USA > Indiana > Public men of Indiana : a political history, 1890-1920, v. 2 > Part 12
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1873, when he moved to Indianapolis and became a partner in the practice with Casabianca Byfield under the firm name of Byfield and Howe, and soon gained the admiration of other lawyers because of his ability and untiring industry.
His advancement was so rapid that in 1876 he was nominated in a Republican convention for judge of the Superior Court over such formidable opponents as Albert G. Porter and David Burns, and was elected and re-elected for successive terms covering a period of fourteen years. He was greatly admired as a judge because of his judicial temperament, kindness and painstaking work, and was regarded as one of the ablest jurists of the State. Upon voluntarily retiring from the bench in 1890 he became associated in the law practice with Judge Livingston Howland, and upon the death of the latter continued in the practice alone for many years and at the same time engaged in- dustriously in literary work in the production of publications for the Indiana Historical Society, of which he was president and to which he gave, by his will, one-third of his fortune in remainder after the death of his widow and daughter.
Among the publications of which he was the author are the following: "Civil War Times- 1861-1865," "Political History of Secession," "Making a Capital in the Wilderness," "Laws and Courts of Northwest and Indiana Territories," "Puritan Republic of Massachusetts Bay in New England.".
While all of these works are embellished with
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DANIEL WAITE HOWE
the author's fine style and enriched by his faithful research, his "Political History of Secession" would probably be given first rank by capable critics.
Mr. Walter R. Fertig, a well known lawyer of Noblesville, Indiana, was a student in the office of Byfield and Howe from whom the writer obtained an interesting account of his experience in getting his induction into that office, and incidentally some facts pertaining to his own early career. Mr. Fertig was a graduate of what is now Butler College, and having a desire to enter the legal profession found that his college diploma in itself was not all that was required, and being disposed to finance his own way engaged in teaching school until his accumula- tions amounted to two hundred and fifty dollars and then went in search of a place where he could be- come a law student and get the advantages that a good lawyer could give him in his studies. His youthful associate, Emmet Stilwell, advised him to try to get into the office of Byfield and Howe and took him there and introduced him to Mr. Byfield, who received his application with favor but asked him to call again when the matter could be talked over with "Dan." Returning the same day, as he relates, he saw seated at his desk in a swivel chair a man with shaggy hair, heavy eyebrows and mas- sive jaws smoking a meerschaum pipe and writing rapidly. Not daring to interrupt him he waited until the man wheeled his chair, threw one leg over the arm of it and looked at his caller with that quizzical grin, so familiar to all who knew Judge Howe, when the following dialogue was had:
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Judge Howe: "Are you the young man who was in here before noon talking to my partner about studying law in this office?"
The youth (timidly) : "Yes, sir."
Judge Howe: "I am glad to learn that you are a friend of Emmet Stilwell. He is a mighty fine fellow and we can take you in on his recommenda- tion, but how much money have you got?"
The youth (feebly) : "Oh, about two hundred and fifty dollars."
The Judge (assuringly) : "Well, if that's all you've got you can come in. I thought if you had come to the city with plenty of money expecting to have a good time as you went along, you might just as well go back home."
Work-hard work-was Judge Howe's philos- ophy of life. Put in practice, it would at once rid the world of Bolshevism and of the idle rich.
Judge Charles E. Cox, a native Hoosier, was born on a farm in Hamilton County in 1860, and educated in the public schools of that county. For the career of a lawyer he had aspirations that per- sisted from his early youth. He sought every means within his reach to gain the necessary legal educa- tion. An excellent opportunity came to him under the tutorship of Judge William E. Niblack, of the Supreme Court of Indiana, who employed him to read records, briefs and law books pertaining to cases in the Supreme Court, this service being re- quired because of the impairment of the judge's eyesight. Through the influence of Judge Niblack he was made Supreme Court librarian and served
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in that capacity from 1883 to 1889, and in the latter year began the law practice at Indianapolis. In 1895 he was elected city judge of Indianapolis and re-elected for a second term. In 1910 he was elected judge of the Supreme Court.
Among the many important cases decided during his term in which he wrote the opinions were two that attracted especially wide attention. They were what was called the "Technical Institute" case and the so-called "Marshall Constitution" case, men- tioned elsewhere, in which by reason of the court's decision the proposed constitution failed to con- stitute. He was recognized by the people of all parties and by the bar of the State as one of the ablest of the many able jurists of the State.
Two of his sons volunteered in the war against Germany in the first month after war was declared and served until its close-Samuel L. Cox as an infantry lieutenant in the National Army, and Charles E. Cox, Jr., as a lieutenant pilot of a com- bat plane in the air service.
Judge Meade Vestal was born in Hamilton County, Indiana, on November 29, 1866, and has resided in the city of Noblesville all of his life, cx- cept for a period of a few weeks upon the farm where he was born. He was educated in the com- mon schools, and graduated from the Noblesville High School in the year 1885. He read law in the office of a well known firm of that city for one year, beginning in the fall of 1885, then entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in the fall of 1886 and graduated with the
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degree of LL.B. in 1888. He was admitted to the Hamilton County bar in 1888, and became one of its practicing lawyers and continued in the prac- tice until 1909. At the November election of 1908 he was elected judge of the Hamilton Circuit Court, the 24th Judicial Circuit of Indiana, and served from October 19, 1909, until October 19, 1915.
His race for judge was one of the greatest political battles ever waged in Hamilton County, and he was successful over a presiding judge by a majority of 936, as against a normal Republican majority of 1,800. He had served as special judge in a number of cases previous to his campaign, and his experience on the bench had already demon- strated his ability for judicial work.
He was a candidate for re-election and was defeated by the small plurality of less than two hundred. He then re-entered the practice at Noblesville. When the World War began he offered his services to the Government, was com- missioned major and judge advocate in the United States Army. He had had eleven years' military training in the Indiana National Guard and was in the office of the judge advocate general at Wash- ington only four weeks when he was sent to Camp Cody, New Mexico, where he served as staff judge advocate on the staff of General J. R. Lindsay, camp commander. While there he served as acting judge advocate of the 97th Division.
Later he was ordered baek to Washington, and again sent to the field. He served as camp judge advocate at Camp Humphreys, Va., on the staff of
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MAJOR MEADE VESTAL
General Jay J. Morrow and the staff of Major General C. A. F. Flagler. He was discharged July 3, 1919, and returned to his practice. General Flagler recognized his work at Camp Humphreys by a special letter of commendation.
Judge Vestal was married on the 29th of June, 1892, to Corinne Clark. They have two children, Harold C. Vestal and Elizabeth. The son served overseas and was twice promoted. He held the rank of captain at the time of his discharge. The daughter also served in the Spruce Division of the Army, through civil service appointment, during the war.
George W. Vestal, the father of Judge Vestal, is mentioned in Chapter XXXI of the first volume of this work. The judge is well known throughout the State as one of its ablest lawyers and judges and has an excellent status in military circles, where he is usually addressed as Colonel Vestal. He got that title by being military secretary to Governor Ralston, but prefers to be known by the rank he now holds as major, the position to which he was appointed by the War Department. He is now major in the judge advocate general's reserve corps and is subject to call in time of war.
Oscar H. Montgomery, of Seymour, Indiana, by virtue of his election in 1904, from the Second Supreme Court Judicial District, served as a judge of that court from January, 1905, until January, 1911; was renominated by acclamation by his party but went down in defeat with his Republican asso- ciates at the election of 1910. Prior to his election,
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and since his retirement from the bench, his law practice was general, covering both civil and crim- inal cases and extended into many Southern Indi- ana counties. He prosecuted an unusual number of appeals to the Supreme Court and had such exceptional success that his qualifications for Supreme judge became so apparent to lawyers of the State that they insisted upon his becoming a member of the court, and he fully satisfied their expectations in the character of his judicial serv- ice.
For many years a series of standard law books, known to the legal profession as the "Lawyers Reports Annotated," has been published, contain- ing leading and selected cases in which opinions were written upon every subject of jurisprudence. The opinions that can stand the test of criticism by the able editors of the L. R. A. and are published in these volumes are held by the legal profession generally to be the very best contributions to legal literature and precedents, and the jurist whose opinion is selected for publication justly considers himself as highly honored.
During the time that Judge Montgomery was on the Supreme bench he wrote 240 opinions and participated in the decision of all the cases that were decided by that court during his term. He broke the record of all the judges in the number of his opinions that were selected for publication in the L. R. A., the American State Reports and the American and English Annotated Cases. These reports contain seventy opinions that he wrote, in
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seventy varieties of cases. His associates on the Supreme bench voluntarily commended him for appointment as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, also for appointment to the new Commerce Court that was created by Act of Congress, but these appointments went to other States. He is a member of the State and Amer- ican bar associations and greatly admired by all lawyers of his acquaintance and most highly re- spected as a citizen of the State.
He was born on a farm near Seymour in Jack- son County, in 1859. Attended the country schools and entered Hanover College in 1876 and grad- uated with the degree of A.B., receiving the second classical honor in June, 1881, and in 1886 the honorary degree of A.M. was conferred upon him by the same institution. He taught four terms of school, one during his sophomore year in college and three after graduation. His law studies were in the office of A. P. Charles in the city of Sey- mour. He practiced for a time at Greenfield, Indiana, but returned to Seymour where he has continued in the practice except while on the Supreme bench.
His political affiliations are with the Republican party that he has served as a member of its county and State committees and was a delegate to the Republican national conventions of 1896 and 1912. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Hanover College for thirty years and is a mem- ber of the order of Free and Accepted Masons and Knights of Pythias. Is married and the father of
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four children, two boys and two girls. One of his sons is associated with him in the law practice.
It was the personal privilege of the writer to have known him and to have observed his career and judicial work, and it is his very great pleasure to record these pleasing reminiscences of him.
Judge Emerson E. McGriff, who was elected judge of the Jay Circuit Court in 1916 and has just finished six years of honorable judicial service when this is written, was born in Darke County, Ohio, in 1857. His father moved his family to Jay County in 1860 and then moved to a farm near Deerfield, in Randolph County, where Emerson was raised and attended the public schools. He was a student at Ridgeville College and the Northern Indiana University at Valparaiso, Indiana, and then taught school in Randolph County for seven years, and during that time studied law and pre- pared himself to engage in the practice which he began upon his admission to the bar in 1884. Was appointed prosecuting attorney for the Randolph Circuit Court and served in that capacity for one term and then moved to Portland, in Jay County, and was actively engaged in the practice from 1887 until 1916, when he was elected Circuit judge. Possessed of an exceptional knowledge of law gained from close study and application, he was exceptionally well qualified for judicial service. But few changes of venue from his court were taken and very few appeals to the Appellate or Supreme Court. His only son was an overseas soldier in the war with Germany, was one of the
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first to enlist and was captain of a company that saw much active service.
Judge John M. Smith, of Portland, Jay County, has an extensive record in the legislative depart- ment of the State, as well as a record of which any one would be proud as a Circuit judge. He was elected as a Democrat to the State senate in 1882, overcoming the usual Republican majority. Served in the sessions of 1883 and 1885.
Following his service in the State senate he was elected Circuit judge and served for six years. In 1908 was elected to the House of Representatives where he served on the judiciary and other impor- tant committees. His abilities, previous service in the senate and in a judicial capacity, with his knowledge of the law and of legislative needs of the State, gave him a position of prominence and influence in that body, as one who looked only to the best interests of the State. Both before and after the terms of his public service he devoted his time industriously to the law practice in which he still continues.
James J. Davis, secretary of labor in the cabinet of President Harding, was a resident of Elwood, in Madison County, for a number of years, where he worked in the steel and tin plate mills, having previously, from his boyhood, worked as a puddler in iron works at Pittsburgh. Was born in Tredegar, Wales, in 1873, came with his parents to America in 1881, and upon his arrival at the required age renounced all foreign princes, poten- tates, states and sovereignties and became a fully
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amalgamated American citizen, and showed his high regard for amalgamation and for union labor by becoming a member of the Amalgamated Associa- tion of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers, and took an active part in the labor union of Elwood and was chairman of its organization. He soon acquired a proper Hoosier status by mixing in politics, and the inalienable right of every Hoosier to aspire to pub- lic office; was elected city clerk of Elwood and re- corder of Madison County. He became well known throughout the county as a prominent member and promoter of the Loyal Order of Moose, a benevolent and charitable organization now having a member- ship of over 600,000 and the owner of over 1,000 acres of land on Fox River near Aurora, Illinois, covered with cottages and other buildings, where its home for children is maintained. Its main purpose is to make provisions for the orphans of its members by educating them and teaching them a trade. It was his creative genius as director general of this organization, and the fact that he was a laboring man identified with union labor, that made him eligible for the high and important position to which he was appointed by President Harding.
Having himself passed through Castle Garden and overcome the obstacles that foreigners coming to America must meet, and attained a position that requires him to deal with the subjects with which he is most familiar, he has well known views upon the questions of immigration, education and labor to which he recently gave public expression at Chi- cago in a speech that has been commented upon by
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Mooseheart Administration Building and R. R. Station, near Aurora, Ill .- 8 "City of Lights."
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ENTRANCE TO MOOSEHEART, NEAR AURORA, ILLINOIS.
the public press and that contains many points deserving 'of consideration by American people, among which are the following:
"Modern American youth is reluctant to work with its hands as the result of a system of education which teaches false standards of life. We are teach- ing our children too much of the classical, too little of the practical, and fitting them to occupy only white collar jobs. To import our labor from foreign countries, to create a class of clerks and profes- sionals upon a substratum of alien labor will lead us to national danger. Two schools of thought on the immigration problem, those in favor of letting down the bars and trusting to the proverbial Amer- ican luck, and those in favor of shutting immigra- tion off almost entirely, have been superseded by another school."
The new school (to which he belongs) believes in retaining our present three per cent immigration law. In respect to that he said: "We should set up machinery to select our immigrants for the places which they are needed to fill in this country. Mental, moral and physical examinations should be conducted on the other side. If foreign countries object then we should put up a sign 'None can enter who won't work.' Why should we take 1,000 Turkish rug peddlers when what we need is 1,000 lumber jacks, miners or laborers. An investigation of 600 immigrants at Ellis Island showed that only twenty were entering this country to do common labor."
Newton Whiting Gilbert, lawyer, was born at
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Worthington, Ohio, May 24, 1862, the son of Theodore R. Gilbert and Ellen L. (Johnson) Gil- bert. On the maternal side he is a descendant of the Joseph Johnson who was a governor of the State of Virginia.
Member of the firm of Felder, Gilbert, Camp- bell & Berranco, of 14 Wall Street, New York City, Mr. Gilbert, who took up his residence in New York in 1916, has had a distinguished career, not only in the law, but in political life as well. His education completed at the Ohio State University, he was admitted to the bar in 1888. Previously he had learned the printer's trade and taught country school. Settling in Indiana in 1885, he practiced at Angola and was county surveyor of Steuben County from 1885 until 1890.
Elected to the State senate, he served in the upper house from 1896 to 1900, acquitting him- self so satisfactorily that in the latter year he was elected lieutenant governor. At the expiration of his term of office he was sent to Congress by the Twelfth Indiana Distriet. He remained at Wash- ington until 1906, when he was appointed judge of the Court of First Instance at Manila, Philip- pine Islands. From 1908 to 1913 he was viec- governor-general of the islands, serving as acting governor-general from 1912 to 1913.
While in the Philippines Mr. Gilbert did much to advance the cause of native education, especially during the year 1909, when he was secretary of public instruction, and also as president of the Board of Regents of the Philippine University, of
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NEWTON W. GILBERT
which he was afterwards made an LL.D. Inci- dentally, he holds the same degree from Iowa Wesleyan.
In 1913 Mr. Gilbert opened a law office at Manila and practiced there until 1916, when he returned to the United States and established himself in New York. A Republican in politics, he was a delegate to the national convention in that year.
In addition to his law business, Mr. Gilbert is a director in the American Fuel Oil & Transporta- tion Company, of 111 Broadway, New York. He is a thirty-second degree Mason (Mystic Shriner) and member of the Army and Navy Club, Wash- ington; University Club, Manila, P. I .; Columbia Club, Indianapolis, Ind .; National Republican Club and India House, New York. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Fond of travel, he has been around the world three times.
Mr. Gilbert is a veteran of the Spanish War. He was captain of Company H, 157th Volunteer Infantry, of Indiana.
James E. Watson. Preceding pages giving the results of State and congressional elections show that James E. Watson's terms in the House of Representatives have covered almost the same length of time as did those of the veteran Demo- crat William S. Holman. His defeat of Holman brought him to a prominence in the State that he has well and continuously maintained. He was elected in 1894, defeated for the nomination in 1896, and again elected in 1898, 1900, 1902, 1904
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and 1906, and in 1916 was elected to the United States Senate and re-elected in 1920, where he was one of the most conspicuous members of that body as the spokesman for the administration of President Harding and a favorite adviser in shaping its policies. He is an untiring advocate of the protective tariff system, a stalwart Repub- lican in every sense, and his powers and abilities in senatorial debates are generally conceded. As a campaigner he has few equals among stump orators. He sometimes opens his speeches by say- ing, "Now I am not going to abuse Democrats, it is bad enough to be a Democrat without being abused for it."
His speeches in the senate are on a higher plane and follow the dignified senatorial style of arguing question in "the greatest deliberative body of the world," thus showing his adroitness as a politician and his capabilities as a statesman at the same time. He was born at Winchester, Randolph County, in 1864, where he had but limited opportunities of asso- ciating with Democrats, if he had any such inelina- tions. His primary education was in the public schools of the town of his birth. He graduated from the Winchester High School in 1881 and from DePauw University in 1886, and practiced law with his father, Enos L. Watson, an able lawyer, for a few years, and then took up his residence at Rush- ville in 1893 and the next year was elected to Con- gress, where he served on the Ways and Means Committee and as the Republican whip of the house. He was most conspicuous among the stand-
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pat Republicans at the convention that renomi- nated President Taft, and Hoosier Democrats have long since condoned all his offensive utterances be- cause of his contributing so much to their success in 1912.
William R. Wood, of Lafayette, has the dis- tinction of representing the great industrial dis- trict of Northern Indiana, the 10th, composed of the counties of Benton, Jasper, Lake, Newton, Porter, Tippecanoe, Warren and White and con- taining a population in 1920 of 286,387, of which it is estimated fifty per cent in Lake County are of foreign birth or descent. He was born at Oxford, in Benton County, in 1861, and educated in the common schools of that town and graduated from the law department of Michigan University in 1882 with the degree of LL.B. and entered upon the law practice at Lafayette in the same year. In 1890 was elected district prosecuting attorney and re-elected in 1892. Was elected to the State senate in 1896 and four times re-elected, serving twice as president pro tem and was the Republican leader of that body. Was elected to the 64th, 65th, 66th, 67th and 68th congresses, and is considered one of its ablest members and is a frequent participant in debates on the Republican side.
Merrill Moores, member of the 64th, 65th, 66th, 67th and now serving in the 68th congress of the United States, by virtue of his election each time on the Republican ticket, with a large plurality, has had a most interesting and enviable career.
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Was born at Indianapolis on April 21, 1856, the son of Charles Washington and Julia Dumont Moores, at whose home Henry Ward Beecher and Edward Everett Hale were frequent and honored visitors, as were the best people of Indian- apolis.
He had unusual educational advantages and availed himself of the best use of them. Was a student at Butler College, also at Willamette University, Salem, Oregon, and Yale, from each of which he graduated, receiving the degrees A.B. and LL.D. at Yale, and while reading law for five years in the law offices of the great firm of Baker, Hord & Hendricks he also found time to attend and graduate from the Central Law School at Indianapolis, and began the law practice in that city in 1880. Was assistant attorney general of Indiana from 1894. to 1903. Was commissioner from Indiana in 1909 and 1921 at the national conference on uniformity of State laws. In 1919 was elected and served at Geneva, Switzerland, as a member of the executive council of the Inter- parliamentary Union. He enjoyed the close friend- ship of the great lawyers in whose offices he was a student, and while attending college at New Haven often met Henry Ward Beecher who took a great interest in him.
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