USA > Ohio > Shelby County > History of Shelby County, Ohio, and representative citizens > Part 35
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He was married July 3, 1832, to Miss Mary Whiteman in Greene county, and had three children, two of whom survived childhood.
Handsome in person, easy and gracious in manner, lofty in his ideas, he made a deep impression on everybody he met. Eminently religious by nature he set a high moral example in the practice of politics. Judge Goode was not only a jurist but a man of fine literary taste and was all his life a student. At the establishment of the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware he was made a member of the college board of trustees and continued in that capacity up to the time of his death. He was an able advocate and profound lawyer,
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ready and proficient in all matters of evidence and practice and his industry was such that he was always found fully armed and ready for the fray.
Well may the language of Antony which he applied to Brutus be applied to him : "His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him, that Nature might stand up and say to all the world 'This was a man!'"
Jacob S. Conklin, whose services on the bench and at the bar have justly made his name a distinguished one in Ohio was born in Jackson township, Champaign county, Ohio, December 14, 1815. His early youth was spent there and it was there that the foundation of his education was laid. After holding a clerkship in two of the county offices at Springfield, Clark county, he came to Sidney in 1836 and commenced the practice of law with Judge Goode. His practice extended over a large area of territory and in 1844 he was elected prosecuting attorney for this county. He declined a reelection and in turn served in the legislature both as a member of the lower and upper house. In the Fremont and Buchanan campaign of 1856 he was a Fremont elector. After another term as prosecuting attorney he was appointed by Governor Brough in 1864 to fill a vacancy on the common pleas bench, a position to which he was elected for the full term -a year later. In 1880 he was again made prosecuting attorney in the face of a heavy demo- cratic majority. Judge Conklin was married in 1841 and had eight children, two of whom are living at the present time. He died October 2, 1887.
His was a brilliant intellect, with a retentive memory enriched with the choicest gems from the classics. An able and conscientious judge whose written opinions show a mind of choice legal capabilities. They are clear and comprehensive. As a lawyer his arguments on the facts of a case were remarkable for their completeness in presenting the whole case, showing a mastery of the facts and an appreciation of the strong and weak points on each side and ability to sift evidence. His forte was in arguments to the court. His fund of reminiscences was never ending for the lawyers of the pioneer days were obliged to travel extensive circuits to practice their pro- fession and as they endured the same hardships and privations the warmest personal friendships grew up among them.
Judge Hugh Thompson was born in a family of high social standing near Uniontown, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, November 30, 1807, of Irish parents, and died in February, 1889. After some years of farm life at home; he associated with his father in the mercantile trade in Uniontown and in 1831 came to Sidney when it was a village of 637 inhabitants. He pursued the business of merchandising but in 1834 he was chosen an associate justice for Shelby county to fill the unexpired term of the Hon. Samuel Marshall. At the end of his term he was continued for the full term by- an appointment of the general assembly and continued to hold this position until 1841 when he entered the profession of law and remained in practice up to 1875. He was seven years prosecuting attorney of the county, a member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1851, and served in the lower house of tlie general assembly from 1857 to 1859. He was a stanch democrat in politics and an ardent Presbyterian in religious faith in which church he was for
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many years an elder. He married in 1833 and one daughter, Mrs. Elizabetlı T. Mathers, the mother of Judge Hugh T. Mathers, survives.
He was one of the original incorporators of the First National Bank chartered in 1864, at one time president of the German American and a director in the Citizens Bank. In social life Judge Thompson was one of the pleasantest of men. His humour and repartee were of the highest character and an hour with him in social conference was a joy and a pleasure. As a lawyer he was patient in hearing facts from his clients, prudent and careful in preparing his cases, terse and logical in his pleadings and successful in his practice.
One of the cases in which he was engaged when a member of the law firm of Thompson & Mathers attracted general interest at the time because it was the first time that particular principle was enunciated and shows his power of analysis.
One partner had sued another for alleged slander in charging him with having had a hand in the burglarizing of their store. Thompson and Mathers were employed to defend and Thompson correctly analyzing the case and applying the legal principles involved demonstrated in court that inasmuch as it was not a crime for a partner to enter his own store room and take away gocds he was owner of, no crime charged. Hence no slander case.
A retrospective view of many now living can bring to mind a second generation of lawyers which took the places of these early advocates. The names of Mathers, Murray, Smith, Cummins, Burress, Walker, Bailey, Martin, McKercher, Stephenson, Mccullough, Conklin, Davies, Marshall, Staley, Hoskins, Hatfield, Wilson and others are brought to mind.
About the first of this generation was John H. Mathers, born February 25, 1830, in Mifflintown, Juniata county, Penn., of splendid lineage. His early education was directed by his grandfather, the Rev. John Hutchinson, a Presbyterian divine, and the doctrines of that faith were early instilled in the boy. He graduated from Jefferson College with a good record, studied law with his father, was made district attorney, came to Sidney in 1856, and formed a partnership with Judge Conklin. He was three times made prose- cuting attorney and in 1863 went into a law firm with his father-in-law, Judge Thompson, whose daughter Elizabeth he had just married. He had a son Hugh, the present common pleas judge, and two daughters, Jean and Loucretia. He died April 29, 1875. A man of culture and learning whose close application to business won him a lucrative practice.
Perhaps the foremost lawyer of this group was Gen. James Murray, whose parents came to Cincinnati in 1834 from Scotland, where he was born four years before with Scotch Presbyterianism incorporated in every fiber of his being. The Murrays came to Sidney in 1836, James was educated in Mr. McGookin's academy, studied law with Judge Conklin, was admitted to the bar at nineteen years of age and went into a law firm at Perrysburg. He served two terms as attorney general of the state, first elected in 1860, and was then made general attorney of the D. & M. railway.
He moved to Sidney in 1863, established a partnership with Colonel
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Wilson and died June 15, 1879. He married Miranda Hamilton of Somers, Conn., August 30, 1858, and left two children, James and Kate. James Murray had a peculiar legal mind; his memory was prodigious; an intense student, he possessed the finest law library in this part of the state; his English was classic, never embellished with rhetorical flights. In him centered many paradoxes of human nature. Argumentative and logical as he was his aesthetic tastes were of a high order. He loved the dry details of the law, yet reveled in the realm of poetry; a warm friend though apparently cold. A lawyer whose opinions were sought for far and wide, his practice being confined almost entirely to the higher courts.
Edmund Smith of the law firm of Smith & Cummins dropped dead in Cincinnati, March 13, 1874. during the deliberations of the third constitu- tional convention. He represented Shelby county in the convention. He was a man of positive character with personal magnetism that enabled him to sway a jury, very popular and had established a lucrative practice. He married a daughter of John Carey who survived him with five children, one of whom, Edmund, is an attorney of Columbus.
John E. Cummins, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, was born at Mifflintown, Penn., in 1832. The family settled in Sidney in 1834, and was prominently identified with the history of Sidney. It was at his father's home that General Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe, was entertained during the famous Har- rison and Tyler campaign. He took a course at Washington and Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Penn., enlisted in the army and was made lieutenant- colonel of the 99th O. V. I., and for meritorious bravery was brevetted briga- dier-general by congress at the close of the war. He was admitted to the bar, a member of the law firm of Smith & Cummins, but died at the beginning of his career in April, 1875. He was married to Harriet Carey, a daughter of John Carey, who survived him with three sons, Knox, Carey and Frank.
Nathan Raper Burress was born in Turtle Creek township in 1845. He received such education as the country schools afforded and studied law with Edmund Smith. He was admitted to the bar in 1868, and in 1870 and 1872 was elected prosecuting attorney. He was made state senator in 1875, but declined a renomination and commenced the practice of law with Judge Conklin. He was married in 1876 to Miss Anna Stipp and had one son. He died December 15, 1883. He was a man of refined literary tastes, with a remarkable command of language, vivid imagination, and a mind of choice legal capabilities.
John E. McCullough was the descendant of sturdy Scotch ancestors who settled in Virginia, and were identified with American history at an early period. His father, Samuel Mccullough, came to Sidney in 1835 and was intimately connected with its interests for nearly sixty years. A Presby- terian of the blue-stocking type, he would have suffered martyrdom for his religion.
John was born in Sidney, September 14, 1852, was educated in the public. schools, studied law with James McKercher and was admitted to the bar
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in 1884. He had a clear-cut mind, his powers well in hand, was a positive character and the soul of geniality and generosity.
He married Miss Anna Duncan January 22, 1874, and had two sons, Ben and Sam.
He died July 30, 1886, at the beginning of a life of bright promise.
George A. Marshall, one of the eleven children of Samuel Marshall, a pioneer of Turtle Creek township, was born September 14, 1849, and there he attended country school.
He took a course in the Ohio Wesleyan at Delaware, studied law in the office of Conklin & Burress, and was admitted to the bar in 1876. In 1878 he formed a partnership with Judge Conklin and two years later opened an office alone. Twice he was elected prosecuting attorney on the democratic ticket, in 1877 and again in 1882. In 1896 he was elected to congress from the 4th district and served one term. He died April 21, 1899, leaving a wife and three boys.
He had considerable native ability and with sound judgment and common sense made a strong jury lawyer.
John Milton Staley was born in Franklin township February 2, 1847, and died April 4, 1901. He secured the best education the country schools afforded, attended the university at Delaware for two years and then gradu- ated from the Lebanon normal school, where he fitted himself especially for the teaching of music. In a few years he commenced the study of law at the Cincinnati Law School, was admitted to the bar and opened an office in Sidney. He was made probate judge in 1884 and served two terms. Always a great lover of music, he conducted for many years one of the best orchestras in this part of the state.
John G. Stephenson, born July 9, 1823, in Greene county, went to Cali- fornia with the gold seekers in 1852, came to Sidney sometime in the sixties, and in 1809 was made prosecuting attorney for six years. He was elected mayor in 1876 and in 1881 moved to Kentucky, where he lived until his death, September 7, 1902.
Judge W. D. Davies was born in Iowa, January 2, 1850, of parents who were natives of Wales. He finished his education with a three-year course at Ohio State University and was admitted to the bar in Iowa City in 1870. He was in the employ of various railroads until 1875, when he came to Sidney to practice his profession. He married Miss Belle Mathers of Mifflintown, Penn .. November 11, 1880, and raised a daughter, Amelia.
An active partisan, he was a leader in the republican party and was honored with nominations for various offices and was a delegate to the national republican convention in 1900. He was appointed judge of the common pleas court to fill the unexpired term of Judge W. T. Mooney, from February to November, 1901. He died March 13, 1902.
John Wilson Conklin, son of Judge Jacob S. Conklin, was born in Sidney, August 7, 1848, and died May 4, 1903. He studied law after growing to manhood and was admitted to the bar in 1876. He married Miss Carrie McBeth of Bellefontaine. December 27, 1877, practiced law in Celina for
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several years and then returned to Sidney. He was genial, with a brilliant mind, but did not appreciate his native ability, which suffered because it was not cultivated to the limit.
Judge Emery L. Hoskins was born near Magnetic Springs, Union county, August 4, 1857, was admitted to the practice of law in 1882, and in 1883 settled in Sidney.
A stanch democrat, he was elected probate judge in 1899 and served two terms. He was a member of the school board for fifteen years, prominent in fraternal orders of K. of P. and Odd Fellows, being grand master of the Ohio grand lodge in 1907. He was a partner of W. D. Davies in the law fırın of Davies & Hoskins and died April 4, 1909. As a man he was kind, attentive and affable, and had a wide acquaintance in the county.
S. J. Hatfield was born on the Western Reserve in Wayne county, Ohio, September 21, 1845. He inherited the stern religious and moral virtues of this offshoot of New England which he never forgot in all the activities of his career. His early life was spent in the public schools until ready for a course at Western Reserve College. Choosing the law for his life work he fitted himself for its duties in the University of Michigan and in 1875 came to Sidney, where he pursued the profession of which he had the most exalted idea. He was a stalwart republican, an ingrained Presbyterian and for many years a member of the state board of pardons and a trustee of the children's home. He loved the true, the beautiful, and the good, reveled in the best literature, and was animated by the loftiest sentiments. He died October 30, 1911, the oldest member in years of practice of the bar association.
Col. Harrison Wilson was born near Cadiz, Ohio, March 15, 1841, the yumgest in a family of six sons and three daughters. When a little boy his parents moved to Belmont county and there he got a country school education which he supplemented with a college course at the Ohio University . in Athens, by great effort and sacrifice. At the outbreak of the war he was assigned to the 25th O. V. I., and successively held commissions from second lieutenant to colonel when he was mustered out with the regiment July 15, 1865.
He was in forty-two battles and skirmishes, at the siege of Fort Donel- son, Vicksburg and Atlanta, and went with Sherman "to the sea." He came of a family conspicuous for its bravery, his grandfather, Thomas Wilson, having served in the Revolution and his five brothers in the Civil war. Colonel Wilson himself was awarded a medal by congress.
After the war he settled in Sidney for the study of law, was admitted to tlie bar and went into partnership with General Murray, which continued till Murray's death in 1879. He took a keen interest in politics and served thir- teen years as circuit judge in the 2d judicial district of Ohio from 1895 to 1909. For the next two years he was identified with a prominent law firm in Columbus, but left for Nordhoff, California, in the spring of 1912 to spend the remainder of his days indulging his taste for outdoor life. He married Mary Caroline, a daughter of J. T. Fry of Sidney, in 1867, and raised a family of nine children, eight of whom are living.
Wilson took high rank among the lawyers of Ohio. He had a mind of
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choice legal capabilities. As a judge his decisions were clear and compre- hensive and he now has the confidence of his associates on the bench for his unswerving integrity. Dignified in manner, in habits simple, and austerely temperate.
THE ARTIS MURDER
The Artis case is celebrated from the fact that it terminated in the only legal execution ever held in the county.
Alfred Artis, a full-blooded African, of Cynthian township, was found guilty of murder in the first degree, November 16, 1854. Five days later he was sentenced by the court to be confined in the county jail till the 23d of February, 1855, and then be hanged between the hours of ten of the clock in the forenoon and four of the clock in the afternoon. He was taken from his cell fighting and struggling to the gallows which was erected in the jail, at two o'clock in the afternoon and there hanged in the presence of thirty spec- tators amid dramatic scenes. The sheriff, J. C. Dryden, conducted the hạng- ing, for which he received $300, assisted by the deputy sheriff, Isaac Harsh- barger, who is the only living eye witness of the event. Mr. Harshbarger, eighty-seven years old, is living in Sidney with his daughter and says they had to beat the negro almost to insensibility before they could hang him. He was not a large man, weighed about 130 pounds, but as wiry as a cat. The jail, a two-story brick structure, stood in the southwest corner of the court- yard and was used until the building of the present one in 1875.
The crime for which the victim paid the penalty was one of the most shocking ever known. He kept his daughter Emma, twelve years old, impris- oned in a cold room in his log cabin with an iron chain about her neck, fastened to a block without clothing nor a bed to lie on, occasionally giving her a little food and beating her for a pleasant pastime with a hoop pole which he kept for that purpose. She was obliged to shell corn at night and was let out once in a while in day-time to work. He kept her in the room for three months, when she died, starved and frozen, February 17, 1854. The negro buried her body four and a half miles west of Rumley. He was infuriated with the girl because she had run away from home.
The inquest was held by Isaac Harshbarger, coroner, the 27th of February, 1854, and the names of Dr. Albert Wilson and Dr. Park Beeman appear in the testimony given at the inquest. Judge Hugh Thompson prosecuted the case, assisted by Judge Jacob Conklin.
Shelby county is in the second judicial district of the court of appeals. The following eleven counties make up the district. Champaign, Clark. Darke, Fayette, Greene, Franklin, Madison, Miami, Montgomery, Preble and Shelby. The judges for the court of appeals, second judicial district, are: Hon. James Alread, Greenville ; Hon. H. L. Ferneding, Dayton; Hon. A. H. Kunkle, Springfield.
It is in the first sub-division of the third judicial common pleas district which will continue until the new constitutional provision becomes effective in 1914 when each county of the state becomes a district in itself.
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Eleven counties make up the third judicial district, common pleas court, of which Allen, Auglaize, Mercer and Shelby are in the first sub-division, Henry and Putnam in the second, and Defiance, Fulton, Paulding and Van Wert in the third.
Officers of the court are Hon. Hugh T. Mathers, Hon. William Klinger, Hon. F. C. Layton, judges; Fred Counts, clerk; F. M. Counts, deputy clerk; E. E. Gearhart, sheriff ; Cliff Gearhart, deputy sheriff; Charles C. Hall, pros- ecuting attorney; Walter M. Scott, court stenographer; W. B. Woolley, court constable; F. B. Fitzpatrick, janitor.
The following is the present personnel of the Shelby county bar :
Attorneys-Barnes & Mills (J. D. Barnes, Finley Mills), H. F. Counts, F. J. Doorley, Andrew J. Hess, Charles R. Hess, Royon G. Hess, Charles C. Hall, Charles C. Marshall, Logan W. Marshall, E. V. Moore, Earl E. Nutt, David Oldham, Harry Oldham, John Oldham, H. W. Robinson, J. C. Royon, J. E. Russell, P. R. Taylor, James E. Way, Wicoff, Emmons & Needles (S. L. Wicoff, W. J. Emmons, H. H. Needles).
Justices of the peace, Shelby county, Ohio-Clinton township, C. R. Hess, Emanuel Needles; Cynthian, J. F. Emert; Dinsmore, J. B. Stolley, G. W. Hensel; Franklin, George C. Schiff; Green, Thomas Kiser; Jackson, H. P. Ailes ; Loramie, J. F. Flinn; McLean, Adolph Sherman, John Barhorst : Orange, P. O. Stockstill; Perry, S. B. Cannon; Salem, John Reeves, A. S. Retter ; Turtle Creek, Isaac Beery, J. J. Huffman ; Van Buren, E. H. Meck- stroth ; Washington, Jacob Everly.
Township clerks, Shelby county, Ohio-Clinton, Karl F. Young, Sidney; Cynthian, E. B. Sweigert, R. F. D., Houston ; Dinsmore, Leroy F. Hemmert, Botkins; Franklin, T. S. Price, Anna; Green, E. F. Rolfe, Sidney, R. F. D :; Jackson, Geo. P. Staley, Anna; Loramie, Geo. M. Francis, Russia; McLean, William H. Niederkorn, Fort Loramie; Orange, James Wiley, Sidney; Perry, N. C. Enders, Pemberton ; Salem, H. L. Haney, Port Jefferson ; Turtle Creek, L. A. Richards, Sidney; Van Buren, Henry Roettger, Kettlerville ; Washington, William Douglas, Sidney, R. F. D.
CHAPTER XIX THE TOWNSHIPS (I)
Historical Sketches of Clinton, Cynthian and Dinsmore Townships-Organi- cation-Early Settlement-Villages-Schools-Churches, Etc.
CLINTON TOWNSHIP
This township, which lies southeast of the geographical center of Shelby county, was at first organized as a part of Miami county, in which, as else- where stated, the whole of Shelby county was formerly included. It still however retains its original name. It is bounded north by Franklin, east by Salem, Perry and Orange, south by Orange and Washington and west by Washington and Turtle Creek townships. The territory embraces portions of town 8, range 6; town I, range 7; town I, range 13, and town 7, range 6. This comprises sections and fractional sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30, 34, 35, 36, and 3 and 10 repeated being of different towns or ranges. Since its organization the township has undergone numerous territorial adjustments and readjustments, account of which may be found in the report of the county commissioners' proceedings.
Clinton township is drained by the Great Miami river, which enters at the northeast corner and flows south by west, and then, running southwest, becomes for a distance of about two miles the boundary line between Clinton and Orange township. Side by side with the river flows the Miami feeder with its water supply, which it carries to the canal at Lockington. Tawawa creek enters the Miami opposite Sidney, coming from the east, while another small tributary, flowing in the same direction, joins the large stream about a mile south of the mouth of the Tawawa. Three small streams enter the Miami from the west within the bounds of the township.
The township is crossed north and south by the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad, and east and west by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, which two roads cross at Sidney, the county seat, the town lying on the west side of the Miami. The canal leaves the river for a certain distance in order to pass through the central portion of the town. The chief importance of Clinton lies in its possession of the county seat, which attracts population, though throughout the township farming is carried on extensively and the inhabitants in general are prosperous.
The lands bordering on the Miami river are in particular noted for their fertility. The surface is broken, rolling away Westward, and while not
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jagged or precipitous, is still broken and even hilly along the river. The Infirmary farm comprises the extreme southwest quarter of land in this town- ship, being the southwest quarter ( 160 acres) of section 10, range 6, town. 7.
MATTERS OF RECORD
At an election held in the township of Clinton by order of James Wells. Esq., auditor of Shelby county, on the 25th day of October, 1821, agreeably to notice given, the following township officers were elected :
Trustees, Philip Coleman, Robert McClure, and Rufus Carey. Clerk, Harvey B. Foote. Overseers of the poor, John Tilbury and James Forsythe. Fence viewers, William Drake and Benjamin Mapes. Treasurer, George Poole.
Thomas Lambert appeared and gave bond, with William Drake and Thomas W. Ruckman, conditioned as the law directs, and was duly qualified to perform the duties of constable for Clinton township according to law, November 3, 1821.
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