USA > Missouri > Cole County > Jefferson City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 14
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 14
USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 14
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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
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Mr. Woodson is a lawyer of fine abilities. He has a mind powerful in its grasp. His arguments are to the point, and he is possessed of great fluency, and his choice of language is very fine. He is over six feet in height, with keen black eyes, black hair, and features of a classic mold.
JABEZ N. BROWN.
LABEZ NORTON BROWN, one of the oldest lawyers in Macon county, hails from the Empire State, being born in Oneida county, February 22, 1812. He spent two years at Hamilton College, Clinton, leaving at the end of the sopho- more year, and afterward taught school between one and two years in Pennsylva- nia and Missouri, coming to Columbia, this state, in 1840. He had read law in New York with Hon. Timothy Jenkins, once a member of congress from the Oneida district.
In 1844 Mr. Brown located at Macon, where he practiced law until 1863, when, the civil war being in progress, he went to Saint Louis, and engaged with other parties in the wholesale grocery business. Pecuniarily this proved an unfortu- nate move, and in 1868 Mr. Brown returned to Macon.
He was treasurer of Macon county for seven years before going to Saint Louis; was city attorney one or two terms, and was president many years ago of the West Bank of Missouri, at Bloomington, Macon county, the same being a branch of the mother bank at Saint Joseph.
Mr. Brown has always stood well with the people, having their fullest conti- dence in his integrity, as well as competency. As a lawyer he is much respected by his associates at the Macon county bar.
The wife of Mr. Brown was Miss Elizabeth H. Sheckels, of Randolph county, this state. They were married in iSqo, and have buried two sons, and have four children living.
HON. NICHOLAS P. MINOR. DOUBLING GREEN.
N LICHOLAS PETER MINOR, judge of the probate court of Pike county, and one of the oldest lawyers in the county, was ushered into the world August 20, 1823, in Albemarle county, Virginia. His parents, Samuel Overton Minor and Lydia Laura ( Lewis) Minor, were also born in that state. His mother was a relative of Meriweather Lewis, who led the expedition of Lewis and Clark in discovering Columbia River, Oregon. The same side of the family is remotely related to Rev. William Douglas, who came from England to Virginia at an early period in colonial history, having a grant of a large tract of land there, part of which is still in the bands of the family. In the " times that tried men's souls,"
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the Minors steadfastly adhered to the interests of the Old Dominion, two or three of them, including the grandfather of Nicholas P. Minor, shouldering their flint- lock muskets, and showing how fields were won. A great uncle of Nicholas P'. Minor, in one of the battles, lost his life.
In 1835 Samnel O. Minor brought his family to this state, and settled near where Eolia, Pike county, now stands, where he opened a farm, and where he died in 1838; his wife died in 1833. Nicholas P. Minor was reared in habits of in- dustry, and it is not unlikely that he owes his good health to-day and his robust constitution, to the early physical training which he thus had, as well as to the care which he has since taken of himself. He received some mental training in the local schools, and was permitted to enter Illinois college, at Jacksonville, being in the sophomore year when the death of his father rendered it necessary that he should leave.
In 1840 Mr. Minor came to Bowling Green, taught the academy six months, and thereby made money enough to take him through his course of legal studies, which he had commenced while teaching. He was admitted to the bar in 1842, and commenced practice as the sole proprietor of four law books, including Chitty and Blackstone. He was not long in enlarging his stock of legal litera- ture, and in a few years had an excellent library, which he still replenishes from time to time.
In 1846 he was the democratic candidate for the legislature against James (). Broadhead (whig), in a strong whig district, and came within three votes of an election. We believe he has since been glad that he was defeated, for had he gone into politics at that early age, a good lawyer in Pike county might have been spoiled.
In 1852 Mr. Minor moved to Louisiana, ten miles east of Bowling Green, and was there in successful practice for thirty years, making a highly praiseworthy record at the Pike county bar.
In 1854 he took J. B. Henderson's place at Louisiana, as judge of the court of common pleas, holding that position one year
In 1855 he was appointed circuit attorney by Governor Price, when the district of country covered what is now divided into three or four circuits. That office he held by election until the outbreak of civil war, and however wide his field and onerous his labors as circuit attorney, he performed them promptly, with ability, and to the general satisfaction of his constituents. Ile was in the Con- federate army four years.
In 1882 Mr. Minor was elected probate judge, and returned to his old home at Bowling Green, which is the county seat. The duties of that office, for which he is most admirably fitted, he is performing with his usual care and executive ability. He was born in the Episcopal Church, and while a resident of Louisi- ana, he was senior warden of Calvary Church more than a score of years. Ile has lived an unblemished life.
Judge Minor has a second wife; the first was Miss Susan HL. Lewis, a native of
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Virginia, married in Kentucky in 1848; she died in 1859, leaving one son, Nicho- las Lewis Minor, now & farmer in Pike county. He was married to his present wile in 1800; she was Lizzie T. Roots, daughter of Captain Thomas R. Roots, first of the United States navy, and afterward of the Confederate States navy. By her he has one son, Fontaine Meriweather Minor, who is an apprentice to the printer's trade.
HON. RICHARD S. MATTHEWS. MAICONY.
R ICHARD SMITH MATTHEWS, judge of the probate court of Macon county, is a native of the adjoining county of Randolph, and was born July 14, 1847. He is a graduate of McGee College, Macon county, class of 1869, and for three years immediately thereafter had charge of the preparatory department in the same institution. He was admitted to the bar in the autumn of 1873, having pre- viously, in August, 1872, been united in marriage with Miss Armada Gilstrap, daughter of his preceptor.
Our subject slighted nothing in his law readings; was as thorough in them as in his scientific studies, and very soon began to show the advantages of his thor- ough discipline of mind. As an advocate he is sound, logical and persuasive, and has an excellent standing at the county bar. He was elected to his present county office in 1878, and reflected in 1882. His politics lean to the democracy, but all parties vote for him, he being one of the most popular citizens of Mercer county.
ENOCH B. GILL ..
KANSAS CITY.
THE subject of these notes is a native of Kentucky. He was born, December 14, 1839, in Bath county, and is a son of Marcus and Satly Ann (Bruton) Gill. His father is a leading, wealthy citizen, and came to Missouri in March, 185%, and has resided in Jackson county up to the present time. His remote ancestor was Kev. John Gill, D.D., an English Presbyterian divine, who immi- grated to America about one hundred years ago, and settled in New York. Our subject is a brother of Hon. Turner A. Gill, judge of the circuit court, division No. 1, Kansas City.
Enoch began his education in the common schools; he took a scientific and classical course under private tutors, and became a fine scholar. He taught school a number of years and during that time studied law under the tuition of different attorneys, and finished his legal course with Major Samuel Hard- wiche, of Liberty, Missouri. He was admitted to the bar, January 1, 1873, and commenced practice at Liberty, where he remained eight years, doing well. In 1878 be removed to Olathe, Kansas, where he now resides, and has an
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office, doing the largest business of any attorney in that place. He opened an office in Kansas City, April 2, 1883, where he intends to live hereafter. He has had many important cases, both in chancery and criminal practice, as the reports of Missouri and Kansas will show. He makes a specialty of real-estate law and chancery practice. He is an expert in making briefs. Among the many important cases in which he has distinguished himself may be mentioned one where the question arose as to the right of city authorities to grant a right of way to a steam railway company to construct a railroad through one of the princi- pal streets of the city of Olathe without compensation to the abutting lot owners. Mr. Gill was counsel for the prisoner in the case of the state os. Elisha Cravens, a notable fratricide case ; the prisoner was discharged through the efforts of Mr. Gill, whose argument to the jury was very creditable to him. Mr. Gill's business is largely civil, a branch of practice he most enjoys.
He has been twice married, first in 1860 to Mary Lane, daughter of Colonel William Lane, and a niece of General H. S. Lane, of Indiana. His first wife died in 1870, and his second wife was a Miss Vina McCrum, to whom he was mar- ried in June, 1880. By his first wife he had five children, and has one child by his last wife.
FRANCIS L. MARCHAND. MONTICELLO.
F RANCIS LEWIS MARCHAND, of the firm of Blair and Marchand, is a native of the Keystone State, being born at Leechburgh, Armstrong county, June 12, 1840. His parents, George W. Marchand, M.D., and Isabella ( Kerr) Mar- chand, were also natives of Pennsylvania. His paternal grandfather represented his district in congress two or three terms, and his maternal great-grandfather, Colonel Bonnett, was an officer in the revolutionary war, and commanded a de- Lachment of troops in putting down the whisky insurrection in western Pennsyl- vania in 1794, under order of President Washington.
Francis I. Marchand came to the West in 1853 with his parents, and finished his education at the Burlington (lowa) Institute, where he took an irregular course und was not graduated. He read law at first with W. F. Conred, and then with M. D. Browning, both of Burlington, where he was admitted to the bar in 1802.
Mr. Marchand opened an office in Monticello in 1863, and is still in practice here. Since the spring of 1874 he has been of the firm of Blair and Marchand, his partner being Hon. James G. Blair, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. Mr Marchand stands high in his judicial circuit, both as a case and a jury lawyer. He prepares his briefs with unusual care, and does none of his legal work in a ship-shod manner. As a general business man he has no superior in his profession in the county, and his integrity is unquestioned.
Mr. Muchand held the office of county attorney two terms, and in 1868 was elected to the legislature, one term in that body pacifying his ambition, which
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does not seem to run to office-holding. Evidently he is contented to be a success- ful and growing man in his profession
In politics he has always voted the democratic ticket, is a strong partisan, and at times quite active, attending county, district and state conventions, and taking the stump during an especially important canvass. He has acted as chairman of the democratic county central committee at sundry times, in all eight or ten years. He is a Master Mason.
Mr. Marchand was married January 1, 1868, to Miss Susan M. Leeper, a native of Monticello, and they have three children. "He takes a good deal of interest in the cause of education; is a trustee of the Monticello Seminary, and a useful citizen.
FRANK P. HALL ..
F FRANKLIN PIERCE HALL, attorney at law and not long ago the youngest county clerk in the state of Missouri, was born on the line of Scotland and Knox counties, this state, November 22, 1854 His father is William B. Hall, a native of Kentucky, where he was a teacher in his younger years; subsequently a farmer, first in Scotland, then Knox county, now living at his ease in Knox City. His mother, Angeline A. (Roberts) Hall, was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is also still living. His father was in the second war with the mother country. The paternal grandfather of our subject was in the Mexican war, and the great- grandfather was in the Indian wars.
Frank, as he always writes his name and is universally called, was educated mainly at the normal school at Kirksville, teaching about half the time from nineteen to twenty-three years of age, and thus paying every dollar of his ex- penses while obtaining his education. He early learned the worth of money and to be prudent and saving, and that is far from being the least valuable branch of one's knowledge. He is one of the best business men of any profession at the county seat.
In 1878, before he was twenty-four years of age, Mr. Hall was elected county clerk, an office which requires a head that is clear and level, and for four years he performed the duties of that office in such a manner as to give general and complete satisfaction to the citizens of this county.
Hle read law during all that period, devoting his spare time to that purpose, as he had done before while teaching, and he was admitted to the bar in March, 1883. Hle had formed a very extensive acquaintance in the county, had made many friends, and he stepped almost immediately into a fair practice. He has an excellent class of clients, which is increasing every month. Probably no young man in Edina ever opened a law office under more favorable circumstances than Mr. Hall, or did so well at the start.
Hle unites real-estate and the loan business with the law, and eventually will
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be likely to make real-estate law and commercial law his specialties. Success has attended him in every branch of business which has engaged his attention, his energies and his talents, and we may expect to see him reach a highly credit- able position at the bar of his judicial circuit.
In politics Mr. Hall is an anti monopolist of democratic antecedents, and in Freemasonry he is a member of Ely Commandery, No. 22, of Kirksville.
October 25, 1882, Mr. Hall was united in marriage with Miss Maggie Wirt, daughter of Colonel Samuel M. Wirt, formerly of Edina, now of Nickerson, Kansas.
JOSIAH J. WILLIAMS.
KANSAS CITY.
OSLAHI J. WILLIAMS was born May 3, 1858, at Carthage, Ilinois, and is a J son of Jesse C. and Mary Ann (Collier) Williams. His father was a highly respected merchant, holding numerous offices of trust, and being at one time a state senator. Young Williams was educated in the public schools and at Car- thage College, from which he was graduated in 1877 with first honors. He studied law with Schofield and Edmunds, at Carthage, and was admitted to the Illinois bar, at Springfield, in 1879. He began practice in partnership with Bry- ant T. Schofield. In 1880 he went to Colorado; came to Kansas City in 1881, and opened a law office, and has been favored with a liberal amount of patronage.
Mr. Williams is a young lawyer of considerable ability. He is a diligent stu- dent, and has a retentive memory, being industrious and true to his clients. He exhibits aptness in the trial of causes, and makes an excellent argument before either court or jury. In political sentiments Mr. Williams is a democrat.
ELIJAH J. WHITE.
SALUT LOUIS.
E LIJAH J. WHITE was born in Northampton county, Virginia, August 6, ASpp descending from one of the oldest and best families in the Old Dominion. His father, James IL. White, and his mother, Annie E. White, as well as their ancestors since the first settlement of the state, were born and reared in Virginia, and were of English origin. Both parents are yet living, aged respect- ively sixty-eight and sixty-nine years, and reside on their plantation, on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay. Mr. White's early education was acquired in the cities of Hampton and Portsmouth, Virginia, but at the time of the outbreak of the late war he was at school in his native county.
In June, 1861, although only a child, he left school to join in the unfortunate and sanguinary conflict which so soon thereafter deluged his state with the best blood of our land, and converted her fair bosom into a national graveyard. Leaving home June 8, 1801, he enlisted in the 39th Virginia regiment as marker
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for his regiment, but after serving in this capacity for two or three months, he became tired of carrying a flag, and throwing it aside he shouldered his musket and took his place in the ranks. November 15, 1861, he, with the major part of his regiment, was captured and held a prisoner until September, 1862, a period of ten months, when, under cover of night, he ran by the guard and made his escape, crossing the Chesapeake Bay, twenty miles wide, in a small canoe, and safely made his way to Richmond, where he immediately reenlisted, this time in the roth Virginia, his old regiment having been disbanded, and served under General Lee in the Army of Northern Virginia from that time on to the close of the war, when he surrendered, and was paroled with his chieftain at Appomattox, after which he immediately returned to his old home in Northampton, presenting a picture both pitiable and ludicrous. As yet a mere boy, he entered Eastville, the county seat of his native county, shoeless and hatless, with but one lower leg to his old and tattered pants, and with a bran new grey jacket, with bright brass buttons, which the confederate government had but recently issued to him. His emaciated appearance, however, superinduced by the hunger, privation and hard- ship through which he had passed, forbade jest, and enlisted deepest sympathy for him.
In April, 1867, Mr. White came to Saint Louis, and has ever since made this city his home. Here he directly engaged in mercantile pursuits, but having from his childhood felt a fascination for the law, he soon commenced to prepare for the legal profession, and, while devoting his time to commercial business during the day, he, after first having perfected himself as an accountant and bookkeeper, and graduating at one of our leading commercial colleges, closely applied himself during the night hours to reading law, until he finally abandoned all else, and entering the Washington University, at Saint Louis, applied his whole time to the study of the law. In November, 1873, having pursued his studies over the midnight lamp for five years, he applied for admission to the bar, and after examination by the supreme court of the state, he was by that tribunal licensed to practice law, and has almost from the start enjoyed a large anti lucrative prac- tice in the higher state and federal courts, which has increased from year to year until now it may safely be said that no lawyer of his age at the Saint Louis bar has a larger, better paying or more respectable practice, Mr. White is a great lover of absolute independence, and generally consumes his time and man- ages his business regardless of the wishes and without the interference of others; he has never had a law partner, and has, with but two or three exceptions, tried alone every one of his cases during his entire practice, adhering to the conviction that too many doctors are likely to kill the patient. His practice is exclusively in the higher state and federal courts, and his clients are of the best mercantile and manufacturing firms and corporations of the city, who, he says, give him but little unnecessary trouble or annoyance, are almost invariably satisfied with the result of their business entrusted to his management, and pay his fees promptly and without complaint.
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Mr. White is a lawyer whose whole heart is in his profession. He loves the law, and has the most exalted respect for its conscientious and honorable follow- ers; most zealous in the care of and attention to business entrusted to his charge, he honors most the opposing counsel who bend their every legitimate effort to defeat him, and has no respect for those who waver in their duty to their clients. This characteristic of his nature, combined with his strict integrity, affable and courteous manner, and his bold and aggressive conduct of his cases in court, together with that determination for which he has become so well known and noted, the never give up policy, has won for him the large and enviable clientage which he enjoys. His reputation is that of a safe counselor, a fearless, eloquent, earnest and most convincing advocate, and among the lawyers of his age at the Saint Louis bar he has but few equals and no superiors.
Mr. White has fought and won many of the largest and most important cases tried at the Missouri bar, prominent among which was the celebrated case of Eichhoff as. Vornbrock, which was a suit for malicious prosecution, and damages were laid at 830,000. Mr. Vornbrock had had Mr. Eichhoff, a Texas merchant, indicted for obtaining goods under false pretenses, procured a requisition for him, and sent the marshal to Cairo, Illinois, where he then resided, for him; had him there arrested and taken from his house at night and thrown into prison until the next day, when he was brought to Saint Louis by the officer and carried handenffed through the streets of the city to the jail, where he was kept in a cell during a period of thirty-seven days in the heated summer of 1878 before he was released on bond. Directly thereafter Mr. Vornbrock ascertained that the goods purchased by Eichhof at the time the false representations were made had been promptly paid for, and that those purchased upon which his indictment and incarceration were predicated were sold to him afterward without any representa- tions whatever. He immediately communicated his mistake to his attorney, Mr. White, to whom he explained how his bookkeeper had made the mistake in the dates given him, and thus unintentionally misled him. The criminal charge against Mr. Eichhof was thereupon nelle pressed by the state's attorney, and the suit against Vornbrock followed. Lee and Chandler, one of the ablest law timms of the Saint Louis bar, were engaged by Richholt. Mr. White readily saw his client's danger, and advised and offered compromise, but opposing counsel exacted a small fortune, so sure were they of success, which Mr. White refused, and prepared for trial. There were two trials of this memorable case. At the first trial Lee and Chandler were assisted by Taylor and Pollard, another emi- nent law firm, while Mr. White stood alone and unaided on his side. At this trial the jury failed to agree. Some of them, however, it was ascertained, sought to find a verdict for Eichhof for the sum of $10,000, and some others for the sum of $20,000. During the progress of the trial Mr. White endeavored to break down the plaintiff's case or mitigate the damages by assailing the reputation of Eichhoff in Saint Louis, Cincinnati and Chicago, where it was shown he bought his goods and was well known, but the court held that the reputation of Eichhoff
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could not be attacked outside of the city of Cairo, where he resided when he was arrested. Mr. White's attempt therefore rebounded upon his own head. When the case came on for retrial, however, Mr. White, who, as before, was alone and unassisted, succeeded in convincing the court that Eichhof's reputation might law- fully be assailed anywhere within the scope of his neighborhood, and that in law his neighborhood was coextensive with his acquaintance and others' knowledge of him. He then showed that his neighborhood extended to the cities of Cincin- nati, Saint Louis and Chicago, and thereupon proceeded to show that in these cities Eichhoff's reputation was bad, and produced nearly a score of prominent gentlemen from these cities who testified to his fraudulent conduct and bad repu- tation. The court assigned counsel one hour each for their closing arguments to the jury, and within that one hour allotted the defendant's counsel the reputation and character of Eichhott were held up to the gaze of the jury in blackest colors, ventilated and stripped of its fine clothing, until it was completely annihilated, and Eichhoff seemed ashamed to look at the jurors, the expression of whose faces too plainly showed their contempt and lack of sympathy for him. When finally Mr. White concluded his speech, it was evident that Mr. Jefferson Chandler, who followed him, closing for the plaintiff, though conceded to be one of the most powerful advocates in the country, could never undo or disturb what his eloquent young adversary had accomplished. After conclusion of argument the jury retired and soon returned with a verdict for only one dollar. This case was appealed by plaintiff's counsel, and taken to the court of appeals, where Mr. White won it again, and thus finally settled in his client's favor one of the most dangerous and hardest-fought cases ever tried in our courts. The conclusion of this case was watched with great interest by the merchants and manufacturers of this state and neighboring states, and its result tended in a large degree to check the frauds which were continuously being perpetrated upon them by dishonest mercantile adventurers.
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