USA > Wisconsin > Rock County > Rock County, Wisconsin; a new history of its cities, villages, towns, citizens and varied interests, from the earliest times, up to date, Vol. II > Part 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54
David Irwin, one of the early Supreme court justices of Wis- consin, and the first judge to hold court in what is now Rock county, was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, in 1794, and was of blended Scotch and Irish parentage. His father was a Presbyterian minister and a teacher of the ancient languages of much local reputation. David Irwin was educated for a lawyer, and started in life in the Shenandoah valley in Virginia, in which, in after life he located many marvelous incidents and anecdotes that it was his delight to relate. As he did not meet with wondrous success as a lawyer in the valley, he applied to his old schoolmate, William C. Rivers, who was at that time in high favor with President Jackson to get him an office, and Mr. Rivers suggested the propriety of giving him a judgeship. The term of office of Judge Doty, as judge of the additional dis- trict for Michigan territory having expired in 1832, that position was tendered him and accepted. Upon the organization of the territory of Wisconsin, he was appointed associate justice of the Supreme court by President Jackson.
Being a bachelor, his residence was not necessarily confined to any particular locality. He always preferred southern society, and as soon as the term of his last office was ended, he went to St. Louis, where he remained some length of time, and subse- quently went to Texas, where, with the economical accumula- tions of the principal and interest of his salary as judge, he made large investments in wild cotton land, which made him a man of wealth.
Edward Vernon Whiton was the son of General Joseph Whiton, of Massachusetts, a soldier of the Revolution and also of the war of 1812. He was born at South Lee, Berkshire county, Mass., June 2, 1805, and spent the first thirty years of life in his native town. There, during young manhood, occurred to him an experience, which tinged his life with at least temporary melan- choly and may have been one cause of his deciding to go west. At the age of thirty he moved to this region of Wisconsin, just
1
ANGIE JJ. KING.
¥19
COURTS AND LEGAL PROFESSION
before it became a separate territory, and lived by himself in a little cabin that he built in the northern part of what is now the city of Janesville. The family tradition is that he was an eager hunter and fisherman and liked to be alone with his books. J. E. Arnold, then president of the bar association of Wisconsin, at their meeting, held April 14, 1859, said that in early days, when obliged to visit the western part of this territory, going by way of Janesville, which then contained one cabin, he usually spent the night at the house of Judge Holmes at Rockport, so called, just below Janesville. There he learned that a bachelor named Whiton, then living a secluded and almost hermit life in a cabin on the prairie, was the strong man in the interests of Janesville. The whole truth of the matter included much more than that. From the very first Mr. Whiton was identified with almost every prominent event in the history and progress of Wis- consin, both as a territory and also as a state. He was called into the councils, which led to the first organization of this Wis- consin region as a territory in 1836, and was elected a member of the house of representatives for the first session of the legislative assembly at Madison. At the next session he was elected speaker of the house. He took an active part in the work of enacting the first territorial code, to succeed the statutes of Michigan and the laws which had been passed at Belmont and Burlington. The revised statutes were published under his supervision and took effect July 4, 1839.
Judge Whiton filled both political and judicial stations suc- cessively with such ability and integrity that the people exalted him from place to place until he received from them the highest honor in their power, the position of chief justice of the state of Wisconsin. And amid all the conflicts of parties the purity of his character was never sullied by reproach or even by sus- picion. Judge Arnold adds this personal testimony : "During the long session of 1840 and 1841 I was a member of the council and roommate of Whiton, and saw then the clearness of his intel- lect, his kindness of heart and the simplicity of his character. I saw also that peculiar element of his life, which was not mis- anthropy, but a tinge of melancholy and disappointment." This, as we have before suggested, was plainly retrospective and dated back to the earlier and unmarked period of his life.
In 1847 Edward V. Whiton was a member of the constitu-
®
220
HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
tional convention, which framed the constitution of this state. At the origin of state government in 1849 he was elected a circuit judge and under the system which then prevailed became a judge of the Supreme court. When the Separate Supreme court was established, in 1853, he was elected chief justice and re- elected in 1857. This high office he continued to hold until obliged to leave it by the attack of illness, from which he died at his home in Janesville, about noon, April 12, 1859. (Wis. Re- ports, Vol. VIII, page xi.)
In the year 1847 Mr. Whiton married Miss Amoret T. Dimock. Their son, also named Edward V. Whiton, lived until the year 1900, leaving his son of the same name, now a prosperous busi- ness man of Janesville, Wis., the home of three generations of honorable life, under the one name.
Judge Whiton was pre-eminent as a legislator. His varied information, strict integrity, eminent conservatism and finely balanced mind all united to make him a ready debater and a high minded patriotic legislator. We have placed his portrait opposite the title page of this volume because, among the citi- zens of Rock county, he proved himself manifestly worthy to represent the high character of the courts of our state.
Wyman Spooner, who preceded Judge Doolittle on the circuit bench, was born at Hardwick, Worcester county, Mass., July 2, 1795. His father was a farmer and he lived at home, attending school winters until he was fourteen years of age. He then went to Vermont and became an apprentice in a printing office. When about twenty-one, he commenced the publication of a weekly newspaper, which he continued about twelve years. He then began the study of law, and was admitted to its practice in 1833. From his long continuance in, and his associations with Vermont, he claimed, without repudiating the paternity of his native state, to be a Green Mountain boy. In 1842 he removed to Wisconsin, and in 1843 settled in Elkhorn, Walworth county, where he ever after resided. In 1846 he was elected judge of probate, which office he held until the probate was merged into the county court.
In 1853 he was appointed circuit judge, which position he held until the election of Judge Doolittle. He was elected to the assembly in 1850, 1851, 1857 and 1861. In 1857 he was elected speaker of the assembly. He was elected state senator for the term comprising 1862-63. In the last session he was chosen
721
COURTS AND LEGAL PROFESSION
president of the senate, and became lieutenant governor when Mr. Solomon succeeded to the executive chair. In 1863, 1865 and 1867 he was elected lieutenant governor, and by virtue of the office, presided over the senate six consecutive years. He was a member of the first board of trustees for the deaf and blind at Delaware. Judge Spooner was a man of constant diligence and energy. He died at Elkhorn at an advanced age.
James R. Doolittle, another one of the early judges of Rock county, was born in Hampton, N. Y., January 3, 1815, was a graduate of Geneva college, New York, afterwards studied law, was admitted to the bar of the Supreme court of New York in 1837, entered upon its practice in that state, and was for several years district attorney of the county of Wyoming. In 1851 he came to Wisconsin and settled at Racine in the practice of his profession, was elected judge of the First Judicial circuit in 1853, which office he resigned in 1856. In 1857 he was elected United States senator for a full term, in which body he served on the committee on foreign affairs, commerce, military affairs and was chairman of the committee on Indian affairs. He was a member of the peace congress of 1861, was re-elected to the senate in 1863, his term ending in 1869. During the summer recess of 1865, as a member of a special committee of the senate, he visited the Indian tribes west of the Mississippi. He was a delegate to the national union convention held at Philadelphia in 1856, was its president, and took an active part in its proceedings. At the close of his career in the senate of the United States, Judge Doolittle assumed the practice of the law in Chicago, where he continued for many years. During the war Judge Doolittle did much in sustaining the government by acts and addresses, and during the remainder of his life, was an active and prominent member of the Democratic party, and in 1871 was its candidate for governor of Wisconsin.
Charles M. Baker was born in New York city, October 18, 1804. His father soon after removed to Addison county, Ver- mont, where the subject of this sketch attended a neighboring school until he became twelve years of age. He was a hard student, and in 1822 entered Middleburg college, but was com- pelled to relinquish his studies before the close of the first term on account of failing health, caused by too severe application. After several months' rest, his health being in a measure restored,
722
HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
in the fall of 1823, he accepted the position of assistant teacher in a young ladies' school in Philadelphia, where he remained two years. In 1826, he commenced the study of law in the office of S. G. Huntington, at Troy, N. Y., where he remained three years, and was then admitted to the bar. Forming a partnership with Henry W., a brother of Marshall M. Strong, of Racine, in the spring of 1830, he removed to Seneca Falls, N. Y., where he engaged in the practice of his profession until 1834, when his health being again affected by too close applica- tion, he relinquished his practice and returned to Vermont, with little hope of surviving. A change to mercantile business improv- ing his health, he moved west in 1838 and located at Geneva Lake, Walworth county, Wis. In 1839 he was appointed district attorney of the county, and was a member of the territorial council for the counties of Walworth and Rock for four years, commencing in 1842, and was a delegate to the first constitutional convention in 1846.
He was appointed by the governor in 1848 one of the three commissioners to revise and codify the statutes of Wisconsin, and in March, 1849, was elected by the legislature to superin- tend the printing of the volume in Albany, New York. On the resignation of Judge J. R. Doolittle, in 1856, he was appointed to the bench of the circuit court, but declined to become a candi- date for re-election upon the expiration of the term. During the Civil War he was judge advocate under Provost Marshal I. N. Bean, in the First district in Wisconsin. Judge Baker died at Geneva, Wis., in January, 1873.
John M. Keep, the subject of this brief sketch, who was the second son of General Martin Keep, was born at Homer, Cortland county, in the state of New York, on the 26th of January, 1813. His parents were both from New England and among the first settlers of Cortland county.
After obtaining the rudiments of education at the district school, he at an early age entered the Cortland Academy, at Homer, where he pursued the usual routine of academic studies, and prepared himself for college. He entered Hamilton College in 1832 and graduated in 1836. The same year he commenced his legal studies with Augustus Donnelly, a distinguished coun- selor- at-law, at Homer, N. Y., and completed them with Horatio Seymour, Esq., at Buffalo. He was duly admitted to the bar and
723
COURTS AND LEGAL PROFESSION
commenced practice at Westfield, N. Y., and in the year 1845 he removed to Beloit, in the state of Wisconsin, then a mere settle- ment, where he continued to reside until his death. Here he engaged not only in a large law practice, but also took a very active part in all the enterprises that promised to promote the growth of the place and enhanec the welfare of society. In the purchase and sale of lands, in the erection of buildings, in the promotion of institutions of learning and the construction of rail- roads he took an important part, and in many of these enterprises was the animating spirit.
In the spring of 1856 he was elected, without opposition, judge of the First judicial circuit of the state of Wisconsin, but at the end of two and a half years he was compelled to resign this laborious office on account of the loss of health and the pressure of his private business. It soon became evident that consumption had fastened itself upon him, and from this time the wasting of his bodily powers went on gradually, although he retained to the last moment of his life the full vigor of his mind.
Upon the death of Judge Keep, meetings of the bar were held at Beloit, Janesville, and also of the First judicial circuit, and appropriate resolutions passed and eulogies pronounced upon the life and services of the deceased.
He was married in 1839 to Cornelia A. Reynolds, daughter of John A. Reynolds, of Westfield, N. Y., a lady of rare culture and Christian virtues.
In the family circle, the place of all others to test the value of genuine worth, Mr. Keep was tender and affectionate, very anxious for the welfare of his children and particularly solicitous about their education. He left four children, two sons and two daughters.
He died on the 2d of March, 1861, aged forty-eight years, and although but in middle life few men have left such a record of private worth and public usefulness.
David Noggle, also one of the early and prominent judges of Rock county, was born in Franklin, Franklin county, Penn., October 19, 1809. He had no opportunities for education beyond what was furnished by the common schools, and his time spent even in these rudimentary institutions was very limited; not- withstanding this, by almost unaided efforts and tireless perse- verance, he overcame the difficulties of his surroundings suffi-
724
HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
ciently to fit himself as a teacher. His general occupation prior to 1838 was farming, but by diligent use of his time, he fitted himself for the bar, to which he was admitted by the Supreme court of Illinois, and at once took a high and commanding posi- tion in the profession. He married Miss Anna M. Lewis, of Milan, Ohio, October 15, 1834. In 1839 he located at Beloit in the practice of his profession. In 1846 he was elected a member of the first constitutional convention from the county of Rock, and was elected by that body chairman of the committee on corporations, other than banking and municipal, and became prominent as one of the leading men of the convention.
In 1854 he was elected member of the assembly from the city of Janesville, to which place he had removed in 1850, and was re-elected to the same position in 1857. He was subsequently elected judge of the First judicial district to fill the unexpired term of Judge Keep, and was re-elected to the same position for the succeeding term. In 1860 he was appointed chief justice for the territory of Idaho, and having served for five years, was compelled to resign on account of failing health and the growing infirmities of age, which incapacitated him for further active life. He died at Janesville in 1879.
William Penn Lyon, formerly justice and then chief justice of the Supreme court, the son of Isaac and Eunice (Coffin) Lyon, was born in Chatham, Columbia county, N. Y., on the 28th day of October, 1822. His parents were members of the religious society of Friends (Quakers) ; he was also brought up in that faith.
William attended the ordinary country schools until eleven years of age, when he was placed as clerk in a small store kept by his father in his native town. Subsequently he attended select schools at different times, amounting in all to about one year. These were the only advantages of instruction ever enjoyed by him, but with these and reasonable use of his leisure hours, he acquired a fair English education. At the early age of fifteen he taught a district school, but did not take kindly to this employ- ment, so he engaged as clerk in a grocery store in the city of Albany, where he remained until eighteen years of age. While there, he spent most of his time outside of business hours in attending the courts and the legislature, when in session, his tastes leading him strongly in those directions.
725
COURTS AND LEGAL PROFESSION
In 1841 he, then in his nineteenth year, emigrated with his father and family to Wisconsin, and settled in what is now the town of Lyons, Walworth county, where he resided until 1850. With the exception of two terms of school teaching, he worked on a farm until the spring of 1844, when he entered the office of the late Judge George Gale, then a practicing lawyer at Elkhorn, as a student; but before this, he had read Blackstone's com- mentaries as well as those of Kent quite thoroughly. He re- mained a few months with his preceptor when he returned home to work through harvest. He was soon after attacked with acute inflammation of the eyes, and was, in consequence, unable to read or teach for nearly a year. That year he worked on a mill, then being built in Lyons, at $12 a month, earning $100. In the fall of 1845 he entered the law office of the late Judge Charles M. Baker, at Geneva, as a student, and remained there until the spring of 1846, when he was admitted to the bar by the District court of Walworth county.
Having been chosen one of the justices of the peace of the town of Hudson (now Lyons), he at once opened an office there and commenced the practice of the law, but in a very small way. It gradually became lucrative, however, and in the year 1847, he married Adelia C., daughter of the late Dr. E. E. Duncombe, of St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada.
In 1850 Mr. Lyon formed a partnership with the late C. P. Barnes, of Burlington, Racine county, where he remained until the spring of 1855, when he changed his residence to the city of Racine, where he continued in active practice of the law until the breaking out of the war in 1861. He was district attorney of Racine county from 1855 to 1858 inclusive. He was chosen a member of the lower house of the legislature in 1859 and was made speaker; he was re-elected a member of the assembly the following year, and was again chosen speaker without a contest having been made in the caucus of Republican members for nomi- nation (Mr. Lyon belonging to that political party). He retired from his second term in the legislature at the age of thirty-eight, with the promise of an honorable and useful public career.
When the attack upon Fort Sumter aroused the North to arms, Mr. Lyon did not let his religious scruples interfere with his duties to his country. One hundred brave and determined citizens enlisted under him and he was commissioned captain of
726
HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
Company K, of the Eighth Wisconsin Infantry, to rank from the 7th of August, 1861. The regiment to which Mr. Lyon and his company were attached was organized on the 4th of September, 1861, with Robert C. Murphy, of St. Croix Falls, as its colonel. After other important service, his regiment went into summer quarters at Camp "Clear Creek," nine miles south of Corinth. On the 5th of August, while in the hospital of Iuka, Miss., the captain was promoted to the colonelcy of the Thirteenth Wis- consin regiment. He subsequently returned home for a brief period, and after being mustered in as commander of the regi- ment just named, joined it in October, 1862, at Ft. Henry. On the 7th of July, 1864, the Thirteenth regiment, now a part of the Third Brigade, of the Third Division of the Fourth Army Corps, left the Mississippi river for Texas, going afterward to camp at Green Lake on the 16th of July. Here on the 11th of September, 1865, Colonel Lyon was mustered out of the service. He was subsequently brevetted a brigadier general of the United States volunteers to date from the 26th day of October of that year.
Before Colonel Lyon was mustered out of the service he was chosen judge of the First judicial district, comprising the counties of Racine, Kenosha, Rock and Green. He entered upon the duties of that position on the 1st of December, 1865, and served for five years with a degree of ability that won unqualified com- mendation from all. In 1870 Judge Lyon was a Republican can- didate for congress from the Fourth district, but was defeated at the polls by Alexander Mitchell. The death of Byron Paine, one of the associate justices of the Supreme court of Wisconsin, on the 13th of January, 1871, caused a vacancy on that bench which was filled by Governor Fairchild by the appointment of Judge Lyon to the place on the 20th of the same month. In the follow- ing April he was elected by the people for the unexpired term and for the full term succeeding. In 1877 and in 1884, he was re- elected for full terms; the last time for ten years. In January, 1894, he retired from the bench, having by reason of his seniority of service, served the last two years as chief justice. In addition to his onerous duties as one of the associate justices of the Su- preme court, he took upon himself the labor of lecturing before the law class of the University of Wisconsin. His lectures begin- ning in 1871, were continued to the end of the university year.
727
COURTS AND LEGAL PROFESSION
in 1873. On commencement day, in 1872, the university conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL. D.
Soon after his voluntary retirement from judicial service Judge Lyon went to California and made an extended visit with his children. Soon after returning to Wisconsin he was appointed by Governor Upham, in 1896, a member of the state board of control of charitable, penal and correctional institutions. In 1897 he was reappointed by Governor Scofield. To the discharge of the very important duties of this position Judge Lyon brought, undiminished in degree, the same excellent judgment and pains- taking care which characterized him as a legislator, soldier and judge.
Harmon S. Conger. A committee of the Rock County Bar Association, consisting of John R. Bennett, S. J. Todd and B. B. Eldredge, reported resolutions commemorative of Judge Conger, in which it was said "that on his death the bar of Rock county had lost one of the ablest, most industrious and honorable of its members; the state of Wisconsin, one of its most useful and eminent citizens; and the people of the Twelfth judicial circuit, a judge who, in his entire judicial career of over [nearly] twelve years, has been so just, so full of equity, so noble, notable and incorrupt in his high office 'that envy itself could not accuse or malice vitiate.' " That association also appointed a committee, consisting of I. C. Sloan, S. J. Todd and B. B. Eldredge, to pre- pare and report a memorial address. January 2, 1883, that com- mittee reported such address to the circuit court for Rock county, Judge John R. Bennett presiding. The address said: "Judge Conger was born April 9, 1816, in the town of Freeport, Cortland county, N. Y. His father was a farmer. The early years of his life, until he approached manhood, were, so far as we can learn, uneventful, but were so similar, in the course of life which he pursued and in the training which he received, to that of so many hundreds of young men who have acquired distinction in public life and in the profession of the law in this country, that it is well worth the attention of thoughtful minds to inquire whether it was not the best training that a young man could receive, to fit him for a life of usefulness and honor. Until he reached the age of seventeen years he worked upon his father's farm in the sum- mer, and attended the common school of the neighborhood, in which only the elementary branches of an education were taught,
728
HISTORY OF ROCK COUNTY
in the winter. At the age of seventeen he entered upon a course of study at the Cortland village academy, which he pursued until he was nineteen years of age, when he commenced the study of law in the office of Horatio Ballard, a prominent lawyer practic- ing at Cortland. In 1840, feeling a deep interest in the exciting presidential contest between General Harrison and Martin Van Buren, then engrossing the attention of the people of this coun- try, he purchased the Cortland "County Whig," a weekly news- paper, which he continued to edit for the five following years, conducting it with energy and ability in advocating the meas- ures and principles of the whig party, but at the same time con- tinuing the study of the law, as he was fully determined to make the practice of that profession the main business of his life.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.