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 70
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He was with this firin until it dissolved, and after that occupied the office of the senior member, J. P. Orr, until his admission to the bar at Warrensburg, in 1872.
Although competent to pass an examination, as his admission proved, he was ambitious to become still better versed in the law's theories, but his circumstances were such as to compel him to turn his attention at once to some method of earning a living. The late Governor Crittenden and Col. Wells H. Blodgett, now General Solicitor of the Wabash, but then a resident of Warrensburg, had observed the young man's ardent struggles and noble deterinination to forge to the front, and believing such laudable purpose should be seconded, they secured for him a free scholarship, admitting him to the St. Louis Law School. He attended this institution throughout the terin of 1872-3, and came out with a splendid technical education.
Mr. Hamilton then located in Daviess County, where he taught school for about a year in order to secure "the sinews of war" to "overcome the inertia of a legal beginning." Then lie established himself in Gallatin, county seat of Daviess, and since he opened an office in February, 1875, has there engaged actively in practice. In 1878 he was appointed City Attorney of Gallatin, was his own successor in 1878-80 and 1881, serving altogether four terms in that office. In 1882 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney, and in 1884 he was re-elected, and since the expiration of his term in 1886 has successfully engaged in general practice. While acting as an officer of the State, he was one of the prosecutors of the notorious bandit, Frank James. Some of the most gifted lawyers of the West were engaged as counsel in that case, among whom was Judge John F. Philips and ex-Gov- ernor Charles P. Johnson, and in all respects the young Prosecuting Attorney showed himself of a mental stature great enough to compete with the legal giants who opposed him. During his second term he figured in another cause celebre, acting as the prosecutor of Jo Jump and John Smith, for the murder of W. E. Gladson. They were convicted and duly hanged in 1885, this being the first and only execution that has ever occurred in Daviess County. These cases gave the public an idea of the young attorney's exceptional ability as a eriminal lawyer, and since then he has appeared as counsel in almost every eriminal ease of importance tried in that seetion. He has defended a number of clients accused of capital crimes, and has never yet had a client convicted.
Mr. Hamilton is a lifelong Democrat, having cast his first vote for Samuel J. Tilden, and in 1896 he was placed on the Democratic ticket as Presidential Elector for the Third District.
A natural predilection for the law, quick perception, broad comprehension, combined with a great capacity for study and hard work, has developed, in William D. Hamilton, one of the brightest lawyers in Northwest Missouri. His time when not engaged in actnal trial, is principally spent with his books. Between courts, he permits things to drift along in an indifferent sort of way, doing work only as the spirit moves him, but as the session approaches, he begins like the race horse working on the track, to "go a little of 1110r11- ings," each day increasing in speed and strength, until, when court opens, witnesses are subpoenaed, instructions prepared, and he is ready for trial in every case on the docket in which he is engaged.
In the court room he is quiet and unostentatious, and except when aroused in trial lias a seemingly indifferent appearance. He addresses the court in a low tone and with simple directness. His speeches to the jury are pointed, illustrated with occasional anecdote, presenting the facts in a straightforward and logical manner. His style is of the pungent
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order, clear and incisive. It is in cross-examination that he shines the brightest. With rifle-like precision he drives to the salient point, and with the "cute" witness he inserts the knife of his keen wit to the hilt, and turns it around without mercy. His instructions, always prepared before trial, are models of accuracy and clean cut law. A man of perfect integrity, he despises anything smacking of sharp practice or dishonesty. Of the highest sort of personal courage, he fights for his clients with fierceness and adroitness, yet in his nature he is as tender-hearted as a child.
Such is an outline of the career of one of the representative members of Missouri's bar, a career that is successful, although it has only begun. It is that of a man who has created his own success, and should be an inspiration and encouragement to every young man ambitious to succeed, but without the talisman of money to open the door of prefer- ment.
April 7, 1885, Mr. Hamilton was married to Miss Minnie Miller. The union has been blessed by two children, both bright and interesting girls. May is eleven years old and Genevieve nine.
CHARLES HAMMOND,
BRUNSWICK.
THE late Charles Hainmond, of Brunswick, was born March 5, 1836, in Brooke County, Virginia (now West Virginia). His father, Talbott Hammond, was a successful farmer and wool grower of Virginia, and a citizen of standing and influence in the county where he was born and spent his life. He died in 1871 at seventy-one years of age. His wife, who was Hannah Collins, survived her husband a number of years, dying at the advanced age of eighty-six. The Hammonds are of English origin, but came to America at a very early day, making a settlement in Maryland. In the spring of 1789, George Hammond, who was the grandfather of Charles Hammond, of Brunswick, concluded to seek a home in a country newer and less developed than Maryland, and therefore removed with his family to Virginia, settling on a tract of land in Brooke County about five miles east of Wellsburg. That part of Virginia was then on the frontier, and on the farm there opened up, Talbott Hammond spent his life and there his son, the subject of this sketch, was born and grew to manhood. George Hammond, the grandfather and pioneer, was the father of sixteen children, all of whom were educated at home by their parents, schools in that day being few and far between. The eldest of his eight sons, Charles Hammond, for whom the subject of this biography was named, was a man of splendid ability and dis- tinguished as one of the most conspicuous figures in the politics of his time. He was a lawyer as well as editor, an eloquent orator, and a writer of thought and vigor. He was for many years editor of the Cincinnati Gazette, occupying that position at the time of his death in 1840. He was a power in the stirring politics of the early half of the century, was a staunch supporter of Washington and a personal friend and counselor of Henry Clay and other distinguished men of those times.
The subject of this biography received the rudiments of his education in the country schools near his home. When sufficiently advanced, he entered Lafayette College, at
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Easton, Pennsylvania. This was in October, 1854, and he took the complete course, grad- nating in 1857. After receiving his diploma, he returned to his father's home in Virginia. Shortly after reaching his majority he selected the West as his field of operation. It was thus that he reached Chariton County in October, 1858, and there made his home until his deatlı. Soon after arriving in Chariton County he secured a school, and at the end of the terin began thic study of law in the office of Maj. Thomas H. Price, of Brunswick, now of Mobile, Alabama. He was admitted to practice in June, 1860, at once opened for business in Brunswick, and has practiced continuously in that and adjoining counties ever since.
Mr. Hammond grew in the esteem of his neighbors almost from the day he settled among them, and throughout nearly forty years of practice they delighted to honor him. He was a member of that convention which contained the mnost able men and brilliant law- yers of the State and which met in 1875 and drafted the present Missouri Constitution. He had a thorough and deep knowledge of constitutional aud general law and liis accomplish- ments in that line were brought into strong relief in the sessions of that body, as well as those of the Legislature of 1877, of which he was also a member, and on which was placed the responsible duty of revising the laws to conform to the new Constitution. His legal experience and wisdom proved of the highest possible value to his colleagues in both bodies, as well as to the State.
Mr. Hammond's wife was Miss Pocahontas Cabell, to whom he was wedded September 6, 1860, and who survives him. Two living children are left to care of the mother: A son, Charles Cabell Hammond, now located at Salisbury, Missouri, and already one of the most promising members of the bar of North Missouri; and a daughter, now the wife of C. W. Bowman, of Kansas City. Mrs. Pocahontas Cabell-Hammond came of a very prominent family, being related both to the Monroes, of Virginia, and the Breckenridges, of Kentucky, and a brief resume of her history may be deemed interesting here. Her father, Charles J. Cabell, one of Missouri's oldest pioneers, was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, in 1813 and died at Brunswick, Missouri, in 1882, aged seventy years. His father, Edward Blair Cabell, was of a family among the oldest in Virginia at the time of his birth. His mother was Harriot F. Monroe, a neice of President James Monroe. Tlie sister of Mrs. Hammond's grandfather, Edward Blair Cabell, married a Breckenridge, of Kentucky, and became the mother of Jolin Cabell Breckenridge, Vice-President of the United States. In the year 1818 Edward Blair Cabell emigrated to Missouri, settling at old Chariton, in Howard County. When the county of Chariton was organized, Edward Blair Cabell was appointed Clerk of the Circuit Court, a position he held for thirty years, or until within a few years of his death, which occurred in 1850. His son, Charles J., the father of Mrs. Hammond, was given such education as the times afforded, and was after- ward sent to Kentucky where he entered Augusta College. Hc married in 1837, at Har- rodburg, Kentucky, Susan B., daughter of Thomas Allin, Esq., Clerk of the Circuit Court of Mercer County, Kentucky. Returning to Missouri he studied law, but finding it un- suited to his tastes, became a surveyor, and as such moved to Louisiana. As his life covered the whole existence of Missouri as a State, his knowledge of her history fromn personal observation was thorough, and he delighted to talk for hours about the inen and occurrences of other days.
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Hon. Charles Hammond departed this life just as the old year 1897 died, and was consigned to the tomb as the year 1898 dawned. In his death the bar lost one of its orna- ments and the people of Chariton County an upright, honorable and honored citizen.
JOSEPH FRANKLIN HARWOOD,
MAYSVILLE.
C NE of the worthy and influential citizens of DeKalb County and one of the inost successful lawyers of Maysville, its county seat, is Joseph Franklin Harwood. He is a leading Republican of the northwestern part of the State and a lawyer whose talent merits the success he has won. He came to Clinton County just after the war, and his long residence in that section of the State has resulted in fixing him impregnably in the esteem and affection of the people among whom his life work has been laid.
In tracing both branches of Mr. Harwood's family, we find them rooted far back in American history. The Harwoods probably came to America with some of the earliest inen of independent mind who could not brook the interference of European tyranny with their inalienable rights. They settled in Vermont, and when the Colonies rose in rebel- lion against Britain, Mr. Harwood's grandfather, one of the most active of patriots, entered the Continental Army, where he rose to the rank of Captain. Mr. Harwood's mother was Susan Whipple, and hers also was a pioneer family which had been long known and respected in Cattaraugus County, New York. His father, Rev. Nelson Harwood, was a minister of the Methodist Church. After a long and useful life, and after having acted as pastor of inany churches in New York and Ohio, he has now retired from the ministry and lives at Winston, Daviess County, Missouri, where he peacefully and calmly awaits the call of the Master.
The subject of this sketch was born November 24, 1843, in Cattaraugus County, New York, where his father was then pastor of a church. While he was still a small boy, his father was transferred to Lorain County, Ohio. Educated in the common and high schools, young Harwood was eighteen when the war broke out. He was patriotic, and the drum- beat had not long sounded in the land, ere he determined to march to its mucic. He enlisted at Champaign City, Illinois, in 1861, joining Company G, Twenty-fifth Illinois Infantry, commanded by Captain Williams and Col. W. N. Coler. He served with this regiment up to the time of his discharge in the fall of 1863 owing to injuries received near Florence, Alabama. He was with Grant until after the battles of Fort Donelson and Fort Henry, was with Rosencrans on his march through Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama, and then served under Thomas and Hooker until liis discharge.
After his discharge the young soldier's law readings were begun under Judge O. L. Davis and W. I. Allen, of Vermillion County, Illinois, and finished at Cameron, Clinton County, after he had moved to Missouri. At the latter place, he studied under the guidance of the Hon. Philander P. Lucas, then Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, who, when he was qualified, admitted him to the bar in January, 1868, at Liberty, in Clay County. The young lawyer opened an office in Cameron and at once began practice. He remained in Cameron for twenty years, and then, in 1886, removed to Maysville, the judicial seat of the adjoining county of DeKalb, where he has since resided.
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Mr. Harwood has been frequently honored by the people of his section of the State, and his popularity is a guarantee that did he not subscribe to the principles of the minority party, lie could hope to hold almost any office in the gift of his people. In 1868, the year he began practice, he was appointed by President Johnson's Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. McCulloch), Internal Revenue Collector for the counties of Clinton, Caldwell, Daviess and DeKalb, serving in that capacity until 1870. In 1884 he was the Republican candidate for Congress in the Third District, against the popular Dr. A. M. Dockery. As the dis- trict was Democratic by a majority of over 3,000, his candidacy involved only personal sacrifice and service in behalf of his party, whose benefits were only possible in the dis- tant future and then would perhaps be reaped by somebody else. In 1886 he consented to again serve his party in the same disinterested way and was again defeated.
Mr. Harwood is a careful lawyer and one who brings to bear his fullest powers in his client's belialf. One of the interesting cases with which he has been connected was dock- eted as the State ex rel. Davis versus Rogers, 79 Missouri Reports, 283. Another case of importance - Huglies versus McDevitt-may be found in 102 Missouri Reports, 77. Mr. Harwood is an Odd Fellow and is a charter member of Diamond Cross Lodge of Cameron, Knights of Pythias. He is a charter member of Joe Hooker Post, G. A. R., at Cameron. On all questions concerning the old veterans of the late war his interest is without limit. He has always been an unbending Unionist and believes that those who accomplished the magnificent feat of the country's salvation should not be forgotten. Although his senti- ments in this respect are strongly defined, there is in him none of that narrow proscriptive- ness, which illiberally condemns all who may not agree with it. He is a frank and genial gentleman, and is a believer in the religion of the good things of this life. There is 110 pucker-mouthed Puritanisin in his make up, but he is withal one whose poise and bearing strongly mark him as a man of natural dignity. He is a good conversationalist and an impressive speaker before an audience.
On September 13, 1864, shortly after his return from the army, Mr. Harwood was married in Warren County, Indiana, to Mary E., daughter of George Caldwell of that county, and an Indiana pioneer of Kentucky origin. Mrs. Harwood finishlied lier education at Center College, of Danville, Kentucky, which is the alma mater of many statesmen and famous men. She has borne her husband two children-Irene, born September 8, 1875, and George, born in January, 1878, and now a student at Kirksville Normal School.
DAVID JACKSON HEASTON, BETHANY.
F German and English extraction and an Ohioan by birtli, David Jackson Heaston naturally combines in his character industry, stability and enterprise. His father, Christian Heaston, who married Sarah Lasley, was born in Virginia, where he pursued the avocation of a farmer. Christian's father settled in Virginia before the War of the Revolu- tion and was a soldier in the Continental Army under Col. William Morgan, of Virginia. He was also a farmer. He and his son emigrated to Ohio in 1805. In 1839 Christian removed to Indiana, and was one of the hardy pioneers of the Hoosier State. The fore- fathers of the Heaston family were Germans. The Lasleys are of English descent. Like
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the Heastons, they came to America previous to the Revolution. They settled later in Ohio, and were all tillers of the soil.
David Jackson Heaston was born May 22, 1835, in Champaign County, Ohio. Begin- ning in the common schools of Randolph County, Indiana, he next went through a thorough scholastic career in Asbury University, known to-day as De Pauw University of Indiana. He studied law in the office of Judge Jere Smith, of Winchester, Indiana, and was admitted to the bar in 1858, at Winchester, by Judge J. T. Elliott, who afterwards became Supreme Judge. Removing to Missouri in 1859, Mr. Heaston chose the beautiful town of Bethany, in Harrison County, as the scene of his future toils and triumphs, and there he has prac- ticed law continuously for thirty-nine years. During this long period he has had but three partnerships. In 1859 and 1860 he was associated with Thomas J. Brady, afterwards of "Star Route" fame; in 1867 and 1868 with John C. Howel, afterwards Judge of that Cir- cuit; and later, for three years, with Oscar Butler, who is now dead. Since 1884 Mr. Heas- ton has worked alone.
He has been much in politics since settling in Harrison County, but like all excellent lawyers, he does not feel at home away from the court. A test of the people's confidence came when they elected him Probate Judge of Harrison County, in 1861, for two years. As a lawyer Mr. Heaston has two valuable accessories -the dauntless integrity and the sturdy common sense he inherited from the old pioneers, and these are most solid attributes on which to build any career.
Mr. Heaston can look back on his political career with feelings of pride, because his honors came spontaneously and voluntarily. He was Presidential Elector in 1876, and assisted in casting Missouri's electoral vote for Tilden and Hendricks. He was elected to the State Senate in 1878 for four years, being a member of the Ways and Means Commit- tee. During the first session, in 1879, he helped to revise the probate and administration laws of the State and the laws governing Justices of the Peace, and other portions of the statutes. He was Chairman of the Committee on Public Printing, and defeated the bill for the election of a Public Printer. He is a straight Democrat.
During the war he was not in active service, but when the Enrolled Militia of Har- rison County were organized into a regiment, he was commissioned as Colonel, and served as Colonel of what was known as the Fifty-seventh Regiment of Enrolled Missouri Militia. The regiment was only called into active duty a few times in the summer, and their principal service was in guard duty along the railroads and river in Northwest Missouri.
Mr. Heaston is a bright star in the Masonic order. He was made a Master Mason in Indiana in 1857, and has passed through all the Masonic bodies up to and including that of Knight Templar. He has filled all the chairs, having been Master of Blue Lodge, High Priest of the Chapter and Eminent Commander of the Commandery. He has also been District Deputy Grand Master for several terms.
At Bethany, on January 17, 1861, he married Margaret E. Monson, daughter of Thomas Monson, a pioneer farmer of Harrison County. He has four children living-Kate, the wife of Edwin L. Dunn, of Oklahoma City, where he is Clerk of the United States Cir- cuit Court; Leonard, a member of the milling firm of A. McClure & Co., of Bethany; George W., asssistant cashier of the Harrison County Bank, of Bethany, and Warren L., a bright young Bethany lawyer. For grandchildren he has two on the Heaston side and one in the Dunn family.
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In his day Mr. Heaston has mastered many complicated and interesting cases. Here are four of his most important victories, as the records show: McCaul versus Kilpatrick, 46 Missouri, 434; Coomcs versus Moore, 57 Missouri, 338; Bennett versus Shipley, 82 Mis- souri, 448; Russic versus Brazzell, 128 Missouri, 93.
ESCA WILLIARD HENRY,
GLASGOW.
THE lawyer who can gain a high position in the bar of his county before the age of twenty-six, must be gifted with ability above the ordinary. Esca Williard Henry, of Glasgow, Missouri, enjoys this unusual distinction. He was born at Boonsboro, Missouri, on Jitnc 8, 1872. The great grandfather of Mr. Henry on the paternal side was James Henry, an Irishman who gained some notability in Ireland's struggle for freedom during the stormy days that marked the close of the last century. While a student at college he and other Irish students read essays that favored the freeing of their native land. Arrests followed, and several students were executed. Young Henry escaped the doom intended for him, and marrying a Miss Law, they sailed to America, where he lived for a time in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, afterwards emigrating to Ohio and settling in Colum- biana. Here Mr. Henry's father, Michael Wesley Henry, was born. He taught school for a livelihood, and, coming to the young State of Missouri, located in Howard County, where he married Nancy Jane Hackley. It is interesting to trace the descent of Mr. Henry from Patrick Henry, the famous American orator and statesman. This ancestry comes through his father's side of the house. The mother of his paternal great grandfather, John Henry, was a sister of the mother of the great patriot. That is to say, the daring young Irish student of 1798 was a cousin of Patrick Henry. Nancy Jane Hackley, the mother of the subject of this memoir, was a daughter of William E. Hackley, who was a native of Ken- tucky and of German extraction. He left his old home early in the century and came to Missouri, where he settled in Howard County. He pursued the avocation of a farmer, being one of the pioneers of the county. It was here that the mother of Mr. Henry was born.
After a substantial education in the common schools of Glasgow, Missouri, Mr. Henry studied law under the able preceptorship of Hon. Charles D. Dickinson, at Leetonia, Ohio. After a thorough and systematic legal course, he returned to his native State, where he was admitted to the bar at Fayette, in Howard County, by Judge Jolin A. Hockaday, on November 30, 1895. The committee appointed by the court to examine the young aspirant found him unusually apt and clever, and he passed a most excellent examination. He then opened a law office in Glasgow, where he still practices.
There is combination of youth and ability in Mr. Henry which is rarely to be found among members of the legal profession. His mind is peculiarly fitted for the life-work hc has chosen, being as keen and quick in perception as it is calm and accurate in judgment. No man knows better than he that the main attributes of success arc hard work and con- stant study. Hence his ceaseless application to his law books and vigilant attention to his daily business, which he prefers to the filmny allurements of politics. That he has a native eloquence is unquestioned ; and it is natural that he should be thus gifted, having the blood of Patrick Henry in his veins. In both State and Federal Courts he has done a vast
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amount of fine legal work in important cases, both civil and criminal. Although victorious in several criminal cases of note, he prefers the intricacies of civil and corporation prac- tice. Here is where he feels at home and where his legal talents display themselves in fullest brilliancy.
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