USA > Kansas > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Kansas > Part 25
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In the fall of 1863 he went to the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and began a literary course, and shortly after took up the study of the law, at that famous school, which he pursued 'till nearly the end of the school year, in the spring of 1865. He then went to Fondulac, Wisconsin, where he was examined and admitted to practice law in May of that year. He remained in Wisconsin 'till the fall of 1867, when he moved to Linn county, Kansas, and began the practice in partnership with Judge Henry G. Webb, who had been his partner during a portion of the time he lived in Wisconsin after his admission.
The firm continued in the practice 'till the fall of 1868. when it was dissolved, and Mr. Hill settled at Fort Scott, Kansas, and continued the practice as the junior member of the firm of Webb, Blair & Hill (the senior member of the firm being Hon. Win. C. Webb, a brother of Mr. Hill's former partner) and remained in the practice with this firm of well known lawyers until Win. C. Webb was appointed Judge of the 11th Judicial District in March. 1870. In May, 1870, Mr. Hill came in the private conveyance of his firm with .Indge Win. C. Webb from Fort Scott to Montgomery county, whither Judge Webb had come to hold his first term of court. He and the judge drove up to the improvised conrt room at Old Liberty, which the judge inspected. and at once made a very em- phatic refusal to open conrt in a room he considered so unfit for the pur- pose. No one was at the court room at the arrival of these gentlemen but shortly afterward a crowd was attracted, more from curiosity than otherwise, and still later Sheriff White arrived from Independence where the clerk of the court, Mr. Stephenson, had remained behind. After a short consultation between the judge, Mr. Hill and the sheriff they set out for Independence, where the judge opened and held a term of court and Mr. Ilill located here.
Mr. Hill was distinctly a criminal lawyer. in which branch of the profession he excelled ; and in the days of his active practice at the bar here, perhaps had no superior in that branch. During his professional career he has defended 158 persons charged with murder, besides many times that number charged with other crimes and misdemeanors. He has also done munch in the civil practice, especially in closely contested cases.
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Generally. he was assigned a leading place in all cases in which he was engaged, especially in the cross-examination of opposing witnesses. His method of cross-examination was original, unique and astute. His ques- tions were framed in that manner that made them an argument, and drew from an adverse witness damaging testimony in a modified form. He knew the rules governing the admission of evidence and in the ex- amination of a dangerous witness played on the outside boundary lines and sometimes stepped over. He rarely suffered, as often lawyers do, from imprudent cross-examination.
In the days of his prime he was a dreaded adversary because of his skill in cross-examination and the fertile resources always at his com- mand. The opposing counsel who knew him was always on the alert; vet often with every precaution, failed to protect against some move coined in Mr. Hill's ingenuity. The methods exercised in one of the earliest criminal cases he tried in Kansas will furnish some idea of him. A young woman in Linn county, penniless and friendless, was charged with murdering her infant child by throwing it into a lake. That she threw the child into the lake was established by abundant evidence on the preliminary examination. The young physicians, after a superficial examination, and as expert witnesses, gave it as their positive opinions that the child was alive when thrown into the lake. Public opinion ran high against the supposed murderess. No lawyer could be found anxious to undertake the defense; especially as neither glory nor reward was promised, and some of them had declined it. In her hopeless predica- ment she sent for Mr. Hill, then a young man about thirty-two years of age. He offered to defend her on one condition, and that was, she must answer truthfully a single question he would ask. She agreed to this, and he asked her if the child was alive when she threw it into the lake, and she answered no, and he believed her. He at once, and in the night, secretly exhumed the body of the dead infant and took it in a buggy, in the box in which it had been buried, to Kansas City, to an eminent phy- sician and after relating to him the conditions, the doctor reluctantly consented to make a post mortem, and having opened the chest and ex- amined the lungs unequivocally declared the child was dead when thrown into the lake. Mr. Hill prevailed upon him to promise to attend the trial and give testimony, which he did, paying his own expenses. The local physicians again testified as before but suffered severely on cross-ex- amination which Mr. Hill was enabled to make effective from the train- ing his Kansas City friend had given him.
Mr. Hill had also taken the precaution to re-exhume the body-he having restored it to the grave on his return from Kansas City-which he had conveniently secreted. On the defense he introduced the Kansas City physician and he at once, with the aid of the lungs of the child, demonstrated beyond doubt that the child had not met its death by
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drowning ; and in a very short time the jury acquitted and the court dis -. charged the defendant "to go hence without day."
While Mr. Hill was not an orator in the usual acceptation of that term, he often made very effective pleas to a jury, and sometimes when thoroughly awakened could hold them spell bound by impassioned elo- quenee. He was in the habit, at least one time in each term of court, of opening his address to a jury-usually the first he appeared before-by advising them with a smile, that he did not intend to flatter them, that they were not the handsomest men he had ever seen, and in his life time he had met smarter men than they, and that they were just like himself, men of fair looks and appearance and of ordinary intelligence and fully equal to discharge the duty imposed upon them. After this pleasant opening he would then consume about an hour in demonstrating what that duty was. Mr. Hill still lives at Independence but spends most of his time in Oklahoma. in the practice of the law.
JOSEPH W. HOLDREN was born at Springhill, Kansas, November 9th, 1872, and lived there until he entered the University of Kansas, from which he was graduated from the law department in June, 1898.
On the 8th day of the same month he was admitted to the bar of Douglas county. Kansas, and then in July, 1898, located in the practice at Cherryvale, Kansas, where he has since resided and followed his pro- fession, having during three years of that time, filled the office of police judge of that city.
GOVERNOR LYMAN U. HUMPHREY is an honored and distin- quished member of Montgomery county's bar. His thrilling experiences as a soldier, his achievements as a journalist and his services to the state in high official stations, outside of his long and successful practice of law, entitle him to a most prominent notice on pages of a history of the Bench and Bar of the county. Since he has now retired from the prac- tice it would seem most fitting and dne to him, to include in the short history of his career as a lawyer a brief resume of that portion of his life that has been devoted to public duties ; or rather it may be said, the his- tory of one who has braved so many of the perils of war, rendered such conspicnons services to his state and country as he has, would be in- complete and unjust if confined strictly to his successful career of about twenty years' active practice at the bar.
The Humphreys are of English descent, settling in New England in the latter part of the seventeenth century, where, in 1799, Lyman, the father of our subject, was born. In young manhood he emigrated to the Western Reserve in Ohio, the then far west, where he engaged in the tan- ning business at Deerfield. It is of interest to note that his tannery was formerly owned by Jesse Grant, father of General U. S. Grant, be- fore his removal to Southern Ohio. At a late date in life Mr. Humphrey studied law and became a member of the Stark county bar, was a colonel
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of malitia and a man of affairs until his rather premature death in 1853. He was survived by his wife and two sons, John E. and Lyman U. The maiden name of the wife and mother was Elizabeth A. Everhart, born in 1812 at Zanesville. Ohio, and married at Niles, where her parents, John and Rachel (Johns) Everhart, were identified with the iron in- dustry. Her paternal and maternal ancestry were of Pennsylvania origin, the Johns having left their name in the unfortunate, vet flourish- ing city of Johnstown in that state. Mrs. Humphrey lived to the rather remarkable age of eighty-four years, dying at the home of her son in In- dependence in 1896. She was a woman of splendidly developed faculties and a sturdiness of character which gave her strength to assume and carry to a successful conclusion the burden of family cares imposed by the early death of her husband. She was intensely patriotic, and gave her two sons to her country in its hour of need with an almost cheerful assurance. Of the sons, John E. served first as a private in Company "I," 19th Ohio Vol. Inf., and in the battle of Shiloh was so severely wounded as to necessitate his discharge from the service. Later he en- listed in a battery of the 1st Ohio Light Artillery, and was in the service 'till the close of the war. Ile came to Kansas among the early settlers and passed away in 1880 in Montgomery county. where he had lived. He was unmarried.
Lyman U. Humphrey was born July 25th, 1844, in New Baltimore, Stark county. Ohio. He passed the early period of his boyhood in attend- anee on the village schools, developing. under the watchful care of his mother, those attributes of character which have made him distinguished among men. He was taught early the value and dignity of labor, the iron industries of his home locality furnishing him the opportunity, and he entered the period of young manhood with a splendid physical con- stitution.
He watched the progress of events leading up to the Civil war with intense interest and. every word uttered about the home fireside being charged with that lofty patriotism, so marked in the mother, it was in- evitable that "war's full-lighted torch" should find in him a ready bearer. Leaving the High School at Massillon, where he was at the time pursuing his studies, he enrolled as a private in Company "1." 76th Ohio Vol. Inf., the date of his enlistment being October 7th. 1861, three months after his seventeenth birthday.
The seventy-sixth Ohio regiment was attached to the First Brigade, First Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps-Army of the Tennessee- and participated in much heavy fighting during the continuance of the war. The more notable of the engagements in which our subject took part were: Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Corinth. Chickasaw Bluff, Arkansas Post, Jackson, Siege of Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. At Ringgold. November 27th. 1863, he received his first and only
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wound. but remained with his command and ready for duty. He also participated in the battles of Resaca. Dallas, Kennesaw Mountain, was in the bloody fight at Atlanta July 22nd. where the noble McPherson "gave the full measure:" then at Ezra Chapel, Jonesboro and thence. with Sherman, to the sea. The triumphant march from Savannah up through the Carolinas, including the Battle of Bentonville, and the final surrender of Johnston's army, completed the four years of splendid ser- vice rendered by Lyman U. Humphrey to his country. He enlisted in the ranks, was promoted for meritorious conduct to first sergeant. second lieutenant, then to a first lientenancy, in which capacity he commanded his company on the memorable march to the sea. He was discharged at Louisville, Ky., July 19th, 1865. just six days before the anniversary of his twenty-first birthday.
The war did for young Humphrey what it did not do for many boys of less observant mind. He went into the army an unsophisticated, im- pulsive vonth. with a scant knowledge of men and matters. He came out a man schooled in self-control. with settled habits and a practical knowledge of men and affairs, knowledge gathered in the battle's forvid heat and passion, on the long and weary march. at the evening's camp- fire. Ile felt. however, the lack of book-knowledge. and at once devoted himself to its acquirement, matrienlating at Mount Union College for a brief period, and later, in the law department of the University of Michi- gan. A year in study here, however, was sufficient to exhaust his limited supply of funds, and he was therefore compelled to forego further efforts in the educational line. In 1866 he came west to Shelby county, Mis- souri, where he taught school and. in partnership with the Yoe Brothers and Col. A. M. York, he published "The Shelby County Herald."
While residing at Shelbyville and in 1870, Governor Humphrey was admitted to the bar. Early in the next year he located at Independence and on the Sth day of March, 1871, he, in company with W. T. Yoe and Col. A. M. York. established and published at that place "The South Kansas Tribune," of which he was one of the editors until June, 1872, when he and Col. York sold their interest in the paper.
During the time that Governor Humphrey and W. T. Yoe conducted The Tribune it was ably edited, well supported and exercised remarkable influence in polities and in the business concerns of the public. While the paper was always a strictly partisan Republican paper and unspar- ing in its denunciation of the principles of its political opponents, its consisteney and apparent sincerity won the respect of many who opposed its publie policies.
Governor Humphrey was admitted to the Montgomery county bar in May, 1871, and after he and Col. York sold their interest in the Thibune, they formed a co-partnership for the practice of law. and. under the firm name and style of York & Humphrey, at once established an exten-
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sive and profitable professional business, which was fully maintained until about 1888 when the Governor left the practice to assume the duties of the highest office in the state.
While Governor Humphrey was a well trained, studions and able lawyer, he had a distaste for the wrangling, disputes and the application of the technical distinctions the practice so often demands. He loved the science of the law for its logie and beauty and could easily have been eminent in its practice. His inclination to the study of literature, mili- tary tacties and to journalism and polities detracted from what might have been a more brilliant career at the bar.
The Governor's services to the State of Kansas were important and gave him enduring fame. In 1876 he was elected to the Lower House of the State Legislature and served on the Judiciary Committee where, ow- ing to his legal training and native ability, he was a most useful mem- ber. Before his term of office had expired he was elected to fill the un- expired term of Hon. M. J. Salter as Lieutenant Governor of the state, and at the end of the term, re-elected to the same office as his own suc- cessor. While serving in his regular term as Lieutenant Governor he presided over the joint convention of the two houses that elected Hon. John J. Ingalls the second time to the United States Senate, after one of the fiercest. most acrimonious and bitter contests ever held in the state. The leading candidates. Hon. John JJ. Ingalls and Hon. Albert H. Horton, were trained in the highest arts of political warfare and the "battle royal" raged for several days when Mr. Horton went down in a defeat, which was brought about by the bitter fight made against him by the Representatives from Montgomery county. It was charged that in the carly 70's Mr. Horton had been employed by the county commisioners to prevent by injunction, the delivery of the $200,000 bonds that had been fraudulently voted to the L. L. & G. R. R. Co., in the county, and that he, as attorney for the county, permitted the bonds to be put in circulation without a legal fight. and received from his elient for such conspicuous services, a fee of $20,000.00. Whatever may have been the merits of the disputes between the contending candidates or the fact as to Mr. Hor- ton's management of the county's business, it was conceded on all hands, that Governor Humphrey presided with fairness and unusual ability.
In 1884, Governor Humphrey was elected to the State Senate from Montgomery county. for a term of four years, and was elected perma- nent president pro tem of that body, and in 1888 he was chosen Governor by the largest majority ever cast in the state for any candidate for that office. He carried every county in the state, except two, and his plurality was over 80,000. At the next biennial election he was chosen as his suc- cessor. by a reduced majority ; there having meanwhile come Into exist- ence a new political party that so disrupted former political organiza-
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tions and became so strong that at the next biennial election (1892) it became dominant in the state.
During Governor Humphrey's nine years' service in the legislative department of the state, and four years as its chief executive, he dis- charged his duties with fidelity and marked ability. While a member of the Senate in 1887 he was the author of the joint resolution proposing an amendment to the State Constitution relating to the militia of the state. The amendment was adopted in 1888 striking out the word "white" be- fore the words "male citizens" with the effect of including all able bodied male citizens between the ages of 21 and 45, regardless of color, in the militia of the state-the 15th amendment to the United States Constitu- tion having effectually invested the colored race with equal political rights. His administration as Governor was characterized by honest and faithful service in all departments, as well as efficient management of the different state institutions.
In his first message he recommended the passage of a law relating to banks and banking and suggested a plan which was closely followed in the enactment of the present law, which provides for the important office of State Bank Commissioner. The act providing for the observ- ance of Labor Day and making it a legal holiday was enacted in obedi- ence to the recommendation of the Governor. The period, 18SS to 1892, was a trying one in the number and importance of appointments to of- fiees made by the chief executive. In this field, however, the Governor's excellent judgment of men well guarded him against errors in making selections. Among the more important appointments he made were, a United States Senator to fill the vacancy created by the death of Senator Plumb, State Bank Commissioner, World's Fair Commissioners, a State Treasurer and eleven District Judges; all of the latter except one, being chosen at the ensuing election and six of his appointees are still on the bench.
In 1892, Governor Humphrey was nominated for Congress from the Third Congressional Distriet by the Republican party. He was defeated at the polls by about 2,000 majority, which was about one-half of the anti-Republican majority by which Judge Perkins was defeated, for the same office, by Benjamin Clover two years before.
After the Governor's defeat for Congress he became the financial correspondent of the Union Central Life Insurance Company, represent- ing a dozen counties in Southeastern Kansas, and he and his oldest son, Lyman L., are now looking after the extensive farm loan investments of that company, which affords them full, profitable and pleasant employ- ment, and him a pleasant relief from the toils of public service as well as from the necessary annoyance incident to the persistent applications of aspirants for public places. The Governor is now living a quiet life at Independence, with his wife, whom he wedded here December 25th, 1872,
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and his son. A Lincoln. His oldest son and partner in business, with his bride of a few months, lives "next door" to him.
The Governor's wife was Miss Amanda Leonard, a daughter of James C. Leonard, at one time a prominent citizen and banker at Beards- town, Illinois, and later engaged in the same business for several years at Independence. She is an accomplished lady, of most refined tastes and gentle breeding. and, like her distinguished husband, lives in the highest regard of the people of this city, where more than thirty years of her life have been spent.
T. B. JENNINGS was admitted to the bar of the county on May 9th, 1870, but never practiced here.
JAMES M. JOHN came to Independence in 1875, and after reading law something over one year was, at the September, 1876, term of the District Court, admitted to practice after an examination in open court. At the date of his admission he was in frail health and at onee went to Colorado and New Mexico on a sheep ranch to try the effect of the elimate. After several years on a ranch. his health having very much. improved. he located at Trinidad, Colorado, and entered the practice. He soon established an extensive business in the line of his profession and at the same time carried on mining, ranching and speculating and accumulated a large fortune.
He is now located at Trinidad and divides his time between the practice and looking after his extensive investments. Since he has lived in Colorado he has served in the State Senate four years and has been Mayor of Trinidad for three years, and is well known as one of the ablest and shrewdest lawyers in the state.
The history of Mr. John as a member of the bar belongs to Colorado, but having studied and heen admitted here, it may be of interest to re- cord that he had one of the keenest and quickest minds that was ever possessed by any member of our bar and also possessed natural and ao- quired elements that would enable him to succeed in almost any vocation that he might have chosen to follow.
L. C. JUDSON was admitted to the bar of Montgomery county on May 13th. 1870. but did not enter the practice here.
JAMES KOUNTZ. after studying law about two years or more at Independence, was, on examination in 1888, admitted to practice by the District Court of Elk County, Kansas, and shortly afterward moved to Topeka, where he entered the railroad service which he has since pursued.
REUBEN P. KERCHEVAL was a member of the bar of Montgom- ery county and located at Coffeyville. Kansas, where he practiced law a number of years during the 80's and 90's. He moved to the Indian Ter- ritory several years ago and entered the practice there.
JOHN H. KEITH was born in Warren county, Kentucky, on De- cember 3rd, 1867, where he was reared. He taught several terms of
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school in his native village, Three Forks, before he was admitted to the bar at Bowling Green, Ky., November 9th, 1889. Mr. Keith located at Coffeyville in 1893 and in November of that year was admitted to the bar of Montgomery county and has since actively and continuously pur- sued his profession in the county and in the Federal and Supreme Courts in this state, and in the Federal Courts of the Indian Territory. During his residence at Coffeyville he has served five terms as attorney for that city and now represents the 29th District in the Lower House of the Kansas Legislature, and is a conspicuous leader of the minority party in that body.
M. B. LIGHT was admitted to the bar of Montgomery county in May, 1870, and shortly after located in the practice at Sedan, where for years he had a good practice and enjoyed the confidence and esteem of all who knew him. While there he filled, to the satisfaction of the pub- lie, several important public positions. lle died a few years ago at Sedan.
MAJOR WM. M. LOCKE was admitted to the bar of Montgomery county on the certificate of his admission to practice in the United States Courts in Virginia and in Missouri. He had been a major in the Union army and after his admission here, located at Coffeyville, where he pursued the practice for something like two years and then moved to Colorado and several years after died suddenly while journeying on a trip to the east. Major Locke was a good lawyer and a very courteous and kind hearted gentleman and during his short stay in the county won the esteem of all who knew him.
MR. LORING was at one time, about 1871, a member of the bar of Montgomery county, where he practiced his profession a short time and then left the county.
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