History of Delaware County and Ohio, Part 37

Author: O. L. Baskin & Co; Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 818

USA > Ohio > Delaware County > History of Delaware County and Ohio > Part 37

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

217

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

1870-Isaac R. Sherwood, Secretary of State, majority 634; G. W. MeIlvaine, Judge Supreme Court, 587 ; W. T. Wilson, Comptroller of Treas- uay, 611 ; P. V. Hertzing, Member Board of Pub- lie Works, 601 ; John Beatty, Congress, 479; W. G. Williams, State Senator, 636; C. H. Kibler, Judge Common Pleas Court, 567 ; W. S. Wright, Board of Equalization, 521 ; J. F. Doty, County Auditor, 480; William Brown, Sheriff, 266 ; John S. Jones, Prosecuting Attorney, 517; A. A. Welch, Coroner, 519; Roswell Cook, County Commis- sioner, 491; M. L. Griffin, Infirmary Director, 543.

1871-Edward F. Noyes, Governor, majority 538; Jacob Mueller, Lieutenant Governor, 483; W. H. West, Judge Supreme Court, 507 ; James Williams, Auditor of State, 520; Isaac Welch, Treasurer, 543; F. B. Pond, Attorney General, 406 ; Thomas H. Harvey, Commissioner of Schools, 583; Rodney Foos, Clerk Supreme Court, 539 ; S. R. Hosmer, Member of Public Works, 519; Thomas C. Jones; Judge of Common Pleas Court, 726; William McClelland, Judge Common Pleas Court, 540 ; T. B. Williams, State Senator, 958; Eugene Powell, Representative, 24 ; J. F. Doty, County Auditor, 164 ; James Cox, County Treas- urer, 325; Hugh Cole, County Commissioner, 313 ; George Nelson, Infirmary Director, 61.

1872-U. S. Grant, President, majority 703; Henry Wilson, Vice President, 703; A. T. Wi- koff, Secretary of State, 397; John Welch, Judge Supreme Court, 406 ; R. R. Porter, Board Pub- lic Works, 398 ; J. W. Robinson, Congress, 369; B. C. Waters, Probate Judge, 263; John Chap- man, Clerk of Court, 153; J. W. Crawford, Sher- iff, 127 ; E. B. Adams, Recorder, 467 ; Jackson Hipple, Prosecuting Attorney, 362; Charles Ar- thur, County Commissioner, 405 ; John B. Jones, Infirmary Director, 224; A. A. Welch, Coroner, 362; Samuel Davidson, Surveyor, 380.

1874-A. T. Wikoff, Secretary of State, major- ity, 75 ; Luther C. Day, Judge Supreme Court, 79; Rodney Foos, Clerk, 80; T. W. Harvey, Commissioner of Schools, 70; S. R. Hosmer, Board Public Works, 77; J. W. Robinson, Con- gress, 18; G. L. Sackett, Sheriff, 25 ; F. M. Mar- riott, Prosecuting Attorney, 239 ; Wells Andrews, County Commissioner, 7; Charles T. Grant, In- firmary Director, 85 ; M. L. Griffin, Coroner, 45.

1875-R. B. Hayes, Governor, majority 127; T. L. Young, Lieutenant Governor, 49; James Williams, Auditor of State, 81 ; J. M. Milliken, Treasurer, 113; T. E. Powell, Attorney General,

183; G. W. MeIlvaine, Judge Supreme Court, 124; Peter Thatcher, Member Board. Public Works, 122; Edwin Nichols, State Senator, 172 ; J. A. Carothers, Representative, 160; J. T. Evans, Clerk of Court, 153; F. B. Sprague, Probate Judge, 176; S. C. Conrey, County Auditor, 235; J. H. Warren, County Treasurer, 80; E. B. Adams, Recorder, 154 ; W. Seigfried, County Com- missioner, 79; L. B. Dennison, Surveyer, 130; C. T. Grant, Infirmary Director, 30.

1876-R. B. Hayes, President, majority 464; W. A. Wheeler, Vice President, 464 ; Milton Barnes, Secretary of State, 347 ; W. W. Boynton, Judge Supreme Court, 407; James C. Evans, Member Board Public Works, 312; John S. Jones, Congress, 479 ; J. D. Van Deman, Judge Common Pleas Court, 666; Jerome Buckingham, 479; John J. Glover, Prosecuting Attorney, 267 ; George L. Sackett, Sheriff, 457 ; Zenas Harrison, County Commissioner, 439; Henry C. Olds, In- firmary Director, 198; E. C. Vining, Coroner, 459.

1877-R. M. Bishop, Governor, majority 118; J. W. Fitch, Lieutenant Governor, 299 ; J. W. Oakey, Judge Supreme Court, 79; R. J. Fanning, Clerk Supreme Court, 397 ; Isaiah Pillars, Attor- ney General, 78; A. Howells, Treasurer of State, 100 ; J. J. Burns, School Commissioner, 71 ; M. Schilder, Member Board Public Works, 81; J. W. Owens, State Senator, 107 ; D. H. Elliott, Representative, 205 ; S. C. Conrey, County Audi- tor, 107 ; J. H. Warren, County Treasurer, 729 ; N. R. Talley, County Commissioner, 216 ; G. W. Stover, Infirmary Director, 281.

1878-Milton Barnes, Secretary of State, major- ity 247 ; William White, Judge Supreme Court, 240; George Paul, Member Board Public Works, 241; Lorenzo English, Congress, 291 ; John Chapman, Clerk of Court, 576; F. B. Sprague, Probate Judge, 641; H. S. Culver, Prosecuting Attorney, 408 ; W. H. Cutler, Sheriff, 528; A. M. Rawn, Recorder, 699; A. H. Packard, County Commissioner, 618; L. B. Dennison, Surveyor (no opposition,) 2,582 ; Jonas Waldron, Infirmary Di- rector, 55 ; J. W. N. Vogt, Coroner, 196.

1879-Charles Foster, Governor, majority 242 ; A. Hickenlooper, Lieutenant Governor, 225 ; W. W. Johnson, Judge Supreme Court, 285 ; J. T. Oglevee, Auditor of State, 265; G. K. Nash, At- torney General, 268; Joseph Turney, Treasurer of State, 307; James Fullington, Board of Public Works, 305 ; Thomas F. Joy, State Senator, 912; J. S. Jones, Representative, 255; Cicero Coomer,

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

County Treasurer, 241 ; Zenas Harrison, County Commissioner, 189 ; John Shea, Infirmary Direc- tor, 8.

It was at least half a century after the first set- tlement made in Delaware County, before it was found necessary to erect an almshouse or infirmary. Up to 1851 the pioneers of the county managed to provide for themselves, and would have scorned the idea of subsisting at public expense. How- ever, as the population increased in numbers, an individual was occasionally met with whose indo- lence and lack of energy finally grew into absolute indigence and want. Many families, who had hard work to make both ends meet in the older settled States, dazzled by the stories told of the Western country, and how fortunes in this new El Dorado were but waiting to be gathered in, had sold their few possessions, and come hither. They arrived in a wilderness, penniless, instead of a land flowing with milk and honey, as they had expected, and their extravagant dreams were rudely swept away, when they found that here, as well as else- where, labor and toil were required to provide the necessaries of life. As their children increased around them, and they found themselves growing old, they were at last reduced to the necessity of asking aid of others. Their neighbors soon grew weary of lending assistance, and presented the matter to the County Commissioners. In 1853, this august body, composed, at the time, of Ezra Olds, O. D. Hough, and Joseph Cellars, appointed three Directors to investigate and provide for this unfortunate class of humanity. They appointed Horatio P. Havens, Amos Utley, and William M. Warren, who thoroughly canvassed the subject, and consulted with the leading men of the county as to the propriety of purchasing a farm, and erect- ing upon it suitable buildings for the poor. The Directors met the Commissioners, and, together, they agreed upon a future course with reference to an infirmary and county farm.

Some time during the year 1854, they purchased of Joseph Blair 113} acres of land in Brown Township, about half a mile west of the village of Eden, and five and a half miles east of Delaware. The farm, at the time of its purchase, presented anything but a desirable aspect; being more or less covered with water, swamps, aud forests. There were no buildings on it to amount to anything; the roads leading to it were impassable most of the year, and just what induced the county officials to select, for this important institution, a locality seem- ingly so unfavorable, appeared, at the time, a prob-

lem not easily solved. But the wisdom of the purchase is more plainly visible now than at the time it was made. Since being cleared up and properly drained, the land proves of an excellent quality, and adapted to raising all kinds of grain, fruits and vegetables. During the year a substan- tial brick building was erected, forty by one hun- dred and forty feet in dimensions. The front part of it was used by the Superintendent, while the rear portion was devoted to the inmates. On the east and west sides were two large wings, two stories high and forty feet long, also used by in- mates. The first floor of main building contained dining-rooms, kitchen, storeroom, washroom, etc., while the upper stories were used as sleeping-rooms. The entire building had a large, roomy basement and cellar. The yard in front of the institution is large, and presents a fine and picturesque appear- ance, with a beautiful little rivulet meandering through it. As yet there are very few trees or shrubs, owing to the fact that it has been used as a flower and vegetable garden. A thrifty young orchard of choice fruits has been planted on the farm, and nothing left undone to contribute to the comfort and welfare of the unfortunates who are forced to pass their declining days on the charity of the county.

It was found necessary, in 1856, to provide a prison for the insane, as the infirmary was not de- signed for this species of county charge. Accord- ingly, a building was erected just in the rear of the infirmary buildings, and was of stone and brick ; the windows were set in the walls high up from the ground, latticed with heavy iron bars, and the cell-doors, opening into small hallways, were thoroughly protected with iron gratings, and firmly secured by another door outside, which was of wood. This building was a small, pen-like place, and extremely uncomfortable. It was, therefore, determined to build another and a more commodi- ous one. The Legislature passed an act in 1874-75, authorizing the Commissioners to levy a tax, and the Directors to build " a prison for the insane." This new building is fifty feet long, thirty feet wide and two stories high, besides the basement, which is used as a furnace room. It is built large and commodious ; is provided with every modern improvement and convenience that can contribute to the comfort of its unfortunate inmates, and is fire-proof. The first and second stories are divided by large hallways, running through the center from one end to the other, with cells on either side eight by ten feet, built of stone and brick, and secured

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HISTORY OF, DELAWARE COUNTY.

with iron doors and heavily barred windows. This building met the hearty approval of all, but was scarcely completed (at a cost of over $10,000) when the Legislature passed another act, author- izing the erection of a State Asylum for the In- sane. When the State institution was completed, the inmates were removed from the County to the State Asylum, leaving the County Asylum a rather useless institution.

The infirmary is in the charge of a Board of Directors who are elected by the people. They employ a Superintendent to manage the farm, the buildings, and the inmates. The salary of the Superintendent, is, at present, $450, and the county keeps him and his family, furnishing everything needed in the house and on the farm, except the cloth- ing of the family. In 1870, a new purchase of 105 acres of land was made of John L. Thurston, which, added to the original farm, makes quite a large tract. It is conceded by all, that the institution under the present administration, is in a most pros- perous and flourishing condition. The first Super- intendent was Eli Jackson, and the present one is M. M. Glass. The inmates in 1855, the first year after opening the institution, were twenty, and the expenses of the year $1,400. The administration

has, so far, been marked by strict honesty and economy, and not the least fraud has ever been perpetrated. Those who have been chosen year after year by the people, to watch over and care for the poor and unfortunate, have been men of whom nothing but good could be spoken. The physician is Dr. J. H. Smith, of Eden, who attends to all the professional business for the sum of $200. The medicine is furnished by the county. The following is the report of 1878:

Superintendent's salary. $450 00

Supplies for the poor inside. 5,814 57

Hired labor for the institution. .696 00

Medicine and physician's salary 300 00

Total $7,260 57

For the poor outside of the institution 4,700 03

Grand total. $11,960 60

Average number of inmates for the year. .84

Adults, males 31

Children,

.22

Adults, females. 25

Children, 6

Corn raised on farm (bushels). 3,000

Wheat "

500

Oats

1,000

Potatoes"

800

Fat hogs sold from the farm amounting to .... $400

CHAPTER V.

THE PROFESSIONS-COURT AND BAR-JUDGE POWELL-SOME LATER LAWYERS-THE PRESENT BAR-THE MEDICAL PROFESSION-THOMPSONIAN SYSTEM -HOMEOPATHY-EARLY PRACTITIONERS - MODERN DOCTORS-DELAWARE MEDICAL SOCIETY.

"When lawyers take what they would give, When doctors give what they would take- * * * * * * * * * * *

" Till then let Cumming blaze away, And Miller's saints blow up the globe ; But when you see that blessed day, Then order your ascension robe."-Holmes.

T THE court and the bar of Delaware County have increased in power and magnitude since that day, when Judge Belt organized the first ses- sion of court in the little log tavern of Joseph Barber, and sent out his juries to perform their allotted duties in the shade of a wild cherry and black-jack, that stood conveniently near this hast- ily improvised temple of justice. Without going into a detailed history, however, of the changes

made since that time, we will give place to the fol- lowing able sketch of the legal profession and of the courts, by the Hon. Thomas W. Powell, which," although the Judge writes now with great diffi- culty, owing to his failing sight, will be found highly interesting to the present members of the Delaware bar :

The county having been organized early in the spring of 1808, the first court - the Common Pleas - was held on the 3d day of June of that year, in a temporary log building near the sulphur spring. The court-room and all its accommoda- tions were hastily extemporized from the rude material at hand, for the use of the court and bar; all of whom were from abroad -from the neigh- boriug counties south and east-the country to the

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

north and west of the place being still in the con- dition of an untouched wilderness.

It being the first session of the court, there were no cases, of course, prepared for trial. The court was organized with Hon. Levin Belt, of Ross County, as President Judge. His Associate Judges, as stated in the preceding chapter, were Thomas Brown, Moses Byxbe, and Josiah McKin- ney, who were well-known residents of the county. Moses Byxbe, Jr., was appointed Clerk of the Court. The journal of the court for some few years after its organization, has been, at a more recent period, burned by an incendiary, who bur- glariously entered the Clerk's office and destroyed many of the court papers. The record of the decision of the cases still remaining with tradition- ary information, enables us to collect considerable facts in relation to the court in those early times. The next session of the court was not held until 1809, and a number of law cases were disposed of. The bar was attended by several able lawyers from the adjoining counties.

For the first two years there was no resident law- yer in the county. The first to settle in Delaware was Leonard H. Cowles, who came from Connecti- cut about 1810. He was a good scholar, a grad- uate of Yale College, and a college-mate of John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina. He is said to have been one of the most thorough-read lawyers of his age. Soon after he came here, he married the daughter of Col. Byxbe, which introduced him into a family whose wealth then was very large, and so engaged the attention and business capacities of the young lawyer, that for the residue of his life his law profession became to him, a secondary object. The war of 1812, with Great Britain, came on soon after, and so damaged all the business of the county, and that of the court, in a great measure, with it, that Mr. Cowles remained the only resident lawyer of the county until 1818, when Milo D. Pettibone became also a resident lawyer. From this time, the bar of Delaware County began to assume an attitude of interest to the county, and the general business of the sur- rounding country, entirely unlike the first ten years.

That period was principally occupied with the first settlement of the county, its pioneerc, and the war, and no very great interest or attention was given to the court, beyond the ordinary business of the new county. The Supreme Court for the County was then held by two of the four Judges of the Supreme Court for the State, once a year, and

the Court of Common Pleas, after the first year or two, three terms annually.

In considering the Delaware County bar, no distinction between two periods can be so strik- ingly made as that previous to 1830, and that which transpired from that date to the present time; the first period being a lapse of twenty years ; that of the latter, fifty years; the first wit- nessed its infancy and growth ; the latter its ma- turity. During the first period, the majority of the lawyers who were engaged in transacting the busi- ness of the court were largely non-residents ; those after that time were almost exclusively resi- dent lawyers. Their numbers during the first period did not exceed five, at any one time; but in the second, their numbers increased before the close of the first decade to eighteen, and continued about that number until 1870. During the war of the rebellion, the Union received the patriotic service of a number, and among all of them there was not a rebel. That war, between 1861-65, caused so severe a demand upon our people in the support of the Union, and so many of the business men and lawyers engaged themselves as officers and soldiers in the army, the business of the court was so reduced or continued that, in the mean time, very little was accomplished or done. It was a kind of hibernation of the court.

Three of the marked lawyers of the first period continued to add their number to that of the second, viz., L. H. Cowles, M. D. Pettibone and Henry Brush. These included the whole of the bar in its earlier period, except Justin Cook and Richard Murray, and two or three others who resided here for a limited time, but who, from their temporary connection with the bar, added nothing of interest to its history. But to this, young Cook was an exception. Toward the close of the period he excited great hopes in the minds of his friends and connections of a brilliant professional career. In this, however, by a dispensation of Providence, they were disappointed by his lamented death, which took place about 1828.

Richard Murray had also commenced the prac- tice of the law here, in the midst of numerous friends, a few years previous to 1830, with flatter- ing hopes of a successful professional life. But in that year he was stricken with consumption, and felt himself compelled to seek a warmer climate in the hope of thereby prolonging his life. He went with his family to the neighborhood of New Or- leans, on the east side of Lake Pontchartrain, where he thought he had found a healthful locality,

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

but he soou died, and was buried there; leaving a young family to return to their friends in Dela- ware.

Of those who constituted the bar after 1830, we must begin in chronological order with those who had previously become members. Leonard H. Cowles, whose advent has already been noticed, was a member of the bar from 1810 to the time of his death. He commenced his career with the reputa- tion of a good classical scholar, and being remark- ably well informed in his profession for one of his age. As a lawyer, he did not acquire a greater reputation in his subsequent life, for he had the mis- fortune to marry an heiress, and her fortune sub- sequently attracted more of his attention than the dry principles of the law, or writs for his clients. The large estate of Mr. Byxbe, his father-in-law, occupied more of his time and his attention than was devoted to his professional business. He was a person of a good, commanding presence, a well- proportioned figure, always well dressed, and gentle- manly in his appearance and behavior. He was social, fond of jovial company and his friends. Thus he lived, taking the world easy, devoting him- self to no very arduous occupation, though always a member of the bar the whole of his life, and for a time was a member of the Legislature. Toward the close of his life, however, Mr. Cowles' fortunes be- came impaired. The wealth of his father-in-law rapidly disappeared in the hands of his children, as it ceased to be managed by the old man who made it. At the close of his life Mr. Cowles had but little left of the fortune he had received from Col. Byxbe, and of worldly goods he hardly pos- sessed what was adequate to a person who had enjoyed his rank in life. Thus he lived for many years in the county, and raised a large family, none of whom, it is believed, are now living.

Milo D. Pettibone, like Mr. Cowles, was a native of Connecticut, and it is believed that he was also a graduate of Yale. He came to Delaware in 1818, was a good scholar, and soon became a sound and trustworthy lawyer, occupying a highly respon- sible position at the bar to the time of his death, in 1849. He devoted considerable time to specu- lation in land, which, in the early period of the county, was frequently changing hands, and, during his life, underwent great changes in its market value, which he judiciously turned to his favor and advantage.

Mr. Pettibone was every way a most estimable man. He was social, honest, and most exemplarily moral. He. readily engaged in all the proposed

improvements of his day, social, moral and religious. His most decided conviction and action on any of these questions was on the abolition of slavery, which he looked upon as the most wicked and nefarious institution of the world; he prided him- self upon being considered one of the EMANCIPA- TORS. But he did not live to see slavery in its worst aspect - that of the rebellion. He was enterprising and liberal toward public improve- ments and the interest of his town, at the same time taking good care of his individual interest. At the time of his death he had a large family of sons and daughters, to whom he left considerable real estate-property that has since greatly iu- creased in value.

[The following sketch of Hon. Thomas W. Pow- ell was written by Hon. James R. Hubbell, who was a student of Mr. Powell's and who still entertains for his old friend and preceptor the warmest feelings of friendship. Mr. Hubbell says :]

In a sketch of the bench and bar of Delaware County, foremost, as well as first in chronological order, is the Hon. Thomas W. Powell. An octo- genarian, and already past the period allotted by the Psalmist for man's active life, to those who have known him longest, and who know him best, his mind and memory seem to have lost but little of their maximum strength. The weight of years and bodily infirmities have greatly impaired his once robust and vigorous constitution. Some thirty years ago, by a severe accident, a limb was broken, inflicting an injury, still felt to some extent. Several years later, another accident put out an eye, and at the date of the present writing (1880) he is entirely, for the want of sight, unable to read printed matter, and writes with great labor. A lawyer, legislator and author, he is widely known to the brethren of the bar and in literary cir- cles. It is now sixty years since he was admitted to the bar as an attorney and counselor of law, and is probably in commission the oldest lawyer living in Ohio, and has but few seniors in years in . America.

Thomas Watkins Powell, the subject of this sketch, was born in the latter part of the year 1797, in South Wales. In the early part of the year 1801, his father, with his young family, im- migrated to America, and settled in Utica, in the State of New York, situated in the upper part of 'the Mohawk Valley. At that time, Utica was a small village compared with its present magnifi- cence and grandeur, and the country around it

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.

was new, and population sparse; and, as a matter of course, the means for the education of the youth and young men of that day were limited. Young Thomas sought and obtained such an edu- cation as the opportunities afforded. During the last war with Great Britain, then a mere youth, he drove his father's team, with the baggage of a regi- ment, to Sacket's Harbor, in the spring of 1813, and entered the place at the close of that battle. In September, 1814, he was appointed by the mil- itary authorities to a post of great trust and respon- sibility-the bearer of dispatches to Plattsburg, and at the close of that battle entered the town with dispatches to Gen. McCombs.

Thirst for knowledge was the ruling ambition of his life, and after the war, for about two years, he was favored with the privilege of attending an academy where he studied and mastered such branches as are taught at such institutions, including the higher branches of mathematics, for which he had a taste and a genius to excel. It was ever with him a subject of regret, that his opportunities in early life to ob- tain a more thorough education were so limited, but Providence ordered it otherwise. Had he been indulged in the natural bent of his mind, he would have excelled in literature as an author. After he left the academy he went into the law office of Charles M. Lee, Esq., in Utica, when about the age of twenty, and in the year 1819 he came to Ohio, and passed his quarantine as a law student in the office of Hon. James W. Lathrop, at Canton. In the year 1820, he was duly licensed, by the Supreme Court on the Circuit at Wooster, to practice in the several courts of record of the State, and immediately located in Perrysburg, on the Maumee, in the practice of the law ; but, the country being new, and business in his profession insufficient to occupy his time, he accepted succes- sively the offices of Prosecuting Attorney and County Auditor of Wood County. In the dis- charge of his official duties, he was noted for his probity and industry, as well as his abilities. In the year 1830, the Maumee Valley not growing in population, and not meeting with that commer- cial and business success that was anticipated by the first settlers, in order to obtain a wider field for the practice of his profession, he removed to Delaware, where for a period of fifty years, he has resided. He immediately commenced practice, and his business in importance proved commensurate with his abilities and integrity, and, for a period of more than thirty years, he was regarded by the profession in Delaware, and throughout the counties in Central Ohio, as a

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History of Delaware County and Ohio, Part 37

Author: O. L. Baskin & Co; Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 818

Author: O. L. Baskin & Co; Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 818