USA > Ohio > Fairfield County > History of Fairfield County, Ohio, and representative citizens > Part 77
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W. C. McCandlish had the usual school ad- vantages that boys in his day enjoyed and like the larger number of his school-mates, left school in order to begin work on the farm. Farming has been his business ever since and lie has cultivated land in different sections of Fairfield County but has never regretted mak- ing choice of his present place as a home, which
he did in March, 1897. He found the property greatly in need of improving and the substan- tial buildings of all kinds have been placed here under his direction. He raises all kinds of stock but makes a specialty of horses and be- sides having a financial interest in several Percherons in the county, he owns three widely known imported English horses-Carlton Hills, Oliver Cromwell and Willes Will.
Mr. McCandlish married Miss Sarah Anne Stuart, and they have had seven children, namely : George, who is deceased ; Wesley, who lives south of Bremen, married Jennie Adcock, and has two children; Mary Ann, who married John Friezner, and has two children; Lottie E., who married James Kenny, of Detroit, Mich., and has one child; Mertie, who married Otto Trout, and has two children; Carl, who is de- ceased; and Bessie, who married J. Siefert, of Bremen, and has two children. Mr. McCand- lish and family enjoy what is probably the finest residence in the township. They are members of the Presbyterian church at Bremen and he has served at times as a church trustee. In politics he is a Democrat.
CHARLES D. MARTIN .- Ohio's early claim to fame throughout the Union was ow- ing to the commanding character of its bar, and the Lancaster bar was distinguished as being the home of its greatest lawyers. When the subject of this review was received into its ranks it was then in the full tide and splendor of its renown-a most auspicious cir- cumstance for the beginning of a career which for brilliancy of achievement as well as for length of service has been declared excep- tional in the annals of the profession.
Charles D. Martin was born at Mt. Vernon, Ohio, August 5th, 1829, and died at Lan- caster, Ohio, August 27th, 1911. His record as a practitioner covered an unbroken period
HON. CHARLES D. MARTIN
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of 61 years. This was inclusive of his two years of judicial service as the litigation which he had on hand at the time of his appointment made it necessary that he appear from time to time at the bar. He was the son of Joseph Sinton and Susan Armstrong (Thomas) Martin. His paternal ancestry was Scotch- Irish, and on the maternal side Welsh-Eng- lish. The Martin and Thomas families came to America in colonial times, the former lo- cating in Pennsylvania, and the latter in Maryland. In 1806 the paternal grandfather located in Knox Co., Ohio, where Joseph Martin was reared. He married Miss Thomas, whose family in the beginning of the nineteenth century removed from Ken- tucky to Delaware County, Ohio.
Charles D. Martin received his early educa- tion in the schools of his native county, which was supplemented by a course at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio. He was unable to continue at college owing to limited means when the faculty offered to relieve him of all pecuniary responsibility that he might com- plete his course to graduation. This offer he declined. On invitation of his cousin John D. Martin, a prominent practitioner at the Fairfield Co. bar, he began the study of the law at Lancaster in the year 1848. Even af- ter he had taken up his residence in Lancaster the Gambier faculty requested that he take the examinations there that they might award him a diploma ; but this he too declined. They beheld in him the prospects of the great career that was his destiny and were anxious to en- roll his name among their graduates. After a year and some months study of the law he was admitted to the bar in 1850 at the age of 21, and at once was received into partnership with his preceptor which continued until the latter retired from the forum a few years later. He then became associated with Gen.
Newton Schleigh, a noted jury advocate of that day, under the style of Martin and Schleigh. Subsequently Hon. John B. Mc- Neill became his partner. The firm of Martin and McNeill continued with great success for more than twenty years.
Charles D. Martin was elected to the United States congress on the democratic ticket in the fall of 1858, and took his seat in that body the following year when but 29 years of age, and was at that time reputed as being the youngest man ever chosen to the National House of Representatives from this state. He represented the 11th district then comprising the counties of Fairfield, Hocking, Perry, Athens, Vinton and Meigs. Mr. Martin's campaign for election was celebrated. He won distinction in his replies to the world renowned orator ex-governor Thomas Cor- win who had been imported into the district for the sole purpose of bringing about his de- feat upon the refusal of his opponent Nelson Van Voris to meet him in debate. He became a member of the 36th congress where his youth and light hair caused liim to be called, "The White Headed Boy." His contest for reelection was also exciting and distinguished. The republicans were slow in bringing out a man against him. The veteran politician Valentine l'. Horton, a wealthy manufacturer who employed a great number of men, was called from political retirement and induced to make the race against him. Horton de- clined Martin's challenge to debate. Corwin was again sought but failed to respond. Al- though defeated for reelection he more than held his party's strength in that memorable campaign. At the close of his career in con- gress Geo. H. Pendelton and Geo. E. Pugh, late United States senators from Ohio, in- vited him to become their partner in the prac- tice of the law in Cincinnati, but he preferred
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to remain in Lancaster. All who speak of Mr. Martin in congress speak in terms of praise. President Hayes in a speech delivered at Lancaster referred to his able and patriotic course in terms of eulogy. We find in "Ohio Centennial Celebration," published in 1903, an address "Ohio in National House of Repre- sentatives" by Gen. Grosvenor, which reads of him: "Charles D. Martin with Vallanding- ham and Cary A. Trimble were members of the 36th congress, all young men full of life, vigor and great ability. Vallandingham made a career; Trimble served with ability, and it has always been regretted that Chas. D. Mar- tin who gave assurance of great ability did not continue longer in the House of Repre- sentatives. He had the conspicuous ability which makes leadership possible." Colonel William A. Taylor in a work of like char- acter speaks of him as being one of the bril- liant members and also of the great merits of his judicial decisions when he was an Ohio judge. His speech on "The Slavery Ques- tion" gave him rank as a statesman and im- mediate prominence. Its peroration was one of patriotism, so eloquently spoken of by one of his biographers as being "eternally true and eternally beautiful." It is as follows: "Gentlemen may speculate about the right of secession and indulge in visions of Empire se- curely erected over the fragments of the con- stitution ; but the stubborn truth recurs. This incomparable system of government is not fragile that it may be broken at pleasure ; nor is it iron or adamant that it may be crushed by physical power. It is an inviolable trust, committed to each passing generation for their enjoyment on the sacred condition that it shall be transmitted unimpared to their lat- est posterity. It is a trust consecrated by the most imposing sanctions of history, which pa- triotism will execute at every peril."
Mr, Martin was chosen a member of the committee on resolutions at the democratic state convention in 1872. In 1880 he was made a delegate to the democratic national convention that named Gen. Hancock for president. The most important event of his public career was his appointment as a mem- ber of the Supreme Court Commission of Ohio, by Gov. Chas. Foster in 1883, for a term of two years. The duty of the Commis- sion was to assist the Supreme Court in clear- ing the docket whichi was in arrears some twelve years. Reluctant were the profession and his party to dispense with his eminent serv- ices as a judge of the highest court of the state, and twice was he the democratic nominee for judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, in the years 1885 and '86. For the third time-in 1902, he was renominated for congress of the IIth district of Ohio. This honor he declined.
Unsuccessful were the efforts of his legal friends to gain for him a place on the federal judiciary by reason of his residence. The elevation of Howell E. Jackson of the sixth judicial circuit, to a seat on the United States Supreme bench made vacant a seat on that high court, comprising the states of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Mr. Martin was nominated by John Sher- man and Calvin S. Brice, then United States Senators from Ohio, and endorsed by lead- ing lawyers throughout the judicial district, but as there was no judge south of the Ohio river southern claims were respected and Chief Justice Lurton of Tennessee was named by President Cleveland. In 1892 he was made a member of The Ohio State Hos- pital Board by Gov. McKinley, and served for five years.
Judge Martin was distinguished for his oratory and eloquence. His memorable me-
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morials on Thomas Ewing and John S. Bra- see, and reception speech on the return of Dr. Olds from The American Bastile are es- teemed among the most classical of his lit- erary efforts. In the last mentioned ad- dress, which was delivered at Lancaster be- fore an audience of twelve thousand persons in 1862, in speaking of the public welcome accorded Dr. Olds on his return from his un- just incarceration, he said : "It is the spon- taneous and generous greeting with which a magnanimous people welcome the deliver- ance of their friend and representative from the odious thraldom of a political Bastile. It is, sir, the token and memorial of the fixed and unalterable determination of the sover- eign people that such insufferable wrongs shall not be perpetrated with impunity."
Charles D. Martin practiced largely in the state and federal courts, and upon more than one occasion, the Supreme Court of the United States has paid high tribute to his ability as a lawyer. He was a successful counsellor in the great McArthur will case- an estate of millions which for many years occupied the attention of the courts of Ohio. One side of this litigation, came before the Supreme Court of the United States. Jus- tice Horace Gray delivered the opinion, and cited the case Holt versus Lamb, tried years prior in our State Supreme Court, which in certain particulars was parallel, and referred to Mr. Martin's brief in the Holt vs. Lamb case as being "learnedly and elaborately argued." One of the most im- portant trials, in which he appeared with the Hon. R. A. Harrison of Columbus, was that of Samuel C. Shaffer versus John I. Blair the railroad magnate of New Jersey, which grew out of a land deal in Kansas City, purchased by Mr. Blair ; engineered by Mr. Shaffer. At the time of the original suit
Mr. Blair won the case and it was carried up to the Supreme Court. Judge Martin ar- gued the cause for Mr. Shaffer and the Su- preme Court reversed the decision and or- dered a settlement.
He was married at Lancaster, Ohio, in 1873, to Miss Anna Mithoff, daughter of the late Geo. A. Mithoff, a banker, who with their three children, survives.
Of the true excellency he attained in the law those learned in the profession are best able to judge. We will conclude this sketch by appending extracts from several of the magnificent memorials on his life, delivered in the Fairfield County courthouse, Oct. 30, I911, by his brethren at the bar-opinions of those most qualified to speak.
From the memorial adopted by the bar :
"The living members of the Lancaster bar, without intimate personal acquaintance with those of their departed brethren who adorned and honored it in their day and gen- eration by their lives and deeds, do not as- sume to institute comparisons among the honored dead, but it is significant that, if those who now can speak were permitted to fix the rank and station of him, to whose memory we bow today, with entire unanim- ity they would bestow upon him the first and foremost place. . . . Although in the length and continuity of his professional ac- tivities commencing in 1850 and ending only with the termination of his life in 1911, the history of the Lancaster bar has no parallel, yet his fame and distinction as a lawyer rests upon a more permanent and solid foundation than the unconscious flight of time. They are securely grounded in his professional life of 61 years radiant in brilliant achievement, a bright, untarnished and spotless page. His fine manners and splendid cour- . tesy graced him always, never deserting him
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in the most animated forensic conflicts, the example of which might well become a model of professional decorum forever. To the Lancaster bar which he so long and so conspicuously honored, upon which he shed the luster of his illustrious genius and the fame of which was so greatly exalted by him, the recollection of his char- acter, his life and his accomplishments will be cherished forever, as a proud and vener- ated heritage."
From remarks of the chairman, Hon. M. A. Daugherty :
It was as a lawyer that he stood distin- guished and pre-eminent. Nature endowed him with a genius for the law and all the powers of his great intellect responded to its call and were dedicated to its service.
His brief in a noted case so completely met the approval of the Supreme Court of the United States, that the sanction of that august tribunal was not confined to the most complimentary allusions to it, but was em- phasized by the rare distinction of incor- porating his argument into its reported opinion.
Hocking H. Hunter, who met and con- tested with greatest lawyers of the land, both in State and Federal Courts, frequently said of Charles D. Martin, that he possessed the finest legal mind of any lawyer of his ac- quaintance in the United States.
His understanding of the exact meaning of words was only equalled by his power of illustration. Once asked to state the dis- stinction between talent and genius, he promptly answered, "Talent is strong right arm; genius, wings."
but Charles D. Martin was of the few who advance and rise in meteoric splendor and then maintain a life long supremacy.
Upon his first appearance in this legal arena, he met and measured legal swords with the then giants of the Bar, and he was never found a riderless foe.
He came to this forum at a time when it enjoyed a reputation both state and na- tional, when it was in the very zenith of its glory, when there were upon its rolls names, now historic, of celebrated lawyers, who were then in the very vigor and prime of all their intellectual and professional greatness, and from the very beginning he proved him- self to be the equal of any of them.
He was an active participant in all the fa- mous causes tried in this tribunal in sixty- one years and the history of his triumphs is second to none.
For more than half a century he was the oracle of this Bar, his opinions the accepted law.
He outlived and was the last of that gal- axy of brilliant lawyers of a former genera- tion, whose achievements crown The Lan- caster Bar with imperishable glory and un- ending renown.
For more than sixty years he had no su- perior at this Bar and he died without a peer and without a rival.
He was both intellectually and morally honest; his integrity was perfect. False- hood could not stand before him ; it withered away, and crumbled to dust in his presence before his assaults upon it, while the truth assumed majestic form and beauty when he played upon its chords and touched the springs of its life.
Many lawyers grow gradually and stead- ily into the public confidence and win their He bore himself always with splendid poise and quiet dignity, with all the easy way to success, distinction and fame by long, laborious and assiduous toil and struggle, grace and conscious strength of humble
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greatness, with every thought and action obedient to the complete dominion of a deli- cate and refined sense of honor.
From remarks of Hon. A. I. Vorys :
Though a contemporary of all the great Lancaster lawyers, we who know him per- sonally believe he was the greatest lawyer of his time. This estimate is not invidions. It does not dim the halos of others living or dead. Our greatest pride is our identity with the Lancaster Bar whose fame we know is due to the greatness of many. But the distinguishing genius of Charles D. Mar- tin so transcended the ability of all others that instinctively we give him place in a rank that admits no others.
His remarkable diction proclaimed his views with a precision no other attained.
As time elapses, the forty-first Ohio State will be more and more distinguished among the Supreme Court Reports as containing the Martin Legal Classics.
From remarks of Hon. Wm. Davidson:
It was mentally that he was superlatively great. I have known him since the spring of 1865, and have never met a man in all my life who was his equal mentally.
In an attack upon a great legal question --- unlike other lawyers-he did not strike at it in a half afraid fashion-he swooped down upon it like an eagle. He seemed to ap- proach a legal proposition from above, in- stead of climbing up to it. He dwelt upon the upper portions of the legal plateau, above the clouds of doubt and uncertainty, in which so many-I may say most lawyers, live and grope and have their being, and it was only while talking to Charles D. Martin that they got a glimpse of the azure and the sunshine of clearness in which he seemed to be at home.
From a paper by Hon. Geo. E. Martin of the Federal bench :
The period of study at Kenyon, although short, was a very fruitful one, for it had con- verted the young lad into an educated man.
The classical studies, so appalling to duller minds, were music and romance to him. He acquired with ease a most extraor- dinary knowledge of literature, and formed a style of thought and expression which was equal in beauty and strength to its great masterpieces. In even the extemporaneous addresses of subsequent years could be ob- served the rhythm and elegance of classical diction.
He was admitted to the bar at a time when Lancaster was a place of relative promi- nence in the middle west, before the growth of the great manufacturing cities, and when the Lancaster bar was one of the foremost in the nation. He was immediately ac- corded a leading place in that great array of lawyers whose names now belong to the his- tory of the country. A lawyer of national reputation then said of him that he pos- sessed the finest instinct for the law that he had ever known. At once he stood in the foremost rank of his profession with a splen- did name and great practice.
From remarks of Hon. Thomas H. Dol- son :
No man ever listened to Judge Martin talk who was not benefited thereby. But it was on his feet that he was at his best. Then and there it was that you saw and heard the orator. He was Ciceronean in style. His voice was tenor and full of mu- sic. His phrases rhythmic and poetic. And I heard his own voice say, "For myself, I confess to a fondness for the classic touch." Who can beat that? And for myself, I con-
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fess that he, when speaking, came nearer putting the right word in the right place than any man I ever heard talk. His rank as a lawyer was at the very top, and when that is said it is all said.
From remarks of Hon. John T. Brasee. His powers of analysis and of differentia- tion were superb. He was equally the skilled logician and the polished rhetorican. In the conduct of a case he was a strategist and kept opposing counsel ever wakeful and alert.
His was a long life of well rounded use- fulness and credit; a life crowned with the laurels of enduring fame and wreathed in the garlands of domestic virtues.
From a paper by Judge Moses M. Granger of Zanesville, Ohio.
For two full working years in the same room I had the most ample opportunity to learn Judge Martin's qualities on the bench ; and I have no doubt about them. His mind was emphatically a legal mind: remarkably able; to him the study and solution of legal problems was natural and very easy. His clear perception and sound reasoning almost instantly separated every immaterial word or matter from the exact facts that made the case ; and his full knowledge of the branches of law governing the dispute, enabled him without the use of an unnecessary word, to plainly, briefly and most satisfactorily, state why the case under review should be re- versed or affirmed. To read one of his opinions was always for me an in- tellectual pleasure of high order.
From a paper by Judge John McCauley of Tiffin, Ohio.
He did not seem to depend upon his mem- ory of what had been said or done on a given question, but he used to say : "What is the logic of this"? His knowledge of the Eng-
lish language was broad and thorough. His knowledge of the law was a knowledge of its principles and not a load carried in his memory. He had little patience with long, rambling opinions. He used to say that "The less a judge knows about the case he decides, the longer it takes him to tell it." His skill as a lawyer consisted in the expert and logical application of the science.
C. D. HOSKINS, vice president and super- intendent of The Bremen Manufacturing Com- pany, of Bremen, O., was born at Middlefield, O., Angust 1, 1877, and is a son of E. C. and Carrie A. Hoskins, who still reside at Middle- field, the father being a retired farmer. They have four children : C. D., C. Glenn, Fern and Glade E.
C. D. Hoskins attended the common schools in Geauga County, afterward the Mesopotamia High School in Trumbull County and later the New Lyme Institute in Ashtabula County, sub- sequently completing a very liberal education in the Boston Commercial College at Cleveland, O. Mr. Hoskins then taught stenography and typewriting in the New Lyme Institute for a time and then became stenographer for the Cleveland and Chagrin Falls Electric Railway Co., of Cleveland. He was assistant treasurer of the Middlefield Banking Company of Mid- dlefield for four years and during most of this time was also treasurer of the village of Mid- dlefield Corporation, and Middlefield Village School. Then for five years he was secretary and treasurer of The Middlefield Manufactur- ing Company, which moved to Cleveland in 1909. From Cleveland he came to Bremen, after buying the interests of the Middlefield company and here founded and incorporated The Bremen Manufacturing Company of Bre- men. Mr. Hoskins is an astute business man and in politics is a Progressive Republican.
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At Cleveland, O., Mr. Hoskins was married to Miss Georgia Johnson, a graduate of Mid- dlefield High School and a student at Lake Erie Seminary, at Painesville, O., who was born at Middlefield, O., February 22, 1878. She is a daughter of Webster O. and Hortense Johnson, the father being a retired farmer at Middlefield, O.
CHARLES E. LAMB, a well known resi- dent of Pleasant Township, Fairfield County, O., where he owns 120 acres of valuable land which he devotes to farming and stock raising, was born in Richland Township, Fairfield County, August 23, 1857, and is a son of Jacob and Nancy (Hunter ) Lamb.
Jacob Lamb was born also in Richland Township but for many years previous to his death, July 18, 1892, he had resided at Lan- caster. He was a soldier in the Civil War. raising a company for the service in Richland Township, and he participated in many of the most important battles of the war, including the battle of the Wilderness. He married Nancy Hunter, who was born in Hocking County, O., and of their children three are yet living : Charles E .; Judson H., who is a farmer in Alberta, Canada; and Ida M., who is the wife of D. F. Smith, of Lancaster, O.
Charles E. Lamb was reared mainly at Lan- caster, his parents having moved there in his boyhood, and there he attended school. He has been engaged in farın activities ever since and owns land that shows careful tillage. He is a Republican in politics and has served as a school director in his district. He married Miss Josephine Caldwell, who was born in Illinois, a daughter of John B. Caldwell, who now resides in Pleasant Township, Fairfield County. Mr. and Mrs. Lamb have had two children : Durald, who is deceased; and David K., who is a student at Pleasantville. Mr.
Lamb is an intelligent man and progressive farmer and belongs to Pleasantville Grange, Patrons of Husbandry.
CHARLES E. BEERY, whose finely im- proved farm of 167 acres, lies four miles south of Lithopolis, O., is one of the enterprising and progressive agriculturists of Bloom Township, where he was born in 1872, a son of Ezra F. and Elizabeth (Courtright) Beery.
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