USA > Wisconsin > History of the bench and bar of Wisconsin, Vol. II > Part 23
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1862, he was elected circuit judge; he served the full term. In 1869 he removed from La Crosse to Mason City, Iowa, and there formed a law partnership with B. F. Hartshorn. He continued to practice until 1876, since which date until his death he devoted his energies to manag- ing his business and pursuing his reading, which was his great delight. Judge Flint was successful in business, having accumulated an estate of nearly one hundred thousand dollars; one-half of that sum he be- queathed to his alma mater, the University of Vermont, for the endow- ment of a professorship of mathematics, natural or technical science, as the faculty shall elect, to be designated the Flint professorship; the re- mainder was bequeathed to a number of nieces and nephews. Judge Flint died at Mason City, Iowa, October 15, 1891, aged seventy-seven. He had never married. With him, during his last sickness, was his brother, W. S. Flint, of Nashua, Iowa, who resided in Wisconsin thirty- two years, and represented a district of which Green Lake county was a part, in the senate in 1871 and 1872, and the same county in the as- sembly in 1876.
Judge Flint was highly esteemed in Wisconsin for his character and accomplishments. He was always a gentleman, and possessed a mind of strong power and which was well-informed. He was courteous to all, and while his own convictions were strong, he was tolerant of those who held opposing views. In politics, he was an ardent republican, though since the prohibition question became a political one he has, on state issues, voted in favor thereof. As a judge, he was impartial, pa- tient, courteous and learned; but, notwithstanding, did not succeed to the satisfaction of the bar or people. He seemed to lack the ability to confine his charges to the points in issue, with the result that appeals from his judgments became very numerous and were generally success- ful. He failed of re-election, being beaten by Romanzo Bunn, and al- most immediately after the close of his term removed from the state.
JOSEPH M. MORROW.
In October, 1893, Joseph McKeen Morrow, of Sparta, was ap- pointed by Governor Peck judge of the sixth circuit to fill the vacancy
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caused by the resignation of Judge Newman who, in the previous April, had been elected a justice of the supreme court. Judge Morrow's ser- vice on the bench was brief, his candidacy for election in April, 1894, being contested by a candidate nominated by the republicans; that party, having about 6,000 majority in the circuit, succeeded in electing its nominee.
Mr. Morrow, as judge, faithfully discharged every duty to the satis- faction of the bar and the people. For many years he has had a very good reputation as a lawyer of ability and uprightness. He is a native of New York, having been born at East Aurora, January 1, 1832. His father, Henry Morrow, by occupation a furniture and cabinet maker, was the son of an Irishman who became one of the early settlers of Ohio. Henry married Mary McKeen, whose father, Daniel, had done a sol- dier's part in the war of 1812.
The subject of this sketch was fortunate in being sent for his edu- cation to a school which, for its advantages, was very highly considered, the East Aurora academy. Immediately afterwards the study of law was taken up with Mr. Robinson at Buffalo. He remained there one year and then came to Sparta, Wisconsin, in 1856, to study with the firm of Graves & Rice. In 1858 he took his examination before Judge Gale and was admitted to the bar.
For the following five years he was in partnership with his tutor, Mr. Graves, the firm becoming Graves & Morrow; but failing health forced him, in the spring of 1864, to seek a change of climate, and for two years, as he expresses it, he roughed it in Montana. Returning then to Sparta, the old partnership was renewed and so continued a further five years. For four years afterwards he practiced alone, after which his present partnership with C. M. Masters was formed, and, ex- cept for an interval of two years, during which time the latter was en- gaged in other business, has continued uninterruptedly since.
Among the interesting and important cases handled by Mr. Morrow while district attorney, particular attention may be made of the noto- rious Ingersoll murder case, in which the wife was accused of killing her husband. Senator Vilas and J. Turner, of Mauston, were lawyers for the defendant, who, after a hot legal fight, was finally acquitted; the
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La Crosse case, in which Dr. Chamberlin was shot in broad day-light, and a man named Wissinger was accused of the crime. Here the trial took place at Baraboo before Judge Stewart, Mr. Morrow conducting the defense. A plea of insanity was made and his client secured ac- quittal.
In his political opinions Mr. Morrow has always favored the demo- cratic party. At the national convention of 1884 he was a delegate at large, and in the last presidential campaign his vote was recorded for William J. Bryan. He was elected district attorney in 1870 and served three successive terms, being afterward re-elected several times and holding that office in all seven terms. In 1862 he became a member of the legislature; he has three times been president of the Sparta board. He was made revenue collector of the sixth district in 1885 and served in that office until the consolidation of that district with the second dis- trict. In October, 1893, he was appointed circuit judge, as before stated.
Of secret organizations for the past twenty years he has been a mem- ber of the Knights of Pythias, and in that order has filled all offices up to grand chancellor of Wisconsin. Is also a member of the Order of United Workmen.
Mr. Morrow was married in May, 1860, at Sparta, to Olive Graves, and they have a daughter, Mary. In his religious views he is an Episco- palian.
ORVIS B. WYMAN.
Judge O. B. Wyman was born in Windsor county, Vermont, July 7th, 1847. His paternal ancestors came to this country from Wales but for several generations previous to his birth were natives of Ver- mont. His mother, whose maiden name was Roxana Perkins, was also a member of an old Vermont family.
In 1855 the family moved to Wisconsin and located first at Stough- ton, Dane county. In 1859 a change was made to Vernon county, Wis- consin, where his father, Asahel Wyman, pursued the combined avoca- tion of farming and wagon making. Since that time Judge Wyman has resided in Vernon county.
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He attended district school in both Dane and Vernon counties and supplemented the knowledge therein obtained by a course of study at the university of Wisconsin, at Madison. He taught in the public schools of Vernon county for several terms; was principal of the Viro- qua schools in 1873 and held the office of county superintendent of schools for three terms, from 1874 to 1880.
Having decided to pursue the practice of law as his professional occupation, he studied law in the law office of Colonel C. M. Butt, at Viroqua, Wisconsin, in connection with his school work, and was ad- mitted to the bar on examination before Judge Romanzo Bunn in 1878.
He entered upon the active practice of his profession as a lawyer in January, 1880, having formed a partnership with Lycurgus J. Rusk, under the firm name of Rusk & Wyman. In 1883 the partnership was dissolved by the retirement of Colonel Rusk, who became private secre- tary for his father, Jeremiah M. Rusk, then governor of the state. There- after Mr. Wyman continued the practice of law alone till he was elected judge of the sixth judicial circuit to succeed Judge J. M. Morrow in the spring of 1894. He assumed the duties of that office in June, 1894, and is now on the bench in that circuit.
He held the office of district attorney from 1882 to 1886, was elected county judge of Vernon county in 1889, re-elected in 1893 and resigned the office of county judge on his election as circuit judge. Politically he has always been a republican, and while not a member of any religious denomination he usually attends the Congregational church. He has been mayor of Viroqua several terms and has served on the visiting committee to the normal schools and state university.
Judge Wyman was married December 28th, 1875, to Emma Ham- mer, at Hillsboro, Wisconsin. They have had three children, Bernard M., Eldon F. and Ella M. The eldest son, Bernard, died November 28, 1896, at the age of sixteen years. Mrs. Wyman, before her marriage, taught in the public schools of Vernon county. Her parents were among the pioneer settlers of western Wisconsin in the early '50s and founded the village of Hillsboro in Vernon county.
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THE BAR.
HIRAM W. BARNEY.
This representative of the Wisconsin bar was born February 17th, 1840, at Henderson, Jefferson county, New York. His father, the Rev. Godfrey W. Barney, a native of Herkimer county, New York, was a member of the Black River conference Methodist Episcopal church, and his mother, formerly Lorinda Wilder, was born in Windsor county, Vermont. The family on both sides, so far as reliable records go, is traced back for several generations as residents of the state of Massa- chusetts.
Hiram W. Barney was brought up at Belleville, Jefferson county, New York, and received his education in Union academy of that town. He took a classical course, having intended later to go to col- lege, but this the removal of his family to Wisconsin in 1858 prevented.
His mind determined on a professional life, but in 1861, the oppor- tunity of United States government employment offering itself, he went to New York city. Until 1866 he held positions as assistant secretary of the New York post office and for some time in the cashier's office of the New York custom house. Civil engineering and surveying were then taken up and in these branches he was engaged for some years, receiving the appointment of county surveyor of Menominee county, Michigan, in 1869. While ·engaged in surveying, he studied law with H. H. Hatch, at New Lisbon, Wisconsin, and in 1873 was admitted to the bar by Judge Cate of the circuit court of Juneau county.
The practice of his profession was at once begun in New Lisbon, but twelve months having passed he decided to move to Wonewoc, Wisconsin, where he remained until 1881 being, during the years 1880 and 1881, district attorney of Juneau county. Locating in Mauston, the firm of Turner & Barney was formed and so continued for six years, since which time, with the exception of a short period when he was associated with Mr. Beebe, he has practiced alone. For many years he has held the position of court commissioner. His work has been chiefly in the circuit court with the natural resulting supreme court prac- tice, and the frequency with which his name appears in the law reports
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of the state speaks in no uncertain way as to his industry and general legal reputation.
At all times Mr. Barney has been a republican and strongly repudi- ates any suggestion that his voting for Horace Greeley as President in 1872 could make him a democrat.
His domestic experiences have been of the very happiest description. He was married March 28th, 1880, to Emma Colebourn, and they have an interesting family of nine children: Godfrey W., Hiram W., Jr., Daniel P., Edward C., Willis W., Alice L., Paul R., Bessie M., and Emma A.
Mr. Barney is an attendant of the Methodist church, of which per- suasion his wife is a member and a devoted and earnest worker in all church matters.
WILLIAM G. BEEBE.
William G. Beebe was born October 13th, 1867, at New Lisbon, Juneau county, Wisconsin. His parents were Colonel Yates V. and Julia (Winkler) Beebe, the father being a civil engineer by occupation. For four years the latter served through the civil war as captain of bat- tery, tenth Wisconsin light artillery, and was chief of artillery on the staff of General Kilpatrick. By birth he was a native of New York; he married an Illinois woman and lived for some time in that state, moving to Juneau county in 1852.
The subject of the present sketch was educated in the high school at New Lisbon from which, after passing through the full course, he graduated in 1886. Determined to take up the legal profession, he be- gan to study law with J. J. Hughes at New Lisbon, afterwards attending the college of law of the University of Wisconsin and graduating there- from in June, 1891. The date of his admission to the bar of the dis- trict and circuit courts of the United States and the supreme and circuit courts of Wisconsin is June 17th, 1891. In November of the same year, having well considered the situation, he decided that Mauston offered him the better opportunities, and his choice has been amply justified.
Starting in the practice of his profession, he entered into partner- ship with Mr. H. W. Barney, with whom he remained for three years. From the very beginning his natural abilities and untiring energy made
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him a man of some standing in the community. In the spring of 1893 he was elected municipal judge of Mauston, a position he resigned two years later when he assumed the duties of the office of district attorney for Juneau county; the latter position he held for two years and then, in the spring of the year following (1897), he was elected county judge for Juneau county.
In his political opinions Mr. Beebe is a republican, but his earnest work, his strict attention to business and his honest performance of every public and private duty have gained him the respect of all parties.
In religious belief he is a Protestant and has been a Mason since 1895. His wife, to whom he was married at Mauston, December 5th, 1895, was formerly Lana Altenberg. William G. Beebe is first lieuten- ant, company D, third regiment Wisconsin national guard, with rank from February 14th, 1895.
ALBERT E. BLEEKMAN.
Mr. Bleekman was born in Salisbury, Herkimer county, New York, March 26, 1846. He received his primary education in the common schools of Medina county, Ohio, and later attended a select school until he enlisted in the army in February, 1864. After the war he resumed his studies at Little Falls academy where he spent a year and a half, and then entered Albert college, Belleville, Ontario, where he remained for the same length of time but did not complete his college course for lack of means.
Mr. Bleekman came to Tomah, Wisconsin, in 1869. He taught school and continued the study of law, which he began before coming to Wisconsin, in the office of George Graham. He was admitted to the bar in 1870 and began practice in Tomah. In 1875 he removed to Sparta and in 1886 to La Crosse, where he has since been actively en- gaged in practice.
Politically, Mr. Bleekman is an active republican. In 1873 he was a member of the legislature; of the state senate in 1874 and 1875; district attorney of Monroe county 1877 and 1878. and city attorney of La Crosse in 1889. While in the senate he prepared and drafted what be- came known as the Potter law. He was married in October, 1868, at Vol. II .- 16
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Belleville, Ontario, to Eliza M. Farnham. She died in April, 1875, leaving one child. In August, 1876, he was married to Alice (Whiton) Bush of Tomah. They have had three children, two of whom are living.
BENJAMIN F. BRYANT.
The man from Maine has always been a potential element in the civilization and development of Wisconsin. The pine tree pointed the . way for the pioneers, but along the woodman's trail came men of all vocations-merchants, mechanics and scholastic professors of every degree. No better blood ever infused pioneer life; 110 sturdier arm ever set about the task of subduing the wilderness, and no less vigorous mental activity could have raised a great commonwealth amid the un- broken elements of nature within the limits of half a century. Very much of the strong, distinctive Americanism which Wisconsin has maintained almost coequally with the eastern states, against an un- paralleled tide of immigration from every nation upon the earth, is due to the virility of the pioneer stock in which the Pine Tree state is so strongly represented.
The war, which turned and overturned everything in the United States except the fundamental principles of indissoluble union and uni- versal liberty, called a halt upon the westward-journeying star of empire until every star in the national firmament, however prone to wander, should know and admit that its place was fixed and everlasting. The lessons of the war were not alone to those who denied the nation; all men understood better that this was our common country, and the emigrations, which before had seemed like leaving home for distant and alien lands, took on a changed aspect as the iron boundaries of the state were leveled. The associations of the war had also their influence. The men of Maine and Wisconsin stood side by side for a common cause on many fields, and the friendships cemented in sacrificial blood are not easily broken. When the last act in the great drama was accomplished, and half a million soldiers returned to peaceful civil life almost in a single day, thousands of home seekers turned their faces toward the star of empire, which again grandly took its way westward. Every eastern state had its favorite western state, and the men of Maine, still influenced
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Bear: D. Bryant
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by the magnetic pine tree as well as by the thought of friends who had preceded them, resumed their journey toward Wisconsin.
There are occasional instances of one who paused on the way to try the life of what we now call the central states, but which thirty years ago seemed the far west to the New Englander. When such an one completed his journey to Wisconsin, fulfilling his destiny as a Maine man, he was received with all the more complacency as one who came upon judgment and knowledge, and not because others had beaten the path. Such an one was the subject of this sketch, Benjamin F. Bryant, who left Maine for Ohio in 1861, and in 1868 first put his foot upon Wisconsin soil to dwell there, three years of the interim having been spent upon southern battlefields. The judge, or colonel, as he was called indiscriminately, is one of the best representatives of his native state Wisconsin has ever welcomed; proud of his birth-place; loyal to his alma mater, the venerable Bowdoin college; faithful in regard for statesmen and scholars that Maine has given the nation, yet from the start thoroughly assimilating all of western life except its crudeness, he was well fitted to do his share in the educational and social development of a relatively new community.
Benjamin French Bryant, son of Benjamin and Lucy F. Bryant, was born at Rockland, Maine, September 3, 1837. His father was a physician, born at New Vinyard, Franklin county, Maine, in 1803, him- self the son of a farmer and blacksmith, who taught all his sons-many in number-the blacksmith trade before their majority. The Bryants in New England were from the olden-time workers in iron. Colonel Bryant's grandfather, of the maternal branch, Deacon Joseph French, was a farmer who went into Maine from Massachusetts near the close of the last century, when Franklin county was a wilderness, and settled on a farm at South Chesterville, before a tree had been felled on it, and cleared it himself. His daughter Lucy was born there in 1805. The farm is still owned and cultivated by descendants of the same name.
Both branches of Colonel Bryant's family are old in New England, and settled in Massachusetts near the middle of the seventeenth cen- tury. His father's family are of English and Scotch extraction; his mother's of English. His grandfather Bryant and sons were men of
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versatile talents and ready of speech. The mother's family have been from the earliest time among the sturdiest of New England people, usually farmers, but sometimes hotel-keepers, mechanics, merchants and physicians. Dr. John French, of Bath, New Hampshire, was Col- onel Bryant's mother's uncle, and Ezra B. French, second auditor of the United States treasury, was Dr. French's son and her cousin.
Colonel Bryant lived in Maine from his birth until after his majority; attending common schools only until he was seventeen years old. He then began to attend the Maine Wesleyan seminary at Kent's Hill, in the town of Readfield, where his father and mother had completed their education. He there pursued his studies about six months each year for four years, fitting himself for teaching and also to enter college. As his father was too poor to assist him in his education, he was com- pelled to provide the means himself, and accordingly, while at the acad- emy and in college, he worked on the farm each summer and taught school winters, and in this way defrayed the expenses of school. He left home when sixteen years old to take care of himself, and was with his parents afterward only for brief periods with long intervals.
The young man had the full measure of American ambition, and upon the subject of education, he said, "I will." All things come to such if they are as steadfast as courageous; and in 1859 he entered Bow- doin college, in the class of 1863. He did not, however, complete the course; when his class graduated he was taking a higher course in patriotism with the army of the Cumberland in the Chickamauga cam- paign. In 1856 his father had removed to Huron county, Ohio, where the son joined him in 1861. Soon after he entered the law office of Kennan & Stewart at Norwalk, that county. Legal studies as well as all other peaceful vocations were prosecuted under difficulties, with the war spirit growing into an intense passion throughout the land, and in August, 1862, Blackstone "et id omne genus" went back upon the shelves to bide their time, while the young student went to the front as sergeant in company A, one hundred and first regiment, Ohio volun- teer infantry. The regiment was assigned to the army of the Cum- berland, and participated in the principal battles of that section. After Stone River, Sergeant Bryant was commissioned first lieutenant, and
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in March, 1864, captain of his company. He was mustered out with his regiment at the close of the war, June 20, 1865. His military record tells its own story; promotion was won on the field, and was the reward of duty faithfully and courageously done.
He was not alone of his family to serve the Union cause in the service of arms. His father had but three sons, all of whom were in the army. Colonel Bryant's oldest brother, John E. Bryant, was captain in the eighth regiment, Maine volunteer infantry. He entered the ser- vice with his regiment in 1861, and served three years. The youngest brother, Thomas C. Bryant, enlisted in 1863 in the third regiment, Ohio volunteer cavalry, and served there until the close of the war.
After returning from his military service Colonel Bryant completed his legal studies at Norwalk, Ohio, in the office where he had com- menced them in 1861, was admitted to the bar in April, 1866, at the spring term of the district court for Huron county, and at once com- menced to practice law there. He was married, near the close of the war, to Augusta A. Stevens, of North Fayette, Maine. She was edu- cated at Kent's Hill, at the seminary which he had attended, and also at the female college there. In 1866 the young couple took up their resi- dence at Norwalk, Ohio, and remained until the spring of 1868, re- moving in May to La Crosse, which has been their home to the present day.
There have settled in La Crosse few men who made their presence felt more quickly and positively than Judge Bryant. He had an exceed- ing grace and suavity of manner that sometimes made his Irish friends inquire what part of the "ould sod" claimed the honor of his birth. When occasion arose for a public speech he stepped in an instant into popular favor. His language was scholarly, forcible, poetical if occasion required, with a pungent savor of wit, and his method was at once per- suasive and forcible. From the start Colonel Bryant was in such de- mand by the republican party that his law practice would have fared ill had not good Yankee business sense set a limit upon too importunate party demands. As it was, he was forced, against his intention, and al- most against his will, into public life. He was county judge of La Crosse county for one term of four years-from 1870 to 1874. He has
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been elected to the office of district attorney of that county for three terms of two years each. In April, 1875, he was appointed United States pension agent at La Crosse, and held the office until it was con- solidated in July, 1877, with the St. Paul and Milwaukee agencies. From October, 1882, to September, 1885, he was postmaster at La Crosse. Governor C. C. Wasburn and also Governor William E. Smith, of Wisconsin, appointed him aid-de-camp on their staffs, with rank of colonel. He has also been active and prominent in the Grand Army; was a charter member and has been commander of Wilson Colwell post, G. A. R., of La Crosse; has also served as senior vice commander and department commander of this department. He was one of the incorpo- rators of the Wisconsin Veterans' Home, established in 1887, under the auspices of the G. A. R. of that state, and has been a member of the board of directors and treasurer of that institution. He is also a mem- ber of the Loyal Legion.
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