The history of Madison County, Ohio, Part 41

Author: Brown, Robert C; W.H. Beers & Co., pub
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, W.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1180

USA > Ohio > Madison County > The history of Madison County, Ohio > Part 41

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Judge Swan, from this time, devoted himself to his duties as President of the State Bank of Ohio, and the management of his large estate. He was very fond of books and philosophical discussions. On October 14, 1819, he was married, by Rev. Dr. James Hoge, to Mrs. Amelia Weston, daughter of George and Mary Aldrich, born at Meriden, Mass., December 20, 1785 : died November 5, 1859, and is buried under the same monu- ment, in Green Lawn Cemetery, with her husband, who died February 6, 1860. Judge Swan had two sons; both of whom died before him. George was lost at sea. on the ill-fated steamer Lexington. It was a great grief to his father, which was intensified by the death of Charles, who, he hoped, would have lived to take his position. He had two daughters-Mrs. Sarah Whitney, of New York City, and Mrs. Jane Parsons, wife of George M. Parsons, of Columbus, Ohio.

Frederick Grimke was elected Judge of the Common Pleas Court, for this judicial district, at the session of 1829-30. He came from the South- ern States to Chillicothe, early in the present century, and was a cotempo- rary of Ewing, Beecher, Swan, Irwin, Baldwin and other distinguished lawyers who rode the circuit during those pioneer days. As already men- tioned, he served throughout 1819 as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, after which he practiced his profession until his election to the Judge- ship by the General Assembly. Hle sat upon the bench but three years of his second term, when he was promoted to a Supreme Judgeship, and was noted for his eminent legal ability, and high-toned sense of justice. Like many able men, he was very eccentric on one point-his dislike of women, which he carried to extremes. It is said of him that upon one occasion while out horseback riding near Chillicothe, he was met by a bevy of young ladies, who, knowing his aversion to their sex, mischievously determined to make him speak to them. They joined hands across the road, which was flanked on one side by a fence, while upon the other the bank led down a steep descent toward the Scioto River. Seeing the trap set for him and divining their intention, he turned his horse's head, and with the contempt- uous remark, " What an infernal set of fools." rode in the opposite direction. Judge Grimke was of medium size, possessing a slender figure, and lived and died a bachelor, carrying to the grave this foolish eccentricity. He was very well liked by the bar throughout the district, and is said to have been an honorable upright man, whose mind was of the highest judicial cast, and whose decisions were always just and equitable.

Joseph R. Swan, son of Jonathan and Sarah (Rockwell) Swan, was the next to don the judicial ermine in this district. He was born at West- ernville, Oneida Co., N. Y., December 28, 1802. Ile is of Scotch-Irish ancestry (from Londonderry) and received an academic education at Aurora, N. Y., where he commenced the study of law, which he completed at Columbus, Ohio, with his uncle, Gustavus Swan, and was there admitted to the bar in 1824. He immediately commenced the practice of his pro-

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fession in Franklin and the adjoining counties, and soon gained the reputa - tion of a learned, honest and safe lawyer and counselor.

In 1833, he was married to Hannah Ann Andrews, of Rochester, N. Y., daughter of Samuel S. Andrews, one of the early residents of that city from Darby, Conn., and has three sons and two daughters, one of whom is married to Maj. R. S. Smith, of Columbus. Mrs. Swan died in 1876. Mr. Swan was Prosecuting Attorney of Franklin from 1830 to 1834. In 1834, he was elected by the Legislature as Common Pleas Judge for the district composed of the counties of Franklin, Madison, Clark, Champaign, Logan, Union and Delaware, and re-elected in 1841, and by his satisfactory and impartial discharge of the duties of the office, obtained the reputation of being one of the best Judges in the State. Judge Swan, on the expira- tion of his second term, resumed the practice of law in Columbus, and formed a partnership with John W. Andrews, which did a large business under the firm name of Swan & Andrews.

In 1854, the opponents of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, by the Kansas-Nebraska act, which created quite an excitement in Ohio. nomi- nated and elected him Supreme Judge by over 77,000 majority. On the bench, he maintained his distinct characteristic of great conscientiousness, that neither personal interest nor sympathy could, in any manner, influence his judgment of right or law. This was strikingly illustrated in May, 1854, when S. P. Chase, then Governor of Ohio, brought a strong pressure to bear upon the Judges of the Supreme Court, to obtain a decision declaring the fugitive slave laws unconstitutional and void. that the enforcement of them might be resisted by the State ; the court stood, two Judges in favor of nullifying, and three opposed. If there had been a majority in favor, and the United States Marshal had re-arrested the discharged prisoner, as he was instructed to do, and the Governor had resisted the re-arrest with mili- tary force, as he proposed to do by orders issued to the military to be ready for service, a conflict might have been brought on that would have changed the subsequent history of the loyalty of Ohio to the laws and constitution of the United States. Great excitement prevailed-party passion and prej- udice ran high in the political convention that was to pass on the question of his renomination, and to assemble on the day after the opinion of the court was delivered. Rising to the importance of the coming crisis, Judge Swan, then Chief Justice, in delivering the opinion of the court sustaining the fugitive slave law, in his closing remarks, says :

As a citizen. I would not deliberately violate the constitution or the law by interference with fugitives from service. But if a weary, frightened slave would appeal to me to protect him from his pursuers, it is probable I might momentarily forget my allegiance to the law and the constitution, and give him a covert from those who were upon his track. * *

* And if I did it, and was prosecuted, condemned and imprisoned, and brought by my coun- sel before this tribunal on a habeas corpus, and were then permitted to pronounce judgment in my own case, I trust that I should have the moral courage to say, before God and the country, as I am now compelled to say, under the solemn duties of a Judge, bound by my othcial oath to sustain the supremacy of the constitution and the low-THE PRISONER MUST DE REMANDED.

In the convention, the next day, the prejudices and passions of the hour defeated his nomination, but the judgment of the bar of Ohio sus- tained him. The politicians who raised the issue never reached the Presi- dency. Ohio made Abraham Lincoln, President, and resistance to the con- stitution and laws of the Union, pronounced valid by its highest court,

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came from those who took the sword to defend the right to extend slavery, and broke their idol in pieces by their own folly.

Judge Swan, in 1859, resumned the practice of law, and soon after be- came connected with the Columbus & Xenia Railroad, and afterward the general solicitor of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railway Company, in which capacity he is still engaged. Gov. Brough appointed him to the vacancy on the Supreme Bench, occasioned by the death of Judge Gholson, which he declined, as he did also the same position tenderel him since the war. Judge Swan has prepared the following elementary law books, which have been accepted by the profession in Ohio as the best authority on the subjects upon which they treat : In 1835-36, " Swan's Treatise"-an in- dispensable companion of every Justice of the Peace-which has passed to the tenth edition ; 1843, " Guide for Executors and Administrators ;" 1841, " Swan's Revised Statutes ;" 1854, a revised edition of the statutes; 1860, a revised edition of the statutes to which L. S. Critchfield annexed notes of the decisions of the Supreme Court; in 1868, a supplement to the edi- tion of 1860 was compiled and published, with notes of the decisions of the Supreme Court, by Milton Sayler ; 1851, " Swan's Pleadings and Practice," two volumes ; 1862-63, " Swan's Pleading and Precedents under the Code." None of the decisions of the Supreme Court rendered by him have ever been overruled. As a jurist, his opinions stand high with the profession. His well-known integrity has secured him the universal respect of the peo- ple where he resides, and of the State where his books have made his name a household word. For years he has been an active member of Trinity Episcopal Church.

The last to sit upon the bench under the old constitution was Judge James L. Torbert, the eldest son of Lamb and Eliza (Slack) Torbert, of Bucks County, Penn., where he was born in 1796, on the 22d of February. He was the recipient of a liberal classical education, Princeton being his Alma Mater ; coming to this State in 1818, he was, for several years, en- gaged in educational duties in an academy at Lebanon, Ohio, assisting in the intellectual training and development of a number of young men, who have since achievel distinction, among whom may be mentioned the dis- tingnished astronomer, Gen. O. M. Mitchell, the founder of the Cincinnati Observatory, and author of several astronomical works and text books. Judge Torbert made his advent in Springfield in 1824, and being a fine linguist, devoted himself, during the first few years of his residence here, to giving instruction in the languages ; having been admitted to the bar in the meantime, he became associated with Gen. Samson Maison in a law co- partnership. In 1846, he succeeded Joseph R. Swan as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the Twelfth Judicial District and filledl that office until the adoption of the new constitution, holding his last terin of court in Lon- don, in November, 1851. He filled most satisfactorily and ably, for several years, the office of Judge of Probate for Clark County.

While Judge Torbert was a man of superior scholarly attainments and literary tastes, he was modest, unobtrusive and retiring ; and with a remark- able gentleness and amiability of disposition, he united an immovable firm- ness and fidelity to his convictions, which were sincere and earnest on all subjects, whether religious, political or domestic; he was found at an early date, battling, with voice and pen, against oppression, especially as he be-

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lieved it to exist in the institution of slavery, and at this period to take so advanced a position, indicated the possession of a rare order of courage. But the stern logie of events has demonstrated the correctness of his views and position on this important question. On the 31st of July, 1821, he married Hannah C., daughter of Dr. John C. Winans, of Lebanon. Warren Co., Ohio, to whom were born eight children, of whom two sons and three daugh- ters survived their father ; his death occurred very suddenly on the 15th of May, 1859, on board the steamboat Tecumseh, on the Mississippi River, near New Madrid, en route from New Orleans, whither, accompanied by his wife, he had gone to bring home their eldest son, who had been for some time ill in that city. The occasion of his funeral elicited marks of the highest es- teem and sincerest affection from the whole community, and especially his late associates of the bar. Gen. Samson Mason, his quondam law part- ner, who has long since joined him on the other side, and who was well- known to bestow none but sincerest praise, said of him on the occasion of the meeting of the Springfield bar, to pass resolutions of condolence and respect, that J. L. Torbert was " one whom no mede of praise could flatter."

The November term, 1851, closed the regular sessions of the Court of Common Pleas of Madison County under the old regime. but the Associate Judges held two sessions subsequently for the transaction of probate business, viz., in December, 1851, and February, 1852.

JUDGES SINCE 1851.

At the April term of the Court of Common Pleas for 1852, the Hon. James L. Bates, who had been elected the previous fall, produced his com- mission dated January 16, 1852, as Judge of the Third Subdivision of the Fifth Judicial District. James L. Bates was born near Canandaigua. N. Y., January 4, 1815. Ilis father was Stephen Bates, and his mother Naomi (Handy) Bates ; the former from Granville, Mass., and the latter from Guilford, Conn., both descendants from old Revolutionary stock. His grandfather settled in Ontario County, N. Y., in 1790. James L. was edu- cated at the Canandaigua Academy and Geneva College, New York ; read law with John C. Spencer two years ; came to Columbus in October, 1835, and read a year with Orris Parish and N. HI. Swayne, and was admitted to the bar in the winter of 1836-37; commenced practice, and formed a partnership with N. H. Swayne in the spring of 1837, which continued until he was elected in 1851, on the adoption of the present constitution. Judge of the Common Pleas, for the third subdivision of the Fifth Judicial District, composed of the counties of Piekaway, Franklin and Madison, and was re- elected in 1856 and 1861, the last time without opposition-a handsome compliment in a district politically against him, serving thus fifteen years continuously. Judge Bates made a safe and excellent Judge, was a sturdy worker, and alone did the business of the three counties satisfactorily, with- out allowing the docket to accumulate, with undisposed business.

Judge Bates held the office of Director of the Ohio Penitentary from 1866 to 1874, and was a member of the Board of Education of the city of Columbus from 1844, six years consecutively, being Secretary of the board the first four years. He was active in advancing the city school system of Columbus to a high state of perfection.

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On October 18, 1837, he was united in marriage to Miss Maria Kelley, eldest daughter of Hon. Alfred Kelley, one of the ablest and most promi- nent men in Ohio. Since Judge Bates has retired from the bench, he has principally been employed in the management and settlement of large estates involving the interests of minors and widows, without engaging in general practice. IFis straightforward honesty and known integrity, especially qual- ify him for trusts of this kind, and the community where he has lived over forty years, fully appreciate the fact.

The second Judge under the new constitution was the Ilon. John L. Green, a native of Virginia, who located in Circleville, Ohio, about 1830. where he won and retained a large and successful practice. IIe was elected to the State Senate from Pickaway and Franklin Counties, serving in the sessions of 1837-38, 1838-39, 1839-40, and 1840-41. He subsequently removed from Circleville to Chillicothe, and was there elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Thence he removed to Columbus, and in October, 1866, was elected Judge of this subdivision to succeed Judge Bates. He was re-elected in 1871, and again in 1876, his term expiring in February, 1882.

During the legislative session of 1867-68, an act was passed creating an extra Judgeship for the Third Subdivision, and in April of the latter year Joseph Olds, of Circleville, was elected to fill the position. Judge Olds is a native of Pickaway County, and a graduate of Yale College. After serving his full term on the bench, he returned to the practice of his profession. He is a member of the firin of Harrison, Olds & Marsh, and one of the leading attorneys of Columbus, whither he removed from Circleville.

In 1873, Edward F. Bingham, of Columbus, was elected to succeed Judge Olds,, and re-elected in 1878. Judge Bingham is one of the best Judges in the State, and takes great pains in examining the points and authorities submitted to him by council. His decisions satisfy all who hear them, of the impartiality with which he has formed his opinions.

The Legislature in March, 1875, passed an act creating an extra sub- division in the Fifth Judicial District. In April of that year, Samuel W. Courtright, of Circleville, was elected as Judge of the new subdivision of Pickaway and Madison Counties. He is a native of Pickaway County ; read law with D. M. Jones, of Circleville, and with Hon. Belamy Storer, of Cincinnati. He graduated from the Cincinnati Law School, and in 1863 began the practice of his profession. IIe has been Prosecuting Attorney of Pickaway County for two terms, and for more than a year was in partner- ship with C. F. Kriminel. After twelve years of practice, he was elected Judge, but the act creating an extra subdivision in this district being sub- sequently declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, the office died at the expiration of Judge Courtright's term. He was said to be the young- est Judge in Ohio, and was well liked by the bar of Madison County.

Under the act of 1878, Eli P. Evans was elected Judge of the Fourth Subdivision. Ile is a son of George W. and Mary R. (Eberly) Evans, and was born June 10, 1842, at Dublin, Franklin Co., Ohio; attended the com- mon schools, and obtained his education chiefly by his own efforts ; read law with James E. Wright, and was admitted to the bar September 6. 1870. by the District Court of Franklin County, Ohio. He immediately commenced the practice of the law, and opened an office in Columbus, Ohio. In 1878,

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the General Assembly erected a Fourth Subdivision of the Fifth Judicial Dis- trict out of Franklin County, by separating it from Pickaway and Madison. He was elected Judge on the 1st of April, 1878, the term beginning on the 1st of May, 1878. This office, like Judge Courtright's. expires under the decision of the Supreme Court, but the Legislature in 1881-82, passed an act creating an extra Judgeship, and in October, 1882, Judge Evans was elected to fill the position. He is a diligent worker on the bench, and care- fully examines all questions before deciding them. The criminal docket, however, has been assigned him in the division of the business, and occupies most of his time.

The General Assembly of 1878-79, passed an act creating an extra Judgeship in the Third Subdivision of the Fifth Judicial District, by virtue of which George Lincoln, of London, was elected in October, 1879, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He was born in Westford, Windham Co., Conn., June 24, 1825. His paternal grandfather, George Lincoln, was of Puritan stock, his ancestry being among the first settlers of Massachusetts. He married Delia Ingalls, and George, the father of our subject, was born of this union in 1799. He was reared in New England, was a tanner by trade, and married Laura, daughter of Joseph and Delia (Record) Ashley, of Connecticut. Five children were the fruits of this union, four of whom are living. The father died in 1872, but his widow resides in Connecticut, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years. Judge Lincoln grew to manhood in his native State, working in his father's tanyard, and attending school three or four months per year until he attained the age of twenty-one, when he left home and began working on a farm. He followed this vocation for several months, teaching school the following winter, and the next summer attended Monson Academy, at Monson, Mass., and again engaged in teaching school the subsequent winter. In the spring of 1848, he com- menced to read law in the office of the Hon. Jared D. Richmond, at Ash- ford, Conn., and the following spring went to Toland, Toland Co., Conn., and for two years pursued his law studies under Hon. Z. A. Storrs, of that place. He taught school during the winter of 1850-51, and in the spring of the latter year came to Rockport, Ind., where he engaged in teach- ing. Failing health induced him to go to Genesee, Wis., where he continued teaching during the winter of 1851-52, but not regaining his health he re- turned to Connecticut in June of the latter year, weighing less than 100 pounds and anticipating death from consumption.

After a few months visit, his health being somewhat improved, he again came West, stopping at the home of his unele, Charles Lincoln, in Champaign County, Ohio. Throughout the winters of 1852-53 and 1853-54, he taught school at Woodstock, reviewing his law studies with John II. Young, of Urbana. In March, 1854, he was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court, the oath being administered by the Hon. Allen G. Thurman. Judge Lincoln immediately went to Marysville, Union Co., Ohio, and began the practice of his profession, and in the fall of 1854 entered into a partnership with Hon. C. S. Hamilton, of Marysville, which existed until his removal to London, in October, 1860. In 1863-64, he was Prosecuting Attorney of Madison County, and soon won the reputation of being one of the leading lawyers at the bar. In October. 1879, he was elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, taking his seat in February, 1880. Judge Lincoln was

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married, June 15, 1859, to Harriet M. McMullen, a native of Madison County, who bore him one son, John A. Mrs. Lincoln died May 29, 1867, and September 7, 1871, he was married to Annette T. Phelps, of this county.

Politically, Judge Lincoln is a stanch Democrat, and although not a politician, always takes a warm interest in the success of his party. He is the only member of the Madison County bar, since the organization of the county to the present time, who has been honored by an elevation to the bench, where by his impartial and unswerving rectitude in his rulings, he has sustained the purity of the judiciary and the dignity of his profession.

THE BAR.

In the early days of mud roads and log cabins, the lawyers rode the circuit with the Judge on horseback from county to county, equipped with the old-fashioned leggings and saddle-bags, averaging about thirty miles a day. The party had their appointed stopping places, where they were expected, and, on their arrival, the chickens, dried apples, maple sugar, corn dodgers and old whisky suffered, while the best story-tellers regaled the company with their humor and anecdotes. With the organization of Madi- son County came also the attorneys-a necessary appendant to the adminis- tration of justice. Throughout the earlier period of the county's history the disciples of Blackstone and Kent do not seem to have looked upon London as a fruitful field for their profession, and for many years the county did not possess a single lawyer. From Chillicothe, Circleville, Columbus, Xenia, Urbana and Springfield came the first attorneys who figured before the courts of this county, and as some of them held the office of Prosecuting Attorney during those early days, it will be appropriate to give them a brief space in this chapter.

VISITING LAWYERS.

Ralph Osborn, a native of Waterbury, Conn., where he acquired his profession of the law, came to Franklinton in 1806, where he remained a few years; but, upon the organization of Delaware County in 1808, he was appointed Prosecuting Attorney of that county. Soon after he removed to Circleville, and, in December, 1810, was elected Clerk of the Ohio Legisla- ture, which position he filled five consecutive sessions. Upon the organiza- tion of Madison County; he was appointed at the first term of court Prose- cuting Attorney, serving in that capacity from 1810 to 1814, inclusive. In 1812, he married Catharine Renick, daughter of John Reniek, then living on Big Darby. In 1815, he was elected Auditor of State, and held that office eighteen years in succession, and, in the fall of 1833, was elected to the Ohio Senate to represent Franklin and Pickaway Counties. After his election as Auditor of State, he did not practice his profession. His wife, Catharine, having died, he was married, in 1831, to Jane, eldest daughter of Col. James Denny, and widow of Dr. Daniel Turney. Upon the location of the seat of government at Columbus, he removed his residence to that point, and there died December 30, 1835, aged fifty-two years. Mr. Osborn was, in manners, courteous, discharging his several trusts with care and integrity. The Ilon. J. R. Osborn, of Toledo, Ohio, is one of Mr. Osborn's sons, and Mrs. Josiah Renick, Mrs. P. C. Smith, and Mrs. S. II. Ruggles are his daughters. Mr. James Osborn, another son, was a leading merchant in

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Columbus, and died, leaving sons who still carry on his old firm business, and are leading men in the city.

Richard Douglas, the Prosecuting Attorney of Madison County from 1815-17, was also born in Connecticut. He read law with Hon. Henry Brush. of Chillicothe, and settled as an attorney first at Jefferson, Pickaway County, removing to Circleville soon after the county seat had been located there. Thence about 1815, he removed to Chillicothe, where he died in

1852, aged sixty-seven years. Mr. Douglas was Prosecuting Attorney of this and Ross Counties, a member of the Ohio Legislature, and First Lieu- tenant of the company commanded by Capt. Tryatt in the war of 1812. He was a lawyer of more than ordinary ability, and his abounding humor and fund of anecdotes made him the most agreeable company to the lawyers while circuiting. It is said that he possessed considerable poetic talent, and bore the title among his cotemporaries of " the poet of the Scioto." His son and grandson, Messrs. Albert Douglas, Sr., and Jr., are residents of Chillicothe.

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The history of Madison County, Ohio, Part 41

Author: Brown, Robert C; W.H. Beers & Co., pub Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, W.H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1180

Author: Brown, Robert C; W.H. Beers & Co., pub
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, W.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1180