Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1919-12-18
IN MEMORIUM

The following eulogy was read at
the Annual Bar Association at the O.
pening of Circuit Court on Monday,
December 1st:
In memorium of Judge Gilbert L.
Park. May it please the Court:
The committee appointed by the
Seventh judicial Circuit Bar Associa-
ton hereby presents to the court the
following memorial of the life and ser
vice of Judge Gilbert L. Park, who
died at the city of Waukesha, Wis
consin on the 5th day of June, 1884.
Over thirty-fve years have elapsed
since Gilbert L. Park laid down his bur
dens and passed beyond eternity's veil.
The thought that no memorial has
heretofore been presented to this court
and spread upon its records produces
in the hearts and minds of the mem
bers of the bar of Central Wisconsin
only feelings of shame and humiliation
The committee now hopes to do that
which lovingly should have been done
years ago by those whose lives init
mately touched that of Judge Park.
Gilbert L. Park was born on the 31st
day of August, 1924, in Scipeo, Cay
auga County, in the State of New
York, a son of Elisha and Sarah (Mc-
Dowell) Park. His grandfather, Joel
Park, served in the Revolutionary War
and was a member of the expedition
which accomplished the capture of
General Burgoyne and his army.
Young Gilbert was brought up on his
fathers farm and attended school a
bout half of the time. Of his early
life little is known, except that he
yearned for knowledge and longed for
adventure At the age of fifteen, with
out formal leave taking, he left home
and enlisted in the service of the Hud-
son Bay Company. The service in this
company took him up the Ottawa Riv
er to Hudson Bay and as far as Fort
Churchill. A year of this service
seems to have satisfied his longing for
adventure, for he shortly after re-
turned to Port Dover, Ontario, with
er his fathers family had removed.
For the three years following he at
tended an academy at Millville, CLEANS
County, New York. He then returned
to Canada, and for about two years
engaged in the lumber business, until
a severe storm on Lake Erie N, 1886
completely shattered d large raft of
his lumber, substantially his all, and
incidentally shattered his career as
lumberman. This apparent misfort-
une turned abruptly the course of his
life and assured him to the legal pro-
fession. He turned to Kalamazoo, and
to the law office of N. A. Balch, where
he pursued his studies until September
1851, when he was admitted to the bar.
The following November he came
to Wisconsin to embark upon his chos-
en- profession, but stern necessity com
PEELED him temporarily to engage IN
the cutting of saw logs and running
the Wisconsin Rivera hard expert
ence, but one which in later years stood
him well in understanding and deal
ing with the peculiar problems of the
pinery days of northern Wisconsin.
In September 1852 he formed CO.
partnership with James 7. Alban at
Plover, Wisconsin, the then primative
county seat of Portage County. -Four
years this partnership continued, when
Park removed to the rapidly growing
town of Stevens Point, five miles up
the river. In 1854 he was elected dis
trict attorney of Portage county, and
two years later felt himself sufficient
ly established in the practice of the
law to warrant his marriage to Mary
d. Beach, of Kalamazoo, Michigan.
He was reelected district attorney IN
the fall of that year and rapidly de-
veloped into a lawyer whose services
and counsels were ever more and more
in demand.