Senator Alfred L. McCawley, veteran attorney, legislator and political leader.
When he was a young boy, an injury compelled him to use crutches for several years and prevented his participation in the games in which physically normal boys engage, A. L. McCawley went to work at the age of nine in a small town printing office, thus launching a career which was to take him to the heights of Missouri political achievements, to renown in several other fields and a place of honor in Who's Who.
Born May 16, 1876 in Trigg county, Kentucky, he was the great-grandson of one of those pioneer Americans who came from Virginia to settle western Kentucky and Tennessee. His father was a physician and inventor who won wide respect in Kentucky.
Upon the death of the owner of the printing office where he first obtained employment and the removal of that office to another town, young McCawley set out from home before he was 13 to make his own way. Obtaining work in a printing office some 40 miles from home, he found his attenance at school had to be limited in a few hours a week subscription school. There he paid his tuition cutting wood, kindling fires and sweeping out the school building. After printing hours, he studied the textbooks prescribed by law as the common school course of study.
In 1896, Senator McCawley temporarily left the printing trade and found employment hoeing strawberries in the Sarcoxie, Missouri fields. Later, he worked with a harvesting crew following a threshing machine over southwest Missouri.
Eventually, McCawley returned to the printing trade and became composing room foreman for THE PRESS and later for the old CARTHAGE DEMOCRAT, which then was owned by Cornelius Roach, who became Missouri's secretary of state.
From Roach he bought a dictionary for $9, paying for it at the rate of 50 cents per week out of his $8-per-week wages.
June 2, 1896, he was married at Sarcoxie, Missouri to Miss Mamie McGee, also a native of Kentucky, and the following October they moved to Carthage, maintaining a home there. Mrs. McCawley died November 12, 1964.
In 1899, the youthful printer started up the study of law, winning admittance to the bar in April 1900. From 1911 to 1917 he served in the state corporation department as assistant superintendent of corporations and in 1922 he was elected to the state senate from Jasper county. Re-elected to the senate in 1926, he sought the Democratic nomination for governor in 1928 but lost in the primary to Francis M. Wilson, who in turn lost the general election contest to Henry S. Caufield.
Besides devoting much of his time to the origination of various business enterprises, McCawley held as senator the chairmanship of the committee on mines and mining and served on the roads, criminal jurisprudence, municipla corporations and other important committees. he was a member of the committee which in 1923 investigated the state auditor's office andother state departments, member of the committee which in 1925 investigated the state banking department and member in 1927 of a committee which investigated the state penitentiary.
Among measures he supported were the McCawley dry law of 1923, laws against misbranding and adulterating dairy products, agricultural legislation urged by the organized farmers of the state and the law which gave women equal representation on political committees. He was a joint aurthor of the farm-to-market road law and author of a bill regulating motor bus traffic on the state's highways.
Completing his second term in the state senate in 1929, he was elected in 1932 as state representative from the Eastern district of Jasper county, in which post he served one term.
In 1962, when he retired from the post of counsel for the State Board of Registration for Architects and Professional Engineers, after serving 20 years, The Construction Advisor, organ of the Associated Contractor of Missouri, reported:
"Mr. McCawley is well-known to engineers throughout the state of Missouri, as he drafted and secured passage of the professional engineering registration law. Senator McCawley had a long and active career, not only in the field of engineering but in the development of Missouri's roads and highways program. . . For his work in connection with the architectural and engineering registration law he has received distinguished awards from many engineering organizations.
He was nationally recognized in the development of state law with regard to qualification and licensure of architects and engineers.
"In 1954, he authored a compendium of professional engineering registration laws as a service to the profession and this publication has had wide circulation in the United States and abroad."
At that time, the senator entered into private practice of his profession with offices at 225 Madison, Jefferson City.
Upon retirement from the legislature, he saw the increasing importance of highway development to meet the needs of the growing mechanization of Missouri society. He obtained a Congressional permit and promoted construction of the Clark bridge over the Mississippi River at Alton, Illinois, and the Lewis bridge at Fort Bellefountain, both of which were completed in 1928.
In 1955, Senator McCawley was honored on the 55th anniversary of his admission to the bar by a unanimous resolution of respect issued by the state senate. The resolution was introduced by then State Senator and later U. S. Senator Edward V. Long.
The resolution noted the senator was one of the organizer and charter members of the Jefferson City Rotary club and recognized as a major authority on the history and traditions of Missouri.
In 1963, Senator McCawley was the subject of a feature article in the Columbia Missourian, which credited him as the "grand-daddy of all Missouri lobbyists" and observed that many referred to him in admiration as "the author of the Missouri statutes."
It was noted, "Other lobbyists remember McCawley as the man who built more bridges than any man in the history of Missouri." Numerous other awards were accorded him during his long years of public service.
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Item of interest from the Carthage Press Weekly Thursday, June 7, 1934

Three Families in Move
Mr. and Mrs. A. L. McCawley moved yesterday to their property at 304 West Macon street and Mr. and Mrs.W. E. Loehr, who recently sold their home at 901 South Maple street have moved to the McCawley dwelling at 501 West Central Avenue. The Loehr home on South Maple street was acquired about a month ago by the First Baptist Church as a parsonage and the Rev. and Mrs. A. A. DuLaney moved yesterday into their new home from 113 South Maple street.

Senator Alfred L. McCawley, veteran attorney, legislator and political leader.
When he was a young boy, an injury compelled him to use crutches for several years and prevented his participation in the games in which physically normal boys engage, A. L. McCawley went to work at the age of nine in a small town printing office, thus launching a career which was to take him to the heights of Missouri political achievements, to renown in several other fields and a place of honor in Who's Who.
Born May 16, 1876 in Trigg county, Kentucky, he was the great-grandson of one of those pioneer Americans who came from Virginia to settle western Kentucky and Tennessee. His father was a physician and inventor who won wide respect in Kentucky.
Upon the death of the owner of the printing office where he first obtained employment and the removal of that office to another town, young McCawley set out from home before he was 13 to make his own way. Obtaining work in a printing office some 40 miles from home, he found his attenance at school had to be limited in a few hours a week subscription school. There he paid his tuition cutting wood, kindling fires and sweeping out the school building. After printing hours, he studied the textbooks prescribed by law as the common school course of study.
In 1896, Senator McCawley temporarily left the printing trade and found employment hoeing strawberries in the Sarcoxie, Missouri fields. Later, he worked with a harvesting crew following a threshing machine over southwest Missouri.
Eventually, McCawley returned to the printing trade and became composing room foreman for THE PRESS and later for the old CARTHAGE DEMOCRAT, which then was owned by Cornelius Roach, who became Missouri's secretary of state.
From Roach he bought a dictionary for $9, paying for it at the rate of 50 cents per week out of his $8-per-week wages.
June 2, 1896, he was married at Sarcoxie, Missouri to Miss Mamie McGee, also a native of Kentucky, and the following October they moved to Carthage, maintaining a home there. Mrs. McCawley died November 12, 1964.
In 1899, the youthful printer started up the study of law, winning admittance to the bar in April 1900. From 1911 to 1917 he served in the state corporation department as assistant superintendent of corporations and in 1922 he was elected to the state senate from Jasper county. Re-elected to the senate in 1926, he sought the Democratic nomination for governor in 1928 but lost in the primary to Francis M. Wilson, who in turn lost the general election contest to Henry S. Caufield.
Besides devoting much of his time to the origination of various business enterprises, McCawley held as senator the chairmanship of the committee on mines and mining and served on the roads, criminal jurisprudence, municipla corporations and other important committees. he was a member of the committee which in 1923 investigated the state auditor's office andother state departments, member of the committee which in 1925 investigated the state banking department and member in 1927 of a committee which investigated the state penitentiary.
Among measures he supported were the McCawley dry law of 1923, laws against misbranding and adulterating dairy products, agricultural legislation urged by the organized farmers of the state and the law which gave women equal representation on political committees. He was a joint aurthor of the farm-to-market road law and author of a bill regulating motor bus traffic on the state's highways.
Completing his second term in the state senate in 1929, he was elected in 1932 as state representative from the Eastern district of Jasper county, in which post he served one term.
In 1962, when he retired from the post of counsel for the State Board of Registration for Architects and Professional Engineers, after serving 20 years, The Construction Advisor, organ of the Associated Contractor of Missouri, reported:
"Mr. McCawley is well-known to engineers throughout the state of Missouri, as he drafted and secured passage of the professional engineering registration law. Senator McCawley had a long and active career, not only in the field of engineering but in the development of Missouri's roads and highways program. . . For his work in connection with the architectural and engineering registration law he has received distinguished awards from many engineering organizations.
He was nationally recognized in the development of state law with regard to qualification and licensure of architects and engineers.
"In 1954, he authored a compendium of professional engineering registration laws as a service to the profession and this publication has had wide circulation in the United States and abroad."
At that time, the senator entered into private practice of his profession with offices at 225 Madison, Jefferson City.
Upon retirement from the legislature, he saw the increasing importance of highway development to meet the needs of the growing mechanization of Missouri society. He obtained a Congressional permit and promoted construction of the Clark bridge over the Mississippi River at Alton, Illinois, and the Lewis bridge at Fort Bellefountain, both of which were completed in 1928.
In 1955, Senator McCawley was honored on the 55th anniversary of his admission to the bar by a unanimous resolution of respect issued by the state senate. The resolution was introduced by then State Senator and later U. S. Senator Edward V. Long.
The resolution noted the senator was one of the organizer and charter members of the Jefferson City Rotary club and recognized as a major authority on the history and traditions of Missouri.
In 1963, Senator McCawley was the subject of a feature article in the Columbia Missourian, which credited him as the "grand-daddy of all Missouri lobbyists" and observed that many referred to him in admiration as "the author of the Missouri statutes."
It was noted, "Other lobbyists remember McCawley as the man who built more bridges than any man in the history of Missouri." Numerous other awards were accorded him during his long years of public service.
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Item of interest from the Carthage Press Weekly Thursday, June 7, 1934

Three Families in Move
Mr. and Mrs. A. L. McCawley moved yesterday to their property at 304 West Macon street and Mr. and Mrs.W. E. Loehr, who recently sold their home at 901 South Maple street have moved to the McCawley dwelling at 501 West Central Avenue. The Loehr home on South Maple street was acquired about a month ago by the First Baptist Church as a parsonage and the Rev. and Mrs. A. A. DuLaney moved yesterday into their new home from 113 South Maple street.