great and successful scientist loves his life's work. His was no ordinary mind; he was singularly bright, keen, and gifted with a facility of speech that marked him the law yer orator. In the trial of a suit at law he united the zeal of the client with the wisdom of the advocate. He dedicated not only his splendid abilities as a pleader, and his mas terful knowledge of the law, but all the enthusiasm of his ardent nature, and the strength and energy of his body as well—to win. That is the true lawyer—such was he. His impulses were so generous, his temper so bland, his manner so gracious and gentle, that it was impossible not to love him. Pos sessing these qualities of head and heart, it is small wonder that he succeeded in winning clients and convincing juries. The story of his professional life at Beaver Dam is best told by Mr. David S. Ordway, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin ( who was, for many years, his business partner), in a letter to the Hon. H. W. Lander, President of the Bar of Dodge County, which was read at the meeting of the Bar Association, called for the purpose of paying its tribute of respect to the memory of Mr. Smith, who died at his residence at Beaver Dam on the 8th of December, 1899, in the 73d year of his age. "Hon. Charles S. Bristol located in Beaver Dam in the Fall of 1842, and was the first lawyer who commenced practice in the County of Dodge, but left Wisconsin for California early in the Spring of 1849, cre ating a favorable opening and opportunity for a young lawyer, who had the courage, the inclination and the ambition to expatriate himself from his old home and surroundings, and to make the attempt of establishing a successful business in the then far west. "Mr. Smith was at that time, when with men of affairs, non-obtrusive, modest and I might say, almost bashful—with very limited knowledge of business matters and the active duties of life. Having been a constant stu dent in the schools and searcher after knowl edge in books, he had neither time nor
opportunity to come in contact with men of business, much less to become familiar with business operations by actual participation in them. He was a close student, possessed of a remarkably logical and discriminating mind, even at that early age, and was well educated in the principles of the common law, and somewhat experienced as a student and clerk in common law practice, which then prevailed here, and must have been possessed to a greater degree than we then suspected of the moral courage and confi dence necessary to success in his profession, in a new country and among strangers. "At the time of his coming to Beaver Dam, after the removal of Charles S. Bristol, there was but one lawyer remaining there in practice, the Hon. George W. Green, a man of great good sense, of considerable experi ence, but of little book learning in the law, who had located in Beaver Dam in about the year 1846, and really controlled almost the entire law business of that part of • the county, after Mr. Bristol's removal. Mr. Smith opened up his office and practiced alone for, perhaps, about a year, when he formed a partnership with Mr. Green under the firm name of Green & Smith, Mr. Green being at the same time Judge of Probate of the county. Of course, the law business of the county was then made up of matters involving small interests and amounts, as a rule, drawing of deeds and contracts, suits for personal collisions—assault and battery and trespass for private injuries—occasion ally an action for slander, seldom for libel, as there were then no newspapers published in the vicinity, no so-called collection suits, no mortgage foreclosures, for the reason that up to that time very few mortgages had been given in this part of the country, those which were given were generally by fanners for moneys in small amounts to assist them in making purchases of their homesteads. All those matters of larger import and involving greater amounts followed along in the natural course of events, and not many
