USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The old court house : reminiscences and anecdotes of the courts and bar of Cincinnati > Part 9
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LAWYER ROBERT T. LYTLE AND HIS POLITICAL OPPONENT.
Robert T. Lytle, the lawyer, major-general, and polished gentleman, is one of my most pleasant memories.
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He was the son of General William Lytle, and was born and reared in this city. He studied the law and was early admitted to the bar of the old court house, and soon distinguished himself as an eloquent advocate, and, if he had stuck to the bar, would have become a great lawyer. But his brilliant and extraordinary powers of oratory brought him much before the people, and, at a very young age, he became a famous politician. He was sent to the Legislature several times, and twice to Congress, by the democracy of Hamilton county, and achieved much distinction in the National House of Representatives as the particular friend of President Jackson, and as a democrat of the very first water. His brilliant and showy eloquence made him quite a national reputation, and the name of the young, gifted orator and talented statesman, General Robert T. Lytle, was known all over the country. At home he was familiarly known as " Bob Lytle " among his constituency, and for eloquence and brilliant oratory upon the stump, they would have put him against the world.
In the year 1832, on one occasion, Orator Bob was pitted against a certain Kentucky orator from Bourbon county, a strong Henry Clay man, and the two orators had it long and well in their extended political discussion. At last they grew personal towards each other, and the . Kentuckian, who had achieved the unenviable distinction of not being sober all the time, and was evidently some- what under the influence of " Kentucky Bourbon " at the time, loudly lifted up his sonorous voice, and pronounced clever Bob nothing but a demagogue. But Bob did not get mad under the denunciatory infliction and affliction, but he arose on the stump and said in his blandest ora- torical style, "Fellow-citizens, my Kentucky friend, in
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his spirit of annihilating denunciation, calls me a dema- gogue. All I have to say in reply to this is," at the same time pointing his long index finger at him, "if I am a doubtful demagogue, he certainly is-a Bourbon demijohn."
LAWYER LYTLE AND ANOTHER POLITICAL OPPONENT.
On another occasion, somewhere in the thirties, statesman and stump-speaker Bob was in a political dis- cussion with a rival party candidate for the same office, who did not at all deal in denunciation, but was trying to persuade his hearers to vote for him against Bob, in the politest and most agreeable ways. He finally made this strong appeal to his numerous audience : "Fellow-citi- zens,-unlike my high-born competitor, I am the son of a mechanic, a maker of barrels and hogsheads, an un- mistakable cooper, one whom many of you before me well knew ; and I have no hesitation in saying that there are some fellow - citizens among you for whom my mechanic sire has made many and many a tight and stout barrel or hogshead. So vote for the son of a mechanic, an honest cooper, rather than for a high-born aristocrat, though he calls himself a democrat." This was enough to startle, and start Bob in the beginning of his speech in reply, and he began :
" Fellow-citizens, -I have not the least hesitation in the world, in according the fullest credence to what my opponent has so well said of himself. I have no doubt at all that his father was a cooper and made many a barrel or hogshead : but I must be permitted to doubt if he made them all well, for there is one he made, stand- ing in my place here, just now, in whom and on whom he forgot to place any head, or rather, he did put on one, and made him a hogshead!"
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The laugh was against the cooper's son that time, and the results of the election soon after showed that the votes were also against him. "Hurrah for Bob!" cried the dimycrat, Irish Jamey Crawford.
BOB LYTLE AND HIS BUCKEYE SPEECH.
I remember Bob well, having known him well. I once heard him make a Buckeye oration on the 7th of April, 1837. It was on the occasion of celebrating the anniversary of the settlement of Ohio. Being himself a native Buckeye, he glowingly warmed to his subject and was very eloquent. I will not forget one part of his speech. He was comparing present social customs with pioneer ones, and he said, among many eloquent things : "The women of the early days wore homespun gowns and frocks and skirts and their own darned stock- ings-and-and all that. They were not garnished and varnished as the ladies ( God save the mark ! ) are now- a-days. They were homes-pun in their homes, and with- out a pun they were always home people, and always at home. They were not gadding insects-not gadflys,- but industrious bees of the hive-made honey at home. and were honey themselves. When they did visit with each other, it was none of your pasteboard visits, but they brought their knitting and stayed a week. Those were days of strong men and women in physique, and both in body and mind, the women vied with the men. They were strong and powerful as the bucks, and for strength of beauty and comeliness they were a standing attraction to all Buck-eyes !" Good for Bob! Hurray !
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LAWYER FREDERICK WILLIAM THOMAS AND HIS FOURTH OF JULY ORATION.
The Thomas family came to this city at an early day, about 1832 or 1833, from the city of Charleston, South Carolina, and soon were known and distinguished as a bright and talented family. Of them, Lawyer Fred. W., who belonged to the bar of the old court house ob- tained and maintained much distinction and reputation as an orator, lecturer, and novel writer, besides being a respectable and respected brother among the legal frater- nity. He was frequently called upon to make Fourth of July orations, and one of them in a grand celebration by the citizens of Cincinnati, he delivered in the old Baptist, now Catholic church, on Sycamore Street, between Fifth and Sixth Streets, and I shall never forget the eloquence of that Fourth of July oration. One passage I chiefly remarked, and I well remember. He was speaking of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and he'said : "Of the fifty-four patriots whose hands placed their sig- natures to that immortal document, not a single one was there whose hand trembled !- I mistake, fellow-citizens- there was one steady and staunch patriot-father, whose hand, it seems from his signature, did tremble, -but, thank God, it was not from fear, but it was from extreme old age and paralyzed decrepitude; and the name of Stephen Hopkins, as tremulously written as it appears, will stand forever for its plainness and boldness and gen- uine patriotic strength!" Of course the house came down at this, and there was universal applause for the orator, and for old Stephen Hopkins. The roof and the welkin rang again, for them !
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LAWYER VACHEL WORTHINGTON.
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Lawyer Vachel Worthington was a practicing law- yer at our bar when I was a child. He was admitted to the bar, of the State of Kentucky in the year 1824, and soon after came to this city, where, opening an office, he was in a short time distinguished for superior legal ability and learning. He had a successful career, and was one of the lawyers of the old court house who made money by their practice. This was accounted for by the fact that he could not be persuaded to go out of his pro- fession in any direction. He was a lawyer and only wanted to be a lawyer, and his office and the courts were his only places of business, and he was always to be found during the day at the one place or the other-at the one, preparing his cases, at the other, trying them. Though a thorough lawyer, he was eminently a case law- yer, and the judge who heard his cases before him, as I often did in after years, when he was old, and I was a young judge, was bound to have his attention loaded down with briefs and citations of authority. His appeals to the books often made one's head swim and ache, when listening to his arguments. He was married at an early day, in this city, to a daughter of the old lawyer, Jacob Burnet, and was prosperous in every way. In his old age, Mr. Worthington was over-persuaded to enter the field of politics, and after being of the opposite party almost all his life, he was nominated and elected to the Ohio Senate, by the democrats. I have many pleasant memories of this remarkable man and lawyer, and not among the least so, is the fact that in one of the most im- portant cases I had before the District Court of Hamilton county, he was engaged as associate with me. He will
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always have a place in my memory, as well as in that of all the older members of our bar.
LAWYERS HENRY STARR, WILLIAM R. MORRIS, JEPTHA D. GARRARD, THOMAS LONGWORTH, THOMAS MOREHEAD,
RUFUS HODGES, HARVEY HALL, TALBOT JONES,
EDWARD WOODRUFF, HENRY E. SPENCER, AND JAMES F. CONOVER.
Lawyer Starr was in much age when I first knew him. He came from the East, and was therefore one of the Yankee lawyers, having Yankee learning, Yankee schol- arship, and Yankee all that. He was a good, strong lawyer and a safe counselor, and maintained an excellent standing at the bar of the old court house. He was dis- tinguished for a large, prominent, Roman-hooked nose on his otherwise pleasant face, and Ben Fessenden used to say of him, that he baited his nose and fished for his cases. Sometimes he was called the noseist if not the noblest Roman of them all, sometimes the "star" law- yer, and sometimes the star-nosed lawyer. A further joke by a facetious lawyer would be perpetrated : that Lawyer Starr, star lawyer that he is, knows more than all the rest of the nosey or noisy lawyers put together. But Henry Starr was a venerable and venerated lawyer and man, in the olden days.
LAWYER STARR IN THE GREAT WILL CASE.
I remember the trial before court and jury of a great will case in the old court room of the old court house. It was the case of the heirs of Elmore Williams, formerly one of the richest men in Cincinnati, against the legatees and executors of his last will and testament, to break the will, chiefly because the old man, by his will, had left
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the bulk of his tremendous fortune to a young man, a favorite friend. The extraordinary case excited extraor- dinary interest, and the old court room was crowded with lawyers and spectators. Timothy Walker repre- sented the contestants of the will, and had made a very long and effective speech to the jury to break the will and render it null and void, and his speech seemed like a triumph for him. Henry Starr was the lawyer to sus- tain the will. When Judge Walker got through his speech, it was approaching night, and the judges of the court determined to go on with the case into the night, ordered the janitor to light the candles, ( for they had no gas-light or lamps in those times,) and directed Mr. Starr to proceed in his argument to the jury.
In the dull, glimmering light pervading the court room, making the lawyers and the crowded spectators to look like so many spectres, Lawyer Starr, with his com- manding, though stooped, figure, grey locks combed behind his ears, and large, Roman, aquiline nose like the beak of an eagle, and his long, bony fingers, the long index one pointed directly to a certain spot before him- all being as still as death in the court room, arose, and declaimed in slow, measured, sombre tones :
" Hark from the tombs the doleful sounds.
" Methinks I see there, the ghost of Elmore Williams, risen from the grave, and like the ghost of Hamlet's father, he exclaims to these unholy children, and heirs, who would break his will : 'I am thy father's spirit ; 'and like the ghost of Samuel before king Saul, he more loudly exclaims, to my learned opposing counsel, 'why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?' and to these heirs again, he calls, in trumpet tones, 'Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be prolonged, and
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that it may go well with thee, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.' And now, may it please the court, and gentlemen of the jury, I turn from this father's spirit, to you."
And he did turn to the solemnly attracted and attentive jury, and made his speech, and sustained the will, and won his case. A lawyer friend of mine now living, who heard this remarkable exordium of lawyer Starr, in this will case, says at this day, that he remem- bers nothing like the effect of it, in the whole course of his legal experience. He says, he was sitting by, with his feelings, thoughts, and sentiments totally enlisted on Judge Walker's side, but when Starr arose, and de- livered himself of this ghost experience, he knew the game was all up with his friend and law preceptor, Judge Walker, and so it proved to be. Henry Starr's ghostly eloquence triumphed, whether like Samuel with the woman of Endor, the ghost of the testator arose from the grave or not, though it is more than likely, that the twinkle of the Star shone upon the perturbed spirit, in the glimmer of that night in the old court house.
William R. Morris was a good, plodding lawyer, and a gentleman of the old school. He used to be dis- tinguished for his blue coat and brass buttons and ruffled shirt and large, brilliant breast-pin. He was always a gentleman all over, and was a successful lawyer, and grew to be a rich man. In later days he had several partners in the law, among whom was a well-remembered man, Nelson B. Rariden, also an excellent lawyer. Sometimes it used to be said by some fond of a joke, that their office was a rare den of lion or lying lawyers. This was only a joke, however, though they were really like lions in their devouring practice, at and in the bar-not behind the bars! nor-before the bars !
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Jeptha D. Garrard, or General Garrard, as he was known and called, was a respectable member of the old bar, but, engaged in money and property matters, he did not attend much to the courts. He was a high-toned and honorable Kentuckian, and marrying into the old Israel Ludlow family, himself and his own family, some of whom now survive, were held in much regard and esteem by the lawyers and the citizens generally.
Thomas Longworth was an early lawyer. He is living yet in venerable age. He was a cousin of Nich- olas Longworth, and formerly was, and is now, much respected and esteemed. He long ago retired from practice.
Thomas Morehead was a brother of the two formerly celebrated physicians, Doctors John and Robert More- head, of early days, and was a good lawyer. I re- member him; he used to have his law office, at the corner of Main and Lower Market Streets, and had a good deal of business.
Rufus Hodges, or General Rufus Hodges as we used to call him, used to figure much at the bar, and in society, in early days. Why he was called General, or whether of the regular, or irregular army, I do not remember, but he was a good man, and a good lawyer.
Eccentric and peculiar old bachelor, Harvey Hall, came to the bar, about the year 1825. About that time, also he got up, with much labor, and many pains no doubt, a directory for the city of Cincinnati, and acquired much beginning distinction for that. It was the second directory of Cincinnati, ever published. Afterwards he gave his attention to the law, and in office business was a success, though he seldom made his appearance in court, except in the Probate department, for he was much
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known and much regarded for taking care of the widows and orphans-or rather their property, and in this sort of business by his fees, feathered his own nest pretty well, in those early times. Bachelor, as he was, he built him- self a very curious looking little, low, three-storied brick house, on Eighth street near Main, which is curiously, standing yet. It was, and is distinguished for its small windows, and small panes of glass in them, just like Harvey Hall's little eyes. It will bear looking at, as a surviving curiosity of the eccentric old bachelor lawyer, and some say, looks just like him.
Talbot Jones, good old Talbot Jones, was also a bachelor, and fond of the law, and of the good things of this life. I knew him, oh, so well, for I lived with him in the same hotel, the Burnet House, for many years ; and I had great respect and regard for him, good, clever soul that he was. He was much respected as a lawyer of intelligence and learning, and did well in the practice.
Edward Woodruff was a native of this city, and is now one of the very few survivors of the members of the bar of the old court house. He is one of the sons of one of our oldest settlers, -Archibald Wood- ruff. He, on account of his venerable age, is not now in the practice of the law. He was formerly a good lawyer, and plain and simple and unostentatious in his ways, he plodded his way along, and made a success as a lawyer of respectability. He was once a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and after that he was elected Judge of the Probate Court, and filled both positions with honor to himself and satisfaction to the people.
Henry E. Spencer was the oldest son of the very early and celebrated Spencer family of this city. His father, the Rev. Oliver M. Spencer, came to the State of
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Ohio, in this locality, at its very first settlement, and grew up with this village, town, and city. Two of his sons, Henry E. and Oliver M., became lawyers, and were both distinguished members of the bar and holders of office. Henry was, for many years, mayor of this city, and gave great satisfaction as such to his fellow-citizens, and, after that, he became president of the Firemen's Insurance Company. There is no man, in his old age, who enjoys higher respect and esteem of his fellow-citizens than Henry E. Spencer.
James F. Conover, more and better known as a whig politician and whig editor of the daily newspaper called The Whig, was a lawyer of the old court house, and a scholarly gentleman of the first water in brilliancy and luminosity. He had his ups and downs and his highways and his by-ways, but he flourished very well in them all. He was an original Henry Clay whig, and spent the last days of his existence-nearly to his very last breath-in befriending and favoring and advocating him for the pres- idency of the United States. I remember Major Cono- ver, as his friends would call him, and I remember this story about him :
MAJOR CONOVER'S CONTRETEMPS.
He was invited to a great party given by one of the elite families of the city, and to his total dismay and de- spair, he was treated by his host and hostess and all the guests, with extreme coldness, if not absolute disdain. He did not know the meaning of all this until, late in the evening, a pert young lady said, to him banteringly, " How dare you, Major Conover, show yourself among us people of society, after that noxious and obnoxious
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article of yours in your paper of to-day?" " What- madam-what do you mean?" "Why, that gross and scandalous article of us in your paper to-day !" Major Conover suddenly bethought him of a copy of his paper in his overcoat pocket, and suddenly left the lady, and getting his overcoat and ramming his hand into a side- pocket, he pulled forth the True Whig, and-lo and behold ! sure enough-there was a long column article printed in black and white, severely lampooning the elite of the city for indulging so much in balls and parties in the cold winter times at the expense of economy and the poor of the city. More than that, it was an article which he had seen and had consigned to the waste-basket, as he firmly thought and believed. It had been sent to his paper by some malicious correspondent and it was full of names of ladies and gentlemen of fashionable society who were present at the party. How did it get into the paper ?- that was the question.
The major suddenly left the party and, as late as it was, suddenly made his per- sonal appearance in his sanctum and, on particularly ex- amining his waste-basket, found there an article of his own, which he had thrown into his waste-basket by sudden mistake, instead of the lampooning article. He at once reflected on the instability of sublunary affairs, and, stop- ping the press of his morning's paper, sat down and went to work and wrote a full article of explanation, which duly appeared in the paper, and all was right with the major again, and the major was restored to the favor of the elite by a large major-ity.
LAWYERS FROM 1831 ONWARD TO I849.
We now take leave of the earliest lawyers of the old court house, and proceed with later lawyers and later
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times-of the same old court house, however-and as to them, we may as well re-cite the poetic lines -
" We will revive those times, And in our memory keep fresh, like flowers in water, Those happier days."
We have yet some things in the way of reminiscences and anecdotes pertaining to the old court house. We have found that old court house quite a prolific field for fun and jokes, and it rests in the memories of those living now, who once knew it and of it, as a funny dream of the long past, full of incidents and scenes, much like those of a funny drama, or comedy, or farce. But we also reverence that old court house for its great and serious records and memories of the past, and were it in our line in these reminiscences and anecdotes, we could give many of these, which would elicit admiration and awe, and sometimes sorrow and sadness. The days of the old court house, and of most of those who figured in it, have gone, and we can not recall them into existence, save in our memories ; there, thank heaven, they do exist while the lamp of life holds out to burn. But to some more recollections.
LAWYER NAT READ, AND HIS FUNNY DEFEAT.
In course, I now come to speak of a bright and particular star, a genius in the law, whom I well knew, in my young days, and who was well known to every citizen of this city, and of this State, and of the West. This was Nathaniel C. Read, a lawyer, prosecuting attorney, presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas of this county, and then judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, in all which capacities he was, perhaps, in his day and generation, unsurpassed. His living reputation is continued by his luminous legal decisions reported in the
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comparatively early volumes of the reports of our Supreme Court; and lawyers, and judges at this day read, ponder, and admire, and point to them for their legal intelligence, their terse and wholesome expression, and their discreet and wise thought, and judgment. It will be found by reference, that he was frequently a dis- senting judge to the opinion of the majority on the Supreme bench, and it is now the frequent remark of lawyers and judges, learned in the law, that there is more law, a great deal more, in his dissenting opinions, than there is in the majority judgments of the Supreme Court. As to this, I could point to remarkable instances, particularly to his dissenting opinions in the celebrated dower cases, in which the majority of old fogy judges undertook to, and did stamp out the rights of married women ; and in which Judge Read (bless his judgment !) undertook to, and did uphold, as far as one judge could do it, the legal rights of married women, against the en- croachments and stifling oppressions of men. The majority opinion prevailed as the law, and does now pre- vail as being the judgment of the highest court, but, thank our stars, it was not the judgment of the highest judge in that court, by any manner of means.
Judge Read resigned his position as judge of the Supreme Court, and came back to our bar, to practice law, and it was at this time, that the following incidents, events, and defeats for him, renewing his practice, occurred. I shall be particular in narration, because I state whereof I know :
An astounding day-light burglary had been com- mitted in the mansion of Dr. Henry Wood, on Third street, beyond Broadway. A bold, daring and most venturous robber, at noon-day, knocked at the front door
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of Dr. Wood's house, and, the door opening, the servant girl appeared. Wholly careless of her presence, the thief pushed by her, now completely astounded, and penetrated the hall to the dining-room, and into that, and on, and into the sideboard, from which he took about two hundred and fifty dollars worth of solid silverware, and carrying it in his arms, marched back through the hall. again by the dumbfounded and paralyzed girl at the door, out of the door into the street, and thence to his secret haunts. This robber's name was Joseph Andrews, a name afterward infamous in bold crime. Whether he was a lineal descendant of the literary "Joe" of England's memory, has not transpired, but he certainly was of the same name-plain Joseph Andrews-though not so plain or simple a character as his illustrious proto- type namesake. Dr. Wood soon after returning home from a visit to a patient, the yet frightened housemaid told him of the bold robbery and escapade, and the loss of the silver. She also described particularly the person of the robber ; his good and stylish looks, his comely face, and his neat and clean attire. With this description for a clue, detectives were employed, and by hook and crook, Andrews was arrested, and the grand jury being in session, he was, on the evidence of the girl and the stolen silver found in his quarters, duly indicted for the crime of grand larceny, and day-light burglary. He was arraigned before the court, by the prosecuting attorney, and was asked if he had an attorney. Judge Read stood up in court, and said that " he would appear as counsel for the unfortunate good-looking youth, and would, for him, enter a plea of 'not guilty.'" The day was set for trial, and the trial came on, and the prisoner was there, and a bedizzened and blazoned beautiful-look-
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