USA > Wisconsin > Eau Claire County > History of Eau Claire county, Wisconsin, past and present; including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county > Part 27
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Judson C. Crawford was born in Ulysses, Tompkins county, New York, April 26, 1823; lived there until he came to Wiscon- sin in the fall of 1847. He taught school at Sheboygan and two years at Waupun, and one year at Ceresco. Afterward for many years he was engaged in the general missionary work, being a regularly ordained minister of the Universalist Church. In March, 1875, he settled in Augusta and engaged in the practice of law.
Thomas F. Frawley was born near Troy, N. Y., March 6, 1851. His parents, Thomas and IIonora (Hogan) Frawley, were natives of Ireland, and possessed such attainments of mind and heart as especially fitted them to mould the character of their children. The father was studious, thoughtful, industrious, independent and energetic, and the mother of kindly, cheerful and benevolent disposition, being a woman of deep religious convictions. The family consisted of seven sons and two daughters, all of whom were thoroughly educated. It is quite a remarkable fact that six of the sons graduated from the University of Wisconsin and that from 1870 to 1896 some member of the family was a student at that institution.
A short time after the birth of Thomas F. Frawley, the family moved to Wisconsin and settled upon a farm in the town of Ver- mont, Kane county, and there he resided until 1875. Until he was seventeen years of age the boy assisted in the cultivation of the farm, attending district school during the winter months. For two terms he was a student at the Albion Academy in Dane county, and in the spring of 1872 entered the University of Wis-
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consin. From October, 1873, until June, 1874, he taught school at Highland and Dodgeville, but during that period he continued his studies in the university and was graduated therefrom in 1875, having largely paid the expenses of his collegiate education with the money he earned as a teacher. As a university student he was an acknowledged leader in debate, being a participant in the joint oratorical contest of 1874.
For five years after his graduation Mr. Frawley served as principal of the high school in Eau Claire. During this period he commenced the study of his profession and formed the nucleus of his law library, which was considered one of the most complete private collections in the state. Upon his admission to the bar in 1880 he abandoned the educational field and earnestly assumed the duties of his new profession. During the first few years of his career he conducted the defence of many important eriminal cases. Among those being best known may be mentioned that growing out of the lynching of Olson in Trempealeau county in 1889. In later years he gave most of his attention to civil cases, especially those involving important question of corporation law.
Mr. Frawley was a democrat of high standing. In 1888 he served as a delegate to the National Democratic Convention held in St. Louis. In 1892, upon the delivery of his telling speech before the state convention, the old ticket was nominated for re- election. For many years prior to 1896 Mr. Frawley was a mem- ber of the Democratic State Central Committee. In June of that year he was chosen both temporary and permanent chairman of the state convention, which convened in Milwaukee for the pur- pose of selecting delegates to the national convention called to meet in Chicago. Mr. Frawley was for ten years a member and for several terms president of the Common Couneil of Eau Claire. Interested in educational matters, he was for many years a member of the Board of Education, and in that capacity did much to improve the school system of the city. He was finaneially and professionally interested in several corporations, being a stockholder and director of the Chippewa Valley Bank, and stock- holder and attorney for the Eau Claire Light & Power Company, in addition to holding similar relations to other corporations.
On the sixth day of August, 1877, Mr. Frawley was married to Lydia A., daughter of Joseph Lawler, one of the early settlers of Eau Claire, and one of its most highly respected citizens. They had one son, Thomas F. Frawley, Jr., who is now a practicing attorney in Eau Claire. During the many years that Mr. Fraw- ley was a member of the legal profession he formed several con-
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nections. From 1881 to 1884 he was of the firm of Frawley, Hen- drix & Brooks; from 1884 to 1888 he practiced alone; the follow- ing year his brother, W. H. Frawley, was his partner, and from August, 1889, to August, 1890, he was associated with H. II. Hayden as a member of the firm of Hayden & Frawley. From August, 1890, until September, 1897, Mr. Frawley had no part- ner, but at the latter date the firm of Frawley, Bundy & Wilcox was formed. The death of Mr. Frawley ocemred in 1902.
George Clinton Teall was born in Seneca county, New York, May 20, 1840, and at the age of twelve removed with his parents to Geneva, N. Y., where he was principally educated. At the age of eighteen he entered llobart College, in which he was a mem- ber of the class of 1862. His father, G. C. P. Teall, was a son of Nathan Teall, whose father was one of three political fugitives from the oppression of Switzerland, who settled in Connecticut about 1730. Ilis grandfather, Nathan Teall, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War under General Knox. In 1792 this grand- father settled in Newtown, N. Y., which was afterward named Elmira. On the side of his father's mother the ancestors were among the Pilgrim Fathers who landed from the "Mayflower" at Plymouth in 1620, and her father was a colonel in the Revolu- tionary War. Mr. Teall studied law at Rochester, N. Y., in 1862-3-4 in the office of IIon. Theron R. Strong and Hon. Alfred G. Mudge, and also attended a course of lectures in the winter of 1863-4 at Rochester. In February, 1866, he came to Eau Claire with his family, and in April, 1867, was elected justice of the peace, and in January, 1868, was appointed county judge by Governor Fairchild. In the spring of 1869 he was elected his own successor and administered that office until January, 1874. He was from 1866 for several years interested in the mercantile firm of George C. Teall & Co., and from 1868 to 1873 was one of the firm of William A. Teall & Co., general insurance agents. He was admitted to the bar in Wisconsin at Milwaukee in January, 1872, and soon afterward to the supreme court and the United States courts at Madison. In 1873 he formed a partnership with Alexander Meggett and was a member of that law firm until the spring of 1881, when the firm was dissolved. In December, 1880, he was again appointed county judge by Governor Smith, and in 1881 was re-elected withont opposition for the term ending January, 1886.
Hon. Henry Cousins (deceased). Among the names of the strong men who helped to make the Eau Claire bar famous stands that of Hon. Henry Cousins. From early boyhood to the day of
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his death his character was never tarnished by a blot. Although quiet and unassuming, he became widely known in legal, political and social circles as a man to be trusted in all relations of life. His demise called forth the most glowing tributes and eulogies that were ever bestowed on a deceased member of the Eau Claire bar by members of that association. He was born in Mayville, Chautauqua county, New York, on February 7, 1826, and with his parents, John and Mary Cousins, removed to Dover, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, in the spring of 1837, where, until the age of fif- teen years, he had the advantage of such schools as the newly settled district afforded. For two years he was employed as a clerk in a dry goods store, but the confinement being somewhat irksome he sought a wider field of labor, and, as expressed in his own peculiar diction, he "went to work on his father's farm, where he had the reputation of taking more time to do less work than any other boy in the neighborhood." At this time a taste for study and general reading was developed which was stimu- lated and directed by a Baptist elergyman of Dover, who kindly placed his library and advice at his command. Thereafter he commenced the study of law at Elyria, Ohio, in the office of J. D. Benedict, and in 1848, when twenty-two years old, was admitted to practice by the supreme court of the state. In 1848 he became interested in the anti-slavery discussion which convulsed the country, espoused the advance opinions on that subject, having the confidence of such men as Giddings and the Wades of that state, and was known as an abolitionist of the voting school, when the term implied more of approbrium than honor.
A letter from the IIon. Joshua R. Giddings, then in Congress, relative to his candidacy for re-election was a greatly cherished memento of this beginning of Mr. Cousins' political activities.
In 1850 he came to Wisconsin and entered on the practice of his profession at East Troy, Walworth county ; was elected clerk of the court in 1854 and held office for six consective years. While in East Troy a warm and confidential friendship sprang up between the young attorney and Judge John F. Potter --- Bowie Knife Potter-and he attended to many legal matters for the judge during the period he was in Washington. When Judge Prior, of Virginia, challenged Judge Potter to a duel, the latter, before publie announcement of the matter was made, returned to East Troy for the purpose of putting his affairs in order. To Mr. Cousins he made known his ideas as to how pending litiga- tion was to be handled. Many matters of a confidential nature were entrusted to the younger man, and in explanation shortly
HENRY COUSINS
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before the judge's return to Washington, while the two men were occupying the same room as a sleeping apartment, the judge an- nounced he had received a challenge just before his departure from Washington and that his trip was to prepare for what might happen. Mr. Cousins tried to dissuade him from accepting the challenge, but was met with the statement, "No, by God, I have accepted, and if I ever get Judge Prior on the field I will kill him if I can." But the outcome of this challenge is a matter of history.
On the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion he received a provisional commission authorizing him to recruit a company, which, on its acceptance by the United States, would entitle him to a captain's commission. The company was recruited, offered to the government, and every man on the rolls, with the exception of Captain Cousins, passed a physical examination. After his rejection by the army surgeons he devoted his labors, until the close of hostilities, to assisting and aiding others in recruiting and in fostering loyal sentiment among the people.
Ilis father, John Cousins, as a boy of 14, served with Mac- donough at Lake Champlain, and the grandfather, a sea captain previous to the Revolutionary War, was issued letters of marque by Congress and assisted in naval operations.
In 1866 he located in Eau Claire. In 1867 was elected district attorney and re-elected in 1869; was elected to the assembly in 1871 without opposition, and bore an honorable part in the Dells improvement struggle, and was thereafter alderman for the Third Ward in this city for two years. Ile was also a member of the county board of supervisors.
In consequence of failing health in 1881 he accepted the posi- tion of register of the United States land office in Arizona, but in 1883 returned to Eau Claire, having voluntarily resigned the office. In 1885 he was again elected district attorney for Eau Claire county, and in 1887 declined nomination, thus elosing his official career. After several weeks of sickness he departed this life late in the afternoon of Thursday, October 25, 1888, at the age of sixty-five years, eight months and eighteen days. While taking no place in religious controversy, nor holding dogmatic theology in high esteem, he held as supremest truth the fact of a Creator, Ruler and Father of all mankind, and that at some period, somewhere in the time to come, would be accomplished the final exaltation of the race.
As a politician, while deeming principle above party, and while indulging in free criticism of its policies, he held to the last pro-
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found regard for the party he believed had wrought well for the people, and revered with all the force of his nature the stead- fastness of those men who strove for the extinction of chattel slavery and the equality of all men before the law. As a lawyer he came to the profession believing the machinery of the law should be so used as to ameliorate conditions, protect society and uphold the right.
At the exercises of the Eau Claire Bar Association held in Circuit Court January 15, 1889, many tributes of respect were paid to his memory. The resolutions of the committee made special mention of the high esteem of his colleagues for "his ripe attainments through mastery of details, conscientious practice and large experience in his profession; for his uniform recogni- tion of courtesies due to the bench and the bar, and for his great veneration for the law as an ample shield of protection for the citizens against encroachments of wrong." A special mention was made to the helping hand he was always ready to extend to the young practitioner.
Mr. Cousins had a keen appreciation of wit and a never fail- ing stock of stories which illustrated his points, either in arguing before a jury or in making a political address. In the use of sarcasm he was an adept, but, as one fellow practitioner stated, "Henry's shafts, though telling and effective, are so tempered as not to sting and hurt." To this day some of his former asso- ciates repeat his stories.
Mr. Cousins was one of those who remain cool and collected when most people are in a state of great exeitement. One gen- tleman described his entrance into Mr. Cousins' office, then in the old Music Hall Building, which was on fire. Mr. Cousins sat at his desk writing. The exeited friend dashed in, crying out, "The building is on fire. What shall I do first?" Mr. Cousins continued his writing without looking up until the paragraph was finished, then calmly blotting it, he glanced up and replied, "Well, under the circumstances I would suggest you better get a pail of water." When provocation appeared to demand the use of emphatie language, Mr. Cousins was not found wanting, but as a friend says, "However emphatic his expressions are, they are nevertheless picturesque and artistic."
January 21, 1861, he married Louise, daughter of Otis and Julia (Corbin) Preston, the former a native of Massachusetts and the latter of Ohio, but of French descent. Mrs. Cousins was born October 26, 1840, in White Pigeon, Mich. She is a culti-
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vated, broadminded woman, and interested in social and ednea- tional progress. She has two children.
John E. Stillman settled in Eau Claire in its earliest days. He was the first teacher in the first public school. The building was erected in the village of Eau Claire in the winter of 1856-57. It was of green, rough boards, located on what is now Barstow street, near Grand avenue, East, and in dimension was 16 by 24 feet. As schoolmaster Mr. Stillman was succeeded the following summer by Miss Mary Arnold. At that time there were fifteen pupils. Later Mr. Stillman engaged in the practice of law. Served as county judge from 1863 to 1865.
In 1860 he married Miss Mary Lashier, of Fall River, Wis., to whom there were born three sons and two daughters. In 1872 he was practicing law under the firm name of Stillman & Ed- wards. In 1873, on account of ill health, he removed to Florida, where, with other Eau Claire men, he helped establish the town of Orange City. In 1882 Mr. Stillman moved to Washington, D. C., where he resided for one year, then returning to Orange City. He died in 1883.
Horace W. Barnes was born in the town of Colesville, Broome county, New York, in 1818. His boyhood was spent in the family of an uncle who settled in a dense beech and maple forest in Medina county, Ohio, where he lived a life of constant toil, with- out one day's schooling until his majority, and Shakespeare's line would then forcibly apply to the youthful Buckeye:
"This boy is forest-born, and hath been tutored in the rudi- ments of many desperate studies."
How many men famous in American history have laid the superstructure of their education and built up an honorable name from such rough materials as poverty and the adverse cir- cumstances that pioneer life always impose ! There seems to have been something inspiring in the grand old woods where the early days of many of our most distinguished men first saw the light; and in overcoming the many natural obstacles always encountered in new districts, high aspirations and a determina- tion to achieve grander results take possession of the hardy backwoodsman and frequently leads to victory, honor and fortune.
These feelings inspired Mr. Barnes, and with indomitable energy he set himself to earn the means to educate himself. By the most rigid economy and assiduous attention to his studies, he acquired a good English and mathematical education and con-
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siderable proficiency in the classics at Oberlin Institute, Ohio, acquisitions that he utilized in teaching and surveying until 1852, when he commenced the study and practice of law in which he soon won distinction as a sound legal adviser and laborious faithful advocate.
As a pleader, Mr. Barnes displayed qualities which, if not always insuring his own success, were well calculated to quench the ardor and paralyze the force of his adversary.
Carefully noting, as the cause proceeded, the points which his antagonist intended to make, he would anticipate him and tell the court and jury precisely what his opponent would say, frequently using the exact language in which it would be clothed, and emasculating the argument of all points of power before it was uttered. He felt defeat intensely and seemed to suffer even more than his client the loss incurred by any want of skill or foresight in managing a suit, and hence in all civil suits was wary and cautious, always exacting a full, impartial statement of the case from his client before taking it, and not then unless the evidence, justice and a reasonable prospect of success jus- tified it.
In serving the public, no matter in what capacity, his industry and perseverance were untiring, and he shares with Mr. Thorp the honor of exposing frauds in the accounts of the Eau Claire county treasurer and of restoring the credit of the county.
Mr. Barnes came to Eau Claire in 1858 and was elected district attorney the next year, 1859, and county judge in 1865; was a member of the legislature in 1861 and 1867. In politics, was a steadfast republican, and during the war zealous and active in carrying forward any and every measure for its prosecution.
In his friendship he utterly ignored position or caste, and wherever he found what he considered a true man, he was his friend, but scorned obsequious or patronizing airs, and was some- times so impolitic as to prefer blunt honesty to assumed gentility. In 1872 he removed to Oswego, Kans., with his family, where he now resides in the practice of his profession.
Abel Davis, who was one of the early settlers of Eau Claire, was born January 16, 1842, in the town of New Portland, Maine. He spent his early life on a farm, receiving a common school education, and in January, 1862, enlisted in the Fourth Maine Battery, serving until August 9, 1862, when he was wounded at the battle of Cedar Mountain, for which he received his honorable discharge. Returning home he resumed his former occupation, at which he worked until the spring of 1868, when he came to
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Eau Claire, Wis., and from that time until 1872 labored in the saw mills and woods. In the last named year he commenced the study of law in the office of J. F. Ellis and later entered the law department of the Wisconsin State University, from which he graduated in 1874. Returning to Eau Claire he engaged in prac- tiee with J. F. Ellis, remaining in that firm for five years, when, on account of ill health, he retired from active practice and re- turned to Maine in 1888. He resumed the practice of law in Pittsfield, Maine, where he died on October 12, 1905.
Loren Edwards, formerly a prominent attorney of Eau Claire and now a resident of Oconomowoc, this state, was born in Erie county, Pennsylvania, on September 7, 1843, the son of David and Margaret Edwards. His father was born in New Haven, Conn., and of the same family ancestors as Jonathan Edwards.
Loren Edwards received his early education in Erie county, Pennsylvania, where he resided until 1865. He attended the Waterford Academy there, supplementing that with a course in the Lawrence University, Wisconsin, and was graduated with the first class in the Law Department of the State University at Madison, after which he studied law for a time in the office of Gregory & Pinney in Madison. In 1871 he removed to Sacra- mento, Cal., and practiced law there for two years, then came to Eau Claire and practiced until 1878, thenee to Milwaukee, where he continued until 1881, and from that date until 1886 he prac- ticed in Allegany county, New York. Ile went from there to Kansas, where he practiced for ten years and in the meantime served as County Judge of Barber county. In 1896 he moved to Oconomowoc where he has since resided, and enjoys a lucrative business. He was admitted to practice in the Supreme courts of Wisconsin, California, New York and Kansas, and to the United States Circuit courts in Wisconsin. With the exception of his partnership relations with Mr. Stillman, of Eau Claire, and with Mr. Westover, in Oconomowoc, he has practiced alone, and while in Eau Claire he held the office of District Attorney, and for some time was Municipal Judge of the Western Distriet of Waukesha county, this state. He served in the United States Navy during the civil war, and is a bachelor, a Mason and a republican.
Andrew Judson Sutherland, one of the well known lawyers of Eau Claire, is a native son of Wisconsin, having been born in London, Dane county, this state, April 28, 1856. His parents, Andrew and Catherine (MeVicar) Sutherland, who were natives of New Brunswick, Canada, settled in Eau Claire county in 1856, the same year our subject was born, and located in the town of
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Union, where the father purchased 240 acres of wild land, which he cleared and improved, making one of the banner farms of the township. Ile lived to the ripe age of 87 years, and died in 1909. His widow, mother of our subject, is now (1914) still living at the age of 90 years. They reared a family of nine children as follows: Christinia, married Angus McVicar; Peter, George, Charles, John, Andrew J., Flora M. (became the wife of Austin H. Langdell), Margaret and Neal Sutherland.
Mr. Sutherland was reared on the homestead farm, spending his boyhood days in much the same way as do most farmer boys, attending the district school and assisting in the farm work. Deciding to enter upon the career of a lawyer, he entered the law department of the State University, at Madison, and was graduated with the class of 1884. Soon after his graduation lie opened an office in Eau Claire for the practice of his profession, in which he has since successfully continued.
On November 30, 1884, Mr. Sutherland married Mary Brown, daughter of Henry and - - (Baker) Brown, of Cambia county, Pennsylvania, and has four children, Mary Elsie, wife of Rollen Alcott; Laura Edith, Bessie Irene and Judson Clair. Mr. Suther- land is a member of the First Baptist Church, of which his mother is the only survivor of the original members. Politically Mr. Sutherland is a democrat. Ile was a candidate for Congress on the democratic ticket in 1914 for the tenth district.
LaFayette M. Sturdevant, attorney-at-law, Eau Claire, Wis., was born in Warren county, Pennsylvania, September 17, 1856. His parents, Hiram N. and Sarah A. (Reed) Sturdevant, were both natives of the Keystone state and of Holland Dutch descent. In 1865 they came to Wisconsin and settled in Clark county, where the father purchased a 120-aere tract of land, to which he subsequently added 80 more acres, all of which he cleared and improved with substantial buildings and the land brought to a good state of cultivation. Here he made his home until his death in 1888 at the age of sixty-seven years. He reared a family of six children as follows: LaFayette M., Mary, wife of Amenzo Verbeck; James E., Arthur H., Fred F., and Almeda.
LaFayette M. was reared on the farm from the age of nine years, and grew to manhood in Clark county, receiving his educa- tion in the public schools, and taught school five terms in that county. At the age of 20, in 1876, he began the study of law in the office of his cousin, J. R. Sturdevant, at Neillsville, Wis., and was admitted to the bar in 1878, when he at once began the prac- tice of his profession with L. A. Doolittle under the firm name of
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