CHARLES B. ELLIOTT. is one of the judges of the district court of Hennepin County, and is now serving his second term in that office. Judge Elliott is a native of Ohio. He was born in Morgan County, January 6, 1861, the son of Edward Elliott, a farmer of limited resources. His ancestry is English, and settled in New England in the early history of the country. Soon after the Revolutionary War the town of Marietta, Ohio, was founded, and Judge Elliott’s people were among its early settlers. His education was commenced in the common schools of Morgan County, and continued in the high school of Pennsville, a Quaker village of that county.

Before the age of sixteen he had qualified himself as a teacher, and after pursuing that profession for a short time he entered the preparatory Department of Marietta College. With the exception of short intervals occupied in teaching, in order to earn money to pay his expenses, he continued in school there for three years. In the meantime his father removed to Iowa, and Charles B. Elliott followed him and entered the law department of the Iowa State University, from which he graduated with a degree of LL. B., in 1881, at the age of twenty years.  He entered the law office of Barnan & Jayne, at Muscatine, Iowa, where he remained a year. During this time he had become a contributor to the Central Law Journal, of St. Louis, and his contributions were received with such favor that in April, 1882, he was offered a position on the editorial staff and removed to St. Louis. For eighteen months he devoted his time to writing, for the Central Law Journal, the Southern Law Review and the Western Jurist. About this time his eyes began to fail him and he was obliged to abandon his editorial work in St. Louis and went to Aberdeen, South Dakota, where he opened a law office and became the representative of the Muscatine Mortgage and Trust Company.

January, 1885, found him in Minneapolis engaged in the practice of law, and here he pursued his profession until he was appointed judge of the municipal court, January 15, 1890, by Governor Merriam. During this time he also pursued a post graduate course in history and international law for three years at the University of Minnesota, from which he received the degree of Ph.  D., in 1888. In 1892 he was re-elected to the municipal bench by the largest majority given to any candidate on his ticket, and served in that office until January 4, 1894, when he was appointed judge of the district court by Governor Nelson, to fill an unexpired term. He was elected again to the district bench in the fall of 1894, for a term of six years, and is now serving in that capacity. He was lecturer in the college of law at the University of Minnesota from 1889 to 1894, and since September I, 1894, has been head of the department of corporation and international law in the same school.

Judge Elliott is a student and a man of high attainments, and although now but thirty-five years of age, has come to be recognized as an authority on questions of international and public law. He has written extensively on these subjects, and a list of his writings fills two pages of the report of the American Historical Association. Notable among his works were, the treatise in 1888 on the United States and the Northeastern Fisheries”; “Principles of the Law of Private Corporations,” 1894; “Outline of the Law of Insurance,” 1895, and a work on “International Law,” now in press. His work in the Northwestern Fisheries is regarded as the highest authority on that subject. George Bancroft pronounced it “admirable, exact, thorough and free from prejudice.” Henry Cabot Lodge wrote: “It is the best and clearest history of the question I have seen.” Political Science Quarterly pronounced it “One of the most exhaustive articles on this question.” Judge Elliott, while accomplishing so much in his profession and as an author, has not been a recluse, but has found time to mingle freely among men and is held in high esteem by all, not only on account of his intellectual qualifications, but also on account of his social qualities. He is a Mason, Knight Templar, a member of Zuhrah Temple, also a member of the I. O. O. F. He belongs to the Congregational Church and takes an active, practical interest in all current questions, local as well as general. On May 13, 1884 he married Edith Winslow, and has four children. He has recently been complimented by the Iowa State University with the honorary degree of LL. D.

WILLIAM HENRY EUSTIS, furnishes in his own career a good illustration of the possibilities before a capable, energetic and self-reliant young man in America. He is the son of a mechanic, reared in the humble home of a mechanic and destined by his parents for a mechanic’s life. Unfortunately, and yet, perhaps, fortunately, a severe affliction, the result of an accident, changed his purpose in life from that of a mechanic, and opened the door to a wider field for the development of his talents and the employment of his faculties. Mr. Eustis was born at the little village of Oxbow, New York, July 17, 1845. His father, Tobias Eustis, was a native of Cornwall, England, and emigrated to America while a young man and learned and followed the trade of a wheelwright.  His ancestors were miners in Cornwall.  His mother, Mary Marwick, was also of English descent.

William Henry was the second of a family of eleven children, and at an early age contributed to the family’s support by such employment as he could pick up in the neighborhood, the chief of which was grinding bark in the village tannery.  He was fifteen at the time of the accident above referred to. His recovery was due largely to the strong constitution, resolute will and the study which he gave to his own case and the care he exercised in applying the treatment. He eventually became able to teach district school in the winter months and finally entered the seminary at Gouverneur, St. Lawrence County. The most his parents hoped at this time was that he might be able to follow some lighter occupation, as, for instance, shoe making or harness making. 

But he had applied himself to learn bookkeeping and telegraphy, and by the aid of these prepared himself for a more complete literary education.  By teaching bookkeeping and telegraphy and soliciting life insurance he earned enough to pay his way through the seminary and through his preparation for college. In 1871 he entered the sophomore class of Wesleyan University, of Middletown, Connecticut, and while absenting himself during the winter in order to teach school kept up with his class and completed his course in 1873. He then went to New York and took the law course at Columbia Law School, where he graduated in 1874, having accomplished two years’ work in one. He was now ready for the practice of his profession, but he was a thousand dollars in debt. On account of this debt he procured a position as teacher, and at the close of the year paid the obligation and had money enough to buy a railroad ticket to Saratoga Springs, a new suit of clothes and a surplus of $15 with which to commence the work of his life. At Saratoga he made the acquaintance of John R. Putnam, who offered him a partnership, which he accepted, and Mr. Eustis remained there in partnership with Mr. Putnam for six years, sharing a large and lucrative business.

In the spring of 1881 Mr. Eustis sailed for Europe to be gone two years. He had taken an active part in the convention of 1882 and stumped the state of New York for Garfield. When the news of Garfield’s assassination was received by him he was so impressed by its significance that he felt obliged to return home, and did so. Mr. Eustis had made up his mind that the best field for success in life was to be found in the West, and he set out on a prospecting tour, including Kansas City, St. Louis, Dubuque and other ambitious Western places, ultimately reaching Minneapolis, which pleased him most, and here he settled on the twenty-third of October, 1881. He commenced the practice of law without a partner. He had brought with him a small sum, the savings of his earlier years, and by the judicious use of it has acquired considerable property.

He built the brick block on Sixth Street and Hennepin, the Corn Exchange and the Flour Exchange, besides other less important structures. He has always been identified with enterprises for the advancement of the city, and is largely interested in various industrial undertakings. He is one of the original incorporators of the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie & Atlantic Railway, and one of Its board of directors. He was a director and member of the building committee of the Masonic Temple. He was one of the originators of the North American Telegraph Company, a director and its secretary, a line established to furnish people of the Northwest with competition in telegraphic service. He has been actively identified with everything which is calculated to advance the interests of the city.

In 1892 Mr.  Eustis was elected mayor of Minneapolis by the Republicans, and his administration is frequently referred to as the most notable in the history of the city. He made a very careful study of the saloon question and the laws relating to the liquor traffic at the beginning of his term of office and sought to enforce them in such a way as to secure the best results. His theory of administration did not call for the strictest enforcement of the law in accordance with the letter, but for such enforcement as, while granting more licenses to the saloon than the law specified, sought to enlist the saloonkeepers in a general effort for the suppression of crime and the diminution of drunkenness. The statistics of the police department and the workhouse for the two years of his administration show that his theory was well founded. Drunkenness diminished, commitments to the workhouse were cut down, the sale of liquor to minors was noticeably reduced and the evils resulting from the liquor traffic generally minimized.

Mr. Eustis grew up under Methodist influences, and is a member of the Methodist church. He was never married, but occupies comfortable bachelor quarters in his Sixth Street building and boards at the West Hotel. He is the possessor of a fine library, and derives much pleasure and enjoyment among his books. Mr. Eustis is an orator of grace and power, and has rendered invaluable services to his party in campaign work. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1892, and voted for Blaine. His gift as a public speaker makes him in great demand on public occasions, and he has probably but one equal and no superior in the state as a graceful after dinner speaker. He is a man of genial manners and agreeable personality, and a welcome guest on every public occasion.

ROBERT GRENAP EVANS, is a lawyer and leading member of the Minneapolis bar. His ancestry is Welsh and English, but both his parents were born in this country, in Kentucky.  His father, Joseph S. Evans, in the early ‘50’s, while yet a young man, went from Kentucky to Indiana, and located at Troy. He was first employed on a farm, but afterwards engaged in mercantile business, having removed to Rockport, Indiana, in 1856. He continued in the mercantile business until 1874, except for a few years, when he was engaged in farming. More recently he has been in the insurance business at Rockport. At Troy he married Mary C. Cotton, a daughter of a physician practicing his profession in Indiana, and a member of the constitutional convention which revised the constitution of that state in 1852. 

Robert Grenap was born while his parents resided at Troy, March 18, 1854. He attended the village schools of Rockport until his eighteenth year, when he entered the sophomore class of the state university at Bloomington, and completed the junior year in that institution. His inclinations were toward the law as a profession, and in 1875 he entered the law office of Charles L.  Wedding, of Rockport, and began his legal education, at the same time practicing before the justice courts of Spencer County. In 1876 he was admitted to the bar. He left Rockport soon after and settled in Vincennes, where he formed a law partnership with Judge F. W. Viehe, which continued until April, 1884, when Mr. Evans came to Minneapolis. In July of that year he formed a partnership with Judge Daniel Fish, which continued until November, 1887, when it was dissolved on account of the retirement of Judge Fish from general practice to become the attorney of the Minnesota Title Insurance Company.

Mr.  Evans then formed his present business connection with Messrs. A. M. Keith, Charles T.  Thompson and Edwin K. Fairchild, under the firm name of Keith, Evans, Thompson & Fairchild. This firm is regarded as one of the strongest in the state, and enjoys an extensive and lucrative practice of a general business character and largely an office practice.   Mr. Evans was also the local attorney for the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha road from the time he came to Minneapolis in 1884 until January 1, 1895.

He is a Republican and has always taken an active interest in politics, both in Indiana and in Minnesota. He has never sought an office and has never held one, but has done a great deal of valuable and effective work for his party. He served on the state central committee in Indiana for two years including the campaign of 1880, but declined reappointment at the end of the second year. He was in Minnesota when the vigorous campaign of 1884 opened, and, although a new arrival, he threw himself into the work of the campaign with the same enthusiasm and devotion to the cause which he has always manifested.  He made a number of speeches in that campaign and has stumped the state at every general election since.

Mr. Evans is a man of rare geniality, courteous in his treatment of everyone, generous and sincere, and he is the trusted friend of probably more public men than any other man of the state. These qualities of good fellowship, kindliness and square dealing in politics, are responsible for the friendly familiarity which has caused him to be known everywhere as “Job” Evans. Never asking for political preferment for himself, he is always ready to sacrifice his time and private interests to the good of his party and the advantage of his political friends. He had been in the state scarcely two years before he was selected as a member of the Republican state central committee, assisting in the conduct of the McGill campaign in 1886. In December, 1887, Senator Davis resigned from the National Republican committee and Mr. Evans was selected to fill the vacancy. He was elected for the period of four years again in 1888, and re-elected in 1892. He has always been an active member of the Union League, and was president of that organization in 1885 and 1886. He is a member of the Commercial Club and the Minneapolis Club, and an attendant of the Methodist Church.  He was married in 1877 to Mary Graham, at Evansville, Indiana, and has three children living, Margaret, Stanley and Graham. His home is in the suburb of Kenwood.