The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 42

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1081

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In April, 1850, Judge Smith was elected the Senatorial Delegate from the counties of Warren, Greene and Clinton to the convention which framed the present constitution of the State. He served in that body as a member of the Standing Committee on the Judiciary, and was constant and faithful in his attendance during the whole time the convention was in session, but, owing to the state of his health, which had for a time become seriously impaired, was unable to take as active a part in the proceedings of the convention as he might otherwise have done. Believing that the new constitution, as adopted by the convention, contained some provisions that were liable to weighty objections, and others that he conceived to be in conflict with the constitution of the United States, he was not able to vote for the adoption of the constitution in conven- tion or upon its final submission to the people for approval.

After the termination of his law partnership with Judge Probasco, he took into partnership with him his son, James M. Smith, which continued until the latter entered upon the office of Probate Judge, in February, 1855. Another son, John E. Smith, then became associated with him in the practice of law. From the time when Judge Smith resumed practice in 1836, until February, 1859, except when employed in public duties, he was actively and laboriously engaged in the duties of his profession. During the greater part of that time, he regularly attended the courts in Butler, Clinton and Greene Counties. His business was large and exacting, and as a lawyer he was characterized by his patience, diligence, conscientiousness and fidelity to the interests of others that were intrusted to his care.

In the summer of 1851, Judge Smith was nominated by a judicial con- vention for the office of Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the Third Subdivision of the Second Judicial District of Ohio. This nomination he de- clined. In 1858, he was again nominated for the same position, and accepted the nomination, and was elected, his term of office beginning in February, 1859. The counties composing the subdivision were Warren, Clinton, Greene and Clark. This office he held for two consecutive terms of five years each. On the 9th of February, 1869, he finally retired from the bench, having nearly reached the age of three score and ten years. After quitting the bench, he did not again re-enter the practice of law, although he did, on a very few occasions, accept employment from some of his old clients, and appeared for them in the trial of causes. Nevertheless, from force of long habit, he was, until prevented by the state of his health, as regular and constant in his attendance upon the sittings of the courts at Lebanon as he had been in former years when in active practice at the bar. The residue of his life was spent in that ease and comfort which he had well earned by a long life of arduous professional labor and faith- ful public service, and was quietly and happily passed in the enjoyment of his books and of the society of his relatives and friends. His tastes had always

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been domestic, and. although a considerable part of his life was necessarily passed away from his home, he was always reluctant to leave it, and glad to return to it.

For the last few years of his life, his health was considerably impaired. and, in consequence. he did not often leave his home; but occasionally he vis- ited his relatives, many of whom dwelt on and near the spot where he had spent the days of his boyhood and youth, and these visits were to him the source of great gratification and pleasure.

At length, on the 18th day of April, 1878, after a brief illness, his life was closed. Had he survived until the 22d day of the following month, he would have completed his seventy-ninth year. He died respected and esteemed by all who had known him, and it is believed that he was considered to have discharged all the public trusts that were committed to him with ability and fidelity, and creditably to himself. and with advantage to his fellow-citi- zens; and that his private life was regarded by all his acquaintances as a com- mendable example of uprightness, justice, conscientiousness and purity. Eight children were born of his marriage, of whom four died in infancy, and four (three sons and one daughter) survived him, and who are still living.

JOSEPH WHITEHILL.

Joseph Whitehill was born in Lancaster County, Penn., on the 30th of December. 1786. His family was of Scotch descent, but his immediate ancestors had lived for many years in Lancaster County. His father, Joseph Whitehill. removed with his family, about the year 1800, to Botetourt County, Va, and settled near Fincastle. Joseph Whitehill, the elder, died here in the year 1808. He had been in easy circumstances, but had met with reverses, and at his death his family was slenderly provided for. The subject of this notice. then a young man of twenty-one years of age, and the oldest surviving son of the family, took upon himself the care. direction and maintenance of the fam- ily, consisting of six sisters and a younger brother. The family occupied a farm near the town of Fincastle.

During the war of 1812, Mr. Whitehill, who was a Lieutenant in a militia company raised in Botetourt County, was ordered with his company to Norfolk, Va., to assist in the resistance of a threatened attack from the British at that place. He was engaged in this service for several months, and, during a part of the time, was in command of the company, on account of the sickness and death of his Captain.

In 1815, the family determined to remove to Ohio, and accordingly, in November of that year, they left Fincastle and came to Warren County. The first winter succeeding their arrival here they spent on a farm in the neigh- borhood of Waynesville. In the spring of the following year. they removed to a farm near Lebanon. Some two or three years afterward, Mr. Whitehill con- tracted for the purchase of the farm in the vicinity of Lebanon lately owned by Jehu Mulford, and, in fact, made one or more payments for it: but. owing to the hard times following the war of 1812, he was unable to complete the payments, and was consequently compelled to give up the land. and to sacri- fice what he had already paid. as well as the cost of improvements which he had made. He continued the business of farming in the vicinity of Lebanon until his removal to the town. On account of severe and long-continued attacks of rheumatism, which rendered him permanently lame, he was unable person- ally to work much at farming, and devoted a considerable part of his time to the employment of hauling produce and merchandise to and from Cincinnati. which, at that time, was a business of very considerable importance. In 1826.

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he was elected Sheriff of Warren County, and, at the commencement of his term of office, took up his residence at Lebanon. This office he held for two consecutive terms. After the expiration of his term of office, he purchased a farm about three miles north of Lebanon, to which he removed. In 1830, he was elected a Representatvie from Warren County in the Legislature, and was re-elected to the same position in 1831, and in 1832, and again in 1834, serv- ing in that office, in all, four years. During his last term of service in the House of Representatives, he was elected Treasurer of State, and was three times re-elected, and held this office for four consecutive terms of three years each. Upon the commencement of his term of office as Treasurer of State, he removed to Columbus, where he ever afterward resided. Mr. Whitehill was never married. His eldest sister. Jane Whitehill, who also remained unmar- ried, resided with him. He acquired quite a large estate, but, by the failure of several institutions in which he ha i invested largely, toward the close of his life the greater part of his property was swept away. His death occurred at Columbus, Ohio, on November 4, 1861, when he had nearly completed his sev- enty-fifth year.

Mr. Whitehill was not a man of much knowledge of the sort that is derived from books, he having had but little time for the acquisition of that kind of knowledge in his early life, which was one of labor and activity, rendered necessary by reason of the responsibilities imposed upon him, and to which reference has been made. But he was a man of strong sense and sound judg- ment. His disposition was frank and generous, and his manners were popular. He enjoyed in an eminent degree the affection of his relatives and friends, and the respect and esteem of his acquaintances.

JOHN PROBASCO, JR.

The subject of this sketch was born in Trenton, N. J., January 19, 1814. He was the son of Rev. John Probasco, a Baptist preacher of Huguenot extrac- tion, who moved with his family to Lebanon, Ohio, in 1823. The removal was effected in wagons, and the family were on their journey just one month. His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Olden. She belonged to a family long settled in New Jersey, and died at Lebanon in 1881, in her eighty-eighth year, having survived her distinguished son more than twenty-three years. Young John Probasco received a good English and classical education at Lebanon. He entered the Junior class at Miami University and remained one year, not waiting to graduate. Returning to Lebanon, he commenced the study of law, under the instruction of Hon. Thomas Corwin, then a Member of Congress. He was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in the year 1836.

For the four years subsequent to his admission to the bar, Mr. Probasco devoted himself unremittingly to the study and practice of his profession. This was called for by his limited circumstances, for he did not inherit wealth. It was accordant, too, with his ardent love for the law, and was rendered in- dispensable by the competition he had to encounter.

One of the earliest cases in which the extent of his talents and the vigor of his character were displayed was in a State prosecution against a man of influ- ence and talents. The defendant was a lawyer of ability and considerable practice-a member of the Lebanon bar; but he was violent and reckless in his temper, and unforgiving and vindictive in his character. While under a paroxysm of anger, he shot at a man who had given him some offense, and was recognized to the Court of Common Pleas to answer the charge of shooting with intent to kill. The offense was punishable by imprisonment in the peni- tentiary. The Prosecuting Attorney happened to be distantly related to the

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defendant, and was excused from appearing against him. Many of the bar were retained in his defense; others were unwilling to appear against him, 88 they had practiced at the same bar. The court appointed Mr. Probasco, the youngest member of the bar, as special prosecutor. He accepted the appoint- ment and conducted the prosecution with masterly energy. Every effort of the able counsel of the defendant was unavailing, and he was found guilty.

On the 13th of February, 1838, Mr. Probasco was married to Miss Susan Jane Freeman. She was the daughter of Thomas Freeman, Esq., who died in 1818, and who practiced law at the same bar with such lawyers as Judge Mc- Lean and Judge Collett, with great success.

In 1840, Mr. Probasco was first called into public life. During that memorable period of political excitement which aroused the whole country, he was too ardent to remain inactive. A Whig from conviction and principle, he had ever been faithful to his party attachments, but he was too much devoted to his profession to mingle in the ordinary conflicts of politics. But when, in 1840, he was, though little more than eligible, invited by his party to take a seat in the Legislature of his State, he accepted the place. In the Lower House, to which he belonged, his party was largely in the ascendant, but the Democrats had a majority in the Senate. The most exciting question which divided the two parties was the banking system; and the Whig Speaker showed his appreciation of Mr. Probasco's abilities by placing him on the Standing Committee on Banks and Currency. This was posting him in the van of the bat- tle, and he sustained himself triumphantly, though he was then in a legislative body for the first time, and though among the Democratic members was a large number of their able leaders, who have since been Governors, and Supreme Judges, and Members of Congress. His legal attainments were thus early very strikingly displayed in a protest which he put upon the journal against the passage of a bill whose provisions he alleged to be unconstitutional. He was re-elected in 1841, and was now in a minority. The same stormy conflicts were renewed, and he was still one of the leaders in shaping both the course of de- bate and the course of business. It was the intention of Mr. Probasco, at the close of his second term of service, to decline a re-election; but this design was changed by the events of an extra session held in July and August, 1842. Congress had delayed so long the passage of a law to apportion the members of the House of Representatives among the several States under the census of 1840, that the regular session of the State Legislature was ended before that apportionment was made. An extra session was therefore called to divide the State into districts for Congressional elections. That session proved to be the stormiest which had, up to that time, occurred in the annals of Ohio. The parties were almost equally balanced in both Houses, although the Democrats had a slight ascendancy. The Whigs, under the lead of Seabury Ford, Robert C. Schenck and John Probasco, in order to prevent the Democrats from re- districting the State in a manner that would have left the Whigs almost with- out representation in . Congress, adopted the bold, but questionable, policy of dissolving the General Assembly by tendering their resignations in a body. and thereby leaving both Houses without a quorum of two-thirds. The move- ment succeeded, and the two Houses were compelled to dissolve and go home without districting the State for Congressional purposes.

However impolitic and revolutionary this movement may seem, since the excitement which produced it is past, it serves strongly to indicate the extent of party feelings at that period, and as strongly illustrates the energy and courage of men who could venture all their future prospects and hopes by lead- ing in so daring a movement to defeat the tyranny of a majority.

Mr. Probasco now very naturally desired to have his course approved by

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DAVID BROWN (DECEASED)

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his constituents, and was therefore a candidate for re-election. He was elected again, with scarce a decreased majority.

In the Legislature, Mr. Probasco was always an active and laborious mem- ber, and introduced a number of important measures of legislation. He did not speak frequently, considering the excitement of the times, but he was al- ways listened to with great interest and attention, for he always spoke to the point. The solidity of his judgment and the determined energy of his char- acter gave him his influence. He showed himself in debate rather a forcible and impressive speaker than a brilliant declaimer. He derived great improve- ment from the intellectual conflicts of his legislative life, and returned to the bar more fully prepared for the successful prosecution of his profession.

From 1843, when he retired from the Legislature, for the subsequent pe- riod of seven years, Mr. Probasco devoted himself to the practice of the law with eminent success. This period of his life, quiet as it seemed to be, he spent so as to lay deeper and broader the foundations for a life of future use- fulness.

In February, 1850, though he had not been a candidate, he was elected, by the Legislature a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He remained upon the bench two years, when his term of service was cut off by the adoption of the new constitution.

Having declined a re-election to the Common Pleas bench under the new constitution, he resumed the practice of law at Lebanon in 1852. He soon afterward, in partnership with Gov. Corwin, opened an office at Cincinnati. As a member of the Cincinnati bar, he at once took high rank, and was re- garded as one of the ablest lawyers in the city.

But he was not long permitted to engage in the contests and achieve the victories of his profession in this new field . f labor. A sickness, brought on by labor in the harvest-field of his farm in Illinois, cut off his life in the prime of his manhood and the midst of his usefulness. He died at his residence in Lebanon, September 18, 1857, in the forty-fourth year of his age.

Judge Probasco was nearly six feet high, large and well proportioned, of robust health and vigorous constitution. Though not corpulent, he was of full habit. His hair was black, his eye quick, sparkling and black, and his feat- ures and head well formed. His voice was sonorous, clear and distinct. Though warm-hearted and social, he was quiet and reserved in his manners. In company, he was rather a listener than a leading talker. He always evinced the tenderest attachment for his family, and spared no pains in the proper nurt- ure and education of his children. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a man of the purest and most exemplary morals.

J. MILTON WILLIAMS.

This distinguished member of the bar was born at Lebanon December 17, 1807. His father, Enos Williams, was an early teacher of Warren County, and held several important civil offices, and among others, that of County Re- corder for a period of fourteen years. John Milton received a good English education. In his boyhood, he assisted his father in the Recorder's office, and also wrote in the office of the Clerk of Court. His handwriting was legible, bold and rapid, and the training he received as a copyist at the court house was of benefit to him in his future profession. He studied law with Judge George J. Smith, and, before he had reached the age of twenty-four years, on the 7th of June, 1831, was admitted to the bar at a term of the Supreme Court held at Lebanon, with Judges Peter Hitchcock and Charles R. Sherman on the bench. Gen. Robert C. Schenck, who had completed his legal studies under Thomas Corwin, was admitted at the same time and place.

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Young Williams was poor, and was compelled to rely wholly on his own exertions. In after years, he wrote: "When I went out into the wide, wide world in business, on my own hook, I had two dilapidated shirts and a poor suit of clothes to match them. I opened my office in a cellar, with three musty old Ohio statutes, given me by my old father, which he had held as a public officer. This was my entire stock in trade." He soon acquired distinction at the bar. Not long after he began practice, he became Prosecuting Attorney -a position he held for twelve consecutive years. He was candid with his clients, and never misrepresented a case in consultation to encourage litigation. He charged lower fees for his services than other lawyers of the same rank His popularity and personal influence with the masses were very great. For several years, he had a larger number of cases on the dockets of the courts than any other lawyer of the county, and was the attorney on one side of almost every important case. He could readily sway the minds of jurymen, and in the examination of witnesses he exhibited consummate skill. In 1850, he was elected a member of the convention which framed the second constitution of Ohio, and in 1857 he was elected Representative in the General Assembly of Ohio as an independent candidate over the regular Republican nominee. He was Major of the militia, and was uniformly known as Maj. Williams. In politics, he was a Whig, and afterward a Republican.

The last years of the life of Maj. Williams are a sad history, over the de- tails of which it is best that the mantle of oblivion should be drawn. Habits of intemperance separated him from his wife and family, and brought him to misery and want before he was yet old. He saw the extremes of life. He rose from poverty and obscurity to wealth and distinction; he sank again to obscurity and poverty. When possessed of considerable means, accumulated by his own energy and ability, he erected for his residence one of the finest mansions which had, up to that time, been constructed in the county; he died without a home. When the legal proceedings were commenced which took from him the ownership and control of his property, he wrote and read in the court in which he had practiced with eminent success: " God help me! I am a miserable and ruined man! Let the curtains of oblivion rest over the whole affair until that great day when all things shall be brought into judgment." He died July 21, 1871, aged sixty-four years, and was buried in the Lebanon Cemetery.

GEORGE KESLING.

The subject of this sketch was a native of Virginia, and in 1797, when fourteen years of age, came with his father, Teter Kesling, to Warren County, which was his home until his death. Having only the limited opportunities for an education afforded in a new country, George acquired a fondness for reading and study, and the ability to express his thoughts on paper. He de- lighted to participate in the local debating clubs, and the native vigor of his mind soon attracted the attention of his neighbors. In 1812, he was elected Sheriff of Warren County. This position he left to become a Captain in the war with England. In 1815, after the close of the war, he became a merchant in Lebanon, and continued in this business for many years. In 1819, he was elected a Representative in the Legislature, and served one year. In 1824, he was appointed by the Legislature as Associate Judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas-a position he held for about ten years.

Judge Kesling was a leading spirit in public improvements. Early in 1825, soon after the canal from Dayton to Cincinnati was projected, and before work had yet been commenced upon it, he was at the head of a party engaged in leveling and surveying routes to determine the practicability of a canal from

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Middletown to Lebanon, and, until the completion of the work, fifteen years later, he was the most conspicuous advocate of the enterprise.

He was an early admirer and supporter of Andrew Jackson, and a stanch Democrat in politics until his death. In 1828, he became the editor of the Democrat, a Jackson paper at Lebanon, which he afterward removed to Colum- bus, Ohio, and published there for a short time. At one time, he was before the Democratic convention as a candidate for the nomination for Governor, and was defeated by only a few votes. He was appointed, by President Jackson, Postmaster at Lebanon in 1831-a position he held for ten years. In 1840, he was appointed, by Gov. Shannon, a member of the State Board of Equalization.

Judge Kesling was never married. He was a strong-minded man, with decided opinions, and a useful member of society .. In his last years, his men- tal powers failed, and he died, after a protracted illness, at Lebanon, Decem- ber 16, 1860, aged seventy-seven years.

EPHRAIM KIBBY.

This pioneer surveyor and soldier was born in New Jersey, midway be- tween Trenton and Newark. Reaching his majority about the commencement of the Revolutionary war, he became a soldier in the struggle for independ- ence, and continued in active service until it ended. Being a land surveyor, he was induced to seek his fortunes in the Miami Purchase. He was one of the colony led by Maj. Benjamin Stites, which made the first settlement in Symmes' Purchase, and laid out the town of Columbia. Kibby was in the boat which brought the party which made the first improvement at Columbia, and which landed near the mouth of the Little Miami in November, 1788. On the 7th of January, 1789, he was one of thirty persons who drew each one outlot and one inlot in the town of Losanteville, now Cincinnati. For several years, he was engaged as one of the surveyors in Symmes' Purchase, and was exposed to imminent dangers from the hostile Indians until Wayne's treaty of peace. He served in the campaigns against the Indians, and in Gen. Wayne's army he was Captain of the rangers. Gen. Wayne, profiting by the experience of St. Clair and Harmar, determined to use the utmost caution in his movements to guard against being surprised. To secure his army against the possibility of being ambuscaded, he employed a number of the best woodmen the country afforded to act as scouts or rangers. Capt. Ephraim Kibby commanded the principal part of this corps, and was commended in McDonald's Sketches as " a bold and intrepid soldier."

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The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 42

Author: W. H. Beers & Co. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1081

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1081