also having enjoyed official honors within the scope of his profes-
sion. Judge Van Sellar was a man of strong intellect and high
professional attainments. He early recognized that success at the
bar depended upon not only a comprehensive knowledge of legal
principles, but also upon a thorough understanding of every detail
of his case. These two principles were the guiding lines to large
and distinctive professional success.
Henry Van Sellar was born on a farm in the State of Delaware
in December, 1839, of New York and New England ancestry. His
education came from the public schools, the Ohio Wesleyan Uni-
versity of Delaware, Ohio, the Dennison University at Granville,
Ohio, and coming to Edgar County, Illinois, in August, 1860, took
up the study of law in a local office. Six months later, and within
three days after Fort Sumter had been fired upon, he abandoned
his Blackstone and enlisted as a private in Company E of the
Twelfth Illinois Infantry. It was a three months regiment, and on
August i, 1 86 1, he was elected and commissioned second lieutenant,
having in the meantime re-enlisted. On October 18, 1861, he was
promoted to captain, and on February 19, 1864, was elected and
commissioned lieutenant-colonel of his regiment, and was its active
commander until it was mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, July
10, 1865. He was also commissioned colonel, but never formally
took that rank, since the roll call of his regiment showed less than
800 men. By reason of his record in the war and the distinctions
that subsequently came to him in civil life, Judge Van Sellar was
one of the best known of the Union veterans in the state.
On returning to Edgar County after the war, Colonel Van Sellar
again resumed the study of law, and was admitted in 1866 at the
April term of the Supreme Court. Since that date he was en-
gaged in practice either in Edgar County or elsewhere. In No-
vember, 1884, Colonel Van Sellar was elected to the Legislature
from, the Thirty-first District as successor to the late Atty.-Gen.
George Hunt, and served during the Thirty- fourth Assembly.
In June, 1897, ne was chosen circuit judge for the Fifth Judicial
Circuit, and administered the duties of that office with an eminent
impartiality and judicial dignity for the term of six years, finally
666 COURTS AND LAWYERS OF ILLINOIS
retiring from the bench in June, 1903, and resuming his private
practice. Judge Van Sellar was honored with public responsibility
as often as his private affairs would allow him to accept, and be-
sides the above offices he was supervisor for four years and for
fifteen years a member of the Paris Board of Education and was
the first mayor of the City of Paris. Judge Van Sellar cast his
first vote for Abraham Lincoln and continued a consistent and
earnest supporter of the republican party for more than fifty years.
Judge Van Sellar at the time of his death was senior member of
the prominent firm of Van Sellar & Van Sellar, his two sons being
associated in practice with him. Harry H. Van Sellar, the older
son, was born in Paris, is a graduate of the University of Michigan,
and was admitted to the bar in 1893, and during the past twenty
years has gained a high place in the profession. The other son is
Frank C. Van Sellar, who is a graduate of Princeton University
and the Northwestern Law School, and was admitted to the bar in
1897. Judge Henry Van Sellar died April 28, 1915.
Louis H. CRAIG. In the years of continuous active practice
Louis H. Craig is one of the senior members of the Illinois bar,
in which he has had a place for more than thirty-five years. Thirty
years of his practice have been passed in the City of Chicago, where
he is a successful lawyer and well-known citizen. His offices are in
the Fort Dearborn Building.
Louis H. Craig was born August 3, 1851, in Covington, Ken-
tucky, son of Toliver and Sarah Jane (Davis) Craig. His father,
though a farmer, was a man of remarkable scholarship, and though
his life was spent in the atmosphere of the country and with prac-
tically no association with higher schools and colleges, he acquired
a liberal training in the law, medicine and chemistry, and was pro-
ficient in his knowledge of astronomy. All this learning he acquired
while managing a farm.
Louis H. Craig grew up in Moultrie County, Illinois, where he
attended public schools, and was also a student of Bastion College
at Sullivan, Illinois. Mr. Craig has been a resident of Illinois since
about 1860, his father having removed from Kentucky in that year.
As part of his early experience he taught school in Moultrie and
Montgomery counties, and in September, 1878, took up the study
of law in the office of Judge Lane at Hillsboro. Mr. Craig was
admitted to the bar on January 16, 1879, and took up practice at
Greenville in June of the same year. He served as city attorney
of Greenville from 1881 to 1885, and in the fall of the latter year
moved to Chicago and from that time forward has appeared regu-
larly before the various courts as an advocate and has enjoyed
a large general practice. He was associated with his brother, Hart-
mann H. Craig, until the latter's death.
Mr. Craig is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, the Illi-
nois Bar Association, and is one of the official members of the Chi-
COURTS AND LAWYERS OF ILLINOIS 667
cago Art Institute. Politically, he is a republican. Mr. Craig
resides at 2125 Warren Avenue. He has one living sister, Alice D.,
also a resident of Chicago.
ALBERT R. GATES. Eighteen years of active practice at the
Chicago bar have given Mr. Gates a rising prominence in the field
of corporation law. He has been entrusted with and has handled
successfully many important and intricate interests, has official con-
nections with financial and business affairs in the city, and has been
an active factor in the Chicago Bar Association.
Albert R. Gates was born at Wyanet, Bureau County, Illinois,
November 29, 1868, the son of a farmer. His parents, Francis E.
and Polly M. (Robinson) Gates, were prosperous farming people
of that rich and highly developed agricultural community. Mr.
Gates was educated in the country schools, in the high school at
Earlville, Illinois, and graduated from the Lake Forest University
Law School in 1896. He had been admitted to the bar in January,
1895, having read law in the office of Stephen S. Gregory and James
S. Harlan, both eminent Chicago lawyers. October 14, 1898, was
the date of his admission to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Mr. Gates spent two years with Mr. Gregory and was associated
with John V. Farwell under the firm name of Gates & Farwell
for six years, 1897-1903. For the past ten years he has practiced
alone. Mr. Gates is secretary and treasurer of the Gates-Pratt Land
Company.
He is on the Membership Committee of the Chicago Bar Asso-
ciation, and. a member of the Illinois State Bar Association; member
of the Hamilton Club, of which he was at one time a director and
second vice president. Mr. Gates is an active follower of the sport
of golf, and for a number of years has been prominent in the
Western Golf Association, of which he was president in 1907-08.
He was president in 1905-06 of the Calumet Country Club, and is
a member of the South Shore Country Club. His recreations are
golf, hunting and fishing. Mr. Gates has always been a republican,
and while unconcerned with individual aspirations for office, has
had an influential part in politics and public matters of importance,
and was formerly chairman of the Political Action Committee of the
Hamilton Club. On June 10, 1911, he married Miss Elizabeth H.
Young, of Chicago. They have one child, William A. Gates. His
home is at 4740 Dorchester Avenue, and his office in the Title &
Trust Building.
CHARLES BYRD ELDER is known to the legal profession in Chicago
as a successful corporation and trial lawyer, and also as an instructor
and writer on legal subjects.
He is a native son of Chicago, born January 14, 1878, his parents
being Robert S. and Hattie N. (Dewey) Elder. His father was
for many years engaged in business in Chicago, being well known
668 COURTS AND LAWYERS OF ILLINOIS
in realty circles. Mr. Elder finished his studies in the public schools
as a boy and after some preparatory work entered Northwestern
University, from which he was graduated in 1899 with the Bachelor
of Laws degree. In October of the same year he was admitted to
practice. Two years later he was admitted to practice in the Federal
courts.
His connection with certain important cases brought him into
favorable prominence, and among those familiar with his work he
has established a reputation as a safe counselor and a careful and
resourceful litigant. In 1901 he was appointed an instructor in the
Northwestern University School of Law, and is now professor
of the law of judgments and extraordinary legal remedies in the
same institution. Mr. Elder is associate editor of the Illinois Law
Review and among his contributions to this periodical is an analytical
study of conditions in the courts of Cook County relating to the
writ of habeas corpus, published in May, 1912, under the title,
"What Shall Be Done with the Writ of Habeas Corpus?" His
practice has grown steadily, and he is in the enjoyment of a good
high-class professional business. His offices are located in the
Conway Building.
Mr. Elder is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, the
American Bar Association, the Academy of Political Science in the
City of New York, the Order of the Coif, Delta Upsilon fraternity,
the City Club, Hamilton Club, and Park Lodge, A. F. & A. M.,
and Loyal Chapter, R. A. M. He is a republican in his political
views, and though not active in the field of politics is steadfastly
interested in all public movements of merit. He has his home at
1320 Farwell Avenue.
HERBERT WOLCOTT HOLCOMB. During his career of twenty-one
years as a member of the Chicago bar, Herbert Wolcott Holcomb,
whose death occurred January 3, 1915, apportioned his services
among an important clientage and his varied business affairs, and
devoted most of his attention to a group of corporations with which
he was officially as well as professionally connected.
Herbert Wolcott Holcomb was born October 4, 1869, in Ford
County, Illinois, and is a son of William Horace and Elizabeth
(Munson) Holcomb. His family and social environment was such
as to afford early advantages, and after completing a course in Lake
Forest Academy in 1885, he entered the Hopkins Grammar School,
New Haven, where he was graduated in 1887. His entrance to Yale
followed and he was there graduated in 1891, with the Bachelor of
Arts degree. His law studies were carried on in the Northwestern
University Law Department in 1893, and in that year he received
his LL. B. degree and his admission to the bar of the state. From
that time he was in active practice in Chicago. In 1895 Mr. Holcomb
became house attorney for the firm of Naugle, Holcomb & Com-
pany, railroad contractors, and he continued in that relation until
669
igoi, when he became confidential clerk to one of Chicago's veteran
attorneys, Azel F. Hatch. From 1906 to 1909 he was senior member
of the firm of Holcomb & McBean, but since January i, 1909, he
had been alone in practice, with offices in the Title & Trust Building.
Mr. Holcomb was attorney for the Hinsdale State Bank, and had
additional business interests and responsibilities, among which may
be mentioned the Economic Rubber Company, of which he was
secretary and treasurer.
In politics Mr. Holcomb was a progressive and took an active
interest in local affairs since taking up his residence in Hinsdale,
recognizing the fact that the leading men of a community must
assume the larger responsibilities to insure the best civic conditions.
He served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Village of
Hinsdale from 1906 to 1910, a period of two terms, and was presi-
dent of the board of education for six terms. Mr. Holcomb had
numerous professional connections, being a member of the DuPage
County, Chicago and Illinois State Bar associations, and at the
time of his death was vice president of the first named. His college
fraternity was the Phi Delta Phi. Relaxation may be said to have
filled a comparatively small space in Mr. Holcomb's life, although
he enjoyed membership in the Yale Club and the Hinsdale Men's
Club, and was once a devotee of football, in 1890 having served
as a substitute on the Yale team.
On June 13, 1899, Mr. Holcomb was married at Hinsdale, to
Miss Amy Jarrett, and their one son is Jarrett Holcomb.
LOWELL B. SMITH. That in connection with the professional
career of this representative attorney of the younger generation in
DeKalb County there can be no application of the statement that
"a prophet is not without honor save in his own country" needs
no further voucher than the fact that though he has been engaged
in the practice of law only six years, he has thus early in his career
at the bar been chosen state's attorney of his native county and is
numbered among the popular officials and progressive citizens of
his native city, Sycamore, the county seat, where he was born on
the 4th of July, 1883, his civic loyalty being in harmony with the
patriotic date of his nativity.
Mr. Smith is a son of Olin H. and Lillian (Babcock) Smith, both
of whom still reside in Sycamore and both of whom were born and
reared in DeKalb County, with whose development and progress
the respective family names have been worthily identified since the
pioneer days. He whose name initiates this article is the younger
of the two children, and his sister, Rose, is now the wife of Waldo
Mussell, of Bayfield, Wisconsin. Lowell B. Smith continued to
attend the public schools of Sycamore until his graduation in the
high school, in 1903, and in pursuance of his higher academic educa-
tion he then entered the University of Illinois, in which he was
graduated in 1908, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in
670 COURTS AND LAWYERS OF ILLINOIS
the law department, of which he was graduated likewise as a mem-
ber of the class of the same year, his reception of the degree of
Bachelor of Laws being virtually coincident with his admission to
the bar of his native state. His professional novitiate was served
in the office of the firm of Faissler & Fulton, of Sycamore, and he
soon proved his ambition as well as its excellent fortification for
the work of his chosen calling. After having been concerned with
various litigated cases in which he won decisive victories there came
definite recognition of his eligibility for the office of state's attorney,
to which he was elected on the 7th of November, 1912, and the
duties of which he assumed early in the following month. As public
prosecutor for his native county he has fully justified the result of
the popular vote which brought him the preferment, as candidate
on the republican ticket. In his county he ran far ahead of his
party ticket, receiving 1,500 more votes than were given in the
county for the presidential candidate of the party, Hon. William
H. Taft. Mr. Smith is an appreciative member of the Illinois State
Bar Association and the DeKalb County Bar Association, and is at
the present time vice president of the Illinois State's Attorneys'
Association, besides which he is affiliated with two college frater-
nities.
April 25, 1908, recorded the marriage of Mr. Smith to Miss
Lenore McElroy, who was born in the City of Louisville, Kentucky,
and they have one son, James Lowell.
CORBUS P. GARDNER. As a vigorous and ambitious lawyer, one
possessed of a large amount of ability, so that he never has to
resort to pretense and display in order to hold his own in any
issue in which he may be joined, Corbus P. Gardner has for nearly
a quarter of a century practiced with growing success and influence
in Mendota, and as a citizen of large public spirit and thorough
devotion to the general welfare, has been honored with three terms
in the State Senate and is one of the best-known men in northern
Central Illinois.
Corbus P. Gardner was born in Mendota, Illinois, September 2,
1868, was educated in public schools, and in the class of 1890 gradu-
ated from the Law Department of the University of Michigan. He
was admitted to the bar of Illinois and Michigan in 1890 and at once
began a general practice with office in Mendota. Among other
associations Mr. Gardner has been local attorney for the Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy Railroad since' 1897 and also local attorney
for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul since 1904. He is one of
the leading lawyers, so recognized by his associates, in La Salle,
Bureau and Lee counties. From 1907 to 1913 Mr. Gardner had
offices and spent most of his time in Chicago, where he had a large
legal practice and business to attend to. During that time he was
associated with John W. Dubbs under the firm name of Gardner &
Dubbs, and Mr. Dubbs looked after most of the local business of
COURTS AND LAWYERS OF ILLINOIS 671
the firm at Mendota. Mr. Gardner is reputed to have one of the
most complete private law libraries in the State of Illinois.
He has been active in republican politics for a number of years,
in 1898 was elected a member of the State Senate and re-elected in
1902 and 1906. For six years he was chairman of the appropriation
committee, and the records of the sessions show that Senator
Gardner was an influential member in the shaping of much impor-
tant legislation and a progressive and valuable worker throughout
his three terms. Mr. Gardner in 1908 was admitted to practice in
the United States District Court in Chicago, and on December 16,
1909, was admitted to the United States Supreme Court. His prac-
tice for several years has covered litigation in all courts, both
Federal and State. He is a member of the La Salle County Bar
Association, the Illinois State Bar Association, the American Bar
Association. Fraternally, Mr. Gardner affiliates with Bethany Com-
mandery No. 28, Knights Templar, and with Medinah Temple of
the Mystic Shrine in Chicago.
On December n, 1901, Mr. Gardner married Georgia Smith,
who was 'born in Mendota. Their two children are Margaret W.
and Robert Bruce. Mr. Gardner is a son of George W. and Mar-
garet Gardner. His father was born in Lawrence County, Penn-
sylvania, February 13, 1824, and died in December, 1902, while
the mother was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, May 4,
1825, and died in November, 1900. Of their union there were ten
children, nine sons and one daughter, and Senator Gardner was the
youngest. His father came to Illinois in 1862, locating in La Salle
County, and for many years was one of the farmers of enterprise
and respected ability and character iri that locality. For fully thirty
years he served as an elder of the Presbyterian Church and was
also identified with the republican party.
COL. ASA CARRINGTON MATTHEWS. On June 14, 1908, death
removed' one of the foremost citizens of Illinois and long one of
the strongest lawyers of the Pike County bar. Colonel Matthews
was then seventy-five years of age, and for fully half a century
had been closely identified with the local history and affairs of Pike
County. As a lawyer he was regarded an authority on drainage
law, and helped to frame the first legislation ever placed on the
Illinois statutes. His knowledge of the law as a general practitioner
was profound, and his clients found in him a loyal advocate in the
lower courts as in the highest tribunals. Outside of the law his
career was notable for his achievements as a soldier during the
great Civil war, and he was also a factor in politics, and was
speaker of the House in the Thirty-sixth Assembly. He served as
president of the Illinois Vicksburg Military Park Commission, and
it was largely due to him that the name of every soldier and sailor
from Illinois who participated in the Vicksburg campaign was in-
scribed on bronze tablets. In May, 1907, about a year before his
672 COURTS AND LAWYERS OF ILLINOIS
death, he was elected commander of the Department of Illinois of
the Grand Army of the Republic, and also served as a trustee of
the Illinois Soldiers and Sailors Home at Quincy.
Asa Carrington Matthews was born in 1833 and was reared on
his father's farm in Perry Township of Pike County. His parents
were Capt. B. L. and Minerva (Carrington) Matthews, his father
a native of North Carolina and his mother of Kentucky. Colonel
Matthews was a product of the local public schools, was a student
in McKendree College at Lebanon, Illinois, and in 1855 entered
the Illinois College at Jacksonville, and soon took up the study of
law and was admitted to the bar in 1857. He soon became known
as one of the rising young members of the local bar, but his profes-
sion was interrupted by the outbreak of the Civil war. Enlisting
in the Ninety-ninth Illinois Infantry, he was unanimously elected
captain of his company, and served with it in all its campaigns and
engagements until the close of the Vicksburg campaign, having wit-
nessed the surrender of that stronghold on July 4, 1863. Later in
the war he was at the siege and capture of Mobile, and finally
accompanied his regiment into Louisiana. In the last months of the
Rebellion he took a prominent part in the negotiations with the tribes
in Indian Territory which had been allies of the Confederate army.
At the end of these services he was mustered out and became a
private citizen on August 17, 1865. He had risen from the ranks
through the grades of captain, major and lieutenant-colonel to the
commission of colonel, but never had active service under the last
title.
On returning to his old home at Pittsfield, Colonel Matthews
devoted his time to the law, and while his work in that profession
brought him many rewards and distinctions, he was also called upon
to fill various places of honor and trust. He served as collector of
internal revenue for the states of Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan
from 1875 until the office was abolished. He was three times elected
to the Illinois -Legislature, and, as already mentioned, was chosen
speaker of the House. In 1885 Governor Hamilton appointed him
circuit judge to fill an unexpired term. A prominent Illinois repub-
lican, he was a delegate to the national convention in 1884, and in
May, 1889, President Harrison appointed him first comptroller of
the United States Treasury. In 1904 Colonel Matthews was a
presidential elector on the Roosevelt ticket and chairman of the
state college. Other public services by which his name became well
known throughout Illinois have already been mentioned. Some esti-
mate of his work and career may be gathered from the following
quotation : "He has given careful consideration to his work and
to each question which has come up for settlement in connection
with the various offices which he has filled and has been guided by
an honorable purpose and loyalty of patriotism such as distinguished
his services as a soldier upon southern battlefields. He was author
of the first amendment to the Constitution of 1870 known as the
COURTS AND LAWYERS OF ILLINOIS 673
drainage amendment, and upon this has been erected a code of laws
whereby hundreds of thousands of acres of Illinois land has been
reclaimed for cultivation. Colonel Matthews has always taken an
active interest in everything tending to promote the agricultural and
stock-raising interests of this county and has given tangible support
to many local measures which have proven of benefit to Pittsfield
and this part of the state. As a distinguished member of the bar, as
a statesman of prominence, as a public officer of reliability, Mr.. Mat-
thews was well known. His career conferred honor and dignity
upon the profession, and the political and civic organization with
which he was associated, and there was in him a weight of character,
a keen sagacity, a far-seeing judgment and a fidelity of purpose
that demanded the respect of all."
Colonel Matthews was married October 5, 1855, to Miss Anna
E. Ross, daughter of Col. William Ross, a Pike County pioneer.
Their three children were: Mrs. Frank M. Lewis, Ross Matthews
and Mrs. John L. Hull.
The bar of Pike County is still represented by the Matthews
family. A grandson of the late Col. A. C. Matthews is Ben H.
Matthews, one of the younger members of the Pittsfield bar and
associated with Mr. R. N. Anderson.
Ben H. Matthews was born at Pittsfield November 27, 1885,
a son of Ross Matthews, who is president of the Farmers State
Bank. His early school days were spent in Pittsfield, and in 1907