History of Green County, Wisconsin. Together with sketches of its towns and villages, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 49

Author: Union publishing company, Springfield, Ill., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Springfield, Ill., Union publishing company
Number of Pages: 1168

USA > Wisconsin > Green County > History of Green County, Wisconsin. Together with sketches of its towns and villages, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 49

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As a lawyer appreciating the responsibilities and duties of the profession, no man had a higher regard for its honor or reprobated more earnestly its prostitution to base purposes.

Elected circuit judge in 1856, and holding the office for two years, until impelled to resign on account of the pressure of his own private busi- ness, he carried to the discharge of the impor- tant duties of that office great ability, unwearied industry and honesty and integrity never assailed. In the language of another who knew him well: "He dignified the bench, rather than received dignity from it." The death of Judge Keep was a great loss, not only to the profession, but to the community at large. Cahn, coura_ geous, hopeful and trustful, he died as he lived, confiding in a faith that had never forsaken him, resigned to that Providence in whom was his trust, in the full possession of his mental faculties, vigorous even in death, and meeting the great change with the courage of a philoso- pher and the hope of the Christian. As much as there was in his life to emulate, there is in his death found instruction equally valuable. In religion, Mr. Keep was a Congregationalist, having united with that denomination at the age of sixteen years, and, like it, he was liberal and tolerant respecting the tenets of other denomi-

nations. Ile would tolerate every class of sin- cere professors, and protect them in their ideas of divine worship. In all the relations of life and the connections which he formed with va- rious classes of the people, he preserved un- blemished his Christian character. His chari- ties more than kept pace with his ability, and his pecuniary aid and legal advice were ever at the service of the poor and unfortunate. Per- haps no better perspective of his life and char- acter can be given than is contained in the fol- lowing extract from a letter of recent date, from the pen of Hon. S. J. Todd, of Beloit, a long and intimate friend of Judge Keep: "As long as his health would permit, his life was a very busy one, and, unlike most men of active habits and whose mental processes are rapid, he had the faculty of steady, untiring perseverance. When he began to do anything, he never re- linquished it until he had completed it, or, until it became impossible. This faculty I have usually found to exist only in slow men, which John M. Keep was not. When I first knew him he had been a resident of Beloit for six years. During this time he was engaged in the practice of law and in the purchase and sale of real estate; consequently, a very large number of men in Rock county and the adjoining coun- ties of Boone and Winnebago, Ill., were living upon lands which they held under contract of purchase from him, and very many of these men, I think a majority of them, were always in arrears in the payment of principal and in- terest. He never declared a contract forfeited, and never brought suit against one of these purchasers so long as they stayed upon the land and exhibited a willingness to pay; but, on the other hand, whenever they had been un- fortunate from the loss of crops or sickness, they were sure of substantial sympathy, which did not consist wholly of kind words, and he had the rare faculty of being charitable with- out assuming the air of patronage. These charities were large and manifold, yet they were given with so little ostentation that no

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one, however prond or sensitive he might be, was ever embarrassed or humiliated by receiv- ing aid at his hands; and, more than this, he never spoke of these things. And this reminds me of another peculiarity in his character. He was the most reticent, self-reliant, self-controlled and the bravest man I ever met, without a sin- gle element of fear or diffidence, and, at the same time he was the most truly modest man I have ever known, never exhibiting vanity or egotism, and consequently no man ever heard him exalt or speak boastingly of himself, or what he had done or intended to do. In this regard, he came fully up to Curran's description of Grattan, in his reply to Lord Erskine's ques- tion: 'What does Henry Grattan say of him- self?' 'My lord,' says Curran, 'Henry Grattan never speaks of himself. You could not draw an opinion out of him on that subject with a six-horse team.' Further, as a rule, he never spoke of his enemies nor of his controversies with them. No matter what the gravity or magnitude of their charges or accusations might be, he was too indifferent to them, or too proud, to condescend to make any reply or ex- planation. The consequence was that he some- times suffered in the public's estimation, and his best friends were often embarrassed by the contemptnous silence with which he treated the ground of the accusations. It is hardly neces- sary to speak of him as a judge, a position he filled with such eminent ability. As I remem- ber him, he nearly realized my idea of a circuit judge. There, as elsewhere, he was composed, patient and impartial, always easy of approach by every one, quick in his perception of every case presented for his decision, and never too proud to re-consider his own decisions when he found that he was in the wrong. He died with the same steady composure that characterized him through life, thoughtful and considerate of those about him, until his last moment of life, when he closed his eyes in death

That Mr. Keep had enemies, no one is asked to doubt. All public men must have them, and the greater the man, the more bitter and power- ful his enemies, as a rule. The collision of claims and the collision of interests, an ardent zeal on one side or the other of the question, political antagonisms-all conspire to create opposition, denunciation and ill-will. He was not one of those who feared to do anything lest he might do something wrong. He acted from principle, and when fully persuaded of the correctness of his position, never wavered or faltered in his course. If difficulties in- creased, his energy and resolution increased with them. If the circle of his confidential friends was contracted, it was not because he discarded friendships when they ceased to be profitable, but because he was reticent and self- engaged. Ile was never very compromising or conciliatory in his deportment. There was austerity as well as frankness in his manner that sometimes made him bitter opponents, but he had the happy faculty of retaining through life a host of warm friends, whose ardent love was proof of his private worth-more honorable to his character than even the prominence of his great abilities.

As a writer, he was clear, terse and didactic. His great endowments of disciplined thought imparted to his hastiest compositions elaborate force and the grace of perfection. Bold in his propositions, clear in his statements, rapid in execution, complete in demonstration, he was inexorable in his conclusions. Grant him his premises, and the result was as inevitable as fate. He did not fatigue himself with delicate metaphysical abstractions, nor bewilder his mind with speculative theories, but like an ar- row impelled by a vigorous power, he shot di- rectly to the mark. In all his qualifications as a judge, it may be said without questioning, that he had few equals, and no superior in the State. The dignity of the circuit court, while he presided over it, is still spoken of as a model of excellence, and his judicial opinions have

'Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him Anti lies down to pleasant dreams '"

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established for him the reputation of an able lawyer.

As a public speaker, he was direct and logical, addressing himself to the reason and under- standing, rather than to the passions and pre- judices of men, and his conversational powers, when interested, were of the highest order. Before a deliberative body he was a man of great influence, but he was too much of a mat- ter-of-fact man to indulge in popular harangues. Ilis early political preference and party associa- tions were with the whigs, and later, with the republican party; but he displayed at all times great independence and high-mindedness, never yielding his own deliberate judgment to popu- lar applause, or sacrificing his own convictions to the prevailing sentiments of the day, nor was he ever a candidate for any political office.

During his last days the excitement growing out of the disloyal and belligerent position of the Sonthern States became more and more in- tense, yet, notwithstanding his enfeebled con- dition, he watched with unusual interest all the proceedings in Congress until his feelings were roused with all the ardor of intense patriotism, and he frequently expressed a great desire to be restored to health, that he might participate in the impending struggle on the part of the Union.

In person, Mr. Keep was tall, erect and rather slender; his manner dignified and graceful; his eyes large, black and penetrating, and his whole countenance expressive of great energy and de- termination. . Ilis speech was pleasant, and all his motions seemed to partake of the increasing activity of his mind, and the most casual glance upon him in action or repose never failed to im- press the beholder with an instinctive sense of his superiority.

He was married in 1839 to Cornelia A. Reyn- olds, daughter of John A. Reynolds, of West- field, N. Y , a lady of rare culture and Christian virtues, who still survives him.

In the family circle, the place of all others to test genuine worth, Mr. Keep was tender and

affectionate, very anxious for the welfare of his children, and particularly solicitous about their education.

He left four children, two sons and two daughters. He died on the 2d of March, 1861, aged forty-eight years, and, although but in middle life, few men have left such a record of private worth and public usefulness.

His death was a very remarkable one. In fact, death in its nsnal form never came near him. As said by Judge Conger, his end was indeed that of a philosopher, and his death the death of a Christian.

For two years, his strength wasted gradually until he had not sufficient left to draw a breath, and so he ceased to breathe. The morning ou which he died he was dressed and occupied his easy chair, on which he had reposed during his sickness, looked over some papers from his safe, gave directions in regard to their disposition, conversed with his friends and neighbors, and the several members of his family separately, taking affectionate leave of each, but still, though his pulse had long ceased to beat, he was not ready to go, for he was waiting the ex- pected arrival of his sister from Janesville, Mrs. Graham, who had been summoned to his side, and looking at his watch and noting the time of the arriving of the cars, he remarked, "I fear she has not come ;" but watching the window, in a moment he said, "Indeed she has come." After a few minutes conversation with his sister, he said, "I am now ready to depart," and

"Death broke at once the vital chain And freed his soul the nearest way."

This brief sketch of John M. Keep will be barely sufficient to give the reader a bird's-eye view of the excellency of his life, but the more secret and minute peculiarities which most en- dear him to his friends, can never be known, save to those whose personal relations to him were such as to enable them to form adequate estimates of his private virtues.

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His chief qualities of natural greatness were moral courage, great energy, ready decision and an indomitable will. Few men possess these qualities in so remarkable a degree as John M. Keep, because few men are so profusely en- dowed with the omnipotence of genius. Sys- tematic in the employment of his time, he was capable of doing rapidly and well what most persons could not perform withont much time and labor. Bred to the bar, his mind was too original and of too broad a cast to be bound by those narrow and confined views which find the mere lawyer to former precedents and adjudged cases; he combined the more noble properties of justice with legal adjudications commingling the principles of equity with legal rule, thus mitigating the too oft severity of legal des- potism.

David Noggle.

The subject of this sketch was born in Frank- lin, Penn., on the 9th of October, 1809. His father belonged to that class known as Pennsyl- vania Dutch; and his mother was of Irish descent. At the age of sixteen, he came to Greenfield, Ohio, and with his father, engaged in agricultural pursuits. The hardships which he experienced at this period, disciplined him for the struggles of after life. His educational advantages were limited. A few weeks only in the winter of each year were spent at the district sehool, where he manifested a taste for intellectual pursuits, and, at the age of twelve, he expressed a desire to reach the legal profes- sion, but, because of the limited means of his parents, he received but little encouragement. At the age of nineteen, the young man started in search of more remunerative employment, in which he succeeded. In 1833, he returned to Ohio, to his father, who was embarrassed be- cause of debt; whereupon he and his brother took the land and relieved their father of further anxiety. In 1834, they improved a water power on the farm, by building a mill, which proved a grand success. On the 13th of Octo- ber, 1835, David was married to Aun M. Lewis,

of Milan, Ohio. Abont a year afterward, they started with ox teams for Winnebago Co., Ill., where they settled.

The new farm of the young married couple began to show marks of improvement, while at the same time the husband was looking forward with hopes of entering the legal profession. It is said that, during these days "he studied Blackstone in the cornfield," which is literally true ; and, in 1838, he was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Illinois-he never hav- ing spent a day in a law office.

In 1839, Mr. Noggle sold his land claim and moved into Beloit, where he opened an office and fully entered upon the practice of the law, doing business in Winnebago and Boone counties; Illinois, and in Rock, Walworth, Jef- ferson and Green, in the Territory of Wiscon- sin. His efforts in court proved him to be a man of power. In 1846, he was a member of the constitutional convention of Wisconsin ; and, though young and inexperienced in legislation, was soon recognized among the leaders of that body. He stood with the progressive elements of the convention in favor of homestead ex- emption, elective judiciary, the rights of mar- ried women, and opposed to banks and banking. In 1854, he was a member of the legislature of Wisconsin from the Janesville district, having some years before removed from Beloit to that place ; he at once took a promi- nent and leading position in the legislature.

In 1856, Mr. Noggle was again elected to the legislature, and was tendered the speakership of the assembly by more than a majority of that body, but being compelled, from temporary lameness to go on crutches, which would greatly inconvenience him in discharging the duties of a presiding officer, he declined the offer. He was emphatically the leader of the House in this legislature, and in the contest for the election of United States senator, in which JJ. R. Doo- little was first chosen.

Subsequently the subject of this sketch was judge of the first judicial district of Wis-

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consin, composed of the connties of Kenosha, Racine, Walworth, Rock and Green. He dis- charged his duties as judge with great accept- ability. After he retired from the bench, he moved to Prairie du Chien and practiced law in Crawford county two years, at the end of which time, he moved back to Janesville, and was soon after appointed United States district judge of the Territory of Idaho. His health failed under the exposure of frontier life and the duties of his office, and he resigned, and returned to Janesville, but he never rallied, and died with softening of the brain a year or two after coming back to Wisconsin. Judge Noggle possessed a large and powerful physique and a massive brain ; and, although he had but a limited literary education, he was a brilliant orator and a very able advocate. He was a man of strong impulses and decided convic- tions, and hence was a steadfast friend and a bitter enemy.

William Penn Lyon.

William Penn Lyon, of Madison, was born Oct. 28, 1822, at Chatham, Columbia Co., N. Y. IIis parents were members of the religious Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, and he was brought up in that faith and still clings to its cardinal doctrines. He attended an ordinary country district school until eleven years of age, when he was taken from school and placed as clerk in a small store kept by his father in his native town. After this he attended select schools at intervals, a few terms, amounting in all to abont one year. These were the only school advantages he ever enjoyed. But with these, and a reasonable use of his leisure time, he acquired, for those days a fair English edu- cation, including a limited knowledge of alge- bra, geometry, Latin and natural philosophy. At the age of fifteen years he taught a district school with indifferent success in his own esti- mation. He freely admits that school teaching was not his forte. From fifteen to eighteen years of age he was mainly employed as a elerk in a grocery store in the city of Albany. Dur-

ing that time he spent most of his leisure hours in attendance upon the courts and the legisla- ture-his tastes leading him strongly, in those directions-and eagerly listened to arguments and speeches made by such men as Erastus Root, Samuel Young, Judge Peckham, Judge Harris, Ambrose L. Jordan, and numerous oth- ers whose names have since become famous. Ile was always greatly impressed with the can- dor, dignity and impartiality of Luther Bradish, then the lieutenant-governor of the State and president of the Senate.

In 1841, when in his nineteenth year, he emi- grated with his father and family to Wisconsin, and settled in what is now the town of Lyons, Wałworth county, where he resided until 1850. With the exception of two terms of school teaching he worked on a farm until the spring of 1844, when he entered the office of the late

Judge George Gale, then a practicing lawyer at Elkhorn, as a law student. But before this he had read Blackstone's and Kent's commentaries quite thoroughly. He remained a few months with Judge Gale, but returned home to work through harvest. He was soon after attacked with acute inflamation of the eyes, and was there- by incapacitated to read or teach for nearly a year. That year he worked on the mill at Lyons, then in process of erection, and in the races leading to and from the same, at $12 per month, earn- ing $100. In the fall of 1845 he entered the law office of the late Judge Charles M. Baker, at Geneva, as a student, and remained there until the spring of 1846, when he was admitted by the district court of Walworth county as an attorney. Having been chosen one of the justices of the peace of the town of Hudson, now Lyons, he at once opened an office at the village of Lyons, and commenced the practice of the law, but in a very small way. His receipts for professional and official business the first year were $60, the second $180, the third $400, and fourth $500. Ilis income had increased so largely that during the second year, which was 1847, he married and thus became

----

W.b. Green

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the head of a family. But rent, fael and pro- visions were cheaper in those days than they now are, and his income proved quite ample for their support.

In 1850 he formed a partnership with the late C. P. Barnes, of Burlington, in Racine county, and removed to that place where he remained un- til the spring of 1855, when he removed to the city of Racine, where he continued in the active practice of his profession until the breaking out of the war in 1861. He was district attor- ney of Racine county from 1855 to 1858 inclu- sive. He was chosen a member of the Lower House of the Wisconsin legislature of 1859, and was made speaker. It is a very unusual pro- ceeding for one who has never been a member of a legislative body to be thus called to the delicate duties of presiding officer, but in this case the choice was abundantly justitied by the conspicuously capable manner in which the du- ties were discharged. He was re-elected a member of the assembly the following year, and was again chosen speaker without a con- test in the caucus of republican members. In retired from his second term in that position at the age of thirty-eight, with the warm friend- ship of the members withont distinction of party, with an enviable reputation throughout the State, and with the promise, which has been fully realized of a useful and honorable public career.

Judge Lyon is peculiarly one for whom the "pomp, pride and circumstances of glorious war" could have had no seductions; but when the call of patriotic duty reached him, it fell upon no dull ear. One hundred splendid citizen soldiers enlisted under him, and he was com- missioned captain of company K, of the 8th Wisconsin Infantry. Entering the military service in September, 1861, he remained therein four years, having been, at the elose of the war, mustered out in Texas in September, 1865. He had served one year as captain of company K, 8th Wisconsin, and the remainder of the time as colonel of the 13th Wisconsin, and at the

close of the war was breveted a brigadier- general. His military career, he thinks, was not particularly brilliant, but he claims to have discharged his duty with reasonable fidelity.

In the summer following the close of the war there was a splendid pageant at Madison, on the occasion of the formal presentation to the State of the battle flags of the several regiments that Wisconsin had sent into the field. Gen. Lyon was chosen to deliver the address, and pro- nounced an oration of impressive eloquence.

Before Gen. Lyon had been mustered out of the military service he was chosen judge of the first judicial circuit, comprising the counties of Racine, Kenosha, Walworth, Rock and Green. He entered upon the duties of that position on Dec. 5, 1865, and served for five years with a degree of ability that won unqualified com- mendation from all. In 1870 he was made the repni lican candidate for Congress in the fourth district of Wisconsin, but was defeated at the polls by Alexander Mitchell.

The death of Byron Paine having created a vacancy on the bench of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin in January, 1871, Judge Lyon was appointed by Gov. Fairchild associate justice, he having continued to exercise jurisdiction over the first circuit after its Territorial limits had been changed until this time. In the April following he was elected for the unexpired term, and for the full term succeeding. In 1877 he was re-elected, without opposition, for a term which expired in 1884, and is now serv- ing on his third full term. The people of Wis- consin have been almost uniformly happy in the constitution of their highest judicial tribunal. And there have been none more deserving of confidence than he who now sits as senior asso- ciate justice. His knowledge of law is thorough and his instinet of equity perfect, his mind has an equipoise that the scales of the blindfolded goddess cannot surpass, and his integrity is such as to class him with those into whose presence corruptionists dare not venture.

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His wife is Adelia C., daughter of the late Dr. E. E. Dnncomb, of St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. They have two surviving children- Clara, born in 1857, and William Penn, Jr., born in 1861.

Harmon S. Conger,

formerly judge of the twelfth judicial circuit, was born in Cortland Co., N. Y., where he read and practiced law until he came to Janesville, in 1855. While a resident of Cortland county he took a lively interest in political affairs, and while pursuing his legal studies he purchased the Cortland County Whig, which he edited with ability and earnestness for six years; at the expiration of this period the young editor sold it out and gave his entire time and energies to his profession. Shortly after his admission to the bar, much to his surprise, he was nominated to Congress by the whig convention in 1846. Owing to the political complexion of the dis triet, many believed that the nomination was only an empty honor; but, contrary to general expectation, Mr. Conger was elected to the 30th Congress, and was re-elected in 1848, although his opponent was his old preceptor, and one of the ablest and most popular men in the district. After serving two terms in Congress he gave his undivided attention to his profession, allow- ing nothing to divert him from the pursuit of his life. After twenty-five years' experience as an attorney, a ripe scholar, a well trained law- yer, an honest man, he was elected judge of this circuit in 1870; re-elected in 1876.

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History of Green County, Wisconsin. Together with sketches of its towns and villages, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 49

Author: Union publishing company, Springfield, Ill., pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Springfield, Ill., Union publishing company Number of Pages: 1168

Author: Union publishing company, Springfield, Ill., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Springfield, Ill., Union publishing company
Number of Pages: 1168