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 59
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In 1867 Mr. Alvord was elected Proscenting Attorney of Harrison County, and so well did hc please the people that tlicy continued him in office until 1877 - a full decade. He lias always been a friend of education, and for three years was a member of the Bethany
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School Board. In 1880 he was a candidate for Circuit Judge on the Republican ticket, and ran again for the same office in 1892. In the last named election he polled 400 votes more than his ticket, but the Democratic majority was too strong for him. Of recent years his fellow partisans have sent him as a delegate to nearly every State and Congressional Con- vention in which they have been entitled to representation.
Mr. Alvord is a Republican of the most pronounced convictions, is very active and influential in all the affairs of the party, and has made speeches on the. stump in almost every canvass since the birth of the party. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and is an Odd Fellow of standing.
Mr. Alvord was married at Hamilton, Illinois, August 18, 1861, to Anna M. Lloyd, daughter of Capt. James Lloyd, a merchant and ship owner of Wheeling, West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Alvord have two children: Grace A., who married William H. Sigler, of Nebraska, and is now his widow, and Raymond L., a clerk in his father's office.
NORTON B. ANDERSON,
PLATTE CITY.
THE subject of this sketch is designated by two names that are among the best borne by the old families of Kentucky and Virginia. His mother's maiden name was Mary Norton, and connection with that family is commemorated in the given name of her son. His father's name was Edward L. Anderson, of a family familiar to and respected by many Kentuckians. Norton B. was born at Allensville, Todd County, Kentucky, January 8, 1843, but for more than thirty years has been a resident of Missouri and an honored mem- ber of her bar. He received the chief part of his education at Paducah College, and Bethel College, the last named located at Russellville, Kentucky. When he had finished the literary, or classical courses, at these colleges, in furtherance of his plan adopted some time before this to fit himself for the law, he went to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and entered the law department of Harvard University. Next, selecting Platte City, Missouri, as his location, he was there admitted to the bar in 1870.
It should be stated that Platte City was then his home and had been for four years. One of the important changes in his life prior to this was his removal from his native county in 1854, when he was eleven years old, to Paducah, on the western border of the State. In this old river town he spent his youth and attended the college above men- tioned. He was twenty-three years old when he removed to Platte City in 1866, and as the years have passed, the confidence which the people of that section have accorded him, has constantly increased, and their respect for him has deepened.
In the year he began practice, he was appointed Prosecuting Attorney of the county, and from 1889 to 1892 he represented the Third Senatorial District in the Missouri Senate. His marked individuality made him a conspicuous member in that body, and through his activity and ability he pushed a number of good bills through the Legislature. He was elected President, pro tem. of the Senate and was second on the Joint Committee of Revis- ion of the Missouri Statutes of 1889.
Mr. Anderson is a gentleman of pleasing address, is suave in manner and his geniality and the abundance of his spirit of good-will toward his fellow-inan, is apparent in his intercourse with everybody. These personal traits make him very popular, and did he
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make up his mind to enter the field of politics, he could undoubtedly be successful. But the true lawyer- the one adapted by nature to the profession - sets it above all else and as its practice is exacting, the pursuit of anything else involves legal sacrifices which sucli a lawyer cannot bring himself to make. Because he has not made such sacrifice, Mr. Ander- so11 has reaped the reward of diligence and devotion to the law, and now enjoys a com- petency and a practice that is constantly increasing in volume.
Mr. Anderson is one of the active Masons of his section. He is considered an excep- tionally "bright " member of the fraternity and has passed the lodge, chapter, commandery and Knight Templar departments and has acted as presiding officer of each. He is also an Odd Fellow and an encampment deputy. He became a member of the Masonic frater- nity in the year he began law practice- 1870.
The maiden name of Mr. Anderson's wife was Virginia Marshall. They have two children, both daughters, named Mary and Irene.
WILLIAM AULL,
LEXINGTON.
IN writing a history of any man, a clear appreciation of who and what he is may be obtained through a knowledge of his antecedents and family, for "blood will tell," and while we of America are sensibly not disposed to make the accident of birth the primary consideration to personal preferment, we do recognize its value when its possessor has been tested and found to be not a departure from or exception to the regular tendency of liered- itary influence.
William Aull's family is one of the best in the western part of the State. To properly give an idea of his descent, one must go to the North of Ireland and begin with his great grandfather, Hugh Aull. His son, John, married Mildred, daughter of Andrew Brown, whose wife, the inother of Mildred, was a Fanning. Of the marriage of John Anll and Mildred Brown was born John Aull, who was the father of Williamn. The Aulls and Browns were Irish and families of standing in the old country, the former being large linen inan11- facturers and proprictors of large bleaching greens near Belfast.
John Aull, the father of William, was born at Newton-Limavady, Ireland, in 1823, and at the age of seventeen emigrated to America, landing at New Orleans on Christinas Day, 1841. Thence he went directly to Lexington, Missouri, which was the scene of liis labors until his death in 1893. He first engaged as clerk in a Lexington store, and after- ward became the proprietor of a large grocery business, whereby he amassed quite a for- tiinc. He later engaged in the banking business, from which he finally retired. His career was no less honorable than successful. He was the inan universally trusted and csteeined by everybody. Such was the confidence in which he was held, that he was always being appcaled to to act in fiduciary capacities, and it was no infrequent thing for large estates to be left in his carc, without desiring or requiring any bond whatever. He was during the greater part of his life a member of the Old School Presbyterian Church, and was an ardent member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he received all the degrees in both lodge and encampment, and was at one time Past Grand Master and at another Past Chief Patriarch, and several times represented the Grand Lodge. Mr. Aull died August 12, 1893, at Philadelphia, where he had gone for medical treatment.
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Mary E. Aull, the mother of William, was the daughter of William Meteer and Sarah Meteer, nee Hunter. Both her parents were natives of Augusta County, Virginia, and her mother was the daughter of Robert and Eleanor Hunter, nee Fulton, of Augusta County, Virginia, a relative of the noted inventor, Robert Fulton. Robert Hunter was a son of Samuel and Susan Hunter, nee Alexander, of Rockbridge County, Virginia, a cousin of Archibald Alexander, the eminent divine. The origin of this family connection was gen- erally Scotch, early settlers of Virginia, intensely Southern in their sympathies, and wlio testify by the scars they bear and the loved ones lost, their devotion to the cause of the Confederacy in tlie Civil War.
Mary E. Meteer-Aull was born in Monroe County, Missouri, March 17, 1832, and went with her parents to Callaway County. Her mother died in Ralls County, and her father in Gasconade County, and thus she was left an orphan. In 1847 she went from Callaway County to Lexington with her uncle and aunt, John and Ellen Allen, with whom she lived until she went to reside with another aunt, Isabella Wallace. For about three years imme- diately preceding her marriage, she resided with her friend, Miss Elizabeth Aull, the founder of the noted Elizabeth Aull Female Seminary of Lexington. She is a devout men1- ber of the Old School Presbyterian Church, and in old age is recognized as one who has given her life in true Christian charity, in denying herself for husband and family and in alleviating the sufferings of others.
Both the parents of William Aull were, during the war, intense sympathizers with the cause of the South, but neither of them ever lost an opportunity to aid their fellow-man, regard- less of race, politics or religion. During the hotly contested battle of Lexington their home was made an hospital for the wounded, and when Colonel Mulligan, the commander of the Federal forces, was compelled to surrender to General Price and became the lat- ter's captive, Mr. and Mrs. Aull; generously and with every possible attention, welcomed Mrs. Mulligan and her little daughter to their home, bidding hier make it her own, and extending her kindly and considerate treatment. When Mrs. Mulligan insisted on acconi- panying her captive husband from Lexington, her little daughter, Marion, was left with the Aulls, and during the three or four months she remained, was the recipient of every kindness that willing hands could do or generous hearts suggest.
William Aull was born at Lexington, August 17, 1857, and was the third of a family of nine children. He was educated in the public and private schools of Lafayette County, and graduated in 1877 from the Lexington High School. He taught school several years and then entered the University of Virginia, where he graduated in 1881. While attending lectures in the select schools of the University, he also attended lectures in law under Prof. S. O. Southall, receiving the usual certificate of proficiency in international and Constitui- tional law. In addition to the above, he attended three special summer courses of lectures in law at the University. With such preparation, he in 1881 entered the regular law course of the University and graduated in that department under that profound lecturer and scholar, Prof. John B. Minor, and received his degree of Bachelor of Laws, being one of the leading students in a class of 125. He was a close student and inveterate worker and continued his labors at the University without vacation. He was the friend of everybody, and a gen- eral favorite with both professors and students. In the anxious discussion and conjecture of the names to be bulletined after every examination, Aull's chances were always con- ceded as certain, and he was the frequent recipient of the "Curl" of the lecture room. His zealous and incessant labor, however, told on his health, and, therefore, after leav-
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ing the University he proceeded to Philadelphia, the Atlantic Coast, and other cities and resorts for needed rest and recreation. After this recuperative season was ended he re- turned to Lexington, where he was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1882. He at once entered into partnership with Hon. Alexander Graves, who had just been elected to Congress from the Fifth Missouri District. This partnership continued pleasantly and profitably for about ten years, and since its dissolution Mr. Aull has practiced alone. From his first entrance on the work of the profession he enjoyed a good practice, and although Lexington has an able and experienced bar, it may be stated that Mr. Aull enjoys the distinction of being second to none in ability as a lawyer and scholar, and in the extent and importance of practice.
As shown by the reports of our courts of last resort, Mr. Aull, as an attorney, has been connected with many important and interesting cases. He was associate counsel with Sen- ator George G. Vest and ex-Congressman Alexander Graves on the part of the defense in the case of Cohn versus Kensler in the United States Court, in a contest over the capital prize drawn in the Louisiana State Lottery; he was of counsel selected to test the constitu- tionality of the local option law in the case of ex parte Swann in the State Supreme Court; he was of counsel for plaintiff in the case of Dixon versus Chicago & Alton Railroad Company, afterwards Church versus Chicago & Alton Railroad Company, who finally succeeded in securing four of the seven Judges before the Supreme Court of Missouri en banc, in confining to its narrowest limits the doctrine of exemption because of negligence of fellow-servants (Judge McFarland having been of counsel for defense and not sitting), and in confining the same to servants engaged in the same department of gen- eral service; he was of counsel in the case of Durant versus Lexington Coal Mining Com- pany, on part of plaintiff, to test the law passed for the protection and safety of persons em- ployed in coal mines, and in numerous other cases has caused the impress of his thorough legal knowledge and training to be stamped upon cases and precedents in the reports of this State.
For six years, commencing January 1, 1891, and ending January 1, 1897, Mr. Aull hield the position of Prosecuting Attorney of Lafayette County, during which termu he was acknowledged by bench and bar to be one of the ablest Prosecuting Attorneys in the State. He enjoys the distinction of having been twice nominated for this office without opposition. He was inclined to decline the nomination for the third terin, but by the importunity of citizens and friends, again submitted his name and was nominated and elected for the third term1.
He is a Democrat of the deepest convictions, as his education would scarcely permit of anything else. For four years he was a member of the Democratic Congressional Commit- tee of the Fifthi Missouri District, and has frequently been selected as a delegate to, and has attended as such, Democratic Congressional and State conventions.
He is one of the Directors in the Lexington Bridge and Terminal Company and a Director in the 'Traders' Bank at Lexington, for which last named bank and the Lafayette County Bank he is the regular attorney. For some years he has been Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the Elizabeth Anll Female Seminary at Lexington, and is now a member of the Board of Trustees and one of the executive committee in charge of this institution. He is a member of the Old School Presbyterian Church at Lexington, and is Assistant Superin- tendent of the Sabbath School in said church.
On September 2, 1885, Mr. Anll was united in marriage to Miss Annie Quarles Good- man, of Gordonsville, Virginia. She was born in Louisa County, Virginia, April 7, 1859,
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and is a daughter of Col. George Augustus Goodman, who was Colonel of the Thirteenth Virginia Regiment, C. S. A. He was a graduate of the Virginia Military Insti- tute, and was a brave soldier and efficient officer during the four years of civil struggle. He was by profession a teacher, and in all respects was a Virginian gentleman of the old school. Mrs. Aull's mother was Margaret Chandler, daughter of Leroy Chandler, and one of that type of noble and estimable matrons for which the Old Dominion is so justly dis- tinguished. On her mother's side she was of Quarles blood, her mother being a first cousin of Rev. James A. Quarles, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Philosophy in Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia.
Mrs. William Aull is an accomplished woman. Gifted with a quick intelligence and eager for self-improvement, she has availed herself of every opportunity of mental culture, becoming versed in the languages and sciences, as well as in literature and music. As a poet, her verses show delicacy of sentiment, expressed in smooth and appropriate diction. For some years she was a teacher in the Inglewood Institute near Gordonsville, Virginia, and later in the Elizabeth Aull Female Seminary, at Lexington, Missouri. As a wife and mother she has made her husband's and her children's interests the one chief matter of her thoughtful and devoted attention. Much of Mr. Aull's success he gratefully attributes to the intelligent and self-denying co-operation of his wife, who has been to him a lawyer's confidential clerk. They are the parents of six bright and interesting children: Margaret, aged eleven ; William, ten; John, eight; Mary, six; George, four; and Percy, a lovely baby girl of eighteen months.
ROBERT EDWARD BALL, KANSAS CITY.
R OBERT EDWARD BALL, a young and rising member of the Kansas City bar, is a native Missourian, having been born in Carroll County, February 11, 1858. His paternal ancestor, who emigrated from Europe and thus became the patriarch of the Ball family in America, settled in Northumberland County, Virginia, near Chesapeake Bay, between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, in the early dawn of the Seventeenth century. The stock was virile, and the fact that it so generally survived is eminent proof of its fitness, as there is now scarcely a township in the countics of Northumberland and Lan- caster, Virginia, where one or more Balls do not reside. The family has grown into the hundreds, and this without taking an account at all of those descendents of the original settler in America who have scattered from the place where the family name was first planted.
David Ball, Robert Edward's father, was born February 6, 1831, near Epping Forest, the birthplace of Mary Ball, the inother of the immortal Washington. George Ball, from whom the representative of the family under consideration is descended, was a brother of Mary Ball's grandfather, and the family of the mother of Washington and that of the sub- ject of this review are known to have been collateral to each other, and of the same origin.
David Ball, the father, was a native of Northumberland County and was by occupation a farmer and dealer in live stock. His wife, the mother of our subject, a native of Bed- ford County, Virginia, was Lucy J. Austin before her marriage, and belonged to one of the most respected families of the section where she was born. The parents left their native State during the childhood of both and settled in Carroll County, Missouri, where they were married and Robert was born.
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THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
Mr. Ball was educated in the common schools of his county and at Central College, Fayette, Missouri, where he graduated in 1880 with the degree of Master of Arts. He was an exemplary student, and took a number of medals, such as the medal for scholarship, onc for oratory, and another for the best college paper article. During the latter part of his course he was a tutor in the college and after graduation, so satisfactory had been his work as an instructor, that he was induced by the faculty to continue and was made Principal of tlie preparatory department, occupying the position during the session of 1880 and 1881. 'I'caching, however, was inerely a side issue with him, as he was moved by the determi- nation to adopt the law. His first legal studies were pursued in the office of Judge Ryland, at Lexington, Missouri, during the fall of 1881. Kansas City was just then starting toward the zenitli of her great boom, and the young man selected that city as liis location. In February, 1882, he there entered the office of Peak & Yeager, completing his studies by January 1, 1883, on which date he was licensed to practice by the Circuit Court at Kansas City. In 1884 he was admitted to the firm with which he had read law, its style of Peak, Yeager & Ball being made to conform to this change.
Close confinement and steady application were beginning to affect the strength of thic young lawyer, and this induced him to drop work for a time and go West for his health in May, 1885. He tarried a year in the more agreeable conditions of that part of the country, and its influence on his health permitted him to return in January, 1886, and resume liis work where he had left off. In October, 1892, Mr. Yeager having withdrawn, the firm became Peak & Ball. As thus constituted, the association continued up to November, 1895, upon which date Mr. Peak was named as thie successor of Colonel Broadhead, as Minister to Switzerland. During his absence Mr. Ball practiced with the assistance of I. P. Ryland, son of his old preceptor, Judge Ryland, of Lexington. Upon the expira- tion of the terin of his office and Mr. Peak's return to Kansas City, the old partnership was resumed and is still in force.
Mr. Ball has never been a candidate for office, although in January, 1894, he was warmly indorsed by the Kansas City bar at a large meeting of that body, for appointment to thic vacant position of Circuit Judge. In December, 1894, he was selected by Governor Stone as special prosecutor in the noted clection frauds cases of that year. That he stands well with his brother practitioners is illustrated in the fact that in November, 1896, lie was elected President of the Kansas City Bar Association.
August 21, 1889, the marriage of Mr. Ball and Mary Stella Hereford was solemnized. 'They have tlirce children, two boys and a girl.
Mr. Ball has all the attributes of the successful lawyer. He is thorough, careful and an industrious student. Exceptionally intelligent, quick witted and with ability to con- centrate his mind on the deep and involved constituents of a difficult problem of law, his rise in his profession lic has chosen is assured.
OSWALD SWINNEY BARTON,
FAYETTE.
A LAWYER whose attainments do much to maintain in this day the standing and pres- tige of the bar of Howard County, which achieved a high reputation at a day so early that few lawyers now living can speak of it with knowledge derived from personal expc-
O. S. Barton
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rience, is Oswald Swinney Barton, of Fayette, who, though a native of Kentucky, bears the name of one of Missouri's oldest families. His great grandfather was Capt. Josepli Barton, who was a pioneer of St. Louis and one of the conspicuous figures of her early history. He married Elizabeth Rector, whose brother, Thomas Rector, killed Joshua Bar- ton. The duel was due to an article communicated to the old Missouri Republican by Joshua Barton, at that time (June, 1823), Attorney General of the State, and which made charges against Thomas Rector's brother, who was at that time Surveyor General of the Territorial district. According to Hon. John F. Darby, who knew the history of St. Louis well, the meeting occurred on the top of tlie Big Mound which gave St. Louis her agnomen of "Mound City."
The son of Captain Barton and Elizabeth Rector, his wife, was Wharton R. Barton, the grandfather of our subject, who became a resident of Linn County, Missouri, and one of its most influential citizens, he there having held successively the offices of Sheriff, Collector, Recorder and Circuit Clerk. His son, Rector Barton, was married in How- · ard County, Missouri, May 16, 1860, to Sallie C. Savage. The year following they removed to Mason County, Kentucky, and at the little village of Germantown, in that county, thie subject of this memoir was born, June 29, 1862. In 1865 the family returned to Missouri, and in 1868 moved to a farin near Glasgow, Howard County, where the parents yet live.
On this farm the subject of our mnemoir was reared. When far enough advanced he was admitted to Pritchett Institute at Glasgow, graduated and then entered the St. Louis Law School, which he attended for one year, and finished his technical studies in the office of Hon. Thomas Shackleford, whose active career as a practitioner extends perhaps over a longer period than any other lawyer in the State of Missouri, and whose biography will be found elsewhere in this volume. After two years spent under such excellent tutelage, the young student was admitted to the bar by Judge George H. Burckhardt, at Fayette, Howard County, June 5, 1885, and began practice in Glasgow.
He remained at Glasgow until January, 1889, and then the fact that he had been elected Prosecuiting Attorney of Howard County, made necessary his removal to Fayette, the county seat. He was re-elected in 1890, but did not complete his second termn, as, yielding to the impulse to seek a field farther West, he resigned his office and removed to Denver, where he was soon regularly embarked in practice. In November, 1893, he returned to Missouri, taking up his old list of clients at Glasgow. On July 1, 1897, he again changed his residence by once more removing to Fayette, the county seat. The field of his activity is virtually the same as at Glasgow, but he found it more convenient to reside at the county seat.
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