J. HENRY CARUTHERS 1913

HISTORY OF THE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

J. HENRY CARUTHERS
1913 - 1920

J. Henry Caruthers, the eleventh prosecuting attorney, was born in Perry County on September 11, 1879. He was educated at Southeast Missouri Normal School and taught in the public schools of Perry and Bollinger counties. He moved to Cape Girardeau and established the Missouri Mattress and Glove Manufacturing Company and took up the study of law in the office of Kelso and Miller. Admitted to the bar in 1910, he served four terms as prosecuting attorney. In 1921 he was appointed assistant attorney general, serving until 1926, when he entered private practice in St. Louis. In 1934 he was appointed United States Commissioner for the Eastern District of Missouri, resigning in 1940. He was elected Cape Girardeau Common Pleas Judge in 1940 and served 15 years, longer than any of his predecessors. In 1944 he wrote the book History of Cape Girardeau Court of Common Pleas. He died December 7, 1955.