USA > Ohio > Bench and bar of Ohio; a compendium of history and biography, Vol. II > Part 43
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DAVID W. TODD, Urbana. David W. Todd, for thirteen years probate judge of Champaign county, is a native of Pennsylvania. His parents, David Todd and Sarah McCormick, were also natives of that State. His paternal ancestors were Euglish and his maternal Irish. His father was a soldier in the war of 1812. He was born on a farm in Dauphin county, December 31, 1835, and came to Ohio with the family in 1846. In 1847 his father settled on a farm at Pretty Prairie in Campaign county and resided there continuously until his death in 1868. David attended the district school and worked on the
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farm until 1855, when he entered Miami University at Oxford. He remained in the University five years and was graduated in 1860 as a Bachelor of Arts. In the fall of that year he began the study of law in the office of Shellebarger & Goode at Springfield, and continued his studies until the opening of the Rebellion. Responding to the first call of the President for volunteers he enlisted for three months in the Second Ohio Infantry, and participated in the first battle of Bull Run. Re-enlisting at the close of his first term he was commissioned first lieutenant of Company B, Eighty-Sixth Regiment and assigned to duty as regimental quartermaster. His service during the second term of enlistment (four months) was principally in guarding the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in West Virginia. At the end of four months, his second term of enlistment, he was inustered out and resumed his law studies with Shellebarger & Goode. He was admitted to the Bar in February, 1863, and opened an office for practice in Urbana. In the fall of the same year he was elected prosecuting attorney of Champaign county and in 1865 was re-elected. He joined the National Guards in 1863 and was appointed Cap- tain of Company A. Soon afterwards he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the regiment and in 1864 went with his command into the service of the United States, when it was mustered as the 134th Ohio, partici- pating in the demonstrations against Petersburg. This enlistment was for a term of four months, at the close of which Mr. Todd returned home and resumed his law practice. He continued in practice until his election as pro- bate judge in 1878, an office which he held continuously by successive elections until 1891. After retiring from the judicial office he resumed his law practice, which is general. He is a Mason and a Knight Templar; has held the posi- tion of Eminent Commander of Raper Commandery at Urbana. He belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic and has served as Post Commander. He is a Presbyterian and has filled the office of deacon and elder in the church. Politically he is a working Republican. He was married January 1, 1863, with Miss Virginia Hamilton, of Pretty Prairie, who died in 1868. Two children by this marriage, Lee H. and Robert M. Todd, are living. In 1870 he was married with Miss Ella Harvey, of Urbana, and by this marriage has a daughter, Mary H., and a son, Frank W. A member of the Champaign county Bar thus characterizes him : "Judge Todd has been a prominent fig- ure in Champaign county for over thirty years. He has the esteem of the pro- fession and the good will of the public. He is a good lawyer, though he is not conspicuous in the trial of causes in court. He is regarded as being a safe, con- servative and reliable counsellor, and has a very large office practice. As a citizen he is progressive and takes an active interest in measures that have for their object the promotion of public weal .? '
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THOMAS H. DOLSON, Lancaster. Mr. Dolson was born at McConnells- ville, Morgan county, Ohio, November 22, 1851. His parents were Ebenezer B. and Huldah (Stevenson) Dolson, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Virginia. His paternal ancestors were among the early settlers of New York State. His grandfather, Thomas Dolson, came to Ohio when a young man, about the beginning of the present century and settled in Muskingum county. He purchased large tracts of land in that and what later became Perry county, and took a prominent part in developing the industries of that section. His father was a farmer and stock dealer of Morgan county for many years, and is now living in Kansas. The Dolson family are purely American and gained their right to citizenship both by their civil and military services. Some members of the family have taken an active part in every war in which the United States has been engaged. The great-great-grandfather of Mr. Dolson served with Washington in the days of 1776-83. His grandfather was a soldier in the Mexican War and his father served in the First Ohio Heavy Artillery, as quartermaster of the regiment, from 1862 to 1865, during the civil war. Thomas H. Dolson was reared on a farm, and his early education was obtained in the public schools of Morgan county. Later he took the high school course at Logan, Ohio, and was graduated with the class of 1868. He then went to Missouri, and for two years engaged in bookkeeping in the mer- cantile establishment of his brother-in-law, H. S. Berry, at Cameron. He returned to Ohio in 1870 and the same year entered the law office of Judge Martin at Lancaster, where he engaged in the study of law for two years. He was admitted to the Bar in December, 1873, by the Supreme Court, and at once entered on the practice of his profession at Lancaster. In 1875 he formed a partnership with Levi Hite, a prominent attorney of Fairfield county Bar, a relation that continued until Mr. Hite removed to Columbus, in 1887. Since that time Mr. Dolson has been in the practice alone. He served for four years as prosecuting attorney of Fairfield county from 1876 to 1880 by election and two years by appointment of the court. His successor to the office in 1880 died shortly after being elected and Mr. Dolson was appointed to fill out the unexpired term. This was the only political office he ever held and this was strictly in the line of his profession. He has held various municipal offices, such as member of the council and of the board of education, but nothing that would in any way interfere with his practice. Mr. Dolson, during the twenty-three years' practice at the Bar in this and other States, has built up a very fine law business that covers a wide scope of territory. In the local courts his practice is general, but in the surrounding counties and other States it is exclusively criminal, mostly for the defense. Among the notable cases that have attracted gencral attention in which Mr. Dolson appeared for the defense as the leading advocate, mention is made of the state of Montana vs. - , charged with murder in the first degree. He was acquitted by the jury. Another was the State of Illinois vs. David Miller, charged with the murder of A. B. Diamon, mayor of Arcola, whom he shot and killed because of some family trouble. This case was prosecuted with vigor by the State,
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and Mr. Dolson had to combat the ablest lawyers in central Illinois, among whom was Honorable Horace S. Clark, a man of high reputation as a criminal lawyer. After a trial of several days' duration Miller was acquitted. He has also appeared in defense of men charged with high crimes in the States of Indiana and California, and always with success. Mr. Dolson has appeared on one side or the other of every important criminal case tried in Fairfield county during the past fifteen years, and in many of those in adjoining coun- ties. In the case of the State of Ohio vs. Napier, charged with murder, Mr. Dolson was appointed by the late Judge Hoffman, of Perry county, to assist in the prosecution. The defendant was convicted. In his political affiliations Mr. Dolson is Democratic. He was nominated by his party for State Senator to represent the Ninth and Fourteenth Senatorial Districts, but was defeated with the rest of the ticket. He is a member of the English Lutheran Church. He was married in 1876 to Miss Alida Reinmund, daughter of B. F. and Isa- bella (Arnold) Reinmund, of Fairfield county, and sister of Henry J. Rein- mund, insurance commissioner under Governor Hoadly. They have four children, two sons and two daughters. Referring to Mr. Dolson's standing in the profession and his leading characteristics, an old and prominent member of the Lancaster Bar observed :
" While Mr. Dolson does a general law business in the local courts, his practice runs largely to criminal cases, and in this peculiar line he has quite a wide reputation. He is adapted by nature for this kind of practice. He is shrewd, quick to see the weak points of his opponents and aggressive in avail- ing himself of every advantage presented in the trial of a case. He has a good voice, an extensive vocabulary, and on his feet before a jury he makes an effective address. He is the best talker, perhaps, at this Bar, but not the best read lawyer. If his early education had been commensurate with his natural abilities as a lawyer his advancement would have been more rapid. He came to the Bar here early in the seventies, and has improved his oppor- tunities so well that he now ranks with the leading attorneys of the district. His reputation as a criminal lawyer is well established in this section of the State, and he has been called to widely diverging points to defend Ohio citi- zens charged with the violation of the criminal code of different States. He has been remarkably successful, and has crossed swords with some able men in this line of practice. Another feature that has contributed to his success is that he has confined himself entirely to his profession and is a worker. He has not neglected his law practice for politics or any other business. He gives his clients his best efforts and is a trustworthy and reliable lawyer. He is held in high esteem both by the legal profession and in the community, and by the public where he is known."
WILLIAM M. ROCKEL, Springfield. Judge Rockel is of German descent. His paternal ancestors came to America and settled in Pennsylvania about the middle of the last century. The founder of the American family was a German school master who devoted his life to educational work in his adopted country. It is not known what part Judge Rockel's great grandfathers took
Century Pub & Eng (@. CHICAGO.
DAVID W. TODD
THOMAS H. DOLSON
WILLIAM M. ROCKEL
THOMAS B. WILLIAMS
MOSES M. SAYRE
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in the Revolutionary War, but the records show that his grandfather served with the Pennsylvania troops during the War of 1812-14, under the command of General Henry Shearing, and that at the time of his death he was in receipt of a pension from the United States government, issued in considera- tion of services in that war, together with his father, Peter Rockel (the judge's great-grandfather, then well advanced in age.) He came to Ohio in 1822 and settled on a farm near Tremont City, in Clark county, on which he resided for sixty-two years, and there died in 1884, at the age of ninety years. The father of Judge Rockel was born on the Clark county homestead, and has engaged in agricultural pursuits all his life, and now resides on a farm near the original homestead. The maternal ancestors of Judge Rockel originally came from Germany and settled in Virginia. His grandfather came to Ohio in his early manhood, settling in Carroll county, where his mother Margaret (Shick) Rockel, was born in 1834. In this year he moved to Logan county, Ohio, and resided near Bellefontaine until his death in 1895. William M. Rockel was born on his father's farm in Clark county, July 18, 1855. His early education was obtained in the district schools of Moorefield township. At the age of seventeen he entered the Bellefontaine high school, from which he was graduated in June, 1876, at the age of twenty-one. He immediately entered the commercial department of the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, receiving his diploma in December of the same year. He then began the classical course at the same institution, but before he was far advanced in his studies an ailment of his eyes, caused by overwork, compelled him to abandon his text books temporarily. During his school days Judge Rockel taught one term of district school of seven months. For a time after leaving school he studied law privately, as his health would permit. In 1877 he entered on the regular course of study in the office of Keifer & White, a prominent law firm of Springfield. General Keifer was at that time in Con- gress, and speaker, and later Judge Charles R. White was elected to the Bench of the Court of Common Pleas of Clark county. He was with this firm for two years when he was admitted to the Bar by the District Court in 1879. He at once began practice at Springfield, which he continued until he was elected to the office of probate judge in 1890, and was re-elected in 1893. At the close of this term (February, 1897), he expects to re-enter the practice of his profession in Springfield. Judge Rockel took a prominent and active part in the organization of the Springfield Building and Loan Association, and was its first president, and later its attorney, until he accepted the office of probate judge. He is now one of the directors, and usually represents this association at the meetings of the State League. It was also largely through his instrumentality that Clark county has such an excellent law library. He induced the surviving subscribers of a fund for a Bar association to donate a fund of some three hundred dollars in their possession as a nucleus for a library fund. This was done and receiving the hearty support of the Clark county Bar, the result is the present fine collection of law books and legal literature. While Judge Rockel has always, since his entrance into the pro-
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fession, been a student of law books, he also been an author and contributor to law publications. The papers he has most favored are the Central Law Journal, of St. Louis, Missouri, and the Weekly Law Bulletin, of Columbus, Ohio. He was one of the contributors to the first twelve volumes of the " American and English Encyclopedia of Law," but the duties of his office compelled him to desist. The first product of his pen to appear in separate book form was a pamphlet entitled, "Questions Selected from the Decisions of the Supreme Court of Ohio." The next was, "Ohio Mechanic's Lien Law." The next and last, also the most widely known, was entitled "Complete Guide for Township officers." The first edition of this work was put upon the market in 1890, and the book is now in its fourth edition. These legal pub- lications have made Judge Rockel's name well known to the profession throughout the State. During the five years he has occupied the position of probate judge, he has had the satisfaction of knowing that his work was at least fairly done, as he has not been reversed in a single case in the higher courts. He was appointed by the Supreme Court of the State in 1890 as one of a committee of attorneys to examine applications for admission to the Bar, and remained on this committec until he assumed the duties of probate judge. Politically, nearly all of Judge Rockel's ancestors were of Democratic faith, and his first ballots were cast for the candidates of that party. But this con- tinued but a very short time, when he allied himself to the Republican party, in which he has been a faithful member. He believes in granting to every one in the exercise of his political or religious convictions the fullest possible rights consistent with good government. He is a member of the First Lutheran Church of the city in which he resides, and a director of the Y. M. C. A. Judge Rockel is a member of Clark Lodge No. 101, F. and A. M., and of Red Star Lodge No. 205, K. P., and of Uniformed Rank, Division No. 44, K. P. He is now serving as colonel and assistant judge advocate general on the staff of Brigadier-General Howe, of the Ohio brigade, U. R. K. P. On April 22, 1896, he was united in marriage to Miss Nettie Grace Curley, an accomplished young lady of Beatrice, Nebraska. Judge Rockel has been the architect and builder of his own fortune. He began his career with no other resources than those with which nature endowed him, and he has had but little financial assistance from friends or others since. His standing in the pro-
fession and in the community may be gathered from the following statement made by a prominent and leading member of the Bar: "Judge Rockel is highly respected both as a citizen and as a lawyer. He is more of a lawyer than he is an advocate. He has been a hard student, and his text books have been read understandingly. His practice, his writings and his decisions, all show that he has assimilated the correct principles of law. His judicial turn of mind fits him in an eminent degree for the Bench. In his present position he has given excellent satisfaction."
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THOMAS B. WILLIAMS, New Lexington. Mr. Williams, prosecuting attorney of Perry county, is a native of Ohio. He was born at Pomeroy, Jan- uary 5, 1870. His parents were Benjamin and Elizabeth (Johnson) Williams, both natives of Wales, who came to the United States in 1863 and settled at Niles, Ohio, later removing to Pomeroy and finally locating at New Straits- ville, in Perry county, where they reside at present. Thomas B. received his education in the public schools of New Straitsville, graduating from the high school with the class of 1889. He had decided on the profession of law as a vocation, and immediately after leaving school took up his legal studies, one year privately, then for a period of two years at the Cincinnati Law School from which he was graduated in 1892. He at once began the practice of his profession at New Straitsville alone, being the only attorney in the town. In the fall of 1893 he was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney of Perry county, which office he still fills. Mr. Williams has the confidence and respect of the people of Perry county, and as an indication of the esteem in which he is held by the profession of which he is a member, we quote from the remarks of one of the leading attorneys of the Perry county Bar :
" T. B. Williams is a young man and no one can tell what an attorney of thirty will be when a quarter of a century has been added to his cycle of time. Mr. Williams has, however, already accomplished enough to entitle him to the respect of the community. His father was a miner and as such only earned sufficient wages to supply his family with the necessities of life. To give his children much in the way of educational advantages was impossible. Young Williams went to work in the mine before he was ten years old, and kept it up whenever there was work to do, until after he graduated from the public school of New Straitsville. When at work he attended school at night and kept up with his classes. After his graduation he kept at work until he earned sufficient money to carry him through the Law Department of the Cincinnati College. He determined in early life to better his condition and went about it in the only practical way-by his own individual efforts. That he earned his daily bread from childhood, procured for himself a fair literary education, had a degree conferred upon him by one of the leading law schools of the country and established himself in a learned profession before he was twenty-five years of age, forms a pretty fair prognosis of what the future of the man will be. If he shows the same degree of industry, integrity and ability in the future that he has in the past, then he will get somewhere near the top in his profession."
Mr. Williams has, since he came into the office of prosecuting attorney, tried some notable cases. In the two cases of the State vs. Underwood and Napier, which he conducted without assistance, both were convicted of man- slaughter, a very good verdict considering the state of public opinion. Mr. Williams is a member of the Republican party and takes an active interest in party politics. He was married November 30, 1893, to Miss Sarah A. Griffith daughter of David G. Griffith, now of Whiting, Indiana, one of the prosperous , suburbs of Chicago.
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MOSES M. SAYRE, Urbana. Mr. Sayre is a lineal descendant of revolu- tionary stock. His great-grandfather was a soldier in the army of General Washington, and participated in most of the important movements of his army. Relics captured by this grand sire at the battle field of Monmouth are still in possession of the family. His grandfather was a soldier in the war of 1812-14, serving on the frontier against the British and their Indian allies. The family are of English and Scotch descent and were among the early settlers of the colonies. The grandfather of our subject came to Ohio in 1808, from Virginia, and settled on a farm near Urbana in Champaign county, where the remainder of his life was passed. Martin Sayre, the father of Moses M., was born on this farm, and after marrying settled on another within eight miles or Urbana, on which he spent all his mature life and died in 1892, at the age of seventy-five. This farm is now owned by Mr. Sayre, and on it he was born on the 21st day of November, 1849. His mother, Jane C. Sayre, was a native of Champaign county, daughter of Moses McIlvain, of Salem township. Moses M. was brought up on the farm and spent his boyhood days in attending the district school and working on his father's farm. At the age of nineteen he entered the preparatory department of Oberlin College and remained at that institu- tion four years, reaching the junior class, when he applied for dismissal in order to finish the course at Yale University. He applied for admission to that institution and after a rigid examination was admitted to the senior class and was graduated with the class of 1874, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. After teaching for one year he took up the study of law in the office of Judge William Lawrence, at Bellefontaine, Ohio, where he devoted two years to legal studies. He was admitted to the Bar in May, 1877. In Jan- uary, 1878, he opened an office in Urbana for the practice of law, alone, and has so continued to the present time. During the eighteen years that Mr. Sayre has devoted to the practice of law he has given his time entirely to his profession. He has not engaged in politics or in any outside business ven- tures. While his practice is a general one he caters more especially to com- mercial business and makes it a rule never to take a case into court that can be settled outside. He leaves criminal practice to those who have a taste for that class of business. In his party affiliations Mr. Sayre is a Republican, though he takes no active interest in politics. He represented the senatorial district in the State senate for the years 1882 and 1883, but was not re-elected, as there is an unwritten law that the office shall pass around to the different counties in the district consecutively. He has never accepted a nomination for any other office. He was married in 1881, to Miss Ella Morris, daughter of Thomas and Maria (Keller) Morris, of Champaign county. They have three children, one son and two daughters. Mrs. Sayre's ancestors were among the pioneer set- tlers of the county. Mr. Sayre's standing in the community is high both as a business man and as a citizen. His standing in the profession may be gathered from the expression of one of the leading members of the Bar of the county : " Mr. Sayre is not a conspicuous figure in court practice, though he is a well educated man and a well equipped lawyer. He has a good office practice and
Century Pub & Eng. @. CHICAGO.
FRANK H. SOUTHARD
GEORGE K. BROWNING
SIMEON M. WINN
ALFRED A. FRAZIER
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does a large business for outside firms and corporations. He is well adapted for that special line of practice. He is well posted in law and is conservative and reliable. I believe he finds his time pretty well occupied with his special line of practice and makes no effort to get court cases other than what arise in the course of his business. He is honest, trustworthy and a good citizen."
FRANK H. SOUTHARD, Zanesville. Honorable Frank H. Southard is a native of Ohio, born at Hanover, Licking county, October 31, 1842. His ancestors on both sides were of the early settlers of America. His father's people first settled in New Jersey, about 1630, his grandfather later removing to Pennsylvania. His grandfather came thence to Ohio, and settled in Lick- ing county, in 1804. His father, Isaiah Southard, in early life engaged in the iron business, but abandoned it later and engaged in agricultural pursuits, in which he continued until his death, in 1885. The Parnell family, Mr. South- ard's maternal ancestors, were of Irish nativity. They settled in Baltimore, Maryland, in the early part of the seventeenth century. In his boyhood days Mr. Southard attended the public schools. At the age of eighteen he entered Dennison University at Granville, Ohio, remaining there for a period of three years. In 1863 he entered the senior class of the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, and was graduated with the class of 1864, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He studied law for one year under the tutorship of Follett & Follett, of Newark, Ohio. In the fall of 1865 he entered the Law, Department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, completing the . course in one year. He was admitted to the Bar in the fall of 1866, at Mt. Vernon, and at once entered upon the practice of his profession at Zanesville, in partnership with his brother, Milton I., now of New York City. This connec- tion continued until his brother was elected to represent the Fifteenth District in Congress, in the fall of 1872. Since that time he has continued the practice alone. During the thirty years he has been in practice at the Zanesville Bar Mr. Southard has built up a large and lucrative practice, and ranks with the leaders of the Muskingum Valley Bar. He began his career as a lawyer and has never been anything else. His time has been devoted entirely to his pro- fession and he has won his position by conscientious labor. Speaking of his standing in the profession and his ability as a lawyer, one of the best known members of the Zanesville Bar, said: "Frank H. Southard must be classed with the ablest attorneys at this Bar. He belongs to that class who have eschewed everything else for their profession and whose rise is the result of honest, conscientious labor. No man is smart enough to be a good lawyer without work, and Mr. Southard has never shown any inclination to slight the drudgery of the profession. He is faithful in the discharge of liis duty to his clients and at the same time a fair antagonist in the litigation of a case." In politics Mr. Southard is a Democrat, but has never taken an active part in partisan affairs and never accepted a nomination for any elective office. He
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