USA > Michigan > Bench and bar of Michigan : a volume of history and biography > Part 2
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was obtained until he reached the age of fifteen. For three years there- after he was a student in the academy at Mayville, New York, except during the winters, when he was engaged in teaching district schools. In the spring after he was eighteen he commenced the study of the law at Batavia, New York, in the office of Redfiekl & Pringle, with whom he remained until admitted to the Bar in 1849. While reading law he pur- sued the study of Greek and Latin, reciting in a classical school at Batavia, and also took lessons in the modern languages. After continuing in prac- tice nearly two years at Batavia, he came to Jackson, Michigan, in Decem- ber, 1850, where he has since remained. His first law partner was Samuel H. Kimball, and the partnership continued until Kimball left the city, in the summer of 1852. His next partnership was with John C. Fitzgerald, for one year (1858-59), and that was succeeded by one with Edward Pom- eroy which lasted until Pomeroy went to the war, in April, 1861. He was then alone in business till September, 1894, when A. E. Hewett became and still continues to be his partner. In 1852 Mr. Pringle was elected Cir- cuit Court Commissioner. In 1853 he was elected village recorder, and afterwards re-elected. In 1856 he was elected prosecuting attorney, and two years later was re-elected. He was city attorney of Jackson in 1859 and 1860. In 1860 he was elected to the State Legislature and served a term as member of the House of Representatives. In 1862 he was appointed Military Secretary to Governor Blair, and held the office until the end of 1864 and the close of the gubernatorial term. In 1866 he was elected State Senator, and in 1867 was chosen a member of the constitu- tional convention. In that year he was appointed Register in Bankruptcy, on the nomination of Chief Justice Chase of the U. S. Supreme Court, and continued to hold the position until the bankruptcy law was repealed, in 1878. He was a member of the Board of Public Works for five years, beginning in 1871; was appointed Commissioner of Insurance in 1883 and held the office two years. He was elected Mayor of Jackson in 1885; in 1886 was elected prosecuting attorney of Jackson county as a candidate on the Democratic ticket, and was the only Democrat elected in the county that year. In 1880, and again in 1888, he was the nominee of his party for representative in Congress in a district having so large an adverse majority as to make the race hopeless. In 1881 he was the candidate of the Bar for Circuit Judge and received the endorsement of the Democratic party, and although running many hundred votes ahead of his ticket, was defeated because his party was then hopelessly in the minority in the two counties composing the district. He was also the Democratic nominee and unsuccessful candidate for Lieutenant Governor in 1882. In boyhood Mr. Pringle was inclined to be a Democrat, but did not act with that party on account of its attitude on the question of slavery until 1872, since which time he has called himself a Democrat. In July, 1896, he severed his connection with the faction of the party which nominated Bryan, and subsequently had some part in the movement which culminated in the
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Indianapolis convention and the defeat of the Chicago candidate. In 1856-57 he was active in the steps taken to secure the Toledo Branch of the Lake Shore Railroad, and from 1865 to 1871 most of his time was spent in the preliminary and attorney work for the Grand River Valley, and Jackson and Ft. Wayne, and Michigan Air Line Railroads, with some work for other projects and occasional employment as counsel by the Michigan Central and other railroad corporations. Mr. Pringle has a high professional standing, both as a lawyer and a man. He has been for sev- eral years President of the Jackson Bar Association. Ile is a solid, matter- of-fact man, strong in what may be termed saving common sense. He would not be regarded as a brilliant speaker, but is logical and forcible. He is esteemed by the people of his community generally as a profound thinker and is entitled to the estimate.
JAMES A. JACOKES, Pontiac. Judge Jacokes was born in Geneva, New York, November 21, 1834, and came of a long line of American ancestry. His father, Rev. Dr. D. C. Jacokes, was beloved by all in Oak- land county, as everywhere else in Michigan. He was a pioneer in the Methodist Church. He played as active a part as any man in his day in building up that great denomination in this State. He was chaplain of the Fifth Michigan Infantry and accompanied his regiment to the seat of war. He was afterwards appointed chaplain of the Eastern Asylum for the Insane at Pontiac and filled that responsible position for twelve years, exhibiting such rare devotion to the unfortunate and afflicted as to bring upon him showers of blessings. He moved among his friends a perpetual benediction. He was a Socrates among his people and taught his pupils out of pure love for them. He was county agent for juvenile offenders for many years, until he became so feeble physically that he was unable to perform his labors. . It would be useless to try to recount the names of young boys who were accused of crime and saved by his efforts from a life in prison. He was never too busy to aid an unfortunate youth who had no friends. If he failed to reform him with one trial, another was given. He kept a microscope at his house up to the last days of his life for the edification and diversion of his friends. Judge Jacokes' mother was Mary A. Slarrow, who was also born in New York, though her ancestors were of English extraction. The home of young Jacokes, the subject of this sketch, was a model home, a great school. Here under his father's eye, he received the foundation of what in after years became a wellspring of knowledge. At an early age he entered a private academy at Grass Lake, Mich., and then Albion College in 1853, remaining in that school for three years. He taught school for three years in Macomb county, part of the time in the village of Mount Clemens. He studied law in the office of his life-long friend and admirer, Judge Augustus C. Baldwin, and
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was admitted to the Bar in 1861. His father having gone to the war it became necessary for him to earn money, and although he was attracted to the battle fields of the South he was invited by Judge Baldwin to enter his office. There he began a remunerative practice with a long series of successful business ventures, cementing bonds of friendship which can never be broken until one of them is called to cross the Great Divide. Mr. Jacokes was elected Circuit Court Commissioner in 1862, was re-elected in 1864, and again in 1870. He was attorney of the city of Pontiac eight years. In 1876 he was elected Judge of Probate, in which office he won many friends by his sterling integrity, strict devotion to duty, and his impartial and just decisions. Ile richly merits the title of Judge, which will cling to him through life. In 1880 Judge Jacokes returned to his law partnership with Judge Baldwin. In that year he was elected mem- ber of the school board and has been successively re-elected up to 1896. As an active member and president of the board of education, he has played no small part in holding up the high standard of the public schools of the city. He keeps diligent watch of all the different school systems, and will ever see to it that the l'ontiac schools are in the forefront. He takes much pride in the high school which opens its doors to every boy and girl of suitable age and acquirements within its precincts. Judge Jacokes possesses a very dignified and pleasing address. He is a courteous gentleman, with fine social qualities, having a kindly smile and an honest hand for all his fellows. His residence is in a very pleasant part of the city, whither he led as bride Miss Camilla Manning, October 15, 1867. She was a daughter of Judge Randolph Manning, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State. Mrs. Jacokes was a devoted and active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Her death, November 21, 1890, and that of the Judge's father, January 11, 1894, and mother November 11, 1895, following in quick succession, brought a great shadow of loneliness to his happy household. Judge Jacokes has moved among his companions since his great bereavement, as one who has a mis- sion of love to perform, and who passing through life but once has so ordered his course that his fellow men are the better for his walks and talks among them. He is a Methodist, firm in the faith and convictions of his father, and liberal and warm-hearted toward all those who differ from him. Ile is a Democrat in his political views and discharges his duties as a citizen with the same regard for the high moral principles which has controlled his private life. It is not often in our American life that the son retains and quietly permits an added lustre to gather around so many traits of character which made beautiful for more than half a century the lives of his father and himself, two of l'ontiac's much respected citizens. When talked to about his own successful career in the law, Judge Jacokes simply says, "All the work has been done by Judge Baldwin. He has wrought, with heroism and infinite patience, a mighty work throughout his busy, useful life. I have simply kept guard while he was doing it."
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The Century Publishing & Engraving to Chedar.
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THOMAS A. WILSON, Jackson. The subject of this biography is of Scotch-Welsh extraction. Ilis father, Thomas Wilson, was a Scotchman, born in Rutherglen, a suburb of Glasgow, who learned the trade of weaver and followed that occupation until 1836; then settled in Michigan and engaged in farming for the remainder of his life. His mother was a native of Albany, New York, her family name was Wing and her ancestors were Welsh. Thomas A. Wilson was born in a small town called Log City, in Madison county, state of New York, April 22, 1836, and was brought to the state of Michigan by his parents, who arrived in Jackson county and settled there June 18th of the same year, All of his life, therefore, except the first eight weeks, has been spent in Michigan. He was trained in boy- hood to the occupation of farming, and followed that employment until he was twenty-eight years of age. Ilis only education of a literary char- acter was that obtained in the common country schools. Mr. Wilson is not clear in his mind as to all of the influences that led to his abandoning the business of farming and taking up the legal profession. The sugges- tion that he do this came from some of his friends, and he consulted John D. Conely, now of Detroit, then a prominent lawyer of Jackson, and acted upon his advice. Mr. Conely was his friend, and he relied upon his judgment and interested friendship. His preliminary reading was largely in the office of Mr. Conely, where he spent about fifteen months. Mr. Wilson freely accords to Mr. Conely very considerable credit for whatever success he may have attained in the law, and considers himself a debtor to his first adviser and instructor in the profession. After leaving the office he attended the Chicago Law School, under Professors Hurd and Booth, for six months, and was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of Illinois in the spring of 1866. Later in the same year he was admitted to the Bar of the State of Michigan at Jackson. He located for practice first at East Saginaw, where he remained one year, and then returned to Jackson, where he has since resided. In his early practice he was in part- nership for about six months with a lawyer by the name of Beardsley. With this exception he conducted his legal business alone until August, 1891, when a copartnership was formed with William S. Cobb, his present associ- ate business. Ilis practice has been largely local in character, although he has had from time to time considerable business in surrounding counties. The class of cases which he has conducted are such as usually occupy the time of nisi prius courts, involving almost all matters of legal controversy in a county seat or an agricultural district. He has taken all kinds of civil business, and been retained in important criminal cases. He was counsel for defendant in the Crouch Murder Case, which probably occa- sioned more notoriety and awakened more interest in the locality than any other case tried at Jackson in recent years. Before taking up the study of law Mr. Wilson was treasurer of Liberty township for two terms, and justice of the peace for two years. After engaging in the practice at
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Jackson he was recorder of the city for two terms, from the spring of 1869 to that of 1871. He filled the office of prosecuting attorney one term, from January 1, 1871, to January 1, 1873. He was appointed city attorney in 1874, and held the office for two terms. He has manifested deep interest in educational affairs, and been a member of the school board in District No. 1 for about sixteen years. For the past five years he has been a member of the hospital board of the city. He is not a member of any club, fraternity or society. Politically he has always been a Democrat, During the campaign of 1896 he supported actively the movement in his party in favor of sound money, and in opposition to the platform of the Chicago Convention. He was a member of the com- mittee that met at Indianapolis and issued a call for the National Demo- cratic Convention. He was also a delegate to that convention, and was chosen to represent his state on the National Committee. Mr. Wilson has a good legal mind, and has so applied himself to the law as to become well versed in the fundamental principles and well informed in the reports of decisions, and in all of the standard commentaries or works on various kinds of pleading. He has established a reputation for honesty, industry and promptness not excelled by that of any man in the State. As a lawyer .he studies his cases thoroughly, bringing to their consideration a large measure of common sense and excellent judgment. He applies to them the law with discrimination, and always knows what he desires to establish by proof before going into court. In the trial of a case he is careful and watchful, guarding the interest of his client, but never employing methods which are not recognized as proper and honorable. IIe is a candid lawyer who never seeks to gain advantage by an unfair or partial statement of his case. He is firm in his convictions and persistent in his efforts to accom- plish whatever he undertakes. He is a man of fine physique and attract- ive presence; is genial and companionable, always impressing favorably the stranger who meets him. His character, based upon a naturally strong mind, with excellent heredity, has been a growth developed by the exercise of good impulses, an honest purpose and the practice of the car- dinal virtues. The probity of his life is unquestioned and unquestionable. Mr. Wilson has been married twice. His first wife was Harriet Hutchins, by whom he had one child, a daughter, who is still living. He was mar- ried the second time in 1866 to Matilda-Hutchins, by whom he has had three children, one son and two daughters. One of the latter is still liv- ing and the other dead. Ilis son, Walter S., is a member of the Bar of Jackson.
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WILLIAM O. WEBSTER, Ionia. The subject of this sketch was born in Sennett, Cayuga county, New York, February 20, 1842. He was the son of William and Flora Long Webster, who had removed from Connecti- cut, his father coming in 1821 and his mother in 1841. His father was a man of prominence in the country, a man of the strictest integrity and uprightness, and one whose advice and counsel were sought for and valued by his friends and towns-people. He died in August, 1872, upon his farm in Sennett, where his widow still lives. William O. lived upon the home farm until he was sixteen years of age, when he entered Monroe Collegi- ate Institute, where he was prepared for College, entering as freshman at Hamilton College in 1861 where he was graduated from the classical course in 1865, leaving behind him a fine reputation as an orator. The year after graduation was spent in teaching, as principal of the Academy at Unadilla, New York, and in the fall of 1866 he entered the Law School of the University of Michigan. Here he remained one year and then took up a course of reading and study in the law office of W. W. Mitchell in Ionia. In January, 1869, after passing the required examination he was admitted to the Bar by Judge Lovell of the Circuit Court. In De- cember of the same year, moved by the glowing reports from the land of the setting sun, he went to California, intending to make that state his home, but finding these reports greatly overdrawn and the prospects of business not so flattering as had been represented, he returned to lonia the following year, where he has continued to reside. He has created for himself in the mean time a most enviable reputation both as a citizen and a lawyer. In 1873 he formed a co-partnership with Edgar M. Marble, now of Washington, D. C. After Mr. Marble had been appointed Assist- ant Solicitor in the Department of the Interior under President Hayes, Mr. Webster continued the practice alone for six years when he admitted to partnership a former student, now Judge Davis of the Circuit Court; this was followed later. by a partnership with Spencer G. Millard which was dissolved in 1888, when Mr. Millard removed to Los Angeles, California, where he became a prominent member of the Bar and in 1894 was elected Lieutenant Governor, but died soon after his election. Since 1888 Mr. Webster has been alone in the conduct of his law business. He is engaged in practice of a general character which takes him into all the Courts of the State, as well as the District and Circuit Courts of the United States. He has argued many important cases before the Supreme Court and has met with a success most satisfactory to himself and to those who have en- trusted their matters to his care. In 1882 he received the nomination of his party for Congress, but that was the year of the notable Democratic landslide, and, although receiving a very complimentary vote, he went down with the other nominees of his party in the State, only two republi- cans being elected to Congress in that year from Michigan. In 1896 he was nominated and elected on the Republican ticket as one of the Presi-
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dential Electors for Michigan in the memorable election of that year. In 1874 Mr. Webster was married to Miss Susan P. Montgomery, in Chicago, and to them have been born four children. The eldest son died in 1890 at the age of fifteen years. The remaining son is at this time (1896) a Sophomore in the Literary Department of the University of Michigan, in- tending at the close of his literary course to take that of the law. The two daughters are students in the lonia High School. One of the oldest and most reputable members of the profession in Western Michigan, com- menting upon Mr. Webster's high standing as a lawyer and public speaker says : " He never lacks for words to express himself clearly and forcibly and is direct and able in the presentation of his subject. There is not a man in the county in whom the people have more confidence as a citizen. His integrity is beyond question and he may be fitly characterized as a model christian gentleman. As a husband and father his life is exemplary in a superlative degree."
A citizen of Ionia gives this estimate of the subject: " Mr. Web- ster is a fine instance of what talent and perseverance can accomplish, without being boisterous or unnecessarily pugilistic. Well read in the law, a man of affairs, "Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re;" gentle, yet per- sistent ; affable, yet clear cut in his views on moral and civic questions; ยท firm for the right, yet not insulting to those who differ he has gone on his way these many years in our community, a power for good as well as one standing at the top of his calling, only waiting we think to adorn the Supreme Bench of his State. A leader in church and State, there has been no reform in which he has not had a share, no good work that has not instinctively turned towards him as a friend, no worthy cause that he has not befriended. Exemplary in his life as well as successful in his law practice, a friend and helper of good men and of good causes, he has not been simply a successful lawyer, but a successful man as well, and is in his history a proof that it is not the calling that adorns the man but the man that adorns the calling."
ROGER WILLIAMS BUTTERFIELD, Grand Rapids. His father was the Rev. Isaac Butterfield, who for more than half a century was an active and efficient minister of the Baptist Church. Isaac Butterfield was a scholarly divine, a sound reasoner and polished orator, earnest and faithful in his calling. Although the itinerary does not belong to the polity of the Bap- tist Church, its ministers are not installed in permanent pastorates. Rev. Mr. Butterfield was accustomed to work in the vineyard wherever the Master called. During his many pastorates he was beloved by his con- gregations and attached to his home, but he did not hesitate to remove from village to city and from east to west along the paths where his duty seemed to lie and the opportunities for doing good seemed largest. He went with his family from Elbridge to Oswego in 1846 where he remained nine years; thence to Watertown where he remained two years and thence
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Roger W. Butterfield
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to Davenport, Iowa. Roger was born April 23, 1844, in the village of Elbridge, Onondaga County, New York, and lived at the several places mentioned in his childhood and youth. He was thirteen years of age when he left his native state for the west. His boyhood had been favored by excellent paternal training and the rudiments of an education had been acquired in the public schools of the State of New York. At fifteen he entered Griswold College at Davenport, a school under the pat- ronage of the Protestant Episcopal Church. In this school and the col- lege at Adrian, Michigan, he pursued his literary studies until February 1, 1865, when he entered Princeton College, New Jersey, in the middle of the junior year. He completed the course of study with his class and was graduated with honors in June, 1866. He took the degrees A. B. and A.M. It had been his father's intention that Roger should enter the ministry ; but upon graduating from college he reached the determination to enter the profession of the law. Following his inclination in that regard, and with a desire to make as thorough preparation as possible, he entered the law school of the University of Michigan, and during the vacations pursued a course of reading in the law office of Moore & Griffin, of Detroit. He was graduated from the law school in 1868. He then entered the office of the Hon. John W. Champlin at Grand Rapids. Judge Champlin recognized Mr. Butterfield's fitness for the profession of the law and within a few months extended to him an offer of partnership. On January 1, 1869, the firm of Champlin & Butterfield was formed. Four years later Hon J. C. Fitz Gerald came to Grand Rapids from Mar- shall and was admitted to the firm. Mr. Butterfield continued as a mem- ber of this firm until March, 1876, when he retired, and for two years fol- lowing carried on practice alone. In June, 1878, he became associated with Edward W. Withey, now.deceased, under the firm name of Butter- field & Withey. This partnership relation continued for about two and a half years. For several years thereafter Mr. Butterfield practised alone. On January 1, 1887, he formed a partnership with Willard F. Keeney, under the firm name of Butterfieldl & Keeney, and that firm has been main- tained without change until the present time. Mr. Butterfield is a thorough lawyer, giving to the investigation of every question the careful thought and sedulous application essential to its understanding. His con- victions on any isubject of mportance are deep and he always has the cour- age to express them as occasion may require. Judge Champlin says of him : "He will not permit himself to be deceived by his sympathies or wishes to make the worse appear the better reason, or by the glamour which false logic too often throws over the subject of investigation." Within the pale of his profession he has kept pace with the progress of the times. He is ever alert to the interests of his client, bringing into the trial of a cause all the. energy and singleness of purpose essential to secure the best results. He is too ambitious to be satisfied with anything below the best attainments, and too conscientious to be indifferent to the obligations of
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