History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 111

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 111

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Gen. Henderson is fond of books, and has a large and well-stocked library both of law and miscellaneous works. He kecps up his youthful studies both in languages and mathematics. He is fond of public discussion, delights in good society, and is of a genial and hospitable nature. Gen. Henderson is fortunate in having a wife who is also fond. of society, and who enters with him fully into its pleasures and en- joyments. Their house is celebrated far and near for its open-handed and unstinted hospitality.

Hon. Thomas E. Noell, born in Perry County, Mo., in 1839, and dying in April, 1867, was another of the bright young men of his time. His father, John W., had been sent to Congress from the Third Mis- souri District, and the son inherited political ability and unusual courage. Being well educated, he was admitted to the bar at the age of nineteen, but volun- teered in the Union army in 1861, reached the rank of major of volunteers, and in 1862 was made captain in the regulars, and served bravely in many battles. Chosen to represent the Third Missouri District in the Thirty-ninth Congress, he served there on various committecs, and supported President Johnson's policy. In 1866 he was re-elected, and had just entered upon his second term, when his career was cut short.

Judge William S. Allen, for many years an editorial writer on the St. Louis Republican, was perhaps the greatest loss of that year, though his active connec- tion with the bar had long ceased. He was born in Newburyport, Mass., in 1805, liberally educated, a graduate of Dartmouth at the early age of nineteen, and in 1832 represented Essex County in the State Legislature. He edited the Newburyport Herald a while, and in 1837, moving to St. Louis, became connected with journals there. His association with the Republican began in 1856, and continued until within a short time of his death. In 1844 he was secretary of the Board of Aldermen, in 1849 register of the land office, in 1850 a member of the State Legislature, in 1851, and until 1855, secretary of the Territory of New Mexico, in 1855 he was ap-

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pointed justice of the St. Louis County Court. It will be seen that his life was spent more in journalism than in law, but his wide and varied legal lore was of untold benefit, and his versatility was shown alike in literary, mercantile, and political articles. In the same year occurred the death of an ex-State senator, Thomas C. Johnson, who before the war had ranked as an able lawyer, but had followed the fortunes of Governor Claiborne F. Jackson.

A more than ordinarily active inan of this period was Charles G. Mairo. Born in Washington City in 1828, he removed to Missouri with his elder brother, Philip, in 1840, studied law with Hon. Albert Todd, and entered into practice in 1851; the next year city attorney, in 1856 circuit attorney, in 1861 city coun- selor, and in 1866 appointed United States district attorney, but not confirmed by the United States Senate for political reasons, his success in his pro- fession was evident. Generous and honest, his friends were many, and his death (in March, 1873) was widely mourned.

In the same month and year the bar lost John Decker, who was born Aug. 29, 1828, in Annapolis, Md. He graduated at St. John's College, and studied with Chancellor Johnson, of Maryland, and with Joseph Bradley, of Washington, entering on practice in 1850. In 1853 he reached St. Louis and joined forces with Robert S. Voorhis, the prosperous firm continuing until 1861, when Mr. Decker joined the Confederate army, but returned to St. Louis in 1865 and resumed his practice. He was Grand Master of the Masonic fraternity in Missouri at the time he went into the army. Two years later the county court lost Judge Busby, aged forty-four, a native of Ireland, who had been justice for four years.

In the same year (1875) that Frank P. Blair (whose life, with that of his brother Montgomery, will be found on another page) passed from the land of the living, Fidelio C. Sharp, a prominent lawyer of long standing at the St. Louis bar, also died, at the age of fifty-four years. He was a Kentuckian, grand- son of Capt. Thomas Sharp, of Virginia, a Revolu- tionary soldier. The family was large, and noted throughout Kentucky for its intelligence and enter- prise. At the age of twenty-one young Sharp was admitted to practice; in 1843 removed to Missouri, settling in Lexington, in partnership with John P. Campbell, next with Judge William T. Wood, and afterwards with Judge Samuel Sawyer; in 1857 moving to St. Louis, first in practice with Mr. Thomas, and afterwards with James O. Broadhead. In the latter connection the firm was known throughout the entire West for its ability, and did an immense busi-

ness. Col. Broadhead, his partner, said that as a practitioner Mr. Sharp had not an equal in the State, -that is, in the preparation and trial of a case before a nisi prius court. In speaking before the bar meet- ing which met to express its sorrow over his death, one speaker said, " He was an industrious man, inde- fatigable in his exertions to win a victory for his client, yet was fair, open, candid, gentlemanly, and friendly. He had a wonderful stock of good sense and a strong will, and accomplished a good deal. There was some- thing peculiar in his character. He was not a great lawyer in the sense that Daniel Webster and Rufus Choate were; that culture which gave to legal learn- ing a higher cast he did not have. In jury cases and all purely business cases he had, during the time I knew him, no superiors and few equals." During fif- tecn years he was engaged in almost all the important cases which occupied the courts of St. Louis, and he devoted himself to the law with untiring assiduity, never for a moment stepping aside for political prefer- ment, and uniformly declining all proffered political honors. His happiness was in his profession and his family. He married twice, his first wife being Miss Wallace, of Lexington; his second wife, Miss Maude, of St. Louis. Both were ladies of great worth and culture. He left six children.

This year also witnessed the death of Charles C. Whittelsey, who was born in Connecticut in 1819, of a long line of ancestry, chiefly clergymen. In 1838 he graduated from Yale, taught school for a year, and then entered a law-office in Middletown, Conn., but came to St. Louis in 1841, and devoted his time to the practice of law and preparation and publication of legal works. He was the author of the " Missouri Form-Book," adapted to the statutcs of 1856. He was Supreme Court reporter from 1862 to 1868, in- clusive, and published Volumes XXXI. to XLIV. Missouri Reports. From time to time hc furnished articles for literary and law magazines and for the daily papers. In 1870 he published a work on General Practice, which proved valuable to the profession. Insurance and commercial cases were his specialties, and he was successful in practice, though possessing no oratorical abilities. He seems to have enjoyed the utmost confidence of his legal brethren and of the community, and his capacities were such that high services as a jurist were rightfully expected from him. In 1854 he married Miss Groome, a Maryland lady, and they had six children.

In April, 1875, James F. Maury, a young lawyer, who had acquired considerable reputation in Missis- sippi, died in that State. His connection with the St. Louis bar was a short one. Born in 1842, in

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Port Gibson, graduated at Oxford, Miss., serving three ycars in the Southern army, and being cap- tured and sent to Johnson's Island for two years, his study of the law was attended with unusual difficul- ties. But in 1867 he was admitted, and became a partner with his father, a lawyer of some note. In 1873 he removed to St. Louis, and began to build up a good practice, so that two years later he returned for his family, and died suddenly while on his jour- ney.

Joseph N. Litton was born in Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 4, 1846. At the age of twelve years he en- tered Washington University, St. Louis, as a student, from which he graduated with the highest honors in June, 1866. In the same year he began the study of law, when he was admitted to practice. From that time he continued his general studics, inter- rupted to some extent by employment in some im- portant cases, until April, 1870, when he was retained by the Pacific Railroad Company as its assistant at- torney, which position he filled until the merging of the company in that of the Atlantic and Pacific Rail- road Company in 1873, after which he continued to occupy a like position under the management of the latter company, attending to the law business of both companies. His duties from that time were extremely arduous, testing to its utmost his physical strength, at no time very great. He not only attended to the or- dinary routine of his office, but also took the principal part in the trial at nisi prius of many important cases in which the company was a party in St. Louis and throughout the State, and also rendering very valu- able assistance in the presentment of its cases in the Supreme Court of the State and in the Circuit and Supreme Courts of the United States.

In 1874, the two corporations having become separated again, he severed his connection with the Pacific Railroad, being at the same time retained by the management of the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad Company, successors of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company, as their chief law officer. In April, 1877, owing to continued ill health, brought on in large part, no doubt, by overwork, he was obliged to resign his office of attorney of the railroad company. He went during the summer to Colorado, and there spent several months, whencc he returned in the fall apparently improved in health. Soon after, however, his disease exhibited worse symptoms, and from that time he was confined to his room and bed the greater part of the timc until his death on Thursday, April 11, 1878.

As a man, Mr. Litton was honorable, modest, gen- erous, brave, and just. In manner he was quiet,

grave, and dignified. He was easily approached by others, but he wanted no one's favor. He delighted in the intercourse of friends, and was of a most kind and genial nature. He was possessed of bright wit, and was a most agreeable companion. As a lawyer, he was faithful to his clients, candid, courteous, earnest, industrious, learned, and able. His intellec- tual faculties were strong. He was a clear and ready thinker, and endowed with great analytical power. His judgment was sound, and his reason well bal- anced. He was a close student, and well grounded. in the principles of the civil jurisprudence.

Dec. 2, 1879, at Cincinnati, Hon. Samuel Reber, of St. Louis, was found in his room, dead. Born in Lancaster, Ohio, in 1813, well educated, and settling in St. Louis in 1842, in partnership with Mr. Fremon, he soon gained a lucrative practice. After the Mex- ican war Mr. Fremon removed to New Mexico. Mr. Reber in 1856 was made judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas, succeeding Judge Treat. Judge Reber held this position of honor and trust with skill, in- tegrity, and fairness until the Court of Common Pleas was changed into the Circuit Court. This position he also held until 1867, when he resigned for the purpose of again engaging more actively in practice. While upon the bench he sustained the Constitution of 1865, and was the author of the " test oath de- cision." Under the administration of Mayor Cole he was appointed city counselor, and during his term of office was actively engaged in defending many im- portant suits, among which was the famous water- works case.

Another gentleman who took extreme views on the " test oath" under the Drake Constitution (1865) was ex-Judge Moody, but the course he pursued had a disastrous effect on his subsequent life. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1817, and died in January, 1880. Removing to St. Louis about 1855, he went into the law firm of Moody, McClellan & Hillycr. Capt. U. S. Grant, while collecting bills as a real estate agent, oc- cupied a desk in the office of the firm. In the early part of the war Judge Moody was elected circuit judge of St. Louis County, and for several years dis- charged the dutics to the satisfaction of the profession. For a ycar or two before he left the bench his politi- cal opinions underwent a change, and he became in- tensely hostilc to the Drake Constitution, and abso- lutely refuscd in his official position to perform the duties imposed upon him by that Constitution. He re- fused to require the jurors and others to take the " ironclad oath" required by the Constitution and or- dinances of the convention. This opposition led to his removal by address by the Legislature in 1866.

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This year, 1880, also took from among the former members of the St. Louis bar Hon. Logan Hunton and George R. Taylor. Mr. Taylor, a sketch of whose life appears elsewhere, was one of the leading mem- bers of the St. Louis bar, and promoted many useful measures, legislative and commercial. His business enterprises drew lıim from legal pursuits in later years. Hon. Logan Hunton and his brother Felix were law- yers of note. The latter practiced chiefly in the south- west of Missouri. His death occurred in 1873. Logan Hunton was born in Albemarle County, Va., in 1806. Educated in Kentucky, he became a member of the State Legislature therc, but removed to St. Louis in 1837, and formed a partnership with Hon. L. V. Bogy, afterwards United States senator. He married Miss Mary Jane Moss, daughter of the late Mrs. J. J. Crittenden. In 1843, Mr. Hunton went to New Orleans, remained there ten years, and held for a while the United States district attorneyship, also built up a large practice and gained a competency. After spending some years in travel in Europe with his family, he returned, in 1859, to St. Louis, and made his home near Bridgeton, which became the centre of a generous and discriminating hospitality. He left a wife and three children.

Henry B. Belt, born in Huntsville, Ala., in 1815, and dying in February, 1881, had led an eventful life. His father was a mining prospector in Tennes- see, Alabama, and Hannibal, Mo., where he died in 1829, after which young Belt became a clerk in the sheriff's office, then under Archibald Gamble, circuit clerk. On the death of his father, his mother and younger brothers and sisters returned to his mother's old home, Washington, Va., but in 1837 he brought the whole family to St. Louis. In the cholera epi- demic of 1849 he lost his mother, one brother, and two sisters. After this he served as deputy sheriff under James Brotherton, Marshall Brotherton, Wil- liam Milburn, Samuel Conway, and Louis T. La- beaume. In 1855 he was elected sheriff on the Whig ticket. He ran again, two years later, and received a majority of votes cast, but was counted out. In 1853 he formed a real cstate partnership with John G. Pricst, which lasted till his death. Hc left a wife and seven children.

Singularly fortunate in examples of early brilliancy the bar of St. Louis seems to have been ; eloquence of the highest order was amply illustrated in each decade of its history. But never since Barton, Uriel Wright, and their compeers were in their prime did a young man of thirty-four win such praise as was bestowed on the memory of Edward P. McCarty, who died in June, 1881. A native of Indiana, he studied

law in the office of Judge Miller, of Keokuk, Iowa, and came to St. Louis about the year 1861. Under Mr. Fishback he was deputy clerk of the Supreme Court, and chief clerk after Mr. Fishback's death. After having been for a time in the office of Sharp & Broadhead he was admitted to the bar. The position of city counselor, to which he was appointed by Mayor Brown, he filled admirably. He was a Democrat in politics. His wife, née Miss Lydia Evans, daughter of the late A. H. Evans, and two children sur- vive him. The bar association met and passed reso- lutions expressive of their decp sorrow. A few days later the St. Louis Republican said of him, " The impression of his genius is retained by every one that knew him ; possessed of a graceful form and a rich and fluent mind, he commanded attention as a unique person wherever he appeared. He had a mind of ex- traordinary clearness and quickness of insight. On legal questions his judgment was that of 'the intui- tive decision of a thorough-edged intellect.' Hc was rarely wrong, and hence his cases were nearly always put in court correctly, involving no changes in their first presentment. Col. Broadhead, Gen. Noble, Mr. Chandler, and other mature practitioners bore witness to his remarkable natural gifts, and expressed their profound grief at his premature departure."

In the early years of the century, Dr. Abel Slay- back was a noted physician of Cincinnati. His father was Solomon Slayback, a soldier at Valley Forge. His son, Alexander L. Slayback, studied at Marion College, Missouri, was admitted to the bar in 1838,. married Anna M. Minter, of Philadelphia, and opened a law-office in Shelbyville. In 1847 he removed to Lexington, and died there the following year, leaving a widow and five children. Three of his sons after- wards becanie residents of St. Louis. He was a sin- cere Christian and a very successful lawyer, a favorite everywhere, and deeply mourned by his associates. Alonzo W. Slayback, his son, became a prominent member of the St. Louis bar. Born in July, 1838, in Marion County, he received a good education, taught school, studied law, was admitted in 1857, and began practice in St. Joseph. The civil war came with its rendings and desolations ; Slayback raised a cavalry regiment, was elected its colonel, and joined the cause of the South. He fought with the greatest courage and skill, took part in more than forty battles and skirmishes, and after the cause was lost joined Shelby's romantic expedition to the land of the Mou- tezumas. No one has yet written the story, pathetic and well worth the telling, of the man, self-exiled, ardent, hcart-broken, who could not longer stay under the Stars and Stripes, who went to Mexico,

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to Central America, to the West Indics, and regions still farther South, engaging in warlike expeditions, in strange and heroic adventures, in vast commercial enterprises, coffee-planting, stock-raising, mining, and . a thousand other pursuits, sometimes successful, some- times reduced to penury and suffering. But Col. Slayback's career was not to end thus. His mother, a lady of culture, grace, and strong character, made the journey to Mexico, sought long, found her son, and persuaded him to return. So in 1866 he again entered the law in St. Louis, meeting with marked and increasing success. He became known as an orator of remarkable powers of persuasion and con- quest, full of liberal impulses, and passionately loved by his friends. The gift of leadership was his; so- cially and politically, no man seemed to have a brighter future before him. His practice became one of the largest in the city.

Col. Slayback's tragical death in 1882 rallied his friends and roused the most impassioned sympathy. The Merchants' Exchange, whose attorney he was, placed on record an almost unparalleled tribute of their personal sorrow. Speakers, after his death, compared him to a streak of sunshine,-a man whom all loved, the friend of the poor, the helpless, the oppressed. And because of this overflowing charity he left his family in straitened circumstances. The citizens and his associates in the law gave liberally, public benefits were held, and in all a large sum was raised for the widow and orphans. Col. Dyer, ex-Governor Stanard, Rev. Dr. Snyder, and many others aided in this good work. Mrs. Wm. McKee paid one thousand dollars for a private box at the first entertainment, and then had it sold again for one hundred dollars, thus netting eleven hundred dollars for the cause. Col. Slayback's wife was Miss Alice A. Waddell, of Lexington.

A man whose youth was beset with difficulties, but who won by reason of his indomitable pluck, was Henry A. Glover, still living (1882) to enjoy the honors and wealth he has so creditably earned. In 1844, a poor, friendless lad, he came to St. Louis, and searched in vain for employment. He was willing to turn his hand to anything; a position in the school department was beyond his reach ; nor could he pro- cure a clerkship in any store ; but being a good pen- man, and having read some law, he at last obtained copying and clerical work under Gen. Ruland, clerk of the Circuit Court. Herc he spent years in toil at a meagre salary ; refuscd, when Ruland retired, the place the latter had held, and in 1847 was admitted to the bar. Two years later he was city attorney. It has taken but a few words to tell this story of man-

hood, aspiration, and success, but there is an eloquence finer than speech about its steady progress from friendless obscurity to recognized position. In 1851, Mr. Glover was sent to the State Legislature, and from 1852 to 1856 was circuit attorney for St. Louis. Many able and ingenious men have filled this office, but "it is one of the traditions of the Criminal Court that the State never had a prosecutor whose work, in point of success or ability, compared with that of Circuit Attorney Glover." His treatment of wit- nesses was admirable, and his skill in conducting a cross-examination has rarely been surpassed. In the argument of cases before juries he also displayed rare excellence. Judge Lackland, who was judge of the Criminal Court, said that the only criticism to be in- dulged in on Mr. Glover as circuit attorney was that he was too successful,-that he not only convicted the guilty, but in some instances verdicts werc ren- dered against innocent parties by juries carried away by the vigor and force of his prosecution. It was at this time and in this position that the full strength of the man developed itself, and it was brought out by his conflicts in the Criminal Court and in the Supreme Court with such men as Leslie, Wright, Blennerhasset, Cline, and others who then practiced at the criminal bar, whose reputation and efforts there are well remembered.

When Judge Lackland retired in 1856, his succes- sor was Henry A. Glover, who continued to hold the office until 1864, when he returned to his private practice, became city counselor, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1865, and chairman of its judiciary committee. In 1868 he was nominated judge of the Supreme Court by the Republicans, but declined the nomination, though tantamount to an election, and Judge Currier's name was substituted. Since that time his large and extended private prac- tice has required all his attention, and some of the heaviest litigation in the courts has been in his hands. As the legal adviser of the city and county he had to deal with many and important interests, such as the gas question, the Pacific Railroad controversy, the long fight over the school lands, the taxation of shares in national banks. As judge over the Crimi- nal Court, no man in the State did more to settle legal principles in reference to crimes and offenses. Well rounded, crowded with achievement, his life-record merits the study of young men in hours of discour- agement.

Among the leading barristers of St. Louis now living is Britton Armstrong Hill, a lawyer of forty- two years' practice in St. Louis. He was born in Hunterdon County, N. J., in 1816, received his early

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LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

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education at Ogdensburg, N. Y., and was admitted to the bar at Albany, and to the Court of Chancery at Saratoga, in that State, in 1839. In 1841 he came to St. Louis, where he was admitted to the bar by Judge Mullanphy. In the same year he formed a partnership with Jolin M. Eager, which was dissolved in 1848. In 1850 his brother, David W. Hill, became his partner, and in 1854, William N. Grover was added to the firm, which thus became Hill, Grover & Hill. This partnership continued till 1858, when it was dissolved, and Mr. Hill gave his attention wholly to practice in important land, insurance, and railroad cases. In 1861 he entered into copartnership with the Hon. D. T. Jewett, which continued about ten years. In 1863 he, with Hon. Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, and Hon. Orville H. Browning, of Illinois, formed a partnership in the city of Washington, under the firm-name of Ewing, Hill & Browning, for the transaction of business in the courts of the United States. This firm, which was one of the strongest in the United States, was terminated in 1865, when Mr. Hill returned to St. Louis. In 1873, Frank J. Bow -- man, of Vermont, became his partner, and continued till 1876. In his extensive practice in the national and State courts Mr. Hill became strongly impressed with the dangers which seemed to him to threaten the institutions of the country, and in 1873 he published his first work, entitled "Liberty and Law under Federative Government."

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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 111

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