Missouri. Walter labored on a farm during his boyhood, attending school, according to custom, during the winter months only. Later he taught school, and by his savings was enabled to attend the Missouri State University. He was admitted to the bar in 1855. In 1862 and 1864 he was elected to the State Legislature, serving as Speaker of the House of Representatives during his second term. A handsome portrait in oil hangs on the walls of the Chamber in which that body sits, a memorial placed by Legislative direction. He survived his appointment as a member of the Supreme Court but fifteen months. He suffered greatly from weakness of the lungs, and fell a victim to consumption, not yet thirty-five years old. He was an industrious judge, and his opinions indicate that with experience and good health he would have earned for himself a prominent rank.
Nathaniel Holmes.
Judge Holmes was one of the most scholarly of all who have been members of this court. He was born in Peterborough, New Hampshire, July 2, 1814; graduated at Harvard Law School, was admitted to practice at Boston in 1839, and immediately removed to St. Louis. He was a successful practitioner, and greatly devoted to scientific and literary researches. On the Supreme Court bench he wrote a number of opinions which display a keen insight into that reason which is the life of the law as well as a leaning to the rules of the civil law and the views of the continental jurists, — Clark v. Hannibal R. R. Co., 36 Mo. 202; Baker v. Stonebraker, 36 Mo. 338; Valle v. Cerre, 36 Mo. 575; Sawyer v. Hannibal, etc., R. R. Co., 37 Mo. 240; State v. Benoist, 37 Mo. 500; Forder v. Davis, 38 Mo. 107; Barnard v. Duncan, 38 Mo. 170; Callahan v. Warne, 40 Mo. 131; Murphy and Glover Test Oath Cases, 41 Mo. 339; Rutherford v. Williams, 42 Mo. 18; Abbott v. Lindenbower, 42 Mo. 162.
On his resignation in 1868, he accepted the Royall Professorship of Law in Harvard, and filled it until 1872. He is the author of a work on " The Authorship of Shakspeare," which has attracted wide-spread attention, and made him the leading advocate of the theory that Bacon was the author of the Shakspearean dramas.
Thomas J. C. Fagg.
The vacancy caused by Judge Lovelace's death was filled by the promotion of Judge Fagg from the circuit court bench, which he had occupied for four years previously. Judge Fagg was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, July 15, 1822, and came to Missouri on his father's removal to Pike County in that State in 1836. He was admitted to practice in 1845, and for some years ensuing practised with Hon. James O. Broadhead. In November, 1850, he became probate judge; in 1855, a member of the Legislature; in 1856, judge of a common pleas court; in 1858, a member of the Legislature a second time; in 1861, a brigade-inspector and colonel; in 1862, a circuit judge; and in 1869, upon the expiration of his term as judge of the Supreme Court, he resumed the practice of his profession. These few lines disclose the busy life of a man ever active in public and professional duties. To complete the sketch, mention should be made of not a few candidacies for such positions as member of the General Assembly, Lieutenant-Governor, and Congressional seats.
Philemon Bliss.
That Judge Bliss should have accomplished all he did through a life that had in it few days of freedom from physical pain, is little less than marvellous. At the age of eighteen a severe cold generated a bronchial affection, leaving him with weakened voice, an almost constant cough, and periodical attacks of pains in the chest, which remained with him throughout his life. And yet a most cursory glance over his life-work, as lawyer, legislator, judge, author, and professor, will disclose a record which any one might be proud to claim. Born of Puritan stock at North Canton, near Hartford, Connecticut,
