USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The old court house : reminiscences and anecdotes of the courts and bar of Cincinnati > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31
على
Gc 977.102 C490 1890374
M. L
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
DEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02279 6574
١٠٠٠٠
A the arter.
THE
OLD COURT HOUSE:
REMINISCENCES AND ANECDOTES
-OF THE -
COURTS AND BAR OF CINCINNATI.
The Courts and Bar, where-in-justice was done! Ha! Ha ! -Lawyer.
Do not your juries give their verdict As if they felt the cause-not heard it ?
Besides, encounters at the bar Were braver then than those in war. Others believe no voice t' an organ So sweet as lawyer's in his bar gown. -Hudibras. Change places, and handy-dandy, which is the justice-which is the thicf ? -Shakespere.
TER, IND.
By JUDGE CARTER.
CINCINNATI : PETER G. THOMSON, PUBLISHER. ISSO.
1
COPYRIGHT, 1880. PETER G. THOMSON.
1890374
edication.
30012
To my fellow lawyers and to my fellow-citizens, these brief, facetious pages are respectfully dedicated, and most earnestly devoted,-for their pleasure, at their leisure. And I am theirs, truly,
The Luthor.
Cincinnati, May 1st, 1880.
1
PREFACE.
This book is, as it is-without profession or preten- sion. Its purpose is full, and fulfilled in showing mostly the sunny, or funny side of the old court house-only this, and nothing more.
Cincinnati, May Ist, 1880.
THE AUTHOR.
5
EISBROUT.SC
THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
REMINISCENCES AND ANECDOTES.
" We will revive those times, and in our memories Preserve and still keep fresh, like flowers in water, Those happier days."
THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
It is our duty, perhaps, as it is certainly our pleasure, to give a brief description of the old court house, in which, and about and around which, so many of our recollections cluster, and so many of the incidents, which we are about to relate, occurred. It was completed in its erection and building at the close of the year 1819, several years having elapsed from its commencement ; and it was then occupied by the Bench and the Bar-the chief subjects of our stories. It was situated, itself and appurtenances, on a circular plat of ground about two hundred feet in diameter-just where our present modern court house stands. It was a substan- tial and spacious structure, about sixty-two feet in length, east and west, and fifty-six feet in breadth north and south, and elevated to the cornice, fifty feet, to the summit of the dome or cupola on the center of the uprising, four-sided roof, one hundred and twenty feet, and to the top of the spire, one hundred and sixty feet. It contained two fire- proof rooms in which the clerk of the Court of Common Pleas and the Supreme Court, and the Recorder of Deeds kept their offices. On the first floor over the basement was a large, spacious and commodious court room, finished and furnished in a style of much neatness and even elegance
8
THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
for days of yore. This great room extended the whole length of the building, and was near thirty feet in width. On the north side of the court room, before large windows, was the large elevated bench for the judges, and here the presiding judge and his three associates sat, and judged, and administered justice according to the law. Immedi- ately before the bench, was the lawyers' long table, and at each end, was the clerk's and the sheriff's places, or desks. The place for the lawyers, or bar of the court room was separated from the auditory by a long, open, heavy colon- naded balustrade, about four feet high, reaching the whole length of the room, and entered by a gate attended by the janitor, who sat in a chair by it, and faithfully attended, that no intruders should enter the sacred precincts without leave or license. The space outside and south of the bar was devoted to spectators, being open in front and having benches under the gallery for the accommodation of those who had business in, and before the Court, and who sat in anxious expectation, awaiting call by their lawyers. Above, extending the whole length of the room was a large enclosed gallery filled with seats, also for the accommo- dation of the people, when anything very important was going on, which attracted crowds 'to the court house. This gallery, was supported by some half a dozen columns underneath in front,-and the ceiling of the court room under a large beam or cross-piece, was supported by one very large Corinthian capped column, and this stood on a large frame work pedestal, built on the floor. The jury so much in use in the courts, were accommodated with some fixed arm-chairs away from the lawyers' table, and just beyond the whitened large column, and were thus in position to be conveniently addressed by the lawyers and by the court. Immediately before the judges' long bench
9
THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
on the balustrade of the bar, about the middle of it, was placed the prisoners' dock, or box, an elevated, open worked, enclosed, white painted platform, with a long seat, sufficient to accommodate six or eight prisoners ; and being as high as the bench of the judges, and in juxta- position to it-it was so conspicuous, that it was a con- tinued and continuous eye-sore to judges, lawyers and citizens and an ugly displayed pillory for the poor-devil prisoners who were placed in it at times, and became the closely observed of all observers. The floor of the old court room within the bar, was usually covered with a large striped rag carpet, and this was strewn over hither and thither, with huge spittoons, for the accommodation of those of the bar and others, who had the habit of chewing tobacco, and they were numerous. The court room was well lighted and well ventilated, having three or four large windows thirteen feet long by five feet wide, on each end, and seven similar ones on the north side. At the east end was a large chimney, and in it a huge fire place, which, when containing a large fire, as it always did in the winter time, kept things considerably warm around about, and besides this, near the centre of the room was a very large old fashioned rectangular stove, with large extended pipe, so that there was no complaint of cold, when fires were completely on, and the old sergeant-at-arms was in good health, and all about. This room, the only court room in the building at first, was a very spacious, conveni- ent and commodious one for all the purposes of law and justice and we doubt if there were many better court rooms in the land. For thirty years, it proved sufficient and cap- able and as one room with others, would have been quite so to-day for all purposes of bench, bar and people. The old people as well as the old judges and the lawyers took
IO
THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
much pride in the old court room. Afterwards, about the year 1838, there was another smaller court room con- structed in the old court house. This was in the second story immediately above the one described, and was occu- pied by a new court which the exigency of the times seemed to require, called the Superior Court and now re- membered as the old Superior Court. The old court house also contained a Sheriff's office, not very large but con- venient in its arrangement on the south-west corner, and a County Commissioners' office, and a grand jury room, and several other jury rooms. The great building had three large outside doors on the east, on the west, and on the south sides, opening out into stoops with stone steps to the ground on the east and west, and wooden porch and steps on the south side. The number of its large windows in its walls above and below and on every side was about fifty, and all these were ornamented with the old fashioned green venetian blinds ; while the outside walls of the court house were painted a pale cream, or nearly white color- giving to the building a marked, distinctive, and even beautiful appearance as seen from every side, especially as it was adorned with a large central square dome erected on the middle of the ascending four-sided roof, and this dome surmounted by a cupola with green venetian blind windows, and a tall spire above it, with long gilded vane, and the four cardinal points on it with gilded letters, N. S. E. W. and two huge balls above and below, all shining in luminous gold. In former days no court house could be built and exist and live without a steeple.
"Saint Patrick was a gentleman, And came from dacent paple, He built a church in Dublin town, And on it placed a staple."
3 1833 02279 6574
II
THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
And as with the churches, so with the court houses of for- mer days, they were literally nothing without a spire for aspiring minds. They were of no account without a " staple " for the stable, staple and steepling ambition of young, fledged lawyers, whose flights might reach its highest pinnacle.
The dome, spire, and steeple of the old court house were the tallest of the kind in ye ancient days, and com- manded the admiration, and almost the adoration, of the old people ; and the old court house was the centre of attraction for the judges, the lawyers, and the people.
As the old court house was the centre of attraction, so it stood in the centre of a large circular plat of ground, with the streets forming a capacious way all around. On the periphery, or circumference, was erected a white painted rail fence, with four ornamented gates to the yard of the court house, one on each side, with the cardinal points. The yard within was sodded with green grass, slanting, and inclining from the basement walls of the court house, and adorned in neat and orderly manner with locust trees and shrubbery, and from each of the gates there were wide pathways leading to the court house doors, and one or two of these were paved with large flat flagstones. So that the "circular square" of the court house had quite a beautiful and attractive appearance. After some years, the necessities of increased business re- quiring it, there were two separate buildings erected on Main street on the front line of the square, one north and one south of the line of the court house, the former one occupied by the Treasurer, Auditor, and County Commissioner's offices, and the latter by the offices of the Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas and the County Surveyor ; and these were quite neat and eligible build-
I2
THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
ings for their purposes, adorned with side covered porticos as they were, and flights of steps leading up to them over the offices in the first or basement story. They of course, added much to the importance and attraction of the court house square, and converted the shape of the grounds from a circle to a larger segment of a circle. The large plat of ground upon which the old court house and its appertaining surroundings stood, was given to the county of Hamilton for the purposes of a court house and county offices, by Jesse Hunt, an old, respected, opulent pioneer public-spir- ited citizen of Cincinnati, and the grandfather of our present United States Senator, Hon. George H. Pendleton, on the mother's side-about the year 1814 or 1815. But at that time the grounds were considered far out of town, and it was some time before the minds of the citizens of the city could be brought to any unanimity on the subject of locating the public buildings of the county there, so far off from the limits of the stores and dwellings of the town. But at last, the gift was accepted, and operations were commenced for the erection of the court house, and they dragged their slow length along, and it was not until the close of the year 1819 that the court house was com- pletely finished and ready for full occupation, and then it was occupied ; and then commenced the proper, prosper- ous and profound history of the old court house.
In the afternoon of Monday, July 9th, 1849, this old and noble structure burned up, or down, and nothing was left of it but its thick blackened walls, and they had been made and builded to last forever. Fire was communicated to it by a neighboring pork house conflagration on a warm summer's day. It caught on its exposed tinder roof and cupola, and soon roof, dome, cupola, spire, and steeple were writhed, and enveloped in smoke and
13
THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
flames. I remember intently gazing at the surrounding wrapping, warping, writhing, enclosing flames from the immense roof, and these, whirring, whirling and curling and leaping amidst the densest black smoke from the now fired frame-work of the dome and steeple, presented a flaming and famous scene for a painter.
Dome, spire and steeple and roof, soon fell with a tre- mendous crash into the midst of the enclosing and envelop- ing walls, which were only blackened, and not injured in their structure by the fire, in the least ; and they stood for a long while a sort of ruined monument of former justice and law, for lawyers "to look and admire-rire-rire " and citizens to gaze on and wonder at what had been done for so many long years within those now blackened, scorched, and charred walls. During the burning of the roof and dome and tower of the old court house, it was a very curious and interesting sight to see numerous doves or pigeons flying in extended circles about the flames, as near as the fierce heat would permit them. The cupola had been a long-time home for the pigeons of the city. There they had been reared themselves, and there they had been in turn, raising their young-many of whom no doubt perished in the flames ; and the now devouring flames, they encircled and encircled in their lofty flight in the air-apparently, like the dove of old, without a place whereon to set their feet. It was indeed a sort of romantic tableau. The old court house it seems, was the home of the pigeons as well as the judges and the lawyers, et illud omme genus. It was a great old court house, and had a great history in its eventful days. Sorry to part with it.
And so this was the old court house built more than sixty years ago, and burning down in the year 1849, and
14
THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
none then so poor as to do it further reverence. It seemed at that time to have outlived its usefulness, and when it caught fire on the combustible roof, on the afternoon of the daytime, none of the fire companies would even lend a hand to put it out, every one about, remarking : "Oh let the old thing go, we will only protect the surrounding property." Cincinnati was putting on its tremendous growth then, and all the people wanted a new court house, and could not get one, while the old one stood up in its ancient greatness and grandeur. Of course every thing in the way of records and documents, and papers of value, was pre- served from the fire, and this was about all that was looked to. The grand jury were in session in their room in the second story, just at the time the cupola and roof of the old court house caught fire from the sparks of the near conflagration, and the Prosecuting Attorney, was with them, examining witnesses. At the general alarm we, of course, quickly dispersed, and I looked to it that all the indictments were thrust into my green bag, and that, held safely in my hands. Indeed, there was little or nothing of value lost, everybody was concerned that there should not be, except, perhaps, the poor prisoners under commitment in jail ; and this reminds me, that the old jail in those days was situated upon Sycamore street, clear away from the court house, north of the Miami Canal. It was a long, dingy old brick concern, standing a long way back from the street, and as dirty and filthy a place as one would for any reason desire to see, as I well knew from the experience I was compelled to have in my official duties.
Cincinnati has had some five different places for its public business, as the county seat of Hamilton county. Its first court house and jail were built on the first old
15
THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
public square-given and dedicated to the public by Denman, Patterson, and Ludlow, the original proprietors of the plat of the town. This old first public square was that bounded by Fourth and Fifth street, and Main and Walnut streets, and should have been kept and pre- served, as the great, and principal public square. The first court house and county offices, and the jail were situated on the north half of that old square, facing Fifth street, and towards Main street, while the south half of the square separated from the north by a wide alley, was occupied by a Presbyterian meeting-house, and graveyard towards Main street, and a school house, or college, near the corner of Fourth and Walnut streets. My father has often told me about this first old court house and jail, and he told me too, that there used to be a public whipping-post before the jail on Fifth street, at which the petty offenders were whipped with a cat-o'-nine- tails, for punishment. So we see, the State of Ohio was once not behind the little State of Delaware, and Cincin- nati once was as far back as Wilmington is now. Half of this once public square has been literally usurped in ownership, by the First Presbyterian Church, and the Cincinnati College by the right only of more than twenty- one years' adverse possession, as the judges of the District Court of this county were once compelled reluct- antly to decide ; and the other half has been usurped by Hamilton county as against the whole public, and it now receives a paltry ground rental from the many and various perpetual leaseholders who privately occupy it. Alas ! for the law! Alas! for justice! Alas for the great public! The first court house and jail were burned to the ground in the year 1814, the fire having been occasioned by the carelessness of the soldiers who were
16
THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
stationed in the court house building, and were using it as a barracks in the absence of other quarters, during the last war with England. This necessitated the building of an- other court house and county offices for Hamilton county, and Mr. Hunt's offer and gift being accepted, we had the second court house as we have described, and this now to us, was and is the old court house, about and around which are clustered, and thence radiated, our reminiscences and anecdotes.
THE JUDGES AND THE LAWYERS OF THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
In presenting the names of the judges, officers, and lawyers of the old court house, we will confine ourselves to it, and its history, neither going in years back of its construction, or following after its destruction, for what we shall talk about and tell about, will be for the most part, of and concerning the old court house, and we will find as much as we can do, to attend to that, in our recol- lections and reminiscences. Judge Jacob Burnet, as he was called, after he became a judge of the Supreme Court, was a very early lawyer of the Ohio bar. Hav- ing come to the city of Cincinnati from the State of New Jersey, toward the close of the last century, and engaging in very early practice of the law in our courts, and becoming one of the most expert and learned, and able lawyers of the bar, he may justly be esteemed the pioneer lawyer of the old court house, and his name deservedly stands at the head of the list of its members of the bar. Next to him, perhaps, we may place William Henry Harrison, not however, because he ever distinguished him- self as a great lawyer, or ever won any distinction as such, but because he was a member of the bar of the old court house, one of the first governors of the North
THE OLD COURT ROOM
17
THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
Western Territory, a Major General in the United States Army, and the hero of Tippecanoe, and a United States Senator from Ohio ;- and afterwards President of the United States-being elected to that exalted position . while he was the clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of the old court house.
FIRST LAWYERS OF THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
The members of the bar of the old, court house in the year 1819, the year in which it was completed and finished, were as follows: (and this is an accurate cata- logue, we trust.)
Jacob Burnet.
Thomas Clark.
David Shepherd.
William Corry.
Nathaniel Wright.
Elisha Hotchkiss.
Nicholas Longworth.
Samuel Q. Richardson.
Samuel Todd.
James W. Gazlay.
Nathaniel G. Pendleton.
Chauncey Whittlesey.
Benjamin M. Piatt.
Richard S. Wheatley.
David K. Este.
Joseph S. Benham.
Thomas P. Eskridge.
David Wade.
John Lee Williams.
Hugh McDougal.
Stephen Sedgwick.
Nathan Guilford.
Daniel Roe.
Bellamy Storer.
Just twenty-seven lawyers all told, to a population of over ten thousand souls.
The Judges of the Court of Common Pleas in the old Court House, in the year 1819, were- 2
William M. Worthington. William Henry Harrison.
Francis A. Blake.
18
THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
President fudge-George P. Torrence ; Associates- Othniel Looker, James Silvers, and John C. Short. The Officers of the Court were -
Prosecuting Attorney-David Wade ; Clerk-Daniel Gano; Sheriff-Richard Ayres; Coroner-William Butler ; failor-Samuel Cunningham.
The Judges of the Supreme Court of the State of Ohio in 1819, two of whom occupied the bench of the old court room of the old court house, at least once a year, were : Calvin Pease, Jessup N. Couch, John McLean, and Peter Hitchcock ; and Daniel Gano, clerk of the Court of Com- mon Pleas, was also their clerk.
These, then, were the court and the bar in the begin- ning of the existence of the old court house, and they were an excellent court and bar, as good as, if not better than those of any other court house in the West at that time. Many of the names in the list became quite distin- guished and some of them of national repute. The names of Burnet, Harrison, McLean, Gazlay, Pendleton, Benham and Storer arose to national importance, while those-of nearly all the rest had much local reputa- tion and distinction.
BENCH AND BAR IN 1825.
But we will also give the names of the judges and the lawyers of the year 1825, for with some of them we will have something to do in our reminiscences ; and we wish to show, too, the change and increase of the bar and court, from time to time, of the old court house. For the view of our brethren of the bar and others who may be interested, and for present and future reference, we will put down in black and white, the judges and officers of the courts, and the lawyers of the bar of the old court house, in the year 1825. Here they are-
.
19
THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
Judges of the Supreme Court of Ohio-Calvin Pease, chief justice ; Peter Hitchcock, Jacob Burnet, and Charles R. Sherman.
fudges of our Court of Common Pleas-George P. Torrence, president judge; Associates-Peter Bell, Pat- rick Smith, and John Jolley ; Clerk-Daniel Gano ; Sher- iff-William Ruffin ; Prosecuting Attorney-David Wade.
Members of the Bar-Joseph S. Benham, William Brackenridge, Moses Brooks, William Corry, Edward L. Drake, David K. Este, Samuel Findlay, Charles Fox, James W. Gazlay, William Greene, Nathan Guilford, E. S. Haines, Charles Hammond, Elijah Hayward, Wm. H. Harrison, Sr., Wm. H. Harrison, Jr., John Hender- son, Jesse Kimball, Samuel Lewis, Nicholas Longworth, J. S. Lytle, Jacob Madeira, Hugh McDougal, Samuel R. Miller, Nathaniel G. Pendleton, Benjamin M. Piatt, Jacob Wykoff Piatt, Benjamin F. Powers, Daniel Roe, David Shepherd, Arthur St. Clair, Dan Stone, Bellamy Storer, Daniel Van Matre, David Wade, Elmore W. Wil- liams, Isaiah Wing, John G. Worthington, and Nathaniel Wright-just thirty-nine in all, an increase in number of twelve, since the first days of the old court house. Among this list, however, there are absent eleven names of the former list of 1819. What became of their owners in the meantime,-absent, or deceased-we know not ; but by this we glean, that there were twenty-four new lawyers added to the old court house bar, in 1825.
BENCH AND BAR OF 1831.
We will add the judges and lawyers of the year 1831, for view, review, and reference, as they were all of the times of the old court house.
Fudges of the Supreme Court-Peter Hitchcock,
20
THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
chief justice ; Joshua Collett, John C. Wright, and Eben- ezer Lane.
Judges of the Court of Common Pleas-George P. Torrence, President Judge ; Associates-Enos Woodruff, Samuel Rees, and Thomas Henderson ; Prosecuting At- torney-Daniel Van Matre; Sheriff-Ebenezer Hulse ; Clerk-Daniel Gano.
Members of the Bar in 1831-Jacob Burnet, Isaac G. Burnet, David K. Este, N. Longworth, William Corry, Joseph S. Benham, B. Ames, James W. Gazlay, Nathaniel Wright, Samuel Lewis, Daniel J. Caswell, Henry Starr, Benjamin Drake, William R. Morris, John G. Worthington, Benjamin F. Powers, E. S. Haines, Daniel Van Matre, David Wade, Jeptha D. Garrard, Bellamy Storer, Charles Fox, Moses Brooks, Hugh Peters, James Southgate, J. S. Lytle, Benjamin B. Fes- senden, Vachel Worthington, Thomas Longworth, James F. Conover, Thomas J. Strait, Salmon P. Chase, Daniel H. Hawes, Thomas Morehead, Robert T. Lytle, Rufus Hodges, Jesse Kimball, Adam N. Riddle, Jacob Wykoff Piatt, Harvey Hall, Benjamin E. Bliss, Dan Stone, H. S. Kile, Samuel Yorke Atlee, Frederick W. Thomas, Isaiah Wing, William Greene, Talbot Jones, Stephen J. Fales, Nathaniel G. Pendleton, Edward Woodruff, Henry E. Spencer, Henry P. Gaines, Samuel Findlay, Henry Orne, John M. Goodenow, and Timothy Walker. Just fifty-seven in all-an increase in number of eighteen, since 1825-to a population of twenty-four thousand.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.