USA > Ohio > Bench and bar of Ohio; a compendium of history and biography, Vol. I > Part 56
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ARCHIBALD MAYO.
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fall of 1871 he entered the Freshman class of Miami University, and remained through his Sophomore year. He then entered the Junior class of Marietta College and was graduated in the class of 1875, taking the second classical honor. Immediately after leaving college he was elected superintendent of schools at Wauseon, Fulton county, Ohio. The duties of this position he dis- charged with great credit, and to the entire satisfaction of the people of the district. Under his influence there was a perceptible improvement in the schools throughout the entire county. In the spring of 1881 he resigned his superintendency to accept the chief clerkship in the office of the State school commissioner at Columbus. This position he held until January 14, 1884. While engaged with the duties of this clerkship he commenced the study of law under the direction of J. H. Collins, who is counsel for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. After retiring from the office of the school commissioner he entered the office of Mr. Collins, where he remained until he was admitted to the Bar by the Supreme Court, on the 3rd day of June, 1884. He at once com- menced the practice of law in Columbus, and has since continued. His prac- tice can be termed a general civil practice. He has been identified with much important litigation. Among the important cases with which he has been con- nected may be mentioned the large and varied litigation growing out of the Great Southern Hotel, the Fifth Avenue Savings Bank cases, and the Masonic controversy. Mr. Sater has always been a student and hard worker. His standing as a lawyer is high at the Bar, and he has a desirable clientage. For several years past he has acted as counsel for the Citizens' Savings Bank, the Columbus Savings Bank Company, and other important concerns. He has given much attention to real estate law. While not making a specialty of this branch of the law, he is considered an authority on questions pertaining to land titles. In politics he is a Republican. For five years he was a member of the board of education and for two years president of the board. In 1889 he married Mary Lyon, of Wauseon. There are no children by the union.
ARCHIBALD MAYO, Chillicothe. For a score of years Mr. Mayo has been one of the best known lawyers of southern Ohio. He is descended from three old and notable families-the Mayos, numerous in Virginia ; the Edwardses of Virginia, Kentucky and Illinois, and the Beales of Maryland, intermarried with the Edwardses. His mother's father was Heyden Edwards, who obtained from the President of Mexico a large land grant in Texas, while it was a prov- ince of Mexico, and afterwards became involved in the struggle for the inde- pendence of Texas. He was nearly related to the first governor of Illinois, and to that Benjamin Edwards who is recorded in the life of the eminent William Wirt as his early friend and patron. All the branches of Archibald Mayo's ancestry had gentility and courage, intellectual force and admirable social traits. His mother, a woman of great loveliness of character and remarkable beauty, died bnt recently at his home at the advanced age of eighty-seven
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years. His paternal grandfather, Benjamin Mayo, was a gentleman of unusual attainments, who lived a long time in Philadelphia, where he established a school for young ladies, famous in its day, and published several text-books used in schools and academies. His father, Herman Boseman Mayo, received a liberal and classical education, read law with one of the most distinguished practitioners in Philadelphia, and afterwards spent some time in New Orleans studying the exceptional judicial system of that State, based on the civil law and the Code Napoleon. Having equipped himself for professional life by varied studies and wide observation, he settled in Cincinnati under most favor- able conditions. His health soon broke and he retired to the suburban town of Oxford, where he lived the most of his life. Financial misfortune overtook him in later years, sweeping away the larger part of his property in Phila- delphia and New Orleans, from which his income had been derived, and he followed his son to Vinton county, where he filled the office of Probate Judge for six years. Archibald Mayo was born at Oxford, June 11, 1839, but spent most of his youth in the home of his grandparents in Philadelphia, where he was prepared for college. His higher education was procured at Miami Uni- versity, an institution located in his native town. When the first overt act of rebellion was committed he enlisted as a volunteer in the three months' service in a company made up of college boys. He afterwards engaged in teaching for some time, and while thus employed in Hamilton, took up the study of law, for which he inherited both taste and talent. He read with avidity and laid thoroughly well the foundation of his legal education. He was just admitted and had not yet begun the practice when his talents as a political speaker were recognized, and forthwith he was nominated as the candidate of his party and elected representative in the State legislature, where he greatly distinguished himself, his speeches on important questions being widely published by the press of the State. At the close of his service he formed a partnership with a fellow member and located in Vinton county, to engage in the practice of a profession for which his reading and study, no less than his ability and aptitudes, so amply qualified him. He was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney the first year of his practice, and again filled that office shortly after his removal, in the year 1870, to Chillicothe. For some years, as partner of Hon- orable Porter DuHadway, he had law offices in both Jackson and Vinton counties. From the time he entered upon the practice of his profession until the present his reputation as a lawyer and his fame as an orator have grown until neither is measured by the limits of the State. He has never been a plodder, and, while fond of the study of law as a science, has never taken pleasure in the daily routine or mere drudgery of an office. When his interest is fully enlisted, however, he becomes thoroughly absorbed in the matter in hand and labors with great intensity and dispatch. He may be depended upon to try a cause with remarkable skill. He discerns the main drift as by intuition, and no collateral question bearing upon the case escapes his observa- tion. His tact in the presentation of evidence and the cross-examination of . witnesses is at once the hope of his clients and the terror of his adversaries.
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His argument before the jury is massive and discriminating. He knows how to hurl in the facts and when to touch them tenderly ; how to appeal with gentleness to sympathy and when to let loose the thunderbolts of denunciation. His mastery of a choice vocabulary gives him great power as an advocate. A few estimates and characterizations by members of the profession who know him thoroughly are appended :
One member of the Bar says: "Mr. Mayo's greatest ability is shown in the trial of cases as a merciless cross-examiner. His greatest power is in argument to a jury. The details of office work are very distasteful to him, but when that is done he is a powerful and polished speaker. He makes a very clear and logical argument in presenting the law to the court. He knows what forty-nine lawyers out of fifty do not know-when to stop."
Another lawyer says : "Mr. Mayo has added to a liberal education an immense amount of literary reading. Fondness for literature, in fact, is his lead- ing characteristic, and this is so perhaps because that kind of reading contributes to his extraordinary talent as an advocate. He has also what is uncommon with brilliant talkers-a powerful analytical faculty. He is not fond of the drudgery of the profession. If his energy and fondness for work were com- mensurate with his lawyer-like talents his reputation would be national. He is kind, considerate, sensitive and graceful. In his companionship one forgets the significance of selfishness. His peculiar talents qualify him for great dis- tinction in social life, but it seems he has never been especially fond of society. A few companions who have a fellow feeling in a literary way, and plenty of books, supply all his social requirements. He reminds one of what Johnson said of Burke : 'You could not meet him under a tree in a rainstorm without ascertaining at once that he was much more than an ordinary man;' and more-a man that you liked."
A third prominent Chillicothe lawyer says : "Mr. Mayo is regarded at this Bar as a very able lawyer, well versed in the principles of law. His qual- ities are best exhibited as a trial or jury lawyer, excelling as a cross-examiner and in presenting the facts to a jury. In this particular he has few equals and scarcely any superiors. In the argument of legal questions he is always forcible and clear, but his art is best shown in the arrangement and use of facts. His reading has been extensive, covering almost the entire field of polite literature and including almost all subjects. He has not been a casual reader, but has studied books so closely as to make the matter his own. In all of his addresses he has been able to use his extensive reading to great advan- tage. Socially he is an elegant conversationalist of rare powers, a gentleman of naturally fine taste. Having enjoyed advantages of excellent training in his youth, both in college and in cultivated society, he has acquired unusually easy, graceful and pleasing manners ; whilst his large attainments, natural eloquence and remarkable sympathy make him a delightful companion. His temperament is peculiar; he has his moods. We do not know whether it is owing to a lack of inclination or because of mental prostration ; but we have at times listened to Mr. Mayo when he would speak hesitatingly and with great difficulty, grasping at ideas and appropriate words like a bashful school boy. It is possible that his mind requires the stimulus of a great occa- sion to insure freedom of action with the best results. Certain it is that he always rises to such an occasion, and when one listens to his impassioned utterances it is difficult to believe that he could ever be found groping for the best words to express his ideas."
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Since his early experience as legislator and public prosecutor Mr. Mayo has held no political or professional office. He was the candidate of his party for member of the last constitutional convention; and since then has been, without his solicitation, several times nominated for judicial positions, but although he always obtained in addition to his party vote a liberal support from political opponents who recognized his superior fitness, the party majority was too great to overcome. He has been a member of the board of education of Chillicothe and president of that body ; and a vestryman of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity. He never married, but a younger sister, Miss Elizabeth Mayo, between whom and himself there exist a rare sympathy and attachment, has been his constant companion throughout nearly all the years embraced in his professional life. Having the same quiet tastes and fondness for books, she has been to her brother the most congenial of life partners and he never fails to attribute to her counsel and companionship all that is best and happiest in his career. He likes to relate how, when they were very young, they pledged themselves to a life-long comradeship and mutual home making, and to congratulate himself on the result.
JOHN S. LEEDOM, Urbana. Mr. Leedom belongs to that class of Ohio citizens who began their life work with no other resources than those with which they were endowed by nature. He was born in Buck's county, Pennsyl- vania, August 1, 1826. His parents were Thomas Y. and Ann (Stockton) Leedom, both of English descent. The Leedom family came to America in colonial days, while the Stocktons were among the early settlers of New Jersey, some of the family locating later in Pennsylvania. The family took a prominent part in the agitation leading up to the Declaration of Independ- ence, and the war of the Revolution. Richard Stockton was one of the sign- ers of that historical document. The parents of John S. Leedom came to Ohio in 1831, first locating in Miami county, but about 1835 settled perma- nently in Champaign county, where they resided until their death, his father in 1870 and his mother in 1883. Mr. Leedom received a good common school education, but that was all his parents were able to give him. He felt his ability to get an education for himself, and without the aid of either money or influential friends he not only secured an education but in later years rose to prominence in his chosen profession. He taught school in the winter season and attended the Springfield Academy during the spring and summer for a period of three years. He then entered the office of General John H. Young, the leading attorney of Champaign county., for the purpose of obtaining a legal education. He remained about one year, when he entered the Law Department of the Indiana State University at Bloomington, from which he was graduated in 1851. He was admitted to the Bar in Cincinnati in the spring of 1852 and immediately began the practice of his profession in partnership with his first
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preceptor, at Urbana. This partnership continued until 1865. He then formed a partnership with the late James Taylor, under the firm name of Leedom & Taylor, which continued for a short time. He later formed a partnership with Jesse M. Lewis, which still continues. Mr. Leedom served three terms as prosecuting attorney of Champaign county, the only elective office he has ever held, though he is eminently qualified to fill any place of trust within the gift of the people. In politics Mr. Leedom is a Democrat, and as Champaign county is, and long has been, Republican or Whig, men of opposite views were seldom elected to any place of trust. In 1868 he was the candidate of his party for Congress from his district, but the district being strongly Republican, he was not elected. The Democratic vote of Champaign county has been cast for him for many offices at different times, and he is regarded as one of the very ablest as well as most popular men of his party in the district. As a lawyer he is recognized as one of the leading members of the profession in that sec- tion of the State, and has a widely extended practice. He is a well read law- yer, a safe counsellor and a strong advocate. Referring to his ability and chief characteristics, one of the oldest and ablest members of the Champaign county Bar says:
"John S. Leedom holds an undisputed position as one of the leading attorneys of the judicial district. He is a good all round lawyer, competent to take care of the interests of his clients either in the office or before a judge and jury. He is conscientious and enters into the interests of his clients with all his strong force and ability. As a trial lawyer he is one of the best at this Bar. Yes, he is strong before a jury, though his addresses are marked rather by their clear, concise and forceful presentation of facts, than by impassioned oratory. He appeals to the judgment of a jury rather than to their sentiment. He is strictly fair and upright in his intercourse with all men, courteous and accommodating in his disposition and a useful and public- spirited citizen." Said an ex-judge of the district : "John S. Leedom's name must go into history as one of the greatest lawyers of the Champaign county Bar. He does not belong to that class that are great in their own estimation. He is one of the most unassuming of men and very deferential in his deport- ment. The whole of his mature life has been devoted to the study of law, and as a correct exponent of these principles he has few equals in this section of the State. While mild in his manners, he is firm as a rock in his convictions, and always ready to give the facts on which they are based. He is generous to his opponents, and always ready to concede to them all to which they are entitled, and if a weak one, sometimes more. He is a pure and able lawyer, whose example is worthy of emulation."
He was married October 26, 1852, to Miss Louisa J. Furrow, a native of Piqua, Ohio. They have two daughters, the elder married to Mr. Joseph Perkins, a manufacturer of Cleveland, Ohio; the younger one is at home with her parents. Mr. Leedom is, and always has been, purely a lawyer and has engaged in no other business, and the time not devoted to his law practice has been spent within the sacred precincts of home. As man and boy he has spent sixty years of his life in Champaign county, and during all these years has retained the respect and esteem of a constantly widening circle of friends and acquaintances.
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HENRY L. DICKEY, Greenfield. Henry Luther Dickey was born at South Salem, Ross county, Ohio, October 29, 1832. He is of Scotch-Irish descent through the lineage of his father, the late Judge Alfred S. Dickey. His great- grandfather emigrated from the North of Ireland and settled in Albemarle county, Virginia, before the Revolutionary War. His grandfather, marrying a Miss Henry in Virginia, moved into Tennessee, where his father was born in 1812. In 1816, when his father was four years of age, the family came to Ohio and located near South Salem, where he grew to manhood. Through his mother, Emily A. Mackerley, a native of New Jersey, his descent is Ger- man. The MacKerley family reached Ohio simultaneously with the Dickeys, and located in Highland county, a few miles from Greenfield. The dust of two generations of ancestors reposes in the State of his birth, strengthening the attachments of home and inspiring a loftier patriotism. Judge Alfred S. Dickey located in Washington Court House for the practice of law when the subject of our sketch was four years of age and remained there eleven years, removing thence to Greenfield in 1847 on account of the better educational facilities afforded in the latter place. Henry was liberally educated in the Greenfield Academy, under the instruction of excellent teachers. At the age of twenty he secured a position with the corps of engineers engaged in locating the Marietta and Cincinnati-now the B. and O. S. W .- railroad and rendered such valuable service as to receive promotion to the rank of assistant engineer within a year of the time of his employment. He was placed in charge of construction of a division of the road, with headquarters at Hamden, Vinton county, and served until the work was nearly completed. The vocation of a civil engineer, however lucrative and pleasant in many respects, was not to his liking. He had natural aptitudes and inherited predilections for the law. Therefore, resigning his position with the railroad company, he entered upon a course of study in the office of his father, fortunate in having a teacher so well qualified and so deeply interested in his advancement. His reading embraced the usual text-books and authorities on the various divisions and branches of the law and was pursued with such determinate purpose and thoroughness as to warrant his admission to the Bar in 1857. Immediately thereafter he took a course of study covering a period of two years in the Cincinnati Law School. About the time this was completed he inherited the legal business of his father, who had been appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas by the distin- guished governor, Salmon P. Chase. Association with his father in study, familiarity with his methods of transacting business and general acquaintance with his clients, supplemented by his own natural ability and knowledge of the law, enabled him to take up the practice, conduct the litigation satisfacto- rily and hold the large clientage. His father continued on the Bench by suc- cessive elections for a period of fifteen years and until the date of his death, in 1873. His father's accession to the Bench at the time was doubtless of great advantage to the young lawyer fresh from the law school. The latter assumed the responsibility without hesitation, devoted himself assiduously to the large and important business accumulated by his father through many
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H. L. DICKEY.
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years of successful practice, and worked incessantly to prove himself a worthy successor. From that beginning he has continued in the practice of law nearly forty years, interrupted only by the breaking down of his health for a brief period and absence from home in official position. Continuous application to the details of office work and the exacting duties of a trial lawyer, after some years, impaired his health and he found recreation in his former pursuit of civil engineer. Accepting appointment at the hands of the county commission- ers to superintend the construction of a system of turnpikes in the county, he surveyed the lands to be assessed for the improvement and supervised the work until more than a hundred miles of excellent roads had been constructed within a period of three years. With renewed energy and restored health he resumed the practice of law, engaging interchangeably in both civil and crim- inal business. He has, through all the years, been essentially and primarily a lawyer, practicing in all the courts of the State and, upon the motion of Justice Stanley Matthews, admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States. And yet he has frequently turned aside for the excitement of political campaigns and the allurements of public office. He started in polit- ical life as a Democrat of the Douglas school, and has supported the Demo- cratic party consistently. In 1860 he was nominated and elected to the State legislature, overcoming an adverse majority. Two years later he was defeated for re-election by the candidate of the Union party, a name adopted by the Republicans during the war in order to popularize their canvasses. In 1867 he was elected to the State Senate, and rendered the country honorable service in supporting Judge Thurman for United States senator and defeating Vallan- digham. In 1876 he was elected to Congress as the nominee of his party and attended both the extra and regular sessions of that body. In 1878 he was re-elected, serving until March 4, 1881, when he retired to private life, resumed the practice of law and engaged in banking. While a member of Congress he was instrumental in curing the defects and quieting the title to large bodies of land situated in the Virginia Military Reservation in Ohio, by a bill introduced by himself and pressed to passage. He was one of the organ- izers of the Commercial Bank at Greenfield, of which he has been the president for some time. Mr. Dickey is an orator and political debater of unusual force and ability. During the war he delivered many patriotic addresses to encour- age enlistments of volunteers, and gave loyal support to the government. In the legislature he supported the measures designed for the vigorous prosecution of the war. In his canvasses before the people as a candidate for political office he has usually challenged his competitor to engage in a joint discussion of issues, and has always exhibited a fearlessness in the presentation of his case before a public audience. He has been twice honored with the nomination for judge of his district by the Democratic party, and at each election received support far beyond the strength of his party ; but the district being very largely of opposite politics, he failed of election. He is not infrequently called upon to address public meetings of a non-partisan character and is always heard with interest and attention. The social and benevolent traits of his
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character are to some extent suggested by membership in the order of Free and Accepted Masons, which has been continuous for forty years, and charter membership in McLain Lodge K. of P. His moral and religious propensities are indicated by activity in behalf of temperance reform and membership in the Presbyterian Church, with which he united in 1877. He rendered valu- able service toward securing, and always exhibited commendable public spirit in favor of railroads, water works, electric light plant and whatever has tended to improve the city and inure to the comfort or convenience of the citizens. Mr. Dickey was married January 2, 1861, to Miss Mary L. Harper, of Green- field, just in time to spend the honeymoon in the Ohio legislature. Their sons and daughters are Harold A., Charles A., Mrs. Bessie H. Heiskell, and Mrs. Clara A. Devoss, all of whom live at Greenfield.
HENRY C. VAN VOORHIS, Zanesville. Mr. Van Voorhis is a native of Muskingum county, born on his father's farm fin Licking township, May 11, 1852, of Anglo-Teutonic parentage. His parents were Daniel and Jane (Roberts) Van Voorhis, the former a native of Washington county, Pennsyl- vania, and the latter of Muskingum county, Ohio. The founder of the Ameri- can branch of the Van Voorhis family came to America and settled on Man- hattan Island, while New York was yet a Dutch colony. The date was about 1660. His posterity scattered over the middle and western states. John Van Voorhis, the grandfather of Henry C., was a native of New Jersey, but settled in Pennsylvania about the close of the Revolutionary War. He removed with his family to Ohio in 1812 and settled on a tract of land in Muskingum county ; took an active and honorable part in opening up the country and left a compe- tence for his posterity. Daniel, his son, and the father of the subject of this sketch, followed the vocation of an agriculturist all his life and became one of the most prominent and influential farmers in the county. He represented the county in the legislature during the years 1860-61. He was also a member of the Ohio Constitutional convention in 1871-72. Mr. Van Voorhis's maternal ancestors came from England and settled in Virginia in colonial times, his mother's family removing to Muskingum county shortly after the territory was ceded to the United States and opened for settlement. Henry C. was reared on the farm; in his boyhood and youth he attended the school of his district in Licking township. At the age of seventeen he entered Dennison University, at Granville, Ohio, remaining there for three years. In 1872 he began the study of law under tutorship of Judge Evans, in the office of Evans & Beard, of Zanesville. In August, 1874, he was admitted to the Bar. In the winter of 1874-75 he attended the Law Department of the Cincinnati Col- lege, and the following spring began the practice of law at Zanesville, in part- nership with Captain A. H. Evans. Two years later he formed a partnership with A. A. Frazier. This association remained in effect until 1885, when Mr. Van Voorhis was elected president of the Citizens' National Bank, a position
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