Ellis, Lyman A.

ELLIS

Posted By: Volunteer Subscribers
Date: 2/18/2003 at 09:52:22

Lyman A. Ellis, I was long and well acquainted with. For sixteen years he was the District Attorney of his judicial district, and during my period of eight years as Reporter of the Supreme Court, I do not think there was a session to which cases from his district were appealable, that he was not present; and after that I continued to meet him in the State and Federal Courts, in conventions and elsewhere. He was what might be properly termed a strongly marked individual. He had some peculiarities of speech and action that drew attention. He had a mind of remarkable activity, and could be both witty and sarcastic. He was not only a public prosecutor of long experience and great efficiency, but an able lawyer and a formidable adversary in any cause. His continuance in office as District Attorney for the unprecedented period before mentioned, furnishes in itself the high esteem in which he was held by the bar and the people. He was rather tall and slim, of pleasing personality and agreeable manners. He had a wide acquaintance among the lawyers of the State, and they all liked to meet him. When that prince of satirists, Judge Hubbard, was on the bench, he used occasionally to practice on Mr. Ellis. I cannot stop to recount the instances that have been brought to my attention; but in the long run, Hubbard seldom succeeded in coming out ahead.
Mr. Ellis was born on a farm near Burlington, Vermont, in 1835, and was educated in the schools of that State, and finally graduated from one of its law schools. He came west and finally located at Lyons in 1861. He rose rapidly in the profession and in 1865 was elected District Attorney of the Seventh Judicial District, including the Counties of Clinton, Scott, Jackson and Muscatine. He accumulated a large practice outside of that connected with his office and early developed the sterling qualities of a well disciplined and able lawyer. In 1880 he gave up his office of District Attorney and devoted himself entirely to the general practice and conducted a successful one in both the State and Federal Courts. To the end he steadily maintained the reputation of being one of the foremost lawyers in the State.
In addition to his accomplishments as a lawyer, he proved himself a wise and conservative statesman. For many years he was prominent as one of the leaders of the Republican Party in Iowa. In 1893 he was elected to the State Senate and served with signal ability in the Twenty-Fifth and Twenty-Sixth General Assemblies. He became widely known as a debater of the highest order. He was a bold and vehement speaker. He particularly distinguished himself by his memorable speech against Woman Suffrage. He was a staunch advocate of local option for the sake of controlling the liquor traffic in counties where prohibition had proven a failure, and to his persistency and leadership, the modification of statewide prohibition, and thereby the restitution to power of the Republican Party, which had suffered defeat in the election of a Democratic governor, Horace Boies, was largely due. These incidents occurred in the session of the Twenty-Fifth General Assembly. In the Twenty-Sixth General Assembly he was honored in being made Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and also a member of the joint committee of the Senate and House to annotate and publish the Code of 1897. He died at Clinton, Iowa, in 1906, leaving behind him an unsullied record and a delightful memory.
He was succeeded by his son, Frank W. Ellis, who became associated with R. B. McCoy, under the firm name of Ellis & McCoy. Frank Ellis inherited many of the fine qualities of his father. His partner was a son of Albert R. McCoy, for many years a partner with Lyman Ellis, and a very able lawyer.
A close relative of Mr. Ellis has furnished me with the following data relating to the family: Mr. Ellis was united in marriage to Mary Buckley, and to them were born six children: Daniel B., an attorney of Denver, Colorado; George B., who has large manufacturing and fruit growing interests in southern California; Charles F., a business man of Los Angeles, California; Frank W., above mentioned; Gertrude May, wife of Garrett E. Lamb, one of the prominent business men and financiers of Clinton; and Lyman M., now engaged in business in southern California.
Daniel W. Ellis was an elder brother of Lyman A. Ellis. He was admitted to the bar in 1854, and located at Lyons, in Clinton County. He was an able lawyer and jurist. He was three times elected Circuit Judge of his Judicial district, and was on the bench for the period of ten years--from 1872 to 1882. He was also a member of the second and third State Boards of Education, in 1861. Not long after leaving the bench he removed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he died.
Source: Recollections and Sketches of Notable Lawyers and Public Men of Early Iowa. Author: Edward H. Stiles. Des Moines. The Homestead Publishing Co.,1916