USA > Ohio > Henry County > History of Henry and Fulton counties, Ohio : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 16
USA > Ohio > Fulton County > History of Henry and Fulton counties, Ohio : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87
THE PRESENT BAR.
There has been no time during the existence of the Bar in Henry county that the same can be said to have been strong in point of members, but in point of intellectual strength and ability and legal attainments on the part of its practitioners there never has been a bar in the county equal to the present, and it is these practitioners that this branch of the present chapter is intended to be devoted.
150
HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
James G. Haly-Although now practically retired from the active work of his profession, Judge Haly still remains a member of the present bar, and is, in fact, its senior member. Mr. Haly was born in Holmes county, Ohio, on the 6th of December, 1816. He was born of parents in quite modest circumstances, his father being a farmer in that county. James received a common school education, but on account of the need of his service on the farm his education was quite limited. When about twenty years of age he came to Napoleon, following to that place Alexander Craig, to whom he was well known and with whom he afterward, for a time, lived. While in Napoleon he attended school and received a fair elementary education, after which he read law under the instruction of Curtis Bates, esq., of Defiance. After a course of study Mr. Haly was admitted to practice in July, 1840, and soon afterward came perma- nently to Napoleon and engaged in practice. At the second regular county election he was chosen to fill the office of prosecuting attorney, and served four years by election and one year by appointment. He then resumed the prac- tice, but was soon elected to the position of justice of the peace, serving in that capacity six years. In 1845 he was elected county auditor and held that office four years.
Still later Mr. Haly was elected to the Lower House of the State Legisla- ture, representing the counties of Henry and Putnam at the session of that body commencing in January, 1852. This was the first session under the new con- stitution. During the years 1853-4-5 he held the position of collector of tolls at the junction of the Wabash and Miami Canals, in Paulding county, and dur- ing his incumbency of this trust Mr. Haly received, by way of collections, and paid over to the State treasurer, the gross sum of a quarter of a million dollars.
After his duties at the junction had ceased Mr. Haly returned to Napoleon and his profession, and formed a law partnership with Edward Sheffield, which relation was maintained until the fall of 1861 when our subject enlisted in Com- pany D, Sixty-eighth O. V. Inf., which company he was chiefly instrumental in raising and to the command of which he was entitled, but, giving the com- mand to others, he accepted the office of regimental quartermaster and at once proceeded to Columbus, where he obtained the complete equipments of the regiment for field duty. Mr. Haly's service with the regiment continued for something over a year, when failing health compelled his resignation and re- turn home. He then resumed the practice of law alone for a time, but later, in partnership with John M. Haag and William Sheffield, under the name and style of Sheffield, Haly and Haag. Mr. Haly continued in the successful prac- tice of the law until the year 1869, at which time he was elected to the office of probate judge of the county. In this capacity he served for a term of twelve years, and in 1881 was succeeded by David Meekison, the present incumbent. From that time Judge Haly has been retired from the active arduous duties of the profession and devotes his attention to his farming interests.
151
HENRY COUNTY.
Justin H. Tyler. Inasmuch as the life, social, political and professional, of Mr. Tyler is made the subject of a more extended sketch elsewhere in the work, it will be necessary to produce here only the briefest outline of his ca- reer in connection with his profession. Mr. Tyler was born in Franklin county, Mass, November 15, 1815, but during his infancy his father moved to Oswego county, N. Y. At this place Justin received an education at the common schools, and also the academy, after which he taught school in Oswego county. In the year 1839 Mr. Tyler came to Circleville, O., where he engaged in teaching, and during the same time read law under the direc- tion of D. Lord Smith, esq., a practicing attorney of that place. After a course of study of about two years Mr. Tyler was admitted to the bar at Mt. Vernon, O., in the year 1841. Three years later he went to Huron county where he established himseif in the general practice of the law. About this time he visited Napoleon with a view to permanent location, but did not come here until 1852. In the year 1854, after a residence in this county of but two years, Mr. Tyler was elected prosecuting attorney of the county and was re-elected at the expiration of the first term. From that time to the present Justin H. Tyler has occupied a position of prominence and importance in the affairs of Henry county. In 1881 he was elected a member of the Legislature, representing his county in the sixty-fifth General Assembly of the State. Al- though now retired from active practice, and devoting his attention to private interests, Mr. Tyler is still frequently in attendance at court when cases of im- portance arise. His legal business, in the main, has been given into the hands of his son, Julian H. Tyler, and his partner, Michael Donnelly, both of whom are young and active practitioners at Napoleon.
Sinclair M. Hague. The subject of this sketeh was born at Leesville, O., July 6, 1834. During youth he acquired only a common school educa tion, but became sufficiently proficient to enable him to teach school, which he commenced in 1851. In the year 1855 he went to New Philadelphia, this State, and entered the law office of Hon. G. W. McIlvaine as a student at law, and two years later, September 24, 1854, was admitted to the bar. During his two years of study Mr. Hague supported himself by performing clerical work in the public offices of the county. In April, 1858, he opened an office in New Philadelphia for the practice of the law and here he remained until the month of December, 1859, when he came to Henry county, where he has since resided and engaged in a successful practice, except during the first four months of his residence in the county, which time was employed in teaching school at Florida. Mr. Hague has always enjoyed a fair share of the professional busi- ness in the county ; a man of quiet, unassuming manners, popular in the com- munity and having no desire for political preferment. He has outlived a ma- jority of those who constituted the Henry county bar in 1860, which then con- sisted of Justin H. Tyler, James G. Haly, Edward Sheffield, Sanford R. Mc-
152
HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
Bane, William A. Choate, Thomas S. C. Morrison and H. H. Poe, all of whom, except Mr. Tyler and Judge Haly, have been dead for many years.
John M. Haag. The life of John Marion Haag is elsewhere made the sub- ject of a special sketch, but any reference to the bar of the county and its mag- istrates and practitioners, without some allusion to Judge Haag would be in- deed incomplete. Judge Haag was a native of Pennsylvania, born at Mifflins- burg, Union county, on the 16th day of August, 1836, but during his early childhood the family moved to York county, and soon thereafter to Lancaster county, Penn. In the last named county Mr. Haag continued to reside until arriving at the age of seventeen years, when he left home, crossed the moun- tains and entered the office of the Free Press at Millersburg, O., where he learned the printer's trade, but subsequently took a position on the editorial staff of that paper. After about a year he went to New Philadelphia, Tuscar- awas county, whither his parents had removed, and here his time was passed in the office of the Ohio Democrat and in part in reading law in the office of Belden & Haag. Other than this he received legal instruction from Judge McIlvaine, late justice of the Supreme Court of the State.
In 1859, Mr. Haag was admitted to the bar and commenced practice at Canal Dover, Tuscarawas County. Three years later, 1862, he came to Na- poleon and formed a law partnership with S. R. McBane, under the name of McBane & Haag. This partnership continued until 1863, when the senior partner died, after which he became a member of the law firm of Sheffield, Haly & Haag, but which firm was soon thereafter dissolved by Mr. Sheffield's accepting a government appointment. Mr. Haag then purchased and edited the Northwest, a leading Democratic newspaper of this section of the State. In the fall of the same year, 1864, Mr. Haag was elected probate judge of Henry County, after which he retired from active law practice and gave his attention to his judicial duties, still retaining, however, his editorial connection with the Northwest. In 1866 he was re-elected for another term of office as probate judge. At the expiration of his second term he sold his interest in the paper and resumed the practice of the law in partnership with I. L. Rob- ertson.
In the fall of 1871 Judge Haag was elected to the State Legislature, and at the expiration of his first term, was re-elected for a second term. Dur- ing his second term in the Legislature, Judge Haag was made chairman of the judiciary committee. Returning from the Legislature, he has since de- voted himself to professional work, engaging no further in political life than naturally became a man of his prominence and experience. In 1880 he formed a law partnership with James P. Ragan, a young and rising lawyer of the county. This relation has since continued and the firm is now looked up- on as one of the leading law firms of Henry county.
David Meekison. The subject of this sketch was born in Dundee, Scotland,
ยท
ALITTLE.
153
HENRY COUNTY.
on the 14th day of November, 1849. When David was but five years old his parents came to this country and located in the Genessee Valley, in New York State. Here the family resided until 1853, when the father, attracted by the offer of cheap lands in the Maumee Valley, came to this place, and two years later, brought his family here. Young Meekison attended the common school at Napoleon for a time, and in 1865 entered the office of the Northwest, a news- paper published by Judge Haag, where he remained about one year, learning the printer's trade. He was then away from Napoleon for four years, three years of which he served in the regular army of the United States, two years at De- troit and one year in the South, after which he returned home. In 1871 he entered the office of Justin H. Tyler, esq., for a course of law study, and after two years was admitted to the bar. He then engaged in practice as a partner with Mr. Tyler, which relation was continued about a year, when Mr. Meeki- son received an appointment from Judge Latty, as prosecuting attorney of the county, in order to fill a vacancy in that office. At the next election Mr. Meekison was elected to the same position, and at the expiration of his first term was re-elected for a second, serving in all, in that capacity, five years. After the expiration of his second term as public prosecutor of the county, Mr. Meekison resumed practice, and so continued until the year 1881, when he was elected to the office of probate judge of Henry county, and, at the expi- ration of his first term, was re-elected for another. Judge Meekison is known as a careful, shrewd lawyer, having a good understanding of the law, and strong before the court and jury. In 1886 Judge Meekison established a banking house in Napoleon, in which he is doing a safe and successful business. His time is now divided between the duties of his office as probate judge, and his banking business, the regular law practice having been allowed to decline.
Martin Knupp was born at Tiffin, Seneca county, Ohio, August 4, 1841. He received a common school education, and afterward attended Ileidelburg College at Tiffin for about two years, but did not graduate from that institution. He read law in the office of Judge James Pillars, of Tiffin, and, after two years, was admitted to the bar at Bryan, in September, 1863. From that time until 1867 he practiced at Tiffin, and then went to Ottawa, Putnam county, where he remained in practice until 1876, when he came to Deshler, this county, but two years later, 1878, he came to the county seat, having been elected to the office of prosecuting attorney of the county. This office Mr. Knupp held two terms, commencing in January, 1879, and continuing four years. In August, 1884, the law partnership of Stephenson & Knupp was formed.
Walter Stephenson, the senior member of the law firm of Stephenson & Knupp, was born near Greenville, Darke county, O., on the 19th day of No- vember, 1843. Up to the age of about eighteen years he lived on a farm, receiving in the mean time a common school education. Then for three years he attended Wittenburg College, but did not graduate therefrom. In the 20
154
HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
summer of 1864 Mr. Stephenson enlisted in Company D, One Hundred and Fifty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for the four months service, holding a commission as second lieutenant. At the expiration of his term of enlistment Mr. Stephenson returned to Ohio and engaged in teaching school, and reading law at Greenville with Judge Mckenry, and was so employed until the latter part of the year 1868, when he entered the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and from which he was graduated in March, 1870. In May following he came to Napoleon and opened an office for the general practice of the law. During the fall of the same year he formed a law partnership with S. M. Hague, esq., which firm relation continued until 1874, and then ceased. For ten years following Mr. Stephenson practiced without a partner, but, in 1884, the present firm of Stephenson & Knupp was formed, which firm has ever since ranked among the leaders at the Henry county bar.
Richard Wallace Cahill, the present prosecuting attorney of Henry county, was born at De Kalb, Crawford county, this State, on the 22d day of April, 1853. He was educated at Wittenburg College, and graduated therefrom after a regular four years course of study, on the 28th day of June, 1878. Prior to his collegiate course Mr. Cahill had taken a preparatory course of study at the University at Wooster. After graduating from college he read law one year in the office of Griffin & Williamson, at Norwalk, and came to Napoleon in No- vember, 1879. After another year of study at the latter place, in the office of S. M. Hague, esq., he was admitted to practice October 8, 1880. In 1881 the law partnership of Haly & Cahill was formed, and so continued until Jan- uary 1, 1883, at which time Mr. Cahill retired to assume the duties of the office of prosecuting attorney of the county, a position he has since held.
James Patrick Ragan, the junior member of the law firm of Haag & Ra- gan, was born at Gilead (now Grand Rapids), Wood county, O., on the 17th of March, 1852. When James was but three years old his father's family moved to Damascus township, in this county. Young Ragan attended the school at Grand Rapids, taking an academic course, and was graduated in the year 1871. Prior to this time of graduating he began teaching school, and taught in all twenty-one terms. For one year he was principal of the White- house school, and for the same length of time filled the same position in the school at Milton Center. In May, 1875, Mr. Ragan commenced a course of law study in the office of Justin H. Tyler, esq., of Napoleon, and was admit- ted to practice in March, 1879. The law partnership of Haag & Ragan was formed in March, 1880, and has since continued.
James Donovan, the clerk of the courts of Henry county, was born in the township of Washington, this county, on the 8th day of July, 1855. At the age of eighteen he commenced teaching school in Washington township, and afterward continued his pedagogical course at the Texas and Colton schools. He was educated at Lebanon, O., where he pursued an academic course of
155
HENRY COUNTY.
study for four years. In 1877 Mr. Donovan commenced a course of law study in the office of J. H. Tyler, esq., and in October, 1880, was admitted to prac- tice. For the year next following he practiced in Laclede county, Mo., but returned to this county in 1881. In 1882 he was elected justice of the peace, serving in that capacity two and one-half years. In February, 1885, his term of office as clerk of the courts commenced, he having been elected to that position during the fall of 1884.
John I'. Cuff. The subject of this sketch was born in Fulton county, ()., August 25, 1851. He received an education at the district and high schools, after which, at the age of sixteen years, he entered the profession of teacher, and taught his first term in Hillsdale county, Mich. He was a successful teacher for sixteen years, after which he was admitted to the bar. During the last few years he has figured prominently in politics ; was defeated as a candi- date for county auditor of Fulton county in 1880, and during the same year removed with his family to Henry county, locating at Liberty Center, where he has since resided. In 1883 he was elected to the House of Representatives of Ohio, and re-elected in 1885.
Michael Donnelly was born in Washington township, this county, on the 18th day of August, 1856. He was educated at the common schools of the county, after which he took a scientific course of study at the Normal School at Lebanon, O., from which institution he was graduated in 1878. In the month of August, following, he commenced a course of law study, under the instruc- tion and direction of Justin H. Tyler, esq., and was admitted to practice in the month of December, 1880. He remained in Mr. Tyler's office until the fol- lowing spring, when, in April, a partnership was formed with his late instructor, which continued up to November, 1886, at which time Mr. Tyler retired, yield- ing his practice to his son, then recently admitted. The firm thereupon became Donnelly & Tyler, and has so since continued.
William W. Campbell was born in Windsor county, Vt., April 2, 1853. He received a good common school education in his native county, and after- wards entered Goddard Seminary, a preparatory school, at Barre, Vt. From here he entered Tufft's College, at Bedford, Mass., in 1874, but left during his senior year. He then read law and was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts, in 1879. In the year 1881 Mr. Campbell came to Napoleon and commenced practice, and, two years later, 1883, formed a law partnership with Hiram Van Campen, which firm still exists. In connection with their general law practice, this firm have established an abstract office.
Hiram Van Campen, the junior partner of the law firm of Campbell & Van Campen, was a native of Massachusetts, born at New Bedford, on the 10th day of February, 1859. Having received a common school education, and taking a preparatory course, he entered Tufft's College, from which he was graduated in 1880. He then came to Findlay, O., where he remained two
156
HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
years, teaching and reading law with Colonel Bope and Henry Brown, after which he went to Toledo and read about one year with Haines & Potter. He was admitted to the bar in October, 1882, but continued some months after- ward in the office of his instructors. Mr. Van Campen came to Napoleon in July, 1883, and formed a law partnership with William W. Campbell, under the firm name of Campbell & Van Campen.
Julian H. Tyler, the junior member of the law firm of Donnelly & Tyler, and the youngest member of the legal fraternity of Henry county, was born at Napoleon, January 2, 1862. He was educated at the Union school, of this place, after which he entered the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, for a regular classical course, and from which institution he was graduated in 1874. He read law, for a time, in the office of his father, Hon. Justin H. Tyler, at Napoleon, and later, with John N. Jewett, of Chicago, Ill., at which city he was admitted to the bar in March, 1886. He then returned to Ohio and was admitted to practice in this State, after an examination at Columbus, in Octo- ber, 1886. Returning to Napoleon he formed a law partnership in November, 1886, with Michael Donnelly, succeeding to the practice of his father, Justin H. Tyler.
Earnest N. Worden was born February 9, 1859. He graduated from Ober- lin in 1880, and read law with Albert Lawrence, of Cleveland. He was ad- mitted to the bar in May, 1883, and after a brief time in practice at Norwalk, O., came to Deshler, this county, where he is now established.
There are a few other attorneys in practice in the county, of whom no sketch has been obtained, although requested of them. Of these James M. Patterson is at Deshler, in Bartlow township, while the other, E. L. Hartman, practices at Holgate, in Pleasant township.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE HENRY COUNTY PRESS.
E DUCATION is the great civilizer, and printing is the greatest auxiliary. Were it not for the aid furnished by the press the great mass of the peo- ple would still be groping in the darkness of the middle ages, and knowledge would still remain confined within the limits of the cloister.
It is surprising, when searching our libraries, to discover how little has been written of the "Art preservative of all Arts," and the educator of all edu- cators. While printing has been the chronicler of all arts, professions and learning, it has recorded so little of its own history and progress as to leave
157
HENRY COUNTY.
even the story of its first invention and application wrapped in mystery and doubt. We only know that from the old Ramage press which Faust and Franklin used, capable of producing a hundred impressions per hour, we have now the ponderous machine which turns out one thousand copies per minute.
In glancing over the pages of history, we discover the gradual develop- ments in the arts and sciences. We notice that they go hand in hand- one discovery points to another, one improvement in the arts leads to others con- tinually, and the results of the last few centuries show that observations of no apparent use lead to the most important discoveries and developments. The falling of an apple led Newton to unfold the theory of gravitation and its rela- tions to the solar system ; the discovery of the polarity of the loadstone lead to the construction of the mariner's compass; the observation of the muscular contraction of a frog lead to the numerous applications of galvanic electricity ; the observation of the expansive force of steam lead to the construction and application of the steam engine ; the observation of the influence of light on the chloride of silver lead to the art of photography ; the observations of the communication of sound by the connected rails of a railroad lead to the inven- tion of the telephone; the impressions taken from letters cut in the smooth bark of the beech tree lead to the art of printing-the art which transmits to posterity a record of all which is valuable to the world.
Thus is progress discernible in every successive generation of man. Grad- ually has he advanced from a state of rude barbarism and total ignorance to a degree of perfection which gives him almost absolute dominion over all el- ements, and in the pride of glorious and enlightened manhood he can exclaim with Cowper :
" I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute ; From the center all round to the sea I am lord of the fowl and the brute !"
So long as mind shall occupy its seat, so long will progress be the watch- word of man, and onward and upward will be his march to an endless and lim- itless ascent-where all the hidden and occult secrets of creation will unfold their mysteries to his comprehension and crown him master of them all.
The printing office has well been called the " Poor Boy's College," and has proven a better school to many; has graduated more intellect and turned it into useful, practical channels; awakened more active, devoted thought, than any alma mater on the earth. Many a dunce has passed through the univer- sities with no tangible proof of fitness other than his insensible piece of parch- ment-himself more sheepish, if possible, than his "sheep-skin." There is something in the very atmosphere of a printing office calculated to awaken the mind to activity and inspire a thirst for knowledge. Franklin, Stanhope, Ber- anger, Thiers, Greeley, Taylor, and a host of other names illustrious in the world of letters and science have been gems in the diadem of typography and owe their success to the influence of a printing office.
158
HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
The newspaper has become one of the chief indexes of the intelligence, civ- ilization and progress of the community in which it is published, and its files are the foot-prints of the advancement and refinement of the period of its publication ; and the printing office is now deemed as essential as the school- house or church. It has taken the place of the rostrum and the professor's chair, and become the great teacher. No party, organization, enterprise or calling is considered perfect without its "organ "-the newspaper-as a mouth piece.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.