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 64
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Mr. Chrisman's parents were both members of the Baptist Church. He was a devoted and consistent member of the First Presbyterian Church at Independence, was an Elder in that denomination for thirty years, and contributed largely in building the new, neat and commodious church edifice at that place. It has been said of him by his pastor that he
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could always be found in his seat at church services, no matter how inclement the weather ıniglit be.
He left two children, George Lee, now one of the Judges of the County Court of Jackson County, and Maggie, wife of Mr. Logan O. Swope, of Independence, Missouri. One other child, a son, James, preceded him across the dark river. He was attending school at Fulton, Missouri, when the summons came. He was nineteen years old at the time of his death, and in every way a noble and promising boy.
CLARK CRAYCROFT, JOPLIN.
M AJOR CRAYCROFT was born May 27, 1847, in Montgomery County, Maryland. His American ancestors were all planters from the days of the Revolution. He is the son of John Prathier and Minerva Jane (Price) Craycroft. From them the Major inherits the gentility and hospitality of the old time Southerner. The Craycrofts were originally English and Scotch, and came to America before the days of Washington. The Prices were a Scotch family. Six of them were soldiers in the War of 1812.
Major Craycroft graduated from the Missouri University and was a member of the class of 1871. He studied law with W. H. Brownlee, of Brookfield, and was admitted to the bar in 1874, removing to St. Louis the same year, where he remained until 1875. He then located in the city of Joplin, where he has ever since resided following his profession as a lawyer.
Major Craycroft is a conspicuous demonstrator of the old aphorism that "blood will tell." His parents (and their parents before thein), had all the robust rectitude and indom- itable energy of early American times. The Major not only inherits these noble qualities but exhibits them all the more strongly as his years increase. He owes his success and popularity, legal, social and personal, to his inward grace and outward vigor.
For enterprise and public spirit the people of Joplin are deeply in debt to Major Cray- croft. Witli J. B. Sergeant he divides the honor of having built the first street railway in the town. The Major was also a main instrument in obtaining for Joplin its first electric light plant. He is a believer in the State Militia and has done mnuch to foster and support an effective organization of State troops. He was Captain of Company A, University Cadets, in 1871, was afterwards Captain of the Joplin Rifles, which lic aided in organizing, and was Captain of Company B, Fifth Regiment, N. G. M. He subsequently became Major of this regiment.
Major Craycroft is a Mason and has been one for twenty-four years. He has hield the positions of Master of Fellowship Lodge, No. 345, of Joplin; High Priest of Joplin Royal Archi Chapter; Commander of Jasper Commandery, No. 19, and Commander of Ascension Com- mandery, No. 39. In politics he is a silver Democrat of the stalwart school, being quite active in county and Congressional politics.
May 1, 1882, lic married Alma Sergeant, daughter of John B. Sergeant, one of Joplin's most respected citizens. Mrs. Craycroft, who was educated at Monticello, is a refined lady of exquisite literary tastes. Her essay on "Legal and Equitable Rights of Woman," read at the National Chantanquan Assembly, at Carthage, in July, 1897, was universally admitted to be a masterpiece. Both Major and Mrs. Craycroft are great lovers of books and flowers
Clark Prayerfor
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and in this direction they have fully gratified their taste. Their home, though not preten- tious, is provided with a library of choice books, surrounded with clambering vines and embowered in roses, where life's current runs smoothly to the great hereafter to which we are all tending.
JOHN COSGROVE,
BOONVILLE.
JOHN COSGROVE is sprung from Irish stock, with a slight mixture of French blood, ) which arose through a residence of his mother's family in France for about two generations, following the year 1690. His parents were married in Jefferson County, New York, and lived and died there; his father having died in November, 1879, and his mother in May, 1892. Nine children were born to their union, five sons and four daughters. John was the fourth child and second son. He was born on a farmi in Jefferson County, New York, September 12, 1839.
In his early boyhood he attended the public schools of his native county, and later received instruction at the Redwood High School, in Jefferson County. In 1859 he and four of his young friends becaine possessed with the idea that they could acquire wealth in Colorado, and fell victims to what was then called "Pike's Peak Fever." In Feb- ruary, 1859, young Cosgrove and his four boy friends came to St. Louis and traveled up the Missouri River by steamer to Leavenworth, Kansas. There they purchased an "out- fit," which consisted of a hand-cart, a tent, cooking utensils, etc., and started for the mountains. Three of the party grew disheartened when about three days out from Leavenworth and refused to go on, but Cosgrove and one of his companions-James H. Helmer-took what they could carry and continued their journey to Pike's Peak. Upon their arrival there they were disappointed, and after a few weeks' stay in the mountains about Denver, they felt convinced that fortunes could not be acquired rapidly and started back East. The possibilities of the West, and especially of the magnificent basin of the Missouri River, inade a deep impression upon Mr. Cosgrove's mind. Upon his return to Jefferson County, New York, he re-entered school in the fall, and taught during the winter months of 1859, 1860 and 1861, and in May, of 1861, as a law student, entered the law office of Messrs. Hubbard & Lansing, at Watertown, New York, where he remained until November 2, 1865.
Although lie had made a fairly good beginning at his old home, the reports that came from the West of boundless possibilities again stirred his ambition, and in 1865 he reached the conclusion, towards which he had been tending for years, to test again, but in another vocation, the opportunities of the West. Accordingly, in November of 1865, he camne to St. Louis, but having been reared in the country, he found the metropolis distasteful and pushed westward to Boonville, where he established himself as a lawyer and has since prac- ticed continuously.
Like most lawyers who have succeeded, he passed through that professional school of experience-the office of Prosecuting Attorney. To this position he was elected in 1872. He has also served as City Attorney for Boonville a number of terms. In 1882 he was inade the nominee of the Democracy for Congress in the old Sixth District and was elected, and became one of the industrious and influential members of the Missouri delegation. He was always vigilant and active in behalf of his constituents, and impressed his colleagues of tlie
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House as a man of ability and wholesome qualities. Mr. Cosgrove is not a politician, but strives rather to be known because of his accomplishments in the law. His election to Congress is the only office he has ever accepted outside of the exact line of his pro- fession.
His attachment to the law, however, has not stifled his spirit of patriotism and enthusi- astic interest in public affairs, and to a marked degree have those circumstances and events which closely affect his own town appealed to his attention and sympathy. He has left the impress of his enterprise deeply on the development of Boonville, and has contributed a great share to her present material wealth and prosperity. At the present time he is one of tlie Directors of the Commercial Bank (Boonville), its attorney, and also attorney for the Farmers' Bank, of Boonville; he is a director and the attorney and Treasurer of the Inter- state Mining Company ; also a director, the attorney and Treasurer of the Boonville Water Company ; was one of the organizers and for several years attorney for the Boonville Electric Light & Power Company. In fact, every measure calculated to advance the interest of his town has always found in him a helpful and ready supporter. Mr. Cosgrove belongs to but one secret society -the Odd Fellows. Politically his principles are thoroughly Dein- ocratic; he has always been a Democrat, and hopes and believes that he will die in the faith.
Mr. Cosgrove married Miss Georgia Augusta Bliss, a daughter of Lyman G. Bliss, of Brattleboro, Vermont, and the scion of an old Colonial family. The marriage was cele- brated in Brattleboro, November 18, 1873. Mr. and Mrs. Cosgrove have three children living, named respectively James Warder, Gertrude and Daniel Watson.
Speaking of Mr. Cosgrove as a lawyer, it may be said that his practice has, like that of most lawyers in rural localities, been a general one. In addition to his strength and ability as a general practitioner, he exhibits an influence with juries, and his power is great in appealing to sympathy, passion and prejudice. Being a man of singularly magnetic temperament, high-strung and positive, herein may be found the causes of his potency as a jury lawyer. This quality he has exemplified many times in the defense of crim- inal cases, and in civil proceedings where the defense of the weak against the strong has furnished him occasion to play upon the emotions of the tryers of the fact. His fervid eloquence has been heard in most of the courthouses in Central Missouri, which region lias been his theater of action. In professional and other business, as in all of the affairs of life, he is a man of the most exact rectitude, scrupulous of the rights of others and firmly contending for his own. No lawyer in Missouri has in a greater degree the confidence of his fellow lawyers in all matters of professional ethics than John Cosgrove, and he has been notably thic patron of his younger friends of the bar, and has cudeared himself to many of them by acts of unvarying kindness and generosity.
LEONIDAS P. CUNNINGHAM, JOPLIN. A MONG that cncrgetic, pushing, resourceful class of Americans who have developed and brought to its present high stage of civilization that nature-blessed section of the carth, Southwest Missouri, Leonidas P. Cunningham, usually known as "Lon " Cunning- ham, of Joplin, must be rated as one of the most active and public spirited. While in every measure contemplating the welfare of his community he has been conspicuous, it is
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as a lawyer that he is best known. That is his profession, and he has never permitted other and outer circumstances to deflect him from or vitally interfere with his practice. In this field he is noted for the perspicuity of his legal perceptions, and his habit of going to the bottomn facts of all cases in which he is interested. He has always been a student of the law, and to the fact that he early realized that this science was of such breadth and depth it could never be exhausted, and that the study of a lifetime could but partly inaster its great lesson, may be attributed the fact of his thorough knowledge thereof.
Mr. Cunningham is a native of Virginia (now West Virginia), and was born at Wlieeling, January 15, 1845. His father was John P. Cunningham, and his mother's maiden name Elizabeth McCune. His family emigrated westward while he was yet a boy and thus his education was chiefly secured in Middleport, Illinois, in which town he spent his youth. There also he began the study of law, after family councils had determined that he was best fitted to that profession, a conclusion that well suited his own ambitions. While he was still pursuing his studies in that branchi, he removed from Middleport to Rockport, Missouri, and there his studies were pursued to a conclusion. He was admitted to the bar at Platte City, Missouri, the date of this event being December 8, 1864.
He returned to his home at Rockport and at once opened an office for practice. But after two years spent there, he became satisfied he could do better elsewhere. The great influx of population was just beginning in Southwest Missouri. The young lawyer had heard of the natural resources of the country and was struck by its possibilities of devel- opment. He accordingly located in Carthage on the 7th day of August, 1866, later re- moved to the neighboring town of Joplin and has resided there to this present day. Offices have been maintained by him, both in Kansas City and St. Louis, at different times, but this arrangement was only temporary and entered into solely for business reasons.
Some idea of Mr. Cunningham's civic enterprise and standing as a business man may be conveyed in the statement that he was one of the inost active promoters of the Memphis, Carthage & Northwestern Railroad, which was a great factor in advancing the material interests of Jasper County. Mr. Cunningham was President of the company during the four years in which the road was built. The line was afterward sold to the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway and is now a part of its California line.
Mr. Cunningham's wife was Lucy Hood, of Carthage, a daughter of Norris C. Hood, an old and honored citizen of Jasper County. The marriage was consummated at Carthage, June 23, 1867. Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham are the parents of three charming daughters: Irene is the wife of Horace B. Martin, of Carthage; May is the wife of Thomas J. Franks, an official of the Frisco road, now resident of Wichita, Kansas; while Miss Helen Bird yet lives at home, and is a teacher in the Carthage schools.
JAMES McKAY DAVIS,
CHILLICOTHE.
UDGE JAMES MCKAY DAVIS was born in Clarke County, Illinois, on September 25, J 1838, and is now one of the leading lawyers of Livingston County, Missouri, located at Chillicothe. Alexander Davis, his father, was wedded to Priscilla Mckay, his mother, in the early days of the century when all who settled in the West were pioneers. The father was a native of Kentucky, removing from that State to Illinois and from there to Missouri.
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The original Davises were of Welsh extraction, and landed on these shores previous to Revolutionary times, settling in Virginia, and finally, in 1795, four years before the death of General Washington, moving to Kentucky. These Davises were that ancestral branch of the family along which James McKay Davis traces his descent. The Mckays were Scotch, and came to America before the settlement of Frederickstown, Maryland, locating later at Maysville, Kentucky.
The common schools of Missouri laid the foundation for the liberal education which Judge Davis enjoys to-day, he being to a large extent self-educated. He studied law in the office of Luther T. Collier, now one of the leading lawyers of Kansas City. He was admitted to the bar at Carrollton, Missouri, in March, 1860, by Judge G. W. Dunn. In the year of lis admission he returned to Chillicothe and began the practice of law, and has remained a resident and leading lawyer of the town ever since.
Judge Davis has played a leading part in both the civic and legal affairs of his sec- tion. In the term extending from 1872 into 1873 he was a member of the County Court of Livingston, gaining a reputation for judicial acumen which has been to his profit ever since. From 1874 to 1878 he was City Attorney of Utica, and at the expiration of his services in this office he became (from 1878 to 1880) Prosecuting Attorney of Livingstone County. His election to the Judgeship of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, in 1880, was a signal tribute to his ability in the field of jurisprudence, and his re-election to the same position in 1886, after a term of six years, was a decided expression of popular apprecia- tion of duty well and ably done. In 1891, to more closely attend to his increasing private practice, lie resigned from the office of Circuit Judge, and has since devoted himself with miore exclusiveness and fidelity to his regular professional duties.
In the organization of the First National Bank of Chillicothe, Judge Davis had an active part. This was in 1887, he being made its first President and still holding that office. Other banks organized in the county during the past twenty-five years have had the intelligent aid of Judge Davis in their foundational period.
Politically he would term himself a "consistent Republican, " holding the rather unique view that all true Republicans are necessarily advocates of free silver. However much his neighbors may or may not differ with him on this point of public policy, he has logic to back up his convictions which is both eloquent and entertaining.
The marriage of Judge Davis occurred on October 18, 1863, at Watello, Iowa, his wife being Miss Servilla Mckay, of the same town, daugliter of James McKay, a leading citizen of that section. Three living children crown this union. They are: Archibald Burdell, a lawyer, in partnership with his father, and William Mullanphy, also a lawyer and partner, the firm's name being J. M. Davis & Sons. The other child is a daughter, Annie by name, who is both handsome and accomplished. The sons both enjoyed the advantage of a thor- ough education at Avalon College.
SAMUEL DAVIS, MARSHALL.
PERHAPS no lawyer enjoys the confidence of that liiglily civilized section of the co111-
monwealth of which Saline County is the center, to a greater extent than the one whose name appears above. He was born in Saline County, and has there spent his entire life, and if those who have been in daily contact with him for a half century do not know
SamuelDavis
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him, who should? And that a man stands well with his neighbors who have known him so long, and that he has grown constantly in their respect and good will, as has Mr. Davis, is a testimonial than which absolutely no other is more truthful or valuable. Mr. Davis comes of the mixed Kentuckian-Virginian stock, which has given Central Missouri a people whose hospitality, moral strength, intellectual virility and manifold virtues make of thein peculi- arly, the highest type of the independent American and the farthest advanced in physi- cal, mental and moral development. His father, Jesse Davis, was a native of the Old Dominion ; his mother, who prior to her marriage was Lavina Jarboe, was born in Ken- tucky. They were married at Marshall, in Saline County, and there their son, the sub- ject of this sketch, was born, April 17, 1847. His youth was spent on his father's farin, where habits of industry and thrift were inculcated and where he learned the earliest lessons of the duties he owed himself and others. He attended the comnon schools during the fall and winter sessions, and completed his education at Boonville, where he attended the Kemper School.
He took up the study of law shortly after finishing his studies at the Boonville institu- tion. Judge John P. Strother of Marshall offered hiin the use of his library and office, and the young aspirant accepted the proffer. He finished his reading in the summer of 1869, and in August was duly licensed as an attorney by the Circuit Court at Marshall. Unlike many young beginners in the practice of law and medicine, he did not seek a foreign loca- tion on the theory that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country, " but resolved to establish himself in the midst of the people among whom he was born and reared. That his decision was a wise one the success he has attained proves. There has scarcely been a case of importance tried at Marshall within the past twenty years in which he has not appeared as counsel or advocate. The people of Saline County early recog- nized his ability and have confidence in his legal learning and accomplishments as a lawyer, and as a consequence he is to-day one of the busiest and most successful law- yers of the thriving and progressive Central Missouri city.
The people of his native county have honored him publicly as well as privately. In 1872 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Saline County, and served as such two terms, retiring from office in December, 1876. On the expiration of his term as public prose- cutor, in 1876, he was elected to represent his county in the Twenty-ninth General Assem- bly, and again elected to the Thirtieth General Assembly in 1878, his term ending in 1880. He was Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and as a legislator he was always active in the people's behalf, and was one of the brilliant and forceful speakers of that body. Notwithstanding that he displayed statesmanlike qualities of a high order, it was through the law that he believed his talents could find their most forcible and effective expression, and therefore at the end of the period for which he was elected he retired to private practice, and has since followed his professsion energetically and uninterruptedly. He is a Democrat in politics and is an enthusiastic supporter of that party's principles and policies.
Mr. Davis is a man of very careful and methodical habits and conservative disposition. He is very earnest in manner, but there is that saving grace of humor in his composition, which has not been the least element of strength in the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon blood. The keen appreciation of the ridiculous or humorous has given the character of the people of such derivation a balance and stay which has checked the disposition to merge from the
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sensible into the extravagant. Mr. Davis is a man of fine appearance and a gravity of demeanor, which with his other qualities, would well fit him for a judicial position.
Mr. Davis was married November 19, 1872, to Miss Julia S. Newton, who is a native of Kentucky, but resided in Marshall at the time of the marriage.
OLIVER HAYES DEAN, KANSAS CITY.
A LAWYER held in the highest esteem in Missouri, and who by sterling merit has demonstrated his title to the place lie occupies, is Oliver Hayes Dean. His acknowl- edged ability, supplemented by untiring industry, has justly secured for him a lucrative practice. A trained lawyer, lie is yet a man of large business experience. He has had a wide and diversified practice, and for the past few years has given special attention to cor- poration litigation; iu that important branch of the law he is an acknowledged authority. His reputation as a scholar and a lawyer are such that two law schools, one of them of the highest grade in the country, liave tendered him professorships. Tempting as these offers were they were declined, Mr. Dean preferring to continue in the active practice of his profession.
Although declining a professorship that would take him away from his adopted city and necessitate the surrender of a business that had taken years to build up, his interest, nevertheless, in the legal training of young men intending to make the profession of law their life work was such that he became one of the founders of the Kansas City School of Law, and takes sufficient time each winter for the preparation and delivery to its students of a course of lectures ou corporation and constitutional law.
Oliver Hayes Dean was born December 7, 1845, at Washingtonville, Montour County, Pennsylvania. On his father's side lie is of English and Scotch extraction, and from his mother he inherits Dutel blood. His father, Hon. Joseph Dean, was noted for his great energy and unquestioned integrity, making him a natural leader in Montour County, Penn- sylvania, where he lived. He was a soldier of the War of 1812, being an officer under General Scott. The mother's ancestors were among the earliest emigrants from Holland.
Mr. Dean received his preparatory course in the Tuscarora Academy, Central Penn- sylvania, where, while a student, he acted as a tutor in Latin, for a year before going to college. From that modest academy he graduated and went to the Michigan University, entering the sophomore class. At the academy he developed those industrious aud pains- taking habits that marked him as a student in the university and which have been prac- ticed by him ever since as a lawyer. He graduated from the literary department of the Michigan University in the class of 1868, at once entering the law department, from which he graduated in 1870.
Immediately after receiving his diploma from the law school Mr. Dean left his native home and located in Kansas City, where he has resided ever since. Within a few months after his arrival in Kansas City he formed a partnership with the late Judge William Holmes, then a lawyer of high standing and in full practicc. This partnership continued until 1881, when he associated himself with one of the oldest law firms in Kansas City, composed of Charles O. Tichenor and Major William Warner, the new firun being Tichenor, Warner & Dean. In 1883 Mr. Tichenor withdrew from the general practice, and the firm became
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