JUDGE GEORGE HOWELL SHIELDS.

Few, if any, lives have meant more for good in connection with the history of St. Louis and its development than has that of Judge George Howell Shields, now judge of the circuit court of the city. His career has ever been fraught with high purposes and exalted ideals concerning man's relation to his fellowmen and to the_ community at large. While upon the bench his rulings have been strictly fair and impartial, he nevertheless possesses a kind, gentle spirit which has prompted him to reach out a helping hand or speak an encouraging word whenever he believed that by so doing he could follow the admonition of Browning to "awaken the little seeds of good asleep throughout the world." His influence is immeasurable, but none doubt its efficacy as a factor for progress and the right in the world's work.

Judge Shields was born in Bardstown, Kentucky, June 19, 1842, his parents being George W. and Martha A. (Howell)Shields. The father became a civil engineer of Kentucky and Mississippi and built many of the turnpike roads in those states. He was also the builder of the Hannibal and Paris gravel road and the Hannibal and London plank road, and as engineer was connected with the construction of the first railroad in Mississippi. He removed with his family from Kentucky to Hannibal, Missouri, in 1844, and there turned his attention to the pork packing business, in which he was very successful, becoming the leading representative of trade interests in that town. He was also very active in all public matters and was elected mayor of the city on five different occasions. His record was in harmony with that of a distinguished and honorable ancestry. His father and his grandfather had been officers of the Revolutionary war. The Shields family had come originally from Ireland, settlement by the emigrant ancestor being made in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, while the Howell family was long represented in Virginia and Kentucky.

Judge Shields of this review attended private schools in Hannibal. Missouri, and continued his education in Westminster College at Fulton, Missouri, but did not graduate because of the outbreak of the Civil war, at which time he joined a Missouri regiment in support of the Union, while his brother joined the Confederate army. Judge Shields served throughout the period of hostilities on the Union side, while his brother, Doctor D. H. Shields, remained equally loyal to the cause that he had espoused. The former was one of the assistants to the provost marshal at Hannibal, Colonel William P. Harrison, who was afterward judge of the circuit court at Hannibal. Judge Shields graduated at the Louisville Law School in the spring of 1865 and began the" practice of law in Hannibal. He came into almost immediate prominence in connection with the political and public life of his home town and was elected city attorney of Hannibal in 1865, re-elected three times thereafter, and was elected to the twenty-sixth General Assembly of Missouri in 1870, serving through the sessions of 1871-72 as chairman of the committee on constitutional amendments. In 1872 he was nominated by the republican party for the supreme bench of the state, but was defeated with the whole republican ticket.

In 1873 Judge Shields removed to St. Louis and continuing an influencing factor in the public life of the state, was elected a member of the Constitutional convention of 1875, which framed the constitution and still remains the organic law of Missouri. He is one of three surviving members of that body. In 1876 he was made chairman of the republican state central committee and so continued until 1880. Part of the same time his brother, Dr. Shields, was chairman of the democratic state central committee, and thus in politics, as in the war period, the two brothers were upon opposing sides. Dr. Shields afterward became judge of the county court of Marion county. Judge Shields was also president of the Board of Freeholders which framed the charter of the city of St. Louis in 1876, under which St. Louis was governed until 1914, and is now the sole surviving member of that body. It was also in 1876 that he received from Judge Samuel J. Treat appointment to the position of master in chancery of the United States District Court, and so continued for a period of thirty years, or until 1906. In 1890 he won his LL. D. degree from Westminster College. In 1889 he was appointed by President Harrison to the position of assistant attorney general of the United States, in charge of the legal business of the interior department, of which General John W. Noble, also of St. Louis, was then secretary. In 1893 he was appointed by President Harrison as attorney and counsel to represent the United States in the cases before the United States and Chilean Claims Commission, returning to St. Louis in 1894 after the successful completion of his task.

For forty-seven years Judge Shields has been, connected with the practice of law in St. Louis, and before taking his abode here he had practiced for a time in Hannibal and Marion and Rolla counties, Missouri. For a considerable period after moving to St. Louis he was a partner of Senator John B. Henderson, under the firm style of Henderson & Shields, and in that connection enjoyed a large and lucrative practice, handling much of the important bond litigation in the city of St. Louis and in the state of Missouri. As stated before, with the election of General Harrison to the presidency he was called to Washington, where as legal adviser of the Department of Interior he rendered conspicuous service, handling all the flood of litigation which was connected with the department and conducting its legal affairs with conspicuous ability. General Noble and Judge Shieldsreturned to St. Louis after the Harrison administration, and entered into a partnership for the practice of law under the firm style of Noble & Shields which continued for ten years. Both were men of the strongest character and of wide experience and they enjoyed a large and varied practice. When this partnership was dissolved Judge Shields joined the firm of Barclay & Fauntleroy, under the style of Barclay, Shields & Fauntleroy, his associates being Judge Shepard Barclay and Thomas T. Fauntleroy. This firm enjoyed a large and growing practice, and after two years Judge Shields withdrew to go upon the bench of the circuit court of the city of St. Louis, to which position he was elected in 1906, serving until 1912, when he was defeated for reelection with the whole republican city ticket, on account of the disaffection in the ranks of the republican party. In 1914, however, he was reelected for the full term from 1915 until 1921. An eminent member of the St. Louis bar has said of him: "No judge upon the bench of the circuit court of the city of St. Louis has more completely enjoyed the confidence of the people; none has more faithfully nor more intelligently nor more satisfactorily filled that great office in the administration of justice. He has a strong, calm mind, a' pure heart, and possesses a fearless spirit which neither the persuasion of opportunity or of profit, nor the fear of man, could ever cause him to swerve from the path of what he conceived to be his duty. He has a kindly, gentle spirit, is faithful to his friendships, his life has been a pure, faithful and simple one, and in all his actions he has been guided by the fear of God." In all public affairs he has taken an active part, being always, as he believes, on the side of right, striving ever for the best interests of the community.

On the 1st of February, 1866, Judge Shields was united in marriage to Mfss Mary Harrison Leighton, a daughter of the Rev. John Leighton, D. D., of Hannibal, Missouri, who was one of the pioneer Presbyterian preachers of the state, and for seventedh years was pastor at Palmyra, Missouri, for thirteen years at Hannibal, Missouri, and afterword was pastor of the Rock Hill church in St. Louis county. His wife was Sarah Bainbridge Richardson, a representative of one of the prominent families of Kentucky and related to many of the old Virginia families. Mrs. Mary H. Shields was the first secretary general of the National Society" of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and was president of the Missouri Society of the D. A. R., president of the St. Louis Society of Colonial Dames, and a member of the Society of Descendants of Colonial Governors and of the Huguenot Society, and was greatly beloved by all who knew her.

Judge and Mrs. Shields became the parents of four children, of whom the firstborn, John Leighton, died in infancy. George H., Jr., a graduate of Princeton University and of the Washington, D. C, Law School, was a member of the United States army in the Spanish-American and Philippine wars and obtained the rank of captain of the United States regulars. He entered the army in the great German war, was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and was one of the executive officers under General Kenly, who had entire charge of the aviation department of the United States army during the ast months of the World war. While stationed at Washington, his work took him to all the various aviation fields. He married Miss Florence M. Streett, daughter of J. D. Streett, one of our prominent business men. Sarah Bainbridge Shields, the third of the family, is the wife of Dean William M. Warren, Dean of Boston University. Their oldest son. Shields Warren, was enlisted in the late war and assigned to Camp Taylor at Louisville in the artillery service. Leighton Shields, the fourth of the Shieldsfamily, was graduated from Harvard University and from the St. Louis Law School and is now practicing in this city. He was chairman of the Twentieth ward draft board during the late war and was appointed as captain in the Reserve Corps of the army. He married Miss Harriette Krause, daughter of E. J. Krause, a prominent business man of St. Louis.