USA > Ohio > The biographical cyclopaedia and portrait gallery with an historical sketch of the state of Ohio. Volume II > Part 54
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MATTHEWS, STANLEY, lawyer and statesman, the son of Thomas J. Matthews, mentioned elsewhere, was born at Cincinnati, July 21st, 1824. After passing his boyhood in Kentucky, he was educated at the Woodward high school and Kenyon college, joining the junior class in the latter in- stitution in 1839, and graduating in August, 1840, in the fall of which year he began the study of law. Having pursued his legal studies during the interval, he went to Maury county, Tennessee, in 1842, and assisted the Rev. John Hudson, a Presbyterian clergyman, in the conduct of a school, near Spring Hill, called the Union seminary. While in Tennessee he was admitted to the bar, and began the practice of his profession at Columbia, where, however, he remained but a short time, having, during his stay, employed his leisure time in editing a weekly political paper, called the Tennessee Dem- ocrat. Returning to Cincinnati in 1844, he was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1845, forming a partnership with Judge Keys and Isaac C. Collins, under the firm name of Matthews, Keys & Collins. The first employment which brought him into notice as a lawyer of promise, was his appointment as assist- ant prosecuting attorney for a term of court, which he re- ceived from the judges through the friendly influence of their president, Judge William B. Caldwell, and from which he dated his early professional success. During the year 1846, however, he temporarily abandoned the law; for, having been a casual reader of the Cincinnati Herald, a daily news- paper then edited by Dr. Gamaliel Bailey, and became a convert to the anti-slavery doctrines for the advancement of which the paper struggled, Mr. Matthews-on the removal of Dr. Bailey to Washington for the purpose of establishing the National Era-undertook the conduct of the Herald himself, and continued in its editorial charge until the winter of 1848, when, having gained some political prominence in the State, through his editorship of the paper, he became clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives for the session during which Salmon P. Chase was first elected United States Senator. He resumed the practice of law in 1850, but in the fall of 1851, at the first election after the adoption of the new State constitution, he was chosen one of the three judges of the court of common pleas of Hamilton county, and served as such until January Ist, 1853. He then resigned the judge- ship and again betook himself to the active business of a lawyer, as one of the firm of Worthington & Matthews,-Mr. Worthington, his senior partner, having been his early legal instructor. In this connection, Judge Matthews continued the practice of his profession until 1861, although, meanwhile elected in the fall of 1855, he served a single term of two years in the Ohio Senate, and afterward, under appointment of President Buchanan in 1858, he filled the office of United States district attorney for the Southern district of Ohio, a position which he resigned shortly after the inauguration of President Lincoln. The war of Secession having begun, Judge Matthews tendered his services to the governor of Ohio, and, in June, 1861, was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 23d regiment of Ohio volunteers, then organizing at Camp Chase, near Columbus, of which W. S. Rosecrans was at the same time made colonel, and Rutherford B. Hayes, major. Lieutenant-Colonel Matthews served in the campaign of West Virginia until October, when he was promoted to the colonelcy of the 51st Ohio, with it reporting for duty to General D. C. Buell, at Louisville, Kentucky. His regiment becoming part of the army of the Cumberland, Colonel Matthews attended it to Tennessee in the division of General Nelson, and acted
as provost marshal of Nashville until early in July, 1862. He then took the field, and was put in command of a brigade consisting of his own regiment, the 8th and 21st Kentucky, the 31st Indiana, and subsequently of the 99th Ohio. Colonel Matthews remained in the service until May, 1863, when he resigned his commission in the army to accept the place of . judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, to which he had been elected, with Judges Storer and Hoadly as his colleagues. Colonel Matthews occupied the position of Superior judge until July, 1864, when resigning it, he again returned to his profession, of which he afterward remained an active and successful member, fairly ranking as one of the leaders of the Ohio bar. Previous to the war of Secession, Judge Matthews was a democrat, but, becoming a republican at its beginning, he did not cease to be a member of that party. In the summer of 1876, Judge Matthews was nominated re- publican candidate for Congress in the second Ohio district, but after a close political struggle, was defeated by his demo- cratic competitor, General Henry B. Banning, whose major- ity, scarcely a hundred, having been obtained, as it was charged, by fraud at the polls, a contest for the seat was de- termined on by Judge Matthews, and notice to that effect was filed by him in the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, however, the memorable Presidential election of 1876 oc- curred, with a result which left it for some months extremely uncertain in the popular mind whether Rutherford B. Hayes, the republican candidate, or Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, the democratic candidate, would be declared elected, the decision depending on the disputed electoral votes of three Southern, and one Western, States. After the formation by Congress of the extraordinary commission composed by mem- bers of Congress, Senators, and judges of the Supreme Court, appointed to count the electoral vote and settle the vexed questions attendant upon this important act, Judge Matthews was chosen one of the republican counsel to argue the dis- puted points before the commission, and in his arguments displayed such legal ability and forensic skill as to attract at- tention and win admiration throughout the country. Partly to this prompt national recognition of his ability, perhaps, may be attributed the fact that after the inauguration of Mr. Hayes, and when the Hon. John Sherman had resigned his seat in the United States Senate to accept the position of Sec- retary of the Treasury, Judge Matthews was at once nomin- ated to complete Mr. Sherman's incompleted term, and was elected by the Ohio Legislature, March 20th, 1877. He served out the term for which he was elected, and was suc- ceeded, March 4th, 1879, by Hon. George H. Pendleton. He ranked high in the Senate as an able debater, and com- manded the attention of the country for his statesmanlike qualities. Upon the retirement of Judge Noah H. Swayne from the bench of the Supreme Court, President Hayes nom- inated Senator Matthews as his successor. This nomination was made only a short time previous to the close of his pres- idential term ; and contrary to usage when one who has been a member of the Senate is nominated to any office, that body, instead of promptly acting on the nomination, referred the matter to the usual committee. The presidential term ended before the committee was ready to report, and the nom- ination was not acted upon. When President Garfield suc- ceeded to the presidency, the name of Senator Matthews was again presented to the Senate for the Supreme Judg- ship. Much factious opposition was manifested against him, even by some members of his own party; but after
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a few days' delay the nomination was confirmed, and the Judge received his commission May 12th, 1881. Judge Matthews possesses intellectual capacities of a high order. Close, comprehensive mental power, strength of will, and self-asserting force, are among the qualities which most dis- tinguished him. He is a well trained and diligent student, a fine speaker, and a ready debater. In oral and written speech he excels in clearness and force of statement, in apt selection of language, and in the logical order and complete- ness of his discourse. He is, moreover, a man of well regu- lated life, of high aims, and laudable ambition. Belonging to the Presbyterian church, he is a member of the general assembly which met at Newark, New Jersey, in 1864, and in that body drew up and assisted in securing the adoption of the report and resolutions which committed the church to the policy of emancipation. Judge Matthews married, in Febru- ary, 1843, Miss Mary, daughter of James Black, of Spring Hill, Maury county, Tennessee, and of this union ten children were the issue. The five eldest died ; the names of the sur- vivors are, William Mortimer, Jeanie, Eva, Grace, and Paul.
BARBER, GERSHOM MORSE, lawyer and jurist, Cleveland, Ohio, was born in Groton, Cayuga County, New York, October 2d, 1823. His parents were Phineas B., son of Benjamin and Thankful Barber, and Orpha, daughter of Judge Gershom Morse, for whom the subject of this sketch was named. They removed to Ohio in 1830, coming from Buffalo by sail vessel, the trip occupying seven days. They landed at Huron, in what is now Erie County. The removal to Ohio was at the earnest desire of Mrs. Barber, that her children might have better opportunities of education under the Ohio free school system, than in New York, where no such system was then in existence. The family settled in Berlin Township, Huron County, now Erie, on a farm, all of which, except one acre around which was a brush fence and in the middle a log house, was a dense forest. Gershom lived there and helped clear the farm, until fifteen years of age. The last work done by him on the farm was to clear ten acres of heavily timbered land, plow, and sow it to wheat. When ripe, he returned and harvested it. At the age of fifteen, with only such education as a three months' term of country school each winter would afford, he left home to obtain an education by his own exertions. By teaching winters and studying summers he prepared for college at Norwalk Sem- inary, then under the presidency of Rev. Edward Thomson, afterward bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Hav- ing completed his preparation for college, he had no means with which even to begin his college course, and no friends able to aid him. Accordingly he went to Kentucky, and taught a select school in Shelby County, and thus obtained money enough to get him fairly started. He entered Western Reserve College, at Hudson, Ohio, in 1846, and completed the freshman and sophomore years. He found his opportunities for study seriously impaired by difficulties among the college authorities, in which his class was to some extent involved, and which afterward resulted in the removal of the president. He took an honorable dismission, and entered the junior class at Michigan University, in 1848, where he graduated in 1850. He always stood first in his class in mathematics and the natural sciences, and was a good Latin and Greek scholar. He had a special liking for the modern languages, the study of which he commenced at Western Reserve, outside of his college course, under Professor Karl Ruger, and continued
under Louis Fasquelle, the author of "Fasquelle's French Course," at Michigan University, where he became master of the German, French, and Spanish languages. Immediately upon graduation he took the position of professor of mathe- matics and languages in Baldwin Institute (now Univer- sity), at Berea, Ohio. He remained connected with that institution (two years of the time as principal) until 1856. When he took control of the institution as principal it was heav- ily in debt ; but, by careful and judicious management, when he turned it over into other hands, all the debts were paid, and a considerable sum was in the treasury. During his con- nection with the school he always devoted the time between five and seven o'clock in the morning to the study of his future profession. In 1856 he resigned, to complete his prepara- tion for and to enter upon the practice of law. He studied under the direction of Hon. Samuel B. Prentiss (since that time for fifteen years Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, of Cuyahoga County), and was admitted to the bar in 1857. He was in the military service of the United States during the Rebellion, from October, 1862, to the close of the war. He entered as second lieutenant, October 12th, 1862 ; was elected captain of the 5th Independent Company of Ohio Volunteer Sharpshooters, which position he held until April, 1865; appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 197th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which he organized and took to the field, and was in command of it during most of the time until it was dis- banded, in August of that year. His military service was principally with the sharpshooters, of which he commanded a battalion, consisting of the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th Inde- pendent Companies, from March, 1863, to April, 1865. He took part in all the marches and battles of the Army of the Cumberland, during that period, being attached to head- quarters from the day he reported to General Rosecrans, at Murfreesboro, until April, 1865. He was personally recom- mended by General Thomas for promotion, and at the ter- mination of the war received a brevet-commission as brigadier- general of volunteers. He was president of the Military Examining Court, under General Hancock, in June and July, 1865, which held its sessions at Dover and Wilmington, Delaware, and Havre de Grace and Baltimore, Maryland. While stationed at Dover, in the State of Delaware, in com- mand of the 197th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a slave ran away from his master, and hired as servant to one of the officers of his command. The master came to Colonel Barber with an order from the Governor of the State of Delaware, directing the commanding officer of the brigade stationed there to surrender the slave to his master. The order was indorsed by the brigade commander to permit the master to take his slave, if found in his command. He at once sent to the officer who had hired the slave, and di- rected him to come with the colored man to head-quarters, which he did. The man identified " his property," and ordered him to accompany him home. Colonel Barber asked the slave if he wished to go. He answered in the negative. He was directed to return to his quarters, and the claimant was notified that he could not take him out of that camp. He referred to the Governor's order, and asked if it would not be obeyed, suggesting that the Governor would take steps to compel obedience to it. He was informed that the Governor of Delaware had no jurisdiction in that camp, and that unless he got out of it and into the State of Delaware promptly he would be given quarters in the guard house. He acted on the word, and whatever efforts the
N.A. Mussey.
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Governor may have taken to secure obedience to his order no other attempt was made to recover the boy, and he came with the regiment to Ohio, where he was finally discharged a free man. After the close of the war Gen- eral Barber devoted himself entirely to his profession, and accumulated a large practice. In .1869 he formed a partner- ship with W. W. Andrews, Esq., which continued until 1873, when he was elected Judge of the Superior Court of Cleve- land. During the existence of the firm of Barber & Andrews it received its share of the important business in both federal and State courts. In 1865 the Superior Court was abolished and its business transferred to the Common Pleas, and three additional judges were provided for in that court. To one of these positions he was elected, and took his seat on the Common Pleas bench November Ist, 1875. In 1880, his term of five years having expired, he was re-elected, and is now filling a second term, having, at this date, occupied the position of Judge of the Superior and Common Pleas Courts ten years. During that period he has decided some of the most important and sharply-contested cases ever tried in Cuyahoga County, among which are those known as the "Pelton Park" case, the "Forest City Land and Building Association " case, and the "Standard Oil" case. The Toledo Commercial said editorially of the District Court of which Judge Barber was the presiding judge in 1879:
" The Judges of the late District Court seem to have gained the universal respect and admiration of the bar, for their learning and conscientious and laborious investigation of cases argued before them. To their other qualities were added a courtesy and kind attention to all, which com- bined to make the term one of the most pleasant and satis- factory ever held in Lucas County."
An editorial of the Cleveland Leader, reviewing the public officers of Cuyahoga County, speaking of Judges Prentiss and Barber, said :
"The other Judges of the Common Pleas are Hon. Samuel B. Prentiss and Hon. G. M. Barber. The former has long been officially connected with the courts of the county, and years ago acquired the reputation of being one of the fair- est as well as ablest judges in the State. The latter is much younger as a Judge, but has a remarkably clear and logical head. He was formerly a general in the army, and resided for a while in Berea. He was one of the Judges of the Superior Court of Cleveland, and when that died was elected Judge of the Common Pleas Court of the county. Both of these gentlemen are entitled to larger notices."
Again, in 1880, the Leader said:
" Judge Barber has been on the bench seven years, and has a good record for care, fairness, and impartiality in the hearing of causes. No man has a keener sense of the obligations which the judicial position imposes, and none endeavor more faithfully to regard them."
The Cleveland Herald said, in 1880 :
" Judge Barber in his past services has given eminent sat- isfaction to all who have come in contact with him. · As a soldier, a citizen, a lawyer, and a Judge he needs no introduction to a people among whom so many years of his usefulness have been spent. A member of the late Superior Court, he was placed by popular vote upon the bench of the Common Pleas, and has made a just and able admin- istrator of public justice during his occupancy of that high position."
Amid all the. duties of professional and official life Judge Barber has found time for literary and scientific study, the love of which increases with his years, his favorite studies being the natural sciences, Latin, and French. He has ever been the advocate of the public school system of the State.
While a member of the City Council of Cleveland, in 1871-73, he was part of the time chairman of the Committee on Schools, and gave much attention to the wants of the schools, and secured the passage of several measures which have contributed largely to their success. His theory of education is that the school training of the youth should be provided for and controlled by the State; that while colleges and uni- versities under religious denominations or particular associa- tions of people should be promoted and encouraged, every boy and girl, whether of rich or poor parents, should have the same opportunity of reaching the highest grade of secular education, and so stand upon an equality with all others in the pursuits of life. Commencing with the primary grades, they should be led through the grammar school, the high school, the college, and the university, at the public cost, so far as teachers, text-books, libraries, and apparatus are concerned, leaving the matter of board and clothing to their own efforts or their parents and friends. In such a school system he believes the hope for the future stability of our State and government to consist. Another subject upon which he has positive opinions is that of taxation. In his view the burdens of government should be borne equally by all, in proportion to their wealth. No species of property should be exempt. Even that which belongs to the govern- ment, including schools, asylums, cemeteries, court-houses, and jails, parks, etc., should like other estate be entered upon the tax duplicate, and pay taxes the same as private property. Judge Barber is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has been honored by the degree of Master of Arts from the Ohio Wesleyan University. He is a Republican in politics, but liberal toward all parties. He married July Ist, 1851, Huldah Lavinia Seeley, daughter of Jehiel Seeley, of Berlin, Erie County, Ohio. Their children are Clarence M., now chief engineer of the Tuscarawas Val- ley Railroad; Ida E., deceased ; Marion L .; Arthur W .; and Ernest G., deceased.
MUSSEY, WILLIAM HEBERDEN, M. D., M. A., surgeon, born at Hanover, New Hampshire, September 30th, 1818. His literary and classical education was received in the New England academies ; and his medical education was completed in Paris, after a thorough course of study under his distinguished father, and the usual curriculum of the Ohio Medical College, where he was graduated in 1848. Prior to adopting the profession of medicine, he engaged, for a short period, in mercantile life, but found the occupation unsuited to his tastes. He was associated with his father in practice until the breaking out of the war of Secession, when, imme- diately on the arrival of the intelligence of the firing on Sumter, he sought and obtained permission of Secretary Chase to establish a volunteer army hospital in Cincinnati. This he accomplished by occupying and furnishing the Marine Hospital on Lock street. He raised the necessary funds by private contributions, organized the hospital under the neces- sary boards of management, brought it into an effective work- ing condition, and, at the end of three months, turned over to the United States Government the first and one of the best volunteer hospitals the country possessed during the entire war. He was subsequently called upon by the parent organ- ization to establish the Cincinnati branch of the United States Sanitary Commission, which he did most successfully. He then offered his services as surgeon to the government gratis, as long as the war should last. His offer being refused, he
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repaired to Washington, was examined and commissioned as brigade surgeon, with the promise that he should assume the charge of the hospital he had founded in Cincinnati. But after arriving home he was ordered to the front, and, as med- ical director of a division in General Buell's army, he joined the forces in the field, and served at the battles of Pittsburg Landing and Corinth. He was then promoted as medical inspector, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel United States army, and after serving at the second battle of Bull Run and the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburgh. he made a tour of inspection, during which he inspected every regiment from Washington to Florida. In the various military duties as- signed to him, he was considered one of the most efficient medical officers in the service. In 1865 he was appointed professor of surgery in the Miami Medical College, a posi- tion which he retained until his death. He was also ap- pointed surgeon to the Cincinnati Hospital, in 1863; vice- president of the American Medical Association, in 1864; surgeon to St. John's Hotel for Invalids, in 1855; surgeon- general of the State of Ohio, in 1876; and president of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History, in 1876. In all these positions he gave universal satisfaction. In literary matters, Dr. Mussey was a valuable contributor to the medical so- cieties and magazines. As a writer he was forcible and lucid, qualities which, added to patience and thoroughness, should also be accorded to him in his character as a lecturer. He cherished a deep reverence for and admiration of the character of his father, Dr. Reuben D. Mussey, whose noble traits he largely inherited. With the valuable museum of osteological pathology and a large library of rare medical works left him by his father, to both which he made numerous additions, he founded " The Mussey Medical and Scientific Library," in the Cincinnati Public Library. He resembled his father in some of his most striking characteristics. Like him, he was severely honest. If, in his opinion, the condi- tion of a patient was such as to render medical treatment unnecessary, or if, through the utter hopelessness of a case it seemed to him that no hope of recovery could possibly be entertained, he promptly and plainly stated the facts, and advised that further expense for medical aid should not be incurred. He was also religiously careful and thorough in his operations, and distinguished for sound judgment, fertility of resources, ingenuity of contrivance, and gentleness of manipulation. A man of method, he was always rather slow, but very sure-prepared for emergencies or mishaps. Frankness being one of his chief virtues, he was ever willing and anxious to acknowledge and atone for an injustice he might have unwittingly done another. Politically, he attended strictly to the observance of his duties as a citizen. Socially, he was a Christian gentleman-charitable, genial, and hos- pitable; and again, like his father, he possessed a large and benevolent heart, which dispensed substantial benefit to per- sonsand purposes needing professional or pecuniary assistance. " Conscientious carefulness," says one of his associates, "was the rule of his life, both private and professional. He was thoroughly devoted to his patients, and his careful after- treatment was as much the secret of his success in surgery as his accuracy of diagnosis and skillful use of the knife. He took a deep interest in the progress of medical science, and contributed largely to its literature. His interest in the young men whom he instructed did not cease with the end of the lecture term. But he kept their addresses, corre- sponded with many of them, filed and numbered their ex-
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