Background

John Bolivar Cassoday was born on July 7, 1830 at Fairfield, Herkimer County, New York, United States. He was the son of Dennis and Jane Ann (Spratt) Cassoday. His father, an Irish immigrant (probably Scotch-Irish), a carpenter by trade, died when the son was three years old and John and his mother went with her parents to Tioga County. His mother remarried and his maternal grandmother had charge of his upbringing. She was of Dutch descent and a woman of some education. She was ambitious for her grandson and kept before his youthful mind the motto: "Study is the keynote of excellence. " This thought he afterward said pervaded his whole life.

Education

He attended the district school, working for his board, had one term at the village school at Tioga and one term at the Wellsborough Academy before he was seventeen. He taught school from the time he was sixteen until he was twenty. He attended the academy at Knoxville for two terms and spent two years at Alfred (N. Y. ) Academy, from which he was graduated. He attended the University of Michigan, 1855-57, and for a short time the Albany Law School.

Career

In 1857 he removed to Janesville where he entered the law office of H. S. Conger, afterward judge of the 12th judicial circuit, and was admitted to the bar July 18, 1857. While he was of studious habits and had an acute logical retentive mind, he was distinctly a person of solid dependable qualities rather than of the showy brilliant type. His outstanding ability, integrity, industry, and courtesy quickly won for him a substantial practice, and he was retained in most of the important litigation which arose in his section of the state.

The Wisconsin delegation of which he was chairman was swung to the support of James A. Garfield and to this fact many attributed his nomination. On November 11, 1880, Cassoday was appointed a member of the supreme court of the State of Wisconsin to succeed Justice Cole, who had been appointed chief justice. He was elected in April 1881 and reelected in 1889 and in 1899 without opposition. Upon the death of Chief Justice Harlow S. Orton, July 4, 1895, Cassoday succeeded to that office, serving as chief justice to the time of his death. He was a professor of law and a lecturer in the University Law School from 1876 to 1880 and from 1885 to 1889, his subjects being wills and constitutional law. His lectures on wills were published in book form in 1893 under the title, The Law of Wills.

Achievements

• He bore a conspicuous part in the National Republican Convention of 1880. Twenty-seven years of distinguished and faithful service on the bench of the highest court of the state won for him the affection as well as the respect of all the people of the state.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The law of wills: being a series of lectures on the subject of "Wills" delivered before the College of Law of the University of Wisconsin.

    (The Making of the Modern Law: Legal Treatises, 1800-1926 ...)

  • Address on our state & national indebtedness to the English & American bars

Politics

Unfaltering in his allegiance to the Republican party, he was frequently a delegate to the state conventions and occasionally to the national conventions of the party.

Membership

In 1864 Cassoday was elected a member of the Assembly. He was reelected in 1876 and was chosen speaker, being the unanimous candidate of the Republican party for that position.

Personality

Cassoday was a man of medium stature and slight build but of impressive personal dignity. He was an effective speaker before a jury, on the stump, and at public gatherings. He had a fine voice and a convincing manner which won the confidence of his hearers.

He was a painstaking, careful, and conscientious judge. His opinions, found in the reports of the Wisconsin supreme court , are evidence of the thorough and exhaustive character of his judicial work.

Quotes from others about the person

• Chief Justice Winslow, his successor and for fifteen years his associate, said of him: "Age advanced upon him and bent his frame, but could not bend his will nor abate his interest in his fellowmen. No good work appealed to him in vain, no philanthropic movement lacked his active sympathy and support. He was in the full and true sense a man, and nothing pertaining to man could be a matter of indifference to him".

Connections

On February 21, 1860, he was married to Mary P. Spaulding. To them were born four daughters and one son: Ella, Belle, Anna, Eldon, and Bertha May, all of whom survived him.

Father:

Dennis Cassoday

He was an Irish immigrant (probably Scotch-Irish), a carpenter by trade

Mother:

Jane Ann (Spratt) Cassoday

She was of Dutch descent and a woman of some education

Spouse:

Mary P. Spaulding

Daughter:

Anna

Daughter:

Belle

Daughter:

Bertha May

Daughter:

Ella

Son:

Eldon