USA > Wisconsin > History of the bench and bar of Wisconsin, Vol. II > Part 10
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On September 9, 1879, Mr. Barber was married to Ella K. Rich- mond, at Hinsdale, New Hampshire. They have six living children: Nina R., Catherine S., Emma M., Frances E., Elbert E. and Thomas F. One son, Richmond J., fourteen years of age, a bright and promising boy and a student of the normal school, accidentally and fatally shot himself in February, 1898.
COLES BASHFORD.
Coles Bashford was born in Putnam county, New York, in January, 1816; educated in the Wesleyan seminary, Lima, New York; was ad- mitted to the bar in 1841; practiced in Wayne county, New York, and was district attorney from 1847 to 1850; resigned that office; came to Wisconsin, locating at Oshkosh, and entered upon the practice of the law.
He served in the state senate in 1853, 1854 and 1855. In the latter year was the republican candidate for governor, and resigned his seat in the senate. The official canvass of the votes for governor showed Mr. Bashford's defeat by a majority of 157 votes. The supreme court de- cided that he had received a majority of the votes cast and was chosen
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governor; he accordingly entered upon the duties of the office and was governor from March 25, 1856, until January 4, 1858. After the close of his term he resumed the practice of his profession in Oshkosh and remained there until 1863, when he removed to Arizona. In 1864 he was elected a member of the territorial council and president of that body. He was attorney general for a time; delegate in Congress for one term and secretary of the territory, resigning the latter office in 1876. He died at Tucson, in April, 1878.
"In his Wisconsin practice he developed a more than average de- gree of ability, a good knowledge of law, highly respectable talents in its application, industry, probity and fair dealing, accompanied by dignity and courtesy in all his professional relations, and he was regarded as the peer of the lawyers of the several counties in which he practiced."
GABRIEL BOUCK.
Gabriel Bouck, lawyer, soldier, legislator, was born at Fulton, Schoharie county, New York, December 16, 1828; his father was William C. Bouck, who was governor of New York. Gabriel was gradu- ated from Union college in 1847, and before leaving his native state had begun the study of the law. In 1848 he removed to Wisconsin and read law for a time in the office of Finch & Lynde in Milwaukee; was ad- mitted to the bar in 1849; soon afterward removed to Oshkosh, where he has continued to reside and practice law, subject only to such inter- ruptions as have resulted from his service in the army and in civil station.
In 1857 he was the democratic candidate for attorney general, and served in that office in 1858 and 1859; in 1860 and 1874 he served in the assembly, the latter year being speaker; in 1864 and again ten years later he was defeated as the democratic candidate for Congress, but was elected to that position in 1876 and 1878; he was an unsuccessful can- didate for a third term.
In 1860 Mr. Bouck organized a company of volunteers and tendered its services to the governor; it became the color company of the second regiment, and under the command of Captain Bouck it participated in the early battles of the army of the Potomac. After the death of Colonel
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Alban in the battle of Shiloh, Mr. Bouck was commissioned as colonel of the eighteenth Wisconsin; he reorganized that regiment and com- manded it during the next two years.
Mr. Bouck's standing as a lawyer has long been firmly established as excellent. His practice has been large both in the trial courts and the supreme court. The important cases in the third and adjoining cir- cuits with which he has not been connected are comparatively few.
SILAS BULLARD.
Mr. Bullard is a member of the Winnebago county bar, and has re- sided at Menasha since August, 1871. He was born at Greenfield, Franklin county, Massachusetts, December 9, 1841; was educated in the common schools, Powers' institute, at Bernardstown, Massachusetts, and Bridgeton academy, at Bridgeton, Maine. His expenses while ob- taining his education were met by his earnings as a farm laborer. He studied law at Portland, Maine, and was admitted to the bar in 1867; came to Wisconsin in 1871; in 1873 and 1874 was interested in the pub- lication of the Menasha Press.
Mr. Bullard has devoted a fair share of his time and ability to the public, having served as superintendent of the Menasha schools for six years; county supervisor, seven years; mayor in 1881-82; city attorney in 1882-83, and since 1893; district attorney from January 1, 1885, until January 1, 1889: member of assembly in 1895 and 1897. It is in the latter capacity that Mr. Bullard is best known, and as a legislator he has wielded a strong and conservative influence, particularly in 1897, when he was chairman of the judiciary committee.
Besides being engaged in the practice of the law, Mr. Bullard is vice president of the First National bank of Menasha, and secretary and treasurer of the Paul Paper company.
His practice is a general one and has been so diligently pursued as to give him a good standing in one of the strongest bars in Wisconsin. In politics Mr. Bullard is a republican.
CHESTER D. CLEVELAND.
Judge Cleveland is the son of Rufus Cleveland, a Connecticut farmer, and his wife Sally, nee Burnham. Born October 22, 1839, in the town
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of Winchester, Connecticut, he inherits from a long line of American ancestors those worthy traits of character common to the descendants of the early Puritan settlers of New England. He was educated in the common and high schools of his native town and at Williston seminary, East Hampton, Massachusetts; began the study of law and entered Yale law school, and also prepared himself for active work at the bar in Hartford, Connecticut, under the direction of Elisha Johnson. He was admitted to practice at Litchfield, Connecticut, in September, 1866, and immediately thereafter came to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He was actively engaged in practice until he became county judge of Winne- bago county, in 1886.
Judge Cleveland was one of the first volunteers of the war of the rebellion. He enlisted in response to the call of President Lincoln for three months' men. With the 2d Connecticut volunteers he participated in the first battle of Bull Run. After being mustered out in August, 1861, he reenlisted in 19th Connecticut volunteers, and was mustered out in September, 1865. He served in the 6th corps, Ist division of the army of the Potomac, and participated in Sheridan's campaign in Shen- andoah valley.
He is actively interested in masonry and has been master of Oshkosh Lodge No. 27, and of Centennial Lodge No. 205. October 20, 1869, he married Catherine Hughes. They have two children, Chester D., Jr., and Catherine C. He is a republican in politics.
JAMES H. DAVIDSON.
James H. Davidson, representative of the sixth congressional dis- trict, is a native of Colchester, Delaware county, N. Y., and was born on the 18th of June, 1858. His father, James, was a Scotch Highlander and when a boy (1824) came with his parents to Delaware county, N. Y. As a farmer and a lumberman he evinced those traits of perseverance, industry and unswerving integrity which have ever made that nationali- ty invaluable in the founding of families and the establishment of com- munities. To the affairs of state, however, he gave no heed, being too earnest and occupied in caring for his own.
Mr. Davidson's wife, and the mother of our subject, was of Irish
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descent, and from her may be traced those qualities of eloquence, of adaptability and of versatility which, with the other traits enumerated, constitute quite a sure guarantee of success for a lawyer or a politician. Mrs. Davidson's maiden name was Ann Johnson; her ancestors were sturdy soldiers and patriots of the revolutionary war. One of her cousins has the added distinction of being a member of that little historic band which captured Major Andre on the Tarrytown road.
Until the youth was eighteen years of age he attended the district schools of Colchester in winter, working on the farm or in the woods and saw mill in summer. For the succeeding three years he taught school in Green Lake county, Wisconsin, attended the Walton (N. Y.) academy, acted as a janitor for his tuition and did whatever he could as a plucky, poor young man, to secure a thorough education, which he realized thus early would prove to him his best working capital. It was while a student, teacher, janitor and man-of-all-work that his am- bition to become a lawyer took firm root and he eagerly seized the opportunity of entering the office of Fancher & Sewell. In 1883 his desire was more completely gratified by commencing a regular course at the Albany law school, graduating as president of the class in 1884.
Soon thereafter Mr. Davidson was admitted to the bar at Bingham- ton, New York, but his season of teaching at Princeton, Wisconsin, in the fall of 1882, had opened his eyes to the possibilities of the west, and the country also agreed with him physically. Consequently, when ad- mitted to practice, he decided to return to Wisconsin. Thither he re- moved in August, 1884, but as his worldly condition was yet by no means prosperous and the legal business which could be obtained was little, both in volume and value, he set about to utilize his agricultural knowledge by dealing in grain and produce for Chittenden & Morse, of Princeton. He was so successful in this line of business that he not only supported himself, but discharged a debt of honor contracted be- cause of advances made by a friend who had assisted him financially at the Albany law school. In the course of his business travels and his dealings with the farming community throughout Green Lake and Mar- quette counties he also made numerous friends who were of value to him when he commenced the active practice of his profession in the fall
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of 1887. He opened an office at Princeton, but within five years his legal business had so increased and his ambition had so grown with his success, that he removed to Oshkosh, which offered a much broader and more productive field.
Even as a resident of New York Mr. Davidson had taken an interest and a part in the politics of the state, having learned more than one good lesson under the instruction of the master, Roscoe Conkling. In 1888 he had been elected district attorney of Green Lake county, and in 1890 chairman of the republican county committee and of the congres- sional committee for the sixth Wisconsin district. He continued to serve in the last named position for six years, so that, when he removed to Oshkosh, on January 1, 1892, he was already one of the best known men in that section of the state.
Mr. Davidson at once took rank as a leader of the bar and an in- fluential advocate of public works beneficial to the community. He became a member of the firm of Thompson, Harshaw & Davidson, which continued until September, 1895. After practicing alone for a short time, in 1896 he formed a partnership with R. W. Wilde, under the firm name of Davidson & Wilde. Mr. Davidson's practice has been general, one of the most interesting trials in which he has been engaged being the so-called Witchcraft case of Green Lake county, in which one William Roberts had threatened to kill a woman who was accused of practicing the black art. He assisted the district attorney of Green Lake county in the trial of Julius Zuelke for the murder of Edward Davids, a farmer of that county, which resulted in the conviction of the defendant and his sentence to the state prison for life.
While coming to the front as a successful and versatile trial lawyer, Mr. Davidson had made a splendid executive record as chairman of the sixth congressional district committee. His fruitful labors for the re- publican party were so highly appreciated that after his term of service had expired in August, 1896, he was put forth as the standard bearer himself. In November of that year he was elected to Congress by a majority of nearly eight thousand over his democratic opponent. The sixth district could not have selected a more faithful representative, or one who so thoroughly understands its wants and is more persistent in
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pushing them to a practical conclusion. He is now a member of the committees on railways and canals, and on patents. In August, 1898, Mr. Davidson was unanimously renominated as a candidate for Con- gress.
Since 1893 Mr. Davidson has been a member of the Masonic frater- nity, and is also connected with the Knights of Pythias and the order of Elks. He was married October 8, 1889, to Niva T. Wilde, of Ripon. They have two sons-Kenneth W. and James F.
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EARL P. FINCH.
Earl Pierce Finch, formerly of the Oshkosh bar, was born at Jay, Essex county, New York, October 27, 1828. His general education was completed at Union college. He studied law in the office of Ed- win Wheeler, at Oshkosh, and came to the bar in 1859. For a con .. siderable time he held subordinate positions in various law offices, with- out finding the opportunity to disclose his powers as an orator, which he cultivated by a thorough study of the great English, Irish and Ameri- can models. At last his opportunity came, and he tried a case in such manner as to demonstrate that he was possessed of unusual powers as an advocate-a fact which was thenceforth recognized by abundant professional employment of a lucrative character. Like many of his professional brethren, he was liberal in his expenditures and did not accumulate a very large fortune, notwithstanding opportunity to do so.
In politics, he was a democrat and a strong partisan, but his sense of justice was always strong and overrode his party feeling. In 1883 he was a member and speaker of the assembly. For a number of years Mr. Finch was a partner of his former pupil, Charles Barber. His death occurred June II, 1888.
CHARLES W. FELKER.
Charles W. Felker was born in Penn Yan, Yates county, New York, on the 25th of November, 1834. His father was Andrew Felker, who married Maria Pixley, and lived during the early years of his manhood in Canandaigua, Ontario county, where he engaged successfully in farming. Meeting with misfortune as a result of the financial panic of 1837, he emigrated to Illinois in 1844 and settled in McHenry county.
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Two years later he removed to Winnebago county, Wisconsin, where the son grew to manhood.
After receiving a common school education in the pioneer schools of Wisconsin, Charles W. Felker was sent back to New York state, where he completed his studies in the Brockport collegiate institute, and at Charlottsville, in Schoharie county. Returning to Wisconsin, he began the study of law and at the same time became associated with the Oshkosh Democrat, as editor of that paper. At the end of a year and a half he discontinued, for the time being, his editorial work, com- pleted the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1858, and began the practice of his profession which has been continued up to the present time. He soon acquired local celebrity as a trial law- yer of superior ability and his practice extended to other portions of the state. In active practice during the pioneer era of Wisconsin jurispru- dence he has been brought into more or less intimate association with nearly all the members of the bar in that state who have achieved un- usual distinction. As a member of the bar of northern Wisconsin, he has been identified with a large proportion of the most important liti- gation in the courts of that part of the state, and has left the strong impress of his individuality upon courts and juries in all parts of Wis- consin. As a well equipped and well rounded common law lawyer, he has but few superiors in the state of Wisconsin, and both as a counselor and advocate he has taken a high rank among the lawyers of the state. Immediately after the war he formed a partnership with Charles A. Weisbrod, and this partnership continued until 1876, when Mr. Weis- brod died. From that date until 1892 he continued the practice alone, associating with himself at the date last mentioned Frank C. Stew- art, and his sons, Frederick Felker and Carl Felker, under the firm name of Felker, Stewart & Felker. In 1894 Mr. Felker formed a Milwaukee connection and is now the senior member of the firm of Felker, Doe & Felker, to which he devotes a portion of his time and attention, although continuing his residence and law office in Oshkosh.
Mr. Felker has always had something of a fondness for journalism and from 1884 to 1888 was editor of the Oshkosh Times. As a news- paper writer he was terse and vigorous in the expression of his senti-
Your Very Truly George Sary
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ments and no less forceful than in the presentation of his arguments as a lawyer.
In 1864 he enlisted in the forty-eighth regiment Wisconsin volunteer infantry and was elected captain of company A. He served until March, 1866, when he was mustered out of the military service and returned to the practice of law.
A democrat politically, he has never been either a politician or a partisan. Strikingly independent, he has not hesitated to criticize the acts of his party or political associates when such acts failed to com- mend themselves to his judgment or seemed to be against public policy. An original thinker and sound reasoner, his caustic criticisms of public men and measures have at times attracted widespread attention, and commended him to those who prefer principle to party and the public good to partisan advantage. He has a marked fondness for literature, and his law and private library is one of the largest in the state.
He was married in 1862 to Miss Sarah C. Douty and has a family of two sons and three daughters.
GEORGE GARY.
George Gary, second son of Eli B. and Frances O. Gary, was born at Potsdam, St. Lawrence county, New York, March 16, 1824. When two years old his eyes were attacked with a violent inflammatory disease, from which they have never recovered entirely, and which during his life has seriously impaired his sight. This affliction, during his boy- hood and youth, rendered steady application to any occupation im- possible. His early education was therefore only such as could be acquired by very irregular attendance at the common schools, and three terms at an academy in Keeseville. In the spring of 1845, when twenty- one years of age, acting upon the suggestion of physicians that a sea voyage might benefit his eyes, he shipped before the mast on board a Nantucket whaler bound around Cape Horn. After various adventures, which included a residence of seven months at Callao, in Peru, he re- turned home in the fall of 1847, with eyes and health somewhat im- proved. He was engaged in teaching school winters, and in various temporary employments until the spring of 1850, when (after a surgical Vol. II .- 7
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operation by which his eyes were further improved) he came to Wis- consin. In June, 1850, he landed in the then village of Oshkosh, with- out any trade, profession, capital or business experience. Two years before he had declined a proposition from Hon. George A. Simmons, of Keeseville, one of the leading lawyers of northern New York, to enter his office as a student, because it was believed the condition of his eyes would not permit the necessary application to books. After a short employment as clerk in a general store at Oshkosh, he took charge of the forwarding and commission house of W. A. Knapp & Co., from the fall of 1850 until the spring of 1854, when he became cashier and book-keeper for the steamboat line of Fitzgerald & Moore, which then included all steamers on Lake Winnebago and the Wolf and Fox rivers. He had participated as a whig stump-speaker in the presidential campaign of 1852. In the spring of 1853 he was an un- willing and unsuccessful candidate of the opposition to the democratic party for city clerk at the first election in the young city of Oshkosh. In the fall of 1853 he was nominated and elected a member of the as- sembly for the first district, comprising the city of Oshkosh and south half of Winnebago county. During the session of the legislature the ensuing winter, a breaking up of political parties, in consequence of the Kansas-Nebraska agitation in Congress, laid the foundation for the organization of the republican party in Wisconsin; and the next fall he was nominated without opposition and re-elected to the assembly of 1855. Of this body he was elected speaker pro tem. (which was then a permanent office for the session) and served as the presiding officer at various periods during the session. In the spring of 1855 he became connected with Hon. Horace Rublee in the publication of the State Journal, at Madison, but retired the following spring and engaged as clerk and book-keeper in the forwarding and transportation business at Green Bay. That business being ruined by a low stage of water and suspension of navigation on the lower Fox river, in the fall of the same year he returned to Oshkosh and engaged in the forwarding and com- mission business in partnership with M. E. Tremble, now of Suamico. In the fall of 1857 he was elected without opposition to fill a vacancy in the office of clerk of the circuit court of Winnebago county, caused
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by the death of the clerk. To this office he was re-elected in 1858, and, having declined a re-nomination in 1860, retired from it on January I, 1861. In 1859 he had purchased the Oshkosh Democrat which, under his control, was devoted specially to sustaining the national and con- servative view of the then much agitated question of state rights. In December, 1860, he sold his paper to the proprietors of the North- western with which it was consolidated. During and preceding his term as clerk of the court, he had devoted considerable time to reading law, and on the 17th of April, 1861, was admitted to the bar at the age of thirty-seven. In 1862, on the passage of the internal revenue act, through the friendship and influence of Senator T. O. Howe, he was appointed assessor of internal revenue for the old fifth district of Wis- consin, comprising thirteen counties. Physical debility, following a severe attack of diphtheria, and the duties of editor of the Northwest- ern, of which he had become proprietor with B. F. Davis, induced him to resign the office of assessor a few days before the assassination of President Lincoln in the spring of 1865. In the summer of the same year he sold his interest in the Northwestern to C. G. Finney, and in company with G: W. Burnell, Esq. (now circuit judge), engaged ex- clusively in the practice of law. In the fall of 1866 he was elected state senator for Winnebago county. On the passage of the bankruptcy act in 1867, he was appointed register in bankruptcy, the acceptance of which required his resignation as senator after serving one session. This position he resigned in 1869 to take the office of county judge of Winnebago county, which he has held since January 1, 1870. Judge Gary is the author of Gary's Probate Law, a work published in 1879 and republished in 1892, which has been well received and spoken of by the bar in this state and elsewhere, and is the only standard work on the subject, as adapted to the Northwestern states. Judge Gary is an able writer and clear-headed thinker, and possesses the confidence of the people to a remarkable extent. He was married August 24, 1854, to Georgiana Enery, then a resident of Berlin, Wisconsin, but who was born near Frederickton, in the province of New Brunswick; they have two children living-Mary Frances and Paul; lost two children-
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George H., died September, 1877, aged twenty-one years; Ann Eliza, May, 1862, at the age of five years.
EDSON J. GOODRICK, SR.
Edson J. Goodrick was born at Brasher Falls, in St. Lawrence county, N. Y., on the 17th of November, 1850. He is the son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Munsell) Goodrick. His father was an Englishman by birth and a tanner and currier by occupation. The elder Goodrick was born in Yorkshire, England, and came to this country when a boy and settled in the state of New York.
The father of Elizabeth Munsell was a New England farmer, living at Swanton, Vermont, where his daughter, Elizabeth, the mother of Edson J. Goodrick, was born. After her marriage to Isaac Goodrick she removed to New York.
The boy received an academic education in the public schools of New York and Wisconsin. He came to Waupaca, Wisconsin, with his parents in 1868. After his eighteenth year, and until he commenced practice, he taught school winters and in the summer followed the busi- ness of a mill filer, but read law during his spare time, borrowing his law books of M. B. Patchin, of New London. He was admitted to the bar at Waupaca on the 13th of December, 1875, commencing practice at Clintonville during the early portion of the succeeding year. At the fall election for 1876 he was elected district attorney for Waupaca county, and in the following spring removed to New London, where he remained until January, 1881, when he located at Shawano. At first he practiced alone, but from 1879 to 1882 was in partnership with J. W. Bishop, under the firm name of Goodrick & Bishop. In 1893 R. A. Goodrick, his eldest son, became associated with his father, but his promising career was cut short by death in August, 1896.
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