Judge Frederick A. Boxley, 32°
(Dec 12, 1877-Sep 3, 1936)

Member, South Gate #547

1932 - 32° Consistory of Western MO, Kansas City

Occupation: Attorney, Judge, County Counselor
Recommended: T.L. Luzier, T.M. Pratt, A.D. Hurd
Interred: Mt Moriah Cemetery, Kansas City, MO

Brother Frederick Anselm SBoxley was born in Butler, Missouri on December 12, 1877. He attended public schools of Butler and graduated from Butler Academy, a private Presbyterian college there in 1897. In 1898, he enlisted as a private in Company B, 2nd Regiment of the Missouri Volunteers. He was made a corporal and clerked under General Sanger at Chickamauga Park, Georgia. He later transfered with his company to Albany, Georgia where he remained until the end of the war. Upon his return to his home in about January 1898 he remained an assistant to his father, a lawyer, and also for the Bates County National Bank in Butler and borrowed sufficient money to attend the University of Missouri in Columbia in the Fall of that year. He was a military cadet at the university and also coached a football team at a Columbia preparatory school. His coursework included higher Latin, logic and psychology under Dr. Thilly. Not being able to complete his schooling he did not return in 1900 but took a course in shorthand and moved to Kansas City, Missouri that year applying for work at American National Bank and was recommended for employment with Morphis, Price and Price of Oklahoma to audit their accounts with the Osage Indians. Completing that work he found himself in Denver in 1900 with little capital. He secured a job as a collector and stenographer until his return to Kansas City in 1901 where he attended the Kansas City School of Law being admitted to the bar by Judge W.W. Graves of Butler before he completed law school in 1903. In 1906 he began practice by himself, moving into his own office in the Commerce Building in 1908.

He helped organize the Light Battery B.N.G.M and served as a first lieutenant under George R. Collins. The company furnished 165 officers to the U.S. Army in WWI.

He was twice selected as commissioner by the Supreme Court of Missouri in cases before that court. One such case involved the demand by Kansas City police commissioners for a larger appropriation for police purposes for which his recommendation was accepted by the court.

After the close of WWI he helped organize the Soldiers Loan Bureau of Kansas City to provide loans to returning soldiers until they became settled. This board was liberally patronized and provided much needed aid to returning war veterans.

At various times Brother Boxley served as a circuit judge, probate judge, master and and referee in federal court. In 1927 his old friend Harry S. Truman was elected presiding judge of the Jackson County Court and Brother Boxley was offered the office of County Counselor despite Brother Boxley belonging to the faction of the Democratic party at war with the faction Judge Truman belonged to. Brother Boxley espoused high affection for Judge Truman reminiscent of that he displayed for Judge W.W. Graves. Brother Boxley was an intense believer in the Republican form of government and believed that the only threat to the stability of that form of government was the corruption of office holders.

Ill health had caused Brother Boxley to retire from work about a year prior to his death. His plan to return to his work was not realized. This account was derived from an obituary derived from autobiographical notes discovered in Brother Boxley's desk.