USA > Ohio > Lake County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 38
USA > Ohio > Geauga County > History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio > Part 38
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the farm. He somehow early made a speaking acquaintance with the alphabet, and evinced fondness for books, for which he paid some of the money left by his father in his hands, proceeds of the fur-trade. He found his way to the schools, and became interested in arithmetic, for which he undoubtedly had a natural aptitude. He seems also to have readily acquired the rudiments of such other branches as were put in his way in the common schools of that region. Like other country youths, after ten or twelve years of age his chances for school were limited to the winter seasons. At eighteen he had mastered all the schools could do for him, and his father thought him well educated, and that, on the whole, he had been liberal to him in that matter.
When he was thirteen his father was elected to the important post of supervisor of the township, which brought a mass of books and papers under the eyes of the future counselor, with which he seems to have made himself early familiar, and acquired some notions of affairs and tastes for business matters connected with the statutes and civil service of New York. He troubled the elder Durfee with a great many puzzling questions. The attention he bestowed on these sub- jects and the frequency of his discussions of the questions involved in them, with his early gravity of demeanor, won for him the title of squire at the early age of sixteen, rendered as his due, as we are informed. At eighteen his father declined re-election, and the books and papers, and the opportunities they afforded, departed from the " squire." He then desired his father to enable him to improve his education and study law, which was declined, and for the time the idea was abandoned.
In 1836 his father visited the west, and resolved to make Geauga County his future residence. Two elder brothers of L. E. were then in Ohio, and they per- suaded the father, against the importunity of L. E. the younger, to abandon the idea of Chicago or the farther west, and fix himself in the State of their adop- tion ; and the subject of this sketch became a citizen of this State, greatly against his youthful predilections. The removal took place that fall. "Mr. Durfee pur- chased land in Troy, a saw-mill and a house in the village of Parkman, where the family took up its residence, which proved not much in accord with the tastes of the young man. Here he was inducted into the saw-mill, a part of the senior's new purchase, and had to square logs instead of the statutes of New York, and had to deal with " deals" and sawdust. One advantage the change brought-a good select school, of which he was permitted to avail himself during the winter, and in which, from his studious habit and the grave and earnest character of his mind, he made very satisfactory progress. The crash of 1837 came with ruin to the elder Durfee. He escaped with fifty acres of land in Troy, where he now took refuge, and where the rest of his days were spent. The young man reached the age of twenty-one, which was in the year 1838, a healthy, athletic, robust, ambitious youth, when, with a few needed things tied in a bandanna handkerchief and five dollars in his pocket, he turned from his mother's door, not to attend the Supreme Court at Columbus, but in search of fortune or fate west. The fifth morning found him on the banks of the Maumee. Taking the left bank, he visited old Fort Meigs, and saw the Indians in the neighborhood. At the Otsego mills, beyond, he was offered fifteen dollars per month for his labor. He accepted, and engaged for a year. He remained a year and a half, and returned to Troy with the malaria in his bones, satisfied with Maumee.
At Troy he found B. F. Abel engaged in an excellent high school, and he be- came a pupil. Here he was a fellow-student with A. H. Thrasher, whom he had seen at Parkman, and they became life-friends. Quickened by Thrasher's exam- ple and urged by his advice, Durfee now determined to undertake the law, with- out money and health shattered by the malaria of the Maumee. Years were coming on,-that is to say, he was a ripe youth, and time for dalliance was past. He pushed through his self-prescribed course, and became a student in the office of Governor Ford. Here he remained with profit for several months, and then changed to Tiffin, the office of Cowdry & Wilson. Here he became a deputy sheriff, finished his law-course, and was admitted to the bar. He was then nearly thirty years old.
He now visited the Territory of Wisconsin, found that he was still suffering from ill health, returned to Geauga, and spent the winter. Meantime, business came in upon him and settled the question of location. He remained in Troy some three years, and did what came to him.
On the 31st of December, 1851, he formed his first and probably wisest co- partnership. He was united with Miss Sophia C. Tinckham, a most estimable lady, in marriage, and removed to Chardon in December, 1852. Mr. Durfee had already practiced in several of the counties. He now concentrated his efforts to build up a business with its centre at Chardon.
Henceforth his life is that of a hard-working, painstaking, and, on the whole, a very successful, lawyer.
In the case of Lamson vs. Pool, referred to in the sketch of A. H. Thrasher, aided by E. T. Wilder, he was the counsel for plaintiff, and opponent to Messrs.
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Riddle & Thrasher. There, in the first trial, the jury stood eleven for the plain- tiff, but on the second the verdict went for the defendant,-a not unusual thing to find a second jury agreeing with the minority of the first. So also in the Bosley and Spencer water case, Mr. Durfee was opposed to Mr. Thrasher. There was no lack of ability and learning on the part of Mr. Durfee in these cases.
The changes of time brought Messrs. Thrasher, Durfee, and Hathaway into the same firm, one of the strongest of the later years in Geauga, to which Mr. Durfee contributed his full share. To his efforts mainly was due their success in the important case of Dunlap vs. Knapp (14 O. S. Rep., p. 65). The case of Chamberlin vs. the Painesville and Hudson railroad company, was specially in his charge, and in this his labors entitle him to much credit. There he had the not unusual satisfaction for him of having his views finally adopted as the law of the case (15 Id., p. 225). So also the same railroad company vs. King (17 Id., p. 535), carried up from Cuyahoga. Indeed, it is a rare compliment to the accuracy of Durfee's learning and judgment that he is usually sustained by the court of the last resort.
Mr. Durfee does not claim to be a brilliant man, neither witty nor very elo- quent. I should say his mind worked with commendable slowness and caution. It is singularly accurate and clear in its processes; and if his conclusions cost him much care and labor, they are worth the cost. He tries a case well and thor- oughly, and because his preparation has been ample. He understands that the best work in the trial of a case is done out of court. As a speaker he is meth- odical, clear, and can be compact, his argument logical, without a touch of fancy or a ray of humor. His voice and manner are good.
On the whole, considering the many disadvantages under which Mr. Durfee labored in early life, he is entitled to the highest credit for the position which he has won for himself at the bar. Strict integrity, a high purpose, great energy, and patience have secured his enviable place, and will sustain him in it to the end.
He began at Chardon as a partner with Judge Bissell. This was succeeded by the firm of Forrest, Durfee & Hathaway. Forrest went to Warren and the juniors remained, till the company, with Thrasher, was made up. On the death of Mr. Thrasher the juniors remained in company for some time, and in 1865 the present firm of Durfee & Stephenson was formed, and still continues.
In politics Mr. Durfee was reared a Jackson Democrat. Born in St. Lawrence county, he could hardly have been otherwise. The issues of slavery enlightened him, as they did many patriotic Democrats.
In 1870 he was elected prosecuting attorney, and served two terms. He seems not to have been ambitious of place; and though winning and enjoying largely the esteem and confidence of the people, less worthy men might surpass him in the mere race of popularity.
HON. ISAAC NEWTON HATHAWAY.
This gentleman is the eldest son of James Hathaway, was born and reared in Geauga, and may be regarded as a representative of the better cultured and endowed men born of the unions of the younger pioneers, formed after their ar- rivals on the Reserve. He is a product wholly of Geauga County. His father soon became one of the successful, well-to-do business men, and he was never subjected to the personal hardships of the less favored ; though by no means reared either in indolence or without the exactions to industry, care, and thrift taught by all prudent fathers alike; though in his case not under the usual stimu- lus of necessity. The young lad early displayed an aptitude for study, and was kept at the common schools until he could profit no further by them. He was then placed in the academical school at Kirtland, under Dr. Lord, which for many years enjoyed a wide reputation for the ability with which it was conducted. After his course there young Hathaway was much in his father's office, assisting in the prosecution of his numerous pension cases, and also in his duties as sheriff.
He finally entered upon the study of the law, for which he was well prepared ; and after the usual course of reading was admitted to the bar, and entered into a copartnership with William O. Forrest, Esq., his senior at the bar. Mr. Forrest was a man of popular manners, with considerable ability as an advocate, but con- stitutionally opposed to much study. His notions of law were such as he picked up about the courts, and in the atmosphere of law-offices and bar-rooms. Young Hathaway read with care, was a good student, and with the law supplied by him, and his industry, the new firm was well prepared to meet the wants of clients, and soon came to have a very fair business.
Hathaway himself was a frank, generous-spirited boy, with a fine person and pleasing manners. As he came to manhood he had a large circle of friends and acquaintances, was generally esteemed, and popular. His connection with his father's business brought him into the knowledge of many people, and the confidence felt in his father's integrity was a part of his merited inheritance. He,
perhaps, had more than the usual diffidence of a modest young man as to his own ability to manage a case in court and conduct a trial. His partner labored under no such embarrassment. Indeed, in the quality where young Hathaway most lacked, he abounded, and the firm was in no respect deficient in assurance.
There is a test to which every young man is brought who undertakes a profession in the village where he was reared, especially one of the frank, accessible manners and social qualities of Mr. Hathaway. They are apt to have surroundings-be under influences in the first leisurely years of professional life-which may draw them away from the labors and duties, especially of the lawyer, often fatal to suc- cess. A great many young men of fair promise and talents have never success- fully passed through the peril of this charm. To all his immediate associates Mr. Hathaway was " Newt," and to the world " Newt Hathaway." It is very greatly to his credit in so lazy a town as Chardon then was, that while he remains the same pleasant, approachable man, he had the real mental qualities and strong, manly fibre to go on successfully through the dallying days of young lawyerhood and young ladyhood to a developed, decided manhood, and become a successful lawyer. The lines of his character were always well drawn, and his judgment of men and things, of the qualities of actions and conduct, good. A safe and judi- cious counselor ; and, if weak at all, it was on the side of abounding good nature and kindness.
After two or three years Mr. Durfee entered the firm of Forrest & Hathaway, and was undoubtedly of much service to it, and possibly to Mr. Hathaway per- sonally. Subsequently, after the departure of Mr. Forrest to wider fields, Mr. Thrasher formed a copartnership with Durfee and Hathaway. Since the dissolu- tion of that firm Mr. Hathaway has been connected with other gentlemen of the Geauga bar.
In politics Mr. Hathaway was a Whig; became a Free-Soiler, and necessarily a Republican. A few years ago the Republicans of Geauga, Lake, and Ashtabula elected him to the Ohio Senate. He was then at ripe years, with large general information, and at once took rank with the first members of that body. His good judgment, clear and decided views of things, fitted him well for service in that body, where, with his fine person and courtly manners, he could not fail to win the confidence and esteem of his fellow-senators. It is the misfortune of that senatorial district that no man can serve it but a single term. The absurd rule that each county claims it in turn is usually fatal to a long continuance in the Senate of any man, whatever his worth may be.
Mr. Hathaway's service was alike useful to the State and honorable to himself. He has, I believe, also served one or two terms as prosecuting attorney. Mr. Hathaway may certainly be regarded as a fairly successful man. He stands well at the bar, and occupies an enviable position in the public estimation. By his good judgment and skill in business he has placed himself in the possession of a handsome property. In the dark days of Chardon he showed himself a liberal, public-spirited man, and has always used his means with liberal discrimination for the public welfare. Mrs. Hathaway was the youngest daughter of the late Moses Haydon, and is spoken of in the sketches of Newbury. Their residence is among the most pleasant of the many charming homesteads of Chardon, aug- mented by the marriage of the only daughter, who, with her husband, form a part of this interesting household.
They lost their only other child, a beautiful and interesting son, in childhood .*
HONORABLE HENRY K. SMITH.
This gentleman was the eldest son and the third child of Marsh Smith, and was born at Parkman, Geauga County, August 10, 1832. There his childhood and boyhood were passed under the care of his parents, and he received such oppor- tunities for education as the schools of that neighborhood afforded him. His father and mother were persons of unusual intelligence and refinement, and he grew up in the atmosphere of a home well calculated to develop the finer traits and higher excellences of nature and character. He became a resident of Char- don at nineteen, and was noted as an intelligent, gentlemanly youth, rather shy, to whom most people at once took a liking and gave him their confidence. The ensuing two years he spent in his father's office, in acquiring general information, ripening, and preparing himself for a life of usefulness.
At the age of twenty-one he entered the law-office of Messrs. Riddle & Thrasher, at Chardon, and devoted himself with docile industry to the mastery of the law. He soon became known to his instructors for his real worth, and gained their confidence and friendship. After a novitiate of three years, he was admitted to
* In justice to Mr. Hathaway, as well as to his father, it should be said that the promised data for both sketches never came to hand, and these were made up from the writer's recollec- tion as this work was passing rapidly through the press.
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HISTORY OF GEAUGA AND LAKE COUNTIES, OHIO.
the bar in 1856. Soon after he received the appointment of deputy sheriff, the duties of which he discharged with care and fidelity. He also was intrusted with the responsible duties of the treasurer of the county.
In the spring of 1857, on the decease of the then clerk of the court, H. Gotham, Esq., he was appointed his successor. In the autumn of the same year, he was elected prosecuting attorney of the county by the people.
Thus in the space of a year or two, he familiarized himself with the duties of several of the most important offices of the county, and entered another of much responsibility. Here he acquitted himself so well that he was elected to a second term. Soon after his first election, he formed a law partnership with W. O. Forrest, and in 1861, after the termination of the partnership of Canfield & French, by the death of John French, he entered into partnership with D. W. Canfield, which continued until his election to the office of probate judge, in the fall of 1866. He has held that office ever since, having been nominated this year for the fourth time, and each time by acclamation. While in company with D. W. Canfield he was twice elected justice of the peace of Chardon. February 22, 1854, he was married to Miss Harmony Stocking, daughter of D. W. Stocking. They have had three children, one dying in infancy. The eldest, Stewart S., aged twenty- one, is book-keeper of the Geauga Savings and Loan Association. The youngest, Halbert Dennis, is twelve years old.
Judge Smith was among the most active and efficient in rebuilding Chardon. He has largely invested in real estate and its improvement, and the block in which is the opera-house is mainly owing to the enterprise of himself and brother Theron. The sterling integrity of the Smiths, father and son, doubtless has been the lead- ing cause of their great personal popularity in Geauga County. Perhaps no man has ever exercised a wider influence in it than Judge Smith, who is happily formed to win and retain the esteem of all classes, and no man was ever more utterly de- void of the arts by which the mere demagogue seeks to make his way. The con- fidence which he enjoys is the deserved tribute of worth and excellence. Mrs. Smith, by her fine womanly qualities, contributes much to strengthen the position of her husband, and their home is one of the pleasantest in Chardon.
Of the brothers and sisters of Judge Smith, it may be mentioned that Mrs. Peter Bates resides in Iowa ; Mrs. J. G. Durfee, in Troy, Geauga County ; Mrs. John Brooks, in Chardon ; his brother Theron, in Chardon ; as also Newell R., and his father, Marsh Smith, mentioned elsewhere.
Theron is a man of much intelligence, and shares Judge Smith's spirit of enter- prise, and like the rest of the family, is much esteemed.
JAMES E. STEPHENSON.
Conspicuous among the prominent men of the Geauga of to-day stands James E. Stephenson, a son of Elder Thomas B. Stephenson, late a prominent preacher in the Baptist church. He was born at Staten Island, New York, Aug. 17, 1819. With his parents he removed to Ohio in 1824; settled in Mentor, and removed to Chester, Geauga County, in November, 1829. At the age of fifteen he went into the service of Austin Turner, at the centre of Chester, merchant and hotel- keeper, where he remained until he was twenty-one,-his means of education were the common schools and the old Chester Academy. Two days after his time was out, he went to southern Indiana, and engaged in the study of the law, for which he had much aptitude. After a year he returned to aid Mr. Turner in the prose- cution of his business, until Mr. T.'s death, in 1845. He was, on his return, elected justice of the peace, which office he held twenty years. Meantime, he prosecuted his legal studies as he could. Accustomed to try cases before magis- trates from the sixteenth year of his age, he finally abandoned all other pursuits and devoted himself to the law in 1864, and removed to Chardon, where he has since resided. January 1, 1865, he formed a copartnership with the well-known L. E. Durfee, Esq., and the firm soon came to command a full share of the business of Geauga, and extended it to the surrounding counties.
He was appointed commissioner of drafts by Governor Tod during the war, and performed the labors of the delicate place with care, tact, and fidelity.
In 1875 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Geauga, and discharged its duties with ability. He has been prominent in sustaining the interests of educa- tion, and filled several official places in connection with the schools with profit to the public.
He early became a member of the Baptist church, and has maintained his relations to it by a consistent observance and practice of the duties and charities of a Christian life.
The career of such a man is not eventful. It has been peaceful and useful, winning for him the respect and esteem of a wide circle. A man of fine person, good address, pleasing manners, strict integrity, and faithful to the duties and
requirements of a varied life, entitling him to honorable mention in a domestic history of his county.
On the 6th day of July, 1843, he was joined in marriage with Lavina, daughter of Libbeus Norton, Esq., an amiable and estimable lady. They became the parents of four sons, all whom are living.
ARTHUR HENRY THRASHER.
To enable one to comprehend a man worth the trouble, one wants not only to know him well, but two or three generations of his ancestors on both sides, and their surroundings. I knew Arthur H. Thrasher well-for ten or fifteen years was on terms of great intimacy with him. I have felt for few men a sentiment warm enough to be called by the oft-desecrated word, love. He was one of that few. I knew something of his father and uncle Ben. I never saw his mother or heard anything of her. I know little of her family, and nothing of his early life. The name Thrasher has a decided sound. The Thrashers, father and son, were most decided men. They came from New Hampshire, which, from the number of her population, has produced more remarkable men than any other part of the republic. Men have to be uncommon to live there. Winter rules half the year, and the whole of all the years must be given to a ceaseless struggle for life, in which the feeble perish young, if the feeble are ever born there. Jacob and Benjamin Thrasher were cousins of the Websters, Daniel and Ezekiel on the mother's side, through whom the brains must have come. Dr. Jacob Thrasher, father of Arthur, was a remarkable man, standing six feet, spare, bony, erect, well made, with a magnificent head, all forward of and above the ears-a man of rare dignity of bearing when he chose, of classical education, rare intellect, keen, subtle, caustic, endowed with great wit and pitiless sarcasm. His life was a failure. Why, I hardly know. His sometimes more than convivial habits had much, doubtless, to do with it. A man of thrifty notions, of most despotic and unaccommodating temper and habit of thought, bitter prejudices, more feared than loved, though of considerable influence from his intellectual gifts. After his arrival in Troy, Geauga County, though bred to medicine, which he had aban- doned, he was much employed in the trial of cases before magistrates. Had no knowledge of law, but his sagacity, wide knowledge of men, wit, and sarcasm made him one of the most formidable of all the irregular practitioners. His fame was wide, and his range extensive. I met him in this field in my callow of lawyer days, and was at once favored with his respect and esteem. I found him a man of great knowledge and experience of men, with as large a fund of prac- tical information-tested, distilled, and used, until to me it seemed veritable wisdom-as any man I have ever met, and with a readiness, tact, and ability, his conversation interspersed with anecdote and keenness of wit, was rarely equaled. I owe him much for valuable advice and suggestion. He was poor, lived on a new farm, tried cases, imbibed whisky, was at feud with many whom he blasted with his wit and sarcasm, and to me is still an enigma of human character, conduct, and fortune.
His younger brother, " Uncle Ben," with his personal advantages and much of his intellect, was his direct antithesis in most respects. Tender, amiable, thought- ful, popular, a man to be loved, with a turn for philosophizing, a fund of anecdote, and a mild, amiable wit that made him one of the most companionable of men, he, too, was much before the justices of the peace, where it was a pleasure to meet him. The fairest-minded of men, when convinced that he was in the wrong he was very apt to acknowledge it. The attachment between these remarkable brothers was something romantic.
Arthur's mother was a Branscomb, a respectable New Hampshire family. He was named Arthur for the only brother of his mother. That Arthur was a law- yer, a man of ability, several times a member of the New Hampshire Legislature. He died early, leaving a son, Charles H., a graduate of Dartmouth, who has for many years been in the consular service of his country, filling different positions with great credit, and who has several sisters. I understand that in the later years of Arthur Thrasher's life he made the acquaintance of these relatives, whom he greatly esteemed.
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