USA > Missouri > Cole County > Jefferson City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 9
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 9
USA > Missouri > Jackson County > Kansas City > The Bench and bar of St. Louis, Kansas City, Jefferson City, and other Missouri cities : biographical sketches > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53
He was married in Saint Louis in 1863, to Nancy I. Gottschalk, and they have four children.
JOHN E. MCKEIGHAN.
SUNT LOUIS.
T' HE subject of this notice is an able lawyer in all of the various branches. He possesses a foresight and keenness of perception that very few lawyers attain in the management of cases. He examines a question very thoroughly, traces principles to their source, and has a wonderful power of analysis and con- densation. He is a good speaker, and can enforce his ideas with cogent, logical reasoning. He is a gentleman of integrity, and conducts all of his legal practice in strict conformity to the highest standard of professional ethics.
He was born, July 20, 1841, at Farmington, Illinois, and is the son of Robert MeKeighan and Ellen (Tuttle) MeKeighan. His father was a farmer highly respected for his intelligence and upright dealing. The son entered Knox Col-
73
THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
lege in 1866, and went to Michigan University in 1862, and was graduated from the classical department of that institution in the class of 1866. He studied law with Martin Sallenberger at Toulon, Ilinois, and was admitted to the bar at Ottawa in May, 1867.
He commenced practice at Baxter Springs, Kansas, in March, 1868, and removed to Fort Scott, that state, in March, 1871, when he formed a partnership with HI C. McComas, under the firm name of MeComas and McKeighan. They moved to Saint Louis in April, 1876, and continued until 1882, when the firm dis- solved, and H. C. MeComas went to New Mexico. In April, 1882, Mr. McKeighan formed a partnership with S. B. Jones, his present partner, under the firm name of MeKeighan and Jones, Mr. MeKeighan was one of the counsel in the cele- brated Osage ceded land case, in which the title to a million acres of land was settled in the supreme court of the United States, in favor of the government, against the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad, and the Lawrence and Galves- ton railroad. He was associated with Jere Black, Judge Lawrence, of Ohio, and Governor Shanon, of Kansas.
Mr. McKrighan has been successful in several constitutional cases. He is attorney for several banks and telegraph companies, and has been at times employed as special counsel for railroads.
COLONEL GEORGE W. EASLEY. HANNIBAL ..
G FORGE WOODSON EASLEY, general attorney for the Hannibal and I Saint Joseph Railroad Company, and a lawyer of much brilliancy and promise, was born in Clark county, this state, December 15, 1842. His parents, Thornton T. and Almeda ( Alexander) Easley, were natives of Kentucky. When George was two years old his father, who was a carpenter and builder, moved his family to Linn county, this state, where our subject received, in early life, the ordinary advantages of a common school. He finished his education at the Uni- versity of Fudiana, at Bloomington, being graduated in the law department in 1865. Prior to this period, he was for two years adjutant of the 23d Missouri infantry, Colonel Jacob T. Tindall, commander.
Before entering upon the practice of his profession, Colonel Easley was mar- ried, May 25, 1865, to Miss Loga Waters, of Mexico, Audrain county, and they have a daughter and son. He commenced practice at Linneus, the seat of justice of Linn county, and was there until the close of 1878, making a fine record at the bar of that county and in that judicial circuit. He was prosecuting attorney of that county two terms, and in that office became very popular.
Lord Tenterden used to say of Lord Truro that he had industry enough to succeed without talent, and talent enough to succeed without industry. Colonel Easley has both in generous measure, and, relying on both, he succeeds, He has
74
THE BENCH AND BIR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
a keen intellect, is a forcible speaker, and before a jury he concentrates all his energies and logical power on a few points and presses his argument with wonder- ful elleet.
The colonel was a member of the twenty ninth general assembly, and was chairman of the committee on constitutional amendments, and served on the committees on the judiciary and ways and means, his seat being on the demo- cratic side of the house
January 1, 1878, Colonel Easley assumed the duties of his office as general attorney of the Hannibal and Saint Joseph Railroad Company, and took up his abode in the city of Hannibal. In connection with this important post, he finds a good held for the display of his splendid legal talents and attainments. He is chief on the staff of the general commanding the national guards in north Mis- souri, with rank of lieutenant colonel. He has a noble bearing, and makes a fine appearance as a military officer.
HON. WILLIAM BARCLAY NAPTON.
SUNT LOUIS.
UDGE NAPTON was born at Princeton, New Jersey, March 23, 1808, and J died at Elk Hill, Saline county, Missouri, January 8, 1883. He gradu- ated at Princeton College in 1826. The faculty of that college declined to dis- criminate between William B. Napton, Joseph Addison Alexander and Peter MeCall, and divided among these three the first honors of the class. Each of them was highly distinguished in later lite. Mr. Napton spent about two years as tutor in the family of General Gordon, and with Charles Minor conducted in academy at Charlottesville. Here he enjoyed the society of eminent men, and his social advantages were unsurpassed, and here he formed his political opinions and principles which influenced his political actions in after life. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of Virginia in 1832. He settled at Columbia, Missouri, but shortly removed to Fayette, Howard county, and look charge of the " Boonsfick Demount," and conducted that paper with much ability. In 1830 Governor Boggs appointed him attorney general, which office he hekl until 1838, when he was appointed to a seat on the bench of the supreme court, and from that time was absorbed in his judicial duties. In 1851 a consti- tutional amendment made the judiciary elective in Missouri. The first election was held in August, 18Er, and he failed to be chosen. Judge Napton returned to the practice of the law, and was engaged in a number of the important cases pending before the court, the beach of which he had so recently adorned. At the general judicial election in 1857, he was, without solicitation or nomination elected to a seat on that bench, and his labors recommenced at the October term of that year. He remained on the bench until political complications in 1861 displaced him.
75
THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
In 1863 Judge Napton removed to Saint Louis, and opened an office for prac- tice, taking charge of none but important cases, of which he had very many, and he was actively and profitably employed for the next ten years. One of the members of the supreme court died suddenly June 21, 1873, and Judge Napton was appointed to fill the vacancy. In 187; he was elected for the re- mainder of the term, and was on the beach until December 31, 1880. He sur- vived his retirement only a few days more than two years. He spent twenty- five years on the beach, and his labors appear in thirty-six volumes of the state reports.
Judge Napton brought to the supreme court a mind well stored with the prin- ciples of jurisprudence. His clear, patient, penetrating and discriminating intel- lect enabled him to fix with nicety upon the point of every controversy. The language in which he gave to the bar the results of his reflection upon a case dis- cussed by the advocates on each side, and by the judges themselves in council, was almost perfect. It was clear, simple, forcible, and without the smallest infu- sion of oratorical display.
In this respect, his opinions are models When he dissented from the majority of his brethren, he contented himself with stating temperately, concisely and clearly the reason of his non-concurrence, and many of these dissenting opinions became in a few years the views of the whole court, when the same legal proposi- tions were a second time examined. He has an abiding claim to the gratitude of the state, and his memory cunot fail to be cherished by her beach and bar, for no one can claim to be even tolerably conversant with her jurisprudence who is not familiar with the contributions made to it by William B Napton.
CHARLES M. NAPTON.
T' THE subject of this sketch is one of the most substantial members of the Saint Louis bar. He was born December 2, 1847, in Saline county, Mis- souri, and is the son of the late Hon. W. B. Napton, one of the judges of the supreme court of Missouri, whose sketch precedes this. The mother of our subject was the daughter of Chancellor Thomas L. Williams, of Tennessee, at one time one of the judges of the supreme court of that state. Charles seems to have inherited a legal turn of mind, a mature judgment, clear perceptions, strong memory and unswerving integrity. He attended Westminster College, Missouri, and the University of Virginia, graduating from the last-named insti- tution in the session of 1868 9. He read law with his father, was admitted to the bar in 1871, and immediately commenced practice in Saint Louis, where he has remained ever since. In 1870 he was made assistant attorney of the Saint Louis and San Francisco railroad, which position be filled with marked ability until ISSo. Since that time he has been in the general civil practice of the law, prin-
THE BENCH AND BAK OF MISSOURI CITIES.
cipally in the state, circuit and supreme courts, and having a considerable busi- ness on the admiralty side of the United States courts.
He is a comprehensive speaker, forcible and logical; has a fine presence, being nearly six feet in height, is well proportioned, has an intellectual countenance, with a well shaped head covered with dark brown hair.
FREDERICK T. LEDERGERBER. SAINT LOUIS.
F REDERICK TELL LEDERGERBER was born May 17, 1835, in the Lat- einer Settlement, about two miles east of Shiloh, Saint Clair county, Illinois. He is the son of Joseph Ledergerber, a native of Switzerland. His family were mostly soldiers or priests for many generations. Joseph Ledergerber was an offi - cer in the Swiss guards of the royal army, under Charles X, of France. He came to America in 1832, but returned to Konstanz Baden, and died there in 1882.
The mother of our subject before marriage was Miss Charlotte K. Engelmann, from the Rheinpfalz, Bavaria, a lady of fine education and talent. She was mar- ried to Joseph Ledergerber in Saint Clair county, Illinois, in 1834. Her father, F. T. Engelmann, was a prominent official, but as all of his children took part in the liberal movement against the government in 1832, they started for America, April 3, 1833, where they landed, June 19, 1833.
Frederick was raised on a farm, where in early life he formed habits of industry, and was educated under the instruction of private tutors, whom his father hired for the benefit of all of his children, and attended the college of Oakfield, Mis- souri, under Professor F. Steines, an eminent preceptor. He carly took an active part in politics. He was in the convention at Decatur, flinois, where the prelim- inary measures were taken to procure the nomination of Abraham Lincoln. It was then that " fence rails" were first introduced as an element in politics. Mr. Ledergerber was appointed commander of the "Wideawakes" of Saint Clair county. He enlisted at Shiloh, Illinois, in the Union army, the day President Lincoln issued his first call for troops; was first lieutenant in the 9th Illinois, under Colonel Payne; commanded the first troops sent to protect the Big Muddy bridge, near De Soto, Illinois, in May, 1861, served three months; then entered the army for a term of three years, as captain in the 12th Missouri infantry, under Colonel, afterward General Osterhaus He was promoted to major, and in his commission are the words " promoted tor gallant conduct in the actions before Vicksburg, Mississippi." He was wounded at Ringgold, Georgia, where his only brother, Joseph, was shiin. Our subject receives a small pension from the government, in consequence of the wounds received in that battle. In 1864 he was detailed by General Rosecrans to muster the citizens of Saint Louis, who volunteered to serve in the earthworks, in case General Price came near the city. During that service Major Ledergerber was so busily engaged that he did not get
77
THE BEACH AND BAK OF MISSOURI CITIES.
any rest for five successive nights, the pressure being so great on the part of the citizens of Saint Louis to enroll themselves for the defense of their homes. He was commissioned colonel by Governor Fletcher in 1865; settled in Saint Louis; was secretary of the Volunteers' Mutual And Society in 1865-6, and in the latter year organized the Grand Army of the Republic in Missouri. He was a member of the loyalist convention at Philadelphia, in the fall of 1866, and was elected to the Missouri legislature in 1866 and iso8; was chairman of the committee on education, where he performed excellent service; was an acknowledged leader in the house during his second term in the legislature. He then moved to Saint Joseph, Missouri, where he remained seven years, and practiced law. He was appointed special assistant to the United States district attorney, in what was known as the whiskey prosecution, in which cases he performed effective service. He was at one time editor of a German paper at Saint Joseph, and subsequently contributed to an English paper at the same place
He is professor of law, and of the history of medicine and law, in the College for Medical Practitioners at Saint Louis.
Colonel Ledergerber commenced the study of the law in the office of Hon. Jehu Baker, at Belleville, Illinois, in 1860, encouraged by ex-Governor Koerner, his uncle, to whom he is, in a great measure, indebted for his education and knowledge; after the war with the late Judge James K. Knight and John H. Ran- kin, of Saint Louis, and was admitted to the Missouri bar in 1865, and has been in practice since that time. He has had many very interesting cases of consider- able importance, involving the rights of married women in regard to property, option deals, cases arising under the statute of frauds and wills; has a large commercial office business, and is especially qualified for that branch of practice; is a careful, painstaking lawyer, and a gentleman of integrity.
He was married in 1870, to Miss Sophie I. Coffey. She is of English descent, and is a lady of refinement and high accomplishments.
He is one of the executive committee for the relief of the German sufferers by the floods of 1883, himself and one other being the only born Americans on that committee. They raised $25,000 for that object, and forwarded the same to Germany
MICHAEL B. JONAS.
M ICHNEL, BENJAMIN JONAS, of the Saint Louis bar, is a native of Ohio, and was born in the city of Cincinnati, November 18, 1843. Ilis parents, Joseph and Martha (Oppenheim) Jonas, were born in England. Mr. Jonas finished his education in the high school of his native city; read law there with Tilden, Caldwell and Tilden: was admitted to the bar in Cincinnati in 1864, and practiced a year and a half in that city. In 1807 he went to the South, opened an office in Mobile, Alabama, and an 1868 was elected solicitor (circuit attorney), which office he held for three years.
:
THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
Returning to the North, Mr. Jonas settled in Saint Louis in January, 1872, and was not long in securing a respectable clientage, which is increasing from year to year. His practice is both civil and criminal, and in the federal as well as state courts. In 1873 Mr. Jonas defended Anton Holme, indicted for murder in the first degree for killing his wife, Circuit Attorney J. C. Normile prosecutor. Holme was convicted on the first trial, but Mr. Jonas carried the case to the supreme court, reversed the case, and secured Holme's acquittal on the second trial.
Mr. Jonas was very successful in practice between 1872 and 1875, and having been retained by the national banks of this city to test the constitutionality of the state revenue law of 1872 in the federal court, the attention of Collector Ros- enblatt was called in 1877 to his experience in tax law, and he was retained by him to uphold and enforce the state back-tax law of 1877, which he did through the various courts, obtaining a full and sweeping judgment as to its constitution- ality in the supreme court of this state.
Practice under the law being new in this state, he was obliged to model the form of petition to be used in our courts, and his form has been upheld by our supreme court. Mr. Jonas has for the past six years been retained by Mr. Rosen- blatt and his successor, Mr. Hudson, collectors of the revenue, to enforce the collection of back taxes under the various tax laws, and although defenses of almost every character have been interposed, yet he has had most unbounded success, adding millions of money to the state and city treasuries, and he has accomplished this while attending at the same time to his other general practice.
Mr. Jonas is secretary of the Harmony Hall Building Association, and is con- nected with other organizations in this city. Socially, as well as legally, his stand- ing is highly creditable.
JACOB KLEIN. SAINT LOUIS.
O NE of the highly reputable lawyers of the younger class at the Saint Louis bar, is the gentleman whose name is placed at the head of this sketch. He is a son of John Martin Klein and Caroline (Giith) Klein, and was born in the Grand Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, September 1, 1845. When he was only seven years old (1852) the family came to this country; settled in Saint Louis, and here he received his education, mainly in the public schools, one of which, a night school, he subsequently taught.
Mr. Klein read law in Saint Louis at first with Seymour Voullaire, then a noted criminal lawyer, and afterward with Knox and Smith, and finished his legal education in the law department of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachu- setts, receiving the degree of bachelor of laws in June, 1871. Spending nearly six years in preparing for the bar, he returned to his adopted home, opened an office, and has since been in the steady practice of his profession. In 1880 he formed a partnership with William E. Fisse, a bright and promising young
1
79
THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
lawyer, and the firm of Klein and Fisse has a good run of business in the several courts of the state and in the tedemail courts. Mr. Klein is assiduous in attending to the legal duties intrusted to his que, and is one of the busiest members of the fraternity in Saint Louis. He has pail a good deal of attention to corporation law, but his practice is general, and steadily increasing. He is a man of quick, clear perceptions; is prompt, cautious and shrewd in examining and cross-exam- ining witnesses; prepares his cases with great care; argues them with striking perspicuity before a jury, and with great clearness and force before the court, and is one of the most successful lawyers of the Saint Louis bar.
Mr. Klein early became interested in the subject of politics, early joined the republican party, and has for some time been a zealous worker in its interests. He was at one period secretary of the republican state central committee; was an active member of the Union League, and afterward vice-president of the Saint Louis city central committee; he is one of the commissioners of the south market. Ilis standing among the citizens of Saint Louis is highly creditable.
Mr. Klein was joined in wedlock in April, 1873, with Miss Lilly Schreiber, of Saint Louis, and they have three children.
RUFUS E. ANDERSON.
R UFUS EASTON ANDERSON was born at Palmyra, Marion county, in which he still lives, January 22, 1533. For his parentage and family history the reader is referred to the sketch of his father, Hon. Thomas L. Anderson. He was educated in the common schools of Palmyra, Masonic College, at Philadel- phia, Marion county, and Illinois College, at Jacksonville, where he spent three Years.
He read law with his father, and was admitted to the bar in 1852. At first he was in practice with his father; afterward with Colonel Henry S. Lipscomb, and still later with Waller M Boulware, with whom he dissolved partnership in 1877, since which time Mr. Anderson has been a resident and one of the leading law- yers of Hannibal. As far as we can learn, he has followed the advice given by Lord Bacon to Mr. Justice Hatton, on swearing him in: "Continue the studying of your books, and do not spend upon the old stock."
Mr. Anderson has held no political office, but has devoted himself with great diligence to the study, as well as office and court house duties of his profession. Ilis practice is large and lucrative, and he makes it his life work. He has a very vigorous mind, reasons with clearness and force, and evidently acts as a light to jurors to open their eyes, rather than a guide to lead them by the nose. Hle seems to be as candid and sincere as he is logical and persuasive, and hence the power of his rhetoric. He won his spurs as a jury lawyer some years ago, while at Palmyra, in the celebrated case of Ambrose D. Coe, for the murder of Miss
So
THE BEACH AND BAR OF MISSOURI CITIES.
Abby Somers. He was attorney for the defense, on the first trial, and his plea was that the man was insane. Before he had made his final speech the jury were unanimous for conviction; but when he was through, speaking nearly seven hours, seven were for acquittal. Cor had a second or third trial, and finally went to the penitentiary. The prosecuting attorney was assisted by Mr. Ewing, an eminent attorney from Quincy, Illinois, Mr. Anderson has since had other crim- inal cases in which he has distinguished himself as a first-class jury lawyer. The long speech referred to above was regarded as one of the ablest speeches made at the bar of this district for yours.
He is high up in Freemasonry, and in this order he seems to have found his brief respite from the exacting duties of his profession. He is a Knight Templar, and has attended as a delegate every session of the Grand Lodge of Missouri for the last twenty-five years, and has been chairman of all the important committees. He was grand master of the Grand Lodge in 1874, and grand high priest of the Grand Chapter in 1875. He has been worshipful master of the lodge in Palmyra or Han- nibal for nearly twenty years, and at times has occupied the offices of worshipful master, high priest and eminent commander at the same time. When, in June, 1874, the corner-stone of the Saint Louis Merchants' Exchange was laid, under the auspices of the Masonic fraternity, Mr. Anderson was grand master on the occasion; and his oration was so full of historical facts in regard to the commerce of the world, and so crowded with the graces of rhetoric, and chaste and elegant moral sentiment, that we have thought fit to reproduce it:
FinLow-CITIZENS,-I consider myself exceedingly fortunate in that I sustain such a relation to the order of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of Missouri, that it is made my duty to take a prominent part in the ceremony of laying, according to the forms of our ancient order, the chief cornerstone of the magnificent edifice to be denominated the Chamber of Commerce, in this great and prosperous city.
In complying with your invitation, it is made my duty, and it would seem appropriate that I should briefly state the object for which we are assembled, the more pleasing task of delivering the oration having been devolved with much propriety upon a distinguished member of the association. under whose auspices this monument of then energy, prosperity and liberality is to be reared Very little significance can be attached to the ceremonies themselves, yet inasmuch as the work in which you are engaged, and the structure which you are to greet, typities in a great measure the present condition of commerce in the world, we cannot be unmindful of the importance of the occasion
A noble and adventurous spirit, who visited our shores as far back as the time of Queen Eliza- beth, and who, it was said, at one time even aspired to a union with that maiden queen, uttered the sentiment: "Whosoever commands the seas, commands the trade of the world ; whosoever command- the trade of the world, commands the rules of the world, and consequently the world itself." This saying is literally true. The interchange of commodities is as old as civilization itself. No history tells us when it began, but we do know that it was in a state of no insignificante at least fifteen centuries before the beginning of authenti profane history.
Commerce, which of necessity must exist, to some degree and in more or less perfection, among all peoples above savages, has, as you are aware, generally run in certain channels, and has been particularly developed by certain peoples and in certain countries. Of these I need scarcely remiok, that the Phoenicians were the cathest in respect to the commerce of the East and West
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.