Smith, Abner
lawyer, jurist, born Aug. 4, 1843, in Orange, Mass. He is a judge of the circuit court of Cook county, Ill., and a man whose high attainments have placed him in the front rank of the representatives of the legal profession. His ancestors on both sides of the house figure prominently in the early history of this country. On graduating from Middlebury college in 1866 he became principal of Newton academy of Vermont, but resigned in 1868, when he came to Chicago to take up the study of his chosen profession. He was admitted to the bar in 1868 at Chicago, where he still resides, and enjoyed a large practice in the state and supreme courts till the fall of 1893, when he was nominated by the republican party for the circuit court judgeship and elected by an overwhelming majority. On the bench as well as at. the bar he has made a record that will long command the respect of the people of Illinois. He also possesses great literary ability.