USA > Ohio > Delaware County > Century history of Delaware County, Ohio and representative citizens 20th > Part 43
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Maple Hill M. E. Church. About 1885 John Hoorley, a young local preacher of the M. E. Church, came from Columbiana County to this neighborhood. He was full of zeal for his work and held meetings in the lower
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Horse Shoe school house, which resulted in about twenty conversions. These at first united with the surrounding churches. It was decided to organize a Sunday school, but when the parties interested met to do so they found that the school directors had locked the doors of the school house against them. Mr. Reed, a Presbyterian who lived near by. invited them to come to his house, in which place the school was held.
Soon after it was decided to organize a church, and about fifteen persons, belonging to different denominations, went into the new organization. As nearly as can be ascertained the original membership was composed of the following families : Frank Sherman and family: Frank Ashville and family; Henry Reed and family: Samuel Tayler and wife, and a Mr. Smith. A frame church was soon erected by voluntary subscriptions and named the Maple Hill Church.
The congregation was supplied for several years by students from the Ohio Wesleyan University. The society is not, at this date, maintained, but ministers of various denomi- nations preach occasionally in the church and a Sunday school is maintained during a part of the year.
THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIA- TION in Delaware is one of the city's latest organizations and one with a remarkable career for the brief time that it has been in existence. The influences that led to its or- ganization are to be found in a spontaneous movement among a number of the city's young men, who had become familiar with its needs and who had been impressed with the fact that there was great need among the young men for some central place where clubs and gymnastic features, around which had been thrown the influence of a Christian home, could be secured. From this movement fol- lowed quickly other movements that gave Delaware an Association that is rapidly as- suming a prominent place in the city's life. and also a prominent place among the associa- tions of the State.
It was in the Spring of 1905 that a number of young men became interested in the pro-
posal of a Young Men's Christian Association for the city of Delaware. A number of con- ferences among themselves, led these men to draw up papers which they personally circu- lated among the men of the city asking that every man who would be glad to see the es- tablishment of such an organization should sign. The result was a remarkable one. The signers embraced the leading business men of the city, many of the professors of Ohio Wes- leyan University, as well as many of a younger class. The move, thus accelerated, at once assumed a definite shape. Rev. F. I. Johnson, at that time the pastor of the Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr. W. A. Morrison, the president of the Delaware Underwear Factory and a leading business man, and Mr. Weyland Michener, became the leaders of an effort to at once secure a building and place the or- ganization on its feet.
On the first day of August, with six weeks left to secure the option on the old Blee Hotel building at the corner of East Winter and Union Streets, a building removed far enough from the business center to insure the neces- sary quiet, and at the same time furnish a most convenient meeting place for the men coming from all parts of the city, began the contest for the Association. A saloon that then occupied the building and the Association made the race for the building's control, and the Young Men's Christian Association won. After one of the hardest fought financial cam- paigns in the history of Delaware, the needed $20,000 was secured and the building which is the home of the Association formally pur- chased. A mass meeting of the citizens that followed chose fifteen incorporators, who were. Messrs. W. A. Morrison, C. D. Young, E. D. Pollock, E. F. Young. V. T. Hills, L. L. Denison, N. F. Overturf. Jas. Ovsey, E. M. Hall, Stephen Potter, J. F. Denison. Robert P. Benton, J. L. Anderson. R. J. Pumphrey and Jas. Wilson. Captain V. T. Hills was chosen as the first president of the Associa- tion.
On January 15. 1906. in the interval be- fore possession of the building could be se- cured, Mr. Edwin F. Young became the secre-
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tary of the Association, and Mr. W. A. Morri- son succeeded Mr. Hills as president. Dur- ing this year repairs on the building were be- gun, and a wonderful transformation made in its appearance and arrangement. Probably no greater transformation of a building has ever taken place within the city. A gymnasium was arranged, club rooms prepared, and plans formed for general Association work carried into effect.
New Year's day, 1907, brought the As- sociation into complete possession of the build- ing. and Mr. Oscar M. Miller, who had been employed as assistant secretary of the Toledo Association, became the general secretary. The formal opening of the building followed about the last of March, a big celebration marking the real beginning of the Associa- tion's work in the city.
Nine months of the work were completed on the first day of January, 1908. It is counted a difficult matter to organize any institution or commercial company having a single line of work and give it more than a start in such a length of time. The Y. M. C. A., while it has as its single aim the building of strong mental, physical and moral men-has many kinds of work included within its scope, so that the problem of conducting very diverse inter- ests becomes a difficult one.
The Delaware Association in the nine months has not only met these problems, but it has boldly undertaken almost every feature
of Association work. The building on the cor- ner has become the social center for over four hundred members, more than one-third of whom are boys and another third business men. Its four walls include a gymnasium. with special classes in physical training for boys, young men and business men: athletic sport provided by inter-class basket ball and volley-ball contests; social recreation and clean fun, centering in a bowling league of three dozen members; bath-tubs, sponge and shower, for the members to use as frequently as they wish; a Boy's Club; the Commercial Club's headquarters; a glee club of twenty male voices; a Boy's Orchestra; a pleasant residence for thirty men; a night school, pro- viding instruction in a number of lines of work; a Sunday afternoon Bible Discussion Class ; and a training class for the men Sun- day school teachers of the city. Besides all this, there have been many social evenings for the men and boys of the city, and a number of addresses and big Sunday meetings for men.
The plans for a greater enlargement of the work and the more effective carrying out of the plans already under way is the work of the future. Step by step the officers of the Association are doing their best to bring it into a greater and more intimate touch with the needs of the city, and there is every indi- cation that it is to become one of the most vital factors in the religious, social, and moral life of the people of Delaware.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE BENCH AND BAR.
Early History-First Court and First Lawyers-The Present Bar and Its High Standing.
It would not be commensurate with a his- torical sketch of the Bench and Bar of Dela- ware County to name all the judges who have presided on its bench, or to describe the nut- merous lawyers who have practiced before its courts; yet it is thought best to refer to the organization of its several courts and to name some of the early judges who held them and the members of the bar who practiced before them, as well as the judges and lawyers who lo- cated here.
The first judicial system to be organized in that part of the United States which is now known as the State of Ohio, was that put in operation by the "Ordinance of 1787," by which the vast "territory northwest of the River Ohio" was set apart as a separate gov- ernment, and a local judicial system given to it under said ordinance. The court was to consist of three judges, any two of whom could form and constitute a court. This court was to have common law jurisdiction and the judges must reside in the district and have therein a free hold estate of not less than five hundred acres of land during the time they held their office, and their commission was to continue in force during good behavior. These judges, with the governor of said territory were to select from the civil and criminal laws of the original states such laws as they thought suitable for the territory and they were au- thorized to promulgate and enforce the law, until amended or repealed by a general as- sembly which was to be later organized accord- ing to the terms of said Ordinance under which they were appointed.
In accordance with such provision of the Ordinance, Congress on the sixteenth day of October. 1787, elected as judges for the North- west Territory, Samuel Wolden Parsons, John Armstrong and James Mitchell Varnam. Mr. Armstrong declined the appointment and on the nineteenth day of February, 1788, Jolin Cleves Symmes was chosen in his place. The salary of the judges was fixed at eight hundred dollars per year. This organization of the court continued, with various changes which were made in the appointment of the judges, until the organization of the State of Ohio, in the year 1802.
Under the first constitution of Ohio, the number of supreme judges was three, with power vested in the General Assembly to au- thorize the selection of one additional judge. Their term of office was fixed at seven years and their salaries were not to exceed one thou- sand dollars per annum, each. These judges, under the constitution, were to be chosen by the General Assembly, and on the second day of April, 1803, they elected Samuel Hunting- ton, Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., and Wil- liam Spriggs, who composed the first Supreme Court of Ohio. Under this new constitution the first court was organized which concerned Delaware County directly. This was known as the Court of Common Pleas. The consti- tution of 1802 provided that the several Courts of Common Pleas shall consist of a president judge and associate judges; that the State should be divided by law into three circuits and that there should be appointed a president of the Courts, who during his continuance in
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office should reside therein ; that there should be appointed in each county not more than three nor less than two associate judges, who during their continuance in office should reside in the county, and the president in the circuit and the associate judges in the county should constitute the Court of Common Pleas, which court was to have common law and chancery jurisdiction. The several judges under this provision of the constitution were elected by the General Assembly.
Under this subdivision of the State into three circuits, Delaware County belonged to the middle subdivision, and the first presiding judge who held court in Delaware County after its organization was Levin Belt, who re- sided in Chillicothe, Ohio: his associates were Moses Byxbee, Thomas Brown and Josiah Mckinney. The first session of the court was held on the third day of June, A. D., 1808. in a temporary log building near the sulphur springs, on what is now the Ohio Wesleyan University grounds. The presiding judge and all the members of the bar were from neigh- boring counties. The associate judges above named were from Delaware County, and Moses Byxbee, Jr .. was appointed clerk of courts. He also resided in Delaware County. The early journals of the Common Pleas Court were destroyed by an incendiary fire about the year 1825 and it would be difficult to give a full and complete history of this court prior to the year 1825. But from other sources we have compiled a complete history of all the judges and their associate judges who have held the several courts in this county since its organization.
From February 8. 1808. the date when Delaware County was set off from Franklin County by an act of the General Assembly. down to the date of the adoption of the new constitution in 1851, this county never had a resident presiding judge, but during all that time it had its quota of associate judges, who were men chosen from among its best and most prominent citizens. As before stated. these judges were elected by the General .1.s- sembly and the first three were Moses Byxbee. Thomas Brown and Josiah Mckinney. These
were elected February 13, 1808. Benjamin Carpenter was elected February 17, 1809: Jo- siah Mckinney. Ezekiel Brown and David Marks, elected February 4. 1815: Samuel Hughes elected January 27. 1818: Josiah Mc- Kinney and William S. Drake elected Febru- ary 4, 1822. David Prince elected at the ses- sion in 1825: William S. Drake and Hosea Williams elected at the session in January, 1829; Ezra Griswold elected at the January session, 1832; John Brundage and John Lug- enbeel elected at the January session, 1836; William P. Norris elected at session of 1842; Marshall L. Griffin elected at session of 1842; Almon Stark elected at session of 1846: Fred- erick Avery elected at the session of 1850; Caleb Howard elected at the session of 1850.
Under the new constitution of 1851 the State was divided into nine Common Pleas districts, and these districts were subdivided into three districts each and the election of the judges of these courts was vested in the people of the subdivision instead of in the General Assembly as under the Constitution of 1802. According to this subdivision Dela- ware County was placed in the Sixth Judicial District, which was composed of Delaware. Knox, Licking, Ashland. Morrow, Richland. Coshocton. Holmes and Wayne Counties, and the first subdivision of said district is com- posed of Delaware, Knox and Licking coun- ties and it has always been the same since the adoption of the new constitution.
The first election for judges of the Com- mon Pleas Courts under the Constitution of 1851 was held on the second Tuesday of Oc- tober, 1851, and the judges elected began their terms of office on the second Monday of Febru- ary, A. D., 1852. Under this subdivision of the Sixth District, the following named per- sons have been elected from Delaware County and have presided over this court and over the other courts in this subdivision: Sherman Finch, from February. 1857. to February, 1862. Thomas C. Jones, from February, 1862, to February, 1872. Charles H. Mc- Elroy, from February, 1882. to February, 1892. John S. Gill, from February, 1892, to February, 1897. Emmett M. Wickham, front
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February, 1897. to February, 1902. George Coyner, from February, 1902, to February, 1907. Emmett M. Wickham, from February, 1907. present incumbent. The foregoing are all of the judges who have been elected or ap- pointed from Delaware County.
THE PROBATE COURT.
The Probate Court was first established under the new constitution in the year 1852. Up to that date the business of the Probate Court was done in the Common Pleas Court. The Probate Court is the most popular court with the people. It has been said that prac- tically all the property in the county passes under the jurisdiction of this court once in each generation.
The first judge of the Probate Court of Delaware County was David T. Fuller. The first entry made on the Journal of the court by him is dated March 2, A. D., 1852, and the last entry made by him is dated August 5. 1854. He died during his term of office and John E. Rosette was appointed by Governor William Madill to fill the vacancy. The first entry made of the Journal by Judge Rosette is dated September 16, 1854.
The next judge of the Probate Court was Isaac Ranney, and the first entry made by him on the Journal is dated October 20, 1854.
The next judge was Thomas W. Powell. and the first entry made on the Journal by him is dated November 3, 1862. These three judges were lawyers.
The next judge was B. C. Waters, and the first entry made by him is dated March 18. 1870. Judge Waters was not a lawyer. The next judge of this court was F. B. Sprague. and the first entry made by him on the Journal of the court is dated February 14, 1876. Mr. Sprague was not a lawyer.
The next judge of this court was Rufus Carpenter, and the first entry made by him is dated February 9, 1882. Mr. Carpenter was not a lawyer.
The next judge of this court was N. F. Overturf and the first entry made by him on
the Journal is dated February 9, 1888. Judge Overturf is a lawyer.
The next judge of this court was B. F. Freshwater, and the first entry made on the Journal of this court by him is dated Febru- ary 9. 1894. Judge Freshwater is a lawyer.
The next judge of this court was E. Lee Porterfield, and the first entry made on his Journal is February 9, 1900. Judge Porter- field was admitted to the Bar during his in- cumbency in office.
The next judge of this court was John A. Cone, who is the present incumbent. The first entry made by him on his docket is dated February 9. 1906. Judge Cone is a lawyer.
LEONARD H. COWLES. The first lawyer to settle in Delaware County was Leonard H. Cowles. He came from Connecticut about the year 1810, two years after the organization of the county. He was said to be a scholarly gentleman, a graduate of Yale College and a college mate of the late John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. Ile was said to have been one of the most thorough-read lawyers of his age. Not long after he came to Delaware he was married to a daughter of Colonel Moses Byxbee, which brought him into one of the wealthiest families of the county and the most of the county. He was a scholarly own personal business, so that as a lawyer he did not acquire as great a reputation in his professional life as he might have done if his talents had been devoted to his profession strictly. He was the only resident lawyer of the county until the year 1818, and his name appears frequently on the deed records of the county. He was a member of the Twenty- first and Twenty-second General Assemblies of Ohio which convened respectively on the second day of December, A. D., 1822, and the first day of December, A. D., 1823. He is said to have been a person of good and command- ing presence, always well dressed and gentle- manly in his appearance, and he devoted much of his time to social life and was fond of and sociable with his friends. He reared a large family, none of whom are now living.
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At the close of his life he had but little left of his large fortune.
MILO D. PETTIBONE was also a native of Connecticut, and he, it is believed, was a graduate of Yale College, also. He came to Delaware in the year 1818. He was also d scholarly gentleman, a trustworthy lawyer and occupied a high and responsible position at the ,bar until the time of his death, which occurred in the year 1849. He devoted some of his time to land speculation and was the owner of large tracts of land at the time of his deatil. The partition of his real estate, which was made in the Court of Common Pleas of Dela- ware County, Ohio, shows that he was the owner of large tracts of land both in Delaware, Marion and other counties in this State. He devoted the most of his time to the accumula- tion of his fortune, yet he was not lacking in his social relations and he always engaged in all the improvements of his time, whether social, moral or religious. He believed in the abolition of slavery in the United States and was considered one of the emancipators. He was enterprising and liberal toward public improvements and favored the advancement of Delaware. He was a member of the Twen- ty-seventh General Assembly of Ohio, which convened at Columbus, Ohio, on the first day of December, A. D., 1828. At the time of his death he had a large family of sons and daughters, to whom he left a large estate, some of whom are still living but none are now resi- dents of this county.
There were several other persons who came to Delaware and practiced at this bar for a short time but they only remained for a short period or died before they became well established in business and little can be learned of them or said about them at this late period.
Among those are Henry Brush, Justine Cook, and Richard Murray. Of Henry Brush nothing is known except that he was here for a short time and was a contemporary of and with Leonard H. Cowles and Milo D. Petti- bone.
JUSTINE COOK is said to have been a very bright young man, who developed great hopes in the minds of his friends for a resplendent professional career, but they were disap- pointed by his early death, which occurred about the year 1828. *
RICHARD MURRAY began the practice of law in Delaware with flattering hopes for a bright professional career, but about the year 1830 he developed disease of the lungs which resulted in tuberculosis, and he was compelled to seek a better climate. He removed with his family to the south and located on the east side of Lake Pontchartrain, where he lived but a few years, and died and was buried there, but his family returned to Delaware, Ohio. His widow resided in Delaware for many years and was prominent as an early educator.
JUDGE THOMAS WATKINS POWELL was born in South Wales. September, 1797, and died December 12, 1882, in Delaware, Ohio. at the advanced age of eighty-five years. His father, in the year 1801, immigrated to America and settled in Utica, in the State of New York. He sought and obtained such an education as his opportunities afforded. But the War of 1812 with Great Britain soon be- gan, and during that war he drove his father's team with the baggage of a regiment to Sac- ket's Harbor in the spring of 1813, and entered that place at the close of the battle. In the year 1814 he was appointed to a post of great trust, by the military authorities-the bearer of dispatches to Plattsburg, and at the close of the battle entered the town with dispatches to General McCombs. He attended an academy for two years where he studied and mastered such branches as were then taught at such institutions, including the higher branches of mathematics, for which he had a taste and genius to excel. It was ever with him a subject of great regret that his opportunities in early life to obtain a thorough education had been so limited. Could he have been indulged in the natural bent of his mind he would have excelled in literature as an author. After he left the academy hic
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entered the law office of Charles M. Lee, of Utica, when about the age of twenty, and in the year 1819, came to Ohio and passed liis quarantine in the law office of Hon. James W. Lathrop, of Canton, Ohio. In the year 1820 he was admitted to the Bar by the Supreme Court on the circuit at Wooster, Ohio. He immediately located in Perrysburg, on the Maumee River, and began the practice of the law. He was soon made prosecuting attorney and afterward county auditor of Wood County. He remained in Wood County until the year 1830, when he removed to Delaware, Ohio, where he remained in active practice for more than fifty years. He was always re- garded by the profession in Delaware and throughout the counties in central Ohio as an able and successful lawyer. In special and equity pleading, to which he devoted par- ticular attention, he excelled. He was ever noted for his zeal for his client's interest and welfare in all his practice. Polite and in- telligent, his society was courted by his breth- ren of the bar and in whatever circle he en- tered his presence . was always welcome. Probably no lawyer did more in assisting young men at the bar, and no one had more law students than did Judge Powell. Among the many men of note who studied in his of- fice was Hon. Charles Sweetser, Edward Jones, Hon. Thomas C. Jones, Hon. Royal T. Wheeler, afterwards chief justice of Texas, Gen. J. S. Jones and many others. In addi- tion to his industry in his profession, Judge Powell added great enterprise in all matters of interest to the public. He projected and prosecuted to its completion the "Mansion House" at the Sulphur Springs, which in its early history was famous as a fashionable re- sort and which subsequently secured to Dela- ware the Ohio Wesleyan University. He laid out and had platted one of the largest addi- tions to the town (now city) of Delaware. He built the flax mills and was interested in many other projects to benefit the city. Though not a seeker of place, he filled many of the most responsible offices in the gift of the people. He was first elected and served as prosecuting at- torney of this county. He was elected to the
General Assembly or House of Representa- tives of Ohio and served for the years 1841 and 1842. He was elected to the Ohio State Senate, from the Delaware District which was at that time composed of Delaware and Craw- ford Counties and served during the years 1844 and 1845. He was elected probate judge of Delaware County in the year 1862 and held the office for eight years. He was also a mem- ber of the Third Constitutional Convention of Ohio which met in Columbus, Ohio, in May, 1873, and he was considered one of the most prominent and useful members. Not- withstanding he was always a very busy man in his practice, he gave to the profession of his choice, two books which were much needed
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