USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The old court house : reminiscences and anecdotes of the courts and bar of Cincinnati > Part 4
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NATHAN GUILFORD.
Nathan Guilford, I remember well as an old, vener- able and gray-headed man, when I was very young. He practiced at the bar of the old court house, and was one of our former distinguished citizens. He was in his later years more devoted to public education, and journal- ism, than the law ; was editor of several good newspapers and a great promoter of common schools. He was a most worthy gentleman, and is held in pleasant memory by the pioneers who survive to-day.
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ELISHA HOTCHKISS.
Elisha Hotchkiss was a portly, distinguished looking man, of extended repute. He was a lawyer, became justice of the peace, and afterwards was the mayor of Cincinnati. I well remember him as such, in my boyhood, for the mayor's office was directly under our school rooms in the same building, and I used to see the long gray locks of the venerable mayor, setting in his great chair of muncipality, almost every day, in early times. He served for some time as the mayor, and was very much respected, in and out of office, by his fellow citizens.
NATHANIEL WRIGHT,
One of the best examples of a real and genuine lawyer of the old school and of the old bar, was Nathan- iel Wright. He came in early times from the East to this city, thoroughly educated in academics, and in the law. He obtained, and maintained a good legal practice for many years, and unlike some of his fellows, never was diverted from, or went out of the way of his professional pursuits. He was strictly a lawyer, and because of this, he was reputed and relied upon, as a counselor, learned in the law, and became the adviser and mentor of many other lawyers. He was a rigid man in his moral and religious principles, and I doubt if anything was ever said, or could be said against him. His reputation as the soundest and safest of lawyers was much extended, and he was a great credit to the bar of early Cincinnati. He was the father of our present D. Thew Wright, lawyer and judge and good and clever fellow, and lived to venerable age, and died recently among us respected by every one.
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BENJAMIN M. PIATT. DANIEL ROE. HUGH MCDOUGAL.
Benjamin M. Piatt, a member of the earliest bar, belonged to the famous family of Cincinnati Piatts, and was a learned lawyer and a clever gentleman. He was in my boyhood memory, a lawyer much respected by all, and a gentleman of excellent parts and points. He was a worthy member of a worthy family.
Daniel Roe was a lawyer of some repute and good standing among his brethren ; but in my young days I rather knew him as a preacher, preaching the doctrines of the New Jerusalem, or Swedenborgian Church, on Sun- days, from the pulpit of the old temple situated on Long- worth street, in this city. While a lawyer, it seems, he occupied the pulpit for the edification of the brethren, occasionally. He was, as I remember him, a venerable, white-haired man.
Hugh McDougal, a good many of present citizens must well remember. He became auditor of the county by the votes of the people, for two terms, and performed the duties of the important office with ability, and to the satisfaction of the taxpayers, and of everybody. He was one of the earliest lawyers, and a good man.
Of the rest of the list of the earliest lawyers of the old court house, I am out of mind and knowledge, but I have no hesitation in saying, that like their brethren, they were all good men, and true, and honorable and honest lawyers. At the time of these earliest lawyers, our town, just then incorporated into a city by the State Legislature, con- tained 10,283 inhabitants, including 410 persons of color, so that there was one lawyer to about every 400 people. Of this distinguished catalogue of lawyers, there is now not one living. The last survivor, I think, was our able
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Bellamy Storer, who departed this life at a very venera- ble age a few years since. Sixty-one years have elapsed -- two generations of lawyers have come, taking their places ; and thus with lawyers, as with all other mortals, they come, they sojourn, and depart, and leave their memories only behind them, while new ones like- wise come to sojourn, and they, too, will depart, leaving their memories only to future generations-" Come like shadows-so depart." Thus it is with lawyers, as with other men.
JUDGE PETER HITCHCOCK.
Judge Peter Hitchcock, of the Northern part of the State, was one of the earliest judges of the Supreme Court of the State. He was such a judge in the beginning of the old court house, and frequently occu- pied the bench of the old court room, which we have described, when two of the judges were here holding Circuit Court. He came formerly once a year, and afterwards twice, in the spring, and in the autumn. There was, perhaps, no better judge ever sat upon the supreme bench than Peter Hitchcock, as the numerous decisions in the Ohio reports will abundantly manifest ; and he sat upon that bench from before 1819, to clear beyond the forties, a period of many long years. He commenced quite young on the bench, and grew quite old there. I remember him in his venerable and vener- ated age ; he was then an old judge, with experience be- yond all his brethren, and on that account perhaps, once in a while, manifested a good deal of impatience and irrita- bility, especially at the new and young fledglings of the bar, so that we have the following story to tell of him, remembered by a once young limb of the law, and repeated sometimes, with much feeling.
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JUDGE PETER HITCHCOCK AND THE IMPUDENT YOUNG LAWYER.
In the days of the old Supreme Court there was no judge on the bench so irritable and sometimes snappish as old Peter Hitchcock. The lawyers were quite afraid of him, and it took a face of brass sometimes, to outbrazen old Peter. Once upon a time a young, brassy lawyer was arguing a case before the Supreme Court, the two judges upon the bench, and in conclusion the young bar- rister said to the Court, in a bold manner, that the papers of the case and his brief would show conclusively the merits of his client's side, and he hoped and trusted that the Court would read them.
fudge H .- "Do you mean to insinuate, sir, that the Court does not read the papers in the case? You are impu- dent, sir !"
Lawyer-" I do not insinuate at all, nor am I impu- dent. I merely ask the Court to read the papers, and the ground of my polite request, lies in the fact that, taking account of the last decision your Honors made against me, I don't believe the Court looked at the papers at all, let alone, read them,"
The Court did not order that youngster in the law, into custody, for there was too much hilarity prevailing in the bar, to think of it. But Judge Peter did observe, sotto voce, to his brother upon the bench, "I wonder if the young man is not about half right?" And some of the lawyers thought he was all right. I was there, and I confess I was one of these.
But Peter Hitchcock was generally quite pleasant and agreeable in court and out of court, though he some- times had things to occur to ruffle him, and this good one is also told about him, which we shall call :
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DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND.
He had been on the Supreme Bench a long while, and he had his own blunt, brusque and burly ways with the lawyers who tried cases before him, and he was al- ways sure to say something during the progress of a trial that tended to cow a lawyer engaged before him, if the lawyer was at all disposed to be cowed, and some timid ones there were who were so disposed, notwithstanding the brazen repute of the bar. But the one I am going to tell about in connection with Judge Hitchcock was not one of these-"no, by no means, or manner of means." It was old, prolix and leaden, and brassy Jeemes Riley, the roily lawyer, as judges and lawyers used to call him. Old Jeemes believed in the law books to convince judges, and having an important case in the Supreme court, to come on early in the morn- ing when the court met, he had come earlier himself than the court, and had filled the large lawyers' table before the bench, with an immense pile of law books- nothing but law books-every one of which, by means of his long brief he meant to cite-book-case-names of parties-principle-and-page, in presenting his case to the Court. The huge pile of law books was indeed formidable, even for a lawyer, let alone the judges. The judges came in, and Judge Hitchcock, saw the terrible pile of law loose, and he determined in his own mind to put a stop, if possible, to Jeemes Riley's citing all of them, and taking up the precious time of the Supreme Court ; but he said nothing till the opening of the court, and then, adjusting his spectacles on his nose, and looking meaningly and menacingly at Riley beside the table, and then at his law books piled and spread upon
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the table, taking all up there was of the table, he sarcas- tically and cuttingly observed :
" Brother Riley, do you mean to rile the court with all these books? I will have you to know, sir, that this court does not keep a law school!"
Riley was not cowed, or put out one bit, but he arose in his place, and immediately replied, in cutting drawling tones through his nose :
" But on this occasion, I will have the Court to know, that I do keep a law school, and I mcan to teach you judges, a bit of law into the bargain !"
Jeemes Riley roiled the Judges that time, and no mistake, and Peter Hitchcock, nor his associate had an- other word to say. Riley's cut, cut old Peter so sure, that it was said he almost petered out. Score one, for Lawyer Riley !
JUDGE GEORGE P. TORRENCE.
Of all the judges of former days, perhaps, there was no one so much liked and loved for his genial, gen- erous, and whole souled qualities, and characteristics, as Judge Torrence. He was President Judge of the old Court of Common Pleas from before the year 1819, up to the year 1832 ; and although he was not so much of a lawyer, he made a very good judge of the law, and ad- ministered justice somewhat like a Solomon, or a Daniel. Boy as I was, I remember seeing him presiding on the bench, and towering above his associates,-for he was the tallest judge, and large and portly in figure and stature, and he looked upon the bench, every inch a judge. He came to this city at a very early day, and soon was a very popular fellow citizen, for he was fellow citizen with everybody, men, women and children, and all. They
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all liked and loved him, and they always had a good word to say for him, as he always had a good word to say to any of them.
It has not been very many years since the decease of Judge Torrence at a very advanced age, and citizens of the present day well remember him as one of the clev- erest of men. While on the bench he was never known to say an unkind or rough word to any lawyer or officer of court, or any one else. He invariably preserved his good humor, and his good common sense too. The near- est perhaps, to his ever getting out of sorts, was on the occasion of him and his associates being called the " Demerara Team." There are many reminiscences and anecdotes of Judge Torrence, but we have time for only the following, which illustrates very well his clever humorous disposition, on occasion.
JUDGE TORRENCE, LAWYER PENDLETON AND JUDGE FLINN.
Judge Torrence in his venerable days used to be seen very much about the city, for friendly to everybody as he was, he liked to move about, and see, and shake hands, and converse with his friends. This, by the way was the habit of his life ; of course he frequently visited the court house, and the courts-the loves of his younger days, and one day he happened in, in the court room of Judge Flinn who presided over the Criminal Court of Hamilton county. There was an important criminal trial going on before Judge Flinn, and the prisoner was being duly defended by lawyer Pendleton ; and Judge Torrence creating some commotion on his com- ing into the court room, and entering within the bar, and taking a seat in convenient chair, the judge on the
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bench immediately espied him, and as the venerable ex- judge of the old old Common Pleas, was well known to him, he called him, and invited him to a seat upon his bench along side of himself, as is customary sometimes with polite and courteous occupants of the bench. Tor- rence not a bit flurried by the marked distinction, nor feeling particularly honored withal, got up, went forward and solemnly ascending the bench, took his seat to which he had been invited by the criminal judge, and began to look grave and severe as he could, and the cause pro- ceeded for some time in the progress of the testimony.
Now the honorable judge of crime and criminals had his peculiar and particular ways with himself, and one of his ways or habits used to be, to go from his court room over to the opposite corner of the street, and take a drink of "sumthin " at the bar of the old "Produce Exchange." Old Bourbon democrat as Flinn was, he of course always selected "old Bourbon," and hurrying it down, he would immediately slip over to his court room again, by a rear passage, and to his bench, and no one apparently would be the wiser, the better, or the worse, for his absence, or his presence either, for that matter. The dryness of the proceedings of the trial no doubt, had desiccated the lips of the judge, and made him very dry. Besides, it was about his hour, and he waited for an op- portunity -- notwithstanding the presence of Judge Torrence beside him. After a while, as good or bad luck would have it, there was a lull in the trial proceedings, occasioned by the absence of a witness who had perhaps anticipated the movement of the judge, out of court ; and in the interval, lawyer Pendleton occupied himself abstractedly in looking over his notes of testimony. This lull was enough for Judge Flinn-his desire for a glass of Bourbon, had been
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teasing him for some time, and suddenly leaving the bench and his friend ex-Judge Torrence, on it, alone, he hied himself over to the Produce Exchange. While he was gone, the absent witness came in, and, Mr. Pendleton seeing him, quit reading his papers, and arose in his place and proceeded to say, "May it please the court," when he noticed the absence of the Court, (sub rosa gone to take a drink, ) and stopped suddenly. Judge Torrence now alone on the bench, and as fond as anybody of a joke, immediately spoke up and said : " Proceed Mr. Pendleton the court has not adjourned ; it has merely gone over the way, to whet or wet its whistle. The court, however, is in session, and you can proceed just as well, in the cause." At this, there was a loud and boisterous laugh from officers, lawyers, jurors, witnesses and everybody, even the prisoner in the dock, in the midst of which Judge Flinn made his reappearance and mounted the bench, wiping his wet lips with his handkerchief, and ordering the sheriff to keep silence in the court. This was by no means obeyed by anybody for some length of time- all adopting the hilarious mood of friend Torrence, who, on the bench, was convulsed with laughter at the utter ludicrousness of the scene.
CLERK-DANIEL GANO.
Major Daniel Gano-the old, long time clerk of the old Court of Common Pleas and Supreme Court and quite as long time, clerk of the old Superior Court,-who of the old pioneers of this city, does not remember him, the finished and thorough clerk of the courts, and the cultured and polished gentleman? He was, I believe among the first white children, if not the very first white child born in the city of Cincinnati. He was born
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and grew up here, and he lived here, and he died here. Near fourscore years of age, he departed this life, which had been rewarded through the whole long line of it, by the highest regard and esteem of his fellow citizens. He was a worthy, clever man, and most efficient officer, and was certainly one of the best looking men in the city and country. He was distinguished for wearing a large perfectly white, cambric ruffle, down the open bosom of his shirt adorned with a beautiful breastpin, and the old fashioned Revolutionary plaited cue of his hair, tied with black ribbon in a bow, and hanging down his back be- tween his shoulders ; and even for modern times, he never gave it up, and retained, in his toilet this mark of the old Revolutionary forefathers of this country, to the day of his shroud and coffin. He was buried with it, and no doubt, it is in his grave, and flourishing still. His ances- tors were among the first settlers of Cincinnati, clear back in the closing years of the eighteenth century, and his posterity are still with us, in respect and esteem, and long will the name of GANO, be remembered and respected in this Queen City of the West.
ASSOCIATE JUDGES LOOKER, SHORT, AND SILVERS.
Of the earliest associate judges of the old Court of Common Pleas, these two I remember, though not having had, at any time, any particular acquaintance with them They were both early men of Cincinnati, and always of good repute. Mr. Looker was once, I believe, a candi- date for governor of Ohio, and was voted for, all over the State, but was not elected. He was a celebrated printer and publisher of newspapers and books in his day, and was a gentleman of practical business ability and habits, as well as a good-hearted and urbane gentleman.
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Judge Short became a wealthy man in real estate, owning a great deal of farm land, near North Bend, and some property in this city. They have both long since departed this life. Of Judge Silvers I know nothing, although I have heard of him in the early days, as a good and honest judge and true man, well-to-do in private life, and dig- nified on the bench.
FURTHER PROGRESS OF THE BAR.
We now go on in the retrospect of the old bar, taking a little rest for reflection between the years 1825 and 1831, before we proceed again, however.
As years went by, of course the bar of Hamilton county much increased in numbers, and, by 1827, it had nearly doubled. For our benefit I will give an article in toto, from the Saturday Evening Chronicle, of this city, edited by lawyer Moses Brooks, of the date of July 9th, 1827, in reference to the then bar. It occupied the first editorial column-a " leader." Here it is.
" At the late term of the Supreme Court of Ohio for Hamilton county, there were 160 cases on the docket. There are at the bar in Cincinnati forty lawyers. Suppos- ing the business in the Supreme Court to be equally divi- ded among this number, it would give to each one four cases. If there be any truth in the old adage, that legal business is just in proportion to the number of lawyers, it would seem that those in our city have but little talent or else a great deal of honesty among them. For our- selves, we are disposed to refer the slender docket to the latter cause. One fact illustrative of the peculiar advan- tages which Cincinnati possesses, may be drawn from the foregoing statement. We refer to the extreme cheapness of subsistence in this place. Most of the lawyers of our
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city present an embonpoint by no means corresponding with their thin docket. Other members of the legal pro- fession who may contemplate an immigration to Cincin- nati need not, therefore, be discouraged. There is little danger of starvation if they have but three or four suits in the Supreme Court in each year."
That is a curious incisive article, and like a many- edged sword, cuts many and various ways. Cincinnati was nearing 20,000 inhabitants then, and forty lawyers was one to 500 possible clients, including women and children. Among the newcomers to the bar from abroad, were Charles Hammond, much devoted to the Liberty Hall & Gazette however, Charles Fox, Vachel Worthing- ton, John G. Worthington, Robert T. Lytle, Wm. Henry Harrison, jr., and others, and certainly there was something in store, or out of store, for them all. But provision was cheap, so cheap perhaps, that lawyers were never hungry for that-however, hungry they might have been for clients. There are times when lawyers like chameleons, can feed on air-at least common people would be led to think so, from the power of wind they sometimes possess and have occasion to expend and pour forth -but the forty lawyers then in Cincinnati, all " em- bonpoint," as the editor says they were, must have fed on heirs, to make them so "fat, fair and forty," in quantity and quality.
CHARLES HAMMOND, THE LAWYER, THE EDITOR, AND THE POET.
I am reminded that I must say a word or two about lawyer and editor, and poet, Charles Hammond, because in the days when I was a student at law in the office of Wright & Walker, just adjoining the editorial sanctum of
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the Gazette, I knew him well, and many a kind and good word have I had from him. He was lawyer and editor at St. Clairsville, Belmont county, this State, and came to this city, I believe in 1823, to practice law, but his ability as an editor of the Ohio Federalist being so well known and in requisition, he was soon called to edit the Liberty Hall & Daily Gazette; and thus in this city he be- came both lawyer and editor, and he was excellent as each, or both. He practiced law for a dozen years perhaps, and then in the increase of our city and the duties and labors of his newspaper, he relinquished the practice, and devoted himself to it alone. He had wit and humor in himself, and was sometimes the occasion of them in others. My friend Mr. Robert Buchanan, of this city, told me this good one of him. Hammond had an important case once in court for him as client, and as President of the Commercial Bank, the only bank then in the city. The case was a quo warranto against Mr. Buchanan, to find out by what authority he was exercising the functions of presi- dent, and Director of the bank. Mr. Hammond told Mr. Buchanan that the law was against him, but he would see what could be done. "You," said Mr. Hammond "need not appear in court." Mr. Buchanan did not appear, but went " a fishin'." Case came on, but no Mr. Buchanan present. Hammond moved for a postpone- ment vociferously, but not with purpose to accomplish it, particularly-he knew what he was about-on account of absence of Buchanan. Opposite counsel-not per- ceiving the cat in the meal-insisted, as Hammond thought he would, on immediate trial and gained his point. Trial was had ; and now, said Mr. Hammond to adversary counsel. " Bring forward your witnessess !"
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He did bring them forward, and proved all he could, but as there was no one except Mr. Buchanan himself to prove the corpus delicti, and he was absent, of course the quo warranto proceeding was thrown out of court, as it ought to have been, being, as it seemed, a piece of spite work upon the part of some men interested against Mr. Buchanan. After the success, client met Mr. Ham- mond, his lawyer, to pay his fee. "How much?" " Fifty dollars ; but I gained the case by a little petti- fogging, which I don't like at all." Mr. Buchanan handed his lawyer, a check for one hundred dollars, and Hammond taking it, and looking at it, exclaimed : " What is all this for?" Buchanan replied : " For your- self, and your partner, the pettifogger." Hammond laughing, and taking the check, "I shall dissolve with that scamp, and have nothing more to with him, hereafter."
But 'Charley Hammmond' as he was sometimes familiarly called, appeared also, a sort of poet, and this speaks well for him. Amidst all his trials, and experi- ences of life, he could write about boyhood in good poetic lines. Here is his poem furnished by Robert Buchanan.
BOYHOOD.
BY CHARLES HAMMOND.
How oft amid the sordid strife Of worldly wisdom have I turned To memory's scenes of early life, And o'er my joyous boyhood mourned ; How oft have wished mid care and pain To be that buoyant boy again.
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To sleep beneath the slanting roof And hear the pattering raindrops fall, Or listen to the lively proof Of 'vagrants round my airy hall ; To rise at morn with wonted glee To wade the brook or climb the tree.
To join the sturdy reaper's train, What time the lark her matin sings, When mounting with impassion'd strain, She bathes in light her glittering wings, And, poised in air, is scarcely seen, So high amid the dazzling sheen.
'Twas mine to trap beside the stream, Or angle 'neath the alder's shade, To tend the plow, or drive the team, Or seek the herd in distant glade. Where oft from clustering thickets shrill Rang out the notes of the whippoorwill.
Those trembling notes, so long, so wild, Were music to my boyish ear ; Thought backward flies-and as a child E'en now me thinks the sound I hear. While fancy spreads before my eye The dewy glade and moonlit sky.
The "lowing herd" now wending slow Along the wood their homeward way; The winding stream's dark glassy flow, The lilied vale the woodland gay. Still float in visions bland and bright, As on that balmy summer's night.
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