Ben was not a great lawyer, but he had much business. During the Texas oil speculation one of the oil boomers came to Ben and offered him fabulous wages to take him around among his German clients to sell oil stock. Ben soon saw the trick and replied to the boomer as follows: "My enemies won't bite on this proposition, and I do not wish to soak my friends in this way. You better look for some other sucker."
Mills & Keeler were in partnership a number of years, mostly engaged in railway litigation. Mr. Keeler became known outside the confines of the state, and died scarcely past middle life at the head of the legal department of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, with offices in Chicago. Mr. Keeler was short of stature, with black hair and beard, and in a law suit very nervous. It is said that during the Bever will trial Colonel Clark, in the midst of the trial, said to Keeler, "If you will only put a feather in your hair, Charley, you would make an ideal Mephistopheles without any further makeup." Mr. Keeler was a shrewd, wide-awake lawyer, whose mental constitution peculiarly fitted him for the practice of law, who possessed the faculty of crowding the salient features of a case in a few words, and who knew better than most lawyers what the law ought to be if he could not cite a case in point. He was cold-blooded and had few warm friends, but everyone acknowledged his abilities. His restless brain simply burnt up his tissues long before his time.
Mr. Bowman excelled as a brilliant jury lawyer, who by his magnetic personality knew how to handle a jury and to obtain a favorable verdict, especially on the defense in a criminal suit where he could appeal to the sympathies of the jury. Mr. Bowman possessed the magnetic quality to attract persons to him, and was one of the most resourceful lawyers at the bar.
Of the early practitioners at the bar all have passed away or have retired except Judge J. H. Preston, a son of Colonel Preston, still in practice in Cedar Rapids, and Major William G. Thompson.
Major Thompson must be given space in this sketch. He was an associate of Hubbard, Isbell, Cook, Stephens, Corbett, Young, McIntosh, Mitchell, Sanford, David, and Greene. Judge Thompson is a native of Butler county, Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1830. He was reared on a farm, received his early education in a log school house and became a teacher. He attended an academy where he remained two years, when he began the study of law, supporting himself by working for his employers. At twenty-five he was admitted to the bar, and in 1853 located in Marion for the practice of his profession. He was a member of the state convention at Iowa City in 1856 when the republican party was organized. In this year he was also chosen a member of the state senate, serving in the Sixth and Seventh General Assemblies. In 1864 he was one of the presidential electors, and was elected district attorney, serving six years. The office of general justice of the territory of Idaho was offered him in 1879 which he accepted, but was elected to congress from the fifth district the same year to fill a vacancy and was re-elected for the next regular term. In 1885 he was elected to the Twenty-first General Assembly and was an important factor in the impeachment proceedings against Auditor Brown. In 1894 Judge Thompson was appointed judge of the eighteenth judicial district and served in that capacity until he retired a few years ago on account of advanced age.
A few stories may be told about Major Thompson to give the reader an idea of the man and of the times. Tall, spare, and of commanding stature, with a wonderful command of language, he would convulse a witness or magnetize a jury with his quaint sayings, and in a minute would melt them into tears with his pathos or arouse them to indignation by his denunciations of what he believed was wrong.
In the Bever will case, in which Thompson appeared for the contestants, he was to open the case to the jury, when Hubbard who had full charge of the case, said that he wanted Thompson to speak at least two days. The major replied, "Great God man, what shall I say to that jury except that here is the will and there are the girls, they should have part of this estate?" He made the longest jury argument he ever made in his life, which did not exceed forty minutes, but he won the case.