- J. B. CASSODAY, was born July 7, 1830, in Herkimer Co., N.Y.;
in early childhood, he and
- his widowed mother went with her parents to what was then
a sparsely settled portion of Tioga Co., Penn.; for years, no
district school was accessible, but work was an absolute necessity;
as early as when he was 8 years of age, he did much of the milling
and trading for the neighborhood, on horseback; when he was 12,
he drove a span of horses during the season, and drew lumber
to the railroad, a distance of about eleven miles; occasionally,
by some turn of fortune, he would get the privilege of working
for his board and attending district school; at 16, he was enabled
to attend the village school at Tioga for one term, and also
one term at the academy in Wellsboro. About this time, he was
induced to purchase contract for a piece of land near Tioga,
in order to secure a claim of $50, which had been given to him
by his grandfather; the result was, that for five years he was
engaged in the severest kind of manual labor, such as cutting,
drawing and running logs, attending saw-mills, farming and clearing-up
and improving his land. During this time, he taught school two
winters, and spent his evenings and Sundays in studying such
books and newspapers as he was able to obtain; at the end of
the five years, he had paid for his place, made it much more
valuable, was out of debt and had a small surplus, but his health
was so impaired as to render it doubtful whether he could longer
endure the severe strain of physical labor; in seeking to recover
from this condition, he naturally turned his attention to his
books, and soon determined to resume the purpose which poverty
had forced him to abandon five years previously; he at first
attended Union Academy, at Knoxville, Penn., and then Alfred
Academy, in Allegany, N.Y., where he graduated being equivalent
to preparing for the Junior year in college; during these years,
he taught school two winters in Allegany Co., but, on selling
his land, he was able to continues his duties without further
interruption; on leaving Alfred, he went to Michigan University,
where he remained one year, taking in select course; during his
school life, he kept up a constant and systematic course of reading,
and was strict in attendance upon the lyceums, and generally
engaged in the discussions and exercises; on leaving Ann Arbor,
he at once entered upon the study of law, and spent the following
year in Albany Law School and a law office at Wellsboro; in July,
1857, he came to Janesville, entered the office of Judge CONGER
and pursued his legal studies until November, 1858, when he became
a member of the old firm of BENNETT, CASSODAY & GIBBS, which
continued over seven years; then he was alone for two years;
then, for five years, a member of the firm CASSODAY & MERRILL,
and since, of CASSODAY & CARPENTER. Mr. CASSODAY has a natural
admiration and reverence for the law, enjoys a sharp legal contest
and always thoroughly examines every doubtful question, and as
business crowded upon him from the first, and his practice covered
a wide range in some of the most intricate branches of the law,
his professional career has been necessarily marked by constant
attention and severe study. In politics, he has been a Republican
ever since the organization of the party; as a boy, he warmly
supported David Wilmot, who then represented the Tioga district
in Congress; his first speech in public was in favor of the Free-Soil
party, in 1848; on the disappearance of that party in Tioga,
and on his becoming a voter, he acted with the Democrats, until
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, in the spring of 1854,
when he openly repudiated both of the old parties, and favored
the formation of a new party. On leaving the University, he delivered
a Fourth of July oration to his old friends and neighbors, and
soon after "stumped" the county for Fremont and Dayton.
Since living in Janesville, he has been more or less active in
every political campaign, beginning with 1858; in 1864, he was
a delegate to the National Convention of Baltimore, and a member
of the Assembly of 1865, and as such warmly supported the Thirteenth
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, taking advance
ground on the status of the rebellious States, and substantially
the same as Congress subsequently took in the work of reconstruction;
with these exceptions, and occasionally attending a political
convention as a delegate, he declined all public positions, until
he was elected to the Assembly of 1877, over which he was chosen
to preside, without any opposition in his own party. He is a
member of the Congregational Church, and believes that Christianity
is an essential means of inward moral growth and progress in
society and government, and he believes that all political action
should be prompted and controlled by the same broad, generous
and unselfish purpose. He has a happy family, consisting of a
wife and five children - four daughters and a son, and an aged
mother, who, for many years, has been totally blind.
-
- Taken from "The History of Rock County, Wis."
(c)1879; pp. 699-700.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|