USA > Ohio > Ashtabula County > History of Ashtabula County, Ohio > Part 37
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The wife of Judge Woodbury was Mary E., daughter of Peter and Sarah W. Hervey, to whom he was united in marriage at Jefferson, Ohio, on the 12th day of October, 1854.
Four children have blessed this union. They are Frederick H., born October 24, 1855 ; M. Jennie, born September 10, 1857 ; Hamilton B., born December 17, 1867 ; and Walter W., whose birth occurred June 19, 1871. Politically Judge Woodbury is a Republican. As a jurist it is perhaps correct to say that no sounder one is known to the courts of northern Ohio. Conversant with the law, his decisions are rarely called in question, and he presides over the tribunals of justice with dignity and firmness.
HON. W. P. HOWLAND.
This gentleman is the son of Paul Howland, who traces his ancestry back to John Howland, a member of the " Mayflower" pilgrim band. In 1821, Paul came to Pierpont, Ashtabula County, and in 1829 was united in marriage with Diademia Ellis. W. Perry, the oldest child, was born in Pierpont, in 1832. His early education was not neglected, and at the age of fourteen he made an engage- ment to teach a district school, but his father's opposition was such that he could not fulfill it. However, when he was eighteen, he taught the school where hitherto he had been a pupil, his wages being twelve dollars per month. He was a very successful teacher, and his services were eagerly sought by competing school dis- tricts. Until he became twenty-one his time was spent in teaching and in attend- ance upon select schools, and in performing such work as his home duties demanded. At this time he entered the Kingsville academy, then a most flourishing school, and prosecuted his studies with diligence. In 1854 he became the principal of the Jefferson high school, and retained this position, the duties of which he dis- charged with great credit to himself and eminent satisfaction to the patrons of the school, for three successive fall and winter terms. While thus engaged his father dicd, and he was made the executor of the cstate. It was while engaged in this important trust that he was led to the study of the law. His father had been a justice of the peace, and he had frequently listened to Wade and Giddings and other prominent attorneys in cases tried before his father, and his mind became inflamed with an earnest desire to reach a high standard as a lawyer. His leisure moments were devoted to earnest application to his favorite study, and in the 23
spring of 1857 he entered the office of Simonds & Cadweil as a student, and in the following spring was admitted to practice in Carroll county, Ohio. In 1861 he began the practice of law at the county-scat of his native county, since which time his rise in the profession has been certain and rapid. He has held the posi- tion of secretary of the board of school examiners for a number of years, as well as that of justice of the peace. In the spring of 1862 he purchased a home in Jefferson, and on the 12th of May was married to Esther E. Leonard, daughter of the Hon. Anson Leonard, of Penn Linc. Their children are Lconard Paul How- land, born December 5, 1865; William Seth Howland, born May 21, 1867; Anson Perry Howland, born February 3, 1869 ; and Charles Roscoe Howland, born February 16, 1871.
In 1865 he was defeated for the nomination for prosecuting attorney by the Hon. E. H. Fitch, but was nominated and clected to that office in the fall of 1867, and was renominated by acclamation and re-elected in the fall of 1869.
In the year 1871, Mr. Howland was chosen representative in the general as- sembly from Ashtabula County, in which capacity he served for six years, being re-elected in 1873 and again in 1875. At the close of his third term in the house he was unanimously supported by the delegates from that county in the nominating convention of the Twenty-fourth senatorial district, composed of Ashtabula, Lake, and Geauga counties ; was nominated and elected a senator in the Sixty-third general assembly, which seat he now holds. Early in his legisla- tive career his studious habits, strict attention to official duties, and unvarying fidelity to.principle attracted the attention of his fellow-members, and as acquaint- ance grew these qualities rapidly attached to him the carnest, thinking mien of either party to such an extent that he has for years held the acknowledged position of a leader in legislative halls.
At the beginning of his first term, the Sixtieth general assembly, he was ap- pointed a member of cachi of the committecs on Federal relations, on municipal corporations, and on roads and highways, and after the session had advanced some weeks he was appointed a member of the judiciary committee.
On his return to the Sixty-first general assembly he was appointed on the com- mittecs on corporations other than municipal, on the judiciary, and on finance, --- the last two being recognized as the most important committees in the house. He also held a position as member of the committee on revision and codification of the laws.
At the organization of the Sixty-second general assembly Mr. Howland was prominently pressed for the speakership, but refused to make a personal canvass for that distinction. In the organization of the committees he was made chair- man of the committee on judiciary, a place scarcely less conspicuous and not less influential than the chair. Before the close of the session he was furnished a most flattering proof of the confidence of his fellow-members. In the contest for the Republican nomination for the United States senatorship, to succeed Hon. John Sherman, his name was brought forward as worthy to make the roll with com- petitors like Hon, Alphonso Taft, Samuel Shellaberger, Wm. Lawrence, and Stanley Matthews. In the face of such competition, Mr. Howland received on the first ballot the highest vote cast for any candidate and within twelve votes of a nomination, and in the final ballot his name was only second in the race, Hon. Stanley Matthews being the winner.
As a legislator Mr. Howland has distinguished himself by close attention to practical matters. This is illustrated in the passage of several laws drafted by him relating to the every-day interests of the people. Of this class is the act passed March 31, 1874, to secure payment to persons performing labor or fur- nishing materials in constructing railroads. The necessity for such an act was brought to the attention of the author of the bill, in the course of his practice as a lawyer, by an incident connected with the construction of a branch of the Lake Shore railroad. In that case the contractors, having obtained pay from the railway company, failed to meet their obligations for labor and materials, and so left a large number without recourse. The act referred to enables sub-contractors, laborers, and material men to protect themselves from such swindling. This act, which has been sustained by the courts, fixes a liability in such cases from the railroad company to the persons doing the work or supplying the materials.
The law against swindling by false pretenses was so defective as to invite ad- venturers and speculators to Ohio as a comparatively safe field for their operations. Mr. Howland's attention was called to this in the course of his duties as prosecu- ting attorney, and he framed the act of February 21, 1875, to meet the case, which it is found to do most effectively.
Of an equally practical character is the act drawn up, and its passage secured by him, to protect the consumers of mineral oils for illuminating purposes. This act not only prescribes a test of safety as to such oils, but so fixes the responsi- bility for the kind of article sold, as to conduce greatly to the safety of the thousands who rely upon this commodity for lighting their homes and places of business.
92
HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
In the mania for railroad building, by taxation of cities, counties, and even townships, which sprang out of the ill-advised Cincinnati Southern railway project, and which spread over the State to an extent that at one tique threatened nearly every locality with an oppressing burden of taxation and debt outlasting this generation, Mr. Howland was the recognized leader of a sturdy though in- effectual opposition to these ruinous schemes. Taking his stand on the hard rock of constitutional law, he firmly opposed all projects of evasion of the consti- tution ; and, while overborne by unreasoning majorities, bent at all hazards on carrying out their projects, he none the less won the respect of thinking men when they found that his arguments on these questions were never successfully answered. His triumph came when the Bursel bill was unanimously held by the supreme court to be unconstitutional and void.
As a speaker, Mr. Howland is both strong and persuasive, more, however, on account of his manifest earnestness, sincerity, and the clearness of his utterauces, than from any effort to arouse the sympathies or from brilliancy of rhetoric.
HON. STEPHEN A. NORTHWAY.
To rank well among honorable men is an honor. Prominent among the lawyers of the county stands the name of Stephen A. Northway. In many respects he may be regarded as a product of the Western Reserve; for, although he was born at Lafayette, Onondaga county, New York, June 19, 1833, his parents, Orange and Maria Northway, came to Ohio in July, 1840, and his subsequent life has bcen spent here.
In his boyhood he had the usual trials and experiences of those young men whose parents settled on the heavy-timbered clay-land of Orwell. His home was two and a half miles from a school-house, but he secured a good common-school education, and after attending one term at Kingsville academy, he commenced teaching. Orwell academy was built in 1850, and he continued his studies there. For years he was one of the most successful common-school teachers, and by teaching during the winter he earned the means for prosecuting his studies.
As a student and as a teacher he exhibited the same enthusiasm and tact which made him eminent as a lawyer. At the academy he labored well and wisely. He was regarded as a dangerous adversary in debate. His close and accurate methods of thought were accompanied by clear and incisive language, and these were joined to a deportment so genial and a manner so gentlemanly that lie was sure to be victorious, even when he was defeated.
In the spring of 1858 he began the study of law with Messrs. Chaffee & Woodbury, and in September, 1859, he was admitted to the bar.
In the fall of 1861 he was elected prosecuting attorney for the county, and in 1863 he was re-elected to the same office. He resigned this office in the fall of 1865, to be elected a member of the State house of representatives. After serv- ing the county for onc term he gave the whole of his attention to the practice of his chosen profession. The fact that he is retained on nearly or quite ene-half of the cases on the county docket indicates the degree of confidence reposed in his ability and integrity.
Possessing a wonderful adaptability of mind, a power to confine his attention to one particular question until the solution is reached, an almost intuitive per- ception of the " fitness of things," a happy faculty of illustration, an unbounded faith in his convictions of what is right and wrong, and an eloquence nourished by a generous heart, he is at once a technical lawyer and a powerful advocate.
In January, 1862, he was married to Miss Lydia A. Dodge, of Lenos, a worthy and intellectual academie school-mate and companion. Of their two chil- dren, one, Clara L., is still living, and is eleven years of age.
From early manhood Mr. Northway was a thoroughgoing anti-slavery man. He joined the Republican party at its first formation, and las acted with it ever since, rendering valuable aid in every State and national canvass.
His mother is living with his elder brother, Frank A. Northway, at Lawrence, Kansas. His youngest sister, Mrs. Rhoda M. Sibley, is living at Bernardino, Colorado.
HON. EDWARD H. FITCH.
This gentleman was born at Ashtabula, Ohio, May 27, 1837, the ouly son of Or- ramel H. and Catharine M. Fitch. At the age of fourteen years he was sent to the St. Catharines grammar school, at St. Catharines, Canada, where he remained three years, and where he was a member of the family of his uncle, William F. Hubbard, then the principal of the grammar school. There he fitted for college, and in the fall of 1854 entered Williams college, at Williamstown, Massachusetts, in the class of 1858. He remained there four years and graduated with his class in the summer of 1858, receiving the degree of A.B., and in 1861 that of A.M. In college Mr. Fitch devoted himself more particularly to those branches
of study which would have a tendency to aid him in the practical every-day duties of life.
He was a member in college of the Delta Kappa Epsilon society, the Philolo- gian Literary society, and the Lyceum of Natural History. He was president of the Lyceum, and was orator at the Adelphic Union exhibition in 1858, and had an appointment at commencement.
Ou the 1st day of August, 1858, he began the study of law in the office of his father, and on the 18th day of September, A.D. 1860, at the September term of the district court of Cuyahoga county, at Cleveland, was admitted to the bar. He commenced the practice of law at Ashtabula in the office of his father, and on the 1st day of January, 1862, was taken in as a partner, and did business as one of the firm of O. H. & E. H. Fitch until January 1, 1863, when O. H. Fitch retired from the practice of law and was succeeded by Judge Horace Wilder, when the firm became Wilder & Fitch. This arrangement continued until December, 1863, when Judge Wilder was appointed a judge of the supreme court. In November, 1864, Mr. Fitch became a partner of Hon. L. S. Sherman, taking the place of John Q. Farmer, who then removed to Minnesota, and with Mr. Sherman, under the firm-name of Sherman & Fitch, continued the practice of law until July 1, 1867, when that firm was dissolved, since which time Mr. Fitch has continued the practice alone.
In 1857, at Montreal, Mr. Fitch was elected and became a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is now one of the fellows of this association. On the 24th day of May, 1867, Mr. Fitch was admitted to practice in the circuit court of the United States in and for the north- ern district of Ohio, and on the 22d day of April, A.D. 1870, was admitted to practice in the supreme court of the United States. Was elected justice of the peace in 1863, and 1868 and 1871, and in 1865 was elected prosecuting attorney of Ashtabula County for two years from January 1, 1866. Was clected a mem- ber of the house of representatives in the Fifty-ninth general assembly of the State of Ohio in 1869, and in the sessions of that assembly served on the judiciary committee and on foreign relations, and on public buildings ; was also on the special committee on the bill to establish the Ohio soldiers' and sailors' orphans home. and the original fourth section of that act was drawn by him, and was adopted as a compromise to secure the Xenia home. On the 17th day of October, 1870, Mr. Fitch was appointed by Governor R. B. Hayes delegate to the National Capitol convention at Cincinnati, Ohio, from the Nineteenth con- gressional district.
Mr. Fitch was also for nine years recorder and member of the council of the village of Ashtabula.
On the 27th day of October, 1863, Mr. Fitch married Alta D. Winchester, daughter of Philander and Elizabeth G. Winchester.
Mr. Fitch has attentively and zealously pursued the practice of his profession, and since 1873 has taken no active part in politics, believing that the rewards of an active, earnest, and faithful attention to his profession are more sure and of a more permanent nature, and afford more pleasure both to him and those dependent upon him than can be reached by an aspirant for office, however successful he may be.
During all the years of his residence in Ashtabula, Mr. Fitch has been a promi- nent and active worker in all matters tending to promote the interests and welfare of the village, and deeply interested in its prosperity. He has spent much time, and never withheld his pecuniary aid, in laboring for the securing of its railroad facilities and manufacturing enterprises.
CHARLES BOOTH, ESQ.,
whose portrait is shown in connection with the group of leading attorneys of Ashtabula County, was born on the 15th day of January, in the year 1814, and is the fourth son of Philo and Sophia C. Booth, who removed from Jefferson county, New York. and located in Ashtabula township, in January, 1814. The education of the gentlemau under consideration is, as he expresses it, " academie only," which is considerably above the average for that day. He began the study of law prior to attaining his majority, but soon abandoned it for other duties; and it was not until 1840 that he began, in the office of Hon. O. H. Fitch, to read law in earnest. The five years preceding this date he was engaged, first as clerk and afterwards partner, in the mercantile establishment of his father, in Ash- tabula village. He was admitted to the bar August 27, 1842, and for the first two years thereafter was a partner with L. S. Sherman, since which time he has been iu business for himself. He has held numerous borough offices, among which was that of mayor for two years. Politieally, he began life as a Whig, and afterwards became a Republican. He is an able advocate, and is recognized as one of the leading lawyers of the county.
93
HISTORY OF ASHTABULA COUNTY, OHIO.
Photo. by Ryder, Cleveland, O.
HON. DARIUS CADWELL.
Twenty miles from Lake Erie, on the east line of the State of Ohio, is situated the township of Andover. It was settled by a population entirely from the east- ern States, and solely agricultural in their pursuits until quite recently. Now two railroads unite at the centre, and a thriving village is growing up around the sta- tion. But rural as were the habits of this people, they have contributed largely of their numbers to the legal profession. Among the present and former mem- bers of the bar, we notice the following as having been residents of that township at the time they commenced the study of that profession, viz. : B. F. Wade, Edward Wade, Darius Cadwell, James Cadwell, B. F. Wade (2d), D. S. Wade, E. C. Wade, Matthew Reed, David Strickland, B. B. Pickett, J. W. Brigden, J. N. Wight, Monroe Moore, Homer Moore, and C. D. Ainger,-most of whom have occupied conspicuous positions in the county and State, and some of them in the councils of the nation.
Roger Cadwell removed from Bloomfield, Hartford county, Connecticut, to Andover, Ashtabula County, Ohio, in 1817. Darius, his second son, was born at Andover, April 13, 1821. The father was a large farmer, and his children were all reared to habits of industry. Darius obtained a good education, which was in part acquired at Allegheny college, at Meadville, Pennsylvania. He com- menced the study of the law with the law-firm of Messrs. Wade & Ranncy, at Jefferson, Ohio, in February, 1842, and was admitted to the bar in September, 1844. In the spring of 1847 he entered into partnership in the practice of the law, at Jefferson, with Rufus P. Ranney and Charles S. Simonds. This part- nership continued until 1851, when Mr. Ranney was elected a judge of the su- preme court, and the partnership of Simonds & Cadwell continued until the fall of 1871.
Mr. Cadwell was a diligent student, had fine literary and legal attainments, was a close reasoner and a good advocate, and soon after he commenced the practice of the law he took rank with the best members of the profession, and few cases of importance were tried in the county in which he did not participate. On the 13th of April, 1847, he was married to Ann Eliza Watrous, a daughter of John B. Watrous, of Ashtabula, by whom he had one son and one daughter, now living. In habits and morals he was correct and exemplary. Ile was very social, and always had a large circle of ardent friends and admirers. From the time he became a resident of Jefferson he discharged his full portion of the duties of minor offices, from village alderman upwards. He held the office of representative in the State legislature during the years 1856 and 1857, and during the years 1858 and 1859 he represented his district, composed of Ashtabula, Lake, and Geauga counties, in the senate of Ohio. Upon the organization of the provost-marshal general's department in 1863, he was appointed provost-marshal for the nineteenth district of Ohio, which office he held until the close of the war, with his head- quarters at Warreu, Ohio, until September, 1865, when his headquarters werc transferred to Cleveland, where he was placed in charge and closed out the busi- ness of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentiethi districts, and was himself mus- tered out of service December 20, 1865. In the fall of 1871 he opened a law-
office in Cleveland, and immediately secured a large practice in the courts of Cuyahoga county. At the October election, 1873, he was elected judge of the court of common pleas for Cuyahoga county for the term of five years, and is now discharging the duties of that office, in which he has acquired an enviable reputation.
REV. DR. GILES HOOKER COWLES .*
Rev. Dr. Giles Hooker Cowles, the first settled minister of Austinburg and Morgan, and in fact of Ashtabula County, emigrated to the former town from Bristol, Connecticut, with his family, consisting of a wife, eight children, and a hired man, in the year of 1811. He was a son of Ezekiel and Martha IIooker Cowles, of Farmington, Connecticut, and was born in that place, August 26, 1766. He was descended from John Cowles, who settled in Farmington in the year of 1652, and who was one of three brothers who emigrated from England in 1635. His mother was a daughter of Major Giles Hooker, of Farmington, and a lineal descendant of the Rev. Thomas Hooker, the first clergyman who settled in Con- necticut. After having prepared himself for college under the tuition of Rev. William Robinson, of Southington, Dr. Cowles entered Yale college, and gradu- ated there with honor in the year 1789. During his studies he became hopefully pious. He pursued his theological studies with Dr. Jonathan Edwards, the younger, then of New Haven. In 1791 he was licensed to preach, and in 1792 he received a call from the Congregational church of Bristol, and was ordained and installed over that church the 17th of October of that year, Rev. Dr. Edwards preaching the ordination sermon, and the Rev. Timothy Pitkins, of Farmington, Rev. John Smalley, of New Britain, Rev. Rufus Hawley, of Avon, Rev. William Robinson, of Southington, Rev. Simon Waterman, of Plymouth, Rev. Benoni Upton, of Kensington, Rev. Jonathan Miller, of Burlington, and Rev. Israel B. Woodward, of Walcott, with their delegates, constituting the ordaining council. In February, 1793, he was married to Miss Sallie, daughter of Lebbeus White, of Stamford, Connecticut, a direct descendant of Peregrine White, the first white child born in New England, and also a descendant, on his mother's side, from a Huguenot family by the name of De Grasse, which name was subsequently changed to Wecd. Mrs. Cowles was a woman of extraordinary beauty and great culture for the time she lived, of remarkable force of character, of intellectual power, and a model Christian minister's wife and mother. Although at the time of her marriage she was not a member of the church, she became one in 1795.
Dr. Cowles preached in Bristol for nearly eightcen years, when he was dismissed by mutual consent, May 10, 1810. The record of the church contained this entry :
" Mr. Cowles, at the close of seventeen years' and seven months' ministry in this place, on the 27th of May, 1810, preached his farewell sermon, from Hebrews xiii. 17 : ' For they watch for your souls as they that must give an account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you,' to a crowded assembly, who were very much affected, and appeared to regret the un- happy circumstances which rendered the trying parting scene necessary. ‘ Per- haps the instance was never known that a minister and people ever parted with so much harmony, but for wise purposes Providence has ordered it so.'
" There were four seasons of awakening during Mr. Cowles' ministry. Two hun- dred and eighteen members were added to the church,-one hundred and eighty- one from the world entered upon their profession, and thirty-seven by letters from other churches. Sixty-seven, received in 1799, marked 'a year never to be for- gotten.' Of the two hundred and cighteen, seventy-four were gone by deaths, removals, and excommunications. The number remaining at his dismission, one hundred and sixty-two; of these, but seventeen were members when he settled with them. The church parted with a truly faithful minister, whose choice was to live and die with them; but he has gone, and the church and society's duty is plain,-to endeavor to choose another who will be as faithful to the souls com- mitted to his charge, to support him and assist him to fulfill the arduous task imposed on him."
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