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 92
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After the Civil War had ended he started out to seek a location, reaching Kansas City in October, 1865. His rise was rapid as a lawyer, and as a citizen he was one of the most considerable contributors to the phenomenal growth of that metropolis in the two decades following the war. In politics he has ever been an ardent Republican, and while city, dis- trict and State have nearly always been reliably Democratic, the alinost insuperable difficulty of this situation has amounted to nothing before the popularity and personal magnetism of Major Warner. The result of this has been that he has been drafted to fill all sorts of posi- tions and offices of responsibility and trust. As early as 1867 he was elected City Attorney of Kansas City and the following year was inade Circuit Attorney. This office he resigned in 1870, and the following year, as the sole successful candidate on his ticket, was elected Mayor. That he entertains high ideals in politics as in all the walks of life, and that he is devoted to principle more than to party is shown by his support for Mayor, in 1875, of Turner A. Gill, a Democrat, as opposed to the designs of the National Water Works Com- pany on the city. He was one of the committee which prepared the charter of Kansas City of 1875, and his ideas and knowledge entered very largely into that instrument.
In 1885 he was elected to the Forty-ninth Congress and inade a record as one of the 111ost conspicuous and able members of that body. During its first session he was the author of thirteen bills which became laws, and as he was a new inember, this shows in a manifest degree his influence and standing with his colleagues. In 1892 Major Warner was the Republican candidate for Governor, and although the Democratic majority was too great for his popularity to overcomic, hie ran far aliead of his ticket. In 1892 and again in 1896, lie was one of tlic Delegates-at-Large to the Republican National Conven- tion, and for years has been one of the chief counselors of his party. In fact, he is a figure of National importance and lias held honorary offices, political and otherwise, too numerous to mention. No inan in Missouri more thoroughly enjoys the confidence of the people than Major Warner. They know he is a man of the highest principle, they admire him because of his ability and love him because of his many noble personal qual- ities. Such as he can and do rise superior to party.
* A reference to his career as a soldier is found in a letter of Capt. Ira Miltemore, of Janesville, Wisconsin, who, writing home after the siege of Vicksburg, said: " To-day is the Fourth of July. While the rebels are evacuating the town and marching out on one side of the public square and our boys are marching in on the other side, Capt. William Warner, of Kansas City, is standing in the center of the square reading, in his magnificent voice, the Declaration of Independence with a like effect on both armies."
It might be interesting to say a word here respecting the Major's voice. It is indeed "magnificent." Deep, sonorons and pene- trating, it is one of those peculiar voices that can be heard in the greatest convention hall, though its owner does not exert himself at all. Where other men would shout themselves hoarse, and then not be heard by half the people at a National Convcution, Major Warner, seemingly with no extra effort whatever, can be heard by any man of the great concourse of people who attend such gatherings.
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He is one of the best jury orators in the State and his exceptional tact and knowledge of human nature make him a master of men. Of liberal and broad mind, he considers the weakness and folly of mankind most charitably, and his temperament is of that sunny kind without a streak of pessimism. As an orator he has few equals. His political speeches and his pleadings are always sound in logic, strong in arrangement of facts, rich in humor and sometimes abounding in sarcasmn, but always of a good-natured kind.
February 28, 1898, President Mckinley appointed Major Warner United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. This appointment was urged in behalf of harmony, and though it involved sacrifices in his extensive private practice, the Major accepted, only after assurance on the part of the President, however, that his acceptance of the office would in no way affect the fortunes of the men who were candidates for the office.
Major Warner was married in 1866, within a year after he reached Kansas City, to Mrs. Sophia F. Bromley, sister of T. B. Bullene, the big dry-goods man of that city. Mrs. Warner is 110 less endowed withi noble virtues than her husband. They have liad six chil- dren, of whomn tliree, two sons and one daugliter, survive.
HENRY KIRKE WHITE, SAINT JOSEPH.
THE subject of this sketch is of Puritan ancestry, a strain that has dominated and led T every people in every part of the world, and has grown and flourished in the great- est diversity of surroundings. Mr. White is descended from William White, one of those sturdy patriots who, holding intellectual and personal liberty above life itself, embarked for a land filled with certain but unknown perils, in the good ship Mayflower. His son, Peregrine White, was born on that ship after its arrival in Cape Cod Bay, December, 1620. His great great grandson, Jolin White, was a physician and gave his valuable professional services freely to the patriots of the American Revolution. Dr. White's son, Vassal White, served also in Washington's Army and received afterward as a token of liis country's grati- tude, a pension which was given as a partial compensation for loss of hearing while in service. Aaron Kellogg, Mr. White's great grandfather on his mother's side, was also one of those who created the Republic and a patriot of distinction. He was twice commissioned Cap- tain of New York troops, and passed through much arduous military duty and endured great hardships in his country's belialf during the eight years' war. On the petition of that noted patriot, Ethan Allen, Captain Kellogg was the recipient of a grant of land front the State of Vermont in recognition of his valiant service in his country's cause, and especially for service rendered at the time of the Burgoyne invasion. This land grant con- sisted of part of the islands of Two Heroes, in Lake Champlain. Mr. White's mother, Saralı (Kellogg) White, died in 1890, while his father, Elijah Kingsly White, preceded his wife to that "bourne wlience no traveler e'er returns" by forty-seven years, dying in 1843. He was one of the pioneers of Florida, was attached to the medical department of the United States Army during the Seminole War in Florida, and was a member of the first Constitutional Convention of that State. As far back almost as the history of the Republic extends, the ancestors of Mr. White were people of strong character, honest and God-fearing, and imbued with the most disinterested patriotism. All were lovers of liberty always and Tories never.
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Henry Kirke White was born at Newnansville, Alachua County, Florida, July 16, 1840. He was given a good education, receiving his course and master's degrees from the College of the City of New York, and after his graduation took up the study of law, and while pursuing a course at Columbia College Law School, taught school in New York City. In June, 1862, he was admitted to the bar in New York City. In 1865 lie determined to seek fame and fortune to the westward, and selecting St. Joseph as his location, was there admitted to the Missouri bar in September, 1865. In that city he has practiced his profes- sion ever since and yearly has added to his fame as a lawyer, and the confidence and respect in which he is held by his people.
Mr. White, while taking an interest in affairs political, has never sought or consented to hold any office not strictly judicial. For four years, 1866 to 1870, lie acted as Clerk of the Fifth District Court of Missouri under the Constitution of 1865. He was also Commis- sioner of United States District Court front 1866 to 1877, and administered its affairs with wisdom and ability.
He is a member of the Sons of the Revolution and of the college fraternity known as the Phi Beta Kappa. He has always manifested an abiding interest in educational affairs of every kind and is now one of the Trustees of the public library at St. Joseph, Missouri.
Mr. White was married December 20, 1882, to Miss Emily G. Blanchard, of St. Joseph. They have five living children.
ALBERT CLIFTON WIDDICOMBE, BOONVILLE.
C APT. ALBERT CLIFTON WIDDICOMBE, of Boonville, proved himself more than thirty years ago to be a brave and good soldier, and then, leaving the field for the forum, became an able and accomplished lawyer. He camne out of the army with a title of some honor, having been commissioned Captain of Company B, Sixteenth Regiment of West Virginia, U. S. V. He enlisted in the spring of 1862 in that regiment, at Alexandria, Vir- ginia, in the infantry service and served two years in the Army of the Potomac, in the Department of Washington. He was a beardless youth, twenty years of age at the time of his enlistment, but he had the honor of recruiting 200 men, and battling with them nobly through the war. However, it is more with the legal than the military features of Mr. Widdicombe's career that this sketch has to deal, for it is as a lawyer that he is best known and will be best remembered.
Captain Widdicombe was born August 5, 1842, at Washington, District of Columbia, his father, Robert Widdicombe, being a native of Devonshire, England. From Devonshire le came to the United States in 1824, with his brother. He settled in the capital city of Washington, but the brother, John Widdicombe, went to Clark County, Ohio, where he became a successful farmer. The mother of Captain Widdicombe was Mary Saul Galloway, who came from the staid old Colonial town of Marblehead, Massachusetts, and her father owned much property in Washington, District of Columbia. The marriage of Captain Widdicombe's parents occurred in Washington, they experiencing the distinction of being the first couple wedded in St. Jolin's Episcopal Church, which the President then attended.
Captain Widdicombe was the seventh child and third son of this marriage. His boy- hood was spent within the shadow of the halls of Congress, and he was educated in the
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private primary schools and secured also considerable learning from a private teacher at home. When fully prepared he attended Loudoun Institute, near Middleburgh, Virginia. Thus mentally equipped, he studied law in the office of Thomas H. Dodge, at Washington, District of Columbia, but meanwhile the war came on and he entered the army in the spring of 1862, at Alexandria, Virginia. He was at that time not twenty years of age, and although a native of the most intensely Southern section of the country, he entered the service of the Union, abandoning his legal studies to do so.
It was in 1864 that he came to Cooper County, Missouri. There he was admitted to the practice of law in the Circuit Court, at Boonville, by Judge George W. Miller. Since then Captain Widdicombe has practiced continuously in Boonville, having been admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States in 1872. This means that he practices in all courts. For two years (1893 and 1894) Captain Widdicombe practiced law in his native city of Washington, and then returned to Boonville, where he found things more to his liking.
He is essentially a lawyer who understands and deals in land litigation, being one of the most thorough adepts in this legal branch of any lawyer of the State. His practice is as lucrative as it is large, and there is a constant increase in the business that flows his way, which undoubtedly is because of the fact that lie has become famous for his deep knowledge of real estate law and land history, no less than the fact that he has perfected the title to thousands of acres of Missouri land. In the noteworthy case of Gray, et al., versus Jones, et al., involving 5,000 acres of land in Northwest Missouri, he triumphed, after a long and involved contest, in the United States Circuit Court. He has achieved a fame in this field which is as extended as enviable.
As City Attorney of Boonville for several terms he acquitted himself with ability. Accepting the Republican nomination for Prosecuting Attorney of Cooper County, and doing so merely to sustain the party organization, lie reduced the adverse majority an ap- preciable extent, Cooper County being decidedly Democratic. After being for several years a member of the Republican State Executive Committee, he was elected by the Republican State Convention at Sedalia (1886) to the Chairmanship of the State Com- mittee, although he was not a candidate for that position. It was given to him unsolicited, and he managed the State campaigns of 1886 and 1888 with the generalship to be ex- pected of a war leader and veteran. He took a leading part in the State organization of Republican League Clubs, and directed their campaign, which bears the name of being the most successful Republican campaign in Missouri since the war. He believes that the best results politically are obtained by thorough and close organization, and has proved that his theory is correct on several notable occasions.
He is too good a lawyer to be an office-seeker, but he has always been an active worker in the van of the Republican party in his section, giving freely out of his ample purse for the furtherance of the party's interests, as well as being prodigal in argument and personal effort for its welfare. Captain Widdicombe's political career began early. He was a delegate to the National Republican Convention which nominated Lincoln at Baltimore in 1864, one of his colleagues being the Hon. Joseph W. McClurg, who subsequently becaine Gov- ernor of Missouri. At this convention the Missouri delegation had the honor of noininat- ing General Grant, which was the first time he was ever named for the place he afterward filled, though he was not then considered a reasonable possibility. As the seats of the Missouri delegation had been contested, the delegates thought it best to let the convention
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know it was present and that the Republican party in Missouri was an active, vital entity. Therefore, the delegation agreed to put General Grant's naine before the convention, though at the same time each one of them was an ardent supporter of Lincoln. If the action of the delegation was intended to create a diversion, it certainly had the desired effect, for it broke the "call " and precipitated an uproar. After the convention had subsided and the roll had been completed, John F. Hume, Chairman of the Missouri delegation, and at that time editor of the old St. Louis Democrat, climbed on his chair, withdrew the name of Grant and moved that the nomination of Lincoln be made unanimous, which was done. Captain Widdicombe was also one of the Missouri delegates in 1888, when Benjamin Har- rison was nominated for President, the first time.
Captain Widdicombe is an Odd Fellow, a member of Frank P. Blair Post, G. A. R., of St. Louis, and the Loyal Legion, of St. Louis. In each of these societies he has acquired a reputation for fraternalism which few enjoy. To look at him one would never believe that he could be a veteran of the Civil War or that he could have participated in a convention which nominated Lincoln. That he does not look more than forty, is perhaps due to his temperate and natural mnode of life and the fact that he strives always to be at peace with mankind and the world.
He was married November 28, 1865, at Connorsville, Indiana, his wife being Susan P. Hedrick, the daughter of Robert G. Hedrick, who now lives in Indianapolis. Her uncle was Caleb B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior under President Lincoln, and it was at his house in Washington that Captain Widdicombe met her. She is an educated and accomplished lady as is evidenced by the careful training she has given her four living children. They are Rosa S., Robert H., Gertrude and Mary G. Robert H. is married and a practicing lawyer at Colorado Springs, Colorado. Gertrude is the wife of Tyler K. Brant, and she has one son, a year old, whose name is Tyler K. Brant, Jr .*
SHELDON AMOS WIGHT, NEVADA.
THE History of the Benchi and Bar of Missouri would be incomplete without the name T of Sheldon Amos Wight. He was born on the 4th day of October, 1839, in St. Lawrence County, New York. His parents were Alexander Wight and Anna Sheldon. His father was a farmer and his popularity resulted in the holding of many township offices and the Postmastership. The Wights are pure Americans. The founder of the family was Thomas Wight, who was one of the first settlers of Dedham, as early as 1635. The place was in New England, and has since been known as Medfield, Massachusetts. The settlers numbered twelve, and Thomas Wiglit was the leader. John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians, who wrote the Bible in the aboriginal language, was the brother of Thomas Wight's wife, whose name was Lydia Penniman. The descendants of Thomas Wight have been prominent New Englanders, and in all civic, social or military affairs they have been conspicuous figures. In all American battles since King Philip's war (and including that
* Captain Widdicombe enjoys the distinction of having raised the American flag to the highest point it has ever reached, in connec- tion with the extraordinary cvent of the National salute given the flag by the Army of the Potomac from Arlington Heights and vicinity, at the moment of its attaining its destined elevation, on the Washington monument, on the 22d day of February, 1862, at the City of Washington - the height of the unfinished shaft at the time being 285 feet.
Jawyhl_
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struggle), the rolls of the patriots contain inany of their names. Twelve were soldiers in the Revolution on the American side. A great many descendants in the seventh, as well as the eiglith generation, to which Sheldon A. Wight belongs, were soldiers in the late Civil War on both sides. One of them, Col. Samuel Bowen Wight, was commander of the famous Sixteenth Georgia Regiment, C. S. A., which was known as Howell Cobb's regiment. The Wights have attained eminence in every profession; the arts, the sciences, the law and the ministry have been elevated and adorned by them. Moses Wight was a renowned painter; Rev. Daniel Wight designed the steel engraving of the "Journey" of Bunyan's Pilgrim from the "City of Destruction" to the "Celestial City." Another notable member of the family is Frederick Dearborn Wight, of Colorado, the largest wool grower in America and recently candidate for Governor of that State. Rose Hartwick, author of "Curfew Shall Not Ring To-night," was a daughter of Mary Louisa Wight. These are but a few of the inany notable characters produced by this family, and the Sheldons are an equally well-known family. The great great grandfather of Sheldon A. Wight was a General in the Patriot Army.
The subject of this sketch was educated at Governeur Academy, iu New York, next the Fairfield Academy, and the Albany University. It was at the Albany school that he studied law. Previous to his course there he read law in the office of E. B. Winn, of Watertown, New York. He was admitted to practice at Albany in December. Since his admission to the bar he has followed the practice of his profession continuously, having no ambitions outside of his profession, the offices he has held having come to him without his solicitation.
In September, 1861, Mr. Wight enlisted in the Thirty-fifth Regimeut of New York Volunteers. He was at Cedar Mountain, the Second Battle of Manassas, South Mountain, Fredericksburg, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and in all the struggles of the Army of the Potomac. He was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives from Vernon County in 1870 and 1872. In 1874 he was elected Senator from his district, and for two years was Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
At the time Mr. Wight was elected to the Senate, a large number of counties, includ- ing his own, were greatly indebted by reason of railroad bonds issued in aid of the con- struction of different railways. Vernon County had a debt of over one-half million dol- lars represented by bonds and accumulated and unpaid interest. Judgments and manda- mus proceedings were thick and plenty. The municipal authorities and conservative citizens of the indebted counties and towns were frightened at the way interest was accumulating, and were anxious to compromise and adjust. They saw that the opportun- ities were great to purchase and compromise the indebtedness on very advantageous terins. But they were powerless to act because of the absence of laws making such opportunities easy and practical. It was under these conditions that Mr. Wight introduced and procured the passage of two bills during the session of 1877-one to compromise bonded indebtedness, and the other to provide a sinking fund to purchase such indebtedness. Under the wise and beneficent provisions of these acts nearly all the largely indebted counties of the State adjusted their indebtedness on such advantageous terms as in many instances to save from one-third to two-thirds of their total liability. Vernon County in about two years lessened its debt from over one-half million dollars to about $175,000.
In 1879, fearing that they had given too great powers to the municipal authorities in the way of comprouiise, the Legislature so amended the law, creating so inany restric-
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tions and limitations, as to make any act under it almost impracticable; so nearly so, at least, that not a single compromise has been effected that was not made under the acts of 1877, thereby fully vindicating the wisdom of their enactinent. Mr. Wight having accomplished what was his main object in accepting the office, did not ask for a re-election, and since then has continually devoted himself to his large and lucrative practice.
Mr. Wight founded the flourishing town of Sheldon, in Vernon County. He is a Democrat, and a good one.
At Nevada, in 1869, he married Mary Douglas. She died in 1882, leaving three chil- dren. Douglas Wight is now his law partner. The other two children are Kate and Francis. Mr. Wight was again married in 1886 to Miss Agnes Barr, of Nevada, who died in 1894, leaving one child, a boy, Sheldon A., Jr. The Douglases were Missouri pioneers, coming from an old Virginia family. The Barrs were early settlers of Illinois.
FRANKLIN PIERCE WILEY, MOBERLY.
FRANKLIN PIERCE WILEY, of Moberly, has long been identified with the bar of the central part of the State, and at this stage of his career, enjoys, perhaps, as large a practice as any attorney of that section. He has held many positions of honor and responsibility, but of recent years has withdrawn from any service of a public nature and has devoted himself wholly to the law, of which he is an enthusiastic student, following it with a liking that can spring only from a perfect adaptability to its requirements.
Mr. Wiley was born on a farm near Leroy, McLean County, Illinois, February 3, 1853, and is the son of James Wiley and Permelia (Waters) Wiley. The foriner was a native of Ireland, was born and spent his youth in County Tyrone, whence he emigrated in 1833, while still a young man, to America. He located at Leroy, Illinois, and there established the first general merchandise business the town had known. In that day Leroy was far from the heart of civilization, and St. Louis, though a town of between 6,000 and 7,000 people, was still in the midst of a vast area of undeveloped country, with the advantage in its favor that it had in its Great River a means of reaching the distant but more civilized communities. The elder Wiley saw that the section of central Illinois con- stituting McLean and other counties, was bound to develop into a rich and populous. country, a surmise fully borne out in results. Although Chicago was a great many miles nearer Leroy thian St. Louis, such were conditions that the observer might have questioned which would be the larger town-Chicago or Leroy; so the elder Wiley went to St. Louis, purchased his goods and hauled thein overland to the little town in McLean County. In the same year hc came from Ireland to America (1833) he met and married the mother of the subject of this sketch. She was the daughter of Silas Waters, a Ken- tuckian who came from near Covington and settled in McLean County, Illinois, when his daughter Permelia was a little girl. After the elder Wiley retired from the inercantile business, he moved to a farmi in McLean County, where he died in April, 1860, Franklin being at that time a boy of seven years. His widow survived him until 1883, and lies buried at Leroy.
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