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 46
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I11 1869 he was admitted to the bar and immediately thereafter removed to Bedford, Indiana, and became associated with A. B. Carlton. In 1870 he returned to Missouri and
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settled at Nevada, Vernon County. There he was first associated with Charles R. Scott and that relation continued for eight years. He arose rapidly to prominence and soon becaine one of the leading men of the county. Later he entered into partnership with D. P. Stratton, now Circuit Judge of the Twenty-sixth Circuit, and in 1890 a partnership was formed with Granville S. Hoss, a brilliant and successful attorney of Nevada. He was made Prosecuting Attorney for Vernon County in 1872, and so continued until 1874. For many years his practice was interrupted by public services, but in February, 1897, lie opened law offices in St. Louis, where he was at once inade counsel for the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co., and the American Bonding & Trust Co. of Baltimore, and he has rep- resented the State in many very important constitutional questions. Shortly after settling in St. Louis he was made Receiver for the Mullanphy Savings Bank, in the closing up of whose affairs he has displayed a most admirable business tact and grasp.
Mr. Stone is a great lawyer. Possessed of a remarkable analytical mind, reinforced by the inost unerring judgment, he masters with ease the most intricate problems; and in the preparation of his cases he adds to the force of native gifts the most assiduous industry. Great as a civil and constitutional lawyer, he is unrivaled as a criminal lawyer. In the many murder cases which have engaged liis attention there has been no one in which his client has suffered capital punishment and few imprisonment.
His career at the bar, though one of distinguished success, has been overshadowed by the most brilliant public life. In 1870 and again in 1872 he took an active part in the fierce political contests in his county. In 1874 he canvassed the entire Senatorial District, composed of Vernon, Barton, Jasper, Dade and Cedar Counties, which after a mneinorable contest elected Hon. C. H. Morgan a member of Congress and sent Hon. S. A. White to the Senate.
Mr. Stone was Presidential elector on the Tilden ticket in 1876 and he bore the flag of the great leaders from Osage to the Arkansas line and eastward to Webster County, winning a splendid name as one of the hardest fighters among the young leaders in the State. In 1878 he again canvassed the entire district in behalf of Hon. James R. Waddill, the Dem- ocratic candidate for Congress. In 1884 he himself was elected a member of the Forty- ninth Congress. He was returned to the Fiftieth Congress and was thereafter recognized as one of the most brilliant of national legislators; he was again returned to the Fifty-first, but declined nomination for the Fifty-second Congress. He has been a delegate to almost all Democratic Conventions held since 1876.
During the six years of Congressional service at Washington he took high rank as one of the strongest men in the Missouri delegation, which by common consent, was regarded as the strongest delegation in the House. He was not only the acknowledged orator of the delegation, but of the House of Representatives as well. His eulogies on Congressinen Burnes, Walker and Cox are among the rarest gems of their kind.
He simply looks to see his duty and does it. In this respect Mr. Stone is absolutely fearless. He it was who struck the first brave blow against the abuses of the pension sys- tem. One day he arose in the House and made a speech of surpassing power against the robbery of taxpayers under the guise of pensions. It staggered the House; but whether among his hesitating comrades or confronting his assailants he stood like a rock and spoke as a man. His speech was published throughout the entire country and received the applause not only of every good citizen, but every true soldier, the latter sending him let-
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ters and resolutions endorsing what he had said. It was a brave deed, but a very charac- acteristic one.
In the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses Mr. Stone was the especial champion of the people in restoring to the Goverment vast areas of land formerly granted by Congress to corporations. His specchi arraigning Judge Payson of Illinois, the Republican Chairman of the Public Lands Committee, for his duplicity and disregard of the public right, was one of the great specchies of that Congress. More than 60,000,000 acres of land granted to corporations from 1862 to 1870 were restored to the people, chiefly as a result of his cfforts. His speech against the Force Bill and his masterful summary of the question of tlie free coinage of silver are familiar to every American.
In 1892 he entered the lists with the most formidable rivals in the contest for the Gubernatorial nomination of the Democratic party, and was, after a inost exciting contest, declared the nominee of the party on the nineteenth ballot. He was elected Governor and served the entire term with consummate ability, making one of the most admirable admin- istrations in the history of the State. He assumed the Governorship at a time when thic entire political machinery of his party was under the control of inimical forces and with the power of corporate and moneyed influence opposed to him. Gradually he gained control of the situation and so thoroughly routed the opposition that it practically has ceased to exist.
In the National Convention held at Chicago in 1896 he was a prominent figure. He was then and still is a Presidential probability. And now the eyes of conservative mien throughout the land liave involuntarily turned to him as the guiding star of Democracy.
In the Senatorial contest for the United States he was urged to permit his name to go before the Legislature, but a high sense of honor forbade, he having given his word to the present incumbent, thus practically declining the highest honor the State can bestow.
Among political organizers in the West he is easily first; in the United States lie is not surpassed by any one in the manipulation of political forces; and in his own State he is the distinguished corypheus of his party.
An advocate of the free coinage of silver, and the redoubted chief of the bi-metallic currency forces, he stands, and for years has stood, before the country at once the ablest and most consistent exponent of these principles.
Since history gives us no record of a great and positive character which failed to arouse antagonism and divide the sentiments of mankind, we should not expect even in this day and concerning such a character as we are considering to find no opposition and no detractors. The disappointed opponent may indulge the self-gratulatory task of describing in vague generalities a character which has been distorted by his own heated imagination, but to the candid observer is reserved the pleasant privilege of setting out to contempo- raries and to posterity his trie character, measured by the conservative estimate of those whose ability and liberality have fitted them to judge. But even in the attacks of liis opponents his greatness stands confessed. In all his varied political career neither the cankerous soul of Envy nor the envenomed spirit of Hate have ever dared question his integrity. No more honest inan ever lived. He is clean, true and savagely uncompro- mising in his opposition to corruption in politics and in office.
While he possesses the ability and the noblest traits of the truly great statesmen, lie does not lack in those generous characteristics which endear one to his fellows. He stands by his friends everlastingly, and champions their cause with a devotion and fidelity that wins for him the admiration of his enemies while it disarmis their prejudices.
Servera A. Taylor
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As an orator he possesses the magnetismn which brings his hearers into ready sym- pathy with the speaker, and he is gifted with the spirit of impassioned eloquence which moves irresistibly the minds of his hearers. Earnest, dramatic, forcible, his tall, spare. erect figure sways and trembles with the ardor of the emotions which second while they aid the expression of his sentiments. All these facts united but serve to show that his public career in the highest sense of that term is but begun.
In person, Mr. Stone is tall, spare, erect. He has a keen, piercing eye, capable of the miost profound penetration. He is an amiable, accessible man, with easy courtesy and unassuming manner, yet a man of dignity and self-respecting reserve withal.
He is and has long been a strong Mason, is a member of the Ararat Temple, Ancient and Accepted Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and is connected with both the Knights of Pythias and the Odd Fellows.
Of his married life we have deferred speaking until now, for among all the relations of life he is most happy and blessed in this. He was married on the 2nd of April, 1874, to Sarah Louise, the charming daughter of Col. W. K. Winston, of Cole County, Missouri. The father of Miss Winston was a prominent inan of that section and the family was one distinguished for beauty and talent. Mrs. Stone is a gracious, self poised woman, kindly and self-possessed of inanner and an ideal entertainer. She possesses an unusually culti- vated inind and finds intense interest in the study of the questions of the day. Of this union there are three children. Kimbroughi, an academic graduate of the University of Missouri, and a graduate in law from Harvard University. He is now studying in Hanover, Germany. Their two daughters, Mabel and Mildred, having completed their academic course at Mary Institute, St. Louis, are now, accompanied by Mrs. Stone, studying at Paris.
St. Louis, Missouri.
W. SCOTT HANCOCK.
SENECA NEWBERRY TAYLOR, SAINT LOUIS.
SENECA NEWBERRY TAYLOR was born January 1, 1836, at Oakland, Oakland County, Michigan. His father, John Taylor, a pioneer farmer from New Jersey, was of English-Holland stock, and his inother, Leah Shannon (also from New Jersey), of Scotch-Irish ancestry. When the boy was six years old, the young, impulsive, loving mother died, leaving him to the care of the father, a stern, reserved man who, a few years later, brought home a not over congenial stepmother. The early years of the son were spent industriously upon the farm and in attendance at the country school, until the age of eighteen, when he entered Dixon Academy, at Romeo, Michigan. The isolation of farm life developed the stoical and philosophical qualities of his nature, and though his oppor- tunities for schooling in boyhood were meager, he possessed that which Emerson desig- nates as the three influences which form the scholar: "Love of nature, books and action," and in a high degree that other greater attribute, individuality.
In 1857 Seneca N. Taylor became a student at the Agricultural College of Michigan, being the first enrolled at that school. Here he established a reputation for steadiness of purpose and endurance, and was the only one of his class of twenty-six to return for the senior year. On leaving the Agricultural College he took the degree of B. S. at Adrian College, Michigan, where he distinguished himself as a successful debater in the college
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lyceum. Then he taught the village school at Lakeville, Michigan, in connection there- with organizing an evening debating society and securing the interest and co-operation of tlie leading inen within a radius of six or eight miles. That winter sentiment ran high and sometimes the arguments were hot and furious, but Mr. Taylor was usually on the winning side.
His success in these contests and the urgency of his friends induced him to adopt the law as a profession. Accordingly, he spent the spring and summer of 1860 reading law with O. M. Barnes, Esq., at Mason, Michigan, and was admitted to the bar that fall, but, with characteristic thoroughness, he took the law course at Ann Arbor and was graduated in 1861. Immediately afterward lie opened a law office at Niles, Michigan, where he remained four years, with considerable success as a lawyer, and during that time held the office of Circuit Court Commissioner one term and became a candidate for Judge, but, being defeated after a very vigorous campaign (from which lie suffered greatly in health), he resolved to never again permit himself to become deeply interested in politics.
At Niles, Michigan, July 17, 1863, Mr. Taylor was married to Miss Letitia Wayland Chester, who bore five children, four of whom survive. The oldest, Rodney C., is a physician and surgeon of St. Louis; Mary L. is the wife of James Douglas Nettleship; Seneca C. is a lawyer in his father's office, and Carrie W. is a student at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.
In 1865, Mr. Taylor located at St. Louis, Missouri, where lie bought a home, opened an office and settled for life, without a thought of failure, since which he has applied himself exclusively to the study and practice of law. With an ardent love for his profes- sion, sanguine temperament and industrious habits lie now enjoys the reputation of having the largest consulting clientage in St. Louis. He is far-seeing and sagacious, thorough in the preparation of cases and is regarded as one of the strongest trial lawyers at the bar. His briefs and arguments are candid, clear and logical, and no other lawyer in the State has met with a greater percentage of success in the appellate courts of Missouri. He believes that whatever success he has achieved is attributable to industry and application, and claims that great energy, strong will and steadfastness of purpose, coupled with even moderate ability, is certain to achieve success, while superior intellectual endowments with- out energy and steadfastness are almost certain to result in failure.
Mr. Taylor was married to his second wife, Miss Mary Morrison (sister of Major J. N. Morrison, Assistant Judge Advocate General, U. S. A.), at Washington, District of Column- bia, September 21, 1896. He is now sixty-one years of age. His early life in the country and at the Agricultural College iniplanted in him an ardent love of nature. Next to his family and profession he loves the society of liis scientific library, which is extensive, embracing the latest works of the best English and American authors.
AMOS MADDEN THAYER,
SAINT LOUIS. A NAME inseparably linked with the judicial history of Missouri, not only because of its
possessor's long and distinguished connection therewith, but also by reason of liis com- manding ability as a lawyer and a Judge, is that of Hon. Amos Madden Thayer, now United States Circuit Judge of the Eighth Circuit. Judge Thayer comes of New Eng-
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land or Puritan stock, the paternal branch having emigrated from England in 1630 and settled at Braintree, Massachusetts. His father, Ichabod Thayer, was a grandson of that Ichabod Thayer who was a conspicuous patriot in the issue joined with Great Britain in 1776, giving his country noble service as the commander of a company of Massachusetts volunteers. Ichabod Thayer, the father of our subject, married Fidelia La Due, who from the name, would seem to have been of French Huguenot extraction; leastways hers was a freedo111-loving lineage, for her grandfather served in the Continental Army and her father was a soldier of the War of 1812. Shortly after their marriage the parents settled in Chautauqua County, New York, where the subject of this sketch was born, October 10, 1841. The latter there passed his youth, and received the rudiments of an education. At the proper age he entered Hamilton College at Clinton, not far from Utica, New York, and thencc graduated with honor in the summer of 1862.
Within three weeks after he received his diploma, the young student enlisted in the Union Army as Second Lieutenant of the One Hundred and Twelfth New York Volunteers. Later, transferred to the United States Signal Corps, he was promoted to the grade of First Lieutenant, and served with this department until the close of the war. Gallantry twice won him the commendation of his superiors. He was first brevetted as Captain for "meritorious services," and again as Major for "gallant and meritorious services during the operations resulting in the fall of Richmond, Virginia, and the surrender of the insurgent ariny under Gen. Robert E. Lee."
On August 9, 1865, the war having ended, the young soldier resigned his commission, and came West. He reached St. Louis in February, 1866, and during the following suin- mer determined to adopt the law as a profession, and in the fall of that year, at the age of twenty-four, without a preceptor, began the work of fitting himself for that vocation. He was adınitted to practice in the State and Federal courts March 3, 1868, and immediately opened an office.
The progress of the young lawyer was at first slow, as he was not disposed to follow the course of mediocrity in blowing its own trumpet. After a timc the bar began to see that a young aspirant of no common endowments had entered the field as a contestant of theirs, and when the public also came to take this view of it, the flourishing business he did more than compensated him for the usual wait of the beginning. Soon he was retained by a corporation or two, and then others, among them railways and insurance companies, and his appearance in their behalf sufficiently attested his standing and ability, for, as is well known, such bodies always employ none but the best legal talent to be had.
He was doing a most remunerative practice when in 1876 the first enlarged test of pop- ularity came when his party made him its candidate for one of the Circuit Judgeships of St. Louis. He was elected by a handsome plurality, and the bencli served to make his learning and judicial qualifications more conspicuous even than had the bar, and as a con- sequence when his terin ended he was the only aspirant really considered by his party as his own successor. For the second time he was elected, and served until February 24, 1887, when he was appointed United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Mis- souri, the prestige he had earned as Circuit Judge and the wisdom and fairness he displayed in the administration of the office, having fully merited the promotion he then received. He presided over this court until his appointment in August, 1894, as United States Circuit Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit of the United States, of which office he is still the incumbent.
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Judge Thayer has never been eonneeted with any seeret or fraternal soeieties, but by virtue of his military service is a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. In virtue likewise of his deseent from Revolutionary aneestors, he is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. On politieal questions he has well defined eonvietions, although, as beeomes one wearing the ermine, he has abstained from taking an aetive part in the strife of polities. Having always affiliated with the Demoeratie party, he has con- sistently voted that tieket since he east his first ballot for Seymour and Blair in 1868. On December 22, 1880, Judge Thayer married Sidney Hunton Brother, daughter of Capt. Alexander Brother, a prominent eitizen of New Orleans. They have one ehild, a daughter.
On the first day of January, 1897, Judge Thayer had oeenpied the beneh uninter- ruptedly for twenty years-ten years as State and ten years as Federal Judge. Few Judges have sat upon the beneh for a greater length of time or filled the responsible offiees lie has hield with greater eredit or honor. An upright and ineorruptible judiciary is one of the greatest conservators of liberty under our institutions, and that it should be eon- stituted only of men of the strietest honesty and the most unimpeachable integrity, is a necessity of the supremest importanee. Measured by the highest test of fitness, Judge Thayer in his publie serviee of over a seore of years has never been found wanting. On this foundation of probity and honor rests his extended knowledge of the law-a wisdom pos- sible only through a similar experienee. In bearing he is the model Judge, combining a modest demeanor with a dignity that invests the procedure of his eourt with that earnest- ness whiel earries the conviction that it is not one man or a seore who aet, but that the mighty will of the people themselves is there given expression. Diligence is another eharaeteristie of the Judge. While deliberate and careful, he holds time to be invaluable, and henee it is eharaeteristie of his court that the law and trial doekets are always up to date when possible. He is always patient and courteous, and his professional brethren universally aeeord him the highest respeet and esteem.
SEYMOUR DWIGHT THOMPSON,
SAINT LOUIS.
IN Judge Seymour Dwight Thompson, of St. Louis, is found an exceptional instance of I that law of evolution wherein resistance of subversive influenees develops strength and the struggle to overeome adverse environment promotes growth. He is essentially a self- inade man, and occupies his present honorable position in the legal world solely by reason of his own native energy, eapaeity and talent. If any member of a learned profession in the State has reason to be proud of his achievements, it is the subject of this sketeh; for plek and ability, and not fortuitous circumstanee, have been the ineans whereby he has reached a commanding position as lawyer, Judge and legal author.
Judge Thompson's early life was beset with obstacles which he was compelled to sur- mount and difficulties which he was foreed to meet, and his eourage, high ambition and ultimate triumph in resistance should be an inspiration and encouragement to every brave-hearted boy. He was born in Will County, Illinois, September 18, 1842. His father was a Presbyterian clergyman, but lost his voiee in consequence of asthma, and was obliged to go to farming to support a large family. He removed to Cook County,
Seymour D. Thompson
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Illinois, when young Thompson was two years old and in 1855 he removed to Fayette County, Iowa, and purchased a new farm. There were no schools in the neighborhood; young Thompson wanted to go to school. He accordingly ran away from home at the age of thirteen and started back to Illinois. He made his way on foot about one hun- dred miles, and hired out to a farmer in Dubuque County. Here he accidentally found, in the immediate neighborhood, some of his mother's relatives, whose whereabouts had been long unknown to her, and he went to live with thein, but did not write home to let his parents know where he was. He had been with them about six weeks, when one day he saw a man approaching him in the field. It turned out to be his next older brother, who broke to him the astounding news that his father and youngest brother- the latter eight years old-had been burned to death in a prairie fire. Their new home in Iowa had been broken up. His mother, this brother and his only sister, two years younger than he, had started back to Illinois. While journeying back in a wagon, they had heard, through an accidental circumstance, of their long lost kinfolks, and, stopping to pay them a visit, found with them their lost boy. Young Thompson's elder brother returned to their homestead, and he took his inother and sister back to relatives in Illi- nois. From this time on, he was thrown entirely upon his own resources, and was entirely his own master.
Such conditions would have discouraged and crushed a weak and undecided charac- ter, but with him the struggle brought to the surface his courage and determination and developed and rounded out his natural mental vigor and strength of character. He suf- fered the experiences of the boy of that day in straitened circumstances with only the lini- ited opportunities of a rural district but little advanced beyond pioneer days. Until his sixteenth year he worked as a hired boy on the farm, obtaining the means of subsistence in the summer, wherewith he might attend school in the winter. It may well be believed that under such circumstances he was duly impressed with the value of time, and it is no sur- prise to know that in his sixteenth year he made his first great step forward by qualifying and securing the position of a country school teacher. By this means his earning power was not only increased, but he was given more time to devote to his books. For three years he taught school part of each year, and attended the higher schools the balance of the time. By such means he secured the advantages of Rock River and Clark Seminaries of Illinois, and was preparing to enter college when the Civil War broke out.
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