USA > Ohio > Bench and bar of Ohio; a compendium of history and biography, Vol. I > Part 30
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application. He is and has been from his youth a close student, both of text-books and general literature. Soon after beginning the practice he made a reputation as a strong lawyer. During the years of his association with Mr. Little he attended to most of the office and chancery practice of the firm ; although from this circumstance it must not be inferred that he was not a successful trial lawyer. He is a good all round lawyer, but seems best fitted by nature for the Bench, or chancery practice. He is methodical and conserv- ative, has an accurate knowledge of law, an equitable mind, discriminating judgment, is clear and concise in his statements. As a judge his decisions are marked by fairness ; they have not only given satisfaction, but have also stood well the test of the higher courts. He is a man of strong parts and his pro- fession is his pride. He is regarded one of the best informed men on the legal code in the State. His service on the Circuit Bench now covers a period of nearly ten years, the last three of which he has been presiding judge. He is well qualified to fill the highest judicial office in the State. All who know him have unbounded confidence in his integrity and hold him in the highest esteem as a citizen. One of the most prominent and widely known jurists of the State says Judge Shearer is a man of strong intellect, well adapted, both by nature and education, for the judicial ermine. He has a logical and analyt- ical mind, which has been disciplined into a full and accurate knowledge of legal principles and decisions acquired by many years of industrious study and practice, and ten years of efficient service on the Bench of the Circuit Court. His readings have not been confined to the legal code. He is a student of nature as well as of books and a close observer of passing events. This has broadened his mind and increased his capacity for the judicial office. He is full of his- torical and legal knowledge, and of sufficient courage and conscience not to hesitate in the performance of any duty. Upright and honorable himself, his work on the Bench bears the impress of his impartiality. He has honored his profession by a strict adherence to his duties connected with it. He has not turned aside for the alluring field of politics or other employment. He is a lawyer and a judge from choice and love of the profession. As a lawyer he was successful, as a judge his career has been most honorable. The education which he acquired under preceptors has been supplemented by knowledge gleaned from a wide range of literature and by the wisdom which comes from years of active practice at the Bar and the performance of judicial duties in one of the most important courts of the State. Judge Shearer has not neglected the cultivation of his social faculties. He is a member of the Masonic order, as well as clubs in Dayton and Columbus. He was married in 1872 and has one daughter living. He has a pronounced taste for home life, where he delights to spend his leisure hours with his family.
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RALPH BUCKLAND, deceased. The Bucklands of Sandusky county are of English descent. Their settlement in Ohio dates from the beginning of the present century. For at least two generations prior to that time they resided in New England. The founder of the family in America was a citizen of Hartford in colonial times. Stephen Buckland, of East Hartford, a son of the aforementioned, was a patriot and a brave soldier during the Rev- olutionary War. He commanded first an independent company of artillery, which afterwards was mustered into the regular service of the Continental Army and stationed for a time at Ticonderoga. Afterwards he was a captain in the Third Regiment of Continental Artillery and served with Gates in his campaign against Burgoyne. He was for a time on command at Fort Arnold, at West Point. About the time the war closed he became captain of a pri- vateer, which was captured in April, 1872, by the British brig, Perseverance. From that time until his death the following month he was kept in close con- finement with other officers and his crew, in the "Old Jersey," the British Prison Ship, where he died May 7, 1782. His wife was Miss Mary Olmsted, by whom he had six children. The youngest of these was Ralph Buckland, born July 28, 1781. He was married in Massachusetts to Aun E. Kent, who became the mother of his three children. In 1811 Ralph Buckland came to Ohio as a surveyor and land agent, settling in Portage county. The following year he returned to Massachusetts and removed his wife and two infant children to his new home in the West. The entire journey was made in a sleigh, with one horse. One of the children, a daughter, died on the way and was buried at Albany, New York. A short time after his arrival with his family in Ohio he volunteered and marched, July 4, 1812, with Captain Campbell's company, in which he was second sergeant. The destination was Detroit, then in com- mand of General Hull, who was governor of the territory of Michigan. Before the arrival of the company, which had been subjected to suffering and hardship by the march through the wilderness, without sufficient provisions or camp equipments, General Hull surrendered, not only the garrison at Detroit but also the recruits en route to reinforce him. Mr. Buckland, with his com- mand, was therefore paroled as a prisoner of war at the River Raisin and returned to his home at Ravenna, where he died May 23, 1813. He left two sons, Ralph Pomeroy, the principal subject of this biographical sketch, and Stephen, who carried on the business of druggist at Fremont for nearly forty years.
RALPH POMEROY BUCKLAND was born at Leyden, Massachusetts, January 20, 1812, and within a very few weeks thereafter was brought by his parents to Ravenna, Ohio. As stated above, his father died the following year, and some time afterwards his mother became the wife of Dr. Luther Hanchett. His boyhood was spent at farm work and in the district school, which at that time was exceedingly primitive. Most of the time he was
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engaged"at work for an uncle, in Mantua ; for two years he was employed in a woolen factory at Kendall and one year in a store as clerk. At the age of eighteen'he attended the academy at Tallmadge, Ohio, in which he took up the study of Latin. His education did not embrace a complete college course, but he spent a year in Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio. He was fond of lan- guage and spent considerable time in the study of Latin and French, both at home and in the South. In the fall of 1831, before attaining the age of twenty, he shipped on a flatboat loaded with a cargo of cheese, at Akron, on the Ohio canal. The voyage was scheduled thence down the Muskingum river to the Ohio, thence to the Mississippi and down that to Natchez. Young Buckland worked his way from Louisville to Natchez as a deck passenger, on the Daniel Boone. Arrived at Natchez, he secured employment in a cominer- cial house, and soon afterwards was placed in charge of some flatboats loaded by his employers for the New Orleans market. Having disposed of his cargo, he remained in New Orleans in charge of a commission house owned by his Natchez employers. He was industrious, economical and prudent, denying himself the luxuries and indulgences which seemed to be essential to many of his companions. He was strictly temperate and strong enough in will to con- trol his appetites, and thus succeeded in forming the excellent habits which characterized all of his subsequent life. He employed his time sedulously in business during the hours devoted to work, and with equal diligence employed his hours of leisure in the acquirement of useful information and a review of his academic text-books. His money was saved, and the habit of saving then formed was the foundation of the substantial fortune which he afterwards accumulated. In three years he returned to Ohio to visit his mother, without having at the time any intention of abandoning New Orleans as a place of residence. He decided, however, to remain north and spend a year in Kenyon College. At the end of that time he took up the study of law at Middlebury under the instruction of Gregory Powers, then a prominent lawyer of the place. His preparatory studies were completed in the office of Whittlesey & Newton, at Canfield, and he was admitted to the Bar in the spring of 1837. During the previous winter he was associated with George B. Way, then editor of the Toledo Blade, and became editor pro tem. of that paper himself during the temporary absence of Mr. Way. His location at Lower San- dusky, now Fremont, was entirely fortuitous. He started out with fifty dollars in his pocket in search of a desirable location for the practice of law. It was in the days of wild-cat currency, when bank bills fluctuated in value, rarely remaining at par more than forty-eight hours, or passing current a hundred miles from the bank of issue. Arrived at this place, he found his capital valueless, and was obliged to obtain credit for a week's board. Undaunted and determined, he hung out his shingle announcing his readiness for clients. His natural ability and acquire- ments. supported by his pluck and energy, soon brought business to his office and he slowly began to accumulate the means to pay the few small debts incurred and for the comfortable living of later years. His character
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established his credit, even before he had the means to pay. He was method- ical, industrious, devoted to his profession and to his family. In 1846 he formed a partnership with Rutherford B. Hayes, who, thirty years later, was President of the United States, and the partnership continued three years, until the removal of Mr. Hayes to Cincinnati. His later partnerships in the law were with Homer Everett, James H. Fowler, and last with his sons. He had always been a student of politics, and his views were strong and well defined. He was first a Whig and afterwards a Republican, from the time of the organization of the latter party. He served as mayor of his town and filled other positions in the corporation, and was elected to the State Senate in 1855 and again in 1857. In that body he was a working member, whose powers of original thought enabled him to conceive useful legislation, and whose character and courtesy gave him influence with fellow senators. He was the author of a wholesome law for the adoption of infants. Prominent among the traits inherited from his ancestors was the instinct of patriotism. It was quite natural for him to become a soldier when the integrity of the country was menaced. In October, 1861, he was appointed lieutenant colonel with authority to recruit and organize a regiment. Thus commissioned, he organized the Seventy-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was mustered into the service with himself as colonel, January 10, 1862. In February he reported with his command to General Sherman at Paducah, Kentucky, was assigned to the Fourth Brigade, First Division, Army of the Tennessee, and placed in command of the brigade. As a soldier he was always alert and ready for duty. He took an early and extremely active part in the battle of Shiloh, and even those who are most severe in their criticism of the management of that battle admit that there was no surprise as far as General Buckland was concerned. He has written several articles about this battle which are pub- lished in one of the annual volumes issued by the society of the Army of the Tennessee, of which society he was long a member; and a short sketch pre- pared at the request of the war department and now on file in Washington, D. C. In that bloody conflict he earned enduring fame as a military bero. An officer who knew him well pronounced him the best soldier of his age in the volunteer servicc. General Sherman accorded him high praise for bravery and coolness at Shiloh, and for the splendid services which his brigade rendered. Ilis soldiers were not panic-stricken, but when compelled to fall back did it in an orderly manner, contesting every foot of the field during the first day's battle, and aided in sweeping the enemy from the field on the second day. The great commander, Grant, recognized Colonel Buckland's skill in a letter to General Sherman, November 10, 1862, in which he says : "I will not be able to send you any general officers, unless possibly one to take command of the forces that will be left at Memphis. Stuart and Buckland will both command brigades, as well as if they had the commissions, which they should and I hope will hold." General Buckland possessed in a high degree the qualities which made a successful commander. He was not only brave, but calm in the midst of danger, able under all circumstances to take in a situation and make
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use of the best means to meet an emergency. He was composed, resolute and tactful. His administrative abilities were fully exemplified as commander of the district of Memphis, a position in which he was placed by General Sherman. While serving in the field, he was elected to Congress in the fall of 1864, but remained at his post until the sixth of January following, when his resigna- tion was tendered. In August, 1866, he was commissioned brevet major general United States volunteers, for meritorious service in the field, the rank to date from May 3, 1865. He deserved the actual rank of major general at the hands of Congress, for he several times commanded a division, notably at Big Black in August, 1863, when, General J. M. Tuttle having obtained leave of absence, by order of General Sherman he assumed command of the Third Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, and remained in command until the first of September following. And during the absence of General S. A. Hurlburt, commanding department, with General Sherman on his Mississippi expedition in February and March, he had command of all the troops in West Tennessee. General Buckland remained in Congress four years during the exciting period of reconstruction and then returned to his home and his long neglected law practice. His son, Horace S., first became associated with him in the firm of Buckland & Buckland, and later his youngest son, George, became a member of the firm. He was a lawyer of ability, taking up the business of a client conscientiously and performing all of his duties with fidelity. He was thorough in preparation, careful in management. During a long career at the Bar in the town where his practice was begun he built up a reputation that is more valuable and enduring than any property interests, although he was successful in accumulating property. His faith in the future of his town was manifested by the erection of business buildings of a substantial character before others projected similar improvements. He was a leader in public enterprise and in civil life, as he was in the army. Evidences of his enterprise remain after he is gone. He was married at Canfield in 1838 to Miss Charlotte Boughton, who was his companion during his long and useful career, and who still lives. Their children were Ralph Boughton Buckland, who died at Fremont in 1880; Ann Kent Buckland, wife of Charles M. Dillon; two sons who died in infancy ; Caroline Nichols Buckland, who died at Memphis at the age of sixteen ; Mary, who died at the age of six; Horace Stephen, attorney at law, now serving as judge of the Court of Common Pleas ; and George, who is also an attorney at law in Fremont. General Buckland died at his home in Fremont May 27, 1892.
HORACE STEPHIEN BUCKLAND, one of the sons of the late General Ralph Pomeroy Buckland, was born in Fremont, April 21, 1851. His educa- tion was begun in the public schools of his native city, continued in the pre- paratory schools at Gambier, Ohio, and East Hampton, Massachusetts, after which he took a course in Cornell University, and finished by completing the
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course in the Law Department of Harvard University at Cambridge. This very full and thorough preliminary study was supplemented by a course of reading in the text-books of law and in practice with his father until August 16, 1875, when he was admitted to the Bar. Soon afterwards he was admit- ted to a partnership with his father, and the relationship was continued until the death of the latter. He is a lawyer by inheritance, taste, study and prac- tice. During the twenty years after his admission to the Bar he was engaged in a general practice of the law, and his success was commensurate with his ample preparation. His natural abilities, fortified with an instinct for the principles as well as the intricate problems of the law, combine to give liim success as a practitioner ; while his judicial temperament, his disposition to investigate a subject until he learns all there is to be known concerning it; his strict impartiality, acuteness of discrimination, and his integrity, complete his qualifications for the Bench. He was nominated in a judicial convention of the Republican party at Sandusky, July 26, 1895, after one of the most excit- ing contests ever witnessed in the State, occupying two days and requiring 147 ballots. His nomination was unanimous and so universally acceptable that his election in the November following was a triumph unprecedented in the dis- trict. The Fourth Judicial district, in which he was elected, comprises the counties of Erie, Huron, Lucas, Ottawa and Sandusky, every one of which he carried except Ottawa. His majority was nearly eight thousand in the dis- trict, the largest ever given to any candidate. He entered upon his judicial duties as judge of the Court of Common Pleas, May 9, 1896. His record has been satisfactory to the Bar and the public, and his decisions have generally been sustained by the Appellate Courts. Judge Buckland is connected with various enterprises which contribute to the business and prosperity of his city. He was chosen to succeed General R. B. Hayes as a director of the Birchard Library Association. His enterprise is manifested by his support of the indus- tries and organizations which contribute to the growth and the progress of his city, giving both of his time and means for such purposes. He inherited also a military instinct or taste which has been exercised in the organization and command of local companies, as well as of others national in scope. In 1884 he organized the Buckland Guards, named in honor of Chester A. Buckland, his cousin, who died during the late war from wounds received at the battle of Shiloh. For seven years Judge Buckland was captain of this company, and dur- ing that time it won national reputation. In 1891 he was elected colonel of the First Regiment, S. of V. Guards. In 1893 he was elected commandant of the S. of V. Guards of the United States, with the rank of general, and had under his command several thousand men well drilled, and fully armed and equipped at their own expense. His regiment declined to accept his resignation upon his election as commandant, but gave him indefinite leave of absence. In 1894, as commander of the guards, he held two field encampments, one at Davon- port, Iowa, and the other at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in connection with the G. A. R. encampment. He planned the sham battle at the Iowa encampment, which has been pronounced one of the finest in which civilians ever engaged.
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His regiment won high reputation for efficiency and skill in military maneu- vers and the manual of arms at the encampments in Washington, D. C., in Columbus, and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Judge Buckland is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the Sons of the American Revolution, and the Order of the Loyal Legion. He is a broad man, of generous impulses and large acquaintance. He was married June 10, 1878, to Elizabeth C. Bauman.
GEORGE BUCKLAND, Fremont. The subject of this sketch, who is the youngest son of the late Ralph Pomeroy Buckland and Charlotte Boughton Buckland, was born at Fremont, August 18, 1859. He passed through the public schools of Fremont, and was graduated from the high school. He took the course in the Law School of Cincinnati College, from which he was grad- uated with the degree of LL. B. He studied law in the office of his father and brother, with whom he became associated in partnership after his admission to the Bar, in 1886. He continued to practice as a member of the firm of Buck- land & Buckland until 1892, when he went to Cincinnati and entered into prac- tice there. After the election of his brother, H. S. Buckland, to the Bench, the affairs of his father's estate demanded his presence at Fremont as an executor, and he returned to that city and succeeded to the law business which his father had established. He was married November 18, 1891, to Miss Grace, daughter of John C. and Mary Huntington, of Cincinnati, and the marriage has been favored by the birth of a daughter, Mary Huntington Buckland.
SILAS MARION DOUGLASS, Mansfield. The subject of this sketch counts among his many virtues the cardinal one of modesty, or, if modesty be not numbered among the cardinal virtues, it ought to be, since it is so uncom- mon. Feeling, therefore, a natural hesitation in presenting to the public a laudatory autobiography, he selects as a biographer one who will bring a charity of judgment to the task, that will gloss his shortcomings if, perad- venture, there be any. And who so likely to be " to his virtues very kind, and to his faults a little blind," as his wife ? She is not handicapped by the pro- prieties of the situation, and, while she will "naught extenuate," the reader may be sure that she will " set down naught in malice." Silas Marion Douglass was born on a farm in Richland county, Ohio, on New Year's Day, 1853. His racial characteristics may be said to be rather composite, since his father was a Scotch-Irishman and his mothor German-French. His grandfather, Samuel Douglass, removed from Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, to Ohio, in 1829, and obtained a grant of land by patent. His father, John J. Douglass, inherited the farm, and Marion and Augustus Douglass have become, in their turn, the owners of the land. Born and raised on the farm, which had belonged to his grandfather, Marion grew up a tppical country boy, a true child of the
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soil, tow-headed and freckled, bare of feet and stubbed of toe, checked as to his shirt and patched as to his trousers. He remained on the farm until he was twenty-one, attending a country school, and later an academy in Ashland county. Finally, against the wish of his father, who, though he did not under- value educational advantages, and was fairly well educated himself, wished his son to remain on the farm, he went to Wittenberg College, in Springfield, and afterward to Heidelberg, in Tiffin, from which institution he was graduated in 1879. While at Heidelberg he was elected by the faculty of the college to represent that institution at the State Oratorical Contest held at Westerville, Ohio, in 1878. Of his struggles to obtain the means for an education it is needless to speak at length. It suffices to say that he taught school and kept up with his classes, was a tutor while in college, put in crops at home, and finally obtained his degree. He then read law with Judge May, of Mansfield, and in 1882 he entered the Senior year of the Cincinnati Law School, from which he was graduated with honor in June of 1883. He was chosen as one of the orators out of a class of seventy-nine to debate the question: "Should Trial by Jury be Abolished ?" at the commencement exercises of the Cincinnati Law School. In July, 1883, he opened an office in Mansfield, his first part- ner being the city solicitor, John A. Connolly, and began the practice of his profession. It is said that to call forth all the latent energy of a man and make success a foregone conclusion, it is only necessary that he should saddle himself with a wife, a baby and a debt. Being a brave youth, and having the debt already, he hurried to provide himself with the remaining conditions of success, namely, a wife, and later on, a baby. On the 10th of October, 1883, Mr. Douglass married the writer of this sketch, whose maiden name was May Weagley. She is the eldest daughter of Captain William Hilary and Eleanora Weagley, of Bellville, Ohio. To Judge and Mrs. Douglass were born four children. On the 12th of September, 1884, a son appeared upon the scene, who was named Stephen Augustus Douglass. Fol- lowing closely on his heels, a year and a half later, came a baby girl, born March 27, 1886, who was named for her maternal grandmother Eleanor May Douglass. After an interval of eight years, another little daughter came on the 29th of April, 1894, to gladden the hearts of her parents. She was a dear little blue-eyed, sunny-haired girl, but she fell a victim to that dread disease diphtheria on the 17th of March, 1897. She was named Marian Hilary, and when a new little brother came on the 12th of June, 1896, who was named Marion Drexel, and she was thereafter called by her second name, Hilary, she always insisted in an injured way that "baby brother tooked her name." Modesty is a characteristic of this Douglass family, and while the writer feels that she ought to efface herself as far as possible, she yet cannot but remind herself of the saying that "if any man blow not his own trumpet that man's trumpet will not be blown "; therefore, in justice to herself, she would like to say that she thinks Mr. Douglass did not do badly for himself in marrying her. As wife and mother she has looked faithfully after buttons and strings, manners and morals, grub
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