50 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. in his office day and night. The proceedings in impeachment of the President followed, and on the failure to impeach Mr. Johnson, on May 26 Mr. Stanton resigned. The Senate in confirming his successor adopted a resolution that Mr. Stanton was not legally removed, but relinquished his office, and subsequently Congress passed him a vote of thanks for the great ability, purity and fidelity with which he had discharged his duties. Although Mr. Stanton's constitution was broken down by the tremendous strain which his efforts during the war had imposed on it, yet his circumstances compelled him to renew the practice of his profession—indisputable evidence of his honesty and integrity while holding public office. On December 20, 1869, he was appointed by President Grant, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and was immediately confirmed by the Senate, but he was never to take his seat, for he died on December 24, before his commission to that high office was made out. Mr. Stanton was married on the 21st day of December, 1836, to Miss Mary A. Lamson, daughter of William Lamson, formerly of Connecticut. The marriage occurred at Columbus, Ohio, at the residence of Rev. William Preston of Trinity Church, Mrs. Preston being the oldest sister of the bride. Mary Stanton died on the 13th of March, 1844. Mr. Stanton married in June, 1856, Miss Ellen A. Hutchison, daughter of Lewis Hutchison of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at which place he was then residing. Mr. Stanton left his widow and children in comparatively destitute circumstances. A testimonial fund of $100,000 to repair the losses occasioned by the complete abnegation of his private interests during the period of his secretaryship was by him refused in the firmest manner. Subsequent to his death, however, the amount was contributed for the benefit of his family. HIRAM GRISWOLD was the son of Roswell and Jerusha Griswold. The family was of English descent, and upon its arrival in this country settled in Connecticut. Hiram was born at Colebrook, Litchfield county, Connecticut, July 5, 1807. His father was in moderate circumstances, with a farm situated among the rocks and hills of New England. Hiram was the third child in a family of twelve children, to no one of whom was the father able to give special advantages of education. Hiram was a striking example of a self-made man. He gained what education he could by winter's schooling in the district schools, in which he showed great aptitude as a scholar. At the age of eighteen he decided to push out into the world for himself, and obtained his father's permission to leave home. After teaching school for a few months in the State of New York, lie followed the emigration West and located in Ravenna, Ohio, where he supported himself by teaching school. He graduated from Western Reserve College, Hudson, Ohio. He resolved upon the study of law, and while still teaching began his legal studies at Ravenna and later completed the same under the fortunate guidance of Honorable Van R. Humphrey, of Hudson, Ohio. He was admitted to the Bar at Bucyrus, Crawford county, in 1829, and shortly thereafter began the practice at Canton, Ohio, where he opened an office, and where he remained for twenty-two years. His unusual ability and excellent mental training enabled him to make BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 51 rapid progress in his profession, and he soon took a most prominent place at the Bar of Stark county. Mr. Griswold was a man possessed of sterling qualities of character and popular manner and address. On the stump no stronger man stood before the people of Ohio. With a strong courage, clearness of conviction, with a happy gift of language, with a commanding presence and an earnest and forcible delivery, he was upon the platform one of the first and finest representatives of the principles of the Whig party in the West. He was frequently urged during his residence in Canton to accept public office, even being offered the nomination to Congress from his district, but he refused political preferment, desiring to build up, as he did, a large and successful practice. In 1846, while a resident and practitioner of Stark county, he was appointed reporter of the Supreme Court to succeed Edwin; McMaster Stanton. Mr. Griswold served in this office for five years, to and including 1851, reporting volumes 14 to 19 inclusive, Ohio Reports. He was an able court reporter, painstaking and very popular with members of the Bar. Under his administration the reports became more voluminous, owing to the rapidincrease of litigation attendant upon the growth of population in that, prosperous decade. In 1851 he was nominated by the Whigs of the Ohio Legislature as their candidate for United States senator. Among his opponents for that position were Thomas Ewing, Samuel F. Vinton, Judge Lane, Attorney-General Stanbery, Judge Johnson and Charles Anderson ; but the Whigs had not a clear majority, and after some eighteen ballots, during which Mr. Griswold came within two votes of election, the Whigs, perceiving that no election was possible except by a coalition with the Free-soilers, withdrew with his consent the name of Mr. Griswold. Thereupon, after several names had been presented and rejected, Benjamin Wade, of Ashtabula county, was brought forward and elected. In the year 1852, shortly after his retirement from the reporter's office, in order to have a wider field for his legal practice, Mr. Griswold removed from Canton to Cleveland, where he entered into a partnership with M. S. Castle, and in which city, for twelve years, he maintained the unquestioned position of one of the foremost leaders of the Bar. In the fall of 1855 he was elected a member of the State Senate from Cuyahoga county, serving in the 52nd (1856-1858) General Assembly with such distinguished colleagues as Stanley Matthews, Hezekiah S. Bundy, Alfred Kelly, William Lawrence Ralph P. Buckland and John T. Brasee. While Mr. Griswold was a resident of Cleveland, there occurred at Harper's Ferry that momentous event known as John Brown's Insurrection, October, 1859. The details of that tragic incident are familiar history. In that hour of John Brown's solitary danger, Hiram Griswold volunteered his services in defense of the Abolition hero. He participated in the trial as one of Mr. Brown's legal counsel, and dared to stand by his martyred friend to the last. With the name of John Brown that of Hiram Griswold will go down through history. It was natural that a man with such strong and intense convictions should feel a deep interest in Kansas. He longed to cast his fortunes with those of this young, liberty-loving State. Finally, in 1863, he yielded to this desire and removed to Leavenworth, Kan- 52 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. sas, where he resided till the day of his death, October 11, 1881. During his residence in Kansas he maintained the same high position at the Bar that he had held in Ohio. He was elected attorney-general of Kansas in 1864, and served one term. Immediately after the passage of the bankrupt act he was appointed, by Chief Justice Chase, register of bankruptcy for the State of Kansas, which position he filled until the repeal of the act. In 1832 he married Miss Eleanor Gordon, daughter of John Gordon, of Pittsburg, Pa. She died some four years after their removal to Leavenworth. Three years before his death he married Mary J. Chisholm of Bath, N. Y. This widow is now living in Leavenworth, Kansas. A sister, Mrs. William S. Phillips, resides at West Winsted, Connecticut, and a brother, Edward R. Griswold, at Cleveland, Ohio. WILLIAM LAWRENCE, A. M., LL. D. He was born at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, June 26, 1819; graduated at Franklin College, September, 1838, with the highest honors of his class. Graduated at Cincinnati Law School, March,. 1840, and admitted to the Bar in November of the same year, and has been engaged in the active practice of his profession ever since, excepting when his official duties prevented. As a lawyer, Mr. Lawrence has taken high rank, his clientage being scattered over many States. His name appears as counsel in many volumes of the Ohio and the Ohio State Reports, and in the reports of the Supreme Court of Kansas and of the United States. From July 15, 1841, to July 15, 1843, he was the law partner of Benjamin Stanton, afterwards member of Congress and lieutenant governor of Ohio. From July, 1851, to February, 1854, he was a law partner with his law student, William H. West, afterward attorney-general of Ohio and judge of the Supreme Court. From April, 1866, to August, 1871, he was the law partner of Emanuel J. Howenstein, and later a partner with his son Joseph H. Lawrence. The political career of Mr. Lawrence has been most Conspicuous and creditable. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Logan county for the year 1845-46. He was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives 1846-48 ; member of the Ohio Senate 1849, '50 and '54. During his legislative service he was the author of and caused to be enacted, among many other important measures, the Ohio Free Banking Law, from which the National Banking Act was largely modeled. He was Whig candidate for Presidential elector, 1852; was judge of the Common Pleas and District Courts in Ohio, 1857 to 1864; editor of the Cleveland Western Law Monthly, 1861 to 1864. In 1862 he was colonel of the Eighty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, engaging in active service in the State of Maryland; in 1863 was appointed by President Lincoln district judge in Florida, but declined the office ; was elected representative to Congress from his district in 1864, and served continuously in that body by virtue of re-elections for ten years. He was one of the counsel selected by the Republicans in Congress, under the act of January 29, 1877, and argued in favor of the claims of the Republican Presidential electors for Oregon and South Carolina, before the Hayes-Tilden " Electoral Commission," and the records of that memorable contest show with what learning and ability Mr. Lawrence presented his argu- BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 53 ments. He was appointed first comptroller of the United Treasury Department, serving from July, 1880, to April, 1885. His published reports during that period are regarded as model financial and state documents. Mr. Lawrence's learning has not been confined to the field of his profession. Possessed of a mind as versatile as it is vigorous, he has been recognized by his speeches and publications as high authority in many departments of knowledge. He was a student of medicine and surgery from 1841 to 1843, and his medical education has been a valuable aid to him, not only in his legal pursuits, but in the practical affairs of a busy life. He was editor of the Logan Gazette from 1845-47; trustee of the Ohio Wesleyan University from July, 1878, to the present time. For many years Mr. Lawrence has been deeply interested in the agricultural interests of our country and State, and particularly in the subject of sheep raising, wool growing and the question of the tariff pertaining thereto. In January, 1891, he was elected president of the Ohio Wool Growers' Association, and by annual re-election has so continued ever since. In October, 1893, he was elected president of the National Wool Growers' Association and still retains that office. The New York Commercial Advertiser, November 30, 1895, said : " He has made more speeches and written more newspaper articles on the wool tariff * * than any other citizen of the United States." April 9, 1896, Senator Mantle, in a speech in the United States Senate, said : " He is beyond question the highest and best informed authority upon the wool question * * to be found in the country." Mr. Lawrence has been a prolific and scholarly writer in nearly all the departments of study that have engaged his attention. His miscellaneous law articles in law journals, his speeches and pamphlets used as political campaign documents in Presidential and other elections, his judicial decisions and his miscellaneous addresses, if collected, would make several volumes, besides his speeches and reports in Congress. His printed briefs in, law cases would in themselves constitute a large library, and embrace the discussion and elucidation of nearly every principle of law. Many of these briefs are preserved in the government law library at Washington. He has been a frequent contributor to the leading law publications of the country, and has a ready familiarity with more branches of the law than members of the profession generally possess. As lawyer and judge he has acquired a most thorough comprehension of both constitutional and common law. While serving in Congress, as a member of the judiciary committee, of the committee on the revision of the laws, and as chairman of the committee on war claims, be became unusually conversant with the Constitution and the laws of the United States and international law, including the laws of war. And as first comptroller of the treasury he became versed in the national executive common law and in the construction of statutes. Several authors of law text-books have availed themselves of Judge Lawrence's valuable assistance in the preparation of their works. Bishop in his works on " Statutory Crimes," and on " Criminal Law," has quoted with approval excerpts from the legal arguments of Judge Lawrence. Paschal in his annotated " Constitution," speaking of Jude Lawrence's 54 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. treatise on The Law of Impeachable Crimes," used in the impeachment of President Johnson, said : " In all that great trial there is no more accurate and precise learning than is to be found in the brief of authorities upon the law of impeachable crimes and misdemeanors, prepared by Honorable William Lawrence, of Ohio, which was adopted by Mr. Butler." He was appointed reporter to the Ohio Supreme Court at the beginning of 1851 and served but one year. Although he edited but one volume, No. 20 and last of the Ohio Reports, it is the most voluminous of all the Ohio and Ohio State Reports, and in the presentation of the cases, accompanying the opinions, Mr. Lawrence gave evidence of his legal learning and eminent qualifications for this office, which he so briefly held. Mr. Lawrence is still engaged in active practice, at his home, Bellefontaine, Ohio. GEORGE W. McCOOK was a member of the famous family of Ohio known as the "Fighting McCooks," a family that has achieved a reputation both in military and civil life, and which will occupy a place in our country's history accorded but few. He was the son of Major Daniel McCook, and was born in Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, July 21, 1822. When quite young his family removed to Columbiana county, Ohio, where they remained until George was nine years old, when the family removed to Carroll county. While living here he attended Franklin College, at New Athens, Ohio. At the close of his collegiate year he studied law in the office of Edwin M. Stanton, and being admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of the State, then sitting in Trumbull county, he became a partner with his preceptor, Mr. Stanton, in 1843. While pursuing his profession he also became active as a politician, and a prominent member of the Democratic party, taking an influential part in the affairs of that organization until his death. With the outbreak of the Mexican War a company of volunteers was formed in Steubenville, called " The Steubenville Grays." This company organized in May, 1846, by electing George W. McCook, then a rising young lawyer, as captain. On May 27th the company left for Camp Washington, at Cincinnati, where it became Company I of the Third Ohio Infantry. Captain McCook was promoted to the lieutenant colonelcy, and a short time before the return of the regiment, Colonel McCook was placed in full command, Colonel Samuel R. Curtis, his predecessor, having been made inspector general. On July 3, 1846, the regiment proceeded to Cincinnati, New Orleans and thence to Texas, crossing the border at Fort Brown into Mexico, where they lay for six months at Camp McCook. From thence they proceeded to Matamoras, and soon after Lieutenant McCook, with three companies, was detailed to relieve Colonel Morgan's regiment at the front, which they accomplished after one of the hardest marches of the war. The regiment subsequently proceeded to Monterey and Buena Vista. They returned home and were mustered out on July 3, 1847. On his return to Steubenville, Colonel McCook resumed his partnership with Mr. Stanton, when, in 1852, he was appointed reporter of the Supreme Court of Ohio, but e served but one year, preparing the first volume of the Ohio State Reports under the new Constitution. In the fall of 1853 he was elected attorney-general of the State by BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 55 a large majority on the Democratic ticket, defeating both William H. Gibson, the Whig candidate, and Cooper K. Watson, the Free-soil candidate, and lie served for the full term of two years, 1854-1856, but was defeated for re-election by his Republican opponent, Francis D. Kimball. Upon retiring from the office Colonel McCook resumed his law practice in Steubenville. A large part of Colonel McCook's practice was connected with the affairs of the Steubenville and Indiana Railway Company, of which he was the attorney, and in 1859 he made a visit to Europe to make arrangements with the first mortgage bondholders of the road, in which he was successful. With the outbreak of the Rebellion, Colonel McCook was appointed by Governor Dennison one of the four officers to look after the interests of the Ohio troops. He took charge of the 126th Ohio Infantry, and in 1863 was made colonel of the 39th Ohio National Guards, which afterwards became the 157th Ohio National Guards, and was part of the one hundred day troops engaged in guarding rebel prisoners at Fort Delaware. They were mustered out in September, 1864, when the colonel returned to Steubenville. Colonel McCook was a leader in Democratic politics in Ohio, several times being chairman of the State delegation in their National conventions. He nominated John C. Breckenridge in the Cincinnati Convention of 1856, for Vice-President on the ticket with James Buchanan, and at the New York Convention of 1868 he nominated Horatio Seymour for the Presidency. Colonel McCook was the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio in 1871, defeating in the convention Thomas Ewing and Durbin Ward. He was defeated at the polls by Edward F. Noyes, the Repul - lican candidate. During this campaign he was attacked by a disease of the brain, which compelled him to withdraw from the canvass, and after that he took but little active part in politics, living quietly at his home in Steubenville.. He made several trips to Europe in quest of health. He died in New York, December 28, 1877, leaving three children, George W. McCook, Jr., Hettie and Robert McCook. He married Miss Dick, an adopted daughter of the Rev. C. C. Beatty, of Steubenville. Colonel George McCook was the second son, 'The first being Latimer, who died in 1872, in the West. The other brothers were General Alexander McDowell McCook, aid-de-camp of General She - man's staff ; General Robert McCook, assassinated by the rebels in Tennessee in 1863 ; General Daniel McCook, who fell in the front at Kenesaw Mountain. 1864; General Edward McCook, assaulted by Wintermute in Yankton, Dakota Charles McCOOk, killed at the first battle of Bull's Run ; Captain John McColl:- an attorney in New York City. There were also two or three sisters. ROBERT BRUCE WARDEN was born at Bardstown, Nelson county, Kentucky, January 18, 1824. He was the son of Robert and Catherine Lewis Warden. When about three years of age he with his parents went to Cincin - nati, Ohio, where the greater part of his life was spent. He was educated at. the Atheneum, a Catholic College in Cincinnati. His education was irregular as to attendance at school. His father died when Robert was twelve years old. After his father's death he combined work with study. Being fond of his books, he was seldom without one in hand. It is told of him that he would 56 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. take with him his Latin grammar when sent to the baker's, and would find himself at the brink of the Ohio river, blocks beyond his destination, so absorbed was he in his book. He commenced the study of the law in Cincinnati, in 1840, under the tuition of Judge Read, in the office of Morris & Rear-den. Afterward he had Judge Timothy Walker for his legal teacher. He became, at the age of seventeen, deputy clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Hamilton county, Ohio. Two years later he was made clerk of that court with charge of the court house desk. This office he held until 1845, when, at the age of twenty-one years, he was admitted to the Bar. Early in 1850, having barely attained the legal age, he was elected by the legislature president judge of the Common Pleas Court, at Cincinnati. In 1851 he was elected by the people one of the co-equal judges of Court. In 1853 Judge Warden was appointed reporter of the Supreme Court of Ohio. He prepared and issued volume 2 Ohio State Reports, and had begun the preparation of volume 3, when on December 9, 1854, he was appointed by Governor Medal to the Supreme Bench of Ohio, to fill the, unexpired term of Judge John A. Corwin. Judge Warden served on the Bench until February 9, 1855, when he was succeeded by Judge Joseph R. Swan, who had been regularly elected to the office the previous fall. Judge Warden was immediately reappointed reporter of the Court and issued volume 4. His practice in Ohio was extensive, his legal services having been engaged in cases on trial in various parts of the State. While he was presiding judge of the court in Cincinnati, he assigned Rutherford Burchard Hayes (later President of the United States), who had recently been admitted to the Bar, to his first important case, as counsel to defend Nancy Farrar (supposed to be insane), on trial for the crime of murder. Judge Warden removed to Washington City in January, 1873, being at that time engaged in writing his life of Chase. This biography was written at the request of Judge Chase, the then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who was an old and warm friend of Judge Warden. Judge Warden's legal practice in Washington, D. C., was chiefly before the Supreme Court of the United States and the United States Court of Claims. He also prosecuted several important matters in the Department of State and in the Treasury Department. In 1877, Judge Warden was appointed by President Hayes a member and attorney of the Board of Health of the District of Columbia. This Board was an important organization, upon which, by laws of Congress, were imposed duties of broad scope, involving the consideration of questions of great scientific importance and action for the protection of the health of the National Capital. Judge Warden continued a member and attorney of this Board until it was abolished by the law which provided a permanent form of government for the District of Columbia by commissioners. Judge Warden did much writing for the press. Among his literary works were "A Familiar Forensic View of Man and Law," written in Columbus, Ohio, in 1859; "A Voter's Version of the Life and Character of Stephen Arnold Douglas," written in Columbus, Ohio, 1860 ; "An Account of the Private Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase," written in Wash- BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 57 ington in 1873, and published in Cincinnati in 1874 ; " The Law of Art," Washington, D. C., 1878, and many pamphlets. Another of his literary productions was a drama, entitled "Ardvoirlich," which was produced upon the stage of the old Columbus Atheneum. • Judge Warden was a scholar of wide and varied attainments, with a brilliant and original mind, which turned easily from one subject to another, and adorned every topic that it touched. He was a most accomplished and graceful orator, equally eloquent and persuasive before a jury, upon the stump or on the lecture platform. He was also a prolific and polished writer and the author of many pamphlets of a political or literary nature, besides the more pretentious works named above. During the years 1857 to 1860, inclusive, Judge Warden in connection with his brother, William Wallace Warden, published and edited, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Weekly Law Gazette. At the age of nineteen years he married Catherine E. Kerdolff, who died in Washington in 1884. Judge Warden survived his wife four years, his death occurring in Washington on December 3, 1888: He left two children and a niece (an adopted daughter), namely : Lucy A. Warden (now Mrs. Clifford Warden), and Charles G. Warden, both residing in Washington, D. C., and Emma Becking (now Mrs. Atherton Thayer), of Wyoming, Hamilton county, Ohio. JAMES HADDOCK SMITH was born November 6, 1822, in Georgetown, Brown county, Ohio. In that place he spent his youth and acquired his education, attending the schools of his native town. He early showed great predisposition for scholarship and literary pursuits. He read law with Charles W. Blair, and upon his admission to the Bar became a partner of his preceptor, the firm being Blair & Smith. With Charles W. Blair he edited and published, in 1847, the Democratic Standard. In the same year Mr. Smith was elected a member from Brown county of the Forty-sixth (1847-1848) General Assembly and re-elected to the Forty-eighth (1848-1849). While a member of the Ohio House of Representatives he displayed great ability as a lawyer and legislator. At the close of his service as representative he removed to Columbus, which always continued to be his home. In September, 1849, he was married to Louise Medary, daughter of Samuel Medary of Columbus the territorial governor of Kansas by appointment of James Buchanan. Mr. Smith was associated with his father-in-law as one of the owners of the Ohio Statesman, for many years the leading Democratic organ of the State, and during the absence of Governor Medary in Kansas, Mr. Smith was managing editor of the paper, and as such acquired a wide reputation as a fearless, vigorous and most polished and cultivated writer. He was a man of great natural literary tastes. He possessed the most complete library of works of literature in the city, and his home was the center of the leading intellectual minds of the State. Upon the appointment of Robert B. Warden as a member of the Supreme Court, December 9, 1854, Mr. Smith was appointed to take the place of Mr. Warden as reporter. Mr. Warden had partially prepared volume 3, Ohio State Reports. Mr. Smith assumed the work as left by Mr. Warden, and his duties as reporter were confined to the completion of the decisions found in 58 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. the third part of this volume, which appears under the joint names of Warden & Smith. At the expiration of Mr. Warden's term as judge, in February,. 1855, he was reappointed court reporter, Mr. Smith vacating the office because-of his election to the legislature as a representative from Franklin county,. Fifty-second (1856-1858) General Assembly. In the fall of 1859 Mr. Smith. was nominated as an independent (Democratic) candidate for the office of clerk. of the Court of Common Pleas of Franklin county. Although his opponent. was Mathias Martin, regarded as the strongest and most popular Democrat in, the county, Mr. Smith was elected by a large majority and served with great. faithfulness and satisfaction to the people of the county until his death, February 2, 1862. He has a son, Washington Irving Smith, residing in Columbus,.. Ohio. LEANDER J. CRITCHFIELD, born January 13, 1827, at Danville, Knox county, Ohio. At the age of eight years he removed with his parents to Millersburgh, Holmes county, Ohio, where he spent his youth, receiving such education as was afforded in the public schools of that place. When fifteen.. years old he obtained a position in the office of the clerk of Holmes county.. In this position, which he retained for some two years, he early became- familiar with the various legal ,forms, and obtained considerable practical knowledge in the methods employed in the practice of the law. With a view to a professional career at the Bar and with the purpose of acquiring a broader culture than was afforded by the public schools, by due diligence he fitted., himself for admission to the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio, in which institution he spent four years of study, graduating in the regular-academic course in June, 1849. During his college course he also studied law,, and was duly admitted to the Bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio in December, 1849. He immediately began the practice of law in Delaware. He at. once gave promise of great success in his profession, and in 1850, only a few months after his admission, he was elected prosecuting attorney for Delaware county, and at the end of his first term was re-elected, serving in all four years. In 1856 he took up his residence in Columbus, and in December of the same year he was appointed by the judges of the Supreme Court of Ohio, reporter of its decisions, in which office he continued to serve, by re-appointment, for five consecutive terms of three years each. During this time he prepared and published seventeen volumes, from five to twenty-one inclu sive, of the Ohio State reports. At the close of that service (1871), a re-appointment was offered him, but he declined it, in order to devote his entire time and.. energies to the requirements of his profession. The causes determined by the-Supreme Court have never been more accurately and skillfully reported than-during the fifteen years of service rendered by Mr. Critchfield, and the Bar of Ohio will ever owe a debt of gratitude to him for this work. In 1858, at the request of Judge Joseph R. Swan, Mr. Critchfield became associated with that. distinguished jurist, in the preparation and publication of Swan & Critchfield's Revised Statutes of Ohio, with notes of the decisions of the Supreme Court. This work was completed. and issued in 1860, and was received with BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 59 great favor by the Bench and Bar throughout the State. These statutes continued as the standard authority until 1880, when they were superseded by the Revised Statutes of Ohio, promulgated by the codifying commission. Governor Hayes tendered Mr. Critchfield a position on this commission, but he was obliged to decline it on account of his extensive law practice. Mr. Critchfield took a deep interest in the cause of popular education. He was a member of the Columbus Board of Education for many years, and also a trustee of the Ohio Wesleyan University. He was a. member of the committee that planned and organized the Public Library of Columbus. He never accepted any purely political office, but took a deep interest in public affairs. He was a delegate to the Cincinnati National Convention (1876) which nominated General R. B. Hayes for the Presidency, and during the campaign and the exciting controversy following the election, he was one 'of the closest friends and most valued advisers of Mr. Hayes. After the assembling of Congress he wrote to Senator Sherman earnestly urging the employment of counsel to present and argue the claims of Mr. Hayes before the electoral commission. His suggestion was adopted, and with possibly one exception, the eminent lawyers proposed by Mr. Critchfield were engaged and acted as counsel for General Hayes and the Republican party in that celebrated contest. Mr. Critchfield was married at Delaware, Ohio, in 1849, to Miss Sarah Jane Mansuer. He died at Columbus, Ohio, February 19, 1896, leaving two children, Mrs. John Short and a son, George W., an accomplished artist, recently deceased. At a meeting of the Ohio State Bar Association, held at Put-in-Bay, July 15, 1896, high tribute was paid to the memory of Mr. Critchfield, who was one of the early members of the Association. Speaking of Mr. Critchfield, Congressman Harris, of Bucyrus, said : " Mr. Critchfield was thoroughly appreciative of the moral principles which underlie the.correct and honorable practice of the law, and no one ever more faithfully carried them into practical, personal execution. He had a profound knowledge of law, and was most devoted to his profession. He prepared every cause in which he was counsel with great care, industry and thoroughness. His presentation of the law and the facts in his cases was singularly clear, and was strengthened by his charming refinement of manner, his scholarly and concise use of language, and his fairness, candor and spotless integrity. In his manner at the Bar he set an example of perfection in courtesy. His simplicity of manner, his entire freedom from assumption, his gentleness of disposition, and kindness and tenderness of heart, endeared him to his professional brethren and to all who knew him. Mr. Critchfield discharged every duty with alacrity. He was as generous as he was just. He was the soul of honor in all the relations of life. In every personal relation he was a good man to know, a better man to love as relative or friend. He made the consciousness of •rectitude, and not fame, the main object of his life. He was a man of sincere religious convictions and of deep religious feelings. His conduct was always consistent with his professions. There was nothing but kindliness in his heart for any human being. Mr. Critchfield's most remarkable endowment was not his great intellectual distinction, brilliant 60 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. imaginative force, or striking originality of mind, but a character which united in itself the rarest gentleness and the sternest sense of duty and resolve to do it." MOSES MOORHEAD GRANGER is the descendant of a long line of distinguished ancestors. The Grangers originally emigrated from England to America about 1640. Moses was born at Zanesville, Ohio, October 22, 1831. His father was James Granger of Sheffield, Connecticut, who moved to Zanesville, Ohio, in 1817, where he was married February 15, 1829, to Matilda Vance Moorhead, daughter of a distinguished family of Virginia. She was the mother of Moses M. Granger. He was married at Lancaster, Ohio, December 29, 1858, to Mary Hoyt Reese, daughter of William J. Reese of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Mary E. Sherman of Lancaster, Ohio. Mary E. Sherman, mother of Mrs. Granger, was the sister of General William T. Sherman and Senator John Sherman. He was educated in the town schools of Zanesville and at Kenyon College, from which he graduated valedictorian of his class in 1850. He studied law at Zanesville, Ohio, under Judge Charles C. Convas, having as a fellow student William W. Johnson, afterwards a judge of the First Ohio Supreme Court Commission and of the Supreme Court of Ohio. He was admitted to the Ohio Bar at Columbus, January 4, 1853 ; in June of the same year he began practice and rapidly acquired an extensive business. At the outbreak of the Rebellion he left the pursuits of his profession to engage in the service of his country. On May 14, 1861, he was commissioned a captain in the Eighteenth United States Infantry, and served with that regiment in General R. L. McCook's brigade of General George H. Thomas 'Division, in:Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi. On September 10, 1862, Governor David Tod commissioned him as major in the 122nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was promoted to be lieutenant colonel of the same regiment on May 1, 1863, and later, on the recommendation of his brigade and division commanders, President Lincoln nominated him to be colonel of United States Volunteers by brevet, to rank as such from the 19th of October, 1864, the day on which the battle of Cedar Creek was fought, and in which Colonel Granger performed gallant and meritorious service. The Senate confirmed the nomination, and he was duly commissioned as such by Andrew Johnson. He participated in the fighting between Milroy's division and Ewell's corps at Winchester, Virginia, 13, 14 and 15 June, 1863 ; in French's combat with Ewell, at Locust Grove, Virginia, 27th November, 1863; in Grant's battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor ; in Sheridan's battles of the Opequan, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek. After service for more than three years in the Civil War, he resigned his commission on December 16, 1864, and resumed his practice at Zanesville, in January, 1865. The civil services of Mr. Granger have been as conspicuous as were his military achievements. Ile was elected city solicitor of Zanesville, serving from April, 1865, to August, 1866 ; member of the Putnam village council, April to August, 1866 ; prosecuting attorney of Muskingum county, January to December, 1866; judge of the Common Pleas, first subdivision, Eighth Judicial District of Ohio, 10th December, 1866, to BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 61 9th October, 1871, when he resigned as judge and formed a legal partnership at Zanesville with Gilbert D. Munson, the present judge of the Common Pleas Court. In October, 1872, while attending a trial of a cause in New York City, he received a telegram from Judge George W. Mcllvaine, Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, asking him to consent to be appointed reporter for that court. He accepted and served from October, 1872, to March, 1874, editing and issuing vols. 22 and 23 of the Ohio State Reports. Before the first year of his term of service had expired he desired to resume his practice in Zanesville, and tendered his resignation as reporter, but so ably and faithfully did he discharge the duties of this office that by the urgent request of the court he allowed the resignation to remain in the hands of the Chief Justice until vol. 23 had been printed, when he retired from the office. When the Ohio legislature created the second Supreme Court commission, to serve for two years from April 17, 1883, he consented to be appointed by Governor Charles Foster one of its five judges, because he wished to urge a change in the mode of examining cases by the highest State court. While reporter in 1872-3, he had observed how slowly the judges progressed with their docket, that much more work could be as well done in less time. During no year prior to 1883 had the court disposed of more than 257 cases on the general docket. The commission consisted of five judges, viz., Moses M. Granger, George K. Nash, Franklin J. Dickman, Charles D. Martin and John McCauley. Mr. Granger was elected each year, by unanimous vote, presiding judge of the commission. The second commission under his lead decided about 330 cases on said docket within the first year. The Supreme Court itself later adopted the improved mode of work, and since 1887 has averaged 315 cases each year. Judge Granger's opinions appear in vols. 40 and 41 Ohio State Reports. Judge Granger, though urged by his legal friends, declined to be a candidate for the Supreme Bench of the State. In 1889 the judges and Bar of southeastern Ohio, and prominent lawyers in Cincinnati, Columbus, Springfield and Toledo, urged President Harrison to appoint him to the seat on the United States Supreme Bench made vacant by the death of Associate Justice Stanley Matthews. Judge Granger was chosen a trustee of Kenyon College in 1866, and served as such almost continuously until 1887, when he tendered his resignation. Among those who served with him as college trustees were Chief Justice Waite, Senator Stevenson of Kentucky, Secretary of the Interior Columbus Delano and the distinguished Rufus King. Judge Granger continues to practice law in Zanesville and manage the extensive affairs of the McIntire estate, of which he has been sole administrator since June 4, 1880. Judge Granger has two sons living, Alfred Hoyt, graduate of the School of Technology in Boston, and now an architect in Chicago, and Sherman Moorhead, graduated at Kenyon in 1890, and is now practicing law with his father. EPENETUS L. DE WITT was born at Marietta, Ohio, June 29, 1839. His father was Luke De Witt. The De Witt family emigrated from Holland to this country about the year 1650. The progenitors of the American line were 62 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. three brothers, one of whom settled in New York City, one in New Jersey, and the third, Ijerck Claeszen De Witt, settled in Kingston, New York. The latter was the ancestor of Mr. De Witt. . His mother was Eunice Marnten, of English descent, born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Luke- De Witt, father of Mr. De Witt, was a Presbyterian minister and a graduate of Auburn Theological Seminary. The family moved from the East to Marietta, Ohio, during the infancy of E. L. De Witt, and in that town he spent his youth. He was educated in the private and public schools of Marietta and also at Marietta College, from which he graduated in 1863. Shortly after graduation he entered the service of the United States quartermaster's department, and was stationed in the discharge of his duties at Baltimore, Maryland; Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee. In March, 1865, he moved to Columbus, and entered as a law student the office of Judge Chauncey N. Olds, having previously studied law in Baltimore, Maryland. He was admitted to the Bar by the District Court at. Marion, Ohio, in August, 1867. Began the practice of law in Columbus, and has ever since resided there. He was appointed reporter of the Supreme Court, February 24, 1874, on the resignation of Moses M. Granger and he served continuously in the office, by reappointment, till June 22, 1885, a period of eleven years, during which he edited and issued nineteen volumes of the Ohio State Reports, viz., 24 to 42 inclusive. These reports embrace volumes 27, 28, 30, 32 and 33 of the first Ohio Supreme Court Commission, and volumes 40 and 41 of the second Supreme Court Commission. Mr. De Witt, therefore, prepared and published a larger number of volumes than any previous or subsequent reporter, and the excellent character of his work is evidence, not only of Mr. De Witt's legal ability and scholarly acquirements, but of his great energy and indefatigable industry. Mr. De Witt is regarded as a very careful, accurate and sound lawyer. He was elected by the Republicans of his ward in 1882 to the city council of Columbus, serving for one term of two years, and declining a re-election, as political life was distasteful to him and he has ever preferred to devote his entire energy and attention to the practice of his profession. In April, 1876, he was married to Miss Emily Backus Mcllvaine, of Columbus. They have two children living. GEORGE B. OKEY, born at Woodsfield, Monroe county, Ohio, December 19, 1849. He is a lineal descendant of Colonel John Okey, the regicide, who was a member of the court that convicted Charles I. of England. His father was John W. Okey, who died in 1885 while serving his second term as judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio. His mother was Mary J. Bloor who was born and lived at St. Clairsville, Belmont county, Ohio. His great-grandfather, Levin Okey, came to Ohio from Delaware in 1802, and settled in Belmont county. George B. Okey spent his boyhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, where his parents then resided. He was educated in the public schools of Cincinnati, and attended the Hughes High School of that city. In April, 1871, he graduated from the Cincinnati Law School, and was at once admitted to the Bar and entered into partnership with his father in that city. Mr. Okey annotated the Constitutions of Ohio for the use of the members of the Constitutional Convention of BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 63 1873. This work was published by the State. In November, 1877, he was appointed a member of the Codifying Commission to revise and consolidate the Ohio statutes. This commission began its labors in 1875 and completed them in 1879. The commission consisted originally of three members, appointed by Governor Allen, viz., Michael A. Daugherty, John W. Okey and Luther Day. Luther Day resigned February 1, 1876, to accept a seat on the Supreme Court commission, to which he had been appointed, and John S. Brasee was appointed by Governor Hayes to fill the vacancy. John W. Okey resigned November 9, 1877, to accept a seat on the Supreme Bench, to which he had been elected, and his son George B. Okey was appointed by Governor Young to fill the office vacated by his father. At the termination of the work of this commission, in the fall of 1879, Mr. Okey resumed the practice of law at Collumbus, where he has since resided. On June 22, 1885, he was appointed, by the judges, reporter for the Ohio Supreme Court, serving for one term of three years and editing vols. 43, 44 and 45, Ohio State Reports. in 1890 he was nominated by the State Democratic Convention for the office of judge of the Supreme Court, but with the remainder of the Democratic ticket was defeated at the election. Mr. Okey enjoys the merited reputation throughout the State of being a most able, learned and successful lawyer. Few practitioners at the Bar are so familiar with Ohio statutory law or the decisions of our courts. He has a most thorough knowledge of the principles of constitutional law, and his counsel and services are especially sought for in questions of that character. Mr. Okey was married December, 1872, to Miss Louise Schoomaker, of Cincinnati. He has two sons living. LEVI JAMES BURGESS was born at Mt. Perry, Perry county, Ohio September 4, 1848. His father was Jeremiah Burgess, and mother, Eliza Evans. He obtained his education in the country schools of his locality, but received his mental training and literary acquirements mostly in that best of schools, the teachers' vocation. From his early boyhood he was compelled to sustain himself. He was granted a teacher's certificate while yet in his teens. At an early age his resolution was firmly fixed to become a lawyer, and while teaching he entered upon the study of the law under the supervision of William E. Finck, a distinguished lawyer of Perry county, and for several years member of Congress from his district. This was at Somerset, then the county seat of Perry county. Mr. Burgess was admitted to the Bar August 26, 1873, and immediately began the practice at New Lexington, where he continued, being associated in partnership with Colonel L. J. Jackson and other members of the Bar at that place until 1879. By his magnetic disposition, brilliant oratory and universal popularity, coupled with great industry and natural legal ability, he soon occupied the most prominent position at the Bar of his county. He was nominated by the Democratic party of Perry county for the office of prosecuting attorney, and while the political complexion of the county rendered his election sure, he withdrew from the ticket because he was offered at that time special advantages for the continuation of his active practice in Hocking county. He thereupon removed to Logan, Hocking county, where 64 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. he formed a partnership with Judge Oakley Case, succeeding to the practice of John S. Friesner, who had just assumed the duties of the Common Pleas Bench. Mr. Burgess became counsel for the C. H. V. & T. Ry. Co. and some large coal corporations of that place. An extensive and successful practice occupied his attention. In the meantime Mr. Burgess had abandoned the party of his early faith, and had become an ardent Republican in politics. On September 17, 1888, he was appointed reporter of the Supreme Court of Ohio, when he removed to Columbus and became a member of the Franklin county Bar. As reporter of the Supreme Court he gave great satisfaction, performing the duties of that office with care and ability. Volumes 46, 47, 48, 49 and 50 Ohio State Reports were published under his supervision, and volume 51 was well under preparation when he was stricken with a sickness which caused his untimely death, on May 11, 1895. A distinguished member of the Franklin county Bar and one who knew him well, justly said of Mr. Burgess : " As a lawyer he disliked the drudgery necessarily attending the practice, but was an adept at drawing pleadings, and had few equals before the court and jury ; his perceptive powers were keen, his memory and oratory unsurpassed, and he was a good trial lawyer. There are few men who have clearer or broader perception of legal principles than did Mr. Burgess, and whether his preparation of a case was thorough or otherwise he could present an argument which indicated thorough preparation. Those who knew him most intimately were amazed at his ready knowledge and ability for its display, and wondered when and where he gained it. He was not frequently seen consulting law books, and when he did he spent but little time with them, giving text-book or case a passing glance, making his notes in his memory, his apparent purpose being only to gather the thought of the writer or judge and make it at once his own, dressing it in his own language." Mr. Burgess was married to Miss Rebecca Ann Weller at Zanesville, Ohio, December 11, 1870. There are three children living, Alma, Levi J. and Lulu, the latter now Mrs. Frank Nau, of Portland, Oregon. An article on the reporters of the Supreme Court of Ohio would be incomplete without Mention of a volume of reported cases by John C. Wright. Mr. Wright was one of the judges of the Supreme Court, serving during the years 1831 to 1834, inclusive. At that time, under the legal' organization of the court, the judges sat in bank at Columbus only three or four weeks annually. During the remainder of the judicial year the court was held in the several counties, in rotation, generally by two judges only, which number constituted a legal quorum, and it was the custom for the judges to relieve one another, so dividing their labor that each might perform one half the county circuit duty, as it was quite impossible for any one judge to participate in all of the trials of the entire circuit. Court was then held in seventy-two counties each year, requiring some twenty-two hundred and fifty miles travel. And there were on the trial docket, for instance, in 1834, in all fourteen hundred and fifty-nine cases. It inevitably followed, therefore, that the decisions of the court were largely " left to tradition, or BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 65 which, orally reported and cited by counsel, were made to reflect the various minds and memories of the reporters, and the interests advocated by them." Judge Wright took notes of cases at the trials in which he assisted, with the intention merely to help his memory in forming his opinions or in recalling previous decisions. These minutes and notes, upon retiring from the bench in 1835, he moulded into a volume known as " Wright's Reports," and published as a personal enterprise. While, therefore, not official, they have the authority of a learned, able and conscientious judge. This volume embraces the reports of four hundred and ninety-eight cases, duplicating but five of the cases contained in Mr. Hammond's Ohio Reports, Volumes 5 and 6, which two volumes cover the same period of time as " Wright's Reports." In conclusion we may be permitted to say that the office of the Supreme Court Reporter has ever been maintained by occupants of high character and ability. The reports of the Ohio Supreme Court have always received in the other courts of the country recognition commensurate with the prominent and influential position of our State. Since the days of Edward Coke, the office of court reporter has been one of increasing usefulness and importance in our judicial system. And Shakespeare's famous character, Hamlet, must have been mindful of the faithful performance of the function of this office when in his dying words he enjoined Horatio to " report me and my cause aright." THE CINCINNATI LAW SCHOOL. The first school west of the Allegheny mountains instituted for the purpose of imparting to lawyers professional instruction and qualifying them for practice was established in Cincinnati in May, 1833. It was a private enterprise, the work of a few public-spirited lawyers who had themselves received the benefits of education in special law schools of the East. Their own experiences and observations had convinced them of the advantages of special schools for professional study. The first term of the " Cincinnati Law School " was opened on the 7th of October, 1833. Two years later, to wit, in 1835, it was incorporated with the Cincinnati College, a literary and academic institution founded in 1819. For a period of more than sixty years thereafter the law school was conducted under the name of the Law School of the Cincinnati College." As such it was housed in the college buildings and endowed from the college funds for the establishment of professorships and the formation of a law library. Early data regarding the conduct of this school are meager, but it is known that many prominent lawyers from time to time were entrusted with its executive management and its course of instruction. Among the eminent men who filled the office of president and dean of the faculty were Bellamy Storer, Myron H. Tilden and Marshall E. Curwen. Most of the patrons of the school from the time of its first establishment have been from the State of Ohio. As nearly all of them remained in the State, they have greatly enriched the Bar of Ohio by their learning. The course of study adopted embraced three years, divided into Junior, Middle and Senior classes. The instruction included topical lectures and recitations from standard text-books. Hypothetical cases always had a place in the instruction as a means of making practical application of legal principles. The first or Junior year included both the general elements and the development of principles upon which each department of the existing law rests. It was the introduction to the topics taken up in later courses. It laid the basis for the advanced study of rights, wrongs and remedies, affecting person or property. During this year lectures were given upon the History of the Law, the relation of the English Common Law to American Law, the relation of the Feudal System to the existing Law of Real Property, the rise and the general province of Equity Jurisprudence. The Middle year took up Evidence, Criminal Law, Equity Jurisprudence; the Study of Cases; Torts ; the Ohio Constitution ; Domestic Relations ; Commercial Law, etc. In the Senior year the study of Commercial Law is continued under various topics : Civil Procedure and Code Pleadings; Conflict of Laws ; Real Property ; Wills, Administrations, Insolvency ; Corporations - - 66 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 67 Private and Municipal, Highways, Eminent Domain ; Equity Jurisprudence and Pleadings ; Legal Ethics. Upon the completion of the course of study the degree of Bachelor of Laws is conferred, and the number of students who have been thus honored approximates five thousand. A library of about six thousand volumes has been collected, which comprises the works of the best writers on law and jurisprudence, and such reports of cases as are regarded important. In 1877 Julius Dexter, who was at the time one of the trustees of the college, provided funds amounting to $250 per annum for prizes to be awarded members of the graduating class, as follows : Seventy-five dollars for the member passing the best examination ; seventy-five dollars for the best essay upon a subject designated ; fifty dollars for the second best examination, and fifty dollars for the best performance in a public forensic discussion. Mr. Dexter continued this annual provision until 1881, when it was assumed by the board of trustees. In addition to the awards mentioned, a prize of seventy-five dollars has been awarded for the best examination in the Middle and Junior classes, and a prize of fifty 'dollars for the second best examination. The Law School was continued as a part of the Cincinnati College until 1867. The last faculty comprised ex-Governor Jacob D. Cox, LL. D., Dean ; ex-Governor George Hoadly, LL. D., Emeritus Professor ; Honorable Henry A. Morrell, LL. D., Professor of the Law of Contracts, Torts, Wills and Assignments; Judge George R. Sage, LL. D., Professor of Equity Jurisprudence and Criminal Law ; Judge Hiram D. Peck, LL. D., Professor of the Law of Cor. porations and of Evidence ; Judge 'John R. Sayler, A. M., Professor of Commercial Law and the Law of Contracts ; Francis B. James, LL. B., Lecturer on Statutory Law. In June, 1896, the Law Department of the University of Cincinnati was organized, and in October of the same year it was opened. The board of directors intended to make it a genuine university law school. Before the close of the first year overtures were made by the board of directors of the Cincinnati College to bring about a union of the two law schools. A contract drawn up by a joint committee of the two boards of directors was ratified by both. It provided that a new school, to be designated " The Law Department of the University of Cincinnati," should be established permanently, and certain members of the faculty of the Law School of the Cincinnati College should be added to the faculty of the new school. A complete consolidation or union was thus effected. The faculty chosen for the year 1897-98 was composed of Judge William H. Taft, LL. D., Dean and Professor of Law ; and the following named members designated simply as Professors of Law : Henry A. Morrell, LL. D. ; Judson Harmon, LL. D.; John R. Sayler, LL. D.; Joseph Doddridge Brannan, A. M., LL. B.; Lawrence Maxwell, Jr., A. M., LL. B.; Gustavus H. Wald, A. B., LL. B.; Rufus B. Smith, A. B., LL. B.; Alfred B. Benedict, A. B., LL. B.; Harlan Cleveland, A. B.; Francis B. James, LL. B., Instructor in Statutory Construction and Real Property ; Charles M. Hepburn, A. B., LL. B., instructor in Code Pleading. 68 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. Like the old school, the course of instruction in the Law Department of the University comprises three years. It is modeled after the Harvard Law School, which is generally regarded the equal of any in America. The Case system is adopted instead of the Text Book system, which prevailed in the old school. The valuable library belongs to the new school. Moot courts are held under the supervision of members of the faculty. Law clubs have been organized by the students, as well as a general debating club. Briefs are required from those appointed to lead in the discussions of law questions. Every candidate for admission to the Law Department is expected to be proficient in orthography, punctuation, use of capital letters, paragraphing and English grammar. His proficiency is determined by a written essay. He is also required to translate correctly passages selected from Caesar's Commentaries, or to read French and German at sight. He must have a knowledge of English and American history and understand mathematics, including plane geometry. These provisions for some literary and scholastic learning as the basis of any intelligible study of the law are wise. They cannot fail to encourage a higher standing and larger efficiency among members of the profession. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. RUFUS P. RANNEY Cleveland. Among all the illustrious names preserved in the records of the Supreme Court of the State none is higher, nobler or purer than " Rufus P. Ranney." He died at his home in Cleveland on the sixth day of December, 1891, at the age of seventy-eight years. The sketch of his life, together with the analysis of his character and the estimate of his public services here presented, is the collaboration of Allen G. Thurman, Richard A. Harrison, Jacob D. Cox, Francis E. Hutchins and Samuel E. Williamson. The memorial prepared by Judge Williamson for the State Bar Association in 1892 furnishes the material relating to Judge Ranney's work in the Constitutional Convention, and some of his important judicial decisions. As a man, as a lawyer, as a judge, and as a statesman, he left a record without a blemish ; a character above reproach ; and a reputation as a jurist and statesman which but few members of the Bar have attained. Judge Ranney came from New England, a land of robust men of wonderful physical and mental fiber and endurance. He was born at Blandford, Hampden county, Massachusetts, on the 30th day of October, 1813. His father was a farmer of Scotch descent. In 1822 the family moved to Ohio, which was then a " western frontier." They settled in Portage county. In the son, the old blood of New England had its forceful inheritance ; and his hard struggles with pioneer life were favorable to the full development of his great natural endowments, his inherited characteristics and the attainment of the highest excellence. The means of public instruction were quite limited ; but the stock of intelligence in the family, with a few standard books brought from Massachusetts, coupled with an active, penetrating and broad intellect, aroused in the son a desire to get an education. And he had one of those exceptional minds that take learning by nature, as Shakespeare and Columbus did. Not until he had nearly arrived at man's estate was he able to manage, as he did by his manual labor and teaching in backwoods schools, to enter an academy, where he in a short time prepared himself to enter college. By chopping cord-wood at twenty-five cents per cord, he earned the money to enter the Western Reserve College, but, for want of means, he could not complete the college course. He made up his mind to study law ; and at the age of twenty-one years he entered the law office of Joshua R. Giddings and Benjamin F. Wade and began his preparation for admission to the Bar, and in 1836 he was admit. ted. Mr. Giddings having been elected to Congress, the firm of Giddings & - 69 - 70 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. Wade was dissolved, and, upon Mr. Wade's suggestion, he and young Ranney entered into partnership. This firm was the leading law firm in northeastern Ohio. In 1845 Wade was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Shortly afterward Ranney removed to Warren, Trumbull county, which was the chief center of business and wealth in that section of the State. He at once commanded a large practice. In 1846, and again in 1848, he was nominated as a candidate for Congress ; but his party being hopelessly in the minority, the opposing candidate was elected. In 1850 he was elected, from Trumbull and Geauga counties, a delegate to the convention which had been called to revise and amend the Constitution of the State. In this convention he served with distinction on the committees on the judiciary, on revision, on amendments, and others. his associates on the committee on the judiciary were Stanbery, Swan, Groesbeck and Kennon. Although lie was then a young man, he was soon recognized as one of the leading members of the convention. In this body of distinguished lawyers, jurists and statesmen, there were few members who had as thorough knowledge of political science, constitutional law, political and judicial history, and the principles of jurisprudence, as Judge Ranney displayed in the debates of the convention. There was no more profound, acute and convincing reasoner on the floor of the convention, and in the committee rooms his suggestive and enlightened mind was invaluable. The amended Constitution conforms very nearly to the principles and provisions advocated by him. In March, 1851, he was elected by the general assembly judge of the Supreme Court, to succeed Judge Avery ; and at the first election held under the amended Constitution in 1851, he was chosen to be one of the judges of the new Supreme Court. He was assigned the longest term and served until 1856, when he resigned and removed from Warren to Cleveland, where he resumed the practice of his profession as a member of the firm of Ranney, Backus & Noble. In 1859 he was the unsuccessful candidate of his party against William Dennison, for governor of the State. Three years afterward he was nominated, against his expressed desire, as a candidate for supreme judge. One of his partners, Franklin T. Backus, was nominated by the opposing party for the same office. To his own surprise, Judge Ranney was elected. He qualified, but resigned two years afterward, and resumed the practice of law in Cleveland. The demands upon his professional services were now more than he could comply with. Anything like a selfish regard for his own pecuniary interest would have induced him to select for his attention the most important and lucrative business that was offered ; but the needs of a man or woman in difficulty or distress were more likely to secure his devoted services than the offer of a large fee. When the Ohio State Bar Association was organized in the year 1881, he was unanimously elected its president. Towards the close of his life Judge Ranney gradually withdrew from the practice of his profession ; but the urgent solicitation of some old friend, or an attack upon some important constitutional or legal principle, drew him occasionally from his library to the court room. The announcement that he was to make an argument never failed to bring together BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 71 an audience of lawyers, eager to learn from him the art of forensic reasoning, of which he was a consummate and acknowledged master, and to be entertained and instructed by his sympathy and familiarity with the more recent advances in the science of jurisprudence. The well-earned leisure of his later years was far from being indolence. If he had needed an inducement to continue his reading and study, he would have found it in the pleasure it gave him to share with others the results of such study. He was anxious that young men should have the educational advantages which had been denied to him, and it was for the double purpose of helping to provide such advantages and justifying the confidence which had been reposed in him by a valued client and friend, that he devoted much of his time for several years to placing the " Case School of Applied Science," at Cleveland, upon a firm foundation and providing for it adequate buildings and equipment. From the time of Judge Ranney's admission to the Bar he found time, by means of his ability to dispose of business rapidly and by unremitting industry, to make up to some extent the deficiency in his early education. Accident and taste combined to direct his attention particularly to the language of France, and as soon as he could read it easily he made a profound study of her literature, politics, history and law. The civil law and the debates which resulted in the Code Napoleon became as familiar to him as the Commentaries of Blackstone, and had their part in forming his clear and mature conceptions of natural justice and views of public policy. Judge Ranney was a man of great simplicity of character, wholly free from affectation and assumption. He was a man of native modesty of character. He could have attained the highest standing in any pursuit or station requiring the exercise of the best intellectual and moral qualities ; but his ambition was chastened and moderate, and he seemed to have no aspirations for official place or popular applause. While always dignified, he was a genial and companionable man, of fine wit and rare humor. He had singular powers of memory. Every fact, every rule, every principle, when once acquired, remained with him always. He combined extensive and varied general knowledge with remarkable accuracy of judgment. His originality of mind was not impaired by his accumulation of knowledge and the ideas of others. No man was more fearless in asserting the right, and in the performance of what he deemed his duty. His known integrity and honesty, and his never-failing common sense and sagacity in affairs of business, placed in his hands many weighty and responsible trusts, embracing important interests and large amounts of property. From the beginning of his career as a lawyer, by reason of the professional learning, the clear and persuasive method of reasoning, the nice power of discrimination, the strict sense of justice, the inflexible integrity, and the great practical wisdom which characterized and adorned all his efforts, he occupied the position of a leading representative of the Ohio Bar. He had remarkable power of analysis, and saw with the quickness of intuition the principles of law, as well as the right or morality of a controversy. In the argument of a cause he never made a useless parade of authorities. He used authorities only to 72 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. illustrate principles. While Judge Ranney was on the Bench he was one of the strongest administrative forces of the State government. He held a place of his own. He was a personal force whose power was profoundly felt in the administration of justice throughout the State. He made a deep and permanent impression on the jurisprudence of Ohio. His facility and accuracy in disposing of business was owing, in a large measure, to his almost unequalled habit of concentration on the business before him—the analytical structure and logical action of his mind, his acute perception of the crucial points in a cause, his comprehensiveness of view, and his quickness in discovering how natural justice and equity suggested a controversy should be decided. His most distinguished trait was his grasp of general principles, in preference to decided cases. He never ran to book shelves for a case which had some resemblance to that in hand, perceiving as he did, that the resemblance is frequently accidental and misleading. To consider questions of constitutional law, or of public policy and justice, was above all things congenial to him. He took large views of every matter or question with which he had to deal. He was at his best when under the stimulus of working to solve a great and difficult constitutional or legal problem. Difficulties melted away under the fire from his keen and powerful intellect. His reserve force never failed him. Occasionally, in hearing or deciding a case, his broad and mellow humor and bright imagination illustrated or illumined the questions involved. e was always courteous on the Bench, and no member of the Bar, young or old, ever had just cause to complain of unfair treatment at his hands. On the Bench, as at the Bar, he never extended any hospitality to loose notions of professional ethics. Judge Ranney's rich style furnished unmistakable evidence that he had drunk deep at the wells of English undefiled. His reported judicial opinions, all of which are characterized by inherent strength and breadth, and dispassionate and unbiased judgment, show he had great facility in clear, precise, forcible expression. No one could say a plain thing in a plainer way, nor deal with an abstruse subject in a clearer manner. In oral argument or public discourse, he gave a sort of colloquial familiarity to his utterances. No one could use an apt illustration or an amusing anecdote with greater effect. He never declaimed. He was as wise in what he left unsaid as in what he said. There was never any thing puerile or irrelevant in his arguments. They were characterized by a vigor and grasp of mind, a full possession of the subject, and a fertility of resource whenever an emergency arose requiring him to bring to his aid his reserve power. Upon occasion, no one could use sarcasm with greater effect ; but the blade he used was the sword of the soldier, not the dagger of the assassin. Judge Ranney had those qualities of simplicity, directness, candor, solidity, strength and sovereign good sense which the independence and reflective life of the early settlers of the western country fostered. At the Bar, or in his own library, he was one of the most interesting of men. He had a just economy of labor ; he never did anything which men of narrower capacity could do for him well enough. He did not expend upon his work any superfluous strength. It is BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 73 unfortunate that his great powers were not called into use upon the broadest theater. Had he been given a seat upon the Bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, as was in contemplation when he was in his prime, he would have enriched not only his own fame, but the country would have had additional reason to be justly proud of institutions under whose fostering influences men like Judge Ranney are entrusted with the highest civil authority, and the protection of the rights and liberties of the citizen. He was himself a firm believer in representative government ; insisting, however, that in order to perpetuate it, its abuses and evils must be plainly exposed and resolutely resisted. In the Constitutional Convention Judge Ranney was made a member of the committee on the judicial department, chairman of the committee on future amendments to the Constitution, and chairman of the committee on revision, enrollment and arrangement. His part in the convention was largely the result of his intense belief in democracy ; not Democracy in a partisan sense, although that belief determined his party fealty also, but democracy in the first and best sense, as meaning government by the people. He trusted the people thoroughly, and although the character of the voting population of the State gradually changed before his death, his faith in the people continued to be so strong that he looked forward to the outcome of every struggle, in which both sides had a fair hearing, as sure to be wise and right. Without this key to his votes and speeches they would be sadly misunderstood. He favored every proposition to limit the power of the executive and the legislature, except as the duty of legislative action to restrain encroachments upon the rights of citizens could be imposed upon the general assembly. His faith in the people led him to wish for them a larger share in the administration of justice, and to desire that every court should be to some extent a court of first instance, and he would have had every question of fact, in equity as well as at law, referred to a jury. He favored biennial sessions of the general assembly. It was said in favor of annual sessions that one of the principal means by which the people had been able to secure, generation after generation, a portion of their rights under the British government was frequent elections and meetings of public bodies. But while he conceded this, his answer was that in England all power exercised by legislative bodies was taken from the monarch ; here, from the people. There the people would not fail to gain by legislative action here they could not fail to lose. He opposed the proposition to give the governor a qualified veto, which was supported by the argument that it would prevent much ill-considered legislation. He admitted that inconsiderate legislation had been a sore evil, but in his opinion it arose from the fact that the people of Ohio had theretofore delegated too much power to the departments of government. The remedies that he proposed were to take away patronage from the legislature, to require important laws to be submitted to a direct vote of the people, and to receive a majority of the votes of both branches of the general assembly by yeas and nays. The first and last of these remedies were applied by the Constitution with good results. He supported with success an 74 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. amendment to the report of the committee reducing the term of senators from four to two years. He proclaimed emphatically the opinion that the people should not delegate their power for any longer time than was necessary ; that the Senate ought to be as popular as the House ; that to say that the Senate ought to " hang back and hang on," to save the people from themselves, was a part of the old argument that the people were incapable of self-government. He repudiated it from his very soul. He had not one particle of sympathy for it and it never could have any foundation whatever in his political creed. The committee on the legislative department reported a section forbidding the general assembly to pass retroactive laws, or laws impairing the obligations of contracts or their remedies. Judge Ranney opposed the introduction of the words " or their remedies," but gave the remainder of the section his cordial and effective support. The provision against retroactive legislation was then a new constitutional principle, the term " retroactive" being much more broad and comprehensive than the phrase " ex post facto," then in common use. It was urged by such able men as Judge Hitchcock that the power of the retroactive legislation had been exercised beneficially, but Judge Ranney pronounced it dangerous. In his judgment the power of curing errors, defects and omissions should be reposed in the courts, and so the convention ultimately decided. He considered that as men became more enlightened the stringent laws required to protect the rights of individuals in an uncultivated state of society became unnecessary, and the legislative power should be restrained in proportion. It was Judge Ranney who first proposed that the creditors of corporations should be secured by the individual liability of stockholders, although the form and extent of the proposition were somewhat changed by amendment before its adoption. He met strong opposition from many delegates, who agreed with him that, as an abstract principle, it was right that stockholders should be responsible for the debts of their corporations, but contended that it was impolitic to so provide in the Constitution, because it would check public improvements. With terrific sarcasm he replied that to barter away principles in order to push forward prematurely works of public improvement would be " making a most miserable swap," and with eloquence he denounced the abandonment of political principle in matters of legislation. He favored the proposition for the reformation of civil procedure. His ideal of a lawyer was high. In his opinion no one could occupy a respectable position in the legal profession without a knowledge of law as a science, which could be attained only by the most assiduous labor and application. He wanted the profession to be relieved of the miserable jargon and mystery of forms and technicalities, that it might be left to pursue the noble study of the rights of man, the rights of property and all the varied relations of life subject to legal regulations. He took an active part in the discussions on education, the elective franchise, capital punishment, levying poll taxes, finance and taxation, and the repeal of corporate franchises. his views upon all of these matters were pronounced, but the combined wisdom of all the delegates was wiser than the wisdom