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 27
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
190
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
Mr. Fry is a Democrat in politics, but is too thorough a lawyer to permit the interference with his practice that would be involved in an active participation in his party campaigns. Hence he has never held an office or consented to run for one, although he takes a deep interest in all issues of good government and manifests a special concern in the judicial conventions of his party.
As a citizen he is a leader in all civic enterprises, and is especially endowed with that large minded progressiveness, which is the foundation stone of the fabric of many of our Western towns. He is too deeply devoted to the law to permit such patriotism assuming an extended, specific or personal relation to his city's progress, although he is at this time Vice-President and Director of the Mexico Savings Bank.
He is one of the most active and helpful friends the cause of education has in the State of Missouri. He is a staunch friend of Missouri University, and did other citizens of tlie State have a modicum of his pride in that institution, it would soon become what he hopes to see it ere he dies-the leading State University of the country. He is a tireless worker in behalf of the University and is as enthusiastic and hopeful as active. Such enthusiasm has resulted in much good to the cause of education generally. In his efforts to advance this work he has given much money outright. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the cause of religion has also felt his benefactions.
As a lawyer, Mr. Fry ranks with the ablest in the State. His success he attributes to his application and industry, though a strong and splendid natural mental endowment should not be omitted from the list of his equipments. He undoubtedly has that power of concentration and sustained effort, to which with the assistance of a highly intellectual mental inheritance, all things seem possible. He is proud of his profession, and is a devotee of his law books, although he is of a literary turn of mind and has read deeply and well. He cares nothing for society, being a man too earnest and natural to brook its artificialities. His greatest pleasure is found in his office, surrounded by his books and briefs, or at his home in the bosom of his family. It may be said withi truth that he divides his life equally between the two.
Mr. Fry is a man of great physical force, which is only surpassed by his mental power, and his conviction that life has an carnest purpose has been broadened by him into active expression. He is a ready, fluent talker, and in conversation it is a delight to listen to lıim1. There is none of the artificial or the inake-believe in his constitution. He is demo- cratic and sociable and desires the world to take him as he really is, which is good enough. In the law he is especially strong in the preparation of his cases for trial. His estimate of what the cvidence shows, and his construction of the law, are always presented in a clear, concise and painstaking manner. As he is yet in the fullness of his manhood, strong, vig- orous and full of licaltlı, ambitious and able, it is hard to forecast what honors he may not yet attain in the practice of liis profession.
Mr. Fry's wife lias been a real helpincet to him as well as a companion. She was Miss Nettie Bourne, one of the belles of Mexico, and a daughter of Dr. R. W. Bourne, an old and successful physician of that town. The marriage was consummated November 25, 1880, and the couple have three children-two boys and a girl, named respectively, Rich- ard B., fifteen; W. W., Jr., eleven; and Gertrude, six.
191
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
MELVIN LAMOND GRAY, SAINT LOUIS.
A MAN who has gone through over half a century of law practice in such a city as St. Louis must have had experiences, which crystallized into narrative form, should constitute a story of surpassing interest. Such has been the experience of the venerable Melvin Lamond Gray, whose intelligent observation of the incidents running through fifty- four years, must prove a record of the highest value to any history of St. Louis or of the bench and bar of Missouri. And while it is not possible to incorporate any very consider- able share of the rich historical facts with which his mind is stored, in this article, an attempt will be made to include a few reminiscences of earlier days as they relate to the bar, given the writer by Mr. Gray, together withi a brief biography of the oldest enrolled member of the St. Louis bar resident in that city, with one exception.
Melvin Lamond Gray was born at Bridport, Vermont, July 20, 1815. The Grays are of Scotch-Irish stock, the Scotch representative settling in the north of Ireland from Ayreshire, Scotland, in 1612. The patriarch of the family, John Gray, with several sons, emigrated in 1718 to Worcester, Massachusetts, and about 1740 several of his sons set- tled at Pelham, Massachusetts, adjoining the present Amherst. Dr. Asa Gray, the emi- nent botanist, is a descendant of this John Gray. Our subject's grandfather and several of the latter's brothers served in the Revolutionary War, and his father was called as one of the militia to participate in the battle of Plattsburg, but reached the field too late. The father, Daniel Gray, being named for his grandfather, the latter insisted that he should have a collegiate education, and he accordingly graduated at Middlebury College, Vermont, in 1805. Some time after this he was married to Susan Rice, who bore him one son, Ozro Preston Gray. The mother lived only a short time, and after her death the elder Gray was wedded to Amy Bosworth. To this marriage were born eight children, of whom six sons grew to manhood. Our subject came of this last marriage, the oldest son of which was Edgar H. Gray, who became a Baptist clergyman who was settled, during the war, over the E Street Baptist Church in Washington, D. C., and for two sessions was chaplain of the Senate, took part in the funeral services over the body of Abraham Lincoln and officiated at the funeral of Thaddeus Stevens.
The father of Mr. Gray, by the death of his father in 1812, inherited the home farm, but owing to a lack of experience in farming lost the farmn and died in 1823 at the early age of thirty-six years. Death left his widow with six boys, the oldest not more than ten years of age. Fortunately the family had many relatives and friends in the town and among these the children were distributed. The subject of this sketch was placed in the family of the minister of the town and there remained until he entered college, working on the farmn in summer and attending, as he grew older, the village select school. In these schools he prepared for college, taking the course of the freshman year without a teacher, and was thus enabled in 1836 to enter the sophomore class of Middlebury College. He paid his way in college by teaching winters and graduated in 1839, John G. Saxe, the poet, and William A. Howard, who afterward served two terms in Congress and was Governor of the Territory of Washington, being members of the class.
In the fall of the year of his graduation, young Gray went to Autauga County, Ala- bama, and taught school there and in the neighboring county of Montgomery two years. There the young teacher came in contact with Dixon H. Lewis, then a member of the
192
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
House of Representatives and afterward United States Senator; Governor Fitzpatrick, later also a United States Senator; William L. Yancy, Henry W. Hilliard and several otliers who subsequently became prominent in public affairs. When Mr. Gray went to leave the State he had his first experience with the "wild-cat" currency of those days. He was paid in paper of the Alabama State Bank at its face value and when he wanted to leave the State it was at a discount of thirty-five per cent, which he was compelled to lose.
In September, 1842, the young man reached St. Louis, where he at once entered the office of Britton A. Hill and John M. Eager and began the study of law. As he liad prior to that read law in his spare inomnents, he successfully passed the examination and was admitted in the following May, 1843. He did not, however, open an office until February, 1844.
Mr. Gray's long period of practice has been confined almost exclusively to the civil department of the law. He has in his day devoted much attention to admiralty and trade mark law. His trade mark practice finally became of great volume and one of these cases, Fleming vs. McLean, went to the United States Supreme Court and the decision thereon is now cited as an important precedent. His business increased with the years until he was rated one of the most successful lawyers at the St. Louis bar. As time crept on he gradu- ally withdrew from active practice; but such was the reputation for honor and integrity he had established in his many years of practice, that many estates were brought to him for settlement and he was called on to act as curator and trustee to the extent that during the last decade or two his professional work has consisted almost exclusively of this kind of business. Many of these estates were large and all were settled without loss or controversy. In 1893 Mr. Gray withdrew entirely from practice and, although still hale, vigorous and intellectually alert enough to pass for one a dozen years younger, he expects to spend the balance of his life in quiet and retirement and the bosom of his family.
In 1851 Mr. Gray was married to Miss Ruth C. Bacon, a native of Massachusetts, who for several years had been a teacher in a leading female seminary of St. Louis. Her companionship and her devotion to the interests and welfare of her husband were an inspiration and a blessing until her deatlı in 1893. A beautiful and true tribute to her life and character was written by the late Engene Field, who was a frequent visitor in tlic Gray home, and these, with tributes of affection from other friends, have been printed as a memorial of her. Mr. Gray was the executor of Eugene Field's father and practically the curator of the poet, and a warm friendship existed between the Field and the Gray families.
Mr. Gray has been a patron of learning and his philanthropy has been as active as catholic. He gave $25,000 at one time to Drury College, the leading educational insti- tution of the Congregational denomination in the West. This splendid sum was donated for the purpose of establishing and endowing a professorship in honor of his wife. Every educator, writer and artist has found in him a friend and benefactor. Almost any man can gain moncy, but remarkably few know how to use it. Mr. Gray has real- ized his responsibilities, and has used his money to elevate and assist men and hasten the progress of civilization. He is a man of the high literary culture and has devoted much of his life to work in that field, being a worker as well as a mnost liberal patron. He has been a member of the Missouri Historical Society thirty-five years, has always been one of its most active members and for a number of years was its Vice-President. For a long time he has been a member of the St. Louis Academy of Science, and for the
Melvin D. Gray
193
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
last two years (1896 and 1897), has acted as its President, that officer being elected annually. He also serves as one of the Board of Trustees of Drury College, and now occupies the same relation to, Forest Park University, the well-known college for young ladies in the suburbs of St. Louis. Education, learning, literature and science have in him a true friend and helper and the aid he has given to every movement to raise and better humanity, places men of his own time, as well as posterity, under the deepest obligation.
A few facts relative to the St. Louis of the past and the men of those times, as they were observed by the venerable subject of this biography, cannot be otherwise than inter- esting, and if these facts have not been woven into the body of the biography itself, it is because it was deemed that they would possess added interest if presented substantially in the language of Mr. Gray himself.
"When I came to St. Louis in 1842," says he, "the bar consisted of many members who had come here in territorial times or soon after Missouri became a State. Hamilton R. Gamble, Edward Bates, Henry S. Geyer, Josialı Spalding, John F. Darby and Beverly Allen were then the seniors of the bar, and all were men of marked ability and ranked among the ablest lawyers of the country. Roswell M. Field, father of Eugene Field, and Myron Leslie, both natives of Vermont, were partners and were the younger contingent of the bar. Among the juniors were also Charles D. Drake, author of what was known as the 'Drake Constitution;' Joseph B. Crockett, afterward one of the Supreme Judges of Califor- nia; Wilson Primm, who was born in St. Louis in 1810, was a great promoter of education, held many offices of trust and was a man of remarkable versatility; James B. Bowlin, four times Congressman, a diplomat under the Polk and Buchanan administrations and the first Judge of the St. Louis Criminal Court; Richard S. Blennerhasset, the orator of unequal eloquence and a relative of Daniel O'Connell; John M. Krum, the first Mayor of Alton (during whose administration Lovejoy was assassinated), and subsequently the first Demo- cratic Mayor of St. Louis; his then partner, Albert Todd, who saw much service of a pub- lic character, and was one of the founders of the Fair Association, the Public and Mercan- tile Libraries, the University Club and was one of the first members of the St. Louis Bar Association; William F. Chase, a brother of Salmon P. Chase; Alexander Hamilton, P. D. Tiffany, Samuel Knox and John R. Shepley; Trusten Polk, afterward Governor of the State and later United States Senator.
"Others of the prominent lawyers who are named in the order of their business relation to each other, were Logan Hunton and Louis V. Bogy; Montgomery Blair and Thomas T. Gantt; and Thomas B. Hudson and Nathaniel Holmes. All of these named were men of exceptional ability, were splendid lawyers and early enjoyed good practice. All the busi- ness men of the town were clients of these older lawyers, and as may be imagined, it was hard for the youngster and the new-comer to get a foothold.
"My first practice was with Charles B. Lawrence as partner. Our acquaintances were few and practice so light that two years later Mr. Lawrence went to Quincy, Illinois, where he was very successful. In 1857 he went to Europe for his health, and returning, settled on a farm in Warren County, Illinois, but was soon elected Circuit Judge, and a few years later was made Supreme Judge of the State. As a member of a body in which Hon. Sidney Breese was his associate, he made a reputation as one of the ablest jurists of the State. My next associate was Franklin Fisher, a native of Massachusetts, whose talent was an assur- ance of a bright future, but he was stricken without warning by the cholera in 1849. After
194
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
his death I always practiced alone, declining vety flattering partnership offers from my old instructor, Britton A. Hill and others.
"In those days there was much litigation growing out of the settlement of French and Spanish land claims, in some of which cases I took a part. Another important department of litigation then was the steamboat cases. The State steamboat law was in force and a large part of the practice consisted in bringing suits against steamboats by name. An old steamboat Captain, then keeping a boat supply store, kindly used influence with the river men in my favor, and thus threw much business into my hands. In 1854 Judge Wells of the United States District Court, decided that the United States Courts had jurisdiction in river cases under the admiralty law, which ruling was sustained by the United States Supreme Court and this practically put an end to suits under the State steamboat law.
"When I began practice in St. Louis, only six volumes of Supreme Court Reports had been published; now there are 132 volumes. English text books and English reports were almost universally used and quoted as authorities. 'Chitty on Pleading' and 'Starkic on Evidence' were the standards. The common law system of pleading was in vogue, until superseded by the Code of 1849, proposed by the Hon. Mr. Wells, Judge of the United States District Court for Missouri.
"At the time I was admitted to the bar, Bryan Mullanphy was Judge of the Circuit Court, Peter Hill Engle, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, A. W. Manning, Judge of the Criminal Court, and Peter Ferguson, Judge of Probate. Judge Peter Hill Engle soon after died, and Montgomery Blair succeeded him as Judge of Common Pleas. The docket of that court was much behind and Judge Blair was noted for the vigor and celerity with which he disposed of business. Often while the attorneys were arguing before a jury in one case, the Judge would be busy empanelling the jury in the next case.
"As I have said, I was admitted to the bar in May, 1843. The only persons now liv- ing that I know of, who were then members of the bar, are Samuel Knox, admitted in 1838, now living in Massachusetts; Judge Nathaniel Holines, now also of Massachusetts, admit- ted in 1840; Judge Samuel Treat, admitted in 1841, although to the best of my recollection he was not then in active practice, being the editor of a newspaper. Judge Treat spends the winters here, and excepting lim, I believe I am the oldest enrolled member of the St. Louis bar living in St. Louis."
JAMES HAGERMAN,
SAINT LOUIS.
JAMES HAGERMAN is a native Missourian, having been born in Jackson Township, Clark County, Missouri, November 26, 1848. His father, Benjamin Franklin Hager- man, a native of Loudon County, Virginia, was born September 18, 1823, but when quite young went to Missouri, first settling in Lewis County, but afterwards located in Clark County, where he met and wedded Miss Ann S. Cowgill, who had gone to Missouri with her parents from Mason County, Kentucky, her birth-placc. The father is still living, but his mother departed this life in August, 1893, leaving behind her three sons and one daugh- ter-James, Frank, George C. and Linnie. Benjamin F. Hagerman began life, with his widowed mother and two older sisters, as a pioneer Missouri farmer, and for a time was engaged as a country school teacher, and then in mercantile business, and afterwards located at Alexandria, in Clark County, and engaged in the real estate and general collecting busi-
James Hageman
195
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
ness, and became the representative for many of the large mercantile houses of the cities, especially those of St. Louis, and in this capacity looked after their interests in the courts, employing special lawyers from time to time.
The subject of this sketch attended the village school of Alexandria, Clark County, and later his education was advanced by an academical course at the Christian Brothers' College, St. Louis, Missouri, then located at Seventh and Cerre Streets. Here his clear reasoning faculties gave him first honors in all branches of mathematics. He received first honors in many other studies as well. His education was completed in Professor Jameson's Latin School, of Keokuk, Iowa, to which place his family moved in 1864. Leaving school he entered the law office of Rankin & McCrary, of that place. Justice Miller, of tlie Supreme Court of the United States, severed his partnership with Rankin about this time to take his place upon the bench. This was the leading law firm in the State of Iowa, and one of the strongest in the whole country. With such associations and examples to pattern after and aspire to, it is not strange that the early inclinations of James for the "jealous mistress " received such an impetus that he very soon completed the course of reading outlined by his preceptors and was knocking at the gates of Themis for admission to the Keokuk bar before, under the laws of Iowa, he could be admitted. He therefore went back to Missouri, where his youth was no impediment, and passed an examination at LaGrange, Missouri, before Judge Wagner, of the Supreme Court, and was admitted to the bar of his native State Christmas day, 1866. He returned to Keokuk and re-entered the office of Messrs. Rankin & McCrary, where he remained until August, 1869 (not yet being of age), when he went to Palmyra, Missouri, where he opened a law office and first swung out his own shingle, with H. S. Lipscomb as his partner. He only remained there one year-again returning to Keokuk. This one year, however, was a very important one in his life, if not in his pro- fession, for while there he met Miss Margaret M. Walker, who afterwards became liis wife, they having been married at Palmyra, October 26, 1871. Though living in Keokuk, he was not forgotten by his Clark County friends. He was retained by the defendant in the inter- esting case of Widdicombe vs. Childers, begun in the Circuit Court of Clark County in August, 1874, and finally decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1887, in favor of the defendant, 124 U. S., 400; 84 Mo., 382. It is a nice case in evidence and equity. Two others of his early Clark County cases were, ex parte Slater, 84 Mo., 102, involving a grave constitutional question in criminal law, and Smith vs. County of Clark, 54 Mo., 58, involving the validity of $200,000 of Clark County bonds, issued in aid of the construction of the Alexandria & Bloomfield Railroad. In 1875 he formed a partnership with his old preceptor, Judge Mccrary, under the style of Mccrary, Hagerman & McCrary, which firm continued in the practice until 1879, when Judge Mccrary was appointed Judge of the United States Circuit Court for the Eighth Circuit, and his place was filled by Frank Hagerman (now of Kansas City, Missouri,) coming into the firm-the firm becoming Hagerman, Mccrary & Hagerman. In 1884, James Hagerman, after a successful practice of fourteen years in Keokuk, accepted the General Attorneyship of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, and moved to Topeka, Kansas, the headquarters of that company. Judge Mccrary was at the same time General Counsel of that company, having resigned from the bench in 1884. It is thus seen that he was long associated and in many different ways with his preceptor, the lamented Judge and Secretary of War under President Hayes. During the time he was General Attorney for the "Santa Fe," that road was in its formative period and branching out through tlie Western States and Territories into the
196
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
Republic of Mexico, but not without serious legal difficulties, resulting in the cause celebre, Fletcher vs. Santa Fe Ry., 35 Kan., 238, which the General Attorney, in connection with liis associate counsel, briefed, argued and brought to a successful close.
In 1886 Hagerman moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and formed a partnership with Major William Warner and Oliver H. Dean, under the name of Warner, Dean & Hager- 111an. In the year 1888, Jay Gould's Southwestern system of railways having been dis- rupted, many of the component companies bankrupted and their properties demoralized, receivers were appointed by Judge Brewer (now Justice Brewer) for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway, and James Hagerinan was made their General Counsel. The duties of this position he filled from 1888 to 1891, in connection with his general practice in Kansas City, but upon the reorganization of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company, he was appointed General Solicitor of that company and severed his connection with the Kansas City firm and moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in November, 1893, where he now resides.
Mr. Hagerman's law practice has probably been as extensive and as varied as tliat of any of his contemporaries, ranging through all of the courts of the land, State and Fed- eral, and comprising actual trials of civil and criminal cases before Justices and Police Courts, arbitrators, referees, masters in chancery, and the courts of record-State and Federal -and the Supreme Courts of the Territories and States, and the United States District and Circuit Courts, Court of Claims and Supreme Court of the United States, and also before the various railroad commissions and legislative committees, State and Federal.
He is an all round lawyer, equally at home in all branches of law and equity, and relatively as strong before a jury or nisi prius court as before an appellate court. The Reports of the Supreme Courts of Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Texas and of the Federal Courts abound with cases in which he has been engaged as counsel.
In politics Mr. Hagerman has always been an ardent, progressive and active Democrat, and has taken part in all the National campaigns since 1868. In 1879 he presided over the Iowa State Democratic Convention which nominated H. H. Trimble for Governor. In 1880 lie was a delegate from Iowa to the National Democratic Convention which nominated Gen- eral Hancock; and, in 1888, only two years after moving to Kansas City, was Permanent Chairman of the State Democratic Convention which nominated David R. Francis for Gov- ernor. He lias never joined any secret or fraternal associations, but is a genial club-inan and a member of the State and American Bar Associations. Mr. Hagerman has two children, Lee W. and James, both of whom have chosen their father's profession, the latter being with him in St. Louis, and the former completing his legal education at Har- vard College.
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.