History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 101

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358

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year, those for St. Louis on the third Monday of February, first Monday of June, and third Monday of September. The clerks of these courts were also to be recorders of deeds. On the 4th of January, 1815, county courts were established for each county except Arkansas ; the term in St. Louis commencing on the second Monday in March, June, September, and January, the clerk for each to be recorder. The Territory was divided into two circuits,-St. Louis, St. Charles, and Washington constituting the northern circuit, and Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, and New Madrid the southern, with three terms a year, com- mencing in St. Louis on the second Mondays in Feb- ruary, June, and October. The old courts were abolished, and a clerk for each county was to be ap- pointed by the judges. The Superior Court was to hold one term annually in St. Louis, commencing on the first Monday of July. On the 15th of the same month the office of attorney-general of the Territory was abolished, and a circuit attorney for each circuit provided for. An act of Jan. 21, 1816, directed that the Superior Court should hold two terms annually in each circuit (commencing in St. Louis on the third Monday of March and September), and that a clerk for each circuit should be appointed. The same act abolished the county courts and transferred their duties to the Circuit Courts. The latter met in St. Louis on the first Monday in May, August, and November, and the Superior Court on the third Monday in March and September. On the 1st of February, 1817, the Legislature passed an act changing the time of hold- ing the courts,-Superior Court in St. Louis, northern circuit, fourth Monday in March and August ; Cir- cuit Court in St. Louis, second Monday in February, June, and October. In 1818 the Circuit Court of St. Louis met on the first Monday in April, August, and December, and the Superior Court on the fourth Mon- day in April and the third Monday in September. The following is a list of the presiding justices, clerks, sheriffs, etc., of the Courts of Common Pleas under the old organization :

PRESIDING JUSTICES.

Charles Gratiot, appointed December, 1804, by Governor Har- rison.

Joseph Browne, appointed March, 1806, by Governor Wilkin- son.

Silas Bent, appointed June, 1807, by Secretary Browne.

William Christy, appointed March, 1813, by Governor Howard.

CLERKS OF THE COMMON PLEAS.

Rufus Easton, appointed December, 1804, by Governor Har- rison.

Thos. F. Riddick, appointed March, 1805, by Governor Har- rison.

Andrew Steele, appointed March, 1806, by Governor Wilkinson.

1 For a full account of the proceedings of this court see Chapter XIV. of this work, vol. i. p. 331-34.

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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

William Christy, appointed March, 1807, by Secretary Browne. Thomas F. Riddick, appointed July, 1807, by Secretary F. Bates.

SHERIFFS.

James Rankin, appointed December, 1804, by Governor Har- rison.

Josiah McLanahan, appointed June, 1805, by Governor Har- rison.

Jeremiah Connor, appointed September, 1806, by Governor Wilkinson.

Alexander McNair, appointed November, 1810, by Secretary F. Bates.

John W. Thompson, appointed July, 1813, by Governor Clark. Joshua C. Browne, appointed April, 1819, by Governor Clark.

DEPUTY ATTORNEYS-GENERAL.

Edward Hempstead, appointed December, 1804, by Governor Harrison.

Rufus Easton, appointed March, 1805, by Governor Harrison. Edward Hempstead, appointed June, 1805, by Governor Har- rison.

James L. Donaldson, appointed December, 1805, by Governor Wilkinson.

Edward Hempstead, appointed May, 1809, by Governor Lewis. Thomas T. Crittenden, appointed November, 1810, by Governor Howard.

Robert Wash, appointed November, 1811, by Secretary Bates. David Barton, appointed March, 1813, by Secretary Bates.

CORONER AND CONSTABLE.

William Sullivan, appointed December, 1804, by Governor Har- rison.

In 1825 the Legislature passed a law establishing judicial districts and circuits, which prescribed the following as the times of holding the several courts in St. Louis County : The Supreme Court in the city of St. Louis on the fourth Mondays of May and No- vember ; the Circuit Court on the fourth Mondays in March, July, and November; the Probate Court on the first Mondays of March, June, September, and December.

The St. Louis Criminal Court was established in 1839 (the first term to be held in March of that year), with a view of giving the Circuit Court full time to transact the civil business of the county, criminal business having before that time attached to that court alone. In progress of time the Common Pleas Court, and even the land commissioners' court, was created with the design to relieve the Circuit Court of a portion of its labors.

Soon after the admission of Missouri into the Union the entire State was made one United States district, with a District Court which sat twice a year, usually for a very few days, at Jefferson City ; and a Circuit Court for that district sat twice a year at St. Louis, the district judge holding it either alone or in conjunc- tion with the United States Supreme Court justice assigned to the circuit of which Missouri composed a part. Prior to 1852 the admiralty jurisdiction of the

United States District Courts had been so strictly con- strued that very few " steamboat suits" were brought in that of Missouri, and litigation of that description was almost entirely confined to the State tribunals.

But at its December term of 1851 the United States Supreme Court made a decision, in the " Genesee Chief" case (12 Howard, p. 443), by which the admi- ralty jurisdiction of the United States courts, pre- viously regarded as confined to tide-waters,-the " navigable waters" at common law,-was held to ex- tend to the great lakes and rivers, navigable in fact. As such jurisdiction was superior, in most cases, to that of any State court, the Missouri District Court began to be crowded with cases affecting steamboats and other river-craft and river men. As the trial of these cases at Jefferson City occasioned great incon- venience and expense to litigants residing at St. Louis, there soon arose a very general demand for the establishment of a United States District Court in St. Louis.

But various difficulties in the way of it were soon discovered. The first suggestion, as of the most economical plan, and therefore that most easily and promptly to be got through Congress, was that sessions of the District Court should be held in St. Louis as well as at Jefferson City, or that the court should be entirely transferred to the latter place. To either of these plans there were serious objections. As the en- tire Indian country between the western boundaries of Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota was then annexed for certain purposes to the Missouri district, and offen- ders against the laws in that country were tried in that district, the administration at Washington objected to the additional expense and trouble which would arise from the transfer of trials to St. Louis, and the steamboat interests of the upper Missouri River and its tributaries joined in the objection. Against the holding of terms at St. Louis by the district judge, who resided at Jefferson City, it was objected that, as an admiralty court is always in session, and the great bulk of admiralty business in Missouri arose at St. Louis, either the judge would have to remove to St. Louis, or the lawyers would still have to go to him at Jefferson City, not then connected by railroad with St. Louis, to attend to the business constantly arising between the regular terms of court. The opinion of the bar and of the commercial public therefore soon settled upon the plan of dividing Mis- souri into two districts and establishing a separate Dis- trict Court at St. Louis.

Senator Stephen A. Douglas had about that time suggested a reorganization of the Federal judiciary, and a part of his plan was to compose the Circuit

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Court of all the district judges within the circuit, sit- ting together, as an appellate court. This suggested the plan which was finally adopted for the organ- ization of the United States Circuit Court at St. Louis. A bill was drafted by which the old district was divided into the Eastern and Western. Judge Wells was assigned to the Western, in which he had so long resided, a new district judge was to be ap- pointed for the Eastern, and both judges werc to sit in the Circuit Court at St. Louis, the senior in com- mission to preside in the absence of the Supreme Court justice.

The bill above described was introduced into the United States Senate by the senior Missouri senator, Henry S. Geyer, and with the support of his col- league, Senator James S. Green, and of Senators Seward, Fessenden, and Douglas, promptly passed that body. It ran some risk of delay under the rulcs in the House of Representatives, but through the par- liamentary skill and great personal influence of Hon. John S. Phelps it was taken up and promptly passed by that body on the last day of the session, March 3, 1857. It was at once approved by President Pierce. The Missouri delegation in Congress presented to him its unanimous recommendation of Hon. Samuel Treat for the new judgeship. The President at once made the nomination, with the complimentary remark that Judge Treat was also his own choice. Indeed, so general had been the recognition of his especial fit- ness for the distinguished position, that the name of no other person had been mentioned in connection with it. The Senate unanimously confirmed the appointment, and his commission was signed by President Pierce.

After devoting the necessary time to finishing up the pressing business of the St. Louis Court of Com- mon Plcas, Judge Treat took the oath of office on March 23, 1857, and on the next day organized his District Court. At the next term of the new United States Circuit Court, on April 6, 1857, he took his seat with Judge Wells on the bench.

Up to 1877 the courts of St. Louis exercised jur- isdiction over both city and county, but in that year a separate county court was organized, and a new court-house for the county was erected at Clayton in the following year.

From 1804 to 1812 the courts provided an abun- dance of work for members of the St. Louis bar. The treaty of cession stipulated that the "inhabitants of Louisiana should be protected in the free enjoyment of liberty, property, and religion." Congress passed various acts to enforce these rights, but, as John F. Darby, one of the leading lawyers of carly St. Louis,

says, there were not, up to 1811, three perfect land titles in all Upper Louisiana. Spanish grants and conflicting claims of every sort, growing out of surveys of a primitive kind, and judicial decisions under French, Spanish, and American law gave the lawyers enough business. A similar state of affairs in Cali- fornia has produced corresponding results, some of the famous land cases there being still in court after twenty years of conflict among opposing claimants. Lawyers who won renown in these entangled civil cases were fit to cross weapons with the best legal talent of the country, and their fees were correspond- ingly large. It was a time when " homespun ways" ruled everywhere, and judges who presided at the Circuit Courts and young lawyers who pleaded before them were trained in a hard, healthy school that de- veloped manhood and originality.

Old files of the St. Louis papers throw consider- able light upon the state of society in these carlier years. Sept. 23, 1808, the trial of George Duillard for the alleged murder of Antoine Bissonette came off in the District Court. Hon. J. B. C. Lucas presided, and Hon. Auguste Chouteau was associate justice. Attorney-General John Scott prosecuted the case, and Edward Hempstead, W. C. Carr, and Rufus Easton were the prisoner's counsel. The facts were briefly these : Manuel Lisa, a wealthy St. Louis trader, and the prisoner had, in 1807, joined forces and embarked merchandise which, with their outfits and equipments, were worth $16,000, as a venture on a trading voyage to the sources of the Missouri. They had engaged the deceased to serve for three years, and to do duty not only as a hunter, but also to mount guard, and to obey his employers in every particular. Bissonette also agreed that he would not leave their service on any pretext whatever. But while near the mouth of the Osage River he deserted, and Mr. Lisa, com- mander of this party of traders in a hostile Indian country, sent Duillard and others in pursuit, saying, " Bring him, dead or alive." Duillard found him, and, after calling on him to surrender, shot him in the shoulder, from which wound he died the next day, after saying that " no one had treated him ill, and he did not know why he deserted." Every possible care was taken of him. The jury in fifteen minutes rc- turned with a verdict of acquittal.

All the lawyers who took part in this case became noted afterwards. John Scott, prosecuting attorney, was born in Virginia in 1782, graduated at Princeton in 1802, first located in Indiana, but went to Mis- souri in 1804.

Judge William C. Carr, son of Walter Carr, was born in Albemarle County, Va., April 15, 1783;

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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

studied law, and came to St. Louis March 31, 1804, at the age of twenty-one years, being only twenty-five days on the trip by water from Louisville.1

After remaining a month here he went to Ste. Gen- evieve, then a larger place, to settle. Here he mar- ried his first wife, Ann, daughter of Aaron Elliot, and remained one year, when he returned to St. Louis to settle permanently.

He was appointed circuit judge by Governor John Miller, and held the first term of his court July 24, 1826. Judge Carr retained this office about eight years, and then resigned it, retiring to private life, and died March 31, 1851, aged sixty-eight years.

Judge Carr left a numerous progeny,-by his first wife three daughters, who all married ; and by the sec- ond, Dorcas, a daughter of Silas Bent, Sr., whom he

1 Charles Carr, brother of Judge William C. Carr, and father of Walter C. Carr, at one time president of the Boatmen's Savings Institution, and R. E. Carr, at one time president of the Exchange Bank of St. Louis, died near Lexington, Ky., Nov. 14, 1868. He was born in Spottsylvania County, near Fredericksburg, Va., on the 29tb of October, 1774. His fatber, following the footsteps of Daniel Boone, removed to the wilder- ness of Kentucky in 1777, leaving Charles, only three years old, with his relatives till 1785, when be accompanied a family over tbe mountains to bis father's bouse, not far from Lexington, then containing only a few log cabins.

At the age of nineteen he volunteered as a soldier, in com- pany with Samuel R. Combe and other neighbor boys, in a Ken- tucky regiment nnder Gen. Wayne, and was in all his opera- tions against the Northwestern Indians, terminating in a bloody and decisive victory at the foot of the Maumee Rapids, some ten miles above the present city of Toledo. He was married in 1801 to Miss Elizabeth Todd, daughter of Gen. Levi Todd, also an early emigrant to Kentucky, and one of the most distin- guished of her Indian-fighters and bunters. He was for some years a merchant in Lexington, and about the year 1808, in conjunction with William R. Morton, bought out the sheriff's office from the oldest magistrate for two years, and continued in tbat office for eight or ten years by successive purchases from senior justices, who had tbe rigbt to sell, as the law tben stood. In the discbarge of his various official duties he was always polite and courteous.

While holding this office tbe disastrous battle of River Raisin was fought by Gen. Winchester on the 22d of January, 1813, in which so many gallant Kentuckians lost their lives. A call was made for more troops, and Mr. Carr was among the first to volunteer in Col. William Dudley's regiment. His high char- acter and business habits induced Col. Dudley to appoint him paymaster, wbich office he held throughout the campaign and until the troops were paid off according to a special act of Con- gress. He was taken prisoner at Dudley's defeat opposite Fort Meigs, on the 5th of May, 1813, robbed of his hat and coat, as all the prisoners were, and forced to run tbe gauntlet into old Fort Maumee, long before given up by the British, and then rotted to the ground. In this terrible exploit many were killed and wounded, but Mr. Carr was fortunate in escaping without an injury. Mr. Carr returned home and resumed his official duties, in which he continued several years, and at the close was elected to the Legislature. In 1827 he removed to tbe farın on which he died.

married in 1829, several sons and daughters. His fifth daughter, Eliza B., was married to William H. Ashley, Licutenant-Governor and member of Con- gress; the sixth, Harriet, to Capt. James Deane, United States army ; and the seventh, Virginia, to the late Dr. E. Bathurst Smith.

The St. Louis Circuit Court, of which Mr. Carr was judge, embraced five large counties, and extended nearly to the Arkansas line. So large was it that it was commonly called from its largest county the " State of Gasconade," and Dr. David Waldo, clerk of the courts, was usually called " Governor" of this State.2 There were many saw-mills in the then ex- tensive pineries, and the lumber was rafted to St. Louis. Circuit Court was held at Mount Sterling in a log court-house. Although Judge Carr stood high at the bar, he had personal enemies, and they succeeded in having articles of impeachment presented by the Legislature. In the winter of 1832 the trial occurred, he being charged with neglect of duty, incapacity, and favoritism, but he was acquitted after a protracted investigation. Among the lawyers who practiced in this Circuit Court were Gamble, Bates, Geyer, Darby, Cole, and others.

Upon the death of Judge Carr the members of the bar, with some of whom he had been associated for over thirty years, passed the usual resolutions of re- spect. He had been fortunate in his investments at a time when it required little money to purchase property in what is now the heart of the city.3

Edward Hempstead was another of the distinguished arrivals of 1804, and the high place he at once took is sufficient proof of his ability. His biography will be found in full elsewhere.

But the man whose advent in the struggling St. Louis of 1804 was, perhaps, of the greatest import- ance to the community was Rufus Easton, one of the most profound lawyers of that brilliant era, when such

2 Tbis Dr. Waldo, afterwards companion of the Bents and Sublettes, was an unusual man in an age of original characters. He was self-taught, but bis acquirements would have been re- markable anywhere. At one time he was clerk of Circuit Court, ex officio recorder of deeds, clerk of the county court, justice of the peace, deputy sheriff, postmaster, major in the militia, and a practicing physician. He accumulated a large fortune, and was almost tbe idol of the community in which he lived.

' Alfred W. Carr, a nephew of Judge Carr, was born in 1804, in Kentucky graduated at Transylvania University, began practice in Missonri in 1828, in the St. Charles Circuit, Hon. Beverly Tucker judge, and soon became widely known, but died in his early manhood, leaving a young wife, daughter of Maj. Graves, of Kentucky. She afterwards married Col. Chambers, a lawyer, who became editor and part proprietor of the Mis- souri Republican.

Rufus Easton

ST MANTS BANK NOTE COMPANY

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BENCH AND BAR.

luminaries as Geyer, the Bartons, Gamble, Spalding, Allen, Lawless, Mullanphy, Bates, and Leonard were leaving their impress upon the laws, statutes, and in- stitutions of Missouri. The fame of these men filled the State, and any one of them would have hield a place in the front rank of any professional brother- hood in this country. Rufus Easton was born in Litehfield, Conn., May 4, 1774. His parents were of English descent, and some of the family rendered important services in the Revolutionary war. He re- eeived a good education before entering upon the study of the law. In February, 1791, he became a student in the law-office of Ephraim Kirby, a promi- nent lawyer of Litehfield, and remained with him two years, completing his studies elsewhere, and obtaining a license to practice law. To what extent, if any, he praetieed in Connecticut does not appear; but at the opening of the present century he is heard of at Rome, N. Y., where he soon became known as a promising young lawyer. Here he attracted the at- tention of the leading men of the Republican party, and was so deep in their confidence as to be consulted regarding Federal appointments in Western New York, as appears from letters addressed to him by Gideon Granger, Mr. Jefferson's Postmaster-General.

Mr. Easton spent the winter of 1803-4 at Wash- ington. The subject of the approaching Presidential election was beginning to attraet attention, and De Witt Clinton was prominently mentioned as a candi- date, and was in communication with the leading Republicans. Just before Mr. Easton's departure for the seat of government, Mr. Clinton addressed him a note, requesting him to watch the progress of measures and act accordingly.

While in Washington Mr. Easton determined to remove to New Orleans, and left for that purpose early in March, armed with a letter from Aaron Burr to a gentleman in Louisiana. The young lawyer evi- dently had strongly impressed Burr, for the latter showed him many attentions, and did mueh to make his stay in Washington a pleasant one.

Mr. Easton did not, however, visit New Orleans, but decided to locate at Vincennes, Ind. His stay there was short, for in the same year he settled at St. Louis, which became his permanent residence.

He again visited Washington in 1804-5, and re- ceived attention from men of prominence. It was during this winter that Burr completed arrangements to carry out his favorite project of establishing a Western empire on the banks of the Mississippi, with New Orleans for its capital. It is probable that he then resolved upon seeuring the co-operation of Easton ; and in order to increase Easton's influence

with the people of the Territory, as well as to place him under obligation to himself personally, he pro- eured for him, in March, 1805, the appointment of judge of the Territory of Louisiana; and a few days later addressed him a letter, courteously phrased, and recommending him to make the acquaintance of Gen. Wilkinson, the newly-appointed Governor of the Ter- ritory, and others who, Burr said, were about to re- move to the Territory. In the light of subsequent events this letter was of importance as foreshadowing Burr's conspiracy against the government, but there was nothing in it that then excited the suspicions of Easton, who interpreted it as merely one of the many civilities which he had received from Mr. Burr. That Burr and Wilkinson had formed an unpatriotic alliance fully appeared upon Burr's trial for treason ; but Easton was not and could not then have been aware of the faet.

Burr spent that summer in a trip down the Ohio, visiting Blennerhasset's Island, etc., and in June, 1805, was at Massac, where, in anticipation of visit- ing St. Louis, he wrote Judge Easton a letter de- signed to establish the most intimate relations be- tween him and Governor Wilkinson, which indicates that he hoped to find him, when he arrived in St. Louis, not only in harmony but on terms of confi- denee and friendship with that official.

Burr came to St. Louis in September, and the ob- jeet of his visit was undoubtedly to secure the co-op- eration of Easton and other prominent men of the Territory in his seheme. He soon had a conference with Easton, and broached the subject of the empire, but received a decided and spirited refusal, and at once broke off all communication with him. After Burr left St. Louis, Wilkinson expressed a strong dis- like for Easton, and eireulated charges of official eor- ruption against him, which came to the ears of President Jefferson, who, when Easton's commission expired, nominated another person to the office. Easton at onee repaired to Washington, and sought an opportunity to meet the charges against him. He was granted a personal interview with Mr. Jefferson for that purpose, and the latter, being satisfied that Wilkinson's allegations were unfounded, appointed Judge Easton United States attorney. When Burr's conspiraey was officially disclosed to the President (in October, 1806), Judge Easton was appealed to for information on the subject, and frankly revealed all he knew. His own skirts were certainly clear of complicity in the matter, for as early as January, 1805, he wrote to Gideon Granger, stating his belief in the existence of a traitorous projeet to divide the Union, and in the following October informed the

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President that "Gen. Wilkinson has put himself at the head of a party of a few individuals who are hos- tile to the best interests of America." Judge Easton was violently attacked by witnesses in Burr's trial for withholding certain important information regarding the plot from the government, but he filed a deposi- tion disclaiming any knowledge beyond what has been related, and was completely acquitted in the judgment of the leaders of the administration. He enjoyed a friendly and interesting correspondence with Mr. Granger and many of the leading men of his time, and was honored with letters from Jefferson, Clinton, Calhoun, Granger, and many others.

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History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 101

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898 Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1358

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358