Norwich bulletin., 1913-12-23
Bar Associations Memorial Session
State Attorney Hadla A Hull Delivered Impressive Eulogy of Judge Ralph Wheeler-Resoluions and Addresses in Memory of Donald C. Perkins, Willis A Brscoe and John F. Coughln.

on Monday morning at 10 o'clock, President S. s. Thresher presiding, for a memorial service in memory of Judge Ralph Wheeler of New London and Attorneys Donald G Perkins Willis A. BTiscoe and John F. Cough lin of Norwich Impressive and solemn were the resolutions adopted and eulo- gies made after Rev. J, Eldred Brown
 had read from the scriptures and of fered prayer and Judge Shumway had ordered a session of the superior court to be opened in the presence of a large number of members of the par> Judge Ralph Wheeler. Attorney John c. Geary of New Lon 6cn presented this resolution on Judge Wheeler:
 Judge Ralph Wheeler for the last 20 years of his life was one of the most industrious, efficient and respected judges of the highest court of law and equity jurisdiction of the state of Con nectcut He maintained in a high de- gree the dignity and honor of the law and the court. From the bench he dealt patiently and courteously with suitors and their representatives He had a strong sense of the obligations of the attorney to court and client
 During 26 years of active practice at the bar of the state he eXemplned his high ideal of the attorney and counselor at law His advice and
  varied eIentage-
 As mayor of the city of New Lon don and as member of the upper house of the general assembly of Con- necticut, he proved the safe, conserva-
 tive executive and legislator
 His life work did honor to a long line of highly respected ancestors, traceable over two and half cen- turies-
 Judge Wheeler was retiring and modest, patient and industrious, sen- gitive and charitable, and withal close observer and clear reasoner.
 He was not an ornnivorous reader, but he pondered over what he read and derived much from it.
 In the passing of Judge Wheeler the state has lost a faithful servant and the community in which he lived a good and cherished neighbor.
 His brethren at the bar respectfully request that this brief testimonial of his worth be placed upon the records of the court.
 The resolutions were the work of Hadlai A. Hull. John c. Geary, A. P. Tanner, s. s. Thresher and c. w. But Ter
 EuIoay by State Attorney Hull.
 In a rarely eloquent and touching tribute to brother follower of the law, State Attorney Hadlai A. Hull said in part:
 Judge Ralph Wheeler, whose mem ory we revere and recall today, was a conspicuous example and product of that past New England country life. He traced his ancestry resident in New London county through more than tive hundred and fifty years. The kpuse in which he was born, now crumbling to it's original erements, looked out from a rolling country hill- top in the town of Stonington upon nf r1 1d Through these waters from the har- bors of New London, Stonington and Mystic river, names once known in every port of the world, magnificent ships, built and manned by New Eng land men and boys, went forth to cir among the men who built and sailed a merchant marine which made New England famous the world over, were names familiar to Judge Wheeler in his boyhood for they were his neigh bors. New London county shared largely in the wealth brought back to our ports from the deep and from foreign shores by a hardy race to whom peril of land or sea had few teFToFE.
 The earliest knowedge have of Judge Wheeler came from my father, who was one of those early New Eng land sailors and school teachers. He taught the district school where the boy Ralph Wheeler acquired his first desire for learning and the judge has often repeated to me passages of Eng HSh literature, committed to memory, before his understanding was able to aSSimilate them. Judge Wheeler in his boyhood responded to the call of the Nazarene in the old Baptist church at Mystic, and, though he was not de- monstrative, he attached the highest importance to religious convictions, bA1JIH in V0Ith
 A freshman at Yale college, he wit messed the beginning of the baptism of the Federal Union in fire and blood which issued in that prophetic con- seerat1on which MT. Lincoln proclaim ed at Gettysburg The night of the trial of the republic was giving way to the dawn of a triumphant Union when Judge Wheeler finished his col legiate course.
 Through all these wonderful years of rescue and development of the re- public, Judge Wheeler was a thought full and close observer. He was deep ly affected by it all. He acquired the habit of wide and profound study of nations and peoples, and derived from 1t a fund of learning and wisdom which was understood only by those who were familiar with him and woth whom he laid aside his natural re- serve. The late Robert Colt said of him just before he was elevated to the bench, "He Is essentially a wise man."
 Soon after graduating from college our brother became principal of the Academy at Ewington in the state of Ohio, the state which owes so much to the state of Connecticut. One Judge Holman of Ewington, Ohio, was our brothers first legal preceptor and Hiram Appleman of Mystic, Connect icut, succeeded him.
 Tn tha midst nf the activities If fho he began the study of law Not blessed with robust health, yet our brother filled out the allotted span of life-three score and ten years nearly half century of which had been employed in active search after