Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 03.pdf/210

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The Supreme Court of Missouri.
185

tucky, born in 1810, of German descent, a soldier in the Black Hawk War, he began the study of the law at the age of thirty-one, having previously failed as a merchant. In 1844 he came to Missouri, poor to the point of grinding poverty, but of indomitable energy. Fortune smiled upon him as a reward, and he soon became one of the leaders of the St. Joseph Bar. He was a diligent practitioner, and became an industrious judge. His opinions bespeak a writer thoroughly in earnest, but are open to criticism because of their prolixity. He was prone to set out the pleadings, evidence, and instructions at great length, — a fault that has created the impression that he lacked the faculty of expressing himself concisely. However, his conclusions seldom met with dissent, and have rarely been departed from. His style and the fault noted can be gathered from Bassett v. St. Joseph, 53 Mo. 290; Henderson v. Henderson, 55 Mo 534; Baker v. Chicago R. R. Co., 57 Mo. 265 : Cooper v. Ord, 60 Mo. 420; Boyd v, Jones, 60 Mo. 454.

SHEPARD BARCLAY.

Thomas A. Sherwood.

The views of no other judge have done so much to mould the rulings of this court as those of Judge Sherwood. Endowed with a mind of undoubted genius, a capacity for great labor and research, of intense individuality, bold and aggressive in thought, equally so in expressing himself, and always exceedingly in earnest, Judge Sherwood has enriched the Reports by a large number of able and exhaustive opinions, many of which are destined to be classed as " leading cases." He was born in Eatonton, Georgia, June 2, 1834, educated at Mercer University and Shurtleff College, and graduated from the Cincinnati Law School. He began practice in 1857, and enjoyed a high local reputation. He has now served eighteen years on the Supreme Court, and his opinions are found in forty-nine volumes (52-100). Among the opinions which deserve to rank as his most important and elaborate productions are those in Freeman v. Thompson, 53 Mo. 183; Pomeroy v. Benton, 57 Mo. 531; s. c. 77 Mo. 64; Schmidt v. Hess, 60 Mo. 591; State ex rel. v. Potter, 63 Mo. 212; Clark v. Mitchell, 64 Mo. 464; Cass County v. Green, 66 Mo. 498; Griffith v. Townley, 69 Mo. 13; Morgan v. Durfee, 69 Mo. 469; Chouteau v. Allen, 70 Mo. 290; Baldwin v. Whitcomb, 71 Mo. 651; Attorney-General v. Collier, 72 Mo. 13; Leavitt v. Laforce, 71 Mo. 353; Massey v. Young, 73 Mo. 260; Faulkner v. Faulkner, 73 Mo. 327; Kelley v. Hurt, 74 Mo. 561; State ex rel. v. Hermann, 75 Mo. 340; Powell v. Mo. Pac. Ry. Co., 76 Mo. 80; State v. Addington, 77 Mo. no; Rannells v. Gerner, 80 Mo. 474; Scudder v. Ames, 89 Mo. 496 (dissenting); Kline v. Vogel, 90 Mo. 239; State v. Partlow, 90 Mo. 608; Exparte Marmaduke, 91 Mo. 228 (dissenting); Hagerman v. Sutton, 91 Mo. 519; State v. Bryant, 93 Mo. 273 (dissenting); State ex rel. v. Pond, 93 Mo. 506 (dissenting); Young v.