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 58
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He was twice re-elected to Congress and then declined further election. He acquired a high reputation in Congress as a working member.
His principal services that I can now speak of, were in securing the passage of the act donating some 600,000 acres of land to aid in the building of the Hannibal & St. Joseplı Railroad, a donation which secured the construction of that road, and in greatly aiding the passage of the acts which gave to the State the school lands and the swamp lands.
At the end of his Congressional service he returned to St. Joseph and remained there in practice until 1861. In the winter of 1861, the Governor of Missouri and the Legisla- ture, which was in session, were both strongly in favor of seceding and joining the Southern Confederacy, and for this purpose an act was passed calling an election, to be held in Feb- ruary of that year, to choose delegates to a State Convention, the purpose of which, as stated in the act, was "To consider the then existing relations between the government of the United States, the people and government of the different States, and the government and people of the State of Missouri, and to adopt such measures for vindicating the sov- ereignty of the State, and the protection of its institutions, as shall appear to them to be demanded."
Mr. Hall was elected to that Convention as a Union man. In early life he had belonged to the extreme Southern wing of the Democratic party, but in 1861 liis views had materially changed, and the great issue of that day found no stronger Union man in Missouri, or elsewhere, than Willard P. Hall. The convention met in due time and, instead of passing an ordinance of secession, as it was expected to do, resolved almost unanimously that Mis- souri had no just cause for secession.
Camp Jackson, Boonville, the flight of the State government from Missouri, soon fol- lowed. On July 30, the offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State were, by ordinance of the Convention, declared vacant, and on July 31, Hamilton R. Gamble was chosen Provisional Governor and Willard P. Hall, Lieutenant Governor.
It was then only intended that this government should be provisional and temporary until an election could be held, which was ordered for the following October. But the condition of affairs continued to be so disturbed that an election was impossible, or at least impracticable, and this provisional goverment remained in control during the entire war in Missouri.
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WILLARD P. HALL-HIS CAREER AND CHARACTER.
Governor Gamble was in feeble health much of the time, and often absent from the State for weeks and months, and died early in 1864. He was succeeded by Mr. Hall as Governor. The burdens of the administration, therefore, were thrown very heavily upon Mr. Hall's shoulders during the entire period.
I can not undertake to recount, or even sum up, the nature, variety and extent of the services that he rendered to his State during this period. The history of those four years of war, of that Constitutional Convention and that provisional government, is entirely unwritten and generally unknown to the people of Missouri.
This government was the object of misrepresentation and abuse during its existence. No attempt has ever been made to rescue it from that reproach, and unless its history be written by some of the few remaining actors in it, it will be forever lost. We have left one inan, our friend, Col. James O. Broadhead, of St. Louis, so eminently capable of per- forming that task, that it seems as though it would be a labor of love as well as of duty to his State, to his great and honored associates, to himself and to the truth, to do it.
I can only say that the convention, by its action in refusing to secede, and the pro- visional government which was established in direct hostility to secession, provoked, nat- urally and immediately, the enmity and rage of all secessionists and their sympathizers in the State and elsewhere. It met with nothing but the bitterest opposition and war at their hands.
This provisional government was instituted to maintain law and order. All the crim- inal and disorderly elements of society, which became so numerous and so defiant in war, knew it for their enemy and fought it with a rage and hatred that was not exceeded by that of the secessionists. It stood for civil government and law, entitled and bound to main- tain its rightful superiority over the military power, and thus it was a constant check and curb on the military officers who operated in the State, aroused their jealosy and met a very general opposition from them.
The question of the emancipation of slaves arose at an early period of its history, and the battle over it raged to the end. The provisional government occupied the conservative middle ground, and was equally obnoxious to the radical friends and foes of the measure. And so from first to last it was assailed by the combined forces of secession and radicalisin, anti-emancipation and emancipation, and defied, thwarted and over-ridden by military power. It was almost destitute of financial resources. It had many active foes and few active friends, but those few were a host indeed, the ablest, truest and best men who ever lived in Missouri; and over and above all, it had the great weight of the countenance and confidence and support of Abraham Lincoln. It carried the flag of the State and of the nation. It was our ark of public safety. With Gamble and Hall as navigators, it found its way through the storms and tempests of those terrible years, and brought its priceless cargo safe to shore. But at the close, Gamble, worn out, lay dead in his grave, and Hall looked back on the weary waste he had passed over, the long succession of days and months and years of toil and vexation, wrong and abuse, and bitterness of soul, unrelieved by any evidence of gratitude or appreciation on the part of the great majority of the people.
In January, 1865, he was succeeded as Governor by Thomas C. Fletcher. The states- manship, fortitude and self-sacrificing devotion of Gamble and Hall during this period, entitle their names to a record in letters of gold on the fairest page of the history of our State. We can only pray-we can hardly hope-to see this tardy justice done to their memory.
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He turned away from official life and from public affairs to devote his remaining life to the profession he loved so well and for which he was so eminently fitted. For nearly twenty years he followed it, practicing it in all the State and Federal courts. Almost all our pub- lic improvements of the time in this part of Missouri, the construction of the railroads and bridges, were planned and carried out under his counsel and guidance. You will perhaps remember that he was the adviser of Mr. James F. Joy in undertaking and completing his enterprises in this part of the country, such as the completion of the Cameron Branch Railroad, our bridge over the Missouri River, and the Fort Scott Railroad.
His counsel and assistance were frequently sought in important matters here. Many of 11s have been associated with him or met him in our cases. Wherever he went, before whatever tribunal he appeared, whether the Supreme Court at Washington, or our local courts, he was always listened to with the greatest respect and attention. Whenever a case of very great importance arose anywhere in this part of the country, he was generally employed, and he had the most extended practice of any lawyer we have ever known.
You will expect me to give you some description of this great lawyer. Let ine give you, in the language of one who knew him well-the Hon. Elijah H. Norton-the ideas of the ethics and inorals of our profession which he applied in his practice. Judge Norton says :
"I attribute much of his success to the fact that he made it an unbending rule never to take a position before a court that he was not satisfied was fully justified by the law. His habit was never to make a captious objection to any position taken by an adversary which he believed to be correct. He always undertook to aid and enlighten, and never to mislead the courts in which he practiced, and as a consequence, he had the respect and confidence of the Judges and his fellows at the bar. As a lawyer, he was the peer of any inan in the State; as a citizen in the private walks of life, his character was without stain or reproach, and no man more than he was distinguished for incorruptibility and integrity." These are the words of friendship, but they are strictly true.
He was a remarkably fine and accurate general scholar, and he kept his classical learning, his Greek and Latin, so fresh that he was able in his later years to fit his son for Yale College. He once told me that it had been his habit for years to read some good case every day, in the early morning when his mind was fresh and clear, and thoroughly digest all its facts and principles and reasoning. He was fond of general reading for rest and recreation at other hours, but his best time and his best efforts lie gave to his chosen inis- tress, the law.
He was always entirely respectful to the courts, 110 inatter what might be his opinion of the capacity of the Judge. In his arguments he was concise, clear, direct, logical and entirely unostentations. He displayed his case, not himself. The impression left from one of his arguments was of a statement of facts, clear and plain, of principles of law beyond question, and all applicable to the case, and of authorities exactly in point-rather than of any particular ability or skill in the lawyer. Tested by the maxim ars est celare artem, hie was an incomparable artist.
His manners were frank and simple, always precisely the same, whether greeting a Supreme Judge, a President, a Cabinet Minister or one of his fellows at the bar. In this simplicity of demeanor and address there was recognized a dignity which was the more impressive the better he was known. He was so unpretentious that many thought him cold, but I know that there are those yet among us who would gladly rise and tell you of
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WILLARD P. HALL-HIS CAREER AND CHARACTER.
the gratitude they still feel for the kindly word of approval and encouragement spoken by him to them in some hour of struggle and difficulty, so fitly and aptly that it still remains a treasured and beautiful memory in their hearts.
He died November 3, 1882.
His great abilities and learning, always for so many years exerted in favor of correct law, have had no small influence on the jurisprudence of our State. His shining example, his great success, by the use of methods never questioned in point of honor or propriety, his scorn and contempt for all meanness and dishonesty, his ready appreciation of honest merit, have contributed much to elevate the standard of our profession. How much of what we are and what we possess we owe to those who have gone before us, we can not tell. But this is certain, that to no man who can be namned do we, the lawyers of this generation, owe more for the sound law and correct practice which we have to-day, than to Willard P. Hall.
Kansas City, Mo., January, 1898.
CONTEMPORARY BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
JOSHUA W. ALEXANDER, GALLATIN.
A MAN of splendid mental stature and the highest nobility of character is Joshua W. Alexander, of Gallatin, Missouri. An evidence of superior mental and moral quali- fications is a man's ability to rise superior to adverse circumstances and conditions. Measured by such a test Mr. Alexander has much to be proud of, for he is the creator of his own fortunes. He was a poor boy, with the necessity of raising himself by his own efforts, but with a noble and self-sacrificing inother to assist. Her son has always remained deeply sensible of her devotion to him and takes pride in the fact that he has struggled throughout life to attain the purposes she set before him. That he has succeeded, the fact that he is to-day one of the leaders in thought and action in his part of the State, is a lawyer of splendid reputation, and has been the recipient of high tokens of honor at the hands of the people, most plainly show.
Joshua W. Alexander was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, January 22, 1852. In 1857, when their son was five years old, his parents removed from the metropolis of Ohio to Anoka County, Minnesota, and settled on a farm. There the father, Thomas W. Alex- ander, died in 1859, and there lies buried. He was a native of Mercer County, Penn- sylvania. His widow, who survived him, was a native of England, her name being prior to her marriage, Jane Robinson. She was a woman of the noblest Christian virtue, and of great strength of mind and purpose. Her nobility of character mnade a profound impress on the life of her only child, on whom she concentrated the entire strength of her affec- tion and effort to shape his life to high and useful ends. The loss of its head entirely changed the plans of the little family. The year after the death of the husband and father (1860), the mother and son removed to Canton, Missouri, and that place and Gallatin have since been the scenes of the latter's life work and success.
It was through the efforts of his mother that he was given a good education. Dur- ing the confusion of the Civil War, they returned to their old home, Cincinnati, and there the lad attended school for a term of three years. Later he entered Christian University at Canton, and there completed his literary education and graduated in June, 1872, with the degree of A. B. His mother encouraged his ambition to become a lawyer, and, therefore, shortly subsequent to leaving college he began reading law in the office of A. D. Lewis, at Canton. He later continued and completed his studies in the office of Judge Samuel A. Richardson, at Gallatin, and was admitted to the bar in 1874.
Early in his professional career the public extended to him a substantial recognition of his talents by electing him, in 1876, Public Administrator of Daviess County, and since then public and official honors have followed in an almost unbroken series. In 1882, in the middle of his second term as Public Administrator, he was elected to represent his county in the State Legislature. He was a member of that body during the session of 1883, was elected as his own successor and bore a conspicuous part in the proceedings of
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the session of 1885, and was then sent back once more to participate in the session of 1887. His Legislative career reflected honor on the people he represented and established his reputation as a painstaking legislator and a man of extensive intellectual powers. The esteem in which he was held by the Legislature was shown by the session of 1887 elevating him to the position of greatest power, making him its Speaker. He daily demonstrated the wisdom of the House in its selection by presiding over its deliberations with fairness and impartiality, and displayed a decision and strength of character that greatly facilitated its work. His knowledge of parliamentary procedure is extensive. He is possessed of that discriminating judicial mind gifted with seeing the merits of any case at once and weighing them fairly, and he has that natural force of character which made of him the ideal presiding officer.
Mr. Alexander has always been a friend to the cause of education and has done invalu- able work as a leading and active member of the Gallatin Board of Education for fifteen years. He was elected to the Board in 1882, and the people have ever since demanded that he serve them in that field. At this time he is at the beginning of another three years' term. He has served as Mayor of Gallatin two terms, the last term having expired but recently, and has also acted as City Attorney one term. In 1894 he was appointed by Gov- ernor Stone a member of the Board of Managers of State Insane Asylum No. 2, located at St. Joe, Missouri, and is one of the members who held over under Governor Stephens' administration.
Mr. Alexander has always held his citizenship as an office involving certain duties, and his town valnes highly his efforts in its behalf. At this time he is President of the Gallatin Savings Bank. He is very active in church and Sunday School work, is a member of the Y. M. C. A., and of the Christian Church, and has been an Elder in the last named body for twenty years. Since February, 1890, he has been connected with the Masonic fratern- ity, and is likewise an Odd Fellow.
Mr. Alexander's wife was, before her marriage, Roe Ann Richardson, daughter of Judge Samuel A. Richardson, of Gallatin, Judge of the Twenty-eighth Judicial Circuit from 1872 to 1880, inclusive, and an able jurist. It was in his office the subject of this sketcli partly fitted himself for the law. Mrs. Alexander's mother was, in her maidenliood, Julia A. Woodward, daughter of Maj. George W. Woodward, for many years a leading citizen of Ray County, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Alexander were wedded February 3, 1876, and have seven living children, three dangliters and four sons. They are all bright and interesting, and with their mother, who is a woman of rare intelligence and inany domestic virtues, con- stitute a home circle which to the father and husband is a source of continual satisfaction.
HENRY TEBBS ALKIRE, OREGON.
ONORABLE HENRY TEBBS ALKIRE, of Oregon, at the present date Probate H Judge of Holt County, Mayor of the city of Oregon and President of the School Board of said city, is a native of Northwest Missouri, having been born in Platte County, Sep- tember 6, 1854. He is the son of Elijalı Alkire and Sarah Farrar, who were married in 1844. The father was a Missouri farmer whose family came from Virginia. The Alkires arc of German origin, but arc by no means of recent American residence, as they settled
Strany I Alkere
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THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
in New York a good many years prior to the Revolution. Indeed, several meinbers of the family fought in their country's behalf, and Mr. Alkire's great grandfather was a Major under Washington. The Farrars, to which family our subject is related in the maternal branclı, are of Scotch-Irish origin, and on coming to America, first located in Kentucky, and later in Franklin County, Missouri. This last settlement was made in pioneer days, and the family has since largely increased and become prominent in various parts of the State-especially in the city of St. Louis.
The subject of this biography was educated in the common schools of Holt County (to which county his parents moved while he was a small boy), and afterwards at the State Normal School at Kirksville. He graduated at the latter institution in 1875, and during the next few years taught school and read law until 1880, when he entered the Law Depart- inent of Missouri University, at Columbia, to finish fitting himself for the legal profession. There he graduated in 1881, and, returning to his home in Holt County, was admitted to the bar at Oregon in the same year, and has inade that the field of his labors ever since.
He had not practiced long until the people of Holt County began to understand that he was a young lawyer of both force and ability. Such was his character that his rearing and long residence in that county had served to increase his popularity instead of dimin- ishing it, as is sometimes the case, owing to that disposition of men which has made truthful and expressive that apothegin which has it that "a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country." When the young lawyer became a candidate for Public Admin- istrator in 1884, the public appreciation of his people was testified in his election by a handsome majority. In the same year his term ended (1888), he was elected to represent Holt County in the State Legislature, where during the long revising session of 1889 he made a record as one of the most conscientious and faithful public servants from his part of the State. He has twice been Mayor of the city of Oregon, having been elected in 1888, and again in 1896, and is therefore still incumbent. The citizens of Oregon claim he has made the best municipal executive the town ever had. In 1894 Mr. Alkire was elected Probate Judge of Holt County, and still occupies that position. In 1892 he was the can- didate on the Republican State ticket for Secretary of State, and although the ticket was defeated, Mr. Alkire received almost a quarter of a million votes.
In fraternity circles he is known as an adept Odd Fellow, and has passed through all the chairs in that order. He is also a member of the Triple Alliance and the Christian Church. He is an enthusiastic believer in our public school system, for the past nine years has been a member of the Oregon School Board and for the last six years of that period, has been President of that body.
Mr. Alkire was inarried March 9, 1879, in Holt County, to Miss Margaret Alkire of that county. They have six children, the oldest of whom is thirteen. Their names are Maude, Daisy, Bessie, Henry Thatcher, Grace and Luke David.
Although much service of a public nature has been demanded of him, Mr. Alkire has in nowise neglected his professional work, and is at this time considered one of the strong- est young lawyers of the northwestern part of the State. He has conducted much important litigation to a successful conclusion, among which may be mentioned Collins versus Stock- ing, 98 Missouri 290; State versus Huiatt, 31 Missouri Appeals 302; Minton versus Steele, 125 Missouri 181; Hahn versus Dawson, 134 Missouri 581; Hahn versus Cotton, 136 Mis- souri 216, and Book versus Beasley, 40tlı Southwestern Reporter 101. Mr. Alkire is no less prominent as a political leader than as a lawyer. He is a Republican, and in all affairs
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THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
respecting that party he is looked to for advice and counsel. He is well known to the other leaders of liis party throughout the State, as is shown by the high place given him on the State ticket in 1892. He has brilliancy, is a fluent public speaker, has the personal chiar- acteristics to win popular favor, has a thoroughi knowledge of the ethics of his profession, and as he has also youthi, it may be fairly assumed that while he has already achieved high rank as a lawyer and publicist, he will yet mount still higher and that his future will be crowned with a full measure of success.
DANIEL SMITH ALVORD,
BETHANY.
D ANIEL SMITH ALVORD was born at Lottsville, Pennsylvania, January 30, 1835, and is the son of Samuel and Ursula (Smith) Alvord. He comes of Revolutionary sires in both branches of his family tree. The first American record of the Alvord family goes back to Thomas Alvord, who was a native of England and a Puritan. He emigrated from his native land, doubtless to escape the persecutions of the Stuarts, and reached Mas- sachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, where the Pilgrims of the "Mayflower" had established a settlement a few years earlier. The family became very prominent in the colony. Daniel Alvord, the grandfather of the present Mr. Alvord, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and served his country for seven long and dangerous years. The latter's father was a soldier in the same struggle, while in the maternal line, our subject's grandfather was likewise a patriot and saw arduous service in the contest for independence. The Smiths, like the Alvords, came to America when New England was still marked, miles apart, with pioneer settlements, surrounded by Indians. The family settled in Vermont. Mr. Alvord's paternal great grandfather was among the first to shed his blood in his country's behalf, having been wounded at Bunker Hill. Daniel Alvord, the father of our subject, was a pioneer Baptist preacher, and for many years was pastor of various churches througli- out western New York. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and thus completed the military record which gives his son, Daniel S., a father, two grandfathers and a great grandfather who resisted the tyranny of England with arms.
'The subject of this sketch received his higher education at Shurtleff College, Alton, Illinois, studied law with Schofield, Ferris & Lanier, at Carthage, Illinois, and was adinit- ted at Springfield, Illinois, by the Supreme Court in 1858. Hc opened an office at Hamil- ton, Illinois, and practiced there until 1864, which he enlisted in the One Hundred and Fifty-sixtlı Illinois Infantry, and served until the end of the war. He was during most of that time in active service in the Southi.
After coming from the army, he decided to try liis fortunes in Missouri, and therefore located in Harrison County in 1865, and in Bethany, the county scat, has lived and prac- ticed ever since. Up to 1870 lic was associated in practice withi Thomas D. Ncal; from 1870 with Andrew Fawcet, until his death in 1879; from the date last named until 1890 with A. F. Woodruff; in 1891 he formed a partnership with E. H. Frisby, whichi still exists.
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