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 42
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county, was a daughter of Walter Smith, a son of Robert Smith, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Walter Buchanan, both the Buchanans and Smiths being among the very earliest of the Scotch-Irish settlers of that county. The family home of the Buchanans and Smiths was part of the "Carroll Tract," lying near Gettysburg, and Walter Smith was one of the founders of that burg, opening a store there about 1789, eleven years before it became the county seat. Jolin E. Swan was a soldier in Colonel Richardson's Maryland Regiment in the war of 1812, and his father, Mathew, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, being a Lieutenant and Quartermaster in the First Pennsylvania "Flying Camp" of the Conti- mental Arıny.
The subject of this biography was educated principally at Springfield, Illinois, to which place his parents removed from Pennsylvania. After his elementary education was completed, he entered Illinois State University, whence he graduated in 1861, just subse- quent to the breaking out of the Rebellion. Fired with patriotic zeal, he placed all his plans formed for the future in abeyance, and in the year following his graduation enlisted as a private in "K " Battery, Second Illinois Light Artillery. For a few months prior to his enlistment he acted as clerk for ex-Gov. John Wood, the famous Quartermaster Gen- eral of Illinois, and assisted in the arming and equipment of the first three-months volun- teers from that State. Subsequent to his enlistment, he was made Sergeant-Major of the regiment, and for nearly two years, and all through the campaigns which ended at Vicks- burg and Chattanooga, he was on duty at General Grant's headquarters, with W. L. Duff, the Lieutenant-Colonel of his regiment, who was Chief of Artillery on General Grant's staff. He served throughout with the army and in the Department of the Tennessee. That he bore his part as a soldier no less valiantly and honorably than he has since discharged tlie duties of a citizen, is attested by the fact that he was mustered out of the service at the close of the war with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of Volunteers.
After leaving the service he returned to his home in Illinois, and in conformity with long cherished plans, resumed his study of the law. He went to Quincy, where he entered the law office of Browning & Bushnell as a clerk and student, supporting himself by his labors as clerk. This was in 1866, and in the next year, owing to his exceptional diligence and industry, no less than to his previous training, lie passed his examination at Hannibal, Missouri, before the Hon. W. P. Harrison, and was admitted to practice, intending to locate there. Accidentally hearing of the advantages then offered by tliat place, and with the energy which is characteristic of him, he in October, 1867, went to Potosi, Missouri, and settling there, at once began practice, an entire stranger in that locality and with 110 capital but his brains and education. He at first formed a partnership with Moses Conger, and afterwards with William S. Relfe. In 1871 he came to St. Louis, maintaining his partnership with Mr. Relfe, however, the latter representing the Potosi end of the business. In the fall of 1874 Mr. Reynolds removed to Boulder, Colorado, where he formed a part- nership with Hon. William E. Beck, which was terminated by the latter's election, firs to the District and then to the Supreme Court of that State. In 1877 Mr. Reynolds returned to St. Louis and resumed practice there, first with Mr. R. Graham Frost for about a year, and then with Mr. James Carr. At the end of two years this partnership was dissolved, and that with Mr. Relfe resumed, which continued until the latter's removal to Seattle, Washington, where he died May 17, 1896.
Mr. Reynolds has earned many honors, all of them in the line of his profession, how- ever, as lie is too true a lawyer to accept any honor or office that would interfere with his
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devotion to that line of work. These honors date almost from the beginning of his career as a lawyer. In 1869 he was Circuit Attorney of the old Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, and in this capacity he served until 1871, when he resigned to remove to St. Louis. In May, 1889, he was appointed by President Harrison United States Attorney for the Eastern Dis- trict of Missouri, which office he held until April, 1894, discharging its heavy responsi- bilities with an energy and ability that added greatly to his reputation as a brilliant and resourceful lawyer. Since his retirement from that office, he has engaged in a successful practice in St. Louis, and is one of the regular Masters-in-Chancery of the United States Circuit Court.
Mr. Reynolds is prominent in the societies of the veterans of the late war, is a member of the Loyal Legion and of the G. A. R. He has twice been elected Commander of General Lyon Post, No. 2, but is now a member of Logan Post. He is a Mason, having been one since 1865; is a member of the Episcopal Church and a vestryman. While not a politician in the machine sense of that word, he has always taken an active part in State and National campaigns, and is one of the efficient speakers of his party in the State, dis- tinguished for the clearness and force of his argument.
As a lawyer, Mr. Reynolds is noted for his thorough knowledge of constitutional law, the laws bearing on insurance, the National statutes, and the practice of the Federal Courts. He has, however, studied deeply the principles of general law, and in any case of an in- volved and complicated nature, his accomplishments and learning make of him an advocate to be sought and an opponent to be dreaded. He is one of the most accurate pleaders at the bar, terse and vigorous in expression, and his briefs for the appellate courts are espe- cially forceful. In the conduct of a case he is quick, resourceful and ready, armed with authorities on every important issue, never prolix and always holding the attention of court and jury.
While one of the attorneys of the Insurance Department in 1879, he revised and com- piled the laws bearing on insurance, which are now a part of the statutes of this State, and which evidence a thorough understanding of that subject. While United States Attor- ney he also did an important work when he drafted and sustained in the United States Court the first bill in equity ever devised to cancel decrees of naturalization which had been fraudulently obtained from the State Courts. His work in this direction was especially referred to by President Harrison in his annual message to Congress in December, 1890, as "a new application of an old principle of equity practice." The amendment to the United States laws, passed in 1890, which for the first time excluded from the use of the mails newspapers containing lottery advertisements, was drafted by him, and passed into the statutes, word for word as he drew it. It was under this amendment that the notorious Louisiana Lottery was finally driven out of business in the United States.
Mr. Reynolds was married in 1876 to Miss Julia Vogdes, a native of St. Louis. To this union have been born three children, George Vogdes, James William and Julia. Mrs. Reynolds is a daughter of Augustus S. and Maria C. Vogdes. Her great grandfather, Jacob Vogdes, married Elizabeth Reynolds, a daughter of Capt. John Reynolds, an officer of artil- lery in the Continental Army, a coincidence of naines, but of no known kinship to the family of which George D. Reynolds comes, although these Reynoldses were also of Pennsyl- vania origin. Jacob Vogdes owned one of the farms on which were located the ever-meinor- able camp of Valley Forge. His father was one of the original German settlers of Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania.
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MATTHEW GIVENS REYNOLDS, SAINT LOUIS.
THERE must be something especially inspiriting and invigorating in the air of Pike County, for it has produced inany inen of stalwart character and intellect and has been especially prolific in able lawyers. Many of the latter have established themselves in St. Louis, and of her younger sons she reckons Matthew Givens Reynolds among those of whom she is most proud. He was born at Bowling Green, the seat of her local government, on November 19, 1854, and is the son of Dr. Stephen J. and Sophronia (Givens) Reynolds. Dr. Reynolds was born in Kentucky, but came to this State to meet and marry Sophronia Givens, a native daughter of Missouri. Mr. Reynolds' paternal grandfather was Dr. Michael Reynolds, a surgeon of the British navy. Coming to America with the British marines during the War of 1812, he was so impressed with the country that he determined to become one of its residents. He accordingly resigned his commission, settled his affairs and located in Kentucky.
His grandson, our subject, seems to have inherited from his grandfather his predilection for a naval career, for when fifteen years of age he was entered as a cadet at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. His life prior to going to Annapolis was spent in his native town, where he attended the common schools. After passing through the regular regime of the Naval Academy he graduated in 1874, taking the prize as the best executive officer of his class. The United States frigate "Plymouth" was the vessel on which he saw his first regular service, and from which he was detached in 1875 to become one of the cadets of the United States flagship " Tennessee," aboard of which he made a trip to China. Returning to America in 1876, he was promoted to Ensign, and his commission dated July, 1875. His transferrence to United States frigate "Wyoming " followed this and on this vessel he served until convinced that he was better adapted to civil life, he resigned his commission in 1877 and returned to his home in Bowling Green.
Celerity and decisiveness were always marked traits of Mr. Reynolds' character, and therefore when he reached home it was to carry into effect his preconceived determination to adopt the law as a profession. He began his readings in the office of Robinson & Smith at Bowling Green and completed his education by one term at the St. Louis Law School. He was admitted to the bar in 1878 by Judge Gilchrist Porter and began practice at Bowling Green. At the end of a year he removed to Louisiana, Missouri, and became a member of the firm of Fagg, Reynolds & Fagg. In 1882 Judge Fagg removed to St. Louis and the firm became Reynolds & Fagg, continuing as such until 1883, when it was dissolved, Mr. Reynolds associating himself with William H. Biggs. Desiring to enlarge the field of his opportunities, lic removed in 1886 to St. Louis.
In 1878 Mr. Reynolds was induced to become a candidate for Prosecuting Attorney of Pike County on the Republican ticket. Hon. David A. Ball was his opponent, and as thie county is largely Democratic, lie was defeated, but in 1880 lie received the Republican nomination for the Legislature for the Eastern District of Pike County, and was elected to the 'Thirty-first General Assembly by ciglity votes, thus becoming the first Republican elected in that county since 1866. This was a splendid attestation of his popularity and his subsequent course in the Legislature fully met the expectation of his friends and the confi- dence his fellow-citizens had given him. He served on the Judiciary Committee that session, was one of the leaders of the House and one of the readiest and most forcible debaters of that
Matt. skaques
Legal Publishing Co. St.Louis.
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body. He was one of the State's delegates in 1884 to the National Republican Convention which nominated James G. Blaine at Chicago, and in the same year was a candidate for Congress in the Seventh District. He ran against the Hon. John E. Hutton and although he was not elected, he succeeded in reducing the Democratic majority from 2,727 in 1882 to 1,266 in 1884. He has always manifested an active interest in public and political affairs and is an ardent Republican. For two years he was President of the Missouri League of Republican Clubs and in that office did much to advance the cause of his party in this State.
In 1891 President Harrison appointed him United States Attorney for the Court of Private Land Claims, a tribunal specially constituted for the determination of titles to lands claimed under grants from the Spanish and Mexican governments in the western and southwestern States and Territories which, during the last half century, passed from the dominion of Mexico to the United States. Undertaking the protection of the Government's interests in this peculiar class of litigation which presented almost an hitherto unexplored legal labyrinth, by reason of the absence of recorded judicial precedents and because of the constant and rapid changes in the dominant government exercising control over the territory until its cession to the United States, the millions of acres of land in this section restored to the public domain, and freed from individual claim of title thereto, attest the suc- cess of Mr. Reynolds' efforts and his professional ability better than could the pen of a biog- rapher. Although always an active and loyal Republican, and appointed as such, his profes- sional inerits were appreciated by President Cleveland as superior to the claims of partisan followers and he was reappointed to the same position, in which he is still retained by President Mckinley. The most important achievement of Mr. Reynolds during his incumbency in this office was the successful preparation and presentation of the Govern- ment's defense to the famous Peralta Claim for 12,000,000 acres of land in New Mexico and Arizona, conservatively valued at $75,000,000 and officially known as "La Baronia Arizonac," of which it has been said:
"Whether considered with regard to the magnitude of the interests involved, the length of time the case has been maturing for trial, the quantity and quality of the evidence offered by both sides, the standing of the lawyers and capitalists who from time to time have been interested in the case, the amount of money put at the disposal of the claimant to bring out the salient points of his case, the audacity which it is claimed forgeries have been committed and evidence has been manufactured as needed, the boldness with which the claimant asserted his title, the Peralta Claim stands pre-eminent as one of the most notable legal struggles of the kind that ever took place in a court room."
Following the rejection of the claim was the criminal prosecution of the claimant, James Addison Peralta-Reavis, by Mr. Reynolds as special counsel for the Government, in the District Court of New Mexico on the charge of conspiracy, and the subsequent convic- tion and imprisonment in the penitentiary at Santa Fe of Mr. Reavis, or Peralta-Reavis, as he was fond of calling himself, where he is still incarcerated, marked the final vindication of the Government's fight against the combined influences of mighty men and much money.
In 1895 he was appointed by Attorney General Olney, and subsequently reappointed by Attorneys General Harmon and McKenna, special assistant to the Attorney General in cases appealed from the Court of Private Land Claims to the Supreme Court of the United States, and in the conduct of this litigation before that body he has won the confidence and respect of its members as well as added new professional triumphs to his
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career. Among his professional brethren he is ranked as an excellent lawyer, eareful and painstaking in the preparation of his eases, and a splendid advocate.
On November 11, 1880, Mr. Reynolds married Miss Mamie K. Fagg, daughter of his old law partner, Judge Thomas J. C. Fagg, formerly Judge of the Supreme Court of Mis- souri. Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds have seven children, named respectively: Stephen Clark, Florence, Aliee, Mary, Matthew G., Jr., Robert Parker and Luey Winn.
JOHN LEWIS ROBARDS,
HANNIBAL.
JIS father, Captain Archibald Sampson RoBards, was born December 25, 1797, in Mer- H cer County, Kentucky. His grandfather, Captain George RoBards, born August 5, christened in the Church of England, August 31, 1760, in Goochland County, Virginia. Enlisted February, 1777, when sixteen years old, for three years in Captain Moses Hawkins' (killed at Brandywine) Company, Colonel Charles Lewis' Fourteenth Virginia Regiment Continental Regulars. Engaged (north of the Potomae) in the battles of Brandywine (was promoted Sergeant and transferred to Tenth, Virginia Regiment), Germantown (wintered at Valley Forge), Monmouth and Stony Point; and when term ended was honorably dis- charged. He was, when nineteen years old, February, 1780, commissioned Lieutenant by Governor Thomas Jefferson, in Colonel Lueas' Fourth Virginia Regiment, State Line, engaged in the battle of Camden, was appointed Captain in August, 1781, served under General Lafayette in Virginia, and until the elose of the war. He married, 1785, Elizabetlı Barbara Sampson (daughter of Charles Sampson, son of Stephen Sampson, Senior, and granddaughter of Captain Thomas Porter, son of William Porter, Senior, and Elizabeth [Dutois ] Porter, daughter of Peter Dutois and his wife Jeanne [DeBonnette ] Dutois, French Huguenots who settled in about 1700 at Manikintown, Virginia.) They moved to Kell- tueky in 1791, where, in Mercer County, he died testator, 1833.
His great grandfather, William RoBards, Senior, was a wealthy planter of Gooelland County, Virginia, his wife was Elizabeth Lewis (daughter of Joseph Lewis, Senior, testator, granddaughter of William Lewis, testator, 1708, and great granddaughter of John Lewis, from Wales, of Henrieo County, Virginia, testator 1687). He had five sous, Jolin RoBards, William RoBards, Junior, Lewis RoBards, George RoBards and Jesse RoBards, and two sons- in-law, John Jouett and William Buekner, soldiers in the Revolutionary War for the estab- lishment of American Independenee; five of whom were officers, viz: Ensign William RoBards, Junior, Captain Lewis RoBards, Captain George RoBards, Captain Jouett and Lieutenant Buekner. He was the grandfather of the gifted artist, Mathiew H. Jouett and of Judge Rieltard A. Buckner, both of Kentucky, and ancestor of William RoBards, Attorney General of Missouri and United States Senator Jolin B. Thompson of Kentucky; he died testator, 1783.
His great great grandfather, Jolin RoBards, a colonist from Wales, 1710, was a planter in tidewater, Virginia, who married Sarah Hill and died testator, 1755.
The mother of John Lewis RoBards was Mrs. Amanda (Carpeuter) RoBards, born in Lincoln County, Kentucky, 1807; her father was George Carpenter, born 1785, testator 1866, son of John Carpenter (and Elizabethi Spear, his wife), a Revolutionary soldier of Virginia, who founded Carpenter's Station about 1780 in Lincoln County, and her mother
1
Very Truly yours John & Howards
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was Jane (Logan) Carpenter, daughter of General Hugh Logan (and Sarah Woods, his wife -vide Historic Families of Kentucky-The Logans, pages 117-203-4-5), who was a soldier in the Revolutionary War in General George Rogers Clark's command in the conquest of the Northwest Territory, etc., and State Senator from the Lincoln District, Kentucky, for several terms, born 1745 and died 1816, who was a son of David Logan and Jane Logan, his wife, of Augusta County, Virginia, a soldier in the French and Indian Wars; they had four sons, viz: General Benjamin Logan, General Hugh Logan, Colonel John Logan and Colonel Nathaniel Logan, distinguished officers in the Revolutionary War. (See Historic Families of Kentucky.)
His father, A. S. RoBards, was commissioned Captain in the Fifth Kentucky Regiment, by Governor Joseph Desha in 1825. In 1832 Captain A. S. RoBards and Miss Amanda Carpenter were married, and six children were born to them, in Kentucky, viz: George C. RoBards, Jane E., widow of Rev. Joseph K. Rogers, of Columbia, Missouri, for many years President of Christian College; Sarah H., formerly widow of Captain B. W. S. Bowen, widow of Rev. H. H. Haley; John L. RoBards, Henry Clay RoBards; and born in Missouri, Archy S. RoBards, Junior. He moved to Hannibal, Missouri, in May, 1843, bringing his family, slaves, etc., and was Mayor of Hannibal in 1846 and 1854. At his own expense Captain A. S. RoBards took a company of fifteen inen, furnishing ample vehicles, stock, provisions, etc., to California in 1849, where in 1850 he gave freedom to his faithful slave, Green, being perhaps, the first slave emancipated in the Golden State. En route, at the Pimo Village, when the camp was surrounded by several hundred infuriated Indians, the invincible courage and wise strategy of Captain RoBards in that hour of extreme peril saved his company from massacre. He was endowed with intense energy, sagacious enterprise, sympathetic charity, and possessed the broadest, purest and most elevated Christian char- acter, and was a splendid physical type of Kentucky manhood. His redeemed spirit ascended June 1, 1862, and his devoted wife, a cultivated and refined Christian woman, in the stainless robes of saintly righteousness joined her husband in the better land July, 1865.
George C. RoBards and Henry Clay RoBards enlisted in 1861 in the Confederate Army, and fought throughout the war for the right as they believed the right to be, and received in the service highly inerited promotions. Of Captain George C. RoBards, a fel- low officer wrote, "a braver and better soldier never wore the gray." He died in 1877. Archy S. RoBards, Junior, a noble spirit, by accident met an untimely death at Columbia in 1879.
Captain H. Clay RoBards was a fearless soldier, a gifted, magnetic gentleman, without guile, very lovable, and in 1885 was gathered home in the mansion of the blessed. They all rest in the family vault on the crest of beautiful Mount Olivet Cemetery that overlooks Hannibal, the Mississippi River and the States of Missouri and Illinois for a score of miles.
John L. RoBards, born in Hustonville, Lincoln County, Kentucky, May 8, 1838, from early youth has been a persistent student. He accompanied his father to California in 1849, and is perhaps the youngest '49er in Missouri. He chose to be a soldier, and was prepar- ing with enthusiasm for West Point under the favor of our Congressman, Hon. Gilchrist Por- ter, when his right eye was casually so impaired as to prohibit further pursuit in military lines, but a season of twelve round trips from St. Louis to New Orleans as Clerk on the steamer L. M. Kennett, Captain Bart Bowen, lessened that shock of disappointment. He then selected a different profession, was a diligent student for several years at the Missouri
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University, thien read law with Judge Gilchrist Porter of Hannibal, commencing at the foundation with the entire Bible as a text book. He graduated in the Law Department of Louisville University, Kentucky, in March, 1861.
At once lie begun the practice of law at Hannibal, and on April 4, 1861, married Miss Sallie Crump Helin, a native of Bowling Green, Kentucky, and a graduate of Christian Col- lege, Columbia, Missouri, who inherits many talents and graces and is ever an inspiring helper of her husband in the study of general literature and the law.
Her father, Judge John B. Helm, formerly of Kentucky, was a son of Judge Jolin Helm of that State, and a grandson of Captain Thomas Helm of the Revolutionary Virginia Continental line, who moved to Kentucky in 1780. Her mother, Mary A., nee Crump, was a native of Glasgow, Kentucky, and a daughter of Havilalı Crump and Sallie (Perkins) Crump, his wife, who was a daughter of Joseph Perkins and Mary (Curd) Perkins, his wife, who was a daughter of Captain Edmund Curd, of the Virginia State line troops in the Revo- lutionary War, who was a son of Dr. Thomas S. Curd, emigrant from Scotland. They have three living children, viz: Mary Logan, who married E. A. Richardson, a leading wholesale clothier of Louisville, Kentucky, and lias one child of great promise, Sara Ellen; Archy C. RoBards is a Mason, Knight Templar, Son of the American Revolution and United States Deputy Revenue Collector, and lias a liberal education and unexceptionable business qualifications; and Miss Mabel Helm RoBards, a beautiful and accomplished light of the household. John L. RoBards as Secretary and Treasurer, has for twenty-five years labored successfully to establish Mount Olivet Cemetery, an incorporated benevolence drafted by him, the receipts being for perpetual care of the grounds. It is now the pride of Hannibal. He is a Mason, a Past Eminent Commander of Excalibar Commandery No. 5, Knights Templar, Hannibal, Mo.
His entire family are members of the Park Methodist Church South, he is also Presi- dent of the Board of Church Trustees and a constant teacher of a Bible class in the Sunday School thereof. "His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night."
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