USA > Ohio > Bench and bar of Ohio; a compendium of history and biography, Vol. II > Part 33
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WILLIAM H. TAFT, Cincinnati. William Howard Taft was born in Cincin- nati, Ohio, September, 15, 1857. He was a son of Alphonso Taft and Louise M. Torrey, of Millbury, Massachusetts. He prepared himself for college in the public schools of Cincinnati, graduating from Woodward High School. He entered Yale University in 1874 and graduated from that institution in 1878, the second in his class. He delivered the salutatory oration at commencement, and was selected by his class to deliver the class oration during commence- ment week. Upon his return to Cincinnati he studied law in his father's office and in the Law School of the Cincinnati College, from which he graduated in 1880, securing first prize for the year. He was admitted to the Bar at Colum- bus in 1880 and became the law reporter of the Cincinnati Commercial, which position he held until January 1881, when he was appointed assistant prose- cutor of Hamilton county, Ohio. This position he held until March, 1882, when President Arthur appointed him collector of internal revenue at Cincin- nati. He resigned this position in the same year and in January of the follow- ing year became a law partner of Major II. P. Lloyd. In March, 1887, he was appointed by Governor Foraker to fill a vacancy in the position of judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, caused by the resignation of the Honora- ble Judson Harmon. During the time he was engaged in the practice of law with Major Lloyd he also held the position of assistant county solicitor under Honorable Rufus B. Smith. At the expiration of the term for which Judge Taft had been appointed by Governor Foraker in 1888, he was elected judge of the Superior Court for the full term of five years. In January, 1890, while holding this position, he was appointed by President Harrison to be solicitor general of the United States, and he entered upon his new position in Febru- ary, 1890. During his three years' occupancy of the Superior Court Bench, Judge Taft heard and decided a number of cases which, in importance, ranked among the highest tried by that famous court. At Washington he repre- sented the United States government before the Supreme Court in a great number of important cases. His briefs were always carefully prepared and one of them which related to one of the Behring Sea cases won high commenda- tion from the court. After a little more than two years' service as solicitor general he resigned to accept the appointment of the position of United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit, which was tendered him by Presi- dent Harrison. He took the oath of office as a judge March 17, 1890. His associate at that time on the Bench of the newly created court was Howell E. Jackson, and upon the appointment of Judge Jackson to be Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Judge Taft became the senior judge of the Circuit and presiding judge of the Circuit Court of Appeals. This circuit includes four States-Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. The business of the court since its establishment has been of very great importance and has included many cases of interest to the public at large. Judge Taft's decisions have made him a reputation as a judge of the first rank throughout the country. In the fall of 1896 Judge Taft with others organized the Law School of the Cincinnati University with which was incorporated, the follow-
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ing year, the Law School of the old Cincinnati College. Of this institution Judge Taft has been the dean since its organization. In June, 1897, he received the honorary degree of LL. D. from Yale University. In June, 1886, he mar- ried Miss Helen Herron, daughter of Honorable John W. Herron, of Cincinnati.
CHANNING RICHARDS, Cincinnati. Honorable Channing Richards, a leading member of the Cincinnati Bar, is descended from patriotic ancestry through both his paternal and maternal lineage. He is of the eighth genera- tion from John Richards, who emigrated from Wales and settled at Plymouth before 1637. His grandfather, Guy Richards, was a brother of Captain Peter Richards, one of the patriots killed at Fort Griswold, near New London, when it was captured by the English under the leadership of Benedict Arnold in 1781. His father, a native of New London, Connecticut, located in Cincin- nati about 1832 and engaged in merchandising; was at one time secretary of the chamber of commerce, and lived until 1869. His mother, Lydia William- son before her marriage, the granddaughter of General Elias Dayton, an offi- cer on General Washington's staff, was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and died in her Ohio home in 1850. Channing Richards, the lawyer, was born in Cincinnati February 21, 1838. He was prepared for college in Brooks Acad- emy, entered Yale in 1854 and was graduated in 1858. He was graduated from the Cincinnati Law School the following year and began the practice, which was soon interrupted by his entrance into the military service. He enlisted under the first call for volunteers, April, 1861, in the Sixth Ohio Infantry ; served in the West Virginia campaign six months, when he returned home and accepted appointment as second lieutenant on the staff of General M. S. Wade, commandant at Camp Dennison. In January, 1862, he went to the front as first lieutenant in the Twenty-second Ohio Infantry, and a month later was promoted to the captaincy of the company. His service thencefor- ward was in the Army of the Tennessee until the close of the war, with the rank of captain. He participated with his command in numerous battles, among which were the early engagements at Laurel Hill and Carrick's Ford in West Virginia, Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh and Corinth and Vicks- burg. After the surrender of that western stronghold to the Union forces, Captain Richards was asssgned to duty at Memphis, Tennessee, serving as provost marshal, judge advocate and military mayor of the city until the rebellion was finally suppressed. He remained there engaged in the practice of law until 1871, when he returned to Cincinnati and formed a partnership with William Stanton. This was continued until October, 1872, when he was appointed assistant United States district attorney. In 1877 he was appointed United States district attorney by President Grant, and reappointed to the same office in 1881 by President Hayes. After service of five years as the assistant he was well qualified for the larger responsibility of chief. For eight year's succeeding 1877 he conducted the legal controversies in behalf of the
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Rufus B. Smith
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United States for southern Ohio with ability and zeal, protected the interests of the government and rendered complete satisfaction to the several adminis- trations with which he was officially connected, as well as individuals whose interests were involved. After the expiration of his second term, in 1885, Mr. Richards formed a partnership with the late Rufus King and Mr. Samuel J. Thompson, which was dissolved by the death of Mr. King. The firm as now constituted is Thompson, Richards & Richards. Since 1888 he has been the professor of commercial law and contracts in the law school of the Cincinnati College. His practice has been confined almost exclusively to civil business, and very largely to commercial cases. His distinctive ability is recognized by his most eminent and successful associates, who unhesitatingly accord to him high rank at the Bar. He possesses large mental capacity with a genius for analysis and the orderly arrangement of details. His argument is always clear, concise, logical and scholarly, without evasion or sophistry ; not only a very thorough exposition of the law applicable to the case under considera- tion, but impressed and re-enforced by his integrity of character, probity and uprightness of conduct, in the profession and in society. To the studious care with which his cases are prepared is added perfect loyalty to clients. An old practitioner in the State and Federal courts of Ohio, who knows Mr. Richards intimately, remarks : "As an associate or an adversary I always found him courteous and strong. Against him I knew that I could not rely for success upon any oversight or neglect of preparation on his part. I do not regard him as inferior in mental vigor to any member of our Bar." He is Republican in politics, rendering valuable support to the party by public speaking and active membership in the leading club of the city. His religious belief finds expres- sion in the forms of the Episcopal Church, in which he has held membership since 1857. He has also been a member of the standing committee of the Diocese of Southern Ohio since its organization in 1875, and in 1895 was appointed chancellor of the dioccse. Mr. Richards has cause to thank the military authority of the government for his assignment to duty at Memphis, as it resulted in a most fortunate partnership. He was married April 11, 1865, to Miss Hattie, daughter of P. P. Learned, a prominent business man of Memphis for many years. Seven children have been born of this union : Hat- tie L., born in 1866, died in 1872; Channing, born in 1870, now an attorney in Cincinnati ; Paschal, born in 1872 ; Brayton, born in 1874; James, born in 1876; Bessie, born in 1878, died in 1891; and Virginia, born in 1887. Mr. Richards died September 12, 1896.
RUFUS B. SMITH. Rufus B. Smith, on the Bench of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, is a native of that city, born October 24, 1854. His father, Henry R. Smith, was for many years a prominent citizen and successful business man of the city ; a man capable in affairs, as evidenced, not only by the manage- ment of his own private business, but also by his administration of the trustce-
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ship of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad. Rufus B. obtained his primary education in the excellent public schools of his native city, continuing until he had reached the senior year of the high school course, when he prepared for the examination at Yale College under a private tutor. He was graduated from Yale in 1876 upon completion of the full classical course. Immediately thereafter he entered the Cincinnati Law School and pursued its regular course of study. He was fortunate in being received into the law office of the late Alphonso Taft, where he began the practice of the law. In 1880 he was appointed first assistant to the prosecuting attorney of the county, serving as such for almost a year. In 1885 he was elected to the office of county solic- itor, and served a term of three years. In 1891 he was elected judge of the Superior Court for the unexpired portion of the term of Judge Noyes who died in office, and discharged his official duties so acceptably that he was re-elected in 1894 for the full term of five years. One of the best of the older lawyers of Southern Ohio says of him :
" Rufus B. Smith, as a judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, has acquired the respect of the profession for his sterling integrity, industry and fidelity in the discharge of his official duties. He has a clear, logical mind and that satisfaction in the work in which he is engaged that secures thorough- ness of investigation and justifies the conclusion which he reaches. His opin- ions are characterized by their sound argument rather than their rhetorical finish. His judgments inspire confidence in their correctness ; and the Supreme Court of Ohio has frequently affirmed them by referring to and adopting the reasoning of his opinions. As an illustration I would refer to his opinion in the case of the city of Cintinnati vs. the Cincinnati Inclined Plane Railway Com- pany in the thirtieth Weekly Law Bulletin, page 321. The high estimation in which he is held by the legal profession, in view of his comparatively brief career at the Bar and upon the Bench, gives assurance that his ultimate place will be in the foremost rank of the lawyers of the State."
Another leading member of the Bar whose reputation is both State and National, says : "Judge Rufus B. Smith, of the Superior Court is one of the strongest men intellecually on the Bench in Ohio. He is a close, careful stu- dent, always at work and he never fails to do good work. He is not only able but thorough, and has the confidence and esteem of all who know him, not only as a lawyer and a judge but also as a gentleman and a citizen." He was married in 1886 to Miss Edith Harrison, daughter of L. B. Harrison, president of the First National Bank of Cincinnati. To them have been born four chil- dren. For a man who has not yet reached the meridian of life Judge Smith has attained unusual eminence in the profession and unusual distinction as a lawyer. His elevation is due in some degree to that combination of talents with which nature endows a man intended for the law ; but it has not come without a struggle. His success has been achieved. Every contest has been earned. He was a hard student in school and his studious habit has accentu- ated every step in his progress as a lawyer. The power which he displays in mastering a new question is not due alone to superior intellectual force, but dependent in some degree upon his method of study and his capacity for the
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concentration of his mental faculties in the investigation. He considers the question from different points of view as an entity, and by the skillful use of analysis and logic determines its relations to the known.
DAVID K. WATSON, Columbus. David Kemper Watson was born on a farm in Range township, near London, Madison county, Ohio, June 18, 1849. He was the youngest of seven children of Jesse and Margaret (Jones) Watson. David Watson, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a Virginian by birth, and in early life was a sailor and afterward a surveyor, in which latter occupation, while employed by the government, he selected for settlement lands in Madison county, Ohio. This property still remains in the possession of the Watson family. Mr. Watson's father was a successful farmer and later a banker at London. He died in 1871. He was a man of great energy and executive ability, a friend of progress and education, a loyal patriot, and uncompromising adherent to the cause of the Union in the War of the Rebel. lion. He contributed not only generously of his means to the cause of the Union, but four sons, all that were old enough to enter the army. He thor- oughly appreciated the advantages of education, and his five sons were given every opportunity that schools and colleges could afford. The subject of this sketch attended the country schools of his district, and then prepared for col- lege under the private tutorage of Rev. C. W. Findley, at London. In 1867, he entered Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, from which institution he graduated in 1871. The fall of the same year he began the study of law, and in 1872 entered the Law School of Boston University, graduating in 1873 with the degree of LL. B. He was awarded the first prize for a thesis on the subject of "Caveat Emptor." He immediately began the practice of his pro- fession at London, Ohio, where he remained for two years, when he sought a broader field of opportunity in the courts of Columbus, which has since been liis residence. He has never formed any partnership alliances, but from his admission to the Bar (1873), equipped with superior education and mental training, and with natural ability and great fondness for his profession, he has been eminently successful. In 1881, he was appointed by President Arthur assistant United States district attorney for the southern district of Ohio, serving under Hon. Channing Richards. This position he held for four years. In 1887, the Republicans of the State recognizing Mr. Watson's quali- fications for the office, nominated him at the Republican State Convention at Toledo, on the first ballot, against seven other candidates, for the office of attorney general. He took an active part in the campaign and contributed much to the election of the entire ticket. So ably and faithfully did he dis- charge the duties of his high office that at the close of his term he was renom- inated by the Republican State Convention by acclamation, and was again elected, receiving the largest vote cast for any candidate. He displayed marked ability and integrity and fearlessness in the discharge of liis official
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duties, being engaged in defending the State in many of the most important cases ever brought before the Supreme Court. Particularly was this true in the famous suit he brought against the Standard Oil Company, in which he petitioned the court to declare the charter of that company forfeited, on the ground that it had entered into and was a party to an illegal trust or combine, to prohibit competition in the production and sale of oil, and consequently to create a monopoly against law and public policy. This suit resulted in one of the greatest legal battles ever fought in the courts of Ohio, the Standard Oil Company having employed the best legal talent of the country to defend its interests. Mr. Watson won a conspicuous victory, the court dissolving the trust. It was the most important if not the first blow struck by the courts of this country at illegally organized and conducted corporate power. The case is fully reported in 49 Ohio St., 137. In 1893, Mr. Watson was appointed by President Harrison special counsel to conduct the suits brought by the United States government against the Pacific railroads. In 1894, he was nominated by acclamation by the Republicans of the Twelfth District of Ohio as their candidate for Congress. His opponent was Hon. Joseph H. Outhwaite, who for ten years had been the representative of the Democratic party in Congress from that district. Mr. Watson was elected by a handsome majority, being the first Republican elected to the National House of Representatives from his district for more than thirty years. In 1896 he was renominated by acclama- tion, and although the majority in the district against him, by reason of the fusion of the Populist and Democrat parties, was more than four thousand, he came within forty-nine votes of being elected. Mr. Watson's course in Con- gress was one of wise but unqualified support of the great measures of his party. He is a close and careful student of the great public questions of the day, thoroughly informed, and a clear and forceful debater. His thorough legal education and persistent application to his profession have won for him a reputation as a general practitioner which is not confined to his own State. He ranks as one of the best orators of the country, and in political campaigns is in general demand in his own and other States. Mr. Watson is a man of fine literary tastes and broad culture. He finds especial delight in the field of history. At the Centennial anniversary of Gallipolis (October, 1890), he deliv- ered an address on "The Early Judiciary of Ohio," which is one of the most interesting and valuable articles ever contributed to the legal history of Ohio. It is published in full in Vol. III. of the Reports of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society. His public life has been conspicuous for strict integrity in office, while simplicity and purity characterize his private life. In 1873, Mr. Watson was married to Miss Louise M. Harrison, daughter of Hon. R. A. Harrison, of Columbus. He has two children-a daughter, Marie, and a son, James.
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Thomas &. Powell
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THOMAS E. POWELL, Columbus. Thomas E. Powell was born at Dela- ware, Ohio, on the 20th of February, 1842. His father, Thomas W. Powell, was a lawyer and for many years a recognized leader at the Delaware Bar. The latter was born in South Wales, and when a child was brought to this country by his parents who settled in New York, and was educated in that State. Thomas W. Powell removed to Ohio about the time he was admitted to the Bar. He was in active practice for about forty years and a judge of the court for some ten years. The mother of Thomas E. Powell, Elizabeth Gordon, was a native of Ohio and of Scotch ancestry. Her parents settled in Pennsylvania and afterwards removed to Franklin county, Ohio. Thomas E. obtained his early education in the common schools of Delaware. At the age of thirteen he entered the Ohio University and graduated in 1863, at the age of nineteen. He then enlisted in the Eighty-Fourth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was afterwards transferred to the 145th. In the fall of 1864 he was mustered out of the service as a lieutenant. He at once entered his father's office at Delaware and continued the study of law, having commenced his studies while in the army. In 1865 he was admitted to practice and formed his first partnership with W. P. Reid. The firm of Reid & Powell continued twelve years. In 1879, upon the death of Mr. Reid, he associated with himself Judge J. S. Gill. The firm of Powell & Gill lasted until Mr. Powell's removal to Columbus, in 1887. He then became the senior member of the firm of Powell, Owen, Ricketts & Plack. This firm was dissolved in 1895, and he then formed a co-partnership with T. B. Minahan, under the firm name of Powell & Minahan. Mr. Powell is a lawyer of recognized ability and standing in the profession. He is especially quick and a master of legal procedure, and he is to-day acknowledged to be one of the ablest orators at. the Columbus Bar. His practice has always been of a general character. He has been identified with much of the important litigation in this part of the State, always conducting his cases with great skill and remarkable success. He was counsel against the will of M. Louise Deshler, and counsel in the Church divorce case. He was counsel for the defense in the noted Inskip murder case, and, to the great surprise of all who had followed the evidence, he saved the life of the accused. He has had much to do with the litigation growing out of the lease of the Hocking Canal, touching the title of the canal lands and the right of the State to donate lands. Many of the large corpora- tions in the State have been reorganized under his direction and advice. He is counsel for the Ohio and Western Coal and Iron Company, Ohio Southern Railroad Company, and the C. S. and HI. R. R. Company. In 1872 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention which nominated Horace Greeley, and was a candidate for presidential elector for his district on the Greeley ticket. In 1875 he received the Democratic nomination for attorney general on the ticket with Governor William Allen. In 1879 he placed Gen- eral Thomas Ewing in nomination for governor in the State convention. In 1882 he did the same for James W. Newman. In 1882 he was the Demo- cratic nominee for Congress in the old Ninth District, and though defeated
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ran 1,500 ahead of his ticket, carrying his native county, which no Democratic congressional candidate has ever done before or since. In 1883 that old Democratic war horse, Durbin Ward, selected Mr. Powell to present his name to the State convention. In 1884 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and, at the request of Governor George Hoadly, placed that gentleman's name in nomination for the presidency. He was also a can- didate for elector at large on the Democratic ticket. In 1885 he was chair- man of the State executive committee. In 1887 he was nominated by the Democrats for governor, and though defeated at the polls be ran about ten thousand votes ahead of his ticket. In 1888 he placed in nomination at the St. Louis convention the Honorable Allen G. Thurman for President of the United States. In 1896 he was at the head of the Democratic presidential electoral ticket in this State. Mr. Powell has always taken a most active interest in educational matters. He has been for a number of years one of the trustees of the Ohio Wesleyan University. He is the professor of medical jurispru- dence in the Ohio Medical College. In 1872 Mr. Powell married Eliza, daughter of Bishop Thomson, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and by this union there have been born six children who are living, four sons and two daughters. One son Edwald T., is now a practicing attorney in his father's office.
JOHN H. DOYLE, Toledo. Honorable John H. Doyle, ex-judge of the Supreme Court, was born in Perry county, Ohio, April 23, 1843. When three years of age he was brought by his parents to Toledo, where the father died in 1852. He was thus left at the age of nine years to the care and training of his mother, who lived to see the seal of approval on her work by the people of Ohio. He was educated in the public schools of Toledo, and Dennison Uni- versity at Granville, where he spent a short time. He began the study of law with General H. S. Commager, and continued it with Edward Bissell, Jr. On the twenty-first anniversary of his birth he was admitted to the Bar, and into partnership with Mr. Bissell. He was well qualified for practice, and thus had a fair start in his profession at the threshold of manhood. Apt. energetic and ambitious he made rapid progress. It required only a short time for him to gain a reputation for the possession of legal knowledge and powers of advo- cacy unusual in a young man. He was skillful and successful in the manage- ment of numerous important and difficult cases entrusted to him. Very early in his practice he was employed in a case involving the title to one hundred and sixy acres of land within the corporate limits of the city of Toledo, whose estimated value was more than a million dollars. He was counsel for the claimants, who were heirs of a man named Ford, a soldier of the war of 1812, who was at the time of beginning this action living near Baltimore, Maryland. The title of Mr. Doyle's clients was contingent upon the legitimacy of a daughter of Ford, who was born while the latter was a prisoner of war at Plymouth, England, and alleged to be illegitimate. A considerable portion of
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