Edward Swift Isham was born in Bennington, Vermont on January 15, 1836. He was the eldest son of Semantha Isham and Pierpoint Isham, later a justice of the Vermont Supreme Court. Among his siblings was Mary Adeline Isham, the wife of Sartell Prentice, and Henry Pierpont Isham, a Chicagoreal estate broker and banker. His paternal grandparents were Dr. Ezra Isham and Nancy Isham, and his maternal grandparents were Dr. Noadiah Swift and Jennet Swift. His maternal grandmother Nancy was the great-granddaughter of Rev. James Pierpont, the founder of Yale University. He was raised in northwestern Massachusetts. At the age of sixteen, he had to drop out of school due to illness. After two years' recovery in South Carolina, Isham returned to Groton, Massachusetts, where he studied at Lawrence Academy. In 1853, he was accepted at Williams College and studied there for four years. The school awarded him a master's degree in 1860.
Career
Isham studied law in his father's office and then attended the Harvard School of Law. He was admitted to the bar in Rutland, Vermont, in 1858. He decided to practice in the west, ostensibly to St. Paul, Minnesota or St. Louis, Missouri. However, he decided to settle instead in Chicago, Illinois reportedly because he was "favorably impressed with the advantages of all kinds which the city seemed to afford him." He practiced in the office of Hoyne, Miller & Lewis and then formed a partnership in 1859, known as Stark & Isham with James L. Stark. Isham quickly rose to prominence among Chicago lawyers. In 1864, Isham was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives as a Republican, where he served a two-year term and was a member of the judiciary committee. After his term expired, Isham spent two years in Europe, then returned to his law practice. In February 1872, Isham admitted Robert Todd Lincoln, the son of Abraham Lincoln, as a junior partner. In 1886, William G. Beale was also admitted as a partner, and henceforth the partnership was known as Isham Lincoln & Beale. The firm retained this name until it dissolved in 1988. Isham's most notable cases include the arrangement of the Walter Loomis Newberry library endowment and the 1875 mayoral election controversy between Harvey Doolittle Colvin & Monroe Heath. He received an LL.D. from Williams College in 1893.
Ann Elizabeth Isham, who died during the sinking of the RMS Titanic, one of only four upper-class women to do so.
Pierrepont Isham, who graduated from West Point in 1887 and served in the 7th Cavalry Regiment and later became a partner in the law firm. He married Lois Kellogg in 1893.
Edward Swift Isham Jr., who graduated from Yale and married Laura Miller, and was the father of three.
Frances Isham, who married Henry Tweedy Shelton, a Yale Law School graduate.
