USA > Ohio > Champaign County > The history of Champaign and Logan counties : from their first settlement > Part 26
USA > Ohio > Logan County > The history of Champaign and Logan counties : from their first settlement > Part 26
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The business in the Courts of the United States from these coun- ties was limited, but there, too, Mr. Stanton was conspicuous.
An interesting little volume might be written to preserve inei- dents of the profession and practice in this region during the forty years past; but the materials for it are fast being lost, as one by one the older members of the bar depart. Ohio has had many able lawyers. But this part of the State has also had an able bar- not inferior to that of any other portion of the State. I will not speak of those who yet reside here, for the time for that has not yet come.
But Sampson Mason, Charles Anthony, William A. Rogers, of Springfield, Israel Hamilton, Moses B. Corwin, John A. Corwin, of Urbana, Patrick G. Goode, of Sidney, William C. Lawrence, of Marysville, and others, all practiced law here. They are all dead, except Moses B. Corwin, who still lives at a very advanced age. They were all respectable as lawyers-several of them men of great intellect, and really profound lawyers. They were cotem- poraries of Stanton for many years.
In this country many of the leading members of the bar become leaders, also, in the political arena. Stanton was no exception, for he, too, took a prominent and vetive part in politics. He was first elected Prosecuting Attorney for Logan county not long after he came here to reside. In October, 1841, he was elected to the Sen- ate of the State. A special session was held in the summer of 1842, to district the State for Representatives in Congress. The Demo- eratie party had a majority in the General Assembly of the State. They were about to pass through a bill 'so districting the State as to "gerrymander" it in the interest of the Democratic party, when, to prevent that consummation, most of the Whig members of the Senate, including Mr. Stanton, resigned, and thus the Sen- ate was left without a quorum. The passage of the bill was there- by defeated. Mr. Stanton was again nominated for the Senate, and again elected in October, 1842. The political contest of that year was one of the most severely contested ever witnessed in the State. But the Democratic party maintained their political ascen- dancy. As we look back from this day, it may well be doubted whether the resignation was the proper means of defeating even so unjust a bill as was pending when that event occurred ; but one thing is certain, in the excited political discussions of 1842, no one
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of the resigning members made an abler defense of this course shan did Mr. Stanton.
On this subject Israel Hamilton, of Urbana, for a time U'nited States District Attorney for Ohio, met Mr. Stanton in debate in Bellefontaine, during the canvass. The contest was one of the ablest ever listened to by a Logan county audience. Mr. Hamil- ton was an able lawyer, and a man of great power. The discussion as often happens in such cases, made no converts for either side, but it seemed rather to confirm the friends of cach political party in the positions they had taken. And if on that one question, aº on some others, the old Whig party was wrong, Mr. Stanton, in the debate alluded to, did almost if not quite "make the worse ap- pearthe better cause."
In April, 1850, Mr. Stanton was elected a delegate to the Ohio Constitutional Convention, which framed the Constitution of 1-51. In October, 1850, he was elected a Representative in Congress. Ho was re-elected in 1854, and again in 1856, and again in 1858, after which he declined to be a candidate, having served eight years. He was, during the Thirty-fifth Congress, appointed one of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and during the Thirty- eighth Congress he was Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs.
In 1862 he received the unsought nomination of Republican can- didate for Lieutenant-Governor of Ohio, was elected on the same ticket with David Tod for Governor, and served two years. In 1860 he was prominently spoken of as a candidate for the United States Senate, and for that position had the support of influential men, but the choice fell to Hon. John Sherman, who has since to long served in that capacity as to be known wherever the Sen- ate is known.
About 1866 Mr. Stanton determined to locate in West Virginia. "The rebellion had closed, leaving that State with but a limited supply of "loyal lawyers."
Since I prepared the last number of reminiscences of the bar of Logan County, I have procured a copy of the speech of Hon. B. Stanton at the Bar Meeting in Bellefontaine, on the occasion of the death of Hon. Anthony Casad. Judge Casad died at his rowi- dence in Bellefontaine, October 11, 1861. His disense was dy-pop- si8. I first saw him in May, 1836, when I was a hoy on a visit to
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Bellefontaine. On that occasion there was a trial held in the Court House, before Robert Patterson, then a Justice of the Peace. Hiram McCartney was attorney for the plaintiff, Benjamin Stan- ton for defendant, and Casad was a witness. I remember the ap- pearance of the Justice, the counsel and the witnesses, all very well. It was among the few cases I had ever seen tried up to that time.
I saw nothing more of any of the parties until July, 1841. From that time until his death I was well acquainted with Mr. Casad. No man ever had a kinder heart, or could more earnestly sympa- thize with misfortune or distress than could be. He was ever ready to lend a helping hand, and give an encouraging word to the young lawyer just entering in practice.
On one occasion a young lawyer came to Bellefontaine to look at the town, with a view to locate here for practice. C'asad took him to all the lawyers here, and introduced him as a young brother, and among others he introduced him to Samuel Walker, one of the early lawyers here.
"Well," said Walker to the young man, "my young friend, if you come here to practice law I can tell you how it will be. You will be just like a young pig thrown into a pen with a lot of old hogs. If you throw a pig in that way, the old hogs will root it round, and root it round, until finally it grows up to be as big a hog as the rest of them, and then it can take its own part. And that will be the way with you." The young man concluded he would not locate here.
But to return to Judge Casad. Mr. Stanton in his speech to the Court of Common Pleas, made October 28, 1861, has given so com- plete and so just an outline of Judge Casad, that I present it alike in justice to its author and his subject.
The speech was as follows :
May it Please Your Honor :
I am directed by the meeting of the Bellefontaine Bar, held upon the occasion of the death of the Hon. Anthony Casad, late Judge of Probate for this County, to present to this Court at the present term, the proceedings and resolutions of that meeting, and to move that they be entered upon the Journals of the Court.
Deeply as I deplore the occasion which calls for this last tribute
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of respect to the memory of a departed friend, it affords me great pleasure to have the opportunity of thus publicly bearing testi- mony to his many virtues.
The oceasion will justify, if it does not require, some notices on the life and character of our deceased friend and brother.
Judge Casad was born in the State of New Jersey, on the loth day of March, A. D., 1802. His father, Aaron Casad, migrated to this State, and settled at Fairfield, in Greene County, in 185. Ile had twelve children, of whom the deceased was the third.
He was a mechanic, in moderate circumstances, and in the ab- sence of Common Schools, and with the facilities for educating his children beyond his reach, Judge Casad grew to man's estate with only the rudest elements of a common English education. In 1823, at the age of 21, he entered the law office of the late Judge Crain, of Dayton, as a law student.
To those who knew Judge Crain, it would be superfluous to say, that he was a man of a very high order of intellect, and of singu- lar purity and simplicity of character. And I have always be- lieved that these traits of character impressed themselves deeply upon the mind of our departed friend and brother, at this carly period of his life, and had much to do with forming his character and shaping his destiny in after life. He was admitted to the bar in 1826, and immediately came to Bellefontaine and settled for the purpose of practicing his profession. He was literally de-titute of means, and his income from his practice was necessarily very slender.
On the 27th of December, 1827, he was married to Miss Orpah Williams, daughter of John Williams, then and until his death, some twenty years afterwards, a citizen of this town and county. Judge Casad's limited means and precarious income from his pro- fession, rendered it necessary for him to devote a considerable por- tion of his time and attention to other pursuits. This prevented him from acquiring as large a store of professional learning as he otherwise might have done.
In the fall of 1828 he attended the first Court held in Hancock County, and was appointed the first Prosecuting Attorney of the county.
In 1834 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Logan County over the late Samuel Walker and myself, both of whom were candidates against him.
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In 1838 he was elected Representative to the Ohio Legislature, and was re-elected in 1839. In 1851 he was again elected to the- Ohio Legislature under the new Constitution, and served for two years. In 1857 he was elected Probate Judge of Logan County, and was re-elected in 1860, and held the office at the time of his death. This is a brief notice of his professional and political ca- reer.
But any notice of the life of Judge Casad which omits his rela- tion to the Church must be radically defective. He joined the Christian Church in 1842. But there was no organized Church im this town until the present one was organized, mainly through his influence and instrumentality. He was made an elder in this Church at its organization, and contributed largely by his influx- ence, and his earnest and zealous labors, to its maintenance and support He paid over $500 toward the erection of the Church building, and the contribution from others was obtained to a large. extent from his active and energetic efforts. He died, on the 10tk inst., a sincere, earnest and devoted Christian, with the most un- doubting confidence of a glorious resurrection.
Of his character, I can speak with entire confidence, from a very close and intimate acquaintance of nearly twenty-eight years .. The leading feature of his character was his perfect sincerity, frankness, candor and uprightness in all the relations of life. He- scorned and abhorred all duplicity, insincerity and double-dealing, whatever form or shape it might assume. He was magnanimous and disinterested, free from the petty jealousies and rivalries, which are so often the bane of professional and political life.
His bright good nature, his ready wit, his joyous mirth, were the charm of the social circle. He had a keen appreciation of the ludicrous, and enjoyed, with a relish and a zest, that is rarely equaled, scenes of innocent and joyous mirth and glee.
Many of the fondest and most dearly cherished recollections of my early professional life, are inseparably connected with my departed friend. And in all my intercourse with the world, in my professional and political career, I have never found a man of more simplicity and purity of character than Anthony Casad. I have never had a friend upon whose integrity, sincerity and fidel- ity I could rely, with more perfect and entire confidence, than hs whose loss I now so deeply deplore.
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Residing in the same village, practicing at the same bar, candi- dates in the same contests-sometimes in opposition, and some- times on the same ticket, always upon terms of the closest inti- macy, no shade of envy or rivalry ever marred our friendship, er clistrusted our cordial and kindly relations.
He was kind, humane and generous to a fault.
Of his professional character I can say in all sincerity, that al- though he was not a very learned or profound lawyer, yet he wu- a remarkably fluent and ready speaker. He was remarkably ready and quick in retort or repartee, and the promptness and facility with which he could always avail himself of all his ro- sources, made him frequently a formidable competitor. . 1- 4 politician or statesman, he was always true to his convictions of right and duty.
The only instance in which I now recollect of his taking a very prominent stand in the deliberations of the House of Representa- tives, in any question of much prominence, was upon the passage of the State law for the recapture of fugitive slaves. This was in 1838-9. There was a very strong current of public opinion in and out of the Legislature in its favor. A suspicion of abolitioni-m then, was much more fatal to a politician, than a suspicion of n treason is now. But Mr. Casad did not believe it was right. It was advocated by such men as John W. Andrews, of Columnhus, with whom he was upon terms of close personal intimacy. But no influence could induce him to support it. He resisted it to the utmost almost alone, and of course unsuccessfully. In less than five years the wisdom of his course was vindicated by the reped of the law.
No man could be more amiable and estimable in his domestic relations. No woman had a more faithful, kind and affectionate husband than the widow who has survived him; and no children ever had a more indulgent or tender father, than the orphans who now mourn his loss.
But the crowning virtue of his life and character, was his sin- cere, zealous and unaffected piety. No suspicion of insincerity, na taint of hypocrisy ever rested upon him for a moment. The church with which he united was feeble in numbers and poor in pecuni- ary resources. He aided largely in building it up, by devoting to it time which he was ill able to spare, and money which he was ill able to afford. He could therefore hope for no professional nl-
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vantages from his connection with the church. But the earnest- ness and zeal with which he devoted himself to his religious du- ties for the last ten years of his life, furnished conclusive evidence of his sincerity. He did not confine his efforts to his public offi- cial duties in church, but he availed himself of all suitable and proper occasions to reclaim his fellow-men from the paths of vice and folly, and convert them to what he believed to be the true faith.
I can bear testimony to his earnest and sincere appeals to me, in our private social intercourse, to prepare for that great hereafter to which we are all hastening. And whatever may be our destiny in that undiscovered country, from which no traveler returns, he, at least, has discharged his whole duty as a Christian friend and brother.
But, above all, his calm, peaceful and triumphal death, in the full assurance of a blessed immortality, put all cavil and contro- versy at defiance.
And now, may it please your Honor, having paid this last trib- ute to the memory of my departed friend and brother, I move that thesc resolutions be read and entered upon the Journals of the Court."
KA-LOS-I-TAH.
BY THOMAS HUBBARD.
Very few of the present readers of this book ever so much even as heard of Ka-los-i-tah ; not more than a dozen of them, perhaps, ever saw him. He was one of the doomed race who have no knowledge of God, save as He is seen in the clouds, or heard in the wind-an Indian of the Shawnee nation, who, about forty years ago, was more widely known in this quarter of Ohio than almost any of us are to-day.
Ka-los-i-tah, as we understand from a recent conversation with Judge McColloch, of this place, must have been in the prime of his manhood about fifty years ago. We never saw him but once, and that was in our childhood-as far back, if we are not mistaken, as 1832 or 1833. Of course, our recollection of him is very faint. He was in West Liberty, on the occasion, and wrestled that day with one John Norris-a conceited saddler there. Whether he came to West Liberty expressly for this purpose, or on other business, we cannot say. If he came upon a banter from Norris, the temerity of the latter was appropriately rebuked by the issue of the affair. He was uo more a match for Ka-los-i-tah than a poodle is for a mas- tiff. The contest-if such it may be called-was brief and decisive. With that irresistible "grape-vine twist" of his, Ka-los-i-tah snap- ped Norris' leg as if it had been a pipe-stem. He sank to the ground, and his friends interposing, cried out : "You have broken his leg, Ka-los-i-tah-you have broken his leg."
"Leg must be rotten," said the imperturbable Indian.
Norris was borne from the scene of his discomfiture with an in-
.
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mensely curtailed opinion of himself. He never put himself upon his muscle afterward. We see him now, with our mind's eye, hobbling along on his crutches, and this is our last recollection of him.
Prior to this, Ka-los-i-tah had broken the legs of several other men who had contested his manhood in a similar way.
Jo. Morris-whom we well knew in his lifetime-and Solomon G. Hoge-still living, and well known to a majority of our citizens -both claimed, and fairly, to have thrown Ka-los-i-tah upon his back. On this account, (although both Morris and Hoge were uncommonly strong and active men,) we were led to place too low an estimate upon the manhood of Ka-los-i-tah.
We did not consider, for we did not know until recently, that when Ka-los-i-tah did his wrestling in these parts, he was upward or fifty years old, enfeebled by a long career of intemperance and actually drunk on every trial of his prowess.
Judge McColloch ofthis place, relates to us that he first saw Ka - los-i-tah in the year 1816, at the treaty of St. Marys. The Govern- ors of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, met the remnants of the West- ern Tribes on this occasion, to treat with them upon matters of mutual interest and importance, and thousands of leading citizens were present from those States, as also from Kentucky.
Ka-los-i-tah was there in the very zenith of his glorious prime. Considerably over six feet high, and weighing about two hun- dred pounds, he was yet as lithe as a tiger, and as strong as a bison.
The Judge describes him to us, in brief, as the most perfect specimen of physical manhood that he ever looked upon, and he is confident that, at the time referred to, he could out run, out jump, or throw down any man in the Northwest-white, black or red.
At a grand hopping match which occurred during the treaty, Ka-los-i-tah distanced all competitors by going nearly fifty feet. . [Two hops and a jump.] Then it was arranged that one Tom Wilson-a noted wrestler-should wrestle with Ka-los-i-tah. On the eve of this Ka-los-i-tah insisted on making a bet with Judge McColloch that he would throw Wilson. The Judge was not in- clined to take any risks in the premises, but finally consented to stake a checkered silk neck tie against a wrought silk belt several times its value, worn by the Indian. After holds were taken, Ka- los-i-tah allowed his antagonist to do his utmost before making any
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aggressive movement himself. In vain did Wilson bring every energy and every art he could command to his assistance. He could not even move the Indian from the tracks in which he had planted himself. "Now ME!" said Ka-los-i-tah at length, and he lifted Wilson up an I laid him upon the ground as if he were a child A second trial proving but a repetition of the first, Wilson tossed up the sponge in despair. The Indian thinking, perhaps, that he had had too soft a thing of it, magnanimously returned the Judge his neck-tie.
A stalwart negro-brought there by a party of gentlemen from Kentucky-was next pitted against Ka-los-i-tah. He was sanguine in the belief-as were also those who knew hin-that he could down 'the big Indian,'or almost any other man above ground. This contest wasnot quite so unequal as the former one had been, but the inevitable "Now ME!" of Ka-los-i-tah, was again the signal ce discomfiture to his antagonist, and down came the "eulled cuss from Africa," all sprawling. Stung to the quick at being so sum- marily disposed of, he sprang to his feet and rushed upon Ka-los- i-tah like a mad bull. But it was no use-the Indian was too much for him, and he was hurled to the ground again with a sounding thud. The darkey got up this time in a furious passion, and swon he could WHIP the Indian and would do it on the spot. Of course no fighting was permitted.
Ka-los-i-tah has been gathered with his fathers we know no how many years, while all who ever saw him are growing few. and old, and far apart. Along with the memory of Ka-los-i-tah is associated in their minds that of friends and kindred "who ones were with them and Now are not." The mention of his nann will bring the light of "other days around them,"-glad, glorious days, from which so far their restless pulses have borne them.
We confess to a fondness for the past-old friends, old scene old times. And some times we seem to catch the flashes of eyes that are but dust now ; and sometimes too, "when the wind down the river is fair," the echoes return to us of voices-
"'Sweet voices we heard in the days gone before.
PIONEER HISTORY.
BY JUDGE N. Z. M'COLLOCH.
A more genial and fraternal citizenship and neighborhood never existed than were the early settlers of Logan County-ready and willing at all times to lend a helping hand in every case of neces- sity. Take for instance an illustration. When a stranger arrived in a given neighborhood, and it became necessary to build a log cabin and clear off a piece of ground and make the rails and fence it in, all hands turned out within from two to five miles distant and assisted the new comer to settle down and become comfortable in his new home. Many of the gatherings of the early settlers at house-raisings, barn-raisings, rail-splittings, corn-shuckings, &c., were seasons of great joy and hilarity among all classes, and es- pecially with the young people, (the girls and boys as they were called). The men working hard all day at the out-door work and the women picking wool, scutching flax, or quilting-all partak- ing of a hearty dinner and a supper of corn bread, venison, or wild turkey, coffee made from rye or wheat browned, or milk, and pumpkin pie, and then at early evening came the inevitable dance, four and eight-handed reels and jigs, which would be kept up to the music of the fiddle with little cessation, till near the "break of day" the next morning. In some neighborhoods it was not at all unusual to see several pairs of girls and boys comfortably en- sconced in the corners with a silk or cotton handkerchief thrown over their heads indulging in whispers over their love affairs ; or it might be that a few couples would recline across the beds in the room indulging in similar (to them) delightful entertainments. Those practices and customs were of so frequent occurrence that
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no one of course ever thought of any impropriety in, or indulged in any invidious remark upon, such innocent amusements.
An incident which I will here relate occurred at one of the gatherings. Early in the spring of about the year 1813, many of the neighbors were collected at the residence of Robert Arm- strong to cut the timber and split the rails to fence in his new ground. It was a raw, snowy, disagreeable day, and the people indulged freely in the use of newly distilled corn whisky. They had built a large log heap by placing two large poplar logs side by side and piling the top with smaller timber and setting fire to it. In a few hours the whole log heap was in full blaze, giving the space between the bottom logs the appearance of a red-hot arch in a burning brick kiln, more than two feet wide at the bottom, and twelve or fifteen feet long, situated on an inclined plane. Among others in the company was an Indian dressed in a buck- skin hunting shirt, leggings and moccasins, with a cotton hand- kerchief tied around his head; was also pretty drunk, and passing along by the upper end of the burning log heap tripped his foot against a root, and plunged head foremost into the arch, and being unable to back out, and no one being near enough or having the presence of mind to draw him out, instantly, he passed through this fiery furnace to the opposite end, litterally scorched on the surface to a crackling. The poor fellow was taken up and cared for as well as the circumstances would allow, and strange as it may seem, got well from his injuries, but in a most decrepit con- dition in his arms, legs, hands and feet. The mo-t remarkable of all was that he did not lose his eyesight by the fire. Notwithstand- ing this melancholy occurrence with the "poor Indian," the young people indulged in their usual "hoe downs" and hilarity through the course of the night as though nothing had happened.
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