THIRTY LAWYERS HAVE SERVED AS PROSECUTORS

TODAY'S PROSECUTOR: Morley Swingle, Cape Girardeau County prosecuting attorney, says computers are saving his office huge amounts of time. "What used to take a secretary an hour to type can now be done in 15 minutes by an assistant prosecutor," Swingle said. (SOUTHEAST MISSOURIAN)

Cape Girardeau County has had 30 lawyers serve as prosecuting attorney since the position was created on Jan. 1, 1873. Before then criminal cases were prosecuted by a circuit attorney, whose jurisdiction covered Cape Girardeau, New Madrid, Mississippi, Scott, Bollinger and Pemiscot counties.

Following is a list of those who have held the position:

W. Wilson Cramer, 1873-1874.

Robert H. Whitelaw, 1875-1878.

R. Burett Oliver, 1879-1882.

Maurice Cramer, 1883-1886.

John A. Snider, 1887-1890; 1893-1896.

Frank E. Burrough, 1891-1892.

Thomas D. Hines, 1897-1904.

Charles H. Daues, 1905-1906.

Harry E. Alexander, 1907-1910.

James H. Doris, 1911-1912.

J. Henry Caruthers, 1913-1920.

Frank Hines, 1921-1926.

S.P. Dalton, 1927-1928; 1931-1934.

J. Grant Frye, 1929-1930.

Elmer A. Strom, 1935-1936; 1939-1942.

Edward L. Drum, 1937.

R.B. Oliver III, 1938 (Appointed).

James A. Finch Jr., 1943.

James A. Finch, 1944 (Appointed).

Robert M. Buerkle, 1945-1948.

Raymond H. Vogel, 1949-1954.

Stephen N. Limbaugh, 1955-1958.

Richard E. Snider, 1959-1960.

Stephen E. Strom, 1961-1962.

Bill D. Burlison, 1963-1968.

A.J. Seier, 1969-1976.

Bradshaw Smith, 1977-1978 (Appointed).

Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr., 1979-1982.

Larry H. Ferrell, 1983-1986.

H. Morley Swingle, 1987-present.

(ORIGINAL TEXT)

Cape Girardeau County has had 30 lawyers serve as prosecuting attorney since the position was created on Jan. 1, 1873. Before then criminal cases were prosecuted by a circuit attorney, whose jurisdiction covered Cape Girardeau, New Madrid, Mississippi, Scott, Bollinger and Pemiscot counties.

Following is a list of those who have held the position:

W. Wilson Cramer, 1873-1874

W. Wilson Cramer was Cape Girardeau County's first prosecuting attorney, taking office Jan. 1, 1873, at age 25. He was born in Cape Girardeau on Jan. 14, 1847, the son of Geroge H. Cramer, who had been a major in command of the Home Guard in this area during the Civil War.

During the war, teenaged Cramer was sent to preparatory school in Germany for four years. He was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1870. After serving as prosecuting attorney for two years, he practiced law in Cape Girardeau for 55 years until his death Aug. 30, 1926.

He was known for driving to the courthouse in his "topless buggy" and, in his day, "we had hitching posts instead of parking meters."

Robert H. Whitelaw, 1875-1878

Robert H. Whitelaw took office in 1875 at the age of 20. He was born Jan. 30, 1854, in Essex County, Va., the son of a slave-holding plantation owner. He was educated in the Old Pleasant Hill Academy near Fruitland, in the Academy of St. Louis and the law school at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

He was elected prosecuting attorney shortly after graduating from law school in 1874. He served two terms.

In 1881 he was elected as a representative to the state legislature, where he served four consecutive terms. In 1890 he was elected to serve this district in the United States Congress. He later returned to a private law practice in Cape Girardeau

He died July 27, 1937.

R. Burett Oliver, 1879-1882

R.B. Oliver was born in Cape County on Jan. 23, 1850. He was educated in the Shawnee Township Schools at Pleasant Hill Academy and at the University of Missouri. He graduated in 1877 and opened a law office in Jackson.

Oliver was elected prosecuting attorney in 1878, and served two terms. In 1882, he was elected to a four-year term as a state senator.

Oliver and his wife, Marie Elizabeth Watkins Oliver - who was one of the designers of the Missouri Flag - lived at the Oliver House in Jackson until 1899, when they moved to Cape Girardeau.

In 1903, Oliver was elected state representative. During his service he drafted the organization of the Little River Drainage District. He served as a curator of the University of Missouri from 1889-1902. He died Oct. 16, 1934.

Maurice Cramer, 1883-1886

Maurice Cramer was the younger brother of Wilson Cramer. He was born in Cape Girardeau in 1857. He received his college training at Ann Arbor University and Columbia College in New York City.

Cramer served two terms as prosecuting attorney and served as a Cape Girardeau Common Pleas judge from 1889-1893. He later moved to Chicago.

John A. Snider, 1887-1890; 1893-1896

John A. Snider was born near Whitewater on March 7, 1860. He attended Millersville High School, Southeast Missouri State Normal School and the University of Missouri Law School.

Snider served as prosecuting attorney for four terms. He was a Cape Girardeau Common Pleas judge from 1901-1905 and from 1916-1924.

He lived in Jackson where he was a farmer, a banker and a lawyer.

Frank E. Burrough, 1891-1892

Born in Cape Girardeau on Feb. 19, 1865, Frank E. Burrough was the son of a lawyer and president of the Board of Regents at Southeast Missouri Normal School.

Burrough graduated from Southeast Missouri Normal School in 1883 and from the University of Michigan Law School in 1885. He served one term as prosecutor and as a Common Pleas judge from 1887-1901. He took pride that while he was prosecutor no indictment he drew was ever quashed.

After returning to private practice, he contracted pneumonia during a trail and died Dec. 9, 1903, at age 38.

Thomas D. Hines, 1897-1904

T.D. Hines was born in Northern Cape Girardeau County in May, 1862. He attended Oak Ridge High School and graduated valedictorian of the Southeast Missouri Normal School in 1882. He taught school for several years before studying law.

He served four terms as prosecuting attorney, served as the Jackson city attorney and as the president of the Jackson Board of Education. He died Nov. 30, 1937.

Charles H. Daues, 1905-1906

Born in Cape Girardeau July 24, 1878, Charles H. Daues was the son of a cooper. He received his law degree from Washington University law school in 1900.

Daues was elected city attorney and later prosecuting attorney. As prosecutor, he strictly enforced the liquor laws and closed the saloons on Sunday. He was defeated in a bid for re-election and vowed that he would leave town because he did not want to live where people did not want to abide by the laws.

He moved to St. Louis and became an assistant U.S. district attorney of the Eastern District. Daues later served as city counselor of the city of St. Louis and was elected to the St. Louis Court of Appeals, where he became the presiding judge. Daues retired to a private law practice until he died Oct. 6, 1938.

Harry E. Alexander, 1907-1910

Harry E. Alexander was born in Fruitland Feb. 3, 1880. He attended high school and college in Cape Girardeau, and went on to study at the University of Missouri and the University of Texas law school.

Alexander served two terms as police judge of Cape Girardeau prior to serving two terms as prosecuting attorney. He was also elected as city attorney of Cape Girardeau.

Alexander and his law partner, Sen. Thomas F. Lane, were appointed to referee federal bankruptcy cases in 1920. He died of a heart attack on Sept. 19, 1930, while working.

James H. Doris, 1911-1912

James H. Doris was born in Kentucky on March 3, 1863, the son of a farmer. He moved to Southeast Missouri and worked in a sawmill and at other occupations as he studied law at home and at the office of an attorney.

In 1896, he was admitted to the Missouri Bar. He opened a practice in Winona, Mo., but moved to Cape Girardeau 10 years later.

J. Henry Caruthers, 1913-1920

J. Henry Caruthers was born in Perry County Sept. 11, 1879. He graduated from Southeast Missouri Normal School and taught in the public schools of Perry and Bollinger counties.

He moved to Cape Girardeau and established the Missouri Mattress and Glove Manufacturing Co., and took up the study of law in the office of Kelso and Miller.

Caruthers was admitted to the bar in 1910 and served four terms as prosecuting attorney. In 1921, he was appointed assistant attorney general, where he worked until 1926.

He was appointed U. S. commissioner for the Eastern District of Missouri in 1934, where he served until 1940. He was elected Cape Girardeau Common Pleas judge in 1940 and served for 15 years - longer than any of his predecessors.

In 1944, Caruthers wrote a history of the Cape Girardeau Court of Common Pleas. He died Dec. 7, 1955.

Frank Hines, 1921-1926

Frank M. Hines, born Sept. 12, 1893, was the son of T.D. Hines, the seventh prosecuting attorney in Cape County. He graduated from Jackson High School and went on to graduate from William Jewell College, the University of Missouri and the University of Virginia where he earned his law degree.

He served in the Navy in World War I. Hines returned to join his father in the firm of Hines and Hines in Jackson. He served three terms as prosecuting attorney, and also served as Jackson city attorney and as a member of the Board of Education.

S.P. Dalton, 1927-1928; 1931-1934

S.P. Dalton was born in Vernon County, Mo., Nov. 16, 1892. he graduated from Nevada High School in 1909, Westminster College in Fulton in 1913, and received his law degree in 1918 from the University of Missouri.

In 1919 Dalton began practicing law in Cape Girardeau. He served three terms as prosecuting attorney during a time of "lawlessness and lack of respect for the law," and used the grand jury system to curb the "tendency toward crime."

In 1939 he was appointed commissioner of the Missouri Supreme Court and in 1950, was appointed Missouri Supreme Court judge, where he sat for 15 years until his death in 1965. He was chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court from 1956 to 1958, and was the brother of a former Missouri governor, John M. Dalton.

J. Grant Frye, 1929-1930

J. Grant Frye was born in Stoddard County Oct. 27, 1897, and dropped out of Bernie High School in 1917 to join the Marines in World War I. He fought in several major battles and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Bronze Star and the Navy Cross.

When Frye returned from the war he took an examination to complete high school, graduated from State College and the University of Missouri law school in 1922.

Frye was also active in the American Legion and was elected state commander in 1934. He served one term as prosecuting attorney and later was the Republican nominee for Missouri attorney general in 1936. In 1940 he campaigned unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for governor. On Jan. 13, 1956, he was killed in a car wreck in Columbia, Mo.

Elmer A. Strom, 1935-1936; 1939-1942

Elmer A. Strom was born March 18, 1903, in Chicago. He moved to Cape Girardeau in 1909 when his father died.

He attended Cape Central High School, Southeast Missouri State College and graduated from the University of Missouri law school in 1928.

Strom served three terms as prosecuting attorney. He later served overseas with the Army from 1943-1945, retiring with the rank of colonel. He was decorated with the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star and the Croix de Guerre. He died March 13, 1977, after practicing law in Cape Girardeau for almost 50 years.

Edward L. Drum, 1937

Edward L. Drum was born in Bollinger County in 1875. He graduated from the University of Missouri law school and then set up a private law practice in Cape Girardeau.

Drum had a political career with several ups and downs. He unsuccessfully ran for prosecuting attorney in 1908, then lost elections for city attorney and police judge. His first political success was election to the school board in 1927. He was elected mayor in 1930, re-elected in 1932 and 1934, but was defeated in 1936. In November 1936, at the age of 61, he was elected prosecuting attorney but left the office when he was re-elected mayor in 1938.

Drum was defeated in the 1940 race against J. Henry Caruthers for Common Pleas Court judge. He died Sept. 8, 1955.

R.B. Oliver III, 1938 (Appointed)

Robert Burett Oliver III was born Oct. 15, 1911. He attended Southeast Missouri State University and received his law degree from the University of Missouri. From 1935-1949 he was a member of the Oliver and Oliver law firm with his father and uncle.

Oliver was appointed prosecuting attorney in 1938 to serve out the term of Edward L. Drum. He was city attorney for Cape Girardeau until he resigned to enter active duty in the Army in 1942.

Oliver served 19 months in China, attaining the rank of major. He became circuit judge of Cape Girardeau County in January 1949 and resigned in 1952 to join the Skelly Oil Co. in Kansas City. Oliver was later employed by the Navy in Washington, D.C. He died Jan. 27, 1980.

James A. Finch Jr., 1943

James A. Finch Jr. was born in St. Louis Nov. 13, 1907. He went to school in Fornfelt, New Madrid, Southeast Missouri State University and the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he received a law degree in 1932.

Finch practiced law in Cape Girardeau and served as prosecuting attorney in 1943, before leaving to serve in the Army Air Corps in World War II. He was appointed to the Missouri Supreme Court in 1965, and retired from the bench in 1978. He was Chief Justice from 1971-1973.

Finch was a curator of the University of Missouri from 1951-1965, and was president of the Missouri Bar Foundation. He was a member of the Order of the Coif. He died April 1, 1988.

James A. Finch, 1944 (Appointed)

James A. Finch was born April 29, 1883, in Louisville, Ill. He received his law degree in 1903 from Benton College of Law in St. Louis, where he practiced law until 1905 before moving to Fornfelt.

After spending time in New Madrid, Finch moved to Cape Girardeau in 1932. Although a highly respected lawyer with a keen interest in politics, he never ran for political office. He was appointed prosecuting attorney in 1944 to complete the term of his eldest son, who left for World War II. Finch was appointed Scott County circuit judge in 1912 to fill a vacancy until Judge Frank Kelly was elected later that year.

He served as secretary of the Missouri Republican Committee, as Missouri manager for the presidential campaign of Frank O. Lowden in 1928, and in 1928 turned down the Republican Party's offer to be their nominee for the U.S. Senate from Missouri. He served 12 years on the Board of Regents for Southeast Missouri State University.

He died in July 1953.

Robert M. Buerkle, 1945-1948

Robert M. Buerkle was born in Pemiscot County on Aug. 11, 1918. He earned a bachelor of science degree from Southeast Missouri State College in 1940 and a law degree from the University of Missouri in 1942. He served as the city attorney in Jackson from 1942-1949, and as prosecuting attorney of Cape County for two terms.

As prosecutor, he once had three jury trials in one day in front of Circuit Judge James McDowell. He had long been active in law and banking, serving as president of the Bank of Ste. Genevieve from 1960-1985. He had practiced law in Jackson for more than 40 years.

He died Dec. 25, 1991.

Raymond H. Vogel, 1949-1954

Raymond H. Vogel was born in Pocahontas Oct. 6, 1915. He graduated from Southeast Missouri State University with a bachelor of science degree in 1937, and from the University of Iowa with a law degree in 1940. He was a FBI special agent form 1940-1946, serving in Washington, D.C., Newark, N.J., North Carolina and Florida. In Florida he was part of a team of agents looking for German saboteurs.

Vogel served three terms as prosecuting attorney and one term as state representative from 1957-1958. He was Cape Girardeau city attorney form 1959-1964. He was a Missouri special assistant attorney general from 1969-1973. He currently practices law in Cape Girardeau.

Stephen N. Limbaugh, 1955-1958

Stephen N. Limbaugh was born in Cape Girardeau on Nov. 17, 1927. He graduated from Southeast Missouri State College in 1950 and from the University of Missouri law school in 1951.

Limbaugh served two terms as prosecuting attorney and with the city attorney for Cape Girardeau from 1964-1968. He practiced law with the firm founded by his father for more than 30 years. Limbaugh served as president of the Missouri Bar Association in 1982-1983, and later, in 1983, was appointed U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of Missouri by President Ronald Reagan, a position he still holds.

Richard E. Snider, 1959-1960

Richard E. Snider was born Oct. 4, 1933, in Dexter. He received his bachelor's degree in 1956 from Southeast Missouri State College and his law degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1958.

Snider served one term as prosecuting attorney and later served as assistant prosecuting attorney from 1962-1968. He served as president of the East Missouri Community Action Agency Board of Directors from 1970-1973, as vice chairman of the Cape Girardeau Housing Authority from 1968-1972, as director of Southeast Missouri Legal Services, and was a member of the NAACP Legal Fund. He died at age 45.

Stephen E. Strom, 1961-1962

Stephen E. Strom was born in Cape Girardeau Dec. 22, 1931, the son of former prosecuting attorney Elmer A. Strom. He graduated from the University of Missouri law school in 1955. Strom was a member of the Order of the Coif and was chairman of the Missouri Law Review.

During his single term as prosecutor, Strom prosecuted Sammy Aire Tucker for the murder of Cape Girardeau police officer Donald Crittendon. Tucker was the only murderer from Cape Girardeau County to ever die in the gas chamber during the time it was in use from 1938-1988.

Strom was a member of the Cape Girardeau City Council from 1968-1971. He currently practices law in Cape Girardeau.

Bill D. Burlison, 1963-1968

Bill D. Burlison was born in Wardell, Mo., March 15, 1933. He attended Southeast Missouri State University and the University of Missouri. He served in the Marine Corps and as an assistant attorney general of Missouri. During his three terms as prosecuting attorney, he served a one-year term as president of the Missouri Prosecuting Attorney's Association.

In 1968, Burlison was elected U.S. representative to Congress from this district. He was re-elected five times until he was defeated by Bill Emerson in 1980. He now practices law in Washington, D.C.

A.J. Seier, 1969-1976

A.J. Seier was born in St. Louis Aug. 10, 1934. He served as a naval aviator from 1954-1958, and then went to school at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he graduated in 1962. He practiced law in St. Louis from 1962-1965 and in Cape Girardeau from 1965-1968.

Seier was elected prosecuting attorney in 1968. In 1974, he served as president of the Missouri Prosecuting Attorney's Association. Seier was elected circuit judge in 1976 and has twice been re-elected to the seat he still holds.

Seier has been appointed special judge throughout the state of Missouri and has been the sentencing judge in more than 40 murder cases.

Bradshaw Smith, 1977-1978 (Appointed)

Bradshaw Smith was born in Des Moines, Iowa, April 13, 1944. He earned his law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1968. Upon graduation, he began practicing law in Cape Girardeau.

At 26, he was elected to the Cape Girardeau City Council. On Dec. 31, 1976, he was appointed prosecuting attorney to serve out the term of A.J. Seier, who had been elected circuit judge. After his term as prosecutor, he practiced law in Cape Girardeau until 1981, and then moved to Van Buren, Mo., where he was elected Carter County prosecuting attorney in 1982 - a position he still holds.

Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr., 1979-1982

Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr., was born in Cape Girardeau Jan. 25, 1952, the son of former prosecuting attorney Stephen N. Limbaugh. He graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1976.

Limbaugh served one term as prosecuting attorney, and then practiced law in the firm his grandfather founded. Limbaugh was appointed circuit judge in 1987. He was re-elected in 1988, but resigned in 1992 to take a seat on the Missouri Supreme Court, which he now holds.

Larry H. Ferrell, 1983-1986

Larry H. Ferrell was born in Cape Girardeau Aug. 6, 1954. He is a graduate of Patton High School, Southeast Missouri State University and the University of Missouri-Kansas City law school.

He was assistant prosecuting attorney form 1980-1983, and during his term as prosecuting attorney he served as vice-president of the Missouri Prosecuting Attorney's Association. He has served as special assistant attorney general of Missouri, as a member of the Governor's Crime Commission and as an instructor in the criminal justice department at Southeast Missouri State University.

Ferrell currently serves as an assistant U.S. attorney in Cape Girardeau.

H. Morley Swingle, 1987-present.

H. Morley Swingle was born in Cape Girardeau April 21, 1955, the son of Sgt. Morley G. Swingle of the Missouri Highway Patrol. He graduated from the University of Missouri in 1980, where he was a member of the Missouri Law Review, the Order of the Barristers and chairman of the Board of Advocates.

Swingle was in private practice from 1980-1982, and served as an assistant prosecuting attorney from 1983-1987.

Elected prosecuting attorney in 1986, Swingle has been a special assistant attorney general, an instructor of criminal law, a member of the Governor's Task Force on Domestic Violence, and has published articles on criminal law in the Missouri Law Review, the Journal of the Missouri Bar and the Missouri Bar CLE on Criminal Practice.