USA > Texas > The bench and bar of Texas > Part 26
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
RICHARD S. WALKER.
Richard Sheckle Walker is a native of Kentucky, and was born in Barren County in the year 1824. His early educa- tional advantages were ample and propitious. He gradu- ated in 1842 at Centenary College, Jackson, Louisiana, and in 1844, when but twenty years of age, received his diploma from the law department of Transylvania University, at Lexington, Kentucky, and his license to practice at the bar of that State. Returning to Jackson, Louisiana, which was then his home, he devoted one year to the study of civil law preparatory to practice in the Louisiana courts. But Texas having recently to that time been admitted into the Union his aspirations seized upon its prospects, and he determined to cast his fortunes with the bar of the new State, and located at San Augustine in February, 1846, where he began his long and distinguished professional career. But having married Miss Eliza J. Clark, a daughter of Judge Amos Clark, of Nacogdoches, in the summer of 1848, he imme- diately removed to that place, and formed a copartnership with his father-in-law.
With endowments of a high order, combined with the ad- vantages of his eminent association, his rise at the bar was rapid and confirmed, and in 1847 he was appointed district attorney, and was elected to the same office at each succes- sive term during a period of nearly eight years. In 1857 he formed a copartnership with Judge George F. Moore, after- wards chief justice of the State, and continued this connec- tion until he was elected to the district bench in 1860. During this association he was appointed, in conjunction with his partner, reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court, and they prepared the twenty-second, twenty-third and twenty-fourth volumes of Texas Reports, which were
329
RICHARD S. WALKER.
made statutory models for subsequent issues. In 1866 he reported alone the twenty-fifth volume, and was a member of the constitutional convention of that year, in which he took an active part in framing a constitution which would at the same time comply with the exigencies of the situation and assert the rights and dignity of the State.
In 1873 he was appointed by Gov. Coke to the judge- ship of his former judicial district, to which, at the expi- ration of the term of his appointment, he was elected by the people. In 1879 he was appointed a member of the Court of Commission of Appeals, to which he has since been twice reappointed, and of which he is now the presiding judge.
As a lawyer the career of Judge Walker has been eminent and brilliant. The practice of the firms of Clark & Walker and of Moore & Walker, both in the Federal and State courts, was large and extensive, and they were employed in many important cases in both the civil and criminal branches of jurisprudence. He held the position of district judge until 1865, when he was removed by military authority as one of the impediments to reconstruction. He then con- tinued his practice alone, with increasing reputation, until his professional ability and pure character caused him likewise to be called into service in a high judicial ca- pacity, and the features which he has been instrumental in imparting to the jurisprudence of the State, both as a lawyer and judge, are important and varied. He has devoted all his mental and physical energies to his profes- sion, and consequently his knowledge of law is profound and comprehensive. Endowed with a high order of talents his intellectual powers have been trained and whetted in a severe school of discipline and application. Ilis capacity for intellectual labor is limited only by his powers of phy- sical endurance, and he possesses the highest of all intel- lectual traits, and that to which Sir Isaac Newton attributed the excellence of his mental qualities - the power of con- centrating his thoughts - the faculty of close attention and patient thinking. His mind is vigorous and active; its resources are rich and varied, and constantly at his com- mand.
330
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
His perceptions are singularly prompt and acute, and his ripened judgment readily separates the practical from that which is speculative, while sound reason and accurate asso- ciation verify his knowledge. This analytical capacity of devining the elements of a question, of measuring their separate and combined force, and determining at once the true character of a proposition - to untwine the unsized bank of concretion, eliminate the false strands and wind back the threads of abstraction into the pure synthesis of truth is the most subtle quality of the human mind, and the highest characteristic of professional eminence. This calm, clear-sighted understanding, linked with unswerving fidelity, is the secret of the success which has built for Judge Walker his well deserved reputation as an able lawyer, and combined with his varied and extensive learning, his stern integrity and purity of character, the judicial model is complete, and as an excellent judge, he enjoys the confidence and esteem of both the bar and the people.
These traits which denote a superior mind and a superior judge are heightened by his personal accomplishments. The light which illuminates his mind is kindled in his heart, and there it shines with its brightest luster. He is a man of an exceedingly amiable character, and free from any over- wrought superficial sternness of judicial ethics, his manners are softented by a complaisancy and polish which indicate a heart full of kindness and generous impulses. He pos- sesses in an eminent degree the quality which Lord Claren- den says particularly marked the character of John Hampden, " a flowing courtesy towards all men."
The literary attainments of Judge Walker are likewise of a high order. The versatility of his genius enabled him without detriment to the duties of his jealous profession to cultivate a polished style of literary composition, rarely found in one whose thoughts and ideas are constantly clothed in the starched and staid habit of legal diction. He has a fine classical taste and copious command of language, and his style is chaste, unique and spirited, subdued only by the weight of thought and argument - a quality character- ized by " tot verba, tot pondera." His address to the
331
RICHARD S. WALKER.
Texas Bar Association in 1883, published by the associa- tion, is a model of didactic composition, sparkling with refined phraseology and verbal elegance. The following are among the most important cases argued by Judge Walker before he was appointed to the bench. His re- ported decisions speak for themselves : -
Crain v. Crain, 17 Texas, 82, and 21 Texas, 790 - pre- sented questions of the first impression in Texas, under the will law of 1840. That law inhibited the disinherison of the testator's children beyond one-fourth of his property. In this case the testator had made conveyances during his life to a favored child of nearly all of his property, the aggregate value of which was about $24,000. After his death, his other children brought this suit to recover their inheritable share of three-fourths of the property, alleging that the deeds of conveyances were simulated devices to avoid the will law. This suit was brought and prosecuted in the District Court by Clark & Walker, where a demurrer was sustained to the petition and the cause dismissed. The plaintiff appealed and it was argued in the Supreme Court by Judge Walker, and the judgment was reversed and the doctrines laid down in the two cases cited above were estab- lished for the first time in the jurisprudence of the State.
Aylott v. Lewis, 45 Texas, 190. This was another will case brought by R. S. Walker and his son, J. C. Walker. The question, whether real estate can pass under a nuneu- pative will in view of the language of the statute of 1840. It was held that it did not. The brief is reported, and in the discussion of that point the court adverts to it in terms of marked commendation. The view contended for was sustained in Ohio under a Statute exactly similar, as is shown in the brief. Three years after the decision of this case the features of the will law seem to have been so far varied from those of the former law, as to suggest, at all events, the idea that the construction unsuccessfully con- tended for in Alyott v. Lewis was intended to be adopted by the Revised Statutes. But no case has arisen under the . revision presenting the question for decision. This case
332
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
stands alone in the reports, as the only one on the question involved.
Hewitt v. The State, 25 Texas, 722, is a case often quoted in text books, as well as in Texas jurisprudence. The question involved was made by Judge Walker on the trial of the case in the court below questioning the constitu- tional power of the Legislature to provide in a penal law that the indictment may dispense with the allegation of any fact essential to show on its face the violation of the law, or the ingredients of the crime, and to throw the burden of the proof on the accused to disprove a fact not alleged in the indictment for the offense. The doctrine contended for was sustained by the Supreme Court on constitutional grounds.
Moore v. Letchford, 35 Texas, 186. This case involved the construction and the effect of the repeal and the amend- ment of the several statutes regulating the lien of judgments on lands; and also the effect or influence of the civil war upon liens created by judgments. This suit was brought against the current impression of the profession as to the law involved in the case, and in the court below a demur- rer to the petition was sustained. On appeal the views presented by Judge Walker in his brief were fully sustained, and the law as then settled has continued ever since, and the brief of appellant's counsel was referred to in a subse- quent case as laying down the correct rule.
Cravens v. Brooke, 17 Texas, R. 268. This was a case involving the construction of the law granting pre-emption rights to settlers on vacant public domain on several impor- tant points which had not before been determined. The case was argued by Judge O. M. Roberts on one side, and Judge Walker on the other ; the arguments of both appear in the report of the case. Chief Justice Hemphill in the opinion said the cause had been argued with signal ability by the counsel on both sides. This case may be regarded as one of the leading cases on the questions involved.
333
JOHN P. WHITE.
.
JOHN P. WHITE.
-- -
John Preston White, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Appeals, was born at Fruit Hill, near Abingdon, Vir- ginia, on the 7th of March, 1832, of which place his father, James L. White, was a native and merchant. He had from his earliest youth the advantages which the excellent schools and academies of his town afforded. In 1847 he entered Emory and Henry College, from which he was graduated in the regular collegiate course in 1850, and re- ceived the Robertson prize medal for proficiency and accom- plishments in oratory. In the fall of 1850 he entered the University of Virginia, taking the tickets of moral philoso- phy and law, and received certificates of proficiency in both of these departments at the following intermediate examin- ation. In 1851 he was chosen anniversary orator for the Jefferson Society, and soon afterwards retired from the university, without standing a final examination, in conse- quence of a severe attack of pneumonia, which came near ending his life.
On the recovery of his health he studied law two years in the office and under the instruction of Samuel Logan, a dis- tinguished lawyer, and at that time Commonwealth's attor- ney for Washington County, Virginia. In August, 1853, he was admitted to the bar, upon an examination before George W. Hopkins, Andrew Fulton and R. M. Hudson, three dis- tinguished circuit judges of Virginia, and began the practice of his profession at Abingdon. He was married during the same year to Miss Annie Stuart Lewis, an accomplished and noble young lady of Charlottesville. His early pro- fessional prospects were flattering, but the lucubrations of a young lawyer at the bar of Virginia at that period were defined by an arbitrary custom, and often painfully pro-
334
BENCH. AND BAR OF TEXAS.
longed before he was considered competent to manage an important case, or exert an influence favorable to a success- ful issue ; and, chafing under restraints which prevented the immediate and full development of his talents, Mr. White sought a more spacious and less ceremonious field, and on visiting Texas in the early part of 1853, he was so favorably impressed with the advantages which it offered to his aspira- tions, that he determined to make his home in the new State, and in 1855 removed to Seguin, in Gaudalupe County, where he settled in the practice of law, in copartnership with Thomas M. Logan, a son of his old preceptor, who came with him to Texas and died a year or two afterwards.
At Seguin Mr. White soon established a reputation both as a lawyer and a man of culture and talent, and he was employed in most of the important cases, both civil and criminal, that came before the courts of Gaudalupe and Comal Counties, among which was the great case of Demchy v. Devilbiss, reported in 37 Texas, 93, which involved the title to the entire city of New Braunfels, and which he gained in behalf of the city. He devoted all his energies and talents to his profession, and, as a practitioner, was eminently successful in both the civil and criminal branches of the law. While possessed of marked executive ability and popular traits of character, he had no aspiration for political or even professional office, and, with the exception of being a notary public and Mayor of Seguin, he declined all inducements of official preferment until he was appointed by Governor Coke, in 1874, to the bench of the Twenty- second Judicial District. This position he held until 1876, when he was elected one of the three judges of the Court of Appeals, and, upon the death of Judge Ector, in 1879, was elected Presiding Judge of that bench, which position he still occupies.
As a judge, he is full of steady energy and research. His decisions are rendered in a cogent and spirited style, indie- ative of clear comprehension, thorough conviction, and conscientious judgment. His knowledge of law and prece- dent is comprehensive. The natural powers of his mind are vigorous and have been cultivated by an excellent edu-
335
JOHN P. WHITE.
cation and sedulous professional training. These qualities, associated with a strong force of character and a high sense of duty eminently qualify him for the position he holds. Kind-hearted and sympathetic in his disposition, he is peculiarly sensitive to the appeals of lenifying circum- stances, and in criminal cases tempers his judgments with every meritorious palliation consistent with a strict compli- ance with the demands of law and justice.
Judge White has decided many important questions of first impression in Texas jurisprudence. His decision in the case of Johnson v. The State, 1 Texas Court of Ap- peals, 333, in which he admitted the common-law principle that the testimony of a deceased witness properly taken on the examining trial before a justice is valid evidence, has been incorporated in the code of criminal procedure. His opinion in Cox et al. v. The State, 8 Texas Court of Appeals, 254, sustaining the power of a district judge to change the venue in criminal cases of his own motion, and establishing the inability of a verdict to cure a defective indictment, is able and exhaustive, and impressed these principles into permanent features of Texas jurisprudence. His interpre- tation of the phrase " disturbing public worship," in Wood v. The State, 11 Texas Court of Appeals, 318, as being inapplicable to mere ecclesiastical meetings, caused the Leg- . islature to enact its appliance to assemblages of either char- acter.
His decision in Wooldridge v. The State, 13 Texas Court of Appeals, 445, is a striking illustration of his strict con- struction of law, and the vigilant watch which, as a judge of a court of last resort, he maintains at the door of jus- tice. The jury in that case returned the verdict that " we, the jury, find the defendant, Ben Wooldridge, guilty of mur- der in the fist degree, and assess the punishment at death." The insufficiency of this verdict was presented as ground of a motion for a new trial, which was overruled, and on the trial of the appeal. Judge White sustained the invalidating defect and remanded the case. For this he was severely assailed by law critics throughout the country ; but no an- swer has ever been made to the argument which led to his
336
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
conclusion. Here was a verdict containing the word fist- a word properly spelt, well defined and well known, which could not be made either by sound or signification to supply the place of the requisite word "first," or convey any idea that enters into the composition of a legal verdict. Therefore, not even the principle of idem sonans could apply. Could the judge strike out a properly spelt and well known word in a verdict and by inference and intend- ment substitute another of entirely different import? If so, where would this power end? If he could replace one word, he could replace another, and change the entire char- acter of a verdict at discretion. Nor could the pronuncia- tion of the proper word by the clerk in reading the verdict remedy the defect, for that would be to cure one error by virtue of another.
His distinction in Simco v. The State, 9 Texas Court of Appeals, in regard to the rules which govern the pleas of autrefois acquit and autrefois convict are highly important, and in this case he introduced the principle that a convic- tion for a higher crime than that charged in the indictment, and therefore unlawful, does not exempt from a second prosecution for the offense for which the party was in- dicted.
No provision has ever been made by law for the publica- tion of the decisions of the Court of Appeals in civil cases, although questions of new impression and of the greatest importance are constantly brought before that tribunal and stamped by its decisions upon the jurisprudence of the State. To remedy this unaccountable legislative indiscre- tion, Judge White, in conjunction with Judge S. A. Will- son, prepared and published at their own expense, in 1883, a report of the leading civil cases decided by that court. This is a work of great merit. It combines the features of a report and digest, and presents in convenient sections a full and clear exposition of the law in connection with a summary of the facts which gave . rise to the principle enunciated. These sections are indexed, so that the practi- tioner can readily examine any question without reference to other features of the case. This novel and happy de-
337
JOHN P. WHITE.
sign affords a utility which greatly enhances the value of the work, which altogether make it an indispensable addi- tion to every law library in the State, and useful as an an- alysis of principle to any practitioner.
While precluded by the proprieties of his office from any active participation in politics, he is a thorough Democrat in his views, and during the civil war was a strong Southerner in his sentiments. He entered the Confederate service at the beginning of the war as captain of a company in the Sixth Regiment of Texas infantry, and never permitted either hardship or defeat to chill his ardor or cloud his hopes until the final consummation of the issue. In the battle of Arkansas Post he was taken prisoner and confined at Camp Chase until the battle of Chancellorville, when he was exchanged and ordered on duty in the Trans-Mississippi department, and at the close of the war resumed the prac- tice of law at Seguin.
While he is a man of marked firmness and candor, he is amiable and obliging in his disposition, polite and cour- teous in his professional ethics and social manners, and is an honor to the bench over which he presides.
22
338
BEACH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
SAMUEL A. WILLSON.
Samuel Andrew Willson, one of the judges of the Texas Court of Appeals, was born in San Augustine County, Texas, on the 9th of January, 1835, where his father, Ste- phen Pelham Willson, who was a native of Delaware county, New York, and a physician by profession, settled in 1831. His mother, whose maiden name was Mary Richardson Davis, was a native of Georgia, and a relative of Hon. Jef- ferson Davis. His education was confined to the advantages afforded by the country schools of Texas until he arrived at the age of fifteen years, when he abandoned his academic pursuits and began the study of law in the office of Hon. M. Priest, of Woodville, Texas. In 1852, when but seven- teen years of age, he was admitted to the bar by authority of a special act of the Legislature relieving him of the disabilities of minority, and immediately entered upon the practice of his profession at Woodville. He was endowed with a capacity for intense labor, inspired by an ambitious thirst for knowledge, and, subsidiary to a vigorous and intelligent application to the study of law, he managed by a course of useful reading and close observation to supply the deficiency of his early education.
These qualities and habits promoted an advancement which soon commanded public recognition of his ability and sterling traits of character, and, in 1856, he was, at the age of twenty-one years, elected district attorney of the Fifteenth Judicial District, and was re-elected to the same office in 1858. The remarkable professional success of Judge Will- son has been constant and uninterrupted, except during the period of his military service. He has always been a thorough Democrat in his political creed, and fidelity to his State and section of the country was an innate and cherished
339
SAMUEL A. WILLSON.
quality of his being. He enlisted in the Confederate service as early as May, 1861, as first lieutenant of a company in the First Regiment of Texas infantry. In 1862 he was made captain, and served in the army of Northern Virginia until the battle of Gettysburg, in which he was taken prisoner. He participated in the battle of Seven Pines, the seven days' fight, in the second battle of Manassas, and the battle of Sharpsburg, in the last of which he was severely wounded, and acted his part in all with marked gallantry and distinc- tion.
At the close of the war he returned to the practice of his profession at Woodville. His great success as a prosecutor had already established his reputation as an able lawyer, which was `so greatly enhanced by other qualities of charac- ter, that, in 1866, he was elected judge of his district, but in 1868, when the State was placed under military rule, and before he was apprised of the designs of that power, and the policy of sweeping removal from office which it adopted, he resigned in consequence of an indignant aver- sion to holding office under such authority, and removed to Rusk, in Cherokee County.
In 1869 he was again elected to the office of district attorney, the duties of which he had so ably performed in the first years of his majority, and served until that office was abolished in that district by the Constitution of 1870. In 1879 he was appointed by Governor Coke one of the committee to codify the laws under the new Constitution, and the revised code owes much of its merit to his genius and experience. In the spring of 1882 he was appointed by Governor Roberts one of the judges of the Court of Appeals, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Winkler, and in the fall of that year was elected to the same position by the people, and which he still occupies.
In 1883 Judge Willson prepared and published, in con- junction with Judge White, a combined report and digest of the civil cases decided by the Court of Appeals, to supply a want arising from the lack of any provision of law for the publication of the decisions of that court in the
-
1
340
BENCH AND BAR OF TEXAS.
civil branch of jurisprudence. Its design is strikingly novel and ingenius, and it is a work of great merit and ability.
As a lawyer, his studious, painstaking and exact analysis, his clear perception and excellent judgment, made him a safe legal pilot and counselor. He possesses a thorough knowledge of legal principles, and these he makes the basis of the solution of every question ; and, if it be true that genius is a capacity for intense and intelligent labor, Judge Willson possesses an ample measure of that quality. Naturally vigorous in both his mental and physical powers, he has cultivated the capacity for severe and prolonged intellectual labor, directed by a minute observation, a well arranged and uniform method, a closely calculated accuracy and a prompt punctuality and dispatch.
As a judge he is stern in the performance of duty and in the pursuit of justice. But while his judgments are moulded from an inexorable interpretation of fact and a strict and logical application of law, their frown is softened by a con- scientious regard for every personal right. He never evades a question, nor hesitates to front a fact, but promptly de- cides every issue presented in a case, necessary to establish a principle or to determine the rights of the parties. His decisions open wide the door of justice, and while he cites authorities abundantly, he does not deal with a question second-handed alone, through the perceptions of others, nor does he see it simply through the dusty glasses of prec- edent, regardless of the varied colors of circumstance, but impresses his decisions with his own views and his own judgment in reference to the particular state of facts in- volved.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.