The Supreme Court of Wisconsin,
213
THE SUPREME COURT OF WISCONSIN. BY EDWIN E. BRYANT. V.
SILAS U. PINNEY was born in Rockdale, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, March 3, 1833. His father was Justin C. Pinney, a native of Becket, Berkshire County, Massachusetts; his mother, a Miller, native of Pennsylvania, was of German descent. His father brought the family to Wisconsin in 1846, and settled in what is now Windsor township, Dane County. Here the son worked on a farm and received meager op portunities for education; but he was fond of books, an eager reader, and his memory was remarkably retentive; and the lack of school facilities did not prevent his mind becoming well stored. The old neighbors tell that he used to be a good boy to work on the farm, but he eagerly improved every opportunity in reading and studying, and not infrequently encroached on the hours of farm labor for that purpose. He was so ro bust and hardy that the farmer folk of the neighborhood thought it great waste to spoil so good a farm lad with book learning. At seventeen he taught school, and made this a means of aiding support and pursuing studies, for three winters. He had a natural predilection for the legal profession, and studied the standard books while on the farm and while teaching, until 1853, when he entered the law office of Vilas & Reming ton, in Madison, as a student. In February, 1854, he was admitted to the bar, and such was his industry and accuracy, his constant devotion to study and facility in acquiring legal knowledge, that he soon had an exten sive practice, and took rank in the front row of lawyers. He devoted much time to ac quiring knowledge of the correct methods of procedure, and was early noted for his cor rectness as a pleader and his mastery of every detail of practice in law or equity, in
the State and Federal courts. The adoption of the Code of Procedure, borrowed from New York, in 1856, %vas a radical change in practice, and drove from it some of the older lawyers, who were too set in the old ways to learn a new practice. Mr. Pinney was one of the first to master the new method, and he became an authority on all questions of procedure under the Code. He continued in professional work and full practice till he went upon the bench of the Supreme Court, in January, 1892, having been elected in the preceding April. He was highly esteemed at the bar, and was retained in much im portant litigation. It is probably within the bounds of truth to say that no single lawyer in the State has been retained in more cases in number and importance than he. As a lawyer he was remarkably successful, and conducted cases involving great amounts of property with a professional skill and practical sagacity that kept him loaded with re tainers and cares. He was several years professor in the Col lege of Law of the State University, but the demands of his practice compelled him to sever this connection. He conducted to successful result much of the important liti gation growing out of the " land grants" made by Congress to aid in the construction of railroads. Out of these and the fickle legislation of the States in disposing of them arose a vast number of perplexing questions to be settled by State and Federal courts; and Mr. Pinney's labors in this field were extensive, and his services were sought by many parties in interest. He never made the mistake so common to Western lawyers. He kept out of poli tics. His political status was with the Dem ocratic party, but he was always independent
