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 32
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DANIEL T. JEWETT, SAINT LOUIS.
ANIEL T. JEWETT was born during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, the third
D President of the United States. Living through the successive terms of the last twenty Presidents, engaged in useful occupations before Blaine, Garfield or Mckinley were born, a member of the bar for sixty-three years, he stands to-day at the ripe old age of ninety years, one of the few surviving links connecting our earlier with our present history. Active during two generations in advocating legal causes, earnest in the development of the natural resources of the country, and enthusiastic in defense of constitutional liberty, Senator Jewett, although living in a quiet, unostentatious manner, enjoys the honor, esteem and confidence of his fellow-countrymen.
Daniel Tarbox Jewett was born in Pittston, Maine, September 14, 1807. His parents, Daniel and Betsy (Tarbox) Jewett, were both descendants of the Pilgrim settlers of New England. His boyhood was passed upon his father's farm, where he grew to manhood, gathering through manual labor the physical strength which has enabled him to attain four
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score and ten years without losing his vitality. He was reared to habits of economy and thrift and his early teachings have had a powerful influence in all of his subsequent career. His early education was obtained in the ordinary district school. At the age of nineteen (1826) he entered Waterville (Maine) College and at once displayed an ability that placed him in the front rank among the students and endeared him to his tutors. Two years later, Professor Chapin, one of the leading educators of the college, accepted the Presidency of Columbia College at Washington, D. C. He induced the young man to accompany him thitlier and to finish his studies under his auspices, and after two years of study in Colum- bia College lie graduated in 1830 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. While in college, in March, 1829, he saw the inauguration of President Jackson, and in 1897 he went to Washington and saw the inauguration of President Mckinley -sixty-eight years after.
While he was attending the college, he employed his spare time by teaching and after graduation he located in Stafford County, Virginia, near historical Fredericksburg, and gave lessons in Latin and Greek and algebra. He then moved to Amelia County, Virginia, and taught in a private family, in the meantime studying law with Gustavus A. Meyers, an lionored member of the Virginia bar. In the early part of the winter of 1833, he returned to Maine, and in the spring entered the Harvard Law School, where he continued till the fall of 1833 and then finished his law student's course in Bangor, Maine, and in April, 1834, was admitted to the bar. He at once began to practice his profession in Bangor, and soon became a lawyer of recognized ability. He became a factor in local affairs and was chosen City Solicitor.
In 1845 his elder brother Albert G. Jewett was appointed Charge d' Affairs for Peru by President Polk and while crossing the Isthinns of Panama to reach his post, he became impressed with the idea that the operation of a steamboat to carry passengers and freight np the Chagres River-a journey that all who crossed the Isthmus were forced to make - would be profitable. He induced our subject to accept a partnership in the enterprise and he therefore resigned his position as City Solicitor of Bangor and from the fall of 1850 to the spring of 1853 resided on the Isthmus and managed the enterprise. The profits there- from not equaling expectations, Mr. Jewett left for California, intending to engage in steamboating and mining. Finding no opportunity to profitably operate steamboats, lie purchased an interest in sluice ditches in upper California near the Oregon line. In the fall of 1855 he returned to Bangor and during the following spring visited the cities of the West, seeking a location in which to engage in the pursuit of his profession. He visited Chicago, Minneapolis and St. Louis, Kansas City, St. Joseph, Sioux City, et al., and finally close St. Louis as liis abiding place.
In the spring of 1857 lie moved to that city, purchased a lot on Morgan Street, near Garrison Avenue, erected a residence, and then bronglit his wife and children to the home in which he still resides. Once established lie began practice at the bar, and throughi liis ability, earnestness and personal magnetism soon became a prominent member of his profession in St. Louis. In 1860 he formed a law partnership with the late Britton A. Hill, which continued to the spring of 1872. His practice covered nearly all departments of legal pleading, but the cases of greatest importance in which he appeared were what were known as the cases against the Lindell heirs, and involved large and valuable tracts of real estate. He was one of the early members of the St. Louis Law Library Association and since December, 1857, has been one of its most active members.
He lias always taken a deep interest in the important questions that have been brought
Daniel J Jewett
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before the people during the past years. During that portion of his early life passed in Washington and its vicinity, he frequently attended the sessions of Congress, and has a perfect recollection of various debates participated in by Webster, Calhoun, Clay, Benton, Wright of New York, Hayne of South Carolina and other distinguished inen of that time. He was thus able to study vital questions in the proper school and became an ardent sup- porter of the principles advocated by the leaders of the Whigs. While in no sense an abolitionist before the war, he became one of the organizers of the Republican party and since then has been a firm believer in its doctrines as advocated by Lincoln, Grant, Blaine and Harrison. Too old to be accepted as a soldier at the outbreaking of the war, he remained at home, serving his country as best he could by inspiring his fellow-citizens with patriotism. In 1866 he was elected to the State Legislature, and during the recon- struction days was one of the most influential members of the Republican party, not only in Missouri but in the entire West.
During the session of the Legislature to which Mr. Jewett was elected, it was decided to submit a Constitutional amendment to the people to strike the word "white" from the second article, thus establishing negro suffrage in Missouri. At the election in the fall of 1868, the proposed amendment was defeated by a majority of nearly nineteen thousand. This and other acts of that body created discord in the party which gradually became dis- organized. Under the leadership of Carl Schurz, then United States Senator, B. Gratz Brown and others, the so-called "Liberal Republican " party was organized in Missouri. On the 31st of August, 1870, the Republican State Convention miet at Jefferson City and as Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, Carl Schurz made a majority report which proved obnoxious to the anti-Liberal members. It strongly recommended the removal of all political disabilities and "the extension of equal political rights and privileges to all classes of citizens." The minority report of the committee, on the other hand, declared in favor of "re-franchising those justly disfranchised for participation in the late rebellion, as soon as can be done with safety to the State," and recommended that the Legislature submit to the whole people of the State the question "whether such time has now arrived." The report of the minority was adopted by a vote of 349 ayes to 342 noes, and immediately after this action had been taken, about two hundred and fifty delegates, who had voted for the majority report, headed by Mr. Schurz, withdrew, organized a separate convention and nominated a full State ticket with B. Gratz Brown for Governor. The reg- ular Convention, of which Mr. Jewett was a member, nominated Joseph W. McClurg, then Governor. The Democrats joined with the Liberal Republicans and elected Brown.
In 1870, President Grant appointed Senator Drake, Chief Justice of the Court of Land Claims. This appointment caused a vacancy in the Senatorial representation, which Gov- ernor McClurg appointed Mr. Jewett to fill. He thus represented the State of Missouri in the United States Senate until March 4, 1871, when Francis P. Blair, who had been elected by the Democratic Legislature, succeeded him. Since then Mr. Jewett has never been a candidate for any office, but as a private citizen has used his abilities to aid the party in its campaigns.
Mr. Jewett was married in 1848 to Sarah Wilson of Belfast, Maine. She was a daugh- ter of Hon. John Wilson, a distinguished lawyer and statesman, wlio represented his dis- trict for several terins in the Congress of the United States. Mrs. Jewett died in Novem- ber, 1873, survived by two children, Eliot Conway Jewett, of Monterey, Mexico, and Mary, wife of Edward A. Wilson, of Mapimi, Mexico.
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WILLIAM O. L. JEWETT,
SHELBINA.
TO have lived in Missouri long and not to know William O. L. Jewett, of Shelbina, either personally or by reputation, is to argue yourself unknown. He is prominent both as a lawyer and as an editor, and in the political field exercises an influence that is by 110 means confined to Shelby County.
Mr. Jewett is a native of Maine, having been born at Bowdoinham on December 27, 1836. His father, Rev. Samuel Jewett, was a Methodist minister, born at Ipswich, Massa- chusetts, in 1797, and the old home, built before the Revolution, is still in good condition. Samuel Jewett held assignments in various Methodist fields in Maine from 1825 to 1837, in which last named year he came West, settling in Illinois. He espoused in marriage Sophironia Huckins, who bore him a large family of children, of which the subject of this sketch is the seventh. The mother was from Effinghamn, New Hampshire, and the mar- riage was consummated about November 11, 1822. Mr. Jewett comes of patriotic blood, as both his grandsires were in the War of the Revolution, and all the inale ineinbers on both sides, who were of military age at that time, bore arms.
The Jewetts are of English derivation. Two brothers, named respectively Joseph and Maxwell Jewett, came from Bradford, West Riding, Yorkshire, England, and settled at Rowley, in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, in 1639, which it will be noted was a very early day in the settlement of America-only nineteen years after the landing of the May- flower. From these two brothers, all the Jewetts in America sprang. From Rowley the namne spread to various places, and will now be found in all parts of the United States. Some incinbers of the family went to Connecticut, others to Western New York, and still others to Kentucky. The Western New York settlement proved most virile, and for a number of generations the Jewetts have been prominent in the social, civic and political affairs of Buffalo. Rowley, Massachusetts, where the family name was first planted on American soil, at no time in her history for two hundred years, was without a Deacon Jewett. In the old graveyard there is a tombstone with this inscription :
"Oh, Rowley, Rowley! Thou hast Sinned Sore; Thou has lost thy Deacon Jewett and will never see him more."
The subject of our sketch was little more than an infant when brought West by liis parents. From that time until manhood he was reared on a farin near Wilmington, Will County, Illinois. He early demonstrated the taste for study and literature which were to shape his future carecr. The time that other farmer's boys speut in idleness and play, he devoted to his books, and though farmu work is arduous, he was enabled to do much rcad- ing and study, of nights and mornings. He left the farin to go away to school when about eighteen, entering Lee Center Academy, at Lee Center, Illinois. He next attended the public schools at Plainfield and Ottawa, Illinois, living in the meantime with his brother, Rev. S. A. W. Jewett, D. D. He next entered Aurora Institute, at Aurora, Illinois, and before he had completed the full course there, the Civil War began.
The young student was ready to go to the front from the first, but it was not until September, 1861, that he found opportunity. In that month he was mustered into Com- pany E, of the Thirty-ninth Illinois Volunteers, afterward called the "Yates Phalanx." The regiment was first sent to St. Louis and from there to Maryland, wheuce it went to
WOL Lenen
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Virginia, where it was given the task of guarding the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Sir John's Run, Virginia. One circumstance of this period Mr. Jewett remembers with unpleasant distinctness. It was one cold night in January, 1862, when Stonewall Jackson surprised the command and drove it across the Potomac. Mr. Jewett remembers, with a shiver, that the waters of the river were so cold they seemed to cut the flesh like knives. After that he was at the battles of Kernstown, or Winchester, under General Shields, and participated in the campaign of the Shenandoah Valley. He was then sent with his com- mand to join Mcclellan on the Peninsular, where he was injured and taken sick. He was sent to the hospital at Washington and thence to Rhode Island, where he was discharged. He returned to his home in Illinois and taught one term of school and began the study of law, but he had felt the excitement of battle and could not tie himself down to civil life while others waged war in their country's behalf. He re-enlisted in the fall of 1864 in the First Illinois Artillery, Battery C, and reached the seat of war at Memphis, being promoted to the rank of Sergeant and sent there in command of thirty men, who acted as guards to five hundred substitutes. He next joined Sherman at Savannah, Georgia, and with him marched through the Carolinas to Washington, and was with his command and participated in the grand review in May, 1865.
After the end of the war, the young soldier, seasoned by over three years of the most active military service, returned to his home and again took up the study of law. He entered the law department of Michigan University, at Ann Arbor, having prior to that prosecuted his legal readings for a time in the office of Judge Parks, at Joliet, Illinois. He was graduated and admitted to the bar at Ann Arbor in 1866, and was admitted by the Illinois Supreme Court in the same year.
In 1867 Mr. Jewett came to Missouri, settled in Shelby County, and in that year was licensed to practice in Missouri courts by Judge Wagner. His qualities of leadership were soon made manifest in his new home. Like all the inen of Missouri who went to the front when duty called, he was in favor of a policy of conciliation toward the inen of the South after the war. He therefore engaged with all his spirit in the Liberal-Republican move- ment of 1870, helped organize that party in Shelby County, and in company withi Colonel Shafer, who was elected to the Legislature, stumped the county. The people soon saw that he was a inan far above the average in intellect and character, and about this time began to extend the honors lie has received at their hands. In 1876 they elected hiin Prosecuting Attorney, and again in 1878. In 1886 he was elected to represent Shelby County in the Legislature, and there had an opportunity to give to the whole State an indication of his quality as a public speaker and statesman. He was a member of the Committee on Internal Improvements in1 1887, and it was largely through his able efforts that the bill known as the "Swamp Angel"' was passed. At the session of 1889, lie hav- ing been re-elected, served as Chairman of the Committee on Insurance and as a member of the important Revision Committee. Governor Francis during his term appointed him a member of the State Board of Geology and Mines and he was re-appointed to the same position by Governor Stone.
In May, 1881, Mr. Jewett entered the newspaper business, becoming editor and pub- lisher of the Shelbina Democrat. He is still editor, and has made it one of the inost inde- pendent and readable county papers in the State. He takes an enthusiastic interest in bringing the newspaper fraternity into closer touch with each other, and always takes a leading and "speaking part" at the annual convocations of the press associations. In
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1892 he was President of the Missouri Press Association, and for the past five years has been Chairman of the Legislative Committee of the National Editorial Association.
He is perhaps one of the best known Odd Fellows in the State. He joined Shelbina Lodge in January, 1870, and has been a member of the Grand Lodge of Missouri since 1875. He is now Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of the State. He is likewise a mem- ber of the A. O. U. W.
Mr. Jewett was married to Miss S. Ella Cox, of Hunnewell, Shelby County, Missouri, June 3, 1869. His wife is a niece of the late William J. Howell, who was a leading law- yer of Monroe County for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Jewett have seven children, four boys and three girls, all still at home save one, Howell, his second son, who recently mar- ried and went to Corsicana, Texas. He married Miss Ella Loir, of Shelby County.
In religion, as in everything else, Mr. Jewett thinks and acts for himself. Though his father's family were all Methodists and leaders in that church, and his wife and her family are also Methodists, yet Mr. Jewett is a communicant of the Episcopal Church, an admirer of its forms of worship, and stands steadfastly by it at all times. His quality as a writer and historian may be discovered by a reference to his article on the "Early Bar of Northeast Missouri," in another part of this volume.
CHARLES PHILIP JOHNSON, SAINT LOUIS.
C HARLES PHILIP JOHNSON was born at Lebanon, St. Clair County, Illinois, Jan- uary 18, 1836. His parents were Henry and Elvira (Fouke) Johnson. They were among the pioneers of the Mississippi Valley. His maternal grandparents came from Vir- ginia and settled before the beginning of the present century at Kaskaskia, where his mother was born. She was a woman of strong character and vigorous mind, many of whose marked traits her son inherits. His father was born in Philadelphia.
Charles Philip Johnson as a boy developed a natural thirst for knowledge, and made the best possible use of thic limited advantages that were afforded by the common schools of Belleville, afterward attending McKendree College for a while, before coming to St. Louis. What time he could spare when going to school he gave mostly to working in a newspaper office and soon learned the printer's trade, and when but seventeen years old started and publishlied, for over a year, a weekly paper at Sparta, Illinois. In August, 1855, lie came to St. Louis and read law with Judge William C. Jones and Attorney Gen- cral R. F. Wingate, and was admitted to the bar in the year 1857.
At that time the country was just entering the preliminary stages of the political strife which was soon to precipitate it into a mighty civil war. Ambitious and patriotic, just entering upon the threshold of manhood, it was but natural for young Johnson to enter licart and soul into the "Free Soil " movement and become an active and daring partisan tlicrcin. He was soon fond among the most worthy and trusted lieutenants of the cliivalric leader, Frank P. Blair.
As carly as the spring of 1859 Mr. Johnson was elected City Attorney on the ticket headed by the late Oliver D. Filley. In the campaign of 1860 lie was an active supporter of Abraham Lincoln. At the breaking out of the war he enlisted and served as a Lieu- tenant in the Third Regiment, Missouri Infantry. During this three months service he
Chay. . Johnson
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devoted as much time as possible assisting to recruit and organize the famnous Eighth Mis- souri Regiinent, of which Morgan L. and Giles F. Smith were officers. He was deputized to tender this regiment to President Lincoln, which he did in person, and on his return was elected Major of the regiment. He declined on account of lack of military knowledge.
In 1862 a rupture occurred in the Republican party in St. Louis, caused by a conflict of opinion in regard to the policy that should be pursned in dealing with the slavery ques- tion. The consequence was that the Congressional Convention of the Republican party, after a majority nomination of Mr. Frank P. Blair, divided, and a bolting delegation nom- inated Mr. Johnson and an entire county ticket. But he declined this nomination and accepted the candidature to head the legislative ticket. Mr. Samuel Knox was then selected as the candidate to oppose Mr. Blair, and was duly elected. In the selection of the chairmanships of the various committees Mr. Johnson was assigned to that of the Com- mittee on Emancipation. This was unquestionably the most important legislative commit- tee at that time. In the exciting discussions that soon followed the opening of the session, Mr. Johnson took an active part and his oratorical ability, together with his powers as an organizer and skillful manager, soon made him the recognized leader of the House. After failing to persuade the leaders of the pro-slavery party to accept President Lincoln's pro- position to pay the slave owners, who had remained faithful to the Union, for the emancipa- tion of their slaves, Mr. Johnson took the advanced position in favor of immediate and unconditional emancipation, and introduced the bill to provide for the calling of a State Convention.
There was a bitter contest over the selection of a United States Senator at this session of the General Assembly, and Mr. Johnson was the earnest and unwavering supporter of B. Gratz Brown, who represented the most radical wing of the Republican party. Rather than sacrifice his candidate he forced an adjournment of the joint session by uniting his associates with the supporters of Jolin S. Phelps, and thus delayed the election for a year. On the reassembling at that time, B. Gratz Brown was duly elected Senator of the United States.
In the Congressional election of 1864 Mr. Johnson was nominated for Congress, but because of the independent candidacy of Mr. Samuel Knox, he was defeated and Mr. Jolin Hogan was elected.
The convention bill above referred to was submitted to the people and passed in November, 1864. The Convention provided for assembled in January, 1865. Their first act after organizing was to pass an ordinance abolishing slavery in the State. Thereafter they proceeded to frame a Constitution to submit to the voters of the State for adoption or rejection. This document was known as the "Drake Constitution " and contained inany proscriptive and intolerant provisions. Mr. Johnson, in company with a number of the prominent members of the Republican party, opposed the adoption of the "Drake Consti- tution." He canvassed the State in support of his views. On this issue he was elected to fill a vacancy in the Legislature and served during the adjourned session of 1865-6.
In the fall of 1866 he was appointed Circuit Attorney of the Eightlı Judicial Circuit -the City and County of St. Louis-by Governor Thomas C. Fletcher, and in 1868 he was elected to the same position on the Republican ticket and served therein for six years. During his service in this office Mr. Johnson brought into play and developed those great powers as a lawyer and advocate which have since given him the wide reputation lie has.
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When the Liberal Republican movement was inaugurated in this State, Mr. Johnson gave it his hearty support and was sent by the State Convention as a delegate to Cincin- nati, where Horaee Greeley and B. Gratz Brown were nominated as candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States. He took an active part in the canvass that fol- lowed. In 1872 lic was nominated and elected Lieutenant-Governor on the ticket headed by Silas Woodson. He made an able presiding officer of the Senate and was distinguished for his knowledge of parliamentary law and the fairness and impartiality of his rulings. When Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. Johnson assisted in the fight against the "social evil law" which had been inaugurated in St. Louis by the adoption of an ordinance under a charter grant of the Legislature. In the committee of the whole he delivered a speechi against it-in favor of its repeal-which attracted wide attention at the time and was mainly instrumental in having the law expunged from the municipal statute book of St. Louis.
At the end of Mr. Johnson's term as Lieutenant-Governor he retired from any active participation in politics and devoted his entire attention to the practice of the law. He built up a large and lucrative practice, mostly in the criminal branch, and soon became the acknowledged leader of the bar in that department of the practice.
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