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College, Dublin University, Oct. 7, 1871. He had for a classmate, Oscar Wilde, the ex-esthete. While in the University, Mr. Dunne was a first honor man for several successive terms, but owing to family reverses he was compelled to leave Trinity before completing his course. He engaged in business in Peoria, without, however, abandoning his intention of studying for the bar. Coming to Chicago in 1875, he attended lectures at the Union Law College for a year. With the design of acquiring practical experience in a law office, he entered the office of O' Brien & Kettelle, remaining with the firm until his admission to the bar in Mount Vernon, in 1877. In the same class with him were Harry Rubens, Esq., Levy Mayer, Esq., and other active members of the Chicago bar.

Mr. Dunne devoted himself immediately to his profession with diligence and success. He has never permitted politics to interfere with his professional business. He has never held office, nor sought it.

In 1878, he went into partnership with the ex-Justice of the Supreme Court, Walter B. Scates, and the Hon. W. J. Hynes, under the firm name of Scates, Hynes & Dunne.

About 1880, a partnership was formed between Messrs. Hynes and Dunne and William J. English, whose partner, Judge T. A. Moran, had been elevated to the bench. The new firm continued under the name of Hynes, English & Dunne until July, 1887, when Mr. Dunne and Mr. Hynes organized the present firm of Hynes & Dunne.

The business of the firm is large and prosperous. It has carried to a successful termination many important cases, among them the St. Clara Female Academy v. Sullivan and the Moran breach of promise suit. It counts among its clients the Hibernian Banking Association, Fortune Bros. Brewing Co., Keeley Brewing Co., Order of the Servite Sisters, the Catholic Archbishop of Chicago, Warren Springer Manufacturing Works, P. F. Ryan & Co., D. M. and R. J. Goodwillie, H. D. Kelly & Co., the Gault House, the late Vicar General Conway, etc. The firm has a large probate and real estate practice, and has the management of several large estates.

Office, 22-79 Clark St.

The subject of this sketch was married in 1881, to Elizabeth J. Kelly, daughter of E. F. Kelly, Esq., of Enright & Kelly. He has been a member of the Irish American Club since its organization.

Mr. Dunne is very persistent in every thing he undertakes. He has already attained a large degree of success, a success which has been legitimate, and not as in some cases, to be traced to adventitious or transitory causes.

He is one of our most substantial, reliable attorneys.

EPHRAIM BANNING

Was born near Bushnell, McDonough County, Illinois, July 21, 1849. His father was originally from Virginia and his mother from Kentucky. His father, after whom he was named, was a plain, sturdy farmer, without much education, except as acquired in the school of life, but with a spirit always full of hope, courage and determination. His mother, who was a sister of the late Judge Pinkney H. Walker of the Supreme Court of Illinois, was a woman of much character, distinguished among her acquaintances for quiet common sense and a most amiable disposition. On his mother's side, were a number of distinguished men, among others his grandfather, Gilmer Walker, an able and honored lawyer, and his greatuncle, Cyrus Walker, said to have been one of the ablest lawyers in Kentucky, and afterward one of the ablest in Illinois. His father's circumstances were such that from his earliest childhood young Banning was necessarily deprived of many of the opportunities and privileges generally considered indispensable to the proper development of boyhood life. This was particularly so in the matter of education, for in this respect he was always required to contend against adverse circumstances, Nevertheless, being an apt scholar, quick and anxious to learn, he acquired knowledge readily, and on more than one occasion in his boyhood and youth took the prizes in his school.

When about seventeen years of age, and for two or three

years afterward, he studied the languages, and higher branches generally, under the tutorship of Rev. J. P. Finley, D. D., at Brookfield, Missouri.

After leaving Dr. Finley's academy, Mr. Banning taught school a few months, and during this period began the study of law. He afterward continued his legal studies in the office of Hon. Samuel P. Huston of Brookfield, and then, in the spring of 1871, came to Chicago and entered the office of Messrs. Rosenthal & Pence as a clerk and student. In June, 1872, he was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Illinois, and in October of the same year he opened an office and began practice for himself.

The building up of a practice by a young lawyer is generally slow work, especially in a large city, and in this respect Mr. Banning had the usual experience. His business gradually increasing, in the course of a few years he came to be recognized in the courts and at the bar as a lawyer in fair general practice.

About this time, however, several cases came to him involving questions of patent law. On this account, and because of its constantly involving the study and application of beautiful scientific principles, he formed a special liking for this branch of jurisprudence. His first argument in a patent cause was made before Judge Blodgett in 1877, and from about this time, or a little later, may be dated his withdrawal from general practice to devote himself exclusively to patent law. It was also about this time that he was joined by his brother, Thomas A. Banning, with whom he has ever since been in partnership. In a short time, the firm of Banning & Banning became widely known as successful patent lawyers. Its business covering every thing in the line of patent and trade-mark law, it has within the last ten years, argued a very large number of cases of this kind, and it now has a large practice in the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as in the lower federal courts in Chicago and elsewhere. One of their cases recently argued in the Supreme Court, involved over a hundred thousand dollars; another case, still pending, relates to a manufacturing business claimed to be worth more than

half that amount every year; while others, in one of the Circuit Courts, involve the question whether a single company shall be allowed to control the entire air-brake business of the country. The firm still continues as at first organized, except that Mr. George S. Payson has been recently admitted as a member.

Mr. Banning was married in October, 1878, to Lucretia T. Lindsley, an accomplished lady, of earnest christian character, descended from an old and respected family, of whom one was the first president of Yale College, and others prominent figures in colonial and revolutionary times. Mrs. Banning died in February 1887, leaving three small children, boys, all of whom are still living.

Mr. Banning is an elder in the Presbyterian Church, a republican in politics, a member of the Union League Club, and connected with several organizations interested in the material and moral progress of the city. In addition to his legal work, he continues to keep up the study of language, and devotes much time to the reading of history and general literature; and during the past year he has traveled extensively in various European countries.

JOHN C. SIMONDS

Was born near Cairo, Illinois, June 28, 1848. Hon. Cyrus G. Simonds, his father, was one of the leading lawyers of Illinois. He had been a member of the Illinois Legislature, and acquired distinction as a brilliant and powerful advocate. A large proportion of the cases in that section of country found him retained on one side or the other.

John C. was educated at various academic institutions, and in the University of Michigan. He was admitted to the Michigan Bar in the spring of 1873, and to the New York Bar two years later. After some years of successful practice in the New York courts, Mr. Simonds came to Chicago in 1881, where he has since been an esteemed and successful practitioner.

For several years after his arrival in Chicago, Mr. Simonds'

practice consisted largely in the preparation of opinions upon statements of facts submitted for his consideration, and of arguments on appeals. For such intellectual effort he is well endowed.

His mind is clear and incisive, and his judgment good. He is adroit in the art of dialectic fence, well grounded in the principles of the law, and skillful in their application. The merit of distinguishing cases, and noting wherein those that resemble differ, is his in a high degree. Lord Bacon held it the sacred duty of the lawyer to master some legal principles and adjudged cases thereon, to reduce them to system, and give to his profession the ripe fruit of his severer studies. Mr. Simonds has paid this debt to the profession in his "History, Methods and Law of the Produce Exchange." He has also written just and discriminating pictures of Western lawyers in Biographical Sketches.

It was long ago remarked by the great Burke, that the study and practice of the law tended rather to the strength than the liberality and culture of the mind. Mr. Simonds with his legal faculties and acquisitions, has also a rare love for belle-lettres and the arts, a mind and heart thoroughly in sympathy with the great ennobling movements of the times, and an ear attuned to "the still sad music of humanity." In his valuable and eloquent "History of Manual Labor in all Lands and Ages," he has undertaken authentically to tell the story of the common people-their past progress, present conditions and future hopes.-With rare eloquence and truth, he "has essayed to do for the nameless heroes of all time-those masses of the people that have fought the battles, builded the cities, and wrought the fabric of our civilization, what has already been done for the monarch, the warrior, the nobleman and the statesman." Truly a noble and worthy end.

A list of his contributions to leading magazines on a great variety of topics in literature, law and economics would occupy too much space. They are all characterized by culture, thought and research. He has draped his ideas with the vesture of a clear and classic English.

Recently Mr. Simonds has been chosen as lecturer on "Medi

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