Evening journal., 1911-07-07
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Mystery Of a Great
Lawyers Name
By sHoIIand."

Edwards Pierrepont was in his day
one of the leaders of the American bar,
and his name is not yet forgotten. He
was counsel for the Government in the
prosecution Of John NJ. Surratt. ac-
cused Of completely in the plot to
assassinate President Lincoln. He was
Attorney General in the Cabinet OF
President Grant, who was very fond Of
him. And he resigned that Office 70
accept appointment. in 1875. as Min
lister to the Court Of St. James. where
he served until 1877.
In all of the biographies of Edwards
Pierrepont it is stated that he was a
graduate Of the famous class of 1897 at
Yale. OF which also William NJ. Evarts
was a member But II Yale's records Of
that day and the catalogue at that time
are scanned. the name OF Edwards
Pierrepont will not be found there.
How, then does it happen that the bio
graphers Of Judge Pierrepont declare
that he was member of this class?
My attention was called to this by
the late Albert L. Train. himself a
members Of the famous class of 1853 at
Yale, and afterward one of the leading
editors of Connecticut
81 met Mr.. Evarts," said Mr.. Train.
''at the Yale commencement of 1877.
His class was holding its fortieth
graduation anniversary. Distinguished
as be was, he was then presumably at
the height Of his public career, for in
March of that year he had become
Secretary OF State in the Cabinet Of
President Hayes
in the course of our conversation
said to Mr.. Evarts that It was an un-
usual honor for a Yale class that two
of its members should have been At
torney General of the United States.
i suppose Mr.. Evarts said in re-
ply, that you refer to my own ser
vice as Attorney-General in President
| Johnson's Cabinet But who was the
other Attorney General in my class? p
Why, said /, Edwards Pierre
pont was Of your class. was he not,
There was no man of that name in
my class. Mr. Train Mr. Evarts re-
piled with great solemnity of manner.
IT is true that Judge Pierrepont was
recently Acknowledgement OF the
United States But there was no Ed
wards Pierrepont in the class OF 1887
at Yale. There was, however, a Munson
p. Pierpont in my class; he was a
farmers boy and came from a little
village a few miles from New Haven
We used to call him Mummy; that
was our nickname for him. But there
was no Edwards Pierrepont, which is
a very aristocratic name
Puzzled greatly by Mr. Evarts'
statement, I hunted up a Yale cata-
logue. II contained the name Of a Mum
son f. Pierpont. but there was no Ed
wards Pierrepont in the list. Some
months later, however, the whole mat
ter was made plain to me, and then
realized fully how greatly Secretary
hvarts must have enjoyed the joke he
had played upon me at the expense of
his good friend Edwards Pierrepont.
Mr. Evarts, great wit and lover of fun
that he was, was especially fond Of the
sly joke.
Edwards Pierrepont and Munson E
Pierpont-it turned out on investiga-
tion-were one and the same person
But there was no Edwards Pierrepont
until Munson E. Pierpont, following
his graduation from YALE had gone to
Columbus. Ohio, to practice law and
there fallen in love with and married
rich widow of aristocratic tenden-
cies, who induced Munson Pierpont to
drop his first name. substitute for II
his middle name of Edwards, with an
IS" added thereto. and change the
spelling Of his last name from the sim
pie and common form of 'Pierpont' tc
the complex and decidedly aristocratiC
form of 'Pierrepont.' subsequently Mr.
Evarts' old classmate moved to New
York city and opened a law office. The
name that he placed on the door was
the one that his wife had induced him
to take And, do you know, 1t was quite
a while before Mr.. Evarts and other
New Workers who had known Munsor
p. Pierpont in his college days vel
enough to call him Mummy and slaI
him affectionately on the back, dis.
covered their old college chum in the
person Of Edwards Pierrepont?"
Copyright, 1911, by f. ]. Edwards AL
Rights Reserved.)
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards will tell o.
aThe Federal OfficehOlder Who WOI
N. A