USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Memoirs of the Miami valley > Part 46
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
The courthouse was not finished until 1883, though the corner stone was laid on the Fourth of July, 1881, with elaborate ceremo- nies conducted by the grand marshal of the day, assisted by J. S. Laughlin, W. H. Taylor, E. E. Nutt, J. B. Edgar and H. M. Lehman, and featured by the Masonic fraternity. Delegations from surround- ing cities attended and bands from Anna, Lima, Piqua and Belle- fontaine, and Sidney's own "Tappe's Band" made music without stint. The only circumstance to be regretted was the gloom cast over the whole country by the assassination of President Garfield at Washington.
The heating of the courthouse is supplied from the city heat- ing plant at the rear of the county and city jails, on East Court street, in the front of which building is also located the Emergency Hospital.
* At this time the public square was surrounded by a board fence.
348
MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
Bench and Bar in Shelby County
The story of the legal profession in Shelby county begins with the establishment of the Court in 1819, although the Bar association was not formed for some years after that date, and its beginning is not definitely ascertained. However, the interest of this sketch does not depend upon details of that nature, as its purpose is to perpetuate the memory and reputation of those early legal lights who assisted in establishing law and order solidly in the pioneer community.
For the greater number, the pioneer lawyers were men of thorough culture and as well versed in literature as in law, serving the community as teachers and general advisors in the intervals of court activity. Litigation was not so crowded in Shelby county then, and land tangles little known in this territory. Perhaps the worst foe to law and order was the pioneer still, which sprang up with other weeds in the settlements. Mere human nature was re- sponsible for the majority of court cases, and though divorce cases were less numerous then than now, human nature has not changed remarkably in a century, and the chief change in the manners of today is a growing tendency to settle cases out of court instead of airing them before a jury and spectators.
The opening decades of the county's history were a bright period for the legal profession, an era when law was held in pro- found respect, and the men who practiced it in the courts were deemed prophets.
The personnel of the first court which sat in Shelby county is of interest at this point, and is as follows:
Judge, Hon. Joseph H. Crane; associate justices, Robert Hous- ton, Samuel Marshall, William W. Cecil; clerk, Harvey Foote; prosecuting attorney, Henry Bacon ; First Grand Jury, John Francis, James Lenox, Conrad Ponches, Zebediah Richardson, Joseph Stain- berger, Henry Hushan, John Stevens, Archibald Defrees, Cephas Carey, Peter Musselman, John Bryant, Richard Lenox; substitutes, John Manning, Joseph Mellinger, Abraham Davenport.
The first case on the criminal docket was "The State of Ohio vs. Hugh Scott; charge, assault and battery ; plea, guilty ; fined ten dollars and costs." A short and simple tale, indeed.
Shelby county's first resident lawyer was Associate Judge Samuel Marshall, a native of Ireland, whose settlement in Shelby dates from 1808. Judge Marshall left a strong impression on the county, both as a lawyer and as a citizen. Two of his sons, Hugh and C. C. Marshall were early mail riders over the old routes from Piqua to Defiance and to Bellefontaine. Judge Marshall practiced law twenty years, and died in 1838.
Judge Patrick Gaines Goode was a scion of French Huguenot stock, the family migrating at an early date by way of Britain to America, where they settled in Virginia. Previous to the Revolu- tionary struggle they were known as loyalists, but after the out- break of war, sided with the colonists. Judge Goode was born in 1798, of a branch of the family in which lawyers and physicians predominated; and though a dutiful lad in the performance of the tasks of a pioneer's son in Xenia, Ohio (whither the father had re-
349
THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
moved in 1805), he entered the study of classics seriously at the age of sixteen. After three years he followed his instructor east to Philadelphia where he continued his studies for two years, then took up the study of law in Lebanon, Ohio, where were gathered some of the greater lawyers of the state. At twenty-three years of age he began the practice of law, coming to Sidney (in 1831) ten years later. Here he became known at once as a teacher and leader, both in politics and civic matters. He was returned to the state legis- lature in 1833, and to the senate in the next election-though he re- fused to claim his seat owing to a dispute from the opposition can- didate. In 1836 he began a six years' career in the National Con- gress, refusing further re-election. As a worker in Congress he was successful in securing improvements along the Maumee river valley, which was then a part of the elongated congressional dis- trict. In 1844, the creation of the sixteenth judicial district re- sulted in the election of Patrick Goode to the presiding judgeship of the district, a position which he filled for a term of seven years with ability and distinction. He returned to the practice of law for a brief period following his retirement from the Bench, but soon after abandoned the law to enter the ministry of the Methodist church, receiving a regular appointment in the conference in 1857.
Judge Goode's knowledge of parliamentary practices was shared by so few men in the pulpit, that he was in great demand at the conferences, and, being over-taxed between the multiplicity of in- terests and duties, his endurance gave way. He died two weeks after the conference at Greenville, in 1862, after a ministry of only five years. He was in legal life for thirty-six years.
As lawyer, legislator, jurist, clergyman, educator and civic leader, Judge Goode set a standard which is still pointed out for emulation to the ambitious young men of Sidney. No finer citizen has followed him, although Shelby county can and does boast of many bright names.
Judge Jacob S. Conklin, contemporary with Judge Goode during many years, was somewhat his junior, his age in 1836, when he lo- cated in Sidney, being but twenty-one years. He entered into part- nership with Judge Goode, and almost immediately stepped into the limelight in legal practice. His ability was recognized by political honors within a few years, when he was elected prosecuting attorney in 1844. Later, he served in turn both lower and upper houses of the state legislature. In 1856 he was a Fremont elector, and afterward served another term as prosecuting attorney. In 1864 Governor Brough appointed him to complete the unexpired term of Judge William Lawrence, of Logan county, on the common pleas bench, and at the end of the term he was re-elected to serve an entire term. In 1880 he was, although a Republican, once more made prosecuting attorney in a county which had long been strongly Democratic- an evidence of the esteem in which his talents were held by the public during his half century long career of citizenship. His great- est power, as a lawyer, was as advocate before a jury, where his sound logic added to his eloquence seldom failed to convince.
Judge Conklin married, in 1841, Eleanor I. Wilson, and reared a family of sons and daughters noted for intellectual brilliance, but
350
MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
all of whom have passed away. Born in Champaign county in 1815, Judge Conklin died in Sidney, October, 1887, aged seventy-two years, fifty-one of them devoted to the law.
Hugh Thompson, born in Pennsylvania in 1807, came to Sidney in 1831, when it was a village of 637 population. Mr. Thompson at first pursued merchandizing; but being chosen associate justice for Shelby county, to replace Samuel Marshall, he was re-appointed for another full term by the general assembly, continuing in the position until 1841, by which time he had determined upon a legal career, and being admitted to practice followed that profession until 1875, or nearly thirty-five years, during seven of which he was prose- cuting attorney of the county. He was also a member of the con- stitutional convention of 1851, and served two years in the state legislature.
Judge Thompson was a man of social gifts as well as legal talent, and was long remembered by surviving friends for his genial humor and sparkle of wit in conversation, memories of which have been handed down to present generations of lawyers and appreciated by those outside the bar, as well. Careful and painstaking as a lawyer, with endless patience in hearing his clients and wisdom in collating what was valuable to their cases, his presentation of them in court was impeccable as to logic, while his unencumbered English was a great factor in the winning of his point. In analyses he was exceptionally keen, and in his application of legal principles his aim was unerring. It may be imagined that he respected words too much to waste them in flowery eloquence when pure and simple speech was sufficient.
Judge Thompson married, in 1833, Miss Rebecca Davenport, and of their three children, George M., Hugh W., and Elizabeth (who married John H. Mathers), the latter is still living, while Hugh W. died some years ago, leaving three daughters, Mrs. James B. White, jr., and Mrs. C. W. Vandegrift, both of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Mrs. T. D. Van Etten, of Sidney. Judge Thompson died February, 1889. George M. Thompson became a lawyer, also, but died in 1869, ending a promising career in San Francisco.
Concerning Robert Young and D. G. Hull, each of whom served as prosecuting attorney in 1828 and 1834, respectively, no informa- tion is obtainable, but in 1836 the office was filled by J. S. Updegraff, whose name also appears among the lawyers of the county in other connections. Mr. Updegraff's prominence, however, seems to have been more in the line of business and agricultural advancement than in law, and he was secretary of the first agricultural society of the county, which organized in 1839 and held its first county fair in October, 1840. The young society held but two fairs, and failed to become a permanent organization, but it was nevertheless the forerunner of the later society which has since become a solid fea- ture of Shelby county enterprise.
Edmund Smith was another lawyer of Sidney whose life and work left a decided mark on the profession, but concerning whom there is preserved only scant detail. He was the first preceptor in law of several of Shelby county's best lawyers of a later day, and remembered as a brilliant and magnetic personality in court and
351
THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
society. He represented the county in the third constitutional con- vention, and while in attendance on its deliberations in Cincinnati, in March, 1874, met sudden death from heart failure. A son, Ed- mund Smith, is a practicing lawyer in Columbus.
Silas B. Walker was prosecuting attorney of Shelby county from 1856 to 1858, but apart from this appears to have figured more particularly in other capacities than as lawyer, at one time being editor of the Shelby County Democrat.
Adolph J. Rebstock also was prosecuting attorney from 1868 to 1870, and practiced law for some time in this county, removing in the seventies to Miami county, where his death occurred a few years ago. Mr. Rebstock was a fine musician and during his resi- dence in Sidney was conductor of the famous "old band."
Gen. James Murray was born in Scotland in 1830. He came with his parents to Cincinnati in 1834, and thence to Sidney in 1836. He received his general education under the tutelage of Rev. Mc- Gookin, in the "Academy" and studied law with Judge Conklin, being admitted to the bar when nineteen years of age.
Gen. Murray first entered law practice with a firm at Perrysburg. near Toledo. He served two terms as Attorney-General of Ohio, first elected in 1860, and following this became general attorney of the Dayton & Michigan (now the B. & O.) railroad. He re- turned to Sidney as a residence in 1863, and forming a partnership with Col. Harrison Wilson, remained here until his death, in June, 1879. General Murray, of whom, as a product of Sidney education the city and county cherish a worthy pride, is remembered as a man of almost dual personality, in one phase an astute lawyer of stupendous memory, a deep student of the dryest details of law, a dispassionate counselor and safe advisor, a cool logician, argumenta- tious yet reserved in speech; in the other, a warm friend, a great reader, and a lover of poetry, in which he reveled. His law library was the finest in this part of Ohio, and his practice was confined almost entirely to the higher courts.
Born in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, in 1830, John H. Mathers received his collegiate education in Jefferson college in that state, afterward studying law in the office of his father. He had risen to the position of district attorney before coming to Sidney, Ohio, in 1856, at which time he was but twenty-six years of age. In Sid- ney he first formed a partnership with Judge Conklin, and entering politics was three times elected prosecuting attorney prior to 1863, when he formed a new partnership with Judge Thompson, who had in the meantime become his father-in-law. As a lawyer he was devoted to his practice, in which he was successful and prosperous. Personally, he was an example of the most genuine culture. He died in 1879, while yet in the prime of life. Mr. and Mrs. Mathers were the parents of three children, two daughters, Jean and Lucretia, and Hugh Thompson Mathers.
Hugh Thompson Mathers, whose mother, Elizabeth Thomp- son Mathers, still resides in the family home on North Ohio avenue, in Sidney, was born in this city in 1866. By inheritance from both parents Judge Mathers was destined to a legal career, for which he was prepared, after his graduation from the Sidney high school, by
352
MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
a literary course in Princeton university, following which he grad- uated from the Albany Law School in 1888, being one of the four honor students of the class. He was admitted to the bar at Colum- bus and immediately began the practice of law at Sidney. He served two terms as city solicitor, and then became counsel for the Ohio Southern railroad, which office removed his residence first to Spring- field, and then to Cleveland, Ohio, where he remained for one year, returning to Sidney when the road became a part of the L. E. & W. system.
Resuming the general practice of law until 1901, he rose to a leading position in the bar of the county, and was elected to fill a three year's vacancy on the common pleas bench. In 1904 he was elected for the full term, and re-elected in 1910, serving until Jan- uary, 1917. He is now practising his profession in Cleveland, Ohio. Judge Mathers is held in the highest esteem as citizen, lawyer and jurist, of which evidence is shown in his repeated nomination for judge of the supreme court of Ohio.
John E. Cummins, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, was a native of Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1832. In 1834 his parents migrated to Sidney, Ohio, where the family became an integral part of the local history. The Cummins Block, which stood on the Citizen's National bank corner, is said to have been the first brick building erected in Sidney. The Cummins house, which was situated a few doors west of the corner was long noted as the place where William Henry Harrison was entertained in Sidney, when he visited the village during the campaign of 1840- an indication of the color of young Cummins' political education. His scholastic education came later, at Washington and Jefferson college, in Pennsylvania, but at the outbreak of the Civil War, Mr. Cummins entered the army as colonel of the 99th O. V. I., remain- ing in service until the close of the war, when he was brevetted brigadier-general for bravery and merit. Mrs. Cummins was a daughter of John W. Carey. Three sons, Knox, Carey, and Frank, were born to them. Subsequent to the war, Gen. Cummins was ad- mitted to the bar, forming a partnership with the brilliant Edmund Smith. Scarcely a year after the tragic death of Mr. Smith, in Cin- cinnati, Gen. Cummins' life also came to an untimely end.
Nathan R. Burress was a native son of Shelby county, born in Turtle Creek township in 1845, and educated only as the county schools provided opportunity. Genius makes its own opportunity, however, and Mr. Burress attained a high degree of literary culture and a remarkable command of the English tongue. He possessed by nature the gift of imagination as well as the broad reasoning faculties indispensable to success in his chosen profession. He studied law with Edmund Smith, and was admitted to the bar in 1868, being elected prosecuting attorney in 1870 and again in 1872. In 1875, he was sent to the state senate, and declining a renomina- tion, reentered the practice of law in partnership with Judge Conk- lin. Mr. Burress died in 1883, at the age of only thirty-eight years. Col. Harrison Wilson, born near Cadiz, Ohio, in 1841, was the youngest of a large family, and had but just succeeded in com- pleting a college course at Ohio university only secured through
353
THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
hardship and sacrifice, when the Civil War broke out, and the call of his country diverted his career, for the next four years, to mili- tary service. Beginning as second lieutenant in the 25th O. V. I., he was successively advanced in rank, being mustered out with his regiment as colonel in 1865, after participating in forty-two engage- ments and three sieges, as well as sharing in the "march to the sea." He was awarded a medal by Congress.
Col. Wilson came to Sidney to study law, and after being admitted to the bar formed a partnership with Gen. Murray which ended only with the death of the latter in 1879. For thirteen years, from 1895 to 1909 he occupied the circuit bench in the second judi- cial district of the state, and as a judge became noted for the clear- ness and comprehensiveness of his decisions, and his official in- tegrity. He held high rank in the legal fraternity of the state. Sub- sequent to his retirement from the bench he entered a well-known law firm in Columbus, but from that city removed to California in 1912.
John E. Mccullough was the son of Samuel Mccullough, who came from Virginia to Sidney in 1835, and spent nearly sixty years of honorable life here, a Scotch Presbyterian of the old school. Born in Sidney in 1852, John McCullough was educated in the Union school, studied law with James McKercher (a lawyer concerning whom this statement is the only record printed) and was admitted to the bar in 1884, reaching the goal of his ambition not by any royal road, but by the determined effort of mature manhood. Of broad and clear mentality, genial disposition and magnetic person- ality, the future lay bright before him at the age of thirty-two; but two years later the strange hand of fate wrote finis after one more promising legal record. Mr. Mccullough married, in 1874, Miss Anna Duncan, who, with two sons, survived him.
George A. Marshall was a native of Shelby county, born in Turtle Creek township in 1849, one of the eleven children of Samuel Marshall, a pioneer. He attended the country schools, and Dela- ware university, afterward taking up the study of law in the office of Conklin and Burress; and was admitted to the bar in 1876. He was twice elected prosecuting attorney, in 1877 and in 1882, and in 1896 was sent to the National Congress, serving one term. He died soon after his return to Sidney, in April, 1899. His career as a lawyer covered a period of twenty years, during which he enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as a sound and able pleader before the courts.
John Milton Staley born 1847, is another Shelby county native who attained local eminence in law, although'as a young man he had given special attention to music, which he fitted himself to teach, taking a course at the Lebanon normal after two years in Delaware university. Soon afterward he determined upon the study of law, attended Cincinnati law school, and after being ad- mitted to practice, opened his office in Sidney and continued in the profession until his death, in 1901. He never abandoned music, how- ever, and was the conductor of an excellent local orchestra. He served Shelby two terms as probate judge.
John G. Stephenson, born in Green county, Ohio, came to Sid-
354
MEMOIRS OF THE MIAMI VALLEY
ney in the sixties, after a period of residence in California. He practiced law here for about twenty years, holding the office of city attorney, and of mayor, the latter in 1876. In 1881 he removed to Kentucky, where he died in 1901.
Judge W. D. Davies, of Welsh parentage, was born in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1850. His preliminary education, obtained near his birth-place, was rounded out by a three years' course at Ohio State university, after which he was admitted to the bar in his native state, at Iowa City, in the year 1870. For the next five years the young lawyer was in the employ of several railroads, after which he settled in Sidney and engaged in the regular practice of law. Judge Davies was an ardent Republican, and becoming the leader of the local party, was many times nominated for office, and sent as a delegate to the national Republican convention at Chicago, in 1900. He was appointed February, 1901, to fill the unexpired term of Judge W. T. Mooney on the common pleas bench, and died in March, 1902, following the close of his incumbency in November, 1901. Mrs. Davies was Miss Belle Mathers, of Mifflintown, Penn- sylvania.
J. Wilson Conklin, oldest son of Judge Conklin, born in Sidney in 1848, possessed a brilliant mind, and was given exceptional edu- cational advantages, but failed to make the most of his native abil- ity, and his career as a lawyer was somewhat desultory, in conse- quence. A part of his legal work was done in Celina, Ohio, where he removed after his marriage to Miss Carrie McBeth, of Belle- fontaine.
S. J. Hatfield, a native of Wayne county, Ohio, was born in 1845. By training and inheritance Mr. Hatfield was of high religious and moral character. His education was obtained in the public schools of his native county, and at the Western Reserve college, after which he graduated from Michigan university law school. He came to Sidney in 1875, and practiced continuously until his death, which occurred in 1911, at which time he was the senior mem- ber of the Shelby county bar association in years of practice. His ideals of law, like those of life, were high. No lawyer has left a finer personal record on the pages of Shelby county history. He never held elective office, was widely known as a humanitarian, and for many years was a member of the state board of pardons, and also a trustee of the Shelby County Children's Home.
Emery L. Hoskins, born near Magnetic Springs, Ohio, in 1857, became a practicing lawyer in 1882, locating in Sidney in 1883, where he formed a law partnership with Judge W. D. Davies. Possessing . many elements of popularity, he was also well equipped for his work, and attained an early success. He was a member of the school board for fifteen years and served two terms as probate judge, being first elected in 1899. His death occurred in 1909.
S. L. Wicoff, the senior member of the Shelby county bar, is still in active practice and closely identified with public affairs of a civic nature in Sidney. He is a native of Shelby county, born in 1851, son of Isaac and Esther Wicoff. Educated in the district schools, young Wicoff received supplementary courses at Witten- berg college and at the Lebanon, Ohio, Normal school, after which
355
THE STORY OF SHELBY COUNTY
he took up the study of law with the Mckinneys, at Piqua in the summer of 1873. In 1875, having been admitted to the bar, he lo- cated in Sidney with S. S. McKinney as law partner, an association which lasted five years. From 1880 until 1899 Mr. Wicoff prac- ticed alone, then formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, W. J. Emmons. Mr. Emmons is a native of Miami county, and received his training in the county schools, and at the Lebanon normal, grad- uating with the class of 1885. About one year later Mr. Emmons located in Sidney, and while engaged in other business, he took up the study of law in the office of Mr. Wicoff, giving his unoccupied time to preparation for professional life in no desultory manner, but without hurry or neglect or other interests. He was admitted to the bar in 1890, and formed an immediate partnership which was augmented in 1904 by the admission of Harvey H. Needles.
Neither Mr. Wicoff nor his partner have been much concerned in politics, but are, nevertheless, active in public affairs. Mr. Wicoff was a trustee of the Children's Home for eight years, and a member of the committee who designed the admirable building. The city of Sidney owes much to his activity on the library board, in which he has been an indefatigable worker. Mr. Emmons held a position on the Sidney board of education for three years, and was for six years a member of the examining board, both elective offices. As a law firm, none in the county stands higher.
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.