From Memorial and Genealogical Record of Dodge and Jefferson Counties, Wisconsin, publ. 
1894 - Page 226-228
 
HON. SILAS U. PINNEY.  While the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, the 
invariable law of destiny accords to tireless energy, industry and ability a successful career.  The 
truth of this assertion is abundantly verified in the life of Silas U. PINNEY, associate justice of the 
Supreme Court of Wisconsin.  Every step in his career has been an honorable tribute to industry, 
humanity and true manhood.  He has not followed beaten paths; his intelligence and his ambition 
enabled him to carve his way to a successful career.  His life has been devoted to the highest and 
best efforts of human endeavor, and his entire career, both professional and social, has been a 
credit to himself and an honor to his associates.  He was born in Rockdale, Crawford County, 
Penn., March 3, 1833.  His paternal ancestors, both lineal and collateral, were American for many 
generations.  In 1642 members of the family emigrated from Somersetshire, England, to the 
American colonies and settled in Ellington, Conn.  From there they moved to Massachusetts, and 
in Becket, that State, Justin C. PINNEY, father of our subject, was born.  In 1815 Aaron PINNEY, 
grandfather of the subject of this biography, moved to Crawford County, Penn., where his son 
Justin was reared to manhood.  He married Polly M. MILLER, the daughter of a prominent 
clergyman who had settled in Crawford County in 1792.  In 1846 he moved his family to Dane 
County, Wis., then the frontier of the Northwest, and located on a tract of land in Windsor 
Township, where he pursued the occupation of farming until his death, which occurred in 1863.  
In 1846, when Justin PINNEY and his family located in Dane County, the country was sparsely 
settled, and the subject of this sketch, having received a good common-school education, found it 
necessary to give his attention to other subjects than books for a considerable time.  He had, 
however, the advantages afforded by some private instruction, and devoted his leisure moments 
to individual study.  He was, however, principally occupied in improving and cultivating his father's 
farm.  He was well supplied with books, and he developed a fondness for reading.  He possessed 
an excellent memory, so that whatever he gained he was able to retain and utilize.  His parents 
desired him to become a surveyor, and did all in their power to enable him to obtain the 
necessary education.  When sixteen years of age he began teaching school in Dane County, and 
during that year he determined to devote his future to the profession of the law.  He taught school 
three winters, devoting his spare moments to the study of the text books of his future profession.  
In April 1853, he left his father's farm and entered the law office of VILAS & REMINGTON, of 
Madison.  From that time until the present he has devoted himself entirely to the law.  In February 
1854, he was admitted to practice both in the Circuit and Supreme Courts of the State, and 
afterward in the Federal Courts.  In May 1854, he entered upon the active duties of his profession 
in the city of Madison.  He formed a partnership with L. B. VILAS and Samuel H. ROYS, under 
the firm name of VILAS, ROYS & PINNEY.  In 1856 Judge VILAS retired from the firm and the 
business was continued under the name of ROYS & PINNEY, until dissolved by the death of Mr. 
ROYS in August 1857.  In February 1858, a partnership was formed by Mr. PINNEY and J. C. 
GREGORY, and in the following October Chauncey ABBOTT became an associate in the 
business, which then continued under the name of ABBOTT, GREGORY & PINNEY.  In 1860 the 
membership of the firm was augmented by the addition of James M. FLOWER, who remained an 
associate for about two years.  In 1863 Mr. ABBOTT retired and Messrs. GREGORY and 
PINNEY continued the partnership until 1879, when it was dissolved.  In 1880 Mr. A. S. 
SANBORN became a partner of Mr. PINNEY, and this association continued until 1892, when our 
subject retired from practice to become a member of the Supreme Court, to which he had been 
elected during the previous year.
 
Judge PINNEY has ever been and still is a Democrat, and has avoided rather than sought 
political preferment.  He has, however, served the people of Madison and Dane Counties in 
different positions of trust and responsibility, having been elected mayor and alderman of 
Madison, and a member of the State Assembly.  He has also been the choice of his party for 
positions of importance in the State, but owing to the large adverse political majority (in those 
day) he was, as was expected, unsuccessful at the polls.  In 1865 he prepared and attended to 
the publication of the sixteenth volume of Wisconsin Reports, and in 1870 was appointed special 
reporter by the Supreme Court to report and publish the decisions of the Territorial Supreme 
Court of the State, extending over a period from 1836 to June 1853, and which are embraced in 
three volumes known as PINNEY's Wisconsin Reports.
 
Judge PINNEY was married on March 3, 1856, to Mary M. MULLIKEN, a native of Farmersville, 
Cattaraugas County, N.Y.  One son, Clarence, was born to them.  He died at the age of twenty 
years.  An adopted daughter, Bessie, also died at an early age.  In his profession, Judge PINNEY 
built up a large and lucrative practice, and he has been actively engaged in much of the important 
litigation of this section during  the past forty years.  An examination of the Wisconsin Supreme 
Court reports would give an idea of the immense volume of business he has conducted since he 
argues his first case in that court about forty years ago.  Since then some eighty volumes of these 
reports have been issued.  Judge PINNEY's name appears as counsel in every one of them.  In 
the higher courts of other Western States and in the Supreme Court of the United States can be 
found a record of his connection with many important cases involving questions of commercial 
and constitutional law.  Judge PINNEY was reared to manhood in Dane County, and there all of 
his active life has been passed.  For forty years he has actively participated in the events of the 
times, and during all these years his record as a lawyer and as a man has been unassailable.  
His acquaintanceship is large and is not bounded by the limits of his own State, but in the 
commonwealth in which he has resided for so many years, and in which he has passed a very 
active existence, it is doubtful if any one man has more worthy friends, or has more admirers for 
his social qualities, genial personality and true manliness than has Judge PINNEY.
 
Submitted by Carol