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 27
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"His partner for a considerable time was Shelton L. Hall, who still (1901) has a home in Racine. He long since retired from active labor and has attained the ripe old age of eighty- eight years. His wife was a sister of Mrs. Morgan, of whom I have spoken, and they were consins of the first wife of the poet. Longfellow. Samuel E. Hall, son of Mr. and Mrs. Shelton L. Hall, is a lawyer pursuing his profession in Chicago.
"Nicholas H. Dale began the practice of the law in this county. His home was in the Town of Yorkville, where, before his admission to the bar in 1857, he had worked on a farm and taught school. At what time precisely he removed to Racine I do not know, but he was here in January, 1859, and we had ad- joining offices. He was a man of very positive traits of character: tried a case vigorously; was not wanting in self-confidence, and was a speaker of no mean parts. He enlisted in Company G, Second Wisconsin Cavalry: was subsequently promoted to be lieutenant colonel, and died at Neosho, Missouri. His partner was A. C. Spooner, who came here from Delavan. After the dis- solution of the firm, he returned to Delavan, where only a few years ago he died.
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"Nehemiah H. Joy was a Vermonter. His father lost his life in the War of 1812. Ambitions to become a lawyer, he studied law in the offices of Judge Underhill, in Chelsea, Vermont. He was admitted to the bar in Groton, in 1840, and in 1844 he re- moved to Jackson, Michigan. In 1853 he came to Wiscosnin and located in Kenosha. In 1855 he removed to Racine and became a member of the bar of this county. He practiced law here from that time until 1868, when he died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. George H. Paul, of Milwaukee. He was at one time district attorney and subsequently was appointed to and held the office of postmaster in Racine. Mr. Joy was well grounded in the law; was finent in speech and strong in disenssion; and always pre. sented his cases to the court and jury with exceptional force. He was agreeable and interesting in conversation, and I remem- ber him as a lawyer of excellent attaiments and kindly nature. After the dissolution of the firm of Judd & Hall Mr. Joy became a partner of Colonel Judd, and the firm of Judd & Joy was well known and prominent throughout the county.
"Champion S. Case was one of the lawyers of Racine in the times of which I speak. He was in active practice several years before 1859, as a member of the old firm of Butterfield & Chase. He removed to Omaha many years ago and later became mayor of that city.
"There are four lawyers who came to the bar of this county at a somewhat later time than that having immediate relation to my subject, but yet in such proximity to that period that I should not omit to say something of them. I refer, in the order of their admission to the bar, to Judge E. O. Hand, Frederic Ullman, Charles H. Lee and John B. Winslow.
Judge Hand was reading law in the office of Lyon & Adams in January, 1859, when I came to Racine. At one time his father's family lived in Burlington. In the spring of 1849 he went to California and spent four years in digging gold. He entered a Michigan college in 1853, graduated in 1858, and in 1859 he grad- uated from the State University of Wisconsin. He then came to Racine, pursued his law studies, was admitted to the bar on AApril 23, 1861; became a member of the firm of Lyon & Adams, and after Judge Lyon was elected circuit judge the firm was reorganized as that of Adams & Hand. This firm continued until
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Judge Adams left Racine. Judge Hand was appointed county judge in September, 1868, and held that office for thirteen years. "Frederic UIIman, born, reared, educated and married in Racine, where also he entered upon his professional career, began his law studies in the office of Strong & Fuller, but as those were war times, he broke away to join the army of 'three hundred thousand more.' Returning at the close of the war, in the fall of 1865, he resumed his studies in the offices of Fuller & Dver. and there contimed until about Angust, 1866, when he began attendance at the Albany Law School, graduating in the summer of 1867. On his return to Racine he was admitted to the bar, formed a partnership with C. W. Bennett, and they practiced together until 1869, when they removed to Chicago, continuing the partnership there until the great fire of 1871. To no lawyer in Chicago has been more generously and deservedly awarded the confidence, respeet and esteem of the courts and bar than to Mr. Ullman. His career has been one of honorable and unvary- ing success. He has been president of the Chicago Bar Associa- tion and his distinction in the profession has been otherwise long recognized.
"Like Mr. Ullman, Charles H. Lee was 'to the manner born' and unlike some of us, he has never deserted his native heath. I knew Mr. Lee's father - Alanson H. Lee - before I knew him, and no more honorable, high-minded and respected man ever lived in Racine than he. He was a merchant - one of the good old style - and of all the merchants who either preceded or sue- ceeded him in this town to the present time, he was facile prin- reps. Charles II. Lee began to read law in the office of C. W. Bennett in the spring of 1866. In September of that year he became a student and assistant in the office of Fuller & Dyer, succeeding Mr. Ullman, who had gone to law school. He re- mained there until Angust, 1868. Then he, too, went off to the Albany Law School. He was admitted to the New York bar in May, 1869, and to the Racine bar in June of that year, when he returned to Fuller & Dyer's office, remaining there until April, 1871, when he became associated with John T. Fish. The firm of Fish & Lee contimied until 1878, when he became special coun- sel of the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company and remained in that position and as treasurer of the company until December 31, 1896.
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"John B. Winslow began the study of the law in Judge Hand's office in January, 1872, where he remained until June, 1873, when he, like his two immediate predecessors, came into Fuller & Dyer's office and continued there until about September, 1874. Ile then entered the law school at Madison, took a year's course, graduating and being admitted to the bar June 17, 1875. For a year thereafter he was in the office of Fuller & Harkness, and when JJudge Harkness removed to Salt Lake City he became a partner of Mr. Fuller. He continued in that relation until December, 1877, when he opened an office alone. In 1880 he formed a partnership with C. A. Brownson, a most worthy law- ver, who died prematurely and much lamented - and this part- nership continued until Judge Winslow was appointed to the circuit bench, where he remained until May 4, 1891, when, to the great satisfaction of the bar, he was promoted to the bench of the Supreme Court.
"Samuel Ritchie's career as a member of this bar presses close upon the period of which I have been speaking. He was admitted to the bar in 1873, and although retired from actual practice has held continuous association with the profession.
"Successor of most of those of whom I have spoken and asso- ciate of some, this occasion should not pass without allusion to one who now rests from his labors, John Tracy Fish. He began humbly, he toiled unceasingly, and completed his life work a recognized leader of the Wisconsin bar. Beginning in a little hamlet in Walworth County, admitted to the bar in 1859; giving more than four years to the service of his country as a soldier, then resuming his profession in Burlington; elected distriet at- torney, removing to Racine in 1868; he from that point in his career moved steadily onward and upward, closing his life work as general solicitor of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Rail- road Company, and later as local counsel within the State of Wisconsin of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company. Of his great ability, of his remarkable advancement and success, enduring record has been made, both in the form of achievement during life and memorials after his death, in the Supreme Court of the state and in the Circuit Court of this county.
"Passing now to Burlington, 'loveliest village of the plain.' I name first Lewis Royce, because he came in 1837 and was the
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first lawyer located in the town. My impression is he emigrated from Vermont. He was educated in the law that relates back to Justinian, and began his professional work in Burlington by building a lime kiln and burning lime. Lawyers in those days in rural localities did all sorts of things and combined all sorts of trades. I wish you could have known Mr. Royce. He was a veritable 'green bag' lawyer, for when he came to court he always carried his papers in a green bag. He answered perfectly Car- lyle's characterization of Dryasdust. He was a legal Dryasdust. If von consulted him on some modern, every-day question of contract or trespass, or boundaries of land, or mill-dam rights, or, for that matter, any other question, he took you back to the Pandects; brought you down to Coke on Littleton; then Black- stone, with his Black Acre and White Aere; then Lord Hard- wicke, and finally the Supreme Court of Vermont, so that at the end of the interview you felt like a man who had lived in the middle ages, and that you had gone through processes of evohi- tion that would be new even to Darwin. To speak the truth, Mr. Royce was a lawyer of great learning. His embarrassment was in the practical application of his learning to professional work. He was a legal antiquary and if we could imagine such a thing as a law museum, wherein there might be exhibited person- ified curiosities of the law, our good old friend would be entitled to a first place among the most antique specimens.
"Caleb P. Barnes had given up the law before 1859. Yet his previous relations to the bar justify allusion to him. He was a man early and entirely thrown upon his own resources. His law library comprised perhaps fifty or a hundred of the old stand- ard law books, mostly elementary. Naturally, and from habit, he reasoned from principle almost entirely and needed few books. His intellect was acute; his style of speech terse and pithy, and withal he clothed his thoughts with a quaint and indescribable humor that lent interest to everything he said, and made his companionship a joy and charm. I have heard some of the old lawyers say he was the best cross-examiner of witnesses they ever saw.
"C. W. Bennett was one of the Burlington lawyers of which I speak. He was the son of a farmer in the Town of Duanesburgh, New York. He entered the Albany Law School in January, 1856, and graduated in April, 1857. In September of that year he came
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to Wisconsin and located in Burlington. J. O. Culver, a friend, came about that time and they formed a partnership. They were poor, as every young lawyer should be, and mider the stimulus of circumstances and ambition they set to work. Mr. Bennett was admitted to the bar of the county, October 20, 1857, and Mr. Culver, December 24 of the same year. Later Mr. Culver re- moved to Green Bay. In May, 1860, Mr. Bennett removed to Racine, where he remained until June, 1869. On coming to Racine be formed a partnership with A. W. Farr. He was dis- triet attorney several terms between 1860 and 1869. In June, 1867, he formed a partnership with Frederic Ullman, and they practiced together until 1869, when they removed to Chicago. He lost all he possessed in the great fire of 1871 and then moved to Salt Lake City, where he became the head of one of its successful law firms. Mr. Bennett was one of the most able lawyers that ever came to the Racine County bar and he has been recognized as one of the ablest and most distinguished west of the Rocky Mountains.
"Judge Robert Harkness resigned from the cirenit bench in 1875 and became associated with Henry T. Fuller in the practice of the law. The partnership continued until April, 1875, when he removed to Salt Lake City.
"I remember very well the first time I met Judge Whiton and it was the only time, I think. My recollection is it was in 1849. He was then judge of the first circuit. The occasion was a murder trial in Southport, the Caffrey case, somewhat famous, because it was the first in which capital punishment was adminis- tered in this state. S. Park Coon was prosecuting and Fred Lovell and E. W. Evans were defending. The notoriety of the case and an eager curiosity impelled me to visit the court room. I remember how the bearing of the judge on the bench and the pleas of the lawyers impressed me and I may add that my inter- ests in the case did not cease until I saw the convicted man hung on the prairie west of Southport.
"If I were to go back to a time which antedates my personal knowledge, I should enumerate as practitioners at this bar Ed- ward G. Ryan, Thomas Wright, Chester Bush, Hubbell W. John- son, Moses Butterfield, Horace N. Chapman, Jackson B. Nutting, Lewis Smith, David L. Eastman, Joseph F. JJones, Sanmel E. Chapman. At one sitting of the court. in 1848, twenty-five law-
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vers were admitted to the bar in this county, among whom were Isaac N. Stoddard, O. S. Head, E. W. Evans, H. H. Towslee, J. Bond and Andrew G. Chatfield, all of Southport, which was then in Racine County. If I were to refer to others admitted in 1858, 1859, 1860 and 1861, and whom I knew, I should mention M. Kelbe, N. N. Trombley, James F. Lewis, D. A. Pierce, Warren J. Dur- ham, L. L. Wainwright, Egbert Jameison, Arthur S. Lacey and William E. Strong."
At this time the common law and chancery practice existed, the code not being adopted until 1856.
PERSONNEL OF THE PRESENT BAR
At this time the personnel of the local bar is matter of com- ment, as it retains the high standard for ability, integrity and high aims advanced and maintained by the master leaders of former days. No special mention of them shall appear in this chapter for the reason that most of them, if not all, will have a place in the biographical volume of this history. However, the names of the members are hereto appended:
RACINE COUNTY BAR
Ahrens, Otto E .; Beach, Paul M .; Beck, Thorwald M .; Ben- son, Guy A .; Burgess, E. Roy; Collins, Edmund R .; Emmett, Shirley L .: Flett, David H .; Foley, Jerome J .; Gillen, Martin J .; Gittings, C. C., Racine; Gittings, John T., Union Grove; Git- tins Elmer E .; Hand, Elbert B .; Hardy, Thomas P .; Harvey, Richard G .; Heck, Max W .; Ineffner, Martin M .; Ingalls, Wal- lace: Janecky, Adolph R .; Judd, A. Cary; Kearney, Thomas M .; Kearney, Thomas M., Jr .; Knoblock, Milton J .; Krenzke, Charles; Lee, William E .: Liegler, John H .; Lunt, A. J .; Myers, Peter J .; Owen, John W .; Palmer, W. C .; Quinn, Lewis J .; Rohr, Louis II., Burlington; Sander, William, Waterford; Simmons, John B .; Smieding, Henry G .; Smieding, William, Jr .; Storms, William W .; Thompson, Fulton; Thompson, W. D .; Walker, M. E., Racine; Waller, George W., Burlington; Wehmhoff, E. John, Burlington; Wentworth, John T .; Whaley, Vilas H.
LAW FIRMS
Gittins & Burgess; Gittings, Janeeky & Beach; Hand, Hand & Quinn; Heck & Krenzke; Simmons & Walker; Storms, Foley & Beck; Thompson & Harvey; Thompson, Myers & Kearney.
PUBLIC SQUARE, RACINE, IN THE '60S
Photo furnished by Billings
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CHAPTER XVI
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION
EVOLUTION OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION - HOME-MADE REMEDIES OF EARLY DAYS-CHARACTER OF THE PIONEER DOCTOR - HARDSHIPS OF FRONTIER PRACTICE - EARLY PHYSICIANS OF RACINE COUNTY -- MEDICAL SOCIETIES - MEDICAL LEGISLATION - PRESENT DAY PHY- SICIANS.
Medicine is undoubtedly the oldest of the learned profes- sions. The first man who suffered some bodily ailment probably sought for some plant to relieve his pain and, having found one. communicated his discovery to his neighbor. This was the begin- ning of a pharmacopia that through the succeeding centuries has been built up to its present wonderful proportions. The practice of medicine as a profession is old in India and still older in China, where its origin is lost in tradition and fable. The best authorities attribute the introduction of the healing art in China to the Em- peror Hwang Ti, who ruled about 2687 B. C. Although the Chinese physician knew nothing of human anatomy or the cir- culation of the blood, he had elaborate rules for noting the pulse, and his remedies were a curious collection of ingredients from the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms. His surgery, if he practiced any at all, must have been crude, his chief reliance hav- ing been placed in plasters, poultices, etc. Little improvement was made in medicine in China until after missionaries began to visit the country, taking with them ideas from other nations.
The Egyptians are credited with having been the first people to reduce the practice of medicine to a system or profession. There the priests were the first physicians, but from old docu- ments and papyri it is evident that, besides those engaged in general practice they had specialists, such as gynæcologists, sur- geons, veterinarians and even oculists. One papyrus dates back to the Sixteenth Century B. C., and the Egyptian medical lore was preserved in the last six volumes of the "Sacred Book." Baas, in his History of Medicine, says: "They treated of anta- omy, general diseases, instruments, diseases of the eye and dis- eases of women, and in completeness and arrangement rival the Hippocratic collection, which they antedate by a thousand years."
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In the early history of the Hebrews disease was looked upon as a punishment for sin and therefore beyond the power of man. After the Egyptian captivity, many of the healing methods learned from their captors were practiced among the Jews, though the priests regarded the custom as a dangerous innova- tion and the physician never became a popular individual in Palestine.
Greece furnishes the best records of medical development in its early stages and after Egypt the Greeks were the first to have regular physicians who practiced according to system. Chiron. the Centaur, is said to have been the first Greek to claim the power of being able to heal the sick. His pupil, Æsenlapins. founded a school of medicine, but after a time it degenerated into superstition and mysticism to such an extent that its usefulness was destroyed. Hippocrates, who was born about 460 B. C., was the great Greek physician. He wrote treatises on hygiene, surgery and other topics, classified diseases, though he had no practical knowledge of anatomy, and has been called "the Father of Medicine."
About the beginning of the Christian Era, Celsus, a Roman writer on medicine, appeared in the arena. He followed the teachings and philosophy of Hippocrates. Celsus was succeeded by Galen, who wrote over one hundred works, some on the sub- ject of anatomy. The systematic study of anatomy did not begin, however, until in the Sixteenth Century, when the first dissection was conducted by Vesalius, an Italian physician and surgeon. After the discovery of the circulation of the blood by Harvey, and the development of the science of chemistry, the science of medicine went forward with greater celerity and the physician began to command a greater respect from the people.
It was a long time, though, before the doctor won the place in society to which he was justly entitled. Voltaire defined a physician as "a man who erams drugs of which he knows little into a body of which he knows less." That may have been true of a certain class of French empiries at the time it was written, but since Voltaire wrote the science of medicine has progressed by leaps and bounds and the physician of the Twentieth Century is generally a man who occupies a high standing in the commni- nity, both for his professional skill and his general reputation as a citizen.
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HOME-MADE REMEDIES
In every early settlement throughout the central part of the United States, each family kept a stock of roots, herbs and barks for the treatment of common aihnents. In every neighborhood there was some elderly woman who was often called upon to visit the sick and prescribe one or more of these "home-made" remedies, for the nearest doctor was perhaps many miles distant. Those who have read Eggleston's "Hoosier Schoolnaster" will recall "Granny Sanders," who was bold enough to advise a pro- fessional physician how he should treat his patients. Granny Sanders was an extreme case, but old residents can doubtless remember the boneset tea, the burdock or snake-root bitters, the decoctions of wild cherry or hickory bark, or the poultices and plasters that "Grandma" or "Aunt Peggy" would prepare with serupulous care and apply - internally or externally, as the exi- gencies of the case might demand -with as much solemnity as that shown by the surgeon of the present day, when he cuts into a patient and robs him of his appendix.
This was the state of affairs in the frontier settlement when the first regular physician arrived, and probably no addition to the population was received with a more cordial welcome. Yet the life of a physician was no sinecure. About the only induce- ment for a doctor to locate in one of the new and scattering com- munities was that he might be able to "get in on the ground floor" and establish himself in practice before a competitor arrived in the field. Money was a scaree article on the frontier and his fees, if he collected any at all, were frequently paid in such produce as the farmer could spare and the doctor could use.
CHARACTER OF THE PIONEER DOCTOR
The old-time doctor was not always a graduate of a medical school. In a majority of cases his professional education had been acquired by "reading" for a few months with some estab- lished physician and assisting his preceptor in the treatment of his patients. When the young man felt that he knew enough about medicine to begin practice for himself, he began looking about for a suitable location. A new settlement frequently appeared to him as offering the best opportunities. Of course, there were many exceptions to this rule. An old physician, already established in practice and perhaps a graduate of a med-
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ical college, would "pull up stakes" to seek a new location and cast his lot with a young and growing community.
If the professional and technical education of the early phy- sician was limited, his stock of drugs and medicines was equally limited. Duncan, in his "Reminiscences of the Medical Profes- sion," says: "The first requisite was a generous supply of Eng- lish calomel." To this were added some jalap, aloes, Dover's powder, castor oil and Peruvian bark (sulphate of quinine was too rare and expensive for general use), and these constituted the principal portion of his Materia Medica. In cases of fever it was considered the proper thing to relieve the patient of a quantity of blood, hence every doctor provided himself with one or more lancets. If a drastic cathartic, followed by blood letting, and perhaps a "fly blister," did not improve the condition of the patient, the doctor would "look wise and trust to the sick man's rugged constitution to pull him through."
But, greatly to the credit of these pioneer physicians, it can be truthfully said that they were just as sincere and con- scientions in their work, and had just as much faith in the rem- edies they administered, as the most celebrated specialist has in his remedies today. It can further be said that most of them, as the population of the new settlement increased and their prac- tice grew more extended, refused to remain in the mediocre class. Many a physician has attended a medical school, even after hav- ing been for years engaged in practice, with a fair degree of success.
Over and above his professional calling and position, the doctor was usually a man of prominence and influence. His advice was frequently asked in matters entirely foreign to his business; his travels about the settlement brought him in touch with all the latest news and gossip, which made him a welcome visitor in other households; he was often the one man in the community who subscribed for and read a newspaper, and this led his neighbors to follow his judgment and opinions in matters political. Look back over the history of almost any county in the Central United States and the names of physicians will appear as members of the Legislature, inenmbents of county offices, and in a number of instances as the representative of his district in Congress. Many a boy has been named for the family physician. When he called to see a patient near meal time, he
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was always invited to partake of "such as we have," and on these occasions the largest piece of chicken and the juiciest piece of pie would almost invariably find their way to the doctor's plate.
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