The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-10-29
JUDGE JOHN W. WILLIS.
Democratic Nominee for Congress-
From the 4th District.

trict court, and Democratic candidate for
congress from the Fourth congressional
district of Minnesota. was born in st.
Paul, Mimi, on the 18th day of July, A.
d. 1S45. He entered the upper primary
department of the jefferson school and
passed through all successive grades of
the public school system of st. Paul,
graduating at the head of his class in the
high school in June, 1873. Later in the
year of 1873, and during a portion of the
year 1874. he attended the State Uni
versity and Manchester College. At the
last named institution, he pursued an ex-
tensive course of study IN the ancient
classics under the special care and in
struction of that eminent scholar. Rev.
Edward D. .Neill, D. d.
Leaving Manchester, Mr.. Willis was
duly matriculated as sophomore at
Dartmouth College. At that celebrated
seat of learning he was graduated, with
high honor, in the year 1877. In the
year 1880, he was created by his Alma
Mater master of arts.
After his graduation Mr. Willis entered
as law student in the office of John M.
Gilman, w. p. Clough and Eugene F.
Lane, then co-partners under the firm
name of Gilman, Clough & Lane. While
pursuing the study of law, Mr.. Willis
served one year as instructor of the
Latin and Greek languages in the st.
Paul high school. On Oct. IS. 1879, he
was examined for admission to the bar
before the supreme court, and was duly
admitted to practice as an attorney and
counselor at law. He remained in the
office of Messrs. Gilman & Clough for
some time after his admission to the bar,
and in the year 1880, opened an in
dependent Office. After that time, until
the date of his elevation to the bench,
he was actively engaged in the practice
of the legal profession. During the years
1881 and 1882, Mr.. Willis was member
of the board of education of the city of
st. Paul. In the year 1883, he was unani-
mously nominated by the Democratic
state convention for the Office of attorney
general of Minnesota. During the po-
itical campaign which followed, he made
an extended canvass of the state, deliver
ing public addresses in all the principal
cities and towns. Although he received
a very large and flattering vote, he was
defeated in company with all his asso-
ciates on the Democratic state ticket. In
%hn
by Hon. Andrew R. McGill member of
the state board of corrections and char
tiles.
On the 9Th day of November, A. D. 1892,
Of the district court for the Second jul
dicial district of the state of Minnesota.
His term of office extends for six years
from the LIST day of January, A. D. 1893.
On the 18th day of July, 1894, he was
unanimously nominated by the Peoples
Party for associate justice of the supreme
court of the state of Minnesota.
On the 5th day of September, 1894,
Judge Willis received the nomination Of
the Democratic state convention, by ac-
clamation GALL the delegates rising, for
associate justice of the supreme court.
During his term of service on the bench
Judge Willis has attracted widespread
public attention by his decision uphold
ing the constitutionality of the statute
providing for the construction of a state
elevator; also by his decision declaring
the "ticket scalper license law uncon-
stitutional upon the ground that it Great
ed privileged class and by his instruc-
lions to the grand jury Of Ramsey county
to enforce strictly the statute forbidding
the employment of child labor.
Judge Willis is member of the So
cieties known as "Sons of the Revolu-
ton" and Sons of the American Revo-
lution," being entitled to such member
ship by reason of the military services of
his great-grandfather, Sylvanus Willis,
and other ancestors, upon the patriot
side in the war of the American revolu-
ton.
Major T. M. Newson (now deceaseD,
lately United States consul at Malaga,
Spain, thus speaks of Judge Willis in his
book, Pen Pictures of St. Paul, Mimi"
"In important litigations, both civil
and criminal, Mr. Willis has already be-
come marked character. In causes
bristling with abstruse points and dan
gerous with technical startegy-causes
in which the veteran practitioner rarely
meets the youthful aspirant for forensic
renown-Mr. Willis has CALAMITY kept
afoat the white plume of Navarro His
practice in criminal cases includes the
somewhat remarkable one of the state
VS.. Sorenson, where, as counsel for the
prisoner, he reduced holly urged prose-
cution for murder in the first degree to
conviction only for manslaughter in
the second degree; and the recent case,
still remembered by the public at large,
the state VS.. Hanley. tried in Mime
| apolis on a change of venue, wherein he
| led the prosecution--a trial which result
/. ed in the first verdict of conviction for
! murder in the first degree over obtained
| in Hennepin county.
Controlled by classic tastes, all over Of
classic models, proficient in the art of
| o1o,,o,oo T,I,,, yE;11o,, willis hide foi