law, and is held in high esteem by the students of the College of Law. His judicial work is found in the last fortythree volumes of Wisconsin reports — the 5Oth to the 92d inclusive. He has written ad dresses and papers, outside of judicial topics, of great interest; and when at the bar was regarded as a forcible and able speaker, and in the legislature one of its most ac complished and powerful debaters. HARLOW S. ORTON, a native of New York, was born in Niagara County, Novem ber 23, 1817. His paternal ancestors in America came from England in the middle of the eighteenth century. His grandfather, Rev. Ichabod Orton, was a chaplain in the Continental army. On the maternal side, his grandfather, Nathaniel Marsh, also bore arms in the same cause. His mother, Grace Marsh, was of Puritan stock, a woman of great talent and beauty of character, and ambitious for her sons; and three of them, Myron H. Orton, John J. Orton, and Harlow S. Orton, the subject of this sketch, were eminent at the bar of Wisconsin. The father, Dr. Harlow N. Orton, was an able physician in western New York. Harlow S. was educated in his native State. After the common schools and a course at Hamilton Academy, he graduated from Hamilton College before he was twenty years old. He then went to Kentucky, in 183/, and taught school, beginning there the study of law. He then removed to La Porte, Indiana, and was there admitted to the bar in 1838, and began practice on the northern circuit. Naturally gifted as an orator, he was warmly enlisted in the campaign of 1840. He "stumped" several States, and was styled the " Hoosier Orator," being everywhere regarded as one of the best Whig speakers in that day of splendid stump oratory. He made over one hundred speeches in various States, and was everywhere sought for in the campaign. He was appointed by the gov
ernor of Indiana as probate judge of Porter County, and held the office for several years. In 1847, he removed to Milwaukee, Wis consin, and there practiced law. In 1852, he became private secretary to Governor Leonard J. Farwell, and removed to Madi son. Returning again to practice, he served in the Assembly in 1854; in 1859, he was elected circuit judge of the ninth (Madison) circuit, and was re-elected in 1864 without opposition. He resigned this office in 1865, and returned to the practice of his profes sion. In 1869, he was again the Madison member of the legislature, and re-elected in 1871. In 1876, he was candidate for Con gress on the Democratic ticket in a district strongly Republican. The same year, he was appointed by the Supreme Court as one of the commissioners to revise the statutes of the State. From 1869 to 1874 he was clean of the law faculty of the Wisconsin University, during which service the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by that institution. He served one year as mayor of Madison. When the constitutional amend ment adopted in 1877 added two judges to the bench of the Supreme Court, Judge Orton was elected as one of the additional judges and served on the bench until his death. He was then a Democrat, and the State was strongly Republican. Judge Orton was a remarkable man. As an advocate before a jury he had few equals in the profession. Possessing fertile imagi nation, great felicity of expression, an impas sioned manner, he led captive all who heard him. Some of his arguments before juries were remarkable for oratorical power. His power of denunciation of wrong, fraud, or anything base, was terrible; and he could appeal to the emotions with a delicacy and power almost irresistible. There are many incidents relative of his power and tact with juries. On one occasion he was counsel for the plaintiff in an action against the State brought by a lawyer for legal services in codifying the tax laws,
