The Humphreys family in America - citizen hylbom blog

higliest pilch; and under studies severely pursued, the heahh of young Humphreys gave way, and
he was forced to leave the University. Under the apprehension of a permanent affection of the
liver, he was sent to the South for the recovery of his health. The trip proving beneficial, but
not affecting a radical restoration, his attendance at classical schools was broken and occasional
only. He finished his education in the schools of Montgomery county, having pursued the usual
course of studies, and acquired a respectable knowledge of the Greek, Latin and French languages.
Having access at all times to an extensive and well selected Hbrary in his father's office, he acquired,
in early life, an inveterate habit of reading, and a taste for history, poetry and general literature.
In his nineteenth year, Mr. Humphreys commenced the study of the law in his father's
office. He there pored over the pages of the same copy of Blackstone which had passed through
the hands of Cave Johnson, W. Fitzgerald, N. H. Allen, D. Fentress and others, who have since
occupied positions of distinction at the bar, and in the State and National governments. His
habits of study, like those whilst at college, were severe and injurious to his health, but rather
irregular and discursive, seeking such branches of the law as suited his' taste, rather than evincing
a systematic pursuit of it as a science.
After having spent a year in study at his father's office, where his health was sustained by
the occasional pursuit of game, gun in hand, in the wilds of Yellow Creek, he repaired to the
office of Foster & Fogg, then, as now, distinguished members of the bar at Nashville. He there
continued his studies some four or five months, but not with so much advantage as in the solitudes
of the country. He left Nashville and attended a course of law lectures delivered by Charles
Humphreys in Lexington, Kentucky, and returned to Tennessee, where he obtained a license to
practice law in 1828.
Having resided successively in the towns of Charlotte and Clarksville, and having succeeded
in obtaining a fair share of professional emolument and character, without delay or difficulty, but
finding the practice of the law before his father, then a judge, unpleasant to both, he removed to
Fayette county. He arrived at Somerville, the county seat, in August, 1832, a small village of the
Western division of the State. This division of the State had been purchased of the Indians in
1819, and, in 1832, many of them were still in the counties of the State of Mississippi adjoining
Fayette. The Court House was about fifteen feet square, and was constructed of oak poles. The
bench, which consisted of some loose planks fastened up about four feet above the floor, was
occupied by the late W. B. Turley, subsequently so much distinguished as a Judge of the Supreme
Court. The lawyers and jury were seated on similar erections, and the spectators were looking
through the cracks of this temple of justice. Such was the state of things in 1832, in one of the
counties of the State, now amongst its most wealthy and enlightened, and under such circumstances
was justice ably and impartially administered. Mr. Humphreys formed a partnership with D.
Fentress, Esq., a lawyer of distinction. Being an efficient advocate, and having acquired a habit
of thoroughly investigating the law, and especially the facts of his cases, he soon obtained a lucrative
practice. His style of pleading being earnest and vehement, argumentative and unaffected, he
impressed courts and juries strongly with the vigor of his thoughts and the correctness of his
conclusions. His liberality in regard to pleading (a merit at that time), his courtesy in debate and
his rigid abstinence from all attacks on the motives of opposing lawyers, secured him the esteem
of the great body of his professional brethren. He treated the Court with respect, no matter what
might be his opinion of the course of the Judge. In a few years he acquired a commanding popu-
larity, not merely in the county of his residence, but in other counties wherein he practiced law.
In 1834, Mr. Humphreys was brought forward for the office of delegate to the convention
which had been previously called to revise and amend the constitution of the State. The leading
features in the then existing constitution which created dissatisfaction were the taxation of land by
the acre instead of by value, which operated oppressively and unequally on poorer lands and poorer
counties; and the mode of electing the officers and their term of ofiice. Mr. Humphreys had, in