Wrendo Marion Godwin (1896-1976)

From the 1938 Virginia House of Delegates composite photograph.

    The Virginia state legislature (the House of Burgesses and later, the House of Delegates) has existed in one form or another for nearly 400 years, and, as one of the oldest existing legislative bodies in world history, has yielded a bevy of interestingly named political figures. The man profiled today, Accomack County delegate Wrendo Marion Godwin, is yet another example of a curiously named individual to be elected to Virginia's legislature.

   The first of two sons born to William P. and Susan Poulson Godwin, Wrendo Marion Godwin was born on September 22, 1896, in Poulson, Virginia. Bestowed the unusual first name "Wrendo" upon his birth, Godwin received his schooling at the Hargrove Military Institute in Chatham, Virginia, and later attended the University of Richmond. In November  1917 Godwin married Elsie May Houchins and later had three children, William (1919-1991), Richard A. (1920-2001), and Betty Jane Godwin Crockett (deceased.) 

    Following his graduation from the University of Richmond, Godwin operated a grocery store in Waynesboro from 1918-22. He later moved to Pocomoke, Virginia, where for a five-year period he and his father operated the Godwin Department store. Godwin's residency in Pokomoke also saw him serve as secretary for the Pocomoke Chamber of Commerce for a year, and by 1928 had removed to Bloxom, Virginia, where he and his father founded a produce business. 

   By the early 1930s Wrendo Godwin had decided to pursue a career in law, and after a period of study at the University of Virginia was admitted to the state bar in 1936. An attorney for over forty years in the Accomack County area, Godwin also found distinction in several areas not related to politics or law, including service as moderator of the Accomack Baptist Association, the Elks and Lions Club, the Parksley Virginia Lodge No. 166 of the Order of the Eastern Shrine, and the Parksley Three Arts Club. Godwin is also recorded as a 32nd-degree Mason, being a member of the Parksley Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons.

   In the late 1930s, Wrendo M. Godwin began treading the political waters, being elected to the Virginia State House of Delegates from the county of Accomack. Serving in the legislative session of 1938-1939, Godwin was named to the house standing committees on the Chesapeake and its Tributaries, Officers and Offices at the Capitol, Public Property and Roads, and Internal Navigation. 

  After leaving the legislature after the 1939 term Godwin returned to practicing law in Accomack County and continued with his practice until 1947 when he was reelected to the House of Delegates. During the 1948-50 session he sat on the committees on Agriculture, General Laws and Enrolled Bills, and during the first-named year became a member of the Virginia State Democratic Committee, as well as serving as an alternate delegate to the Democratic National Convention held in Philadelphia.

Wrendo M. Godwin, pictured on the 1954 Virginia House of Delegates composite portrait.

   The years 1950-1955 saw Wrendo Godwin continuing to represent Accomack County in the House of Delegates, and during these terms continued service on the previously mentioned committees, being the chairman of the House Committee on Enrolled Bills. During his final legislative term in 1955, Godwin announced his candidacy for a seat in the Virginia State Senate, and during the Democratic primary faced off against former Accomack County Commonwealth Attorney and Democratic County chairman Edward Almer Ames Jr. (1903-1987).

                Godwin's 1955 senate  platform from the Virginia Beach Sun-News (click to enlarge.)

   Running on a campaign platform touting his experience "in the serious business of lawmaking" Godwin's senate candidacy received a substantial write-up in the Virginia Beach Sun News's July 7th edition (shown above.) In said write-up Godwin himself gave a lengthy statement explaining his past legislative experience and political convictions, noting that:

"My experience as a member of the House of Delegates from Accomack County for the past eight years wil be of great value to the people I seek to represent if elected to the senate. It takes just about that long to get your hand in, so to speak, to make your friends and contacts, and learn the "know how" of getting legislation passed. I feel that I am better qualified than my opponent who has had no experience whatsoever with law making. His lack of experience will be a definite disadvantage to the people of Princess Anne County, though he may be qualified in every other way.....Many important issues and grave matters will come before the next legislature requiring the best thought and talent of our most experienced legislators. Those men with the greatest past experience in the Legislature will be more qualified and better able to deal with these most perplexing problems. My past experience will serve me well and result in a greater benefit to the people I seek to represent. I will earnestly and sincerely appreciate your vote."

   While the above newspaper article played to Godwin's political experience and prior terms in the legislature, he came up short in the vote count, losing in the July 13th primary to Ames, who went on to serve in the state senate until 1967. Following his defeat, Godwin continued the practice of law in Accomack County and later was elected as the president of the Accomack County Bar Association, serving from 1963-64. Wrendo M. Godwin died at age 79 on January 8, 1976, at his home in Virginia. He was survived by his wife Elsie and his three children and was later interred at the Parksley Cemetery in Parksley, Virginia.

Cardinal Richelieu Coleman (1878-1963)

                             From the 1912 Virginia House of Delegates composite photograph.

   It isn't often that one finds an American political figure named in honor of a prominent figure in French history, and the man shown above, Cardinal Richelieu Coleman, is a definite exception. Named in honor of Armand Jean du-Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642), the eminent 17th-century French clergyman and statesman, this interestingly named man was a figure of note in Virginia political circles during the early 20th century (he served two terms in the state house of delegates), but unfortunately this notoriety did not carry over into the years following his death, as scant biographical information could be found on Mr. Coleman or his career in public service.
   A lifelong resident of Virginia, C. Richelieu Coleman, as most sources list him, was the first of two sons born to former Virginia state legislator Solon Thomas and Nancy Elizabeth Blaydes Coleman, his birth occurring on November 19, 1878. Recorded in his Fredericksburg Daily Star obituary as being "educated in private schools", Coleman later "assumed management responsibilities of the family estate", Alta Vista, after completing his education. He married in October of 1900 to Sallie W. Davis (1877-1979) and later had two children, Solon Bernard (1901-1974) and Lorene Coleman Saunders (1907-1986). Solon Coleman would later follow his father into politics, being elected as a member of the Virginia State Senate in 1935 for one term. He would later serve as a circuit court judge for a total of ten years, retiring in 1972.
   C. Richelieu Coleman first entered the political forum around 1902, when he became a member of the registration board for Spotsylvania County. In November 1909 Coleman announced his candidacy for a seat in the Virginia State House of Delegates and in the November election defeated the Republican nominee, Henry Warden. Representing the city of Fredericksburg in the county of Spotsylvania, Coleman took his seat at the beginning of the 1910-12 legislative term and was later named to the House Committee on Enrolled Bills, Executive Expenditures, and Labor and the Poor. 

From the 1910 Virginia House of Delegates composite portrait.

  Despite having been a state delegate for only a few months in 1910, C. Richelieu Coleman had made a lasting impression, as the following quote will illustrate. An anonymous "letter from Lahore, VA" published in the Fredericksburg Daily Star's September 27, 1910 edition remarked that:

"I was pleased to shake the hand of the Hon. Richelieu Coleman, the safe and sound representative of Spotsylvania in the House of Delegates. He is popular wherever known and his course in the legislature commends him to the confidence and support of all lovers of clean, good government."

   Coleman's first term in the legislature saw him introduce several pieces of legislation, including a bill to "divide Spotsylvania County into four revenue districts" and another to "permit Spotsylvania County to select any road law of any county in whole or in part of this state." Coleman's popularity eventually led to his reelection to the Virginia State House in 1911, defeating Republican candidate C.B. Massie by "a large majority." During his second term Coleman held a seat on the committees on Schools and Colleges, Labor and the Poor, Executive Expenditures, and Enrolled Bills, and during this session was chosen by then Governor William H. Mann as Virginia's delegate to the Southern Commercial Congress being held at Nashville in 1912. 

From the Fredericksburg Daily Star, January 14, 1910.

   After leaving the legislature Coleman became engaged with the Virginia Office of Internal Revenue, becoming a deputy collector of internal revenue, subsequently serving in this capacity from 1913 to 1920. A stint with the Virginia Attorney General's office followed from 1922 to 1933, and in 1922 he was elected as a member of the Virginia State Democratic Committee. 
   Coleman continued to be politically active well into his twilight years, seeing service on the Spotsylvania County School Board and the School Trustee Electoral Board. He was a longtime area inspector for the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Commission (retiring in 1953 at age 75) and throughout the 1950s and the early 60s sat on the Spotsylvania County Elections Board, holding a seat here until his death, which occurred on May 8, 1963, as the result of a stroke he had suffered a week previously. A year before his passing the then 83-year-old Coleman had seen his son Solon (then 61 years of age) installed as a Virginia Circuit Court judge.
   Popularly known in Spotsylvania County as "Mr. Democrat", Coleman's death at age 84 ended a lengthy career in public service that extended until the year of his death. Following funeral services, Coleman was interred at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and was survived by Sallie, his wife of over sixty years. Sallie Davis Coleman celebrated her 100th birthday in 1977 and died a few months before her 102nd birthday in August 1979, later being buried in the same cemetery as her husband.

From Coleman's obituary in the May 8, 1963 edition of the Fredericksburg Daily Star

From the Fredericksburg Daily Star, May 8, 1963.

Archalene Mitchell Doke Henrickson (1850-1908)

 From the 1903 Legislative and State Manual of Indiana.

   Sporting a plentiful name, Archalene Mitchell Doke Henrickson had fleeting involvement in Hoosier state politics, being a representative in the Indiana State legislature for one term in the early 1900s. A native of Tennessee, Henrickson was born in the town of Springfield on December 8, 1850, a son of physician Archalene Mitchell Doke and Margaret Jamison Henrickson. Archalene and his family are recorded by the 1903 Indiana Legislative Manual as removing from Tennessee to Kentucky when he was a child and he would go on to attend the Union University at Murfreesboro, Tennessee and later was a graduate of the Nashville Medical College in the class of 1872.

   Following in his father's footsteps as a physician, Henrickson later removed to Indiana, eventually settling in the county of Perry. He married in 1875 to Mollie Stephenson (1847-1915) and later fathered four children. Henrickson continued to reside in the town of Magnet in Perry County throughout the remainder of his life, and in November 1902 was elected to the Indiana State House of Representatives. Representing the counties of Crawford and Perry during his service, Henrickson served one term in the house (1903-1905) and held a seat on the committees on State Medicine, Health and Vital Statistics, Congressional Apportionment and the State Soldiers, Sailors and Orphan's Home.

  Unfortunately, very little could be found in regards to Archalene M.D. Henrickson's life after 1903, and he died five years after leaving the legislature on December 31, 1908, shortly after his fifty-eighth birthday. A burial location for both Henrickson and his wife is unknown at this time.

From the 1903 Indiana Legislature composite portrait.

Weedon Simpson Chelf Sr. (1858-1913)

From the 2005 book "Elizabethtown", by Meranda Caswell.

    Dying shortly before his 54th birthday in 1913, Kentucky circuit court judge and attorney Weedon Simpson Chelf Sr. may have lacked length of years but for two decades was a man of distinction in Hardin County. Despite his obscurity, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Judge Chelf did have a picture tucked away in the vast archive of Google Books. The above portrait of him (featured in the 2005 book on the history of Elizabethtown, Kentucky entitled "Elizabethtown") is listed in said work as being "courtesy of Mike Sisk", and I'm grateful that there were at least a few people who took the time to examine the life of this oddly named Kentucky jurist.

   Weedon S. Chelf Sr. is recorded as being born in Green County, Kentucky on March 15, 1858, a son of Judge William Hobart and Melissa Patton Chelf, and it is unknown at this time why the couple bestowed the unusual first name "Weedon" upon their son. Weedon Chelf married for the first time in 1882 to Ella Winterbower, who died within a few years of their marriage.

   Shortly after Ella Winterbower Chelf's death "Weed" Chelf remarried in 1887 to Hallie Wrather (1865-1908) and later became the father to several children, including Wrather (born 1889), Lloyd Newman (1891-1952), Glovie (1892-1954), Weed Simpson Jr. (1894-1996), Henry Lee (1898-1962), Mary (1900-1984) Walter Brengle (born 1903-1945) and Frank Leslie (1907-1982). Of these children, Frank Leslie Chelf became the most well-known, as he followed in his father's footsteps and became a prominent attorney and public official. A decorated veteran of WWII, Frank Chelf was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky in 1945 and subsequently served 11 terms, losing his reelection bid in 1966.

   Despite having little in the way of biographical material on his life available, Chelf is remarked by the Breckinridge News as having relocated to California to practice law in the mid-1880s, even serving as assistant district attorney of Los Angeles County for a time. He eventually returned to Kentucky, where in 1890 he established a law practice in the city of Elizabethtown. In 1892 Chelf was elected as Commonwealth Attorney for that state's Ninth District. He served in this capacity until 1903, and in that year won election as Circuit Court judge for Kentucky's Ninth Judicial District. 

  Chelf was re-elected as judge in 1909 but is recorded as being in a state of impaired health, causing him to miss a few sessions of court proceedings. A write-up on Chelf's reelection (and health concerns) appeared in the June 30 1910 edition of the Berea Citizen, with the judge himself stating that he "wasn't dead yet and would come around all right." Despite being ill, Judge Chelf maintained an upbeat sense of humor, stating:

"It is all wrong for a man to get sick, in fact, any one who would do a thing like that should be shot, but nature, somehow or other, has so arranged things in this world that we must sometimes lay up for repairs."

  While having a bright outlook on things may have improved his spirits, Judge Chelf's health continued to sink, so much so that the Breckinridge News later reported in his 1913 obituary that during the preceding four years he had been "unable to occupy his place on the bench as a circuit court judge" and that "a number of other judges throughout this district have held this court, having been designated by the governor." The end came in February 1913, when Chelf was struck down by a "stroke of apoplexy" and died a few days later on the morning of February 5. He was later interred at the Elizabethtown City Cemetery and was survived by his wife and seven children.

From the Breckinridge News, February 5, 1913

Dummer Kiah Trask (1860-1914)

From Shuck's History of the Bench and Bar of California, 1901.

  Our judicial theme continues and the following write-up examines the life and career of a Judge named Dummer! An odd first name to give a child for sure, but this educator and practitioner of law certainly didn't let his odd name curb his ambitions, as he carved a distinguished career in California public life, holding a seat on the Superior Court of Los Angeles for nearly a decade. Dummer Kiah Trask was a native son of Ohio, born in Cincinnati on July 17, 1860, a son of Kiah Bailey and Mary Jane (Dunton) Trask. The Trask family are recorded by the Shuck's 1901 Bench and Bar of California as removing from Cincinnati to Lewiston, Maine when their son was about a year old, and as an adolescent "taught school at age seventeen" and attended school in Lincoln County, graduating from the Waterville Classical Institute in the class of 1881.

   In the year following his graduation, Trask left Maine and resettled in San Joaquin County, California, where he taught school for a short time.  He became active in educational affairs in this area and served as principal of the Business College and Normal Institute in the city of Stockton. Trask was later a member of the San Joaquin County Board of Education for one year (1886-1887) and later occupied the same position on the Los Angeles Board of Education, serving from 1893-1894. He married in 1887 to Ida C. Folsom (1860-1922) and had four children Ida Mary (1889-1975), Dummer F. (died in infancy in 1891), Dorothy Trask Goodrich (birth date unknown) and Walter Folsom (1896-1919).

   In 1890 the Trask family moved to Los Angeles, and here Dummer established a law practice, having commenced studying in San Joaquin County. He was recorded as doing a "fine law business" throughout the 1890s and in 1898 was appointed by then Governor James Herbert Budd to a vacancy on the Superior Court of Los Angeles, succeeding Walter Van Dyke (1823-1905), who had been elected to the California Supreme Court. 

 From the History Bench and Bar of Southern California, 1909.

   Following his appointment Dummer Trask gained distinction on the bench, with the Bench and Bar of California noting that as a judge, Trask "showed much impartiality and industry, and brought such general ability to the discharge of his duties, that, at the general election of November 1900, although he was a Democrat and his party in a hopeless minority, was elected as his own successor for a full term of six years." 

   Following the 1900 election, Trask resumed his duties on the bench and in December 1905 was even talked of as a potential candidate for Governor of  California in the upcoming gubernatorial election. His potential candidacy was announced (to his great surprise) in a statement by Capt. George M. Cake at a California Tammany Club banquet on December 20, 1905, and within a day or two of Cake's speech advocating Trask's nomination the Los Angeles Herald had picked up on the story. In its December 22nd edition the Herald quoted Los Angeles attorney E.L. Hutchinson as stating:

"I don't know how we could do better than nominate Judge Trask for Governor of California. His has been the ripe experience that makes for capable officials and he is well qualified for the position. He would undoubtedly be elected  if given the nomination, as I believe he is one of the strongest and best known men in California."

   Despite being boosted for the post, Trask himself is reported as smiling and stating that he " certainly wouldn't refuse the office." The thought of a Trask gubernatorial candidacy appears to have been a "nine-day wonder", as nothing else could be found mentioning it after December of 1905. A few weeks after his gubernatorial dreams came to naught, Trask (while still serving on the bench) accepted the presidency of the Consolidated Realty Company, which had been "organized for the purchase of business property" in the city of Los Angeles. In the 1906 election, Trask refused to run for another term on the Superior Court and retired from service in January 1907, noting that he would recommence with his law practice in Los Angeles.

Dummer K. Trask (with fancy hat), pictured in the Nov. 19, 1906 Los Angeles Herald.

   After retiring from the bench Trask formed the law firm of D.K Trask and Co. and was also active in several non-political areas, being a longstanding member of the Knights of Pythias Lodge ( serving as Grand Chancellor in California in 1902-03), and in 1910 was elected as president of the Jefferson Club of Los Angeles. Trask also held a seat on the Los Angeles Police Commission, entering into that office in 1909. He continued to practice law in Los Angeles until being felled by a fatal stroke while "engaged in trying a lawsuit" in probate court on March 12, 1914. He was recorded in the San Bernardino County Sun as having "died without regaining consciousness" in almost identical circumstances as that of his younger brother Walter (1862-1911), a Los Angeles attorney who died of apoplexy while speaking at a Los Angeles club. 

   Following his death Dummer Trask was interred at the Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles, and was later memorialized in the Official Record of Proceedings of the Knights of Pythias Lodge in the accompanying passage:

"In the passing away of Dummer Kiah Trask we have impressed upon us the truth that ''life is confined within a space of a day''. Only fifty-three years, as time is measured, was his allotted stay on earth. Then came the summons; not unexpected, but still unwelcome, and now the places that knew him only to love him ''shall know him no more forever."

From the History of the Bench and Bar of California, 1912.

Hooper Cumming Van Vorst (1817-1889)

  

From the Yearbook of the Holland Society of New York, 1887.

   The theme of interestingly named judicial figures continues as we take a peek at the life of a judge named Hooper.....Hooper Cumming Van Vorst to be precise. While most people (after hearing the name "Hooper", mind you) will probably remember "Mr. Hooper" and his store on "Sesame Street", one would probably never guess that there was a New York State Supreme Court justice with it as a first name!! An attorney and first President of the Holland Society of New York, Van Vorst was viewed as one of New York's leading legal lights during his sixteen years of service on the bench. Despite his prominence in 19th century New York, Van Vorst is all but forgotten today, and although a few pieces of period literature can be found online that mention him at great length, the following piece aims to shed more light on the life of this oddly named New York jurist, more than a century after his death.

  Born of Dutch ancestry on December 3, 1817, in Schenectady, New York, Hooper Cumming Van Vorst was the son of John (1784-1844) and Elizabeth Baker Van Vorst. A descendant of a Dutch family that had resided in New York since the 1670s, John Van Vorst bestowed upon his son the unusual name "Hooper Cumming", in honor of an "eloquent preacher" (1787-1825) with that name who was then residing in Schenectady. 

   Van Vorst began his schooling in his native city and in 1839 was a graduate of the Union College. During this time he studied law in the offices of Paige and Potter and in 1841 completed his studies and removed to Albany to begin a law practice. During his Albany residency, he was named as "attorney and counsel to the city" by the local municipal board, subsequently serving in this capacity for several years. In September 1848 Van Vorst married Albany native Maria L. Boyd (1821-1855), who died a few months after the birth of the couple's only child, Frederick L. Van Vorst (1855-1919.) Five years following her death Van Vorst remarried to Josephine Treat (1835-1917) and had two more children, John (1872-1899) and Marie Louise (1867-1936).

  In addition to practicing law in the New York state capital, Van Vorst also gained prominence as president of the Albany Young Men's Association, serving a one-year term from 1848-49. In 1853 Van Vorst left Albany and resettled in New York City, where it is noted by the New Amsterdam Gazette "that he was extensively engaged in the practice of law" until 1868, when he was selected by then Governor Reuben E. Fenton to serve as an Associate Justice of the Court of Common Pleas of New York City. His term on the bench lasted but one year, and in 1873 was elected to serve a fourteen-year term as a judge of the Superior Court of New York.

   Shortly following his election to the Superior Court Hooper C. Van Vorst received special designation by the Governor of New York John A. Dix, who named him to "hold special and circuit terms in the Supreme Court of the state" in addition to "occasional service" on the Superior Court bench. The Magazine of Western History Vol. 22 denotes Van Vorst's service on the bench as one of "arduous duties", further noting that he "became famous a learned, careful, impartial equity judge, earning from his fellow judges the sobriquet ''the Chancellor.""  Among the various cases tried before Van Vorst was one in which he "rendered the decision setting aside the lease to the Brooklyn Ferry Company of the valuable East Ferry privileges made for only one dollar rental in the Tweed times."

From the August-September 1886 New Amsterdam Gazette.

    While his time on the bench earned Van Vorst both notoriety and a wide circle of acquaintances, it was his activities in non-judicial areas that are also worth mentioning. Before his service on the Superior Court, he served for a time on the New York State Board of Education and later was a member of the Presbyterian Church's Board of Missions. A religious man, Van Vorst also took on a position as Sunday School teacher for the Children's Aid Society in New York City, where he "did all in his power to lead the children who thronged the school into the paths of a pure moral life."

   As a scion of an old, established Dutch family in New York, Hooper Van Vorst was intricately involved in the establishment of the Holland Society of New York, an organization devoted to the memory of the families of New Netherland and their living descendants. Prior to the society's incorporation in May 1885 Judge Van Vorst served as its provisional president and was one of the original group of 46 signers of the society's certificate of incorporation. Van Vorst served the society as its first "official" president and held this post until his death.

   Upon reaching the mandatory retirement age for judges in New York in 1887, the seventy-year-old Hooper Van Vorst left the Superior Court bench and devoted the remainder of his life to charitable work and the practice of law, forming a firm with his son Frederick that was located on Wall Street. The retired judge is recorded as keeping an active schedule until a few days before his death, which occurred at his home on October 26, 1889. The New Amsterdam Gazette noted in its memorial to him that he "died quite unexpectedly of a congestive chill" and after a well-attended funeral at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church was interred at the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York. 

  In the weeks following his death, Van Vorst received lavish praise in literature of the time, including a substantial five-page memorial in the New Amsterdam Gazette of December 6, 1889. In this obituary, the Gazette recollected that:

"In the death of Hooper C. Van Vorst a notable judicial career has reached its noble and final consummation. For the best years of his life he has been a conspicuous and honored member of our bar and bench. Endowed with choice scholastic abilities, he was able to embellish the trite principles of the law with popular interest, and full recommendations to sober thought and action."

Van Vorst obituary from the Albany Evening Times Oct. 28, 1889.

Gullick Nelson Risjord (1866-1951)

From the Madison Capital Times, August 30, 1951.

    The state of Wisconsin received passing mention in the December 2nd profile of oddly named Iowa jurist Zala A. Church, a Badger State native who lived the first two decades of his life there. In keeping with the recent theme of unusually named jurists, "America's Dairyland" has also produced its fair share of interestingly named judicial figures, including the gentleman pictured above, Gullick Nelson Risjord. A native of Norway, Risjord migrated to the United States in the mid-1880s to seek a new life. After equal periods of hard work and law study, he became a circuit court judge for Wisconsin and would serve nearly four decades on the bench.

   The son of Nels and Sonnef Pollag Risjord, Gullick N. Risjord was the second born son in a family of five children, his place of birth being Tinn, Telemarken, Norway on December 4, 1866. Telemarken is also notable for having been the birthplace of Drengman O. Aker, an Iowa State representative who was profiled here a few weeks ago. Risjord received his primary schooling in Norway and after attaining his eighteenth birthday left his home country to face an uncertain future in the United States. 

   Arriving in America in 1884, Risjord is recorded by Wisconsin, Its Story and Biography as settling in Dane County and is later noted as having "worked in the fields in the Red River valley." He recommenced with his education at the Blackearth High School and the Northwestern Business College in Madison. He continued to build on his education by enrolling at the University of Wisconsin and graduated in the class of 1897. Shortly thereafter he embarked upon the study of law at the University of Minnesota and was a graduate of that university's law school in the class of 1900.

   After receiving his law degree Risjord moved to Ashland, Wisconsin, and joined the law firm of Tomkins and Merrill for a short period and later operated another practice with attorney M.E. Merrill. Gullick Risjord married in Ashland to Josephine Quammen (1877-1925) in June 1904 and later had three children, Norman Edmond (1906-1980), Marion Gertrude (died in infancy in 1909), and Isabelle Josephine (1910-1983). Gullick and Josephine Quammen Risjord were married for eighteen years until Josephine's death at age 48 in 1922. Nine years following her death Risjord remarried in Gogebic, Michigan in November 1931 to Emma Torbol (ca. 1893-1952), who survived Risjord upon his death in 1951.

   In 1911 Gullick Risjord was elected as a circuit court judge for Wisconsin's 15th district, which comprised the counties of Bayfield, Ashland,  Iron, Price, and Taylor. Assuming his judicial duties on January 1, 1912, Risjord logged an impressive 39 years of service on the bench, and during this lengthy tenure served as chairman of the Wisconsin State Board of Circuit Judges in 1933. Risjord also presided over several trials of varying note during his time on the bench, including the 1938 trial of Thomas Duncan, an executive secretary to Wisconsin Governor Robert LaFollette Jr. who had been arrested in March 1938 in connection with the death of Henry F. Schuette, a West Allis, Wisconsin businessman who had been killed when Duncan's car struck him on the night of March 9th. Facts about the case denote that Duncan was (according to police and physicians) drunk at the time of the accident, and after a seven-day trial was found guilty of fourth-degree manslaughter by Judge Risjord and subsequently sentenced to serve "not less than one year nor more than two years in the house of correction."

From the Madison Wisconsin State Journal, August 31, 1951.

    Although advancing in years Gullick Risjord continued to sit on the bench well into his eighties and is noted as having been "opposed for reelection only twice" during his nearly four-decade tenure as a judge. At the time of his death on August 30, 1951, Risjord was the oldest and longest-serving judge in the state His Madison Capital Times obituary remarked that he had been at his office a day before his death, and after a funeral service at the Ashland First Presbyterian Church was laid to rest at the Mount Hope Cemetery in Ashland County.

From the Madison Capital Times, August 31, 1951.

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.

Farlin Quigley Ball (1838-1917)

From the Oak Park, Illinois  "Oak Leaves",  April 4, 1902.

    The Illinois Judicial system of the late 19th and early 20th century can be considered a veritable treasure trove of oddly named public servants. A quick glance at the Illinois Blue Book's roster of the state Judiciary Department of the early 1900s brings up such strange names as Mancha Bruggemeyer (1865-1949, a Chicago Municipal Court Judge), Mazzini Slusser (1853-1922, a Circuit Court Judge), Colostin DeKalb Myers (1847-1920, a Circuit Court judge), Kickham Scanlan (1864-1955, a Circuit Court judge), Lockwood Honore (1865-1917, Chief Judge of the Circuit Court) and Sain Welty (1853-1920, a Circuit Court judge). With all of these oddly named jurists peopling the benches of Illinois's courtrooms, one can wonder if criminals of the period ever had a good laugh when they were sentenced by a judge with a name like "Sain Welty"!

   All humor aside, the above assemblage of unusually named jurists grows ever wider with the addition of today's write-up on Farlin Quigley Ball, a decorated Civil War veteran and attorney who went on to serve nearly two decades as an Illinois Superior Court Judge. A native son of Ohio, Farlin Q. Ball was born in Shelby County on the 28th of March 1838, one of four children born to James Moores (1812-1897) and Keturah Ford Ball (1813-1860). At a young age, Farlin removed with his family to Wisconsin where he attended high school in the city of Monroe. In 1858 he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin and graduated with his B.S. (Bachelor of Science) degree in the class of 1861.

   During the early days of the Civil War, Farlin Ball enlisted in Co. G of the 31st Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and served with this outfit from mid-1862 until the hostilities ceased, and was brevetted as a Major towards the end of his service. After leaving the military Ball returned to Wisconsin and decided upon a career in law, and following his studies was admitted to practice by the state bar. In 1866 he was elected to the first of two terms as Dane County attorney, holding this post until 1868. In the latter year, he married to Elizabeth Hall (1842-1920), and the couple became the parents of three children, Robin (died in infancy in August 1871), Farlin Herbert (1872-1942), and Sydney Hobart (1877-1949). Of these children Farlin Herbert followed in his father's footsteps and became a distinguished lawyer, later serving as a Circuit Court judge for Cook County beginning in 1920.

   In August 1869 the Ball family left Dane County, Wisconsin, and resettled in Chicago. Shortly after his removal Ball was admitted to the Illinois state bar and began a law practice. In the succeeding years, he gained recognition as a lawyer of repute and in 1878-79 served as Treasurer of the Chicago Bar Association. Ball would later serve a term as president of this organization, and also held the presidency of the Chicago Law Institute for a time.  Ball also became an author during this period, publishing "Ball on National Banks" in 1880.

  

From the Oak Park Vindicator, September 21, 1900.

  In the November 1895 Illinois election, Farlin Quigley Ball won a seat on the Superior Court of Cook County, succeeding Judge George Blanke, whose death some months prior had created a vacancy on that court. Ball won reelection to a term of his own on the court in 1900 and continued to serve on both the Superior and Appellate Courts until his retirement a decade later. During his tenure on the bench, Judge Ball served as the court's Chief Justice for a time and also held court as a Judge Advocate of the Illinois National Guard's 1st Brigade. Ball retired from judicial service in 1911 and was widely praised by his contemporaries, being referred to in sources of the time as "the ideal jurist." Ball was even honored with a banquet in his honor, and his 1917 Oak Park Oak Leave obituary notes that:

"He has always been correct in his judgement of the law, always patient and of the judicial temperament. His record as a man, a soldier, a lawyer and a judge is without a blemish."

  Following his retirement, Judge Ball remained a prominent public figure in his neighborhood of Oak Park in Chicago and is remarked as belong to a number of fraternal clubs, including the Masons, Knights Templar, and the Oak Park Club. Sources of the time note that although advanced in age the retired judge remained the picture of health until a few days before his death, which occurred at the West Suburban Hospital in Chicago on August 29, 1917. He was later buried at the Forest Home Cemetery in Chicago. He was survived by both his sons and his wife Elizabeth, who followed her husband in death in 1920 at age 79.

From the Carbondale Illinois Daily Press, April 3, 1908.

Clarendon Witherspoon Ervin (1882-1959)

From the 1947 North Carolina Manual.

    If you've followed the Strangest Names In American Political History for any length of time you may have noticed that the state of North Carolina has been very well represented here on the site, with nine oddly named political figures from the Tar Heel State receiving a profile. From Fleetus Lee Gobble to Ippie Purvis Graham and Arris Idyl Ferree, one can see that North Carolina had no qualms about electing an oddly named state representative.     With that introduction, another strangely named Tar Heel politician gets a write-up here, and one may also notice that he bears a remarkable resemblance to the pitch-fork-holding farmer from Grant Wood's famous artwork "American Gothic" (see link for comparison). Mr. Clarendon Witherspoon Ervin was for many years a Presbyterian clergyman active in the Allegheny County area, and after many years of religious work as well as teaching, Ervin was elected to represent Alleghany County in the North Carolina State Legislature for one term beginning in 1947.

  Clarendon Witherspoon Ervin was born on April 4, 1882, in Henry, South Carolina, the son of Lawrence Nelson Ervin and the former Gotea Wilson. He attended Davidson College in the early 1900s and is remarked as being a standout member of the school track team and editor of the "Quips and Cranks" class magazine. Ervin would graduate from this school in the class of 1905 with his A.B. (bachelor of arts) degree and in 1908 graduated from the Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. He later did post-graduate work at Duke University and the University of North Carolina. 
  He married in June of 1905 to Lizette Gessner Carson and became the father to five children, who are listed as follows in order of birth: John Shearer (1906-1990), Louisa Jeanette (1909-1920), Elizabeth Akers (1910-1963), Lillie (born 1911) and Clara Witherspoon Ervin Snowden (1915-1996).

                           A young Clarendon W. Ervin, from the 1905 Davidson College Yearbook.

    Following the completion of his college work, Ervin became a teacher and Presbyterian minister, serving as a pastor in churches located in Cannonville, Pattersonville, Whitehall, Concord, Amity, and Mulberry, North Carolina from 1908-1913. After his service in the above towns, Ervin was an "evangelist in the Stokes County field" from 1913-1918 and the "Alleghany County field" from 1919-1924. In 1919 Lizette Ervin died aged just 36 and after a decade as a widower, Ervin remarried in January 1930 to Ruth Devene Cox (1902-1990).
    Little is known of Clarendon Ervin's life between 1930 and his election to the North Carolina State House of Representatives in November 1946, and before his election had never held elective office, except a brief tenure as a member of the Alleghany County Welfare Board in 1925. Taking his seat at the opening of the 1947-49 legislative term, Ervin proved to be busy as a first-term legislator, being named to the house committees on Appropriations, Commission, and Institutions for the Blind, Federal and Interstate Cooperation, Game, Mental Institutions, Institutions for the Deaf, Public Welfare, Enrolled Bills, Library and Printing. 
   Clarendon Witherspoon died a decade after leaving the legislature on September 14, 1959, in Sparta, South Carolina. He was 77 years old and was later interred at the Shiloh Cemetery in Sparta. He was survived by four of his children as well as his second wife Ruth, who died in 1990 at age 88.