USA > Wisconsin > Racine County > Racine > Racine, belle city of the lakes, and Racine County, Wisconsin : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 26
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to a private course in the classies and higher mathematics. While here he became acquainted with Ebenezer Lane, then an eminent lawyer of Sandusky, and former judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio. Through his influence Dyer began the reading of law and was admitted to the bar in 1857. He practiced a while in the Buckeye State and then, in 1859, returned to Wisconsin and located at Racine, which place continued his home until he had quit his legal practice. After going it alone several years he formed a partnership with Heury T. Fuller, which continued until January, 1875. In the years of 1860 and 1861 he held the office of city attorney and on February 10, 1875, he was appointed judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. From his first court work, when elerk at Sandusky, he evinced a remarkable ability as a reader and a writer of the jonmmals of the court and his memory proved so accurate that judges and lawyers alike appealed to him for information con- verning the different cases and seldom found him wanting in accuracy. During his early years at the bar he was an advocate so accomplished in oratory, so able in repartee, so erudite, so brilliant, few relished him as a foeman. His high ideals of morality and integrity, so faithfully carried out in his exemplary life, gave confidence to all who knew him and no one questioned his word any more than they did his ability. To profession and client he was faithful, yet so modest in his own estimation of himself that when he was elevated to the bench he questioned his ability to hold the high office worthily, and it took the carnest and strenuous endeavors of his admiring confreres to persuade him to accept it. That he gave his best efforts to the faithful discharge of the duties of that office the records of the court show. Ilis decisions commanded respeet and were uniformly the result of his comprehensive knowledge and careful research. As a mas- ter of English he had few peers. His sentences, clear and stately, wore almost classic in construction, and the rules of perspienity were never violated. His logie was without fault. His term of service covered thirteen years, and his fame, not alone as a great lawyer and judge, but as an upright, honorable citizen, spread far beyond the confines of his court. Early in the year 1888, Judge Dyer resigned from the bench and began his connection with the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, which continued until his death, November 26, 1905.
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In 1901, Judge Dyer prepared and read a paper on the early bench and bar of Racine County, which was published in pam- phlet form. Being so well known for acenracy of statement and careful preparation of details, the reminiscences brought out are highly prized by the members of the bar for their intrinsic inter- est and historie vale. So nmeh so, in fact, that a large part of the paper is embodied in this article. In his exordium he said: "It happens that my recollections of Wisconsin lawyers now extends back over a period of forty-two years. At that time and long before, many a young lawyer, born and educated in the New England and Middle States, had inscribed upon his professional shield that significant word, "Emigravit", and had cast or was casting his fortunes in the fertile land of promise, which em- braced the whole outstretching domain between Ohio and the Mississippi River. Wisconsin was then especially regarded a field where plenteous rewards were awaiting professional en- deavor. Racine was one of the favorite localities. The popula- tion of the town was about 8,000 - perhaps 8,500. It had con- tributed from its purse, in the form of borrowed money, much more than it could afford to borrow or pay. It is interesting now, to any one who participated in public affairs in those days and Vet survives, to recall the fact that the municipal indebtedness, to say nothing of aceunmilated interest, was then $374,000, con- sisting of railroad bonds, school bonds, harbor bonds, plank road bonds and bridge bonds. And as the spirit of litigation, if not positive repudiation, began to assert itself, coupled with some suggestions of compromise, it is also interesting to note that a lawyer, of whom I shall speak, Marshall M. Strong, in his advo- cacy of honest conduct in meeting financial engagements, plainly told the people that they were riding on a stolen railroad, sailing their water craft in a stolen harbor, traveling over stolen roads and bridges, and sending their children to stolen schools - all of which meant that Racine, to be honest, must pay her debts. In short. it was a gloomy time, and it would be naturally supposed that a young lawyer casting his fortunes in the West would give Racine a wide berth. But the accidents of circumstance often control our destiny and he took the chance of dropping anchor and making this his home.
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NO DEARTH OF LAWYERS
"At that time - January, 1859 - there were twenty-one lawyers engaged in the practice of the law in this town, and it befell me to increase the number to twenty-two. Let me call the roll of the twenty-one: Marshall M. Strong and Henry T. Fuller, composing the firm of Strong & Fuller; William P. Lyon and John B. Adams, of the firm of Lyon & Adams; John W. Cary, A. W. Farr and Lewis W. Evans, of the firm of Cary, Farr & Evans; Ida C. Paine and Nelson Millet, of the firm of Payne & Millet; Horace T. Sanders and Mr. Ladd, of the firm of Sanders & Ladd; William E. Wording and Peyton R. Morgan, of the firm of Wording & Morgan; George B. JJudd and Shelton L. Hall, composing the firm of Judd & Hall; A. S. Spooner and Nicholas H. Dale, composing the firm of Spooner & Dale; Nehemiah H. Joy, Champion S. Chase, C. W. Hall and Joseph C. Botsford. There were others here then, who had been admitted to the bar as early as 1848, 1851 and 1853, among whom were Thomas J. Emerson, Lorenzo Janes, George C. Northrop, William C. Mar- shall and George Q. Erskine. But I do not recall that they were in active practice. The list I have given should include James R. Doolittle, but he was then in the Senate of the United States and, although a member of the Raeine bar, I do not remember to have seen him engaged in the trial of canses at that period - nor until he left the Senate, which was at a much later time.
Henry T. Fuller was admitted to the bar of Racine Cirenit Court October 16, 1848. He studied law in Rochester, N. Y., in the office of Judge Jerome, an eminent lawyer in his time. At the conclusion of his law studies he went to the City of New York and was there admitted to the bar. In 1847 he came west and located in Milwaukee. Subsequently he removed to Racine and entered into partnership with Marshall M. Strong. The partner- ship continued until 1864, a period of seventeen years. In his prime Mr. Fuller was a tireless worker, a vigorous thinker, a wise adviser. In the days of which I speak the foreclosure of mortgages was a large and lucrative business. Nearly every farmer along the line of the newly constructed Racine & Missis. sippi Railroad had mortgaged his farm to aid the building of the road. Many of these mortgages passed into the hands of eastern people, who were clients of Strong & Fuller, and most of them
LORENZO JANES
DR. A. L. BUCHAN
JUDGE H. G. WINSLOW
7
JAMES R. ALANSON
RACINE PIONEERS
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had to be foreclosed. I have seen Mr. Fuller come into court with a good-sized basketful of orders of reference, referees' reports and decrees, and occupy the full morning hour taking the signa- ture of the judge, this occurring not on an occasional day, but many times during the term. After the hour was spent and it was time to call the jury, the judge would ask, 'Have you any- thing more, Mr. Fuller?' and Fuller would answer, Not any- thing more this morning, your honor,' placing particular em- phasis on the 'this'. It was enough to turn a starving young lawyer's eyes green with envy. Mr. Fuller was attorney and vice-president of the Western Union Railroad Company and per- formed great service in promoting the successful operation of the road from Racine to Savannah, and in the construction of the extended line to Rock Island. He was loyal to Racine and in his days of health none exceeded him in public spirit.
"It was my fortunate lot to become professionally associated with Mr. Fuller after the death of Mr. Strong, and for ten con- tinnous years the most intimate business and social relations existed between us. It needed not a word or writing for either the formation or dissolution of the partnership. We simply shook hands and said 'Now we are partners,' and again we shook hands when with mutual regret we separated. To such an extent did unity of feeling and interest prevail between us that the spot where he now lies buried was originally acquired under a joint title; and when the battle of life shall be over with me, as it is over with him, there, under the boughs of the tree we planted together, we shall repose near unto each other, tenants in com- mon of God's acre.
"William P. Lyon came to Wisconsin in May, 1841, passing through Burlington to Walworth County. Much of the time from 1841 to 1846 he worked on a farm in the Town of Hudson (now Lyons), but, with a passionate fondness for law reading, he mingled Blackstone and Kent and some other antique law books, now quite out of fashion, with agriculture. His natural bent was towards the law and this disposition was fostered by his mother. In this instance, maternal approval was rather re- markable, since his mother was a Quakeress and therefore of the order that stands for 'peace and good will among men.' He be- caine a student in the office of Judge George Gale, then a prac-
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ticing lawyer at Elkhorn, and afterwards the author, I believe, of a treatise on probate practice. Later he entered the office of Judge Charles M. Baker, of Geneva, and father of our lamented Robert Baker, and remained there until admitted to the bar of Walworth County in 1846. He was lawyer, justice of the peace and town clerk in Lyons from that time on mitil 1850. His receipts for professional services for the first year were $60, the second year $180, and the third $400. In 1854 he was elected district attorney and in the following year moved to Racine. Holding that position until 1859, he meantime came into com- mand of a large general practice and became one of the recognized leaders of the bar. At the next election after the expiration of his term as district attorney he was elected to the Assembly as the member from Racine and, although without previous legisla- five experience, he was made speaker. While serving his com- try in the Civil War, in 1865, he was elected judge of the first cir- «uit, and commenced his judicial duties in December of that year. According to the records, he held his first term in Racine County in February, 1866, and was appointed by Governor Fairchild to the Supreme Court in January, 1871. Concerning his career on the circuit bench, I quote the comments of another, which I cau personally verify: 'He made an admirable nisi prins judge, and his popularity with the bar and suitors, jurymen and the public generally was matter of universal comment.' Concerning his incumbeney of the bench of the Supreme Court, it is only neces- sary to refer to his judgments in the published reports. He be- came chief justice on January 4, 1892, and continued in that position until he retired in January, 1894.
"A painstaking lawyer was John B. Adams, the office mem- ber of the law firm of Lyon & Adams. Hle had little relish for the contentions of the court room and was best adapted to the more retired but not less important duties of adviser and office counsel. He was a painstaking lawyer of inflexible integrity and was so highly respected and esteemed that later he was elected county judge and thereafter never resumed active prae- tice. His administration of that important office was most highly approved by the people of the county. In 1868 he removed to South Evanston, Ilinois, and became connected with the title and abstract business in Chicago. Some years ago he removed
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to Saugatuck, Michigan, where he successfully conducted a pro- dnetive fruit farm.
"One of the most brilliant men who shed Inster, not only on the bar of Racine, but also on the bar of the state, was Horace T. Sanders. He came from Genesee County, New York, and was thoroughly equipped as a lawyer when he entered upon the prac- tice of the profession in Racine in 1842. He combined brilliancy and true intellectual power. He was a member of the second constitutional convention of 1847; took a conspicuous part in the general debates and proceedings of that body, and rendered very useful service in framing the constitution under which we live today. He was richly endowed with native talent and, moreover, was edneated in the classies. He was negligent in attire and manners to the point of slovenliness, but one forgot that when he rose in public address. He was vehement, eloquent and power- ful. He knew how to draw a pleading and to draw it perfectly. but he had no patience with details and wanted an associate who would attend to pleadings, notices of trial, knowledge of wit- nesses and all such drudgery, so that he should find the equip- ment complete at the trial in which he was to be pre-eminent. The first contested suit I had after I came to Racine was an action of ejeetment, to recover four inches in width of ground lying between two buildings on the west side of Market Square. True, it was rather a small quantity of real estate to make much ado about, but I had my case carefully prepared and to me it did not matter just then whether the subject of the suit was a thou- sand aeres or the smallest minimum in quantity. Sanders was against me at the trial. Our respective clients were sitting by our sides. I made what I thought was a fair opening statement to the jury and sat down. Sanders then spoke for the defence. Now, four inches in width of ground lying between two houses and elongated seventy feet is rather a narrow strip, and Sanders began his address after this fashion:
" 'Gentlemen of the Jury: This is an action brought by the plaintiff, on the advice of his counsel, to recover four inches of ground, inaccessible to either party, which the plaintiff desires to use as a cow pasture.' But while Sanders was satirizing my case. his client was offering us adequate propitiation behind his back, and when he concluded, I informed the court and jury that
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the case was settled by an agreement to pay my client an accept- able consideration for the ground.
"Mr. Sanders was a Democrat and believed in Douglas, the Little Giant, as the ocracle of democracy, and. like Donglas and Carpenter, when secession trained its guns on Fort Sumter, he was for his country and the Union, party or no party. He was a member of the famous Legislature of 1853, and was chosen one of the Assembly's managers to conduct the impeachment of Judge Levi Hubbell before the Senate. Associated with Edward G. Ryan as assistant prosecutor, he discharged his duties at the trial with great ability, and on the twenty-eighth day made the open- ing argument for the prosecution. In a review of the trial, which lasted thirty days, he told me that, in his opinion, if it had not been for the terrifie invective of Ryan, judgment of conviction would have been secured.
" Horace T. Sanders served in the Civil War with distinction and was mustered out as a brigadier general of United States Volunteers. In 1863 he was president of a military commission and provost judge. At the close of the war Colonel Sanders came back to his little home in Racine, broken in health, but proud and brave in spirit. He never again was able to resume professional work and cherished hope of recovery to the last. He steadily wasted away and died in October, 1865. Like many another law- ver with brilliant talents, Colonel Sanders died poor. His wife and a large family of little girls survived him and the bar con- tributed liberally to their immediate wants. He and Matt Car- penter were great friends, and Carpenter under the impulse of friendship and true affection, such as prompted him to many a generous deed, went upon the floor of the Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce and made, in behalf of the family, an appeal so elo- quent and pathetic, in which he pictured the little girls, protected only by the arms of a devoted mother, as 'lilies of the field, for they toil not, neither do they spin,' that it indneed spontaneous response in the form of a purse of $600.
"Mr. Ladd was the office lawyer in the firm of Sanders & Ladd. He was an agreeable and diligent man, but while in Racine never took a prominent part at the bar. When Colonel Sanders entered the military service, the firm was broken up, and at some period during the war Mr. Ladd removed from Racine.
"John W. Cary was for forty-five years a lawyer in Wiscon-
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sin. He was a Vermonter by birth; was a graduate of Union College, Schenectady, New York: was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of New York in 1844, and also became a solicitor in chancery in the court of Chancellor Walworth. He came to Racine in 1850 and formed a partnership with James R. Doo- little, which continued until 1853, when Mr. Doolittle became judge of the first circuit. In 1857 and 1858, he was head of the firm of Cary, Farr & Evans, and my recollection is that when I came to Racine from Ohio in January, 1859, the partnership was still in existence. Mr. Cary was a member of the State Senate at the time of the impeachment of Judge Hubbell in 1853. He was mayor of Racine in 1857. In the early part of 1859 he re- moved to Milwaukee and became the counsel of the La Crosse & Milwaukee Railroad Company and spent the remainder of his life in the service of that corporation and of the successive cor- porations which ultimately became, by consolidations and organ- izations, the present Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company. He was a bold. manly, courageous lawyer and one whose sense of broad equity was very strong. At one term of the Supreme Court of the United States he argued fourteen causes and won them all, against such men as Caleb Cushing, Matthew H. Caprenter, and other eminent lawyers. He was thorough and conscientious to the last degree in the preparation of his cases, a virtue always to be enmlated and without which the highest success is not attained. He was a very finely balanced man. In the beautiful tribute paid to his memory by Burton Hanson, it was said of him that he became a member of the bar at Racine, than which none in the state was more brilliant. It included such names as Ryan, Strong, Doolittle, Lyon, Sanders and Fuller, and 'among sneh men, it is high praise to say that as a lawyer Mr. Cary was their peer.'
"When A. W. Farr located in Racine I do not know. He removed here from Geneva, where I think he had practiced his profession several years. He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court at its first session in 1853. He was a man whose acquaintance was not readily made and so I did not come to know hin well for some time after I located in Racine. He was then city attorney. He was an excellent all-round lawyer. He was plain, sensible, clear-minded, and presented his cases to the court always with clearness of apprehension and with fidelity to the
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interests of his clients. He enlisted in the War of the Rebellion in the Third Cavalry, became quartermaster of the regiment, and was killed in action October 6, 1863.
"Lewis M. Evans, one of Mr. Cary's partners, was a bright, stirring young lawyer when I knew him, but he left Racine early. I think he moved to Buffalo.
"Ira C. Paine was one of the unique characters of the old Racine bar. He came from the Western Reserve in Ohio and was of good stock. He was a brother of General James H. Paine, who in his time was a distinguished lawyer in Milwaukee, and was unele of Byron Paine, one of the justices of the Supreme Court, and, moreover, one of the ablest that ever sat on the bench of that court. Our Mr. Paine had the title of major and we all knew him as 'Major Paine,' but how he got that title I never knew. He was an impulsive, explosive man, but full of good- heartedness and good nature. As a lawyer he had grown up in the common law practice. Tidd and Chitty and the English common law reports were his law books, and he hated the code with a hatred that glowed in his face when a friendly word was spoken of it in his presence. He was the only lawyer that had a desk within the court room bar, and it was his own. An inci- dent illustrated his contempt for the code. Fuller had brought suit to recover rent upon a written lease. He had embodied in his complaint the entire lease, in hace verba. The Major discov- ered a provision in the code permitting a motion to strike out redundant and irrelevant matter from a pleading, and, thinking it applied to Fuller's complaint, as it did, he assailed the plead- ing by such a motion. He argued his motion vehemently, but Judge Noggle, who was a code judge, overruled it on the spot. Major Paine retired to his seat by the desk in utter disgust and settled into meditation .. The more he meditated, the deeper grew the crimson in his checks. Like Tam O'Shanter's 'sullen dame,' he 'nursed his wrath to keep it warm.' Getting hotter and hotter, and repeating to himself, sotto voce, the offensive word 'redu- daney,"' redundancy,' several times, he at last broke into a volley of volcanic and profane expletives that it would not do to repeat in this presence.
"You may have heard of his retort in the Supreme Court, prompted by a remark of Chief Justice Dixon, for it has gone the rounds of the state and has come down as one of the tradi-
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tional stories of the old bar. He and a number of the Racine lawyers had set out for Madison in good time, as they believed, to attend the court and argue their cases. But they were badly delayed by a snowstorm, and on arrival found that the Racine cases, which were in a group, had been called and gone to the foot of the calendar. His brethren put the Major forward to plead in extenuation of their late appearance and for the rein- statement of their cases. The court, consisting of Dixon, Cole and Paine, heard him attentively, and then it happened that the chief justice said: . You know, MajorPaine, there is nothing more uncertain than the time when a case will be reached in this court.' 'Yes, there is: ves, there is,' retorted the Major in a shrill voice; 'it is a good deal more uncertain how the case will be decided when it is reached.' It is needless to say that the court immediately reinstated the cases.
"Ira C. Paine was judge of the first circuit a short time in 1875. Ile held one term in Racine, perhaps two, and at not a remote time thereafter passed beyond the twilight's purple hills. His partner. Nelson Millett, a good many years ago removed to Columbus, Nebraska, where he died, leaving a son, who, I believe, is living and a lawyer at that place.
"William E. Wording was county judge when I came to Racine and continued such a good many years. In the early fifties his court had civil jurisdiction and he held several trial terms. He was a man of good mind, rather eccentric in manner and, unlike most lawyers, had a talent for making money. He had what JJudge Gresham used to call 'the money sense,' in high degree. The scorched and partially burned papers to be found in the old files in the present County Court were resened from a fire that burned Judge Wording's office. His partner for many years was Peyton R. Morgan, who came from Massachusetts and was a gentleman in the best sense. Neither member of the firm of Wording & Morgan appeared much in court. But they had quite a large business, especially in foreclosures. Mr. Mor- gan's wife came of a distinguished family in Massachusetts and was a highly accomplished woman. She was a daughter of Gen- eral James Appleton, who fought under General JJackson at New Orleans. in the War of 1812. A son of Mr. and Mrs. Morgan, James Appleton Morgan, is living near New York City.
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"Gorge B. Judd came from Herkimer County, New York, and in an eminent degree was a representative of the old bar of that state. He was a most courteous gentleman of the good old style, of dignified bearing, and withal one of the most industrious in the trial of a case I ever knew. Those were days that ante- dated stenographers and typewriters, and the copious notes Colonel Judd was able to make as a trial proceeded always ex- cited my surprise and admiration. Never a point escaped him and from his notes alone a bill of exceptions could be made. He was persistent, untiring, thorough. Incivility was to him like a breach of hospitality in your own home. Old associations and love of his old home sometimes led him to forget himself for the moment and to address the jury as 'Gentlemen of Herkimer County.' Ile always wore a dress suit, which emphasized his gentlemanly bearing, and to me it seemed extremely appropriate. as in Ohio I had been accustomed to see lawyers thus dressed. particularly during the sessions of court. Colonel Judd's prac- tice extended to the Supreme Court, where he was not infre- quently heard in important cases. Ilis professional career is an important part of the history of the bar of Racine.
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