History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 16

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559

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CEPHAS D. MORRIS, ESQ .- On the thirtieth day of June, A. D., 1821, Cephas D. Morris was admitted to the bar, as attorney and counsellor at law, by the supreme court setting for Preble county. Nothing is known of his history.

JONES A. MENDALL .- On the twentieth day of June, A. D., 1823, Jones A. Mendall was admitted to the bar, etc. Mr. Mendall was a native of the State of Connec- ticut, born about the beginning of the present century. He was a ripe scholar, a graduate, it is believed, of Yale college, and of uncommonly bright intellect. He came to this county, and taught school in the neighborhood of Judge Van Ausdal, in Lanier township, during the win- ter of 1820-21. His superior ability and qualifications as a teacher very soon attracted the attention of the peo- ple throughout a wide scope of country; and the result was that he very soon had a large class of young men in his school, earnest seekers after knowledge, gathered from various parts of the county. Mr. Mendall was so popular as a teacher, that his patrons insisted that he should teach a second term the next winter (1821-22). He was patronized in this second school by most of the same pupils that attended the first one, with several ad- ditional young men. No more successful school was ever taught in the county; and there yet linger, here and there, some of the old boys who look back with delight upon the time spent under the tutelage of Master Mendall.

In the summer of 1821, whilst reading law in the office of Lawyer Heaton, Mr. Mendall was prevailed on to take a class of thirteen boys, from the ages of twelve to eighteen years, instructing them in Latin and Greek and English composition. This class was conducted in one of the upper rooms of the old court house. The teacher was most diligent in his duties, and the pupils, without an exception, made most rapid progress. The following are the names of the members of this class, so far as now remembered, viz: John Van Doren, John Van Ausdal (son of Judge Peter Van Ausdal), William Worthington, Jacob Monfort, John L. Bruce, Newton Larsh, Thomas J. Larsh, Joseph S. Hawkins, George Miller, Felix Marsh, Harvey Buell-the only one of whom now living is Thomas J. Larsh, esq.

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Before his admission to the bar Mr. Mendall made a journey of exploration into the States of Indiana and Illinois, being absent several months. Soon after ad- mission he again went west, and it was reported that he located in one of the Wabash counties. He never re- turned to this county, nor was any authentic information received from him. As his health was rather delicate, and he was somewhat reckless in his habits, it may rea- sonably be conjectured that his life was not long.

LAZURUS MILLER, esq., a native of Greene county, and who had read law and been admitted to the bar at Xenia, Ohio, came to Eaton late in the year 1821, and estab- lished himself in the practice of the law. He was at that time quite a young man, perhaps not above twenty- two or twenty-three years of age, and unmarried. The profession of law at that date was by no means a lucra- tive one. Mr. Miller very soon secured a reasonable share of the sparse business of the courts, and won the confidence and esteem of the community.

On the second day of January, 1823, Mr. Miller was married to Miss Fanny Buel, daughter of Dr. Walter Buel, the first physician located in Eaton.

On the twenty-ninth day of October, 1824, the county commissioners appointed Mr. Miller to the office of aud- itor of Preble county, to fill out the unexpired term of John G. Jamieson, esq., who, having been then recently elected to the State senate, had that day resigned said office of auditor. He immediately entered upon the dis- charge of the duties of the said office, and also continued in the practice of his profession. At the October elec- tion, 1826, he was re-elected to the same office, for the term of two years from the first Monday of March, 1827; and at the October election, 1828, he was again re-elected to the same office for the term of two years from the first Monday of March, 1829.

During the whole period of his occupancy of said of- fice he performed the duties thereof promptly, efficiently, and to the entire satisfaction of the public and those hav- ing business therewith. Having been elected at the Oct- ober election, 1830, a member of the house of repsesent- atives in the legislature of Ohio, he thereupon resigned the said office of auditor, and John C. McManus, esq., was appointed to fill out the unexpired term until the en- suing March. Having served in the legislature during the session of 1830-31 acceptably to his constituents he was re-elected to the same office, October, 1831. As a legislator Mr. Miller was laborious and efficient, prompt in attending to the interests of his constituents, and se- curing the confidence of his colleagues.

At the October election in 1832, he was again elected to the office of auditor of the county, his term to com- mence on the first Monday of March, 1833, and was con- tinued in said office by subsequent re-elections until the first Monday of March, 1841, when he was succeeded by Hiram Jones, esq., who had been elected to said office at the preceding October election. Subsequently Mr. Miller was twice appointed to the office of postmaster of Eaton, but on account of political complications, and perhaps personal animosities, he was each time removed after a few months incumbency. Mr. Miller was a very

active and zealous politician, and after a few years service in public offices paid but little attention to the practice of his profession. He was ardent, sagacious, incisive, per- sistent and tireless as a politician; and perhaps few men in the county ever wielded a greater influence than he did when at the summit of his popularity. He had many friends who were warmly attached to him, and toward whom he was equally devoted. He was esteemed a faithful friend and an unrelenting foe.

Some little time after being removed from the post office the second time, which occurred under the Tyler administration, Mr. Miller left this county, and removed with his family to Warren county, Indiana. He was in his new home not above a couple of years until he was elected auditor of that county. He was retained in said office until his death, which occurred some three or four years after his first election.

JOHN C. McMANUS, ESQ., who was the third attorney at the Eaton bar, and really the second one permanently located here, was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, near the city of Chambersburgh, on the twelfth day of March, 1787. His parents came from Ireland only a year or two prior to his birth. The Northwestern Terri- tory at that time presenting great inducements to emi- gration, his parents left Pennsylvania when John was not above five or six years old, and located in one of the eastern counties of Ohio, perhaps Carroll or Trumbull. Here young McManus, eager for the acquirement of knowledge, availed himself of every facility within his reach for the attainment of an education; and so well did he profit by the meagre opportunities presented that at the early age of nineteen years he received an ap- pointment from the Government to survey a district of public lands in the then Territory of Illinois. On the completion of this engagement, say about the year 1808, he went to the village of Schenectady, in the State of New York, at which place there then existed an academ- ical school of some repute, where he remained long enough to complete his classical studies and also to read law. He was called to the bar early in the year 1812, and soon thereafter returned to the west and located at the growing city of Cincinnati, for the purpose of engag- ing in the practice of his profession. The young and ardent patriot had not been long in this new field of enterprise until the surrender of General Hull, at De- troit, aroused the zeal and ambition of the young men of the western country as perhaps no other event could have done; and it soon found him enrolled as a volun- teer in a company of mounted riflemen, organized at Cincinnati for the Northwestern army. He had scarcely got into the field of active service until his superior business qualifications attracted the attention of his commanders, and he was at once employed in the office of the adjutant general; and for some time he served as adjutant of his regiment. During the succeeding year, he was upon the regimental or brigade staff, either in the adjutant's or quartermaster's departments, and ac- quitted himself to the entire satisfaction of his superior officers and with credit to himself.

About the close of the war, or in the latter part of the

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year 1814, Mr. McManus located at Hamilton, Butler county, and again engaged in the practice of law. Whilst here, in common with other members of the bar, it was his custom to "travel the circuit," attending the courts in this county, as also those in Warren, Montgom- ery and other counties of the district. This was a labor- ious and by no means lucrative phase of his professional career. The attorney of that day who travelled the cir- cuit was compelled to go on horseback, there being no such thing known as a public conveyance, and the roads for the most part being impracticable for private car- riages. It was then a hard day's travel, for both horse and man, to make the journey from Hamilton to Eaton, often consuming part of the night as well as of the day. There was no great amount of litigation in any of these sparsely settled counties at that day, and it was not every attorney who got even a single fee at every court which he attended.

In February, 1815, Mr. McManus was married to Miss Catharine Miley, whose parents resided near the Miami river, about midway between Hamilton and Mid- dletown. He continued to reside in Hamilton, pursuing his professional labors, until the year 1818. In the spring of that year he removed to Eaton, being the sec- ond attorney located in the county, David F. Heaton, esq., having preceded him by less than a year. It is true that John A. Daley was also temporarily here before Mr. McManus, but it is doubtful whether he ever engaged in the practice of the law here; at any rate he was here but a short time.

At this time Mr. McManus remained here only about a year and a half, when the death of both the parents of his wife made it necessary for him to return to Butler county, to take care of the farm and settle the estate and business of his deceased father-in-law. In the spring of 1823, he returned to Preble county-this time locating himself in the unbroken wilderness of Jackson township, just on the western border of the "Rich Woods," on the same farm on which he continued to reside the remain- der of his days, and which is yet occupied by his aged widow. Few people of the present day can appreciate · the amount of labor, deprivation, suffering, self-sacrifice, and stern endurance involved in the opening up and es- tablishing of a home in the heavy forests with which this county was originally covered. When he located on this farm, there was not "a stick amiss"-no road to it- no neighbor near it-no attraction about it but the pros- pect of making a home, where he might rear his family in credit, and pass the closing years of his life in peace.

Mr. McManus being an excellent, practical surveyor, he soon found occasional employment in that line. As such, he located and surveyed a great many of the county roads which traverse the county in various direc- tions. He also served in the office of county surveyor some five years or so, and still continued to practice in the courts of the county. In the month of October, 1830, he was appointed by the board of county commis- sioners, to the office of auditor of the county, on the res- ignation of Lazarus Miller, esq., who had been elected a member of the legislature. In the year 1833, he was

elected to the office of prosecuting attorney of the county, in which office he served but a single term, de- clining a re-election. He was several times elected to the office of justice of the peace in his township, serving in that capacity some twenty years-seventeen of which were continuous, immediately preceding his death.

Esquire McManus died on the twenty ninth day of December, 1852, aged sixty-five years, nine months and fifteen days, and was interred in the cemetery near his residence, on the farm of Mr. William Frame. By his kindness of heart, uniform urbanity, and uprightness of conduct, he had gained the respect and esteem of all, and died much regretted.

It is not our purpose to indite an eulogy upon the character of Mr. McManus. As one of the pioneer at- torneys of the county, and of the west, he is entitled to a prominent place in the history of his times. As an at- torney, he was far more learned in the law than brilliant as an advocate. His education was equal to that of any of his compeers, and he was always in the front rank of the advocates and promoters of common school educa- tion. He taught school for many winters subsequently to his location in Jackson township-not unfrequently teaching at a distance of three or four miles from his home, and walking the distance, back and forth, every day. Among his neighbors he was esteemed almost an oracle; and it is greatly to his credit that he was fre- quently instrumental in reconciling misunderstandings between neighbors, settling difficulties, and suppressing litigation.

A distinguishing trait of his character was his love of literature, displayed in endeavors to promote and dis- seminate education and knowledge among the rising generation. He let pass no opportunity to encourage the young in their efforts for improvement and the ac- quisition of knowledge; and was always ready to hear recitations, without fee or reward, of the young men of his acquaintance who were pursuing the study of the higher branches of learning, particularly in classic lore and the mathematics.

Mr. McManus' parents being Presbyterians, necessarily he was reared in that faith; but some few years before the close of his life he attached himself to the Methodist church, and continued a faithful and consistent follower of Christ to the day of his death, departing in full faith of a blessed immortality.

HON. JOSEPH H. CRANE .- Although this gentleman was never a citizen of Eaton or Preble county, but from the fact that he attended the first court ever held in the county, and was a constant attendant of the courts, and a regular practitioner at its bar, up to the year 1817, and then for seven years president judge of the court of com- mon pleas of the county, it is deemed proper to insert the following sketch, prepared by the late Judge Abner Haines, and published in the county papers in the year 1875:

Hon. Joseph H. Crane was born in the State of New Jersey, in the year 1778. His father was a Revolution- ary soldier, and consequently an ardent Whig, in the struggle of the colonies for independence. He was

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HISTORY OF PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO.

badly wounded at the battle of Monmouth, but lived to a good old age, and was peacefully gathered home, after having lived to see the country, for which he had periled his life, an independent and prosperous nation. Thus it will be seen that the subject of this sketch descended from a noble and patriotic ancestry. Mr. Crane received a collegiate education in his native state; where also he read law, and was admitted to the bar in the year 1798. Immediately thereafter he came to the then "Northwest- ern Territory," and for a short period was located at Cin- cinnati, then an insignificant village on the bank of the Ohio river. He afterward located permanently at Day- ton, Montgomery county, where he resided during the remainder of his eventful life. Dayton had then just been laid out, and contained but a few dozen families, and Mr. Crane was one of the first lawyers who settled in practice at that place. It was then scarcely a town, for its now broad and magnificent streets existed only on paper, and the site could only be traced by a line of blazed trees in the wilderness. The primitive forest trees then towered high over the locality, and extended their long boughs over the sluggish waters of the great Miami river. The natural scenery of the locality was grand and magnificent in the eyes of the hopeful young attorney from New Jersey, and the surroundings must have been delightful to him.

Mr. Crane was a diligent student, and by close appli- cation and the aid of a retentive memory, he became a fine lawyer-not so much as an advocate, but as a safe and judicious lawyer and practitioner. He was a thor- ough master of the science of pleading at common law, and consequently his forms were used as precedents throughout the circuit, and for many years he never missed a court in Preble county. Throughout the circuit he was as well known in one locality as in another, and wherever known he was greatly respected, not only by the profession, but by all with whom he associated.

As a correct business lawyer he had but few equals and no superiors in the State; but he was extremely mod- erate in his charges, and neglectful in his collections. He had a large practice, but derived a very small income from it in proportion to the amount of business he did. Other attorneys, with half the practice of Mr. Crane, received a larger income than he did. As he advanced in age he was looked upon as the father of the Miami bar. In all matters of professional etiquette he was the umpire, and to his decisions the bar yielded a hearty as- sent. His special care and supervision were parentally ex- tended over the younger members of the profession throughout the circuit; and whenever he observed one in a tight place, either before the court or jury, he always came to his assistance with fatherly care and attention. This sort of interference on his part was borne by the bar without the least objection, as each one of them in turn had received the like fatherly care and attention from him on similar occasions. He was a generous co- worker throughout the circuit for the young members of the profession, in giving advice and drawing up their pleadings gratuitously.

At the session of the legislature for 1816-17 Mr.

Crane was elected president judge of the district which comprised the counties of Montgomery and Preble, with others, and served on the bench many years. In that capacity he gave universal satisfaction, and as a jurist his decisions commanded respect throughout the State. He continued in this office until the year 1827, when he was succeeded by George B. Holt, esq. By changes in the judicial district, however, Preble county was not in Judge Crane's circuit during part of his incumbency, but was in that of Judge Joshua Collet.

At the October election, 1828, Judge Crane was elected a representative in the Congress of the United States, and took his seat in that body on the first Monday of December, 1829. He was re-elected to that office three times serving to the close of the Twenty-fourth Congress, March 3, 1837. He rated as a valuable member and safe counselor among the national representatives. He was not brilliant as an advocate or speaker, but a plain, forcible, logical, influential reasoner. A general scholar, he was not specially preeminent in any one thing; at the same time was weak in nothing. With an evenly bal- anced mind, his character predominated in all that was good and reputable among men. Where he was well known his great worth and character gave him as much weight before the court and jury as anything he could pos- sibly say. Preeminently a good man, he commanded the confidence and respect of all persons with whom he associated. Possessing fine conversational powers, he de- lighted in the associations of his fellow men, and espe- cially with members of the bar on the circuit. Wher- ever he appeared, his dignified bearing and manners gave a tone to society, and by a chaste and modest mien, he was an ornament to the profession. Open and candid in his manners, he detested anything mean, either in or out of the court room. Judge Crane in early life became a member of the Episcopal church, and died at an ad- vanced age, at Dayton, Ohio.

In person Judge Crane was over six feet high, large and portly, of sanguine temperament and florid complex- ion. Although somewhat nearsighted in youth, his eye- sight did not fail him in his declining years, and he never used glasses. Slightly bald, with a fine forehead, and medium sized brain, large and well proportioned, and courtly in appearance, he presented the true type of an American gentleman in every sense of the word.

MAJOR ALEXANDER C. LANIER. - Although Major La- nier was not an attorney at law, yet as having been one of the pioneers of Eaton, the first clerk of the board of com- missioners of the county, and the first clerk of the courts, which office he continued to fill until he removed from the county in 1817, the same corsiderations that induce us to include Judge Crane in our sketches, also equally justify the following notice of Major Lanier:

Alexander Chalmers Lanier was born in Beaufort county, North Carolina, January 31, A. D. 1779. His mother's maiden name was Sarah Chalmers. She was nearly related to the Chalmers family in Scotland, of which Dr. Chalmers, the celebrated divine, was after- ward a member.

Major Lanier's first paternal ancestor in this country

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was Thomas Lanier, a Huguenot of Bordeaux, France, who had been driven out of that country by religious persecution, near the close of the seventeenth century. He first emigrated to England, and came from that country to this in company with John Washington, or about the same time that he came. He subsequently married Elizabeth, a daughter of John Washington, and ultimately settled in North Carolina. The colonial rec- ords at Richmond, Virginia, show several grants of land to Thomas Lanier, by the crown of England, in the counties of Brunswick and Lunenburg, in that state. In his native country he was a man of high social position, and possessed a large estate, a considerable portion of which he managed to bring away with him, although it was confiscated by law. Lewis Lanier, a grandson of Thomas Lanier, and the grandfather of Major Lanier, married a Miss Ball, who was the sister of General Washington's mother. James Lanier, who was a child of this marriage, and the father of Major Lanier (his only child), was a planter. He was a cultivated gentleman, energetic and public spirited, and took an active part in the war of Independence, serving through the whole of it as captain in Colonel William Washington's regiment of light cavalry, which was particularly distinguished for its efficient service in some of the hardest fought battles of the Revolution. It may here be observed that many of the best men of the old colonial times were of Hugue- not faith and descent. Their influence can be traced in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, and their valor was conspicuous on many well-contested fields. Louis XIV, by his persecutions, drove the Huguenots from his kingdom, but their spirit returned with increased power from America to inflame the French revolution, which hurled his successor from his throne.

Major Lanier's father, Captain James Lanier, served in General Anthony Wayne's campaign against the north- western Indians, which not only avenged the defeat of General St. Clair, but completely destroyed the power of the hostile savages, and for the first time gave peace to, and prepared the way for, the settlement of the great Mississippi valley.

Major Lanier married Druzilla Doughty, a native of Virginia. In Washington, Beaufort county, North Car- olina, was born to them a son, James Franklin Doughty Lanier, their only child, who is now the senior partner in the long-established banking-house of Winslow, Lanier & Co., New York city. In 1802 Major Lanier, with his wife and son, emigrated to Bourbon county, Kentucky. There he invested much of his means in lands, which he lost by the defect of title, with which so much of the lands in that state was at that time clouded, and which produced such wide-spread disaster and ruin. In con- sequence of these losses, in 1807 he removed to Eaton, Preble county.

Upon reaching Cincinnati, on his way hither, he man- umitted two valuable family slaves-the only ones he ever held. He was prohibited by the laws of Kentucky from manumitting them there. These slaves consti- tuted quite a considerable portion of his worldly wealth at that time. He afterwards had the satisfaction of see-

ing them become useful and respected citizens in their condition of freedom.

As previously indicated, Major Lanier served as clerk of the courts from the time of the organization of the county until his removal to Indiana in 1817. Upon the breaking out of the War of 1812 he entered the army, and served until its close. He served under General Harri- son, with the rank of major, in his northwestern cam- paign, and had in charge a long line of defences, extending westerly from Lake Erie and following up the valley of the Maumee, the most important of which was Fort Wayne, named in honor of General Wayne, under whom the major's father had served. Major Lanier's health was so much impaired by the exposure and fatigue of his military service that he was not afterwards able to en- gage in business to any considerable extent. He re- moved to Madison, Indiana, in 1817. That state had been admitted into the Union the preceding year, and contained about sixty thousand inhabitants, mostly scat- tered very sparsely over the southern portion of its terri- tory. At that time the Indian title to the soil had been extinguished only about twenty miles north of Madison.

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History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 16

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 559

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559