USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 27
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ence?" and "The Bible as a factor in Education." Choice selections of music, vo- cal and instrumental, begin and end each ses- sion, and the open evening meetings are largely musical. Studies of the Bible and of the leading lights of Jewish history formed the programme of the year 1897-8, a feature of great interest being a course of lectures on the Book of Job by Rabbi Samuel Sale. The work for this year was greatly extended by means of neighborhood circles throughout the city, numbering about fifteen members each and following the same lines of study. The philanthropic work of the Council lies in co-operation with the numer- ous Jewish charitable societies, assisting them with personal work and contributions.
MARTHA S. KAYSER.
Counties .- The counties are the chief subdivisions of the State. In 1804, after the cession of the Territory of Louisiana to the United States, four districts were organized in it-Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis and St. Charles-and this arrangement con- tinued until, in 1812, Missouri Territory was defined, organized and divided into five counties-St. Charles, St. Louis, Ste. Gene- vieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid. Four years later Howard, Cooper and Boone Counties were organized, and gradually these original counties were subdivided until I14 counties were constituted in Missouri. Each county has its own local government, or rather administration, the chief organ of which is the county court, whose functions are mainly administrative and supervisory, relating to the care of roads and bridges, the support of paupers and insane persons, the levying of county taxes, the apportionment and management of county revenues, the allowing of claims against the county, the borrowing of money, issue of county bonds, the establishment of voting places, the ap- pointment of judges and clerks of elections, and a supervision over the courthouse and jail and other county property, and over some of the county officers. The county court is composed of three judges, one of whom, called the presiding judge, is chosen for the whole county, and the others by districts. All are elected by the people, the presiding judge holding for a term of four years and the oth- ers for two years.
There is in every county a county seat,
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COUNTY AND TOWNSHIP DEBTS.
where are located the courthouse and the jail, the courthouse being an edifice in which the various county offices are kept, and the various courts are held, and all the county records are preserved.
The county officers are the county clerk, sheriff, collector, treasurer, assessor, prose- cuting attorney, recorder of deeds, surveyor, public administrator and coroner, all chosen by the people.
County and Township Debts .- For a period of fifteen years, from 1875 to 1890, the county and township debts in Missouri were the cause of immeasurable trouble. The close of the Civil War found the State with a system of railroads in a half finished and impaired condition, large agricultural dis- tricts on the western border deserted, indus- tries disorganized and many persons who had forsaken their farms, collected in the towns and cities. There was a pressing need for all kinds of improvements, and for energetic efforts to reclaim for the State the ad- vantages it had been deprived of during the strife-and the need of railroads was urgent above all other demands. The high prices ot farm products of all kinds and of farm and wild lands stimulated the agricultural interest and intensified the desire for railroads to carry the crops to market. It is not strange, under this condition of things, and when run- ning in debt was the general habit over the country, that the people of many counties in the State should have followed the fashion and contracted obligations which weighed upon them like an incubus for twenty years afterward. Nearly all these debts were in- curred' in aid of railroads; and township bonds, as well as county bonds, were issued bearing interest at the rate of 10 per cent, to promote these enterprises, and secure access to market for the farm products of the State. In many cases these bonds were issued in compliance with the plain wishes of the peo- ple ; in other cases they were issued without consulting the taxpayers, by county judges elected by a minority over the disfranchised people. In not a few cases not a mile of the railroad for which the bonds were issued was ever built in the county; and in several cases the bonds were fraudulently issued. In addition to these county and township obli- gations incurred in aid of railroads, many towns contracted obligations for local im-
provements, and school districts borrowed money to build costly schoolhouses-and in 1878 the county, township, town, city and school district debts in Missouri made an aggregate of over $50,000,000. The interest at 10 per cent began to be irksome and op- pressive, and in some counties the people, after paying a few years, refused to pay any longer, while in others, where the obligation had been contracted fraudulently, or where there had been no compliance with the con- tract by the railroad company, payment was refused from the beginning. Protracted liti- gation, harassing and costly, followed, and the condition of things in some counties was scarcely more tolerable than that which pre- vailed during the Civil War. The bonds were chiefly owned by non-residents, and the suits for the defaulting interest were brought in the United States courts, which held that the bonds, when held by innocent parties, were binding. The people then resorted to extra legal measures of resistance. When judg- ments were obtained for interest, the county courts, in obedience to the popular demand, refused to levy a tax to pay such judgments with. Some judges were arrested and brought before the United States courts to answer for contempt; others resigned and thus permitted the election of successors who had to be served with process anew; a few were imprisoned, but, notwithstanding all, resolutely refused to levy a tax for meeting the judgments of the court. The General Assembly came to the help of the people of the counties and passed laws, requiring the moneys in the county treasury to be divided into separate funds, and forbidding the money in one fund to be used for any other purposes than those of that fund, the object being to prevent the county judges, under order from the United States court, from using the general revenue of the county to pay judgments with. This protracted and harassing strife was injurious to both sides; the bondholders met with repeated delays in securing payment of their claims, and fre- quently did not receive it at all, while the cost of the litigation fell heavily on the coun- ties; and the result was that at last, most of the debts were compromised and reduced in amount and in the rate of interest, new bonds being given on the surrender of the old ones. These compromises were effected between the years 1887 and 1890, and the
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COUNTY COURT-COUNTY REVENUE.
counties and townships have paid the inter- est on the compromise bonds promptly ever since. On the ist of July, 1898, the bonded indebtedness of counties in Missouri was $7,379,307, and the bonded debt of townships was $2,151,200-making a total of $9,530,507 -which showed a reduction of $777,595 since July 1, 1896. Seventy-six counties had no bonded debt; thirty-eight counties had only county indebtedness, and no township obliga- tions; ten counties had township indebted- ness only, and eight counties had both county and township indebtedness. The State Con- stitution is very explicit and peremptory on the subject of contracting debt by counties, cities, towns, townships and school districts. It permits the levying of as great a tax as may be necessary to meet the interest, and gradually extinguish the principal of exist- ing debts of these subdivisions; but it takes pains to prohibit the contracting of future indebtedness, except under conditions of pressing necessity, and when such necessary' indebtedness is contracted, to require stern measures for meeting and paying it. No county, city, town, township, school district, or other political corporation or subdivision of the State can contract a debt of any kind for any purpose greater than its annual in- come, without a two-thirds vote of the peo- ple ; nor even in that case, can a debt be in- curred which, with existing indebtedness, shall exceed 5 per cent on the taxable prop- erty-except to build a courthouse or jail ; and in the event of the contracting of a debt, with the approval of a two-thirds vote of the people, provision must be made for collecting an annual tax sufficient to pay the interest, and constitute a sinking fund for the pay- ment of the principal within twenty years. Under these prohibitions, contained in the Constitution of 1875, there has been no in- curring of local indebtedness in Missouri, except in a few special cases, since then, and a gradual reduction of local debts in the State has been going on, and all of them are in process of extinguishment.
County Court .- The county is a terri- torial division unknown to the French and Spanish, and therefore during the French and Spanish possession of the vast Territory of Louisiana, embracing pretty nearly every- thing west of the Mississippi from the Gulf of Mexico to the British possessions, from
1764 to 1804, we do not encounter the word. That portion of this territory now known as Missouri was divided into five districts, named after the settlements that served as their official and social centers-St. Louis, St. Charles, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid. The division lines between them, though vaguely indicated, defined the limits of their jurisdiction clearly enough for all practical purposes at a time when a mile, or even ten miles, of width was not thought to be worth disputing about; and as to the back extension from the river, it had practi- cally no limit. But when this domain passed under the American flag and the people of Missouri became citizens of the United States the name of county came into use; the five districts were made counties and began at once to take on their familiar, homely, Anglo- Saxon arrangement through which wills are probated, estates administered, property as- sessed, taxes levied, collected and disbursed, roads laid out and maintained, bridges built, licenses granted, and other matters of local concern adjusted. A court called the Court of Quarter Sessions (which see) was organ- ized in each of the five counties, and this institution was succeeded by the county court, having similar functions.
County Foreign Insurance Tax Fund .- The moneys in the fund consist of one-half the proceeds of the annual tax of 2 per cent on the gross premiums collected in Missouri by insurance companies not or- ganized under the laws of this State. These moneys are apportioned and distributed to the several counties by the State auditor, on the Ist of October every year, on the basis of the number of school children. The re- ceipts into the fund in 1897 were $109,659, and in 1898, $116,776.
County Revenue .- The revenue of the counties in Missouri is derived from the same sources as that of the State-a prop- erty tax on all property, real and personal ; license taxes on dramshops, and one-half the proceeds of the annual tax of 2 per cent on the gross amount of premiums collected in Missouri by insurance companies not organ- ized under the laws of Missouri; and the same officers assess and collect the State and county taxes, and at the same time. The counties have each their own property tax
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COUNTY SEAT-COURT OF APPEALS, ST. LOUIS.
rate, which is fixed by the county court. The State Constitution provides that in counties whose taxable valuation is $6,000,000, or less, the tax rate for county purposes shall not ex- ceed fifty cents on the $100; in counties hav- ing $6,000,000 and under $10,000,000, the rate shall not exceed forty cents ; in counties having $10,000,000 and under $30,000,000, the rate shall not exceed fifty cents, and in counties having $30,000,000 or more, the rate shall not exceed thirty-five cents. But in addition to these rates for county purposes, such special rate may be levied for interest and other charges on the county debt as may be necessary. In the year 1898 the total county taxes charged against real and personal property were $9,515,841. The total county and municipal taxes charged against railroads, bridges and telegraphs were $1,- 335,872. The total county, school and other taxes charged against merchants and manu- facturers were $861,244. The total taxes for county purposes from foreign insurance com- panies were $116,776. The total county taxes collected from dramshops were $1,703,817.
County Seat .- The town or city in a county where the courthouse and jail are located, where the county court holds its ses- sions, and where the county offices are estab- lished. The county seat cannot be removed without a two-thirds vote in favor of it.
Courthouse .- Every county has a courthouse, and only one-a spacious and sometimes imposing building at the county seat, in which the county offices are usually located, the several courts hold their sittings, and the county records are kept. It is under the control of the county court.
Court of Appeals, St. Louis .- The docket of the Supreme Court at the time of the convening of the Constitutional Conven- tion of 1875 had become so crowded with cases from the city of St. Louis that in many in- stances years elapsed before a final decision. To remedy this evil the St. Louis Bar Asso- ciation submitted to the convention a scheme for the establishment of a separate Appellate Court for St. Louis County, which at that time included the city of St. Louis. This scheme was somewhat modified in the con- vention, but its main features were adopted in committee by a vote of 47 to 5. The terri-
torial jurisdiction of the new court was ex- tended to the city of St. Louis, county of St. Louis, and the counties of St. Charles, Lin- coln and Warren. The court was given superintending control over the lower courts of record and power to issue, hear and de- termine writs of certiorari, habeas corpus, mandamus, quo warranto and other remedial writs, and appellate jurisdiction over the courts of record within the territory named above. This jurisdicton was final, except in cases where the amount exceeds $2,500, which involve the construction of the Con- stitution of the State or of the United States, the validity of a treaty or statute of the United States, the revenue laws, title to a State office, title to real estate, or where a political subdivision of the State or a State officer is a party, and all cases of felony. In these cases a further appeal lay to the Supreme Court. The court was to be com- posed of three judges, to be appointed by the Governor, whose terms should expire on Jan- uary 1, 1877. At the November election, 1876, three judges were to be elected to take the place of those nominated by the Gov- ernor, and these judges, when elected, were to draw lots for a four, eight and twelve-year terni, after which the term of judge was to be twelve years. The new Constitution hav- ing been adopted, Governor Hardin ap- pointed as the first judges of the new court Thomas Tasker Gantt and Robert A. Bake- well, of the St. Louis bar, and Edward A. Lewis, of the bar of St. Charles County. At the November election . of 1876 the judges elected were Edward A. Lewis, Robert A. Bakewell and Charles S. Hayden, who drew, respectively, in the order named the twelve, eight and four-year terms. At the Novem- ber election in 1880 Seymour D. Thompson was elected in the place of Judge Hayden, and at the election of 1884 Roderick E. Rom- bauer was elected in the place of Judge Bake- well. An amendment to the Constitution was adopted at the November election, 1884, by which the territorial jurisdiction of the St. Louis Court of Appeals was extended so as to include about one-half of the State, and the Supreme Court was given exclusive ap- pellate jurisdiction of those cases in which an appeal formerly lay from the Court of Appeals. On the Ist of March, 1888, Judge Lewis resigned, and Charles E. Peers, a dis- tinguished member of the Warren County
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COURT OF APPEALS, ST. LOUIS.
bar-now State Senator-qualified as his suc- cessor on March 12, 1888, under appointment by the Governor. On January 7, 1889, Wil- liam H. Biggs, of Pike County, succeeded Judge Peers. In January, 1893, Henry W. Bond, of St. Louis, succeeded Judge Thomp- son, and in January, 1897, Judge Rombauer was succeeded by Charles C. Bland, of Rolla.
During the first nine years of its existence the St. Louis Court of Appeals disposed of 3,219, cases, and up to April, 1897, the num- ber of cases disposed of since the organiza- tion of the court was over 6,800. The court has always kept fully up with its docket, and the amount of work done by the judges is, we believe, unparalleled in the history of Ap- pellate Courts. The court has always sus- tained a high reputation, which is due not only to the character of its judges, but also to the learning and industry of the bar. Even during the period when an appeal lay to the Supreme Court in the most important cases, those cases were briefed and argued before the Court of Appeals with as much care and diligence as if its decision were final.
Judge Gantt died on June 17, 1889, and Judge Lewis on August 26, 1889. Of Judge Gantt it may be said with truth that he was one of the ablest lawyers and one of the most remarkable men connected with the history of the State. He was born in Georgetown on July 22, 1814, of distinguished Maryland an- cestry. His maternal grandfather was an officer of the Revolution and Secretary of the Navy under John Adams. From George- town College Mr. Gantt went to West Point as a boy of 17; but during his second year he was crippled by a fall from his horse. From this injury a slight lameness remained to the last. He stood very high in his class when he left it to read law with Governor Pratt of Maryland. Upon his admission to the bar he came at once to St. Louis in 1839. He was in partnership with Montgomery Blair until 1844, when he was appointed United States District Attorney by Mr. Polk. In 1853 he was city counselor. During the early part of the war he received a commis- sion as colonel in the United States Army, and served on General McClellan's staff until the campaign ended in July, 1862. He was afterward provost marshal of Missouri, and then presiding judge of the St. Louis Court of Appeals. Judge Gantt was the contem- porary of Glover, Gamble, Geyer, Bates,
Spaulding and other distinguished Missouri lawyers whose names are respected through- out the country and who largely framed the jurisprudence of the State. As a lawyer he was inferior to none of them. As a man he was austere, honorable, chivalrous. He was a warm friend, and, whilst not a bitter enemy, he was one whose opposition was formidable. Few exceeded him in public spirit. During the dreadful visitation of cholera, in 1849, when many public officials deserted their posts, Mr. Gantt organized a board of health and was indefatigable in his efforts for the health of the city and the relief of the suf- ferers, voluntarily exposing his life to aid others. Nor was his conduct less conspicu- ously disinterested and courageous during the dreadful election riots of 1855. He was a man of general reading and of classical taste, a good French scholar, and with a good reading knowledge of Latin. He was familiar with the best Latin writers, of whom his fav- orites were Horace, Juvenal and Tacitus. In short, he was brave, magnanimous, high- minded, zealous for right and contemptuous of wrongdoing; a scholar of liberal reading and of liberal mind; a sound lawyer and an honest man; and it was justly felt that his appointment was a good omen for the new court. In politics he was a Democrat, drawn by his friendship for the Blairs to the Free- Soil wing of the party. He was an uncondi- tional Union man, but never an Abolitionist. His sympathies would naturally incline him to the South, but his devotion to the Union was hereditary and controlling.
Judge Lewis was what is called a self-made man. He was descended from Lund Wash- ington on his mother's side. He was left an orphan at an early age. He had no school education after the age of twelve. His youth was spent in a printing office in Washington. He became a clerk in the general land office and then in the circuit clerk's office of Yazoo County, Mississippi, where he prac- ticed law until he removed, in 1845, to Ray County, Missouri, where he was public ad- ministrator for a time. He was afterward associated with Joseph B. Crockett in the "St. Louis Intelligencer." In 1854 he returned to practice as an attorney in St. Charles County. He was at various times a presidential elector, and was a Breckinridge elector in 1860. In 1874 he was appointed by Governor Wood- son to fill a brief unexpired term in the Su-
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COURT OF APPEALS, ST. LOUIS.
preme Court. Judge Lewis was considered a sound lawyer. Few were better acquainted with the now somewhat obsolete learning concerning the old land titles in Missouri. His reading lay chiefly in the way of his pro- fession. His health failed during the second year of his term on the bench of the Court of Appeals, and he became subject to a disease from which he suffered constant and often the most excruciating pain, which he bore with wonderful courage. Notwithstanding his ill health, the exigencies of his position as a member of a very hard-working court were such that he probably gave to his official duties as much time and care as is usual amongst the most industrious judges. At last his hearing failed completely and his resignation became a necessity. He accepted the office of reporter of the court, which he held at the time of his death.
Judge Bakewell is the only surviving mem- ber of the court as at first constituted. He has reached his three-score years and ten, and leads a somewhat retired life. Before his ju- dicial appointment he had been for more than twenty years in active practice in St. Louis, at first with Mr. P. Bauduy Garesche, and then with Mr. E. T. Farish. He was in the graduating class at the Western University of Pennsylvania, when the fire at Pittsburg, in May, 1845, destroyed the college and half the town. From there he went to the Gen- eral Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in New York, where he went through the three years' course, being intended for the ministry of that church, of which his father was a minister. He was, however, swept into the Catholic Church in 1848 by the wave of Newmanism which passed over the seminary. He was then, after a brief experience as professor of Greek and Latin in a newly established college at Rochester, New York, connected with jour- nalism in Pittsburg and St. Louis until he began the practice of law in 1855.
Judge Hayden was from Boston. He prac- ticed law in St. Louis with success and dis- tinction, in partnership with Mr. Rankin, a very distinguished St. Louis lawyer, from 1856 up to the date of his election to the bench. His standing at the bar was high. He is a man of solid parts and excellent edu- cation ; a master of terse, clean-cut English, a good scholar, well read, not only in the liter- ature of his profession, but in general liter-
ature. He has an eminently legal mind, and his opinions are models of judicial exposition. He has retired from the active duties of his profession on a well-earned competency, and divides his time between his plantation in Florida and the home of his youth, with occa- sional visits to the scene of his honorable professional career.
Judge Thompson is well known as an emi- nent legal writer. He is the author of many text-books, which stand high with the pro- fession, and has been editor of legal periodli- cals of the highest character. He was asso- ciated with Judge Dillon, then of the United States court, in editing the "Central Law Journal," of which Mr. Thompson was the editor at the time of his election to the judge- ship. On leaving the bench he entered into partnership with Mr. Nathan Frank, and is engaged in an active and lucrative practice in St. Louis. He is a man of almost incredible industry and application, a ready, elegant and forcible writer, of extensive reading and most tenacious memory. He left the bench with the respect of the profession and to their regret.
Judge Rombauer was born in Hungary. He came to this country as a boy, with his father, in consequence of the political troubles in Europe in 1848. His legal education was acquired at Harvard. He was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts in 1858, and at once removed to St. Louis. In 1865 he was elected judge of the Law Commissioner's Court. He was appointed to the circuit bench of St. Louis in 1867, and elected to the same posi- tion in 1868. As a judge, and as a practical attorney, his reputation is excellent. He is devoted to his profession. It was generally felt that his retirement from the bench of the Court of Appeals was a loss to the court and to the community. He has an eminently legal and judicial mind, and, considered simply as a sound, acute and well read lawyer, few, if any, members of the profession in Missouri stand higher than he does. He is also a man of high moral courage, and of great purity of character in public and private life.
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