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 79
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The mother of General Moore comes of a Missouri pioneer family. She was Elizabeth, the third daughter of Col. John Stapp, of Lafayette County, Missouri. Colonel Stapp was a native of Kentucky, removing from Adair County to Howard County, Missouri, prior to the admission of the State into the Union. He afterwards removed to Lillard (now Lafay- ette) County and was one of the Judges of its first County Court, which mnet January 21, 1821.
Tracing General Moore's origin further into the past, it is learned that he is of French Huguenot blood on his mother's side, and of English descent on his father's. Prior to the War of Liberation, Abram Moore and two brothers came from England to the Eastern shore of Maryland. They laid their hearth-stones and pledged their loyalty to the new country, and when her rights and liberties were in danger, took up the arms of the Amer- ican Army in the War of the Revolution. After the war, Abram Moore removed to North Carolina, and thence to Tennessee. On his mother's side he is a lineal descendant of Anthony Trabnc, a French Huguenot, who landed on the banks of the James River in the ycar 1700.
General Moore was educated in the common schools of Lafayette County, at Chapel Hill College, and Wellington Academy, at Wellington, Missouri, the latter then being con-
nitton Move
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ducted by John N. Southern and Alfred Slaughter. As so many ambitious men have done in the days of their early struggles, he taught school both before and after the beginning of the study for the bar. He prosecuted his legal studies in the office of John N. South- ern, now of Independence, and afterwards under the tutelage of Judge John S. Blackwell, of Lexington, and the late Judge Robert C. Ewing, of Kansas City. He was licensed to practice by the Jackson County Circuit Court, at Independence, at its March term in 1872, and located in Kansas City, where he has since resided.
Heredity implanted and environment developed in General Moore the highest sense of honor and integrity, and in his whole life there has never been a question in the minds of his associates of a variance in the slightest degree. His life and principles are evidence that he has felt in the strongest degree an ambition and desire, as far as in him lay, to think and to do absolute justice and equity between man and man .* He is a man of strong and positive convictions of his own, and yet exceedingly considerate of the opinions of others. He has always been a hard student, and his reading has covered a wide range in the law, but it is natural that he should have inclined strongly to the equity side of the practice and given it such attention that his intimate knowledge of its principles and his successful appli- cation of them, have given him a first place as an equity practitioner.
He was from 1872 to 1880 Public Administrator of Jackson County, and with his usual thoroughness mastered the principles of the probate law, and has since been regarded as authority on the law of wills and administrations. As a trial lawyer he is also strong. He aspires to logical force rather than to impassioned oratory, and his appeal is always to reason and not to sentiment. His presence before court or jury is dignified, straightfor- ward and sincere.
He has heretofore declined the temptations of judicial honors and political preference, choosing the life of the active and private practitioner. He did, however, accept a posi- tion on the Board of Election Commissioners of Jackson County, under Governor Stone, at a time when the responsibilities of the office were very great and subject to the severest criticism, but the public, as evidenced by the press, were unanimous in their approval of his appointment. The law relating to elections was in many respects indefinite and was practically uninterpreted. He was the legal advisor of the board, and in every instance where a question decided by him was referred to the courts he was sustained.
During his life in Kansas City, he has been, at different times, associated with Blake L. Woodson, John W. Cravens, and R. O. Boggess. In 1893 he formed the firm of Moore & Vaughan, in which association he continued until 1898.
General Moore is of that temperament which takes its work and its recreations ser- iously, and he has, therefore, never been disposed to the lighter forms of diversion. When he relieves the strain of professional duties, he follows his inclination to military studies and practices, in which he finds his entertainment. His physical exercise included practice with the rifle and the manual of arms, into which he entered with the same per- sistent energy and same steady application which characterize his progress in his profes- sion. He manifests a natural talent in the direction of military science and the organiza-
* He is one of those men, who in many communities, by some process of natural instinct, are selected by the people as the man of all others worthy of confidence. In Kansas City, General Moore is the person so euviably distinguished, and hence the people go to him to act as their trustee, curator, administrator, etc. He has frequently to give bond on this account, and, as showing the esteem in which he is held because of his high integrity, it was stated to the writer by one of the leading bankers of Kansas City that Gen. Milton Moore could go iuto any bank or trust company in that city and get its signature to a bond of $1,000,000, without question or formality of any kind. They trust him because of his integrity, but they also know him to be a man of infinite carefulness .- The Editor.
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tion and control of men. He had some early experience in the field, soon after the war, when he spent two years on the Plains of the frontier, and engaged in several conflicts with Indians. He took part in the notable battle with a band of Kiowas under the cele- brated Chief Satanta near the present site of Dodge City, Kansas. He enlisted in the military company in Kansas City which took a prominent part in the railroad riots in 1877, and has been continuously connected with the State military forces since.
He was in 1883 commissioned Second Lieutenant of the Craig Rifles, one of the proin- inent military organizations of the day. In 1886 he was made Major of the First Battalion, National Guard of Missouri, and later he was promoted to the position of Colonel of the Third Regiment. In 1891 he was appointed by Governor Francis, Brigadier General, com- inanding National Guard of Missouri, which position he has since held. He has contributed much to the military literature of the State, having compiled " the Laws Regulating the Government of the National Guard of Missouri," and the "Rules Relating to Military Correspondence," and he is also the author of the military law adopted by the State Legislature of Missouri in 1897.
On February 25, 1880, General Moore's marriage was celebrated at the residence of the late Col. James N. Burnes, near St. Joseph, whose accomplished niece, Mary E. Burnes, the daughter of the late Hon. Daniel D. Burnes, he espoused. A record of the Burnes family will be found elsewhere in this volume.
THOMAS R. MORROW,
KANSAS CITY.
THOMAS R. MORROW, member of that vital legal force, the firm of Lathrop, Morrow, T Fox & Moore, was born in the historic town of Hartford, Connecticut, January 24, 1857, and is therefore now in the fulness of his life and capacity. His parents were John Mor- row, and Margaret Morrow, formerly Margaret Campbell. He was six years old when his parents, in 1863, removed to Yonkers, New York. They remained there only about two years, however, returning in 1865 to Hartford. The following year (1866) the family made settlement on a farin at South Coventry, Connecticut, where for the next five years the boy lived and received the benefits of work in the air and sun. The cultured old college town of his nativity seems to have exerted a strong attractive power on his family, and accord- ingly in 1871 they again made their home there.
In the meantime the education of young Morrow had not been neglected. He had received the advantages of the public sehools, and was therefore ready to enter the high school at Hartford in 1872. There he took a four years' course, graduating in 1876. Thien lie entered the academic department of Yale University, and after the full course of four years, graduated in 1880 with the degrce of A. B. His choice had been fixed on the law, and therefore after graduating, he for a year read law in the chambers of Lieutenant-Gov- ernor Sill at Hartford. His professional training was completed in the law department of Yale, where he graduated in 1882 with the degree of LL. B., winning the "University Prize," in competition open to all departments of that great educational institution. Dur- ing liis attendance at this university he was on the staff of the college press. It will be seen by the above that Mr. Morrow is the possessor of a most thorough education-the best possible basis of success at the law, when it is coupled with industry and pluck.
Thomas R. llarroul
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The young attorney was admitted to the bar in his native city, and had some thought of beginning practice there, but finally gave way to the inclination which had gradually been growing stronger in him for some time, to explore for himself the West, of which he had heard so much. One day in November, 1882, he stopped off at Kansas City for a time, and although he had not a friend or acquaintance in the place, it speaks well for his fore- sight and discernment that he was not long in deciding to make it his future home. He launched in practice in the following months and made a successful start, for just at that time in the upward trend of Kansas City, there was a great demand for young men of energy and capacity in all lines of business. Early in 1883 he was admitted to practice in Missouri courts, at Independence. Since then he has been admitted to the Supreme Court of Missouri, the United States Circuit and District Courts of Kansas City, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals at St. Louis, and to the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington, District of Columbia.
While taking the interest of the thinking inan in public and political affairs, he has no inclination whatever toward a public life, and political ambitions do not move him. He has never held but one office-this the Police Commissionership of Kansas City, on which board he served three years. This office was accepted against his personal inclina- tions, and he only inade the sacrifice because of the urging of his friends and from a sense of duty to the Democratic party, to which he is devoted. It is notable that he is the only member of the Board, who on retirement, was ever, in the history of the department, rec- ognized by the members of the force. To show their personal appreciation and faith in him as a public servant, the inen of the force presented him, at the conclusion of his ser- vice, with a handsome testimonial, which was supplemented by a like evidence of esteein from Chief Speers.
Mr. Morrow is one of the high adepts in Masonry in the West. He was made a Mason in 1885, took the degrees in the Royal Arch Chapter in 1886; he received the "Cryptic degrees" in Shekinah Council, Royal and Select Masters, in 1892; was made a Knight Templar in 1886; took the degrees in the Scottish Rite, and received the thirty-second degree from Martin Collins, Inspector-General for Missouri, in 1888, and was made Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret; was elected Knight Commander, Court of Honor, and the thirty-third degree was conferred on him by the Supreme Council at Washington, District of Columbia, October 29, 1890, he being at that time thirty-three years of age. He has held about all the various official places in these bodies, and is a Past Grand Commander of the order.
July 3, 1883, Mr. Morrow was married to Miss Flora E. Burt. She was born in Con- necticut, but is descended from Massachusetts stock, some of her ancestors having fought in the Revolutionary War.
Mr. Morrow is noted as an all around lawyer of fine accomplishments. He is a very modest inan, and is one whose merits will never be exploited by himself. He detests cant of all kinds, and believes that the meretricious can never be made to pass for the genuine with people with enough intelligence to make their opinion worth anything. There is nothing affected in his manner and nothing of pretense about him. He desires no exag- gerated estimate of himself from any quarter. He never strives to be otherwise than nat-
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ural and is plain and democratie in his intercourse with the world. Of the greatest stabil- ity of character, 10 attempt is ever made by him to disguise his attitude toward any ques- tion or man. His noblest trait is his unchanging fidelity to his friends. His attachment to them is strong and real, and to him his friends are the dearest things in life outside his family.
St. Louis, Mo., February, 1898.
WILLIAM H. MAYO.
CHESLEY A. MOSMAN, SAINT JOSEPH.
ALTHOUGH ever pursuing the even tenor of his way, and never a seeker of wide publicity, there are few practitioners better known to the bar of Northwest Mis- souri, or whose legal attainments are more sincerely respected by the fraternity than Chesley A. Mosman, of St. Joseph. His later field of practice has been corporation law, and the faet of his legal representation of these moneyed interests which seek always only the best talent in that line, is in itself sufficient testimony of his ability.
Mr. Mosman was born at Chester, Illinois, July 29, 1842, and is the son of John L. and Mary J. Mosman (daughter of Hugh Graham). The great grandfather of our subject, Robert Swan, of Peterborough, New Hampshire, was a soldier in the American Revolution. His parents came from Maine, to settle in New Orleans, from where they removed, after a short residence, to Illinois, where their son was born. While the latter was yet but a child the family removed to St. Louis, where the boy grew up and received his education.
In that period of his career between the completion of his education and the commence- ment of the serious duties of life, the quarrel between the North and South flamed forth into Civil War. The young man of our biography was an ardent partisan of the cause of the Union-one of the sort inclined to act rather than speak. At the beginning of hostil- ities he enlisted in the Ninth Missouri Infantry (afterward designated as the Fifty-ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry), and served four a half years, being mustered out, January 15, 1866. That he saw the most active service and passed through many dangers, is demon- strated by the fact that he was shot four times. His bravery won promotion to the rank of First Lieutenant, a position he occupied during the last three years of the contest.
After the declaration of peace he engaged in merchandising until 1869, when he began the study of law, having located at St. Josephi in December, 1868. In that city he was admitted to practice by the Circuit Court of Buchanan County, and there he lias resided and practiced continuously since.
Since beginning practice, Mr. Mosman has been a member of various legal firms. In 1875 hc formed a partnership with John D. Strong, which was conducted under the style of Strong & Mosman until 1891, a period of sixteen years, when ill health cansed Mr. Strong's retirement. Mr. Mosman next formed a partnership with Hon. D. D. Burnes and Judge O. M. Spencer, under the firm naine of Spencer, Burnes & Mosman, which was dis- solved by the election of Mr. Barnes to Congress, thic remaining partners continuing the business under the style of Spenecr & Mosman. Those firms in which Mr. Mosman has beci a partner have been the General Solicitors of the Hannibal & St. Joseph and the Kan- sas City, St. Joseph & Comeil Bluffs Railways since 1883. It may be stated also that for
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the past twenty years Mr. Mosman has been continuously in the employ of the Burlington systeni, acting as one of its most trusted legal officials. In this capacity he has practiced in the courts of all the counties through which the lines of that system pass, and these aggregate almost the whole of North Missouri.
Mr. Mosman's long service as a railway attorney has made him thoroughly familiar with corporation law and an authority in that department relating to common carriers. The law is his field, his life work, and in delving therein he finds his greatest pleasure. He is inodest, but withal a man of great strength of character and reserve force. He has a son to perpetuate his name in the law, a young man of ability and brilliant parts, now con- nected with the firm of Warner, Dean, Gibson & McLeod, Kansas City.
ALEXANDER WASHINGTON MULLINS, LINNEUS.
M AJOR ALEXANDER WASHINGTON MULLINS, who was born in Marion County, Kentucky, April 12, 1835, bears his sixty odd years of life with an ease and dignity which are the natural result of an upright life and a successful career in the legal pro- fession.
The Mullins family was originally English, having settled in the old Colonial days in Massachusetts and South Carolina, and several members of the house bore arms in the Revolutionary War. The branch from which Major Mullins descends came from South Caro- lina, but his father, a native of Virginia, moved to Kentucky, and was there for many years a successful farmer. In 1844 he moved to Missouri. His name was Berryman H. Mullins, and his wife's maiden name was Susanna J. Crews. The Crews family came from Ireland in the days before the War of the Revolution, settling in Virginia.
It was in the common schools of Linn County that Major Mullins began his educa- tion, completing it at McGee College, in Macon County. Then he studied law in the office of Judge Jacob Smith, of Linn County, who proved to be a valuable preceptor. He was admitted to the bar at Linneus, in 1857, by Judge J. A. Clark, of the Circuit Court, and practiced law in partnership with Judge Jacob Smith until near the com- inencement of the war. The enlistment of young Mullins dissolved the partnership. He went to the front in the winter of 1861 and 1862, and when, in 1865, the conflict ended, he resumned his legal business at Linneus, where he has since remained.
Having a larger practice than perhaps any lawyer in his part of the State, it follows as a corollary that he should be a man of decided ability. Mediocrity cannot rise very high in the legal profession. The practitioner of merit comes to the top by a process of natural selection. Every court in his section is familiar with Major Mullins' per- suasive voice, and he is acknowledged on all sides to be in the foremnost rank of the lawyers of Linn county, not on account of age and experience, but chiefly through his innate aptness for handling the most tangled and difficult cases. His skill in conduct- ing litigation that involves uncertain points of law has won him a most enviable reputa- tion, and he fully deserves the eminence he has attained.
As a soldier and legislator he bears a record replete with adventure and activity. In February, 1862, he enlisted in the First Regiment of Missouri State Militia, rising to the rank of Major and serving for three years. His brother, Lieut. John D. Mullins,
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who belonged to tlie saine regiment, was killed in an engagement. Major Mullins did valuable duty through many parts of Missouri and did some campaigning out of this State, taking part in the battle of Mine Creek, Kansas, near Fort Scott, at that time being in command of the regiment which opened the engagement. In this battle Gen- eral Marmaduke and General Fagin and nearly all the minor officers of the Confederates were captured, the only notable one to escape being General Price, who was closely pursued.
From 1862 to 1864 Major Mullins was a inember of the Missouri Legislature, and again from 1866 to 1868. During both terms he was honored with the Chairmanship of the Com- mittee on Criminal Jurisprudence and a membership on the Judiciary Committee. As County Treasurer of Linn County for two terms he served faithfully and admirably, and for twenty-five years has been a member of the School Board of Linneus. In 1877 he was appointed United States District Attorney by President Grant, and after serving one year resigned in order to attend more closely to his growing private practice. He had an active hand in the building of the Chicago, Burlington & Kansas City Railway through his sec- tion, and for some time was its attorney. The bank of Moore & Mullins, which began business at Linneus in 1896, was established by him.
He is an Odd Fellow of reputation in Linn County, having filled nearly all the chairs it is possible for an earnest member to fill in the lodge. In politics he is a Republican of the most progressive kind, and at the State Convention of the Republican party in 1890 he was nominated for Judge of the Supreme Court.
January 10, 1863, at Linneus, Major Mullins was married to Miss Nerissa Smith, daughter of his foriner law partner, Judge Jacob Smith. There are six living children by this marriage-John D., residing now in the State of Washington; Mabel, the wife of William K. Amick, a leading lawyer of St. Joseph, Missouri, and its former City Counselor; Alexander W., who lives with his father; Frances, a girl; Roscoe and Ben H. These two girls and four boys inherit much of their father's talents and fine appearance.
ELIJAH HISE NORTON, PLATTE CITY.
O NE of Missouri's most gifted historians says that this commonwealth is indebted to two classes of men for whatever greatness and power she has attained as a State. "The first were those hardy pioneers who came into wild and uncultivated regions, * *
* * conquered the forces of nature and finally set civilization on its feet. Tlie second were the leaders of political thought and action, the educators of public opinion, pioneers of great principles, reformers of public abuses and men of courage and sagacity in times of political danger." To both these classes the venerable Judge Elijalı Hise Norton, of Platte City, belongs, and therefore must be considered a beneficiary of his State in a double sense. In an eminent degree was he qualified to enact this double role on the stage of life. Possessed of many of the sterling attributes of the first class, such as unfailing courage, the strength of purpose and that love of simplicity and nature manifested by those who constituted the advance guard of civilization, he is also cudowed in a remarkable degrce with the Anglo-Saxon genius for government, the strong will, the independence in opinion, the decisiveness in action, the contempt for falsehood and sham, the integrity and purity
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A . H . Mullins .
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of character, which made him a shaper of opinion and a leader of men-entitling him to high rank in the last named division. For years he has been notable as one of the most learned jurists and ablest lawyers of Missouri, and so intimately is he related, and such a conspicuous part has he played in the history of the bench and bar of Missouri, that to omit his name therefrom would be to remove from the stage one of the most important actors. While scarcely more than an imperfect outline of his life can be given here, it is believed that even such bare facts, unembellished by detail, will prove of more than ordinary interest to the reader.
Elijah Hise Norton was born at Russellville, Logan County, Kentucky, November 21, 1821. He is the son of William and Mary Norton. His mother's family name (which was given him as one of his own) was Hise, and his father, a native of Pennsylvania, removed from the latter to the Blue Grass State in the early part of the century. He engaged in the iron and salt trade at Russellville and continued the business prosperously for many years. His son, the subject of this sketch, was given his higher education at Centre Col- lege, at Danville, Kentucky. Then with the law before him, he entered Transylvania University, at Lexington, Kentucky, notable as the alma mater of inany inen whose genius has been instrumental in shaping the course of events. He graduated in the class of 1843, and returning to his home at Russellville, was there admitted to the bar.
Kentucky has always been prolific of talented professional men, and the bar at Russell- ville consisted of lawyers many of whom were both able and well established. The newly- fledged young attorney was too impatient of success to take the time necessary to make his merit known in a field where there were so inany practitioners of known reputation, and therefore resolved to seek a location in a section whose newness would place all aspirants on a fairer and inore even footing. In his opinion, Missouri offered the greatest opportunities for the young lawyer, and he made up his mind to seek his fortune within her boundaries. He left his Kentucky home in December, 1844, and that date may fairly be noted as the beginning of his struggle with the world. His journey ended at Platte City, Missouri, on the eighth day of January, 1845. He liked the country, considered the prospects good, there began practice and there he has since made his home.
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