County, Illinois, September 23, 1866. His parents were Peter and
Lucinda (Beasley) Obermeyer. His father, was born in the King-
dom of Bavaria, now a part of the German Empire, emigrated to
America and settled in Illinois in 1850, followed contracting and
building during his active life and is now living at Winchester.
524
Charles Benjamin Obermeyer had a public school education in
his native town, learned the trade of brick layer, worked at it with
his father, and during the long winter nights practiced and learned
the art of telegraphy. His first position was with the Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy Railway, and in 1885 he came to Chicago and
was employed as operator with the Western Union Telegraph Com-
pany until 1889. In the meantime he had taken up the study of
law as opportunity offered, and in 1887 became a night student in
the Chicago College of Law, then conducted by Judge Joseph
Bailey of the Supreme Court, and Judge Thomas A. Moran of
the Appellate Court. In 1890 Mr. Obermeyer graduated from this
school, was admitted to the Illinois bar the same year, and has
since been in active practice in Chicago. From 1891 to 1893 ^ r -
Obermeyer was first assistant attorney to the City of Chicago, and
for a number of years has served as attorney to the North Shore
Park District. He is vice president and director of the Illinois Brick
Company.
Mr. Obermeyer is a member of the Chicago Bar Association,
the Illinois State Bar Association, the Law Institute, has affiliations
with various Masonic bodies, including Lincoln Park Commandery
and Medinah Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and is also a member
of the Royal Arcanum, the Royal League, the Sons of Veterans
Camp, No. 100, and the Elks. His clubs are the Illinois Athletic,
the Hamilton, the Birchwood Country, the Builders Club, and the
Evanston Golf.
In 1896 Mr. Obermeyer married Miss Hannah M. Cloud of
Chicago. Their three children are: Lucinda E., aged fifteen;
Charles Benjamin, Jr., aged thirteen ; and Peter, aged six. The fam-
ily reside at 6738 Newgard Avenue, and his offices are in the
Woman's Temple.
FRANCIS J. HOULIHAN. His appearance in a number of noted
cases in Chicago has made the name of Francis J. Houlihan well
known to the general public, while he has ever been recognized
as one of the able lawyers of the Chicago bar, where he has prac-
ticed for twenty-two years.
Mr. Houlihan was born at Ogdensburg, New York, July 20,
1865, and is a son of Francis R. and Mary (Gorman) Houlihan, his
father being a successful contractor of New York State for many
years. The public schools of his native state furnished Francis
J. Houlihan with his early education, following which he became a
student in Ogdensburg Academy. He was graduated from that
institution in the class of 1887 with the Bachelor of Arts degree.
He then took up the study of law in the office of a well known
attorney of Ogdensburg, but after one year of study the greater
opportunities of the west brought him to Chicago, where he became a
student in the offices of Ryan, Weinschenck & Hirschl. There he
COURTS AND LAWYERS OF ILLINOIS 525
had the opportunity of an excellent legal training, and in 1890
he entered the law school of Northwestern University to fin-
ish his studies, being graduated in 1892 with the degree of
Bachelor of Laws. He was admitted to the bar in June of that
year, and the firm of O'Hara and Houlihan came into existence
soon after, Mr. O'Hara having been a classmate at the law school.
This association continued successfully until 1898, when the part-
nership was mutually dissolved and Mr. Houlihan became identified
with the firm of Rosenthal, Kurz & Hirschl, which later became
Rosenthal & Kurz, the members being James Rosenthal, Adolph
Kurz and Francis J. Houlihan. Engaged in a general practice,
with offices in the Rector Building, Mr. Houlihan has been con-
nected with a number of cases that have attracted widespread at-
tention. He closed successfully the case of the West Pullman Car
Works, when the charge of graft of a million and a quarter dollars
was placed against the officials and employes of that great corpora-
tion. Mr. Houlihan was attorney in the notorious case of William
T. Kirby, the private banker, in which "wire tappers" secured
twenty thousand dollars, and in which John Henry Strosnider,
"King of the Confidence Men," was sent to the .penitentiary. Mr.
Houlihan has figured prominently as counsel in numerous other im-
portant cases, as well. A member of the Chicago and Illinois State
Bar associations, Mr. Houlihan bears a high reputation among his
fellow practitioners. He is a member of the Catholic Church, of
the Knights of Columbus, and is popular as a member of a number
of social organizations of the city.
In 1898 Mr. Houlihan married Miss Mollie Conway of Chicago,
and four children have been born to them : Robert A., Mary,
Eileen and Francis J., Jr. Their home is at 229 North Austin
Avenue, in the suburb of Austin.
JAMES I. ENNIS. For more than half a century, Ennis has
been one of the most familiar names in Chicago legal circles.
James Ignatius Ennis was born in Chicago, October 17, 1861,
and is a son of James and Mary A. (Sexton) Ennis. His father
was engaged in the active practice of law from 1856 until his
death in 1880, and was an honored and influential citizen as well
as a pioneer lawyer of Chicago. His wife was born in Chicago
and was a member of a sterling pioneer family. She was a sister
of the late Col. James A. Sexton, who served as postmaster of
Chicago and as commander in chief of the national organization of
the Grand Army of the Republic, having been a distinguished
officer in the Civil war. Mrs. Ennis was likewise a sister of the
late Austin O. Sexton, and the latter's son, William H., was but
recently corporation counsel of the city.
James I. Ennis acquired his early education in the parochial and
public schools of Chicago and after finishing the course in the old
Central High School, went, in 1878, to Wisconsin and became a
teacher in the country schools in Marathon and Portage counties,
526 COURTS AND LAWYERS OF ILLINOIS
which were at that time in the center of the pine forests,
with lumbering as their principal industry. He continued to teach
in Wisconsin until November, 1880, and earlier in that year he
had served as United States census enumerator in Portage County.
Called back to Chicago on account of the sudden death of his
father, he assisted his elder brother, Maj. Lawrence M. Ennis,
in caring for and rearing the younger children, their mother hav-
ing died in 1876. The career of Mr. Ennis from this time forward
is sketched in the following quotation : "Within about two weeks
after his father's death, Mr. Ennis entered the employ of the
Merchants Loan & Trust Company, Chicago's oldest banking in-
stitution, and remained with them until January 31, 1896, when he
took up the active practice of law. During the entire period of his
active identification with the banking business, Mr. Ennis never lost
sight of the fact that he wished to become a lawyer. In 1884,
he entered the old Union College of Law, in which he attended
lectures and passed the examinations for the junior year. But at
the end of the year the strain of working all day in the bank
and reading law half the night proved so ' severe a test of his
health and eyesight that he was compelled, upon the advice of his
physician, to forego the further prosecution of his college work
for the time being. He did not give up his reading, however, but
pursued his law studies in the offices of Mason and Ennis and of
Joseph H. Fitch, who later was elevated to the bench of the Superior
Court of Cook County. In 1892, he entered the Kent College of
Law, graduating in 1893. He was elected the first president of
the alumni association of this institution and was reelected at the
close of his first term.
"Upon the death of his brother, the late Maj. Lawrence M.
Ennis, Mr. Ennis took up the practice of law, succeeding to the
law business formerly controlled by his brother. In 1908, he be-
came an office associate of Judge Fitch, the two having been stanch
friends from the time when they were schoolmates in the old Cen-
tral High School, on West Monroe Street.
"Mr. Ennis has been prominent and influential as a member of
the Illinois National Guard. In 1882 he became a member of the
First Regiment of Infantry and he rose from private to the posi-
tion of first sergeant of Company F, an office held until after the
Stock Yards strike of 1896, when he was elected first lieutenant of
the company. In 1890 he mustered Company K into the First
Regiment and served as its captain until his entrance into the law
college, when he felt it best to resign his command. He has never
lost his interest in the National Guard, however, and is a member
of the veteran corps of the First Regiment. He is also an honor-
ary member of Companies F, H and K.
"In the matter of civic improvement Mr. Ennis is an enthusiast.
He is the founder of the Rogers Park Improvement Association,
which has been in existence for twenty years. He believes that the
COURTS AND LAWYERS OF ILLINOIS 527
shores of Lake Michigan should be accessible to all the people and the
North Shore Park district was organized to prevent the lake shore
from being monopolized by selfish interests. He was a commis-
sioner of the North Shore Park District for six years. He has done
a large work in helping to organize improvement societies in various
parts of Chicago.
"In the American Institute of Banking Mr. Ennis has long been
prominent and influential, not only as an active member, but also as
one of its lecturers and debaters and as a delegate to its conventions.
He is now one of the very few honorary members of the Chicago
chapter of this important organization and is the regular commis-
sioned law lecturer of the same in Chicago, where he has conducted
a series of twenty-five lectures each winter, these having been
eagerly attended by the men actively identified with banking inter-
ests in the city. A successful completion of this course of lectures,
together with a course on finance, entitles the successful student to
a certificate as a fellow of the American Institute of Banking. Mr.
Ennis' opinions on banking and finance are sound. For several
years he wrote for prominent bankers' journals and magazines and
in 1904 was elected an honorary member of the national convention
of State Bank Examiners, in Indianapolis, this being in recognition
of his reading a paper and delivering a speech of great interest and
value at the convention.
"Loving a home life, Mr. Ennis prefers the comfort of his quiet
and attractive home in Rogers Park to the allurements of club life.
Necessarily he belongs to clubs, but they are subordinated to the
home associations. Mr. Ennis has continued a close student and his
reading has covered a wide range of the best in academic and scien-
tific literature. He is a member of the Illinois Society of Micros-
copists, the Fellowship Club of the Merchants Loan & Trust Com-
pany, the Irish Fellowship Club, the Iroquois Club, the Chicago
Bar Association and the Illinois Bar Association."
In addition to being law lecturer for the American Institute of
Banking, Mr. Ennis is retained also as regular lecturer for the
Chicago Business Law School, the Walton School of Accountancy
and the Illinois Bankers' Association. In December, 1911, he was
appointed master in chancery of the Superior Court of Cook County
and it is especially grateful to him that this preferment came through
his lifelong friend, Judge Joseph H. Fitch. He is a staunch demo-
crat in politics.
On the 1 5th of February, 1887, Mr. Ennis married Miss Geor-
gina Wild, only daughter of the late Thomas S. and Georgina
(Major) Wild. Mrs. Ennis is a sister of Harrison M. Wild, the
distinguished musician, organist of Grace Church, Chicago, and
conductor of the Apollo Club; and of the late Capt. Frederick
S. Wild, of the United States Army. Of the four children of Mr.
and Mrs. Ennis, two are living, Arthur, in his father's office and a
student in the Kent College of Law; and Marjorie, a member of
the class of 1916 in the Senn High School, Chicago.
528 COURTS AND LAWYERS OF ILLINOIS
ROLLA R. LONGENECKER. Through father and son the name
Longenecker has been prominent in the Chicago bar for more than
a third of a century. The father was the late Hon. Joel M. Longe-
necker, who began his career in the law at Olney, Illinois, and in
1 88 1 located in Chicago, and continued in successful practice there
until his death in September, 1906. Rolla R. Longenecker, the son,
has been favored with the rewards of the successful lawyer, and
at the same time has rendered valuable service such as only a leader
at the bar can perform for his community.
Rolla R. Longenecker was born at Olney, Illinois, April i, 1875,
son of the late Hon. Joel M. Longenecker. The family having
removed to Chicago when he was six years of age, he acquired his
education in the public schools of that city, and spent five years as
a student and clerk in his father's office. He was also a student of
the old Chicago College of Law, subsequently consolidated and now
the Chicago Kent College of Law. Admitted to the bar in 1900,
Mr. Longenecker formed a partnership with his father and they
handled a large and important legal practice until the death of the
senior member in 1906. Since that time Mr. Longenecker has prac-
ticed alone, with offices in the Chicago Stock Exchange Building.
While his practice is of a general nature, he has handled a large
amount of business for corporations. For several years Mr. Longe-
necker has followed the custom of giving one day of his pro-
fessional services each week to charity practice, and in that way
has performed a large amount of good in behalf of those who
need legal services but who are unable to pay for competent advice
and representation. Mr. Longenecker has membership in the Chi-
cago Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association, is a life
member of the Hamilton Club, and is one of the leading Masons in
Chicago.
His Masonic affiliation is with Candida Lodge No. 927, A. F. &
A. M. ; Chicago Chapter No. 127, R. A. M. ; with Oriental Consistory
of the Scottish Rite; and with Medinah Temple of the Nobles of
the Mystic Shrine. Mr. Longenecker is a past master of his Blue
Lodge, is librarian for the Oriental Consistory, and has been a very
active worker in all of these Masonic branches. He is a director
of the Gil W. Barnard Hospital and a member of the executive
committee and counsel for the Masonic Hospital Association. Other
affiliations connect him with the Knights of Pythias, and he is a
member of the State Judiciary Committee and a member of the
Grand Lodge. He is imperial nawab of the D. O. K. K. (Knights
of Khorassan). A member and past adjutant and past judge advo-
cate of the Sons of Veterans, Mr. Longenecker in 1898 raised a
regiment among the Sons of Veterans for service in the Spanish-
American war, and was commissioned captain of Company A in
the headquarters at Douglas Hall, but the regiment did not reach
the front nor engage in active service. Mr. Longenecker is also
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. For four-
COURTS AND LAWYERS OF ILLINOIS 529
teen years he was Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in the Chi-
cago College of Osteopathy.
September 20, 1904, occurred his marriage to Miss Grace Louise
Brinkerhoff of Chicago. Their two children are Edwin Donald and
Lula Florence. The family are members of the Methodist Church
and their home is in Oak Park.
HARRY BOYD HURD. Perhaps no more striking example of the
high rewards attainable through a life of industry, energy, perse-
verance and devotion to high ideals may be found than the career
and achievements of Harry Boyd Hurd, a member of the firm of
Pam & Hurd, and known as one of Chicago's leading and most
accomplished lawyers. Beginning his career as a newsboy that he
might earn the means with which to gratify his ambition for a
higher education, working his way laboriously and determinedly
through the initial steps of his legal learning, contentedly taking
his place among the practitioners of his adopted city in a humble
capacity, and finally gaining high reputation and the substantial
emoluments which accompany it, his accomplishments should prove
of a nature decidedly encouraging to the ambitious youth who enters
upon life's struggle handicapped by the lack of superior advantages.
Harry Boyd Hurd was born in Livingston County, Missouri,
January 8, 1875, and is a son of Inscoe E. and Harriet (Andrew)
Hurd, farming people of that community. Reared on the farm,
Mr. Hurd attended the district schools of his native community
until he was thirteen years of age, at which time he went to Mus-
catine, Iowa, where for three years he made his home with his
aunt, and there attended high school. He was possessed of industry
and ambition, and in order to secure money to pay his transporta-
tion to Chicago worked energetically carrying newspapers, and in
1892 arrived in this city with a meagre capital. Here for a short
time he studied stenography and subsequently secured a positon at
$6 a week, and while thus employed began his preparation for the
law. His daylight hours were passed in discharging the duties of
his position, and in the evenings he attended the night classes at
the Chicago College of Law, from which he was graduated in 1895
with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. His employment was then
changed for a better one, where he could have a chance of further-
ing his legal knowledge, Mr. Hurd becoming stenographer in the
law office of Moses, Pam & Kennedy, where his duties included
stenography, the writing of briefs and occasional ventures into the
field of his vocation. In 1897, when this firm was dissolved, Mr.
Max Pam formed a partnership with Judge Charles H. Donnelly,
and Mr. Hurd went to the new offices, continuing with the firm and
in 1898 when it became Pam, Donnelly & Glennon being taken in
as a partner. He was also a partner of the firm of Pam, Calhoun
& Glennon, which succeeded it, and in 1904 this firm ceased to
exist and the new combination of Pam & Hurd was formed, which
Vol. II 1
530 COURTS AND LAWYERS OF ILLINOIS
still exists and maintains offices in the Rookery, Chicago, with a
branch office in the Empire Building, New York City.
During his subsequent practice, Mr. Hurd has been connected
with much important litigation that has come before the Illinois
courts. His record, while still so young a man, is one of which he
has every reason to be proud. Among his professional brethren
his success has aroused no jealousy, for what he has achieved has
been the result of hard work and continued and unwearying appli-
cation, thorough conscientiousness and unquestionable integrity.
Mr. Hurd is a valued member of the Chicago Bar Association, the
American Bar Association and the Law Institute. His social con-
nections include membership in the Chicago Athletic, Mid-Day,
Chicago Automobile and Evanston Golf clubs.
On December 25, 1902, Mr. Hurd was married to Miss Margaret
Frank, of Sterling, Illinois, and they have two children : Harriet
Margaret and Anna Catherine. The pleasant family home is located
at No. 932 Edgemere Place, Evanston, Illinois.
QUIN O'BRIEN. In writing of the life and achievements thus
far of Quin O'Brien, one of the able representatives of the Chicago
bar, another has said that he "is a brilliant as well as a successful
lawyer, a powerful and persuasive advocate. His work has im-
pressed itself upon the profession, overshadowing the many legal
battles of widely varying character, in which he has been a com-
batant. His career at the bar may be epitomized as being a stimulant
to both jurists and lawyers, an embodiment of the best traditions of
the profession."
Quin O'Brien was born in the mining town of Atlantic, in
Houghton County, Michigan, on March 27, 1871. His parents were
Quinlan and Margaret (Greene) O'Brien, both of whom were born
in County Cork, Ireland. In the days before the Civil war they
came to America and established a home in the copper mining dis-
trict of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and there the father
was employed by various mining companies until 1874, when he re-
moved to Iowa. There he purchased farm land and applied him-
self to the business of farming, becoming known as one of the repre-
sentative farmers of Greene County.
Quin O'Brien was a child of three years when the family settled
in Iowa and his boyhood and youth were passed on the home farm.
He attended the district schools of Greene County, later entered the
high school at Panora, Guthrie County, Iowa, and followed his train-
ing there with a college course in Highland Park College in Des
Moines, from which he was graduated in 1894 with the degree of
Bachelor of Arts. Later his alma mater conferred upon him the
Master's degree. In 1894 Mr. O'Brien came to Chicago to make
it his permanent home, and to carry out his plan for entering the
legal profession. He secured employment in a law office and de
voted his evenings to work in the evening classes of the Chicago
COURTS AND LAWYERS OF ILLINOIS 531
College of Law, which awarded him his degree of Bachelor of
Laws in 1896, with admission to the Chicago bar.
In further mention of his career we quote again from the ex-
pressions of the writer mentioned in the opening paragraph, as
follows : "Mr. O'Brien at once commenced the practice of his
profession. His distinctive ability was quickly recognized, as he
was appointed trial attorney for the city of Chicago almost at the
inception of his career. He remained in that office for two years
and made the best record of percentage of cases won by any occu-
pant of that position, before or since. He is at the present time
attorney for the ice companies of Chicago, for the Hibernian Bank-
ing Association, for the Rock Island & Southern Railroad Company
and for numerous other important corporations and business con-
cerns in and about the City of Chicago. Mr. O'Brien has the dis-
tinction of having won some of the largest verdicts in the history
of personal-injury cases tried in the courts of Illinois, and has the
honor of establishing precedents in the following cases : On suit
of heirs, he brought about the annulment of the marriage of an
ancestor, and he. successfully defended a man charged with bur-
glary by showing that the act .was committed when his client was
in a state of somnambulism."
Mr. O'Brien has been an influential figure in the educational
work of his profession and for a number of years he was retained
as lecturer on law in the Chicago Law School. He is a member
of the Chicago Law Institute, the Chicago and the Illinois State-
Bar associations. He is at present a member of the board of di-
rectors of the National Bureau for the Advancement of Patriotism,
and he is a progressive and public-spirited citizen, his membership
in the Chicago Association of Commerce indicating his sentiment
along those lines. He is prominent socially and has membership in
the Press Club, the Iroquois Club, the Michigan Club, the City Club,
the Hawkeye Club, and is fraternally associated with the Benevolent
Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Columbus. He was
reared in the faith of the Roman Catholic Church and he and his
wife are communicants of Mt. Carmel Church.
Mr. O'Brien is a democrat, and in 1904 he was a candidate for
the office of representative from the Ninth Illinois district in the
United States Congress. He was defeated, and in 1906 the nomi-
nation was again proffered him, but he declined. As an orator Mr.
O'Brien has gained a considerable distinction, and he is much
sought after as a lecturer before college assemblies and chautau-
quas, and as a speaker at patriotic and politicl meetings, banquets
and other public occasions.
Mr. O'Brien was married on November 14, 1901, at Davenport,
Iowa, to Miss Eileen McCortney, daughter of Dr. James Mc-
Cortney, a representative physician of that city, and one of the
five physicians appointed by President Lincoln to investigate the
condition of federal prisons during the Civil war. They have
four children: Kathleen, Brendan, Justin McCortney and Elaine.
532 COURTS AND LAWYERS OF ILLINOIS
FRANK J. LOESCH. In the large group of Chicago attorneys
who are largely engaged in corporation practice, Frank J. Loesch
is one of the most successful. Mr. Loesch has been identified with
the Chicago bar forty years, and since 1886 has represented the