History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 60

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams
Number of Pages: 1040

USA > Ohio > Sandusky County > History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers > Part 60

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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 imitat- ing his noble and virtuous example they may succeed in life. We commend the life of General Buckland, as given in an- other chapter, to the reading and consid- ation of all into whose hands this work may come. General Buckland is now en- gaged 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.

LUCIUS B. OTIS was born March 1I, 1820, at Montville, Connecticut, and was educated in Ohio at common schools in Berlin, Erie county; at Huron Insti- tute, 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 at- tended the law school of the Cincin- nati College, at Cincinnati, Ohio, from which he graduated in April, 1841. At the August term of the Supreme Court, heid in Huron county in 1841, he was duly ad- mitted 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 Ever- ett. 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. 201I 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 forty years have elapsed is quite remarkable.

To show how Judge Otis succeeded in life after he left Fremont, we give the fol- lowing from a correspondent of the San- dusky 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 Onio, 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 par- ents 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 su- preme court. Soon after this he established himself in practice at Lower Sandusky, now Fremont; was elect- ed 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 suc- cess, and in 1864 developed into the First National Bank of Fremont. At the expiration of his judge- ship, in 1856, having accumulated considerable means and believing Chicago was destined to become the great metropolis of the West, he moved here in De- cember of the same year, and at once began operat- ing in real estate, buying, building, and renting; ex- ercising 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 re- sponsible companies, he was not as heavy a loser as many, and was able to rebuild and almost wholly re- place 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 super- vision 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 ac- count at the time of failure of over four million dol- lars, 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 law- yer of the highest standing in the profession; has not been an office seeker, though office has often sought hin, 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 1873 and 1874, 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 particu- lar, 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 in- struction 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, be 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 Cleve- land. In this year he also engaged in various speculations, by which he accumu- lated a handsome property.

In 1833 he came to Sandusky county and purchased some fourteen hundred acres of land, and in the spring of the fol- lowing 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 chil. dren to provide for. At this juncture he received aid from an old Samaritan named Riverius Bidwell. The next year his earn- ings 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 prac- tice 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 litiga- tion. In social life, and as a citizen of good example, public spirit, and liberality, Judge Greene had few superiors in Fre- mont. 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, fully 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 argument- ative power. He assisted in the prosecu- tion of Sperry for the murder of his wife, and his management of the case, and es- pecially his argument to the jury, at once placed him in a high position in his pro- fession, 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 Con- gress, being first elected in 1856, and after he had become a resident of Tiffin, in Seneca county, having changed his resi- dence 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 con- course 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 receiv- ing 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 reputa- tion, and for a time did a large legal busi- ness.

In 1842 Mr. Johnson married Almira B. Hafford. In 1849 he left his prac- tice 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 chil- dren-three sons and one daughter, are still living.

Mr. Johnson was in every way an exem- plary inan. While residing in Lower San- dusky 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 men- tioned 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 he 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 exa :-

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 & Ever- ett. 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.

Mr. Eddy closed up his business a few years after, and moved to Madison, Wis- consin. There he was chosen county judge, and held the office many years, and died in the capital of his last adopted State.

Thus far we have mentioned only the lawyers who practiced in Lower Sandusky prior to the year 1842, who with the ex- ception of General Buckland, are all dead or have removed from the State. How- ever, while the ranks of the practicing lawyers of the olden time have been thinned by death and removal, the re- cruits have been abundant since, and the force not only kept up but largely in- creased from time to time by the settle- ment in the county from abroad, and by admissions to the Bar of those who lived and studied within its limits. Of those who came into practice in 1842, and since that time, we have to mention the follow- ing :

J. W. CUMMINGS is now a resident of

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Green Spring. He was born in Richland county, Ohio, in 1836, and in 1838 re- moved with his parents to Lagrange county, Indiana, where he resided until 1864. He was educated at Ontario Academy, Indiana, and Michigan Univer sity, at Ann Arbor, Michigan. Mr. Cum- mings studied law at Lagrange, Indiana, `and was admitted to the Bar there in the year 1860. He was elected to, and held the office of district prosecuting attorney for the five northeastern counties of the State; was afterwards a candidate for circuit prosecuting attorney for the circuit composed of the ten counties in the northwestern part of the State. This can- didacy was in 1864, and Mr. Cummings was not elected. In 1864 he went to Washington, and there held a position in the land office until 1866, when he left Washington and located at Toledo, Ohio, and resumed there the practice of the law. Here Mr. Cummings' merits and talents soon gave him prominence, and he held public office several terms. He in the meantime married a daughter of the late Robert Smith, of Green Spring, and in 1876 retired from the practice of the law and engaged in other business.

While Mr. Cummings was engaged in practice at Toledo he was frequently seen attending to business in the courts of San- dusky county. He always commanded the close attention of Court and Bar wherever he appeared. He was made ad- ministrator of his father-in-law's estate, and the large amount of property and the widely extended business thus thrown on Mr. Cummings' care and management, to- gether with the fact that he has a large share of this world's goods, will probably prevent a good lawyer and admirable man from returning to the drudgery of practice.

JOHN H. RHODES, now in practice in our courts, and residing in Clyde, in the eastern part of the county, was born in

February, 1836, in Westfield township, then Delaware, but now Morrow county, Ohio. He was educated at Wesleyan Uni- versity, Delaware, Ohio.

Mr. Rhodes commenced the study of the law in the year 1860, with O. D. Mor- rison, at Cardington, Ohio, and completed his study under the teaching of Homer Everett, of Fremont, Ohio, in the year 1870. At the April term of the district court of Sandusky county, he was admit- ted to practice and at once opened an office at Clyde, Ohio, where he has since done, and still is doing a good business.

Mr. Rhodes was married on the 28th day of December, 1867, in Brooklyn, New York, to Miss May Antoinette Brown, also a graduate of the Ohio Wesleyan University. They now have a happy family of three children.

Mr. Rhodes served a term as Repre- sentative of Morrow county in the General Assembly of Ohio. He had also served in the Union army in the War of the Re- bellion, having volunteered.

In purity of lite, in gentlemanly con- duct and courtesy, and in pleasing man- ners, Colonel Rhodes has no superior in the Sandusky county bar. As a lawyer, he ranks well and is a good and faithful attorney.

Mr. Rhodes enlisted as a private in company B, of the Forty-third Ohio Volun- teer Infantry, in 1861. He served with his regiment through the entire war, being mustered out as lieutenant-colonel. He was promoted in obedience to the desire of the officers and men of his own regi- ment. After returning from his honorable service in the army, the people of Morrow county elected him to represent them in

the General Assembly for the sessions of 1866-67. He filled the office with satis- faction to the people and credit to himself.

HENRY R. FINEFROCK, now an esteemed member of the Bar of Sandusky conuty,

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was born at Lancaster, Fairfield county, Ohio, on the 16th day of October, 1837. He was educated in the common schools and high school in Lancaster, Ohio. He became an approved and efficient school teacher, and spent some years in that pro- fession in Marion county, Ohio, and per- haps in other counties. His brother, Thomas P. Finefrock, had been in suc- cessful practice for a number of years at Fremont, and while he was a partner with John L. Greene, sr., Mr. Henry R. Fine_ frock studied law with them.

In 1862, Henry R. Finefrock was ad mitted to the Bar at Fremont, Ohio, at the April term of the district court. He, however, did not really commence prac- tice as a lawyer until 1867, when he locat- ed in the city of Fremont, for the purpose of entering into practice. Mr. Fine- frock is highly esteemed among the mem- bers of the Bar, as an upright, moral man, and an attorney with excellent business qualifications. He has rendered good ser- vice to the county, and helped much to improve our schools, while acting as a member of the board of examiners of school teachers. For this position his ac. curate learning and his experience as a teacher, gave him good qualifications, and he exercised them happily in advancing the qualifications of our teachers. Mr. Finefrock is still in active practice at Fre- mont, in partnership with Colonel Joseph R. Bartlett.

M. B. LEMMON, now an active member of the Sandusky county Bar, located at Clyde, Ohio, was born August 7, 1847, in Townsend township, Sandusky county, and therefore "to the manor born." He is the youngest son of Uriah B. Lemmon, one of the pioneers of the county. The subject of this sketch was educated in early life in our common schools, and at- tended quite regularly until 1864, when he volunteered in the military service of his

country a little before coming to the age of eighteen years. He enlisted as a private in company B of the One Hun- dred and Sixty-ninth regiment Ohio Vol- unteer Infantry. He served with this regiment until it was finally mustered out. On his return young Lemmon determined to obtain a better education and to that end promptly entcred Hillsdale college at Hillsdale, Michigan, which he attended one year. After leaving Hillsdale, he taught school several terms, after which he began service as a railroad engineer, which he followed for a time, and then began reading law. He commenced the study with Stephen A. Powers, esq., at Fremont, in the State of Indiana, and was admitted to the Bar September 5, 1876, at Angola, Indiana, and at once went into practice. In March, 1877, he entered into partner- ship with his brother, John M. Lemmon, of Clyde, and remains an active member of the firm.

He was married October 1I, 1871, to Miss Emma T. Stewart, of Fremont, Indi- ana, and is now the happy father of three children.

WILBUR G. ZEIGLER is the son of Henry Zeigler, formerly a prominent merchant and business man of Fremont, who, after the war, located in the South with his family, and returned a few years ago, bringing his son Wilbur with him to Fre- mont.

Wilbur G. was born at Fremont, Ohio. While in the South, he, though compara- tively a young man, displayed unusual literary ability in his correspondence with various newspapers, which marked him for a literary career. For some time he read law with Henry Mckinney, now judge, in Cleveland, Ohio. However, he came back to Fremont, and finished his legal studies in the office of Ralph P. & Horace S. Buckland. He was admitted to practice under the lately established rules, in the

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supreme court at Columbus, in March, 1881.

Mr. Zeigler was educated in the public schools of Fremont, graduating in the high school in the class of 1876. On his admission to the Bar, Mr. Zeigler at once entered upon the practice of his profes- sion and was received into partnership with · the Bucklands, with whom he had finished his studies. He is unmarried, but his future career is full of promise whether he shall devote himself exclusively to his profession, or strike off into a literary career.

F. R. FRONIZER was born October 15, 1852, at the city of Buffalo, New York, and emigrated to Ohio with his parents in the spring of 1853. He was educated in the common schools of Ohio. For some time Mr. Fronizer was a school teacher, and while so engaged, taught the high school at Woodville, Ohio.

He commenced reading law in the law office of John T. Garver in Fremont, in the fall of 1874, and was admitted to the Bar in Sandusky county in the fall of the year 1877. He has since been elected a justice of the peace for Ballville township, which he resigned, and is now engaged in practice at Fremont.

P. O'FARRELL was born at Sandusky City, Erie county, Ohio, May 24, 1856. In the spring of 1860 he moved with his parents, and settled in Scott township, Sandusky county, Ohio. Here young O'Farrell worked on the farm of his father, attending a district school in the winters until the spring of 1871, when he went to the Northwestern Normal School, then located at Republic, Seneca county, Ohio, to prepare himself for teaching. The ensu- ing winter he taught his first school for a term of four months in Montgomery town- ship, Wood county, Ohio. At this time Mr. O'Farrell was not sixteen years old, yet he taught with good success, which indi-

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History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 60

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams Number of Pages: 1040

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams
Number of Pages: 1040