USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I > Part 30
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Pottawottomi Indians in the Platte Purchase. General Hughes had been a lawyer and State Senator in Kentucky, and when the Platte ter- ritory was ceded to the State of Missouri his wards, the Indians, vanished, and he returned to his first love, the law. He settled in St. Joseph, while his family remained in Liberty, Missouri. He was the only Sparta lawyer that the writer did not know personally, and of each he has a warm and genial recollection that involuntarily starts a sigh and tear, con- pled with the pleasing memory that all of them were warm friends of his youth. General
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Hughes was a brilliant and successful lawyer, but too indolent to labor very much, which ac- counts for his not reaching such position as his talents deserved. His few forensic efforts put him at the front of the profession, where he stood as long as he practiced it. He left one child, an industrious son, General Bela M. Hughes, of Denver, Colorado, who inherited much of the sparkling wit, genial anecdote and real genius of his father. Venerable in years and honors, at eighty-two he dispenses genial hospitality with a patrician simplicity, which suggests that the days of Metellus might return again.
These old settlers of Sparta were supple- mented and re-enforced at court times by David R. Atchison, General A. W. Doniphan, John Wilson, William T. Wood and Judge James H. Birch, every one of whom, like the argonauts of old, was destined to become famous. John Wilson of Platte, as he liked to be known, was the last man in the State to furl the Whig banner. He was the father-in- law of E. H. Norton, late of the Supreme bench, and father of the Ilonorable R. P. C. Wilson, Congressman from the Fourth Dis- trict, an able lawyer and practitioner, and the grandfather of Francis M. Wilson, the present State Senator from the Platte District. He left to his descendants a legacy of talent more valuable than ingots or argosies.
James II. Birch, of Clinton County, became a judge of the Supreme Court and a distin- guished leader of the anti-Benton faction in State politics. He was a gifted lawyer and popular leader.
William T. Wood, now living at Lexington, Missouri, in his ninety-first year, bold, aggres- sive and learned, filled the circuit bench a quarter of a century. In the years from 1840 to 1845 there were four great bars in the United States, distinguished for learning, talent and oratory. First was the Boston bar, composed of Webster, Choate, Sumner, Par- ker and their compeers. The second was the Richmond, Virginia, bar, with men like Leigh, Wise, Botts and Smith. The third was at Lex- ington, Kentucky, represented by Clay, Meni- fee, Breckinridge, Robison, Tom Marshall and other bright men. The last of these bars was that of Mississippi, numbering among its members S. S. Prentiss, Alex McClung, Jeffer- son Davis, Henry S. Foote, Baldwin, Clai- bourne Marshall, Smede, Colman and others. They were the most brilliant bars of the Un-
ion, and their representatives may well be termed the "last of the Mohicans," as common law expounders ; for in less than a decade the common law was largely superseded by code procedure. Science, form and precedent gave place to agrarian platitudes of simplicity. The effort to obtain simpler forms was like the worm that smote Jonah's gourd, to the old system: or the parliamentary edict of the fourth year of James I, which reduced com- mon law to statute and dethroned Coke and Littleton, and deprived the crown of kingly prerogative as a court of last resort. It was the dynamo that wrecked the govern- ment and, in 1649, beheaded Charles I. Per- haps in the wisdom of an All Wise Provi- dence it was and may be for the best; who can tell? Common law dominated the courts of this country until code practice was established in New York in 1847. Under it the bar has grown in learning and authority, but has lost in form, eloquence and. force, as well as in courtesy, dignity and that professional aplomb which put and retained the lawyer in the front rank as a leader and legislator. It seems strange that at the western edge of civiliza- tion, and on the verge of the great American desert, the old Sparta bar should have been the peer of any of the great bars of the Union, and should have developed a remarkable frui- tion of talent, success and greatness ; but such is its history. President of the United States Senate twelve years, Vice President four years, and President for one day, were the achievements of David R. Atchison. The conquest of El Paso and Chihuahua, with mil- lions of leagues of land and billions of wealth, was the result of the march of the First Mis- souri Regiment under General A. W. Doni- phan in the Mexican War. Governor Wood- son declared in a public address that Doniphan was the greatest jury lawyer he had ever known ; that he had listened to Clay, Menifee, Breckinridge, Tom Marshall and S. S. Pren- tiss, and that Doniphan was the peer of any of them in the court room. He had a voice charming, persuasive and penetrating, a rhet- oric chaste, terse and pathetic ; a logic strong, bold and convincing. In the field he was a Xenophon, and at the bar a Tully ; and he was truly one of the most talented men of the age. One Vice President, four Governors, six dis- trict judges, four Supreme Court judges, seven generals, and all successful and profound law- vers-this is a eulogy of the old Sparta bar,
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which was well deserved. In April, 1849. when the writer became a member of the St. Joseph bar, seven of the old Sparta lawyers were settled there. Jonathan M. Barrett set- tled in St. Joseph in 1844. He was born in Connecticut, but was as little like the famed "nutmeg man" as could be conceived. Open, bold, liberal, eloquent and resourceful, he was able to break a lance with the best men of the Sparta bar. His partner was John Wilson, a son of Senator Robert Wilson, and a promis- ing attorney, who died young. A. W. Terrill, late United States minister to Turkey, now of Texas, was city attorney in 1850. Judge Henry Tutt, a Virginian, who commanded the Richmond Blues, the body guard of Lafayette in 1825, from Washington to Richmond, had removed from Virginia to the "Kingdom of Callaway" in 1836, and represented that county in the Missouri Legislature in 1840. He removed to Buchanan County in 1844 and took up the law as a profession, having before that time been a planter. Ile was probate judge of this county about twenty years, and died in 1893. after a successful practice. Men- tion has been made of nearly all the lawyers who had practiced at the bar of Buchanan County prior to 1850, since which time many new names have been added to the roll. Wil- liam Broadus Thompson and his brother, Meriwether Jefferson Thompson, from the valley of Virginia, were lawyers here in 1849. and while they were not practicing, they were booming the town, building railroads and en- livening St. Joseph Society. M. "Jeff" Thomp- son, as familiarly known, was, next to Gov- ernor Stewart, most active in building the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad. He fought through the war as a Confederate, and died in St. Joseph in 1874. His brother, Broadus, re- moved to Washington City, where he lived the latter part of his life with his kinsman, R. W. Thompson, Secretary of the Navy, or, as sometimes known, "the Mariner of the Mighty Wabaslı."
The bench has been ably filled most of the time; the first judge, in 1839, was Governor A. A. King, of Ray County; the next was David R. Atchison ; then Henson Young, of Jackson County, occupied the bench in 1843; Solomon L. Leonard, a Tennesseean, in 1845; Wm. B. Almond, in 1852, and E. H. Norton succeeded him and served until 1859, when he was followed by Governor Silas Woodson ; he, in 1863. by William Herron, and in 1864 Isaac
C. Parker became judge. Afterward Parker was Congressman from this district for four years, and for over twenty years United States judge at Fort Smith, Arkansas. He was known as the "Bloody Judge," as he sentenced to death over four hundred criminals. While living here he was esteemed as a mild, gener- ous and truthful man. Ilis district included the Indian Territory. Half-breeds, mongrels and fugitives from the States formed a popula- tion abounding in crime. He was succeeded in 1871 by Bennett Pike, who was in turn suc- ceeded by Joseph P. Grubb the next year. Grubb's successor was William Sherman, who died on the bench in 1882. O. M. Spencer, Henry M. Ramey, A. M. Woodson, Thomas Paonish, Charles Strop and Wm. K. James have all occupied the circuit court bench, while the criminal court has been presided over by Silas Woodson, Romules E. Culver and B. J. Castill.
Since the return of the seat of justice from old Sparta the roll has shown many bright men, among whom may be named W. A. Cun- ningham, who came here in 1850 from Ken- tucky ; B. M. Hughes, a son of General Andre S. Hughes, from Platte, an exceptionally bril- liant man; General James Shields, a hero of two wars, and a United States Senator from three States; General B. F. Stringfellow, At- torney General of the State in 1840, and an able lawyer and Kansas pioneer; Joseph Toole, since Governor of Montana: Silas Woodson, Governor of Missouri in 1874; Warren Toole, head of the Montana bar ; John C. C. Thornton, a colonel in the Confederate service, one of the most distinguished pioneers of Montana, famed for his reckless daring as lieutenant colonel of Winston's Confederate regiment ; Philomen Bliss, judge of the Su- preme Court; "Jeff Chandler," now of St. Louis ; A. W. Slayback, killed in St. Louis by Editor Jolin Cockerill since the war: General James Craig, for many years the president of the IIannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, a mem- ber of Congress, and one of the most earnest and active friends the city of St. Joseph has ever had ; John R. Boyd, a Confederate officer, killed at the battle of Independence on the same day as Colonel John T. Hughes, who wrote "Doniphan's Expedition"; L. M. Law- son, a most eloquent speaker, who abandoned law for a banker's life : Sam B. Green, a legal giant, who died young ; Mordecai Oliver. Con- gressman and Secretary of State, who lived
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BAR OF JACKSON COUNTY.
until 1808: John Doniphan, for fifteen years counselor of the St. Joseph & Grand Island Railroad, four years State Senator, and a member of two revising sessions of the Mis- souri Legislature : and Bennett Pike, who re- cently died in St. Louis. Since the Civil War closed as many as two hundred lawyers have settled in St. Joseph at different times, many of whom have been able men and good law- vers. Many have removed, and not a few have sunk under their burdens. Their names and achievements must be left to another pen.
JOHN DONIPHAN.
Bar of Jackson County .- The bar of Jackson County was organized when David Todd, judge of the First Judicial Circuit, held the first circuit court at the house of John Young, March 29, 1827. In those days there was neither a county seat nor a courthouse, and the lawyers present had come from other counties. The following six lawyers were en- rolled : Peyton R. Hayden, of Boonville ; Abiel Leonard, of Fayette; John R. Ryland. of Lexington ; John Willson, Amos Rees and Robinson Beauchamp. A grand jury was im- paneled, and John Willson, in the absence of the Attorney General, was appointed to prose- cute for the State. On November 13, 1827. Robert W. Wells, Attorney General, and James H. Birch, were enrolled. The follow- ing lawyers were admitted during the next five years : Joseph Davis, March 27, 1829: John D. McRae and Wm. S. Woods, August 10, 1829; Littleberry Hendricks, December 14. 1829 : Russell Hicks, December 13, 1830 ; and Willis C. Chapman, July 18, 1832. Most of these men were noted lawyers, and have left their impress upon the jurisprudence of the State. In 1840 Samuel HI. Woodson emi- grated from Lexington, Kentucky, and settled at Independence. In 1843 J. Brown Hovey, a natural lawyer, with fine training, great indus- try and uncommon tact, came to Independ- ence from the State of New York. John W. Reid, who had been a captain in Colonel Doni- phan's expedition, located at Independence in 1847.
Abram Comingo and William Chrisman came from Kentucky in 1848, and in 1849 the celebrated law firm of Woodson, Chris- man & Comingo was formed. This firm con- tinued for seven years, when Mr. Woodson became a Whig member of Congress, in 1856, and Chrisman & Comingo continued the busi-
ness until the courts were broken up by the Civil War. John W. Reid, who was promi- nent in railroad projects, removed to Liberty, and thence to Kansas City, in 1866. The first attorney who settled in Kansas City was Henry B. Bouton, in 1851, where he practiced continuously until his death, in 1868. James K. Sheley, a Kentuckian, came to Independ- ence in 1852. He was devoted to the interests of his clients, and was implicitly trusted. Sev- eral lawyers located at Westport in the fifties, among whom were Thomas J. Goforth, in 1852; Park Lea and D. D. Woodworth, in 1853; and, in 1855. A. M. Allen, who, how- ever, did not begin the practice of law till 1867. Philip S. Brown came to Kansas City from Pennsylvania in 1858, and has now turned his practice over to his son, William H. Brown. M. D. Trefren came to Kansas City from Trenton, New Jersey, in 1858, and John C. Gage came from New Hampshire in 1859. Before the war, John W. Henry, now a circuit judge, located at Independence, and there were a number of law firms in the city of Kan- sas, such as Ramage & Withers, Clayborn & C'ato, Bolling & Hodgson, Russell & Bell, and Groome & Vaile. Of all the lawyers who be- longed to the Jackson County bar prior to 1862, John C. Gage, the senior member of the law firm of Gage, Ladd & Small, is the only one now in active practice. William Holmes came to Kansas City in 1862, but had studied law under Samuel T. Glover, at Palmyra, Mis- souri, where he was admitted to the bar in 1839. He became a Methodist preacher, and was connected with Shawnee Mission when Governor Robinson appointed him judge of the Probate Court of Johnson County, Kan- sas, in 1857. He was a noted lawyer, a Chris- tian gentleman, and never grew old. Samuel Locke Sawyer went from Lexington to Inde- pendence in 1866, and became the law partner of William Chrisman. When the Twenty- fourth Judicial District was created in 1871. at the earnest request of the bar, he was ap- pointed judge. Ile died about 1896. In 1865 William Douglass came to Kansas City from Boonville, and formed a law partnership with John C. Gage. He had been associated with Peyton R. Hayden, and was a man of com- manding presence, a fine scholar, an able law- ver and an eloquent orator. In 1864 Francis Marion Black came to Kansas City, and in 1880 was elected as an additional circuit judge, and from that position was elevated to the
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bench of the Supreme Court of Missouri in 1885. From 1865 to 1869, about thirty lawyers located in Kansas City, many of whom have obtained prominence at the bar. Among these are William Warner, L. C. Slavens, Stephen Prince Twiss. Daniel S. Twitchell, C. O. Tichenor. J. V. C. Karnes, A. A. Tom- linson, Ermine Case, Jr., J. W. Jenkins, Henry N. Ess, and Edward P. Gates. William Warner, ex-Congressman, is now United States district attorney. Stephen P. Twiss was for eight years associate justice of the Su- preme Court of Utah. In 1866 the bar was re-enforced by such lawyers as Chas. I. Thom- son, J. H. Slover, Henry P. White, Robert W. Quarles, John K. Cravens and T. V. Bryant. Chas. I. Thomson is now one of the judges of the Appellate Court of Colorado. Judge Slover located at Independence and became the junior member of the firm of Comingo & Slover, and is now one of the circuit judges. Henry P. White became judge of the crim- inal court in 1874. Warwick Hough located in Kansas City in 1867, and was elected one of the judges of the Supreme Court in 1874. He went to St. Louis in 1885. Among the law- yers admitted to the Jackson County bar in 1868 were Sanford B. Ladd, Robert C. Cowan, R. L. Yeager, G. F. Ballingal, C. J. Bower and John L. Peak. Robert C. Cowan was a law partner of Warwick Hough and John T. Crisp. and was subsequently the only judge of the Kansas City Court of Law and Equity. John L. Peak was minister to Switzerland in 1895 and 1896. About 1870 a number of promi- nent lawyers came to Kansas City, among whom may be mentioned J. W. Dunlap. Rob- ert C. Ewing, John D. S. Cook, Gardiner La- throp, Wallace Pratt. Nelson Cobb, B. L. Woodson, Frank Titus, Benj. J. Franklin, Wash Adams, R. H. Field and Jefferson Brumback. Amos Green came to Kansas City from Lexington, Missouri, and occupied a very prominent position at the bar and in the politics of western Missouri. John C. Tarsney was a member of Congress and a justice of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma. Benjamin J. Franklin was a prominent lawyer, a member of Congress and Governor of Arizona. Jolin W. Beebe was a great criminal lawyer. Oliver Hayes Dean was admitted to the bar in 1870, and has been associated with such lawyers as F. M. Black. Wm. Holmes, C. O. Tichenor, James Hagerman, James Gibson and Wm. Warner. James Gibson, now a circuit judge,
was admitted to the bar in 1872. In 1871 the establishment of a law library was agitated and finally took shape at a meeting held Sep- tember 13th, at which L. C. Slavens acted as chairman, and A. A. Tomlinson as secretary. The other members of the bar present were Warwick Hough, E. W. Kimball, C. O. Tiche- nor, John C. Gage, J. V. C. Karnes, J. W. Jenkins, Wallace Pratt, F. M. Black, Ermine Case, Jr., John K. Cravens and Wm. Simms. These thirteen gentlemen associated them- selves for a term of fifty years as the Kansas City Law Library Association, with a capital of $25,000, divided into one hundred shares. On October 4th there were nineteen members, who clected as directors, L. C. Slavens, John C. Gage, Wallace Pratt, Warwick Hough, F. M. Black, Nelson Cobb, E. W. Kimball. J. W. Jenkins and A. A. Tomlinson. The following officers were elected: John C. Gage, presi- dent ; Wallace Pratt, vice president : John K. Cravens, secretary ; and Henry N. Ess, treas- urer. Rooms at the old courthouse were se- cured for the library, which was begun by the purchase of 3,000 volumes from Honorable A. C. Baldwin, of Pontiac, Michigan, for $13,500. This library consisted of a complete set of American Reports. with the accompanying statutes and digests. On the 27th of January, 1872, James Gibson was chosen librarian. With such a full library as this to begin with, and a continual addition of new law publica- tions, the members and subscribers have had access to the best legal lore extant, so that studious and capable attorneys may gain pro- found legal knowledge. This, no doubt, ac- counts, in a measure, for the large number of able attorneys and learned judges connected with the Jackson County courts. By means of annual fees and subscriptions, the library is kept up to the times. There are now thirty- two active members, who pay fifteen dollars a year, and forty-five contributors, who each pay twenty-five dollars a year. By a vote of the board of directors, and the payment of an an- nual fee of twenty-five dollars, resident attor- neys are granted the privileges of the law library. Non-residents, when introduced to the librarian by a stockholder, may have ac- cess to the library. The State donates five copies each of the reports of the Supreme Court and of the Kansas City Court of Ap- peals, and also of the acts of each session of the Legislature. In 1886 the library was re- moved to the Nelson Building, and in 1893 to
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the new courthouse. The library now con- tains about 5,000 volumes. Just after the library was established the following lawyers were enrolled : Milton Moore, John .A. Ross. W. J. Ward, Watson J. Ferry, Daniel B. Holmes and Richard O. Boggess. John A. Ross became the law partner of A. . A. Tomlin- son. W. J. Ward became librarian of the law library and a law partner of Wm. Holmes and Oliver Ilaves Dean. Mr. Ferry has held ap- pointive offices under the Governor. D. B. Holmes is an indefatigable lawyer, and is the attorney for the street railways. Richard O. Boggess, who died in 1887, was an able and profound lawyer, and had been associated with Jolin L. Peak, John K. Cravens and Milton Moore. M. T. C. Williams and James S. Bots- ford form the firm of Botsford & Williams. Mr. Williams was a State Senator from 1872 to 1876, and Mr. Botsford was United States district attorney. John W. Wofford, Chas. E. Small, Chas. Lee Dobson and J. T. Dew are prominent attorneys. Mr. Wofford is judge of the criminal court, and Mr. Dobson has been a judge of the circuit court. As the city grew rapidly along all lines it attracted many other prominent lawyers from abroad, among whom it is not invidious to mention such names as Geo. W. McCrary. T. T. Crit- tenden and Benj. H. Chapman. Mr. Mccrary came from Iowa, from which State he had been sent to Congress for four terms. Ile was Secretary of War from 1877 to 1880, when he was appointed judge of the United States Cir- cuit Court, and located at Kansas City. Mr. Crittenden has been associated with some of the best lawyers of the State and has been Congressman and Governor of Missouri. Mr. Chapman became the law partner of P. S. Brown. Among the prominent lawyers who became members of the Kansas City bar after 1886 may be named R. E. Ball, Henry M. Beardsley. D. J. Haff, James Hagerman, Frank Hagerman, L. C. Krauthoff and Edw. H. Stiles, all able lawyers and members of strong firms. Besides these emigrant attor- neys. there are a great many native lawyers who are steadily winning their way to fortune and to fame, such as I. E. Guinotte, judge of the probate court; Edw. L. Scarritt, late one of the judges of the circuit court ; Turner A. Gill, who has been mayor, circuit judge, and is now one of the judges of the Court of Ap- peals ; William 11. Brown, William C. Scarritt, Albert M. Ott, Hugh (. Ward, Wm. S. Cow-
herd, John .A. Sea, John H. Thatcher, J. J. Vineyard, James Black, Alex. New and Wil- liam Wallace. During the last twenty years the population of the city has increased four- fold, and her material wealth and commercial interests in even greater ratios. The lawyers have aided in promoting this growth. The in- crease of court facilities marks the growth of legal business. Manufacturing interests, transportation facilities, commercial enter- prises, banks and trust companies, involving vast financial operations, have created an ad- ditional demand for the best legal talent. The Kansas City Bar Association cultivates a lofty esprit de corps, and is a means of social enjoy- ment. Space forbids the naming of many others. The articles on the "Courts of Jackson County" and the "Kansas City Law School," together with the biographies of eminent law- yers, will give the reader a good insight into the character and deeds of leading attorneys.
Bar of St. Louis .- See "Legal Profes- sion of St. Louis."
Barrens, The .- A name applied to a tract of land in Perry County by the Ken- tuckians who first settled the county. The settlers were from the "Barrens" or level lands of southern Kentucky, and called their new home after the country in which they formerly lived.
Barret, Richard Ferral, physician, and one of the most active men of his genera- tion also in developing the resources of the States of Illinois, Iowa and Missouri, was born in 1804 at the Barret homestead, near Greensburg. Green County, Kentucky, and died May 16, 1860, at Burlington, Iowa. Physically and intellectually a vigorous peo- ple, the Barrets of this family have been con- spicuously identified with the planting and advancement of civilization in half a dozen States now numbered among the first of American commonwealths. They were among the pioneers who transformed Kentucky from "the dark and bloody ground" of the Indians into a region of vast productiveness, occupied by a brave and chivalrous people ; and the "Old Dominion" numbered the representa- tives of this family among her early colonists. They were among the cavaliers who came to Virginia in the reign of King James I, along with the Lees, who were their near rela-
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tives. Barret's Ford, near Petersburg. was the old Virginia family seat, and there lived Robert Barret, grcat-grandfather of Dr. Rich- ard F. Barret, who was a planter, and also a minister of the established church at that place. There William Barret, the father of Dr. Barret, was born and grew to manhood, and from there he went into the Revolutionary War as a captain of partisan rangers, serving with Marion's cavalry companies, with "Light Horse Harry" Lee in the Jersey campaign, and participating afterward in battles at Guil- ford Courthouse and Entaw, and in other engagements. Ile was with the rear guard of the American Army at Greene's retreat be- fore Lord Cornwallis, and when the fortunes of war turned witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. His name appears in Heit's record of the officers of the Conti- nental Army, mention being made on page 76 of William Barret, lieutenant in the Third Continental Dragoons, Lieutenant Colonel William Washington commanding, trans- ferred to Captain Baylor's Consolidated Regi- ment of Light Horsc. Back of its settlement in Virginia the family has a long and honor- able history. Wales was the ancient family seat, and Robert Barret, the most remote ancestor of whom we have any account, was master of Sir John Hawkins' flagship in From this Robert Barret the line of 1567. descent to Dr. Richard F. Barret was through William Barret, warden of the London Com- pany, and also author of the "True Declara- tion, Condition. Prospects and Hopes of the Plantations"; William Barret the second; Rev. Robert Barret, rector of St. Martin's Parish, Virginia ; Chiswell Barret, and Wil- liam Barret, the third. William Barret, last named, married Dorothy Winston, cousin to Patrick Henry, and the children born of this union were three sons and two daugh- ters. Richard F. Barret. youngest of these children, grew up in Kentucky, and was educated under the tutorage of Rev. Wil- liam Howe, an eminent Presbyterian divine of that period. After completing his classical studies he was invited by Dr. Daniel Drake, of Cincinnati, Ohio-eminent as physician, surgeon and author, and father of Judge Charles D. Drake, later a United States Sen- ator from Missouri-to become a member of his household and study medicine under his preceptorship. Under these favorable att- spices he completed his medical studies, and
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