History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 28

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592

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Nor can this sketch be complete without reference to Mr. Telford's character as a Christian. Before his admission to the Bar he connected himself with the Second Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati, of which Rev. Lyman Beecher, D. D., was then

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pastor, and during his whole after life he exemplified the sincerity of his convic- tions and the steadfastness of his faith.

A severe cold, contracted by exposure while on a journey, resulted in pulmonary consumption, which ended at an early age a career which, if life had been spared, could not have failed to be illustrious. "Actis, non segnibus annis, ærum im- plevit."

William Haines Lytle was a Cincinnatian by birth. His grandfather, Gen. William Lytle, was one of the pioneers of the West. His father, Robert T. Lytle, was among the brilliant men of his day. Tradition speaks of his powers of oratory, although the fame of forensic eloquence is but ephemeral. The mantle fell upon his son, and even in his schoolboy days he was an elegant and effective public speaker. The older citizens of Cincinnati will remember the days when the academic department of Cincinnati College was in the full tide of success. Lytle was a prominent member of one of the literary societies of the institution. At a college exhibition when but sixteen years old he delivered an address upon "Law and the Legal Profession." One who heard it, after a lapse of fifty years, speaks of it with admiration, as a production singularly mature in its train of thought, delivered with an ease, elegance and impressiveness that was astonishing in a mere boy. Even at this time of life his nervous force and impetuous disposition made him a leader among his schoolmates. There was a high tone and chivalrous bearing about him that was fascinating, not only in those early days, but it was a marked feature of his character, through all his life. Although he entered upon the practice of law, its drudgery was not suited to his tastes, which were more toward belles-lettres. He had a predilection for military life, and served during the Mexican war. He was a lieutenant of the Montgomery Guards, a local company, whose captain died on the route from Vera Cruz to the capital, and Lytle was promoted to the com- mand. In 1850, after the close of the war, he was a member of the State Legis- lature. He was a major-general of the State military, and when the Rebellion broke out he was chosen colonel of the Tenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was wounded at Carnifex Ferry. This was one of the earliest affairs of the war, and, in view of the many bloody battles that followed in the next four years, it was not upon any large scale. Perhaps it would have been, but the rebel general, Floyd, ex-Secretary of War of the United States, did not stay long enough to make it interesting. He went away, as was the case subsequently at Fort Donelson; when the hard fighting began Floyd had important business elsewhere. The regiment that Lytle commanded was leading the column, when he unexpectedly came upon the enemy's works. The first greeting was a shower of grape and canister from a battery of twelve guns which swept the road. He ordered his colors to the front to assault the battery. The color bearers were shot down. At the head of a por- tion of three companies he led the way. He was struck from his horse, which, with a fatal wound, cleared the parapet, falling dead within the rebel lines. Lytle was carried to a log hut, where he was laid upon the ground, while shot and shell crashed through the frail tenement over him. With that modesty which character- izes true and chivalrous bravery, he says of his own part in the battle: "About this time I received a wound in the leg, the ball passing through and killing my horse." This is what the enemy said of him : "At the first crack of our rifles the gallant colonel, who led in front of his men on a splendid black charger, fell to the earth, while the head of his column recoiled in utter confusion. The colonel's horse, as if unconscious of the fall of his rider, dashed up to our embankment and into our camp, and from the inscriptions on the mountings of his pistols proved to be Col. William H. Lytle of Cincinnati. I saw the daring young officer fall from his horse, and he was certainly one of the bravest of the brave."

At Carnifex Ferry, for the first time under fire, were Col. William H. Lytle, Col. Robert L. McCook and Maj. Rutherford B. Hayes, all of the Hamilton County Bar.

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When, in the thickest of the fight, Col. Lytle was again wounded at Perryville, he thought it was fatal. One of his sergeants lifted him in his arms to bear him from the field. With thoughts of higher duties than self, he said: "You may do some good work yet, I can do no more; let me die here." He was left there, and fell into the hands of the enemy; but he was subsequently paroled and sent to Cincin- nati, to restore health. To one at the side of his sick bed, he was recounting the incidents of the fight; as he laid upon that bloody field with the roar of battle around him, and the missiles of death hurtling over him, he thought his last hour had come. He said: "It was a glorious day, and I turned to see the last sun go down in his magnificent setting. I felt that I had done my duty, and that I could put my armor off, as one lying down to pleasant dreams."

Nearly thirty years after the battle of Chickamauga, Gen. Rosecrans and a num- ber of Union and Confederate officers met upon the battlefield, to locate the posi- tions of that dreadful contest, in furtherance of the object of establishing a National Park. There were many who had not seen each other since they stood in arms to- gether upon those two fatal days. They were mostly old men, and gray hairs had given place to the vigorous youth of a quarter of a century ago. The scene, its surround- ings, the personnel, led to reminiscences of events that happened during the Civil war. An aid of Gen. Lytle's was present and related an incident showing his cour- age and determination. His troops were to make a hard march, toward Huntsville, Alabama, and to relieve their wagons they were ordered to carry their knapsacks. Company A, of the Tenth Ohio, refused to obey. The captain reported to the Lieu- tenant Colonel, who dispatched a messenger for Col. Lytle. He mounted his horse, and, accompanied by his staff, rode upon the ground. He explained to his soldiers the necessity for his order. They stood, sullen and silent. He waited a few minutes. The trial had come. It was game against physical strength. He drew out his watch with one hand, his revolver with the other. He cocked his weapon, laid its muzzle upon the face of the dial: "I will give you five minutes to obey orders." The count began: " One! two! ! three! ! !; " the line wavered and shook. "Four! " The count was never finished.

The men slung their knapsacks.

In the course of his examination of this, his most distinguished battlefield, Gen. Rosecrans stopped at a certain spot, and as the company gathered round, he said: " I was standing here with my staff, when Lytle came up at the head of his brigade. He saluted, as he rode by, and in less than fifteen minutes his horse came galloping back without a rider." The spot where he fell was found. Longstreet's veterans had struck his moving column. Lytle brought it into line of battle, but before effectual resistance could be made he received his death wound. He was borne to the foot of a tree, and laid upon the ground. He gave his sword to an orderly, and motioned him to the rear.

In that inspiration of genius, "Anthony and Cleopatra," he had written,

Ebbs the crimson life tide fast And the dark Plutonian Shadows Gather on the evening blast.

Even in that supreme moment, the Spirit of Chivalry shone forth, in the flicker- ing light that was so swiftly fading. Excalibar should not become a trophy of the foe!

Beyond power of speech, he again motioned those about him, to leave him.

Ah, no more amid the battle, Shall my heart exulting swell.

For him, indeed, nothing more of earth remained, but it was still possible for them to save themselves. And so, brave, generous, chivalrous in his life, illustrious in the opportunity of his death, he gave to his country all that the soldier could

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give. Under the open sky, the fierce din of the conflict ringing in his ears, he illustrated, in his own fate, the words of his song written years before:

On some lone spot, when far from home and friends The wayworn pilgrim on the turf reclining, llis life and much of grief together ends.

No nobler offering has the Republic made to the Moloch of War. After his wound at Carnifex Ferry, his impatience to return to duty was so great that when he reported to the proper authorities, it was apparent that he was not fit to go to the front, and he was placed in command of the camp at Bardstown, Ky., where he wrote the following lines which bear the date of February, 1862.

I gazed forth from my wintry tent Upon the star-gemmed firmament, I heard the far off sentry's tramp Around our mountain-girdled camp, And saw the ghostly tents uprise Like spectres 'neath the jeweled skies; And thus upon the snow-clad scene So pure, and spotless and serene, Where locked in sleep ten thousand lay Awaiting morn's returning ray- I gazed, till to the sun -- the drums Rolled at the dawn- " He comes! He comes! "

It is the poet's idea of reveille: the greeting of the drums to the coming morning. Upon the occasion of his visit to Canada, Mr. Webster was present at the morn- ing parade of the British garrison, in Quebec. The roll of the drums suggested to him, as illustrative of the power of England, the idea which he subsequently made famous in the Senate of the United States. "A power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, following the sun and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England."

Among Lytle's old papers, apparently cast aside as trifling waifs, were found many scraps of poetry. Many beautiful selections, which like the foregoing have never seen the light of print, might be made, but we only give the following:

FADED FLOWERS.

Woven of fire, And light, these flowers be emblems of the soul, Whose wing plys ceaselessly to win its goal Till time expire.

Beauty at dawn Was theirs, drunk with rich odors, thieves of hues, Stolen from Iris, reeling with draughts of dews -- At eve, how wan!

Frail flowers! poor heart! Dew, beauty, fragrance, linger till the noon, At eve, conspire to flee your presence soon, At night, depart. So reads the sign- May thy day linger long, whose morn has spoken Hope to the heart, and peace yet unbroken Longer than mine.

William Martin Dickson, lawyer and jurist, was born in Scott county, Indiana, September 19, 1827, of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian stock. His grandfather presided over one parish near Dumfries, Scotland, for over fifty years. He was united

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on his mother's side with the oldest families of Virginia, descendants of the North of Ireland, among whom being the Campbells, Ochiltrees and Lowrys.

He was a lineal descendant of Sir Charles Richardson, the African explorer. His father, a second son, having visited the English Colonies in an official position, drifted to America, met and married Rachel Lowry, near Madison, Ind., and settled in Scott county. Two boys were the issue of this union. In 1837 his father died, leaving a widow, John J., aged thirteen years, and William M., aged eleven, who moved to Hanover, Ind., where there was at that time a good school. The death of the father and the panic at that time had reduced this family to want. The elder brother volunteered to learn a trade, so that his brother, William, the weaker and younger, could attend school. William first attended college at Hanover, which being moved to Madison compelled him to leave home. For the first two years he walked to Madison each Monday morning, carrying on his back the food for the week. By working during vacation, and tutoring, he managed to get enough money to attend college at Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio. Here, by also teach- ing and tutoring in the summer time, he managed to make enough money to gradu- ate from Old Miami in 1846.

While teaching school in vacation, in Kentucky, he studied law; was admitted to practice at Lexington. In 1848 he attended law school at Harvard College. While there, Chief Justice Parker, of New Hampshire, at that time one of the instructors at Harvard, was his preceptor. Justice Parker selected him from a large number of students as an unusually bright, honest young man, and made him one of his own household; treated him as one of his own children. He graduated at Harvard in 1850.

Afterward, withont money, without a friend, alone, with only a letter of introduc- tion from Justice Parker to the late Nathaniel Wright, Dickson came to Cincinnati. Judge Dickson presented this letter to Mrs. Wright who immediately invited him, on account of his past friendship to Judge D. Thew Wright, at Cambridge, to come and live at her house. By tutoring in Judge Wright's family, teaching elsewhere, and by reporting as a space reporter on the old Cincinnati Times, he made a living. While teaching in Kentucky, he had met Annie Maria Parker, and had fallen in love with her; but poverty and the struggle for life had prevented him from asking her to marry him. About this time, Dr. Parker with this daughter, Annie Maria, visited Cincinnati to hear Jenny Lind. Mr. Dickson had bought five tickets on speculation, had sold two for enough to pay for the five, and invited Dr. Parker with his daugh- ter to join him. This daughter, Annie, was a great granddaughter of Gen. Benja- min Logan, of pioneer memory; granddaughter of Col. John Allen, who fell in com- mand of the Kentuckians at River Raisin in 1812; was the own cousin of Mary Todd, the wife of Abraham Lincoln, and cousin of Governor Porter, of Pennsylvania, Justice Marshall, of Pennsylvania, Governor Crittenden, of Missouri, Governor Murray, of Utah, and Logan Murray, of New York.

In 1852 Judge Dickson was married to Annie Maria Parker, and they immedi- ately came to Cincinnati, both almost strangers at this time, and he ran on the In- dependent ticket for prosecuting attorney of the Police Court. To the surprise of all he was elected. He was the first prosecuting attorney of this Court, which during its infancy had many struggles to maintain its jurisdiction. It was Dickson who made this Court its success to-day. During his term of office occurred the famous Bedini riots, and the cry of "Down with the Dutch." Snelbaker was mayor. Dickson, with Frederick Hassaurek and Judge Stallo as advisers, brought about harmony, and, by his uniform just conduct toward the unfortunate Germans, endeared himself to them. After leaving the Police Court, he rapidly rose to the foremost rank among our lawyers. His arguments under the Fugitive Slave Law, and in the celebrated Blind Tom case, were well known.

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. In 1859, he was appointed by Governor Sahnon P. Chase as judge of the Com- mon Ploas Court of Hamilton county, and on February 12 he was sworn into office, succeeding Judge Oliver who had resigned. He was judge of this Court until November 7, 1859, being succeeded by Judge Collins. On account of his extreme youth and younger looks, his appointment as judge was objected to by the older lawyers; but by hard work, uniform just treatment to all, just and fearless decisions, he left the Bench to renew the practice, beloved and respected by all who had come in contact with him.

. During the war, his sympathetic nature made him espouse the cause of the colored man. He took the stump for universal amnesty, liberty and the Union. He partook in his love for the Union of the spirit of Webster, in his love for Aboli- tion, the uncompromising spirit of Sumner. In 1860, he was elected presidential elector for Abraham Lincoln. He refused the position of assistant judge advocate general, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel on the staff of Gen. George B. Mcclellan. He organized the first colored regiment during the war, holding that the colored man was a fit subject to fight for the Union and his own liberty. During the war he was the confidential friend of Lincoln, Stanton and Chase; spent much of his time at Washington, and had much to do in framing the Emancipation Proclamation at the close of the war. His ready pen and active brain were ever employed in the service of his party and his country. His contributions to the Press, and his pamphlets at this time, attracted universal attention. He first secured by law, to the negro, the right to ride in the Cincinnati street cars.

In 1866, at the early age of thirty nine, his health failed him, and travel abroad brought no relief. Notwithstanding his physical suffering, the last twenty-five years of his life were spent in study and writing on public topics. He was a hard student, and particularly loved biography and history. He was a constant writer during these twenty-five years for the magazines of the country, for the daily Press of this and other States, always upon political and social subjects, and always under the initials "W. M. D." His style of writing was peculiarly concise, terse and perspicuous. In all of his writings, that which most impresses one is that he could say more in the fewest words of almost any other writer. In his attacks on monopo- lies, jobbery and public trickery, public dishonesty, office seeking for the mere office, he was never misunderstood. Public dishonesty he could not brook, but for private misfortunes or private wrong, he always had the kindly word, "forgive." Among his correspondents were John and George Carlisle of Scotland, John Bright, Max Müller, Gladstone, John Stuart Mills, Disraeli, William Curtis, Seth Lowe, etc. He was for some years before his death president of the trustees of the Ohio Medical College. His greatest public love was the formation and success of the Republican party.

George William Curtis, in Harper's Weekly of November 2, 1889, among other things, says this of Judge Dickson: "Judge Dickson was a man of that union of deep convictions, cultivated intelligence and intellectual ability, upright character, political courage and independence, which is peculiarly American. His sudden and lamentable death is a distinct loss to the force of the best American citizenship. His name will not pass into our history, but it is such qualities as his that make it."

Mrs. Dickson died March 6, 1885. Judge Dickson was killed October 15, 1889, by an accident on the Mount Auburn Inclined Plane railway, leaving surviving him three children: Parker, William L. (both lawyers of Cincinnati), and one daughter, Jennie.

Jacob Wykoff Piatt was born in Boone county, Ky., in 1801, and died in 1857. He was of French descent. Mr. Piatt received a liberal education, as such matters were measured at that time in the West. He studied law, and began the practice in Cincinnati. As a lawyer he was able and aggressive, his clients never losing any- thing by reason of his lack of zeal and industry, and as a speaker he was fluent,

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forcible and witty. He was the embodiment of industry, pursuing his practice and his other business in an indefatigable manner, which necessarily brought success and prosperity in the accumulation of property. As a lawyer and politician he was particularly popular with his Irish fellow citizens. His sharp style of trying a case, his fluent tongue and his biting sarcasm had an especial charm for the impulsive people of that nationality. This particular following, added to his ability as a speaker, gave Mr. Piatt very considerable influence in the politics of the State. He was an ardent Democrat, fighting for his party with the same zeal he displayed in behalf of his clients. This peculiar intensity of purpose and action he carried into religious matters. He became a Roman Catholic, and for years fought the battles of that Church, when to do so was to incur obloquy.

Mr. Piatt was for several years clerk of the Court of Common Pleas; and also a member of the city council. In the council he was celebrated for his attention to the finances of the city, and for his early and persistent advocacy of a paid fire department. The old volunteer firemen were a political contingent of marked in- fluence, and of rowdy tendency. When Mr. Piatt attacked their organization, he became the object of their dislike, and narrowly escaped their violence. His house was mobbed, and his effigy burned; but his Irish admirers rallied to his defense and dispersed the crowd. The only member of the council who at first had the pluck to stand by Mr. Piatt was Judge Timothy Walker; but in time the new plan was adopted. At the first fire, after the organization of the paid department, the toughs of the old organization appeared in force, to destroy the machine; but Mr. Piatt was on hand with his following of the gentlemen from Cork, and a vigorous application of the shillalalı soon settled the conflict for all time. From that day to th's there has not been a riot among the firemen, and Cincinnati now has an organiza- tion which is the admiration of the world. She owes this necessarily to the ability and pluck of Wykoff Piatt. In this connection, a pen picture by the late Judge Dickson, in 1885, in the Commercial Gazette, well describes the man and his ser- vices to the city.

" Thirty-two years ago, then a very young man, I was prosecuting attorney of the Police Court, and, in connection with my official duties, had often to attend the meetings of council. The figure that arises before me as I recall those meetings is that of a rather tall, slim, erect man, high forehead, long gray hair, gracefully falling on either side, perfectly regular features, handsome mouth, chin and nose, with an alert, keen. penetrating eye, a twinkle in it when lit up by a sarcasm, altogether an imposing, dignified figure-Wykoff Piatt. There he stood with un- quailing courage, the censor of the body, his extended arm, with index finger upon his victim, whom his clear, ringing, military voice was cutting as with a Damascus blade. That victim was always some fraud. His field was the dissection of appro- priation bills. Nothing here was too small for his attention, nor did the larger steals intimidate him. Yet his service was not so much in exposing actual steals, as his presence forbade their attempt."

Mr. Piatt was for years the victim of disease, and his almost constant suffering had much to do with that irritability of temper, and often harshness of expression, which provoked enmity. Whilst quick to anger, he was equally ready to forgive and be forgiven. The sunny side of his nature was turned toward his family, in which he was a devoted son, a protecting brother and a most affectionate and tender husband and father.

William Johnston was born at Shippensburgh, Pennsylvania, April 1, 1804. His parents were Scotch-Irish. They came to Ohio in 1808, and settled on Yellow creek, Jefferson county, where their son was reared to manhood amid the toils, privations and dangers of the backwoods. There were practically no facilities for education; but a far-reaching intellect and an honorable ambition would not permit the pioneer boy to be content with the condition of his surroundings. By the blazing

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fire or the dim tallow dip, he persistently sought knowledge in such books as his limited means enabled him to purchase. Extra work earned him a few dollars each year, which he walked sixteen miles to Steubenville to invest, returning laden with such books as he was able to buy. The Bible, Shakespeare, and other British classics stored his mind, and eminently fitted him for his future career.

He read law at Steubenville, and, when admitted to the Bar, settled at Carroll- ton, Carroll county, where he soon came to be retained on one side or the other of all important litigation. He was elected prosecuting attorney, and, in 1836, to the State House of Representatives. He took a prominent part in the Legislature, and was specially effective in advocacy of a common-school law, and of the abolition of imprisonment for debt. In 1839 he removed to Cincinnati, and during nearly the whole of 1840 was on the stump for Gen. Harrison, making a reputation as an orator scarcely equaled by that of any of the celebrated speakers of that wonderful campaign.

In 1841 he was appointed United States Surveyor-General, and held the position until 1845. Soon after he was elected judge of the old Superior Court of Cincin- nati, which office he filled with marked ability and growing reputation, until he was nominated as the Whig candidate for governor in 1850. His campaign was bril- liant but unsuccessful. In the fall of 1850 Judge Johnston resumed the practice, and for ten years thereafter became widely celebrated as a sound lawyer and as an advocate of unsurpassed ability. He had that peculiar power which enabled him to impress himself upon an audience. No person could listen to him and ever for- get his clearness of logic, his simplicity, and force of style, his vivid flashes of wit, his mirth-provoking humor, his moving elocution. Physically tall and powerful, he possessed a musical and far-reaching voice, a bright blue eye, responding to every motion, and a mobile and expressive face. His chief effort was to convince the intellects of his auditors, but he, at the same time, interested and amused them. He abounded in pertinent anecdote, which he used not only to enliven debate but to illustrate arguments. His occasional sarcasm was scorching, whilst his ready wit scintillated throughout his speeches. Though a very large and generally a slow-moving man, with a deliberate manner, he yet was ever on the alert, and never failed to find and reach the weaker point in his opponent's armor. His blows were with broadswords, but his thrusts were with a sharp rapier, and both were equally hard to parry.

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History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 28

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1592

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592