USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of Dayton, Ohio. With portraits and biographical sketches of some of its pioneer and prominent citizens Vol. 2 > Part 14
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Judge Jordan displayed from the start some of the very best qualities of a judge. He was methodical, courteous, very attentive, and patient in the hearing of cases. He was prompt and diligent in investigation and decision, and for the brief period he occupied the bench, increased the reputation he had acquired at the bar as a clear-headed and energetic lawyer.
At the regular annual election, succeeding Judge Jordan's appoint- ment, Thomas O. Lowe was elected judge of the Superior court, which position he held and adorned until 1876. Ile sustained the high reputation of the court and fully entitled himself to.be esteemed as a faithful, able, and honest judge. After the expiration of his term, he continued a few years at the bar, and became afterwards a regularly ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church, which position he still fills with rare ability and acceptance.
In 1881, Judge Haynes was again elected to the Superior court bench and served one term, at the expiration of which he was succeeded by Hon. Dennis Dwyer, who held the position until the court passed out of existence in the year 1886, and was superseded by an additional court of common pleas for Montgomery County, of which Judge Dwyer became judge by popular election, and which place he still holds,
Judge Dwyer's official characteristics are carefulness and diligence in the hearing and examination of cases, courtesy to the bar and all others engaged in the administration of justice, and unimpeachable uprightness of character.
The probate court of Montgomery County was organized under the provisions of the fourth article of the State constitution, and went into operation in 1852. Youngs V. Wood was elected as its first judge, assum- ing office in February, 1852, and was succeeded by Joseph G. Crane in 1855. In 1858, James II. Baggott was elected judge, and was succeeded by Samuel Boltin who continued to discharge the duties of probate judge until 1867. Dennis Dwyer was elected in the fall of 1866, and held the position continuously for three terms, up to 1875, when John L. II. Frank was elected for two successive terms. Judge Frank was sneceeded,
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HISTORY OF DAYTON.
in 1882, by W. D. Mekemy, who still most acceptably discharges the duties of the office.
PERSONNEL OF THE DAYTON BAR .- For the purposes of this skeich, I have divided the members of the Dayton bar into three groups, to-wit:
First, those who were admitted and practiced law here previous to 1840.
1 Second, those who were admitted and practiced after 1840, and up to 1860.
Third, those who were admitted after 1860, and up to the present time.
The following, or first group, may be properly classified as the original Dayton bar:
Anderson, Charles *Fales, Stephen *Fenn, Ira S. Hart, Ralph S.
*Bacon, Henry
*Bacon, Henry Jr., *Blodgett, Wm. II. *Bomberger, Geo. WV. *Brown, Robert P. *Bruen, David H. *Crane, Joseph II. *Crane, William E. *Davies, Edward W.
*Helfenstein, Win. L. *Holt, George B. *Huffman, William P. *Lowe, Peter P. *Lowe, Ralph P. *McKinney, Wm. J. *Munger, Warren
*Odlin, Peter Schenck, Robert C. *Shedd, James A. *Smith, William W. *Smith, Edwin *Smith, Thomas J. S. *Stoddard, Henry *Thruston, Robert A. *Van Cleve, John. W. *Whitcher, Stephen
All the above named members were living in the year 1840, except General William M. Smith, Henry Bacon, Robert A. Thruston, William HI. Blodgett, and Stephen Whiteher.
Now, in 1889, but three are surviving-General Schenek, Governor Anderson, and Judge Hart. John W. Van Cleve, Edwin Smith, and William P. Huffman were never in active practice.
The second group is comprised in the following alphabetical list: *Ackerman, John J. Boltin, Samuel ¡Brown, George W. Baggott, James II. ¡Bartlett, William C. *Bruen, Luther B. *Booth, Ely *Belville, W. II. ¡Bond, I. M. ¡Brown, William E. 1Butterfield, M. Q.
Craighead, Samuel Craighead, William *Clegg, John *Cappy, F. P. *Conover, Wilbur *Clay, Adam *Collins, Francis *Chipman, W. W. *Crane, Joseph G. *Cahill, Abraham Corwin, Robert G.
Corwin, David B. *Curwen, Maskell E. *Darst, Samuel B. ¡Douglass, John G. Elliott, Henderson
*Ewing, Joseph II. ¡Ells, George W. FElls, Stewart *Fry, J. Harrison *Forsyth, E. J. *Fitch, D. G.
1
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THE BENCH AND BAR.
*Fox, F. C. *Graham, J. V. L. *Gilman, W. II. *Garst, Michael ¡Gates, Leo ¡Gebhart, Simon Gunckel, Lewis B.
*Giddings, Luther Haynes, Danicl A. *Howard, John Houk, David A. Hlouk, George W. *Iddings, D. W. *Jeffords, Elza ¡Jordan, Jackson A. ¡Jordan, Isaac M. ¡Jordan, Nathan E. ¡Kiersted, Isaac II. *Kelly, James *Kelly, Patrick ¡Knox, I. Riley *King, Edward A. *Kennedy, Gilbert ¡Lowe, John G. *Lowe, John W. *Lowe, Jacob D.
¡Lowe, Thomas O. *Lord, JI. V. R. *Lovell, Josiah +Lyman, A. O. McMahon, John A. Malambre, George W. * Smith, Lucius Q. ¡MeMaster, John M. ¡Smith, J. MeLain ¡Smith, Samuel B. ¡Smith, Jas. Manning Sullivan, S. M.
*Moyer, George W. Munger, Warren *McCorkle, J. W. Nolan, M. P. *Nead, Daniel P. +Osborn, William *Parrott, Mareus J. ¡Parrott, Edwin A. ¡Parrott, Charles Pfonts, Lewis R. *Plunkett, Joseph *Powell, Thomas *Piper, William II. ¡Robertson, Isaac
*Scott, John *Scott, A. M. ¡Shaw, George W. *Strong, Iliram. ¡Stoddard, Henry, Jr.
¡Stoddard, John W. ¡Simms, William II. ¡Starr, George W. ¡Sullivan, Theodore iSwallem, E. C.
¡Snyder, Jacob *Taylor, DI. J. C. Thresher, Thomas F. Thompson, W. P. ¡Thruston, Gates P. ¡Tyler, Reuben *Tilton, Thomas B. *Vallandigham, C. L. *Wood, Youngs V. +Wood, Frederick L. ¡Walker, Moses B. *Walker, George 7Williams, Israel ¡Weakley, IL. IL. ¡Weaver, George *Young, E. Stafford.
The third group is composed of the following list.( since 1860):
Conover, Frank Corwin, Thomas Craighead, Charles A.
Crickmore, L. S.
Dale, Charles W. Davisson, Oscar F.
*Baggott, John S. , Belville, Wickliffe
Brotherton, Theo. W. Brown, Oren B. Carr, S. Il. Clay, Amos K.
Allaman, D. W. ¡Allisou, Daniel K. *Brumbaugh, Lee Bauman, C. L. Baldwin, Cyrus II. Breene, Frank S. *Belville, J. J. *Delaney, Edward *Dechant, W. L. *Dravenstadt, I. B. ¡Dunlevy, John C. Dustin, Charles W. *Ellis, Diram W. Finch, Charles W.
Garst, Jasper
Gebhart, Fred. W. Gottschall, O. M. Greer, John E. ¡Gunekel, Patrick II. ¡Henderson, S. J. HITosier, Frank M Hanitch, John *Hallinan, John Hallinan, Walter A. Hershey, B. F. ¡Howard, William C. Hartranft, Uriah C.
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HISTORY OF DAYTON.
¡HInesman, Aloise
¡Mount, William ¡Marshall, A. L.
Iddings, Charles D.
Iddings, William B.
Nevin, Robert M.
¡Jackson, Samuel B.
Nolan, Harry F.
Jones, Walter D.
Nolan, Christian M.
Jeffreys, James O. Kennedy, Grafton C. Kerr, E. II.
Kern, Albert
Nutt, John M. *O'Driscoll, D. TOram, John L. ¡Owen, Benjamin F. Patterson, J. C.
Thompson, Elihu
Kumler, A. W.
VanSkaik, William II.
Kumler, Charles H.
Parker, Granville
¡Vallandigham, C. N. Williamson, T. S.
¡Keating, Thomas J. Lichliter, J. II. ¡Lefevre, O. E.
+Peck, C. M. Payne, E. D. Rowe, Edward L.
. Waltmirc, Charles A. Warrington, Geo. O.
. Marshall, R. D. McDermont, Horace
McKee, Charles J.
Russell, William IL.
Wortman, James A.
McKemy, D. W.
Robert, J. A.
Winters, A. A.
*McKemy, John C.
Ritchie, William
Winters, Charles II.
*Manning, J. S.
Murray, L. G. Matthews, Edwin P.
Sage, II. II. Shauck, John A.
Young, George R.
*Sharts, J. W. Young, William II.
Schuster, John
Young, James C.
Shucy, Webster W. *Zeller, D. M.
These lists give the aggregate number of those who have been mem- bers of the Dayton bar since the organization of the county-281.
Of the first group, there are only three survivors; of the second group, thirty-three, and of the third, seventy-five.
A large number, embraced in the aggregate, have retired from the practice to engage in other business, or have removed from the county and are in practice elsewhere-all such are marked with ; and those who are deceased are marked with *.
Of those now surviving, four are exercising judicial functions, to-wit: John A. Shauck, circuit judge; Henderson Elliott, common pleas judge; Dennis Dwyer, common pleas judge, and W. D. MeKemy, probate judge.
Of the first group, one, Charles Anderson, became governor of Ohio upon the death of John Brough in 1863. Four served as judges of the court of common pleas, to-wit: Joseph II. Crane, R. S. Hart, William
Waymire, O. P.
Romspert, A. II.
Weaver, W. I.
¡ Wood, E. M.
*Mory, Bert C. Mumma, James A. Murphy, Barry S. ¡Schaffer, S. O.
Shuey, Philip M. *Sigman, W. II. ¡South, Philip G. Smith, Sumner 'T. Sprigg, John M. Sullivan, William B.
Swadener, Charles E.
¡Showers, Frank
Prugh, Harry I.
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THE BENCH AND BAR.
L. Helfenstein, and George B. Holt. Two were members of Congress- Joseph II. Crane and Robert C. Schenck. Eleven were at different periods members of the State legislature of Ohio-viz .: Charles Anderson, Joseph II. Crane, George B. Holt, Peter P. Lowe, W. J. Mckinney, Peter Odlin, Robert C. Schenck, General Smith, Edwin Smith, Thomas J. S. Smith, Henry Stoddard, and Robert A. Thruston.
Of the second group, three were members of Congress -- viz .: Lewis B. Gunekel, John A. McMahon, and C. L. Vallandigham. Four were judges of the superior court-Daniel A. Haynes, Dennis Dwyer, Jackson A. Jordan, and Thomas O. Lowe. Two were judges of the court of common pleas-Henderson Elliott and Dennis Dwyer, both now in office, and four were judges of the court of probate --- Youngs V. Wood, Joseph. G. Crane, Samuel Boltin, and James H. Baggott. Ten were members of the general assembly of Ohio-viz .: W. H. Belville, F. P. Cuppy, . David B. Corwin, L. B. Gunckel, Daniel A. Haynes, George W. Houk, Marcus J. Parrott, E. A. Parrott, J. McLain Smith, Thomas F. Thresher, and Moses B. Walker.
In the War of the Rebellion, three members of the Dayton bar became generals-Robert C. Schenck, Gates P. Thruston, and Moses B. Walker. Eleven were colonels-Charles Anderson, Edward A. King (commanding a brigade when he was killed), Hiram Strong, M. P. Nolan, Edwin A. Parrott, John G. Lowe, Samuel B. Smith, John W. Lowe, and H. HI. Sage. Three were majors-Luther B. Bruen, Danich O'Driscoll, and W. H. Sigman. Three were captains-E. M. Wood, S. B. Jackson, and George W. Brown. Two were lieutenants-O. M. Gottschall, and William Howard; and two were sergeants-Elihu Thomp- son, and William Craighead.
Although the bar embraced, during the term which I have assigned to the first or original class of lawyers, only about an average of ten to twenty active practitioners, and during the next period, from 1840 to 1860, not to exceed double that number, which increased, after 1860, to some fifty or sixty, the brief statistical facts I have detailed of the impor- tant public services performed by its members, indicate to a considerable extent their general character, ability, and spirit.
My personal recollections of the original Dayton bar extend as far back as 1840. At that time the leading firms were Crane & Davies, Odlin & Schenek, Stoddard & Haynes. Messrs. Peter P. Lowe, Charles Anderson, W. J. MeKinney, and George W. Bomberger, were also in active practice. Riding the judicial cireuit on horseback was still the custom. Regular terms of court were held in Greenville, Eaton, Troy, Sidney, and St. Mary's, which some, at least, of the Dayton lawyers
488
HISTORY OF DAYTON.
regularly attended. Beyond St. Mary's, and as far north as Defiance and Toledo, the wilderness was unbroken. . The roads were through the woods, almost impassable at times, and the streams generally without bridges. I have made diligent efforts, I regret to say without success, to perpetuate the recollection of, or rather to rescue from oblivion some of the experiences of the members of our early bar, in this method of Jaw practice which has long since passed away never to return. I have appealed to my honored friends, General Schenck and Governor Ander- son, to enable me to embody in this very brief and imperfect memorial sketch of the Dayton bar, some of their recollections which I am sure would have been as entertaining in substance, as charming in style. But the increasing infirmities of advancing age were pleaded alike by both, and we are only left to lament that such men have to grow old.
General Schenck, however, was kind enough to supply me with a . few brief notes in regard to some of the more prominent members of the bar when he came to Dayton in 1831, and commenced the practice with Judge Crane.
HIe says: " The leading and most prominent members of the Dayton bar at that time were Joseph II. Crane, Henry Bacon, Henry Stoddard, Peter P. Lowe, Judge Holt, Edward W. Davies, Thomas J. S. Smith, and Robert A. Thruston.
" Judge Crane was at that time regarded as the father of the Mont- gomery County bar, not only for his age, but for his ripe and profound" learning in lis profession. * * Outside of mere professional and technical learning, he was a man of wide and varied reading, and prodigious memory, especially familiar with English history, and the English classics and poets.
" Henry Bacon under a careless personal appearance and dress, and sometimes moody manner, concealed much force and keenness, and waked up sometimes in addressing a jury, especially as a prosecutor in criminal cases, to flashes of eloquence.
" Henry Stoddard, without special brilliancy, was a most industrious, methodical, painstaking, and successful practitioner. He was particularly distinguished for the care with which he hunted up and prepared all the evidence in his cases.
"Peter P. Lowe, although without the benefit or advantage of carly education and training, and not, in any sense, a profound or discriminating student of his profession, was remarkable for his shrewdness and perti- nacity. He always knew men better than books or principles, and went for winning, and generally did win. If there was a prejudice or passion in the mind of a juror to be appealed to, he was pretty sure to find it out.
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THE BENCH AND BAR.
"Judge Holt had been a student and well-trained, but I suspect did not keep up his reading. He improved his opportunities by being on the bench. He was adroit and shrewd.
"Edward W. Davies was a careful, exact, business-like lawyer, cool, calm, and always respected.
"Thomas J. S. Smith was a good deal of a student, trained and measured in manner, safe though not brilliant.
"Robert A. Thruston was the most strikingly brilliant and fluent speaker among them all. He was varied in accomplishment, a fine belles lettres scholar, with high social knowledge; and with a command of language, polished diction, and glowing manner, which raised him to the quality of an orator in a superior sense. He was besides a charming gentleman personally."
I have been most happy as well as fortunate to obtain from General Schenck this estimate of the prominent members of the early Dayton bar. It possesses especial value by reason of his own long association and varied experience with distinguished men in public life.
Joseph H. Crane, who received General Schenck as a partner in the practice of the law, when, as a young man, he came to Dayton in the year 1831, was the first member of the Dayton bar. He came to Dayton in the year 1804, at the age of about thirty years. He had studied law with Aaron Ogden, governor of New Jersey, an officer in the Revolutionary War, an able lawyer, and a distinguished statesman. .
The Federal Government had only been in operation fifteen years under the constitution, when Judge Crane . came to the West, then literally a wilderness. He became at once the trusted attorney and legal counselor of Daniel C. Cooper and his associates, the original proprietors and projectors of the new town of Dayto 1.
Of course, at that early period, Ohio having been admitted as a State into the Union ouly two years before, there was but little call for the pro- fessional services of a lawyer in general practice; but in those early years of the Republic, when States were being organized, communities forming, the foundations of local and municipal institutions being laid, and methods of procedure established, men of trained minds, of legal learning, men instructed in the principles of the new representative system of Federal and State government, and in the history of English constitutional liberty, were of the class most in requisition.
To this class belonged Joseph II. Crane. He was in the first flush of a vigorous manhood; of large frame and commanding presence. He came from a family identified with the heroic struggle for American inde- pendence. His father was an officer in the Revolution, and in the service 35
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HISTORY OF DAYTON.
under Washington lost a leg in the battle of Brandywine, at the head of his regiment.
He was nearly grown when the convention assembled which framed the Federal constitution in 1787, and attained bis majority during the second term of General Washington as president of the United States.
Ilis preeminent purity of character, his superior learning and ability as a lawyer, were at once recognized by the little community of pioncers, with whom he determined to cast his fortunes.
At the first convention ever held in Montgomery County in 1809, he was nominated for a seat in the general assembly of Ohio, was elected, and rendered an almost invaluable service to the State and the legal pro- fession, as the author of what was termed the Practice Act-under which legal proceedings in the State were regulated until the adoption of the constitution of 1851.
From 1813 to 1816 he acted as prosecuting attorney, and in 1817 was elevated to the judgeship. In this capacity he rendered valuable and satisfactory service until the year 1828, when he was elected to Congress, where he served eight years, at the expiration of which period he with- drew from public life and resumed the practice of his profession in Dayton.
To the end of his illustrious and blameless life, he was universally. venerated in the community with which he had been so long and honorably identified.
ITis great ability as a lawyer was recognized not only by bis associates at home, but by all the most distinguished lawyers and judges throughout the State.
IIe belonged to the class of Ohio lawyers, of which Thomas Ewing, Hocking Hunter, Henry Stansberry, Ebenezer Lone, Judge Burnet, Samson Mason, Charles Hammond, Gustavus Swan, Charles Goddard, Samuel F. Vinton, Peter Hitchcock, John C. Wright, and John McLean were illustrious representatives.
Members of the bar will readily recognize the brilliance of such a galaxy of names, to which might be added as many more, showing the stamp of the men who constituted the original bar of Ohio.
Judge Crane was not only thoroughly read in the literature of the law, but he was accomplished in his attainments and scholarly in his tastes. He was simple and domestic in his habits, and I have a grateful personal remembrance of his custom, in the latter years of his life, of reading to his family the English classies, especially the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott.
I well remember, too, the warm association that grew up between
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491
THE BENCH AND BAR.
him and Mr. Vallandigham, when the latter gentleman came to Dayton, a very young man, in 1847, -- more especially, a few years later, when Mr. Vallandigham became actively engaged in the practice of law. He was an exceedingly industrions student of his cases, and often availed himself of the superior facilities afforded by Judge Crane's extensive law library in their preparation.
With characteristic kindness, Judge Crane encouraged the aspiring diligence of the young barrister, who became an enthusiastic admirer of so capable and instructive a mentor, and a warm personal friendship sprung up between them which was never broken.
I have thus spoken at some length of Judge Crane's life and character, not only because I feel it to be a grateful duty to pay a deserved tribute to his exalted merit, but because I regard him as the best type of the early American lawyer; and more especially because of the indelible impression he left upon the tone of the Dayton bar, which has been perpetuated, I think I can truthfully say, to a large extent, through its membership, down to the present hour.
His own bigh sense of honor and professional integrity, impressed itself upon all his associates. No member of the bar would have ventured, had he been so inclined, to resort to a dishonorable device, to attain a professional advantage under the searching serntiny of Judge Crane.
Upon Daniel A. Haynes, who was a student in his office, and who came to the bar about 1840, bis spotless mantle as a lawyer and a man, seems to have fallen. Esteemed alike by the bar, for his superior abilities as a lawyer, his clearness, purity and impartiality as a judge, and by the whole community for his unimpeachable character in all his relations as a citizen and a man, Judge Haynes, better than anyone else, deserves to succeed to the honorable preeminence so long awarded by the unanimous suffrages of his professional cotemporaries to the venerable Judge Crane.
I have some personal recollection of all the members of the original Dayton bar, except Stephen Fales and General Smith, the father of Dr. Edwin Smith, so long a prominent resident of this city.
Mr. Fales was a native of Boston, and a graduate of Harvard. He studied law with Jeremiah Mason, one of the most eminent of the carly lawyers of New England, and came to Dayton about the year 1819. Ilc remained until 1830, when he removed to Cincinnati, where he was highly esteemed by the older set of lawyers, and where he died in 1855.
General Smith's name is connected with a traditionary story, aserib- ing to him a somewhat unique and ingenious defense he made in behalf of a client, who was upon trial, in Preble County, for larceny. It seems the defendant had stolen some property from the person of the prose-
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HISTORY OF DAYTON.
cuting witness, while the latter was asleep. It was a cold, wet night, and the fellow was sobering off in a fence corner, where he had taken refuge. A sudden change in the temperature had frozen his clothing fast to the ground. This circumstance, General Smith insisted, converted his client's offense from larceny to trespass, inasmuch as a well-estab- lished and long-recognized rule of law held that nothing that was attached. to the freehold could be the subject of larceny, but if taken, constituted trespass.
Judge Holt, in his charge to the jury, said that the rule as stated by General Smith, could not be disputed, but he did not think it was applicable to the case at bar. The jury, however, took a different view, and returned a verdict of not guilty.
Of the members of the early Dayton bar, no one attained so wide a reputation as
GENERAL, ROBERT C. SCHENCK, born in Franklin, Warren County, Ohio, in 1809. General Schenck, who for many years past has resided in Washington City, will complete his eightieth year on the 4th of next October.
He has retained in a remarkable degree his vigor of mind and even of body, although some years ago he was regarded as stricken with a fatal physical malady. By the power mainly of an indomitable will and voluntary self-subjection to the most severe and long continued dietetic restriction, he astonished the medical faculty by overcoming a pronounced case of Bright's disease of the kidneys.
In congratulating himself to his older brother, Admiral Schenck, upon his recovery, he wittily said: "I have beaten Bright's disease, but I can't beat old age." Whereupon an esteemed lady friend, who had always been interested in his spiritual welfare, wrote him that she could give him a sure prescription to "beat old age "-that was, "to be born again."
In the year 1824, when fifteen years of age, Robert C. Schenck, then the ward of General James Findlay, of Cincinnati, (his father, General William C. Schenck, having died in 1821 ), entered Oxford College, Ohio, in the sophomore class. IIc graduated in 1827 and remained in the capacity of tutor until 1830. In the fall of the same year, he entered the office of Thomas Corwin, in Lebanon, as a student of law and was ad- mitted to the bar in January, 1831. He came to Dayton in that year on horseback, inquiring at a house on the roadside, then surrounded by undergrowth, at a point now near the centre of the city, the distance to the town. He was told it was about three-quarters of a mile. He brought a letter of introduction from his law preceptor, Mr. Corwin, to Judge Crane, who immediately offered him a partnership, which he accepted.
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THE BENCH AND BAR.
This association continued three years. Judge Crane being then in Congress, the partnership was dismissed and a new one formed with Mr. Peter Odlin, then a young lawyer recently arrived from Perry County, Ohio, but formerly from Washington City, where he had been admitted to the bar in 1819.
The firm of Odlin & Schenck continued until about 1844, enjoying an always increasing and important practice until Mr. Schenck entered upon congressional life.
ITis first political success was in the celebrated " Log Cabin " campaign of 1840, when General W. II. Harrison was elected to the presidency. Ile was a candidate that year for the legislature, and was elected.
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