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 44
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
When but a boy he selected the law as his future profession, and the election once made, bent all his energies sturdily to the realization of his hopes. He had by nature an adventurous spirit, and yielded in one instance to its promptings. Joining the great army of restless spirits that followed the Westering Star of Empire, lie underwent the fatigues and perils of an overland wagon trip to California. There he spent several profitable years, the rude ferment of an inchoate civilization affording to the shrewdly observant youth a specially valuable opportunity for the study of human nature, and for a ready insight into life. He has always alluded to this youthful experience as an important element of his education, furnishing not merely opportunities for observation in a field where inen were not cloaked by the conventionalities of older and more artificial communities, but displayed their virtues and vices openly. Self-reliance, fertility of resources, ready insight into the book of human nature, and fortitude under adverse circumstances are some of the fruits of experiences like these, and young Russell came forth from this hardy school strung for the fateful encounter of life.
He had not dismissed his early predilection for the law. On the contrary, his roving spirit once quenched, he set his face firmly toward the object of his desire. Realizing the inadequacy of his scholastic furnishing for the profession he had chosen, he decided to return East as far as Columbia, Missouri, where he had relatives, and complete liis prepara- tory education in the State University. On leaving the university lie entered on the study of law in the office of his brother, Col. F. T. Russell, who was at that time and long after- wards one of the leading practitioners of Boone County and of the entire section tributary in any respect to Columbia. Thomas was admitted to the bar by Judge William A. Hall, of Huntsville.
310
THIE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
The young attorney located at Kansas City where, circumstances favoring, lie speedily acquired a large clientele. It is related of him that at one time he had the remarkable dis- tinction of representing one side of every case on the docket of the Kansas City Court of Common Pleas, said docket containing more than one hundred and twenty cases. He removed to St. Louis in 1864, where he has since resided. He lias steadily gained prestige from the beginning of his career in St. Louis, and to-day has a reputation for probity, cau- tion, acumen and legal erudition that places him in the front rank of metropolitan lawyers.
While a man of much general reading and of much information in many lines of human effort, he has delivered the weight of his energies to the law, being convinced from the out- set that to attain a high degree of success in an arduous and intellectual calling one must specialize it from other departments by singleness of devotion and unremittingness of effort. He made no endeavor, therefore, to acquire a literary reputation or to weave the chaplet of the muses around the black letter of the law. He has always preferred character to reputa- tion, right to popularity, solidity to show, clearness and effectiveness to oratorical rhetoric and display. He became early what is called a "safe counselor, " advising no risky chances when he thought he clearly saw the outcome would be disastrous to liis client. On the contrary, when convinced that right was with his client he did not hesitate to attack the most formidable obstacles and frequently with astonishing success. One notable instance may here be cited which illustrates the perspicacity of his legal vision, the soundness of his judgment and the tenacity of his will. He was the attorney for the Dyer heirs in a suit to recover forty acres of ground in the central southern part of St. Louis. Many of the occupants of this tract had been more than twenty-four years in possession, and the statute of limitation made that term a bar to recovery. Notwithstanding the Supreme Court of Missouri had sustained this statute, Judge Russell was convinced that the law was uncon- stitutional and wrong in principle, and that the Dyer heirs had all the elements of a sound case. He was defeated in more than twenty suits in the lower courts, but persevered in his efforts, and, after just ten years of strenuous litigation, he had the satisfaction of seeing the Supreme Court overrule its former decision, and declare the law unconstitutional.
During his long residence in St. Louis, though interested in public affairs as every intelligent citizen must be, he has never broken the even tenor of his professional life as a practicing attorney save in two instances. He held, for four years, a Directorship on the School Board of St. Louis, and was Vice-President of the same. He signalized his official course by being the chief instrument in selecting the site of the St. Louis High School and building the magnificent structure thereon, which is confessedly one of the architectural ornaments of the city. Resuming the congenial duties of his profession he did not again participate in public affairs until liis acceptance, on the appointment of Governor Stone, of one of the three additional Circuit Judgeships created for the City of St. Louis. He wore the judicial ermine wisely and gracefully and doffed it unsmirched by even a suspicion of mnfairness. Reaching the close of liis term he declined to become a candidate for re-elec- tion and again took up his private practice, in which he is receiving an increasingly sub- stantial measure of success.
In person, Judge Russell is of medium stature, compactly built, with all the healthful evidences of the vigor which attends on regularity of life, temperance in eating and drink- ing and rigid abstention from all vices save an occasional cigar with a friend. He has never used alcoholic liquors in any form. His face indicates amiability of disposition. Though approachable always and genial on occasions, there is that dignity in his deport-
Thos & Russell
311
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
ment which invites the familiarity of only the tried and trusted few. Those who know him well do not suspect him of coolness, for his fidelity to the tried and proven has passed into a proverb within the pale of his acquaintanceship. He is domestic in his inclinations, ten- der in his attachment to wife, children and relatives, quietly devoted to his church, and resolute in his political affiliations. Though a Democrat from study and choice his activity in the field of politics has not been that of the partisan, but that of the sagacious citizen devoted to the cause of good and honest government.
Judge Russell married Miss M. L. Lenoir, a granddaughter of General Lenoir, of North Carolina, an officer of the Continental Army. Judge and Mrs. Russell have two children, both daughters, and both ladies of wide culture and pleasing address. The elder, Minnie L., now the wife of J. D. Thomas, Esq., a wealthy and prominent citizen of Waco, Texas, possessed elocutionary and histrionic talent of a high order. As a souvenir of the early recognition given to her budding talent, she liolds a gold medal awarded to hier by the Missouri Press Association while a student at the State University. The younger sister, Frances L., was endowed by nature with high artistic abilities, which, if they had received the stimulus of necessity, might have secured for her a flattering reputation. She is the wife of Dr. Thomas E. Ferguson, of St. Louis.
Judge Russell is a member of the First Christian Church, and was for many years a prominent official of that congregation. He is attached to the polity and doctrines of the "Christian Church," but is devoid of intolerance and hails with gladness the good that is in all. This conservatively liberal spirit is characteristic of the man in all things. When his life's work is done, it will be said of him that he illustrated the best type of American citizenship, and that a thoroughly trustworthy man has gone to his reward.
Saint Louis, Mo.
JOSEPH H. FOY, A. M., LL. D.
FRANK LEE SCHOFIELD,
HANNIBAL.
A MEMBER of the family who has a taste for genealogical records avers that the name Schofield was brought to England by one of the Generals in the invading army of William of Orange. The name of this General appears in the records as "Schoenfeldt," but this is the Germanic form of the same name, the transition from which to Schofield being easy and natural. From the earliest times those who have borne the naine have shown a strong family bent or trend toward mechanics; and even to the present day this is the decided inclination of the blood, despite the fact that the persistent fidelity to this family taste has prevented many of the name from acquiring that wealth or distinction with which their sturdy qualities of mind and inanhood would undoubtedly have rewarded them had they not been exercised in the direction of such an ambition. But as stated, for generations this has been the marked family trait, and for generations a large majority of the members of the family have been engaged in mechanical and manufacturing pursuits.
Joseph Schofield, the great grandfather of our subject, was in his youth apprenticed to a wealthy woolen cloth manufacturer named Cuttell, of the town of Holmfirth, in York- shire, England. The young machinist, however, in the course of his employment, devel- oped a decided talent in quite another direction; for having wooed the daughter of his em-
312
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
ployer and won her heart, with characteristic courage and persistence he laid siege to the aristocratic father, who in the end could not do otherwise than gracefully capitulate, and so yielded a somewhat constrained consent to what his family regarded, on account of this particular young Schofield's lack of wealth, an unequal union. A son of this marriage, Joseph Schofield, grandfather of Frank Lee, with his brother, William, were the members of the family who planted the name in America, both having in early life come to this coun- try, between 1802 and 1804, and settled first at Philadelphia. In a short time Joseph removed to Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, where, having erected the first spinning jenny west of the Susquehanna, he established himself in the manufacture of woolen cloths. Here he met and married Elizabeth Brown, and here his brother William married her sister; they were daughters of James Brown, a merchant of enterprise and wealth, but who, after having served his country in the War of the Revolution, returning to his trade, failed in business, the victim of over-confidence in Continental money.
Between these two brothers, Joseph and William Schofield, there always existed from the time of their early youth in the old English home, ties of unusual fraternal fervor and strength. They afterwards removed from Pennsylvania to Eastern Ohio, where, having established themselves separately in the manufacturing business, became with their sister wives the two branches of the family tree in America. Our informant, Mr. Joseph G. Schofield, a lawyer of Seneca, Kansas, the genealogist of the family above referred to, delights to dwell upon the touching and beautiful picture, as it was impressed upon his early boyhood mind, of these two old men, on occasions of their annual exchange of visits, sitting in the gathering shadows of life's evening, with faces radiant and cheerful, recounting in converse of mindisguised affection the confidences and experiences which had so completely fused and welded their lives. Both rcared large families, of which, however, we are here concerned only in that of Joseph, the grandfather of our subject.
He had a family of nine children, of whom William, the father of Frank Lee, born in 1813, was the third. Inheriting his father's calling after the English custom, William, in early manhood removed to Moundsville, Virginia, where he erected and established himself in a woolen manufactory. Here he married Phoebe Jones, daughter of Judge Asher Jones of Dilly's Bottom, and here five of the six children of this union, including Frank Lee, were born. Hc removed with his family to Lewis County, Missouri, in the fall of 1849, where, having purchased and settled upon a farm with the proceeds of the remnant of his business wrecked by fire in Virginia, he determined to devote the remainder of his years to the more conservative pursuits of agriculture. But notwithstanding his good resolutions in this regard, it was but comparatively a short time till, yielding to the dominant family trait which our gencalogist refers to as "the machinery craze," he committed the management of the farm to his older boys and hired men and engaged in steamboating on the Mississippi River between St. Louis and Keokuk. He afterward retired from the river, and in con- nection with his brother-in-law bought the "Valley Flouring Mills," near his farin on the Wyaconda River, three miles southwest of Canton, which in connection with his farm hic continued to operate till his death in 1861.
Of his marriage with Phoebe Jones there were born one daughter and five sons, of whom Frank Lee, the subject of our sketch, was next to the youngest. Mary, the daugh- ter and eldest of the family, married James Q. Maupin; she died in 1871. Joseph A., the oklest son, also deceased, was a steamboat engineer. William H. is a flouring miller and
of. L. Schofield
313
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
resides at Camp Point, Illinois. John A. is a merchant and fruit ranchman and resides at San Jose, California. Len, the youngest, was a physician and died at Canton in 1880.
As stated above, the prevailing family trait is the leaning toward mechanical pursuits; there is, also, a marked and almost universal fondness for literature, which, however, has most usually manifested itself merely as an accomplishment and means of rational enjoyment. This additional trend or taste lias rendered all the more easy and certain of success those of the family who have resisted the dominant trait and engaged in the pursuits of letters or the learned professions. And while the family can boast of but few members who have occupied exalted positions in the affairs of men, it can claim an honor- able, though modest distinction, in the various walks of life to which its members have chosen to devote themselves. And our genealogist sententiously remarks that the family can make the great boast that it has never produced either a criminal or a pauper, nor one who would avoid an honest debt; and then adds: "I have never met one of our relations of the name who was ashamed to look ine in the face, or whoin I would be ashamed to own as a relative or associate with as a friend."
Frank Lee Schofield, son of William and Phoebe Jones Schofield, was born at Mounds- . ville, Virginia, October 1, 1849. The mother died in 1856, after the settlement in Lewis County, Mo. Four years later the father married Miss Nancy Nesbet. To this most amiable and accomplished and devoted woman our subject is indebted for an unusually thorough training in the rudiments of his education. The father dying in the early inonthis of 1861, that event and the troublous times which immediately followed, necessarily resulted in a separation of the family. The older boys, with characteristic self-sacrifice, at once decided to seek their fortunes in the world apart, and so left the home roof as a shelter to the step- 111other and the two younger brothers, Frank and Len, then aged respectively eleven and eight years. No inother's affection and devotion for lier own offspring could have exceeded that of hers, who stood in the place of a mnothier to these two young children. The scanty and uncertain rental of the farm resulting from the disturbed condition of the country, being insufficient for their support, and the common schools of the neighborhood being broken up and suspended during the war, she was at once confronted, not only with the problem of their support, but, in her view, with the scarcely less important one of their education. She accordingly opened a school in the old homestead where for years. slie taught the two boys and the children of neighbors for iniles around. It was under this tuition that our subject acquired the foundation and had awakened and stimulated the inherent taste for those scholarly attainments which so markedly impressed his later ambi- tions. In the fall of 1865 the inother married Rev. Martin Corder, of Lafayette County, taking with her to her new and affluent home the younger brother, Len. Having survived her husband, she is yet living at the town of Corder, near Lexington, Missouri.
With the little patrimony that was left him, eked out by the fruits of his own labor, as a hired man on farms, as a clerk in stores, as a compositor in a printing office (that of tlie Canton Press), and as a teacher, Frank managed in the succeeding years to attend the La Grange Academy, the Canton High School, and finally Christian University, where he fin- ished his education in the class of 1870. Meantime, however, during his last years at col- lege, he entered the office of Hon. John J. Louthan, of Canton, for the study of the law, and having been admitted to the bar by Judge E. V. Wilson, at the spring term, 1870, of the Lewis County Circuit Court, he remained in the office of his preceptor actively assisting him in his practice for nearly two years, when he opened an office and commenced the
314
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
practice alone in Canton. The experiences of our subject were no exception to the usual rule of unamenable perplexities and difficulties attending the first flights of legal fledglings. It is the old story, the details of which may, we think, be omitted from this record without serious detriment to its interest.
In 1871 lie was appointed by Gov. B. Gratz Brown Superintendent of Schools of Lewis County. This appointment, which carried with it emoluments of no inconsiderable import- ance to him at that time, was not the less acceptable because it came to him unsolicited. And it was several years before he learned that it was to the influence of his friend, Judge David Wagner, Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court, whose favorable notice he had attracted while attending college, that he owed this unexpected good fortune. During the administration of Gov. Silas Woodson, in 1873, Mr. Schofield was appointed to fill out an unexpired term as Prosecuting Attorney of Lewis County, and thereupon removed to La Grange, where his predecessor had resided, and in the general election of 1874, being elected his own successor, he served the people of the State in this office till the end of 1876.
In the spring of 1878 he removed with his family to Quincy, Illinois, where shortly afterward he formed a copartnership in the practice with Maj. George W. Fogg, now of Tacoma, Washington. He, however, remained in Quincy only for something less than three years, again returning to Canton, Missouri, in the fall of 1880, and upon the retire- ment of Judge John C. Anderson from the circuit bench in the following January, lie entered into copartnership with him, and from this time till his removal to Hannibal, in 1889, the firm of Anderson & Schofield enjoyed a lucrative practice. In May, 1889, lie removed to Hannibal, accepting a partnership with Col. Rufus E. Anderson, with whom, however, lie remained connected only a little more than two years, when he withdrew from the firin and has since been engaged alone in the practice of his profession.
Upon the division of the Eastern Federal Judicial District of Missouri and the institu- tion of Circuit and District Courts of the United States at Hannibal, the first term of bothi courts being held by Judge Amos M. Thayer in May, 1887, Mr. Schofield was appointed the Standing Master in Chancery of the Circuit Court. This honorable and responsible position he yet continues to hold.
On November 14, 1872, Mr. Schofield was united in marriage with Miss Anna E. High, foster daughter of Hon. Madison C. and Phoebe E. Hawkins, of Canton. Therc have been born of this marriage three children: Madison C., who is a student in the law department of the Missouri University at Columbia; John A., who is now in his senior year as a naval cadet in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, by appoint- ment of the late Col. William H. Hatch, Member of Congress from the First District; and Thomas R., who is connected with a large manufactory of shoes in Hannibal.
In politics Mr. Schofield is a Democrat of pronounced convictions, although he has never allowed the practical phases of politics to segregate his sincerest devotion to his pro- fession. And while frequently serving as a member of the Congressional, State, Judicial and other committees of his party, and in the campaigns performing on the hustings a prominent share of party service, he has never been a candidate for office since his elec- tion to his last term as Prosecuting Attorney in the early years of his professional career. But he will not permit his party to lead his conscience against his own convictions of what is for the public good. Accordingly, in the great free silver upheaval of 1896, when he found these convictions utterly at variance with what he considered the authori-
.
315
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
tative utterances of his party's duly accredited platform builders, he openly and promptly repudiated the Chicago platform. He was one of the noted gathering of "Sound Money" Democrats which met in St. Louis in February, 1896, and was a member of the committee to frame the address and protest which that meeting issued to the Democrats of Missouri. It is hardly necessary to add that in the ensuing election he gave his hearty support to the candidates of the National Democracy.
Mr. Schofield is a Mason; and for his zeal, knowledge and skill in the inystic brother- hood, has been rewarded by successive calls for service in every office in lodge, chapter and commandery. He is a man of strong religious convictions, and since his early inan- hood has been a member of the Christian Church.
A prominent lawyer of Northeast Missouri has this to say of Mr. Schofield: "He is a lawyer of rare ability, particularly in trials before the court, and especially in equity cases, for which he has an especial fondness and in which lie is at his best. Withal, he is a man of sterling integrity, a inan you can count on in every relation in life, true and devoted to his profession, his country and his friends."
THOMAS ADIEL SHERWOOD, SPRINGFIELD.
C ERTAINLY a jurist whose learning and ability will leave a deep and indelible impress on the judicial history of the State, is Thomas Adiel Sherwood, Judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri, who in erudition, knowledge of the law and scholarly accomplishments is without a peer in the profession. Judge Sherwood's skill in legal science has been registered throughout more than a quarter of a century of Missouri's judicial devel- opment. Having occupied in that time the highest judicial office in the State, where he has delivered scores of opinions year after year, his effect in shaping the laws of his time must necessarily be profound. Nor is his complete usefulness to his State fully accom- plished. Still hale and vigorous, at the zenith of his ripe experience and the full strength of his mental power, his usefulness to his State is likely to extend through many inore years.
The paternal ancestors of Judge Sherwood came from Nottinghamshire, England, near Sherwood Forest, which perhaps accounts for the name's origin. They reached this country in 1635 and settled in Connecticut. His grandfather, Adiel Sherwood, thence mnoved to Fort Edward, New York. The latter was, between 1775 and 1776, First Lieu- tenant in the militia regiment commanded by Col. John Williams; between 1776 and 1777 held a like rank in the First Regiment of the New York Line, commanded by Col. Goose Van Schaick, and until 1780 was Captain in Col. Lewis Du Bois' Regiment of New York Levies. He was a patriot and a soldier of the Revolution. His son, Adiel, the father of our subject, born in Fort Edward, New York, studied for the ininistry and was a man of high ability and scholarly achievements. He was the author of several theological and other works and for a number of years was the President of Shurtleff College, Upper Alton. He was the first cousin of Samuel Sherwood, a noted lawyer of New York, who died some years ago. The family is very prominent in New York and Judge Thomas R. Sher- wood, of the Michigan Supreme Court, is a relative of the Missouri Slierwoods. Judge Thomas A. Sherwood's mother was Emma C. Heriot, of Charleston, South Carolina. Her
316
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
father, Roger Heriot, was a native of Scotland, who, coming to America, married here Catherine Booth, a native of England.
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.