USA > Missouri > Cole County > Jefferson City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 11
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 11
USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 11
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Robert L. Brockenbrough was educated at the Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee University, both located at Lexington, his birthplace, he receiving the degree of bachelor of arts in 1868. In the spring of 1864, while a cadet, he and his fellow students were called out and placed as a corps under General J. C. Breckenridge, and took part in the battle of New Market, Virginia, in May of that year. In the following autumn he went into the confederate army with rank of first lieutenant, and served till the war ended. During the session of 1867-68 at the university he was assistant teacher of French, and from 1868 to 1870 he taught a private school in Kentucky
Mr. Brockenbrough went to Austin, Texas, and from 1870 to 1876 occupied the chair of ancient languages in the Texas Military Institute, Studying law during the latter part of that period. When he left the institute the local papers spoke very highly of his success as a teacher of the classics. He was admitted to the bar at Austin, February 29, 1870, and the next September settled in Saint Louis.
Mr. Brockenbrough goes into the criminal courts occasionally, but his practice is mostly civil, which best suits his disposition, and it extends into all the courts of that kind. He is of a studious turn of mind, and is growing in his profession.
Mr. Brockenbrough was formerly captain of company C, ist regiment national guards of Missouri, and he has quite a taste for military matters. At the time of the labor riots in Saint Louis in the summer of 1877 he was orderly sergeant of the Turner Guards, and rendered such aid in suppressing those riots that the company deemed it proper to pass resolutions of commendation for his activity and efficiency, which resolutions were published in the Saint Louis daily papers.
In May, 1879, he was appointed assistant circuit attorney of Saint Louis, and
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served four months during the illness of the incumbent, Louis Beach. " During that time," says a gentleman formerly on the beach, "Mr. Brockenbrough was very zealous as a prosecutor, and I regard him as a very promising young man."
Mr. Brockenbrough was married in Austin, Texas, in June, 1876, to Mary Agnes, daughter of the late Key, John S. Grasty, D. D., then pastor of the Pres- byterian Church of that place. They have one child living, Charles Page Brock- enbrough.
HON. JOHN L. MARTIN. SAINT LOUIS.
JOHN IRWIN MARTIN is a fine illustration of the rise and progress of a plucky youth, backed by physical force, and urged on by ambition. The son of a boss teamster of moderate means, he commented driving a team when not more than fourteen or fifteen years oldl, attending a commercial night school at the same time, and has been in succession a drayman, shipping clerk, salesman, merchant, lawyer, legislator and political stump speaker. Mr. Martin is a son of William and Frances E. (Irwin) Martin, both natives of Ireland, and he was born in Saint Louis, May 24, 1847. He was early made acquainted with hard work, attending the public schools meanwhile, a few weeks in each year, till about tif- teen years of age, and after that date studying in a night school only.
When eighteen years of age he became a shipping clerk, and afterward a salesman for George Bain and Company. Subsequently he formed a partnership with John Needham for the sale of agricultural implements, and the firm of Needham and Martin did a thrifty business. During this period in the life of our subject, he was accustomed to give more or less time to the reading of law, for which study he had great fondness. He now read in the office of R. S. Mac- donald, and was admitted to the bar in 1870.
In May, 1879, on motion of Hon. Montgomery Blair, Mr. Martin was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the United States, and his practice extends into all the courts, civil and crimmal. His criminal business is very large, second probably to that of no other lawyer in the city. He has remarkable success be- fore a jury, rarely losing a case. His energy and torce of character are simply wonderful.
Mr. Martin has been a member of the legislature four terms; he was chosen speaker pro tem. of the twenty-eighth general assembly without a dissenting vote from either side of the house, and at the close of the session was presented with a gold watch and chain, with gavel attached, and suitable inscription, and a unanimous vote of thanks.
His politics are democratic, and he served two terms on the central committee of the city, and represented the third congressional district of the state central committee for six years. During the famous presidential campaign in 1876, under the auspices of the national democratic executive committee, he stumped the
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states of Indiana and part of Illinois, making at least fifty speeches. He is an aggressive man, combative in politics, and in almost everything else, and in law- suits is usually on the defense.
Mr. Martin was appointed park commissioner by the county court for one year, and was then elected to the same office for the period of five years. During part of that time he was vice-president of the board and chairman of the execu- tive committee.
He has passed all the chains in Odd-Fellowship and the Knights of Honor, and was deputy grand commander, and is past commander of the American Legion of Honor, and grand orator of this order for the state of Missouri. He is an active orator of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and since July, 1883, has been division commander of the tenth Missouri district of select knights of the last named order, and at the session of the Supreme Legion of that order, held in Buffalo, New York, October 9, 1883, Mr. Martin was honored with the chair- manship of the committee on laws, a position he filled with executive ability. At the close of the session he was appointed by the supreme commander, chairman of the finance committee for the term ending October, 1885.
The wife of Mr. Martin was Clara E. La Barge, daughter of Captain Charles La Barge, who was blown up about thirty years ago on the steamer "Saluda," and step-daughter of Hon. Peter G. Gerhart, a prominent real-estate dealer in this city. They were married June 1, 1872, and have four children.
MAJOR LUCIEN EATON. SAINT LOUIS.
LUCIEN EATON, one of the editors of the " American Law Review" of Saint Louis, is a native of Lewis county, New York, and was born at Denmark, September 24, 1831. His parents, George C. and Mary (Goodrich) Eaton, were born in Massachusetts, his mother being a sister of Sarah Goodrich, of Boston, a celebrated miniature portrait painter some fifty years ago, whose portraits of Webster and other statesmen of his time are among the best extant.
In the spring of 1St0, the year that lowa became a state, George C. Eaton took his family to Denmark, Lee county, in that state, a town settled by an east- ern colony.
Major Eaton was educated (1851-55) at lowa College, then located at Daven- port, and later removed to Grinnell, where the college buildings, with a large part of the town, were destroyed by a tornado in June, 1882. He was graduated in 1855, and at the Cambridge (Massachusetts) Law School in 1857. He then spent a year in study at Boston, and in February, 1858, settled in Saint Louis. He was in general practice, except during the rebellion, until 1867, when he became register in bankruptcy, the business of which office he is even now wind- ing up With the repeal of the bankrupt act he resumed a general civil practice.
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In the winter and spring of 1861 Mr. Eaton was one of the earliest to enlist in the service of suppressing the rebellion, and took part in the capture of Camp Jackson, having enlisted in the volunteer forces then raised by General Lyon.
In August, 1862, he became captain of company A, Just Missouri infantry, and was assigned to duty as district judge advocate at Saint Louis. In 180; he was appointed judge advocate in the regular army, with the rank of major, and at once assigned to duty at headquarters in the department of Missouri, at Saint Louis, serving successively on the staffs of Rosecrans, Dodge and Pope until the close of the war, when, at his request, he was mustered out in August, 1865, in order to return to the practice of his profession.
Major Eaton was appointed police commissioner carly in 1866, and resigned that office on being appointed register in bankruptcy, in June, 1807, by Chief Justice Chase. His practice is general and large, but he declines criminal cases.
For four years Major Eaton was editor of the "Southern Law Review." until January, 1883, when it was consolidated with the " American Law Review," of which he then became managing editor having for his associate Judge Seymour D. Thompson.
Major Eaton married, March 27, 1801, Miss Emily F. Partridge, daughter of Hon. George Partridge, of Saint Louis At her death, in September, 1872, she left two sons, of whom the eldest, George P , was drowned at West Newton, Massa- chusetts, in January, 1882 Mr. Eaton, in 1870, was married to Miss Hannah O. Noyes, of Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Of this marriage three children have been the fruits.
HENRY E. MILL.S.
SALVE 700 Z.S.
ENRY EDMUND MILLS, author of " Mills on Eminent Domain," is a native of Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, and was born at Montrose, June 24, 1850. His father, Bartlett II. Mills, was born in the same state, and was a journalist .. The mother of Henry was Delia ( Halsey) Mills, a native of Herki- mer county, New York. Her ancestors came over in the " Hopewell," and settled on Long Island, New York, in 1035 The paternal grandfather of our subject went into the Continental army at the opening of the war as a drummer boy, and afterward became commander of a company in a Massachusetts regiment. In 1850 Bartlett Mills came to Upper Alton, Illinois, and engaged in publishing the "Good Templar," dying at Upper Alton in 1877.
The subject of these notes is a graduate of Shurtleff College, Upper Alton, class of 1869. He taught school one year after leaving college; then entered the Saint Louis law school, and was admitted to the bar on examination at the end of the junior year, in June, 1871, and was graduated the next year, taking the prize thesis.
Mr. Mills is of the firm of Mills and Fliteraft, and his practice is entirely civil.
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As already stated, Mr. Mills is the author of a work on " Eminent Domain," pub- Inhed in Saint Louis in razy, which received a very flattering reception on the part of the press and the legal fraternity.
The " American Law Review," of Boston, Massachusetts, one of the highest authorities of the kind in the United States, says that Mr. Mills " has given his whole attention to the reduction of the vast accumulation of material (he has cited over three thousand cases, which will soon become an unwieldy mass, into a systematic arrangement, which would show exactly what the law was, and its relations to the owners of property throughout this country. We think he has succeeded admirably in his endeavor." The work is spoken of in a similarly com- plimentary tone by the law journals generally of the country, by the " Boston Daily Advertiser," and the " New York Evening Post:" by Judge Cooper, of Nashville, Tennessee; by Judge Cooley, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and by other jurists of eminence in different parts of the country,
Mr. Mills is a republican in politics, a member of the Baptist Church, and a man of sterling character and high promise. He was married in August, 1877, to Miss Emma B. Sprague, of Saint Louis, formerly of Greenville, Illinois, and they have two children.
SILAS B. JONES. SAINT LOUIS.
ILAS B. JONES was born at Huntingdon, Carroll county, Tennessee, July S' 26, 1851. His father, L. M Jones, emigrated from Charlotte county, Virginia, to Carroll county, Tennessee, in the year 1835, and a few years later began the study of the law, and was soon thereafter admitted to the bar, and constantly devoted himself to the practice of his profession until within a few years past, when he retired from active practice on account of ill health. He is a thoroughly upright and conscientious man, full of energy and decision of character, and while in active practice was esteemed as an accurate and learned lawyer, and as one of the strongest advocates on the circuit in which he practiced, which pos- sessed some of the ablest lawyers then in Tennessee.
The subject of this sketch attended the schools of his native town, and there acquired a good academic education. He spent the years of 1864 and 1865 on a farm, and then removed with his father to Trenton, Tennessee, where, February 11, 1867, he entered Andrew College, from which, after completing the prescribed course of the college, he was graduated June 8, 1870. At college he was a close student, and his department was such as to win for himself the respect and friendship of his tutors. Immediately after taking his degree, he devoted five months to teaching as an assistant in an academy at Humboldt, Tennessee. January 1, 1871, he began the study of the law in his father's office at Trenton, and in July, 1872, was licensed to practice law in the courts of Tennessee.
In October, 1872, the subject of this sketch permanently located in the city of
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Saint Louis, where he has since resided, and devoted himself exclusively to his profession. From October, 1872, to August, 1873, he occupied a part of the law offices of Colonel Charles H. Thornton, and in the latter month formed a partner- ship with S. M. Yeaman, which was dissolved in August, 1874, after which he practiced alone until April, 1881, when he became a member of the then firm of MeComas and MeKeighan, which became MeComas, Mckeighan and Jones, until March, 1882, and was then dissolved by the withdrawal of Judge McComas. Thereupon the remaining members of the firm, J. E. McKeighan and the subject of this sketch, formed a new partnership - under the name of Mckeighan and Jones, which still exists. Mr. Jones is regarded as one of the most honest, thorough, able and zealous lawyers at the Saint Louis bar; and has been remark- ably successful in many important cases intrusted to his management.
Mr. Jones is a married man, having married Hattie C: Senter, only daughter of William M. Senter, of Saint Louis, in December, 1875, and is blessed with four children, one daughter and three sons.
HON. AYLETT H. BUCKNER. MEXICO.
A' YLETT HAWES BUCKNER, member of congress from the seventh dis- triet, was born in Fredericksburgh, Virginia, December 14, 1817. His parents, Bailey and Mildred (Strother) Buckner, were also born in that state. His father was a farmer and merchant, and at the time of his death, about 1834, was holding an office in the treasury department under President Jackson. Aylott was educated at Georgetown College, District of Columbia, and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, taking a partial course, and teaching a few terms after leaving the university. He came to this state in 1837; read law by himself at Palmyra; was admitted to the bar by the supreme court, and in the autumn of 1838 commenced practice at Bowling Green, Pike county. While there he also edited a democratic newspaper, and served for six years as clerk of the county court. He declined a reflection to the county office.
In 1856 Mr. Buckner went to Saint Louis, and for two years was attorney for the old Bank of Missouri. Returning to Bowling Green and engaging in prac- tice, he was elected judge of the old third judicial circuit, 1857, and was holding that office in 1861, when he was legislated out of office by the Gamble legislature, his sympathies being with the South.
In 1864 Mr. Buckner went to Saint Charles, and, much to his financial hurt, engaged in the manufacture of tobacco. Three or four years later he opened a law office in that city, and was engaged in the successful practice of his profes- sion when, in 1872, he was elected to congress in the then ninth district; and he is now serving his sixth consecutive term in that body.
In the forty-fourth congress, the democrats being in the ascendancy in the
house, he was made chairman of the memettre on the District of Columbia.
In the forty -with and forte without grosses Me Buckner was chairman of the
The residence nt Congressman Bulteranne 1872 has been at Mexico. He has When at the bat he stood high in his twenty; not as an orator, but as a sound, clear-headed, conscientious lawyer, and a man of lofty tone of character
In is# Congressman Buckner was married to Mrs. Eliza (Clark) Minor, of Lincoln county, this state, and of eight children born to them only five are now living, four of whom are married. Mr and Mrs. Buckner are members of the Presbyterian Church, and are leading factors in the social circles of Mexico.
AUGUSTUS BINSWANGER. SAINT LOUIS.
M R. BINSWANGER is a Marylander by birth, and of German parentage, his father and mother, Emanuel and Eliza (Seligman) Binswanger, being natives of Bavaria. He was born at Catonsville, January 19, 1844, and in his infancy the family moved to Baltimore city, where he attended school until he attained his thirteenth year. At this age he commenced work in his father's vine- gar factory, and was thus employed for three years. Desirous of leaving home to light his own way in the world, he accepted the first offer made of a clerkship, and went to Darlington Court House, South Carolina, in the autumn of 1800, where he remained one year, and in attempting to return to Baltimore, by run- ning the blockade, was captured, treated as a spy, and confined for three weeks at Martinsburgh, West Virginia, until released by order of Stonewall Jackson. He remained in the valley of Virginia for six months, filling a clerkship at Har- risonburgh, Virginia, and after watching his opportunity, successfully cluded the pickets and returned to Baltimore. He soon thereafter accepted a clerkship in Washington, District of Columbia, and, when with his employer but four months, was taken into partnership, and at the end of one year bought out his partner's interest in the business and became a successful merchant.
So strong was his desire to gain knowledge that he devoted every leisure moment to the reading of classical works, and at the close of the war, in 1865, he retired from business with a handsome sum of money, and entered Yale Law School for the purpose of gaining knowledge the better to fit himself for busi- ness. So rapid was his progress in the study of the science of law that the pro- fessors of the law school strongly advised him to devote himself to the practice of the profession instead of to mercantile pursuits. He was graduated in the class of '67, and immediately moved to Saint Louis, Missouri, and struggled to secure a foothold. His successful management of several cases involving com-
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mercial questions brought him into prominence, and he was soon ranked among the busiest lawyers in the city He built up a very lucrative practice in bankruptcy matters, and was interested in nearly every large case before the court. His early commercial training was of great assistance to him in ferreting out and exposing frands perpetrated by failing debtors. In matters relating to the adjustment of the many difficult questions which arise between insolvent debtors and their creditors he stands foremost in the ranks of the bar here.
Mr. Binswanger was one of the organizers of the United Hebrew Relief Asso- riation of Saint Louis, and has been its secretary and one of its directors for the last thirteen years. He holds the same offices in the Home for Aged and Infirm Israelites of Saint Louis; is a director of congregation Gates of Truth and chair- man of its school board; member of the executive board of the Union of Ameri- can Hebrew Congregations, and is, in fact, identified officially with nearly every prominent Hebrew organization, educational, benevolent or religious, in the city, being a man of humane and very generous impulses.
The wife of our subject was Miss Carrie Vogel, of Chicago, their union taking place November 20, 1872. They have a daughter and son living.
EDWARD 1. FARISH.
SAINT LOUIS.
E DWARD TILGHMAN FARISH, who has long been a prominent lawyer at the Saint Louis bar, was born in Woodville, Mississippi, August 7, 1836. His father, Edward T. Farish, was a physician and surgeon of English lineage, and his mother was Caroline Hamilton, of Louisiana, granddaughter of Sir William Hamilton, a Scotch baron. Edward fost both parents before he was twelve years old, and in 1847 came to Saint Louis to live with relatives on the father's side. He was graduated at the Saint Louis University in 1854. Two years later, having read law with Abram Fenly, he was admitted to the bar, and soon formed a partner- ship with A. J. P. and P. B. Garesche, which partnership lasted till the civil war broke out, when P. B. Garesche joined the confederates. In 1857 Mr. Farish was married to Miss Lilly Garesche
In 1864 Mr. Farish became a partner of Hon. R. A. Bakewell, which lasted till 1870, when Mr. Bakewell went on the beach. Meanwhile P. B. Garesche had returned from the South, and joined the firm in 1868.
Mr. Farish seems to be partial to the civil practice, yet in the few criminal cases in which he has been retained, he has shown great adroitness and skill, as well as ability in their management. He defended Picton, a merchant, and pros- ecuted Edwards, teller of the Union Savings Bank, both cases growing out of mercantile transactions, both of a good deal of importance, and both exciting a great deal of interest at the time.
Mr. Farish was city counselor from 8870 to 1878, but he has never been an office
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seeker. Parties with whom we have conversed from time to time, and who have known him longest, state that he is a very close student, that he has fine literary as well as legal talents; that he is an able advocate; that he speaks with ease and fluency; is candid as well as logical and earnest, and has great persuasive pow- ers, hence his success. Best of all, his character is irreproachable, the purity of his lite being unquestioned.
FRANCIS M. HARRINGTON.
KIRKSVILLE.
F RANCIS MARTIN HARRINGTON is a son of Martin and Catherine (Hagaman) Harrington, and was born at Amsterdam, Montgomery county, New York, December 5, 1837. His father, who was born in Worcester county, Massachusetts, and was a machinist in his younger years, immigrated to Illinois more than forty years ago, and became a farmer in Pike county, that state, where he is still living, being in his eighty-sixth year. Catherine ( Hagaman) Harring. ton was born in Montgomery county, New York, and her family was among the early settlers in that part of the Empire State. She died in 1870.
Francis received a fair English education in the public schools of Pike county, and taught for three or four winter terms. He read law at Pittsfield, Illinois, with Hay and Matthews, and attended lectures in the law department of the University of Chicago, where he was graduated in 1866, Robert T. Lincoln being in the same class.
Mr. Harrington settled in Kirksville in July, 1866, and has since been in suc- cessful practice in this city. He goes into all the courts, and into the several counties in his district, and has an honorable standing among the legal frater- nity. " Mr. Harrington," writes an intimate acquaintance of his, " has a peculiar shrewdness in managing a case, that is undefinable, and is the secret, in part, of his splendid success. As a jury lawyer," continues this legal brother, " Mr. Har- rington bas few peers in his judicial circuit. A truer friend,to his clients I never saw."
Mr. Harrington served as county attorney for five of six consecutive years, and was a member of the thirtieth, thirty-first and thirty-second general assem- blies, being still a member of that body, and a favorite among his republican friends in Adair county During every session he has been on the committee on ways and means, and he has been a hard worker in the halls of legislation, get- ting through a large number of bills. He was the author of the well known marriage license bill, which went through the thirtieth general assembly, and which requires licenses to be issued by the recorder of deeds.
He is prominently connected with the school interests of the state, working earnestly, with others, to secure the location of the North Missouri Normal School at Kirksville, which has grown into a popular and prosperous institution. In the session of 1883 he secured the appropriation of nearly $36,000 to this school.
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The work he has done in the state legislature, while of much importance, has been at a great sacrifice on his own part, such duties greatly interfering with his legal practice, and it is doubtful if he will consent to be a candidate the fourth time for the legislature.
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