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 84
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94
Joseph H. Rodes received an academic training at Van Rensselaer Academy, of Ralls County, Missouri. From there he went to Central College, Fayette, Missouri, whence he graduated in 1876, with the degree of Ph. D. As so many of the lawyers who are now conspicuous members of the State bar have done, lic began life as a school teacher, con- tinning at that vocation three years before he began the study of law at Paris, Missouri. He was able to secure as the supervisor of his readings, that able jurist, Judge Theodore Brace, now one of the Judges of the State's Supreme Tribunal. His legal studies were continued in the legal department of the State University at Columbia, where he grad11- ated with credit, receiving his degree of LL. B. as a member of the class of 1881.
After obtaining his license he at once located at Paris, where he had begun his studies, and in the fall following the spring of his graduation, lic was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Monroe County. So fully did he inect the people's good opinion respecting him, and
-
595
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
with such zeal did he serve them in his official capacity, that he was given a second terin without question. On the expiration of his second term he resumed private practice in Monroe and adjoining counties, practicing alone until 1885, when he formed a partnership with A. H. Waller, under the style of Waller & Rodes, with offices both at Paris and Moberly. It was about this period that his practice began to run largely to personal injury cases, the specialty in which he has become so expert.
In 1891 Mr. Rodes was married to Miss Leona Williams, of Mexico, Missouri, a gentle and accomplished lady of most excellent musical attainments, the oldest daughter of J. V. Williams, County Clerk of Audrain County. Shortly thereafter the partnership subsisting between Waller & Rodes was dissolved, and in 1892, Mr. Rodes inoved to Sedalia. He soon became an influential factor in the social, political and professional life of the Queen City of the Prairie, and the volume of his practice has waxed yearly. His reputation had preceded him there, and although his practice is general, his extended experience and knowledge of the laws and precedents bearing on cases of personal damage and injury, give him a great advantage in that specialty.
Mr. Rodes is generally known as a devoted fraternity member and as an adept in Masonry and Odd Fellowship. He joined the lodge of Odd Fellows at Paris in 1882, and still maintains his membership there. He is also connected with the Masonic Blue Lodge there, which he joined in 1885. Soon thereafter he took chapter degrees, and within the year following, became a Knight Templar, and is now a member of Parsifal Commandery, No. 44, at Paris, Missouri. In 1887 he took Shrine degrees and is now a member of Ararat Temple, Kansas City.
Mr. Rodes is ambitious, and if a high purpose, unswerving determination and applica- tion are the elements of success, it may be predicted of him that his reputation and prestige will grow in volume yearly. He has that devotion to his profession without which no man ever achieved any but mediocre success in any vocation. He has a gift of eloquence, too, and a personality that wins liking from the first.
WILL ANDERSON ROTHWELL, MOBERLY.
W ILL ANDERSON ROTHWELL, of Moberly, comes of a fine family and one which, coming through Virginia to Kentucky and from there to Missouri, has played a leading part in the social, political, military and professional affairs of those States. The earliest Virginia paternal ancestor of the Rothwell family was Claiborne Rothwell, who was of English derivation and a soldier in the Revolution. His home was in Albemarle County, Virginia, near Monticello, the home of the great Jefferson, and there he lived and died. Thomas Rothwell, son of the preceding, was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, in 1766, and married Mary Ann Fitch, a native of the same county, who was born in 1777. Thomas Rothwell moved to Garrard County, Kentucky, in 1821, where he died in 1835. Fountain Rothwell, eldest son of the preceding and the grandfather of this subject, was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, April 27, 1799, and in 1817, when a boy of eighteen, went to Florida as a soldier against the Seminoles under . the noted Indian Chief, Osceola. After- ward he settled in Madison County, Kentucky, and thence moved, in 1820, to Garrard County. There he was married, February 7, 1822, to Jane Roberts, who was born in 1803.
596
· THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
Her father, Nehman Roberts, was a soldier of the Revolution and lost an eye by the explo- sion of a slicll at the battle of Cowpens. He came from Dan River, North Carolina, and was of French extraction. Fountain Rothwell died in Garrard County, Kentucky, March 4, 1884. His second son, Dr. William Anderson Rothwell, father of Will Anderson, was born in Garrard County, Kentucky, March 14, 1832, and came to Callaway County, Mis- souri, in 1850, where he studied medicine under his uncle, Dr. John Rothwell, a brother of Fountain Rothwell. He afterwards returned to Kentucky and there graduated from the Louisville Medical College in 1854, after which he came to Missouri to practice his profes- sion. Two years later, or on April 3, 1856, he was married to Sallie Creel Rothwell, of Callaway County, daughter of Dr. John Rothwell, of which union the subject of this bio- graphy is the only son. Dr. William A. Rothwell died at Moberly, Missouri, November 30, 1895.
Will A. Rotliwell was born on a farin on Grand Prairie, in Callaway County, January 4, 1863, and was educated in the public schools of Huntsville and Moberly, his father hav- ing removed, in October, 1868, to the first named town and in September, 1872, from there to Moberly. He graduated as valedictorian of his class at the Moberly high school, June 4, 1880, and then became a teacher in that institution, acting in that capacity for a term of two years. In September, 1882, he went to Columbia and entered the Missouri State Uni- versity, graduating from that institution in the academic class of 1885, his diploma bearing the legend, "First rank with distinction." He also took the junior law course in 1885, and altogether spent three years at the University. On his return to Moberly he entered the law office of Gideon F. Rothwell, completed his legal studies, and was admitted to the bar at Moberly in 1886, by Judge George H. Burckhartt. Gideon F. Rothwell was an uncle of tlie young legal aspirant, and one of the ablest lawyers of Central Missouri. He was a member of Congress from the Moberly District and a man of standing and influence in that part of the State. Other uncles of Will A. Rothwell in Missouri are William R. Rothwell, LL. D., of William Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri, and Dr. Thomas P. Rothwell, of Mexico, Missouri.
On being qualified, our subject opened an office in Moberly and has continued in prac- tice there since, excepting when his professional work has been necessarily suspended by service of a public nature. He lias held positions of official character alinost since the beginning of his career as a lawyer, although they have been largely in direct line with his profession. In January, 1889, he was appointed Secretary of the Revision Commission, which was charged with the onerous task of revising the Missouri Statutes of 1889. In this capacity lie proved one of the most valuable men connected with that work, from which lie also reaped a professional advantage, as it made him familiar with the statutes and their history and descent as nothing else could have done. This task kept him at Jefferson City one year. In 1890 lie was elected City Attorney of Moberly, serving as such from that date to 1894, inclusive. He is the author of the Missouri statutes governing cities of the third and fourthi classes, enacted in 1893 and 1895, respectively, and wrote the entire text of those laws as they stand on the statute books of this State. In the fall of 1894 he was elected from Randolph County to the Legislature, and in 1896 was elected Prosecut- ing Attorney of that county. In 1895 he was appointed a member of the Board of Man- agers of the State Reform School for Boys, at Boonville, and served as such two years. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of Tancred Commandery, Knights Tci11-
.
-
597
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
plar, and several other orders, and has held many of the positions of honor in the lodges to which he belongs.
Mr. Rothwell is undoubtedly one of the most popular young men in the State. To use a slang but expressive term, he is known as a "mixer," and thus his acquaintance extends to all parts of Missouri. He is a Democrat in politics. When he went up to Jefferson City as the representative of his county in the Assembly, notwithstanding his youth, his talent readily carried him to the front and he occupied, by common consent, the place of leader of the minority party in that session. His course since he was elected Prosecuting Attorney satisfies the people that their interests have been placed in competent hands. He has an ex- tended use of language and a fine fund of general knowledge. He has already attained a high place as a public and professional man though his career has scarcely begun, and therefore his friends are certainly not over sanguine when they expect much of him here- after and consider his future a bright one.
JOHN MOSES SALLEE,
BETHANY.
A LAWYER who has a reputation second to none in North Missouri, is Col. John Moses Sallee, of Bethany. As may be seen by a student of nomenclature, the name Sallee is of French origin, the family bearing it having settled in Virginia prior to the Revolution. From there our subject's grandfather marched away to join Washington's Army and gave his country the service that can only spring from true patriotism and a knowledge that the cause fought for is just. After the birth of Mr. Sallee's father, Joseph M., he moved to Kentucky, where Joseph grew to manhood, and where he met and mar- ried Matilda Dunkerson, the inotlier of our subject, caine to Missouri in 1836, settling in what was then Livingston County, but after the sub-division became Mercer County. The Dunkersons were of German extraction, but miade a settlement in America at a very early period, as Colonel Sallee's grandfather Dunkerson was a soldier in the War of 1812, serving both under Cominodore Perry and General Jackson. The family first settled in Virginia, but in pioneer times moved to Kentucky.
In Mercer County, Missouri, the subject of this biography was born, October 22, 1849. His father being a farmer, he was reared near to nature and was there taught habits of thrift and industry. He worked on the farm and at times when the farm work did not demand his attention, was sent to the district school. His education was completed at the high school of Leon, just across the line in Iowa. When he was eighteen years old he began teaching school and continued teaching several years, to the end that he inight carry out his long cherished ambition to fit himself for the bar. It was some time before this purpose was accomplished, but where there is a "will there is always a way," and finally, his studies, which he had prosecuted at home entirely, had covered the subjects, etc., prescribed by the regular law schools, and he passed his examination and was admitted to practice in March, 1884, at Bethany, by Judge Charles H. S. Goodman. He established himself in Bethany in the office he still occupies, and has met with a measure of success most gratifying to himself and friends. His first partner was Hon. Charles H. S. Good- man, the Judge who admitted him to practice. This association was continued up to
598
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
November, 1896, when Judge Goodman was succeeded by Charles W. Crossan, Colonel Sallee's son-in-law, and this business relationship is still maintained.
Colonel Sallee served as Prosecuting Attorney of Harrison County in 1888-89, and has been elected by the people City Attorney of Bethany. He has never aspired to strictly political office, being above all else a lawyer and one who takes an extraordinary pride in his profession. He is an adept in Masonry, is a Knight Templar, has filled all the chairs in the Blue Lodge, and is High Priest of Royal Arch Chapter, No. 80, of Bethany. He is in politics an enthuiastic Democrat, although his connection with that party has no taint of self-interest. He is at this time a inember of the State Central Committee and for several years has attended about every State Convention of the party as a delegate. His practice as a lawyer is, of course, of a general nature, but in all criminal cases that come up in that section, he is likely to appear as counsel on one side or the other. All men of great head are apt to be large hearted and hence are more likely to show to better advantage as defenders in criminal cases than as prosecutors. During his legal career it has been the fortune of Colonel Sallee to appear for the defense in no less than six noted capital cases, and in every instance he secured an acquittal. He is an excellent trial lawyer and an eloquent pleader. His gift of language has been greatly developed by experience and he is an interesting speaker in whatever guise he comes before the public. The following estimate of his ability as a lawyer appeared in a Gentry County paper during the trial of the celebrated Phillips case at Bethany :
" The speech of Col. J. M. Sallee, of Bethany, in the Phillips murder case, won inany compliments from the members of the bar and the large crowd of spectators in attendance and it was thought by inany to be the best speech ever delivered in the court room. He made the closing argument for the defense, and for an hour and a half reviewed the evidence, analyzed the legal points, closing his arguments with an earnest and most eloquentap peal for his client that could not have failed to deeply impress the jury as well as the remainder of hearers. Colonel Sallee is comparatively a young man in the practice of his profession, but it is not to be wondered at that his ability and energy have already placed him in the front rank."
Colonel Sallee was married November 20, 1880, in Mercer County, Missouri, to Sarah C. Elmore, daughter of Rev. G. C. Elmore, a resident of that county and a well-known Baptist minister and pulpit orator of the northern part of the State. Two children have been born to them, a daughter and a son. The former, Ile Sallee, is now the wife of Charles W. Crossan, Mr. Sallee's law partner. The son, Clyde Elinore, is eleven years old.
JAMES M. SANDUSKY,
LIBERTY.
JUDGE JAMES M. SANDUSKY was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, on the 7th day of January, 1849. His father was William Sandusky, a farmer in easy circum- stances, who died while yet in the prime of life. His widow, the mother of the subject of this sketch, in years after, married Archibald Lincoln, a distant relative of the Martyr Pres- ident. The mother's maiden name was Ann E. George, and through hier mother she was related to thic Rogerses, who constituted one of Kentucky's oldest and most powerful families. Botlı the father and grandfather of Judge Sandusky were natives of Jessamine County. The
John'M Salle
599
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
Judge's great grandfather and others of the name played a conspicuous part in pioneer times, and in the struggle of the Colonies to throw off the British yoke. The great grandfather was a native of Virginia, was of Polish extraction, was a soldier in the Continental Army under Washington and was present when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. With Boone he is entitled to the credit of having planted the standard of civilization in that fertile empire lying west of Virginia, as he reached Kentucky only about three years after Boone. This credit must be shared with the other members of his family, who in a superlative degree were possessed of the unflinching courage and disregard of danger of the true pioneer. One of his brothers, James Sandusky, gave his name to that early outpost of civilization, Fort San- dusky. The family in the past has engaged in agricultural pursuits, and once owned magnificent tracts of that spot of earth kissed into such bountiful fertility by the sun-the blue grass region of Kentucky.
Judge Sandusky's father died when the son was about two years of age. Before he was seven, or in 1855, he was brought to Missouri and to Clay County, and at Liberty, its county seat, he has since resided. The course of education begun in the common schools he continued at William Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri, finishing its prescribed courses in 1866. There is always something born in a Kentuckian that binds him to his native State, which exercises an attraction which at some time in his life carries him back to her. It is not surprising then to learn that after he left William Jewell, the young student went to the Blue Grass State and entered Kentucky University, September, 1867. There he spent two years, graduating from several of the University's departments. On his return to his home in Liberty in the fall of 1869, he began the study of law under Maj. Samuel Hardwicke, an eminent practitioner of that time, and was admitted to practice April, 1871, by the Circuit Court of Clay County.
Judge Sandusky's first partnership was with Horatio F. Simrall, now a distinguished member of the Liberty bar, and who has since that day represented his district in the State Senate. This partnership was maintained up to the time that Judge Sandusky was elevated to the Circuit Bench, in 1886. Besides the office above referred to, Judge Sandusky has held a number of other official positions of responsibility and trust. The year following his admission to the bar he was elected City Attorney of Liberty, serving in that office during 1872, 1873 and 1874. In November, 1876, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Clay County, serving one term and refusing to be a candidate for re-election. In November, 1886, he was elected Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, and also declined re-election to this office on the expiration of his terin of six years.
Judge Sandusky has always been interested in the commercial and material welfare of his town, and since 1895 has been President of the Commercial Savings Bank of Liberty, which was organized in 1866. At the present time he is a member of the Board of Curators of the Orphan School of the Christian Church of Missouri, located at Fulton. Both Judge and Mrs. Sandusky are leading members of the church above named and have been promi- nent in its work at Liberty for more than twenty years. In fraternal circles the Judge has been identified with the Odd Fellows since 1871. He is also a Knight of Pythias.
Judge Sandusky is a gentleman of enlarged views, exact knowledge and high purpose, and must be considered as one who has caught the inspiration of a magnificent future and is using the highest human means to its accomplishment. His record on the bench was a pure, honorable and able one. Easy of approach, sympathetic in nature, independent in
600
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
judgment and action and generous in disposition, it is not strange that he enjoys in such inarked degree the confidence and esteem of his fellow-citizens.
On the 16th day of December, 1874, Judge Sandusky was married to Susie C. Talbott, of Liberty, Missouri. She was born in Clay County, and is the daughter of John B. Talbott, of Scott County, Kentucky, and Madeline (Thomason) Talbott, of Franklin County, Ken- tucky. The couple have no children. They were married by Elder A. B. Jones, an esteemed friend of Judge Sandusky, who furnishes us the following estimate of his character and legal attainments :
"Nature never intended Judge Sandusky for a leader in any great movement or revo- lution, but when the revolution is accomplished and the people begin to look around for suitable men to maintain its established institutions, he would always be counted as stand- ing in the front rank. He is a born jurist. In both intellectual and moral endowments the seal of destiny is placed upon him as a distinguished lawyer and eminent Judge. There is neither sham nor affectation in his whole make-up, but his manner is always plain, simple and direct. This modest and retiring nature always leaves his friends feeling that they do not get as much of Judge Sandusky as they want and are entitled to, while his amiability is so remarkable, that if he was ever angry, neither history nor tradition gives us any account of it. To those who are not well acquainted with him he appears distant and indifferent, and seems reluctant to approach men; yet when approached himself, he is always affable and pleasant.
"That peculiarity which, perhaps more than any other, except his mental capacity to grapple with the most profound and complicated legal questions, gives to the Judge's inind a high judicial cast, is his entire freedom from the sway of his own prejudices and passions. Indeed, he seems to have gained such complete mastery or control over his whole emo- tional nature that it is a question with his most intimate friends as to whether those forces which are so potent with men generally have any influence whatever over the views and convictions of Judge Sandusky. Another striking characteristic of the man is his great wisdom, in that he never does an impolitic thing. And this is to be said, too, in connection with the fact that he never impresses you as being what the world calls a 'policy inan.' By every tendency of his nature he is averse to conflict, to social or political strife and ani- mosities; and yet, when forced into such conditions, he can stand in the presence of a howling inob as self-possessed and undaunted as if he were surrounded by his warmest personal friends. A consciousness of great resources and a high purpose only can make such a man.
" In his church relations Judge Sandusky leads a quiet, unofficial life, never enthusi- astic, but always reliable, always appreciative of the best things that fall from the pulpit, and responsive to what he believes to be the call of duty. His habits are those of the student. The whirls and eddies of society, nor the aimless, idle ways of the loafer, have no attractions for him. When he needs relaxation and rest from the duties of his law office, hic finds it with his gun or fishing rod in the company of some congenial friend.
"No man was cver morc kecnly sensitive to the touches of friendship, nor more loyal to his friends. If intellectual endowments of a high order and integrity of moral purpose always dominant, with tact and skill to command and adjust his resources to the exigencies
James M. Saudusky .
601
THE HISTORY OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF MISSOURI.
of every occasion -if all these happily blended in a well rounded character and symmetrical life, place the insignia of high destiny on a man, then James M. Sandusky will never die in obscurity."
SAMUEL LOCKE SAWYER,
INDEPENDENCE.
THE Hon. Samuel Locke Sawyer lived the latter part of his life and died at Independ- T ence, but he belonged to, and his fame is a part of the history of the State. He was one of those honorable, brave, courteous, able lawyers of the old school and his name belongs in that coterie of gifted men with Glover, Broadhead, Drake, Gantt, Williard P. Hall, Doniphan, et id genus omnes, of which there are few who are not with him on the other side of the river. As Judge, Congressman, lawyer and citizen he has left an indel- ible impress on the affairs of his State and in his life given an example which is an inspira- tion to every young man ambitious to rise in the law. .
Judge Sawyer was born at Mount Vernon, New Hampshire, November 26, 1813, and died at Independence, Missouri, March 28, 1890. He comes of a distinguished ancestry, his father and grandfather Sawyer having been noted lawyers of their time. His brother, A. W. Sawyer, was Judge of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire for a number of years. His maternal ancestor, Samuel Locke, whose full name he bears, was a minister and scholar of the very highest attainments. In 1770 he was made President of Harvard and for a number of years filled that high office with distinction. When he finally resigned, he returned to the pulpit at Shadburne, Massachusetts, where he had been stationed prior to becoming the chief officer of Harvard. The son of President Locke, was Samuel Locke, M. D., who married Hannah Cowden, of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Their daughter, Han- nah Locke, was the mother of Judge Sawyer.
The latter, after he had completed his education, graduating at Dartmouth College, went to Geneva, New York, where he remained but a year and then journeyed westward to Cleveland, Ohio. There he became engaged as a teacher of Latin, at the same time studying earnestly to qualify himself in the law, and these were his two chief occupations during the several years he remained there. In the beginning of life small events some- times change the whole direction and vastly modify the future of the individual. The young Latin teacher at Cleveland received a letter from one who had been a friend of the family in New Hampshire, and this seemingly inconsequential event gave his name and fame to Missouri. This friend, who had known him in his boyhood, then considered him a boy of marked promise, and when he heard he was fitting himself for the law, became still more deeply interested in him. He had located at Lexington, Missouri, and from there commu- nicated with his young friend in Cleveland, advising him to come to Missouri. The latter did so, reaching Lexington in 1839, and soon thereafter was taken into partnership by his friend and patron, Mr. French, whose name is no less illustrious in the judicial annals of Missouri than that of Sawyer. From this date the firm of French & Sawyer continued with uninterrupted success until 1854, and was then only dissolved by the death of Mr. French. Judge Sawyer's next move was to form a partnership with F. C. Sharp. In 1856 the firmn of Sawyer & Sharp removed to St. Louis, where they entered into a partnership arrangement with Hon. James O. Broadhead, the new firm assuming the title of Sawyer, Sharp & Broadhead.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.