USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 98
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His methodical business habits and untiring industry pecul- iarly adapted him for the faithful discharge of the laborious chancery practice, while his clear perception and accurate knowledge of the principles of equity jurisprudence, united with strong analytical powers, and a peculiar faculty for appreciating the force of points of evidence, enabled him to understand the law of his case, to prepare it with distinctness and completeness, and to present it to the chancellor in an argument elaborated with care and by patient research.
The practice at the chancery bar in respect to the argu- ment of causes, has somewhat changed of late years. In the days of Chancellors Pirtle and Logan, it was an infrequent occurrence to have an oral discussion of a case. All the work of argument, with these few exceptions, was done by briefs, and the bar afforded no such field for debate and elo- quence as it now does. The lawyer who had a large practice then was a hard-worker, as he now is, but with little excite- ment and diversion from the monotony and routine of prac- tice.
The years so strictly devoted to his profession, created for Isaac Caldwell a reputation for industry, intellect, proficiency and courtesy in his practice, and a sound learning in the law, and fixed the confidence of his clients and the admiration of his brethren of the bar, but when, on the death of his brother in 1866, he as rapidly as practicable transferred his personal attention to the courts to which he had been a compara- tive stranger, and gave the burden of his chancery practice to his brother, James Caldwell, his friends feared he was mistak- ing his proper sphere. He knew bis powers better than did any one else. The natural bent of his genius was for jury prac- tice, and the debate of great questions before the courts. From the time of coming to Louisville he had subdued his natural inclinations to give his attention to the more labori- ous and less attractive practice of the chancery court, to giatify a beloved brother and to save him labor. But when it became necessary for him to take the place which had been vacated, he in a short time demonstrated that he was equal to the emergency.
Since 1866 Isaac Caldwell has become known throughout Kentucky as an able criminal lawyer, a skillful and power- ful common law and equity lawyer, and as an advocate and
debater at the bar, of eloquence, force, readiness of resource, and perfect courage. He stands as an advocate without a superior at the bar of Louisville. The qualities which make him thus distinguished as an advocate are easy of analysis. He is a good judge of human nature, a man of cool judg- ment and strong common sense, a diligent student and an indomitable worker in his cases. He has a countenance in- dicative of a soul animated by the highest sense of honor; an eye capable of espousing all the feelings and thoughts which stir him; a presence of easy dignity; a nervous, forci- ble style, and a strength and vigor of expression which ex- cite and animate his hearers; a power of grouping facts and dealing with evidence, of analyzing testimony, and laying bare falsehood and deceit with irresistible logic; a lofty scorn of all chicanery and fraud; a hatred of wrong, and a strong love of truth, justice, and liberty, which make his appeals effective and his invective withering.
The reputation and position at the bar of Mr. Caldwell have been attained by degrees. The rise of such a man can- not be marked step by step. It cannot be said that any par- ticular suit or speech made his reputation. It is the result of his talents exhibited in numberless cases, in numerous speeches, in trials for murder, in contests over wills, in suits for damages to character, person, or estate, in arguments be- fore the courts, of instructions, of motions, of appeals-in all the diversified aspects of the business of a lawyer of great practice. But several occasions may be mentioned where he was especially distinguished and which sensibly affected his career.
In the winter of 1869-70 an effort was made to obtain for the Cincinnati Southern Railroad a charter granting it re- markable and unexampled powers which many persons con- sidered to be dangerous to the interests of the State. A large section of the State was warmly enlisted in its favor, and the passage of the bill was urged with great zeal upon the Legis- lature.
Mr. Caldwell was employed by the city of Louisville to oppose the measure by speeches before the joint committee on railroads, to whom the bill was referred. The railroad company was represented by gentlemen of great ability and unrivaled eloquence. The questions were debated in the hall of the lower House, and the whole Legislature and a large audience of other persons attended on four evenings, each side having two speeches, and the debate extending over nearly two weeks. The committee reported against the bill, and it is believed that the arguments of Mr. Caldwell contributed very materially to this result. He forced the friends of the measure to strike from the bill most of the provisions which he assailed as obnoxious.
Under a resolution of the Legislature, authorizing him to retain counsel in behalf of the State to have the constitu- tionality of the Civil Rights bill of 1866 tested, Governor Stevenson, in 1870, engaged Mr. Caldwell's services. The cases of Blyiew and Kinnaird soon after in the Supreme Court of the United States presented some points under the bill of importance to the State. Mr. Caldwell and his col- league, Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, asked, and received per- mission to be heard for Kentucky, though the State was not a party to the record. The cases raised the question whether the United States Courts had jurisdiction in all cases where negroes were sufferers by crimes comnutted against others, or were witnesses against the accused. The parties in this case were indicted in the State Court for murder of negroes, and were taken from the State authorities hy officers of the United States Court.
The constitutional question in the case was argued
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briefly and orally by Mr. Caldwell, in February, 1871. The presentation of the matter was eminently satisfactory to the people of Kentucky, and resulted in a decision adverse to the Federal claim of jurisdiction.
The attention of the whole State was called to Mr. Cald- well on those two occasions, and subsequently in the con- tested election case of John Cochran against T. C. Jones, which arose soon after the latter was by a large popular ma- jority elected Clerk of the Court of Appeals. The public in- terest was greatly excited. Mr. Caldwell's argument was a masterpiece of constitutional construction, and his triumph over most distinguished opponents complete.
The Newcomb case soon after attracted universal attention from the striking and most dramatic circumstances and the vast amount of property involved. The arguments made by Mr. Caldwell in the Chancery Court and Court of Appeals were exceedingly powerful and effective, and the point upon which the case turned in the Court of Appeals was presented with all his eloquence and force. Other instances might be given of his talents, for iu all his cases he makes a strong presentment of his positions. Though the public have only limited means of judging of a lawyer's qualities, the opinion which the bar as a body holds of the merits of its members, gradually infuses the mind of the people, and that opinion is formed from daily observation extending through years.
The estimate which the bar has put upon the talents of Isaac Caldwell is that of the community-that he is unap- proached in the qualities which make up the advocate, and not surpassed in his judgment of nice questions of law. The result is that few great cases arise in the courts of Louisville in which he is not engaged, and his practice has been for years very large and of the character most valued.
In 1876 he was one of the electors for the State at large and made quite an extended canvass through the State. He continued to take an active part in State politics for some time, but found that the field of politics was ill-suited to his taste or his habits of life, and that his best talents lay in the direction which he had pursued with -such success, and he withdrew from active participation in politics.
Mr. Caldwell was married on the 20th of January, 1857, to Miss Kate Smith, of Louisville. Her father and mother were members of two most excellent Kentucky families, and she is an elegant, graceful woman of most attractive personal and social qualities. Their home has been one of great hos- pitality and often of brilliant entertainment.
Mr. Caldwell is fond of society, and of a cheerful, sanguine temper, and enjoys the rational pleasures of life. He is an affectionate and devoted father and husband, and beloved in all the domestic relations. Of strong convictions on all sub;ects, he is conciliatory in his intercourse with his fellows, and warm and devoted in his friendships. He has many strongly attached friends, and exercises a great influence by the weight of his character and opinions. He has now reached the period of life when all his powers of intellect are at their best, and his health and elasticity of spirit seem perfect, He has accomplished almost all that his ambition as a lawyer can desire, but for such a man activity is the only pleasure in living, and many years of labor in his profession seem before him, which will bring added laurels and rewards. His chil- dren, seven in number, are grown, or growing up around him, and in their welfare, and in their settlement in life and in the happiness of home he will find the most delightful exer- cise of his qualities of mind and heart.
SQUIRE BOONE
was born in Oley township, Berks county, Pennsylvania, in 1744. His father, Squire (son of George Boone, who emi- grated from Exeter, England, to Pennsylvania some time in the eighteenth century) moved with his family to the fork of the Yadkin river, in Roan county, North Carolina, about the year 1749. At the age of fifteen young Squire was sent back to Pennsylvania to learn the gunsmith trade. After an ap- prenticeship of five years he returned to North Carolina and shortly afterwards was married to Miss Jane Van Cleave, by whom he had five children-Jonathan, Moses, Isaiah, Sarah, and Enoch Morgan. The latter was one of the first white children born in Kentucky, Squire, with his family, having joined his brother Daniel at Boonesborough in 1775.
Previous to this, however, he had made two or three trips into the State, carrying provisions and ammunition to Daniel's camp, sharing with him, for months at a time, all the dangers and privations of pioneer life. And from the time of his settlement at Boonesborough, as long as Ken- tucky needed the strong arms of her sous to protect her little colonies from the savage foes, Squire Boone devoted himself to her service, taking no less active part in their defense than Daniel himself.
Nothing like justice has ever been done his memory. But he ought not to be forgotten, especially by Kentucky. He watered her soil with his blood in too many places and in too heroic a manner in those early days, when the settlers were in constant dread of the lurking savage and this scalping-knife, to be overlooked in the history of those times. He received many wounds. He was shot in the left shoulder severely in the battle at Boonesborough. He was shot in the breast in defending his settlement or fort called " Boone's Station," in what is now Shelby county. He was subsequently shot in the defense of the people of that settlement when they were attacked, near Long run. His arm was badly broken there, yet he succeeded in drawing off his force, with the women and children, and making his way to Louisville, or rather the " Station at the Falls."
While suffering with these severe wounds, he was elected to represent the county of Kentucky in the Virginia Legis- . lature, and made an eloquent appeal to that body for assist- ance to the brave defenders of the border. His broken arm and unhealed wounds spoke more than words. In after life he often alluded to his kind reception by the Virginians and the courtesy shown him. He considered them the most polite people in the world, for they made him feel as much at home among them in his plain hunting garb and backwoods manners as if he were surrounded by his companions in the frontier settlements.
He made his home at the Falls of the Ohio for many years, during which time he had to endure trials and priva- tions harder to bear than his contests with the Indians. The property he had accumulated-which was considerable for those times-was taken from him by the land-sharks who hunted up the title to all the lands he owned, and he found himself in his old age stripped of every vestige of property, quite insolvent and utterly destitute.
It was then that he turned his back on Kentucky-a State which owed him so much-and in 1808, with his four sons, and the five sons of Samuel Boone, his cousin, he formed a settlement in Harrison county, in the then new Territory of Indiana, about twenty-five miles west of Louis- ville. This settlement was called Boone township, and soon became a flourishing aud prosperous place, the home of many Kentuckians and their descendants. Corydon, in the
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same county, was the seat of Territorial government, and the Boones were among the leading citizens. One of them, John Boone-a cousin of Squire-was a prominent member of the Legislature, and of the convention which formed the constitution of the State. After reaching his new home, Squire Boone began with energy and industry to repair his shattered fortunes. He built a mill and for a long time sup- plied the neighborhood with meal, employing his spare time in making guns, and in cutting ont stone from the neighbor- ing hills to build himself a house. On one of these stones which he intended to place over his front door, he cut the words, "The traveler's rest," indicating truly his hospitable nature. Again he carved his religious sentiments on others of these rocks:
"My God my life hath much befriended, I'll praise Him till my days are ended."
Another displayed his political sentiments, "Liberty, prop- erty, Congress and America ! ! " But he did not live to com- plete his house. He died in 1815, and at his own special request, a cave on or near the summit of a lofty peak in Boone township became his tomb. It was agreed between him, and John Boone, and H. W. Heth, the civil engineer who assisted in preparing the cave, that when they died thev would be entomhed there together. But the strong opposi- tion of the families of the other parties prevented the fulfill- ment of the contract, so far as they were concerned, and Squire Boone alone rests in that beautiful cave. His de- scendants are still living in Indiana and Kentucky.
COLONEL WILLIAM P. BOONE.
William P. Boone was born October 12, 1813, in Boone township, Harrison county, Indiana, to which place his father, Colonel Samuel Boone, of the old pioneer family, had removed prior to the birth of William. He was educated at Corydon, then the capital of Indiana, until his seventeenth year, at which time he began teaching the district school in Boone township, and studying law. His legal education was completed under the tutorage of Judge William A. Porter, at Corydon, a leading lawyer of Indiana. He was licensed to practice October 16, 1836, and was at once taken into part- nership by Judge Porter ; but his argument in one of his first causes attracted the attention of Hon. W. P. Thomasson, of Louisville, then attending court at Corydon, and Mr. Thom- asson never parted from young Boone until he had exacted a promise from him to enter into a partnership with him in practice at Louisville. Boone located in Louisville, and began the practice there in November, 1836, as member of the firm of Thomasson & Boone. The firm did a good business, and was not dissolved until Mr. Thomasson was returned to Congress, and the fitm of Boone & Clark continued the business. Subsequently Colonel Boone and his relative, Colonel Charles D. Pennebaker, formed a part- nership as Boone & Pennebaker, and enjoyed a valuable practice until 1861, when both members were elected as . Union candidates to the Legislature, where both were promi- nent and effective aids in securing the State to the Union ; and, when Kentucky was invaded by the Confederate forces, and the Legislature issued a call to her patriotic sons to rally to her defense and in support of the Union, each member of the firm got leave of absence from the Legislature and raised regiments for the Union service. Just before his election to the Legislature, Colonel Boone was a member of the Union
Democratic State Central Committee, and also a member of the Board of Aldermen of Louisville, besides president of a large Union club, and he originated the organization of one of the first, if not the very first, Union military forces in the State, viz .: the Louisville Home Guards. The State government and the State gnard were in the hands of those who sympa- thized with the Rebellion, and the United States Govern- ment, up to July, 1861, had not begun raising troops in Louisville, hence, at that time, the Union cause was without the support of arms to equalize with the other side.
An ordinance, resting on rather a latitudinous clause in the City Charter, was prepared and in June, 1861, fought by Colonel Boone and others through the Board of Aldermen and Councilmen, in face of bitterest opposition, authorizing the Mayor to call into service a brigade of volunteer police or Home Guards, composed only of loyal men, and uni- formed, officered, and organized as regular military. All over the city secret organizations called "Union Clubs," composed of none but patriotic men, had been drilled in pri- vate, and were ripe to step, as companies and regiments, into the military organization aforesaid. Their arms came secretly from the United States Government through General Nel- son, then Lieutenant in the United States navy, and Colonel Boone was one of the committee who met Nelson in Cincin- nati to receive the arms. Colonel W. P. Boone was elected Colonel of the first regiment. There was of course much feeling among dis-Unionists against this Home Guard, and it was threatened as being illegal and subject to be suppressed by the State Guard, but very few even in Louisville believed that it was much more than a paper organization, without arms, discipline, or drill, and no overt interference with it had taken place, when in the latter part of July or early in August a member of the force was accidentally killed, and this furnished the first occasion for a public parade of the com- mand. The brigade, nearly two thousand strong, hand- somely uniformed, well armed, well drilled, and composed of sturdy and determined men, turned out to bury their com- rade, marching through the principal streets. This exhibi- tion of military strength amazed Louisville and Kentucky, and reports were sent through the State and South that a Union army had taken possession of the city. The moral effect alone of this manifestation of Union strength can hardly be overestimated as to the encouragement, hope, and confidence it imparted to the patriotism of the State, and corresponding depression to dis-Unionists. Subsequently, when in September General Sherman moved out on the Nashville railroad, at midnight, to meet the enemy reported advancing from Bowling Green towards Louisville, it was this Louisville guard that formed the advance of his com- mand, and it held the front near Muldrough's Hill, nearly fifty miles south of Louisville, till after several weeks its ser- vices were no longer needed-the United States Government having hurried its troops into Kentucky. But the organiza- tion proved to be, also, a school from which nearly all its members were graduated into the Union army for the whole war. Hence, as a leading spirit in the conception, organiza- tion, and command of this useful organization, Colonel Boone, had he never done any other service to his city, State, and country, here established a claim on the memory and gratitude of every lover of the Union-"a Union that none can sever"-a Union that none now would sever.
But immediately after the invasion referred to, Colonel Boone began recruiting a regiment for the Union Army to serve the State and United States three years unless sooner dis- charged. Within six weeks he had his regiment, the Twenty- Eighth Kentucky-one of the best sent by Louisville or any
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other place, into the army, in camp of instruction; and on November 6, 1861, it was assigned to duty in the Army of the Ohio, the name of which army was afterwards changed to Army of the Cumberland, forever illustrious as one of the grandest that ever battled for a cause. From this on till he was disabled in the service in June, 1864, Colonel Boone, whether as regimental, post, or brigade commander, of in- fantry, mounted infantry, or cavalry, rendered services which were conspicuously distinguished and applauded by his superiors, especially by Major-General George H. Thomas, Commander of the Army of the Cumberland, who held Colonel Boone in high esteem, intrusted him with important commands, notably the command of all the mounted troops covering the front of his army, with headquarters at Ross- ville, Georgia, during the winter of 1863-64, and with a num- ber of expeditions and scouts against the enemy near Tunnel Hill, or on his flanks and rear. On one of these expeditions, when snow was deep and the cold severe, Colonel Boone, with only two regiments of his command, the Fourth Michi- gan Cavalry, Colonel Gray, armed with Colt's rifles, and Twenty-Eighth Kentucky Mounted Infantry, Lieutenant- Colonel J. Rowan Boone, armed with Spencer rifles, passing around General Johnston's army, penetrated as deep into the enemy's lines as Rome, Georgia, made a night attack on a division near Dirktown, routed it, burned the camp, captured a number of prisoners, horses, etc., procured information wanted by General Thomas, and by forced marches day and night over the mountainous country successfully returned to camp, notwithstanding vastly superior numbers of the enemy's cavalry were after him to cut him off. On this, as on several other occasions, General Thomas publicly com- plimented Colonel Boone. When the first three years' term of the regiment expired, Colonel Boone re-enlisted it in Georgia for three years more as a veteran regiment, but be- came so disabled a few months afterwards that the surgeons forbade him on penalty of death to continue longer in the field.
He was offered command of an important post where ser- vice would be less onerons, but he decided that as he could no longer render active service at the front, he would give place to those who could, and he resigned, June, 1864, re- turning to his wife and two young children (his elder son was in the army) at Louisville, from whom he had been long separated by service in distant States, and to his business af- fairs which had long missed his judicious attention. His superior officers, and his devoted regiment-to which latter he was peculiarly endeared, as not only its able and gallant commander, but also with ties resembling those of fond children towards a father, sympathized deeply with his afflic- tion, and felt his parting keenly.
This hasty sketch, illustrative of his whole-hearted and valiant patriotism during the darkest days of our Union's existence, has here preceded mention of other prominent events in Colonel Boone's life, to which reference is equally due.
Returning, chronologically, to the period, 1836, when he en- tered upon the practice of the law at Louisville, we find that he soun secured a highly honorable place at the bar and in the csteem of the community, which yearly was added to until his death in 1875. He married Miss Eliza Harney, only child of Dr. John Milton Harney, a gentleman eminent in poetry and literature as well as in his profession, whose wife was a daugh- ter of Judge John Rowan, distinguished as lawyer and states- man the country over, who raised his granddaughter, Mrs. Boone, both her parents having died when she was an infant. The children of this marriage were John Rowan Boone,
Samuel H. Boone, and Annie M. Boone, who, with their mother, survived the death of Colonel William P. Boone, and are residing at the old Boone homestead in Louisville.
Colonel Boone was never an office-seeker, and he resisted temptation to give himself up to political life, but he was popular, an ardent Democrat always, a strong speaker, and the people generally kept him in some official position, and in every capacity, whether at the head of political organizations, or councilman, alderman, legislator, soldier, corporation council, or member of the conventions of 1851 and 1870 to frame new charters for the city, his record, as in every relation of life, public or private, was conspicuously useful, clean, and honorable, and was satisfactory to the public, to his clients, to his friends, to his family, and to his own exacting con- science. He was public spirited, and for several years before he died had given much attention to plans for building up manufactories in Louisville. He originated a scheme for throwing $10,000,000 additional capital into that indispensa- ble requisite to the full development of Louisville, through the medium of a "Board of Manufacturers," and he nearly perfected the plans, and an organization to develop the im- mense water-power of the Ohio Falls at Louisville. Only his untimely death prevented the carrying into execution of his plans, which, with the estimates, etc., had been submitted to eminent experts and endorsed by them.
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