Bio: Ryan, Thomas C. (1841 – 1911)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Ryan, Truesdall, Waring, Curtis, Van Doren, Silverthorn, Hurley, Jones

----Source: History of Marathon County Wisconsin and Representative Citizens, by Louis Marchetti, 1913.

Ryan, Thomas C. (4 July 1841 – 10 December 1911)

THOMAS C. RYAN, deceased, who, for many years was closely identified with the people and affairs of Wausau but had a circle of acquaintanceship which included the state, was born at Utica, N. Y., July 4, 1841, and died at Wausau, December 10, 1911.  

The parents of Thomas Curran Ryan died during his childhood and he was reared on a farm in the town of Hemingford, Lower Canada. His natural ambition for an education was encouraged; fortunately, both his grandfather and his uncle, James Ryan, willingly giving him all the opportunities in their power but in that newly settled country the schools offered but few advantages. He was gifted with a quick intelligence and had a real genius for mathematics. In the fall of 1853, with his older brother, John Ryan, he came to Wisconsin where the youths found work on farms but later both learned the shoemaking trade at which Thomas C. worked during the winters until 1861 and as a farmer during the summers. The brothers became soldiers when the Civil War opened, both serving from 1861 until 1863 as privates, in Company G, 5th Wis. Vol. Inf., and all his spare time the younger brother devoted to study, thereby gaining a fair knowledge of Latin, German and French. Three times he was wounded, the last injury being of so serious a nature that it resulted in his honorable discharge from the service and he then returned to his former home, Berlin, Wis. His capital was $350, and with this sum to depend upon he began his struggle for a law education, becoming a student in the office of Truesdall & Waring, at Berlin, and in the fall of 1865 was admitted to the bar at Dartford, in Green Lake county. After a term of school teaching, which added slightly to his now depleted resources, he opened his office at Berlin and his successful career as a lawyer began. He was thrice elected district attorney and then county judge, afterward being admitted as an equal partner of Hon. George D. Waring. In 1881 he moved to Wausau and became a law partner of Neal Brown, in 1882 moving to Merrill where he soon afterward formed a law partnership with George Curtis, Jr., the beginning of the present firm of Curtis, Van Doren & Curtis. In December, 1883, Mr. Ryan returned to Wausau and became a partner with Silverthorn & Hurley, under the firm name of Silverthorn, Hurley & Ryan. Mr. Jones was admitted to the firm in 1886 and the firm name then became Silverthorn, Hurley, Ryan & Jones, which name continued until eleven years later when Mr. Silverthorn went on the bench, when the firm style then becoming Ryan, Hurley & Jones. In August, 1903, Mr. Ryan retired from the firm and during the following two years sought health in travel and at one time purchased a home in the South but never settled there permanently, his affections being centered in Wisconsin. In his later years he devoted a large part of his time to literary pursuits. He was a keen and daring thinker and had a wide range of subjects. His satire on the appellate courts, entitled "O'Hooligan's Fine Forms" had a large circulation and the publishers are about to issue a second .edition. His second book, "Finite and Infinite," has sold well and his writings and theories on astronomy brought him into touch with the great astronomers of the world. His latest work, "Intellectual Religion" which has just been published is a lawyer's arrangement of the evidence in support of the case for immortality and has created considerable favorable comment.