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 45
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Judge Sherwood was born in Eatonton, Putnam County, Georgia, June 2, 1834, and was educated in Mercer University, Georgia, and at Shurtleff College, Upper Alton, Illinois. It was in 1852 that he came to Missouri, but it was not until some years later that he con- cluded to adopt the law as a profession. In furtherance of such plans, he went to Cincin- nati, where he entered the Cincinnati Law School, graduated in 1857 and was admitted to the bar in Mississippi County, Missonri, in the same year.
After he came to Missouri in 1852, he resided in the counties of St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, Scott, Newton, Lawrence and Greene, finally locating permanently in the county last named. He gained business and prestige rapidly, and in 1872 when he was nominated for Supreme Judge, he was already well known as one of the skilled lawyers of his part of the State. He was elected, served liis terin of ten years, and was re-elected to the same position in November, 1882. So well did he show himself adapted to the exalted and responsible place, and such splendid ability did he display, that he was again inade the candidate of the Democratic party in 1892, and elected for the third time to Supreme Benchi.
June 18, 1862, the Judge was married to Miss Mary Ellen Young, of Lawrence County, Missouri. They have had eight children, six of whom are living. Adiel, is a well estab- lished lawyer in St. Louis; Brella, is the wife of Edward S. Finch, of Springfield, Missouri ; Harry Y., is connected with the St. Louis Trust Company, of St. Louis; Emina C., is now Mrs. Fred Wishiart, of Springfield; Pansy and Roderick Mckinney are still at home.
The services of Judge Sherwood have been of the highest value to the State. Men of his judicial fitness are rare, and his retention on the bench is evidence of the highest wisdom on the part of the people.
GEORGE HOWELL SHIELDS,
SAINT LOUIS.
G' EORGE HOWELL SHIELDS was born June 19, 1842, at Bardstown, Kentucky, and is the son of George W. Shields and Martha A. Howell, daughter of Daniel S. Howell and Sarah Garnett Shipp. Daniel S. Howell was the son of Caleb Howell and Rebecca Stiles; Caleb Howell was the son of Ebenezer Howell, who was a Major in the New Jersey Line during the Revolutionary War, and Caleb Howell was a light horseman, or dispatch bearer, during the Revolution. Daniel S. Howell was one of the early settlers of Kentucky coming from New Jersey, and was a member of the County Court of Nelson County, and also for many years a magistrate. Sarah Garnett Shipp was of Old Virginia stock. Others of his ancestors and relatives in the various branches were patriots and inen of character and standing. The Shields branch was a Pennylvania family, and on the western border of that State in early days, David Shields, the great grandfather of George Howell Shields, was a noted Indian fighter. The father of our subject, George W. Shields, was a native of that State and the son of David Shields and Nancy McChord. The family moved to Athens County, Ohio, and from there to a point near Cincinnati. George W. left lio111c when seventeen, became a civil engineer, built many of the turnpikes of Kentucky and sur- veyed the first railroad built in Mississippi. He married Martha A. Howell, July 20, 1841, and in 1844 moved to Missouri, locating at Hannibal. He there engaged in business, became
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quite wealthy and was six times Mayor of Hannibal, and three times City Engineer. He lost his property during the war and returned to his early profession. He was appointed Postmaster of Hannibal by President Johnson and lived there till his death in 1880, respected by all his townsinen. Both Mr. and Mrs. George W. Shields were of Scotch- Irish Presbyterian descent.
George H. Shields obtained the usual grammar school education in vogue in Missouri before the war, and in 1859 went to Westminster College at Fulton, Missouri, then a flour- ishing Presbyterian institution, of which Hon. S. S. Laws was the President. He con- tinued here till early in 1861, when the mutterings of the Civil War becaine so loud that confusion was rife in the State, when he returned home and began the study of law with Hon. Wiliam P. Harrison, then the leading member of the Northeast Missouri bar. The war rendered consecutive study impossible, as the young law student was a member of the Fifty-third Regiment of the Enrolled Missouri Militia in Company E, commanded by Capt. David Dubach, of Hannibal. During the intervals of scouting and other duties in connec- tion with his inilitia service, he kept up his studies with Mr. Harrison, who was then the Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Provisional Regiment, M. S. M. Mr. Shields was after- wards commissioned by Governor Gamble as Captain and A. Q. M. of the Fifty-third Regi- inent, E. M. M. His younger brother, Dr. D. H. Shields, now a prominent citizen of Han- nibal, went into the Southern army under Sterling Price, and the family, as was the case in many Missouri families at that time, divided on the questions of the war.
In the fall of 1864 Mr. Shields went to the Lonisville Law School and entered the senior class and graduated in March, 1865. In the fall of 1865 lie was elected City Attor- ney of Hannibal on the Republican ticket, and was re-elected twice afterwards without opposition. In February, 1866, he married Mary Harrison Leighton, the oldest daughter of Rev. John Leighton, D. D., and Sarah Bainbridge Richardson, daughter of Hon. Samuel Q. Richardson, of Kentucky. Mrs. Shields, like her husband, is of Revolutionary stock, being a descendant of Col. Joseph Cabell, of Virginia, Benjamin Harrison, of Surrey, of Wil- liam Randolph and "King" Carter, of Virginia. She is President of the Colonial Dames of Missouri, and State Regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and was for two years the Secretary General of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, while Mrs. Benjamin Harrison was President of the Society.
In 1866, Hon. William P. Harrison went on the Circuit bench and turned over his business to his young pupil and protege. The latter rapidly advanced in his profession. He was employed in quite a number of contested election cases in Northeast Missouri, which brought him into notice, as he was pitted against such eminent and able lawyers as Judge Redd, Col. Thomas L. Anderson, Hon. Rufus Anderson, Hon. Waller M. Boulware, and others, and being successful he gained the reputation of being a good lawyer. In 1868 he was spoken of for the Legislature, but declined to enter the contest. In 1870 he was a delegate to the Republican State Convention, but refused to join the Liberal Republicans who bolted that body, though a believer in removing the disabilities of the Confederates. He was nominated for the Legislature from the Hannibal District and was elected, being the only Republican elected in Marion County at that election. In the Legislature in 1871 and 1872 he was quite prominent, being a member of the Judiciary Committee, Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, and Chairman of the Special Committee on the claim of James B. Eads against the State growing out of the sale of the State's inter- est in the old State Bank. Although the Legislature was largely Democratic, Mr. Shields
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was considered so good a lawyer that he was elected one of the House managers of the ini- peachment of Judge Philander Lucas, his colleague being Hon. J. D. Shewalter. He was chosen Chairman of the Missouri Republican Convention in 1872 at Jefferson City, which sent delegates to the National Republican Convention which renominated General Grant, and in the St. Louis Republican Convention of that year he was nominated for Judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri.
In 1873 Mr. Shields removed to St. Louis, and formed a partnership with Hon. John B. Henderson, which continued for. ten years, the firm occupying a front rank at the St. Louis bar. This firm was associated in the celebrated gas case on behalf of the city and in the whisky prosecutions in 1875-6, and the principal counsel on behalf of the bondholders in the contests on township and county bonds. In 1876 Mr. Shields was elected Chairman of the Republican State Committee and continued its Chairman until 1880. His brother, Dr. D. H. Shields, was at one time Chairman of the Democratic State Committee. In 1875 Mr. Shields was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention of this State, being one one of the seven Republican members. In 1876 he was elected by the people of St. Louis as one of the Board of Freeholders to frame a scheme for the division of the city from the County of St. Louis, and to frame a charter for the city. Although the majority of the Board were Democrats, such as Hons. James O. Broadhead, David Armstrong, Silas Bent, Albert Todd and others, Mr. Shields was complimented with the Chairmanship of this Board and greatly aided in its conclusions.
He was appointed by Judge Samuel Treat Master in Chancery of the United States Courts and Special Master in the Receivership of the Cotton Belt Railroad. He discharged his duties in this behalf so well that he was never reversed and he was complimented from the bench by Judges Treat and Brewer. He was also Special Master in Chancery in the celebrated "Express Cases," involving the right of the express companies to use the rail- roads without regard to contract, upon payment of reasonable compensation for such use to be fixed by the court, if the parties could not agree. He was also the referee in the State Court in the contest between the Wiggins Ferry Company and the Chicago & Alton Rail- road Company, over a perpetual contract for ferriage of freight and passengers over the Mississippi River at St. Louis.
In 1889 he was appointed by President Harrison, on the recommendation of General Noble, then Secretary of the Interior, as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the legal business of the Interior Department of the United States. Many new questions growing out of the opening of the great Sioux Indian Reservation, the Cherokee Strip, and other Indian lands, and as to railroad grants, forest reservations, the government of the Terri- torics, the disposal of mineral lands to locators, the conflicting claims of railroads between themselves and with settlers, constantly required the attention of the Department and the Secretary of the Interior, during this administration, much of which business fell to Mr. Shields, the invaluable nature of whose help and counsel the Secretary acknowledged in a very warm and complimentary letter to his assistant.
At the close of the administration of President Harrison he appointed Mr. Shields as agent and counsel of the United States before the United States and Chilean Claims Con- mission. For a ycar and a half under Mr. Cleveland's administration and under the gen- eral supervision of Secretary of State Gresham, this commission sat on all the claims pend- ing between the two countries for seventy-five years past. So well pleased was the Depart- ment of State with Mr. Shields that when the commission, which expired by a time limit
G.Pitman Smittet
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before completing the cases, was to be revived, Hon. Secretary of State Richard Olney expressed a desire to Mr. Shields that he would again undertake the work. The treaty, however, was not renewed at that time.
Returning to St. Louis in December, 1894, Mr. Shields resumed the practice of the law. In September, 1895, General Noble, whose assistant he had been for so long in Washington, offered him a partnership and the firm of Noble & Shields was formed and still continues. This firm stands among the first in the State.
Mr. Shields is a Presbyterian and is an Elder in the Second Presbyterian Church in St. Louis. He is greatly interested in Sunday school work, believing in the efficacy of religious instruction of the young. He is an ardent patriot and believes that the future of the country will be brilliant and lasting. He is a member of the Frank P. Blair Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is President of the Missouri Society of Sons of the Amer- ican Revolution, and was Vice-President of the District of Columbia Society of that organ- ization for two years, and was on the joint committee to arrange for the union of the Sons of the Revolution and the Sons of the American Revolution in 1897.
Mr. and Mrs. Shields have three living children, George H. Shields, Jr., a young lawyer at the St. Louis bar; Sara Bainbridge Leigliton Shields, who married in June, 1896, Prof. William Marshall Warren, of the Boston University; and Marion Leighton Shields, now a student in the St. Louis High School.
GEORGE PITMAN SMITH,
MONTGOMERY CITY.
O NE of the best known railroad and corporation lawyers in the State is the gentleman whose name heads this article. He is one of that able coterie of lawyers, who, dating their beginning in Pike County, have spread throughout Missouri, to reflect honor on their native county and State. George Pitman Smith was born near Louisiana, Pike County, March 8, 1849, and is the son of Rev. George and Mary Cornelia (Hughes) Smith. His father was the son of Samuel Smith, of Connecticut, which was likewise the former's native State. The Smithi family was of English origin, coming to New England at an early day, while the Hughes family was originally from Virginia. While still a young man, the father left his home in New England to make his own way in life, eventually reaching Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. There he decided to enter the ministry, and after prep- aration became a preacher of the Methodist Church. From Pennsylvania he went to Ohio, and from Ohio to St. Louis, where he had charge of a church until he was transferred to a circuit in Northeast Missouri. As is well known, the slavery question and related issues caused a great split in the Methodist Church. When this occurred, in 1844, Rev. George Smith, although of Northern birth and education, went with the Southern element and became a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. For many years he "rode circuits" in Northeast Missouri, came to know almost everybody in that quarter of the State, and was without exception loved and respected wherever known.
His son, the subject of this biography, was given his elementary education in the schools of Lewis and St. Charles Counties. The son's schooling was completed at High Hill Academy, at the place of that name in Montgomery County. After this he taught several terms of school, with the object in view of placing himself in a position to adopt
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the law. Somewhere about 1870, he went to St. Louis and as a student entered the office of Trusten Polk, at one time Governor of Missouri and afterward United States Senator, and one of the great minds of the State's legal history. He was admitted to the bar in St. Louis, in 1871, at once began practice there, and such was the ability and address of the young lawyer that in the years that followed he played no inconsequential part in the civic, political and judicial affairs of the metropolis.
In 1876 he was elected as a Democrat from St. Louis County to the State Legislature, overcoming a large adverse Republican majority, which strikingly demonstrated his pop- ularity with the people. He attracted attention during this session of the Assembly, and his ability, activity and aggressiveness wrought its influence on the course of legislation. While a resident of St. Louis he was connected with a number of enterprises of public importance, one of the greatest consequence being the effort which succeeded in the estab- lishment of Forest Park, and in which his activity played a leading part. He was one of the Citizens' Committee to go to Jefferson City and urge legislation looking to the estab- lishment of the park, and after that was accomplished he was one of the originators and stockholders in the enterprise to build a railroad through the park. The road was built and was afterward sold to the St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern, now Wabash Railway, and is at present a principal part of its great St. Louis terminals.
In 1885, controlled by that restless ambition which is characteristically American and is ever ready to seek benefit in change, Mr. Smith went to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he established an office and practiced law for about eighteen months. At the end of that period he returned to Missouri, locating at Montgomery City, in 1886, where he has been ever since. Since his location there Mr. Smith has represented much of the corpora- tion practice of that section of the country and is recognized wherever known as an adept in those branches of law that pertain to railroads, banks and corporations. Excepting the short time it was in the hands of a receiver, he has been attorney for the Wabash west of the Mississippi River for twenty years. He was with the legal department of the Missouri Pacific for several years and is now also the retained local counsel of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway. It will thus be seen that his responsibilities in this field are most varied and weighty.
Hc has always been prominent in politics and has always spoken with authority in the councils of his party. In 1896 he was one of the most influential supporters in the State of the "Cleveland wing" of thic Democracy, being one of the delegates of that party to the National Convention at Indianapolis. At the Presidential clection of 1888 he was one of the Democratic Electors of the State. Beginning with 1877 Mr. Smithi became one of the attorneys for the State Insurance Department, holding that position four years.
Mr. Smith stands very high in the Masonic fraternity, and is very active in that circle. He is a Knight Templar and a member of Ivanhoe Commandery of St. Louis; is a mem- ber of Missouri Chapter, No. 1, Royal Arch Masons; is a member of Montgomery Blue Lodge, 246, and also of the Order of the Eastern Star. He is active in all civic affairs and is a moft patriotic and useful citizen. His wife and helpincet was Miss Carrie Theodosia Moore, daughter of the late Jonas and Theodosia (Robbins) Moore, who came from Sackett's Harbor, New York, to Missouri, and located at St. Louis at an carly day. The marriage took place at Clayton, St. Louis County, December 20, 1882. To the couple have been born four children, two of whom survive, namely: Lulu Theodosia, ten years, and Pitman Moore, an infant.
Melden References
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Mr. Smith is a man of most active temperament, although disposed to be cool, careful and methodical. He strikes one as a most likeable inan, and as one who would be stead- fast in all things. There is nothing shifty in his character, and he is direct and rigidly honorable in all his dealings. He is charitable, kindly and courteous to all, a man of sympathetic heart and liberal mind. He is endowed with a high degree of inental culture, and his taste being literary, he has spent much time in satisfying it. As he is still in the prime of life, with a splendid reputation already builded, his future is bright with the high- est possibilities.
SELDEN P. SPENCER, SAINT LOUIS.
THE career of Judge Selden P. Spencer, of St. Louis, is a good illustration of what under our American institutions may be accomplished by the young man of pluck, energy and honorable purpose within a short time. Judge Spencer is but thirty-five years old, and yet occupies one of the proudest and mnost honorable positions to which members of his learned profession may aspire, viz .: Judge of the Circuit Court of the great metropolis of St. Louis. While this position has been achieved because of a high order of natural ability, yet such endowment has been supplemented by much study, and by unremitting persistence and industry.
Judge Spencer is the son of Samuel Selden Spencer and Eliza Deborah Spencer, whose maiden name was Palmner. He was born at Erie, Pennsylvania, September 16, 1862, and was partially educated in the public schools of that place. When far enough advanced he was sent to Hopkins Grammar School at New Haven, Connecticut, where his preparation for college was made. He then entered Yale College and there took the full classical course. He was a hard student, fully impressed with the necessity of making the most of his course and yet took time for both outside literary work and physical exercise, being one of the editors of the college daily paper, and a member of the University Lacrosse Club. He not only graduated with honors in 1884, but delivered the philosophical oration of his class. At a date but a few weeks after his graduation from Yale, he decided to comne West in search of a location where he could practice law when he had qualified himself for admission to the bar. He reached St. Louis in 1884, where he at once entered the St. Louis Law School. By hard study he passed the examination before the Circuit Court of St. Louis and was admitted to practice a year before his graduation from the Law School in 1886.
The year 1886 dates the beginning of his legal career, which includes his development in ten years from a legal neophyte to a practitioner of experience and reputation and a seat on the woolsack. Not only is he recognized because of his sound legal accomplishments but he has made a reputation as a member of the State Legislature. He is an enthusiastic Republican, is in the councils of the leaders of the party in the State and is rated one of the party's brainy men. He has the confidence of the rank and file, and was active in every campaign up to the date of his elevation to the bench in 1896. In 1885 he was nom- inated to represent his St. Louis district in the Legislature, and was elected. He was conspicuous from the start in the sessions of the body and wielded a large influence in shaping its acts, a fact due no less to his ability and his thorough understanding of the needs of the people, than to the circumstances that he was placed on more important com-
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inittees than any other new inember of the House. He was Chairman of the Committee on Banks and Banking, a member of the committees on Judiciary, Ways and Means, Militia, Rules, and was a member of the "Republican Steering Committee," and its Sec- retary. He labored incessantly and conscientiously while at Jefferson City and the record he made was creditable both to himself and the State. He was elected to his present position as one of the Judges of the Circuit Court of St. Louis at the general election of 1896.
During the short time he has been on the bench he has displayed a knowledge of law, a mental penetration and wisdom, that makes evident the fact of his fitness for the position. He is a gentleman of scholarly tastes and accomplishments and is the holder of several degrees-A. B., from Yale University; LL. B., conferred by the law department of Washington University; A. M. and Ph. D., honorary degrees conferred by Westminster College; and Honorary M. D., conferred by the Missouri Medical College. In the last named institution he has for several years held the Chair of Medical Jurisprudence. Judge Spencer is a member of St. Louis and Mercantile Clubs and is well known in church circles for his activity and benevolence.
He married Susan B. Brookes, daughter of Rev. James H. Brookes, D. D., the famous St. Louis divine. They have three living children, James Brookes, Selden Marvin and Oliver McLean.
WILLIAM J. STONE,
SAINT LOUIS.
W ILLIAM JOEL STONE was born in Madison County, Kentucky, three miles north of Richmond, the county seat, May 7, 1848. His father was William Stone, also, a native of Kentucky; his mother was Mildred Stone, nee Mildred Phelps. His grandfather removed from Virginia to Kentucky and was the first Surveyor of Madison County. In Virginia the family from which the subject of this sketch springs, was resident in Culpep- per County. Therc the Stones were prominent among the prominent citizens; and thc influence of Virginia, the prolific mother of statesmen, in moulding to greatness the char- acters not only of her sons, but of her grandsons, is illustrated anew in this case. Among the sons of the first Revolution, his ancestors challenge not only our gratitude, but our admiration, many serving with commanding merit in the Patriot army. Distinguished among his lincal ancestors was Thomas Stone, an able lawyer and a signer of the Declara- tion of Independence, representing Maryland. He was also sought as a delegate for the great Constitutional Convention, but declined the honor.
Mr. Stone's carly training was obtained in the common schools of Kentucky. To his early school days there hc often refers with unfeigned pleasure. At the age of fifteen lie removed to Boone County and entered the University of Missouri. He began the study of law at Columbia, in 1867, in the office of his brother-in-law, Col. S. Turner, a man whose penetration chabled him to distinguish a rising genins, and whose benevolence inclined him to encourage and conduct it in the path of glory. These were formative years in which he wronght out his intellectual training, and in the moral life learned the difficult yet sub- linic lesson of self-reliance.
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