be awed from intrusion; but I may be permitted to say how well I knew how the members of his family were held by that great heart of his in anxious but close and loving embrace. The curtain falls now between us and him; but just as the record of his public service will be imperishable, so also to us will be the remembrance of his private virtues.

"Death cannot claim the immortal mind;

Let earth close o'er its sacred trust,

But goodness dies not in the dust."

Hon. Charles M. Croswell was born October 31, 1825, at Newburgh, Orange county, N. Y., and was son of John and Lottie (Hicks) Croswell. His father was of Scotch-Irish extraction, was a paper maker, and carried on business in New York city. When the son was seven years of age his mother, a woman of superior ability and worth, and his only sister died, and but three months after the death of his mother his father was accidentally drowned in the Hudson river at Newburgh, leaving him the last of the family, without means of support. He found a friend in an uncle, James Berry, a house-builder and contractor, with whom he came to Adrian in 1837, where he resided until his death, which occurred suddenly there December 13, 1886.

MEMOIRS OF DISTINGUISHED MEMBERS OF THE BAY COUNTY BAR.

BY A. C. MAXWELL.

In undertaking to write an account of those men who have heretofore been members of the Bay county bar I have found myself so embarrassed by any attempt at discussion of the character of those members still living that I shall only give some account of those who are dead.

I settled in lower Saginaw (now Bay City) in March, 1857. When

I arrived there I found that Messrs. C. H. Freeman, W. L. Sherman, and James Birney had preceded me, and they were all then actively engaged in the practice of the law.

JAMES BIRNEY.

Hon. James Birney was born at Danville, Kentucky, in 1817. His father, James G. Birney, candidate for the liberty party for president in 1840 and 1844, resided in Lower Saginaw from 1840 until 1856. He was trustee of the old Saginaw Bay company, which owned the section of land on which the original plat of Lower Saginaw was first laid out, and no doubt the interests that he left in Bay City was the cause of the settlement of his son at that place.

James Birney was educated at Center College, Ky., and at Miami University, Ohio, from which latter institution he was graduated in 1836. For the two years succeeding his graduation he occupied the position of professor of the Greek and Latin languages at that institution. He afterward studied law at New Haven, Conn., and subsequently entered upon the practice of that profession at Cincinnati, Ohio.

While

at New Haven he married Miss Moulton, cousin of Commodore Isaac Hull who captured the Guerriere on the 19th day of August, 1812. In 1856 Mr. Birney removed with his family to Lower Saginaw (now Bay City) and at once interested himself in the development of the place. From that time until his death Bay City was his home.

Mr. Birney was a prominent republican in politics and in 1858 was elected to the State senate, and in this office he displayed both great capacity and great independence. In the year 1859 most of that great grant of swamp land which the general government had made to the State for the purpose of drainage and reclamation was appropriated by the State for the building of State roads and to the construction of drains and ditches. And here Mr. Birney rendered services to northern Michigan, for which its people for all time to come should be forever grateful. There was a strong body of men in the legislature that year, who were determined to ignore and neglect the conditions of the trust, and to sell the swamp lands and apply the proceeds of the sale to the school fund, thus leaving the northern portions of the State with its swamps and morasses to take care of themselves. And as the phrase went, let them get out of the woods as best they can. Mr. Birney overcame this faction and secured the legislation which has opened up northern Michigan through every portion of it with the State roads.

So well did he perform his duty as senator as to attract general attention, and in 1860 he was elected lieutenant governor of the State.

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He was exceptionally well qualified for the office of president of the senate. He was careful, studious, and absolutely impartial and independent, and managed to perform his duties with a constant suavity and grace that caused the members of that body to be very proud of him, and justly too, for of all the men who have succeeded him in that office, none has reached that high standard attained by Judge Birney as a presiding officer.

In the senate that year (1861) were Henry P. Baldwin, afterwards governor and senator, Byron G. Stout, afterwards a candidate of his party for governor and since a member of congress, and Solomon L. Withey, afterwards judge of the federal courts at Grand Rapids, and many other distinguished sons of Michigan. And it is safe to say that Judge Birney was the full equal of all these distinguished men. He had a natural aptness in the transaction of public business. He frequently debated questions on the floor of the senate; always with sincerity and ability, and always with firmness and kindness. While he was ambitious he was totally above all the low schemes and practices of modern politicians.

In the spring of 1861 Governor Birney was appointed circuit judge of the eighteenth judicial circuit, then composed of the counties of Bay, Iosco, Alcona, and Alpena. He presided four years on the bench of that circuit. He was a dignified, prudent, and careful judge. His administration of justice was satisfactory. He was modest, kind, accommodating, fair and impartial, and generally right, but like all judges he made some mistakes. I remember once he intimated a decision against me. I mentioned to him that the supreme court had decided otherwise, and showed him the decision of Tannahill vs. Tuttle. He refused to modify his ruling and simply remarked "So much the worse for the supreme court." I cheerfully add that he was right, as Tannahill vs. Tuttle was afterwards overruled. He was not well adapted to a judicial position. While his mind was active and clear, he could not comprehend and would not follow many of the rules of law which to the general student appear unreasonable.

After leaving the bench he resumed his practice of law in Bay City. In 1867 he was elected a member of the constitutional convention and actively participated in the proceedings of that body. He was very conservative, perhaps too much so, as the work of the convention was rejected by the people.

In 1870 Mr. Birney established the Bay City Chronicle, a weekly newspaper, and in 1873 it was issued daily. It was published until after Mr. Birney's departure for the Hague, when it was merged into

the Tribune. In 1872 he was appointed centennial commissioner for Michigan and as such was of considerable service to the State. He was noted as such for his affability and kindness.

In 1872 he was appointed minister to the Netherlands. This was a position to which he was exceptionally well adapted. He held this office until 1882, when he returned to Bay City. His father was a graduate of Princeton, a man of fine taste and elegant accomplishments. He was simple and free in his manner, liberal in his views in everything except upon the subject of slavery, perfectly honest, and no doubt from him Judge Birney acquired those elegant manners for which he was noted.

At the court of Holland, as a representative of the United States, he was highly distinguished, and it is probable that of all the representatives of the nations at that court he was the most respected and admired as a man. It is true the embassadors from Germany, France, and Russia with millions of armed men near at hand, and England with her tremendous navy, each able to crush Holland in a month, must be shown great consideration; but this was due to force and to the position of affairs, not to the representative or to the man who might happen to represent the nation. Judge Birney maintained a high position there, and did much to elevate the embassy and in the. building up of friendly feelings towards the people of the United States. He died in May, 1888.

Mr. Birney was a man of great public spirit and filled the many public offices, to which he was either elected or appointed, with ability and fidelity. He was devoted to the interests of Bay City and Bay county, and took an active part in promoting their growth and development.

At the time of his death he was president of the board of education of Bay City, and in this office, as in all other positions of public trust occupied by him, he made his duty to the people of paramount importance. He was a man of sensative and refined feelings, firm in his convictions, of fine appearance, and eminently qualified by education and manners to shine in the higher walks of public life. Politicians accused him of being an aristocrat, but he was a true, loyal, tender hearted gentleman who could not play the demagogue.

ANECDOTE.

Although Judge Birney was self-possessed and circumspect in his conduct generally, one morning in the spring of 1859 he said to me,

"I feel most devilishly ugly this morning." The next morning I learned the occasion of his wrath. At this time there was not a rod of made road in Bay county. There was but one span of horses in town. People's cattle, cows, pigs and geese run everywhere at large on the property of every land owner with impunity. Judge Birney had cleared some blocks between Ninth and Tenth streets in Bay City, and had made some clearing where the family homestead now stands. He had cleared his lands, fenced it, and planted it. It so happened that this enclosure embraced a sand ridge over which the settlers' cows had passed out to the woods to graze. On each side of the judge's fences were swamps, so that when the cattle got beyond his enclosure they could not find their way home, and every night the settlers would pull down his fences and let the cattle through to their homes. Finally he laid in wait for them and one evening caught two old German settlers named Mikler and Steinbauer letting down his fences. It was past one o'clock in the morning. He at once woke up Squire Chilson, had both trespassers arrested, tried them before two o'clock in the morning and had them in jail punctually at three.

THEOPHILUS C. GRIER.

Among the members of the bar who gained a special notoriety at an early age of his life was Theophilus C. Grier. His reputation was known all over the State as one of the rising lawyers of our country.

Judge Grier was born at Ravenna, in the state of Ohio, on the 2d day of January, 1834, and was a descendent, on his mother's side, of Rev. John Cotton, of Pilgrim fame. His parents died while Mr. Grier was yet a mere lad, and he was taken and cared for during a short time by an uncle whose name was Carlton, and who was a minister of the Universalist denomination of more than ordinary reputation. At the age of fifteen young Grier became apprenticed as a printer to one Joel D. Brattels, who was then editor of the Trumbull County Democrat. This training was subsequently of immense value to him as a writer. The young man's health became very delicate, and he was necessarily compelled to quit the printing business and cultivate his physical strength. After a short time he became strong enough to attend school and entered an educational institution at Marietta, Ohio. Subsequently he made up his mind to enter the legal profession, and to this end he became a student in the law office of Riddle & Hatha

way, of Chardon, Ohio. His circumstances were such that it was necessary for him to teach school during the winter season of the year