(RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) HISTORY OE ROSS AND HIGHLAND COUNTIES, OHIO - 141 CHAPTER XVI. THE BAR OF HIGHLAND COUNTY. General Joseph J. McDowell.—John Winston Price.—George Collings. —Colonel Moses H. Kirby.—William M. Meek.—Judge Alfred S. Dickey. Judge James H. Thompson. —Albert G. Matthews.—John Torrie.—Rual Beeson.—Judge Robert M. Briggs.—Hon. Henry L. Dickey.—And other Prominent Highland County Lawyers. THE bar of Highland county has been noted for its distinguished and able men. Many have attained eminence in the practice of their profession in the courts of the county, and not a few, who have once practiced here, have achieved a wider fame in the same, or other walks of life, abroad. Few, if any, counties, not containing large cities, can present in the legal profession, a longer array of names that have grown to be almost the synonyms for intellectual brightness, thorough scholarship and sound moral worth, It is the aim of the writers of this chapter to preserve the memories of these learned and honorable professional gentlemen. Of those who have become famous, or who, by long years of labor, have won wide recognition for professional ability and general worth, extended sketches are given, while of the younger attorneys of the county, those whose lives are still before them, there is briefer mention. Several of the older class of lawyers have passed away, after long lives, characterized by industry and integrity; and there have been others who have died while as yet their best energies were unspent. All the judges of the court of common pleas who were residents of Highland county at the time of their several elections--the Hon. J. Winston Price, Hon. Alfred S. Dickey, and the Hon. James Sloane—have, in less than fifteen years past, severally departed this life in the prime of manhood, professional skill, and experience; and it can be truly said that no county in the State has lost, in so short a time, as much judicial ability as did Highland in the death of these three judges, GENERAL RICHARD COLLINS, the son of the Rev. John Collins, a pioneer Methodist minister, was born in the state of New Jersey, on the twenty-second day of February, A. D., 1796. He was liberally educated. He studied law with John McLean, late a justice of the supreme court of the United States, and was admitted to the bar in Cincinnati in the year 1816, and immediately removed to and settled in Hillsborough, Highland county, Ohio. He was appointed prose cuting attorney of Highland county in 1818, and continued until 1832 in the successful practice of his chosen profession. General Collins represented Highland county in both branches of the State legislature from 1820 to 1825. The people of Ohio, acquainted with General Collins, were his warm admirers, not only on account of his superior abilities as a lawyer, but for his keen and sparkling wit, his genius and talent. He removed to the city of Maysville, Kentucky, where he had previously married, in the year 1830. He represented Masoncounty in the Kentucky legislature in the years 1834, 1844, and 1847. He took much interest in his adopted city, and for fifteen years was president of its city council and was first president of the Maysville and Lexington railroad. In 1853 he removed to the old homestead in Clermont county, Ohio, where he remained until his death, on the twelfth day of May, 1855. Many, even now, and those who were in that day the younger members of the profession, particularly, will remember that General Collins, though distinguished in his profession, was always a genial kind-hearted man, who never forgot that he was a gentleman. GEN. JOSEPH J. MCDOWELL was born in Burke county, North Carolina, November 13, 1800. He removed to Ohio in 1824, and settled in Highland county, on a farm about seven miles north of Hillsborough. In 1829 he settled in Hillsborough, and engaged in the mercantile business until 1835, when (having given some attention earlier in life to the reading of the law) by special act of the general assembly of the State of Ohio, he was admitted to the bar, and commenced the practice of his profession, In 1836 he became connected with, and formed a partnership with, Colonel William 0. Collins, and afterward, until 1843, pursued his profession. In 1832 he was elected a member of the Ohio house, and in 1833, to the State senate, serving, in all, three years in the general assembly of Ohio. In 1843 he was elected to congress, to represent his district in the house of representatives, and was re-elected in 1845, serving two terms in that body. In 1847 he returned to his home, and from that time until his death was occupied in the practice of his profession and agricultural pursuits, his demise occurring on the seventeenth day of January, 1877. He was an earnest and eloquent man, true to his instincts, faithful in the discharge of duty, and was honored and respected by the community as a christian gentleman, and died in the faith of which he was, in his later life, an earnest defender. JOHN WINSTON PRICE was a member of an old and respected family of Welsh origin long settled in Virginia. After receiving a collegiate education and completing the study of the law, he came to Ohio and settled in Columbus, where he married and soon after removed to Hillsborough, Ohio, where he died after a short illness, March 4, 1865. At a meeting of the bar of Highland county, held at Hillsborough, March 15th, a committee was appointed to prepare and present to the meeting resolutions expressive of the sad and mournful feelings of the bar, occasioned by the sudden and unhooked for decease of the Hon. J. Winston Price, and the high regard and respect entertained by them for his character. The following is their report: "Judge Price was born in Hanover county, in the State of Virginia, in 1804, and was prepared for college at a private boarding-school, by Parson Blair. At the age of seventeen he entered William and Mary college, and graduated with honor four years thereafter. After completing his collegiate education, Judge Price studied law, in the city of Richmond, in the office, and under the instruction of John Marshall, chief justice of the United States, and was admitted to the bar in Richmond. " He came to Ohio in 1827, settled in Columbus, and opened a law office in that city, where, in 1830, he married the eldest daughter of the late Judge John A. McDowell, of that place. " Early in the year 1831, he came to Hillsborough and settled, practicing law, in partnership with the late Gen. Richard Collins, until 1834, when he took his seat upon the bench as president judge of the court of common pleas of the circuit, at that time composed of the counties of Adams, Brown, Clermont, Highland, and Fayette, having been elected to that office by the legislature the winter previous. At that time the business of the circuit was arduous and laborious, and attended, at times, with perplexity and vexation, but in all these trials he bore himself nobly, and maintained the ermine of the judge in spotless purity. He was an honest and faithful officer. He had been well educated in his youth, and in early manhood had mastered the great principles of the law, and had acquired a very thorough knowledge of our complicated system of government, so that, when called to the bar, his mind was highly cultivated and stored with knowledge, and when elevated to 142 - HISTORY OF ROSS AND HIGHLAND COUNTIES, OHIO. he bench , he was fully qualified for the arduous and responsible duties of his position in everything except experience, and though young in years, he soon made an excellent judge, acquiring rapidly the necessary experience and knowledge of men to discharge his duties in that station intelligently, faithfully and satisfactorily. " On leaving the bench, in 1841, he pretty much gave up the practice of law and retired to private life, when the care and education of a numerous family, and attention to his private business, thereafter occupied his time. He was a prudent, careful man, in business matters, and, by his industry and assiduous attention, accumulated a handsome fortune. "Those only who knew him well and intimately could understand and appreciate the worth and excellence of his character. In the social circle he was agreeable, amiable, interesting, and often a highly instructive gentleman; in his family a kind, affectionate, devoted husband and father, and his loss to them is irreparable, and by his friends and intimate associates will be deeply deplored. "He had fixed purposes and strong convictions of moral duty. Truth justice, and integrity, were the pillars of his moral character. "During his last sickness, which was painful though short, he was patient and resigned. His mind had been early imbued with correct religious impressions, and though not a member of any church, or a professor of religion, he approached his last moments with a firm faith and assured hope in Christ as his Saviour." GEORGE COLLINGS was born on the twenty-ninth day of February, 1800, in Adams county, Ohio, on a farm about one fourth of a mile south of where the village of West Union now stands, where his parents had shortly before settled, on their removal from the State of Maryland. From the best information attainable, it is supposed that Mr. Collings read law with Samuel Treat, or with West & Fitzgerald in partnership, and was admitted to the bar, in Adams county, Ohio, in the year 1822, where he continued to reside until his removal to Hillsborough, Ohio, in 1834. He was elected to the legislature from Highland county in 1837, and served in that body during the winter of 1837-38, and returning, at the close of his term, to Hillsborough, he continued in the practice of his profession until his return to West Union in 1841 or 1842. In the month of January, 1848, Mr. Collings was elected judge of the Tenth judicial circuit, composed of the counties of Highland, Adams, Brown, Clermont and Fayette, and continued in .office until June 30, 1851, when his resignation, previously tendered, took effect. Judge Collings was a good lawyer, and justly celebrated while on the bench for the clearness of his legal vision and accurate knowledge of the law. He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1851, which framed the present constitution of the State. In 1852 Judge Collings, having purchased a farm on the Ohio river in Adams county, moved there, devoting himself mainly to his private affairs, and the care of his farm. There being no church building in the neighborhood, he took a very active interest, contributing liberally of his means in the erection of what is known as Collings chapel, under the care of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which Church he continued a member and local preacher after that time until his death. He died of lung disease, at his home, on the fifth of January, 1862, being within less than two months of his sixty-second birthday. Thus passed away a just man, an honest judge, and one who had the confidence of all who knew him best. COLONEL MOSES H. KIRBY was born in Halifax county, Virginia, on May 21, 1789. He graduated at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1819. He then removed to Hillsborough, Ohio, and entered upon the study of the law with General Richard Collins ; and after his admission to the bar, was appointed prosecuting attorney of Highland county in 1825, and continued in the office until 1829 ; he also represented Highland county in the legislature in 1827, and in 1830. During this last term of service he was elected secretary of State, and soon after the expiration of his term of office as secretary of State, in 1832, he removed to Wyandot county, where he has ever since resided, tilling at various times the office of probate judge of said county, to which he was repeatedly elected ; also that of prosecuting attorney, for several terms. In 1879, at the age of eighty-one years, he was elected by the people of his district, a State senator, which seat he now occupies. He is the oldest member of that body, but is still active and vigorous. WILLIAM M. MEEK, son of the Rev. John Meek, very well known in years past as a pioneer Methodist preacher in Ohio, was born at West Union, Adams county, Ohio, on the twenty-second day of November, 1818. He react law with Hon. Nelson Barrere, then at West Union, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1844, at Hillsborough, Ohio. In the following February (1845) he opened an office in West Union, Ohio; where he remained, achieving fair success, until 185o, when he removed to Adams county, thence to Hillsborough, Ohio, in November, 1854, where he still resides, Mr. Meek was elected probate judge of Highland county in 1863, re-elected in 1866 and 1869, serving nine years. In February, 1873, he returned to the practice of the law, at which he is still engaged. WILLIAM OLIVER COLLINS was born in Somers, Connecticut on the twenty-third of August, 1809, and is a direct descendant of Edward Collins, who came from England to Boston in 1630. He was a member of the council and deacon of the Congregational church. The writer is the eleventh in succession, and his father, Colonel Oliver Collins, was an officer in the war of 1812, and his grandfather in the Revolutionary war. The writer fitted for college at the Wesleyan academy, Wilbraham, Massachusetts, the Rev. Wilburn Fisk being then the principal, and after remaining four years at Amherst, college, graduated in August, 1833. Coming to Ohio in the fall of that year, he entered his name as a law student with the firm of Starkweather and Jarvis, Massillon, Ohio, (David Starkweather, afterwards member of congress and minister to Chili, South America, and Dwight Jarvis) and afterwards studied law in the office of Judge John C. Wright, Hon. Edward King and Judge Timothy Walker, and graduated at the Cincinnati law school, of which they were the sole founders and professors, in 1835. Admitted to the bar September 9, 1835, he settled at Hillsborough, Highland county, where he has ever since resided, and still resides. He was prosecuting attorney of the county four years-1837 to 1841. At the organization of the Milford and Chillicothe turnpike company, the first turnpike touching Highland county, and one of the first in the State, Governor Allen Trimble was chosen president and he secretary, and continued as such for over twenty years; was chosen president of the Hillsborough & Cincinnati railroad company at its organization, in 1849, and held that offrce, and also that of director of the Belpre & Cincinnati railroad (now the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad) for three years, and until the unfortunate rupture of the two companies. For many years a trustee and active participant in the building and management of the Hillsborough academy (which became so useful under the charge of Professor Isaac Sams); was president of the Hillsborough Agricultural society two years- 1859 to 1860-when the present grounds were purchased and improved. Was a member of the State senate of Ohio, representing the counties of Ross and Highland in 186o and 1861, and was chairman of the standing committee of railroads in that body. He received an appointment as colonel of volunteer cavalry from the secretary of war, with authority to raise a regiment, in 1861, and raised and commanded the First independent battalion, Ohio volunteer cavalry, and the Eleventh regiment, Ohio volunteer cavalry, until April, 1865. (The services of these troops were in the Central Rocky mountains for more than three years, and were peculiarly arduous and deserve extended notice); was collector of internal revenue for the Sixth congressional district of Ohio for nearly three years. The writer was a successful lawyer until the commencement of the war of the Rebellion, but at its close, wound up all legal business, taking no new cases, and is not now engaged in public affairs. JAMES H. THOMPSON was born near Harrodsburg in Mercer county, Kentucky, September 27, 1812. He was the son of John B. Thompson, who, himself a lawyer of fine ability, achieved quite a reputation in his day in Kentucky, as a legal practitioner and local politician. In his seventeenth year, being then well advanced in the classics as well as in mathematics, he assumed the role of a teacher in Jessamine county, Kentucky, which engaged his attention for the ensuing three years, his leisure hours being devoted to reading law and general literature. On the seventh day of April, 1831, he was admitted to the bar, and in the same year, became sheriff of Jessemine county, Kentucky, by purchase of the office from the high sheriffs, such being the law of Kentucky at that time, and he thus becoming sheriff, discharged the duties of the office for two years. In 1832 he entered upon the active practice of his profession at Nicholasville, Jessamine county, Kentucky, and was thus professionally engaged until 1835, when he was induced to remove to Versailles, Woodford county, Kentucky, the bar there having been decimated by cholera. Here he practiced his profession in partnership with the Hon. William Kincade, achieving great success until September, 1837, when he was marrred to Eliza J. Trimble, only daughter of Governor Allen Trimble, of Hillsborough, Ohio, and after his marriage, having occupied the winter of 1837-.38 in the study of the laws and decisions of Ohio, was, on the tenth day of April, 1838, admitted to the bar at HISTORY OF ROSS AND HIGHLAND COUNTIES, OHIO - 143 Batavia, Clermont county, Ohio, and was admitted to practice in the supreme court of the United States January 20, 1854. In the latter part of the year 1838, he settled in Cincinnati, and opened an office, where he remained until 1842, when on account of his own health and that of his family, he removed to Hillsborough, Highland county, Ohio, where he has since remained in the active practice of his profession. From this point he has had a large circuit practice in the adjoining counties, also in the supreme court of this State as appears from the reports of the supreme court, the circuit and district courts of the United States for Ohio. In 1867, he was, on the unanimous recommendation of the bar, appointed register in bankruptcy for the Sixth district, which office he held eleven years. Mr. Thompson has, in the long years of his professional life, achieved an enviable reputation as a lawyer of ability and skill, particularly in settling the difficult and complex titles of the Virginia Military district, and as a criminal lawyer. He is a thoroughly self-made man, and has contributed, by his money and his energy, to the advancement of all works of internal improvement in Highland county, and particularly to the improvement and progress of the village of Hillsborough, as much as any one of his.day, and has also liberally contributed, by his writing for the press, on these subjects : His sketch of the centennial history of the county, his various articles on constitutional law, and his biographical sketch of his departed brethren to the literature of his profession; and if he succeeds in the publication of his proposed history of the circuit lawyer of the Nineteenth century, he will have fulfilled the hopes of all his friends. He is at this time the leading and original temperance advocate of the right of woman under the constitution of Ohio, to have her voice, by ballot or petition, made equal to that of man on the enforcement of an antiliquor local option law prayed to be enacted by the present general assembly of Ohio. Mr. Thompson is still actively engaged in the practice of the profession that called forth the energies of his young and active days, and abates none of the fire and zeal that stirred him, when in the years past he encountered the giants of the profession. ALBERT G. MATTHEWS was born near the town of Hillsborough, Highland county, Ohio, March 31, 1819. He was admitted to the bar in Hillsborough, Ohio, December 25, 1845, and opened a law office in said town and continued to practice his profession for the first year as a member of the law firm with which he had studied his profession. In 1854 he was elected probate judge of Highland county, and served three years, and was again elected in 1860, serving one term. Judge Matthews still resides in Hillsborough, engaged in the practice of the law, as a senior member in the law firm with which he is connected. E. M. DEBRUIN was born in Maysville, Kentucky, February, 1830. He was admitted to the bar in West Union, Ohio, May, 1853, practiced his profession until August, 1861, entered the Union army during the same month, served three years and three months, came to Cincinnati, November, 1864, engaged in the mercantile business until April, 1866, came to Hillsborough in May of the same year and resumed the practice of his profession, was elected prosecuting attorney of Highland county in 1867, re-elected in 1869 and 1871, elected auditor of county in 1873, and re-elected in 1895, and in 1877, of which office he is now the incumbent. JOHN TORRIE was born in the county of Bauff, Scotland, February 9, 1811. He was educated in, and a graduate of, Kings college, Aberdeen, Scotland. After his graduation he entered the law office of a learned lawyer in the city of Aberdeen, where he remained two years. In 1830 he went to the West Indies as a tutor in a private famity, where he remained until 1838. In 1839 he left Scotland, and arrived in the United States in December of the same year. From 1839 to 1846 he was engaged in teaching, and reading law under the direction of McDowell & Collins, and in December, 1846, was admitted to the bar in Chillicothe, Ohio, and removed to Lynchburgh, Highland county; was elected prosecuting attorney of Highland county in 1850, and again in 1852, serving two terms. Mr. Torrie still resides in Lynchhurgh, and is engaged in the practice of his profession. RUEL BEESON was born in Liberty township, Highland county, on the twelfth day of April, 1811. He was admitted to the bar in 1843, first having prepared himself to practice medicine, which he abandoned for the legal profession. He was a member of the Ohio senate in the years 1849-50, but he spent most his time in the practice of law, and the care of his farm. He departed this life at his home near Leesburgh, Ohio, on the fifteenth day of May, 1877. JUDGE ROBERT M. BRIGGS. The subject of this sketch attended school at Greenfield; began the study of law at Greenfield; graduated from the Cincinnati law school while he resided at Greenfield, and practiced law first at Chillicothe. Hence a sketch of his life properly belongs to a history of Ross and Highland counties. Robert M. Briggs was horn in Richmond, Virginia, April 2o, 1831, and was the son of Dr. Robert Briggs, of that city. When but fifteen years of age his father died, and shortly after his mother, with Robert and his sister, moved to Fayette county, whence they removed to Greenfield, where Robert attended school several years. Upon leaving school he studied medicine about a year, and then concluded to adopt the legal profession as his vocation. Without a preceptor, he at once began the study of the law, and during the winter months attended the Cincinnati law school, from which he graduated in the spring of 1852. He immediately entered upon the practice of the law, in Chillicothe, and continued there until the spring of 1853, when he removed to Washington Court House. In autumn of 1852 he married Miss Kate Robinson, of Greenfield. At Washington Court House he at once obtained a good practice, rose rapidly, and, in 1857, was elected to the house of representatives of Ohio. During his first session in the legislature he was nominated as a candidate for additional common pleas court judge in his district, and resigned his seat in the legislature. He was elected judge at the fall election of 1858, and entered upon the discharge of his duties in February, 1859, and served five years on the bench. Owing to the fact that litigation had diminished during the war, the legislature repealed most of the acts creating additional judges, and among them was the act under which Judge Briggs was elected. Upon his retirement from the bench he resumed his law practice at Washington Court House. While in attendance upon the court of common pleas in Chillicothe, at the January term, 1869, he became ill and died in a few days, departing this life on Tuesday, February 9, 1869, in the thirty-eighth year of his age. He left his mother, sister, wife, four sons and a daughter surviving him. At the bar Judge Briggs was a bright ornament. Fair in argument, his easy grace of speaking became the more convincing. Thorough in the preparation of his cases, he was never found unequal to cope with any question that might be raised. Detesting sophistry, he argued with great logical ability, and was listened to with great respect. He was faithful to his clients, yet never attempted to outrage law or justice to please them. Always fair, frank and courteous, he attained a high position among his professional brethren. Upon the bench, Judge Briggs was no less successful than at the bar. Candid, impartial and just in his execution of the law, he was an ornament to the bench. Maintaining the dignity of his position, he yet was affable, genial and polite. He never shirked his duty, but was brave in his uprightness. As a companion, guest, or host, he was almost without a rival. Refined in mind, urbane in manner, of brilliant conversational powers, generous in hospitality almost to a fault, he gained every one as his friend, and being without envy in his soul, he retained the friendship thus secured. He had no enemies; he lived to be beloved, and when he died the regret of those who knew him was heartfelt and sincere. His career in the legislature, though brief, was brilliant, and he left behind him an honorable record for industry, intelligence and ability. JUDGE ALFRED S. DICKEY. Alfred Stephenson Dickey was born in Giles county, Tennessee, January 6, 1812. When he was about four years of age, his parents removed to South Salem, Ohio, where he grew to manhood. Rev. William Dickey and Rev. James Henry Dickey were his uncles. His ancestors were from the North of Ireland, and settled in Albemarle county, Virginia, before the Revolution. In January, 1832, he married Emily Ann Mackerly, of Highland county, and having studied law, removed to Washington C. H., where; in 1838, he was elected prosecuting attorney of Fayette county. Here he continued the practice of law until March, 1847, when he removed to Greenfield with his family, as much to educate his children at the Greenfield academy (which was then in a flourishing condition) as to be more in the center of the practice which was principally in the counties of Fayette, Ross and Highland. He labored earnestly and zealously in securing the construction of the Marietta and Cincinnati railway, and to his efforts perhaps, more than to any one mans, is due the fact of its location. In 1858 he was appointed to the office of judge of the court of common pleas, by Governor Chase, to fill the vacancy occasioned by th$ resignation of judge James Sloane, and was successively elected to that office up to the year 1871, when he was succeeded by Judge S. F. Steele. On the twenty-second of August, 1873, while he and his wife were on a visit to his sister, Mrs. Scott Kinkead, near Ripley, Ohio, he was 144 - HISTORY OF ROSS AND HIGHLAND COUNTIES, OHIO. suddenly taken ill, and died in a few hours, in the sixty-second year of his age. His remains were brought to his home in Greenfield, and buried in the cemetery there. The companion of his life survived him but five years, leaving behind them one son, Hon. Henry L. Dickey, and three daughters, Mrs. A. E. Bush, Mrs. C. W. Price, and Mrs. W. T. Parker. While at the bar, Judge Dickey was a successful lawyer. Maintaining the dignity of his profession, he did not "run down" business, but let it seek him. He would not litigate a case where he could well avoid it, when he thought Isis client would fail ; never encouraged a client who had not justice on his side, and preferred compromising controversies to bitterly litigating them. Seldom did he prepare a written argument, and usually his brief was a reference to a few authorities. He could think and reason orally with greater accuracy, clearness and force, than with a pen in his hand. On the trial of a case he was master of the facts, understood the exact points in contest, and discussed them intelligently and ably. He was a continual, earnest thinker— never mentally inactive nor unemployed. He was a good judge, having an eminently judicial cast of mind. Loving justice, he desired that every case should, if practicable, be decided on its substantial merits. Some practitioners in his courts thought he was too much inclined to atlow equitable views and considerations to enter into his decision of every question and cause. A sound point, clearly stated by the weakest member of the bar, had the same effect upon his judgment as though urged in argument by the strongest lawyer in his court. He was not often misled by a fallacious proposition, however artfully and strongly put. Although he was not regarded as a "ready man," he was almost always prepared to give an intelligent and sensible decision upon the submission of a question to him. In instructing the jury he was plain and simple. Very few of his rulings or judgments were reversed. Nearly all of them that were carried to the supreme court were unanimously affirmed. Judge Dickey loved his country, her constitution and institutions, and during the late civil war was firm in his conviction that the country would weather the conflict of arms. Whatever apprehensions he had for our safety and welfare as a people, were based upon speculations as to possible departures, after the contest was over, from the principles upon which our system of government is based, and the demoralization which seems always to result from a great war, and especially from a great civil war. Whatever his relation to political parties, he always cherished the opinion that the cardinal principles of government which he adopted early in life, and which constituted the. traditional policy of the country, were just and sound. He was not, however, a believer in the infallibility of party leaders, nor in the perpetual existence of particular party organizations. . Judge Dickey was a sensitive man; his emotional nature was of a fine fiber. He was easily affected by sharp or unkind words or malicious criticism. Unrevengeful himself, his resentments were fleeting; he believed that the most speedy and effectual, as well as the noblest, remedy of injuries, is oblivion. His friends he cherished and seemed to regard them as a shield to his sensitive nature against harsh criticism and unjust censure. He was more charitable in his judgments of his fellow-men than they in their judgments of him. In speaking of others he acted on the principle that detraction is a sin against justice. He was above the meanness of envy, and never sneered at that which he could not rival. Meritorious deeds, by whomsoever done, were lauded by him, and he was pleased when a young man came to the bar who gave promise of maintaining its proper standing, honor and ability. He was unpretentious in his manners and in all his performances—another illustration of the truth that unpretending characters are rarely deficient. On the bench, at the bar, in every position, he was of sterling integrity, but, above all, Judge Dickey was a true man. HENRY LUTHER DICKEY was born near South Salem, Ross county, Ohio, on the twenty-ninth day of October, 1832. When he was four years old, his parents removed to Washington Court House, where his father practiced law until March, 1847, when the family removed to Greenfield, where the subject of this sketch has resided ever since. He received his education at the Greenfield academy, which, until 1852 and for several years previously, had been in a flourishing condition, under the management of Rev. J. G. Blair. On leaving school, he received an appointment as assistant engineer on the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad, and had charge of the construction of a division of that road in Vinton county, Ohio. Resigning his position as engineer in 1855, he began the study of law with his father, Judge A. S. Dickey, and in 1857 was admitted to the bar at Chillicothe. Afterwards, he attended law school in Cincinnati, and in 1859 entered into a law partnership with J. H. Rothrock, now one of the supreme judges of Iowa. His father having entered upon his duties as judge, a large business came into the hands of the new firm, but Mr. Dickey, taking a deep interest in the political affairs of the country, devoted as much time to them as to law, and in the campaign of 1860, when four parties were in the field, he was a candidate for the legislature on the Douglass Democratic ticket, and was elected to represent Highland county. On January 2, 1861, he was married to Miss Mary L. Harper, of Greenfield. During his first term in the legislature, the Rebellion began, and, at its end, Mr. Dickey was unanimously renominated by the Democratic party of Highland county, and was defeated in that election by Colonel Hixon, then an officer in the army, by six votes. He continued to practice his profession, and, in 1865, at the request of the Democratic party of Ross and Highland counties, he accepted the nomination for senator for these counties; and again, in 1867, he received the nomination for senator by acclamation, from the same source, and was elected by nearly one thousand majority. On his return from the senate, he accepted the appointment, from the commissioners of Highland county, of chief engineer of turnpikes, which in 1870–'72 were being constructed throughout the county of Highland. In 1876, at Hillsborough, he received the nomination for congress, from the Democratic party, of the district composed of the counties of Adams, Brown, Highland, Pike, and Ross, and was elected against Colonel Allison Brown, who was the nominee of the Republican party. During this term of his office, the congressional districts were changed by the legislature, so that the district became the Eleventh, composed of the counties of Adams, Brown, Clermont, Clinton, and Highland. The Democratic convention to nominate a candidate for this new district assembled at Winchester, in Adams county, in 1878, and Mr. Dickey was nominated on the first ballot, and was re-elected to the Forty-sixth congress, receiving fifteen thousand, three hundred and fifty- five votes, against thirteen thousand, nine hundred and eighty-six for W. W. McKnight, of Brown county, a Republican, and one thousand, one hundred and seven votes for John Printy, a National. His present congressional term expires on the fourth of March, 1881. JUDGE JAMES H. ROTHROCK came to Greenfield, Ohio, in June, 1853. He studied law at West Union, and was admitted to the bar at Columbus in 1853. In 1855 he was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney for Highland county, and ran for the same office in 1857, but was defeated. He removed to Hillsborough in 1859, and continued in practice there until May, 1860, when he left and went to Iowa. While in Highland county, he was painstaking, industrious and full of integrity. Coming without money and without friends, he went to work with a will and energy that soon brought him into prominence and practice. He was essentially a self-made man, and his subsequent dsitinction is but the honest reward of his early attention to business and his sterling honesty of purpose. After he left Hillsborough, lre went, as already stated, to Iowa. For a short time he remained at Muscatine, but in August, 1860, he settled at Tipton, Iowa, where he has since resided. He was elected to the Iowa house of representatives in 1861, went into the army as lieutenant colonel of the Thirty-fifth Iowa infantry in July, 1862, and resigned in November, 1863. In 1866 he was elected district judge for a term of four years, and was twice re-elected to that position without opposition. February, 1876, he was appointed judge of the supreme court by the governor, to fill a vacancy, and in October of that year, was elected to fill an unexpired term of two years, and again, in 1878, to a full term of six years from January, 1879. When this term is completed, he will have been eighteen years upon the bench. During his residence in Greenfield Judge Rothrock married the beautiful and accomplished Miss Austie Foote, who still survives, and by whom he has two children—a son and daughter. WILLIAM HARVEY IRWIN was born on the 12th day of October, A. D. 1832, in Madison township, near Greenfield, where he has ever since continued to reside. During his boyhood he worked upon his father's farm near town, and attended the Greenfield academy. Finishing his course there, he went to the college at South Hanover, Indiana, where he remained for two years. Upon his return from college he entered upon the study of law with J. Rothrock, now Judge Rothrock, of the Iowa supreme court, He had had this profession in view from boyhood, and for that reason he was an active and attentive member of all the literary societies within his reach. Having studied law two years in Mr. Rothrock's law office, in the fall of 1855 lie went to the Cincinnati law school, where he graduated in the following spring, and shortly afterward, in 1856, was admitted to the bar at Washington C. H. In the fall of 1860 he was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney, in which office he served for six years. He is now in the enjoyment of an extensive and lucrative practice. HISTORY OF ROSS AND HIGHLAND COUNTIES, OHIO - 145 The foregoing are all the sketches of attorneys, over the age of fifty years, that have been furnished, after request to all parties, and, noting that there are many eminent gentlemen who have distinguished themselves in other useful departments of life, as well as some have at the bar, we pass to the junior members. The other present active practitioners of the profession under die age of fifty years, not mentioned above are, in the several stages of their experience, characterized by all the eminent qualities of safe-handed and trustworthy counselors-at-law, and most of the elder members have earned well-bestowed laurels of fame for their brilliancy as advocates, logicians, and orators; and the younger class are endowed with studious habits, unflinching industry, and laudable ambition for professional honors and honest livelihoods. In their several ages and times of admission to the bar, they rank as follows: ALPHONSO HART, age forty-nine years, admitted to the bar in August, t851. In active practice. C. H. COLLINS, age forty-eight years, admitted to the bar in 1855, at Batavia, Ohio. Has ever since been in active practice. E. L. JOHNSON, age forty-one years, admitted October, 1857, at Hillsborough, Ohio. Not in active practice. ULRIC SLOANE, age twenty-nine years, admitted to the bar March, s868, at Decatur, Illinois. In practice ever since. HENRY A. SHEPHERD, age thirty-seven years, admitted to the bar May, 1867, at Washington Court House, Ohio. In practice ever since. HENRY M. HUGGINS, age thirty-seven years, admitted to the bar June, 1868, at Dayton, Ohio. In practice since. R. T. HOUGH, age thirty-two years, admitted September, 1871, at Cincinnati, Ohio. In active practice. HENRY L. MEEK, age thirty-two years, admitted to the bar September, 1871, at Hillsborough, Ohio. In practice ever since. KIRBY SMITH, age thirty years, admitted to the bar April, 1874, at Wilmington, Ohio. In practice ever since. JESSE K. PICKERING, age forty-six years, admitted to the bar September, 1872, at Chillicothe, Ohio. In practice since May, 1874. A. HARMAN, age twenty-eight years, admitted May, 1875, at Washington Court House. In practice ever since. CYRUS NEWBY, age twenty-five years, admitted October, 1876, at Hillsborough, Ohio. In practice ever since. JOHN T. HIRE, age twenty-eight years, admitted to the bar September, 1876. In practice ever since. FLINT ROCKHOLD, age twenty-seven years, admitted to the bar September, 1877, at Hillsborough, Ohio. Not in active practice. JOHN HIGGINS, age twenty-four years, admitted to the bar September, 1878, at Hillsborough, Ohio. In practice ever since. H. R. QUINN, age twenty-five years, admitted to practice April, 1878, at Washington Court House. In practice ever since. THOMAS P. VANCE, age forty-three years, admitted to the bar September, 1879, at Chillicothe, Ohio. In practice since. R. D. LILLEY, no record furnished. B. F. BEESON, age forty-two years, admitted to the bar April, 1871, at Cincinnati, Ohio. In practice ever since. C. A. MATTHEWS, age forty-two years, admitted to the bar September, 1868, at Georgetown, Brown county, Ohio. In practice ever since. V. M. DITTY, age twenty-six years, admitted to the bar January, 1874, at Columbus, Ohio. In practice ever since. HENRY A. PAVEY, age twenty-nine years, admitted to the bar sixth of May, 5875, at Washington Court House, Ohio. In active practice ever since in Highland county. SAMUEL BEARD, age forty years, admitted to the bar September, 1875, at Chillicothe, Ohio. In practice ever since. ROBERT ELWOOD, age forty-six years, admitted to the bar at Hillsborough September, 1871. In practice. GEORGE HARDY, age forty-seven years, admitted to the bar September, 5875, at Hillsborough. In practice ever since. ISMA TROTH, age forty years, admitted to the bar October, 1870, at Hillsborough, Ohio. In active practice. F. W. BARBER, age thirty-seven, admitted to the bar April, 1879, at Washington Court House, Fayette county, Ohio. In practice since. ALBERT MACKERLY, age twenty-nine years, admitted to the bar September, 1874, at Chillicothe, Ohio. In practice ever since. WILLIAM ECKMAN, age forty-two years, admitted to bar April 1859, it Cincinnati, Ohio. In practice ever since. BRUNSON WORLEY, age twenty-three years, admitted to the bar September, 1878, at Hillsborough. In active practice. HENRY RHODES, age forty-eight years, admitted to the bar, 1855, it Hillsborough, Ohio. In practice and agriculture. F. MATTILL, age thirty-nine years, admitted to the bar at Hillsborsugh, Ohio, 1867. Not in active practice.