Cook County, Illinois - The whole text, 1884 (part 16 of 61)

Alonjo Huntington was horn in Shaftsbury, Vt., September 1, 1805. He was a grandson of Amos Huntington, a Captain in the Revolutionary War, and on his mother's side a grand-nephew of Governor Galusha, of Vermont. After receiving his early education in the schools of his native State, he removed, in early manhood, to western New York, where he worked some years at his trade of mason, and afterward studied law under the Hon. [. T. Hatch, of Buffalo. In 1833, he returned to Vermont, where he married Patience Lorain Dyer, a native of Clarendon, Rutland County, and a sister of the well-known Dr. Charles V. Dyer,' of Chicago. For two years after his marriage he resided in Wayne County, N. of which Lyons is the countyseat, when he removed to Chicago in the fall of 1835. He was chosen State's Attorney for the Seventh Circuit in 1837, his competitor. Albert G. Leary, a member of the Bar, being rejected by a majority of the General Assembly, because he was himself a' member of that body. In 1839, Mr. Huntington was again rhnsen State's Attorney. Admitted to the Bar in New York, he is not found enrolled on the list of the Supreme Court of Illinois until January 14, 1840. The most remarkable criminal case prosecuted by him was the People ft |ohn Stone, for the murder of Mrs. Lucretia Thumpson, at the spring term in 1840, and excited some rhetorical but undeserved animadversion as a l'^*1"'* [° the Press, for performing under the orders of the perfunctory duty of entering suit against of the American for contempt. At the wpiratjonot his second term in 1841. he resumed the practice c profession as a member of the Chicago Bar. «P , cutor and advocate he was recognized as of dustry rather than great talents, of "f^^K. to the interests of his clients rather than or»n«l* ity, and of unquestioned integrity rather than - pretension or display of legal lore. In his ofhc.al po* tion he was fairly ! successful, especially during his***" term. To his neighbors and acquaintances »* . dial; to his family, kind, generous and ^ To stand by his own was the cardinal l^T'sUd life, and in the varied relations of son, a, and father he has seldom been surpassed. his home in Chicago, November 17. * y ar's, six vears. His wife had preceded him twen > j ^ having died October 23. 1861, aged sixty. 1 . children, of whom only two, a son and a cmj, ^ rive. Henry Alonzo Huntington, the SO*,*"' now better known as Major Huntington, of the editorial staff of the Chicago Tribune. The daughter, Frances, born in Chicago October 23, 1844, is the wife of Benjamin M. Wilson, of the law firm of Wilson ft Collier, of this city.

Jonathan Young Scammon, also a member of the early Bar of Chicago, being admitted December 7, 1835, is sketched in the field of perhaps his greater fame as an early banker.

1835. He soon formed a partnership with Thomas R. Hubbard, and the firm is found advertising " money to loan" in the Chicago American of December 5, of that year. Both were recognized as lawyers though neither seems to have taken the trouble to obtain a license to practice in Illinois. In 1836, Mr. Balestier " realized $500 per day," savs Harriett Martineau, "by merely making out titles to land."* Hubbard & Balestier advertised as a firm as late as August 16, 1837, and both appear in the reprinted " directory of 1S39." January 21, 1840, Mr. Balestier delivered before the Lyceum his now celebrated lecture "The Annals of Chicago." reprinted in 1876, with an introduction by himself, as No. 1 of the Fergus Historical Series. On or before September 25, 1840, he formed a new partnership with E. Webster Evans, a young lawyer, just arrived from the East. But within a year, September 23, 1841, we find Mr. Balestier advertised as a lawyer at No. 58 Wall Street, New York ; and his Introduction to the Annals, already referred to, is dated Brattleboro, Vt., January" t, 1876, where he now resides.

George Anson Oliver Beaumont was born in Columbia, Tolland Co., Conn., about 181 1. Reaching early manhood, he studied law at the New Haven law school, where he received a diploma, equivalent to a license to practice in the courts of the State. In

1836, accompanied by his mother, widowed in his infancy, he removed to Chicago. He formed a partnership with Mark Skinner August 6. 1836, and the firm held a respectable rank in the profession. Mr. Beaumont was not enrolled on the Supreme Court list as a licensed lawyer until December 11, 1839, though probably admitted to the Bar here as early as 1836. In 1842 he was appointed Commissioner in Bankruptcy for Cook County. On February 3, 1842, before the Young Men's Association, he delivered a lecture on " American Literature." In the spring of 1844 his health became impaired, and Mr. Skinner being appointed United States District Attorney, the firm was dissolved that summer. In the ensuing spring Mr. Beaumont was taken by his mother to the home of his youth, but the change did not avail, and he died of softening of the brain, December 18, 1845. He was a tall, slim man, of delicate organization, unfortunately subject from his youth to nervous disorders, which despite a fair intellect, an excellent education and industrious habits, retarded his professional progress ; and although Mr. Beaumont attained respectable rank in the early Bar of Chicago, he made no permanent impression on the public mind, and his existence is almost forgotten.

Fisher Ames H ardino, a native of Rhode Island, where he was born about 181 2, and a graduate of Brown University made a brief sojourn in Chicago as a lawyer, though not on record as admitted to the Bar in Illinois. He is first mentioned here as disputant before the Lyceum, February 20, 1836, and next, as partner of Henry

Moore, March 12, of the MUM year. Moore & Harding dissolved Mav 19, 1837. and Mr. Harding became associated with Fletcher Webster. The firm of Webster tt Harding soon removed to Detroit, Mich., whereafter a few years Mr. Harding became editor of the Detroit Daily Advertiser. He found in journalism a more congenial sphere, and filled the |>osition of editor with distinguished credit until his early death in 1S56.

Fletcher Webster, a *n uf Daniel Webster, bom in 1812, and a graduate of Dartmouth, was as above stated the head of the law firm of Webster & Harding of Chicago for a brief interval in 1837, while residing at Peru ; but as he was never enrolled among the licensed lawyers of Illinois, and as the firm soon removed to Detroit, his connection with the early Chicago Bar is sufficiently noticed by this brief mention.

Henry Brown was born in Hebron, Tolland Co., Conn., May 13, 1789. The father, Daniel, was a commissary in General Greene's division, in the Revolutionary- War. and was granted a pension for his services. He provided a liberal academic and collegiate education for at least two of his sons. Henry graduated at Yale, and when of age removed to New York, where he studied law, first at Albany under Abram VanVechten, afterward at Canadaigua under John Gregg, and finally under his own elder brother, Daniel, at Batavia. Admitted to the liar about 1813, he settled at Cooperstown; and in 181 6 was appointed Judge of Herkimer County. After quitting the Bench, about 1824, Judge Brown continued the practice of law in Cooperstown until he removed to Chicago in 1836. Mr. Brown was elected Justice of the Peace May 20, 1837, vice E. E. Hunter resigned. His son Andrew Jesse, born in Springfield, N. Y., in 1820, arrived in Chicago in 1837, and Mrs. Brown and four daughters followed, in 1838. In 1839, his term as Justice expired, and he returned to his profession, to which, and some literary work, he devoted the remainder of his life. He was chosen City Attorney in 1842, and appointed, in 1843, upon the resignation of George Manierrc. In March of the later year he announced that he was preparing to publish a history of Illinois, which was issued in New York City in 1844, and on which he had spent a year. His name does not appear on the Illinois list of licensed lawyers until February 27, 1S45. loiter in thatyear he took'into partnership his son, who had studied law with him but had removed to Sycamore, DcKalb County, where he was admitted to the 'Bar December 27, 1842, and who had returned to Chicago in 1S45.

January 20, 1846, Judge Brown as president of the Lyceum, delivered an inaugural on "Chicago, Present aiid Future,"* which has become historic, and which evinces deep thoughtfulness, great breadth of view and a (mite marked foresight of Chicago's destiny. He died in 1849, three days after his sixty-first birthday, of cholera, l>cing the first case in that year, and not suspected until after the disease had become epidemic. He was buried with Masonic honors, having stood high formany years in the confidence and respect of that fraternity. One of his earliest literary efforts was a defense of'thc order against the attacks of the anti- Masonic party, based on the alleged abduction of Mor- gan and other prejudices. It was published in Batavia while Mr. Brown resided there, forming a duodecimo of two hundred ami forty pages. Judge Brown was one of the kindliest of men, very cordial in his intercourse with his fellows, and utterly devoid of pretension or vanity. All affectation of dignity and assumption of unnecessary gravity by others excited his ridicule, as he conceived such airs to be but an ingenious contrivance to conceal deficiency or impairment of brain power. Such was his habitual industry that during the greater portion of his life he labored at his duties or his studies sixteen hours out of the twenty-four. He was a man of the most extensive and varied reading, and had learned to cull flowers of fancy and gems of thought from all the literatures of mankind. He was of frank truthfulness and childlike candor, aud was universally respected for his many excellent qualities of head and heart. He was large and imposing of stature, weighing over two hundred pounds, and of dignified appearance. In politics Judge Brown was a Democrat, and entertained Mr. Yan Buren during his visit to Chicago, July 4, 1842, and with him became a Free-Sotler in 1848, but he was too transparent to be a successful politician, and too broad to be a blind partisan. Besides the son already mentioned, his wife and four daughters survived him. The eldest child, Cornelia A., born in Springfield, N. Y., August 12, 1818, married William H. Stickney, of Chicago, February 19, 1852. The second daughter, Julia, borne in Danube. Herkimer Co., X. Y., in 1822, married George W. Dole, of Chicago, March 30, 1853, and died October 16, 1865. Sarah, bom June 13, 1824, married Dr. William Butterfield, October 23, 1844. Caroline, born August 1, 1826, married Thomas L. Forrest, July 10. 1848.

Francis Peyton, was a member of the early Bar of Chicago, though never formally enrolled as a lawyer in Illinois. He was a partner of James Grant in the spring of 1836. In the notable meeting of January, l837. l« promote internal improvements he was chairman of committee on resolutions. In May of the same year he was chosen member of the first board of school inspectors of the new city. In the winter of 1838-39, he was attorney for Colonel Beaubicn in the final effort to secure his claim to the Fort Dearborn Reservation. He conducted some law business before the Circuit Court in the spring term of 1839, and was one of the speakers on the occasion of a notable excursion on the steamboat " Great Western," August 13, of that year He afterward came here in 1840 to assist State's Attorney Huntington in the Stone murder trial.

Samuel Lisle Smith was born in Philadelphia in 1817, of wealthy parents. His early advantages, educational and social, were exceptionally good. Precociously talented, he had studied law at Yale and passed the examination entitling him to a diploma or license to practice before he was of sufficient age to receive it In 1836 he came to Illinois to look after the interests of p »rY .° 0Wned somc choice tracts «f land near leru. With abundant resources drawn from the parental treasury, young Smith associated with the many cav fcU^***'Dg young men who then thronged This MhiuTf sPccuIatio". and naturally fell into former convivial habits, and in 1839 was chosen City Attorney, a position which funished abundant occasion for the exercise of his genial and generous hospitality. Coupled with the continuous stream of his eloquence, wit and mimicry, his convivial spirit enhanced his popularity, while it did not seriously impair a fortune derived mainly from his father. He was at this time at the very height of his reputation as an orator. The Hon. I. N. Arnold, one of his hearers, at the Whig State Convention at Springfield, in 1840, thus refers to his powers: " I heard for the first time stump-speeches from Lincoln, Harden, Baker, and others, but the palm of eloquence was conceded to a young Chicago lawyer, S. Lisle Smith There was a charm, a fascination 'in his speaking, a beauty of language and expression, a poetry of sentiment and of imagery, which in its way suppressed anything I had ever heard. His voice was music and his action studied and graceful. I have heard Webster, and Choate, and Crittenden, and Bates of Missouri ; they were all greatly his superiors in power and vigor, and in their various departments oi excellence, but for an after-dinner speech, a short eulogy or commemorative address, or upon any occasion when the speech was a part of the pageant, I never heard the equal of Lisle Smith." In 1844, he took an active interest in the presidential campaign, the third attempt 01 the Whigs to elect Henry Clay, of whom he was a great admirer and supporter. In 1847, at the River and Harbor Convention, at Chicago, he signally distinguished himself among some of the best speakers of the nation. Horace Greeley said he was "the star of the vart assembly, and stood without a rival;" and Henrj Clay did not hesitate to write that Mr. Smith «W the greatest orator he had ever heard." His magnetic power over an audience, as testified by sc eral surviving witnesses, was something wonderiui, his voice was sweet and clear, his fancy glowed with sublime and matchless imagery, and he was equally at home in pathos or invective. His language was not only choice but phenomenally exact, his memory absolutely marvelous, and his power of mimicry no less so. His imitations of Calhoun, Clay, Preston 'and Webster .are said to have been so curiously lift-like asto mislead those most familiar with the peculiarities of these great speakers. His keen sense of the ludicrous and grotesque, joined to a vast fund of humor and innate as well as acquired wit, filled the measure of his phenomenal adaptability to become a great orator. He lacked but two elements of the highest possible success in that line, a more portly physique and a less ardent pursuit of pleasure. He was handsome and graceful but small of stature, rather below the middle size, with a florid complexion and light hair. A third drawback has been found in his inherited wealth, but had he remained master of himself, this would not have proved an obstacle, but a valuable auxiliary. Besides the speeches mentioned, his addresses on the following occasions are singled out as specially noteworthy : At the organization of the Excelsior Association, or Sons of New York, the Society of the Sons of Penn. the Reception of Webster, the Irish Relief Meeting, the Obsequies of John Quincy Adams, and of Henry Clay. Short-hand facilities were not extensive in the Chicago of his day, and it is said, "he never wrote a single word even at his greatest efforts," in enduring form, though we are assured his ordinary preparation embraced not only a rough sketch but a critical weighing of words, phrases and quotations. What is probably correct is that not a single speech was ever written out in full ; nor was he so identified with any great law case as to have had either argument or speech preserved in any couit record. Altogether his career was rather brilliant than powerful, and has had no influence on the jurisprudence of the State, though it deeply affected the memory, imagination and feeling of his contempotaries. He was genial, generous and hospitable ; a kind neighbor, a good citizen and a thorough friend : a perfect gentleman, a ripe scholar and an eloquent advocate of whatever social, legal or political question he espoused ; a well-read lawyer and popular among his brethren, and at home a devoted husband and father. Had his selfcontrol been equal to his talents he might have risen to eminence ; as it was, a feeling of regret, if not pity, mingles with enthusiasm of his admirers. He died of the prevailing epidemic, cholera, July 30, 1854, before he had reached the age of forty. His wife and two sons survived him. Mrs. Smith was a daughter of the Rev. Dr. Potts of Philadelphia, and a sister of the perhaps better known Rev. Dr. Potts of New York. She died in August, 187 1. " The memory of the eloquence of the gifted orator," said the Daily Press, in notice of his death, "will not soon fade from the public mind, which he could at any time sway with the wand of a magician. * * * l'or those who mourn the sudden rupture of the most tender ties, there is no language to express their grief." In the Recorder's Court, a week later, the following resolutions were introduced by D. Mcllroy and seconded by E. W. Tracy: "That in the death of S. Lisle Smith'the profession have lost an eminent brother, distinguished for his superior education, his fine and practical intellect, and his elevated moral character; and the entire community, especially the poor, have lost an affectionate and sincere friend." " He was," says Judge Goodrich, "of medium height, a ruddv countenance, a large and finely formed head, a face that gave expression to the feeling without words. His eyes were dark and shone out from under 'a square, projecting brow' luminous with the fires of intelligence, and when kindled by passion or the inspiration of his theme, they glowed with the emotions that stirred his soul. His motions were full of grace, his gestures eloquent in expression. In his voice there was a magic and charm beyond description. It was rich and sonorous, as flexible in tone and modulation as the melodies of a musical instrument, descending to the lowest tones and rising to the highest pitch without a break, as clear and ringing as an Alpine horn. He could startle with the tones of an angry god. or soothe with the softest cadence of rippling waters. His eloquence was faultless, his style chaste and classical, his language rich and copious, his illustrations apt and brilliant; and when he gave the reins to his imagination, he conjured up such marvelous forms of beauty, such enchanting creations of fancy, and clothed his thoughts and images in such elegance of expression, that his hearers were entranced with wonder and admiration. His speeches were not the mere affluence of sounding words which like the jingling of bells delight the ear, but do not move the heart. They were often full of profoundest thought, and rich in sentiment, and sometimes severely logical. He was admired by the great men of his day." A surviving admirer of Mr. Smith fully indorses 'this beautiful tribute of Judge Goodrich, and assures the writer that it is an entirely truthful characterization of the greatest orator Chicago has ever known.

Justin BUTTERFiF.i.n was born at Keenc, N. H., in 1790. Educated in his earlier years at the common school, and prepared for college by the local minister, he entered Wiliams College in 1S07, and about 1810 began the study of law under the future Judge Egbert Ten Eyck, at Watcrtown, N. Y. During these years of advanced education he eked out his scanty resources by teaching school in winter; and was admitted to the Bar in 1S12. He began the practice of his profession in Adams, Jefferson Co., N. Y., where he soon exhibited that professional aggressiveness and courage so characteristic of his later career. In July, 181.?, during the second British war, he sought to obtain the release by habeas corpus of his client, Samuel Stacey, Jr.. a native of Madrid, in the adjoining county of St. Lawrence. Stacey was held several weeks by the military without trial on suspicion of disloyal intercourse with the enemy across the border. Mr. Butterfield served the writ on the comniandingGeneral, who evaded compliance, with the result to the young lawyer that his purely professional effort for a client reacted on his own reputation, his position being regarded as unpatriotic in the heated condition of the public mind.* It was the remembrance of this blind prejudice which led him to exclaim, a generation later, when asked if he was opposed to the Mexican War: " No, sir ! I oppose no war ; I opposed one and it ruined me. Henceforth I'm for war, pestilence and famine ! " He practiced some years in Sackett's Harbor, where he married about 1814. He then removed to New Orleans, where he quickly obtained a lucrative practice and high rank in his profession. In 1816 he returned to Jefferson County, N. Y., settling this time in Watertown. where he remained several years. In 1834 he came here to reconnoiter, soon returned to Watertown to wind up his business, and settled here permanently in 1835, forming a law partnership with James H. Collins as early as July 16 of that year. Mr. Butterfield soon became a recognized leader not only at the Bar, but in the broader relations of civil life. He was one of the trustees of Rush Medical College at its incorporation, March 25, 1837. The firm immediately attaints! a front rank in the profession. Collins was already well known, and it soon hecame evident that the new accession was fully his equal. Both were fine lawyers, in the maturity of their powers, the breadth of their experience and the depth and variety of their legal attainments. Nearly all the other nu-mhers of the early Chicago Bar were young men, awaiting opportunity to tlesh their maiden swords, anil win reputation and power. Hutterfield & Collins came to he recugnixed as at the head of the Bar, not alone in Chicago but in the State. Against the movement for the sus- pension of the Municipal Court in 1837, Mr. Butterfield, in common with nearly all the lawyers in the city threw the weight of his influence. And in the conflict between the Bench and Bar of Chicago, which signalizedthe incumbency of Judge Pearson, 1837 to 1S40, he took an active and characteristic part. It was he that in open court, November 11, 1839, held out to the indignant Judge the alternative papers, a bill of excepturns against his own rulings, to sign, or the mandamus of the Supreme Court of Illinois to obey. He was fined *io.oo for contempt ; but he was not to be cowed or browbeaten, and, with his associate! of the Bar the

£K£ W1 T5? the J"d«e from the and 5 m and the wrath of his enemies. f«, .I7 ,11' B,ui.tt:rfieKI was made Prosecuting Attorney and in virtue of which the holders of canal bonds were induced to advance $1,600,000 wherewith to complete the canal. In 1843, through a misunderstanding about the division of income from his official position, the partnership between him ami Mr. Collins was dissolved; and after the close of his official relations with the administration he took into partnership his son, Justin, Jr. In 1847 Erastus S. Williams, a law student of the old* firm, and of late years better known as Judge Williams of the Circuit Court of Cook County, was added to the new firm. June it, 1849, after the re-accession of the Whigs to power, he was appointed Commissioner of the Genera) Land Office by President Taylor. A competitor for the |>osition at that lime was Abraham Lincoln, who was beaten, it is said, by the superior dispatch of Butterfield in reaching Washington by the northern route, but more correctly by the paramount influence of his friend Daniel Webster. In fact, Lincoln was then, or had recently lx-cn, in Washington as member of the Thirtieth Con- Kress, and had the indorsement of the Illinois delegation, but the pressure of Mr. Webster w.is irresistih'.e. While in this office he co-o|>erated zealously with Senator Douglas toward securing for Illinois the land grant which became the subsidy of the Illinois Central Railroad, and indirectly through the seven per cent of its gross earnings made payable by its charter to the State, an efficient aid in restoring the credit of the common wealth and finally extinguishing its indebtedness. He held the position of Land Commissioner until disabled by paralysis in 1852. On his retirement he received from President l illmore the highest praise for efficiency and ability in that office. He had introduced system and industry in the transaction of its business. He lingered some three years in an enfeebled condition, when he died at his home in Chicago, October 23, 1S55, in his sixty-sixth year. His wife - before marriage Elizabeth Pierce, of'Scoharic, N. Y - and four children survived him. Two sons, Justin and Lewis, who had been bred to his own profession, had gone before. Lewis, born in 181 7, and admitted to the Bar December 16, 1840, died in Chicago October 27, 1S45. Justm, born in 1819, and admitted to the Bar June 10, 1S40, died of consumption in Washington, March 5. 1851. His oldest son, George, an officer in the navy, died about 1850. The survivors were William, the first graduate of Rush Medical College; and three daughters, Mrs. Sidney Sawyer, Mrs. Frances Celatly. and Mrs. William S. Johnston, Jr. Mrs. Johnston died January 7, 1875. Mr. Butterfield had always been exceptionally happy in his domestic relations, and was deeply mourned bv his family and friends. At the memorial Uar-meeting held two days after his death, his associates thus expressed themselves: " Possessed a great clearness and sagacity of judgment, cautious ami steady energy, a well-balanced independence, BJ"*j"\ spect for authority, and at the same time an unflinching adherence to his own deliberate opinion of the law, he secured great respect as a lawyer. - * * '^na c services of the deceased * * * entitle him to the gratitude of his adopted State." "Justin Butterheli, says Arnold, "was one of the ablest, if not we very ahlest lawyer we have ever had at the U"; cago Bar. He was strong, logical, full of vigor ana resources. In his style of argument, and in his personal appearance he was not unlike Daniel Weu«t*|> - whom he was a great admirer, and who was his moae . He wielded the weapons of sarcasm and irony crushing power, and was especially effective^ m im tive. Great as he was before the Supreme Court, ami everywhere on questions of law. he lacked the tact and skill to be equally successful before a jury." " Mr. Butterfield's success in the profession," says Judge

John M. Wilson, "resulted from what may be called the power of adaptation, always seizing upon the most effective mode of subserving the interest of his client. * * * He possessed an intuitive appreciation of the strength and resources of his adversary, and was the last man to attempt to laugh a case out of court, unless the prosecution was feeble or the plaintiff and his case were open to the assaults of ridicule and sarcasm. * * * He rarely indulged in flights of fancy, though he never failed to lighten up his addresses to court or jury with a caustic humor which was always effective, his manner giving a point and force to the words. The high position he attained was owing, as intimated, to his intuitive apprehension of the questions upon which cases must bc-decided, and by adapting his mode of attack or defense to the peculiar circumstances of each case." Mr. Butterfield possessed readiness in reply and aptness in retaliation, which with his professional skill and knowledge made him a formidable adversary and a desirable advocate. Many stories arc told of his wit and humor, which need not l>c here repeated, as they only illustrate traits of character and manner already described.

Isaac Newton Aknoi.ii was born in Hartwick, Otsego Co., N. V., November 30, 1813. His parents were Dr George W ashington, and Sophia Mason Arnold, who had removed thither from Rhode Island some fifteen years before. Besides the subject of this sketch they had two sons and four daughters, all of whom grew to maturity, except one boy who died in infancy. I. N. Arnold got his early education at the district school and the local academy. While procuring his later education after the age of fifteen, when he was thrown upon his own resources, and during his studies for the Bar, he made a frugal living by copying in the office of the surrogate, teaching a neighboring school, by office services for his law teachers, and finally by an occasional trial before a Justice of the l'eace. He first studied law under Richard Cooper, of Cooperstown, and then under Judge K. B. Morehouse. He was admitted to the Bar in 1835, at the age of twentyone, and became the partner of his late teacher, Judge Morehouse. He soon found opportunity for his first triumph in a role in which his success afterward became quite marked, that of advocate for persons charged with capital offenses. A negro named Dacit was under indictment in Otsego County for fratricide, an unjust presumption of guilt seizing the public mind because the two brothers were believed to be rivals in love. Mr. Arnold became satisfied of the innocence of his client and secured his acquittal. As he approached his majority he concluded to go West, and in pursuit of this purpose he arrived in Chicago in October, 1836. He published his card as a lawyer as early as November 19, of that year. His chief source of income at lirst was his skill as a writer of real estate contracts, transfers and abstracts, in the office of Augustus Clarrett, auctioneer and dealer in lots and lands, and afterward Mayor of the city. In those early days of almost frenzied activity in that line of speculation, Mr. Arnold often earned ten dollars a day in that capacity. He soon obtained a share of the limited law business of the period, and in the American of February 18, 1837, he advertised that certain notes and, accounts were in his hands for collection. In March he was chosen the fust Clerk of the new city, a position which he soon found more onerous than remunerative; and which he resigned before October, to give his attention to his growing professional business. He had, meanwhile, formed a law partnership with Mahlon 1). Ogden, of which the first mention made is dated August 16, 1837, though known to have been established some months earlier in the spring. With a colleague at headquarters, Mr. Arnold was now free to broaden the relations and spread the reputation of the firm by riding the circuit of the adjoining counties and attending the State and I'nited States courts at the capital as elsewhere sketched in this work, chiefly from his writings. Arnold & Ogden soon came into public recognition, and were engaged on one side or the other in a very considerable proportion of the more important cases in this section. In those dark days of Illinois history, from 1836 to 1S46. when men were sometimes elected to the Legislature on a more or less outspoken platform of repudiation, Mr. Arnold's position and views on the opposite side came to be recognized. He was known as an earnest pleader for saving the credit of the State by accepting in good faith the whole burden which had been so unwisely laid upon them by their representatives, '['henceforth he was universally regarded as a champion of public honor, a principled opponent of repudiation and of whatever else tended to weaken the purpose of the people to manfully pay the penalty of the internal improvement mania, which had been the cause of the mischief. In January. 1840, Mr. Arnold purchased for $400, a lot in Fort Dearborn addition, which is perhaps worthy of mention in illustration of the great growth in value of Chicago real estate. With the not very expensive building erected thereon since the fire it now brings a rental of §2,500. In the same year he was elected a member of the first board of inspectors under the school act of 1839, a position which his increasing public responsibilities soon forced him to relinquish. January 18, 1841, a public meeting was held in Chicago to promote direct taxation for the payment of interest on the State debt. Mr. Arnold was one of the signers to the call, as well as a prominent speaker at the meeting and chairman of the committee on resolutions. Notwithstanding these and similar evidences of an earnest solicitude, on the part of some of the best people of the State to maintain or repair the public credit, the Legislature, in February, passed a law which gave a right of redemption in all cases of land sold under mortgages and deeds of trust, whether in virtues of decrees at law or in equity, and provided that before any such sale the property should be appraised and should not be sold at less than two-thirds of such appraisal. As this legislation practically suspended the collection of debts, Mr. Arnold at once took the ground that it was unconstitutional, and carried two test cases to the Supreme Court of the United States where his views were confirmed and the obnoxious laws declared void. In April, 1841, he was appointed Master in Chancer}' by Judge T. W. Smith, a position he held until his election to the Legislature. Four months later, August 4, he was married at Batavia, N. Y., to Harriet Augusta, daughter of Dr. Trumbull Darrancc, of Pittsficld, Mass. He was formally admitted to the Bar of Illinois, December 5, 1 84 1, at one of his many professional visits to th« capital, though he had been licensed some time before, and his New York license had secured him full recognition from the first as a member of the earlier Chicago Bar. At the Democratic State Convention in 1842, he introduced a resolution committing that body to an explicit declaration against repudiation. It was seconded by Mr. Swan, of the Rock River district, but failed to receive the indorsement of the majority. Mr. Arnold received the nomination for representative of his district in the General Assembly and was elected. He resigned the office of Master in Chancery August 6. He had about this time received a letter from Arthur Bronson, of New York, a creditor of this State to a considerable amount, and informally representing the views of other creditors, which outlined the method of paying the canal debt by borrowing enough to complete it and pledging its future revenue to the pavment of interest and principal of the old and new debt. At a conference some weeks later in Chicago between Mr. Bronson, William B. Ogden, I. N. Arnold and Justin Butterfield this design assumed more definite shape and was drafted by Mr. Butterficld as the famous canal bill, which contributed so effectually to restore the State credit and enhance the prosperity of Chicago. The principles involved and the sustaining arguments were represented fully and forcibly by Mr. Arnold before the Mechanics' Institute, November 16, in a lecture on " The Legal and Moral Obligations of the State to pay its Debts, the Resources of Illinois, and the Means by which the Credit of the State may be Restored." In the session of 1842-43 he was chairman of the committee on finance, and introduced the canal bill already mentioned. By persistent efforts he was enabled to carry it through, but by only a very small majority, in 1S44 he was again nominated and elected to the Legislature, and was presidential elector on the Democratic ticket. Toward the ch.se of the year, upon the resignation of Justin Butterfield, his friends petitioned the administration for his appointment to the vacant place of District Attorney for Illinois, while another section of the party favored Mark Skinner. To promote harmony the appointment was given to D. L Grege of Johet Meanwhile the loan of $,,600,000 provided by the canal bill of the year before was delayed through the cautious hesitancy of the money lenders, who required additional and clearly specified guarantees from the Legislature, in all of which subsidiary work Mr. Arnold took an active part, having at length 'the satisfaction to sec the whole matter amicably adjusted in .84? At '^[^s the Legislature by itsad-

"fr; W1,th "ew '"'"est and increased success, in 1847 he dissolved partnership with Mr. Ogden and after some months became assoc iated with George W '/rV *848: ,n that y«tr. too, he threw his politl '2 {°Tn? ,and talc,Us into the Free-Soil party, and U St ^ KatC l" 'tS "ational co"vcntion at Buffalo and its State convention at Ottawa. He took an earncs o Hr T Trt n ,he a^i-slavery campaign, being one of the chief orators of the party of Illinois h, all the succeed bl nja, campaigns' his voice and n ie. ee the election of his successful competitor, John F. Farnsworth. In i860, he defeated Mr. Farnsworth in the convention, and was elected to the Thirty-seventh, or War Congress, by fourteen thousand six hundred ami sixty-three votes, or seventy-six votes over the presidential ticket. He was among the first representatives to arrive in Washington to participate in the inauguration of Lincoln March 4, 1861. From that time until thc close in 1865 of his second Congressional term to which he was elected in 1862, he devoted all his time and energies to the cause of the L'nion and the suppnrt of thc administration. His first speech in Congress was an eulogy of the deceased Douglas, with whom he had politically associated in Illinois in the earlier years of the public life of both. At the regular session in Decernber Mr. Arnold was chairman of the committee on defense of the great lakes and rivers. In an able report to the House, in February, 1862, he strongly recommended that the Illinois & Michigan Canal be converted into a ship canal. He introduced a bill embodying this project, and in June urged its passage with much force in a strong speech. Hut despite his most strenuous efforts it was defeated when it came to a vote at the next session, though he made a second powerful speech in its behalf in January, 1863. In the next Congress, to which Mr. Arnold was elected in kS6j, he was chairman of committee on roads and canals and introduced a bill providing an appropriation of $6,000,- 000 with which to enlarge the Illinois & Michigan Canal. It passed the House February 2, 1865, but failed in the Senate. It was not, however, matters of mere local interest, however great, which chiefly occupied Mr. Arnold's attention during the momentous period of his Congressional career. Kven the great questioned internal improvements which for fifty years had enlisted the Itcst efforts of the statesmen of Illinois and of Mr. Arnold since his arrival in the State twenty-live years before, was dwarfed into insignificance by the great national questions which now taxed to the utmost the best powers and ripest wisdom of the two War Congresses of which he was a member. It is a matter of national record that Mr. Arnold was among thc earliest and most radicals upporters of the administration, and had the honor of being the first member of Congress to advocate the most sweeping of the war measures which many declared revolutionary and unconstitutional. Though a lawyer he saw at once that even the highest laws of peace should not give way to thc stem arbitrament of war. The sword had been appealed to, and society's provisions for the opposite conditions of peace and war could not be simultaneously invoked. The unmasked assassin in vain cries out, "Thou shalt do no murder." Mr. Arnold advocated the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, the first link in the chain of measures which finally secured " Lil>erty throughout thc land to all the inhabitants thereof." By this first act, about three thousand slaves obtained their freedom. March 24, 1862, he introduced the bill which prohibited slaver)' in even,- place directly subject to national jurisdiction, and which with some amendments became a law June 19, 1862. His first great speech in Congress May 22, urged as a legitimate war measure thc liberation of the slaves of rebels, and the confiscation of all their other property. In thc discussions which followed the President's emancipation proclamation, Mr. Arnold took an active part. The first debate began May 31, 1863, and the question was brought to a vote June 15, when it was found that ninety-three favored while sixty-five opposed grafting abolition on the statute book. On the assembling of CongTess in December,

1863, it was felt by the friends of the ad tni lustration that to give permanence to the results of the great proclamation it was necessary to pass supporting measures. January 6, 1864. Mr. Arnold made a speech in the House, on " The Tower. Duty and Necessity of destroying Slavery in the Rebel States." February 15,

1864, Mr. Arnold, in the House, introduced the resolution, M That the Constitution should be so amended as to abolish slavery in the United States wherever it now exists, and to prohibit its existence in every part thereof forever" 'See Cong. Globe, Vol. L, p. 659 , which was adopted by a decided majority but fell short of the necessary two-thirds vote. In the further progress of the discussion until the resolution embodying the now historic thirteenth amendment was passed in the House, January 31, 1865, by one hundred and nineteen to fiftysix votes, Mr. Arnold took a conspicuous part. July 14, 1864, on his return to Chicago during adjournment of Congress, he was honored with a public reception by his constituents, to whom his career in Congress had proved very satisfactory, and a resolution of thanks for his able and faithful services was passed unanimously. He, however, declined a renomination ; but strongjy urged the renomination of President Lincoln, and tailored indefatigably for his re-election, addressing a ureal number of meetings during the campaign, in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, in earnest support of the man and his policy. His own Congressional career closed March 3, 1865. In i860, his income from his profession was $22,000 ; his expenses for four years as a member of Congress, though perhaps exceptionally frugal, and certainly not extravagant were about $20,000 in excess of his salary. It seemed therefore the wiser course to withdraw, and save his modest fortune from speedy extinction. With a special predilection for literary composition, and a decided talent for historic research, besides a lawyer's power to weigh evidence and discern motive, supplemented by a very sincere admiration fur his subject, he had set himself the task of writing the life of Lincoln and the story of the final overthow of slavery in the United States. To facilitate his labors the President proposed to appoint him United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, and auditor of the treasury for the post-office department, neither office requiring the incumbent's exclusive time.

Upon the assassination of Lincoln, the writing of the work became more urgent, and President John- Son appointed him to the auditorship only. He had, however, got so much farther away from Democracy than Mr. Johnson, that he soon ceased to be in sympathy with the new administration, and felt compelled to withdraw. In his letter of resignation he undertook to show Mr. Johnson how he was drifting from the principles of his " illustrious predecessor," and of the great party which had subdued the great Rebellion. Returning to Chicago in 1867, Mr. Arnold completed the History of Abraham Lincoln, which has a specific historical value because of the author's personal knowledge of, and sympathetic admiration for the President, besides his own individual participation, and often conspicuous share in the great movement for the final overthow of slavery. He then turned his attention to collecting and compiling the s]>eeches and State papers of Mr. Lincoln, when the great fire by sweeping away some $200,000 worth of his productive property drove him again into professional life. He formed a partnership with Messrs. Higgins and Swett in 1S72, and worked hard for two or three years, when his health gave way,

John Dean Caton was born in the to.vn of Monroe, Orange Co., N. V., March 19. 1S12. His father, Robert, had married his third wife, Hannah Dean, by whom he had four children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the third, and the first of two sons. He had had eleven children by his first wife, of whom ten were sons; and by his second, only one son and no daughter; so that John Dean was the twelfth win and fifteenth child of a progeny of sixteen. The father was born March 22. 1761, on the Potomac, in Virginia, where his father, also Robert, owned a plantation. This older Robert was an Irishman by birth, and had been in the English service, but had settled in Maryland some time before the Revolutionary War. The younger Roliert, though only in his sixteenth year at the Declaration of Independence, took part in the struggle and settled on the Hudson at the close of the war. Here he became a preacher of the Society of Friends, and his third wife was the daughter of another preacher of that Society. He died in 1815, at a comparatively early age for the head of so numerous a family. When young Caton was four years old his mother, widowed a year before, moved to ( >neida County, where a brother resided, with whom she and the children staid some months, and then rented from him a small place in Paris Township. Here the - future Judge obtained the first rudiments of his education, attending the district school until he was nine years old. In 1821 one Solomon Ross, a Friend, took him to reside on his mountain farm near Smyrna, Chenango County, where the labor proved excessive for a child of his years, anil whence after a nine weeks' detention, he was humanely conveyed thirty miles to his home by another Friend who sympathized in his desolation. Soon after he brought home the first fruits of his labors as a farm boy, at $2.50 a month, being a quarter of beef thus earned from Captain Hubbard At eleven, he worked for Mr. Sexton at $3 a month, and was discharged for harrowing an unbroken sward, through a misapprehension of orders. With occasional and poorly paid work from different farmers, and attendance at school in the winter months, young Caton slowly climbed up to the age of fifteen. Pursuant to his father's wishes he was then put to a trade, that of harness-maker being selected. He soon grew weary of the business, and his eyes becoming accidentally inflamed, he easily procured his welcome dismissal from the " horse-tailor," Job Collins, Meanwhile his mother had removed to Utica, aided in part by such slender help as he had been able to give her, where he now rejoined her, in 1829. Here he spent nine months at the Academy, and made such proficiency as to be able tocarn money at surveying and teaching before he was eighteen. He taught a district school near Ovid in the winter of 1829-30, and hired out to a neighboring farmer in the spring, but receiving a severe cut in the foot, he bade good-bye to farm, until he got one of his own some years later in Illinois. He now obtained his first knowledge of the classics at the school of Mr. Grosvenor, at Rome. He again taught a district school in the winter of 1830-31, and returned to Grosvcnor's school in the spring. Meanwhile his ambition had been aroused, and he sought to become a lawyer, having already begun to pettifog in the local justice courts. In December, 1831, he entered the law office of Heardsley & Matteson, at Utica, as a student; afterward that of Wheeler Harncs at Rome, and later that of James H. Collins at Vernon. In 1833 he turned his face to the West, and while at White Pigeon, Mich., was invited by Irad Hill to take (wssage on his raft to St. Joseph, whence he came to Chicago on the Ariadne, under command of Captain Pickering, arriving in the outer harbor June 19, 1833. Here lie soon began to pick up such |R-ttv cases as offered, some of which are referred to elsewhere. In his law business .of that year should he mentioned his effort in behalf of some six free negroes, at a fee of perhaps of one dollar each. The law of Illinois required that free negroes should show their manumission papers, to entitle them to free circulation among the whites. The Chicago blacks of the period claimed to be born in the free States, but having no papers were subjected to annoyance under the letter of the law from the hostility of such as were enemies of their race. Caton brought their case before the Court of County Commissioners, pleading with success that some court representing the sovereignty of the State must have the right of granting freedom papers to these unfortunates ; and that their honorable body was such court. Though they may not have been able to find any constitutional or legislative grant of such powers their' hearts yielded to the enthusiasm of the young lawyer, and they authorized the issuing of the required papers, In the fall of '83.?, Mr. Caton went to Pekin, Tazewell County, to be examined for admission to the Bar by ludge l.ojkwood, who thus addressed him at the dose : " Young man, I shall give you a license, but you have a great deal to learn to make you a good lawyer. If you work hard, you will attain it ; if you do not, you will be a failure." He then proceeded to Greenville, Bond County, and had his license indorsed by Judge Smith.* January i, 1834, he set out as guide' to Dr. Temple, mail-contractor, on the first stage coach which left Chicago for Ottawa. In February, he formed a partnership with his former law-teacher, Collins. In May he attended the Circuit Court, and brought the first jury case, being the identical one in which he cheated his friend Spring out Of a Client but into a better fee. as elsewhere stated.! Mr. Caton was elected Justice of the Peace, July 12, 1S34, receiving one hundred and eighty-two votes out of a total of two hundred and twenty-nine, in a very active campaign, which left but a few' if any votes unpolled. In the fall of LS34, he was ill for 'forty-seven days In the country at Colonel Warrens, and remembers of the court business of that term only the memorable case of uxoricide by an Irishman, whose acquittal was unexpectedly secured by the plea of Collins, on which the court instructed the jury, that if they could not find him guilty of murder in the first degree, as indicted it was their duty not to bring in a verdict of manslaughter in any degree, but to acquit. On the 28th of July, i8« Mr. married Laura Adelaide, daughter' of Jacob Shemll, of New Hartford, Oneida Co N Y whose affections he had won some few years before In a contest with Isaac Harmon for the office of Probate Judge to succeed Richard J. Hamilton, Caton was deoft'., ,A" f!fi Wilh,N- ,' Judd- he f"rmcd «»» firm of Caton & Judd ; and in that year built the first dwelling w.thm the school section, on the West Side at the southeast corner of Harrison and Clinton strce'ts He took an active part in the movement for a city charter in 1 November 1836, representing the second district of rL Z J" , f mf;tlng ,for c<,ns«lt"t'on with trustees. UflS T3 troubles of «*J7 did not leave him u» scathed ; he lost not only most of his real estate but his health also ; and in 1838 he took refuge on a farm near Plainlield, which he had entered some years before, and of which he plowed a portion that year, and to which be moved his family in 1839. He kept up his law practice in three or four neighboring counties, being the first lawyer to bring suit in the Circuit Courts of Kane and Will counties, as he hail previously beer, in Cook County. In 1840, again in conflict with Harmon. Having recovered his health he accepted the position of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court made vacant by the election of judge Ford as Governor, his commission bearing date August 20, 1842. In the October term of that year, in Bureau County, the historic case of the People VS. l.ovcjoy for that "he did harbor, feed, secrete and clothe a certain slave girl, knowing her to be such," etc., was trieil before the new Judge, who distinctly laid down the principle, new in that day, that "if a man voluntarily brings his slave into a free State the slave becomes free," which had much influence on the jury in acquitting I.ovejoy. At the close of the legislative session in March, 1843, John M. Robinson, who hail been United States Senator, 1835 to 1841, was elected to the vacant judgeship, but dying in April, Caton, after an intermission of only a month, was selected by Governor Ford, and at the 'next session of the General Assembly was elected by them, and served until the re-organ ization of the judiciary under the Constitution of 1S48. He was then elected one of the three Justicesof the Supreme Court December 4, 1848, who were to serve three, six and nine years, by which provision the election of one Justice every three years was secured. The sixyears term fell to Caton, and towards its close, on the resignation of Chief Justice Treat, in April, 1855, he succeeded the place of pre-eminence for the few remaining months. Itcing re-elected in June, 1855, for nine years, he again became head of the Bench on the resignation of Chief Justice Scates in 1857, and so continued until his own resignation, January 9, 1S64, five months before the expiration of his term. To accompany an ailing daughter to Kurope he laid aside the ermine which he had worn for over twenty-one years with honor to himself, credit to the Bench and satisfaction to the Bar and the people. Meanwhile he had become interested, in 1849, in what was then known as O'Reilly's telegraph, but which was organized as the Illinois & Mississippi Telegraph Company, of which he was chosen a director. In 1852 the company was on the verge of bankruptcy and was" saved only by Judge Caton's business tact and fertility of resource. He proposed that the company should obtain from the General Assembly of Illinois an amendment to their charter authorizing an assessment, and the sale of the defaulting stock. The board concurred and elected him president and general superintendent with absolute power. He secured the necessary legislation, and obtained enough from an assessment of $2.50 on each share, and the sales of defaulting shares, to meet the most pressing obligations; and devoted his spare time, without however the slightest infringement on his judicial functions. He studied the art of telegraphy, making himself an expert of that day; traveling in the Northern wilds to obtain a supply of' cedar posts, negotiating with railroad companies in Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota for transportation, and placing his lines along their roads. 'I he Weekly Democrat of November 3, 1S53, thus refers to his activity at this period: "Judge Caton will soon be the telegraph king of the West. From all parts of Illinois we have reports of the system and energy Wj* which the telegraph lines are managed, and of new ftt- lages being put in communication with the rest of mankind by means of the lightning wires." After some years the stock of the company began to pay dividends; and in 1867 its lines were leased to the Western Union Telegraph Company, Judge Caton retiring from the management. His pursuits since then have been a combination of literary and business enterprises, intermingled with the superintendence of his large farm, and the adornment of his city home on Calumet Avenue, and numerous journeys at home and abroad. His judicial decisions are scattered through twenty-seven volumes of Illinois Reports from Scammon HI to Illinois XXX. In these he has stamped the impress of his mind indel ibly on the jurisprudence of the State. They exhibit a man of industry in research, a writer of vigor and method, a thinker who is argumentative and discriminating, and occasionally original. A few of his decisions especially after experience had taught him to lop off redundency, would do credit to a Judge of any Bench, State or National. While not overladen with citations they are marked by deliberation and sound sense, and have stood the test of time. His early habits of self reliance impart a vigorous individuality, and his power of seizing essential points gives a clearness to his decisions that make them both readable and valuable. The best traits of his judicial style are reproduced in his other writings which cover antiquarian and scientific as well as purely literary and historical researches. He generally expresses his thought with clearness and precision, ami as much condensation as is consistent with an easy, full and unaffected style. As an advocate, he was not 'remarkable for readiness, requiring careful study to insure success. But his long experience as a Judge and man of affairs, enhanced by his later industry in the fields of literature, has developed a fair readiness for extemporaneous speaking, and some of his latest public addresses have been marked by the easy self-possession of a man long accustomed to the exercise of recognized and respected authority. His mind is rather active than brilliant ; and he is properly regarded by himself and others as a man of patient industry, endowed with a good working mental apparatus rather than genius or phenomenal jmwer. Of large and ragged frame, his brain is of similar type - brawn and brain being closely related. At this writing, he is in his seventy-second year, still hale and active, alternating between town and country, between literary investigations and business undertakings, between scientific inquiries and the pursuits of a country gentleman, surrounded by his flocks and herds, with no serious physical impairment except a dimness of vision produced by cataract which he hopes to have successfully removed in a few months. Mr. and Mrs. Caton are the parents of seven children, of whom three died in infancy, one at the age of five, and three survive. Of these one is a .son, Arthur J., who is a lawyer, and two are daughters, Mrs. Norman Williams and Mrs. Charles E. Towne, whose husbands are lawyers. All these reside in their respective homes within the same inclosure as their parents, which seems the crowning glory of a life largely devoted to the welfare of the family.

Grant Goodrich, born in Milton Township, Saratoga Co., N. Y., August 11, 1812, is the eighth son and ninth child of Gideon and Eunice Warren Goodrich, and a direct descendant in the seventh generation from William Goodrich, who arrived in New England in 1630. In 1817 Gideon Goodrich removed with his family to Chautauqua County, N. Y., and here the subject of our sketch received his early education in his father's house, from a teacher whose pupils consisted mainly of the Goodrich children. Some five years later young Goodrich went to live with a married sister at Wcstficld, in the same county, where he had an opportunity to get an inkling of the higher English branches and of the Greek and Latin classics under the guidance of a resident lawyer. About 1825 being it was thought predisposed to consumption, he took to lake navigation in the vessels of bis brother, a shipowner of Portland Harbor on Lake Eric, whither his father had also removed. In 1S27 with a physical system strengthened beyond expectation by the air and exercise of two years of 'seafaring life, young Goodrich, now in his sixteenth year, returned to Westfield to prosecute his studies at the Academy of that place. In 1830, he there entered the law office of Dixon & Smith; and in his twenty-second year set out for the West, arriving in Chicago, "early in May, 1834." Two months later he made a journey to Jacksonville, where he was examined and licensed by Judge Lockwood of the Supreme Court. As early as June, 1S35, he formed a law partnership with A. N. Fullerton, which was chiefly devoted to the sale and renting of real estate, and was dissolved February 22, 1S36. Within a few days Mr. Goodrich became the law partner of Giles Spring, and so continued until the election of the latter to the Bench in 1849. Both partners found wives at Wcstficld, where Goodrich had been long and favorably known, and where he had joined the Methodist Church in 1832. He married Miss Juliet Atwater, July 24, 1836. In common with almost every other enterprising citizen of the Chicago of 1837 the panic of that year found him involved on his own and others' account to the extent of §60,000. which it took many years to clear off, but which be eventually paid without abatement. He not only advocated payment in full of all obligations by the State, city and individuals, but enforced the exhortation by example. In 1838, he was elected Alderman of the Sixlh Ward, and was president of the Lyceum in 1839. The firm of Spring & Goodrich did a very respectable part of the law business of Chicago during the thirteen years of its continuance, the excellent personal habits of Mr. Goodrich being a valuable counterpoise to the unfortunate infirmity of Spring, while the legal ability of both commanded the confidence of clients. A short-lived partnership with Buckner S. Morris followed in 1850, and was dissolved in 1857, Mr. Goodrich practicing for a time alone. About this time he co-operated zealously with others for the establishment of the Northwestern University at Evanston. In 1852 he was partner of George Scoville, and in 1855 W. W. Farwell, now better known as Judge Harwell, joined them, the firm becoming Goodrich, Farwell & Scoville. In 1856 Sidney Smith took the place of Scoville, and the prestige of the firm was enhanced rather than diminished by the change, Goodrich, Farwell S: Smith being universally recognized as a strong combination. In 1857, Mr. Goodrich's health gave way and under the advice of his physician he made a protracted tour of Europe, not returning home until the spring of 1859, when he was elected Associate Justice of the newly constituted Superior Court of Chicago, a position he retained until 1863, when he resumed his place in the law firm as constituted before his departure for Europe six years before.

In 187 1, he lost considerable property by the fire, and it took about five years to recover from its results. In 1874 he withdrew from general practice, and has since devoted himsell :hiefly to the care of his property, and the encouragement of the various social, religious and benevolent interests of Chicago in which he has borne a share for more than half a century. Originally a Whig, anil later a free-soiler and abolitionist he drifted, easily into the Republican party, and was an earnest supporter of Lincoln's administration and the war for the Union. A temperance man on principle, he prefers high license to prohibition as a means of reducing the appalling volume of crime and poverty which spring from the liquor traffic. As a Judge be ranked among the most absolutely impartial and thoroughly informed on the Bench of this city; and no taint or suspicion of unfaithfulness or venality has ever attached to his career as Judge, lawyer or citizen. His wale business experience and excellent personal habits, as well as his extended knowledge of the principles of law and ready familiarity with the statutes of Illinois, together with his firmness of character and soundness of judgment, have made him not only a successful advocate but a very valuable counselor. Mr. and Mrs. Goodrich are the parents of four sons and one daughter, One son died at the age of twenty-six, a studious, well educated and promising lawyer. Another son is now a member of the Chicago Har. A third son is a manufacturer in Boston, and the fourth is a real estate dealer here. The daughter settled in St. Louis, on her marriage, but on the death of her husband returned to her father's house. Now (1883; in his seventy-second year, and in the enjoyment of exceptional health and vigor, Mr. Goodrich can look back on a more successful and better rounded life than most men.

Mark Skinner was born September 13, 1813, at Manchester, llennington Co., Vt , where his father, Richard, a native of Connecticut, had settled as a lawyer i 11 1800. His mother was of the historic l'ierpont family. The elder Skinner became professionally and politically prominent in the State of his adoption.' Hewas Prosecuting Attorney and Probate Judge, Member of the Legislatuie and Governor, Representative in Congress, and Chief Justice of the State. Young Skinner had all the advantages of a good early education, followed by a careful preparation for college and completed by a course of studv in Middlebury College, Vermont, which he entered in 1830, and from which he graduated in 1833, before he was quite twenty. His father died the same year, and he began his law' studies under Judge Ezek Cowen at Saratoga Springs, and Nicholas Hill, afterward of Albany. He also spent a year at the New Haven Law School of Yale. He now determined to make Chicago his home and arrived herein July, ,836.

He at once obtained admission to the Bar, and within a month formed a law partnership with Mr. Beaumont In 1837 he was chosen one of the board of School Inspectors, and for many vcars he was a leading spirit in all that concerned the well-being and advancement of the school interests uf Chicago. He was chosen City Attorney March 10, ,840, and on the resignation bv Justin Butterfield of the office of U. S. District Attorney for Illinois, in 1844, Mr. Skinner was appointed o fill the vacancy, and an effort was made by his friends o secure him a more permanent occupancy of the position, but the fnends of I. N. Arnold also bestirred them. mnnCvS r\T ct*4"16 dircction 1,1 the Merest* of hardatc m March, ,845, the appoint^t was iv to 1>. L. Gregg, of Joliet. In 1846 Mr. Skinner was elected to the Legislature, and was appointed chairman of the committee on finance. He introduced a bill for refunding the State debt which was of great value, by definitely determining the extent of the debt, by introducing system and responsibility in its management, and by reducing six or eight dilierent styles of bonds into one uniform and only authorized issue. In the apportionment of delegates to the Slate Convention <if 1847, he labored with success to secure as the basis thereof the State Pensus of 1K45 rather than the United States census of 1840. By reason of the more rapid growth of Chicago and northern Illinois, a just representation and proper weight of influence in the coming convention could thus only have been secured. He was also instrumental at this time in securing the passage of an act to resume payment of interest on the State debt, which had been in default nearly ten years. Soon after the close of bis legislative labors, March 1, 1847, he resumed the practice of his profession, forming a partnership with Thomas Hoyne, April 24. On the death of Judge Spring in May, 1851, Mr. Skinner hecame a candidate for the Bench of the Cook County Court of Common Pleas, and was elected over his competitor, John M. Wilson, for the remainder of Spring's term to June. 1853. when he declined a rcnomination, because of ill-health contracted through the excessive labors of that court At his entrance on the duties of Judge, finding the calendar overladen, he sat continuously for seven months, cleared it up and kept ahead. With his retirement from the Bench, his previous withdrawal from political contention, and the interruption to professional practice incident to both episodes as well as the threatened physical infirmity, he turned his attention to the management of large financial operations, in which bis success has been very marked. No one in Chicago, perhaps, has so largely represented nonresident capitalists or handled larger amounts of the borrowed money so extensively used in building the city. In 1.85S he became a member of the Second Presbyterian Church. In the Rebellion period his services were conspicuous and valuable as first president of the Chicago Sanitary Commission, afterward named the Northwestern, from 1861 to 1864. Hcwasalsoa member of the more general United States Sanitary Commission during the whole period of its existence. Besides his valuable services in that field he also gave to his country, in 1S62, bis eldest son Richard, who had just graduated at Yale, at the age of twenty, and who then entered the regular armv as Second Lieutenant in the Tenth Infantry, and was 'killed before Petersburg, Ya., June 22, 1864. Judge Skinner has been actively identified with nearly all the benevolent and reformatory enterprises of Chicago, and more especially with the Reform School, of which he was one of the original founders, and president of the first board of directors. With his usual energy and ability he made a businesslike investigation of all such institutions as were accessible for personal inspection and a diligent study from printed reports of the more famous reformatory institutions of England, France and Germany. His connection with the earlier railroads of Chicago as a director of the Galena & Chicago, and of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, was of no slight value to those enterprises by reason of his marked financial ability and the wisdom of his counsels as a lawyer and a man of business.

school and academy of FrybttTg, he spent two years at Waterville College, and two at Dartmouth, where he graduated in the class of 1S38. He studied law under Judge Chase, of Hopkinton, N. H., until the summer of 1840, when he set out for Chicago. Here he spent a few months in the office of Spring & Goodrich, and secured admission to the Bar, as is supposed, although his name does not appear on the Supreme Court list until March 14, 1842. He was partner with Joseph N. Balcsticr for a short time, Balestier \- Evans being found advertised in the Daily American of September 25, 1840. He attracted some attention about the same time as a speaker at the Tippecanoe Club. He soon removed to Dixon, 111., where for a time he was the partner of the late Judge Heaton, and from there to Kenosha, Wis., where he was married September 16, 1846, to Miss Caroline Hyde, daughter of a Mr. Hyde, of Darien, Genesee Co., N. V. In 1858 he returned to Chicago, and was for a short time the law partner of James T. Hoyt, and still later, of Mr. Tousely. He was, however, better fitted for independent professional business than for partnership. There have been but few lawyers so devoted to the profession as Mr, Evans. He was a lawyer ami nothing else, except a good citizen, a worthy man, and an excellent husband and father. In 1871 he was urged by many of the most influential lawyers to become a candidate for Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, but declined. His more notable cases were Wilkinson vs. Chicago Tribune, and the Zeigenmcyer murder case. He was very extensively identified with suits for damages against corporations, especially the railroads and the city, in cases of personal injury, and his success in these was quite remarkable. He was naturally, or by force of habit, earnest, urgent and convincing as a speaker, and was usually able to marshal all his resources of pleading anil argument, as well us persuasion and eloquence, as far as necessary for the success of his case, before a jury. But his power before the Supreme Court, or in chambers, was still more creditable to his ability as a thorough lawyer. He died September 2, 1870, leaving a wife, two sons and two daughters. The elder of the sons is William W., a lawyer, and the younger is Lewis H., a civil engineer. Of the daughters one is married and the other single. He was a regular attendant at St. John's Episcopal Church, especially while in charge of his friend, I>r. H. N. Bowers, but was not a member of any Church. At the Bar meeting in commemoration of his death Calvin De Wolf, who had known hint since 1S40, said : " He was eminently worthy of admiration and esteem;" and the committee on resolutions declared : " That in the death of Mr. Evans the community had lost a most worthy and excellent citizen, a man of the highest integrity and honor, the Bar one of its brightest ornaments, the record of whose professional career during its entire length has never suffered blot or stain, and his widow and family a husband and father endeared to them by that devotedly affectionate attachment which renders home so worthy." " He was not." said Judge Moore, "an ordinary man, but one who ran over with earnestness for whatever he undertook. He was a lawyer of more than usual learning and intelligence. * * * He was a man of majestic sentiment, who drew others to him."

JAMBS M. Strode, faintly connected with Chicago in those earlier years, first as a circuit-riding attorney, then as State Senator, 1832 to 1836, with residence still at Galena, and then more closely from 1836 to 1840 as Register of the land-office here, and afterward as member of the Chicago Bar and Prosecuting Attorney until 1848, belongs as such to a somewhat later period than 1837, when he was properly a Government official and not a practicing lawyer. Professionally he belonged about equally to the Bars of Jo Daviess, Cook, and Mc- Hcnry counties, successively.

been a native of Maryland, is first heard of in this section through the Chicago American of August 15, 1835, as a lawyer at Ottawa, implying that he must have been admitted to the Bar in some other State, as he is not enrolled in Illinois until March 2, 1837. He must have soon removed to Chicago or Cook County, as he was elected to represent the latter in the Slate Legislature on the repudiation ticket in 1836. On the 19th of November he notified his law customers to call on J. V. Scammon during his own absence in the East, whence he returned in time for the first session of the Tenth General Assembly, at Vandalia, December 5. 1S36, at which he or his friends in his behalf tried to procure his election as State's Attorney, but he was rejected in March, 1837, as ineligible, being a member of the General Assembly. At the close of the short extra session in July, he returned to practice in Chicago anil advertised location August 16, 1837, but does not seem to have exercised much influence or made any impression on the public mind as a member of the Bar. In 1839, he lost his books and papers by fire. In 1840 he was again elected to the Legislature. The second session of the Twelfth General Assembly of Illinois closed March 1, 1S41, and Mr. Leary again turned his attention to law. advertising as commissioner for Maryland April 9. He is again advertised as a lawyer in February, 1842. May a I, 1845, the death of his infant child at St. Louis is noticed in the Chicago Democrat; and his own of yellow fever at New Orleans, over eiyht years later, in the Chicago Weekly Democrat of August 27. 1853. He had married a niece of President Tyler, and their associations arc judged to have been mainly Southern.

MAHLON DlCKERSON OcDEM was born June 14, 181 1, at Walton on the Delaware, in Delaware County, N. Y.. where his father had settled about 1792. He was named for Mahlon Dickerson, United States Senator and Governor of New Jersey, with whom the father had been associated in early life. Voting Ogden was educated in the district school, and later at Trinity College, Geneva, N. V., where he graduated about 1832. Soon afterward he removed to Columbia, Ohio, where he studied law under the future Justice Swayne until 1836, when he was admitted to the Bar. Meanwhile his elder brother, William B., had formed in Chicago the nucleus of a large business in real estate, as the representative of the American Land Company, of Frederick and Arthur Bronson and other Eastern investors in Chicago lots and Illinois lands. Hither Mahlon D. proceeded on a visit, and deciding to make it his future home, returned to Columbus, where he was married to Miss Kasson, and went back to Chicago in the spring of 1S37, to settle. In accordance with an agreement formed at his previous visit he now entered into partnership with I. N. Arnold ; and was admitted to the Bar of Illinois December tl, 1837. Mr. Ogden never had much to do with the court business of Arnold & Ogden, his taste running more in the line of office work, and especially to real estate, and disputed titles. For ten years the firm had charge of the law relations and legal papers of the business managed by William B. Ogden and later by Ogden & Jones. He resided in the old officers' quarters in Fort Dearborn for a few years after his arrival here, houses being still scarce ; but removed about 1839 to the corner of Pearporn Avenue and 0n« tario Street, where he had built the home he occupied for twenty years. In 1841 he was elected Probate Judge or, as then stylet), Justice of the Probate Court, and held the office for" four years, acceptably to the general public. In 1 845 he was elected Alderman of the Sixth Ward. In 1S47 the partnership with Mr. Arnold was dissolved. Mr. Ogden became directly and exclusively identified with the business of his brother, and in 1849 obtained a partnership interest in the firm of Ogden, Jones & Co. In 1S5 1 Mrs. Ogden died, leaving two children, Charles C, nova resident of Little Rock, Ark., and Mrs. Williarn K. Strong of this city. In 1856 the firm of Ogden, Junes ft Co. became Ogden. Fleetwood ft Co., involving no other change than the replacing of Jones by Fleetwood. In 1856 Mr. Ogden married Miss Frain es Sheldon, a daughter of General Sheldon, a former resident of I Jclaware County, N. Y., but at this time 1 if Janesville, Wis. In 1859 he erected on the block northofWashington Square, the residence which afterward became historic as the only building that escaped destruction on the North Side within the range of the great fire. In 186S, the firm was changed to Ogden, Sheldon & Co .in which he and Kdwin II. Sheldon were general partners, and William 15. Ogden was a Special partner until his death. In 187 1, in common witli nearly all large owners of real estate in Chicago, he sustained heavy h>ss in the great fire. In 1871 he was elected Alderman in what was called "the strong " Common Council, he and other members of which had been induced to become candidate* in opposition to a corrupt ring then in control of the city. Tht two years' public service thus rendered was the only deviation from private business he allowed himself since 1846. In his original profession he made very little money, but as soon as he went into business he grew rapidly rich. The shrinkage in real estate value which succeeded the panic of 1873, some outside ventures in Ohio manufactures, and the too free use of his credit to certain financial institutions of the city forced him, in 1878,10 put his estate into liquidation. The city mansion, already referred to, passed out of his hands, and what had been for some years his summer residence at Klmhurst became the comfortable but much less pretentious home of himself and family. Mere he died, February 13, 1880, of pneumonia, after a short illness, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. Mrs. Ogden and her three children, a daughter and two sons, besides the two children by his first wife, survive him, Mr. Ogden was a man of fine personal appearance, but of a delicate constitution, which his excellent habits so fostered that he reached almost the rounded term of three score years and ten. Of a firmness that was akin to obstinacy, of perfect integrity and truthfulness, and possessed of a most delicate sense of honesty, his character was above reproach. In religion, he was a faithful attendant at the sen ices of the Episco|>al Church of St. James for forty years before 1877, when he became a regular member. His fame is of the business, rather than the professional or public order. With the few exceptions mentioned, he took no part in public affairs or great public enterprises. His life was of the quiet, useful and industrious type. Possessed of a pleasing address, good conversational powers and a genial temperament, he made hosts of friends. The enhanced value of Chicago realty since his estate was put in liquidation has resulted in giving his heirs a goodly inheritance, reinforced as it has been by their share of the larger estate of their uncle.

Edward G. Ryan, born in Ireland in 1810, and an immigrant to this country before he was o"f age, arrived in Chicago in 1S36. and advertised as a lawyer as earlv as December 10, of that year, though his name does nut appear on the list of the Supreme Court until the 31st of that month, when he was present at its session in Vandalia on some Chicago law-suits. He formed a partnership with Henry Moore June 1, 1837, but the firm of Moore & Ryan was short-lived, the senior member leaving Chicago in 1S38 for his health. Aiming other activities in 1837, Mr. Ryan look a decided stand against a movement of embarrassed debtors for the suspension of the Municipal Court of Chicago. One of the most earnest advocates of suspension, James Curtiss, having stated at a public meeting that he had given up his law practice because unwilling to harass the impoverished people, Mr. Ryan exclaimed, " It is very apocryphal whether Mr. Curtiss has abandoned his practice, or his practice has abandoned him." After the separation from Henry Muorc, Mr, Ryan became associated With Hugh T. Dickey, under the style of Ryan ft Dickev, which was dissolved January 27, 1840, Mr. Ryan now' turned his attention to journalism, hecoming editor of the Tribune, the first number of which appeared April 4. 1840, and which he freely used in the conflict of the Chicago Bar with Judge Pearson. Being of an irascible disposition, Mr. Ryan maue many enemies, which he seemed to regard as proof of intellectual prowess. Being also of a combative turn of mind, and withal full of an overweening self-esteem, he seemed to delight in |>ersistcnt efforts to impress others with an equal appreciation of bis assumed superiority. In 1842 he removed to Racine, and thenceforth his history belongs to Wisconsin, where he rose to eminence, becoming Chief Justice in 1874. because of his acknowledged probity and ability, notwithstanding the extreme unpopularity of his political views ten years before. He died October 19. i88o, reaching within twenty- five days of threescore years and ten.

Patrick Ballinuali.. often assigned to this period, was then a student with Spring & Goodrich, and became a member of the Chicago Bar only after his return from DuPage County in 1843.

NORMAN B. Judo, an arrival of 1836, and partner with Caton as early as August, 1837, became very prominent, about the period of the Civi! War, whea he achieved a national reputation.

GEORGE Manierrk. an arrival of 1835, and Deputy Clerk of the Circuit Court and law student m was not admitted to the Bar until July 15, 1839. belongs therefore to a somewhat later period.

George W. Meeker, a partner of Manierre. was like him a stuflent in 1837, and admitted tn tin- liar half a year after him, December 16,, 1839.

Thomas Hovse, also an arrival of 183,7, and often spoken of as a member of the Bar of that year, was not admitted to practice until December 16, 1839, and then attained eminence.

Courts of Chicago, 1837 to 1844. - Hy the ad of February 4, 1837, a new circuit was established, Ii included Cook County, and was numbered the Seventh. For its Judge. John Pearson, of Danville, an obscure lawyer, admitted to the Bar December 5, 1833. was chosen by the Legislature. The selection proved very distasteful to the lawyers of Chicago, Don. Thomas Hoyne. despite his judicial candor, writing of this event, more than a generation later, reflects a feeling of disappointment that at the time must have been intense. Judge Pearson, he says, -- was known to be incompetent for the position, and to be sadly wanting in the qualities which make a good judge. His appointment had consequently been unpopular with the Chicago Bar from the beginning. The Democratic party was in power in the State, ami John Pearson was a Democrat -he was a poor lawyer and an industrious office-seeker."

The spring term in 1837 was opened May 22, by Judge Pearson, with seven hundred cases on the docket. Before his arrival he had promulgated an elaborate, burdensome and perhaps somewhat arbitrary system of rules for the guidance of lawyers transacting business in his court, which dill not lend to smooth the way to a favorable reception of himself, his methods, or his decisions by the Chicago Bar. But the urgency of impatient clients and the heavy docket rendered the dispatch of business a paramount 'object, and the indulgence of resentful feelings by either parly to the impending conflict would have given an undesirable advantage to the opposite side. Thus both terms of the year 1837 passed without an outburst. In 1838, this sustained forbearance and self- restraint on both sides promised to establish a reconciliation, or at least a motius liiriiJi, which if not cordial would be mutually respectful, and the organ of the Whigs rather pointedly and encouragingly noted these indications.

But the sectional jealousy and political antagonism that had unhappily been set in motion by the appointment of Judge Pearson, even more than his alleged incompetency, would not suffer the accomplishment of so desirable a result, anil the suppressed quarrel found vent in 1839. The spring term had lieen held, and the docket had again become so burdened by reason of the discontinuance of the Municipal Court that he announced .'in extra term of the Circuit Court for the second Monday in. May. It was at that special term, as related farther on, that the issue between the Bench anil the Bar of Chicago took shape. Meanwhile two new courts had been created for Chicago bv its charter of March 4. '837-

The First Mayor's COURT. - Section 68 of the city charter provided, "That the Mayor * * * shall have the same jurisdiction within the limits of said city * * - as the Justices of the Peace, upon his conforming to the requirements * - * regulating the office of the Justice of the Peace."

The Municipal Court. - It was by the establishment of this court more especially that relief was sought to be given to the administration' of justice in Chicago. The accumulation of untried cases on the docket ot the Circuit Court of Cook County, and the delay in civil suits, which amounted almost to a" denial of justice, owing to the urgency and legal preference of criminal cases, had rendered imperative some additional provision. The Constitution of 1818, in its Bill of Rights, Article VIII, Section 12, had provided against such a state of things in words which admirably summarized the fundamental purpose of laws and courts: "Every person within this Stale ought to find a certain remedy in the laws for all injuries or wrongs which he may receive in his person, property or character, he ought to obtain right and justice freely, and without being obliged to purchase it. completely and without denial, promptly and without delay, conformably to the laws."

Sections 69 to S2 of the charter are concerned with this court, the chief provisions being that it should have jurisdiction concurrent with the Circuit Court, in all matters, civil or criminal, arising within the city where either party is a resident. It should be held by '.n:- Judge, to be appointed hy the Gem ral Assembly, commissioned by the Governor, to bold office during good behavior, and to be paid by the Common Council. His salary and the other expenses of his court were to be paid out of the docket fees, which were to Ive collected by the clerk and turned over to the City Treasurer. The clerk was to be appointed by the Judge; the jurors to be chosen bv the Common Council, and summoned by the High Constable. His functions as an officer of this court within the city were the same as those of Sheriffs in their respective counties, and he was to be elected by the |>eople, like other city officers, at the annual election. It was a court of record, with a seal, and its process was directed to the High Constable except where a defendant resided outside the city limits, when it was directed to the Sheriff. Its judgments had the - line liens on real and personal estate as those of the Circuit Court, and all appeals from the Mayor or any other Justice of the Peace were to be taken to next Circuit or Municipal Court whose term came first. All rules not specially laid down were to conform to those of the Circuit Court, and all appeals to the Supreme Court were to be carried up in the same way as from the Circuit Court.

By a short supplementary act of July 21, 1S37, it was further provided that "its Judge shall possess all and singular the powers, and he is hereby required to perform all judicial duties appertaining to the office of the Circuit Courts of this State, and to issue all such writs and process as is, or may hereafter, by statutory provisions, be made issuable from the Circuit Courts of this State."

For this Court, Hon. Thomas Ford, who had resigned as Judge of the Sixth Circuit in February, was selected by thc Legislature. He had been Prosecuting Attorney i'n the Fifth Circuit, and Judge of the Sixth, when each successively included Cook County, and was favorably regarded by the Chicago Bar. He had acquired the reputation of being an excellent lawyer ; and as a judge was a terror to evil-doers, while as a man he was a warm and devoted friend, or an equally bitter enemy. As a citizen and politician he belonged to the dominant Democratic party, but was too broad to be a partisan, and when Governor, 1842 to 1846, did not hesitate to break loose from the unwisdom of repudiation and stay laws, or to espouse, support and urge with all the influence of his position every measure calculated to build up the shattered credit of the State.

The terms of the Municipal Court began with every alternate month, and it was virtually in perpetual session. An attempt was made by the 'politicians to prevent the opening of this court, the circumstances of which are thus narrated by the late Hon. Thomas Hoyne :