Edmund Zacher, senior partner of the firm of Zacher, Ely & Zacher, attorneys at law, and occupying an enviable position at the bar by reason of his accuracy in applying his comprehensive knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence to the points in litigation, has throughout his years of practice held to the highest professional standards and ethics. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut, December 12. 1853. His father, Louis Zacher, a native of Prussia, came to America in 1849, making his way direct to Hartford, where he engaged in the tailoring business, which he had learned in his native country. In politics he became a strong democrat and was active in public and civic matters. In fact, he was a man of much influence among the German population of Hartford, and assisted in establishing the German-English school. He died in 1886 at the age of sixty-two years, while his wife survived until 1903 and reached the age of seventy years. She bore the maiden name of Mary B. Kreuzer, and was born in Bavaria. She, too, crossed the Atlantic in 1849 in company with her widowed mother and a brother, and the family home was established at once in Hartford, where she met and married Louis Zacher. They became the parents of two children, the older being Louis H. Zacher, now a lithographer of Hartford.

The younger, Edmund Zacher, acquired his education partly in the German-English school which his father assisted in founding and also attended the Center school, now the Brown school, of Hartford, and the Hartford high school, from which he was graduated with the class of 1870. He then entered Yale and won the Bachelor of Arts degree in June, 1874. He entered the Yale Law School in 1876 and the LL. B. degree was conferred upon him at his graduation in 1878. In 1877 he was appointed a tutor in Yale College, in which work he continued until 1882. He was principal of the Branford high school for two years, from 1874 until 1876, and then entered the law office of Dexter K. Wright and Lynde Harrison of New Haven, being associated with that firm until its dissolution, when he entered into a partnership with Judge Harrison under the firm style of Harrison & Zacher. That connection was maintained until 1906, when Judge Harrison passed away, and in 1907 Mr. Zacher entered into partnership with William H. Ely and his son, under the linn stvle of Ely, Zacher & Ely. With the death of William H. Ely in 1909, the firm became Zacher & Ely and in 1913 the name was changed to Zacher, Ely & Zacher, by the admission of Louis B. Zacher, the son of the senior partner, who was graduated from Yale with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1910 and from the Yale Law School in 1913, at which time the LL. B. degree was conferred upon him. In addition to his law practice, which is extensive and important, Mr. Zacher is a director of the Duluth & Superior Traction Company, a Connecticut corporation.

On the 18th of May, 1881, Mr. Zacher was married in Meriden, Connecticut, to Julia A. M. Griswold, a native of Branford and a daughter of the late Joel and Julia (Meeker) Griswold, both representatives of old families of this state. Mrs. Zacher is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. By her marriage she has become the mother of the following named: Madolin Russ, who is a graduate of Vassar College of 1905; Natalia Barbara, who holds a certificate from the Yale Art School and is now the wife of Normand D. Brainard, a civil engineer now residing in Buffalo, New York; and Louis B., who is his father's partner.

Mr. Zacher gave his political allegiance to the democratic party until Bryan's first campaign, in 1896, since which time he has voted with the republican party. He was secretary under Governor Thomas M. Waller, and has also been judge of the town court of Branford. He is a member of the Graduates Club and the New Haven Country Club and is prominently known in the New Haven Bar Association, having been elected its president in 1917. He has been a lifelong resident of Connecticut and from an early age he has been dependent upon his own resources. He worked his way in part through the university and thus displayed the elemental strength of his character. He understands difficulties, having met with many in his early years, and it may truthfully be said of him that he has never lost the common touch. He is ever ready to aid others who are struggling to rise, and his words of encouragement are based upon practical experience, because his own life has been organized along lines that have called for a full dole of labor. His own career is proof of the fact that industry wins, and every day with him is marked by a full faithed attempt to know more and to grow more.