Nathan William MacChesney
Nathan William MacChesney (1878–1954) was a prominent Chicago lawyer.
Biography
Nathan William MacChesney was born in Chicago on June 2, 1878, the son of Alfred Brunson and Henrietta (Milsom) MacChesney.[1] He was educated at California Wesleyan College, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1898.[1] He later attended Stanford University and the Northwestern University School of Law, before receiving an LL.B. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1902.[1] He was admitted to the bar of Illinois in 1902.[1]
After law school, MacChesney founded a Chicago law firm, ultimately known as MacChesney and Becker, where he practiced law for the next five decades.[1] He served in the United States Army during the Spanish–American War (1898). He was instrumental in founding the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology in 1910.[1] He served as a special assistant attorney general of the United States in 1911, and as a special state's attorney for Illinois in 1912. He was president of the Illinois State Bar Association 1915-16.[1] He again served in the army during World War I, and was thereafter normally referred to as "General MacChesney" by his associates.[1]
He received an LL.M. from Northwestern in 1922.[1] He was general counsel of the National Association of Real Estate Boards in the 1920s.[1]
MacChesney drafted the "Standard Form, Chicago Restrictive Covenant,"[2] used as a model for enforcing racial segregation throughout the city.[3]
He died in 1954.[1]
