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 40
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
281
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
To his daily legal duties Mr. Montgomery brings the reinforcement of a thorough education. He passed through a full course in the public and high schools of Kahoka, graduating with honors in the high school class of 1875, and is also a graduate of Missouri State University in the class of 1879, where he took a complete scientific and normal course, taking the degrees of Ph. B. and Pe. B. Then he studied law at Kahoka, in the office of Judge Benjamin E. Turner, being admitted to the bar at Unionville, September 13, 1880, by Judge Andrew Ellison. Returning to Kahoka, he immediately began the practice of law, and he has practiced there uninterruptedly ever since. For eight years he had as his partner, Judge John M. Wood, now of St. Louis, and formerly Attorney Gen- eral of Missouri. He next formed a partnership with his brother, Sidney J. Montgomery, in August, 1892, under the firmn name of T. L. & S. J. Montgomery, and this firm still exists.
Practicing in all the courts, State and Federal, including the United States Supreme Court, there can be no question of his ability and continued success. He is a powerful pleader and one of the most earnest of advocates, being especially proficient in cases involv- ing abstruse and difficult points of law. One of his notable triumphis was obtained in the United States courts in the case of the Keokuk & Western Railway versus Clark, Scotland and other counties in North Missouri, to resist the payment of taxes by the plaintiff to the counties, $300,000 being at stake. As one of the counsel for the defense, he conducted his side of the question so ably as to win a decisive victory in the Federal Courts at St. Louis and Hannibal and on appeal to the United States Supreme Court. From 1887 to 1891 he served two terms as Prosecuting Attorney of Clark County, filling both in the inost acceptable manner. In October, 1896, he was a candidate for nomination on the Democratic ticket for Judge of the First Judicial Circuit to succeed Hon. Benjamin E. Turner, deceased, as Judge of that circuit, there being one candidate from each of the four counties in said circuit. After balloting for more than twenty-four hours without a choice, the Hon. E. R. McKee, Chairman of the Convention, was nominated on the one thousand and thirty-sixth ballot. With the above exception he has never aspired to public office, but has devoted his time exclusively to his profession.
He is closely identified with the principal enterprises of his section, being attorney for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway; attorney for the Clark County Savings Bank and Director therein; President and Director of the Kalioka Telephone and Con- struction Company, and half owner of the Opera House Block, the most beautiful piece of architecture in Kahoka. In public esteem no man in his part of the State stands higher, either as lawyer or citizen. This fact has been contin- ually attested during the past twenty years. He belongs to the Masons and the Knights of Pythias and is a member of the Baptist Church. He is also a Democrat and exercises a leading influence in the deliberations of his party, being always ready to make self-sacri- fices to further its interests in that part of the State.
Mr. Montgomery is a genial companion and a true friend. He is sincere, frank and open, and there is none of that duplicity or cunning about him to lessen the excellence of his character. It is natural to one of such traits to be generous, philanthropic and kindly and he is no exception to this rule. His personality impresses one at once, and as his natural good will to all mankind is apparent, his friends are numerous and warm.
282
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
Mr. Montgomery was married December 1, 1881, to Miss Mary M. Jordan, the charm- ing daughter of John and Mary J. Jordan, of Kahoka. Four children bless the union, two boys and two girls. They are: Leonard J., aged fourteen; Lenna G., aged twelve; Olivc F., aged nine, and Sidney J., aged five.
THOMAS EDWARD MULVIHILL, SAINT LOUIS.
T THOMAS EDWARD MULVIHILL, Prosecuting Attorney of the Court of Criminal Cor- rection of St. Louis, is a native of Ireland, having been born in County Clair, on the banks of the "Lordly Shannon," May 25, 1862. He is the son of Lawrence and Mattie (Finncan) Mulvihill. The former was a prosperous and well-to-do farmer in Ireland until the expiration of his leasehold. This could not be renewed, owing to the hard conditions imposed by the inconscionable landlord, and therefore Lawrence Mulvihill, thongli far advanced in years, was compelled to leave his family, home and country and seek a liveli- hood in a foreign land. He embarked for America in 1863. Two years later the balance of the family, consisting of the mother and four boys, two older and one younger than our subject, followed him. On reaching New York in 1865 a great calamity befell the newly arrived family, being, indeed, the death of the mother and the baby boy. The elder Mul- vihill and his three remaining sons, afterward continued their journey westward, finding a resting place at Farina, Fayette County, Illinois. Thomas Edward being still a babe, could not receive the proper attention from his father, and it thus fell to his lot to be cared for and reared by his father's sister and her husband, Bridget and John Collins. Tlie fatlier lived until 1872, dying at Farina at the advanced age of eighty.
When Thomas Edward grew old enough he began attendance at the Farina public school, working on the farm in summer. This manner of life continued until 1880, when he was eighteen years old. In that year, on the solicitation of his cousin, Michael Collins, he went to Peotone, Will County, Illinois, where he continued to attend the public school, sustaining himself by working on the farm during vacations and by clerking in a country store. In 1882 he was persuaded by his eldest brother, Michacl, to join him in St. Louis. 'Through the kindness and valuable assistance of that brother (now dead), Mr. Mulvihill was enabled to enter the St. Louis Law School, from which he graduated in 1885, and in June of the same year was admitted to practice in the State and Federal Courts, at St. Louis.
It is characteristic of the people of the Emerald Isle that they rise to the top in spite of cvery obstacle, wherever placed. It takes a certain amount of resistance always, to bring their best qualitics to the surface, and in politics they find that resistance or opposi- tion which acts as a developer of character. Politics has a charm for them they cannot resist, and Mr. Mulvihill was no exception to this rule. Hc had been here but a few years before he was in the thick of the fight, and on May 20, 1891, lie was appointed Assistant City Attorney by Mayor Edward A. Noonan. While still holding this office, lic was elected (November 6, 1894), Prosecuting Attorney of the St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction, an office of which he is still the incumbent. The result of that election demonstrates more cmphatically than anything else could Mr. Mulvihill's splendid popularity, as he received a majority of 2,374, although the balance of liis ticket was defeated by overwhelming major- ities. It is, perhaps, mnecessary to add that he is a Democrat of the old school, strictly
283
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
partisan, undeviating. He has taken an active part in politics, National, State and local for the past twelve years, and is at this time precinct committeeman of the Twenty-eighth Ward.
Mr. Mulvihill is a member of the Legion of Honor, of the ex-Confederate Historical Society and of the St. Louis Bar Association. In 1887 he formed a partnership with E. C. Dodge, which still continues and which has proved both pleasant and profitable.
September 28, 1892, Mr. Mulvihill was married to Katie M. Daily, daughter of Owen and Mary Daily, old and respected residents of St. Louis. Mrs. Mulvihill is an educated and accomplished lady, having received her instruction in the schools of St. Louis, where slie was born and reared. She is a graduate of the high and normal schools, and for two years was teacher in the latter. The couple have two children, Margaret Mary, four years old, and Thomas Lawrence, aged two. The little family, consisting, as Mr. Mul- vihill would say, of "the inother bird, the two robins and myself," is comfortably situated under their "own vine and fig tree" at 5104 Cabanne Avenue.
CHARLES NAGEL, SAINT LOUIS.
H ONORABLE CHARLES NAGEL is a native of the great Southwest and is an example of the best, most virile and independent inanhood of that broad domain brought to the fullest possibility of culture and development. Mr. Nagel was born in Colorado County, Texas, August 9, 1849. Althoughi located in what is now the richest and most populous section of the State (near Houston), it was then on the extreme Southwestern frontier. He received his elementary schooling at the common schools of Austin County, in the saine State, where he was still a pupil in 1863. In that year owing to the political bitterness of the time, the elder Nagel, who in that respect was not in harmony with the majority of his neighbors, felt constrained to leave Texas, and therefore, with the subject of this memoir, went to Mexico. After remaining for a time in the land of the Montezumas, they took a steamer for New York, and from there came to St. Louis, reaching that city February 4, 1864.
For one year young Nagel attended a German private school and then in 1865 entered the Central High School of St. Louis, from which he graduated in 1868 as valedictorian of his class. For a time he traveled abroad, devoted his time to private study and reading and sought that culture which is to be obtained only by travel and a wide observation of places and inen. He was destined for the bar, and therefore on his return to his home he, in 1870, entered St. Louis Law School. He graduated and received his degree in 1872, and then again went abroad, this time to enter the University of Berlin, where he studied for a year, returned to St. Louis in 1873, and there has since then been actively engaged in practice.
He has never been a seeker of office, and nothing but the simple truth is stated when it is said that he is a man of such high and unsullied integrity and character, such absolute sincerity of purpose, that he has been urged more times than he has consented to become a candidate for various places and is indeed one whom the office has always sought. In 1881 he was elected to the Legislature and his course there made his repu- tation as a wise, able and conscientious public servant. For four years, front 1893 to 1897,
284
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
he was President of the Council, the upper house of the St. Louis municipal Legislature, and the rare good judgment, absolute honesty and dignity which he brought to bear as pre- siding officer greatly elevated that body in the minds of the people. Were more men like Charles Nagel members of municipal Legislatures the people would regard them with imuch more respect than they do. He is a staunch Republican and labors actively in his party's behalf, and though partisan rancor is generally capable of charging anything, it has never charged aught against the rigid integrity, conscientiousness or honesty of purpose of Charles Nagel.
Mr. Nagel is sincerely interested in the cause of education and since 1885 has been a lecturer at the St. Louis Law School. He is likewise a Trustee of Washington Univer- sity and a member of the Board of Control of the St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts. A man of his learning and capacity reflects honor on any organization, and he is a member of a number of societies, etc., among them being the six leading clubs of the metropolis.
Mr. Nagel is a gentleman of splendid native ability, which has been supplemented by a complete education. He is a student, an investigator and thinker and a man of high ideals. He is a lover of the fine arts, and one of the most discriminating connoisseurs in the West. His home with its rare pictures, its statues and its books bespeaks the refinement and culture of the owner and is said to be one of the most artistic and beautiful homes anywhere. Thoughi a student of books he is likewise a man of the world, has traveled extensively and had much contact with his kind. He is a believer in the humanities of life and a striver for those finer and higher things which broaden and elevate the 111a11. Of him it may be said truly that he is a scholar and a gentleman, and one whose friendship is a rare delight and pleasure.
CHARLES McCLUNG NAPTON, SAINT LOUIS.
C HARLES McCLUNG NAPTON, of St. Louis, is a lawyer born and bred. The grand- son of a Supreme Court Judge and the son of a Supreme Court Judge who was one of tlic inost learned lawyers Missouri ever produced, his bent toward the law was altogether natural, being derived from both branches of his family tree. His father, Judge William B. Napton, married Malinda Williams, daughter of Chancellor Thomas L. Williams, for many years one of the Supreme Judges of Tennessee, and thus it was that their son, tlc subject of this sketch, was doubly endowed with every legal tendency heredity may bestow.
Charles McClung Napton was born at Elk Hill, Saline County, Missouri, the country place of his father. After receiving a common school training he entered St. Louis High School and from there went to Westminister College, at Fulton. Completing the pre- scribed course of that institution, his father, who was a graduate of Princeton and apprecia- tive of the value of a finished education, determined that his son should be accorded every advantage, and therefore sent him to the University of Virginia. In 1869 he completed his studies at this celebrated seat of learning and returned to his home in Saline County. It had been intended that Charles should adopt the bar from the first, and therefore after his return home he devoted the next two years to the study of law, although during that period he taught his four younger brothers and prepared them for college. His legal pre-
284
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
he was President of the Council, the upper house of the St. Louis municipal Legislature, and the rare good judgment, absolute honesty and dignity which he brought to bear as pre- siding officer greatly elevated that body in the minds of the people. Were more inen like Charles Nagel members of municipal Legislatures the people would regard them with much more respect than they do. He is a staunch Republican and labors actively in his party's bchalf, and thoughi partisan rancor is generally capable of charging anything, it has never charged aught against the rigid integrity, conscientiousness or honesty of purpose of Charles Nagel.
Mr. Nagel is sincerely interested in the cause of education and since 1885 has been a lecturer at the St. Louis Law School. He is likewise a Trustee of Washington Univer- sity and a member of the Board of Control of the St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts. A man of his learning and capacity reflects honor on any organization, and lie is a member of a number of societies, etc., among them being the six leading clubs of the metropolis.
Mr. Nagel is a gentleman of splendid native ability, which has been supplemented by a complete education. He is a student, an investigator and thinker and a man of high! ideals. He is a lover of the fine arts, and one of the most discriminating connoisseurs in the West. His home with its rare pictures, its statues and its books bespeaks the refinement and culture of the owner and is said to be one of the most artistic and beautiful homes anywhere. Thoughi a student of books he is likewise a man of the world, has traveled extensively and had much contact with his kind. He is a believer in the humanities of life and a striver for those finer and higher things which broaden and elevate the inan. Of him it may be said truly that he is a scholar and a gentleman, and one whose friendship is a rare delight and pleasure.
CHARLES McCLUNG NAPTON, SAINT LOUIS.
C HARLES McCLUNG NAPTON, of St. Louis, is a lawyer born and bred. The grand- son of a Supreme Court Judge and the son of a Supreme Court Judge who was one of the most learned lawyers Missouri ever produced, his bent toward the law was altogether natural, being derived from both branches of his family tree. His father, Judge William B. Napton, married Malinda Williams, daughter of Chancellor Thomas L. Williams, for many years one of the Supreme Judges of Tennessee, and thus it was that their son, the subject of this sketeli, was doubly endowed with every legal tendency heredity may bestow.
Charles McClung Napton was born at Elk Hill, Saline County, Missouri, the country place of his father. After receiving a common school training he entered St. Louis High School and from there went to Westminister College, at Fulton. Completing the pre- scribed course of that institution, his father, who was a graduate of Princeton and apprecia- tive of the value of a finished education, determined that his son should be accorded every advantage, and therefore sent him to the University of Virginia. In 1869 he completed his studies at this celebrated scat of learning and returned to his home in Saline County. It had been intended that Charles should adopt the bar from the first, and therefore after his return home he devoted the next two years to the study of law, although during that period he taught his four younger brothers and prepared them for college. His legal pre-
ל
١
285
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
ceptors were Col. Samuel Boyd, Judge Strother and Lewis W. Miller. He was admitted to the bar in 1871 and immediately came to St. Louis, where he had lived as a boy.
Establishing himself in St. Louis in 1871, that city has since been the scene of his labors, and he has earned a reputation for wisdom and resourcefulness as a practitioner which he is certain to add to yearly. He is gifted with that indispensable capital in the law-a judicial mind, wherewith he readily arrays the contending facts of a case against each other, giving each fact its proper place and due weight. He is a close reasoner, is forceful in argument, and oftentimes eloquent as a pleader. He engages solely in general civil practice, and is especially conversant with that extensive and intricate department of law which pertains to corporations, having been for four years Assistant Attorney of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad. He is a close and industrious student of economical questions also, and is at this time President of the Western Economic Association, a society one of whose purposes is the collection and diffusion of useful information on economic subjects. It was through its efforts that the statistics relating to farm mortgages were incorporated in the census of 1890. Mr. Napton is unmarried.
JOHN WILLOCK NOBLE, SAINT LOUIS.
JOHN WILLOCK NOBLE was born at Lancaster, Ohio, October 26, 1831. His father was Col. John Noble, who was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and was a man of much distinction in Ohio, having had a inilitary training and being of a most gal- lant and energetic character. The mother was Catharine McDill, born on Antietamn Creek, Maryland, near Hagerstown, and inarried at Lancaster, Ohio. The subject of this sketch received his education first in the commnon schools at Cincinnati, Ohio, and afterwards at Miami University, Ohio, and at Yale College. He left Miaini at the end of the junior year, and entered Yale at the beginning of the junior year, and graduated at the latter in the class of 1851, with honor, and before he was twenty years of age. He early displayed a talent for speaking and composition; took a class prize at Yale the first year he was there, and was elected by his class one of the editors of the Yale literary inagazine.
Returning home he studied law in the office of Henry Stanbery, afterward Attorney General of the United States, and of his brother, Henry C. Noble, at Columbus, Ohio. He was admitted to the bar there in 1853, and afterward removed to St. Louis, Missouri, where he was admitted in 1855. But finding his social relations unpleasant and because of the existence of negro slavery and the dullness of business, he removed to Keokuk, Iowa, in 1856, and there soon formed a co-partnership with Ralph P. Lowe, who was afterward Governor of that State. From the time he arrived in Keokuk throughout his professional life, he has had about all the law business he could do, and his practice has embraced cases of almost every variety and has been highly remunerative. In Iowa he was at the same bar with Samuel F. Miller, afterward Justice of the United States Supreme Court; George W. McCrary, afterward Secretary of War, and John F. Dillon, afterward Judge of the United States Circuit Court, and he had at the age of thirty an excellent standing in all the State Courts and in the Federal Courts, and was busily engaged when the war caine on.
His military career was a distinguished one. His first engagement was that known as the battle of Athens, Missouri. The Rebels were approaching that place under Martin
286
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
Green (a brother of James Green, United States Senator), with intent to invade Iowa, at the town of Croton, across the Des Moines River from Athens. Noble, althoughi not yet enlisted, with a number of citizens from Keokuk hurried to the front and joined the Union forces under Col. David Moore, and was in the battle. The enemy was driven off with considerable loss. He then enlisted in the Third Iowa Cavalry, and was made First Lieutenant of Company C. Being very soon afterward appointed Regimental Adjut- ant, he devoted his study and labor to the duties of his place, and to the earnest and intel- ligent discharge of this duty the regiment owed very much of the soldierly appearance and efficiency in the field it exhibited throughout the war. He rose step by step from First Lieutenant to Colonel, and was brevetted Brigadier General "for distinguished and meri- torious services in the field." The "Records of the Rebellion" contain many reports from his pen of the battles and expeditions in which his regiment, while under his command, was engaged, and always with merit and honor. He was in the battle of Pea Ridge, one of the most important and strongly contested fights in the West, lasting, as it did, three days. Afterwards he was at the siege and fall of Vicksburg and the second battle at Jack- son. The regiment having re-enlisted and become a veteran regiment, was under his com- mand in a number of engagements against Forest in Tennessee and Mississippi, and although the Federal Army had to retreat at Brice's Cross-roads, the Third Iowa Cavalry hield the rear against the assaulting columns of the enemy for two nights and the intervening day, almost alone, and with severe loss of men and horses. He was also in the great cavalry campaign under Gen. James H. Wilson through Alabama and Georgia, the regiment doing excellent service and receiving great praise at the battles of Montevallo, Ebenezer Church and Selma. At Ebenezer Church the Third Iowa Cavalry and Colonel Noble took their revenge on Forest, by not only breaking and capturing liis line, but chasing the Rebel chief in hot haste quite into Selma, where Forest surrendered his troops and munitions next day, but himself fled on down the river in a canoe. He was at the head of his regiment in the night attack made by General Wilson on the works at Columbus, Georgia, where after severe fighting the Confederate force was captured and Columbus occupied. For its services in this battle and because of its excellent discipline, Colonel Noble and his regi- inent were put in command of the city during the stay of the army there. He had many hair-breadth escapes during the war, the most noted being at Montevallo, where, when charging at the head of his regiment, a rifle ball struek him on the plate of his sabre belt with great force, and so as to pass nearly through it, raising the metal next his body in a conical lump.
Colonel Noble was greatly beloved by his command, and he has at all times recipro- cated their strong attachment. Besides those in the war records, there is an excellent his- tory of the regiment in Ingersoll's "Iowa in the Rebellion," and to these the limits of this article require we should be content to make reference. Noble was almost continuously with his regiment, but he served for a while under Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, first as Judge Advocate General of the Army of the Southwest, and afterward as Judge Advocate of the Department of the Missouri. In this position he had to deal with many questions relating to guerilla warfare, military commissions and courts martial, which were novel and difficult.
The war over, he returned to Iowa only to find his business gone and a poor prospect to regain it, and so he removed to St. Louis. He now had a wife and child, having mar- ried Lizabeth Halsted at Northampton, Massachusetts, during the war, and he had to begin at the foot of the ladder again. It so turned out, however, that Henry Stanbery, then
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.