Lima, New York. He left college to enter the army at the very out- break of the rebellion. Although but eighteen years of age he raised, at his family's expense, a company of volunteers and joined the famous Excelsior Brigade, then recruiting and afterwards commanded by General Daniel E. Sickles, after- wards Major General Sickles. Excelsior Brigade formed a portion of General Joe Hooker's famous division, commanding which he won his fame.
Mr. Erwin's services commenced on May 22,
1861, as first lieutenant of Company K, Fifth Regiment, Excelsior Brigade, known in the records as Seventy-fourth Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry. He served with his regi- ment, which was commanded by Colonel Charles K. Graham, afterwards Major General. He was engaged in the winter of 1861-62 in doing picket service on the Potomac river, from Budd's Ferry to Port Tobacco, Maryland. His division joined General McClellan's. army in the early spring of 1862, in the investment of Yorktown, Virginia. In the battle of Williamsburg Captain Martin Willis, the commander of Lieutenant Erwin's Company, was captured, after which Lieutenant Erwin re- mained in command of the company until a few days after the battle of Seven Pines, when he suf- fered a sunstroke, which was followed with typhoid fever. By the devoted energies of his father, than whom there never was a more courageous or honest man, Lieutenant Erwin was removed to his home in New York, where he remained totally incapacitated for service until, under the surgeon general's certificate of disability his resignation was accepted.
After his retirement from the army, Mr. Erwin studied law in the office of his brother-in-law, the Hon. J. R. Ward, of Elmira, New York, and in the winter of 1863-4 he attended the law school at Albany, and was admitted to the bar at the general term of the supreme court at Albany by Judges Peckham, Miller and Ingalls on May 5, 1864. Early in June of that year Mr. Erwin, in company with his father, brother John Evans Erwin, and his uncle, Samuel Erwin, started on an overland trip from Nebraska City, Nebraska, up the Platte River to Julesburg, Colorado, then to Lodgepole Creek, Fort Laramie, Upper Platte Crossing, Deer Creek, Independence Rock, and by Lander's Cut-off over the Wind River Mountains to Blackfoot Creek, and across the Snake River direct to Bannock and Virginia City, then the leading cities of Montana. Upon the outward trip Mr. Erwin's train encountered the Sioux Indians at every point beyond Fort Laramie. The last five hundred miles of the journey into Ban- nock Mr. Erwin and his father made alone, riding in turn a single Indian pony. When about forty miles west of Fort Laramie the train of wagons with which the Erwin party were traveling was sud- denly attacked by a band of Sioux Indians. The
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attack was of short duration, and the Indians being immediately repulsed, hid behind the bluffs. Mr. Erwin relates that he was never so badly scared in his life. To conceal his trepida- tion he resorted to the artifice of filling a large briar-wood pipe as coolly as possible and making an extravagant show of calmness, and upbraided every man whom he found in any fault, telling one " to put his children in the wagon ; that he ought to be ashamed to have his children out ex- posed to danger." He directed another to keep his oxen close up to the wagon in front of him so they might corral easily if the attack was re- newed, etc. He says, good humoredly, that it is not at all strange that the same night he was elected fighting captain of the train, and so re- mained while a train of one hundred wagons traveled a distance of seven hundred miles. In the winter of 1864 Mr. Erwin went to Denver, Colorado, with the intention of opening a law office there, but abandoned the project and re- turned to Corning, New York, where he entered the office of Hon. George B. Bradley and Hon. Amos Kendall, then the ablest law firm in all of southern New York. The distinguished jurist, Mr. Bradley, now occupies a seat in the court of appeals in that state.
Mr. Erwin remained with this firm until Mr. Bradley advised him that he was too good a lawyer to be employed by them ; whereupon he opened an office in Corning and rapidly built up a lucrative practice.
While at law school in Albany, in 1863-64, Mr. Erwin formed an intimate acquaintance with the late Hon. G. J. Clark, the State Prison Inspector, with the distinction of being the youngest man ever elected to a state office in New York ; having been chosen upon the Seymour ticket of 1862. Mr. Clark was well known for his accom- plished poems among which are "Life Leaves," and the " Bivouac."
After the state election in New York in 1866, to prevent Tammany Hall from obtaining posses- sion of the Democratic party in the state, many of the great Democratic leaders had supported the Hon. Reuben E. Fenton, the Republican can- didate for governor, and had thereby defeated Hoffman, the candidate of Tammany. Mr. Clark determined to abandon a party which he believed should be rather the defender of the Jefferson,
Madison and Monroe doctrines of the Federal Union than the machine politics of Tammany Hall, and at his earnest solicitation Mr. Erwin was in- duced to remove to the State of Nebraska, where he entered into law practice at Plattsmouth, in Cass county, with Mr. Clark and the Hon. De- Forest Porter, who had been the famous boy preacher of western New York. The intention was to secure to Mr. Clark the election to the United States Senate to succeed the Hon. Thomas W. Tipton in 1868, and the whole scheme would have been successful had not Dr. Miller, the editor of the Democratic Omaha Herald, out of mere partisan revenge, republished certain speeches made by Mr. Clark in New York, arraigning the general government for an unconstitutional as- sumption of war powers, and containing sentiments which looked to a perpetuation of the Federal Union as of paramount importance to the aboli- tion of local slavery.
Defeated in 1868, Mr. Clark accepted the tempt- ing offer made by W. W. Mills, of Texas, to re- move to El Paso, Texas, and identify himself with the interests of that section. Mr. Erwin, though strongly urged to go to Texas, refused to leave Nebraska, until, as he expressed it in his boyish ardor, he saw the hide of General Thayer on the political frame. In 1869-70, when the great struggle for the successorship to General Thayer in the United States Senate was made in the counties of Nebraska, Mr. Erwin led the movement in Cass county, which then controlled seven members of the legislature, a number equal to one-third of a majority of the Republican caucus to defeat General Thayer. With the aid of Hon. David H. Wheeler, now of Omaha, he succeeded in obtaining control of the nominating convention at Weeping Water, forcing the Thayer faction to secede and organize a bolt, while the anti-Thayer faction elected the seven members of the legislature, and announced the name of Hon. P. W. Hitchcock, of Omaha, as their candidate for the senate. During the interval of Mr. Erwin's residence in Nebraska, after the removal of Mr. Clark to Texas, and after the appointment of Mr. De Forest Porter, Mr. Erwin's other partner, to the United States Judgeship in Arizona, Mr. Erwin practiced successfully at the bar with the Hon. Turner M. Marquette, the first member of congress from Nebraska, Colonel Andrew J.
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