her contributions to the press, and was the author of the poem read at the dedication of the now famous Chicago Auditorium. The son graduated recently from Cornell University, and

is said to have been very popular with his class and highly esteemed by the college faculty.

HOWARD LOUIS CONARD.

In 1869 Hon. J. M. Bailey, now one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Illinois, and F. W. S. Brawley, two widely known lawyers of Freeport, Illinois, removed to Chicago, and began the practice of law together in this city. Some time later Judge Bailey, having been elected a judge of the Appellate Court, was transferred to another field of labor, in which he has since received wellmerited promotion, but his early partner, Mr. Brawley, has continued the practice of law at the Chicago bar, of which he has now been a member for more than a score of years.

Born in Erie county, Pennsylvania, February 12, 1825, Mr. Brawley's early life was spent in the same community which had been the home of two or three generations of his ancestors. The Brawleys are of Scotch descent, and the best information obtainable in regard to the particular branch of the family to which F.W. S Brawley belongs, is to the effect that his more remote ancestors were among the early Pennsylvania colonists. His father was John Brawley

and his mother was Mary (Saltsman) Brawley, of German parentage.

He was born on a farm, and in this respect started in life on an equal footing with about ninety per cent. of the men who have become prominent in professional life in the west. While he was still young, his father moved into one of the villages of Western Pennsylvania, and later into the city of Erie. There he received an academic education, and then began the study of law with Hon. John Galbraith, a distinguished jurist of the Keystone state, and for some years a member of Congress from the "Erie District." His son, Hon. William Galbraith, who has since represented the same district in Congress, was a student with Mr. Brawley in his father's office.

When he was twenty years of age, Mr. Brawley had completed his course of reading, and was prepared for admission to the bar, had it been possible for him to be admitted before attaining his majority. As this, however, was out of the question, he concluded to make a trip to the west, and

in 1845, at the end of a long journey, both as to the distance traveled and the time consumed in making it, he found himself in Chicago.

As he could not begin the practice of law before being admitted to the bar, and it was incumbent upon him to do something to keep from running behind financially, he found it necessary to seek temporary employment of some kind. Having picked up considerable knowledge of the printer's trade, for which he had always had something of a fancy, he applied at the office of a pioneer Chicago newspaper for a situation as compositor. His application was favorably considered, and for some months he was employed in this capacity.

While thus employed he spent more or less of his time in the Chicago courts, and had an opportunity to learn something of western methods of practice, and of the "old time" leaders of the Illinois bar. One of the first cases which he saw disposed of in a Chicago court was that of a fugitive slave, and the method of disposing of this case struck him as original, if not altogether regular.

The colored man had been apprehended in Chicago by his pursuers, from one of the southern states, and was at once taken before a magistrate. A great crowd gathered around the magistrate's office, and when the negro was finally brought out they closed around him, and by some means or other, without exercising any violence, succeed in separating him from

his captors. Then they succeeded in getting him started on a run down one of the principal streets of the city, and fell in behind him, as active and zealous pursuers. In this way, without making anything having the appearance of an attack on the "fugitive slave" hunters, they were kept in the rear of the procession, until the negro was lost sight of, and ultimately, by means of the "underground railway" of those days, he found his way into Canada.

When Mr.Brawley tired of working in a printing office, he concluded to go further west, and set out by stage. for Iowa. Reaching Freeport, the county seat of Stephenson county, a town of which he had never heard when he started out on his western trip, he concluded to stop there long enough to take a look at the place, and perhaps to visit some of the neighboring towns. Freeport is located in the extreme northern part of Illinois, and he took advantage of the opportunity to cross the northern boundary line of the state, and spend a little time at some of the pioneer settlements of southern Wisconsin. This trip was made on horseback. On his way back to Freeport he fell in one day with a minister, who informed him in the course of their conversation that the people of that village were anxious to secure a competent teacher for the village school, and advised him to apply for the position, which he could fill until such time as he desired to be admited to the bar

and begin the practice of law. This chance interview changed his plans, and resulted in his becoming for the time being, an Illinois school teacher instead of an Iowa lawyer. It also resulted in his becoming a citizen of Freeport, where he lived for twentythree years, twenty-two years of twenty-two years of that time being devoted to the practice of law. It was there also that he was married, in 1850, to Mary Reitzell, a daughter of one of the pioneers of Stephenson county.

After teaching school a year, he was admitted to the bar, at the end of an examination which was conducted by Madison Y. Johnson, who afterwards figured prominently in a war episode, Thomas Goodhue and Colonel Jason Marsh. He then began the practice of law, being first associated with Hon. Martin P. Sweet, who came to Illinois from New York State, where he had been a classmate and intimate friend of William H. Seward. Sweet, who is perhaps best remembered as a noted Whig orator and politician, was also a strong and able lawyer, and Mr. Brawley's early association with him was advantageous in various ways. When this partnership was dissolved Mr. Brawley became associated with Judge Bailey, with whom he was a partner at Freeport, and afterwards, as has been already stated, in Chicago. At Freeport they constituted the principal law firm of the city, and were identified with nearly all the impor

tant litigation in the courts of that county.

While practicing in that city Mr. Brawley took an active interest, at the same time, in educational matters, and served two terms as county superintendent of schools. He was also, for a long time, a member of the board of education of Freeport, and while acting in that capacity he prepared the special charter under which the schools of that city have ever since been conducted, and which is recognized as one of the best educational systems of the State.

As a "Douglas Democrat," he interested himself in politics, and during one of the stirring campaigns early in the "fifties," he purchased, and for a time edited, the Freeport Bulletin, which was one of the most ardent champions of Democratic principles as represented by the distinguished Illinois Senator.

In 1852, a bitter contest for the postmastership of Freeport was carried on for some time between rival aspirants for the position, and this contest was finally terminated suddenly and unexpectedly by the appointment of Mr. Brawley, who had, up to the time he received his commission, no knowledge of the fact that his name had been considered in connection with the office. Although he had neither been an applicant nor an aspirant for the position, he accepted the appointment tendered him, and held the office six years. During