History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 105

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

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The law career of Mr. Tompkins began in 1816, when he was admitted and settled in Old Franklin, Howard Co. In those days young attorneys found that their surest road to fame lay through politics. They could in no other way form so wide a circle of friends nor better display their latent capacities. We find that Lawyer Tompkins was twice sent to the Ter- ritorial Legislature, then meeting at St. Charles. In 1824 he was chosen judge of the Supreme Court, and remained in that important office until he passed the constitutional limit of age (sixty-five years), and was therefore forced to resign. Two years later, in April, 1846, aged sixty-seven, he died on his fine farm near Jefferson City. No incompetent or weak person could so long have held such a position. Judge Tompkins was eminent for ability, integrity, and close legal re- search, as all his decisions evince. Judge W. V. N.

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Bay, late of the Supreme Court of Missouri, in his able book upon the bench and bar, says that Judge Tompkins was too great a stickler for precedent, and in the case of Lecompte vs. Seargent held that " an executor or administrator is for every purpose owner of the moneys of his testator or intestate which have come into his hands ;" in other words, such funds are liable for the administrator's personal debts. The judge was misled by a reference in an old English digest he carried in his saddle-bags. This will serve to show some of the difficulties for lack of books under which the lawyers and judges of an early day labored. At a later date Judge Bay himself reversed this decision. There are many amusing stories afloat about Judge Tompkins ; he was a whimsical, original genius, eccentric, kindly, and prone to indulge in a dry humor all his own. Sometimes it took the form of sarcasm, as when a backwoods lawyer named Men- dell, attired in the most slovenly manner, was arguing a case before him. Just before the usual adjournment . hour the judge said, " Mr. Mendell, it is impossible for this court to see any law through as dirty a shirt as you have on. We will adjourn to give you an op- portunity to change your linen." Sometimes, how- ever, the judge received back as good as he gave, as in a tilt with Peyton R. Hayden, one of the finest lawyers in Central Missouri. He was arguing a case in the Supreme Court, and Judge Tompkins, becom- ing tired, said, " Mr. Hayden, why do you spend so much time on the weak points of your case, to the exclusion of the more important ones ?" Hayden was equal to the emergency, and replied on the instant that it was because he had found during his long practice before that court that the weak points won fully as often as the strong ones.

Like many professional men, the judge was an ardent lover of horticulture. His orchards were noted for the fine fruit they bore, and he became quite an authority on the subject. It is often the case that men's thoughts turn as old age approaches to quiet scenes and rural pursuits. They cannot quite take off the armor, but they hunger for the garden, the orchard, the wide landscape, the rolling pastures, the glades and forests and well-tilled fields. Almost everywhere the leaders of the bar have owned and improved rural estates, introduced thoroughbred stock, and aided largely in the advancement of agriculture. Bates, McGirk, and Scott all owned fine farms. A number of other instances might be given, but two must suf- fice. In 1868, May 10th, the St. Louis Republican noticed the death of Adolphe Renard, aged sixty-five, for many years United States recorder of land titles, and afterwards in the surveyor-general's office, but

during the later years of his life engaged in horticul- ture and grape culture near St. Louis. In 1846 the same journal speaks of the death of Col. Justus Post, at one time judge of the St. Louis County Court, afterwards in the Missouri Senate, and still later holder of a staff appointment in the Mexican war. A native of Vermont, he came to Missouri in 1816, practiced law, and owned a large farm in St. Louis County. In 1831 he removed to Pulaski County, Ill., where he died on the fine farm which he owned there.

Another of the representative lawyers of Southern Missouri, who is nevertheless entitled to notice here, was Gen. Nathaniel W. Watkins, born in Kentucky in 1796, and a half-brother of Henry Clay. Reach- ing St. Louis in 1820, he soon established himself at Jackson, Cape Girardeau Co., served several terms in the State Legislature, and was speaker of the Sixteenth General Assembly. He also served as a member of the St. Louis Convention of 1861. During these years he was a noted horticulturist, and divided his time be- tween his office and farm. His greatest successes were before juries, as he was a forcible speaker and a most adroit manager. He died March 20, 1875.

Returning to the characteristic men of the early St. Louis bar, we find Nathaniel Beverly Tucker, who was born at Mattox, Chesterfield Co., Va., on Sept. 6, 1784. He was the third son of J. St. George Tucker, from the island of Bermuda, who settled in Virginia previous to the Revolutionary war, and mar- ried in the year 1778 the widow of John Randolph. Mr. and Mrs. Randolph were the parents of the cele- brated John Randolph of Roanoke, who was thus the half-brother of N. B. Tucker.

Mr. Tucker came to St. Louis in 1815, at the age of thirty-one years, to practice his profession of the law, and was appointed by Frederick Bates, the secre- tary, and then acting Governor, of the Territory, judge of the Northern Circuit, and he held the first term of his court at St. Louis on Monday, Feb. 9, 1818. This position he held for about five years, ex- cept during a brief absence, and was succeeded on the bench by Judge Alexander Stuart in June, 1823. He lived for a time in Saline County, about 1831-32. After a residence in Missouri for some eighteen years or so he returned to Virginia, about 1833 or 1834, to accept the chair of law professor in William and Mary College at Williamsburg, James City Co., which position he filled about cighteen years until his death at Winchester, Va., Aug. 26, 1851, at the age of sixty-seven years.

Alexander Steuart, from Virginia, practiced law for a short time at Kaskaskia about 1806 or 1807, and then came over to St. Louis.

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Hc was appointed by Governor McNair judge of the Circuit Court to succeed Judge Tueker, and held the first term of his court in St. Louis, June 2, 1823, which place he filled for three years, being succeeded on the bench by Judge W. C. Carr. He died on his farm in the upper part of the county near Bellefontaine.

Here, too, belongs the name of Robert Wash. He was born in Virginia, Nov. 29, 1790, was well cdu- cated, graduating from college at the age of eighteen, pursued a wide range of legal studies, and after the war of 1812 removed to St. Louis, where he began the practice of law. He was United States district attorney during Monroe's administration, afterwards a member of the City Council, and became a judge of the Supreme Court shortly after the State govern- ment was organized. His death occurred on the last day of November, 1856. In May, 1837, he had resigned his seat on the Supreme Court. Judicious real estate investments secured him a large fortune. He was very fond of the chase, and always kept a pack of hounds. At the usual bar meeting after his death the Hon. Edward Bates presided, and in the course of his remarks said,-

" Judge Wash was one of the oldest members of the St. Louis bar, much older, as a member of the bar, than any man that any one of you have seen in practice here. When I came to this place, in the spring of the year 1814, Judge Wash was then one of the junior members of the bar. He was a na- tive of Virginia, from the county of Louisa. He was an ed- ucated man, having all the benefits of scholastic instruction, being of the ancient college of William and Mary, and having perfected in that honorable institution by teaching in the ca- pacity of a college tutor for some time. He then studied law, and looked westward. When I came here I found him in a re- spectable and honorable position, a rising member of the St. Louis bar, having but some four his seniors at that day. I presume that if he had devoted himself exclusively to the pro- fession that he would have risen to much higher rank and have attained even a greater and better fame than he did. He served under Gen. Howard as an aide-de-camp in his expedi- tion from St. Louis to Peoria, in the Indian war, and he served for years after peace was practically restored as secretary to the commissioners. He rose also in his profession, for he has had the honor of holding a seat for some time on the Supreme Bench of the State. His decisions are good, though he did not, perhaps, rank higher than his colleagues."

Hon. J. F. Darby spoke of the late judge as one of those who signed his certificate in 1827. The chair appointed Hon. J. F. Darby, Willis L. Wil- liams, Charles E. Whittelsey, Philip C. Morehead, and Albert Todd to draft appropriate resolutions, which were then adopted. H. R. Gamble, John M. Krum, Judge Ryland, and Willis L. Williams were appointed to act as pall-bearers.

the St. Louis bar. His second wife, Eliza, was Col. Taylor's daughter, and she bore him four sons and several daughters.

George W. Goode, born in Virginia in 1815, finely educated and associated in law with Hon. James A. Sed- don at Richmond, settled in St. Louis, in partnership with Tully R. Cormick. His fees in the land case of Bissell vs. Penrose were over sixty thousand dollars. He died from softening of the brain in 1863, and had some years previously been compelled to give up his profession and retire to a farm. The litigant here re- ferred to seems to have been James Howard Penrose, born in Philadelphia, a son of Clement B. Penrose, one of the board of commissioners appointed by President Jefferson in 1806 to adjudicate the titles to the lands granted by the Spanish government, and who removed to St. Louis with his family the same year, or else an older brother of James H., Charles Biddle Penrosc, who returned to Philadelphia and became a prominent politician. James Howard Pen- rose also left St. Louis for parts unknown, and died unmarried.

About 1817, Josiah Spalding graduated from Yale with the highest honors of his class, and in the winter of 1819-20 settled at St. Louis. The two years intervening had been spent in studying law, during which he supported himself as a tutor in Columbia College, New York. The bar of St. Louis was not an easy one for a young man to enter, for its standards were high and its requirements exten- sive. Mr. Spalding began a series of articles in the city papers, whose literary merit attracted attention to him. The Republican of May 15, 1852, a few days after his death, thus drew attention to his editorial career : " In 1822, when the Constitution of the State was disregarded, and the real interests of the people jcoparded by the enactment of the ' Loan Office' and ' Stay Laws,' Mr. Spalding became the editor of the Missouri Republican, which then passed into the hands of Mr. Edward Charless, and he continued to occupy that position until the good sense of the people and the wisdom and integrity of the judges combined to put down the whole series of mischievous measures. When this was accomplished Mr. Spalding ceased to have any control of the paper as editor, and after that time wrote little for political or other journals."

On the occasion of his death the members of the bar met and passed resolutions of regret. The speak- ers all referred to the high moral character of the de- ccased. He was a consistent Christian and very Judge Wash was twice married. His first wife, Mrs. Berry, daughter of Maj. William Christy, bore benevolent, devoted to his family, and almost idolized by them. As a lawyer, he was profuse in authorities, him a daughter, afterwards wife of G. W. Goode, of i and his briefs always attracted attention. He was

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not an orator, but few men were equally regarded as an adviser when important interests were involved. One of his characteristics was an unquenchable optimism. Most of his cases were of a commercial nature, though he did not make a specialty of that department. Judge Bay calls attention to the case of Hamilton and Treat, judges, vs. St. Louis County Court, which was tried in 1851; the point involved being a constitutional question as to the legality of a legislative act requiring the payment of additional com- pensation to judges of certain courts out of the county treasury. The case went to the Supreme Court, and Messrs. Spalding and Field were for the relators, and Messrs. Bates and Gantt for the county court. The brief filed by Mr. Spalding is considered a choice ex- ample of his fine powers of research.

One of the eminent jurists and pleaders of Central Missouri was Abiel Leonard, born at Windsor, Vt., in May, 1797.1 He spent three years at Dartmouth College, injured his sight by hard study, and left be- fore graduation. His law studies began at White- boro', N. Y., in 1816 ; in 1818 he was admitted, and the next year floated down the Ohio in a skiff, and paddled up the river to St. Louis. Old Franklin then . had about eighteen hundred inhabitants, and was thought the best place for a young lawyer, and so Leonard turned his footsteps thither, but his funds gave out, and he taught a country school for six months. He afterwards practiced law at Boonville, Old Franklin, and New Franklin, but his eyes again failed, and for some time he employed a person to read to him. He soon moved to Fayette, the county-seat of Howard, began to take high rank in his profession, and measured steel with the best lawyers of the State.

In 1823 he became State attorney for his judicial district, filling out H. R. Gamble's unexpired term. Judge Bay, from whose valuable work these partic- ulars are obtained, says that the only law partner Mr. Leonard ever had was Gen. S. M. Bay, and this continued until the latter removed to St. Louis. Some time about 1820, Mr. Leonard had a personal diffi- culty with Maj. Berry, who, under some pretense,

cowhided him and was challenged. In the duel which followed Berry was killed. Mr. Leonard was debarred and disfranchised, but public opinion justi- fied him, and the next Legislature restored him to citizenship. In 1830 he married Miss Jeannette Reeves, of Kentucky. In 1834 he assisted to revise the Constitution. When Governor Gamble resigned from the supreme bench, Judge Leonard took his place, and rendered decisions which compare well with the best of his timc. His death occurred March 28, 1863. One of his warmest personal friends and asso- ciates was Peyton R. Hayden, of Boonville, Cooper Co., whom he met for the first time in 1819 at a small wayside tavern. The acquaintanceship thus begun grew year by year till Mr. Hayden's death in 1855. This gentleman was born in Kentucky, at Paris, Bourbon Co., in 1796, came to Missouri in 1817, taught school a year, and was admitted to the bar in 1819. Cooper County then had a frontier population of about seven thousand. David Todd was judge of the Circuit Court, and no less than six of the lawyers who practiced there afterwards sat in the Supreme Court.

Judge John F. Ryland, afterwards of the Lexing- ton bar, belonged to this circuit, and was a familiar figure in early days in St. Louis, making frequent visits to that city. He used to say that once in 1825 he was offered forty arpens of land now in the heart of the city, and worth millions of dollars, in trade for the horse he was riding. The judge was of Vir- ginian birth. In 1809, when he was twelve years of age, his father moved to Kentucky. He attended Forest Hill Academy, afterwards opened a successful private school, read law with Judge Hardin, obtained a license, and removed to Missouri in 1819. From 1848 to 1857 he was a judge of the Supreme Court. His death occurred in 1873, and was deeply lamented throughout the State. Three of his sons became lawyers. He was an old school Presbyterian. For two years he held the Grand Mastership of the Mis- souri Masonic fraternity.

Still another of this noted Franklin Circuit was Charles French, born in New Hampshire in 1797, where he studied law. Coming to Missouri in 1817 or thereabouts, he obtained his licensc. He was well read, and a first-rate special pleader. About 1839 he settled in Lexington, and about 1862, at- tacked by melancholia and mental derangement, he took his own life.

One of the marked characters of early St. Louis was Judge Frederick Hyatt, of the county court, afterwards for many years a legislator, and as such taking active part in the most exciting political events.

1 Judge Leonard's grandfather, Rev. Abiel Leonard, gradu- ated at Harvard, and preached at Woodstock, Conn. He wished to enter the army as chaplain when the Revolution broke out, but his church would not consent. The brave and persistent pastor then visited Washington's Cambridge camp, and pro- cured a joint letter from Gens. Putnam and Washington (March 24, 1776), begging the "congregation of Woodstock to cheer- fully give up to the public a gentleman so very useful," which they did without more ado. Nathaniel Leonard, his son, and Judge Leonard's father, was born in this ancient town in 1768. Serving in the war of 1812, he was commander of Fort Niagara when the British took that place.

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Born in Madison County, Ky., in 1790, and enjoy- ing only common school facilities, he came to Missouri in 1815 or thereabouts, and became engaged in flat- boating on the river. He settled in St. Ferdinand township, St. Louis Co., about 1819, and was one of the first to cultivate the soil in that garden-spot, the beautiful Florissant valley, now so blooming with flowers, overflowing with abundant crops, crowded with homes of wealth and refinement. He had not wasted his time. Reading and study gave him power among men, and his associates in those earlier years of the century were among the best of the region roundabout. He was the friend and companion of the Chouteaus, the Leducs, the Chauvins, the Prattes, the Bissells, the Grahams, the Stuarts, and the Mul- lanphys. Barton, Bates, Gamble, Geyer, Cozens, and Col. O'Fallon were also among his intimates, not only at this time, but later in the State Legislature. As a farmer, he realized his duties to tlie community, taking active part in neighborhood improvements, roads, bridges, school-houses, churches. Governor Alexander McNair appointed him justice of the peace in St. Ferdinand township. This was in 1822 or 1823. He afterwards became collector of revenues and taxes for St. Louis County, and still later judge of the county court, performing all these duties efficiently. While judge, the courts all being held in a dilapidated old building on the southwest corner of Second and Walnut, he took steps to build a court- house on the present Court-House Square, which at that time was vacant, unincloscd, and unoccupied save by a public whipping-post, on which malefactors, both male and female, were publicly whipped, recciv- ing generally thirty-nine lashes on their bare backs, the sheriff in every instance being sworn to lay on the lashes to the best of his ability, without " fcar, favor, or affection." Judge Hyatt, with the assist- ance of the other two judges, removed that obnoxious emblem of the administration of justice, and had the contractors, Laveille & Morton, erect what was then considered not only the finest court-house, but also the finest building in the State, the predecessor of the present edifice. Judge Hyatt afterwards, as a legislator, helped to change the law from stripes, as a relic of barbarism unworthy of a highly-cultivated Christian people, to the present penitentiary system. In 1828 he ran for county sheriff, but was defeated by Dr. Robert Simpson. Judge Hyatt's character was never better shown than in the turmoil which followed the Constitutional Convention, whose work was adopted by the people June 12, 1820. For four- teen months the State was kept out of the Union. It was one of the great premonitory struggles on the

slavery issue, and the battle-ground was at the capital of the nation. Turbulent spirits among the frontiersmen threatened " to fight their way into the Union," but Hyatt and many like him opposed and crushed these rebellious schemes. When the " First General Assem- bly" met in the famous old Missouri Hotel, Hyatt saw Barton elected, saw the struggle against Benton, and took part in these eventful occurrences.

When the first Legislature met at St. Charles and passed the " solemn public act," on the 26th of June, 1821, as a pre-requisite for the admission of Missouri, on the proclamation by the President of the United States, as required by the act of Congress, and under which Missouri was admitted as a State on the 10th of August, 1821, Judge Hyatt supported the measure. The Legislature was afterwards convened to pass relief laws, there being no money in the country and the people in great distress, unable to pay their taxes. This was done by establishing a " loan office," to issue paper money in the name of the State of Missouri, based on the credit of the State, and to lend the same to enable the people to pay their taxes. Frederick Hyatt was a member of the Legislature, and helped. to pass this law, but it was afterward declared void by the Supreme Court of the United States as being a violation of the Constitution of the United States. After the Legislature removed to Jefferson City, Frederick Hyatt was a member from St. Louis County, when the attempt was made to remove Judge William C. Carr from the Legislature. Fred- erick Hyatt denounced the proceeding as " unjust political persecution." When the State-House was burned down in Jefferson City and the archives of the State destroyed, Frederick Hyatt, again as a mem- ber from St. Louis County, took his seat in the Senate. In all Judge Hyatt was a member of the Legislature for about twenty years, sometimes as senator, sometimes as representative. He was no speaker, but helped to shape important legislation of the State during these busy years under six Gov- ernors. He was always a Whig, and in the great campaign of 1840, when " conventions, log cabins, coon-skins, and hard cider emblems were the order of the day, when paintings, banners, mottoes, proces- sions, barbecues, songs, and speech-making ruled and swept over the land with unobstructed sway, Fred- erick Hyatt was always on hand in the procession, marching in the ranks of his party." It is also said that during the forty years in which he served the State in various capacities he performed jury service under Judges Tucker, Stuart, Carr, Lawless, Mullan- phy, Krum, Hamilton, and other judges of the State courts, and under Judges Peck, Wells, Catron, and

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Treat of the Federal courts. He was married four times, his first wife being Miss Hume, of Florissant valley, his second wife a widow lady from Kentucky, his third wife the widow of Maj. Whistler, and his fourth wife the widow of Thomas J. Ferguson. His own death occurred Sept. 10, 1870.

A lawyer of widespread fame was Judge Luke E. Lawless, born in Dublin in 1781. His life was checkered and romantic. At an early age he en- tered the British navy, serving there till after the treaty of Amiens. Afterwards he graduated at the Dublin University, was admitted to the bar in 1805, and seemed likely to win high standing. But he was a Catholic, and the restriction laws, then in force, presented what seemed insuperable obstacles in tlie way of his gaining the prizes of the profession. He therefore, in 1810, entered the French service under his uncle, Gen. William Lawless, acted as military secretary for the Duc de Feltre, and was promoted to a coloncley. Napoleon's final defeat caused him to seek America, scarred with honorable wounds, and in 1824 he settled in St. Louis, where he soon built up a large practice, which he enjoyed till his death in 1846. For three years he was judge of the St. Louis Circuit Court, following Judge W. C. Carr. Judge Lawless was slender, dignified, and always interesting, thoroughly verscd in his profession, supreme in his judicial analysis, never eloquent, but terrible in his pungent sarcasm. Taking part in a duel in France, he was rendered lame; he also acted as Benton's second in the Lucas duel. His wife was a French lady.

The most remarkable judicial incident in Judge Lawless' life was his leadership in the famous im- peachment of Judge James H. Peck, of Missouri, before the United States Senate. This Judge Peck was a noted man, an accomplished scholar, and a thorough lawyer. Little is known of his early life, but he began the practice of law in Tennessee. He came to Missouri about 1820, and was presently appointed judge of the Federal court, it is said, at the instance of Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky. In 1826 the difficulty with Judge Lawless began, the latter being counsel for certain Spanish land claims. In April of that year he printed over the signature " A Citizen" a respectful criticism upon one of Judge Peck's decisions on a case similar to those he represented. The judge ordered the pro- prietor of the paper to show cause why an attachment should not issue against him for contempt of court. A reply was made denying jurisdiction, as an appeal had been taken in the case criticised, affirming that it was a fair and correct statement of the decision,

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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 105

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