USA > Ohio > Highland County > The County of Highland : a history of Highland County, Ohio, from the earliest days, with special chapters on the bench and bar, medical profession educational development, industry and agriculture and biographical sketches > Part 20
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About 1805 the German Baptists, commonly called Dunkers, or- ganized the Brush Creek church, south of Sinking Spring. They built the Straight Creek Valley church, nearer the town, in 1840. This was followed by other societies in the same part of the county. Among the early preachers were the Revs. Gorman, Countryman, Schofield and Ockerman.
In Fairfield the Dunkers worshipped after their own fashion in a very early day and in 1849 a church was built on the Samantha turn- pike, at which Thomas Major was the first preacher. The Dunkers at Hollowtown built their first church about 1857.
There are now Dunker churches at Hickson's Meeting House, Cowgill's, and Brush Creek.
The Lutherans and German Reformed families of Hamer township joined in building a church in 1817, the Shaffers, Wilkins, Roushes, Leamons and Caileys being prominent. A schism from this organi- zation in about 1855 gave rise to the Mount Zion church, and the remainder of the congregation founded the Lutheran church in Danville. The Shaffer family and Adam, Orebaugh were the main founders of the Lutheran church at Lynchburg, founded in 1839. The Zion church (Reformed) was organized very early in Newmarket township at the home of Philip Wilkin, and the church on the Danville road was first built in 1843. One of the first churches in the county was the Lutheran society in Brush Creek. They had a log meeting house. But the organization has long been abandoned.
A Universalist church was built at Leesburg in 1840, with James and Samuel McClure among the founders, but part of the congrega- tion was subsequently merged in the Church of the Redeemer, a society of Universalists at Centerfield, who built a church in 1870-71. There the Huffs, Litlers, Crispins and Banks were leading spirits.
Near Pricetown a Universalist church was organized in 1830, and meetings were held for some time at the house of William David- son. In 1860 the existing organization was formed at Pricetown, and a church soon afterward built.
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An United Brethren church was organized at the home of Rev. William Ambrose, New Market, about 1818, and the first church built in 1834-35. At Mowrystown a church was organized about 1842. This denomination, so famous in the history of Ohio, now has churches at Hillsboro, Rainsboro, New Market and Sonner chapel.
There are African churches of various denominations at Hillsboro and Greenfield, four in number. All these branches of Christian work have regular preaching, and the great majority have resident pastors and all the adjuncts of church work and service.
CHAPTER XII.
THE BENCH AND BAR.
T HE courts of Highland county, like the famous Areopa- gus of Greece, are noted for the justice which gives every man an equal chance before the law, and at the same time famous for their respectability, purity and love of justice. The members of the bench and bar have been men who rendered themselves worthy of the honor by their honest and diligent execu- tion of their office, and whose character, conduct and qualifications had been subjected to a careful and particular examination. It was the boast of Demosthenes that the courts of Greece never passed a sentence in which both parties did not concur. While it is some- what doubtful if this fact would apply to the courts of America, we are certain that if in any spot outside of Greece it would be found true that spot would be Highland county. Taking the law in its character as a profession, we might quote the words of the great Hooker: "There can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is in the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world ; all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least in seeking her care, and the greatest as not exempt from her power. Both angels and men and creatures of what condition soever, though each in a different sort and name, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy." We can scarcely understand how there could be an immoral lawyer. What should be expected of the man whose professional vocation leads him to define and vindi- cate the rights of his fellowmen ; of him who best understands those great rules of action, commanding what is right, and forbidding what is wrong, who, in his vast range of thought, overlooks his own obligation to the law he defines ? The time was when the profession of the law was not so exalted and honored a profession as it is now. Of the earlier class it may be truthfully said that they were highly educated; were polished gentlemen; were very learned and of remarkable ability. But they were not all men of the highest and purest morality, and often were very greedy of the gains of their profession. This, of course, was not universally true, but true in
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the main. As to the prominent members of the bench and bar of the last twenty years, and the present day, we may say with truth that as a body, in integrity, in purity of life, in general moral char- acter and in consistent legal profession and conduct, they are far superior to their predecessors. They are not inferior in ability, they are scarcely unequal in learning, finish of manners, or in that brilliancy which attracts the general admiration. The improve- ment of the character of the bar in this county has probably been greatly promoted by the law schools formed in various parts of the country. All these schools have exerted an elevating moral influ- ence, and some of them almost Christian. Rives, Kent and Green- leaf are teachers of pure morality. Men coming under the influence of these pure fountains of legal principles and those considerations of truth, justice, public policy, and refined equity, of which the essence of the law is composed, must be elevated and refined by them and favorably influenced in their character. In no sense has scien- tific education produced better results than in the influence it has exerted on the bar of the United States; which for its high position in moral and intellectual attainments has no superior.
Regarding the courts of common pleas the constitution of 1802 contained the following provision : "The several courts of common pleas shall consist of a president and associate judges. The State shall be divided, by law, into three circuits ; there shall be appointed in each circuit a president of the courts, who, during his continua- tion in office shall reside therein. There shall be appointed in each county not more than three nor less than two associate judges, who, during their continuation in office, shall reside therein. The presi- dent and associate judges in their respective counties, any three of whom shall be a quorum, shall compose the court of common pleas ; which court shall have common law and chancery jurisdiction in all such cases as shall be directed by law ; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the legislature from increas- ing the number of circuits and presidents after the term of five years." The judges for Highland county under the provision of the first constitution were elected by the general assembly, and under the acts of that body Highland county was first assigned to the Mid- dle judicial circuit. The first common pleas judge to preside in Highland county was Robert F. Slaughter, in 1805, and the asso- ciate judges were Joshua Davidson, Jonathan Berryman and Rich- ard Evans. Abram J. Williams was prosecuting attorney; David Hays, clerk; and Anthony Franklin, sheriff. This first session was held at New Market. It is related, in illustration of the makeshifts that were necessary in the administration of justice, that a man con- victed of larceny while court was held at New Market, was impris- oned in a newly dug well, with rails over the mouth of it, in lieu of a jail. Whipping was a punishment for crime not infrequently
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administered, and the court records show cases of sentence to be whipped with so many stripes on the naked back, an unpleasant duty that fell to the sheriffs in those days.
Judge Slaughter was a bright and able young man, who came from Virginia, and was admitted to the bar at Chillicothe in 1799. He was a fairly successful lawyer, an effective orator, and seems, as judge, to have been a terror to evil doers. He was impeached before the State senate January 8, 1807, for failure to attend court, or tardiness of arrival, fifteen cases of such dereliction being alleged. His answer is very interesting, as it reveals some of the hardships of a judge in that period. To explain a failure to attend court in Scioto county, he said he had been compelled to go to Kentucky on business after the Adams county session, and on returning to the Ohio river, could not cross. Going two miles to find a ferry, he was compelled to hunt the ferryman in the fields, and so was delayed one day, and when he reached his destination he found the associate judges, having nothing to try, had adjourned. On another occasion, going from Lancaster to Highland county, his horse foundered on the Pickaway plains, and his funds and salary did not warrant him in buying another. He borrowed one, however, to ride to Adams county, and then, having to return the horse, he could not get to the Scioto court. He could not attend the spring court in Gallia one spring because the rivers and creeks were flooded and, being afflicted with pleurisy, he dared not swim the streams. On another occasion, being in Highland, his horse broke out of pasture and could not be found, and he bought a horse conditionally of Joseph Kerr, to ride to the next court, but the animal could not carry him "if it had been a case of life or death," and he traded it for another that took him the rest of the circuit. All of these mitigating circumstances were solemnly presented, but Henry Brush, Jessup M. Couch, William Creighton, Lewis Cass, Joseph Foos and James Kilbourne testified against the judge and the senate found him guilty and removed him from office. The cause of his alleged neglect of duty is said to have been an inveterate habit of gambling, which had grown into a pas- sion with him as with many others in that day. It was said that he would sit up night after night, during a term of court, to gratify this passion, and was known to adjourn court for that purpose. After his removal he settled in Lancaster and resumed the practice with much success at a bar where great lawyers were common. He afterward represented Fairfield county in the state legislature.
Judge Slaughter was succeeded by Judge Levin Belt, of Chilli- cothe, who had previously held the same office, 1804-05. Levin Belt was a native of England who had sought the land of promise, coming from the city of Washington to Chillicothe, and was one of the first lawyers to be admitted to practice before the court at Chilli- cothe in Territorial days. Afterward he acted as prosecutor for the
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State, at a time when prosecutors were appointed by the court and allowed for the services of a term at least fifteen dollars, and, when their duties were particularly arduous, as much as fifty. Judge Belt was a very tall, broad-shouldered, muscular man, with ruddy complexiou, gray eyes and brown hair, and while not a great law- yer, was a respectable one, a good citizen, and an honest and able judge until succeeded by John Thompson. After this, Judge Belt became the first mayor of Chillicothe.
Judge John Thompson, who was elected in December, 1809, was impeached in the legislature in the winter of 1811-12, and tried before the senate in January, on the charges of "high crimes and misdemeanors in this, to-wit: oppression in office, violent language and conduct, and expressing contempt for the government of the United States and the people." In detail some of the charges were as follows : In a larceny case he allowed the attorneys but ten min- utes each for argument to the jury, and when they objected said they must get along with that or he would cut them to five minutes. He refused to allow an attorney to testify for his client in a case of usur- pation of office. On one occasion he ordered the court constables to knock down certain bystanders with their staves. He declared in an assault and battery case that the attorneys had no right to argue the facts to the jury except with the permission of the court, and when he was overruled by the associate judges, he told the jury it could go. Then again, he refused a jury the remarkable request that it might come back after the case had been closed and re-examine witnesses. Another time, he allowed an attorney but twenty-five minutes for argument, and when the time was up told him to sit down and the jury would do justice to the case. At Circleville, it was alleged, he told the grand jury our government was the most corrupt and per- fidious in the world, and the people were their own worst enemies. On such charges Judge Thompson was tried for nine days before the senate, with witnesses from all over the vast circuit. But he was ably defended by Lewis Cass, John McLean and Samuel Herrick, and acquitted by a vote of eighteen to five, and in 1817 the legisla- ture re-elected him. Doubtless the animus of the impeachment was politics. Perhaps the judge was not an ardent supporter of "Madi- son's war" of 1812. Judge Thompson was upon the district bench from 1810 to the end of 1824, and consequently made more of an impress upon judicial affairs in this region than any other judge in the early days.
After Thompson the presiding judges who sat in Highland county were Joshua Collett, beginning in 1824; George J. Smith, begin- ning in 1829; John Winston Price, beginning in 1834; Owen T. Fishback, beginning in 1841; George Collings, beginning in 1848; and the last under the old constitution was Shepherd T. Norris, of Clermont, in 1851. Judge Price was a native of Hanover county,
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Va., born in 1804, graduated at William and Mary college, studied law under Justice John Marshall, came to Ohio in 1827, married a daughter of John A. McDowell, of Columbus, and settled at Hills- boro in 1831, where he became a partner of Gen. Richard Collins, an eminent attorney. He was a high-minded judge and lawyer, and was a conspicuous citizen of the county until his death, March 4, 1865. Judge Collings was born near West Union, Adams county, February 29, 1800, and after he had gained admission to the bar and practiced in that county some years, removed to Hillsboro in 1834. He represented Highland in the legislature of 1837-38, and continued a citizen until his removal to return to Adams county about 1841. About the close of his term on the bench he was a member of the constitutional convention.
The first associate judges, Evans, Davidson and Berryman, served for several years from 1805. In 1810 the places were filled by Nathaniel Pope, John Boyd and Samuel Bell, and the first change after that was George W. Barrere in place of Bell in 1816. Boyd, Barrere and Moses H. Gregg were the associate judges in 1818-21; Boyd, Barrere and Joseph Swearingen in 1821-29, and Boyd, Moses Patterson and John Matthews in 1830. Judge Barrere's long service then came to an end. Patterson and Matthews contin- ued upon the bench until 1837, Hugh Smart and R. D. Lilly serv- ing with them in succession. Lilly, William C. Scott and John Matthews sat upon the bench in 1837-43, and Lilly, Philip W. Spar- gur and John Eckman in 1844-49. Spargur, Eckman and John Duvall served in 1850, Duvall, Thomas Barry and N. N. Delaplaine in 1851, and then, by the virtue of the new constitution the office of associate judge ceased to be.
The constitution adopted in 1851 provided for a supreme court such as the people are now familiar with, its duties confined to hear- ing appeals from lower courts. The State was divided into nine common pleas districts, and associate judges were abolished. Each district was subdivided into three parts, in each of which the people should elect a judge of the court of common pleas. Thus there were three common pleas judges to each of the nine districts. One or more of the judges held a common pleas court in each county, and the three judges of the district together constituted a district court that succeeded to the functions of the old supreme court in their respective counties, and the new common pleas court succeeded to the old common pleas court, except in probate jurisdiction, for which probate judges were provided, to be elected one in each county. Under this new system Highland county was a part of the Second subdivision of the Fifth circuit, and it has continued in that classi- fication. But the subdivision, at first composed of Highland, Ross and Fayette, now includes Fayette, Highland, Madison, Pickaway and Ross.
H-13
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The first three judges of the Fifth district, beginning in February, 1852, were James L. Bates, of Franklin county ; Shepherd F. Norris, of Clermont, and John L. Green, of Ross.
Judge Green was succeeded in 1857 by James Sloane, of High- land. Judge Sloane was a man of remarkable ability and will always be remembered as one of the great lawyers of the county. He was a native of Richmond, Va., born February 22, 1822, of Scotch- Irish parents who came to the United States not long before his birth. When he was five years old the family moved to Cincinnati, and a year later they settled upon a farm in Brown county. The father was an educated man, and taught school in addition to farm- ing, so that the boy was fairly well educated in his youth. An acci- dent that befell him while clearing away the forest caused him to abandon farming and teach school and study law, and in 1844 he was graduated at the Cincinnati law school. Then he began the practice at Hillsboro in 1845, and four years later married Kate White of Ross county. He was elected common pleas judge, as a Democrat, defeating John L. Green, but he served hardly more than a year, preferring to remain in the active practice, in which he had a field that embraced neighboring counties as well as Highland. When the Union was in danger in 1861, Judge Sloane raised a company of men at Hillsboro, of which he was made captain, and this became Company K of the Twelfth Ohio regiment. He took part in the famous early campaign up the Kanawha valley in Virginia, and the fact that he was badly wounded at the noted little battle of Scary Creek made his name widely known. After the battle of Carnifix Ferry he found that his early injury and the later wound made serv- ice in the field impracticable, and he resigned his commission. After the war he continued his practice, for a few years maintaining an office at Cincinnati as well as at Hillsboro, until his sudden death September 17, 1873. He was a man of brilliant gifts, but in his social relations made no effort to gain friends, turning rather to the world a bearing of apparent disregard if not contempt, but there was a group of close friends that shared his confidence, and his ready response to the call of his country showed the depth of his emotions. His knowledge of law, his quick legal perceptions of the essence of every case, and his effective pleading to a jury either in civil or criminal cases, made him unrivaled. A ready and fluent talker, master of all the passions of the human soul, his power to sway a jury was almost resistless. To be cross-examined by Judge Sloane was an experience that no man cared to go over the second time, and woe betide the unfortunate victim who attempted to evade the truth, or conceal from the cold piercing eyes of this keen questioner the secrets hidden in his heart. It is no uncommon circumstance in controversy, for the parties to engage in all the zeal of disputation, without precisely knowing themselves the particulars about which
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they differ. We then have fruitless parade of argument, and those opposite pretenses to demonstration, with which most debates on almost every subject have been infested. This was not the case with Judge Sloane. He was always sure of his own meaning and had the ability to communicate the sense of that meaning to the minds of others in plain terms, delighting more in the intellectual effort than in the conquest over his adversary.
Judge Sloane was succeeded in 1858 by Alfred S. Dickey, an eminent jurist who sat upon the district bench until 1872. Judge Dickey was born in Tennessee in 1812, of a sturdy Scotch-Irish anti-slavery family, and when four years old was brought by his par- ents to South Salem, Ross county. When he was of legal age he entered upon the practice of law, and being appointed prosecuting attorney of Ross county in 1838 he soon established a handsome prac- tice. In 1847 he removed to Greenfield, but after his appointment as common pleas judge by Governor Chase in 1858 he resided in a beautiful home at Lyndon, Ross county. He died not long after his retirement, August 22, 1873. Judge Dickey was pronounced by Judge Chase an eminent judge and worthy of the great esteem in which he was held. Personally he was kind, tolerant, genial, and with rare powers of social entertainment. Judge Dickey was suc- ceeded by Judge Samuel F. Steel of Hillsboro, who sat upon the bench from February, 1872, until the year 1881. From October, 1881, to February, 1882, Judge James H. Thompson filled the posi- tion. He was succeeded by Henry M. Huggins, of Hillsboro, who served until February, 1892, and the next upon the bench was Cyrus Newby, whose service extended from February, 1892, to Feb- ruary, 1902.
Other judges of the district have presided in the common pleas court of Highland county, among them Judge Robert M. Briggs, a native of Virginia who was reared from boyhood and educated at Greenfield, but resided at Washington Court House after he began the practice of law. He was common pleas judge in 1858-63.
The circuit court was established in Ohio in 1884, and since then Highland county has been a part of the Fourth circuit, but as yet the bench of that court has not been filled regularly by a citizen of this county.
The probate court was established under the constitution of 1851 and has since then been filled by some of the best citizens of the county. First was Jonas R. Emrie, elected in 1851 for the statu- tory term of three years. His successors have been A. G. Matthews, 1854-57; R. D. Lilley, 1857-60; Albert G. Matthews again, 1860-63 ; William M. Meek, who was three times elected and served, 1863-72; J. C. Norton, twice elected, serving 1872-78; George B. Gardner, 1878-81; R. M. Ditty, 1881-87 ; Le Roy Kelley, 1887-93 ; Frank Wilson, 1893-96; Oliver H. Hughes, 1896 to the present.
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Gen. Richard Collins, notable among the pioneer lawyers of the county, was a native of New Jersey and son of a Methodist minister. Born February 22, 1796, he was reared in Clermont county, Ohio, and had the privilege of reading law under Judge John McLean. After admission to the bar at Cincinnati in 1816, he removed to Highland county and made his home at Hillsboro. He continued in the practice of his profession in Highland county for fourteen years, and was one of the most brilliant men of the region. In 1818 he was appointed prosecuting attorney, and in 1820-25 represented the county in the general assembly. In 1826 he was the Whig can- didate for congress, but was defeated by a division in his party, and ever afterward he declined renomination. He was married in 1823 to Mary Armstrong, daughter of a famous merchant at Maysville, Ky., and in 1830 he moved to that place and formed a mercantile partnership with his father-in-law, and in association with George Collings established a wholesale house. But he now and then vis- ited Hillsboro, and occasionally appeared in the courts of Ohio in cases of importance. He was elected to the Kentucky legislature three times and declined nominations for Congress as well as the office of United States senator for Kentucky. He was the warm friend and supporter of Henry Clay and the noted editor Col. Sam- uel Pike. In 1853 he emancipated his slaves and removed to Cler- mont county, where he died May 12, 1855. His title of general was founded on his rank as major-general of militia in Ohio, conferred in 1828.
Gen. Joseph J. McDowell was another eminent lawyer of the Highland bar for forty years from 1836. His career is mentioned with more detail among the congressmen of Highland county. Col. William Oliver Collins, his partner for some time, was for many years one of the most prominent men of the county. Colonel Col- lins was born in Connecticut August 23, 1809, in direct descent from an English settler of Boston in 1630. His father was an offi- cer of the war of 1812 and his grandfather in the war of the Revo- lution. In 1833 he was graduated at Amherst college, and in the same year removed to Massillon and began the study, completing his preparation in the Cincinnati law school, founded by Edward King, of Chillicothe, during the lifetime of that well-remembered gentleman. He settled at Hillsboro and began the practice in 1835, and was soon afterward made prosecuting attorney. He was a leader at the bar for many years, and in other fields demonstrated his remarkable ability. He was secretary and Allen Trimble president of the first turnpike touching Highland county, the Milford & Chil- licothe, president of the Hillsboro & Cincinnati railroad at its organization in 1849, and director of the Bel Pre & Cincinnati for three years ; was prominent in the support of the Hillsboro academy, and president of the Hillsboro agricultural society in 1859-60,
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