History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 87

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666

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There was a great deal to admire in Edward King's abilities, and a great deal to love in his character. He was quick and acute in percep- tion, of active and vivid imagination, abounding in good-natured wit, was fluent and pleasant in speech, graceful and often forcible in decla- mation, and always gentle and polished in manners. He was generous to a fault-if that be possible-cheerful, frank, cordial to all acquain- tances, high or low, learned or ignorant, rich or poor. No wonder, then, that his praise was in all men's mouths. .

Rufus King, son of Edward, became in his turn an eminent Cincinnati lawyer, besides rendering the pub- lic great service in education and other lines of duty. He is still living, and in full practice.

ALLEN LATHAM

was another Chillicothe lawyer who removed to this city, and spent his later years here. He was born in Lyme, New Hampshire, March 1, 1793, came early to Ohio and was admitted to the bar at New Philadelphia, removing to the old State capital about 1815. At Chillicothe he did something in law practice, but more in land specula- tion, for which his office as surveyor-general of the mili- tary land district gave him special facilities. He was also a prominent Democratic politician, represented Ross county in the State senate in 1841-2, and in 1838 was defeated as a candidate for congress by only one hundred and thirty-six votes. He removed to Cincinnati in 1854, and died here March 28, 1871, being then seventy-eight years old.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

THE BROUGHS.

John and Charles H. Brough came from Lancaster to this city in the winter of 1840-1, purchased the Adver- tiser from Moses Dawson, changed its name to the Cin- cinnati Enquirer, and started the paper on its wonderful career. Both were successful lawyers and public men. John, as is well known, became auditor of State and one of the famous war governors of Ohio. He was not ad- mitted to the bar until 1845, and did not acquire so much business as a lawyer as he did in journalism and politics. His voice was remarkably clear and strong, and when he spoke, as he sometimes did during the war, on the river-bank or from a steamer on the Cincinnati side, he could be heard easily in Covington. Charles Brough became prosecuting attorney of the county, colonel of one of the Ohio regiments in the Mexican war, and afterwards presiding judge of the court of common pleas. He died here of cholera in 1849.

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES

was a young legal immigrant of 1849. He became part- ner with Richard M. Corwine, forming the firm of Cor- wine & Hayes, to which William D. Rogers was present- ly added, the partnership then becoming Corwine, Hayes, & Rogers. The firm soon commanded a large business. Hayes became prosecuting attorney, went to the war of the Rebellion as a major, was elected to represent the second district in congress while still in the field, and subsequently governor for three terms and President of the United States. His great case here was that of Nancy Farrar, the poisoner, in whose defence he labored with great assiduity and ability, and finally with success.

CHARLES D. COFFIN

came to the city about 1842, and remained until his death, at the advanced age of seventy-six, which occurred but a few years ago. He was judge of both the old and the new superior courts of the city.

DONN PIATT.

This eccentric Washington editor, a member of the famous Piatt family of Cincinnati and the Miami valley, was a lawyer here many years ago. After the resignation of Judge Robert Windom from the bench of the com- mon pleas, Piatt was appointed by the governor to the vacant place. His professional brethren thereanent said of him that, as he knew nothing of law, he would go to the bench without any legal prejudices. Judge Carter, however, testifies that he was a good lawyer and made a good judge.

IN EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THREE

the bar of Cincinnati included one hundred and eighty- three lawyers and law-firms. Some of the most famous names of the local bar are in this list; as Hayes, Groes- beck, Taft, Long, Pugh, Anderson, and others. We have said little in this chapter of the living still in prac- tice of the later generation of lawyers, and of the equally distinguished not heretofore referred to-as Stanley Mat- thews, Judge Hoadly, Job E. Stevenson, and many more-the limitations of this chapter and book compel- ling us to deal almost exclusively with the past; but we

must find room here for one remarkable anecdote told by Judge Carter of the late

GEORGE E. PUGH.

On one occasion he was all alone, engaged in the defence of a cele- brated case involving a great part of the Elmore Williams estate; and on the plaintiff's side, against him, were those two distinguished lawyers Thomas Ewing and Henry Stanberry. The long table before the bench was filled with a hundred law-books, placed there by the plaintiff's lawyers; and from them, taking each one up and reading, Mr. Stanberry cited his cases, and occupied several hours in so doing. Mr. Pugh re- plied to Mr. Stanberry, and, without brief or notes, or taking up or reading from a single law-book, he cited from his own memory all that Mr. Stanberry had quoted, and then, in addition, cited more than thirty different law-books-cases, principles, and points, and names of cases, and pages of books, where they were to be found on his own side of the case, without in a single instance using books, notes, or briefs. It was truly a most unique and remarkable mental performance; and after he got through the presiding judge of the court called Mr. Pugh to him to the bench and asked him "how in the world he did it." Pugh mod- estly replied : "Oh, for these matters I always trust to my memory; and while that serves me, I want no books or briefs before me." What a valuable memory! By it, too, Pugh won his case, as he did many others.

THE OLD GUARD.

Judge Carter gives the following list of survivors of the old court house (burned in 1849) at the time his book was published in 1880:

Charles Anderson, Samuel York At Lee, James Boyle, Joshua H. Bates, Jacob Burnet, jr., Flamen Ball, Samuel F. Black, Calhoun Ben- ham, Oliver Brown, Robert W. Carroll, Samuel F. Cary, Samuel S. Carpenter, A. G. W. Carter, Samuel S. Cox, John W. Caldwell, Ed- ward P. Cranch, Jacob T. Crapsey, Jacob H. Clemmer, Frederick Col- ton, Nelson Cross, Joseph Cox, Aaron R. Dutton, William Dennison, James J. Faran, Williamn T. Forrest, John Frazer, E. Alexander Fergu- son, Charles Fox, William S. Groesbeck, Joseph G. Gibbons, John M. Guitteau, Stephen Gano, W. E. Gilmore, C. W. Gilmore, John W. Herron, Robert D. Handy, John F. Hoy, George Hoadly, George Hil- ton, Robert S. Hamilton, Rutherford B. Hayes, Charles Hilts, George B. Hollister, Samuel W. Irwin, Charles P. James, William. Johnson, Rufus King, John Kebler, Timothy D. Lincoln, Frederick D. Lincoln, Oliver S. Lovell, J. Bloomfield Leake, Thomas Longworth, Nathaniel C. McLean, Alexander H. McGuffey, Edward D. Mansfield, Patrick McGroarty, Patrick Mallon, Charles C. Murdock, Andrew McMicken, John B. McClymon, William McMaster, Stanley Matthews, M. W. Oliver, George H. Pendleton, William Phillips, jr., Donn Piatt, John L. Pendery, Andrew J. Pruden, Alexander Paddack, James W. Ryland, Thomas C. H. Smith, Richard H. Stone, Peter J. Sullivan, John B. Stallo, W. S. Scarborough, Henry E. Spencer, Alphonso Taft, James W. Taylor, William C. Thorpe, Samuel J. Thompson, John B. War- ren, James S. White, Crafts J. Wright, Robert B. Warden, Edward Woodruff, D. Thew Wright, Peter Zinn.

Not all of these reside in Cincinnati, but a number, as ex-Governor Dennison, Judge Crafts J. Wright, and others, live elsewhere. M.r Zinn has died since Judge Carter's book was published.

AT THIS WRITING

the Cincinnati bar numbers not less than six hundred attorneys. In this fact alone may be seen the impossi- bility of giving anything like a full biographical history of the profession here. Among them are many practition- ers and public men of national reputation. Judge Carter, closing the pages of his toilful and interesting volume, proudly yet worthily vaunts the local bar in these terms:

It has furnished two Presidents of the United States-Harrison and Hayes.

It has furnished two justices of the supreme court of the United States -McLean and Chase-and one of them Chief Justice.

It has furnished two attorney generals of the United States-Stan- berry and Taft.

It has furnished Burnet, Hayward, Wright, Goodenow, Read, Cald-

S. F. COVINGTON.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

well, Warden, Gholson, and Okey, and Wright, as supreme judges of our own State, and quite a great number of the judges of our own nu- merous courts at home. It would make a big catalogue to name them.

It has furnished, I believe, one judge of the superior court of the city of New York, even.

It has furnished two Secretaries of the Treasury of the United States -Corwin and Chase.

It has furnished several governors of our State-Corwin, Bebb, Den- nison, Brough, Hayes, Anderson and Young.

It has furnished several United States Senators, and any quantity of congressmen, and legislators innumerable.

We have had, too, from our bar, divers ministers and consuls abroad ; and we have now a minister at the court of France.

We have furnished other officials of importance and consequence.

THE LAW LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. *

The need of a convenient and ample library of refer- ence was sharply felt by the bar of Cincinnati, as it grew in number and business, about the middle period of the history of the city. Few of the lawyers had any large collection of books, and the labor of carrying such as were in hand and needed in cases, to and from the court house and offices, was by no means small. Serious delays in important trials often occurred while awaiting the pro- duction of authorities. At one time, when Judge Cald- well, of the court of common pleas, desired to consult some authorities not at hand, he called up a member of the bar, Mr. George E. Pugh, in open court to inquire what had been done toward the formation of a bar library, and, not satisfied with the progress made, lent his personal efforts thereafter to the procurement of subscrib- ers to the fund.

In 1834 a charter for the incorporation of the Cincin- nati Law Library was obtained, Messrs. Edward King, E. D. Mansfield, Jacob W. Piatt, O. M. Mitchel, S. York AtLee, and other well-known members of the Bar of that day, being named as corporators. Nothing fur- ther of account was done, however, until 1846, when not less than one hundred and twenty-five attorneys were at the Hamilton Bar, and the need of a library at the court house had become imperative. In September of that year a meeting was called in the court room of the old Superior Court, and it was resolved that an effort should be made to establish a library. Messrs. William R. Morris, Daniel Van Matre, William M. Corry, Al- phonso Taft, and George E. Pugh, were appointed a committee to devise a plan and raise the money to exe- cute it. A subscription paper was drawn up by Mr. Morris, which is still in existence, and headed by him- self, his partner, and Mr. Andrew McMicken, who then occupied a desk in their office. It provided that-

The undersigned, members of the Cincinnati Bar, for the purpose of raising a fund for the purchase of law-books for the use of the Bar of said eity, hereby mutually agree to form a Library Association on terms to be settled and determined, from time to time, as shall be deemed ad- visable hereafter, and also agree to pay, for that purpose, to the eom- mittee of the Association, the sum of twenty-five dollars each, payable as follows : Ten dollars when ealled on; five dollars at the end of six months; five dollars at the end of twelve months; and the balanec eighteen months from the time of making the subscription.

September 3, 1846.

This was signed ultimately by one hundred and five

persons, the last subscriptions bearing date 1849 and 1850. Judge Burnet gave fifty dollars as a donor, not as a member. With this the total amount subscribed was two thousand six hundred and fifty dollars-a very respectable beginning, truly. About December Ist Mr. Van Matre, now chairman and acting treasurer of the committee, began to collect the subscriptions, and in about six months realized one thousand and ninety-three dollars and twenty-seven cents therefrom. Books had been bought in January, 1847, of Messrs. Derby, Brad- ley & Company, then principal law book-sellers in town, to the value of one thousand four hundred dollars, of which seven hundred dollars was paid down, and the rest was secured by the note of the committeemen. Seventy- five dollars' worth of books had also been bought of Rufus King and other members of the bar. In these, the nucleus of the superb library since formed, were Bibb's & Munford's works, Dane's Abridgment, and five volumes of State Papers on Public Lands. A large book-case was bought for ninety-four dollars and fifty cents, and set up in the court-room of the Common Pleas, just at the right of the entrance. Mr. Bernard Bradley was appointed librarian February 8; and the great usefulness of the Cincinnati Law Library began.

In the spring of 1847 the association was formally or- ganized, though against the opposition of Mr. Corry, Mr. Pugh, and perhaps others, under the "act to regulate lit- erary and other societies," passed by the legislature March 1I, 1845. A constitution was adopted and signed by the subscribers; but at the meeting of the cor- porate body held on the first Saturday in June, 1847, at the Superior Court room, for the election of trustees, but twenty-four members were present. The association now owed seven hundred and twenty-one dollars, and had less than one hundred and fifty dollars in its cash- box. Twenty members still owed the first installment of their subscriptions; eighty-eight had not paid their assess- ment of five dollars voted February 19, 1847 ; and eighty- seven had not paid the second installment. The large sum of two thousand and fifty-five dollars was due, or about to become due, from the members.

The trustees elected at the June meeting were W. R. Morris, Oliver M. Spencer, Daniel Van Matre, Alphonso Taft, and Jordan A. Pugh, with R. B. Warden. They organized as a board by electing the first-named presi- dent, the second vice-president, and the third treasurer. For four years thereafter, no record appears of any meeting of stockholders or trustees, though there is extrinsic evi- dence that theformer held a meeting June 4, 1849, and as- sessed ten dollars per share upon the stockholders, at the same time raising the shares to forty dollars each. It is said, moreover, that the annual meeting was regularly held, and the board and secretary regularly re-elected, except Jor- dan A. Pugh, who died of yellow fever in New Orleans, whither he had removed, and was displaced upon the board in 1849 by Judge Timothy Walker. June 7, 1851, there was a general reconstruction of the board, Messrs. A. E. Gwynne, Rufus King, George E. Pugh, Jacob Bur- net, jr., and Thomas G. Mitchell being elected trustees, and Peter Zinn clerk. The three gentlemen first-named

"The materials for this section have been drawn mostly from the earcful and elaborate historical address of W. S. Scarborough, csq., be- fore the Law Library association, June 12, 1875, and published in a neat pamphlet.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

were chosen, respectively, as president,, vice-president, and treasurer. Mr. Pugh, however, became attorney-gen- eral of the State and resigned his office in the association late in the year, when it was conferred upon Mr. Burnet.

When the old court house was burned, in the summer of 1849, the books of the library were saved, with some exceptions, and in pretty good condition. The book- cases were lost, however, and one hundred dollars were soon after recovered from the Columbus Insurance com- pany for them, and one hundred and ninety dollars for books destroyed. The library then went with the courts to James Wilson's four-story brick building, on the north side of Court street, west of St. Clair alley; and a small room was obtained for it on the third floor. The collection now comprised one thousand and eighty vol- umes-eighty-three of American Federal reports, five hundred and forty-seven State reports, two hundred and thirty-eight English reports, fifty-one digests, fifty-nine of statutes, and one hundred and two text-books, trea- tises, etc. About one-half of the English reports were in the imperfect American reprints, and have since been largely displaced by original editions. Many of the books, particularly text-books, had been lent or given to the li- brary.

At the meeting of June 16, 1851, it was resolved that the price of shares be reduced to twenty-five dollars and all assessments after June Ist of that year; that the library be accessible to all lawyers not three years in practice, upon the annual payment in advance of ten dollars; and that any member who should pay sixty dollars into the treasury, in addition to the forty dollars previously paid, should have a perpetual membership, without further charge or assessment. The reduction in the value of shares worked badly, and a considerable number of shares practically lapsed .* There was but small increase of membership, and on the fifth of June, 1852, but eighty- nine had a share paid up or any interest in a share. Says Mr. Scarborough :

Such was the condition of the Association at the end of five years from the time of its organization. The membership lacked coherence and growth. If not declining, and somewhat rapidly, it was at a stand- still. But the library, on the other hand, though small in fact, was large for its years, and for its purpose was a good one. The getting together of one thousand and eighty volumes as a beginning, at the time and under the circumstances in which they were collected, was most creditable to all connected with it. It was an achievement for the institution, as I think, far greater than any that, in the same length of time, has since been wrought.

In 1852 the Association published its first catalogue, showing the number of books then on hand to be one thousand three hundred and eighty. It was still some- what in debt, and few books had been added to the li- brary for some time; the trustees were therefore directed to make all collections possible. A new code of by- laws, in relation to shares and life-memberships, was adopted July 10th, the second of which read as follows :

Any person may become a life-member on paying such sum as, in addition to any previous payments made by him, will amount to one hundred dollars ; provided that the amount which shall be paid, in ad-

dition to the payments before made and assessments due, shall not be less than fifty dollars.

This over-liberal by-law was changed, and life-mem- berships practically cut off June 4, 1864, by an amend- ment moved by Stanley Matthews, as follows:

That the existing by-law regulating the form of certificates of life- membership be amended so that hereafter the sum to be paid therefor at any given time, shall be the amount of the original stock, together with all subsequent assessments made thereon to that period, and the additional sum of one hundred dollars-all payments of original stock and assessments to be credited thereon.

Since the passage of this no life-members have been added to the Association.

The receipts and disbursements for the library, from June 5, 1852, to June 2, 1866, averaged per year about three hundred and thirty-six dollars from new members, six hundred and fifty-one dollars from assessments, thirty- six dollars and forty-three cents from non-members for use of the library, and one hundred and twenty-three dollars from the law school in the college building. From life-members one thousand one hundred and twenty-five dollars in all were received (five hundred and fifty dollars in 1852), and from all sources seventeen thousand two hundred dollars and forty-seven cents, or one thousand two hundred and twenty-eight dollars per year, on an average. The average disbursements were three hundred and twelve dollars for current expenses, and nine hundred and twenty-one dollars for books. The total membership June 2, 1866, was one hundred and thirty- nine, of whom nineteen were life-members-1852, Flamen Ball, Timothy Walker, Alphonso Taft, James T. · Worthington, W. Y. Gholson, M. H. Tilden, T. D. Lin- coln, Charles Anderson, George H. Pendleton; 1853, Thomas J. Strait, G. B. Hollister; 1855, M. E. Curwen; 1856, E. F. Strait, Aaron F. Perry; 1858, George H. Hilton; 1860, J. P. Jackson; 1863, Jacob Wolf, Anthony Shonter, Samuel Caldwell. Sixty-five shares had been forfeited or surrendered. The new members in fourteen years numbered one hundred and fifteen; so that but a few, comparatively, of the original members were left at the end of twenty years.

During the next ten years the membership increased rapidly, as well as the library. Judge Hoadly and Mr. W. S. Scarborough were long before appointed purchas- ing committee, and were industrious and enterprising in getting the best books the means of the association would allow. They bought many valuable volumes at the sales of lawyers' libraries, as when the library of Judge Pur- viance, of Baltimore, was broken up and sold in 1855, and that of Judge Cranch in Cincinnati in 1863. Many purchases were also made from attorneys in practice here, of such Reports as were wanted. In 1854, when about one hundred and fifty volumes of the American Reports were wanting, Judge Hoadly was instructed to get them upon the best terms he could, and at the same time the trustees resolved to keep up full sets of the Statutes of the several States-a work of very great dif- ficulty. It has been so successfully accomplished, how- ever, that it is believed no other collection in the country, except the congressional library, is fuller in statute law. In June, 1875, the library contained one thousand five

"The share of R. B. Hayes, then a young member of the Cincinnati bar, taken in 1852, though not forfeited, was practically surrendered to the association 1865-also that of General W. H. Lytle.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

hundred and sixty-five volumes of Statutes-a truly splendid collection-with two thousand four hundred and twenty-six volumes of State Reports, one hundred and ninety-nine of United States Reports, one thousand one hundred and fifty-eight of British and Canadian Reports, and treatises, digests, etc., enough to swell the total number to nine thousand one hundred and fifty-

one. Mr. Scarborough says: "Doubtless mistakes have been made in the selection and purchase of books, yet I know of no library that is so absolutely free from lumber and rubbish as this. Our elementary works, owing to the early policy of confining the purchases mainly to reports and statutes, are mostly of recent editions." The first invoice of imported works was received in 1856, through Messrs. Little, Brown & Company, of Boston, and consisted of Irish Reports, and Reports of the House of Lords, and Privy Council decisions. The largest addition was made in the year 1864-5, being four hundred and thirty-nine books, of which fifty-five were reports, the rest consisting mainly of bound volumes of The Law Magazine, The Law Reporter, American State Papers, Annals of Congress, and other congressional documents. The next year three hundred and ninety- five volumes were bought, of which over two hundred are text-books. On the 2d of June, 1866, the library contained about five thousand three hundred volumes, having increased nearly three hundred a year for fourteen years. The increase was more rapid thenceforth, and was largely of imported books, some of them rare and costly. The current American reports, and all valuable treatises appearing in this country, were bought as fast as they came out. In 1869, a heavy importation was made, amounting to one thousand one hundred and eighty-eight dollars and fifty cents, completing the sets of English Chancery, House of Lords, Ecclesiastical, and Admiralty Reports, with other valuable sets. In 1870-I the Scotch Appeals and Irish Reports were bought in considerable number, also the Crown Cases, some Nisi Prius reports, and two hundred and forty-four other vol- umes. Large additions have since been made, and the library now musters the magnificent total of fifteen thou- sand volumes. In the spring of 1854 it was moved into the best room available in the new court house; and in the summer of 1857, upon the completion of the third story, it was taken to its present spacious and well-lighted quarters, where it has since found a comfortable and fit- ting home. The county officials have always manifested a friendly feeling to the library, and provided for it as best they could without rent or other charge. A written obligation now secures both parties against probable dis- turbance.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 87

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co. Number of Pages: 666

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666