USA > Michigan > Bench and bar of Michigan : a volume of history and biography > Part 27
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GERRIT JOHN DIEKEMA, Holland. Mr. Diekema is a native of Michigan and has been a resident of Holland all his life. His parents, W. Diekema and Hattie Stegeman, were born, reared, educated and married in the Netherlands, emigrated to Michigan and settled at Holland in 1847, where they still reside. His education was begun in the public schools of his home and continued in Hope College. He entered the academic department of this institution at the age of fourteen and pursued a regular course through the preparatory and classical departments, occupying a period of eight years, and was graduated in 1881 with the degree of A. B. Nature imparted to him the lawyer instinct and his preference for the pro- fession of law was very marked even in childhood. One of his noteworthy
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accomplishments as a boy was the ability to speak with the natural ease and grace of a trained orator. On the completion of his college course he began reading law with William H. Parks, and soon afterwards entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan, from which he was gradu- ated in 1883. Having passed the prescribed examination he was admitted to the Bar at Ann Arbor and immediately thereafter returned to Holland, where he settled down to practice. He started with the advantages of a general and favorable acquaintance in the community ; aptitude for the pro- fession; the bounding enthusiasm of youth; thorough scholarship, both literary and professional, and the social qualities which attract friends and cement friendships. He was therefore able to stand alone from the begin- ning and has never formed a business partnership. Clients came to him and he counseled with such evident knowledge of the law or managed liti- gation with such energy and tact as to hold them and secure other clients. It was not long before he had acquired a remunerative practice, general in its scope, and established a reputation as a painstaking, thorough-going lawyer. He was successful to a marked degree and success lent wings to his reputation, carrying it beyond the limits of his county and district, and securing a larger clientage. In fact, it may be stated in all candor that Mr. Diekema has made remarkably rapid progress and gained unusual dis- tinction in his profession for a man of thirty-seven years. He has argued many cases in the Supreme Court and his arguments uniformly disclose a broad and comprehensive grasp of the principles involved and intimate knowledge of the law applicable to the case under discussion. He supports his contention by a lucid statement of facts, a logical course of reasoning and a methodical citation of authorities. Every argument evinces thorough preparation, going to the core of the subject, mastering not only the generalities but the specialties and niceties involved. Nature did much towards making him a lawyer by implanting the instinct - if the disposition and tendency in a man may be so termed. This instinct for the law has been cultivated by study and practice until he is strong in court, whether as pleader or advocate. The gift of oratory and very popular social traits are responsible for leading Mr. Diekema into a public career. In 1884 he was township superintendent of public schools. In 1885 he was elected Representative in the State Legislature and subsequently re-elected three times, serving in all four terms. In 1889 he was chosen Speaker of the House, when only thirty years of age. He was an active, working mem- ber of the Legislature - a law-maker in fact. Some of the very important statutes of the State were drafted by him and others were enacted chiefly through his influence. Among the former is the State drainage law of 1885. He was chairman of the judiciary committee of the House in 1887 and by the co-operation of Speaker Markey was largely responsible for the passage of the liquor law. The local option law enacted in 1889 was principally due to his intelligent, persistent efforts. As Speaker he was dignified and impartial, exhibiting strong executive qualities in dispatching
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the business of the House in an orderly manner. In 1893 he was the can- didate for attorney general on the Republican State ticket and received one thousand more votes than the head of the ticket. His successful compet- itor had the advantage of a fusion of the Democrats and Populists. In 1894 he was appointed a member of the State municipal committee, with Hon. Mark S. Brewer, of Pontiac, and Edward F. Concly, of Detroit. When this committee organized he was elected president. In 1895 he was elected mayor of Holland. He has for some years been a member of the city board of education and one of the trustees of Hope College. He is also a member of the board of directors of the State Pioneer Society, and a member of the Reformed Church of America. Mr. Diekema was mar- ried in 1885 to Mary E. Olcott, a graduate of Hope College, and the union is blessed with a son born in 1893. He possesses remarkable intellectual strength, vigor and versatility; is both tactful and resourceful, and withal a most companionable gentleman, cordial in manner, sympathetic in dispo- sition. He is ever regardful of the rights and sensibilities of others and abounds in the graces of good humor and temperate good-fellowship. There is no lawyer of his age in the State who has a better standing in the profession, and no man who has secured a firmer place in the popular esteem.
JOHN R. CARR, Cassopolis. This well-known member of the Michigan Bar has been practising attorney in the city of Cassopolis for more than a quarter of a century, and during all that time has been associated with Mr. M. L. Howell, under the firm name of Howell & Carr. They early won a prominent position among the law firms of that part of the State, which they have held to the present time. Mr. Carr came originally from North St. Eleanor's, Prince Edward Island, Canada, where he was born May 18, 1841. His parents, Hugh Carr and Sophia Owen Ramsey, were both natives of the island, though of Scotch and Scotch-English origin. His paternal ancestors came directly to the island from Scotland in the latter part of the seventeenth century. But the Owens tarried both in Eng- land and in North Carolina, where they had become quite a powerful and influential family at the outbreak of the American Revolution. In that exciting struggle they were found on the losing side, and loyalty to the King made them so thoroughly unpopular in the new Republic that removal into some part of British America seemed an absolute necessity. Accord- ingly we find the Owens and Ramseys removing to Prince Edward Island immediately after the recognition of the Independence of the United States, and there they are now found active and useful citizens of the Dominion of Canada. . There Sophia Owen Ramsey was born, reared, edu- cated and married, and there the subject of this sketch was born and grew to manhood under the parental roof-tree. When he had attained the age
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of twenty-two, he saw quite clearly that the Island did not afford the same opportunity for aspiring and capable young men that was found in the "States." He came into Michigan in search of that opportunity, and began his career in this country by teaching a district school in Van Buren county. He was a country school teacher for some two years, and while doing the work of a pedagogue he enrolled himself as a student in the high school at Decatur, teaching winters and attending school spring and fall. Ile was thus employed for three years, when he found himself ready to take up the study of law, which to him was not an irksome task. He was taken into the office of Parkhurst & Foster, prominent attorneys at Deca- tur, who recognized the especial fitness of the young teacher for the legal profession, and did their best to encourage him in preparation for it. llc continued with them for some two years; then entered the Law Depart- ment of the University of Michigan and was graduated in 1870, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He immediately established himself at Cassopolis and formed a law partnership with M. L. Howell, which has continued unbroken to the present day. Between him and his partner there exists the warmest friendship. They have occupied the same rooms in the same building since 1870, and there is no prospect of any immediate dis- solution of these pleasant relations. Mr. Carr takes much interest in the fortunes of the various local fraternities, and his name and active labors belong to several prominent orders. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the United Workmen. He is in the Foresters, and also in the order of the Golden Cross and is a Maccabee. As a churchman he is identi- fied with the Presbyterian denomination both by membership and by five years spent in t e office of superintendent of the Sunday School. A Democrat in his political affiliations, he has not taken a very active part in party affairs, and allows nothing to interfere with his work as a lawyer. That is his business in life, and to it he gives all the energies of heart and soul. And in the law he has done well. He has made a reputation as a careful, painstaking, conscientious lawyer, who not only marshals all the facts and principles of law in defense of his case, but presents them in the most impressive way to the judge and jury. Mr. Carr was married in 1868 to Miss Olive Lyle, ' daughter of John and Ann (Armstrong) Lyle, of Paw Paw, Michigan. His wife died in the month of October, 1894, leaving three children, Mac, Bessie and Carlisle.
THOMAS O'HARA, Benton Harbor. At this writing Ex-Judge Thomas ()'Hara represents the United States as Consul at San Juan del Norte, Nicaragua, a post to which he was appointed by the President in 1894. He is a fine specimen of the American boy who aspires and has the talents, industry and will to achieve. His parents, John O'Hara and Catherine McKenna, had their nativity in Ireland; the former was born in 1831 and
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came over to New York in 1848; the latter was born in 1837 and came to the State of New York with her parents in 1846. John O'Hara and Catherine McKenna were married at Batavia, New York, in 1854 and Thomas, the subject of this biography, was one of their nine children, and their eldest son. He was born at LeRoy, Genesee county, New York, March 9, 1856. When he was six years of age the family removed to Wisconsin and for eight years resided successively in Sheboygan, Waubeka, Boltonville and Newburg. In 1870 his father was elected principal of the third ward school in Manitowoc, and settled in that city where he has con- tinued to reside. Thomas lived at home and attended school as much as possible until fifteen years of age. He was a manly boy, quite capable of independent action and resolute in the execution of a purpose. It was not the spirit of adventure so much as the desire to support himself which prompted him at that early age to ship as cabin boy on the propeller General II. E. Paine in the spring of 1871. Residence in lake ports had afforded him opportunity to be enticed by the excitement at the wharf to test the mysterious charm with which a sailor's life is invested. For eleven years he sailed the upper lakes as cabin boy, porter, steward and clerk, and then 'he was ready to settle down as a landsman to engage in the practice of law, which he had studied several winters during the season when navi- gation was closed. Soon after reaching his majority-May 3, 1877, he was married to Miss Mary Barrett, a native of Leicester, England, and estab- lished his home at St. Joseph, Michigan. He began the study of law the next autumn after his marriage in the office of N. A. Hamilton and in March, 1880, was admitted to the Bar. He was a candidate the same year, on the Democratic ticket, for Circuit Court Commissioner, but went down to defeat with his party. In November, 1880, he formed a partnership for the practice of law in St. Joseph with Clarence A. Webster, but a dissolu- tion of the firm followed at the end of the first year. In 1882 he was elected county clerk by a majority of four hundred and seventy-five over the Republican candidate, and in 1884 he was re-elected by a majority more than three hundred larger. In each of these elections his vote was eight hundred and fifty larger than that cast for his party ticket-a result indicative of his personal popularity. The next biennial election was favorable to the Republican party and he was defeated. In 1887. Mr. O'Hara was elected Judge of the Second Judicial Circuit, defeating Hon. George S. Clapp by a majority of over eight hundred in the district and receiving a majority of eleven hundred and forty-one in Berrien county. He presided on the Bench one term of six years and discharged the judicial duties with due regard to the enforcement of law, the rights of litigants and the promotion of the public welfare. It is a singular fact that at the time of his election to the office of Circuit Judge he had never tried a case in the Circuit Court ; and yet his record very soon demonstrated his peculiar fitness for the work. His mental constitution was such as gave him acute perception and discriminating judgment. He was dignified in bearing,
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impartial in his rulings and courteous in demeanor toward the Bar. He exhibited remarkable faculty for the dispatch of business, and cases on his docket were not allowed to gather dust and cobwebs, or become notorious by frequent continuances. His industry appeared to be without limit. During his term he disposed of six hundred contested cases, and thirteen hundred cases altogether. Soon after his election to the Bench he wrote a letter advising his friends in Berrien county to vote for local option, which was submitted to the electors at a special election held in February, 1888, and the proposition carried in that county by a majority of seven hundred and twenty-three, whereas at the election one year before the majority in favor of prohibition was only sixty votes. He called a grand jury in 1888 and again in 1890 to inquire into violations of the laws relat- ing to the liquor traffic, a measure that had not been resorted to by any judge in the county for twenty years. He was nominated for re-election in 1893 but defeated by the opposition of narrow bigots because of his membership in the Roman Catholic Church. The secret order of A. P. A. contributed much to the result. Judge O'Hara located in Berrien Springs in 1882 where he lived for several years. After retiring from the Bench he opened an office for practice in Benton Harbor in partnership with Samuel H. Kelley. This was continued until December, 1894, when he was appointed by President Cleveland to the post of U. S. Consul at San Juan del Norte, Nicaragua. Judge O'Hara has a fine, expressive face, a warm and generous heart and affable manners. He is the life of his social circle and deserves the host of friends which his kindly disposition and good nature have bound to him. He has three children, a daughter, Isabel, and two sons, Barratt and Frank.
JAMES O'HARA, St. Joseph. The subject of this sketch was born July 26, 1860, at Leroy, Genesee county, New York. He is the brother of Thomas O'Hara of Benton Harbor; the subject of the preceding sketch. He was educated in the public schools of Wisconsin. At the age of eleven he began sailing on the lakes, following this calling during the summer sea- son for fourteen years. During the winters he attended school, and in 1877 commenced to teach district schools in Manitowoc county, Wiscon- sin. He taught there six winter terms. In the winter of 1880, while engaged in teaching, he began the study of law, borrowing books from the law firm of Estabrook & Walker, of Manitowoc. In the fall of 1882 he entered the office of this firm and remained with them until the following spring. In the fall of 1883 he entered the law office of N. A. Hamilton at St. Joseph and remained with him until the spring of 1884. In the fall of the same year he again entered Mr. Hamilton's office and remained with him until Jannary 26, 1885, when he was admitted to the Bar at Berrien Springs. After admission he opened an office at Manitowoc. Subse-
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James O'Hara
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quently he accepted the position of admiralty clerk in the office of Schuy- ler & Kremer, marine lawyers, at Chicago, where he remained until the spring of 1886. In July of that year he entered the office of DeLong & Fellows, at Muskegon, and Mr. Fellows retiring from the firm within a month thereafter, Mr. ()'Hara remained with Mr. Delong, and the next year entered into partnership with him under the firm name of DeLong & O'Hara. The partnership continued until August 3, 1893, and during its continuance was one of the best known law firms in western Michigan. Nelson DeLong, as an advocate at that time, had no superior at the Bar of western Michigan. After the dissolution of the firm Mr. O'Hara con- tinued to practice in Muskegon until December 26, 1894, when he removed to Berrien county to take his brother's place in the firm of O'Hara & Kelley, at Benton Harbor. He remained at Benton Harbor until April 1, 1895, when he dissolved the partnership of O'Hara & Kelley, and removed to St. Joseph where by his energy he has built up a business that is not excelled in southwestern Michigan. Mr. O'Hara has conducted many important cases and has met with success. His most important case at the circuit was defending the cases of the People vs. Mary Hughson, tried in the Muskegon circuit in June, 1895. She was charged with the murder of her husband by arsenical poisoning, and fifty-one witnesses testified on behalf of the people and but one on behalf of the prisoner, that one being herself. The trial lasted seventeen days and resulted in a ver- dict of acquittal. He not only has had an extensive practice at the circuit, but also in the Supreme Court. In nearly every volume of the reports from the 74th Michigan to the last volume of the Northwestern are reports of one or more cases tried by him. Socially he is popular and is a mem- ber of many societies. He is a leading spirit in the Order of Elks, in the Maccabees, Knights of Pythias and in the Odd Fellows. In politics he has always been a Democrat. He was an alternate delegate at large to the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1896. In the campaign of 1894 he was the nominee of the Democratic State Convention for the office of attorney general and was defeated that fall with the rest of the State ticket. On May 22, 1889, he was married to Miss Florence Palmer, daughter of Abel B. and Martha (Rowe) Palmer, residents of Muskegon. He has two children, Chester, aged six, and Irene, aged two.
JACOB J. VAN RIPER, St. Joseph. Judge Van Riper is among the older attorneys of the southwestern part of the State, having been in prac- tice more than a third of a century, principally in Cass and Berrien coun- ties. He is a native of Haverstraw, New York, and reckons his age from the eighth day of March, 1838. His parents were John A. and Leah ('Zabriskie) Van Riper, both natives of New Jersey. They were both reared to maturity near Paterson, where they were married. They lived
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some years in New York City, came into Michigan in 1856, and at once located in Cass county, where the elder Van Riper engaged in the manu- facture of woolen goods, erecting one of the first factories for that business in that part of the State. He possessed a rich inventive genius, and per- fected, among other machines, one of the first power looms for the weaving of ingrain carpets, a work which had hitherto been done mostly by hand. This invention was perfected in 1851, and immediately wrought a radical revolution in the manufacture of these goods. Mr. Van Riper was of the old Knickerbocker stock of New York, that came originally from Holland. Leah Zabriskie belonged to a Polish family that had settled in New Jer- sey several generations before. Their son, the subject of this writing, was educated in the public schools of the city of New York, until he had reached the age of eighteen. He then attended the Collegiate Institute at Charlottesville, New York. The removal of the family to Michigan brought him with his parents into the State. In 1860 he entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan, and remained one year, when his course was broken off by the Civil War. He entered the service of the Government in the Internal Revenue Department, and was appointed Deputy Collector of Cass county, holding this position throughout the war. Meanwhile he had completed his law studies in the office of Clark & Spen- cer, of Dowagiac, and was admitted to the Bar in the winter of 1862-3. In connection with the duties of his position in the Revenue service he began the practice of the law, and in 1865 gave up all other work to devote himself entirely to his profession. In 1867 he was elected a member of the State Constitutional Convention, and took an active part in framing a new organic law of the State. He was on the judiciary committee, and also on the committee on bill of rights. With one exception, he was the youngest member of that convention, but he acquitted himself with much credit and exercised an influence in shaping its councils far beyond his years. Judge Van Riper removed to Buchanan in 1870, and six years later was elected prosecuting attorney of the county, and was re-elected in 1878, serving four years in all. He was appointed Regent of the Uni- versity of Michigan by Governor Crosswell, in 1879, and continued to serve the State in this capacity for six years. In 1880 he was elected by popular vote attorney general of the State of Michigan, and re-elected in 1882, filling this office for four years. During all this time he continued to practice law at Buchanan and later at Niles, until his election to the office of Probate Judge in 1892, to which he was re-elected in November 1896. This position he still fills with credit to himself and satisfaction to the peo- ple. During all these years Judge Van Riper has been principally and entirely a lawyer, entering into no business enterprises of any kind that' would interfere with the practice of his profession. In politics he has taken an earnest and active part in behalf of the Republican party, and has been honored by that party on many occasions. He was married in 1858 to Miss Emma Bronner, daughter of Jacob and Mary (Norton)
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Samuel N. Kelley.
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Bronner, residents of the vicinity of Utica, New York. They are the parents of one son and two daughters, all living. The son, Cassius M., is now engaged in the practice of law at St. Joseph. One daughter, Luella, is the wife of A. A. Worthington, attorney at law, at Buchanan, Michi- gan. The other daughter, Ada, is unmarried, and resides at home with her parents.
SAMUEL HARLAN KELLEY, Benton Harbor. Mr. Kelley has been a member of the legal profession since 1884. He is a native of Marion, Indiana, where he was born March 27, 1861. He is a son of Henry S. Kelley and Adelia Harlan. His father was born in the city of Cincinnati, and his mother in Marion. The Kelley family came originally from Scot- land, the great-grandfather of this subject being a native of that country. He emigrated thence to the north of Ireland, where our subject's grand- father was born in the city of Limerick. Mr. Kelley's father was for many years a member of the great law firm of Kelley, Craig & Crosby, known and respected throughout the State of Missouri. Judge Henry S. Kelley was one of the best known lawyers and jurists of that State, and stood among the very first members of his profession. He entered Mis- souri in 1866, and established himself in the city of St. Joseph. Here he was elected to the Circuit Bench in 1870, having previously served one term in the same capacity in Indiana on the Marion Circuit. He was twice re-elected in Missouri, serving as Circuit Judge for eighteen years in the St. Joseph district. As a Republican he was on the unpopular side, and was finally defeated in the Democratic landslide of 1890, on the occa- sion of his fourth candidacy. He has written several works on criminal and civil law that have received high commendation from the profession generally. He is now Lecturer on Criminal Law at the State University, and was employed by the Assembly to revise and edit the statutes of the State relating to criminal procedure. He is one of the contributing editors of the Central Law Journal of St. Louis. The Kelley family is related to the Indiana Wallaces, Governor Wallace, the father of Gen. Lew Wallace, being first cousin to Judge Kelley. The Harlan and Hen- ricks families are intimately related. Justice Harlan, of the United States Supreme Court, and Senator Harlan, of Iowa, are among the immediate relatives of the mother of our subject. Thus it will be readily seen that he comes of a good and vigorous family stock, and it is high praise that he has done it no discredit. Mr. Kelley received his carlier education in the public schools of Savannah and St. Joseph, Missouri, and at the age of seventeen entered the State University at Columbia, where he remained three years. In the last year of his college course he received an appoint- ment to a position in the Treasury at Washington, D. C., and this posi- tion he held for four years. While still a student in the University he had
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