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John W. Champlin, LL. D. John W. Champlin, late chief justice of the supreme court of Michigan, was born 17 February 1831. He is a lineal descendant of Geoffrey Champlin, who, "in 1638, came to this country from England and settled in Rhode Island". The family has strong characteristics of mind and body, which strikingly appear in the subject of this sketch. They are strong in body, firm in conviction, and possess in a great degree that balance of the faculties known as common sense. Jeffrey Champlin, the father of the subject of this sketch, and a native of New York, married Ellis Champlin, a descendant of a different branch of the same family, who in early times settled in Connecticut. Shortly after their marriage they removed to Kingston, NY where Judge Champlin was born. Soon after, the family removed to Harpersfield, in the same state, and engaged in farming, and here Judge Champlin continued to reside until he was of age. The story of his youth is the story of the youth of many of our best public men. In summer he worked beside his father and brothers on the farm, laying up stores of health and strength for the trying demands of his professional career. Here was formed the intimate acquaintance with the affairs of every day life, its difficulties and its needs, which was to keep him through life in warm sympathy with the people. In this home life, under its firm but kindly parental government, was acquired that habit of industry and those principles of integrity, independence and love of justice which have been marked characteristics of the man. In the winter time he attended the village school; at thirteen years of age he entered the academy at Stanford, and afterward the academies of Rhinebeck and Harpersfield. With reference to these schools it may be said, as could be said of many other academeies in New York and New England towns, that if they lacked some of the advantages and much of the machinery of the modern school system, if they did not undertake to accomplish as large results in a given time, they did not, like the modern school, tend to dull uniformity; they gave to the ambitious youth opportunities to acquire a training that tended to individual development and that individual independence and self-reliance which peculiarily fit the student to grapple with the various questions of our political life. After leaving Harpersfield academy, Mr. Champlin took a course of civil engineering at the Delaware Literary institute, and commenced the practice of that profession in his native state. Seeking a wider field, at the age of twenty-three years, in 1854, he came to the city of Grand Rapids, where his brother, Stephen G. Champlin, afterward Gen. Champlin, was then engaged in the practice of law. Here he commenced the study of that profession in the office of his brother; passed his examination before Judge Martin, afterward chief justice of the state, and was admitted to the bar in 1855. While the city was comparatively small, and the country around it new, the local bar had in it many men of marked ability – men whose vigorous intellect and natural sagacity, uncontrolled by the strict enforcements of legal courtesy, made the conflicts which necessarily arose in the profession a rather hard but useful school for the young attorney on the threshold of his practice – a further benefit he derived from the position in which he found himself placed. In this as in other communities where population is increasing rapidly, changes had to be made in the machinery of local government to adapt it to the wants of a larger community, and thus many new and important question arose. In 1856, Mr. Champlin was chosen to prepare a revision of the charter of the city of Grand Rapids, and the results of this work from the basis of all charter legislation for that city since. He held at different times the office of city recorder, city attorney, and in18__ was elected mayor. By these varied experiences he became acquainted with the practical workings of municipal government. The value of this experience to a lawyer, situated as he was, is shown by his subsequent life. Probably there was no lawyer in the district where he resided whose opinions were more widely respected upon questions of municipal government than his. From this time on, Judge Champlin pursued the practice of the law with an assiduity that withdrew him entirely from other pursuits. His business became so varied and extensive that it demanded his entire time in the trial of causes and in the examination of the many and delicate questions arising in the course of a large general practice. The years conscientious work brought with them not only increase of practice and reputation, but also that growth in legal knowledge and that wide and accurate judgment the possession of which constitutes the most marked excellence of a lawyer. In the trial of cases he was uniformly courteous to the court, his opponent, and the witnesses; he cared nothing for display, never lost a point for the sake of creating a favorable impression with the audience, and sought to impress the jury rather by weight of acts in his favor and by argument than by an appeal to prejudices. In discussion of the principles of law he was remarkable for his clearness of statement and his candor. He sought faithfully for firm ground on which to plant his feet; and when once he found it, nothing could drive him to urge in argument what in his judgment was not the law. His conceptions of legal principles were cleanly cut, and he preserved intact the perfect balance of his legal judgment. In 1883 he was nominated by the democratic party for judge of the supreme court, and was elected by a majority which was so far in excess of the vote of own party, that it furnished very strong evidence of the high esteem in which he was held by the people of the state. He took his eat as a member of that court in January, 1884. He brought to the bench not only a reputation, but a character for integrity unquestioned and unquestionable; a wide knowledge of the law, and of the difficulties which attend its perfect administration and practice; a mind which, while it did not readily adopt for its own opinion the opinion of others, was quick to comprehend an argument, and ready to follow it to a logical conclusion, however far that conclusion might differ from an opinion previously entertained. What has been said regarding his character attainments as a lawyer afford the key to his career on the bench. To his many friends throughout the state who have carefully scrutinized his work as a judge, no word is necessary; to the general public, it need only be said that the same careful, conscientious application of thought and study was given to the duties of that position, as that which secured his success at the bar, the result being uniformly satisfactory alike to litigants, to the legal profession, and to the people whom in the capacity of a public officer, he has served with the fullest appreciation of the duties and responsibilities imposed upon him. At the semi-centennial of the university of Michigan, in 1887, the board of regents conferred upon him the honorary degree of doctor of laws. On his retirement from the bench, 3 December 1891, Judge Champlin resumed the practice of law. In 1892, the regents of the university of Michigan appointed him to the position of a professor in the law department of that institution. He delivered lectures on the law of torts and of corporations, while filling this position, until his resignation in 1896. Although in politics Judge Champlin is in principle a democrat, he, however, declined to follow that portion of hi party who opposed the war, as for the past few years he has taken part in public affairs only as one does who would not shirk his duty as a citizen. At present he is president of the Grand Rapids Fire Insurance company; the president of the Historical society of Grand Rapids; the president of the ex-Firemen’s association; the vice-president of the Michigan Political Science association, and member of the Historical committee of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical society. On the 1st of October 1856, he married Miss Ellen More. The union has been a singularly happy one, three children having been born to them, viz: Kate, wife of William M. Butts, of Grand Rapids; Frederick M., state superintendent of agencies for the Grand Rapids Fire Insurance company, and, Estelle, at home. Mrs. Ellen Champlin was born in Roxbury, NY, 18 December 1830, and is a daughter of John B. and Louisa A. (Kelly) More, who early came from Scotland and settled in Roxbury, NY, in which city there are still held, every five years, reunions of the More family, members of which are scattered all over the United States, but have erected at Roxbury a monument in honor of the founder of the family in America. Prior to his settlement in Roxbury, John More had located at Harpersfield, Delaware county, NY but was warned by a friendly Indian of an intended massacre; he therefore loaded his two horses with his goods, and with his family went to Catskill, NY, where the wife and children resided until the close of the Revolutionary War, in which Mr. More was serving as a soldier. He then made his final settlement at Roxbury. Judge Champlin and family are members of St. Mark’s Protestant Episcopal church in Grand Rapids, where he resides. Fraternally, the judge stands high as a Mason. He has served as master of Grand River Lodge, No. 34; as high priest of Grand River chapter, No. 7; as commander of DeMolai commandery, No. 5; is a member of Tyre council, No. 10; has reached the thirty-second degree under the Scottish rites, and in 1872 was grand master for the state of Michigan. In the ordinary affairs of life, Judge Champlin is a man of unusually keen perception, just and clear in judgment, and energetic in action. Conscious of the dark shadows of human life, he habitually turns his face towards its sunny side; quick in sympathy, unobtrusively helpful, genial to all, and firm in his friendships, it is given to few men to be loved and trusted as he is loved and trusted in the community where he lives. |
