Mitchell Hamline School of Law Mitchell Hamline Open Access Faculty Scholarship 1997 Hiram F. Stevens and the Founding of the St. Paul College of Law Douglas R. Heidenreich Mitchell Hamline School of Law, [email protected] Publication Information 15:3 William Mitchell Magazine, summer (1997) Repository Citation Heidenreich, Douglas R., "Hiram F. Stevens and the Founding of the St. Paul College of Law" (1997). Faculty Scholarship. Paper 119. http://open.mitchellhamline.edu/facsch/119 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Mitchell Hamline Open Access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Mitchell Hamline Open Access. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Hiram F. Stevens and the Founding of the St. Paul College of Law Abstract The t.S Paul College of Law, one of William Mitchell College of Law's predecessor institutions, was established by five attorneys in 1900. Especially prominent among these attorneys was Hiram F. Stevens (1852-1904), who served as the first dean and was also a legislator, teacher, scholar, popular orator, and a founding member of the American Bar Association. Keywords Hiram F. Stevens, St. Paul College of Law, legal education, American Bar Association Disciplines Legal Education | Legal History This article is available at Mitchell Hamline Open Access: http://open.mitchellhamline.edu/facsch/119 named had been the muddy flats where Pierre "Pig's appears from the college's faculty and board about Eye" Parrant, described in one history of the city as 1917, following unsuccessful negotiations for a the "lawless fellow ... who felt the chief end of man merger of the college with the University of was to drink and sell whisky," had settled at the Minnesota Law School. mouth of Fountain Cave following his expulsion from Moses E. Clapp, a graduate of the University of the nearby Fort Snelling Military Reservation. Wisconsin Law School and a former Minnesota and the founding Indeed, there must have been still living in St. Paul attorney general, while remaining for 10 years a at least a few people who had witnessed the erection member of the board and for 13 a nominal faculty of the in 1841 of Father member, seems never Galtier's tiny log chapel STATE OF MINNESOTA, S[]PBEME COURT. to have taught a class that would give its name at the college. The ink to the river-landing was barely dry on the community, previously incorporation docu­ known as Pig's Eye, in ments when he was grudging recognition of chosen in 1901 to fill By Douglas R. Heidenreich The college's first Catalog and Announcement says its most notorious, the unexpired U.S. the school was created as a result of a meeting of a though not illustri- Senate term of the N NOVEMBER 23, 1900, five distinguished committee of Ramsey County lawyers, called together ous, denizen. renowned Cushman K. St. Paul lawyers signed a document that in the spring of 1899 by the president of the Ramsey The incorporators Davis, who had died created, out of nothing, a night law school. County Bar Association. The lawyers saw the need for of the college and in office. In its first century, the law school would a night law school that would serve working students members of its first Although the produce politicians, trial lawyers, office in St. Paul. board of trustees were 1901-02 catalog called lawyers, judges, business executives and, From that larger group came the five founding Hiram F. Stevens, dean; him a "Special like all law schools, a small collection of fathers. A faculty of about a dozen lawyers and judges, Ambrose Tighe, trea­ Lecturer," thereafter rogues. The graduates of the law school including several members of the original larger group, surer; Clarence W. Halbert, secretary; Thomas D. Clapp's name appeared on the list of faculty with the profoundly influenced the course of history, came together to begin teaching in the college. The O'Brien; and Moses E. Clapp. designation "Course omitted because of absence." It not only of the Twin Cities and Minnesota but, to catalog said classes would be held "on the top floor of Halbert, a graduate of the Yale Law School and, was never suggested he would be present to teach a some degree, the nation. the Court House," a fortress-like stone building occu­ at 25, the youngest, in addition to teaching agency course. Clapp, the independent-minded "Black The St. Paul College of Law, soon to be desig­ pying the block bounded by Fourth and Fifth, and law, served as the college's secretary and acted as its Eagle," was, following a colorful Senate career, nated "The Lawyers Law School," was to be a root Wabasha and Cedar streets, since replaced by the pre­ representative at professional meetings and in nego­ defeated by Frank B. Kellogg in the primary election to which would be grafted, 56 years later, the sent Ramsey County Courthouse. The facilities, thanks tiations of various sorts. He appears to have been the of 1916. He remained in Washington Minneapolis-Minnesota College of Law, successor to to the cooperation of the Ramsey County board, were most active in the affairs of the college beginning four evening law schools in made available to the college free of charge. about 1904, and he dis- WILLIAM MITCHELL Minneapolis, each with its The first catalog also noted: COLLEGE OF LAW own rich history. "The Faculty gathered together The course of study form a corps of able and experienced TOP: On April 4, 1901, at the new St. Paul instructors, who are inspired by love of the Minnesota Supreme Court College of Law was to their profession and not lucrative gain. certified that the St. Paul be three years in length. It is their aim to create a school where College of Law met statutory requirements for its Students who had studied at quality of instruction and not numbers, graduates to be admitted other law schools could gain where merit and not influences, may be to practice without taking a advanced standing and enter as second-year stu­ the controlling elements." bar exam. LEFT: Members dents. Similarly, students who had pursued, perhaps RKING FOR A nonprofit corpo­ of the class of 1902 were in a law office, "a course of studies equivalent" to ration with no capital or property the first graduates of the law school. Dean Hiram F. the work offered in the first year at the St. Paul and offering a course to about College of Law, could be admitted to advanced Stevens is in the center. 20 students, each of whom presumably Author Heidenreich says standing upon passing the first-year exams. Anyone paid tuition of $60 per year, the first fac­ Raymond A. Jackson, to the with a high-school diploma or equivalent education ulty indeed must have been inspired by immediate left of Stevens, would be eligible to attend. All classes would begin love of the profession rather than any "seems to have been at 7:30 p.m. and last for one and one-half hours. prospect of "lucrative gain." The five admitted twice." Tuition would be $60 per year. founders were all listed as faculty mem­ bers. With one exception, all taught for several years. Prof. Douglas R. Heidenreich, '61, joined the William They were remarkable men. At least two Mitchell faculty in 1963 and served as dean 1964-75. held law degrees from distinguished uni­ He teaches commercial transactions, contracts, nego­ tiable instruments, and professional responsibility, versities. Four were well established; one and contributes regularly to Bench & Bar of Minnesota, was a young lawyer of promise. All had Hennepin Lawyer, and law reviews. Prof. Heidenreich won the respect of the residents of the is researching and writing a centennial history of young but rapidly growing city in what was William Mitchell College of Law and its predecessors hardly more than a frontier society. and will contribute several articles on the law school's Only two generations before the founding history to WILLIAM MITCHELL magazine. FIRST GRADUATING cLASS of the college, the city for which it had been aT. PAUL COLLE8E,.,>2 Of LAW 2 WILLIAM MITCHELL SUMMER 1997 3 for the rest of his profes­ "a considerable reputation never served on active sionallife and he died there as a lawyer," he helped to military duty, he spoke in 1929. found the Vermont Bar on at least two occa­ Thomas D. O'Brien, proba­ Association and served as its first secretary. It was a sions with great fervor bly the sole Democrat in the group, was a member pattern he would repeat a few years later in to Memorial Day gath­ of a remarkable family of lawyers and public ser­ Minnesota. erings of veterans who vants. Born to Irish immigrants on Lake Superior's The young Stevens was one of six members of a had served as Union Madeline Island, he came as a small child with his Vermont delegation that met with about 90 repre­ soldiers in the Civil family, first to St. Anthony, then to St. Paul, where, sentatives of other states on a late summer's day in War. In 1902, the as a young man, he read law and was admitted to 1878 at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., to create the Ameri­ University of Vermont practice at the age of 21. His exceptional career can Bar Association (ABA). Although he remained Alumni Association included a term as Ramsey County attorney and a in ABA listings as a member from Vermont for two asked him to deliver brief stint on the Minnesota Supreme Court.