USA > Ohio > Bench and bar of Ohio; a compendium of history and biography, Vol. II > Part 18
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For generations the family of Loomis have been engaged in the production of fabrics, and in commercial pursuits the name is a familiar one. Both Chris- topher and Joel Loomis, the father and grandfather of Judge Loomis, were large manufacturers of cotton and woolen goods. William Butler Loomis was born at New London, Connecticut, February 1, 1837. When he was three years of age his father, Christopher C. Loomis, came West and located at Marietta, Ohio, and engaged in merchandising. Our subject attended the public schools of this town, and at the age of sixteen was graduated from the high school. The president of the board of education in charge of the school at that time was Dr. Israel Ward Andrews, who afterwards became president of Marietta College After leaving school he took a course in history, philos- ophy and letters, under private tutors. He then took up the study of law in the office of Clark & Ewart, remaining with them for about three years, when, in 1857, he was admitted to the Bar, at the age of twenty ; but did not imme- diately commence the practice of his profession. About this time his father and family removed to Logansport, Indiana, where they remained for four years, when they returned to Connecticut, where Mr. Loomis re-embarked in the manufacturing business. He is still living, at the age of eighty-two, at Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1858 William entered into partnership at Marietta with Mr. Thomas W. Ewart, continuing in this relation until 1859. After the dissolution of this partnership he spent six months with his father's family at Logansport, returning to Marietta in 1860 and entered into a partnership with Mr. Melvin Clark, which continued until the death of Mr. Clark, who was killed while in command of his regiment at the battle of Antietam. He remained in practice for one year alone at Marietta, when he associated him- self with Judge Nash, of Gallipolis, one of the most distinguished lawyers at the Southern Ohio Bar. The firm thus formed continued in business until 1865, when it was dissolved. Two months later Mr. Loomis entered into part- nership with Samuel S. Knowles, of Washington county, an arrangement that was continued until he was, in 1868, elected judge of the Common Pleas Court of the Third Subdivision in the Seventh Judicial District of Ohio, embracing four counties, but he held court as circuit judge all over the district. He retired from the Bench in 1873, and has been ever since engaged in the prac- tice of his profession. Judge Loomis has the reputation of being one of the most careful and painstaking attorneys in preparing his cases for trial in the district. In presenting his cases he depends more upon their merits to win than he does in pyrotechnical oratory. His standing as a lawyer and a citizen is best represented by the language of his colleagues in the profession. Said a prominent attorney :
" I think the general estimate among his associates and those who have practiced before him as a judge, or associated with him or on the opposite side in the trial of cases, that he is just and fair to all parties interested and pos- sesses in an eminent degree a judicial mind. He is very studious and thought- ful, and possibly a little slow in his methods; but the lawyer or client who has obtained his opinion on any subject that he has investigated has something of as great or greater value than lie would have coming from any other attorney
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at the Bar. He is essentially adapted for the Bench, more so perhaps than for practice at the Bar. He was a hard student in his youth and while he was pursuing his legal studies, and the fruits are shown in his well ripened mind. He is accurate, careful and analytical in all his work; is highly respected as a lawyer wherever he is known, and in this respect nothing too high can be said of him. He is not brilliant, but safe. As a citizen he stands very high in the community."
In political principles Judge Loomis is a Republican and, while not a pol- itician, takes an active interest in the success of the party. He was married in 1865 to Harriet Frances Wheeler, daughter of Frederick A. Wheeler, of Marietta, Ohio. To them were born four children. The eldest of these, Francis Butler, held until very recently the position of editor-in-chief of the Cincinnati Tribune. Charles Wheeler died May 22, 1893. Frederick Kent is now on the editorial staff of the Cincinnati Tribune. Harriet Francis Loomis died in March, 1879, and in June, 1880, Judge Loomis was married to Mrs. N. C. Holdkinson, of Marietta. They have one child, William Dwight. The judge and his family are attendants and members of the Episcopal Church of Marietta.
JAMES A. GILMORE, Eaton. Honorable James A. Gilmore was born on a farm in Israel township, Preble county, Ohio, on the 11th day of July, 1834. His father, Dr. Eli Gilmore, was a native of Virginia, and removed to Ohio in 1825, and for thirty years was in the active practice of his profession. The Gilmores are of Scotch-Irish descent. They settled originally in Virginia, where they became prominent in State and National affairs. His mother, Clarissa M. Clayton, also a native of Virginia, was related to the Mosbys. Her brother was one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Mississippi, and afterwards a member of the Confederate Congress. While Mr. Gilmore's edu- cation was confined to the common schools of his county, he had careful train- ing at home, his mother and father both being highly educated and persons of strong character and high moral principles. At eighteen he entered the law office of his brother, the Honorable W. J. Gilmore, who afterwards served five years on the Supreme Bench of Ohio, where he commenced the study of law. In the winter of 1853-4 he entered the Law School of the Cincinnati College, and received his degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1854. He was at once admitted to practice by the District Court of Butler county, on the day after he attained his majority. Returning to Eaton he commenced the practice of law in his brother's office, where he remained until 1858, when he removed to Green- castle, Putnam county, Indiana, where he remained about one year. Before his return to Eaton he married Miss Lizzie Applegate. In 1860 he again opened an office at Greencastle. In the fall of 1861 he enlisted in the Forty-third Regi- ment Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Shortly after his regiment was mustered into service he was detailed in the quartermaster's department, where he served three years, during the term of his enlistment. He was honorably dis- charged in the fall of 1864. During his service Mrs. Gilmore died, and shortly
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after his discharge he enlisted in the Ninety-first Indiana Volunteer Infantry, one of the regiments forming the Twenty-third army corps. With his com- pany he went to North Carolina and was again detailed, this time with the Jude Advocate's department. A part of the time he was clerk under Captain Phineas R. Minor in the commissary department. After his discharge in 1865, at the close of the war, he spent a year in the West and then returned to his native State and located at Eaton. Here he formed a copartnership with Judge J. V. Campbell. On the 12th of November, 1869, he was married to Ada M., daughter of General George D. Hendricks. Some time afterwards he removed to Hamilton and opened an office for the practice of law. Here he remained two years, then returned to Eaton, where he- has since resided and become prominent in his profession. His partnership with Judge Camp- bell was dissolved in 1879, when he was elected an additional judge of the Court of Common Pleas, serving until 1884, and until the special term created by act of the legislature had expired. Returning to his practice he took first rank at the Bar. Judge Gilmore is a lawyer of recognized ability, and is well and favorably known throughout the southern part of the State. His practice is of a general character, and there are few important cases tried in his county in which he is not engaged. He is an orator of force, and has delivered many political speeches and addresses. In politics he is a Democrat, always taking an active interest in local, State and National affairs. Judge Gilmore takes a great interest in educational matters. He has for a number of years been a member of the school board, and is now president of that body. By his first marriage there was one son, who is now in the employ of the C., H. & D. R. R. Company ; and by the second union there are seven children, four sons and three daughters.
WILLIAM A. WHITTLESEY, Marietta. This distinguished lawyer, faith- ful public servant and esteemed citizen was born at Danbury, Connecticut, in 1796, died in Brooklyn, New York, and was buried at Marietta, Ohio, in 1866. He had a classical education; was graduated from Yale College in 1816, and remained at the college for some time as a tutor. In 1818 he came to, Ohio and entered the office of his uncle, the Honorable Elisha Whittlesey, at Canfield, as a law student. Later he studied with Joshua R. Giddings, and in 1820 was admitted to the Bar. He settled in Marietta in 1821, and began the practice of his profession alone. Four years later he was elected to the position of auditor of Washington county, and held the office for two successive terms. In this, his first place of public trust, he discharged the duties of the office with such fidelity and conscientious regard for the interests of the public as to raise himself very high in public esteem. After retiring from office he devoted his attention entirely to his law practice, until 1839, when he was elected on the Democratic ticket to represent Washington county in the State legislature, serving for two years. In 1841 he formed a partnership with General Charles B. Goddard, of Zanesville, for the practice of law in Washington county, a
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relation that continued for several years. In 1848 he was made the nominee of the Democratic party to represent the district composed of the counties of Washington, Morgan and Perry, in the thirty-first Congress, and was elected ; and so faithful was he in the discharge of his duties to his constituents that he was offered the nomination to be his own successor, but declined to serve another term. While he was willing to perform his full duty as a citizen, he was not ambitious for political honors. The various positions of trust and honor that he held in his eventful life came to him unsought, and the duties were discharged with fidelity and regard for the public welfare, rather than for personal or partisan ends. In 1858 he was elected mayor of the city of Marietta, and his administration of the office was endorsed by re-election in 1860 and in 1862, so that he served the city six years as chief magistrate. Dur- ing these latter years he had been afflicted with severe bodily infirmities though he continued to discharge his duties to the public and to his clients, bearing his pains with remarkable fortitude. In 1866 he went East for the pur- pose of receiving treatment from celebrated specialists, but he found no relief until the silent Boatman carried him to the other shore. He died at Brooklyn, New York, November 6, 1866. His remains were brought to Marietta for interment, and laid beside those of his son, Captain W. B. Whittlesey, a brave and deserving officer, who was killed at the battle of Mission Ridge, in Novem- ber, 1863. Judge Whittlesey's wife and daughter survived him. He was hon- ored in life, and in death was deeply mourned. The quotation below is an extract from resolutions passed by the Bar Association of Washington county, and is given as an index of public sentiment :
" It is with feelings of deepest sorrow and regret that we -- the members of the Washington county Bar-have heard of the death of our late associate, the Honorable William A. Whittlesey. During the whole period of our con- nection with the profession in this county, we have been witnesses of the esti- mable qualities of the deceased. As a lawyer his discriminating mind, his legal acquirements, the friendliness and honesty of his counsel, his urbanity in the court, and his uniform courtesy and kindness toward the junior members of the profession have elicited our esteem and endeared him to our recollections. As a citizen and a neighbor, the kindness of his disposition, his liberality, his cheerfulness, and his remarkable freedom from all feelings of envy, resent- ment and ill will, won for him the respect and friendship of all who knew him."
Said a prominent judge on the Bench of this district :
" Mr. Whittlesey was never a very active.man in court-room practice ; he was a good lawyer, a man of extremely good judgment, an excellent adviser. He was a cultivated gentleman, a man of fine feelings and wonderfully inter- esting socially. He had, without exception, the finest fund of anecdotes of any man I ever knew, and they were always applicable to illustrate his points. He was an exceedingly kind man, and in his old age liked the companionship of young men. One of his characteristics worthy of mention was his great willingness to help young men in getting an education. He paid all of the expenses of two nephews while at college and took them into his own home, besides assisting many others to complete their education."
The following is contributed by a prominent practitioner of the Marietta Bar :
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"Judge Whittlesey was an unusual man. There were not many men like him. He was a true friend ; one who could not be tempted to take advantage of another's necessity, however great the pecuniary benefit might be to him- self. There was no room for meanness in his nature. As a lawyer he was upright and honest. He told a story well to illustrate an argument. All his stories had pith and point, and high, pure tone. He was true and just in his dealings with all men. As a companion he was one of the most genial of men ; correct in all his habits. His popularity arose from his courtesy and affability, his generous disposition and exalted character. He gave legal advice to the twenty magistrates of the country free of charge."
Mr. Whittlesey was married to Miss Jane Hobby, October 25, 1838. Of this union four children were born, but only one is now living-Emily, the wife of W. B. Mitchell, of St. Cloud, Minnesota, a gentleman of ability and prominence who was for many years the editor and publisher of the St. Cloud Journal-Press. Mrs. Whittlesey died February 10, 1896, at the home of her daughter in St. Cloud, Minnesota, after a very brief illness, in the eighty- fourth year of her age.
EMMET M. WICKHAM, Delaware. Honorable Emmet M. Wickham, judge of the Court of Common Pleas, is a native of Delaware county. He was born in Genoa township, near the border of Franklin county, October 29, 1859. He is of English-German extraction and a lineal descendant of Joseph Wickham, who carried on mercantile business at Sag Harbor, Long Island, more than two hundred years ago. His great-great-grandfather, Jonathan Wickham, born in the State of New York three years after the birth of Washington, was among the heroes and patriots of the Revolution; and his grandfather, Wickham's mother's father, Joseph Welsh, was captain of a company of New York infantry during the Revolutionary War. Judge Wickham's grandfather Asa Wickham, emigrated from Essex county, New York, to the State of Ohio in 1834, and settled in Delaware county in 1850. His father, Kitridge H. Wickham, a native of New York, is a stone cutter by occupation, a man of industry, integrity and very moderate means. His mother, whose family name was Sebring, was born in Ohio, of German parents, her grandfather, Francis Sebring, having emigrated to the State from Pennsylvania in 1808. He was the eldest of three children, and in early boyhood learned the lesson of self-dependence. He attended the district schools as soon as he attained the lawful age, and bought his clothing with money paid him by neighboring farmers for all kinds of farm work. The vigorous physical organism with which he is favored doubtless derived much of its vigor and healthfulness from the open air employment of the farm, much of which was laborious and some of which was recreative. During these boyhood years of toil, privation and preparation, his imagination was actively painting brighter pictures of the future, and all unconsciously he was weaving into the web of life by pluck and persistence, in work and study, the realistic picture of his imagination. IIis aspiration was continually leading him out of his environment, but lionest per-
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formance of his daily tasks in the humble sphere was the only road to the higher goal. He was a student while he was a typical boy on the farm-not a farmer's boy. He pursued his studies to the farthest limit of the district school and thus qualified himself to teach others. It was in his twenty-first year that he rode on horseback twenty miles to Delaware, to attend the exam- nation for teachers in the public schools. He passed creditably, obtained his certificate, and in April, 1880, opened school in the home district, governing and teaching boys and girls who had been his fellow pupils. This is one of the severe tests of a young man's strength of character and self-control. Judge Wickham possessed the essential and practical knowledge of branches taught, the self-confidence that springs from such knowledge, and the natural dignity of character to make success immediate and continuous. For twelve years he engaged in teaching, while the intervals between terms were employed with farm work. His inclination was toward the law, and in 1889 he took up the study of legal text books under the instruction of Honorable F. M. Marriott. Applying himself with the diligence and earnestness char- acteristic of all his undertakings, he was qualified for admission to the Bar in two years, and passed the examination conducted by the Supreme Court Com- mission in the first three days of December, 1891. His teaching was continued until May following, as per contract, and in September, 1892, he entered into the practice of law, in the office of his former preceptor, Mr. Marriott. His mind was mature, well disciplined by study and teaching, and having the instinct of a lawyer he came to the front rapidly. The principles of the law had been grasped by previous study and now it was easy for him to appre- hend its complications, as they arise in practice. His abilities were speedily recognized by fellow practitioners and his brilliant parts made him a leader at the Bar. After less than four years of practice he was nominated in July, 1896, as the Democratic candidate for Judge of the first Subdivision of the Sixth Common Pleas District, and was elected in November. He has occu- pied the Bench since February, 1897, with ability and a conscientious endeavor to measure up to the standard of an upright judge. His moral character and genial disposition contributed to his personal popularity among the best citi- zens. His application to study and capacity to think for himself on the prob- lems which the law presents are high qualifications for a judge. He is clear in his understanding, in his rulings and opinions. Judge Wickham is a Demo- crat by inheritance, choice and life long affiliation. The only office held by him before the judgeship was that of school director in his home district, where he served for three years, an office in which his practical views of edu- cation were of much advantage. He was the candidate of his party several times for city solicitor when there was no shadow of hope in the election. The canvass each time was made in conformity to a sense of party fealty rather than expectation of reward.
Nawil Ryan
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DANIEL J. RYAN, Columbus. Daniel J. Ryan was born at Cincinnati, January 1, 1855. His father, John Ryan, and his mother, Honora Ryan, were born in Ireland and came to this country about 1850 and settled in Cincinnati. They afterwards removed to Portsmouth, Ohio, where young Ryan received his education in the public schools, passing through all the grades. He was graduated from the high school in 1875. For a year before leaving school he was entered as a law student in the office of Judge James W. Bannon, where he continued his studies after graduating. In February, 1877, he was admitted to the Bar by the Supreme Court at Columbus. He at once commenced practice alone at Portsmouth, and in the following April was elected city solicitor ; was re-elected in 1879, serving until the spring of 1881. In 1883 he was elected a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, and was re-elected in 1885. During this service he was speaker pro tem. and chair- man of the committee on public works. At the expiration of his legislative duties he resumed practice. In 1888 he was elected secretary of State of Ohio, and in 1890 was re-elected for a second term. He resigned this office, how- ever, in 1891 to accept the appointment of commissioner in chief for Ohio of the World's Columbian Exposition, the duties of which required his services until May, 1894. While secretary of State he assisted in the compilation of Smith & Benedict's edition of the Revised Statutes of Ohio. He has since been engaged in the practice of law at Columbus. He has always been a Republican ; was the first president of the Ohio Republican League, and pre- sided at New York over the first convention of the National League of Repub- lican Clubs which met in 1887. For ten years Mr. Ryan has been one of the trustees of the Ohio Historical Society. He was appointed by the Exhibitors' Association at the World's Fair as one of the commissioners to the Antwerp Exposition in 1894. He was appointed by Governor Mckinley as delegate to the National Water Ways Convention which met at Vicksburg in 1894. At the present time he is president of the Ohio Canal Association. Mr. Ryan is well and favorably known throughout the State as a man of high character and a lawyer of ability. He has been identified with many important cases in Ohio which have attracted general attention both in and out of the State, among which might be mentioned the case touching the constitutionality of the abandonment of the Hocking canal, and litigation relating to the food department of the State. On the 10th day of January, 1884, Mr. Ryan was married to Myra L. Kerr, of Portsmouth, and by this union five children were born, two of whom are living, Julia E. and Elinor.
WILLIAM T. MOONEY, St. Marys. Judge Mooney is of Irish descent. He was born at St. Marys, Ohio, November 14, 1862. His parents are Michael J. and Catherine Mooney, the former a native of Indiana, the latter of Ohio. His father is department manager of one of the great American life insurance companies. Judge Mooney's advantages for obtaining an education were
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good, and he improved them from his earliest school years. He was graduated from the St. Marys high school May 23, 1880, at the age of eighteen years. He then entered the Ohio Normal University at Ada, and was prepared to enter the junior class. Two years later he was graduated from the institution with the degree of A. B. He read law privately for a period at home, and in October, 1886, he entered the Law Department of the Cincinnati College, from which he was graduated May 24, 1888, with the degree of LL. B. He received the Dexter prize for highest proficiency in both the junior and senior examina- tions. He was immediately admitted to the Bar and began the practice of his profession alone at St. Marys, June 1, 1888. He did not have a tedious wait for clients. Being well known and personally very popular he soon built up a good business, which continued to grow so long as he was in practice. In 1890 he formed a partnership with J. H. Goeke, under the firm name of Mooney & Goeke, which remained in effect until he was elected to the Bench of the Common Pleas Court. He held the office of city solicitor of St. Marys for two terms. In the fall of 1892 he was elected to fill a vacancy on the Common Pleas Bench of the first subdivision, third judicial district, to fill the unexpired term of Judge John Day, who had resigned to accept a seat on the Bench of the Circuit Court. He was re-elected in 1894 for a full term. In 1895 he was the candidate of his party for judge of the Supreme Court, but was defeated with the ticket in the landslide of that year. In his own dis- trict where he was best known he ran far ahead of his ticket. He has gained a reputation for legal acumen that is remarkable for a man of his years. The public is apt to estimate a man at about his true worth where they have oppor- tunities of observation, as with a man on the Bench of a nisi prius court, and no truer estimate of a judge's ability is obtainable than is made up from the opinions of the men who practice in the court over which he presides. Refer- ring to Judge Mooney's career at the Bar and on the Bench, one of the promi- nent practitioners of the district says :
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