STAFF, Frederick S.

DEATH OF F. S. STAFF.

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It Occurred Monday Morning at
Eight O’clock.

Frederick S. Staff died at his home on East Madison street Monday morning at eight o’clock. His death resulted from a complication of dis­eases, he having been confined to his home for the past nine months.

Mr. Staff was born in Henry county in 1845. He was a student in Earlham college and graduated from the law department in Ann Arbor, Mich. He engaged in the practice of law in Little Rock, Ark., when he met Miss Anna Dodge, to whom he was married April 21st, 1875. Shortly afterwards he formed a partnership with Luther Short for the practice of law. In 1879 Mr. Short took charge of the Democrat and the firm dissolved. Later Mr. Staff formed a partnership with P. M. Dill. In 1882 he was elected prosecuting attorney of this district. His wife and five children survive him. His suffering during his illness was great but during it all he was patient and cheerful.

The members of the Johnson county bar met Tuesday and took the following action, relative to the death of a former member, F. S. Staff. G. M. Overstreet was selected president and R. M. Miller secretary.

Judge Buckingham reported that in pursuance of a request made at a for­mer meeting of this bar, he saw Mrs. Staff and that it would meet with her hearty approval if this bar would attend the funeral as a body and appoint such of its members active pall bearers as it might choose.
Thereupon it was resolved:

That this bar attend the funeral as a body and that Judge Buckingham and Messrs. W. A. Johnson, H. O. Barnett, E. F. Barker, W. T. Pritchard, E. F. White, M. L. Herbert and Jesse Overstreet server as active pall bearers and the remaining member of the bar as honorary pall bearers.

A committee consisting of Messrs. S. P. Oyler, R. M. Miller and Judge Buckingham was appointed to draft suitable resolutions commemorative of the life and death of Mr. Staff.

It was appointed that this bar meet at the law office of Overstreet & Ov­erstreet at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb 6, and proceed there upon in a body to the funeral.

All the officers of the court were requested to meet with the bar and attend the funeral.

The clerk of the court was instructed to notify Mrs. Staff of the action taken by the bar.

Following are the resolutions adopted by the bar.
To the Members of the Bar of    Johnson County:

Your committee to whom was referred the drafting of resolutions upon the decease of Frederic S. Staff, who departed this life Feb. 4 1895, submit the following preamble and resolutions:

WHERAS, In the providence of God, our co-laborer, Frederic S. Staff, has been called from our midst to the “rest beyond,” after a long season of suf­fering, well and patiently borne, we deem it right and proper for the court, the bar and its officers, with whom he has been associated for twenty years, to place upon the records of the court a slight memorial of our recollections of his association with us during that term, of our appreciation of his worth, of our loss by his demise and of our sympathy with his family and friends.

Therefore be it Resolved, That in our association of twenty years with our departed brother, we have learned to respect him as a lawyer of ability, an advocate of skill in his profession, well practiced in the knowledge of the law, courteous and dignified in its practice.

Second, That we shall in the future as we have in the past year of his absence from the court room (caused by sickness) missed his clarion voice as it rang out in support or defense of his clients, and his earnest, energetic efforts in the causes in which he engaged in this forum, his courtesy to those by whom he was opposed and his faithful service to those immediately associated with him.

Third, That we recognize that as a citizen, our friend and brother faithfully and fully performed all of his civic duties, that he was true to his con­victions of right, as he understood them, patriotic in his love of country, a kind husband and father, a warm friend and a pleasant, cheerful companion.

Fourth, That we tender to his bereaved wife and fatherless children, our cordial and earnest sympathy with them in their great loss and we promise them that we will keep greenly in our memories, the memory of the departed one.

Fifth, That in the decease of brother Staff in the prime of life at an age of vigorous manhood, in the full tide of his usefulness, we catch the note of warning that we, too, are passing away, that some of us has a certain hold on this life, that sooner or later we must give up that hold and pass to the great beyond whence no traveler returns.

Sixth, That we request the court to order spread upon the records of the court, this preamble and resolutions and that the clerk of the court be instructed to furnish a copy of the same to Mrs. Ann D. Staff, the widow of our de­parted brother.

S. P. OYLER. 
W. J. BUCKINGHAM. 
R. M. MILLER. 

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Link to Frederick S. Staff’s grave

Submitted by Mark McCrady, Cathea Curry and Lois Johnson