USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, Ohio, from the founding of Franklinton in 1797, through the World War period to the year 1920 > Part 50
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
It was on March 18, 1907, that President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Mr. Sater to the judicial position which he now occupies. Seven days later the duties of judge were actively assumed. In the President's action there had been a violation of "senatorial cour- tesy," to which Senator J. B. Foraker, though not personally opposed to Mr. Sater, took exception. The nomination remained unaeted upon, and on May 30, 1908, President Roose- velt renewed the nomination, but owing entirely to the differences between Roosevelt and Foraker on the question of courtesy and other matters, the nomination was not confirmed until March 1, 1909. In the meantime, Judge Sater was serving and making an exeellent record, and it was from Senator Foraker himself that he received the first word that con- firmation would come when it did and as it did, with the unanimous recommendation of the judiciary committee, of which the senator was a prominent member. It had been a period of anxious waiting, but the happy ending strengthened an old friendship, and the most cordial relations continued between the two until the Senator's death.
As related in the chapter on the Bench and Bar, Judge Sater has rendered a notable serviee on the bench. As indicating the quality of his mental processes, it may be mentioned that, although at the time of his appointment. he had never studied patent law, he heard early in his career three different eases involving the validity of patents for the Buckeye coupler, the dump ears of the Ralston Co. and for making paper bags, rendering opinions that were afterwards affirmed and reported and are now regarded as of the utmost importance. The oleomargarine ease, tried here and the bank case in Cincinnati, stand as the greatest of his eriminal eases, his opinions in both having been affirmed.
Besides attending to the judicial duties in his own distriet, Judge Sater has been desig- nated to sit elsewhere, and has held terms of court at Grand Rapids, Toledo, Philadelphia and Nashville, and has sat in special eases at Cleveland and Detroit. He has also often sat as a substitute in the Circuit Court of Appeals. Perhaps his most widely quoted deci- sion was that in which he held that soldiers in the army, who were about to be transferred to the Mexican border when war was threatened, could not be arrested and detained under a warrant in pursuance of state or municipal law on a charge of breach of the peace; that the military courts had priority and civil courts must wait.
In 1888 Judge Sater was elected a member of the Columbus Board of Education on which he served with fidelity and ability for four and one-half years. He was a member of the board of trustees of the Columbus Public Library in 1888 and 1889 and from 1905 to 1907, inelusive, and was president of the board during the last two years. He has always re- tained a keen interest in educational affairs and has done mueh to give Columbus and Frank- lin county a better school system. In 1892 he was elected a member of the convention to draft a eity charter and he submitted a minority report from a special eommittec, which report contained the sliding seale feature which was later incorporated into the law passed by the Legislature. In 1899 he deelined an appointment as City Solieitor and in 1903 he deelined a nomination for State Senator.
Judge Sater is a thirty-third degree Mason and a member of the Columbus Club and the Queen City Club of Cineinnati. In 1889 Judge Sater married Mary S. Lyon of Wauseon,
Memorial Pub Y Taveland
.
295
BIOGRAPHICAL SECTION
Ohio, and they have one son, Kenneth L. Sater. By a former marriage Judge Sater is the father of two children.
HENRY JUDSON BOOTH, prominent attorney and man of affairs, of Columbus, where, for over forty years, he has been a prominent factor in the professional and civic life of the city, was born in Lancaster, Ohio, March 14, 1849, the son of Henry Madison and Anna A. (Jones) Booth. On the paternal side he is a collateral descendant of the James (President) Madison family, while on the maternal side he is of the Welsh family of which Lloyd George, Premier of England, is a descendant.
Henry Judson Booth attended the public schools and Denison University (1867-'72) and was graduated from Amherst College with the A.B. degree, class of '73. He was ad- mitted to the Bar of Ohio in May, 1874, and in August of that year entered the practice of law in Columbus as junior member of the firm of Converse, Woodburg & Booth. The firm later became that of Booth & Keating in 1878; Converse, Booth & Keating in 1879; Booth & Kcating in 1887; Booth, Keating & Peters in 1895; Booth, Keating, Peters & Butler in 1902; Booth, Keating & Peters in 1904; Booth, Keating, Peters & Pomerine in 1909 and Booth, Keating, Pomerine & Bulger in 1917.
Mr. Booth was president of the Franklin County Bar Association in 1882; president of the Ohio State Bar Association in 1903-'4, and a vice-president of the American Bar Asso- ciation in 1904-'5; was a delegate to the Universal Congress of Lawyers and Jurists held at St. Louis in 1904, and is the author of "Law of Street Railways," (1902-1911), the pioneer and still the standard text book on that subject.
Mr. Booth has served as trustee of the Ohio State University, the Columbus Medical College, the Starling Medical College, the Starling-Ohio Medical College, and the Franklin County Law Library. In 1878-79 he was a member of the Ohio General Assembly; has served as director and president of the Columbus Board of Trade and is now an active member of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce; was the first president and chairman of the Building Committee of the Columbus Athletic Club, a director of the Columbus Country Club and is a member of the Columbus Club, and the Masonic and Odd Fellows fra- ternities.
In July, 1876, Mr. Booth was united in marriage with Madge I. Coney, a native of Vir- ginia, but a resident of Columbus at the time. Mrs. Booth is a collateral descendant of the Irish patriot, Robert Emmet. To them have been born the following children: Florence, wife of Charles D. Young, division superintendent of the Pennsylvania railroad, Reading, Pa., where they reside with their children, John Randolph, Marjorie and Anne Foester; George H., who resides with his wife and one child, George H., jr., on South Isle planta- tion near Clarkton, Virginia; Marjorie Booth Bonnett, who resides on the same plantation with her husband, J. N., and their daughter, Susan; and Herbert Barton, who resides with his wife and their son, George Henry, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he is chief account- ant for the Pittsburg & Allegheny Telephone Company.
CURTIS CHANDLER WILLIAMS. Conspicuous in the roll of names of men that have conferred honor upon the profession of the law in central Ohio is that of Judge Curtis Chandler Williams, for many years one of the influential citizens of Columbus, and whose labors have contributed much to the development and general progress, especially in civic affairs in Franklin county, where he has for some two decades been regarded as a leader of the bar and a citizen of progressive ideas.
Judge Williams is a native of Ohio and is of the third generation of his family in this State. His grandfather, Joseph H. Williams, who was a Pennsylvanian, came to Ohio early in the nineteenth century and settled in Columbiana county, where he became prominent in business and public affairs, and from which he was elected to the House of Representa- tives and later to the State Senate, making a splendid record as a legislator in those early times. He married Mary Gilson.
The Judge's father, the late Dr. R. G. Williams, who was for many years a successful and well known physician, was born in Columbiana county in 1836. He practiced medicine in Alliance and surrounding towns a long time and served two terms in the Ohio Legislature. His death occurred in Alliance November 9, 1906, at the age of seventy years. He married
296
HISTORY OF COLUMBUS
Elmira Frost, a native of Columbiana county, daughter of William A. and Beulah (Chand- ler) Frost, natives of Pennsylvania, and early settlers of Columbiana county.
Curtis C. Williams, after attending the public schools, entered Mount Union College, from which institution he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1883, and later his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. Deciding upon the legal profession as a life work he read law in the office of Converse, Booth & Keating, a well known law firm of Columbus in the early days, and, making rapid progress, was admitted to the bar in 1886, and not long thereafter began the practice of law in Columbus, and in due course of time rose to a position of high rank among the attorneys of central Ohio and has continued to enjoy a large and lacrative practice.
Taking an interest in public affairs Mr. Williams was elected prosecuting attorney of Franklin county in 1891, discharging his duties ably and acceptably, and in 1897 was elected judge of the Common Pleas Court, and continued on the bench until 1903, when he retired and resumed the active practice of law, which he has continued uninterruptedly to the present time, appearing in all the Federal and State eourts.
Judge Williams came to the bench peculiarly well fitted for the discharge of his duties, owing to his years of profound study of jurisprudence and varied practice at the bar. His decisions were always characterized by fairness to all concerned and by caution, wisdom and established practice.
The Judge is a member of the Franklin County Bar Association, the Ohio State Bar Asso- eiation, and the International Law Association. Fraternally, he is a thirty-second degree Mason, belonging to the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and the Knights Templar, being past eminent commander of the latter, and is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
July 5, 1893, Judge Williams was united in marriage with Margaret Owen, of Columbus, and to their union the following children have been born: Elmira Ann, Curtis Chandler, jr., Margaret Lola, Marie Owen and Arthur Frost.
Judge Williams has always been deeply interested in all that pertains to the general welfare of his eity, county and state, as well as nation, and his support may always be counted on in movements having for their object the general good of his fellow men.
JUDGE THOMAS M. BIGGER. Judge Thomas M. Bigger, of Columbus, is a native of Pennsylvania, and is descended from an old Pennsylvania family that settled there prior to the Revolution. His great-grandfather, Thomas Bigger, was a native of County Antrim, Ireland, and of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian stock. In 1773 Thomas Bigger, then newly mar- ried, decided to come to America and to bring with him his widowed mother, Martha, (who was born about 1695) his unmarried sister, Jane, (who later in America married a man by the name of Walker), and his wife, Elizabeth. Before leaving they received a church certificate from the Presbyterian Church at Ballymoney certifying to their moral and religious character and this original certificate, signed by the pastor and dated July 21, 1773, is in the possession of Judge Bigger. Thomas Bigger and his party arrived in America late in the year 1773 and in the following spring settled in Washington county, Pennsylvania, not far from the Virginia line where he had taken up land on a land grant from the colony of Virginia. The Revolutionary War coming on, the frontier was made unsafe by hostile Indians and Bigger, together with three other neighbors, who were living on the extreme frontier, one being named Dillow, erected a small block house for protection against the Indians. This fort was known as Fort Dillow. On one occasion the four men with their families took refuge in the block house on an alarm that the Indians were coming from the Ohio country. On the following night Bigger heard or believed he heard a settler whom he knew and who lived some distance to the east ride up to the front of the block house and call out that the Indians were crossing the Ohio river, warning them to flee, as their small fort would not protect them. The next morning Bigger informed his neighbors of his warning and was laughed at. But so im- pressed was he that he took his family to another settlement farther cast, believing that the others would follow. That night the Indians came and the entire party in the fort were massacred, except one boy, who was taken captive and held by the Indians for many years. That neighborhood is today known as the Fort Dillow settlement. In the settlement to which Bigger had gone for safety, he finally bought a farm from a man named McBride
Cyrus- Finding;
297
BIOGRAPHICAL SECTION
and began farming it. One day General Washington, on a trip made for the purpose of inspecting his land-holdings, visited the settlement and laid claim to the land in possession of twelve or thirteen of the settlers including Bigger as being one of his land grants for services rendered in the French and Indian War. A lawsuit resulted in General Washing- ton's favor and Bigger returned to his own land grant near Fort Dillow where, in 1797. he built his home, which is still standing and occupied by one of his grandchildren, the farm never having passed out of the Bigger family. Thomas Bigger was the father of eleven children, one of whom died in infancy, one at the age of twenty-nine years, and all the others lived to reach ages averaging eighty-one years.
Samuel Bigger, son of Thomas, the pioneer, was born on the old Bigger farm in Penn- sylvania about 1785. He married Jane Wills and they also had eleven children, of which several are still living.
Thomas Bigger, father of Judge Thomas M. Bigger, was born in the Bigger homestead in Pennsylvania November 23, 1824. He married Esther Donaldson, of the neighboring family of that name, the coming to America of which family probably ante-dated that of the Bigger family. Thomas Bigger died in 1908, his wife in 1863. They had three children. all now living.
Judge Bigger was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, November 12, 1855. He attended the common schools of Pennsylvania and Frankfort Springs, Pa., Academy. In the winter of 1779 he entered Hopewell College in Harrison county, Ohio, and completed his literary education at the University of Wooster, where he graduated with the class of '83, with the degree of A. B. and two years later received the M. A. degree from that college. Leaving Wooster he taught at Hopedale College for a year, during which time he also read law.
In 1884 he came to Columbus and finished his legal study and was admitted to the bar in October, 1885. At Hopedale he had studied stenography and becoming an expert sten- ographer he supported himself in Columbus while preparing for the bar and after his admis- sion while getting a start as a practitioner by teaching stenography.
In April. 1894, Judge Bigger went on the bench of the Police Court of this city and served as Judge of that Court until February, 1897, and then resigned to go upon the bench of the Common Pleas Court of Franklin county, to which bench he had been elected in November, 1896. By successive re-elections Judge Bigger has since continued on the Com- mon Pleas bench, a period of over twenty years, he now being, in point of length of service on the bench, the oklest of the six Judges of that court.
In 1892 Judge Bigger was united in marriage with Nellie Miskimen, of Newcomers- town, Tusearawas county, Ohio, the daughter of Daniel Miskimen, a veteran of the Civil War.
To the Judge and his wife three daughters have been born: Esther L., graduate of Ohio State University and of Radcliff (Harvard) College, and in 1917-18 taking post-graduate work at Columbia University; Mary E., a graduate of Ohio State University, and in 1917-18 taking post-graduate work in Columbia University: Jean W., a student of Ohio State Uni- versity of the class of '17.
CYRUS HULING. For nearly forty years Cyrus Huling has been prominent in the affairs of the city of Columbus. As a lawyer, public official and in business he has been a eonspienous figure and one of the leading spirits in the growth of the city during his residence here. Mr. Huling eame of Revolutionary stock, his first progenitor in this country being James Huling, who migrated to the then English colonies in North America about 1650, coming from England and settling at Newport, R. I., where he died March 6, 1686.
The Huling family were aetive Huguenots in France and fled from that country after the massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572, and scattered to various countries of Europe, one branch going to England, a descendant of whom was the James Huling above. Walton Huling, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketeh, "went west" from Huling Corners, at Newport about 1750 and located in Duchess county, New York, where he and a brother John Huling, were living when the Revolution came on, and the two brothers were the twenty-third and twenty-fourth signers of the Whig Pledge as it was known, adopted ten days after the battle of Lexington. This was a pledge drafted in the town of New York and sent all over the colony for signatures. It bound the signers "under the ties of
298
HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO
religion, honor and love to our country to adopt and to endeavor to carry into execution what- soever measures may be recommended by the Continental Congress or resolved upon by our Provisional Convention for the purpose of preserving our constitution and of opposing the several arbitrary Acts of the British Parliament."-"and that we will in all things follow the advice of our general committee representing the purposes aforesaid, the preservation of peace and good order and the safety of individuals and property."
Walton Huling served as a private in the Fifth regiment, Duchess county, New York, militia in the war of the Revolution and died at Half Moon, New York, in 1823. His son, Alexander Huling, served in the war of 1812, came to Ohio about 1820 and loeated as a farmer near North Prairie, where he died in 1828. Alexander's son, Nathan Huling, born in 1803, married Eliza Wyckoff. To them eight children were born-three girls and five boys, the youngest of whom (Cyrus) was born on a farm in Seneca county, Ohio, Angust 10, 1851. Ilis mother died when he was less than one year old and his father when he was at the age of four.
Peter Brayton, then a prominent citizen living in the old Indian town of Springville, Seneca county, became his guardian and he spent his younger boyhood days until seventeen years of age as a farmer boy in that vicinity. At the age of seventeen he "went west"' on horseback loeating at Montieello, Illinois, in which vicinity he worked one year as a day laborer and one year as a renter on farms in that vicinity. He expected to be a farmer for life, but returned to Ohio to spend the winter of '70 and '71 and, becoming interested in school matters, attended Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, meanwhile teach- ing school most of the winters, and graduated with the class of 1878 at that institution. Upon the establishment at the Ohio Wesleyan University of a Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity, which is composed of honor students in the various institutions where it exists, Mr. Huling, on his record, was elected to membership therein. Mr. Huling was principal of the Marysville, Ohio, High School for two years, 1877 and 1879, and during his leisure moments read law and made up the studies of the senior year in his college course. In 1879 he was admitted to the bar with the first class under the law providing for admission to the bar by the Supreme Court only. He entered into a partnership in the practice of the law with John R. Bowdle, a college classmate, under the firm name of Bowdle & Huling, and located in what was then the First National Bank building south of State street on High, from whence they moved to the Denig-Ferson building in 1881. This building was then so far out of the eenter of the city and the law business district that the move was esteemed a bold venture. But it succeeded. Mr. Huling made rapid strides in his acquaintance in the city and early took a prominent place at the bar. In 1885 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of the county as a Republican, the county then being Democratic by about three thousand majority. He was the second Republican Prosecuting Attorney elected in the county, Hon. George K. Nash having been the first. The election in 1885 was a very exciting one. A United States Senator was to be cleeted from Ohio and the contest was between Senator Sherman, Republican, and John R. McLean, then editor and owner of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Demo- crat. The election was hotly contested and the count in the State and especially in Franklin county was very elosc. There were a number of irregularities in returns from several pre- cinets and the Board of Canvassers consisting of Justices Fritehey and Mat Martin and John Joyce, Clerk of the Courts, oceupicd three days hearing counsel for opposing political parties and adjourned on Saturday night until Monday morning without finishing the count. When the returns were opened on Monday morning it was found that the tally-sheet in Precinct A of the Thirteenth Ward had been tampered with by the addition of three hundred tallies to the Democratie candidates. Out of this a contest at once arose as to whether these tallies should be counted, but the Canvassing Board decided that they should not and counted the te as originally made up by returning officers.
This circumstance and the fact that it might have controlled the election of the United States Senator threw the whole community and the State and to a large extent the country into a paroxysm of rage at the bold attempt to carry the election by such means. Mr. Huling was elected on the face of the returns and at once became a target of the opposing party and its press. There followed two or more years of proscention of persons accused of the commission of the crime, during which period Mr. Huling was roundly abused by one side and praised for his firmness and ability in proscouting the cases by the other.
Mr. Huling, with indefatigable zeal and energy, prosecuted the search for evidence as to
299
BIOGRAPHICAL SECTION
the identity of the persons committing the crime; two indictments were returned by different grand juries of persons accused thereof, and one case was tried to a jury in the spring and summer of 1887, occupying more than three months in its trial. Mr. Huling had as his assist- ants in this case the Hon. Allen G. Thurman, then Senator from the State of Ohio, Judge George K. Nash, Col. J. T. Holmes, and Luther Laffin Mills of Chicago, then one of the most eminent lawyers and orators of the west.
Another celebrated case of that day, in which Mr. Huling figured as prosecutor, was that of the Elliotts on account of the murder of Osborne during a gunning expedition wherein the editors of rival Sunday papers figured. Like the tally-sheet trial, but in a less degree, this was a bitterly contested case and occupied a number of weeks.
Mr. Huling was re-elected Prosecuting Attorney in 1888 at the Presidential election when the county was Democratic by about twenty-five hundred, mainly on his reputation in the tally-sheet case. He was a fearless prosecutor but lenient and kindly to persons charged with crime where reformation was promised.
Leaving the office of the Prosecuting Attorney, January 1, 1892, he entered a partner- ship with Col. J. T. Holmes, with offices in the old bank building mentioned herein. This partnership continued for three years, when, desiring to leave this location, the partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Huling and Mr. Frank A. Davis became the first co-tenants in the then newly erected Wyandotte building on West Broad street. For fifteen years after leav- ing the office of Prosecutor Mr. Huling was engaged in the active practice of law, being engaged in many important cases tried in the courts during that time. Becoming interested in other business outside of the law and tiring of continual labors at the counsel table, he gradually withdrew from the practice of the law, and for the last ten years has devoted his energies almost entirely to other business, in which he has had remarkable success. He is interested in a number of leading corporations now doing business in the city of Columbus and elsewhere, his chief interests at this time being as a director of The Columbus Mckinnon Chain Company, President of The Broadway Company, which owns the Seneca Hotel, and President of The Pittsburgh and Allegheny Telephone Company of Pittsburgh, Pa. He is also a director in a number of Columbus corporations.
As a citizen Mr. Huling has been as ardent and loyal as he was as a public official. Frank, fearless and honest, he has never failed in his advocacy of the cause he believed to be right and he has rendered active service in many different fields. For a number of years he was a leader in the campaigns of the Republican party, both in his own county and in the State: was chairman of the State Central Committee; was delegate to the National Conven- tions of his party and always an upholder of its principles.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.