USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I > Part 69
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became a member of the Whig party and during the Civil War he was a staunch Un- ionist, although his son had espoused the cause of the South. Liberal in his religious views, he' affiliated with the Universalist Church. A charming conversationalist and a genial gentleman, he was regarded by all with whom he came into contact as a most companionable man. Ilis wife, the mother of Dr. John 11. Britts, came of hardy pioneer stock. Iler father. Dr. Henry Rogers, was an early settler in Kentucky and participated in the War of 1812, serving in Colonel R. M. Johnson's regiment. Her grandfather was Burgess Rogers of Virginia, whose wife was Jennie Miller, daughter of. Colonel Miller, of Revolutionary fame. The boyhood days of Dr. John Il. Britts were not much different from those of other boys in a new country, whose parents could command only limited resources and were often compelled to deny their sons the means necessary to a liberal education. He attended the common schools of Indiana from six to nine months of each year until he was sixteen years of age, when further advancement was self-imposed and undirected, in gaining a knowledge of alge- bra, geometry, the higher mathematics and natural sciences, for which he had acquired a taste. Being thus thrown upon his own resources tended to develop self-reliance and independence, generally distinguishing char- acteristics of self-made men. At the age of nineteen he began the study of medicine and went to live with his grandfather, Dr. Henry Rogers, whose nephew, Louis L. Rogers, began the study at the same time. He remained with his grandfather until the spring of 1857, when he came to Clinton, Missouri. There he continued his studies under the preceptorship of his uncle, Dr. John .A. Rogers, and during the college year 1857-8 he attended lectures at the St. Louis Medical College. Late in 1859 he began practicing at Austin, Cass County, Missouri. There he did a good business, so far as professional labor was concerned, but little money came in to remunerate him for these labors. In 1861 he responded to the call of Governor Jackson for State troops to serve six months in repelling the Federal invasion of Missouri and at once proceeded to raise a company, of which he was chosen captain. This organization became Company B of Hurst's Third Missouri Regiment of State
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Guards and was assigned to General Rains' division. United States Senator F. M. Cock- rell commanded Company A of the same regiment, which took part in the battles at Carthage, Wilson's Creek and L'exington. Captain Britts was not in the engagement at Wilson's Creek, having been left with six others suffering from typhoid fever near Cassville, Missouri. When the fever left him, he found that five of his six comrades had died, he and Colonel Warner Lewis be- ing the survivors. The attending surgeon was promptly dismissed and by the 8th of August, his two remaining patients were able to set out to join the army, then supposed to be at Springfield, Missouri. They employed a native, who was the owner of a poor team and spring wagon, to carry them to that point. On the morning of the roth they heard cannonading in the direction of Spring- field, but pushed forward until they met a company of militia in full retreat toward the Boston Mountains. Further along they met camp followers and stragglers, who stated that the entire Southern Army had been captured. When the field hospital for the wounded was finally reached, they obtained a true account of the battle at Wilson's Creek, learning that the Federal Army had been defeated and General Lyon killed. Captain Britts at once sought out his own company and found that sixteen of his men had been wounded, but none killed .. in the engagement. The Southern Army soon oc- cupied Springfield and then moved north- ward to Lexington, where Colonel Mulligan surrendered to General Price. At the end of the six months' State service, Colonel Ed- gar V. Hurst and Captain Britts began to recruit a regiment in Cass and Bates Coun- ties for the regular Confederate service. While in camp on Cove Creek, in Bates County, with two hundred and fifty men, Col- onel Hurst paid a visit to his family in Cass County and was assassinated at his home, by "Kansas Jayhawkers." Captain Britts with this command then joined General Price's army at Springfield and helped to organize Waldo l'. Johnson's battalion. This battal- ion participated in the engagements at Crane Creek, Cross Hollows and Elk Horn. Later it became a part of the Fourth Infantry Reg- iment of the Confederate States Army, com- manded by Colonel McFarlane. Captain Britts was made surgeon of the regiment
with the rank of major, and in that capacity served through the campaigns in Tennessee and Mississippi, including the campaign in and around Corinth. At Vicksburg he was promoted to brigade surgeon and would have been on General Bowen's staff had it not hap- pened that on the night of the 9th of June, 1863. while on duty at the city hospital, he was severely wounded by fragments of a fif- teen-inch mortar shell, thrown into the city by Porter's fleet, and which exploded in Dr. Britt's room. This shell carried away his right leg, wounded him in the lungs and also injured his left knee joint. Thanks to a good constitution and the untiring care of his fellow surgeons, he recovered, and left Vicksburg a paroled prisoner on the 4th day of August, following. He went to Mobile, Alabama, and spent the next two months in the mountains of North Georgia. When re- turned to the army through an exchange of prisoners, he was assigned to hospital duty at Montgomery, Alabama. After that city was captured he was on duty at Atlanta, Kenesaw Mountain, Macon and Milledge- ville, Georgia. At the last named place the news of the surrender of Lee and Johnston and the collapse of the Confederacy reached him. From there he made his way across the country to Atlanta and took the oath of allegiance to the United States Government. All communication with the North by rail had been destroyed and could not be re- stored for months, and to reach his home at that time was not practicable. At the re- quest of Colonel Eggleston. the Federal com- mandant at Atlanta, he took charge of fifty or more disabled Confederates, then at West- moreland Hospital. Rations and medicines were furnished and it required a month or more to restore the sick and wounded to health. Finally all were disposed of except a half dozen, who were left to the care of the good ladies of Atlanta. When railroad connections had been partially restored, he obtained transportation to St. Louis by way of Vicksburg and started for Missouri with- ont a dollar in his pocket, except some Con- federate money, which was then worthless. His late foes were generous and furnished him some medical supplies which might be needed on the journey, among these being two bottles of quinine, then worth more than its weight in gold and not to be had in the rural districts at all. The second night after
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he left Atlanta he stopped with an old planter whose family was suffering from malarial fever, and one of the bottles of quinine was presented to the family. So grateful was the planter for this gift that he pressed upon Sur- geon Britts a twenty-dollar gold piece, and this enabled him to reach St. Louis, at which place he arrived August 7, 1865. A few weeks later he returned to Clinton and formed a professional co-partnership with Dr. P. S. Jennings, which lasted until the death of the latter, nearly thirty years after- ward. This was the beginning of a private practice which has been eminently successful, and which has given Dr. Britts a prominent place among the physicians of the State. He has always affiliated with the Democratic party and is numbered among those who favor free trade. State's rights, local self-gov- ernment, municipal ownership and free coin- age of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one. He was the nominee of his party for State Senator in 1882, and at the ensuing election received 3.129 more votes than his Republi- can opponent. In the Thirty-second General Assembly he was chairman of the committee on mines and mining, and was the author of bills which became important mining laws at that session. In the Thirty-third General Assembly he introduced a bill establishing a geological survey, which, at that time, failed to pass, but became a law at the next session of the Legislature. Dr. Britts was then ap- pointed, by Governor Francis, a member of the Bureau of Geology and Mines for a term of four years from May 21, 1889. He was reappointed by Governor Stone for a second term in 1893. In 1888 he was elected mayor of Clinton, and with a progressive council inaugurated the first substantial system of public improvements for that city. Under his administration two miles of sewers were constructed, and the streets around the pub- lic square and the principal streets leading therefrom were improved with Telford ma- cadam paving. A system of permanent side- walks was also established, all of which was of great benefit to the city and added much to its beauty. Dr. Britts is a member of the Masonic fraternity, has been president of the Henry County Medical Society and vice pres- ident of the Missouri State Medical Asso- ciation, and was at one time corresponding secretary of the last named association. He is an honorary member of the Kansas City
Academy of Science, and has always taken a great interest in scientific matters, devoting much of his time to geological research and especially to paleontology and fossil botany. Through his diligence as a collector he furnished directly, or indirectly, to the Na- tional Museum all the material on which was founded "Monograph 37" of the United States Geological Survey, "Fossil Flora of the Lower Coal Measures of Missouri," by David White. He has furnished specimens to many private and public collections, botlı foreign and domestic, and as a result Henry County, Missouri, is well known to the sci- entific world. He is now the possessor of the most extensive and valuable collection of fossil coal plants west of the Mississippi River, and new material is being added to this collection from time to time. At the age of sixty-four, he is still actively engaged in pro- fessional labor, has a comfortable home in Clinton, and is fully identified with the growth and prosperity of his city and of western Missouri. On the Ist of November, 1865. Dr. Britts married Miss Annie E. Lewis, who came of a noted old Virginia family. Her grandparents on both sides came to Upper Louisiana while it was still under Spanish domination. They settled on the Bonhomme Bottom, twenty miles above St. Louis. Mrs. Britts was born in 1839 at Chesterfield, St. Louis County. Her father removed to Cass County in 1855 and lived on a farm until the beginning of the Civil War. At that time he went south to Arkansas, while his family remained at the homestead until they were forced to leave under the famous "Order No. II." They then removed to Henry County, which has since been their place of residence. The children born to Dr. and Mrs. Britts have been Mary, who was born September 5, 1866, and died September 30, 1883; Lucy, who was born November I, 1867, and died May 31, 1872; Eugenia Sal- mon, who was born September 18, 1870, and married W. E. Owen June 28, 1893; Louise Lewis, born June 6, 1875: Annie, born Sep- tember 15, 1876, and Edith Scott, who was born September 13, 1878, and died Decem- ber 19, 1897.
Broadhead, Garland Carr, civil en- gineer, educator and scientist, of Columbia, Missouri, was born near Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Virginia. His parents
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were Achilles and Mary Winston (Carr) Broadhead, both Virginians by birth. The father, who was of English parentage, was a farmer by occupation and served as justice of the peace in Virginia and Missouri, and as judge of the county court in St. Charles County, where he settled in 1836, and died in 1853. The mother was of Scotch-English descent, the head of her family having settled in Virginia in 1676; her mother was a first cousin of Patrick Henry. Garland C. Broadhead acquired the rudiments of an edu- cation from his parents, having no other in- structors until he was about eleven years old, when he studied for two years under his brother, James O. Broadhead, who subse- quently rose to eminence in law and in politi- cal affairs. At a later day he had for in- structor the Reverend H. Blackwell. When seventeen years old he was proficient in mathematics and Latin, and was well read in history, ancient and modern. For three years thereafter he worked on the farm, and, when twenty years of age, began teaching in a common school, in which labor he con- tinted for two years, pursuing his own studies in the meantime. He then took a one-session course in the sciences and mathe- matics in the Missouri State University. Another session was spent in the Western Military Institute of Kentucky, where he studied civil engineering under the tutelage of General Bushrod Johnson, formerly of the West Point Military Academy faculty, and Colonel Richard Owen, who was educated at Edinburgh, Scotland, and in Switzerland. In 1852 he entered the service of the Mis- souri Pacific Railroad and was engaged for five years in preliminary surveying, in super- intendence of construction, and, for some months, as assistant civil engineer, his field being mainly between St. Louis and Her- mann. To this time he had never seen rail- road building of any kind, but he developed such ability that his work was highly com- mended. Ilis natural tastes, and the knowl- edge he had acquired while surveying, having led him to make geology his special study, in 1857 he was appointed to the position of assistant geologist of Missouri, in which capacity he served until 1861, devoting the summer months to field work. principally in forth Missouri, and preparing his reports during the winter, at Columbia, to which place he had removed. In 1866 he was em-
ployed by the Missouri Pacific Railroad to superintend construction between Holden and Lee's Summit, and this led him to make his home at Pleasant Hill, where he resided until 1877. In 1868 he was appointed as- sistant geologist of Illinois, and was so en- gaged for two years. In 1870 and 1871 he made surveys for a railroad company in western Missouri, and for another from Lex- ington to Nevada, also superintending the construction of the latter. Later in the same year he was appointed assistant geologist of Missouri, and in 1873 was advanced to the position of State geologist in charge. In 1875 he was occupied with making mineral collections for the State of Missouri, and the Smithsonian Institution at Washington City, for the Centennial Exposition at Phila- delphia. During that exposition he was one of twenty jurors, American and foreign, charged with making the awards for mines and geology, and in this service became as- sociated with the leading scientists of the world. From 1879 to 1881 he was engaged in railroad survey work in Kansas and Mis- souri. In the latter year he was special agent in Missouri and Kansas for quarry industries, for the Tenth United States Cen- sus. In 1883 and 1884 his time was devoted to assorting geological specimens for the Missouri State University. In the latter vear he became a member of the Missouri River Commission, by presidential appoint- ment. . From 1887 to 1897 he was professor of geology and mineralogy in the Missouri State University, and, during a part of this time, he was also a member of the State Board of Mines and Geology. During all these years he traveled extensively in Mis- souri and other States, making special studies, particularly in geology and mineral- ogy, and collecting specimens. His writings upon these and kindred subjects have been voluminous, and inchide the following: Re- port on Five Counties of Missouri, in Report of State Geologist, 1873: Iron Ores and Coal Fields of Missouri, 1873; Geological Report of Missouri, 1874; Geological Report of Nine Counties in Illinois, in Volume VI, Illinois Geological Survey, 1875: Discovery and Production of Petroleum, in Report of Cen- tennial Exposition, 1876; Prehistoric Evi- dences in Missouri, in Smithsonian Reports. 1879; Report on Building Stones of Missouri and Kansas, Tenth Census. 1882; Coal Meas-
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ures of Missouri, 1895, and Geology of Boone County and the Ozark Mountains, 1898, both in Geological Survey of Missouri. Important articles from his pen are: Physi- cal Features of Missouri, in Appleton's Cyclopedia; Settlements West of the Alle- ghanies Prior to 1776, in the Magazine of American History, 1893. He has also been a contributor to all the leading scientific journals of the country, as well as to the metropolitan and local press. His close in- vestigation, and clearness in report, earned for him a national reputation as a scientist, and membership in various scientific bodies, among which are: The St. Louis Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, the Geological Society of America, and the Geographical Society of America, as well as several his- torical organizations, while the Missouri State University has conferred upon him the honorary degree of master of sciences. The prominence of Professor Broadhead has led to his appointment to various positions out- side those pertaining to his profession. From 1862 to 1864 he was deputy collector of internal revenue at St. Louis. In 1866 he was appointed assessor for the Fifth Dis- trict of Missouri by President Johnson, but the Senate failed to confirm him, whereupon he was appointed, by the same authority, receiver of public moneys at Boonville, Mis- souri, but declined. During the same year he was elected to the mayoralty of Pleasant Hill, Missouri, and from time to time he has occupied various other local positions which came to him unsought. In his early life he was a Whig. From 1860 to 1864 he acted with the Unionists. He is now an inde- pendent, declining to be bound by any polit- ical organization, but holding himself free to support such men and measures as he may personally approve. Professor Broadhead was married, December 20, 1864, at Pleasant Hill, Missouri, to Miss Marian Wallace Wright, who died November 24, 1883. She was the mother of five children, of whom one, Arthur Garland, died in infancy. Those living are: Mary West, now Mrs. W. E. Whitsitt ; Garland Carr, born in 1873, a grad- uate of the Missouri State University, and by profession a civil engineer ; Marian Ger- trude, now Mrs. S. Frank Conly, and Harry Howard, born 1879. Professor Broadhead was again married, June 16, 1890, to Miss
Victoria Regina Royall, a sister of General William B. Royall, an officer in the United States Army from 1847 until his death, which occurred a few years ago; their mother was a sister of General Sterling Price. Profes- sor Broadhead is fully alive to all the inter- ests of the day, and while no longer actively engaged in scientific pursuits, he continues to 'afford to the public journals much valuable information upon the subjects which have absorbed the best effort of liis life.
Broadhead, James Overton, who achieved distinction as lawyer, Congressman and diplomat, was born at Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Virginia, May 29, 1819, and died in St. Louis, August 7, 1898. A memorial adopted by the St. Louis bar soon after his death presents an admirable review of his career as a lawyer, and his public ser- vices, as follows :
"At the age of eighteen, after a year spent at the University of Virginia, he removed to Pike County, Missouri, where he was ad- mitted to the bar in the year 1842. In 1845 he was a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention, in 1847 a member of the State House of Representatives from Pike County, a State Senator in 1851, a member of the committee of safety in St. Louis in 1861, and in the same year a delegate to the State Con- vention which assembled to determine upon the course of the State on the issue of Union or secession. Appointed to be district at- torney of the United States during this year, he soon resigned his office in order to dis- charge more pressing public duties growing out of the exigencies of the war. In 1863 he was commissioned lieutenant colonel of vol- unteers by President Lincoln, and immedi- ately appointed provost marshal general of the Military Department of Missouri.
"Elected a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1875, he labored incessantly in the formation of the constitution adopted in that year. He was retained as special coun- sel for the government in the famous "Whisky Ring" cases in St. Louis in 1876, and in 1878 was made president of the Amer- ican Bar Association. In the year 1882 he was elected to Congress, and served with dis- tinction on the judiciary committee of the House during his term, declining a renomina- tion. President Cleveland, in 1885, appointed him special commissioner to make exam-
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ination with reference to the "French Spolia- tion Claims," in pursuance of which duty he spent several months in France examining the government archives, and upon his report Congress took the first action toward mak- ing provision for the payment to the de- scendants of those whose claims had been ignored for nearly a century. Soon after the completion of this duty, he was appointed minister to Switzerland, which office he held until about two years before his deatlı.
"In 1859 he came to St. Louis, where lie formed a law partnership with the late Fidelio C. Sharp, which continued till the death of the latter in 1875. Subsequently he was as- sociated with John H. Overall, W. F. Broad- head, A. W. Slayback, Herman A. Haeussler and C. S. Broadhead; with the last two his association continued until the time of his death.
"From almost the day of his admission to the bar in 1842, with the exception of the brief intervals caused by his absences abroad, he was continuously engaged in the practice of the law, and was concerned in much of the great litigation of this city and State, as well as in many important controversies in the Federal Supreme Court.
"It appears from this outline that both the public and professional careers of Colonel Broadhead were unusually long and active, touching great affairs and intimately con- nected with some of the most momentous crises in the history of our State and national government. The least that can be said of him is that he was fully adequate to every occasion, however trying, and that in many of his forensic efforts and public acts he was conspicuously great.
"In analyzing the careers of men, we are oftentimes confronted by anomalous and seemingly contradictory results. In some we find talents and energy in combination, such as would ordinarily assure success, followed by failure. In others we find mediocre abil- ity rewarded by the highest distinction; and we are forced to the conclusion that there is no 'itinerary of the road to fame'; her man- tle falls upon those who possess that as- semblage of faculties, not one of which need necessarily be great, so adapted to environ- ment that, working in harmony, they to- gether secure the prize for which we all strive. There is, however, one quality whose pres- ence insures, and whose absence makes im-
possible, true greatness, and that is charac- ter. In scrutinizing the career of our friend we find that, while gifted with many intellec- tual qualities above the average of men, this one salient element stands out foremost in his composition. In his integrity, firm as the very foundations of truth, he was without 'variableness nor shadow of turning.' In a public address he once used these words : 'No man without an upright mind, and no man who has not preserved his integrity, has ever died leaving the reputation of a great lawyer.'
"To this standard his whole life was ad- justed, and the reputation he leaves perfectly illustrates the truth of his maxim.
"In the profession of the law Colonel Broadhead stood easily in the front rank, not only in this State, but in the nation; indeed, of all our State bar he probably enjoyed the widest national reputation, for his public career served to attract attention to his nota- ble ability as a lawyer, as is shown by his constant employment in cases of great mag- nitude, in the Federal courts, arising outside of the State. His legal education was thor- ough, and, notwithstanding his active partici- pation in public affairs, his studies were never intermitted. The character of his mind was such that it seemed to be able to select the salient points of a controversy or a reported case, to eliminate the immaterial and to con- centrate upon the main issue. In the trial of causes he gave little attention to what might be called the minutiae of preparation. He seemed to care but little for memoranda, for the orderly arrangement of papers and all that multitude of details which occupy so much of the attention of the ordinary practi- tioner. He seemed to the casual observer to be rather neglectful in these matters, but when the trial was on he was never found un- prepared. Somewhat slow in his movements, he gave the impression of not being alert in his mental processes ; but no man who met him in a professional contest ever finished it without being profoundly impressed with his acuteness of perception, his unfailing readi- ness and his extraordinary resourcefulness. His mind was cast in a mould which dis- cards those mere technicalities that distin- guish the legal mechanic from the great law- yer. It possessed that clear discernment which classified the issues according to the underlying principles of right and justice, and
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