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 88
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Judge Smith is a gentleman of public spirit and has served the people in other capaci- ties besides those named. He was for eight years one of the Fish Commissioners of the State and for four years acted as manager of the State Lunatic Asylum at Fulton.
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He married Miss Fanny Chappell, of Callaway County. Her people were from Vir- ginia, and have long been prominent in every vocation of life. Judge and Mrs. Smith have one son, Clay Ewing Smitlı, aged thirty-one, now prosperously embarked in the wholesale drug trade.
OLIVER MARTIN SPENCER, SAINT JOSEPH.
A LTHOUGH few lawyers whose namnes appear in this book are more deserving of the good things that might be said of him, there is none to whom aught in the way of eulogy would be more displeasing than Judge O. M. Spencer, of St. Joseph, and therefore the writer, who has known him long and well, while sensible that he looks upon him with an eye of favor and friendliness, will attempt to estimate him as fairly as may be.
Judge Spencer comes from one of those prominent pioneer families of the West who have left such worthy examples and honorable names to their posterity. He was born on the old Spencer homestead, in Crawford Township, Buchanan County, Missouri, August 23, 1850. His father, Obadiah M. Spencer, was a native of North Carolina; his mother, Nancy Williams Spencer, a native of Kentucky. His parents came to Missouri in 1837.
It was Judge Spencer's good fortune to see much of life and men when he was a boy. His father, who was one of the leading citizens of the Platte Purchase, resided near the line of Platte County, in the "hot-bed " of Southern sympathizers. "Tom," as he was nicknamed, and his four brothers were one day in the company of the rebels, commonly called "bushwhackers, " and the next with the Union troops. The boys inclined toward the cause of the South, but their father determined that his sons should neither fight to destroy the Union or oppose those with whom he sympathized, and accordingly sent the older boys across the Plains to Denver with a wagon train of freight. "Tom," being too young, remained at home to do active field work-that is, in the corn field. Too young to excite the partisan animosity and suspicion of the contending adherents of North and South, he was still old enough and shrewd enough to appreciate the constant danger that menaced his parents, and with the ubiquity of boyhood he assisted in no small degree in the efforts of his parents to preserve their lives and property from the ravages of war.
An incident occurred in 1865, that determined the career of young Spencer. The pedagogue who was teaching his "young ideas how to shoot " concluded one day that his pupil would have to be disciplined on account of a fight he had engaged in with Zeke Whittington at the Spencer school house, in Buchanan County. The youngster, however, differed with his instructor about the necessity for such a proceeding, and while the teacher went after the switch with which to bestow the chastiseinent, "Tom " tackled Zeke another round or two and then took French leave, and when the teacher returned he had to be satisfied with whipping Zeke. The next morning his father sent him to the Raffington School at St. Joseph, where he remained for a year and made rapid progress in his studies. He has often said that he owes his present vocation in life to Zeke Whittington, whom for many years he has counted as one of his best friends.
After the ending of the school year, young Spencer returned to his father's farm, and after another twelvemonthi spent amidst its natural surroundings, went again to St. Joseph, this time to become a student of the high school. This was in 1868, and during the fol-
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lowing ycar he entered the State University at Columbia, Missouri. In 1871 he became a student at the Christian University at Canton, Missouri, from which he was graduated with one of the honors of the institution in 1873. Subsequently he read law at Leavenworth, residing with his parents, who had in the meantime removed to Kickapoo, Kansas, six miles north of Leavenworth. To reach the office, he was in the habit of riding to the city each morning on horseback and returning home in the evening. In 1874 he entered the law school at Harvard. The following year he opened an office for the practice of his pro- fession at St. Joseph.
Like nearly every Missouri lawyer who has made his mark on his time, Judge Spencer passed through the school of the Prosecuting Attorneyship. The experience therein gained is generally of immediate pecuniary value, as it serves to bring him before the people fromn whom his clients must come, and gives him many opportunities to measure his ability against the experience and skill of his older professional brethren. It is likewise useful in giving the young professional a knowledge of the criminal law, which is not without its value though he practices afterward wholly in the civil branch. Young Spencer was elected and began his term as Prosecuting Attorney of Buchanan County in 1880, serving the full two years term. During this time he was a member of the legal firm consisting of Willard P. Hall, Jr., and himself, which was known as Spencer & Hall.
A decade of practice had won the favorable opinion of the people of the populous county of Buchanan. It is therefore no surprise to learn that the people acquiesced in the action of representatives of the Democratic party, when in 1886, they nominated Mr. Spencer for Circuit Judge. It is a fact of special significance and which speaks eloquently of the favor with which he was viewed, that the Republican lawyers of the circuit joined in the call and refused to nominate a candidate against him, a compliment as certainly without political bias as the estimate of his character and fitness, from such a source, was reliable and worthy of consideration. Judge Spencer's term on the bench was characterized by capability and impartiality. He did not occupy the bench the full term, however, as at the end of four years he resigned to accept the position of General Solicitor of the Bur- lington Railroad system in Missouri, and he still occupies that place. He was, at one time, a member of the firm of Spencer, Burnes & Mosman, recognized as one of the strong legal combinations of the State. As to the personalities and facts applying to either Mr. Burnes or Mr. Mosman, the reader may learn by reference to their biographical sketches in this book.
Judge Spencer was married in 1875 to Miss Lillian, daughter of Joseph Tootle and a nicce of the late Milton Tootle, during his life one of the wealthiest merchants of St. Joseph. Her mother was a sister of James McCord. Mrs. Spencer was a lady of rare accom- plishments, but died in 1880, at the age of twenty-four years, when her youngest child was only twelve months old. Two bright boys were born to Judge and Mrs. Spencer: Harry Heddens, born July 20, 1877, and Edwin O. M., born July 4, 1879. On March 5, 1895, Judge Spencer was married to Miss Katherine Turner, of Columbia, Missouri, a daughter of Col. and Mrs. S. Turner. They have a fine baby boy, whom they have named Tom.
The physical proportions of Judge Spencer conform to his vigorous mentality and strong character. Hc is six feet tall, weighs 200 pounds, and the equities are well pre- served in his figurc.
During his carcer hic has been a close observer of men and events, and the prac- tical knowledge they have taught, hc has applied with skill to the practice of the law.
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It is perhaps as counselor that his legal ability has found its best expression. In no sense obstinate, he is, nevertheless, a man of inflexible determination. He is too honest in his intercourse with inen to deceive, too strong to employ cunning to carry his point. His candor, frankness, decisiveness, frequently win where methods of dissimulation and indirec- tion would fail utterly.
He is thoroughly practical in all things, is a person of versatility, as is demonstrated by the position he occupies as the General Solicitor of the Burlington Railroad system in Missouri. The tact, discernment, sagacity and good judgment with which Judge Spencer has filled this office is the highest evidence of his capacity. One in such a place must be a reader of mien and the motives that inove them. His success in life is beyond doubt largely due to his proficiency in this art. Bluff and hearty in manner, his sincerity invites and secures belief in the honesty of his purpose. He is a man of heart and feeling, and generous of mind as well as of material. His charity has in it none of that ostentatious dis- play that some people affect, but it is real if unpretentious, and is applied where it will do the most good. It inay be said of him, in conclusion, that he believes in the humanities, loves the good things of life, strives to do good and is a gentleman of taste, discrimination and talent.
JAMES LEACHMAN STEPHENS,
COLUMBIA.
T THERE seems to be something in the soil and scenery of Boone County which is con- genial to the exercise of the law as a profession. That is to say, the lawyers of Boone County, from the earliest day, have always been remarkable for their ability and brilliancy. One of the most promising of the younger lawyers of that imperial county, is James Leachman Stephens, who was born in Boone County, on a farm in the vicinity of Columbia, on May 6, 1860. Perhaps the most notable name in the ancestry of Mr. Stephens, was the Rev. Peyton Stephens, a Kentuckian, the uncle of his father, who was noted as the pioneer Baptist minister of Central Missouri. The father of James L. Stephens is James Harvey Stepliens, a physician who is a native of Kentucky, and came of Scotch - Irish and English parentage. He married Margaret Vanlandingham, the mother of our subject, in Boone County, Missouri, in 1855. She was born in that county, and was the daughter of James Vanlandingham, who, like his son-in-law, was also a native of Kentucky. Four children were born to them, two girls and two boys, the subject of this sketch, James L., being the second.
After a full rudimentary training in the public school at Centralia, in Boone County, this subject entered the State Normal School, at Kirksville, which he attended during the sessions of 1881, 1882 and 1883. Then he became a student at the University of Missouri, in Columbia, where he rapidly rose in the law class, from which he graduated in 1887. In the same. year he was admitted to the bar at Columbia by Judge George H. Burckhartt, and immediately began the practice of law, his legal work being divided between the neighboring towns of Columbia and Centralia, in both of which he still practices.
In 1892 his fellow-citizens elected him Prosecuting Attorney of Boone County for two years, and he was re-elected to that position in 1894. This was an emphatic indorsement of his ability and worth by those best acquainted with him as a man and a lawyer.
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It is as a criminal practitioner that Mr. Stephens excels, he enjoying the renown of having been connected with some of the most noted cases that have come up for trial in the courts of Central Missouri during the past decade. As a prosecutor of criminals he has vastly benefited the law-abiding element in his section of the State, and has done much to make it the model community that it is. A singular coincidence in his career was his recent prosecution of a man for misdemeanor in the house where he (Mr. Stephens) was born, and which is now occupied by a Justice of the Peace.
That he studies the law daily as a lesson, which must be always conned, is doubtless a main reason for the triumphs he has achieved, for he always makes it a point to compre- hend entirely every feature of a case he conducts before a word is uttered in front of Judge and jury. He plans the campaign of a trial, so to speak, with all the foresight and acumen of an astute military commander, and is seldom caught unawares by his adversary during the intricate evolutions of the prosecution and defense. One advantage he possesses is a finc presence, and a manner which naturally interests. He is rated as one of the gifted speakers of Boone County, though he has many rivals in that field, for this county is famous for its eloquent and accomplished lawyers.
In a case recently tried in Columbia, the Missouri Statesman, a newspaper, said of him: "The argument of J. L. Stephens, attorney for the defense in the case of the State of Missouri versus R. L. Roberts, for the killing of John Tate, for oratory, eloquence, logic and force, stands unsurpassed by any made in the court house for several years. Stephens has firmly established an enviable reputation as a lawyer and advocate of superior ability and power."
Mr. Stephens is a Democrat of the most energetic kind, and has always taken the most active and earnest interest in politics. His voice is heard most frequently, however, in matters pertaining to judicial conventions. He is a Knight of Pythias, and a working member of that popular organization.
The marriage of Mr. Stephens occurred January 22, 1890, at Centralia, the young lady he chose for his wife being Miss Mamie M. Gove, the daughter of George Gove, a native of Germany. Four bright children have blessed this union. They are: George Belle, whose age is seven years; Mary, aged five years; Ruth, aged three years, and Frank Lcachinan, the baby of the house, who is a little over two years old.
JOHN C. STORM, KIRKSVILLE.
P
ERHAPS few residents of that beautiful Missouri city and seat of learning, Kirksville,
know a young professional man in whose future they have greater confidence than in that of John C. Storm. Although he is not old in years or experience, he has given warrant of his title to success without such advantages, a fact that is a guarantee of his natural gifts and that he has earned his present place and will merit a higher yet. Years may bring riches and time may bring success to him endowed with few other qualities than the patience merely to wait; it is only the man with energy and unquestioned natural powers who has the strength to forestall time and the ability to earn fortune's favor on his merits. Of the latter class unquestionably is John C. Storm, one of the rising young law-
J. B. Storm,
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yers of that highly civilized section of Missouri of which Adair County is the center and Kirksville the chief town.
Mr. Storm was born March 6, 1866, near the town of Webster, in Massachusetts. Of his family he has kept no extended record, and although New England born, is of German origin, the greater part of his connection still living in Europe. All the members of the isolated or American branches of both families, excepting Mr. Storm's mother and her children, yet live in New England, where the first comers to this country settled. Of these last named, were his father, John Storm, who died at Kirksville in 1895, and his mother, Frances Tandler, who yet lives in the town where her son practices law. The latter's father was a man of influence in the "Old Country," and for many years was Burgomaster of his native German city. In 1867, when the son was less than a year old, the family moved to Missouri, settling first at Queen City, and then at the little town of Glenwood, in Schuyler County.
Mr. Storm's education began at the town last named, whence the family moved to Kirksville. After a number of years' residence in Schuyler County, he was far enough advanced in his studies to enter the academic department of the State University. Be- sides the time spent at Columbia, he also took the prescribed courses in a commercial college, but afterward abandoned his idea of entering the field of business, and determin- ing instead to adopt the law, quitted the University and went to Kirksville, convinced that he could pursue his law studies as well there as at the college. He entered the office of Judge Andrew Ellison, a noted and able jurist of North Missouri. In 1892 the young student was admitted to practice in the court of his preceptor at Kirksville, and has been a member of that bar ever since.
Mr. Storin is studious and an industrious worker, and if it be true, which a genius has himself said, that "genius is simply an ability for hard work," this young practi- tioner will surely some day come into his reward in the success that springs from industry and a tenacity that never relaxes. His future is still before him and it is believed he will meet the sanguine expectation of his friends.
In 1893 Mr. Storm was elected City Attorney of Kirksville, serving as such until 1895, and discharging the duties of the office with fidelity. In 1896 was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Adair County. He has given the town's development more than his moral support, as is shown by his connection with several enterprises, among thein the city's telephone system, of which he is half owner. Politically, he has always given adherence to the Republican party. Since 1892 he has been a Knight of Pythias and is a Knight Tem- plar and a Shriner. He is unmarried.
ABNER LLEWELLYN THOMAS,
CARTHAGE.
O NE of the best known and most popular citizens of that rich section known as South- west Missouri, and one who has long been closely identified with its developinent, and is among its most successful barristers, is Abner Llewellyn Thomas, of Carthage. Mr. Thomas is of pure Welsh blood, and has all the indomitable persistency and sturdy inde- pendence of the ancient Britons, who retreated to the mountains of Wales when over- whelmed by the superior hordes of invading Saxons, Jutes and Angles. His father, Thomas
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Thomas, and his mother, who was Elizabeth Tanner, were both born and reared in Glan- morgan, Wales, were there wedded and thence emigrated to America, settling in Grant County, Wisconsin. It was in 1828 that such settlement was made, a time when there was little of Wisconsin that was not as it was when it came from the hand of the Creator. 'The country was infested with savages and lay on the outermost frontier. The father, Thomas Thomas, was a farmer as a matter of course, as agriculture and hunting and trap- ping were the only avocations possible in Wisconsin in that early day. When the Black Hawk Indians rose against the white settlers of Illinois and Wisconsin, he was one of those who assisted in their subjugation. Thomas Thomas was the only son of Thomas Thomas, who followed his pioneer son to America twenty years after he left Wales, and lived and died in Wisconsin.
On the farm in Grant County, Wisconsin, near the town of Montford, the subject of our sketch was born, October 9, 1844. He spent his youth among the simple, natural conditions of the frontier, hunting, fishing and making himself thoroughly familiar with Nature and Nature's ways, when he was not working on the farm or attending the distant district school. This school was like all those of the primitive settlements of America, and there the boy received the rudiments of an education. But he did not stop at the common school as did so many farmers' sons of that day. He was ambitious and through his own persistent efforts largely, he was later enabled to enter the Plattsville Academy, at Platts- ville, Grant County. From there he went to Madison, the State Capital, and entered the State University, where he had for school-mates a number of boys who afterward became distinguished for their brilliancy and ability, among them, Senator Vilas, Senator Spooner and Judge James L. High, noted as a legal writer and the author of many important law treatises.
Young Thomas had almost realized his desire of a finished collegiate training when the great Civil War, like a dark storm cloud, settled over the land. The student recognized that in such a moment his country's interests were paramount to any question affecting his own educational advancement, and he therefore abandoned his books and enlisted in the Seventh Wisconsin Volunteers. He served, however, but a short time, as he fell sick and on this account was discharged. As soon as he regained his health in some measure, he again enlisted, and although he was but seventeen, he enthusiastically set about the work of organizing a company. The company was known as Company E, and became a part of the Forty-first Wisconsin Volunteers. Having proved his ability as an organizer, it fol- lowed that he should have been given an opportunity to prove his capacity as a leader, but in his case the rewards of this kind which generally fell to those who organized companies for military service in the late war, were denied him on account of his youth, which "of all delinquencies is the least censurable, as time constantly amends it." In this instance the 106 men of the company, notwithstanding he was but seventeen, had unanimously elected him their Captain, but Gov. James T. Lewis thought him too young and therefore refused him a commission. On the Governor's suggestion he was elected Second Lieutenant and served until the end of the struggle.
After the declaration of peace the young soldier returned to Madison, Wisconsin, and there began the labor of preparing himself for the bar. He studied in the office of Jolin W. Johnson until the death of that gentleman and then completed his readings in the office of Hon. E. W. Keyes, who was for many years Chairman of the Republican State Com- mittee. The young aspirant was admitted to practice by Judge Asa Stewart, in 1868, a time
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when Wisconsin's bar was graced by many distinguished inen, and was the strongest bar of any Western State. He was afterward admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, and in the year following his admission to general practice, he came to Car- thage, and since 1869, about thirty years, has been actively and constantly engaged in practice there.
His career in Southwest Missouri is one of which any lawyer might feel proud, and he enjoys to-day not only a widely extended reputation as an able and skillful lawyer, but a competency as well. As a citizen he is esteemed no less than he is admired as a lawyer and the appreciation of his fellow-citizens has been shown in divers honors accorded in the years he has been among them.
Personally, he is endowed with a fine presence and in his demeanor and consideration for others he discloses the fact that he is a natural gentleman. He is largely endowed with the gift of oratory and his language is clear, concise and vigorous, abounding in a logic that is convincing. In an appeal to a jury he depends on reason rather than sentiment, and while he is able to so link facts together as to make a well-nigh unbreakable chain of argument, he can, at the same time, use the more epicene elements of imagery, meta- phor, pathos and sentiment with great skill when occasion requires. He has always been strictly a lawyer and is wedded to his profession, and although he has an abiding interest in all public affairs, he has permitted his concern therein in nowise to affect his fidelity to the law. At this day he has reached the level of a remunerative and excellent practice, and there are few cases of first importance in that section in which his firm does not appear on one side or the other. This firm, the style of which is Thomas & Hackney, managed the fight, one of the longest and most bitter in the annals of the courts of the Southwest, which finally resulted in the construction of two court houses in Jasper County, one at Joplin and the other at Carthage.
Up to 1870 Mr. Thomas was a Republican in politics. Like most of the men who really fought in their country's behalf, he became, after Appomattox, a strong advocate of peace. Therefore, he vigorously favored the enfranchisement of the men of the South and thus became identified with the Liberal-Republican movement which elected B. Gratz Brown Governor of Missouri in 1870. Since that time lie has been a strong and con- sistent Democrat. In May, 1871, Governor Brown appointed him Circuit Attorney for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, comprised of six counties in Southwestern Missouri, in which
position he served until the Legislature abolished the office of Circuit Attorney and estab- lished that of Prosecuting Attorney in its stead. It is a notable fact that at one time while he held this position, there were seventy-two prisoners in the Missouri penitentiary, placed there by his work as prosecutor for the State, and which is a record that is in a ineasure illustrative both of his official zeal and high ability. On the abolition of his office as Circuit Attorney, Mr. Thomas was nominated by the Democrats for the new office of Prosecuting Attorney, and it is a most creditable illustration of his popularity that he was elected by a handsome majority against an adverse Republican majority in Jasper County of over 1,200. In 1884 Mr. Thomas consented to accept the Democratic nomination for Congress in what is now the Fifteenth District, simply that the party might make a show- ing, as he knew he led a forlorn hope, the district being at that time overwhelmingly Republican.
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