USA > Wisconsin > History of the bench and bar of Wisconsin, Vol. II > Part 22
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That his business instincts are of a very high order has been fully recognized in his community. In business matters he is cautious and prudent; he is a large stockholder in the Benton state bank of La Fay- ette county; in the Badger Land and Mining company, of which he is president ; the Champion Mining company, besides having accumulated considerable other property.
His wife, to whom he was married in 1885, is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Martin and a native of La Fayette county. She is a modest and accomplished lady and is held in high esteem.
She is an ardent worker in the Congregational church, of which she is a devoted member; she is also a member of the woman's relief corps, Eastern Star lodge, and of the lodge of Rathbone Sisters: of the latter she is at present the presiding officer.
Mr. Wilson is a man of ability, is very zealous and usually success-
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ful in all of his undertakings, and is exceedingly popular. In fact, he is a self-made man.
MOSES M. STRONG.
Moses M. Strong died after a short illness, upon the 20th day of July, 1894, in the city of Mineral Point, his home for fifty-eight years.
The following memorial of his life and character was prepared by the committee appointed by the bar association for that purpose:
Moses M. Strong was born in Rutland, Vermont, May 20th, 1810, and graduated from Dartmouth college in 1829, and was admitted to the bar of Connecticut a few years later. In 1836 he was engaged by Governor Hubbard and others to invest large sums of money in gov- ernment lands and, for that purpose, he went directly to Mineral Point, Wisconsin, and upon his arrival there he opened a law and land office, and from that time that place was his home. In 1837 he was ap- pointed government surveyor of lands west of the Mississippi, and in 1838 he was appointed United States attorney for the territory of Wis- consin. He was a member of the legislative council in 1842 and 1843 and was president of that body. He was a member of the assembly in 1850, and was speaker of that body. He was a delegate to the con- stitutional convention in 1846 and a member of the assembly in 1857.
In 1852 he came to be largely interested and acted in promoting the railroad interests of the state. and for several years he was not in the actual practice of his profession of law. He returned, however, to his profession, and for more than thirty years he devoted most of his time to the practice of it.
At the organization of the state bar association in 1878 he was elected its president, which office he held until a short time prior to his death, when he resigned it.
He has been president of the bar association of the fifth judicial cir- cuit during the entire professional lives of all of us.
In 1885 he was appointed a member of the state board of law ex- aminers, and he held the position until his death, and in the intervals, when business and professional duties did not interfere, he wrote the history of Wisconsin in its territorial days. The appreciation of this
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Moses M. Strong
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work may be seen in the legislature ordering an edition for distribution among the public schools of the state.
He was a lawyer of great ability. His mind was strong, logical and analytical. His early training in the law was thorough, and his knowl- edge of the fundamental principles of our jurisprudence was exhaustive. As an advocate he had few superiors. Some of his successes in legal advocacy, though best known to the generation to which he belonged, are historic; and we have all heard him and admired his skill and power in presenting the cause of his client. His practice was not a general practice. The infinite details of such practice would have been irksome and unendurable to him. His cases were few and important. If not in themselves, his employment in them made them so. As a lawyer, he was fair and honorable with his opponent, but asked and granted few favors. Legal controversy with him was real warfare, and not sham battling, and, like a successful general, he knew and fully appreciated his enemy's position and strength. He possessed great independence and was very persistent. His greatest failing in life was his inability to work in concert with others. He saw his object with great clearness and put forth great power and tact in its accomplishment, but in asso- ciating himself with others, so as to secure the effect of combined ef- forts, he was not successful.
He pretended to nothing he was not. In his politics there was no trace of the demagogue. In his profession he was no pretender, and in religion no hypocrite. He promised carefully and performed promptly and punctiliously. Socially, he was naturally reserved and exclusive, but with his professional associates he was genial and a most pleasant companion. He was not an orator in the highest sense. Yet he was a most forcible and convincing speaker. His close reasoning and clear and logical statements of facts, with great suavity and tact, won him honors at the bar and at the hustings which will be lasting. He was not only qualified for, but would have adorned the bench, and would have filled most creditably any political position. But he fought his legal, political and personal battles without fear and without the thought of consequence to himself. This fearlessness made him enemies as well as friends, and destroyed in a measure his availability for official prefer-
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ment, while his independence and marked delicacy in seeking his own personal advancement tended largely to close to him the avenues of official distinction.
One of his strangest characteristics was the fact that success never greatly elated or defeat depressed him. This was in consequence of his entire freedom from prejudice. He took in the whole situation can- didly and philosophically, and if the result disappointed him he at once adapted himself to the new condition, without rancor or revengeful pur- pose. He was never on the heights or in the depths. He was without vanity, the result of undue exaltation, and without vindictiveness, the outcome sometimes of undue depression.
The dignified reserve which marked and defined his social relations belonged by natural right to this trait of character of which we speak.
They are ever found together, but not without sympathy and cour- tesy when the heart is reached. The one who could by some right enter the chambers of his mind found therein the warm sympathy, the ready help, the charity in his need, which others, differently constituted, waste in superficial and demonstrative friendship upon a thoughtless world. There was an absence of display in his benevolences and kindly assistance to others, a concealing of self in the grandeur of the act. This is a kind of reserve we all love, and it relieves Mr. Strong from the suspicion of selfish indifference to others. This conservative element in his character explains his political bias. Without saying that he was right in his interpretations, yet we know that he looked upon the democratic party as occupying this middle ground through which he ever walked, and, although his father and relatives were whigs, he cut loose from those associations and joined the democratic party, and the characteristics which have so ruled his life, kept him not only strong in his political faith, but free from extremes in feeling and policy. He was not a success as a politician. He belonged to the old school, be- lieved in the intelligence of the people, and in frequent recurrence to and a clear understanding of the principles of our government, and of their application to our political affairs.
In this way we would interpret his religious life and bias. The Epis- copal church, to his mind, occupied the middle ground of his devo-
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tion. Early in life he organized an Episcopal church in Vermont, and when he came to Mineral Point he was with the first in organizing the Trinity parish, of which he became a member and a vestryman. For many years he was a parish delegate to the diocesan convention, and at the last one he attended, just before his death, he was appointed chan- cellor, and of this honor he told the bishop that he regarded it among the very first he had ever received. This speech will indicate his de- votion to the church and his interest in diocesan matters.
There are other traits of which we could speak if the occasion af- forded the latitude. His generous support of his church and her char- ities, his uniform integrity and fair dealing, his independence of char- acter and self-reliance, all should have more than a passing notice, but they have entered into the history of the parish which he served so long and well, and into the history of the town where he had his home for more than half a century; and into the history of the state, and so we need not dwell upon them. They are well known and by them his memory will live.
The end was fitting the life and character. No idle years, no slow, mortal decay. A few days' sickness from heart trouble, which came almost without warning and pain-then the rest and peace of death- and the familiar face and figure of Moses M. Strong, which thousands for years have been accustomed to see; was missed in his haunts of life.
"The death-change comes, Death's another life. We bow our heads At going out, we think, and enter straight, Another golden chamber of the King's, Larger than this we leave, and lovelier. The Will of God is all in all. He makes, Destroys, re-makes, for his own pleasure all."
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.
The first term of the circuit court of Crawford county was held by Judge Jackson at Prairie du Chien, commencing Nov. 13th, 1848. In the first civil case on the docket (William S. Hungerford et al. vs. Caleb Cushing) Charles Dunn and F. J. Dunn appeared as solicitors for the complainant.
During Judge Jackson's occupation of the bench, D. H. Johnson
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commenced the practice of law, residing at Prairie du Chien. Some time in 1862 or 1863 he removed to Madison, and from there to Mil- waukee, where he has been for many years judge of the circuit court. When in practice at Prairie du Chien he was in partnership with Walter R. Bullock, a nephew of John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky. At the commencement of the late civil war Mr. Bullock went south and entered the Confederate army as captain, was wounded in battle, and after the war located in Baltimore, Maryland, where he practiced until his death in 1886.
Judge Knowlton held his first term in Crawford county (which had been transferred to the 6th circuit) in November, 1850. About this time the following named attorneys came to Prairie du Chien and com- menced the practice of law: Samuel Cowden, who was elected district attorney; Benjamin Bull, who, in 1865, was elected state senator; Rufus King, who was a partner of Mr. Bull, and who afterward went into the army during the war of the rebellion, locating in Chicago at its close; A. C. Phillips, who came from the state of Maine and who in a few years returned to that state on account of ill-health; B. E. Hutchinson, who was in partnership with Willard Merrill as Hutchinson & Merrill. Mr. Hutchinson was for a while in the army, represented Crawford county in the assembly and afterward moved to Madison where he now resides. Willard Merrill removed to Janesville, and afterwards became connected with the Northwestern Life Insurance Co., of Milwaukee, of which he is still an officer.
In 1845 Leander Le Clerc, a Canadian Frenchman, came to Prairie du Chien and opened a law office. He was a very bright man and had a large practice, chiefly among the French residents.
A. V. and A. S. Blair began practice in 1857, as partners, but in a few years removed from the state.
Alpheus Wright practiced law in Prairie du Chien for a short time in the fifties, but later removed to Colorado.
At the May term, 1858, Benjamin F. Hunt was admitted as an at- torney and became a member of the firm of Johnson & Bullock. Mr. Hunt was from Ohio and was an eloquent advocate. He removed in 1867 to Clayton county, Iowa, where he became circuit judge.
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Ed. D. Lowry came to Wisconsin in 1854 and formed a partnership with J. Allen Barber at Lancaster. In the fall of 1861 he went into the army, but in the summer of 1862 he returned to Lancaster and shortly thereafter opened a branch office at Prairie du Chien. He continued to represent the firm of Barber & Lowry at Prairie du Chien until the fall of 1863 when he again enlisted, serving with the army until his death, June 2d, 1865. Mr. Lowry was reckoned a very able lawyer, ex- celling particularly in criminal law and before the jury.
William Hull was a southerner from New Orleans. He was a first class lawyer before a jury, resourceful and of ready wit. He rose rapidly and descended as rapidly. In 1851 he was elected district attorney of Grant county, holding the office for one term. Elected to the legisla- ture in 1854, he became, in 1856, during the "reform administration," speaker of the assembly. He was said to have received $20,000 in scrip out of the railroad land subsidy. He removed to La Crosse and resumed the practice of law with indifferent success, dying a poor man. He was a man of remarkable gifts, off hand, happy, and often eloquent in public speech, possessed of a brilliant mind and fair education.
Cyrus K. Lord and Hugh R. Colter. In 1850 Cyrus K. Lord be- came judge of the county court, succeeding the venerable Hugh R. Colter, who held the position in territorial days. Judge Colter was a rather unique personality. He was accustomed to visit the widows and orphans to settle up the estate, almost before rigor mortis set in. He held a sort of itinerant court. Everybody knew when a death occurred in the neighborhood that Judge Colter would be around in a few hours. He was intelligent and kind hearted; he was lame and hobbled around on a crutch. Judge Colter was the fourth probate judge of Grant county, John H. Rountree being the first.
A pioneer lawyer of Potosi, Grant county, J. W. Seaton, who studied law with Cole & Biddlecome, is still alive. As he himself puts it, he mixed literature too freely with law, and in consequence never rose to a great height in his profession. He still lives in Potosi, and con- tinues to take a keen interest in literary, historical and legal matters.
H. D. York of Hazel Green is another member of the early bar of Grant. He has practiced continually in the county for a great many
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years and at present devotes almost his entire attention to probate busi- ness.
The names of Alfred Brunson, P. A. R. Brace and Charles J. Leon- ard, appear frequently in the court records of Crawford county prior to 1848. Alfred Brunson, who was from an early day a minister of the gospel sent west as a missionary to the Indians, commenced the practice of law in 1840 and continued the practice about ten years, being district attorney of Crawford county at one time, but finally returned to the ministry. He filled many high offices in the church, and died at the advanced age of about ninety. P. A. R. Brace was a man of fine edu- cation and was a good lawyer. He died a few years after coming to Prairie du Chien. Chas. J. Leonard was elected county judge of Craw- ford county, and afterwards practiced law for a few years, when he moved away.
Dyer Divine was in early days a prominent attorney of New Dig- gings, La Fayette county. He was afterwards of the firm of Divine & Rockwell, attorneys for Brigham Young. He was arrested by Gen. Albert Sidney Johnson for inciting the Mormons to resist the authority of the United States.
Among the other early lawyers who located at New Diggings were Chandler, the two Robinsons, Conway and Nagle. Chandler was a bright, well-educated man from Vermont. He was small in stature, but a vigorous and pronounced speaker. He was, however, of an impudent and overbearing disposition. He moved to Texas and was shot in a courtroom at Woodville, while trying a case.
There were two lawyers by the name of Robinson who figured some- what in legal matters during territorial days. Eli Robinson was the more prominent. He had a large practice at the Diggings, but removed to Minnesota, where he became a state senator.
James Nagle was an old style Irish barrister. He was large-boned, dignified and quite an able advocate. He was much sought after by local attorneys for his counsel and on account of his library. When slightly under the influence of the ardent he would offer to make anyone a lawyer for the small sum of ten pounds, and for twenty put him in the same class with himself.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE SIXTH CIRCUIT, ITS JUDGES AND LAWYERS.
The power of the legislature to increase the number of circuits was first exercised in 1850, by the organization of the sixth circuit, which was constituted of the counties of Crawford, Chippewa, Bad Axe, Black River, St. Croix and La Pointe. The judgeship was filled by the election of Wiram Knowlton on the first Monday of July, 1850, and he qualified August 6, 1850. His successor was George Gale, who became judge on December 31, 1856.
During Judge Gale's occupancy of the bench litigation arose as to his right to continue to do so. At the time of his election the sixth cir- cuit was composed of the counties of Crawford, Bad Axe, La Crosse, Monroe, Jackson, Clark, Buffalo and Trempealeau. ยท In 1861 a law was enacted constituting the counties of Crawford, Bad Axe, La Crosse, Monroe and Jackson the sixth circuit, and further making the eleventh circuit out of the counties of Trempealeau, Buffalo, Pepin, Dunn, Dallas, Chippewa, Clark and Eau Claire. This law declared that the person holding the office of circuit judge and residing in the county of Trem- pealeau (Judge Gale was a resident of that county) was judge of the eleventh circuit for the balance of the term for which he had been elected. An election, in April, 1862, was provided for, and the governor was authorized to fill the vacancy in the judgeship of the sixth circuit. The transfer of the county of Judge Gale's residence to the eleventh circuit, it was contended, caused a vacancy in the sixth circuit, because the constitution provides that each judge shall be a resident of the circuit. for which he was elected. On that theory Isaac E. Messmore received an appointment from the governor as judge of the sixth circuit, and assumed to enter upon the duties of his office. An action of quo war- ranto was brought against him for usurpation of that office and his right thereto was denied. See 14 Wis., 163.
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THE BENCH.
The succeeding judges were Edwin Flint, Romanzo Bunn, A. W. Newman, Joseph M. Morrow and Orvis B. Wyman. Sketches of Judges Bunn and Newman appear in other chapters. The circuit now consists of the counties of La Crosse, Monroe, Trempealeau, Vernon and Juneau.
GEORGE GALE.
George Gale was born at Burlington, Vermont, November 30, 1816. His grandfather served in the continental army, and his father, Peter Gale, was one of the "minute men "of Barre, Vermont. His early years were spent on a farm on the eastern slope of the Green Mountains; his educational advantages were limited to such as the rural schools af- forded. At the age of sixteen he began a somewhat extended course of reading in history, biography, natural science and mathematics; his knowledge of the two last subjects when he attained his majority is said to have been very creditable. In 1839 he began to read law with ex- Governor Dillingham, of Waterbury, Vermont, and two years later was admitted to the bar. In 1841 he located at Elkhorn, Walworth county, Wisconsin, and opened a law office; while there he established the first newspaper in that county-The Western Star. He served in several local offices, and in the fall of 1847 was elected a member of the second constitutional convention, serving therein as a member of the judiciary committee. The same year he was chosen district attorney, and in 1849 was elected state senator, serving in the sessions of 1850 and 1851. In the latter year he removed to La Crosse and was almost immediately elected county judge, which office he resigned January 1, 1854. In April, 1856, he was elected judge of the sixth circuit, then composed of Buffalo, Clark, Jackson, Monroe, Trempealeau, La Crosse, Vernon and Crawford counties.
While residing at La Crosse Judge Gale favored the establishment of a college there; but the proposition did not meet with the support he desired. In 1853, having resolved to found a college and town on his own responsibility, he bought about two thousand acres of land, includ- ing the site of Galesville and the water power on Beaver Creek. In
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1854 the legislature created the county of Trempealeau, and located the county seat at Galesville, and at the same session granted a charter for a university to be located there. In June, 1854, he platted the land where Galesville is now located and let contracts for the erection of a . saw and flouring mill. In 1855 the board of trustees of Galesville uni- versity was organized; the erection of a building was begun in 1858, the preparatory department opened in May, 1859, and the first class gradu- ated July 13, 1865. Judge Gale immediately thereafter resigned the presidency of the university. In May, 1857, he moved from La Crosse to his farm near Galesville, where he resided until his death, April 18, I868.
In 1857 the University of Vermont conferred on Judge Gale the honorary degree of Master of Arts, and he received from the institution which he founded, in 1863, the title of LL. D. In 1846 he prepared the "Wisconsin form book," which was revised in 1848, 1850 and 1856. It is said to have been very useful and to have circulated to the number of nearly six thousand copies. He also wrote for the state historical so- ciety an elaborate paper on the "History of the Chippewa Nation of Indians;" "A genealogical history of the Gale family in England and in the United States, with an account of the Tottingham family of New England, and of the Bogardus, Waldron and Young families of New York-a volume of 254 pages, and a work requiring a large amount of patient and persevering investigation." His last work, and to the preparation of which he devoted many years, was published in 1867, entitled "The Upper Mississippi: or historical sketches of the introduc- tion of civilization in the northwest," a work covering the period from 1600 to 1866. It is a work of much research and a valuable contribution to western history .*
Judge Gale's health became precarious in the summer of 1863, and he spent the three following winters in the south and east, most of the time in the service of the sanitary and Christian commissions. In Feb- ruary and March, 1863, he had charge of the federal sanitary commis- sion depot on Morris Island, South Carolina.
In person, Judge Gale was six feet four inches in height, and quite
*D. S. Durril, in Wisconsin Historical Collections, vol. 7. p. 424.
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erect; his personality was noticeable. In manners, he was genial, social and courteous. In politics, he was a democrat. The writer quoted from says that "in all the relations of life in which he was called to take a part Judge Gale was always faithful, honest and persevering, with habits of industry and close application. Those who knew him best esteemed him the most. In all respects he was an estimable man, dis- charging every duty to the best of his ability."
EDWIN FLINT.
At the close of Judge Gale's term he was succeeded by Edwin Flint, a member of the La Crosse bar. Mr. Flint, was born in Braintree, Orange county, Vermont, May 25, 1814. His father was a farmer, and died when Edwin was twelve years of age. At the age of fourteen the latter went to Windsor, Vermont, where he passed a year in the office of the Vermont Chronicle. Having a strong desire for a thorough edu- cation he went from there to Burlington, Vermont, to prepare for col- lege, and while doing so earned money enough to pay his expenses by setting type nights and mornings for Chauncey Goodrich, a book pub- lisher. By such means he secured the education necessary to admit him to the state university of Vermont, and to maintain him therein until his graduation in 1836. His next employment was for one year as a teacher in Virginia. From there he went to Norwalk, Ohio, and "read law" with Judge Lane for one year. His finances being exhausted, he went to Kentucky and became a tutor in the family of Governor Shelby, in the meantime prosecuting his study of the law. In 1840 he was admitted to the bar at La Fayette, Indiana, and began the practice of the law there. His success was so limited that he found it necessary to resume teaching. In 1841 he settled at Jackson, Michigan, and was quite successful so long as he remained there; but fever and ague made it necessary for him to remove. He was engaged in teaching most of the time thereafter until 1848, when he came to Wisconsin and opened a law office at Fond du Lac; he remained there until 1851, when he settled at La Crosse. In 1852 he was elected district attorney of La Crosse county and chairman of the county board. In 1861 he was elected state senator, and served during the session of 1862; in April,
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