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 The Supreme Court of Missouri. ise. His opinions show a careful study of the case in hand; and his untimely death, July 21, 1825, was mourned as a great loss. He was associated with Henry S. Geyer, Esq., in the preparation of the Revised Stat utes of 1825; and their joint work is a model in that department, and deserves the many encomiums which have been passed upon it. The exactness of the dates mentioned is due to the courtesy of Judge Pettibone's brother, who furnished them to Judge Bay.

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people among whom he had come to live. His love for French literature continued through life, and he left one of the best col lections of books of that language then in the State. He taught school successfully, hav-. ing among his pupils L. A. Benoist, afterward a prominent banker; and Wilson Primm, who became a prominent lawyer, and was for many years a judge. He pursued his legal studies, and succeeded in grounding himself thoroughly in the learning of the pro fession. In 1816 he George Tompkins was ready to enter upon the practice, and was a native of Vir established himself at ginia, having been born in Caroline what is now recol lected as Old Franklin, County, March 27, then situated opposite 1780. He was one of a large family of the present city of children; his ances Boonville; but long tors were among the since washed away by early English settlers the treacherous cur of the Old Dominion. rents of the Big Mud It has been said that dy. Franklin was in he was but slightly ed the very heart of a rich ucated in his younger and prosperous por days; but this is tion of the State, and manifestly an error, Mr. Tompkins seemed for he was both an to have speedily gained English and Latin the confidence of his scholar when he left neighbors, for he was ABIEL LEONARD. his ancestral home soon and twice elected for the far West, to the Territorial Leg whither he travelled on horseback. He lived islature, — a high compliment at that day. in Kentucky some years, teaching school and In 1824 he assumed his seat on the Supreme reading law in his leisure hours. About Bench by appointment from a governor who 1809 he travelled on to St. Louis, then a strag differed from him politically. He served a gling village of about fifteen hundred people. longer continuous period than any other judge These, with the exception of only two Amer who has ever been a member of the court. ican families, were Creole French. Mr. The universal estimate of his judicial career is Tompkins applied himself assiduously to the that he was a gifted jurist, of spotless integ study of the French language, and soon be rity, industrious and scrupulously careful in came its master. It stood him to a good pur the discharge of his duties. It is to be regret pose in his subsequent judicial career, and ted that his features have not been preserved some of his opinions disclose a rare famil to posterity. He had a splendid physique, iarity with the customs and idioms of the and bore a striking resemblance to Senator