USA > Ohio > Ross County > Chillicothe > Ohio centennial anniversary celebration at Chillicothe, May 20-21, 1903 : under the auspices of the Ohio State Archaelogical and Historical Society : complete proceedings > Part 32
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In 1823 the Legislature elected him a supreme judge, and placed him on the same bench with Calvin Pease, Jacob Burnet and Peter Hitchcock. His opinions, in the early volumes of Hammond's Ohio Reports, are clear, compact, comprehensive, in-
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tuitive, logical, complete and conclusive. I quote from the same lawyer, who added: "He won upon the bench, as he did at the bar, the affection and confidence of his associates. They es- teemed him for his gentle and genial nature, for the brilliant flashes of his mind and the solid strength of his judgment ; above all for the stainless integrity of his character as a judge and as a man." In June, 1829, when about to open court at Lebanon, Warren County, a virulent disease attacked him suddenly and caused almost immediate death on the twenty-fourth day of the month. No man in our state was more generally and sincerely mourned.
I cannot tell of Chief Justice Peter Hitchcock in better words than those written by Judge William Lawrence when officially noting the termination of the court under the constitution of 1802, on February 9, 1852.
PETER HITCHCOCK was born October 19, 1781, at Cheshire, Connecticut ; graduated at Yale College in September, 1801 ; was admitted to the bar of his native state in March, 1803; removed to Burton, Geauga County, Ohio, in June, 1806, where he con- tinued to reside, engaged in the practice of his profession, except when officially employed ; was elected to the House of Represen- tatives in 1810, and served one term; was elected to the Senate of Ohio in 1812, where he served two years; again elected in 1815, and during the session of 1815-16 presided over that body as speaker ; was elected in 1816 a representative to Congress, in which capacity he served two years ; again elected a member of the Ohio Senate in 1833, and during the session of 1834-35, a sec- ond time presided over that body as speaker; and finally was elected a member of the convention which framed the new con- stitution of Ohio, while he was yet chief judge of the Supreme Court of the state.
In all these various offices he acted a prominent and dis- tinguished part, alike honorable to himself and to his country, with the history of which he is so identified, that his services will be appreciated and his fame remembered as long as that history shall endure. As a jurist his services were still more pre-eminent. For twenty-eight years he was a judge of the Supreme Court - the longest period of service rendered by any judge on that
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bench. His terms of service were as follows: He was com- missioned as a judge of the Supreme Court February 5, 1819, in place of Hon. Ethan Allen Brown, resigned, and served seven years. He was again commissioned February 1, 1826, to take effect February 5, 1826, the date of the expiration of his first term, and served seven years. He was again commissioned March 7, 1835, in place of Hon. John C. Wright, resigned, and served seven years. He was again commissioned February 16, 1845, and served until February 9, 1852, when his term ceased by the operation of the new constitution, about one week before the expiration of the full term for which the General Assembly had elected him.
He was chief judge six years ; during 1831-32-33 and in 1849, 1850-51-52 until February 9. Two Ohio colleges - Marietta and Western Reserve - honored him with the degree of LL. D.
Distinguished for his profound learning, his vast and varied attainments, his unsullied integrity, his long, laborious and use- ful services to the public, and for his extensive experience as a judge, in which capacity he was master of the law; with the confidence of the bar and the people, he retired from the high office of chief justice at the age of seventy years, enjoying in an eminent degree "Mens sana in corpore sano."
He died on the eleventh day of May, 1853, at Painesville, Ohic. Throughout his career he was a generous benefactor of benevolent enterprises.
REUBEN WOOD was born in Rutland County, Vermont, in J792. He served in the War of 1812-15 as captain of Vermont volunteers. He later studied law, came to Cleveland, Ohio, and began practice there about 1820. From 1825 to 1828 he was a member of the Ohio Senate. In 1830 the Legislature elected him president judge of the Third Common Pleas Circuit; and on February 17, 1833, the same body made him a Supreme Court judge; to which office he was re-elected in 1839, and served until 1846. In October, 1850, he was elected governor of Ohio. The second constitution terminating his term before its two years had passed, he was again elected in October, 1851, and was the first governor under that constitution. The Democratic national convention sitting at Baltimore in 1852 discussed the nomination
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of Governor Wood for the presidency, but unfortunately selected Franklin Pierce. If Reuben Wood had been president in 1853- 54, his sound sense would have prevented the silly and disastrous repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and perhaps have thereby saved our country from the Civil War of 1861-65. In 1853 Judge Wood resigned the governorship, and accepted a consulship at Valparaiso, Chile, where the climate favored his restoration to health. In 1855 he resigned, returned to Ohio, retired from pub- lic life, and, on October 2, 1864, died at Rockport, Cuyahoga County. His judicial opinions are in volumes six to fifteen --- both included - Ohio Reports.
RUFUS PUTNAM RANNEY was born at Blandford, Hamp- den County, Massachusetts, on the thirteenth day of October, 1813. His father was a farmer of Scotch descent. The family removed to Portage County, Ohio, in 1824. There -then a western frontier settlement, the means of public instruction were limited. They had brought some standard books from Massa- chusetts. His active, penetrating intellect aroused within him a desire to get an education. By manual labor, and teaching in backwoods schools, he earned enough to enter an academy where in a short time he prepared himself for college. By chopping cordwood he earned the money to enter Western Reserve College, then at Hudson, but for want of means he could not complete the college course. At the age of twenty-two, in the law office of Joshua R. Giddings and Benjamin Wade he began to study law, and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1836. Mr. Giddings began his long career in Congress, and upon Mr. Wade's sug- gestion the law firm of Wade and Ranney was formed, and soon became the leading one in Northeastern Ohio. In 1845 Wade be- came president judge of the Common Pleas, and in 1851 entered the United States Senate. In 1846 Ranney removed to Warren in Trumbull County. His party - the Democratic - nominated him for Congress in 1846 and 1848 in a district in which it was hopelessly in the minority ; but in 1850 Trumbull and Geauga Counties - though heavily Whig - chose Ranney a delegate to the second constitutional convention, where he served with dis- tinction on the committees on the judiciary, on revision, on amendments and some others. His associates on the judiciary
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committee were Henry Stanbery, Joseph R. Swan, William S. Groesbeck, and William Kennon. In 1892 a committee of the Ohio bar, composed of Allen G. Thurman, Richard A. Harrison, Jacob D. Cox, F. E. Hutchins and Samuel E. Williamson, thus. wrote of his work and standing in that convention :
Although he was then a young man he was soon recognized as one of the leading members of the convention. In this body of distinguished lawyers, jurists and statesmen, there were few members who had as thor- ough knowledge of political science, constitutional law, political and judicial history and the principles of jurisprudence as Judge Ranney displayed in the debates of the convention. There was no more profound, acute and convincing reasoner on the floor of the convention, and in the com- mittee rooms his suggestions and enlightened mind were invaluable. The amended constitution conforms very nearly to the principles and provisions advocated by him.
In March, 1851, the General Assembly elected him a supreme judge to succeed Judge Avery; and in October of the same year the people elected him a member of the new Supreme Court. The terms were distributed by lot and the full five years fell to him. In October, 1856, Judge Josiah Scott, Republican, was chosen, and later in the year Judge Ranney resigned, and began law practice at Cleveland in the firm of Ranney, Backus and Noble. In 1859 he was Democratic candidate for governor, but the Republican candidate, William Dennison, was elected. In 1862 both parties went to Ranney, Backus and Noble for their candidates for Supreme Court judge, and that year Franklin T. Backus, Republican, was defeated by his Democratic partner. But the attractions and demands of a large Northern Ohio prac- tice soon induced Judge Ranney to finally leave the bench. He re- signed on February 23, 1865, and renewed the practice of law at Cleveland. The demands upon his professional services werc more than he could comply with; but the needs of a man or woman in difficulty or distress were more likely to secure his devoted services than the offer of a large fee. Toward the close of his life he gradually withdrew from the practice of his profes- sion ; but the urgent solicitation of some old friend, or an attack upon some important constitutional or legal principle, drew him occasionally from his library to the court room, where his partici-
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pation in a case never failed to bring together an audience of lawyers eager to learn from him the art of forensic reasoning, of which he was a consummate master, and to be entertained and instructed by his sympathy and familiarity with the more recent advances in the science of jurisprudence.
When the Ohio Bar Association was organized in 1881 he was made its first president. He devoted much of his time for several years to placing "The Case School of Applied Science" at Cleveland upon a firm foundation, and providing for it ade- quate buildings and equipment. I quote again from the commit- tee of lawyers :
Judge Ranney was a man of great simplicity of character; wholly free from affectation and assumption. He could have attained the highest standing in any pursuit or station requiring the exercise of the best intel- lectual and moral qualities; but his ambition was chastened and moderate, and he seemed to have no aspirations for official place or popular applause. While always dignified he was a genial and companionable man, of fine wit and rare humor. While on the bench his most distinguished trait was his grasp of general principles, in preference to decided cases. He never ran to book shelves for a case which had some resemblance to that in hand; perceiving, as he did, that the resemblance is frequently mis- leading.
Judge Ranney had those qualities of simplicity, directness, candor, solidity, strength and sovereign good sense which the independent and reflective life of the early settlers of the western country fostered. He was a personal force whose power was profoundly felt in the adminstration of justice throughout the state. He made a deep and permanent impression on the jurisprudence of Ohio.
He died at his home in Cleveland on the sixth day of Decem- ber, 1891. As a man, as a lawyer, as a judge, and as a states- man, he left a record without a blemish; a character above re -ยท proach; and a reputation as a jurist and statesman which but few members of the bar have attained.
WILLIAM WHITE was born in England on the twenty-eighth day of January, 1822. His parents died in his early childhood, and he came to Springfield, Ohio, in 1831 with an uncle. When twelve years old he was apprenticed for nine years to a cabinet maker. After six years service he bought his remaining time, his master accepting the boy's notes for the purchase money.
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Having paid these out of his later earnings, he diligently attended Springfield schools, principally the high school, working at his trade during vacations and other spare time. He studied law under William A. Rodgers, an eminent lawyer of Clark County, teaching school at intervals for his necessary expenses. In 1846. he was admitted to the bar, and was his preceptor's partner until Mr. Rodgers became judge of Common Pleas in February, 1852. In 1847 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Clark County, and was thrice re-elected. In 1856 the bar nominated him for common pleas judge and he was chosen, over the two party candidates, by a large majority. The vote of Clark County was cast, almost unanimously, for him. In 1861 he was re-elected. Judge Hocking H. Hunter having on February 9, 1864, resigned as supreme judge, Governor John Brough the next day appointed William White to fill the vacancy. In 1864, 1868, 1873 and in 1878 the people elected and re-elected him to the same office. Early in 1883 he was nominated, by President Arthur, and con- firmed by the Senate, judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, but his illness prevented accept- ance by him. He died on March 12, 1883. On the fourteenth of that month the Ohio State Bar Association, and other members of the bar, met in the Supreme Court room at Columbus. Judge Rufus P. Ranney, president of the association, appointed Rich- ard A. Harrison, Allen G. Thurman, William H. West, W. W. Boynton, William J. Gilmore, Henry C. Noble, Durbin Ward, Michael A. Daugherty and John W. Herron, a committee "to draft a memorial and resolutions concerning the character and public services of Chief Justice William White."
They made a report, by Richard A. Harrison, which the meeting unanimously approved and adopted; the Supreme Court made it a part of their record, and by their order it was printed in full on pages 7 to 12, both included, in Volume 38, Ohio State Reports.
I quote a few paragraphs :
Judge White's simple and modest manners, his kindness of nature, his warm social impulses, his unvarying courtesy, his almost unexampled' regard for the feelings and rights of others, his charity for human frailties, and his never failing patience towards all men, endeared him to every -.
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one who knew him. These characteristics, as well as the manner in which he discharged the duties of his great office, made him a favorite with the bar, as well as with all ranks and conditions of men. Both the bar and the public manifested their admiration, esteem, confidence and gratitude toward him, by renominating without opposition, and re-electing him, as often as his term of office expired.
He was a wise and honest citizen. His neighbors, without exception, regarded him as a loving friend. He took pleasure in aiding them with his wise counsels, and his charities were bestowed with a free hand. Those who have known him from boyhood affirm that he never had a personal enemy. His personal character was of the highest order. Exemplary rectitude and wise sobriety adorned his whole life. He was the very soul of honor in all the relations of life. He was unpretentious in all his acts and was another illustration of the truism that unpretending characters are rarely deficient.
To say that he was patient, diligent and thorough in the investiga- tion of causes, is simply to state what is attested by his opinions recorded in twenty volumes of Ohio State Reports. These will constitute for all time an enduring monument of his sound, discriminating judgment, and his fidelity and eminence as a jurist. He aided in solving many constitu- tional questions of the highest moment. His reported decisions touch almost every branch of the law. They have always been, and will ever be regarded with the highest respect, because they bear internal evidence that they are the results and products of exhaustive legal research by a strong, logical, penetrating mind, and of a man of the sternest integrity and strictest impartiality.
Judge White has left, for all time, an enduring and elevating im- pression upon the jurisprudence and judicial history of the state, and he has added much to the distinction of her Supreme Judicial Court.
Judge White has left to the profession of the bar, from which he was promoted to the highest honor which a lawyer can receive from the state, a lesson and an example worthy of following; and although he left but a small estate to his widow and children, he left them the rich heritage of an unsullied name, and the record of a life devoted to the service of his fellow men.
He was married in 1847 to Miss Rachel Stout, whose par- ents were among the early settlers of Springfield. She, with one son and two daughters, survive him. The son, Charles R. White, served as judge of common pleas, in the Clark County sub-division, from May, 1885, until his death in 1890.
The Ohio judge who sat upon an Ohio bench longer than any other man is still living. Because of that fact, I depart from the rule that has limited my biographical sketches to judges who
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have ended life here, and briefly tell you of WILLIAM HUGH FRAZIER.
He was born in Hubbard, Trumbull County, Ohio, on March II, 1826. His father, George Frazier, a native of Kent County, Maryland, was a farmer and magistrate in Trumbull County, Ohio, where he had married Miss Bethiah Randall, a native of Washington County, Pennsylvania. William was reared on the farm, and attended school in Hubbard, until in 1838 his parents removed to Guernsey County, Ohio. There, until he became of age, he attended common schools in winter and worked on the farm in summer. He then entered Madison College, at Antrim, Guernsey County, spending vacations at home in farm work. After two years at the college he studied law under his elder brother, Henry, until on 'May 17, 1852, he was admitted to the bar at Coshocton, Ohio. He at once began to practice at Sarahs- ville, Noble County, Ohio, in partnership with his brother, who died within a year thereafter. In 1858 William removed to Caldwell, the new county seat. In 1865 - for about one year - James S. Foreman was his partner there. Thereafter he prac- ticed alone. In 1855 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Noble County, and was re-elected for five successive terms. In 1866 Noble County in convention unanimously supported him for nomination as common pleas judge, but Moses M. Granger was nominated and elected. Although assured of renomina- tion and re-election early in 1871 Judge Granger announced his intention to resign after the then coming September. He did so, and Governor Hayes appointed. William Hugh Frazier to fill the vacancy on October 9, 1871. The people elected and re- elected him in 1871, 1876 and 1881. In November, 1884, they elected him one of the three circuit judges for the Seventh or Eastern Ohio Circuit, which extended from Lake Erie to Wash- ington County. Judge Frazier drew the four year term, but was re-elected for the full six year term in 1888 and 1896. He re- tired from the bench February 9, 1901, having served as judge almost thirty years. He was married November 30, 1855, to Miss Minerva E. Staats, who died on November 10, 1898. Four daughters and one son survive her. The son, L. B. Frazier, is a lawyer practicing in Caldwell.
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The bar and people of Eastern Ohio hold Judge William H. Frazier in high honor and regard; due to him because of the purity and rectitude of his life as a man, and the ability, industry and impartiality with which he served them as a judge for so many years. Only three Ohio judges have exceeded twenty- five years; John McLean, 32 years (26 of them on a United States bench) ; Peter Hitchcock, 28 years; William Hugh Fra- zier, 29 years and 8 months .*
Historic references to "The Twelve Judges" of England, as well as the English Common Law numbering of its jury, has made us familiar with the number "twelve" in connection with the judiciary. I have briefly outlined for you the lives and ser- vices of twelve of the Ohio judges of 1803-1903, and submit them as illustrations of that judiciary. Many others could be added from the probate courts, the superior courts, the com- mon pleas courts, the circuit courts, and from the supreme bench, but I have no right to convert my centennial paper into an Ohio judicial biographical dictionary.
After one-third of the century had passed, Joseph Vance, governor of Ohio, in his inaugural address on December 13, 1836, said :
I have again and again, whilst on business in eastern cities, heard our judiciary spoken of in terms that made me proud that I was a citizen of Ohio. "No collusion or fraud, sir," said an eminent merchant of one of our eastern cities, "can stand before your judiciary." This is the character, gentlemen, that causes capital to seek employment here; that gives security to our rights and value to our property.
When the first half century was near its close, in April, 1852, Judge William Lawrence, noted for long service in the National House of Representatives, and in other public positions and trusts, and high in rank at the bar, wrote of the Supreme Court that had adjourned sine die on January 16, 1852:
This court has from its commencement been composed of judges distinguished for learning, talents and integrity. Its decisions, on the circuit and in bank, now (1852) comprise twenty volumes of Reports-
* Judge H. H. Leavitt sat as United States judge thirty-six years and eight months.
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a fund of judicial learning, characterized by profound research, and lumin- ous exposition, not only invaluable to the profession in Ohio, but which will leave its impress upon the science of law, wherever that science is known and understood.
The bench of Ohio of 1803-1903 made to other high de- partments of national and state service the following contribu- tions :
Eight governors of Ohio, for terms aggregating twenty- two years; three justices of the United States Supreme Court for terms aggregating forty years; one secretary of state; two attorney-generals; one secretary of war; and two postmaster- generals of the United States for terms aggregating twenty- one years; one governor-general of the Philippines, still in office; nine United States senators, for terms aggregating sev- enty-six years; thirty-nine members of the National House of Representatives, for terms aggregating one hundred and fifty- two years. The histories of State and Nation tell that they faith- fully and effectively performed the duties of their respective posts.
Ohio, may, rightfully, be proud of her judiciary and of its record for its first hundred years.
So long as her people will insure the independence of her courts by wise laws; and maintain their character by always refusing nominations and votes to unfit candidates for judicial office, they will make secure their own lives, liberties and prop- erty. May 1903-2003 find all as safe as they are now !
I think that Ohio lawyers will be glad to read a list of Ohio judges and therefore try to furnish one. It is impracticable for me to learn the names and years of service of the probate judges of Ohio's eighty-eight counties, so I omit them and also their predecessors, the associate judges of common pleas from 1803 to 1852. Although judges of the Territory Northwest of the Ohio, and the judges of the district and circuit courts of the United States who have served in Ohio are not literally and strictly members of "Ohio Judiciary," I include them in this appendix.
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In making my list of common pleas judges I have used the same names and dates as are in "The Ohio Hundred Year Book, 1803-1902," except such as I have found to be incorrect. I have had no means of testing the accuracy of the great majority of them.
THE TERRITORIAL JUDGES.
Samuel Holden Parsons, from April, 1788, to November 1789. (a.) Drowned.
James Mitchell Varnum, from April, 1788, to February, 1789. (b.) Died.
John Cleves Symmes, from February 19, 1789, to April, 1803. George Turner, from September 8, 1789, to February, 1798. Resigned. Rufus Putnam, from January, 1790, to October, 1796. Resigned. Joseph Gilman from November, 1796, to April, 1803.
Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., from February 12, 1798, to April, 1803. (a) John Armstrong was appointed at the same time as Parsons and Varnum, but he declined to accept.
(b) On August 18, 1789, William Barton was nominated and con- firmed in place of Judge Varnum, but he declined to accept, and then George Turner was made judge.
JUDGES OF THE UNITED STATES CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT: KENTUCKY, MICHIGAN, OHIO AND TENNESSEE.
John Baxter, of Tennessee, 1867 to 1870.
Halmon H. Emmons, of Michigan, 1870 to 1886.
Howell E. Jackson, of Tennessee, 1886 to 1892.
William H. Taft, of Ohio, March 3, 1893, resigned March 15, 1900. Horace H. Lurton, of Tennessee, 1893, in office.
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