Grand Forks County ND Archives Biographies.....Cochrane, John M. 1859 - 1904
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Author: Guy C. H. Corliss

JOHN M. COCHRANE. 
By Guy C. H. Corliss.

  John M. Cochrane, the subject of this sketch, was born at Mt. Pleasant,
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, on the 8th of March, 1859. His father was
Rev. James Cochrane, a Presbyterian minister, and a native of Ireland. He was
for a time a tutor in Queen's College, Belfast, Ireland. He came to America in
1850 and took a course in theology in Princeton college. For a time he taught in
the Erie academy of Erie, Pennsylvania. On April 19th, 1854, Mr. Cochrane
married Catherine A. McDowell, a native of Pennsylvania, and the daughter of a
well known physician of that state. In 1861 they moved to Canton, Illinois, and
in 1865 they continued their westward migration, taking up their residence at
Faribault, Minnesota. The last change of their home occurred in 1873, when they
moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where they continued to reside until the death
of Mrs. Cochrane in 1895. The Reverend Mr. Cochrane still lives there with his
daughter, Mrs. W. A. McDowell, at a ripe old age. Father and daughter are now
the sole survivors of the family, Judge Cochrane, the subject of this sketch
having died July 20th, 1904, at his home in the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota.

  As a boy, Mr. Cochrane posessed a remarkable memory and gave early indications
of his future brilliancy. He was fourteen when his parents moved to Minneapolis.
Prom this age until he was seventeen, in 187G, he attended the public schools of
that city. In 187G he entered the state university, where he received
instruction up to 1879, when he went to Ann Arbor and entered the law school of
the University of Michigan. He graduated in 1881, and was the same year admitted
to the bar in the state of Minnesota. He first opened an office at Le Sueur,
Minn. Here, however, he remained only a short time. He moved from there to
Madelia, Minn., where he formed a partnership with Frank James, which continued
until March, 1883. He then sought a more promising field at Grand Forks, then
Dakota territory, reaching that city, destined to be his home for the rest of
his life, in the middle of March, 1883. He was at first associated with the law
firm of Bangs & Woodruff. Later he formed a partnership with Mr. Bangs, which
lasted till the fall of 1884, when he was elected probate judge of Grand
Forks-county for the term of two years. He was re-elected in 1886, but resigned
in 1887 to accept an appointment as. state's attorney for Grand Forks county to
fill a vacancy. He was re-elected to that office in 1888 for a full term of two
years. His vigorous prosecution of public offenders, especially those who were
openly violating the liquor and gambling laws of the state, marks an epoch in
the history of criminal prosecutions in the territory of Dakota. Nothing before
like it had ever been witnessed in the West. From the expiration of his term as
state's attorney, down to his election to the supreme bench in 1902, Mr.
Cochrane threw all the energies of his mind into the practice of his profession.

  While one of the most prominent figures in the political struggles of the
Territory, he never sought office for himself. Nevertheless, he served on the
board of the State University as one of the regents, and was appointed by the
first governor of the state, Governor Miller, to the office of trustee of the
Normal school at Mayville. He was permanent chairman of the first republican'
convention of the state, which was held at Fargo in the summer of 1889. His
counsel was widely sought by others touching the political affairs of the state,
and no great convention was regarded as complete without his magnetic presence.
It was like Shakespeare's great tragedy with Hamlet left out. In debate and in
that tempestuous eloquence that sweeps all before it, he stood alone in every
political gathering he ever attended. His name soon became a household word
throughout the commonwealth. His practice rapidly increased, both in the number
and in the importance of his cases, and he drew his clients from every corner of
the state. The subjects he was called upon to deal with embraced the widest
possible range; but it was in the criminal branch of the law that he found the
field most congenial to his nature. At the time of his death he stood
pre-eminent in this class of litigation, whether he was engaged upon the
prosecution or upon the defense. His knowledge of medical jurisprudence far
exceeded that of any other lawyer in the state, if not in the northwest. He was
never more at home than when the exigencies of his case took him into the field
where he was called upon to deal with medical experts. His cross-examinations of
such experts are among the greatest exhibitions of his strength and genius as a
lawyer. A notable instance is his cross-examination of such experts in the case
of William Barry, whom he prosecuted for murder at Langdon in Cavalier county in
the summer of 1901. Here he crossed swords with eminent alienists who testified
for the defense that Barry was insane at the time he committed the homicide. The
result of his cross-examination was a brilliant victory, both during the progres
of the examination itself and in the result, the jury finding the prisoner
guilty of murder in the first degree. It was, however, in the argument of causes
to juries that the brilliancy of mind was shown in a remarkable degree. In this
sphere he stood alone in the state.

  In 1889 he formed a partnership with Charles J. Fisk, who for ten years past
has been judge of the district court of the First judicial district of this state.

  In 1894 he and Frank B. Feetham established the firm of Cochrane & Feetham,
which lasted till August 15th, 1898, when this partnership was dissolved and a
new one formed with Judge Corliss, who had just resigned from the supreme bench
for that purpose. This partnership lasted till January 1st, 1903, when Judge
Cochrane took his seat on the supreme bench, to which he was elected at the
general election the preceding November by the unanimous vote of all parties in
the state, no candidate having been nominated against him.

  In no sense was Judge Cochrane a candidate for the position He took no part in
the canvass, his attitude being merely that he would accept the office if the
people desired him to accept it. Their decision in this respect was indicated in
the most unmistakable manner.

  When Judge Cochrane entered upon his judicial duties he was far from being a
well man. The disease that was destined to take his life had fastened itself
upon him beyond the power of the physician to control. No one knew better than
himself that he was a doomed man. And yet, in the face of such a fate advancing
upon him, he took up the burden of his judicial work with the same conscientious
fidelity that characterized him in every relation of life. Less than two years
of judicial work was vouchsafed to him. But even during this short time he
demonstrated that he was a many-sided man and that he would make a strong judge,
just as he had exhibited great qualities as a trial lawyer, and in the political
field and as a man. In fact, he was so big that his largeness loomed up wherever
he was placed and whatever he was called upon to do. Nature made him a great
orator, and his eloquence was exhibited in many different departments of
life,—before juries, in political conventions, upon the stump, and on
commemorative occasions. His familiarity with the literature of the Bible, and
especially with that of the Old Testament, was often quoted by his friends, and
he drew largely from this source in embellishing and enforcing his public
utterances. One secret of his power as an orator was his extraordinary personal
magnetism, and this was the outward expression and influence of a heart as big
as his brain. A more unselfish, impulsive and generous man could not be found.
He was never in the slightest degree a self-seeker. In political struggles he
was ever fighting the battles of others or entering the list as the champion of
a public principle or cause dear to his heart. One of these great principles
-for which he contended, at tremendous sacrifice of time and money and political
standing with party leaders, was that of a non-partisan judiciary. On this
subject he asked himself a single question,—"Who is the best lawyer for the
place?" That man, when he had found him, had his zealous and fearless support.
As a result of his efforts, democratic lawyers have been twice nominated by
republican conventions for the district bench in the First judicial district of
this state, Judge Templeton once, and Judge Fisk once; and it is almost entirely
through his commanding influence and his persistent efforts that this district,
though republican, has had a democratic lawyer on its bench ever since the
beginning of statehood in 1889, or for a period of seventeen years. It is
likewise true that the personnel of the supreme bench was what it was during the
first and second terms of its three first judges, chiefly because he made it his
business to see that the hand of politics was kept aloof from that bench, and
all through his life down to his death he kept watch over that tribunal and
secured it from the calamity of having its members selected for political
reasons without reference to ability, learning and character. It was altogether
fitting that one who had so long and courageously striven for a clean and
capable judiciary should himself be rewarded with a seat upon the highest court
of the state.

  Judge Cochrane was an extensive reader, not only along legal lines but also in
many fields of knowledge. The consequence was that he was at all times one of
the best informed men in the northwest. His miscellaneous library was the
largest one in the state, and this was likewise true of his strictly legal
library, into which he put upwards of $20,000. His law library still remains
intact in the city where he won his fame and died, it having been purchased by
the state for the use of the college of law connected with the State University.
The greater part of his miscellaneous library was presented by his widow to the
State University.

  Although he was a man of commanding talents, wide learning -and overshadowing
reputation, he was one of the simplest of men. He was entirely without personal
vanity and never reported to the devices by which smaller men push themselves
into public notice. His sympathies embraced every station and condition of life,
and the consequence was that his friends were a legion.

  For nine years he was court reporter of the supreme court of the state, and
with characteristic conscientiousness and pride in his work he went through a
vast amount of drudgery in carrying out his ideas as to what should be done to
bring the published reports of the state up to a high standard.

  He was associated with the college of law at Grand Forks as an instructor, in
criminal law for a number of years, and laid aside the work only because failing
health rendered it impossible for him to discharge the duties of instructor in
addition to the other duties resting upon him. Throughout his entire connection
with the school and after he had severed such connection, he was the sympathetic
friend and wise adviser of the young men seeking legal education therein, giving
them much of his time and aiding them quietly with his money.

  He was at one time urged to become a candidate for United States senator, and
in a half-hearted way gave his consent. But, as might have been expected from
the nature and past record of the man, he was soon found advocating the
candidacy of others and throwing cold water upon his own. There seems to be no
doubt that if he had at any time avowed himself as a candidate for that
position, and made a determined contest for the position, he would have been
elected senator with practically no opposition.

  In 1884 he married Miss Frances Merrill, a native of Indiana. All of his
married life was spent in Grand Forks. Their devotion to each other was very
deep and tender. They had no children, and as a consequence all the energies of
Mrs. Cochrane's affectionate nature were forced into a single channel; and she
made it her life study to minister to him at all times so as to make smooth and
pleasant his pathway to the end that all his great powers might be husbanded for
use instead of being hampered and impaired by vexations and annoyances. Mr.
Cochrane always felt, and often said, that her ministrations were a large factor
in whatever success he had achieved.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

COLLECTIONS OF THE State Historical Society OF NORTH DAKOTA
VOL. I

BEING FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF NORTH DAKOTA TO THE
GOVERNOR OF NORTH DAKOTA FOR YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1906.

BISMARCK, N. D.
TRIBUNE, STATE PRINTERS AND BINDERS 
1906


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