USA > Missouri > Cole County > Jefferson City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 39
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 39
USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 39
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Mr. Orr was city attorney in 1872, 1875 and 1879, and may have held other local offices of which we are not cognizant. He is a stockholder and director of the bank of Holden. He has long been a strong advocate of temperance, and latterly has favored the adoption of prohibition laws for the total suppression of liquor vending. His views were recently expressed in a private letter, which he wrote to the editor of a temperance paper, and which letter found its way into that paper. He says: "The cause which you have undertaken to champion is
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paramount to all others now engaging the attention of the American people. It is against the terrible ravages and consequences of the saloon, or, in other words, it is the cause of God and humanity against the devil and inhumanity."
Mr. Orr was first married, in 1853, to Miss Elizabeth Smith, of Ohio, she dying in 1862, leaving two sons; and the second time, in 1872, to Miss Utilla Galladay, of Holden, by whom he has one daughter. Mr. and Mrs. Orr are members of the Methodist Church, and important factors, socially and finan- cially, in that Christian body.
ROBERT T. RAILEY.
HARRISONVILLE
T HIS lawyer is attorney for the southern division of the Missouri Pacific Railway Company, and for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Company, and has a first-class standing at the Cass county bar. He is a native of the state of Louisiana, born January 19, 1850. In that year the family moved to Woodford county, Kentucky, and in 1855 came to this county, settling on a farm near Har- risonville. In 1861 we find the family in Colorado, and four years later Robert returned to Cass county. He was educated at the Christian Brothers Academy, Saint Louis, and the state university, Columbia, leaving the latter institution in 1869. He read law, and was admitted to practice in 1873. During the ten years that he has been in practice here he has had different partners, and is now of the firm of Railey and Burney, the latter being associated with him as attorney of the first railroad mentioned above. The firm is highly reputable.
Mr. Railey is a member of the Methodist Church South, and a man of excel- lent moral character. He is a married man.
WILLIAM WALKER WOOD.
WARRENSBURGH.
T HE lawyer with whose name this sketch is headed is prosecuting attorney of Johnson county, and a vigorous official in that capacity. He is a son of James M. and Angeline ( Thornton) Wood, and was born in Johnson county, May 1, 1850. His father was a farmer, born in Albemarle county, Virginia, and his mother was a native of Orange county, same state. She was a granddaughter of Colonel Anthony Thornton, an officer in the continental army.
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William supplemented the mental discipline of a common school with some attendance at select schools, and received his legal education at the University of Kentucky, Lewiston, where he was graduated in 1871. Since that date, with the exception of parts of the years 1874-75, spent in Sherman, Grayson county, Texas, Mr. Wood has been in practice at the seat of justice of his native county. His associates at the bar give him credit for being a safe counselor, and a solid as well as honest man, his word having as much weight as that of any lawyer in Johnson county.
Mr. Wood was public administrator five years, ending in November, 1881, and a year later he was elected to his present county office, which will expire with the year 1884.
HENRY CORDELL. PLEASANT HILL.
H ENRY CORDELL is a Virginian by birth, a son of Presley and Amelia (O'Connor) Cordell, and was born in Loudoun county, April 18, 1822. Both parents were born in that state. His father was a watchmaker and jeweler in his younger years, and later in life a farmer, bringing his family to Saint Louis county, this state, in 1834.
Our subject received a fair English education; spent two years as a clerk in a Saint Louis store, and in 1837 went to Jefferson City, where he had an older brother in trade, with whom he heldl a clerkship for eight years. In 1845 Mr. Cordell was married to Miss Caroline J Hart, an estimable young lady, of Jeffer- son City, and they have had eleven children, only seven of whom are living. Immediately after his marriage Mr. Cordell formed a partnership with his brother, and was in mercantile trade at Jefferson City until 1854, when he settled in Pleasant Hill. Here he did a prosperous business until the civil war began, which very much injured his trade, as it did that of ten thousand other mer- chants, and that of business men generally.
At the close of the war Mr. Cordell accepted a clerkship, and, while thus engaged, he was elected justice of the peace. While performing the duties of that office he read law, and in 1875 was admitted to the bar. Since that time he has made a handsome support for his large family. His practice is largely col- lections and probate business, and he is diligent and faithful in all his legal work. He is well known in the county, is highly respected, and worthy of that respect.
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Mr. Cordell was public administrator at one period, the only county office he has held. His politics are democratic. He has passed all the chairs in the lodge and encampment of Odd-Fellowship. Mr Cordell is an elder of the Presbyte- rian Church South, a kind neighbor, cordial, communicative and pleasant, and a Christian gentleman of the best Virginia type.
CHARLES W. SLOAN.
HARRISONVILLE.
C HARLES WILLIAM SLOAN, a member of the Cass county bar for eigh- teen years, is a native of Lafayette county, this state; born December 24,
1842. He is a son of Rev. Robert Sloan, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, born in Tennessee, and of Margaret Davidson (Ewing) Sloan, a native of Ken- tucky. Her maternal grandfather was General Davidson, who was killed in middle life in one of the battles in North Carolina. The subject of these notes received an academic education; read law at Kansas City and Jefferson City, and was licensed at Jefferson City in December, 1865. In the spring of 1866 he was enrolled at Harrisonville, and has since been in general practice at his pres- ent home, his business extending outside his judicial circuit. He is very much devoted to his profession, and stands well.
Mr. Sloan was first married in April, 1875, to Miss Alice Patten, of Kanawha county, West Virginia, she dying in the following December; and the second time, in Cass county, January, ISSo, to Miss Jennie Todd, a native of Kentucky, having by her one daughter.
WILLIAM C. MARSHALL.
SAINT LOUIS.
W TILLIAM CHAMP MARSHALL is descended from a very old Virginia fam- ily, his great-great-grandfather, Rev. William Marshall, being the first Bap- tist minister in that state, and probably in the United States. He was repeatedly sent to jail because he would preach the doctrines of that denomination. The Marshalls are a family of lawyers for three or four generations, and are found in the states of Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, California and Colorado.
William C. Marshall was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, November 13. 1848,
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being a son of Thomas A., and Letitia ( Miller) Marshall, the latter being a native of Louisville, Kentucky, her father being from Ireland. The father of our sub- jeet has retired from the active practice, and he and his wife still live in Vicks- burg. William was educated at the University of Mississippi, and the University of Virginia, being a graduate of the latter institution in 1860. He commenced practice in Saint Louis, January 1, 1876, was alone until 1873, when he formed a partnership with Shepard Barclay, and the firm of Marshall and Barclay contin- ued until the close of 1882, when Mr. Barclay went on the bench of the circuit court.
In the opinion of an intimate friend " Mr. Marshall's greatest power as a law- yer lies in his skillful management of court trials, and in the clearness, force and effectiveness of his speeches before juries. In these particulars he has few equals at this bar. His pronounced professional success within a few years of his advent as a total stranger in Saint Louis, and the maintenance of the leading position then taken by him, attest his strength as a general practitioner."
He is a member of the democratic party, the Saint Louis Legion of Honor, the American Legion of Honor, and the Knights of Pythias.
Mr. Marshall was married December 5, 1876, to Miss Katie M. Reading, of Vicksburg, and they have three children.
RICHARD A. BARRET.
SAINT LOUIS.
R ICHARD AYLETT BARRET descended from an old cavalier family which settled in Virginia as early as the days of Charles I, and which was of Welsh, and still more remotely of French descent. William Barret, the grandfather of our subject, was a captain of independent rangers, now with the Swamp Fox of South Carolina, now with Lee's Light House, all through the North Carolina campaign, and was at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. The maternal grandfather of our subject was Hon. Richard Aylett Buckner, in middle life on the bench of the supreme court of Kentucky, and later a professor of law in the Saint Louis University.
Doctor Richard F. Barret, father of Richard A, was born near Greensburgh, Green county, Kentucky, in 1864; was a man of fine classical as well as medical education; practiced at first in his native county; married in 1832 Maria Buck- ner, daughter of Hon. Richard A. Buckner, then a member of congress from the
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Green River district ; was extensively engaged in government land purchases from 1832 to 1830 in Illinois and lowa; in IS po aided in organizing the medical department of Kemper College, Saint Louis; was among the pioneers in opening a railroad in Illinois; was an associate and warm personal friend of the great statesmen of thirty years ago --- Benton, Clay. Douglas, Lincoln, etc .- and died at the Barret House, Burlington, Iowa ( which he had built), in 1860. His widow is still living.
The subject of this sketch was born at Cliffland, his grandfather's place, near Greensburgh, June 21, 1834. He spent his boyhood and early youth in Springfield, Illinois, and Saint Louis, and received his literary education at Wy- man's School, Saint Louis; the Saint Louis University; Phillips Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, and Harvard College, belonging to the class of 1856.
He obtained the degree of doctor of medicine from the Missouri Medical College in March, 1854; then sailed for Europe, and continued his studies at Bonn, Munich and Heidelberg, receiving the degree of doctor of philosophy Before leaving the old country be traveled over most of Germany, Italy, Spain and France, and acted a while as secretary of legation at Paris under Hon. John Y. Mason, United States minister at the court of Napoleon III.
Returning to this country Mr. Barret was admitted to the bar at Saint Louis in 1859, and became a partner of his uncle. Aylett Buckner, who voted for the Wilmot proviso in congress and was elector on the Fremont ticket in 1856. We learn from the " History of Saint Louis" that he was soon engaged with Stephen T. Logan and Milton Hay, of Springfield, Illinois, in a suit in the federal court, involving lands near Decatur, which brought him in contact with Abraham Lincoln, the suit being against one of Mr. Lincoln's relatives, and Mr. Barret "greatly enjoyed the witty and pointed stories, the cheerful conversation, and the familiar courtesy of the future president."
In the winter following (1859 60) Mr. Barret was associated with Blocker, Gurley and Coke, of Waco, Texas, in settling disputes in regard to the eleven- league Galindo claim in Mclennan county; also with Judge Grant, of Daven- port, in the Burlington University suit; also with Judge Tracy H. W. Starr and B. J. Hall in other important lowa suits; also with Skinner and Browning in Illi- nois suits.
The death of his father in 1800, and the breaking out of civil war early in the following year, ended his legal practice for a season.
Mr. Barret was an out and-out I'nion man; chose his friend Captain (after-
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ward General) Nathaniel Lyon as his leader, as opposed to J. R. Barret (Missouri Dick), Generals Buckner and Price, and other relatives and friends, and was a prominent actor in the southwestern campaign, being attorney for the United States government in the offices in succession of General Farrar, general superin- tendent of confiscated and contraband property; Colonel James (. Broadhead, city provost marshal, and General E. B. Alexander, United States provost mar- shal for Missouri.
DEPARTMENT OF BIN MISSOURI, OFFICE PENOSI MARSHAL USA. Salve Louis, April 21, 1800.
RICHARD A. BAKKEI.
Dear Sir,-At the close'of the long and arduous duties of this office, permit me to express to you my kindest regards, to say that all our relations have been most agreeable, to testify my at- knowledgement of your services, and to wish for you success in your future career.
I have the honor to be, su, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
E. B. ALEXANDER, Brevet Brigadier General C.S.A . Acting Assistant Provost Marshal General for Department Missouri
In that year ( 1866) he went to Burlington, Iowa, where he still owns the Bar- ret House and other property, and he purchased and conducted the " Gazette and Argus," now the " Gazette," the oldest paper in that state, and a strong expo- nent of democratic principles.
He was, in 1867, one of the delegates to the Des Moines Rapids convention, held at Saint Louis, and which resulted in the building of the Keokuk and Nash- ville canal, and was sent from lowa, in company with General A. C. Dodge and Governor Gear, together with Judge Edmonds, of Illinois, to urge upon the en- terprising men and capitalists of Saint Louis the importance of the Saint Louis and Saint Paul Air-Line road. The importance of his services on that occasion Was handsomely acknowledged by the lawa press
Mr. Barret returned to Saint Louis in 1800, and for three years was the editor in chiet of the dady " Dispatch," with Wilham H Mellenry and others, and was afterward commercial and then city editor of the daily "Times," with R. II Sylvester and others. He is at home with the pen, and is a strong and elegant writer. He is the author of several of the carly reports of the Saint Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Association, which were published in neat book form, and which were models of their class of composition. He was secretary of the Western Free-Trade League; also secretary of the organization for the
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removal of the United States capitol to Saint Louis, also on citizens and finance committee of the great International Turn Best of 1881.
The wife of Mr. Barret was Miss Mary Finney, daughter of William Finney, deceased, an early settler and prominent merchant of Saint Louis.
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MOSES L. WIEDER.
M OSES LEON WIEDER, one of the younger members of the Saint Louis bar, has laid a good foundation on which to build, both in education, lit- erary and legal, and in character. Ile is a son of Marens S. Wieder, who was born in Cracow, Austria, and Lena (Samuel) Wieder, a native of Germany, and was born in New York city. December 25, 1858. When he was about ten years old the family came west, and settled in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Moses received most of his early mental training, he being the first male student gradu- ated at the high school. He took an optional course at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, finishing in 1877, and received his legal education at the Saint Louis Law School, whence he was graduated in 1870.
Since that date Mr. Wieder has been in general practice in the several state and federal courts, and is doing a good business for a man of his age. He is much interested in politics, to which he has devoted some attention, and in 18So was the republican candidate for assistant circuit attorney.
Mr. Wieder is president of the Young Men's Hebrew Association, and is con - nected with several other moral and social clubs. His character stands good in all the relations of life, and he seems to be building on the only sensible founda- tion, industry, virtue and integrity.
HION. GEORGE F. LONGAN.
G FORGE F. LONGAN, fate city attorney, and member of the thirty-second general assembly, is a native of Pettis county, where he still lives, and is a son of John B. and Judith A (Reavis) Longan, his birth being dated October 28, 1856 Both parents are natives of this state, and living on their farm. George was educated at the state normal school, Warrensburgh, and the state university. academic department, Columbia; read law in Sedalia from 1878 to the spring of
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ISSo, when he was licensed to practice by Judge William T. Wood. Since that date he has had an office in Sedalia, and, considering the time he has been at the bar, he has worked up a good clientage His practice is civil and criminal, and read hes into all the courts of the state. He is evidently an ambitious young law- yer, and having a studious disposition and an active mind, he is sure to rise in his profession.
Mr. Longan was city attorney in 1881, and in 1882 was elected by his demo- cratic constituents to represent Pettis county in the legislature. In the session of 1883 he was chairman of the committee on retrenchment and reform, and on the committees on federal relations, mines, mining and commerce.
Mr. Longan does no work, either for his clients or the state, at haphazard, and in the legislature was very industrious and thorough in all his work. He is a growing man.
ALBERT BURGESS.
FOR the last two or three years, up to a very recent date, Mr. Burgess was the only colored lawyer in active practice in Saint Louis. Being well read and strictly honest, he has the fullest confidence of the people of his nationality, and of all nationalities, and is doing a well-paying business in the civil and criminal courts. Albert Burgess was born in Detroit, Michigan, October 14, 1856, being a son of Amos Burgess, a steamboat cook, and Sarah And ( Monroe) Burgess, the daughter of a slave. She was born in Ithaca. New York; her husband in Cov- ington, Kentucky. The latter was a slave till 1836, when he came into the free states.
Mr. Burgess passed through the grammar and high schools of Detroit, and the sophomore you of the Michigan University, at Ann Arbor, and is a graduate of the law department of that university, class of 1877. He practiced about six months in Detroit, and in November, 18;7, settled in Saint Louis, where he is making a success in his profession. He is the first colored person who ever passed an examination at the Saint Louis bar. In July, 1883, he formed a part- nership with John IL. Morris, and their office is at tttt Clark avenue. The char- adler of the firm stands well
Mr. Burgess owes his good education to the kindness of his father, who let no work, however pressing, interfere with the son's attendance at school. The father is still living in Detroit. He has been a widower since April, 1880.
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In the autumn of 1882 Mr. Burgess was the republican candidate for assistant prosecuting attorney, and was defeated with the rest of his party's ticket, with one or two exceptions. He is one of the wardens of the colored Episcopal Church, and a man of excellent character.
AUGUSTUS W. ALEXANDER.
SAINT LOUIS.
IN Green county, Ohio, August 8, 1832, Augustus W. Alexander was born. His father, Washington Alexander, a man of letters, was a son of Hon. John Alexander, a distinguished lawyer, foremost among the giant race of the younger days of Ohio, which state he represented in congress during the administration of Madison. On his mother's side he is descended from the chivalric Colonel Campbell, who commanded that ever memorable band of patriots at the battle of King's Mountain, North Carolina. Such a stock bespeaks much that is rich in promise, and among those who adhere to the belief that man is as much con- trolled by ancestral traits as is the race horse, they would reasonably look to the gentleman that forms the subject of this sketch as the presumed possessor of no ordinary capabilities.
A. W. Alexander, in 1855, graduated at Madison University, New York. On severing his connection with this delightful seat of learning he accepted the appointment of instructor of ancient languages at the academy of Cortlandville. Relinquishing this chair two years later, he devoted himself exclusively for one year to historical and literary studies. With the same avidity he then entered on the study of law, and as soon as he was admitted to the bar at Watertown, New York, took his leave of that town and settled himself at Saint Louis. With an assiduity and devotion which he brings to his studies for the time being, he soon became known as a young lawyer of remarkable attainments, knowing all that books could impact on law, and knowing much in addition of science and litera- ture, so necessary to thorough intellectual equipment. His plan of study was aimed at knowing a few great authors profoundly, rather than in acquiring a superficial acquaintance with a larger number.
In 1863 he spent a year as editor of a Saint Louis daily, in advocating conser. vative union principles, which he fearlessly championed on the stump as well. In 1866 he became city counselor. In the discharge of this high and responsible trust he never lost a case, nor was any opinion of his ever reversed In the praise
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of no man can more be professionally said than is conveyed by the statement of these two facts. In 1868 he was placed on the democratic ticket as a candidate for judge of the circuit court By the disfranchising process of the test bath the dominant republican party succeeded in defeating the democratic ticket, yet in the very large vote by which Mr. Alexander led that ticket, his character and professional attainments are attested publicly by his fellow citizens.
Retiring to his farm after this contest, for the succeeding five years we find him buried in his books, endeavoring, like Herbert Spencer, to crystallize the laws of sociology, and formulate the doctrines on which it rests. Connecting himself with the Board of Guardians, having in view the supervision of public prisons, and institutions of public charity, he would, every now and then, emerge from his seclusion, and hard one of his scientific missiles at the head of some champion of the old and vicious system. Stronghold after stronghold was carried by his intellectual storms, and after a fierce and stubborn contest, Alexander triumphed over pretentious, respectable ignorance and demonstrated that neither with sentiment or antipathy, but with justice should the state deal with all its people whether they be restrained or free
In 1875 Mr. Alexander returned to the active practice of his profession, at which he is still engaged The mental capital of the ordinary practitioner.con- sists of such industry as enables him to produce an adjudicated case similar to his own, and which is intended to control the case at issue. It cannot be claimed that this labor necessarily involves the exercise of a superior order of intellect, and the man that is capable of nothing beyond this is on a plane no higher than an intelligent mechanic This is but the trade of law, beneath which, however, there lies a deep and subtle science, which we call jurisprudence. It is this that rescues the studies of the jurist from the claws of illiterate mediocrity, and raises them to a dignity demanding the exercise of pure intellect. Of this science Mr. Alexander has a profound and critical knowledge.
As a scholar and thinker Mr. Mexander is superior to any of his cotempora- ries at the bar, except Brocknyer, whom we must concede to be possessed of an intellect of marvelous powers. Whether it be a dry and barren question of law, a subtle thought of Plato or Shakespeare, or even the details of an historical mil- itary engagement that may be introduced for discussion, Mr. Alexander is ready with a flood of light that has astonished many on various occasions. Even when wrong, and he is occasionally so, it may be said of him as was once said of Burke, that he has more reason on his side than most other men have when right.
Physically, Mr. Alexander is a giant. He is six feet six inches tall, possesses
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a homely yet an attractive face, and a voice of remarkable compass and softness. As an advocate before a very intelligent jury, he has few equals, but an ordinary jury find it difficult to follow him intelligently. In dress he is the least foppish man at a bar among whom he is a figure as beloved as he is conspicuous.
HON. SEYMOUR D. THOMPSON.
SAINT LOUIS
S' EYMOUR DWIGHT THOMPSON has been a member of the Saint Louis court of appeals since January, 1881, and is generally regarded as a clear- headed jurist. He is decidedly bookish, and makes his decisions after the most thorough research and investigation.
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