USA > Wisconsin > History of the bench and bar of Wisconsin, Vol. I > Part 47
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dustry was great. He possessed a deep knowledge of books, while his memory was comprehensive and accurate. While the style of compo- sition employed in his legal papers was generally bold, it was always scholarly, always clear and able, and often beautiful and eloquent. He would always take cases where the poor had been wronged, without fee or hope of reward, and fight them through with unexampled vigor and almost universal success. His secret charities were numerous, as those who stood close to him can well testify; and in behalf of those who were struggling with some injustice that threatened to overwhelm them he put forth the most vigorous efforts of his life, never retreating until the wrong had been righted, or the last method and means of procedure had been exhausted.
The end of Mr. Orton's busy life came quietly on the evening of Saturday, January 24, 1885. He had been in good health until about a month before his death, when he was taken with erysipelas, which neither the skill of his physicians nor the loving and devoted attentions of his wife and daughters could deter from its fatal work. News of his death was received with sincere mourning by his large circle of friends, and especially by the many poor and lowly, whom he had quietly helped with his means, or whom he had defended against those who had marked them as easy prey. The funeral services were held at the family home on Mason street, and the remains were borne to their last resting place in Forest Home cemetery by leading members of the Milwaukee bar, while among the many mourners present from other parts of the state were all the members of the Wisconsin supreme court, of which Mr. Orton's brother, Hon. Harlow S. Orton, was an honored member.
May 16, 1864, Mr. Orton again united in marriage with Mrs. Lu- cinda Keith, born in Newberry, Vermont, January 9, 1834. Her par- ents were both of English descent. At the age of nine years Mrs. Orton, with her parents, became residents of Boston, Massachusetts, where she was educated. This union proved a great blessing to Mr. Orton, and while his life was blighted by his first marriage it was made truly happy by the last, proving that often man's last days are his best.
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This union was blessed with two daughters, Amy C. and Eva M., to whom Mr. Orton was greatly attached.
WILLIAM W. WIGHT.
William Ward Wight, of the Milwaukee bar, was born in Troy, New York, January 14, 1849; graduated from Williams college in 1869, with the philosophical oration, the first prize for excellence in French, and with membership in the honorary society of Phi Beta Kappa; taught the ancient languages at the Delaware literary institute, Franklin, New York, for two years, and graduated at the law department of Union university, Albany, in 1873, with the degree of bachelor of laws. Began to practice his profession in New York with his uncle, Edwin Mather Wight, but was driven by ill health to other fields. He opened a law office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1875, where he has practiced ever since,except during a brief trip to Europe in 1880. Continuously since 1875 he has been the librarian of the Milwaukee Law Library associa- tion. He was the originator and promoter of the plan for a public library in Milwaukee, by turning over to that city the 10,000 volumes of the Young Men's association; he was likewise the originator, in Mil- waukee, of the civil service reform association, from which has since sprung the non-partisan board of fire and police commissioners in that city. Of this board Mr. Wight was appointed chief examiner October 12, 1886, and resigned February 13, 1889. On December 1, 1888, he was commissioned a member of this board to fill a vacancy; on March 28, 1889, he was elected chairman of said board, and was continued as a member of it until June, 1897. In 1880 he was elected secretary of the trustees of Milwaukee college, and in 1887 was chosen a trustee, both of which offices he has held continuously since; is now a trustee and secretary of Milwaukee-Downer college, which, in 1897, succeeded Milwaukee college. Since 1896 he has been a trustee of Immanuel Presbyterian church, and in 1890-92 was president of the Young Men's Christian association, of Milwaukee; he declined a re-election to that position. He is a life member of New England Historic Genealogical society and of the State Historical society of Wisconsin; for two years
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he has been a vice president of the latter. He is also a member of the American Historical association; of the Minsink Valley Historical as- sociation, and of the Dedham (Massachusetts) Historical society. He is chairman of the committee on necrology and biography of the state bar association of Wisconsin. At the semi-centennial exercises in Madison in June, 1898, Mr. Wight represented the lake shore region at the historical meeting. He was one of the organizers, in December, 1895, of the Parkinan club, of Milwaukee, and, in January, 1890, of the Wisconsin Society Sons of the American Revolution, of which he has been registrar since then, and also one of the original members of the Wisconsin Society of Colonial Wars; of this, too, he has been an officer. He is also a member of the Milwaukee club and the Deutscher club.
In 1887 Williams college conferred upon Mr. Wight the degree of A. M.
The multiplicity of Mr. Wight's duties have not prevented his doing work in the book line, among his productions being some of interest and value to lawyers-Wisconsin Form Book, revised edition, 1889; also table of cases decided by the supreme court of Wisconsin, 1881; Lord Mansfield's Undecided Case (these are more particularly men- tioned in chapter VIII), and a paper on early legislation concerning Wisconsin banks, published in the proceedings of the state historical society, 1895, pp. 145-161. His paper Eleazer Williams, his forerun- ners, himself, in the Parkman Club's series, has been held effectually to dispose of the claim that the said Williams was the Dauphin of France.
As a lawyer Mr. Wight always preferred and has been successful in office work; he hesitates to try jury cases. The conviction that he pos- sesses the judicial quality in a high degree induced a large number of his brethren of the bar and other residents of Milwaukee to urge him to become a candidate for county judge in 1897. Though unsuccess- ful, he received a cordial support from many of the electors, and a vote which he considered highly complimentary.
Mr. Wight married in Milwaukee, June 29, 1876, Sarah Emily West, who died February 1, 1877; June 16, 1884, he married Mary Olivia Brockway; she died July 24, 1885; March 21, 1893, he married Susan
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Elizabeth Lowry, of Milwaukee. He has two children-Edward Brockway, born July 8, 1885; Elizabeth von Benscoten, born August 21, 1894.
EDWARD PERRIN VILAS.
Edward P. Vilas, of the firm of Winkler, Flanders, Smith, Bottum & Vilas, one of the strongest and most prosperous legal copartnerships in the northwest, is a native of Madison, where he was born on the 6th of November, 1852. His parents were Levi B. and Esther G. (Smilie) Vilas, his father being for nearly twenty years one of the leading law- yers and statesmen of Vermont, and for more than a quarter of a century a public man of marked ability in Madison and throughout the state of Wisconsin. Cultured, generous, honest and energetic, Judge Vilas was a father of whom any son, however talented himself, might well be proud. For eighteen years he successfully practiced his profession in the Green Mountain state. As a leading democrat, in 1835, he was a member of its constitutional convention, afterward serving for six years in the lower house, two years in the state senate, and three years as probate judge. His reputation for unusual ability and probity became so widely extended that in 1848 he was brought forward by the democ- racy as a congressional candidate. But even in those days that party was in the decided minority, so that notwithstanding Judge Vilas' per- sonal popularity, he proved to be the unsuccessful candidate. Remov- ing to Madison in 1851, he was soon adopted as a leader of public af- fairs. He represented his district in the assembly three times, was mayor of the city, draft commissioner in 1862, and for twelve years regent of the state university. His death occurred in 1879.
As previously stated, Edward P. Vilas was born the year following his father's removal to Madison. After attending the public schools he entered the state university, graduating from the college of letters in 1872. (After graduating from the university in 1872, Mr. Vilas entered the office of the Chicago & North-Western railway, being private secre- tary of the division superintendent, and in this capacity he mastered many details of the railroad business which were of subsequent benefit
Alfred & Gary
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to him in his legal practice.) On leaving the railway he first studied law in the office of Vilas & Bryant, and subsequently took a regular course in the law department of the university, from which he was graduated in 1875 with the degree of LL. B. During the summer of 1875 he was admitted to practice before the state supreme and the United States courts and became associated with the firm of Vilas & Bryant, consist- ing of his brother, William F. Vilas, and E. E. Bryant. He thus con- tinued until 1885, when the partnership ceased by reason of his brother's appointment as postmaster general and Gen. Bryant's acceptance of the position of assistant attorney general of the United States. Mr. Vilas then practiced alone until 1888, removing to Milwaukee on June Ist of that year, and becoming a member of the firm of Jenkins, Winkler, Smith & Vilas. In July, 1888, Judge Jenkins was called to the United States bench, which brought about the present style of the firm.
While a resident of Madison, Mr. Vilas was for several years a court commissioner, and since 1885 he has been secretary of the state bar association. Twice he has been appointed by Governor Peck a trustee of the Milwaukee asylum for the insane, resigning from the board in June, 1896. He has always been a democrat-in the latter days a gold democrat. He has been prominently identified with such clubs as the Lawyers', Milwaukee, Country, Deutscher and the Rho Chapter of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity-the last named being a university organization.
Mr. Vilas was married in 1877 to Elizabeth Gordon Atwood, daugh- ter of David Atwood, a pioneer of Wisconsin, and for many years the owner and editor in chief of the "State Journal," Madison. They have one son, Charles Atwood Vilas, now a student at the state university. Mrs. Vilas is a woman of culture and force of character. She is a mem- ber of the Daughters of the American Revolution, serving as the first regent of the Milwaukee Chapter. She is also at present the president of the atheneum, and is a member of the woman's club.
ALFRED L. CARY,
Alfred L. Cary, one of the most prominent corporation attorneys in the northwest, and member of the firm of Fish, Cary, Upham & Black,
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is a native of Sterling, Cayuga county, New York, where he was born July 3, 1835. His parents were Nathaniel C. and Sophia (Eaton) Cary, his American ancestry, on his father's side, being traced to John Cary, one of three brothers who settled in Massachusetts in the seventeenth century. Alfred's father was a man of character, prominent in the town in which he lived.
The boy passed his early days in Sterling, where he attended the district schools up to his sixteenth year. Later he entered the high school of Racine, Wisconsin, at which time John G. McMynn was its principal and was then and since known as one of the best educators in the west. In fact, the youth was drawn to that city by the latter's fame as a teacher, and for two years, 1853-1855. enjoyed the benefits of his instruction.
Mr. Cary afterwards returned to the east and engaged in teaching. But although a competent and successful teacher, he realized that his own education was not complete and consequently, during intervals in his teaching, he attended Falley seminary at Fulton, New York. In 1858 he returned to Racine and entered the law office of his uncle, John W. Cary, afterwards known throughout the country as a great corporation and railroad lawyer.
When the latter removed to Milwaukee, in January, 1859. Alfred continued with him as a student and clerk. In 1861 he was admitted to the bar of the circuit court for Milwaukee county, Arthur Mc- Arthur being then the presiding judge of said court. In 1865 he be- came a partner with his uncle in the practice of the law, the style of the firm being J. W. & A. L. Cary; J. P. C. Cottrill was added in 1870, and when John W. Cary became general solicitor of the Chicago, Mil- waukee & St. Paul Railway Company in 1874, necessitating his retire- ment from general practice, the firm became Cottrill & Cary and so remained until June, 1882, when Burton Hanson was admitted. Several years afterwards Mr. Cary withdrew to assume the position of general solicitor of the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railway Company. During the eleven years of his service in that capacity he acquired a wide reputation for business-like methods, executive force and profes-
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sional ability. In 1893 the company was absorbed by the Chicago & North-Western Railway Company, and in February, 1894, Mr. Cary formed a partnership with John T. Fish, under the firm name of Fish & Cary. As Mr. Fish had himself been connected with the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroad for many years as general solicitor of the company, the two formed a combination of talent which had no superior in the northwest in the domain of corporation law, especially as relating to railroad litigation.
In the course of his long and successful professional career Mr. Cary has been engaged in many cases involving large sums and intri- cate and important legal questions. One of the most remarkable suits in which he became interested was that of the Michigan Insurance bank against Anson Eldred. It was commenced in 1862 in the United States circuit court for the district of Wisconsin, and the defense was then in charge of John W. Cary, but it subsequently fell to the care of A. L. Cary. The case was carried to the United States supreme court four times and finally, after a litigation extending over a period of more than thirty years, was compromised. Mr. Cary has also been employed for twelve or thirteen years in a very important litigation involving the title to various water power privileges on the Fox river at- Kaukauna, he being the representative of the corporation known as the Kaukauna Water Power company.
In 1893 Judge Jenkins, United States circuit judge for the seventh circuit, appointed him special master in the Northern Pacific railroad foreclosure cases, and one of the important special matters referred to him as such master was the petition of the company for the removal of Mr. Oakes as receiver. The taking of testimony in this matter at Mil- waukee, Chicago and New York, hearing the arguments and consider- ing the same, occupied the master's time continuously for over five months, so that his report was not filed until September 8, 1894. In 1896 the Northern Pacific railway land grants and other property were decreed to be sold under the decrees entered in the foreclosure cases, and Mr. Cary was appointed master to make such sales and did make them the latter part of July and August of that year, and in doing so
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had to make a trip over the entire main line of the Northern Pacific railroad and conduct a sale in every state except Minnesota through which such railroad is located. To give some idea of the magnitude of the interests involved in his charge as special master, it may be stated that claims amounting in the aggregate to nearly $100,000,000 have been filed with him for adjudication.
In politics Mr. Cary is a democrat. He was elected to the common council of Milwaukee in 1872 for a term of two years, and in 1874 was a member of the lower branch of the state legislature, serving during the famous Granger session and vigorously opposing the so-called "Granger legislation." He is a Knight Templar in the Masonic order, and is a member of the Old Settlers, Country and Milwaukee clubs, having served as president of the last named for six years.
He was married September 6, 1864, to Harriet M. Van Slyck of Milwaukee, daughter of Jesse M. Van Slyck, an old and respected citi- zen. They have four children-Robert J. Cary, a bright young lawyer in Chicago; Walter Cary, secretary of the Gibbs Electric company of Milwaukee, and Harriet S. and Irving B. Cary, the last named a student at the university of Wisconsin.
GEORGE W. LAKIN.
George W. Lakin was born in Harrison, Cumberland county, Mary- land, March 29, 1816. He was educated at the Wesleyan seminary at Readfield, Maine, graduating in 1837. In the same year he taught school in Livermore, Maine, boarding in the family of Israel Wash- burne, father of the noted family of congressmen by that name. He commenced the study of law in 1838, at Readfield Corners, came to the west in 1839, spent some time in Missouri, and was admitted to the bar of that state in 1841. After admission to the bar he came at once to Wisconsin and opened an office at Platteville, Grant county, in the same year.
In 1847 Mr. Lakin was elected as a representative from the county of Grant to the constitutional convention, and in that body served on the committee on banks, banking and incorporations. He took promi-
3 - Bioa Pub 's The.
Thomas L. Mennan
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nent part in the discussions in the convention, speaking upon many of the most important subjects before it. He had a strong mind, highly cultivated, and, possessing an excellent voice, his speeches were always listened to with marked attention. In 1848 he was elected a member of the state senate, in which body he served two years, ranking among the ablest men in it, and was valuable and useful in shaping the affairs of the state government.
He was appointed United States district attorney for Wisconsin in 1849, by President Taylor, and held the office until the close of Mr. Fillmore's term in 1853, discharging the duties of the position with marked ability and fidelity to the interests of the government. In 1854 Mr. Lakin removed to the city of Milwaukee, where he has ever since devoted his time to the practice of his profession.
THOMAS LATHROP KENNAN.
The original stock from which Thomas L. Kennan was descended, on the paternal side, belonged to that class of sturdy pioneers who are known in this country as Scotch-Irish or Scotch Presbyterians, who were driven out of Scotland by the persecution and fled to the north of Ireland. On the maternal side his ancestors were from England.
Captain Richard Kennan located with his family in Virginia prior to 1670. One of his descendants, General Richard Kennan, was appointed by President Jefferson first governor of Louisiana. His son, Commo- dore Beverly Kennan of the United States navy, married Brittania Wellington Peter, of Georgetown, D. C., who was a great-granddaugh- ter of Martha Custis, wife of George Washington. He was killed by the explosion of a gun on the frigate Princeton in 1844, at the time Secretaries Upshur and Gilman of President Tyler's cabinet lost their lives. James Kennan, who was the ancestor of the northern branch of the Kennan family, was living. in Massachusetts as early as 1734 in Worcester county.
One of his sons, Col. George Kennan, was the great-grandfather of Thomas L., and an officer in the revolutionary war from Massachusetts. and, later, prominent in the public affairs of Vermont. One of his sons,
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Jairus Kennan, was a professor in the state university of Vermont and is said to have been a collaborator with Washington Irving in the writ- ing of Salmagundi.
Another son of Col. George Kennan was the Rev. Thomas Kennan, a Presbyterian clergyman of standing in the Green Mountain state, and later of the state of New York. He was the grandfather of Thomas L. Kennan and of George Kennan, the distinguished Siberian traveler and author. The eldest son of the Vermont clergyman was George Kennan, who, in 1816, married Mary, the daughter of Captain Chester Tullar, and a few years later removed to Morristown, St. Lawrence county, New York, where he established himself and his family as among the earliest and most respected pioneers of that section of the state. The eldest son of the family, which eventually consisted of four sons and six daughters, was the subject of this sketch, Thomas L. Ken- nan; place of birth, Morristown, and date, February 22, 1827. The boy worked upon his father's farm, attended the best schools that the coun- try afforded, and showed his enterprise as well as his eagerness to make the most of himself, by inducing some of his companions to club their means and engage the services of a private instructor, who could impart knowledge beyond the scope of the average district teacher. Thomas made such progress that at the age of seventeen he was an instructor himself, and a year later left home as a strong, ambitious, self-reliant young man. In 1847, while still in his minority, he settled at Norwalk, O., in order that he might enter the law office of his uncle, Jarius Kennan. After being admitted to the bar, in 1851, he removed to Oshkosh, Wis., to practice his profession, two years later forming a partnership with Judge Wheeler, who had been a former resident of Neenah. In 1855 Mr. Kennan made another change of location to Portage, having two years previously been admitted to practice in the state supreme court. It was during this epoch of his career that he became well known as a criminal lawyer, but this branch of the practice, being distasteful to . him, he abandoned it and thereafter devoted his attention to civil busi- ness.
Upon the breaking out of the civil war, Mr. Kennan recruited a
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company and early in the fall of 1861 was mustered into the service at Milwaukee, as first lieutenant of company D, Ioth Wisconsin infantry. Subsequently, although unanimously elected captain and thus commis- sioned by the governor, he declined the promotion in favor of a more experienced officer. The winter following was assigned to staff duty, and while at Nashville, Tenn., was thrown into quite intimate contact with Andrew Johnson, then military governor of the state. Mr. Ken- nan's health failed, however, and in July, 1862, he was obliged to resign his position not only to his own regret but to the regret of all who had dealings with him.
For the restoration of his strength he retired for a time to his large stock farm in Marquette county, not neglecting, however, to champion with voice and pen the Union cause to which he had given his heart and soul. He was elected president of the county loyal league and in 1863 received the appointment of deputy provost marshal and served the government in that capacity until the cessation of hostilities.
Although Mr. Kennan has never sought political preferment, his name has often been suggested for high official positions, but he stead- fastly declined all such honors.
After regaining his health he returned to Portage, and energetically and successfully resumed the practice of his profession.
Within the succeeding decade he built up a large and profitable gen- eral practice, which was diverted more or less into the channels of cor- poration, and, especially, railroad law. It was during this period (in 1876) that he was admitted to practice in the supreme court of the United States. In 1880 hè was induced to give up his general practice and accept a position with the Wisconsin Central Railroad company as its attorney, and to the intricate legal interests of this great corporation Mr. Kennan devoted the following ten years of his professional life. He then resigned, in order that he might take life a little more easy and give more attention to his extensive private affairs.
In 1883 he removed to Milwaukee, where he became largely inter- ested in real estate, as well as acquiring valuable property in Ashland and Chicago. , After resigning his position as attorney for the railroad
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company he not only invested more extensively in landed property, but in such active business enterprises as gold and iron mining. So that at the present time he is not only a successful practitioner but a financier of wide reputation. He is president of a prosprous real estate company in Milwaukee; president and active manager of the Livingstone Gold Mining company and of the Milwaukee & Colorado Gold Mining company of Boulder county, Colo .; is largely interested in iron mining on the Gogebic Range; and a director and stockholder in a national bank as well as a shareholder in a number of other manufacturing and business enterprises.
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