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 83
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Shortly after beginning his professional career, Mr. Pritchett was elected City Attorney of Fayette, serving two years, from 1893 to 1895. He has already represented the county of Howard in the Lower House of the State Legislature, and his record there gives founda- tion of fact for the belief that he is entering on a brilliant public career. He was elected Representative in 1894, and served in both the regular and the special session of the Thirty- eighth General Assembly, and impressed his colleagues as a young man of fine ability and more than ordinary eloquence. He is genial and affable among his friends and courteous to everybody, and is endowed with a manner that readily wins confidence and friendship.
It is worthy of mention that Mr. Pritchett is one of the best known Knights of Pythias in his section of Missouri. He has five times been Chancellor Commander, the highest office in Fayette Lodge, and has been its representative to the Grand Lodge four times. He is a Democrat in politics and very active.
Mr. Pritchett was married June 21, 1893, at Fayette, to Miss Margaret Sexton Waters, daughter of Capt. James Waters, a veteran of both the Mexican and Civil wars. In the last named struggle he was a Captain in the Confederate Army. Mr. and Mrs. Pritchett have two children, Josephine, aged three years, and James Waters, aged two years.
ROBERT TARLTON RAILEY, HARRISONVILLE.
MONG the ablest lawyers in the western part of Missouri is Robert Tarlton Railey, A of Harrisonville, the seat of justice of Cass County. He enjoys a most enviable rep- utation for learning and ability and ranks with the eminent lawyers of the State.
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He comes of one of the prominent Southern families, his father, Tarlton Railey, being in aute-bellum days one of Louisiana's wealthiest planters. Born in Woodford County, Kentucky, September 1, 1810, he was married at Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, August 15, 1839, to Mary W. Blackwell, the mother of the subject of this sketch, who was of a Ken- tuckian family that was no less prominent and wealthy than that of her husband. They moved to Louisiana, where at Milliken's Bend, their son Robert was born, January 19, 1850. Tarlton Railey was the owner of a magnificent plantation on the Mississippi River, and was therefore, as a matter of course, the master of many slaves. In the year of their son's birth, 1850, the family moved back to Kentucky, settling at Versailles, where it con- tinued to reside until the removal to Cass County, Missouri, in March, 1855. The mother of Mr. Railey is still living; the father died at Harrisonville in 1879.
After due preparation in the schools of Harrisonville, the subject of this biography entered the University of Missouri at Columbia. During the latter part of his senior year, lie returned to his home at Harrisonville, where in 1870 he engaged in the mercantile busi- ness. He found the vocation unsuited to his tastes and inclinations, and remained therein but two years, leaving it to take up the study of law. To that end he entered the office of Boggess & Sloan, at Harrisonville, and was admitted to practice there in September, 1873, by the late Hon. Foster P. Wright, then Judge of that Circuit.
Mr. Railey has pursued his vocation continuously since his admission to the bar, and has resided in Harrisonville uninterruptedly since 1865. He is an enthusiastic devotee of the law, and eloquent as a pleader, he invests his speeches with a fire and earnestness that in- press jury and audience. His ability to plainly state a case, his power of discrimination as to controlling features, and his forceful method of presenting an argument, are unexcelled. He has a prepossessing appearance and scholarly bearing. His success at the bar has been phenomenal. He lias an extensive practice, many of his clients being railroads and other corporations, and few cases of importance arise in his section of the State in which he is not employed. Although he is warmly interested in politics and is thoroughly posted on men and the issues of the time, he has neither held office nor been a candidate for any place. However, the Democracy has frequently honored him in its councils, and he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1884; and again in 1888, when the Convention inet at St. Louis. At both sessions he worked and voted for Grover Cleveland, and is still an enthusiastic adinirer of the ex-President and is an uncompromising advocate of the gold standard.
Mr. Railey married Martha S. Beattie, daughter of Dr. Thomas Beattie, of Harrison- ville, September 3, 1874. The couple have but one child, a son, born in 1885. He is a bright and promising boy, and is now attending school at Harrisonville.
DAVID REA, SAV ANNAH.
ON. DAVID REA, of Savannah, is a native of Indiana, having been born in Ripley H County, January 19, 1831. His father, Jonathan Rea, was a native of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. The members of the family were pioneers of that, one of the oldest and most historic counties in the United States. The Reas being of Scotch origin, were perhaps of those numerous Highlanders who sought liberty in that land prior to
David Rea
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1746, or of the inany more who were transported there between 1746 and 1776 for being implicated in the rebellion of Prince Charles. Early the Carolinas were the favored spot that attracted rebels, resisters of tyranny and lovers of liberty from the surrounding colonies and all other parts of the earth. This process of selection peopled that section with the bravest, noblest and most independent community of lovers of religious and civil liberty ever gathered together. Britain nominally governed the colony, which was afterward divided into two States, but the people submitted to no infringement of their natural rights. Tyrannical governors were deposed, church rates refused, and extortionate crown officers beaten. As early as 1771 many of the western counties rose against taxation, and brave Mecklenburg, though but a sparsely settled county, had the courage to defy a kingdom. In May, 1775, the people of that county declared themselves free of the authority of Great Britain and thus set the noble example which was followed by all the colonies more than a year later. It is not singular then that the Reas, who were old residents even then among these people of indomitable spirit, should have played a conspicuous part in the accomplishment of this result, known as the "Mecklenburg Declaration," or that they took up arins to a man afterward to fight the tyrant. Jonathan Rea, the father of our subject, on reaching manhood inoved to Indiana. He was a farmer all his life, and married Lurana Breeden, who became the mother of our subject. The Breedens, like the Reas, are of Scotch origin. They settled in Kentucky and were a family of good con- nection and standing.
When David Rea was less than twelve years old, his parents removed from Indiana to Missouri, settling in Andrew County. This was in 1842. There the lad attended the coinmon school and assisted with the farm work, later entering the high school where he completed his education. In the next few years after leaving school, his time was divided between work on the farm, teaching various district schools and studying law at home, his ambition having long been centered on the bar as his life work. Young men who were situated as he was seldom waste any time, for it was under the driving knowledge that wliat was obtained must be earned with labor, and not purchased by money earned by some one else -circuinstances on which rests the foundation of the careers of ninety-five per cent. of the successful men of the present day. The young farmer-school teacher had completed his studies by 1863, and in that year was admitted to practice by Judge Silas Woodson, afterwards Governor of the State, and in Mr. Rea's opinion, one of the greatest men ever produced by Northwest Missouri. When the young aspirant secured his license to practice, he at once moved to Savannah, the county seat of Andrew County, opened an office, and has there resided ever since. His professional life thus covers a period of over a third of a century and is one of the longest to be found among the attorneys of Northwest Missouri.
During his long career, Mr. Rea has grown constantly in the esteem and affection of the people of Northwest Missouri. His life has been rigidly upright and honorable, he has manifested always that kindliness and good will to his fellow-man from which they have learned that he is riclily dowered with all those elements of honesty, fidelity, humanity and charity which can only be the attributes of a noble character.
He has never been a seeker of public preferments, but in 1874 was the logical candi- date of his party for Congress, and was nominated without ever having given his consent to the action of his friends. During the war he was an adherent of the Union, but so con- servative was his course then and so wise and liberal afterward in the dark days of "recon- struction," that the ordinary "bloody shirt" orator could not affect his chances in the
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least, and he was elected, being the first Democrat returned from Northwest Missouri after the war. When the battle cry of "reform" was heard after the Credit Mobilier exposures, and the "Salary Grab, " his constituents naturally turned to him to represent them again. "Honest Dave" was the agnomen that followed him all over the district in this campaign of 1876. Gen. B. F. Loan, who had previously served three terms in Congress, and who was the Republican candidate and his opponent, charged that "the Democrats sought to escape deserved criticism by seeking out the only honest man in their party, nicknaming him 'Honest Dave,' and running him for Congress." In 1878, however, when he ran the third time, he was defeated through the fusion of the Republicans and the Greenbackers, which proved too strong for the Democracy and which elected Nicholas Ford. Mr. Rea has been a Democrat all his life. In Congress he was a representative whose ability reflected honor on his State. In this capacity he was a strong friend of silver, and indeed voted for the bill of 1878, which is the parent of every silver dollar now in circulation. He held this attitude until the campaign of 1896, when he became convinced that the ratio of sixteen to one was unwise, and that its adoption would be detrimental to the country, and accordingly voted for Palmer and Buckner.
As Mr. Rea has been for a great many years a member of the Andrew County School Board, he has been able to make his interest in education take practical form. It was largely through his efforts and influence that numerous splendid school houses now dot the face of Andrew County. He is deeply attached to the county where he has lived more than half a century, to its people and soil, and still owns the farm in Andrew County which his father preempted in 1843.
The crossing of the paths of Mr. Rea and John P. Altgeld, lately Governor of Illinois, doubtless left its impress on the characters of both. When the present leader of the Democracy was an obscure and struggling young man, Mr. Rea, who has laid up treasures in licaven as the helpful friend of struggling young men, noted in him an ambition and potential ability that he believed were of 110 common degree. He became the lad's friend, encouraged him and finally became his preceptor, for it was in Mr. Rea's office at Savannah that Altgeld studied law. The former had the highest opinion of the latter, and recognized in him the talent which has since made him a national character. Mr. Rea says Altgeld is one of the country's ablest lawyers and most profound thinkers.
The following estimate of Mr. Rea is given at the request of the Editor by Isaac R. Williams, a life-long and intimate friend, who began the study of law twenty-five years ago in Mr. Rea's office, to use his own words, "without money and without friends, but to dis- cover later that by associating with such a man as David Rea, that much money was not needed and that friends were soon found." Mr. Williams, referring to that tinic, says:
"I have been intimately associated with himi ever since and think I know the points which mark him as a noble man. His own experience and struggle in early life inuring him to hard labor, gives him a deep-seated sympathy for the mass of toilers of our own and otlier lands; but his sterling convictions of right and justice, rugged honesty and conserva- tive position repudiates every throughit of relief through or by means that do not conformi to such principles. As a lawyer, lic added to liis deep fund of technical knowledge a broad comprehension of general principles of law and government, as well as a recognition of the fact that law is a growth continually adjusting its principles to new conditions in the development of the arts and sciences and is not bound down by dry, musty precedents of obsolete and past agcs. Never having served in a judicial capacity, he lias still always been
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recognized by the bar as possessing all the qualifications of a first-class trial Judge and has frequently been selected as a special Judge by agreement, and his decisions have sel- dom been appealed from and never reversed in the Appellate Courts. A strong, logical mind, a kind, affectionate disposition, especially to young lawyers, and no less so to those who earn their bread by manual labor in the humblest walks of life, and a rugged hon- esty, coupled with self-reliance and conservative disposition, are his chief distinctions."
Mr. Rea raised a family in which he takes a pardonable pride and satisfaction. He was married in June, 1852, to Nancy E. Beattie, daughter of J. C. Beattie, who settled in Missouri from Virginia. The couple have six children, all of whom are grown. The eldest, John B., followed his father's profession, and is at this time the leading lawyer and a large land owner of Mankato, Kansas. He is also a prominent figure in the pol- itics of the State, is a Democratic leader, and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Chicago in 1896. Joseph L. is a thrifty farmer and stock dealer, tilling the soil near the town in Andrew County named Rea, after his family. Robert W. is a physician and surgeon of ability, and is located at Plattsburg, Missouri, and has a fine practice. Charles C. is in business at Chicago, Illinois. Alice J. is the wife of Manor Fry, a merchant of Plattsburg, Missouri, while Ida still lives with her parents. All the children are married except Charles and Ida. Mr. Rea has seven grandchildren, all of whom bear the name Rea, and in whom he takes great pride.
MORRIS ADELBERT REED,
SAINT JOSEPH.
O NE of the cultured and refined gentlemen of St. Joseph, and also one of the city's leading attorneys, is Morris Adelbert Reed, who is a native of Watertown, New York. He is the son of Lewis Reed and Angeline Reed, whose family name was Spinning.
After the preparatory courses, his first educational experience was at Jefferson County Institute, at Watertown, New York. From the institute lie advanced to Belleville Acad- emy, Belleville, New York, from which he graduated in 1861, shortly after the breaking out of the Civil War.
To the youth the war presented a perspective of enterprise, adventure and military glory, but the moving cause of his subsequent act sprang from unselfish patriotism. He virtually stepped from the school room to the battle-field, as in September, 1862, he enlisted in Company A, Tenth New York Heavy Artillery, and was given a commission as Second Lieutenant. His regiment was at once ordered to the front and assigned to duty in the defense of Washington. On reaching the field of action the young soldier was at once appointed Aide-de-camp and acting Assistant Inspector-General on the staff of the Division Commander. He discharged the duties of these offices until the regiment was sent to engage in active hostilities as a part of General Sheridan's command in his last Shenan- doah campaign. He was next sent with his command to join General Grant in the Wilder- ness campaign, remaining with the latter until the investment of Petersburg. During his term of service in the field, he was also on staff duty as Aide-de-camp, and was in 1863 promoted to a First Lieutenancy. From the term of his enlistment he served to the end of
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the war, and was nearly the whole of the time in the midst of the battle ground of the Rebellion.
Upon the cessation of hostilities he returned to his home at Watertown, New York, and soon thereafter commenced preparations to adopt the law as a profession. He began his reading in the office of Brown & Beach (ex-Governor Beach), and in 1868 was admitted to the bar. Then he came West, locating at St. Joseph, where by ability and application lic lias achieved a most enviable success as a counselor and an advocate, and has earned also the highest standing as a citizen and gentlenian.
He has held several places of honor and trust, most of them judicial in character, since he has lived in St. Joseph. In 1873 he was appointed Register in Bankruptcy and held that office until the repeal of the Bankrupt law. He was nominated by the Republi- can party as its candidate for Congress in the Fourth District in 1882, but as the district was heavily Democratic, his opponent, the Hon. James M. Burnes, was elected. He served two years as City Counselor of St. Joseph, beginning in 1889, and was urged to continue in the office, but declined re-appointment. In January, 1892, he was appointed General Attorney of the St. Josephi & Grand Island Railroad Company, and its operated lines, and yet holds that responsible position.
Mr. Reed was married October 15, 1872, to Miss Margie R. Kimball, of Bath, Maine. They have two children and their home life is an ideal one.
ELIJAH ROBINSON, KANSAS CITY.
JUDGE ELIJAH ROBINSON is one of the conspicuous members of her State bar whom
Missouri may claim as her own, as he was born in Lincoln County, February, 1850. He is the son of Owen C. and Elizabeth (Salmons) Robinson, the family on his father's side having been residents of Virginia for many years and that of his mother coming from the best Kentucky stock, the Salmonses having resided in that State for inany generations.
Elijah Robinson was educated in the common schools, completing his education at Watson Seminary, in Pike County. He studied law in the office of Archibald V. McKee, at Troy, the county seat of Lincoln County, and was only twenty years of age when he had completed his legal studies and was admitted to the bar in 1870. He located at Bowling Green, in the neighboring county of Pike, and embarked in practice. In the year follow- ing, 1871, he was appointed Prosecuting Attorney, and so ably did he discharge the duties of the office, and so fully did lie enlist public confidence, that in 1872 he was elected to the office to which he had been appointed and in 1874 was re-elected.
He began to be considered a rising and brilliant man, even in a county that has pro- duced so many able men and lawyers of distinction. In 1880 he was elected Judge of the Third Judicial Circuit, comprised of the great counties of Pikc, Lincoln, Audrain and Montgomery, and took his seat on the woolsack at the age of thirty-one, being the young- cst man who ever occupied that position and one of the youngest Judges of the State. In his new office he fully rose to the expectations of the public and made one of the best Judges who cver presided over the circuit. At the end of his six years' terin, or in 1886, he removed to Louisiana, the principal town of Pike County, and there practiced until 1889. In the latter year he removed to Kansas City and has since resided and practiced there.
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M. a. Raed
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As his reputation as a gifted lawyer had preceded him, he was not long in building up an excellent practice.
Besides having made a reputation as a practitioner and expounder of the law, Judge Robinson has always been noted as one of the public spirited and enterprising men of the commonwealth. He has been identified with a great many public enterprises having for their object the general and commercial progress of the people, not only while he was a citizen of Pike, but since he went to Kansas City, the city of keen-witted, enterprising men. He was one of the prime movers in the construction of a railroad through Pike County and was at one time a director of the Hannibal Railroad. He is an influential Mason, is a Knight of Pythias, and in politics is a Democrat, and has rendered his party efficient service in this State.
Judge Robinson was married in October, 1876, to Miss Lelia Harris, of Pike County, Missouri. Mrs. Robinson is a daughter of the Hon. William A. Harris, who at one time represented one of the districts of Virginia in Congress and at another time was Minister of the United States to the Argentine Republic. Judge and Mrs. Robinson have one child, a boy.
As an advocate and barrister Judge Robinson is noted for liis eloquence and thorough mastery of all the points of the case; as a counselor his attitude is cautious and deliberative, tracing every fact in the case to its beginning and considering it in its relations to every other fact that is known or may be discovered. His arguments are clear, logical and pointed and his handling of a case convinces client and court that he has exhausted its every possibility. He is a stickler for accuracy in all things and is a student of the sci- ence of the profession he follows. While he sat upon the bench, the brevity, clearness and condensation of his charges often surprised the bar. In formulating a charge that is clear, brief and yet covers the whole ground he is an expert. His decisions are like- wise marvels of sound reasoning and good law. He is a man of great reserve force, quiet, modest and a deep thinker rather than a voluble talker. His moral and intellectual honesty, his strong, analytical mind, his capacity for reaching conclusions quickly, his power of concise and clear statement, coupled with his great industry, have made him one of the best "all-around " lawyers in the State.
WALTOUR M. ROBINSON,
WEBB CITY.
W ALTOUR M. ROBINSON, Judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri, achieved that distinction at the general election in 1894. The honor was rather a surprise to him, as he is a Republican, and as is well known, this State is reliably Democratic. At the time he donned the ermine, his associates on the bench were Judges Gantt, Burgess, Sherwood, Barclay,* Macfarlane and Bruce.
Judge Robinson is a native Missourian, having been born near Paris, in Monroe County, November 27, 1851, and therefore has yet to see his fiftieth year. He was educated in the public schools and at William Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri. He received his scholastic legal training at the Union College of Law, which is a part of Chicago University.
*On Februry 1, 1898, Judge Shepard Barclay resigned, and William M. Williams, of Boonville, was appointed by Governor Stephens to fill his unexpired term. This action was taken on the part of Judge Barclay after his sketch, on page 144 of this volume, was printed.
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In 1877, the young law graduate located at Webb City, Jasper County, then by no means the big mining center it is to-day. Soon the young man was elected City Attor- ney of Webb City, in which office he served four years. He was later elected Prosecut- ing Attorney, re-elected and served four years in that capacity. In 1892 he was elected, on the Republican ticket, Judge of the Twenty-fifth Judicial Circuit and was an incum- bent of that office at the time of his nomination and election to the Supreme Judgeship.
Judge Robinson's foresight and sagacity were demonstrated by his early belief in Webb City. "Justifying his faith by his works," he early invested in the inining future of the town, and it is now said that the development of his lead inines is bringing him big returns on his confidence in that part of Jasper County. At the date this is written, there are rumors to the effect that the Judge is disposed to lay aside the judicial erinine, if he can be assured that his resignation would not leave his party without representation on that bench, or if he is permitted to stipulate that one of his own party shall succeed him. It is said that he desires to resume his law practice and thus be enabled to attend to his extensive mining interests, but whether the rumor points to truth or is only a canard, is without verification.
The Judge is married and has an interesting family.
JOSEPH H. RODES,
SEDALIA.
JOSEPH H. RODES is a native of Ralls County, this State, and was born March 24, 1854. He is the genial, kindly, liberal minded and intellectually gifted man-of that sort produced by a lifetime of Missouri environment and a Virginian, Kentuckian or Ten- nesseean ancestry. In this case the combination is Virginian and Tennesseean, the agnate branch of his ancestry coming from the State first named and the cognate from the last named. The Rodeses were very prominent in the early history of Virginia, and constitute a family that has exercised a inarked influence in the affairs of that commonwealth from Colonial days until the present time. The great great grandfather of our subject, while Virginia was yet a dependency of Great Britain, received from the English crown the grant of a very large tract of land in Albemarle County. It is a noted plantation and has been successively transmitted from father to son, and is at this day in the hands of the descend- ants of the Rodes family.
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