Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Part 13

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell
Publication date: 1910
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1189

USA > Ohio > Hancock County > Findlay > Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens > Part 13

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Hon. James M. Coffinberry became a mem- ber of the Findlay bar in the fall of 1845. He was born in Mansfield, Ohio, May 16, 1818, whence in 1836 his father, Andrew Coffinberry, removed to Perrysburg, Wood County. Here James M. read law in his father's office and in 1840 was admitted to the bar. His father, widely known as Count Coffinberry, was one of the leading attorneys of Northwestern Ohio and practiced in this portion of the state throughout the earlier years of its history. Soon after admission to the bar James M. opened a law office in Maumee City and sub- sequently served as prosecuting attorney of Lucas County. Late in the fall of 1845 he set- tled in Findlay where he purchased an interest and took editorial charge of the Findlay Her- ald, the local organ of the Whig party. In the spring of 1846 he became sole owner of the

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Herald, which he published about three years, and then sold out to Dr. David Patton. From the date of his coming to Findlay Judge Cof- finberry took and retained a leading position at the Hancock County Bar and in 1852 was a prime mover in the establishment of the Find- lay Bank, the first financial institution estab- lished in the county. Feeling the need of a large field for the full exercise of his maturer powers, he removed in 1855 to Cleveland, Ohio, where he held a high rank among the eminent law- yers of that city. In 1861 he was elected on the Union ticket Judge of the Common Pleas Court and served five years on the bench. Upon the expiration of his judicial term he resumed his professional duties and continued in the en- joyment of a large and lucrative practice till 1875 when he retired. He was one of the greatest lawyers Findlay ever had.

Charles S. Coffinberry, a younger brother of the Judge, practiced law in Findlay about three years. He was a native of Mansfield, Ohio, born February 1, 1824. He read law with his father at Perrysburg and came to Findlay in the spring of 1846, where he formed a partner- ship with John M. Morrison. In 1849, in com- pany with others from this portion of Ohio, he went to California and was afterward ap- pointed by President Filmore to take the first census of that state. In the discharge of this laborious undertaking, he was ably assisted by his father, who had followed him to the new Eldorado. He finally returned to Ohio and for a few months was associated with his brother in the practice of the law in Cleveland, but fail- ing health compelled him to again relinquish his professional labors and he went to Oregon and New Mexico where he spent the later years of his life, dying of consumption about thirty miles south of Pueblo, December 17. 1873.

Aaron H. Biglow was a native of Vermont and a graduate of Middlebury College. He there read law and was admitted to practice. In July, 1841, he located in Findlay and for a few years was engaged in mercantile pursuits. He then began the practice of law, which he fol- lowed until 1856 when he gave up the profes- sion and subsequently removed to Indiana, where he died. Mr. Biglow possessed a good education and was a fair speaker, but never ac- quired much practice.

John E. Rosette first located in Mt .Blanch- ard where he married. In 1848 he re- moved to Findlay and in April, 1849, he was appointed prosecuting attorney, vice Abel F. Parker, resigned. He was twice elected to the same position, serving until January, 1854. He was modest, quiet, and of studious habits, pos- sessing good legal judgment but diffident and lacking self-reliance. Soon after the expira- tion of his last term as prosecutor he removed to Springfield, Ill., where he rapidly secured recognition as a sound, reliable lawyer. He was appointed by President Johnson United States district attorney for the southern dis- trict of Illinois. For some years before his death he enjoyed a wide reputation as a crimi- nal lawyer and commanded the confidence of a bar embracing many distinguished men.

Henry Brown was one of the oldest and best known members of the bar. He was born in Albion, Orleans County, N. Y., November 25, . 1826, and received a good literary and classical education at the Albion Academy. In May, 1844, he came to Ohio and engaged in school teaching near Fostoria, which vocation he fol- lowed three years. During this period he com- menced the study of law under Hon. Warren P. Noble, of Tiffin, Ohio, and in the fall of 1848 he was admitted to practice. In January,

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1842, he located in Findlay as a member of the mitted to the bar in the fall of 1850. The same law firm of Goit, Biglow & Brown. In January, autumn he located in Findlay and formed a partnership with John H. Morrison and sub- sequently with Judge Whiteley. In 1853 he was elected prosecuting attorney and was re- elected in 1855. He served in the legislature from 1862 to 1864 and received the certificate of re-election but lost the seat on contest. This was during the most exciting period in the po- litical history of the state, when Democrats were publicly branded as rebels and political passion ran high. Mr. Gribben followed his profession until his death, which occurred No- vember 28, 1887. 1851, Mr. Brown bcame one of the editors and proprietors of the Hancock Courier, which he continued to publish until January, 1854. When he sold his interest to his partner Aaron Blackford, who had also been his law partner for the last two years. In January, 1855, he assumed entire editorial control of the Courier and carried on that paper until December 20, 1856. He was elected auditor in October, 1854, and served till March, 1857. Mr. Brown was then compelled by ill health to retire from active business. After a period of needed re- cuperation he resumed the practice of his pro- fession and in November, 1862, was appointed prosecuting attorney to serve out the unexpired term of James A. Bope, resigned; was elected as his own successor, and re-elected to the same position. In 1868 he was the Democratic sen- atorial candidate for election in this district, and made a splendid race, reducing the pre- vious Republican majority 1,973 votes, and being defeated by only 227 votes. Mr. Brown was again elected prosecutor in 1875 and re- elected in 1877. In 1884 he was once more chosen to fill the same office and in 1887 was elected to the lower house of the legislature, succeeding himself in 1889. He died May II, 1893, regretted by all who knew him.

William Gribben was one of the brightest, brainiest members of the Findlay bar and might have risen very high if he had devoted his talents to his profession. He was born in Allegheny County, Penn., March 1I, 1825, and in the following autumn his parents removed to what is now Ashland County, Ohio, where Mr. Gribben grew to maturity and received a common school education. He read law with Johnson and Sloan of Ashland and was ad-

Aaron Blackford was one of the oldest and most prominent members of the Hancock County bar, to which he had belonged nearly fifty years. He was born in Columbiana Coun- ty, Ohio, February 8, 1827, and removed to Findlay with his parents, Price and Abigail Blackford, in October, 1834. He received his education in the public schools of Findlay and at Delaware College, Delaware, Ohio. He read law with Henry Brown, of Findlay, at- tended the Cincinnati Law School and was ad- mitted to the bar in May, 1852. In January, 1851, he became associated with Henry Brown, of Findlay, in the publication of the Hancock Courier, which they jointly edited until Jan- uary, 1854, when Mr. Blackford became sole editor. He conducted the paper about one year and then disposed of his interest to his former partner. During this period Mr. Black- ford also practiced law, and with the passing years attained more than a state prominence in his profession. Mr. Blackford was the Nestor of the Findlay bar and accumulated great wealth. He had four sons, two of whom are now practicing attorneys in this city-Rollin dying a few years ago, the two still practicing

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here being Frank P. and Charles A. Blackford. Mr. Blackford died Dec. 7, 1904.

Hon. William Mungen was born in Balti- more, Md., May 12, 1821, and died Septem- ber 9, 1887. He removed with his family in 1830 to Carroll County, Ohio, where he re- ceived a common school education and subse- quently studied Latin, German and the physi- cal sciences. He came to Findlay in October, 1842. In February, 1845, he took possession of the Hancock Farmer, and changed its name to the Hancock Democrat and on the first of July, 1845, he became the editor and proprietor of the Hancock Courier, consolidating the two papers. Excepting one year during which the office was rented to William M. Case, and a short period to B. F. Rosenberg, Mr. Mungen published the Courier until 1851, when he sold the establishment to Henry Brown and Aaron Blackford, two leading members of the bar. In 1846 Mr. Mungen was elected auditor of Hancock County and re-elected in 1848. In 1846 Mr. Mungen was chosen to represent this district in the state senate and declined a re- nomination, which was then equal to election. In the meantime he had been reading law during his spare moments and in 1852 was ad- mitted to the bar and began practice. When the Rebellion broke out in 1861 Mr. Mungen was foremost in recruiting the Fifty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was commis- sioned colonel of that gallant regiment, which he commanded until April, 1863, when he re- signed the commission. Colonel Mungen served as a Democrat two terms in Congress from 1867 to 1871. He is the only congress- man Hancock County had then had. Mrs. Jacob H. Boger and Miss Effie Mungen of this city are his daughters. Mr. Mungen was a true patriot, a noble citizen, a great lawyer and

a brave soldier, serving in any capacity in which his country's cause was prime motive.

Andrew Coffinberry was conspicuous among the old-time lawyers of the Maumee Valley, and though not a resident of Findlay until within a few years prior to his death, he prac- ticed at this bar before the county possessed a single attorney. He was born at Martins- burg, Berkeley County, Virginia, August 20, 1788. In the spring of 1836 he removed with his family to Perrysburg, Wood County, Ohio, where he resided until 1849-50. From Perrys- burg he removed to Sidney, Shelby County, Ohio; there he left his family and went to Cal- ifornia. Upon the death of his wife, which oc- curred during his absence, his son James M. brought the family to Findlay, where their father joined them on his return from Califor- nia. Here he continued in practice until his death, May II, 1856. "Count" Coffinberry was not only a lawyer of ability but possessed considerable literary talent. "The Forest Ranges," a descriptive poem, was one of his productions. His sobriquet of "Count" was first playfully given him by his professional as- sociates from some real or supposed resem- blance to the illustrious German jurist and pub- licist Count Puffendorf. The title was recog- nized as being so appropriate to the man that it stuck to him through life, and thousands of those who knew him long and well never knew that it was not his real name.

John F. Caples came to Findlay from Fostoria in the fall of 1854 and practiced law here till the spring of 1858, when he re- moved to Warsaw, Indiana. He subse- quently went to Portland, Oregon, and en- tered into the practice of his profession. "John F. Caples," said Judge Coffinberry, "is one of the best lawyers of his adopted

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state." During his life in Findlay he was began practice with his preceptor. Mr. recognized as a good speaker and a promis- ing young lawyer. Bunts practiced law in Findlay till 1860 and then returned to Youngstown and resumed partnership with Mr. Powers. He after- wards served in the Civil War, on the staff of General Rosecrans. He located at Nashville, Tenn., subsequently returning to Youngstown and thence going to Cleve- land, where he filled the position of assist- ant United States district attorney and city solicitor, dying January 16, 1874.

Daniel B. Beardsley, one of the pioneers of Hancock County and a lawyer for many years in Findlay, was born in Licking County, Ohio, May 12, 1832, and was brought by his parents to Hancock County in 1834, where he resided until his death September 29, 1894. Mr. Beardsley was educated in the public schools of this county and taught school for a number of years. He read law with Walker & West, of Belle- fontaine, and was there admitted to the bar in August, 1856. In March, 1857, he lo- cated in practice in Findlay and for thirty- seven years was a member of the local bar. In 1858 he was elected a justice of the peace of Findlay Township and was re- elected eight times, serving continuously from the spring of 1858 to the spring of 1885, a period of twenty-seven years. Mr. Beardsley was prominent in the organiza- tion of "The Hancock County Pioneer and Historical Association" and an active mem- ber during its existence. His connection with this society prompted him to write a history of Hancock County which he pub- lished in 1881. Mr. Beardsley was also secretary of the Hancock County Agricul- tural Society for many years and he was a good one-an untiring worker and. a genial courteous gentleman with friends in every nook and corner of the county.

William C. Bunts located in Findlay in the spring of 1858, whither he removed from Youngstown, Ohio. He graduated in 1854 from Allegheny College at Mead- ville, Penn., read law with Ridgeley Pow- ers, of Youngstown, and upon admission

Col. James A. Bope was a native of Ohio, having been born in Winchester, Adams County, on the 30th of November, 1833. His parents removed to Lancaster in 1838 and there he received his preliminary educa- tional discipline, after which he was ma- triculated in Wittenberg College, Spring- field, Ohio, where he was graduated as a member of the class of 1855. There was no element of vacillation in his nature, and thus it was to be expected that he would early form definite plans as to his course in life. He began reading law in Lancas- ter, being a close and assiduous student and so rapidly advancing in his technical knowledge as to secure admission to the bar of the state in 1857. He served his novitiate as a practitioner in Lancaster, where he remained until 1859, when he came to Findlay. Here he subsequently maintained his home and by his life and services added to the dignity of the bar of the state.

In 1861 Colonel Bope had been elected prosecuting attorney of the county, but the responsibilities of this incumbency and the demands of his general practice did not de- ter him from promptly responding to the clarion call to arms when the dark shadow

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of Civil war obscured the National horizon. In July, 1862, he enlisted as a member of Company D, Ninety-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, of which he was made captain and in which he served until July 10, 1864, when he was appointed acting inspector general in the brigade commanded by Colonel P. T. Swaine. In the battle of At- lanta our subject was severely wounded and was sent home by General Schofield, presumably never to return to the front or even survive his injuries. He, however, recovered and rejoined his command in North Carolina. He was made lieutenant colonel and was placed in command of the Ninety-ninth and Fifteenth Consolidated Regiments of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which capacity he served until the close of the war, being mustered out in July, 1865. He was an active participant in all the en- gagements of his command from Perry- ville, Ky., to the end, including the battles of Lookout Mountain, Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, and from Dalton to At- lanta. He had received several minor wounds prior to being incapacitated by his injuries at Atlanta.

After being mustered out Colonel Bope returned to Findlay and resumed his inter- rupted professional work in which he gained a marked precedence and a represen- tative clientage. For more than a decade he was retained as counsel for the Findlay city council and thereafter served for four years as city solicitor. He devoted his at- tention principally to corporation law, hav- ing nothing in the line of criminal cases in connection with his professional work, though he proved a strong advocate, ver- satile and thorough and learned in the

minutia of the law. He was attorney for a number of important corporations, includ- ing leading banking institutions, and attor- ney for the Cincinnati, Sandusky and Cleveland and the Big Four Railroad and also for the Bowling Green & Southern Traction Company. His political allegi- ance was given to the Republican party of whose cause he was ever a stalwart sup- porter and advocate. In 1861 Colonel Bope was united in marriage to Miss Martha J. Meeks, a daughter of Rev. J. A. Meeks, and their home was ever a center of gracious hospitality. Colonel Bope died October 25, 1908.

Absalom P. Byall. Few, if any, of the men living in Hancock County today, have been so closely connected with the progress and official affairs of the county as has the Hon. Absolam P. Byall. Mr. Byall was born in Stark County, Ohio, on the 19th day of June, 1821, and moved with his father's family to Findlay, ar- riving on the 6th of September, 1833, when a lad of twelve years of age, and has been a con- tinuous citizen of this county to the present day. The family settled on a forty-acre tract of land on the east side of Main Street, extend- ing from Sandusky Street to Lima Street, building a house on the site of the grounds at present occupied by the fine residence of George P. Jones. At that date the land was covered by the primeval forest. Mr. Byall with the help of the subject of our sketch, cleared up this land, making for himself and family a com- fortable home. In 1840 the father died, and Absalom being the oldest of five children, took upon himself the dutiful task of the support of his mother and the four younger children.

In September, 1845, he was united in mar- riage to Miss Sarah A. Youngkin, and to this

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union were born one son and three daughters, all of which are still living. Mrs. Byall died May 21, 1865, just at the close of the civil war. In 1867 Mr. Byall was again married to Miss Sallie Mavety, and to this marriage were born two children, a daughter, who at the age of two and a half years met with the sad fate of death from drowning by falling into a well, and a son George F. Byall, the well known and progressive agriculturist. His second wife died February 13, 1897, since which time Mr. Byall has remained single, living in his beau- tiful residence by the most handsome grove in the county, planted by his own hands. In his early life he cleared land, chopped cord wood and did farming, besides attending to different official services that fell to his lot.

In 1842, Elisha Brown of Amanda Town- ship was elected sheriff of Hancock County, but the amount of business in the office not justify- ing Mr. Brown's removal to Findlay, he ap- pointed A. P. Byall, then a young man of twen- ty-one, as his deputy, and the business of that office was ably and promptly attended to until the close of Mr. Brown's term. Owing to a split in the Democratic party in 1844, Elisha Brown failed of re-election, the opposite party taking the office; but in 1846, A. P. Byall was nominated and elected to the office of sheriff of Hancock County, which he held for about a year and a half when he resigned to accept an appointment as clerk of the court, as under the constitution of 1802 this was an appointive office by a president and three associate judges. Judge Good, of Shelby County, was president, and Hammond, Roller and Ewing were asso- ciates. The last three were residents of this county.

The new Constitution of 1851 terminated the appointment, and made it an elective office,

thus terminating Mr. Byall's term. At that time the duties of clerk of the court were not arduous, and Mr. Byall employed his spare time in reading law, with C. W. O'Neal and M. C. Whiteley, and was admitted to practice by Judge Thurman of the Supreme Court of Ohio, his office having terminated by Consti- tutional limitation in 1852. In 1857 he located on a farm north of town and for a time gave his entire attention to practical farming, in which, as in all other things he engaged in, he was successful, as he put his own hands to the plow and did not look back.

In 1860 he took the census of the west half of the county with the exception of Orange and Van Buren Townships. In 1861 he removed to Findlay for the purpose of better educating his children, and bought the property on the east side of Main Street north of Front Street, built in an early day by Wilson Vance, and now owned by Mrs. Wilhelmina Traucht, and occupied by her for a residence and milliner store. In 1868 he sold this property to Gen. M. B. Walker, and bought a farm on the Lima Road about a mile from Main Street, and after some years built a fine residence and embel- lished the grounds with groves and shrubbery, until it is one of the handsomest homes in Han- cock County.

In 1847 while sheriff, he took a jury of six men along the route of the "Branch Road" from here to Carey, to appraise the lands in an- ticipation of the building of the railroad from Findlay to Carey, the first railroad built in this county. In 1872 he was elected Justice of the Peace, but finding that it interfered with the work of managing his farms, he resigned after holding the office for a year and a half. In 1873 he was elected a member of the Consti- tutional Convention that convened in Colum-

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bus, O., and held sessions until the breaking out of cholera in August of 1873, when it ad- journed and reassembled in Cincinnati Decem- ber Ist of the same year, and remained there until the 15th of May, 1874.

He was President of the Hancock Agricul- tural Society for fifteen years, and the society grew strong and prosperous under his man- agement. In 1883 he was elected as a member of the House of the Ohio Legislature, and was reelected in 1885. Here it was that Colonel Byall-for by that name was he known to the members of that body-displayed great strength of character, and many important measures were intrusted to his care in their passage through the House, not only from his own county but from others as well. His well known integrity and steadfastness called forth the confidence in his honesty and influence to carry a bill to a favorable termination in that body.

Col. Byall has a most wonderful memory of events that have occurred in his life, and those of a public nature, and his recital of them is both instructive and entertaining. Hour upon hour can be pleasantly spent in conversation with him at his splendid and commodious home on Lima Avenue. The beautiful "Byall Park," located on the southwest border of the town, at the head of Hurd Avenue, and used as a camp meeting ground, was largely the gift of Mr. Byall and embellished by the society who hold annual meetings is considered an attractive spot, and well deserves to be named in honor of so noble and charitable a gentleman.

Hon. John M. Palmer was born in Clinton County, New York, July 5, 1814, learned the cabinet maker's trade in Portland, Vt., and worked at it in that state. In 1837 he came to Ohio and attended Granville Seminary. He

studied law with Hon. Henry Strausberry, of Cincinnati, and was there admitted to practice in 1841. In 1843 he was married at Lancaster, Ohio, to Miss Ellen Weaver, and located in practice at Somerset, Perry County. In 1846 he removed to Defiance, where he followed his profession until 1852 when he was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas. While still on the bench Judge Palmer removed to Putman County, in which county he had con- siderable land interests and a township of which was named in his honor. In June, 1858, he settled in Findlay, and resumed the practice of law in partnership with John Maston. From 1861 to 1863 he was a commissary in the army with the rank of captain, but resigning the of- fice, remained in the south for some time. Re- turning to Findlay he again took up his prac- tice and followed the profession up to the ill- ness which resulted in his death November 29, 1876.

Elijah T. Dunn was born in Knox County, Ohio, June 20, 1840. His father was a farmer and tobacco grower. In 1844 he removed with his people to Wood County, Ohio, in what was then known as the "Black Swamp," where. with three terms of winter school, his early ed- ucation was finished. At the age of thirteen he entered the office of the Herald of Freedom, at Wilmington and became an expert printer. He taught several terms of school in Clark and Hancock Counties, pursuing in the meantime the study of law. On the breaking out of the Rebellion he joined with the Union army, while yet a minor and did service for a short time as a member of the Twenty-first Ohio Volunteers. Becoming unable to perform duty as a soldier he held for a while a clerkship in the quarter- turning to Findlay he completed his law course master's department at Nashville, Tenn. Re-

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Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Part 13

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1189

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell
Publication date: 1910
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1189