Home County: Bates
Term of Service at the Supreme Court of Missouri: April 1906 – June 1928
Judge Waller Washington Graves was born December 17, 1860, in Lafayette County, Missouri. He was educated in Lafayette County public schools and then attended the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri.
In 1880, Graves moved to Bates County. He read law in Butler, Missouri, with Judge J. D. Parkinson, at the law firm of Parkinson and Abernathy. Graves was admitted to practice law in 1885 by the circuit court in Butler, Missouri, by Judge James B. Gantt (with whom Graves later would serve on Supreme Court of Missouri). Graves then went into practice with Parkinson and, from 1890 to 1892, served as the city attorney for Butler. In 1893, when Parkinson moved to Kansas City, Graves formed a new practice with Harvey C. Clark called Graves & Clark.
In November 1898, voters elected as a judge of what was then Missouri’s Twenty-Ninth Judicial Circuit (consisting of Bates, Benton, Henry and St. Clair counties). After completing a six-year term, Graves resumed private practice.
In March 1906, then-Governor Joseph W. Folk appointed Graves to the Supreme Court of Missouri, contingent on the April 1, 1906, resignation of another judge, Judge William Champe Marshall. On April 10, 1906, Graves took the oath of office, administered by the clerk of the Court. Voters elected Graves to the Supreme Court of Missouri in November 1906 for a two-year term and reelected him for 10-year terms in 1908 and 1918.
Graves served twice as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri, from November 11, 1916, to June 5, 1918, and again from April 24, 1924, to October 1, 1925.
Judge Waller Washington Graves died June 17, 1928, while still serving as a judge of the Court, in Jefferson City, Missouri. He was 67 years old.
Biographical information by Dylan Powers-Cody, 2024, Truman State University.
Sources used (a copy of each is on file at the Supreme Court of Missouri Law Library):
Charles U. Becker, compiler, Charles U. Becker, Secretary of State, State of Missouri, Official Manual For Years Nineteen Twenty-one and Nineteen Twenty-two, (Jefferson City, MO: the Hugh Stephens Co., 1922), 87.
Charles U. Becker, compiler, Charles U. Becker, Secretary of State, Official Manual of the State of Missouri, For the Years 1925-1926, (Jefferson City, MO: The Hugh Stephens Press, 1926), 122.
Charles U. Becker, compiler, Charles U. Becker, Secretary of State, State of Missouri Official Manual, For Years Nineteen Twenty-Seven and Nineteen Twenty-Eight, (Jefferson City, MO: The Hugh Stephens Press, 1928), 119.
“For Supreme Judge, Judge Waller W. Graves,” The Hayti Herald, (Hayti, Missouri), September 19, 1918, SHSMO Digital Newspaper Project, information courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri website, accessed April 19, 2024.
John E. Swanger, compiler, John E. Swanger, Secretary of State, Official Manual of the State of Missouri, For the Years 1907-1908, (Jefferson City, MO: The Hugh Stephens Printing Company, 1908), 62.
“Judge Graves Takes Oath,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, (St. Louis, Missouri), April 10, 1906, SHSMO Digital Newspaper Project, information courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri website, accessed April 19, 2024.
“Missouri Briefs,” The Osborn Enterprise, (Osborn, Missouri), March 29, 1906, SHSMO Digital Newspaper Project, information courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri website, accessed April 19, 2024.
Perry S. Rader, reporter, Reports of Cases Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, Between April 20, 1906 and June 1, 1906, (Columbia, MO: E.W. Stephens, Publisher, 1906), iii.
Perry S. Rader, reporter, Reports of the Cases Determined by the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, Between July 3, 1916, and February 2, 1917, vol. 269, (Columbia, MO: E. W. Stephens Publisher, 1917), iii.
Perry S. Rader, reporter, Reports of the Cases Determined by the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, Between March 29, 1918, and June 13, 1918, vol. 274, (Columbia, MO: E. W. Stephens Publishing Company, 1918), iii.
Perry S. Rader, reporter, Reports of the Cases Determined by the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, Between March 4, 1924, and June 5, 1924, vol. 303, (Columbia, MO: E. W. Stephens Publishing Company, 1924), iii.
Perry S. Rader, reporter, Reports of the Cases Determined by the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, Between October 9, 1925, and December 22, 1925, vol. 311, (Columbia, MO: E. W. Stephens Publisher, 1926), iii.
Sam B. Cook, compiler, Sam B. Cook, Secretary of State, Official Manual of the State of Missouri For the Years 1903-1904, (Jefferson City, MO: Tribune Printing Company, State Printers and Binders, 1904), 575.
“Telling What it Cost ‘Em, Officials File Statements of Campaign Expenses,” Kansas City Journal, (Kansas City, Missouri), November 20, 1906, SHSMO Digital Newspaper Project, information courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri website, accessed April 19, 2024.
The Windsor Review, (Windsor, Missouri), November 10, 1898, SHSMO Digital Newspaper Project, information courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri website, accessed April 19, 2024.
“To Be Supreme Judge, Judge W.W. Graves Appointed By Gov. Joseph W. Folk,” The Henry County Republican, (Clinton, Missouri), March 22, 1906, SHSMO Digital Newspaper Project, information courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri website, accessed April 19, 2024.
“Waller W. Graves,” Missouri State Board of Health, Certificate of Death, filed June 20, 1928, Missouri Death Certificates Database, 1910-1973, information courtesy of Missouri Death Certificates Database, Missouri Digital Heritage website, Missouri State Archives, accessed April 19, 2024.
William Oscar Atkeson, The History of Bates County, (Topeka, Kansas: Historical Publishing Company, 1918), 784, information courtesy of Google Books, accessed April 19, 2024.