Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1902 — CHARLES W. HANLEY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CHARLES W. HANLEY.

Charles W. Hanley, the Republican nominee for Judge of this circuit, is of Irish descent and was born in Hanging Grove township in this county 37 years ago. His father was a Union soldier and when the subject of this sketch was quite small his parents moved to Gillam townshsp where Mr. Hanley lived until he was 23 years of age. His life there was that of the average farmer boy, doing suob work as was generally done by boys ou the farm. He worked ou the farm at home during most of the time and for neigh bors when no work at home was to be done. He attended school at Terre Haute during 80 and ’B7 and after wards taught several terms of school. He was elected sheriff of this county in 1892 and re-elected in 1894, Previous to this he had rend law and during his entire term of office he spent every spare moment of his time in fitting himself for the profession he had chosen for his life work. In 1896 he formed a partnership with Mr. J. J. Hunt of our city and has since that time been in the active practice. It is as a lawyer that I have known him and have learned to appreciate him. The foregoing events alone would give but an inadequate idea of the life and character of Mr. Hanley. He is always affable, polite and genial. His manner is of the quiet dignified type, not wanting in cordiality, but never drifting to the extremes; with a keen sense of propriety and great regard for the feelings of others; his manners are always gentle, and his demeanor toward all is kindness itself. His uniform courtesy and consideration for the rights and feelings of others are distinctive features of his character, and have won for him the warmest friendship of all who know him. From babyhood he has been a lover of good books. His mind was fashioned to study, industry and research. I have been against him in numerous law salts and know that he is an indefatigable worker in the preparation of his cases. Without an inheritance of wealth; without assistance of influential friends; without any of the adventitious aids that smooth the pathway to eminence, bat by his own energy and persistent toil he has

climbed the ladder of success. Every step he has reached was the result of his own ability and honest effort; his strong sense of right, his absolute integrity as a counselor, and his high regard for the truth as well as the law. No breath of calumny has ever assailed his professional life. No suspicion even of wrong doing has ever compromised his personal honor. The lawyers of this and adjoining circuits who have met him in coart, have every confidence in him. He usually addresses the court or jury in a quiet, common sense manner, bat when aroused by opposition his calm demeanor vanishes, and hie whole nature seems changed with earliest mien and forceful argument. Always courteous to an opponent he never wastes words in effusive or insincere compliments. By hard labor, night and day, close attention to business, an indomitable will, unimpeachable integrity, and unswerving fidelity to his clients, he stands the peer of any member of this circuit. He possesses the highest qualifications for a judge—independence, clear perception, patience in argument, thoroughness in investigation, sound judgment, absolute integrity and above all good common sense. His briefs filed in the higher courts are characterized by sound logic. He has now pending in onr Supreme and Appellate Courts at this time 9 or 10 cases and up to date there has been decided by these higher courts and reported some 4 or 5 of his cases and he has never lost oat on a single case. The records for the past four years disclose the fact that he wins more than eighty per cent of the litigated cases in the circuit courts in which he is interested. Without saying anything In disparagement of Mr. Darroch I might remark that the Trial Calendar of onr Supreme and Appellate Coarts for the May term 1902 does not show but one case pending in those coarts in which he is interested. There is a marked difference in having a long experience in sitting around a law office and being in the active practice for a shorter term. W. H. Parkibon, Of the Jasper County Bar.