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 61
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He married, October 22, 1884, Miss Hattie E. Jaynes, daughter of Col. A. D. Jaynes, of Sedalia, but thic cstimable lady died in June, three years later, leaving no children.
Mr. Bothwell's career as a lawyer testifies to his legal ability and liis peculiar fitness for the profession lie adorns. To the end that some conclusion may be formed of lis emi- nence in that field, a brief reference to liis successful and active career as a practitioner is here appended. During 1873, 1874, 1875 and 1876, lic was Assistant Prosecuting Attorney of Pettis County, and as such tried several hundred criminal cases, acting as the leading prosecutor in the majority of the more important cases. Acting as thic representative of the State he wrote hundreds of indictments, and as an evidence of his knowledge of the law, it is of record that but one of these was quashed. His knowledge of the law is founded on a
John It. Bohumil
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wide and general experience, as the first fifteen years of his practice included cases of almost every character that it is possible to take into court. The diversity of this legal experience has been of great advantage to him. The last ten years of his life have been devoted largely to corporation practice and to acting as counselor and adviser of large financial interests. As a pleader before the bar Mr. Bothwell is eloquent and effective, and his power to thoroughly analyze and separate all the elements of a case has contributed in no small degree to his success as an attorney.
Mr. Bothwell has a political record which has brought him distinction and of which his friends are justly proud. He was a representative in the Thirty-fifth General Assembly of Missouri (1889-1891), serving through the revising session of the former year, and served with distinction on the commission which compiled, annotated and published the Revised Statutes of 1889. He was again a representative in the Thirty-eighth General Assembly, from 1895 to 1897, and held the honored position of Chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary.
In a more strictly partisan sense he has not been without honor. He was elected in February, 1892, First Vice-President of the Missouri League of Republican Clubs. Two months later he was chosen Chairman of the Republican State Central Committee and of the Executive Committee thereof. In March, 1890, and April, 1891, he was a delegate to the National Convention of the League of Republican Clubs. In June, 1896, he was a Delegate-at-Large from Missouri to the Republican National Convention at which Mckinley and Hobart were nominated. A month later he presided, with tact and fine parliamentary skill, over the deliberations of the inost exciting State Convention in the history of his party in this State, a convention lasting three days, and being marked throughout with episodes which developed the presiding officer's superb qualities as a tactician and leader.
In Sedalia he is a citizen no less prominent for talents than he is popular because of his excellent qualities and public spirit. As Representative from Pettis County, Mr. Both- well introduced the concurrent resolution proposing the amendment to the State Constitu- tion, passed by the Thirty-eighth General Assembly and known as the capital-removal amendment. This measure, when attacked by the combined legal talent of Jefferson City, assisted by some of the ablest attorneys of the State, was unanimously sustained by the Supreme Court of Missouri, a high compliment to the legal qualifications of its author, who wrote the brief and argument on which were based the judgment and opinion of the Court. In every enterprise that has for its object the advancement of Sedalia or the State of Mis- souri, John H. Bothwell's time, talents and money are always at the disposal of his fellow- citizens, and in such undertakings he is always in the lead. He was for a time President of that thriving town's Board of Trade, and is now President of the Sedalia National Bank.
JAMES SHERMAN BOTSFORD, KANSAS CITY.
Nº TO lawyer in Missouri better deserves a place in this roster of the intellectual and the
able of its bar, than James Sherman Botsford, of Kansas City. He is a learned lawyer, and as a citizen is actuated by high ideals. His status at the bar of Kansas City places him among the ablest of his professional brethren and the confidence in which he is held by those who know him best is the highest evidence of his probity and honor.
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Scotch-Irish blood flows in the veins of Judge Botsford, although it has been modified by many generations of American environment. The paternal seems to have been the Scotch branch. The name was originally Abbotsford, but when the three Abbotsford brothers, who brought the name to America in the earliest days of its colonization, reached their new home, in conformity with a custom then practiced, they dropped the first syllable, making it Botsford. Two of these brothers settled in New York and the other in North Carolina. From one of the former two James Sherman is descended. These brothers were among the first settlers of Oneida County, New York. With its history the name is in- separably linked, and Judge Botsford's father, grandfather and great grandfather were born there. His grandfather married Miss McEwen, of Connecticut, and accordingly, the blood of that liistoric family is a part of our subject's inheritance. Seymour Botsford, an uncle, emigrated to Texas at an early day and was a participant in its war of independence, being one of the patriots who gave his life at San Jacinto.
James Sherman is the son of John S. and Rhoda (Look) Botsford. His father emigrated from Central New York, in the early '30's, to the wilds of Wisconsin. He purchased 160 acres of land from the Government, in the midst of the wild and tangled forests of Waukesha County, and at once devoted his energies to taming it. There he died in 1851, when the subject of this biography was but seven years old. His widow, left with five small children of whom James was the elder son, married again and still lives on the old home place in Wisconsin.
It was on his father's Wisconsin farm that James was born, June 10, 1844, and amidst sneli primitive and healthful surroundings the boy's early youth was spent. He attended the public and private schools near his home, and when qualified, entered the high school at Lisbon, Illinois. While a pupil at this institution, the Civil War broke out. The boy responded with alacrity to the call of his country. He enlisted as a private in the Fifth Wisconsin, and served gallantly for three years, being but sixteen at the time of enlistment in May, 1861. At the battle of the Wilderness, May 5, 1864, he was seriously wounded in the right shoulder, and after lying in a Washington hospital until September, was honorably discharged and returned home.
He was learned in war, but not as well in books as he wished to be. He therefore resmined his studies, which included the law, pursuing the latter branches at Morris, Illi- nois. He passed his examination before the Supreme Court at Ottawa, Illinois, and was duly admitted to practice in 1866. His desire to seek a field farther West was responsible for his location at Sedalia a few months subsequently. In 1870 he was elected City Coun- selor of Sedalia, and in 1872 he removed to Jefferson City. A year prior to this he was appointed United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, serving two terms, the last one ending in 1877. It should be noted that this and the other position referred to are the only offices ever held by him, and both were in direct line with his profession. This is not due to the fact that no opportunities of political preferment have offered, for on the contrary he could have licld many offices, but with the instinct of the true lawyer, he refused all advances not in dircet harmony with the ethics of his profession. In 1879 hic removed to Kansas City and has since continued in practice there, now being senior member of the firm of Botsford, Deatherage & Young, the last named being his district's representative in the State Scnate.
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Judge Botsford is prominent in Masonic circles, is a Knight Templar and a Knight of Pythias; he is also an active member of the G. A. R. He is a staunch Republican and is valued no less in the councils of that party than on the stump.
Judge Botsford's wife was Sallie M., daughter of Col. Williamn A. Warner, of Kentucky. She is a granddaughter of Gen. Leslie Combs, of Kentucky. They were wedded Novem- ber 16, 1871.
SAMUEL BOYD,
MARSHALL.
NE of the class of older lawyers who added luster to the Missouri bar in the chang- ing days just subsequent to the war, is the subject of this brief meinoir, who is one of the brightest and most successful of those who achieved a high place at the bar. Like many of the early settlers of Central Missouri, he is a native of Kentucky, having been born at Flemingsburg, December 20, 1834. He is, therefore, now entering upon the closing years of a career that has been as honorable to himself as useful to his fellow- men.
Mr. Boyd is a lawyer both by education and by instinct. His father, Wilson P. Boyd, was a lawyer of eminent attainments, was a member of the Kentucky Senate from 1843 to 1851, and was appointed by the Legislature of Kentucky chairinan of a commit- tee charged with receiving Gen. Zachary Taylor at Louisville, en route to Washington to be inaugurated President. Up to 1858 he was a Whig, and was a dominating force in that party. In the year last named he changed his political faith, becoming a Dem- ocrat, and so continued to the end of his life. He was a lawyer of fine ability and great intellectual force. He, in 1857, mnoved with his family to Bloomington, Illinois, and in 1866 from there to Arcola, Illinois, where he died. His widow, our subject's mother, who was born Susan E. Lacy, survived her husband, living with her daughters until her death, March 10, 1877.
Samuel Boyd grew to manhood in his native Kentucky town, and received a col- lege education. In 1854 he began the study of law in his father's office. Some time after his admission he came to Missouri, locating in Saline County, and during the great campaign of 1859 and 1860 he had charge of a newspaper known as the Saline County Standard, and this he conducted with consummate skill and ability. In the summer of 1861 he cast his lot with the Confederacy and went South with Price's Army. He remained, however, but a short time, and then returned to Marshall and began the legal career which has been continued successfully through so many years.
For years Mr. Boyd has stood at the head of the Saline County bar. He has been especially effective as a criminal lawyer, and has a record of many triumphs in that field. He, of course, practices in both the civil and criminal departments, and the field of his practice has extended to many parts of North Missouri, and even into Nebraska and Kan- sas. He is rated by his brethren as one of the ablest of his profession, and is loved and esteemed, especially by the older members of the bar, who in earlier times "rode the circuit" with him. He abounds in reminiscences of the men and events of those days of the "youth of the West," and like all of the veterans, loves to revert to the scenes of those simple, happy days. Keen, quick to discern the strong points in his own case,
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and the weak ones of his antagonist, his memory and his sagacity are rarely ever at fault, and his power over a jury consists in the clearness and forcible simplicity with which his arguments are addressed to their intelligence.
For the past two years Mr. Boyd has been in failing health, and has been com- pelled to largely relax his professional efforts. To one of his energetic methods and former activity of life, this enforced idleness is irksome; but he has borne his suffering without complaint and with the fortitude of the true hero.
March 12, 1861, Mr. Boyd was married to Miss Fannie M. Clarkson, daughter of Dr. E. S. Clarkson, of Saline County, formerly of Kentucky. Mrs. Boyd died February 10, 1866, leaving three children, namely: Caroline Russell, Wilson Porter and Francis H. Mr. Boyd again married July 21, 1868, espousing Miss Marguerite M. Clarkson, sister of his first wife. To this marriage have been born five children, two of whom, Samuel, Jr., and Isabelle, are living.
PHILIP SHELLEY BROWN,
KANSAS CITY.
'HE oldest resident lawyer and one of the oldest citizens of Kansas City, is Philip TI Shelley Brown, who has seen all those prodigious changes which have made a great and busy metropolis out of a small and unimportant village in less than a generation. Mr. Brown is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Bedford County, October 14, 1833. His father, Henry Brown, was born in the same State and county. His mother, prior to her marriage, was a Shelley, a family that was among the earliest settlers of Pennsylvania, having, in fact, received a part of that domain under patent from the original owners. The Brown family was closely connected with Maryland from a long residence there, members of that family being among the earliest citizens and settlers of the State.
Young Philip Shelley was reared on a farm, as have been so many lads who as men play a conspicuous part in the affairs of urban and public life. He received liis earliest education from the district school in winter; during spring and summer he assisting at making and harvesting the crops of the farin in Blair County, where his parents then resided. Aside from this earliest training he is self educated. After he left the district school he secured work for part of his time in the Sheriff's office at Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, and was thereby enabled to earn enough to attend the academy at that place, then under the super- vision of Rev. J. H. Mckinney. After attending this academy for three years, he acted on the determination to go West and seek liis fortune in that land which was then the Mecca of every young man of ambition and energy who had his own way in life to make. He reached his journey's end at Davenport, Iowa. There opportunity offered to carry out his long cherishicd ambition to enter the profession of the law. He prosecuted liis read- ings in the office of Hon. John W. Thompson, and was in that city admitted to the bar.
In 1858 lie located in Kansas City, began practice and has been in practice there con- tinnously ever since. In 1865, he took into partnership Ermine Case, Jr., now deceased, and later was associated with E. M. Wriglit and Leonard Daniels. In 1884, lie formed a partnership with Benjamin H. Chapman and Mr. Brown's son, W. H. Brown, then just admitted to practice, and thus the personnel of the firm still exists, being styled Brown, Chapman & Brown.
Tregal Publishing0o. St.Louis
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Mr. Brown is a gentleman of remarkable energy and enterprise, and these qualities have manifested themselves in a number of fields outside the law. He has been actively interested in the provision of a full and complete legal library for the use of the practition- ers of Kansas City, and has served as the President of the Kansas City Law Library Association, while for ten years he has acted as Treasurer of that body. Although he has never "had time to hold office," he has always manifested a deep and abiding interest in public affairs, and especially those affairs that affected his own city. He was a member of the Kansas City Council two terins, in 1864 and 1865, and as such conceived and effected inany measures of marked benefit to the town in those days of its uncertain beginning. He was one of the organizers and promoters of the railroad that stretches between Olathe and Ottawa, Kansas. He was likewise a chief organizer and a member of the Board of Directors of the Kansas City, Galveston & Lake Superior Railway, now known as the Burlington, a road that was of inconceivable importance in the upward impulse it gave Kansas City and the section of country it traversed. As an officer of this road he did much to promote the construction of the bridge across the Missouri at Kansas City, an enterprise that was the virtual making of that city, and has been an active leader in scores of other enterprises having for their direct or incidental aim the glory and upbuilding of Kansas City. In fact, he may be considered one of the city's fathers; one of those indom- itable men who have created that civic wonder of the century-Kansas City.
Morally, Mr. Brown is a gentleman of the highest probity and most unimpeachable character. He is a higher type of the Christian gentleman, and an ardent worker in the cause of religion and humanity. His family were Baptists, but owing to the influences that surrounded him during his school days, his sympathies were directed toward the Presby- terian form of faith, and he became a member of that churchi. He is now one of the leaders of the people of that church in Kansas City, and his wife is also a prominent mem- ber of the same body.
His wife and helpmeet was, prior to her marriage to him, November 3, 1858, Miss Julia A. Shaffer, the daughter of William Shaffer, a prominent citizen of Blair County, Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have a most interesting family of six children, the survivors of a family of nine. Three of these six survivors are sons and three, daughters. Julia A., the eldest, is now the wife of Edward Shillito, an official of the Chicago, Mil- waukee & St. Paul Railway. Lulu K. married Joseph Curd, of Kansas City, while Sadie L., the youngest of the six, is a young lady still in the house of her parents. The eldest son, W. H., deserves a word more said of him than the others, because of his close relation to his father, being his law partner. Much also could be said of him on his own merits, as he is a young man of exceptional ability and promise. In fact, he is one of the rising young men of Kansas City, and those who know him are warranted in their belief that if he lives he will yet leave an impress on the affairs of his native city. In June, 1883, he graduated from the Missouri State University, at Columbia, and was admitted to prac- tice law in September, 1884. He is a Democrat in politics, and was recently a candidate of his party for the Legislature, and while he made a brilliant canvass, the odds were too great to overcome and he was defeated. He has also been prominently identified with secret society interests, and has taken all the degrees of both the York and Scottish Rites of Masonry, and has been the presiding officer of quite a number of the various Masonic bodies of Kansas City. Of the other sons, P. S., Jr., is in the insurance business in Kan- sas City. He is a Republican in politics, and has served for a term of two years in the
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Lower House of the Common Council of Kansas City. Upon the expiration of his first terin of office, he was elected for a terin of four years (ending in 1900) to the Upper House of the Common Council. His majorities at both elections were very large, showing in what estimation he is held by his fellow-citizens. He is a bright young man and endowed with the elements to succeed in any line. The other son, Ralph J., is a young practicing physician in Kansas City, having graduated in March, 1896, at the University Medical College, of Kansas City, as President of his class, and after taking a six months' post graduate course in New York and deriving practical experience at Bellevue Hospital, returned to Kansas City for permanent location in his profession, and promises to take prominent rank therein.
WILLIAM HARRINGTON BROWNLEE, BROOKFIELD.
D URING his forty years of residence in Linn County, Missouri, William Harrington Brownlee has attained a place in the bar of his section which has elevated him to a position as one of its representative lawyers. For this reason a brief review of his career is timely.
He was born at Princeton, Gibson County, Indiana, on January 8, 1832. His father, John Brownlee, belonged to the old Scotch family of that namne, and came to America in 1790. He first went to Kentucky and then emigrated to the Hoosier State and settled in Gibson County, becoming a merchant at Princeton. He married Jane Harrington, the mother of the subject of this sketch, she being a descendant of a noted English family who settled in Kentucky more than a century ago, and it was in that State their marriage took place.
The education of the present Mr. Brownlee, both scholastic and legal, was most thor- ough. After a course in the common schools of Princeton, he entered the Indiana State University, where lie graduated with high honors in 1855. He then studied law in his native town, in the office of Judge Embree, a member of Congress, and was admitted to the bar in 1856, at Princeton. After practicing in that town for a year lie moved to Mis- souri, locating in Linn County. This was in 1857, and during the forty-one years between then and now, he has practiced continuously in Linn and the adjoining counties, residing the greater portion of the time at Brookfield, which is his present home.
As Probate Judge of Linn County during the troublous days from 1861 to 1864, he was constrained to hold somewhat aloof from the warring factions, though for a time he held the military position of Orderly Sergeant of Enrolled Militia; but on the bench lie exhibited an ability and impartiality which gained for him the respect and admiration of both sides. The man who during those perilous times could, as magistrate, soldier and citizen, pursue liis course with equanimity and fearlessness, surely had an experience and displayed a char- acter of great judicial value and fitness. That is to say, Judge Brownlee to-day shows a mental breadthı and liberality which are the natural endowments of a man who has held a liigli public position throughout a sanguinary epochi.
At the close of the war hie practiced privately for a few years, but in 1867 he was in- duced to once more become a magistrate, on this occasion accepting the position of Judge of the Lin County Court of Common Pleas, which he held until 1871. This was a post requiring as much ability as he found necessary in his previous magistracy, though the
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ability was of a different order. He proved himself easily equal to the task, and thereby demonstrated that he was possessed of judicial versatility and adaptability of a high degree. Notwithstanding the efficiency and integrity he has displayed on the bench, it would be proper to state here that it is as a practitioner that he will be best remembered in the County of Linn, for his pleadings at the bar in that region have extended over such a long period and have been so uniformly characterized by profound conceptions of the law, that if he had never held a Judgeship he could still contemplate his professional career with a pardonable pride.
Although his chosen avocation has made him a busy man for forty years, Judge Brownlee has always found time to take a hand in public affairs for the betterment of the community. For ten years he has been a member of the School Board of Brookfield, and the good work done in the schools of the town during that time is a potent testimonial to his careful directorship. In 1893 he established the Brownlee Banking Company, which took the place of what had previously been a private banking concern owned by himself, and for ten years he was President of the Linn County Bank, both institutions proving financial successes to a remarkable degree. He was a Democrat up to the campaign of 1896, when the split occurred on the financial issue. He being favorable to a gold standard, was very active in that cause during the campaign above mentioned.
Mr. Brownlee has been married twice, his first wife having been Miss Margaret San- dusky, a Kentucky girl, to whom he was wedded in 1859, and by whom he has two living children, Richard Emma and Walter. These sons are now Cashier and Assistant Cashier, respectively, of the Brownlee Banking Company. Their mother died in 1868, and Mr. Brownlee inarried again in 1869, this time to Miss Estelle Dobson, daughter of A. P. Dob- son, a Virginian, and sister of Charles L. Dobson, the well known jurist of Kansas City. By this second union there is one child, a daughter named Gertrude, who is the pride and joy of the household.
GAVON D. BURGESS,
LINNEUS.
ASON County, Kentucky, has the honor of being the birthplace of Hon. Gavon D. M Burgess, Judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri. Born in 1833, he was admitted to the bar in 1854 in his native State. Very early in life he developed a fondness for polit- ical contest, and was elected to the Kentucky Legislature in 1858. In 1865, the war hav- closed, Judge Burgess came to Missouri, and in this, as in his native State, he soon became interested in politics. In 1868 lie was nominated by the Democrats of the old Sixtli Judicial Circuit for Circuit Judge, but as that was before the repeal of the Drake Constitu- tion, it was a forlorn hope from the first. In 1874 he was again a candidate for the same position in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit (formerly the Sixth), and was successful. His service of six years on the bench advised the people that they had chosen wisely and well. In 1880 he was selected for a second term, and was again elected as his own successor in 1886. In the meantime his fame as a jurist had been spreading, and accordingly, at the end of his third term he was by the Democratic party placed on its ticket and duly elected Supreme Judge of the State. In the campaigns of 1880, 1884 and 1888 he was a prominent candidate before the nominating convention, but was not successful until 1892.
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