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 63
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After his return to Vernon County, he was elected Circuit Attorney of the Twenty- eighth Judicial Circuit, holding that office until the system providing each county with a Prosecuting Attorney went into effect in January, 1873. In 1881 he took his seat on thic
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bench, having been elected Judge of the Twenty-fiftlı Judicial Circuit. In 1894 he was made the standard bearer of the Republican party in the Fifteenth Congressional District, was duly elected and served in the Fifty-fourth Congress, being considered one of the ablest men in the Missouri delegation. His term expired March 4, 1897. As he is considered a man of the highest capacity and is a favorite with Republicans throughout the State, it may fairly be assumed that he will receive a share of whatever honors his party may have to distribute in future.
Judge Burton is a member of several orders, societies, etc. His name is on the roster of Gen. Joe Bailey Post, G. A. R., and he is known as a Mason of high degree, having been Master of Osage Lodge, No. 303; High Priest of Nevada Royal Arch Chapter, No. 56; Eminent Commander of O'Sullivan Commandery, Knights Templar, and a member of Ara- rat Shrine of Kansas City.
As a lawyer Judge Burton occupies a commanding position in that part of the State where he is best known. As a Judge he discharged his duties in a manner which illustrated his exhaustive legal knowledge and showed his fine innate sense of equity and justice. He unquestionably stands in the front rank of his profession in the State. Since his location in Vernon County he has been a member, at different times, of the firmns of Kimball & Burton, Jackson & Burton and Burton & Wight.
Judge Burton was married January 1, 1874, to Alice A., daughter of Dr. Alexander and Catherine A. Rogers, of Clinton, Missouri.
JOHN POLLOCK BUTLER,
MILAN.
JOHN POLLOCK BUTLER was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, October 13, 1846. When he was nine years old the family removed to Lawrence County, in the same State, settling near Newcastle. His father, George Butler, is still living, at the age of eighty years, near Green City, Sullivan County, Missouri. His mother, whose maiden name was Mary Ann Mccullough, was a daughter of Jolin Mccullough, a Scotch-Irish- man from the County Antrim, Ireland. He emigrated to America at an early day in this century. Benjamin Butler, the great grandfather of the subject of this sketcli, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, serving throughout on the patriot side. He married Miss Sarah Davis, a lady of Welsh parentage. He sold his farm, on the outskirts of Philadelphia, but was paid in Continental money, which, being repudiated, embarrassed him financially, and to mend his fortunes he moved to a point on the Juniata River, in what is now Hunting- ton County, Pennsylvania. Here Abia, the grandfather of Jolin Pollock Butler, was born, the youngest child of a large family. After battling in the War of 1812, while a youth of eighteen, Abia married Jane Bell, the eldest child of this marriage being George Butler, born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, July 20, 1818. He is the fatlier of the subject of this memoir.
John Pollock Butler was educated in the common schools of Lawrence County, Penn- sylvania, and while yet a youth taught two terms in these same schools. He also studied at the Iron City Commercial College, in Pittsburg, and was admitted to practice at Milan, Sullivan County, Missouri, in March, 1867, before he was of age, and was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Missouri, at St. Joseph, at the August termi, 1870. In 1876
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he was enrolled as a member of the bar of the United States Circuit and District Courts, at Jefferson City, Missouri. He was enrolled as a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court, at the October term, 1880. For twelve years he has been the General Attorney of the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City Railway Company, and for nearly fifteen ycars attorney for the First National Bank of Milan, Missouri.
Mr. Butler came to Sullivan County, August 6, 1865, from Lawrence County, Penn- sylvania, and located in Milan, where he has resided ever since. He has been engaged in so many prominent law cases, with constant success, that to enumerate a few of them would be his highest eulogy. In the case of Elijah Smith versus Warren Mccullough, involving $40,000 of Sullivan County bonds, which had been subscribed by the county to the St. Joseph & Iowa Railroad Company, the decision of the United States Supreme Court, at the October term, 1880, was in favor of Mccullough, et al., represented by Mr. Butler. Another was the case of D. H. Crumpacker versus the Chicago, Burlington & Kansas City Railroad Company, and the case of John F. Guffy versus the same defendant. These two cases were heard as one in the State Supreme Court, the Crumpacker case being reversed and the Guffy case affirmed. An appeal was taken in the Guffy case, and the United States Supreme Court sustained the decision of the lower tribunal, which was a decisive victory for Mr. Butler. The chief import of these decisions is that certain rail- roads in Missouri which had been claiming exemption from taxation under special charters, werc made taxpayers and have paid taxes ever since. Here is a notable quotation from Mr. Butler's brief: "The power of taxation is one of those attributes of sovereignty which, under our system of government, is absolutely necessary for the maintenance of the general welfare, and its surrender beyond the legislative power." In a recent noted case in the Supreme Court of Missouri, that court, in the proceeding then pending, declared that it had jurisdiction by reason of its "inherent power," aside from the constitution and the law. His bold, fearless and aggressive naturc may well be determined from the char- acter of his reply to this assertion of inherent power, which was that "inherent power lodged elsewhere than in the people, is the instrument by which liberty is denied, and self- goverment destroyed."
Next to the pride he naturally takes in his legal success, he is famed among his friends in Sullivan County and elsewhere as being the possessor of the largest, most complete and choicest private law library in the State.
During the war he was a volunteer from Pennsylvania, enlisting on July 1, 1864, in Company D, One Hundred and Ninety-second Infantry. Re-enlisting, he became a non- commissioned officer of Company I, of the Sixty-seventh Pennsylvania Infantry Volunteers, being discharged honorably in July, 1865. His political record is not an extensive onc, for the reason that he prefers law to politics. Still his fellow-citizens saw fit to make him Elector from the Second Missouri District in the Presidential election of 1888, when Har- rison defeated Cleveland. He is a Mason, being a member of Seaman Lodge, No. 126; Milan Royal Arch Chapter, of Milan, and of St. Bernard Commandery, Knights Templar, of Milan. He is also a member of Milan Lodge, No. 83, I. O. O. F.
He was first married on November 4, 1866, his wife being Maggie Morrison, youngest daughter of R. D. Morrison. Three children were the offspring of their union, two daughters and one son, the son dying in infancy. Mrs. Butler died November 6, 1873, and on November 7, 1874, he married again, his second wife being Delia B. Payne, by whom he has no children. Georgia, the eldest daughter of the first marriage, is the wife
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of John N. Shepler, they having two sons. Louise, her sister, married D. H. Sholtus, Esq., their children being three sons. Mr. Butler's grandchildren are: Fred Butler Shep- ler, John George Shepler, John McKinley Sholtus, Edward Turner Sholtus and Robert Leon Sholtus.
MYERS DOWNEY CAMPBELL,
KIRKSVILLE.
NE of the promising young lawyers in the State is Myers Downey Campbell, of Kirksville, who was born on a farm in Putnam County, Missouri, November 19, 1869. His father, Melton Campbell, was born near Springfield, Ohio, in 1831, and when a young man came to Fairfield, Iowa, where he met and married Rebecca Downey, the mother of our subject, who was born in Kentucky in 1837, and came of excellent Blue Grass stock. Her family was of Irishi derivation, caine to this country about the close of the Revolution- ary War and settled in Virginia. From Virginia her father emigrated to Kentucky. On the paternal side Mr. Campbell is of Scotch ancestry. His grandfather in this branch was born in Virginia, his parents having emigrated from Scotland. All of Myers D. Campbell's American ancestors were pioneer patriots, and those who lived in that time served faith- fully in the Revolutionary War. They were sturdy, brave, upright, honest and religious, and were of that splendid race which, coming from Ireland and Scotland to America, has from Kentucky and Virginia given Missouri so many of the strong and noble men of all professions, but especially to her bench and bar.
Soon after their marriage, Mr. Campbell's parents removed from Fairfield, Iowa, to Putnam County, Missouri, where the son was born. The latter was educated in the pub- lic schools of Putnam County, and when he had completed his studies there, he entered the Missouri State Normal at Kirksville. When he had completed the course at the Nor- mal, he at once took up the study of law, in the office of Judge Andrew Ellison, than whom a better instructor could not have been found. On completing his studies he was admitted to the bar, at Lancaster, Missouri, by Judge Andrew Ellison, his preceptor, May 14, 1889. He at once opened an office at Kirksville and began practice, and has won a inost satisfactory degree of success, considering the short time he has followed his profes- sion. During the earlier years he occupied an office alone, but he recently formed a part- nership with W. D. Goode, and that agreement is still operative, under the firm style of Campbell & Goode.
In the year following his admission, Mr. Campbell's first official honor came, in the form of an election to the City Attorneyship of Kirksville. In1 1892 he was elected Prose- cuting Attorney of Adair County, an event that signally testified to the high esteem in which he is lield, as when he was elected the county was Republican by several hundred majority, and Mr. Campbell is of opposite political faith. Mr. Campbell is at the present time attorney for the First International Bank, of Kirksville, of Dr. A. T. Still's Infirm- ary and American School of Osteopathy, and is interested in and a director of the Campbell Banking Company, at Xenia, Missouri. He is a member of the Odd Fellows' Society and of the Knights of Pythias, and has held about all the offices in the Kirksville lodge of tlie former order.
Mr. Campbell was married September 12, 1894, to Miss Edith E., daughter of J. N. McClanahan, of Corydon, Iowa. They have one child, a boy named John M., aged two years.
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Mr. Campbell is of sparc figure, nervous temperament and with a face that is impres- sive and interesting. The most strenuous effort in liis profession is no labor to hin1. He is never so happy as wlien trying a case, and the more difficult the problems to be solved, the more ardent the opposition, the more it serves to rouse within him the instinct of com- bat. He concentrates his mental energy thereon and conducts the case as though his own vital interests were at stake. Judge Ellison, who has opportunity to know him well, holds lıim in highest esteem, and believes he is one of the rising lawyers of the State bar. He is endowed with the legal faculty of mind in an eminent degree, and although he is one of the youngest lawyers on that circuit, his talents have won the respect of all liis professional brethren. He is very popular, and is held in affectionate regard for his inany excellent personal traits no less than he is admired for his ability as a lawyer.
JOHN HAYDOCK CARROLL,
UNIONVILLE.
T THERE is one phrase in Americanlzed English that is much over-worked. "A self- made man " is an expression that is all too common and has become by its too gen- eral application all but meaningless.
There is every reason, however, to apply it in its fullest sense to Col. John Carroll, of Unionville, Missouri, for years a political leader in his own county, district and State, a lawyer of prominence, aside from his distinctly important connection as the General Attor- ney of the great Burlington system. To make it distinctly clear that Colonel Carroll owes nothing to any inan, it is necessary to say that he was left absolutely alone in the world at the age of five years. He was not only alone, but unknown, because of a strange combina- tion of fateful circumstances that may be described in a few sentences. Michael Carroll, his father, had shouldered a gun and started for the South in the troublous days of 1861. Early in the conflict he fell. Margaret Carroll, his wife, with her son, set out for the front. At Cincinnati the mother was overcome by heat, leaving hier helpless child entirely alone and unidentified in a strange city. That was Col. John Carroll's start in life. For years lie did not know the whereabouts of his own brother, who, while the two were yet merc babics, had been separated. Later he found this brother. Meanwhile Colonel Carroll worked by day and studied by night, the two combining to strengthen his body and mind for an important career that is now full upon him.
Going back to the beginning, Jolin Haydock Carroll was born in Erie County, New York, June 27, 1857. His parents shortly afterwards moved to Toledo, from which place thic tragic incident of John Carroll's early life had its inception. It was in 1864 that the Carroll orphan went into the Children's Home of Cincinnati. He was the first boy inmate of that institution. There lie lived until 1866 when, with a car load of youngsters, lie was sent out into the State. This particular boy was placed on the farm of Jolin Kester, a Quaker farmer of Martinville, Ohio. For three years he lived with Kester, being transfer- red at the end of that time to Thomas E. Hadley, another agriculturist. The Hadley farin was in Highland County, Ohio. There he lived until 1877, working hard upon the farin through all of the open weather months and going to the country school through the winter period. Later, now fully determined to become a lawyer, he taught in the neighborhood schools.
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It was along toward the end of the 'seventies that Colonel Carroll determined to look to the West for his future. All of his youth had been spent in Ohio and he felt that a broader and newer field should be open to him. After pondering the map and the railroad folders, he decided to try Missouri. He had located his brother, but there was no other relative, so far as he knew, in all the world. Friends were not many. So, unaided and with nothing but his resolution and inborn courage to support him in the undertaking, he set out across the States of Indiana and Illinois to become a resident of the State of Mis- souri. He reached the thrifty town of Linneus in January, 1881. Two months later he concluded to go further north, settling it Putnam County, where, upon the month of his arrival, he was admitted to the bar at Unionville. In this connection it is interesting to note that Colonel Carroll, then plain Mr. Carroll, had been admitted to the bar at Cincin- nati in the previous December. Let us see how quickly this sturdy Ohioan jumped into public activities in his new home. In 1882 he became the local attorney of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. The same year he was a delegate to the Democratic State Convention. In 1883 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Putnamı County. In that capacity, he amply demonstrated his ability to hold an office of public trust. He continued in the position until 1885. Again, in 1887, he was appointed to the same place by Gov- ernor Morehouse, continuing to hold the office until 1889.
Colonel Carroll at once attained prominence in State politics. He was chosen a mem- ber of the State Committee in 1886, retaining the place for ten years. In 1896 he was again elected, but this time, owing to a pressure of important private duties that had grown upon himn, he felt compelled to decline. He was in 1888 a delegate to the National Demo- cratic Convention at St. Louis, which renominated Grover Cleveland. In 1892 he was alternate at large. Colonel Carroll has been a delegate to every Democratic State Conven- tion, save one, since his arrival in Missouri. He received his title of Colonel from Gov- ernor Francis, on whose staff he served for a period of four years.
It was in 1890 that Colonel Carroll was appointed General Attorney for the great Blir- lington railroad system, a position which he has held since that time with great credit to himself and satisfaction to the property whose interests he represents.
Visitors to Unionville, a thrifty town in Putnam County, almost central in its location, on the eastern system of the Burlington route, bring out the information that there is no home among the many beautiful homes in North Missouri that surpasses that of Colonel Carroll for extent, completeness and comforts. Broad acres surround the modern house, inade of Milwaukee buff brick, and all of the devices that make end-of-the-century-living an improvement over that of the "good old days" are present. Before Colonel Carroll ventured into the West, he chose a helpmeet, Miss Priscilla Woodrow, a Lynchburg, Ohio, girl, whom he married in December, 1880. Two children, Frances, born in 1886, and John H. Carroll, Jr., born in 1891, have brought new sunshine into the Carroll home.
This tells, in a brief way, the true story of the real self-made man. We frequently hear of the individual who has risen to eminence and grown in the esteem of his fellows and sometimes we speak of him flatteringly as being self-made; but the tenderness of the inother love, the watchful interests of a father through troublous youth are in most cases
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present, even where the purse is not. Things were different, as you already know, with Colonel Carroll. He struggled, even in his infancy, against the world. His battles were fought unaided. The credit that now comes to him is his own. He has a right to feel a pride in what he lias achieved, whether he does or not. His friends who have come to know, admire and trust in him in the past fifteen years feel that they, too, have a right to feel a pride in all that he has done.
St. Louis, Mo., February, 1898.
HOMER BASSFORD.
WILLIAM CHRISMAN,
INDEPENDENCE.
A N eminent example of a noble life, successful, complete and full in duty to others and to self, was that of William Chrisinan, who, having passed the years of man's allot- ment, now rests from his labor, remembered with respect and honor by those who know how thoroughly his life-work was done. To few comes the attainment of such a green old age as his. Surrounded by children and friends, the satisfaction possible of every material want, and with the vista of just and righteous life as a retrospective solace, he passed the last days of his life and went to his reward in January, 1897.
The name Chrisman is of Gerinan origin, but it was planted in this country long before the Colonies won the right to be known as States. The immigrant Chrismans cast their fortunes with the Cavaliers, and thus it is that the subject of this biography traces his origin back to one of the older Virginia families. Abraham Chrisinan, the paternal grand- father of our subject, was a native of that State, as was also his son Joseph, born in October, 1800. The family emigrated to Kentucky in a few years thereafter, and settled in Fayette County. There Joseph married Eleanor Soper, a daughter of an old Maryland family which settled in Fayette County shortly prior to the arrival of the Chrismans. Joseph moved to Missouri, locating on a farm near Liberty, in Clay County, where he and his wife passed their remaining days. Of this marriage there were four children, John and Joseph (both of whom are dead), Amanda, the wife of Dr. Bem. Witchell, of Clay County, and William, the subject of this sketch.
William Chrisman was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, the twenty-third day of November, 1822. He attended a private school in early boyliood, later Georgetown Col- lege, and finished his education at Center College, the leading institution of learning of that State at that time. He graduated in 1846, with the degrees of A. M. and A. B., studied law at Danville in that State, and was admitted to the bar in 1847. He married Miss Lucy A. Lee, daughter of George Lee, of Danville, May 10, 1848. On that day they started for Missouri, and completing their journey, located at Independence, Jackson County. The marriage was a most happy one, and to the wife's good judgment and con- stant assistance the husband always attributed much of his success in life. She died in February, 1889. The large and comfortable Chrismau mansion in Independence was destroyed by fire in 1887. Owing to this loss aud a paralytic stroke received in 1888, and the loss of his wife a year subsequently, to whom he was a devoted husband, Mr. Chris- man retired to his farm near Lee's Summit, and amidst these agreeable surroundings he passed the evening of his life, contented to rest on liis lionors.
Mehrismano
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Mr. Chrisman was engaged in the active practice of the law from 1849 to 1871, in Jackson and adjoining counties. From time to time he was associated with Abram Com- ingo, Samuel H. Woodson, Russell Hicks, and in the latter period of his active practice, with Samuel L. Sawyer. Mr. Chrisman always had a large clientage and a lucrative practice. He would not urge upon a court a proposition of law in which he had no con- fidence or accept a retainer in the prosecution of a vexatious or frivolous case. His appearance in a litigated case was a guarantee to Judge and jurors that he believed there were merits in his client's cause; hence it was that no man stood higher in the estimation of Judge and juror. He possessed a thorough knowledge of the English Common and Statute laws, adopted in this State long prior to his arrival. This knowledge and an accu- rate judgment enabled him to determine with ease whether a new statute was simply declaratory of, or operated as a modification of common law rules on the same subject. These attaininents were supported and aided by a practical, cominon sense business judg- ment, too often wanting in the legal profession. He possessed the power of discrimina- ting between material and immaterial matters that usually surround a litigated case, to a wonderful degree, and of keeping the real issue, whether of law or fact, in the foreground of the contest. His arguments to court or jury were usually short, seldom exceeding one hour, and in the majority of cases, not exceeding thirty minutes. Though his arguments were of short duration, they were always to the point, stated so clearly as to render rep- etition useless, and he left nothing unsaid of value to his client. The young members of the bar of Jackson County had no better friend; for he was always ready to give them the result of his better judgment without compensation.
Thoughi a Democrat in a Democratic State, he did not seek or care for political pre- ferment. He saw inuch in the pursuit of official position not inviting or tasteful to him. He was, however, ever ready to aid in governmental affairs, State, county and city, and as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1875, rendered the State valuable services. His judgment and advice had much to do in shaping public enterprises in Jackson County, with many of which he was identified. A man with whom he was associated in several important enterprises made to the writer this observation: "William Chrisman ought to be Secretary of the Treasury of the United States."
Mr. Chrisman gradually drifted into business enterprises. In 1857 he assisted in the organization of the Independence Savings Institution, and continued his connection there- with through its various changes. It is now the Chrisman-Sawyer Banking Company, and he was its President at the time of his death. He was a charter inember and director of the First National Bank of Independence, and a stockholder of the National Bank of Commerce, and the Midland National Bank, of Kansas City. He was the leading spirit in organizing the Ladies' College at Independence, and furnished most of the capital to build and put that institution in operation. In short, his name stands associated with many, and indeed, most of the enterprises that have contributed to the public good in Jackson County, Kansas City and Independence. He died leaving a large and valuable unincumbered landed estate.
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