USA > Missouri > Cole County > Jefferson City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 28
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 28
USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 28
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In 1857 Mr. Rollins was again the whig candidate for governor to fill the vacancy caused by the election of Governor Polk to the United States senate, and his friends claimed that he was elected, although Hon. R. M. Stewart was counted in by 230 votes.
In 1860 Mr. Rollins was elected to congress, and became an actor in the special session which met July 4, 1861, to devise means to put down the rebellion. He stood firmly by his old friend, Abraham Lincoln, and four years later saw peace restored to the land. .
Mr. Rollins was the author of the bill, which he introduced in February, 1862, to aid in constructing a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific coast, which bill, with some amendments, became the law in July fol- lowing, and under which bill the Union Pacific, the Kansas Pacific and Central Pacific roads of California were built.
Mr. Rollins was reflected in 1862, and in the thirty-eighth congress, in a speech of great power, he advocated the adoption of the thirteenth amendment to the constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States. This speech attracted great attention at the time, no one probably admiring it more than President Lincoln. In that congress he also made a strong argument in favor of free speech, and opposed the expelling of a member (Long, of Ohio) for disloyal language.
In 1866 Mr. Rollins was again sent to the legislature, and in that session gave his attention to revising the statutes to adapt them to the new constitution of 1865. The state university had been broken up, and he aided in its rehabilitation, and introduced and secured the passage of a bill establishing a normal depart- ment in the university.
In 1867 President Johnson appointed our subject a director of the Union Pacific railroad, which office he consented to hold for one year. In 1868 Mr. Rollins, contrary to his wishes, was again sent to the state senate. He introduced
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the bill, and secured its passage, establishing the agricultural and mechanical college. He succeeded also in increasing the endowment of the university and reducing the tuition and other expenses, of For several years he was, and we believe still is, president of the board of curators, and may almost be called the father of that noble institution.
In the state senate he favored the establishment of state normal schools at Kirksville and Warrensburgh, the strengthening of the Lincoln Institute (colored), and of a state asylum at Saint Joseph for the insane. The history of his noble deeds is written all over the legislative acts of the state for the last forty-five years.
Mr. and Mrs. Rollins have eight children living, five sons and three daughters, and have buried three children. James HI , the eldest son, is a graduate of West Point, and living in Columbia; George Bingham is a graduate of the state uni- versity, and a farmer, occupying part of his father's original homestead; Curtis Burnham is a graduate of the state university, and a lawyer and real-estate dealer, Columbia; Frank B. is a graduate of the state university, and of Harvard College, class of 1880, and Saint Louis Law School, class of 1882, and is a lawyer in Saint Louis; Edward Tutt was educated at Kemper's School, Boonville, and Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie, New York, and is a banker in Saint Louis; Laura H. is the wife of Irvin O. Hockaday, banker, Columbia; Mary E. is the wife of John II. Overall, lawyer, Saint Louis, and Flora is the wife of Rev. Joseph R. Gray, Nashville, Tennessee,
H. B. HAMILTON.
TEFFERSON CITY
H I UMPHREY B. HAMILTON is a son of Doctor Len F. Hamilton, and was born in Perry county, Illinois, October 26, 1847. His father, who was of the Baltimore branch of the Hamiltons, was closely related to Archbishop Spaulding, of the Catholic Church. He was a native of Kentucky, and came to Missouri when quite young. He married Santh Jones, and Humphrey was the youngest child. He was educated in the common and high schools of Illinois, and the Carbondale College, a preparatory school older than the normal school at the same place. After leaving school, he taught one year in his native state. He read law at Du Quoin, his native county, and at Salem, Marion county; was admitted to the bar by the supreme court of Illinois at Mount Vernon in 1870, and in November of that year settled at the capital of Missouri.
Here Mr. Hamilton has made his history thus far as a lawyer. At the Jeffer- son City bar perhaps no one is held in higher esteem than Mr. Hamilton. An eloquent advocate and a lawyer of the strictest integrity, his influence before a court or jury is recognized by all who know him. He is a close student of the law, because a lover of the science. A just cause in his hands has a defender of
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whom the profession may well be proud. Although often solicited to become a candidate for office, he has always declined to permit the use of his name. Modest and unassuming, he prefers the law to politics, and may justly feel proud of his position at the bar.
For the last four years Mr. Hamilton has been the senior member of the firm of Hamilton and Fisher, whose practice is both civil and criminal, Mr. Hamilton's taste inelining to the latter, and Mr. Fisher's to the former. They go into the several state and federal courts, and are doing well.
Mr. Hamilton's affiliations have always been with the democratic party, but we cannot learn that he has held any political office. In Freemasonry he has held the several offices in the local lodge, also holding the office of district deputy grand master, and has taken the thirty second degree in the Scottish Rite is an Episcopalian.
His wife was Mary Jane MeCutehin, of Saint Louis. They were married at Jefferson City, December 20, 1872, and have three children.
CHARLES H. CHAPIN. SAINT LOUIS.
C HARLES HENRY CHAPIN has been a successful lawyer in Saint Louis since the close of the civil war, when he entered for the first time fairly. on the practice of his profession in this state. He is a native of the Granite State, born at Newport, Sullivan county, September 22, 1823. His parents were Henry Chapin, a farmer, and Catharine (Fisher) Chapin, both natives of New Hamp- shire. The latter was a sister of Rev. Nathan Fisher, a Presbyterian minister, who died at Sandusky, Ohio, in 1849, of the cholera. The father of Henry Cha- pin carried a flint-lock musket in 1775-82, and Charles has that same gun, a per- cussion hammer having taken the place of the original flint lock. This musket is a precious keepsake in the Chapin family. The old patriot who claimed it in the times that tried men's souls, died in his ninety-fourth year.
The subject of this sketch entered the freshman class of Dartmouth College, Hanover, in i846, and was graduated in course; and after teaching the Newport Academy one year, went to South Carolina, and taught the same length of time. Thence he went to North Carolina, where he taught three or four years, reading law at the same time. +
He returned to Newport, finished his law readings with Hon. E. L. Cushing, of Charlestown, in his native county; was admitted to practice in 1858; married in November, 1859, Sarah A. Nettleton, of Newport, and after practicing in Charlestown until 1860, settled in Saint Loms. When the war broke out he offered his services to his country, but was rejected on account of ill health. He, how- ever, did some militia service in the city, and a very little legal business. The latter was dull until the war closed.
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Mr. Chapin has kept out of active politics, and out of office, and always attends closely and faithfully to his business. He goes into the United States circuit and district courts as well as the several state courts, and he has done a successful though not a large business. His associates at the bar, and members of the bench, speak well of his character. He is a member of the First Presby- terian Church, and a man of excellent principles. He has one son, Henry A., the inheritor of the continental musket, and a daughter, Catharine F, both well educated.
HON. JOHN BOYLE GORDON. COLUMBIA.
T HIS eminent lawyer and legislator was born at Milford, Madison county, Kentucky, in 1798, being a son of David and Jane Gordon. He had a great thirst for knowledge, and raised part of the means for attending the Transylvania University, Lexington, by teaching a common school. He attended that institution through the full course, and commenced practice. In 1826 he came, with his father's family, to this state, and settled in Columbia, making a highly honorable history at the Boone county bar. Judge Leonard said of him in 1853, in which year Mr Gordon died: " In my professional intercourse with him for the last twenty years, he was one of the strongest men in close argument that I ever met; he was most powerful and overwhelming before a jury; in short, he was one of the finest orators I ever heard in this or any country."
Mr. Gordon was a member of the legislature five terms, 1830-1840. He was one of the influential men who in the great contest for the state university, secured its location at Columbia, and he did a good deal for the building up of the place as well as the school. In isto he visited his old home in Kentucky and other parts of that state, and was persuaded to tarry there for two or three years, and engaged in the instruction of young men in the law.
The wife of Mr. Gordon was Miss Sophia Hopkins, of Boone county; they had six children, four sons and two daughters Two sons are lawyers in Col- umbia.
ANDREW J. HERNDON. FAYETTE.
A ANDREW JACKSON HERNDON, one of the oldest and most respected law- yers of Howard county, is a native of Orange county, Virginia, and was born July 23, 1817. His parents were George and Sarah (Feel) Herndon. He attended school here in Fayette nearly a year; then assisted the teacher a year, and for the next four years was at the head of a school in the village of Fayette During this period, in 1838, Mr. Herndon was married to Miss Emily Brown, of this county, and they have eleven children, nine daughters and two sons, living.
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While Mr. Herndon was teaching, he gave his evenings and other spare hours to the study of the law, and was admitted to the bar in the autumn of 1841. Since that date he has been in the practice of his profession at Fayette, doing also, at the same time, something at farming Since 1854 his residence has been half a mile out of town. Mr. Herndon has always been noted for his soundness of judgment and probity of character.
Ile has been for many years a member of the Christian Church, and in his younger years held various offices in that body. The purity of his life no one doubts who knows him.
Soon after being licensed to practice, he took the office of justice of the peace, and held it several years. He was clerk of the county court for twenty-eight consecutive years, and is one of the best known citizens in the county.
EDWIN B. SHERZER. SHAT LOUIS
E DWIN BERGER SHERZER, son of John and Effie ( Berger) Sherzer, was born in Aunville, Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, December 24, 1834. He received a classical education att Bowdoin College. Brunswick, Maine, being a graduate of the class of 18oo. He read law while in the senior year, and on being graduated went to Minnesota, and was principal of the seminary at Wilton, Waseca county, for three months, studying law at the same time. He finished his legal studies at Saint Paul with George I. Otis, and was admitted to the bar in that state. He became clerk in a paymaster's office in 1862, and served in that capacity for two or three years, till, in fact, the war was over. He then settled in Saint Louis, was readmitted to the bar, and has been in steady practice here since. He attends to civil litigation in all its branches, and has a good reputation for faithfulness in his work and uprightness of character.
GEORGE B. MACFARLANE. MEXICO.
G EORGE BENNETT MACFARLANE is a son of George and Catherine I (Bennett) MacFarlane, and was born in Callaway county, Missouri, January 21, 1837. His father was from Ayrshire, Scotland; his mother was born in Mad- ison county, Kentucky. The subject of this sketch was educated in part at West- minster College, in his native county, and at different academies, where he completed the college curriculum, teaching a short time. He was admitted to the bar in 1861; but civil war had commenced, and instead of opening an office, he remained on his father's farm.
In 1864 Mr. MacFarlane went to Rushville, Schuyler county, Illinois, and was
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licensed to practice, but hardly made a beginning. The next year he returned to Missouri, opened an office in Mexico, and has made a splendid success in his profession. He is the attorney for two railroad companies. Mr. MacFarlane was appointed probate judge by Governor Brown in 1872; was elected to the same office in 1874, and not long afterward resigned. For the last five or six years he has been a school director, and has done his share in improving the character of the public schools.
GEORGE P. STRONG. SAINT LOUIS.
G EORGE P. STRONG has been a member of the Saint Louis bar since 1852, and has been prominently identified with various movements, conven- tions, etc. He was major on General Edwards' staff in the civil war, and a mem- ber of the constitutional convention in 1865, and father of the resolution declaring slavery abolished in the state of Missouri. For more than thirty years he has been a member of the bar of this city, and has always maintained an unblemished character.
Mr. Strong is the son of a Presbyterian minister, Rev. Henry P. Strong, a native of Connecticut, where the son was born in December, 1814. He was edu- cated at Hamilton College. Clinton, New York; read law in Mississippi; was there admitted to the bar in 1840, and practiced in that state for twelve years.
Mr. Strong has a wife and four children, his eldest son, George A. Strong, being a lawyer in the city of New York. Having a farm of 1,200 acres in Saint Charles county, and being inclined to rural life, Mr. Strong is preparing to move into the country, and give his attention to agriculture. The bar of this city will miss a worthy member.
ALBERT BLAIR. SAINT LOUIS.
A I.BERT BLAIR was born at Kinderhook, Pike county, Illinois, October 16, 1840. His grandfather, William Montgomery Blair, a native of Virginia, was one of the first settlers of Pike county. His father, William Blair, was a soldier in the Black Hawk war; was a country merchant, and a politician, and at the time of his death, in his thirty-second year, was serving his third term in the Illinois legislature. Albert Blair's mother was Mary (Jackson) Blair, a descend- ant of the Jackson family that first settled at Newton, Massachusetts, in 1638. The youth of Albert was spent mainly on a farm near Barry, in his native county. From the age of sixteen to nineteen he was at school at Canton, Missouri. The following year he studied at Phillips Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, and the three following years at Harvard College, where he was gradnated in the class of
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1803. He was offered a tutorship in the state university at Columbia, Missouri, but by preference engaged in railroading, serving for two years as an employee of the North Missouri railroad, at Macon, Missouri. He then studied law, spending one winter at the Harvard Law School, and began the practice of law at Macon; but his health becoming poor, he returned to railroading, and was identified for several years with the project of building a road from Keokuk, Iowa, to Kansas City, Missouri,
In 1876 he located in Saint Louis, and resumed the practice of law. He is counsel for several business corporations, and serving in that relation, gives attention to patent law
ROBERT M. NICHOLS. SAINT LOUIS.
R OBERT MATHEW NICHOLS is a native of Saint Louis county, a son of Thomas and Annie ( King) Nichols, and was born December 19, 1856. His father was a native of Virginia, a merchant in Saint Louis until 1800, and afterward a farmer, dying in February, 1883. His widow, who was born in Vir- ginia, is still living.
The paternal grandfather of Robert was captain of a Virginia company in the revolutionary army, and came to Missouri in 1812. He had sixteen sons and three daughters
Robert received his education, literary and legal, in Washington University, taking his degree of bachelor of law in the autumn of 1879. Since that date he has been in practice in this city, diligently and faithfully devoting his time to the duties of his profession, and has already built up a good practice in the civil courts. He takes very little interest in politics, and any leisure time at his com- mand he gives to his law books.
HON. THOMAS B. REED. HUN ESVILLE.
T HOMAS BLACK REED, one of the oldest practicing attorneys in Ran- dolph county, was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, July 20, 1819. his parents being John Denny Reed, and Elizabeth (Jenkins) Reed. The subject of this sketch was educated in the common schools of Randolph county, Missouri, and the state university, being a graduate of the class of 1847. He taught school two years after leaving college, read law at Huntsville, first with Robert Wilson, and then with Judge Burkhartt; was admitted to the bar in 1851, and has since been in practice at Huntsville, except when in the service of his country. In 1862 he enlisted as a private in the gth cavalry, Missouri state militia, was mus- tered in as captain, company G, and served three years. He acted at one period
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as provost marshal of the district of north Missouri, at another, of the district of Rolla, and was judge advocate of the military commission and court martial at Macon City in 1803-04.
In 1865 Captain Reed was elected to the state senate for the short term, and was reflected in 1868 for the term of four years. As a lawyer Captain Reed has long stood in the front rank of his district, excelling as a counselor, and court lawyer, rather than as an advocate. He makes no pretensions to oratory, yet his sound, clear and logical arguments, coupled with his candor and sincerity, have great weight with a jury, and he has had noteworthy success in the several courts to which he has taken his cases. He has a wife and three children.
HON. SAMUEL M. EDWARDS. MEXICO.
S AMUEL MARTIN EDWARDS, judge of probate for the county of Audrain, is a native of Henry county, Virginia, a son of John and Martha ( Johnston) Edwards, and was born January 23, 1831. His mother was also born in Henry county, and his father in Albemarle county. The family immigrated to this state, and settled in Saint Charles county, when Samuel was quite young. Our subject finished his education in the Saint Charles College, taking a partial course; taught school a year or two; read Low at Saint Charles; finished his legal studies at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville; was admitted to the bar at Warrenton in 1856, and since that date has been in practice at Mexico.
Mr. Edwards was elected judge of probate in 187 ; was reflected in 1878 and 1882, and hence is serving his third term Ile makes an efficient and popular official; is one of the best known men in the county, and is much esteemed for his good qualities. His affiliations since the civil war have been with the demo- cratic party, being a whig before. He has a second wife, and three children by the first.
JAMES TAUSSIG
A' AMONG the older and most respectable class of attorneys in Saint Louis, of 1 foreign birth, is James Taussig, a son of John L. Taussig, and born in Prague, Bohemia, April 30, 1827. He received all of his literary and part of his legal education in the old country; came to the United States in 1848; settled in Saint Louis the same year; finished his law studies with Spaulding and Shepley, and was admitted to the bar in 1851. He has practiced in this city for more than thirty years, and long reached an honorable standing at the Saint Louis bar.
" What kind of a man and lawyer is James Taussig ?" was the inquiry made of a Saint Louis jurist, who has known Mr. Taussig for more than a score of years.
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The reply was: " Mr. Taussig is a man of solid worth, the purity of his life being unquestioned. He is a fine lawyer and has been successful as he deserved to be He has a judicial mind, and would have made a still better judge than he has been lawyer." To this opinion we dare not set up a demurrer.
Mr. Taussig was for four years counselor of the Saint Louis public schools, all the office that we can learn he has ever held in the city. The year after being admitted to practice he was married (1852) to Miss Magdaline Domizer, of New York city, and they have a family of six children. Emily, the oldest of all, is the wife of Julius D. Ables, of Saint Louis; Benjamin J., and Louis J., the oldest and third sons, are lumber dealers, Saint Louis; Charles S. is a graduate of Har- vard Law School, and practicing in the same office with his father; Alford W. is at Harvard University, and Martha is at home
HION. SOLOMON HUGHLETT.
S OLOMON HUGHLETT was born in Pike county, Missouri, in February, 1841, and was reared on the farm of his father, John Hughlett, until eighteen years old. From 1864 to August, 1805, he was in the federal army as lieutenant, company B, 49th Missouri infantry. From 1865 to 1867 he was mining in Nevada and California. He commenced reading law in 1867 by himself; was admitted to the bar in 1872, and since that time has been in general practice at Wellsville, being the leading lawyer in Montgomery county.
Mr. Hughlett was elected to the legislature in 1880, and was chairman of the committee on normal schools; was reflected in 1882, and was chairman of the committee on criminal jurisprudence. He trains with the democracy; is a Chapter Mason, and belongs to the Encampment of Odd-Fellowship.
He was married in August, 1873, to Miss Mary E. Gray, of Montgomery county, and they have two children.
EDWARD HIGBEE.
LANCASTER
T HE subject of this biographical notice is a son of Rev. Jesse Higbee, of the Christian Church, and Susan Newmyer, and was born in Richland county, Ohio, January 1, 1847. In r844o the family went to Iowa, and settled on a farm near lowa City, where Edward was made acquainted with solid farm work. He look an irregular course of study in the University of Iowa, and afterward taught several winter schools; read law with Hon. Rush Clark, of Iowa City, and Hon James B. Weaver, of Bloomfield, łowa, continuing his teaching during the win- tor season, and was admitted to the bar at Bloomfield in September, 1867. In 32
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December of that year he was married to Miss Mary Isabel Burney, of Schuykr county, Missouri, and they have five children Ile settled in Lancaster, the county seat, and here has been the field of his success at the bar.
Mr. Higbee is a most diligent and persistent lawyer; is a constant and labo- rious student; when not occupied with the active duties of his profession, may be found intensely engaged investigating; is thoroughly informed, very accurate in his legal opinions; when once formed, very tenacious of them, and always ready with a " thus saith the law" in support of them.
He is very successful as a pleader, and in getting the facts in a cause before the jury or the court; is not an advocate, but is a fine reasoner, and in the dis- cussion of legal propositions to the court has but few superiors.
Mr. Higbee has held a few offices, such as prosecuting attorney, mayor of the city, and United States commissioner, still holding the last named office. His politics are republican.
HON. BENJAMIN F. DOBYNS. SHELBINA.
B BENJAMIN FRANKLIN DOBYNS, state senator from the thirteenth dis- trict, was born in Marion county, this state, September 13, 1837. He finished his education at Bethel College, Palmyra, in his native county, and was engaged in farming and trading until the civil war began, when he entered the confederate service under General Sterling Price, and was a member of Cockrell's brigade. He was wounded twice, and a prisoner three times, and served until the close of the war. He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1871; was elected prosecuting attorney of Shelby county on the democratic ticket in 1872; again in 1874, serving four years. He was elected to the state senate in 1880, and was chairman of the committee on constitutional amendments during the thirty-first, and of the judiciary committee during the thirty-second general assembly.
Mr. Dobyns was married in 1882 to Miss C. P. Williams, of Hannibal, Missouri.
JACOB C. FISHER. JEFFERSON CITY.
T HIS young lawyer is of German extraction, his parents being Louis and Caroline (Schneck) Fisher. He was born at Addleberg, Pennsylvania, March 17, 1855. In 1859 the family came to Missouri and settled on a farm in Cooper county, ten miles from Boonville, the county seat.
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