Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1919-12-11
IN MEMORIUM Of
CHAS NJ. WEBB

Prepared and read by B. R. Cog
gins at the Bar Association held in
Stevens Point, Monday, December l.
1919:
May it please the urt:-The I'M
dersigned committee appointed by the
Bar Association of the Seventh Judi
cial Circuit, presents to the Court the
following memorial of the Hon. Char
les NJ. Webb, late Judge of the Seven
tn Judicial Circuit of Wisconsin
Charles NJ. Webb was born Decem-
Der 80, 1888, at Towanda, Pennsylva-
MIA, and died at his home in Grand
Rapids, Wisconsin, August II, 1911.
He was Of prominent Revolutionary
stock and the youngest of five chill
dren-four sons and one daughter. At
the age of twelve years he left school
and worked as a typesetter in print
ing office at Troy, and later at Wells
boro, Pa, and, after one and one-half
years as student at West Point Mil
itary Academy, worked in the Govern
ment Printing Office at Washington
for three years. During these three
years he heard a number of the great
debates in Congress which preceded
the war Of the Rebellion, and to him
many OF the great statesmen and poll
ticians of that day were familiar fig
ures. This environment stimulated
his natural ambition to become law
yer. Accordingly he returned home
and studied law in the office of the lead
ing lawyer of his home city and was
admitted to the Bar in 1857. The
same year he married Miss Jane
Pierce of Smithyille, Pa, who surviv-
ed him to June /, 1914. From this
union there were three daughters, two
of whom yet survive.
His brothers William and Henry
were noted early day lawyers and poll
ticians of Wisconsin and later of Kan
sas, where William was successively
Circuit Judge, Clerk of the Supreme
Court and author of a complete revi-
sion of the Kansas Statutes of very
high merit
III the march of empire" westward,
he, with his wife, followed his broth
ers to Wisconsin, arriving at Wauto-
ma, Waushara county, in 1857. He
first held cierkship in the Wiscon-
sin Legislature, of which his brother
William was then a member. Next
he moved to Plover, the then county
seat of Portage county, and formed a
law partnership with the late Judge
Alban, but shortly moved to Grand
Rapids in April, 1858, which contin-
ued to be his residence until the time
of his death. There heswas first the
law partner of the late Jerre D. Wit
ter for about four years and then form
ed law partnership with the late j.
w Cochran under the name Webb &
Cochran, which continued to his eleva-
tion to the Circuit Bench.
During the first year of his residence
in Grand Rapids he was elected Dis
trict Attorney for Wood County, which
Office he resigned in 1861 to enter the
army as First Lieutenant of Company
&c" Twelfth Wisconsin Infantry,
where he continued for eight months.
He resigned and returned home and
resumed law practice. For two terms
commencing in 1864, he was Clerk of
the Board of Supervisors of Wood
County In 1868 he was elected to the
State Senate. He was the first United
States District Attorney for the West
ern District of Wisconsin, serving
from July 1870 to Feb. IA, 1878, when
he resigned. In 1881 he was appoint
ed Register of the United States Land
Office at Deadwood, now in South Ds-