History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 112

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 112

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In 1876 he published two pamphlets urging the Democratic party to adopt his views with regard to absolute money, and early in 1877 put forth another, entitled " Gold, Silver, and Paper as full, equal, Legal Tenders." The system which was advocated in this pamphlet was adopted in 1878 by Congress and the Treasury, and the financial success which has followed is a source of just pride to its author. In the autumn of 1877 he called, at St. Louis, a State Con- vention, the object of which was the advocacy of measures for the overthrow of monopolies, for the establishment of governmental control of railroads, telegraphs, and other internal improvements, postal savings-banks, international clearing-houses, courts for the settlement of all national differences without resort to war, and the restoration to the people of the public domain that had been given to railroads. In the campaign of that year he was active in the advo- cacy of the principles set forth in the platform of that convention. His health failed in 1879, and he was compelled to retire from active political life. In 1880 the second edition of " Liberty and Law" was pub- lished, setting forth fully his views of a complete sys- tem of popular government. This work was highly

commended by the press, and by members of the United States Supreme Court and of several of the State courts. In 1882 he was, without his solicitation, made a candidate for Congress in the Ninth District of Missouri. In this candidacy he was simply the standard-bearer of the Anti-Monopoly party, without, of course, any expectation of an election.

Mr. Hill has retired from the active practice of his profession, with an ample competency, and now only engages as counselor in important cases.

His great popularity among people of all classes has arisen not alone from his eminent intellectual and legal abilities, but from his large humanity, which has manifested itself whenever circumstances permitting its exercise have arisen. One instance may be cited. In 1849, when St. Louis was visited by the cholera, and the physicians of the city were unable to visit half the sick, Mr. Hill, who had been a medical student, " went daily for several weeks into the poor districts, where the scourge was most fatal, visiting the sick, laying out the dead, and relieving the dis- tresses of the poor and unfortunate by all the means in his power at his own expense."

The great aim of his life, as illustrated in his last work on " Liberty and Law," has been to elevate the laboring and producing classes, to abolish all corpora- tions that usurp or control the means of public inter- communication, to remove the tax on lands and manufactures, and to establish a graduated income tax to compel capital to bear its just share of the taxes now borne by labor.

The Empire State has the honor of ranking among its sons Judge Albert Todd, who was born March 4, 1813, near Cooperstown, Otsego Co., N. Y. His parents were Scotch and English, his Scotch blood coming through his father, who was a direct de- scendant of Christopher Todd, one of the original colonists of New Haven, Conn., and his English through his mother. Albert Todd was the fourth of eleven children. He had the benefit of the public common schools at the rate of four months in the year until he was fifteen years old. While he was not engaged at school he was trained to work at some of his father's vocations. His early choice was that of a seafaring life, but after a brief experience in coasting, which his parents allowed him, he gave it up and chose a professional life, with the privilege of a collegiate education. He was in his eighteenth year when he began his studies in Amherst, Mass., and in 1832 he matriculated at Amherst College. The next year he left Amherst and became a member of the sophomore class of Yale College, and graduated in 1836 with an appointment for an oration. During

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the greater portion of his senior year he was engaged in teaching school, and by this means earned the money to pay the expenses of his senior year. On leaving Yale he chose the profession of law, and began his studies in the office of Judge Arphaxed Loomis, in Little Falls, Herkimer Co., N. Y. The regulations in the State of New York then required a seven years' course of study before application could be made for a license to practice in the inferior courts of record, and three years' additional study, with the previous admission to practice as an attorney, before an examination was allowed for a license to practice as counselor and solicitor in chancery. Of the first seven years, a student was allowed a credit of four years if he was a graduate of a college. M.r. Todd prepared himself for his first license to practice, and sought a location in the West. He sclected St. Louis as the place to practice his profession, and ar- rived on the 9th of November, 1839. In March, 1840, he was licensed to practice in the courts of Missouri by Judge Tompkins. In 1854, Mr. Todd was elected to the Lower House of the Missouri Leg- islature. During this session he devoted his services to revising the laws of the State, which duty was performed that session.

In 1860 he was a candidate for Congress on the Bell and Everett ticket. He was a Whig in politics until the dissolution of that party; since then he has acted with the Democratic party.

Mr. Todd was one of the frecholders who provided a scheme for the separation of the city of St. Louis from the county of St. Louis, and to organize new governments for them, and he was a member of the State Convention held in 1875 for revising and amending the Constitution of the State.

He has always taken an active interest in public enterpriscs. He is one of the trustees of Washington University, and has given his services gratuitously as professor in the Law Department, of which he is one of the founders. He was one of the founders of the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Associa- tion, and of the University Club, , Public School Library, Mereantile Library, and the Missouri His- torical Society. He was also one of the first members of the St. Louis Bar Association, and is a member of the Academy of Sciences, and one of the founders of the first St. Louis Cremation Society.

For the last twenty-two ycars Mr. Todd has not practiced in the courts, having withdrawn on account of his health. He continues an office practice of a limited character from his attachment to the profes- sion.

Mr. Todd has co-operated in nearly all enterprises

undertaken by private corporations for promoting the attractions of the city and its facilities for trade and commerce.

A graduate of the Michigan University, W. H. H. Russell climbed to enviable prominence in his chosen profession with surprising rapidity, and has added to the technique of law a fund of general knowledge that few persons surpass. Born in Michigan in 1840, of sturdy farmer stock, student, after leaving the uni- versity, of the Ann Arbor Law School, he located in 1864 at Memphis, Tenn., entering the office of W. K. Patson ; the next year becoming counsel for Capt. John A. Morgan in a noted case against the general government, he won it, received a fine farm of six hundred and forty acres in Arkansas, and fixed at one stroke his own reputation. The year 1867 was spent in travel; 1868 saw him a resident of St. Louis. Maj. Uriel Wright, his warm friend, secured him as Hon. R. S. Donald's associate in the murder case of Dr. Headlington. Charles P. Johnson and J. P. Colcord were their opponents. The trial was before Judge Wilson Primm. The admiralty case of the " Bright Star," involving constitutional questions of importance, was shortly after placed in his hands. Though his opponent was the United States attorney, General Noble, a very able lawyer, Mr. Russell won his case. His speech in the noted divorce suit of Redelia vs. Dr. James Fischer was printed and widely circulated for its wit and sarcasm. Then came that long, strange romance of the Max Klinger trial, a boy of seventeen, who murdercd his uncle. There seemed no hope for him. Judge Primm chose Mr. Russell as Klinger's counsel. The case had three jury trials, was twice before the State Supreme Court, and in 1872 was decided by the United States Su- preme Court, after having been unsettled for over four years. Mr. Russell has since been engaged in many important cases, and is in great demand as a public speaker. In 1871 he visited Europe, and wrote letters to the Democrat and Republican. Ever an admirer of the fine arts, a lover of out-door sports and rural' delights, a hard student in his pro- fession, he deserves liis success and his popularity.

Blennerhasset's success as a public prosecutor was not equaled again in St. Louis until the days of Col. James C. Normilc, whose career in this city began in 1869, he then being but twenty-one years of age. He graduated at Georgetown (D. C.) College, and studied law in Columbia Law School, Washington, D. C., and under Hon. O. H. Browning and Gen. Thomas Ewing, then in Washington. The former gentleman took a warm interest in young Normile, and did much to de- velop his powers and waken his ambition. The young

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lawyer used the libraries and other advantages of Wash- ington to the utmost, and between 1860 and 1868, be- sides serving for a time in the army, was a witness to some of the most stirring scenes in American history. When, in 1869, he landed in St. Louis, he remained idle for some time. Chosen to defend a young man for murder, with Governor Johnson as prosecutor, hc made a three-hour speech that was like a tidal-wavc. sweeping down opposition and bearing him into an immediate renown. This was the noted Fore trial, and his speech was published in full in the Missouri Republican. It gained him the nomination of circuit attorney on the Democratic ticket, though three of the oldest and best lawyers at the bar were his oppo- nents. Being elected, he bent all his splendid ener- gies to the task of making the best possible record in that office. A public prosecutor has to familiarize himself with all the secrets, sources, and wanderings of crime, and analyze the most profound mysteries of the human soul in health or disease. The records of the courts and the columns of the press for the past ten ycars show how great, continuous, and often un- expected have been the successes of Col. Normile, pursuing his object with sleuth-like determination through the most complex labyrinths. The trial of Antoine Holme, for wife-murder, of William Morgan, for the same offense, of Julia Fortmeyer, a profes- sional child-murderess, of John McNeary, for murder, were all State trials that tested the best abilities of Col. Normilc. Called upon on many public occasions for speeches, his utterances would fill volumes. Al- ways apt, ready, and eloquent, he is a marked and interesting figure among St. Louis lawyers.

David Patterson Dyer was born in Henry County, Va., Fcb. 12, 1838. In 1841 his parents migrated to Missouri and settled near Troy, in Lincoln County, where Mr. Dyer labored on his father's farm till eighteen years of age, and enjoyed only the educa- tional advantages afforded by the common schools of his neighborhood. In thesc, however, he acquired sufficient education to enter college at St. Charles, where he remained a year. At the age of twenty, or in 1858, he commenced the study of law in the office of Hon. James O. Broadhead, of Bowling Green, in Pike County, and at the end of 1859 he was admitted to the bar of Missouri. In 1862 he removed to Louisiana, Mo., and formed with Hon. John B. Henderson a partnership which continued till 1870. In 1875 he removed to St. Louis, which has ever since been his residence. In 1881 he cn- tered into his present partnership with B. D. Lee and John P. Ellis, under the firm-name of Dyer, Lec & Ellis.

In 1860 he was elected circuit attorney in the Third Judicial District of Missouri. In 1862 he was chosen to represent Pike County in the Legisla- ture of Missouri, and though but twenty-four years of age was made chairman of the judiciary commit- tee. In 1866 he was made secretary of the State Senate, and in 1868 was elected to the Congress of the United States. In 1875 he was appointed United States attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, and by his able management of the celebrated "whis- key ring trials" achieved a national reputation.

In 1860 he was a Douglas Democrat, and on the breaking out of the civil war in 1861 he took an active part in the organization of the First Regiment of Home Guards. In 1864 he left his seat in the Legislature to raise and organize the Forty-ninth Regiment of Missouri Militia, and was made its colonel. He served with the regiment in 1864 and 1865, under Gens. Rosecrans and Canby, and took an active part in the siege of Mobile.

The honorable positions which he has held, and the important duties he has been called to discharge, are the best evidences which can be offered of his ability, and of the esteem in which he is held by his fellow-citizens.

In 1860 he was married to Miss Lizzie Chambers Hunt, daughter of Judge Ezra Hunt, of Pike County, Mo., and his domestic relations have been exceedingly happy.

The son of Dr. Bernard G. Farrar, one of the ear- liest and most famous of St. Louis physicians, was edu- cated as a lawyer, and became one of the most efficient members of the county court. James S. Farrar was born in St. Louis in 1839, and educated at the old college which stood on the corner of Ninth Street and Wash- ington Avenue. In 1861 he raised a company at his own cxpense, was made captain, and assigned to the Thirtieth Missouri Volunteers, and was with Gen. Francis P. Blair's brigade in the hard service of 1862 and 1863. He was commissioned major about this time. In 1865, Governor Fletcher appointed him justice of the county court of St. Louis, and the people at subsequent elections signified their approval, so that he served in that office until 1876. When Judge Farrar assumed this office he was a rich man, but he gave lavishly of his means to the sick and poor, sacrificing much time and money to the public service. Largely to his exertions was it due that the county recovered its seven hundred thousand dollars loan to the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1875, after it had been given up as lost. Frank J. Bowman, county counsel, proposcd action, and with Judge Farrar carried the case to a successful close.

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It has been said that class valedictorians never amounted to much afterwards. Josiah G. McClellan is evidence to the contrary. Born in 1824, in Wheeling, W. Va., of New England stock, he took the highest honors in 1847 at Williams College, began the study of law, wrote articles for the journals, and being admitted started for St. Louis in 1850, with fifty dollars in his pocket. He entered the office of Peter A. Ladue, assessor of the county, and as chief clerk familiarized himself with the land and land-owners of the city. In 1851 he began practice, associating himself with Judge Moody, afterwards of the Circuit Court, and Col. Hilyer, afterwards Gen. Hilyer, of Gen. Grant's staff, Capt. U. S. Grant at that time occupying a desk in the same office. In 1856, Mr. McClellan married the daughter of F. C. Sharpe, a renowned Kentucky lawyer. The civil war disrupted the firm. Mr. McClellan removed to Ken- tucky, and returned in 1863, the disasters of the war having ruined him financially, and he had to begin over again. His practice grew, and turning his attention to land titles, he decided to make an index of titles to all the real estate in the county of St. Louis. This was a gigantic task. There are over six hundred books of records of deeds in the re- corder's office, averaging five hundred pages to a volume. The various concessions, grants, and charges under French, Spanish, and English law immeas- urably increased the difficulty of this task, but its value to the public needs no comment. It is one of those works which remain as monuments of industry long after their projectors are dead.

George W. Bailey was born in St. Louis Noy. 27, 1841. His father, George Bailey, familiarly known in St. Louis as " the carriage man," was a native of New York State, where he was born in 1813. He was left parentless and penniless at childhood, but by energy and perseverance rose from poverty to an in- dependency. He learned the trade of carriage-black- smithing at Bridgeport, Conn., thence diligently working his way into a small carriage business, and afterwards to a greater. In 1837 he opened in St. Louis the first carriage repository and manufactory of consequence established in the Mississippi Valley. The founders and proprietors of the "Fallon" and " Wright" carriage manufactories of St. Louis learned their trades in the establishment of Mr. Bailcy. In St. Louis he rose rapidly to an independent position, and heavily invested the fruits of his enterprise and labor in St. Louis real estate, in which he had un- bounded confidence, which he maintained to the time of his death in March, 1878. He was thus closely identified with St. Louis interests for more than forty

years, during which period his business sagacity was widely recognized, and his commercial honesty was without blemish or question. Mr. Bailey left a large estate for equal distribution among his surviving heirs, five sons and one daughter. Most of the sons are prominent business men of St. Louis. Mrs. Mary Bailey, the mother of these surviving children, was a native of Bridgeport, Conn. Her mother was a Palmer, hence her children are members of the cele- brated " Palmer family," whose reunions bring together so many thousands from all parts of the country.

George W. Bailey, the second son, who was ad. ministrator of his father's estate, was educated in the best schools afforded by New England, finishing his course at the New York Conference Seminary and Collegiate Institute, of Charlotteville, N. Y., after which, entertaining an ambition to follow his father's example to success in the carriage business, he volun- tarily acquired, as indispensable to success, a knowl- edge of the business by learning the trade of carriage- trimming at the establishment of Wood Brothers, in Bridgeport, of which fact he is to-day justly proud, although circumstances caused a departure from his original intention. His father retiring from business, a regular collegiate course was then determined upon, but the breaking out of the civil war in 1861 pre- vented the execution of the latter purpose. Young Bailey promptly enlisted as a private soldier in the first " three years'" regiment from Connecticut (the Sixth Infantry), and served as a private for seventeen months, during which period the regiment was at- tached to the Army of the Potomac at Washington, and the Army of the South at Hilton Head and Beaufort, S. C. With the regiment he participated in the expedition which sailed from Fortress Monroe, Va., to Port Royal, S. C., in November, 1861, under Gen. W. T. Sherman and Commodore Dupont, and which was threatened with destruction in the terrible ocean storm off Cape Hatteras. He witnessed the picturesque bombardment of Forts Walker and Beauregard, Nov. 7, 1861, and was among the first Union troops on South Carolina soil.

He participated with his regiment in the campaign and expeditions about Hilton Head, and witnessed the bombardment and reduction of Fort Pulaski, at the mouth of the Savannah River, from Danfuskie Island, where the Sixth Connecticut was stationed, prepared for an emergency.

In February, 1863, Mr. Bailey was commissioned by Governor Gamble as second lieutenant in the Sixth Missouri Infantry, then stationed at Young's Point, La., opposite Vicksburg, and a part of the Fifteenth Army Corps and Army of the Tennessee. He par-

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ticipated in the entire campaign of Vicksburg, com- manding his company in the bloody assaults upon that stronghold on the 19th and 22d of May, 1863. He was slightly wounded, but remained in the field until the surrender of the city, July 4th. He par- ticipated in the battles of Champion Hills and Jack- son, and accompanied his command to the relief of Chattanooga, when the Army of the Tennessce, under Grant, hastened to the relief of the beleaguered Army of the Cumberland, under Thomas. With the Fif- teenth Army Corps, under Sherman, he participated in the bloody battle of Missionary Ridge and the night pursuit of Bragg's defeated army. Thence he procecded with the Fifteenth Corps to the hurried re- lief of Burnside, besieged by Longstreet at Knox- ville. After the raising of the latter siege the army returned to winter-quarters in Northern Alabama. He participated in the Atlanta campaign, opening in May, 1864, and took an active part in the battles of Resaca and Dallas, and several minor engagements and skir- mishes with his company. When the term of service of his regiment cxpircd he, with most of the regi- ment, promptly re-enlisted for "three years, unless sooner discharged." Shortly after he was promoted to be first lieutenant of his company, and shortly thereafter detailed from the regiment to serve as aidc- de-camp on the staff of Maj .- Gen. Morgan L. Smith, then commanding the Second Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps, in which capacity he remained during the rest of his service in the army. At the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, Ga., he performed a brilliant servicc. Having been directed to accompany the as- saulting lines, and report concerning the position and works of the enemy, he was in the thickest of the fire of that terrible assault, and observed the insurmount- able obstacles forbidding the success of the venture. He picked his way back among the dead and wounded, and reported to Gen. Smith the causes of defeat. As

orders had been given to "re-form and re-assault at three P.M.," it was important that Gen. Logan (com- manding the Fifteenth Army Corps) should be at once apprised of the situation, and Lieut. Bailey was detailed for that purpose. Mounted, he made his way three miles through the timber cover to Logan's headquarters, where he found Gen. Logan and Gen. McPherson. Hc reported the situation, and was questioned by Gen. McPherson as to his own opinion, and modestly said that he thought that any further attempt to carry the works by assault would prove only a useless sacrifice of life. Thereupon he was di- rected to return to Gen. Smith with the order that he was not to re-assault without further orders. Lieut. Bailey dashed back, and on the way was the target of

batteries, whosc aim was to intercept a solitary horse- man galloping across the open space, and evidently the bearer of a very important message. Eventually an exploding shell prostrated the horse and dismounted and severely wounded the rider. Regaining their feet, though torn and bleeding, rider and horse werc soon again hurrying to insure the delivery of the order. When he arrived the troops were in line for another assault. The welcome order was delivered, the bugle sounded the halt, the troops cheered, but the enemy, mistaking the cheers as indicating another assault, opened a furious fire upon the supposed ad- vance. The "further orders to assault" never came. Thus many valuable lives were saved from uscless sacrifice.

At the battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864, Lieut. Bailey was assigned to the important duty of ascer- taining at what point in the Confederate lines Hood's forces were massed for the assault on the Federal works, in order that they might be opposed by the Union reserves. He selected an elevated position im- mediately in rear of the Federal works, and awaited the terrible battle which followed, and was captured and taken into Atlanta. While at a point about forty miles within the Confederate lines he escaped by the novel means of being buried alive, and permitting his captors to march off and leave him. After two and a half months of endcavor to regain the Federal lines, enduring many hardships, and having many narrow escapes and romantic experiences, he finally gaincd a point within one mile of the Federal pickets, where he was captured by Confederate guerrillas, taken into the woods, and given " two minutes" to prepare to die. By remarkable presence of mind and by resort- ing to a ruse he again escaped, though shot at four times, receiving a rifle-ball through his right lung and shoulder, which wound for months after seriously threatencd his life. He regained the Federal lines at Atlanta, gradually recovercd, and when Sherman " marched to the sea" was, with other wounded, re- moved to St. Louis, and subsequently promoted cap- tain of his company, but retained his position on the division staff until the close of the war.

A graphic account of his peculiar experiences at the battle of Atlanta and while within the Confeder- ate lines has been published by Capt. Bailey in a neat little volume entitled " A Private Chapter of the War," which was highly commended by officers and soldiers of the late war, and referred to by the press generally throughout the country as one of most thrilling and absorbing interest.

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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 112

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