the degree of LL.D., and two years later he became, as already said, a professor in the Law School. His special topics were Wills and the Administration of Estates, Real Property, and Uses and Trusts. He resigned his position in the Law School in March, 1883, being admonished by his advancing years that it would be unwise to tax his strength by longer continuing to discharge its duties. A man of pure and gentle nature, of wide experience, and full of honors, his presence is a benediction to those who are so fortunate as to come within his influence. The writer was appointed to the Tappan Professorship on the acceptance of the resignation of Governor Felch, and entered on his duties in October, 1883.
In 1886, when Mr. Kent resigned the Fletcher Professorship, Levi T. Griffin, of Detroit, was appointed his successor by unanimous vote of the Board of Regents. Professor Griffin was born in the State of New York in 1837, and ten years thereafter his parents removed with him to Michigan. He became a student in the Academic Department of the University, and graduated with the Class of 1857. He was admitted to the bar in the following year, being one of the first class to be admitted on examination before the Supreme Court of Michigan, as reorganized. After his admission he remained in Detroit for some months, and then removed to Grand Rapids, where he was engaged in practice until 1860, when he returned to Detroit, which is still his home. He entered the army in 1862, and continued in it until mustered out of service, July 1, 1865, having been brevetted Major of Volunteers for gallant and meritorious services. He belonged to the famous Fourth Michigan Cavalry, the regiment that captured Jefferson Davis at the close of the war. When the war closed, Mr. Griffin again entered on the practice of his profession, and in 1875 associated himself with Hon. Don M. Dickinson, Postmaster-General in the Cabinet of President Cleveland. It has been said of Mr. Griffin that he has perhaps tried more cases than any other lawyer in the State of Michigan. It is certain that his clientage has been large, and his practice extensive and lucrative. He was nominated by his party in 1887 as a candidate for Justice of the Supreme Court, but was defeated by Mr. Justice Campbell.
Bradley M. Thompson was born April 16, 1835, in Milford in the then Territory of Michigan. He prepared for college at Wesleyan College, Albion, and matriculated in the University in 1854, graduating in the Literary Department in the Class of 1858, and in the Law Department in 1860, in the first law class. He commenced the practice of his profession at East Saginaw in 1860. In the spring of 1862 he formed a partnership with Hon. William L. Webber, now President of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad, and Hon. Chauncy H. Gage, Circuit Judge of the Tenth Judicial Circuit.
In the fall of 1862 Professor Thompson entered the United States service as Captain in the Seventh Michigan Volunteer Cavalry. This regiment was brigaded with the First, Fifth, and Sixth Michigan Cavalry Regiments, and was known as Custer's Brigade, being under the command of that gallant officer. Professor Thompson was mustered out of service in 1865, as Brevet Colonel, for gallant and meritorious services. He did not resume the practice of law until 1869. He held the office of City Attorney of East Saginaw during the years 1873, 1874, and 1875, and the office of Mayor for two terms during the years 1877 and 1878. In 1878 he was the candidate of his party for Congress in a triangular contest in which Hon. R. G. Horr and Hon. H. H. Hoyt were the other candidates; all being residents of the same city and ward. Professor Thompson carried Saginaw County by a plurality of over one thousand, but Mr. Horr was elected. In 1880, there being a vacancy in the office of Circuit Judge in the Tenth Judicial Circuit, composed of Saginaw County, at a meeting of the bar of that county, Professor Thompson was recommended to the Governor of the
