USA > Ohio > Bench and bar of Ohio; a compendium of history and biography, Vol. II > Part 26
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HORACE G. RICHIE, Van Wert. Mr. Richie occupies an honored position as a member of the Bar of northwestern Ohio. His father, Mirabeau F. Richie, of French and Irish extraction, was born in Pennsylvania, and in his early youth became a resident of New Lisbon, Ohio. His mother, Sarah Eaton, was born in Columbiana county, Ohio. In 1839 Mr. Richie's parents removed to Van Wert county, then one of the undeveloped, forest-covered counties of the State, and proceeded to open up for themselves a home in the
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almost unbroken wilderness. Horace was born August 18, 1844, on the farm upon which his parents had settled in 1839 and his early life was devoted to the hardest of hard labor, clearing the timber from the land, planting and harvesting the crops, and such other labor as was incident to his life as a farmer's son in a "new " country. His opportunities for education were only such as the common schools of that day afforded. During all his life he has been a close and earnest student of affairs, and of human nature, and an extensive reader of the leading works of history and fiction. When about thirty years of age he took up the law as his life work, and by a most diligent and systematic course of study he built the foundation for his subsequent suc- cess as a lawyer. In March, 1877, he was admitted to the Bar, and in May of the same year he entered upon the practice of his chosen profession at Van Wert, since which time he has diligently and with success practiced in all the Courts of north western Ohio.
JOEL W. TYLER, Cleveland. Joel Walter Tyler was born in Portage county, Ohio, of parents who were among the pioneers of the State. During his boy- hood opportunities for education were limited, but with Tyler's fondness for study no opportunity for learning could escape, and early in life he sought the companionship and intimacy of the best educated people within his reach. He was most fortunate in coming early under the influence and instruction of a gentleman of scholarly attainments, who possessed an unusual ability as an instructor. This was the local school teacher and, as he took a great interest in young Tyler, he shaped and guided his work not only while in attendance at his own school, but later when he entered an academy in the neighborhood. So great was the boy's application to study and so unusual his ability that at the age of ten years he was far in advance of his fellows in all the elementary branches of education. He was especially proficient in arithmetic and could easily solve problems ordinarily considered too intricate for one of his years. The friend referred to, besides being the local school teacher, was also a doctor of medicine and kept young Tyler in the office as much as possible when he was hardly more than ten years old. Then, as leisure would permit, the doctor taught him phyisology, anatomy, natural philosophy and chemistry in promoting his mother's desire that he should become a physician. His mind being essentially of a logical bent he did not care for the practice of medicine, although showing ability as a student. About this time he began the study of Latin, under the instruction of a minister who took an interest in the lad. At about the age of fourteen he came into intimate association with a surveyor by profession and devoted to the study of the natural sciences. This gentleman was a " free thinker." He took the Boston Investigator, and his library con- tained such works as Voltaire's writings, Tom Paine's " Age of Reason " and Volney's " Ruins." Such an appreciation did this friend have for the boy's ability and learning that he engaged him when he was but fifteen to take charge of the district school, and gave him a home meanwhile. Here young
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Tyler had an opportunity to study the sciences, particularly astronomy, and delve in skeptical literature, but oddly enough he believed in the teachings of Jesus and claimed to be a Christian to his dying day ; but never united with a church or subscribed to the creed of any denomination. After closing his school he went to Hudson, Ohio, and entered a preparatory school for Western Reserve College. Here his eyes became affected from study, and he was obliged to give up the full course. He attended the lectures on science delivered to the senior class by those eminent scholars Loomis and St. John, and for six months he hired a person to read to him in mathematics and a Latin grammar while obliged to remain in a darkened room. He began the study of law when about eighteen under Esquire Wheaden at Hudson, with whom he remained over two years, a portion of the time studying at night and teaching during the day. On the advice of Mr. Wheaden he entered the office of Tilden & Ranney, at Ravenna, with whom he remained for a year and a half, when he was admitted to practice. After travelling through Illinois, Wisconsin and Ohio Mr. Tyler finally settled at Garrettsville, Ohio, and entered upon the practice, obtaining in a short time a clientage in Trumbull and Summit counties, as well as Portage. In 1851 he removed to Kent, then known as Franklin Mills, where he declined a nomina- tion for State Senator. He gave particular attention to the laws governing banking, manufacture and railroads. The mortgage drawn by him in 1851, to secure the payment of $4,000,000 in bonds issued by the Franklin & Warren Railroad Company was regarded as a model, and the form has generally been adopted for such instruments. From 1853, until work was suspended in 1858, he was general solicitor of the Atlantic & Great Western Railway, and in the meantime removed to Mansfield, whence in 1858 he went to Warren and formed a partnership with Judge Matthew Birchard. Mr. Tyler was an ardent Republican and participated actively in campaigns. In 1860 he was elected judge of the Probate Court. He did not enter the army on account of his official duties, but used his influence on the stump and elsewhere to secure enlistments, promising to turn over his office to any worthy lawyer who might be wounded in the service. He was re-elected and soon afterwards resigned in favor of Mr. Youmans, a wounded soldier, whose appointment he secured from Governor Brough. In 1865 Mr. Tyler removed to Cleveland to accept the solicitorship of the Atlantic & Great Western Railway. Soon afterwards he formed a partnership with Judge Rufus P. Ranney, who resigned from the Supreme Bench, and the two were associated together as solicitors of the railway company until 1869, when the financial embarrass- ment of the road culminated in foreclosure and a subsequent receivership. Mr. Tyler was attorney for the receivers. About the same time he became solicitor of the Cleveland, Lorain & Wheeling Railroad, and retained the position until his death. Mr. Tyler's active Republicanism brought him into contact with the leaders of the party in Ohio, and among his personal friends were Sherman and Garfield. Mr. Tyler was a man of refined taste and literary culture. Being on intimate terms with Horace Greeley he received a
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letter of introduction from the latter to Washington Irving, and the presenta- tion of this letter to the popular American author was an incident cherished in his memory. Notes of the interview are published in "Irving's Life and Letters." Mr. Tyler was married three times ; first to Nancy V. Horr, who lived but a few years after marriage and left one son who has since died; second, to Sarah A. Mckinney, by whom he had two sons, Charles W., a journalist, residing in New York, and William B, a lawyer, who practiced law with his father in Cleveland until the latter's death and then removed to New York ; third, the widow of James B. Parish, and whose maiden name was Emer I. Waite and who in girlhood had been a pupil of Mr. Tyler.
HENRY C. WHITE, Cleveland. Honorable Henry Clay White is a native of Cuyahoga county, born just outside the limits of the city of Cleveland, Feb- ruary 23, 1839. He is of English-Welsh extraction. His parents were natives of Massachusetts and of Berkshire county in that State, where they were reared, educated and married. The ancestors of both were among the early settlers of the Connecticut colony. His mother, Sabina Williams, was of Welsh descent. In her childhood days she was a schoolmate of the Fields, who have since achieved such remarkable distinction at the Bar, on the Bench and in commercial affairs. His father, Wileman W. White, emigrated from his native town of Lenox in 1815 to seek a home in the new common wealth of Ohio, leaving his young wife in her girlhood home at Stockbridge until he should find the conditions desired for a location in the West. The vicinity of Cleveland offered many natural advantages and inducements to industry and enterprise, and here the family tree was planted-possibly it is more accurate to say the forest tree was removed to make room for the family cabin of the settler. The next year he returned to Massachusetts for his wife and the household gods, and brought them all the way to Cleveland in a wagon. He was an architect, a builder and a millwright, whose skill and public spirit con- tributed much to the improvement to the frontier and the development of its resources. He built many of the mills in the neighborhood of Cleveland and acquired a large landed estate before his death. Judge White was little more than three years of age when his father died, but he was fortunately possessed by heredity of those moral and intellectual traits and tendencies which need little repression and only gentle guidance to make the strong, capable, successful man. His education received careful supervision. Arrived at the age of eleven his guardian placed him in the school at Hiram, out of which was subsequently evolved Hiram College. He remained in the school only a term and a half on his first entrance, but returned to it in 1856 and remained four years. James A. Garfield, a graduate fresh from Williams College, was then principal of the school at Hiram and stood in the relation of teacher to young White for a period of four years. It is the deliberate opinion of Judge White, founded upon personal observation and study of the man in all of
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his relations, that Garfield achieved his greatest success in life as a teacher of young men and boys. The high positions afterwards won and held with pop- ular approval never obscured that success, in the judgment and the memory of such as received his instruction at Hiram. Possibly the halo that encircled the brow of the general, the congressman and the President, lends a peculiar charm to the memory that " he was once my teacher." After completing his course at college Mr. White entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan, where he enjoyed the benefit of instruction and lectures by Judge Thomas M. Cooley, James V. Campbell and Charles I. Walker, who composed the first faculty of that school, and were among the greatest lawyers of the West, even then. He was graduated as an LL. B. in 1862 and was admitted to the Bar at Cleveland. The War of the Rebellion had so depleted the popu- lation by calling men to the front, and the interests dependant upon the issue were so completely absorbing the attention of the remnant that a young lawyer found it difficult to secure business enough for a livelihood. There was, indeed, comparatively little practice for the old lawyers. So young White took employment in the office of the county clerk, where he was enabled to earn a salary and at the same time keep in touch with the courts and lawyers. He held the position for ten years and then resumed the general practice of the law, which was continued without interruption until 1887. During all this time he formed but one business and professional partnership and that was with William Robison, now deceased. He won and maintained a high standing at the Bar, by his acquirements and accomplishments in the law, and his regard for the character and dignity of the profession. One writer says two things are essential to the highest success of a lawyer : "To possess himself entirely of the facts in his case, and believe in its justice." This is rather a narrow view of the qualifications of a lawyer, and certainly Judge White in active practice surpassed the requirements of the two essentials. He was much more than a "case lawyer." He did not cram and prepare in a limited sense to gain a single case, but pondered deeply the principles and informed himself in the philosophy of the law. He studied his cases and believed in them, but in a much higher and broader sense he sought to under- stand the cold law and believed in abstract justice. In 1887 he was elected as candidate of the Republican party to the office of Probate Judge of Cuyahoga county. He succeeded Daniel R. Tilden, a relative of the great Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, who had held the office thirty-three years. Judge White has already been re-elected four times and his administration of the trust is so clean and able that the tenure for him as long as that of his prede- cessor would be extremely desirable. Fortunate indeed are the widows and orphans and devisees whose rights are determined and whose estates are adminstered by such a judge-pure-minded, righteous and upright. His guide is the law ; his rule of action, duty. The work of the office frequently involves prodigious industry and unwearied diligence to ascertain under the law the exact rights of claimants whose interests are conflicting. It sometimes requires patient investigation and honesty of judgment to determine the distribution
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of an estate in a reasonable, benignant spirit, according to equity, when the letter of the law is not adapted to all the complications. Judge White is endowed with the capacity for work, the intellecual integrity which impels an observance of the demands of justice and a conscientious sympathy which insists upon a consideration of pending rights, in all their breadth and depth, before a final decision. The measure of popular esteem entertained for him is indicated by his election five successive terms to the office of Probate Judge. He has never been a candidate for any other office. His professional standing is excellent. He is professor of Testamentary Law in the F. T. Backus Law School of the Western Reserve University, and occupies the chair of Medical Jurisprudence in the Cleveland Medical College, whose graduating class last year numbered fifty-five. Judge White is a gentleman of cordial manners and pleasing address; in social intercourse the incarnation of urbanity. He is a popular orator, whose addresses are not only entertaining but effective in the advocacy of any matter of public concern. He is a member of the Masonic Order, in which he has advanced to the thirty-second degree. He has member- ship in the Union, Colonial and Masonic Clubs, but his social qualities find their best expression in his family and home. He was married in 1866 to Sabina M. Capron and has four children, two sons and two daughters.
HORACE FOOTE, Cleveland. Judge Horace Foote, deceased, was born March 21, 1799, in the southern part of Hartford county, Connecticut. His father, Roger Foote, was a farmer, who was also born in Connecticut. The family was of English extraction. He was the fourth son in a family of ten children. His early life was spent upon his father's farm, and during the winters he was sent to the country district schools. His brilliancy and acute- ness of mind were manifested at an early age, and at fifteen he had gone beyond his classmates 'and was sent to an academy at Cheshire, Connecticut. Here he began the study of the classics, and in the course of a year or so he had made such progress that he felt he could stand an examination for admis- sion to the freshman class in Yale College. One of his classmates, Seth Pad- dock, afterwards a Bishop of the Episcopal Church, was also anxious to obtain a college education ; so the two quietly left the academy without the knowl- edge of any one and walked all the way to New Haven. Having no acquaint- ance with any person connected with the college, and seeking no outside influence, they asked for an examination. The request was granted ; both were admitted upon disclosing their identity, and upon the merit of their scholar- ship alone they were entered, not in the freshman, but in the third term of the sophomore year. This was in 1818. Young Foote remained at Yale two years, when he was graduated with high standing. Among his classmates and intimate friends were President Woolsey, of Yale ; Solomon Stoddard, of Vermont, and Leonard Bacon and Alexander Twining, of New Haven, who became celebrated in the professional and literary world, and were at one
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time professors in Yale. President Woolsey was the honor man and the vale- dictorian of the class ; Horace Foote and Solomon Stoddard having orations. There was a standing premium (The Bishop Berkley premium of $50) every year offered for the student who passed the best examination in three Greek and three Latin books. Alexander Twining, Mr. Williston and Horace Foote competed for this prize. Mr. Foote made no especial preparation for this examination, but as he was exceedingly fond of language studies it was his custom to read further in the classics than the course required. The lessons assigned did not occupy all of his time or give him sufficient work. He was therefore able to win the prize, although he had never looked into certain of the books used. During his term in college he also studied French. After graduating he immediately began the study of law in the office of Seth P. Staples, a distinguished lawyer in New Haven. and two years later was admit- ted to practice. He then went to Geneseo, New York, to open an office, but his father dying about this time he went back home to look after the farm and family, which needed his care, and he remained two or three years, rais- ing, as he once said, "potatoes, beans and a little of everything and not much of anything." During this time he carted his produce to market more than ten miles over very bad roads. After leaving the farm he went to Chatham, where one of his brothers was engaged in merchandising, thence he went to Cincinnati to look after some business for the merchant brother. Soon after- wards his health failed, and for several years he was an invalid. Whilst sick he visited Cleveland, where a brother-in-law resided, then went back to Con- necticut to consult a physician. He really thought he was going to die, but with skillful treatment and rest he completely recovered. Before leaving Connecticut for Cincinnati, in the year 1834, he was married to Mary Elenor Hurd, of Middle Haddam, that State. He was regarded by the professors of Yale as a brilliant and thorough scholar, and after graduating was invited by them to deliver an oration the following year. In 1836 he removed to Cleve- land, residing in what was then called the City of Ohio, now the West Side, where he opened an office and began the practice of law. He soon came to be regarded as a strong lawyer, although not a great jury advocate. He knew and remembered about all there was in the text-books and was an excellent pleader. The law business of this Bar then was not large, but he had to contend with Sherlock J. Andrews, who was the greatest jury advocate in this section of the State ; Henry B. Payne, Bolton, Kelly, Bishop, Backus and others. He was judicial in his methods, and strong and clear in his ideas and enunciation. He of all of them was regarded as the best lawyer, although perhaps not the most brilliant. In 1854 he was elected judge of the Common Pleas Court, which position he held for twenty years consecutively. During this period he was looked upon by the people as an oracle of the law and when he had care- fully considered a case and given his opinion it was regarded as settled as the Supreme Court would decide. His decisions were rarely if ever reversed by that tribunal. When too old to longer endure the fatigue and labors of the Bench, he retired from active life, leaving a judicial record of which any man
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might be justly proud. Judge Foote was a man who never adopted any of the arts of the demagogue to win public applause. When he was elevated to the Bench it was because of his especial fitness for the position. If he was more distinguished than his brethren at the Bar or on the Bench, it was because of his superior learning, legal acumen and ability. He was a peculi- arly modest man and so despised ostentation and brag in others that he seemed to make an effort to hide his own light " under a bushel " lest some one might think he was arrogant and assuming. It was said of him that he was cold and wanting in the pleasant courtesies of life ; yet it may be truly said of him as it was of another, " Lofty and sour to those who loved him not, yet to those friends who sought him, sweet as summer." Judge Foote was a man who was terribly in earnest. He acted as though he thought time was given him only to use, and every minute of it. When he made up his mind, he was sure he was right, and he expressed his opinion with so much clearness, precision and force that even those who differed with him on the trial felt that perhaps he was right - and he generally was. He was a most uncom- promising enemy of fraud, and sometimes he thought he discovered it when it did not exist. His manner was dignified even to austerity. He had so high an opinion of the dignity of the judicial position that to the younger mem- bers of the Bar he seemed sometimes severe and unapproachable, but he had no pride of opinion. His mind was so acute that he could catch the force of an argument as soon as the point was stated, and whatever may have been his expressed convictions, if the argument showed him wrong, he would change instantly and acknowledge his error. It was not necessary for the young practitioner to come before him with his arms full of authorities. He knew the law without the aid of books, and he always gave the younger or weak the benefit of his knowledge when he decided the case or charged the jury, which often amounted to the about the same thing. Judge Foote died November 16, 1884, in his 86th year. He had married Mary E. Hurd in early manhood, and to them were born six children, three sons and three daughters. One of the latter died in 1881. His widow survived him about six years. All of the sons and two of the daughters are still living.
NOTE. -- Upon the death of Judge Foote a memorial meeting of the Bench and Bar of Cleveland was held. It was attended by all the representative men in the profession. Judge Rufus P. Ranney presided and delivered a very able address. He was followed by addresses from a number of the leading men of the Bar.
We are indebted to W. C. McFarland, a member of the Cleveland Bar, for much valuable information as to the early life of Judge Foote. He was a close and intimate friend of the judge in his declining years.
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JAMES M. HOYT. Cleveland. The late James M. Hoyt, LL. D., was born at Utica, New York, on the 16th of January, 1815. Both his father and mother were of Puritan descent. Great care was exercised in the preliminary education and training of their son. At an early age he entered Hamilton College, New York, and was graduated in 1834. Upon leaving college he commenced the study of law in his native city, but in a short time removed to Cleveland, and in 1836 read law in the office of Andrews & Foot. On his admission to practice in the following year, the law firm of Andrews, Foot & Hoyt was formed, and continued for twelve years thereafter, when Judge Sherlock J. Andrews withdrew from the firm, upon being appointed Judge of the Superior Court of Cuyahoga county. The firm of Foot & Hoyt continued until 1853, when Mr. Hoyt withdrew from the practice of law and turned his whole attention to the purchase of real estate in Cleveland and vicinity. Shortly after arriving in Cleveland he became connected with the First Baptist Church Sunday School, and was for twenty years its superintendent. He then resigned and became teacher of a Congregational Bible class. Although never ordained a minister, for twenty years he preached at intervals, having been licensed for that purpose by the church with which he was connected. In 1854 he was chosen president of the Ohio Baptist State Convention and was annually for twenty years thereafter elected to that position. He pre- sided over anniversary meetings of the church in nearly every city of the State. He was chosen president of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, the National organization of missions in North America, and was elected at each subsequent annual meeting until 1870, when he retired. For eight years he was president of the Cleveland Bible Society, an auxilliary to the American Bible Society. In 1877 he was elected a member of the State board of equalization, a body charged with important duties, having the same constituency as the State Senate, and which for high character, talent and practical business sense was probably never surpassed in the history of the State. In 1873 he was appointed to represent the interests of the people on the Cleveland board of public improvements. In 1870, Dennison University at Granville, Ohio, conferred upon Mr. Hoyt the degree of Learned Doctor of Laws, and the distinction was well merited. In 1836 he married Mary Ella Beebe, in the city of New York. and six children were born of this union. Of these, the eldest son, Wayland Hoyt, is an eminent Baptist divine; Cole- gate Hoyt is a leading business man residing in the city of New York, and James H. Hoyt is one of the representative lawyers at the Cleveland Bar. Mr. Hoyt died at his home in Cleveland on Sunday, April 21, 1895, having by his upright life, abounding in good works, builded for himself a monument more enduring than brass or marble. Among those not engaged in scientific pursuits very few had kept more steadily abreast of the progress of modern science. He had an affluence of language and a rich imagination, with the poetic sense, but his imagination was always kept in subordination to the reason and the judgment. The career of Mr. Hoyt will fill a wide space in the history of Cleveland. He came when our city had not given its fullest
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