USA > Wisconsin > History of the bench and bar of Wisconsin, Vol. II > Part 11
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Mr. Goodrick moved from Shawano to Oshkosh in February, 1894, and has since resided in this thriving interior city, fully established in reputation as a substantial lawyer and public citizen. He has not only enjoyed a lucrative practice, but has been honored with marked public evidences of the esteem in which he is held. A stanch republican in politics, he has twice served as district attorney of Waupaca county-
Moses Hooper
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in 1876 and 1878; was city attorney of New London during the latter year, and served as mayor of Shawano in 1888. In the spring of 1891 he was a non-partisan candidate for judge of the tenth circuit court, his opponents being the former incumbent, Judge Meyers, and Judge John Goodland, the present incumbent.
Mr. Goodrick is in the highest standing with both the Masonic order and the Knights of Pythias. He was master of Shawano Lodge, F. & A. M., in the year 1893, and is now a member of Centennial Lodge, of Oshkosh; of the New London Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, at New London, and of the Wolf River lodge, Knights of Pythias, Shawano. He is a charter member of the latter fraternity and was its first prelate.
Married to Clara Balch, at Iola, Waupaca county, on May 12, 1871, Mr. Goodrick has had three sons: Raleigh A. died, as stated, in 1896; Arthur B. was born at Northport, Waupaca county, September 3, 1874, graduated from the law school of the University of Wisconsin in 1895, and at once engaged in the practice of law with his father and elder brother, Raleigh, and is now a member of the firm of Goodrick & Good- rick. The firm is now composed of Edson J. Goodrick and Arthur B. Goodrick. The third son, Edson J., Jr., was born at New London June 2Ist, 1878, and died at Oshkosh April 10th, 1895.
MOSES HOOPER.
If there is one trait more than another which is characteristic of the sons of the Pine Tree state it is their love for outdoor life. They love the forests, the lakes, the rivers, and the mountains. Through sympathy with, they draw inspiration from their simplicity and fresh- ness, which leave their impress upon the souls of the children of Maine, however far they may wander from their native state. Therefore to say that Moses Hooper was born in the state of Maine is to indicate his fresh, hearty, unpretentious character. Ask him to explain the secret of his success, and he will tell you that so far as he has succeeded he attributes his professional standing to the fact that he has given his ex- clusive attention to the business of the law and kept his system in good working order by gratifying his taste for out-of-door life; that he de- lights to be about, on and in the water, and that fishing is his main
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diversion. His boyhood, as he observes, was fairly well apportioned between "hard work on the farm and going fishing," and it may not be amiss to add that his manhood has also been wisely divided between hard professional labors and boyhood recreations.
The son of Mary Foss and Moses Hooper, he was born upon his father's farm in Lyman, York county, Maine, January 21, 1835. As he looks to the future, not to the past. Mr. Hooper knows very little about his remote ancestry. He says he is more anxious about what kind of an ancestor he may prove to have been, than about who or what his ancestors were. He passed successively through the district schools of his native town, the Biddeford high school and the Yarmouth acad- emy, before he ventured beyond the borders of his state to Amherst college. He finished the freshman year, class of 1857, but returned to Maine and entered the sophomore class (1857) of Bowdoin college. In the meantime, however, he had studied law in the office of John M. Goodwin, of Biddeford, and, in 1856, had been admitted to the bar of York county, Maine. Then he had taken his partial collegiate course, and afterward attended the Yale law school.
Like many other men of Maine, Mr. Hooper gravitated to the lumber and lake regions of interior Wisconsin, commencing the practice of his profession at Neenah, in July, 1857. An experience of a few years, however, convinced him that it was in every way advantageous to have his home at the county seat, whither so much of his business took him. In July, 1863, he therefore removed to Oshkosh, where he has since resided, having since 1880 given his attention almost ex- clusively to riparian and water power cases. He thinks his work has been more useful in that line than it would have been in any other with- in his reach.
Mr. Hooper practiced alone during the first year of his residence in Wisconsin. In 1858-59 he associated himself with George B. Ed- monds: 1864-65 with Edwin A. Aldrich; 1866-67 with Henry Bailey; 1876-79 with Henry L. Buxton; 1881-82 with Sabine F. Berry; 1887-95 with Ben Hooper, and 1895 to date with Ben and Ed. M. Hooper, two of his sons.
Married in May, 1858, to Miss Caroline Bailey, of Parsonsfield,
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Maine, he has a family of five children-Albert B., Ben., Mary C., Ed. M. and Oren Hooper.
Mr. Hooper is independent in his opinions, whether political or re- ligious. His inclinations are toward the republican party, while occa- sionally tending toward the mugwump order, and on the tariff issue he is in sympathy with the democracy. He defines his religious affiliations to be those of a Unitarian Congregationalist.
H. B. HARSHAW.
H. B. Harshaw came to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 1851. He was born June 13, 1842, in Argyle, Washington county, New York. He was admitted to practice in 1875.
He enlisted in the army in April, 1861, was severely wounded and lost an arm. He was mustered out January 28, 1864. He is a republican, and has held the offices of clerk of the circuit court, postmaster of Osh- kosh and state treasurer for two terms.
EMMETT R. HICKS.
Emmett Reuben Hicks was born in Waukau, Winnebago county, Wisconsin, March 7, 1854. He was reared in the village of Omro, Wis- consin, and laid the foundation of his education in the local, common and high schools. He entered the University of Wisconsin in 1873 and was graduated in 1876, taking the degree of B. S .; taught high school at Waupun for three years and then became a student in the law school of the University of Wisconsin, graduating with the degree of LL. B. in 1880. He also took a course of special work at the same institution and received the degree of master of arts. In July, 1880, he located in Oshkosh and entered upon the practice of his profession, and has con- tinued in practice there until the present time. In 1888 Mr. Hicks be- came associated with M. C. Phillips; two years later J. C. Kleist joined the firm. In 1891 Mr. Kleist withdrew and moved to Milwaukee.
Politically Mr. Hicks has always been an ardent republican. He has always taken an active interest in political campaigns and as a speaker has spread knowledge of the principles of republicanism throughout his own and adjoining states. In August, 1898, he was
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nominated by the republican convention for the office of attorney gen- eral of Wisconsin, a position which he will fill with ability.
Mr. Hicks was married September 15, 1880, to Cynthia M. Reed. They are the parents of three children-Bert R., Luther R. and William E. Mr. Hicks is a member of the Methodist church, domestic in his tastes and habits, and has a liking for pastoral pursuits. He owns a farm near Oshkosh upon which he indulges in the raising of blooded Jersey cattle.
F. W. HOUGHTON.
Mr. Houghton is a native of Monroe county, New York. He was born in 1849. He came to Wisconsin in 1867, and in 1870 began a course of study at Lawrence university, Appleton, Wisconsin. He was graduated in 1876 with the first honors of his class. From 1876 to 1880 he acted as principal of the high school at Wausau. While thus employed he read law in the office of Silverthorn & Hurley, and during the summer of 1879 in the office of Carpenter & Smiths, of Milwaukee, and was admitted to the bar in that year. Since May, 1880, he has been successfully engaged in practice at Oshkosh.
JAMES C. KERWIN.
James C. Kerwin was born in the town of Menasha, Winnebago county, Wisconsin, May 4, 1850. His father, Michael Kerwin, a farmer by occupation, and his mother, whose name previous to her marriage was Mary Buckley, were both of Irish descent. Reared on a farm, the boyhood days of J. C. Kerwin were uneventful. He attended the con1- mon school of the neighborhood and later the Menasha high school, from which he was graduated. Choosing the law as a profession, he prepared himself for its practice by a course of study in the law school of the university of Wisconsin and was graduated in 1875. Returning to his native county, he opened an office in Neenah and was soon im- mersed in professional work. Mr. Kerwin brought to the practice of his profession a thorough legal education, natural endowments of a su- perior order and a peculiar aptitude for the niceties of the law. He applied himself with rare industry to his duties and made such an ex- cellent impression that his practice grew. with great rapidity, and his
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reputation as a lawyer of ability and thoroughness correspondingly in- creased.
The business of Mr. Kerwin has not been confined to any one par- ticular branch of the law. His name as attorney appears in some of the most important cases of the Fox river valley and northern Wisconsin, and in the outcome of his cases he has enjoyed a marked success. Not only has Mr. Kerwin been connected with the great and important liti- gation growing out of the water power of the Fox river valley, with all its numerous intricate questions of law and fact, involving large pe- cuniary interests, and opposed by lawyers of high standing, but he has successfully handled many lawsuits involving important questions of a legal character and requiring a wide knowledge of equity and com- mercial law. He is looked upon by the business men of his part of the state as a safe and conscientious counselor ; his integrity at the bar in the community stands unquestioned. Fearless in the conduct of a law- suit, he is always courteous to his opponents, but enjoys as well the high respect and good will of his associates. Although he has con- stantly resided in Neenah and has always been engaged in practice there, about 1889 he opened up an office in Milwaukee and still is en- gaged in practice in that city, where he has been connected with sev- eral law firms. He has become financially interested from time to time in real estate transactions and in manufacturing establishments. A republican in politics, he has never sought political office, and, with the exception of the position of city attorney, which he filled for ten or twelve years, he has constantly. declined to accept the nomination for any elective position.
Mr. Kerwin was married in 1877 to Helen Lawson, daughter of the late P. V. Lawson, one of the most active and progressive of the leading citizens of Menasha. Four daughters. Jessie, Alice, Grace and Doris, have blessed this marriage.
MILTON CUSHING PHILLIPS.
The subject of this sketch, Milton Cushing Phillips, of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, not yet in the prime of his manhood, is one of the foremost lawyers in the great state of Wisconsin. He was born at Royalton,
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Waupaca county, Wisconsin, July 25th, 1856, and was appointed in April, 1897, by President Mckinley as United States attorney for the eastern district of Wisconsin for a term of four years. His appointment was due to singular unanimity of request from representative men throughout the state, largely in recognition of his influence and ability in the service of the republican party.
He traces his descent from both Welsh and Dutch ancestors. His father, Bradford Phillips, had as his progenitors the intelligent, sturdy people of a branch of the ancient Britons, a colony of which settled at an early day in the vicinity of Turner, Maine.
The father emigrated to Wisconsin in 1849, and located on the Little Wolf river, in the center of the great lumbering industries of the state. His wife before marriage was Marion Eliza Hulse, a native of Pennsyl- vania and the second daughter of Lucian Hulse. She was of Dutch ancestry, and in childhood her parents removed to Appleton, Wiscon- sin. She received a good education, which, united to a naturally strong and intelligent mind, marked a woman of moral and spiritual character.
Bradford Phillips was not only an energetic business man, but a discriminating reader and an orator of natural ability. When the civil war was declared he promptly left his business and family, which con- sisted of our subject and a younger brother, Clarence R., and enlisted in company A, eighth regiment, Wisconsin volunteer infantry. This was the regiment and company that carried the famous war eagle "Old Abe" throughout its various marches and engagements. He was an orderly sergeant of the company and at the second battle of Corinth, on October 19th, 1862, died from exposure and sunstroke.
Mrs. Phillips, left with two children and resources that for lack of care and skill were soon wasted, maintained herself and family through the years of desolation and sorrow that followed, and is still the delight and comfort of her two sons. The untimely death seemed to close down for a time the horizon of a once most highly favored home.
Young manhood soon asserted itself, however, and after a few years of suffering and hardship the little home, like so many others, soon had the cheerful and tireless support of both boys. With the aid of the small pension, after attending the common school in the little village,
We Pickups
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Milton C. Phillips spent four years at Oberlin college in the scientific department. He left before completing the course, and became the first railway agent in his native town. On reaching his majority he began business in operating a cheese factory. He disposed of that en- terprise and for two years manufactured broom handles. Then· began the study of law in the office of Brown & Bump, of Waupaca, Wiscon- sin. Upon his admission to the bar he began practice at Clintonville, in his native county, where he remained five years.
His business training and experience proved of great service to him. By being prompt, courageous and a fighter he was soon found taking part in much of the contested litigation in the county. Having reached the limit of his opportunities, he removed to Oshkosh in 1884, prompted by a desire for a larger field. Soon after the firm of Gary, Phillips & Forward was formed. This continued for a year, and he formed a part- nership with E. R. Hicks, which continued until 1889, when the latter left the profession to engage in business.
For two years John Kleist was associated with him. In 1895 Mr. Hicks again became a partner and the firm is at present made up of the two men. Their business is largely corporation and insurance law.
As an instance of this, soon after the city of Phillips was destroyed by fire Mr. Phillips was retained to recover the insurance from about forty companies that declined payment.
The suits involved many thousands of dollars, and the firm was so uniformly successful that it was retained by a number of insurance com- panies.
In politics Mr. Phillips has been a republican, being chosen in 1894 and 1896 as chairman of the county committee. During the four years when he was at the head of its affairs he so perfected the organi- zation as to lift the county from the doubtful political column into that which was safely republican. He is a Mason, a member of the orders of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias and a leading member of the Presbyterian church.
Before marriage, in 1879, Mrs. Phillips was Marcia H. Eastman, daughter of Rev. M. L. Eastman, who as an evangelist and pastor of a Congregational church in northern New York attained much prom-
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inence. In 1870, with a family of eight children, he removed to the west. It is remarkable that all the children were college graduates. Two became lawyers, one a physician and one a minister. The two older girls were teachers in the south after the war and were afterwards connected with reform school work in St. Louis. Rev. S. E. Eastman, the eldest son, and his wife (nee Annie Ford) are joint pastors of Rev. Lyman Beecher's old church at Elmira. New York. It will be ad- mitted that this is a record of which any family might be proud.
Mr. and Mrs. Phillips have five children-Bradford, Ermin J., Philip, Lewis and Miriam Helen.
Mrs. Phillips is an ideal mother and wife, and the home over which she presides is the charm of all who enter it. Mr. Phillips is a great student and is broadening his education with special study as faithfully as the most systematic use of the time of a busy life will admit. We know well the destiny of such a man as this in this land of opportunities.
JOHN J. WOOD, JR.
A characteristic of the typical New Englander is his firmness, his steadfastness, his dislike of change, and his ability to fashion his career from his surrounding circumstances and the forces at hand. And this characteristic is seldom weakened, even when the eastern stock is trans- planted to the west, before the third or fourth generation is reached.
This fact is well illustrated in the life of John J. Wood, Jr., of Berlin, who comes of sturdy Vermont ancestry and a line of revolutionary he- roes. One of his ancestors joined the army of the revolution when he was fifteen years of age-a Green Mountain boy worthy of being kept in proud remembrance.
Jonathan Wood, the father of John J., was born in 1792, at Hart- ford, Washington county, N. Y., and was a millwright by trade. His wife, Lucy R. Murrell, was a native of Vermont, being born in Windsor county, in 1794. When Ohio was the frontier country of the great west they emigrated thither, where the father took his place among the fore- most of the practical pioneers of that region. He located at Hamilton and here, in 1824, was born his son, John Jay Wood. The son followed in the footsteps of his father and became a skilled millwright, and sub-
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sequently took no small share in the industrial development of the young state of Wisconsin. In 1851, when Mr. Wood came to Wis- consin, it had enjoyed the honors of statehood three years, but its stand- ing, industrially and commercially, was not yet assured, and in the building of its early flouring mills and other pioneer work in the interior of the state he is entitled to his full share of credit for laying the founda- tion of its present prosperity.
Soon after coming to Wisconsin, Mr. Wood located at Neshkoro, Marquette county. Here his son, John J. Wood, Jr., was born on the 13th of February, 1859, and here also, in 1865, his wife, Joanna Sand- ers, passed away. She was a native of New York state, born in 1832. John J. Wood, Sr., still lives at Berlin, a retired and respected business man and pioneer citizen; John J. Wood, Jr., an active, successful law- yer and man of affairs.
The latter was educated in the common schools of Marquette and Waushara counties and made such progress that during his seventeenth and his eighteenth years he taught for several terms-a portion of the time in a ward school of Fond du Lac. He had early chosen the legal profession, however, as his life work, and he entered the law office of R. L. D. Potter, Wautoma, and later was with John C. Truesdell, of Berlin, and George P. Knowles, of Fond du Lac (now of Superior).
Soon after attaining his majority (September 21st, 1880) Mr. Wood was admitted to the bar, at Wautoma, and in January, 1882, removed to Berlin for the practice of his profession. Here he has since resided and by his ability, faithfulness and industry has made his mark pro- fessionally, politically and financially. He has been a prominent figure in much of the important litigation of recent years in Green Lake county and in other parts of the state, being a keen, successful trial lawyer.
That he has also been a leader in the politics ånd public affairs in that part of the state is evident from the facts that he has served as mayor of Berlin for four years, city attorney for seven years, and also as school commissioner and supervisor of Green Lake county. In 1896 he was selected as a delegate to the national democratic convention.
Mr. Wood has found time in the midst of his pressing professional
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and public duties to become identified with various enterprises of a financial and utilitarian character. He was an organizer and is now vice president of the Waushara telephone company, and is a stockholder in the First national bank of Berlin. He is also a prominent member of the A. F. & A. M., having been master of the local lodge for eight years.
He was married on February 15th, 1887, to Hattie E. Ottoway, and they have two children living-Ella Lucille and Anna Belle.
BENJAMIN J. SWEET.
Benjamin J. Sweet was a native of New York. He was born in 1832. Nothing is known of the history of his life before his advent to Wisconsin, but a slight casual acquaintance furnished ample evidence that his early education had not been neglected, and that in some way he had become thoroughly grounded in the principles of common law.
At an early age he settled as a lawyer at Manitowoc, where he re- mained but a short time, and soon after permanently settled at Chilton, in Calumet county, where he continued to reside in the successful prac- tice of his profession until the war of the rebellion. In 1860 he was elected to the senate from the 19th district, consisting of the counties of Calumet and Manitowoc. He served one session and resigned to enter the army. In 1861 he was appointed colonel of the twenty-first regiment Wisconsin infantry. At the battle of Chaplin Hills he was se- verely wounded and rendered unfit for further active service, and, upon his recovery, was placed in command of Camp Douglas, near Chicago. He retired from the service with the brevet rank of brigadier general, and was subsequently made pension agent at Chicago. He removed to Washington to fill the office of deputy supervisor of internal revenue, and died there on the first of January, 1874.
CHARLES A. WEISBROD.
Charles A. Weisbrod was born in Prussia in 1822; graduated from the Berlin university. After being engaged in civil engineering for several years he read law and was admitted to its practice. He settled at Oshkosh in 1849, and resided there until his death, May 21, 1876.
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He possessed the confidence of the people of his locality and was called to fill positions of honor and trust; was a member of the board of normal school regents at the time of his death.
BEN HOOPER.
Benjamin Foss Hooper, son of Moses and Caroline (Bailey) Hooper, was born at Neenah, Wisconsin, January, 13, 1861. He attended the common schools of Oshkosh and, having decided to enter the legal profession, he studied law in his father's office and in the Columbia law school of New York city. July 18. 1887, he was admitted to the bar in Oshkosh and the following September joined his father in the organiza- tion of the firm of Hooper & Hooper. In 1895 Ed M. Hooper, a younger brother, was admitted to the copartnership, but the firm name remained unchanged. The name of Hooper & Hooper is identified with many of the most important cases of northern Wisconsin, many of which grew out of disputes over the riparian rights and use of the water power of the Fox, Oconto, Sheboygan, Wisconsin and Wolf rivers. The records of the state and United States courts show that to a large extent the attention of the firm has been occupied in this class of causes.
Politically, Mr. Hooper is a democrat. He was married May 30, 1888, to Miss Jessie Jack, of New Hampton, Iowa. They have one child, a daughter, Lorna.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE FOURTH CIRCUIT, ITS JUDGES AND LAWYERS.
The constitution placed the counties of Brown, Manitowoc, Sheboy- gan, Fond du Lac, Winnebago and Calumet in the fourth circuit. The first judge was Alex. W. Stow, who was also the first chief justice of the state supreme court. The subsequent judges were William R. Gors- line, David Taylor, Campbell McLean and N. S. Gilson. In January, 1899, the sixth person to sit on the bench of that circuit will assume his judicial duties-Michael Kirwan. Up to the time of writing this the fourth circuit has had a smaller number of judges than either of the five circuits formed by the constitution except the fifth.
Sketches of the lives of Judges Stow, Howe and Taylor are given in other chapters; those of the lives of the other judges follow. As now constituted the circuit comprises the counties of Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, Manitowoc and Kewaunee.
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