History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 110

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 110

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frivolous matters, and from his best friends. He was very parsimonious, regarding wealth as the chief passport to happiness ; but his kindness to his slaves, whom he would never sell, and never derived any profit from, was in unique contrast to his usual habits. In July, 1876, he died, leaving a widow and four children.

Another eminent lawyer and statesman of this epoch is Hon. Charles P. Johnson, whose life will be found in the chapter on Political Progress.

Mr. Glover, Maj. Uriel Wright, and others eulogized the truth, tenacity, and harmonious development of his character.

Samuel T. Glover is a man of the period now being treated of, but we like to think of him as a contemporary in the strictest sense, or rather as a " man for all time." Eminent as he is at the bar, it is still in public life that he ranks highest.

Mr. Glover was especially prominent in the agita- tion for the repeal of the " test oath" after the close of the war, and his services in that connection will long be remembered by grateful thousands whose re- enfranchisement he helped to secure. Mr. Glover had been a devoted, self-sacrificing adherent of the Federal government throughout the war, and his loyalty was unimpeachable. Upon the adoption of the proscriptive " Drake Constitution," however, in 1865, he placed himself at the head of the movement to resist those of its provisions which were aimed at citizens of Missouri who had sympathized with the South. Speaking of Mr. Glover's legal arguments in this connection, Gen. Francis P. Blair once charac- terized them as " arguments characterized by exten- sive and accurate learning, by marvelous power in the grasp of principles and irresistible vigor in their application, by the highest order of forensic eloquence, by a noble courage, by a passionate devotion to the fundamental doctrines of civil liberty as declared in the immortal ' Magna Charta' and reproduced in the American Constitution. No man," added Gen. Blair, " has been found to answer his arguments. The judges who listened to them had no responsive argu- ments to make, though they ruled adversely. With as clear a conscience as any man who lives Mr. Glover could have taken the oath prescribed, for no man in the Union has more faithfully than he, in act, word, and thought, at all times and in all circumstances, fulfilled his obligations to the Union. But the requisitions accompanying that oath were so at war with every principle of right that he preferred to be driven from the forum, where he had been the brightest ornament, rather than swear it. He was great before, honored for his unrivaled capacity and strength by all the members of the bar and by judges on the bench. He stands nobler and greater now in public estima- tion and renown. Those precious and priceless argu- ments of his will be read hereafter with a glow of admiration for his patriotism and his genius, and no name in Missouri will be cherished in the future in more loving honor than that of Samuel T. Glover."

The greatest loss that the bar of St. Louis had sus- tained for years was the death of Judge John C. Richardson, partner of Samuel T. Glover, which oc- curred Sept. 21, 1860. Although but forty-two years of age, the place he had won by his profcs- sional talents and illuminated by his virtues has never becn more wisely filled. Though not an orator, his clear, precise, earnest, and convincing speeches gave him unbounded success with courts and juries. " A model of a good lawyer and of a good citizen" is what one of his associates termed him. Born in Ken- tucky in 1817, and educated at that Transylvania University which sent to St. Louis so many well- trained jurists, young Mr. Richardson spent the years between 1840 and 1850 in practice in Boonville, ranking with the best lawyers of Central Missouri. While there he married Miss Lionberger, who, with several children, still survives him. But as all roads once led to Rome, so in those days the paths of am- bitious lawyers all led to St. Louis. The year 1850 saw the law-office of Richardson & Kirtley in the tide of success, but Sinclair Kirtley removed to Cali- fornia, and Mr. Richardson, with Samuel T. Glover, under the firm-name of Glover & Richardson, began to create by their industry and ability that reputation which brought them an immense business, and made them known throughout the entire West. In 1853, Mr. Richardson became city counselor for St. Louis. Four years later a vacancy occurred on the bench of the Supreme Court. Hamilton R. Gamble initiated an appeal from the leading lawyers of the time, ask- ing Mr. Richardson to accept the nomination. The people indorsed him with enthusiasm, and he served until 1859, when ill health compelled his resignation, and he returned to practice, again in partnership with Mr. Glover. After his death the members of the bar assembled, Hon. Edward Bates presiding, Judges Wood and Lackland as vice-presidents, and M. R. Cullen as secretary. Judge C. D. Drake reported the resolutions, which were couched in the most ten- der terms of admiration, affection, and sorrow. " His In September, 1865, Mr. Glover made a test case in his own person. He was indicted for practicing departure in the prime and vigor of manhood is," they said, " a calamity to the bar and the community." | without taking the oath. This indictment was so-

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licited by him, as will be seen by the following letter addressed by him to the circuit attorney :

"ST. LOUIS, Sept. 11, 1865. "J. P. VASTINE, EsQ., Circuit Attorney :

" SIR,-I am among those who believe that several provisions of the new Constitution of Missouri are not only highly oppres- sive to the citizens, but in violation of the Constitution of the United States. Indeed, so extraordinary are they that I decm it my duty, in person, to resist them, so far as they interfere with me, by every means which the law provides. With this purpose in view I have omitted to take the oath prescribed for attorneys and counselors-at-law, and on last Saturday and to- day I have been practicing as an attorney in the suit of Norman Cutter vs. James Clemens et al. Nor is it my intention to take said oath until I have secured the means of putting its consti- tutionality to the judicial test that I desire.

"I would thank you to institute an indictment on the above admission.

" If other proof is necessary, call on Samuel Gaty, Esq.

" I am ready to save you from any trouble in the premises by such further acts, admissions, or proofs as will enable you to present the matter fully and fairly to the court.

" I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully yours, "S. T. GLOVER."

The grand jury, September 20th, returned an in- dictment, and three days later Judge Primm sentenced him to pay a fine of five hundred dollars. An appeal to the Supreme Court was then prayed for, and a stay of execution was asked, and both granted, and time until the last day of term granted for defendant to file his bill of exceptions. Mr. Glover gave bond in the sum of five hundred dollars for his appearance before the Supreme Court, and to obey every order and judg- ment that might be entered against him, Abraham M. Gardner becoming his security. The October session of the Supreme Court reversed the judgment, holding the test oath null and void. The question was also carricd before the United States Supreme Court, by which, in December, 1866, it was decided that the law of Congress imposing a retrospective oath of loy- alty as a condition of being admitted to practice in the United States courts was unconstitutional. Although many and distinguished lawyers and jurists were as- sociated in this great struggle, the final success before the United States Supreme Court is due in large de- grec to Hon. Alexander J. P. Gareschè. It must be remembered that all these men sacrificed their exten- sive practices, being debarred from the courts until this test case was settled so conclusively.

Another of the many gentlemen who left the law in later years to engage, and successfully, in mercantile pursuits was Maj. Ryland, from 1850 to 1858, when his death occurred, closely identified with St. Louis business interests, and in 1857 chosen pres- ident of the Chamber of Commerce. He was a native of Kentucky, but located himself at Franklin, Mo., when he was quite a young man, and soon after accepted the

appointment of receiver of public moneys, which he held until the spring of 1840. He was " recognized as honest, faithful, and competent," or, in the words of Judge John C. Richardson, " no man ever held the office longer or left a cleaner record." In 1847 he removed to St. Louis, formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Capt. Reilly, an old law partner of Judge Richardson's, and three years later, as noted, he became engaged in commercial pursuits. At his death, the Chamber of Commerce and the St. Louis bar passed appropriate resolutions of regret.

In 1850, Judge Nathaniel Pope died suddenly, while on a visit to St. Louis. He had been for some years United States district judge of Illinois, and was a pioneer of 1808 in that State. Many leading St. Louis lawyers read law in his office at Kaskaskia.

An old member of the St. Louis bar was Alexander Kayser, a native of Nassau, born in 1815. From 1833 to the time of his death, 1864, he was in active practice. During the month (October of 1864) in which Alexander Kayser died, the bar of St. Louis was called upon to mourn three other deaths of prom- inent members,-Wells and Coalter died, crowned with years ; W. B. Clarke, a native of Waltham, Mass., was cut off at the threshold of many honors. He had been in St. Louis only seven years, but had won marked success, and profound sorrow was everywhere expressed over his loss.

One of the judges of the Supreme Court at this time merits more than a passing notice. Walter L. Lovelace, the son of a Baptist minister, born in Vir- ginia in 1831, toiled in his boyhood to help support his mother and sisters, taught school, worked as a farm hand, studied law, was admitted in 1854, went to the Legislature twice, and in 1865 was appointed to the Supreme Court. His death occurred in 1866. Most of his life was spent in Montgomery County. Integrity and high moral purpose were his character- istics, and the people of that region still venerate his memory.

Alexander J. P. Gareschè, already mentioned, was born in 1823, on the island of Cuba. His parents were French refugees from San Domingo in 1791, and his early education was obtained at Georgetown (D. C.) College, and afterwards at St. Louis Univer- sity, where he received the highest honors, and ulti- mately the three degrees in the gift of that institution. In 1842 he began to study law in the office of Col. Thomas T. Gantt, and was admitted in 1845. Fervid eloquence and untiring energy were soon recognized as his characteristics, and his practice became very large. In 1846 he served as city attorney, but other- wise declined political preferment.

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Mr. Gareschè was especially prominent just after the war on account of the inanly resistance which he offered in the courts to the unconstitutional test oath, and his name is identified with those who, as leaders in the cause, inspired the people of the State with a resolute purpose to maintain the privileges of civil and religious freedom. He exhibited his devotion to the cause by self-denying and expensive labors in order to secure a judgment from the Supreme Court at Wash- ington declaring the oath unconstitutional.

In 1849 he married Laura, granddaughter of Wy- nant Van Zandt, of the old Knickerbocker stock of New York, and nine children were born of this union. A cousin of his, P. B. Gareschè, born in Delaware, was for a time his partner (1848), and in 1855 was appointed public administrator, and afterwards elected to the same office.

In 1861, feeling that with his ideas of State sov- ereignty, and with his sympathies with the Southern people, he could not conscientiously take the required oath of loyalty, he resigned his office and joined his for- tunes with the Confederate causc, taking charge of the powder-works of the South, a position he filled until the close of the war, after which he returned to St. Louis, becoming senior member of the firm of Gare- schè, Bakewell & Farish, but died in November, 1868. Alexander J. P. Gareschè still survives, hon- ored and successful.

Edward T. Farish, so long a law partner of the Gareschès, was and is one of the conspicuous men of his time. He was born in Woodville, Miss., in Au- gust, 1836, his father being a physician of large practice, and his mother a granddaughter of Sir Wil- liam Hamilton. In 1847 his parents died. Young Farish was cared for by his father's relatives, and graduated at the St. Louis University in 1854. He studied law with Hon. A. Fenby, was admitted in 1856, and soon joined the Gareschès. From 1861 to 1864 he practiced on his own account, then formed professional relations with Hon. R. A. Bakewell, afterwards judge of the St. Louis Court of Appeals (elected in 1876). In 1867 lie was married to Miss Lily Gareschè, sister of A. J. P. Gareschè, his former partner. He is an eloquent speaker, with rare power over his associates and the jury, a cultivated gentle- man, and a close student. Occasional contributions to the press show his polished literary talent, and his social qualities make him everywhere a welcome guest. His practice has been chiefly in civil cases, but on scv- eral memorable occasions he lias entered the criminal court. In the Britton-Overstolz contest for the may- oralty (1876), Mr. Farish and Judge Madill were counsel for the latter, and won a hard-fought field.

For some time Mr. Farish was city counselor of St. Louis.

In the ten years immediately following the close of the civil war the bar lost several valued members. Two Prussians of ability and fine legal training won rank at the St. Louis bar, and both died in the same year, 1865. Frederick Kretschmar was for eleven years clerk of the Criminal Court. He was a native of Hagen, Westphalia, born in 1806, emigrated in 1830, settled in Philadelphia, married in 1832, and removed to Missouri in 1836. In 1838 he began to publish a paper in St. Louis, but was chosen justice of the peace, and held that office for fifteen years, resigning it to take the clerkship just mentioned. At a time when party politics ran high, and he was, as a rule, in the minority, he retained the esteem and sup- port of his fellow-citizens. Col. Christian Kribben, born in 1821 at Cologne, Prussia, settled in St. Louis in 1835 and studied law. He was afterwards a lieu- tenant in Doniphan's Mexican expedition, and was at one time inspector-general of the State militia. About 1848 he began to take a high rank at the St. Louis bar, served two years in the State Legislature, one term as Speaker of the House. When Gen. McClel- lan was nominated at Chicago for President, he was a delegate from Missouri.

Here, if the fact that these gentlemen were not more prominent upon a broader stage, would be the place for the biographies of those leading and contem- porary lawyers, Frank P. Blair, Jr., B. Gratz Brown, Charles D. Drake, James O. Broadhead, Gen. J. S. Fullerton, Charles Gibson, and John W. Noble, but they belong to the public, and their biographies must be sought in the stern narratives of grand events given elsewhere in this work in the chapters on " Po- litical Progress" and " The Civil War."

It may not be inappropriate to mention here, how- ever, the fact that of the members of the St. Louis bar Charles Gibson has shed peculiar lustre upon his profession. In addition to the successful manage- ment of many important cases at home, he has ren- dered valuable professional services to foreign govern- ments, which have honored him in return with distinctions such as are seldom conferred except for the highest merit. The decree and accompanying letter from the Austro-Hungarian government con- ferring the commander's cross of the Franz Joseph Order are as follows :

" 837 .- K. F. J. O.

" His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty, Francis Joseph I., Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, ctc., has by an all highest decree of Dec. 15, 1882, been graciously pleased to confer upon Your Right Honorable self the Com- mander's Cross of His Sovereign Franz Joseph Order.

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"The Chancery of the Order has the honor to make known this grant, and to send inclosed the Insignia of the Order which has been bestowed.

" VIENNA, the 16th December, 1882.

" DR. BATTIOLI.

"Chancery of Imperial Austrian

Franz Joseph Order.

" To MR. RIGHT HONORABLE CHARLES GIBSON, " Counselor-at-Law, St. Louis."

" No. 77. " K. UND K. OEST .- UNG. GESANDTSCHAFT, "WASHINGTON, 29th January, 1883.

"SIR,-In recognition of your services recently and so dis- interestedly rendered to our government in the unfortunate case of our former consul at St. Louis, Mr. Bechtolsheim, His Majesty the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary has been graciously pleased to confer upon you the cross of the commandership of His Sovereign Order Francis Joseph.

" In transmitting to you inclosed the respective decree to- gether with the Insignia I congratulate you on the high dis- tinction, and have great pleasure to add that by special favor the decoration is not to be returned as usual, but may remain in the family as a gratifying heirloom.

" Accept, sir, the assurance of my high consideration,

" The I. and R. Austro-Hungarian Minister,

" SCHAEFFER.1

" TO THE HONORABLE MR. CHARLES GIBSON, " K. V. S."

John B. Henderson, another distinguished member of the St. Louis bar, was born in Pittsylvania County,

1 The St. Louis Post-Dispatch of Feb. 3, 1882, thus notices the formal act of conferring the cross upon Mr. Gibson :

"The emperor of Austria-Hungary has celebrated the six hun- dredth anniversary of the reign of the Hapsburgs, so far as this country is concerned, by decorating Hon. Charles Gibson, his counsel in the case against Baron von Bechtolsheim, late Austro- Hungarian consul at St. Louis, as Knight Commander of the Order of Franz Joseph. The emperor himself is Chief, and the Commanders for the inner circle are next to himself in the order. The order itself is as high as any in the empire or in Europe. This is the highest honor, so far as we are informed, ever conferred by a great European sovereign on an American lawyer. After the dismissal of Baron von Bechtolsheim, Dr. Von Gerlich, the Im- perial German consul, officiated as an international courtesy in his stead until to-day, when Mr. Diehin, the new consul, takes the office. The last and most pleasing act of Dr. Von Gerlich's administration was to wait upon Mr. Gibson at his residence last evening, and on behalf of the emperor to deliver to him the decree making the appointment, the official letter of Baron von Schaffer, Austro-IIungarian minister at Washington, and the high insignia of the order. The knights of the order wear their cross on the lappel of the coat, but the Commander's in- signia is pendant to a silken collar around the neck, making it a very striking personal ornament. This order, and especially Mr. Gibson's position in it, is not merely a medallion or mark of commendation, but it is a rank, and one of the very highest honors in the empirc. It was well and fairly earned by Mr. Gibson in the line of professional duty."

Va., Nov. 16, 1826. His parents were James Hen- derson, who was born at Dandridge, Jefferson Co., Tenn., and Janc Dawson, of Pittsylvania County, Va. The family resided in Pittsylvania County until 1832, when they removed to Lincoln County, Mo., and set- tled there. When he was nine years old his parents died, leaving one brother and two sisters younger than himself, who naturally fell to his care during his boy- hood. Having but small means, his facilities for an education were restricted at first to the common schools, and then to academies taught by good classi- cal scholars. His tuition embraced the English branches, mathematics, and Latin and Greek, and he is yet a good Latin scholar. He taught school for several years, during which time he studied law, and in 1848 he was admitted to the bar in Pike County, Mo., by Ezra Hunt, then judge of that circuit. In 1849 he commenced the practice of the law at Louisi- ana, Mo., and continued it successfully at that place until 1861.

Mr. Henderson took a strong interest in political questions from an early age, and in 1848 was elected to the Lower House of the Missouri Legislature as a Democrat from Pike County. In 1856 he was again elected to the lower branch of the Missouri Legislature as a Democrat, and served during the regular and adjourned terms. In 1860 he was a candidate for Congress in the Pike district as a Union Democrat, but was defeated by James S. Rollins by about two hundred and forty votes in a total vote of about twenty-five thousand, after a spirited and memorable canvass of sixty days, during which the candidates traveled together and engaged in joint debate through- out the district.

In February, 1861, Mr. Henderson was elected as a Unionist to the State Convention called in Missouri to determine the question of secession. During its several sessions, which were held until the summer of 1863, Mr. Henderson took an active part in all of its proceedings as a Union man.

In the summer of 1861 he was appointed by Gov- ernor Gamble, then Provisional Governor of Missouri, a brigadier-general of the State militia, and was re- quested to organize a brigade of State troops in North- eastern Missouri. While he was thus engaged, and after having organized nearly two full regiments for the defense of the Union in that part of the State, Lieu- tenant-Governor Willard P. Hall, then acting as Governor, commissioned Mr. Henderson as a senator of the United States to fill the unexpired term of the Hon. Trusten Polk, who had been expelled for dis- loyalty, and the appointment was confirmed by the Legislature of 1862-63. The term expired March

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4, 1863, and Mr. Henderson was then elected to the United States Senate for the full senatorial term ending March 4, 1869.

During Mr. Henderson's term in the Senate he acted with the Republican party, giving every possi- ble support to the friends of the Union. He served on the following committees : Finance, Foreign Rela- tions, Post-Offices and Post-Roads, Claims, Contingent Expenses of the Senate, District of Columbia, Indian Affairs, and others. He is the author of the amend- ment to the Constitution of the United States abolish- ing slavery, known as the Thirteenth Amendment, and immediately on its adoption in 1865 he was among the first to propose the amendment granting suffrage without distinction, which finally took form as the Fifteenth Amendment.

As chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, in 1867 he organized a commission, consisting of Gens. Sherman, Terry, Harney, Sanborn, and others, and went among the hostile Indians of the upper Missouri River and the plains, and succeeded by numerous treaties of peace in quelling disastrous and expensive wars then being waged by the Sioux, the Cheyennes, the Arrapahoes, the Kiowas, and Co- manches.

While a member of the Senate he succeeded in having the State of Missouri reimbursed for its war expenses from the Federal treasury, which enabled the State to resume its credit, and restored its old condition of solvency.

In the Senate he acted rather on his own judgment than on the dictation of any partisan caucus. He gave a remarkable instance of his independence when, in opposition to the behests of a caucus, he voted with Fessenden, of Maine, Trumbull, of Illinois, and other Republican senators against the impeachment of Presi- dent Andrew Johnson, and thereby defeated it. This vote undoubtedly prevented his re-election to the United States Senate by the Missouri Legislature of 1868-69.

In 1868, while a member of the Senate, Mr. Hen- derson married, at Washington, Miss Mary Newton Footc, a daughter of Judge Elisha Foote, of New York.

In 1870 he removed to St. Louis and engaged in the practice of the law, which he has diligently pursued ever since. His practice has chicfly becn in the Federal, Circuit, and District Courts, and the United States Supreme Court, and has been attended with marked success.

In 1872 he was the Republican candidate for Gov- ernor, but was defeated by Silas Woodson.

In May, 1875, he was appointed assistant United

States attorney to aid in prosecuting what was then known as the " whiskey ring," which, mainly through Mr. Henderson's efforts, was entirely broken up. During the prosecutions Mr. Henderson delivered a speech which gave offense to President Grant, and in December, 1875, he was dismissed from the service of the government, since which time he has devoted himself to his profession. Whatever reputation he has gained as a lawyer lie ascribes to carcful, diligent work. His cases are prepared with great care ; every point is fortified, and no point is decmed too unim- portant to receive attention.

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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 110

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