USA > Missouri > Cole County > Jefferson City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 23
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 23
USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 23
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Since that time he has been in practice by himself, doing an extensive busi- He has been engaged in a great many trade mark cases, and has been
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quite extensively employed in steamboat cases when that kind of litigation was confined to the state courts, and later has, to some extent, done admiralty business.
Mr. Gray is remarkably well informed in all branches of the law. His judg- ment is of a high order, and his reputation for integrity and manly, upright deal- ing is unsurpassed.
BENJAMIN W. WHEELER. TROY.
B ENJAMIN WALKER WHEELER, judge of the probate court of Lincoln county, was born on a farm two miles from where he now lives, May 12, 1847; the son of Otis and Jane ( Wallace) Wheeler. His father was a graduate of West Point, born in Hancock, New Hampshire; was a captain in the United States army; served in the Black Hawk war and Florida war; resigned about 1843, and died on his farm in 1871. The wife of Captain Wheeler is a native of Eric, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of a prominent physician. She is still living.
Benjamin spent two years in Wyman's City University, Saint Louis, being on the farm, with the exception of this period, until of age. He read law with Archibald V. McKee, of Troy; was admitted to the bar in 1869, being licensed by Judge Edwards, of the circuit court, and has since been in practice, almost entirely civil, at Troy. He was elected prosecuting attorney of the county in 1873, and held the office two years. To his present county office he was elected in 1878, and reflected in 1882; hence he is serving his second term. He is very prompt and diligent in attending to probate matters, and is popular in the county where he has always lived. He is one of the best known men in the county, and has lived an irreproachable life. He is a deacon of the Presbyterian Church, and an earnest Sunday school worker. His standing among the legal fraternity has always been highly respectable.
Mr. Wheeler is a democrat in politics, and he was the first master of the local lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, with which he is still connected. He was married in November, 1873, to Mrs. Edna (Adams) Cox, of New Hope, Lincoln county, and they have a daughter and a son.
F. P. WILEY.
MOBERLY.
F RANKLIN PIERCE WILEY, of the firm of Hollis and Wiley, was born in Lxc Roy, McLean county, Ilinois, February 3, 1853. His father, James Wiley, a farmer, was from Ireland, and for fitteen or twenty years was a supervi- sor of McLean county, dying in 1860; and his mother was Permelia Waters, a native of Virginia, still living at Le Roy. Frank was educated at Hillsdale Col- lege, Michigan, and is a graduate of the class of 1873, his room-mate part of the
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Mr. Wood holds the office of prelate in Excalibar Commandery of Knights Templar stationed at Hannibal: is a member of the Christian Church; for three yours superintendent of the Sunday school at New London, and a young man of solid moral character. Ile was married December 12, 1876, to Miss Mary F. Owsley, daughter of A. B. Owsley of Canton, and a relative of ex-Governor Owsley, of Kentucky. They have one son living, and have buried one daughter. Mrs. Wood was educated at Canton University, and is a woman of fine mental and social refinement.
Mr. Wood is a man of an independent nature, and although his father is very wealthy, and since helping him through college and to the bar, has offered to do much more for the son, yet he has never accepted a dollar which he has not returned with interest. He has a cozy home, well furnished, and a good miscel- laneous as well as law library, and is following the scriptural injunction to "owe no man anything."
WILLIAM P. BEACH. MICO.V.
W ILLIAM PIERSON BEACH was born in Newark, New Jersey, April 19, 1840, being a son of William P. and Ann Eliza (Couplin) Beach. His great-grandfather, Elias Beach, was a revolutionary soldier, as also his maternal great-grandfather, Henry Winfield. The subject of this sketch was left fatherless in, infancy, and his widowed mother struggled faithfully to maintain and educate her three children; but she died about ten years after her husband, and the chil- dren were, fora few years, dependent upon the kindness of their maternal relatives. At fourteen, William Beach was thrown upon his own resources. He taught a summer school (1854), when, having determined to make his future home in the West, he journeyed, mostly on foot, to Lebanon, Ohio, carrying a few salable books in a valise, with which he sustained his emaciated purse. In the winter of 1857 he found himself teaching in Boone county, Missouri, where he pursued the same vocation for seven of eight years; in the meantime attending the Missouri University, at Columbia, one your. During the latter part of this period he had been devoting his leisure to the study of law, and in the autumn of 1866 was admitted to the bar at Columbia. He immediately removed to Macon, where he has since resided in the practice of his profession.
Mr. Beach is known as an honest and upright man, diligent in his business, a wise counselor, and above the average as an advocate. He is a forcible writer, inclining to political topics -second, in this respect, to no man in Macon county. He is a republican of the independent and conservative type, and a foe to time- servers and policy men in any party.
Mr. Beach has held some municipal offices in his adopted town, and is an influential political leader; but is too independent and liberal to be acceptable to the " machine bosses," and the extreme partisan element of his party. He is a
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member of the Congregational Church, an active temperance worker, and a man whose impulses are all for the cause of humanity. He was married, in Novem- ber, 1871, to Miss Nellie Barnard, of Saint Louis. She is a lady of culture, and has been an efficient worker in many a good cause.
JOHN W. JOHNSTON. KIRKSVILLE.
JOHN W. JOHNSTON, city attorney of Kirksville, dates his birth in Pike county, Ohio, January 29, 1854, his parents being Henry and Louisa (Slaugh- ter) Johnston. His father, a farmer, was a native of Beaver county, Pennsyl- vania, and a son of a Protestant Irish emigrant Henry Johnston was a soldier in one of the Ohio regiments in the civil war. Louisa Slaughter was a native of Ohio. Some of her relatives were in both wars with England. At the close of the rebellion Henry Johnston left Ohio and settled in Clay township, Adair county, seventeen miles from Kirksville. They are now living in Schuyler county.
In addition to the mental drill of a country school our subject had the advan- tages of the state normal school at Kirksville for a few months. He had to de- pend upon himself to secure the funds for his education, legal as well as literary, and taught, off and on, for six or seven years, reading law at the same time, and finally finishing in the office of Henry F. Millan.
Mr. Johnston was licensed to practice by Judge Andrew Ellion, of the twenty- seventh judicial circuit, in October, ES81, and immediately opened an office in Kirksville, doing unusually well the first year, and is gradually increasing his practice. Before the end of his first year at the bar he was elected city attorney, and is now faithfully performing the duties of that office. His politics are republi- Can. Mr. Johnston took considerable pains in preparing himself for the practice of law. He evidently likes the profession, is somewhat ambitious, and will be likely to grow. He does his work with care, is eminently trustworthy, and has made an encouraging start in professional life.
Mr. Johnston was married October 25, 1875, to Miss Laura A. Bell, of Adair county, and they have three children.
ORVILLE D. JONES.
EDINA.
O RVILLE DAVIS JONES, son of William M. and Martha (Robbins) Jones, is a native of Miami county, Indiana, his birth being dated April 29, 1846. This branch of the Jones family originally settled in South Carolina, and the great-grandfather of Orville was a revolutionary soldier. William M. Jones was born in Kentucky, and went thence to Indiana. In 1852 he took his family to Fulton county, Illinois, where he had a farm near Cuba. Orville finished his
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education at Hedding College, Abingdon, taking the scientific course, and receiv- ing his diploma in June, 1870. He taught school two years before finishing his studies and one year afterward; studied law at the Iowa State University, Iowa City; was admitted to the bar at Edina in May, 1872, and this has been his home since that date.
His practice is general, as is usually the case in the country, but he has no partiality for the criminal courts. He makes the law his sole business, pays lit- tle attention to politics, voting the greenback ticket, but asking for no office,* and he is one of the most diligent men in the study as well as the practice of his profession in Knox county. That is the class of men who are sure to grow and to rise in their profession. Mr. Jones began at the bottom, and has ambition enough and talent enough to rise from year to year. This he does.
He is a member of the Methodist Church North, and a man of solid charac- ter. He has usually been quite active in Sunday school work
The wife of Mr. Jones was Mary Elizabeth Graves, daughter of Rev. William P. Graves, a Methodist minister, formerly of Geneseo, Illinois, now of Bloomington, same state. They were married March 19, 1874, and have two daughters.
DAVID A. BALL.
LOUISIANA.
D AVID A. BALL is a native of Lincoln county, this state, and was born June 18, 1851, his parents being John E. and Elizabeth H. (Dyer) Ball. Both of them were born in Virginia, also the grandparents of our subject. His mater- nal grandfather was in the second war with the mother country, and his father was in the Mexican war under General Sterling Price, and in the federal service during the entire civil war, being a captain in the 49th Missouri infantry. John E. Ball is a farmer, and he and his wife are living in Montgomery county, this state.
The subject of this sketch farmed with his father until nineteen years of age, attending school during the winters under quite unfavorable circumstances, never going less than three miles, and at one period walking five miles to attend the same. At seventeen he taught a public school for six months. At nineteen he left the farm, attended school at Louisiana two terms, and completed his edu- cation by dint of hard study in private. He is a well informed man, and still loves his books.
Mr. Ball read law with Fagg and Dyer, of Louisiana; was admitted to the bar in May, 1873, and since that date has been in the practice of his profession in Pike county, his home being at Louisiana. He was elected city attorney in 1874, and served one term; was elected prosecuting attorney in 1878, and
* He was the greenback candidate for secretary of state in 1878, put up without his knowledge for the sake of completing the ticket, without even the possibility of being elected.
t
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reflected in iSSo, serving in all four years, and making a good record as an active and efficient prosecutor. He makes a good speech to a jury. In all business transactions he is noted for punctuality and honesty.
Mr. Ball is an carnest politician of the democratic school, and now represents the seventh congressional district in the state central committee of his party. He is well known among his political confreres of the state, as a thorough worker and a man of no inconsiderable influence. He is careful not to give so much time to politics as to interfere with his professional duties.
Mr. Ball is a third degree Mason, and a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and Knights of Honor, and of the Methodist Church South. Ile was married, May 13, 1875, to Miss Jessie Minor, daughter of Samuel (). Minor, and niece of Hon. Nicholas P. Minor, judge of the probate court of Pike county. We believe they have no children. Mr. Ball is a nephew of Colonel David P. Dyer, whose sketch appears in this work.
THOMAS W. CUNNINGHAM. SAINT CHARLES.
T HOMAS W. CUNNINGHAM, the oldest living lawyer in Missouri, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, January 12, 1800. His father, William Can- ningham, a cousin of Allan Cunningham, the Scotch poet, was a manufacturer of great wealth, whom the French embargo upon British commerce reduced to poverty. The subject of this sketch immigrated to Virginia when eight years of age, and received an excellent education. After serving three years in the navy as a midshipman, he taught school as a tutor in several families until he removed to Missouri in 1829. He read law with Hon. Rufus Easton, the first member of congress from the territory of Missouri, and was admitted to practice by the supreme court in 1830.
For several years he filled the arduous and responsible position of United States surveyor in northern Missouri. In conjunction with Major Steen, of the United States army, he made the survey of the commons of Saint Charles, ulti- mately sustained by the supreme court of the United States in Chouteau vs. Eckert, whereby the city of Saint Charles was confirmed in its title to fourteen thousand acres of valuable land.
Mr. Cunningham has never sought office, but for twelve years he was county treasurer of Saint Charles county. He accepted the office of mayor of Saint Charles in 1854, in order to aid in the extension of the North Missouri railroad. As early as 1852 he participated in the Mississippi Valley railroad convention at Saint Louis, and is shown by the newspaper reports to have made one of the ablest speeches delivered on that occasion. At the bar he displayed research and ability, both in the civil and criminal practice.
Although he retired from practice fourteen years ago, he always reads with
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zest the reports of interesting cases, and retains to a remarkable degree his phys- ical and intellectual vigor. He has been for many years a consistent member of the Methodist Church, and regards with equanimity the coming of the great change which awaits all humanity.
HENRY A. CUNNINGHAM. SALVE LOUIS.
H ENRY ALLAN CUNNINGHAM is a son of Thomas W. Cunningham, the oldest lawyer in Missouri, and was born in Saint Charles, this state, Octo- ber 1, 1838. Further particulars in regard to the family may be found in the sketch of Thomas W. Cunningham, immediatly preceding this. Henry was educated at the Saint Charles College, one of the oldest institutions of the kind in the state, and was graduated in 1858. He read law with his father; was ad- mitted to the bar in 1859, and after practicing two or three years in his native city went to Europe. He spent five years in Europe seeking pleasure and storing his mind with useful knowledge.
Mr. Cunningham returned to Missouri in 1866, and since that time has been in constant practice, with his home in Saint Louis. His business is largely in the federal courts, and since 1875 he has been in practice before the supreme court of the United States at Washington. The following estimate of his character is from the pen of Hon. D. H. MeAdam, of the Saint Louis bar:
" In 1873, as counsel for defendants in cases then pending in the federal courts, he effectually dispersed a defiant and powerful ring of adroit villains, who had for years plundered land owners of Missouri by means of forged deeds. Bankers and ex-congressmen, unimpeachable witnesses of the highest standing, had been inveigled into proving the signatures upon the first deed offered, but after Mr. Cunningham had presented his reasons for believing the instrument a forgery, the deed was impounded, the cases were abandoned by plaintiff's attorneys, and the malefactors fled to Mexico. This case attracted widespread attention. Mr. Cunningham declined a banquet tendered to him as a public testimonial of the value of his services in ridding the state of this desperate gang, who, two years afterward, resumed their operations in Chicago and Quincy.
As a lawyer he is exact, thorough and forcible, possessed of a complete knowl- edge of constitutional principles and well versed in the rules of practice. He is an earnest and persuasive speaker, with the unusual natural advantages of a graceful presence and a harmonious voice. Within the last ten years he has been prominently identified with the litigation arising out of the bonds issued in the name of various counties of Missouri. In most of the cases payment of the bonds was resisted on the grounds that they had been illegally or fraudulently issued, and in presenting this defense a fine opportunity was afforded for showing the indefeasible right of municipalities to protect themselves against the illegal
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and unauthorized acts of their officers. Mr. Cunningham developed this point with convincing eloquence, and rendered most substantial services to several of the prominent counties in Missouri.
He is a democrat in politics, and was a candidate for nomination as one of the judges of the Saint Louis court of appeals. He is a prominent Mason and a Knight Templar.
His travels in Europe, and his liberal intercourse with the best society at home and abroad, have given him a good deal of polish in manners. He is a good converser, a well informed man, and, is at home in the highest circles of refinement."
CHARLES F. BOOHER.
C HARLES F. BOOHIER was born January 31, 1848, at East Groveland, New York; son of Henry Booher and Catherine (Updegrove) Booher. He is of Swiss and German descent; he was educated in the public schools and at Geneseo Academy; read law three years with the firm of Wood and Scott, of Geneseo, New York; came to Missouri in April, 1870, and was admitted to the bar in April, 1871. He has been in practice at Savannah since that time, doing an extensive business. He was appointed to the office of prosecuting attorney for Andrew county, by Governor Charles Il. Hardin, in October, 1875; was elected to the same office in 1876, and again in 1882. He is performing the duties of that office with decided ability. He was district elector on the national democratic ticket in 1886. He is well read in his profession, and a fluent talker.
Mr. Booher is a democrat, and the extent of his popularity is shown in the fact that he has been twice elected to the office of prosecuting attorney in a county strongly republican, running far ahead of his ticket. He was married, January 11, 1877, at Rochester, Missouri, to Miss Sarah D. Shanks; they have two sons.
WILLIAM I. RUSSELL.
W ILLIAM HEPBURN RUSSELL, lawyer, journalist and city attorney of Hannibal, was born in this city, May 17, 1857. His father, Rev. Daniel L. Russell, was a Baptist minister, who was born in New Hampshire, and many years a preacher in northeastern Missouri, dying at Hannibal in 1858. His widow, who is still living, was Matilda Richmond, a sister of the late Colonel Richard Fell Richmond, many years a prominent lawyer at the Marion county bar. The Richmonds are a large Kentucky family.
The subject of this notice was educated in the graded and high schools of Hannibal, and in 1876 went into the newspaper business, early developing a
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liking for journalism, which has become a very important profession. He was editor at first of the Hannibal " Herald," a weekly paper; then of the "Clipper- Herald," a daily and weekly, which he managed for more than three years. In May, ESSI, his paper was merged into the " Journal," by which name it is now published by Hallock and Russell. It is the only democratic daily in northeast- ern Missouri.
Mr. Russell began reading law with W. C. Foreman, of Hannibal, in 1877; was admitted to the bar on the first Monday in May, 1882, having been nominated two days before for the office of city attorney, and the day after he received his license to practice he was elected to that ofice by a majority unprecedented in the history of the city, running at least six hundred votes ahead of the usual democratic majority. He was reflected in 1883 by a majority much beyond his party's strength, and is still performing in an acceptable manner the duties of that office.
SYDNEY K. SMITH. SAINT LOUIS.
S YDNEY KERR SMITH was born in Scott county, Kentucky, February 17, 1850 His father, D. Howard Smith, is a prominent lawyer and politician of that state; was two terms in the state senate, twelve years auditor of the state, and is the present president of the state board of railroad commissioners. Nelson Smith, the father of D. Howard, a native of Louisa county, Virginia, went with his father, William Smith, to Kentucky, in 1783, and settled at Bryant's Sta- tion, near Lexington. The mother of Nelson Smith was Sarah Kerr, the daugh- ter of David Kerr, who was on General Washington's staff, and at the surrender of Cornwallis, afterward settling in Scott county, Kentucky. The family have in their possession a horse pistol which this revolutionary hero took from a British officer at Yorktown.
The mother of Sydney was Josephine Lemon, a daughter of Captain Joseph I. Lemon, also of Scott county, Kentucky, a soldier in the second war with Eng- land, and at the time of his death, one of the wealthiest and most influential men in the county.
Sydney received his early education from B. B. Sayre, of Frankfort, Kentucky, at that time one of the most noted educators in that state, and later at Washing- ton and Lee University, where he distinguished himself in the department of his- tory and literature, and acquitted himself with credit in the other branches. After leaving college he was appointed revenue agent for Kentucky, and in that capacity assisted in reducing the then large state debt by suggesting a revision of the revenue laws, and bringing the violators of the law to justice. He after- ward read law with W. R. Thompson, one of the first lawyers of Kentucky, and a son-in-law of Rev. Alexander Campbell, of Virginia, and was admitted to practice by the supreme court of Kentucky in the spring of 1873.
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In 1875 he became a partner of his preceptor at Louisville, and they were in practice together when Mr. Thompson died, in the autumn of 1870. Mr. Smith then removed to Saint Louis, where he has been quite successful, and accumu- lated a handsome property.
In February, 1878, he was married to Miss Anna Stephens, daughter of Hon. James L. Stephens, of Boone county, Missouri, founder of Stephen College, a Baptist institution at Columbia, and late state senator from that district. They have had two children, and buried one of them. Mr. Smith is a Baptist in reli- gion, and a Jeffersonian democrat in politics
His business is confined exclusively to civil practice. He is regarded as well read in his profession, and is painstaking in all his work. He has a well trained mind; is an easy and fluent talker, and a good advocate; is thoroughly upright and honorable in all his transactions; is graceful and courteous in his manners, and has all the traits of a polished gentleman.
Mr. Smith was one of the one hundred notaries appointed by Governor Crit- tenden under the new law applicable to Saint Louis. He has been twice urged to become a candidate for the legislature, once in Kentucky and once in Mis- souri, each time declining, preferring hi, profession to political preferment. He was mentioned by his friends for insurance commissioner of that state, and had the very strongest indorsement as to qualifications for the office.
Mr. Smith has contributed to various periodicals on a variety of subjects- law, insurance, religion and politics-and has in course of preparation a work entitled, " Theory and Principles of Law."
FRANK E. RICHEY.
SAINT LOUIS.
F RANK EVANS RICHEY is a native of La Salle county, Illinois, being born July 2, 1850. Ilis father, David Richey, was born in Ohio, and his mother, whose maiden name was Margaret Elizabeth Evans, was born in Illinois, David Richey is a thrifty farmer, and at one period was a member of the Illinois legis- lature. The maternal grandfather of Frank was in his day one of the leading men in his part of the state of Hlinois, and a prominent state senator.
The subject of this sketch was educated at the Normal University, Normal, Illinois, taking the full course, and finishing his studies in 1872. He taught school two years in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he also commenced reading law. He finished his legal studies in Saint Louis, and was here admitted to the bar in January, 1875. His practice is general and entirely civil.
As a lawyer, Mr. Richey takes rank with those who are becoming distinguished by their learning and talents. Without the faults and foibles which have wrecked the bright hopes of young men of talent, possessed of a nature at once open, candid and frank, yet strong, firm and decisive, he is singularly well fitted for the
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