USA > Michigan > Bench and bar of Michigan : a volume of history and biography > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35
ALLEN B. MORSE, Ionia. Hon. Allen B. Morse, ex-judge of the Supreme Court of Michigan, and at present United States Consul at Glasgow, is the son of Hon. John L. and Susan Cowles Morse. He was born January 7, 1839, in Otisco, Ionia county, Michigan. His father, who died at Bel- mond, Iowa, August 22, 1894, was a man of affairs, prominent in two States. While in Michigan he held various township offices, was Judge of the Probate Court for twelve years and a member of the State Legislature. In lowa he was County Judge, auditor of the county, and a member of the lowa Legislature. Judge Morse was educated principally in the common schools. He took a two year course in the Agricultural College at Lansing, taught in the district schools a few months and, in the spring of 1860, began the study of law. Before the completion of his pre- liminary studies in law he enlisted as a private in the Sixteenth Regiment
24
370
BENCH AND BAR OF MICHIGAN.
Michigan infantry, in 1861. In December, 1863, he was transferred to the Twenty-first Regiment, and soon after the battle of Chickamauga assigned to duty as acting adjutant general of the staff of Col. F. T. Sherman, who was then commanding the First Brigade of General Sheridan's Division. While on duty in this position he lost his arm at the storming of Missionary Ridge. He was in the battles of Hanover Court House, Gaines Mill, Manassas Junction, Antietam, Chickamauga, and in numerous skirmishes. On retiring from the staff, rendered necessary by the loss of his arm, he received the following flattering testimonials from his superior officers:
Headquarters First Brigade, Second Division, Fourth Infantry Corps, Camp Laibold, East Tennessee, February 9, 1864.
To whom it may concern :-
The undersigned takes great pleasure in bearing testimony to the ability and bravery of Lieut. A. B. Morse, adjutant of the Twenty-first Michigan infantry. The lieutenant was, by my orders, detailed as assistant adjutant general of my brigade and was selected by me for this responsible position, because of his peculiar fitness and ability to discharge the duties which devolve upon him. Ever at the post of duty, either in the office or on the field, he won the esteem and confidence of his superior officers and the love and respect of his juniors. I respectfully recommend him to the consideration of his Country and Government for any position in the Invalid Corps which he may desire.
F. T. Sherman, Colonel 88th Ill. Infantry.
Headquarters Second Division, Tenth Army Corps, Loudon, Tennes- see, February 11, 1864.
I take great pleasure in approving the wishes and recommenda- tions of Colonel Sherman. Lieutenant Morse, while in my division, proved himself to be an able, efficient and gallant officer, and was wounded while leading his men at the storming of Missionary Ridge.
P. H. Sheridan, Major General.
On his return from the field Mr. Morse continued his law studies and was admitted to the Bar at lonia, where he has always engaged in the practice, except when serving in public office. Always taking a lively interest in politics and possessing peculiar elements of personal popularity, he has naturally been selected as the candidate of his party for various offices. In 1866 he was elected prosecuting attorney for Ionia county and reelected in 1868, as a Republican. Dissatisfied with the administration of General Grant, he supported Horace Greeley in 1872, and has since acted with the Democrats. In 1874 he was nominated for State Senator by the Democrats and elected by a majority of 2, 211 in a district strongly Repub- lican. While in the Senate he was chairman of the military committee and a member of the committee on State affairs and constitutional amend-
ments. In 1878 Judge Morse was the candidate for Attorney General of Michigan on the Democratic ticket, but was defeated with his party. In 1880 he was a delegate to the National Convention that nominated General Hancock for President. In 1882 he was elected mayor of lonia and served a term of one year. In 1885 he was elected Judge of the Supreme Court of Michigan for the term of eight years, commencing January 1, 1886.
371
BENCH AND BAR OF MICHIGAN.
Governor Alger appointed him Chief Justice in October, 1885, to succeed Judge Thomas M. Cooley, resigned. Judge Morse served on the Supreme Bench until October 4, 1892, when he resigned, being then Chief Justice, to accept the unanimous nomination for Governor as candidate on the Democratic ticket. He was defeated, but the election evidenced his remarkable popularity. He received 3,000 more votes than Grover Cleve- land and 5,000 more than other candidates on the State ticket. In April, 1893, he was appointed Consul of the United States at Glasgow, Scotland, where he is now located. Judge Morse is a good lawyer and an upright jurist. He has exhibited the same fidelity and devotion to duty in every public office that distinguished his military service, so highly commended by . superior officers. His convictions are clear and strong. His opinions are held tenaciously and declared fearlessly on all proper occasions. His moral courage is equal to his physical prowess. He is of active tempera- ment and of medium size. He informed himself as a boy on political sub- jects and his convictions were in favor of humanity and liberty. His .sol- dierly qualities were tested and acknowledged on the field of battle. On his return from the war the people were prompt to honor him with respon- sible and lucrative public offices. His most pleasing recreation is found in hunting and fishing among the pleasant resorts of his native State. Judge Morse was married to Frances Marion Van Allen, youngest daughter of George W. Van Allen, Esq., November 25, 1874. She died October 28, 1884. By this union there were four children, Marion A., Van Allen, Lucy C. and Dan Root Morse. The eldest is now twenty and the youngest fourteen years of age. Judge Morse was married December 12, 1888, to Anna M. Babcock, youngest daughter of Lucius Babcock, Esq., of Ionia, Mich.
FRANK D. M. DAVIS, Ionia. Judge Davis is the son of the late E. M. and Ellen Williams Davis, both of whom were of Welsh descent and natives of Oneida county, New York. They removed from that state to lonia county, Michigan, in 1854, and afterwards to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where the mother died in 1856, and the father, returning to lonia, died there in 1865. Judge Davis, the subject of this biographical sketch, was born in Buffalo, New York, April 9, 1852 ; his early education was procured in the public schools of lonia and Greenville, and also in teaching until he attained his majority. In 1873 he entered upon the study of law in the offices of Maible & Webster, of lonia, under their instruction; he remained with them two years, being admitted to the Bar as the result of his proficiency in 1874 by Judge Lovell. His first office for practice was opened in Saranac, where he remained until the fall of 1880, when, upon his election to the office of prosecuting attorney, he removed to lonia; he filled the office of prosecuting attorney for two successive terms, and
---
.
1
372
BENCH AND BAR OF MICHIGAN.
after engaging in private practice for four years he was again nominated for the same office, two years later again renominated and elected, serving altogether for a period of four terms, covering eight years. One of the proudest days of his life was the fortieth anniversary of his birth, upon which he was inaugurated mayor of the city of lonia. He esteemed it the greatest honor that had come to him, and even the higher position which has been attained since that time has not cast a shadow upon the glory of that day. It was a gratification unspeakable to Judge Davis that he should be preferred for so honorable and responsible an office by the men among whom he had lived all his life and had known him as a poor boy; it was indeed a triumph worthy of the highest self-congratulation. It was an evidence of the popular respect and personal esteem in which he . was held in the community where he was best known. He was the first Republican elected to the office of mayor for a period of seven years. Before the close of his term as chief executive of the city he was, in the Spring of 1893, elected Judge of the Eighth Judicial District, comprising the counties of Ionia and Montcalm; he was inducted into the judicial office January 1, 1894, for a term of six years. During the years of his practice at the Bar Judge Davis was associated in partnership with other lawyers at various times. From 1881 to 1885 he was the partner of Will- iam O. Webster, of the firm of Webster & Davis, which was, at the date last named, changed to Webster, Davis & Millard. From 1887 to Janu- . ary, 1892, he was associated with George E. Nichols under the style of Davis & Nichols; after that he continued alone until his election to the Circuit Bench. He has been engaged upon one side or the other of nearly all of the important cases arising in this county for several years prior to his election to the Bench, and in many important cases before the Supreme Court of this State. As stated in connection with his election to the may- oralty, he is Republican. While he has not avoided any duty of citizen- ship he has taken an active part in the councils of his party, but has never sought political office. For fifteen years he has had a membership in the order of Masonry, and has for some time been a member of the Ionia Com- mandery. He is also a Knight of Pythias and a member of the I. O. O. F. He was married in the fall of 1874 to Ellen A. Strong, of Ionia; the fruit of that marriage is a son, Elvert M., born in 1875 and now a student at Detroit College of Law, and a daughter, Elva R., ten years younger. The following is an estimate from the highest and most reliable sources, whether considered personally or professionally :
" Judge Davis is purely a self-made man. He has grown up in Ionia from a boy in humble circumstances to be Circuit Judge of the district. As a lawyer he stands in the front rank in his Judicial District, and indeed in western Michigan. He is a fluent public speaker, and strong and suc- cessful before a jury. His cases were always well prepared so that the interests of his client were ably and amply protected. As a judge he is quick in discernment and ready in decision, and stands well among the Circuit Judges of the State. His decisions are generally accurate and sel-
The Century Publishing & Engraving Co Chicano.
Graw lewheel
373
BENCH AND BAR OF MICHIGAN.
dom overruled by the Supreme Court. He is a public-spirited citizen of high standing in the estimation of the people, not only among the people of lonia county, but the entire Judicial District. He is a man whose ex- emplary habits and upright life adorn a home and make an estimable hus- band and father."
EDWARD CAHILL, Lansing. Edward Cahill, ex-Judge of the Supreme Court, has raised himself to a position of the highest professional emi- nence in the State. He comes from Revolutionary stock on both sides. His paternal great-grandfather served in the American army from Pennsyl- vania, and his maternal great-grandfather from Vermont. His own parents were poor and able to give him only limited advantages. His father, Abraham Cahill, who was a tanner by trade, settled in Kalamazoo as a young man in 1831, where, ten years later, he married Miss Frances Maria Marsh, daughter of John P. Marsh, a pioneer settler, and niece of Epaphroditus Ransom, an early judge of the Supreme Court and Gov- ernor of the State from 1848 to 1850. Edward was the second in a family of six children and was born August 3, 1843. The first two years of his life were passed in Kalamazoo and in 1845 his father sold the tannery, removed three miles into the country and settled on a farm in Grand Prairie. Here he remained until eleven years of age, attending the district school after attaining lawful school age. The next move was to Holland, Michigan, in 1854, where his father located for the purpose of engaging in the lumber business, after having invested the proceeds of the sale of his farm in timber lands. In August of the same year his father died before establishing himself in a profitable business or gaining an acquaintance in the new community, leaving the family with no income or means of sup- port immediately available. The estate consisted principally of unpro- ductive wild lands. The family soon returned to Kalamazoo for the better opportunities and educational advantages afforded there, and the sympathy and helpfulness of friendship. The children were all too young to contri- bute much to the common support by the earnings of their labor, but an intelligent mother kept them in school. After attending the public schools for a year Edward entered the preparatory department of Kalamazoo Col- lege in the fall of 1856. The following winter when the Legislature assembled in Lansing he obtained employment as a page. This was the beginning of his public career, and he performed the duties of messenger so well as to secure a reappointment in the Legislature of 1858-9. For more than two years after the close of this second Legislative term he was an apprentice in the office of the Kalamazoo Gasette, learning the printer's trade. In August, 1862, he laid aside his stick and rule, strapped a knap- sack on his back as a private volunteer soldier in Company A, Eighty- Ninth Illinois Infantry, and proceeded to the front. After service in the Kentucky campaign in the fall, under General Buehl, he was discharged in
374
BENCHI AND BAR OF MICHIGAN.
December, 1862, on account of disability occasioned by sickness. He recuperated rapidly in the salubrious climate of Michigan, and by the fol- lowing spring his health was sufficiently restored to warrant his undertaking the study of law. This he did in the office of Miller & Burns, Kalamazoo. In the autumn of that year he became impatient to join the army again. With that object in view he recruited a company of colored soldiers for the First Michigan Colored Infantry, afterward known as the One Hundred and Second U. S. Colored Troops, with which he went to the front as first lieutenant. Subsequently he was promoted to the captaincy and served to the close of the war. He was mustered out in October, 1865. Upon returning home he resumed the study of law immediately in St. Johns. In June, 1866, he was admitted to the Bar of Clinton county, and in the Sep- tember following removed to Hubbardston, Ionia county, for practice. There he remained four years until he had established himself in the law and demonstrated his ability. While residing there, in 1870, he was elected to the office of Circuit Court Commissioner and thereupon removed to Ionia. After a residence of six months in the county seat he resigned his office and removed to Chicago, where he engaged in the practice of law until June, 1873. His office at the corner of Clark and Madison was des- troyed by the great fire and the only volume saved from his law library was " Chitty on Contracts." On leaving Chicago he returned to his native State and settled permanently in Lansing. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Ingham county in 1876 and re-elected in 1878. His private practice at the same time was continued as a member of different firms. First, he was associated with Albert E. Cowles, from 1875 to 1881. In 1883 he formed a partnership with R. C. Ostrander, which has remained unbroken to the present time and promises a continuance indefinitely. In 1887 Judge Cahill was appointed a member of the Board of Pardons by Governor Luce, and held the office until he was appointed Justice of the Supreme Court. His appointment to the latter office was made in 1890, upon the death of Judge Campbell. He was nominated as a candidate of the Republican party to succeed himself, but the general election which followed demonstrated clearly that it was not a Republican year, the entire State ticket being defeated for the first time since 1854. That he was not chosen is no reflection on the judge and no condemnation of his judicial service. His defeat was simply due to the primary fact that more Demo- crats than Republicans attended the election and voted for Justice of the Supreme Court of Michigan. His fortunate competitor in the race was Hon. John W. McGrath, of Detroit. He was President of the State Bar Association in 1891-2; was first president of the Political Science Associa- tion of Michigan, organized in 1892; was counsel for the State in the pro- ceedings against certain State officers known as the election fraud cases, his associate counsel being R. A. Montgomery, now a Justice of the Supreme Court. Judge Cahill possesses the qualities which make men popular. He is affable, courteous and obliging; generous in his impulses and liberal
375
BENCH AND BAR OF MICHIGAN.
in benefactions; a good conversationalist and raconteur; of keen discern- ment and ready wit. While he is not an orator in the sense that he is able to move men by the sheer force of his eloquence, he is not without power as an advocate. His strength lies rather in the logical arrangement of his thought and in the ability to state his views with candor, clearness and force. The legal business of his firm is extensive and profitable, not excelled by that of any law firm in Lansing.
JOHN M. CORBIN, Eaton Rapids. John Milton Corbin is a son of Isaiah H. Corbin, and Almira I .. Mills. The family from which his father sprang, was of English origin, and established its first home this side of the ocean in Vermont. His mother was also of English descent, and her progenitors settled in Connecticut when first across the water. Both families moved into Erie county, New York, where the parents of our subject were married, and where he himself was born at Lockport, September 8, 1844. When he was nine years old his father brought him into Michigan and located at Charlotte. He was for three years a student in the select school at Wilson, New York, and from 1853 to 1860 was in the academy at Charlotte. He also attended the graded school at Eaton Rapids. From 1863 to 1867 he clerked during the summer and taught winter school. In June of that year he took up the study of law under the direction of Crane & Montgomery. For some three years he worked his way carefully and thoroughly into an understanding of the text books and literature of the profession and was admitted to the Eaton county Bar June 20, 1870. Ile immediately opened an office for the transaction of business, and presently formed a partnership with R. A. Montgomery, which continued until the end of 1872. During 1875 and 1876 he was in company with Charles K. Latham, now of Detroit. In 1878 another partnership was formed with Charles C. Cobb which terminated in 1883. In 1888 the firm of Corbin & Hemans came into existence, and continued two years. Lawton T. Hlemans is now at Mason, Except as thus indicated, Mr. Corbin has practised law alone, and has been equally successful with or without a partner. He has done a general law business, and gained efficiency both as 'a counsellor and a pleader. Among the more important cases that he has presented to the Supreme Court may be mentioned these few : Dale vs. Turner (34 Mich. 405); Baldwin vs. Branch Circuit Judge (48 Mich. 525); Gantz vs. Toles (40 Mich. 725); Bull vs. Brockway (48 Mich. 523); People vs. Miller (96 Mich. 119); and Canton Bridge Company vs. City of Eaton Rapids (65 N. W. Reporter, 761). While Mr. Corbin has kept close to the line of his profession, and still has a strong grasp upon its practice, he has also a certain financial genius, which found expression in his almost natural and inevitable connection with the bank- ing interests, which began as far back as 1877, when he assisted in the
376
BENCH AND BAR OF MICHIGAN.
organization of the First National Bank of Eaton Rapids. He was a mem- ber of its board of directors until 1884. That year he took an active inter- est in the inauguration of the Michigan State Bank of Eaton Rapids, and he has been its president since July, 1890. He also helped to organize the Merchants' National Bank at Charlotte, and was one of its directors for many years; and also the State Savings Bank of Gaylord, Mich., and is one its directors. He has been interested in a number of successful business enterprises, among which the Jackson Cracker Company, of Jack- son, was very prominent. He was president of this company, and its largest stockholder until 1890. Then the business was sold to the United States Baking Company. Mr. Corbin is a Democrat, but does not take a very active part in the management of practical politics. He is a mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity, and has been a Knight Templar for sixteen years. He was twice married, Miss Hettie Scott, of Ovid, Seneca county, New York, becoming his wife in 1872. She was a daughter of Sinclair Scott, and died April 3, 1877, leaving an infant, born at her death, and another child of two years. The baby lived six months, and the other child eight years. Mr. Corbin was again married September, 1878, to Miss Artie Scott, daughter of Daniel Scott, of Ovid, a double cousin of his first wife. One child, Anna, is the offspring of this marriage. She was born July 27, 1880. Mr. Corbin has been characterized by compe- tent authority as a "level-headed, all round man of affairs, both in law and in business. He is a successful financier, a judicious manager, and in both law and business a safe counsellor and a successful man."
JOHN W. MCGRATH, Detroit. John W. McGrath, ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Michigan, was born in Philadelphia, January 12, 1842. He is of Scotch-Irish extraction. His father, Joseph McGrath, was a native of the North of Ireland; his mother, Jane Andrew, was a native of Glasgow, Scotland. They emigrated to America in 1840, remained in Philadelphia three years and in 1843 settled in Detroit. The primary education of John W. was obtained in the public schools of Detroit. In 1853 his father purchased 160 acres of heavily timbered land in Macomb county, and removed thither. Here the subject of this sketch soon became an expert with the ox team, the axe, the wedge and the beetle, doing a man's service in the work of preparing fifty acres of this land for cultivation, enduring all the privations incident to such a life. He attended district school one winter only during this period; yet in the winter of 1861-2 he was employed as teacher in the district school which he had attended as a pupil. This is one of the severe tests of a boy's ability and diplomacy. He is obliged to maintain his own dignity and self control, and also a proper discipline, in a position of authority over those with whom he has been associated as an equal. He must do this
.
1
the Century Publishing & Engraving to Chicago.
↑ -
377
BENCH AND BAR OF MICHIGAN.
without an assumption of superiority or an exhibition of pedantry. At the same time he must be superior in his bearing toward the school and his ability to teach his late play-fellows. Young McGrath was successful. His salary of eighteen dollars a month did not include board, according to the custom of earlier times when the teacher "boarded 'round." In the spring of 1862 he entered Albion College. For some time thereafter his year was divided into three parts, one of which was spent in teaching dis- trict school, a second in college and a third in the harvest field and other work on the farm. The education thus acquired was certainly more varied and probably more valuable than if he had taken the college course con- tinuously. He was willing to make the sacrifices and able to overcome the difficulties. His invincible determination and unflagging perseverance, which formed no inconsiderable portion of his Scotch inheritance, and the buoyancy of spirits transmitted through his Irish lineage, enabled him to surmount difficulties which would block the progress of a weaker man. In the fall of 1864 he entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan and remained for a term. The next spring he was employed in the provost marshal's office at Detroit and spent his evenings in a business college. In July, 1865, he went to the oil regions of Pennsylvania and engaged in commercial business, which was pursued over two years. Ile then returned to Ann Arbor and completed his law course in the Uni- versity of Michigan, from which he was graduated in 1868. During the same year he was admitted by the Supreme Court to practice in the courts of Michigan. In December, 1868, he opened an office in Detroit and began the practice of law, and succeeded in establishing himself firmly and building up a profitable business in civil cases. He has taken a lively interest in political campaigns as a supporter of the Democratic party : but has not given much time to public office other than such offices as are intimately related to his profession. Aside from these he served as school inspector four years and as labor commissioner of the State for two years. He was appointed to the latter office by Governor Begole immediately after the passage of the law creating the Labor Bureau, in June, 1883 .; It was therefore his duty to organize the bureau and make it operative under the statute. July 1, 1887, he was appointed city counsellor of Detroit and served as such until December 31, 1890. At the State election of that year he was chosen Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the death of Mr. Justice Campbell. After three years of service as an Associate Justice he became Chief Justice of the Court, January 1, 1894, and served in that capacity until the expiration of his term, January 1, 1896. On retiring from the Bench he returned to Detroit, resumed the practice of law, in which he is now actively engaged. Referring to his professional work and judicial record, a prominent Detroit judge says:
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.