Viewing Municipal & Probate Courts Category (8) found:

Judge Charles M. Cory (1866-1919).

Charles Morton Cory was elected Probate Judge of Nobles County in 1892 and re-elected thirteen times thereafter. He died in September 27, 1919, at age fifty three, having spent half his life on the bench. According to his obituary in the Worthington Globe:

"Judge Cory was a man of fine mental abilities, a classical scholar, well read in the law and considered the most informed and most capable judge of probate in Minnesota. A number of his decisions were carried to the supreme court, but each one was sustained. Every time he stood for an election he had little or no trouble in being returned. For several terms during the later part of his life Judge Cory had no opposition, as it was generally conceded that he was to pre-eminently the man for the place and that it would be useless to stand against him. His death causes genuine and deep regret among the legal fraternity, who all held him in the highest esteem. Every attorney who had cases before him---and their name is legion---testified to his ability, his fairness and his expeditious handling of the work."

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Judge Frank C. Barnes (1889-1963).

For a quarter century, Frank Barnes was the municipal court judge in Fergus Falls, and for another decade judge of probate and juvenile court. He died on December 11, 1963, the last day of his 73rd year.

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Judge William A. Kerr (1867-1919).

When he was twenty-one, William Kerr moved to Minneapolis from New Brunswick, Canada, where he had read law and been admitted to the bar. He was admitted to the Minnesota bar in 1889 and joined a prominent law firm. He must have moved easily in legal and political circles because less than six years later he received the endorsement of the Republican party for Special Judge of the Minneapolis Municipal Court. He was elected in November 1894. He returned to private practice at the end of his six year term. In 1902, he published a 519 page treatise, "The Law of Insurance: Fire, Life, Accident, Guarantee," known to the bar as "Kerr on Insurance."

On April 16, 1919, the Judge died at age fifty-one, a victim of the influenza pandemic. The following year a memorial was presented to him at the annual convention of the Minnesota State Bar Association.

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Judge Frank W. Lyon (1856-1921).

Like many other lawyers in the nineteenth century, Frank Lyon was born, educated and read law in another state before he removed to Minnesota. He graduated Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1878, apprenticed in Peoria, was admitted to the Illinois bar, and practiced four years in Toulon, his home town. Restless, he and his wife moved to Minneapolis in 1885, and two years later to Little Falls where he opened his own shop. He served three terms as Morrison County attorney. In 1915, the legislature authorized the establishment of a municipal court in Little Falls, and he was elected its first judge.

The Judge died on January 31, 1921, at age sixty-four. Several months later, a memorial was presented to him at the annual convention of the Minnesota State Bar Association.

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Judge Orrin O. Pitcher (1830-1902).

For over forty years, Orrin Orsmby Pitcher served the city of Mankato and the county of Blue Earth as a lawyer, county attorney, state legislator, alderman, school board member, director of the state Normal School, president of the city Board of Public Works and in numerous other ways. He was also the first judge of the Mankato Municipal Court, serving from 1885 to 1888.

The Judge died at his home in Mankato on March 20, 1902, age seventy-one. The "Mankato Free Press" carried his obituary the next day.

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Judge Jerome E. Porter (1843-1910).

Jerome Porter was elected to three judgeships during the forty years he lived in Mankato. He was elected probate judge of Blue Earth County in 1872, and held that post for twelve years. He was elected City Justice, the name given the local justice of the peace, in 1882, and held that post until 1888, when he was elected judge of the Municipal Court to a three year term. He was re-elected by a narrow margin over Ira Shissler in 1891, but in a rematch in 1893, Shissler prevailed. Porter, however, would not relinquish his office, arguing that he was entitled to serve the last year of the three year term set by the legislature when it authorized the municipal court in 1885. To oust Porter, Shissler brought a quo warranto proceeding in the Supreme Court. On May 19, 1893, the Court ruled in Porter's favor, State ex rel. Shissler v. Porter, 53 Minn. 279 (1893).

After a stint in private practice, he was appointed President of the Board of Public Works, a post he held for about a decade. He was deputy clerk of district court at the time of his death on December 9, 1910, a few weeks shy of his sixty-seventh year. The "Mankato Free Press" carried his obituary the next day.

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Judge Ira P. Shissler (1844-1903).

Ira Shissler practiced law in Van Wert, Ohio, for almost two decades before moving to Mankato in 1884. He was thirty-nine years old. He practiced with several lawyers, while becoming an energetic supporter of the local Republican party. In 1891, with the party's endorsement, he challenged incumbent Jerome Porter for judge of the Mankato Municipal Court, but lost by a whisker. Two years later, again with the party's backing, he easily defeated Porter. Pointing to the 1885 statute establishing the court and arguing that an 1891 amendment reducing the term of office from 3 years to 2 was unconstitutional because its title did not describe its subject, Porter refused to cede his office, forcing Shissler to bring a quo warranto proceeding in the Supreme Court. He lost. State ex rel. Shissler v. Porter, 53 Minn. 279 (1893). He took office in 1894, and was re-elected three times.

The Judge died on October 16, 1903, days short of his fifty-seventh year. The "Mankato Free Press" carried his obituary that day.

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Dryden Smith (1826-1899).

A "resolution of respect and condolence" for Dryden Smith, a former probate judge who died on February 22, 1899, a few weeks short of his seventy-third birthday, was filed by a committee of the Fillmore County bar with the district court on April 20, 1899.

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