Home County: Marion
Term of service at the Supreme Court of Missouri: January 1862 - June 1865
Judge John Debos Sharp Dryden was born March 27, 1814, in Washington County, Virginia.[i] In 1829, when Dryden was a boy, his father moved their family to Missouri.[ii] They settled on a farm in Warren County, Missouri.[iii] In Warren County, Dryden worked on his father’s farm while he attended school.[iv]
Dryden studied law with Judge Mathias McGirk, who became a judge on the Supreme Court of Missouri.[v] In 1838, Dryden was admitted to the bar and resided in Palmyra in Marion County, Missouri.[vi] In Palmyra, Dryden practiced law and established a partnership with Thomas L. Anderson from 1845 to 1848.[vii]
Dryden was in private practice until January 1862,[viii] when Governor Hamilton Gamble appointed him to the Supreme Court of Missouri.[ix] In November 1863, Judge Dryden was elected the bench.[x] Because Dryden refused to vacate his office in May 1865 under the "Ousting Ordinance" passed during the constitutional convention earlier that year, Governor Thomas C. Fletcher on June 13, 1865, by letter demanded Dryden vacate his position; when Dryden still refused to do so, he was removed by force and charged with "disturbing the peace by interference with the Supreme Court." [xi]
Dryden subsequently moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he opened a law practice with his son, John W. Dryden.[xii] Beginning in 1867, Judge Dryden worked as the general attorney for the St. Louis & Iron Mountain Railroad Company.[xiii]
He died December 10, 1886, at his home in St. Louis. [xiv]
[i] Howard L. Conard, ed., “Dryden, John D.S.,” Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, Vol. II (St. Louis, MO: The Southern History Co, 1901), 322.
[ii] Conard, ed., “Dryden, John D.S.,” Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, 322.
[iii] “In Memoriam, Tribute of the Marion County Bar to Judge John D. S. Dryden,” Palmyra Spectator, December 24, 1886 page 2, column 2. Information courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri-Columbia Newspaper Database, accessed July 2017.
[iv] “In Memoriam, Tribute of the Marion County Bar to Judge John D. S. Dryden,” Palmyra Spectator. Information courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri-Columbia Newspaper Database.
[v] “In Memoriam: Tribute of the Marion County Bar to Judge John D. S. Dryden,” Palmyra Spectator. Information courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri-Columbia Newspaper Database. See also A. J. Stewart, ed., The History of the Bench and Bar of Missouri: With Reminiscences of the Prominent Lawyers of the Past, and a Record of the Law’s Leaders of the Present (St. Louis, MO: The Legal Publishing Company, 1898), 124.
[vi] “The Late Judge Dryden,” Shelbina Democrat, Wednesday, March 2, 1887, page 4, column 4. Information courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri-Columbia Newspaper Database, accessed July 2017. See also Stewart, ed., The History of the Bench and Bar of Missouri, 124. See also Conard, ed., Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, 322.
[vii] Howard L. Conard, ed., Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, 322.
[viii] Michael K. McGrath, Secretary of State, ed., Official Directory of Missouri, (St. Louis, MO: John J. Stationary & Printing Company, 1885), 134.
[ix] Howard L. Conard, ed. Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, 322, See also: Liberty Tribune, Friday, May 30, 1862, page 3, column 1. Information courtesy of The Missouri Digital Heritage Newspaper Database, Missouri State Archives-Jefferson City, accessed July 2017.
[x] Michael K. McGrath, Secretary of State, ed., Official Directory of Missouri, (St. Louis, MO: John J. Stationary & Printing Company, 1885), 134.
[xi] Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri Vol. XXXV (St. Louis, MO: George Knapp & CO., 1865), iv-v. See also Howard L. Conard, ed., Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, pg. 322.
[xii] Howard L. Conard, ed., Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, 322.
[xiii] Howard L. Conard, ed., Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, 322.
[xiv] Marion County Herald, Friday, December 17, 1886, page 5, column 2. Information courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri-Columbia Newspaper Database, accessed July 2017.
Biographical information authored by Matt Orf, 2017, University of Missouri-Columbia.