Draft:William E. Church

William E. Church (December 7, 1841 – April 18, 1917) was a justice of the Dakota Territorial Supreme Court from 1883 to 1886.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, he attended the Brooklyn schools and in 1857 entered Williams College, graduating in 1861. He moved with his family to Morristown, where he studied law before joining the Union Army in the American Civil War, serving in Maryland and Virginia and later in Louisiana.

"In March 1865 he was appointed by President Lincoln assistant adjutant general of volunteers with the rank of captain and assigned to the Thirteenth army corps. In May following he went with his command to occupy Shreveport, La., and to receive the surrender of General Kirby Smith's army. He was post adjutant or Shreveport until August, when at his own request he was sent to New Orleans with the expectation of being ordered home; but on his arrival in that city he was assigned to the staff of General Sheridan and was not finally mustered out of service until October, 1865. He resumed the study of law and was admitted to the bar in New York city and in 1872 he took up practice at Morristown, where he remained until 1883, when without his solicitation or prior knowledge he was appointed by President Arthur as associate justice of the supreme court of Dakota territory. Several or the cases in which he wrote opinions were taken to the supreme court of the United States and in every instance his judgment was affirmed. Before the two Dakotas were united as a state he resigned and resumed the practice of law in Deadwood. In 1890 he moved to Chicago where he practiced until his death forming a partnership in 1897 with Robert McMurdy under the firm name of Church & McMurdy, which has continued ever since. On November 2, 1870, he was married to Mary Jones, a member of a distinguished Welsh family. He leaves his widow and five children."

In the 1890s, Church formed a new law partnership in Chicago.

"The Hon. William E. Church, late of the Supreme Court of South Dakota, has been admitted as a member of the law firm of Tenney, Hawley, and Coffeen, in place of Mr. George A. Hawley, who goes to Seattle, Wash. The name of the firm, as thus constituted, will be Tenney, Church, and Coffeen".

"Judge Moody left the bench to become attorney for the Homestake mine and William E. Church was appointed in 1883 to succeed him".

"Charles M. Thomas, of Bowling Green, Ky., to be associate justice of the supreme court of the Territory of Dakota, vice William E. Church, resigned".

In June 1911, Church delivered the commencement address for the John Marshall Law School.