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 89
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Mr. Thomas was married at Carthage, August 7, 1875, to Miss Laura Franklin, daughter of Nelson Franklin, a leading citizen of Carthage. Mr. Franklin was a native
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of Virginia, but for many years lived in Ohio, where he bore a leading part in public affairs. For a number of terms he was a State Senator, representing Pickaway County in the Upper House of the Ohio Legislature. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas have but one child, a daughter, named Martha.
BERRY GREEN THURMAN, LAMAR.
A LAWYER of high ideals and worthy ambitions, who has the ability to achieve many honors in the field of the law and as a publicist, is Hon. Berry Green Thurman, of Lamar. Both as a lawyer and as an official in public place, he has made a reputation of which any man might be pardonably proud. As a lawyer he is a tireless worker, is endowed with great firmness of purpose, alertness and clear insight into a proposition, which makes him a formidable advocate and qualifies him also for the office of the coun- selor. He is gifted with that which is indispensable to the highest success in any walk of life - a fine natural intelligence, which in his case has been rounded out and perfected by the education that comes from the schools, from experience, and from extensive reading. He is likewise endowed with the decisiveness of character, the dominant will-power and the enthusiasm which make him a natural leader of men.
Mr. Thurman is a native Missourian. He was born in Miller County, of this State, June 25, 1851, and is the son of John Blythe Thurman and Jane Thurman. John B. Thurman was a farmer and was born in Warren County, Kentucky. The Thurmans are of old Virginian stock, the grandfather of our subject having been a native of Lynchburg, that State. Mr. Thurman's mother was an Allee, a family very numerous and prominent in Moniteau County, Missouri, where Mrs. Jane Thurman was born. In fact, a very large proportion of the people of that county are related to her by blood or marriage.
When Berry G. was a young boy, his parents removed from Miller to the adjoining county of Morgan, and in the common schools of the latter he received the elements of an education. At school he soon showed his mettle, and the books he studied awakened within him a strong thirst for further knowledge-a desire that finally led him to the accomplishment of his purpose to enter the State University at Columbia. He became a student in the academic department in 1872 and matriculated in the law department, where he graduated in the class of 1873; the first law class, by the way, turned out by the State University. Prior to this, however, he had studied law in the office and under the tutelage of Judge DeArmond, then of Greenfield, Dade County, but now of Butler, Bates County, and at this time one of the brilliant members of the Missouri delegation in Congress. The inquirer may find further facts respecting the Judge on page 463.
After graduating Mr. Thurman was admitted to the bar in May, 1873, by the Circuit Court of Barton County, where he now lives. Having read law in the office of Judge DeArmond while at Greenfield, he selected Greenfield, the county seat of Dade, which adjoins Barton on the east, as his location to practice law. That he quickly made a mnost favorable impression on the people of his new home, is pointedly demonstrated by his elec- tion as Prosecuting Attorney of Dade County in the fall of 1874. Elected in 1874 he served until 1876, and then, after the lapse of one term, was again elected in 1878, serving until 1880. His election was a most forcible testimonial to the high appreciation that peo- ple entertained for him. He was elected the first time by a majority of 129, the second
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time by 249, neither of which by itself considered is large, but its meaning is emphasized when the fact is stated that Dade at that time being a very sparsely settled county, cast but 1,500 votes, and its importance is still further enhanced when it is understood that the county was Republican by the overwhelming majority of 300, and that Mr. Thurman was the first Democrat elected to the office in that county since the war, and until 1896 was the only Democrat who ever held the office. It will thus be seen that this popularity was suf- ficient to bring almost half the voters of the party to which he was opposed to his support. After the completion of his last term of office he removed, in December, 1880, to Lamar, Barton County, where he associated himself with A. J. Wray, a partnership that still continues.
He had earned reputation while still at Greenfield, and practicing in the surrounding counties, often appearing in court at Lamar, and therefore an acquaintance was already established in Barton County. In 1888 he was elected to the Senate to represent the Twenty-eighth Senatorial District, to fill the unexpired term of Hon. S. H. Claycomb, who had been elected Lieutenant-Governor. He took a leading part in all the work and debates of the Senate, and proved himself in every respect the peer of the ablest men of that body. During his incumbency he served as Chairman of the Committee on Mines and Mining, and was a member of the Judiciary, the Insurance and the Revision Committees, the latter a very important special committee, having charge of the revision and annotation of the Statutes of 1889.
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and is a Knight Templar. He is also an Odd Fellow. As has been stated, he is a Democrat-one of the kind with deep con- victions. He is a favorite with his party in the State and stands as one likely to receive signal favor at its hands.
Mr. Thurman was married September 12, 1879, to Lula Clark, at Greenfield. She was the daughter of Captain S. S. Clark, an old and prominent citizen of Greenfield. The couple have two children: Harry Clark, now a student at Missouri University, and Bessie, at home with her parents.
JOHN C. TRIGG,
JOPLIN.
M ISSOURI is indebted much to Virginia for the ancestry of those of her sons who follow the law. The parents of John C. Trigg, the subject of this memoir, were native Virginians, and his father's father was also a son of the Old Dominion. Mr. Trigg is the son of John A. Trigg and Rebecca Bingham. The father was a licensed lawyer, but abandoned legal practice for legal politics, so to speak, being elected, in 1838, to the responsible offices of Clerk of the Circuit and County Court and Recorder of Saline County, Missouri. These positions he held with honor for twelve years. In 1849 he was one of the Argonauts who went in quest of gold to California, returning to Missouri in 1851. In 1856 farm life caught his fancy, and he engaged in agriculture in Cooper County until 1871. Returning then to Saline County, he was elected to the office of Circuit Clerk.
John C. Trigg was born on April 15, 1843, in Marshall, Saline County, Missouri. After a practical education in the common schools of Saline, Cooper and Pettis Counties, he studied law with the firm of Muir & Draffen, at Boonville, Missouri, during the years
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1862, 1863 and 1864. He was admitted to praetiee by the Cireuit Court of Cooper County in1 1865.
Pereeiving a wider field for the development of his untried talents in Marshall, lie re- moved from Boonville in the spring of 1866. After a notable eareer in Marshall lie loeated at Salisbury, in Chariton County. We next hear of him in Neosho, whither he went in April, 1871. In May, 1873, he left Neosho and took up a permanent abode at Joplin, the Queen City of the Southwest. During his various removals and sojournings he never abandoned the profession of liis ehoiee, but has grown to love it and adorn it more and more through all these years of change. The old adage that "a rolling stone gathers no moss," does not hold good in the case of Mr. Trigg, for in his travels and ehanges he gathered a wealth of experience that is standing him in good stead to-day. As City Attorney of Joplin in 1875, 1876, 1878, 1891, 1892, 1893 and 1894, lie acquitted himself with ability. He was eleeted to the position twiee on the Demoeratie ticket and at all other times on the Citizens' tieket, in a free-for-all raee. Like his father, the only politieal positions he has ever held have been in connection with the law.
Mr. Trigg has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and an active and earnest worker in the ranks of the Aneient Order of United Workmen. He is a leading member of the Commercial Club of the City of Joplin, having been President of the organi- zation from Deeember, 1895, to December, 1896. He is a Demoerat of the most progressive kind, but has held no politieal position exeept that of City Attorney.
In his marriage he was particularly happy, taking for his wife Miss Marian Wallace Finley, the eliarming daughter of Walker H. Finley, one of the foremost farmers of Saline County. The marriage took place October 15, 1867, in Saline County. Their union has been blessed with two fine ehildren, Walker B. and Emma Blanehe.
JOHN McDOWELL TRIMBLE,
KANSAS CITY.
AJO lawyer in the State has made a greater advanee in his profession in recent years than John MeDowell Trimble, of Kansas City. In a deeade he may be said to have risen from a position where only the residents of the eireuit on which he praetieed knew of his mnerit, to a place among the best known of his profession and where he enjoys a reputation that is State-wide.
John MeDowell Trimble, recently candidate for Governor on the "Gold" Demoeratie tieket, and at this time President of the Kansas City Bar Association, is a native of Virginia and was born at Brownsburg, Roekbridge County, February 24, 1851. His fatlier, William W. Trimble, was a man of education, was a Presbyterian minister, and liis quality as a speaker was one of his eharaeteristies transmitted to the son. The mother of the latter, before her marriage to Rev. William W. Trimble, was Jane Minor Me- Dowell, who was of a family known to all who are acquainted with the history of the Old Dominion, as one of the oldest and best in the State. Jolin MeDowell Trimble was sixteen years old when his father's family, in 1867, eame west and settled in Monroe County, Missouri. In the year following he became a member of the sophomore elass at West- minster College, Fulton, Missouri, being qualified to enter eollege by having attended Brownsburg Academy in his native place, after lie had completed his rudimentary eduea-
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tion. He was graduated from Westminster, in the collegiate department, in June, 1871, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. It may be noted here that Mr. Trimble had as fellow-students at this college, a number of young men who have since become prominent professionally-among others, William H. Wallace, one of the great trial lawyers of Kan- sas City, and H. S. Priest, an able lawyer of St. Louis.
Though possessing a good education, our subject was so situated as to be thrown wholly on his own resources on leaving college. The world and the future were before him, and he realized that they would be what he made them. He settled on the law as a vocation and taught school to obtain means whereby he might be instructed in its mysteries. For two years he was a teacher in Callaway County schools, and during one term was principal of an academy at Memphis, Missouri; but he kept the great object of his life continually before him during those years, and in his spare hours made himself intimately acquainted with such legal classics as Blackstone's "Commentaries," Kent's "Commentaries, " Greenleaf's "Evidence" and "Parsons on Contracts."
If any young aspirant ever served a full and complete apprenticeship at the law it was John McDowell Trimble. On the 17th day of March, 1874, he entered the office of the late Hon. George B. Macfarlane* at Mexico, Missouri. He was Judge Macfarlane's janitor, amanuensis, clerk and pupil, but he used his time to good advantage, and in June, 1874, was admitted to practice at Mexico by Judge Gilchrist Porter, but still continued to office with Judge Macfarlane as his assistant. In April, 1876, the young lawyer was elected City Attorney of Mexico, the salary of which position amounted to the splendid (?) sum of twenty dollars per month. In 1877 he was elected for another term. Judge Macfarlane, then the leading practitioner of the Mexico bar, had had ample opportunity to judge of the young man's capacity, and as a result of conclusions reached on that point, offered him a partnership, which was accepted, and the firm of Macfarlane & Trimble soon did a highly profitable business.
In 1878 the junior partner was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Audrain County, and the record he made as such raised him greatly in the respect of the people of that county. · The county had been terrorized with crime, and because of lax administration of the law, or for some other reason, the cause of good order suffered. On his induction into office, eleven culprits, charged with murder, confronted him in the jail. He went to work on
*Judge George B. MacFarlane died at St. Luke's Hospital, in St. Louis, on the morning of the 12th day of February, 1898. Suffering from appendicitis, au operation was performed the day before his death. The patient seemed to have a premonition of death, as he requested that he be buried at Mexico and that his body be placed, for one day, iu the Presbyterian Church there, in order that all his old friends might see him for the last time. To Mr. Trimble, to whom he was devotedly attached, and who went from Kansas City to St. Louis when he heard his old friend was ill, he is reported to have said just as Mr. Trimble eutered his room a few hours before his death -- "Close the docket, Mac. This is the last." Judge Macfarlane's death touched the public heart deeply.
Judge Gantt, who was his associate during his seven years' occupancy of the Supreme Bench, when he heard of his death, referred to him in the following terms: "The loss of Judge Macfarlane from the Supreme Court at this time is a calamity to the State. With his calm, judicial temperament, his unyielding integrity, his painstaking industry, conjoined to his learning and experience at the bar, and his seven years' service on the bench, he was fully equipped for the position. He commanded the respect of the bench and bar alike, and his work will live after him and stamp him among the ablest Judges that have graced the court. His uniform courtesy endeared him to every member of the court. My own relations with him were of the closest and most pleasing nature. Our duty brought us into the closest contact, officially aud persoually, and, reviewing it now, I can recall no word or sentiment of his during all that time that could bring a tinge of shame to a member of his family or his friends, and which was not honorable to his manhood. He was instinctively a gentleman. He shunned all display and despised shams of every kind. He had a quaint Scotch wit that sparkled in the unreserved intercourse with those he trusted. Missouri has, indeed, lost a representative citizen-one who was to the manner born, and who had no higher ambition than to serve her faithfully. In all the relations of life, son, husband, brother, father and friend, he met and fully filled every requirement. His piety was as deep and sincere as it was unostentatious. We shall, indeed, miss him, but his memory will ever carry with it a sweet fragrance."
On February 22, 1898, Governor Stephens appointed William C. Marshall, of St. Louis, to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Bench caused by Judge Macfarlane's death. Judge Marshall was, at the time of his appointment, City Counselor of St. Louis.
A sketch of Judge Macfarlane will be found on page 261 of this volume, and one of Judge Marshall on page 266. These events occurred after both sketches were printed and while the book was going through the press.
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these cases, and in due process convicted four of this number of murder in the first degree. One of the four took a change of venue and was acquitted; the other three were hanged. Of the seven remaining prisoners, one was acquitted and six convicted of murder in the second degree and sent to the penitentiary. In these and other trials during his first term as Prosecutor, he made his reputation. He was pitted against the ablest lawyers that could be procured by the defendants, but this, far fromn causing the young man to despair, fired lis ardor and nerved him to his best. With such conscientious zeal did he discharge his duties that before his first term was ended, the criminal element was convinced that Audrain Connty was no place for it. Of course, in 1880, he was elected to a second term, and could have had a third term, but owing to the growing volume of the firm's business, he declined to accept a nomination.
In 1887 the firm of Macfarlane & Trimble was dissolved and the latter removed to Kansas City, where he associated himself in practice with Judge Charles L. Dobson and Judge Sherman C. Douglass. In 1889 Judge Douglass withdrew from the firmn of Dobson, Douglass & Trimble, and in 1891, Mr. Trimble left it to enter into partnership with Charles A. Braley, the firm of Trimble & Braley still existing.
Mr. Trimble's list of clients is both extensive and remunerative. He is well versed in the laws bearing on railroads, and since their projection has been the legal adviser of the companies building the Kansas City Suburban Belt Railroad, the Kansas City, Pittsburg & Gulf Railroad and the Kansas City & Northern Connecting Railway. He also conducted the reorganization and rehabilitation of the line now known as the Omaha, Kansas City & Eastern Railroad.
In the political conflict precipitated over financial issues in 1896, Mr. Trimble took a most conspicuous part. Although a life-long Democrat, he was one of the initial advocates, in this State, of a gold standard. He therefore separated from his party, and was one of the most active factors in the organization of the party which supported Palmner and Buck- ner. By that party he was nominated for Governor, and although the acceptance of the nomination involved great personal sacrifices on his part, he willingly led the ticket and inade a canvass that was remarkable for its vigor and educational influences.
In 1890 Mr. Trimble was married to Mrs. Alice L. Strawbridge, of Kansas City, a most genial and cultured lady.
Mr. Trimble's most conspicuons characteristic is his intense personality. He is sui generis. He has great mental profundity and a most comprehensive view of life. He is noted for his fraternal spirit among his brethren of the law, and actively strives to main- tain the esprit de corps of his profession. He was elected President of the Kansas City Bar Association in October, 1897.
THOMAS ERSKINE TURNEY,
CAMERON.
N the 28th day of February, 1831, Thomas Erskine Turney was born, this event occurring in Bourbon County, Kentucky. His father was Morgan Turney and his mother Tryphosa Turney, nee Birch. Morgan Turney was a native of Kentucky, being a farmer, and his wife was the daughter of Rev. Thomas Erskine Birch, an Episcopal minister. He was in charge of various congregations in Kentucky and Virginia for many
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years. The Turneys came from Virginia to Kentucky as pioneers. Mr. Turney's grand- father, Daniel Turney, was one of Morgan's riflemen in the Revolutionary War. The family was in America long before the Revolution, the grandfather of Mr. Turney being of the third generation of the American Turneys.
The subject of this mnemoir was educated in Illinois, his father moving there when he was six years of age. When twenty-one he removed to Plattsburg, Missouri, and studied law with Charles C. and James H. Birch, Jr., previously having read law with Anthony Thornton in Shelbyville, Illinois. He was admitted to the bar in Plattsburg, Missouri, in 1853, practiced in Plattsburg for twelve years, and then removed to Cameron, where he has been the leading lawyer ever since. Until 1895 he practiced alone, and then became asso- ciated with James E. Goodrich (as Turney & Goodrich).
Notwithstanding all his hard work as a lawyer, Mr. Turney has found time to serve his county and State. He has been Justice of the Peace, member of the Missouri Legislature in 1856-7, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in his county, serving one year, and has also been Director of the Cameron Public Schools for several terins.
"Tom" Turney (as his old friends call him), was married May 4, 1859. His wife was Lina Funkhouser, of Plattsburg, Missouri. All of her family have been fariners and breed- ers of cattle, a brother attaining the name of being one of the leading breeders of Herefords in America. The three living children of Thomas E. Turney are Thomas E. Turney, Jr., a farmer of Camden, Missouri; Olive, wife of Dr. H. H. Henkel, of Staunton, Virginia; and Mary, wife of Dr. James A. Franklin, of Cameron. Of the dead children only one grew to maturity, Lula, first wife of Dr. Franklin. T. E. Turney, Jr., has three living children, Mrs. Henkel has one and Dr. Franklin has one by each wife.
STEPHEN PRINCE TWISS,
KANSAS CITY.
A LIFE of eminent usefulness should be the highest aim of the most gifted, and its faithful record becomes the most valuable contribution to biography. Judge Twiss, in the esteem of liis associates, takes high rank among those whose honesty of purpose, impartial judgment, and faithful adherence to convictions of right, have seldom been ques- tioned. Such a man can best be developed, surrounded by the favorable conditions which existed in his early life. Stephen Prince Twiss was born in Charlton, Worcester County, Massachusetts, May 2, 1827. His parents, James J. and Elsie (Prince) Twiss, had an ancestry running back many generations in New England, and they were among the early settlers who figured actively in Colonial history. James Twiss, the grandfather of Stephen, was of English descent, though he was born in the Bay State. It is interesting to trace any remarkable traits of character or talent back to one's ancestry, as furnishing a good account for its existence and controlling influence in the descendant. The father of Judge Twiss was a man of clear and correct judgment, but of modest and unassuming habits. In his son the same inherited judicial type of mind, with the advantages of long and patient research, have developed the eminent jurist of this sketch. In his case, as in that of some other inen who have distinguished themselves, we must trace to a Christian mother that impress on his character which has in a marked degree, in his mature years, shown itself
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in his sturdy principles of honor, integrity and noble manhood, so prominent in his event- fııl life.
In his early life he lived on the small farin of his father until fifteen years old. He was the oldest son, and with his brother, Amnos Freeman, who died December 25, 1895, at Worcester, Massachusetts, and one sister, Abbie Davis, now Mrs. George H. Brewer, of Ashton, Illinois, they constituted the family circle. In the atmosphere of New England country homes, when he was young, there was little to allure to evil, and much to inspire with high ideals of inanhood. At the country school he acquired his early education. After he was fifteen he would work between terms of school, much of the time on the farms of neighbors, until he was eighteen, when his father told him that he would "give him his time" if he would learn a trade. Going to Southbridge he selected and followed the carpenter trade, and he was paid from the first $9.75 per month, considered then large wages. Misfortunes are often blessings in disguise, and so it proved in the case of the young carpenter. An injury of his hand turned the whole course of his life, and he left the carpenter's bench for the bar of the court. Entering Leicester Academy in Septem- ber, 1845, he was a student there five terms, supporting himself by securing small jobs of work. When twenty-one he entered the produce commission store of his uncle, Stephen Prince, at Boston. During three successive winters, from 1847 to 1850, he taught a country school.
Now the time had come for him to enter on the preparation for his life work; so in May, 1850, he became a student at Dane Law School of Harvard University, received his degree in 1852, was admitted to the bar in March, 1853, when he located immediately in the City of Worcester. Only three years after (1856), he received the honor of an election to the Massachusetts Legislature, where he voted to send Charles Summer the second time to the United States Senate. In 1863 he was elected a member of the Wor- cester City Council, which office he resigned soon after to accept the position of City Solici- tor to which he had been clceted, and at the end of his term, was unanimously re-elected.
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