Vol. 76, No. 5, May 2003

Who Were the Founders?

by George C. Brown,
State Bar executive director

Who were some of the founders of the Wisconsin State Bar Association? Three of those represented at the reenactment held in Madison on Jan. 9, 2003, in recognition of the 125th anniversary of the Bar's founding, are depicted below. Each individual followed a career of public service both before and after the founding of the organized Bar.

I.C. Sloan. When Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Edward Ryan gave the formal call for the creation of the Wisconsin State Bar Association in January 1878, 291 men signed the original roll of members. There were no women. Lavinia Goodell, though admitted to practice in Rock County in 1874, had been denied admission to practice before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1876 by Chief Justice Ryan. She was denied admission to practice before the supreme court until 1879, a year after the founding of the organized bar.

In 1875, Goodell's admission to the supreme court had been moved by a friend, Assistant Attorney General I.C. Sloan. Though Sloan was 17 years Goodell's senior, both attorneys were born in upstate New York. They grew up less than 25 miles apart, and both were Janesville residents. Ithamar Conkey Sloan would later, at a November 1877 meeting in Madison of the attorneys of the federal western district of Wisconsin, make the motion to appoint a committee of five to form a plan for a permanent bar association in Wisconsin. The plan called for the January 1878 organizing meeting. By 1877, Sloan already had served as Rock County district attorney and as U.S. Congressman from the 2nd congressional district (from 1863-67), and he would later be named the dean of the law department at the University of Wisconsin. Both he and Goodell are buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Janesville.

A. Scott Sloan. I.C. Sloan's older brother, A. (Andrew) Scott Sloan, was Wisconsin attorney general, and therefore I.C.'s boss, when the Bar was founded. Scott Sloan, who had moved to Wisconsin along with his brother in 1854 but settled in Beaver Dam, was admitted to the bar in New York in 1842. He also had had a distinguished public career before becoming attorney general in 1874, having served in the State Assembly, as Beaver Dam mayor, as Dodge County judge, and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the 3rd congressional district from 1861-63. Scott Sloan would return to the bench in the 13th judicial district in 1882, remaining until his death in 1895.

John C. Spooner. Among the younger members of the Bar was John C. Spooner of Hudson. Born in Indiana in 1843, he moved with his parents to Madison in 1859. By the time he was 21, Spooner had served in the army during the Civil War, rising to the rank of major and serving as the military and private secretary to Gov.

Lucius Fairchild, and had graduated from the University of Wisconsin. He was admitted to the bar in 1867, and served as assistant attorney general until 1870, when he moved to Hudson. By the time of the first Bar meeting, Spooner had served in the State Assembly and was a member of the Board of Regents. He later would be elected to the U.S. Senate by the Republican majority of the Wisconsin Legislature, but he lost reelection in 1891, when the Democrats controlled. A candidate for governor in 1892, he was again elected to the U.S. Senate in 1897, serving until his resignation in 1907, when he moved to New York to practice law. While in the Senate, Spooner declined President William McKinley's offers to serve as Secretary of the Interior and as U.S. Attorney General. After his resignation, Spooner declined President William H. Taft's offer to serve as Secretary of State. Spooner died in New York in 1919 but is buried in Madison, Wis.

* * *

Last month, I mentioned the sudden passing of former State Bar President Leonard Loeb. Just days after that column went to press, former President David Saichek died suddenly. He was 63 years old. So instead of one suddenly empty seat at the annual members' lunch, we now had two. We missed you too, Dave.

Wisconsin Lawyer