USA > Ohio > Miami County > Troy > Centennial history. Troy, Piqua and Miami county, Ohio > Part 19
USA > Ohio > Miami County > Piqua > Centennial history. Troy, Piqua and Miami county, Ohio > Part 19
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In early times court terms were limited to two weeks and consequently the docket was always crowded. The system of plead- ing was under the old Common Law, the complications of which often tried the pa- tience of the early bar. Divorce cases were few and far between and not many crim- inal cases were docketed.
Those were the days of meager fees; in fact, litigants as a rule were poor in this world's goods and therefore avoided liti- gation as much as possible. The first plead- ers before the Bench of Miami County
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were men of worth and ability. There were the MeKinney brothers, Col. J. H. Hart, Gordon K. Mott, Judson Cotting- ham, Jonathan Vaile, General Robert Young, Seth H. Wood, Benjamin Powers, R. P. Llewellyn Barber, Charles Morris, Harvey Sellers and Stephen Johnston. Courtly in their manners, these old law- yers made for the Bar of Miami County a reputation which has been sustained by their successors. Many of these were men of much erudition. They knew literature as well as law; they were as familiar with Shakespeare as with Blackstone and elo- quence often flashed from them like sparks from a Toledo blade. It would be invidi- ous to discriminate. The old bar of the county has disappeared. The temple of justice which echoed long ago to its wit and eloquence has given place to a new structure, but the record left behind by the first lawyers has not been lost. The last of the old practitioners passed with Major Johnston and J. F. MeKinney; and M. H. Jones, the Nestor of the present bar, loved and venerated by all, stands alone to represent the glories of the older day.
There have come before the courts of Miami County several famous cases which deserve more than a passing notice. Per- haps the first of these was that of a man of the name of Armstrong, who was in- dieted for murder in 1816. The crime was committed near Pigna in a house which is still standing. The case, the particulars of which are lost, created a great deal of excitement and the accused was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to be hung, but afterward his sentence was commuted to a term of im- prisonment. In 1855 came the celebrated Ragan case.
This trial was one of the most sensa- tional ever held within the limits of the county. It was the first and last time a woman ever appeared before the bar of onr courts with an offense whose surround- ings were so heinous. Mrs. Jane Eliza- beth Ragan, or Riggin, as the name is sometimes spelled, was a young married woman of twenty-two who lived in Piqna. She was a person of some attractions and intelligence. Slie was under medium size, fair complexion, bordering on the bru- nette, regular features, dark forehead, rather low, gray-blue eyes, voluptnons lips and possessed an organization and expres- sion that indicated strong passions and great decision and energy.
Despite the fact that she was married she formed an intrigue with one James D. Mowry, who resided at Cowlesville, near Tippecanoe City. Whether Ragan sus- pected his wife's infidelity or not. I do not know, but Mrs. Ragan determined to make herself a widow without the sanction of the law. Mr. Ragan became ill and the services of a physician were secured. He grew rapidly worse and the circumstances were suspicions. It was suspected that he was the victim of a slow poison. When he was improving and gave assurances of regaining his health he was suddenly taken worse and died. In a short time Mrs. Ragan was arrested. The warrant was served by S. B. Garvey, constable, but as his time was about to expire his successor, Mr. Goggin, completed the necessary de- tails. The arrest of Mrs. Ragan took place in April, 1855.
The accused was brought to Troy and lodged in jail. At that time Judge R. S. Hart was on the bench and M. H. Jones was the proseenting attorney. The prose-
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cutor was assisted by Ebenezar Parsons, who afterward became judge. The defense was conducted by Jolin A. Corwin, of Ur- bana, James S. Hart, and S. S. MeKinney. The jury consisted of Robert Johnson, Henry F. Zellers, Paul Pence, Menaleus Crew, Nathaniel Hollingsworth, Eli Pear- son, Erastus Covault, Jeremiah Furrow, Garland Bruce, Joseph Harland, Abner Jones and Jeremiah Thomas.
James D. Mowry was arrested with Mrs. Ragan, but as there was no convicting evi- dence against him he was finally dismissed and the whole machinery of the law was put forth for the conviction of the woman. The trial, when it came up, was attended by great crowds from all parts of the county. The coldbloodedness of the crime commanded execration everywhere, for there was no doubt of Mrs. Ragan's guilt. A chemist had found in Mr. Ragan's stom- ach a sufficient amount of arsenic to have killed half a dozen men. What made the case of the accused so black was the fact that she was a member of church and a teacher in the Sunday school, and it was very evident that she didn't practice what she preached. She was a woman who dis- missed for unholy love the religious tenets she professed and hesitated not to take her husband's life because he stood be- tween her and the real object of her affec- tions.
There was not the slightest doubt of Mrs. Ragan's guilt. In fact she made a confession, but as it was made to an offi- cer it could not be used against her. While confined in the county jail a child was born to the accused woman and this offspring was nursed in court in order to secure for the guilty mother the sympathy of the jury. Never before had such a spectacle been
witnessed in our courts. The trial was full of dramatic episodes. The case for the State was conducted in an able manner while all the eloquence of the defending attorneys was put forth to save their client from the gallows. The charge of Judge Hart was able and impartial and every one looked for a verdict of guilty. The state had fully proven its case and the de- fense itself had little hopes of securing an acquittal.
What, then, was the surprise when the jury filed solemnly into the court-room with a verdict of "Not guilty" falling from the lips of its foreman! It seemed as if" a bomb had fallen through the roof. There was nothing left now but to turn the woman loose. The trial had lasted thirty days and for the State had been time wasted in the end. Slowly Mrs. Ragan passed through the press of indignant spectators and went her way. She re- mained not long in Piqua but went west, where she afterwards died. A few years after the trial she was accosted in Indi- anapolis by a person who knew her, but she denied her identity until convinced that she was really known, when she asked the gentleman not to expose her past life. With the exception of M. H. Jones, who prosecuted Mrs. Ragan, every one con- nected with the trial of this celebrated case has passed to the Great Beyond, but the memory of the trial is yet one of the causes célébre of the Miami Bar.
THE HOBATTA CASE.
It would seem from the outcome of the Ragan trial that the county had been af- flieted enough in the miscarriage of jus- tice. It was soon to have another trial none the less aggravating. In the summer
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of 1859 two young men reached Miami County on their way home from Califor- nia. One had been unsuccessful in his search for gold while the other had ae- cumulated, if not a competence, enough to give rein to the generous impulses of his heart. These young men were Michael Hobatta and one Manning. The latter's home was in Kentucky, while Hobatta lived a few miles out of Piqua. They had been friends in the far west and Manning, tak- ing pity on his companion, had generously paid his fare home. With the blackest in- tentions in his heart, Hobatta invited Man- ning to accompany him to the home of his (Hobatta's) parents before proceeding to Kentucky. This invitation was accepted, Hobatta pledging Manning that his father would reimburse him for his kindness to his son.
When the pair reached Piqua they start- ed afoot toward the Hobatta home. There were persons who saw them on the road and noted Manning's joyous nature. Little did he dream that he was being tolled to his death by one of the most despicable wretches that ever infested the county. There is no telling at what time the demon, Murder, took possession of Mike Hobatta's heart. He not only coveted the wealth con- cealed on his companion's person, but he wanted also the very rings he wore. Al- most in sight of the Hobatta farmstead the body of Manning was found. A bullet from a revolver had taken his life and the body had been left on the scene of the crime. At once a hne and cry was raised and as circumstances pointed in but one direction, the hands of vengeance were laid on Hobatta. Excitement became intense, and it is probable that the swift apprehen-
sion of the murderer spared the county a lynching.
The late Harrison Gale, of Troy, was constable at that time and he saw that the aceused was promptly lodged in jail. Even then there were threats of an attack on that structure by the infuriated populace. After some legal delays the case came up for trial December 9th. Judge Ebenezer Parsons then occupied the Common Pleas Bench and the late James T. Janvier was the prosecuting attorney. Mr. Janvier called James S. Hart, an able lawyer, to his assistance, while Samuel E. Browne took charge of the defense. Not for a mo- ment did the excitement over the case abate. Ithamar MeDowell, a returned gold seeker who knew Manning, visited Hobatta in the county jail and identified a ring on the prisoner's finger as belonging to Mau- ning.
The jury selected to try Hobatta was as follows: J. H. Mitchell, John Wolcott, James Cable, J. C. Mitchell, Henry Cox, John H. Woodward, Robert Buekels, .Jo- seph Coppoek, James R. White, Aaron R. Murphey, Robert W. South and Levi Cof- field.
It would seem from the evidence, which was circumstantial, but without a missing link, that death would surely be the doom of the accused. He demeaned himself both in jail and in the court-room as a merciless wretch, having little to say, owing perhaps to his nature. His attorney presented his case as best he could and in an able man- ner. The state labored hard to conviet the prisoner, the prosecutor making an able argument, in which he was seconded by the able Hart. All their efforts were, how- ever, in vain. The jury after some hours of discussion brought in a verdict of mur-
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der in the second degree and Hobatta's life was saved. It is impossible to de- scribe the indignation that possessed the people of the county at this verdict. In Kentucky at Manning's home Hobatta was hung in effigy and the excitement was in- tense. The jury was hotly censured.
The prisoner was taken to the peniten- tiary at Columbus to begin his life sen- tence. He served a term of eleven years when he received the benefit of executive clemency and was set free. Although years had passed since his conviction Ho- batta was ostracised by his former friends and was driven from their presence when he attempted to take up his old life among them. Forsaking the scenes of his boy- hood, he went into an adjoining state, where perhaps the great crime of his life was unknown, and he eventually died in a strange community. It was not the end- ing that he deserved, for the death penalty should have been meted out to him for his atrocious crime.
THE BROWN-BOLLMYER CASE.
During the days of the Civil War, a tragedy growing out of the animosities of polities took place in Dayton. A news- paper called "The Empire," antagonistic to the Government, was published there by a man named Bollmyer. Political feeling at that time was high." It was the home of Vallandigham and his disloyal sentiments had embittered the Union people against what was then known as the Copperhead Party. In Dayton lived one Brown who kept a hat store and who was an ardent Union man. One evening the personal and party quarrel between the two men ter- minated in blood. Brown went to Boll- myer's house, and, calling him to the door,
shot him dead on the sidewalk. This act stirred the city to its very foundations. Brown was placed in jail and a mob was formed among Bollmyer's friends to take him ont and lynch him. Brown was brought to the Miami County jail for safe keeping and, a change of venue being se- cured, he was tried in the old court house in Troy.
The bitter feelings engendered by the war made the trial a noted one. There was little question as to Brown's premedi- tation. The court house was filled to over- flowing during the trial, which lasted some days, and resulted in the prisoner's ac- quittal. It was thought for some time that his life was in danger by Bollmyer's friends, but he was not molested and a few years later he was found dead in a field, his life having been taken by apoplexy.
THE MITCHELL TRIAL.
After this exciting case the Miami County Court room witnessed no stirring trial till the arrest of George Mitchell, col- ored, who was charged with the murder of his wife. The Mitchell case is celebrated from the fact that it terminated in the only legal execution ever held in the county. This case came to trial in 1880. Judge H. H. Williams presided and Moses B. Earnhart was prosecuting attorney. The late Daniel C. Miller was sheriff. Mitchell was a blacksmith, but was not considered vicious. Claiming that his wife was not faithful to him, he one day attacked her with a corn-cutting knife and inflicted wounds from which she died. After com- mitting the terrible deed Mitchell made liis escape and was not apprehended till months afterward, when he was found at work in another county of the state. He
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was arrested, brought to Troy and placed in jail. Calvin D. Wright became his at- torney. Brought to the bar of the Common Pleas Court he entered a plea of not guilty and the trial began.
The shocking details of the murder aroused public interest and the court room was daily crowded. The jury brought in a verdiet of murder in the first degree and Mitchell was sentenced to be hanged. The day for the execution was set, but Gov- ernor Charles Foster permitted a post- ponement while the attorneys labored hard for a commutation of sentence. Their ef- forts availed nought, however, and on the 17th of September the execution took place amid dramatic scenes in the jail yard at Troy. It was a day long to be remembered throughout the county. The county seat was thronged with people who came from every part of the county as well as from other parts of the state. The streets were patrolled by several companies of militia and scores of deputy sheriffs were sworn in to preserve order. Mitehell met his fate unflinchingly. After the execution the body was handed over to the family for burial and the first and last execution ever had in Miami County was at an end.
THE SHANK TRIAL.
In 1893 Jefferson Shank was brought to trial for the murder of his wife. This case became one of the most noted ever tried at the criminal bar of the county, The hearing lasted three weeks. Judge Theodore Sullivan occupied the bench and Thomas B. Kyle was the prosecuting at- torney. He was assisted by ex-Judge Cal- vin D. Wright. II. H. Williams and Ellis Kerr defended the prisoner. The prom- inence of the prisoner's relatives added
interest to the case. The evidence against Shank was altogether circumstantial and need not be related here. The verdict was "Guilty of murder in the second degree" and the prisoner was sentenced to the state penitentiary for life. A short time after his incarceration he became a "trusty" and eventually was the recipient of a pardon.
The foregoing are some of the famous trials held within the county. There have been others, but they do not merit space at the hands of the historian. Many of them have been forgotten and the record of others are buried in the dust of time. It may be said that while Justice at times has been "side-tracked," her scales have been, on the whole, well balanced at the county bar and that the evil doer has gen- erally received his deserts.
The present bench and bar of the county refleet credit upon all concerned. The men who compose it are lawyers of ability and citizens of worth. From Judge Jones down they are worthy successors of the legal lights who brought fame to the county in the years that have passed away. Of the judges who have filled the bench within the last thirty years, Calvin D. Wright, Theodore Sullivan and Walter D. Jones are living. Judge HI. H. Williams died a few years ago in Florida. Judge Theodore Sullivan is now judge of the Circuit Court, Second Cirenit, and Judge Jones is the present judge of the Common Pleas Court of Miami County.
A century has passed since the first county court was convened. In that time the bench and bar of Miami have reached a place lofty in particular. It is noted for its learning and eloquence and celebrated for its legal lore. Its personnel will com-
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pare favorably with the personnel of any similar body in the land. It can look back upon a history of which its members may feel proud, a history covering the stirring events of ten decades. It is no longer the era of the old circuit-riding judges and the lawyer of few books and fewer cases. It is the day of the scholarly barrister, the day of the law library, of the generous fee and the intelligent client. It is a far cry from the bench and bar of Peter Felix's time to the present organization which dis- penses and aids justice in the Temple of Justice, and when one casts a retrospective look across the space that intervenes he is impressed with the advancement made by the courts of the county. That our benchi and bar will maintain its high standard goes without saying. Its future is bright and the county is proud of it.
Following is the present personnel of the Miami County Bar:
Attorneys-Edward H. Allen, Alfred M. Brant, George A. Brooks, A. F. Broom- hall, C. N. Burns, A. C. Buchanan, E. M. Bell, G. W. Berry, A. B. Campbell, T. M. Campbell, S. D. Croft, John V. Dagan- hardt, J. A. Davy, A. W. DeWeese, U. G. Earnest, C. F. Faust, F. V. Flinn, J. S. Forgy, Charles E. Fox, J. C. Fullerton, Jr., Freshour & Freshour, M. K. Gantz, Gilbert & Shipman, F. C. Goodrich, W. A. Hains, L. O. Harbaugh, J. C. Hughes, W. E. Harness, E. A. Hiatt, Nate Iddings, C. B. Jamison, M. H. Jones, W. S. Kessler, A. H. Kessler, Kerr & Kerr, E. H. & R. A. Kerr, James Ward Keyt, Lindsey & Lilley, George A. Long, Thomas B. Kyle, William E. Lytle, J. H. Marlin, W. L. Martindale, Seth Mccullough, J. L. Mckinney, J. W. Morris, M. H. Nill, O'Donnell & Billing's- ley, Bert Reed, J. Harrison Smith, J. F.
Spitler, L. E. St. John, Thomas & Thomas, W. P. Walker.
Officers of the Court, 1908-9-Hon. Wal- ter D. Jones, judge; J. H. Landis, clerk; B. J. Johnson, Florence M. Fickes, deputy clerks; Renna R. Spitler, stenographer ; W. E. Lytle, prosecuting attorney; R. H. Gibson, sheriff ; P. H. Moyer, deputy; R. H. Southerland, bailiff.
A volume of anecdotes concerning the county's old barristers might be written and its perusal would be highly entertain- ing. In speaking of the celebrated "Bob" Schenck, Mr. Jones narrates how that old- time lawyer once broke down a witness on cross-examination.
"Schenck was once defending a case and the testimony was going dead against his client, and among the witnesses who were strongly against him was one Jolın Mad- dux, of Piqua, a very shrewd, sharp wag, who was equal to Schenck in wit and re- source, and Schenck announced to some of the lawyers that he was going to break Maddux down on cross-examination. So after Maddux was examined in chief, Schenck undertook the cross-examination in a manner that became offensive to Mad- dux, who imagined that Schenck assumed a superiority over him. Schenck led him through a long cross-examination in the details of the case and his testimony be- came harder on Schenck's client, and in a fit of anger and disgust Schenck, in one of his loftiest moods, turned on the witness and asked him :
" 'Now, Mr. Maddux, you have sworn to know a good deal about this case and testified very strongly-will you please have the goodness to tell me and the court how you know these things?'
"Maddux raised up and in the grandest
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manner and the clearest voice, assuming social equality with Schenck, looking him squarely in the eye said: ‘Why, Bob, I saw it with this scrutinizing eye of mine,' at which the whole andience, judge and jury, roared with laughter, all except Schenck, who in an angry manner said, 'The witness can go.' It was the lawyer broken down, not the witness."
Mr. Jones was elected prosecuting at- torney in 1851. He defeated the famous Harvey Sellers, one of the oldest members of the Miami County Bar, and was prob- ably the first and only Republican who ever carried Brown Township, the Gibral- ter of Miami Democracy. The prosecutor's salary was then $225 per annum.
One of the old time legal geniuses of the county was R. P. Llewellyn Baber, of Piqua. He was gifted in oratory and his flights of rhetoric are indescribable. At one time he was to deliver a Fourth of July oration at Xenia and in order to cre- ate a lasting impression he prepared a very eloquent address. It was written to be delivered in the open air and was filled with allusions to the golden glow of the sunlight, the warbling of the birds, and the soft zephyr. As it was written so it was delivered, but the day was cold and dreary. The rain fell in torrents and a public hall held the orator. But undaunted he called upon his hearers to observe the sunshine, etc., which they heroically tried to do amid shouts of laughter.
An amusing story is told of William I. Thomas, one of the first members of the Miami County Bar. It was customary a number of years ago for members of the Supreme Bench to sit in various counties and hear cases. On one occasion one of
these high officials was performing this duty in Troy. Mr. Thomas had a case in which he was deeply interested and while absent from the court room the court de- cided it adversely to Mr. Thomas. When he returned to the court room he said to the court : "I would like to have a deci- sion in the case of A vs. B." Thereupon the court replied : "The case has been de- cided, Mr. Thomas, and adversely to your client." "I shall carry it up to the Su- preme Court," retorted Mr. Thomas, with a good deal of spirit. "I want to see how the d- case looks in a book." The gist in the old lawyer's retort lies in the fact that all cases carried to the Supreme Court are printed in pamphlet form for consider- ation by the highest tribunal in the state. There is no doubt that not a few cases are taken into the Supreme Court for no other reason than to see how they "Look in a book."
The members of the old county bar were men who would have made any bar famous. There was the suave, gentlemanly Janvier, who left the mercantile business for the law, the bright Burgess, who was "care- less in essentials and details," the philo- sophie Grosvenor, the elder Thomas, who possessed a deep legal mind, the reason- ing and thinking Ross, the careful and scholarly Morris and the brilliant Sellers. "The carly Bar of Troy, where is it? Gone! gone whence? No response. The heart beats faster, the pulse quickens, the brain grows dizzy, the voice struggles to articulate the answer, but none comes. The early Bar of Troy has passed away; its members are no more; life's journey for them is ended, and that is all we know."
CHAPTER XII.
EDUCATIONAL
The Log Schoolhouse Early Teachers-First Text Books-Methods of Discipline- Advent of the Salaried Teacher-Coming of the Graded School-Latter Day Im- provements-Schools of Troy and Piqua-Educational History of the Townships -Parochial Schools-Teachers' Examinations-Results Accomplished.
In the present chapter I shall endeavor to describe the educational progress made in the county from the earliest times. The present splendid free school system is the outgrowth of the rude beginnings that fol- lowed the advent of the pioneers. The genesis of the magnificent educational structures of today was the log school- houses of the backwoods which lined both banks of the Miami. The professors of the present-day schools are the successors of the quaint old teachers who "taught the young idea how to shoot" and who be- lieved almost religiously that to spare the rod was to spoil the child and the rod was seldom "spared."
It was not long after the coming of the first settlers that the schoolhouse arose in the forest. It was not the "little red one" used today in song and story, but an affair far less ornate, and in keeping with the times. The primitive "house of learning" has passed away, but excellent descrip- tions of it remain. As the pioneers built their cabins in close proximity, they began to look after the education of their chil-
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