USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 61
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This court was given jurisdiction over original civil causes but was not to handle any criminal cases. It was to try no bastardy cases, divorce suits, insolvent debtors or hear appeals from the justice of peace courts. It was to hold regular sessions every month in the year except during July and August: The judge was to receive one thousand dollars from the county and one thousand five hundred dollars from the state. He was to be elected for a term of three years, the first election to be held on the first Monday of April, 1871, and succeeding elections at the time of the regular elections for county officials.
The first judge of the court was Joseph A. Sexton, and, by re-election, he served throughout the existence of the court. By 1875 it was felt that the regular common pleas court could handle all of the court business of the county, and, as a result of this condition, the General Assembly with the act of March 27, 1875 (Laws of Ohio, Vol. 72, pp. 89-90), provided for its dis- solution, the court to close its business on May 1, 1875. All cases then pend- ing were to be turned over to the regular common pleas court for final dis- position. There has been no special court in the county since 1875, the com- mon pleas court having been able to handle all of the court business of the county.
COMMON PLEAS JUDGES.
Greene county did not have a resident common pleas judge until 1864. From 1851 up to that time the judges who presided over the district to which Greene county was attached were residents of other counties in the district. James J. Winans, the first resident judge of the county, was appointed to the bench in February, 1864, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge . William White. Judge Winans was elected in the fall of the same year to fill the unexpired term of Judge White, and was re-elected in the fall of 1866 for the regular five-year term. He resigned in the fall of 1868 to make the race for Congress and was elected, serving from March 4, 1869, to March 4, 1871.
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Upon the resignation of Judge Winans in the fall of 1868, Edmund H. Munger was appointed to serve until the election a short time later in the same fall. He was elected to fill out the unexpired term of Judge Winans and served until February 9, 1872. He was defeated for renomination by James M. Smith, of Lebanon. From 1872 to 1874 Greene county was with- out a resident common pleas judge, Leroy Pope, of Wilmington, and James M. Smith being the judges of the local court during this short period. On February 9, 1874, Greene county saw its third resident common pleas judge elevated to the bench in the person of Judge Moses Barlow, and since that year the county has always had a resident judge of the court.
Judge Barlow was on the bench until February 9, 1879, being followed on the latter date by Judge James E. Hawes for two terms. Judge Horace L. Smith assumed the bench on February 9, 1889, for two terms, retiring in favor of Judge Thomas E. Scroggy on February 9, 1899. Judge Scroggy served one full term and was re-elected for a second term, but resigned in 1904 to make the race for Congress. He was elected and served one term. Judge Charles H. Kyle was appointed to fill the vacancy caused by the resig- nation and by subsequent elections has filled the office since that year.
Of these several judges of the county there is only one former judge now living. Horace L. Smith, judge from 1889 to 1899, is still in the active practice of law in Xenia. The last one of the others to die was Edmund H. Munger, whose death occurred on March 21, 1918. Thomas E. Scroggy died on March 6, 1915.
PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS OF THE COUNTY.
Greene county has had a local prosecuting attorney since 1808. The first two prosecutors connected with the local court were Daniel Symmes, 1803-1804, and Arthur St. Clair, Jr., 1804-1808, neither of whom were resi- dents of the county. Beginning with John Alexander in 1808 there has always been a local attorney elected to the office and among the twenty-four men who have held the position there have been some of the best lawyers of the county. Two of them, John Alexander and John Little, served in the halls of Congress; others became common pleas judges; one, Charles C. Shearer, became a member of the circuit court of appeals of the state. The full list follow : Daniel Symmes, 1803-04: Arthur St. Clair, 1804-08; John Alexander, 1808-14; William Ellsberry, 1814-16; Joshua Collett, 1816-18; John Alexander, 1818-32; Cornelius Clark, 1832-36; William Ellsberry, 1836-38; R. C. Poland, 1838-42; R. F. Howard, 1842-44; J. G. Gest, 1844- 51 ; M. D. Gatch, 1851-55; John W. Lowe, 1855-56; J. A. Sexton, 1856-60; E. H. Munger, 1860-66; John Little, 1866-69; James E. Hawes, 1869-73; Charles C. Shearer, 1873-77; Hugh McQuiston, 1877-79; T. L. McGruler,
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
1879-81 ; C. L. Spencer, 1881-83 ; Joseph N. Dean, 1883-89; W. F. Trader, 1889-95 ; Marcus Shoup, 1895-1901 ; Charles F. Howard, 1901-04; William F. Orr, 1907-II ; Frank L. Johnson, 1911-17, and Harry D. Smith, 1917-19.
SOME LAWYERS OF A PAST GENERATION.
During the one hundred and fifteen years of the county's history there have appeared at least one hundred and twenty lawyers in the county. A large number of these remained in the county only a short time, while many more were here for only a few years. Some of those who remained in the county a number of years left very little impress on the life of the commu- nity, and but little is known of them. It is impossible to give much definite information concerning a great majority of the men who have practiced before the local bar, but there are a few who are briefly noticed in the suc- ceeding paragraphs. There may be others equally deserving of being men- tioned, but no data was available to make a sketch of them. In the bio- graphical volume will be found interesting sketches of a majority . of the lawyers of today, as well as of several who are deceased. Such prominent lawyers as Charles L. Spencer and Edmund H. Munger are represented in the biographical volume, while a number of others may also be found there. In the following paragraphs may be found short sketches of several of the lawyers who are not elsewhere represented.
Francis Dunlavey, although not a resident of Greene county, yet was the first common pleas judge to preside over the court in the county. Most of his career in Ohio was spent in the neighboring county of Warren. He was born near Winchester, Virginia, December 31, 1771, and died at Leb- anon, Ohio, October, 1839. He was an interesting character in many ways. Serving in the Revolution from 1776 to 1779, he later taught school a while, read law, was admitted to the bar before 1800, and settled in Warren county, Ohio, at the opening of the nineteenth century, making that county his home until his death. He was twice a member of the Legislature of the old North- west Territory, a member of the first constitutional convention of the state, and was one of the first three common pleas judges elected by the General Assembly in 1803. He served in this capacity for fourteen years, conclud- ing his service on the bench in 1817. During these years he presided over the circuit which included Greene county, and according to all accounts he made a very satisfactory judge.
There have been three lawyers bearing the name of Alexander in Greene county-John Alexander, the first lawyer in Xenia, his son, William, and his grandson, William J. The first Alexander, John by name, was born in South Carolina in 1777, and was a lawyer of several years' experience when he located in Xenia in 1803. He had been married some years before com-
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ing to Ohio, having first located in Butler county upon coming into the state. In that county he had taught school as well as practiced law, but when he heard of the new county of Greene being organized he immediately decided to cast his lot with the infant county. Accordingly the year 1803 found him in Xenia, being here in fact before the court had been removed from the log cabin of Davis on Beaver creek. He became prosecuting attorney in 1808 and served as such until 1813, resigning the office to take a seat in Congress to which he had been elected in the fall of 1812. He served two terms in Congress, from March 4, 1813, to March 4, 1817, the first congress- man to be elected from Greene county. As soon as he returned from Con- gress he again became the prosecuting attorney of the county and filled the office term after term until he refused to hold it any longer. He concluded his last term in the office in 1832. During this long period in the prosecu- tor's office he was elected to the state Senate and served there one term, 1822-24, but immediately took up the duties of prosecutor upon the expira- tion of his term in the senate. He died in Xenia in 1848.
William Alexander, a son of John, was born in South Carolina. The local court records indicate that he was admitted to the Greene county bar in 1817. Little is known of his career as a lawyer.
William J. Alexander, a son of William, was born in Spring Valley township, Greene county, Ohio, June 10, 1827. He worked on the farm until 1857, when he began the study of law at home under the tutelage of C. W. Dewey, of Xenia. He was examined by Judge Sexton, Benoni Nesbit and John Little for admission to the bar in 1860. In 1877 he was admitted to practice in the United States courts after an examination by R. F. Howard, E. H. Munger and John Little. He eventually became one of the large land owners of Spring Valley township, owning at the time of his death more than six hundred acres of land. He was married on February 28, 1850, to Elizabeth Weller, and they were the parents of two sons, Perry A. and Charles F. Mr. Alexander died on April 18, 1897.
James J. Winans, member of the Legislature, common pleas judge, and member of Congress, was born in Maysville, Kentucky, June 7, 1818. He was a son of Mathias Winans, one of the early physicians of Greene county, and the father of James Winans, who also became a lawyer. He studied law in the office of Huston & Simpson in Lexington, Kentucky, and was ad- mitted to the bar about 1840, shortly after he had reached his majority. Soon after his admission to the bar he removed to Jamestown, this county, . where his father was practicing medicine, and began the practice of his pro- fession. Evidently there was not much legal business in the village, and he decided to go to Indiana to locate permanently. He removed to Noblesville,
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the county seat of Hamilton county, Indiana, in the spring of 1842, but Feb- ruary, 1843, saw him again back in Jamestown. Two years later he was elected clerk of the court of common pleas and he 'served in this capacity until 1851. He then devoted all of his time to his law practice until he was elected to the state Senate in 1858 for one term. In January, 1863, he took his seat in the lower house of the General Assembly, but resigned in Feb- ruary, 1864, to accept an appointment as common pleas judge to fill out the unexpired term of Judge William White who had resigned to accept an ap- pointment as a member of the supreme court of Ohio. In the fall of 1866, Judge Winans was elected for the regular term, but he resigned in 1868 to make the race for Congress. He was elected and served from March 4, 1869 to March 4, 1871. He then returned to Xenia and practiced law until his death on April 28, 1879. He was married on September 26, 1843, to Caro- line E. Morris. They were the parents of six children, all of whom, as well as his wife, were living at the time of his death in 1879.
William Ellsberry, who was one of the first lawyers in Xenia, was identified with the history of the county from ISII until his death, March 23, 1863. Born in 1783, he came to Xenia in 1811, and two years later was serving as prosecuting attorney. The records show that he filled this office from 1813 to 1816 and again from 1836 to 1838. He was in the state Sen- ate from 1830 to 1834. This sums up his official career, but that was only a very small part of his life in Xenia. He was one of those active citizens who are interested in everything about them; such a man as was needed in the early history of any county. A "beautiful and perfect portrait of their ven- erable friend and legal brother," painted in the '50s by the artist McClurg on the order of some of Ellsberry's brothers at the bar to this day "adorns the court room where he displayed his legal learning and wit, and where in after years it will speak of one who first in the county and place unfolded the mys- teries and intricacies of the legal profession. That genial, life-like portrait will be a speaking memorial of pioneer days, and exert, we trust, a silent influence in mellowing the asperities coincident with the conflicts of litiga- tion," to quote from a newspaper of that period.
Roswell F. Howard, one of the leaders of the Greene county bar for half a century, was born in Hamilton, Ohio, July 20, 1813. He received a collegiate education at Miami University and at Augusta College, Augusta, Kentucky. He then entered Cincinnati Law School and was graduated from that institution in 1837. He at once located in Xenia, where he made his home until his death, June 28, 1892. He was married in 1849 to Margaret Steele. of Xenia, and to this marriage were born seven children, two of whom are living, William S., an attorney of Xenia, and Charles F., also a lawyer of Xenia, and now president of the Peoples Building and Savings "
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Company. In 1873 the wife of Mr. Howard died and in 1876 he married Mary Pollock. Mr. Howard applied himself assiduously to the practice of his chosen profession from the day he located in Xenia in 1837, and event- ually became recognized as one of the ablest attorneys of this section of the state. He served as prosecuting attorney, 1842-1844; as a member of the General Assembly in 1848 and again from 1866 to 1870; as mayor of Xenia; and as a member of the county board of school examiners for twenty years.
Aaron Harlan, one of the most famous of the early lawyers of Greene county, a member of the state Legislature, a member of the constitutional convention of 1850, a. member of Congress, and an orator of the first rank, was born in Warren county, Ohio, September 8, 1802. He was admitted to the bar in 1825 and at once located in Xenia where he soon rose to the front rank of the local bar. His public career started with his election to the lower house of the General Assembly in 1831, where he served one term. In 1838 he became a member of the state Senate and served one term; he re- turned to the Senate in 1849, but resigned to make the race for delegate to the constitutional convention of 1850. He served in the convention with signal ability, and it was probably due to his work in that body that his dis- trict elected him to Congress in the fall of 1852. He served three terms in Congress. . from March 4, 1853, to March 4, 1859. This concluded his public career, although he made the race for Congress in 1860. He was defeated because he was too outspoken in his denunciation of the action of the South- ern states in threatening to secede. He was an uncompromising Republican and did not hesitate to flay those who disagreed with him in political mat- ters. He removed to San Francisco a short time before his death, dying in that city on January 18, 1868.
Thomas E. Scroggy, common pleas judge and member of Congress, was connected with the life of Xenia for nearly half a century. Born in Harveysburg, Warren county, Ohio, March 18, 1843, he grew to manhood in that county, and at the opening of the Civil War enlisted and served throughout the war. Immediately after being mustered out in 1865 he came to Xenia and for a time was in the millinery business, later buying a grocery store. He had little education, but was possessed of considerable native ability. He eventually became a justice of the peace and then became in- terested in the legal profession. He read law, was admitted to the local bar and in the fall of 1898 was elected common pleas judge. He served by re-election until 1904 when he resigned to become a candidate for Congress. He was elected and served one term. After retiring from Congress he went to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he was living at the time of his death on March 6, 1915.
Benoni Nesbit was one of the interesting figures of Xenia for sixty
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years, 1837-1897. Born on October 18, 1814, he was clerking in a store in Springfield, Ohio, at the age of twenty-three. He seems to have been the owner of a store there in 1837, at least, in that year he removed to Xenia with a store and continued in the mercantile business in the latter place until 1843. For some reason he decided to become a lawyer, and to this end he disposed of his store in 1843 and began the study of law with R. F. Howard. He was admitted to the bar two years later and from that time until his death in Xenia, April II, 1897, he was connected with the life of this city.
Charles C. Shearer, the oldest practicing attorney in Xenia, was born in this city on October 8, 1840, the eldest son of John and Mary E. Shearer. He enlisted for service in the Civil War, but was discharged for physical reasons and was thus unable to serve his country as he had so ardently desired. He began the study of law in 1864 and was admitted to the local bar in 1866. He has now been in continuous practice for more than half a century, a record which is not equalled by many practitioners in the state. He became asso- ciated in the practice with John Little in 1872 and this partnership continued until February 9, 1887, when he took his seat as a member of the circuit court of appeals of Ohio, serving on the bench until February 9, 1899. He had previously. served as city clerk of Xenia from 1869 to 1873, and as prosecut- ing attorney from 1873 to 1877. In July, 1871, he became United States commissioner, a position which he filled for several years.
LAWYERS OF GREENE COUNTY, 1803-1918.
The historian has compiled a list of one hundred and twenty lawyers who have been identified with the county for varying periods of time. There have probably been others in the county, but they remained such a short time that they left no record of their presence. A volume might easily be written about these followers of Blackstone, In this list may be seen the name of Coates Kinney, the poet, who although admitted to the local bar, yet never seems to have practiced very much. Certainly, future generations will not remember him as a lawyer. John W. Lowe came to the town from Dayton in 1855 and at the opening of the Civil War raised and became the captain of the first com- pany that went to the front from this county. He was shortly after made the colonel of his regiment and was killed at the battle of Carnifix Ferry on September 18, 1861, the first field officer of Ohio to be killed on the field of battle. Forest W. Dunkle and Charles L. Darlington are now in the National Army, the former as lieutenant and the latter as captain. Daniel G. Younkin was captain of the local company that went to the Mexican border in 1916, being compelled to resign his commission because of ill health. The list of
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585
lawyers for the past one hundred and fifteen years is given alphabetically, those italicized now being residents of the county :
Alexander, John
Harbine, John T.
Poland, R. C.
Alexander, William
Harlan, Aaron
Prescott, John S.
Alexander, William J.
Hartley, Mansel J.
Reynolds, Robert S.
Anderson, Warren
Hawes, James E.
Ross, Phineas
Anthony, C.
Hawes, Perry
Rumpert,
Armstrong, Harry C.
Hood, Robert
Sabin, Horace
Avery, Henry
Howard, Roswell F.
Sayre, Mark A.
Barlow, Moses
Howard, Charles F.
Schenck, Robert C.
Broadstone, Michael A.
Howard, William S.
Schickley, Benjamin F.
Browder, Dora
Johnson, Frank L.'
Schnebly, Peter R.
Browder, Thomas P.
Jones, Hiram
Scroggy, Thomas E.
Buck, Abner S.
Kinney, Coates
Sexton, Joseph A.
Carey, Hugh
Kyle, Charles H.
Shaffer, Frank N.
Cheney, Charles
Kyle, James P.
Shearer, A. E.
Clark, Cornelius
Lehman, Lewis J.
Shearer, Charles C.
Clemens, Gasper D.
Liggett, James D.
Sherwin, William L.
Coats, John
LeSourd, Harry S.
Shoup, Marcus
Collett, Joshua
Little, George
Smith, E. D.
Cook, J. A.
Little, John
Smith, Harry D.
Culver, L. H.
Lowe, John W.
Smith, Horace L.
Cunningham, Frank
Loyd, John F.
Snodgrass, Milo B.
Dakins, S. W.
Marshall, L. T.
Spencer, Charles L.
Darlington, Charles
Marshall, William G.
Starbuck, Nathan
Darlington, Charles L.
Marshall, J. Carl
Stevens, J. M.
Dean, Frank
Maxwell, Campbell L.
Stewart, J. M.
Dean, Joseph N.
Milburn, J. M.
Taylor, Jesse
1
Dewey, Charles W.
Miller, W. L.
Thomas, Richard J.
Dislain, Darius
Morris, William E.
Trader, Wilbur F.
Douglass, Robert W.
Munger, Edmund H.
Traugh, Charles T.
Dunkle, Forest W.
Munger, John
Walsh, John
Ellsberry, Benjamin
McClymon, John B.
Watson, John
ElIsberry, William
McGruder, T. L.
Whitmer, Charles W.
Foley, John
McQuiston, Hugh
Williams, John M.
Frey, George H.
Nesbit, Benoni
Williamson, J. Kenneth
Galloway, Albert
Oram, John L.
Wilson, A. G.
Gatch, Moses D.
Orr, William F.
Winans, James J.
Gest, Joseph G.
Partington, Richard
Winans, James
Gowdy, Robert L.
Paxson, W. A.
Wright, Thomas Coke
Hamilton, J. W.
Perkins, C. S.
Younkin, Daniel G.
THE GREENE COUNTY LAW LIBRARY.
The Greene county law library is one of the best-equipped and most complete that can be found in any county seat of its size in southern Ohio and this fact should be a source of pride not only to the members of the law library association and the local bar, but also to the county as well. This library, which represents twenty-four years of effort on the part of the law
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
library association, is located on the second floor of the court house where it occupies a large, exquisitely furnished and well-appointed room extending along the north side of the corridor.
The law library resulted directly from the organization of the Greene County Law Library Association at a meeting of the Greene county bar in the common pleas court room in the old court house on October 26, 1894. At this first meeting for this purpose Judge H. L. Smith was elected chair- man and Frank N. Shaffer secretary. The chairman appointed a committee of three to draft rules and regulations for the association. Soon after at another meeting of the bar the rules were submitted and adopted. The asso- ciation was to be known as the Greene County Law Library Association, of which members of the local bar could become members by paying the initia- tion fee of ten dollars and five-dollar annual dues. The library is a half- public, half-private institution, because the county allows it a small annual subsidy, and whenever a member of the association dies, his share in the institution automatically becomes the property of the county.
The charter members of the association were the following: Wilbur F. Trader, E. H. Munger, Marcus Shoup, F. N. Shaffer, Thomas E. Scroggy, M. J. Hartley, H. L. Smith, R. W. Douglass, Horace Sabin, Charles Darling- ton, C. L. Maxwell, C. L. Spencer, John Little, R. L. Gowdy, Milo R. Snod- grass, P. R. Schnebley, Charles H. Kyle, F. P. Cunningham, T. L. McGruder, J. E. Hawes and H. C. Armstrong. By the constitution, a president, a vice- president, a secretary-treasurer and five trustees were to be elected by the association. The first officers were the following: E. H. Munger, president ; Charles Darlington, vice-president ; Frank N. Shaffer, secretary-treasurer, and H. L. Smith, E. H. Munger, Charles Darlington, M. J. Hartley, T. E. Scroggy, trustees. Officers are elected annually. The present officers of the association are the following: Charles H. Kyle, president ; Wilbur F. Trader, secretary- treasurer ; W. L. Miller, librarian; M. J. Hartley, Judge Charles H. Kyle, H. D. Smith, Michael A. Broadstone and Charles L. Darlington, trustees. The membership of the association now numbers about eighteen.
One of the first actions taken after the association's organization was the authorization of a debt of one thousand dollars to be spent for books. The success of the undertaking was assured from the beginning and no small amount of its early progress can be credited to the efforts of Charles Darlington. At present the association has no indebtedness and upon the shelves of the library are twelve thousand dollars worth of books, some of them so valuable as to command almost fabulous prices in the market today. The library contains approximately four thousand books, including the court reports of thirty-eight states complete; all the United States court reports
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
and statutes and an index of citations which extends over a period of two hundred years. The library is also well fitted with law encyclopedias, and the "American and English Encyclopedia of Law and Procedure." Among the state reports are those of Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, all of which now are out of print, which makes them very valuable.
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