USA > Missouri > Cole County > Jefferson City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 5
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 5
USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 5
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Since January, 1883, the firm name has been Jamison, Collins and Jamison, a younger brother of our subject being the junior member. The other member is Robert E. Collins, a prominent member of the Saint Louis bar ; and this is one of the strong and highly honorable firms of the city. Their practice is extensive, reaching into all the civil courts, federal as well as state.
Mr. Jamison evidently loves his profession, as he has refused to abandon it, in part, even for a short time, to accept a political office. He has a good legal mind, and his associates at the bar and judges on the bench give him credit for having
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THE BEACH AND BIR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
good analogical faculties, fine abilities in sifting as well as weighing evidence, and the elements generally which make a sound lawyer and a safe and prudent coun- selor. We do not understand that he lays any claim to genius; his success at the bar is owing to his studious habits, his perseverance, and the thoroughness and honesty with which he does all his legal work.
Mr. Jamison is a democrat of whig antecedents, and for nearly thirty years has been a member of the Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he has been an office bearer nearly all that period. Nobody who knows him, it is safe to say, doubts the purity of his life.
Mr. Jamison was for several years attorney for the Saint Louis Mutual Life Insurance Company, and a stockholder and director of the same; was also a stockholder in the Mechanics' Bank and National Bank of the State of Missouri. Important trusts have been and are confided to him, he having been administrator of several very large estates in this city. His business in the probate court, as in every other, is done with the utmost faithfulness. All the litigation carried on by the firms with which he has been connected has been conducted in a straight- forward as well as able manner.
Mr. Jamison was married July 15, 1865. to Miss Mary E. Noe, daughter of Cruel Noe, of Norfolk, Virginia, and she is the mother of three children, only one of them now living.
HON. SAMUEL KNOX. SAINT LOUIS.
'AMUEL KNOX is a native of Blandford, Hampden county, Massachusetts,
S a son of Alanson and Lucinda Knox, and was born March 21, 1815. Both parents were also born in Massachusetts. Samuel is a graduate of Williams College, class of 1830; read law at Springfield, in his native county, with Chap- man and Ashman, both eminent men in the Old Bay State; attended the law school at Cambridge ; came to Saint Louis in 1838, and was admitted to the bar in May of that year, and has been in practice here for forty-five years.
The subject of this sketch has occupied a commanding position at the bar of Saint Louis for forty yours. He is a man of brilliant parts, of the widest reading, and of great general information as well as legal learning ; he is an eloquent speaker, having no superior, if any equal, at the bar in this state. He has been engaged in many very important and hotly contested and protracted lawsuits with marked success. As an examiner of witnesses, he has wonderful powers; in the trial of causes he is quick, incisive, full of resources, and ever ready for any turn that a cause may take; and it in the course of trial any witness has evinced a desire to prevaricate, or any fraud or rascality has come to fight, his great powers of invective and splendid oratory are brought to the front with unequaled effect Many times in the trial of causes has he moved jurors to tears. He possesses a remarkable memory, replete with classical, biblical and general
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THE BENCH UND BAR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
learning, all of which he has at ready command when speaking, and which he mes with telling effect. He has never sought popularity of office, but has kept the even tenor of his way, deflecting neither to the right nor to the left of what he has deemed his public or private duty.
At an early day in this place, Mr. Knox was a member of the city council; a little later a city counselor, and in 1862 Was elected to congress, beating Hon. Francis P. Blair, Jr., and serving one term. He was on the military committee, and it being the thirty-eighth congress, while the civil war was progressing, his labors were of a stern character.
Mr. Knox was and is a radical republican, decided and outspoken, and fearless when it required some courage and deep-seated moral principle to avow such sentiments. Mr. Knox is a member of the First Presbyterian Church, and a man of unswerving integrity.
March 18, 1845, he was married to Miss Mary Kerr, of Saint Louis, and she died August 1, 1863, leaving tive children, three sons and two daughters. The three sons, Samuel, Reuben and Henry, are lawyers; Hannah is the wife of Otis Luscomb, and Mary is residing in Springfield, Massachusetts.
HON. WILLIAM G. DOWNING. CANTON.
W ILLIAM GREEN DOWNING, state senator from the twelfth district, was born in Scotland county, on the Jowa line, February 12, 1849, being a son of Henry II. and Pamelia Q. (Goldberry) Downing. His father was a native of Fauquier county, Virginia; his mother of Pulaski county, Kentucky. In ad- dition to the mental drill of a public school, William spent one year in a select school in his native county, doing more or less farm labor, until he commenced reading law by himself at Memphis, the county seat
He was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1871, in Lewis county. In 1873 he moved from Memphis to Canton, the leading town in Lewis county. Before making this move, in October, 1872, he was married to Miss Mary A. Bland, of this county, and the fruits of this union are three children.
The writer of this sketch was in Lewis county in September, 1883, when the circuit court was in session at Monticello, and had the pleasure of listening to an oratorical effort of Mr. Downing in a criminal case. A white man had shot at a colored man, and was arrested and tried for assault with intent to kill. The evi- dence was very clear that the shooting was done in self-defense, and Mr. Down- ing made the last speech for the defense. It was logical and candid, at times amusing and at times pathetic, always forcible and clear, and readily understood by the jury, which promptly brought in a verdict for the defense. Mr. Downing is one of the rising young men in his judicial circuit.
For a man of his age, he has had much experience in criminal practice, for he
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THE BEACH AND BAR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
was elected prosecuting attorney of his county in 1876, and by repeated reelec- tions served six consecutive years. He is a live and active man, and made an energetic prosecutor, giving great satisfaction to the citizens of the county, rogues only excepted. He had very little opposition in any one of the canvasses.
Mr. Downing was elected to the state senate in 1882 from the twelfth district, which is composed of the counties of Clark, Scotland, Lewis and Knox. He was chairman of the committee on municipal corporations, and on the committees on criminal jurisprudence, penitentiary, state university and corporations. He is noted as being the author of the " Downing bill," which passed and became a law, the design of which is to secure high license and wholesome restrictions in the sale of intoxicating liquors. His majority when elected to the senate was upward of five thousand votes. He is one of the most popular men in the county.
Senator Downing has always trained in the democratic ranks, and is quite popular with his party. Religiously he holds his membership in the Baptist Church, and for the last ten years he has been a member of the board of trustees of the La Grange College, a Baptist institution located in Lewis county. He is treasurer of that board, and a reliable, thoroughgoing business man, ready for service in any good cause.
HON. ROBERT A. BAKEWELL. SHAT LOUIS.
R OBERT ARMYTAGE BAKEWELL, one of the judges of the Saint Louis court of appeals, is the son of an Episcopalian clergyman, and was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, November 4, 1826. When he was a year old the family moved to Norwich, England, where the son attended school. In 1839 the family came to this country, and Robert was educated at the Western University of Pennsylvania, and the General Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in New York, being at the latter institution from 1845 to 1848.
Mr. Bakewell came to Saint Louis in 1851, and edited newspapers and studied law until 1854. He was in partnership with P. Bauduy Garesche up to 1861, and with E. T. Farish from 180g to 1870, gaining meantime a fine reputation as a lawyer. But it was evident that he was destined for the bench, he seeming to have peculiar fitness for that position
Mr. Bakewell was appointed one of the judges of the Saint Louis court of appeals by Governor Hardin, in December, 1875, for one year, and in 1876 he was ' elected to the same office, and drewthe eight years term, which will expire De- cember 31, 1884.
A Saint Louis lawyer of sound judgment thus writes to the editor of this work : " In January, 1876, Judge Bakewell retired from an extensive and lucrative prac- tice to accept the appointment as member of the new court of appeals, then first organized. At the general election in the fall of 1876, he was elected to the same position with Judges Lewis and Hayden, drawing the eight-years term, so that
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THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
with the expiration of his teri in 1854, he will end his ninth year of continuous services upon the bench of this most important tribunal, dating from its first or- ganization. Judge Bakewell's judicial career is thus closely identified with that of the court itself, and without detracting from the well earned reputation of his associates, it is but simple justice to say that to his untiring and conscientious industry is largely due the extraordinary judicial record of the court in the prompt dispatch of its business As an illustration may be cited the fact, which, published in some of the law periodicals, has attracted general attention in legal circles, that, January 16, 1883, Judge Bakewell filed his one thousandth opin- ion, from the beginning of his seven years service. If his example were more gen- erally followed in this respect, so many of our courts would not be laboring with dockets years in arrears.
Judge Bakewell has displayed in an eminent degree the fundamental judicial virtues of patience, courtesy and fair-mindedness. His opinions have been marked by clear and logical statement and reasoning, by exhaustive research, and by the conscientious thoroughness which so signally characterizes his whole career, and his scholarly attainments, refined taste, and liberal culture have given them a rare degree of literary excellence
But no feature of Judge Bakewell's career is more clearly recognized by the bar, or more justly deserving of the highest honor, than his conscientious, untir- ing devotion to an exalted conception of official duty."
Judge Bakewell was married May 3, 1853, to Miss Nancy Coudroy de Lau- real, a French lady, by whom he has eight children. One of the sons, Paul Bakewell, a promising young attorney, is noticed on the following pages.
HON. GEORGE H. BURCKHARTT.
HUNTSVILLE.
G EORGE HOBBS BURCKHARTT, judge of the second judicial circuit, and one of the most popular jurists in the interior of the state, was born six miles from his present home in Randolph county, September 11, 1823, his parents being George and Ruth ( Dorsey) Burckhartt. They were born in Fred- erick county, Maryland, and came to Missouri in 1816, settling in Howard county. George Burckhartt was a prominent man in his day, and a member of the first state legislature, which met at Saint Charles, and he served in all six terms. He was also county judge, and a soldier in 1812-14. His father, Christopher F. Burckhartt, was at the battle of Trenton, under Washington. He spoke the Ger- man language, and had some influence with the Hessians, showing them the impropriety of fighting against this country.
The subject of this sketch had a common English education, being reared on a farm; taught school in 1840 and 1842, reading law at the same time by himself, under the guidance of Judge Leonard and others; was admitted to the bar in
0
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THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
1843, and the next year opened an office at Huntsville, where in a few years he rose to a high position at the bar of his circuit. In 1862 he was elected judge of the second judicial circuit, and by repeated reflections and appointments, he is still on the bench of that circuit.
Judge Burckhartt was at first a whig. a Union man during the war, and has since been a democrat.
Ile was married, in 1849, to Miss Amanda MeCampbell, a native of Kentucky, and a daughter of Wallace MeCampbell, an early emigrant from that state, to Randolph county, this state They have five children, three sons and two daughters. George Dorsey is married, and is a farmer in Randolph county; Maria is the wife of John A Heeter, merchant, Huntsville, and Wallace, Odon Guitar and Ella are at home.
The judge is a man of stern integrity, of a genial disposition, and is on the most cordial terms with the bar, and everybody else. No man in his district is held in more esteem.
PEMBROOK R. FLITCRAFT.
SAINT LOUIS.
O NE of the most energetic lawyers in Saint Louis, of the younger class, is Pembrook Reeves Fliteraft, who is as upright and honest as he is active and persevering. He was born in Woodstown, New Jersey, January 8, 1847, a son of Isaiah Reeves Fliteraft, M. D., and Mary (Atkinson) Flitcraft, members of the Society of Friends. Before Pembrook was a year old, the family moved to Ohio, and in Cincinnati and Preble county he remained for ten or eleven years. His father died when the son was two years old. We next find our subject in Lenawee county, Michigan, in which state he received most of his education. He is a graduate of the state University, at Ann Arbor, receiving the degree of bach- elor of arts in 1871, and master of arts in 1874. His junior year he spent out of college, being superintendent of schools at Centerville, Saint Joseph county, keeping up, meanwhile, with his classes in college, and passing his examination in the junior and senior years at the same time.
Mr. Fliteraft defrayed his own expenses while pursuing his studies. On receiving his first college degree he went to Charlotte, where he was principal of the public school one year, reading law at the same time, and for a few months after his school had closed. He was admitted to the bar, and commenced prac- tice in Crawford county, Kansas, where he remained until October, 1878, when he settled in Saint Louis, His practice here is entirely civil, which best accords with his tastes. He does general litigation, extending into the United States courts, as well as state.
In November, 1882, he formed a partnership with Henry E. Mills, under the firm name of Mills and Flitcraft, their office being at 500 Olive street, where they are doing a good and growing and strictly honorable business.
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THE BENCH UND BAR OF MISSOURI CUTIES.
Mr. Flitcraft is high up in Masonry, and votes the republican ticket. Hle seems to have inherited the best traits of the Quaker character, candor, correct- ness, honesty, etc, and he also has the disposition of the western man, to push things. In short, every step he takes, every movement he makes, means business, business done correctly, honestly, and with dispatch. An earnest, trustworthy man is sure to make a clean record.
HON. WILBUR F. BOYLE. SAINT LOUIS.
O NE of the most highly respected and efficient members of the Saint Louis bar is Hon. Wilbur F. Boyle, a native of the " Old Dominion," and a worthy son of that state which has contributed more to the world in the way of bright intellects, statesmen, and able professional men, than any other state. Our sub- ject was born August 20, 1840, and is the son of Joseph Boyle, D.D., an eminent southern Methodist clergyman, who came to Saint Louis in 1842. His mother, before marriage, was Miss Emeline Gist. The ancestors of both of his parents were old settlers in Baltimore, Maryland. Owing to the transitory character of his father's occupation, moving from one point to another in the valley of the Mississippi River, the education of the son was obtained in several different insti- tutions of learning, the last one he attended being the Asbury University at Greencastle, Indiana, He studied law, and was for a short time under the tui- tion of Hon. Edward Bates, just prior to the time that gentleman became attor- ney general of the United States. He was preparing for the law at the time the war broke out, but, owing to the disturbed state of the country, he abandoned the idea of practicing until the war closed. He was admitted to the bar January 1, 1868, at Saint Louis.
He immediately entered upon a successful career as a practicing lawyer, which was continued until he went on to the bench of the circuit court, December 1, 1876, where he presided, winning many laurels, until January 1, 1883. The fol- towing correspondence will explain itself :
SAINT LOUIS, June 24, 1882. To mu Hos. WIRER F. BOYLE
So,-The undersigned, members of the Saint Louis bar, have heard that it is your intention not to become a candidate for reflection as judge of the circuit court of this city. They do not, however, know by what authority this statement is made. The fact that it has been made and not contradicted, induces them to address you with a view of inquiring if you have reached a conclu- sion upon this subject, and of expressing their sense of your peculiar fitness for the place, as shown by the manner in which you have discharged its duties for the last six years. The words which would adequately describe our sense of your merits as a judge might seem flattery to those who do not know how you have discharged your duties, and how difficult of acceptable discharge those duties are ; yet we cannot forbear to say a few words expressive of our feelings.
When you took a place upon the bench you were without judicial experience, and were com- paratively unknown to many members of the bar. They first discovered your qualities in the vigor
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THE BENCH AND BAR OF AJUSSOURI CITIES.
and ability with which you addressed yourself to the task of disposing of the large volume of ac- cumulated business In the discharge of your duties, you have since combined speed of disposi- tion with accuracy of decision im a degree surely ren hed by a trial judge. It is only those who have seen your labors in the process, and studied them in their results, who can fully appreciate that happy combination of faculties which has rendered you so acceptable as a judge. Foremost among these has been that high sense of judicial responsibility which has led you to subordinate every other consideration to the careful and conscientious discharge of your duties. We, all of us, be- heve that to reach the highest justice through the law has been in every case that has come before you, your earnest aim and endeavor
It is, therefore, with feelings of the greatest regret that we contemplate the loss that would ensue should you refuse to become a candidate, and we submit to you, whether, if you have arrived at such a conclusion, you ought not to reconsider your resolve
JOHN R. SHIPLEY, Jous M. KRUM,
A. HAMILTON,
A. W. SLAYBACK, W. H. LACKLAND,
J. E. MOKEIGHAS,
JNO. W. DRYDEN,
W. H. CLOPTON,
W. C. JAMISON,
JNO. H. DICKSON,
E. A. B. GARESCHE.
R. SCHULENBURG,
A. R. TAYLOR,
ALBERI ARNSTEIN,
Gro. A. MADIL.L.,
J. F. CONROY,
M. MCKEAG,
C. S. HAYDEN,
CHASE & JOHNSON,
J. D. JOHNSON,
A. N. CRANE,
F. J. DONOVAN,
W. H. H. RUSSELL,
E. C. THITMANN,
EDWARD C. KAHR,
J. O'GRADY,
JAMES FAUSSE,
Jos. F. TVIUM,
F. W. PREBLES,
F. N. JUDSON.
E. CASIILEKRY,
J. S. GARLAND,
HORArio M. JONES,
JOSEPH DERSON,
A. BINSWANGER,
SAME LL KSON,
FRANK K. RYAN,
Gro. W. CLINE,
DANIEL DITON,
PAUL BAKEWELL, S. HERMANN, LIENKY M. BRYAN,
JNo. D. S. DRYDEN,
C. S. BROADHEAD,
J. H. WRITING,
E. J. O'BRIEN,
PETER J. TAALE,
GARLAND POLLARD,
E. PARMER,
M. L. GRAY, N. OSCAR GRAY,
HERMANN A. LEVEUSSLER, R. H. KERN,
G. M. STEWART,
R. A. CAMPBELL,
S. M. BRECKENRIDGE,
F. X. Mc. CARE,
G. D. BANTZ,
J. B. WOODWARD.
GEo. J. DAVIS,
11. B. DAVIS,
C. M. DAVIS,
WM. E. FIsst,
FORD SMITH,
NATHAN FRANK,
Gro. A CASTLEMAN.
F. B. STRODE,
A. Mick W, JR.,
M. W. Loil.
A. C. DAVIS.
Jwan KtLIN,
JAS. L. BI AIR,
FRANK P. BLAIR,
DAVID MURPHY,
CHAS. NAGEL.
JOHN WICKHAM,
L. B. VALLIANT,
L. A. MCGINNISS,
THOS. THOROUGHMAN,
S. W. Doorly,
B. H. DYE,
JOHN H1. OVERALL,
A. J. P GARESCHE,
GRO, W. BAILEY,
JNO. C. ORRICK,
JÃo. D. DAVIS,
R. S. MCDONALD,
E. T. FARISH,
W. H. THOMPSON,
T. J. RowE,
Heco Marken,
JOHN H. O'NEILL,
E. P. JOHNSON,
JOHN G. CHANDLER,
ALEX. YOUNG,
JNO. J. MCCANN,
C. M. NAPTON,
D. A. JAMISON,
W. B. DOUGLASS, SMITH P. GALL,
Wy. PATRICK,
A. C. CLOVER,
HENRY HITCHCOCK, JR.,
D. T. JEWERT.
Gro. W. LUBKE,
JAMES P. KERK,
Jvo. K. TIFFANY,
JOHN D. GREEN, EDGAR FLEMING,
JAS. O. BROADILLAD.
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THE BENCH UND BAR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
REPLY
SAINT LOUIS, July 3, 1882.
MESSRS. HAMILTON, SHEPLEY, BROADHEAD AND OTHERS
Gentlemen, - For the generous expressions of esteem contained in the communication presented to me in your behalf by Colonel Broadhead on Saturday last. permit me to return in the largest measure my grateful acknowledgment. Although sensible that you overestimate the value of my labors on the bench, Eyet feel an assurance this token of regard would not have been tendered if those labors had been unworthy your approval The determination not to be a candidate for re- election has been formed for many months, and after mature deliberation. And while I fully ap- preciate the compliment implied, in the fact that your request is made without regard to political affiliations, and realize the distinction of being chosen. for a second term on the circuit bench, yet my duty to those immediately dependent on me compels me to adhere to the resolution not to be an applicant for reelection.
Again thanking you for your kind consideration, I remain, sincerely your friend,
W. F. BOYLE.
Judge Boyle has a judgment of the highest order; his mind is what is styled a judicial mind, capable of an impartial survey of both sides of a question. He is faithful to his clients, to his professional brethren and the courts. He has a rare faculty of grasping the pivotal points of a legal question with great ease; is discriminating and profound, with a retentive memory. He can enforce his views by luminous and cogent argument. He was married in 1864 to Miss Fannie L. Brother. They have three children.
HON. ALBERT H. EDWARDS. SAINT CHARLES.
A LBERT HAMILTON EDWARDS, state senator, was born in Henry county, Virginia, September 13, 1836. His father, Henry Edwards, was born in the same state. His grandfather, Ambrose Edwards, aided in gaining the independ- ence of the colonies. The Edwardses are of Welsh descent. The mother of Albert was Sarah Dabney Waller, and was born in Hanover county, Virginia, the Wallers being early settlers in that county, coming from London, England. The Dabney's were French Huguenots.
In the infancy of our subject the family lett Virginia, and settied on a farm in Saint Charles county, Missouri, and the father died in 1844. The widow is still living, being eighty-four years of age. The son was educated at the Saint Charles College and the Central College at Fayette, spending also a short time at a Ger- man institution in Warren county, this state. He read law with his older brother, Hon. William Waller Edwards, now judge of the circuit court of the nineteenth judicial circuit, and was admitted to the bar in 1863 Since that date he has been in practice at Saint Charles, the county seat, and has long stood among the lead- ing men at the bar of Saint Charles county. The demands of his constituents have interfered somewhat with his practice, but all the legal business intrusted to him is attended to with promptness and fidelity, and his clients have unbounded confidence in his integrity, as well as ability.
THE BEACH AND BAR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
Mr. Edwards was elected to the lower house of the legislature in 1870; was reflected in 1872, and after serving two terms was elected ( 1874) to the state senate, in which body he is now serving his third term, being reelected the second time in November, 1882. His labors as a legislator have been more valuable to the state than profitable to himself; and he would, no doubt, prefer to attend exclu- sively to the practice of his profession, but his democratic constituents insist on keeping him in the halls of legislation, where he has made and is making himself eminently useful, being identified with many important measures.
The wife of Mr. Edwards was Martha Ellen Whitney, of Saint Charles, mar- ried in 1872. She died in 1881, leaving four children.
EVERETT W. PATTISON. SAINT LOUIS.
E VERETT WILSON PATTISON, son of Robert E. Pattison, D.D., and Frances (Wilson) Pattison, was born in Waterville, Maine, February 22, 1839, his father being at that time president of Waterville College, now Colby University. He was subsequently president of the Baptist Theological Seminary at Covington, Kentucky, and still later a teacher of theology at Upper Alton and Chicago. He died at his son's house in Saint Louis, November 20, 1874. The writer of this sketch knew Doctor Pattison well, and was happy in the friendship of that fine scholar and model Christian gentleman. His father was a chaplain in the war of 1812-14, and the father of Frances Wilson was postmaster at Wor- cester, Massachusetts, for forty years, through ten different administrations. The First Baptist Church of Worcester, was organized in his house, and he served as one of its deacons until his death
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