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 39
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Mr. McDearmon's practice is general, and as St. Charles is a peaceful community, it is largely of a civil character. However, when the docket does furnish a criminal case his name is likely to appear as one of the attorneys. He has appeared as defender in a number of first-degree murder cases, and has always managed to save his client from the gallows. He is a thorough lawyer and his knowledge of the ethics of his profession is equalled by few lawyers of that part of the State. He is suave of manner and pleasing of address, and is a powerful speaker either before a jury or a promiscuous audience. In party councils his voice has authority, the Democrats of St. Charles County look to him as a leader, and his is generally the first name selected in any local convention to send delegates to the conven- tions of the party. As a citizen he is public spirited and always ready to give the fullest assistance to any enterprise having in view the advancement of his town. His integrity is
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unimpeachable, and his character as a man has mnet the fullest test-a residence of a life-time in one community, which has been followed by the universal respect and esteem of his neighbors. They appreciate his generosity of heart, his broad liberality of inind and his thorough humanity because they have noted the expression of these traits through inany years.
MARSHALL FRANKLIN McDONALD,
SAINT LOUIS.
M ARSHALL FRANKLIN McDONALD is indebted only to his own ambition and signal ability for the proud position he now occupies as one of Missouri's greatest criminal lawyers. He has made his way in life by the strength of native talent. He camte to St. Louis without a niekle in his pocket, not knowing a soul in the great metropolis, but with that energy and pluck which is the animating principle of genius, he went to work without a moment's delay to improve his condition, and he has been doing it ever since.
Like so inany hundreds of the active, able, pushing Americans who dominate every line of commercial, business and professional urban life, Mr. McDonald was born and spent his youth amidst natural and healthy rural scenes. His father owned a comfortable home- stead near Council Bluffs, Iowa, and thereat his son was born, March 14, 1854. His father was Milton McDonald and his mother Adelphia McDonald, nee Wood. His early life was that of inost eountry boys, his time being divided between work on the farin in summer and attendance at the district school in winter. When sixteen years old he entered a drug store to learn pharmacy, and remained in that business until 1875. During his connection with the drug trade he graduated from a college of pharmacy at Chicago, and but shortly there- after determined to become a doctor instead of a druggist. In his study of medicine lie gave special attention to surgery, and attended one course of lectures under Professor Boyd of Chicago. But fate had decreed that Mr. McDonald was never to be a physician. In1 1876 gold was discovered in the Black Hills, and since the dawn of history that metal has exercised a fascination on mankind, has raised their enthusiasm and led them in its quest as nothing else ever has. The young medical student in Chicago felt its hypnotic influ- ence. He abandoned his books and returning to his home near Council Bluffs, where by sacrificing all his earthly possessions, he was able to fit out a four-mule team and wagon for the trip which was destined to prove unfortunate for Mr. McDonald, at least. With three companions he made the journey overland with the four-mule team to Sidney, Nebraska, and from there to the Black Hills. They at once engaged in mining, but only a short time elapsed before young McDonald fell ill of mountain fever. The attack was severe and inost tedious, his mining interests were sacrificed and attendance in the camp being very costly, when he finally began to convalesce, he found himself without a dollar. Although far from complete recovery, lie determined to leave the Hills, hoping to reach a point more eondneive to recovery than a mining camp could be. He persuaded some freighters to assist him, and was accordingly placed in a trail wagon and thus hauled to Cheyenne, three hundred miles distant. Having grown gradually stronger, he was enabled to work his way from Cheyenne to Denver, from where he walked to Deer Trail, fifty miles distant. But the exertion proved too much for him in his weakened condition, and as lie was wholly without money, he could go no farther. He remained at Deer Trail two or three weeks,
Marshall M Donald
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working at odd jobs for his board, until by a happy circumstance he became acquainted with a cattle shipper, who offered to carry him to St. Louis if he would assist in caring for a train load of cattle. It was thus that he arrived at the National Stock Yards, East St. Louis, November 28, 1877.
On the day following, Mr. McDonald found himself in a great city, where he did not know a soul and without a cent in his pocket. But his strength had returned and with it came confidence that he could take care of himself. In walking down Broadway he saw a load of coal which had been dumped in front of a small restaurant. It did not take him long to strike a bargain with the proprietor, whereby he put the coal in the cellar and received in remuneration the princely sum of twenty-five cents. While he was investing the quarter in the first square ineal he had been able to enjoy in many days, he told the proprietor something of his misfortunes, and the former generously offered to allow him to work for a while about the restaurant for his board. After about six weeks had passed under these circumstances, through the kindness of the wholesale drug house of Meyer Brothers & Co., Mr. McDonald obtained a situation as a clerk in the drug store of a Dr. Beatty, then located at Tenth and Olive. This position he filled until 1880 and only left to accept an appointment as clerk in the office of the Circuit Attorney, Joseph R. Harris, then just entering upon the duties of his office.
To Mr. Harris the bar of St. Louis will ever stand indebted. He soon noted in his new clerk a natural mental equipment of the highest order, and that he was splendidly endowed with that discrimination and gift of language which especially adapted him to the legal profession. It was Mr. Harris who persuaded him to enter the law. With the generous assistance of his employer, he prosecuted his studies and was duly admitted to the bar in 1881. Mr. Harris falling sick during his term, the responsibilities of his impor- tant office were committed to Mr. McDonald, and so successfully did he discharge those duties, that in 1884 he was made the nominee for Assistant Circuit Attorney on the Repub- lican ticket and was elected for a term of four years. It fell to the lot of the Circuit Attor- ney to appear for the State in many cases of the first importance, among which was thie noted Maxwell case and that of the Chinese Highbinders. The young Assistant Circuit Attorney was delegated to appear as leading counsel of the State, handling the cases with a wisdom, ability and skill that was a revelation to older lawyers.
The knowledge of chemistry, therapeutics and surgery obtained through his practical knowledge of pharmacy and his study of medicine, have proved invaluable to Mr. McDonald in the department of criminal law. There is rarely a crime committed into which some of these factors do not enter, and a lawyer understanding the sciences named, is doubly armed against his opponent. But knowledge of inedico-legal law is by no means his only source of strength. There are few lawyers who are his equals as a cross-examiner and as a pleader his eloquence is persuasive, convincing and forceful. He is as witty as he is ready, and many an opposing lawyer and witness can testify to the sharpness of his stinging satire. The noted Vail case, in which he appeared as defender against four of the ablest lawyers in Missouri, is a fair illustration of his energy and enthusiasm in behalf of his client. His effort could not have been more strenuous, his methods more skillful, had he himself been on trial for his life. His endeavors resulted in the acquittal of Vail on charge of murder- ing his wife. Since he has retired from office, Mr. McDonald has handled a number of similar criminal cases, although his practice is by no means confined to criminal law. In
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civil law he has about all the business he can attend to. Mr. McDonald's legal career is summined up in the statement that within a dozen years of practice he has risen from an even start with the world to the position of one of the leading criminal lawyers of Missouri.
WALTER F. McENTIRE, SAINT LOUIS.
PERHAPS there are few among the younger contingent of St. Louis lawyers who have forged more rapidly to the front, or whose present position and undoubted natural talent give more pronounced assurance of a bright future career as a barrister and publicist, than Walter F. McEntire. There are not many of his professional brethren of even a much more extended experience who are more widely known or more popular in St. Louis than he, and the influence he wields now in public affairs demonstrates the fact that he is possessed of the qualifications that will some day carry him to a high position in public life.
Mr. McEntire is a native St. Louisan, having been born in that city, June 4, 1861, though he is no exception to the rule whereby Missouri lawyers trace their origin back to either Virginia or Kentucky, through one or the other branches of their genealogical tree. Virginia is the one that applies in the present instance, Mr. McEntire's father, Joseph McEntire, having come from that, his native State, to St. Louis some time in the early 'forties. Those were the palmny days of river navigation and with this line of traffic he soon became identified, confining his activities largely to the Missouri and upper Mississippi Rivers, in whose trade and transportation he was a prominent figure for a number of years.
The American pioneers of the McEntire family came from the north of Ireland and settled in Virginia at a very early day. Joseph McEntire married Morgiana Rosamond Sheble, the mother of our subject, who was a member of one of the very oldest Quaker families of Pennsylvania. She was of Bavarian descent by one branch of her family tree and of English by the other, was born in Philadelphia and was the daugliter of Frederick Sheble and Rachel Cumming, his wife. Both their families being Friends, and thorough believers in the doctrine of "the non-resistance of evil," they hailed Penn's idea of the formation of a colony in the wilderness of the New World, where the tyrant's rule and the wars of his bloody-minded retainers would be unknown, with expressions of enthusiasm and delight. The Cumming family left Warwickshire, England, and came to America shortly after Penn obtained his famous grant, if they did not come as one of that great Pcace Apostle's orig- inal company. The ancestors of Frederick Sheble werc of a company organized in Bavaria by Rev. Francis Daniel Pastorius, to join Penn. Rev. Pastorius was a Lutheran minister, a man of the highest Christian character and an associate and friend of Penn. He was a inan of scholarly attainments, of poetic instincts and an intense lover of liberty. An exall- ple of his quality as a poet may be found of interest, and therefore the writer here appends a few lines of his, translated from the Latin poem preserved in the "Germantown (Pa.), Records, 1688:"
Hail to posterity ! Hail, future men of Germanopolis! Let the young generations yet to be Look kindly upon this. Think how your fathers left their native land,
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Dear German land, O, sacred hearth and homes!
And where the wild beast roams
In patience planned New forest homes beyond the mighty sea,
There undisturbed and free
To live as brothers of one family.
What pains and cares befell,
What trials and what fears,
Remember, and wherein we have done well
Follow our footsteps, men of coming years;
Where we have failed to do
Aright, or wisely live, Be warned by us, the better way pursue.
And knowing we were human, even as you,
Pity and forgive. Farewell, posterity!
Farewell, dear Germany! Forevermore farewell!
Walter F. McEntire received liis education in the public schools of St. Louis, passing from the regular district to the high school. His intention to adopt the law was early forined, and accordingly after leaving school he entered the office of Nathaniel Myers, now a prosperous and prominent lawyer of New York City. Under the latter's tutelage he completed the regular course and was admitted to the bar, October 11, 1881. He has remained all his life in St. Louis, excepting a period of about a year and a half spent at Leadville, Colorado, and vicinity, during the boom days of that great inining camp.
Almost from the time he opened an office in St. Louis he has enjoyed a good practice. He seems to have been impressed with the vital truth of the retort inade by Daniel Webster to a young legal neophyte who complained that the legal profession was inost discouragingly crowded, to the effect that, "there is always room at the top," for since the day he received his license to practice he has employed every capability to the attainment of that lofty position. How far he has progressed in that direction, his present splendid practice tells most accurately and eloquently. He is masculine and masterful both physically and men- tally, and this virility is manifest in all his professional work. Once fully convinced of the right and legality of his position, he carries a case forward with a vigor and a determination that is loath to confess even the possibility of defeat. It is supreine confidence that wins in all the walks of life, and has frequently in the larger affairs of inen, achieved victory where the Fates foretold certain disaster. He is frank and straightforward, for that is the way of men of his vigorous physical and mental constitution. It is the weak and inept wlio are generally compelled to resort to cunning and subterfuge to carry their ends, and thus it is that you will nearly always find one of this physical and mental equipment a faithful and warm friend and a bitter but open enemy. He is a man of the utmost sincerity and before a jury this characteristic doubtless has its effect. As a pleader he is convincing and logical, his oratory being characterized by rugged forcefulness rather than ornate embellishments, abounding more in the strong and simple Anglo-Saxon than the delicate and figurative Latin elements.
Although never a seeker of public place, Mr. McEntire is one of the best known public inen of the metropolis. In 1889, however, he consented to the use of his name as a candi- date for the Board of Education of the City of St. Louis, running as an independent. Although opposed by four strong candidates lie was elected by a handsome majority.
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As a member of the Board he was assigned to and elected Chairman of the Teachers' Committee, one of, if not the most important and responsible subdivisions of the Board. Mr. McEntire had always been profoundly interested in the cause of . education, and clothed with official power, he entered into the work before him with the enthusiasm and earnestness that are his distinguishing traits. Too often the office of school director has been accepted simply as an honor, empty of personal service or responsibility. The young lawyer had no such conception of its requirements. To him it meant personal sac- rifice and labor, and public duty faithfully, honestly and efficiently performned. The result was most beneficial to the schools of St. Louis and his public service attracted inore atten- tion than the efforts of any citizen who had occupied the place for years.
Politically, Mr. McEntire is a Democrat, and one too, deeply imbued with the prin- ciples of Jefferson. His influence in the political field is a constantly appreciating quantity, and he is now looked upon as one of the wisest counselors of the young or more energetic elcment of the party in St. Louis. His campaign work is no less active than effective, hc having the power as a campaign speaker to adapt himself to the time, circumstance and audience in a most happy manner. Personally, he is both well known and popular, and is every way well equipped for a public career.
Mr. McEntire is an active member of numerous clubs, societies, etc., among the more conspicuous of which may be mentioned the Mercantile, Union, Jefferson and Jackson clubs, the last two being political organizations. He has held office in nearly all the organ- izations to which he ever belonged.
On August 1, 1887, Mr. McEntire was married to Julia, daughter of G. O. Kalb. The latter was a prominent German-American citizen of St. Louis, who came to that city inany years ago and was one of the founders of the St. Louis Fair Association. For many years during the earlier period of its existence, he was the Association's Secretary. Mr. and Mrs. McEntire have one child, Vera R., born June 13, 1888.
JOHN E. McKEIGHAN, SAINT LOUIS.
THE life record of Jolin E. McKeighan is an inspiration to every young lawyer ambitious T to succeed in that deep and abstruse branch of human knowledge and effort, the law. Never seeking position or place, or to bring to his aid extraneous influences, he has dili- gently and industriously applied himself solely to the law, its study and practice, and has reached a plane in liis profession where he is honored and respected, and where liis services are souglit because the mere fact that he appears in behalf of a cause gives it dignity and prestige.
The dual influence of Nature in its beauty, country simplicity and absolute truthful- ness, acting upon the impressionable inind of sympathetic youth, followed by a contact in maturer years with 11c11, the various expressions of the human mind called in its collective result a City, seems necessary in thic creation of the strongest, most complete and perfect 111a11. American conditions seem to imply that an intimate knowledge of the Natural is necessary to a complete mastery of the Artificial, and that only a contact with bothi mnakes the finished and fully rounded character. Leastway, most of the successful men in Ameri- can city life are country boru and bred. Mr. McKeighan may be cited as an example of
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Local PAMishing Co. St Louis
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TIIE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
this proposition. Born and reared on a farin, his subsequent life has been successful beyond the expectation or hope of most men.
A general detail of his life history therefore must begin with the fact that he was born near the little town of Farmington, in Fulton County, Illinois, on July 20, 1841, and that he is the son of Robert and Ellen (Tuttle) McKeighan. His father was a well-to-do farmer and landed proprietor and the son was given good educational advantages. He began in the district school near his home, and from there went to Knox College, at Gales- burg, Illinois, where he made preparation for a university course. He entered the Univer- sity of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and graduated with credit from that college in June, 1866. Acting in conformity with his own inclination and that of his parents, he determined to adopt the law as a profession, and with such purpose in view entered the office of Martin Shellenberger at Toulon, Illinois, and in May, 1867, was duly admitted to the bar at Ottawa, Illinois.
He first located for practice at Bolivar, Polk County, Missouri, but changed his scene of operation within a few months to Baxter Springs, Kansas, then one of the promising towns of that section. It was in March, 1868, that he opened an office at the last named town; in March, 1871, he formed a partnership with H. C. McComas, and had again changed his location and was at Fort Scott, Kansas. The years 1875 and 1876 were years of calamity to Kansas. The locusts came from the West and impoverished the land and that was perhaps one of the causes that decided Messrs. McKeighan and McComas to move to St. Louis in the year last named. The partnership was a most agreeable and profitable one and was not broken by change of location, but continued up to 1881, when through Mr. McComas' removal to Silver City, New Mexico, it was dissolved. This was a most unfortunate change to Mr. McComas, and its consequences a source of deep sorrow to his old friend and former partner, as both Mr. McComas and his wife were murdered by Indians within the year following their settlement in New Mexico.
Mr. McKeighan's next partnership arrangement was with Silas B. Jones (McKeighan & Jones), which lasted until January 1, 1885, when he entered into a partnership with Judge Wilbur F. Boyle and Judge Elmer B. Adams, under the style of Boyle, Adams & McKeighan. This was dissolved January 1, 1892, by Mr. McKeighan's withdrawal to become a member of the firm of Lee, McKeighan, Ellis & Priest, which was dissolved upon the appointment of Mr. Priest to the position of Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern Division of Missouri. After this Messrs. Lee and McKeighan con- tinued the business of the late firm until Major Lee's death in the spring of 1897.
Mr. McKeighan has that civic pride which has led him to identify himself with many movements of a public character, notably the Fall Festivities Association, the Citizens' Smoke Abatement Association and has in many ways rendered the people and his city val- uable assistance. In legal circles he is recognized as one of the State's greatest authorities on constitutional law, and likewise his knowledge of corporation law is profound. His practice is wholly civil and he appears as special counsel in behalf of inany banks, railroads and other large corporations. At the beginning of his career he mastered the basic prin- ciples of the law's science, and building on this foundation, his knowledge of the subject has been increased and widened by the experience of thirty years of practice. He is of a scholarly cast of mind and his cultivation and learning are graced by polished manners and a personality that pleases and impresses all with whom he comes in contact. He is a man
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of liberal views, high ideals and æsthetic tastes, and is a higher type of nineteenth century civilization and development.
Among the most notable cases with which Mr. McKeighan has been connected may be mentioned: The Federal Government versus the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railways, to set aside patents for about one million acres of Kansas land, in which Mr. McKeighan appeared for the government, associated with such learned counsel as Hon. George R. Peck, Hon. Jeremiah Black, Hon. William Lawrence, of Ohio, and Governor Shannon, of Kansas; snits involving about 600,000 acres of land in Kansas, which was known as "The Cherokee Neutral Land," and in which he appeared with Hon. William Lawrence and others. He also appeared as counsel in causes involving the clause of the Missouri Constitution of 1875, making directors of banks responsible for deposits after they knew their bank was insolvent; and involving the first anti-trust law passed by Missouri. With E. D. Kenna and L. F. Parker, he appeared for the defendant in the case of Missouri versus the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, whereby the former sought to compel the latter to pay to it an old debt of the Southern Pacific to the State, involving in principal and interest $750,000. Judge Withrow found the defendant not liable, a decision affirmed by the Supreme Court. With Hon. John H. Bothwell he appeared in behalf of Sedalia in the case of Edwards versus Lesueur, to enjoin the sub- mission of the Constitutional Amendment to remove the State Capital to Sedalia. The Supreme Court denied the injunction. Another important case, in which he was associate counsel with Alexander & Green, of New York, was the suit instituted in the United States Circuit Court in foreclosure of a $14,000,000 mortgage against the St. Louis & San Fran- cisco Railway.
Mr. McKeighan was married November 2, 1869, to Miss Helen M. Cutler, daughter of Thomas C. and Lucy (Culver) Cutler, of Kalamazoo, Michigan. A few years ago Mrs. McKeighan died, leaving as a consolation to the husband and father, three bright and promising children. The latter are named Robert, Mabel and Ellen.
THEODORE LEONARD MONTGOMERY, KAHOKA.
UCCESS which is the result of hard work and integrity is the success that exists sub- S stantially and permanently. This truth is simply illustrated in the legal and social career of Theodore Leonard Montgomery, one of the foremost barristers of Clark County. He was born on a farm in Pendleton County, Kentucky, on January 22, 1855, and he enjoyed the advantages of farm life in Kentucky and Missouri until he reached the age of twenty-one. His father, John W. Montgomery, was a native of Kentucky, but of Scotch and Irish descent, he being the son of James A. Montgomery. Mary S. Dicken was the maiden name of Theodore L. Montgomery's mother, and she was married in Pen- dleton County, Kentucky, in 1853. She was of English and Welsh extraction, daughter of Charles and Mary Dicken and was born in Campbell County, Kentucky. The Mont- gomerys removed to Missouri in 1869, taking up a farm in Clark County near the present town of Kahoka. The father was a farmer and stock raiser and died there four years ago, at the age of sixty-cight, but the mother still lives, aged sixty-eight years.
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