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THE LATE J. E. BUSH

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THE LATE B. H. STILLYARD

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ALBERTUS BROWN

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MOSAIC TEMPLARS' BUILDING, LITTLE ROCK 

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MISS C. E. HALL 

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THE LATE J. A. CRAWFORD

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THE LATE MRS A. F. HILYER

228


MEN OF THE MONTH 229

A YOUNG LAWYER
Mr. ALBERTUS BROWN was born in Washington, D. C., September 17, 1880. He attended the Washington public schools. For nearly eight years he earned his living by selling newspapers. Just at the close of the first McKinley campaign he stopped school and went to work as a messenger boy at Republican National Headquarters. There, when he had mastered shorthand and typewriting, he was assigned to Senator Marcus A. Hanna's private office, where he was given entire charge of the Senator's pension work, etc.

Mr. Brown during this time decided to study law and entered the law course offered at night by Howard University. He graduated in 1904 and shortly thereafter was admitted to practice in the District of Columbia. In 1908 he moved to Toledo, Ohio, where he was built up a substantial practise at the Toledo Bar. His practise is largely criminal and he is credited with having defended successfully some very difficult cases.

Mr. Brown is a member of the Toledo Bar Association, has appeared in all the Toledo courts, and has been admitted to the U. S. Federal Court of the Northern District of Ohio. By appointment of Mayor Milroy Brown he was named as Acting Police Judge of Toledo for October 9 and 10, 1916, and during these two days he handled eighty cases. It was the first time a colored man had acted in this capacity.

A USEFUL PHYSICIAN
THE late Mr. Baswell H. Stillyard was born of slave percentage in Maryland, in 1847. He was an ambitious and self-taught man. He would sit up at night in a fireless room wrapped in a quilt that he might learn how to read and write. After going to Albany, N. Y., he became desirous of learning the profession of a physician, and after private study was able to go to Troy, N. Y., and take the examination for the practise of medicine. In October, 1882, he went to Wheeling, W. Va. He has for a number of years been president of the Board of Trustees of the Simpson's M. E. Church. He joined the Masonic Order in 1875 and had received the highest degrees of that Order. He was an ex-member of the City Council, having served in this body with credit to himself and to his race. During his term as councilman the elimination of the Wheeling Turf Exchange was accomplished and although he was offered bribes to cast his vote for its retention he refused them and cast his vote against its survival. He was at all times devoted to the principles of justice, liberty, and equality. He is survived by a wife, relatives and many friends. In his death Wheeling has lost one of her best citizens, the church a pillar of support and the race a strong helper.

A POLITICIAN
THE late John E. Bush was born in Tennessee in 1858. His family moved to Arkansas during the war. Mr. Bush was educated in the schools of Little Rock and first became a teacher. In 1875 he became a railway mail clerk and in 1896 he was made a receiver of the U. S. Land Office at Little Rock, a position which he held until 1913, when he was dismissed by President Wilson.

Thirty-five years ago Mr. Bush and his fellow postal clerks founded an industrial insurance society called the "Mosaic Templars." This organization has to-day a membership of over 75,000 and assets of $212,859. It has paid over $800,000 to beneficiaries and is admitted to do business in four states. Its headquarters, in Little Rock, was built by a Negro contractor and Negro labor at a cost of $68,000. It is of steel and brick and contains stores, offices, auditorium and theatre.

Mr. Bush died recently and was estimated to be worth $150,000.

A YOUNG LEADER
THE late Joshua A. Crawford, who recently died in Boston Mass., was well known among colored citizens. He was interested in matters of social and civic uplift and had worked often and seriously for reform movements in politics. He died while still a comparatively young man and will be missed in the life of his group.

A WOMAN LAWYER
MISS CAROLINE E. HALL, after receiving the degree of Bachelor of Law, at Howard University, last June, successfully passed a very rigid three-day examination and was admitted to practise law before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, June 30. She is the first colored woman to achieve this distinction.

Miss Hall is a native of Peoria, III.