USA > Ohio > Bench and bar of Ohio; a compendium of history and biography, Vol. I > Part 29
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and Charles A. Mr. Craighead possessed the universal esteem both of his brethren in the profession and all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance. He passed the evening of his life in the quiet enjoyment of the fruits of the labor of other years. Time began to make ravages in his splendid physique and it became apparent to him as well as to others that his thread of life was nearly spent.
WILLIAM CRAIGHEAD, the senior member of the firm of Craighead & Craighead, is the son of Dr. John B. Craighead, for many years a prominent and leading physician of the City of Dayton, and a graduate of Philadelphia Medical College. William Craighead came to the Bar in 1860 thoroughly equipped for the profession, so far as solid, scientific, classical and legal education could go. He began practice in Dayton as the senior partner of the firm of Craig- head & Munger. He was soon afterwards elected to the office of city solicitor, and served in that capacity very acceptably for two terms. He was elected to the same office in the spring of 1892 and served three years. This is the only public office he ever accepted. He preferred to be a good lawyer rather than a politician, and no buzzing political bees ever found lodgment in his hat. In his practice at the Dayton Bar he early made the reputation of being an able, accurate, reliable lawyer, and has well sustained that reputation ever since. He continued in business with Mr. Munger for fifteen years, in which the firm enjoyed a very lucrative practice. In 1877 he became the junior partner in the firm of Craighead & Craighead, and has been a partner in the business since. When Samuel Craighead retired from practice he became the head of the firm, a position which his ability and long connection with the business enabled him . to fill to the full satisfaction of their large clientage. In December, 1867, he was married to Margaret S. Wright, of Urbana, Ohio, which proved a happy union. He is esteemed as much in his quiet home for his social qualities as he is at the Bar for his legal abilities.
CHARLES A. CRAIGHEAD, junior partner of the firm of Craighead & Craighead, is the son of Samuel and Jeanette Craighead. He is a native of Dayton, and was born August 12, 1857. His primary education was obtained in the common and high schools of his native city. He entered La Fayette College at Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1876, and was graduated in 1880. He was admitted to the Bar in 1881, and at once began active practice as junior mem- ber of the firm of Craighead & Craighead. In such distinguished company he found but little opportunity in the early years of his practice to gain public recognition, but he was getting something better-a thorough training in the principles of law and a remunerative practice. Following the footsteps of his father, he has never sought distinction outside of his profession. As he gained
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experience his father gradually relinquished his hold on the business, and the ability with which it was handled demonstrated that his mantle was to fall on worthy shoulders. The reputation established by the founder of the firm in almost half a century of active practice is being well maintained by his suc- cessors. Mr. Craighead was married November 30, 1892, to Kathleen, daughter of General Alexander McD. McCook.
MARTIN WELKER, Wooster. Honorable Martin Welker, jurist and states- man, was born on a farm in Knox county, Ohio, April 25, 1819. He came in with the pioneers of that section and his birthplace was the veritable log cabin, common to the backwoods of the period. Settlements were sparse and facili- ties for education meager. His opportunity was limited to the primitive log- cabin school, and in that only until he was fourteen years old. He prosecuted studies in the common branches, however, for three years after that time while he was engaged as clerk in a village store. He was too ambitious to continue permanently as merchant's clerk and his aspirations were to become a lawyer. In 1836 he began the study of law in the office of Honorable W. R. Sapp at Millersburg, Holmes county, at the same time continuing his literary study until he acquired a liberal English education. IIe was admitted to the Bar May 25, 1840, and was immediately received into a partnership by Major Sapp, his preceptor, remaining with him in practice for six years. He served part of a term as clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Holmes county. In 1840 he was editor of a Whig paper at Millersburg and supported the candidacy of Gen- eral Harrison for President. In 1848 he was nominated as the Whig candi- date for Congress and made a vigorous canvass, but was defeated only because of the preponderance of Democrats in the district. He declined a second nomination for Congress in 1850. Resigning his clerkship in 1851, he resumed the practice of law in partnership with Thomas Armour, whose sister, Miss Maria Armour, he had married in March, 1841. In 1851, at the first election held under the second Constitution of the State, he was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the Sixth District, composed of the counties of Coshocton, Licking, Holmes, Delaware, Morrow, Richland, Ashland and Wayne, and served the full term of five years. He was defeated for re-election in 1856 by the large Democratic majority in Holmes, Coshocton and Wayne counties, which composed his sub-district. In 1857 he settled at Wooster and formed a partnership with Judge Levi Cox, who had preceded him on the Common Pleas Bench. For the last forty years he has been a citizen of Wooster and a leader in the highest and best sense. During much of that period he has held public office of a judicial or political character and has honored every office he was called upon to fill. In 1857 he was elected lieu- tenant governor on the Republican ticket with Governor Samuel P. Chase, and ยท declined a renomination for the same office two years later. As president of the Senate he was dignified, courteous, firm and impartial. In May, 1861, he
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was appointed judge advocate of the Second Brigade Ohio Volunteer Militia by Governor Dennison and mustered into the service of the United States April 15th with the rank of major, on the staff of General J. D. Cox. On the 10th of August, 1861, he was commissioned aid-de-camp to Governor William Dennison, with the rank of colonel, and served as acting judge advocate gen- eral and paymaster general until the close of the governor's term, occupying a confidential relation with the governor. In May, 1862, under an appointment by Governor Tod, he took command of the Emma Duncan and made a trip to Pittsburg Landing with several physicians to bring home sick and wounded soldiers; was in front at the evacuation of Corinth. In 1862 he was appointed by Governor Tod assistant adjutant general and superintendent of the draft in Ohio, of which he had the management so long as the order existed. He was again nominated for Congress in 1862, by the Republicans of the fourteenth district, comprisiug the counties of Holmes, Wayne, Ashland, Medina and Lorain, but was defeated by only thirty-six votes. The election came at a time when many thousand Republicans were enlisting or engaged in the ser- vice in the field, and his own duties in connection with the draft prevented his making the canvass which doubtless would have resulted in election. Two years later he was elected as the Republican candidate in the same district by a majority of twenty-five hundred; was re-elected in 1866 and again in 1868, serving for six years. During the three terms he was a mem- ber of the committee on the District of Columbia, and other important committee service was on the Private Land Claims and the committee of Retrenchment and Reform, both of which he served as chairman. He was the real author of the first act of Congress providing for the parking of the streets in Washington, which has contributed so much to the comfort and beauty of that magnificent city, and made it the most beautiful city in the world. He was influential in the business of reconstruction, which occupied the attention of Congress during the whole period of his service, and actively participated in the legislation adopted, having made one of the earliest speeches on that subject in committee of the whole. In 1873 Judge Welker was appointed by President Grant to succeed Honorable Charles T. Sherman as judge of the United States Court for the Northern District of Ohio, and discharged the duties of that office until June, 1889, retiring with honor under the constitutional provision on account of age. Judge Welker not only presided over the District Court, but occupied the bench of the Circuit Court much of the time in the absence of the circuit judge, and sat with him when present. His large experience in business and political affairs, his ripe judgment, his clear discernment, his pure character and his upright life commended him to the Bar, and enabled him to render special service to the profession and the litigants who came under his jurisdiction. He is in the best sense a self-made man, and his career has been remarkable not less for the numerous positions he has filled and his advancements either by appointment or popular election, than for the fidelity and ability with which he has performed the duties of every office. His education is none the less thorough because self-acquired,
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and his scholarship was recognized by Wooster University in conferring upon him the honorary degree of LL. D. He was professor of political science and constitutional and international law in that university. As a plain, unvarnished fact it may be asserted that he is a statesman whose work in Congress was permanent and valuable; a lawyer and jurist who has fairly gained a high position and always held the highest respect of his professional brethren. He has taken interest in the affairs of his county and town by active connection with important enterprises, serving as president of the Wooster National Bank and the County Fair Association. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. The little city in which he has so long resided is proud of her first citizen. He owns a beautiful farm near the city which has been brought to a fine state of cultivation, and which is beautiful for situation. It has been his aim for several years to make a model farm. In 1892 he published a very entertaining volume of about one hundred pages, entitled "Farm Life Sixty Years Ago." The volume is not only read with interest by the present genera- tion, but is found to be instructive, containing much excellent advice to the farmer of the present day. One object of the work appears to have been to picture the farm life so attractively as to induce young men to remain in the country and cultivate the soil. A second edition of this volume was published in 1895 by the Western Reserve Historical Society at Cleveland, In an address before the State Bar Association July 17, 1895, Judge Welker argued strongly in favor of his profession, and established the importance of the lawyer in organized society. A single extract is sufficient to show the drift and strength of his argument.
"I know it is often said that lawyers are not needed ; that they are useless as well as expensive members of our body politic. This is a great mistake. As our laws now stand, with their necessarily wide range, their intricacies, their diversified subjects, covering the great improvements of the day, in the arts, in commerce, and the progress of the age in every department of business, embodied as they are in thousands of volumes of books, reports of courts and statutes, it takes the life work of an exclusive class of men, specially trained for that purpose, to understand and administer them in our courts, so that right and justice may be meted out in litigation. There always will be con- troversies among the people. Men will not understand or view things alike. Disputes will grow up as to the rights of person and of property, and whose settlement is of great consequence in every community. These must be set- tled by the lawyers, or as a last resort, the courts. This is most frequently accomplished by lawyers, without law-suits. Grave questions of professional ethics are often presented to the lawyer as to his duty to the court and that demanded by his client. The official duty of his office, as an attorney, is to aid the court and the jury in the correct administration of the law. It is not his duty to misrepresent and thereby prevent its proper application. It is right and proper that fair, legitimate arguments be presented, bearing upon the side of his client, and that they be put in their strongest and most promi- nent form. Whether his client is right or wrong, he is not to be the judge- that question is determined by the tribunal trying the cause. It is questioned whether it is the duty of the attorney to undertake his client's cause when he must know he is wrong. The answer to this is, how does he know it until he hears the evidence on both sides as developed on the trial ? Then in all trials
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there are usually two sides ; each party is entitled to a fair hearing ; and to insure that, both sides must be presented. In criminal cases the law presumes the defendant to be innocent, until proven guilty, and the attorney has no right to presume the guilt of his client, but is bound to employ his utmost ability and skill in the defense. It is sometimes thought that the great field of the lawyer is in the court room, before judges and jury. with an admiring crowd around him, where he contends for the right of his client. This no doubt appeals to his ambition and love of applause, and is exceedingly gratify- ing to his desire for excitement and controversy, and affords him an opportu- nity to use his logic, eloquence and wit. But his greatest work is in the silence of his office. There he works out the arguments and hunts up the authorities that win his client's cause. There he comprehends and elaborates the principles applicable to his case, that overthrow in the public contests all opposition."
The judge was married January 16, 1896, to Miss Flora Uhl, of Cleve- land, his first wife having died a few years before. He resides in his beauti- ful homestead on Beall avenue, surrounded with trees, shrubbery and flowers, on grounds containing some two acres, where he occupies his leisure in read- ing and keeping up with the times in public and general progress of the day, and in writing articles for magazines, newspapers, etc. In this way he is trying to close up peacefully and quietly an active and busy life.
J. WARREN KEIFER, Springfield. General Keifer is a native of Clark county, Ohio. He was born January 30, 1836, on a farm about six miles from Springfield. His father, Joseph Keifer, was a native of Washington county, Maryland, a civil engineer by education and a farmer by occupation. His mother, Mary Smith, was a native of Hamilton county, Ohio. His education was obtained in the public schools of the county, supplemented by a course in Antioch College, at Yellow Springs, under the presidency of Horace Mann. Choosing the law for a profession, he entered the office of Charles Anthony, Springfield, as a student, in 1856, and two years later was admitted to the Bar. He began practice at Springfield in 1858. Possessing fine natural abilities as an orator, and being an indefatigable worker, he had laid the foundation for a fine practice when the firing on Sumter caused the Nation to take up arms. J. Warren Keifer was among the first to offer his services. He entered the contest with the zeal of a patriot and the vigor of forceful manhood. He took an active part in organizing the Third Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and when it was mustered into the service, April 27, 1861, he was commissioned as major of the regiment. The first enlistment was for three months, but the regiment saw no active service before it re-enlisted for three years. Major Keifer was among those who re-enlisted. His regiment was joined to McClel- lan's army, and its first seasoning under fire was at Rich Mountain. In the winter of 1862 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel of his regi- ment, and again in September was promoted to the colonelcy and placed in command of the One Hundred and Tenth Ohio Infantry. He was slightly
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wounded at the battle of Winchester, while commanding a brigade in General Milroy's Corps. His judgment did not coincide with the dilatory tactics of General Hooker, but he was too good a soldier to complain. He did write friends in Springfield just what would happen should Lee start north. After the disastrous affair at Winchester, he was with his command at Maryland Heights, and when Milroy's command was ordered to join General Meade, General Keifer was ordered to dismantle the works and take the guns to Wash- ington. He missed Gettysburg, but was thereafter attached to the army of the Potomac. He was severely wounded in the battle of the Wilderness by a rifle ball passing through his arm, shattering both bones; but returned to his command in August, carrying his arm in a sling. He was with Sheridan. In the battle of Opequon, Virginia, September 19th, while in command of a brigade in the Third Division, Sixth Corps, he was again struck by a fragment of shell, but not disabled. During the battle of Cedar Creek, which resulted in the rout of Early's army, General Keifer was in command of the Third Division, Sixth Army Corps, and led the successful charge on the Confederate center that decided the battle. For gallant conduct in that battle he was brevetted brigadier general. He commanded the Third Division in the final charge on the intrenchments at Petersburg, which resulted in the capture of the town. His command was with Sheridan in his masterly pursuit of Lee, and he won his final promotion at the battle of Sailor Creek, for a piece of strategic work and a brilliant charge, which captured the flower of the Confederate army. He was promoted to the rank of major general and ordered to join Sherman in North Carolina, but happily his services were not needed, as the Confederate army surrendered before his arrival. He was mustered out of the service in June, 1865. On the recommendation of Generals Grant and Meade he was appointed lieutenant colonel in the regular army, but he declined to accept the commission. Fighting for the preservation of his country was one thing, and routine duty in the regular army quite another. He returned to Springfield and took up the threads of his business that were so suddenly dropped in 1861. For the next few years he devoted himself entirely to his law practice. He took a deep interest in the welfare of disabled soldiers and the relicts of those who lost their lives in the service. He was the department commander of the Grand Army of the Republic and in that capacity organized the board of con- trol of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home at Xenia, in 1868, which two years later passed into the control of the State. He represented his district in the State Senate during the years 1868 and 1869. Though General Keifer had won distinguished honors, he was still a young man and was just beginning at this time to make a strong impression on the Bar and courts of his county. During the next decade his reputation as a lawyer and advocate became firmly established, and he was recognized as one of the leading lawyers of the State. In 1876 he was elected to represent the Eighth Ohio District in the Forty-Fifth Congress, and was re-elected to the Forty-Sixth, Forty-Seventh and Forty- Eighth Congresses. When Blaine entered the Senate his mantle as leader of the Republican minority on the floor of the House fell on General Keifer's
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shoulders, and when in the Forty-seventh Congress the Republicans had a majority he was nominated and elected speaker of the House. He discharged the trying duties incident to controlling one of the most turbulent deliberative bodies on earth, to the satisfaction of fair-minded men on both sides of the House. He succeeded Honorable Samuel J. Randall, the able and fearless leader from Pennsylvania, and was himself succeeded as speaker in the Forty- eighth Congress by another Democrat of equal prominence, Honorable John G. Carlisle, of Kentucky. General Keifer was nominated by his party's caucus, then in the minority, and received the complimentary party vote as an endorsement of his course in the speaker's chair. As a debater he had few superiors on the floor of the House. Early in his congressional career he took rank as an active worker in committee and as one of the leaders of his party. During the eight years he represented his constituents of the Eighth District in Congress, he served on important committees and was so thoroughly identi- fied with all the legislation of that body that even a brief synopsis of his work as a national legislator is not possible in this sketch. At the close of the Forty-eighth Congress General Keifer retired from official life in order to give his attention to his private business and his law practice. Being a Republican, an active man, and a strong campaign speaker, he has been at the call of his party, taking an active part in every State and Presidential cam- paign for the past thirty years. Though he has been very prominent in polit- ical affairs, he has kept singularly clear of contentions within the party and thus escaped factional malice. The preferment that came to him he accepted from a sense of duty and was never pressing his own claims for a nomination or taking any active part in disbursing party spoils. He has a large law practice and finds his time fully occupied in looking after that and his extensive per- sonal business. He has the esteem of his professional brethren, the respect of the American people, and the admiration of his neighbors of all shades of political belief. His manners have always been marked by extreme courtesy and they are just as polished to the humble caller as to the titled or the wealthy citizen. He was married to Miss Eliza Stout, of Clark county, March 22, 1860. They have three sons living. J. Warren Keifer, Jr., is conducting a large stock ranch in Kansas. William W. and Horace C. are both attorneys at the Spring- field Bar and junior members of the law firm of which their father is the head.
CHARLES C. SHEARER, Xenia. Honorable Charles Clinton Shearer is judge of the Second Judicial Circuit and Chief Justice of the Circuit of Ohio. He is a native of the State, having been born at Xenia, October 8, 1840. He is of German-Irish extraction. His father, John Shearer, who descended from German ancestors, was a cabinet maker and furniture maker in Xenia. The ancestors of his mother were Irish. He received a practical and academic education in the public schools and the classical academy at Xenia, but was not permitted to enjoy the advantages of a course in college. After leaving
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school he was employed for some time as book-keeper by different firms and corporations, until the war of the Rebellion opened. He tendered his services to the government as a volunteer in 1861, but was rejected by the medical examiners. In deciding to enter the profession of law he was influenced in some degree by his own inclination and largely by the advice of friends who recognized his natural fitness for the profession. For a term of four years he sedulously pursued the preliminary studies, and was admitted to practice in May, 1866. After four years alone he formed a partnership with Honorable John Little, under the firm name and style of Little & Shearer. This associa- tion for business was maintained seventeen years, during which the firm acquired a very large practice and a reputation scarcely second to any in that section of the State. Judge Shearer had treasured valuable stores of learning by reading and study before he began the study of law. His mental
powers were sufficiently matured to analyze and utilize his acquirements. He had been a careful reader of books and a close observer of the proceedings of courts, and was able, therefore, to become a recognized power at the Bar of his county very soon. His resolute determination not to abandon the profes- sion for political office, or even allow his allegiance to be divided or distracted by political and partisan interests, contributed largely to his professional success and standing. He devoted the best powers of his intellect and all of his acquired abilities to the profession. He respected the jealousy of his mistress-the law-and never gave occasion for the manifestation of it by flirting with other pursuits. Entertaining strong convictions on vital ques- tions of political economy, and exercising the right of individual judgment in determining his political relations, he has been a member of the Republican party and a supporter of its politics ; but he has not turned aside from the pro- fessional course to ask partisan favors or seek political office. He has not. been a candidate for any office apart from the administration of the law. In 1872 he was clected prosecuting attorney and re-elected in 1874, holding the position two terms and discharging its trying duties with incorruptible fidelity. In 1886 he was elected judge of the Circuit Court as the candidate of the Republican party, and before the close of his first term he was re-elected, in 1892, for a second, which will expire with the present century. His work on the Bench has been entirely creditable and honorable to himself. It has been eminently satisfactory to members of the Bar and the public. In September. 1896, he was elected Chief Justice of the Circuit Court of Ohio, and took the office January 1, 1897. His career is briefly characterized by able members of the profession who know him intimately: Judge Shearer has a very high reputation, both as a citizen and a jurist. Hc belongs to that class who raise themselves by their own efforts, by virtue of their own abilities and perseverance. He did not have the valuable aid of influential friends in getting a start ; neither did he have the advantage of a collegiate edu- cation, and yet he is a well educated man. Ile is one of those who con- sider the cducation never completed ; who realize that however much has been learned there is still more that may be learned by intelligent
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