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 61
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Gray, after his whipping, was taken back to the old jail and kept there several days for his back to heal, when he was discharged, and ordered to leave the county, which it is safe to. prestine he did at once. Sheriff Me- Bride and his successors were spared the repetition of such duties, and thus Gray was the ouly man cowhided by order of court in old Butier.
The leading member of the Butler County bar, from it's beginning down to the present time, probably was
John Woods. He came to this county in 1819, and his progress here was facilitated by the fact that his habits were good. He attended assiduously to business, did not drink, and could always be depended upon. In 1824, when but twenty-seven years of age, he was chosen to the national Legislature, and was probably the first native of the Northwestern Territory who was elected to either house of Congress. Mr. Woods was an extraordinary lawyer. He was engaged in nearly all the great causes that came up in his time, and was usually successful when the affair was at all evenly balanced. He had a rough, earnest eloquence, which carried much weight. It was not polished, but correct. He was strong as a special pleader and chancery lawyer. A fuller account of him is given elsewhere.
The bar held a meeting on the 20th of September, 1824, in honor of Thomas C. Kelsey, one of its members. The meeting was attended by the cfficers of the Court of Common Pleas for the county of Butler, the lawyers. and the students at law. John Woods presided, and Jesse Corwin acted as secretary. Resolutions were passed deploring his death, and declaring that the members would attend his funeral. Mr. Kelsey was a native of New England, and was for many years a respected mer- chant of Hamilton, making and saving in his calling a handsome fortune. In prosperity his friends were nu- merous and ardent, but many of them vanished with his wealth. When he could no longer continue business as a merchant, and after he had yielded up his last farthing to luis creditors, he was enabled by the kindness of a few friends to read law and gain admission to the bar. For this calling he possessed respectable talents, and would undoubtedly have succeeded had his life been spared. He died on the 18th of September, and was buried with Masonic honors. His wife died on the preceding Sun- day, the 12th. They left four little children.
Among the earlier sheriff's was William Sheely. He was a man of prodigious size, and well liked by his fellow- citizens. While he was sheriff he was called upon to make preparations for an execution, but after all his labor was done the criminal had his sentence commuted to im- prisonment for life. This was in the Summer of 1835. The prisoner's name was Sponsler. He lived in Madison Township, and had a quarrel with his son-in-law, finally killing him by shooting. For this he was arrested and lodged in the county jail. When he was brought to trial John Woods, one of the most skillful members of the bar, was assigned to defend him, and did so with all his powers. But the accused was found guilty of murder in the first degree, and was sentenced to be hung ou Friday, June 10, 1836. No efforts to have a new trial or for an arrest of judgment were successful. aud Mr. Sheely proceeded to get ready his scaffoldl. Mr. Woods, however, did not cease his exertions in behalf of his client, and finally procured a commutation of soul- tence to imprisonment for life. The public, however,
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were not made acquainted with the matter, and on the day assigned the town was full of men from this and. other towns. When they found that the affair would not come off they rebelled, and proposed to tear down the jail. They were full of whisky and full of fight. But Mr. Sheely did not propose to be treated thus. He organized a large body of men, and placed himself at their head, dispersing the mob.
Before Sponsler could be taken to Columbus to un- dergo "the. penalty of life imprisonment, he managed to commit suicide by cutting his throat in a cell. He had become discouraged. A writer in the Cincinnati Times says that Mr. Woods was so much chagrined at the scenes through which he had been passing that he then and there made a vow that so long as he lived there should never be a man hung in Butler County. We doubt the truth of the story, but no one was hung until after his death, when Griffin was executed.
Michael B. Sargeant was an early and brilliant mem- ber of the bar, who was in partnership with Mr. Woods for some time. He was a fine classical scholar, and conversant with elegant literature as well as a thorough lawyer. His qualifications and striet attention to busi- ness, while Mr. Woods was absent attending Congress, were of great advantage to the latter. Mr. Sargeant died suddenly on the night of the 19th of April, 1830, aged thirty-three years. He was found in the morning dead in his bed, in the room adjoining their law office, and is supposed to have expired by apoplexy or a similar affection, of which, it is said, he had discovered some previous symptoms. He lics buried in the Fourth Ward burying-ground, now the park. He was a man of large capacity. and had be lived would have had a fame coex- tensive with the State.
Elijah Vance, for many years judge of the District Court, and an attorney and counselor-at-law, was born in Bel Air, Harford County, Maryland, on the 1st of Feb- ruary, 1801, and came to Ohio in 1816, procuring a situa- tion as clerk in a dry goods store in Cincinnati. After four years of steady labor, and saving his money, he went to Lebanon and began the study of law with Judge Dun- levy, graduating at the bar in June, 1826. He then removed to Hamilton and began practice. He was shortly after elected prosecuting attorney of the county, and was next elected a State Senator, and afterwards re-elected for several terms, and made speaker of the Senate. In 1843, when judges were yet appointed, he was selected as Common Pleas Judge of the judicial dis- triet composed of the counties of Greene, Clinton, War- ren, and Butler, and held this office for seven years. In 1850 he was appointed a member of the convention which laet in Columbus for the purpose of framing a new cou- stitution for Ohio. On account of the cholera, which was then raging in Columbus, the convention adjourned till the Winter of 1851, when it met at Cincinnati. Dur- ing the sitting of this convention, Judge Vance took a
prominent part in the debates which arose on certain questions, and on one in particular he took ground against his Democratic friends in convention. His conduct was severely denounced by them, and among his constituents at home an indignation meeting was held asking him to resign. He immediately yielded to the stern request, came home, and upon the ordering of a new election, went before the people again, and was returned to the con- vention by an overwhelming majority. He served as president, pro tem., of this body, several times.
From this time until within a few days of his death he practiced law in Hamilton, having, within the last few years, again served for two terms as prosecuting attorney for Butler County, and holding, at the time of his death, the office of city solicitor. He was frequently a director of the Hamilton Board of Common Schools, and was for a number of years a trustee of the Miami University.
He died full of honors and labors, after exhibiting the rare example of a long public life without a single stain of dishonor upon it, and of an unobtrusive, peaceful, use- ful, and virtuous private life, on the 11th of January, A. D. 1871, aged seventy years, eleven months, and eleven days.
He was married in June, 1844, to Emily A. Morris, who was born in Bethel, Clermont County, in 1815. By this marriage he had two daughters. His father was a Revolutionary soldier, and his brother was in the Mex- ican war.
The lawyers resident in Hamilton, in 1842, were Woods & Rigdon, Bebb & Reynolds, Corwin & Thomas, Varec & Millikin, Weller & Ryan, Oliver S. Witherby, Ezekiel Walker, and Thomas H. Wilkins. Major Jolin M. Millikiu and Lewis D. Campbell had retired, and of this list only Thomas Millikin, the senior of the bar, remains in practice. Reynolds and Witherby are still living, the one in Chicago and the other in San Francisco.
Bebb was a strong and effective jury lawyer. He was a really eloquent man, and it was his speaking capacities that made him governor of the State. He never took a case in which he did not soon feel in warm sympathy, and his appeals to the jury were very touching. He could weep at any time. Apart from his merits as a jury advo- cate he was not strong, although safe. In his set ad- dresses he had a redundancy of ornament, more so than in his extemporaneous spenking. He was a large, good- looking man, of pleasant and sympathetic address, and was of spare build.
The leading politician of the county, on the Demo- cratic side, was Jolin B. Weller. Nature had gifted him with an easy deelamatory eloquence, and his standing at the bar was largely owing to this. He took more interest ia polities than in law, but maintained a respectable rank in the latter. He was attractive in appearance.
Francis D. Rigdon was the son of Dr. Loammi Rig- don. He was afterwards in the paper business with
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Jesse Corwin
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William Beekett, making some money in this occupa- tion, aud afterwards buying a farm. He died in At- lanta, Georgia.
Alfred C. Thomas was a commissioner of bankruptcy about 1840. He was the brother of the Rev. Thomas E. Thomas, but had not the same skill as a speaker. With the pen, however, he was strong. He was a fine Greek and Latin scholar, being professor of those lan- guages at College Hill, and is now assistant solicitor of the treasury ..
John P. Reynolds, now in Illinois, was the commis- sioner of Illinois to the Paris Exhibition. He is a well known writer for the press, and has been secretary of the Illinois Board of Agriculture, and the editor of an imper- tant agricultural newspaper in that State. He is now the secretary of the Chicago Exposition.
Ezekiel Walker, now of Cincinnati, was very odd in appearance. He was employed in a very celebrated case, that of Jones against Mizener, in which he was attorney for the plaintiff. The suit was about a division fence, and was carried on for years, until it became as well kuown as any cause ever in progress in this county. - The verdict was twelve and a half cents. Walker sub- sequeutly sued Jones-for his fees, but the latter swore Walker took the case for half what might be collected, and that he had tendered him the full amount agreed upon. He would even give him the whole. This suit occasioned a great deal of mirth for many years. Mr. Walker may be distinguished in Cincinnati now by always carrying an umbrella.
Jesse Corwin was another of the old members of the bar. He was a brother of Governor Thomas Corwin, the most eloquent advocate who ever pleaded at the bar in the Hamilton courts. They were the sons of Matthias Corwin, a pioneer of Warren County, who represented his county in the Legislature for ten consecutive terms from 1804. Jesse Corwin was born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, January 30, 1797; removed with his father to Lebanon, Ohio, and in 1822 took up his abode in Hamilton. He was au assiduous student of the law, and early made himself familiar with its principles and the rules which underlie its practice. Soon after coming to this place he was married to Miss Jane MeMeehan, by whom he had eiglu children, James, Matthias, Clar- care, Eleanor, Thomas, Warren, Henry Clay, Erin Au- gusta, and Jennie. Three only are now living, Henry C. Corwin, at Saliva, Kansas; Mrs. Erin Corwin Miller, wife of Dr. W. C. Miller, and Miss Jennie, at the old homestead iu Hamilton. The three sons living at the breaking out of the rebellion, Thomas, Warren, and Henry C., all enlisted under the national banner at the first call for troops by President Lincoln. He has two mand children, Thomas Corwin. sou of Henry C. and Lillie M. Corwin, ani William Corwin Miller, son of Dr. und Mrs. Erin C. Miller.
It was but a short time before Mr. Carwin attained a
large share of practice, and in addition receive.l the favor of the people. He was elected to the Legislature of Ohio for the years 1831 and 1832, and was prose- cuting attorney for the county from 1825 to 1835, serv- ing in this office with zeal and acceptability. In 1837 he was the Whig candidate for Congress in this, then the Second, District." Though unsuccessful (his party being in the minority), his popularity was so well shown by the great gains he made that he was strongly indneed to accept the subsequent nomination, but declined. He was a man of good solid judgment and with generous impulses and frank disposition, of a character upright and honest. an affectionate husband, an indulgent father, and an estimable citizen. He remained in practice all his life, and at the time of his death was the oldest member of the Butler County bar. He died on the 23d of October, 1867.
Thomas H. Wilkins was a good talker and full of jest and humor. He was a brother-in-law of John Woods.
Among those who frequented the courts here from other places were Thomas Corwin, Charles Anderson, Judge Caldwell, and Charles Fox. Corwin was, for many years, the leading advocate of this section, and his sallies of wit aud passages of pathos are yet related by the older residents of the city. He was as well known here as he was at home. He always complained that his abilities as a wit blinded the people as to the real merits of his character.
The most distinguished judges of the Supreme Court visited this place -- such men as Ebenezer Laue and Ren- ben Hitchcock. Justice was administered more summe- rily then than now. The judge felt that it was necessary for him to make dispatch with his cases, and be checked any disposition of the lawyers to verbosity. The busi- ness must be coneluded. Lawyers, too, at that day would not take hopeless cases, and there was no disposition to encourage litigation simply for the sake of promoting it. Upon arrival in town, requisitions would be made for depositions and papers from the clerk's office, aud they were thoroughly read and digested.
The president judges of the Court of Common Pleas were as follows:
Francis Danlevy, 1803 to 1817; Joseph H. Crane, of Dayton, 1817 to 1818: Joshua Collett, of Warrou County, 1818 to 1829; George J. Smith, of Lebanon, 1829 to 1836; Benjamin Hinkson, of Clinton County, 1836 to 1843; Elijah Vance, 1843 to 1850, and John Probasco, of Lebanon, 1850 to 1853.
Since that date James Smith, of Lebanon; Abuer Haines, of Eaton; William J. Gilmore, of Eaton; Wil- liam Wilson, of Greenville; James Clark, of Hamilton ; A. F. Hmne, of Hamilton; D. L. Mecker, of Greenville: J. C. MeKemy, of Dayton; Henderson Elliott. of Day- tor; James A. Gilmore, of Eaton; James L. Smith, of Lebanon: Calvin D. Wright, of Troy; JJames S. Good, of Springfield : James E. Dawes, of Xenia: A. W. Doane.
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of Wilmington; H. H. Williams, of Troy, and William Allen, of Greenville, have held courts here.
Judge Crane was a brother of Commodore Crane. He was a man of fine address, well skilled in the law, and a model judge. Joshua Collett was an exceedingly con- scientious man ou the bench. He was not a brilliant or attractive man, but was actuated by high moral princi- ples. Judge Smith was straightforward and painstaking, and was of respectable abilities. Hinkson is remembered as a slow and easy, honest and good natured man.
Oliver S. Witherby, president of the Consolidated Bank of San Diego, California, is from this county. He was born in the city of Cincinnati on the 19th. of Feb- ruary, 1815. In 1830 his father removed to Oxford, where the young man entered Miami University, gradn- ating in 1836, and receiving the degree of Master of Arts in due course. He then began the study of law with John Woods, the leader of the bar in this county, and was admitted to practice in 1840. In 1843 he was elected prosecuting attorney, succeeding Elijah Vance, and was re-elected in 1845. In 1846 he went out to Mexico as a lieutenant in the volunteer service, and on his return acted as editor of the Hamilton Telegraph, being in part- nership with Michael C. Ryan, Esq. When John B. Weller was selected to go out to Mexico as one of the commissioners to fix the boundary line between that country and this, Mr. Witherby also went out, acting as quartermaster and commissary. Both he and Mr. Weller remained in California, where Mr. Witherby was elected a member of the first Legislature of that State. The dnties which devolved upon this body were onerous. The country had been acquired by conquest, and the dis- covery of goll soon after resulted in an influx of foreign- ers aud adventurers from all portions of the globe. There had been no preceding territorial condition in which the most necessary laws could have been passed, and the enactments which were to govern society were to be laid from the very foundation. The Legislature discharged its duties with ability and diseretica, and its members, including Mr. Witherby, went out of office with the consciousness that their obligations had been fully discharged. This view was also entertained by the people, and Mr. Witherby was in 1850 elected judge of the First Judicial District of the State. After his term had expired he was appointed coffeetor of customs for the port of San Diego, holding the position for four years. Since that time he has been in private business, having been for the last few years president of the Con- solidated Bank of San Diego.
In the earlier years of the century lawyers and phy- sicians were compelled to pay a license fee.
Among those whose names appear in the advertise- ments of the newspapers before the war are Charles Kich- ardson, who had an office in Campbell's Building in 1847: William Shotwell, southwest corner of Basin and Second Streets, in 1847; Robert Hazelton, corner east of the
Schmidtman House, in 1847; Valentine Chase, over the sheriff's office, in 1847; Moore C. Gilmore, Rossville, over Traber's store, in 1848; William E. Brown, Basin Street, three doors west of the Buckeye House, in 1849; James B. Millikin, over Millikin's drug store, in Ross- ville, in 1849; John B. Weller and M. C. Ryan, in 1845; O. S. Witherby, over the county treasurer's office, in 1843; Elias V. Wilson, opposite the public square, in Sutherland's corner, in 1846.
James Clark, one of the ablest men at the bar ever here, and well remembered as a judge, died at the Mag- netic Springs House, in Statesville, New York, December 28, 1881, aged about fifty-seven. He was a native of this State, and served two terms as a judge of the Supreme Court. He was here for twelve or fifteen years. He was a man of marked ability as a lawyer, judge, aud scholar. His range of reading was very wide, and he collected a fine library. For a few years he con- tributed to the New York . Ledger and other journals. His wife, Miss Lottie Moon, of Oxford, was a woman of great power and originality of character. He left this city about 1864 to go to New York, and ever afterwards resided there. He had gone to Statesville with his son to spend the Winter.
George Penny Webster, who lost his life in the civil war, was a son of John Webster, and a nephew of Will- iam Webster, of Middletown, and Joseph Webster, of Hamilton. He was born near Middletown, December 24, 1824. When sixteen years of age he went to Ham- ilton, and for two years was deputy clerk of the county, then beginning the study of law with Thomas Millikin. In the latter part of 1846 he was admitted to the bar, and at once began practice. At the breaking out of the wir with Mexico be enlisted as a private in the company of which General Van Derveer subsequently became captain, and was afterwards promoted to sergeant-major of the regiment. He was wounded in the shoulder at the storming of Monterey. When peace was declared he removed to Steubenville, having previously married a daughter of John MeAdans, of Warrenton. Two years after he was elected clerk of the court. He held the orfive for six years, then resuming the practice of his profession, and soon being regarded as one of the fore- most lawyers of that city. When the war broke out he was instrumental in mising and forwarding two com- panies. He was appointed major of the Twenty-fifth infantry, and shortly after went to West Virginia. In May, 1862, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and in July the colonel of the Ninety-eighth. While in Vir- ginia he commanded four expeditious, all of which were successful. and fought in five battles, gaining the name of the " fighting major." He was a man of very impes- ing personal appearance, being six feet two inches high. and otherwise made in proportion. At Louisville Cologel Webster was placed in command of the Thirty-fourth brigade, Jackson's division. In the battle of Perryville
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he was mortally wounded, falling from his horse, and died on the field of battle.
Among the lawyers who advertised in the papers be- fore the war were George Webster, Crane's Hotel, in 1846; Thomas Millikin, Second Street, adjoining his dwelling, in 1846; William P. Young, office formerly occupied by Bebb & Reynolds, in 1846; William H. Miller, Basin Street, in 1847; John B. Weller, brick building opposite the post-office, the sheriff's office also being there, . in 1835; J. M. U. McNutt and I. W. Crosby, over Dr. Hittell's drug store, in 1837. In 1852 there were A. P. Cox, Westchester; William H. Smith, Oxford; Bebb & Lewis, office formerly occupied by Millikin & Bebb; John W. Wilson, Second Street, a few doors north of the Hamilton Hotel; Thomas Moore, Rossville; J. Clark, opposite the Court House; J. H. Gest, Rossville; Hume & Furrow; Miller & Brown; Scott & McFarland; Vance & White.
In 1859 it is said there were fifty regularly admitted lawyers in Butler County, thirty-eight of whom were in active practice.
William R. Kinder was born near Franklin, Warren County, Ohio, on the 17th of December, 1826. He en- tered Farmer's College, and graduated there, with high honors, in the Summer of 1848. He immediately began the study of law with John B. Weller; but feeling serious apprehensions for his health-having a strong predisposition to pulmonary bronchial discase, even at this early age-he joined the Boundary Survey Expedi- tion in 1849, and went to Mexico, in hopes of strength- ening his constitution and shaking off his disease. Ap- parently much restored, he began the practice of law in San Francisco as a partner of his old preceptor, Governor Weller, in 1849; but his health again failing him, he took passage for China on a sailing vessel, in November of 1850, where he remained some four months, returning again to our city. He then took charge of the Telegraph as ostensible editor, and continued to contribute all its val- uable articles until shortly before his death.
In October, 1854, he was elected to the office of pro- bate judge, having served some time before on the unexpired term of a former incumbent, laboring in this capacity with universal acceptability, being re-elected as fast as his term expired, until the 21st of December, 1859. On this day a more serious and stubborn attack of his old, disease, consumption, brought him to his room, where for some weeks he was confined, a patient and calm prisoner, gradually worn away by his malady, until, on the 9th of February, 1860,- in the full pos- session of all his faculties, he died.
Judge Kinder had intellectual powers of a high order. His natural abilities were great, and his acquirements in the sciences and the arts were nnecasing and extended His memal characteristics, however, were those of readi- Dess, adaptability, versatility. He will be remembered by all who have seen him as a thoughtful man; by
all who have heard- him as a ready, capable man. He conversed with much ease and brilliancy. He compre- hended quickly, digested quickly, and could bring all his powers to bear on any question in an instant. It was the very practical bent of his mind, the capacity he had of putting himself in the stead of any class, and bring- ing himself in their position, which made him equally a forcible writer and an eloquent speaker. He always understood himself, and hence found no difficulty in always well expressing himself. He delivered, in the opinion of some, the best conceived and most syni- metrical speeches his party ever produced here. With a broad treatment of his subject, stating his views with perfect clearness, concealing his own and exposing his opponent's weak point with quiet and unsuspicious adroit- ness, urging his conclusions with much earnestness, not forgetting the judicious introduction of humor-these characteristics, joined to a musical, though not round, voice, a graceful manner, and a striking and pleasing presence, made his stump efforts, though generally short and unpremeditated, more than ordinarily acceptable and effective.
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