USA > Missouri > Cole County > Jefferson City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 10
USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 10
USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53
-
-
THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
Their colonies were numerous, and the site of one of them (Gades, now Cadiz) was selected with wo much good judgment that, though founded more than three thousand years ago, it is still a flourishing port, notwithstanding the decay of the Spanish monarchy. So extensive was their com- meice that, in the sixth century before Christ, it embraced the entire known world. Tyre was then what she has been so aptly called, "the royal eschange of the world." The Carthaginians, who were doubtless Phoenicians by origin, had a widespread commerce, particularly after the decadence of Tyre. The Greeks early attained considerable sway and skill in commerce, and found it a source of great opulence, and it is a significant fact that Athens, the capital city of the polished Greeks, was quite as distinguished in commerce as in literature and art. Says Xenophon: "All the choicest products of Sicily and haly, of Lydia and the Pontus, of Cyprus and the Peloponnesus. we're continually attracted to the Athenian marts, whener, in return, were conveyed to those differ- ent realms the creations of Athenian labor and skill "
When history, poetry, oratory, philosophy and the fine arts flourished most in Athens, then her merchants were most active and her commerce at its zenith. In the latter part of the fifteenth century. Venetian commerce embraced the then known world; hence her merchant princes, her marble palaces, and the coins of the republic "current from leeland to Carthage." The commerce of to-day is not like the commence of the Old World History points to the fact that both Phoeni- cians and Carthaginians kept to themselves all knowledge of the countries they had visited, and destroyed them who visited them in return Fortunately such is not the commercial spirit of the nineteenth century.
We are now about to lay the corner stone of an edifice so vast in its proportions, so commo. thous in arrangement, so grand in design, as fully to shadow forth the real condition of commerce m this great city. Your hearts will ddate with manly pride as its great walls rise in majestic pro- portion, towering above the buildings which surround it; and as often as you gaze upon it in its completed perfection you will be forcibly reminded of the civilizing and elevating influence of an extensive and active commerce. Within its busy chambers you will effect the change of many, perhaps the largest part, of the products of this vast valley of the Mississippi, more fruitful as it is than the valley of the Nile
Through the medium of the Exchange you are to freight ships whose keels shall fret all seas, whose sails shall whiten every ocean. You will not, I am sure, be circumscribed as either Phoeni- dan or Carthaginian. You will neither withhold the knowledge which through your commerce you acquire of other countries, nor will you seek to injure those who trade with you. On the con- trary, we feel assured that the most bberal spirit will characterize your dealings, and the highest standard of commercial integrity will be upheld here As a native Missourian, I may be permitted to say, and I say it with a feeling of just pride, that the characters of the merchants of Saint Louis stand as high, if not higher, than those of any city in the Union. If we are to auspicate the future by the past, a grand destiny awants you. The lines have, indeed, fallen to you in pleasant places. You, of those who have gone before you, have wisch chosen the location of your city. As it shall increase in population and in wealth, as its trade and commence grow and swell in accord with the busy, teeming population of the land, the building whose corner stone we this day lay shall stand, we trust, reminding those who come after you that the men of to-day were fully alive to the destiny which awaits this great metropolis, and abreast of the age in which they lived, and "it is fine to stand upon this lofty mountain thought, and feel the spirit stretch into view."
Brethren, it is just matter of congratulation to us that the pure principles of our order have in all ages attracted the attention and largely secured the approbation of the commercial classes. Wherever the adventurous trader has been drawn, whether in new fields of enterprise or the devel- opment of old, the fellowship of our society has been found to his great comfort and advantage, and I feel proud to say that of the many public-spirited merchants of Saint Louis who to-day attend to these ceremonies, and will cause this house to be builded, not a few are of us
And now allow me, in conclusion, to draw from this contemplated structure a moral which we
82
THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI CUTIES.
would all, merchant and Mason alike, do well to heed. Every man is a builder, But he works with a more imperishable material than any which will enter into this structure. He works inwardly and outwardly at the same time; inwardly in the creation of the everlasting temple of character ; outwardly in the scaffolding of that temple, reputation. There are no two words that are more frequently used as synonymous than character and reputation ; and yet there are no two words larther apart in signification
Another and distinguished Mason has well said: " Character is the real man as he appears in the eye of truth, of conscience, and of Good; reputation is merely what others think of us." I have said that one was the temple, the other the seattolding that surrounds it; and how true it is that vastly more labor is expended by the majority of men upon the decoration of this temporary struc- ture than upon the imperishable edifice within. What would be said of a man who, desiring to erect some enduring edifice of costly material, should spend years in building splendid scaffoldings of rich and costly woods, with ornate panelings and cornices, until all his means were consumed in tearing what was intended merely as an aid and protection to the workmen whose labor and skill were to carry out the design of the architect? Yet such is the design of most men: to exhibit to the world a fair exterior; to obtain a good reputation, to allow nothing to mar that work, caring less for the enduring edifice of character. It is the motive alone that tells whether an act shall redound to the aprearing of the external temple of the soul, or only the earthly scaffolding of repu- tation. Another mark of difference is in the noise that accompanies the work. In scaffolding, scantling and boards come together with great . humor and clatter, but the stones of the edifice itself rise silently and fall solemnly into their phies In rearing a great reputation there is a sound of
* all manner of instruments, hammer and as, chisel and maul. * * *
But he who rears a temple of rare beauty and enduring strength labors silently as the craftsmen labored at the building of Solomon's Temple. On the consecrated heights of the soul, bared to the eye of Jehovah, walled up by truth on every sale, the foundations must be laid. Far away in the mountain quarries the work goes bravely on, silent thought and self-denying labors square and polish the rough ashlar, sorrow often bears it to the temple hill, where it takes its appointed place in the building. Thus every faculty, by him who is master, is wrought for its high and glorious position. Infinite toil and care are expended, oftentimes the builder wearies of his task, his eye grows dim, his arm nerveless; but the outlines of the glorious design upon the trestle-board awake him to renewed efort. Out of prosperity he makes choice vestments; out of adversity he gathers gold for the furniture, out of affliction, gems for decoration. The affections are fashioned, as were the cedars of Lebanon, for richly carved ceilings and roof, until, at last, over all the plated gold of the heavenly graces is laid, and the structure is complete. Deeds of real love and charity, the silent giving of bread to the hungry, the sympathizing fear for the affluted, the staying of the tide of grief and woe, - deeds which no eye but God's beholds, - shoot up from every part of the building in many a fretted spice and pinnacle of gold.
thousands of such temples are being created all around us, which we call uncouth and uncome- Iv. There is no giate of glitter, nothing to amact especial attention. We only gaze upon the patient face, the subdued expression, the calm resignation, lighted up occasionally by high resolve ot sublime faith; or perchance as the sun steals forth from riven clouds, with all the glory of his power, there flashes out upon us in the life of the lowly even the radiance of heavenly beauty. The rough scaffolding hides or mars the beauty and finish of the temple within. In poverty, it may be in great suffering and weariness of spint, the precious walls are laid; amid contunely and sneers the richer carvings are often added ; sneers at the poor edifice which appears to be going up, and contumely for our apparent waste of time and material. But at last the cap-stone is laid, the cedar roof is polished, and the last golden spike is placed. Then the scaffolding is removed, the clay and the earthly are laid aside, and lo! glorious beyond all description rises a matchless beauty. the temple of the soul, bathed in the golden light of eternity's dawn. Now angels join with harp the rejoining song, and strike the loud cymbals in triumphant acclaim, as the Great Architect, whose design has been wrought out, conserrates it forever to the service of Jehovah.
83
THE BEACH AND BAR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
The wife of Mr. Anderson was Miss Cordia F. Thompson, of Palmyra, their marriage being dated January 1t, 1854 They have buried three children, and have six living, five daughters and one son. Mr Anderson joined the Presbyte- rian Church in 1850; but he married a Methodist lady, and, thinking it would be a greater sacrifice for her to leave her church than for him to leave his, he united with the Methodist Church South. He represented that body in the general conference held at Louisville, Kentucky; has been a delegate to every annual conference of the church, and for the last fifteen or twenty years has been super- intendent of a Sunday school where he was living. He is one of that class of Christian workers who put their hand to no commendable plow and look back.
HON. JOHN C. ANDERSON.
JOHN CALVIN ANDERSON, one of the leading members of the Lewis county bar, and formerly for six years on the beach of the circuit court, hails from Ohio, being born in Belmont county, June 19, 1828. His father was Rev. Joseph Anderson, a Presbyterian minister, born in Huntingdon county, Pennsyl- vania, and son of Alexander Anderson, who served through most of the revolu- tionary war, and was at the surrender of General Cornwallis, in October, 1781. The father of that noble patriot was from the North of Ireland. The mother of John C. Anderson, before her marriage, was Nancy Johnson, from Loudoun county, Virginia.
In the spring of 1835 the family came to Marion county, this state, and in the autumn of the same year settled in Lewis county, where our subject attended a common school, and finished his education under Rev. W. W. Whipple, at La Grange, where he attended two years, his studies including Latin and the higher mathematics.
Mr. Anderson taught school three months near La Grange in 1849, and a year and a half at Monticello in 1850 and 1851 Here also be read law by himself, and was admitted to the bar in 1852, but did not commence practice until the autumn of 1853. In the same year he was married to Miss Eliza R. Pemberton, of Lewis county.
Mr. Anderson practiced at Monticello until 1859, when he moved to Memphis, Scotland county. Meantime, in 1853, he was appointed and commissioned circuit attorney of the fourth judicial circuit, succeeding Hon. James J. Lindley; was elected to the same office in 1850, reflected in 1800, and went out of office the next year under the ousting ordinance. In isog he returned to Monticello, and on account of the "test oath," he did not practice from 1864 to 1867. He en- gaged in farming, remaining on his homestead from the autumn of 1865 to the autumn of 1882, when he settled in Canton. Meantime, in 1874, he was elected judge of the fourth judicial circuit, and served the full term of six years. On the
St
THE BEACH AND BAK OF MISSOURI CITIES.
bench his broad legal knowledge and fine talents were seen to good advantage. Ile was painstaking and accurate, and dispatched business with unusual celerity.
On leaving the bench, Judge Anderson resumed the practice of the law, and he has a very large business, both civil and criminal. He is a very strong advo- cate, and has long stood among the head men at the bar in northeastern Missouri.
An ex-circuit judge, once on the beach of this circuit, says of Judge Ander- son : " I knew him well from his advent to the bar, and during the whole of his career as circuit attorney. He was a man of good parts, and discharged the duties of his office faithfully and efficiently. He was well furnished, and was a man of very considerable force."
The affiliations of Judge Anderson have always been with the democratic party. He is a Royal Arch Mason.
Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have two daughters living, and had the sad misfortune of losing two sons in 1877, nineteen and fifteen years of age, both within a week, an affliction which gathered clouds which are not wholly dispersed.
ALFRED A. PAXSON. SAINT LOUIS.
A'
LFRED ALLEN PAXSON is descended from an old Virginia family of Eng-
lish ancestors, who originally spelled the name with a "t" instead of an "'s." Joseph Paxson, the grandfather of Alfred, was born in the old Dominion, and his wife, Mary (Lester) Paxson, was a native of Maryland. Their son, Stephen Pax- son, father of our subject, was born in New Lisbon, Ohio, November 3, 1808. He was in early life a journeyman hatter, and later a hat dealer, and for almost forty years he was a missionary in the employ of the American Sunday School Union, traveling principally through the states of Missouri and Illinois, and fre- quently visiting the eastern cities in the interest of the society. He died in Saint Louis, April 22, 1881, and is buried in Bellefontaine cemetery, Saint Louis. Thou- sands of persons who were children twenty and forty years ago, still recollect father Paxson, with a voice like a silver trumpet, an eye of eagle glance, yet dove- like mildness, and speech so winning that old and young alike were charmed by it. His daughter, Mrs. Belle (Paxson) Drury, of Morgan county, Illinois, pre- pared an affectionate and touching memoir of her father, which was published by the American Sunday School Union, Philadelphia, in 1882, and it is being scat- tered through the land by means of the Sunday schools It is a profitable book for anybody to read.
Stephen Paxson married Sarah Pryor, of Tennessee, and Alfred was the seventh child of a family of eleven children. He was born at Winchester, Scott county, Ilinois, December 10, 1844. His father, never having had the advantages of even a common-school education, appreciated all the more keenly, from his own experience, the necessity of educating his children, and determined to give
e
85
THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
them such educational advantages as his limited means would afford, and as his pay in the Sunday school work was at first only one dollar per day, and with such a large family to support, one can readily see the almost insurmountable obstacles in his way in carrying out his wishes.
Alfred, appreciating the desire of his father to help him get an education, and knowing his father's straitened financial circumstances, would work on a farm six months in the year, and attend the common free schools during the winter months, and thus prepared himself to teach a public school, and in that way he made money enough, with what he could carn by writing at night, to enable him to enter the freshman class of Illinois College, Jacksonville (classical depart- ment), in the fall of 1864. He was graduated with the highest honors of his class, in June, 1868. His father having removed to Saint Louis that year and taken charge of the Depository of the American Sunday School Union, Alfred went into the store as clerk and bookkeeper, working in the store during the day, and reading law at night. He continued this for two years, attending the law lectures of the law department of Washington University, graduating in the second class graduated at that institution, receiving the degree of bachelor of laws, in May, 1870, and was valedictorian of his class. Among his classmates were the late Lewis B. Beach, who died while holding the office of circuit attorney of the city of Saint Louis; Edward P. McCarty, late city counselor of the city of Saint Louis; N. C. Dryden and R. H. Norton, practicing attorneys at Troy, Missouri; Edwin F. Bayley, attorney at Chicago, Illinois, and others.
Mr. Paxson practiced law in Saint Louis until the spring of 1873, when on ac- count of ill health he went to Texas, where he remained for nearly four years, practicing his profession with great success. While there his leading practice was in the criminal courts, and he served one term as circuit (called there district) attorney, by appointment of Judge M. IL. Bonner, now a member of the supreme court of Texas. In this capacity he is said to have acquitted himself with dis- tinction, making an able and efficient prosecutor.
He was also elected, while there, by the people, as county superintendent of public schools, a position for which his tine education and literary taste well quali- find him, as well as his hearty sympathy with that institution of our country which had done so much for him, and but for which, in all probability, he never would have been qualified by education to discharge the duties of that position, and of his profession.
October 8, 1873, Mr. Paxson was married to Miss Julia L. Hart, of Saint Louis, daughter of Colonel Harrison Earl Hart, of the 22d Illinois infantry, who died in 1863, while in the army.
In Texas they lost their first-born child, a daughter, little Sallie, whose body sleeps in the beautiful cemetery at Alton, Illinois. Three other children have since been born to them. Returning to Saint Louis in March, 1877, with re- gained health, Mr. Paxson has assiduously devoted himself to his profession with good success. His practice is in the civil and criminal courts, principally in the civil, owing to the separation here of the two branches of the profession.
:
THE BENCH AND BIR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
Ile is a member of the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows, and belongs to the Encampment. He is also a member of the Supreme Council Legion of Honor, as one of the representatives from Excelsior Council, No. 17. He is also a member of the American Legion of Honor. His politics are democratic, and his religious affiliations are with the Presbyterian Church.
THOMAS E. RALSTON. SAINT LOUIS.
T HOMAS ELDER RALSTON is a son of David Ralston, a farmer and mill owner, and Margaret (Sharpe) Ralston, his birth being dated at Indiana, Pennsylvania, March 29, 1843. His great-grandfather, Captain Andrew Sharpe, was an officer in the continental army, and was afterward killed by the Indians.
Our subject received an academic and college education, being a graduate of Union College, Schenectady, class of 1864, and of Harvard Law School, class of 1867. He opened an office in his native town in 1868, and was in practice there until March, 1871, when he settled in Saint Louis.
Mr. Ralston does a general business in all the civil courts, state and federal, and devotes his time very assiduously to the duties of his profession.
The character of Mr. Ralston, both as a lawyer and citizen, stands high; pro- fessionally he is profound, is a good pleader, has a well disciplined, legal mind, and is a candid, sincere and excellent reasoner, far above the average at the Saint Louis bar.
Mr. Ralston is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Union College, and of the Second Presbyterian Church, Saint Louis.
He was married in 1871, to Miss Clara R. Sutton, of Indiana, Pennsylvania, and they have two children, both sons.
HON. BENJAMIN E. TURNER.
B ENJAMIN EDWARD TURNER, judge of the fourth judicial circuit, is a native of this state, and was born in Lewis county, March 18, 1850, his par- ents being Joseph A. and Henrietta (Hagerman) Turner. His father was born in Kentucky; his mother in Virginia. His paternal grandfather was in the war of 1812-14. He was reared on his father's farm in Lewis county, where his parents still reside, and was educated at La Grange College, taking an irregular course, and leaving at the end of the junior year. He read law under the direction of Canton lawyers; was admitted to the bar in 1871, and after practicing a short time at Alexandria, Clarke county, he settled at Kahoka, the seat of justice of that county. He was not long in making his mark at the bar, and in 1874 was
87
THE BENCH UND BAR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
elected by his democratic constituents to the office of prosecuting attorney of Clarke county. He was reflected in 1876 and 1878, and made a noteworthy rec- ord as a strong prosecutor, having a few very difficult cases, and managing them with marked ability. As a lawyer, his place is in the front rank in his district.
In 18So, before his third term as prosecuting attorney had expired, he was ele- vated to the bench, at that time the young est circuit judge in Missouri. On the bench, as at the bar, he is noted for his industrious habits and honorable bearing. Hle is fair and impartial, attentive and patient, treats the bar with the courtesy of a gentleman, and in return is greatly respected by the legal fraternity in his judi- cial circuit. He wears the ermine with modest dignity.
Judge Turner is a Knight Templar in the Masonic order; a member of the Baptist Church, and as solid in moral character as in legal and judicial attain- ments. For the last four or five years he has been a member of the board of trustees of La Grange College.
Judge Turner has been twice married; first in April, 1875, to Miss Mary G. Daggs, of Scotland county, she dying the same year; and the second time in May, 1879, to Miss Lutie MeDermott, of Clarke county. They have one daughter.
ROBERT L. BROCKENBROUGH. SAINT LOUIS.
R OBERT LEWIS BROCKENBROUGH, who was born in Lexington, Vir- ginia. October 13, 1846, belongs to a family of high rank and much influ- ence in the Old Dominion, two generations being distinguished as jurists. His grandfather, Judge William Brockenbrough, was successively circuit judge, presi- dent of the general court, and judge of the court of appeals, his services on the bench ending with his life.
John White Brockenbrough, LL. D., son of Hon. William Brockenbrough, and father of our subject, was born in Hanover, Virginia, in 1806; was one of the first students who matriculated at the University of Virginia the day that it was opened, and he was one of the first graduates whose career shed luster on that institution. He became a lawyer, and early in his career at the bar undertook to report the decisions of Chief Justice Marshall, completing two volumes of those decisions. In 1834 he settled in Lexington, Rockbridge county, married Mary C. Bowyer, and on the election of Judge Pennybacker to the United States senate, Mr. Brockenbrough was appointed by President Polk (1845) to fill his place as United States judge for the western district of Virginia. That position he held until 1861, when he was made confederate states judge for the same district, and he was a member of the peace congress held in February of that year, and of the provisional congress which met at Montgomery, Alabama, in June following. He received the honorary degree of doctor of laws from Washington College, Vir- ginia, 1851; the next year became a member of its board of trustees, and was
.
88
THE BENCH AND RAR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
rector of that board from 1865 to 1822, when he resigned as trustee. One of the best deeds of his life was the founding of a law school at Lexington in 1849, and which, after the civil war, was incorporated with Washington and Lee University. Judge Brockenbrough held a professorship in that institution until 1874, after which he practiced law at Lexington until his death in February, 1877. A Rich- mond daily paper, from which we have gathered most of the facts in this brief memoir, thus spoke of this distinguished man at the time of his demise:
"Of Judge Brockenbrough personally we can say that he was one of the most honorable and chivalrous of gentlemen. . In his early days he was regarded as a model of gallantry. His life was marked by the courtesy and dignity of his bearing and his kind and generous disposition. For a true gentleman -- one we Virginians are in the self-complacent habit of styling a 'true Virginian gentle . man'- we could have pointed unerringly to John W. Brockenbrough. He was fine in physique, noble in mind, unexceptionable in manners. The bar of Lexing- ton, in their excellent tribute to the memory of the deceased, consider that his character illustrated this noble sentiment expressed by Cicero: 'As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man, so I am not less pleased with the old man that has something of the youth.' Having well filled his place in life, he has gone to death with a stainless reputation."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.