USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > A memorial and biographical record of Kansas City and Jackson County Mo. > Part 65
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Through his efforts, mainly, was secured the repeal of the infamous and inequitable law compelling special findings by juries in their verdicts, which had become perverted by the abuse of corporation attorneys into an instrument of oppression to defeat the ends of justice in suits brought against them. Through his efforts also an act creating the State Reform School for Boys was passed, and also a similar act creating the State Industrial School for Girls. He secured the passage through the house of measures pro- viding for the encouragement of co-oper- ative associations, and an amendment to the damage act, known as the "Fellow Servant Act," making railroad companies re- sponsible for injuries by its employees to co- employees; but these last two most beneficent measures were defeated in the senate by the powerful railroad lobby after having passed through the house.
In 1890, when the new city charter went into effect, Mr. Brown was unanimously nominated by the democratic party in con- vention for president of the upper house, a position for which he was not a candi- date , and which he at first declined, but which he was finally prevailed upon to accept in order to bring together all ele- ments of the party into the most effective campaign. The city was at this time re-
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publican, and although Mr. Brown had for his opponent the strongest and most popu- lar candidate upon the opposition ticket, he was defeated by the narrow margin of only thirty-one votes in a total vote cast of over twenty-three thousand.
In the fall of 1890 Mr. Brown was nomi- nated by the democratic party for the office of prosecuting attorney of Jackson county, and was elected by a majority of over three thousand seven hundred over his republican opponent. At the close of his first term he was renominated and re-elected by a large majority in the fall of 1892, and he thus served as prosecuting attorney from Jan- uary, 1881, until March, 1895. No prose- cuting attorney before him was ever con- fronted with such adverse conditions upon assuming office. During his entire term he was compelled to contend with a great evil with which none of his predecessors in office had been afflicted. Simultaneous with his term of office a new justice-of-the-peace and constabulary law went into effect, for the first time, which was a most vicious and ill-advised law, creating four times as many justices and constables as had previously existed. By it eight districts were created in Kansas City, each with a justice and constable, where, prior thereto, only one constable and three justices had existed. The number of deputy constables allowed to each constable was unlimited by law; they were allowed no salaries, and their re- muneration and profit consisted solely in the amount of fees they earned by cases. As soon as the law went into effect, as every one had predicted, a reign of legalized fee- grabbing by a horde of irresponsible deputy constables resulted. The prosecuting at- torney had no control whatever over any of these officers, and could reach them only
when some violation of the law occurred. Mr. Brown seized every opportunity to prosecute most vigorously all such, and caused one justice and more than a score of deputy constables to be removed from office, and many of them to be punished by heavy fines and imprisonment.
As soon as his term of office began Mr. Brown inaugurated a series of mnost vigorous reforms. Under his immediate predecessor a lax administration of the criminal law had been in vogue, grave abuses had grown up, and to the correction of these Mr. Brown bent every energy. He was a tireless worker; everything was systematized and the business of his office was promptly and vigorously dispatched. No matter how much labor was involved the state was always ready for trial when cases were called in court. Com- plete and comprehensive legal instructions, covering every criminal offense, were pre- pared by him and printed ready for imme- diate use in court as cases were tried, thus doing away with the tedious delays pre- viously in vogue, which compelled court and juries to stop until instructions were labo- riously written out in each case. If the functions of a public prosecutor be the vig- orous and relentless pursuit of crime and criminals, then was Mr. Brown an ideal prosecutor. No more able, vigorous or suc- cessful prosecutor ever held the office than Mr. Brown, and his four years of official life made his name a terror to criminals of all classes. Almost twice as many legal exe- cutions for murder in the first degree took place during his term of four years as in all the entire seventy years in the history of the county preceding his term. Only one legal execution for murder had taken place in the county for twenty years before his term, and only three had ever taken place
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in the county's previous history of seventy years. During Mr. Brown's four years in office seven convictions, with sentences of the death penalty for murder in the first de- gree, were secured, all of them being af- firmed upon appeal to the supreme court! Of these, two were commuted by the gov- ernor to terms, practically of life imprison- ment, and five were executed, two of them, Jones and Clark, being executed on the same day. In addition to these convictions for murder in the first degree, many con- victions were secured by him for murder in the second degree, among them the case of State vs. Sansone, wherein the defendant was sentenced to ninety-nine years in the penitentiary,-the longest sentence ever in- flicted in the state for murder in the second degree.
Many of the most noted criminal cases in the state's history were tried during Mr. Brown's term of office, among them, one of the most noted, was that of State vs. E. C. Sattley, the cashier of the Kansas City Safe Deposit and Savings Bank, an in- stitution which had failed, owing several million dollars to over 10,000 depositors, most of them laboring people, who were ruined by the bank's failure. Sattley was backed by unlimited money and the influ- ence of rich and powerful relatives, and was defended by a corps of the most eminent and able criminal lawyers in the state; but he was convicted and sentenced to the peni- tentiary after a trial lasting over six weeks, the longest criminal trial on record.
Mr. Brown, while prosecutor, followed all cases, when appealed by defendants, to the supreme court, and prepared the briefs and arguments for the state in that court. His success in the supreme court was phe- nomenal. Out of twenty-five cases ap-
pealed by convicted defendants to the su- preme court, only two were reversed, and none were ever reversed which had been tried by him in person. Almost every case wherein conviction was secured for a homi- cide in any degree during his term was ap- pealed by defendants, but not a single homi- cide case was ever reversed by the supreme court. As illustrating the thoroughness with which cases were tried, the records of the criminal court of Jackson county show that only seven new trials were ever granted by the criminal court during his term of four years. Out of over twelve thousand three hundred indictments and informations drawn for felony and misdemeanor cases by Mr. Brown and his assistants, during his term, only twenty-three were ever quashed for technical insufficiency! As all indictments and informations are drawn, very largely, during the hurry and confusion preparatory to trial, this record is considered by attor- neys to be a most remarkable one. The aggregate time of all sentences imposed for convictions secured during Mr. Brown's four years in office, amounts to over three thou- sand years; while the amount turned into the county treasury for the common-school fund from fines imposed and collected from criminal convictions during the same term amounts to over $33,000. Even his bitter- est political enemies were compelled re- luctantly to admit the splendid record made by Mr. Brown as a public prosecutor. After his term of office had expired, the Kansas City Journal, the official newspaper of the republican party, which had, for political reasons, fought him bitterly during his entire term of office, had this to say of Mr. Brown's record as a public official, in its issue of February 10, 1895:
" Marcy K. Brown, who has just retired
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A MEMORIAL RECORD OF KANSAS CITY
after four years of service as prosecuting attorney of Jackson county, made a most excellent record as a public prosecutor. While he was prosecuting attorney he se- cured convictions with capital punishment in no less than seven murder cases. Every one of these cases was appealed to the supreme court, and in each instance the verdict of the lower court was affirmed. Four of the seven, -William McCoy, Mar- tin Reed, John Clark and Harry Jones, -- have been hung; the sentence of Amanda Umble was commuted to twenty years in the penitentiary, that of Thomas Smith to forty years in the penitentiary and Philip Martin is now under sentence to be hung on the 15th of this month. In the entire his- tory of Jackson county, prior to the terin of Mr. Brown, there were but three hangings.
" Mr. Brown has never had a homicide case reversed by the supreme court, and out of twenty-five cases of all kinds appealed by convicted defendants to the supreme court, but two were reversed. He sent Antone Sansone to the penitentiary for ninety-nine years, -the longest term ever given anybody in Missouri; he sent Dr. F. L. Flanders to the penitentiary, -the richest man ever sent there; he got a conviction in the case of E. C. Sattley after the most bitterly fought contest in the history of Jackson county; and the aggregate term of all those he sent to the penitentiary is over 3,000 .years.
"At the September term of the criminal court Mr. Brown made the unequaled record of eighty-nine convictions to seven acquittals. About twenty-five per cent of all the criminal cases reported in the 121st Missouri Supreme Court Report, which has just been published, are from Jackson coun- ty, and not a single case was reversed,
while of the criminal cases from the rest of the state thirty- five per cent were reversed.
"Judge Wofford, judge of the criminal court of Jackson county, in speaking yester- day of the record made by Mr. Brown, while in office, paid him a high tribute. Judge Wofford said: 'I regard Marcy K. Brown as one of the finest criminal lawyers and one of the strongest prosecutors I ever knew. He is simply a wonderful man in the pros- ecution of criminal cases, and undoubtedly the finest prosecutor Jackson county ever had, without disparaging the ability of any of his predecessors. When Mr. Brown came into office he was not very well versed in criminal law, but with his untiring energy and great application he soon mastered it thoroughly, until now I know of no one who surpasses him."
When Mr. Brown's second term as pros- ecuting attorney expired in 1895, he resumed the active practice of his profession and has built up a large and lucrative business. He ranks among the ablest attorneys of the bar and as a trial lawyer he has few superiors.
LAY S. MERRIMAN, M. D., of Kansas City, was born in Sanga- mon county, Illinois, March 6, 1861, a representative of one of the pioneer families of that region. His parents, John S. and Mary J. (Dawson) Merriman, were natives of Kentucky and - Illinois, respectively.
The Doctor was reared on his father's farm and acquired his early education in the common schools, after which he continued his studies in the high school of Williams- ville, Illinois. He began teaching in the country schools at the age of nineteen, fol- lowing the profession for three years, when
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he began preparation for the medical pro- fession by study in the office of Drs. Buck & Matthews, of Springfield, Illinois. In 1865 he was induced by his preceptor, who was local surgeon of the Wabash railroad, to enter the University Medical College, of Kansas City, where he was graduated in 1887. The year previous he was made assistant house surgeon of the Wabash Hospital at Kansas City. After leaving college he was made house surgeon of the hospital, but the same year resigned, wish- ing to devote his energies to general practice. He is now professor of diseases of children in the University Medical College, and occupies the same chair in the Scarritt Bible and Nurses' Training School, also in the City Hospital Training School for Nurses. He is physician in charge of the Children's Home and the Foundlings' Home, and con- sulting physician of St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum. The Doctor holds a membership in the State Medical Society and the Academy of Medicine, and was one of the founders of the latter. He is also examiner for the Chicago Guaranty & Life Association, and the Royal Tribe of Joseph, at Sedalia, Missouri.
Dr. Merriman was married in 1886 to Miss Mattie J. Barnes, of Independence, Missouri, and they have two sons, -Clay S. and William T. Dr. and Mrs. Merriman are members of the Christian church, and reside at No. 2511 Forest avenue.
S TUBBINS WATTS .- Amer- ica boasts of her rapid progress and her unequaled growth and en- terprise matched by no country on the face of the globe; but in the rush and hurry of life, when one seems engulfed in a
whirlwind of business, and when commer- cial activity and desire for wealth leaves lit- tle time for real enjoyment in this life, it is .indeed refreshing to find one who is unaf- fected by this spirit, who retains the primi- tive but happy manners of our forefathers, who knows how to dispense the old-time genuine hospitality, and whose hearty, courte- ous welcome to his visitors shows that he believes in the brotherhood of the human race and acts accordingly.
From Kansas City, with its congested population and ceaseless rush and worry of business life, twelve miles southward there is a picturesque spot that greatly delights the eye of the artist, being indeed a favor- ite scene with photographers. An old mill built forty-five years ago stands on the bank of Indian creek, a rushing little stream, the clear crystal waters of which sometimes grow turbulent and flow with great force, dashing and leaping over the rocks: this is when swollen by the spring freshets. Again it flows camly and quietly along its course, furnishing not enough power to turn the wheels of the old mill, which are now run by steam power when water is too low. The owner of this mill, upon whom the snows of almost sixty winters have fallen, received it as an inheritance from his father, one of the honored pioneers of Jackson county; and day after day through all this long period the sound of its machinery has awakened the echoes of this otherwise quiet retreat.
The grandfather of the present owner, Samuel Watts, was a native of France, and as a volunteer under La Fayette came to America during the Revolutionary war and valiantly aided the colonies in their struggle for independence. He was wounded seven times, and in Charleston, South Carolina, was captured by the British. He afterward
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located in that state, subsequently removed to North Carolina, and later to Shelby coun- ty, Kentucky. The descendants may well point with pride to their ancestor, who was numbered among the heroes of the Revo- lution, and who from a pure love of liberty came to America to aid the colonies to escape the British thraldom.
The father of our subject, Anthony B. Watts, was a native of Kentucky and a member of the Lewis & Clarke expedition up the Missouri river to the mouth of the Yellowstone. He then retraced his steps and located in this state. In early life he learned the trade of shoemaking, but sub- sequently followed farming, and during the later years of his life gave his attention to the milling business. He married Sallie Dodson, a native of St. Charles county, Missouri, and a daughter of Joshua Dodson. She was the great-granddaughter of Daniel Boone, the pioneer of Kentucky. The fam- ily located in Callaway county, this state, and subsequently in St. Charles county. In the latter the parents of our subject were married, and in 1850 they came to Jackson county.
There stood in Washington township a little hamlet containing a few log cabins, the beginning of what is now the lively vil- lage of Dallas. Not far from this point, on the bank of Indian creek, stood an old mill, built by Mr. Fitzhugh, one of the land- marks in the county. It was both a saw and grist mill, and is to-day the oldest mill in this section of the state, having been built even before the land was surveyed into sections and when the Indians were still numerous in the vicinity. In outward ap- pearance there seems to be no change from the old mill to which Anthony B. Watts gave the finishing touches in October, 1850,
to the present. There have been a few modern improvements in the interior, though indeed very few. The buhrs have never been replaced by the roller system, nor will they be while the present owner stands guard.
The father died January 9, 1861, and his wife survived him only nine days. He was born February 6, 1798, and her birth occurred June 22, 1803. Mr. and Mrs. Watts had seven children who reached mature years, namely: Josiah, who died in the spring of 1895, leaving six children; Mrs. Sallie Cummings, who died in the spring of 1896, and who had five children: La Fayette, who died leaving six children; Mrs. Monimia Thompson, deceased, who had three children; Stubbins, whose name heads this sketch; Mrs. Patsy Skeen, who has nine children; and Dodson, who has three children.
The well known miller on Indian creek was born in St. Charles county, this state, May 15, 1838, and was educated in the common schools. He remained with his father until he attained his majority and then began traveling through the country giving entertainments for a year in country school-houses, in a varied program illustrat- ing ventriloquism, legerdemain and sundry musical oddities. The writer saw one of the old yellow posters, printed more than forty years ago, which announced to the public that "S. Watts, the noted ventril- oquist, and E. D. Greer, the celebrated magician, would give one of their fine en- tertainments " on a certain date at a certain place.
A year later Mr. Watts engaged to drive a team for Majors Russell and Waddell across the plains in freighting. When a boy he had attended the hoppers in the mill
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of his father; and when his father laid down the work, Stubbins took it up, and in its ex- ecution the energy of the honest man has been spent. The innovations made in mill- ing have never bothered him; he has con- tinued on in the even tenor of his way, firm in the belief that the old processes made the best quality of flour; and so it would seem when we note the fact that families who have been his patrons for a quarter of a century still give him their trade, and their children patronize the old mill to which their grandfathers took their grist to be ground in the early days of Jackson county. He still has an extensive trade; and though his flour trade has fallen off he has many patrons for buckwheat and corn- meal; and the old mill is kept busy through the six working days of the week, and the father and his sons are constantly employed.
Only once have the labors of Mr. Watts there been interrupted. At the breaking out of the war he enlisted, at Springfield, in company A, sixth regiment, under Colonel Rosser, and participated in the battles of Elkhorn, Corinth, Grand Gulf and Port Gibson. For a time he lay sick in the hos- pital. Afterward, under command of Gen- eral Joseph E. Johnston, he took part in the engagements at New Hope, Big Shanty, Lattimore farm, Kenesaw mountain, At- lanta, Jonesboro and Altoona. In the last named he was captured and sent to Camp Douglas, near Chicago, where he remained until exchanged in 1865. Then he rejoined his company and was present at the sur- render, and finally paroled, at Jackson, Mississippi.
Returning to his home, without money, for a short time he worked on the farm. Next he went to Texas with Mastin & Mc- Meekin, to purchase cattle, and when the
summer was over he returned to his farm. He has one hundred acres of land, which is well cultivated and yields to him a good re- turn; but Mr. Watts is better known to the surrounding country as a miller than as a farmer.
May 24, 1871, he "took a partner in the business," as he says, namely, a wife, as on that day he was married. He was busy in the mill, for business was very brisk at that time and the mill was running night and day. Nancy Catharine Grimsley had come to keep house for him, for at that time he had a number of employees boarding with him. Being pleased with his new house- keeper, Mr. Watts determined to make her his wife if possible. The lady's consent was gained, and on this certain 24th day of May was married.
Mrs. Watts has been to her husband a most faithful companion and help, and, like her husband, extends a hearty welcome to her visitors which makes them feel at home. Her parents were Nelson and Rebecca (El- rod) Grimsley. Her mother died in Virginia and her father became a resident of Johnson county, Kansas, in 1870, but is now living in Jackson county, Oregon. They had eleven children, ten of whom grew to ma- turity, while three are now living. Her father served in a home regiment during the civil war, and three of his sons were in the twenty-sixth North Carolina regiment. The eldest son, Hiram, died in the service at Raleigh, North Carolina. Mrs. Watts was born October 13, 1851, and by her marriage has become the mother of three children: Edgar B., who is now second miller; Rich- ard Anthony, who is employed as engineer in the mill; and Lizzie, at home. They have been given a good school education.
Mr. Watts voted for Peter Cooper for
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president of the United States, but has usually supported the democratic party. His time and energies, however, have been given to his business interests, and his life has been a busy and a useful one. He is a genial, whole-souled gentleman, caring not for the different methods and plans of others, content to follow his own course and making the best of his surroundings and living a happy life with a heart as light and free as the famed miller of the Dee. This genial, kindly gentleman seems a very part of the mill and the beautiful, picturesque landscape, and every visitor to this locality cannot help but carry away with him the picture of this old landmark.
ON. SAMUEL W. HUDSON, one of the prominent and influential citizens of Fort Osage township, Jackson county, belongs to one of the pioneer families of this locality. His father, John W. Hudson, was born in War- renton, Virginia, April 26, 1813, and was reared and educated near Marysville, Ken- tucky. He followed both civil engineering and farming, but the latter was his chief occupation. In Bourbon county, Kentucky, in the fall of 1839, he was united in mar- riage with Miss Armilda M. Colcord, who was born in that county, December 20, 1820. In 1840 they removed to Jackson county, Missouri, where the father purchased the farm now owned and occupied by our subject. There he continued to live until his death, which occurred April 8, 1846. His wife long survived him, passing away in March, 1885. She was a lifelong member of the Christian church, and was a most estimable lady. For her second husband she married Captain Amos F. Garrison, who
was a soldier of the Mexican war, and was appointed by General Grant as vice consul to Mexico, where he died about 1880. There were two children of the first mar- riage, -Martha A., and Samuel W. The former became the wife of William J. Peak, and died in Fannin county, Texas, October 5, 1863.
Our subject was born on the farm which is now his home March 2, 1842, and there spent the days of his childhood and youth. He attended the common schools of the neighborhood until fifteen years of age, and then entered the Masonic College, of Lex- ington, Missouri, afterward pursuing his studies in the William Jewell College. In the following year the civil war was in- augurated and he joined the Missouri State Guards and participated in the battle of Lone Jack. In the year 1865 he was upon the western frontier with Butterfield's Over- land Dispatch Company, and in February, 1 866, he returned to Fort Osage township, where he has since been engaged in agricul- tural pursuits. His landed possessions now aggregate about five hundred acres. His business interests have been carefully con- ducted and his sound judgment, diligence and enterprise have brought to him success.
On the ISth of January, 1871, Mr. Hud- son was united in marriage with Miss Mary C. Gilbert, a native of Kentucky, who died July 14, 1873. He was again married, in Cass county, Missouri, in November, 1881, his second union being with Miss Emma D. Walker, who was born in Johnson county, Missouri. They have had a family of five children, namely: Martha, Samuel C., Newton W., Mary A. and John W.
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