Background
Smith McPherson was the son of Oliver H. and Polly (Matthews) McPherson. He was born on February 14, 1848, and was reared on a farm near Mooresville, Indiana.
Smith McPherson was the son of Oliver H. and Polly (Matthews) McPherson. He was born on February 14, 1848, and was reared on a farm near Mooresville, Indiana.
Having completed his academic training at the Mooresville academy, McPherson entered the law department at the State University of Iowa in September 1869 and graduated the following June.
During the summer of 1870, McPherson worked at Council Bluffs in the law office of his uncle, M. L. McPherson, of whom he many years later wrote a biographical sketch. In November, he moved to Redoak, Iowa, where he lived the rest of his life. Beneath his brusque manner was a genial disposition and a sympathetic attitude that attracted many clients and made lifelong friends. Gov. C. C. Carpenter appointed him, in August 1874, to fill a vacancy as prosecuting attorney for the third judicial district.
A year later, he was elected to the same office and was re-elected in 1878 for a full term of four years. Probably the most important episode during his two terms in office, from 1881 to 1885, was the trial of the case of Koehler & Lange vs.
Hill testing the validity of an amendment to the state constitution prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor. In spite of his well-reasoned argument before the Supreme Court that the amendment had been adopted in the proper manner and by two successive General Assemblies in substantially identical form, the court decided in favor of the contrary view.
Between 1885 and 1900, he established a reputation as an eloquent and aggressive advocate whose services were in great demand, particularly by corporations. Like other successful and conservative lawyers who lived on the Burlington "reservation" in southern Iowa, he was retained as attorney for the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railroad.
In 1898, he was nominated for Congress on the 619th ballot after a deadlock that lasted four days. Elected by a majority of nearly 4, 000 votes, he found his duties in Congress to be "altogether the most unsatisfactory work in which a public man could engage". Consequently, when President McKinley offered to appoint him to judge for the southern district of Iowa he accepted with alacrity, though he did not resign from Congress until the end of the first session.
During the fifteen years, he was on the federal bench, the business of the court increased enormously, particularly in the number of criminal cases, but he had a faculty for expediting procedure and kept his docket fairly clear. His decisions were always influenced by his innate conservatism. He ruled that the Iowa sterilization law as it applied to habitual criminals was unconstitutional.
While he was holding court in Missouri, he enjoined the state of Missouri from enforcing maximum freight and passenger rates on the ground that they were confiscatory. On appeal, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that the Missouri maximum rates were not confiscatory on the basis of assessed valuation of the railroads and reversed the decrees.
Meanwhile, popular resentment against the judicial frustration of statutory rate regulation found expression in a resolution introduced in Congress by Arthur P. Murphy of Missouri calling for an investigation of the official conduct of Judge McPherson. The charges proved to be unfounded, however, and no further action was taken.
McPherson served on the bench until his death in Red Oak on January 17, 1915. He was interred in Evergreen Cemetery.
McPherson was married to Frances H. Boyer of Oskaloosa, on October 2, 1879. They had no children.
22 December 1820 - 14 October 1899
6 October 1824 - November 1911
15 August 1863 - 20 August 1902
December 1843 - 1910
21 January 1846 - 28 January 1924
1860 - 1924
1853 - 1938
25 December 1857 - 5 August 1948
