Cassoday, John B
lawyer, legislator, jurist, author, was born July 7, 1830, in Herkimer county, N. Y. He pursued his early studies in the common schools, and at the academies in Wellsboro and Knoxville, graduating from the Alfred academy. He subsequently studied one year at the Michigan university, and attended the law school of Albany, N.
Y. In 1857 he settled in Janesville, Wis.. where he soon attained prominence as a great lawyer. He was a member of the Wisconsin state legislature in 1865 and again in 1877, when he was made speaker of that body. In 1864 he was a delegate to the Baltimore convention that nominated Lincoln for president; and in 1880 to the Chicago convention that nominated Garfield, and was chairman of the Wisconsin delegation. In 1880 he was appointed associate justice. of the supreme court: received the re-election to that office in 1881 and again in 1889. He became chief justice of the supreme court of Wisconsin in 1895, and still fills that high position. He is also professor of constitutional law in the college of law at the university of Wisconsin. Chief Justice Cassoday is the author of Cassoday on Wills; and has contributed extensively to law journals. 4