USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume I > Part 44
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Judge Axtell was born in Franklin county, Ohio, October 14, 1819, and was educated at Oberlin and Western Reserve Colleges. In 1843 he removed to Mount Clemens, Michigan, and in 1851 settled in California, where for a time he worked in the mines. He practiced his profession in San Francisco from 1860 to 1869, during that time serving in the fortieth and forty-first congresses.
One of Governor Axtell's biographers has said of him: "He was not loved as a governor but it made no difference to him, and when he returned to New Mexico as its chief justice in 1882, he had manv stanch friends as well as numerous vindictive enemies. As a judge he determined ques- tions with reference to the right of the matter as he saw it, rather than according to the law. Shortly after he took his place as chief justice and judge of the first district, there came before him bitter and hardly con- tested questions with reference to the ownership and right of possession of the Cañon del Agua mine, in Santa Fé county, in which Governor Otero and his associates were enjoined from going upon the property, pending the litigation. Acting upon the advice of numerous counsel the governor and his friends disregarded the order, when Judge Axtell promptly cited the governor, his associates and all his attorneys for contempt, and ordered them incarcerated in the Santa Fé county jail, where they remained for several weeks, being the honored guests of the town, and receiving all sorts of attention at the hands of the citizens, until the judge became con- vinced that it was better to let his prisoners go, and they were released. Judge Axtell was a remarkable man in many ways, absolutely incorrupt- ible, utterly fearless, with the courage of his convictions, always dignified and courteous. He was particularly kind and helpful to the younger mem- hers of the bar, who all had feelings of the deepest respect and affection toward him, and all who knew him felt that they had been benefited by his acquaintance, and those who were his friends felt themselves fortunate. He was the last of the chief justices before the era of court houses, type- writers, and modern methods of conducting business, and will always be remembered with affection by those who knew him."
He was a stanch friend and a bitter enemy. In spite of the fact that he incurred the enmity of certain members of the bar and numerous political leaders in the Territory, there are many who believe that the motives which actuated him in most of his official acts were honest and public-spirited. Like many another judge and executive, he was surrounded by political cliques of the most corrupt character, and his official duties were rendered well nigh impossible of performance at times. His last days were spent in Morristown, New Jersey, where his death occurred in August, 1891.
A short time prior to his departure for Springer, then the county seat of Colfax county, to preside over his first term of court there, Judge Axtell received a score or more of letters from cowboys and other desperate characters of that neighborhood warning him not to come. Undaunted
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by the threats conveyed to him, Judge Axtell was promptly on hand to open court early in the week. As he took his seat he noticed that a large number of armed men were in the court room.
"Mr. Sheriff," asked the judge, "I notice that a large number of men in the room are bearing arms in defiance of the law. Can you tell me why?"
"Why, sir," stammered the sheriff, looking about him, "they are-some of then-are deputies, sir."
"Deputies or no deputies," replied the court, "see that they are all disarmed instantly, or I shall fine them each fifty dollars for contempt of court."
Within five minutes a stack of six-shooters lay on the table, and the work of the court began.
During the trial of "Dirty Dick" Rogers, Lee and others at Las Vegas some time afterward, Judge Axtell opened court promptly at the hour set, though he had received repeated warnings that he would forfeit his life or be seriously injured if he followed his determination to conduct the trial. On this occasion he caused all the court attendants and spectators to be searched before he allowed the opening of the case, with the result that forty-two revolvers were piled on the table, some having been taken from the attorneys in the case. Each man carrying a weapon into the court room was fined ten dollars for contempt of court, and no show of resistance was made when the fine was collected.
In one case before him the defendant, a poor young man, whose farm was in jeopardy, had no attorney. Seeing that the case was going against the man unless he could obtain legal counsel, Judge Axtell descended from the bench and began conducting the cross-examination with the remark : "It takes thirteen men to steal a poor boy's farm in New Mexico." Upon the conclusion of the submission of evidence he instructed the jury to find a verdict in behalf of the defendant. When the foreman announced a disagreement the judge discharged the jury, announced a verdict in behalf of the defendant, and told the sheriff never to allow any one of the dis- charged jurymen to serve again in San Miguel county.
It is related that during the term of William Breeden as attorney general, when Judge Axtell had made some rather caustic remarks to some of the attorneys who had been addressing him, the former rose and, looking Judge Axtell in the eye, remarked, "Don't be too hard on the lawyers, your honor; you might be a lawyer yourself some time, you know."
Colonel William Breeden, who was attorney general from 1872 to 1878 and from 1881 to 1889, was regarded by many as the shrewdest poli- tician and most capable lawyer in New Mexico from 1864 until his health gave out in 1883. He was a man of remarkable strength of character, thor- oughly versed in the law, and a natural leader of men. During the height of his career he was frequently quite autocratic, and was generally obeyed by the lesser lights in politics.
Joseph E. Gary, who in later years came prominently before the American public on account of his having presided at the trial of the Chicago anarchists in 1886, practiced for a short time in Las Vegas and Santa Fé. He was born July 9, 1821, in Potsdam, St. Lawrence county, New York, and when he was of age moved to the state of Missouri, where
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he was admitted to the bar, April 19, 1844. He practiced in Springfield, Greene county, until the spring of 1849, when he came to this Territory, arriving in Las Vegas June 24th of that year. He then moved to Santa Fé, in December, 1850, where he remained for two years, going to California in December, 1852, practicing his profession in San Francisco. From there Judge Gary moved to Chicago in the spring of 1856, and was elected judge of the superior court of Cook county in November, 1863, and has been continuously re-elected to that position ever since. Judge Gary died in November, 1906.
While a resident of Las Vegas he was the victim of a practical joke arranged by some of his friends who desired to initiate him into western life after the fashion not infrequently employed in giving newcomers from the east their introduction to the "wild and woolly" west. This was a sham duel in which he was induced to participate for the protection of his honor. When he discovered the nature of the prank played upon him he became very indignant and expressed an earnest desire to continue the fight in genuine Yankee style, employing fists instead of powder and ball.
Thomas J. Smith, who was appointed by President Cleveland as chief justice in 1893, presided in the fourth district for five years, and was suc- ceeded in both posts by Chief Justice William J. Mills. He gained a reputation for courage and fairness in the performance of his duties on the bench, is a fine classical scholar and a man of varied accomplishments. He now resides at Warrenton, Virginia.
J. J. Davenport, chief justice from 1853 to 1858, compiled the early laws known as the Davenport Compilation. Judge Davenport was an able lawyer and made an excellent judge. He was a man of strong opinions and splendid moral character, and adorned the bench during his occupancy thereof.
John P. Slough, who commanded a regiment of Union troops during the Confederate attempt to capture the northern part of New Mexico, was appointed chief justice in 1866. His career was cut short by assassination in 1868 at the hands of his bitter personal and political enemy, Colonel William L. Rynerson, of Las Cruces. While Judge Slough was a man of strong prejudices and at times extremely disagreeable, even to some of his tried friends, and frequently arbitrary on the bench, he was not corrupt. The prime cause of his death was his too active participation in politics, as the result of which he alienated some of his former friends. A bitter feeling had been engendered between Colonel Ryerson and himself, and public opinion at the time of his tragic end seemed to favor the conclusion that he brought his death upon himself by allowing himself to be placed in a position where a public quarrel with Rynerson could be possible.
William Joseph Mills, present chief justice of the supreme court of the Territory of New Mexico, was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, Janu- ary II, 1849. His father was William Mills of Virginia, and his mother, Harriet Beale of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Judge Mills' father died when the judge was but a child, and his mother then moved to Connecticut and there married William H. Law. Judge Mills attended private schools and graduated from the Norwich Free Academy, as also from the Yale Law School in the class of 1877. He was married January 14, 1885, to Alice Waddingham, at West Haven, Connecticut. After his gradua- tion from Yale Law School, he practiced law in New Mexico and New
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Haven, Connecticut, until appointed chief justice of the supreme court of the Territory of New Mexico by President Mckinley; his commission being dated January 31, 1898. He has been twice reappointed by Presi- dent Roosevelt, and his present term will expire January 30, 1910. Before moving to New Mexico, Judge Mills represented New Haven in both branches of the Connecticut legislature. He has two children : A son, Wilson W. Mills, age eighteen, is now in New Haven, preparing to enter Yale College; his daughter, Madeline Mills, aged eleven years, is at home in Las Vegas, New Mexico.
Hon. Humphrey B. Hamilton, who for five years was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of New Mexico, was born in Perry county, Illinois, October 26, 1850, and came of Scotch-Irish ancestry, representa- tives of the name having been pioneer settlers of Maryland and Virginia, and prominent in the history of the colonies as participants in the Revolu- tionary war and also in the various walks of civil life. The paternal grand- father of Judge Hamilton became a pioneer resident of Missouri, and there Leo F. Hamilton was born. In early manhood he wedded Sarah Jones, of Kentucky parentage, and, removing to Illinois, was successfully engaged in the practice of medicine up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1852. He had survived his wife for about a year.
Their son, Judge Hamilton, the youngest of five children, acquired his literary education in the schools of Illinois, and began preparation for the practice of law as a student in the office and under the direction of Hon. Dewitt C. Jones, of Chicago, Ill. In 1871 he was admitted to the bar, and located in Jefferson City, Missouri, where he remained from 1872 until 1885. He then came to Socorro, New Mexico, where he enjoyed a liberal and distinctively representative clientage until 1895. He was then appointed by President Cleveland to the position of associate justice of the Supreme Court of New Mexico, and during his five years' service on the bench he had but one decision reversed. He had a comprehensive knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence, was correct in his application to the points in litigation, and his course as a member of the Supreme Court was in har- mony with his record as a man and lawyer and distinguished by a masterful grasp of every problem which was presented for solution.
In 1872 Judge Hamilton was united in marriage to Miss Mary J. Mc- Cutcheon, of Stanton, Virginia, who died in 1890. Three of their chil- dren are living: Lulu, the wife of William Driscoll, of El Paso, Texas; Humphrey, Jr., of Lincoln, and Fenwick, who is living in the City of Mexico. On the 3d of January, 1899, Mr. Hamilton married his second wife, who was Mrs. Mary R. Riggle, and soon afterward removed to El Paso, Texas, where his death occurred June 29, 1903.
Judge Hamilton was a stalwart advocate of Democracy, but not an active partisan, and on the bench his service was entirely free from political bias. He attained high rank in Masonry, and also belonged to the order of the Knights of Pythias. He was one of the foremost representatives of the New Mexico bar and a man of unusual prominence in the Territory. He was an earnest Christian throughout his life.
H. B. Hamilton, Jr., engaged in the active practice of law at Lincoln, New Mexico, came to this Territory with his father in 1885. He acquired his early education in Wentworth Military Academy, at Lexington, Mis- souri, and prepared for the practice of law under the direction of his father.
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He was admitted to the bar on the Ist of November, 1898, and first prac- ticed at Roswell, from which place he came to Lincoln, where he joined his father in practice and has since been an able representative of the legal fraternity in Lincoln. He is logical in argument, strong in his presentation of a cause and correct in his deductions, and now has a gratifying clientage. He is recognized as a man of strong intellectual force with a wide and favorable acquaintance, both professionally and socially.
Mr. Hamilton was married at Roswell, February 14, 1898, to Miss Lovie Wetmore, and their children are Wayne H. and Mayo W.
Reuben A. Reeves, judge of the first district from 1887 to 1889, is still living. He is regarded as a sound lawyer, a fair and just man, whose private and public life has been above reproach. He has a most engaging personality and charms his friends with his manner and his conversation. Judge Reeves is a Kentuckian by birth.
Edward P. Seeds presided as judge of the first district from 1890 to 1894, under appointment by President Harrison. He was a graduate of the law department of the Iowa State University, but not meeting with the success in his practice which he anticipated, he soon abandoned his pro- fessional labors to enter the United States mail service. After his appoint- ment to the bench in New Mexico he resumed the study of the law, with the result that he soon became recognized as an authority. He made an excellent judge, and was manifestly a fair-minded and just man. Judge Seeds was a stanch Presbyterian and rigid in his observance of the rules of the faith he followed.
Charles McCandless, a native of Pennsylvania, who was appointed chief justice in 1878 and assigned to the bench in the first district, did not find social and political conditions in the Territory quite up to his expecta- tions, and after holding one term of court resigned his post and left the Territory. He was the one example of a lawyer whose tastes were too fastidious for the environments of the ante-railroad days in New Mexico.
John R. McFie, associate justice of the supreme court, presiding in the first judicial district, enjoys the distinction of being the only justice to receive an appointment for a fourth term, and of having had the longest term of service on the supreme bench in the history of New Mexico. Judge McFie was born in Washington county, Illinois, October 9, 1848, and was educated in the public schools and under the tutorship of his father, Pro- fessor John McFie, who had occupied a university chair in Scotland. February 4, 1864, he left his mother's home and enlisted for service in the Civil war, his name being enrolled in Company E, Thirtieth Illinois Veteran Volunteer Infantry, with which he served to the close of the war. He accompanied Sherman in the march to the sea, participated in the grand review at the close of the war, and was mustered out in Louisville, Kentucky. In July, 1865, he returned to Illinois, making his home with his mother at Coulterville, Randolph county, his father having died in August, 1863. There he followed mercantile pursuits for five years, at the expiration of which time, in 1870, he began the study of the law in the office of General J. Blackburn Jones, of Sparta. In 1871 he was ad- mitted to the bar after an examination by Judge Silas L. Bryan, father of William J. Bryan.
Judge McFie practiced in the courts of Illinois until his removal to New Mexico in 1884. He served in the thirty-first general assembly of
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Illinois, during which he enjoyed the privilege of seconding the nomination of General John A. Logan for United States senator. He was again elected to the thirty-third general assembly, participating in the election of Shelby M. Cullom to the senate. In February, 1884, President Arthur tendered him the post of register of the United States land office at Las Cruces, New Mexico, which he accepted, serving there from March, 1884. to December, 1885, when President Cleveland appointed E. G. Shields to succeed him. January 1, 1886, he formed a law partnership with Judge S. B. Newcomb, with whom he practiced in Las Cruces until March 19, 1889, when he was appointed by President Harrison an associate justice of the Supreme Court of New Mexico and made presiding judge of the third district, with headquarters at Las Cruces. The third district was then com- posed of the counties of Doña Ana, Grant, Sierra and Lincoln, and extended from Texas to the Arizona line. After serving upon the bench four years and two months President Cleveland appointed A. B. Fall as his successor, when he returned to private practice in Las Cruces. De- cember .17, 1897, he was appointed by President Mckinley to the su- preme bench, becoming presiding judge of the first district, with head- quarters at Santa Fé. He was reappointed by President Roosevelt in December. 1001. and again in December, 1905. and is now serving his fourth term in that exalted office.
A noteworthy fact in connection with Judge McFie's elevation to the supreme bench is that his candidacy in every instance has met with a practically unanimous endorsement of the members of the bar, without regard to political affiliations. His first term upon the bench demonstrated his eminent qualifications for the post, the bar of New Mexico, so quick to criticise any judicial act indicative of bias or prejudice, offering him tribute in expressions of confidence in his integrity and high sense of jus- tice. Another fact worthy of note, as evidenced by the records of the courts, is that not one of his opinions, written for the supreme court of the Territory, has been reversed by the supreme court of the United States during the thirteen years he has been a member of that court. Personally, Judge McFie is highly esteemed by members of the bench and the bar, as well as by the laitv, his career having been an exemplification of the best tenets of his profession and of the splendid moral qualifications which render a public man conspicuous. He is a broad-minded and public- spirited citizen and, above all, a just and fearless judge.
Hon. Edward A. Mann, of Alamogordo, associate justice of the supreme court of New Mexico and judge of the sixth iudicial district, was born at Beatrice, Nebraska, in 1867. He was reared in the states of Ne- braska, Kansas and Texas, where he attended the public schools, com- pleting his studies in the college at Belle Plaine, Texas, where he remained two years. In 1887 he began reading law in the office of L. H. Thompson, of Norton, Kansas, and was admitted to practice before the supreme court of that state in 1891. The first three vears of his professional labors were spent in Norton, Kansas, whence he removed to Cripple Creek, Colo- rado. Less than a vear afterward he located in Gering, Nebraska, where he practiced from 1894 until 1903. During that period he served for two vears as prosecuting attorney of Scotts Bluff countv. Upon locating in Las Cruces in 1903 he became a member of the law firm of Bonham, Holt & Mann, and was still associated with H. B. Holt and J. F. Bonham
Edward A. mann
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at the time of his recent appointment, on June 1, 1903, to the bench in the newly created sixth judicial district. He was reappointed by the president in December, 1903, and his nomination was at once confirmed by the senate.
Judge Mann's experience in law prior to his elevation to the bench was varied and unusually successful. By his contemporaries he is recog- nized as a jurist of exceptional ability. His integrity and his sense of justice have never been brought into question. In a community where honesty and fearlessness are qualities which are especially to be desired in occupants of the bench, and where such qualities are quickly recognized and keenly appreciated, the accession of jurists of his stamp is worthy of note. Judge Mann is identified with the Masons, the Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the Red Men.
Hon. Ira A. Abbott, who became judge of the second judicial district in January, 1905, under appointment by President Roosevelt in December, 1904, has distinguished himself, during the brief period of his occupancy of the bench of New Mexico, by his manifest lack of political prejudice and by the fairness and justice which have characterized his decisions. Judge Abbott was born in Barnard, Vermont, in 1845. During the last year of the Civil war he served in the Ninth Vermont Volunteer Infantry, partici- pating in the closing act of the great drama about Richmond, Virginia. The command to which he was attached was among the first troops to enter Richmond after the capitulation, and while they were occupying that for- mer stronghold of the Confederacy Judge Abbott was privileged to wit- ness Lincoln's visit to that city. Soon after the close of the conflict he entered Dartmouth College, from which he was graduated in 1870. The year following his graduation he read law, and at the same time occupied the chair of mathematics in Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts. Among those who were students under him at this time were the Hon. William H. Moody, attorney general of the United States and recently elevated to a seat on the supreme bench, and Walker and Emmons Blaine, sons of James G. Blaine. Upon the close of his engagement at Phillips Academy he devoted his time exclusively to the study of the law until his admission to practice in Essex county, Massachusetts, in 1872. His pro- fessional work was at Haverhill in Essex county, mainly, although for a time he had an office in Boston. For several years he served as special justice of the central district court of Essex at Haverhill, and in 1898 was appointed justice of that court, occupying the bench at the time of his nomination to the bench in the second district of New Mexico. He also served two years as city attorney of Haverhill, Massachusetts, and while a resident of that city took an active interest in educational matters as a member of the school committee. Judge Abbott has won the unqualified respect of the bar of New Mexico during his comparatively brief incum- bency of office, and it has come to be a thoroughly recognized fact that causes brought before him for trial will be adjusted solely on their merits.
Judge N. B. Laughlin, who is now in private practice at Santa Fé, but front 1894 to 1898 served as associate justice of the supreme court and judge of the first judicial circuit, was born in Illinois, July 24, 1844. Before reaching his majority he served in the Confederate army in the last year of the war. Unable to read or write at the age of twenty-three, he followed ambition's leadings, and before he was thirty graduated from
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the University of Missouri with a Bachelor's degree. After practicing a time in Dallas, Texas, he located at Santa Fé in 1879, and for over twenty- five years has been identified with the territorial bar. He served as mem- ber of the legislature and in other offices, and in July, 1894, was appointed to the supreme bench by President Cleveland.
Hon. Frank Wilson Parker, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, judge of the third judicial district, was born in Sturgis, Michigan, October 16, 1860, a son of James Wilson and Maria Antoinette (Thompson) Parker. Hav- ing completed a high school course in his native citv he afterward pursued an elective course in the literary department of the University of Michigan in conjunction with the study of law, and was graduated from the law department of that institution in March, 1880. He then opened an office for practice in his native town and followed his profession there for a little more than one year.
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