Cyrus Madison Hawley (January 15 or 27, 1815 – August 29, 1894) was a justice of the Utah Territorial Supreme Court from 1869 to 1873.

Early life, education, and career

Born in

Solon Solon (; ; BC) was an Archaic Greece#Athens, archaic History of Athens, Athenian statesman, lawmaker, political philosopher, and poet. He is one of the Seven Sages of Greece and credited with laying the foundations for Athenian democracy. ...

Cortland County Cortland County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population of Cortland County was 46,809. The county seat is Cortland. The county is named after Pierre Van Cortlandt, president of the convention a ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, to Lewis Hawley and Sarah Tanner Hawley, he was educated in

Homer, New York Homer is a town in Cortland County, New York, United States of America. The population was 6,405 at the 2010 census. The name is from the Greek poet Homer. The town of Homer contains a village called Homer. The town is situated on the west b ...

, and

read law Reading law was the primary method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship un ...

under Joshua A. Spencer, in

Utica, New York Utica () is the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most populous city in New York, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 census. It is located on the Mohawk River in the Mohawk Valley at the foot of the Adiro ...

. Hawley moved to

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

in 1847, and continued reading law to be admitted to the bar there in 1849. He thereafter practiced in Chicago for twenty years, including in that time a period of association with

Lyman Trumbull Lyman Trumbull (October 12, 1813 – June 25, 1896) was an American lawyer, judge, and politician who represented the state of Illinois in the United States Senate from 1855 to 1873. Trumbull was a leading abolitionist attorney and key polit ...

, and George Trumbull. In 1861, he gained national prominence for publishing a letter advocating for the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the Treasury, national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current United States federal executive departments, U.S. government departments. ...

to issue treasury notes. At the time, the United States had no federal currency, instead relying on states and private banks to issue their own currency. In 1862, Hawley was admitted to practice before the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

Judicial service

On April 15, 1869, Hawley was appointed by President

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...

to the Territorial Utah Supreme Court, holding that office for four years. It was said that "his written decisions and opinions upon the various legal issues which were submitted to his consideration are noted for their soundness, ability and perspicuity". While serving in this capacity, he ordered the arrest of John D. Lee for Lee's role in the

Mountain Meadows massacre A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

Later life and death

Hawley later moved to

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, where he partnered with Albert G. Riddle for a time. He returned to Chicago in his retirement, residing in Hyde Park, where he died after a year-long illness. In death, Hawley made one final contribution to the law: he had been sued by one Marie M. Fenton in Illinois on the grounds that workers contracted to Hawley had damaged Fenton's property, but both Fenton and Hawley died while the lawsuit was progressing. The court held that the lawsuit survived both, and that Fenton's estate could collect from Hawley's estate due to Hawley's liability for the damage.

Personal life

In 1862 Hawley married Sophia Fellows, granddaughter of

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

General John Fellows. Many years after Sophia's death, on January 19, 1893, Hawley married Annie Fulton Loomis of Chicago, who survived him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawley, Cyrus M. Justices of the Utah Supreme Court 1815 births 1894 deaths Utah Territorial judges 19th-century American judges