USA > Missouri > Cole County > Jefferson City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 34
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 34
USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 34
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After being graduated Mr. Brock entered the office of Hiram Griswold, of Cleveland, becoming at the same time connected with the law college of that city, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1861. In the autumn of that year he recruited a company for the 07th regiment of Ohio infantry; was made adjutant of the regiment shortly afterward, and in 1862 was appointed by Governor Tod as captain of company II, and in that capacity served in the Potomac army and in the siege of Charleston. In 1864 he was detailed on the staff of General How- el; served in front of Petersburgh and Richmond, and was promoted to the rank of major, and witnessed the fall of Richmond.
Returning to Cleveland, in April, 1866, Major Brock settled in Macon, Mis- souri. He formed a partnership with General F. A. Jones in the practice of law.
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and took, in a short time, a highly respectable rank at the Macon county bar. He is a good speaker, and makes a strong argument either to the court or jury.
In 1870, in connection with their law business, the firm of Jones and Brock purchased an outfit and started the Macon " Republican," which is a vigorous newspaper, of which Major Brock is now the sole proprietor. Ile makes it an able exponent of the principles of the republican party.
Hle has a wife and three children.
JOHN A. BLEVINS.
VERSAILLES.
TOIN ALEXANDER BLEVINS, one of the younger class of lawyers in J Morgan county, is a son of Zachariah C. and Susan S. (Duff) Blevins, and his birth is dated at Abingdon, Washington county, Virginia, October 29, 1860. Both parents are also natives of the Old Dominion. The family came to Missouri in 1868, when John was only eight years old, and settled in Versailles. The parents are still living, the father being engaged in the livery business at Aurora Springs, 'Miller county, Missouri.
The subject of this briet notice supplemented a common-school education with academic studies at Keokuk, lowa He read law at Versailles, under the instruction of Hon. Anderson W. Anthony, and was licensed to practice by Judge Edwards in May, 1881. Mr. Blevins goes into the criminal and civil courts, and has made a good beginning for one so young in the profession. He likes the practice, is studious and painstaking, and gradually securing a good clientage. He has a good mind, bears an excellent character, and being a close student, his friends have great confidence in his success at the bar. He held the position of first assistant in the public schools of Versailles for two years.
Mr. Blevins is in his second term as city attorney, and his first term as school commissioner of Morgan county, and is prompt in the discharge of every official duty. His politics are democratic.
GEORGE A. MAHAN.
HANNIBAL.
T HE prosecuting attorney of Marion county, whose name we have placed at the head of this sketch, is a young man of decided ability, and is making a very successful lawyer. He was born in the county in which he still lives, August 6, 1852, his parents being George A. and Jennie (Griffith) Mahan. They were born in Kentucky. His great-grandfather was from Ireland, and settled in Vir- ginia, from which state his grandfather moved to Kentucky.
George finished his classical education at Washington-Lee University, Lex- 35
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ington, Virginia, where he studied three years. He read law with Redd and M. Cabe, of Palmyra; is a graduate of the law department of the University of Indiana, class of 1872, and commenced practice at Hannibal, January 1, 1873. He was elected city attorney in 1875, and held that office one term; was elected to his present county office by his democratic constituents in 1879; reflected in 1881 and 1883, and hence is serving his third term as prosecuting attorney. He is a bright young lawyer; has a good legal, well cultivated mind, capable of much expansion; is an active and efficient prosecutor, and is constantly growing in strength and popularity. He is living in a river town, where prosecutions are numerous, and at times his duties are very exacting on his time; but he is indus- trious and methodical, and is never caught napping. He bears a good moral character, and stands well in social circles
Mr. Mahan is a Royal Arch Mason, but has held but few offices in the order, preferring to give his time to the study, as well as practice, of his profession. He was married May 24, 1883, to Miss Ida M. Dulany, daughter of Colonel D. M. Dulany, of Hannibal.
HON. HENRY C. EWING. JEFFERSON (IT).
H ENRY CLAY EWING was born in Jefferson City, August 15, 1828, being a son of Robert A. and Jane ( Ramsay) Ewing. He is a grandson of Rob- ert Ewing, who was a pioneer settler in Kentucky, and of General Jonathan Ramsay, who came to Missouri in 1817, when it was a territory, and settled in Callaway county.
The subject of this sketch finished his education in the high school of his native city; read law with his father; was admitted to practice at Jefferson City in 1852, and has been in practice here for more than thirty years. He has an excellent judgment, is a sound lawyer and a safe counselor, and makes a clear and strong argument, either before the court of jury. In solidity of character and moral stamina he has no superior at the bar of Cole county.
In 1855 Mr. Ewing was married to Miss Georgie Chiles, of Glasgow, Howard county, this state. They have no children. Mr. Ewing was elected attorney general of the state in 1873, and held that office one term - two years; was elected to the legislature in 1886, and in the session following was chairman of the committee on banks and corporations. He is a strong democrat, and a man of much influence in lus party; and in 1876 he was chairman of the state central committee, managing the canvass which carried the state for Tilden and Hen- dricks by a very large majority
Mr. Ewing was appointed curator of the university by Governor Woodson; has been one of the trustees of the institution for the education of the blind since 1877, and was for years one of the fish commissioners of the state. In 1883 he was a delegate to the tenth national conference of charities and correction, held
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at Louisville. In November of the same year he was appointed supreme court commissioner, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Commissioner Winslow. This is a new field in which to exercise his fine judicial mind, and the selection was prompt and wise.
He is a member of the Methodist Church South, and one of the prominent laymen in that religious body in the state. Hle was a delegate to the general conference which met at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1578
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JOHN C. GAGE. KANSAS CITY.
LOHN CUTTER GAGE is a native of New Hampshire. He was born in 1 Pelham, April 20, 1835, the son of Frye Gage and Keziah (Cutter) Gage. He began his education in the public schools, and fitted for college at Phillips Acad- emy, Andover; entered Dartmouth College in 1852, and was graduated from Harvard College in 1856. He read law in the office of S. A. Brown in Lowell. Massachusetts; was admitted to the bar in September, 1858; went to Saint Louis in the autumn of that year, and came to Kansas City in March, 1859, commenc. ing practice by himself In 1800 he formed a partnership with W. C. Woodson, which continued until 1861. He formed a partnership with William Douglas in 1865, which was dissolved in 1809. He then became associated with his present partner, Sanford B. Ladd, and in 1881 Mr. Small was admitted to the partner- ship.
Mr. Gage is an able man in every department of his profession, fertile in his resources, and energetic in the execution of his plans, which are always carefully prepared. He has a legal mind of high order, original in its methods, powerful in its grasp, and comprehensive and thorough He is profound, and master of all the subtleties of his profession. At the State Bar Association, held in the summer of 1883, at Sweet Springs, Mr. Gage was chosen its president.
JOHN M. WILLIAMS.
CALIFORNIA
JOHN MORROW WILLIAMS, of the firm of Moore and Williams, is a son J of George and Dorcas ( Morrow) Williams, and dates his birth October 6, 18.43 His father was a farmer from the North of Ireland, and his mother was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania. He had a common, and limited high-school education, and in August, 1862, enlisted as a private in the ized Ohio infantry, and served nearly three years, being promoted to sergeant, first lieutenant and captain He was in between twenty and thirty battles and skirmishes, and was never wounded.
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On coming out of the service he taught school one term, and in September, 1866, he came to this state and settled in his present home, where he read law, and was admitted to the bar in 1868, since which date he has been in practice in Moniteau county, and the adjoining counties, making a clean and praiseworthy record in the first judicial circuit. The firm of Moore and Williams is a synonym for everything honorable in the legal profession, and their clientage is of the best class.
Mr. Williams is, politically, a greenbacker, and has twice been the candidate of his party for prosecuting attorney of Moniteau county. He is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a man of much stability of character.
He was married, October 1, 1868, to Miss Alice Gray Howard, a native of Missouri, and daughter of Doctor Waid Howard, of Boonville. They have six children, three sons and three daughters.
JAMES E. HAZELL. CALIFORNIA.
AMES EDWARD HAZELL, prosecuting attorney of Monitean county, is a J native of Missouri, born in Cooper county, January 15, 1847. Ilis father, Sebren Graham Hazell, was born in Kentucky, and his mother, whose maiden name was Nancy Jolly, is a native of Virginia. Members of both families took a part in the first war with England S. G. Hazell is a dairyman, still living in Cooper county.
James had a common school education only, and is largely self-taught. He read law with Draffen and Muir, of Boonville, Missouri; attended the law depart- ment of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; received the degree of bachelor of laws in March, 1872, and was admitted to the bar in Michigan the same year at Detroit, and by the supreme judges of this state in 1873. He practiced at Tipton, this county, from 1873 to the summer of 1879, and by appointment of the town council acted as city attorney three or four years. In 1879 he settled at California, the county seat, being elected prosecuting attorney in 1878, and he has been twice reflected. His third term will expire January 1, 1885. He is a democrat, and the opposition have one hundred and fifty majority of votes.
Mr. Hazell took much pains to prepare himself for his profession, and is ener- getic and correct in his business transactions. He is a fair talker before the court or jury, is candid and conscientious, has a logical mind, and is a growing man.
Mr. Hazell pays special attention to land matters, abstracting and convey- ancing, and in the abstract business he is in company with Matthew Boland, the firm of Hazell and Boland having an abstract of every acre of land in Moniteau county. Mr. Hazell pays taxes for non-residents, and is an upright and prompt business man.
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Mr. Hazell is a democrat in politics, a Knight Templar in Freemasonry, an Odd-Fellow, and a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
He was married, July 1, 1873, to Miss Margaret Williams, who was born near Columbus, Ohio.
LOUIS HOFFMAN.
SE DALIA.
L' I QUIS HOFFMAN is one of the well educated lawyers at the Sedalia bar, having the mental drill of both German and English schools in his youth, and being a graduate of the state university at Columbia. He is a good Eng- lish, German and classical scholar, and above the average in legal attainments. Mr. Hoffman was born at Bay, Gasconade county, this state, September 3, 1852, being a son of Andrew and Wilhelmina ( Holzkamper) Hoffman, who were from the Duchy of Lippedetmoldl, Germany. Ilis father taught him German in a private school, and he was admitted to the bar in the autumn of 1876, a few months after he was graduated in the collegiate course at Columbia. He opened an office at Hermann, the judicial town of his native county, and in 1878 was elected prosecuting attorney of the county on the republican ticket, and was reflected in 1880, serving four years. In December, 1882, he moved to his pres- ent home, where he has already built up a fine legal business. A brother lawyer, who knows him well, speaks of Mr. Hoffman as having an excellent standing in bis profession, and a high character as a citizen. He has a clear head, and makes a good argument before either court or jury, and is a rising man at the Sedalia bar.
He was married, March 20, 1878, to Miss Ella Dimmett, of Woodlandville. Boone county, Missouri, and they have one child.
HON. WILLIAM S. SHIRK.
W TILLIAM SNYDER SHIRK, late judge of the twenty-second judicial cir- cuit, and now of the Sedalia bar, evidently believes that there is a good deal of importance attached to the preparation for business, particularly of a pro- fessional kind. A solid foundation, once broadly laid, furnishes an opportunity for a respectable superstructure. After graduating at one of the best academic institutions in northern Illinois, Mr. Shirk spent two years at the Albany, New York, law school, receiving the very best kind of drill for the legal profession, and he has made a splendid success both as a lawyer and jurist.
He was born in Chambersburgh, Franklin county, Pennsylvania, August 24, 1843, being a son of Jacob and Susan (Stouffer) Shirk, both natives of that state, and of German extraction. His father was a miller in early life, and afterward a farmer, moving to Mount Carroll, Carroll county, Illinois, in 1852.
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William is a graduate of the well known Mount Carroll Seminary, in 1863, and in that year went to Albany, where he received the degree of bachelor of laws in 1865. He located that year at Warsaw, Benton county, Missouri, forty miles from his present home, and was there in practice for fourteen years. Dur- ing eight of those years he was county and prosecuting attorney, and in 1874 he was elected judge of the twenty-second judicial circuit. That position he held until the autumn of 1877, when he resigned, because, we presume, the salary of a circuit judge is not equal to the income of a first-class lawyer.
As a judge he was clear-headed, dispassionate, and impartial, and his decisions we're rarely reversed by a higher court He left his bench with the high esteem and good will of the bar in his judicial circuit.
In May, 1879, Judge Shirk removed to Sedalia, and took at once a high rank at the Pettis county bar. The city of Sedalia has between thirty and forty mem- bers of the legal fraternity, and Judge Shirk, it is safe to say, stands second to none of them in proficiency, integrity and ability in his profession.
He is a director, and, if we mistake not, president of the Mechanics' Building Association, and is one of the attorneys for the Missouri Pacific Railway Com. pany. The judge has always been a republican from principle, and his convic- tions in this respect are as sincere and sacred as any he cherishes on any subject. He is a third-degree Freemason.
His wife was Miss Frances Hastain, of Warsaw, their marriage being dated December 23, 1868. They have buried one son, and have three children living.
HON. J. C. MCGINNIS.
SUNT LOUIS
JAMES CRAIN MCGINNIS was born July 19, 1830, in Pulaski county, Ken- 2 tucky. His father was of Scotch-Irish, and his mother of Franco-Irish descent. His French ancestry were the Rousseaus, Huguenots, who came over to Charles- ton soon after the revocation of the ediet of Nantes, and removed thence to Vir- ginia, where all his four grandparents were born, emigrating to Kentucky in 1795. Bernard Rogers, a collateral ancestor, was killed in the battle of Blue Licks, in 1782.
In 1836 his father's family moved to Missouri, Clarke county, where his father died in 1838. Soon thereafter his mother took her five children, of whom he was the eldest, back to her father's home in Kentucky. He was then ten years old, and from that time until 1847 he lived with his grandfather, working on the old gentleman's farm, winter and summer, clearing land and building fences in the winter, and doing ordinary farm work in the summer. No school advantages were afforded him. By dint of perseverance and long plodding he had acquired the art of reading, and during the winter nights, by the light of a pine knot, he read such books as Ween's " Life of Marion :" Weem's " Life of Washington ;"
:
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" History of the United States," by a citizen; Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress :" "Campbell's Poems;" " Watt's Hymns;" the Bible, and Josephus, all the books that were found in his grandfather's library. As for newspapers, there was not a single one published in the county, and the only papers that found their way into his backwoods abode were " The Western Christian Advocate," and the Louis- ville " Democrat," for which for many years his grandfather was a subscriber.
The Louisville " Democrat " was intensely democratic, but its strong pro- slavery sentiments were exceedingly obnoxious to young McGinnis, who instinct- ively hated the peculiar institution from his carhest recollection, and instead of helping him to grow up a democrat started him off in an opposite direction.
In 1840 he enlisted as a drummer in a company then being formed in his native county, for service in the Mexican war, but which was not accepted, and in 1847, he enlisted as a private in another company, and with this he went to Mexico, his company forming a part of the 4th Kentucky infantry, commanded by General John S. Williams, present United States senator from Kentucky. At the close of the Mexican war he returned home, and thence removed his mother and brothers and sisters to Schuyler county, Minois, supporting them at farming. In 1852 his mother died, leaving upon his hands the sole care of her family, which he faithfully attended to, taking care of the smaller children until they were able to take care of themselves. Then, in 1855, he went to Mount Morris Seminary. in Ogle county, Illinois, where he remained at school for a few months. Leaving school he entered the law office of Henry A. Mix, of Oregon, Illinois, and began his preparations for a professional career He was a close student, and, in his great haste to get along, applied himself constantly, to the great detriment of his . eyesight, which he came near losing, being at last compelled to abandon the use of his eyes almost altogether, for the space of a year, which he passed on a farm.
In 1857 he was married, and in 1858 he removed to Missouri. From this date his identity with the interests of Missouri, as a citizen, has remained unbroken. He chose the town of Lexington for his home But he was unknown and friend- less, and he was not long in finding out that there was no room or opening for a black-republican lawyer at the bar there But he could not remain idle, and he bought himself a set of carpenter's tools, and went to work with John Ferree, the only other man in the city who at that time dared to take and read the New York " Tribune," and the Missouri " Democrat." Ferree was the only man who could give him work, although at that time carpenters were in great demand. Mr. Fer- ree had lived in Lexington for many years, and his marriage into a leading pro- slavery family had secured him that toleration and freedom of opinion, which, though a born Kentuckian, was not extended to him.
Mr. McGinnis had voted for Fremont in Illinois, in 1856, and he voted for Lincoln in Lexington, in 1860. Lexington can indulge the boast that his was the first republican vote ever cast at the polls in that city, not withstanding the threats made, and the warnings to leave sent him by sundry young fire-eaters there, some few of whom yet survive.
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He continued to live in Lexington until May 2, 1861 By this time matters in Missouri were getting a little lively. The rebel state guard was rendezvousing at Camp Jackson The war cloud on the horizon was assuming prodigious pro- portions. Leaving Lexington, he hastened to Saint Louis, and enlisted for the war, joining one of the volunteer regiments Frank Blair was raising. Soon after he raised a company of volunteers himself, and served with it until March 20. 1864, when he was mustered out by special order of the war department, on his own request, on account of the difficulties he had with his colonel, the notorious James H. Blood. At the election of 1864, he was commissioner from Missouri, to take the vote of Missouri troops in the field in Arkansas, a duty he performed with great prudence At the general assembly of 1864-5 he was chosen sergeant- at-arms of the house
Having removed his family to Saint Louis in August, 1801, that city was henceforth his home. Here for the first time, m 1800, he became a candidate for office. He was then elected a member of the house of representatives from Saint Louis. In the meantime, having in 1565 been admitted to the bar, he entered upon the practice of the law in Saint Louis, and was building up a good business. He was reflected to the house in 1868, and was chairman of the com- mittee on criminal jurisprudence, and was the first chairman of the committee on mines and mining, a committee then organized. He was also a member of the penitentiary committee in the twenty-fitth general assembly, as he had been in the previous, the twenty-fourth. In 1876 he was city attorney of Saint Louis, and refused reelection to the general assembly. In 1872 he was elected to the state senate for the term of four years, serving with distinction on the committees on criminal jurisprudence and penitentiary, of both the twenty-seventh and twenty- eighth general assemblies
In 1876, very much against his wishes, he was made the candidate of the republicans of Saint Louis, for judge of the court of criminal correction, to the bench of which he had been called to serve by the profession, and where he had served for some time, during the illness of Judge Colvin In 1878 he was the republican candidate for judge of the Saint Louis criminal court, and was beaten by a small majority, along with the rest of the ticket. In 1880 he was urged to become a candidate for state senator, but if he went to the legislature at all, he preferred a seat in the house, to which he was chosen by a heavy majority, receiv- ing his own party vote, and many votes from other parties.
We presume it is not too much to say that Major McGinnis was the most use- ful member that occupied a seat in the thirty-first general assembly. As a recog- nition of his ability and worth, he was appointed a member of the committee to make settlement with the outgoing treasurer and auditor, on the first of January last. He was also a member of the committees on judiciary, penitentiary and school for the education of the blind,
In 1882 he was again chosen to the house from Saint Louis, being the only republican elected from that city, was again placed on the judiciary committee,
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and was for the third time one of the important committee to settle with the financial officers of the state. On all non political questions he was the recog- nized leader of the house, although that body was democratic while he is a stal- wart republican.
Thoroughly familiar with affairs of state, of unimpeachable honesty and integrity, he never fails to command for his views and opinions, which it has the faculty of expressing with great clearness, the most respectful consideration. Major McGinnis is now in the prime of useful manhood, and enjoys the confi- dence of his fellow men as few men do; a striking proof of which is the fact that at the last election he received as many democratic as republican votes for a seat in the legislature, which his talents have so long adorned.
HON. ELMER B. ADAMS. SAIVT LOUIS
E LMER B. ADAMS, one of the judge, of the eighth judicial circuit, and the presiding judge of that court, is a son of Jarvis and Eunice (Mitchell) Adams, and was born in Pomfret, Windsor county, Vermont, October 27, 1842. Both parents were natives of Massachusetts. They belonged to the farming community. Elmer received his preparatory education at Meriden, New Hamp- shire, where he was graduated at the Kimball Union Academy, and is a graduate of Yale College, class of 1865. The next year he spent at the South, organizing public schools for white children in the state of Georgia
He read law at Woodstock, Vermont, in the office of Washburn and Marsh, and completed his legal studies in the law department of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was admitted to the bar of Vermont in 1868, and in the same year to the bar of Missouri. Two years afterward, 1870, he returned to Woodstock, and was joined in marriage with Miss Emma Richmond of that place.
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