USA > Missouri > Cole County > Jefferson City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 25
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 25
USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 25
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In 1857 Mr. Lindley went to Davenport, lowa, and formed a partnership with
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John P. Cook and J. F. Dillon, the latter now being the late judge of the United States district court. The firm of Cook, Dillon and Lindley did a heavy business, and continued until 1863 Mr. Lindley was the court lawyer of the firm, and was often pitted against some of the ablest lawyers in eastern lowa. At the last date mentioned, Mr. Lindley went to Chicago with Alonzo W. Church, where he was attorney for the Chicago, Alton and Saint Louis railroad.
In 1864 our subject returned to Missouri, settled in Saint Louis, and was in partnership with Judge Dryden from 1865 until January, 1871, when he was placed on the bench of the circuit court, and kept there until January 1, 1883, a period of twelve years. While on the bench, no man in that position in Saint Louis en- joyed more fully the esteem of the bar and the confidence of the public. He was careful, painstaking and conscientious, and his decisions were regarded as sound and able. So popular was he while on the bench that it was with difficulty that his democratic confrères could be restrained from nominating him for some other office.
Judge Lindley was married in 1850 to Miss Josephine Bradshaw, of Lewis county, Missouri, and they have had three children, one of them, Samuel G., dying in youth. Edward P., the oldest child, is a graduate of the Saint Louis law school, and in practice with his father; he is a well educated, studious young man, and is making an excellent record at the Saint Louis bar. The only daugh- ter, Josie, is attending the Mary Institute. Mrs. Lindley is a woman of many accomplishments, yet modest and retiring -- the charm of any refined social circle into which she can be drawn.
WILLIAM O. FORRIST.
MEXICO
W ILLIAM OTIS FORRIST, a lawyer at Mexico since 1868, is a son of Ira Forrist, a native of Vermont, and Polly (Thomas) Forrist, a native of Massachusetts, and was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, October 1, 1826. His father was a soldier in the second war with England; came from Ohio to Missouri in 1868, and resided with his son until his death, in the city of Mexico, in 1871. His wife was a daughter of John Thomas, who took part in the second war with England, holding the rank of captain.
Mr. Forrist had an academic education at Farmington, Ohio, being valedicto- man of his class on leaving that seminary, in 1813. He commenced reading law in that year at Warren; was admitted to the bar by the supreme court of Ohio in 1847, and commenced practice that year at Chardon, Geauga county. In 1852 he was married to Miss Rosamond I. Pease, of Geauga county.
In 1800 Mr. Forrist removed to Warren, in his native state, and was there in practice until 1868, when he settled in his present home. He is of the firm of Forrist and Frye, and is the jury lawyer of the firm, being clear, logical, strong
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and persuasive in argument, and one of the best pleaders in this part of the state. He is an original thinker, a good talker on other subjects, as well as on points of law, and occasionally writes for the press. He early advocated with his pen the reenfranchisement of the ex-confederates. Mr. Forrist is a republican, of whig antecedents, but we cannot learn that he has held any political offices.
BRITTON ARMSTRONG HILL .. SAINT LOUIS.
T' T HIIS noted lawyer, author and statesman is a native of New Jersey, and is about sixty-six years of age; he received his education at Ogdensburgh, New York; was admitted to the bar at Albany and to the court of chancery at Saratoga in 1839. After practicing at Ogdensburgh two years, he came west, arriving at Saint Louis in August, 1841, where he was admitted to the bar. When the cholera visited Saint Louis in 1849, bringing death at the rate of from one hundred to two hundred persons daily, Mr. Hill, having studied medicine and possessing great versatility of genius, visited the sick in the poor districts of the city where the physicians were unable to go, with no other reward than that of having a consciousness of having done a noble act at the peril of his life. The epidemic continued during May, June, July and August, carrying off over eight thousand souls, or more than a fifth part of the population.
Mr. Hill first formed a partnership with Mr. Eager, of Newburgh, New York, which continued until 1848. Mr. Eager returning to New York, Mr. Hill prac- ticed by himself until 1850, when he took his brother, David W. Hill, into his office and gave him an interest in the business. In 1854, William N. Grover, of Illinois, was added to the firm, under the style of Hill, Grover and Hill, which continued until 1858, when the firm was dissolved. Mr. Hill then devoted him- self to important land cases, insurance and railroad law. His business increased to such an extent that he was induced to form another partnership with Hon. D. T. Jewett in 1861, which continued about ten years, and was dissolved by mutual consent. In the spring of 1873, Mr. Hill formed a partnership with F. J. Bow- man, which continued but a brief period.
During the war, in 1863, a copartnership was formed between Mr. Hill, O. H. Browning and Hon. Thomas Ewing, of Washington city, under the style of Ewing, Hill and Browning, for the transaction of legal business in the United States . courts and before the departments of the federal government. Mr. Hill con- tinued his business in Saint Louis, but devoted the most of his time to the more important cases in Washington. This was considered one of the strongest firms in the United States. It continued until the close of the war, in the spring of 1865, when Mr. Hill returned to Saint Louis. The supreme court of Missouri, in its published opinions, has pronounced Mr. Hill a jurist of eminent ability. He possesses indomitable energy, an analytic mind of great force, accompanied by
Britton deHill
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great powers of endurance. He is a renowned author; his work entitled " Liberty and Law " contains many suggestions which, if followed, would undoubtedly remedy many of the evils existing under the laws of the republic. It received high encomiums from the press, and the constitutional convention at Jefferson City adopted its enunciated principles of restriction and limitation of legislative power in the formation of a constitutional code for the state. Eleven different democratic conventions in 187 + adapted their platforms to the principles therein announced. Another work written by Mr. Hill, entitled " Absolute Money," ranks high as a work ou political economy, and Secretary Sherman adopted this money system, by ordering the greenbacks to be received for duties on and after October 1, 1878. This money is now at a premium above gold in Europe.
Our space forbids inserting its criticism in this brief sketch of the life of this great man, and the reading of his works is recommended to those who are inter- ested in knowing the depth, breadth and scope of his intellect. The reputation of Mr. Hill as a lawyer, political economist and author is national; as a constitu- tional lawyer and statesman, all admit he stands in the front rank, and has few, if any, superiors in the nation.
Among the many cases of importance gained by Mr. Hill may be mentioned the case of the State of Missouri 7. The Railroads, in the United States supreme court. It continued in court two years, and finally resulted in establishing the right of Missouri, its counties and cities, to tax $50,000,000 of railroad property, and its increase.
HON. CHARLES F. CADY. SAINT LOUIS.
C HARLES FREDERICK CADY, judge of the police court of Saint Louis, has been a resident of this city since 1848, and has held many positions of trust and responsibility, filling them all with credit to his good judgment and talents. He is a native of the Empire State, and was born in Brooklyn, Decem- ber 5, 1822. His father, Henry W. Cady, was a native of the same state, and a gunsmith and armorer in the Brooklyn navy yard, and his mother was Catherine Belsterling, who was of Holland extraction. His ancestors on both sides were whigs in 1775, and aided in the war for independence.
Charles attended the common schools of Brooklyn until his thirteenth year, when he went to sea in the merchant service, and was thus engaged between two and three years. He then spent eighteen months in a drug store in Baltimore, Maryland. Subsequently he went into the navy at New York as master's mate, serving in that capacity until 1843, when he resigned and went to New Orleans, where he was chief shipping clerk in the quartermaster's department until the Mexican war commenced. He enlisted in the 4th Louisiana regiment, going in as sergeant and being mustered out at the end of six months as lieutenant.
Mr. Cady now became a merchant at Tampico, where he remained until Sep-
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tember, 1848, when he became a resident of Saint Louis, and commenced read- ing law by himself. He was a justice of the peace from 1851 to 1855, when he was elected city recorder. He finished his law studies with George Marshall; was admitted to practice in 1857, and was not long in building up a good busi- ness. For nearly twenty years he stuck very closely to his practice at the bar of this city, with the exception of two years (1866-6%), when he again filled the office of city recorder.
In 1876 he was appointed judge of the court of criminal correction to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Hon. John W. Colvin; the next year was elected to the same office to fill the unexpired terin, and in 1878 he was reelected for the full term of four years, which expired with the year 1882. In 1883 he was ap- pointed to his present office of judge of the police court of Saint Louis, which court tries misdemeanors generally under the city ordinance. He is a prompt and efficient judge, and popular with all classes but evil doers, to whom he is a terror.
The judge is a democrat in his politics, and very decided in his views. While a young man in the navy he was associated with men who distinguished themselves in the confederate service, but he was an ont-and-out Union man.
He was married in 1856 to Miss Julia McGregor, of Brooklyn, New York, and they have had four children, burying one of them.
JOHN C. MORRIS. SUNE IQUES.
LOHN COX MORRIS, a member of the Saint Louis bar since 1866, was born J near Cooperstown, Otsego county, New York, July 16, 1839. His father, Jacob W. Morris, a farmer, was born in the same county, and his mother, whose maiden name was Sarina Burgess, was also a native of the Empire State. Her father, Doctor John Burgess, was among the early settlers in Otsego county. The paternal grandfather of our subject was also one of the oldest settlers in that county, and a relative of Lewis Morris, one of the signers of the declaration of independence.
Mr. Morris was educated at the Oxford Academy, Chenango county, New York, farming, meantime, more or less, until sixteen or seventeen years old. He commenced reading law at Butternuts, in his native county, with Judge Hezekiah Sturges; was admitted to the bar at Rochester, in June, 1862, from which time he practiced at Butternuts until the autumn of 1865 He then came to the West, and spent the winter in Winona, Minnesota. In April of the next year Mr. Morris settled in Saint Louis, and has been in constant and general practice here since that time, confining himself to the civil courts. He has a fair business among an excellent class of clients; is making the law his exclusive business, and has a first-class standing in character among the legal fraternity of the city. He excels
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in framing pleadings, and as an office lawyer, being good in counsel and in argu- ment.
Mr. Morris votes the democratic ticket, and is an adherent of the Episcopal Church. Nobody who knows him would be likely to doubt the purity of his life. He was married October 16, 1860, to Miss Henrietta J. Cook, of Saint Louis. We believe they have no children.
HON. CHARLES DAUDT. SAINT CHARLES.
C HARLES DAUDT was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, August 21, 1844, being a son of Emil and Augusta (Wilkins) Daudt. The Daudts are a family of ministers, and our subject chose the legal profession. He received a classical education at the University of Giessen; came to this country in 1863; settled in Saint Charles; attended the Cincinnati law school, and was admitted to the bar in 1868. His practice is general and well paying, and his professional career is a marked success. Whatever case he takes hold of he handles with care, discretion, energy and ability. He has good reasoning faculties, an analytical mind, and never fails to secure the attention of the court or jury. He has a high regard for his own honor, as well as the honor of the profession, and is strictly upright in all his dealings with his fellow men. He is attorney for the First National Bank of Saint Charles.
Mr. Daudt was elected to the legislature on the republican ticket in 1874, and served one term. In 1882 he was the candidate of his party for congress in the seventh district, which is strongly democratic, and was defeated, as he expected to be. He is a strong and popular man, and with any show for success, could win in a political race.
Mr Daudt was married September 16, 1869, to Miss Anna Brenner, of Saint Charles, and they have six children, five sons and one daughter ..
PAYTON F. GREENWOOD. KIRKSVILLE.
P: AYTON FOSTER GREENWOOD, son of Edmond and Jennettie (Foster) Greenwood, was born in Sangamon county, Illinois, February 12, 1840. His father was born in Virginia; his mother in Kentucky. Payton Foster, the father of Jennettie, was in the second war with England, and her grandfather, William Foster, was in the first. In the autumn of 1852, Edmond Greenwood brought his family to this county, and settled on a farm, where both parents are still living.
Payton finished his literary studies in Wyaconda Seminary, at La Grange, Lewis county, taking a partial course, and then taught school for seven or eight
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years; and here it may not be improper to mention that he is a brother of Pro- fessor James M. Greenwood, formerly of the chair of mathematics in the North Missouri State Normal University, at Kirksville, and now superintendent of the public schools of Kansas city.
Our subject read law while farming and teaching, and, without ever spending a day in a law office as a student, he was examined, and licensed to practice in 1860. Two years earlier, March 3, 1864, he had married Miss Julia Bryan, daugh- ter of Samuel Bryan, then of Adair, now of Schuyler county; and after being admitted to the bar, he continued farming and teaching, and did not open a law office until 1872. Since that date he has been in practice at Kirksville, doing business of all kinds in all the state courts. Parties who know him best give him credit for good natural talents, and thorough devotion to the interests of his clients. He is sound as a lawyer, and true as a man, having the confidence gen- erally of the public.
In 1878 Mr. Greenwood was nominated by his democratic constituents for the office of prosecuting attorney for the county, which is decidedly republican, and he was elected and served two years. In 18So he was a candidate of his party for the legislature; but it was the year of the presidential election; party lines were drawn very closely, and he was defeated, as he expected to be. Ile is a member of the Knights of Honor, and of the Methodist Church South, and bears an unblemished character.
Mr. and Mrs. Greenwood have buried one son, and have five daughters and one son living. Mrs. Greenwood is a woman of more than ordinary intelligence, and deserves warm commendation for her industry in improving her own mind, while rearing her children and overseeing their education.
GENERAL ODON GUITAR.
O NE of the ablest lawyers that have practiced at the Boone county bar in the last thirty-five years is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. He is a son of John Guitar, who was a native of Bordeaux, France, came to this country on account of his republican sentiments when a young man, and settled in Richmond, Madison county, Kentucky, where Odon was born August 31, 1827. John Guitar married Emily Gordon, a native of Madison county, of English descent, and a niece of Chief Justice John Boyle, of Kentucky, and in 1829, when our subject was two years old, the family came to Boone county, and settled in Columbia. Here the father was engaged in mercantile pursuits until his death, in 1848, his wife dying a few months earlier in the same year.
Mr. Guitar is a graduate of the state university, Columbia, his diploma being dated July 4, 1846 (commencement day). In June before, by permission of the faculty, he had enlisted in the Mexican war in the Est Missouri mounted volun- leers, and he served until the war was over.
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Returning to Columbia, Mr. Guitar read law with his maternal uncle, Hon. John Boyle Hordon, and was admitted to the bar in the autumn of 1848. Ile was in practice at the Boone county bar for a thud of a century, retiring in 1882; and he made an unusually brilliant record, especially as a criminal lawyer. Hle defended more than a hundred and forty homicides, only one of whom was hung. Five were sent to the penitentiary, and two of them were released after being sen- tenved, and six were acquitted after being condemned to the gallows.
A circuit judge, many years on the bench, thus writes in regard to our subject : " Hon. O. Guitar has a clear analytical mind, that grasped at once the strong points of the case in which he was employed. He was not what may be termed a case lawyer, while he had a proper regard for adjudged cases, he thought for himself and acted upon his convictions. Being a just man himself, he was gov- erned in his practice by the general principles of justice and right that apply to all the transactions of men more than by adjudged cases. In his practice he was earnest and unyielding if he believed he was right. As a cross examiner of wit- nesses he had few, if any, equals, and in his arguments before the court or jury he was logical and convincing; he was one of the ablest practitioners in Mis. souri."
Mr. Guitar represented his county in the legislature several terms, being orig- inally a whig of free-soil proclivities, and of late years an out-and-out republican.
One of the largest meetings ever held in Boone county was convened at the court house in Columbia pursuant to notice, May 6, 1861, to consider the pend- ing crisis. Among the resolutions offered was one calling on the federal admin- istration to recognize the southern confederacy as a government de facto; and another pledging the meeting, in case of war, to stand by and cooperate with the South. General Guitar spoke at length against these resolutions, and cast the sole negative vote in opposition to their adoption. He denounced secession as the most damnable political heresy ever invented by the brain of the vilest political demagogue, and in concluding said: He cared nothing for the fate of the resolution, but hoped the friends of the Union would dare to do and say what they thought was right. For himself, he had not and would not occupy any equivocal position when the liberties and destiny of his country were at stake. He was for his country, and should remain so. He prided himself in her glory, and was willing, it need be, to participate in her shame. " If," he said, " the glori- ous old ship of state shall be dismasted by the storm, deserted by her crew, and left to founder and sink amid the waves of anarchy which will engulf her, it will be glory enough for me to go down with the wreck."
When the civil war began he raised the 9th regiment Missouri volunteers, the only regiment raised in the central part of the state, and had the command of it until the battle of Moore's Mills, August 11, 1862. During the war he was pro- moted to the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers, and also of the state militia, in both instances for meritorious conduct on the field.
General Guitar had command at one time of the district of north Missouri,
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including all the state north of the Missouri; at another, the district of central Missouri, and later that of southwestern Missouri He made a gallant soldier, and a stirring and very efficient commander of these several districts.
The wife of General Guitar was Kate Leonard, the youngest daughter of the late Hon. Abial Leonard, for years a member of the supreme court of the state. They were married December 26, 1865, and have six children.
HUGO MUENCH.
SAINT LOUIS.
H UGO MUENCH is a native of Missouri. He was born in Warren county, July 14, 1851, the youngest son of Frederick Muench, a prominent man in literature; the author of several works on science, biography and philosophy, and also for many years a contributor to the " American Agriculturalist." He was a member of the state senate four years during the war.
Hugo completed his classical and scientific education in Washington Univer- sity, Saint Louis, and afterward entered Saint Louis Law School. Before finish- ing his course he was examined, and admitted to the bar in October, 1872, but continued his attendance at the law school, graduating therefrom in 1873. In 1874 be formed a partnership with M. Dwight Collier, which has been continued up to the present time.
Mr. Muench is of medium height, with spare figure, having blonde hair. He has keen hazel eyes and regular features. He is doing an extensive civil busi- ness; is a gentleman of unexceptionable habits; is refined and polished, and sus- tains an excellent character As a lawyer and a citizen he ranks high.
HON. RICHARD CAYWOOD. .
LANCASTER
T THE judge of the probate court of Schuyler county is Richard Caywood, a buckeye by birth, the light first dawning upon him at Somerset, Perry county. October 11, 1823. His father, Thomas Caywood, was a native of Cul- pepper county, Virginia, and his mother, Eleanor (Griggs) Caywood, was born in New Jersey. Her family were early settlers in that state, coming from Holland. The Caywoods were English, the progenitor of the family in this country being the great-grandfather of Richard.
He did some farm labor in boyhood; was educated in the public schools of Ohio; spent the winter of 1842-43 in Scotland county, Missouri, having previ- ously commenced the reading of law; returned to his native state, completed his legal studies and after practicing two years at Somerset, came to this state once more, and settled in Schuyler in 1840. In 1817 he was chosen surveyor of the
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county, and by reflection held the office seven years in succession, practicing law at the same time.
In 1864 Mr. Caywood went to Council Bluffs, lowa, farmed two or three years, was elected surveyor of Pottawattamie county in the autumn of 1867, and held that office two years. In 1870 he returned to Schuyler county, and practiced at Lancaster, the seat of justice, until the autumn of 1882, when he was chosen to his present office, the duties of which he is performing to the best of his abilities.
Judge Caywood was elected the first mayor of Lancaster, and has since been placed at the head of the municipality, at least once or twice. He was originally a whig of pro-slavery views, and linked his fortunes with the confederate wing of the democracy on the breaking out of the civil war. He joined the Methodist Church a few years ago, and is living a consistent Christian life.
The judge has been twice married, first in 1848, to Miss Susan N. Fulcher, of Schuyler county, she dying in 1864, leaving five children, only three of them now living; and the second time in 1868, to Miss Sarah B. Lamb, of Mills county, lowa, having had by her four children, three of whom are yet living.
GEORGE T. WHITE.
JEFFERSON CITY.
MONG the older class of lawyers still in practice at the bar of Jefferson City A is George Tompkins White, a native of Boone county, this state, and & son of Benjamin T. and Mary ( McGuire) White. His father was a pioneer in this state, or rather territory, coming hither from Kentucky in 1819, and his maternal grandfather, Rev. Allen McGuire, was also an immigrant to this state from the land of Daniel Boone.
George T. White was born in March, 1822. In his early childhood school houses were scarce in the county where he lived, there being none near enough for him to attend until he was eleven years old; but fortunately his parents knew something of the value of knowledge, and he recited his lessons daily to one of them, usually at dinner or at night to his father, who took especial delight in the mental training of his first-born son. At fourteen he had a fair English educa- tion for a lad of that age, and in that year he came to Cole county to live with his uncle, Judge George Tompkins, for whom he had been named, and whose farm he managed until the death of the judge in 1840.
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