USA > Kansas > Atchison County > History of Atchison County, Kansas > Part 46
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consolidation with the First National Bank of Atchison he became chairman' of the board of directors of the new organization.
Mr. Barry's marriage with Kate Curtin occurred November 28. 1874, and to this marriage have been born the following children: John. engaged in business in New Mexico; Henry, Helen and C. W., deceased; Frances Barry Simmons, and one son, who died in infancy. The younger daughter is the wife of O. A. Simmons, whose biography appears in this volume. The mother of these children was born and reared in Leavenworth, Kan .. a daughter of John and Helen Curtin, natives of Ohio, who came to Leaven- worth in 1856. John Curtin was a landscape gardener by profession.
Mr. Barry has always been a Democrat. In 1885 he became a candi- date for sheriff of the county, but was defeated by only four votes. In1 1887 he was again a candidate for the office and was elected by the large majority of 1,150 votes. This, too, in the face of the fact that Atchison county has generally been considered a stronghold of Republicanism. So well did he perform the duties of his office, and so popular did he become that he ex- perienced no difficulty in a second election to the sheriff's office in 1889, with a majority of 850 to his credit. It is stated that his majority when elected sheriff of the county was the largest ever given a candidate for the place. He is a member of the Catholic church and is fraternally connected with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Knights of Columbus, and the Elks. Mr. Barry's success has been due to a strong and winning per- sonality, squareness in the conduct of his business transactions which have been proverbial, a genius and capacity for organization, which enabled him to plan and carry out his various undertakings to a successful issue, and the ability to make and retain friends.
WARREN W. GUTHRIE.
It is given to relatively few men to leave this world for the mysteries of the next, contented with what they have done here, and without regret for duties unfulfilled. At the end of a lingering illness, giving ample time for reflection, and as a last utterance, General Guthrie called closer to his bed- side his faithful wife and companion and his six living children then gathered about him and whispered to them: "I know that I am about to leave you for- ever. I want you to know that I am going without regret except for our separation. I have raised a family in which I have had only pride. I have
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tried to prepare you to be good members of your own families and useful citizens. I have fought the fight and my work is done. I am ready to go. I want you to know that I leave you feeling that I have never done any man an intentional wrong, or left unfulfilled any duty I was capable of accom- phishing, and that I go content."
These last whispers give a fair index to the life and character of this sturdy pioneer Kansan. He was a type of a product of the early years of struggle in Kansas, now largely passing away. Diplomacy was a word of which he might never have known the meaning. He at least never practiced it to the prejudice of frankness. Whether as a friend who could be depended upon in any emergency and regardless of consequences to himself, or whether as a foe who could not be placated by excuses or offers of advantage personal to himself, and equally regardless of consequences his cards in the game were always upon the table face up. He despised sham and pretense in every form, and whether in business, politics or the judicial forum, he always fought his way double-fisted, straight for the goal.
Born June 9, 1834, on a flinty hillside farm on the banks of the Housa- tonic river in Connecticut, and ambitious for a broader field, W. W. Guthrie struck out for himself early in life. At seventeen he was providing for his further education by teaching a rural school in New Jersey, on the present site of Long Branch, where the chief qualification for the teacher was his ability to thrash the biggest young fisherman in the school. In his later years it was one of the delights of General Guthrie to tell of his experiences in instructing the youth of New Jersey with a clapboard.
In 1857 under the well known general advice of Horace Greeley, Mr. Guthrie, then admitted to the bar, came, seeking his fortune, to Kansas by way of steamboat up the Missouri river from St. Louis, landing -at Whitecloud, thirty-one miles north of Atchison, then one of the cities upon the Missouri with small population but unlimited future possibilities. Shortly afterwards he moved again westward to Hiawatha, the county seat of Brown county, where he established himself in practice, his business radiating to the sur- rounding counties, which were reached principally on muleback. General Guthrie was over six feet in height, and he loved to tell how, as a lanky young lawyer with a small mule, it was difficult to keep his feet off the ground in traveling from county seat to county seat. At Hiawatha he and the late Gov. E. N. Morrill were close friends, kept "bach" together, and had the usual quarrels as to whose turn it was to scrape the skillet.
Elected to the Territorial legislature, his service attracted such attention that in his absence, and without his knowledge, he was given by the Republi-
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cans the first nomination under State organization for the office of attorney general; he was duly elected and served as the first attorney general of the newly created State. It was from his incumbency in that office that he be- came known as General Guthrie. He was not acceptable for military service and took no part in the Civil war except as a volunteer in the organization hastily effected to repel the invasion of Gen. Sterling Price, which was cut off by his defeat at the battle of Westport.
Some of General Guthrie's friends have felt that he would not have been nominated for attorney general if he had been at the convention where he was nominated, or had known that he was to be suggested as a candidate. While General Guthrie subsequently served with credit in the Kansas State senate and was an influential factor in Kansas politics for many years in the interests of others, he was not a successful politician as a candidate in con- ventions not made up of a majority of men who personally knew him well. He was thrice a candidate for the Republican nomination for Congress, and once nominated by one of the two factions of a convention which split up in a row and nominated two different candidates. When it came to bodies made up of trading delegations dickering for local advantages, General Guth- rie's straightforwardness, his aversion to crooked deals and trades, and his unwillingness to offer personal reward for political assistance put him at a serious disadvantage. If he thought a man or thing was wrong he never hesitated to say so, even though he understood what the results would be. It is said that at the last congressional convention in which he was a candi- date, and in which he was the favorite candidate, the balance of the power was held by a delegation amenable to the allurements of promise of office, or more direct substantial and immediate reward. His less scrupulous friends tried to "dope" the General with some medicine that would put him out of action while they used the necessary means to the end. But the Gen- eral refused to be either doped or to retire and shut his eyes to the situation. preferring an honorable defeat.
General Guthrie had physical as well as moral courage. Contesting the candidacy of a former prominent citizen of Atchison who had come from an- other State under a cloud, General Guthrie collected the record of this can- didate in his former home and announced that he would read it at a meet- ing to be held in old Turner Hall. This was in the early days when Atchi- son had her quota of "roughneck" citizens. General Guthrie was notified that they would attend and that he would read his documentary evidence at the peril of his life. He had never owned or carried a firearm except dur- ing the preparation to resist the Price raid, but on the night of the meeting
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he stepped out on the platform at Turner Hall, and laying upon the table a pair of old army revolvers, he looked down on the "roughnecks" in the front row and advised them that he was about to proceed with his speech, and that persons who didn't like trouble had better leave before it began. He made the speech. The trouble did not start. The candidate he was opposing was defeated.
From the time Kansas became a State until his death, General Guthrie was a citizen of Atchison contemporary with that circle of brilliant and able men who in the early days made Atchison the mother of the political history of the State, such as Senator John J. Ingalls, Governor John A. Martin, Governor George W. Glick, United States District Judge Cassius G. Foster, Chief Justices Samuel A. Kingman and Albert H. Horton, and such early- day business men as David Auld. the Challiss brothers, Jacob Leu, and Sammel Hollister.
After his election as attorney general on December 21, 1863. General Guthrie, accompanied by his friend, Chief Justice Albert H. Horton, as best man, crossed the Missouri river to St. Joseph upon the ice, crawling upon their hands and knees, the ice being too treacherous to support a man walk- ing upright, to be married to Julia, daughter of Capt. William Fowler. of St. Joseph, also a pioneer, the first county clerk in the territory of which St. Joseph is now the county seat. There were born of this marriage eight children, two of whom died in infancy, the others and the wife surviving General Guthrie. W. F. Guthrie, the eldest son, practiced law with his father until about the time of the death of the latter, when, with his wife and three children he removed to Kansas City and is still in practice. The second son, F. L. Guthrie, a retired banker, with wife, resides at Paola, Kan. Mary Lou- ise Guthrie is the wife of A. E. White, head of the commissary department of the Burlington system, residing in Chicago, and the mother of four chil- dren. Warren W. Guthrie, Jr., practiced law in Atchison in association with his father and brother, and afterwards practiced alone until his death on August 17, 1914, being one of the most beloved men personally of all the people of Atchison. Theodore F. Guthrie, also the father of four children, is. as he has been since before his father's decease, the manager of the Gutli- rie ranch in Chase county. Kansas. Gilbert L. Guthrie has been the wanderer of the family. a metallurgical engineer who has seen distinguished service on every continent of the globe, but has given up his work to be a companion to the widow, residing on the old Guthrie homestead adjoining Atchison.
From the first General Guthrie became and until ill health overtook him remained a notable figure at the bar, not only of Atchison, but of the State at
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large, and particularly northeast Kansas, where his early successes brought him in as a consultant in the territory he had formerly covered on mule- back, long after that territory had developed many able lawyers of its own. His name appears frequently in the reports of the supreme court of Kansas, and in connection with the establishment of many new and novel precedents in the courts. General Guthrie was an original thinker along legal lines, and not over-tolerant of the law as he found it in the books. When it did not suit him his vigorous mind would discern logical modifications and novel applications of old doctrines to meet the new necessities of his litigation.
Every fight for the general good of the community found General Guth- rie in the front of battle. No difficulty daunted him. All that was required for him was to decide as to what he thought right, and his hat was in the ring. Perhaps the greatest personal, direct service rendered by General Guth- rie to the community was in connection with the failure of the Peoples Sav- ings Bank. The Peoples Savings Bank was an auxiliary of the United States National Bank, the closing of which was brought about by the circulation of rumors affecting its solvency. It paid its liabilities in full before it closed, but the assets of the Peoples Savings Bank were invested chiefly in real estate mortgages and bonds not immediately payable, and as times were then, not readily convertible, so that its closure, following that of the United States National, left hundreds of citizens with their needed savings not immediately realizable. General Guthrie was a holder of one share of stock only in each of these banks, for the purpose of qualifying as a director as an accommodation to the operating officers, his friends. This double failure, at a time of gen- eral financial uneasiness, helped by stories circulated by enemies of the bank officials anxious to bring them into disgrace, filled Atchison with excitement. Nightly meetings, attended by hundreds of depositors, were held. and in their ignorance measures were initiated which would have resulted in a sacrifice of the assets and the realization to the depositors of but a small per cent. of their claims. General Guthrie undertook to stem this tide and save the depositors from themselves. He arranged with his co-directors to advance a sum to buy up at face value the deposits of the smaller and more needy de- positors, and out of his own funds advanced the moneys necessary to protect the assets from sacrifice, and lent his own uncompensated efforts to their realization at their actual value, with the result that within a year every claim of the bank was paid in full.
Like many successful men who have been born and spent their early years upon a farm, General Guthrie was interested in farming and in farm development and in showing what could be done through proper cultivation
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and stock development. He left ample provision for his widow and younger children, chiefly in farm lands. He gave personal attention to the operation and improvement of his farms, and took particular delight in the management of his 6,000 acre ranch in Chase county, Kansas, and in the development of a grade of cattle originated by himself, the Polled Herefords, a strain of Here- fords, from which he succeeded in breeding off the horns. Nothing gave him greater pleasure in the later years of his life than to explain his farming and cattle operations to his friends and intimates. He was ready to put aside the most intricate litigation at any time for a chat on this subject.
While General Guthrie's open-handed warfare upon the things he thought wrong made him many enemies, his untiring energy, integrity and readiness to help anyone or anything he believed to be right, brought him a host of friends, not only among the young lawyers he raised and trained, but among the public at large, and he died an honored and respected mem- ber of this community on April 22, 1903, at the old home place adjoining the city of Atchison.
JOHN PETER ADAMS.
Faithfulness to duty is generally recognized and rewarded by the people of an average American community. Atchison county is singularly fortunate in having as its officials men of whom it can be said are above the average type of county officials. The office of probate judge of the county is no exception, and is ably filled by the present incumbent of whom this biography treats. John Peter Adams is an able member of the Atchison county bar and a painstaking and conscientious public official. In the performance of the duties of his high office he has won the esteem of the people of the county and showed such marked ability in his judicial capacity that he was elected to the office for the third time without opposition from any source.
Judge John Peter Adams was born in the town of Lock Berlin, Wayne county, New York, June 7, 1855. His parents were Peter and Martha (Eld- ridge) Adams, and Judge Adams was one of six children.
Judge Adams received his early education in the schools of his native State and the Macedon Academy, following which he completed a business course at the Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. He practically worked his way through school by teaching, becoming a teacher at the early age of eighteen. He came to Atchison in 1879 and entered the law office
WILLIAM A. JACKSON. Judge District Court.
CHARLES J. CONLON. County Attorney.
JOHN PETER ADAMS, Judge of Probate Court.
ROY C. TRIMBLE, Sheriff.
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of Judge H. M. Jackson, as a law student, and was admitted to the practice of law in 1880. A short time following his admission to the bar he opened an office for himself, and later became a partner with Roy C. Crawford. A partnership with Charles J. Conlon was formed some time afterward, which continued until the election of Mr. Adams to the office of probate judge in 1910. Judge Adams was reelected in 1912, and again in 1914. without opposition for the nomination or election. He is a Republican and a firm believer in a high protective tariff. Previous to his election to the probate judgeship, he served as judge of the Atchison city court, having been ap- pointed by Governor Bailey in 1902, and reelected three times following his appointment without opposition. Judge Adams has always earnestly advocated Republican principles and has been a faithful party worker.
Judge Adams was married in Albion, Mich., June 24. 1885, to Mary Stevens, a native of Lock Berlin, N. Y., and a daughter of Wells J. L. and Nancy Stevens. To Judge and Mrs. Adams have been born three children. who are the pride of their parents, as follows : Eldridge, born November 30, 1892. He received his classical education in Kansas University and grad- uated in medicine from Rush Medical College at Chicago in 1914. after a thorough course of study in the University of Chicago, now a practicing physician and surgeon in the Illinois State Hospital for eye, nose and throat, at Chicago. Dr. Adams is a rising young physician of marked ability and was an apt student, and is ambitious to succeed in his chosen profession. He graduated from the Atchison High School at the age of fifteen, from the Kansas University at the age of nineteen, and received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Rush College of Medicine when but twenty-three years of age. It is safe to predict a brilliant future for this Atchison boy. A daughter of Judge Adams, Eleanor, aged twenty, is a student of Knox College, Gales- burg, Ill., class of 1916, where she is specializing in music-violin and voice. Genevra, the youngest child of Judge and Mrs. Adams, is eighteen years old, a graduate of the Atchison High School, and a student in Baker University. The Adams family has resided in the same house at Fourth and Laramie streets for thirty years, or since the marriage of Judge and Mrs. Adams. They believe in giving their children the advantages of a good education, as the best preparation possible for their future success.
Judge Adams was reared in the Episcopalian faith, which was the church of his fathers, but is an attendant with the members of his family at the Methodist Episcopal church. He became a member of the Masonic lodge in 1876.
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WILLIAM ANTHONY JACKSON.
While we reverence the courts and look upon them as the final refuge of the citizenry in time of oppression or trouble, we realize that the tribunals of the people for safeguarding our inalienable rights as citizens are measured in their usefulness by the character of the men chosen to sit at the head of the judiciary. Society is protected from those criminally inclined, and we accept without criticism the decisions of the judges with whom we come into personal contact, because of the fact that the masses of the people have an abiding faith in the integrity of the courts. This confidence is more in evi- dence in a community where all have an opportunity of judging at close range the qualifications and personal integrity of those chosen by the people to administer the judicial affairs of the people. It is meet and necessary that the judges in whom we place implicit confidence he men of the highest calibre. broad-minded and sympathetic in dealing firmly with the many diverse cases which are brought before them for adjudication. The district court of Atchi- son county is presided over by a learned jurist who has the confidence and esteem of the people, and who enjoys the universal respect of the citizens of the county. Hon. William A. Jackson, judge of the district court of Atchison county, is such a man wisely chosen to fill the highest office within the gift of the people in his district. His career as presiding officer of the court has been marked by a display of ability, legal acumen, broad-minded and sym- pathetic discernment of right and wrong in handing down his decisions that have satisfied the most exacting. He was born in Versailles, Morgan county. Missouri, October 6, 1866. He is a son of Judge Horace M. and Lavanchia Isabelle (Valentine ) Jackson, a review of whose life is given in this volume.
Judge Jackson has a reputation for fairness and impartiality in his judicial decisions which has gone far beyond the borders of his county. The Atchison Daily Champion in its issue of September 25. 1913. has this to say of his high honor and integrity :
"In these days of alleged lawless lawyers and corrupted courts it is a good thing to know that Atchison county has an honest and efficient judge to administer justice from the district bench. Many big men .- men of splendid qualifications and sterling integrity-have occupied the important position now held by Judge Jackson, but never before has this county had a judge whose service on the hench commanded more universal satisfaction than that ren- dered by Judge Jackson. It is the unanimous opinion of the Atchison har that he is the best district judge in the State. Absolutely fair. impartial, capable, he performs the functions of his office with a high sense of duty
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and responsibility to the law and to his fellow men, a duty and responsibility which precludes all other results, save only unqualified justice for each case that comes under his supervision."
The supreme test which could be applied to a man in his position came on an occasion when the father and brother of Judge Jackson appeared for the defendant in a case which was tried in the Atchison court with Judge Jackson on the bench, and he was not found wanting. Quoting from the Atchison Daily Champion in its issue of April 19. 1909, concerning this unique situation and the conduct of Judge Jackson during the course of the trial of the case :
"Many people have attended court the past week as witnesses, jurors and spectators in the Norris-Mapes tial, and the fact was freely commented upon that the appearance in the trial of father and son as attorneys for the defendant and another son was on the bench, presented a situation that was quite unusual. Some at first indulged in unfriendly criticism of the circum- stances and it is therefore a pleasure for the Champion to say that it has heard nothing but the most universal praise for the fairness, the impartiality and the splendid integrity of purpose Judge Jackson displayed in his rulings on every disputed question of law and evidence in the case. It is a fact worthy of comment that the Champion takes pleasure at this time in giving public recog- nition to so important a matter. There is nobody in Atchison who has a stronger following of loyal friends than Will Jackson, and it is because of his manhood, his honesty and fine sense of honor that he has earned them and retains them."
William Anthony Jackson was trundled in a home-made baby-cart and dressed in clothing spun and made by his devoted mother. Few were the luxuries in which he was indulged; the plainest of fare was his sustenance during his childhood days. In 1870 he was placed in school at Marysville, Mo., and after coming to Atchison with his parents he attended the city schools. He attended the Monroe Institute and later entered Kansas Univer- sity at Lawrence, graduating therefrom in 1888. He was admitted to the bar and in 1889 was made a member of the law firm of Jackson & Jackson. His success in the practice of his profession has been marked and he is widely known as a capable lawyer and jurist. His first public office was that of city attorney, to which he was elected in April, 1905, and served until 1900. Dur- ing the four years of his incumbency of the office of city attorney he lost but one case which came up for trial under his care for the city. He was elected judge of the district court, second judicial district, in November of 1908, and resigned the office of city attorney to take up his duties on the bench in order to qualify in January. 1909. His career on the bench speaks
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