Shortly after the annual meeting of the Association, and on August 8th, 1906, our esteemed and beloved retiring President,

HON. WM. G. HOWARD,

passed away; a biographical sketch of his career will be prepared by the incoming Committee of Historians and 'published in next year's proceedings.

REPORT OF COMMITTEE OF HISTORIANS

Gentlemen:..

The grim reaper has been among us during the past year, and has gathered to his embrace many of the eminent members of the bar of this state. Men who had made a marked impress upon the business, social and professional life of their state, and whose influence for growth in the communities where they lived will long be missed, have been dropped from the rolls.

The Committee of Historians has found it difficult to get information requisite to the preparation of accurate biographies of these brethren who have left us. A biography must be something more than a mere eulogy. It should contain an accurate recital of the main facts in a man's life-his birth, parentage, education, the turning points in his career, etc. It will be misleading rather than helpful to the future historian of the state for this Association to attempt to keep a record of those members of the bar who have passed on to their reward, unless the record can be accurate in detail. With this in view, this committee has been at considerable pains to get at the facts from the intimate friends and professional associates of deceased members, in some cases, we are sorry to say, without success. The duties of the committee have been more than doubled by the apparent indifference of some of those whose pleasure it ought to have been to render assistance.

The bar of Detroit has during the past year met with the loss of some of its foremost men, numbering among them two ex-justices of the Supreme Court. In length of service and value of work accomplished, the man whose name appropriately heads the list is,

Benjamin F. Graves.

Judge Graves was born at Rochester, N. Y., October 18, 1817, of New England parents. He worked on his father's farm when a boy. In youth he was not strong, physically, and, therefore, not well adapted to the hard work of the farm. He was exceedingly fond of reading and read with eagerness the volumes to which he had access. His school education did not extend beyond academic studies. He commenced the study of law in 1837 and was admitted to the bar at Rochester in October 1841. In 1843 he removed to Michigan and settled at Battle Creek, where he began the practice of his profession and

continued in it until 1857. In that year, on the resignation of Hon. Abner Pratt, he was appointed, in his fortieth year, Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, which then comprised the counties of Allegan, Calhoun, Eaton, Kalamazoo and Van Buren. He was, therefore, for a short time, a member of the Supreme Court, under the old system. When his term expired, under his appointment, he was elected for a full term and continued in office until 1866, when, on account of ill health, he resigned. In the following year he was elected a Justice of the Supreme Court, and re-elected in 1875, as the candidate of both political parties, and received their joint vote. In 1883 he declined to be a candidate for re-electon and retired to private life, universally respected by the citizens of his state, both for his eminent qualities as a judge and his high character as a man.

On the eve of his departure from the bench, and on the 27th of December, 1883, the bar of Michigan gave Judge Graves a public reception at the Detroit Club House, which was honored not only by professional, but by eminent citizens at large. A brief address had been prepared, elegantly engrossed on parchment, and, after being largely signed by lawyers, was presented to Judge Graves as a permament memorial of the occasion. On the 8th of January following at the opening of the Supreme Court for the January term, the Hon. George V. N. Lothrop, on behalf of the Bar of Michigan, presented a copy of this memorial to the court, in a speech full of that charm which characterized his addresses. On the same occasion, Hon. Charles Upson, on behalf of the Bar of the State, presented to the court a portrait of Judge Graves, accompanied with the request that the same be assigned to a permament place in the Supreme Court The portrait now hangs there and is recognized by all the older members of the bar who were acquainted with Judge Graves as a most speaking and satisfactory likeness.

room.

Judge Graves was first married in 1847, to Lydia S. Merritt, who only lived three years. In 1851 he was again married, to Anna E. Lapham with whom he lived until her death at Battle Creek in 1894. In the meantime his son, Henry B. Graves, now a prominent lawyer, in Detroit, had opened an office in that city. His only daughter, Lydien, had married and settled there, and, having no longer any domestic ties, in Battle Creek, he, in 1894, joined his children in Detroit. The condition of Judge Graves' health at the time of his retirement from the bench, coupled with his advanced years, did not permit him to return to active practice. He lived a quiet but, as ever, a studious life to the end. He passed away in Detroit, full of years, on the 3rd day of March, 1906.

John Wesley McGrath.

Judge McGrath was born in Philadelphia, Pa., January 12, 1842.