USA > Wisconsin > History of the bench and bar of Wisconsin, Vol. I > Part 16
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William Penn Lyon, formerly a justice and then chief justice of the supreme court, is the son of Isaac and Eunice (Coffin) Lyon. He was born in Chatham, Columbia county, New York, on the 28th day of October, 1822. His parents were members of the religious society of Friends (Quakers); he was brought up in that faith and still clings to its cardinal doctrines.
William attended the ordinary country district schools until eleven years of age, when he was placed as clerk in a small store kept by his father in his native town. Subsequently he attended select schools at different times, amounting in all to about one year. These were the only advantages of instruction ever enjoyed by him. But with these and a reasonable use of his leisure hours, he acquired a fair English education, including a limited knowledge of algebra, geometry and natural philosophy. He also gave some time to the Latin language. At the early age of fifteen he taught a district school; but he did not take kindly to this employment, so he engaged as clerk in a grocery store in the city of Albany, where he remained until eighteen years of age. While there he spent most of his time outside business hours in attend- ance upon the courts and the legislature, when in session, his tastes leading him strongly in those directions.
In 1841 he, then in his nineteenth year, emigrated with his father and family to Wisconsin, and settled in what is now the town of Lyons, Walworth 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 Commentaries, as well as those of Kent, quite thor- oughly. He remained a few months with his preceptor when he re- turned home to work through harvest. He was soon after attacked with acute inflammation of the eyes and was, in consequence, unable to read or teach for nearly a year. That year he worked on a mill then being
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built in Lyons at $12 a month, earning $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 ad- mitted to the bar by the district court of Walworth county.
Having been chosen one of the justices of the peace of the town of Hudson (now Lyons), he at once opened an office there and commenced the practice of law, but in a very small way. His receipts for profes- sional and official business the first year were $60; the second year, $180; the third year, $400, and the fifth year, $500. During the second year (1847) his income had increased so much as, in his opinion, to justify his getting married, the partner of his choice being Adelia C., daughter of the late Dr. E. E. Duncombe, of St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. Rent and fuel and provisions in those days were cheaper than they now are, and his income proved ample for their support.
In 1850 Mr. Lyon formed a partnership with the late C. P. Barnes, of Burlington, Racine county, and moved to that place, where he re- mained until the spring of 1855. when he changed his residence to the city of Racine, where he continued in active practice of the law until the breaking out of the war in 1861. He was district attorney of Ra- cine county from 1855 to 1858, inclusive. He was chosen a member of the lower house of the Wisconsin legislature of 1859, and was made speaker. It is a very unusual proceeding in a deliberative body of that high character to call one to the delicate and onerous duties of presid- ing officer who has not previously been a member of the legislature; but in the case of Mr. Lyon the choice was abundantly justified by the capable manner in which the duties were discharged. . He was re-elected a member of the assembly the following year, and was again chosen speaker, without a contest having been made in the caucus of republican members for nomination (Mr. Lyon belonging to that political party). He retired from his second term in the legislature, at the age of thirty- eight, with the warm friendship of the members without distinction of party, with an enviable reputation throughout Wisconsin, and with the promise (which it will soon be seen has been fully realized) of an hon- orable and useful public career.
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When the attack upon Fort Sumter aroused the north to arms, Mr. Lyon did not let his religious scruples interfere with his duty to his country. One hundred brave and determined citizens enlisted under him, and he was commissioned captain of Company K, of the eighth Wisconsin infantry, to rank from the 7th of August, 1861. The regi- ment to which Captain Lyon and his company were attached was or- ganized on the 4th of September, 1861, with Robert C. Murphy, of St. Croix Falls, as its colonel. It left Madison on the 12th of October, and arrived in St. Louis on the evening of the next day. This was the famous "Eagle" regiment, so called from the circumstance of its having with it a live eagle-"Old Abe." It reached Benton barracks nine hun- dred and eighty-six strong. The day after its arrival it marched against the enemy. By the 12th of October the boys were in pursuit of "Jef- ferson Thompson," and on the 21st were near Greenville, when a des- perate fight ensued. "The battle," afterward wrote Major Jefferson, of the eighth, "lasted one hour and a half, and I think it was one of the most brilliant and complete victories we have had during this war." Captain Lyon took an active part in this, the first conflict in which his regiment engaged.
After various duties having been performed by it, the eighth regi- ment on the 9th of May, was at Farmington, when twenty thousand of the enemy came out to attack General Pope's much smaller force. A portion of the eighth was posted in front under Major Jefferson, and soon deployed as skirmishers, only to fall back when the confederates advanced in force. The regiment, for an hour, withstood the artillery fire of the foe without support. As the enemy outnumbered the federals, and General Halleck did not wish to bring on a battle, the national troops retired to the next line in the rear, and that terminated the action.
After other important service, the regiment to which Captain Lyon belonged went into summer quarters at camp "Clear Creek," nine miles south of Corinth. On the 5th of August, while in the hospital of Iuka, Mississippi, the captain was promoted to the colonelcy of the thirteenth Wisconsin regiment. He subsequently returned home for a brief
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period, and after being mustered in as commander of the regiment just named joined it in October, 1862, at Fort Henry.
On the last of October Colonel Lyon, with his regiment, embarked on steamers and proceeded to Shoditz Landing, on the Tennessee, where they joined the force under command of General T. E. G. Ran- som, marching thence to Hopkinsville, to attack the confederate troops under General Morgan; but no enemy could be found. However, on the evening of the 6th of November they came up with the foe, com- manded by Woodward, near Garrettsburg. After a short but severe and decisive skirmish the enemy escaped under cover of the darkness, leaving several killed and wounded on the field. Subsequently Colonel Lyon with his command returned to Fort Henry. From the 21st of De- cember to the end of that year the regiment pursued Forrest, but re- turned to Fort Henry January 1, 1863. On the 3d day of February, at four in the afternoon, information was received that Fort Donelson was attacked. In half an hour Colonel Lyon had his regiment on the road, marching to reinforce the eighty-third Illinois at that important point. After driving the enemy's skirmishers five miles they arrived in the vicinity of the fort at ten in the evening, with a loss of one man wounded on the march. Meanwhile the garrison of Fort Donelson, as- sisted by the gunboats, had repulsed the confederates with severe loss- had in fact gained a signal victory.
During the spring and summer of 1863 Colonel Lyon's men were sent out by him on scouting duty, taking many prisoners and prevent- ing the formation of any considerable force of guerrillas.
Participating in the forward movement of the army of the Cumber- land, the thirteenth regiment left Fort Donelson on the 27th of August, reaching Stephenson, Alabama, on the 14th of September. Colonel Lyon was placed in command of that post. This was a point of consid- erable importance, being the depot of supplies for the whole army. The garrison was very small, provided with but little artillery, and the place was easily accessible to the cavalry of General Bragg. However, relief came in the beginning of October by the arrival of the eleventh and
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twelfth corps under command of Major General Hooker from the army of the Potomac.
On the evening of the 26th of October, 1863, Colonel Lyon left Stephenson with his regiment to join the brigade to which it was at- tached, and went into winter quarters at Edgefield, on the Cumberland opposite Nashville, where they were employed at picket and guard duty. However, three-fourths of their number having "veteraned," the regiment left for Wisconsin on furlough, where Colonel Lyon remained five weeks and then returned to Nashville. Again, in the latter part of April, the thirteenth regiment was ordered to Stephenson and Colonel Lyon the second time placed in command of that post. In the reorgan- ization of the army, in 1863-64, Colonel Lyon's regiment was assigned to the first brigade, fourth division of the twentieth army corps. He left Stephenson on the 6th of June and for nearly three months had his headquarters at Claysville, Alabama, guarding during that time various fords and crossings of the Tennessee river. Late in August he was ordered to Huntsville, where he arrived on the 3d of September, and was placed in charge of the railroad from Claysville to Stephenson, and was responsible for the preservation of the posts and lines of communica- tion within his charge. Besides his own regiment he had under him several detachments of infantry, three large regiments of cavalry (a portion of which were dismounted and used as infantry), and a battery of artillery.
On the 7th of July of that year the thirteenth regiment, now a part of the third brigade, of the third division of the fourth army corps, left the Mississippi river for Texas, going afterward to camp at Green Lake on the 16th of July. Here on the IIth of September, 1865, Colonel Lyon was mustered out of the service. He was subsequently brevetted a brigadier general of United States volunteers to date from the 26th day of October of that year. The thirteenth regiment was mustered out on the 24th of November, at San Antonio, reaching Madison, Wiscon- sin, on the 23d of December, where, three days afterward, the men were paid off and the regiment formally disbanded.
Before Colonel Lyon was mustered out of the service he was chosen
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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 the Ist of December, 1865, and served for five years with a degree of ability that won unqualified commendation from all .*
In 1866 independence day was made the occasion at the capital of Wisconsin for the formal presentation to the state of the battle flags of the several regiments which the commonwealth had sent into the field. Judge Lyon was selected to deliver an address to the governor and people on behalf of the soldiers when these flags should be given up. His oration was a masterly effort-impressive for its impassioned eloquence.
In 1870 Judge Lyon was the republican candidate for Congress in the fourth district, but was defeated at the polls by Alexander Mitchell.
The death of Byron Paine, one of the associate justices of the su- preme court of Wisconsin, on the 13th of January, 1871, caused a vacancy on that bench which was filled by Governor Fairchild by the
*In his article on "The Supreme Court of Wisconsin," in vol. 9 of the Green Bag, p. 171, Mr. Bryant wrote as follows of Judge Lyon: He made an admirable nisi prius judge; and his popularity with the bar and suitors, jurymen and the public generally was matter of universal comment. His circuit embraced the counties of Racine, Kenosha, Walworth, Rock and Green, in the southeastern portion of the state. In his time the court week was an important event in the inland counties. The well- to-do farmers came in, visited, attended court, listened to the trials and arguments, and invariably took sides early in the trial. At a sharp repartee of a lawyer or a good hit-back of a witness to a badgering cross-examiner they were wont to laugh heartily, and were demonstrative to the eloquence of some gifted lawyer. Judge Lyon in- dulged them within reasonable limits; and his kindness on the bench, blended with dignity and judicial ability, made him immensely popular with the people. His suc- cessor on that circuit was a man in some respects entirely different. A good judge and a just, he tolerated no laughter or levity in court. If a man came in with squeaking boots, the judge would say, "Suspend! Mr. Sheriff, you will protect the court from the noise of squeaking boots." If a titter ran through the court room at some witticism, the stern tones of the judge were heard: "Suspend! Mr. Sheriff, arrest and bring to the bar all persons disturbing the proceedings by laughter." The old settlers soon found the restraint unendurable, and gave up their custom of at- tendance. "Judge Conger is too strict," they said. "It's a contempt in his court to sneeze or to smile. But it was mighty pleasant thar in Judge Lyon's time."
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appointment of Judge Lyon to the place on the 20th of the same month. In the following April he was elected by the people for the unexpired term and for the full term succeeding. In 1877 and in 1884, he was re- elected for full terms; the last time for ten years. Judge Lyon publicly announced three years before the expiration of his last term that he did not desire and would not accept a re-election. He never wavered in his determination to retire from the bench at the close of his term, and on January, 1894, he retired from the bench, having, by reason of his seniority of service, served the last two years as chief justice.
Judge Lyon, at the earnest solicitation of the regents of the univer- sity of Wisconsin, consented, in addition to his onerous duties as one of the associate justices of the supreme court, to take upon himself the labor of lecturing before the law class of that institution. His lectures, beginning in 1871, were continued to the end of the university year in 1873. His time was given "without reward or hope thereof." On commencement day, in 1872, the university conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL. D.
The published decisions of Judge Lyon since he has occupied a position upon the bench of the supreme court run through volumes 27 to 86, inclusive, of the reports. While these are characterized for their clearness and brevity they also show a careful examination of the facts of, and just appreciation of, the law appertaining to the cases in hand.
Judge Lyon was one of the first, if not the first, justice of the su- preme court to prepare a statement of the facts in each case-a task usually performed by the official reporter.
Edwin E. Bryant has very justly written that "it is but stating a truth to say that no man ever stood higher than Judge Lyon for all the qual- ities and equipoise of qualities that constitute the just judge. Confidence in his integrity is universal. His mind is happily constituted to see the right of the case. Calm, patient, unbiased, he brought to investigation that sincere desire to be right that opens the mind to perceive justice. His professional labors covered a period of forty-eight years. He was judge twenty-eight years, and twenty-three years on the bench of the
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supreme court. His style is remarkable for its simple directness, lucidity and freedom from ornament."t
Soon after his voluntary retirement from judicial service Judge Lyon went to California and made an extended visit with his children. Soon after returning to Wisconsin he was appointed by Governor Upham, in 1896, a member of the state board of control of charitable, penal and correctional institutions. In 1897 he was reappointed by Governor Scofield. To the discharge of the very important duties of this position Judge Lyon has brought, undiminished in degree, the same excellent judgment and painstaking care which characterized him as a legislator, soldier and judge.
He and his excellent and greatly respected wife reside in Madison, crowned with the veneration which long, useful and unselfish lives are entitled to. They have two surviving children-Clara Isabel, born in 1857, the wife of J. O. Hayes, and William Penn, Jr., of San Jose, Cali- fornia, born in 1861.
The next change in the membership of the court occurred June 17, 1874, when Edward G. Ryan qualified as chief justice, having been ap- pointed by Governor Taylor to succeed Luther S. Dixon, resigned.
EDWARD GEORGE RYAN .*
The late chief justice of Wisconsin-Edward George Ryan-was born at Newcastle House, in the county Meath, Ireland, on the 13th of November, 1810. He was the son of Edward Ryan and Abby Keogh Ryan. The boy was educated at Clongoe's Wood college, which he entered in 1820, completing the full course of his studies in 1827. Three years subsequent to this he came to the United States. He had made some attempts at studying law before leaving his native country.
19 Green Bag, 172.
*The editor acknowledges his obligations to William W. Williams, formerly editor of The Magazine of Western History, for permission to use the sketch of Mr. Ryan here given. It was prepared by Consul Willshire Butterfield, formerly of Madison, Wisconsin, and originally published in vol. 5 of the magazine named. The editor is responsible for the notes.
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"I had," wrote the subject of this sketch, some years ago, "exag- gerated notions of the ease with which men got on in this country, and I finally obtained my father's consent to come here. So I came in 1830. I did not know then, but have long since known, that my father ex- pected me to fail and to return to Ireland. I was too proud to do so. I studied law in New York as I could, supporting myself by teaching. I was admitted in 1836 to practice my profession, and came that year to Chicago. Up to that time I had never known what sickness was. But I was peculiarly subject to miasmatic disease, and was in very poor health during the whole time I was in that city."
"In 1834," says T. G. Turner, "I was a boy merely and a clerk in an importing house. I boarded at Mrs. Ballard's, on Pearl street, a quite celebrated house of entertainment at that day. The late Chief Justice Ryan, of Wisconsin, some seven years my senior, boarded at the same house. I remember him as a genial, witty, able young man, ad- dicted to 'Irish bulls,' easily imposed upon by his joke-cracking asso- ciates, but by all respected and held in high esteem. Boarding at the same house at the time mentioned was Mr. Preston, author of a book of interest tables, quite celebrated at that day, and also Gould Brown, author of the best grammar of the English language with which I am acquainted. Mr. Brown was a Quaker, a scholar and a gentleman, and his grammar will be held as authority when the names of a hundred pre- tenders have vanished from the list. I remember divers skirmishes be- tween Mr. Brown and Mr. Ryan, the conclusion of all of which seemed to be that the grammarian conceded to the late chief justice the honor of using the Irish idiom correctly, but claimed that his knowledge of the English tongue was imperfect, if not ridiculous."
Mr. Ryan was one of the early journalists of Chicago. He was editor of a paper there called the Tribune, which was published in 1839, but which closed its career in 1841. It was printed by Holcomb & Com- pany. Holcomb was the printer and Ryan was "the company" and editor. The Tribune was democratic in politics. Its editor wrote long and able articles for the paper but not always on the popular topics of the day. He gave subjects to his readers to think about rather than
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for them to be simply pleased with. The paper aroused, as a conse- quence, but little enthusiasm, had but a limited patronage, and, as already intimated, its existence was brief .*
In 1842 Mr. Ryan was married to Mary, eldest daughter of Captain Hugh Graham, and immediately removed to Racine, Wisconsin. He was chosen one of the fourteen delegates from that county to the con- vention which met in Madison in 1846 to frame a constitution for the state. He took an active and prominent part in the deliberations and debates of that body, and his ideas were stamped upon some of the important provisions of the instrument which was given to the people as the result of the deliberations of its members .; He was chairman of the committee on banks and banking, second on the committee on the the judiciary, and also a member of the committee on education. When he took his seat in the convention he was a stranger to most of the able and brilliant members of that body, and when he took the floor for discussion for the first time, they were very much astonished at his power, energy and eloquence as a debater. He advocated the extreme radical features that were engrafted in the instrument agreed upon and submitted to the people of Wisconsin. But the constitution thus pre- pared was rejected at the polls. It was at this convention that the won- derful powers of Mr. Ryan first attracted the attention of the people of the state at large and gave him a state reputation.
*In 1840 and 1841 Mr. Ryan was prosecuting attorney for Cook county, in which Chicago now is. General Usher F. Linder, in his Reminiscences of the Early Bench and Bar of Illinois, says that his acquaintance with E. G. Ryan commenced at Van- dalia in 1836-37. "He was there in attendance upon the supreme court as a lawyer, his residence being then at Chicago; and I think I may say, without giving offense to any living man, there was no man then at the bar who could claim to be his superior. Ryan is an Irishman by birth. He is a man of bad temper and tyrannical disposition. He fell out with Isaac P. Walker once at Springfield, and abused Walker in adjectives that but few men could stand, and Walker gave him a terrible flogging, which I presume he has not forgotten even to this day. Walker was a perfect Hercules in physical strength and power, and therefore it was no difficult task to ad- minister this chastisement to Ryan."
¡He made an able report designed to prohibit banks of issue and withholding from corporations the right to exercise any banking powers; he also vigorously op- posed an elective judiciary, and was for permanence in the terms of judges. The stringent provisions in the proposed constitution concerning banks had much to do with the rejection of that instrument by the people.
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In 1848 Mr. Ryan represented his party as a delegate in the national convention, held in Baltimore, which nominated Lewis Cass for the presidency.
Mr. Ryan lost his wife in July, 1847, and in December, 1848, he removed from Racine to Milwaukee. "When I first went to Racine," he once wrote "it seemed doubtful which would be the larger place, that or Milwaukee; that doubt was settled long before I moved." In 1880 Mr. Ryan again married; his second wife, who still survives him, was Miss Caroline Willard Pierce, of Newburyport, Massachusetts.
In Milwaukee Mr. Ryan was associated, successively, in the practice of the law, with a number of the foremost practitioners of the city. He made himself prominent as a lawyer in the city, his reputation soon ex- tending over the state, and even beyond the boundaries of the latter, by his connection with several notable cases, particularly some murder trials. It was because of this celebrity which he had gained that he was afterwards employed in the celebrated "Hubbell impeachment case."
The sixth session of the Wisconsin legislature, under the state con- stitution, commenced on the 12th of January, 1853. On the 26th of the same month, William H. Wilson, of Milwaukee, preferred charges in the assembly against Levi Hubbell, judge of the second judicial circuit of the state, of divers acts of corruption and malfeasance in the discharge of the duties of his office. A resolution followed appointing a commit- tee to report articles of impeachment, directing the members thereof to go to the senate and impeach Hubbell. Upon the trial the defendant had for his attorneys, Jonathan E. Arnold and James H. · Knowlton. The managers, on the part of the assembly, employed Mr. Ryan as their counsel, who, on the 13th of June, 1853, in the senate chamber at Madi- son, made his opening argument. It is unnecessary in this connection to enter at all into the details concerning this remarkable trial. Men- tion of it is made only that the great ability of Mr. Ryan as an attorney may be thereby clearly demonstrated.
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