USA > Michigan > Bench and bar of Michigan : a volume of history and biography > Part 18
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themselves to the most reputable practitioners. Whether in the conduct of a case in court or the transaction of business outside of court he is uni- versally regarded one of the keenest lawyers in the State. He is one of the most eloquent, influential and popular public speakers in his section. He is therefore frequently called upon to address public assemblies. His speeches are bright, high-toned and witty. He is possessed of remarkable personal magnetism and is esteemed an exemplary citizen. Frost & Sprague have the best law library in the circuit, containing more than three thousand volumes.
VICTOR D. SPRAGUE, Cheboygan. Victor D. Sprague, of Frost & Sprague, a leading law firm of Cheboygan, was born November 21, 1869, near Vermontville, Michigan. His father, Pandora A. Sprague, was born in central New York. His ancestors were of Scotch derivation, and were mainly devoted to agricultural pursuits. They came to America in colonial days. His mother was Amanda McNeil, a native of New Jersey, of Scotch descent. The elder Sprague came to Michigan when only six years of age in 1835. His father found a home for his family near Battle Creek, but presently removed to Eaton county, where he still lives. They were the parents of three boys and one girl, Victor D. being the youngest child. Frank A. is manager of the Moline Plow Works at St. Louis. The sister is Dr. Minnie D. Baker, and has her home at Climax. The early life of the subject of this sketch was spent on the farm, and his education began in the adjoining district school. At the age of fourteen he struck out for himself. His father gave him twenty-five dollars, and he went west to Council Bluffs. There he found a situation as an office boy in a wholesale implement house. His salary was board, room and clothing. He studied short-hand, nights, and in six months became so proficient, that the fırın gave him a position as stenographer. He remained with them four years, when he resigned and came back to this state and entered the Charlotte high school. This was in September, 1888, and two years later he was graduated from the classical course. He was a brilliant and popular student and his class elected him as its president and orator. Soon after leaving school he entered the office of Judge Van Zile, where he read law until the opening of the fall term of the Law Department of the University of Michigan, when he entered that institution. He took special work in the Literary Department and was a member of the graduating law class of 1892. He went to Cheboygan to begin the practice of law, and formed a partnership with H. W. McArthur. This association continued until September, 1893, when Mr. McArthur retired from the firm on account of failing health, and soon after died. Mr. Sprague purchased his very com- plete library and office outfit and practised alone until January 1, 1894, when the present partnership with George E. Frost was formed. He is a
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Republican and was elected prosecuting attorney in 1894 by a majority of two hundred and eighty-five votes in a county normally Democratic by at least two hundred. Among the cases with which he has been associated was that of Mckinnon vs. Gates (102 Mich. 618), in which he was attorney for plaintiff. This case was tried in the Circuit Court, and judg- ment given plaintiff. The defense carried the case to the Supreme Court, where judgment was reversed and case remanded for trial. The Court took this action on account of error in admission of testimony, but held the plaintiff's theory correct. It was tried again in Ogemaw county Circuit Court, where judgment was again rendered for plaintiff. It was again carried to the Supreme Court where it still remains undecided. It is the only case in Michigan involving these points of controversy. Another case was that of Mckinnon vs. Meston, which involved very interesting ques- tions regarding the right to bring replevin suits for logs cut on tax title before litigating the right to land in a suit for ejectment. He was attorney for plaintiff and lost his suit in the Circuit Court, but carried it to the Supreme Court and won a favorable decision. This case is recorded in 104 Mich. 642. As prosecuting attorney he made a brilliant record in nearly two hundred cases, running from petit larceny to murder, with but two acquittals in the Circuit Court. During his term of office, he tried the celebrated Appleyard murder case, securing a verdict of murder in the second degree. In this case he was ably assisted by his law partner, Mr. Frost, while the defendant was represented by local counsel and a famous criminal lawyer of Minnesota. Mr. Sprague is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and is P.C. of his home lodge. He is also in the order of Maccabees, and the Woodmen of the World. He was married October 2, 1894, to Miss Gertrude Davis, of Charlotte. She is the daughter of Warren Davis, a farmer residing near that city. They have one child, Don Allen, born April 16, 1896. Mr. Sprague is still a young man, and the world is before him. His position in the legal profession is assured. He has a good mind, thoroughly trained for the subtleties of his profession, and is strong not only in the minutia but also in the broad principles of the law. He carefully prepares his cases. He is a fluent and impressive speaker, and makes his argument convincing, both by clearness and force.
PETER F. DODDS, Mt. l'leasant, Judge of the Twenty-First Judicial Circuit, was born in St. Lawrence county, New York, January 4, 1849. His parents, John and Catherine (Hoy) Dodds, were natives of Ireland, but emigrated to this country when quite young, and settled in New York. In 1866 they came into Michigan and located in Coe township, Isabella county, where they remained for nine years. They then removed to Mt. Pleasant, where the husband and father died in 1879. Mrs. Dodds, the mother, died in 1889. Judge Dodds was only seventeen when he entered
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the State to make his home with his parents in Isabella county, and when he was nineteen he began teaching country school. In this occupation he had quite a long and varied experience, his term of service covering fifty- seven months and terminating in 1874. He was an earnest, ambitious young man, and while doing acceptable work in the school room, was also engaged in pursuing those studies that would better fit him for a broad and influential life. He was graduated from the full English course at the State Normal in Ypsilanti, June, 1874. Not satisfied with his standing as a graduate of that school, he carried on college studies under the supervision of the faculty of Olivet College. He was a member of its graduating class in 1882 and received the degree of A. B., which was followed later on by that of A. M. While doing this work along the lines of higher education, he was also engaged in preparation for the legal profession and in its active duties. While still engaged in teaching he read law ; and after his gradua- tion from the State Normal took a term in the Law Department of the University of Michigan, as supplementary to his reading. He was admit- ted to the Bar at Ithaca in 1875, and began his professional career under very favorable circumstances. Hon. Isaac A. Fancher, standing confess- edly at the head of the Isabella county Bar, and a talented lawyer of great reputation, proposed a partnership to the young man. Association with with such a man was of great benefit to Mr. Dodds. It brought him into contact with a most desirable class of clients, and put him in a good light before the public. F. H. Dodds, a brother, was admitted to the firm in 1880, taking the place of Mr. Fancher, who soon after removed to Detroit. In the next two years two other brothers were admitted to the Bar, and entered the firm-William 1 .. Dodds, who died in February, 1894, and George E. Dodds, who went to Colorado in 1885, where he still resides. The brother, F. H. Dodds, continued in partnership until Judge Dodds became a member of the Michigan Judiciary. He was elected on the Republican ticket in 1893 and assumed judicial functions January, 1894. He never has been an " office seeker," but was elected prosecuting attor- ney of Isabella county in 1880 and served for one term, making a good reputation. He has also been a member of the county board of school examiners and has taken a lively interest in educational matters. He is a pleasant and sociable gentleman and is much regarded in Masonic circles. He is a member of Waton Lodge, No. 305, and Mt. Pleasant Chapter, No. III, R. A. M. Soon after his admission to practice he was married in Mt. l'leasant to Minnie E. Bouton, the daughter of Henry S. and Cornelia Bouton, of Homer, Calhoun county. They were married in Mt. Pleasant. April 20, 1876, and are the parents of one son, Fabian Bouton Dodds, who was born in 1884. Judge Dodds has been on the Bench long enough to demonstrate his upright character and his judicial temperament. He is unassuming in his manners, pleasant to all and universally respected. He is a man of unimpeachable integrity, and his friends prophesy a bright career for him.
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HENRY H. HOLT, Muskegon. This subject, who is the oldest son of Henry Holt and Lorancy Potter Holt, was born in Camden, New York, March 27, 1831. His father, a native of Chaplin, Connecticut, was born in 1803 and died in Kent county, Michigan, in 1894. His grandfather Nehe- miah Holt lived and died in Chaplin, was a soldier of the Revolution, having been a non-commissioned officer in Colonel Durkee's Regiment, 4th Connecticut Infantry. His mother was born in Herkimer county, New York, August 1, 1808 ; was of the eighth generation in descent from Robert l'otter who emigrated from England in 1628, settling in Salem, Massachu- setts, and ten years later became one of the first settlers in Rhode Island. Fisher Potter, a grandson of Robert, married Mary Windsor, daughter of Samuel Windsor and Mercy Williams, whose grandfather was Roger Wil- liams the illustrious Quaker and founder of Rhode Island. Thus the subject of our sketch is a lineal descendant of branches of the Williams, Potter and Holt families through this marriage. His mother died in Herkimer county in 1835. The father of our subject remained in Herkimer county until 1852 and then removed with his family to Kent county, Michigan. Henry H. attended district school in the State of New York and entered Fairfield Academy in 1848; from thence went to Pomfret, Connecticut and pursued his academic studies, teaching occasionally as circumstances would permit. Having decided to take up the study of law, he attended the Law School at Poughkeepsie, New York, for a time and then entered the Union Law College in Cleveland, Ohio, from which he was graduated some two years later and was admitted to practice in the courts of Ohio, of which the Hon. David Tod, afterwards the War Gov- ernor of Ohio, was president. He returned to Michigan and was admitted to practice in the Michigan courts at Grand Rapids by Judge George Mar- tin, who was then on the Circuit Bench, and who afterwards became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State. He settled in Muskegon in May, 1858, and in the fall of the same year was elected prosecuting attor- ney of Ottawa county, which at that time included the territory now com- prised in Muskegon county. When the latter was set off in the following year Mr. Holt was elected its first prosecuting attorney at a special elec- tion and afterwards re-elected, holding the office four years. He was then elected Circuit Court Commissioner and again was re-elected to that office. He had established himself in his profession and in the confidence of the community, so that in 1866 he was nominated and elected to represent a district in the House of Representatives of the State Legislature. In 1868 and again in 1870 he was re-elected to the same position. During the last two terms he was made chairman of the committee of ways and means. In 1872 Mr. Holt was elected Lieutenant Governor of the State and two years later was re-elected, discharging all the duties appertaining to this office, especially as presiding officer of the Senate, in a highly cred- itable manner. In 1878 he was again chosen to represent his district in
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the House and was again appointed chairman of the committee on ways and means. His experience found considerable scope in that position dur- ing the building of the capitol at Lansing. He was again elected to the House in 1886. It should also be stated in enumerating his public services that he was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1867. In the number of terms of service as a legislator, he stands at the head of the list of members in the State, during all of its history, down to the present time. He has also been elected to various offices of the city of Muskegon, among which, is that of mayor in 1878 and re-elected in 1879. In 1873 Mr. Holt made a tour of the Continent of Europe, visiting all the countries quite generally, excepting Spain and Portugal. Two years later he made a second trip in which his travels were extended into Egypt, including Palestine and the country of the Eastern Mediterranean. Mr. Holt has always taken an active interest in the improvements of Muskegon harbor and in doing this has made numerous visits to Washington, to bring the matter to the attention of the War Department and of various Congres- sional harbor committees; often at his own personal expense. Mr. Holt was married in 1867 to Mrs. Mary Winter of Lansing, who died in 1872 leaving no children. He was married a second time in 1877 to Mrs. Cath- erine E. Hackley of Muskegon; there are no children by this marriage.
DONALD E. MCINTYRE, Cadillac. Mr. McIntyre was born at Ann Arbor, June 14, 1852. His parents were both natives of the State of New York, and his father, Donald McIntyre, settled at Ann Arbor in the 30's. He lived in that place most of the time until his death in 1891 and was a very prominent, useful citizen. He was engaged in banking most of his life, was for a long time treasurer of the University of Michi- gan, and for a number of years a member of the board of regents. He was reliable, trustworthy and upright. His wife, the mother of our sub- ject, was Jane Eaker, an estimable woman, who died when her only son was yet a child. Three other children were daughters. The early life of Donald E. was passed in Ann Arbor, where he attended the public schools and was graduated from the high school in 1888. He afterwards took a spe- cial course in mathematics in the University of Michigan under the emi- nent astronomer, Professor Watson. He studied law in the office of Judge Beaks, at Ann Arbor, and in the fall of 1870 entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan. He was graduated in the law with the class of 1872, admitted to the Bar in Detroit the following summer and began the practice at Big Rapids. He remained in that place only one year and then removed to Cadillac, which has continued to be the place of his residence. His first partnership was formed with D. A. Rice and con- tinued about eight years. Afterwards he became associated in partnership with Judge Fallass, which was maintained until the latter became judge.
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After that he continued in the practice alone until 1891 when a partner- ship was formed with F. C. Wetmore, then a recent graduate of the Law Department of the University of Michigan. This relation continues at the present time. The practice of Mr. McIntyre has always been general in scope. He has had no specialty, nor has his practice been confined to the circuit in which he lives. It extends throughout western Michigan and is large in the Supreme Court of the State. He is local attorney for the Grand Rapids and Indiana railroad, the Cadillac State Bank, and most of the large corporations in the city of his residence. Although he has been connected with many interesting and important cases as shown by the reports, it is his preference that none of them be mentioned specifi- cally. Politically he has always been a Republican and manifested a keen interest in the success of his party. He has not aspired to political office and never held any by popular election except that of prosecuting attor- ney, to which he was chosen in 1882. In this office he served a single term. For a number of years he was the city attorney of Cadillac. He was married in 1875 to Miss Ella Green, who died in 1882 without issue. He was married again in 1884 to Miss Sophie Mitchell, daughter of George A. Mitchell, founder of the town of Cadillac, a lumberman and man of affairs generally. There are no living children the issue of this marriage. Mr. McIntyre is a fine lawyer, somewhat brusque and abrupt in his man- ner. He is independent in disposition, caring little for public opinion. He is a good pleader and carries a large court practice very successfully. He is scrupulously exact in his legal ethics, keeps an appointment and observes an agreement with a brother lawyer as a matter of sacred honor. It is not necessary that he should be bound in writing. His verbal promise is as good as a written bond. He is in all respects a law-abiding citizen, but not an active one in public affairs. He attends strictly and carefully to his law business and his personal obligations. He has pros- pered in business and been prudent in his investments. His recreation is found in the care of two pet farms, on one of which he maintains a deer · park. lle is a good sportsman, fond of fishing and hunting for large game, but has no special fondness for society. He is not in the least inclined to be gushing or promiscuous with his friendship. On the con- trary he is careful in extending his confidence, but is a friend indeed to one who enjoys his confidence, and is respected by all.
CHARLES A. WITHEY, Reed City. Charles Allen Withey was born in the township of Brighton, Livingston county, Michigan, June 24, 1849. His parents, Elias Withey and Anna Goodspeed, were natives of New York. His paternal grandmother was of Spanish extraction, but other- wise the Withey and Goodspeed families were long established in the colo- nies. His paternal grandfather attended a tea party in Boston which has
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been much talked about, and was entertained by the British eight years on a prison ship as an evidence of their appreciation of the part he took in the inauguration of the American Revolution. Elias Withey married in New York and was lock-keeper on the Oswego canal for a time, but removed to Pleasant Valley, Livingston county, where he bought and cleared a farm. He remained on the farm until he reached the age of sixty, when he removed to the village of Brighton, where he died October 10, 1889. His wife died at the same place eight years before. The won- derful discoveries of gold reported in Idaho Territory about 1865 gave him the fever to such a degree that he rented his farm, and, with an emigrant outfit, secured at Omaha, made the trip overland to the gold diggings, returning in the same way the following year with an accumulation of expe- rience. Charles A. did not go west. He had worked on his father's farm until sixteen, and now, when that was rented, he began life for himself, working by the month for neighboring farmers. He had scant opportuni- ties for early schooling, and the first use he made of his independent earn- ings was to take a course of study in the Thomas & Olmstead Commercial College. He was clerk and bookkeeper in several stores, and in his nine- teenth year engaged in the manufacture and sale of carriages and buggies in Detroit. He did both a wholesale and retail business, and reaped large success for one so young. He carried on business in that city for three years and then removed to Brighton, where his father became a partner in the enterprise. A fire destroyed the factory and left Mr. Withey two thousand dollars in debt. He was young and strong and not easily dis- couraged ; so he applied himself with vigor to the payment of this heavy indebtedness. He had become an expert carriage painter and finisher, and secured remunerative employment in the village of Caro. He worked hard, saved money and had nearly extinguished all claims against him when his health broke down under this close application and necessitated a change of employment. It was not unwelcome as it opened the door to a legal career which had long been in his dreams. He read law under the direc- tion of Arthur Rose, of Caro, who was attacked with consumption and died in less than a year from the time he admitted Mr. Withey to his office. Much of his business was done by the young law student, who found great help in the professional insight thus afforded. He retains grateful memo- ries of his instructor as a lawyer and a man. Mr. Withey was admitted to the Tuscola county Bar June 7, 1878, and was almost immediately appointed Circuit Court Commissioner to fill a vacancy This was a remunerative office under the conditions then existing, and in the year which he held it he saved enough to put him through the Law Department of the University of Michigan. He was a member of the graduating class of 1879, and located for practice in Evart. He formed a partnership with a brother of his first preceptor, Charles HI. Rose, and was with him some eighteen months. He then went to Reed City and associated himself with Col. Charles H. Holden, a leading spirit of that place. They established
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a law, loan and real estate business, which for four years was highly pros- perous. For the second and third years the income of the firm exceeded $40,000. Then came on a period of stagnation in real estate which greatly injured that feature of their business, and at the expiration of five years the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Withey thereafter applying himself exclusively to the law. As a lawyer he has a reputation of general efficiency, and has acquired business from all parts of the Lower Peninsula. Lately several important cases have come to him from the famous Gogebic iron range of the Upper Peninsula, and the number of desirable clients seeking his services is steadily increasing. He does a general law business, being much sought after in damage suits. Of his first twenty cases in the Supreme Court he won fifteen, and made a good record in all. His first case was that of Freiburg et al. vs. Cody et al. (55 Mich. 108), involving in a peculiar manner the length of time which the holder of a check may delay its presentation and yet be able to hold its maker liable in the event of failure of the bank during such interval of delay. The People vs. Min- nie Beilfuse (59 Mich. 576), charge burglary, was a bitterly contested case which is often quoted. Willie R. Smith vs. William Dunham (78 Mich. 310), was a damage case fought to the finish. It was tried three times in the Circuit, and once in the Supreme Court. The opposing counsel were numerous and able, and the presiding judge with them in his sympathies. Stevens vs. Pantlind et al. (95 Mich. 145), involved the rights of landlord and tenant, and the law of negligence and pleading. It was three times before the Circuit and three times in the Supreme Court. The opposition was ably conducted by several brilliant and aggressive lawyers who left no stone unturned to protect their clients. Young vs. The Ohio Farmers' Insurance Company (92 Michigan, 68) was an interesting case in insurance litigation. Mr. Withey was married October 28, 1872, to Miss Lucy R. Gilluly, at Brighton. Her parents, John and Alvira Gilluly, were long residents of the place. Her father was from Rhode Island, her mother from New York. Both came to this State when children. The former was a member of the State Legislature in 1857, and was graduated from the Law Department of the University of Michigan in 1861. He practised law for a short time in Brighton, and entered the Union Army as captain of Company I, 5th Michigan Volunteer Infantry. He was an officer of ability, and rose to the command of his regiment. He was killed in battle at Fredericksburg. Mr. and Mrs. Withey are the parents of two children J. Howard and Mildred A., twelve and nine years old.
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ROSWELL LEAVITT, Bellaire. Hon. Roswell Leavitt was born December 2, 1843, at Turner, Maine. His father, Alvan Leavitt, a farmer, was a native of Maine, and his ancestors were among the early Puritan settlers of Massachusetts. They came from England, and were among the first settlers of Pembroke. The grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was one of the founders of Turner. His mother was Susanna Dean, a native of Leeds, Maine. Her ancestors were also among the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts, and among the first to locate at what is now Taunton. Mr. Leavitt's early days were spent on the farm, and in attending the district and high schools of his native town. When he was sixteen years old, he removed with his parents to Penobscot county, where he began teaching. He taught ten terms during the winter season and studied in the long summer intermissions, thus fitting himself for col- lege. In the last year of the Civil War he enlisted in a Maine regiment, but did not see much active service and was mustered out at the close of the war. In 1868 he was a member of the Maine Legislature representing the Springfield district. In 1869 he entered Cornell University, and was a student for three years in the scientific course. In 1873 he came to Michigan, entered the Law Department of the University and was gradu- ated with the class of 1875. He was admitted to the Bar of Washtenaw county in the spring of the year of his graduation, and a few months later he located at Elk Rapids. He remained there engaged in the practice of his profession until 1880, when it was decided to remove the county seat from Elk Rapids to the center of the county. He then helped to found the new town of Bellaire, the present county seat. He has been actively engaged in practice there since that time. In the fall of 1876, he was elected prosecuting attorney and Circuit Court Commissioner, serving eight years as prosecutor and later on served four years more in the same office. He was the principal attorney in behalf of the removal of the county seat, and. had pitted against him some of the best legal talent in the State. Among them were Otto Kirchner, Fitch R. Williams, Ashley Pond and others. In the trial of the case in the Supreme Court, Mr. Leavitt had as his associate the late Charles I. Walker, of Detroit. He won the case, and was much complimented on its brilliant management. He was elected to the State Senate in 1888 on the Republican ticket, from the Twenty-ninth District, which included the counties of Grand Traverse, Antrim, Charlevoix, Leelanaw and Manitou, and served one term. Mr. Leavitt has taken a great interest in the building up of the village of Bel- laire. His college training has made him a leader in the educational affairs of the county. He became a member of the village school board very soon after its organization, and has served the community in that capacity nearly all the time since that event. He has done much to further the erection of the excellent high school at Bellaire. He has been an active temperance worker all his life and has suffered in a financial as well as a
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