EAST OF ALLEN

We are grateful that Lucien Eaton left us a dozen letters describing his time at the Sierra Madre Villa Hotel and appreciate the good folks at the Missouri Historical Society who shared his letters with us.

To recap, in 1887, Lucien was a guest at the Villa for about a month. His letters home give us insight into day-to-day life at the Villa and have provided fodder for four recent posts.

So, we feel obliged to share a bit more about him. We’ve gotten to know ol’ Lucien a bit and we like him. He’s one of the good ones and a pretty good lawyer too. Plus, he did at least two things no American lawyer had ever done before. We’ll talk about one below. The other involves the President of the United States and we’ll get to that in our next post.

We commend you to his bio at Mohistory and, with this post and the next, we hope to add to the legacy of Lucient Eaton.

A St. Louis Lawyer

Lucien was a skilled writer (he was Editor of the Southern Law Review and Managing Editor of the American Law Review). As we know, he wrote eloquently about the natural beauty of the Sierra Madre Villa (“beauty beauty everywhere“). But, as much as he appreciated the Villa, Lucien’s life and work were in the City of St. Louis.

In February, 1858, Lucien moved to St. Louis to open his law practice. The city was a burgeoning industrial, shipping and transportation hub and a good place for a young lawyer to start out. He was a 27 year old Harvard trained lawyer and could have joined some silk-stocking firm. Instead, he came west and threw in with his newly adopted City of St. Louis.

The city offered opportunity but also simmering conflict. In many ways, St. Louis was specially situated for conflict — it was the major city of a “slave state” across the river from “free” Illinois. Historically settled by southerners, the city was growing fast with ambitious upstarts like Lucien moving west.

Added to all that, St. Louis was the site of one of the most consequential legal cases in American history — the Dred Scott Case. Initially tried in the Old Courthouse (photo below), the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857, one year before Lucien arrived in town. Infamously, the Court ruled that persons of African descent were not and could not be American citizens. The ruling heightened tensions between the North and South and helped set the stage for the Civil War.

A well-read young lawyer like Lucien was certainly familiar with the case and its consequences. He came to St. Louis anyway. He didn’t know it yet, but his lawyering skills would soon be used in service to the Union Army.

Side Note: William F. Cogswell Also Moved to St. Louis

This is Lucien’s story, but by pure coincidence, in early 1858, itinerant portrait artist (and Sierra Madre Villa founder) William F. Cogswell also moved to St. Louis. He set up his studio in the prestigious Mercantile Library where today Cogswell’s life size portrait of St. Louis civic leader Joseph Charless, Jr. is displayed on the library’s first floor.

Our Catalogue of Cogswell’s known paintings documents Cogswell’s St. Louis period. We’ll have more Cogswell stuff in later posts.

So let’s get back to our young St. Louis lawyer and future Sierra Madre Villa guest.

An Ardent Abolitionist and Union Sympathizer

Upon arriving in St. Louis, Lucien joined Dr. William Eliot’s Church of the Messiah. Lucien may have felt some affinity with Eliot given they were both Harvard men. Eliot (whose grandson was poet T.S. Eliot) was the city’s unofficial moral authority and known for his anti-slavery views. By affiliating with Eliot’s church, Lucien was visibly choosing sides in Missouri’s contentious debate over slavery.

Lucien is described as an “ardent abolitionist and Union sympathizer.” Certainly Lucien’s and his wife’s actions bear this out. Lucien taught a Negro Sunday School class at Eliot’s church. Lucien’s wife, Emily Partridge Eaton, was president of the Ladies Freedmen’s Association, an organization that aided refugee slaves.

When war came, Lucien joined the Union forces. In May, 1861, he joined civilian volunteers and Union soldiers who captured a confederate camp outside St. Louis. The capture marked a turning point in the early war and forced Missouri’s pro-slavery governor to flee the state. As a result, Missouri would remain in the Union.

Lucien went on to formally enlist with the Union Army. He served as a judge advocate (military lawyer) on the staffs of three Union Generals – William Rosecrans, John Pope and Francis Dodge. He would leave the service in the rank of Major and, for the rest of his life, was often referred to as “Major Eaton.”

His war service demonstrates two things that distinguish all of Lucien’s legal career. First, he was a capable and trustworthy lawyer, sufficiently so that three different generals wanted him for their staffs. Second, his role gave him unique access to highly sensitive information.

City Attorney and Register in Bankruptcy

After the war, Lucien’s law practice had both public and private dimensions. He maintained a solo private legal practice. The massive Lucien Eaton Papers, kept in the archives of the Missouri Historical Society, contain files with labels referencing a range of cases and documents (lawsuits, wills etc.) befitting a general practitioner.

But, it was in the public arena where Lucien’s practice appears to have shined. After the Civil War, he served as a year as St. Louis police commissioner overseeing the police force in the turbulent post-war era. Then he was appointed City Counsellor, where he operated as City Attorney for St. Louis. Continuing the theme of his career, both roles demonstrated absolute trust in Lucien’s integrity and gave him unique access to sensitive business and personal information.

When the bankruptcy act passed in 1867, he received a federal appointment to serve as the register of bankruptcy. Acting as a gatekeeper and administrator of bankruptcy, the position gave Lucien extensive powers to examine the records of persons and businesses filing for bankruptcy. Again, the appointment demonstrated special trust in Lucien’s skill and integrity and required Lucien to access often sensitive personal and business records.

Lucien served as register of bankruptcy until his death in 1890. Though a substantial appointment, Lucien also able to continue his private practice.

Lemma Barkeloo

As far as we can tell, it was an American first when, in 1870, Lucien hired Lemma Barkeloo and sent her into court. Barkeloo was one of the first women in America to attend law school and was the first woman admitted to the Missouri Bar. Soon after Eaton hired her, Barkeloo became the first woman lawyer to try a case in an American court.

Now all that may seem a bit fast, that Barkeloo got hired and was thrown into court to try a case. But, it is perfectly consistent with an old school “sink or swim” approach to training newly admitted lawyers. Lucien didn’t treat her with kid gloves, but likely gave her a file her first day and sent her off to court.

No doubt It was quite a shock to all when Lemma appeared in court and announced “ready for trial your honor.” I imagine that sight engendered glee for some and disdain in others. And, I can imagine that Lucien got more than a few side-eyes for opening his door to a woman lawyer.

The Lemma Barkeloo story is of triumph and, far too soon, tragedy. In March, 1870, she was admitted to practice and hired by Eaton. On September 11, 1870 Barkeloo died of typhoid fever. She was 30 years old.

Following Lemma Barkeloo’s death, the St. Louis legal community met in the Old Courthouse (picture above) to pay tribute to her memory. The memorial is described in Lemma Barkeloo and Phoebe Couzins: Among the Nation’s First Women Lawyers, an article by Washington Law School (Barkeloo’s alma mater) professor Karen Tokarz. She writes:

“In 1870, there was no Bar Association of St. Louis, but a few days after Barkeloo’s death, the St. Louis legal community met in the Probate Courtroom of the Old Court House, on Broadway, in tribute to her memory.

Lucien Eaton, in whose office Lemma had studied and practiced,
gave initial remarks:

Lemma was earnest and hopeful, studious and painstaking…. gifted with a fine intellect and good judgemnet with promise of great attainments…. She was an agreeable and amiable friend…. Her death is a calamity, not to her friends alone, but to all who are making an effort for the enlargement of the woman’s sphere.“

Following Eaton’s remarks, Judge Wilson Primm, a long time St. Louis jurist, delivered the courthouse memorial address. He praised Barkeloo observing, “It must have been a brave soul that could . . . face the prejudices of society . . . to enter into an arena in which men, oft times rude and ungallant, are the gladiators.”

The memorial and remarks by Eaton and Judge Primm, which were recorded for posterity, are all a measure of the high regard the St. Louis bar had for Lemma Barkeloo.

To Be Continued

We have one more Lucien Eaton post. In our next post, Lucien goes to Washington in a story that involves taxes, a whole lot of whiskey and the President of the United States. Stay tuned.