USA > Ohio > Bench and bar of Ohio; a compendium of history and biography, Vol. II > Part 49
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Republican party. In 1897, he was nominated by his party as candidate for State Senator, and in November was elected after a very exciting campaign and close contest in the State. The senatorship is the first elective office he ever filled. He was never a candidate for any other. He has made many speeches, and in the last campaign was on the stump for Mckinley from the beginning to the close of the fight. He is a member and vice-president of the executive committee of the Republican committee of his county, commonly known as the committee of fifteen. He is also a member of the Republican committee of the Ohio State Republican League. Mr. Burke is a great stu- dent, not only of law, but general literature, and possesses far more than aver- age ability. A man of strict integrity and high moral character, he no doubt will take high rank both in his profession and politics before he is much older. In 1893 he married Tillie H. Hahn, of Cleveland, and has one son.
JOHN D. SEARS, Upper Sandusky. Among the reputable members of the Ohio Bar may be placed the name of John Dudley Sears. For knowledge of the law, legal acumen, and a clear, almost unerring research, he is certainly entitled to the high regard in which he is held. Our subject was born on a hill farm in Meredith, Delaware county, New York, the 2d day of February, 1821, the eldest son of Elkanah and Desiar (Phelps) Sears and a descendant in the eighth generation of Richard Sears, who lived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1633, afterwards removing and settling at Yarmouth, on Cape Cod, where many of his descendants are still to be found. The boyhood of our subject, until his fourteenth year, was spent on a farm, where he bore his share of its labors. He attended the district school and became quite proficient in the three most useful branches, which formed the basis of the more thorough edu- cation he afterwards acquired. In 1832, for three months, he attended a pri- vate school at Meredith Center, taught by Mr. Brainard, a young Yale gradu- ate, whom Judge Law, a man of note and prominence in that place, had engaged as tutor for his own sons. In this instruction young Sears and a Miss Fisher, daughter of a Presbyterian clergyman, were allowed to share. The study of Latin, begun then, was resumed in an academy at Delhi the following year and continued through another term of three months. The home at Meredith having been sold, the family migrated to Ohio in the spring of 1836, travelling in a three-horse wagon through central and western New York; thence along the lake shore to Cleveland ; thence to Columbia, in Lorain county, Ohio, where two sisters of his mother resided on farms. There a cabin was rented and some little farming was done. Young Sears worked several weeks that summer at grubbing and clearing swamp land, for which he received fifty cents per day and his dinner. In the fall he was sent for a three- months' term to an academy at Strongsville, where rudiments of the Latin grammar were again taken up. In January, 1837, the family moved to Craw- ford county, and the first of February found them settled on a newly pur-
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chased farm, two miles west of Bucyrus. This town then had a village library containing a few books and John, having induced his father to buy a share, sold at an administrator's sale, in a few months read the works of Sir Walter Scott, Life of Franklin, Russell's History of Europe, Plutarch's Lives, Miss Edgeworth's novels, and others of less importance. This feast of the mind was supplemented by chopping, logging and other hard work incident to clear- ing a wilderness. In June, 1838, having obtained from the commissioners of Crawford county a certificate entitling him to free tuition at the Ohio Uni- versity, he started for Athens, where he arrived on the 3d day of July, remain- ing until commencement in 1841, going through the regular course as far as the senior year, when, appropriations for educational purposes becoming ex- hausted, with some debts incurred, his school life came to an end. In the sum- mer of 1842 he was employed to teach an "academy" in McConnellsville, Ohio, at a salary of four hundred dollars per year. In 1843 he returned to Bucyrus, and in the fall of that year taught a select school for three months, devoting his leisure to reading law under instruction of Josiah Scott (afterwards chief justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio). Mr. Sears was admitted to the Bar June 29, 1844, and on the 15th of July following formed a partnership with his preceptor in the practice of law, under the name of Scott & Sears, which continued for two years. On the 3d day of March, 1845, he removed to Upper Sandusky, county seat of the new county of Wyandot, where he has resided ever since. Mr. Sears was but twenty-four years of age at that time, yet he took a leading position at once, the years rapidly developing his strength and winning the reputation he so richly deserved. He soon acquired a lucrative practice that reached beyond the county limits ; and now, at the Psalniist's full measure of life, retiring from a profession he so dearly loved and so ably sustained, and ever retaining the esteem and affection of neighbors and friends, he can gracefully rest, with the comforts of an ample competence and the reflection of a useful, successful life. March 5, 1847, he was married to Frances E. Manly, and together they have celebrated the golden anniversary of their united lives. A daughter was the result of this marriage, wife of the late Pliny Watson, of Toledo, who now resides at Pasadena, California. Mr. Sears has kept out of politics, as far as he has been able to do so, yet has held positions of public trust to his honor and the best interests of the people he served. He was elected mayor of Upper Sandusky in 1854, and again in 1856 ; was a candidate for judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1861, and received a handsome majority in his own county. In 1873 he was elected a delegate to the constitutional convention, practically without opposition. In that body were a number of men of national reputation-Chief Justice Waite, ex-Gov- ernor Hoadly, Rufus King, Lewis D. Campbell and others, and Mr. Sears served prominently in the deliberations of the convention. It is, however, as a member of the Ohio Bar that Mr. Sears has gained his greatest distinction. During his long and active practice he was very generally retained in all civil and criminal cases of importance. In Shaffer vs. McKee (19th O. S. 526), the Supreme Court, at his instance, reversed the judgment of the District
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Court, and, without preparing an opinion, directed Mr. Sears's argument for the plaintiff to be reported in full as the opinion of the court-an unusual compliment. He was solicitor of the Ohio and Indiana Railway Company until its consolidation, and for some years afterwards attended to the law business of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway on a portion of its line. Among his latest professional successes, not the least important is the decision in Blue vs. Wentz (54 O. S., 247), which puts an end to the con- struction of the ditch law, under which thousands of dollars have wrongfully been taken from parties not benefited, to pay for ditching their neighbors' swamps. His, truly, has been a busy, active life, almost solely devoted to his profession as a member of the Ohio Bar, garnering its results and achieve- ments with remarkable success; yet he has always been a close reader of history, the literature of the past and present, and there is scarcely a subject of importance on which he is not well and notably informed.
WILLIAM S. ANDERSON, Youngstown. William Shaw Anderson was born on December 31st, 1848, at North Jackson, Mahoning county, Ohio. He is of Irish descent. His father, when a boy of fifteen years of age, emi- grated from County Kerry, Ireland, to Pennsylvania, and afterwards to Mahoning county, Ohio. Here he became a merchant and farmer. His son, William Shaw, was born on the farm, and spent most of his youth in the per- formance of the duties devolving upon him at home, and in acquiring an edu- cation. He attended the public schools, worked on the farm, and devoted himself to his studies. He had, at an early day, resolved to enter the legal profession, and with great determination he availed himself of every means to secure the necessary qualifications. He supplemented his earlier studies by reading law in the office of Hutchins & Glidden, of Warren, and was admitted to the Bar on April 7th, 1870. He at once commenced practice alone in Can- field, which at that time was the seat of Mahoning county. In 1872, he formed a partnership with Mr. Gilson, under the firm name of Gilson & Anderson, which continued until the death of the senior partner. Then, in 1877, he entered into partnership with Mr. King, under the style of Anderson & King, which was dissolved upon the junior member being elected probate judge of Mahoning county. At this time he associated himself with A. J. Woolf, the firm being Anderson & Woolf. After some years this was dissolved by mutual consent, and Mr. Anderson entered into a partnership arrangement with Lieutenant-Governor A. W. Jones, which still continues, constituting to-day what is probably one of the strongest law firms in the State of Ohio. Mr. Anderson, as an advocate, has few equals at the Bar. He is not only a brilliant speaker, but he possesses in a remarkable degree all the fine charac- teristics and elements that make a great trial lawyer. He is a close observer, a reader of human nature and a keen judge of character. One of his many strong points is the selection of a jury, in which he displays a knowledge of men and
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character that is little less than marvelous. Indeed, it has often been said of him that " he appears to possess an intuitive perception of the qualifications of each man under examination." It is the same in the examination or cross- examination of witnesses. He never makes a mistake, but brings out just the testimony that he wants and passes over the rest. He is particularly happy in stopping exactly at the right time. He possesses a keen power of analysis, a logical mind and a determined will. In his earliest days at the Bar he became engaged in criminal cases. Before reaching twenty-three years of age he was called upon to defend a man charged with murder, and acquitted himself in a manner that drew upon him the attention of the legal fratenity in all the sur- rounding counties. As a direct consequence of the great ability he displayed in handling this class of cases in court, criminal business was forced upon him, and before he was scarcely aware of it he had achieved a reputation as a great trial lawyer. In spite of such success his preference is civil cases, and of those his practice is largely composed. There is, however, in criminal cases, a greater scope for the exhibition of personal power, which appeals strongly to the pub- lic, and in one who has shown remarkable ability in this line the less conspicu- ous qualities displayed in civil cases are liable to be overshadowed. As a speaker, Mr. Anderson holds the closest attention of the audience. He moves the hearts of a jury by his earnestness, and enthralls their intellect and imagi- nation by his brilliancy and eloquence. His reputation as a trial lawyer is not confined to the State of Ohio, but he has been called into a dozen cases of more than local celebrity in Pennsylvania. One of these the "Homestead riots," was of national importance, and in this he was called upon to defend two of the men over whom those serious charges were impending, and for whom he succeeded in securing a verdict of "not guilty." There was an unusual array of legal talent engaged upon these cases-comprising Tom Marshall, of Pitts- burg ; Major Montooth, of Pittsburg ; Colonel W. C. Irving, of Minnesota, and others, whilst the owners of the "Homestead Works," backed by the county authorities and the State of Pennsylvania, spared no effort and no expense to secure a conviction. In politics Mr. Anderson is a Republican, strongly imbued with the principles of that party. He has, however, never permitted his name to be used in connection with any political office. Ile loves his pro- fession, and devotes himself assiduously to his law practice. On November 4th, 1868, he was married with Miss Louisa M. Shields. They have four chil- dren-Blanche, William Noble, Randall and Annie. The elder son, William Noble Anderson, is now studying law in his father's office.
AARON F. PERRY, Cincinnati. Honorable Aaron F. Perry was born January 1st, 1815, at Leicester, Vermont. Hc received his early education in the common schools, after which he studied law for awhile. In 1837 lie entered Yale Law School, and after one year's study was admitted to the Bar. He then made his residence in Columbus, Ohio, where he practiced law for a
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number of years. At different times in Columbus his partuers were Governor William Dennison and Colonel H. B. Carrington. In 1854 Mr. Perry removed to Cincinnati and entered into a partnership with Alphonso Taft and Judge Thomas M. Key, under the firm name of Taft, Key & Perry. This part- nership was dissolved in 1861, when the old age of Judge Key made it necessary. Mr. Perry subsequently entered into a partnership with his son-in- law, Herbert Jenney. Mr. Perry was a delegate to the Baltimore Convention in 1864 that nominated President Lincoln for a second term. He was nomi- nated and elected by the Republicans as a member of Congress for the First Ohio District. He remained in Congress but a short time, but became very prominent in the deliberations of that body both by his earnest work and his speeches. His speech on Civil Service Reform attracted much attention, being one of the earliest on that subject that had been made in Congress. He resigned before the end of his term and declined a re-election. In 1876 Mr. Perry headed the Hayes electoral ticket, and made speeches throughout the State in favor of that ticket. During the war, Mr. Perry supported with such vigor the Northern cause that his services were at one time mentioned by Governor Dennison in an annual message, and one of the defensive works thrown up near Cincinnati at the time of the threatened siege of that city was named in his honor. Mr. Perry stood among the foremost lawyers ever con- tributed by Ohio to the Bar. His prominence and ability at the local Bar became so well known that in 1877 the President appointed him senior counsel on behalf of the United States in its suit against the Union Pacific Railroad and the Credit Mobilier, one of the most important cases ever tried in the United States. He was also counsel in the great railroad case involving the Erie railroad in 1881, and also in the case of Vallandigham against General Burnside involving the validity of the arrest of citizens by the military in time of war, Mr. Perry being retained by the Government to assist the United States attorney. His great ability as a lawyer overshadowed success in other directions, but he was very successful as a writer and as an occasional orator. He received from Marietta College and the Western Reserve University the degree of LL. D. in recognition of his accomplishments in literature. He married in 1843 Elizabeth, the daughter of Micajah J. Williams. His children are Mary, the wife of Herbert Jenney, of the Cincinnati Bar, Elizabeth the wife of Dr. Herman J. Groesbeck, Edith Strong, the wife of Dr. Fred Forch- heimer, and Nelson Williams Perry. January 1st, 1891, Mr. Perry retired from the practice of the law. This was made the occasion of a banquet tendered him by the Bar of the locality, at which time there assembled the most distinguished members of the profession, who testified to their apprecia- tion of Mr. Perry's long service, and their regret that he was to leave their midst. He died March 11th, 1893.
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JOHN McSWEENEY, Wooster. The late John McSweeney was long recognized as one of the greatest criminal lawyers who ever practiced at the Bar of Ohio. He was of Irish descent, his parents having both been born in Ireland. He was born at Black Rock, near Rochester, New York, August 30, 1824, and was brought as an infant by his parents to Stark county, Ohio. They were in very moderate circumstances, having learned in the school of poverty to appreciate the modest comforts of life which their own labor secured. His father was a shoemaker, honest, industrious, intelligent ; he was also a large man, physic- ally, of commanding mien and impressive personality. Both parents died while their son John was in his early childhood and he was left to the care of a guardian appointed by law. This guardian, John Harris, a lawyer, of Can- ~ ton, appreciated his responsibility, took an interest in his ward and placed him in the care of Mrs. Grimes, of Canton, a pious and estimable woman, member of the Catholic Church, who reared him. The small sum of money left by his father was honestly and judiciously applied by his guardian to the best possi- ble advantage in his support and training. Young McSweeney's education was procured at the Western Reserve College and in Cincinnati. His scholar- ship was not only liberal and broad, but he was especially proficient in the Latin classics. He took up the study of law with his guardian, John Harris, of Canton, and removed thence to Wooster in 1845. He there entered the office of Judge Ezra Dean, who was at the time one of the leading lawyers of Wayne county. At different periods subsequently he engaged in practice in partnership with Olin F. Jones, Judge William Given, Honorable George Bliss, and Honorable C. C. Parsons, Sr. So great was his aptitude for the law, so broad and deep his learning, that he rose almost immediately to the first rank of lawyers at the Wayne county Bar. This position he retained almost without a rival to the end of his life. In his practice Mr. McSweeney was brought into contact and competition with Judges Dean, Avery, Given and Cox; Honorable John P. Jeffries, Honorable Lyman Critchfield, Samuel Hemphill ; Judges Rufus P. Ranney and Rufus P. Spalding ; Honorable Thomas Bartley, Honorable Thomas Corwin, Honorable D. K. Carter, and Senator John Sherman. At the end of twenty years of practice the reputa- tion of Mr. McSweeney, both as a civil and criminal lawyer, had not only become firmly established in Wayne county, but had extended to neighboring counties; and still later it spread throughout the State and became national. He was retained in nearly all of the important criminal cases tried in north- ern Ohio, and generally by the defense. His influence with a jury was great : his stature, massive, yet graceful proportions, and his resonant, powerful voice fitted him physically for most effective oratory. His earnestness of manner, his masterful use of a choice and extensive vocabulary, his pathos in appeal, his terrific invective, his pleasing humor, his sparkling wit, his keen repartee, his fairness toward an opponent, his lively and opulent imagination, his mag- netic manner, his sound reasoning and his luxuriant discourse, all combined to give his almost matchless influence in a jury trial. Nor was his power con- fined to his argument before the jury. He was watchful and careful during the
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trial to keep out of the record anything which might be detrimental to his cause, and equally careful to avail himself of every expedient known - to the law, and every rule or decision that could benefit his cause. He was a close and keen examiner of witnesses, possessing not only fine discriminating quality of mind as to what was relevant or irrele- vant, but also as to the extent to which the examination should be pursued in any direction. He knew when to stop. Mr. McSweeney was engaged with Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll for the defense of Stephen W. Dorsey and others in the famous Star Route trials at Washington, which not only attracted atten- tion throughout the country, but also extended his own high reputation as a criminal lawyer. Mr. McSweeney heartily accepted the presumption of law that a defendant is innocent until his guilt is proven. He was so frequently employed in the defense of persons charged with crime that his sympathy was quick and active, and his belief in the common honesty of human nature was firm and sincere. He was heartily devoted to the interests of a client and never lost sight of a fact, or a circumstance, or a point of law that could be construed in his favor. His study was so thorough and his familiarity with books so great that his word could be accepted as the law in regard to any criminal case. He was not a narrow man in the sense of devoting himself wholly to professional reading and study. His general information was large regarding history, ancient, mediaval and modern. His accumulation of learn- ing was one of the immeasurable advantages possessed by him in framing an argument for the court or in a public address to the jury. He could draw from it almost without limit in the adornment of his speech. He was a man of generous impulses and strong sense of justice in his dealings with his fellow men. He often invoked the attribute of mercy for the tempering of justice in his appeal for a client charged with crime. He believed in giving every man the best possible chance in the race of life. He had compassion for the unfor- tunate and excuses for the unwary. It may be claimed for him that he was an orator by nature and training, and he belonged to the race that has pro- duced some of the greatest orators in the history of the world. His mother was a sister of Daniel O'Connell. Mr. McSweeney was, in 1851, joined in marriage with Miss Catherine Rex, a sister of Honorable George Rex, of Wooster, one time judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio. She was a woman of strong mental endowment and excellent moral character. John McSwee- ney, Jr., born August 31, 1854, was the fruit of this union. The marriage tie was dissolved June 11, 1884, by the death of Mrs. McSweeney. Mr. McSwee- ney, the subject of this biography, died January 22, 1890.
JAMES H. CLEVELAND, Cincinnati. James Harlan Cleveland was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, January 21, 1865. He is a son of Francis L. and Laura Harlan Cleveland. He studied at Princeton College, New Jersey, graduating in the class of 1885 and receiving the appointment to the " Chancellor John C.
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Green Fellowship " in moral science. He studied the following year in Ger- many, at the University of Berlin. He then returned to America and studied law at the Columbian Law School, in Washington, D. C., where he graduated in 1888. He was appointed assistant district attorney for the Southern Dis- trict of Ohio, February 29, 1888, which position he retained until November 3, 1889, when he retired to form a partnership with C. Bentley Matthews, under the firm name of Matthews & Cleveland. The firm in 1897 became Matthews, Cleveland & Bowler, by the addition of Robert B. Bowler, formerly comp- troller of the treasury of the United States. On March 28, 1894, Mr. Cleve- land was appointed United States attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, which position he still retains. He is professor of criminal law in the Law School of the University of Cincinnati. He was married in Washington, June 5, 1888, to Grace E. Matthews, daughter of the late Justice Stanley Mat- thews. He has four children.
JOHN McSWEENEY, JR., Wooster. John McSweeney, Jr., was born in Wooster on the 31st day of August, 1854. His father, the late John McSweeney, whose biography is published in this volume, had just entered upon a career at the Bar which has never been excelled in brilliancy by any other practitioner in his section of the State. His mother was Catherine Rex, a woman rich in mental resource and moral excellence, sister of Judge George Rex, who served on the Bench of the Supreme Court. Nothing is more natural, therefore, than the inheritance of talent and taste for the law by young McSweeney. He is a lawyer by heredity ; an orator by kinship with Daniel O'Connell, the renowned patriot of Ireland. His early instruction was received in the pubilc schools, followed by a classical course in the university and sup- plemented by liberal researches in history, philosophy and literature. He enjoyed peculiar opportunities of obtaining knowledge of the law by associa- tion, observation and absorption. These were not relied upon, however, for the exact and useful knowledge which is so essential to successful practice. He read and studied in the office of his father until he acquired a comprehensive knowledge of the text books and a pretty thorough understanding of the prin- ciples of the law-the science of jurisprudence. He attended the Boston Law School for a full term, and was graduated as a Bachelor of Laws in 1880. Admitted to the Bar in the same year he was received into partnership with his father and thus had the advantage at the outset of a clientage such as in the figment of an ambitious dream rises before the imagination of the ablest young candidate for practice, who enters the field alone, but is realized only after years of patient toil. Indeed many aspiring members of the profession, who subsequently achieved great distinction as advocates and jurists, waited long and anxiously for clients after admission to the Bar. Some of them, in a con- dition of painful poverty, were obliged to turn aside and engage in other occu- pations in order to procure their daily bread and the strength for still further endurance. For such as have the patience and the fortitude, the sedulous
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