USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 59
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THE CEDARVILLE RECORD.
The Cedarville Record was established in 1903 by Stephen Calvin Wright, who continued as owner and editor of the paper until he sold it in 1911, when he assumed the postmastership of Cedarville. Wright had graduated from Cedarville College in 1903, and after leaving the postoffice on July 1, 1914, became financial secretary of his alma mater. In that same year he was made head of the newly organized normal department of the college, resigning that position in August, 1917, to become deputy probate judge of the county. After he sold the paper in 1911 it was taken to Xenia, where it was issued as a prohibition paper for a short time under the name of the Tribune.
YELLOW SPRINGS NEWSPAPERS.
The history of the newspapers of Yellow Springs is hard to follow for the reason that there are no files of any of the papers extant before the '8os, and the files of the several papers since then are very incomplete. The first definite record of a newspaper being established in the town shows that Warren Anderson issued the first number of the Yellow Springs Review on October 9, 1880. Anderson was referred to in the papers of Xenia as the "Great American Newspaper Starter," and between the years that he estab- lished the Xenia Gasette in 1868 and his founding of the Yellow Springs Reviewe in 1880 he had established at least half a dozen other papers. His connection with the Review was more abbreviated than his connection with some of the other papers he had founded, but the absence of the files renders it impossible to say what he did with it.
The decade from 1880 to 1890 seems to have found only this one news- paper in the town, but the succession of owners and editors is not known. David L. Croy appears as editor and owner in the fall of 1890, having pur- chased the paper from N. A. C. Smith. In the fall of the following year the Citizens Printing & Publishing Company started a new paper, the Weekly Citi- sen. Its first issue, August 7, 1891, bore the double heading The Weekly Citizen and Yellow Springs Review, indicating that the new paper had absorbed the Reviewe. The second issue of the paper dropped the Review part of the title, and thereafter it was simply known as the Weekly Citizen. The new paper was edited by L. A. Elster, and either he or the company publishing the paper ยท soon wearied of the task, for within less than two years the company was trying to get rid of it. The issues in the fore part of 1893 show that E. H. Williamson had leased it. It was too much of a burden for him to carry, and the issue of June 22, 1894, shows that James R. Hale had the courage to try to make a success of the unfortunate sheet.
The newspaper situation in Yellow Springs in the 'gos is very much con- fused, the confusion arising from the fact that the editors were careless in
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keeping their volume and issue numbers consecutive. Another difficulty in unravelling the newspaper puzzle of the 'gos comes from the juggling of titles, the same paper in some instances appearing under a new guise every time it changed owners. The Weekly Citizen went to bed one night in 1894 and appeared on the streets the following week labelled the Yellow Springs Torch, Hale apparently thinking to thus make it a more illuminating sheet. Under this latter name it appeared for the first time on July 13, 1894.
The Yellow Springs Newes has now had a continuous career since its first issue, July 24, 1896. Its founder, O. C. Wike, was a practical newspaper man, and within three years had built up his paper to a point where the other newspaper of the town, the Review, was ready to sell out to him. The News bought the Review on May 18, 1899, and Wike conducted the only paper in the town from that date until he disposed of it to J. N. Wolford on September 18, 1905. Wolford has since remained the sole owner and editor of the paper and during the thirteen years that he has had charge of it he has had the field entirely to himself. The News is a weekly, published each Friday, Republican in politics, and does not pretend to be any more than a local paper. The paper enjoys a circulation of eight hundred, and an adver- tising patronage sufficient to make it a good paying proposition to its owner. The newspaper plant is well equipped to do all kinds of job printing on short notice.
JAMESTOWN NEWSPAPERS.
The first newspaper in Jamestown made its appearance in 1870 and since that year the town has always had at least one paper and at times there have been two published at the same time. The history of the papers of the town has been furnished by W. J. Galvin, now vice-president of the Journal- Republican Company of Wilmington, Ohio, but who was for years connected with the Jamestown papers. The Galvins, father and son, W. S. and W. J., have been connected with the local papers since the first one made its appear- ance in 1870. To give the account of the papers in the language of W. J. Galvin :
"The first paper in the town was the Echo, established by W. S. Galvin in 1870. Mr. Galvin (the senior Galvin) has remained as editor, with the exception of a few short stretches, ever since and is the editor today. It was first called the Echo; then in succession the Tribune, Comet and Journal. In 1898 the Greene County Press was established in the town, which paper, in 1910, was consolidated with the Journal, the paper since the latter year being known as the Greene County Journal. Among the men who have been editors of the paper for short periods, either in connection with W. S. Galvin, or alone, have been W. H. Rowe, H. B. Zartman, W. H. Blair and W. A. Paxson."
(36)
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W. S. Galvin, the present owner and editor, is the oldest editor in the county in point of continuous service with a Greene county newspaper. The only other editor of the county who approaches him in point of continuous service is the senior Chew, who has been connected with the Xenia Gazette since September 1, 1877. Chew had previously been the owner and editor of a Lawrenceburg (Indiana) newspaper, and has actually had longer news- paper connection than the senior Galvin, but the latter holds the record for longest connection with a Greene county newspaper. The Greene County Journal is a weekly publication with a substantial circulation in the com- munity. The office of the paper is equipped with a job press and does a con- siderable amount of job printing.
OSBORN NEWSPAPERS.
The newspaper history of Osborn promises to be a thing of the past within. a short time, and for this reason the history of the papers of the town for the past half century has a peculiar interest for the historian. In this town, as in all the others of the county, the absence of newspaper files makes it difficult to give more than a cursory view of the press of the town. As early as 1866 there is evidence to show that the Osborn Bulletin was being published, but it seems that it was printed in Dayton. It is not known who was respon- sible for it, nor how long it maintained its existence, but it was undoubtedly only a short time. The second paper of which any record has been preserved bore the illuminating title of the Osborn Star, but it soon flickered out and the town was again without a newspaper.
The first definite date for a paper in the town may be put down as July 9, 1882, on which date the Mad River Times made its debut. This has had a number of owners, among them being Warren Anderson, known as the "Great American Newspaper Starter." Evidently Anderson went from the Yellow Springs Review in the early '8os to the Osborn paper, and it is equally certain that he did not remain long with the latter paper. The pres- ent owner, J. A. Hardman, has been connected with the paper for several years and has made a financial success of it. It was issued under the name of the Mad River Times until sometime in the 'gos, when it was given its present name, Osborn Local.
BELLBROOK AND SPRING VALLEY NEWSPAPERS.
There were newspapers in both Spring Valley and Bellbrook in the middle of the 'Sos, but neither village was large enough to make a newspaper a profit- able enterprise. With no files of papers of either town it is impossible to give more than a general statement of the newspaper history of the two places. The Bellbrook Magnet followed shortly after the discovery of the
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famous magnetic springs in the village in 1882, its name being suggestive of the qualities of the water. It is not known how long the paper was in existence, but subsequently a paper bearing the lunar title of the Bellbrook Moon was credited to the village. How long it maintained its orbit is unknown, but its radiance was never very dazzling and it soon disappeared below the newspaper horizon.
Spring Valley seems to have had its first paper in about 1886; at least, a paper bearing the name of the Spring Valley Blade was then in circulation. The duration of its life can not be ascertained without files of the sheet, and they have long since disappeared. Another paper of Spring Valley, whether the second or not is not known, but certainly it has been the last, was given the title of the Twin City Vidette, the twins being Spring Valley and Bell- brook. The Vidette seems to have had a more or less consecutive career for some years prior to 1909, in which year it ceased publication. James R. Hale, now of Columbus, was at one time connected with the papers of these two towns, later becoming identified with one of the papers at Yellow Springs.
SMITH ADVERTISING COMPANY.
The Smith Advertising Company opened for business in its present quarters at Xenia on January 1, 1912, the Smith brothers, Frank L. and Burch, having just retired from the Xenia Republican after an ownership extending over a period of five years. They were both thoroughly in touch with the various phases of printing, a fact which accounts for their unusual success as manufacturers of advertising specialties of all kinds. They opened their new business in a large brick building on East Main street, a building which had been originally erected for a wholesale grocery establishment shortly after the Civil War. It is a large structure, two stories high, with 20,000 feet of floor space, all of which is devoted to their business. In addi- tion they have been compelled to erect other buildings at the rear in order to house the large amount of paper stock which they find it necessary to keep on hand.
When the Smiths decided to go into the manufacturing of advertising specialties, they purchased new equipment throughout, and their present equip -. ment is of the most modern type. Among other publications they print two magazines of wide circulation : Womens Missionary Magasine and Wood Con- struction. The former publication was established in Xenia in 1887 as the missionary organ of the United Presbyterian church and has always been published in Xenia. It was formerly issued by the Xenia Republican, but when the Smith brothers sold the paper in 1912, they reserved the magazine and have since been issuing it. The present editor is Mrs. George Moore, of Xenia. It is a monthly publication with a subscription list of ten thousand going to all parts of the world. Wood Construction is the official organ of
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the Ohio Association of Retail Lumber Dealers, and has been issued for the past four years. It is a semi-monthly publication under the editorial manage- ment of Findley M. Torrence, of Xenia. Torrence is the secretary of the association and for the past two years has also edited the magazine, during which time he has greatly improved it. Many other publications are also issued from the presses of the Smith Advertising Company.
There are few people in Xenia who realize that the product of the Smith Advertising Company reaches all corners of the earth. The name "Xenia" is found on advertising specialties in all the civilized countries of the globe. During the spring of 1918 the company was getting out millions of special- ties printed in Spanish for distribution in Cuba and South America, and this is only a part of the season's output. Recently there were hundreds of thousands of advertising specialties sent from this company's presses to Egypt. These advertising specialties take every conceivable form, the fact that the Smith brothers have so many original ideas accounting for the large volume of business they handle yearly. The output of the company is second only to that of the local cordage companies. There is no gainsaying the fact that the Smith Advertising Company does more to spread the name of Xenia abroad over the world than any other industry of the city.
FRANK L. SMITH
BURCH SMITH.
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE BENCH AND BAR OF GREENE COUNTY.
The lawyer has been found in Greene county from the beginning of its history ; he arrived here with the first blacksmith, the first carpenter, the first minister of the gospel. The lawyer, no matter how meagre may have been his legal equipment, was looked upon in the early days with somewhat the same reverence that was accorded the preacher. And the follower of Black- stone has been a very important factor in the development of the county; in fact, if it were possible to determine his proportionate share of the credit for the present prosperity of the county, it would be found that he was entitled to more than the general public is wont to give him.
No one will ever know how many lawyers there have been in the county. Certainly, the earlier attorneys were prone to wander more widely than their brothers of later years. The same lawyer may be found credited to half a dozen or more counties in the ante-bellum days of the state. It is probable that the county has claimed at least one hundred and fifty lawyers in the course of its history of more than a century. The last record shows that there are now thirty men in the county who have been admitted to the bar and therefore entitled to practice before the local courts, a larger number than the county ever previously has had.
It is a fruitless task to attempt to classify the lawyers of the county on the basis of their respective abilities. They are of as varying abilities as men in any other vocation in life; some are strong, some are weak, and some mediocre. In these latter days lawyers specialize in different departments of the practice, but half a century ago most of them were what might be called all-around practitioners. It is true that some of them were better jury lawyers than others, or that some preferred civil to criminal cases, but the fact remains that in the early days of the county the average lawyer was willing to attempt to handle any kind of a case.
Any discussion of the early lawyers of the county would be incomplete which did not make mention of the conditions under which they practiced. Very few of them were college trained; most of them obtained whatever legal education they had by reading law with some member of the bar. Some of them evidently never even had this privilege, but gathered their stock of legal knowledge by reading alone. There were some of the old-time "squires"
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who branched out as full-fledged lawyers later in life, their legal knowledge being a curious compound of what they picked up from the statutes and a manual of law which was placed at the disposal of every justice of peace in the state, together with a large and comprehensive stock of good common sense.
Under the old constitution of the state, that is, the one which was in operation until 1851, each county in the state had three so-called "associate judges," who served with the "presiding judge." These associate judges very rarely, if ever, had any legal training, nor were they supposed to have any. There can be no question that these untrained local judges dispensed justice with as fair and impartial a hand as if they had been learned in the law. Wherefore could they not be as competent as the ordinary jury of twelve men. When William Maxwell, Benjamin Whiteman and James Barrett, the first three associate judges of Greene county in 1803, took their respec- tive seats, they were simply staid, substantial pioneers, ignorant of the tech- nical side of the law, but so imbued with an inherent sense of right and justice that they formed as competent a tribunal for their fellowmen as if they had been tutored at the knees of John Marshall.
And there were others of these old associate judges who made excellent judges. The office was abolished in 1851, and with the adoption of the con- stitution of that year the old associate judge became a thing of the past. He had served his people well and faithfully, and there were not a few who regretted his passing. Such worthy pioneers as Benjamin Whiteman, Will- iam Maxwell, James Snoden, Samuel Kyle, David Huston and Daniel Martin will be remembered for their service on the local bench, and the county is glad to honor them. The complete list of associate judges from 1803 until the office was abolished in 1851 follows: Benjamin Whiteman, James Bar- rett and William Maxwell, 1803; Benjamin Whiteman and James Barrett, 1804-1805; David Huston, Josiah Grover and James Barrett, 1806-1808; David Huston, James Barrett and James Snoden, 1809; David Huston, James Snoden and Samuel Kyle, 1810; John McLain and Samuel Kyle, 18II; John Wilson and Samuel Kyle, 1812; Jacob Haines and Samuel Kyle, 1813-1815; Jacob Haines, Samuel Kyle and David Huston, 1815-1819; John Clark, Samuel Kyle and David Huston, 1819-1833; Simeon Dunn, Samuel Kyle and David Huston, 1833-1843; Simeon Dunn, Samuel Kyle and A. G. Luce, 1843-1846; Simeon Dunn, Daniel Martin and A. G. Luce, 1846-1848; John Fudge, Daniel Martin and A. G. Luce, 1848-1850; John Fudge, Daniel Martin and William Mills, 1850-1851.
Then, there was still another class of men in the early day's who dis- pensed justice without any previous legal training. These men were always known as "squires," the constitution calling them justices of the peace. They
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are still a prominent feature of the judicial system of the state, but they no longer hold the importance they did in the early history of the county. It was, and still is, the custom to continue them in office from term to term, and as a result of this custom some of them really, in the course of years, acquired a considerable knowledge of the law. They' formerly tried more than half the cases in the average county in Ohio, but their importance is gradually decreas- ing. As a matter of fact, there are those who are now saying that the justice of peace has outlived his usefulness, and that he ought to go the way of the old associate judges. But the "squire" of the first half of the last century was looked upon as one of the most important men in his township, each town- ship usually having at least two, and some townships as many as four. His passing is one of the signs of the times.
LEADING LAWYERS OF THE PAST GENERATION.
As has been stated, it is impossible to rank the lawyers of the county on the basis of their respective merits. Some of the best known were not the best ; on the other hand, there have been some who should rank at the head of the list, who did not attain the local fame which fell to the lot of inferior practitioners. Without mentioning any of the living lawyers, some of whom will rank with the best the county has ever produced, there seems to be a consensus of opinion that the following lawyers were among the best of those who have come and gone: Moses Barlow, James J. Winans, John Little, Ros- well F. Howard, Aaron Harlan, Charles Darlington, Charles L. Spencer and Edmund H. Munger.
ADMISSION OF EARLY LAWYERS TO THE BAR OF GREENE COUNTY.
Hidden away in the recesses of the attic of the court house in Xenia are several boxes of papers which were carefully preserved and arranged by the late George F. Robinson, the indefatigable historian of the county. Among these many papers the present historian found a neat little bundle of papers containing the documents concerned with the admission to the local bar of a number of Greene county's earliest lawyers. It is fair to presume that Robin- son put in the little package all of these particular records that he could find. The earliest noted was that of William Alexander, admitted in 1817. The latest was that of Perry Hawes, who was admitted in 1862. The list totals twenty-one lawyers (not all, of course) who were admitted to the local bar during the years from 1817 to 1862.
Unfortunately, the paper actually admitting Alexander to the bar in 1817 is missing, but there are two certificates concerning him which are interesting. It was the custom in those days for the applicant to be examined by three or more, usually three but sometimes five, members of the bar. Their certifi-
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cate was then turned over to the court with their recommendation, whereupon the judge formally admitted the applicant to the bar.
The two documents pertaining to William Alexander are as follows:
State of Ohio, Greene County.
Personally appeared before me the Subscriber one of the Justices of the peace in the county aforesaid and made oath that he the deponent actually does reside in the State of Ohio and is a citizen thereof, Sworn and Subscribed before he at Xenia this 15th July 1817.
Joseph Hamill, Justice of the peace. WILLIAM ALEXANDER.
I certify that William Alexander is of good moral character and that he has regularly and attentively studied law, and that I believe him to be a person of sufficient legal ability to discharge the duties of an attorney-at-law.
The Hon. Judge of the Sup. Court, July 2, 1817. JOSHUA COLLETT.
It is presumed that Alexander had to pass some sort of an examination following the presentation of these certificates to the court, the lawyers to do the examining being appointed by the court. Their recommendation for his admission is not filed with the other certificates, but it is certain that he was admitted at this time. A good example of the recommendation made by the examining lawyers is that of James D. Liggett and William E. Morris, a verbatim copy of which follows:
To the Hon. the Supreme Court of the State of Ohio, Within and for Greene County, Ohio.
The undersigned committee appointed to examine James D. Liggett & William E. Morris, applicants for admission to practice as attorneys, respectfully report that, after an examination of said applicants we find, that, they are in possession of sufficient legal knowledge & ability to discharge the duties of attorneys & Counsellors at Law, & Solicitor in Chancery-& being thus well qualified we recommend their admission to the Bar, according to Law, to practice as attorneys & Counsellors at law, etc. in the Courts of the State of Ohio. June 17, 1847.
J. MILTON WILLIAMS A. HARLAN R. F. HOWARD
The twenty-one lawyers whose bar papers have been preserved are the following : William Alexander, 1817; Thomas Coke Wright, 1826; Cornelius Clarke, 1828; Henry Avery, 1831 ; Mark Anthony Sayre, 1834; Hiram Jones, 1837; Nathan Starbuck, 1838; Robert S. Reynolds, 1839; John B. McClymon, 1840; Charles T. Traugh, 1842; John H. Watson, 1844; William E. Morris, 1847; James D. Liggett, 1847; John Coates, 1847; George H. Frey, 1847; John F. Loyd, 1848; L. H. Culver, 1855; Darius Dislain, 1857; John L. Oram, 1860; Perry Hawes, 1862.
The names of several of these lawyers are not familiar in the court records of the county, most of them apparently having been identified with the county only a few years. It is possible, of course, that some of them were not even resident lawyers of Greene county, but the fact that they applied to the local bar for admission indicates that they intended to practice in this county.
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Among the several lawyers whose names appear on these old documents as attesting to the moral character of the applicants, or as examining lawyers, are the following: A. Harlan, William Ellsberry, A. S. Buck, R. F. Howard, M. Barlow, George Spence, William R. Sherwin, Joshua Collet and J. M. Williams. The names of R. F. Howard, Moses Barlow and Aaron Harlan appear the most frequently, a fact which indicates that they must have been the leading lawyers of the county at this time.
THE TAXING OF LAWYERS.
It is not generally known that at one time in the history of the county all the lawyers were placed on the tax duplicate at so much per head, just the same as dogs. They were taxed from one to three dollars each, the law pro- viding that they should be assessed according to their annual income; hence the record shows three-dollar lawyers and one-dollar lawyers. While the pro- vision for placing the lawyer on the tax list was provided by a state statute, it required an order from the county commissioners to make it effective in the various counties of the state. The Greene county lawyer found his way into the tax duplicate as a result of the following order, dated June II, 1830:
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