Edward Swift Isham

Edward Swift Isham (January 15, 1836 – February 16, 1902) was an American lawyer and politician from Vermont. The son of a justice of the Vermont Supreme Court, Isham attended Williams College and the Harvard School of Law before he was admitted to the bar in 1858. He headed west, establishing a practice in Chicago, Illinois, in 1859. The practice eventually became Isham Lincoln & Beale. Isham also served one term in the Illinois House of Representatives.

Edward Swift Isham
Member of the Illinois House of Representatives from the 60th district
In office January 2, 1865 – January 7, 1867
Preceded by	Melville Fuller
Succeeded by	Moses W. Leavitt
Personal details
Born	(1836-01-15)January 15, 1836 Bennington, Vermont
Died	February 16, 1902(1902-02-16) (aged 66) New York, New York
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Frances Burch ​ ( m. 1861; died 1894)
Children	4, including Ann
Parents	Semantha Swift Isham Pierpoint Isham
Education	Lawrence Academy
Alma mater	Williams College Harvard Law School
Profession	Lawyer
Signature

Early life

Edward Swift Isham was born in Bennington, Vermont on January 15, 1836. He was the eldest son of Semantha (née Swift) Isham (1808–1896) and Pierpoint Isham (1802–1872), later a justice of the Vermont Supreme Court.[1] Among his siblings was Mary Adeline Isham, the wife of Sartell Prentice (their son Ezra married Alta Rockefeller), and Henry Pierpont Isham, a Chicago real estate broker and banker.[2]

His paternal grandparents were Dr. Ezra Isham and Nancy (née Pierpont) Isham,[lower-alpha 1] and his maternal grandparents were Dr. Noadiah Swift and Jennet (née Henderson) Swift.[3] His maternal grandmother Nancy was the great-granddaughter of Rev. James Pierpont, the founder of Yale University.[1]

He was raised in northwestern Massachusetts. At the age of sixteen, he had to drop out of school due to illness. After two years' recovery in South Carolina, Isham returned to Groton, Massachusetts, where he studied at Lawrence Academy. In 1853, he was accepted at Williams College and studied there for four years. The school awarded him a master's degree in 1860.[4]

Career

Isham studied law in his father's office and then attended the Harvard School of Law. He was admitted to the bar in Rutland, Vermont, in 1858.[1]

He decided to practice in the west, ostensibly to St. Paul, Minnesota or St. Louis, Missouri. However, he decided to settle instead in Chicago, Illinois reportedly because he was "favorably impressed with the advantages of all kinds which the city seemed to afford him."[1] He practiced in the office of Hoyne, Miller & Lewis and then formed a partnership in 1859, known as Stark & Isham with James L. Stark. Isham quickly rose to prominence among Chicago lawyers. In 1864, Isham was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives as a Republican, where he served a two-year term and was a member of the judiciary committee.[4]

After his term expired, Isham spent two years in Europe, then returned to his law practice. In February 1872, Isham admitted Robert Todd Lincoln, the son of Abraham Lincoln, as a junior partner. In 1886, William G. Beale was also admitted as a partner, and henceforth the partnership was known as Isham Lincoln & Beale.[5] The firm retained this name until it dissolved in 1988.[6] Isham's most notable cases include the arrangement of the Walter Loomis Newberry library endowment and the 1875 mayoral election controversy between Harvey Doolittle Colvin & Monroe Heath. He received an LL.D. from Williams College in 1893.[4]

Personal life

In 1861, Isham was married to Frances "Fannie" Burch (1838–1894), the daughter of the Hon. Thomas Burch and his wife Eliza Burch of Little Falls, New York.[7] Fannies first cousin, Mary Weld Burch, was the wife of Alexandre Ribot, the Prime Minister of France.[7] They had two sons and two daughters, including:[8]

• Ann Elizabeth Isham (1862–1912), who died during the sinking of the RMS Titanic, one of only four upper-class women to do so.[9][10]
• Pierrepont Isham (1865–1906), who graduated from West Point in 1887 and served in the 7th Cavalry Regiment and later became a partner in the law firm.[4] He married Lois Kellogg in 1893.[11][12]
• Edward Swift Isham Jr. (1868–1927),[13] who graduated from Yale and married Laura Miller,[14] and was the father of three.[15]
• Frances Isham (1872–1970), who married Henry Tweedy Shelton (1862–1950), a Yale Law School graduate.[16][17]

Isham was a charter member of the Chicago Club and drafted its incorporation papers in 1869.

He died suddenly of heart disease on February 16, 1902 while at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, New York. After a funeral at the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York, he was buried at Dellwood Cemetery in Manchester, Vermont.[18]

References

Notes

1. Edward Swift Isham's paternal grandfather, Dr. Ezra Isham (1773–1835), was the brother of Samuel Isham (1752–1827), both sons of John Isham II (1721–1802), who was born at Barnstable, Massachusetts and moved to Colchester, Connecticut. Samuel Isham was the grandfather of leather merchant William Bradley Isham (1827–1909), who was the father of historian Charles Bradford Isham (1853–1919) (husband of Mamie Lincoln, Robert Todd Lincoln's daughter) and Samuel Isham, a prominent artist).[2]

Sources

1. Industrial Chicago: The Bench and Bar. Goodspeed Publishing Company. 1896. p. 176. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
2. American Ancestry: Embracing lineages from the whole of the United States. 1888-1898. Ed. by Frank Munsell. J. Munsell's Sons. 1888. pp. 28–29. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
3. History of Bennington County, Vt., pp. 539-541. sfn error: no target: CITEREFHistory_of_Bennington_County,_Vt. (help)
4. Palmer, John M., ed. (1899). The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent. I. Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company. pp. 389–393.
5. American Bar Association (1903). Annual Report of the American Bar Association: Including Proceedings of the American Bar Association Annual Meeting. Headquarters Office. pp. 712–713. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
6. Warren, James (April 9, 1988). "Isham Lincoln To Be Dissolved". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
7. "FUNERAL OF MRS. ISHAM. Burial Is at Manchester, Vt., the Family's Winter Residence". Chicago Tribune. February 14, 1894. p. 8. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
8. Phinney, Mary Allen (1940). Isham Genealogy: A Brief History of Jirah Isham (of New London, Connecticut) and His Descendants from 1670 to 1940. The Tuttle Publishing Company, inc. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
9. Hill, Robert Milton (2013). A Little Known Story of the Land Called Clearing. p. 134. ISBN 9781300906353. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
10. Pierce, Nicola (2018). Titanic: True Stories of her Passengers, Crew and Legacy. The O'Brien Press Ltd. p. 35. ISBN 9781788490382. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
11. "PIERREPONT ISHAM". New-York Tribune. May 22, 1906. p. 7. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
12. Hopkins, Timothy (1903). The Kelloggs in the Old World and the New. Sunset Press and photo engraving Company. p. 1733. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
13. "EDWARD SWIFT ISHAM; Retired Manufacturer Dies After a Brief Illness" (PDF). The New York Times. May 15, 1927. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
14. Sedgwick, Hubert Merrill (1961). A Sedgwick Genealogy: Descendants of Deacon Benjamin Sedgwick. New Haven Colony Historical Society. pp. 270–271. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
15. "MISS ISHAM TO WED DR. PAUL C. COLONNA; Mr. and Mrs. Edward Swift: Isham Announce Their Daughter's Betrothal" (PDF). The New York Times. June 15, 1925. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
16. Tuttle, Roger Walker (1911). Biographies of Graduates of the Yale Law School, 1824-1899. Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company. p. 531. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
17. Company, American Historical (1916). Representative Citizens of Connecticut: Biographical Memorial. American Historical Society. p. 352. Retrieved May 3, 2019.
18. "EDWARD S. ISHAM DEAD.; Was a Prominent Chicago Lawyer and a Partner of Robert T. Lincoln" (PDF). The New York Times. February 18, 1902. Retrieved May 3, 2019.

External links

• Edward Swift Isham at Find a Grave