USA > Missouri > Boone County > The bench and bar of Boone County, Missouri; including the history of judges, lawyers, and courts, and an account of noted cases, slavery litigation, lawyers in war times, public addresses, political notes, etc > Part 11
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JNO. F. STONE
Jno. F. Stone, a cousin of Senator Wm. J. Stone and of Circuit Clerk Josiah W. Stone, practiced law in Boone county for only a few years. He died in Columbia in 1846 at the age of twenty-six. Shortly before his death, he served as a member of the state constitutional convention of 1845, representing the twelfth district, composed of Audrian and Boone counties, and being the youngest man in that body. During that convention, Mr. Stone made a speech on the im- portance of an independent judiciary, which attracted the attention of the entire state. Jno. F. Stone, Governor Chas. H. Hardin, Dr. William Jewell and Dr. T. R. H. Smith, all members of the Jewell family and all men of state reputation, are buried in the Jewell Ceme- tery, two miles south of Columbia.
Mr. Stone died during the March term of the Boone circuit court, and the bar of the county for the first time had a meeting and adopted
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resolutions. It was at the suggestion of James S. Rollins that such a meeting was held; and Judge Jno. D. Leland was made chairman and Francis T. Russell secretary, and the resolutions then adopted were printed in the "Missouri Statesman", and spread on the circuit court records. This custom has ever since been observed on the occasion of the death of a brother lawyer.
SAML. A. YOUNG
Col. Saml. A. Young, a red-headed Irishman, was not only a lawyer, but a soldier, a musician, a hunter, a dancing school master, an orator, an actor and an artist. Many are the stories that have been told about him and the parts that he took in local theatricals, given by the Thespian Society, painting the necessary stage scenery, and entertaining the crowds that attended such performances in the court house.
Mr. B. F. Venable, of Columbia, who was associated with Col. Young in many of those plays, and in other ways, tells the following story on Col. Young's fondness for sport :
Like many of the other lawyers and laymen of his day, Col. Young was fond of cockfighting. Chickens were bred with special reference to their fighting qualities,; and often the spurs were cut off of the rooster and sharp pieces of steel, called gaffs, were strapped to his legs. The cock soon learned to use these deadly weapons with telling effect. Col. Young attended nearly all of the cockfights, and so did General Odon Guitar and Wax Gordon; and General Guitar had three fighting cocks that could whip any bird in Columbia township, and we all soon found it out. One morning before daylight, Young and Gordon slipped over to Guitar's house and caught Guitar's best rooster . and took him to Young's barn. Then Young sent word to Guitar that he now had a cook that could whip any that Guitar had. Guitar accepted the challenge, and Gordon and some of "the boys" came over, a ring was formed and that rooster did whip both of the two that Guitar had. Being greatly annoyed at the defeat of his prize fighters, General Guitar said, "Some son-of-a-gun has stolen my best rooster ; but I will bet you five dollars if I can find him, he will whip your old rooster in five seconds."
Dr. William Provines, a Columbia physician, sued Col. Young for a medical bill, and Young claimed that the charges were excessive. While the plaintiff was on the stand, Col. Young asked him if he had a good horse, and how long it would take to saddle his horse and get to the defendant's house. The plaintiff replied that he had a good horse,
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and that he could saddle him and ride to the defendant's house in about twelve minutes. "All right," said Col. Young, "I am glad to know it, because when I send for you next time, I will be pretty sick."
ODON GUITAR
One of the best known Boone county lawyers was General Odon Guitar, and known far and wide as a lawyer who could speak, enter- tain and convince. No man had more endurance, and no man would work harder for a friend or client than General Guitar; every one knew that he would do his duty, and his whole duty.
During the Civil War, General Guitar was stationed at Jefferson City, and it became necessary for him to come to Columbia, to attend circuit court. Citizens of Jefferson City advised him not to try to cross the Missouri river at that time, but he believed it was his duty to do so. He arranged for some friends to bring a horse for him to a point on the north side of the river, at a certain hour in the afternoon, where he expected to cross. The weather had been cold, and the river had been frozen, but the ice was beginning to break up, the most dangerous of all times. With no one to guide him but two small boys, and no assistance save that of a long pole, General Guitar made the attempt. The ice broke three times with him, and he was washed some distance down the treacherous stream, but finally made a leap, jumped to solid ice, and reached the shore in safety. In the meantime, darkness had come on, and General Guitar found himself on the Callaway side, some distance from where his friends were expecting to meet him. He was cold, wet and exhausted. After waiting in the cold till they deemed it unwise to wait any longer, his friends had gone to a place of safety ; and General Guitar was in an enemy's country, thirty miles from home. He walked to a farm house, bought a horse and rode to Columbia by himself that night, reaching the town in time for the open- ing court the next morning.
General Guitar once introduced his friend Judge Jas. B. Gantt. of the supreme court, as one of the speakers at the old settlers' meeting in Boone county. General Guitar said that when he was a young lawyer, he had a case pending before the supreme court, and it took the court a long time to decide it, after it had been submitted. He ventured to ask one of the judges what was causing the delay, and the answer was, "We are just waiting to decide a case, so we will have a precedent to follow."
General Guitar crossed the plains in 1849, and, while in California, learned many Western expressions which remained with him as long
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as he lived. One of them was this: "The game won't pay for the candle." And he used that and similar expressions, often with effect.
Jno. C. Schwabe tells the following about General Guitar, and one of his clients: General Guitar defended a man from Cedar township for murder, and, as usual, he cleared him. Some months after, the General gave me a note, secured by a chattel mortgage on some live stock, farming implements and machinery, which had been ex- ecuted to him, to secure his fee. I should also state that the defense interposed was insanity, the only defense left him. The general insisted that I go to see his former client, and collect the note ; and I went down there on a very cold day. I saw the gentleman, introduced myself, and told him that I had a note that had been given me to collect; and incidentally reminded him that the note was secured by a chattel mort- gage. He said, "Yes, I know all about it; but I am not going to pay a cent, because I don't have to." When I asked him what he meant, he replied that he had consulted with the best lawyer in Missouri, and that that lawyer had said that he was not responsible, being insane. When I asked him to tell me the name of the lawyer, he said it was General Guitar, who had cleared him on the ground of insanity. I returned to Columbia, met General Guitar in the county court room and told him that I had failed to realize on his note and chattel mortgage. When I told the general all that his former client had said, he took the note and chattel mortgage and put them in the stove, saying, "I was a dam fool for defending such a rascal without the cash."
General Guitar told the following of his experience during the Civil War: "I learned of a number of men in and around Sturgeon, who desired to join the Union army, so I went to Sturgeon to enroll them, and found eighty young men. I had given orders for a supply of guns, ammunition and blankets to be sent to Sturgeon from the government headquarters at St. Louis. To my surprise, nothing of the kind was there, and I could not get any message from the quarter- master's office. Of course, our country was not prepared for war, and there was as much confusion at the beginning of the Civil War as there was at the beginning of the Spanish-American War. My men were therefore at the mercy of the Southern soldiers and guerillas, and there were plenty of them in Boone and adjoining counties. After making several efforts to get word from St. Louis, I determined to go there myself, and secure the needed supplies. The passenger train on the North Missouri railroad was due, but when I went to the depot, I learned that it had been ditched several miles west of Sturgeon. While waiting there, a freight train pulled out, so I boarded it, and
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started to St. Louis. It seemed to me that that old freight made poorer time than any I had been on before or since; and when we got to Mexico, the caboose broke down, and had to be abandoned. The train was loaded with hogs, and the night was intensely cold, so there was nothing left for me to do except to get into one of the cars with the hogs. I did so, and the hogs proved to be very hospitable and friendly on that awful night; they kept me reasonably warm, and I suppose I helped warm them. I rode with them to St. Charles, where I got another way of riding to St. Louis. There, I found that my order for supplies had been sidetracked, but it was hurried at once to Sturgeon, and my boys were saved."
In his speeches, General Guitar frequently made statements that were unusual and seemed radical, but when analyzed proved true. Once he said, "There are a great many men in the penitentiary who are a great deal better than a great many men outside of the peniten- tiary. Those poor fellows had their temptation, and proved unequal to the same. What you and I would do if the same or a different temptation should suddenly present itself to us, the Almighty alone can tell."
After a sensational divorce case, in which General Guitar repre- sented the wife, a divorce was granted her, and alimony allowed her. Then she and her former husband remarried. On learning that fact. General Guitar exclaimed, "There is no telling what a man will do, nor what a woman won't do! There's nothing in the world as big a fool as a man over a woman, except a woman over a man !"
About twenty years ago, General Guitar represented a lady in a divorce suit, and she claimed that her husband had been guilty of various indignities, one of which was rather unusual. It was said that, while the wife was at home sick, her mother met the husband in Co- lumbia, and gave him some wine to take to the sick wife, but that the husband drank all of the wine, and then talked ugly about it. The evidence on that subject was sufficiently strong to cause the husband to take the stand and deny that he drank the wine, although he ad- mitted that the wine disappeared, "perhaps it shrank materially". Gen- eral Guitar was not at all satisfied with this explanation, so he asked the husband to tell all he knew about that wine; and the husband started in to tell, then he hesitated, and the general urged him on. He then said that he got the jug of wine while in his wagon in front of a grocery store in Columbia, that he went into the store, and all he knew about it was what his little boy told him when he came out. The general demanded to know what the boy said. "He said," replied the husband, "that a man came along there named General Guitar. who drank it up."
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In 1896, a case was brought from Callaway county to Boone county, and it proved to be an unusual one. A saloonkeeper named Nichols had died in Fulton, after he and his wife had resided there for nineteen years. Nichols left thirty thousand dollars, and in a few weeks, a lady from Indiana appeared, said she had been lawfully mar- ried to him and had never been divorced. After it was ascertained that her claim was correct, and that she and her daughter were entitled to his property, the second Mrs. Nichols brought suit for the services that she had rendered the Fulton saloonkeeper during the nineteen years of their cohabitation. This case against the Nichols estate was sent to Boone county on change of venue. After the suit had been filed, an Indiana lawyer named Fugate appeared in Fulton, and, in the absence of her attorneys, obtained a written statement and release from the second Mrs. Nichols, and obtained the same by improper methods, so it was claimed. This lawyer did not make a good impression, either as an at- torney or as a witness ; and in his argument he was specially abusive of the second Mrs. Nichols. In reply, General Guitar got after the Indiana lawyer, thus: "Eighteen hundred years ago, the Savior of the world was here on earth, and an erring woman was brought to him, and he was asked what punishment should be administered to her. One of her accusers was a lawyer-maybe his name was Fugate. Instead of abusing her, the Savior stooped down and wrote in the sand. And when he suggested that the one without sin should cast the first stone, this lawyer, and all of his self-righteous associates, saw the in- consistency of their positions and fled, like Fugate will flee after the verdict of this jury is announced." The jury decided in favor of General Guitar's client for eleven thousand dollars.
Like many other old lawyers, General Guitar was the soul of honor. He was always fair to the court and fair to the jury; and he always wanted his client to be fair to him. In 1894, he was employed by the defendant in a case brought by Schloss Brothers, wholesale clothing men of Baltimore, against a retail clothing dealer of Centralia. All of the parties were Jews. The plaintiffs ran an attachment on Sunday, and took possession of defendant's store in great haste, alleg- ing that the defendant was about to fraudulently dispose of his prop- erty and effects, with intent to hinder and delay his creditors. Evi- dently, General Guitar was mislead as to the facts for he seemed con- fident that the plaintiffs' attachment would be dissolved. After mak- ing formal proof of the correctness of the account sued on, plaintiffs placed a Jewess on the stand, and she testified that she lived in Balti- more and knew the defendant well. She said that he had promised to leave his family, dispose of his stock of goods and run off with
CAPTAIN SINCLAIR KIRTLEY
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her to Australia. He wrote her of his efforts to sell his stock, but that he had failed to do so; but told her that he would burn his goods, collect his insurance and then go with her to Australia. General Guitar smiled as the lady told her remarkable story; and then he began to question her as to who was present when defendant made these promises. After bringing out that no one was present, and that the defendant also wrote letters to her to the same effect, he said : "Well, madam, I suppose you came all the way out here to testify in this case, and forgot and left those interesting letters in Baltimore?" The lady quickly said, "No, sir; here are the letters I received from the defendant." After reading two of them, and especially after his client admitted that he wrote them, General Guitar arose in court and said: "Well, your honor, I have practiced law long enough to know when I am beat. I will withdraw from this case." And he buttoned up his coat and left the court room, walking on his heels. The case was settled by the parties in less than half an hour, and the Baltimore gentlemen went home rejoicing.
As he neared the evening of life, General Guitar visited the court room in the old court house and told the following: "When I come into this court room, I am reminded of an incident that occurred when I crossed the plains in 1849, on my way to California. I saw many herds of buffaloes, and always noticed that perhaps a half dozen of them stayed off a little distance from the rest of the herd. I asked the man who was piloting us across the plains, and he told me that they were 'horned-off bulls.' So, when I come to the court house now days, and see the young lawyers, Hinton, Gentry, Conley and others attending to the legal business, I realize that I am one of the 'horned-off bulls.'"
A. L. VANDIVER
Capt. A. L. Vandiver was the only lawyer who lived in or near Burlington, which was an old river town. He understood justice of the peace practice, as the following illustrates. It seems that three school directors had a misunderstanding with a school-teacher, and wanted his license revoked by the county superintendent. They even accused him of embezzling some school money. At once the teacher employed Vandiver to bring suit against the directors for slander, and he did so, in the justice's court. The questions of jurisdiction or amount involved made no difference to either Attorney Vandiver or Justice John Ellis ; the suit was filed and served. The defendants, with- out seeking legal advice, hunted up Vandiver, and compromised the case.
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Mr. Vandiver said that one of those directors never signed any paper after that, without looking carefully to see if there was anything in it about "bezel".
BOYLE GORDON
Judge Boyle Gordon was one of Boone county's best lawyers, although quiet and retiring in disposition, and even shrinking from public view. General Guitar, a partner of Judge Gordon, said that no lawyer that he ever met could make a better or a more logical argument, and no man was more thoroughly acquainted with the law in all of its branches than Boyle Gordon. At the close of the Civil War, there was much litigation over county and township bond issues, and Judge Gordon was considered authority on such matters.
As an adviser for himself, however, Judge Gordon was not so successful. A gentleman from a distance visited Columbia and Judge Gordon and others subscribed for stock in an insurance company, which afterwards proved to be an insolvent concern. To the surprise of these Boone county people, the United State marshal visited them and they were notified of a suit against them by the receiver of the insurance company. Judge Gordon at once advised his friends to retain a lawyer to defend the case in the United States court, and declined to be attorney for himself, saying "A man who is his own attorney has a fool for a client." A St. Louis lawyer was retained, and he negotiated a compromise with the receiver.
During August, 1864, General Sterling Price was coming north in Missouri and reached as far as Jefferson City, and numerous bands of "bushwackers" were in different parts of the county, so the banks and express companies declined to receive any money. Judge Gordon represented various Philadelphia wholesale houses and collected five thousand dollars from persons in Columbia, which he intended re- mitting to his clients. Owing to the refusal of the banks and express companies to receive money, Judge Gordon was compelled to keep this sum and carry it around for about one month. He took it to his home, just southeast of Columbia, and every night slept out in the woods on the Hinkson bluffs, with his valuable package; and twice he saw bushwhackers in the distance. Judge Gordon was one of the happiest of men when he was able to send this money to Philadelphia ; and perhaps his clients were pleased at receiving the same.
Judge Gordon often told that he learned to practice law by riding a mule around over the county to where a case was to be tried before a justice of the peace. Later, when he began the pratice, he would take his saddle bags, put two law books in one saddle pocket, and the
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feed for his mule in the other saddle pocket, and carry his lunch in his coat pocket, and go to the justice of the peace courts.
Judge Gordon advised young lawyers to take receipts for money paid out, and carefully preserve them. Once he collected three thou- sand dollars from a Boone county debtor, and shortly afterwards paid the money, less his charges, to a member of the firm of lawyers from whom the collection came. The member of the firm to whom Mr. Gordon paid the money died not long after ; and this was before the days of banks in Columbia, so cancelled checks were not to be had. The surviving law partner soon visited Columbia and called on Judge Gordon for the three thousand dollars; and, in telling of the incident, Judge Gordon said, "I spent one whole night looking for that receipt, and found it just about day-break the next morning."
Judge R. F. Walker, now of the Missouri supreme court, says that while Judge Gordon taught in the University Law School, two law students engaged in a fist fight in the law library; and Judge Gordon quietly picked up his hat and left the room. When some one asked him what he was going to have done with them, he said : "Nothing; I presume when young men are old enough to go to the law school, they have sense enough to know what they are there for ; and if they have not, they will have to lose by it."
JAS. R. SHIELDS
Although he was a good justice and a good lawyer, Jas. R. Shields was not a success as a sign painter. He had an office in the second story over the Exchange National Bank, and at least once in his life had a spell of economy. He wanted a sign painted on his office window, and preferred not to pay a painter to put it there. So he procured a cup of paint of the desired color, also a suitable paint brush, and began the task. He noticed one person after another stopped on Broadway, in front of his office and looked at him, and seemed interested in the formation of each letter. He supposed at first that they were admiring his artistic work. But finally he noticed them laughing, and could not help suspecting that they were laughing at him. So he concluded he would go down on the street and see if they failed to appreciate his effort. Just before leaving his office, he looked at the window, and the sign read as follows :
JAS. R. SHIELDS LAWYER
As he walked across the street, he looked back, and the sign read as follows :
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гаЈдинг я За RGYWAJ
Col. Shields returned at full speed to his office, and, catching up an old towel, he hastily wiped the freshly painted letters off of the window pane, and begged the boys not to tell it on him.
ANDREW J. HARBINSON
Major A. J. Harbinson was a lawyer without briefs, without books and without a law office; but he had an extensive practice, due to his native wit and his thorough understanding of men of that time. He represented a defendant in a suit before John Bowman, J. P., of Missouri township, and his actions in that case illustrate his shrewd- ness. The case was tried at that well-known temple of justice, Strawn's schoolhouse, which is situated east of Perche Creek on the Columbia and Rocheport gravel road. For some misconduct, the jus- tice fined Harbinson five dollars for contempt of court. He arose to his feet and said, "Well, your honor, you are a justice of the peace and get your commission from the county court ; but I am a notary public and get my commission from the governor. I will therefore fine you ten dollars." The justice apologetically replied, "I beg your pardon, Major Harbinson, I did not know you were a notary public. Of course, I will remit the fine."
Shortly after the Boone County & Jefferson City Railroad (now the Columbia branch of the Wabash) was built, Mr. Wellington Gordon was employed as its local attorney, which position he held till his death in 1908. The roadbed being new and rough, the train frequently jumped the track. Mr. Gordon and Maj. A. J. Harbinson were going to Hallsville one day to try a case before Hugh M. Hall, J. P., it being a personal injury case, the plaintiff having been injured by the train being ditched near Hallsville. The weather was cold, and the old method of heating a car was by a coal stove in the either end. At this time, only one stove had fire in it, and Maj. Harbinson and Mr. Gordon were seated near it. At the same place, near Hallsville the train again jumped the track, and the passenger car fell over on its side. Maj. Harbinson and Mr. Gordon were so close to the hot stove that they ran a foot race to the other end of the car; and, in running, they tramped out every window glass on that side of the car. Both lawyers had to walk to Hallsville, and, while neither one was injured, their shoes and clothing were badly cut on the broken glass. After such an experience, Mr. Gordon did not care to try the damage
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suit, so the railroad company paid the plaintiff, who, in addition to other advantages, was a woman. Mr. Gordon said that he did not want to hear Major Harbinson's speech that day.
Major Harbinson, when necessary, could pettifog as well as any living man; and he often gained cases by the use of such tactics. He represented a man who had been sued by Captain H. C. Pierce, and.the trial came off before a justice of the peace in Perche township. The justice required all of the plaintiff's witnesses to be sworn before the introduction of any evidence. When some eight or ten of them stood up, Harbinson objected for the reason that none of them had been subpoenaed; this he said was against public policy and deprived the justice and constable of legitimate fees. The justice sustained the objection; and the plaintiff alone was permitted to testify. When about the same number of witnesses stood up to be sworn in behalf of the defendant, Captain Pierce asked if they had been subpoenaed, and all replied that they had. Then Pierce asked if any of them had formed or expressed an opinion about the case, and all admitted that they had. Pierce objected, for the reason that his client was entitled to have none but fair and disinterested witnesses to testify against him ; and his objection was sustained. As the plaintiff out swore the de- fendant, the justice decided in favor of the plaintiff.
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