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William was born February 28, 1853 in Prussia. His parents emigrated to
Cincinnati when he was two. He ran away from home when he was ten years
old. Peddling newspapers and working on farms, he spent the next seven
years crossing the mid-west. Occasionally, he attended school. At 17 his
hard work impressed Judge Epenetus Sears of Tabor, Iowa, who sent him
to Tabor College. He earned an A.B. in 1873 and, after brief study in
his benefactor's office, was admitted to the Iowa bar. He practiced law
in Tabor, Sidney, and Nebraska City, and finally settled in Des Moines.
There he married Nora Stark on December 23, 1879, became an attorney for
the Wabash Railroad, and was active in politics, being instrumental in
the election of Governor Horace Bois. His railroad practice led him to
St. Louis in 1890. In 1908 he became president of the American Bar Association.
President Taft named Lehmann solicitor general in 1910. During his tenure
he handled cases which established the government's right to tax corporation
incomes. He wrote an opinion which held national bank affiliates to be
in violation of the law. He resigned in 1912 to practice law with his
sons. In 1914, with Joseph Rucker Lamar, he represented the United States
at the conference sponsored by Argentina, Brazil, and Chile to mediate
between the United States and Mexico. His most important cases in the
course of private practice were those establishing the right of the Associated
Press to news as property and securing for the Southwestern Bell Telephone
Company the right to earn upon valuation determined by reproduction cost
less depreciation. In 1918 he was general counsel for the United States
Railway Wage Commission.
Frequently urged to seek office, he always refused, but in 1909 was appointed
chairman of the Board of Freeholders which redrafted the St. Louis charter.
He was characterized by Rabbi Leon Harrison as "the best educated
man in St. Louis." He was a founder of the art museum, president
of the public library, a director of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
of 1904, and active in the Missouri Historical Society. He enjoyed public
speaking, for which he was in frequent demand. His published works included:
John Marshall (1901); The Lawyer in American History (1906);
Abraham Lincoln (1908); Conservatism in Legal Procedure
(1909); Prohibition (1910); and The Law and the Newspaper
(1917).
Frederick Lehmann died September 12, 1931, survived by his wife and three
sons.
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