History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 59

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In looking for the causes for this change in the transaction of business, two facts appear: First, under the Constitution of 1802 all the judges were elected in joint ballot of the General Assembly, and not by popular vote of the same people to whom he must administer justice. The popular and widely influential attorney had no terrors for him, because he looked to the General Assembly for his reelection if he desired it. Second, under the common law system of pleading almost every case was narrowed down to a single issue of fact or law, and the scope of the jury's enquiry was much less than the scope under the present system. Another cause may have had some influence. Then there were fewer judges to do the work, and a rapid dispatch of the business in each county in

short terms was an absolute necessity.

EARLY RESIDENT MEMBERS OF THE BAR.

BENJAMIN F. DRAKE was the first lawyer who settled in Lower Sandusky. He came there in 1817, and was for a time clerk of the court of common pleas, but resigned his office and removed to Delaware county, probably in 1823. Nothing further of his history or fate can now be obtained for record.

HARVEY J. HARMON was the second law- yer who settled in Lower Sandusky. Mr. Harmon was a well educated man and a good lawyer, and at one time had considerable practice. He loved political discussion, however, and during the latter years of his life gave most of his time and efforts in that direction. He was an ardent Jackson Democrat in the election of 1828, and afterward received the appointment of postmaster at Lower Sandusky. Mr. Harmon was father of one daughter, now living, who is the wife of our esteemed citizen, Colonel William E. Haynes. This daughter was a small child when her father died. He died in August, 1834, of Asiatic cholera, in Lower Sandusky. The way he contracted the contagious and fatal disease reflects much credit on his character as a man and a Mason. There had been no case of cholera in Lower Sandusky, and no thought that it would stray from the great thoroughfare to attack the people of as small a village as Lower Sandusky. A small steamboat then plying between Sandusky City and Lower Sandusky, about the 4th of August, 1834, brought a number of passengers and landed them about three-quarters of a mile north of where the courthouse now stands. Among the passengers were two or three families of German emigrants, who had recently arrived in the United States. These people camped out near the landing and did not enter the town. A very respectable stranger in appearance

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came from the landing in the evening and took lodgings in the Western House, then the best hotel in the country and kept by a Mr. Marsh. In the early part of the night this stranger was taken sick, and was in need of help; he inquired of the landlord if there were any Free Masons in the place, and was told that Mr. Harmon was reputed to be a member of the order. A messenger was sent to give word and returned with Mr. Harmon, who recognized the stranger as a brother in the order. Mr. Harmon stayed with and ministered to him through the night, and until the stranger died early the next day. Harmon was taken with the dread disease the following day and died in about twenty-four hours after the attack.

INCREASE GRAVES came to Lower Sandusky and began the practice of the law as early as 1821, if not before. He married the daughter of Israel Harring, an early settler, and died after about three years of married life, leaving a widow and one child.

RODOLPHUS DICKINSON was in order of time probably the fourth resident lawyer who settled in Lower Sandusky. There are better means at hand to furnish a history of Mr. Dickinson than of those who preceded him. From these sources of information we gather and place in this work the following facts concerning him and his career:

Rodolphus Dickinson was born in the State of Massachusetts, December 28, 1797. He graduated at Williams College and soon thereafter repaired to Columbus, Ohio, where he taught school for a time. He then entered upon the study of the law with Gustavus Swan, of that city. After completing his studies and after being admitted to the bar, Mr. Dickinson removed to Tiffin, the county seat of the then new county of Seneca. Here he Commenced the practice of the legal profession, and was appointed prosecut-

ing attorney of that county at the first term of the court of common pleas held. In 1826 he removed to Lower Sandusky (now Fremont) and in the following year was married to Miss Margaret Beaugrand, daughter of John B. Beaugrand, one of the early settlers in Lower Sandusky. He was for a time prosecuting attorney for Sandusky, and soon gathered a profitable practice. He continued in practice for several years, but like many other lawyers was eventually called into the arena of political and party contention. Here Mr. Dickinson displayed all the qualities neces- sary to a politician without the sacrifice of integrity. In the schemes for the early public works and finances of the State he became, and was for several years, the master mind. The Wabash & Erie Canal and the Maumee & Western Reserve road are monuments of his ability and energy. He was a member of the Board of Public Works of the State from the year 1836 to the year 1845, which dates include an era of financial embarrassment the most severe ever known in the State. Mr. Dickinson's in- fluence with the Board of Fund Commis- sioners of the State and with the State Legislature was generally potential, and during a series of years when the credit of the State was so prostrated that the bonds sold as low as fifty cents on the dollar (the proceeds of sale being realized in the paper of suspended banks, which was depreciated ten or twelve per cent.), his prudent counsels contributed largely to save the prosecution of the public works from indefinite suspension. In 1846 Mr. Dickinson was elected to Congress, and re- elected in 1848. He died in Washington city soon after his re-election, and on the 10th of March, 184.

Mr. Dickinson, for his private virtues and his public services, is still held in

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grateful remembrance by the people not only of Sandusky county but throughout Northwestern Ohio.

HIRAM R. PETTIBONE was born in Gran- ville, Connecticut, on the 20th of May, 1795. In 1830 he served one term in the Legislature of his native State. He studied law with judge Fouscey, of great repute in that State as a jurist. He came to Lower Sandusky and entered the practice of the law in the year 1835, and was a popular and successful practitioner until 1849, when he removed to Wisconsin, where he still resides with his son Chauncy. While residing here Mr. Pettibone enjoyed the high esteem of the moral and intellectual portion of our people. In practice he was faithful to his clients, and was engaged in many of the important cases tried in the county. While practicing law in Lower Sandusky Mr. Pettibone and his wife reared and fitted for useful lives a family, consisting of Mr. Chauncy Pettibone, who was an accomplished business man at an early age, and was at one time a partner in the mercantile business at Lower Sandusky with Mr. James Vallette. His eldest daughter, Delia, married Austin B. Taylor, one of our early and successful merchants, and a man of ability in business circles. His second daughter, Harriet, was married to C. G. McCulloch, an early druggist of Lower Sandusky, but now of Chicago. A son, Milo, and son William, were next in order of age. Then a daughter, Jane, who married Dr. Kramer, of Sandusky City; a son, Alfred, now residing in Ripon, Wisconsin. Dr. Sardis B. Taylor, now practicing medicine in Fremont, is a grandson of Lower Sandusky's early and able lawyer, Hiram R. Pettibone. This venerable member of the Bar of Sandusky county is now eighty-six years of age, and comfortably enjoying the sunset of life with his oldest son,

Chauncy, an active and successful merchant at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

After or about the time Mr. Pettibone settled in the practice of the law at Lower Sandusky, came Asa Calkins, Peter Yates, W. W. Culver, and William W. Ainger. Little of they history of these then can now be gathered. They are either long ago dead, or in other States, and in unknown locations, excepting William W. Culver, who, at last accounts, was still living and resides at Penn Yan, New York. But the means of giving his birthplace, where he was educated, and where he studied his profession, are not at hand. Mr. Culver was prosecuting attorney for the county, being appointed first in 1839, and continued four successive years. In his addresses to a popular assembly, or to a jury, Mr. Culver exhibited wonderful brilliancy and acumen and always commanded the close attention of the jury and the court, and if not always right in his views of the law, or his deductions from facts in the testimony of a cause, he was always listened to with in- terest and pleasure by all who heard him. Mr. Culver left the practice about 1847, and afterwards went to California where he taught school. He accumulated considerable property, and finally settled with a sister in Penn Yan, New York.

RALPH P. BUCKLAND'S history is so fully written in other parts of this work that our notice of him as a lawyer may be made brief without doing him injustice. We will therefore but briefly sketch the life of this distinguished citizen in its connection with the practice of the law. He came to Lower Sandusky in the summer of 1837, and commenced the practice of the law. He has frequently told the writer that when he arrived at Lower Sandusky to commence the practice of his profession he was without means, and his only monetary resources were seventy-five cents, which

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he brought with him in his pockets. His subsequent success, and the eminent char- acter he achieved, stands as a monument to his industry and integrity, as well as an enduring encouragement to all young members of the profession that by imitating his noble and virtuous example they may succeed in life. We commend the life of General Buckland, as given in another chapter, to the reading and consideration of all into whose hands this work may come. General Buckland is now engaged in practice in partnership with his son, Horace S. Buckland, and Wilbur Zeigler, and is the only lawyer now in practice who practiced in Fremont before 1840, and is also the oldest member of the bar in the county, both in years and in practice.

LUCIOUS B. OTIS was born March 11, 1820, at Montville, Connecticut, and was educated in Ohio at common schools in Berlin, Erie county; at Huron Institute, Milan, Ohio; the Norwalk Seminary, Norwalk, Ohio, and at Granville College, Granville, Ohio. He commenced the study of law at Norwalk, Ohio, in August, 1839, in the law office of Hon. Thaddeus B. Sturgis and John Whitbeck, and during the fall and winter of 1840 and 1841 attended the law school of the Cincinnati College, at Cincinnati, Ohio, front which he graduated in April, 1841. At the August term of the Supreme Court, held in Huron county in 1841, he was duly admitted to the Bar as a practicing attorney. On September 1, 1841, he took up his residence in Lower Sandusky, Sandusky county, Ohio. For the first year or two he practiced law in partnership with the late Brice J. Bartlett, and subsequently for several years with Hon. Homer Everett. He was married to Miss Lydia Ann Arnold, of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, in January, 1844, and has seven children living, four married and well settled in life,

and the three youngest living with their parents at the family home, No. 2011 Michigan avenue, Chicago. At the close of his term of office as judge of the court of common pleas in Ohio, in December, 1856, he removed to Chicago, Illinois, which is still his residence. He has never practiced his profession since he took his seat upon the bench as judge in Ohio, in February, 1852.

When he located in Lower Sandusky, in September, 1841, Mack Bump kept the old historic corner tavern, at which he boarded for a long time at two dollars and a half per week. It was a well kept hotel. He recalls the following names as fellow boarders at that time: Elisha W. Howland, Charles O. Tillotson, Dr. Thomas Stilwell, Clark Waggoner, C. G. McCulloch, John A. Johnson. That so many are still living after nearly for years have elapsed is quite remarkable.

To show how judge Otis succeeded in life after he left Fremont, we give the following from a correspondent of the Sandusky Register in Chicago, under date of January 11, 1881, which details his life with more particularity:

Judge Lucius B. Otis is a typical Ohioan in physical proportions and mental acquirement. It is often said that sons of Ohio, particularly Northern Ohio, are men of large frame and fine physique; whether this is true or not I cannot say, but it certainly is true in this instance, and is true of the family, a numerous one. While L. B. Otis was born in Connecticut, he is essentially an Ohio man, having come to the State when two years of age. He comes of rare old New England stock, his father and mother possessing fine native abilities, rare attainments, force of character, integrity and many Christian virtues, which qualities were inherited by the subject of this mention in a marked degree. He was born in 1820, and his parents moved to Berlin, Erie county, Ohio, in 1822, which has been the home of the family since. Lucius attended the common schools of that place, dividing his time between study and farming, until eighteen years of age, when he attended the Huron Institute at Milan, later the Norwalk Institute and Granville College., when he commenced the study of law in Norwalk, with Sturgis & Whitbeck, and attended the law school at Cincinnati, returning to Norwalk in

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1841, where he was admitted to the Bar by the supreme court. Soon after this he established himself in practice at Lower Sandusky, now Fremont; was elected prosecuting attorney in 1842, and re-elected each two years and served until 1850. In 1851, under the new Constitution, he was elected judge of the court of common pleas, his circuit comprising the counties of Huron, Erie, Sandusky, Ottawa, and Lucas, and involved a vast amount of work, often holding court ten months of the year, besides sitting as one of the district judges. In 1850, with Sardis Birchard, he established the banking house of Birchard & Otis, at Fremont, which enterprise proved a decided success, and in 1864 developed into the First National. Bank of Fremont. At the expiration of his judgeship, in 1856, having accumulated considerable means and believing Chicago was destined to become the great metropolis of the West, he moved here in December of the same year, and at once began operating in real estate, buying, building, and renting; exercising that tact, sagacity, and judgment which had previously characterized his course, and have to this day, and he has become one of our largest real estate owners and among our most enterprising and suc- cessful business men. One of the finest and most conspicuous marble front blocks, known as the "Otis Block," is owned by him and his brother James.

He was a large property owner before the fire, and being in the burnt district, his property was nearly all destroyed, but, being well insured in responsible companies, he was not as heavy a loser as many, and was able to rebuild and almost wholly replace his buildings with new ones of a much better class. He was president of the Grand Pacific Hotel Company, and superintended the finances when it was rebuilt after the fire, and had a general supervision of its building. Among the many responsible positions he has been called upon to fill, financial and otherwise, is that of receiver of the insolvent State Savings Institution, which had a deposit account at the time of failure of over four million dollars, to the credit of poor people almost wholly. The court sought to protect this vast interest and save as large a per cent. as possible to the depositors, and to accomplish this object selected judge L. B. Otis for receiver, knowing his eminent fitness for such duty. He has more than met the expectations of both court and depositors. He has realized on the real estate assets a full quarter of a million dollars more than almost any other man could have done, and will be able to pay over forty per cent., in place of fifteen or twenty, which was only looked for, hardly expected. This is the result of his sagacious management of the assets. His bond is two million dollars, signed by ten of the best men in the city. I instance this fact to indicate to his former friends and neighbors the kind of man Erie county has furnished Chicago. His name is identified with some of our

best corners, as to property, and our best institutions of all descriptions.

He is one of our most prominent citizens, and his fine and varied literary attainments and refined social qualities make him a most agreeable and edifying member of the social circle. He has a large library, filled with a choice collection of books. He is a lawyer of the highest standing in the profession; has not been an office seeker, though office has often sought him, but, being a Democrat, his friends have been unable to put him in high State positions (for which he was fitted) in this Republican stronghold. He supported Lincoln both terms, but has returned to his first love, no doubt being conscientious in his views and belief. In religion he is an Episcopalian, and a noble layman in the matter of expounding the laws and canons of that church.

In 1893 and 1894, with a portion of his family, he visited Great Britain and the Continent, making an extensive tour. He was married in 1844, and has had eight children, seven of whom are now living. His wife is an estimable lady. His sons are among our prominent business men, engaged in banking and other business. Ohio, and Erie county in particular, may point with pride to judge L. B. Otis as one of her sons.

JOHN L. GREENE, SR., was born in St. Lawrence county, New York, July 16, 1806. In August, 1815, he moved with his father's family to Ohio, and located at Newburg, on the Western Reserve. He shortly after went to Plattsburg, New York, where he spent two years, and there began the study of the law, under the instruction of his uncle, John Lynde. He spent some time in the University of Burlington, Vermont, but was compelled to relinquish his course on account of ill health.

Returning to Ohio he was soon invited to take charge of an academy at Cleveland, which position he accepted for a short time. While engaged in teaching he still pursued the study of the law, under the tuition of Leonard Case.

After the termination of his engagement in the academy, he gave himself more ex- clusively to the study of law, and while giving his days to that purpose, employed his evenings in keeping the books of the mercantile house of Irad Kelley.

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On the 16th of July, 1828, he was married to Miss Julia L. Castle, of Cleveland. In this year he also engaged in various speculations, by which he accumulated a handsome property.

In 1833 he came to Sandusky county and purchased some fourteen hundred acres of land, and in the spring of the following year moved with his family here. After a failure in mercantile business at Greensburg, a village named after him, in Scott township, which failure was caused by the financial crisis of 1836-37, Mr. Greene, in 1840, came to Lower Sandusky and commenced the practice of the law.

His earnings for the first year were forty- five dollars. He had a wife and six children to provide for. At this juncture he received aid from an old Samaritan named Riverius Bidwell. The next year his earnings amounted to sixteen hundred and fifty dollars. From this time he had a successful practice until 1855, when he was elected Representative in the General Assembly, by the people. In 1861 he was elected judge of the court of common pleas, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Hon. Samuel T. Worcester, which position he held until February, 1864, at which time he resumed the practice of the law. He afterwards formed a partnership with his son, John L. Greene, jr., in which relation he continued until the time of his death.

He was the father of eight sons and four daughters. One of his peculiarities was a fondness for horses, and, at the bar, wherever he practiced, he was king of all attorneys where the value, or quality, or disease of horses were drawn into litigation. In social life, and as a citizen of good example, public spirit, and liberality, judge Greene had few superiors in Fremont. The fact that Mr. Greene was chosen as a judge and elected to that position by the people of the subdivision

of the judicial district in which he resided, folly certifies his ability and standing as a lawyer and a man.

COOPER K. WATSON came to Lower Sandusky to attend court occasionally as early as 1841. He had studied law in Marion, Ohio, and recently been admitted to the Bar. At that time he was a man of unusually clear and quick perception of legal principles and with great argumentative power. He assisted in the prosecution of Sperry for the murder of his wife, and his management of the case, and especially his argument to the jury, at once placed him in a high position in his profession, which he maintained through life. Of his birthplace, parentage, and early life, we are not informed.

Mr. Watson served two successive terms in the House of Representatives in Congress, being first elected in 1856, and after he had become a resident of Tiffin, in Seneca county, having changed his residence about the year 1850. Subsequently he located and practiced his profession in Sandusky. After the death of judge Lane, of Sandusky, he was appointed to fill the vacancy in the judgeship of the court of common pleas, and was twice elected to the office, in which he continued until his death, in 1880. He was buried in the cemetery at Sandusky, and his funeral was attended by a large concourse of people, including judges and lawyers from various distant parts of the State, also a large concourse of Knights Templar, of which order he was a prominent member.

JOHN A. JOHNSON was born in Canfield, Trumbull county at that time, but now in the county of Mahoning. After receiving a fair academic education he studied law in the office of judge Newton, in Canfield. He came to Lower Sandusky and commenced the practice of the law in the latter part of the year 1839. In 1842 he formed a partnership in practice with

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Cooper K. Watson, under the name of Watson & Johnson. This firm had the benefit of Mr. Watson's growing reputation, and for a time did a large legal business.

In 1842 Mr. Johnson married Almira B. Hafford. In 1849 he left his practice and his family, in Fremont, and, with several other citizens of the place, went, to hunt gold in California, and was absent about fifteen months. A few months after his return he sold his farm and residence near the town, and moved to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where he died many years ago. His wife and four children-three sons and one daughter, are still living.

Mr. Johnson was in every way an exem- plary man. While residing in Lower Sandusky he was a member of the Presbyte- rian church, and acted as its trustee in building the first brick house of worship for the society.

NATHANIEL B. EDDY, a native of the State of New York, came to Lower Sandusky and commenced the practice of the law sometime about the year 1839. Mr. Eddy was well educated and had thoroughly studied his profession. His brother, Azariah, had settled in Lower Sandusky previously, and at the time mentioned was, perhaps, the leading merchant of the town. His influence at once helped his young lawyer brother into practice and into social standing in the community. Mr. Eddy practiced successfully alone for about two years. Homer Everett had for some years been studying law at leis- ure times, and was then sheriff of the county. In December, 1842, Mr. Eddy persuaded Everett that ho was qualified to be admitted to the Bar, and proposed that if he would do so, he would accept him as a partner in the business on equal terms. Mr. Everett at once travelled to Columbus and was there, after due exam

ination, found qualified, and admitted to practice in all the courts of the State. After returning from Columbus he at once resigned the office of sheriff, which had some months to run, and entered into partnership, under the firm name of Eddy & Everett. This firm continued a prosperous business until some time in 1844 or 1845, when Mr. Eddy was seized with a desire to become suddenly rich, and entered into mercantile business with Frederick Wilkes, his brother-in-law. The firm of Eddy & Wilkes occupied a store near the law office used by Eddy & Everett. On the retirement of Mr. Eddy from practice, Lucas B. Otis and Homer Everett formed a partnership, and did a successful business as lawyers until the close of the year 1847, when Mr. Everett retired from practice and settled on his farm on the Sandusky River, about five miles below town.

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History of Sandusky County Ohio with Illustrations 1882, Part 59

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