Clean Up on Aisle Chicago, Circa 1870
Lambert Tree wasted no time taking out the trash after his election as Judge to the Circuit Court
You have to wonder if people knew what they were in for when they elected Lambert Tree as Judge of the Cook County Circuit Court in 1870.
The 38-year-old man wasn’t exactly an unknown quantity. He’d moved to Chicago in 1855 and became president of the Chicago Law Institute in 1864.
Six years later he was elected to the judgeship to fill an unexpired term, and then re-elected when that term expired.
And promptly took out the trash.
According to the Charter, Constitution, By-laws, Membership List, Annual Report of the Chicago Historical Society from 1910:
One of the first official acts of Judge Tree was the instruction of the grand jury to investigate charges of malfeasance in office against members of the city council. Numerous indictments followed, with the result of a salutary effect upon the administration of municipal affairs."
Good job, Lambert!
For more about Lambert, check out last week’s story about Tree Studios, the artists colony he and Anna established in their backyard.
Later this week we’ll meet gangsters and egg-throwing apes.
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