USA > Wisconsin > History of the bench and bar of Wisconsin, Vol. II > Part 25
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Judge Cameron was born at Caledonia the 29th day of June, 1815. In youth he was apparently poor in health and of weak constitution, and his father singled him out for a scholar. In mature years he was the most robust of men. After fitting for college in schools near at home he was entered as a freshman at the university of Vermont in 1834. He pursued the four years' classical course and graduated with honors. German philosophy was taught at this college in those days, and in this branch of study the young student particularly excelled. It was a fa- vorite pursuit in after life.
On leaving college he taught, in western New York, at the Avon academy for two years, reading law meanwhile with Amos Dann of the same place. He completed his law studies in the office of Hastings & Husbands, of Rochester, New York. In 1841 he was admitted to the bar in the supreme court at Rochester.
At first he practiced law in Livingston county, but after three years removed to Buffalo, New York, in the spring of 1847, continuing in practice at Buffalo for the next eleven years, or until 1858, when he came to La Crosse. In Buffalo he was a member of the firm of Words- worth & Cameron. For two years in La Crosse and until his brother entered the army he was associated in practice with Alexander Cam- eron. In 1865 he was elected county judge of La Crosse county. He Vol. II .- 17
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held the office for the full term of four years, declining a re-election. Subsequently in March, 1881, on the resignation of Judge C. S. Benton, he was appointed by the governor to fill the vacancy in the office of county judge, and was elected at the end of the term to the same office.
Judge Cameron was married December 2, 1875, to Miss Caroline D. Starr, who survives him. She is the daughter of W. H. Starr, an old settler and prominent citizen of Burlington, Iowa, and a graduate of Yale college. They have had three children, two of whom survive. Judge Cameron was a member of the Episcopal church and had been a member of the vestry of Christ church, La Crosse. He died April 5, 1895.
Judge Cameron was one of that notable cluster of lawyers who came to La Crosse, Wisconsin, soon after the formation of the county and while the little frontier village was shaping itself into a city, and who elevated the La Crosse bar in point of ability into almost metropolitan proportions. They were a remarkable body of men, somewhat like the first fruits of the rich lands. They embraced Edwin Flint, William Denison, William H. Tucker, Alonzo Johnson, Angus Cameron and Hugh Cameron, named in the order of their arrival in La Crosse. Joseph W. Losey, who has since become the leader of the La Crosse bar, was then a young man reading law in the office of Mr. Denison. Judge Edwin Flint came in 1850, Judge Hugh Cameron in 1858. They were both graduates of the university of Vermont. They were older than the others, but were the last to pass over the silent river.
William Denison was a man of powerful build and great strength and courage, somewhat inclined to secure results by force and aggres- siveness. This element of his character in the end was disastrous. He met his death in 1858 at the hands of a German farmer while urging his claims to fish for trout on the latter's premises with some show of force. Before coming to La Crosse he had been a gold miner in California. It was in the trial of the German for the homicide that Alonzo Johnson contracted the illness of which he died in 1860. Mr. Johnson and Mr. Tucker were quick, agile, alert, not wanting in resolution, but satisfied to rely on their wits. Each of them added to learning and skill the gift of eloquence. Mr. Denison was strong and forceful in speech, as
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in all branches of professional labor, with, however, no pretense to the graces of oratory.
Among them all, however, the old man eloquent was Edwin Flint, the father of the La Crosse bar. It was not often that he warmed to his work, but on occasions when some unusual incentive roused the fires which usually slumbered in his mild and benignant bosom, drawing on his deep knowledge of the law, his matchless resources of argument, and on the accumulated store of his patient study in fields outside of and yet helpful to the law, he swept all opposition before him and re- minded his brothers of the bar how useful it might be to them to let the lion sleep. Of Alonzo Johnson it is said that he excelled in every part of professional labor. He drew legal papers with rapidity and yet with such care and accuracy that they required no finishing touch. The intractable or unwilling witness never failed of being manageable in his hands. If the law was in doubt his fertile and ingenious arguments seldom failed of convincing the court, while as an advocate he was clear, bright, witty and convincing. A frail body held a bright, strong, rest- less spirit, and he died from his zeal in bringing to punishment the murderer of his friend.
Mr. Tucker, whose brief career at the La Crosse bar had so much of promise, went away to the war and on leaving the service made his residence elsewhere. Angus Cameron rose to be the leader of the bar and rounded out his career in the United States senate.
Hugh Cameron came among this unique body of western lawyers in a transition period. Mr. Denison died not long after his arrival, and within three years Mr. Flint, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Tucker had dis- appeared from the bar, Mr. Johnson by death, Mr. Tucker by entering the army, while Edwin Flint had gone upon the bench as circuit judge.
Judge Cameron was of mature years. On leaving college he had read law and was then for several years engaged in practice, at first in his native county and then in Buffalo, New York. His ability and learning fitted him on coming here to take the high position at the start which he continued to maintain. Large interests retained him; in nearly every important lawsuit he was on one side or the other, and his clients felt sure that their causes would be supported by learning
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and zeal while he conducted them. In deep knowledge of the law, in skill in drafting legal pleadings; indeed, in drafting all legal papers, and in strong and accurate reasoning Judge Cameron had few equals among the lawyers of Wisconsin. He added to these accomplishments of the lawyer the graces of a profound and finished scholar and elegant writer. Heedless of fame and riches, valuing learning, scholarship and culture for their own intrinsic worth and the personal dignity and pleas- ure they afford one who possesses them, he was satisfied to pass his life outside the sphere of power and within the limits of competence.
JOHN J. COLE.
John J. Cole, formerly a member of the La Crosse bar, was born at Albany, New York, August 29, 1824; his academic and legal education was obtained there; at twenty-one he was admitted a member of the bar, his license as such in the supreme court being signed by Chief Jus- tice Bronson, and his license in the court of chancery by Chancellor Walworth. In 1856 he came to Wisconsin and settled at Viroqua, where he practiced law with William F. Terhune; in a short time, 1857 or 1859, he removed to La Crosse, where he continued to practice until his last sickness; for a time he was in partnership with W. H. Tucker. Mr. Cole was a man of very considerable scholastic attainments, having an excellent knowledge of Latin, Greek, German and French. In poli- tics he was a democrat, and was several times nominated by his party for office; but being resident in a locality where the opposition was in a majority, he failed of election. Almost his whole time was given to his profession, with the result that he was well versed in the law. His powers as an advocate were not extensive, but his capacity to argue logically and reach the judgment of a court or jury was undoubted. Mr. Cole died at La Crosse June 23, 1897.
THOMAS A. DYSON.
Thomas Alfred Dyson was born in Milwaukee, December 13, 1851; received his education at the public schools there; at the age of seven- teen he was qualified to be phonographic reporter; in 1870 he was ap- pointed reporter of the sixth circuit, about which time he became a
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resident of La Crosse; he held that position until 1881. From 1873 until 1881 he attended the sessions of the legislature in the capacity of a newspaper reporter. In 1882 he entered into a law partnership with the late M. P. Wing; later his partner was Charles E. Servis. In 1886 he was elected state senator and served during the sessions of 1887 and 1889, being president pro tem. of the senate in the latter year. In 1887 he was appointed county judge of La Crosse county and served in that capacity until 1898. His death occurred at La Crosse April 29, 1898, the result of a fall down a stairway but two or three days previous. Mr. Dyson's energy and career were such as to justify a prediction of larger success at the bar than he had yet achieved if opportunity had been afforded him. In politics he acted with the republican party. Socially he was cordial. As a friend he was loyal.
JOHN COMSTOCK GAVENEY.
John C. Gaveney, of Arcadia, member of the firm of Gaveney & Cowie, was born in that town on the 30th of June, 1863. His father, James, a native of Ireland, and his mother, Maria M. Gaveney, were among the earliest settlers of the Trempealeau valley. The boy se- cured his early education in the public schools of his native place, after which he was admitted to the university of Wisconsin, graduating therefrom in 1885. Afterward he pursued the regular course in the legal department and was admitted to the bar in June, 1888.
Mr. Gaveney began the practice of his profession at Stevens Point, Wisconsin, in partnership with James O. Raymond, but upon the death of his father in 1889 settled in Arcadia to manage his estate. The duties connected with this responsibility, his profession and the public offices he has held make him one of the busiest and most prosperous, as well as among the most prominent, men of that section of the state. In his legal practice he is associated with R. S. Cowie, under the name of Gaveney & Cowie, the firm enjoying a large business and coming year by year into greater prominence.
Mr. Gaveney is a republican in politics and, like the majority of substantial and prosperous men, is married-the propitious event oc- curring on the 9th of April, 1890.
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CHARLES W. GRAVES.
Charles W. Graves is a native of New York, having been born at East Aurora, Erie county, November 29th, 1854. His father, Lewis W. Graves, whose biography appears elsewhere in this chapter, was a lawyer of distinction. His paternal grandfather, Nathaniel Graves, was a Methodist minister. He married Amanda Wilmarth and settled with his family in Wisconsin in 1856, there following farming.
Having received his education in the common and high schools of Sparta, Charles W. Graves entered his father's office, where he remained for a number of years, but completed his preparatory study under the direction of A. E. Bleekman, of the same town. In January, 1876, having taken his examination before Judge Bunn at Sparta, he was admitted to the bar. An office was at once opened and a partnership formed with Judge F. F. Condit, a connection which continued for twelve months, and then for the following two years he associated him- self with Mr. Bleekman. At the end of that time he moved to Viroqua, where he formed a partnership with C. M. Butt, which existed until 1894. He practiced alone from 1894 to 1897, when he formed a co- partnership with D. O. Mahoney, the present firm being Graves & Ma- honey.
During his legal career he has taken an active part in a great num- ber of cases of local importance. On June Ist, 1894, Mr. Graves was appointed county judge for four years in succession to Judge Wyman, who had been elected to the circuit bench.
Mr. Graves has at all times been a stanch democrat and has always endeavored to aid his party in its campaigns. He was secretary of the state board of world's fair managers of Wisconsin from June Ist, 1891, to May Ist, 1894, during which time he was stationed in Chicago, and upon him fell much of the laborious work of that board. Previous to this, in 1888, he had been a member of the railroad commission ap- pointed to inspect a section of the Northern Pacific railroad. For a number of years he has been a member of the democratic state central committee and is also vice president of the Vernon county agricul- tural society.
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In September, 1875, he was married at Sparta to Ida Rea, formerly of Oshkosh, who died in April, 1897. She was the mother of four chil- dren, Earl W., Ray B., Allen M. and Ada.
Judge Graves is a man of studious habits and of pronounced literary and artistic tastes, a hard worker and universally respected and admired not only for his abilities, but also for his strong personal worth.
LEWIS W. GRAVES.
A record of worthy members of the legal profession of this state would be incomplete were it wanting notice of the life of Lewis W. Graves, who, after a long and respected career, died at Sparta, May 3d, 1876.
Mr. Graves received his education in the common school at Spring- ville, New York, and later studied law at East Aurora, Erie county, in the office of Albert Sawin. In 1853, having taken his examination at Albion, New York, he was admitted to practice and immediately started in business for himself, and followed his profession in that state until 1856. Then he decided to seek the better possibilities of the west, and, settling in Sparta, Wisconsin, formed a partnership first with Milton Montgomery, afterwards with Judge Morrow, and then finally with Judge E. G. Wheeler, Mr. Graves being the senior member of each firm.
Mr. Graves took a prominent part in most of the important litiga- tion and the leading cases which took place during his first years in that section of the country. Later he made a specialty of criminal practice and gained the reputation of being one of the ablest criminal lawyers in Wisconsin, having tried many of the leading criminal cases in west- ern Wisconsin from 1865 to 1875.
In his political views he was always a democrat. His estimation in the party was shown by his election as district attorney, an office he filled with credit to himself and full satisfaction to the people. He was also a delegate to the national democratic convention which nominated McClellan.
Mr. Graves was married at East Aurora, New York, on August 3Ist, 1852, to Mary J. Waldo. They had three children-Charles W., who
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took up his father's profession and of whom there is a sketch elsewhere in this volume; Frank H., editor of the Vernon County Leader at Viro- qua; and William Graves (deceased).
EDWARD C. HIGBEE.
The son of Jesse M. and Caroline (Councilman) Higbee, the subject of this sketch, is a native of Adams county, Wisconsin. His father was born in Ohio, and his mother in Pennsylvania, coming to this state in 1852 and settling in the county where their son, Edward C., was born, September 16, 1855. For ten years Mr. Higbee was superintendent of schools for Adams county, having previously been a successful teacher; since when he has been engaged in agricultural pursuits.
The son attended the common schools of Plainsville, Adams county, and the Kilbourn City high school; was also a member of the class of 1877 at the state university during the freshman year. When seventeen years of age he commenced to teach school and was thus employed for two winter terms, 1872-1874. It was during this period that he com- menced the study of law, to which he seemed so naturally to gravitate. Considering it advisable, however, to take a regular course, he entered the law school of the university of Wisconsin, graduating therefrom in 1876.
He at once settled in Arcadia, Wisconsin, where he opened an office for the practice of his profession, and in 1880 formed a partnership with T. J. Connor, under the name of Higbee & Connor, which continued for two years, when he became associated with Henry Comstock, under the firm name of Higbee & Comstock. This partnership continued for about one year, after which time, until 1896, Mr. Higbee continued alone. In 1885 he moved to La Crosse. In 1896 he formed the part- nership with G. W. Bunge which still exists as Higbee & Bunge.
Mr. Higbee has always had and now enjoys a large general practice. He appears frequently in cases of importance before the supreme court, where his original contentions are very generally sustained.
Mr. Higbee's political views are republican, although he is not a politician and has never desired nor sought office, having always con- sidered a faithful discharge of professional duties a sufficient demand
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upon one's strength, time and abilities. He is a member of the Elks, but identified with no other secret or benevolent society.
In 1877 Mr. Higbee was married at Chicago to Ella M. Bacon, who died in November, 1886. He has three children, Roscoe B., Ina and Jesse E. The first named is one of the sturdy young men who saw service in the Spanish war, being a member of company M, third regi- ment, Wisconsin volunteers.
JOSEPH W. LOSEY.
It is often said that the world does not always know its great men, and the truth of this statement is verified in the history of every nation and state. During years of peace and quiet, when the orderly course of events is permitted to flow on undisturbed by menace and danger, aspiring men, eager to force themselves into public view and to reach places of prominence and power, press forward, secure the prizes and pass for and seem to be the great men of the state. Quite often it happens that they are fair weather sailors merely and give up the helm to others when stress and storm beset the ship of state. Every great upheaval in a nation attests the truth of Bismarck's biting sar- casm, applied in a larger way, that many men are but painted laths, merely representing swords.
This general truth applies not only to the supremely great who have grappled with the whirlwinds and conserved the fate of nations, but to those whom fortune has placed in spheres more circumscribed. They, also, within their orbits, are stars of the first magnitude.
Another consideration will explain the reason why it is that the men who are often really the best fitted for public stations do not usually seek them. In highly civilized countries, like our own, and in a great commercial age the highest prizes seem to many to be those which are won in the departments of trade, commerce and transporta- tion and in the learned professions. The glamour of office, the love of place, the subtile attractions of public life have ceased to draw and inspire men as in the past, and the emoluments and the dignified enjoyment which reward success in private pursuits have attracted and satisfied talent, genius and ambition. This tendency of the times is
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changing, and in the future will, doubtless, modify very greatly the estimate which will be formed of the fitness of men engaged in these pursuits for public stations and urge the propriety of calling them away from their private affairs into the service of the public. In England,. where formerly, when titles were to be given out, they were bestowed almost solely on distinguished statesmen, diplomats and soldiers, the custom, which had become indurated by the usage of centuries, is now broken in upon, and successful merchants, bankers, railroad managers and great scholars, writers, artists and lawyers, and even actors, are made the recipients of the prizes which the sovereign bestows as re- wards of merit. It need not, then, be a matter of surprise, in viewing the life of a lawyer who has displayed marked ability through a long and successful career and has furnished proofs enough in forensic tri- umphs of mental power, to find no mention of the public stations he has occupied. The following sketch relates to such an one:
Joseph W. Losey is a link between the past and the present at the La Crosse, Wisconsin, bar. Only fourteen years had elapsed since Nathan Myrick, an Indian trader, and the pioneer settler of La Crosse, built his solitary cabin in the spring of 1842 on the prairie where the city stands, when, in May, 1856, Mr. Losey, a young man of twenty-one years, fresh from college, eager for the excitement and adventure of far western life, too restless to remain in the east for his professional training, landed in the little frontier village and entered a law office as a student. He stopped only long enough after his arrival, before taking up his law books, to earn a little money by pulling lumber out of rafts in the Mississippi river to defray his expenses for a short time. After that he made the law support him. So far as any one knows, he was the first student to enter a lawyer's office in La Crosse. When, after having completed his studies, he applied for admission to the bar in the fall of 1857 at the term of the circuit court held at Sparta, in the neigh- boring county of Monroe, he was the first lawyer ever admitted to the bar in that county.
Mr. Losey was born December 30, 1834, at Honesdale, Wayne county, Pennsylvania, and grew up there to manhood. He was robust and athletic, fond of all youthful sports, and excelling all others in run-
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ning and leaping. His father was Dr. Ebenezer T. Losey, a physician of extensive practice; his mother, Mrs. Lucy M. (Walton) Losey. He received his education in his native village (where he fitted for college at the Honesdale academy) and at Amherst college, entering in the fall of 1853 and remaining to the beginning of the junior year in Novem- ber, 1855. After teaching school for a few months he came west the following spring. Some slight difference of opinion with his father about his future career decided the change. The physician desired that his favorite son should follow in his footsteps and ultimately suc- ceed him in the medical profession. The son had wider views, and unwilling to pass his life among his native hills in what seemed to him a circumscribed career, struck out for the boundless west with health, vigor and self-reliance, a good education and fine native talents.
With them he brought the happy faculty of making and keeping friends, industry which never flagged and determination which won the friendship of fortune. After about eighteen months' study in the of- fice of Denison & Lyndes, leading lawyers at La Crosse, he was admitted to the bar in October, 1857. His admission was hastened that he might take the office of district attorney of La Crosse county. He was elected to that office in the following month of November for the term of two years and in November, 1859, was re-elected for a second term. In this position he greatly distinguished himself. In those early days the hand of violence was much oftener lifted than in these quieter times, and prosecutions for homicides were quite frequent. The young at- torney spared neither time nor labor in the conduct of such trials and seldom failed of securing conviction, even when confronted by the ablest lawyers the defense could secure. So great was his success in criminal trials that long after he ceased to be the public prosecutor he had the monopoly of that class of business until the magnitude of his civil prac- tice caused him to relinquish it.
On the death of Mr. Denison, in the fall of 1858, Mr. Losey formed a law partnership with Judge James I. Lyndes, under the firm name of Lyndes & Losey. In September, 1861, he associated himself with Angus Cameron, under the firm name of Cameron & Losey. Mr. Cam- eron entered the United States Senate in March, 1876, and at that time
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practically withdrew from active practice. Charles W. Bunn, a son of Judge Romanzo Bunn, district judge of the United States court for the western district of Wisconsin, a young lawyer of great promise, now residing at St. Paul, Minnesota, and who has won a position in the front rank of great American lawyers, was then associated in the firm, which continued under the name of Cameron, Losey & Bunn. Mr. Bunn withdrew from the firm and went to St. Paul shortly prior to 1886, when Senator Cameron also retired from the firm and from active practice. The traditions of this law office were, however, maintained. Mr. Losey brought into the firm, Gilbert M. Woodward, formerly a member of Congress from this district, a veteran soldier of the famous Iron Brigade, a learned and distinguished lawyer and a gentleman of superior scholarly acquirements. The strength and fortune which have attended the firm in the past now continue in the firm of Losey & Woodward.
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