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 26
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June 10, 1895, was the date of Judge Edmunds' marriage. On that day he was wed- ded to Aliny H. Breckinridge, daughter of Judge Samuel M. Breckinridge of St. Louis.
CHARLES J. E. ERD, SAINT LOUIS.
O NE of the young attorneys who has recently entered the lists as a contestant for legal honors, whose native talent is a pledge of future performance, is Charles J. E. Erd, of St. Louis, at present a member of the firm of Taylor & Erd. Mr. Erd was born at Waterloo, Illinois, February 18, 1870. He is the son of William and Mary Theresa Erd, and from cach inherited the best results of good influences and proper training exercised through a minber of generations. They were people of good education and entitled to the respect accorded them by all who knew them. The father, who died November 27, 1896, was for twenty years Judge of the Probate Court of Monroe County, Illinois, and for
It to Edmunds
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THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
twenty years previous to his election as Probate Judge, filled the office of Clerk of the Cir- cuit Court of the same county, facts that testify to his character as a man and his worth as a citizen. The mother was a daughter of the late Capt. John Wesley, of St. Louis, and in her character gave expression to inany of the highest virtues of a true Christian woman- hood.
Charles J. E. Erd passed his boyhood in the town of his nativity, and there attended the common schools until 1884. In that year he was enrolled as a student of St. Louis University, remaining there until the spring of 1885, when his connection with the University was terminated by his appointment as a cadet at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, an honor for which he was indebted to Hon. William R. Morrison, of Illinois. Two years spent at the Naval Academy convinced him his tastes and inclination unsuited him to the unbending and almost machine-like routine of a naval life. Neither did the knowledge that he must always hold himself subject to the will of a superior officer comport with his ideas of independence, or his inherited love of liberty; accordingly he resigned.
After a short time spent at home, he proceeded to carry out his cherished plan of entering the law. He matriculated at the St. Louis Law School in the fall of the same year he resigned his commission as a cadet (1887), and received his diploma from that institution in 1889. He was admitted to practice at St. Louis, February 18, 1891, and in July, 1893, formed the partnership with Seneca N. Taylor, which is still maintained. Mr. Taylor is a lawyer of many years' practice and established reputation, and the firm has an excellent line of legal business, no small share of which is attended to by the junior partner. In this he has proved himself diligent and wholly trustworthy, never permitting himself to be satisfied with less than his best effort in every instance. As stated in the beginning of this sketch, Mr. Erd is still in the first flush of youth, with the world in front of him. Actu- ated by the purpose to succeed and with fine natural endowments, his future is almost assured. He is of social disposition, of unassuming demeanor and courteous manner, and his many admirable qualities have won for him numerous powerful friends, ever ready to second his laudable efforts. Mr. Erd is unmarried.
FRANK M. ESTES, SAINT LOUIS.
FRANK M. ESTES, of St. Louis, is of Southern origin and is a descendant of a family well and favorably known in Dixie. He was born in Haywood County, Tennessee, August 26, 1854, and came to St. Louis in 1875, having at that time just reached his majority. He remained in Tennessee during his youth, or until he left home to go to Montreal, Can- ada, where he entered the celebrated McGill University. After completing the course at that institution, he returned to the United States, matriculated at the University of Vir- ginia, at Charlottesville, where, conformable to plans forined long prior to that time, he qualified in the law. After a short visit to his home; he started westward in search of fame and fortune. Reaching St. Louis, he was impressed by the opportunities it offered to a young man of pluck and determination, and undeterred by the able and experienced inen with which the field was already occupied, he decided to make the city the scene of his future labors.
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When he settled in St. Louis in 1875, he did not at once begin practice, but with that devotion to thoroughness which is characteristie of all his work, he decided to take a post- graduate course in law. He entered St. Louis Law School, received his degree and was admitted to the bar. Since that date his professional progress has been uninterrupted, and he has reached a point where he is able to command a most desirable class of legal business. He is skilled and able, is vigorous, energetic, alert and young and brings to the service of his clients an enthusiasm and devotion, prerequisites to success in any departinent of human endeavor. If he is inore skilled in one respect, as a practitioner, than another, it is as a trial lawyer, in which his gift of eloquenee is effective. He is a graceful and fluent speaker, and has a command of language that enables him to express the finer shades of meaning most effectively.
Like all men of robust mental constitution, he is naturally interested in public and political affairs. In the leading political position he occupies, no small part of his influence is based on the fact that his course has always been without the expression of a desire to elevate himself to official position. He has given of his time and talent freely in his party's behalf, as delegate and as a committeeman, serving for a time as Chairman of the Demo- cratic City Central Committee and rendering valued service in a variety of ways. A high evidence of the esteem of the people was extended when in 1896 he was made one of the five candidates for Judge of the Circuit Court of the Eighth Judicial Distriet. St. Louis went Republican that year, and he, as well as such able jurists and well known lawyers as Edmunds, Dillon, Harvey and Wood (his colleagues) was defeated.
Mr. Estes has social qualities which have won him a legion of friends. He is one of the best known inen in St. Louis, and is popular in every circle. He has done much to inaintain the esprit du corps in his profession, is one of the most active inembers of tlie Missouri Bar Association, and for some time acted as Secretary of that body. He is a inember of the Legion of Honor, of which he has been Supreme Chancellor and is a prom- inent Elk. The St. Louis Lodge of Elks to which he belongs, lias honored him by making him its President.
Mr. Estes has two children by a former marriage. In August, 1896, he was married to Miss Nellie Stoekton, a granddaughter of Commodore Stockton and a lineal deseendant of Richard Stockton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Mrs. Estes was quite a belle of St. Louis society and one of the handsomest women in the State of Missouri.
DANIEL D. FASSETT,
SAINT LOUIS.
ANIEL D. FASSETT is a great grandson of Capt. Jonathan Fassett and Mary Mon- D taguc Fassett, of Vermont. Captain Fassctt was active in the military and civil affairs of Vermont, held the office of Commissary of Purchases for that State during a part of the period of the Revolutionary struggle and many offices of trust and honor afterward. Mary Montague, his wife, was related to the celebrated English Montague family. Mr. Fassett's family numbers many lawyers and politicans. J. Sloat Fassett, of New York, is his cousin.
Mr. Fassett was born May 7, 1846, in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, on a farmi and is the son of Philo Fassett. He attended the common country school, his first instruction
Franck M. Estes. rank il. Later
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being received in an old log school house, a relic of early pioneer days. The boy worked on the farm in summer and went to school winters, later attending a private academy in Elmira, New York.
When about twenty years old, he went into a shoe store as clerk, but after a year in this position, decided that trade was suited neither to his taste or talent. He determined to study law, and subsequent years have demonstrated the wisdom of his choice of a pro- fession. As necessity compelled him to be self-sustaining, his road to a profession was no easy one. Before he left the shoe store he began reading Blackstone, and his studies were prosecuted of nights and at odd times while working on the farm, while canvassing for news- papers, selling maps, etc. It may be set down as a certainty that the boy who shows the tenacity of purpose and ambition to obtain an education at such cost and sacrifice, has the pluck and endurance to win success under any circumstances that may befall. The proof is to be found in the present standing at the St. Louis bar of this young man who wrought out his own beginning in the county where he was born.
Finally he was able to enter the office of Mercur & Morrow at Towanda, Pennsylvania, Judge Mercur being an eminent lawyer and afterward Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. Mr. Morrow was likewise a splendid lawyer, and under such excellent tutelage young Fassett completed his technical education and after three years of effort was, on May 9, 1870, admitted to practice, being at that time twenty-four years old.
He did not make any very serious attempt to establish himself in practice near his home, his chief concern being rather to find a good location elsewhere. In March, 1872, he located at Titusville, in the oil region of Pennsylvania. There he founded a partner- ship with Joseph R. Harris, afterward a well known member of the St. Louis bar. This partnership was formed in 1873, and between that date and 1876 the firm's prestige and reputation rapidly increased. They handled a great mass of legal business during that time, some of it of the first importance. It is said by one who knew Mr. Fassett and his partner at that stage of their careers, that in the high and responsible character of the business transacted, they could congratulate themselves as standing among thie first legal combinations in the State. This was the more remarkable, considering the combined ages of the members of the firm, which aggregated but fifty-six years.
The partnership was dissolved by Mr. Harris' decision to seek a larger field in the West. He located in St. Louis, and to that city in 1881 came also the subject of this sketch. His former partner had made rapid progress, and in a few years after reaching St. Louis was elected Circuit Attorney of that city. After Mr. Fassett established himself there, he and Mr. Harris were interested in many suits as associate counsel, and it was the tacit understanding that on the expiration of the latter's terni as Circuit Attorney, their former business relations were to be resumed, but the young Circuit Attorney's ambition was stronger than his physical being, and as a result, hard work and study broke him down and he died. Mr. Fassett continued in civil practice, and this has grown to such a volume that all his time is required to dispose of it.
Before he left Pennsylvania in 1881, Mr. Fassett was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the United States Circuit and District Courts and tlie Supreme Court of the United States. In knowledge of law and procedure he has a splen- did equipment. His practice in Pennsylvania thoroughly familiarized him with the methods and principles of the common law, which then obtained in that State. ' When he came to Missouri he diligently set before himself the task of mastering the science of code pleading
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and practice, with the result that he may now be considered one well versed in both the civil and common law. He is a tireless searcher for the truth and as much of his effort has been confined to the limits of the law, the result has been a knowledge of that subject in whose possession the greatest of his profession might well feel proud. He is a strong advocate, and is a clear and logical reasoner before court or jury.
In 1885 Mr. Fassett was married to Miss Ruth Gaty, daughter of Samuel Gaty, an old and honored citizen of St. Louis. Two daughters have come to bless the Fassett house- hold.
Mr. Fassett has never aspired to or held official position. He is distinctively and strictly a lawyer. He is a member of the Legion of Honor, and of the Office Men's Club of St. Louis, is also a communicant of the Baptist Church and takes an interest in all religious work and every effort to assist and raise humanity.
PEMBROOK REEVES FLITCRAFT, SAINT LOUIS.
P EMBROOK REEVES FLITCRAFT, now Judge of the Circuit Court in the City of St. Louis, is an example of that class of inen to which chiefly every vigorous and advancing community owes its prosperity. Born of educated parents and reared under refined and Christian influences, yet fortunately not in the wealth sufficient to reduce his early life to a condition of ease, he has attained a high and honorable title in his profession, through means that give him the higher and more honorable title among men - a self made inan. A very brief epitome of his history is here given.
The parents of Judge Flitcraft were Dr. Isaiah Reeves Flitcraft and Mary Ann Flitcraft, nee Atkinson. Dr. Flitcraft was practicing his profession in Boston, Indiana, in July, 1849, during the epidemic of cholera, when he was himself attacked by the disease and died in Richmond, Indiana, on the 20th of that month. The mother of Judge Flitcraft died January 11, 1893. His grandparents on his father's side were Isaiah Flitcraft, and Martha, his wife. His grandfather and grandmother on his mother's side were Champion Atkinson, born February 20, 1795, and died March 22, 1873, and Eliza Atkinson, his wife. Both his father and mother and their ancestors were members of the Friends, or Quaker Church.
Judge Flitcraft was born at Woodstown, Salem County, New Jersey, January 7, 1847. When he was quite young his parents moved to Ohio, thence to Indiana, and his early education was acquired in the country district schools until 1864, when he entered Raisin Valley Seminary, a Quaker boarding school in Lenawee County, Michigan, where he pre- pared for admission in the classical course of tlic University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, which he entered in the year of 1867, and from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1871, and from which also lie received a degree of Master of Arts in 1874.
But his road through college was not smoothied by wealth. On the contrary, the money necessary to defray his expenses was earned by his own labor. In 1866, before entering college, he taught school, and during the summer vacations while at college he worked on a farm, and by these means acquired money to carry him through thic freshman and soplio- more years. When he reached the Junior year he had to withdraw from college until lie
Pembroke R.Sliterafx
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could earn money enough to go on again. During this period he taught school and after- wards was appointed Deputy United States Marshal to assist in taking the census of 1870, and in this way acquired means to enter his class again in the fall of 1870. But while he was working in this manner he also applied himself diligently to the studies that his class was pursuing, and although he was absent for a whole year, yet when he presented himself for examination he passed with honor, was admitted to the senior class, and graduated with those with whom in 1867 he had matriculated as freshmen. But after those four years of manly struggle and noble achievement, we are not surprised to find the young man consid- erably involved in debt; for though industry, zeal and noble ambition will accomplish won- derful things, still they must fall short of absolute miracles. With the same energy, there- fore, he had displayed in the years just passed, encouraged by the success he had attained, and strengthened by his growth, the young man entered bravely and confidently on the task of earning the means to pay his debts and to enter on his life of usefulness.
On leaving college, he first became Superintendent of Schools in Charlotte, Michigan, which position he held for one year and resigned to take a more lucrative position with the publishing house of A. S. Barnes & Co., with which he remained for one year and resigned to accept a position in the publishing house of Wilson, Hinkle & Co., afterwards Van Ant- werp, Bragg & Co., of Cincinnati, Ohio. Upon resigning from this last position he resumed, with all his energy, the study of law which he had begun, but had not been able to devote his whole time to during his other occupations, and moved to Missouri, first com- ing to St. Louis and then to Kansas City, where he was admitted to the bar in 1875. He was now twenty-eight years old and had accomplished the proud work of educating him- self, paying his debts and fitting himself for his profession, all by his own labor.
Shortly after being admitted to the bar in Kansas City, he went to Girard, Crawford County, Kansas, to pay a visit to his mother, who was then living there, and during that visit he was invited by John T. Voss, Esq., an old and prominent attorney of Southern Kansas, to form a law partnership with him. This he did and entered on the practice of law at that point, and so remained until 1878, when he returned to St. Louis, where he has resided ever since. In 1880 he formed a law partnership with Henry E. Mills, Esq., which he continued until called to the bench of the Circuit Court in January, 1895, by the vote of the people of St. Louis, which position he now holds.
Judge Flitcraft is an example of that class of Americans who are at home in any State in the Union. Born in New Jersey, he moved with his parents in his childhood to Ohio, thence to Indiana, thence back to Ohio, thence to Michigan, where he lived until he was grown; then he moved to Illinois, thence to Ohio, thence to Missouri, thence to Kansas, and thence to Missouri again, in the City of St. Louis, where at the bar and on the bench, he has displayed those qualities of mind and heart that have gained for hiin the admiration and affection of the community to such an extent that the probabilities are that he will not wander any more, but will pass the rest of his life in the city which appreciates and honors him.
It would be impossible for a man of Judge Flitcraft's mind and character to isolate himself from mankind, or to exclude himself from those social connections through which good men exert their greatest influence towards the advancement and happiness of their fel- low men. It is a fact which will not excite surprise, therefore, when it is stated that for many years he has been an active and prominent Mason. He is a member of George Wash- ington Lodge, No. 9, A. F. & A. M., and was Worshipful Master of that Lodge in 1890.
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He is a member of St. Louis Chapter, No. 8, Royal Arch Masons, and was High Priest of that Chapter in 1885. He is a member of Hiram Council, No. 1, Royal and Select Mas- ters, and was Thrice Illustrious Master of that Council in 1882. He is a member of St. Louis Commandery, No. 1, Knights Templar, and was Eminent Commander of the Com- inandery in 1885. He was also Most Illustrious Grand Master of the Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of the State of Missouri in 1885. He is also a Thirty-second Degree Mason of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, being a member of Missouri Con- sistory, No. 1, of that Rite, of St. Louis, Missouri.
Besides the high places he has filled in the Masonic fraternity, he is also a member of two benevolent orders, known as the Royal Arcanum and Legion of Honor. In the Royal Arcanum he is a member of Valley Council, No. 437, and in 1894 was Grand Regent of Missouri. In the Legion of Honor he is a member of Alpha Council, No. 1, of St. Louis, Missouri. Through his connection with these fraternal bodies Judge Flitcraft has exerted a great influence for good. He has left upon all those bodies with which he has been con- nected the impress of his own elevated and enlightened character.
In September, 1883, Judge Flitcraft married Emma Belle Brenneman, daugliter of Levi and Mary Brenneman, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Of this marriage there have been born and are now living two children: Ada Virginia and Edna Belle.
As a lawyer practicing at the bar his conduct was always marked by industry, zeal, ability and good faith, and since he has been on the bench he has brought into action those same virtues, tempering only the zeal of the advocate in the impartiality of the Judge.
WILLIAM WALLACE FRY, MEXICO.
W ILLIAM WALLACE FRY, of Mexico, comes from one of the oldest Missouri fail- ilies now living, his ancestors blazing the first forests on the western banks of thic Mississippi in what is now known as Pike County. The Frys are of English descent, thie American residence of the family beginning with the great grandfather of our subject, wlio came to this country from England. His son, James Fry, of Cynthiana, Kentucky, came to Missouri in 1818, three years before her admission as a State, and settled on land in Pike County, near where the town of Louisiana afterwards sprung up. On this farm, in 1820, Jacob Young Fry, father of our subject, was born, and there he passed his boyhood, brought home his bride, raised his family and lived to the ripe age of seventy-six, dying in 1896.
His wife, the mother of William, was Elizabeth Carson Jordan, member of a pioneer family even longer resident of Missouri than the Frys. She was of Scotchi descent and came of a grand family. She was born in Pike County in 1828, and lier father was Robert Carson Jordan, a South Carolinian who came to Missouri in 1812. He gave liis life to his spirit of pioneer daring, for lie was killed by the Indians, and was the first person buried in what is known as the Buffalo graveyard at Louisiana. All the pioneers here mentioned were people who were endowed with both physical and mental strength and health and werc the forerunners of that virilc, forceful, noble race of people of Virginia-Kentucky blood who first settled Pike County, and with that vitality and persistency which is the highest
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evidence of fitness, have since spread throughout and dominated the State. Missouri environment of the early days produced a splendid people, strong physically, quick witted, resourceful, brave, of wide humanity and the highest and noblest moral instincts. The best material, that which was adapted to and fitted into the Missouri environment most naturally, was the Virginia or Kentucky stock, and as Pike County was made the point of earliest settlement of that people, it naturally follows that that section has produced the typical, the most complete and representative Missourian.
William Wallace Fry was born on the old homestead near Louisiana, which was also his father's place of nativity. His youth was spent amidst the healthful quiet of the country and under the invaluable training of parents industrious, rigidly just and honest, and fully realizing the serious importance of life. When the son was of sufficient age he was sent to school and in the district schools of Pike County he procured his elementary education. After finishing at the common schools, William was sent to McAfee's College at Louisiana, and afterwards spent four years at McGee College, at Macon City, Missouri. That the course might be thorough and complete he next went to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and became a student at the University of Michigan, where he took both the collegiate and law course. He graduated with honors in both, receiving his diploma from the law department in March, 1876. Returning to his home he was admitted to practice at Louis- iana by Judge Gilchrist Porter, in May, 1876.
He practiced a short time in the office of Fagg & Biggs, of Louisiana, after being licensed, but dominated by that peculiarly human impression or notion that the Elsewhere is always indefinitely fuller of opportunity than the Here, he came to the conclusion that. Mexico, Missouri, held for him greater possibilities than Louisiana, and thus it resulted that he was soon located there and launched in business. On settling at Mexico in Jan- uary, 1877, he formed a partnership with W. O. Forrist, which continued up to the time of the latter's death in 1888, since which Mr. Fry has practiced alone.
It is impossible in a town the size of Mexico for an attorney to essay to become a specialist, and therefore Mr. Fry's practice is general in its nature. His versatility well fits him for this character of work. Rated at the top of his profession, it is not singular that he has appeared in almost every important case that has come before the bench in that circuit, in the last fifteen years. Of those of greatest interest and consequence, might be mentioned :- State vs. Alex. Kilgore, 70 Mo., 546; Mills vs. Williams, 31 Mo. Ap., 447; Richardson vs. Palmer, 24 Mo. Ap., 480 and 36 Mo. Ap., 88; Brownfield vs. Phoenix Insurance Co., 26 Mo. Ap., 390; Davis vs. Green, 102 Mo., 164; Wade vs. Ringo, 122 Mo., 322. These cases are all important in the history of the bench and bar of Missouri, because they involved new issues or raised novel ideas in the courts. The Kilgore case was a murder case and attracted widespread interest, and in fact all the cases here men- tioned attracted great attention at the time, and have since been generally cited by the bar of the State as precedents. Wade vs. Ringo was a very interesting case, involving a pat- ent right contract. Mr. Fry drew up the contract, and afterward defended it. He won a decision from the Missouri Supreme Court, but the opposition still being dissatisfied car- ried it to the United States Supreme Court, which also decided in favor of Mr. Fry's client. All the cases here inentioned were carried to an issue wherein the appellate courts sustained his contention.
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