USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Memoirs of the Miami valley > Part 29
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Judge Price's decisions were rarely reversed by higher courts, and his legal ability, his fairness, his probity, gave him a wide reputation. His charges to a jury excited much favorable comment, and are rated as classics among their kind. After retiring from the bench, Judge Price resumed the private practice of law, in which he is still actively engaged. He is president of the Logan County Bar association, and has been at that bar longer than any other member of the association. A gentleman of the old school, believ- ing in the dignity of his profession, distinguished in bearing and courtly in manner, Judge Price is a representative of a type which is, unhappily, fast passing away. In politics Judge Price is an old-fashioned Republican, and has done much hard work for his party. In matters of civic interest he is a progressive conservative, and invariably uses his effort and his influence to bring about the best results for the common good. He has always been deeply interested in the school system, and unfailingly gives his vote and his support to every measure designed to further the cause of education. On the 7th of February, 1865, John A. Price was united in marriage with Miss Caroline McClure of Bellefontaine. Five children have blessed their union: Effie Kelly, now Mrs. Thomas S. Gladding of Montclair, New Jersey; Annie Allison; Mabel Mc- Clure, who died in 1881; Charles Fenton Mercer, who died in 1882, and Carlotta Knox, now Mrs. Thomas M. Shea of Bellefontaine.
Judge Duncan Dow was born in Logan county on the home farm of his parents, Robert L. and Harriet (Brewster) Dow, March 13, 1843. The Dows are of immediate Scottish ancestry, Mr. and Mrs. David Dow coming from Scotland in 1818 with their young family, and settling very soon after in Logan county. Robert Dow became a prominent citizen of the county early in life, and served in the Civil war first as captain of the 45th O. V. I., and later
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as adjutant of the 132nd regiment. Duncan Dow began his educa- tion in the one-room school of his home district, but later attended the Bellefontaine schools, and finished the course at Geneva col- lege, Northwood, Logan county. He then took up the study of law in the office of Judge Lawrence, in 1865, after which he attended the Cincinnati law school, from which he graduated in 1868, and entered into partnership with the Mclaughlins, father and son, an association which was maintained for twenty-nine years, until the election of J. Duncan Mclaughlin to the probate bench and of Duncan Dow to the common pleas bench of Logan county.
In the meantime, however, Judge Dow had been elected, during his first year of practice, to the prosecuting attorneyship, an office which he held for two terms. In 1875 he was elected to the lower branch of the state legislature, being returned for a second term, and in 1885 he was sent to the state senate, where, during two suc- cessive terms, he originated and framed several bills of importance, his greatest fame as a legislator resting upon the Dow Liquor law, which, passing both houses of the assembly, was made a law May 1, 1886. It imposed a heavy tax upon all persons engaging in the sale of intoxicating liquors, and provided for municipal prohibition and regulation, and had the effect of benefiting the state treasury to the extent of about three and one-half millions annually. R. P. Kennedy, who was lieutenant governor at the time of its passage, said of Judge Dow: "His name will be associated for all time with the greatest legal enactments for the suppression of vice and the uplifting of his fellow men." Gov. Foraker, discussing the law after twenty-five years of enforcement, said: "It is the best regulative liquor law ever framed in the world."
The election of Judge Dow, in 1897, gave opportunity for the exercise of his judicial faculties, and he brought to the bench not only a love of justice, but a native sense of justice, ripened by years of painstaking legal research and sustained by positive but cool conviction. Seldom, if ever, was a decision of his reversed. An active party Republican, he was, when on the bench, faithful to law and justice alone, and was held in highest esteem, irrespective of political creeds, by all his confreres. That his strict sense of justice was tempered with the "quality of mercy" is apparent in his appoint- ment by Gov. Herrick to the state board of pardons after his retire- ment from the bench and his reappointment by Gov. Harris, the honor being bestowed in recognition of his personal worth. He was an ardent supporter and member of the United Presbyterian church, standing high in the local and general councils of that body. His interest in church, state and nation was broad and vivid ; but he was, after the judge incorruptible, the citizen pre-eminent, holding his home city the best in the world. His sudden death from heart failure, on the afternoon of Friday, April 15, 1910, just as he was leaving the (old) postoffice in company with two friends, was a deep shock to the whole community, and felt throughout the state, upon which his public services left an indelible impress.
Always frail of health and slight in physique, Judge Dow, by efficient systematizing of his labors, surmounted these difficulties and attained his sixty-seventh year, as dauntless in purpose and
HON. WM.LAURENCE
HON.JOHN A. PRICE
HON.WM.H.WEST
HON. JOHN C.HOVER
HON. DUNCAN DOW
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resolve as when he first embarked on his career. His lifelong integrity was a universal theme in his eulogies, and the text of the memorial sermon, "Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?" fitly expressed the sentiment of the city.
Judge Dow was survived by his wife, Mrs. Margaret A. Dow, and their three daughters, Mrs. E. R. Gebby of Bellefontaine, Miss Florence Dow, at present (1918-19) general director of recreation at Atlanta, Georgia, for the government, and Mrs. (Rev.) Benjamin F. White of Long Branch, New Jersey.
Judge John C. Hover, born December 1, 1866, on a farm, a native of Logan county, is as nearly an absolute American as can be found within its borders, the Hover ancestry having come to America more than two centuries ago, and having in succeeding generations identified themselves with the cause of freedom and independence in this country. Two of his ancestors fought with the colonies in the French and Indian war, one of them being taken prisoner by the French. A ransom was demanded by the French for their prisoners, which in his case was paid by a French officer and he was liberated. Judge Hover's great-great-grandfather, Henry Hover, served as a captain of the New Jersey line in the revolution. His son, George Hover, emigrated from New Jersey to western Pennsylvania at an early date, later journeying down the Ohio river from Pittsburg to what became Cincinnati, on a flatboat, bringing his wife and two little children. A team of horses and a wagon loaded with their household effects was the sum of their capital. They settled first, after a season of careful pros- pecting, on what was known as "Darby Plains," in Madison county, where Samuel Hover, the grandfather of Judge Hover, was born, at "Little Darby." Samuel had arrived at the age of eight years when the family once more migrated north, settling in Logan county at what is now the village of Huntsville. Here he grew to man- hood, and married Miss Margaret McCracken, of Scotch descent, the daughter of John McCracken, and here their son, George M. Hover, was born, February 22, 1838. In 1861 George M. Hover entered the Union army as a volunteer, and served for nearly four years in the conflict for the preservation of the Union, engaging in four of the great battles, Chancellorsville, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge and Gettysburg, scaling Lookout Mountain under shot and shell. He was once taken prisoner in an engagement at Cumberland Gap, fortunate enough, however, to be exchanged at the end of twenty days. A brother, John Calvin Hover, for whom the subject of this sketch is named, also served in the war, giving his life for the cause at the battle of Rasaca river, Georgia.
George M. Hover married, September 5, 1865, Miss Mary Irwin, of Irish ancestry, also a native of Logan county, and daughter of George and Margaret Irwin, and their eldest son, John Calvin Hover, is the present judge of the Logan county court of common pleas.
The young John Calvin had no royal road to preferment, but began his education in the country schools near his home, from
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which he went to the Northwood normal, afterward old Northwood college, that pioneer institution of higher education in which so many of Logan county's men and women were started upward, had removed to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, and later attended the Ohio Northern university at Ada, Ohio. The following eleven years were spent in teaching, barring a few years when a break in health dis- abled him, and in this great practical university Judge Hover found that medium of development in which so many eminent men have acquired mental poise and control.
The law, however, was Judge Hover's ultimate ambition, and in 1895, while still teaching in the grammar schools of Huntsville, he began reading law with A. Jay Miller of Bellefontaine, a recent graduate of Princeton university and the Cincinnati law school, and an able and worthy preceptor. In the fall of 1897 he entered Cincinnati law school, from which he graduated the tenth day of the following June, taking the degree of bachelor of laws, having been admitted to the bar at Columbus a few days previous. He began the practice of law at once in Bellefontaine, devoting himself to his profession with steady diligence and winning admission to federal court practice in 1900; after which he continued to practice with increasing and signal success until elected to the probate bench in the fall of 1908, taking office February 9, 1909. While nearing the end of his sixth year as probate judge, he was elected, by a large majority, in the fall of 1914, to the court of common pleas, being the first judge to preside since the establishment of single county jurisdiction. He took his place as judge of Logan county on the first day of January, 1915, and is now serving his fifth year with dignity and distinction, his reputation growing with every term of court. His decisions stand the test of review by the superior courts without reversal or modification, almost without exception. To be a just judge requires not only honesty and not only knowl- edge, but wisdom, breadth, firmness, calmness, integrity, fearless- ness, an abiding sense of justice, a temper of mercy, and the ability and will to place personal feelings under foot. Every one of these qualities Judge Hover possesses.
Litigation is no longer so broad a field as it was in the days of old. Points have grown less and less tangible. Justice and injus- tice are more and more difficult of differentiation. But through the maze of latter-day legal hair-splitting, Judge John C. Hover is draw- ing the thread of jurisprudence with safe discrimination. His life history is still in the making, for he is yet in the early prime, but it bids fair to make a page to which his native county will have cause to point with pride.
On December 21, 1898, Judge Hover was united in marriage with Miss Carrie L. Simms, a Huntsville girl, the marriage, how- ever, taking place at Cincinnati, where her family had removed from Huntsville a short time before. Mrs. Hover is a daughter of Payton S. Simms and wife, a hardy Logan county pioneer family of Scotch- Irish descent, who settled at an early day on the Miami river near McGraw chapel. Judge and Mrs. Hover have one child, a son, John Curry Hover, now a senior in the Bellefontaine high school.
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The Logan County Press
The newspaper of any community is as vital a necessity to its life as are lungs to the animal mechanism. Through the press the deeds and passions of a people must be mingled, the one in- vigorating and renewing the other for the benefit of the whole social structure, as pure air vitalizes the blood and renews the bodily tissues. No mere blowing of bellows is sufficient. There must be spontaneous life in the organ which is to minister to and sustain the social existence. This spontaneity was unmistakably present in the germ of the first periodical established in Logan county- a germ which developed through many vicissitudes, without inter- ruption, and from which in time curiously evolved two periodicals, each possessing the vitality of the original, yet constituting entities as complete and independent as are the two jellyfish that today may be counted where yesterday was but one.
The immortal journalistic germ of Logan county-as sponta- neous a growth as may be instanced in the middle west, was dis- covered by David Robb, who nurtured it in the "Logan County Gazette," which he originated in Bellefontaine in 1830.
Mr. Robb did not long remain the proprietor of the little sheet, but after giving it a local habitation and a name, it passed into the keeping of Hiram B. Strother, an astute political manager and sup- porter of the Whig party, whose local mouthpiece the paper became. It is not in adverse criticism that Mr. Strother has been called a "wire-puller" -- that vernacular characterization of his method of party manipulation. Mr. Strother believed honestly in his methods, whatever may be thought of them now, and in other circles he might easily have ranked as a diplomat. That he "had a way wi' 'im" is a fact well established. Mr. Thomas Robb, who afterward became editor of the "Lima Argus," was for a short time associated with Mr. Strother on the local paper, the name of which was short- ened to "The Gazette." "The Gazette" supported Henry Clay in the campaign of 1832, and its editor wielded great influence through his paper and personally. To Strother's work in this campaign is attributed the long-continued ascendancy of the Whig and Repub- lican parties in Logan county. Robert Stuart, later of Indianapolis, was a partner of Strother for a short time in 1835, at which date the "Gazette" suggested William Henry Harrison for president, thus seizing the honor of first editorial mention of his name, which afterward swept the nation like wild-fire with its popularity.
The "Gazette" at this time was about one-third the average newspaper size at the present day, and printed on an old ramage press, requiring four impressions for each copy. A new iron press was installed in 1836, and the paper "enlarged" to six colums, while, in order to utilize the new display type (and to please the fancy of the journeyman printer, Nicholas Sullivan), the name was enlarged to "The Bellefontaine Gazette and Logan County Adver- tiser," which load it bore for four years.
In 1839, however, Mr. Strother retired permanently from the paper. William Hubbard, born at West Liberty May 11, 1821, came to Bellefontaine in 1832, and at the age of eleven years entered the
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Gazette printing office to learn printing under Mr. Strother. He continued there for five years, attending school when possible, until 1837, when he left journalism and began the study of law, at the same time teaching school at West Liberty to maintain himself. When Mr. Strother retired, in the fall of 1839, young Hubbard, then aged eighteen, acted as editor and publisher for a few months, Benjamin Stanton also contributing editorial articles when his pro- fessional duties would permit, until the spring of 1840, when Wil- liam Penn Clark, afterward a distinguished lawyer, purchased the establishment and continued the paper under the caption "The Logan Gazette." Mr. Clark was a writer of decided virility and abundant initiative. He carried on the campaigns of the succeeding four years with brilliancy and the courage of conviction. He sold out to Dr. C. B. Large in 1844, but after one year, Dr. Large found the responsibility too heavy for his failing years, and in 1845 the paper was purchased by William Lawrence (Judge Lawrence), who devoted his distinguished talents to it for a few months, and then engaged as editor and publisher William Hubbard, who had found his law practice less congenial than journalism. Two years later, "by a liberal and indulgent arrangement on the part of Mr. Law- rence," Mr. Hubbard purchased the establishment and took his younger brother, Thomas Hubbard, into partnership. For the next seven years the brothers conducted the paper. Both were men of ability, touched with real genius for journalism, and possessing literary talent of high order.
Somewhere along the way through this period of party change and development, the two young men had received impressions which gradually reversed their political views, and from editing a Whig newspaper they became, in time, rather violent partisans of the opposition ranks. In 1854, as the Republican party was evolv- ing itself from the Whig, "William H. West & Co." purchased the establishment from the Hubbards, and gave the Repub- lican spirit, hovering thus far disembodied, a local habitation. After a year the "habitation" was returned by sale to its now Democratic owners and editors, but the "Republican," at last a vigorous body, established itself in a new and independent headquarters. Logan county now had two newspapers instead of one. The "Gazette" was published steadily by the Hubbard brothers until 1863, when it suspended for three years while William Hubbard established himself at Napoleon, Ohio, as editor of the "Napoleon Northwest," which he continued to edit until his death. Thomas Hubbard revived the "Gazette" in 1866, soon after changing its name to "The Examiner," since which its publication has been without pause. In 1890 a daily edition was begun in connection with the original weekly, and both of these survive in vigorous condition. Since the death of Mr. Hubbard in April, 1903, the "Weekly Examiner" has been the property of Miss Josephine Hubbard and Miss Adah Hub- bard, who edit it personally. The "Daily Examiner" is owned by H. K. Hubbard & Co., and its editor-in-chief is Miss Josephine Hubbard, assisted by an able staff. It is a newspaper of clean, high character, and gives its earnest support to every good movement in the community, as well as a fair and impartial dis-
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tribution of the news, without regard to its avowed politics-in which department it has always been consistently Democratic. In passing, the Hubbard brothers and sisters of today as a group do honor to the name and memory of their parents, in their life and work. The youngest member of the family, Frank Mckinney Hubbard (or, as he is better known, "Kin" Hubbard), is the well- known humorist of the "Indianpolis News," whose quaint and original creation, "Abe Martin," corner store philosopher, now sixteen full years before a daily public, still dispenses with unfailing spontaneity fresh draughts of healthy, homely wit, keen and laughter provoking.
The "Republican," founded by William H. West, James Walker and Lemuel S. Powell, passed from them to L. D. Reynolds, who conducted a vigorous and aggressive campaign in 1860, in the cause of the new party and its candidate, Abraham Lincoln. Succeeding Reynolds came David R. Locke, who soon became famous far beyond Logan county as "Petroleum V. Nasby," through his "Let- ters from Confederate Cross Roads" and from "Saints' Rest, Noo Gersey." Early in 1865, J. Q. A. Campbell, returned to Ohio from the battlefields of the civil war, sought a journalistic opening, and upon his quest met Mr. Locke, who made him an offer for the purchase of the "Republican." This Mr. Campbell, who had already edited a paper in Iowa before entering the army, decided to accept, and on Friday, January 27, 1865, Mr. Locke, in retiring, introduced his successor to the Bellefontaine public. During the year or two preceding this event James Walker had been connected with the "Republican," and for a short time after January, 1865, he remained one of the staff, but in April of that year, Mr. Campbell assumed sole control of the paper, and for nearly thirty-nine years thereafter waged gallant war through its columns against existing evils and for the promotion of the public good. Always a strong party organ, the "Republican" led vigorous drives for civic betterment without regard to political lines or favor. Its editor was an absolutely fear- less enemy of the liquor traffic, which he regarded as a moral sore, and fought on moral grounds. Unpopular as the fight may have been in the outset, the consistent character of its leader won the support of the best minds in all parties. Many political enemies, in fact, became firm friends in the support of temperance, and not a few of the followers of John Barleycorn deserted to the "dry" ranks: Out of Bellefontaine to the legislature went the authors of the Township Local Option law, the Dow law, and the Aikin law,- a legal triad for which the whole state of Ohio owes a debt of gratitude.
In securing local municipal ownership of public utilities (in which Bellefontaine leads Ohio cities) the work of the "Repub- lican" was also a mighty factor. The editor was an educator as well as a fighter, both in and out of print, and rarely lost a fight or a debate.
Out of the "Republican" office have gone many whose appren- ticeship there opened the gates to larger fields of journalism or public service, while others, whose public lives have been bounded by Logan county alone, have been drawn into fellowship with its
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whole constituency through their work in its correspondence col- umns. Among these may be mentioned "Clifton" Brooks of North- wood, Mrs. D. P. Rogers of Richland, N. V. Speece of Quincy, "Slick" Elder of Huntsville, "Old Eagle" James of East Liberty, "Mack" Hulsizer of Monroe township, Eber Norviel of Middleburg, "Donkey" Randall of Marmon's Valley, "Fishy" Clarke of Lake Ridge, "N. A. Fus" (Ed Nafus) of Belle Centre, and George A. Henry of Jefferson township, who for over thirty years wrote his quaint letters from the hill farm under the pseudonym of "Old Bunkum." There is a copy of the "Republican" dated October 22, 1863, at the Henry cottage just south of Bellefontaine, which, after fifty-five years' preservation, is still white and pliable as to paper and clear and bright as to printer's ink, while scattered through its neat columns of old-fashioned type are many items which waken old echoes of long-forgotten things and days. The mercantile advertisements display names above whose owners the "mossy mar- bles" have rested for half a century, yet are still familiar to Loganite ears; the government was calling then, as now, 1918, for soldiers; and among the local items is a notice reading: "Married-by the Rev. George L. Kalb, Miss Emily Robb to George A. Henry." (It was Dr. Kalb's first wedding ceremony after coming to Bellefon- taine.) At the top of the title-page is the penciled greeting from a friend in the office, "Good luck to ye, lad !"
In August, 1883, the "Republican" increased its issues to twice weekly, being the first of Bellefontaine papers to change from the weekly publication. The "Examiner," which retained its weekly form, was the first office to issue a daily edition in the city.
The "Mac-a-chack Press," started by Abram S. Piatt and W. H. Gribble in West Liberty late in 1858, was removed to Bellefontaine by Mr. Gribble, and became the "Bellefontaine Press," passing from Mr. Gribble's ownership to P. S. Hooper, and on to Martin Bar- ringer, who made a specialty of job printing, then to J. H. Fluhart, who renamed it "The Index," under which name it was sold to J. H. Bowman. W. S. Roebuck was taken into partnership in 1879, and in 1882 the establishment was moved from the old Bellefontaine Bank building to the Opera block, where three years later the firm became Roebuck and Brand. In 1894 the business was incorporated as the Index Printing and Publishing Company. In 1903, upon the final retirement of Mr. Campbell from the "Republican," to accept the Bellefontaine postmastership, the Index company purchased the "Republican," and the two papers were consolidated under the name, the "Index-Republican," of which LeRoy Blessing is the editor, and under whom it has become a daily paper with a wide circulation.
Mr. Blessing is a native of Bellefontaine, and is glad to be known as a local product, and it is no more than fair to say that the city likes him, too. His talent for the lecture platform is as marked as that for journalism, and as an after-dinner speaker he is said to have few rivals. He is a son of Mrs. Frank Blessing, and grandson of Walter Slicer, pioneer citizen, sheriff and landlord, whose name is interwoven with all the annals of the "early days" of city and county. Mrs. Leroy Blessing is the great-granddaughter
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