USA > Missouri > The history of the bench and bar of Missouri : With reminiscences of the prominent lawyers of the past, and a record of the law's leaders of the present > Part 24
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 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94
Т.П. 13.Схема
169
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
ocratic nomination for Congress, and though had he been left to his own inclinations, he would have found in the law full and ample satisfaction of all ambition, he finally yielded to the solicitation of numerous friends, and permitted the use of his name. He failed to receive the nomination by a narrow margin, being opposed by the strong and popular Richard P. Bland, who was the successful man. In 1882, the State having been re-dis- tricted, he was again persuaded to enter the lists as a Congressional aspirant, but the Fates seemed to be against him, since he lost the nomination by one vote in the convention. Doubtless in both instances the result was for the best, as it left to devote his whole ener- ergies to the law, a man who was an ornament to the bar and of highest value to his pro- fession. However, those who knew him best insist that had he entered public life he would have left a record that would have been an honor to his name and a source of pride to his State. In 1875, in recognition of his high character as a citizen and his accomplishments as a lawyer, he was sent by his people to represent them in the convention which formu- lated the present State Constitution, where his ideas were given due weight by his able col- leagues in that august body.
In politics, as in private life, he maintained a character for strict and mnost inflexible integrity. As a speaker he was fluent and impassioned, and as a reasoner clear and coherent. In personal appearance he was agreeable and impressive, and in manners dig- nified and courteous. He was a very careful and systematic man in the preparation of his cases, and a staunch believer in the theory of thoroughness in all work. He was always genial, affable in his intercourse with his fellow-man, and was gifted with many rare qualities which endeared him to his kind. One of his strong characteristics was his intense love of nature, he believing that only by close communion and contact with her mysteries can man maintain the kindlier traits of his being unvitiated. While his calling took him into cities and crowded assemblages of inen, he was always glad to escape to the country when his work was done. Therefore, notwithstanding that for years before his death he had a practice that took the most arduous labor to dispose of, he always inaintained a resi- dence in Franklin County, and spent all the time he could spare in the inidst of its rural delights.
Shortly after he began practice (or in 1857), Colonel Crews was married to Miss Vir- ginia Jeffries, daugliter of C. S. Jeffries, one of the pioneers of Missouri who came to this State from Virginia. He was one of the early settlers of Franklin County, and for a num- ber of years was an official of that county. Colonel Crews died in St. Louis, June 25, 1891, at the age of fifty-nine years. A family of six children survive their father.
EDWARD CUNNINGHAM, JR.,
SAINT LOUIS.
E DWARD CUNNINGHAM, JR., was born in Cumberland County, Virginia, August 21,
1841. His father, Edward Cunningham, and his mother (nee Catherine I. Miller) were of old central southern Virginia antecedents. The son's early education was obtained at the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington. At the age of nineteen he became a professor in tliat institution. In 1861 came the Civil War and in the institute the feeling was intense. Faculty and students felt the thrill of the time. In April, 1861, Mr. Cunningham left the school with the corps of cadets for a camp of military instruction at Richmond. The corps was
170
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
under the command of Col. Thomas J. Jackson, the Jackson immortalized later as General "Stonewall" Jackson. In May the subject of this sketch was assigned on the staff of Colonel Jackson, who was in command of the Northern Department of Virginia at Harper's Ferry. The State troops passing under the control of the Confederate military authorities in June, 1861, he was assigned to the staff of General Joseph E. Johnston, as Captain of Engineers in State service. In this capacity he was at Harper's Ferry, Winchester, and in other parts of Virginia until General Johnston's command was ordered to Manassas, when he was assigned to duty on the staff of Brigadier-General E. Kirby Smith. It was after Manassas that he took his commission of First Lieutenant of Artillery in the Regular Army of the Confederacy, and was assigned to duty at New Orleans, in the Department of the Gulf, under Gen. Mansfield Lovell.
A short time before the fall of New Orleans, he was detailed for duty on the staff of Gen. E. Kirby Smith at Knoxville, Tennessee. With General Smith he remained in Ten- nessee and Kentucky all through 1863, and when early in 1864, General Smith was assigned to command of the Trans-Mississippi Department, Lieutenant Cunningham continued on his staff aide-de-camp. On June 4, 1864, he was commissioned Major of Artillery, and from that time served as Chief of Artillery of the Trans-Mississippi Department until the surrender at Shreveport, June 7, 1865.
The war over, he returned to Virginia and resumed teaching, acting as instructor in Norwood School, Nelson County, and in the Belleville High School. In 1868 he was teacher at the Western Military Academy at Newcastle, Kentucky, of which his former com- inander, General Smith, was principal. In 1870 he became a professor in the Louisiana State University, at Baton Rouge. He had meanwhile read law, at first with Hon. James P. Holcombe, who at that time was the principal of the Belleville High School, after which he continued his studies alone. In 1873 he came to St. Louis and began the prac- tice of law. In 1876 he married Miss Cornelia Thornton.
Mr. Cunningham has all the old style grace and sincerity, combined with a thorough familiarity with law as it develops and expands to meet new conditions, and he ranks as one of those whose inerits are inore appreciable to his client than impressive to the multitude who like the theatric. Mr. Cunningham has a good citizen's interest in politics, believing that politics should represent the best there is in the community. While he is a party man, he does not carry his partisan devotion near the point of absolute surrender to the machine. He has never held office, but took a conspicuous, though unselfish part in the campaign of 1896, in which he acted as Chairman of the Missouri Central Committee of the National Democratic party in that memorable campaign, and distinguished himself by impressing his purposes and methods upon the organization of Democrats who opposed the candidacy of Mr. Bryan.
JOHN D. DALE,
SHELBYVILLE.
D URING the last twenty-five years the bar of Shelby County has grown in strength and influence, but some of the older members have passed away and young men have arisen to take the vacant places. These promise to maintain the good reputation acquired by the county, and among them none is better qualified to do this than John D. Dale, who has had eight years of practice, and in that brief period has acquired a good business. He
Enweharminganje.
171
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
is a man of pleasing manners and is a ready, and sometimes eloquent speaker, possessing many of the elements of a natural orator. So successful has he been that he needed a partner, and has consequently associated with himself H. B. Shaw, who studied law some years ago with Judge James Ellison, but had never practiced much until last year- 1897.
Isaac Dale, the father of John D., was a native of Maryland, married there Miss Mar- garet Dennis, came to Shelby County, Missouri, in 1854, and settled on a farin near Shel- byville, and there this young lawyer first saw the light of day in September, 1858. He was raised in the little town of Clarence, in the county above named, and was there educated in the common schools, taking, however, a little finish at the Methodist Academy in Shelby- ville. He spent a short time with his brother, R. E. Dale, in Las Vegas, New Mexico, but returned, and when barely of age was chosen Constable of the township, and then in 1882, still very young, was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court, which position he held for eight years. Having studied law while in this office, he was admitted to the bar by Judge Thomas H. Bacon, and immediately opened an office in Shelbyville, and struck boldly out in the practice in competition with the older members of the profession, and has succeeded.
May 14, 1883, he married Miss Mary E., the accomplished daughter of Dr. A. G. Priest, of Shelbyville. Mr. Dale is a Mason, an Odd Fellow and a Methodist, and is a very sociable and companionable man.
ALEXANDER DAVIS, SAINT LOUIS.
THE family of which Alexander Davis, of St. Louis, is a descendant, was planted in 1 America by seven brothers, who came to this country about 1700. They settled at widely separated points along the Atlantic seaboard, one choosing Massachusetts, another Maryland, others Virginia and the Carolinas. Of the Maryland branch of the family is descended the subject of this sketch. Seven seems to have been a cabalistic number in the Davis family, as Nicholas Davis, the grandfather of Alexander, was one of seven brothers who entered the service of the Colonies and waged valiant warfare for human liberty, one of the seven rising to the rank of Captain.
About 1800 Nicholas Davis with his family moved to Kentucky. With him went one of his sons, George N. Davis, who afterward rose to a position of prominence in tliat sec- tion of Kentucky and was Sheriff of Carter County, that State, for twenty-eight years - a period of service which shows the singular hold he had on the confidence of his people. He married Harriet Bragg, and they reared a large family.
Alexander Davis, his son, was born in Carter County, Kentucky, February 28, 1832. He was the youngest of eleven children, all of whom inherited in greater or less degree the Davis vigor, courage, aggressiveness and mental and physical strength. Alfred, the eldest brother of Mr. Davis, was a Brigadier General under Lee, and was appointed by President Jackson, Attorney General of Arkansas, while it was yet a Territory, while another brother, James W., was a Colonel in the Confederate Ariny and is now a practicing attorney in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Alexander Davis received his preliminary educational training in the common schools and at Bethany College, Pennsylvania. Then he entered Jefferson College (now Washington and Jefferson College), in the same State, and com- pleted his education.
172
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
When Judge Davis was a youth of eighteen, he came West and located at St. Joseph, Missouri. There he carried out his resolution to become a lawyer, being fortunate in selecting for his preceptor, Hon. Henry M. Vories, afterward Supreme Judge of the State. In his office he completed his terin of study and was admitted to the bar at St. Joseph in 1853.
The rapidity with which he rose in his new home, demonstrated that the mettle and capacity of the young man fitted him for a successful career. In the year of his admission to the bar he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Buchanan County and served as such until 1857. In 1856 he was elected to represent that county in the Legislature, and in that body soon succeeded in impressing his forceful individuality on his colleagues. His course therein was characterized by an honesty, fearlessness and devotion to his constituency that attracted more than ordinary attention.
In the differences that precipitated the war, he was an intense Southern sympathizer, and in the first year of the contest enlisted in the Confederate Army, and rose to the posi- tion of ranking Colonel in Stein's Division of Price's Army. He was young and daring and as a result he was captured in 1862, together with his comrade, the late Thomas Thor- oughman, of St. Louis. After spending some time in prison, they were paroled by Gov- ernor Hall on their word of honor that they would go to one of the Territories and remain there until after the war. They chose Montana Territory.
Judge Davis at once entered upon practice in that new country, and rose to a position of influence. A number of the orderly citizens of Virginia City, following the example of other mining camps, began the organization of a vigilance committee. They solicited Judge Davis to become a member, who told the leaders that he was opposed to mob law and refused to join. Owing to the influence of other citizens who thought a vigilance com- mittee only a little less lawless than the law-breakers it punished, a "people's court " was organized, and young Davis was elected its Judge. This court tried many cases, and it is a notable fact that those cases which were appealed to the regular courts after the Territory was organized, were sustained without exception, which in a marked manner showed the judicial acumen of the young Judge who presided over that informal court. Judge Davis remained in Montana until 1869, and was in the convention which organized the Territory, and when the question arose in that body as to whether the code or common law pleading should govern the courts of that Territory, he led the forces of those favoring code pleading, and to this day the rules of pleading favored by him still obtain in that State. In the year last named he returned to Missouri, settled in St. Louis, and practiced thicre successfully as a partner of his old comrade, Thomas Thoroughman, until 1879, when he retired on account of ill health.
Judge Davis was a splendid trial lawyer, and yet his chief strengthi lay in the careful preparation of his cases. He was modest and rather reserved, but when once "drawn ont " his was a most sociable and magnetic personality. He died in St. Louis, February 14, 1896.
Judge Davis was married at Jefferson City to Mary C., daughter of Dr. John H. Edwards, a prominent physician of Cole County, Missouri. To this marriage was born one child, a son, named James C., who is now a practicing attorney of St. Joseph. Mrs. Davis died in 1863, and on March 21, 1867, Judge Davis was married at Jefferson City, to Miss Alice Edwards, a sister of his first wife. Of this union three children survive: Sidney Edwards Davis, a resident of St. Louis and a lawyer who promises to achieve exceptional
1
AlexDans
173
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
success in his profession; Walter Naylor Davis, now a student of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee; and Harriet Davis, a school girl. Mrs. Alice E. Davis survives her husband.
The following estimate of Judge Davis' character, as well as a few incidents of his career, is contributed on the solicitation of the editor by Hon. Phil E. Chappell, a leading retired capitalist and banker of Kansas City, and at one time (from 1881 to 1885) State Treasurer of Missouri. The contribution follows :
" The most noteworthy traits in the character of Judge Alexander Davis were his per- sonal courage and his rugged honesty. He was unflinching in his adherence to principle and what he believed to be right, and it inattered not whose frown came, or what the result might be, he was always found standing firmly at the post of duty. He was a plain, unas- suming man of the people, almost child-like in his simplicity and utterly indifferent to appearance and the plaudits of the world. He never sought popularity by sacrificing prin- ciple, but was found always on the side of the weak against the strong. A brave, strong man, unassuming; a zealous Christian; he did his duty as he saw it and came fully up to the standard of a true inan in all the relations of life. Whether at the head of his regiment, leading a charge-for he was a Colonel in the Confederate Army - or on the bench of a frontier Territory, enforcing the law, he was always the same honest, true, brave man. As a lawyer, Judge Davis was never distinguished for his eloquence, for he was a man of few words. But he was a close student, a good business inan, and his many sterling qualities brought him success in his profession as long as he continued at the bar.
" Mark Twain, in his account of the trial of the outlaw, Slade, given in his 'Roughing It,' has paid a just tribute to the courage of Judge Davis and his devotion to duty. The scene occurred in Montana when Slade was tried before Judge Davis for murder. The accused-one of the most noted desperadoes of that wild country - endeavored, with his followers, to intimidate the Judge and actually drew their pistols in court and placing their muzzles near his head threatened instant death. The writer says: ' The Judge stood perfectly quiet, kept cool and refused to be intimidated,' and adds: 'Slade afterward apol- ogized for his conduct, saying he would take it all back.'
" The simplicity of the character of Judge Davis, and his devotion to his family, are well illustrated by the following incident which took place while he was on the bench in Mon- tana. He had married but a short time before leaving Missouri, during the war, and his young wife, whose only child was then an infant, was an invalid. She was far from home and friends- among strangers - and a servant was not to be had for love or money. Under these circumstances, and to relieve his sick wife, it was the daily custom of the Judge, in holding court, to take the child with him in his arms to the court room, and there, after laying it on a pillow in a rocking chair by his side, to rest one hand on the improvised cradle while he administered stern justice to the wild and lawless crowd around him."
THOMAS JEFFERSON DELANEY,
SPRINGFIELD.
S his name signifies, Thomas Jefferson Delaney, of Springfield, is of Irishi descent. A He was born at New Orleans, Louisiana, May 10, 1859, and is the son of James and Alice (Mahon) Delaney. Both parents were natives of Ireland, the father of County Cork, the mother of West Meath. They reached New York when quite young, there met and
174
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
were married, and in 1858 moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. A few years later the father entered the Confederate Armny and was killed at the second battle of Corinth. His widow still survives and is yet living at New Orleans.
Thomas Delaney was educated at St. Mary's Academy, New Orleans. He left the academic school when fifteen years old, to strike out in the world to make his own living. He came from New Orleans to Missouri and secured employment in the machine shops of the old Atlantic & Pacific, now the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway. He was not afraid of work, and when age gave him strength, he secured a job as fireman on that road. From that he was promoted to a clerkship and later was again promoted, being given charge of the store departinent. As soon as he had saved some money he left the road to take up the study of law, in October, 1878, entering the St. Louis Law School. When vacation came, he returned to his old position on the road, and fired an engine until he had saved enough money to continue his schooling. It was thus that he made his way through the Law School, graduating with first honors in June, 1880. He was ambitious to finish his studies in time to be admitted to the bar on his twenty-first birthday, and in this he was successful, passing his examination and being licensed on May 10, 1880, before Judge Lindley at St. Louis. In the following October he formed a business connection with Brit- ton A. Hill, which was continued to June, 1881, when failing health, caused by his close application to books, induced him to seek a change. For this reason he located at Spring- field, believing the more mountainous topography of that section would be beneficial. In this belief lie was not disappointed, and soon after opening an office there began to do a good practice which has yearly increased in volume since then.
In 1882 Mr. Delaney was elected City Attorney of Springfield, and on the expiration of his term he was elected his own successor. The duties of this office were discharged with such fidelity, that during his second term, in September, 1883, he was appointed Pros- ecuting Attorney of Greene County by Governor Crittenden and declined a nomination, retiring January, 1885. In 1888 he was appointed Assistant United States Attorney, and tendered his resignation when President Harrison was inaugurated, but the same was witli- held by District Attorney Kimball for some time.
Mr. Delaney is a Democrat, and through that genius which nearly always makes the good lawyer an expert politician, he has in more than one campaign shown his capacity as a political fighter. In all the councils of Democracy in that section of the State for several years his voice has been heard, and from 1890 to 1894 he was a member of the State Democratic Committee. In all affairs of a local civic nature he is patriotic and pub- lic spirited and is found always ready to give generously of his time and money to such enterprises. His practice includes every department of law, but it is, perhaps, as a crim- inal lawyer that he is best known to the public. He has appeared as counsel in all the important criminal cases that have come before the courts of Greene or surrounding counties in a number of years. It is to his credit that of all the murder cases he has tried, lie has never had but one go before the Supreme Court. That exception was the case of the celebrated Bald Knobbers, tried in 1889. Like nearly all people of his antecedents, edu- cation and environments he is ready of wit and eloquent of tongue. As a pleader he is persuasive, convincing, argumentative, pathetic and insistent by turns, and his ability to understand and properly estimate the jury he has before him is no inconsiderable factor of his success.
J. Josthanly
175
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
Mr. Delaney married, December 29, 1880, Cordie Boyd, daughter of Hon. S. H. Boyd, of Springfield. The union has been blessed by two boys, one of whom, a lad now fifteen, named James Boyd Delaney, survives.
VERNON LYELL DRAIN, SHELBYVILLE.
PERHAPS it is to an aptitude for constant study and continual desire for knowledge that Vernon Lyell Drain can attribute the success he has achieved in the legal pro- fession. Still it is possible that, like inany of the leading lawyers of Missouri, his Scotch and Irish ancestry is partly responsible for the strenuous pertinacity which he brings to his daily legal tasks.
He was born on a farm near Shelbyville, Missouri, January 21, 1864, his father, Stan- ford Drain, being by birth a Delawarean, the son of Shepherd Drain, of Scotch descent. His mother, whose maiden name was Mary Lyell, was a daughter of John Lyell, who, hav- ing Irish blood in his veins, was a native of Westmoreland County, Virginia. They were married in Marion County, Missouri, in 1858, whither they had emigrated from the East when the century was yet young.
After a fair education in the common schools of Shelby County, Missouri, and the High School at Shelbyville, Vernon read law in the office of Hon. James T. Lloyd at Shel- byville, after which he was admitted to the bar in 1890 by Judge Thomas H. Bacon in the Shelbyville Circuit Court. He immediately began the practice of law in the same town, and Shelbyville is still the scene of his toils. He has never had any partnerships, prefer- ring to depend upon his individual ability in the conduct of his business.
Although not caring for office, he has been induced by his fellow-citizens to accept two of a legal kind. As City Attorney of Shelbyville in 1890 he made the best of records, and in 1892 was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Shelby County, being re-elected to that posi- tion in 1894. On January 1, 1897, he retired and resumed the private practice of the law, which has always been more to his taste.
Mr. Drain depends for his success rather on a capacity to convince by forcefulness of argument and directness of speech, than on ornate rhetorical flourishes, and appeals to sentiment. He is one of the most studious of barristers, and one of the most industrious and careful advocates, allowing 10 opportunity to escape which he could make advantag- eous to the cause of his client. Therefore it might be said that he is successful solely through his capacity for attending closely to the business he has in hand, whether it be one case or several. Not yet as close to forty as his talents would seem to indicate, he has accomplished much that is remarkable in the jurisprudence of his section, and promises to accomplish much more as he nears the half-century milestone in life.
He is one of the foremost Odd Fellows of Shelby County, having been Noble Grand of the local lodge, and representing the same lodge at the convocation of the Grand Lodge of Missouri, an unusual honor. Of course, like all good citizens, he has a political prefer- ence, being a Democrat, and one of the most active in his part of the State. He has 110 aspirations toward political preferment, finding ample employment in attending to his legal business, but he always has an open ear for the calls of his party, and is never dilatory in acting accordingly, being found at the front on all such occasions, prepared orally to con- tend with every opponent.
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.