USA > Missouri > Cole County > Jefferson City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 26
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 26
USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 26
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A year or two before his death the uncle had set our subject to reading his law books, and his entire law library was subsequently purchased by Mr. White. He finished his legal course under the instruction of Judge William Scott, of the supreme court, by whom he was licensed to practice in the year 1848.
Mr. White has had an office at Jefferson City since the date just mentioned, and up to the breaking out of the civil war, in iso1, his practice extended into three or four counties adjoining Cole, and he made a marked success in his pro-
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fession. He has been connected with several important cases which went to the supreme court of the state, where they have been settled, and are recognized as the law of the land.
Of late years Mr. White has seldom gone out of Cole county to attend to liti- gation, having usually plenty to do at home. He is a sound lawyer, and has always had a respectable standing among the legal fraternity.
Many years ago he was for some time public administrator of the county, holding the office until he finally declined to serve any longer. He has never been a place seeker.
In 1854 he was married to Adaline Bolton, a native of Cole county, and they have four children, all grown up.
He is a Master Mason, a member of the Methodist Church South, and has held the office of steward for nearly thirty years. He is a man of undoubted Chris- tian character, a little odd in some of Ins ways, but kind-hearted, cordial and a friend to all right doers.
COLONEL T. W. B. CREWS. SAINT LOUIS.
C OLONEL CREWS is one of the most industrious members of the Saint Louis bar; a man of strong will, a broad, expansive mind, with a prepon- derance of reasoning faculties, and having a good flow of language. He natu- rally reasons from cause to effect, but he often enlivens his discourses with similes, metaphors and antithesis. He is a native of Virginia, born in Henry county, March 16, 1832. His father, a wealthy farmer of that county, married Miss Eliza Bouldin, daughter of Thomas Clark Bouldin, a lady of rare mind and thorough culture. The family moved to Howard county, Missouri, in 1846. The ancestors of our subject were of English descent. The name of his grandfather was Thomas. He was married to Miss Clemmens. They both died in Henry county, Virginia.
Colonel Crews was graduated at Union College, New York; studied law under the instruction of Judge John C. Wright, of Schenectady, and completed his legal course with the late Hon. W. B. Napton, of Saline county, Missouri, formerly of the supreme bench of this state. In January, 1855, he commenced practice at Marshall, Missouri, and continued it up to the commencement of the late war, in which he had some experience as a soldier under southern colors. He raised a company, entering the state service under General Monroe Parsons, and partici- pated in the battles of Brownville, Carthage, Wilson's Creek, Fort Scott, Dry Wood, and Lexington, when he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the ed cavalry for bravery in the field. Sickness prevented further military service. In 1862 he was captured at home in a sick bed, and sent to Saint Louis as a pris- oner of war; was soon paroled, being the first paroled prisoner of the state. He was limited in freedom to the state lines, and required to report weekly at Saint
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Louis. He made a temporary home in Franklin county, so as to be handy to military headquarters, and became a citizen of that county after the close of hos- tilities.
In the spring of 1857 he married Mis- Virginia Jeffries, an estimable and highly cultivated lady, the daughter of C. S Jeffries, an early settler, and well known county official for many years. Colonel Crews has an interesting family of five sons and two daughters.
In 1865 he opened a law office in Saint Louis, where he has enjoyed an exten- sive practice. He still loves the farm, and gives what time he can spare from his arduous professional duties to the cultivation, adorning and beautifying of it. He possesses a power of keen analysis; is a fluent and impassioned speaker, lucid and coherent; is systematic and careful in all of his legal business. He is cour- teous and kind in his social intercourse; is fond of rural life; enjoys the society of his many friends, and enjoys most his own home, where he is best known and esteemed.
In 1875 be represented the counties of Franklin, Gasconade and Osage ( which then embraced the twenty-first senatorial district) in the constitutional conven- tion; but as yet he has devoted but little attention to political affairs.
REUBEN J. EBERMAN.
R BUBEN JACOB EBERMAN, son of Jacob M. and Elizabeth (Schukers) Eberman, was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, November 27, 1824. Both parents were of German descent, and born in the Keystone State. When Reuben was about seven years old the family moved to Wooster, Wayne county, Ohio, where the father was engaged in merchandising, and the son was educated in the public schools. The latter also did some work in his father's store. He com- menced reading law when quite young, with Judge Levi Cox, of Wooster, where he was admitted to the bar in 1815 In November, 1846, he was married to Miss Sarah Spencer, of Wayne county, near Wooster, and continued to practice at Wooster until 1859, when he came to this state and settled in Macon.
Mr. Eberman was a Douglas democrat, and an uncompromising Union man, and when civil war began his voice was loud in defense of the old tag. In 1862 he took the field as colonel of the 62d Missouri state militia, and served through the war, his regiment being on guard and other duty in this state. After a few months Colonel Eberman was on detached duty almost constantly, being at one time assistant provost marshal of the district of north Missouri; at another time ordnance officer, etc., and was rarely with his regiment, or any part of it, during the last two years of the war.
Colonel Eberman resumed the practice of law at Macon in the autumn of 1865, and has since devoted his time very assiduously to his legal labors His
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practice has been general, and in the federal as well as state courts, and he seems to have had quite a run of business in the criminal branch of the profession. He has been retained for the defense in at least fourteen or fifteen cases of homicide, and no man whom he has defended has ever been hung. Two were sentenced to the penitentiary for ninety-nine years; others for a shorter term, and the rest he Cleared.
Mr. Eberman served as city attorney one or two terms not long after the civil war, and that, we believe, is all the political office that he has accepted. He gives his time very closely to his profession, to which he seems to be greatly attached, and has always done a good business, and stood well at the bar.
Mr. and Mrs. Eberman have had two children, both daughters, only one of them now living, Mollie A., the wife of E. F. Bennett, special insurance agent, with home at Macon
HON. DAVID W. WEAR. S.HVT LOUIS.
D AVID WALKER WEAR, member of the state senate, dates his birth in Cooper county, Missouri, May 31. 1844, being a son of William G. and Sarah Amanda (Yancey) Wear. His father, a merchant in his day, was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and his mother in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The latter belongs to an old Albemarle county (Virginity) family, and was cousin to the late William L. Yancey, of Alabama. The grandfather of William G. Wear was wounded in the battle of King's Mountain, near the close of the revolutionary .I'M
The subject of this sketch had an academic education; read law with W. Douglas and Emmet R. Hayden, of Booneville, Missouri; was admitted to the bar on the day that Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated president of the United States, and in June of that year ( 1861) he joined an independent company and went into the Union army, serving in various capacities. He was at the battles of Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge, etc., and in August, 1864, was made colonel of the 15th Missouri infantry, and served in the Army of the Cumberland until the war closed.
Returning to Booneville in June, 1865, he resumed the practice of his profes- sion, and soon had a large business. He was connected with two or three crim- inal cases which excited a great deal of attention throughout the state. One of them was the case of the State of Missouri against Mrs. Mapes and two others, for the murder of her husband, tried at Booneville The other two persons were taken from the hands of the officers and hung. Mr. Wear was the attorney for the defense. The trial was very exciting, and Jasted for a week, at the end of which she was acquitted. When the jury brought in their verdict, the judge announced to her from the beach, that she owed her life to the management of her attorney.
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Another was the celebrated case of the State of Missouri against Davenport Burris, a desperado also tried at Booneville In this case Mr. Wear was attorney for the defense, in connection with General John B. Clark, then one of the best known criminal lawyers west of the Mississippi. Great interest was manifested in the trial all over the West. Burris had killed his brother, and severely wounded his mother, but he was acquitted, went to Texas, and was there bung by a mob for other murderous deeds. While at Booneville, Colonel Wear had a large criminal as well as civil practice, and reached a high position at the Cooper county bar.
In 1870 he moved to this city, and here confines himself almost entirely to the civil courts. He has charge of the legal business of J. H. Wear, Boogher and Company, one of the largest wholesale dry-goods houses in Saint Louis. The colonel is a man of good standing, socially as well as legally, and has many friends.
While at Booneville, Colonel Wear was assistant attorney for the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, and in coming to this city retained the same position. In 1882 he was nominated, by acclamation, by his democratic constituents, in one of the wealthiest districts in the state, for the state senate, and is now a member of that body. In the session of 1883 he was chairman of the committee on cor- porations, other than municipal, and a member of the judiciary committee. He is a Royal Arch Mason. While in practice at Booneville, in January, 1868, he was married to Miss Laura Beaty, of that place, and they have one son.
HON. E. D. BROWN. EDINA.
E RASTUS DAYTON BROWN, judge of the probate court of Knox county, was born in Montgomery county, Ilinois, April 13, 1851. His father, Rev. Edwin Brown, a Methodist preacher and farmer, was a native of Connecticut, and his mother, whose maiden name was Mary Kirkland, was born in Saint Louis county, this state. His mother died in 18533, his father in 1875.
Erastus was educated at Lincoln University, Logan county, and McKendree College, Lebanon, Saint Clair county, Illinois, he being a graduate of the latter institution, class of 1874. He had some experience as a teacher while pursuing his college course; read law with Dsyart and Brown at Macon City; was admitted to the bar in the autumn of 1875, and has since been in general practice at Edina. We have the authority of a gentleman who knows Judge Brown intimately for stating that he is a good judge of law, efficient, in any legal work which he under- takes, and shares largely of the confidence of his clients.
Judge Brown was elected to his present county office in 1878, and reelected in 1882, and hence is serving his second term, which will expire with the year 1886. Ile is prompt and faithful in discharging his duties as probate judge, and is an
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upright and true man in all the relations of life. He is a member of the Metho- dist Church South, and of the democratic party.
Judge Brown was first married in March, 1878, to Miss Janie Fox, of Macon City, she dying in September, 1886, and the second time in February, 1882, to Miss Annice E. Nicholson, in Bond county, Illinois, having by her one daughter.
COL. JOHN F. WILLIAMS, LL. D. SALVE LOUIS
LOHN FREEMAN WILLIAMS, superintendent of the insurance department J of Missouri, is a son of Francis Epps Williams, and Martha Ann (Talbot) Williams, and was born in Lynchburgh. Campbell county, Virginia, April 18, 1828. Both parents were also natives of that county. His paternal grandfather, Thomas Williams, was an officer in the continental army; so was also his mater- nal grandfather, Captain Charles Talbot
Francis E. Williams brought his family to Missouri in 1835, and in Howard county opened a farm, on which John was reared in habits of industry. His lit- erary training he had first in the common schools of the day, then in Masonic College, at Marion, and in the University of Missouri, at Columbia, receiving from the latter institution the degree of bachelor of arts in 1848; master of arts in 1851, and doctor of laws in 1882. He read law at Fayette, Howard county. with Prewitt and Henry; caught the gold fever in 1849; went to California by the overland route; spent between two and three years there in mining and trad. ing, and returned by the isthmus in January, 1852.
Resuming his legal studies under his old preceptors, he was admitted to the bar in August, 1853; opened an office at Fayette, Howard county, and the his- torian of the times states that he "steadily grew in the confidence of the people and the bar as a lawyer of excellent promise." He was in practice there in 1861, when civil war began, and although many of his relatives joined the confederate cause, he was true to his patriotic instincts, and enlisted in the Union army. He aided in raising the 9th Missouri cavalry regiment of state militia, of which he was appointed lieutenant colonel, and of which he was promoted colonel in 1803. Ile was in command of the seventh Missouri district, with headquarters at Saint Joseph, and was in the service for three years, showing himself a true patriot, as well as an honorable soldier.
In the spring of 1865 Colonel Williams settled in Macon City, Macon county, and he soon had a remunerative practice.
At an early day, while in practice at Fayette, the colonel was made attorney for the State Bank, located there; in 1854 was elected county superintendent of schools; in 1856 was elected circuit attorney for the second judicial district, hold- ing the last office for four years, and in that and every other position held in those days he was faithful to his trusts, as he has been since.
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In 1866 he was defeated as the democratic candidate for state superintendent of schools, on account of the test bath, and the disfranchisement of many voters. The same cause defeated him in 1868, when he was the democratic candidate for congress in his district.
In 1876 he was elected to the legislature, it being the twenty-ninth general assembly, and was chosen speaker, although there were several able democrats in the house of long experience in legislative doings, and some knowledge of par- liamentary rules. It is almost needless to say that he filled the speaker's chair with promptness and efficiency, and decided ability.
Colonel Williams was a whig while that party was in existence, and for the last twenty years has acted with the democratic party. He was a Hancock and English elector in 1880, and in January, 1881, was appointed to his present state office, already mentioned, the duties of which he is discharging with the utmost satisfaction to the public.
The wife of Colonel Williams is Hattie M., daughter of Major Wilson L. Overall, of Saint Charles county, their marriage being dated December 22, 1859. They have two children. Frank E. is well educated, and a merchant at Macon City; John F., Jr., was appointed captain at the age of nineteen on the staff of Brigadier General M. Van Cleve, of the state guards; was graduated at the state university of Missouri in June, 1882, at twenty years of age; is also a graduate of Eastman's Commercial College, Poughkeepsie, New York, and is bookkeeper and cashier in the insurance department, Saint Louis.
ELLIOTT M. HUGHES.
DAVEILLE.
E ELLIOTT MCKAY HUGHES, late prosecuting attorney for Montgomery county, dates his birth in Lincoln county, this state, November 7, 1544 His father, Elliott Hughes, was a native of Kentucky, a teacher in early life, and later a merchant, and his grandfather was a native of the Old Dominion. The mother of our subject was Jane S McConnell, a native of Kentucky. In 1845, before Elliott was a year old, the family moved to Danville, Montgomery county, where the father died in 1862, and the mother in 1866.
Mr. Hughes had a common-school education, and by a little careful self train- ing outside the school room, he fitted himself for a teacher. He taught three years in Adams and Pike counties, Illinois; read law at Jacksonville, Morgan county, that state, and was admitted to the bar at Danville in 1867. He was county superintendent of schools in 1876-71; was elected prosecuting attorney in 1872; reflected in 1874 and 1876, and served six years, making a popular and effi- cient official. Mr. Hughes is a good judge of law, an excellent commercial law- yer, and, without being eloquent, makes a clear, logical and persuasive argument. Hle is strictly honest and reliable, and has a strong hold on the confidence of the people in his county.
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Mr. Hughes is a democrat, but not very active. His time, his talents, his ener- gies, are given to the study and practice of his profession, and that accounts for his excellent standing. He is a Royal Arch Mason, and an Odd Fellow. Mr. Hughes was married in December, 1872, 10 Miss Virgie F. Potts, of Saint Charles, this state, and they have five children.
JOHN EDWARDS.
MARYEILLE
O NE of the ablest and most scholarly members of the Missouri bar is John Edwards; his progenitor in the maternal line was Dennis Kunder, who came from Germany with the first company of settlers to Germantown (now a part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) in 1683. During the first year after his arrival, the Society of Friends (although he was not one of their number) held their first meeting at his stone mansion, it being the largest edifice at the time in Germantown. The lot upon which it stood is now the property of Jacob Burns. Part of the walls of the large, fine two-story house now on the premises, was the original exterior wall of the stone house of Dennis Kunder. Ploud's history of l'ennsylvania mentions his friendly disposition toward the Quakers. The name Kunder was changed to Conrad, then to Conrad, and lastly to Conard. Corne- lius Conard was a lineal descendant of Dennis Kunder, and was the great-great- grandfather of our subject. His son, Everard Conard, settled near Doylestown, in Berks county, Pennsylvania. In 1790, Cornelius Conard, a son of Everett Conard, married Susanna Chalfont; they lived in Chester county, Pennsylvania, where their daughter Elizabeth, the mother of our subject, was born in 1802.
Robert Edwards, the father of our subject, descended from one John Edwards, who immigrated from Wales in 1682, and settled in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. He was descended from Welsh and Eng- lish ancestry in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and before the commencement of the administration of William Penn. He was united in mar- riage April 14, 1831, to Elizabeth Conard, who although somewhat his senior in age, still survives him (1883). In 1837 he removed to Highland county, Ohio, making the long and arduous journey with a team and wagon, accompanied by his wife and four children. June 6, 1837, they reached their destination, and were received at the hospitable residence of William Chalfont, his wife's uncle. He remained in that vicinity until October 31, 1839, at which date he purchased the farm, where he resided a period of nearly forty years, up to his death, which oc- curred June 27, 1883, being over eighty years of age. He was a generous, hospi- table citizen, precise in his business affairs, inflexible in integrity, widely known and highly respected.
John Edwards, the subject of this memoir, was born at Valley Forge, Chester county, Pennsylvania, December 8, 1836 His early days were spent upon a farm
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and in attending the public schools. In 1856 we find him a student in the academy conducted by Professor J. A. J. Lowes, at South Salem, Ohio. He en- tered the freshman class of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, in September, 1858, where he was graduated with the highest honors of his class for scholarship after pursuing a regular classical course, July 3, 1802. At the university he was under the instruction of Professor David Swing, the erudite scholar and eminent divine, now of Chicago. During his course as a student, Mr. Edwards was the recipient successively of all of the honors awarded by his class; was chosen to address the Elodelphian Literary Society; was elected poet laureate, and he delivered the valedictory address to his classmates at their graduation. After graduating he was chosen superintendent of public schools of Hillsborough, Ohio, which posi- tion he held until he resigned in 1864. In September of that year he was chosen superintendent of public schools in the city of Hamilton, where he also continued until his resignation in 1867. For distinguished scholarship, the degree of master of arts was conferred upon him July 5, 1865, by Miami University. He studied law with Hon. Robert Christy, afterward United States district attorney at Cin- cinnati, during his three years' residence at Hamilton, where he was admitted to the bar of Ohio in 1867, before Hon. Josiah Scott, of the supreme court. In the fall of that year he formed a partnership with Hon. James Sloane and Judge S. F. Steel, and commenced the practice of his profession at Hillsborough, Ohio.
In August, 1868, he removed to Maryville, and during the winter of 1868-69 he filled the position of superintendent of public schools. In July following he formed a co-partnership with Hon. Lafayette Dawson. This firm was very pros- perous, and continued to do a successful law business until January 1, 1877, when it was dissolved by mutual consent. In the fall of 1876 he was elected prosecut- ing attorney of Nodaway county, which position he ably filled until January 1, 1879. He was associated in the practice of the law with William W. Ransay, his present partner, January 1, 1878, which has continued up to the present writing (1883). Their business is extensive, and their firm is one of the most prominent in northwestern Missouri. The mother of Mr. Edwards was a strict member of the Society of Friends, the son was raised under Quaker influences, and he has never forgotten his early teachings. He is as manly and noble in all of his deal- ings as he is learned and protound. He is a true man, not only to his clients, but to the courts and his professional brethren; a cultured gentleman, a lover of the fine arts, music and poetry. His literary attainments are excelled by no man in western Missouri. Many of his literary efforts, prose and poetry, will compare favorably with the productions of first-class American and English writers. He is very learned in the law; there is a certain refinement in his methods of thought that enables him to grasp with ease the nice points and subtleties of his profes- sion. Matters too complex and intricate for the understanding of the ordinary practitioner appear before his mind at a glance as clear as crystal, and his emi- nently practical judgment enables him to make direct and accurate application of them to the subject in question. Being a cogent reasoner, with a wealth of lan-
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guage almost equal to that of Burke, he is almost irresistible before both court and jury; although he seldom indulges in figures of rhetoric, his discourses are in superb taste, and his intimate acquaintance with the best authors has rendered his style remarkable for pure English. His power of lucid statement, his logic, sincerity, purity of character, and the keenness of his intellect, together with his ripe scholarship, are what have led him to success. His mind is stored with use- ful knowledge drawn from science, literature and the history of the world. As an advocate he has few equals, and he is thoroughly acquainted with all of the minute details of his profession. He has written a number of poems, many of which have been published and have been widely circulated. " The Deliverance," " Death," " The Battle of the Fens," and " Ode to the Mound Graves," have been greatly admired and highly praised.
Mr. Edwards was married February 12, 1864, in Hillsborough, Ohio, to Mrs. Elizabeth A. Hayes. She was born in Dallas county, Alabama, August 22, 1839, the daughter of Colonel James B. Diggs, of New Orleans, who commanded a regiment under General Jackson in the battle of January 8, 1815. Mr. Edwards' family circle is composed of his wife, her daughter, Anna D. Hayes, his two sons, Edward D. and Robert J. Edwards, and one daughter, Mary 1 .. Edwards.
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