Lacrosse County WI Archives Biographies.....Cameron, Hugh June 29, 1815 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/wi/wifiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Roxanne Munns rmunns@uwalumni.com April 12, 2007, 6:33 pm

Author: Unknown

HON. HUGH CAMERON. The subject of this sketch, a native of Livingston Co., N. 
Y., was born at Caledonia, June 29, 1815. His parents, Duncan A. Cameron and 
Sarah (McColl) Cameron, were from Scotland, the father coming to this country 
in 1802, and the mother a few years later. The Camerons are of the Lochiel 
branch, Lochiel, the chief, being, according to the custom, of the Queen's 
household. Hugh spent his youth on his father's farm; he prepared for college 
in the institutions at Middlebury and Lima, in his native State, and entered 
the University of Vermont in 1834, and graduated with honor four years later, 
excelling particularly in German metaphysics, then taught by Prof. James 
Marsh. Returning to Western New York, Mr. Cameron taught in the Avon Academy 
in 1838 and 1839, reading law at the same time with Amos Dann. He finished his 
law studies with Hastings & Husbands, of Rochester, and was admitted to the 
bar in October, 1841, at the first term of the Supreme Court ever held in that 
city. After practicing a few years in Livingston County, he removed to Buffalo 
in the spring of 1847, and there built up an excellent law business, as a 
member of the firm of Wadsworth & Cameron, but seeing openings of great 
promise farther West, in the spring of 1858, he removed to La Crosse, Wis., 
his present home, and has here become widely known as a skillful and 
successful attorney. During the first six years in Wisconsin, Mr. Cameron was 
in partnership with his brother, Alexander, who went into the army as First 
Lieutenant, 1st Wisconsin Battery in 1861, and died in 1864. He was District 
Attorney at the opening of the war, having been elected two years prior to 
that time, when only about 22 years old. Alexander Cameron was a young man of 
much promise. In 1856, Hugh Cameron was elected County Judge, and held that 
office four years, and declined a re-election. The law has been his life 
study, his life pursuit, and he has no higher ambition than that of excelling 
in his profession. A prominent journalist, and neighbor of his for the last 
twenty years, in a private note says of him: "Few men have such complete 
mastery of literature in all its departments as Judge Cameron. His mental 
grasp, acquisitions, acumen and discrimination invest his utterances in genial 
conversation or legal arguments with strength and richness of thought and 
language, which are best appreciated by those who have the greatest 
opportunity to test and verify his powers and counsel, in which capacity he is 
employed by many professional confreres in Western Wisconsin and Southern 
Minnesota, such persons considering their cases not only thoroughly prepared, 
but fairly tried, after having undergone his scrutiny and investigation, as 
the court seldom 'overrules his decisions.'" Judge Cameron has not only a very 
fine literary taste, but what is not generally known, has written many able 
critiques and other articles for the periodical press; but such intellectual 
labor he does simply for recreation after more severe studies connected with 
his profession. He is of Whig antecedents, and for the last twenty years he 
has usually voted the Republican ticket. So thoroughly has Judge Cameron been 
wedded to the law, that for many years it seemed doubtful if he would ever 
form a more tender alliance, but, on the 2d of December, 1875, he was joined 
in marriage with Miss Caroline D. Starr, daughter of W. H. Starr, an early 
settler and prominent citizen of Burlington, Iowa, and a graduate of Yale 
College. Mrs. Cameron is a well educated and highly accomplished lady.

Additional Comments:
From History of La Crosse County, Wisconsin, 1881, p. 744 - 745.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wi/lacrosse/bios/cameron208nbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/wifiles/

File size: 4.2 Kb