Montgomery County IAGenWeb

Excerpts from The Courts and Legal Profession of Iowa 1907

by the Hon. Chester C. Cole, Historian; Hon. E. C. Ebersole, Editor

MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

HISTORICAL.

The county was organized in 1853. The first county judge was Amos G. Lowe, and he seems to have been appointed by S. C. Dunn, county clerk October 6, 1853. The first order issued by Judge Lowe was dated August 15, 1853, and authorized a levy of taxes. The salary of the judge the first year was $50.00; the clerk's salary was $25.00, and the treasurer's, $20,000. The next year the clerk's salary was increased to $30,000. October 1, 1856, the judge appointed T. A. Perry a county commissioner to sell liquors for medicinal, mechanical and sacramental purposes. Red Oak is the county-seat.

THE PRESENT BAR.

The active attorneys of Montgomery county are as follows: R. W. Beeson, F. P. Greenlee, Edward Mills, Gordon Hayes, W. W. Merritt, Jr., P. W. Richards, T. J. Hysham, J. M. Junkins, Ralph Pringle, E. C. Gibbs, T. W. Craig, B. A. Shaver, J. S. Jackson, W. C. Ratcliff.

BIOGRAPHICAL

Smith McPherson was born in Morgan county, Indiana, February 14, 1848, a son of Oliver and Polly McPherson. His father was a farmer by occupation. Our subject lived at home until he attained his majority, doing all kinds of farm work, and he enjoyed such school privileges as the district schools afforded, and late he attended the academy at Mooresville, his native town. In 1869 he entered the law department of the Iowa State University, and in June of the following year he graduated and received his license to practice. He began the practice of law at once at Red Oak, Iowa, where he still resides. He continued his practice from 1870 to 1899 alone, and uninterruptedly, except when fulfilling the duties of public offices, to which he was called. His legal practice, general in character, has brought him into many important cases of more than local note, and has been attended with a degree of success most gratifying to his clients and commendable to himself. As a republican, Mr. McPherson has always been active in the affairs of his party and filled numerous offices of trust and confidence. From 1874 to 1880 he was district attorney of the Third Iowa judicial district. From 1880 to 1885 he served as attorney-general of the state. He was in 1899 elected representative to the Fifty-sixth congress from the Ninth Iowa district. Resigning this office in June, 1990, he accepted the United States judgeship for the southern district of Iowa, and is now filling that position.

Ruel W. Beeson was born in Highland county, Ohio, July 12, 1848. He was educated at the district schools of his native place, the Dunker academy, New Vienna, Ohio, the Southwestern Normal, Warren county, same state, and the Free Will Baptist Academy, Prairie City, Ill., graduating from Hedding College, Abingdon, Knox county, Illinois, in 1871. He read law at home and in the office of John Chaney at Osceola, Iowa, and with Allen Beeson of Red Oak, Iowa, where he had settled, and where he was admitted in 1877. He began to practice at Hastings, Nebr., on his admission. He removed to Red Oak in May, 1878, where he still resides.

Joseph M. Junkin was born April 8, 1854, at Fairfield, Iowa, and is a son of Joseph and Mary M. (Colton) Junkin. Joseph M. spent his early life in Jefferson county, Iowa. He received his early education at Fairfield and Red Oak. He read law at the State University of Iowa, graduating with his class in 1879, and was admitted there that year. Returning to Red Oak, he formed a partnership with Horace E. Deemer in the fall of 1879, and continued with him until January, 1886, at which time Mr. Deemer was elected judge of the district court. Mr. Junkin has been in practice of his profession since, without a partner, and has practiced in Red Oak continually since 1879, and has been very successful. He is one of the prominent lawyers of his section of the state. Mr. Junkin has been engaged in many important cases which have come up in his section of the state and has met with general success. Mr. Junkin has been prominently identified with the republican party and served in the state senate from 1896 to 1904. He was a member of the Code Revision committee during the special session of 1897; chairman of ways and means committee in the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth general assemblies. For four years he served as city attorney of Red Oak, and he has also served as chairman of the republican county central committee.

Thomas J. Hysham was born August 4, 1860, at Elkader, Iowa. He attended the public schools of Red Oak, Iowa, graduating from the State University with the class of 1884. He read law at Red Oak with Hon. Smith McPherson, and was admitted before the supreme court in 1887. He began to practice in Red Oak that year, and has constantly been in practice since his admission.

Ralph Pringle was born in Pana, Ill., in 1872. He received a good education, read law at the State University of Iowa, and was admitted to practice in 1896 at Des Moines. He entered the practice of law at Red Oak in 1896, and has remained there ever since. For many years he has been chairman of the republican county committee.

Source: The Courts and Legal Profession of Iowa, by the Hon. Chester C. Cole, Historian; Hon. E. C. Ebersole, Editor H. C. Cooper, Jr., Company, 1907. Volume I, pages 866-869.

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