USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee from its first settlement to the year 1895 > Part 82
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HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
organizers of the West Side Bank, in 1894, and is now one of the directors of that bank.
Genial in manner, frank and outspoken, and as fond of all kinds of sports now as in his college days, Mr. Killilea has a peculiarly happy faculty of making and retaining friends among all classes of people, and at thirty-two years of age his pro- fessional, social and political future may be said to be full of promise.
He was married, in 1888, to Miss Louise M. Meinderman, who was born in Michigan, and was graduated from the University of Michigan in the class of 1888.
GERRY W. HAZELTON came to the bar of Milwaukee in 1875, as United States District At- torney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Of mingled English and Scotch extraction, the ancestors of Mr. Hazelton were among the early settlers of New Hampshire, and his father, grand- father, and great grand father were nativos of the town of Chester, where he was born in 1829. His father, William Hazelton, was a merchant of Chester, and his mother was Miss Mercy J. Cochrane, of New Boston, New Hampshire, be- fore her marriage.
Gerry Whiting Hazelton spent his boyhood in Chester, attending first the common schools of that town, and later the academy at Derry, New Hampshire. He was also for a time a pupil of Prof. Crosby, a well-known educator of Nashua, New Hampshire. In 1848 he went to Amster- dam, New York, where he began the study of law with his uncle, Hon. Clark B. Cochrane, one of the leading lawyers of New York state, who at a later date served with distinction in Congress. While reading law Mr. Hazelton continued his classical studies under private tutorship, and ac- quired an education which admirably fitted him for the profession in which he has since been so eminently successful.
Admitted to the bar in 1852, he shortly after- ward formed a partnership with Hon. S. P. Heath, of Amsterdam, where he was engaged in practice until 1856, when he came to Wisconsin. Prior to his coming West, in 1855, he was married to Miss Martha L. Squire, of Amsterdam, New York. Upon his arrival here he located in Colum- bus, and soon became well and favorably known as a member of the bar of Columbia county, and prominent also as a participant in the important
political discussions and movements of the period immediately preceding the war.
In 1860 he was elected to the state senate, to take rank at once as one of the able and sagacious members of that body. When the senate was or- ganized he was chosen president pro tem, and be- ing re-elected to the same office at the extra ses- sion following the death of Gov. Harvey, became ex-officio lieutenant governor of the state. He served also during the first session as a member of the Judiciary Committee and as chairman of the Committee on Benevolent Institutions. Dur- ing the second regular session of the legislature he held the chairmanship of the Senate Commit- tee on Federal Relations and again served as pres- ident pro tem. At the end of his legislative term which had covered the greater part of the war period, and had made him a participant in formu- lating much of the important legislation rendered necessary by the exigencies of war, he declined re-election to the senate and returned to the prac- tice of law. In 1864 he was elected prosecuting attorney for Columbia county, and while holding this position he was tendered and accepted the po- sition of collector of internal revenue for the second collection district of Wisconsin. The fact that he was a government official did not, however, prevent him from criticizing the erratic recon- struction policy of President Andrew Johnson, and as a result he was removed from the office of internal revenue collector, after serving something less than a year.
In 1869 he was appointed United States Dis- triet Attorney for the. District of Wisconsin- which then included the entire state-and served in this capacity until January of 1871, when he resigned his office to become a member of the Forty-second Congress. He was elected to Con- gress in 1870 from the Second District, then com- posed of Columbia, Rock, Dane and Jefferson counties.
As a member of the National House of Repre- sentatives his record was alike creditable to himself and his constituency, and the portion of the state which he represented has had no more able repre- sentative in Congress and none more watch- fnl of the interests of the people of that section of the commonwealth. In 1872 he brought forward a matter in which the peo- ple of the Fox river and Wisconsin river districts were deeply interested, and sought to
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secure government aid in the improvement of those streams, supporting the project in a speech which attracted at the time much attention. He also interested himself actively during the sessions of that congress in the effort made to secure the repeal of the National bankrupt law of that era, which as then administered he believed to be in- imical to the interests of both the creditor and debtor classes. He introduced a bill repealing the law which passed the house by more than a two-thirds vote but failed of passage in the senate. The agitation of the matter at that time, had however, the effect of bringing about later a modification of the law with a material reduc- tion of the fees and costs incident to its admin- istration.
In the reapportionment of the state into Congres- sional districts following the census of 1870, Sauk county was substituted for Rock county in the second district. In this district Mr. Hazelton was renominated by acclamation and was elected to the Forty-third Congress by a majority which demonstrated that his services had been eminently satisfactory to his constituency. While serving in this Congress he acquired special prominence as a member of the House Committee on Elections. In dealing with two contested election cases which came to the House from West Virginia, Mr. Hazel- ton differed from the chairman and a majority of the committee concerning certain questions of law involved in the contests, and submitted a minority report signed only by himself and one other mem- ber of the committee. The discussion of the re- ports was participated in by the ablest lawyers of the House of Representatives, and the position taken by Mr. Hazleton was sustained by a large majority when a vote was reached. As a member of this committee he also caused the House to take cognizance for the first time of the fact that the sitting in that body of a polygamous mormon delegate from Utah territory was a matter which should receive attention and consideration at its hands. He offered and secured the adoption of a resolution instructing the Committee on Elections to inquire into the case of George Q. Cannon who had openly and defiantly upheld the system of polygamy, and although action under the resolu- tion was postponed and its purpose defeated, it had the effect of stimulating Congress in the action which has finally resulted in the practical extinction of polygamous marriages in the territo-
ries of the United States. Mr. Hazelton's efforts to improve transportation facilities between the East and West, his bill to reduce the number of hours of labor for street railway employes in the District of Columbia, and other measures which he proposed and supported also attracted marked attention, and caused him to be recognized as an able, conscientious and influential legislator. At the close of his second term in Congress he re- sumed the practice of law, but was not allowed to remain long in private life. Without soliciting the distinction, he was tendered the position of United States District Attorney for the eastern district of Wisconsin, by President Grant, and accepting the office he removed to Milwaukee and entered upon the discharge of his official duties in August of 1875. Through successive reappoint- ments he held this office until 1885, when he re- tired to make way for a Democratic successor appointed by President Cleveland. Since that time he has held no public office and has given his entire time and attention to the practice of law, from which he never allowed himself to be entirely divorced while in public life. He came to the bar of Milwaukee with an untarnished record as a public man and an enviable reputation as a lawyer of high character and ability, and nearly twenty years of active practice in this city, has served to increase the respect and esteem entertained for him both by the bar and the general public. An able and eloquent advocate he has been conspicu- ous in all parts of the state also as a public speaker on political issues and other themes of public mo- ment. At the laying of the corner stone of the Exposition building he was selected to deliver the address on behalf of the directors, and also deliv- ered notable addresses on the occasion of the Gar- field Memorial ceremonies in this city, at the unveiling of the Washington statue, and at the centenary celebration of 1889.
W. C. WILLIAMS. "The jurisdiction of the court of the state in which an indictment is found is not impaired by the manner in which the accused is brought before it." This was the im- portant principle laid down by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of "Cook, appel- lant, vs. Hart, sheriff," an action which attracted much attention among the legal fraternity three years ago, and the outcome of which was a pro- fessional triumph for W. C. Williams, one of the leading members of the Milwaukee bar. Cook
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was a banker at Juneau, Dodge county, Wis- on the other side. Koetting was the cashier of consin, who was charged with having violated the the wrecked South Side Savings Bank of Mil- statutes by receiving a deposit knowing that his waukee. lIc had left the city the night before its doors were closed, and was subsequently brought back from Denver on a requisition. Several indictments against him had been returned by the grand jury which was then in session. He was held in ten thousand dollars bail, which he furnished on the night of his arrival, and was im- mediately rearrested on another complaint, his bail being fixed at five thousand dollars. This also was furnished, after which he again left the city, going to New Mexico, where he was followed by a deputy sheriff with one of his bondsmen, who induced him to come back. His trial, which occurred after several continuances, took place in January, 1894, lasting two weeks. District At- torney Hammel had charged him with receiving money at the South Side Savings Bank on deposit and for safe keeping when he ought to have known that the bank was insolvent. Judge Clementson presided, an affidavit of prejudice having been filed against Judge Wallber. Ex- Congressman R. M. La Follette had been engaged to assist the prosecution. The defense was con- ducted by Mr. Williams. Koetting was found guilty and sentenced to five years in the peniten- tiary. But Mr. Williams, who from the first had made a determined fight for his client, carried the case up to the Supreme Court on a writ of error, and secured an order for a new trial, on the ground that there had been no evidence to sustain the verdict. While the complaint alleged that the defendant had received the money on deposit and for safe keeping, the testimony adduced at the trial had shown merely that it was a general deposit, and there was, therefore, no evidence warranting conviction. Other indictments which had been found against the prisoner having been made on the same ground, they all went down under this decision. In December the district attorney filed a new information. There was a continuance of legal skirmishing until May, 1895, when Koetting, of his own will, against the advice of his attorneys, and in their absence, went before the court and pleaded guilty, and was sen- tenced to imprisonment at Waupun for five years. bank was insolvent. Mr. Williams was engaged to assist District Attorney Lewis, of Dodge county, in the prosecution of the case. Cook was arrested in Chicago on a requisition from the Governor of Wisconsin. He secured counsel and made a desperate struggle to avoid being brought home for trial. There was a technical contest in a state court at Chicago, resulting in an order by Judge Baker turning him over to the sheriff of Dodge county. The case before Judge Baker had been dragging for several months, and the prose- eution knew that as soon as it was decided there would be a race to get out a writ of habeas corpus in the United States court. Mr. Williams was on the ground with the sheriff, and by his direction Cook was promptly placed in a carriage, in charge of the sheriff, who was told to drive as hard as he could and get his prisoner into Wisconsin. Cook's attorneys had not been idle. The carriage had barely started when a United States deputy mar- shal with a writ of habeas corpus appeared. Then followed an exciting chase, which would probably have resulted in favor of the prisoner had not a bridge opened just after the sheriff's carriage had passed over, which held the pursuing deputy long enough to enable the sheriff with his prisoner to get out of reach. When Cook had been returned to Dodge county and held for trial, his attorneys secured a writ of habeas corpus in the United States Circuit Court in the eastern district of Wis- consin. Judge Jenkins, finding that Cook had been held for trial, sent him back to Dodge county and set a day for a hearing on the writ. When the day came the points at issue were elaborately discussed before Judges Jenkins and Gresham. Both Judges concurred in holding that there was a distinction between bringing a prisoner from a foreign country and bringing him from one state to another, and Cook was remanded to Dodge county for trial. Then his attorneys took an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, setting up the claim that the court at Dodge county had no jurisdiction, because he had been brought before it from another state by force.
In the Cook case the abilities of Mr. Williams were exerted to enforce against an accused banker the penalties of the law. More recently, in the case of John B. Koetting, his services were enlisted
In litigation growing out of the celebrated Mead murder trial in Waupaca county, Mr. Wil- liams bore a prominent part. Ile was attorney for Editor Gordon, who was sned for libel alleged
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to be contained in publications referring to the murder. The libel suit began in 1891, and when the murder trial occurred in the following year, the proceedings against Gordon were dropped. In the perjury case growing out of the trial Mr. Williams was retained for the prosecution, and secured the conviction of the defendant, who was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of seven years.
Mr. Williams was conspicuous in the galaxy of talented counsel who defended Robert Luscombe in July, 1895, when the latter was tried for killing his brother-in-law, Emil Sanger, and acquitted on the ground that the deed was committed in self- defense.
While district attorney of Milwaukee county, an office that he held for two terms, the first of which began in 1880, Mr. Williams won a reputa- tion for vigor and astuteness that made his name a terror to evil-doers. His prosecution of the famous riot cases, growing out of the labor troubles of 1886, was one of the noteworthy events of this period of his career. An episode of these trials was the surprise which he prepared for N. S. Murphey, the leading attorney for the defense. Judge Mallory, of the Municipal Court, had used language in a speech at a banquet of the Merchants' Association which the counsel for the defense construed as an expression of opinion, and on the morning set for the trial they sprang an affi- davit of prejudice and called for a change of venue. This was promptly met by Mr. Williams, who had made the discovery that a law for the Circuit Court applied to the Municipal Court, which per- mitted the calling in of an outside judge. Instead of being taken to another court, as the defendant's counsel desired, the trial proceeded in the Munici- pal Court before Judge Sloan, who was called in for the purpose, the necessary papers having been prepared by Mr. Williams to meet the emergency, which his intuition had led him to foresee and which his knowledge of the statutes had enabled him to provide for. The course which he then pointed out has been followed in similar cases since that time.
This is not a biography. It is merely a sketch. The incidents that have been cited are only a few out of many that might be marshaled to indicate the fertile originality and the brilliant readiness of one of the ablest members of a bar which has become celebrated for able men.
Mr. Williams was born in the town of Darien, Walworth county, Wisconsin, on the 7th day of April, 1852. He received his elementary schooling at that place, and subsequently attended Ripon College, coming in 1870 to Milwaukee where he gained his first acquaintance with the science of law under the tutelage of Senator Matt H. Car- penter, in the office of Carpenter & Murphey. Later he read law in the office of Butler & Wink- ler, and was admitted to the bar in the winter of 1872-3. His first partnership for the practice of his profession was entered into in 1873, the firm name being Williams & Merrill. After the dissc- lution of this firm he practiced alone for a time, and in 1878 became associated with ex-Mayor A. R. R. Butler, in the firm of Butler, Williams & But- ler. Later he formed a partnership with Eugene S. Elliott, under the style of Williams & Elliott. His present partner is Albert B. May, the firm name being Williams & May.
Mr. Williams is a prominent member of the Knights of Pythias, and in 1884 was grand chan- cellor of that order in this state. He has been actively identified with the fraternal insurance organizations. He is a lover of literature, and his scholarly tastes add not a little to the adornment of his forensic style, though his success at the bar is less dependent upon eloquence, in which he has abundant gifts, than upon his wonderful resources of technical knowledge and his marvelous readi- ness in its application. His knowledge of men, and his impassioned, earnest speech, give him enormous power before a jury. Now and then he finds time to appear upon the platform as a lec- turer. His address at Ripon College, in which he expounded the law of Moses as the foundation of all law, was commented upon by competent crit- ics with marked respect. Not as a seeker for office, but as a citizen mindful of the demands of citi- zenship in a republic, Mr. Williams has always taken an active interest in politics. His wide ac- qaintance and his talent for practical management have more than once in state conventions enabled him to make combinations that nobody else could overturn, and the Republicans, with whom he has always worked, recognize him as an influential member of their party. With reference to his private character, it is sufficient to say that a gen- erous disposition and engaging manners are among his noteworthy traits, and that he takes much delight in the society of his family.
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HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE.
ELIAS H. BOTTUM began the practice of law in this city in 1873, and has ever since been one of the most active members of the bar. Ile was born in New Haven, Addison county, Vermont, February 28, 1850, and grew up in a quiet farm- ing community, in the heart of the picturesque Champlain valley. The Bottum family history in America dates back to 1647, when two brothers of that name emigrated from England and settled at Saybrook, Connecticut. For a century or more thereafter, the descendants of these two colonists settled mainly in Connecticut and Massachusetts, but among the first settlers of Vermont was the great-grandfather of Elias H. Bottum, who re- moved from Lanesborough, Massachusetts, to the Green Mountain state, settling at Shaftsbury in Bennington county. One of the grandsons of the Vermont pioneer was Elias S. Bottum, who married Mary M. Hoyt, a highly educated and accomplished woman, daughter of Rev. Otto S. Hoyt, a well-known clergyman of the Congrega- tional Church. A prosperous farmer of the intel- ligent New England type, Elias S. Bottum was the owner of a large tract of land in Addison county, which had been in possession of the fam- ily since 1750. Elias II. Bottum, his son, was born and brought up on this farm, leaving the old homestead for the first time when sent away to fit himself for college.
In early childhood he was not strong physie- ally, and not only was unable to attend school much of the time, but found the solitary reading and study to which he was strongly inclined, dis- couraged by his elders. Notwithstanding the fact that he labored under some disadvantages, he made fair progress in his studies, and the im- proved condition of his health after he was fifteen years of age, enabled him to apply himself so closely that he soon made up for the time lost in his early boyhood. He was fitted for college in Kimball Union Academy, of Meriden, New Hampshire, and then entered Middlebury College at Middlebury, Vermont, from which institution he was graduated in the class of 1871.
Immediately after his graduation he went to New York city and began reading law in the office of Evarts, Southmayd & Choate, the firm being then as now one of the most notable in the United States for the high character and distin- guished ability of the lawyers composing it. The duties of a position which he had obtained in this
office, proved to be too exacting, however, to allow him to devote as much time as he desired to study, and after a short time he went to Washington, D. C., where he obtained a elerkship in the gov- ernment Bureau of Education. While thus em- ploved he continued his law studies in Columbia Law School and took his degree from that insti- tution in 1873. The two years which he spent in Washington were two years of hard work and close application, a consequence of which was that Mr. Bottum found his health somewhat im- paired, immediately after his admission to the bar. For the purpose of regaining his health, and per- haps also with a view to seeking out a place to locate and practice his profession, he planned a trip to the northwest, in the course of which he visited Milwaukee.
Charmed with the place and satisfied with the opportunities which it seemed to offer for the suc- cessful practice of law, he opened an office here and applied himself diligently to the task of establishing himself at the bar. He entered upon the practice, cherishing no illusions of a royal road to success, and prepared to strive assiduously for the favor of courts and clients. In a com- paratively short time he had impressed himself upon the bar and the public, as an earnest, con- scientious, and capable young lawyer, who spared no effort to conduct to a successful issue the liti- gation with which he became identified as coun- sel. In 1878 he entered into a eo-partnership with James G. Flanders-also of New England antecedents-and the professional association thus begun, has continued up to the present time, the large business which they built up being merged into that of the present firm of Winkler, Flanders, Smith, Bottum & Vilas.
In the earlier years of his professional life Mr. Bottum engaged in general practice, and may still be termed a general practitioner in the ordi- nary acceptation of the term, but in later years much of his time and attention have been given to patent cases, which have constituted an important feature of his practice. To this branch of the practice he has given the most careful considera- tion and has taken rank among the able patent lawyers of the Western bar. Ilis methods of practice have been of that character which com- mends them especially to the business public, in- clined always to become impatient with the de- lays and technicalities of the law. Believing it to
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be the duty of a lawyer to relieve his clients as far as possible of the burdens of litigation, and to reach results by the shortest and most direct route, he has been unusually successful in adjust- ing differences and disentangling complications growing out of commercial and other transac- tions. Business matters have been considered by him always from a business, as well as a legal, standpoint, and the aid of courts invoked only to facilitate the adjustment of differences in a busi- ness-like way, the best interests of his client be- ing all the time uppermost in his mind. While manifesting always a willingness to make reason- able concessions rather than engage in prolonged litigation, those opposed to him in legal contro- versies have found him prepared to make stubborn defense of the rights of clients if occasion required, and knowledge of this fact has had much to do with facilitating the settlements of cases which have become notable features of his practice.
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