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 34
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
In 1867 the father returned with his family to Kentucky, and was the daily companion and adviser of his son during the latter's college days. By this association the views and characteristics of the father were impressed on the son. He was of impulsive tempera- ment, quick to resent an insult, decided and pronounced in his likes and dislikes, of mature and wise judgment, a liberal provider for his family, and a hospitable and constant enter- tainer of his friends. He was the son of Robert Jones and his wife, Nancy Talbott. This Robert Jones was the son of a Baptist preacher, Jolin Jones and his wife, Elizabetlı Elrod, whom he had married at Shallow Ford, then in Yadkin County, North Carolina, and came to Kentucky among its earliest settlers, living at Bryant Station more than a year. This John Jones was a son of David (or John) Jones, from Wales, and Mary (Polly) McCann, from Ireland. Elizabeth Elrod was the daughter of Robert Elrod, from Germany, and his wife, Sarah Wilson, from England. Nancy Talbott, the grandmother of the subject of this sketch, was the daughter of Demovil Talbott, a Revolutionary soldier, and his wife, Mar- garet Williams, both of Bourbon County, Kentucky.
The mother of our subject is of the best strain of those Scotch-Irish settlers who, about 1735, settled in the Valley of Virginia, and became the earliest and inost heroic of Kentucky's earliest settlers. Her brothers were all men of distinction. George W. Dun- lap was one of the war Congressmen from Kentucky, and was for a generation one of the leaders of the bar in his State. He was the father of that gifted Kentucky poetess, Miss Eugenia Dunlap Potts. Theodore Dunlap, a distinguished physician, died in middle-life. Richard W. Dunlap was for many years Chairman of the State Board of Health of Ken- tucky, and a physician of national prominence. Another brothier, Lafayette Dunlap, was at twenty-two years of age, a member of the Kentucky Legislature; afterwards an officer in the war with Mexico; went to California in 1848, and died within a year, having been elected a member of the Legislature there. Her father, George Dunlap (born January 29, 1789, died June 30, 1851), and whose picture adorns the walls of the court house of Lin- coln, one of the three original counties in Kentucky, was there for many years "a member of the County Court under the old constitution." It is said of him that he stood as a public arbitrator among his neighbors, scarcely ever permitting a case to come to trial, and never issued a fee bill in his life. Of this family was the gallant Hugh McKee, another Kentuckian, recognized as one of the heroes of the American navy. He led the attack and was one of the first to reach the forts of Corea, Asia, June 11, 1871. Admiral Rogers, in the report of the fight, said: "The citadel lias been named Fort McKee in honor of that gallant officer, who led the assault upon it, and who gave his life for the honor of his flag. "
Breckinridge Jones entered the Kentucky University at Lexington as a freshman, in September, 1871, and the next year, his father having bought a home at Danville, Kentucky, the son entered Centre College, from which he was graduated in 1875. During the follow- ing session he taught in a graded school at Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, and the two years after was a law student in the office of the distinguished Col. Thomas Peyton Hill, at Stan- ford, Kentucky, being admitted to the bar in 1877. In October, 1878, he came to St. Louis, entering the law office of Lee & Adams. That winter he attended the St. Louis Law
240
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
School, and the following summer attended the summer Law School at the University of Virginia.
In November, 1883, he was elected from St. Louis, a member of the Missouri House of Representatives.
On October 21, 1885, he married Miss Frances Miller Reid, of Stanford, Kentucky, and five children bless the union. She was a daughter of John M. Reid and Elizabeth Hays, his wife, and of Scotch-Irish descent.
Mr. Jones continued the successful practice of law until the fall of 1888, when, by reason of the interest of himself and immediate friends, he undertook the reorganization of the Decatur Land Improvement and Furnace Company, at Decatur, Alabama. By reason of the yellow fever epidemic there that year, this work kept him from St. Louis until 1890, when he returned to St. Louis, and in the fall of that year became the Secretary of the Mississippi Valley Trust Company at its organization-capital then, $1,500,000. In 1893, that company increased its capital $2,600,000. In February, 1894, Mr. Jones was elected Second Vice-President and Counsel, and in 1897 was elected First Vice-President and Coun- sel, which position he now holds.
Mr. Jones is a lawyer of ability and force and a business man with a ready grasp of complex propositions. He is one of St. Louis' most enterprising citizens and takes an active interest in public matters. He is prominently connected with a large number of business enterprises, among them the Kinloch Telephone Company, which is about to install its new telephone exchange in St. Louis, and with the Citizens' Electric Lighting and Power Company, about to enter the electric lighting and power business, and is President of the Century Building Company, the owner of one of the finest office buildings in the West.
WILLIAM CUTHBERT JONES, SAINT LOUIS.
IT is a notable fact that the strong men in American professional life-the men who discover, achieve and create-have, with very few exceptions, drawn their earlier inspirations from country scenes and conditions. Just as the physical man who enjoys the freedom and freshness and invigoration of the air of woodland and prairie is healthier, heartier and wholesomer than his hiot-house urban neighbor, so the intellectual inan, who forms his mental habits where the conditions and environments are those of nature only, becomes more self-reliant, more tolerant, more disposed to the application of fundamental principles, and, consequently, more capable than 'lie whose views and logic are narrowed and shaped by the artificial conditions and experiences of metropolitan life.
Judge William Cuthbert Jones is an exemplar of this proposition. A tall, well propor- tioned and agile figure gives earnest of a broad, independent, liberal and aggressive men- tality. Seeing him, one would expect to find in him a strong, resonant voice, a clear enun- ciation, an incisive reasoning power and a generous, but fearless style of speech. And such are the qualities which have won for him popularity, distinction and a pronounced success in his profession.
His remote ancestors were Welsh; and the cheerful philosophy which tanghit them that most of life's problems are easier than the one they solved in getting a living out of their own rocky country, still abides in the race. The hardships of early American life only
241
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
lured them, and his people were old settlers in Virginia when the War of the Revolution began.
Gabriel Jones, great grandfather of the gentleman under consideration, was a Captain in General Washington's arıny. His son, Francis Slaughter Jones, established himself at Culpepper Court House, in Virginia, and in course of years became possessed of a fine plantation there. His son, Cuthbert T. Jones, was born there, and he in 1802 married Eliza R. Treat, daughter of Hon. Samuel Treat, formerly United States Indian Agent at Arkansas Post.
The young husband liad chosen the medical profession, and located at Bowling Green, Kentucky, where, on July 16, 1831, William Cuthbert Jones was born, he being the third of eleven children. In 1834 Dr. Jones moved to Chester, Illinois, which became his perma- nent home. There William and the other children received their elementary education. Having finished his common school course, William entered McKendree College, at Leb- anon, Illinois, and graduated in the class of 1852. He returned to his home in Chester, but soon thereafter went to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he entered upon the study of law in the office of Loving & Grider. He felt that lie had no time to spare, and taking advantage of an extraordinary constitution and physique, he pushed his studies so untir- ingly that within a year he was enabled to pass the examination that admitted him to the bar.
He soon thereafter returned to his home in Chester, where he practiced law until Sep- tember 1, 1854, when he came to St. Louis, which was not then so great as now, but still had metropolitan proportions. The professional standard at that time, so far as the law was concerned, had been established by men of national reputation; and a knowledge of law, constitutional and fundamental, was very essential to practice and progress. The new- comer had a long and hard road to travel, therefore. He formed a partnership with Will- liam L. Sloss, which, at the end of a year, was dissolved, after which Mr. Jones formned a new professional association with W. W. Western, of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. The fırın prospered and continued in business for nearly five years. In 1860 the partners separated, and very soon thereafter Mr. Jones and the late Judge Charles F. Cady became partners. They remained together until the opening of the Civil War a year later. Although a Dem- ocrat, and of Southern birth, Mr. Jones was an ardent Union man, and he did not hesitate to prove his faith by his works. On May 8, 1861, he enlisted, and was commissioned Cap- tain of Company I, Fourth United States Reserve Corps, under Colonel B. Gratz Brown. The command was detailed for duty in Southwest Missouri, and Captain Jones served there until the regiment was mustered out. In 1862 he was appointed Paymaster of United States Volunteers, with the rank of Major, which position he held until the close of the war. He was mustered out November 15, 1865, after an active service of four and one-half years.
Like every other professional man, who had abandoned practice for war, Major Jones had to contemplate the problem of building up a new clientele. He had conceived such a strong distaste for the criminal practice, which at that time was necessarily associated with the civil, that, on his return from the army, he seriously considered an abandonment of the profession. While he was still hesitating, an opportunity offered for entering into a part- nership with Wyatt C. Huffman, in the business of sign and steamboat painting. He determined to make the experiment, and it proved successful financially, but in one year, his health became so impaired that he was compelled to abandon the business, and he then returned to the law. He associated himself with Charles G. Mauro, and they soon had a
242
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
good practice. They remained together till 1871, when the firm dissolved, and Major Jones entered into partnership with John D. Johnson.
In November, 1874, Major Jones was elected Judge of the Criminal Court, and it was during his incumbency of this position that the remarkable intellectual qualities which lie possessed, and which had already been recognized by his legal associates, became con- spicuous. He had the art of ruling against an attorney without inviting animosity, sacri- ficing good-will, or suggesting partiality. His instructions to juries were carefully prepared, and were such models of diction and clearness that they are even yet referred to by lawyers, as the writer of this sketch can attest. Although his term on the bench comprehended a large number of noted and difficult cases- such as that of the Kring murder, the Ida Buck- ley murder, whereof McNeary was accused, and the assassination of Francisco Palmero by five parties to a Sicilian vendetta, the record of Judge Jones was wonderfully free from reversals.
Retiring from the bench in December, 1878, Judge Jones resumed practice, associat- ing himself with Rufus J. Delano until 1883, after which he practiced alone until 1885, when he admitted his son, James C., as a partner, and thus the firm is still consti- tuted.
Although never a time-server or office-seeker, Judge Jones has ever manifested a warın interest in politics. Like all those readiest to go the front, he was among the first to extend the hand of fellowship when the war ended, and thus he became identified with the Liberal Republican movement, and although the advocacy of its tenets meant unpopularity, did not hesitate to exemplify his faith by standing as a candidate for Clerk of the Circuit Court, although doomned to certain defeat. He was likewise a supporter of Seymour and Blair and was a candidate for Elector on that ticket. In the campaign of 1896 he was active among those Democrats who protested against the attitude of their party. He is prominently identified with the order known as the Knights of Honor, having been Grand Dictator, a member of the Supreme Lodge for twelve years and Chairman of the Committee that framned the constitution governing that body.
November 20, 1856, Judge Jones was married to Mary A. Chester, daughter of Joseph Chester, of Chester, England. Seven children have been born to them, but only four sur- vive, two sons and two daughters. The second in point of age, James C., is his father's partner, and has already made a record as one of the able young members of the St. Louis bar.
CHARLES FREDERICK JOY, SAINT LOUIS.
C HARLES FREDERICK JOY, lawyer and publicist, comes of that courageous and independent Puritan stock which faced the terrible privations of the wilderness and under difficulties that were great cnougli to appal the stoutest lieart, assisted the Virginia Cavaliers in planting civilization on these shores. And in the pluck displayed ou many occasions, in the manifest genius to lead and conquer, Mr. Joy in his life demonstrates that much of that Puritan fearlessness and innate ability to rise superior to circumstance, lias descended to him unimpaired by the softening influence of a more luxurious civilization than that of the pioneer days which made vigor and strength to battle with adverse circum- stances a necessity of survival.
243
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
Charles Frederick Joy was born at Jacksonville, Illinois, December 11, 1849. His father, whose Christian name he bears, and his mother, whose ante-hymeneal name was Georgiana Eunice Ames Batchelder, were both natives of New Hampshire, who sought a home in Illinois as early as 1839. At the time of his death in 1864, the elder Joy was one of the respected and prominent citizens of Jacksonville. He was a brother of Hon. James F. Joy, the great railroad lawyer of Michigan. The home influences surrounding the sub- ject of this biography were calculated to make of the boy an upright, honorable man, and these righteous and salutary influences have borne fruit in successes and honors achieved.
Given a good preliminary education in his native town, the young man was sent East to enter the academical department of Yale College. Four years later, or in 1874, he graduated from the college with credit. Proceeding directly from New Haven to Shamokin, Pennsylvania, he, at the last named place, entered upon the study of law. A year later he was admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, but it was not his determination to locate there, however, as he came at once to St. Louis, where he was admitted to practice in the State Courts by Judge Hamilton, and to the United States Courts by Hon. John W. Noble. He formed a partnership with Joseplı R. Harris, and went to work with the determination to inake a record. He was associated with Mr. Harris up to the date of the latter's election to the Circuit Attorneyship, since which time Mr. Joy has never been associated in any legal partnership.
It is not surprising that one of Mr. Joy's force of character and great inental vigor should become interested in public affairs. For a decade or more he has been recognized as a leader in the local and State councils of the Republican party, but it was not until 1890 that he was put forward for an important office, being the Republican nominee, in that year, for Congress in the Eighth District. He was placed on the ticket without his consent and against his protest, as he realized that the pressing demands of his private practice would not, without great sacrifice, justify him to make the canvass. The same conditions existed two years later, and again he begged that his name be withdrawn fromn the ticket, but his appeals were ignored, as his party realized that in him was to be found an important element of strengtlı. His unblemished reputation and his splendid personal popularity brought him through all right, after a thorough canvass of the district, always Democratic. He ran ahead of his ticket. and was elected, but his opponent, Jolin J. O'Neill, having exhausted every effort to win, was loth to abandon the case so summarily, and therefore disputed the verdict of the people. Under the contest instituted, the re- count largely strengthened Mr. Joy's claims, but in face of such results, Congress unjustly seated O'Neill. Many fair-minded Democrats who had voted against Joy, acknowledged his election and protested against such high-handed methods. It won the latter general sym- pathy and his manly, dignified attitude under such injustice had the effect of increasing his well-nigh universal popularity. His party would accept no other nominee for the office in 1894, and he was triumphantly elected beyond dispute. He was once more a candidate in 1896, and was elected over an opponent of great popularity.
Congressman Joy has proved a most valuable representative of the people. His course has always been dignified and conservative, and he is held in the highest esteem by his colleagues. He is a forceful speaker, and whether on the floor of the House, on the hust- ings or before a jury, understands in a remarkable degree the art of adapting himself to place, persons and circumstances. As a lawyer, he has been very successful and enjoys the income from a splendid practice. Much attention has been given by him to corporation
244
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
law and his knowledge of this branch is thorough. His practice is now mostly civil, although he has frequently demonstrated his strength before juries in criminal cases. Of tlic latter, one of the most celebrated was the trial of Col. John A. Cockerill, of the Post- Dispatch, for the killing of Col. A. W. Slayback, and which served to illustrate Mr. Joy's brilliancy and ability in an eminent degree. He defended Colonel Cockerill and secured the acquittal of his client.
Mr. Joy married Miss Arabel Ordway, daughter of Rev. Jairus Ordway, of Salem, Connecticut. Mrs. Joy died in December, 1880, leaving one child, a boy, who soon fol- lowed his mother across the Dark River which divides the Here from the Hereafter. In 1895 Mr. Joy again married, espousing Mrs. Elizabeth Ina Ryer, nee Grant.
EDWARD DUDLEY KENNA, SAINT LOUIS.
ST. LOUIS is the home of many excellent lawyers, but few of them have attained so high a position in so short a time as Edward Dudley Kenna, of whose career this is a brief sketch. He is an Illinoisan by birth, having been born in the classic old town of Jacksonville, on November 19, 1861. His father, M. E. Kenna, took for his wife Miss Ellen Pitcher, and to her careful training in his youth the present Mr. Kenna can attribute much of the progress he has made in life.
In 1870 the parents moved to Springfield, Missouri, where the son was educated in the public schools. He began the study of law at an early age, being admitted to the bar at Springfield in May, 1880, before he had reached his nineteenth year. He at once entered upon the practice of law in that town, and in May of the following year he was offered and accepted the position of Assistant Attorney of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, which caused him to make his headquarters in St. Louis. This post was held by him until October, 1889, when he received the appointment of General Attorney of the company, which promotion placed in his hands the control and management of all the legal affairs of that corporation.
The lawyer of to-day who was admitted to practice while yet a boy of less than nine- teen years, is certainly gifted with exceptional brilliancy, and must have been cast in 110 common mould. Mr. Kenna has demonstrated that years are not necessary to reputation in the legal field. This fact was emphasized when, in the ensuing year, having not yet reaclied his twentieth birthday, he became the Assistant Attorney for one of the largest rail- road corporations in the West, and though still at an age when in the nature of things, inost lawyers are only beginning to enjoy their first triumph, he now occupies and discharges the duties with signal ability of one of the most responsible positions in the country.
As General Attorney of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad he had an advantage at the bar possessed by few lawyers in Missouri. In all the multifarious litigation in which his company was involved for sixteen years, he was called on to act and decide, though many of the cases were of such vast importance as to array against him some of the foremost lawyers of the United States. With such men as these as opponents, the ability of Mr. Kenna was put to a severe test, but all such controversies have invariably reflected the brilliancy of his talents and served to demonstrate liis exceptional ability. That interests of such magnitude should be entrusted to the care of one so young, is the highest possible testimony of liis
245
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
skill and legal fitness, and the great number of noted and intricate cases with which he has been connected in so short a time is also cause for gratification. When the 'Frisco lines went into the hands of a receiver, Mr. Kenna was offered, in 1896, the position of General Solicitor of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. This is one of the greatest railway systems of the country and it maintains headquarters at Chicago. He still occupies that place.
Although he gives to every detail of a case the deepest study and the closest scrutiny, he does so only that he may strengthen and make more lucid the weiglitier points in his argument, for when pleading before the court, it is constantly noticeable that he has the peculiar sense which distinguishcs the salient features of any contention, and skill to employ them to the best advantage. Yet, notwithstanding, his penchant for simplicity of demon- stration and calinness and candor in reasoning, he can, when the occasion ariscs, be truly eloquent, his oratory being enhanced by a ready and extended command of language and imposing presence.
He is endowed with literary tastes and tendencies of a pronounced order, and con- stantly discovers that he is much aided thereby while performing his legal duties. He is a tireless reader and student, and the result is evinced in the continual broadening and brightening of his naturally fine mentality.
In politics Mr. Kenna is a Democrat, and a most earnest and consistent one, but, like many successful lawyers, he has never aspired to political office, seeking rather to serve his party by hard work as a private citizen, in which capacity he has often assisted the Democracy of St. Louis and the State generally.
WILLIAM H. KENNAN, MEXICO.
THE career of Gen. William H. Kennan has been a most active and eventful one. In war and in peace, in public and in private life, he has discharged every duty with conspicuous courage and fidelity. He is the son of Samuel and Harriet W. Kennan, and was born in Boone County, Missouri, September 16, 1837. Tlie father, Samuel Kennan, was born in Fleming County, Kentucky, and moved to and settled in Missouri near Colum- bia, Boone County, in 1832. Soon after coming to Missouri he married Harriet W. Rogers, who had, with her mother, Mary Rogers, come from near Lexington, Kentucky, to Mis- souri in 1830, and settled near Columbia. Samuel was the son of Williamn Kennan, a native of Westmoreland County, Virginia, and in his day a man of character and influence. He moved to Kentucky in an early day with his brother-in-law, Capt. Thomas Marshall, and was chosen as the first Clerk of the Circuit Court of Fleming County. He was a Whig, and after serving as Clerk, represented that county in the Kentucky Legislature. He was a Baptist preacher without pay. In the Indian War of 1794, at Sinclair's defeat in Ohio, he distinguished himself by his heroic efforts to save himself, together with a wounded comrade, from the relentless tomahawks of the savage foe. His father, William Kennan, the great-grandfather of General Kennan, was a Scotchinan, and cinigrated to America, settling in Virginia some tiinc before the Revolution. General Kennan's mother, Harriet W. Rogers, was born ncar Bryant's Station, near Lexington, Kentucky, and also came of Virginia stock. Her grandfather, Joseph Rogers, lived to the advanced age of ninety-six. Her father, George Rogers, died early in life, in Kentucky.
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.