USA > Ohio > Champaign County > History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 37
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THE CHAMPAIGN SANITARIUM.
The first sanitarium in Urbana was organized in October, 1904. and was a consolidation of the Parkhurst Willow Bark Sanitarium, of St. Paris, with the Champaign Sanitarium, of Urbana. Both institutions had been in successful operation for some years previously, the former being
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particularly successful. The purpose of the union of the two sanitariums was to provide better facilities and more extensive methods of treatment by util- izing the building in Urbana which had been used as a Catholic seminary since 1878. The building was purchased for eighty-three hundred dollars, of which seventy-three hundred dollars was paid in cash. The stock of the company was given for the remainder. This building was located on North Main street and had been used for several purposes besides a seminary since its erection in the fifties. It was one hundred and fifty feet in length, fifty feet in width and four stories high, giving a floor space of twenty-two hundred square feet. It had a capacity of one hundred patients. The building is now occupied by a tool and die factory.
While the consolidated institution was in operation, it enjoyed a wide patronage in its five departments, medical, surgical, nervous, psychopathic and orthopedic. Inebriety was given special treatment, and the alcoholic and drug wards were more widely patronized than any others. Special rooms were fitted up for amusement, gymnastic exercises, massaging, vapor baths, etc.
The first president and general manager of the sanitarium was Marion W. Thomas: Dr. G. W. Pickering was chairman of the board of physicians, Marion R. Talbot was treasurer, and M. J. Scott, secretary. C. H. Darnell, who had been one of the stockholders of the St. Paris institution had a financial interest in the new sanitarium. The institution seemed to have all of the necessary qualifications for a successful career, but for some rea- son it did not achieve the success which its promoters hoped. For seven months after it was opened it met with a hearty reception and yielded its promoters a net return of ten per cent. on their investments. Then the fortunes of the institution changed and it was soon in such financial straits that by September, 1905, its original owners were ready to dispose of it.
NILES SANITARIUM.
The next and last owner of the sanitarium in Urbana was E. L. Rowe, of Dayton, who secured the Champaign Sanitarium in September, 1905. and placed Dr. G. W. Pickering in charge of it. 'Doctor Pickering had been with the institution since it was established in Urbana. The new insti- tution became known as the Niles Sanitarium, and maintained a more or less successful career until the close of 1914. It was called the Niles Sanitarium in honor of John Niles and wife who left a large estate to the
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institution. Niles was a wealthy farmer of the county and he and his wife were so impressed with the value of the institution while they were patients in it that they decided to leave a sufficient amount to make it a permanent institution.
There has been no effort to establish an institution of this character since the Niles Sanitarium closed. Since that time the county infirmary hospital has been the only institution in the county in a position to handle emergency cases.
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CHAPTER XXI.
BENCH AND BAR.
The lawyer is ubiquitous. This statement is true as far as civilized society is concerned; the savages have no lawyers; but civilization demands them. Hence they are ubiquitous.
The lawyer arrived in Urbana with the blacksmith, the carpenter, the minister and the physician. As long as the Ten Commandments are embodied in our statute books there will be a place for the lawyer in our scheme of civil- ization. Moses was the law giver of antiquity, the founder of a civil code and his codification of the laws of his day stamps him as being well grounded in the underlying principles of justice.
THE FIRST LAWYER IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
Moses B. Corwin was the first follower of the original Moses to locate in Champaign county. The likeness between the two lawyers does not extend any farther than a similarity of names. Corwin had a long and distinguished career in Urbana and eventually served in Congress. It is not possible to fol- low the careers of all the lawyers of Champaign county since the days of Corwin. They have come and gone during these one hundred years, many staying only a short time and others passing their whole active professional career in the county seat. The towns of St. Paris, Mechanicsburg, North Lewisburg. Christiansburg, Cable and Woodstock have contributed a few lawyers to the quota of the county and many who spent the latter part of their careers in Urbana began their practice in one of the other towns of the county.
Lawyers are of as varying abilities as men in any other vocation in life; some are strong, some are weak and some mediocre. In these latter days lawyers specialize in different departments of the practice, but half a century ago most of the lawyers were what might be called all-around practitioners. It is true that some were better jury lawyers than others, and that some pre- ferred civil to criminal cases, but the average lawyer in the early days of the county was willing to handle any kind of a case.
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LEADING LAWYERS OF A PAST GENERATION.
It is impossible to rank the lawyers of the county on the basis of their respective merits. Some of the best known lawyers were not the best; the elder Corwin was not a great lawyer. Omitting the lawyers who are living- and three or four of the number will rank along with the best the county has ever produced-there seems to be a concensus of opinion that the following named lawyers include the best of the past generation: John H. Young, John S. Leedom, Thomas J. Frank. James Cooley, Frank Chance, John H. James, George M. Eichelberger, Herman D. Crow and George Waite. This list is only suggestive and represents the concensus of opinion of the leading lawyers in Urbana in 1917. Little is known of the older lawyers except by way of tradition and the ranking of James Cooley, who died in 1828, is based solely on his record handed down through succeeding generations. Israel Hamilton was known as a prominent lawyer in the early days of the county, but whether his prominence was due to his legal ability is not known.
A ROLI. OF THE LEGAL. PROFESSION.
An effort has been made to compile a list of all the lawyers who have practiced in the county from the beginning. Very little is known about many of these men and probably two score of the number would be unknown if their names had not been preserved in the local newspapers or in the records of the county commissioners. The list follows:
LAWYERS OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, 1805-1917.
Bacon, Henry
Bright, A. J.
Baldwin, Samuel V.
Bryan, Alden
Baldwin, William
Burnett, John D.
Bannister, Dwight
Buroker, Charles E.
Banta, Edgar
Byler, J. W.
Banta, Harry H.
Carruthers, William
Bayles, William
Chance, Frank
Bell, Daniel S.
Cheney, E. Erwood
Black, Charles B.
Cheney, T. S.
Bodey, E. L.
Clem, Joseph A.
Bodey, Lowell C.
Cooley, James
Bollinger, Alva C.
Cook, Lyman B.
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Corkery, Thomas J. Corwin, Ichabod Corwin, John A. Corwin, Moses B. Cory, D. J. Crawford, Frank J.
James, John Henry, Jr.
Johnson, Charles
Johnson, Louis D.
Keller, T. G.
Kenaga, Heber Kirkpatrick, C. C.
Crow, Herman D.
Kenfield, Scott Kyle, H. J.
Crow, Horace Menton
Crow, Thomas Denton
Leedom, John S.
Deaton, Sherman S.
Lewis, James M.
Deuel, A. C.
Long. Leander H.
Deuel, Jeremiah
Lowry, W. D.
Duncan, Charles H.
McCracken, George W.
Eichelberger, George M.
McCracken, Henry F.
Eichelberger, Joseph Franklin
McDonald, Duncan, Jr.
Flaugher, Joseph W.
Mckenzie, A. R.
Foster, Enid Ware
McMorran, S. T.
Frank, Thomas J.
McNemar, Richard R.
Fromme, Grant V.
Madden, Benjamin F.
Fulton, Charles
Martz, B. F.
Fulton, Robert C.
Galligher, Michael
Middleton, Arthur N. Middleton, Evan Perry Middleton, George S. Miller, B. Frank
Gibbs, Virgil H.
Morgan, E. D.
Gordon, C. C.
Mosgrove, William F.
Gowey, John F.
Moulton, R. C.
Gowey, Marcus C.
Viles, Henry T.
Guthridge,
Niles, John T.
Hamilton, Israel
Ogden, John W.
Heiserman, Clarence B.
Owen, Marion B.
Holcomb, John
Owen, Thomas Bond
Hoopes, W. A.
Pearce. Edward W.
Horr, Rezin C.
Pickering, R. W.
Houston, Walter
Poland, George W.
Houston, Harold W.
Purtlebaugh, W. A.
Humes, W. A.
Reed, Aquilla J.
Hunter, Hale
Richardson, Frank A.
James, John Henry, Sr.
Richards, Daniel
Geiger, Levi
Geiger, W. F.
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Ring, William F.
Todd, David W.
Robinson, Samuel H.
Waite, George, Jr.
Russell, John M.
Waite, George, Sr.
Russell, Joseph G.
Ware, T. B.
Sayre, Moses M.
Warnock, Ross W.
Sceva, Lewis C.
Warnock, William R.
Seibert, Benjamin E.
Way, George B.
Seibert, George Pearl
Weaver, George A.
Shaul, J. M.
Willis, John H.
Smith, H. G.
Wood, C. A.
Sowles, F. B.
Young, John H.
Taylor, James
Zimmer, Frank A. -----
Taylor, Samuel M.
LAWYERS OF 1917.
The civil bar list for May, 1917, lists thirty-seven lawyers in the county who have been admitted to the bar and are entitled to practice before the local courts. Of the thirty-seven, twenty-nine are residents of Urbana. St. Paris has two lawyers, Alva C. Bollinger and C. E. Buroker; Mechanics- burg, two, T. B. Ware and C. A. Wood; Cable, two, Benjamin F. Madden and J. M. Shaul; North Lewisburg, one, M. C. Gowey ; Christiansburg, one, A. J. Bright. The lawyers resident in the county seat in 1917 are as fol- lows: H. H. Banta. E. L. Bodey, L. C. Bodey, E. E. Cheney, D. J. Cory, H. M. Crow, S. S. Deaton, J. W. Flaugher, G. V. Fromme, V. H. Gibbs, R. C. Horr, H. W. Houston, L. D. Johnson, J. H. James, Jr., J. M. Lewis, E. P. Middleton, George S. Middleton, B. F. Miller, T. B. Owen, M. B. Owen, G. W. Poland, W. F. Ring, G. P. Seibert. B. E. Seibert, D. W. Todd, George Waite, W. R. Warnock, R. W. Warnock and Frank A. Zimmer.
THE TAXING OF LAWYERS,
Prior to the adoption of the constitution of 1851 the law of Ohio per- mitted county commissioners to list lawyers and physicians for taxation. The first record in the commissioners' minutes indicating that the men engaged in the practice of medicine and law were being taxed at so much per head is found in the minutes of June, 1839. They were taxed from one to three dollars each, but there is no way of telling what constituted the difference between a three-dollar lawyer and one worth one dollar. Neither is it known who placed the valuation on the lawyers In the 1839 list of lawyers sched-
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uled for taxation John H. James heads the list at the maximum rate and John H. Young is listed at the minimum. The lawyers listed for taxation in 1839 were John H. James, Moses B. Corwin, Israel Hamilton, R. R. McNemar, H. J. Kyle and Daniel S. Bell. In 1840 the same lawyers were listed and John A. Corwin and Samuel H. Robinson were added to the list. No record is given in the commissioners' minutes of the lawyers taxed for the years 1841-1845, inclusive, although reference is made to the rate of taxation being the same as in previous years. In 1846 the list included the three Corwins (J. A., M. B. and I. C.), Bell, McNemar, James, Kyle, Young and two new
lawyers-John D. Burnett and S. V. Baldwin. No record is given of the lawyers who paid their taxes in 1847 and 1848, and the year 1849 adds only one new lawyer, William Carruthers. The year 1849 marks the end of the record of taxing lawyers, but they were probably taxed in 1850. There is no evidence to show that they paid this personal tax after the constitution of 1851 went into effect.
TRAINING OF LAWYERS.
Few of the lawyers had college training before the seventies, most of them being trained in the office of one of the older lawyers in Urbana. Many of them taught school in their earlier years; in fact, it seems that nearly all of the better class of lawyers in the county taught school in their earlier years. Judges Middleton, Heiserman and Gibbs were wielders of the rod before they took up the gavel, and it could be shown that the schoolroom has furnished lawyer after lawyer for the local bar. The present bar examina- tions in Ohio are calculated to test the applicant's general knowledge of law and they are becoming so difficult that practically all of the lawyers of recent years have taken some work in a law school. Any discussion of the ability of the lawyers of today naturally brings up the question of the ability of those of the earlier history of the county. Ohio and every other state in the Union has what has been known for hundreds of years as justices of the peace.
JUSTICES OF THE PEACE,
A justice of the peace is very seldom, if ever, a lawyer, but there are at least two in Champaign county who have been lawyers. And yet these dispensers of justice have handled thousands of cases in Champaign county and have dispensed a quality of justice which has usually made them honored in their respective communities. It is one of the things which Anglo-Saxons
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pride themselves on-the idea that one man is as good as another-and that a justice of peace, untrained though he may be, nevertheless is able in some way to handle a multitude of minor cases of law. The supposition is that he makes up in common sense what he lacks in legal training, and if he has this Yankee trait which we denominate "horse sense," it is supposed to make up for all other shortcomings.
JUDICIAL SYSTEM PRIOR TO 1851.
During the period from 1803 to 1851 Ohio had a judicial system which provided for the election of three to five judges in each county of the state to be known as associate judges. These judges were not required to know any law. These judges sat with the president judge, but when the latter was not present they had the right to hold court themselves. Some wise man once said that the reason why justice was represented as a blind-folded woman was because she feared to look upon the men who were to dispense the justice she was supposed to typify. Be that as it may, the judges of Champaign county between 1805 and 1851 really served the people as faith- fully and efficiently as if they had been skilled in law. After all, if twelve men can determine the merits of a case, whether it be the value of a dog or a human life, it is not too much to assume that the untrained judges of the olden days was competent to sit upon any and all cases which might come before them.
PROMINENCE OF LAWYERS.
If it were possible to roll back the scroll and present to view the scores of lawyers who have come and gone in Champaign county there would be seen many men who have made state and even national reputations for them- selves. At the local bar have appeared men who later sat on the supreme bench of the state, who graced the halls of Congress, who honored their country by service in the diplomatic field, who in one way or another have made names for themselves which gives them the right to be classed as men of talent. It is a strange, albeit a striking fact, that in America we honor the man in public life above those who perform equally meritorious service in private life. Then, too, it is a fact, explain it who will, that it is the lawyer who usually represents his community in public affairs; hence it is the lawyer who is best known in his county; he it is who is remembered by future generations. The man who had the best hardware store in town, or operated the biggest farm in the county, or had the biggest medical practice. never achieves the fame which falls to the successful lawyer.
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THE FIRST COURT IN THE COUNTY.
The lawyer is associated invariably with the courts and any discussion of the lawyer in Champaign county necessarily brings in a review of the county's court history. The act organizing the county provided that the first court should meet at the house of George Fithian, in Springfield, and should con- tinue to meet there until such time as other provisions had been made. The president judge was Francis Dunleavy and his associates were John Reynolds, John Runyon and Samuel Mccullough (Culloch). The prosecutor was Arthur St. Clair, the son of the former governor of the Northwest Terri- tory : the sheriff of the court was John Daugherty; the clerk was Joseph C. Vance, the father of a future governor of the state.
One hundred and twelve years have elapsed since this first court of Champaign county convened. The world has made more progress in these one hundred and more years than in all the previous ages of history. Could the men who foregathered around the judge on that 20th day of April, 1805, drive into Urbana in an automobile in 1917 they could not be convinced that they were living on the same planet they were a hundred years ago. Scarcely a thing would they see which would be familiar to their eyes. Hardly an article of dress, hardly any of the many things which surround us in our present-day civilization, would be recognized by these good old forefathers of ours.
But they were impressed with their importance on that April day in 1805, and well they might be. It was their duty to see that justice was administered; to them fell the duty of putting this county in shape to start its career as an independent political entity. And they did their work well. We wish we might have walked in to the dining room of pioneer Fithian which served as a court room. What would we have seen? There would have been more than a dozen sober-faced men, plainly clad in homespun and skins, some with well-oiled queues, some with close-cropped hair, some with leather breeches, some with coonskin caps and some with none at all, some with moccasins and some with calfskin boots-but every man, no matter how dressed, was intent upon the performance of such duties as the law assigned him.
A study of the cases which appeared in the courts of early days show that most of those which reached the common pleas court were concerned with land transactions. Murder cases were few in number and such cases of violence as occurred later in the history of the county, particularly in the
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decade of the Civil War, were very infrequent before the fifties. In Cham- paign, as in all other counties of the state, justice of peace courts had cog- nizance of the wide variety of minor cases, both civil and criminal, very few of which were ever reviewed by the higher courts. The common pleas court under the 1802 constitution had charge of all classes of causes now under the jurisdiction of the court and in addition handled the business now in charge of the probate court.
An interesting incident has been preserved regarding the first session of court in Champaign county. Sheriff Dougherty had a writ of capias which he had tried to serve on Simon Kenton and Phillip Jarbo, the writ being for the recovery of a debt for which Kenton had gone security. When the judge called upon the sheriff to produce the two men the sheriff handed the judge the writ and this is what the judge read on the back of the writ: "Found Phillip Jarbo and have his body in court; found Simon Kenton, but he refuses to be arrested." And as far as the record discloses Kenton was never arrested by any officer of the law, neither for this nor for any other infrac- tion of the law. Kenton was later deputy sheriff and, so the story goes, once served a warrant on himself and, moreover, confined himself to the prison bounds for such a length of time as he was convicted.
LOCAL COURT UNDER OLD CONSTITUTION.
During the forty-seven years that the courts of Champaign county were under the old constitution ( 1805-1852) there was only one president judge elected by the Legislature from Champaign county to preside over the district of which Champaign county was a part. It was not because the county did not have able lawyers, but rather because it was joined with several other counties, some of which had the best lawyers in the state. For many years Franklin county was in the district which includes Champaign, and naturally the judge of the district was usually a resident of that county. This was all the more necessary because there was more business to be transacted in Franklin county than in all the other counties of the district.
As has been mentioned the first judge of the district of which Cham- paign county was a part was Francis Dunleavy. He was followed by Judge Joseph R. Swann, of Columbus, who was probably the best known of all the president judges who presided over the local courts. He was the author of a treatise on the justice of the peace, which was widely used throughout the state. It is said that there was scarcely a justice of the peace in the state who did not have a copy of this invaluable work. In fact, it was usually
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the beginning and end of the library of the ordinary "squire." Judge Swann was regarded as one of the ablest jurists of the state and because of his kindly interest in struggling young lawyers and his patience in dealing with the old cantankerous lawyers, he was held in the highest esteem by all the members of the local bar. He continued on the bench until 1848, when George B. Way was elected by the Legislature, the only president judge elected from Champaign county. Judge Way served until the Constitution of 1851 went into effect on the second Monday in February, 1852.
ASSOCIATE JUDGES.
While there were only three president judges during the period of the old Constitution there was a long list of associate judges. The first con- stitution of the state provided for a peculiar judiciary, and the state of Indiana in 1816 provided one in all respects similar to the one which Ohio adopted in 1802. Ohio divided the state into a number of judicial circuits and provided for a president judge to preside over each, but allowed each county in a district to elect three so-called associate judges. While the pres- ident judges were presumably lawyers, and usually were, the associate judges were not supposed to have any knowledge of law. The president judges, as well as their associates on the bench, were elected by the Legislature. A few of the associate judges of Champaign county had served as justices of the peace and in that capacity had learned a smattering of law, but the great majority of them were plain farmers with no other qualifications than good common sense. Such a man was Judge James Dallas, an Irishman, a Pro- testant, and a man of most pronounced convictions. Another was Judge James Smith, who located in the county in 1813, about one mile west of Urbana. Judge Elisha C. Berry was one of the most prominent of the early citizens of the county. Judge John Taylor was one of the leaders of the Democratic party and was such a violent adherent of Andrew Jackson that he sold a farm when he found there was a clay hill on it. Taylor later moved to Defiance county and soon became prominent in political affairs there, representing that county in the state senate. His unswerving devotion to the principles of Democracy did not blind him to the evils of slavery and, when the Democratic party seemed about to condone the institution, Taylor threw all of his support to the new Republican party. The old judge died in Defiance county in the eighties, being upwards of ninety years of age at the time of his death. Judge Obed Horr was a practicing physician of Mechan- icsburg, a wealthy landowner and a prosperous merchant and in this three-
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fold capacity became one of the leaders of his section of the county. Many of the associate judges have already been noticed and there is no need of recounting their personal characteristics in this connection. Certainly such men as John Reynolds, John Guthridge. Alexander McBeth, George Fithian, William Patrick and E. L. Morgan were men of the highest integrity and well worthy of the confidence of the people of the county.
COMPLETE LIST OF ASSOCIATE JUDGES, 1805-1852.
A list of associate judges, together with the dates of their election by the Legislature, has been compiled from the official records. The names of some are repeated, which indicates that they were re-elected. After 1819 the exact dates of their election are not given. The office was abolished by the constitution of 1851 and the judges on the bench ceased their official duties with the beginning of the new common pleas court of the state on the second Monday of February, 1852.
The complete list of the associate judges follows: John Reynolds, Feb- ruary 21, 1805: John Runyon, February 21, 1805: Samuel Mccullough, February 21, 1805; John Guthridge, February 17, 1809: John Reynolds, February 25, 1816; Alexander McBeth, December 5. 1816; Samuel Hill, January 27, 1818; John Runyon, February 6, 1819: James Smith, Legisla- ture of 1820; George Fithian, Legislature of 1821 ; A. R. Colwell, Legisla- ture of 1824: Samuel Hill, Legislature of 1825; William Runkle, January 22, 1827; William Fithian, January 22, 1827; James Smith, January 22, 1827; Obed Horr, January, 1831 ; Elisha C. Berry, January, 1834; David Markley, January, 1834; Charles Flago, January, 1837; James Dallas, Jan- uary, 1837; John Taylor, Jr., January, 1837; Elisha C. Berry, January, 1841; James Dallas, January, 1844: John Owens, January, 1844: William Patrick, January, 1848; Edward L. Morgan, January, 1851 ; John West, January, 1851.
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