Bench and bar of Colorado (1917)/The Denver Bar Association

The Denver Bar Association

By Hugh McLean

ooking back twenty-six years through the records of the Denver Bar Association to its organization meeting on October 31, 1891, one finds much interesting history and encounters the names of many who were well known, some of whom are still with us and still active at the bar and in the Association, many of whom have passed on. Judge Moses Hallett addressed the first meeting, speaking of the necessity for such an organization, and the purposes which it might serve. He seems to have been largely instrumental in its formation, as he was some years later in the organization of the Colorado Bar Association. J. E. Lomery, later for many years the faithful secretary and treasurer of the Association, did the active and necessary work of circulating a written call for the organization meeting, securing the signatures of one hundred fifty-nine members of the bench and bar to that document. Albert E. Pattison, later one of the Supreme Court Commissioners, was elected the first president. Among the names of those participating prominently in the early meetings, we find those of Charles S. Thomas, T. J. O'Donnell, R. D. Thompson, James B. Belford, William E. Beck, W. S. Decker, Hugh Butler, John H. Denison, George C. Manly, and others. A list of the presidents of the Association from its organization to the present time may be of interest. It is as follows:

1892	Albert E. Pattison
1893	George C. Norris
1894	Thomas J. O'Donnell
1895	Gustav C. Bartels
1896	Cass E. Herrington
1897	William H. Smith
1898	Charles D. Hayt
1899	William H. Bryant
1900	Joel F. Vaile
1901	Hugh Butler
1902	James H. Blood
1903	George F. Dunklee
1904	Julius B. Bissell
1905	Charles W. Franklin
1906	Charles S. Thomas
1907	Frank C. Goudy
1908	Horace N. Hawkins
1909	H. L. Ritter
1910	A. Newton Patton
1911	H. E. Kelly
1912	L. M. Goddard
1913	Ernest Morris
1914	George C. Manly
1915	Frank N. Bancroft
1916	Harry C. Davis
1917	E. C. Stimson

It is interesting to note that the very first piece of business taken up by the Association in November, 1891, immediately after its organization was the matter of "The Delays Caused by the Rules of the District Court," and that Judge George W. Allen responded for the judges to the attacks made upon the rules. The advertising divorce lawyer, like the law's delays, seem to have been an evil present then as now in the practice. Very stringent resolutions were adopted at one of the first meetings against lawyers advertising to procure divorces "legally and quietly, without appearing in court. Good everywhere."

As early as May, 1894, the Association made its first attempt to take part in the selection of judicial candidates. It then, through a committee of which Harper M. Orahood was chairman, selected ten nominees from each of the then three prominent parties, as suggestions for the five district judgeships. Among the Republicans suggested we find George W. Allen, Owen E. Le Fevre, B. M. Malone, and George O. Richmond. Among the Democrats were S. L. Carpenter, A. J. Rising, Harvey Riddell, Platt Rogers, and Caldwell Yeaman; while the People's Party list contained the names of Ezra Keeler, H. E. Luthe, Thomas Macon, George C. Norris, and E. J. Short. What the results of these suggestions were, if any, the Association's records do not disclose.

The first banquet of the Association was held in February, 1893. The cost of high living seems not to have troubled our predecessors of those earlier days, as five-dollar-a-plate banquets were the rule, and the record of the first banquet committee contains as one item, "67 bottles of wine at $4.00 each." Our friend, John Hipp, in this day of Prohibition triumph, must be somewhat amused to recall his first modest "dry" motion, made at a meeting of the Association in 1895, "that the banquet committee consider the question as to whether wine should be dispensed with at the coming banquet." The motion was carried, and the banquet committee seems to have "considered" it—adversely.

On August 19, 1903, the Association was incorporated, and its objects were epitomized in the following rather striking phrases:

"The objects for which said Association is formed and incorporated are: To advance the science of jurisprudence; to promote the administration of justice; to secure proper legislation; to encourage a thorough legal education; to uphold the honor and dignity of the bar; to cultivate cordial intercourse among the lawyers of Denver; to perpetuate a history of the profession and the memory of its members; to acquire, own and hold real and personal property, including a law library, club house, etc., in furtherance of said business and objects."

Without boasting, it may be said that our Association has striven constantly and with some measure of success towards the attainment of these ends, and that some of them, at least, are in a fair way towards accomplishment. The Association, through the voluntary contributions of its members, in the shape of three dollars set aside from every five dollars paid in, as the annual dues of each member, has expended ten thousand dollars on its law library in the court house, and is continuing to add to the library at the rate of about one thousand dollars per year. In addition to this, the City and County, in the earlier and more struggling days of the library, generously contributed three thousand dollars toward this fund, and still provides the library quarters in the court house.

"Cordial intercourse among the lawyers of Denver" has been cultivated, not only by the banquets, but by monthly luncheons, which it has been the custom during the past few years to hold. At these we have entertained and have heard interesting talks from many prominent visitors, and have discussed timely topics of local and professional interest, and have become better acquainted, judges and lawyers meeting in friendly companionship.

At the meetings, in the earlier days, the secretary's record shows that frequent adjournments had to be taken for lack of a quorum, a quorum consisting of thirteen members. In these later days we have had as many as one hundred seventy-five lawyers and judges at a single luncheon meeting. The present membership of the Association is four hundred thirty-three, constituting a large majority of the lawyers in active practice in the city; and there is no sign that in the increase of numbers and of money there has been any loss in effectiveness in upholding the honor of the profession, and in serving the administration of justice in this community.