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 50
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Mr. Sheley was born in Fayette County, March 7, 1815, and came to Missouri witli his parents in the year 1828. His early opportunities for education were not such as the youth of the State now possess, but he could not rest satisfied until he had acquired a good English education, enabling him to become a competent instructor in the elements of the English language.
With small knowledge of the elassies, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1839, before Hon. John C. Edwards, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State. In the year 1852 Mr. Sheley made his liome in Independence and was associated with the Hon. Samuel H. Woodson in the practice of his profession for nearly ten years.
Mr. Sheley was devoted to the interests of his clients and friends and they trusted him implicitly. He was a safe counselor, without extraordinary talent, little wit and small linmor. He will be looked to as a safer inentor for the young members of the bar than some of those whose talents shine forth on all occasions witli transcendent brightness. He died at his home in Independence, Missouri.
J. W. Dunlap .- Wlioever may wish to recall the lives and names, or it may be only some of the incidents or events related of the lawyers of Jackson County, between the years 1869 and the present, would not be satisfied if J. W. Dunlap's name was not found among those who are deemed worthy to be enshrined in the pages of impartial history. By reason of great purity in personal conduet as well as commendable zeal for his clients and unselfishi work in behalf of the publie and his home city, Mr. Dunlap is worthy of remembrance. He must be considered the peer intellectually of inany of liis associates at the bar, and he possessed a well balanced inind, unobseured by illy directed study, possessing the alertness and activity of a well trained athlete. Judge Dunlap was of most excellent family stock. The natural quality of his mind was high, and he possessed a fine judicial spirit and temper, and had he lived his career as Judge would have been sat- isfactory to himself and his many admirers at the bar.
He was born March 13, 1845, in Monroe County, Virginia. The best part of liis edu- eation, literary and legal, was obtained at the Washington and Lee University, at Lexing- ton, Virginia, hie having been graduated therefrom in the law department of that University. Judge Dunlap came to Kansas City in the year 1869 and at onee entered with spirit upon the practice of his profession. In this, as in all other cases, an opening was made for him, when it was known that a positive and valuable factor had been added to the bar of the
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county. In 1871 he was elected City Attorney; in 1874 appointed City Counselor; in 1881 he became Police Commissioner and his appointment was renewed for the same office in 1884. December 4, 1884, the Governor appointed him Judge of the Jackson County Cir- cuit Court to serve out the unexpired term of Hon. F. M. Black, a position which he never filled, by reason of his unfortunate and accidental death, caused by the falling to the floor of his office of his own revolver and the explosion of a cartridge, resulting in his death on the fifteenth day of January, 1885, nine days after the accident.
Richard O. Boggess .- Richard O. Boggess was born in Kentucky in the year 1833. Having read law in the office of Judge Charles Eaves, of Greenville, of that State, he was adınitted to practice in 1855. He opened a law office in 1856 with Judge Williamn P. Wood in Harrisonville, Cass County, Missouri, and excepting the four years of the war, they remained together in the law practice until the fall of 1873, when Mr. Boggess located in Kansas City. From that time he ranked as one of the leading lawyers at the bar of Jack- son County. He was associated first with Hon. John L. Peak, John K. Cravens, and later with Milton Moore. He died in 1897.
Mr. Boggess was one of the ablest and inost profound lawyers, not only in Jackson County, but of the entire State of Missouri. He was almost entirely a self-educated lawyer and scholar, and was at all times and in all the courts master of the situation and fully equipped for the work in hand. In personal appearance le was notable because of his dig- nified and scholarly bearing, and few men surpassed him in ability to express the exact sliade of thought by him sought to be brought out in his argument. He was potent, mas- terful and exhaustive in all his efforts, no matter whether the subject under consideration was of sinall or great importance. He did all his work well and his record as lawyer may well be the subject of emulation and pride.
Judge Henry P. White .- Judge Henry P. White, at the age of twenty-four years, in February, 1866, came to Kansas City, having lived in St. Louis from October, 1865, to the time of his arrival in Kansas City. Born in Potsdam, New York, descended from Irish and Scotch-Irish ancestors, his last years of school life were spent in St. Lawrence Academy, New York. The population of Kansas City in 1866 was not more than 7,500 people. In 1868 he was elected City Attorney, and again in 1870. In October, 1874, he was appointed Judge of the Criminal Court of Jackson County, and was elected to fill the same office at each judicial election thereafter to the time of his death, July 20, 1892.
Few men have lived in Kansas City who had more friends or who mnade a better defined impression upon society as a man of marked ability and intellectual force than Henry P. White. His social qualities by nature were of the finest order. His mental vision was clear, and the exceptional facility he displayed in the expression of his thoughts and opin- ions made him invaluable as a friend and champion, but to be feared and avoided as an antagonist in any field. He was courteous in his bearing toward all men, and chivalrous and knightly in his respect for the rights and welfare of woman.
Judge White was prominent in Masonic circles, and had occupied high places in the order. At the bar, arguing the cause of his client, upon the rostrum, on the Judge's bench, or in society's politest gatherings, he always was peerless and ideal in manly dignity and personal accomplishments. Judge White died at an age when most successful men are doing their best work-close to the half century mark. Shattered and broken by disease, he tried in vain to regain his wonted health, and still wearing his judicial toga, the light of
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liis great inind went out at the age of fifty years. Henry P. White was mourned by citizens in every walk of life.
Henry B. Bouton .- Henry B. Bouton was a member of the Kansas City bar before the writer came to Missouri in 1865. The hotel building at the southeast corner of Missouri Avenue and Main Street, then called the Union Hotel, and now replaced by the Nelson Building, was where he had an office. He was called Judge Bouton, but whether correctly or not it is impossible to put down in verity. It was he who in taking an appeal in a case of doubtful merit, made oath that, "the appeal was not taken for vexation but for delay."
Mr. Bonton was, all in all, a unique character. With his quick and resourceful mind he would never have been a failure in any field. The habits and customs of those with whom he lived he adopted without a protest, no inatter what the environment might be. He wore the garb of farmer or lawyer, Union or Confederate, with equal pleasure and stoical indifference. Of wiry build and with a tongue that revelled in sarcasm, he was loved by few and admired only by those who knew him imperfectly.
He was born in Cattaraugus County, New York, February 22, 1815. After leaving lis native State he lived for short periods in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee before he located at Kansas City, where he died in the autumn of 1868. He was a typical follower of Black- stone of the early post bellum order, occasionally met with in the State of Missouri.
William Douglas .- William Douglas, coming in the early summer of 1864 from Boo11- ville, Missouri, where he had already earned by his eloquence and superior scholarship a splendid reputation as a lawyer, located in Kansas City and became the senior member of the firm of Douglas & Gage, a position he occupied for many years thereafter. He was polished in speech and of imposing manner, with a voice full of harmonious grada- tions and with considerable power as a natural elocutionist. He was a native of Wheel- ing, West Virginia, where he was born January 22, 1822.
When a member of the State Convention of 1861, Judge Douglas made many of the best and ablest speeches in favor of the Union cause, delivered before that distinguished body of men. The writer of this brief sketch recalls his association with Judge William Douglas with pleasure and regret. No one who understood his character and knew his great mental power and true worth, but must have been moved to the strongest sentiments of sorrow over the helpless condition of Mr. Douglas and of his family, pecuniarily, at the time of his death in the city of San Francisco, August 2, 1876.
Abram Comingo .- The Jackson County bar has been in the past, even more than at the present time, largely indebted to the State of Kentucky for many of its most eminent lawyers, and this fact is specially exemplified in the life and character of Hon. Abram Comingo. Mr. Comingo was born January 9, 1820, in Mercer County, Kentucky. He received his first mental training from the common school, which was supplemented by a good academic education. After thorough preparation, obtained in a lawyer's office, in 1848 lie was licensed to practice and opened a law office at Independence, Missouri, in that year, as member of the firm of Chrisman & Comingo. The firm was changed to Woodson, Chrisman & Comingo in the following year, and as so constituted, was known far and wide as the strongest combination of legal ability in Western Missouri, a reputa- tion maintained by it until 1856, when Mr. Woodson retired to enter the field of politics. The old firm remained together as Clirisman & Comingo until 1862, doing a lucrative business, respected by court and bar throughout the State. Mr. Comingo, like his native State, bravely defended the Stars and Stripes so long as the Union was in danger.
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In 1861 Mr. Comingo was elected member of the Missouri State Convention, perhaps the most notable body of men ever assembled in the State for the accomplishment of a work, the weighty import of which is not in this generation fully appreciated. President Lincoln appointed him to serve as Provost Marshal, from 1863 to the close of the war, with jurisdiction over the entire Sixth Congressional District of Missouri. He served two terms in Congress, being the first time elected in 1870 and again in 1872, from the Kansas City district. In 1882 he was a member of the firm composed of the Hon. John F. Philips, now the able occupant of the Federal Bench, and James H. Slover, the present able and impartial Judge of Division 2 of the Jackson County Circuit Court.
Mr. Comingo was a lawyer of faultless habits, of great energy and accuracy in his work, brave but unoffending in his professional intercourse at the bar, fearless in the utterance of his convictions, yet unobtrusive and courteous to all men alike. He fought his legal battles with his armor on, and no man ever had need of a more princely opponent. His position once taken, he defended liis lines and legal outposts against the strongest and most determined charges of the opposition. As he was a gallant fighter, so was he a loyal and true friend in the simpler walks of life. Always ready to aid the younger and less favored meinbers of the bar, for some years preceding his death, which occurred at his home in Kansas City in 1889, he was looked up to and loved as the father and idol of the Kansas City bar.
John K. Cravens .- John K. Cravens was born in the County of Ripley, State of Indiana, August 14, 1848. His ancestry on his father's side was Irish and his mother was of Hol- land parentage. At the age of eighteen, after having attended the common schools of the part of the State in which his parents lived, and later, a so-called boarding school, he took a position in the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Marion County, Indiana. After having read law with Jonathan W. Gordon, at Indianapolis, he was admitted to the bar in 1859, in Daviess County, Missouri, practicing in the courts at Gallatin and St. Joseph, Missouri, until 1862, at which time he returned to Indianapolis and entered the Adjutant-General's office of that State and there remained until he was transferred to the field, in 1863. In the month of May, 1865, Mr. Cravens, having received his discharge as a Union soldier, cast his lot, as did so many others at that time, with the fortunes of Kan- sas City, with which he was to become so closely identified as lawyer and social and intel- lectual leader. He was appointed Prosecuting Attorney of the Kansas City Criminal Court, and not until the court was legislated out of existence in 1871, did he cease to perform its duties.
Mr. Cravens was a man of medium stature, most engaging inanners, and at times his arguments to the court or before a jury were lofty and full of eloquence. He was always on the side of progressive measures and advanced legislation, affecting the welfare of Kan- sas City and her people. A large tax payer himself, he never sought to avoid the burdens of municipal government, knowing that no permanent progress could accrue to the city unless every citizen did his duty. Knowing that money spent in improving and beautify- ing the city was bound to prove beneficial to every citizen, his public spirit was manifest at all times and his voice and pen were always ready to promote the highest good of all the people, without distinction as to class or creed or station in life. He died in October, 1892.
Kansas City, Mo.,
January, 1898.
BENCH AND BAR OF THE "PLATTE PURCHASE."
BY ELIJAH HISE NORTON.
"HAT portion of the State known as the "Platte Purchase, " by the efforts of Thomas T H. Benton, one of our Senators in Congress, was annexed and made a part of Missouri in 1837. For judicial purposes it was attached to the Fifth Judicial Circuit and the first court was held in March, 1839, at the Falls of Platte River by Austin A. King, Judge of said circuit. The above territory was surveyed and opened up for settlement in 1840, and attracted by the great fertility of its soil, and the geniality of its climate, it soon became more rapidly populated than any other portion of our commonwealth, by an energetic, intelligent and thrifty population.
Soon thereafter the six counties comprising the annexed territory, viz. : Platte, Buchanan, Andrew, Holt, Nodaway and Atchison, and Gentry County in the older portion of the State, were organized as the Twelfth Judicial Circuit and David R. Atchison was appointed Judge, which position he held till 1844, when he resigned, having been appointed one of our Senators in Congress. The vacancy thus created was filled by the appointment of Henderson Young, of Lexington, who after a short term of service was succeeded by Solo- inon L. Leonard, who was succeeded in 1850 by William B. Ahnond, who resigned in 1852, and the office having then become elective, the writer of this article was elected to fill the unexpired term of four years and was re-elected in 1856 for the term of six years, and har- ing been elected in 1860 to represent the district in Congress, resigned, and was succeeded by Silas Woodson.
Not many years thereafter the density of the population, and the greatly increased legal business in the circuit necessitated changes in its borders until now the original terri- tory of the Twelfth Circuit has been organized into what is equivalent to three entire new circuits, and onc-fourth part of two other circuits.
In consequence of the value of the land in the six counties above named it was eagerly sought, and contests over pre-emption rights gave rise to a great deal of litigation, therc very frequently being two or more claimants to a quarter section.
The bar of the old Twelfth Circuit was composed of some of the ablest and best law- yers of the State, among whom may be named, General Alexander W. Doniphan, who when war was declared with Mexico, raised a regiment with which he invaded New Mexico, capturing Santa Fc, and after fighting and winning the brilliant victories of Brazito and Sacramento united his forces with those of General Taylor in old Mexico, after making the longest land march ever recorded in our history. James H. Baldwin, a lawyer of distin- guished ability, was associated with him as a partner in his law practice.
Among other members of the bar, honorable mention may be made of Hon. Willard P. Hall, who for three terms represented the district in Congress. His first clection was in 1846, and during the war between the States he became Governor. James B. Gar- denhire was another attorney who was called to the service of the State, being elected
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Attorney General. The following were also members of the bar of the Twelfth Circuit, viz .: John Wilson, Amos Rees, William B. Alinond, Solomon L. Leonard, Henry M. Vories, Silas Woodson, J. M. Basset, B. F. Loan, James Craig, Prince L. Hudgins, W. M. Paxton, William L. Wood, James H. Birch and John Doniphan. Of the above named, James H. Birch was appointed, in 1850, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court, and Henry M. Vories was elected in 1872 as one of its members. Silas Woodson, in the same year, was elected Governor of the State. Craig represented the district in Congress for two terms, as also did B. F. Loan.
Two terms of the court were held annually-one in the spring months and the other in the months of autumn. It was then the practice for the members of the bar to make the rounds of the circuit with the Judge and Prosecuting Attorney, going from county seat to county seat until the spring and fall terms of the court were all held. We did not have in the earlier times either railroads or buggies, and being deprived of the facilities for travel with which we are now blessed, the rounds of the circuit were made entirely on horseback. In passing from Albany, the county seat of Gentry County, to Maryville, the county seat of Nodaway County, and Rockport, the county seat of Atchison County, we had to cross the west fork of Grand River, the Platte, One Hundred-and-Two and Nodaway Rivers. In the spring tides these streams would often become so swollen and high as to make fording them wholly impracticable and we would be compelled either to swim them on our horses or take off of them the saddles and bridles, and put the horses in the stream to swim to the opposite shore. We would then construct a raft of logs and with it cross ourselves, saddles and bridles, and capture our horses when we reached the other shore, usually finding them grazing and willing to be caught. On one of these trips being made from Albany to Maryville, when we had arrived within four miles of the usual crossing of Platte River we were met by a man by the name of Stingley, who was a mag- nificent specimen of the frontiersman, being over six feet in height with powerful physical developments. He said to us, "Boys, Platte is on a boom. You can't cross her at the usual fording place, but I can pilot you to a place six miles above the usual crossing, where you can cross her." We readily agreed to this, and on reaching the designated place we hesitated to cross because of the rapidity and turbulence of the swollen stream, and Stingley, who was mounted on a big black horse, seventeen hands high, which he rode without a saddle, said, " let me ride over and back to see whether or not it is safe to cross." He did so and after coming back said, "We must all go in abreast, and I will ride furtherest down the stream, so that if the rapid current should trip up one of your horses, I will be in a position to catch you as you come down and lift you up on Black Warrior," the name of his horse. So with this arrangement we rode into the stream with fear and trembling, but crossed it safely, resolving never again to take such risk.
Notwithstanding such incidents as the above, we always looked forward with pleasure to the time when these semi-annual trips should begin. They were always occasions for social enjoyment and I shall ever look back upon them as the brightest and happiest expe- rience in my professional career, and shall ever cherish the memory of those who have made the last rounds of the circuit and gone before to that bar where no mistakes are made and no errors occur.
Platte City, Mo., January, 1898.
LAND LAWS OF MISSOURI.
BY HARRY LANDER.
L' EX LOCI REI SITÆE runs in the mind. The subject of the "Land Laws of Mis- souri" is too big to be covered in a short article; it would require a large book, well considered and well written, to present the subject in any half way commendable shape. The want of time and opportunity precludes the doing of inore, than in a very general way, making a few suggestions bearing upon the origin and history of some of the classes of land titles in the State.
Our land titles, Blackstone would say, are "allodial," coming down from the general government "freed from rent service and lord paramount." The old feudal system never had a footing in this country. Our State presents perhaps, more different classes of land titles than any other State in the Union. This grows out of local facts and conditions here, that never wholly existed in our sister States.
FRENCH AND SPANISH CLAIMS.
I would first mention French or Spanish grants or claims, they having the preference by age. What are French and Spanish claims? They may be classed as loeal land titles. This class furnished an interesting history, especially to the older lawyers of the State. France at an early date owned the Province of "Louisiana," whielt embraced all the pres- ent territory of Missouri. In 1712 Louis XIV. of France, promulgated for Louisiana, the edicts, ordinances, customes, etc., of Paris, as the laws to govern that provinee called the "Country of Louisiana."
These "customs of Paris," together with the Roman civil law, became the laws of Louisiana, with some modifications to suit the new conditions.
In 1764 France ceded all of Louisiana lying west of the Mississippi to Spain; as both France and Spain adopted the civil law, no inaterial changes were inade in the laws of Louisiana after Spain took possession.
In 1800 Spain re-ceded to France all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi. In 1803 France ceded Louisiana to the United States. In these various cessions and treaties, it was provided that the inhabitants (subjects of France and Spain) should be protected in their property rights, and the treaty with us, bound the United States to protect and con- firm the inchoate rights of the inhabitants to the lands they had acquired under the French and Spanish governments.
'The United States in 1804 divided Louisiana, calling the lower part the Territory of New Orleans, and the upper, or our part, the District of Louisiana.
Neither the Legislature of the Territory or of the State of Missouri, after its admis- sion into the United States in 1820, assumed to legislate to any material extent, on the
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subject of these French and Spanish claims, but left that matter in the hands of Congress, where it belonged.
Congress, by various acts, to carry out treaty stipulations, commencing in 1804, and running up as late as 1836 and later, provided all the necessary machinery in the way of officers, boards, tribunals, surveyors, etc., by and through which these claims might be located, established and reported to the government, that they could be ultimately con- firmed.
The "Customs of Paris and Roman Civil Laws" remained in force, with modifica- tions, up to 1816 (January 19), when the common law of England, of a general nature, and the English statutes made prior to the fourth year of James I., of a general nature, applicable, etc., were adopted, which has remained a law ever since; this same act abolished estates tail, and survivorship among joint tenants, which yet remains a law.
The old French and Spanish inhabitants lived along the rivers, where is to be found most of these claims; many of them were located and confined in and about the present City of St. Louis.
To say that this class of titles furnished a fruitful source of litigation, after the lands became valuable, does not do justice to the subject. Speculators and men of wealth figured in these titles; the legal questions were in a great measure new, very complicated and intricate. It is sufficient to notice that it required the most eminent legal ability to deal with them. Such men as Geyer, Gamble, Broadhead, Hill, Glover and inany other great lawyers were called in.
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