USA > Ohio > Bench and bar of Ohio; a compendium of history and biography, Vol. I > Part 27
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whom he remained over a year, when he went to Columbus and entered the law office of Honorable N. H. Swayne, afterwards a justice of the United States Supreme Court. He remained there about a year and a half and then went to Florida, where he spent two winters with his brother Nicholas. Returning to Norwalk, he was admitted to the Bar on August 14, 1846, and became a law-partner of Jairus Kennan. He was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States on January 26, 1866. In 1850 he was elected auditor of Huron county, and held the office for six years, when he resumed his law practice. After the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, he went to Iowa and purchased the Dubuque Times, that being the only daily Union paper in the north half of the State at that time. This he published until about the close of the war, when he sold it and returned to Ohio. He bought the controlling interest of the Toledo Commercial, which he sold at a profit in about six months; and returning to Norwalk, resumed his law prac- tice in the last of 1866, which he now continues, more than half a century having elapsed since he began it there. His practice has always been general, but confined to civil cases. He has been engaged in many important cases in Ohio. The printed law records and briefs of his Supreme Court cases
alone make four large bound volumes. Mr. Stewart occupies first rank in his profession, and his ability is recognized throughout Ohio and in fact beyond the confines of the State. He is a man of charming and delightful manner, is greatly beloved by his fellow citizens and commands the respect of all who know him. As a speaker he is pleasant and ready. He has delivered many political speeches and numerous finished addresses on other subjects during his long and useful life. Originally he belonged to the old Whig party and was opposed to slavery. At the commencement of the war he became a Republican, but at the close he passed into the Prohibition party, where he has since remained and has always been one of its most earnest and consci- entious workers. He was fifteen years a member and four years chairman of its national committee. He was unanimously nominated by three State conventions of the party in Ohio for President of the United States, but each time declined to be a candidate for that office. He was at one time the candidate of that party for vice-president of the United States; was three times its candidate for governor of Ohio and nine times its candidate for judge of the Supreme Court of the State. For the latter office he was the first and last candidate of the party, in 1869 and 1896. He was grand worthy patriarch of the Sons of Temperance and three times elected grand worthy Chief Templar of the Good Templars of Ohio; and was prominent in the Maine law and other temperance movements. He is president of the Law Library Association of Huron county at Norwalk, and was one of its organ- izers. He has been engaged in many business and commercial enterprises. In the early years of his practice he edited the Norwalk Reflector, the Whig organ of Huron county, and was for several years half owner of the Toledo Blade. He is a life member of the American Bible Society. He has been for many years president of the Firelands Historical Society, of which he was one of the
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founders over forty years ago, and which has published over 3,000 pages of historic collections there. He was one of the founders and first officers of the Whittlesey Academy of Arts and Sciences at Norwalk, which has maintained a large library and reading room, with valuable courses of lectures. He was also one of the pioneers of the Scotch-Irish Society of America and director of the Western Reserve Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. He was one of the organizers and directors of the Wheeling and Lake Erie Rail- road Company. In 1857 he married Abby N. Simmons, of Greenfield, Huron county, and by this union there are four children, all living: one daughter, Miss Mary Stewart, and three sons, Charles Hill Stewart, of the law firm of Bentley & Stewart, at Cleveland; George Swayne Stewart, a member of the Norwalk Bar, now at the head of the George S. Stewart Com- pany, engaged in manufacturing ; Harlon Lincoln Stewart, formerly State senator and for a number of years publisher of the Norwalk Experiment, the leading Democratic newspaper there.
JOHN MCCAULEY, Tiffin. Judge McCauley was born in Ohio, of Scottish parents. His father, IIenry McCauley, and his mother, Susan Kelley, were both natives of Paisley, Scotland. Both of them were reared and educated in the same town, and there they were married in 1834. They emigrated to America immediately after they had joined together their lives and fortunes, and settled first in Columbiana county, Ohio, on a farm which Mr. McCauley bought. He sold this farm soon afterwards and purchased another in Wood county, on which he lived about six years; and then removed to the farm in Hancock county on which the family home was established and maintained until his death, at the age of seventy-seven, in 1881. His widow survived him twelve years, and died at the age of eighty-seven years, at the home of her son, the judge, in Tiffin. Judge McCauley was born on his father's farm in Columbiana county, December 9, 1834. His early education was obtained in the common schools of Wood and Hancock counties until he arrived at the age of sixteen years. He then entered the Academy at Republic, Seneca county, as a student, and completed his preparation for college during the next three years. At the age of nineteen he entered Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, and remained there five years. He was graduated in 1859 on completion of the classical course, and received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. It is worthy of remark that his higher education was self-acquired. With the wages earned at teaching, mostly during the winter months, he paid his own expenses from the time he was sixteen years of age-at the academy and in college. On this account longer time was occupied between the start and the finish of his academic and collegiate courses, but it was time well spent. The business of teaching enabled him to make practical application of the knowledge gained from books and at the same time was the means of a mental discipline which
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is a valuable qualification in any profession. On the first day of September, 1859, he entered the law office of Judge James Pillars, one of the able and prominent lawyers of northern Ohio, who for ten years was judge of the Court. of Common Pleas of Seneca county. He applied himself with such assiduity and studied with such well directed purpose as to be able to pass the requisite examination for admission to the Bar at the end of one year. He was exam- ined and admitted and commenced the practice in September, 1860, at Tiffin. For thirty-six years he has been engaged continuously with the duties of the profession. He entered into a business partnership with Robert G. Penning- ton in 1875, a relation which was continued four years. In 1885 he formed a partnership with Henry J. Weller, which still continues. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Seneca county in 1865, and re-elected in 1867, serving four years. In 1874 he was elected to membership in the convention to revise the State Constitution, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the death of one of the delegates. The work of the convention lasted about two months after he became a member, and his duties therein were discharged with ability. He was just forty, an age which unites the enthusiasm and ambition of youth with the dignity and prudence of middle life. In 1879 he was elected judge of the Common Pleas for the Tenth Judicial District of Ohio-a district comprising Wood, Hardin and Seneca counties. After three years of honorable service on the Bench he resigned to accept the higher office of member of the Supreme Court Commission, which was tendered hin by Governor Charles Foster in April, 1883. The duties of this commission were equally arduous and impor- tant as those of the Supreme Court. Their intelligent performance required the same legal acumen and discriminating judgment. Judge McCauley served as a member of the commission until its work was concluded, in 1885, and then returned to his practice. He has been eminently successful at the Bar by reason of his natural abilities and large acquirements, his broad and accurate knowledge of men and affairs ; his comprehensive and technical knowledge of the law; his established integrity and personal popularity. Judge McCauley has been a profound reader of the law and has given much attention to general literature ; is fond of Latin, versed in the language and is, in fact, a linguist. He has unusual intellectual strength. The character of his thought is argumentative. Naturally impulsive, he nevertheless approaches legal questions carefully, cautiously and with deliberation. He is never embarrassed in the trial of a cause, even though not entirely familiar with his witness or the points which he desires to prove. He feels his way with cau- tion until he finds that his ground is substantial. He leads the witness up step by step to the climax. He is remarkably quick and happy with apt illus- trations and appropriate argument. He is always interesting because of his readiness and impromptu speeches and his unconventional manner. He has confidence in himself and goes directly to the essence of his subject in a straightforward, logical statement, despising all finesse and intolerant of every species of subterfuge. Both his prepossessions and prejudices are strong, but his nature is genial and kindly. As a lawyer he is eminently fair in every way.
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He states a legal proposition clearly and enforces it with powerful argument. He believes in the right as defined by the law and his course is always direct, if it is possible to go straight to the point and "hew to the line." A peculi- arity of his deliberations as a judge was his marked originality. He pursued his own methods in arriving at a decision and weighed the authorities in his own balances. His individuality was never lost, but rather impressed upon his judicial opinions. His authority on the Bench was supreme. He pre- served the dignity of the position and never allowed unseemly wrangles among lawyers who practiced before him. He dispatched the business of the court with remarkable facility, and while he sometimes checked with little ceremony the harangue of a long-winded attorney, he was always ready to help a young lawyer out of an embarrassing situation. He possesses in a mar- vellous degree the faculty of meeting questions in emergencies. He is never startled or surprised and never wavers in a position deliberately taken. His convictions are deep and firm; but when convinced of error he yields promptly and gracefully. He is free from every species of vanity-is a plain, honest, fair-minded, large-hearted man. His sympathetic disposition is some- times taken advantage of by the unworthy applicant for assistance and his charity is misplaced. Occasionally his strong, impulsive utterance, inspired by sudden heat, offends ; but he is quick to recover his equability and equally ready to pardon an offense in another. His sensibilities are easily touched. and in the familiar intercourse of his family he is devotion itself. His affa bility and geniality of temper render him approachable under all circumstances, and hence his friendships are strong and his friends numerous. A vein of originality in thought and method permeates his reasoning and course of action. While on the Bench he decided in a suit for slander that "calling a man a rogue or thief was not slander, but only a reflection on general charac- ter amounting to no specific charge." He does not accept without criticism the so-called authorities, even the highest, if in his opinion they contain error. His appointment to the Supreme Court Commission was recognized by the Bar as one of peculiar fitness. His long experience, his researches in the depths of the law, as well as literature, have qualified him as a capable counsellor. His advice is freely and constantly sought by the younger members of the profes- sion, and generously given. Judge McCauley never stoops to the arts and methods of a pettifogger. Ile never encourages a client in bringing a suit that does not possess real merit. If consulted in such a case he advises the client honestly, and if there is still a disposition manifest to enter suit, declines to take the case and refers the client to another attorney. He is too high- minded to attempt to trick a court by any false pretensions, or seek to obtain a decision by questionable means. His forte is to convince by sound reason- ing and fair application of the law to the question at Bar. He goes straight to the point or the marrow of a question, stripping it of all its superficiality and reducing it to the last analysis, separating the grain from the chaff. Hence his greatest and most successful efforts are with the judges, who are capable of following his reasoning and appreciating its analysis. Before either
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nisi prius or appellate courts he is powerful in argument. The cast of his mind is such as to be free from demagogy, and others are better adapted to influence the minds of a jury ; and yet in the general practice of law he is remarkably successful. Judge McCauley is not a member of any church, any secret order, or distinctively benevolent society. He is guided by a high stand- ard of morality and dispenses charity with an open hand. He is a lawyer and a Democrat. He was married in 1864 to Miss Josephine Lockwood, daughter of Dr. Alonzo and Marinda Newcomb Lockwood, of Fostoria. Five daugh- ters were born of this union, one of whom died at the age of seventeen. The others are living.
ARIUS NYE. deceased. Arius Nye, the subject of this biography, was born in the fort at Marietta, Ohio, December 27, 1792. He was the son of Colonel Ichiabod Nye and Minerva Tupper, the daughter of General Benjamin Tupper. Both Colonel Nye and General Tupper were officers in the Continental army, who served with honor and distinction during the Revolutionary War. Gen- eral Tupper was afterwards sent out by Congress to complete the survey of certain lands lying west of Pennsylvania and north of the Ohio river, sub- sequently designated as the Northwest Territory. When his work was finished, according to the new system of surveying into sections one mile square, he paid a visit to a friend and former comrade in arms, who was in command of Fort Harmer, at the mouth of the Muskingum river. Upon returning to Massachusetts, General Tupper called upon his old army friend, General Rufus Putnam, and informed him of the beauty and fertility of the region about the Muskingum. Thereupon the tworgenerals took the initial steps which resulted in organizing the Ohio Company and colonizing the Northwest Territory. The house in which Judge Nye was born was one of the buildings erected early by members of the Ohio Company and on the company's lands inside of the stockade, as a protection from the hostile Indians. His education in boyhood was necessarily limited. As the first settlement of the Northwest Territory was at Marietta and all of the region was a vast wilder- ness over which Indians roamed at will, the introduction of schools was slow and the facilities at hand were such only as permitted the acquirement of elementary knowledge of the common branches. Communication with the old States was difficult, and the establishment of academies or high schools was delayed for some time. Judge Nye, having a strong desire for learning beyond such advancement as those pioneer common schools afforded, by diligent study and close application educated himself liberally in the English language and became a fair Latin scholar, with some assistance from a private tutor. He continued to be a zealous student during the greater part of his life. All of his writings show that he was able to express himself with elegance and precision, in excellent English. While yet a boy he was sent by his father to the town of Springfield, as it was then called (afterwards, in 1815, named Putnam, and now a part of Zanesville), to carry on mercantile business. In
Arius Age.
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July, 1814, he became the partner of his father in the firm of " I. & A. Nve." Before reaching the age of twenty-one he was elected a director in the "Muskingum Bank," at Zanesville. Merchandising was not a congenial pursuit for him at any time, and the loss of a cargo of merchandise by the sinking of a boat afforded a good excuse for abandoning the business. The goods lost had been purchased to replenish his stock, and no part of the loss was covered by insurance. This circumstance, together with his indisposition to make traffic his life work, induced him to leave off at once and take up the study of law. About 1818 or 1819 he was admitted to the Bar at Zanesville, and immediately afterwards commenced practice there, which was continued until 1823, when he was induced by his uncle, General Edward Tupper, to remove to Gallipolis. At that period the so-called sickly seasons along the valley of the Ohio carried off a large percentage of the population in two or three years, while the plague lasted. General Tupper was of the number who succumbed to the climatic disease, and after his death Mr. Nye removed to Marietta with his young family. He had, in 1815, married Rowena Spencer, daughter of Dr. Joseph Spencer, of Vienna, Wood county, Virginia, who con- tinued to be his companion and helpmeet until her death in 1842. In 1848 he was married to Caroline M. Nisson, of Newport, Rhode Island. After his removal to Marietta, in 1825, Mr. Nye continued the practice of law in Wash- ington, Athens, Meigs, Gallia, Lawrence and Morgan counties, until he was elected judge, never missing a term of court in five of the counties named. For a number of years he served as prosecuting attorney of Washington county with great ability. He was repeatedly chosen a mem- ber of the Legislature, representing Washington county three terms between 1827 and 1841. He was a senator, representing the counties of Athens, Wash- ington and Hocking in 1831-2, and again for the succeeding term. He served in both branches of the legislature with distinction and was a very able mem- ber of the committees of the Senate, on finance and the judiciary. As chair- man of the committee on banking he drafted and reported a bill to charter "The State Bank of Ohio and Branches." The bill did not pass both houses during that session, but was subsequently taken up and after some amendments enacted into law by the general assembly. As nearly all the old chartered banks had closed or failed, or reached the limit of their charters, banks were . generally organized under this law and furnished a safe, reliable currency, which continued to circulate until the National system of banking was inan- gurated during the early part of the war. In 1845 Mr. Nye was elected presi- dent judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the Eighth Circuit, comprising the counties of Washington, Athens, Meigs, Gallia, Lawrence, Scioto and Morgan. The territory was large and three terms of court were required to be held in each county every year. The labor was so exacting and severe that Judge Nye's health broke under the strain and he was obliged to resign after about four years of service on the Bench. His close application, inflexi- ble integrity and judicial temper, thorough knowledge of the law and strict impartiality ; his innate love of justice and severe conscientiousness, his grav-
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ity of manner and deep convictions, fitted him admirably for the duties of a trial judge, and his enforced retirement, for lack of physical strength to endure. the labor, was a great loss to the judiciary. Upon his recovery Judge Nye resumed practice, to which he devoted himself earnestly and successfully. He gained high reputation as a chancery lawyer and became distinguished throughout the State for that branch of practice. He was also a very consci- entious attorney, and in the fidelity with which he prosecuted the pleas of the State had no superior. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church ; was appointed lay reader for St. Luke's Parish by Bishop Chase in January, 1826, and continued to discharge the duties appertaining to the position until the parish secured a rector. Soon afterwards the building of a church was commenced, and Judge Nye was the largest contributor to the erection and furnishing of the edifice. He was indeed a most zealous and active member in everything relating to the parish and the maintenance of a pastor. He was a very benevolent man in aiding and assisting his friends and other worthy persons. Judge Nye reared a family of sons and daughters whose honorable and useful lives evidence their careful home training. One of his sons, the eldest, Arius Spencer Nye, was admitted to the Bar and practiced law with his father several years, until 1846, when he removed to Chillicothe and became cashier of the Ross county Branch of the State Bank of Ohio. He died in 1884 at Opolis, Missouri. The second son, Dudley Selden Nye, was admitted to the Bar in 1843 and practiced law with his younger brother, William Spencer Nye, who was admitted to the profession about the same time. In 1857 he went to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and there was elected county judge. He is now living at Marietta. William Spencer, the third son, men- tioned above as the partner of his elder brother, served as prosecutor one term with much ability and credit. He became attorney for the Marietta and Cin- cinnati Railroad during the time of its construction. He built up and sus- tained the reputation of an able lawyer whose early career in the profession gave prominence of great eminence had life been spared a few years longer. He died at Chillicothe in 1862. Theodore Sedgwick 'Nye, the youngest son, born to Judge Nye by his second wife, also studied law and was admitted to the Bar in New York, where he still resides. Of the daughters, two married lawyers : Harriet became the wife of Judge Henry A. Towne, of Portsmouth ; Virginia married Judge Henry Ford, of Iowa. Judge Arius Nye died at Marietta, the place of his birth, July 27, 1865, in the seventy-third year of his" age. The noble traits of his character and his upright life endeared him to the community of which he was a member for more than three score and ten years. He was pronounced a self-made man, possessing strong powers of original thought, strong convictions of duty and fine sensibilities. His influ- ence was felt by those who came in contact with him, and it was an inspira- tion to many toward higher and better things. At the time of his death he had attained a wider celebrity than any other citizen of Marietta. As a jurist, a chancery pleader and a criminal lawyer he ranked among the first in the West. Few lawyers have been permitted to contribute as much to the pro- fession, in their own lives and in their posterity, as Judge Nye.
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WILLIAM TRIMBLE MCCLINTICK, Chillicothe. W. T. McClintick was for fifty years a familiar figure at the Bar of Ross county and other counties of southern Ohio. He was born in Chillicothe, where his father was a pioneer resident, February 20, 1819, and has lived continuously in the town to the present time. His early education was obtained in the public schools and the academy at his native town. A fondness for reading, manifested almost in childhood, clearly foreshadowed a literary and professional course. Three qualities well defined in his character enabled him to advance rapidly : ambi- tion to excel, industry and persistent energy in the prosecution of a purpose. These are qualities which contribute largely to a boy's confidence in himself and his ability to overcome obstacles. At the age of fourteen he was sent to the Ohio University at Athens, where he spent one year associated in classes with young men who were his seniors by several years, an association which tended to the early development of manly traits, such as the habit of independ- ent thought and action. His course in the university was cut short by a re- quirement of the faculty to which he refused to subscribe, on returning at the opening of the second year, namely, a pledge to aid in detecting and suppress- ing disorder. The boy, who was then little more than fifteen years of age, was willing to become responsible for his own conduct, but entirely unwilling to make himself odious by the exercise of espionage on the conduct of other students. His refusal to act in such capacity terminated his connection with the Ohio University. The following year he was sent to the college at Augusta, Kentucky, an old institution under control of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, which was then enjoying its greatest prestige. His application and habit of study enabled him to complete the regular course in two years. and he was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1837. His prosecution of legal studies immediately after graduation and for three years ensuing qualified him for the honorary degree of Master of Arts, which was conferred in 1840. His course of reading in law was in the office of Creighton & Bond, the lead- ing firm of that day, both members of which had served in Congress, Colonel Bond representing the district at the period mentioned. A course of prelim- inary reading was carefully marked out for the young student by his precep- tors and pursued with the same regularity and definiteness of purpose as though his admission to the Bar depended upon his ability to comprehend and master it. Indeed, it may be said that admission to the practice of law at that time and in that place, which had been the capital of the State, did depend upon a knowledge of the underlying principles and the essential attri- butes of the law as determined by a careful and discriminating examination of the applicant's attainments. Personal standing and political influence were not accepted for knowledge of the law. Young McClintick was examined by a committee of five very able and distinguished members of the Bar, namely, Samuel F. Vinton, William V. Peck, Oscar F. Moore, John Welch and Charles Oscar Tracy. He passed the examination, received a license to practice in the Supreme Court and other courts of the State. and accepted the invitation to participate in the trial of the first case called after he entered the court
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