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 71
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Born in 1872, he has not had many years of life, but every year, one might say, has been enriched by the fruits of deep observation and close study. This is perhaps the reason that, regardless of his youth, he is held in high esteem in Howard County, and is looked upon as a rising member of the fraternity.
He has been admitted to practice in the United States courts, which is a noteworthy tribute to his ability. Many civil cases involving large interests in Howard County have been handled by him, all of them with profit to his clients and credit to himself. He is a Democrat of the most progressive kind. He is now City Attorney of the town of Glas- gow. Mr. Henry is unmarried.
JOHN W. HENRY,
KANSAS CITY.
THE career of Judge John W. Henry, of Kansas City, has covered more than half a T century of the State's most active development. Few in any walk of life can claim such a long term of activity in any profession in this State, and fewer still, while permit- ting their memory to revert to the scenes, incidents and changes of such a lengthy period, can still remain strong, hale and young of heart as is Judge Henry.
Our subject, like many of his contemporaries who have added luster to the Missouri bar, is a native of Kentucky. Born at Cynthiana, January 27, 1825, he is the son of Jesse and Mary Henry. Jesse Henry was born in Kentucky and came of a family which was a part of that brave band of pioneers that blazed the pathway of civilization through the "dark and bloody ground." He was a prominent citizen of his part of the State, and was largely engaged in the mercantile business at Cynthiana. He was respected by his fellow-citizens, who honored him by making him Sheriff of Harrison County, in which capacity he served a number of terms. In 1845, doubtless animated by that pioneer spirit of adventure which was his natural heritage, he moved to Missouri, settling at Boonville. Three years later he again changed his residence to Independence in Jackson County, Missouri, where he passed the remainder of his days, dying in 1852. His wife, whose maiden name was Por- ter, survived him and was laid to rest fifteen years later. Both were devout Christians and members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Of his more remote ancestors, Judge Henry's paternal grandfather was Watson Henry, who was a native of the Old Dominion, and planted the family in Kentucky in pioneer days. He reared a large family and lived to an advanced age. His maternal grandfather was Andrew Porter, who was a millwright by trade. He spent his entire life in Kentucky and his presence there reaches back to the earliest occupancy of the white inan.
Judge Henry was one of six children, but three of whom are now living, namely: James P., a physician, who is now located at Independence, Missouri; Mary T., the wife of J. Brown Hovey, once a prominent lawyer of Kansas City to whom frequent reference is made in this volume; and the subject of this biography. The latter spent his childhood and youth in his native Kentucky. There he received the rudiments of his education, and early developing a legal bent, began the study of law at sixteen years of age. His reading
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in chambers was only interrupted to enter Transylvania University, where he continued his legal studies and completed his literary education. He graduated before he was twenty and was admitted to the bar.
His life lias been a stirring one and fraught with many changes, but not without its compensations as a reward of merit and ability, for he stands to-day as one of the inost honored and distinguished members of his profession in the State of his adoption. When his parents moved to Boonville from Kentucky, in 1845, the son came with them. He opened an office at Boonville, which was then the center of a vast trade territory, the seat of the liigliest civilization of the times, and it seems that the best legal talent of the State had centered at Boonville. With such stalwart competitors as that gifted advocate, Adams; that wise Judge, Richardson; the unequaled trial lawyer, Hayden; and many other mnen of ability, such as Winston, Miller, Thompkins and Stewart, it is not strange that after the young Kentuckian opened an office there in 1845 he made slow progress. But a chance occurred two years later (1847) to better his outlook and he availed himself of it. He was appointed attorney for a branch of the State Bank of Missouri, located at Fayette, Howard County. Locating there, a partnership was formed with Robert T. Prewitt, and the young lawyer's ability began to attract attention. Gov. Sterling Price in 1854 appointed him State Superintendent of Schools and it is of record also that he administered that office with a tact and ability cqual to the learning with which he has since dispensed law and justice from the benchi.
From 1857 to 1563 he resided at Independence where his widowed mother lived. I11 the latter year he returned to Fayette, but remained there only two years, removing thence to Macon City, Missouri. He began practice there and was very successful until 1871, when he was again drafted as a servant of the people, being elected Judge of the Circuit Court. His occupancy of the bench offered opportunities for the display of his ability as a jurist, and his record made there, with that which had gone before, led to the distinguished honor which was conferred on him in 1876-liis elevation to the bench of the Supreme Court of the State. His record on the bench of that court fully merits the honor and respect in which he is now held by the people of Missouri. He will go down to history as one of the wisest and ablest jurists who ever graced the highest tribunal of the State. Of a quick perception, keen, discriminating, and a mind free from bias, he was exceptionally well endowed to sit as a member of the most august tribunal of the great commonwealth. Both as Judge and advocate he scems to fully grasp the salient points of the case, and being deeply learned in the law, it is not strange lie occupies the place he does in the Mis- sonri judiciary. As a Judge he showed himself especially well versed in the questions of negligence, constitutional law and statutory construction. Personally he is noted for his universal courtesy and kindliness to young attorneys especially, having never forgotten the kindness of P. R. Hayden and his encouragement when he began practice at Boonville, to which he refers in his "Personal Recollections," beginning on page 384.
A career that covers a half century of activity throughout scenes and changes in which our subject was an active factor, cannot but be rich with most interesting recollection and fict. The Judge is a mine of reminiscence, anecdote and history, and can relate incidents and events of former days in a most entertaining and instructive manner. He has always been deeply interested in public affairs and has been an actor in many hard fought can- piigus of the past. As a public speaker and a lawyer hc hias traveled by horse and stage coach throughout forty of the countics of Missouri. He has known personally almost
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every public man of strong individuality and prominence who has been active in public or private life in Missouri since 1845, and few lawyers of consequence could be named within the same limits and borders whom he did not know intimately. He was the con- temporary and friend of such men as that profound lawyer and statesman, Hamilton R. Gamble; those learned jurists, Napton and Scott; that genius of the law (both as Judge and advocate), Leonard; the war Governor of Missouri, Claiborne F. Jackson; the skillful and majestic Doniphan; that diamond in the rough, John B. Clark; the guileless and scholarly Broadhead; that great authority on constitutional law, Samuel T. Glover; the popular Elijah Hise Norton, gifted in a rare degree with learning and common sense; the able and politic Silas Woodson; that greatest statesman, Benton; that great debater and tactician, James S. Green, who represented Missouri in the United States Senate; the noble, honest and eloquent Lindley, who defeated the popular Claib Jackson for Congress; that gifted orator, Major Rollins; that great political trio of able lawyers and great statesmen, Vest, Cockrell and Crittenden -all men whom he describes as they are here written down. He knew also and was the friend of John F. Philips; Thomas L. Anderson, of Palmyra; Uriel S. Wright, of St. Louis; P. R. Hayden, of Cooper; William A. Hall of Howard; Comingo, Hicks, Hovey, Smart and Chrisman, of Independence; Joseph L. Stephens, of Boonville; Waldo P. Johnson, of St. Clair; Thomas A. Ruffin, of Springfield; Felix G. Hunton, of Warsaw; Warner, Lathrop and Karnes, of Kansas City; Hardin, Phelps, Atchi- son, Stringfellow, and the three Ellisons, and a host of others of whom space forbids men- tion. Some are yet living, many are dead, all added luster and distinction to the bench and bar of Missouri.
After the expiration of his term as Supreme Judge, Judge Henry removed to Kansas City and began practice. He was not allowed to long remain in private life, however, and he was again called upon to serve the public. In 1889 the Legislature provided two addi- tional Circuit Judges for Jackson County, and the Judge was appointed to fill one of these positions. In 1890 he was elected by the people to the same seat, by an overwhelming majority, and in 1895 re-elected by an increased majority.
Judge Henry was married in 1849 to Maria Williams, daughter of Frank and Martha (Talbot) Williams. They have four children, all grown, and some of them with children of their own. Nannie became the wife of E. C. Johnson. Jesse resides in Jefferson City, married Miss Katie Davidson and they have three children. Frank is an Episcopalian minister, married a Miss Turner and is located at Greely, Missouri. Robert is serving as Deputy County Clerk of Jackson County.
ROBERT ALEXANDER HEWITT, JR., MAYSVILLE.
INQUESTIONABLY one of the ablest attorneys of DeKalb County, is Robert Alex- ander Hewitt, Jr., of Maysville, the judicial seat of that county. He comes of old and honorable Maryland stock, although he is a native of Missouri, having been born in the town where he now lives, August 6, 1850. He is the son of Eli and Martha (Barkman) Hewitt, the father being one of the early merchants of Maysville. He was a native of Baltimore, Maryland, where his father was one of the well known business men and
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merchants. He came to Missouri in 1846 and settling at Maysville, opened a general mercantile establishment, which he conducted successfully for many years. He married Martha E. Barkman, the mother of our subject, who also came of an old and respected Maryland family, her father having been a ship-master in the days when our merchant marine was a power.
Robert A. Hewitt was educated in the public schools of Maysville and afterward entered a private college at Nebraska City, Nebraska, where he completed his schooling. Then he returned to Missouri and prosecuted the study of law in the office of George W. Rose, and was admitted to the bar at Maysville in 1875, by Judge Joseph P. Grubb. However, he did not at once begin practice, as prior to this he had demonstrated some ability as a writer, and as a consequence he received an offer to become the editor of the DeKalb County Register, then published by Henry E. Glazier. He conducted this paper successfully for a period of four years, and made it one of the best county papers of that section. In 1879 he turned from editorial work to the law, opened an office, and has since continuously devoted himself to his profession. He practiced alone until 1896, when he associated with him James T. Blair, a graduate of the Cumberland University Law School, at Lebanon, Tennessee, and that partnership is still maintained under the firm name of Hewitt & Blair.
In 1886 Mr. Hewitt was elected Prosecuting Attorney of DeKalb County, was re-elected in 1SSS and during both terms discharged the duties of the office with a conscientious regard for the oath lie had taken, that has never been equalled in the history of the county. At this time he is the City Attorney of Maysville and has acted in that capacity off and on for the last ten years. Excepting these offices, which the most rigid construc- tion of professional ethics permits the acceptance of without lessening the practitioner's devotion to his calling, Mr. Hewitt has never held or aspired to any political office. Being a follower of the Democratic, which is the dominant party, and though widely known and popular, he has persistently resisted all importunities to allow the use of his name as a candidate for office, being content with the honors won in the private practice of law.
His practice is one of the most remunerative in the county. He is the attorney of the Exchange Bank of DeKalb County, and is relied on as the leading attorney on one side or the other in almost every case of importance that comes up. The most important cases in which he has recently 'appeared, were the trials connected with the failure of the Stewartsville bank. In these he appeared as the prosecutor of the bank wreckers and carried two of the cases to the Supreme Court, where the record of them will be found in 108 Missouri Reports, 120. He is very patriotic, enterprising and civic spirited and is a leader in every local enterprise for progress and advancement. He is also a staunch sup- porter of every cause of education and culture and is one of the most active members and supporters of the Maysville Chautauqua Association. He was one of the association's incorporators and is now its attorney and a member of its Board of Directors. His faitlı in the organization as a means of education and culture is testified by the fact that he was one of fifteen public spirited citizens of Maysville who put up $100 each to establish the association. In fraternal circles, Mr. Hewitt is recognized as a Mason, a Knight of Pythias and a Woodman of the World.
He married in March, 1875, Miss C. May Dalrymple, daughter of Robert Dalrymple, formerly of Morrow County, Ohio. Miss Dalrymple's maternal ancestor, Jane F. Miles,
Robbert will
Legal Pulm hing - . St. Louis
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daughter of Enos Miles, emigrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio in pioneer days and was the founder of Chesterville, Ohio. The Dalrymples were also pioneers of the State last named. Mr. and Mrs. Hewitt have four sons, named respectively, Albert Dalrymple, Herbert Miles, Philip George and Covell Robert. The eldest is twenty and the youngest thirteen.
DANIEL BOONE HOLMES,
KANSAS CITY.
THE distinguished practitioner whose name heads this article, a member of the law firm of Karnes, Holmes & Krauthoff, was born in the historic town of Lexington, Ken- tucky, March 13, 1850. He is a son of John Holmes and Sally A. Holmes, the latter a 1member of the Gilbert family. The Holmes family was prominent even in that section of the country where the standards of everything relating to the family are so high. The father was for a number of years a Justice of the Peace of Lexington and was a native of Virginia. He died at Lexington in 1851, where also his wife was buried in 1880, twenty-nine years later. The mother was born in Maryland, where the Gilberts settled in the Colonial period. She was a woman of many Christian virtues, great force of character and high intellectual endowment. When left a widow, she rose to tlie exigencies of the situation, and it is owing to her determination and nobility of character that her children were reared as they should be, were educated and inspired with the love of truth and right, without which no success is possible.
Daniel Boone was the youngest, and is now the only survivor of a family of nine chil- dren. He was a little more than a year old when his father died. At the proper age his inother sent him to the public school, and then to the Transylvania high school, where he prepared for college. In the fall of 1865 he entered Kentucky University, where lie was graduated in June, 1870, with the degree of A. B. Before his graduation, in conform- ity with an early ambition approved and fostered by his inother, lie had chosen the law as his profession, and during his senior year at Kentucky University, began and pursued his legal studies under a private tutor, his readings being continued after graduation in the office of one of the leading and most active law firms in Lexington.
In the spring of 1871, at Frankfort, he was duly licensed to practice by the Judges of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, the highest tribunal in the State. He had not been licensed long when, governed by the laudable ambition to attain a thorough mastery of the science of the profession he had chosen, he went East and entered the Harvard Law School, from which he was graduated in June, 1872, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws.
News of possibilities in the way of developinent that lay before Kansas City had reached his ears, and in recognition of the opportunities it offered to the young attorney with a future before him, he decided to locate there. He reached Kansas City in the latter part of 1872, and in December of the same year was admitted to practice in the courts of Missouri. He was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States in April, 1892.
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In 1873 a marked recognition of the young lawyer's talent and ability was shown by Hon. Thomas V. Bryant, in the form of an invitation to become his partner. Mr. Bryant was a prominent lawyer and had a large eivil practice. His offer to the young man, there- fore, was an opportunity not to be neglected. The association of the two lawyers proved a most compatible and mutually agreeable arrangement, and was continued for over thirteen years. A dissolution was then forced through the failing health of Mr. Bryant, which com- pelled his retirement. Mr. Holmes practiced his profession alone and with success until January, 1, 1889, on which date the present strong legal firm of Karnes, Holmes & Kraut- hoff was formed.
'The constantly increasing business of the firm attests the ability of its members. Mr. Hohes, as a lawyer, is among the leaders of the profession in the western part of tlie State. His legal work has now almost entirely crystallized into corporation practice, and in this department he is recognized as an authority. He has appeared as counsel in some of the most important causes of that nature that have come before Missouri courts. He is a man of great industry, and as a reasoner is clear and logical. Though no orator, he is a foreible speaker, and is able to arrange his faets so lueidly as to present the argument from his client's standpoint in the elearest and mnost convineing light. He is likewise strong in the preparation of cases. He realizes clearly the importance of a full knowledge of every possible faet bearing upon a case, with the result that in court he is seldom taken by surprise. He is also deeply versed in general literature, and is both a scholar and a thinker.
Mr. Holmes has never had any political ambition, and has therefore never stood for political office. He is, on the contrary, devoted to his profession and takes great interest in everything promotive of its welfare, as evidenced by his membership in the American Bar Association, the Missouri State Bar Association, and the Kansas City Bar Association. He has been President of the last named body. He is also a life member of the Harvard Law School Association.
While he lias never been disposed to engage in the disputations of polities, he has never- theless served his eity and the publie ably and well in numerous civie enterprises. In fact, he has been a man of cxeeptional publie spirit in a city noted for its progressiveness. His commercial talent has been expended largely in connection with the building and operation of street railway lines, and to him Kansas City is greatly indebted for its splendid system of rapid transit. His efforts were first enlisted in this line of work when new inventions sug- gested a change in 1886 from the old style to eleetrie and cable energy. He was active in projecting and organizing both the Grand Avenue cable road and the electric line to Inde- pendenec. He has continued to act as legal counsel of these and associated lines, 110W embracing practically all of the street railroads of Kansas City, as one consolidated system operating about seventy-five miles of double track street railway, acknowledged to be one of the best and most satisfactory systems of the kind in America.
Mr. Hohes married at Jefferson City on February 6, 1877, Lydia A. Massey, daugh- ter of Hon. Benjamin F. Massey, formerly Secretary of State of Missouri, and a member of the Constitutional Convention which framed the Constitution of Missouri of 1875. They have three children, namely: Massey Bryant Hohnes, born January 28, 1878, 11ow a 111e111-
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ber of the class of 1899 at Harvard University; Sydney Holmes, a daughter, born August 27, 1881, and now attending Monticello Female Seminary at Godfrey, Illinois; and Mignon Gilbert Holmes, born June 28, 1884. Mrs. Holmes is a most accomplished lady. She is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and her culture finds expression through a number of art and literary societies of which she is an active member.
OTHNIEL BRUNER HUDSON, GRANT CITY.
THE student of heredity will find ample food for speculation in the genealogy of Othniel Bruner Hudson, for the branches of the family tree glitter with several names illus- trious in the Nation's annals. The Hudsons were originally English. The great great grandfather of the subject of this sketchi was William Hudson, who established the family on American soil by purchasing from William Penn 1,600 acres of Pennsylvania land, located twenty miles north from what is now Lancaster County. George Hudson, the son of William, played a worthy part in the Revolutionary War, serving faithfully through all the dangers and hardships of that memorable struggle. As one of Washington's scouts he endured every privation with patriotic zeal, and by his intelligence and decisiveness accomplished results that proved of the highest value to his commander. He was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1745, and at the age of thirty-seven, when his military career ended, he settled in Huntington County, Pennsylvania. He took for his wife Gabelle Buchanan, whose fortune it was to be the aunt of James Buchanan, the thirteenth President of the United States.
Mr. Hudson's ancestors on his mother's side were Scotch, and their name was Early. They arrived in America before the War of the Revolution, and several of them were active in the battles of that contest. Major-General Jubal A. Early, the famous Confederate leader and eminent Virginian, was a cousin of Mr. Hudson's maternal grandfather.
Walter Scott Hudson, the father of the present head of the family, was a lawyer of considerable celebrity in Worth County, Missouri, and was a recognized leader of the Dem- ocratic party. He held many positions of honor and responsibility, among which may be mentioned those of Circuit Clerk, Surveyor and Assessor, and in all of them he served faithfully and admirably. Perhaps he will be best remembered by his surviving friends and their descendants as being the organizer of Worth County, Missouri. The maiden name of Mr. Hudson's mother was Sarah E. Early, her marriage resulting in a period of happiness intensified for her by the triumphs of her helpmeet.
Othniel Bruner Hudson was born in Worth County, Missouri, February 16, 1860. His education began in the common schools of Worth County, after which he attended Columbia University, in New York, being a graduate of the Columbia Law School, of 1894, and President of the class. Meanwhile he had read law at Grant City, Missouri, in the office of Kelso & Schooler, and his office studies, combined with his university train- ing, qualified him readily for admittance to the bar, which event occurred at Grant City in 1893. Considering the duration of his career as a lawyer, his practice has covered a rather wide field, embracing Worth and the adjoining counties in Missouri, and the southwestern portion of Iowa.
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Although ancestry is seldom considered in estimating a man's worth in these practical days, still the fact should not be overlooked that Mr. Hudson has in his character many of the traits which made the old Pennsylvanians masters of the field. That is to say, in his profession he has achieved suceess through patience, perseverance and a liigh purpose to excel. Mentally he is as robust as the old colonists were bodily, and their temperateness of judgment and quickness of decision are echoed in the legal toil he performs daily. He is peculiarly a lawyer; by this it must be understood that, although bright indueements have from time to time been held out to him to engage in other pursuits, his heart is set on being a lawyer only, and a successful one. He could on several occasions have become an office-holder had he so willed, but polities do not harmonize with his aspirations. In the the courts of Northwestern Missouri and Southwestern Iowa he has continual opportu- nities for the display of his superior legal accomplishments. His versatility is as 110te- worthy as the sueeess which follows his efforts.
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