Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1890-06-14
Incidents and Anecdotes of the Noun
tain Lawyer.
4. 5. COlyar in The Round TabIe.

bar, known forty or fifty years ago in
Tennessee, as the mountain lawyers,
if collected by humorist, would
make most readable book. My ac-
quaintance with the mountain law
yers extended only to what was
known as Judge Marchbanks' cir
cult, including the lawyers that
came into the circuit from adjoining
counties. Among them were several
eminent lawyers. James Fulton, of
Fayetteville, Micah Taul and Hop
kins L.. Turney, of Winchester,
James p. Thompson, of McMinn-
vile, Sam Laughlin and Sam Tur-
ney, Of Sparta, and w. p. Hickerson,
Of Manchester, were all great law
yers, and | use the adjective great in
its true sense. Mr.. Fulton would
have been great lawyer before the
kings bench, but never left his own
county to practice; he sent all his
Supreme Court cases to Mr.. Francis
B. Fogg, and uniformly refused the
most tempting fees to other counties.
The last argument he ever made was
in will case, and ifnot the best, it
was among the best of his life.
When he closed the speech he,
without waiting for the decision,
asked the writer to walk with him to
the Office of Mr.. John NJ Bright,
who was his nephew, and a young
man of great promise and upon en-
tering the Office, he told Mr.. Bright
he had come to turn over his business
to him-that he never intended to
make another speech and he gave
Mr.. Bright list of his cases.
He was in fine health, magnif-
cent man, more than six feet in
height and most commanding
man. Through his whole life he
had been man of perfect health and
he was then not an old man, but that
night, the very night of his retire
ment, he was violently attacked and
died few days after. He had accu>
mulated a fortune of several hull
dred thousand dollars, from his
practice alone, and judicious invest
ments in Lincoln county lands and
slaves.
Micah Taul was a man of much
culture, and "A great lawyer, eXcep.
tionally neat in appearance he was
IA Lord Chesterfield in manners and
address. He was in Congress from
Kentucky, in 1915, and voted for the
Observation-Disclosures salary, and it
beat him, as it did all who voted for
it except Mr.. Clay. He then moved
to Tennessee. He was the father of
the very promising young lawyer,
Thomas p. Taul, who was killed by
Rufus Anderson in 1929.
Anderson was acquitted under the
inspiration of Felix Grundy, and
Col Taul, with whom | read law,
often took up IA list of the jury and
showed that all Of them, every one
had come to some bad end.
Taul was an impulsive, high
strung man; and to lose his temper
was to lose his case, and this was the
weakness that his competitor at the
bar, Hopkins l.. Turney, always
touched.
Sam Turney was unique man,
slouchy, silent, gentle, kind, read
and thought much, talked but little,
but always used expressive words
His thoughts were eminently origi.
nal. In temperance speech he
described a poor man that fell from
his horse while drunk and wa:
killed, as appearing at st. Peters
gate 50 drunk that he could not an,
swer the first question.
In describing his success in the
Supreme Court, he said yes, hi
gained all his cases and could have
gained more if he had had them.
James p. Thompson was an i'm
pulsive old Virginian, who was a
innocent of the worlds ways as if h,
had been born in another planet
Crossing mountain, he saw dee
on hillside, and during the weel
while at court he bought gun, ant
coming back as he approached tn
place he got ready to shoot, but will
establishment, looking out on tn
hillside, he exclaimed, "Why, tn
darn thing has gone"
w. P. Hickerson was a yOunge
man, but came to the bar with glea
promise. He had twenty-five hun
bred dollars in fees before he got Ii
cense, and certainly, l have neve
known anV man tOcOme into So fine