to perform to-day is not alone one of panegyric and eulogy, but with love and charity, impinging even on the domain of oblivion, it is our office to present, so far as we may be able, a just conception of the life and character of the departed. Judge Dennison departed this life at Olympia on the 16th of April, 1896, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. Although he was more than three score and ten, the lapse of years had not enervated his intellectual powers nor dimmed his mental vision. Up to his last sickness his step was firm and steady although not so elastic as in manhood's prime, and his tall, slim form was as erect as in former years. The following is a brief biographical sketch of his eventful life and

career:

66

Benjamin F. Dennison was born in Burke, Caledonia county, Vermont, in 1820. He was fitted for college at the Newbury Methodist university, and graduated in 1845 from Dartmouth college. During the Tippecanoe" campaign in 1840, though not old enough to vote, he was an active member of the Whig political club of his college, and was a participant in the county and state demonstrations and had the pleasure of listening to the speeches of Webster, Choate, Johnson and other great orators of that period. After his graduation he went to Akron, Ohio, and engaged in reading law which he continued at Cleveland in the office of Reuben Wood, who was subsequently elected supreme judge and governor of the state, and was admitted afterwards to practice in the court of common pleas and in the supreme court in 1848.

He then opened an office for the purpose of practicing, but upon the discovery of gold in California, imbued with the spirit of adventure, he joined a company of seven young men, who proceeded to Louisville and purchased a prairie outfit, with mule teams, in the spring of 1849, started across the plains for California. Being inexperienced in prairie travel, their teams soon became exhausted from too rapid driving, and by making haste in the start their arrival in California was much delayed. They were attacked by hordes of Indians, and only saved from massacre by reaching a camp of emigrants. About 500 miles out from Sacramento they were ambushed in the night, robbed of their mules and left almost destitute. They then made small packs of their remaining supplies, and each with one blanket set forth on foot. The Digger Indians

gave them much trouble at night, and though caught in the mountains in snow, they dared not make fires for fear of the Indians. With scanty supplies of food and clothing they were miserable indeed. Their food ultimately gave out, and for three days they lived on sugar and water alone. Six months were consumed in this weary journey, and they arrived in the Sacramento valley in a half starved condition, with only their clothes upon their backs, financially "dead broke," even pawning a revolver for a square meal.

Mr. Dennison began mining upon the south fork of American river, but soon contracted fever and ague and became unfit for labor. He then went to Sacramento and, after recuperating, presented a letter of credit which he brought from New York city, drawn upon Simmons & Hutchinson, merchants of that city. After he had described his condition and circumstances, Mr. Hutchinson gave him $50 and an order for a bill of goods, which he advised him to take to Marysville and sell, that being a central point for miners. He followed this advice and with $200 worth of sugar, bacon and camp supplies he hired a boat and two men to take him to that place. Accomplishing his journey, his stock was quickly sold at 100 per cent. profit, and he thus raised his first stake. Returning to Sacramento and paying his bills, he then went to San Jose for his health, and after gaining a little strength he hired two Indians and went to the Mariposa mines, where he was successful, though unable to do anything himself. After about two months, he went to Los Angeles, then a city of adobe houses and vineyards. He engaged in the practice of law, was elected one of the three county judges, and also engaged in the wholesale grocery and hardware business, under the firm name of Childs, Hicks & Dennison, and continued business for two years, realizing very large profits. He then sold out and by private carriage drove north with a view of returning to Ohio, but upon arriving at Stockton and learning that cholera was very fatal upon the isthmus, he changed his plans and sailed for the Hawaiian islands, taking with him a quantity of California saddles, bridles, etc., for sale. These sold rapidly in the market of Honolulu, paying a very handsome profit and affording him a considerable amount of ready cash. The opportunity Judge Dennison improved, and returning to San Francisco, sold his drafts

at a premium, thus converting his pleasure trip to one of considerable profit. Judge Dennison then located in Monterey and resumed the practice of his profession in the courts of that city, Santa Cruz and San Jose.

In 1858 Judge Dennison came to Puget Sound and located at Whatcom, which was then a settlement of 3,000 people living in tents, awaiting the opening of the trail to the Fraser river mines. The road was subsequently declared impracticable, and the people dispersed, many going to Victoria and advancing by water. The judge opened his office and engaged in practice, meeting, among others, Mike Simmons, the old Indian agent; E. C. Fitzhugh, who was subsequently appointed district judge of Washington Territory, and Col. B. F. Shaw, now of Vancouver. With the scattering of the miners Whatcom became very quiet, and Judge Dennison removed to Port Townsend and established a home and continued his profession. In 1868 he was appointed territorial associate judge, and in 1869 territorial chief justice by President Grant, but after one year resigned to follow his large and lucrative practice as an attorney for the representative mill companies then located upon the Sound. About 1870 the judge moved to Olympia; subsequently to Portland, where he practiced in partnership with Gov. A. C. Gibbs for two years, and then to Vancouver, where he followed a general practice until 1889. In 1889 the judge returned to Olympia, and devoted his time to cases in the federal and supreme courts, through which he has carried many intricate and complex cases to a successful termination.

The first suit ever brought in the territory to establish the right of dower was brought by Judge Dennison before Judge William Strong, in behalf of Mrs. Eby, widow of Col. Eby, collector of customs, who was massacred on Whidby Island by the Northern Indians. The judge defended the widow's rights and established her claim, and the correctness of that decision has never been called in question. Commencing his political life as a Whig, Judge Dennison afterwards joined the Republican party, and ever continued one of its earnest and faithful adherents. He served two terms in the territorial legislature, one term as president of the council and one in the lower house.

I distinctly remember the first time I met Judge Dennison. It

was at Olympia in July, 1869. I had just arrived in the territory and was a stranger to everybody. I learned that my chief was in town and I called at his rooms-introducing myself. The reception was dignified, and I thought, a little cold and formal. During our conversation, he being an old practitioner in the territory, I ventured to ask the mode of procedure in certain stages of a lawsuit. He answered that there was no uniform practice, but that every district judge was a law unto himself in that regard; and he added, "as you came from Oregon, I suppose the Oregon practice will prevail in your district." There was, I thought, a tinge of

I ventured to

impatience as well as a mild protest in this remark. ask him if I was to understand his remark as a reminiscent sarcasm or the statement of a fact. He looked at me sharply and quickly, and then in his deliberate manner declared it to be the statement of a fact. I departed without the highest opinion of his social qualities, but favorably impressed with his qualifications as a judge and his ability as a lawyer. From that time on till the day of his death our acquaintance was intimate and continuous. Judge Dennison, in his friendships and his enmities in social life, as well as his intercourse with bench and bar, was never demonstrative. He was dignified, unimpassioned, taciturn and reflective. The current of his affections, as well as his enmities, ran deep and noiseless. He was a true friend, a good hater, but did not publish either fact to the world. When you broke through the social ice incrustation by which he was seemingly surrounded, you felt the genial warmth of his inner nature and the fidelity of his friendship. He, as a man, was distinguished by an intensified individuality. Seemingly cold, unsympathetic and distant, he was ever ready to respond to the voice of charity and the pleas of the needy, but he never let his right hand know what his left hand did. Judge Dennison was a silent, contemplative and reflective man. There was to him a pleasure in the pathless woods-a rapture on the lonely shoresociety where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar -hence he spent many happy hours and pleasant days in the continuous woods, and was as well acquainted with the habits and accustomed haunts of its timid denizens as Judge Catron, formerly of the supreme court.

But it was as a judge and lawyer that the life and character of

ture.

Judge Dennison most concerns us. His career as judge was brief and ended in an unfortunate conflict between him and the legislaThe legislature unjustly attempted to strip him of power and virtually sent him into judicial banishment. I urged him to disregard these legislative mandates and to hold the courts in his district but he refused. This action of the legislature combined with his masterly inactivity was anything but pleasant for me, for it compelled me to hold the courts in the second as well as the third judicial district. This condition of things could not last, and President Grant deeming that his usefulness as judge, whether rightfully or wrongfully, had been destroyed, removed him and the speaker, without any solicitation of his and without any participa. tion in the unfortunate conflict, was promoted and Judge Greene was appointed my successor.

Judge Dennison immediately opened an office at Port Townsend and entered upon the practice of his profession. Wherever known he was rightfully acknowledged as a safe counsellor and an able advocate. His mind acted slowly but surely. On account of the slowness of mental action he was in the practical conduct of a law suit sometimes put to a disadvantage, on minor points at least, when his competitor possessed a quicker and more unscrupulous mentality. In other words, in law as an art, Judge Dennison had many equals, but in law as a science, he had few superiors. This fact or difference is everywhere recognized in the profession. The one is the lawyer, the other the practitioner. The one gives the diagnosis of the case, the other administers the medicine. The one is the real power behind the throne, the other the apparent pos. sessor of that power outside the profession is usually the recipient of all the honors.

Judge Dennison, as I have remarked, was a safe counsellor, and when the facts were admitted or refined by reflection or eliminated by analysis, was an advocate of rare powers of persuasion and argument. He possessed the ability to state a legal proposition with its exceptions and limitations, if any, in such pure and accurate language that few, if any, of his compeers possessed. When fully prepared, his logical force and earnestness commanded and held the attention of the court and the bar. Some of the finest legal arguments heard by me while on the bench were made by our