USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 82
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JUDGE EBENEZER PARSONS, a very respectable lawyer of our neighboring city of Troy, followed Judge Hart upon the bench, continuing until 1861, when he was stricken with a malady that terminated his life within a year or two after- wards.
JUDGE JOHN C. McKEMY, then a resident of Darke county, succeeded Judge Parsons and occupied the bench from 1868 to 1872, when he resigned, having previously moved his residence to Dayton. On his retirement from the bencli, Judge McKemy entered on the practice of law, in partnership with George
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V. Nauerth, Esq., which firm continued until the removal of Judge McKemy to Hamilton, where he continued in the practice of the law until his decease. Judge McKemy, before his election as common pleas judge, had served as probate judge of Darke county. He was a Virginian by birth, and a man of a bright, active mind and excellent judgment, very ambitious, and of genial and generous disposition and popular manners.
JUDGE ELLIOTT. Judge McKemy was succeeded by Judge Henderson Elliott in 1871 and he, by re-election, held the office continuously for five terms, his last term expiring in 1896. No judge ever sat on the common pleas bench of this county the length of time of Judge Elliott, and this must be accepted as evident proof of his fitness for the position, for the people would not have con- tinued him in office for so long a time if he did not possess the qualities of head and heart to command their respect and confidence. Judge Elliott's decisions gave evidence of great industry and patience in the examination of cases. He possessed a strong sense of natural justice, and was well grounded in the ele- mentary principles of the law. In 1861, before his first term on the bench, Judge Elliott was elected prosecuting attorney of Montgomery county, serving one term. As a citizen Judge Elliott was most exemplary in all the relations of life. During the last two years of his last term on the bench he was in feeble health. His death occurred near the end of his judicial term in June, 1896.
JUDGE ELIHU THOMPSON, for six months during Judge Elliott's absence in Europe on account of illness, was appointed judge. He had previously filled the office of prosecuting attorney with credit to himself, at a time when there was much criminal business; for no guilty man escaped him when brought to trial. He was well fitted for the bench by education, legal training, and large expe- rience in the practice of the law ; but unfortunately the short term of six months did not enable him to show the qualities of a lawyer and jurist that he possessed. Ever since his service on the bench, Judge Thompson has been in the active prac- tice of his profession, and stands high as a member of the bar, and as a citizen.
JUDGE OREN B. BROWN, on the death of Judge Henderson Elliott in June, 1896, was appointed to fill the vacancy on the common pleas bench, he having before that time been nominated by the republican party to succeed Judge El- liott whose term would have expired the January following. At the election held in the fall of 1896, Judge Brown was elected, and has since been re-elected twice, so that at the present time he is serving his third term as common pleas judge. Judge Brown was born in Orleans county, New York state, and is the son of Col. E. F. Brown who commanded the Twenty-eighth New York regiment in the war of the rebellion and who served his country gallantly in that eventful period, being engaged in several battles, and losing an arm in the service. Under him in the regiment were a great many Irishmen, in whom Col. Brown took great pride, always speaking highly of their courage, and in turn they looked up to Col. Brown as they would to a father because of their love and respect for him. Col. Brown served as governor of the National Soldiers' Home from 1868 to 1893, when he was promoted to the position of inspector general of all the Soldiers' Homes, which position he held until his death.
Judge Brown graduated from Princeton university in 1876. Afterwards read law in the office of Gunckel & Rowe of this city, was admitted to the bar in Sep-
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tember, 1878, and immediately entered in the practice of his profession. Soon after, however, he was elected clerk of the courts of Montgomery county, Ohio, serving one term. when he formed a partnership with O. M. Gottshall, a promi- nent lawyer of Dayton, Ohio, which partnership continued until the appointment of Judge Brown to the vacant common pleas judgeship.
As the writer has been intimately acquainted with Judge Brown since he first came to Dayton, and has been associated with him in some business enterprises, he feels capable of judging of his merits as a judge and a citizen, and therefore takes great pleasure in saying that the Judge is an honorable high minded man, is possessed of strong common sense, has been very successful on the bench, be- cause of his ability and industry in his work. He is possessed of a sympathetic nature, capable of tempering justice with mercy whenever the occasion requires it. The Judge is always courteous to the members of the profession and com- mands their respect.
JUDGE ALVIN W. KUMLER was born January 21, 1851, near Trenton, Butler county, Ohio. After receiving his early education on the farm, he attended An- tioch college and also Delaware college, at which colleges he received his literary training. In the year 1873 he entered Michigan university, and graduated from the law department of that school in 1875. Immediately after becoming a law- yer, he started to practice law in the city of Dayton, Ohio, and in 1876 formed a partnership with Robert M. Nevin, ex-congressman, which continued up to his election to the common pleas bench. While a member of the partnership of Nevin & Kumler, Mr. Kumler was elected city solicitor in 1877 of the city of Dayton, and he was re-elected in 1879. In 1896 he was elected common pleas judge, and was re-elected in 1901, and continued on the bench until the time of his death, which occurred on October 6, 1905. Judge Kumler was a man of fine ability, and his decisions showed him to have a well trained and well balanced mind, just the qualities to make a successful judge.
HON. ULYSSES S. MARTIN, judge of the court of common pleas, was born on March 4, 1866, on a farm in Randolph township, Montgomery county, eight miles northwest of Dayton. His parents were Christian and Maria Martin.
He attended the country district schools until fifteen years of age and then attended high school at Englewood for two terms. At eighteen he began to teach country district school and so continued for three winters. During the summer vacations of these three years he attended normal school at Ada, Ohio. At twenty-one he entered the freshman class of Otterbein university, Westerville, Ohio. At the end of one year there he broke off his studies for another year's teaching in the country schools and then re-entered the university for two years, at the conclusion of which time he graduated, having finished the four year classical course in three years. After graduation he again taught country school at Shiloh near Dayton for one year, after which he took up the study of law in the office of Carr. Allaman & Kennedy, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1894. He immediately began the practice of law by himself. Some months later, on November 28th of the same year, he was married 15 Miss Laura G. Denlinger. They have three children, one girl and two boys.
In the fall of 1899 he was nominated and elected prosecuting attorney of Montgomery county on the republican ticket, succeeding Charles H. Kumler,
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Esq., the following January. So creditable was his service during the three years following that his re-nomination and re-election for another term of like length readily came to him upon the principle that one good term deserves another.
As prosecutor he soon established himself as a formidable criminal lawyer and was remarkably successful in securing convictions in many important cases against the best legal talent of the Dayton bar, many of whom were years his senior. Especially powerful was he before the jury in his summing up of the salient facts and in his oratorical presentation of them both directly and by analogy.
By a strange coincidence on the very day of the conclusion of his term as prosecutor he became by appointment of Gov. Myron T. Herrick, judge of the court of common pleas to take the place of Judge E. P. Matthews, resigned, who had succeeded the late Judge Alvin W. Kumler.
In the fall of 1906 Judge Martin was nominated and elected for the full term of six years from January 1, 1907.
Coming as he did from the prosecutor's office to the bench it has been but natural that his principal work as judge should have been in the trial and dispo- sition of criminal causes, in which his previous experience has stood him in good stead. However, he has also heard and disposed of many civil cases, both jury and equity, and is well equipped for these branches.
HON. EDWARD T. SNEDIKER, judge of the court of common pleas, was born May 19, 1865, in Fairfield, Greene county, Ohio. His parents, Thomas Snediker and Lavinia B. Snediker, came to Montgomery county when he was a lad of nine years. He attended the common schools, including the Dayton High school. After grad- uating from the high school in 1883 he was employed for about three years in the shipping department of the Buckeye Iron and Brass Works, Dayton, Ohio, and while so employed, at odd hours and during the evenings, he began the study of law.
In 1886 he entered the Cincinnati Law School, and remained there at his studies for one year. Returning to Dayton he sought the practical experience of a busy law office and found it with the firm of Gottschall and Brown, with whom he remained until his admission to the bar on June 7, 1888.
He at once entered into the active practice of the law and, barring a short part- nership with George H. Gebhart, formed no associations. He readily acquired a clientage by his painstaking care of the business entrusted to him, and soon took rank amongst the conservative younger members of the bar. By reason of his per- sonal appearance, frankness of manner and method, and endearing social quali- ties, he was often referred to as the "Abe Lincoln" of the local legal fraternity.
On May 24, 1894, he was married to Miss Carrie E. Boda.
In the spring of 1901 he became a candidate on the republican ticket for the office of judge of the police court of the city of Dayton, and was elected by a large majority over Judge John Roehn. His record there was so creditable that, after serving a part of a term, when a vacancy occurred on the common pleas bench by the elevation of Hon. Charles W. Dustin to the circuit court, Gov. Myron T. Herrick on February 6, 1904, appointed him to the place at the unanimous solicitation of the bar, and he has remained in this office ever since. He was nomi- nated and in November of 1904 elected to serve out the unexpired term to which
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he had previously been appointed, which extended his term to July 1, 1906; and in November, 1905, he was nominated and elected for the full term of five years from July 1, 1906.
His work as common pleas judge has been eminently satisfactory to the com- munity and the bar. Always on duty, affable and courteous, a keen student of rare analytical turn, and with good dispatch, the volume of business handled by him has been large and the quality of disposition the very best.
His charges to juries are models of clearness of legal statement and so couched as to be easily intelligible to the average mind in the jury box. His policy always to present the underlying principles first and build thence to the propositions in- volved in the particular case, is also to be observed in his decisions in equity and other matters for direct determination by the court.
Many of his decisions have been reported in the nisi prius reports.
THE SUPERIOR COURT.
The superior court of Montgomery county was established by an act of the leg- islature passed in the winter of 1854-5, and Daniel A. Haynes, then a leading law- yer of the Dayton bar, was elected its first judge. In fact, the court was created for him because of his eminent fitness for the place.
PERSONNEL.
JUDGE HAYNES was born in the town of Chatham, Columbia county, New York, September 9, 1815. He was educated at Union College, Schenectady, New York. He came to Dayton in 1835, taught in the Dayton Academy for a year, or more, and in 1838 entered the law office of Judge Crane as a student and was admitted to practice in 1839. He formed a partnership in the practice in 1840 with the late Henry Stoddard, and afterwards with John Howard. He was elected prosecuting attorney in 1843 serving two terms and was then elected to the legislature. Judge Haynes was continuously, by re-election, on the bench of the superior court from July, 1855, until February, 1870, when he resigned to enter into a law partnership with C. L. Vallandigham, at the time a gentleman of national reputation as a law- yer and public man. This partnership continued up to the untimely death of Mr. Vallandigham, which occurred in June, 1871, in the town of Lebanon, this state, while there defending one Tom McGehan, then on trial charged with murder in the first degree, for the killing of one Tom Myers, in the city of Hamilton, Butler county, by shooting him.
To demonstrate his theory of the defense, that Myers might have shot him- self, Mr. Vallandigham undertook to snap a pistol, which he thought was not loaded, with the muzzle pointed towards his person, but which by the act was dis- charged, and proved to be loaded, as a ball from the pistol entered the lower part of Mr. Vallandigham's abdomen, causing his death in a few hours.
Soon after the death of Mr. Vallandigham, Judge Haynes formed a law part- nership with John Howard and his son, William, under the firm name of Haynes, Howard and Howard, which continued until Judge Haynes was again elected in the year of 1875 to the superior court bench, serving thereon a further term of
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five years. After his retirement from the bench, Judge Haynes practiced law for a short time and then retired from the practice. I trust it will not be considered invidious when I say that notwithstanding the many eminent judges Montgomery county has had, and now has, that Judge Haynes was by nature and legal training, the ablest judge that ever occupied the bench of this county. Because of his ex- tensive information and fine social qualities, all who knew the judge delighted to be in his company. Some time before his death he moved from Dayton to New York state, where he died on the 21st day of April, 1896. His body was brought to Springfield, Ohio, and there interred in Fern Cliff cemetery by the side of his wife, who was a daughter of the late Gen. Mason, of Springfield, Ohio, and who preceded the judge in death many years. The entire bench and bar of Mont- gomery county attended Judge Haynes' funeral in a body.
JUDGE JORDAN. On the resignation of Judge Haynes from the superior court. in 1870, Jackson A. Jordan, a lawyer in the front rank of his profession, was ap- pointed by the governor to fill the vacancy. Judge Jordan, no doubt, would have established an enviable reputation had he continued on the bench, but at the fol- lowing election, which occurred in the fall of 1870, Thomas A. Lowe was elected to the office and entered upon its duties July 1, 1871. It can be said of Judge Jor- dan that he had been for many years in the practice, was a painstaking, clear- headed lawyer, full of energy and business methods, and withal, most courteous to the members of the profession, both on the bench and in the practice. Judge Jordan moved to Cincinnati, where he formed a partnership with his brother, Isaac, a distinguished lawyer of that city ; which partnership continued up to the time of Judge Jordan's death.
JUDGE LOWE. As before stated, Thomas O. Lowe succeeded Judge Jordan and performed the duties of the office for a term of five years, when Judge Haynes was elected to succeed him. During his time on the bench, Judge Lowe so acquit- ted himself as to command the respect and regard of the bar for his faithful and able discharge of duty. After the expiration of his term he continued a few years in the practice but afterwards became a regularly ordained minister in the Pres- byterian church, which position he has filled with ability and to the satisfaction of his people. The judge has moved east, where he now resides.
JUDGE DWYER. On the retirement of Judge Haynes from the bench in 1881, he was succeeded by Dennis Dwyer, who was elected to succeed him the previous fall. Before this Judge Dwyer had served three terms in succession as judge of the probate court of Montgomery county. Before the expiration of the term for which he was elected, Judge Dwyer finding that the superior courts in the several counties of the state where they had been organized, except in Cincinanti, had been abolished as not being in harmony with the general judicial system of the state, drafted a bill and had the legislature pass it into a law, abolishing the superior court of Montgomery county, and in its stead providing for an additional judge of the court of common pleas. To fill this position, Judge Dwyer was elected and by re-election served on the bench of the common pleas court for ten years. Thus Judge Dwyer has had a judicial service of three terms (nine years) as judge of the probate court, five years as judge of the superior court, and ten years as judge of the court of common pleas, being twenty-four years in all, and it was his good fortune, or a compliment to his good judgment, to have had but one of his deci-
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sions, during all that time, reversed by the supreme court. And this is the more creditable, when the fact appears, which was well known to the attorneys who practiced before him, that during his years on the bench he disposed of more cases than any two judges in the judicial district. Judge Dwyer was frequently called on to hold court in Darke, Butler and Miami counties and he held the regular terms of court in Preble county, where there was then no resident judge. For the last two years of Judge Dwyer's last term, his colleague on the bench in Montgomery county being in feeble health he had almost the entire docket of the court of common pleas to take care of.
Besides the untiring energy in the disposal of cases shown by Judge Dwyer, he was noted for his courtesy and consideration for the bar, and especially for the young, struggling members of the profession.
CIRCUIT AND SUPREME COURTS-PERSONNEL.
JUDGE JOHN A. SCHAUCK, in the fall of 1884, was elected a judge of the cir- cuit court of the Second circuit of this state, a court newly created by an amend- ment of the state constitution to take the place of the district court. By the arrangement under the law establishing the court, the state was divided into eight circuits. In each it was provided three judges should be elected, the full term of office being six years. At the first election under the law three judges in each circuit were elected, and as it was provided therein that every two years thereafter one judge for each circuit should be elected, this necessitated that the judges elected at the first election hold office for terms one for two, one for four and one for six years. The term of each of the judges so elected was to be deter- mined by lot between themselves. In this it was Judge Schauck's good fortune to draw the six years' term. In 1890 Judge Schauck was again elected and served until January, 1895, when he resigned to take his seat on the supreme bench of this state, having been elected to that distinguished position in the fall preceding. Judge Schauck has since been re-elected twice, and is now serving his third term as a judge of the supreme court of this state. The judge was born in Morrow county, Ohio, was educated at Otterbein university, where he grad- uated in 1864. He served in the hundred-day service in the union army as a soldier, and at the close of the war, which terminated about the end of his ser- vice, he entered Michigan university, where he graduated in the law department. For a while he practiced law in Kansas City, but being attracted to Dayton, he came here in 1868, and soon formed a law partnership with the late Judge Samuel Boltin, which continued up to the time of his nomination and election to the cir- cuit bench.
The opinions delivered by Judge Schauck while on the circuit court bench are to be found in the first eight volumes of the circuit court reports, and being able and scholarly, no doubt were the means with the profession and people of paving the way to his more distinguished honor of a seat on the supreme bench.
On this latter bench Judge Schauck has earned for himself the lasting regard of the profession for the able and fearless stand he has taken, from his first entrance on the supreme bench, in stamping out an abuse of legislation enacted in violation of the letter and spirit of the constitution of the state, which began
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and was upheld by the then supreme court in a well-meaning effort to protect innocent bondholders of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad Company by holding that the Ferguson act, under which the railroad was authorized and constructed by the city of Cincinnati, to be an act of a general nature.
The false step thus taken by the supreme court was taken advantage of by subsequent legislatures until in time nearly one-half of the laws enacted at each session were for some local political partisan purpose, but which by no stretch of reasoning or fact could be extended further. Yet such laws to meet the con- stitutional requirements were held unfortunately by the supreme court to be laws of a general nature. It took time, determination, and unanswerable reason- ing on the part of Judge Schauck to bring all his brethren of the bench back to the constitutional landmarks. But he has won out; he has now with him an unanimous bench, as the recent decisions of the court fully show, and the pro- fession and people are glad. Judge Schauck by rotation on the bench has served as chief justice of the supreme court for several periods, and as he is still in vigorous manhood, it is the wish of his friends that he continue as the worthy successor to Hitchcock, Ranney, Thurman, McIlvaine and the many other dis- tinguished jurists who have adorned that court.
CHARLES WESLEY DUSTIN, judge of the circuit court of the Second judicial circuit of Ohio, and a prominent member of the Dayton bar, was born in Zanes- ville, Ohio, and is the son of the late Rev. M. and Mary B. (Danna) Dustin. Rev. Dustin was a native of Oneida county, New York, and was a lineal descen- dant of Hannah Dustin, who during the Indian war killed ten Indians with a toma- hawk in order to preserve the lives and herself and child, after two children had already been killed by the savages. A monument has been erected to her mem- ory on an island in the Merrimac river, the scene of the incident.
The early education of Judge Dustin was secured in public schools. He attended Wesleyan university at Delaware and was graduated there at an early age. Following this he went west and taught in the Quincy, Illinois, and Brook- ville, Indiana colleges. He read law with the firm of Boltin & Schauck, of Dayton, the junior member of which firm is now on the supreme bench of Ohio. He was admitted to the bar and engaged in practice in Dayton and so continued until he was elected to the common pleas bench in November, 1895. After nearly ten years of most creditable service on that bench, when a vacancy occurred on the circuit court in 1904, he was appointed to it by Gov. Herrick, and has since been nominated by the republican judicial convention and elected for the full term expiring 1913, as well as for the intervening unexpired term. His work with this court was so universally satisfactory during his service under the guber- natorial appointment that from the eleven counties in which that court sits there was not a dissenting voice raised nor opposing candidate offered in the nominat- ing convention, hence he received the nomination unanimously, and was over- whelmingly elected.
During his early years Judge Dustin did considerable writing for the press. He was for some time an editorial writer for the Daily Journal of Dayton. He also contributed to the Cincinnati Gasette, and during the existence of the Cin- cinnati Graphic, he was on that paper's editorial staff. He has traveled exten- sively, having been to Europe on numerous different occasions, and visited all the
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countries reached by the great body of tourists. He also visited Russia and Finland, Hawaii, Samoa, Japan, South America, Old Mexico, and Canada, and nearly every section of the United States. He has frequently and entertainingly told of his travels in the newspapers and from the lecture platform.
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