USA > Ohio > Butler County > A history and biographical cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio, with illustrations and sketches of its representative men and pioneers. Vol. 1 > Part 60
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Fred. Bruck; F, 28th; December 16, 1862.
John A. Miller, 53; A, 139th; October 10, 1877. Born in Germany.
John Bruck, $3; D, 10Sth ; also Second Lieutenant of Co. K; was in the battle of Bull Run; died November 28, 1871. Born in Germany.
William MI. Knight, 40; E, 75th; October 22, 1877. He lost an arm at Cedar Mountain, Va. Born in Indiana.
Thomas P. Saunders, 49; river deiense, Cincinnati; April 24, 1881.
Major A. A ._ Phillips, 56; 93d; July 12, 1881. Also in the Mexican War.
Clark J. Castator, 37; B, 35th ; September 10, 1881.
Henry Sprang, 70; B, 34th regiment of Richmond, Indi- ana; December 1, 1SS1.
William Kidwell. 42; F, 69th; December 25, 1SS1. Born in Indiana.
Christian Milds. in Mexican War and B, 28th ; January 8, 1882. Born in Germany.
J. Il. Barcalow ; E, 14th New York; May 4, 1882. Born in Franklin. .
Joseph Schneider; H, 22d; artillery sergeant.
Hermann Runck ; H, 22d; sergeant.
Ilenry Meyer; H, 22d; sergeant. George B. Morton ; 1, 5th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry.
John Connaughton ; 1, 74th.
John Rink; D, 56th. Maurice Pendergast; C, 2d.
The following men from Butler County are buried at Chattanooga, in the beautiful national cemetery. Captain Phil. Rothenbush copied the names of the soldiers of the Thirty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry sleeping their last sleep in that silent city. We give the names, with the company to which they belonged, and the place they were buried from:
A. Amberlin, H, Chattanooga. E. Day, C, Chattanooga.
J. C. Gillespie, G, Chattanooga. Wm. Keys, F. Chattanooga. MeDonald Montgomery, A, Wm. Newsocks, G, Chatta- Chattanooga. nooga.
I. Romaine, F, Chattanooga. John Smith, I, Chattanooga.
C. A. Thompson, H. Chatta- John Van Arr, F, Chatta- nooga. nooga.
Jor. Warner, H, Chattanooga. T. H. Coop, C, Missionary Wm. C. Stokes, C. Missionary Ridge.
Ridge.
J. W. Duncan, E, Chicka- mauga.
J. A. Erwin, H, Chickamauga.
J. C. Perrine, A, Chickamauga. A. Howard, F, Stevenson, Ala. Harry MeDonald, D, Pine Michael Shields, A, Resaca.
Mountain. J. Vannata, C, Cloud Springs.
The following sokiiers are buried at Oxford:
Joseph Allendorf.
Charles Anderson. Mike Brown, B. B5th. Jun.4 M. Brace. Pias. Barroas, C, 930.
Jas, Coe, Missouri Regiment. Rudolph B. Crecraft. Jas. N. Crosby, A, 80th.
Isaac W. Caldwell, K, S3d. George Cone, A, 167th. John Craft, C. 69th.
Riley Davis, A, 167th.
Robert Douglas, A, soth.
Thos. C. Douglass, A, losth. Wm. M. Ferguson, K. SAith. Sampson Gath, D, 47th.
Martin Gravin, C, 34th.
James Hazeltine, A, S6th. David E. Howell, 146th New York Infantry.
J. N. Harding, Mass. Reg'm't. Geo. Roberts, B, 20th. H. Hayden, Gunboat Romeo. Nicholas Jones.
W. F. Kumler, A, 167th.
Wm. A. Kennedy, 1, 5th. John L. Keely, B, 69th.
James Kirby, D, 47th.
Wm. Lintner, 4th O. V. C. Daniel W. Leach, F, 69th. Samuel Mountford, L, 2d Ind. Cavalry.
Duncan McMillan, K, S6th.
Chas. Meyers, N. Y. Regimn't. Wm. F. Moore, C, 93d.
Sam'l MeDonald, A, 167th.
Thos. McCoy, C, 69th.
Joel C. Noland, Gunboat.
Jas. E. Newton, Lt. Col. 167th. Fred. A. Nagle, A, 167th. Wm. Null, I, 167th.
Chas. O. Newhal, B, 35th.
Joel C. Osborn, D, 47th.
John Pitner, N. Y. Regm't.
B. F. Rossin, Col. 147th. Geo. Ryland, B, 4th.
Richard Roberts, B, 20th.
Thos. Rockhold, I, 3d U. S.
C. I.
Henry Russell, I, 54th Mass. Infantry.
Wm. K. Sadler, Surgeon 19th Ky. V. I. Josiah Smith, C, 93d.
Solomon M. Smith, B, 35tl.
Geo. T. Smith, A, 167th.
Win. H. Smith, Jr., Cadet U. S. Navy.
Oliver J. Stork, C, 11th U. S. I.
E. B. Shields, N. Y. Cav. Geo. Totten, D, 47th.
Jas. B. White, A, 167th. John Wright, A, 167th.
Wm. G. Wertz, D, 1st O. H.
Art.
Marcus Ormond, H, 140th P. Thos. M. Wakeland, D, 47th. V. I.
Alfred Weston, Band 69th.
THE COURTS.
As we have recited, the courts of this county had their first session on the 10th of May, 1803, at the house of John Torrence, in Hamilton. This building is still standing on the ground owned by Henry S. Earhart, but not occupied by him. The judges were James Dunn, John Greer, and John Kitchell. John Reily was the clerk. All these were laymen, chosen for their good sense, but not for their acquirements in the law. At the first election James Blackburn was chosen sheriff, and Samuel Dillon, coroner. The first regular term began with Francis Duulevy as presiding judge, and Daniel Symes proscouting attorney. The first term of the Supreme Court was on the 11th of October, 1803, and was com- posed of Judges Samuel Huntington and Samuel Sprigg ; Arthur St. Clair, Jr., as proscouting attorney; and William MeCiellan, sheriff. John Reily was clerk, and so continued until May 3, 1842.
Judge Dunlevy was a man of great strength of charac- ter, and possessed wide influence. He had not originally been intended for the bar; nor, indeed, does it seem that. he ever studied law in the way in which most persons do. He acquired his knowledge while expounding the prin- ciples of jurisprudence from the beach. There were. indeed, few regularly bred lawyers in the country. Judge Dunlevy's family were originally from Spain, and having become Protestants, fled from that country to France, where they remained until the revocation of the edict of
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
Nantes. From there they went to Ireland, and one of the family, named Anthony, emigrated to the United States in 1745, settling near Winchester, Virginia. He was the father of Franeis Dunlevy, who was born in 1761. The family were rigid Presbyterians, and intended to bring up their son to the ministry, but, on the out- break of the Revolutionary War, removed further West, near Washington, Pennsylvania. There were many dan- gers in the backwoods then, and the young man took his turn in defeuding the settlements. When he was fourteen he volunteered to take the place of a neighbor who had been drafted, and who could not well leave home. From 1776 to 1782 he was almost continually in the service of his country. In the latter year he was in Crawford's defeat.
As soon as peace permitted Dunlevy was sent to Diekinson College to prepare for the ministry, and after- wards studied divinity under his uncle, the Rev. James Hoge. Close examination of the Scriptures at that time made him a Baptist, a faith to which he ever afterwards adhered. He gave up his plan of preaching, believing that he had no evidence of a special call in that dirce- tion, and became a teacher. He taught a classical school for some time after in Virginia. In 1792 he came to Columbia, in Hamilton County, this State, and, in con- nection with Mr. John Reily, opened a classical school, the first good one in the country.
"Judge Dunlevy," says his son, from whose account of the Miami Baptist Association we abridge this narra- tive, "was twice a member of the Legislature of the Northwestern Territory, afterwards a member of the con- vention which formed the first constitution of Ohio. He was also a member of the first State Legislature, and then was elected presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas, whose cirenit included at that time all the Miami Valley, from Hamilton and Clermont Counties on the south, to Miami and Champaign on the north. Here he served as judge for fourteen years, and though he had in that time to cross both .Miamis at every season of the year, then without any bridges, in all that time he never missed more than one court. He often swam these rivers on horseback when very few others would have ventured to eross them. In his various campaigns and extensive travels in new countries he had become so expert a swimmer that he thought nothing of swimming the Ohio at its greatest floods."
On the bench he was distinguished for diligence and attention. Ile bent all the faculties of his mind to dis- cover the truth, and to make his decision conform to it. He was not a patient mau in technicalities, and had an imperious way about him that would not have been tol. crated in a weaker man. At the close of his service as presiding judge, being poor, and having involved bimself as securny for some of his friends, he felt himself com- pelled to engage in the practice of law for the means of supporting his family. For more than ten years he rode
the circuits for four or five counties, but about eight years before his death withdrew from business, and studied those books which he had previously been pre- vented from doing by lack of time. These were mainly religious. He was a friend of liberty and: an enemy of Ameriean slavery. His death occurred on the 6th of November, 1839.
The name of Daniel Symmes appears as that of the first prosecuting attorney. He was at that time, and ever after, a resident of Cincinnati, and was appointed to the position because there was no resideut lawyer here. He was a son of Timothy Symmes, and a pephew of Judge John Cleves Symmes, and was born in Sussex County, New Jersey, in 1772. He was a graduate of Princeton College, and eame West with his father. He was married to Elizabeth Oliver in 1795. He was ap- pointed elerk of the territory northwest of the Ohio River, and while holding this position studied law, and was admitted to the bar. He was elected a member of the Senate of the State of Ohio, and served as its speaker during the second and third sessions. He was subse- quently appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, on the resignation of Judge Meigs, in 1804, and on the expiration of his term became register of the land office at Cincinnati, holding this position until a few months previous to his death, which occurred May 10, 1817. Mr. Symmes was also sheriff of Hamilton County in 1795 and 1796.
Arthur St. Clair, Jr., succeeded him. He was a son of General St. Clair, and a man of considerable attainments and means. Before coming out here he had run away with a Quaker lady, who made him a good wife, and who bore him several children. He was a candidate for ter- ritorial delegate, at the very beginning of the history of Ohio, but was defeated by William Henry Harrison, then a captain in the army, but who had the powerful support of the Synes family. He was possessed of considerable wealth, but lost it by indorsing for a friend. When shown by a lawyer that there was an informality in the document that would release him, he said: " No; when Arthur St. Clair puts his name to a piece of paper he means it." As a result, his property was all swept away. A son of his, Arthur St. Clair, 3d, came up to Hamilton and began the practice of law with Jehiel Brooks, in 1323. They did not stay long, however. Their card ran thus:
LAW NOTICE.
JEHIEL BROOKS AND ARTHUR ST. CLAIR.
Having formed a partnership in the practice of the law. inform the public that they may be found at present in the lower corner room of Colonel George Vandegriff's hotel at any bour of the day, where they will attend to the various duties of their profession. They intend to make permanent arrangements for an office elsewhere, and when that shait be effected dne notice will be given of the place of removal.
Hamilton, October 27, 1823. BROOKS & ST. CLAIR.
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THE COURTS.
Mr. St. Clair died in 1833 or 1834, in Indiana. His family afterwards settled here, and remained in Hamilton for a. long time. Arthur St. Clair, 2d, died somewhere abont 1825.
William MeClellan, the first elected sheriff, was the son of a pioneer farmer, who, at the time of the Revo- lutionary War, lived near where Mercersburg now is, in Pennsylvania. On reaching suitable age he obtained employment as a pack-horse man. By these horses all goods were . brought over the Alleghany Mountains. In this occupation he was engaged until several years after the Revolutionary War, and soon after 1790 left for Ohio, in 1792 coming to Fort Hamilton. He re- mained in this employment until the close of the war, when he married Miss Mary Sterret, of Mercersburg, and opened a house of entertainment. In 1803 he was elected sheriff of the county, and two years after was re-elected. He was then ineligible by the constitu- tion of Ohio, and was succeeded by John Torrence. After Mr. Torrence had held two years Mr. MeClellan again became a candidate, and was chosen sheriff, being re-elected in 1811. In that year he removed from Ham- ilton and settled on his farin on Two-mile Creek, in St. Clair Township, still keeping an office in Hamilton, and attending to his business by deputy. He remained in agricultural pursuits until the time of his death, October 2, 1827. He was then sixty years of age. He was a man of a kind and genial disposition, and had troops of friends. His wife survived him, dying November 10, 1842, aged seventy-one. One of the sous still lives on the old homestead in St. Clair Township.
Mr. MeClellan was the brother of two other men well known in the history of Hamilton, to one of whom Washington Irving gives a large space in his "Astoria." He was an excellent scout, hunter, and spy, and was possessed of prodigious muscular power and activity. He could leap over a pair of oxen or the tallest Cones- toga wagon. He went out to the Rocky Mountains and a ted as a hunter for parties there for a long time. Of his exploits Irving's " Astoria" and MeBride's " Pioneers" give a full account. Johu, his younger brother, was also a pack-horseman, but did not come out to the Miami country nutil 1800, then taking up his abode with his brother William, and engaging in trading with the In- dians. In 1814 he set out for an expedition among the red men, but was waylaid and killed by them, his goods being taken.
for the State, which office he held until his removal from Hamilton in the year 1810. In the Fall of 1807 he was elected a member of the General Assembly for But- ler County, and served during the ensuing session of the Legislature.
In March, 1810, Mr. Corry was married to Eleanor Fleming, a daughter of Thomas Fleming, an old settler who had emigrated from Maryland, and lived on the south side of Butler County. Mr. Corry then determined to abandon the practice of law, and in September fol- lowing removed from Hamilton and settled on his farm near Cincinnati. But in May, 1811, he removed to the city, where he again resumed the practice of law. He was subsequently elected and represented the county-of - Hamilton in the General Assembly. He was appointed by the town council to the office of mayor, then first created, and held it until 1819 by appointment. He died in that city on the 16th of December, 1833.
Mr. Corry, from a natural timidity and modesty, which he was never able to overcome, did not appear conspicuously at the bar as an orator, but he was highly esteemed as a thoroughly read lawyer and good coun- selor. As a member of the bar, legislator, mayor of the city, and private citizen, he maintained a high character. He was distinguished for purity of motive and moral firmness in the discharge of his public and private duties.
David K. Este was the sceondt lawyer who settled in Hamilton. He was born at Morristown, New Jersey, on the 21st of October, 1785, where he received the rudiments of his education. He afterwards entered Princeton College, where he graduated in September, 1803. In the Spring of 1804 he began the study of law, and was in due time admitted to the bar by the Supresde Court of New Jersey. In May, 1809, he left that State and came to Ohio, and in June following settled in Hamilton, commenced the practice of his profession, and made his maiden speech in the court-house of this county. In 1810 he was appointed prosecuting attorney in the place of William Corry, who had removed to Cincinnati, holding this office until April, 1816, about which time he left Hamilton and went to Cincinnati. There he con- tinued practice until 1834, when he was appointed Presi- dont Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He heki the office until February, 1838, when he was appointed judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati for seven years. In 1845, when his term of service expired. he declined being a candidate for reappointment, and retired to private life.
William Corry was the first lawyer who located him- self at Hamilton. He was born near the Holstein River, Mr. Este was a fine classical scholar and a well read lawyer, and by his regular habits and strict attention to business acquired a large fortune. in Washington County, Virginia, on the 14th of Decem- her, 1778, and received a liberal education at Parson Duke's academy, in Tennessee. In 1798 (then a minor) Among the pioneer members of the bar contempora- neons with the above was John C. M. Mams. His knowledge of the law and his information on other sub- jects was limited, but by his bustling manuer and his he came to the Northwestern Territory and stuffed law with William McMillan, of Cincinnati, to whom he was distantly related. In 1803 he removed to Hamilton and began practice. In 1807 he was appointed prosecutor i attendance at crowds and public meetings he acquired a
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
considerable share of practice. He was a candidate for a seat in the Assembly from Butler County, but failed in his election. In 1817 he retired from the bar and removed to Preble County, where he resided until his death, which occurred in the early part of 1851.
Joseph S. Benham was born near Lebanon, Warren County, and was the son of Robert Benham, one of the pioneers of the western country, whose name is identi- fied with its early history. In 1808 and 1809 he was a boy attending school in Hamilton. He lived with his sister, Mrs. Torrence, afterward Mrs. Wingate, who then kept a tavern. He studied law with David K. Este. was admitted to the bar, and commenced practice in Hamilton.
Mr. Benham devoted much of his time to the acquisi- tion of the graces of oratory. He paid particular attention to elocution, and his voice and manner of speech were cap- tivating. Few men could address a jury more eloquently or effectively; and as a popular speaker, fewer yet surpassed him. He remained at the bar of this county until 1821, when he removed to Cincinnati. He practiced in Cincin- nati uutil 1831, when he went to Louisville, Kentucky, and thence to St. Lonis, where he remained until 1837. In that year he returned and settled in Covington, Ken- tucky, and took the professorship of commercial law in the Cincinnati Law School. About this time he became the owner and editor of the Ohio and Kentucky Journal, a weekly Democratie paper, which he published in Cin- cinnati for about a year, but in August, 1838, sold out. The Winter of 1838-9 he devoted to the study of the civil law at his residence (Elmwood) in Kentucky, oppo- site Cincinnati; and then removed to New Orleans, where he settled again in the practice of law. The ensuing Summer he was on his way from New Orleans to New York, when he died at the Pearl Street House, Cinein- nati, on the 15th of July, 1840.
Mr. Benham was twice married; first, to Isabella Green, of Hamilton, who died in October, 1829, and the second time to Maria L. Siveum, of the District of Co- lumbia.
In the year 1815 Benjamin Collett-came from Leba- non, Warren County, opened a law office in Hamilton, and began the practice of his profession. He was a graduate of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and had studied law at Lebanon with his brother, Joshua Collett, and with Judge John MeLean. He was a thor- ough classical scholar, and his information on all sub- jects extensive for a man of his age. As a well read lawyer he was excelled by none in the State. In deela- mation he was not eloquent or flowery, but he always understood his subject well and expressed himself in a systematic and logical style, which commanded the atien- tion of the court and jury. He soon acquired a very respectable practice. In April, 1816, he was appointed prosecuting attorney for the county of Butler, and hebi the office until 1820. A year or two afterwards he re-
turned to Lebanon, where he lived and died, loved and lamented by all who knew him.
George Sargeant, a native of Vermont, came to Ham- ilton in the year 1816, and studied law with Joseph S. Benham. He was admitted upon the completion of his course of study, and began practice immediately after- wards. Although he had not the advantage of an early education, his native Yankee shrewdness and wit, with a ready flow of words, enabled him to succeed tolerably well at the bar. . Where sareasin or ridicule were adiais- sible he excelled. He continued to practice until about the year 1826. His habits for a number of years were very intemperate, though he was seldom seen drunk in publie. In the evening he would purchase a bottle of whisky aud take it to his office, where he would indulge himself during the night, and the next night repeat the same performance. A continuance of this habit finally impaired the faculties of his mind, and in September, 1827, he became so much deranged that he was strictly confined. The Masonic Fraternity, of which he was a member, appointed a committee of their members to see to his condition. He was supported and cared for by the society for about a year, when he was delivered over to the county commissioners. He was afterwards caken to a lunatic asylum in Cincinnati, where he remained several years chained to the floor, and was then removed to the lunatic asylum at Columbus. He never recov- ered from his derangement, dying somewhere about 1852.
Among those who frequented the courts here in their earlier days were Jacob Burnet, an accomplished lawyer, afterwards judge, who at a very early age made his mark in the institutions of Ohio, Nicholas Longworth, who be- came the largest property owner in this region, and was distinguished far and wide for his growth of American wines; George P. Torrence, a man of great grace and dignity; Elias Glover and Ethan Stoue of Cincinnati ; Thomas Freeman and Thomas R. Ross from Lebanon, and last but not least, John M. Leau, afterwards a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Joshua Col- lett was also in frequent attendance. "Important cases," says Mr. McBride, "were advocated in an elaborate and masterly manner."
Mr. Reily became sheriff in 1813, his position lasting till 1817. During his administration of office occurred the only punishment by whipping ever inflicted in this county.
A boarder at the tavern of William Murray, on Front Street, went one morning to the stable of the tavern to see to his horse. He found the stable and the stall, but the horse was missing. The sheriff was informed of the fiets, and the officers were put upon the scent. Aner a few days' search horse and thief were found at Leb- anon, and at once brought back to Hamilton. The thief, whose name was William Gray, was taken before the court, Judge Dunlevy presiding, and his guilt plainly
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THE COURTS.
proved. In those days Ohio had no penitentiary, and the punishment of criminals was generally a publie cow- hiling. Judge Dunlevy sentenced Gray to thirty nine lashes on his bare back, to be inflicted by the sheriff in the court-house square, allowing. the culprit a few days to prepare himself for the ordeal. Mr. MeBride, after hear- ing the sentence, took his prisoner to the jail, and then pur- chased a cowhide. In those days cowhides were the only whips in use, and could be found in bunches of twenty-five and fifty hung up for sale in every grocery. Seleeting a pod stiff whip, the sheriff returned home and laid it by. His wife, however, began to feel some sympathy for the culprit. She thought the punishment excessive and anti- christian. and thought she could devise some method to ren- der the punishment less painful. She thought that if the stiffness should be taken out of the cowhide the blows would be less painful, and the idea no sooner reached her brain than she put it into execution. The cowhide was placed in a pan of grease and thoroughly soaked and then tied up and placed away in greasy rags. The day before the culprit was to undergo his punishment, Mrs. McBride turned over the doctored cowhide to the sheriff. The news of the sentence had been carried for many miles, and the day before it was to be put into execution people began flocking into the village from all points within a radius of sixty miles. They came in wagons and on foot from Connersville, Liberty, and Brookville, Indiana, and from Warren and Montgomery Counties, Ohio. On the morning on which the sentence was to be carried out, Sheriff MeBride arose from his bed before it was light and hastily made all the arrangements necessary, and before the sun was fairly up William Gray was tied to a scaffold post on the south side of the court-house, which at that date was not finished. The doctored cow- hide was brought out, and the horse thief received his thirty-nine lashes while yet half the people were in their Ixals. Several of the blows brought the blood to the surface, Int owing to the wit of Mrs. McBride the pun- ishment was by no means as severe as it could, and per- hays should, have been. Notwithstanding the carly hour, however, the punishment was witnessed by a large num- ber of persons who had reached the square early, antici- pating such a move on the part of the sheriff. The strangers, after their hard work in reaching the city, slept late in the morning, and on waking and finding the whole affair ended made the air sulphurous with their curses.
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