USA > Wisconsin > History of the bench and bar of Wisconsin, Vol. II > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
During the war he was an enthusiastic friend of the Union. In the summer of 1864 he made a trip to Washington to visit the Wis- consin troops encamped there and to see the President. He was intro- duced to President Lincoln by ex-governor and subsequently Postmas- ter General Randall, who said "he never saw two men enjoy a visit together more than the President and Judge Mills. They sat there, one with his feet on the table, the other with his leg thrown over the arm of the sofa, argued, talked and told stories to their mutual satis- faction and his infinite delight."
Indeed the two had much in common; their Virginian ancestry, their Kentucky birth and their Illinois residence made them mutually familiar with many traditions. There was a certain kinship in their natures,
I68
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
too-their self-reliance, cheerful temperaments and their unswerving belief in a Divine Providence.
With characteristic modesty, Judge Mills sent his account of the in- terview to the Grant County Herald; but it was not allowed to remain there. President Lincoln had said too many momentous things to permit the letter to be confined to the limited circulation of a local newspaper. The New York Tribune reprinted it first in the columns of a regular issue and then in pamphlet form for circulation during the impending presidential campaign, where it exercised a stupendous in- fluence as embodying President Lincoln's undoubted views and aims.
Judge Mills was a profound scholar. He kept up with the advanced mathematics, buying most of the new text books as they came out. He was familiar not only with the ancient classics but read and spoke French, German and Spanish. He learned the last named after he was seventy years old. One of his latest efforts was to memorize the Bible in German. He was, too, a wonderful teacher, and scores of young men and women got their education under him or were inspired by him to get it elsewhere. There were years when very few young men went from Lancaster to any college who had not had some training from Judge Mills. These were among the busiest years of his life profes- sionally, too, but he had that art of all arts in a teacher of helping just enough to stimulate and encourage the pupil to renewed labor and in- vestigation. His former pastor, Rev. S. W. Eaton, said of him in his funeral discourse: "He was a man of extraordinary keenness and orig- inality of intellect. Intercourse with him was refreshing and stimulat- ing. He was continually starting new lines of thought that charmed or electrified the listener by their originality and vigor. His was not a mind to follow beaten paths, but rather to blaze new routes of investi- gation."
His English writing was always embellished by classical allusions and not infrequently his legal briefs were racy reading. Passages in the case Carley vs. Sylvester occur to the writer. Without outlining the contention, I quote a paragraph: "The evidence shows that he continued this battle for eighteen days-the longest fight on record. Now may we not beseechingly ask the supreme court to point out what
169
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
possible defense his honor. has allowed to defendants? Has he not bottled them up hermetically? General Butler would understand the doleful situation. His honor has not only driven defendants to the last ditch, but plunged them into it, closed its yawning jaws over them and written this seventh instruction for their epitaph. Was Brigham Young, whose coffin was enclosed in huge slabs of granite bound to- gether with bolts of iron, more securely ensepulchered? But Carley was determined that the water from this tail-race should not run through his lot; whenever he saw it he was seized with a fit of hydrophobia."
The briefs in the long-contested case of McLimans vs. the city of Lancaster sparkle with witticisms: "One would think from reading the plaintiff's testimony that but for the broken plank in defendant's side- walk her health and form would now be as robust and youthful as that of Mother Eve on her first soiree in Paradise. All physical decay must thereafter be attributed to that Pandora's box. But for it she might be the companion of the undying wandering Jew."
The plaintiff complained that vomiting, pain in her spine, paralysis, sciatica, cramps and deafness followed her injury, and he remarked: "Dr. Clark says it was a small wound, three-fourths of an inch by two inches, and it is hardly credible that such a long train of diseases could have entered her system through so small an opening. On behalf of the broken board, persecuted and maligned as it has been, we have already proven an alibi. Neither Samson or Milton or Homer was blinder than she on that night of nights."
His mind ran naturally to apt but unusual similes. He described the famous cross on the Mount of the Holy Cross in Colorado as re- sembling a "parson's white necktie." The breaking of the waves on Lake Michigan into "white caps" reminded him of the "popping of hot corn." When, during the war, he wished to cross the Potomac and visit the Union army, and, after having submitted to the innumerable requirements of government officials, was awaiting his turn to have his pass made out, he thinks of "the penniless souls about Charon's boat waiting to be ferried over the Styx."
A road which had been repaired according to the method of work-
170
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
ing out the road tax in vogue in country districts he describes thus: "Considered in a military point of view, as a defensive work it is un- exceptionable. It would have halted Gen. Sherman's army."
Judge Mills was fond of outdoor life and in his younger days was a great hunter, walker and swimmer. He walked from Lancaster to Madison many times, before the days of railroads, sending his books and papers by stage. In 1856 he, with only an Indian guide, walked from St. Paul to Lake Superior, taking that as his summer recreation.
He was a man of intensely religious nature and was one of the founders of the Congregational church in Lancaster. One of his favor- ite arguments for the truth of Christianity was that no Jew at the time of Christ could have conceived of such a life and character without the model which was presented by the hero of the New Testament.
It is much to be regretted that Judge Mills' inclinations never per- mitted him to write the history of his own times. His genial nature and sense of humor could not have failed to make such a narrative attractive.
He belonged to an age which has few representatives left. He, in his youth, knew soldiers of the revolution as we know soldiers of the civil war. He remembered his grandfather, who was a personal ac- quaintance of the parties, telling that Parson Weems and Madame Washington used to sit by her big Virginia fireplace both smoking their corn-cob pipes, and in that "tobacco parliament" were narrated and transcribed the stories about the illustrious father of his country which are now the property of every American schoolboy. He remembered that General Taylor, when at Fort Crawford, was so illiterate that when a new manual was issued he had to have an orderly read the commands for him. Hosts of such anecdotes he knew, regarding men of an earlier period and illustrating a phase of our national life which is past and can never be repeated.
For the purpose of indicating some of Judge Mills' peculiarities and the estimate of him entertained by those who knew him best in a pro- fessional capacity, though at the risk of repeating what has been so well written of him at the editor's request, quotation will be made from the resolutions of the bar of the fifth circuit commemorative of him and
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
also from Mr. Justice Pinney's response to those resolutions and the address of A. R. Bushnell on the occasion of their presentation to the supreme court. The resolutions referred to expressed that "Judge Mills was a learned and able lawyer and an upright judge. No suspi- cion of corruption ever attached to his decisions, or any of his actions, public or private. He was essentially a student all his long life; and not of the law merely, but of the classics, the higher mathematics, and of the leading modern languages. He was often called ec- centric. In his pleas in court he sometimes seemed to ramble, but the opponent who counted on his omitting an essential point in his case reckoned without his host. And his apparent vagaries were often found to parry or cover a vital thrust. He was a man of extremely temperate and abstemious habits. He did not live to eat and drink, but always ate and drank to live. Thus he avoided the excess and temptations before which so many of his contemporaries at the bar of this circuit fell, and he survived them all, except Judge Cole.
"He cared little for dress or money. Such a thing as a silk hat or a broadcloth suit never adorned his person. They would have been entirely out of place with all thought of Judge Mills. Comfort and convenience in clothing were the chief requisites with him. The at- tractions of wealth had no power over him. The winning of his case in court was of infinitely more importance than the pay it might bring him. His wants were few and easily supplied. Good books were his chief delight, and in all sorts of lore he reveled.
"The consideration of Judge Mills as a lawyer would be incomplete without notice of his kindness and condescension to the younger mem- bers of the bar. No young attorney ever applied to him for aid without obtaining from him ready and cheerful assistance. He gave to them freely from the rich stores of his legal knowledge just what they needed, without thought of pay or charge."
Justice Pinney, speaking for the court, dwelt upon and indicated some of Judge Mills' traits in an interesting manner: "His life was full of interesting incidents and adventure, which accorded well with the temperament and tendencies of one born and reared near the dark and bloody ground of Indian warfare in Kentucky. For the most part,
172
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
however, his life ran in even and natural channels and in the midst of surroundings favorable to earnest study, vigorous thought and quiet contemplation. He was a devoted student and a bold and original thinker. His habits were simple and plain; he cared little for dress or money, and was indeed quite an original character, giving little heed to the acquisition of wealth or the established ways and methods of social life in older and more fashionable communities. He was ec- centric in thought and action. He was not only a great student, but an omnivorous reader, and kept well abreast with modern ideas, theories and current events. He was a man of originality and inde- pendence of thought; one who sought out his own lines of investiga- tion and did his own thinking. He was essentially a radical-a re- former prompt to arraign and question any abuse, however venerable and however formidable or numerous its supporters. He was prone to start new theories and lines of thought, surprising a listener frequently by their originality and the vigor and address with which they were
presented. He will long be remembered as an interesting and instructive companion. He was of a kind and sunny disposition. Long study and extensive reading had made him a full man, not only entertaining, but instructive. As a lawyer, he was especially thorough and efficient. He excelled in argument in the court of last resort, where he often converted defeat at the circuit into substantial victory. As a trial lawyer he was noted for his tact and good management, which, with his knowledge of human nature and a ready fund of wit and anecdote, rendered him a formidable antagonist. He did not mani- fest any ambition for political preferment or any desire to reap the higher rewards of professional effort or skill, but instead of seeking employment in cases involving matters of commerce, manufacturing and corporate rights and interests, he was content with what fell to' his lot as a village or rural lawyer, without any especial effort to extend or make his practice specially lucrative. He did not appear to care for money save as a means of satisfying reasonable wants. His arguments at the bar were characterized by vigor and clearness, and made enter- taining by the witty and humorous conceits and repartees with which his efforts abounded. He was kindly and obliging to his fellows and
/
-
Geo. Clementson
I73
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
respectful and deferential to the court. He was found a faith- ful and efficient public servant in all the various trusts with which, during his long life, the people frequently honored him. He was a learned and able lawyer and an upright judge."
Judge Mills was buried at Lancaster, Wisconsin. According to his well-known wishes, the exercises were in charge of the bar of his old circuit, and were attended by many members from outside the county. The funeral address was delivered by Rev. S. W. Eaton, who had been his pastor for forty years, and an intimate friend for a longer time. The church was crowded by his old friends and neighbors who testified by their sorrow that an honored and beloved friend had departed from among them.
· Judge Mills' successor was M. M. Cothren, who was also his prede- cessor, and whose life has already been sketched. Judge Cothren was succeeded by
GEORGE CLEMENTSON.
George Clementson, judge of the fifth circuit, was born in Rich- mond, Yorkshire, England, March 13, 1842; he came to Wisconsin in the spring of 1849, and, with his parents, located at Hazel Green, Grant county; there he attended the public schools and an academy until he was seventeen years of age. His next experience was in the shop of his father, a wagon maker, where he worked until the fall of 1865, using his leisure time in study. The savings of his earnings en- abled him to enter the law department of the university of Michigan, where he was a student for the college year of 1865-66. The exhaus- tion of his means precluded his remaining any longer; he returned home and resumed work in his father's shop, where he remained until the fall of 1867, when he entered the law office of J. Allen Barber at Lan- caster as a student. In March, 1868, he was admitted to the bar. No opportunity presenting itself for employment in a subordinate posi- tion in a law office, which was desired as a means of obtaining support and acquiring practical familiarity with the law and its practice, Mr. Clementson again returned to his trade. In 1868 he was elected dis- trict attorney of Grant county and re-elected two years later. In Jan- uary, 1869, he became a resident of Lancaster and has ever since resided
174
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
there; in November of that year he formed a partnership with J. Allen Barber, which continued until the latter's death in June, 1881. The election of Mr. Barber to Congress in 1870 gave Mr. Clementson all the business he could dispatch, and from that time until he became circuit judge his practice was large.
In 1882 Mr. Clementson was elected circuit judge over M. M. Cothren, and twice since that time has been re-elected without opposi- tion. In 1895 he was a non-partisan candidate for justice of the su- preme court, but was unsuccessful. Subsequently, after the death of Chief Justice Orton, he was strongly urged, without his consent, for ap- pointment to that position, and the presentation made to the governor by his friends was such as to receive very serious consideration. In 1898, after the death of Judge Newman, lawyers from various sections of the state, without any suggestion from Judge Clementson and with- out its being known whether he desired the appointment or not, urged his selection. This was done solely in recognition of his fitness for that office, the conviction of his fitness resting on his record as circuit judge. Circumstances based on considerations in no wise inconsistent with his generally admitted qualifications for that office led to the ap- pointment of another in each of these instances.
The writer of this sketch has known Mr. Clementson almost all his life, and entertains such admiration for him as a man, lawyer and judge that it is difficult to write of him with that moderation which should characterize these pages when consideration is being had of the living. The fact that he has three times been chosen judge of his circuit, twice without opposition, is significant of his standing with the legal profes- sion and people of one of the oldest circuits in the state, and one which is second to none in the independence of its bar and the intelligence of its people. The fact must stand in lieu of further words of commenda- tion.
In politics Mr. Clementson has always been a republican, and before he became judge he was active in advocating the claims of that party before the electors. In 1877 he was tendered by the late Horace Rublee, then chairman of the republican state central committee, the nomination for attorney general, the nominee of the convention, Wil-
175
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
liam E. Carter, having declined. At that time Mr. Clementson's health was not robust, and he could not accept the candidacy. At a later time an effort was made to induce him to become dean of the college of law of the state university. Personal considerations induced him to decline that position. Since he has been upon the bench he has put aside all suggestions of political preferment. He has served as mayor of Lancaster and three times been chairman of the county board of supervisors.
Mr. Clementson is not a member of any organization, church or society. He attends the Congregational church and is a trustee thereof. He was married in May, 1869; to Mary Asendath Burr, a niece of J. Allen Barber and a descendant of Aaron Burr. Mrs. Clementson was born at Fairfield, Vermont. To them four children have been born: George Burr, Joseph Addison, Martha B. and Bessie B. The first is a graduate of Cornell university; he pursued the study of law under his father's direction and is now practicing at Lancaster; the other son is practicing medicine at Mineral Point; Martha B. died in 1889, aged fourteen years; Bessie is a student at Rockford college.
At the request of the editor, a gentleman who has practiced at the bar for more than twenty years, and who is well qualified by experience and a clear, discriminating mind to do so has furnished his estimate of Judge Clementson as a trial judge. After referring to the fact that his practice had taken him before quite a number of the trial judges of this and other states, he says that, all things considered, "I deem Judge Clementson the best trial judge I have ever been before. His mind is well trained and mature. He is extremely quick to see a point and usually correct in its application. His own pure mind shines out through and dominates his decisions as judge. As the intent of a tes- tator is the guiding star in the construction of a will, to which every other rule must yield, so with Judge Clementson a desire to do justice in each particular case is the guiding star of his action. This leads him at times to endeavor to evade some plain principle of law, but this is always done in order to work out justice in the case under considera- tion. An example of this can be found in the case of Fiedler vs. Howard, in the 75 N. W. R., 163, recently decided. In fact, nearly all
176
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
of his reversals in the supreme court result from this course on his part rather than from a misunderstanding of the law. In his manner of disposing of business he is very expeditious. This fact is well known by the bar throughout the entire state, and I think it safe to say that he will dispose of more business in a week than the average judge will in two weeks. From this desire to dispatch business arises what may be considered a fault in his make-up as a trial judge. His mind is so acute and acts with such rapidity that he sees a point and discovers the vital spot in a case as if by intuition, and so frequently has decided a case be- fore his less fortunate brother who is trying the case as counsel and whose mind moves less rapidly, has been able to grasp the real, vital point of the case. This frequently gives rise to a charge that the judge has taken sides. In fact, he has not done so any more than every judge takes sides in deciding any case where he is only actuated by a desire to do justice, and at the same time dispatch business be- fore them with promptness. In his charges to the jury he is usually brief and expresses himself clearly and concisely, in language readily understood by men of ordinary intelligence. His principal fault as a judge is in endeavoring to do what might be called neighborhood jus- tice, and to brush aside all technicalities or rules of law that stand in the way of effecting this result. While this frequently leads him into error, and induces him to go farther than our supreme court is inclined to follow him, yet it more frequently leads him into right action than would a more labored and logical course of technical reasoning from which was absent the element of human sympathy and love of right."
THE BAR.
LEVI H. BANCROFT.
Levi H. Bancroft is a native of Wisconsin, having been born on a farm in the town of Bear Creek, in Sauk county, on the 26th day of December, 1860. The family antedates the revolution on both his father's and his mother's side.
His father, George I. Bancroft, was a son of Levi Bancroft and Jane (Ball) Bancroft, of New York. Leaving New York state for the great
·
177
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
west in 1855, he settled on the farm where our subject was born, and in 1859 was united in marriage with Helen Randolph, of Winnebago county, Illinois. The Bancrofts are of English origin, dating back to the time of Elizabeth, Richard Bancroft, archbishop of Canterbury, being an ancestor of the American family of that name. Helen Ban- croft, the mother of L. H. Bancroft, is a direct descendant of Peter Ran- dolph, who emigrated from Scotland to New Amsterdam prior to the English conquest, and who was the ancestor of the Virginia Randolphs. On her mother's side she is a great-granddaughter of Lieut. Rufus Hurlbut, who was killed September 6th, 1781, at Fort Griswold, at the time of the capture of New London, Connecticut, by the English expedition under Benedict Arnold, during the American revolution.
Levi H. Bancroft received his early education in the common schools, and in 1880 graduated from the high school at Lone Rock, Wisconsin. After two years' experience as a teacher in the Lone Rock schools he entered the law department of the university of Wisconsin and was graduated therefrom in the class of 1885, and in 1886 opened an office for the practice of his profession at Richland Center, Wiscon- sin. His career at the bar has been exceptionally brilliant. He has been associated with a number of important cases, among which his de- fense in the famous Zoldoske poisoning case may be mentioned; beaten in the courts, he promptly carried his case to the executive, and after three unsuccessful applications finally succeeded in obtaining a full pardon for his client.
Mr. Bancroft has served two years as district attorney for Rich- land county and five years as city attorney for the city of Richland Center, and in 1897 was appointed county judge for the full term of four years, which position he now holds.
In politics he is a republican, and, having served his party on the stump in every campaign since 1886, under the direction of the state and national committees, he enjoys a wide reputation as a public speaker and is considered one of the most eloquent men in the state.
Mr. Bancroft became a member of the Masonic fraternity in 1882 and of the Knights of Pythias in 1894. He was married in 1890 to Miss Myrtle DeLap, daughter of Dr. R. H. DeLap, formerly a member Vol. II .- 12
178
HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF WISCONSIN.
of the state legislature and one of the leading citizens of the county.
Acknowledged one of the leading attorneys of the state, his position has been won by remarkable energy and acknowledged ability. His practice, already one of the most lucrative and extensive in south- western Wisconsin, is yearly increasing.
J. ALLEN BARBER.
Joel Allen Barber was born at Georgia, Franklin county, Vermont, January 17, 1809; he was "raised on a farm" until his eighteenth year, when he entered the Georgia academy to fit for college; in 1829 he en- tered the university of Vermont, but did not complete the course, having left at the end of two years and a half; read law at Burlington; taught school two years in Prince George's county, Maryland, and was admitted to the bar there in 1834; returned to Vermont and practiced law at Fairfield until 1837; in September of that year became a resident of Wisconsin, settling at Lancaster, Grant county, where he resided all his subsequent life.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.