USA > Missouri > Cole County > Jefferson City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 51
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 51
USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 51
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Returning to Springfield, m Not, Colonel Phelps resumed the practice of the law. He was appointed, by President Johnson, one of the commissioners to adjudicate on the war claims of the state of Indiana against the government of the United States, but he declined to accept the appointment.
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In 1868 our subject was the first choice of the democratic party for the office of governor of Missouri, but he was defeated. In July, 1870, he was again nomi- nated for governor by the democrats, and was elected by a larger majority than any preceding governor of the state. During the gubernatorial career of Gov- ernor Phelps he was actively engaged in the discharge of his official duties, and probably no incumbent of that ofice ever devoted himself more earnestly to the public good.
Governor Phelps, as a lawyer, is strongest on constitutional questions, or those involving great results. He has the power of grasping the main issues in a case, and concentrating his whole power upon them. His clear distinctions of right and wrong, and his deep sympathy for the injured or suffering, make him especially powerful with both courts and juries in pleading causes where he believes his client is being oppressed or his liberty unjustly assailed. A question involving dollars and cents fails to arouse him like one involving human rights.
THOMAS BOND HAUGHAWOUT.
T' THE subject of this sketch was born October 11, 1845, in Lafayette county, Wisconsin, the son of Joshua D. and Amelia (Steese) Haughawout. Joshua D. Haughawout is a Methodist minister of considerable prominence, and a brother of Rev. John Wolsey Haughawout, of the Philadelphia conference. The paternal grandmother of our subject was a Lincoln, and a relative of President Abraham Lincoln.
Young Hanghawout was raised on a farin, and attended school until eighteen years of age. In 1863 he entered the ed Wisconsin cavalry, and served two years and two months He took part in the light at Egypt Station, Mississippi, and was with General Grierson in his raid from Memphis to Vicksburg. He was mustered out of service November 17, 1865, at Austin, Texas, and was nearly a month get- ting home. He then worked a year on his father's farm, and was married that year to Miss Caroline A Durand, an estimable lady. In 1868 he removed to Jasper county, Missouri, where he was engaged in farming and divers other pur- suits five yours. He moved to Carthing in 187; and engaged in the grocery business, reading law in his leisure hours for about one year. In 1875 he began practice, and entered at once into a successful business. He was elected city attorney for Carthage in 1877, and in. 1885 was elected prosecuting attorney
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for Jasper county; was reflected in 1882, and still holds that office, filling the position with marked ability.
Mr. Haughawout is an able lawyer, possessing a strong legal mind, subtle and acute He is an adroit manager in a lawsuit, tries his cases with much skill, and is an advocate of power and eloquence. He is a republican in politics, and has taken an active part in every campaign in southwest Missouri since 1876. He has given much time to political work, and is a powerful and popular cam- paign speaker.
WILLIAM J. TERRELL.
HARRISONVILLE.
W TILLIAM JONES TERRELL is one of the leading lawyers in the seventh judicial circuit, and owes his present position at the bar to the careful improvement of his mind in his younger years, his studious habits, which know little of relaxation yet, and his indomitable energy, pluck and perseverance. Hle is of New England stock, the Terrells being among the settlers of the Western Reserve, Ohio, where he was born, in Trumbull county, November 11, 1834. His father, Sherman Terrell, was born in Danbury, Connecticut, and went to Ohio when quite young. He married Olive Jones, a native of Trumbull county. The great-grandfather of Sherman Terrell was of English parentage, and reported to have been at the storming of Quebec, under General Wolf, in the autumn of 1759.
The subject of this sketch was educated at the Kingsville Academy, Ashta- bula county, adjoining Trumbull, leaving that institution at the close of 1859. In 1861 he attended the literary department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and the next year enlisted at a three months' call for troops, and served his time out. He then engaged in school teaching, thus obtaining the means for the further prosecution of his studies, again entering the University of Michigan in 1864, this time in the law department. He was there graduated in 1865, and at the April term of the supreme court of that state, held at Detroit, he was admitted to the bar.
In June of that year Mr. Terrell came to this state, and in September settled in Harrisonville, the shire town of Cass county. Business came to him slowly at first, and that circumstance gave him more time to utilize his law books in the way of study. He pored over them when not otherwise engaged. At length clients began to multiply; in a few years he built up a handsome practice, and for the last ten years or more he has stood among the foremost men at the county
Meg, Jerell
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bar. He has a very active mind, of a logical turn, and a forcible, energetic nature; prepares his cases with great care; is an animated speaker, without attempting to be eloquent, and his candor and plain reasoning before a jury have a fine effect; hence his success. He has the largest library of any one law- yer in the county, and makes the very best use of it. One or two firms in that city have also large and choice libraries.
Mr. Terrell was appointed county superintendent of schools in 1865; was elected to the same office in 1866, and immediately succeeding served two terms as prosecuting attorney of the county. llis politics are republican, and he is a leading man in his party in Cass county. He was a delegate in 1880 to the Chi- cago convention which nominated Garfield and Arthur.
During the four years that Mr. Terrell was prosecuting attorney he made a vigorous and able prosecutor, and gained popularity with all classes, except wrong-doers.
He is high up in Freemasonry, and not long ago held the office of grand commander of the grand commandery of the Knights Templar of the state. He is also a member of the Knights of Honor, and of the State Bar Association. Mr. Terrell was married, December 29, 1864, to Miss Julia A. Quigley, daughter of Captain Robert Quigley, of Chautauqua county, New York, and they have two adopted daughters, named Daisy and Faye. Mr. and Mrs. Terrell are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and prominent in Harrisonville social and religious circles.
COL. JEREMIAH C. CRAVENS. SPRINGFIELD.
O NE of the ablest lawyers in Missouri is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. He is thoroughly conversant with the law, and perhaps no man in the profession keeps more abreast of the authorities as adjudicated by the highest tribunals. His wonderful, retentive memory, his systematic meth- ods of study and business enable him to draw from his vast stores of useful knowledge, at will, authority to support his positions in every case. He possesses the power of keen analysis to a high degree, and he grasps the pivotal points of a question with great ease, and there is a certain refinement in his methods of thought that enables him to handle delicate questions with great skill and exact- ness. He always conducts all of his professional business in accordance with the highest standard of professional ethics. He is an excellent trial lawyer, possess-
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ing so much of candor and true manhood that his arguments have great weight with both court and jury. He is a cogent, logical reasoner, and often illustrates his discourses with similes, metaphor and antithesis, which follow each other in rich and varied profusion.
Jeremiah C. Cravens is the son of Doctor John Cravens, an eminent physician of Rockingham county, Virginia, who removed to Saline county, Missouri, before the birth of our subject, which event occurred February 18, 1838. He entered Missouri State University, Columbia, and was graduated therefrom in 1860. His father inclined to give him a medical education, but the taste of the young man led him to choose the profession of the law. At the breaking out of the civil war his sympathies were with the southern people, and from a conscientious regard for what he believed to be the true interpretation of the compact under which the Union was formed, he cast his lot with the confederacy. He at once entered the military service as a private, but was soon promoted to the position of aid de camp on the staff of General Slack, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. That general was slain at the battle of Pea Ridge in March, 1862, Colonel Cra- vens being at his side at the head of the division, when he fell with his death wound. The command of the division then fell on Colonel Rosser, and young Cravens rendered him valuable service as aid during the battle, and he received hearty commendations for his gallant conduct in the colonel's official report of the engagement. He was with the army at Corinth, and after its evacuation in June, 1862, he returned to the western department with Colonel John T. Hughes on recruiting service, after which they accompanied a small force into Missouri, from which a nucleus was formed constituting the force which fought the battles of Independence and Lone Jack in Jackson county. In the latter battle Colonel Cravens commanded a company of recruits, who fought gallantly. He was assigned to duty as captain in the 6th regiment of Missouri cavalry, serving the remainder of the time under Generals Marmaduke and Shelby, participating in all the more important engagements fought west of the Mississippi, filling the position of major and lieutenant colonel.
After he was mustered out of service he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Batesville, Arkansas. In 1866 affairs were in an unsettled condition in that state, growing out of the reconstruction acts, so called, and he returned to his native state, and settled in Springfield in 1868, where he has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession ever since. He has been attorney for the city, and a member of the city council, and has been for several years a member of the board of curators of the state university.
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In religion he is an old-school Presbyterian, and in politics a democrat, hav- ing been raised a whig.
Colonel Cravens is a gentleman of fine presence, of medium height, and well proportioned. His head is well shaped, showing equipoise and balance. His forehead is high and broad, with penetrating black eyes, and features of a classic mold. He is easy and graceful in his manner, and kind in his intercourse with mankind
He was married, August 11, 1864, at Batesville, Arkansas, to Miss Annie D. Smith, an estimable and accomplished lady, the only daughter of Colonel Robert Smith, an old and highly esteemed citizen of Arkansas, who was a member of the convention that framed the first constitution for that state in 1837.
HON. SHEPARD BARCLAY.
S HEPARD BARCLAY, one of the judges of the circuit court of Saint Louis, is an unusually ripe scholar for a man of his age. He was born in Saint Louis, November 3, 1847, and is a descendant of an old Saint Louis family. His grand- father, Elihu HI. Shepard, came to Saint Louis in 1818, and during a long lifetime maintained a leading place among its citizens, having been a candidate for mayor, a captain in the Mexican war, among the founders of the historical society, and one of the original promoters of the present public-school system, of which the Shep- ard school still stands in evidence.
Mr. Barclay's earliest years were spent in the care of his grandfather, after which his education was continued in the public and high schools of this city and the Saint Louis University, where he was graduated in 1867, and at the Univer- sity of Virginia (Charlottesville), of which he was a graduate of the law depart- ment in the class of 1800. He then attended two sessions at the University of Berlin, giving attention to the study of civil law. While in Europe he acquired a knowledge of the German and French Languages.
Returning to Saint Louis, Mr. Barclay began practice June 1, 1872, and for nearly a year, while his professional business was small, he was engaged as editorial contributor upon the local daily press.
From 1873 to the autumn of 1882 he was a member of the firm of Marshall and Barclay, his partner being William C. Marshall, and they had the management of many important cases before the courts. It is the opinion of a gentleman who has
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known our subject since he opened an office in Saint Louis, that in preparing an argument for any court, and in practice before the appellate courts in particular, Mr. Barclay had few equals at the Saint Louis bar. He never tires of delving, and never despairs of reaching the bottom of a subject, however profound. These characteristics were especially noticeable in the recent cases reported in 75th Missouri Reports, pages 319, 349, 485, and Just Missouri Reports, 031.
In November, 1882, our subject was elected one of the five judges of the cir- cuit court of Saint Louis by the largest majority given any candidate for that office within the past ten years, and he is now the youngest member of that bench. He wears the ermine with the modesty that becomes a sensible man recently elevated to the bench in a great city. His patience, conscientiousness, honesty and fearlessness are promising traits
WILLIAM H. PHELPS.
CARTHAGE.
T HE subject of this sketch is one of the ablest lawyers in southwestern Mis- souri, well read in his profession, possessing a remarkable memory of adjudicated cases, and a faculty of discovering false analysis, with a mind subtle and refined. He handles nice points of law with great ease and skill He is fertile in his resources, prompt in action, 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, comprehensive, and thorough. He has a wide reputation for perseverance, learning in the law, and adroit manage- ment. He is a formidable opponent, yet he always conducts all of his cases in accordance with the highest standard of professional ethics.
William I Phelps is a native of the Empire State, and was born October 10, 1845, at Hinsdale, Cattaraugus county; the son of Cyrus Phelps. His mother's maiden name was Charlotte Howe, His maternal grandfather was a soldier in the war of 1812, and his great-grandfathers on both sides were soldiers in our country's war for independence.
Young Phelps had the benefit of the public schools, which he attended in the winters of his boyhood, while he worked on his father's farm during the remain- der of the year. He took a scientific and classical course at the Olean Academy, and then read law with Hon. M. B. Champlain, at Cuba, Allegany county, New York. Mr. Champlain was twice attorney general of that state. Young Phelps
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then attended Albany, New York, Law School, and was admitted to the bar in October, 1866. He came to Carthage in the spring of 1807, where he has been in the active practice of the law ever since, doing an extensive business, where he has gained a rich reputation as a wise counselor, and an advocate of great power. In the fall of 1874 he was elected to the state legislature. He was placed on the judiciary committee, the committee on criminal jurisprudence, and was made chairman of the committee on local bills. As a legislator he soon advanced to the front rank. His wisdom as a lawmaker was acknowledged by his associates, and no important measures were passed without his concurrence, and his advice was sought and followed on all matters of intricacy. He served his constituency with a zeal becoming the able, conscientious gentleman that he is considered by all who know him.
He was married February 8, 1868, to Miss Lois J. Wilson, of Summit county, Ohio. They have three children, Maud H., Florence P., and William H.
HON. JAMES G. BLAIR.
O NE of the foremost men of the bar in the fourth judicial circuit is Hon. James G. Blair. He lost both parents without a certain remembrance of over having seen either, and was early apprenticed to a farmer, and acquired con- siderable knowledge in the art of farming, in his early life, which has been of great advantage to him, as he has been engaged in farming of late years, as well as the practice of law.
He does not know whether he was born in the state of Indiana of Kentucky. The first he remembers of himself he was in Harrison county, Kentucky.
He came to Missouri in April, raj2. His Father, James G. Blair, St., was the son of Joseph Blair, who emigrated from Ireland to the state of Pennsylvania, and there died. He was of Scotch descent, his wing of the Blair family having emigrated from Scotland to Ireland during the religious persecutions in Scotland. He left a widow, Hannah, and the following named children: William, Samuel, Pressley, Richard, James G. and Joseph H., Sarah, Elizabeth and Rachel. Will- iam died near Danville, in the state of Illinois, leaving children and descendants. Samuel died in Ohio, leaving children and descendants. Pressley and Richard died in Lewis county, Missouri, leaving children and descendants Joseph HI. moved to Lewis county, Missouri, from Kentucky; lived in Missouri many years;
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returned to Kentucky, and died in Covington, of that state, in 1861, leaving a widow, Matilda, but no children of descendants. He was a licensed lawyer, and held the offices of clerk of the circuit and county court of Lewiscounty, Missouri, for many years.
James G., Sr., married the second time, and died in Lebanon, Indiana, where he was living, leaving a widow and one child, by his last marriage, and four by his first: Josephus, Leander, Amanda and James G. Emily, the daughter by his second marriage, married Israel M. Rodman. Her husband is dead. She is now living in Dwight, Illinois. Sarah married Hugh Newell, of Harrison county, Kentucky, and there died, leaving several children. Elizabeth married William Asbury, and died in Lewis county, Missouri, leaving several children. Rachel married Pleasant Ireland, and moved from Kentucky to Ohio, and from there to the northwestern part of Illinois or Iowa; her whereabouts has been lost.
Mr. Blair's mother, Cynthia, was the daughter of Josephus Perrin, Sr., deceased, of Harrison county, Kentucky, a son of Josephus Perrin, who moved from Charlotte county, Virginia, to Lincoln county, Kentucky, and settled on Dick's River, near Crab Orchard, and there died. Josephus Perrin, last named, was a son of William Perrin, who emigrated from England to Charlotte county, Virginia, in an early day, and died there. He had four sons: William, George, John and Josephus. William and George, in about 1783, moved from Virginia to Edgefield District, South Carolina, and there died, leaving children and numerous descendants. Josephus, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, and his brother John, about the same time moved from Virginia to Lin- coln county, Kentucky. Josephus Peuin, the grandfather of Mr. Blair, had a brother named Achilles, commonly called Archer and Archie, who moved from the old homestead on Dick's River, near Crab Orchard, Lincoln county, Ken- tucky, to Platte county, Missouri, in April, rays, and died in that county in October, ESOS, at the age of ninety yours, leaving three children, A. I. and Will- iam F., now residing in said county of Platte, and Mrs. America Forbes, now residing in Montana Territory, and many other descendants, surviving him. His grandfather Perrin left the following children: George H., M.D., now of Cynthi- ana, Harrison county, Kentucky, who is childless; Josephus, now living near Eastwood, Jefferson county, in Kentucky; Mecky, who married Hezekiah Swin. ford, and both died in Harrison county, Kentucky, leaving children; Catharine, who married William Martin, and both of whom died in Harrison county, Ken- tucky, leaving children; Edna, who married Solomon C. Perrin, and died in said Harrison county, leaving children. Her husband married again, and died in or
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near Covington, Kentucky. Margaret, who married James M. Berry, and is now living in Bridgeton, Missouri, formerly in Montgomery county, Missouri. Achil- les, who died without children, and Cassandra, who married Jacob Eklar, and died in Vermillion county, Ilinois, near Danville, leaving children.
His grandfather, Joseph Blair, served in the Indian war of 1811, under Gen- eral Harrison, and was killed by the Indians. His father, James G. Blair, served in the war of 1812. His grandfather, Josephus Perrin, served in the Indian war of 1791, under General Arthur Saint Clair, and shared in his disastrous defeat in Ohio
The subject of this sketch was left without property, and was dependent upon his grandfather Perrin for an education, such as log school houses in those days afforded in Kentucky.
There is nothing in the early or youthful history of Mr. Blair necessary for us to notice, save that he was always kind and generous, cautious and prudent, and held an office or two in Missouri. He certainly must have been endowed with great energy and perseverance, for we find him in the study of law, with his very limited education, in young manhood, without a preceptor. January 1, 1854, he received a license to practice law, from Hon. A. Reese, late of Saint Louis, deceased, who was then judge of the fourth judicial circuit of Missouri Here the legal life and the contest for legal fame of Mr. Blair began, among the great- est legal giants that ever practiced law in northeastern Missouri, and maintained himself well against such eminent lawyers as Hon. James S. Green, late United States senator from Missouri, Hon. James Ellison, Hon, John D. S. Dryden, Hon. Thomas L. Anderson, Hon. John T. Redd and Edwin G. Pratt.
In the spring of 1800 he was laid up with sore eyes, and did not recover from his affliction for several years. He removed from Monticello to Canton, in the same county, in the fall of iso1, and remained there until the spring of the year iSyg, when he moved on to his farm in the same county, where he remained until the fall of iss1, when he again located in Monticello.
During the greater part of the late war Mr. Blair was nearly blind from the affliction mentioned, but notwithstanding this he continued the practice of law as best he could, and now ranks among the foremost lawyers in northeast Missouri. No lawyer in this part of the state has done the civil and criminal practice he has, and is doing. He has continued to be engaged in the most important cases in both classes, and it is a noteworthy fact that, with one exception, no man whom he ever defended before a jury went to the penitentiary. Before a jury he can go " from grave to gay, from lively to severe" with great rapidity, as well as dexter-
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ity, and when a jury is unprejudiced, sway them with his powerful logic and mas- terly argument. He is not an eloquent speaker nor a polished orator, in the common acceptation of those words, but for that eloquence and oratory that moves a jury to a clear conception of right and duty, he stands unsurpassed in northeast Missouri.
His judgment of human nature is fine, and it aids him greatly in unraveling diffeult cases, in interrogating and driving to the wall refractory and unserupu- lous witnesses, and in arguing his case to the jury.
He has practiced extensively and very successfully in the supreme court of the state. Many of his cases decided in that court have been and are now leading cases in the practice of the state.
Mr. Blair was born a democrat, but had no sympathy with slavery, and as early as 1857 publicly declared himself opposed to it, but stood with the party upon its position of non-agitation and non-intervention by congress upon the sub- ject in the states and territories.
When the late war began he was alike opposed to coercion and secession. He stood upon what was known as the Douglass platform of "Union opposed to coercion," but when he saw there was no prospect for a compromise, he took position with those known as war democrats, and thus stood to the close of the war.
During the war a great many whites had been disfranchised on account of participation in the rebellion against the government; or giving aid and comfort to its enemies. Mr. Blair had opposed the disfranchisements from time to time, as being harsh and unnecessary.
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