MEMORIAL ADDRESSES. 
HARLOW S. ORTON. 
1817-1895. 
Judge Orton’s name was on the membership roll of the Acad¬ 
emy in 1876, and no doubt his influence had aided in the out¬ 
set as to securing its liberal legislative charter. Harlow S. 
Orton’s birth was in Niagara county, New York, November 23, 
1817. Twenty years afterward his course was finished in the 
Madison University in Madison county of the same state. In 
the same year he became a law student in Kentucky, but soon came 
north and became associated with his brother Myron, who was al¬ 
ready in legal practice a little southeast of Chicago, at La Porte, 
Indiana. In 1847, the year before Wisconsin became a state, 
he removed to Milwaukee and opened a law office there. In 
1852 he became the private secretary of Gov. Farwell,— the 
second governor of the state. Thenceforth his residence was in 
Madison till his death, July 4, 1895. 
He represented Madison in the legislature, was mayor of the 
city, failed by very few votes of election to congress, and was 
early, for six years, a circuit judge. 
But he was chiefly eminent as an advocate. Many lawyers 
were more deeply read, but very few could make so ingenious 
use of their knowledge, or present a case so winningly before a 
jury. For five years he was dean of the law faculty of the uni¬ 
versity, and at that time became LL. D. He also served as 
one of the commissioners who compiled the Revised Statutes of 
the state. 
His longest and largest service was, however, as a justice of 
the supreme court. He sat on that highest bench of the judi¬ 
ciary seventeen years—a longer period than any other judges 
have except Cole, Lyon, and Cassoday — and was for five years 
