USA > Missouri > Cole County > Jefferson City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 7
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 7
USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 7
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Mr. Lackland is a member of the Episcopal Church, and has borne his full share of official burdens. He was married in December, 1856, to Miss Nannie Har- den, of Washington, Missouri, and they have three sons. The eldest, James C., is cashier of a bank at Abilene, Texas; Joseph, the second son, is also in that state, and Henry is at home, securing his education.
JUDGE JOHN HINTON. COLUMBIA
JOHN HINTON, judge of probate of the county of Boone, and one of the best J judges of his class in Missouri, was born at Folly Castle, city of Petersburgh, Virginia, July 1, 1818, being a son of Captain John and Martha N. (Gill) Hinton. The Hintons are one of the oldest families in the Old Dominion, being traced back to 1620, and on both sides we find the purest patriotic blood. The mater- nal grandfather of our subject was Major Erasmus Gill, who served six or seven years in the revolutionary army, and rose from a private to the rank of major of the Virginia cavalry. He was at the battle of Cowpens. Major Gill's wife was a niece of Peter Jones, who founded Petersburgh, and a relative of General Abram Wood, commander of the post of Fort Henry, then a British post, and where Petersburgh now stands.
The father of Judge Hinton was a merchant, and died in Petersburgh in 1840, aged about fifty-six years The widow died at eighty-four, in Folly Castle, " liv- ing," says one writer, "from her cradle to the grave in the same house, which was not only her birthplace, but the birthplace of her six children, as well as some of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The old house still [ 1878] stands, in the one hundred and fifteenth year of its age, in good repair, having survived the revolutions, in both of which the city was furiously cannonaded." That house is now one hundred and twenty years oldl.
The subject of this sketch was educated at Jonathan Smith's Academy, Peters- burgh, leaving it in his fifteenth year, and January 1, 1833, became connected with the shipping and commission house of James S. Brander and Company, remaining with them between four and five years. In September, 1838, he came to this state, and engaged in speculations in wild and mineral lands, with head-
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quarters at Saint Louis. In 1841 we find him at Rocheport, Boone county, in the tobacco business, which he continued until the high floods of 1844, when he abandoned it, and turned his attention to steamboating, following it one season.
In 1845 he resumed the tobacco trade at Kocheport, and the next year went into the Mexican war as'a private in the ist regiment Missouri mounted volunteers, Colonel Doniphan commander. This officer appointed Mr. Hinton sergeant major, and in December, 18 16, he was elected first lieutenant of company G. His regiment went in for one year and served thirteen months. On returning to Rocheport, in 1847, our subject was appointed by Governor King aide, with the rank of colonel. Engaging in general business, he also served for nearly two terms as a director of the Fayette branch of the State Bank of Missouri, at Fayette, Howard county.
In 1857 he went on the river again as first clerk of the Steamer Daniel Tatum, and later of the Steamer Meteor. In 1859 he became a merchant in Saint Louis, with the firm of Goddin, Hopkins and Hinton, the civil war breaking up their business.
From 1865 to 1868 he was in the employ of the Atlantic and Mississippi Steamship Company, holding a clerkship on different steamers - the Ben Stick- ney, Atlantic, Olive Branch, Ida Handy and Ruth.
In July, 1868, Judge Hinton returned to Rocheport; went into business with R. W. Hubbard, sold out at the end of a year, went to Omaha, Nebraska; in 1871 he returned to Rocheport, and in 1870 settled in Boone county, on a farm ten miles west of Columbia, the shire town
While in Saint Louis, in 1846 and part of 1841, Judge Hinton amused himself by reading law in the office of his esteemed and now sadly lamented friend, Hon. Montgomery Blair, and for thirty years thereafter he was accustomed to occa- sionally dip into Coke and Blackstone, not omitting the statutes of Missouri, with which last works he became quite familiar. In 1872 his democratic con- stituents selected him for probate judge. In that office he is now serving his fourth term, being elected the last time for four years. This term will expire January 1, 1887. A writer in the " United States Biographical Dictionary " ( Mis- souri volume, 1878) states that " his great excellence and distinguishing charac- teristic is the sharpness and cleaness of his perception and judgment, thus rendering him accurate and correct as a business man, acute, logical, and even profound as a judge."
Judge Hinton is a decided democrat, and never has been anything else, but the goodness of his nature and his eminent fitness for his post make him friends among all parties. He is a member of the Christian or Disciple Church, and abounds in manly Christian virtues, inherited in part at least from his mother.
The judge was married, August 20, 1844, to Miss Eliza W. Wilcox, of Roche- port, and of six children born to them only one son, Edward, aged fourteen years, is living. Mrs. Hinton is a daughter of Doctor George Boone Wilcox, who was a grandson of Squire Boone, the latter being a brother of Daniel Boone.
Judge Hinton is a director of the Exchange Bank of Columbia, and president
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of the Boone County Star Milling Company,and was for some years a curator of the state university, being first appointed by Governor Hardin and afterward by Governor Phelps. He is well known in the state for his efficiency and hon- esty as a business man, and for the many sterling qualities of his heart. He is lecturer on probate law and practice in the state university.
HON. CYRENIUS C. SIMMONS.
C YRENIUS CANFIELD SIMMONS was born at Black Rock. now in Buffalo, New York, March 9, 1819; son of Jacob Simmons and Charlotte (Canfield) Simmons: His father was of Dutch descent remotely, and was a direct descend- ant of the first settlers of New York In his infancy his parents removed to Ellicottsville, Cattaraugus county, New York, and at the age of six, to Springville, Erie county. In 1826 his father and a few of his village neighbors, erected an academy at that place, and young Simmons attended the first day, and was the first student that ever read Latin in that academy He attended there one year, when his mother died. Afterward he was employed as a clerk in a drug store at Attica, New York, where he remained one year and read the elementary medical works; while he was there he also read French and Latin, and acquired quite a knowledge of these languages. His father's health failing, he was called back to Springville, and his father died in January, 1834. The three succeeding years he made his home with his relatives in Batavia, New York. Having improved his health by labor on a farm, and laid the foundation for better health in the future, at the age of seventeen he commenced teaching school, which occupation he fol- lowed most of the time until 1842, in western New York, excepting a few months he attended the academy one winter, and one summer at Alexander. He then went to Kentucky, and taught school and read law intensely in Paris, Bourbon county, Kentucky, in the office of John W. Woods. He was licensed to practice in Lexington, Kentucky, in January, 1843, by the court of appeals. He remained in Kentucky until the summer of 1844, when he came to Saint Louis.
Hle immediately commenced the practice of the law in company with R. S. Blennerhasset, having formerly read law with that celebrated lawyer in Alex- ander, New York. This partnership continued six years, doing a large business, both civil and criminal. Subsequently he was a partner of ex-Lieutenant-Gover- nor Norman J. Coleman, and still later was in partnership with Hon. J. G. Woerner, the present judge of the Saint Louis probate court In 1852 he was elected to the board of delegates of the city of Saint Louis He took an active part in politics, and was elected by a majority of one hundred and sixty, the popular vote in the ward being nearly a tie; he served one year. In 1853 he was elected city recorder, a court having extensive jurisdiction. He held that position two years, presiding with marked ability. In 1856 he was elected a member of the board of
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aldermen, was an active member, and took an active part in all city improvements, railroad building, and securing titles to real estate. He was also appointed presi- dent of the board of health one year. After that he was counselor for the board of managers for the house of refuge, which led to important litigation in which Judge Simmons figured conspicuously. He was elected a member of the conven- tion called to organize a city charter. In 1862 he was employed by the city of Saint Louis specially for the purpose of collecting and settling up her delin- quent tax lists, being thus engaged about eight years. In the winter of 1862- 63 he framed the law which was enacted by the legislature, authorizing the col- lection of taxes by means of suits at law.
In political sentiments Judge Simmons was a democrat up to 1860, when he voted for President Lincoln. In the fall of 1864 he was elected to the state senate; was placed at the head of the committee on claims; was acting chairman of the committee on ways and means, much of the time, and was on the committee on agriculture and insane asylum. During the sessions of 1865 and 1866 he was also placed on the committee on ways and means, on the judiciary committee, com- mittee of internal improvements and immigration, and on every important select committee. At the close of the first session he was appointed on the part of the senate, with judge Warren Currier and Judge Lovelace, both of the house, to pre- pare a revision and digest of the general statutes of the state. Judge Lovelace was appointed judge of the supreme court, and the work devolved upon Judge Simmons and Judge Currier; the work was an immense task, considering the short time allowed for its accomplishment, but it was ably and faithfully per- formed. They made their report the next November. It was examined during the winter, and with few amendments it was passed, and went into effect in May, 1866. It was to conform to the new constitution, which rendered the revision more extensive, laborious and difficult.
He was for a short time judge of the court of criminal correction, and has been a member and director of several insurance companies. In 1868 he purchased, in connection with W. P. Billings, the property which is known as the Simmons Iron Mountain, in Salem, Dent county. It was regarded of very great value on account of the mines in that region. He set himself to work to get a railroad built to it, first organizing a railroad company called the Saint James and Little Rock company, contemplating a route from Saint Louis to Little Rock, to open the mineral region in the south part of Missouri. He ob- tained a favorable report in the United States house of representatives for a land grant, but congress adjourned before it became a law. It attracted the attention of Pennsylvania parties, who came to Missouri to examine it in 1860. June, 1870, Judge Simmons signed a contract with William L. Scott, of Erie, Pennsylvania, and A. L. Crawford, of New Castle, Pennsylvania, by which they and their asso- ciates agreed with Judge Simmons to build a railroad of the standard gauge from some point on the present San Francisco railroad to the Simmons Iron Mountain in consideration of interests in the property which he conveyed them. In pursu-
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ance of this contract, they organized a new railroad company. It was composed of William I. Scott, A. L. Crawford, Colonel Thomas Scott, J. N. Mccullough, Judge Simmons, A. J. Crawford and William Carter, corporators and directors, That organization is what is known as the Saint Louis, Salem and Little Rock railroad.
It was finished the early part of July, 1873, to Simmons Iron Mountain, just before the panic of that year. He is the projector of the building of the railroad now under construction from a point near Columbia, Illinois, on the Cairo and Saint Louis railroad, through Saint Clair county, in order to develop the exten- sive coal fields in that region, and it is through his exertion and energy that the railroad is now being built.
Judge Simmons is at present giving his attention to railway interests and the practice of the law. In 1800 he was interested in building a telegraph from Saint Louis to Saint Paul and Chicago, m which he was personally a loser, but it reduced the price of transmitting messages, which has been of great value to others.
Judge Simmons may be considered a public benefactor; as all of his enter- prises redound to the profit of the community at large. He is a lawyer of eminence, especially in criminal law and practice, having few equals in that branch of the law in Saint Louis. He is an affable gentlemen, quick of motion, rapid in thought and speech.
He was married at Saint Louis in i85o to Miss Julia Watts, a descendant of some of the early French families of Saint Louis She died in 1862. They had seven children, but three of whom are living.
HENRY S. GEYER. SAINT LOUIS.
T HIE late Henry S. Geyer was regarded in his day as one of the most profound lawyers in the state of Missouri. He was of German descent, as his name would indicate, and was born in Frederick county, Maryland, in the last lustrum of the last century. At the close of the second war with England, in which he was a paymaster, he came to Saint Louis, having previously paid some attention to the law, and here prepared himself for practice. He soon became captain of a military company, said to be the first organized west of the " father of waters." He was a member of the convention which formed the constitution of the state; served two sessions in the legislature, being speaker in the second session, and in 1825 he published a digest of the laws of the state. From that date until 1851, when he left the bar temporarily for a seat in the United States senate, he was engaged in some of the most important suits which came before the courts. So many sketches have been written about him, and so full accounts were given years ago of his career at the bar, that it seems unnecessary to go into details. His argument in the Dred Scott case, made a little over a quarter of a century
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ago, was regarded as a master piece of logic, and some of the cases in which he was retained for the defense in the criminal courts drew the attention of the whole country to his arguments, they being so able that some of them were pub- lished in pamphlet form and scattered broadcast, even to the Atlantic seaboard.
Although a great power as a lawyer, the subject of this notice did not shine as a senator. He returned to Saint Louis, and died in March, 1859, leaving his third wife a widow.
HON. JAMES. A. HENDERSON. SAINT LOUIS.
AMES A. HENDERSON is a native of Saint Louis county. He was born March J 13, 1839, and is the son of George Henderson, a wealthy merchant. His mother before marriage was Miss Mary Williams. James was educated at the University of Missouri, Columbia; afterward studied law at the Kentucky Law School, Louisville, leaving that institution in 1859. He was engaged in farming from that time until 1865. In 1800 be removed to Boone county, Missouri, where he held several offices of trust. He was assessor of that county four years, and was appointed judge of probate for that county in 1872, and held that office until the spring of 1873, when he removed to Saint Louis county. He commenced the practice of law in Saint Louis in 1876.
Upon the separation of the city and county in 1877 he was appointed judge of probate for Saint Louis county, holding that office until January, 1883.
Judge Henderson has the respect of the entire community for the ability and candor with which he investigated every subject which came before him. He is learned in the law pertaining to probate matters, and it has been said that his opinion was never reversed by the appellate court while he was on the bench. " He is a careful, painstaking lawyer, and thoroughly reliable in all of his dealings.
Judge Henderson was married several years ago to Miss Virginia I. Royal, and they have six children.
FREDERICK N. JUDSON. SHAT LOUIS.
F FREDERICK NEWTON JUDSON, a native of Saint Mary's, Georgia, belongs on his father's side to a Stratford, Connecticut, family, which was among the pioneers in the settlement of that ancient town, in 1638. His father, Doctor Frederick J. Judson, a native of Stratford, after graduating at Yale College, and studying medicine, removed to Saint Mary's, Georgia, and settling there, prac- ticed his profession for several years. He there married Catherine T. Chapelle, a daughter of Doctor Isaac N. Chapelle, and a native of Saint Mary's, and of this marriage our subject was born, at Saint Mary's, October 7, 1845. In 1846 Doc-
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tor Judson returned, with his family, to Connecticut, and settling in Bridgeport, resided there, practicing his profession, until his death, in 1862. He was promi- nent as a physician; was one of the founders of the public library of the city, and was for many years, continuously until his death, president both of the public library association and the board of education.
His eldest son, Frederick, was prepared for college in Bridgeport, partly at home under his father's instruction, and partly under Rev. Henry Jones, and after teaching a district school one terin, and a brief experience in journalism in the office of the " Bridgeport Farmer," entered Vale College in the autumn of 1862. At the close of his freshman year he was awarded the Woolsey scholarship; at the close of the sophomore year, the Busted scholarship; and was graduated as valedictorian in 1866.
After graduating, he spent the first year in New Haven, teaching in the Hop- kins Grammar School, and at the same time " coaching " college students; and then three years in Nashville, Tennessee; first as classical instructor in the city high school, and then two years as instructor of Greek and history in the Montgomery Bell Academy, of the University of Nashville. While at the South, he was an occasional correspondent of the New York " Evening Post." In 1868 he was invited to return to Yale as instructor, but declined.
He read law while teaching at Nashville; came to Saint Louis in the autumn 'of 1870; entered the senior class of the law school of Washington University, and was graduated in the class of 1871. In the same year he was appointed private secretary of Governor Gratz Brown, and removing to Jefferson City, filled that position during Governor Brown's administration, at the same time continuing his legal studies.
Mr. Judson commenced to practice law in Jefferson City while residing there, but in January, 1873, he returned to Saint Louis, and opening his office there, has since continued in close application to the practice of his profession. February 1, 1878, he entered into partnership with John H. Overall, under name of Overall and Judson, which still continues. The practice of the firm is general, but espe- cially identified with banking and business circles, and is extensively connected with the important municipal and other corporate litigation in the federal and state courts. Mr. Judson is the counsel of the Merchants' Exchange of Saint Louis
In October, 1878, Mr. Judson was elected to the school board of Saint Louis, and served in that body four years, first filling an unexpired term of one year, being then reflected for full term of three years. In the first year of his service, in 1879, he prepared and secured the passage by the legislature of the act which establishes the permanent school fund of the city, permitting only the income of the government land grants to be expended. In the fall of 1880 he was elected president of the board, and was reflected in 1881, serving until his retirement from the board, in the fall of 1882, his private professional duties compelling him to decline a second reflection, though tendered by the citizens of his ward of both parties
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Mr. Judson's political affiliations are now, as they have always been, with the democratic party, in divisions upon national issues, but he is not a strict parti- san; is an earnest believer in civil service reform, and is a member of the execu- tive committee of the association of Missouri. He has, we believe, no political aspirations of his own, and has uniformly declined to be a candidate for any political office. His ambition, apparently, is to maintain a high standing in his profession.
In church matters Mr. Judson is inclined to the broad-church element in the Protestant Episcopal Church, and is a vestryman in Saint John's parish. He was married February 8, 1872, to Miss Jennie W. Eakin, of Nashville, Tennessee, granddaughter of the late Hon. Felix Grundy. They have one child, a daughter, Felicia, aged eight years.
HON. JAMES ELLISON.
T HE patriarch of the legal family in Lewis county is the gentleman whose name we have placed at the head of this sketch, and who is a native of Ire- land, born in January, 1805. His parents were John and Isabella (McMechan) Ellison, both of Scotch-Irish blood. The family immigrated to this country when" James was a child, and settled in Brown county, Ohio, where he received an English education, and some knowledge of the Latin language. He remained on his father's farm until past his majority; read law in Augusta, Kentucky, with Martin Marshall; was admitted to the bar about 1830; practiced in Ohio until 1835, and then came to Missouri, and settled in Lewis county, near where now stands Canton, which has been his home for thirty years or more. He was in practice in this county and the adjoining counties until about a dozen years ago, when he retired. He always maintained a high character for probity, as well as ability, and was repeatedly honored by his democratic constituents. In 1842 he was elected to the lower house of the general assembly, and served one term in that body, and subsequently two terms in the upper house, in all a period of ten years.
During the civil war he was a firm Union man. Since the war he served one term on the bench of his judicial circuit Parties who knew him when he was on the bench give him credit for being a man of great candor and discrimination, clear-headed and impartial, and well liked by everybody but culprits. He was at one period a curator of the state university, Columbia.
The wife of Judge Ellison was Martha Cowgill, of Clarke county, Missouri, their marriage taking place in April, 1839. They have had thirteen children, only seven of them now living. Four of these are lawyers: George, at Canton; An- drew and James at Kirksville, the former being a circuit judge, and William C. at Maryville.
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Judge Ellison is well read in literature, as well as law, and has a very strong memory. With some of the English poets be is quite familiar, and Burns, who is chief among the Scotch bards, he can quote by the hour. The judge is a hale old gentleman, well stocked with material for conversation, and a sprightly and entertaining converser.
HON. JOHN H. O'NEILL. SAINT LOUIS.
JOHN HENRY O'NEILL, the subject of this sketch, is a son of Patrick and J Patience ( Pickett) O'Neill, and was born in what is now Carroll county, Mary- land, April 20, 1810. His mother was also a native of Maryland, and his father was born near Londonderry, Ireland, but came to America before the war of 1812, in which he took part. The subject of this sketch graduated at Georgetown College (now University), in the District of Columbia, with the highest honors of his class, in 1841; read law at Frederick City, Maryland, under Joseph M. Palmer. and was there admitted to the bar in 1843 He went to Baltimore to commence the practice of law on the same day that the national democratic convention assem- bled, which resulted in the nomination of James K. Polk for president of the United States, and participated as a stump speaker in the campaign of 1844.
In the latter part of 1846 he moved to Somerset, Perry county, Ohio, where he afterward held the office of prosecuting attorney, and represented the county. in the legislature from 1851 to 1854. While living in Somerset, November 27, 1849, he was married to Miss Catherine E. Beckwith, youngest daughter of Colonel John Beckwith, of that place, who for many years held the office of clerk of the court of common pleas.
In the spring of 1854 Mr. ('Neill removed to Cincinnati, where he was after- ward appointed, by President Pierce, district attorney for the southern district of Ohio, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Hon. H. J. Jewett, now president of the Erie railroad. In the summer of 1857 Mr. Q'Neill resigned this office, for the purpose of removing to the state of Iowa, and was succeeded by Hon. Stanley Matthews, now judge of the supreme court. In March, 1858, Mr. ()'Neill settled with his family in Dubuque, where the writer of this sketch first made his acquaintance. He had a large practice in that Hawkeye city and over a considerable portion of the state, and was considered, though his practice was not confined to that branch of the law, one of the ablest and most successful criminal lawyers in the state. He held the office of city attorney of Dubuque during the mayoralty of Henry L. Stout and of John H. Thompson, and while the civil war was in progress he was the democratic candidate for district attorney of his judicial district, embracing five counties, and had a majority of the home votes, but was defeated by the soldiers' vote.
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