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 44
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 44
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Mr. Touvelle entered with energy and zeal upon the practice of law, but still kept up his study not only of legal principles but of general literature through all the varied and attractive avenues of history, biography and poetry; giving also attention to the cultivation of the attractive and effective gifts as a public speaker with which he had naturally been endowed. In 1872 he was elected prosecuting attorney of the county, and two years later was re-elected. It is disparagement to none of the able lawyers who have filled that office in- Fulton county to say that the duties and responsibilities thereof were never discharged and taken care of with more consummate skill and ability than by Mr. Touvelle. Since 1876 he has devoted his attention entirely to his prac- tice untrammeled by office or the desire therefor, though taking an ardent and influential part in politics both local and general as a Republican of the strictest sect. He has a leading practice, and is especially able and successful as a trial lawyer, whether the issue be one of law for the court, or one of fact for the jury. He possesses that faculty, the lack of which can be supplied to a lawyer by no other gifts or acquirements, the unerring sense of discernment of the strong and weak points of a case, and that skill and tact which can never be. diverted from the vital points of the questions at issue. He probably never undertook a case unprepared, which is a fairly safe indication of that chival-
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rous affection for the arduous calling of the law without which no permanent or satisfactory success can be achieved in it.
Mr. Touvelle is married and has a pleasant home, devoting to it and his family both provident care and tender solicitude.
Henry H. Ham, for many years prominent at the bar of Fulton county, came hither from Pennsylvania in 1870, and at once opened a law office in connection with his brother, Thomas FF. Ham, in Wauseon. Henry, the elder of the firm, was born at Honesdale, Pa., on the 25th day of August, 1846, and was educated at Wyoming College, Luzerne county, in that State. He stud- ied law with the firm of S. E. and W. H. Dimmick, able and prominent law- yers at Honesdale, and was admitted to the bar in the month of December, 1869, but remained at the office of his preceptors, until his departure for and settlement at Wauseon the following year. Nine years later, being then in the successful and competent discharge of his duties as prosecuting attorney of Fulton county, Mr. Ham returned to Pennsylvania and married Kate, the youngest daughter of Erastus Barnes, esq., a prominent citizen of Warren county in that State. They have one child, a daughter.
Mr. Ham has since his location in Fulton county, been conspicuous, not only as an able and talented lawyer, but in business enterprises as well. He always has been ready, not only with his means but his personal encourage- ment and co-operation in every useful local enterprise dependent upon public spirit, and in addition to a large and successful legal business which the firm has acquired by faithful and diligent effort, and which always has been well managed, he has found time and energy to embark in and assist in the con- duct of private business enterprises that have conduced much to the prosper- ity of his adopted town and county. His splendid personal presence and man- ners of the most genial courtesy, would attract attention anywhere, and he is celebrated for his power and influence as an advocate and as a ready and effective political orator. His mental and physical organization is powerful, and he probably does not know the meaning of fear in the thick of a legal fight. As a jury lawyer he is at his best but disdains technicalities. He has not, and does not pretend to any mental grasp of what may be called tech- nical points, but fights and wins or loses fairly on the merits. He is a man of great kindness of heart, and of the most generous impulses, and is popular with both his legal brethren and the people generally.
Thomas F. Ham is a native of Pennsylvania, and was born at the city of Honesdale on the first day December, 1847. He received his literary education at Wyoming College, in Luzerne county, a noted historic place in the common- wealth of Pennsylvania. Upon attaining his majority he entered the office of C. P. and G. G. Waller, of Honesdale, where he remained two years as a law student, and was admitted to the bar in the month of December, 1869. In the spring of 1870 he located with his brother Henry in Fulton county, O., and
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with him opened a law office at Wauseon. Previous to his leaving the State of his nativity he married Miss Charlotte Scudder, the mother of his three promising sons, Thomas, Frank, and Harry.
In the office of H. H. and T. F. Ham the rule and system of a division of labor has always been observed and the subject of this sketch, since the estab- lishment of their professional business, has been distinctly and avowedly the office lawyer. In the main the purely business branch of the law has devolved upon him, and much of the advisory part and largely the direction of the cler- ical work. He is a safe counsellor and a careful and methodical business and commercial lawyer, and is well versed in legal principles.
L. M. Murphy is of Irish descent but was born in Belmont county, O., on the 28th of September, 1849. He received an academic 'education and en- gaged in public school work in different parts of the State until 1876, when because of ill health, produced by continuous teaching, he gave up the work which he had chosen for a life vocation and began studying law with Southard and Southard of Zanesville, O. Remaining with this firm but about six months he then went to Mt. Vernon, O., and studied in the office of McIntyre and Kirk, prominent attorneys of that city, for two years, when in 1879 he was ad- mitted to the bar. In 1880 he located in Wauseon, O., and in point of time as a legal practitioner, is the youngest at the Fulton county bar. He was asso- ciated with Mr. Slusser in business for about four years and with M. Handy, esq., for one year. He was mayor of Wauseon for nearly five years and for the last four years has been president of the Fulton county board of school examiners, still evincing much interest in and giving considerable attention to educational matters. It should not be left unmentioned that Mr. Murphy became a Union soldier at the age of fifteen years, and honorably and faithfully served his coun- try in the field during the last year of the rebellion.
In point of scholarly qualifications Mr. Murphy is probably excelled by no member of the bar of Northwestern Ohio, either as to range or thoroughness. His early education was by no means neglected and his most intimate asso- ciates have been his books, yet neither his tastes nor his experience as a teacher has made him pedantic. As a lawyer he may safely for his experi- ence be pronounced a very excellent general practitioner, and is conspicuously able as an advocate. If eloquence be, as defined by a celebrated modern his- torian, a fusion of reason and passion, then Mr. Murphy is an eloquent orator. A lawsuit with him is a kingdom to be conquered by hard fighting and he gives blows often with fierceness and always receives them with equanimity. Of great warmth of feeling and temperament it is not likely that he ever har- bored a resentment a moment after the occasion therefor passed away. Among the leaders of the Fulton county bar he is fast becoming conspicuous and evinces promising talent as a nisi prius lawyer.
While prosecuting his legal studies Mr. Murphy was married and is the father of three children.
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Mazzini Slusser, the present prosecuting attorney of Fulton county, is thirty- five years old, and received his legal education in the office of A. C. Baldwin, at Pontiac, Mich., and at the Michigan University, graduating in the law de- partment thereof, in 1876. His rudimentary and literary training was acquired in the public schools of Bryan, O., and at an academy which flourished there some years ago. After spending two years in public school work, Mr. Slusser located at Wauseon, in 1878, and followed the business of general insurance until 1880, when he formed a partnership with L. M. Murphy, esq., and began the active practice of the law. In 1885 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Fulton county, since which time he has had no partnership associate.
Though yet young in the law practice, Mr. Slusser has attained to a profit- able business, and gives earnest of fine ability, especially in the direction of chancery proceedings. He is well versed in legal principles, and is careful and painstaking. He possesses excellent business ability, without which no perma- nent and substantial success can be acquired, especially in the domain of civil practice. As prosecuting attorney, he has achieved success in a fair degree, but the bent of his mind, and the whole tenor of his legal training, seems more in the direction of that responsible class of legal business which is taken care of and receives its final disposition on the equity side of the court, as it is called in the careless language of the practicing lawyer. Mr. Slusser is a married man, the father of three promising boys. His conduct in all the relations of life is most exemplary. He is sober, relf-respecting, and though not brilliant, is destined to solid prominence both as a citizen and lawyer.
William H. Gavitt was born in Franklin county, O., on the 12th day of No- vember, 1844. He is the son of a prominent Methodist clergyman, who made Northwestern Ohio the scene of his active labors in the dispensation of the gos- pel during the years it was slowly emerging from the wilderness. Mr. Gavitt was educated at the Ohio Wesleyan University, one of the most prominent edu- cational institutions in the country under the immediate ecclesiastical control of the Methodist Episcopal Church. On the 12th day of January, 1863, he be- gan studying law with M. Handy, esq., at Ottokee, the old county-seat of Ful- ton county, but completed his studies at Delaware, in the office of James R. Hubble, at that time a leading lawyer of Central Ohio. On November 25, 1865, Mr. Gavitt was admitted to the bar, and immediately opened an office at Wauseon. Wearying somewhat of the law after a few years, he went to Isabel county, Mich., where in connection with Dr. S. T. Norden, whose daughter he had married, he engaged in the drug business. In 1876 he returned to Fulton county, and again embarked in the legal practice, this time at Delta, where he has since resided. In 1880 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Fulton county, and two years later was re-elected.
Mr. Gavitt is a good general lawyer. He is in no sense a specialist, but seems as much at home in one department of the law as another. He is a good
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HISTORY OF HENRY AND FULTON COUNTIES.
pleader, and a good advocate, yet has always given careful attention to com- mercial and office practice. He is noted as a speaker who is never at a loss for something weighty and plausible to say in defense of a cause which has all the appearance of hopelessness, and he can be daunted by no discouragements. His manners are dignified and pleasant, and he is deservedly popular with his legal brethren.
John Quincy Files is a native of Greene county, O., and was born Septem- ber 21, 1846. He was educated at the village school of a small and antiquated place designated indifferently in local parlance as Oldtown, or old Chilicothe in that county. At the age of nineteen years Mr. Files left home, and began the battle of life for himself. In 1870, being then a resident of Louisville, Ky., he completed the course of book-keeping in Bryant and Stratton's business col- lege of that city, after which for several years he was a traveling salesman, and sold goods throughout many of the western States. In 1875 he located at Holland, Lucas county, and for three years followed farming. Here he made the acquaintance of B. T. Geer, esq., a prominent lawyer of Lucas county, with whom in 1878, he began studying law, finishing his course and being admitted to the bar in 1880, since which time he has been practicing at Swanton, and has met with considerable success.
Though beginning the law somewhat late in life, by energy and good busi- ness judgment, added to careful mastery of elementary principles, Mr. Files has risen rapidly, and become justly prominent among the leading lawyers of Ful- ton county. As an evidence of the esteem with which he is regarded by his fellow-citizens, we may mention that he is mayor of the village of Swanton, and for several years was solicitor of that incorporation. He has been twice mar- ried, having lost his first wife and child by death before he became a lawyer.
William W. Williams is a native of Michigan. He was born at Monroe county, in that State, in 1836, but early in life came to Ohio, and received his education in the common schools of Fulton county. During the war he served his country with credit as a volunteer soldier, incurring disabilities from which he has not recovered. At the mature age of thirty-six, he began the study of law, at Delta, with Lucius H. Upham, and was admitted to practice in 1875, since which time he has resided at Delta, and practiced in Fulton county.
Charles F. Greenough, son of Elbridge T. Greenough, was born July 29, 1849, at Saulsbury, New Hampshire. He came with his parents to Fulton county, O., and was educated in the public schools of Wauseon. He studied law in his father's office, and was licensed to practice in the courts of Ohio, in 1872, since which time he has been a member of the Fulton county bar.
Cicero E. G. Roseborough is the eldest son of John W. Roseborough, and has always resided in Fulton county. He was born in 1863, and in 1884 was graduated at the Fayette Normal School. He studied law in the office of his father, and was licensed to practice by the Supreme Court of the State, in
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1886. He at once opened an office in Wauseon, but failing health compelled him to relinquish the profession for which he had thoroughly qualified himself. He now resides at the home of his parents at Burlington.
This chapter, which has been devoted to a brief history of the bench and bar of Fulton county, and a slight attempt at estimating the professional quali- ties and more salient characteristics of those who have occupied and now are occupying places thereat, may, perhaps, be properly concluded by an enumer- ation of those fugitive and evanescent characters, who, from unsteadiness of purpose, from causes which it would be unkind and uncharitable to mention, or from the thirst and desire for brighter and more profitable worlds to con- quer, tarried not long in Fulton county, or sadly fell by the wayside, or re- nounced and gave up that most laborious calling which, as Blackstone says, " employs in its theories the noblest faculties of the soul," long before, by toil and perseverance, they had climbed up into "the gladsome light of jurispru- dence." Their names are given here that the list of the bench and bar of Ful- ton county may be complete, and that the worthy impulse and the honorable, though wavering, ambition which prompted them to essay the difficulties of legal study and practice, may not be left entirely unremembered and unre- corded : Richard Patterson, Henry H. McElhinny, John T. Birdseye, William Welker, Ray McConahey, Rezin Franks, Worling B. Leggett, George Den- man, George R. Walker, Henry Hogaboam, Edward Tiffany, S. M. Huyck, Warren Upham, Henry Tiffany, and Allen G. Carmichael.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
T OR all time in the history of this portion of our State, prior to about thirty or forty years ago, it was generally believed by people that had no under standing of medicine or surgery, that the most successful curatives were "roots and herbs ;" and in various places in this work will be found mentioned the names of persons, men and women, who were positive blessings to the commu- nity on account of their ready understanding of each and every " case," which could be easily brought into subjection by a timely "potion " of boneset, cat- nip, pennyroyal or ginger tea, and that the presence of a man of science, or physician, was unnecessary, and only entailed a needless expense. This, in a measure, is an undeniable truth, for it does seem that half a century ago there were not the tenth part of the ailments and diseases that now afflict mankind, or at least there were not, by far, so many named diseases as now present
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themselves for professional treatment. It was a common remark, forty years ago, that the presence of a doctor in any rural community meant future trou- ble-in fact that doctors " bred disorders." Notwithstanding these there not infrequently came the hour when the physician proved a blessing, and his efforts were duly appreciated, though there stood by at the time the redoubt- able " root and herb" devotee, with the ever-ready "hot drink of boneset" or other "infallible cure," unless the patient died.
The history of the medical profession has been written in the life and prac- tice of every physician now, or heretofore, in this county. It is written in the innumerable hasty calls from home at midnight, and frequently when tired nature seeks and needs rest and repose. How great seems the hardship to be compelled to start from home and ride perhaps ten or fifteen miles through rain and storm, to fetch the doctor to some loved one in the family. But who ever thinks the physician suffers from such a ride, or from such a storm, or who ever thinks it any inconvenience to him to leave a bed of rest when, perhaps, the day previous he has driven twenty miles visiting patients. The history of the profession is written in each and every of these hardships, in each and every case that he is called to treat. We might possibly add the remark of some wag-that the history of the profession is written "on every tombstone" -but honor and respect for a noble profession forbids that any but pleasant remembrances should find place here. There lives not one physician in prac- tice for any length of time but has lost patients, but this is but rarely the fault of the physician ; and of all that may chance to read these pages, there is not one that can honestly and conscientiously say that a physician has not tried to effect a cure. Cases are not wanting in which a mistaken diagnosis has been made-" to err is human," and no man is exempt from it. With the physi- cian his reputation is at stake, and more than that, to his charge is committed, perhaps, a life. And who shall say he has been careless or negligent of it?
The profession in Fulton county is the same as elsewhere, and the medical history of this is that of every county in the State.
The Fulton County Medical Society .- This association of the physicians of the county has been in existence for twenty years. It was organized on the 15th day of February, 1868, with the following charter members; Dr. Wil- liam Hyde, Dr. De Witt Hollister, Dr. N. W. Jewell, Dr. William Ramsey, Dr. S. P. Bishop, Dr. S. Hubbard, Dr. A. J. Murbach, Dr. S. F. Worden, and Dr. Josiah H. Bennett. The society prospered and grew in membership and interest for several years, and became auxiliary to the State Medical Society, and was recognized as one of the strongest members of the State organization. Of late years, however, the interest in the local society seems to have declined, and the meetings are not as well attended as the importance of the organiza- tion requires.
Appended to this chapter will be found brief sketches of the early, and
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some of the present physicians of the county. Every reasonable effort has been made to obtain information from each now in practice, but that effort has not met with the success it honestly deserved. Should any be found missing, the fault rests only with the person, as ample time has been granted in which to furnish data.
Of the resident physicians of the county of whom no information or data has been obtained, there are several. For a personal sketch of Drs. De Witt Hollister, A. J. Murbach, Estell HI. Rorick and L. A. Bassett, reference is hereby made to the biographical department of this volume. The other resi- dent physicians of the county are as follows: P. J. Lenhart, Wauseon ; J. O. Allen, Fayette ; Dr. Clark, Metamora ; Ezra Mann, Lyons; Dr. ()'Dell, Delta; A. J. Cunningham, Phillips Corners ; J. H. Waddle, Wauseon ; Dr. Longman, Wauseon ; G. E. Turrill, Wauseon ; Dr. Tompkins, Metamora ; Dr. Fletcher, Delta ; G. W. Hartman, Archbold.
BRIEF SKETCHES OF EARLY AND PRESENT PHYSICIANS.
William Holland was born at Oakham, Mass., in the year 1766; came to Fulton county in 1842 and purchased a tract of land in Pike township, return- ing soon to Massachusetts. His daughter, Louisa Holland, married Alfred A. Shute, September 11, 1843, and soon after decided to come to Fulton county. With Dr. Holland and family, they arrived in Pike township about the Ist of October, 1843, and the whole family soon became closely identified with the then few inhabitants of the township. He was educated in private schools then common in New England. After reaching the age of twenty-one he com- menced the study of Latin under the instruction of Rev. M. Bascom, to prepare himself for the study of medicine. He read medicine with the most prominent members of the profession of the day, and united with the Massachusetts State Medical Association. At the age of twenty-six he commenced the practice. From 1792 to the year of his removal from Massachusetts, 1843, he practiced his profession. After arriving in Fulton county, and at the age of ninety years, he practiced some. even when he had to be carried to and from his house and vehicle. It can be said with truth that no other township in Fulton county save Pike, has laid to rest a man born ten years before the Revolution.
William Hyde, son of William Hyde, a silk manufacturer, was born in Lon- don, England, July 8, 1813. He became a physician, not from choice, but from circumstances. When four years old he fell from a two-story window, sustaining a fracture above and below the knee. Dr. Taylor attended him, a young physician, and friend of the family. This being his first case in sur- gery, he wished to have him for a student, to which his father agreed, and when old enough, he was sent to study under him. Seven years of his life was spent in practice in a hospital. When twenty years old he was married to Kathern East. In 1835 he left England and came to America. One year
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previous to this he kept drug store and followed his profession, but disliking the latter he determined not to follow it when he should arrive in this country, but circumstances forced themselves upon him. When crossing the ocean there was a case of typhus fever, and being the only doctor on board he was called upon by the captain to take the case. He did so, and the man recov- ered. When they arrived in New York his success was related, and he was offered a position in that city, but true to his purpose of discarding his profes- sion, he refused the offer, and went to Cleveland, where he clerked in a whole- sale drug store four years. Afterwards he bought a farm in Wayne county, and followed that occupation. Again his evil genius followed him. A child in the neighborhood had the croup, and being so far from any doctor, the father called on Dr. Hyde. He refused to attend the child, but the father called the second time, and in such strong terms urged him, that he went. From that time his practice increased so that he was forced to give up farming, and moved to Millbrook, O. In 1847 he moved to Fulton county, bought a farm and had a large practice, which so increased that he gave up farming and moved to Spring Hill ; from there to Wauseon. In 1873 he went to Chicago to live with Mrs. Swart, his daughter. He died June 8, 1881; the cause of his death inflammation of the bowels. He was buried in Goshen, Ind., where the rest of his family, a son and daughter, reside.
James J. Kittredge was born in Woburn, Mass., April 11, 1816; studied medicine with his uncle, Paul Kittredge, M. D., of Chelmsford, Mass .; attend- ed two full courses of lectures at the Berkshire Medical Institution in Pittsfield, Mass., the first in the fall of 1844; the second in the fall of 1845 ; moved to Chesterfield, Fulton county, O., June 21, 1846. The first professional call after reaching Chesterfield was to the family of James Taylor, June 22, of the same month; moved from Chesterfield to Morenci, Mich., September 10, 1860, and immediately formed a partnership with Dr. Joseph Tripp, of Morenci ; left Morenci in November, 1864, and made his residence in Crystal Valley, Mich., which place is still his home.
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