USA > Illinois > St Clair County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume II > Part 34
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PIONEER LAWYERS OF CAHOKIA .- John Rice Jones, a Welshman born in 1759, became the
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first member of the St. Clair County bar in 1790. He was a man of classical education, a good mathematician and an excellent French scholar. The latter attainment was of some advantage to him as a lawyer in Kaskaskia. He had been well educated in the law in Eng- land, had experience, as he had practiced in Philadelphia, Louisville and Vincennes before coming to Kaskaskia. He was a man of sound, active mind, earnest activity, passion, courage. and of much ability as a speaker. In 1801 he moved back to Vincennes, but in 1808 returned to Kaskaskia, and in 11810 moved from there to Missouri, where he became a State Supreme Judge. He died in 1824. (See "Jones, John Rice," in Vol. I. of this work.)
Isaac Darnielle, from Maryland, who opened an office in Cahokia in 1794, was the first rec- ident lawyer of Cahokia. He was a man of in- tellect and education. He had, in fact, been educated for the ministry. Prepossessing in manners and appearance, an agreeable speaker, he soon became popular and conspicuous at the bar. However, as he was inattentive to his work, indolent, and too fond of the life of a beau, he never gained distinction; and before his death, which occurred in 1830, he had to teach school for support. He never married.
William Mears, born in Ireland in 1769, was the next lawyer in Cahokia. He had taught school and read law in Pennsylvania, and later came West-as Governor Reynolds said, "as if he had dropped from the clouds" with absolute- ly no equipment but his own ingenuity. In early life he was not a scholar; but by ap- plication he came to know the law very well. In 1814 Governor Edwards appointed him At- torney-General of the Territory of Illinois, and he gained a noteworthy reputation as a prose- cuting attorney. He was at one time Clerk of the Territorial House of Representatives. He was not the kind of man to acquire wealth, although he made a comfortable living. He moved to Belleville when the county-seat was located there, and died in 1826.
In 1809, Samuel Davidson settled in Ca- hokia and began to practice law, but with small success, as he was a man of no great ability. Later he taught school in Cahokia, served in the War of 1812, and after that did not return to St. Clair County.
Other early lawyers about 1808 were: Ben- jamin Doyle, who came from Tennessee in
1805; John Rector, who settled in Kaskaskia in 1806 but soon left; and James Haggin, a young Kentuckian of promise, who practiced in Kentucky, where he gained distinction.
EARLY BELLEVILLE LAWYERS .- Early members of the Belleville bar were: J. W. Whitney, nicknamed "My Lord Coke," who settled there in 1816, and later moved to Pike County, where he died in 1860; John Turney, a talented man, who came in 1816, went to Galena in 1826, and was a member of the State Legislature from the region northwest of the Illinois River in 1828-30; Alphonso Stuart, from Claremont, N. H., was a graduate from Dartmouth College in 1812, and practiced law here until 1819, when he was killed in the historic Stuart-Bennett duel, which is told of in the history of Belleville; Da- vid Blackwell, a man of intellect and charac- ter, who began to practice here in 1819. He op- posed slavery in Illinois, and edited a Vandalia paper in 1824, trying to influence changes in the State Constitution. He died at Belleville. (See "Blackwell, Robert S.," in Vol. I. of this work.)
JOHN REYNOLDS .- As John Reynolds is so celebrated in the early history of St. Clair County, we are interested in every detail we can get concerning him. Hence we copy ver- batim the following paragraphs from the "His- tory of St. Clair County" written in 1881:
"John Reynolds, for many years a conspicu- ous figure among the Belleville lawyers, opened a law office at Cahokia early in the year 1814. He was born in Montgomery County, Pa., in February, 1778. When he was six months old, his parents moved with the family to the vi- cinity of Knoxville, in East Tennessee, whence, in 1800, they emigrated to Illinois. Reynolds was sent back to East Tennessee to be edu- cated, and there attended Knox College. In 1807 the family moved to the Goshen settlement in Madison County, and settled at the foot of the bluff, three or four miles southwest of Ed- wardsville. He relates that, as a youth, he was active and energetic, attended all the house-raisings and other gatherings of the peo- ple, and never missed a horse-race nor a Fourth of July frolic. He was fond of racing, and in his book, 'My Own Times,' he records that in 1811, in November, he made a wager to run a quarter race at Cahokia for $500, an amount equal to several thousand at the present day.
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The whole country attended to see the sport. He was assisted in making up his stake by Thomas Carlin, afterward Governor of the State, and won the bet. Reynolds, when eight- een or twenty, was also passionately fond of foot-racing, and, by incessant practice, became a rapid runner. The first foot-race he ever ran for a wager was at Kaskaskia, in the sum- mer of 1808, against John Scott, of Ste. Gene- vieve, afterward Representative in Congress from Missouri. The last foot-race he ever ran was in Tennessee, for $100. He began the study of law at Knoxville, Tenn., in 1810, un- der the instruction of John McCampbell.
"He was induced to settle at Cahokia by the fact that a relative of his resided there- Joseph A. Beaird-a wealthy and respectable man. He made his house his home, and rented a room in the village for his office. He says all his law books could easily have been packed in a common carpet bag; they were ranged on the mantel over the fireplace in his room with- out filling it. He had considerable practice, mostly arising from traffic in land. He made his first appearance as a practicing lawyer be- fore Judge Jesse B. Thomas, at Belleville, in 1814. He relates that diffidence was with him a chronic disease, and that he was never en- tirely able to cast it away; that his first ef- fort to address the court was exceedingly pain- ful, and the more philosophy ne exerted to dis- card his foolish sensibility, the worse the ef- fort made it. At first he also did some busi- ness in the way of surveying lands; but his principal occupation was trading in lands, with his partner, Mr. Beaird. His specula- tions were so profitable that, in four years, he states he bought two stores of dry goods aniounting to $10,000.
"He makes the following reference to his election to the Supreme Bench on the organi- zation of the State judiciary: 'At the time of the session of the first Legislature, I re- sided in Cahokia, and had not the least in- tention to visit the seat of government at all. I cared very little who was elected to any of- fice-one thing was certain, I courted nothing for myself. My friends urged me to visit with them the General Assembly in session at Kas- kaskia, and I did so. When we reached the Legislature, there was a great excitement and turmoil in relation to the election of officers by the General Assembly. I had been in Kas-
kaskia only a few days, when it was urged on me to know if I would accept a judgeship, if elected. This broke in on me like a clap of thunder. I was, in truth, persuaded to be- come a candidate for the office. I had many personal friends, both in and out of the Legis- lature, who urged me much to consent to the of- fer. The material for the bench was not as good as it ought to have been. Human nature is easier persuaded to mount upward than to re- main on the common level. I was elected a Justice of the Supreme Court, which entirely changed my life, as will be seen hereafter.'
"Reynolds served on the Supreme Bench un- til after the reorganization of the judiciary, in 1824. His previous knowledge of the law had not been comprehensive, and many criticisms were made as to his ability to discharge the important duties of the judicial office. Ford, in his history, remarking on the reluctance of the Judges of that day to decide questions of law, and stating that they never gave instruc- tions to a jury unless expressly called for, nor even commented on the evidence, nor under- took to show what inferences and presumptions might be drawn from it, makes the following rather ill-natured reference to Reynolds: ‘I knew one Judge who, when asked for instruc- tions, would rub his head and the side of his face with one open hand, as if perplexed, and say to the lawyers, "Why, gentlemen, the jury understand this case; they will no doubt do justice between the parties."' In the spring of the year 1825 Reynolds resumed the practice of the law. He says: 'I entered into a toler- ably large practice immediately; but it was not very profitable, and I must be permitted to say that I never knew a lawyer in the State who ever became wealthy by his practice alone. It is speculation and the rise of property in the West that has made so many lawyers and others wealthy. I was lean, active and ener- getic, and could ride horseback days and nights together without much sleep or rest; but .[ had been so long on the bench, where public speaking was not practiced, that when I ap- peared at the bar as a lawyer, my old diffidence also appeared with me, and it was an effort at first to address the court or jury. For some time in the courts I was quite a silent mem- ber, and well knew that my silence, in many cases, injured the cause of my clients; but, by repeated efforts, I succeeded to some ex-
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tent. During my practice of law I was fa- miliar with the people, got acquainted with almost everybody, and became somewhat pop- ular.' "
The following sketch of Governor Reynolds's character is from an address of the Hon. Joseph Gillespie, delivered before the Chicago His- torical Society :
"The Governor's dislike to appear educated grew out of the contempt the early settlers had for 'book-larnin.' Seemingly the great aim of his life was to be in unison with the multitude. With him the voice of the people was the voice of God. If he could be on the popular side, that was enough. He never lost sight of this object. It was his guiding star. He always catered to the popular clamor and, indeed, went beyond it in most cases. He consulted Justin Butterfield, who was a great wag, about a bill that he (Reynolds) once introduced into the Legislature to constitute every man a Jus- tice of the Peace. Butterfield said that it was a capital measure, only he did not know where the Governor would get his constables. He was a very inaccurate man, and paid little at- tention to forms and precedents, so that it was a common remark with him that when he filed a declaration, 'in would come a demurrer, and out would go your humble servant.'
"David J. Baker, of Kaskaskia, who was re- niarkably accurate as a special pleader," con- tinues Mr. Gillespie, "once filed a declaration in court, at Kaskaskia, to which Governor Rey- nolds interposed a demurrer. We were all amazed at the step taken by the Governor, and none half so much as Mr. Baker. After he had appeared to recover from his astonishment, he said that he had read law with care, and had made special pleadings his principal study, but so abundantly cautious had he been that even now, when he had the forms at his tongue's end, he would not venture to frame a declaration without consulting the precedents. He could say, without boasting, that no de- murrer to his pleadings had been sustained for the past twenty years, but now had come for- ward at this late day one who had ventured upon the task of assailing the accuracy of his pleadings. 'But who, he said, 'is this man? It is no other than Governor Reynolds, who of all men on earth ought to have the least to say about accuracy. We all know about him as a member of the Legislature. We have
known him as Judge of the Circuit and Su- preme Courts, as member of Congress and as Governor of the State; and God Almighty only knows how long we shall be afflicted with him hereafter; but in every position that he has held he has been conspicuous as a bundle of informalities.' Mr. Baker gave him a dread- ful castigation, which the Governor felt acute- ly, but never 'let on.' Soon after Mr. Baker said to the Governor in the goodness of his heart, 'Well, Governor, I am afraid I was a little too severe upon you the other day.' 'Why, Mr. Baker!' replied Reynolds, 'have you been saying anything about me? I was not aware of it. I guess your speech did not amount to very much, or I would have noticed it. There is no need of apologies, Mr. Baker.'
"Another instance of how the Governor would extricate himself from a dilemma is the fol- lowing: The Governor was a candidate for re-election on the Democratic side, and was making, as was usual with men of that party, a free-trade speech at Sparta, where they were interested in the 'castor-bean' business. An Englishman named Bradshaw, who was a Whig, made a bet with some of the Governor's friends that the Governor did not know whether cas- tor-beans were protected or not, and he asked the Governor whether castor-beans were among the h'enumerated h'articles or not. The Gov- ernor did not seem to comprehend what he meant, and made some evasive and unsatis- factory reply, to which Bradshaw triumphantly cried out, 'I told you 'e did not know whether castor-beans are among the h'enumerated h'ar- ticles or not.' The Governor by this time dis- covered what was going on and said, 'Stop; I am like the boy who was offering a horse for sale, and some one asked him if the horse had a "splint." The boy scratched his head and said, "I don't know exactly what the splint is, but I do know that if it is good for the horse he has got it, and if it is not good for him, he is devilish clear of it." And that is the way with castor-beans; if it is good for them to be among the enumerated articles, they are there; and, if it is not good for them to be there, they are devilish clear of it.' The Gov- ernor could make the most rambling and in- coherent remarks imaginable. On one occa- sion he was prosecuting some Covenanters, who were indicted at Kaskaskia for a riot commit- ted in Sparta, in tearing down a grocery be-
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longing to an old fellow named Turk. Judge Breese was off the bench at the time and de- fending the rioters, and he referred in severe terms to the fact that the Governor was pros- ecuting his old friends and supporters. This touched the Governor in a very tender place. He denied that his prosecution of these men was an evidence of any want of friendship for them. 'For,' he said, 'gentlemen of the jury, if I should meet any of these men in heaven or in hell, I would run to greet and shake hands with them. But,' said he, 'they were not following in the footsteps of their illus- trious predecessor, Jesus Christ, when they were tearing down Old Turk's grocery. They said they were afraid Old Turk would raise a mob and tear down their churches, if they did not destroy his grocery. Why, sir, so far from poor Old Turk raising a mob, he can- not raise the ten-dollar fee he promised to pay me in this case.'
"The Governor was the most thorough-paced politician I ever knew. He kept a newspaper for his own use. It was the 'Belleville Advo- cate' in early days. He had as a standing chairman of all his meetings an old gentle- man named Mclemore, who always decided as the Governor desired.
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"The Governor was never without his hobby. He was for the Mexican War, the acquisition of Texas, 'Fifty-four Forty or fight,' as well as the conquest of Cuba. Whenever one of these hobbies was to be set going the Gov- ernor would announce through his paper that a meeting would take place at such and such a time to consider the measure. At the ap- pointed place, the Governor would nominate Mr. McLemore as chairman and would make his speech, and then call upon those present to address the meeting, and it was considered a great breach of etiquette not to 'chime in' with his opening remarks. Sometimes, how- ever, the meeting would be refractory, and the Governor would prorogue it. I remember a case in which the old gentleman was unable to control his meeting. He had called one to consider the propriety of taking possession of Texas. It was during the Texas revolution. The assemblage was large, and the Governor, at the outset, was in 'high feather.' Mr. Mc- Lemore took the chair, and the Governor opened out in grand style, and insisted that Texas was ours, inasmuch as Spain had got the best of the bargain, when we traded Texas
to lier for Florida, which, he said, she could not have held. He contended that we needed it, and therefore had a valid right to take it. He wound up by offering a resolution, setting out that our title to Texas is indisputable.
"A few of us, who wanted some fun, offered an amendment to the effect that 'this meeting is eminently qualified to decide the question of title to Texas,' which the Governor violently opposed, and denounced us as traitors, and as having come there to interfere with and break up his meeting. We assumed that the meeting was composed of the wisest and best men in the world; that parliamentary bodies were com- posed of ignoramuses, as compared with us; that every American citizen, and especially every citizen of Belleville, was endowed with 'wisdom from on high' in reference to all po- litical measures; that whoever denied that pal- pable truth was a traitor to his country, and enemy to mankind; and that the fiery ven- geance of the present and future generations would be poured out on the devoted heads of all such. We drove the Governor ignominious- ly from his own sacred ground, for the ‘in- fallibility of the people' was his 'stock in trade' generally. We had nineteen-twentieths of the meeting with us, and carried our amendment, but Mclemore paid no attention to the pro- ceedings. The Governor moved to adjourn: Three or four feeble 'ayes' were heard. When the 'noes' were called for, they made the wel- kin ring; but Mclemore said, 'Well, men, the meetin's adjourned anyhow.' Next morning the Governor's paper came out with a flaming account of the meeting, representing the reso; lution offered by the Governor as having passed unanimously, and saying nothing about the amendment and other proceedings. I met the old gentleman, and said to him that the ac- count of the meeting did not square very well with the actual proceedings. He replied, 'No; you damned fellows beat me at the meeting, but I can beat you in the papers.'"
Governor Reynolds wrote "Pioneer History of Illinois" (Belleville, 1848); "A Glance at the Crystal Palace, and Sketches of Travel" (1854) ; and "My Life and Times" (1855.) He died at Belleville, May 8, 1865, in his seventy-seventh year.
ADAM W. SNYDER .- Another man of. marked prominence in the law in early days was Adam W. Snyder (see sketch in “Historical Encyclo-
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pedia"), who was born in Pennsylvania in 1799, and, when a boy, lived near Columbus, Ohio. About 1818, Jesse B. Thomas induced him to come to Cahokia to operate a carding machine. Seeing the young man's talents and ability, Judge Thomas took a strong personal interest in him and induced him to study law. In 1824 he was admitted to the bar. In 1833 he moved to Belleville. He was fond of pol- itics; was twice elected State Senator from St. Clair County; in 1836 was elected Repre- sentative in Congress, and in 1842 was nomi- nated as the Democratic candidate for Gov- ernor, but his health having failed while in Congress, he died before the election. As a lawyer, he was a recognized power with the jury. He always made speeches brief-rarely speaking more than half an hour-and they were to the point, forceful and convincing. His memoirs has lately been writen by his son, Dr. John Francis Snyder.
Alfred Cowles, from Connecticut, settled at Belleville at an early day, but later moved to Alton. He was well educated and studious, and was very well thought of as a lawyer.
In 1838, George W. Ralph, from New York, formerly a merchant, began the practice of law in Belleville, and continued until 1842 or 1843. He was more capable in politics than in law.
BELLEVILLE LAWYERS PROMINENT, 1840-45 .- Lyman Trumbull was born in Colchester, Conn., October 12, 1813; and was educated in his na- tive State. In 1834, he went to Georgia to teach school, and studied law "between times." In 1836 he was admitted to the bar in Georgia, but soon after came to Belleville, where he gained a large practice, and was for a long time in partnership with Governor John Rey- nolds. His leading characteristics were ac- curacy and industry. In politics he was well known. In 1840 he was elected to the State Legislature; in 1841 was appointed Secretary of State, serving two years; was a Justice of the Illinois State Supreme Court from 1848 to 1853; was elected a member of Congress in 1854, but before entering upon the duties of the office was chosen United States Senator in 1855, and re-elected as a Republican in 1861 and in 1867. He moved to Chicago in 1863, and died there June 25, 1896.
James Shields1 was born in Ireland in 1810; came to America in 1826, and was admitted to the Kaskaskia bar in 1832. In 1837 he came to Belleville and formed a partnership with Gustavus Koerner. In 1841 he was appointed State Auditor, and in 1843 was chosen a State Supreme Justice. In 1845, having been ap- pointed Commissioner of the General Land Office, he lived in Washington. In the War with Mexico he was appointed Brigadier-Gen- eral of United States Volunteers. After his muster-out in 1848 he was appointed Governor of Oregon Territory, serving until the following year, when he was chosen United States Sen- ator from Illinois, later serving as United States Senator from Minnesota, and after the Civil War in the same capacity from Missouri. He served in the Civil War as Brigadier-Gen- eral, 1861-63. He died in Iowa in 1879.
James L. D. Morrison was born at Kaskaskia, April 12, 1816. In 1832 he was appointed mid- shipman in the United States Navy. While laid up with rheumatism in a Pensacola hos- pital, he casually picked up a volume of Black- stone, which interested him sufficiently to turn his ambition into law channels. In 1836 he entered the law office of Judge Nathaniel Pope at Kaskaskia, and in 1837 was admitted to the bar. In 1840 he moved to Belleville. He rep- resented Monroe and St. Clair Counties in both houses of the Legislature. During the Mexi- can War, he raised a company in St. Clair County, and was made Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Illinois Regiment. In 1856 he was elected Congressman. Later he removed to St. Louis, where he died in 1888. Robert Morri- son, a brother of J. L. D., practiced law in Belleville in 1844, and later moved to Califor- nia, where he became distinguished. Murray Morrison, another brother, practiced at Belle- ville a while, but later went to California.
William C. Kinney, a son of former Lieu- tenant-Governor William Kinney, began prac- tice here about 1839, and in 1848 was State's Attorney. He was a man of ability, but was unambitious and cared little for business. He served in the Legislature, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention in 1847. He became Adjutant-General of Illinois in 1857 by appointment of Governor William H. Bissell, and died in 1858.
1 See Encyclopedia part of this work.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
Judge William H. Underwood1 was born in Schoharie County, N. Y., in February, 1818; studied at Schoharie Academy and Hudson River Seminary, and later studied law. In 1840 he began practice in Belleville; was chosen State's Attorney for 1842 and 1843, and in 1844 as Representative in the State Legislature. In 1848 he was elected one of the first Circuit Judges under the constitution of that year, serving six years. In 1856, 1860 'and 1870 he was elected a State Senator from the St. Clair District. In 1869 he was chosen a member of the Convention which framed the present State Constitution. As a lawyer, he was ex- ceptionally capable and well informed in all branches of law, accurate and industrious. He died in Belleville, September 23, 1875. Joseph B. Underwood, a brother of William H., prac- ticed law in Belleville for some time. He was also a member of the Twenty-third General Assembly.
ST. CLAIR COUNTY BAR IN 1870 .- Writing in 1870, John Hinchcliffe2 said: "The bar of St. Clair County has ever compared favorably with that of any other county in the State, whether as relates to the reputation or talents of its members. Below, we give a list of the names of members of the St. Clair County bar, and to prevent any invidious distinctions being made, we will name them in alphabetical order, promising only that on the list will be found the names of many men of distinction who are so well known that we need not point them out to the general reader. The Hon. Jehu Ba- ker (late member of Congress for this district), Benjamin Boneau, John B. Bowman (promi- nent in the history of East St. Louis), George W. Brackett, H. R. Challenor, George W. Davis, E. L. French, R. A. Halbert (State's Attorney), John B. Hay (in Congress), James M. Hay, John Hinchcliffe, Luke H. Hite, H. H. Horner, S. M. Kase, W. G. Kase, G. P. Koerner, C. P. Knispel, T. J. Krafft, L. P. Krafft, B. Mattice, J. D. Manners, M. Millard, Nathaniel Niles, C. F. Noetling, W. H. Snyder, C. W. Thomas (Master in Chancery), E. L. Thomas, W. H. Under- wood, M. W. Weir, Alonzo St. Clair Wilder- man, W. Winkelman."
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