USA > Ohio > Bench and bar of Ohio; a compendium of history and biography, Vol. I > Part 45
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JOHN P. CAMERON, Defiance. The subject of this sketch is a member of the firm of Harris & Cameron. The Camerons are of Scotch descent. They came to this country in the latter half of the eighteenth century and located in Pennsylvania. They are a numerous family. The grandfather of our subject, Mordecai Cameron, and Honorable Simon Cameron, who was so prominent in State and national politics during his life, were close relatives. John and Lydia (Stringer) Cameron, parents of John P., were both natives of Pennsyl- vania, the former of Lycoming county and the latter of Lancaster county, and were born in 1807 and 1809 respectively. The parents of both came to Ohio while they were yet young, about the same time, and settled at Wooster, in Wayne county. Ohio was then considered the far West, and Wayne county was on the border of civilization. The first occupation of the family in Ohio was in hotel keeping at Wooster, Mr. Cameron at the same time being engaged in teaming. This they followed for twenty seven years. . In 1834 the father of our subject went on a tour of observation through northwest Ohio, tramping through the country on foot, the woods through which the established trails led being too dense for even a horse. He selected and entered a tract of land in Defiance county, and in the fall of the same year the entire family removed to it and followed farming from that time forward. The older members of the family spent the rest of their lives there. The grandfather died in 1864, at the age of eighty-seven years, and the father in August, 1875, and the mother in April, 1881. John P. Cameron was born on the Defiance county farm, March 29, 1851. His early education was obtained in the public schools of Tiffin, his native township, which was supplemented by a course at select schools in the neighborhood. In 1868 he entered the academy at Bryan, Ohio, pur- suing his studies there for six years, except a three months' interval each win- ter, which was spent in teaching district and village schools. He paid all the expenses of his education by his own efforts. While not classical, it was thor- oughly practical and fitted him well for his chosen profession. In 1873 he
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entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor remaining two years and taking the full course. He was graduated in the spring of 1875 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. . The next year he entered the law office of Hill & Myers, of Defiance, remaining with them during the summer, when he was admitted to the Bar. During the winter of 1874-5 he taught school in order to procure funds to liquidate some small liabilities and to start him in his profession. In the spring of 1876 he came to Defiance and established himself in the practice of law, which he has continued there with- out interruption with the exception of short intervals spent in public service. He practiced alone until 1877, when he formed a partnership with Hill & Myers, under the firm name of Hill, Myers & Cameron. In the fall of 1879 this association was dissolved by mutual consent, and Mr. Cameron formed a part- nership with B. F. Enos, which was continued until Mr. Enos was elected pros- ecuting attorney in 1881. The present firm of Harris & Cameron was then formed, which has become recognized as a leading one in that section of the State. There was a break of three years in this co-partnership, between 1882 and 1885, during which Mr. Cameron served as clerk of the court of Defiance county. During the past ten years the firm has been engaged on one side or the other of most of the important litigation of the county. In 1889 Mr. Cam- eron was elected city solicitor of Defiance, to fill an unexpired term, and held the office for two years. In 1880 he was appointed assistant United States district attorney for the northern district of Ohio, with office in Cleveland, and entered upon the discharge of the duties in March of the same year, but resigned at the end of six months for the reason that the duties of the office inter- fered with his private practice. Among the important cases they have handled was that of Arrowsmith vs. Harminning, in which they represented the defendant and finally won, after contesting the case through the State courts and through the United States Circuit and Supreme Courts. It was over the title to a piece of realty and is of interest to such contestants. Mr. Cameron has taken an active interest in the development of the industrial enterprises of the city. He is a stockholder and director in the Defiance Box Company and is interested in other enterprises. He is a prominent member of the Masonic order and now holds the position of Eminent Commander of the Defiance Commandery No. 30, Knights Templar, and has filled other important offices in the order. He is a Republican in his party affiliations, but not an offensive partisan or a pol- ¡tican. The official ballots convey the best idea of his standing in local circles. When he was elected clerk of the court, he and the county treasurer were the only Republicans elected, while the remainder of the Democratic ticket was elected by the usual majority of about 1,400 votes. Again, when he ran for city solicitor he was elected by a majority of 190 against a plurality of 350 for all other candidates on the opposite ticket. Mr. Cameron is a bachelor and an important factor in local society functions.
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ENOS, Defiance. Mr. Enos is a native of Ohio, born at Defiance October 1, 1851. His parents were among the early settlers in Defiance county. His father was a native of Scotland and came to America in his youth, locating first in Wisconsin, but late in the thirties settling at Defiance, where he spent the remainder of his life. He died in 1880, at the age of sixty-five. His mother was a native of Vermont and came to Defiance with her parents in 1833. Her ancestors were among the early settlers of New England. Mr. Enos, the subject of this sketch, laid the founda- tion of his education in the union schools of Defiance, which he attended up to the age of eighteen. He then taught in the district schools of his neigh- borhood for three years, when he entered the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and took a course in the Medical Department with a view of adopting the medical profession. After leaving the university he abandoned the study of medicine for the law, and entered the office of Honorable William Hill, a prominent attorney and ex-member of Congress, who represented the sixth district in the national House of Representatives for six years. After pursu- ing his studies for a little over two years he was admitted to the Bar in March, 1873, and at once began the practice of law at Defiance. About one year after opening his law office Mr. Hill was appointed by Governor Allen to the office of insurance commissioner of Ohio, and Mr. Enos was offered the posi- tion of chief clerk, which he accepted and retained for four years. He then returned to Defiance and resumed his law practice. In 1879 Mr. Enos was elected prosecuting attorney of Defiance county, and held that office until 1885, having been re-elected in 1882. Subsequently he was appointed city solicitor by the village counsel, and after the village procured a city charter he was repeatedly elected to the office. In 1892 Mr. Enos entered into part- nership with N. G. Johnston, under the firm name of Enos & Johnston, an arrangement that has been continued to the present time. Mr. Enos has been connected on one side or the other with all the important litigated cases in the Defiance county courts for the past fifteen years. He has more than a local reputation as a criminal lawyer. There have been very few cases of this nature in Defiance or adjoining counties in recent years in which he has not partici- pated-usually for the defense. He was appointed by the court as special counsel for the State in the prosecution of Saur and Bronson, charged with forgery and embezzlement in getting away with the funds of the Defiance Savings Bank. Both were convicted; one of them is now serving time in the Ohio penitentiary and the other was granted a new trial on a technicality and the case is still pending. Mr. Enos is and always has been identified with the Demo- cratic party, and active in the support of its candidates and principles. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and benevolent and protective Order of Elks. He was married in 1875 to Miss Olive Noll, of Upper Sandusky. She died in 1886, leaving two children, a son and a daughter. In 1889 he was married again, to Miss Laura Wonderly, daughter of John Wonderly, of Defiance. They have one child, a son.
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ELBRIDGE FLAGG GREENOUGH, late of Wauseon. Mr. Greenough was for many years a prominent lawyer of the Fulton county Bar. The Greenoughs are among the very oldest families in New England. They are of English descent and Puritan stock. Robert Greenough, the head of the American branch of the family, came to America when a child, about 1630, or ten years after the landing of the Pilgrims who came over in the Mayflower. He died at Rowley, Massachusetts, in 1718. John Greenough, the father of our subject, was a native of Haverhill, Massachusetts, but removed to Canter- bury, New Hampshire, about the beginning of the present century, removing from there to Boscawen, in the same State, in 1812. He spent the remainder of his life there and died in 1862, at the age of eighty-two years. His father was a soldier in the Continental army during the Revolutionary War and served in the army of General Gates. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits and it was doubtless early association and familiarity with the business that gave our subject a predilection for that line of business. Elbridge Flagg Greenough was born January 30, 1808, at Canterbury, New Hampshire. His mother, whose maiden name was Mary Foster, was also of an old colonial family and of English descent. Elbridge received his early education in the schools of Boscawen, later attending the Academy of Salisbury, New Hamp- shire, where he was prepared for college. He was graduated from Dartmouth College with the class of 1828, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. The same year he entered the office of Ezekiel Webster, a brother of Daniel Web- ster, and began the study of law. Later he studied in the office of Richard Eletcher, of Boston, completing his studies in the office of his uncle, Ebenezer Greenough, of Sunbury, Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the Bar about the year 1830 and began practice at Danville, Pennsylvania, where he contin- ued for six years. He returned to New Hampshire in 1842, and entered into the mercantile business at Salisbury, following this avocation for eighteen years. In 1860 he came west and resumed the practice of his profession, at Wauseon, then a small country town of some five hundred inhabitants. It soon became the seat of numerous industries and grew to be one of the important towns in that section of the State, and in 1870 was made the county seat of Fulton county. Mr. Greenough continued in active practice until two years before his death, which occurred in 1875. His practice was largely of a commercial nature and he also dealt to a considerable extent in real estate. He was thoroughly well trained in legal studies and his literary taste led him to be a great reader, but the bent of his mind was commercial, owing to his boyhood training and associations. In early manhood Mr. Greenough was a Whig, and after the formation of the Republican party became identified with it. Though strong in his principles, he was not active in politics and was never an aspirant for office. He was elected for one term as mayor of Wauseon, and served from a sense of duty rather than from choice. lle was married in 1848 to Miss Elizabeth R. Eastman, daughter of Moses and Elizabeth Eastman, her father being a prominent attorney of Salisbury, New Hampshire. She died at Wauseon October 14, 1892. Although Mr. Greenough had not followed his
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profession closely at all periods of his life, he was a good lawyer, well versed in both statute and common law, a strong advocate and a successful practi- tioner. He was honorable and straightforward in all his dealings and had the respect and esteem both of his professional brethren and the community at large. His only son, Charles F. Greenough, was born at Salisbury, New Hamp- shire, July 29, 1849. His education was begun in the public schools of Salis- bury and completed in the Wauseon High School, and under the tuition of his father, who was a ripe scholar. In 1870 he took up the study of law in his father's office, was admitted to the Bar in 1872 and succeeded to the practice of his father, who retired from active participation in the business one year later. The practice is a general one, though he devotes considerable attention to the special features of his father's business. In his party affiliations he is a Republican of pronounced views, though not active in politics. He is a mem- ber of the Congregational Church of Wauseon, with which his mother in her life was actively connected.
JOHN QUINCY FILES, Wauseon. John Q. Files, prosecuting attorney of Fulton county, is a native of Ohio. He was born on his father's farm near Xenia, September 21, 1846. His parents were Sylvanus and Martha (Jewett) Files, his father a native of Rhode Island and his mother of New York State. On his father's side the family is of English descent and on his mother's, Eng- lish and Scotch. His paternal grandfather was an Englishman and a seafaring man, who brought his family to America and located them on Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. He was lost at sea, while the father of our subject was yet a child. Sylvanus Files was born in 1793, near Providence, and died at the age of eighty-four years, in Lucas county, Ohio. He came to Ohio on horseback when a young man of twenty and located at Worthington, in Franklin county, while most of the State was yet a wilderness. He engaged first in the manu- facture of woolens and later settled near Xenia, where he engaged in the same business, finally removing to Lucas county, where he lived until death. The mother, Martha Jewett Files, died at Swanton, Ohio, in 1831. Colonel Moses Jewett, a brother of the maternal grandfather of our subject, was a soldier of distinction in the War of 1812, and part of the time was in command of the American troops during the siege and battle of Sacket Harbor. John Q. Files received his early education in the public schools of Green county and in private study. At the age of nineteen he engaged in the manufacture of tow from flax and followed this four years. In 1870 he took a course in the Spen- cerian Business College, at Louisville, Kentucky, after which he went on the road in the capacity of commercial traveller until 1875, when he engaged in farming in Lucas county for two years. He commenced the study of law in the office of B. T. Geer in Swanton, Fulton county, in 1877, and after a period of three years was admitted to the Bar, December 8, 1880. Mr. Files was among the first to be admitted under the new regulation requiring examina- tion before the Supreme Court of the State. He opened an office at once, at
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Swanton, and continued in the practice there until 1891, when he was elected prosecuting attorney of Fulton county for a term of three years. He then removed to Wauseon, which has been his home since. On the expiration of the term he was re-elected. In this position Mr. Files has made an enviable record. During the five years he has prosecuted the pleas of the State, there have been only three acquittals of parties arraigned for trial, and of the indict- ments he has drawn not a single one has been set aside or demurred to on account of insufficiency. He is a Republican by inheritance and from princi- ple. His father was a Whig, an abolitionist, an underground railway con- ductor and a strong Republican on the formation of that party. He is prominent and active in party affairs ; has been a member of the Republican county central committee for years, and held the chairmanship of the execu- tive committee. He is a member of the Masonic order, both of the Blue Lodge and the Chapter. He is also a member of the order of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias. He was married in 1877 to Miss Alice Thompson, who died two years later, leaving an infant child that died a few months after its mother. In 1882 he was married to Miss Mary Bowman, of Lucas county. They have two daughters, Kate and Florine. A judge in high standing says : " Mr. Files is a good all round lawyer, an honorable gentleman and always has the courage of his convictions. I don't know of any particular branch of the profession in which he especially excels." A prominent lawyer in a neighbor- ing town says : "Briefly, Mr. Files is a careful, hard-working, good lawyer. He is conscientious to a fault, but when the right way is determined upon, he takes that course fearlessly. He bas sand without limit. An excellent trial lawyer. You can fully commend him and be just."
DAVIS JOSEPH CABLE, Lima. Mr. Cable, one of the younger members of the Allen county Bar, was born in Van Wert county. He is the son of John I. Cable, of English descent, who was a printer by trade and editor of several newspapers during his life. His mother was Angie R. Johnson, daughter of Davis Johnson, one of the earliest settlers of Van Wert county. Ilis grandfather, Joseph Cable, born in Ohio in 1801, was a descendant of the Cable family that emigrated from England at an early date and settled in Pennsylvania. For two terms he represented in Congress the Fifth District, comprising Columbiana, Stark, Jefferson and Carroll counties. This congres- sional service was in 1849 to 1853, and he was the author and champion of the first " homestead bill" passed by Congress. Davis J., the subject of our sketch, graduated from the public schools of his native county and afterwards attended the University of Michigan in the Literary and Law Departments. While continuing the study of law he taught school in Van Wert county in 1878, and was admitted to practice in 1881, after examination by the Supreme Court at Columbus, and immediately began the practice at Lima. He has been employed in nearly every important case tried on this circuit during
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the last ten years. Politically he is a Republican, but does not seek office out- side of the line of his profession. He was elected city solicitor in 1882 and held the position for two years. In 1882 he was married to Mary A. Harnley, of Van Wert. Five children are the fruit of this union, namely : John L., Davis A., Ethel R., Chester Morse and Jo Harnley. He attends services with his family in the Methodist Episcopal Church. One of the members of the Bar in Lima says: " Mr. Cable has a splendid reputation as a lawyer. He is a good pleader, logical, keen sighted, and makes a clear, convincing argument. He occupies a most enviable position as an attorney and a counsellor, which he has earned by natural ability, supplemented by close study and hard work. He is one of the most successful members of the Allen county Bar."
JOHN FINLEY BROTHERTON, Lima. Mr. Brotherton is of English and Irish extraction, the son of Jasper Brotherton, whose family removed from Pennsylvania and settled in Hamilton county, near Cincinnati, among the pioneers of southern Ohio. He was born July 24, 1844, at Piqua, where his father carried on the business of contractor and builder. He was educated in the common schools at Piqua, and Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, from which he was graduated in 1864. He began the study of law while in school and continued reading after his graduation, with J. F. Mckinney at Piqua. He was admitted to the Bar in the fall of 1865 and immediately removed to Lima, where he entered upon the practice. For the past thirty years he has been engaged in a general legal business, practicing in all the courts, as is the custom of lawyers in the smaller cities. In 1869 he formed a partnership with Theodore E. Cunningham, which was terminated in 1880. After that he continued alone until 1893, when his son, Cloyd J., who was admitted to the Bar in that year, was admitted to partnership in the firm of Brotherton & Brotherton. He was at one time editor of the Miami county Democrat and has gratified a taste for literature by general reading and fre- quent contributions to the public press. In 1867 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Allen county and re-elected in 1869, serving in that office four years. In 1881 he was elected city solicitor and served one term. He has taken an active interest in local affairs as well as politics, and at the present time is a member of the city council, representing his own ward. His political affiliation is with the Democratic party, whose principles he has sedulously promoted by public speech and active membership in club and party organi- zations. He was married June 3, 1868, to Clara Jacobs, daughter of the late Thomas K. Jacobs, of Lima. He has one son and three daughters : Cloyd J., his partner in law, Marie, Roberta and Clara Louise. He attends services in the Presbyterian Church.
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JAMES W. HALFHILL, Lima. James Wood Halfhill is a native of Ohio, born March 1, 1861, at Mercer, in Mercer county, the son of Moses Halfhill, a sturdy farmer of German descent, who knew the value of education, had a fair library of good books and kept well posted on current topics. His mother was Elanor Maria Wood, descended from an old English family, some of whose members emigrated from the mother country and settled in the colony of Massachusetts about the year 1700, and subsequently separated, some of them removing to New Hampshire, others to New York, in which State she was born at Upper Jay, Essex county ; others went to Canada and settled near Que- bec. The fact is historical that the Plains of Abraham, memorable in the war between England and France, for supremacy in the province of Quebec, derived their name from Abraham Wood, the ancestor of our subject, James Wood Halfhill. Through the strain of his mother he inherited intense patriotism and a taste for military history. His maternal great-great-grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, his great-grandfather in the War of 1812, and his grandfather's only son, Ransom E. Wood, as a Union soldier gave up his life on a battle field of the Civil War. Moreover, through all the dark days of the Civil War his father was a strong supporter of the Union cause. His boyhood was spent in hard labor on his father's farm. He was prepared for college in the common schools, and completed his literary education in the Ohio University, at Ada, from which he was graduated in 1884, with the honors of his class. He began the study of law the following year at Bellefontaine, Ohio, in the office of Judge William H. West, a distinguished lawyer and a man of remarkable eloquence as well as superior attainments in the profession. This association was most fortunate for the young man, both in respect of his facilities for making progress in his legal studies and also in the opportunity afforded of acquiring a correct literary style and impressive manner in public address. After reading with Judge West he attended the Law School at Cin- cinnati, sufficiently advanced to enter the Senior class, from which he was grad- uated in 1887. He removed to Lima and began the practice of law at once, forming a partnership with Jacob C. Ridenour, who was his associate, class- mate and friend in the university at Ada. The firm has acquired a large prac- tice, not only in Allen county, but also in the counties adjacent, as well as in the Federal courts. Mr. Ridenour holds the office of prosecuting attorney at the present time. Mr. Halfhill was associate counsel for the defense in the celebrated case of William Goins, tried for murder in 1889, which is fully reported in connection with the sketches of Judge Price and Mr. Motter. It is the case in which the verdict was determined by a method as reprehensible as that adopted by the Louisiana Lottery Company, and which caused the Supreme Court of the State to grant a new trial, resulting in acquittal of the prisoner. Mr. Halfhill is a very earnest, enthusiastic man in the prosecution of any undertaking. Politically he is a pronounced Republican, active in pro. moting the interests of the party. He was a member of the State Central Committee in 1888-9 and '90 ; has attended every Republican State Convention since he became of age, and usually as a delegate ; has been active in every
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