- SILAS W. MENZIE, of Beloit, Rock county, is a leading member
of the legal profession in that
- city, and his legal abilities command the respect which his
personal character and well-known integrity greatly intensify.
- Mr. MENZIE was born in Schoharie county, N.Y., June 2, 1841,
a son of Robert R. and
- Rebecca (THORPE) MENZIE, both natives of Scotland. They were
the parents of three children: Charles H., a railroad engineer;
John E., of La Grange, Wis.; and Silas W. Robert R. MENZIE began
life for himself as a physician, but soon turned to the practice
of the law as a more congenial vocation. He was born in Dumfriesshire,
Scotland, April 1, 1809, and came to this country when only eight
years old, under the care of his brother Adam. He spent his youth
and much of his early manhood in the counties of Schoharie and
Chanango, New York, and received a general education in the public
school, and in the military academy at Lancaster, Pa. When he
was eighteen he began the study of medicine, attending lectures
in New Haven, Conn., and was graduated just before he attained
his majority. He practiced about two years in the county of Otsego,
N.Y., and then gave it up, turning to the law as a more thoroughly
inviting and desirable occupation. He studied law under the instruction
of Messrs. ELY and BENNETT, at New Berlin, N.Y., for a year and
a half, and then at Hobart, N.Y., with Lavinus MUNSON. Mr. MENZIE
was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the State
of New York at the age of twenty-eight. He became a solicitor
in chancery, and two years later a counselor in Delaware county,
where he practiced for several years. Later he was district attorney
in Schoharie county, and was in office at the time of the anti-rent
troubles in that State. At the commencement of the Mexican war
he raised the 46th Infantry, and was commissioned its colonel.
In the spring of 1846 Col. MENZIE proceeded to Mexico with his
command, and served throughout the war under General Taylor and
General Scott. He was a brave and distinguished officer. On his
return from the war he removed to Delavan, Wis., and made his
home in that place in June 1949. He was admitted to practice
the same month, and formed a partnership with the late Thomas
McHUGH. He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin
in 1850, and to the United States Supreme Court in 1857, and
to the Supreme Court in Illinois in 1865. From 1849 Mr. MENZIE
had been in the practice of law at Delavan with the exception
of a short time which he spent in Milwaukee, and two years (1872-1874)
which he spent in Chicago. In his earlier life he took up the
trade of shoemaker, though he never followed it. He was an excellent
mechanic, and made at least one pair of boots for himself after
locating in Wisconsin. He had his peculiarities and was a man
of strong physique. His mental powers were of a wide range, and
he ;had an active, retentive memory rarely equaled. His varied
learning and vast fund of information made him a formidable rival
before either the court or jury. No man ever conducted a case
against him, and left the court room unconscious of his superior
power. Criminal law was his special study, and the defense of
those charged with crime was where he displayed a forensic power
seldom excelled. He was a kind-hearted man, and often defended
the poor without pay, and his work in their behalf gave no indication
of the want of a generous fee. Mr. MENZIE buried the wife of
his youth in Delavan in 1860. She was then fifty-one years old.
He married soon after a Mrs. HAGAMAN, who survives him. Mr. MENZIE
died May 3, 1882. His vigor of mind was retained to an unusual
extent to the very last. He was a generous and sympathetic friend
and a well read lawyer.
- Silas W. MENZIE was eight years old when his parents removed
to Delavan, Wis., where he
- attended the public school and attained his majority. In
1861 he made a journey to California, where he was in the employment
of the California Stage Company, and the Pacific Mail Steamship
Company. In 1867 the young adventurer was homeward bound, and
on his return to Delavan, took up the study of law with his father,
and spent a year in his office. He took a course of lectures
at the Albany Law School, and being admitted to the Bar in 1868,
practiced law with his father as long as that distinguished lawyer
lived. He continued at Delavan until 1890, and achieved some
marked success in the field of legal controversy. He was district
attorney from 1882 to 1886 in Walworth county. Mr. MENZIE came
to Beloit in November, 1890, and has been engaged in the practice
of his profession in this city since that time. He filled the
office of city attorney two years, and was alderman of the Third
war for three years.
- Mr. MENZIE and Miss Laura McCORMACK were married June 15,
1883. Mr. MENZIE is a
- daughter of Smith and Martha (ROSS) McCORMACK. By this union
there is one daughter, Anna Thorpe. They live at No. 2 Cottage
Lawn. Mr. and Mrs. MENZIE are members of the Episcopal Church.
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and had his membership
for many years with Delavan Lodge, No. 21, F. & A.M., and
Delavan Chapter, No. 38, R.A.M. He is now a member of Beloit
Commandery, No. 6, K.T. He is a Republican, and is one of the
recognized leaders of the party in Rock county. Mr. MENZIE was
a passenger on the ill-fated steamer, "The Golden Gate,"
running between San Francisco and Panama, which was burned in
August, 1862. He was in the water eight hours with a little girl
on his back. He clung to a hen-coop, and eventually was rescued.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c)1901, pp. 788-789.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|