USA > Ohio > Bench and bar of Ohio; a compendium of history and biography, Vol. I > Part 52
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JAMES I. ALLREAD, Greenville. Honorable James I. Allread, ex-judge of the Circuit Court, is a native of Ohio. He was born in Darke county, Sep- tember 25, 1858, and bred on the farm. His parents were also Americans and natives of the same State. His mother's family name was Houk. His father, Isaac Allread, was born in Butler county and his occupation has always been farming. Judge Allread had such advantages of education only as were available in the district schools and the Greenville high school. During his minority he worked on the farm and his labor was a factor in the support of the family. He was not content to devote his life entirely to physical labor and receive such rewards only as the products of the farm yield to the hus- bandman. He had no disposition to shirk any responsibility, and he was always industrious; but early in life he formed a marked preference for a pro- fession, and the law presented to his imagination the most inviting field for the exercise of mental faculties. In his opinion the avenues which it opened for thought and study were not only attractive, but they extended as far as the human mind can explore. It appeared to him also that this profession afforded greater advantages in other respects than could be found in other vocations. His resolution to qualify himself for the profession of law was therefore formed early, and at the proper time he proceeded to act upon the resolution thus formed with earnestness and energy. He entered the law office of the late Judge William Allen at Greenville for preliminary reading and study under instruction. He passed the examination prescribed by the Supreme Court and was admitted to the Bar October 6, 1880. Opening his office in Greenville, he began the practice with the confidence that thorough preparation inspires. Having grown to maturity in the county and acquired his education within its borders, he already had a large acquaint- ance among the men of his own age. And it was greatly to his advantage at the outset that the acquaintance was entirely favorable to himself. He needed no introduction to the people he was ready to serve with legal advice ; whose litigation he was qualified to manage; and therefore he was able to establish himself in practice much sooner than a man wholly unknown is able to do. Without barratry and without resort to any methods which tend to discredit a member of the Bar, he booked clients and secured business, soon taking by natural right a position with the most successful practitioners of his county. Greenville is not a large town ; the basis of its support and growth is agriculture ; and the business of a lawyer in the county is general. Judge Allread, in accordance with the fitness of things, took all kinds of civil and criminal cases. No single branch of the law affords sufficient business to war- rant the adoption of a specialty. He has, perforce, looked after collections, served a client in all kinds of contention involving property and rights; defended persons accused of crime and attended to the business of corpora- tions. He is therefore what may properly be described as an all round lawyer, equally at home in any kind of litigation, or counsel that may keep a client out of litigation. February 9, 1895, he was appointed judge of the Circuit Court for the Second Circuit of Ohio, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resig-
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nation of John A. Shauck, who had been elected to the Supreme Court. He served until his successor was elected in November of the same year. The appointment was made by Governor Mckinley. Judge Allread has always been a Republican, politically, and has given considerable time to the interest of politics. In 1892 and again in 1896 he was chosen one of the delegates to represent the Fourth Ohio District in the National Convention of the Repub- lican party. He was married in August, 1883, to Emma S. Roland. daughter of Charles Roland, who for many years was editor of the Greenville Demo- crat. A daughter and a son are the fruit of this union - Maria and Charles Harold.
THOMAS J. GODFREY, Celina. While most of the years of Mr. Godfrey's adult life have been passed in Mercer county, his reputation as a lawyer and public official extends throughout the borders of the State. He was born in Darke county, Ohio, June 6, 1831. His father, E. B. Godfrey, was a native of Ohio, and his mother, Sarah Elliott, was a native of North Carolina. His parents lived on a farm in Darke county until 1859, when they removed to Dowagiac, Cass county, Michigan, and settled there for the remainder of life. The father died in 1888, at the age of seventy-eight years, and the mother in 1891, in her eighty-fourth year. Thomas J. received his primary instruction in the country district school, his academic education in seminaries, and finally took the scientific course at Asbury (now De Paw) University, Greencastle, Indiana. After leaving college he was employed in teaching for some years in the schools of Indiana and Ohio, until he began the study of law in the office of Allen & Meeker, prominent attorneys of Greenville. After preliminary study he attended the Cincinnati Law School, from which he was graduated in 1857. The same year he was admitted to the Bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio, and soon afterwards entered upon the practice at Celina, which has practically been continuous. The experience gained in another profession was valuable to him at the threshold of the Bar. He soon won the public confi- dence and a profitable business. In 1863 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Mercer county, and before the close of his first term was renominated for a second. Prior to the election, however, he was asked to accept the candidacy to represent the counties of Allen, Auglaize, Defiance, Mercer, Paulding, Van Wert and Williams in the State Senate, and consented. He was elected, and his record was such as to command a re-election in 1867. Upon the organiza- tion of the Senate, in 1868, he was elected president pro tem., and discharged the duties with such ability and impartiality as to win the approbation of the senators, without distinction of party. His public service commended him to his party, so that in the following year he was nominated as the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, on a ticket led by the late George H. Pen- dleton, afterwards senator of the United States. The ticket was defeated because that was not a Democratic year in Ohio. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1873-4, and served on the judiciary committee of
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that body. In 1880 he was a candidate for Presidential elector on the Dem- ocratic (Hancock) ticket ; but the Garfield electors were chosen. In 1881 he was again chosen to represent his district in the State Senate. As before, he was re-elected for another term, during which he was chairman of the committee on judiciary, and universities and colleges. These various preferments for political honors came to Mr. Godfrey entirely unsought. When urged to accept an office in a representative capacity he consented because he deemed it a duty of citizenship. Ofttimes he accepted a public trust to the detriment of his own private interests. That he discharged the duties of his various offices to the satisfaction of his constituents is evidenced by the fact that he has almost continuously held important offices of trust and responsibility during the larger part of his professional life. He has always taken a very deep interest in the educational movements of his county, district and State. He is and has been since 1878 a member of the board of trustees of the Ohio State University, and for seven years was president of the board. He has given liberally of his means as well as of his time for the advancement of various educational insti- tutions of the State. He has always been very active in developing the local resources of the community in which he resides. He was prominently identi- fied with the organization of the first building and loan association in Mercer county, and was first president of the organization. In 1872 Mr. Godfrey, in connection with Dr. D. Milligan and his son, bought up all the certificates of stock outstanding, surrendered the charter of the association and organized a banking institution under the style of Milligan, Godfrey & Co., which con- tinued until the death of Dr. Milligan, when the firm was changed to Godfrey & Milligan. This continued until 1888, when it was succeeded by the Com- mercial Bank, of which Mr. Godfrey was the dominating spirit until the begin- ning of 1896, when he sold his interests to his partners, so that he might devote his time entirely to his profession and his private business. There is no man in the county who has taken a greater interest in the public weal than Mr. Godfrey, or one who stands in higher estimation of the public. Referring to. his standing in the profession and as a citizen, one of the oldest and ablest of the Mercer county Bar observes :
" Mr. Godfrey is an able lawyer and has been a useful citizen. While he has been prominent in the practice, he has not been as conspicuous in the trial of court cases as some other members of the Bar. He is better adapted by nature and education for a chancery lawyer than a trial lawyer. He is a man of good judgment, well versed in the legal code, and has been among the most successful members of this Bar. While not an orator in the generally accepted meaning of the word, he is a good talker, logical and plain in his statements, and his ability and integrity are recognized by all. Though he has always been more or less in public positions, he never neglected to properly attend to any case in which he was retained. As a citizen he has been public-spirited, and has done more than any other man in the county to elevate public senti- ment on the subject of our public schools. He has for years been connected with these in some capacity, either as teacher, trustee or examiner, and his influence has resulted in elevating the standard of the schools, especially by insisting upon larger capability and broader qualifications of teachers. He has left an indelible impression on the pages of Mercer county history."
The Century Publishing & Engraving Co Chicago.
J. D. Van. Dervan
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Mr. Godfrey is prominent in fraternal circles ; in Masonry, both a Knight Templar and Thirty-second Degree Mason ; also a member of the Knights of Pythias. He was married in 1859, to Miss Lorinda Milligan, daughter of Dr. D. Milligan, of Fort Recovery. They have one daughter, who is the wife of Rev. J. M. Anderson, of Columbus.
JOHN D. VAN DEMAN, Delaware. Honorable J. D. Van Deman was born in Delaware county, Ohio, February 12, 1832. His father, Rev. Henry Van Deman, a native of Pennsylvania, was a minister of the Presbyterian church, and for nearly forty years pastor of that church in Delaware. His mother, Sarah Darlington, a native of Kentucky, was a daughter of General Joseph Darlington, who was a member of the Territorial legislature of Ohio, and also a member of the convention held the first year of the present century to frame a Constitution for the State of Ohio. When a child Mr. Van Deman received his primary lessons from Mrs. Murray in the basement of the build- ing located on the court house lot, on the second floor of which he completed his legal studies preparatory to admission to the Bar. (President Rutherford B. Hayes was also an alumnus of the same school.) He took the full classical course in Ohio Wesleyan University, from which he was graduated in 1851. Immediately thereafter he entered the law office of Powell & Buck, where his legal studies were pursued for two years. He was admitted to the Bar in 1853 and began practice at Delaware, soon achieving a success that was very grati- fying. His first partnership was with Judge T. W. Powell, which continued until 1862. He then formed a partnership with the late H. M. Carper, which was maintained without interruption until 1889, when Mr. Van Deman retired from practice. Theirs was the oldest law firm in the State at the time of its dissolution. It is a pleasing commentary on the carefulness and honesty of these two gentlemen, that when their final settlement was made, covering the whole period of twenty-seven years of a partnership business, the discrepancy between the accounts as kept by each of them was only one cent. There had been no comparison or settling up of personal accounts of either with the firm from the beginning of the partnership until its close. During all of this period their relations were not only friendly and cordial, but of the closest intimacy. There were few important cases tried in the courts of Delaware county during the time of Mr. Van Deman's active relations with the Bar, in which he was not engaged. One of the most celebrated of the cases which he managed was that of Lou Houk, a manipulator of three-card monte, who killed a man on the Hocking Valley train. Of his argument in that trial the Ohio State Journal said : "His address was admired by all who were present. It was clear and sound in argument and his rhetoric was unusually fine. The speech was pro- nounced one of the best ever delivered at the Bar of Delaware county." Another celebrated case was one growing out of the failure of a bank at Logansport, Indiana. An attempt was made on the part of the Indiana bank
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management to hold Mr. Thompson, a non-resident stockholder in the bank, responsible for the payment of depositors. Mr. Van Deman was the attorney of this stockholder, and the case was first tried in the United States Circuit Court before Judge Baxter, resulting in a judgment against his client. It was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States on error, where the judgment was reversed. After an interval of eight years from the first trial, the case was retried in the Circuit Court and a verdict obtained for the defendant. Mr. Van Deman always prepared his pleadings with exceptional care and tried his cases in court with consummate skill. He sometimes perplexed a witness by his sharp cross-examination. An amusing incident illustrative of this, occurred during the trial of one of his cases. The question related to the genuineness of a signature. The defendant had verified his answer, and on the witness stand as an expert, had given his opinion against the genuineness of the signature to the note. On cross-examination Mr. Van Deman required the witness to state with positiveness his conclusion ; then wrote something at the trial table on a paper which he folded up in view of the witness; then folded the paper on which defendant's answer was written in such a way as to expose the signature. He handed this paper to the defend- ant, asking him to examine the name and see if it was his signature. The witness promptly denied it, at the same time pointing out with particu- larity the letters which showed it was not genuine. Witness was then requested to unfold the paper and tell the jury what it was. With complete astonishment and some embarrassment he exclaimed : "Why, my God, it is my signature to the answer in this case." His suspicion of a trap had led him into error. Politically Mr. Van Deman has always been a Republican, but rarely aspired to political honors. He was satisfied with the emoluments as well as the fame which a lawyer who attends strictly to the profession may secure. He was twice elected prosecuting attorney of his county, and was the first mayor of Delaware after its incorporation as a city, holding the office four years. In 1876 he was a candidate for judge of the Court of Common Pleas, in a district comprising Licking, Delaware and Knox counties, and although unsuccessful, made a gallant race, cutting down the majority of his competitor more than one thousand votes. He was a member of the city council two terms, and was the presiding officer of that body. Upon his retirement the council expressed its sense of his public service in the following resolution : " We desire to express our thanks and appreciation of our president. Under his administration the business of the council has been transacted with accuracy and dispatch. The expenses of the city government have been largely curtailed and, stimulated by his example, other city officers have been imbued with his commendable spirit of economy and reform. Our council meetings have been exceptionally free from discord. No rulings of the chair have been questioned, because all were just and impartial. We regret exceedingly that with the close of this term the city loses his experience and ability in the direc- tion of its government." Mr. Van Deman has given very active support to his party on National issues. During the campaign of 1896 he was sent by the
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National committee to canvass the State of Kansas for Mckinley, and spent three weeks in his campaign on the stump in that State. His disposition is to be conservative, believing that permanent success for the country will be found in guarding carefully the public expenditures and discountenancing appropria- tions of the public money for questionable improvements. He would reduce the taxes to a minimum and exact of all officials a faithful performance of duty, an honest execution of their several trusts. Mr. Van Deman's health was such at the beginning of the war as to incapacitate him for enduring the hardships of a soldier's life in the field. However, the second year of the war he served as lieutenant of Company E, One Hundred and Forty-fifth Regi- ment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for one hundred days, stationed at Fort Whipple, opposite Washington. He has always been active in the councils of the Grand Army of the Republic, was a charter member of George B. Torrence Post. He has held the office of Post Commander and was appointed aid on the staff of General Russell A. Alger, Grand Commander of the G. A. R. for the United States. Mr. Van Deman has a talent for business affairs which has been employed in various corporations and private companies. He has accumulated much property. In 1874 he assisted in organizing the Columbus and Toledo Railroad Company, and served as a director until the sale of the road to the Cleveland syndicate. He has been for a number of years one of the directors of the First National Bank of Delaware, and he is president of the Delaware Electric Railway Company. He was one of the organizers of the Fidelity Loan Association, of which he is now president. For many years he has been a member of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, and is one of its vestry- men. He is also one of the trustees of the diocese of southern Ohio, having the management of the church property of the diocese and the investment of its benevolent and charity funds. In 1861 he married Lydia, daughter of Judge Runkle, of Logan county, and they have three children: Ralph H., a lieutenant in the Twenty-first United States Infantry, stationed at Plattsburg Barracks, Lake Champlain ; Ennalla, living at home with her parents ; and Mildred, a student in the Woman's College at Baltimore. Mr. Van Deman is a man of strong mentality and great force of character. He is a good lawyer, highly respected by the Bar ; an upright citizen, greatly esteemed by the com- munity in which he has always lived.
J. HENRY GOEKE, St. Marys. Mr. Goeke is prosecuting attorney of Auglaize county. His title to citizenship in Ohio is both by right of birth and inheritance. His ancestors were among the early settlers of the State and both his parents are natives of Auglaize county. They are Mathias and Dina Goeke, both of German extraction. His father was a farmer in his early manhood, but later became a dealer in farmers' supplies and agricultural implements. Among the agricultural population he is probably one of the best known men in the county. J. Henry was born October 28, 1869, at Min-
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ster, in Auglaize county, and his early education was obtained in the public school of that town and later was supplemented by a course in the Celina high school. He then entered Pio Nono College, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from which he was graduated in the class of June, 1888. Returning home, he was appointed deputy clerk of the Probate Court of Auglaize county. He remained in that position, studying law text-books as the opportunity offered, for about one year. In September, 1889, he entered the Law Department of the Cin- cinnati College, from which he was graduated in May, 1891, and was immedi- ately admitted to the Bar. In July of the same year he began the practice of his profession in partnership with Judge W. T. Mooney, a connection that remained in effect until Judge Mooney took his seat on the Common Pleas Bench, in December, 1892. He remained in practice alone until August, 1893, when the formed a partnership with Anthony Culliton, a former classmate in the Cincinnati Law School. This association has proved very successful, and continued in effect until December, 1896, when C. L. Smith was admitted to partnership, the firm name now being Goeke, Culliton & Smith. Mr. Goeke was elected city solicitor in 1893 and held the office for two terms. In the spring of 1894 he was nominated on the Democratic ticket for county prose- cutor, to which he was elected, and re-elected in 1897. From his school days down to the present time Mr. Goeke has been a hard student, and in his chosen profession his success has been uninterrupted from the start. Mr. Goeke was married November 5, 1891, to Miss Emma Kolter, of Wapakoneta. They have one daughter. Referring to his standing in the profession and his business methods, one of the prominent members of the Auglaize county Bar says :
"The success of the firm of Goeke & Culliton, of which Mr. Goeke is the head, is something remarkable. Neither of them has been in practice ten years. yet the firm has a business second to none in the county. Mr. Goeke has a very fine law library and their office is one of the best equipped in this. section of the State. He is known as a hard working. studious attorney and the success he has met with in his practice has been fully earned. When he takes a case he enters into it with the full force of his well trained mind and he gives his clients what they pay for-his best efforts. His business methods are straightforward and his integrity is unquestioned. He has within him the elements of a successful lawyer. He is a good talker, a strong reasoner, his mind has a legal trend, and he is well adapted for either chancery or court practice. Mr. Goeke is yet a young man, but if he lives as long in Ohio as his father he will leave a marked impression on the pages of her legal history."
JAMES DONOVAN, Napoleon. In the valley of the beautiful Maumee- river in Henry county, nine miles from Napoleon, James Donovan was born, July 8, 1855. His father was a native of Cork, Ireland, and his mother was. born of Irish parents at Quebec, Canada. His father was a farmer and one of the earliest settlers of Henry county. James attended the district school and worked on the farm until he was sixteen years of age. He then attended the.
The Century Publishing & Engravina Co. Chicago.
umBabeth
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Normal school at Lebanon and engaged in teaching part of the time until he reached the age of twenty. He was graduated as a teacher from the course of study in that Normal school in 1878. He took up the study of law in the office and under the instruction of J. H. Tyler, of Napoleon, and was admit- ted to the Bar in October, 1880. After spending a year in Missouri he settled at Napoleon, where he engaged in the practice of his profession alone for two years. He then formed a partnership with Judge James G. Haley, which con- tinued until the death of the latter. In 1884 he was elected clerk of the Court and was afterwards re-elected, serving for six years and retiring from the office in February, 1891. He then formed a partnership with R. W. Cahill, under the style of Cahill & Donovan, and has engaged in a general practice in the State and Federal courts. Mr. Donovan has been actively identified with politics throughout his adult life. He is a Democrat and has under all circumstances been willing to promote the interests of his party by public participation in campaigns on the stump and the no less effective means of the partisan council, in which he has always been prominent. He is a brother of D. D. Donovan, of Deshler, who served with marked ability for two terms as a member of Congress. James refused the nomination for Con- gress in 1896, when he could easily have been elected if he had not declined. He has manifested deep interest in municipal affairs and politics, having been elected a member of the city council again and again, until at length he declined further service. Hc is enterprising and has both in private life and public office been an example of civic virtue. Mr. Donovan is esteemed one of the ablest young attorneys and shrewdest politicians of the county. His personal popularity is an element of strength always counted upon by his friends in a political contest. The young Democracy have stood by him and carried him to victory at the primaries and at the polls. In the city council he was a working member, accredited with large influence and manifesting broad public spirit. He was married November 26, 1885, with Miss Susan N. Yeager, of Napoleon, granddaughter of Judge Craig. His family consists of a daughter, Katharine E., ten years of age, and a son James, five years old.
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