Ramsey County Law Library Blog

Born in Springfield, Kentucky in 1837, William Louis Kelly quit school at 16 due to the death of his father and began working for the U.S. Post Office.  In a short time he was promoted to Assistant Postmaster of Louisville, and held that position until 1864, when he was commissioned as a special agent of the post office in General Sherman’s army.  During the Civil War Kelly was active in all matters connected with the western army mail service and re-establishing mail service in the Southeastern U.S. after the close of the war. 

While at the post office Kelly studied law at night and was granted a law degree by the University at Louisville in 1859.   After the Civil War, Kelly practiced law, farmed  and edited a newspaper.  While admitted to the Ramsey County Bar in 1871, he did not practice law as his sole profession until 1878.   In 1887 Kelly was appointed to the district bench by Governor McGill.  Judge Kelly decided the first railroad merge case in Minnesota, where he forbid the consolidation of Northern Pacific Railway and the Great Northern Railway Company.

The Honorable George Lincoln Bunn was born on June 25, 1865 in Sparta, Wisconsin.  His father, Romanzo Bunn was both a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice and United States federal judge who influenced him to practice law.  George Bunn received both his undergraduate and law degrees at the University of Wisconsin. 

Bunn moved to Saint Paul after graduation in 1888.  It was in Saint Paul that he met and married Ella Spaulding, who died one year later.  He would not marry again until 1908, when he married Fanny Losey of Lacrosse, Wisconsin. 

Judge Bunn was appointed a judgeship to the  District Court of Ramsey County in 1897.  In 1911, Governor Adolph Olson Eberhart appointed him to the Minnesota Supreme Court. 

Bunn served as dean of the St. Paul College of Law, the first predecessor of William Mitchell College of Law, from 1904 until his death in 1918.

The Honorable Levi M. Vilas was born in Vermont in 1841 and moved with his family to Madison, Wisconsin at the age of 10.  He graduated from the University of Wisconsin and was admitted to practice in both Wisconsin and New York a year later.  After going back and forth between the two states, he set out into frontier territory, while later staying in Saint Paul.  Vilas finally settled in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  He was the community’s first City Attorney and served three terms as Mayor.  Interestingly, one of the Second Judicial District’s earliest judges, Vilas declined appointments to the Wisconsin Supreme Court on two occasions.

Vilas married Lizzie Stewart Ludlow in 1885.  Two years later they moved to Saint Paul, laying roots at 409 Ashland Avenue.  Judge Vilas was appointed to the bench by Governor Merriam. 

The Law Library has on display judicial portraits of past Second Judicial District Court judges, going back to 1857. If you have any information or commentary about Judge Wilkin, please leave a response or send us an e-mail.  To view the portraits in person, visit us on the 18th floor of the Ramsey County Courthouse.