Arba Seymour Van Valkenburgh

Arba Seymour Van Valkenburgh (1862–1944), was an American jurist who served as a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Arba Seymour Van Valkenburgh was born on a farm near Syracuse, New York on August 22, 1862, the son of Lawrence Van Valkenburgh and Sarah Ann Seymour. After his mother died in 1869, he and his father moved to Michigan, and he attended public schools in Ypsilanti.

Van Valkenburgh then attended the University of Michigan, graduating with an A.B. degree in 1884.

Following graduation, Van Valkenburgh settled in Kansas City, Missouri, where he began reading law in the offices of Dobson, Douglas and Trimble. In 1888 Van Valkenburgh was admitted to the Missouri bar and entered into partnership with Delbert J. Haff, remaining together with Haff for the next decade.

Van Valkenburgh married Grace Elizabeth Ingold (1869–1933), daughter of William A. Ingold (1840–1919) and Frances A. Thirds (1846–1904), on September 25, 1889. Officiating at the ceremony was the Reverend John Emerson Roberts (1853-1942), pastor of All Souls Church, where the wedding occurred. For two years, Mrs. Van Valkenburgh had been the contralto soloist for that church, at that time located on the south side of Tenth Street, just west of Broadway Boulevard, in Kansas City, Missouri.

Arba Van Valkenburgh was appointed as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the western district of Missouri in June 1898.

Van Valkenburgh was appointed U.S. Attorney for that district in 1905, served until 1910.

As District Attorney he was called upon to prosecute the important "packers' rebate cases" involving Armour & Company, Swift & Company, Morris & Company, Cudahy Packing Company, and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in a conspiracy to defeat the tariff regulations of the Elkins Act. Beginning the prosecutions in 1905, he secured convictions in the District Court and affirmations in the Circuit Court of Appeals (153 Fed. 1) and in the U.S. Supreme Court (209 U.S. 56) These were the first cases to be carried through the courts of last resort and it was through them that the Elkins Act was properly interpreted and made effective.

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