Michael Allanson contacted the Hillsdale County Historical Society with information about his great-grandfather, William H. Donahue. We are grateful to Michael for helping to expand our biographies of Hillsdale County residents.

JUDGE WILLIAM H. DONAHUE

(September 6, 1858 • May 2, 1909) ╤╤╤

William Henry Donahue graduated the University of Michigan Law School in May 1881, was admitted to the Michigan bar, and promptly moved to Minneapolis, where he joined Martin Koon’s firm.1 Later he practiced with Stephen Mahoney and, still later, with Simon Meyers.

The nature of his practice changed over time, from criminal law in his first decade or so to civil matters in the 1890s. His most celebrated criminal defense was of the Barrett Brothers in 1888-1889.2 Their lead attorney was William W. Erwin, one of the most famous criminal defense lawyers in the Northwest during the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century.3 Here is Walter N. Trenerry’s capsulized account their crime:

, these delinquents, whose family ran an illicit saloon called the “Hub of Hell,” held up a horsecar and shot its conductor, Thomas Tollefson. The robbery netted them twenty dollars. Their brother, Henry, who had also taken part in the crime, confessed and furnished the testimony which sent them to the rope. They were hanged on a double gallows in the midst of their prayers. On the same day the pretty widow of their victim went quietly to Osceola, Wisconsin, where she remarried.4 Judge William Lochren presided over both trials in Hennepin County District Court. Unsuccessful appeals were taken to the Minnesota

There is some uncertainty about the procedure Donahue followed to gain admission to the Minnesota bar. When his appointment to the bench was announced in 1909, the Minneapolis Journal reported that he “prepared for the State Bar association examination” while in Koon’s firm. This cannot be correct. A “State Bar association examination” did not exist in 1881-1882. At that time applicants to the bar were examined by a committee of three experienced lawyers who were appointed by the district court judge, and upon their recommendation, the applicant was admitted in open court immediately thereafter. This surely was the process Donahue went through when he was admitted to the Minnesota bar in 1881-1882. However, for some reason, he did not take steps to have his name recorded on the rolls of the Minnesota Supreme Court until December 23, 1902. Supreme Court, State of Minnesota, 1858-1970 62 (Minnesota Digital Library). 2 Minneapolis Journal, May 3, 1909, at 6 (“Judge Donahue at one time made a specialty of criminal practice and was one of the attorneys for the defense in the Barrett murder trials. Recently he has confined himself to civil practice and prior to his appointment to the bench he was attorney for the Anthony Kelly estate.”). 3John T. Byrnes and Cyrus Wellington were also members of the defense team. 4 Walter N. Trenerry, Murder in Minnesota 221 (Minn. Hist. Soc., 1962).

Supreme Court, which affirmed the convictions on January 28, 1899.5 The men were hanged seven weeks later. 6 Though he lost his clients, his reputation was enhanced.

In 1902, having practiced in Minneapolis for two decades, he placed the following profile in Hiram Stevens’ History of the Bench and Bar of Minnesota. It emphasized his corporate clientele:

William H. Donahue, of the Minneapolis bar, was born at Allen, Hillsdale county, Michigan, September 6, 1859, and is a son of James and Ellen Donahue. He attended the public schools of his native village, took the high school course at Hillsdale and read law under the preceptorship of Ezra L. Coon, of Hillsdale. He also attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and in May, 1881, graduated from the law department and was admitted to practice at Hillsdale, Michigan. Mr. Donahue at once came to Minnesota to begin his career, and has successfully practiced civil law in all the courts, showing more than usual ability in his profession. He is attorney for Anthony Kelly & Company and the Singer Manufacturing Company; and so meritorious is his work that his clientage is extended and lucrative. He is a member of the local bar association. Mr. Donahue was married April 25, 1888, in the city of Chicago to Miss Mary L., daughter

The full texts of State v. Timothy Barrett, 40 Minn. 654, 41 N.W. 459 (1889) and State v. Peter Barrett, 40 Minn. 77, 41 N.W. 463 (1889) are posted in the Appendix, below. 6 The double execution has been vividly described by John D. Bessler, the foremost historian of capital punishment in this state:

On March 22, the Barrett boys were hanged as planned in the Hennepin County Jail. With an estimated five thousand people waiting outside it, the trap was sprung open at 11:14 A.M. after priests conducted a short ceremony on the scaffold. County sheriffs and newspaper reporters with telegraphic instruments packed the spectators’ platform inside. “Every inch of space was utilized by the lookers-on,” but a photographer John Bodley, was notably missing. Having expressed his desire to record the Barretts’ last scene on the gallows, he had been imprisoned the day before for selling “obscene pictures” that depicted the condemned men in jail. The murder victim’s widow, Mrs. Thomas Tollefson, who remarried while the Barrett brothers were “under the surveillance of the death watch,” was also unable to attend. When Mrs. Tollefson and her new husband, Morris Lonsberry, requested passes, policemen told her “no ladies would be present at the execution.”

John D. Bessler, Legacy of Violence: Lynch Mobs and Executions in Minnesota 111-112 (Univ. of Minn. Press, 2003) (citing sources). Bessler does not mention Donahue. 3 of James Walsh. Their family is composed of five children. Mr. Donahue is a member of the Catholic church.

He was a member of the Minneapolis Charter Commission that drafted home-rule charters submitted to voters in 1906 and 1907, but neither garnered enough votes to become law.8 In politics, he was a staunch Democrat, and was elected a delegate to several national party conventions. It probably was during party meetings that he met John Albert Johnson, governor of the state from 1905 to 1909.

On January 5, 1909, Judge Frederick V. Brown resigned from the Hennepin County District Court. This may have surprised the public and some members of the bar because he had been elected in 1906, and had served barely one-third of his six year term. Governor Johnson, however, must have been forewarned because the very next day he appointed Donahue to fill the vacancy. 9 On February 1st, when Brown’s resignation

Hiram F. Stevens, 2 History of the Bench and Bar of Minnesota 157-58 (1904). 8 Minneapolis Journal, May 3, 1909, at 6. However, neither draft received the necessary “four-sevenths of the qualified voters” voting in the election required by Article 4, §36, of the Constitution (1898), to be ratified (all blank votes were considered no). In the November 6, 1906, there were 38,419 total votes but only 65% voted on the charter question; 17,296 voters favored the charter, while 7,488 were against. Minneapolis Journal, November 8, 1906 (incomplete: 8 out of 144 precincts missing). In a special election on September 17, 1907, 7,018 voters favored the charter while 9,241 were opposed (9,288 needed for adoption) Minneapolis Journal, September 18, 1907, at 1. 9 The Minneapolis Journal broke the story:

HELD OFFICE BUT ONCE William H. Donahue, Who Succeeds Judge Brown, Has Practiced 28 Years.

William H. Donahue, who will be appointed a judge of the Hennepin county district court to succeed Judge Frederick V. Brown, who tendered his resignation to Governor Johnson yesterday, has been a practicing attorney in Minneapolis for twenty-eight years. During that time he has never held elective office, although he has served as a member of the city charter commission.

Mr. Donahue is 48 years old. He is a native of Michigan, and was graduated from the University of Michigan law college when he was 21 years old. Coming directly to Minneapolis after his graduation, he entered the law office of Judge M. B. Koon, where he prepared for the State Bar association examination. Since his admission to the bar, his practice has been general.

Although Judge Fred V. Brown will have only served two of the years of his six-year term when he retires from the bench on Feb. 1, Mr. Donahue will only hold office until the next general election in the fall of 1910.

Minneapolis Journal, January 6, 1909, at 9 (photo of Donahue omitted). He was required to stand in the next election because Art. 6, §10 of the constitution required an appointed judge to run “at the first annual election that occurs more than thirty days after the vacancy shall have happened.”

took effect, Donahue was sworn and presided over his first case. The Journal carried the story:

DONAHUE ON THE BENCH _________ Newly Appointed District Judge Assumes His Duties.

Judge William H. Donahue, appointed by Governor John A. Johnson to succeed Judge Frederick V. Brown, on the Hennepin county district bench, began his official work today. He took the oath of office before Judge David F. Simpson.

The first case before him this morning was the suit of Jacobson representing the Gold Leaf Reducing company, against Olof F. Searle to collect disputed amounts on stock subscription. A disagreement over the price of the stock was the cause of the suit. Judge Donahue begins his work with a clean slate. Judge Brown finished up all his judicial business Saturday.10

At this time, Donahue had cancer of the neck. In mid-April he took a leave of absence to seek treatment at a hospital in Philadelphia. On Sunday, May 2nd, shortly after undergoing surgery, he died. He was fifty-one years old. The morning Minneapolis Tribune carried his obituary on its front page:

Judge Donahue Dies in the East ______________ Minneapolis Jurist Passes Away, Following Operation on Neck. ______________ Wife at Bedside When the Patient Succumbs at Philadelphia. ______________ Was Leader in Democratic Councils and Won Fame As Attorney. 10 Minneapolis Journal, February 1, 1909, at 7. 5

PHILADELPHIA, May 3 — [Special] ― Judge William H. Donahue, of the district court of Minneapolis, and the first grand knight of the Minneapolis Grand Knights of Columbus, died at 4:22 o’clock yesterday morning at the American Oncologic hospital, forty-fifth and Chestnut streets. He was in his fifty-first year.

Judge Donahue, who was a leading member of the bench and bar of Minnesota, came to this city from Minneapolis 16 days ago, to obtain treatment at the hospital for the growth of a cancerous nature which had developed on his neck. An operation was performed from which he did not recover and he died, with his wife, who had accompanied him here, at his bedside.

The body was placed on a train that left Broad street station for the northwest at 7 o’clock last night. Dr. W. D. Bacon and Michael Keough, two members of the West Philadelphia council of the Knights of Columbus, acting as escort. They will accompany it to Minneapolis with Mrs. Donahue and there represent the local Knightsof Columbus here at the funeral.

BORN IN MICHIGAN Judge Donahue was born in Allen, Hillsdale county, Mich., in September, 1858, and was a graduate of the law department of the university of Michigan. He came to Minneapolis immediately after his admission to the bar in 1881, and entered at once upon the practice of his profession. For a few years he was in the law office of M. B. Koon, and later he formed a partnership with Stephen Mahony, the firm being Mahony & Donahue.

In the early years of his practice, Judge Donahue made a specialty of criminal cases, and the first notable case with which he was associated was the trial of the Barrett brothers in the late eighties. Although two of the three boys were found guilty and hanged, Judge Donahue made an able defence, and his success as an attorney dates from that time.

Later on, he gave his attention exclusively to civil cases, and for many years he was legal advisor for the Anthony Kelley estate. In fact, he remained in this capacity up to the time he was appointed to the district bench three months ago.

SUCCEEDED F. V. BROWN Judge Donahue’s appointment to the bench as Judge F. V. Brown’s successor was made by Governor Johnson not so much as a political reward as a recognition of high legal attainments and judicial fitness. At the time of his death, Judge Donahue had two years left to serve.

Aside from his place on the bench, he never held public office of any kind, although he served on the commission that drew up the city charter voted on in 1906 and 1907. As a member of the drafting committee, he drew the franchise section, which is regarded by lawyers and experts as a model of its sort.

A lifelong Democrat, Judge Donahue was one of the ablest leaders of the party both in the city and state. He served for years on the judiciary campaign committee, and three times in succession he was chosen to represent the Minneapolis district in the national Democratic convention.

In 1888 Judge Donahue married Miss Mary Walsh of Chicago, who survives him, together with five children, James, Catherine, Jule, Helen and William.

LEADER IN LODGES Although a man of strong domestic tastes, Judge Donahue was for many years affiliated with both the Knights of Columbus and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. He had held high office in both organizations. During the time that he was sick in Philadelphia, the Knights of Columbus lodges there took special pains to provide flowers and other tokens of their esteem.

During practically the entire length of his residence in Minneapolis, Judge Donahue was a member of Immaculate Conception church. He was especially interested in the project for building the new pro-Cathedral and was a member of the general committee in charge of its erection.

This was an era when the local bench and bar coalesced for a period of mourning after the death of a district court judge. More than fifty members of the Hennepin County Bar and the Knights of Columbus met the train bearing Donahue’s body from Philadelphia and formed an escort of honor 11 Minneapolis Tribune, May 3, 1909, at 1 (funeral arrangements omitted). 7 as it was taken to an undertaker. The guard of honor included Donahue’s five colleagues ― Judges Frank C. Brooks, David F. Simpson, Andrew Holt, Horace D. Dickinson and John Day Smith.12 Following custom, the courts were closed on May 5th, the day of the funeral.

Minneapolis Journal, May 4, 1909, at 6. At the funeral, each judge was either an active or honorary pallbearer. Id. Minneapolis Journal, May 3, 1909, at 6 (“Court Will Adjourn”); Minneapolis Journal, May 4, 1909, at 6 (“Out of respect for the memory of Judge Donahue, district court rooms were closed today and court work will not be resumed until Thursday. No session of probate court will be held tomorrow.”). This photograph of Judge Donahue (“Minneapolis Jurist, Whose Death Followed Hospital Operation”) accompanied the Journal’s story on May 3.

On May 15th, the county bar association convened in district court for Donahue’s memorial service. The evening journal reported the proceedings:

PAY TRIBUTE TO JUDGE DONAHUE __________________ Associates on Bench and Minneapolis Bar Adopt Appropriate Memorial. __________________

Judges of the district court and members of the Minneapolis bar honored the memory of the late Judge William H. Donahue today by attending a special memorial session of the district court in courtroom No. 1 in the court house. The five judges who were Judge Donahue’s colleagues on the bench, presided, and the more than 100 members of the Minneapolis bar were in attendance.

Judge F. C. Brooks, who was a close personal friend of Judge Donahue, voiced the sentiments of the district court judges in a short memorial address, and tributes to the memory of Judge Donahue were made by Rome G. Brown, A. H. Hall, A. M. Harrison, Simon Meyers and James Kellogg.

Memorial Adopted.

H. G. Hicks, chairman of the memorial committee, appointed by Edward Savage, president of the Hennepin County Bar Association, presented the following resolution as the unanimous sentiments of members of the association:

Judge Donahue held but one strictly public office, that of District Judge for Hennepin County, but during the short period of his service he had the entire confidence, esteem and respect of the Bench and Bar, as well as the public generally. He was an influential and active member of a 9 commission appointed to draft a charter for the city of Minneapolis and was largely instrumental in the framing of the chapter pertaining to franchises of public service corporations, one of the most important problems of public interest. He twice represented Minnesota in the national conventions of the political party of which he was a life long member and he gave freely of his time and services to the solution of problems of public interest.

But it is as a man, citizen and lawyer that we best knew and most vividly recall our departed friend. His marked characteristics were an uncompromising honesty, deep sincerity, and fearlessness in the expression and advocacy of his convictions. He had very high ideals for the legal profession, its dignity, its ethics and its membership. In this he furnished an example for all of us to follow.

He was an able lawyer. He had good mental capacity and a sound knowledge of the principles which lie at the foundation of our profession. But professional eminence was not alone what distinguished him among those with whom he worked.

Hated Injustice.

He was more than a good lawyer. He was a good man, who loved justice and hated injustice. He had an intense sympathetic nature. No one in distress ever applied to him without receiving help and encouragement. His best efforts at the bar were made for those who needed help, and who could make little or no return therefor.

He was a true and loyal friend, who never tired in his efforts to serve those whom he called his friends. This quality was so marked in him that it sometimes stood in the way of his own advancement.

Had he been spared, he would have made an excellent judge. His judgment of human nature was keen and accurate. His motives were of the best. His sense of right and wrong was so delicately attuned that no technical legal objection would ever have served as an excuse with him for doing an injustice.

His home life was ideal. Its history is written in the hearts of the wife and children whom he left behind. Into that shrine of his affections it is not proper that we should intrude.

10 The supreme test of his character came after his appointment to the bench. We know now, from remarks which he made, that he felt that his lifework was about to end. He felt the touch of an incurable malady upon him. Yet with what patience and courtesy he continued to perform his duties. This required higher qualities than mere intellectual attainment. He earnestly believed that life in this world is but a preparation for a life to come. Let us hope that he is now enjoying the reward he sought to merit.

But why memorialize? Why resolve? The evidence of Judge Donahue’s life is all submitted. The verdict has been rendered. It was recorded by your presence here today. We cannot by mere word change that verdict. Surely, none of us desire to do so. The verdict of the men among whom he spent his life is that Judge Donahue was an able and upright lawyer and judge; a good and valued citizen; a true and loyal friend; a loving and loved husband and father. What more could a man be?

We now move that this brief statement of the life and work of our departed associate and judge be spread upon the records of this court, there to continue as an expression of our appreciation of his virtues and to our regret at his seemingly premature death, and that a certified copy of that record be sent to his family.

At the annual convention of the Minnesota State Bar Association in 1910, the following memorial, a shorter version of that adopted by the Hennepin County Bar Association, was presented:

William H. Donahue was born on a farm in Allen Township, Hillsdale County, Michigan, September 6, 1858, where he spent his early life. He received his education at Hillsdale College and the University of Michigan, from which latter institution he graduated in 1881. In the same year he was admitted to practice and came at once to Minneapolis, where he continued the practice of his chosen profession until his appointment to the District Court Bench on February 1, 1909. Upon arriving at Minneapolis, he entered the office of the well known legal firm of Koon, Merrill and Keith, but in the course of a few months formed a co-partnership with Hon. Stephen Mahoney, which continued until the latter’s appointment as Municipal Judge. In the year 1890 he associated with Simon 14 Minneapolis Journal, May 15, 1909, at 6. 11 Meyers under the firm name of Donahue & Meyers, though no partnership existed between them, and this continued until his retirement in 1909, for the purpose of accepting the position upon the Bench which had been tendered to him. His death occurred at Philadelphia, Pa., on May 2, 1909, and was a shock to the entire community in which he had previously lived.

Judge Donahue held but one strictly public office, that of District Judge for Hennepin County, but during the short period of his service he had the entire confidence, esteem and respect of the Bench and Bar, as well as the public generally. He was an influential and active member of a commission appointed to draft a charter for the city of Minneapolis and was largely instrumental in the framing of the chapter pertaining to franchises of public service corporations, one of the most important problems of public interest. He twice represented Minnesota in the national conventions of the political party of which he was a life long member and he gave freely of his time and services to the solution of problems of public interest.

He was deeply sincere in all his undertakings and fearless in the expression and advocacy of his convictions; he had very high ideals for the legal profession, its dignity, its ethics, and its membership, and these, together with the great love which he bore toward his family, were marked characteristics of his life.

On April 25, 1888, he was married to Mary L. Walsh of Chicago, Ill., who, together with three daughters and two sons, survives him.

Governor Johnson was out-of-state when Donahue died. By the time he returned, about a dozen candidates for the judgeship had come forth; after “giving a final hearing to their friends,” he appointed Wilbur F. Booth on May 21.15 This was the beginning of Booth’s thirty-five years on the bench. He was elected to the district court in 1910; in 1914, President Wilson nominated him to be federal district court judge for Minnesota, and he was confirmed; in 1925, President Coolidge elevated him to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. He died in 1944, at age eighty-two.

Governor Johnson’s fate was similar to Donahue’s. He died on September 21, 1909, following surgery in Rochester. He was forty-eight years old. • 15 Minneapolis Journal, May 20, 1909, at 1. 12 APPENDIX Case P