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 The Supreme Court of Wisconsin. the realities of war service, when the skin adhered to the sock, taken off after the day's march. The smart Vermont boy of that period must " teach school winters." Young Dixon had this experience, and thus earned money to enable him to prosecute his studies. The present writer well remembers the tall and handsome cadet who taught school in the

Lamoille valley, and whose manly form and winning manners made him the admira tion of the belles for miles around, in the sleighride parties and country dances of that mountain region. Young Dixon read law with Hon. Luke P. Poland, then of high standing as a lawyer, and after wards a judge of the Supreme Court and a United States Senator from Vermont, and later a prominent member of Congress. Dixon came to the bar in 1850, in his native State. The I.L'TIIER West was then the inviting field to the young men of New England, and Wisconsin was then well on the frontier. He established himself at Portage, in this State, in 1857. A young man of such manly bearing and winning personality could not but draw clients and make friends. He was twice elected district attorney. While serving as prosecutor he tried a murdercase against two of the older and ablest lawyers of the State with an ability and success that brought him into local prominence. A vacancy occurring on the bench of the Ninth Judicial Circuit in 1858, Governor Randall

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appointed Dixon circuit judge. He dis charged the duties of this position with great satisfaction to the bar of the circuit, then an exceptionally able and critical one. In 1859 Chief-Justice Whiton's death cast on Governor Randall the duty of mak ing an appointment to fill the vacancy until an election could be held. He appointed Judge Dixon, who was then thirty-three years of age, and had had but a few months judicial experience. He was comparative ly unknown through out the State as a lawyer and jurist. There was an im pression, among those who did not know him, that he had not had sufficient pro fessional training and judicial experience to fit him for so respon sible a place. Gov ernor Randall was himself an able jurist, and correctly estimat ed the powers of his appointee, who soon gave evidences of a judicial power and S. DIXON. ability that amply vindicated his ap pointment. His mind was discriminating, his memory retentive. He had robust com mon-sense, a nice sense of justice, and was well imbued with the principles of the com mon law and of equity jurisprudence. "He came to the bench," says the veteran Judge Cole, who was his associate during his entire service, " at a most critical period in the history of the Court. Questions of con stitutional law — involving the objects, the limit, and rule of taxation under our Con stitution; of the validity of municipal in debtedness; of the liability of railroad cor