Hamilton Rowan Gamble

Gamble, Hamilton Rowan, Governor of Missouri and one of the most distinguished members also of the St. Louis bar, was born in Winchester, Virginia, November 29, 1798, and died in St. Louis January 31, 1864. He was educated at Hampden-Sidney College, was admitted to the bar when but eighteen years of age, and before he was twenty years old had been licensed to practice in the States of Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri. He came to St. Louis in 1818, joining his elder brother, Archibald Gamble, who had begun the practice of law there some years earlier. Archibald Gamble was then clerk of the Circuit Court of St. Louis, and appointed his brother deputy, in which capacity he first became known to the local bar. After familiarizing himself with the methods of practice and legal processes then in vogue in Missouri Territory he removed to the town of Franklin— now called Old Franklin — in Howard County, and practiced there for several years thereafter, serving as prosecuting attorney of the circuit. In 1824 Governor Frederick Bates appointed him Secretary of State, and he removed to St. Charles, which was then the capital of Missouri. After the death of Governor Bates, in 1826, he removed to St. Louis, and his great success at the bar dated from that period. He at once engaged in active competition for professional honors and rewa:rds with such men as Benton, Geyer, Robert Wash, the Bartons, Edward Bates and others, and was the peer of any as a lawyer. In 1846, when he was absent from the State, he was elected to the Missouri Legislature, and during the one term that he was a member of that body rendered a great service to his profession and the general public in aiding to make a complete and thorough revision of State laws. In 185 1 he was elected a member of the Supreme Court of Missouri, his eminent fitness for the place causing him to be chosen by a majority of more than

40,000 votes, notwithstanding the fact that the Whig party, with which he affiliated pohtically, was in a hopeless minority in the State. Failing health caused him to resign the judgeship in 1855, and thereafter he only appeared as a practitioner in the United States Supreme Court. In 1858 he removed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of giving his children superior educational advantages, and was living there when the Civil War cloud began to lower. When the Legislature of Missouri passed an act calling a State convention to take action on matters at issue between the Northern and Southern States, Judge Gamble hastened to St. Louis to find public sentiment greatly inflamed and a condition bordering on anarchy prevailing. The evening after his arrival he addressed a public meeting at the courthouse, and proclaimed his unswerving fidelity to the Union. The effect of one man's words is sometimes magical, and it was so in this instance. His utterances rallied the Union men of the city and strengthened their cause immediately. From that time forward he was one of the recognized leaders of the Union movement in Missouri, was a conspicuous member of the State convention, and when that body declared the office of Governor vacant by reason of the flight of Governor Jackson from the capital Judge Gamble was unanimously chosen Provisional Governor. He entered upon the discharge of the duties thus thrust upon him in July of 1861, with the eyes of the nation upon him and the Federal authorities regarding him as one of its safest and wisest counselors. Worn out by his arduous labors he died on the eve of the final triumph of the Union arms, and a nation mourned his demise. Governor Gamble married, in 1827, at Columbia, South Carolina, Miss Caroline J. Coalter, who was a sister to the wife of Honorable Edward Bates, Attorney General in President Lincoln's cabinet. At his death he was survived by two sons and one daughter. Hamilton Gamble, eldest of the sons, married Sallie M. Minor, and died some years since. Dr. David C. Gamble, the second son, married Flora Matthews. Mary Coalter Gamble, his only daughter, married Edgar Miller, of St. Louis.

Game and Fish Preserve Association.— An association incorporated May 9, 1884, for the purpose of owning, controlling and investing in property to be used as game and lish preserves, which were to be under the exclusive control of the members of the association. It is an association of sportsmen who desire to own their property and protect the game and fish found thereon for their own uses, either within or outside of the State of Missouri. The amount of capital stock is fixed at $4,000, divided into 200 shares of $20 par value each. The names of the original stockholders were J. B. C. Lucas, L. D. Dozier, David A. Marks, Henry C. West, Frederick A. Churchill, John F. Shepley, and Benjamin W. Lewis, of St. Louis. There are now — 1900 — about 200 members. The affairs of the association are controlled and managed by a board of seven directors, the annual election taking place on the second Tuesday in March of each year.

Game Law. — In Missouri the killing or taking of game is prohibited as follows: Coon, mink, other, beaver or muskrat, April ist to November ist; buck, doe or fawn, January ist to October ist; wild turkey, March ist to September 15th; prairie chicken, February ist to August 15th; pleasant or quail, January ist to October ist; woodcock, January loth to July ist; dove, meadow lark or clover, February ist to August ist. Catch of prairie chicken or quail by nets or traps prohibited.

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