Laramie County WY Archives Biographies.....Lacey, John W. 1848 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 July 21, 2008, 12:23 am

Author: Bowen & Co. (1903)

HON. JOHN W. LACEY.

   Hon. John W. Lacey, ex-chief justice of Wyoming and for a number of years a
distinguished lawyer of the Cheyenne bar, was born in Randolph county, Indiana,
on October 13, 1848, the son of Rev. Henry J. and Elizabeth (Thompson) Lacey,
the father being a noted Methodist divine who passed a long and eminently useful
ministerial life in the Hoosier state and is now living in a superannuated
relation in the county of Randolph. William Lacey, father of Henry J., was a
native of Georgia, but in an early day he moved to Wayne county, Ind., where he
passed the greater part of his life, dying there a number of years ago. The
Judge is one of a family of four sons and three daughters, of whom three of the
sons are living. In his youth he enjoyed such educational privileges as were
afforded by the public schools of the different places where his father was
stationed, but, being of a studious nature and a great lover of knowledge, he
determined to prosecute his intellectual researches under more favorable
conditions. Accordingly he entered De Pauw University at Greencastle, Ind.,
where he made a creditable record as a student, completing the prescribed
course, in 1871. After graduating Mr. Lacey turned "his attention to teaching,
but a limited experience in that calling induced him to choose some other
profession for his lifework. Having early manifested a decided taste for the law
he began preparing for the legal profession by a course of preliminary reading
under the direction of Isaac Van Devanter, of Marion, Ind., whose office he
entered in 1875 and with whom he continued his studies until his admission to
the bar the following year. Prior to 1875 he had read law at intervals in the
office of William O'Brien of Noblesville, but his most substantial progress was
made in the later period. Judge Lacey began legal practice at Marion, Ind., and
by close application and conscientious fidelity to the interests of his clients
soon won a conspicuous place among the successful lawyers of the Grant county
bar. For ability, as well as for successful effort, he was excelled by few of
his professional brethren, as the large amount of business which came to him
attested. He continued at Marion with a constantly increasing clientele until
1884, when President Arthur appointed him chief justice of Wyoming, in which
high office he served with eminent ability until the latter part of 1886. In
November of that year he resigned his office and resumed the practice of law at
Cheyenne, effecting a copartnership with W. W. Corlett and Judge Riner under the
firm name of Corlett, Lacey & Riner, which association lasted until the death of
Mr. Corlett four years later. Messrs. Lacey and Riner continued to practice as
partners until the latter's appointment to the district judgeship in 1890, after
which Judge Lacey was alone until he became associated with Mr. Van Devanter,
the firm of Lacey & Van Devanter lasting to the present time. Judge Lacey has
ever been a close student of his profession and his management of a case at once
demonstrates his careful and painstaking preparation and his thorough mastery of
the situation, being well-grounded in the underlying principles of jurisprudence
and possessing the ability and tact to apply his theoretical knowledge to
practice, he is quick to notice the weak points in the argument of an opponent
and notes with avidity every detail and its probable bearing in the case, never,
however, losing sight for an instant of the important points upon which the
decision of every case finally turns. He comprehends with little or no effort
the relation and dependence of facts, and so groups them as to enable him to
throw their combined force upon the point they tend to prove. Judge Lacey met
the high expectations of the people as chief justice and his record while in
that office not only added to his reputation as an able jurist, but gave him
distinctive prestige with the bar throughout the state. At the present time the
firm of which he is a member has a practice of great magnitude and wide scope,
his name appearing in connection with nearly every important case in the courts
of Laramie county. He is frequently retained as counsel in cases of large moment
in other parts of Wyoming, his fame as a scholarly and erudite lawyer being
known in every county of the state. In addition to his professional and judicial
career Judge Lacey has a military record, having served as a soldier during the
latter years of the Civil War. He first enlisted in 1863, joining Co. F, One
Hundred and Thirty-seventh Indiana Infantry, but did not long remain with that
command, being mustered out before the expiration of the year. In 1864 he
enlisted in Co. B, One Hundred and Fifty-second Indiana Infantry, with which he
served until the close of the war, the regiment principally doing guard duty in
various parts of Virginia. Turning to the domestic pages in the story of Judge
Lacey's life we find that he was happily married at Marion, Ind., in 1878 with
Miss Elizabeth Van Devanter, a native of that state and a daughter of his former
preceptor in the law, Isaac Van Devanter, and of their felicitous union six
children have been born. Herbert V., Walter M., Ruth, Elizabeth, Louise and
Margaret. In politics Judge Lacey has always been a pronounced Republican,
earnest and unwavering in the support of his political convictions. A potential
factor in local and state affairs, he has contributed much to his party's
success as an advisor, planner of campaigns and as an energetic worker in the
ranks. He is very prominent in the Masonic fraternity, having taken the
Thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, and he also belongs to the
commandery. The Judge is a public spirited citizen, deeply interested in
everything pertaining to the welfare of his city and state and he has been a
leader in inaugurating and carrying to a successful completion various public
improvements. His life has been a very busy and useful one and Wyoming
acknowledges her indebtedness to him in many lines of advancement.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

PROGRESSIVE MEN OF THE STATE OF WYOMING

ILLUSTRATED

A people who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors, will
never achieve anything worthy to he remembered with pride by remote
generations.—.MACAULAY.

CHICAGO, ILL.
A. W. BOWEN &CO.
PUBLISHERS AND ENGRAVERS
1903


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