History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 108

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

USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men > Part 108

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HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

A career which well illustrates the sterling qualities of manhood was that of Hugh A. Garland, who was born in Nelson County, Va., about 1805. Wlien sixteen he entered Hampden-Sidney College, and did such good work there that after his graduation he be- came Professor of Greek at that institution. Shortly after he married Miss Anne P. Burwell, daughter of Col. Armistead Burwell. In 1830 he studied litera- ture and law for a year at the University of Virginia, and then opened an office in Boydtown. Two years later Mecklenburg sent him to the State Legislature. It was a time of great political turmoil. He was an ardent Jackson partisan, and contributed considerably to the controversial literature of the day. For five years he represented that county. In 1838 he was chosen clerk of the House of Representatives. About 1840 he retired to rural and literary pursuits, but in 1845 lost his property through unfortunate business connections, removed to St. Louis, and resumed law practice with an ardor and capacity which bore good fruit. Five years later he published a " Life of John Randolph." His death occurred in October, 1854.

Judge James Ransom Lackland held high rank at the St. Louis bar, though contending against early educational disadvantages, and in later years poor health. His birthplace was Montgomery County, Md., where he was born in January, 1820. In 1828 his parents removed to Missouri, and settled on a farm near St. Louis. His early opportunities for education were limited, until he reached the age of sixteen, to those which a country neighborhood could afford. He then entered the grammar school connected with Marion College, over which Rev. Dr. Potts then pre- sided, remaining there three months. He subse- quently attended as student, and afterwards as assist- ant tcacher, a school conducted by Rev. W. D. Shumate, on the St. Charles Rock road, fifteen miles from St. Louis. Beyond these modern advantages his acquirements were the fruits of private study. He next obtained employment in the house of Mullikin & Pratt, wholesale grocers, and was subsequently en- gaged under his relative, Rufus J. Lackland, as a clerk on a Mississippi River steamboat.

In the year 1845 he became a deputy clerk of the St. Louis Court of Common Pleas, under Nathaniel Paschall, then clerk.

At this time he decided to adopt law as his pro- fession, and began study in the office of Hon. Charles D. Drake, and was admitted to practice in 1846. He had neither fortune nor influential friends, but his indomitable energy enabled him to surmount all obstacles. In 1848 a vacancy occurred in the circuit attorneyship of St. Louis County, and he was

elected to fill it. This was an important office, involving great labor and responsibility, and brought the young lawyer into conflict with the best legal talent of the day. As a prosecutor, he is described as " bold, de- fiant, and successful." In 1852 he was again a candi- date, but sliarcd the defeat of the Whig party of that year, but mcanwhile (in 1849) he had formed a partnership with Mr. Jamison,1 and engaged in civil as well as criminal practice.

In 1853, Judge Colt having resigned from the bench of the St. Louis Criminal Court, he was elected to fill the vacancy, and sat as judge of that court during the residue of the term, which expired in 1856. At the general election in 1857 he was the successful candi- date for judge of the St. Louis Circuit Court, then held by one judge, and held that office until 1859, when he resigned from the bench and resumed the general practice of the law as senior in the firm of Lackland, Cline & Jamison. In 1864, attacked by a pulmonary complaint, he undertook long journeys in hope of recovery, and in 1868, partially restored, he became senior member of the firm of Lackland, Martin & Lackland (his brother), from time to time until the day of his death, Oct. 9, 1875, appearing in important cases.

A St. Louis journal after his death said, " The professional career of Judge Lackland was distin- guished to an extraordinary degree by untiring in- dustry, vigorous common sense, learning, and integ- rity of the highest order. As a lawyer, he grasped with unusual clearness and force the essential ques- tions of a controversy, and presented them to court or jury with direct and powerful simplicity of diction. In the discharge of official duty no man was more diligent, more upright, or more fearless. No one charged to protect the community from crime has ever won, whether at the bar or on the bench, a higher or more deserved reputation. And to those who at first doubted whether a likc success would at- tend his labors in his administration of civil justice,

1 A partner from 1849 till 1852 with Judge Lackland, and at various times since, was William C. Jamison, a resident of St. Louis since 1843. Born in Tennessee in 1822, of a family noted in that State, and educated at Union College, Murfreesboro', he prosecuted his early law studies under Hon. John F. Darby, and later with Messrs. Todd & Krum. In 1846 he opened an office of his own, though licensed nearly two years before. His first partnership was with F. R. Dick. In 1849 it was Lackland & Jamison ; in 1853, Cline & Jamison ; in 1857, Lackland, Kline & Jamison. In 1863, Judge Lackland retired; in 1866, M. C. Day became a member. Mr. Jamison became administrator for some of the largest estates in St. Louis ; and is a director in many prominent companies and associations. Both as lawyer and citizen he possesses high claims to regard. In 1865 he mar- ried Miss Mary E. Noe, of Norfolk, Va.

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his ceaseless industry and honorable ambition were not slow to furnish a reply. Simplicity, courage, honesty of purpose, scorn of everything mean or base, and dauntless energy, these were his characteristics. As a man, to these in later years was added earnest Christian faith."

There is little to add to this deserved praise of one of the leaders of the St. Louis bar, whose power in impressing a jury has seldom been surpassed. His greatest case was that of Effie Carstang vs. the noted Henry Shaw, of Shaw's Gardens, a suit for alleged breach of marriage promise. She had obtained, with Uriel Wright and L. M. Shreve for her lawyers, a verdict of one hundred thousand dollars damages from a jury, to the utter astonishment of the whole city. The verdict was set aside, and a new trial granted. Mr. Shaw retained Judge Lackland and Mr. Glover (his former counsel had been Edward Bates and John R. Shepley), and spent, it is said, twenty thousand dollars in the affair. The woman's earlier history was searched into, and the entire case prepared by Judge Lackland. On the second trial the verdict was for the defendant. The skill and energy displayed in this famous case increased Judge Lackland's already great reputation. In social life he was generous and warm-hearted. He was twice married, and left several children.

We have spoken of Uriel Wright as engaged in the case of Carstang vs. Shaw, and it is proper to say further of him here that, all in all, Missouri, and in- deed the West, never had a more brilliant, eloquent, erratic, marvelous genius than Maj. Uriel Wright. Judge Bay calls him the "Prentiss of Missouri." Born in 1805 in Virginia, mother of such orators as Wirt and Henry, Uriel Wright, a descendant of the noted Johnsons and Barbours, showed great mental power, and was sent to West Point, but left the in- stitution on his father's death, and began the study of law with Judge Barbour, of Orange County, also in a law-school at Winchester.

After marriage, in 1833, he removed to Missouri, where so many Virginians had taken high rank at the bar, settling in Northeast Missouri (Marion County). He speculated in one of the paper cities of the era, and lost all his means. About this time he served a term in the State Legislature ; soon after he removed to St. Louis, having gained reputation as an orator, and found plenty of work in criminal prac- tice, in which class of cases his success was unpar- alleled, saving the lives of many hardened criminals by his ardent eloquence, of which no specimens have been preserved, but which carried away judge, jury, and audience alike. Judge Bay says, " The style of

Maj. Wright's oratory was sui generis; his words flowed from his lips like a placid stream ; his voice was clear and musical ; his invective scathing." An- other writer says, "His eloquence, the beauty of his diction, and the keenness of his logic were universally acknowledged. As a criminal lawyer, he probably never had a superior at our bar." The greatest genius is, however, sometimes allied with the saddest weaknesses. Maj. Wright lacked will-force, moral power, and moral balance. On the heels of a denun- ciation of gambling so fierce and yet pathetic that men trembled and wept he might be seen at a card- table. Early in his life he was a Whig in politics, and in 1861 was an Unconditional Union man. As such he was elected by a tremendous majority to the State Convention of 1861. He continued to combat secession and disunion until the capture of Camp Jackson. This roused his indignation, and from the steps of the Planters' House he declared on the night of the 10th of May, 1861, that "if Unionism meant such atrocious deeds as had been that day witnessed he was no longer a Union man." Like Sterling Price and hundreds of others, Maj. Wright joined his fortunes with the Southern Confederacy, and served as a staff officer. After the war was over he ' returned to St. Louis, where he remained a short time, but finally removed to Winchester, Va., where he died Feb. 18, 1869, and " life's fitful fever" was past. The St. Louis bar met and passed resolutions which showed how highly he was personally esteemed. They spoke particularly of his literary culture (he had been a contributor to the Knickerbocker Magazine, and was always a great reader). With the beauties of Shakespeare he was perfectly familiar, so much so, indeed, that he often unconsciously spoke in the lan- guage of that great author as if he were speaking in his own copious diction. Some of his speeches prove that he was not unfamiliar with the Greek tragic poets, Sophocles and Euripides.

Judge M. R. Cullen, an intimate friend, and him- self a fine orator, said on this occasion, "No lawyer excelled Uriel Wright in practical management of a case. As a criminal lawyer, he stood among us un- rivaled. Discussing political questions, his eloquence was supremely in the ascendant, and the brilliancy of his language won the hearts of his hearers." In conversation, also, he had the same unique combina- tion of wit, talent, and solidity which made his forensic efforts so successful. A little more common sense would have undoubtedly given this eloquent advocate a national reputation.

There is something at least of coincidence in the fact that while Walter C. Gantt was a most promi-

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nent victim of the cholera in 1866,1 Thomas T. Gantt was among the most devoted combatants of the dis- ease in 1849. During the epidemic the Committee of Public Health was organized, with Thomas T. Gantt as chairman. He filled this position with such ability and thoroughness that when the scourge was driven from the city and the committee disbanded they closed its existence with the following resolution :

" That the thanks of the committee are due, both in their own behalf and in that of the citizens of St. Louis generally, to Thomas T. Gantt, Esq., for the zealous, able, efficient, and impartial manner in which he has discharged the many and arduous duties de- volved upon him as president of the Committee of Public Health during the existence of said committee as a Board of Health, under the city ordinance 'to prevent the spread of cholera.'"

Thomas Tasker Gantt bears the names of two of the oldest Maryland families, and was born at George- town, D. C., July 22, 1814, his mother being a Stod- dart. Young Gantt studied at Georgetown College, and then had an appointment to West Point, which after a two years' course an accidental injury com- pelled him to leave. He studied law in Upper Marl- boro', Prince George Co., Md., under Governor Pratt, and after passing the bar, came West to St. Louis in 1839. Since then his career has been thronged with events and crowned with successes. In 1845, Presi- dent Polk made lıim United States district attorney. In 1853, Mayor How made him city counselor ; next year the great riot occurred. Mr. Gantt, after helping to suppress it in the streets, drew the po- lice bill, which made the recurrence of such mob violence almost impossible. Many other instances of his successful war upon public abuses are recor- ded. In 1861, Mr. Gantt became a leader among the Unconditional Union men of St. Louis ; served as colonel and judge-advocate in McClellan's Army of the Potomac, provost-marshal-general under Schofield in Missouri, etc. Returning to his profession after the war, Col. Gantt continued in active practice and

1 A St. Louis journal of Aug. 18, 1866, thus notices Mr. Gantt's death :

" Col. Walter C. Gantt died very suddenly at his residence in this city yesterday, at two o'clock P.M., of cholera. He had at- tended a meeting at the court-house on Thursday night of the Society for the Preservation of Game, and participated in the proceedings by the delivery of a short speech, apparently in his usual good health. His wife and child were absent on a trip East. Col. Gantt was thirty-six years old, a lawyer of re- spectable standing at the St. Louis bar, and had been assistant circuit attorney since the fall of 1864. During the recent troubles he volunteered into the Third Missouri Cavalry, and was lieutenant-colonel of that regiment when it was mustered out of service."

active political service until 1875, when Governor Hardin made him presiding judge of the St. Louis Court of Appeals. During the same year he was a member of the convention which framed the present Constitution of the State, and was chairman of the committee on the bill of rights, and a member of the committee on the legislative department. He was also the author of Sections 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24 of Article IX. of that Constitution, which sepa- rated St. Louis from the county and made it a free city. It was the first attempt of that nature in American jurisprudence, and its success so far has proved the wisdom of the departure. Col. Gantt re- turned to the bar in 1877 rather than soil the ermine by making a canvass for popular election. That year, the one of the great strike, he was a leading member of the Committee of Safety, seeking to restore law and order. Col. Gantt is wealthy, esteemed, scholarly, distinguished at the bar, but most eminent as the public-spirited citizen to whom all turn, and upon whom all rely in danger and critical emergencies.

In his political career, while he has never been a seeker of office nor asked for the applause of his fel- low-citizens, Judge Gantt has consistently and per- sistently followed a straight course as a constructionist. During the war he was an Unconditional Unionist and a war Democrat ; was an opponent of the Drake Con- stitution and all radical or reconstructive measures ; a supporter of President Johnson's policy, and being opposed to the Democratic party in the nomination of Mr. Greeley in 1872, voted for Charles O'Conor for President, but for Mr. Tilden in 1876. He claims that his political career antecedent to the war was consistent, having voted for Seymour in 1868, for McClellan in 1864, for Douglas in 1860, for Bu- chanan in 1856, for Pierce in 1852, for Cass in 1848, and for Polk in 1844. In 1840 he voted for Hår- rison on his pledge to reform the civil service; but when the Whig party repudiated that pledge he re- turned to the Democratic party, to which he has since constantly adhered. But in his political views, while tenaciously clinging to his opinions, he has ever been liberal toward others, and only asking the same liberty for himself. He never asked for an office. Mr. Gantt has never been a member of any church, but has since early manhood inclined toward Unitarianism in his religious belief.

He was married in 1845 to Miss Mary Carroll Tabbs, a granddaughter of Charles Carroll, of Belle- vue, Md. In regard to his professional, social, and other characteristics, an eminent gentleman of St. Louis, who has known him long and intimately, says, I " He is a man of genial disposition, honorable in his

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dealings with his fellow-men, being possessed of a stern sense of justice, and endowed with a keen and discriminating intellect, which enables him to separate the true from the false and the ideal, being gifted in an eminent degree with the qualities which have distin- guished him as a lawyer and a judge. There is no man who, by precept and example, has done more than he to preserve the honor of the legal profession in the courts where he has practiced and in the eom- munity where he has resided ; and whilst it must be admitted that among his contemporaries he is one of the most learned men in the profession, it may be said that he has not considered a professional knowl- edge of jurisprudence at all incompatible with general culture and literary accomplishment, for in spite of the arduous duties of his profession, he has not only kept himself well informed in the political history of his country, but his literary attainments are of a high order. Industrious, energetic, and orderly in his habits, the knowledge which he has acquired on all subjects to which he has directed his attention is peculiarly accurate and reliable, and this may be at- tributcd not less to his industry and close attention than to his natural love of truth and justice."

Another of the men who, like Judge Lackland, were the architects of their own fortune, and who climbed with steady foot against many disadvantages to a high place, was Thomas B. Hudson. His birthplace was Davidson County, Tenn., the year was 1814. Academically edueatcd, he began law studies in 1832, and about 1835 removed to Tennessee, and began practice. About 1840 he was a member of the City Council, and two years later became city counselor. He was quite a politician, and in 1840 occurred the Chambers-Hudson duel. Hudson was a candidate for the Legislature ; Col. A. B. Chambers was editor and part proprietor of the Republican. An editorial had contained imputations upon Mr. Hudson's truth and courage; he replied with a challenge. The parties met and exchanged thrce shots without effect. A reconciliation followed, and they became lifelong friends. In 1842, Mr. Hudson went to the Legisla- ture, and distinguished himself as one of the most influential of its members. At one time he was president of the North Missouri Railroad Company. About 1854 he retired from the more public sphere in which he formerly moved, and devoted his time to the improvement of a handsome estate and the pur- suits of agriculture at his home, Glen Owen, in the Florissant valley, ten miles north of St. Louis. During the Mexican war he raised a cavalry com- pany, was chosen captain, and was one of the heroes of the Doniphan expedition. His wife was Miss

Eliza Chambers. Capt. Hudson's death oceurred in 1867.

Governor Trusten Polk, one of the ornaments of this period of the St. Louis bar, which then included such men as Wilson Primm, M. Blair, and J. B. Bow- lin, became widely known for his adhesion to the cause of the South. His absolute devotion to what he decmed his duty involved personal sacrifiees such as earn for his convictions at least respect. After the war he resumed practice in St. Louis, and in fact just before his death, in April, 1876, was preparing an address in the land case of Glasgow vs. the Lindell heirs, which case had then been twenty-three years in court. He was born in Sussex County, Del., in 1811. His father was a well-to-do farmer, and his mother was the sister of Governor Peter Causey. His father gave him a university education at Yale College, where he graduated with high honors in the class of 1831. Soon after he went into the law-office of James Rogers, attorney-general of Delaware, where he re- mained nearly two years, when he returned to Yale College, and attended a two years' course of law lec- tures. Returning home again, he was admitted to the bar, but in 1835 removed to St. Louis. Two years after his arrival he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth W. Skinner. One of his daughters after- wards married William F. Causey, his law partner and nephew. He labored with brilliant success for nearly ten years, but his health failed. In 1845, while absent on a visit to Cuba, he was elected from St. Louis County as one of the members of the conven- tion which assembled in 1846 to revise the Constitu- tion of the Statc. James O. Broadhead, Judge Robert Wells, William M. Campbell, Myron Leslie, Uriel Wright, James S. Green, and others were also members.

In 1848 he was chosen a member of the Democratic Convention which nominated Judge Austin A. King for Congress, and in 1848 was one of the Presidential electors on the Cass-Butler ticket. In 1856 he was made the nominee of the Democratic party for Gov- ernor, and was elected after an exciting contest over his Frce-Soil and Know-Nothing opponents. Receiv- ing the vote of his party in the Legislature for United States senator, he resigned the gubernatorial seat soon after his election to the position and entered Congress. With reference to this eventful period, a prominent journal said at the time, ---

" Honors have clustered upon Mr. Polk during the past year. The party he represents bore the sneers of the Benton organ for a number of years. He himself was taunted with having a constitueney of sixty-four votes, and commiserated for the feeble signs of his

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popularity. Since then the Benton faction in the State has steadily declined. Mr. Polk, in spite of the Benton coalition with Know-Nothings, was elected Governor by a very gratifying vote; and now, again, in joint session of the Legislature, Mr. Polk, by a vote of one hundred and one, is declared United States senator for six years, offset by the mournful vote of twenty-three for Col. Benton." Shortly after the breaking out of the war in 1861 he resigned his seat in the United States Senate and cast his lot with the Southern Confederacy. In 1864 lie was taken prisoner, and was confined on Johnson's Island until exchanged several months afterwards. During the war he held the position of presiding military judge of the Department of the Mississippi. At the close of the war he returned to St. Louis to find his prop- erty in the hands of the government, but it was after- wards restored to him. Governor Polk was again offered positions of high public trust, but invariably declined. He was generally recognized as one of the leading members of the St. Louis bar, and was en- gaged in many important cases. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and all his life showed consistent Christian virtues. Few men had fewer enemies. His diligence, patience, friendliness, and courtesy were the corner-stones of his success.

Judge Wilson Primm was born Jan. 10, 1810, in St. Louis, the city which recognized his talents and virtues in after-years by choosing him to many offices of trust and honor, and his death occurred in the same city, after a long and useful life, Jan. 17, 1878. He was twice married, leaving in all five children. He was the oldest of the eleven children of Peter Primm, a Virginian, and Mary La Rue, of French descent. His second wife and his mother survived him a short time. The latter, at the age of eighty- six, recalled vividly the eventful history of St. Louis, and the changes of government in the early Terri- torial history, the American flag being triumphantly carried up Walnut Street, and the Stars and Stripes unfurled from the fort or magazine, on which occasion, she said, all of the French and Spanish inhabitants of that day, herself among the number, shed tears of misgivings and regret.1

Wilson Primm attended the village French schools, and then Judge Tompkins' English school, showing great application and capacity. He was then sent to Bardstown College, Ky., where he graduated, and re- turned to read law under Hon. Edward Bates, who

had showed him many kindnesses, and given him every encouragement. At the age of twenty-one he was admitted to the bar, and became justice of the peace for a few years. Charles D. Drake, of Illinois, was his first law partner. George R. Taylor and Charles C. Whittlesey were subsequent partners. In his younger days Judge Primm was an ardent

Wilson Primm

Whig. In 1834 he became a member of the Board of Aldermen, and was retained in that body through many administrations, being its president for many years. He was elected in the fall of 1834 to a seat in the Missouri House of Representatives, and rc- elected for several terms.

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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 108

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