USA > Wisconsin > History of the bench and bar of Wisconsin, Vol. I > Part 33
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JAMES R. DOOLITTLE.
James Rood Doolittle was born January 3, 1815, at Hampton, Washington county, New York. His father, Reuben Doolittle, upon emigrating to Genesee county, in western New York, became a farmer, mill owner and merchant, in prosperous circumstances. His mother, Sarah, nee Rood, was an estimable lady who devoted herself to do- mestic duties and to the education of her children and instilling into their minds the principles of honor and virtue. James R. was the
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eldest son in a family of four boys and two girls. After the usual preliminary education he was sent to Geneva college, in western New York, and early began to show that ability which distinguished him in after years. Gifted with a retentive memory and a clear under- standing, combined with a genius for hard work and diligent applica- tion, he easily led his class and graduated with honors.
Having chosen the law as a profession, he studied its theory and practice with Harvey Putman at Attica, New York, and with Isaac Hills, of Rochester, New York, and was admitted to practice by the supreme court of that state in 1837. It was not long before the young lawyer was recognized as one of the coming men of his profession. His thorough knowledge of the principles of the common law and his facility in applying them, aided by an extensive and varied course of reading, a pleasing and musical voice and an easy and fluent delivery, marked him as one destined for certain and rapid preferment.
About this time he removed to Warsau, Wyoming county, New York, where his ability was soon recognized and rewarded; and, al- though a democrat, he was elected district attorney by a whig con- stituency. Having discharged the duties of that important office with satisfaction to the people and credit to himself, Mr. Doolittle, in 1851, went to Racine, Wisconsin, and there practiced his profession, and in a short time was ranked among the ablest lawyers of that state and retained by Governor Farwell in cases involving the interests of the commonwealth and intricate questions of law. It is unnecessary to say that his practice became large and lucrative and that experience developed the legal ability already recognized.
In 1853 Mr. Doolittle was elected judge of the first judicial circuit of Wisconsin. No higher or more pleasing tribute can be paid to a lawyer than his elevation to the bench. As such, Judge Doolittle ac- cepted it, and applied all his knowledge and experience to the dis- charge of his duties. In this case the office sought the man, and, what is more, sought the right man. For three years he discharged the important duties of his trust with ability, simplicity and dignity. He had the rare power of combining the "suaviter in modo, fortiter in re."
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When he resigned, in 1856, he received the highest encomiums from the press, the people, and the profession. No sooner had Judge Doo- little laid down one honor than another was given to him. In January, 1857, the legislature of Wisconsin elected him United States senator and reelected him in 1863 to the same office. The period during which he was in the senate was the most momentous since the found- ing of the republic and may be divided into three epochs: First- Before the war, when the question was the extension of slavery. Second-During the war, the period of secession. Third-After the war, when the issue was reinstatement or reconstruction. Each of these periods was fraught with danger to the republic and grave re- sponsibilities rested on the representatives of the people. In these crises the patriotism, ability and integrity of the young senator soon became conspicuous. Grasping the situation with almost prophetic intuition, he used the whole force of his great intelligence, the powerful influence of his classic eloquence, and supplemented both with the un- tarnished honor of his spotless character, in the endeavor to prevent the threatened disruption. When the effort to secure peace with honor failed and the tocsin of civil war smote the ear with its invitation.to deadly strife, he, like other patriotic citizens, accepted the challenge and devoted himself unsparingly to the preservation of the Union. Later, when the terrible struggle, involving the loss of hundreds of thousands of human lives, was over, came the period of reinstatement, when the great moral force and patriotic fire of Senator Doolittle was stimulated to rouse the country to the duty of the hour. His eloquent and forcible speeches of that time are historic evidence of his foresight and statesmanship. As a member of the committee of thirteen, ap- pointed by the senate to devise a plan to prevent disruption, he labored for that object with all his power of mind and body. When war be- came inevitable he used his whole strength to defeat the rebel arms. When the war was over, he, as a representative of the people, coun- seled moderation and reconstruction. Taking the constitution for his guide and acting from sincere conviction he strove then, as through his whole life, for the eternal principles of truth and justice. He was
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chairman of the joint committee appointed to inquire into the con- dition of the Indians in Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico. The published report of this committee is the most exhaustive and valuable that has ever been compiled on the subject.
Soon after the accession of Andrew Johnson to the presidency Senator Doolittle became a supporter of his policy, and thenceforward acted in opposition to the republican party. In 1871 he was the democratic candidate for governor of Wisconsin against C. C. Wash- burn.
It would be trespassing on the domain of history to recount here the calls to conventions written, the speeches delivered, the public men with whom he has worked, and the political issues he has orig- inated or supported. It is only necessary to add that Judge Doo- little's life has been busy, honorable and useful; and, as expressed by a friend of his, "Like a clear, limpid stream, wherein you can see the form and color of the pebbles at the bottom, and through whose mean- dering course no sediment appears."
Judge Doolittle was a man of fine physical development. Even at the age of nearly four-score he was a man of powerful build, with pleas- ing and expressive features, and a voice strong and sonorous. When young he must have been trumpet-tongued. He had the "powers of speech that stir men's blood," and retained that power for a longer period than most men of his ability. Yet it was not alone the features, the voice or the figure that challenged attention, but there was a force of character that impressed, an influence that impelled and a magnetism that attracted. No man during the past fifty years has addressed larger masses of people or has addressed on political subjects as many people. He was a master of the art of rhetoric. His language was clear, simple and graceful, and he led his auditors through a long argumentative path, decked with classic allusions that, like flowers on the border of a stream, seemed to be native there.
He was very happy in epigram. After Abraham Lincoln's second nomination for the presidency, a cabal was formed in his state with the hope of forcing him to retire. At a mass-meeting, where one of the
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discontents had been the first speaker and had delicately hinted at the desirability of Mr. Lincoln's retirement, Judge Doolittle, who had lis- tened with feelings more easily imagined than described, was called as the second speaker. There was a vast audience of probably twenty thousand people, who listened to the previous speaker in ominous silence. The Judge arose and in slow, clear, solemn tones, and with his right hand raised to heaven, said: "Fellow-citizens: I believe in God Almighty, and, under him, I believe in Abraham Lincoln." The spell was broken and the vast audience cheered for fully half an hour. No more was heard of the opposition to Mr. Lincoln.
After Judge Doolittle retired from the senate in 1869, though he retained his homestead and citizenship in Wisconsin, he was engaged in the practice of law in Chicago. His first partnership was with Mr. Jesse O. Norton, under the name of Doolittle & Norton. After the great fire of October 8 and 9, 1871, he formed a partnership with his son, under the firm name of J. R. Doolittle & Son. In 1879 Mr. Henry McKey was admitted as a partner in the business and the firm name became Doolittle & McKey. After the death of Mr. James R. Doolittle, Jr., which occurred in 1889, Mr. Edgar B. Tolman became a member of the firm, and the firm name became Doolittle, McKey & Tolman. Mr. McKey died in January, 1892, and John Mayo Palmer became associated with Senator Doolittle and Mr. Tolman, under the firm name of Doolittle, Palmer & Tolman.
Judge Doolittle suffered one of the great afflictions of his lifetime in August, 1889, when his son, James R., Jr., died. At the time of his death he was a member of the law firm of which his distinguished father was the head. He was an active member of the Chicago board of education, and devoted himself unsparingly to the interests of the city and suburban schools. He was a man of great ability as a lawyer, highly accomplished as a scholar, and his kindly, gentle nature en- deared him to all.
After a pure, honorable, useful life, actuated by unselfish motives, prompted by patriotism and guided by truth and justice, Judge Doo- little departed this life July 23. 1897, at the home of a married daughter
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in Rhode Island. At the meeting of the state bar association in February, 1898, Elbert O. Hand, J. V. Quarles and Joshua Eric Dodge were appointed a committee to prepare and present a memorial of the life and services of Judge Doolittle to the supreme court. That duty was well performed March 21, 1898. The memorial was sub- mitted by Mr. Hand in a very pleasing address, to which Judge Wins- low, on behalf of the court, responded as follows:
"With the death of James R. Doolittle there passed from the stage a remarkable figure and one of which Wisconsin may well feel proud.
"Born in the early years of the century, he almost reached its close with his mental powers unimpaired and a sturdy frame which showed but slightly the signs of his advancing age.
"Nor was his life one of quietness and ease; it was full to the brim of care, of labor and events. Early in life there came to him great and deserved political triumphs which brought with them equally great cares and responsibilities. He met these cares and responsibilities with a fortitude born of lofty resolve and an unfailing devotion to his duty as a man and a citizen. There came to him later bitter disappoint- ments and crushing sorrows, and he met these with the same lofty resolve.
"Fate placed him in the forefront of events at a momentous crisis in the national history, when the destiny of the republic was trembling in the balance and the future seemed dark and doubtful. The test was supreme, but it was fully and bravely met. Standing by the side of the great Lincoln, as one of his trusty and trusted counselors, he rose to the full stature of a statesman, able to cope with the greatest ques- tions and fit to properly represent this great commonwealth. His services to the state and nation and to the cause of free government during the twelve years which he spent in the senate cannot be easily overestimated. He left that high office poor in purse, but rich in the consciousness of having patriotically performed his duty and of having bravely borne no small share in the great battle to preserve human liberty and free institutions.
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"He was, without question, a lawyer of great learning and breadth of mind; but the imperious call to the greater duties of a national legislator took him from the bar for so long a period during the very prime of life that his career as a lawyer was never rounded out to the full, and hence it is that he will be remembered for his achieve- ments as a statesman rather than on account of his greatness as a lawyer.
"It was my good fortune to know him personally from my boy- hood, and I can speak from a personal and intimate acquaintance of his character as a friend and neighbor and a private citizen. He was a Christian gentleman, with all which that name implies, and when I have said this I have said, perhaps, all that is necessary. He carried into private life and daily walk the same virtues, the same manly forti- tude and the same resolve to do his duty, as he understood it, that he exhibited in public station.
"James R. Doolittle was a good man, as well as a great man; he honored his state and his state does well to honor him."
CHARLES M. BAKER.
Mr. Baker was born in New York city October 18, 1804. Soon thereafter his father and the family removed to Addison county, Ver- mont. In 1822 the subject of this sketch entered Middlebury college, but was prevented from prosecuting his studies by reason of his health; in 1823 he became an assistant teacher in a young ladies' school at Philadelphia and remained there two years. In 1826 he entered a law office in Troy, New York, and after three years of study there was ad- mitted to the bar; in 1830 he formed a partnership with Henry W. Strong, a brother of Marshall M. Strong, long a prominent lawyer of Wisconsin, and removed to Seneca Falls, New York, where he prac- ticed his profession until 1834, when his health made it necessary for him to change his pursuit. He returned to Vermont and engaged in the mercantile business. In 1838 he located at Geneva Lake, Wal- worth county, Wisconsin; in 1839 he was appointed district attorney of that county; he served as a member of the territorial council for the
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counties of Rock and Walworth for four years, beginning with 1842. He represented Walworth county in the first constitutional conven- tion and was chairman of the committee on the organization and func- tions of the judiciary, and took an active part in all the proceedings of that body. In 1849 the legislature appointed Mr. Baker the com- missioner to superintend the publication of the revised statutes, in- cluded in which was the preparation of the marginal notes and index. In 1856 the governor appointed him circuit judge to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Doolittle; his service in that capacity covered part of the months of March and April, 1856; not de- siring to serve longer, he declined to be a candidate before the people. During the civil war Mr. Baker served as judge advocate in the first Wisconsin district. His death occurred at Geneva, February 5, 1872.
It has been said that "Mr. Baker was a profound lawyer, an able advocate, and in all senses an ornament to a profession which his learning adorned. He was a tireless reader and worker, ever ready in legal cases entrusted to him, all points in which received the minutest examination and most critical analysis. His habits were singularly quiet, unobtrusive and studious. His reading extended far beyond the requirements of his profession, covering the whole range of historic and scientific inquiry. He was largely gifted in mental powers, and, on a different field, would have achieved for statesmanship all that he did for law. He was, moreover, thoroughly honest and conscientious, an upright and worthy citizen, a kind and loved neighbor, and a valued friend. In all the relations of life he bore an honorable part-above suspicion as above reproach."*
JOHN M. KEEP.
At the election in April, 1856, John M. Keep was, without oppo- sition, called to fill the remainder of the term which Judge Doolittle had resigned one month previously and which during that period had been filled by C. M. Baker. Nearly four years remained of the unex- pired term, but after a service of a little more than two years failing
*"Fathers of Wisconsin," p. 40.
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health compelled him to send his resignation to the governor, to take effect on the 17th of August, 1858.
John M. Keep, the second son of General Martin Keep, was born at Homer, Cortland county, N. Y., on the 26th of January, 1813. He was fitted for college at Cortland academy in Homer, and, in 1832, entered Hamilton college, where he was graduated, in 1836, with high collegiate honors. The same year he commenced his legal studies with Augustus Donnelly, a distinguished lawyer at Homer, and completed them with Horatio Seymour at Buffalo. He was duly admitted to the bar and commenced practice at Westfield, Chautauqua county, New York, which he continued until his removal to Wisconsin. In 1845 he located at Beloit, where he continued to reside until his death.
Mr. Keep not only became engaged at once in a very large law practice at Beloit, but he also took a very active part in every enter- prise that promised to promote the growth of the place and enhance the welfare of society. He was extensively engaged in the purchase and sale of lands and erection of buildings, and took an important part in the promotion of institutions of learning and the construction of railroads, and in many of these enterprises was the animating spirit. He was the founder of the city of Darlington, now the county seat of La Fayette county, and was interested in the construction of the first buildings that were erected there, and was the contractor for building the southern half of the Mineral Point railroad. He was systematic in the employment of his time and performed rapidly and well a vast amount of varied labor. Moral courage, great energy, ready decision, self-reliance, self-control, and an indomitable will were the chief qualities of his natural greatness. He never exhibited vanity or egotism, and was never heard to exalt or speak boastingly of himself.
As a lawyer he was well versed in his profession, ever faithful to his clients, whose confidence and respect he never failed to command. As a judge he was composed, patient, impartial, kind and courteous, always easy to approach by every one; quick in his perceptions of every case, he never hesitated to reverse his decisions when convinced of error.
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For the last two years of his life Judge Keep's strength gradually wasted away and death in its usual form never came near him, but simply for lack of strength, on the 2d of March, 1861, he passively ceased to breathe, and so passed away, leaving a record of great private worth and public usefulness.
DAVID NOGGLE.
On the 27th of July, 1858, David Noggle was appointed by Gov- ernor Randall judge of the first circuit to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Keep, which took effect on the 17th of Au- gust, at which time Judge Noggle's fractional term commenced. At the April election in 1859 the executive appointment was ratified by the people, and the judge was simultaneously elected for the frac- tional term, which expired January 1, 1860, and for the full term of six years ending January 1, 1866. He served the full period for which he was elected, but was not again a candidate for re-election.
David Noggle was born in Franklin, Franklin county, Pennsyl- vania, October 9, 1809. His father, Joseph Noggle, was of Dutch descent, and his mother, whose maiden name was Mary Duncan, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His opportunities for education were limited to the public schools, and even of these he could avail himself for only a few weeks each winter. At the age of sixteen he removed with his parents to Greenfield, Highland county, Ohio. At the age of nine- teen he left home to find some remunerative employment, and for four years was employed in a manufacturing establishment in Madi- son, New York. He then returned to Ohio and with his brothers carried on his father's farm for about four years, during which time he was married to Miss Anna M. Lewis.
In 1836 Mr. Noggle removed with his young wife to Winnebago county, Illinois, making the journey with an ox team. Here he pur- chased government land, which, under his industrious hand, soon be- came a valuable farm. It had been the ambition of his life to be a lawyer, which he never enjoyed the opportunity of gratifying. As he
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had always relied upon himself in everything, at the comparatively ad- vanced age of 27 (for a law student) he relied upon himself to ac- quire a legal education. He carried Blackstone with him in his daily toil, reading it while driving his ox team, and whenever he could find time by day or night, and without having spent an hour in a law office or received any assistance in his studies, he was, in 1838, after an exam- ination by the supreme court of Illinois, admitted to the bar of that state.
In 1839 he sold his farm in Illinois and removed to Beloit, Wiscon- sin, where he opened a law office, and very soon attained a large practice, not only in Wisconsin, but in Boone and Winnebago coun- ties in Illinois. He devoted himself exclusively to his profession and was highly successful. His lack of educational advantages and pro- fessional training did not embarrass him; the strong power of his will being adequate to overcome slight obstacles, and if his orthography was not always correct it conformed to phonographic modes and al- ways had the advantage of idem sonans. He was a powerful and successful advocate before a jury, and by large experience and hard study became a very good lawyer.
In 1840 Mr. Noggle was appointed postmaster at Beloit and held the office about five years. Rock county elected, by general ticket, ten members of the first convention to form a state constitution, of which Mr. Noggle was one. He was prominent as one of the leading members of that body, his specialty being the subject of corporations, which was assigned to him. He soon after transferred the scene of his professional labors from Beloit to Janesville, where he continued to maintain and increase his successful practice. In November, 1853, he was elected as a representative in the assembly from the Janesville district and served during the year 1854. Three years later he was again elected for the same district, and served during the year 1857. From the 17th of August, 1858, to the Ist of January, 1866, his time was devoted exclusively to the performance of his duty as judge.
After his retirement from the bench he spent a short time in Iowa as attorney for the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, and afterwards
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returned to Beloit, where he resided until 1869, when he was ap- pointed chief justice of the territory of Idaho, a position which he retained until 1874, when failing health compelled him to resign it. He spent a few months in California for the benefit of his health, which was, however, never restored. He returned to Wisconsin in 1875, where he remained in retirement, the victim of a chronic disease which affected his brain, and where he died on the 18th of July, 1878.
IRA C. PAINE.
Mr. Paine was born at Monkton, Vermont, in 1805. In 1847 he came to Wisconsin and settled in Racine, where he lived until his death, September 19, 1883. In his early days he had a good standing at the Racine bar-then a very strong one-and always maintained a high reputation for integrity. In 1875 he was appointed judge of the circuit court to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Harkness, and in the election held after his appointment was the demo- cratic candidate. He was unsuccessful, John T. Wentworth being chosen. In 1878 he was an unsuccessful candidate for district attor- ney of Racine county. During the later years of his life his practice was not extensive, and the accumulation of his early labors was barely sufficient for his need. Mr. Paine was an uncle of the gifted and lamented Byron Paine.
JOHN T. WENTWORTH.
The ninth judge of the first circuit was John T. Wentworth. His service in that capacity began in 1876 and continued until 1884.
Mr. Wentworth was born in Saratoga county, New York, March 30, 1820; was educated in Union college, and graduated in 1846; "read law" with William A. Beach, of Saratoga Springs, and was admitted to the bar in 1850. After practicing his profession there about two years he moved to Chicago; after a stay of four years there he settled at Geneva Lake, Walworth county, Wisconsin. In 1857 he was elected
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district attorney of that county and was reelected in 1859. In 1869 he was elected clerk of the circuit court, and while serving in that of- fice was elected circuit judge to fill a vacancy; his service in that office continued as stated. In 1877 Judge Wentworth changed his place of residence to Racine, where he continued to reside. He has served as state and United States court commissioner for some years, and also held the office of justice of the peace after the expiration of his term as circuit judge. Judge Wentworth died in February, 1893.
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