USA > Ohio > Bench and bar of Ohio; a compendium of history and biography, Vol. I > Part 39
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daughter, Cecilia, who died at the age of twenty-three. She was a most charming young woman in all the graces of person and the attributes of mind. Her vivacity, sweetness of temper, and loveliness of character lent a distinct attractiveness to;the delightful home, and her early death brought to the hearts of doting parents the deepest grief. In remembrance of her inspiring virtues, and as a fitting memorial, Judge Stanbery erected at Pomeroy a handsome rectory in connection with Grace Episcopal Church, one of the most artistically beautiful church edifices in Southern Ohio, in architecture and adornment.
ALBERT C. THOMPSON, Portsmouth. Honorable Albert Clifton Thomp- son was born in Brookville, Pennsylvania, January 23, 1842. He was the third son of the Honorable J. J. Y. and Agnes (Kennedy) Thompson. His boyhood was spent in his native village until a lad of twelve years, when he entered the preparatory department of Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, where he remained two years, giving up his academic pursuits, and returning to his home, because of a severe pecuniary loss sustained by his father at that time. The profession of the law early attracted young Thomp- son's mind, and when but seventeen years of age he entered the law office of Captain W. W. Wise, in his native village. The Rebellion, which broke over the land some two years after he had begun his legal studies, a second time separated him from his books, and following the example of thousands of loyal youths, who gave the years of their adolescence to their country, he shouldered a musket and joined the army at the front. April 23, 1861, then in his twen- tieth year, the young law student left his home and marched with Captain A. A. McKnight's three-months' men to join the army under Patterson, in the Valley of Virginia. Before the expiration of the three months' service, he was promoted to a sergeancy in Company I, of the Eighth Regiment. August 27, 1861, Mr. Thompson enlisted for the three years' service, as a private in Com- pany B, One Hundred and Fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers, under the cap- taincy of John C. Dowling. His rise from the ranks in this company was rapid, being first promoted to first sergeant, and then in October to second lieutenant. November 26, 1861, he was transferred to Company K, same regiment, and on the first of the following December, still not twenty years of age, he was put in command of the company as its captain. When the young captain assumed command, the company was not in a state of the best disci- pline, and the men began organizing a " picnic" with their youthful officer. It was not long, however, until a better mutual understanding was reached, and in a few weeks there was not a better drilled, or better disciplined company in the regiment. Captain Thompson received his first wound at the battle of Fair Oaks, and by a freak of fate not relished by the soldier, the ball entered just below the shoulder at the back. He had just turned to give his company the command to advance, when the ball struck, and fortunately was deflected, making a severe and painful, but not a dangerous wound. After a short hos-
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pital experience, and a shorter visit to his home, where his wound was an object of public curiosity and pride, wounded soldiers being rare birds at that incipient stage of the war, Captain Thompson rejoined his regiment at Har- rison's Landing, and was with his regiment at every subsequent engagement up to the second battle of Bull Run, where he received a wound pronounced fatal at the time, and from which he still suffers. His recovery was considered miraculous, and was due only to his youth and perfect physical organization, sustained by a will which at no time resigned itself to the thought of death. The wound was received just at the close of the fight, a few straggling shots only, indicating that the enemy had not been completely vanquished. The ball entered at the right breast, fracturing the second and third ribs on the way to the lungs, where it still remains, an unwelcome tenant, and a constant reminder of the terrible struggle. After receiving the wound, Captain Thompson was first removed to a boarding-house on D Street, Washington, where he was joined by his mother, whose ministrations did much to retain the faint spark of life which still lingered in his breast. From there he was taken by easy stages to Brookville, and there for ten months conducted a personal and determined fight against the great and common enemy. At the end of that time, he was sufficiently recovered to apply for a place in the invalid corps, which he entered in June, 1863, serving a part of the time on the staff of the provost- marshal for Kentucky, and the remainder in New York, enforcing the draft. December 10, 1863, Captain Thompson resigned and entered the law office of Honorable W. P. and G. A. Jenks, at Brookville. There he completed his legal preparation and was admitted to practice in the courts of Jefferson county December 13, 1864. In 1865 he removed to Portsmouth, where he has eversince resided. with the exception of a temporary residence at Washington during the three terms he served as a member of the Lower House from the Portsmouth District, in the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses. Captain Thompson's career in the city and State of his adoption has been marked with high testimonials of the esteem of his fellow-citizens, such as any man would reflect upon with pride. Four years after his coming to Ports- mouth, or in 1869, he was elected to the office of Probate Judge, and subse- quently, in 1881, was elevated to the Common Pleas Bench of the Seventh Judicial District of Ohio, which position he resigned to take his place in Congress. Of Judge Thompson's career on the Bench nothing but the highest praise has ever been spoken by his brothers at the Bar, and by the people of the district, whose business before his court was always dispatched with promptness and exact justice. On the Bench, as in all other fields of action, he displayed a capacity to transact business which earned for him the gratitude of litigants and the respect of the profession. Upon his retirement from the Bench, he left not only clear dockets in his district, but a record which the invidious enmities that are the natural fruits of an active career have never attempted to disparage. Although always active in politics, being an uncom- promising Republican, Judge Thompson's political career can be said to have commenced in the true sense with his first nomination for Congress, which
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occurred at Portsmouth in 1884. It is not the rule for a young Congressman, upon his first term, to enter very conspicuously into the work of the House, yet Judge Thompson's first term was one of the busiest that he ever served. He received an appointment as a member of the committee on private land claims, and at once entered actively upon his duties in that relation. The com- mittee deals with the grants and concessions made to private individuals by foreign governments, and with the lands acquired by the United States either by purchase or treaty. This committee performs the office practically of a court, determining questions of the utmost subtlety in a legal sense. In that committee Judge Thompson was not only an active, but a very valuable member. In the Fiftieth Congress he served upon the invalid pension committee, a posi- tion which entailed a stupendous amount of work and gave an opportunity for the executive qualities which are so prominent in his mental organization. In the Fifty-first Congress he served on two of the most prominent and impor- tant committees, namely, judiciary and foreign affairs. As a member of the first committee the judge was made chairman of a sub committee to investi- gate the United States courts in various parts of the country. That the place was not a sinecure several judges of the courts could bear testimony, and against one in Louisiana articles of impeachment were preferred. The report which he submitted to Congress as chairman of that sub-committee was among the most valuable of the session. It was during that Congress the famous Mckinley tariff bill was formed, and in the construction of that important measure Judge Thompson took no inconsiderable part, being fre- quently called into the councils of his party. He also wrote the 24th section of the bill, constituting the great smelting works of the country bonded warehouses for the storing of imported ores admitted free of duty, which, when refined, were exported in an unmanufactured state by the refiner. Judge Thompson's career in Congress was of material benefit to his adopted city, as it was through his efforts that a public building was erected in Portsmouth, costing $75,000. The bill providing for this building was vetoed by President Cleveland in the 50th Congress, but became a law by the President's sufferance in the 51st Congress. A dike, known as the Bonanza dike, built in the Ohio, just about that time, was also provided for through the same instrumentality, at a cost of $75,000, and three ice piers, built just below, were added at a cost of $7,500 apiece. The city also received the boon of free mail delivery from the same source. Judge Thompson's polit- ical career has been marked by many colossal struggles. The memorable fight at Gallipolis, when he had the nomination in his grasp and handed it over to the late General Enochs, was the most protracted and hardest-fought political struggle ever witnessed in a convention in this State, and fittingly closed a carcer which was marked all along the way by straightforward and honest fighting. After retiring from Congress and from active politics, the judge again returned to his profession, for which lie always reserved the warmest impulses of his mind. In the interval since the spring of 1891, he has devoted his time assiduously to the practice of his profession, holding as far aloof from
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politics as is consistent with the requirements of good citizenship and the demands of the friendships which a long political career creates. He was chosen a delegate to the Republican National Convention at St. Louis in 1896, and accepted the honor, with all attendant responsibility, solely from a sense of duty and in the interest of the candidacy of his esteemed personal friend, Major McKinley. The latter had no more judicious or powerful supporter than Judge Thompson in the convention. He has received many and pressing invitations to again enter the arena and strap the political cestus to his hand, but he has per- sistently refused. In the spring of 1892 he was appointed a trustee of the Athens Assembly by Governor Mckinley, and confirmed by the Senate, all without his knowledge, but he promptly declined the honor. One appoint- ment from the hand of Governor McKinley he accepted, and that out of con- siderations of public duty, and because it did not necessarily detract him from his practice. In June, 1893, Judge Thompson was appointed a member of the Ohio Tax Commission, and was subsequently made its chairman by his con- freres on the commission-Theodore Cook, W. N. Conden and E. A. Angell. In the work of this commission he took a conspicuous part -- a work which is now bearing fruit in the legislation of the State on this great subject, and which is bound to come to fuller and better fruition as its suggestions and recommenda- tions are better understood by our legislature. The report received the high- est praise from contemporaneous journals of political science. The Quarterly, edited by the faculty of Columbia College, singled it out for this high praise : " Altogether, the report of the Ohio Commission is one of the most cheering evidences of the growth and more enlightened views on the subject of tax- ation. It does not exhaust the subject, but it certainly goes a great way toward the improvement of existing conditions." Judge Thompson's law practice, under the fostering care of the few years that he has devoted exclu- sively to it, has grown to solid and lucrative proportions. He enjoys his work, and in the range of it he has practiced before every kind of court this broad Republic furnishes, from the 'squire's dispensary to the robed dignitary who sits on the Bench of the United States Supreme Court at Washington. The judge is now in the enjoyment of good health, and looks forward to a long and pleasant life full of work, for repose is not to his taste. Judge Thompson has a clear, solid, logical mind. His natural ability is of high order, and this, with his wide and accurate knowledge of the law and his untiring industry, has placed him in the front rank of the profession. He is an earnest and forci- ble speaker, and always impresses court and jury with his devotion to his cli- ent and his cause. He is always thoroughly identified with the interests of his client. As a judge he was eminently successful, and it was on the Bench that he displayed the rich treasures of his mind. His wide learning, his patient investigation of every question, and his high sense of right and justice made him a magistrate of the highest order. He early learned the necessity of thorough preparation. All his work, whether at the Bar, on the Bench, or in Congress, bears the mark of patient investigation by a mind gifted with great powers of analysis and discrimination. Everything that has come from his hands is impressed with good sense, sound logic and the spirit of justice.
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DAVID B. HEBARD. Gallipolis. Judge Hebard is one of the oldest living lawyers of Gallia county, Ohio. He was born at Marietta, the son of Dr. James H. and Maria Buell Hebard. His genealogy is traced to Samuel Hebard, the emigrant who came to Salem, Massachusetts, from Cornwall, England, with the Massachusetts Bay Company emigrants, about 1630, and he is of the seventh generation of the family in America. Robert, the son of this emigrant, was the first person of the name married in this country, and his wife was Mary Walden, of Salem. Their descendants all lived in New England nearly two centuries. The father of our subject, Dr. Hebard, was born at Bennington, Vermont, in 1797, and came to Marietta, Ohio, in 1820 ; was married there the following year, and lived in the town some time. After- wards he located for brief periods in Ohio, at Athens, Adelphi, Burlington, and in Illinois at Alton, and finally settled in Gallipolis, where he practiced his profession during the remainder of his life. He died in 1849, a victim of the cholera, while engaged in ministering to others who were suffering from the scourge. Rev. Ebenezer Hebard, grandfather of Judge Hebard, the subject of this sketch, was also born at Bennington and began his life work there as a minister of the Gospel. He also came to Ohio and founded the town of Hebardsville, in Athens county, preaching there and at Gallipolis until he died. The primary education of David B. Hebard was in the public schools and the parish schools at Marietta; his more advanced education at Upper Alton, Illinois, and in the Gallia Academy, a prosperous school of high grade, in which the natural sciences and the languages were taught. In this school he studied the ancient and classical languages with great assiduity, manifesting especial fondness and talent for the Hebrew and Greek, which has continued to the present time. He is a profound student of the Scriptures, which he reads in the original in preference to the modern translations, upon controverted phrases and passages. Judge Hebard does not pursue his inves- tigation of the inspired writings in the original tongues simply for recreation and mental discipline, but to obtain a clearer knowledge of the truth revealed. He belongs to a family of honorable, substantial, religious people, known and esteemed in New England and in this country for nearly three centuries, and his own character exhibits the best traits of his ancestors. He read law with Judge Simeon Nash, one of the most distinguished jurists of southern Ohio, under whose tuition and instruction he remained three years. His father hav- ing died, he accepted the position of county auditor of Gallia county, and dis- charged the duties for several years. His first and only partnership in the practice of law was formed with Colonel Alonzo Cushing, a fluent advocate and popular man. This was continued until the opening of the Rebellion, when Colonel Cushing retired from practice and settled on his farm in West Virginia. For some time Colonel Cushing, Judge Nash, and, later, Joseph J. Coombs, were the only active members of the Bar in Gallipolis. Honorable Samuel F. Vinton, the most distinguished lawyer and statesman of southern Ohio, had a residence in Gallipolis, but, being a member of Congress, was at home only during the vacations, so that the field was practically occu-
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David Bellebard
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pied by the above. This condition existed until the advent of Mr. Samuel A. Nash, a brother of the judge, who soon obtained a leading position at the Bar, which he has continued to hold. Judge Hebard, upon the retirement of Colonel Cushing, continued in practice, and his career as a practitioner has been interrupted only during his judgeship. In 1875 he was appointed judge of the Common Pleas Court by Governor William Allen, to fill a vacancy. The district was composed of the counties of Gallia, Athens, Meigs and Wash- ington, and he served one year to the close of the term. Although politically the district contained a large Republican majority, he accepted the nomina- tion of his party for the judgeship the succeeding term, and received a major- ity of the votes cast in Gallia and Washington, the county of his home and the county of his nativity. His successful competitor was J. P. Bradbury, now one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Ohio. The following edito- rial article was published at the time of Judge Hebard's nomination for judge of the Circuit Court :
" The Democratic ticket has been completed by the nomination of David B. Hebard, of Gallipolis, for the honorable and responsible position of circuit judge for the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Ohio. The place was tendered him without solicitation on his part, for he is a lawyer and a judge of the old school, who believes that a judicial office should seek the man and not the man the office. The several counties composing the circuit with commend- able unanimity requested Judge Hebard to become their candidate, and, believing that no man should refuse the just and legitimate demands of the people, he has accepted. As a citizen he is known and honored for his high character and unimpeachable manhood. He has lived at Gallipolis since boy- hood; he has filled positions of honor and responsibility. In every place, under all circumstances, he has demonstrated his ability and capacity, and has ever had an eye single to the interests of the people. As a lawyer, with- out invidious distinction. he stands in the front rank, always faithful to the interests of his clients. His profound learning, the recognition by the courts of his knowledge of the law, and his honesty in giving expression thereof, have given him an eminence seldom attained in the profession. His advice is eagerly sought, honestly given, and found to be correct. The history of the state does not show a man who has made a more honorable record on the Common Pleas Bench. * * He was recognized and acknowledged to be a just and able judge. No greater compliment can be bestowed."
Judge Hebard's practice has been confined generally to the civil courts in Gallia county, although he has had numerous cases in the District and Supreme Courts. He has been engaged on one side or the other of most of the important civil cases tried in the county ; but has not sought practice in the criminal courts. He served as prosecuting attorney for one term, having been elected in a county which, at the preceding election, gave a Republican majority of eleven hundred. He was an adherent of the Whig party during its existence, but favored the policy advanced by Senator Douglas as to popular sovereignty in the Territories, and supported Douglas for the Presi- dency in 1860. Since that time he has generally supported the Democratic party, but has not been active in partisan politics. He has been and is a com- munieant of the Episcopal Church and an active member of Sabbath-school
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from childhood. He is now . the regular teacher of a Bible class. He has never been married. A prominent citizen of Gallipolis and a lawyer contrib- utes the following :
" I have known Judge Hebard all my life. His reputation is unblemished, and he is recognized throughout the State as one of the most conscientious lawyers. In the preparation of pleadings he has no superior. He is not hasty in giving opinions, but when once given they are, almost without exception, sustained. His service on the Bench marked an era in the admin- istration of law in southern Ohio. He was quick. absolutely fair and impar- tial. In all of his business relations, as a lawyer and a citizen, his life is without stain. His whole active career has been open and frank, and while he has made some enemies, yet there is not one of them who would not be glad to procure his opinion and act upon it in all matters of vital importance. Had he so desired he could have been employed upon one side or the other of every contested case in this county, but he has in a great measure selected his busi- ness. He is a writer of ability, and many of his productions have been pub- lished. He is preparing a book on Pleading and Practice."
A prominent judge of southern Ohio has furnished this estimate :
"Judge Hebard is one of the most careful, painstaking lawyers that I have ever met. He is a man of fine literary ability, an able lawyer, and a man of the highest integrity, which he carries into his practice and conduct as a lawyer. In later years he has declined much business that was offered to him. While on the Bench his opinions were prepared with great care, and were seldom reversed by the higher courts. He was able, very fair and honest as a judge. Both as judge and lawyer he exhibited the qualities which have endeared him to all who know him well. Thoroughness-going to the bottom of things-is an intellectual characteristic, and generally sound judg- ment is a habit of his life. He has in course of preparation a work treating mainly of pleading under the Ohio Code. The idea of the work is to simplify code pleading."
ANSELM T. HOLCOMB, Portsmouth. About the close of the last century General S. R. Holcomb and Colonel Phineas Matthews settled in the territory of Ohio and in Gallia county, where their families were reared and themselves lived to a ripe old age. John Ewing Holcomb, son, and Mary Matthews, daughter, were born, educated and married in Gallia county and remained residents of the county until after the war. They subsequently removed to Missouri and settled in Butler, Bates county, where they lived until their deaths. Anselm T. Holcomb is the son of J. E. and Mary Matthews Holcomb. He was born in the country near Vinton, Gallia county, November 19, 1846. He obtained the rudiments of his education in the district schools, and as a boy assisted his father by clerking in the store which he had opened in the village of Vinton. He was fitted for college in the excellent academies of Vinton and Ewington, small villages with large facilities for education. In 1863 he entered the Ohio University at Athens, pursued the regular course to its completion and was graduated in 1867. While a student in college he was also reading law under the instruction of Honorable W. Reed Golden. After his gradua- tion he continued the study of law with General A. T. Holcomb. Before
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engaging in practice, he spent some time in teaching, at Vinton and Rodney, Ohio, and in the neighborhood of Moorefield, Kentucky. After that he located in Butler, Missouri, whither his parents had removed, and was admitted to the Bar of Bates county in 1870. Well qualified by reading, study and experience in taking care of himself, he soon afterwards entered upon the practice of his profession and formed a partnership with Honorable William Page. The character of practice in a Missouri county seat was of course general, embrac- ing all kinds of cases in the way of civil business, and the defense or prose- cution of persons accused of nearly every species of crime. Mr. Holcomb soon became a good all round lawyer. He was successful and had a profitable clientage. The partnership first mentioned was maintained until 1875 and after that he was associated with his brother, Phineas H. Holcomb, for three years. In 1878 he returned to Ohio and located at Portsmouth, where he became associated in partnership with Judge A. C. Thompson, an able lawyer, well acquainted in the community and well established in practice. This part- nership relation was terminated by the election of Judge Thompson to the Common Pleas Bench in 1881. Judge Thompson resigned the judgeship in 1884, and the partnership was renewed and continued at Portsmouth and Ironton till 1886. Since that time Mr. Holcomb has continued the practice alone, and as senior partner of Holcomb & Dawson, and has secured for himself an honorable place at the Bar of southern Ohio, and a reputation equally val- uable as a citizen and capable business man. He has given much attention to real estate law, and has the qualifications of an expert on the question of titles. He is the attorney of several of the largest corporations in southern Ohio. While in Missouri he compiled a set of books containing the complete abstract of title to all of the tracts of land and town lots situated in Bates county. In politics he is a Republican. In 1876 he was one of the delegates from his con- gressional district in Missouri to the National Republican Convention held at Cincinnati. In 1891 he was elected a member of the Ohio legislature and served in that body with ability as a member of the judiciary committee and that upon municipalities. He has large capacity for business, as well as law ; is interested in the mining and marketing of coal in Missouri. After locating in Portsmouth, he was one of the incorporators and original stockholders in the Portsmouth Fire Brick Company, and in the Portsmouth Wagon Stock Com- pany. He is one of the owners of the coal shaft of Theo Finhart & Company, at Wellston, in Jackson county; the Excelsior Shoe Company and the Ports- mouth Veneer Company. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Blue Lodge, Royal Arch Chapter and Commandery. At one time he was High Priest of Miami Chapter in Butler, Missouri. Mr. Holcomb was married October 14, 1876, to Grace L. Breare, of Gallia county. The union has been blessed with two sons, Anselm T., Jr., and Robinson Breare. He was appointed assignee of the Citizens' Savings Bank and administrator of the Davis estate, because of his acknowledged business capacity for the management of large interests, whether his own or those of other persons. Ile is thus characterized as a law- yer by one of the able judges of southern Ohio :
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