USA > Wisconsin > History of the bench and bar of Wisconsin, Vol. II > Part 30
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Mercantile business next engaged his attention, and the firm of McLean & Howell became widely known because of their extensive business in general merchandise, grain, etc. Mr. Howell furnished most of the capital and Mr. McLean had full charge of the business, which was continued with marked success for two years, during which time Mr. McLean's share of the profits enabled him to purchase a fine
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residence in the village of Nichols as a home for his father and mother and family and also a small farm, just outside, for their use as long as they lived. He was also able to aid his younger and only brother, William H., in acquiring an education and in attending the medical college at Albany, New York, where he was graduated in 1865, with high honors. He located at Monticello, New York, where he entered a successful practice. Mr. McLean had read law as best he could up to this time, while teaching school and at home, looking forward to the time, which he felt had now come, when he could afford to attend the law school at Albany, New York. He, therefore, prevailed upon his valued friend and partner, John Howell, to purchase his interest in the business, and then entered the Albany law school. He was graduated in the class of 1865, after which he returned to Nichols and followed his profession in Tioga county until 1867, when he settled in Menomonie, Wisconsin, where he soon took a conspicuous place as a prominent member of the bar and a public-spirited citizen.
October 7, 1875, he married Miss Mary, the estimable daughter of Captain William and Angeline (Hale) Wilson. The children of this marriage are: James Perry, born July 6, 1876; Mary, August 30, 1878; William Wilson, December 1, 1880; Francis Julian, July 20, 1883: and Marjorie, May 20, 1891.
January 2, 1883, he assisted, in connection with his cousin, W. C. McLean, cashier, in the organization of the First National bank of Menomonie, of which he is president and the largest stockholder. He is also interested in several other financial institutions in different parts of the state.
JOHN S. MOFFAT.
This Wisconsin representative of all that is highest in man and noblest in the citizen, whose entire temperateness of habit, honorable dealing, moral life and strong religious feeling, but never intruded to the discomfort of others, have made him a power in the community, was born at Lansing, Tompkins county, New York, November 25th, 1814.
His parents, Samuel and Ann (Shaw) Moffat, were both imbued with strong principles of thrift, industry and virtue, and from the
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earliest years of their family of eight children endeavored to instill into their minds similar principles of good purpose and Christian achieve- ment. Samuel Moffat was a merchant and lumberman, and in the sawmill operated by him the subject of the present sketch found em- ployment during his boyhood in such times as were not devoted to schooling. John's grandfather, Rev. John Moffat, immigrated from north Ireland with a colony, with which also came the Clintons, set- tling in New York state and making his home at Little Britain, in Orange county, where John's father was born in 1761. A Presby- terian clergyman, who possessed fine classical as well as theological at- tainments, one of the first graduates at Princeton college, he it was who gave DeWitt Clinton his first lessons in Latin and Greek. Having re- ceived such education as the district school of Etna, Tompkins county, New York, afforded, John S. Moffat at eighteen started out on a busi- ness career as a merchant's clerk at Dryden Village, in the same county, and remained there three years. He then entered the academy at Homer, Cortland county, studying for three years, and during the . winter months of each year teaching school. . For two years further he was in the Groton academy, Tompkins county, New York, where he received a thorough preparation for college, but did not enter.
It was in 1840 that he decided to become a lawyer, and the neces- sary study was at once begun with Corydon Tyler, Esq., at Dryden, Tompkins county, New York. Having been prepared for admission to the bar, that profession appeared to him so overcrowded that his intention was abandoned, and for some time he resumed school teach- ing, later accepting a clerkship in a store at Painted Post, Steuben county, New York. After this, for some time, he engaged in the mer- cantile business on his own account at Bath, in Steuben county.
Mr. Moffat removed to Hudson, Wisconsin, in 1854, receiving an engagement as clerk in the land office and also filling the position of police justice, to which office he was elected term after term for about twelve years, the business of the office increasing with the growth of the town until almost the whole of his time was finally absorbed.
On May 16th, 1867, at Hudson, he took his examination and was admitted to the bar. Commencing to practice immediately, he re-
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mained alone until about 1871, when Thomas Hughes entered into part- nership with him, a connection which was continued for about ten years. Until 1890, when, owing to his hearing having become de- fective, he was obliged to retire from active court practice, Mr. Moffat was engaged in many litigated cases, but never in criminal practice. He still devotes himself to collections and probate court practice.
In April, 1869, he was elected to the office of county judge of St. Croix county and entered upon the discharge of the duties of said office for a term of four years, and at its expiration was re-elected for a similar period. Every duty of that office was discharged with a punctiliousness and fidelity that gave unqualified satisfaction.
Brought up with the principles of the New York "barn burner" or "free soil democrat," Judge Moffat became a republican on the repeal of the Missouri compromise. A Master Mason, he is also a Good Temp- lar. In his religious affiliations he is a Baptist and a very active worker for the interests of his church.
His active business mind and boyhood practical experience induced ' him to interest himself in one of the largest sawmill concerns in Hud- son, and also in the chair and furniture factory of the same town. His instincts in that direction were most profitably justified.
He was married January 24th, 1844, to Nancy Ann Bennet, who was the daughter of Phineas Bennet, a well-known inventor of Ithaca,. Tompkins county, New York. Up to the time of her death, in De- cember, 1894, she was (as is also the one child of the marriage, now Mrs. Thomas Hughes, wife of a well-known attorney), an active worker in the same church as her husband.
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CHAPTER XXIV.
THE NINTH CIRCUIT, ITS JUDGES AND LAWYERS.
In 1854 the counties of Sauk, Jefferson and Dane were formed into the ninth circuit. The election of the first judge occurred on the fourth Monday of September, 1854, and resulted in the choice of A. L. Collins, who entered upon his official duties January 1, 1855. The sub- sequent judges have been L. S. Dixon, H. S. Orton and Alva Stewart. Robert G. Siebecker is the present judge. Sketches of the lives of Judges Dixon and Orton appear in chapters VI and VII.
THE BENCH.
A. L. COLLINS.
Alexander Lynn Collins, first judge of the ninth circuit, was born in Whitestown, Oneida county, New York, March 17, 1812. His father's name was Oliver and his mother's Catharine (Kellogg). They were farmers; the father joined the continental army at the age of six- teen and served during the last five years of the war; he was also in the second war with England and attained the rank of brigadier general; for two years he was in command at Sackett's Harbor.
At the age of sixteen, having obtained a common school education and had one year's instruction in a grammar school, the subject of this sketch began teaching school; three years later he entered a law office at Whitesboro; in 1833 he went to Cleveland, Ohio; there he com- pleted his preparation for admission to the bar, which occurred before the supreme court of Ohio in 1835. Thereafter, until 1842, he prac- ticed in Cleveland; during that year he removed to Madison, Wiscon- sin ; his practice there continued thirteen years, most of which time he was a member of the firm of Collins, Smith & Keyes.
In 1846 Mr. Collins was elected a member of the territorial council and held a seat in that body until the organization of the state. He was also a member of the first board of regents of the state university.
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In 1848 he was the whig candidate for Congress against Mason C. Darling; in 1849, the whig candidate for governor against Nelson Dewey, and was twice supported by the whig members of the legislature for United States senator against Henry Dodge. From 1852 until the disbandment of the whig party he was chairman of its state central committee. He was a delegate to the national convention at Balti- more in 1852, and voted for Daniel Webster for three days; on the nomi- nation of General Scott, on the fifty-fourth ballot, he was so disap- pointed that he left the convention and declared that the dissolution of the whig party was at hand.
In 1855 Mr. Collins, aided by. the votes of many democrats, was elected judge of the ninth circuit; after serving four years he was obliged, by impaired health, to resign. He made a good record on the bench.
On retiring from the bench Judge Collins joined Governor Doty in his land operations at Menasha, on what was then known as "Doty's Island." In 1864 he went to California; he remained three years on the Pacific slope. Returning to Wisconsin in 1867, he engaged in farming in Winnebago county. Soon afterward he was afflicted with rheumatism so badly that he was disabled for five years. In August, 1874, he re- moved to Appleton, formed a law partnership with Humphrey Pierce, and remained there several years. On abandoning the practice, he went to Neenah, where he lives with one of his sons. Judge Collins was one of the few members of the territorial legislature who attended the semi-centennial exercises at Madison in early June, 1898; later he at- tended the Milwaukee carnival.
ALVA STEWART.
The following concerning the late judge of the ninth circuit is from the memorial of the Dane county bar association, presented to the cir- cuit court of that county by S. U. Pinney April 7, 1890:
"The Hon. Alva Stewart, circuit judge of the ninth judicial circuit for the period of nearly twenty-five years, has passed away, having de- parted this life on the 31st day of December, 1889, at Portage City, in consequence of a painful illness with which he was attacked while hold-
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ing the December term of the circuit court for Columbia county. The bar of Dane county, in view of his long period of service and his exalted character and great merits as judge, and as a mark of their respect for him as a man, and in testimony of their sense of the great loss the public has sustained in his death, propose this brief memorial of his life, char- acter and public services, to the end that it may be entered of record in the court where he presided so long and faithfully and with such dis- tinguished ability.
"Judge Stewart was born in Morrisonville, Madison county, New York, October 21st, 1821, and came to Wisconsin in the year 1847, a young lawyer, seeking a location and fortune and fame. He settled at Fort Atkinson, in Jefferson county, and entered upon the practice of his profession with all the ardor, energy and zeal characteristic of the intensity of his nature. He represented his assembly district in the legislature at the session of 1851, and was elected senator from Jefferson county and served in that capacity for two years, during the sessions of 1852 and 1853. The practice of the profession at this period in the history of the state was not highly remunerative, and he engaged for a short time in business pursuits at Portage City, Wisconsin, ultimately returning to his exclusively professional duties as early as 1855, which he continued with success until he was appointed judge of the ninth judicial circuit by Governor James T. Lewis, February 4th, 1865, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of that position by Hon. Har- low S. Orton, and he continued to hold it, by successive elections, with- out opposition, until death overtook him in the faithful discharge of · judicial duty.
"The life of a judge is, in a great degree, one separate and apart from his fellows, and a certain degree of seclusion seems unavoidable. The result is, that he is not well and truly known to the public, except through his public and official acts. We recall with pleasure his hearty, sincere and genial bearing in social intercourse, and his constant effort to do the full measure of his duty honestly and promptly in his official station. His career as a judge was not merely without taint or suspi- cions of wrong motive. He was thoroughly faithful and honest, and so prompt and untiring was he in the discharge of public duties that he
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took unusual pains to avoid expense to the public, and of the many thousands of cases, motions and petitions brought before him, not one of them remained undisposed of save the comparatively unimportant cause on trial when attacked by the malady which proved fatal to his life.
"We desire to emphasize in this memorial our sense of his great industry and devotion to the duties of his position-his unquestioned integrity and entire independence as a judge, and that to those cardinal virtues he added a rugged, manly courage which never failed him and · which led him on all occasions to carry into full effect his well-matured convictions.
"He gave much thought and study to all matters brought before him and never shrank from or faltered in the least in the discharge of the great duties of his office. He was well read, as a lawyer, and pos- sessed of rare discrimination, and with the moral and mental charac- teristics he possessed he became and was one of the ablest and most worthy and efficient of the many circuit judges who have held that posi- tion since the organization of the state. He honored the state and himself alike in the discharge of his official duties, and we fully realize that his removal from the bench was a great loss to the honest, faithful and intelligent administration of justice. His long experience had made his public services peculiarly valuable and almost indispensable. WVe cherish his memory and bear in kindly remembrance his many noble and manly virtues."
Mr. Pinney made a few remarks in a personal tribute to the de- ceased, and moved that the memorial be spread on the records of the court, and that, after remarks by other members of the bar, the court. adjourn for the day.
After the memorial was read remarks eulogistic of Judge Stewart were made by Messrs. P. R. Tierney, E. W. Keyes, F. J. Lamb, I. C. Sloan, J. C. Gregory, H. M. Lewis, George W. Bird, J. H. Carpenter and R. B. Smith. In response to these and the memorial Judge Sie- becker said:
"Sorrow, mingled with sentiments of praise and esteem for Judge Stewart, has stopped this court in its accustomed course to render liomage to his virtues as a friend, a citizen and official in the state. In
·
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these expressions of the higher impulses of the soul, to recount his best qualities and pay tribute to his nobler attributes, our hearts are moved to grief at the thought of the absence of one whom memory recalls in the full vigor of life and in the faithful service of his appointed duty.
"The death of Judge Stewart has touched the hearts of a wide circle of friends throughout the state. Many have spoken words of eulogy in evidence of the high regard they entertained for his career as a pri- vate citizen and a public officer; and I have the privilege to say that the sentiments of esteem and respect uttered here to-day are held and enter- tained by the people of the various counties of this judicial circuit. The members of the bar have with one accord joined in the sentiments and the emotion of this gathering. Men and women have come to the various courts to speak words of respect to his memory, with an earnest- ness born of an affectionate regard and esteem for the high qualities of his life. These expressions have been so spontaneous throughout the circuit that we may record, in truth, that his death is mourned by all who knew him as neighbor and friend, as citizen and judge, and that his death is felt as a public calamity.
"The qualities of his life were of such high value and his conduct was so true that his actions became a part of the warp and woof of the history of the state, and thereby made him one of its founders. As a faithful interpreter of the law and administrator of justice his work contributed to the wholesome growth of our judicial institutions. When he first entered upon his services the environment of our judicial department was wholly different from now. Industrial and social evo- lution has in the last quarter of a century produced conditions to which the law must needs be applied and adjusted. In this work Judge Stewart performed well his part. He appreciated the full power of es- tablishing a precedent to influence public opinion; he was conscious that the law does silently and surely reach into the whole domain of the state, and enwrap and enfold all persons and things, to meet the very end and demand of justice. Such qualities made his services of great value to our state and helped develop our system of law and build up our judiciary.
"I cannot presume to speak of Judge Stewart's personal life with Vol. II .- 21
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the same knowledge and authority as you who knew him for so many years in his private as well as public career. Yet knowing him as I did enables me to add some testimony to your expression of high regard and estimation. All who knew Judge Stewart soon learned to recog- nize his kindness of heart and the openness and honesty of his action. He disliked equivocations in anything; he detested deceit and duplicity in men. He always looked to the realities of life; appearances, shams and pretenses were pushed aside by him with a swift and positive judg- ment.
"In many leading characteristics Judge Stewart was typically Amer- ican-independent in thought, plain, direct and simple in manner and speech; and he had the full courage to stand by his convictions. He possessed, in a marked degree, our national characteristic of practicality in the affairs of life; straightforwardness marked his every act; com- mon sense directed and controlled his views and opinions; he had no regard for conventional formalisms. unless they served a necessary and beneficent purpose. Observation and experience have taught us that attributes like these make their possessors potent characters in their sphere of action. I doubt not that those who lived with Judge Stewart the greater portion of his life felt the influence of these powers, and, while they lament his loss, think of him with pride as neighbor and friend. These attributes of practical good sense, even temper and strong mental faculties, with a strong, kind, manly heart, made him a power in public affairs and won for him the trust and confidence of men.
"Finding in him such natural endowments and acquired principles and habits of character we turn to Judge Stewart's public career with great expectations. After a careful and dispassionate review of his life in public service we find the evidence completely satisfies what such an expectation demands. This needs only to be mentioned to those who had occasion to observe him in. his courts to recall to mind how vigor- ously and with what honesty of purpose he applied himself to master every situation that called him to action. Whenever he entered upon his task there seemed no pause until he saw his way clear and felt sure of the whole situation. In the manner of performing his work it was his universal habit to seek and follow the light and dictates of his con-
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science. This he did, not to the exclusion and disregard of established precedent, or the assistance of the judgment of others, but, rather, he sought the aid of all these to furnish him with an approved and sure basis whereon to rest his action. Coupled with this characteristic, it can be truly said that Judge Stewart was independent; he always de- cided upon his course of action as he saw it from within. The conduct of others, the estimation of the public, did not enter into his deter- mination. Indeed, so marked was this characteristic, and so rigidly did he adhere to it, that at times he was accused of being stubborn and inconsiderate of the opinions of others qualified to speak advisedly. Yet upon deeper reflection we are persuaded that by reason of follow- ing the behests of these controlling attributes, he was a just judge and that, perforce of the union of these qualities with an honest purpose, he did, in the administration of justice, keep aloof from petty, sharp and devious practices. Being involuntarily led by the power of these facul- ties gave him that strong and noble quality of character-courage of conviction, a quality not great, because employed simply to stand isolated and in opposition to the judgment of others, but great where it leads to an honest, unswerving determination in the conflict of con- tending forces to establish justice.
"To be moved by such positive attributes in the discharge of his public duty created an influence that made men feel the power and the supremacy of law, and, though this influence is no more to be em- phasized by his personal presence, yet it continues to move us within the orbit of its power, and it has so deeply and thoroughly rooted itself into the sentiments and thoughts of the people of this community that the history of his life and the power of his deeds are recorded and per- petuated in that high sentiment of judicial honor and integrity so uni- versally held by all the people throughout his judicial circuit.
"Prompted by such high motives and upon such principles of jus- tice were the laws of this judicial circuit administered, and there senti- ment for justice made to prevail. To have accomplished this is the highest tribute and the most enduring monument to the memory of a just judge."
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ROBERT GEORGE SIEBECKER.
Robert G. Siebecker, judge of the ninth judicial circuit of Wiscon- sin, was born in Sauk county, this state, on the 17th of October, 1854. His parents, William and Christina (Graff) Siebecker, were both natives of Prussia and emigrated directly to Wisconsin in 1851, purchasing land in Sauk county. By dint of hard, intelligent work this was soon trans- formed into a fine farm and the family homestead. The father still lives. The mother died April 13, 1876.
Until he had reached his eighteenth year Robert occupied his time by alternately working upon the farm and attending district school. For two years he was a student in a private academy at Madison, Wis- consin, preparing himself for entrance to the Wisconsin university. In September, 1874, he commenced a scientific course in that institution, graduating with the degree of B. S. in 1878. In September of that year he began his legal studies in the university law school and was graduated in June, 1880. The determination and industry which have marked and molded his life were forcibly exhibited at this crucial pe- riod-in that, although he always stood in the fore rank of students, on account of his straitened circumstances he taught in several private academies while passing through the two university courses.
It is remarkable also-in fact, almost unique-that before graduat- ing from the law school, while in the midst of his legal course, he was admitted to practice in the circuit court (September, 1879). During this year Judge Siebecker formed a partnership with Charles L. Dud- ley, now deceased, and the firm, under the name of Dudley & Siebecker, continued until September, 1881. La Follette (R. M.) & Siebecker was the firm then organized and it was not changed till Mr. La Follette went to Congress, in December, 1885. At this time the business had grown to such proportions that with the departure of the senior mem- ber to Washington it was necessary to secure able assistance. S. A. Harper was, therefore, made a third member of the firm, which con- tinued as La Follette, Siebecker & Harper until January, 1890, when Governor Hoard appointed Mr. Siebecker judge of the ninth Wiscon- sin circuit, to succeed Judge Stewart, deceased.
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Before his elevation to the bench Mr. Siebecker took an active part in politics, being a leader of the democracy as well as a worker in the ranks. He had also served the public as city attorney for four years and evinced the same industry, integrity and ability in the discharge of these duties as in the conduct of his professional and private affairs.
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