Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1903-09-12
A WORTHY TRIBUTE.
II e CIementson's Able Address to
Memory of Chief Justice Cole.
Nav it please the Court:

May it please the Court:
Chief Justice Cole from 1916 when
he came to Wisconsin to June 1855,
when he took his seat upon the bench
of this court, resided in Potosi in
Grant county. AS resident of that
county I deem it not inappropriate
to speak few words of the distin-
guished dead on this occasion.
One who to day should pass through
the quiet village of Potosi, which
sits in a narrow valley opening on to
the Mississippi, could not fail to
observe the evidences of it's age and be
charmed by it's quaintness and its
picturesque location, but, if ignorant
of it's history he would wonder why
an ambitious young man as was
Orsamus Cole, college graduate and
member of the bar should journey
from the East to engage there in the
practice Of his profession; or why
that another young man, also college
bred, eloquent Of tongue and of
brilliant and comprehensive mind,
should soon after come TO Potosi and
become the junior member of the
law firm of Cole & Biddlecome. The
wonder however would cease when
it was told that beginning with
1926 considerable population flowed
into that part of our state that is
now embraced in the counties of Iowa,
Grant and Lafayette, attracted thithe
by the lodes of lead ore that had re-
Gently been discovered in that part
of the country; that by the census
of the inhabitants of the territory
of Wisconsin taken in 1886 it appeared
that more than one third of the en-
tire population within the region
now comprising the State of Wiscon-
sin were residents of Iowa comfy
which then included the territory
now within the boundaries of the
counties of Iowa. Grant and Lafay-
cite, and that the village of Potosi,
now so quiet, was in those days a
center of the mining industry, and a
busy mart of trade-a shipping point
for lead and distributing place for
freight received by river for con-
siderable extent Of country. The
rush to the lead mine region in those
day was similar to the exodus to
California when gold was discovered
there, though not as extensive.
In the throng of both movements
was a considerable proportion of
young men Of energy, learning and
ambition anxious to take advantage
of an opportunity that promised
successful career. Moved by this
impulse we find in pre-statehood
days among those who located in Iowa
county such lawyers of ability as M.
M. Cothren, Moses M. Strong, Samuel
Crawford, Cadwalader G. Washburn,
with Charles Dunn, the chief justice
of the territory; and in Grant county
which was formed by an act of the
first territorial legislature which met
at Belmont in 1889, among the mem
bers of the bar were Orsamus Cole, j.
Allen Barber, Ben. G. Eastman-all
afterwards representatives in con-
gress from that congressional district
Nelson Dewey, the first governor
of the state, and Joseph T. Mills, the
father of our code of procedure and
for twelve years judge of the fifth
circuit. Most of these n1on took
prominent parts in the conduct of the
affairs of the territory, and in the
organization of the state. Chief
Justice Cole survived them all, and
for a number of years before his
death he was the sole living repre- :
sentative of the able territorial bar
of Southwest Wisconsin. That in
the contest with such able. competitors
Orsamus Cole should so soon after
becoming a resident of the territory
gain the prominent standing he did
at the bar and in the estimation of
the people speaks more forcibly than
words of commentator can of the
ability and character of the man.
His success would at first impression
appear all the more remarkable be-
cause he was wanting in some char
acteristics apparently essential to
advancement in a free, asy,aggressive,
rough and ready mining community.
He was always a gentleman in con-
duct. He was not assertive but mod
est and somewhat reserved. He was
not an advocate. He had not the
ready eloquence that captures jury,
and in political contests wins the
applause of the people. Biddlecome
was the jury lawyer of the firm Of