Fenn Hesden Cooney (1889-1961)

  Portrait from the January 31, 1944 Caroll Times Herald.

   Iowa yields another oddly named judicial figure in the person of Fenn Hesden Cooney, a long-time Carroll County resident who would serve as Carroll County Attorney and District Court Judge for Iowa's Sixteenth judicial district. A lifelong resident of Iowa, Fenn Hesden Cooney was the son of Merrill Mathews and Adella Miller Cooney, his birth occurring in Coon Rapids, Iowa on January 31, 1889. 

  A graduate of the Coon Rapids High School in the class of 1906, Cooney later attended the University of Iowa at Ames, graduating from there in 1910 with a degree in civil engineering. He decided upon a career in law and in the early 1910s enrolled at the University of Ann Arbor in Michigan, earning his degree in 1915. He was admitted to the Iowa Bar shortly after his graduation and returned to Carroll County to begin practice. Notice is also given as to Cooney's service in the First World War, being a veteran of the Army. He married in Carroll County in June of 1920 to Clara Bell Culbertson (1887-1955). The couple would remain childless.

 Fenn H. Cooney, from the 1915 Michiganensian Yearbook.

   Following his return to Carroll County Cooney was brought aboard the law firm of Salinger, Reynolds, and Meyers, later having his own name added to the firm's title. He would be affiliated with that firm until 1925, whereafter he left to operate a solo law practice out of the "Room 203 Masonic Temple" in Carroll, Iowa. He would continue to operate this practice until 1926 when he won election as Prosecuting Attorney of Carroll County. Cooney held this post until 1932 and went on to serve two further years in that office in 1935-1936.

   After leaving office Cooney continued with his practice until January 1944, when then-Governor Bourke B. Hickenlooper appointed him as District Judge for Iowa's Sixteenth district, filling a vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Peter J. Klinker a few days previously. Cooney would serve on the bench until his death seventeen years later on  June 16, 1961, at St. Anthony's Hospital in Carroll. A longstanding member of the Iowa State Bar Association, Cooney was also a past commander of the American Legion Post at Carroll and was also remarked as a scholar on Abraham Lincoln, having put together "an exhaustive collection of books" on the 16th President. The seventy-two-year-old Judge had been preceded in death by his wife Clara, who had died at age 68 in 1955. Both were interred at the Carroll City Cemetery in Carroll, Iowa.

Portrait from the November 11, 1936 Carroll Daily Herald.

Chaucer Gory Lee (1869-1957)

Portrait courtesy of the Ames Public Library webpage.

     Lifelong Iowa resident Chaucer Gory Lee was for many years an active participant in the public affairs of Story County, being a leading citizen in the city of Ames. For several years Lee would serve Ames as its city attorney and in 1907 entered upon duties as District Court Judge for Iowa's 11th district. Lee would attain his highest degree of political prominence in 1914 when he was a candidate in the Republican primary for Governor of Iowa.

   Born and raised in Jasper County, Iowa, Chaucer Gory "C.G." Lee was born on August 8, 1869, the son of James and Sarah Whitcomb Lee. The origins of his unusual first name "Chaucer" are unknown at this time, but may have a connection to Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), the famed English poet and author of "The Canterbury Tales". Early in his life, he relocated to Ames, Iowa to enroll at the Iowa Agricultural College, graduating in the class of 1894. Following his graduation, he began studying law at the Drake Law School in Des Moines and was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1895.

   Soon after his admittance Lee entered the law office of Daniel McCarthy. In 1897 Lee married Daniel's daughter Emma, to whom he was wed for fifty-two years. The couple are believed to have been childless. A year before his marriage Lee made his first move into Ames political life when he won election as city attorney, holding that office for six years. Five years after the conclusion of his term as city attorney Lee was elected as District Court Judge for Iowa's 11th district and served on the bench until his resignation in 1914, and was succeeded by John M. Kamrar.

An election notice for Judge Lee, from the Iowa State Bystander, May 29, 1914.

   In the final year of his term as District Judge in April 1914, Lee announced that he would be seeking the Republican nomination for Governor of Iowa, the Republican primary election being held on June 1st. As one of three candidates vying for the nomination (the others being then Governor George W. Clarke and John W. Rowley), Lee's candidacy was boomed in several Iowa newspapers, including the Iowa State Bystander (notice shown above.) Other notices and endorsements made light of Lee's standing as a "clear-sighted"  and "just" judge during his time on the bench. One of these notices, a glowing endorsement in the Ottumwa Tri-Weekly Courier from state senator Daniel Cady Chase, made it known that:

"Those in this district who have seen Judge Lee on the bench have been impressed with the fact that in the first place he is clear sighted mentally and in the second place he has what is exceedingly rare in any public man,  the courage of his convictions......Judge Lee is the type of man who has the ability to brush away all sophistries and look at a question in its elemental aspects and more than that, he has has the courage to accept responsibility for a decision along those lines. He is of that type of man which is very rare; intellectually honest and brave enough to go wherever his honest judgement leads him."

    After voters went to the polls on June 1st it was incumbent Governor George W. Clarke who was renominated. While newspapers reported Clarke's winning total as being between "90,000-100,000" votes, Lee placed second, garnering 65,000 votes. Following his gubernatorial loss, Lee returned to practicing law in Ames and proved to be an influential booster in the further development of Ames's infrastructure, being "responsible for 15 additions and subdivisions" to the city.
   In 1949 Emma McCarthy Lee, C.G. Lee's wife of over fifty years died at age 85. Following her passing Lee honored his late wife by presenting the city with several acres of land which would become a park named in her honor. After many years of public service to Ames, Chaucer Gory Lee died on January 4, 1957, at age 87. He was interred alongside his wife at the Ames Municipal Cemetery.

Centenary Bangs Bradshaw (1839-1916)

Portrait from the History of Tama County, Iowa, Volume II, published 1910.

  

   The following profile examines the life of a man with a truly bizarre name--Centenary Bangs Bradshaw. Without a doubt one of the few people in recorded history to have had "Centenary" as a given first name, Mr. Bradshaw was a native Ohioan who would find distinction in Iowa, being for many years an attorney based in Tama County. Bradshaw would go on to serve that county as its District Attorney and later was elected as an Iowa District Court Judge for the 17th district. 

   One of two sons born to the Rev. Harvey and Susan Sullivan Bradshaw, Centenary Bangs "C.B." Bradshaw was born in Richmond, Jefferson County, Ohio on December 26, 1839. His early education occurred in schools local to Jefferson County and in 1858 relocated to Iowa with his family. Shortly after his removal Bradshaw began studying at the Grinnell College and remained there until 1862 when he enlisted for service in Company F. of the 24th Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He participated in the Battles of Champion Hills and Port Gibson, Mississippi, and would also see action at the Siege of Vicksburg in May 1863. 

  Discharged from duty in July 1865, Bradshaw had attained the rank of Captain and within a few months of leaving the service went to enroll at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Here he began the study of law and after graduating in 1867 returned to Iowa, settling in the town of Toledo in Tama County. Bradshaw would establish a law practice here in 1867 with attorney George Rix Struble (1836-1918), later to serve as a state circuit judge and Speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives. Their partnership lasted until 1870, whereafter Bradshaw continued operations alone.

  On his 28th birthday in 1867, Centenary Bradshaw married Mary Ann Hayzlett (1846-1892), with whom he would have two children, a daughter, Alice (1869-1942), and a son, Charles Sullivan Bradshaw (1871-1952), later to follow in his father's footsteps as an Iowa district court judge from 1911-12. Bradshaw would remarry following Mary Ann Bradshaw's death to Rachel Morrison in 1904.

                    Centenary B. Bradshaw during his Civil War service, courtesy of Find-A-Grave.

  With decades of legal practice in Tama County "C.B." Bradshaw became acknowledged as one of that county's sterling legal minds, with the Iowa Bar Annual Report of 1916 describing him as:

"A lawyer of the old school who scorned to solicit business or permit anyone else to solicit business for him. He was a capable trial lawyer and always courteous to his opponents. He won high repute as a lawyer and was regarded by the profession as one of the ablest judges of the state."

   While he may have been a prominent member of the Tama County bar, Bradshaw was firm when it came to refraining from political activity, refusing to become a candidate for public office. This changed in 1885 when he was appointed by the county's board of supervisors as the Attorney for Tama County, serving until 1887. After the position of county attorney was made elective, he was elected to a second term as attorney in 1892, serving another two-year term. He was defeated for reelection in 1894 by his Democratic opponent Ezra C. Ebersole. Following his defeat, Bradshaw returned to his practice in Toledo until 1906, when he was nominated for District Judge for Iowa's 17th District, comprising the counties of Tama, Marshall, and Benton. Bradshaw won the election and entered upon his duties in 1907. He was re-elected as judge in 1911 and retired from the bench in 1915 due to health concerns.
   After resigning Judge Bradshaw spent the last year of his life practicing law in Toledo, dying there on January 11, 1916, at age 76. He was survived by his wife Rachel and was later interred alongside his first wife at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Toledo, Iowa.

From the Maurice Times, January 22, 1916.

Zala Alphonzo Church (1852-1922)

  A distinguished figure in Iowa law circles, Zala Alphonso Church served sixteen years as a district court judge and had previously served a term as mayor of his adopted hometown of Jefferson. A native son of Wisconsin, Zala A. Church was born in the small town of Dayton on May 28, 1852, one of four children born to Harvey M. (1816-1897) and Elizabeth Tucker Church (1818-1916). The reason behind Harvey and Elizabeth bestowing the unusual first name "Zala" upon their son is unknown at the time of this writing, and one's imagination can run wild thinking of the possibilities! 

   As a child, Zala Church attended the common schools of his hometown of Dayton and later studied at the Evansville, Wisconsin Seminary. After his studies at the latter school, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin and after some study began reading law at that institution's law school, graduating in the class of 1876. Following his graduation, he relocated to Jefferson, Iowa in 1878 and established a law practice with fellow attorney Harvey Potter in the firm of Potter and Church. After a year in this firm, Church founded the practice of Head and Church with attorney A.M. Head and operated in this partnership from 1879-1882. Zala Alphonzo Church married on May 4, 1881, in Green County to Eliza May McCully (1857-1938). Wed for over four decades, the Church's became the parents of three daughters, Iza (1882-1910), Bessie (1887-1973), and Theo (1889-1981).

   The firm of Head and Church dissolved in 1882 and for several years Zala Church operated alone in Jefferson. He is recorded by the Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa as serving as mayor of that town for one term and gave to it "a businesslike, progressive administration." Church also occupied other local offices in addition to his stint as mayor, serving at various times as justice of the peace, Greene County attorney, Greene County recorder, and president of the county school board. In 1888 Church served as a Republican Presidential elector for Benjamin Harrison and in 1894 was elected as District Court Judge for Iowa's Sixteenth Judicial District.

Zala A. Church, from the University of Wisconsin and Its History and Its Alumni,  1900.

   Taking his seat in January 1895, Church succeeded Judge George Washington Paine and was re-elected as judge three times, serving a total of sixteen years on the bench. Church's contribution to Iowa jurisprudence was remarked in the Annual Proceedings of the Iowa Bar Association as having:

"The admirable quality of being able to grasp the meat of a controversy and this quality served him well in the discharge of his judicial duties. He was always considerate of counsel before him. As a practitioner Judge Church was a helpful counsellor, working with an unusually generous spirit and always disposed to accord with others views greater weight and importance than his own. At all times he was disposed to give due consideration to the position of his adversary and never carried acrimony out of the courtroom, no matter how spirited may have been the controversies in which he participated."

   In addition to his judicial work, Zala Church is remarked as being a distinguished Mason, attaining the 32nd degree. Active in other fraternal bodies, Church was a Shriner, a member of the Knights of Pythias, and a past grand master of the Iowa state chapter of the International Order of Odd Fellows. Upon his retirement from the bench in 1911 Church returned to practicing law, operating a joint firm with attorney D.C. McCully for a time, and was still actively practicing until a few weeks before his death, which occurred on January 15, 1922, at his home in Jefferson, Iowa.  Following his death, a substantial obituary for the departed judge was published in the Carroll, Iowa Herald, which denotes that Church:

"Presided with dignity and associated with friends with a degree of good fellowship that was appreciated by his friends all over the district. He was a scholarly man who took interest in educational matters in his court and outside and delighted to associate with people who read and traveled and thought."

  Church's funeral was held on January 18, 1922, and he was later buried at the Jefferson Cemetery. May McCully Church was also interred here after she died in 1938.

From the Jefferson, Iowa Herald, January 18, 1922.