lawyer, politician, judge, b. Niagara County, N.Y. He was educated at Hamilton Academy and at Madison (now Colgate) Univ. In 1837 he moved to La Porte, Ind., where he studied law in his brother's office, and in 1838 was admitted to the bar. He practiced law and held various offices in Indiana (1838-1847), In 1847 he moved to Milwaukee, practiced there until 1852, and in 1852 set up a law practice in Madison. He was private secretary and legal adviser to Governor Leonard J. Farwell (q.v.) (1852-1854). In 1854 Orton switched his allegiance from the Whig to the Democratic party, and in 1855 was one of the attorneys for William A. Barstow (q.v.) in litigation growing out of the contested Barstow-Bashford gubernatorial election. Orton was an independent Democratic state assemblyman (1854, 1859, 1871), and from 1859 until his resignation in 1865 served as circuit court judge of the 9th judicial district. He was dean of the Univ. of Wisconsin law school (1869-1874), senior member of the law firm of Orton, Keyes and Chynoweth (1870-1878), mayor of Madison (1877-1878), and a member of the commission that compiled the Revised Statutes of the State of Wisconsin (1878). In 1878 when the state supreme court was expanded, Orton was elected to one of the new judgeships. He served on the high court bench from Apr., 1878, until his death. In 1894 he became chief justice (ex officio) of the court. Dict. Amer. Biog.; J. B. Winslow, Story of a Great Court (Chicago, 1912); J. R. Berryman, ed., Bench and Bar of Wis. (2 vols., Chicago, 1898); Wis. Reports, 90 (1895), pp. xxxi-xlvii; Madison Democrat, July 6, 1895; WPA MS.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]