Bryan Mullanphy

MuUanphy, Bryan, lawyer, jurist and philanthropist, was born in 1809, in Baltimore, Maryland, and died in St. Louis, June 15, 185 1. He was the only son of the eminent pioneer, merchant and philanthropist, John Mullanphy, whose large wealth enabled him to give the son every educational advantage. At the age of nine years he was sent to France and England for his education, and returned to his native land possessed of many accomplishments. He had a taste for literature, was fond of music, studied law assiduously, and was admitted to the bar, at which he took a creditable position while still a very young man. Though a man of wealth, he enjoyed the practice of the law, was a fluent and impressive speaker, and in several notable trials, in which he encountered the ablest members of the St. Louis bar

Google he evinced fine legal capacity. Becoming interested in local politics, he served a term in the board of aldermen, and, in 1847, was elected mayor of St. Louis. He was also judge of the St. Louis Circuit Court from 1840 to 1844, discharging the duties of that oiSce with fidelity and rendering his decisions with such care that few of them were ever reversed by the higher courts. He inherited the generous nature of his father, and on November 14, 1845, was chairman of the committee of Catholic gentlemen who founded the first conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in the new world. His private charities were legion. On his death he left one-third of all his estate to form a fund for the relief of poor bona fide emigrants settling in the West. At that time no charity was more needed, as they came by the thousands, and by the hundreds fell victims to destitution and disease. The conditions being so completely changed by the United States emigration laws, which make it now well nigh impossible for any person to land at the seaports without showing some visible means of support, the large income of the Mullanphy Emigrant Relief Fund no longer subserves the purposes which it was designed to subserve, and at the present writing (1898) the members of the Mullanphy family are endeavoring to make an arrangement with the city, the legatee, to divert the fund to a non-sectarian hospital for incurable and convalescents. Judge Mullanphy is remembered as a man of many eccentricities, but, in the language of the formal resolutions adopted by the bar of St. Louis on the occasion of his death, "all his oddities are but as dust in the balance when weighed against the uprightness of his life and the succession of his charities."

Mullanphy John, pioneer and philanthropist, was born in 1758, near Inniskillen, County Fermanaugh, Ireland. In 1789 he married Miss Elizabeth Browne, of Youghal, County Waterford, and with her and one child, in 1792 came to America, settling in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1798 the family removed to Kentucky, and in 1804 to St. Louis, Missouri. Mr. Mullanphy's thorough knowledge of French and his interest in pub- Kc matters soon led to his being appointed justice of the peace, in which capacity he married many couples, among others Alexander McNair, afterward the first Governor of Missouri, to Miss Riehle. After three years Mr. Mullanphy moved his family to Natchez, Mississippi, for the purpose of sending their elder daughters to the Ursuline Convent in New Orleans, and then they went back to Baltimore, to be nearer schools, Mr. Mullanphy spending about half the year in the West looking after his moneyed interests in St. Louis and elsewhere. Finally he and Mrs. Mullanphy decided to educate their children abroad, the girls going to the Ursuline Convents in Rouen and Lyons; Bryan, the only son who outlived his infancy, spending four years in the Jesuit College in Paris, and another four at Stonyhurst, near Liverpool, from which latter he was graduated. In 1819 the Mullanphy family returned to St. Louis to make it their permanent home. In 1827, to induce the Ladies of the Sacred Heart to open an educational institution in St. Louis, which at that time had no good school, he settled on them twenty-four arpens of land, on which was a brick house, and gave them money for its necessary furnishings. Mr. Mullanphy also assisted in establishing an orphan asylum for boys, and founded a home for aged and destitute widows, while, approved of and assisted by Bishop Rosati, he brought out the Sisters of Charity to take charge of the hospital, the first of its kind in St. Louis, which he founded and which now stands, "The St. Louis Mullanphy Hospital." Besides his never-failing daily charities, he, in times of scarcity, gave sums of money to the bakers to furnish bread to the hungry poor, and when the cholera was raging he employed a young physician, Dr. Julian Henry, to visit the sick throughout the surrounding country. Dr. Henry's headquarters were at the country place, "Hazlewood," of Mr. Mullanphy's son-in-law, Major Graham, who furnished him with horses for his rounds of sick calls, while Mrs. Graham, under the doctor's directions, made up the pills and nostrums, there being no chemists or drug stores available in this primitive community. The Mullanphy pews in the Church of St. Ferdinand, Florissant, are a witness and testimony of what Mr. and Mrs. Mullanphy did for religion and charity in this village and the surrounding country. Mr. Mullanphy died in St. Louis, August 29, 1833, 2id hs wife, Elizabeth, April 14, 1843, i remains

Google of both now rest in the MuUanphy lot in Calvary Cemetery.

MuUanphy Emigrrant Home.— An institution established in St. Louis, in 1867, and designed to furnish a temporary home for needy immigrants coming to or passing through St. Louis. The building erected for this purpose was located on Fourteenth Street, between Howard and Mullanphy Streets, and cost $30,000, a part of which sum was contributed from the Mullanphy Emigrant Relief Fund. The home was maintained until 1877, when it was leased to the city school board, to be used thereafter for school purposes.

Mullanphy Orphan Asylum.— The asylum, attached to the convent and academy of the religious order of the Sacred Heart, was established on Broadway, near Chouteau Avenue, St. Louis, in 1827. In 1827 petitions were sent to the mother house of the order in Paris to open a boarding school in St. Louis. Rev. Mother Barat, foundress of the order, commissioned Madame Duchesne, then at St. Ferdinand, St. Louis County, to take charge of the new institution. John Mullanphy, of St. Louis, came to her aid by the offer of a small house and eighty acres of land for the purpose of a boarding school and a day school, one of the conditions of the contract being that twenty orphans should be kept in the house and provided for. The offer was accepted, and on the 2d of May, 1827, Madame Duchesne and, a companion came to St. Louis. After some hasty preparations, the orphanage was established, and, a new colony of nuns arriving from the mother house on the 9th of September, the boarding and day schools were organized, which were soon in a flourishing condition. Madame Duchesne was soon obliged to put up a more commodious building. The orphans are received at an early age and remain until they are eighteen. They receive solid instruction in the ordinary branches, and are thoroughly trained in needle work and in manual labor. The works of the order continued at the Broadway foundation until the movement of the city westward made a school no longer possible on Broadway. In 1872 the extensive academy on Meramec Street was opened and the boarders were transferred to "Maryville" in September. The work of the day school continued until the completion of the present establishment on Taylor and Maryland Avenues, whither the community and orphanage removed in 1894.

Municipal GoTemment of Kansas

City* — The municipal history of Kansas Gty, or rather of the City of Kansas, prior to 1875, having been fully covered under the heading "City of Kansas, Early Municipal Government of," elsewhere in these volumes, the writer of this article will deal only with its later developments. The cities, towns and villages of Missouri, from the time of the birth of the State until 1875, were to a large extent the prey of selfish interests, which resorted to the State capital at each recurring session of the General Assembly to secure special legislation fostering private enterprises, formulated for promoting personal and private gain, as distinguished from the public welfare. Kansas City was a typical suflFerer from this sort of legislation until, in 1875, the present wholesome and beneficent provisions of the State Constitution abolishing such special legislation, and giving to all cities of over 100,000 population the right to frame their own charters, were adopted by the people as a part of the organic law of the State. Since May 9, 1889, when its corporate name was changed to Kansas City, this city has been, and now is, a constitutional city organized under the provisions of Sections 16 and 17, Article 9, of the Constitution of Missouri. Like Frankfort, in Germany, this city is a "free city" with reference to all matters of local municipal concern. The Legislature of the State, instead of belittling or in any way impending the carrying into effect of the new constitution, took exactly the opposite course, and enacted, in 1887, an enabling act facilitating the realization of the constitutional provisions in actual practice. One of the sections of this enabling act provided that thirty days after the ratification and adoption of a charter by vote of the people in any such city, such charter "shall be and constitute the entire organic law of such city, and shall supersede all laws of this State, then in force, in terms governing or appertaining to cities having 100,000 inhabitants or more." With the doctrine of "home rule" thus firmly embodied in the State Constitution, and welcomed and facilitated by

Google the Legislature, this city availed itself of its privileges, and upon attaining the requisite population, adopted in 1889, by a four-seventh vote of the qualified voters of the city, the present city charter.

Previous to the existence of this charter the city had succeeded, in 1875, before the new constitution was adopted, in getting enacted by the General Assembly a very complete and satisfactory charter, but not until a bitter fight had been won by the friends of the city over an attempt made by the promoters of the National Waterworks Company (which corporation at that time had a very large share of the city government practically under its control) to procure the enactment of a city charter framed for the promotion of selfish ends. This charter of 1875 owed its very enactment largely to the efforts of Honorable Stephen P. Twiss, who represented the city at the time as its member of the General Assembly. The main features of this charter are preserved in our present charter, as follows: "The common council shall not appropriate money for any purpose whatever in excess of the revenue of that fiscal year actually collected and in the treasury at the time of such appropriation and unappropriated. Neither the common council nor any ofl&cers of the city, except the comptroller in the single in-stance in this act provided, shall have any authority to make any contract or do any act binding the city, or imposing upon the city any liability to pay money, until a definite amount of money shall first have been appropriated for the liquidation of all pecuniary liability of said city under said contract or in consequence of said act, and the amount of said appropriation shall be the maximum limit of the liability of the city under any such contract, or in consequence of any such act, said contract or act to be ab initio null and void as to the city for any other or further liability. A penalty is attadied to this clause of a fine of not less than $100 or more than $1,000, or imprisonment in the county jail of not less than one month or more than one year, or both such fine and imprisonment in case its terms are violated.

"Second. — No cash payments can be made out of the city treasury, except as follows: The treasurer being held to pay out money 'on warrants drawn by the auditor, countersigned by the comptroller, and not otherwise.'

"Third. — AU city improvements of whatever kind or character (including the erection of all public buildings made or to be erected at the expense of the city) shall be let by contract to the lowest and best bidder.

"Fourth. — No taxes can be released or abated except in correction of clerical errors (thus preventing the exercise of favoritism).

"Fifth. — The city was given power by ordinance to direct and control the laying and construction of street railways or horse railroads in the streets, and police power to regulate such franchises was also bestowed,, provided the consent of the property owners owning a majority in front feet of the property fronting the street where such road is proposed to be constructed, is first obtained.

"Sixth. — The salaries of officers cannot be increased or diminished during their term of office, but at the last monthly meeting before each election the council, by ordinance, shall fix the salary of officers for the ensuing term."

There are many other safeguards and beneficent provisions found in this charter, and the era of the city's most progressive and efficient government dates from its adoption. These enactments, and others of similar import, were embodied in the present charter at the time of its birth, and have remained embodied therein up to the present time.

There are safeguards thrown around the debt-making capacity of the common council and city authorities, and regulations governing the expenditure of ntoney already collected. Substantially they prohibit running into debt, except by bonded debt voted by the people, and then only for sewers and public buildings, the purchase of land for parks or market purposes, for the construction or purchase of gas or electric light plants, or the purchase of waterworks. A two-thirds vote of the people voting at the election, is required in order to carry these bond elections, and the debt-making capacity of the city is still further restricted and regulated by a provision in the State Constitution that even where bonds are so voted by the people, yet even in those cases "in no event" shall "any indebtedness be allowed to be incurred to an amount including existingindebtedness, exceeding 5 per centum on the value of the taxable property therein, to be ascertained by the assessment next before the last assessment for State and county pur-

60S poses previous to the incurring of such indebtedness."

Kansas City has availed herself of her charter rights and has voted $3,000,000 in bonds and purchased her waterworks system, which brings her an income of $650,000 per annum. She has also, by voting bonds, built from the proceeds thereof her city hall at an-expense of $300,000; and she has expended in one public improvement $200,000 for public sewers, thereby, together with her waterworks (purchased for $3,000,000), exhausting her debt-making capacity under the constitution. However, the city has increased her sinking fund to such an extent that if this fund is estimated as a credit, she can at this time (1899), ' it should be deemed wise to do so, increase her bonded debt. The salient features of the present city charter, which-embodies the plan of municipal government, aside from the financial safeguards referred to, are:

As printed in Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri (1901). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.