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Uriah Milton Rose (March 5, 1834 – August 12, 1913) was an American lawyer. "Approachable, affable, and kind," he was called "the most scholarly lawyer in America" and "one of the leading legal lights of the nation", "a towering figure in the...life of Little Rock". He was a founder of the American Bar Association, of which he was twice president. President Theodore Roosevelt called him "the brainiest man I have ever met."

Childhood

Rose was born in Bradfordsville, Kentucky, on March 5, 1834, son of Joseph and Nancy Rose. His father was a physician. "He was his parents' third son and had two half-siblings from his father's first marriage to a Miss Armstrong from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania." Rose was studying Latin at age 5 and received an excellent education until his mother died in 1848 and his father in 1849. Since his father's estate was worth less than his debts, "the children were thrown out". "Rose found work in the village store, where he also slept." He also worked on a farm.

When Rose was 17, lawyer R.H. Roundtree hired him as a deputy county clerk while he studied law at night at Transylvania University, in Lexington, Kentucky. "When Judge Rose, no more than a youth, presented himself for admission to the school, he impressed Justice Robertson so much with his earnestness and apparent willingness to learn, that Justice Robertson took him to live at his own splendid mansion. It was while at Justice Robertson's home that Judge Rose met Henry Clay, Webster, and many other of the prominent men of the time."

On October 25, 1853, Rose married Margaret T. Gibbs, daughter of William Gibbs, who was a grandson of George Washington's aide and bodyguard Caleb Gibbs.

Career

After graduating in 1853, in search of warmer weather, Rose, his wife, and his brother-in-law William T. Gibbs moved to Batesville, Arkansas in 1853. He set up a law practice there in partnership with Gibbs. The Roses had three children. Rose subsequently moved his practice to Washington, Arkansas.

In 1860 he was appointed chancellor (chancery judge and chief county officer) of Pulaski County; "county judges in Arkansas have served for decades as one of the strongest political forces in the state." "The chancellor's office was the only such office in the state and thus had statewide jurisdiction." He held this position until Union forces captured the state capital on September 1, 1863. Although he opposed secession, he remained loyal to Arkansas throughout the Civil War.

Moving to Little Rock in 1865, where he and his wife had four additional children, he set up a partnership, later to become the Rose Law Firm, with George C. Watkins, former chief justice of Arkansas.

Two years later Rose published the Digest of the Arkansas Reports. A man of learning in the law, science, and literature, Rose could read German and speak French fluently, and was "deeply versed in the classics"; he was also a noted public speaker. His library contained over 8,000 volumes in various languages; there are two published catalogues of it. In 1891 he published The Constitution of the State of Arkansas, with notes. He was an influential member of the Arkansas Bar Association, serving as its president from 1899 to 1900; he was a charter member of the American Bar Association and its president from 1891 to 1892 and again 1901 to 1902. (temporary: https://www.newspapers.com/image/309571895/?terms=uriah%2Bm.%2Brose) President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him U.S. ambassador to the Second Peace Conference at The Hague in 1907. In preparation for that responsibility he spent time in Washington, D.C., where he was "a daily caller at White House".

Rose died at his home at 620 West 3rd St., Little Rock, Arkansas, on August 12, 1913, as a consequence of a fall. "The funeral was attended perhaps by the largest number ever gathered on a similar occasion." State offices were closed by the governor so employees could attend the funeral.

He and his wife had 9 children who survived to adulthood: his partner George B. Rose, John M. Rose, William Rose of Independence, Missouri, Janata Rose Dickinson of Little Rock, Ellen Rose Gibbon or Gibbons of Los Angeles, Emma Rose Coleman, Charles C. Rose of Little Rock, Leah Thompson Rose, Prof. Louis Rose of the University of Arkansas and of Chicago, and Mrs. (Jessie Rose) Hay Watson Smith of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Little Rock. His son George was "known and honored not only as a most successful lawyer, but as a litterateur, art critic and scholar." His grandson U.M. Rose was president of the New Mexico Bar Association.

Legacy

Rose was the only delegate from Arkansas among the 75 lawyers who formed the American Bar Association in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1872. He was president from 1891 to 1892 and again from 1901 to 1902.

In 1882, at his suggestion, 68 lawyers from across the state formed the Arkansas State Bar Association. "Rose was elected chairman of the association's first executive committee and, between 1898 and 1899, served as president."

In 1916, a new U.M. Rose School was opened at 13th and State Streets in Little Rock. It became a central building of Little Rock Junior College when that institution was founded in 1927; when the Junior College became the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and moved to a larger campus, the former campus was used by Philander Smith College, where the building is currently (2019) the James M. Cox Administration Building.

In 1917, the state of Arkansas donated a marble statue of Rose to the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection. In 2019 the decision was made to replace his statue, and that of James Paul Clarke, with statues of Johnny Cash and Daisy Lee Gatson Bates. In the case of Rose, the reason stated is that despite his opposition to secession, "he sided with the Confederacy". (His wife was locally active in the Daughters of the Confederacy.)

In 1944, a United States Liberty ship named the SS Uriah M. Rose was launched. She was scrapped in 1972.

Published writings

• Rose, U.M. (1891). The Constitution of the State of Arkansas : framed and adopted by the convention which assembled at Little Rock, July 14, 1874, and ratified by the people of the state at the election held October 13th, 1874, with an appendix, containing the Constitution of the United States, and the constitutions of Arkansas of 1836, 1861, 1864 and 1868; with notes by U.M. Rose. Little Rock.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Rose, U.M. (March 13, 1904). "Anti-Third Term Rule Is Firmly Established in Our Government". Arkansas Democrat. p. 15.
• Template:Cite article
• Rose, U.M.; Rose, George B. (1914). Addresses of U.M. Rose : with a brief memoir. Chicago: G.I. Jones.

References

1. ^ "A Tribute to Uriah M. Rose---The Lawyer". Arkansas Democrat. August 13, 1913. p. 6.
2. Template:Cite article
3. "Judge Rose's Record". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. June 12, 1907. p. 4.
4. ^ "Fall from Chair Proves Fatal to Judge U. M. Rose (conslusion)". Arkansas Democrat. August 12, 1913. p. 5.
5. ^ Bird II, Allen W. (2019). "Uriah Milton Rose (1834–1913)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Central Arkansas Library System. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
6. ^ "Fiftieth Anniversary". Arkansas Democrat. October 28, 1903. p. 3.
7. Goss, Kay C. (2018). "County Judge, Office of". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Central Arkansas Library System. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
8. Catalogue of miscellaneous books in the library of U.M. Rose. Little Rock. 1880.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
9. Catalogue of library of U.M. Rose. Little Rock. 1895.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
10. "U.M.Rose Daily Caller at White House". Daily Arkansas Gazette. February 28, 1906. p. 7.
11. "Judge U. M. Rose Is Slightly Injured By Falling from a Chair". Arkansas Democrat. June 18, 1913. p. 1.
12. "Rose Funeral Thursday P.M." Arkansas Democrat. August 13, 1913. p. 2.
13. "Judge U. M. Rose, After Simple Rites, Buried in Oakland Cemetery". Daily Arkansas Gazette. August 15, 1913. p. 9.
14. "Capitol Offices Closed". Daily Arkansas Gazette. August 15, 1913. p. 8.
15. "Two Big Law Firms United". Arkansas Democrat. October 5, 1905. p. 7.
16. "Ex-Bar Assn. President Rose Dies in Hobbs". Albuquerque Journal. November 13, 1978. p. 36.
17. "New U. M. Rose School Building Dedicated". Arkansas Democrat. January 8, 1916. p. 2.
18. Peters, Ben (April 17, 2019). "Johnny Cash is replacing one of the Capitol's Civil War statues". Roll Call.
19. Itkowitz, Colby (April 17, 2019). "Johnny Cash to replace Confederate statue on Capitol Hill". Washington Post.
20. "Choice of Little Rock Memorial Chapter for the Battle Abbey". Daily Arkansas Gazette. June 26, 1896. p. 8.
21. "Delegates Have Been Named". Arkansas Democrat. May 1, 1900. p. 2.
22. "U.D.C." Arkansas Democrat. June 5, 1904. p. 5.
23. "Social and Personal". Arkansas Democrat. January 5, 1905. p. 5.
24. "Memorial Chapter, U.D.C." Arkansas Democrat. December 7, 1912. p. 14.

External links

• U.S. Capitol biography of Uriah Rose

• 1834 births
• 1913 deaths
• Lawyers from Little Rock, Arkansas
• People of Arkansas in the American Civil War
• Delegates to the Hague Peace Conferences
• Transylvania University alumni