USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume I > Part 51
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He was married April 27th, 1853, to Miss Mary C. Carpenter, daughter of Dr. Eber G. Carpenter, of Athens, and has issue of five children.
HANNA, JUDGE JOHN E., was born December 19th, 1805, in Westmoreland county, State of Pennsylvania. His father, John Hanna, was a farmer, living on the bank of the Youghiogheny River, being the son of John Hanna, the proprietor of Hannastown, the first seat of justice for West- moreland county, which was destroyed by the Indians at an early day, Greensburg afterwards becoming and remaining the county-seat. The father moved with the subject of this article to Cadiz, in Harrison county, Ohio, in the spring of 1815, and was the first auditor of Harrison county, and sub- sequently an associate judge in that county. John E. Hanna was educated at the Cadiz Academy, and read law with Hon. C. Dewey, being admitted to the practice of law by the su- preme court, September 25th, 1825, and located in McCon- nelsville, in Morgan county, in the spring of 1826, where he commenced the practice of his profession. He was first appointed by the court of common pleas prosecuting attor- ney, and afterwards twice elected to the same office. In September, A. D. 1834, he was elected general of the 4th brigade and 3d division of Ohio Militia, a position he held until after he was elected judge. In 1838 he was chosen to the legislature, and re-elected in 1839. In 1840 he was elected by the legislature president judge of the eighth judi- cial district of the court of common pleas, then composed of the counties of Morgan, Washington, Athens, Meigs, Gallia, Lawrence, and Scioto, holding this position for seven years, when the whigs, having the majority in the legislature, he lost his election, as he was always known to be a decided democrat; and the Hon. Arius Nye, of Marietta, was chosen his successor on the bench, and by the adoption of the Con- stitution of 1851 the county of Morgan was taken from its former judicial connection. He was married twice. His first wife was a Miss Robertson, of St. Clairsville, by whom he had four sons and two daughters. His eldest son lives in Cadiz, and is a bookseller; his second is in San Fran- cisco, California; his third is in Nebraska; and his fourth is a practicing lawyer in St. Joseph, Missouri. His sec- ond wife was the daughter of the Rev. William Swayze, a man who had considerable reputation as a revival preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the northeastern part of the State. Judge Hanna is the oldest lawyer in the Mus- kingum Valley, and now enjoys good health. He bids fair to be able to give several years to the practice of his profes- sion, to which he is much attached.
BROWN, HENRY THOMAS, lawyer, Athens, is a native of the place named, and is the son of Judge Archi- bald G. and Priscilla (Crippen) Brown. The history of the Brown family in America dates to the comparatively re- mote period of 1686, when William Brown came over from England and settled in Massachusetts in the village of Hatfield, where he engaged in farming pursuits. He reared a large family of children, and a son, Captain John Brown, settled in Leicester, Massachusetts, where he acquired prominence in the direction of public affairs, and was a representative in the general court for a period of twenty years. He had been a soldier in the French wars, and com- manded a company in the Louisbourg expedition in 1745. His son, Captain Benjamin Brown, who was grandfather of
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our subject, was a distinguished Revolutionary officer. His military record is in brief as follows and is from memoranda prepared by Judge Ephraim Cutler. In February, 1775, he joined in forming a regiment of minute men in Hampshire County, commanded by Colonel Barnard, and on April 21st the regiment marched to Concord under Lieutenant-colonel Williams, of Northfield, Benjamin serving as quartermaster. At Cambridge he took a lieutenant's commission in Colonel William Prescott's regiment, Massachusetts line, in which he continued until the close of the year 1776, when he was pro- moted to a captaincy and served in Colonel Michael Jack- son's regiment till the latter part of 1779, when he resigned and went home. Captain Brown had been engaged in nearly all the battles preceding Burgoyne's surrender, and was often selected to perform hazardous duties by his superior officers. His services at all times were characterized by gallantry and daring. On one occasion he carried a wounded brother from the field on his back in the midst of heavy firing. He was with the party engaged in moving the stock from Noddle's Island, and burning the British packet Diana on Malden Ways, near Boston ; participated in several engagements during the evacuation of New York Island in 1776; was in the battle of White Plains and present at the taking of Hack- ensack, under General Parsons; in 1777 commanded the detachment which captured Walter Butler and his party, and was subsequently with the party sent to raise the siege of Fort Stanwix. He was offered the position of aid-de-camp on General De Kalb's staff, but declined. Our subject's father, Judge A. G. Brown, acquired exceptional prominence as a lawyer and jurist. In 1850 he was appointed president-judge of the Eighth Judicial District before the adoption of the new constitution, and served in the constitutional convention of 1850. He founded the Athens Mirror, the first paper pub- lished in Athens County, and has served on the board of trus- tees of the Ohio University since 1839. The subject of this sketch was educated in the Ohio University, and afterward read law, and was admitted to the bar in 1850. His practice is in all the courts of his section, but is exclusively civil, and he gives especial attention to the settlement of estates. Dur- ing the war of the Rebellion he took an active part. He went out with the 14Ist Ohio National Guard, as first lieu- tenant and regimental quartermaster, and made a creditable record. He is a member of the Order of Odd-fellows and is prominent in the direction of the affairs of the society. He was married in 1847 to Miss Charlotte M. Fuller, and has six children, five of whom are living.
ADAMS, JARVIS M., of Cleveland, railroad president and attorney-at-law, was born in Whitehall, Washington County, New York, August 26, 1827. His father, Robert Adams, was born in Londonderry, New Hampshire, and moved when about nine years of age with his father, John Adams, to Whitehall about the close of the last century. The fam- ily were from the vicinity of Londonderry, Ireland, and the ancestors of John Adams emigrated to this country with the original colony from the counties of Antrim and Armagh, and founded Londonderry, New Hampshire. John, before moving to Whitehall, had acquired a considerable tract of land there, most of which still belongs to members of the family. His nearest neighbor was Enoch Wright, whose daughter Lucy was married by Robert. The Wrights were from the vicinity of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and were. of Puritan stock. The Adams family were originally Scotch
Presbyterians, and in Robert and Lucy the Scotch Presbyte- rian and the English Puritan were united. They established a homestead and farm of two hundred and sixty acres par- tially carved out of the original estates of their respective parents, and this farm still belongs to the family. Here they reared a family of nine children, of whom Jarvis M. was the second. The family was reared in the strictest habits of economy and to pay great attention to religious observances. Sunday was "Sabbath-day," though not exactly a day of rest. All of the family who were able to do so attended two religious services each Sunday; with an intermission between of one hour occupied with Sunday-school, and then after dinner came catechising in the "Assembly's Catechism." Mr. Adams remembers a time when it was considered wicked to exhibit any signs of mirth or read any thing but religious books or papers on Sunday. The family subscribed for the New York Observer with the first number, and have contin- ued it to the present time. In later years the observance of the Sabbath has become modified, not only in this family, but with all others. The father, Robert Adams, was a man of sound sense and character, with a cultivated and devel- oped taste for literature, in which he had the sympathy of his wife, the two being of a strong literary turn of mind. He had collected a few good works, and in co-operation with the farmers of the vicinity, established a library which was rich in the best reading of the times of Addison and John- son. Jarvis M. not being of a robust constitution seems to have been not much relied upon for work, and was left to gratify his natural taste for reading, which was morbid. Before he was twelve he had devoured all the books except those of a strictly religious character that came within his reach. He attended the district school and an occasional select school of the neighborhood until he was about eighteen years of age, when he entered Castleton Seminary, a board- ing school of Castleton, Vermont, where he spent two years in preparing for college, entering Williams in the fall of 1847, and graduating in 1851. He studied law for two years with Hon. Robert Potter, of Whitehall, and was admitted to the bar at Plattsburgh, New York, in July, 1853. He came imme- diately to Cleveland with a view to practicing his profession there, but finding that he must be a resident of the State for a year before he could practice under the State law, he taught an academy at Atwater, Portage County, Ohio, for six months. In the spring of 1854 he returned to Cleveland and served as a deputy in the clerk's office, and in February, 1855, he opened an office in Cleveland, where he has since remained in the practice of law, first in the firm known as Adams & Canfield, later in the firms of Otis, Coffinberry & Adams, Otis & Adams, Otis, Adams & Russell, and Adams & Rus- sell. The late W. S. C. Otis was a long time his senior part- ner. His practice has been largely in railroad law, having been counsel for several railroads, and employed in a num- ber of important railroad foreclosure proceedings, of which he had direction. In October, 1881, he became president of the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad, a position he still holds. April 10, 1861, he was married to Ada, daughter of Ferdinand Walker, Esq., of Brooklyn, New York. They have one daughter, Emma E. As a lawyer Mr. Adams ranks high, more particularly as pertaining to railroad interests. His knowledge of the law is profound. Gifted with a natural taste for study, he has applied it to the development of his mind and abilities in his chosen profes- sion. He is a ripe scholar and a polished gentleman, and
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Very truly yours R. A. Harrison.
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possesses a remarkable degree of forensic and executive ability. He is also a man highly regarded for his pureness of purpose and integrity of personal character. Of good presence and pleasing address, he is now in the prime of life and the enjoyment of good health, and has the confidence and respect of all who know him. To his early home train- ing, where he imbibed, both by example and precept, high principles of life and action, must be largely attributed his success in life.
HARRISON, RICHARD A., born April 8th, 1824, is a native of Thirsk, Yorkshire, England, whence, with his parents, he emigrated to Clarke County, Ohio, in 1832. His transplanting was auspicious. There, without fortune or in- fluential friends, Gray's touching line,-
" Chill penury repressed his noble rage,"
might have told the story of his life ; here, energy and manly bearing supplied both, and a conspicuous page in the annals of an honored profession will record it. By fidelity to trust as " carrier" and "devil" to the Springfield Republic, he laid the foundation of his subsequent character ; by application to study at the village school and the humble academy of Rev. Chandler Robbins. he acquired the mental discipline and the rudiments of that after-acquired knowledge which sustain and adorn it. Although cast upon his own re- sources at the age of twelve, his typographical skill was suf- ficient to support him and advance his youthiful ambition. His life illustrates the fact that printing is the most encyclo- pedic of arts, as the printing-office is among the best places of instruction. In diffusing knowledge the pupil acquires it; and, in preparing the instruments for educating others, educates himself. Some of the best educated men received their degrees at the printers' college. Despite the adver- sities of early fortune, Mr. Harrison's progress was as rapid as his rise has been steady and permanent. He was en- tered as a student at law in the office of the late distin- guished Wm. A. Rodgers, in 1844; graduated from the Cin- cinnati Law School, and subsequently admitted to the bar by justices Hitchcock and Wood, in 1846; established in the practice of his profession at London, Madison County, in 1848; elected therefrom to the Ohio House of Representa- tives in 1857; advanced to the Senate by the Clarke sen- atorial district, in 1859; chosen to the seat in Congress made vacant by the resignation of Governor Thomas Cor- win, in 1861 ; nominated for judge of the Supreme Court, but with his colleagues on the ticket defeated in 1870; ap- pointed by Governor Hayes, and by the Senate confirmed, a member of the Supreme Court Commission of Ohio, which he declined, in 1875; and is now associated with his son-in- law, Mr. Marsh, and Judge Joseph Olds in the eminently successful practice of the law, under the firm name of Har- rison, Olds & Marsh, at the city of Columbus, where he located in 1873. In the Ohio House of Representatives which convened in January, 1858, Mr. Harrison first ap- peared on the political stage, with Judge J. A. Ambler, of Columbiana, Judge W. H. West, of Logan, the gifted R. M. Briggs, of Fayette, the courteous and scholarly James Mon- roe, of Lorain, the late Judge Collins, of Cincinnati, and Justice William B. Woods, now of the United States Supreme Bench. It will not be regarded invidious to record that in this group of young men, all of whom have since been more or less distinguished, Mr. Harrison occupied no subordinate
rank. Judge Rankin, of Columbus, a man of very superior natural endowments, but an older man, was also a member of the House. Messrs. Harrison, Ambler, Rankin, and Collins were members of the committee on the judiciary. As a member of this committee Mr. Harrison's legal learn- ing and sound judgment were recognized. These were gen- erally directed to reforming the law of estates, and reliev- ing the courts from the embarrassments in which a vicious judicial system had already involved them. He introduced the act concerning the relation of guardian and ward and the act providing for the semi-annual payment of taxes. Little opportunity, however, was given for forensic display, party lines being closely drawn, and measures of import- ance, especially those of a political nature, being generally ma- tured in the caucus and spurred through the House without public consideration. It was not until near the close of the second session that Mr. Harrison's great powers in debate found expression. The report of the commission raised in the preceding session to investigate the treasury defalcation sought to implicate and smirch the reputation of Governor Chase. In his special message communicating the report to the House, the governor called attention to its invidious crit- icisms. To rebuke him, it was moved to print the report without the message. On this motion Mr. Harrison obtained the floor, and the report went forth shorn of its intended political significance. The indomitable pertinacity of Mr. Harrison's character is shown by an incident which occurred during the delivery of this speech. At its climax, hemor- rhage of his lungs alarmed his friends, but despite their im- portunities he swept to the conclusion and retired from the hall exhausted, and it was feared to die. The Senate of 1860-61 was distinguished for ability and the brilliancy of its young members. In it Judge T. C. Jones, Col. T. M. Key, Gen. J. D. Cox, and the late President Garfield, of whom Mr. Harrison was colleague and the recognized peer, made their political advent. Its session of 1861 will be ever memorable in history. To it were submitted for consideration and prompt action questions of the grandest national importance. Among these were the measures to strengthen the public credit, to raise and equip armies, to provide the ways and means for the common defense and the maintenance of the Union in all its integrity. To these Mr. Harrison gave effi- cient and zealous support. With much pride he cherishes the recollection of his efforts to avert the storm of war before it burst upon the country, and that at his special request the venerable Thomas Ewing, whose great ability as jurist and statesman he held in just estimation, was named as one of the commissioners appointed by Ohio in response to the in- vitation of Virginia for a congress of the States to consider the impending crisis. The patriotic spirit of the resolutions presented to the Senate by him after the storm burst, thank- ing President Lincoln for his course and pledging the mate- rial and moral power of the State to his support, merits for him a just immortality. The physical frailty of Mr. Harri- son unfitted him for the field to which his illustrious col- leagues, Key, Cox, and Garfield, were transferred. On re- quest of his constituency to succeed Governor Corwin, he took his seat in Congress at the called session of July, 1861. The acts of that Congress have passed into history and are familiar to all. The great measures of peace, of war, and of finance, which commanded its attention and approval, re- ceived from him that support which love of country inspired. But the opportunity for distinction is rarely accorded to a
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young member in a single term; especially in a body com- posed, as that was, of men the most eminent of their time- veteran statesmen grown hoary in the harness. By the ap- portionment of 1862, Madison County was attached to the Franklin District, in which he was succeeded by Mr. S. S. Cox, and the fourth day of March, 1863, closed- his political career. But it is of the lawyer and jurist, rather than of the statesman or politician, that this sketch is intended. The op- portunities of Mr. Harrison, while pursuing his legal studies, were most fortunate. The bench of Springfield was adorned by the modest learning of Judge J. R. Swan, its bar by the sterling qualities of Edward Cummings, the courtly dignity of Sampson Mason, and the brilliant genius and gifted versa- tility of William A. Rodgers. The lessons of precept and of example derived from these model "gentlemen of the old school," ripened into fixed and most agreeable traits of pro- fessional character. Not less fortunate was the opening of Mr. Harrison's professional career. The ancient "circuit practice" had for him a fascination which yet continues. The intricate system of land titles, peculiar to the Virginia Reservation, within which his "circuit " lay, had not ceased to be a fruitful source of litigation. The magnitude of individ- ual estates in the Scioto Valley often gave rise to contro- versies about their succession. His rapid rise at the bar soon opened to him these fields of legal contention, in which he was early accustomed to encounter, and often successfully contend with, ex-Justice Swayne, Mr. John W. Andrews, Mr. P. B. Wilcox, Governor Nelson Barrere, the lamented Judges Briggs, Sloane, and. Dickey, Mr. Jonathan Rennick, distin- guished for great good sense, the late Hocking H. Hunter, and to occasionally meet the venerable Thomas Ewing. In these rencounters he early learned that there could be no ex- cellence without labor; that undisciplined genius may tran- siently soar, but only toil can maintain the ascent it makes. To have once achieved success in these contests was worth ambition; to maintain the conflict on equal terms through a succession of years was its goal. To this he bent his powers, and has not been disappointed. Jealous a mistress as is the law, he paid her assiduous devotion, crowning her with gar- lands gathered from every department of her domain. Study- ing her precepts as a system of philosophy, he applied them as a science, not as an art. Not omitting to cultivate famil- iarity with adjudicated cases, it was rather to extract from each its underlying principle than to employ it unintelligently as judicial ipse dixit. Aided in this by strong sense, quick perception, discriminating judgment, and great power of analysis, he has united familiarity with the intricacies of pro- cedure to a substantial mastery of judicial construction and interpretation, and the general principles governing in the adjudication of the multiform rights which spring from the ever-colliding relations of life. It is the regret of the profes- sion that Mr. Harrison's legal learning and judicial mind have not found recognition on the supreme bench, which he is so well fitted to adorn. The offer of this he has steadily declined, except once, under circumstances which made con- sent equivalent to declination. Devotion to his profession has not excluded Mr. Harrison from other domains of learn- ing and thought. He has ever cultivated the companionship of books, of solid worth, however, whether of science, letters, history, or fiction. As in law, Mansfield and Marshall have been his preceptors, so the ancient and modern classics, Cicero, Erskine, and Webster, in oratory ; Plato, Bacon, and Buckle, in philosophy; Hallam, Gibbon, and Prescott, in his-
tory ; Addison, Carlyle, Macaulay, and Irving, in essay; and Fielding, Scott, and Shakespeare, in fiction and the drama, with authors of their class, have been his companions, whose wit and wisdom and beauties have enriched and adorned his legal discourse. Formed on the model of Erskine, whom he prefers to Cicero, Mr. Harrison's style is logical, terse, and compact, though not barren of illustration and embel- lishment. His singularly agreeable voice, distinct enuncia- tion, candor of statement, and great earnestness of manner, win sympathy, secure confidence, and carry conviction. In this, hardly less than in the logic of his words, lies the secret of his success. But the magic of his power is the courage of conscious right, and the boldness of thorough preparation, which distinguish him. Armed with these his attack is di- rect, pinioning wrong by exposing its deformity, and rearing about justice a fortress of truth. Mastery of self is the strength of his armor. Ever subordinating temper, his quick- ness of repartee and keenness of sarcasm render him invul- nerable; yet so playfully and pleasantly does he employ these weapons that, while their victim rarely wishes to pro- voke their second employment, his repartee punctures with- out sting, and his sarcasm cuts without wounding. The person of Mr. Harrison, though not striking, is of marked individuality. A raven crown, now silvering with years, a well formed head, intellectually developed, an eye of blue, lighting with humor or kindling with animation, a face of Saxon complexion, with features regular and expressive, sur- mounting a physique less stalwart than delicate, poising with easy grace or moving with deliberate and thoughtful step, outline his portrait. His domestic relations have proved as pleasant as his professional career has been brilliant. Maria Louisa Warner, who plighted to him her young vow, has been to him both helpmate and companion, lighting his home with happiness, and adorning it with household gods, the jewels of the Roman matron. His intercourse with his breth- ren of the bar has been distinguished for its high and del- icate sense of professional honor, and the unaffected con- stancy with which its amenities are observed. His kindly and considerate regard for his juniors, his deferential respect for his seniors, and his courteous bearing towards those of his own rank, have won for him the friendship of all, the enmity of none. For this most estimable trait of professional character he often expresses himself indebted to his precep- tor, Judge Rodgers, deceased, and his eminent and venerable brethren, Judge J. R. Swan, Mr. J. W. Andrews, Mr. P. B. Wilcox, and ex-Justice Swayne, at whose hands his youth received so many acts of kindness, and from whose lips so many words of encouragement. But it is in the circles of friendship where restraint yields to confidence that Mr. Har- rison's qualities of head and heart are exhibited in their most charming light. Only here, when his inimitable powers of dramatic action and narration indulge in reproducing the anecdotes of the bench and bar, or quaint stories gathered from "the circuit " are seen and felt, a wit as sparkling as it is chaste, a humor as genial as it is rich, and a sense of the ludicrous as keen as it is delightful. A pleasanter compan- ionship was scarcely found in Charles Lamb. The tribute of having rendered some service to the State, or honored a noble profession, is, however, not all nor the highest which history will accord to Mr. Harrison. His character is fuller, wider, and nobler than this. As man and citizen, he has so endeavored to deport his life, so to dispense its better offices and sweeter charities, that when he comes "to draw the
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