USA > Ohio > Richland County > History of Richland County, Ohio, from 1808 to 1908, Vol. I > Part 29
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Hiram Humphrey was regarded as a lawyer of fair ability, active and industrious. Had he remained in the practice he would, no doubt, have at- tained some considerable distinction. In 1842, during an awakening of the churches in Mansfield, he became greatly interested, and shortly thereafter entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church. As a preacher he was didactic rather than persuasive, logical rather than fervid in his deliver- ances. He addressed the intellect rather than the heart, and it may be said of him that he was in no sense a revivalist ; that he was strong in doctrine, zealous in the cause he espoused and fairly successful. In his party preference he was a Democrat, and there came a time in the history of the North Ohio Con- ference when he was alone politically, and he frequently said of himself "that he was like a strange cat in his father's garret."
Isaac J. Allen was possibly the most highly cultured member of the Richland county bar at any time in its history. He was a graduate in the liberal arts and sciences, a graduate of the school of medicine and a doctor of laws-LL. D. He was a fine classical scholar. He attained a fine practice and clientage, but he was essentially a book worm, a scholar, a teacher. The pro- fessor's chair was more to his liking than the contests at the bar. He removed from Mansfield to Cincinnati and gave himself up to educational work, and later represented this country abroad as consul in Oriental countries.
In a pen sketch published several years ago, Hon. H. C. Hedges speaks thus of Charles H. Bryan and Patrick Purdy Hull: "Of the two seeking fame and fortune on the Pacific coast, one acquired distinction as a lawyer and was elected to the supreme bench of the state. The other, with a more commanding presence, fine form, graceful manners and genial ways, lingered longer than was well over the cup when it was red and sparkling, and made little mark for good, though his association with a famous woman gave him a notoriety in the early Fifties, both on the Pacific and Atlantic slopes. While he who wore the judicial Ermine, after his retirement from the bench and reentry at the bar, though very successful, was with the success, in condition pecuniarily, to worship more at the shrine of Bacchus than tarry in the temple of justice, and it so happened that the two brilliant young men, Patrick Purdy Hull and
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Charles H. Bryan were soon not counted among the living. Patrick Purdy Hull was only remembered on the Pacific slope as the brilliant young man who found in Lola Montez a companion and made her his wife, a marriage ending, as it could only end, in a fatality of disappointment and sorrow.
"And of Charles H. Bryan, the chief justice of the United States territorial court of Nevada; Judge Turner, before its admission as a state, told me that in a single case tried before the United States district court Bryan earned and received a fee of $100,000 in gold, and on its receipt went down to the city and stayed not his course until the last dollar was spent. Prior to this Bryan was chief justice of the Supreme Court of California."
William Linn Tidball, a member of the Richland county bar, was a man gifted not with riches, but ambition and a great desire to be somebody in the world of letters. It is said of him that "if he had wooed the muses of poetry and history and belles lettres with constancy and assiduity, turning neither to the right to play for a little while in the temple of justice, nor to the left to court the goddess of war, it is possible his place would have been higher." He removed to the city of New York and died there only a few years ago.
C. W. Cowan was the son of a Presbyterian minister who officiated in Mansfield. He was a lawyer of considerable ability. He removed to Cincinnati and there acquired considerable practice. He was held in high esteem by his brethren of the bar and was regarded as a man of probity and honor.
Joseph Hildreth found the law more to his taste than medicine, and so Doctor Joseph Hildreth came to the bar. He was brainy and logical, a good thinker and forcible, though not a polished speaker. He was the first president of the association which purchased the nucleus of the grounds which are now a part of and which led up to the laying out and cultivation and adornment of our "Beautiful City of the Dead," the Mansfield cemetery. He issued a call to the citizens of Mansfield to assemble and take action and closed the notice with these words: "Ye living men, come view the ground where you shall shortly lie." He was a Mason of high degree, a lecturer in that ancient order, and highly distinguished throughout the state as a bright and admirably equipped Mason.
When the Ohio and Pennsylvania railroad was built-that was the first name of that portion of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway, extending from Pittsburg to Crestline-Mr. Hildreth was employed in securing the right of way for it, and was very active, and was appointed agent at Mans- field, and served many years acting also as local attorney as well as agent. He was the first railroad attorney in Mansfield. He was at one time mayor of the town, and was a public-spirited, useful and very valuable citizen. The lives of these old lawyers and judges inspire you with the gratifying thought that Mansfield was indeed blest in her early years with men who did not always look to the dollar that was to go into their purses, but were broad enough and manly enough to mount a higher plane and work for the good of the com- munity and our common humanity.
William Johnston was of Irish blood, but born on the blue waters of old ocean and brought to Ohio as a child, and when a young man was a teacher.
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He was a true son of Erin, and his pen was as eloquent as his tongue, and his tongue was touched with a flame of fire, sometimes vituperative, dealing in invective, but for the most time persuasive and pleasant. In his young man- hood he was of the Whig school of politics, and during the campaign of 1844 he, with an associate, published the "Richland Bugle," the blasts of which, week in and week out, were very effective for Clay, of whom he was a great admirer.
The "Bugle" was conducted with great vigor and blasts and blows were frequent at the "Shield and Banner" and its then editor, John Y. Glessner. Never prior had the local papers indulged in such warfare, and it was fast and furious. "Harry of the West" was defeated and Johnston was sad. He soon after moved to Charlotte, Michigan, and published a newspaper there, with varying fortune. After some considerable of an interval he returned to Ohio; but without fortune or any accumulation, save his increased family. There began a struggle for existence, and it culminated in the study of the law and entry on its practice. He was the Whig candidate for probate judge, but was defeated, and soon after became a Democrat. Day and Smith, who bought the Jeffersonian and resurrected its waning fortunes and christened it anew as the Mansfield Herald, made the fight a vigorous one against Mr. Glessner and the Shield, and used the editorial articles copied from the Bugle; and, strangest of all things, the republication of such articles were made the basis of an action on behalf of Mr. Glessner against Day and Smith, and Johnston was the attorney and advocate of Mr. Glessner. If Mr. Glessner's good name was assailed, the Bugle blasted it, and the Herald only resounded the Bugle notes. The Bugle was not called to account, but the Herald was required to respond and defend the libel action. In 1862 Mr. Johnston was elected to congress and served one term. He was a man possessed of fine gifts, diligent in application and had the habit of industry and made a success of the practice of law.
William Stevens was not a great lawyer, yet he was associated in the trial of some important cases. He was careless of his personal appearance, careless in his dress. He was, in the days of his residence in Mansfield, an author and wrote and published a book, now out of print, entitled the "Unjust Judge." He quarreled with Stewart and with Kirkwood, and in his book he delineated Stewart to his own estimate and measure of the man as the "unjust judge," and one of the persons of this story he nominated "Old Yellow Coat," and that appellative fitted no one save Kirkwood. There may be some stray copies of the book in some of the libraries of Mansfield, I know not, but it is a fact, and should not be lost in history, that in the bar of Richland in the olden times we find authors and painters, doctors and preachers, yet all at one time disciples of Blackstone and devotees of the law. Stevens removed to Kansas City. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Richland county one term, defeating George W. Geddes, who was the Whig candidate. Stevens ought to have been a success; he lacked not brains, but orderly brains; not knowledge, but the disposition to use that knowledge to the utmost.
William B. Bowman was a native son of Mansfield. He was a lawyer of some considerable ability, but the growth of an appetite for drink nearly ruined him. His folks induced him to remove to Kansas. There he asserted
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himself, overcame his appetite and reached a fair measure of success. He was elected to the bench and served several terms.
Willam R. Cantwell was of an old pioneer family. To young William R. Cantwell there happened an episode which is worthy of revelation. He had been a Democrat, and for a winter or two was a clerical assistant in one of the houses of Ohio's general assembly, and there he fought a duel, with no fatal results. I believe he is the only member of the Richland county bar who received and accepted a challenge and tested his courage on the field of honor. His practice in Ohio hardly commenced when he removed to California. There he reached the city bench in Sacramento and took front rank as a member of his profession.
Mordecai Bartley was born in Pennsylvania and was in his day a mer- chant, a farmer, and as he advanced in age was, to a moderate extent, engaged in the practice of the law. He early developed character that won the confi- dence of those who knew him best, for in 1817 he was elected to the state senate, and remained there by continuous elections until 1823. In 1823 he was elected to congress and served four terms, when he declined a reelection. In congress he was the first to propose the conversion of the land grants of Ohio into a perma- nent fund for the support of common schools, and secured an appropriation for the improvement of the harbors of Cleveland, Sandusky City, Huron and Ver- milion. In 1844, having retired from congress and engaged in mercantile and agricultural business, he was elected governor of Ohio on the Whig ticket. Upon his inauguration as governor, the retiring governor was his own son, Thomas W. Bartley. An occurrence like that of father succeeding the son as governor has probably never occurred in any other state. In 1846 the war with Mexico was strongly opposed by the anti-slavery people of Ohio, they regarding its proclamation in the interests of slavery extension, and, in response to the call for troops, they were not in favor of Ohio filling her quota. But Governor Bartley maintained that Ohio, in common with every other state, was consti- tutionally bound to respect the requisitions of the national government. He therefore, adopted the proper measures, and the necessary number of volunteers were enlisted and transferred to the authorities under his personal supervision. He declined a second nomination, though strongly urged to accept, and retiring to his home at Mansfield passed the evening of his life in the bosom of his family, dividing his attention between the practice of the law and in the man- agement of his farm. He died October 10th, 1870.
Samuel Jordan Kirkwood was born in Hartford county, Maryland, De- cember 20, 1813; he removed to Ohio in 1835, and was admitted to the bar of Ohio in 1843. He was prosecuting attorney of Richland county for two terms, elected as a Democrat. He removed to Iowa in 1855, was elected governor in 1859 and 1861; United States senator in 1866; governor again in 1875, and United States senator again in 1876, serving until 1881, when he was ap- pointed secretary of the interior by President Garfield. He retired to private life in 1882, and died in Iowa City, Iowa, September 1, 1894. He was a man of strong character and has left his impress on the affairs of this nation.
Charles T. Sherman came here from Lancaster, Ohio. He was an able lawyer. He had an analytical mind and was a keen, incisive reasoner. He was
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appointed United States district judge for the northern district of Ohio. His decisions were models of conciseness and clear, lucid reasoning.
John Sherman came here from Lancaster, Ohio. He read law with his brother, Judge Charles T. Sherman. Three years afterwards, being admitted to practice, he went into partnership with his brother, and soon achieved the reputation of being an honest, laborious, thoroughly able and remarkably successful lawyer. During the subsequent years, he took an active interest in politics. In 1848 and again in 1852 he was a delegate to the Whig National Convention, and in the latter year was chosen a Presidential elector. In 1854 he labored earnestly in opposition to the extension of slave territory, and accepting the nomination for the then Thirteenth district, he was elected to Congress greatly to his surprise. He was appointed by the speaker of the House one of a committee of three to investigate and report on the border ruffian troubles in Kansas. This committee visited the territory and took testimony, under great difficulties. The members received rough treatment, and at least on one occasion their lives were saved only by the intervention of United States troops. Returned to the Thirty-fifth Congress he was chairman of the naval investigating committee, which exposed the complicity of Buchanan and his secretary of the navy in the interest of the slave-holding states. A third time he returned, in the Thirty-sixth Congress he was the Republican candidate for speaker, and through a long series of ballotings lacked but one or two votes of being elected, but finally, to end the "dead lock," had his name withdrawn. At once made chairman of the ways and means committee, he then became the leader of the House, and in this position the framed the Morrill tariff. In reply to a speech made by the Hon. George H. Pendleton in 1861, Mr. Sherman prophesied the inevitable destruction of the institution of slavery, as the result of the threatened Civil War. Elected for the fourth time to Congress, the appointment by President Lincoln of Senator Chase to his cabinet as secretary of the treasury, made a vacancy to which Mr. Sherman was immediately elected, and taking his seat in the United States Senate in March, 1861, held the same until his appointment in March, 1877, by President Hayes to the secretaryship of the treasury. At once, on taking his seat in the Senate in 1861, he was appointed to the Senate committee of finance, and as its chairman, in December, 1862, he introduced the National Banking bill, and in January following he made a speech in its favor, and against the state banking system, so effective as to largely influence the passage of the National banking law. The custom of making contracts in advance of appropriations then prevailing, was denounced by him, and largely through his influence, broken up. In the second session of the Thirty-ninth Congress, he proposed a substitute for the reconstruction bill that finally became a law. In the Fortieth Congress he was reappointed chairman of the Senate finance committee and directed legislation that event- ually led to the passage of the act of 1870, under which the six per cent war bonds have been wholly refunded.
In 1875 he reported the resumption bill that became a law in 1876, and, as secretary of the treasury, was in a position to direct its consummation in the most satisfactory manner, in the face of the most rabid schemes for its
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repeal by the opposition in Congress. At first, in 1878, unfavorable to the passage of the bill to coin silver dollars to the extent of not less than two millions, nor more than four millions a month, as soon as he perceived the advantage this coinage would be to the consummation of resumption, he earnestly engaged in the administration of the law, and removed every imped- iment to its successful operation within his reach. Upon the resignation of General James A. Garfield, who had been elected senator by the Legislature of Ohio, to serve from the 4th of March, 1881, in order to enter upon the presidency, Mr. Sherman was chosen in his place. He held his place in the Senate until March 4th, 1897, when he resigned to accept the secretaryship of state in President Mckinley's cabinet. In a short time, failing health compelled him to resign. He was a prominent candidate for the presidency in 1880 and in 1884 and in 1888 was the leading candidate till General Harrison was nominated. He died October 21st, 1900. His life was one of exceeding activity, untiring industry, of close thought and study, of ener- getic work, of great accomplishment. He largely wrote the laws which proved the factors for the onward progress of the people and the glory of the Republic. He was one of the greatest statesmen of his day and generation. He was one of the few who pursued the study and practiced the arts of the statesman, for the good of all his countrymen and rest of mankind.
William McLaughlin was born in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, February 3rd, 1802. He came to Mansfield in 1828 and resided here till his death, July 19th, 1862. Much might have been lost to his day and generation, and to our day and generation, if that marvelous man, marvelous because his early educa- tion was limited, and more marvelous because in spite of the meager advan- tages of his youth, his native gifts were sufficient to supplement the lack, if we had not possessed as a townsman General William McLaughlin, a hero of two wars. Trace his life-was prosecuting attorney of the county, then a member of the Senate of Ohio, when many men of might were his colleagues, yet term after term he was chosen speaker of the Senate, and in his adminis- tration of Parliamentary laws, was never overruled. He was possessed of unbounded charity and kindness. He was bold, fearless and resolute in his advocacy of what he thought was right. He was a thorough patriot, who called the whole country his home and gave his life that the nation might live.
James Purdy was one of the practitioners under the old common law practice, who never became reconciled to the code. He always referred in disdainful terms to it as the "Cod." In the adoption of the Constitution of 1851, the change was radical-from the old common law practice to that of the new code just adopted by the state. The older members of the bar, Purdy among them, were indisposed to study the new practice. Mr. Purdy was a successful lawyer, a man of sterling honesty and unblemished integrity. He had and held until his death the confidence and esteem of the bar and the community.
Barnabas Burns was the warm-hearted, the genial soul, the honorable man, the public-spirited citizen, the careful legislator, the brave soldier and true patriot. His parents were from across the sea. The Green Isle, the land of
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song and story, of suffering and oppression, was the country from which his father and mother came, settling in Fayette county. Pennsylvania, and there in the woods, their son, Barnabas, was born. In all the official positions he held, he filled them with honor to his constituency and credit to himself. He was not a strong man physically, yet he survived to a good old age, and if we measure his life by the good he accomplished, he lived much longer than many others. He was industrious, energetic, a fair judge of human nature, faithful in his friendships and intense in his dislikes. He analyzed well, not dogmatic in his deliverances. He was an intense lover of the Union. He was far-seeing. Early in the war he anticipated Grant's fame, and in a letter writ- ten the first year of the war to U. S. Grant, he prophesied his future. The letter of Grant in reply is among the papers of Burns.
He was particularly the friend of young men, especially the younger members of the bar, all of whom loved him as a friend and father. He took great pains to cultivate their friendships and was always ready and willing to act as their father confessor and to give them good advice. He was strong with the jury and was unusually successful in the trial of his cases. He was thorough in preparation and diligent in application. No golden spoon was in the mouth of Barnabas Burns, though there came to him a silver tongue with which to charm his friends in conversation and persuade courts and juries, and guide and convince and control legislative bodies and political conventions and political questions. He was a Democrat and maintained his allegiance to the principles of his party to the end of his useful life.
Thomas H. Ford was a lawyer whose practice was never of such an extent as to correctly measure him thereby as a lawyer. He was capable of great effort, but there was in his organization the seeds of weakness, as well as of strength and greatness.
There came to Ford a great opportunity, such an opportunity as Patrick Henry once had many decades before. There was a national council of the American party in session in Philadelphia. The leading men of the Whig party of the South were there, with many Whigs from the North. Ford was a delegate and the debate was high, and he delivered himself in a speech, brief, yet masterly, that stirred the whole nation and made him famous. In speaking further of Ford, I shall reproduce the speech I made while serving as a member of the House in the Seventy-first General Assembly of Ohio, in presenting a picture of Ford to the Senate.
Mr. President and Senators: I desire to thank you for this courtesy extended to me in permitting me to address you at this time. The senator from this district has told you in eloquent language of the greatness of Rich- land county and her illustrious sons. In the galaxy of great men in Ohio, the sons of old Richland stand in the front ranks. As the Ohio man wherever he is, is fond to say, "I was born in Ohio." so the sons of Richland, wherever. they may be, are proud to say, "I was born in Old Richland." I came here today not to eulogize Richland county's sons, for they need none, but to per- form a pleasant duty assigned me by the friends and admirers of one who, in the past, was an honor to and shed luster upon his county.
The walls of the Senate chamber of Ohio are adorned with the portraits of
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distinguished sons of the Buckeye state who have presided over the delibera- tions of the Senate under the Constitution of 1851.
It has been noted that the face and features of him who, in 1856-1858, was the president of the Senate, are lacking.
Thomas H. Ford, third in the line of lieutenant governors of Ohio, was born in the year 1814, in the State of Virginia, but when a mere child, was brought by his parents into Ohio, and his early years were passed on the hills of Harrison county-the hills high and steep, but covered with rich grasses which have made that county one of wealth and great prosperity. In time his parents removed to and settled within the boundaries of Richland, then, in area, the empire county of the state, and politically the best in Ohio.
On the farm lie grew to manhood, but varied his employment by teach- ing the youth and entering on the study of the law, but before he was estab- lished in practice, the tocsin of war sounded an alarm on the Rio Grande, and he led into the land of the Montezumas a company of Ohio volunteers, a part of the Third Ohio regiment.
Returning after the Mexican war he resumed his studies and began the practice of his profession, and in time became an active participant in the discussion of all questions affecting the public good of the state and the nation, and the ability he manifested marked him for further advancement and placed him on the ticket as an associate with Salmon P. Chase.
On his election he discharged the duties of lieutenant governor ably and well. In the War of the Rebellion he commanded the Thirty-second OF io. After his resignation, for the most part of the time he resided in Washington. D. C., and became the intimate friend of Abraham Lincoln. The form of Ford was that of a commanding personage-few men possessed a finer physique or more commanding presence. He was a gifted man and capable of great effort, when driven into close combat of thought and words, but under ordinary circumstances, he lacked persistency and continuity in labor. Still he measured up well with the other sons of Ohio who served the state. IIe died February 29, 1868, at the city of Washington, but his mortal part was returned to Ohio, and was buried on the hillside overlooking the Valley of the Mohican, and it is fitting and right that on these walls his portrait should hang, so that in recounting the past it may be seen and known by the coming generation what manner of man he was.
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