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 28
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RUDOLPH HIRZEL,
CLAYTON.
JUDGE RUDOLPH HIRZEL, of Clayton, who at the present time presides on the Cir- cuit bench of the Thirteenth District with dignity and wisdom, is the son of Otto and Rosa (Tritscher) Hirzel and is a native of Wurtemburg, Germany. He was born in that kingdom, December 9, 1845. His father was a government official, but after the upheaval of the Revolution of 1848, followed farming as a vocation, and thus the son imbibed that love of nature and rural surroundings which has clung to him ever since. In his educa-
yours truly
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tional training he was subjected to that thoroughness which is characteristic of the Germans, and on the farm he learned that habit of industry and thrift which is perhaps the foundation of the almost universal success of the sons of the Fatherland in all countries. Young Rudolph attended the excellent public schools of his native place and afterward took a par- tial course in the gymnasium. Then he attended, for one year, an agricultural college, and applied himself to the mastery of the science of agriculture in practical labor, it being his intention to adopt that line as a calling.
In 1865 he set his face westward and determined to try his fortunes in the new land of liberty, where the ostensible measure of all men is merit and where the energy, industry and talent of the individual have full effect in the struggle for existence. He was a strong, healthy, vigorous, alert young man of twenty when he landed in New York. He reached this country in September, 1865, and after remaining in New York and Connecticut until October, 1866, came to Missouri, being attracted to the section near St. Louis by the large number of his fellow-countrymen who had settled there. He had his own way to make in life and as he had taste for agricultural pursuits and was well acquainted with that branch of industry he began farming in Gasconade County. But in the air of the New World was inspiration to higher endeavor. The young German determined to adopt the law as a pro- fession, and appreciating the need of a fuller general education, began teaching school when the farm work was not pressing, and by such means was enabled to enter, as a mem- ber of the junior class, Central Wesleyan College, at Warrenton, Missouri, took the classi- cal course and was graduated in 1871. He qualified for his profession in the office of Lay & Belch, at Jefferson City, where he was admitted in 1872. He then returned to Gascon- ade County, and locating at Hermann, began practice, April 19, 1873. Impressed with the necessity of beginning his career under the best possible auspices, he was on the same day he opened an office for practice, united in marriage to Miss Matilda Nasse of that place.
Judge Hirzel's rise as a lawyer has been steady. He was elected Prosecuting Attorney and served in that capacity two terms. In 1879, desiring a wider field, he removed to St. Louis, where he soon increased his practice to a most satisfactory volume. As a law- yer he proved himself equally able in both the criminal and civil branches of his profession, and while in regular practice handled a number of cases which added to his prestige and fame. One such was the case of the State vs. Baron Bechtolsheim, Austrian Consul at St. Louis, in which he appeared as counsel for the defense, winning his case on the contention that the State Courts had no jurisdiction over foreign consuls. In 1883 he was one of the attorneys of the Saloon Keepers' Association of St. Louis, and prosecuted the much-vexed Sunday law to a legal determination.
In the earlier years of his residence in this country, Judge Hirzel made a close and painstaking study of the political conditions of the republic and by this means reached a position of sympathy with the objects and harmony with the principles of the Republican party, with which he has affiliated ever since. In the earlier years of his career while practicing law at Hermann, he was very active in that field, and before hie scarcely was aware of it, he was looked upon as a local leader of his party. After his location in St. Louis, he withdrew from active participation in politics, and devoted himself exclusively to his legal business. About 1884 he located at Clayton, a suburb of St. Louis, and was finally drawn into public life again, being urged to accept, in 1886, the nomination for Judge of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit. He did so, and was elected. He administered justice
Horny Hitchcock
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at Burlington, Vermont, in 1791, graduated from Vermont University about 1813, was admitted to the bar and moved to Alabama Territory in 1816. He was Secretary of Alabama Territory, Attorney General of Alabama (State) and United States District Attorney; in 1835 he was appointed Chief Justice of Alabama, resigning in 1837 and died August 11, 1839, at Mobile, of yellow fever. He was a man of the highest character, influence and reputation, universally honored and beloved, and his death was lamented in Mobile and throughout Alabama as a public calamity. In the biographical sketch of Judge Samuel Hitchcock, contained in the History of Addison County, Vermont, occurs the fol- lowing: "Of the three sons of Judge Samuel Hitchcock who survived him but are now dead, Henry Hitchcock became the Chief Judge of the Supreme Court and the statesman of Alabama. General Grandey, who was his personal friend and acquaintance in Alabama, says of him: 'He was the best known, the most beloved, the inost distinguished, the ablest, the most worthy and the most popular inan in Alabama during the last ten years of his life.' "'
In October, 1821, Judge Henry Hitchcock, the father, married Anne Erwin, daughter of Col. Andrew Erwin, who came to this country from the north of Ireland, was at one time a prominent and successful merchant in Augusta, Georgia; afterward lived in Buncombe County, North Carolina, and emigrated thence, about 1811-12, to Bedford County, Tennes- see, and was accompanied by a large number of his neighbors, among whom he was the leading spirit. Until his death he cultivated a large farm about ten miles from Shelby- ville, Tennessee, on which he built what was for many years known throughout all that country as "The Brick House," and known far and wide for its hospitality.
To this marriage was born three sons and two daughters, two sons being now the sole survivors of the family. One living member of the family is of course our subject; the other is Ethan Allen Hitchcock, also a resident of St. Louis. From 1875, when he located in St. Louis, he has been one of that city's leading business men. He has served as resi- dent Director of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company; was President of the Crystal Plate Glass Company, organized by him in 1877, which largely and successfully engaged in man- ufacturing plate glass, and afterward consolidated with other plate glass companies under the name of Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company. He was also President of the St. Louis Ore & Steel Company, succeeded in 1893 by the Big Muddy Coal & Iron Company, of which he is President. He was also President of the Chicago & Texas Railroad Company (of Illinois) , and has been President of the St. Louis Commercial Club. March 22, 1869, he married Margaret D., the second daughter of George Collier. In 1875, after a residence in Hong Kong, China, where he was the representative of American interests, he returned to St. Louis and that city has since been his home.
In July, 1897, Ethan Allen Hitchcock accepted the appointment of U. S. Minister to Russia, tendered him by President Mckinley, with whom he had sustained most friendly relations for several years.
Henry Hitchcock, the subject of this memoir, the second son of Judge Henry Hitch- cock, and Anne Erwin, his wife, was born July 3, 1829, at Spring Hill, a summer settle- ment six miles from Mobile, Alabama, where his parents lived. In November, 1846, he graduated from the University of Nashville, in which city his mother then lived, at once went to New Haven, entered Yale, graduated in 1848 with the degree of A. B., being among the first seven students of his class. In 1875 the University conferred on him the degree of LL. D., a high distinction when it is considered how sparing Yale is of such
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honors. In July, 1848, the young collegian entered the office, in New York, of Hon. Willis Hall, the Corporation Counsel of the city. In November of the same year lie accepted a position as assistant classical teacher of the high school at Worcester, Massa- chusetts, holding that position until November, 1849. In that month he returned to his home in Tennessee and shortly thereafter entered the office of Hon. William F. Cooper, then a prominent member of the Nashville bar, afterward eminent as Chancellor and Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee.
On September 22, 1851, the young legal aspirant arrived in St. Louis. In October, 1851, lie passed his examination before the Hon. Hamilton R. Gamble, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri, and opened an office. From January 1, 1852, to January 1, 1853, he served as assistant editor of the St. Louis Intelligencer, a Whig paper, which in June of that year he represented at the Whig National Convention, at Baltimore, which nominated Gell- eral Scott for the Presidency. After a year's service, he found his editorial work incon- sistent with his legal duties and resigned. At first, as is usual with beginners, he found law practice slow, but he redoubled his study of legal principles and was not discouraged. At the March terin, 1854, he made his first appearance before the Supreme Court of Mis- souri, and after that clients were more numerous. In the next ten years he appeared in fourteen cases before the Supreme Court-a fair record for a young attorney. Through- out his legal career, Mr. Hitchcock has declined criminal practice, preferring the civil branch, and devoting himself especially to equity and commercial law. In 1860 lie declined the offer of a law partnership from Gen. Frank P. Blair, and in 1862 declined a similar offer from Hon. Charles D. Drake, both prominent figures in the history of Missouri.
He never sought political office, but was always deeply interested in public affairs. Brought up a Whig, pursuant to family traditions and associations, confirmed by reflection in early manhood, he was a devoted admirer of Henry Clay, but observation of slavery during boyhood, even in its humane surroundings in Tennessee, implanted in him strong convictions of its evils and dangers, and in 1858, having closely followed Mr. Lincoln's debate with Douglas on the Kansas-Nebraska question, he became an avowed Republican and has always since then belonged to that party, though not always approving the views and actions of its more radical members. His first political speech was made in November, 1860, the niglit before Lincoln's election, at a meeting at which Hon. Frank P. Blair was the leading speaker. The holding of such meetings was well understood to be a protest against slavery, and the position of a Republican was anything but pleasant in St. Louis in those days. The feeling against them was bitter, and they were known as "Black Republicans."
Mr. Hitchcock was always a man with the courage of his convictions, and once coll- vinced that slavery and secession were wrong, he embarked in the canse against them with all his energy and soul. It thus transpired, in the stormy events that followed, lie as much as any other inan in the commonwealthi was instrumental in retaining Missouri to the Union. The record of his experiences and his connection with thic events of those times, comprise incidents and occurrences of the highest historical value, but within the limits of a short biographical sketch it will be possible only to summarize this part of his career.
In February, 1861, he was one of thic fifteen delegates which comprised the "Uncon- ditional Union Ticket," and which was elected to represent St. Louis in the Convention which inet the same month at Jefferson City "To consider thic relation of Missouri to the Union." He was one of five Republicans on that ticket, the others being James O. Broad-
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head, Hudson E. Bridge, Isidor Bush and John How. One other Republican-Charles V. Eitzen, of Hermann-was elected to the Convention, and these six, in a total of ninety- nine delegates, were the only representatives of the new party. As is well known, that celebrated Convention convened frequently during the ensuing two years, and in all its sessions Mr. Hitchcock, in the prime of life, vigorous and enthusiastic for the Union, took a leading part. The Convention was composed of the ablest and most conservative men of Missouri, and they had before them a question of the gravest concern to the State, i. e .: What attitude should Missouri assume in the conflict?
On March 13, 1861, Mr. Hitchcock made a speech in answer to Judge Redd, of Marion County, on the "Moss Amendment," which provided that while Missouri would take no part in making war against the general government, she would not, on the other hand, furnish men or money to aid the government in "coercing" a seceding State. The speech was a masterly one and traversed the whole range of the subject of the Constitution and the relations of the States to each other and the central government. The amendment was defeated by a vote of sixty-one to thirty, March 16, 1861. On the resolution providing that slavery should be permitted south of the Missouri Compromise line, while all territory north of that line should be forever free, the vote was ninety for to four against. Mr. Hitchcock was one of the four-his conscience permitting him to make no compromise with slavery, whatever. He was also one of the six wlio voted against the resolution giving it, as the sense of Missouri, that the Federal Government withdraw its troops from the forts of the seceding States, there being eighty-nine votes for the resolution.
Mr. Hitchcock was present at the next meeting of the Convention, which assembled at Jefferson City, July 22, 1861, which declared the offices of Governor, Lieutenant-Gov- ernor and Secretary of State vacant and instituted a provisional government, with Governor Gamble at its head. On October 10, 1861, the Convention assembled at St. Louis. At this meeting Mr. Hitchcock was a member of the committee of five charged with drafting ordinances organizing the militia of the State. On October 16, he made an elaborate speech in support of an ordinance postponing the election ordered for November, 1861, being in reply also to a speech of Uriel Wright, who, althoughi elected to the Convention as a Union man, "had already shown himself as a sophistical and dangerous opponent of all important measures of the Convention." In his speech of October 18, Mr. Wright replied to various criticisms, including this speech, which he described as "able, ingenious, specious, and its rhetoric is unexceptional. It does credit to his intellect and his powers of argument." Mr. Wright afterward "went South, " and on June 6, 1862, was expelled from the Convention.
The Convention next sat for twelve days at Jefferson City, assembling June 2, 1862. Mr. Hitchcock was again present at the first roll call, attended all meetings and voted on all questions, served on the select Committee on Elections and Elective Franchise, assisted in the preparation of an ordinance prescribing a test oath, supported it in debate as pro- tective but not proscriptive or retrospective legislation, and also spoke on a variety of other subjects. At the next and final sitting of the Convention, at Jefferson City, beginning June 15, 1863, and lasting fifteen days, Mr. Hitchcock was present at every meeting and took an active part in the proceedings. This session considered the question of emancipation and on June 26, Mr. Hitchcock miade an elaborate speech advocating emancipation to become effective January 1, 1864. The Convention after long debate passed an ordinance abolishing slavery in Missouri July 4, 1870, with various periods of apprenticeship, accord- ing to age.
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On July 1, 1863, the Convention adjourned sine die, having for two years exercised supreine legislative power throughout the State of Missouri, as the immediate representative of the people. Its acts form a highly important and interesting part of the history of Mis- souri. Its members were elected on the eve of the Civil War, at a period of great popular excitement, and it was obliged to meet problems of public policy and duty, the importance and difficulty of which can hardly be exaggerated. The expectation and scarcely disguised purpose of those who called it into existence was that it should enact an ordinance of seces- sion, and the passage of the Convention bill was resisted to the utmost by the Union men in the Legislature of 1861. But not a single avowed secessionist was elected to it, no ordi- nance of secession nor any resolution or proposition to that end was ever offered, and the ordinances of July, 1861, deposing the then State Government and State Legislature and installing a Provisional State Government were enacted by a clear majority of the members elect. It was never a revolutionary body, but conservative from first to last, steadfastly declining to legislate concerning matters of local or personal interest, or even upon matters of general concern, except so far as seemed absolutely necessary for opposing the Rebellion. It contained many of the ablest men of the State, and as to the rest, was a genuinely repre- sentative body. Mr. Hitchcock says of it: "Though I then thought, and still think, that its action fell short of its opportunities, I do not believe that any legislative body ever inet on American soil whose members, taken as a whole, inore earnestly strove to do what, in their honest judgment, would promote the welfare of their people."
Mr. Hitchcock has always deplored what he regards as liis mistake in not entering the volunteer service in 1861. That was his desire, but his friends insisted that his value to the cause would be greater as a member of the Convention than in the field. Especially were the remonstrances of his uncle, Gen. Ethan Allen Hitchcock, earnest and effective. General Hitchcock was a brave and experienced soldier, and he insisted that having 110 military education his nephew could not hope to render effective service as a soldier, and that his place was as an organizer at home. Of this inatter Mr. Hitchcock has said: "Neither of us realized the magnitude of the conflict, or that the Civil War must educate its own officers. I reluctantly acted on his advice, but year by year regretted it more, till in September, 1864, before the fall of Atlanta and when the issue of the war still seemed doubtful, still against his earnest protest -although he was then himself in the service as Major General of Volunteers-I applied in person to Secretary Stanton for a commission and obtained one; not in the hope, at that late day, of rendering military service of any value, but simply because I could not endure the thought of profiting in safety at home by the heroism of others, and of having 110 personal share in the defense of iny country against her enemies in arms."
The Convention having adjourned, Mr. Hitchcock felt that he could not remain con- tentedly at home, and therefore went to Washington, where he called on his uncle, Gen. Ethan Allen Hitchcock, then Major-General of Volunteers and very close to the President. General Hitchcock wanted to introduce his nephew to Seward, but Mr. Hitchcock answered that lie was not looking for a place in the State Department, but wanted to go to the front. When General Hitchcock introduced him to Stanton, the latter asked him how he would like the position of Judge Advocate at St. Louis. Mr. Hitchcock reiterated his desire to go to the front and returned home with the assurance that a place would be found for him. On October 1, 1864, the appointment came which made him Assistant Adjutant-General of Volunteers with rank of Major. He was assigned to duty on General Sherman's staff at thic
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latter's request, embodied in a telegram sent to Col. J. C. Kelton at Washington. He arranged his business in St. Louis, leaving his legal affairs in the hands of his clerk, George W. Lubke, since Judge of the St. Louis Circuit Court, reported to Sherman at his headquarters at Rome, Georgia, the last week in October, and was made a member of his personal staff. Though nominally an Adjutant-General, the duties of that office were performed by Capt. L. M. Dayton, and Major Hitchcock until the end of the war saw that actual field service he so much desired.
Honorably mustered out of service June 23, 1865, in July Major Hitchcock sailed for Europe, spending four months traveling through Great Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, meeting on his tour and sitting at table with such notables as John Bright, Thomas Hughes, author of "Tom Brown at Rugby;" Prof. Jowett, afterward Master of Balliol College and translator of Plato; Hon. Lyulph Stanley, a rising member of the Liberal party; Edouard Laboulaye, the eminent French republican, and a number of others who sympathized with the Union in the war just closed. Returning to St. Louis, December, 1865, he resumed practice, and in 1866 or 1867 took into partnership his former clerk, George W. Lubke, an association that continued until ill health compelled Mr. Hitchcock's temporary retirement in October, 1870. While he was in the army another State Convention had been called, which passed an ordinance of immediate emancipation and adopted the noted "Drake Constitution." The Republican party in Missouri was then controlled by the radical element, and as Mr. Hitchcock did not sy111- pathize with this element, he took no active part in politics, though he has always remained a Republican, declining to go with his friends, General Blair, Colonel Broadhead and Mr. Glover, into the Democratic party.
Mr. Hitchcock is known as the "Father of the St. Louis Law School," and no more enduring monument could be erected to any man's famc than that. His connection there- with and the noble work he has done in its behalf are related in a special article in this volume on the St. Louis Law School by Hon. Charles Nagle.
In 1867 Mr. Hitchcock was admitted to the United States Supreme Court, appearing as associate counsel of Messrs. Glover and Shepley. In April, 1869, he was urged by Judge Treat and John R. Shepley to accept the appointment of United States Circuit Judge for the Eighth Circuit, under a recent act of Congress providing for nine Judges. Owing to the position of Judge Treat and Mr. Shepley's intimate relations with President Grant, their action was an assurance of appointment, but Mr. Hitchcock declined, owing to the wide extent of the circuit, which would have taken him away from home much of the time.
In 1870 Mr. Hitchcock's health failed from overwork. He spent the summer traveling on the Pacific Coast, but on attempting to resume work in September, was threatened with passive congestion of the brain. He dissolved his law firm and spent some time in New York under the treatment of that noted physician, Dr. William A. Hammond. Receiving an invitation to visit him from his brother, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, the managing partner, at that time, of the American firm of Olyphant & Co., at Hong Kong, China, Mr. Hitchcock reached that point March 2, 1871, and after remaining two months returned home by way of Japan and San Francisco, reaching St. Louis greatly improved in health.
In 1872 he took in as law partners George W. Lubke and John Preston Player. In 1882 Mr. Lubke was elected Judge of the St. Louis Circuit Court, soon after that Mr. Player died, and for the next two years Mr. Hitchcock practiced alone. April 1, 1884, he
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entered into a partnership agreement with Judge George A. Madill and Hon. Gustavus A. Finkelnburg, limited by its terms to a period of six years. April 1, 1890, the partnership expired and Mr. Hitchcock and Mr. Finkelnburg continued practice together until July 1, 1891, since which date the former lias practiced alone.
WILLIAM BRADFORD HOMER,
SAINT LOUIS.
W ILLIAM BRADFORD HOMER, of St. Louis, is representative of the ninth genera- tion of his family in America. His mother was Ruth Bliss, and hier ancestors came from England to Massachusetts Bay Colony about the same time the Homers also emigrated from England to the same place, namely, 1650. Of those English Homers who became colonists in the New World, the one from whom William B. Homer is descended was an able and distinguished lawyer who practiced both in Massachusetts Bay and Plymoutli Colonies. That he was a man of courage with all of the old Puritan's hatred of oppression and worthy to be one of the founders of a great and free republic is shown by the fact that at Boston upon a certain occasion he moved the impeachment of the Royal Judges, and thereupon the Royal Executive promptly cast him into prison. But the Governor, seeking to mete out punishment and disgrace, only succeeded in honoring the fearless lawyer who had the courage of his convictions. That the people of Massachusetts Bay admired his courage and wished to reward his patriotism, is shown by the fact that at a later date the General Court of Massachusetts Bay granted him a goodly tract of land in thic wilds of western Massachusetts. Though the court records do not show it, the inference is that this . was intended as a covert recognition of his manhood and martyrdom. This ancestor who bearded the representatives of the King, had a brother who was an influential man in the colony and was one among thie first presidents of Harvard College.
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