USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume I > Part 47
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Simon Bolivar Newcomb, who began practice in New Mexico at Las Cruces, in 1875, was born at Wallace, Nova Scotia, in 1838. A year later he was taken to Texas by his parents, but returned to Canada in his youth to complete his education. In 1861 he attained the rank of attorney and solicitor, and was finally admitted as a barrister in 1863. Soon afterward he removed to Toledo, Ohio, where he engaged in practice. In 1870 he re- turned to Texas, and the year following was appointed judge of the twenty-fifth judicial district, with headquarters at El Paso. Soon after his removal to Las Cruces he was elected to the territorial council, in which he served several terms. He also filled the office of district attorney for the third district. In 1885 he was elected president of the New Mexico Bar Association. He was active and prominent in Masonry, assisting in the
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organization of the Grand Lodge of New Mexico in 1877, and serving as grand master in 1881. Judge Newcomb died of apoplexy at his home in Las Cruces, May 23, 1901.
Captain Clinton N. Sterry was born in 1843, at Ashtabula, Ohio, and finished his classical studies in Oberlin College. He served two and a half years with the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil war and afterward organized a company in the First Minnesota Volunteers, of which he was captain. After attending the law department of the University of Michigan he was admitted to the bar and in 1868 began practice in Minnesota. From 1873 until 1882 he practiced in Kansas. In the latter year he came to Albuquerque as an attorney for the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company, and ten years later was appointed general attorney for that road in New Mexico. From 1896 until his death in 1903 he was solicitor for the Santa Fé road, making his headquarters in Los Angeles.
John D. Bail, who first settled at Pinos Altos in 1866, began practice at Mesilla in 1870 at the close of two terms' service in the New Mexico legislature. He afterward served in the council, was deputy United States collector of internal revenue, deputy assessor and district attorney of Doña Ana county. In 1885 he removed to Silver City and resumed active prac- tice. He was an active Republican. Judge Bail, as he was commonly known, was born in Ross county, Ohio, in 1825. He served in the Mex- ican war, accompanying Scott's expedition to the City of Mexico. In 1849 he began the study of the law in Springfield, Illinois, was admitted to the bar in 1852, and soon afterward went to California. In 1856 he returned to Springfield and resumed practice until 1861, when he joined the Elev- enth Missouri Infantry, participating in the campaign about Vicksburg and on the Red river. He was widely known throughout southern New Mexico.
John Y. Hewitt, who has been engaged in the practice of the law since 1881, was born in Ohio in 1836. He served with the Kansas Volunteers throughout the Civil war, and after visiting various localities in the west, settled in White Oaks in 1880. He was admitted to the bar at Lincoln in 1881. Mr. Hewitt has one of the finest law libraries in New Mexico. He was the first president of the Exchange Bank of White Oaks. For several years he has lived in practical retirement from the more serious cares of life.
Henry L. Warren, ex-chief justice of Montana and for many years a practicing lawyer of Albuquerque, was born in Quincy, Illinois, in 1837, and read law in the office of his father, Calvin A. Warren. His education was obtained in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and Brown University. In 1858 he was admitted to the bar in Missouri and practiced at Maryville and St. Joseph in that state, and at Quincy, Illinois. While there he served as city attorney of Quincy and as a member of the state legislature. Soon after the close of the war President Johnson appointed him chief justice of Montana, a post he filled four years. For eight years thereafter he practiced in St. Louis, after which he went to Leadville, Colorado, as attorney in important mining litigation. In 1880 he located in Santa Fé, and in June, 1887, formed a partnership with H. B. Fergus- son of Albuquerque, with whom he practiced until his death. He was regarded as a strong lawyer.
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Captain Lewis C. Fort, for many years in practice in Las Vegas, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1845. He served in the Union army in the Civil war, and late in the '6os was admitted to the bar in his native city. After practicing several years in Arkansas he came to Las Vegas in 1879, and for some time practiced as a partner of William D. Lee. After the latter was appointed to the supreme bench Captain Fort formed a partnership with Elisha V. Long, which continued until his death in 1904. He also served as city attorney of East Las Vegas from 1890 to 1895, and for some time was postmaster of that town.
W. B. Childers, attorney at law at Albuquerque, was born at Pulaski, Giles county, Tennessee, on the 20th of March, 1854. He attended school in his native town, and at Giles College, in Pulaski, until September, 1870, when he matriculated at Washington College, Lexington, Virginia, pre- senting his letters and certificates to General Robert E. Lee on the 16th day of that month. The General died on the 12th of October, 1870, after which the name of the institution was changed to Washington & Lee Uni- versity. Mr. Childers was graduated in the academic department of the institution in June, 1873, winning the Bachelor of Arts degree in the law department of the University in June, 1874.
Following his graduation he spent some nine or ten months in a law office in Pulaski, Tennessee, and on attaining his majority was admitted to the bar. He then went to St. Louis, Missouri, in April, 1875, and re- mained there until December, 1879, engaged in the active practice of law. At a later date he left St. Louis for the purpose of locating in Albuquerque, reaching New Mexico on the Ist of January, 1880. After spending three months in Santa Fé he finally located in Albuquerque about a month or six weeks in advance of the actual completion of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé tracks to that place. He has always continued in the active practice of law and has been accorded a liberal clientage. He served as mayor of Albuquerque in 1887 and as a member of the city council in 1893 and 1894. He filled the office of United States attorney for nearly nine years, from June, 1896, until March, 1905, having been appointed to that office first by President Cleveland, and afterward by President McKin- ley. For two successive terms of four years each he was a member and president of the board of regents of the Territorial University.
Prior to coming to New Mexico Mr. Childers was made a member of the Masonic fraternity, and both prior to and after reaching Albuquerque took great interest in the fraternity for many years and is still affiliated therewith. During his early residence there he helped to organize all the Masonic bodies in Albuquerque, acting as worshipful master of the local lodge, and was subsequently elected grand master of the lodge in the Territory in 1883.
Arthur H. Harllee, for twenty years a Silver City lawyer, is a native of South Carolina, was educated in Wofford College at Spartanburg, and through school teaching as a means equipped himself for the practice of law. After his graduation from Albany (N. Y.) Law School in 1885, he came to Silver City. He was appointed district attorney of Grant and Sierra counties in 1895.
A leader of the bar of New Mexico for many years past is H. B. Fergusson, of Albuquerque, a delegate to the fifty-fifth Congress. Few men have come to the Territory so well mentally equipped for professional
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labors. Born in Alabama in 1848, he was graduated from the academic department of Washington and Lee University of Virginia with the degree of Master of Arts in 1873, having worked his way through and supple- mented his course during the last three years by teaching Greek and mathe- matics. Upon the completion of his classical course he entered the law department of the same institution, from which he was graduated the fol- lowing year. In 1875-6 he was employed as instructor in the Shenandoah Valley Academy at Winchester, Virginia, and in October of the latter year began the practice of his profession in Wheeling, West Virginia. As a partner in the firm of Jacob, Cracraft & Fergusson, of Wheeling, he came to New Mexico in 1882 to look after the interests of the North Homestake Mining Company. Making his temporary headquarters at White Oaks, he ‹levoted two years to the settlement of this celebrated case in the courts, win- ning a reputation as a mining lawyer. In 1884 he severed his connection with the Wheeling firm and located for practice in Albuquerque. His time has been devoted largely to handling important mining cases and a general civil practice, though he has also conducted a number of criminal cases of note. In 1894 he was employed by Secretary Olney as special United States attorney in the prosecution of S. M. Folsom, president of the Albu- querque National Bank, for the violation of the federal banking statutes ; and in the prosecution of the case against C. H. Dane, of Deming, for misappropriation of the funds of the bank of which he was president.
As the candidate of the Democratic party he was elected to the fifty- fifth Congress, in which he secured the passage of the act which has since been popularly known by his name, the provisions of which are detailed elsewhere in this work. He also carried to Washington a renewal of the application of the citizens of New Mexico for statehood, his chief argu- ment in support of the measure being based upon the land titles in the Territory-the land court created for passing upon titles to the numerous land grants in the Territory having found many of them to be of a fraudu- lent nature. As most of the best land had been granted to individuals or associations or sold, he argued that unless the Territory could obtain the rights of statehood it would be but a short time before all the best land would be lost to the Territory in this manner. The value of Mr. Fergusson's service to New Mexico in this one particular alone cannot be overestimated. His professional practice has been very successful and his contemporaries freely accord him a position at the head of the New Mexico bar.
O. N. Marron, of Albuquerque, has been engaged in practice in that city since his admission to the bar in May, 1891. Born in Port Henry, Essex county, New York, in 1861, he received his education there. In 1889 he came to New Mexico as assistant superintendent of the United States Indian school at Albuquerque and during his leisure hours read law in the office of W. B. Childers. Upon the opening of the new Indian school at Santa Fé in August, 1890, he was transferred to that institution. In April, 1891, he returned to Albuquerque, where he was soon afterward admitted to the bar. From that time until Needham C. Collier was ap- pointed to the supreme bench Mr. Marron practiced as his partner ; and for four years thereafter served as clerk of the district court under appoint- ment by Judge Collier. During his term as clerk Judge Collier appointed him to the office of master in chancerv, and while occupying this post he sold the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company's property in settlement of
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the litigation in which that company became involved. Mr. Marron's pro- fessional labors have been rewarded with ample success. He has taken an active, though unselfish, interest in public affairs, and for three terms served as mayor of Albuquerque. In politics a stanch Democrat, he has been chairman of the territorial Democratic central committee, and has always exhibited a profound interest in the undertakings of his party. Mr. Marron was one of the organizers of the State National Bank of Albu- querque, of which he is president.
William Courtland Wrigley, one of the leading attorneys of Raton, New Mexico, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 9, 1853, son of William C. and Mary Jane (Quigg) Wrigley.
After receiving a public school and collegiate education in his native city he read law in the office of William B. Mann, of Philadelphia, and was admitted to the bar in 1876, following which he entered upon the practice of law there. Leaving Philadelphia in 1882, he came west to New Mexico, where he has resided since that time, with the exception of a year and a half spent in Denver. His first location in New Mexico was at Springer. After his return from Denver he settled at Raton, where he has since practiced law and figured prominently in public affairs. During his early residence here he was especially active in politics. He served as chair- man of both county and territorial Republican committees, and canvassed the county and Territory respectively for the Republican nominees. In 1889-90 he was district attorney. Public-spirited and progressive, he has taken a keen interest in local improvements, in the furthering of which he has been influential, having helped to secure needed legislation. He prepared a number of bills that became laws, among them two funding laws, seven laws allowing cities to build sewers and charge the expense to abutting property, sidewalk law, amendments to municipal law, etc. He has made a special study of the land laws of New Mexico and is the author of some valuable literature on this subject, as well as on various other subjects. He was president of the Bar Association in 1904, the min- utes of which meeting he published.
Mr. Wrigley married Miss Sarah L. Yocum, by whom he has two children, a son and a daughter, Price and Marella.
The professional labors of Frank W. Clancy have left an indelible impress upon the political life of New Mexico, especially upon Bernalillo county. Mr. Clancy has been engaged in the practice of law in the Ter- ritory since 1874. Born in New Hampshire, in 1852, he was educated in the common schools and was graduated from the law department of Columbian University in 1873. The same year he was admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia, and in 1874 came to New Mexico, being admitted to practice in the Territory in September of that year. In 1879 he was appointed clerk of the supreme court and served three and a half years. He practiced in Santa Fé from March, 1883, until the close of March, 1891, and has since been continuously in practice in Albuquerque. He has served as mavor of the latter city for one term and in March, 1901, was appointed district attorney for the second judicial district, comprising the counties of Bernalillo, Mckinley, Valencia and Sandoval. He is still filling the position and is highly regarded for his integrity and faithfulness as lawyer and public official.
Summers Burkhart, an attorney at Albuquerque, was born in the Shen-
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andoah Valley of Virginia in 1861, and has been a resident of New Mexico since June, 1880, being at that time about eighteen years of age. He was appointed a clerk of the district court at Santa Fé in 1889, under Judge Reeves, having been admitted to the bar in the previous year- 1888. Immediately after his appointment as clerk of the district court he was appointed clerk of the supreme court and filled that position until 1891. In the meantime, in 1890, he came to Albuquerque and engaged in the practice of law, being associated with Neill B. Field from 1890 until 1893. In 1894 he was appointed assistant United States attorney in the court of private land claims by President Cleveland and took part in the trial of many important land grant cases, including the famous Peralta-Reavis case. He also assisted in the trial of the criminal case against Reavis in 1896, prepared the indictments and acted as one of the attorneys for the prosecution at Santa Fé, the trial resulting in the conviction of Reavis. A detailed account of this is given elsewhere in this work. Mr. Burkhart continued to act as assistant United States attorney until 1896, when he resigned. He has been very successful in his practice before the supreme court of the Territory, and while a general legal practitioner he makes a specialty of civil cases. He is a lawyer of broad learning, sound in his reasoning, logical in his deductions and presenting his cause with clearness and force. He ranks among the strong and able attorneys of the New Mexico bar.
A. B. McMillen, who has been engaged in practice in Albuquerque since January 31, 1893, came to New Mexico well qualified for his career. Born in Van Wert county, Ohio, March 15, 1861, he was reared on a farm. After his public schooling he entered the law department of the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated with the class of 1886. After practicing his profession in Paulding. Ohio, for five years. in June, 1891, he went to Los Gatos, California, where he remained until coming to Albuquerque. Mr. McMillen's professional labors have been greeted with abundant success. While his principal practice has been in the line of corporation law he has become recognized as an authority on matters pertaining to land grants and is one of the largest owners of land grants in the Territory.
He is a Mason and has filled all the chairs in Temple Lodge No. 3, of Albuquerque. Politically he espouses the cause of the Democracy, but has not sought public office. He has exhibited a deep interest in historical matters, and was one of the organizers of the History Club at Albu- querque.
Jeremiah Leahy, district attorney for the third district of New Mexico, comprising Colfax and Union counties, was born in Ottawa, Illinois, Sep- tember 15, 1861, son of John B. and Ellen (Stack) Leahy. He attended the public schools and at Valparaiso, Indiana, was a student in the Normal School, where he took a special course, after which he taught school two years in Livingston county, Illinois. Then he read law at Pontiac, Illi- nois ; in June, 1888, was admitted to the bar, and at once began the prac- tice of his profession at Pontiac, where he continued until December of that year. December 12 he landed in Springer, New Mexico, having come here to take charge of the irrigating system at Springer, which business he conducted two and a half years. Since 1891 he has been engaged in the practice of law at Raton. He was first appointed district
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attorney in March, 1897, by Governor Otero, and has been appointed every two years since that time. He was elected to the New Mexico council in 1904, and as a member of that body introduced the present road law. In 1892, 1893 and 1895 he served as city attorney of Raton, and again in 1897. In 1899, as prosecutor he conducted the trial of Thomas Ketchum, alias Black Jack, for assault with intent to commit a felony on a train on the Colorado and Southern railroad, in Union county. The verdict of the jury was affirmed by the supreme court. In the meantime the legisla- ture had opportunity to repeal the law, but declined to do so, and the death penalty was inflicted at Clayton in April, 1900. Another case which Mr. Leahy prosecuted was that of William H. McGinnis for the murder of Deputy United States Marshal Ed Farr, in Turkey canyon, Colfax county. McGinnis was captured August 16, 1899, convicted and received a life sentence. (See history of Crime.) Mr. Leahy has always been a Republican and is, fraternally, an Elk; has served as exalted ruler of his lodge.
November 29, 1894, he married Miss Mary O'Brien, daughter of Hon. James O'Brien, a former chief justice of New Mexico.
Judge Byron Sherry, a representative of the bar of Otero county, living in Alamogordo, is a native of Pennsylvania. His professional train- ing was received in St. Louis, Missouri, and he was admitted to the bar in Atchison, Kansas, in 1860. For several years thereafter he practiced principally in Leavenworth, becoming well known as a trial lawyer, espe- cially in connection with the practice of criminal law. In 1878 he returned to Missouri after having served upon the bench at Leavenworth. He was a member of the Kansas City bar from 1878 until 1897, when he went to Sabine Pass, Texas, and remained there until the fall of 1900, when he came to Alamogordo. He is regarded as one of the strong mem- bers of the New Mexico bar and one of the most substantial and worthy citizens of the Territory.
Among the leading ranks of the enterprising business men of Raton, New Mexico, is found the subject of this sketch, Hugo Seaberg, who came to this place from Springer some two years ago. Mr. Seaberg was born in Borgholm, Sweden, in 1869. He landed in New Mexico in 1888 and located at Springer in Colfax county, where he applied himself to the study of law. The following year he was admitted to the bar and at once began the practice of his profession there, in connection with which he soon became actively interested in real estate. From Springer he moved to Raton. Here he has established himself in a law practice and . is also dealing in real estate and making investments, and here with larger opportunities he has met with greater success. During the past two years he has bought and sold on his own account a quarter of a million acres land script. He is an authority on these transactions. With keen fore- sight, Mr. Seaberg has made numerous wise investments. He is the owner of the Seaberg Block, a valuable business building in the center of town. covering an entire block, and he also owns other business and residence property. The theatre he built is one of the largest in the southwest, and he has also given his city a modern hotel. He is a well trained lawyer, is broadly educated, and speaks four languages.
Mr. Seaberg married Miss Lottie V. Mills, and they have one daugh- ter, Agnes Esther.
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Edwin C. Crampton, of Raton, engaged in the active practice of law, was born in LaGrange county, Indiana, September 18, 1871, his parents being William and Emily A. (Cook) Crampton. The father was a native of the town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, England, and was born in 1830. He was reared to agricultural pursuits and in 1851 left England to become a resident of southern Michigan. Eventually he settled in northern In- diana, establishing his home in LaGrange county in 1853. His financial resources were meagre, but he purchased land and began the development of a farm. He was married there to Miss Emily A. Cook and they began their domestic life on a farm which was originally taken up from the government by John Cook, his wife's grandfather, who came from York- shire, England, and settled in Indiana in pioneer times. Captain Cook, the noted discoverer, was a member of the same family, while in the ma- ternal line Mrs. Crampton was descended from the Cowans of Rhode Island. Her grandfather, David Cowan, served when very young for eighteen months with the Rhode Island troops in the Revolutionary war.
Edwin C. Crampton acquired his early education in the common schools of his native county, subsequently attended the high school at Lima, Indiana, and acquired his academic and collegiate education in Indiana University at Bloomington, that state. He then began prepara- tion for the practice of law, and in 1899 received the degree of Bachelor of Law from the law department of the same institution. He entered upon the active prosecution of his profession in his native state and was thus engaged in Indiana, and also in legal editorial work in St. Paul, Minne- sota, until early in 1905. He assisted in the compilation of numerous reference and text-books, principally digests of laws, in various states, including Illinois, New York, Ohio, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Jersey and Georgia, and general federal laws. He assisted in compiling the Century Digest and the Federal Digest and collaborated with others in the work of issuing several text-books. Early in the year 1905 he entered into an arrangement for the practice of law in Raton. Mr. Cramp- ton has a large and distinctively representative clientage and has been entrusted with much important litigation since he became a member of the bar at Raton. He is a member of the Raton Commercial Club.
R. Marvin Turner, serving for the second term as district attorney of Grant county, his home being in Silver City, was born in Dallas, Ore- gon, February 7, 1868, a son of James H. and Sallie C. (Stevenson) Turner. The father was a lawyer, and R. Marvin Turner, after acquiring his early education in the schools of Pendleton and Portland, Oregon, determined to devote his attention to the same profession and matriculated in the law department of the Michigan State University at Ann Arbor, from which he was graduated with the class of 1889. He was admitted to the Michigan bar and was afterward admitted to the Oregon bar after his return to the Pacific coast. He opened an office in Pendleton, where he engaged in active. practice until 1900, when, on account of his health, he came to New Mexico. Here he has since engaged in law practice, and his thorough understanding of the principles of jurisprudence, combined with his clear and logical reasoning, make him a strong and able repre- sentative of the legal fraternity here.
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