Edwards Porter Smith. years after. The Revised Statutes of 1849, providing that any rate of interest agreed upon in writing should be valid, speedily changed the condition of things in this regard, and within about one year and a half, when the law was amended, covered this whole State, or part then inhabited, with twenty-five to thirty per cent, and over, mortgages from which attorneys, in after years, secured not only good livings, but even wealth, in collecting. "This firm of Green & Smith continued until the fall of 1852, its dissolution being brought about by the purchase by myself of Judge Green's interest in the firm, and its small law library. I had then recently been admitted to the bar, and it was my good for tune to be associated as a partner with Mr. Smith, from that time on until the close of the Rebellion in the Spring of 1865. During those thirteen years and over, as a result of the close intimacy which existed between us, I think I came to know him perhaps as well, if not better, than any other person outside of his own family, now living. I wish to record right here the fact that during all those thirteen years I never saw him or knew of his being angry, personally disagreeable or offensive, and I will extend that period of time entirely down to the end of his life. I never witnessed an outburst of passion; I never heard an unkind or offensive expres sion, and I never knew him to be guilty of an unkind or ungentlemanly act during all the long period of our acquaintance. A more genial or desirable companion I never had or could wish for. His reading was extensive, his knowledge of general literature was varied and correct. He enjoyed the companionship of others and was always ready and able to contribute his full quota of anecdote and current literature of the day at all social gatherings at which he might hap pen to be present. "The record of the professional life of Mr. Smith is to be found in all the volumes of the reports of the Supreme Court of our
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State, from No. 3 in 1854 down to the year 1890 (about seventy volumes in all), when he left Wisconsin to enter the law depart ment of the Union Pacific Railway Company, at Omaha, Nebraska. During that long period of time Mr. Smith was in the actual practice of his profession, having succeeded as' early as the year 1855 in the building up, I might, I think perhaps, say, the leading law business of the County of Dodge, and having established the reputation, justly acquired, of being one of the most eloquent, successful, learned and most prominent jury lawyers in his vicinity. "He was an alert, well read, and up to date jury lawyer; he also prepared, presented and argued his numerous cases in the courts of last resort with a thoroughness excelled by none. "In 1872 he left Dodge County (not, however, removing his family ) for Milwau kee, in order to avail himself of a wider field of action, and in hope of securing business of more importance than could be obtained in the country. For about ten years he was a member of the firm of Mariner, Smith & Orclway, of the last mentioned city; then upon its dissolution, became connected with the old firm of Finches, Lynde & Miller, and later still (after the death of Nathan Percles), was the trial lawyer and senior counsel of the firm of Nath. Pereles & Sons, during all of which time, while so in Milwau kee, I think, perhaps, that he conducted a greater number of trials in the lower courts, and prepared and argued a greater number and greater variety of cases in the Supreme Court of our State than any other single attorney. His success was undoubted, and the amount of labor performed remarkable. "I little thought when he came to Beaver Dam in 1849, a mere stripling, like David with his small stone from the brook and his sling, that he would ever succeed in over coming the great Goliath in his path—that is to say, the obstacles and hardships before him, which must necessarily be overcome in
