Century history of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio, and representative citizens, 20th, Part 37

Author: Sanderson, Thomas W., comp
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1074

USA > Ohio > Mahoning County > Youngstown > Century history of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio, and representative citizens, 20th > Part 37

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A committee composed of David Abbott, Samuel Woodruff, Uriel Holmes, Jr., and Simon Perkins, that had been appointed to draft the plan of a jail, having made report,

the said report was accepted, with a slight alteration by the court, and Mr. Simon Per- kins was appointed "to superintend of the building of said jail, and to carry into effect such contract as the court of Quarter Sessions shall make with any person or persons for the building thereof."

Later sessions were held once or twice a year, though with no great regularity, and their transactions generally concerned the lay- ing out of roads and the trying of a few as- sault and battery cases, which are of no inter- est to the public.

FIRST COURT OF MAHONING COUNTY.

Mahoning county was organized in 1846, with Canfield as the county seat. In the act of incorporation it was stipulated that "the court of common pleas and supreme court of said county shall be holden at some convenient house in the town of Canfield until suitable county buildings shall be erected." The trus- tees of the Methodist Episcopal church tend- ered their building for the purpose, their offer being accepted. James Brownlee of Poland, James Wallace of Springfield, and Lemuel Brigham of Ellsworth, were designated by the legislature to act as associate justices until an election should be held. They convened for the first time March 16, 1846, in the office of Elisha Whittlesey, in Canfield. Hon. Eben Newton, at that time presiding judge of the circuit, administered the oath of office. Henry J. Canfield was chosen clerk pro tem. Some probate business was disposed of, and the county was divided into four assessment dis- tricts, with Thomas McGilligen, James Mc- Clelland, Samuel Hardman and Herman A. Doud as assessors.

The first regular term of the court of Com- mon Pleas was held May 11, 1846, with Hon. Eben Newton of Canfield as president judge, assisted by the associate justices before men- tioned. William Ferguson, of Youngstown, was prosecuting attorney, and James Powers, of Milton, sheriff. By request of the sheriff, Ransford Percival and John C. Fitch were appointed his deputies. There were nineteen

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cases on the docket when the court opened and thirty-seven when it adjourned at the end of the term, which lasted three days. No case was tried to a jury. There were some de- cisions affecting the partition and sale of real estate; one judgment was rendered on con- fession; eight wills were proved; eight guar- dians of minors appointed, and administrators appointed on eleven estates. The court ap- pointed Robert W. Tayler, James B. Blacksom and John M. Edwards master commissioners in chancery; Hiram A. Hall, John M. Ed- wards, and Reuben McMillen were appointed as school examiners, and John Kirk and An- drew as auctioneers. William W. Whittlesey, of Canfield, on the last day of the term, was elected clerk for five years, and gave bond in the sum of $10,000.

The first term of court was an event of some importance in Canfield, and was largely attended, not only by lawyers from this and neighboring counties, but also by citizens from all parts of the county. The terms of court continued to be held in the Methodist church until the fall term of 1847, by which time the new court house, which had been erected by the citizens of Canfield, in accordance with the provisions of the Act of February 16, 1846, was ready for occupancy.

After the removal of the county seat to Youngstown in August, 1876, an account of which has been given in a previous chapter, the first term of the Court of Common Pleas was held in the new court house at that city. It commenced September 10, and adjourned December 19, 1876. Hon. Philip B. Conant of Ravena, was judge, Henry B. Shields, clerk; John R. Davis, sheriff; and Charles R. Truesdale, prosecuting attorney. There were 722 cases on the docket when court opened, of which 674 were civil and 48 criminal. At the close of the term, including those disposed of, the number of civil cases was 953, criminal cases 135, total 1,058.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

Hon. George Tod .- The biographical his- tory of the Mahoning County bar begins nat-

urally with George Tod, the pioneer lawyer of Youngstown. He was born in Suffield, Conn., December II, 1773, son of David and Rachel (Kent) Todd. After graduating from Yale College in 1795, he taught school for a while at New Haven, Conn. He then read law at the law school of Judge Reeves, in Litchfield, Conn., and was subsequently ad- mitted to the bar. In October, 1797, he was married, at New Haven, Conn., to Miss Sally Isaacs, who was born in 1778, a daughter of Ralph and Mary Isaacs. Their two eldest children-Charlotte L. and Jonathan I. Tod- were there born. In 1801, after first making a preliminary visit, he removed with his wife and children to Youngstown, being the first lawyer to settle here, and one of the earliest on the Reserve. His talents were soon recog- nized. At the first territorial court of Trum- bull county, held in August, 1800, at the time of his first visit, he was appointed prosecuting attorney, and took the oath of office. In that capacity, in September following, he appeared in behalf of the United States against Joseph McMahon, indicted for the murder of Cap- tain George, an Indian, at the Salt Springs, on the 20th of July preceding. In 1801 he was appointed by Governor St. Clair, territorial secretary. He was three times elected town- ship clerk-in 1802, 1803 and 1804. In 1804-5 he was senator from Trumbull county in the state legislature, and again in 1810-II. In 1806 he was elected judge of the supreme court of the state. In the war of 1812 he was commissioned major and afterwards colonel of the Nineteenth Regiment of Ohio militia, and served with distinction at Fort Meigs and Sackett's Harbor. In 1815 he was elected president judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the old Third circuit, and held the office until 1829. He was subsequently elected prosecuting attorney of Trumbull county and held the office for one term. His latter years were devoted to the care of his large farm, at Brier Hill, which afterwards became cele- brated for its deposit of fine mineral coal, de- veloped by his son David, who was Governor of Ohio, 1861-63. Mr. Tod died at Brier i Hill, April 11, 1841, widely honored and re-

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spected. As a lawyer and judge he ranked among the first in the state. He was followed a few years later by his wife, who died at Brier Hill, September 29, 1847.

Hon. Samuel Huntington was born in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1765. He graduated from Yale College at the age of twenty years. He read law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced law for several years thereafter in his native town. In 1800 he made a visit to Ohio, reaching Youngstown on horseback, July 25th. He was so well pleased with the Reserve that he determined to settle here. Be- fore his return to Connecticut he visited Mari- etta, where, the territorial court being in ses- sion, he was admitted to the bar of Ohio. It is said that he was present with Governor St. Clair, as counsel, at the trial of Joseph McMahon for murder of Captain George, an Indian, though on which side or whether as advisory counsel to the Governor, is not known. He returned to Norwich on horse- back in the fall. In the following spring he came back to Youngstown, bringing with him his wife and family in a covered wagon. He remained but a year or two in Yougstown, after which he removed to Cleveland, Ohio. In 1801 he was appointed by Governor St. Clair, lieutenant-colonel of the Trumbull county militia, and in January, 1802, was commissioned a justice of the court of Quar- ter Sessions, of which he became the presiding officer. He was a member of the convention which formed the first constitution of Ohio, and on its adoption was elected Senator from Trumbull county, in the first General Assem- bly, which convened at Chillicothe, in March, 1803. On April 2, 1804, he was elected by the Legislature a judge of the Supreme Court, his commission, signed by Governor Tiffin, being the first issued in the name of the State of Ohio. He served one term of two years as Governor, being elected in 1808. He was in the State Legislature, as representative from Geauga county, in 1811-12. In the War of 1812 he served two years in the Northwestern army, as district paymaster, with the rank of colonel. He died on his farm at Painesville. 16

in February, 1817. He was greatly respected as a man of large business capacity, and of. unsullied personal character.

Homer Hine was born in New Milford, Conn., July 25, 1776, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His great-grandfather, who was the founder of the family in this country, was one of the early settlers of Milford, Conn. James Hine, the grandfather of Homer, was born in Mil- ford in 1696, and removed in early manhood to New Milford, where he married Margaret Noble. He had two sons-Austin and Noble. -and several daughters. The son, Noble, was a colonel of Connecticut militia in the Revolutionary war. He had three sons, in- cluding the subject of this sketch, and six daughters. The youngest daughter, Sophia, became the wife of Rev. Charles A. Board- man, who was for many years pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Youngstown. . Ohio.

Homer Hine was graduated from Yale college in 1797. He had some distinguished classmates, among them being Rev. Dr. Ly- man Beecher, Horatio Seymour, United States Senator from Vermont, and Henry Baldwin, judge of the United States Supreme Court. For a year after his graduation he was pre- ceptor of an academy at Stockbridge, Mass., where he had for one of his pupils Miss Cath- erine Sedgwick, who subsequently became a noted authoress. During the same period he read law with her father, Judge Sedgwick. His law studies were continued in the follow- ing years with a Mr. Ruggles, of New Mil- ford, and subsequently he attended the law school of Judge Reeves and Gould at Litch- field. Conn. He was admitted to the bar in Litchfield in 1801. In June of the same year he removed to Canfield, Ohio, making the journey on horseback, and carrying his ward- robe in his saddlebags. In 1806 he came to Youngstown, where he continued to reside until his death at the age of eighty years, in July, 1856. He was engaged in the practice of law from the time he arrived on the Reserve until he had attained the age of sixty years. after which he declined to engage in any new

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'cases. It was a common practice with Mr. Hine, where practicable, to advise his clients to settle, compromise, or arbitrate, though he often sacrificed his own interests by so doing. He had compensation, however, in the ap- .proval of his own conscience, and also in the fact that his well known fairness and justice "often gave his arguments more weight with judge and jury, who placed the greater confi- ·dence in his statements on trial. He was four times elected to the office of representative in the Ohio legislature-in 1804, 1805, 1816 and 1824. He served five years as non-resi- dent tax-collector, or until that office was abol- ished, about 1812. He was a soldier in the War of 1812 under Colonel William Rayen. In 1805 he was appointed, by the legislature, a commissioner to lay out a State road from Warren to such point on Lake Erie as, in his judgment, would make the most feasible route from Pittsburg to Lake Erie. The route he selected was one with a terminus at the mouth of Grand river, in Painsville township, Lake county, the river at Fairport affording the best natural harbor at that time on that part of Lake Erie. Mr. Hine was a regular attend- ant at the Presbyterian church, and was fre- quently called upon, in the absence of a clergy- man, to read a sermon. He took an interest in all useful reforms, and was especially active in the temperance cause for many years be- ing president of the Youngstown Temperance society. On removing to Youngstown, in 1806. he had purchased a frame house and two acres of land east of the Diamond, of Robert Kyle, the house being one of the first frame structures erected in the city. Here he dispensed a generous hospitality, and was par- ticularly fond of entertaining clergymen, on which account his house was familiarly re- ferred to as "The Ministers' Tavern."

He married, October 5. 1807. Miss Skin- ner, daughter of Abraham Skinner, of Paines- ville, Ohio, and a native of Glastonbury, Conn. In 1818 they removed to a farm of II0 acres, which he had purchased, at the mouth of Crab Creek, and on which was a two-story frame dwelling built by Col. James Hillman, which had been occupied by him as a tavern. This

house was for many years one of the land- marks of Youngstown. After the death of her husband, in 1856, Mrs. Hine resided in that homestead until 1872, when she went to live with a son at Painesville. She died at an advanced age, retaining to the last a lively interest in the welfare of her children and descendants.

Hon. Calvin Pease, another pioneer lawyer of the Reserve, was born in Suffield, Hartford county, Conn., September 9, 1776. Admitted to the bar in Hartford, in 1798, he practiced law in his native state until March, 1800, when he removed to Youngstown, Ohio, and commenced practice here. He was the first postmaster of Youngstown, being appointed January 1, 1802, and holding the office until he removed to Warren in 1803. He was for some time one of the township trustees of Youngstown. He was appointed clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Trumbull county at the first session in August, 1800. At the first session of the legislature after the admission of Ohio into the Federal Union, Mr. Pease, then only twenty-seven years of age, was elected president judge of the Court of Common Pleas, which was then the third circuit, and comprised the counties of Wash- ington, Belmont, Jefferson, Columbiana, and Trumbull. He ably served in this position un- til March 4, 1810, when he resigned. He was subsequently elected by the legislature one of the judges of the Supreme Court, and entered upon his duties in 1816. Here he was called upon to decide upon the constitutionality of some portions of an act of the legislature, passed in 1805, defining the duties of justices of the peace. His decision that such portions of the act were unconstitutional, though it was concurred in by a majority of the judges of the Supreme Court, caused great excite- ment among those who favored legislative su- premacy, and he and Judge Tod were im- peached. When brought before the Senate he maintained his right to make such a deci- sion, and to determine cases brought before him according to his conceptions of the law. After an investigation lasting some days he

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was acquitted, it being found impossible to obtain the necessary two-thirds vote for con- viction. The principles for which he stood were laid down long before by Lord Coke and other eminent judges in England, and are well recognized by lawyers and judges of today. His action in standing firm when he knew he was right. in spite of much personal abuse and unpopularity, will receive the commendation not only of every law student but also of every intelligent and fair-minded citizen. During the War of 1812 with England Judge Pease held the important position of senator in the state legislature, the duties of which he per- formed with his usual ability and conscien- tiousness. He subsequently rendered good ser- vice in the legislature, to which he was elected in 1831, by urging the construction of a new penitentiary and improving prison discipline.

Judge Pease possessed a keen wit, which he exercised sometimes, though without in- tending any offense, to the embarrassment of the young lawyers in court. He died Septem- ber 17. 1839, leaving a family of five children. His wife, to whom he was married in 1804. was in maidenhood, Miss Laura G. Risley of Washington City. Judge Pease was a man of fine presence-full six feet in height and cor- pulent, with a face indicating strong character, softened by lines of kindness and humor. He was an ornament to the bar, and in private life a man of whom none could speak evil.

Perlee Brush, another native of Connecti- cut. and a man of considerable note in early days on the Reserve, was graduated at Yale College in 1793. He read law in Connecticut and was there admitted to the bar. After re- moving to Ohio he became a member of the Trumbull county bar. He resided for many years at or near Youngstown, and practiced law in the justices' courts in the vicinity, and also to some extent in the higher courts at Warren. He was also, in all probability, the pioneer school teacher of Youngstown, having charge of the log school-house on the Dia- mond as early as 1806. He is said to have been still teaching school near Youngstown in 1814. In 1826 he purchased a farm of about

100 acres of land in Hubbard, where he after- wards resided. A small stream flowed through his farm, on which there was an old-fashioned carding machine and fulling mill, which he operated for about a year. He does not seem to have married, as at this time he lived by himself, and boarded himself until his health began to fail, after which he took his meals at a neighbor's, still living at home. He is said to have been a fine scholar, well versed in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He died in 1852, at the age of eighty-four years.

Elisha Whittlesey was born in Washing- ton, Litchfield county, Conn., October 19, 1783, son of John and Mollie Whittlesey. He was a descendant of John Whittlesey, who emigrated from England to Saybrook, Conn., about 1630. In his youth he spent his sum- mers in working on his father's farm, and at- tended school in the winter. In 1803, at the age of twenty years, he began to read law with his brother, Matthew B. Whittlesey, a lawyer of Danbury, Conn., with whom he had pre- viously resided. He was admitted to the bar at Fairfield, Conn., in March, 1805. and began practice at New Milford. On January 5. 1806. he married Miss Polly Mygatt, a daugh- ter of Comfort S. Mygatt of Danbury, who afterwards removed to Canfield, Ohio. Prior to their marriage they had decided to emigrate to Canfield. Early in June, 1806, in company with other pioneers, they started on their jour- ney in a covered wagon. They came by way of Pittsburg, which at that time was an insig- nificant village, and arrived at Canfield on June 27. 1806, having been twenty-four days on the road. In the following August Mr. Whittlesey was admitted to the bar of Ohio by the Supreme Court at Warren. Soon after he became prosecuting attorney of the county which office he held until 1823, when he re- signed. In 1808 he was commissioned cap- tain of a military company in Canfield. Two years later General Elijah Wadsworth of the Fourth Division, Ohio Militia, appointed him as his aide-de-camp, and in that capacity he entered the service of the United States in the War of 1812 with Great Britain. He was

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afterwards appointed brigade-major and in- spector under General Perkins, and so re- mained until February 25, 1813, when the troops that had served six months or more were discharged. He continued in the service a few months longer as aid and private sec- retary to General Harrison, at the latter's own request. In 1820 and 1821 he was elected representative in the state legislature. Be- ginning with 1822 he was elected eight times representative in Congress from the district composed of Trumbull, Portage, Geauga, and Ashtabula counties, making his congressional term about sixteen years. During a great part of this time he was chairman of the com- mittee on claims. From 1822 to 1841 he was engaged in the practice of law with Eben Newton, under the firm name of Whittlesey & Newton. The firm enjoyed a large practice and was widely and favorably known. This connection was interrupted by Mr. Whit- tlesey's appointment by President Harrison, in 1841, as auditor of the treasury for the post- office department, which obliged him to take up his residence in Washington. In September, 1843, he resigned the office of auditor, and re- turned to Canfield, and engaged in practicing law and other business. From 1847 to May, 1849, he was general agent of the Washington Monument association, which office he resigned on being appointed by President Taylor, first comptroller of the treasury. He held this office through the Taylor and Fillmore administra- tions, resigning on the election of President Pierce, to whom he was opposed in politics. President Pierce, however, so well understood his value, that in disregard of his political opin- ions, he urgently requested him to remain. This Mr. Whittlesey did, but resigned again for the same reason on the inauguration, his resignation being then accepted. In May, 1861, he was appointed to the same office by President Lincoln, and performed its arduous duties to the day of his death, January 7, 1863, being stricken down at his post in his office at Washington City. Said a Washington paper : "He was gifted with that admirable courage which never quailed before the seductive bland- ishments of wealth or the threatening impor-

tance of power. He never hesitated to espouse the cause because it was weak. Strong com- binations by men of position to carry a point which he believed to be wrong had no terrors for him." At the time of his death he had es- tablished a national reputation for persever- ance, ability, and moral rectitude.

Hon. Eben Newton was born in the town of Goshen, Litchfield county, Conn., October 16, 1795. His parents were Isaac and Rebecca Newton, the father a farmer, who died at Goshen. Mrs. Rebecca Newton, who removed to Ohio in 1820, died at the home of her son in Canfield in 1833. Young Eben's early edu- cation was acquired principally during the winter months in the schools of Goshen. In May, 1814, he emigrated to Portage county, Ohio, where for a while he worked on a farm. Subsequently, while a clerk in his brother's store, he began to read law in the office of Darius Lyman at Ravenna. After a short visit to Connecticut, in 1822, during which he continued his law studies, he returned to Ra- venna, where he read law with Jonathan Sloan. He was admitted to the bar at Warren, in August, 1823, and receiving an invitation from Elisha Whittlesey to enter into partnership with him, he consented, and removed to Can- field, which was subsequently his place of resi- dence until his death. The firm of Whittlesey & Newton continued for twenty years, fifteen years of which time Mr. Whittlesey was in congress. Their business extended all over the Reserve and into other parts of the state. In 1840 Mr. Newton was elected to the state senate, and during his term he was elected president judge of the third judicial district, which office he filled with marked ability. He resigned the judgeship in 1846 and resumed his law practice. Elected to congress in 1850, he served two years, and then again resumed practice. In 1863 he was elected for the sec- ond time to the state senate. Subsequently he took charge of the settlement of the Simeon Jennings estate, which involved much litiga- tion in many states, required extensive travel in this country and two visits to Europe, and occupied much of his attention for many years.

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He was also for a number of years president of the Ashtabula & New Lisbon Railroad Com- pany, later known as the Niles & New Lisbon, and it was largely owing to his exertions that it maintained its existence. He was greatly interested in farming and stock raising, and for several years was president of the Mahon- ing County Agricultural Society. While en- gaged in practicing law, before he entered congress, he had many law students, some of whom afterwards became noted lawyers, judges, and legislators, among the latter be- ing Senator Benjamin F. Wade and his brother Edward Wade, Ralph P. Buckland and Joshua R. Giddings. Mr. Newton was married at Canfield on May 20, 1826, to Miss Mary S. Church, a native of that place, and daughter of Ensign Church, an early pioneer, who was a son of Nathaniel Church, one of the proprie- tors of the township.

Hon. Robert W. Tayler was born in Har- risburg, Pennsylvania, November 9, 1812, son of James and Jane (Walker) Tayler. His parents removed with their family to Youngs- town in 1815, where the father died in 1834. Mrs. Jane Tayler died ten years later. They were honest, industrious people, who gave their children a sound moral training and as good an education as they could afford, the father being a man of much reading and of more than ordinary intelligence.

Robert W. Tayler, after teaching school for a while, became deputy to George Parsons, clerk of the courts of Trumbull county, Ohio. He evinced his business ability in the summer of 1833, when he accompanied Calvin Cone, appraiser of real estate for taxation, as his secretary, through Trumbull county, his gen- eral aptitude, and the knowledge of real estate values which he displayed being considered remarkable for one so young. He subse- quently read law with Whittlesey & Newton, of Canfield, and was admitted to the bar at Warren, Ohio, in August, 1834, beginning practice at Youngstown. Here he continued in practice until 1860, when he went to Co- lumbus, Ohio, to assume the duties of state auditor. He was afterwards in law partner-

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Century history of Youngstown and Mahoning County, Ohio, and representative citizens, 20th, Part 37

Author: Sanderson, Thomas W., comp Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1074

Author: Sanderson, Thomas W., comp
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1074