History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 29

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

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Judge Johnston was a man who paid but little regard to dress or personal appearance, and was usually considered somewhat eccentric. He certainly was not common-place, but was eminently original in style, in appearance, in method of treating a subject, and in delivery. He had a marked personality-so much so that there was an element of the picturesque in his appearance and in his oratory so pronounced as to attract attention and excite remark. But when he addressed an audience, he soon made them forget his peculiarities, and accept his arguments.

In the preparation and trial of cases Judge Johnston was remarkably pains- taking, not trusting to genius but depending on labor for success. His style was simple, and his English such as the most ignorant could understand. He was never obscure, always forcible and often strikingly brilliant.

In 1861 he removed to Washington, where he practiced in the Court of Claims and the Supreme Court. He was appointed by President Lincoln on the commis- sion to revise the statutes of the United States, where he served with ability, dur- ing a term of three years. This was his last public employment. He retired with a modest competence at seventy, and lived the life of a student until he was nearly eighty-eight years of age, bright of intellect until the last.

Alphonso Taft was born November 5, 1810, in the town of Townshend, Wind- ham Co., Vt., the only son of Peter Rawson and Sylvia Howard Taft. The parents both of his father and of his mother had come to Vermont from the town of

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Uxbridge, Worcester Co., Mass. Rhoda Rawson, the mother of Peter Rawson Taft, was a descendant of Edward Rawson, who came from England to New Eng- land in 1636, and was for thirty-five years secretary of the Colony of Massachu- setts. Aaron Taft, the father of Peter Rawson Taft, was educated at Princeton College. Meeting with severe losses in Massachusetts, he took his family to Ver- mont. Peter Rawson Taft was reared a farmer with but a common-school educa- tion. He was a man of intellectual tastes and capacity, and educated himself after leaving school, so that he subsequently was admitted to Bar, and practiced law. He served many years in the Vermont Legislature, and was judge of the Probate and County Courts of Windham county, in that State.

Alphonso Taft was also brought up on a farm, and until his sixteenth year attended the neighboring county schools. He then went to Amherst Academy at Amherst, Mass., paying the expenses of his tuition by teaching school at his home in Vermont during the winter. His experience at Amherst Academy made him ambitious for an education at a larger institution, and in his nineteenth year he entered Yale College. His summer vacations he spent in working upon the farm of his father. To save traveling expenses he walked from New Haven to Townshend and back. By close economy he was able to support himself through college, and was graduated with high honor among the first half dozen of his class in 1833. Prof. James Dana, the great geologist, was a member of his class, and he and Mr. Taft remained warm friends through life. For two years after graduation Mr. Taft taught in the high school at Ellington, Conn. While there he became inter- ested in St. John Eldridge, one of his pupils. Eldridge's father had been in easy circumstances, but, while his son was at Ellington, suddenly lost his entire fortune. Mr. Taft's affection and admiration for Eldridge, as a manly boy and scholar, led him to pay Eldridge's expenses through Yale College, where Eldridge was grad- uated as the first scholar of his class. It was Mr. Taft's purpose to associate Eld- ridge with him in the practice of the law, but Eldridge died very shortly after his graduation from Yale. Mr. Taft served as a tutor at Yale for two years after leav- ing Ellington, and at the same time attended the Yale Law School, was graduated there and was admitted to the Bar of Connecticut in 1838. After visiting several of the cities of the West, Mr. Taft finally settled in Cincinnati in 1839. He had been, earlier in the same year, admitted to the Bar of Ohio, at Zanesville. His diligence, earnestness, education, and ability soon brought him a lucrative practice. He had associated with him as partners at different times in his career of thirty- four years at the Bar, Thomas M. Key, William M. Dickson, Patrick Mallon, Aaron F. Perry, George R. Sage, his sons Charles P. and Peter R. Taft, and H. P. Lloyd. Mr. Key first entered Mr. Taft's office as a law student in 1842; Mr. Perry had been his class-mate in the Yale Law School. The partnership with Maj. H. P. Lloyd began in 1877, after Mr. Taft returned from Washington, and continued until April, 1882, when he went abroad. During a practice of over thirty-five years Judge Taft was engaged in many important cases. He was retained by the execu- tors under the will of Charles McMicken, to defend the validity of the devise by Mr. McMicken of more than a half million of dollars to the city of Cincinnati, to found a university for the free education of the youth of the city. The case was argued before Mr. Justice McLean in the Circuit Court, and the devise was sus- tained. The case was then carried on appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States where Thomas Ewing appeared in behalf of the contestants. The case was not unlike in some respects the famous Girard College will case, in which Mr. Binney and Mr. Webster had appeared. The learning and ability, displayed by Mr. Taft in the preparation of the brief and the argument in this case, which in- volved a laborious examination of the subject of religious and eleemosynary trusts under the statute of the 43d Elizabeth, called forth from the Bench expressions of high appreciation. The opinion of the Court sustained the validity of the gift of

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

Mr. McMicken. Another important case in which Mr. Taft appeared as counsel, in the later years of his practice, was the suit brought to test the constitutionality of the bill authorizing the issuance by the city of Cincinnati of two million dollars of bonds for the completion of the Cincinnati Southern railroad. Mr. Taft was re- tained by the trustees of the Southern road to test the constitutionality of the bill. The case was heard first in the general term of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, where the constitutionality of the act was sustained, and this judgment was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Ohio.

In 1864 Judge Taft was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Superior Court of Cincinnati, and declined the appointment. In 1865 Judge George Hoadly resigned from the Superior Court, and Mr. Taft was again invited by Governor Cox to a seat upon the Bench. This appointment he accepted. At the next spring election he was elected to serve until 1869, when he was re-elected, having the honor, at that time rare, of receiving the unanimous vote of both political parties. In 1873 Judge Taft resigned, and entered the practice with his two sons, Charles and Peter. Many important cases were decided by him while on the Bench. He brought to the dis- charge of his duties the most unwearied industry and the greatest care. He an- nounced the decision at the general term of the Superior Court in the case involving the constitutionality of the original Southern Railroad bill under which ten million dollars of bonds were issued to construct the road which has done so much to develop the trade and increase the business growth of Cincinnati. Another, and perhaps the best known of the causes which came before the Superior Court while Judge Taft was on the Bench, was what was called the Bible case. It was a suit brought to. enjoin the School Board of Cincinnati from amending the rules which governed the public schools by striking out the clause providing that the Bible should be read at the opening exercises of each school. The Superior Court in general term then consisted of Judge Bellamy Storer, Judge Taft and Judge Hagans. The majority of the court, Judges Storer and Hagans, held that the school board had no power to amend the rules as proposed, and granted the injunction. Judge Taft delivered a dissenting opinion in which he decided :- First, that the school board had the power to amend the rules and strike out the clause proposed; and, Second, that the constitution of the State did not recognize the Christian religion any more than it recognized the religion of any of the other citizens of the State, not Christians; that it was proper that the clause proposed should be stricken out because the King James version of the Bible was not accepted by the large Roman Catholic population as the true Bible, and because the New Testament taught doctrines not believed in by the Jew- ish part of the population. The Supreme Court of Ohio unanimously reversed the decree of the court below, and sustained Judge Taft in his dissenting opinion by following substantially his course of reasoning therein.

Mr. Taft was long interested in politics, having been an earnest member of the Whig party from the time of the campaign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," in 1840. He was a strong friend, great admirer and frequent correspondent of Mr. Webster, and voted for Mr. Webster as candidate for the Presidency in the National Conven- tion of the Whig party. In 1856 he was a member of the National Convention which nominated John C. Fremont for President, and thus was present at the birth of the Republican party. In the same year he became a candidate for Congress on the Republican ticket in the First Ohio District against George H. Pendleton, by whom he was defeated. In 1875 Judge Taft was a candidate before the Ohio Re- publican Convention for governor of Ohio. He was defeated in the contest by Hon. Rutherford B. Hayes, who subsequently became President. In 1879 Judge Taft was again a candidate for the governorship against Hon. Charles Foster, and was defeated by seven votes. In each of these contests, the position of Judge Taft upon the question of the reading of the Bible in the public schools was the chief argument against his nomination. It was said by his opponents that though the

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decision had been confirmed unanimously by the Supreme Court, it would nevertheless cost the Republican party many votes to nominate him. On the 7th of March, 1876, Judge Taft was appointed, by President Grant, Secretary of War. He re- mained in the War office until May of the same year, when he was appointed Attor- ney-General to succeed Judge Edwards Pierpont. He remained in the latter posi- tion (one much more suited to his tastes than that of Secretary of War) until the close of President Grant's administration. In April, 1882, Judge Taft was ap- pointed, by President Arthur, Minister of the United States to Austria. He resided at Vienna until the summer of 1884, when he was tendered the appointment as minister to Russia, which appointment he accepted. He remained in Russia until the fall of 1885, and then returned to Cincinnati.

Judge Taft was a man of the greatest public spirit, and throughout his life was constantly engaged in helping works of public benefit. He and his first wife were very active in the founding and construction of the House of Refuge of Cincinnati, and he delivered the opening address upon the opening of that institution which has since saved so many waifs from sin and misery for useful lives.

Very early in his Cincinnati life, he served as a member of the city council. He was the champion of the annexation party, so-called, which advocated the extension of the city limits north of Liberty street one mile to what is now known as McMillan street. The proposition was defeated in one council of which he was a member, and the Whig party refused to nominate him to succeed himself. He thereupon ran on an independent ticket, and was elected, and in the succeeding council the annexation ordinance was passed. He was, while in council, very active in advancing the interests of the city by the building of railroads. He was for many years a director in the Little Miami railroad, representing, as such, the interests of the city, which was a stockholder in the road. In 1850 he delivered to the Mercantile Library Association a lecture entitled " Cincinnati and her railroads," in which he demon- strated the great importance to the city of having as many railroads as possible radiating from it as a center in every direction. The prophecies of that lecture have all been fulfilled. He was one of the prominent incorporators of the Ohio & Mississippi railroad, and acted as its counsel for many years. He was a member of the first Board of Directors of the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad, and spent much time and labor in carrying through that enterprise in spite of many obstructions.

Judge Taft was also an earnest supporter of the proposition that the city should build the Cincinnati Southern railway. He took part as a member of the Superior Court of Cincinnati in the appointment of the first board of trustees of the South- ern road, and upon his retirement from the Bench he was himself appointed a trustee of the road in 1875, a position which he resigned when called into the cabi- net of President Grant. He was one of the projectors and the first president of the Mt. Auburn Street railroad, the first street railroad to connect the beautiful hill suburbs with the city of Cincinnati itself. This was the railroad from which sprung the incline plane system, and the extensive net work of suburban street railways which is such a prominent feature of the city's life to-day.

Any sketch of Judge Taft's long and useful life would be quite defective which did not contain an allusion to his interest in, and devotion to, the cause of education in the city of his adoption and the country at large. He was one of the trustees of the original Woodward fund, and was for more than twenty years an active and useful member of the Union Board of High Schools of the city of Cincinnati. As already stated, as counsel he defended the McMicken bequest to found the Univer- sity of Cincinnati, and he was thereafter appointed a trustee of the university by the city council; participated in the organization of the institution, and was for sev- eral years the president of the board. As already stated, he was a graduate at Yale of 1833, and of the Yale Law School. His five sons were graduated from the same university-the eldest in 1864 and the youngest in 1883. Judge Taft himself

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received the degree of LL. D. from Yale in 1867. In the year 1873, when by the law of Connecticut it was provided that six members of the corporation of Yale College should be chosen from the Alumni of the college by vote, Judge Taft was elected to a seat in the corporation which he hield for three years, and was then re-elected for a subsequent term of six years. He declined the second re-election because he was then going abroad.

While in Russia Judge Taft contracted the disease of typhoid pneumonia, and for weeks his life was despaired of. His strong constitution, however, enabled him to partially recover his strength. In 1886 he returned to his home considerably shattered in health. He remained in Cincinnati until 1890, enjoying his leisure time in classical and other studies. In the winter of 1889-90 his health became so poor that upon the advice of his physician lie went to San Diego, Cal. There he was able to live for about two years longer. He died May 30, 1891, in the eighty-first year of his age.

Judge Taft was a member of the First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati. In the schism which occurred in that church during the ministry of Rev. Moncure D. Conway, Judge Taft was of those who supported Mr. Conway. A man of studious habits and wide reading, he retained his familiarity with the classics throughout his busy career. He was a man of singularly sweet and gentle nature, but he united with this a firmness of purpose and a courage of his convictions which, with his ability, learning, and power of application, made him one of the foremost men in the State and country.

Judge Taft married his first wife, Miss Fannie Phelps, of Townshend, Vt., in 1841; she died in 1852 leaving two sons, Charles Phelps and Peter Rawson. In 1854 he married Miss Louise M. Torrey, of Millbury, Mass., who survives him. By her he had four children: William H., Henry W., Horace D. and Fannie Louise. Charles Phelps Taft was admitted to the Bar, and practiced with his father, but subsequently became and is now the managing editor and proprietor of the Cincin- nati Times-Star. Peter Rawson Taft, the second son, was a member of the Bar for a number of years, and died in June, 1889. The third son, William H., also became a member of the Bar, and is now one of the United States circuit judges for the Sixth Circuit. The fourth son, Henry W. Taft, is a practicing lawyer in the city of New York. Horace D. Taft, the fifth and youngest son, studied law and was admitted to the Bar, but subsequently became a tutor in Yale College, and is now proprietor and head of a preparatory school for boys at Watertown, Conn. Fannie Louise, the only daughter, was married, during Judge Taft's residence in San Diego, to Dr. William A. Edwards, of that city, where she now resides.

Stanley Matthews was born July 21, 1824, in Cincinnati. His parents were Thomas J. Matthews (a native of Leesburg, Va., who came to Cincinnati in 1818) and Isabella Matthews, the daughter of Col. William Brown, a pioneer who came from Connecticut and settled in Columbia in 1788. His early boyhood was passed in Lexington, Ky., where his father was professor of mathematics in Transylvania University. In 1832, however, his parents took up their residence again in Cincin- nati, and from that time until 1839 he attended Woodward High School, of which his father was president. At the latter date he entered Kenyon College, from which institution he was graduated with honors in 1840. He especially excelled in clas- sics. To his study of these he largely owed the power of clear and terse expression for which he became noted at the Bar and upon the Bench. For two years after graduation from college he prosecuted his legal studies in Cincinnati. From 1842 to 1844 he resided in Maury county, Tenn., teaching school. During his residence there he married the daughter of James Black, Esq., of that county, and com- menced the practice of the law. He also edited while there a weekly newspaper called the Tennessee Democrat.

In 1845, having returned to Cincinnati, he was admitted to the practice of the

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law here. His first employment at the Bar was as assistant prosecuting attorney of Hamilton county. In November, 1846, he became the principal editor of the Cincin- nati Morning Herald, a newspaper devoted to the peaceful and constitutional extinc- tion of slavery. He continued to edit this paper for about a year and until its pub- lication was suspended. He was elected clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives at the session of 1848-49, during which Salmon P. Chase was elected United States Senator. In 1850 he resumed the practice of the law at Cincinnati, and in 1851 was elected one of the three common pleas judges of this county. He remained upon the Bench until January 1, 1853, when he resigned, and for seven or eight years practiced law as the junior member of the firm of Worthington & Matthews. In 1855, he was elected to the Senate of Ohio from this county, and served one term. From 1858 until 1861 he served as United States district attorney, by appointment of President Buchanan. Upon the breaking out of the Civil war he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty-third Regiment, O. V. I. In October, 1861, he became colonel of the Fifty-first Regiment O. V. I., and served with his regiment as a part of the army of the Cumberland in Kentucky and Tenn- essee. In April, 1863, while in camp, he was elected judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati. This judicial office he filled until July, 1865, when he resigned to resume the practice of the law. It is perhaps unnecessary to say that he at once took a leading position at the Bar. He represented many of the most important corporations in the county. In 1872 he was a member of the Liberal Republican Convention, a body of men who, actuated by the purest and most patriotic motives, succeeded in making themselves absolutely ridiculous, when they nominated, for President, Horace Greeley, upon a free-trade platform. There can be no doubt but that that galling iniquity hurried the philosopher of the New York Tribune to his untimely grave.

Judge Matthews was temporary chairman of that wonderful convention, a con- vention that contained more incongruous elements than were ever assembled since the Tower of Babel. The noise, confusion, and disorder that prevailed, was such as might have been expected from a collection of several hundred politicians, all of whom prided themselves upon the fact that they were men of independent thought and action, and no two of whom could agree upon any proposition under the sun. The temporary chairman was driven almost to distraction by the universal and bel- ligerent uproar of the occasion. Mr. Lyman Trumbull, of the Illinois delegation, was making a speech upon one side of the House, and upon the other Col. Alexander McClure, of the Pennsylvania delegation, arose and frantically exclaimed: "Mr. President, we can't hear a word the gentleman is saying." In stentorian tones the temporary chairman shouted back: "It is not important that you should." The laugh that followed quelled the disorder. Judge Matthews did not support Mr. Greeley in the ensuing canvass, but threw his great influence in favor of Gen. Grant. Judge Matthews, before the Electoral Commission, was counsel for Gen. Hayes. Thereafter he was senator from Ohio, as successor to John Sherman. In May, 1881, President Garfield nominated him to the position of associate. justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a position which he held until his death, March 22, 1889.

The Bar of Hamilton county has, without doubt, produced many, very many, distinguished men. Judge Timothy Walker was one. He was a man plain of speech, and his statement of a case was so simple that one was unconsciously led to accept his conclusions. He was effective as a speaker because he made no display of language, or of rhetoric. He was, by appointment, a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, where his term of service gave him increased reputation. His book on " American Law" should be read by every student; as an introductory work, there is no other like it.

Bryant Walker was for a short time judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati.

John F. Follett

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He was a young man of brilliant qualities. He inherited his father's clear, power- ful intellect. Like all men of genius, ability or intelligence, he participated in the war of the Rebellion. Upon July 22, 1864, he was wounded, desperately wounded, in front of Atlanta. He was at one time city solicitor, and was one of those of whom it may be said, he held an important municipal position without reproach. He was able in the trial of a case, and could try it with all the power there was in him, and yet not derogate from the character of a gentleman.

Henry Stanberry was a lawyer of eminent ability. He was from the celebrated Lancaster Bar, which numbered among its members such men as Thomas Ewing, Hocking H. Hunter, Philadelphia Van Trump, Samuel F. Vinton, John L. Brazee, and others who were distinguished in the profession. Mr. Stanberry was a member of the Constitutional convention that formed the Constitution of 1851. He was Attorney-General under Andrew Johnson, and was the main-stay of the defense in the impeachment of the President. He was not an actor in political life, but devoted himself almost exclusively to his profession.

Charles Fox was at one time a judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati. He was originally a carpenter by trade, and came to this city about 1820. He probably practiced law for a longer period of time than any man who has been a member of this Bar, and at one time did an immense business. His name appeared upon the docket, upon one side or the other, of most of the cases that were tried in court.

As an astute jury lawyer, and for success in the trial of cases, few men have equaled Isaac M. Jordan. Bold, ready, with a quickness of perception that saw every- thing in a flash, a poise that was never thrown off its balance, he was a terrible adversary. He and his brother, Jackson M. Jordan, were a leading firm at the Bar.

Piatt was always a celebrated name in Hamilton county. The brothers John H. and Ben. M. Piatt were early settlers in the West, and identified with its his- tory in every stage of progress. Donn Piatt was one of the early judges of the Court of Common Pleas under the new constitution. The practice of law, however, was not congenial to his tastes. He first distinguished himself as a journalist. He was a correspondent of leading newspapers, and his pen became famous. Wit, humor, sarcasm, invective, there was no phase of style that was not his own. He was secretary of legation at Paris, and spent some time abroad. During the war he was Gen. Schenck's chief of staff. Those who were familiar with Donn Piatt's keen sense of a joke will easily understand whence originated the idea which prompted Gen. Schenck's brilliant stroke of strategy in Baltimore. Butler had made himself famous by his woman's order, in New Orleans; Gen. Schenck encoun- tered the same difficulty, when in command at Baltimore, but he treated it in a dif- ferent way. In Baltimore as in New Orleans the soldiers could resent insults from the men, but with the women rebels it was different. To knock them down was hardly in accord with the highest notions of etiquette, and so the gentler sex flashed their secession flags, and spit in the officers' faces to such an extent that it verged upon the unpleasant. At last they got to wearing rebel colors, and promenading the streets in costume. Gen. Schenck employed a number of the most noted women of the town, hiring them to array themselves with elegance, and to parade the streets, with the rebel colors conspicuously displayed. Whenever they met with one of the ladies of Baltimore wearing similar badges, they saluted her effusively, embracing her with emotion as a "Sister in the Holy Cause." The women of Bal- timore were effectually suppressed.

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History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 29

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