USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II > Part 39
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PETER A. ROANE, a young man of good nat- ural ability, but uneducated, began the study of law with John S. Davis in 1836, and was admit- ted to practice in 1840. In 1839 he was elected city recorder, and held the office one term, after which he devoted his entire time to his practice until his death, which took place after a practice of four or five years.
THOMAS L. SMITH located in New Albany about the year 1839, and was immediately taken in hand by the Democratic party, being the only lawyer of that faith in the city except Mr. Groves, to whom an old farmer said one day, "Groves, you may have been bred to the law, but I be blessed if the law will ever be bread to you." But Mr. Smith was a lawyer as well at a politician, and soon obtained an excel- lent practice in his profession, as well as made himself popular with his party. He had some literary taste and ambition, also, and wrote a text book for schools in which the rudiments of law were explained, and which became a valuable acquisition to the teachers' and pupils' library. He was several times before the people as a can- didate for office, and as the parties were pretty nearly tied hereabouts he would sometimes be elected and at other times defeated, but at all times he received a flattering vote. He served as judge of the supreme court of the State one term, at the expiration of which he retired to private life, his health having failed. He died at a ripe old age much lamented by a large circle of friends.
PHINEAS M. KENT settled in New Albany in 1841 ; went into the printing business and also opened a law office. He, however, paid little attention to the law, his tastes leading him into editorial life.
ASHBEL P. WILLIARD was teaching school in Kentucky in 1844. Having some reputation as a ready and forcible speaker he was invited by the Democracy to make public addresses during that political campaign in which Henry Clay and James K. Polk were the opposing candidates. Mr. Williard so pleased his party that he was urged by the Democracy of New Albany to lo- cate here. This he did and began the practice of law, forming a partnership with Randall Craw- ford. It was not long, however, before he yielded to the political siren and left his practice for the hustings. He was elected to the Legisla- ture and afterward made Lieutenant-governor. In 1856 he was elected Governor over Oliver P. Morton, and died during his term of of- fice. Mr. Willard was an ardent friend and liberal enemy. He had his faults, but he also had his virtues, and no one retained a atronger hold on his party than he. When he died the Democracy felt that they had lost a champion.
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JAMES C. MOODY came here from Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1842. He was a lawyer of fair ability and a gentleman of good address; his success in his chosen profession, however, was somewhat retarded by his desire to accumulate wealth rapidly, or make his fortune at a dash. He consequently indulged considerably in specu- lation. Becoming dissatisfied here he removed to St. Louis, where he subsequently became a judge of one of the courts. In later years he gave way to the vice of intemperance, which has destroyed some of the brightest minds of the country. He died from his excesses soon after the close of the war. When himself he was companionable and kind.
GEORGE V. HOWK removed to New Albany from Charlestown in the adjoining county in 1849. He was a young man of promise and has occupied many positions of trust, having been elected to the offices of city attorney, councilman, Senator in the State Legislature, and is at present one of the supreme judges of the State. He is a man of ability and an indefatigable worker.
ROBERT A. WIER studied law with Judge Howk, and after completing his studies was admitted into partnership with his preceptor in 1854. He was very popular but died before his powers were fully developed.
WILLIAM T. OTTO, a practicing lawyer, came to the city in 1848, and began practice in con- nection with John S. Davis. He had been here but a short time when he was made presiding judge of the circuit court, the district embracing the counties of Washington, Scott, Clarke, Floyd, and Harrison. The terms of holding court were one and two weeks in each of the counties except Floyd, the term in this county being extended to three weeks. Judge Otto was a man of fine attainments, a first-class lawyer and an upright judge. Personally he was very popular, but being a Whig in politics, and there being a large Democratic majority in this judicial district, he was defeated for a second term by Hon. George A. Bicknell. He resumed the practice of law and continued at the bar until 1861, when he received an appointment in the Interior depart- ment at Washington, to which place he moved and where he has since remained. Tudge Otto was a gentleman of easy and polished manners, much respected for his many good qualities as a man, and was rated by his contemporaries as one
of the best lawyers among them. He was origi- nally from Philadelphia.
JUDGE GEORGE A. BICKNELL came from Phila- delphia and settled in Lexington, Scott county, Indiana, where he remained a few years in the practice of his profession, when he removed to New Albany, and soon took first rank in his pro- fession in this place. In 1854 he was elected judge of the circuit court for this district, and continued to serve in that capacity until 1876, when he was elected to Congress from the Third Congressional district. He served two terms in Congress, but was defeated for the third term in the nominating convention of his party by Mr. Stockslager, of Harrison county. At the session of 1881 the Legislature passed an act creating a commission to bring up the business of the supreme court of the State, which was very much in arrears. Judge Bicknell was appointed on this commission, a position he yet holds. Judge Bicknell's retiring and rather exclusive habits peculiarly fitted him for the position of judge, and it is questionable if any other ever gave more general satisfaction. His decisions were received with confidence and quietly acquiesced in. Socially he was a good conversationalist and a man of pleasant manners.
MICHAEL C. KERR was a native of the Keystone State, and came to New Albany in 1848, while yet a young man just entering upon the practice of his profession. He had studied law at Louis- ville, and when he came here he became as- sociated with Judge Thomas L. Smith in the practice. His inclination, however, led him into politics, and his law business was in consequence somewhat neglected. He was a hard student, and did not confine himself in this regard to the law; he was ambitious, intellectually bright, ener- getic, but with more of these qualities than of physical strength. He was quite popular with the people, and his first office was that of prose- cuting attorney for the city, being elected by a handsome majority over his Whig opponent, though the Whigs at that time had a clear ma- jority of two hundred in the city. Subsequently he was selected to represent the county in the State Legislature. From 1862 to 1864 he was reporter for the State supreme court. In the fall of 1864 he was elected to Congress from the Third Congressional district, and continued in the National House of Representatives four con-
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
secutive terms. He was re-elected in 1874 for a fifth term, and in December 1875, he was made Speaker of that body, which position he held at the time of his death. He was a genial, kind- hearted gentleman, full of noble impulses, and his death was a severe loss to his friends and his country.
THOMAS M. BROWN, then located at Memphis, Tennessee, and John H. Stottsenberg, of New York, both young men, formed a partnership and opened a law office in New Albany in 1854. Mr. Brown was one of the most persevering of stu- dents, devoted to his profession, and determined to make of himself a first-class lawyer. He was quite successful. After he was fairly established in his business he married the daughter of Hon. John S. Davis, who lived but a few years after- ward, and died leaving two daughters to his care. Mr. Brown continued steadfast in his profession and in devotion to his family, caring little for political honors, though once elected to the Leg- islature. He was in love with his profession, and quite successful. His death was distressingly sudden, though not entirely unlooked for. For several years he had been suffering with disease of the lungs, and the day of his death was in his office attending, as usual, to his duties, and in the afternoon started for home. Reaching the upper part of the city, and when within a few blocks of his home, he fell, and expired before those who were conveying him to his house could reach it. He was a Christian gentleman, an honest, faithful advocate, a good neighbor and steadfast friend.
JOHN H. STOTTSENBERG, who is still a resident of the city, is much the same type of a man as his partner, Mr. Brown. In this partnership, which was dissolved only by the death of Mr. Brown, there seemed to be a mutual feeling of regard and respect, a unity of sentiment, and a similarity of tastes rarely found in a partnership. The business was conducted so quietly and earnestly as to become the subject of remark, and to bring a large patronage. Mr. Stottsen- berg continued the practice of his profession af- ter the death of his partner, and soon became one of the leading members of this judicial cir- cuit. Two or more years ago he was appointed by the Legislature one of the commission to re- vise the State laws, and has been constantly em- ployed in this labor since that time. He is a
gentleman of superior business qualifications, pleasing manners and strict integrity.
The foregoing rather imperfect sketches in. clude those lawyers whose nativity was not with- in the limits of this judicial circuit, but who came from a distance and settled here for the purpose of prosecuting their business. The fol- lowing are brief sketches of those of the same profession who are to the manor born, and among them will be found some of the most talented and reliable in the profession :
DEWITT C. ANTHONY, now about fifty-two or fifty-three years of age, is a well read lawyer and a good political speaker. He studied under Randall Crawford.
JUDGE D. W. LAFOLLETTE is a son of Robert LaFollette, who is said to have been the first settler of Floyd county. He was born Septem- ber 13, 1825, and graduated at the law school of the State university; was admitted to practice in 1849, and settled in New Albany, soon after forming a partnership with James Collins. In 1858 he was elected judge of the court of com- mon pleas of Floyd county, and in 1872 was ap- pointed by the Governor judge of the circuit court, but declined this honor and became prose- cuting attorney of the district. In 1873 he was appointed one of the law professors in the State university and filled the chair one year. Since that time he has devoted himself to the practice of his profession in New Albany, where he sus- tains a good reputation as a lawyer and citizen. -
ALEXANDER DOWLING stands in the first rank of lawyers in the city. His father, Dr. Dow- ling, removed to this city in 1836, when the sub- ject of this paragraph was a child. Mr. Dowling studied law under Judge John S. Davis, and be- gan the practice in 1868 or 1869. He is a fair speaker but relies more upon his thorough knowledge of the law than upon his forensic powers.
THOMAS L. COLLINS and ALFRED B. COL- LINS about the same time, having studied law under their father, James Collins, were admitted to practice. They soon after removed to Salem, the county seat of the adjoining county of Wash- ington, where A. B. Collins was twice elected to the Legislature, and in 1877 Thomas L. Collins was appointed judge of the circuit composed of the counties of Washington and Jackson.
JAMES GHORMLEY was a student in the office
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
of Hon. M. C. Kerr, and was admitted to the bar in 1865. He was a young man of promise, but after a few years' practice died of consumip- tion.
SIMEON K. WOLF, son of George I. Wolf, one of the first settlers of the county, and who twice represented the cour ty in the Legislature, studied law in Corydon, and was elected to the Legis- lature from Harrison county. In 1870 he re- moved to New Albany, and entered into partner- ship in the practice of law with James V. Kelso and Alanson Stephens. In 1872 he was elected to Congress, and after serving one term settled down to the practice of his profession.
WILLIAM W. TULEY Is a native of New Al- bany, and among its best lawyers. The name Tuley has long been a familiar one in the place, the family being among the earliest settlers. Mr. Tuley's father was one of the first sheriffs of the county, and represented the county in the State Senate from 1837 to 1840. Colonel W. W. Tuley was elected clerk of the circuit court in r863, and retained that office eight years, when he began the practice of law with Judge Howk. When the latter was made judge, he formed a partnership with Judge LaFollette, where he is found to-day in the successful practice of his profession.
JUDGE CYRUS L. DUNHAM was a colonel in the late war, and at its close settled in New Al- bany, where he practiced until elected judge of the criminal court. During his term of office he removed to Jeffersonville, where he died in 1874. Judge Dunham was very popular with the people, and was sent to Congress three terms. He was kind-hearted and generous in his dis- position, but at one time yielded to his appetite for drink to such an extent as to lose his popu- larity, although he refornied and continued stead- fast to the end.
JAMES V. KELSO, when a small boy, came with his father to New Albany from Madison, Indiana. He has, by perseverance and close study, secured a prominent position among the attorneys of the city.
JACOB HERTER came to this city during the war, and became a student in the office of Judge Dunham. He began practice with his preceptor and continued in this connection a few years, when he was elected to the office of city judge, which position he filled very satisfactorily to the
people and with credit to himself. At present he is deputy city attorney.
THOMAS J. JACKSON is not a native of the city, but studied his profession here. He is a young man of social habits and kind disposi- tion.
EDWIN G. HENRY, an educated and studious young man, located here about 1870, and is steadily working his way to a practice.
JACOB HISEY came to the city from Corydon; studied law with Hon. M. C. Kerr; was admitted to practice a few years since, and is building up a profitable business.
SAMUEL B. KERR, son of the late M. C. Kerr, began the practice of law here since his father's death. He was elected to the Legislature in 1880, and made an industrious and promising member of that body.
SETH WOODRUFF, one of A. Dowling's pupils, and son of Israel C. Woodruff, of this city, after a short term of practice here removed to Texas, where he is building up a lucrative practice.
GEORGE B. CARDWELL studied under John H. Stottsenberg, and has been practicing three or four years. He promises a successful career.
Many other lawyers located here from time to time, but remaining only a short time they did not become identified with the interests of the city. In every city there is a floating population representing every trade and profession, whose doings cannot properly be entered in the city's history.
MURDER TRIALS.
Quite a number of trials for murder have oc- curred in the county, and a number of convic- tions have been secured, but only three persons have been hung, the others escaping the extreme penalty of the law by means only known to the parties most directly interested.
Dahman was the first person hung after the formation of the county. A Norwegian named Notte had established himself in the bakery business on the southeast corner of Upper High and First streets, where he was frequently vis- ited by Dahman, who was also a Norwegian. They were on intimate and friendly terms. One night they remained together until a late hour, and when the world outside and in were asleep Dahman murdered the baker for some reason known only to himself, probably for money and the little property he possessed, and putting the
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
body in a large coffee-sack sunk it in the river. The next day Dahman asserted that Notte had gone over the river (which was true in one sense) and began removing Notte's goods and effects from the room he had occupied.
A few days after some fishermen were hauling in their lines and drew to the surface the sack and body of Notte. This led to an investiga- tion, and Dahman was arrested. He made his escape, however, and for some time nothing could be heard of him. In an incautious mo- ment he attempted to communicate with his fam- ily, and his whereabouts was discovered. He had made his way to Canada. James Besse was then sheriff of the county, and he and John Eastburn went to the Canada border to try to ar- rest him. Arriving there they ascertained that Dahman was in the neighborhood, but how to get him across the river and within the jurisdiction of the United States, was the problem. As the Norwegian had communicated with his wife, and might reasonably expect a visit from her, Besse dressed himself in women's clothes and walked up and down the river bank in plain view of the opposite shore, while Eastburn went across and informed the murderer that his wife was waiting to see him. Dahman, seeing a woman on the opposite shore, as he supposed, fell into the trap, made his way across, was arrested, brought to New Albany, tried in May, 1821, and sentenced to be hung July 6th following. He was accord- ingly executed near the site of the present jail. His wife subsequently married a colored man named Joshua Wilson, who owned a fine farm on the river bank about three miles below the city. This place is now occupied by Cecilia B. Stoy. The jury in the trial of Dahman were John Chew, Joseph Kirk, Charles Berkshire, John Hickman, Elihu Tharp, Levi Brown, Hubertus Schmidt, Joseph Thackery, Henry Weber, Thomas Burns, Patrick Burns, and Thomas Thomas. Mason C. Fitch was the prosecuting attorney, and Wil- liam P. Thomasson attorney for the prisoner. This was before they had any court-house in New Albany, and the trial was held in the basement of the Presbyterian church.
The execution of Lamb was the second in the county. He lived in the neighborhood of Green- ville in this county, and was making his way home one hot summer day when he overtook a man about two miles from Greenville and the
two traveled together some distance when they sat down to rest in the shade of some trees at the roadside, about one mile from where the toll-gate now stands, on what is known as the Shirley road. While here they began playing cards, apparently for amusement, but soon got into a quarrel which resulted in blows during which Lamb seized a club and striking the man a heavy blow on the head felled him to the earth, and he did not rise again. After a little while Lamb started to go away when hearing the man groan he returned and taking off his coat put it under the man's head for a pillow and left him. The man died and when the body was discovered Lamb's coat was recog- nized and led to his arrest. He was sent to Charlestown for safe keeping, but with three other prisoners broke jail and escaped. Instead of going away, however, he returned immediately to his home, where he was recaptured and re- turned to jail. At the next term of court he was tried, found guilty, sentenced, and subsequently hung. Nothing is at present known of his fam- ily.
The next case in which capital punishment was administered in the county was that of Peter Gross for killing a man in Clarke county. He was brought here for trial on change of venue. The trial lasted but a short time, the evidence being conclusive; he was condemned and hung in 1849 near the turnpike bridge on the Vin- cennes road.
In the earlier days of the court some of the best legal talent in the State were found in at- tendance; among them such men as Charles Dewey, Isaac Howk, father of Judge Howk, of the supreme court; John W. Payne, Jeremiah Sullivan, Samuel Judah, William P. and John H. Thomasson, and others of note both from this State and Kentucky.
CHAPTER XII.
NEW ALBANY-COMMERCIAL INTERESTS.
Regarding the mercantile, manufacturing, and other business of New Albany much has been written; and very much more may be said than space can be found for in a work like this. It
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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.
has proved itself by far the largest manufacturing city in the State and its capacities in this direc- tion are unlimited. From the day the town was laid out in 1813 to the present the fact of its ex- cellent situation for a manufacturing city has been kept continually before the people, and this has, in a great measure, perhaps, determined the location of some of its largest manufacturing establishments. The shrewd, far-seeing Yankee who laid it out and settled it knew that the im- mense commerce of the "Beautiful river" would, in a great measure, divide at the falls, and that a city located below the falls would, to a certain extent, become a natural terminal point. Upon this subject Mr. Cottom writes as follows, in 1873:
For at least seven months in the year New Albany is the head of navigation on the lower Ohio river. The falls are a barrier to navigation during all seasons of the year except that of high or ordinarily high water, and steamboats are unable to pass over them. With the grand railroad system that centers here (of which particular mention is made else- where), New Albany is bound to become, within a very short time, the most important shipping point on the Ohio river below the falls; and this fact, and the existence of the ob- struction of the falls above referred to, must compel all steamers, except those running in the local packet trade (and those, too, to some extent,) to make New Albany the port at which they receive all southern bound cargoes and discharge for re-shipment all eastern and northern bound freights. The high rates of toll upon steamboats charged by the Louisville and Portland canal around the falls precludes all, or nearly all, steamboats from the use of that improvement. Freights from the East, southward bound, are brought here by rail for re-shipment by boat southward, while freights from the South, the great staples of tobacco, cotton, sugar, and molasses, in particular, are brought here by boat for re-shipment East and North. This gives to New Albany an immense com- mercial advantage, which will continue to increase each year as the prosperity of the South becomes more fully developed and permanently established. It will add, too, very largely to the wealth and importance of New Albany, as this city will not only become noted as a re-shipping point, but by the very force of circumstances, not to mention the well known enterprise and energy of her citizens, will become equally noted as a place for the interchange, the purchase and sale of the commodities, agricultural and manufactured, of the two sections of the Union. The city is located upon the verge of both sections, and will become a great entrepot to the trade of both.
The river trade of New Albany will compare favorably with that of any western city of equal population. The Sec- retary of the United States Treasury gives the river trade of the city for 1869 as twelve millions of dollars; for 1878, as thirteen million five hundred thousand dollars; for 1871, as fifteen millions of dollars. This, we are told, does not in- clude the local packet business, which, if added, would swell the aggregate for 1871, to not far from sixteen millions of dollars, while the value of the trade for 1872 will reach not far from seventeen millions. Here, of itself, is an immense trade; but to this is to be added the railroad, manufacturing,
mechanical, mercantile, live stock, and produce, and general trade of the city, and not least, by any means, its coal and other mineral trade.
EARLY BUSINESS MATTERS.
Like every other city, in its infancy New Albany struggled through many years of hard- ship and adversity before it developed into a business town, and its struggles did not end even with its development into a business city. It was fortunate at the start in securing a class of settlers that were educated business men, who came here because they found an opening on the highway to wealth and prosperity. There is little doubt that its first merchants and traders were Messrs. Paxson & Eastburn, both from the East and both influential and highly honored citizens, and always taking part in every move- ment for the development of the place. East- burn was a young man from Bucks county, Penn -. sylvania ; Charles Paxson was from Philadelphia, where he had been engaged in merchandising. He purchased some lots in the new town and settled here in 1817 with his family, the children being Catharine, Stephen, Phoebe, and Anna Maria, who are all living at this time except Stephen. One of the daughters married Mason C. Fitch, a prominent lawyer of the place, else- where mentioned, and is yet residing in New Albany. This family journeyed to Pittsburgh and thence down the Ohio in a pirogue to New Albany. They were accompanied by a German with his two sons, the boys having been bound to the ser- vice of Mr. Paxson for three years in considera- tion of his having paid their passage to America. In coming over the falls their " dug-out" became unmanageable and the Dutchman, father of the boys, fell overboard and was drowned. Mr. Pax- son purchased a lot on the corner of Main® and Pearl streets, southwest corner, where he built a combined brick store-room and dwelling house. When he began this brick building there was no structure of that character in the town, but before it was completed Stroud, the ferryman, had erect- ed a small brick building, the first in town. The Paxson building is yet standing ; the family lived in the upper part of the building while the lower was occupied as a store. Paxson & Eastburn continued business here several years, trading largely with New Orleans, shipping furs, peltry and whatever produce the country afforded, and bringing back goods for exchange, as money
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