Hon. Walter I. Hayes, Clinton

WALTER INGALLS HAYES, judge of the seventh judicial district of Iowa, was born at Marshall, Michigan, on the 9th of December, 1841, and is the son of Dr. Andrew L. and Clarissa Selden (Hart) Hayes. His father was a native of New Hampshire, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, a scion of the New England Hayes family, his mother being a Sanborn, of Sanbornton, New Hampshire. Dr. Hayes was educated and bred to the profession of medicine in his native state, but commenced his professional life in Michigan, of which state he was an early settler, taking an earnest and active interest in its initial concerns. He was a member of the legislature that first sent General Cass to the United States senate, was a brigadier-general of the state militia, and took a lively interest in military affairs: served in the Texas war, and rendered important aid in the raising of troops at the commencement of the late rebellion, but died in 1861, before he had time to buckle on his sword in defense of his country.

Although a practicing physician throughout his life, yet he was commonly known in Michigan as General Hayes. Tiie mother of our subject was born in Durham, New York, of English descent, her ancestry running bark to the early Puritan stock of New England. She still lives in tiic enjoyment of health.

His parents being in easy circumstances, the early life of our subject was pleasant and smooth, free from the bitter but often beneficial experiences with which the early lives of many men of distinction have'been fraught. He received his incipient education at the common schools of his neighborhood, commenced the study of law at the age of nineteen years in the office of HughL-s and Woollcy, Marshall, Michigan, the senior member of which was the Hon. D. Darwin Hughes, now of Grand Rapids in that state. He subsequently graduated at the law school of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was admitted to the bar of that state in 1863. A year later he became a member of the firm of his late preceptors, which then went under the style of Hughes. Woolley and Hayes.

In 1866, being offered a desirable partnership by General N. B. Baker, late adjutant-general of Iowa, he removed to Clinton, Iowa, where he has ever since resided, and at once entered into active practice, the firm being Baker and Hayes. This partnership continued for about two years, and until General Baker removed permanently to Des Moines, after which he was without a partner till 1872, when he became associated with the Hon. George B. Young, then circuit judge, which position the latter resigned in order to resume his practice. This alliance, under the name of Hayes and Young, continued with great success until August, 1875, when, upon the recommendation of the bar of the seventh judicial district, he was, altliough a democrat, appointed by Governor Carpenter to complete the unexpired term of Judge Brannan, resigned, and in October following was elected to the same position By the people, without opposition.

His professional career has been characterized by steady onward and upward progress. He has never deviated into special grooves, but has always been a court and trial lawyer, and eminently successful. He was United States commissioner for the eastern district of Michigan from 1864 until he left the state, and was city attorney of his native city for the year 1865. He was appointed United States commissioner for Iowa in 1867, and held the office till appointed district judge. He was city attorney for Clinton, Iowa, during 1869, and city solicitor during 1870 and 1871, and was again elected to that office in 1875, holding it until his elevation to the bench. He was the democratic candidate for circuit judge in the seventh district in 1868, but was defeated by Judge Young, afterward his law partner, and he is now (1876) democratic candidate for a seat on the supreme bench of the state, having been nominated for the position at the late state convention by acclamation.

He was a delegate to the democratic state convention of Michigan in 1864; also to the Iowa democratic state conventions as a rule since 1868, and to all the congressional conventions of his district since that period. In 1872 he was an alternate delegate to, and acted in, the Baltimore convention that nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency, and when appointed judge was chairman of the Clinton county democratic committee, a member of the district congressional committee, and a member of the state democratic committee. He is a stockholder and director of the Clinton National Bank.

In accepting the office which he now fills with so much ability, Judge Hayes made a serious pecuniary sacrifice, relinquishing a practice inferior to few in the state, and yielding a revenue of more than twice his official salary, and retains the position only at the request of the bar of the district, unanimously and emphatically expressed in public meeting held at Davenport in the summer of 1876. Tlie district is one of the largest and most important in the state, including not only the largest county (Scott) but the largest city (Davenport), and a bar inferior to none in the northwest.

It is superfluous to say that Judge Hayes has given universal satisfaction on the bench. He is not
only a well-read lawyer, but is gifted with a master mind. In his decisions he is eminently equitable, looking only to the legal points and true issues of the controversy, irrespective of the standing of litigants or the prominence of attorneys, and fortifying them by sound reasoning and established precedent.

As a result of this, his judgments have been sustained with remarkable uniformity by the supreme court where appeals have been taken. He is as active in mind as in body; thinks quickly, and decides promptly all questions submitted to him, and is the same courteous gentleman on the bench as in the social circle, never having been known to utter a harsh word to any attorney practicing before him. Whether in official or private life, he is characterized
by the most thorough independence, tempered in all cases by the courtesy and blandness of
the gentleman. His honesty as a man, and his a ability as a jurist,-'are of the highest order, and with continued health of mind and body, there is no limit to the distinction to which he may attain.

On the 28th of June, 1865, he married Miss Frances L., daughter of William F. Coan, Esq.,
president of the Clinton National Bank, Iowa.  They have no children.

Source:

The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men. Iowa Volume.

Chicago and New York: American Biographical Publishing Company, 1878