384 - HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
CHAPTER, XI.
THE BENCH AND BAR OF CLINTON COUNTY.
A H. DUNLEVY, of Warren County, Ohio, in a letter written in 1875, upon " Wilmington Sixty Years Ago," published in the Wilmington Journal, speaks thus of matters pertaining to the early courts and bar:
"The scenes which I witnessed at Wilmington in the spring of 1815, the first time I visited it, are all passed away. The few inhabitants then dwelling there are probably all gone, and a new people now occapy their places. Isaiah Morris, who then lived there, was Clerk of the Court, an office which he filled subsequently for over twenty years. Francis Dunlavy was Presiding Judge; Peter Burr, Jesse Hughes and Thomas Hinkson, if my recollection is correct, were the Associate Judges, and William R. Cole, who settled here in 1812, was Prosecuting Attorney. He was the successor in that office of James Montgomery, who came to Wilmington in 1810, and removed to Fayette County in 1813. He was the first member of the bar in Wilmington, Mr. Hale the second, and Mr. Cole the third. Court was held in a log house* near the site or on the same spot where the present court house stands. * Samuel H. Hale,(t) who purchased the Western Star in 1809 from Nathaniel McLean, sold out two years afterward and removed to Wilmington. Benjamin Hinkson commenced practice in 1820. * * * - Wilmington was almost the only place where the Scioto and Miami bars met at the courts, and it being then customary for lawyers to ride the circuit almost as regularly as the Presiding Judges, it was an occasion of great interest to see members of both bars together, and frequently testing their legal knowledge and powers of advocacy before the same tribunal. The late William Creighton was one of the ablest of the Scioto bar, and Richard Douglass, or Dick Douglass, as usually called, was more noted for his ready wit than for his legal talent, though I believe a good lawyer. Both were from Chillicothe, and frequently in attendance upon the Wilmington courts, and there they met John Alexander, of Xenia, Thomas Corwin, Thomas R. Ross, and others of Lebanon, and in early times Thomas '` Morris and O. T. Fishback, of Williamsburg, then the county seat of Clermont, William R. Cole came to the Wilmington bar, as near as I can now recollect, about 1812, and remained over twenty years."
Judge Francis Dunlavy (spelled by other members of the family Dunlevy), the first President Judge of the district which included what is now Clinton County, resided in Warren County, near Lebanon. Judge Harlan said of him: "He was born near Winchester, Va., about 1761 or 1762. He entered the army of the Revolution as a substitute for a man with a large family, at the age of fourteen years. He served in several campaigns, mostly against the Indians. In the summer of 1778, he assisted in building Fort McIntosh, on the bank of the Ohio River, a few miles below Pittsburgh.(2t). This was the first American fort northwest of the Ohio River. In May, 1782, he was
* Refers to the first court house, for which see description In another chapter.
(t) Mr. Hale lived to be the oldest member of the Miami or Scioto bar.
(2t) Fort McIntosh stood on the present site of the town of Beaver, Penn., and was built by Gen. Lachlan McIntosh, preparatory to so expedition under his command against the Indians northwest of the Ohio. It was a regular stockaded work, with four bastions, and was defended by six guns. Gen. McIntosh, for whom 1t was named, had bees ordered to Fort Pitt by Congress during the early part of 1778, with portions of the Eighth Pennsylvania and Thirteenth Virginia Regiments of the Continental army. He succeeded Maj. Neville is the command of Fort Pitt on his arrival there. The latter tort, . is well known, was situated at the forks of the Ohio," where Pittsburgh now stands.
PAGE 385 - PICTURE OF JOHN CLEVINGER
PAGE 386 - BLANK
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY. - 387
with the unfortunate expedition from the Ohio and Washington County, Penn., under command of Col. Crawford, to destroy the Delaware and Wyandot towns on the Sandusky River. Mr. Dunlavy and two others escaped from the field of the defeat and made their way through the woods safely to Fort Pitt. Without having studied the law or having been called to the bar, he was elected by the General Assembly of Ohio, at its first session, in December, 1803, President Judge of the First Judicial Circuit of Ohio; yet he held the office for fourteen years, or until 1817. He rose by the successive steps of schoolmaster, member of the Territorial Legislature, and member of the first constitutional Convention of Ohio, to this important, position. He was forty-one years of age when elected Judge. Strictly honest, he had no motive to do wrong, and every motive to do right. He had a quick perception, a clear and logical understanding. He must on the bench, at least at first, have keenly felt his want of legal study and the technical knowledge of proceedings in a court of justice. With these he never became very familiar, but must have overcome the defect to some extent. We have slender means of knowing how he performed his judicial duties, but we may infer from his great good sense love of justice among men that he was able to arrive at the justice of the case brought before him. In qualifying himself for the discharge of his judicial duties, he was greatly aided by excellent education. Immediately after election, he began earnestly to study the law. Being of quick and solid parts, he soon acquired a fair amount of legal learning, which turned to good account, enabling him to decide debated points with general accuracy and to the sophistry of attorneys who had given their days and nights to the study of Bacon, Blackstone and Coke. The system of slavery he detested and opposed He stood up for human right even irrespective of color. In the first Constitutional Convention, he opposed restricting the right of suffrage to white men. This proving an unpopular side of the question, lost him the political friendship of many who admired his integrity, his great good sense and high qualifications for public office. They would have willingly voted for the Judge, but not for his negroes. After his second term of office as Judge expired he retired almost entirely from politics and devoted himself to the study and practice of law. At the May, 1810, term of the Supreme Court of Ohio, sitting in Clinton County, Judges John McLean and Ethan Allen Brown holding the term, Judge Dunlavy was first admitted to practice as an attorney and counselor at law. Before his marriage, Mr. Dunlavy had been engaged in teaching classical schools, and after that he continued to teach select schools and give private instruction at home. After serving out his term in the army of the Revolution with fidelity, Mr. Dunlavy had, in 1783, entered Dickerson College, being at that time twenty-one years of age."
Peter Burr, Jesse Hughes and Thomas Hinkson were the first Associate Judges of Clinton County, elected in February, 1810. They took their seats on the bench on the 28th of March following. Soon after entering upon the discharge of their official duties, they settled among themselves the order of precedence to be observed by them while holding courts in the absence of the President Judge, it being that above given. From Judge Harlan's materials, the following account of these Judges, with succeeding ones, and the early lawyers of Clinton County, are taken:
"Peter Burr was the son of Peter Burr, who was born October 21, 1727, and died January 20, 1795, and of Mary, his wife, who was born August 17, 1730. Judge Burr was born August 4, 1767. He was married in Loudoun County, Va., February 19, 1790, to Hannah, only daughter of David Sewell, an immigrant to this country in 1798. His wife was born in 1769. Judge Burr was a Justice of the Peace in Warren County before the establishment
388 - HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
of Clinton County. He was one of the two members of the House of Representatives from Warren County in the fourth and fifth sessions of the General Assembly, serving; with Matthias Corwin on each occasion. After serving in the capacity of Associate Judge in Clinton County about three months, a vacancy occurred in the office of Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas for the county and he was appointed to fill it, first by a pro ten. appointment, June 21, 1810, and afterward for the full term of seven years, June 4, 1811. In 1814, he was elected Clerk of the Supreme Court. He died holding both these offices. Judge Burr had not the qualification for the office of Clerk. He wrote a poor hand, and was wholly unacquainted with the substance and forms of the simplest legal entry. He was a surveyor, and was often appointed by the County Commissioners to survey the proposed routes for new roads. In 1811, he acquired an interest in Lot No. 28, northwest corner of Main and Mulberry street,. in Wilmington. Out of this purchase grow a suit in court, which had not terminated at the time of his death. The names of his children were Hannah, Ezra, David. Elizabeth, Abigail and John, all of whom are now dead. Judge Burr died August 8, 1816.
"One of the three Associate Judges of Clinton County was Jesse Hughes, or, as he wrote his name later in life, Jesse Hughes, Sr. He was of Welsh descent, horn near the Potomac River, in Berkeley County, Va., January 22, 1767. When but a small boy, he was taken by his parents to Chester County, Penn., and he continued to reside there until he was about seventeen years of ago. In the year 1784, he was taken by an uncle, a brother to his father, to Jefferson County, Ky. His uncle was one of a considerable colony which emigrated in that year for the purpose of commencing a new settlement on some of the unappropriated lands of Kentucky. They descended the Ohio River in boats, and landed at the village (now city) of Louisville. After exploring the country to some extent, they made choice of a point for their settlement on the waters of Salt River, now included within the limits of Shelby County. The settlers proceeded at once to erect defenses against the Indians and shelter for their families. This, when completed, constituted what in that day was called a fort or station, and was composed of block-houses, stockades and cabins united so as to include an acre or so of ground. In this station young Hughes passed the remaining years of his minority. The station was called Hughes' Station, from the uncle of young Hughes. The location was not far from the Ohio River, then and for years afterward the acknowledged boundary of the Indian country. It lay directly in the usual route taken by the warriors from the Wabash, Eel River and Mississinewa towns on their marauding expeditions against the interior Kentucky settlements. Parties composed of several warriors would cross the river from the Indian side, and, after separating into squads of two or three, waylay paths, springs and fields where crops were being cultivated, and places where firewood or building material were procured, to capture prisoners or take scalps. In the midst of such dangers, every able bodied man and every well grown boy became soldiers, subject to be called upon to perform duty as sentinels, to give alarms of danger, as an armed guard to resist attacks, or as minutemen, ready to pursue war parties whose depredations bad been discovered in the neighborhood. Scant means are now possessed by the writer of this notice for giving an account of young Hughes services in defense of the station and settlement. No record of them has been preserved; all that is now left of them is the dim and shadowy outline which tradition has handed down. From this source, we learn that he was ready and prompt in the discharge of all his duties as an inhabitant of the station Of Indian warfare on a more extended scale, it is known that, at the age of nine' teen years, he joined the last expedition of the celebrated Gen. George Rogers
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY. - 389
Clark, in 1786, against the Indian towns on, he Wabash and Vermilion. Early in life, the precise date not ascertained, young Hughes made a public profession of religion, and was received as a member into the Baptist Church, in which he remained until his death. In the year 1790, Mr. Hughes was married in Bullitt County, Ky., to Elizabeth Drake. This lady was of Dutch descent. She was born in New Jersey December 27, 1793, but emigrated to Kentucky at an early day. At the time of her marriage, she was a member of the Methodist Church, but shortly after her marriage united herself to the Baptist Church, and remained a most exemplary member until her death. She died September 27, 1835, in her sixty-second ,year. In 1803, Mr. Hughes emigrated with his family to the State of Ohio, and settled in the unbroken woods about two miles southeast from Wilmington. His route to Ohio was by Gen. Clark's old war road from the falls of the Ohio to the mouth of the Licking River, opposite Cincinnati, from Cincinnati to Deerfield, thence by the mouth of Todd's Fork, thence up Todd's Fork to Smalley's, adjoining where Clarksville now is. From Smalley's to this place of settlement there was neither road nor path of any kind, and a way had to be cut for the wagons to pass. Early in 1810, Clinton County was established and organized. Mr. Hughes and two others (Peter Burr and Thomas Hinkson), were elected by the General Assembly Associate Judges of the Court of Common Pleas. He was re-elected to the same office at three successive elections. The term of office was seven years, so that the whole time he sat as Judge was twenty-eight years. Mr. and Mrs. Hughes had eleven children in all, of whom eight lived to maturity and became heads of families, three sons and five daughters. His eldest son and child, David, resided long on his farm adjoining Springfield, Ohio. Delilah married John Harper. Catharine married Joseph Rogers. Mrs. Harper and Mrs. Rogers both died at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, several years ago. Jemima married Isma Harris, of Snow Hill; the wife and husband are both dead. Elizabeth married Judge Hugh Smart, of Greenfield, Highland County. The husband is dead; Mrs. Smart still living. Jesse was twice married. He served a term of seven years as one of the Associate Judges of Clinton County. He has been dead several years. Charles D. is our townsman of that name. The youngest of the family, Mary, married Robert Wood of the vicinity of Wilmington, and died in March, 1881. It is not to be supposed that Judge Hughes owed his elevation to the bench to his knowledge of the law; he made no pretensions to legal learning. He owed far more to his high moral character, good sense, and unimpeachable integrity. Indeed, knowledge of Coke and Blackstone was not regarded in that day as necessary qualification for the office of Associate Judge, or even for the office of President Judge of the Common Pleas. The President Judge of the First Circuit, which extended from Scioto on the east to the Indian line on the west, and from the Ohio River on the south to the Greenville treaty line on the north, and included Cincinnati, Lebanon, Dayton, Springfield, etc., was not at the time of his election a lawyer, but a school-master, and was never admitted to practice law until after he served out his two terms, each of seven years, in that important office. (See biography of Judge Dunlavy.) Our sturdy settlers seem to have been of the opinion that good character, sound sense and judgment, and unimpeachable integrity were qualifications quite sufficient to enable a Judge to do justice between man and man in general; and if these were known to be possessed by the Judge, no others were deemed necessary. How far in error were they? The school-master, without a knowledge of technical law, generally found means to arrive at the justice of the case brought before him; and Judge Hughes, without previous study of the law, was seldom at a loss to find law to support the right, and was seldom able to see any to sustain the wrong. Judge Hughes
390 - HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
was friendly and affable with all. In the selection of his friends he was more discriminating and select. For his friends he made choice of those living good lives and holding good principles. He lived in times which many of this generation seem to regard as only one remove from utter barbarism. This is a great mistake. Where could be found men of better walk and conversation than Judge Hughes, Judge McManis and Judge Sewell? Or, ascending to a higher rank of Judges, examine the moral standing of Judge Dunlavy, of Judge Collett and of Judge McLean, resident all within twenty miles, and all well known to hundreds still living-every one a Christian gentleman. Judge Hughes died the death of a good man, at the old homestead, on the 9th day of August, 1853.
"Judge Thomas Hinkson, the third in order of precedence of the first Associate Judges of Clinton County, was born in Westmoreland County, Penn., in 1772. Westmoreland County in that day extended from the mountains to the Allegheny River, including the town of Pittsburgh, and all the country of the Kiskeminotas and the Youghiogheny. He was the son of an Irish nan, who emigrated to Kentucky at an early day, and established a station near the junction of Hinkson and Stone Branches of Licking River.
"In 1790, he accompanied the expedition of Gen. Harmar. This was the beginning of a series of expeditions against the Indians in which Mr. Hinkson took a part. In 1794. he accompanied Gen. Wayne as a Lieutenant against the Indians on the Maumee. After the celebrated battle between Gen. Wayne's forces and the Indians near the rapids of the Maumee, Mr. Hinkson returned to Kentucky and was married. He continued to reside on the farm which he inherited from his father, until 1806. He then came to Ohio, and the following year settled on a farm about eight miles east of the present town of Wilmington, in what was then Highland County. [Now Wilson Township, Clinton County.] He was soon after elected Justice of the Peace in that county, in which office he continued until 1810, when the county of Clinton was established, and that part of Highland in which he resided was included in the new county. He was now chosen by the Legislature one of the Associate Judges for Clinton County, to serve with Peter Burr and Jesse Hughes. Like his associates, he was a farmer, but was also a storekeeper. In the war of 1812, he is said to have commanded a company of rangers whose duty it was to keep the army advised as to the condition and movements of the Indians, and afterward to have been appointed Colonel of a regiment. In 1821, Mr. Hinkson removed to Indiana, where he died not long after. On the 23d of August, 1776, ' the Executive Council of Virginia issued an order for conveying 500 pounds of gunpowder to Pittsburgh. In the fall of 1776, Gen.. George Rogers Clark and Gabriel Jones, with seven boatmen, conveyed in a boat 5110 pounds of gunpowder intended for the defense of Kentucky, from Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh), to Limestone Creek, now Maysville, Ky. Here they hid their cargo in different places in the woods along the banks of the creek, at considerable distances apart, and, after turning their boat adrift, to deceive such bands of Indians as might be pursuing, them, directed their steps to Harrodstown to procure an escort for the powder. 'On their way through the woods,' says Butler, `the party came to the solitary cabin of Hinkson, on the West Fork of Licking Creek [River]. While resting here, some men who had been surveying happened at the same place, and informed them that as yet the Indians had not done much injury, and that Col. John Todd was in the neighborhood with a small body of men; that if they could be met with, there would be sufficient force to escort the powder to its destination. Clark, however, with his usual promptitude, after having waited for some time in vain for Col. Todd. set off for Harrodstown accompanied by two of the men, leaving the residence with Mr. Jones
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY. - 391
remain at Hinkson's. Soon after Clark had departed, Col. Todd arrived, and on being informed of the military stores left at the river, thinking his force was now sufficient to effect their removal, he marched with ten men for this purpose. When they reached the country about the Blue Licks, they met on the 25th of September with an Indian party, which was following the trail of Clark and his companions. They attacked the whites with such vigor as to route them entirely, having killed Jones and some others and taken some prisoners. Fortunately for Kentucky, the prisoners proved true to their countrymen and preserved the secret of the stores inviolate, while the party detached from Harrodsburg brought them safely to their overjoyed friends.'. The dweller in that 'solitary cabin' was the father of Judge Thomas Hinkson." (Butler's Kentucky, pp. 41, 42.)
"George McManis, the first, was the successor to Judge Burr. He was elected in 1810, and took his seat on the bench September 10, in the same year. He was promoted to the Judgeship from the office of County Commissioner, to which he had been elected the spring before. James Wilson was appointed by the court to the place he vacated. He was born in the city of Philadelphia on the 18th day of March, 1766. His parents were from Ireland, and he narrowly escaped being an Irishman himself, as he was born only an hour after the family landed on the shores of America. Judge McManis was taken to what afterward became Jefferson County, Ky., in the year 1799. The party of emigrants with which he went began the fourth settlement made in Kentucky, Harrod's, Boone's and Kenton's having preceded They descended the Ohio River in boats to near where the city of Louisville now is, and erected block-houses and stations as defenses against the Indians. Here, as soon as his age and strength would admit, he learned to be a hunter, woodsman and Indian fighter. He was frequently called out to pursue and destroy the bands of Indians who crossed the Ohio and fell upon the weak and exposed settlements to kill, scalp and plunder. These small affairs more effectually tried the courage and conduct of the parties engaged than the larger and more imposing expeditions, as every man was the keeper of his own sca1p. I have no knowledge that Mr. McManis was engaged in more than one of the larger expeditions sent to a distance against the Indians. This was when the Indian towns on Mad River, in this State, were destroyed. On November 17, * he was married in Kentucky to Mary Steward, well known to many of our people. She was born in Virginia November 5, 1770. Mr. and Mrs. McManis had seven children, all born in Kentucky except the youngest, Martha. Margaret, the eldest, was born October 7, 1791, and was married to Warren Sabin on the 1st of April, 1811. Elizabeth, born September 8, 1795; was married to Dr. James W. Magee, for many years County Recorder and Clerk to the Commissioners, January 11, 1818. Mary, born January 5, :1797, married William R. Cole, Esq., the attorney, December 15, 1822. Rachel, born February 5, 1799, married Daniel Radcliff, first an attorney, then Justice of the Peace for nine years, and County Treasurer and Collector for eight years. They were married on the 29th of August, 1819. John, born January 5, 1802, was for many years County Recorder, and County Auditor died December 3, 1821, to the date of his resignation, October 19, 1824. He died August 5, 1831. George, born July 27, 1804, married Louisa McElwain November 24, 1825. He was also Associate Judge of Clinton County. He has long been a minister of the Gospel, and at this writing resides in Pottawattomie County, Kan., on the Union Pacific Railroad. Phebe, born December 31, 1806, married Perry Dakin on the 29th day of June, 1826. Martha,
* What year?
392 - HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
born March 30, 1810, married William Hibben June 30,. 1829, Judge McManis came to what has since become Clinton County, ill the spring of 1808. He served as Associate Judge from 1810 to 1821. He died March 10, 1826. His widow continued to reside on the old farm at the head of Indian Creek, Clinton County, until the fall of 1843, when she removed with her son George to Bureau County, Ill., where she died November 5, 1857. Judge McManis died on the anniversary of his birthday, at the precise age of sixty, and his aged widow at the precise age of eighty-seven, on the anniversary of her birth. day.
"Aaron Sewell. better known to many of our people as Judge Sewell an emigrant to that part of the Northwest Territory now known as the State of Ohio, was born in Loudoun County, Va., on the 27th day of August, 1774. His father was David Sewell, born in 1746, and his mother was Hary (Tullis) Sewell. He had one brother and one sister, both older than he. John Sewell, the brother, died a resident of Clinton County, in 1822. His sister, Hannah Burr, wife of .Judge Peter Burr, for several years Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas for Clinton Countv, also died in Clinton County years since. Timothy Sowell, brother to David, emigrated to what is now the State of Ohio at an early day, and settled west of Lebanon, near the dividing line between. Butler and Warren Counties. His wife was a Tullis. Amos T. (Tullis) Sewell, of Wilmington, for twenty-five years Justice of the Peace, and for a still longer time County Recorder, was a son of this Timothy Sewell, and was named for his grandfather, Amos Tullis. Timothy Sewell, born and raised at Wilmington, now of Columbus, and son of the Recorder and Justice. was named for his grandfather. David Sewell, early in 1798, became the owner of one of the Archibald Campbell surveys, No. 2250, on the little East Fork, in what is now Clinton County, containing 1,200 acres, more or less, and made arrangements to move to it, with his sons and son-in-law and daughter, the sons to go at once and his son-in-law and daughter to follow at an early day afterward. Up to this time Aaron had remained a single man. In view of the long journey before the family, he deemed it best to take a wife to himself, and accordingly on the 5th day of April, 1798, in Frederick County, Va., where the family were living, he was married to Mary Hendricks, a sister to the wife of his brother John. And now, all arrangements being perfected, the party, consisting of the father and mother, John and his family, and Aaron and his family, set out on their journey, and in due time all arrived in safety at Bedell's Station, in what is now Warren County, one mile south of where Union Village (commonly called "Shaker Town") now is. The precise length of time the family remained at Bedell's Station is left in some obscurity. On one side it is insisted that the stay was short, about such as would be sufficient for travelers and their beasts to rest and recruit a little, and the party, at the end of this temporary halt, went immediately to and settled on their lands. On the other hand it is insisted that on their arrival at the station they could not find their land nor any one who could find it, in consequence of which they remained at the station until some time in 1801, or later. As the date of every settlement in the territory now within the limits of Clinton County as early as 1798, or indeed for some years afterward, assumes some importance when endeavoring to fix the date of the first settlement made within the limits of the county of Clinton, I will endeavor to state the facts so far as I have been able to collect them in regard to the time the Sewells, father and sons, settled on the Little East Fork. No great wonder that they were unable to find their lands or any one who could give them information concerning them when the condition of the country is considered. They came in 1798.Bedell's Station, acknowledged to be the first settlement in what is now Warren County, did not. exist until
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the fall of 1795. In 1796. a. few settlers were located at Deerfield and Waynesville. or where they were subsequently laid out, as some claim. Lebanon was not laid out for five years aftr the arrival of the Sewells. What would settlers so recently arrived in the country, having houses to build and lands not to clear, but to prepare for a crop by deadening the large trees and cutting away the saplings, while living on wild game, know of lands lying twenty miles away to the east, on streams not yet named, three miles at least from the nearest settler, himself at least ten miles from his nearest neighbor? The family tradition states that they, having heard of a surveyor at Xenia who could tell them how to find their lands, applied to him for assistance, and that he found their lands or gave them such information as enabled them to find them. But when was this? Xenia was not laid out until 1803, nor was there a settlement at or near its site before the town was laid out. There is, to my mind, a strong presumption, nearly approaching certainty, that the surveyor who aided the Sewells in finding their lands was James Galloway, Jr., afterward better know perhaps as Maj. Galloway. My reasons in part are, first, he was the first surveyor of Greene County, appointed in 1802; and second, he was, as I have reason to believe, the only deputy surveyor in that region of the county for Col. Richard C. Anderson, the principal surveyor, in whose office at Louisville, Ky., was kept the record of the entries and surveys in the Virginia military district of Ohio. Maj. Galloway had access to these surveys, and thereby could find the chain on which survey No. 2250 depended and abutted. He therefore could have readily led the Sewells to their lands. or without going have informed them of some survey corner well known to some settler from which a line could have been traced directly to some of the corners of the survey for which they were bunting. Besides, Maj. Galloway's father settled on the Little Miami River, about seven miles north of Xenia, in the same year that the Sewells came to Bedell's Station, and brought with him as a part of his family his son, James Galloway, Jr., then a young, single man. It is improbable to suppose that in the year of his arrival, and in all reasonable probability before he had learned to survey at all, that they should have heard of young Galloway, and equally improbable that he should have been able to tell where to find a survey lying in a locality at the time as wild as when Columbus discovered America, situated more than thirty miles from where he resided. (See history of Vernon Township.) The first born of Aaron Sewell and wife was their daughter Elizabeth. The family record shows that she was born July 24, 1799. She was married to Aaron Oxley, a resident of Clinton County, October 20, 1817. She is now deceased. Mr. Oxley had no personal knowledge of the place of Mrs. Oxley's birth, and his entire information on that subject was what his wife had said concerning it. His statement was that he always claimed Bedell's Station as the place where she was born. The second child of Mr. and Mrs. Sewell was Ezra Sewell, still living and residing on the original purchase. He was born March 14, 1801. He says that he always understood that he was born at Bedell's Station. I am informed by another who came to the Sewell neighborhood to reside in the latter part of 1803, that all of the three families were then living on their respective tracts of land, with improvements apparently a year or so old, or less. From these statements and some corroborating facts and circumstances, I have concluded that the Sewells settled on the Little East Fork, in what is now Clinton County, not in 1798, but as late as 1801 at least, and maybe later. In 1817, Mr. Sewell was elected by the General Assembly of Ohio one of the Associate Judges of Clinton County to fill the vacancy on the bench occasioned by the expiration of the term of Judge Thomas Hinkson. He was re-elected in 1824, and again in 1831; whole term, twenty-one years. In or about 1823, Judge
394 - HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
Sewell erected a grist-mill and saw-mill on the Little East Fork, about two miles above Clarksville. The improvement was one of great utility to the neighborhood. The stream which was depended upon to furnish the power was small, and in the dry seasons of the year would not run the mill. Steam-mills in time came into use, and water-mills on the small streams went out of use. The Sewell Mills shared the common fate. Decay seized upon the buildings, a freshet swept away the dam, and wash from the hillsides filled up the race. Judge Sewell was not a distinguished hunter; but out of two who are known to have killed an elk each, he was one. This feat was performed in early times not far from the mouth of Wilson's Branch. David Sewell settled near the College Township road, where Jacob Lair now resides. A part of his dwelling, a hewed log house, is now occupied by Mr. Lair as a dwelling. John settled on the farm now owned by Ira S. Taylor. His dwelling-house is still in use for the same purpose. Judge Sewell erected a temporary dwelling, but soon after erected a large, hewed-log house on the road which is still standing, where he lived many years. In 1814, Judge Sewell was elected Justice of the Peace for Vernon Township. The office was one of great dignity at that time, and was generally bestowed upon the most substantial citizens. Since then there has been some change in the bestowal of this really important office; now a commission as Justice of the Peace is not a patent for ex alted worth. In person, Judge Sewell was tall, straight and spare. In general conversation, he was not a man of many words, but he expressed his ideas clearly, sensibly and candidly. His integrity was beyond question, and his moral character unblemished. He died about January, 1842.
"Benjamin Hinkson was born in Cynthiana, Ky., and came with his father, Judge Thomas Hinkson, to Clinton County, Ohio, in 1806. He was engaged in work upon the farm until 1816, when he became Deputy Clerk of the Court for Fayette County. He was admitted to the bar and began the practice of the law in Wilmington in 1820, which he continued until elected Secretary of State for Ohio, in 1834. He served as member of the Legislature of Ohio from 1826 to 1834. In 1836, he was elected President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the judicial circuit composed of the counties of Clinton, Warren, Butler and Greene. At the close of his term of seven years as Judge, he resumed for a time the practice of the law, but his interests turned to the farm, to which, in 1852, he retired and engaged in stock-raising. Here he resided until the close of his long life of about eighty-three years. He died at his old home in Wilson Township March 14, 1877."
Of Judge Benjamin Hinkson, Dr. A. Jones, who knew him intimately, speaks as follows: "We remember his first appearance at the bar in Wilmington. It was near the close of the year 1821, when he appeared in court as attorney for Col. Thomas Gaddis, who made application for services rendered in the war of the Revolution. Hinkson was then nearly twenty-one years of age. Modest, courteous and gentlemanly, he aided the old Revolutionary soldier in getting his pension. * * * We have met but few men, perhaps none, who possessed a higher sense of honor, a greater veneration for truth, than did Judge Hinkson. Untruth and insincerity had no abiding-place in his mind or heart; benevolent, generous and kind, he was ever willing and ready to aid the needy. Judge Hinkson was one of the early settlers in Clinton County. He was born in the State of Kentucky in 1800, and in 1806 he with his father and family emigrated to the State of Ohio, and settled on the border of a prairie through which a little stream known as Anderson's Fork passed. At the date of the arrival of the Hinkson family their pioneer home was in Ross County, Ohio, now Wilson Township, Clinton County. Judge Hinkson, when a boy, visited his father, who was then in command of a company of scouts in the
PAGE 395 - PICTURE OF S. H. HADLEY
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HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY. - 397
northern part of the State, at or near Fort Meigs. Here young H. remained, doing duty for the term of eight months. After peace had been made, he went into the Clerk's office in Fayette County, where he served as Deputy for two years. In the years 1819 and 1820, he attended the Chillicothe Academy, reading law in the meantime with Judge Henry Brush. In the latter part of 1820, he was admitted to the bar and opened an office in Wilmington, where he continued to practice law until 1834. At the October election in 1826, he was elected to the Legislature, where he served through five terms. In the winter of 1834, he was elected Secretary of State for the three years. In 1836, he was elected Judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit. He remained on the bench for the term of seven years. In 1843, at the expiration of his judicial term, he returned to the practice of law in Wilmington, where he remained until 1858.He then retired to his farm in Wilson Township, where he spent the remaining period of his life. While on his farm, he was the polite and courteous gentleman, fitly representing a class of men unfortunately now al. most extinct. In March, 1877, Judge Hinkson died of paralysis, in the seventy-eighth year of his age."
The preceding were the early Judges of the district, all prominent as pioneers and members of the judiciary. It is impossible to give extended sketches of all the Judges who have sat on the bench at Wilmington, and it would not, perhaps, be wise to discriminate except in the cases of the earlier ones. Extended notes of Judges R. B. Harlan, W. H. Baldwin, A. W. Doan and others will be found in other parts of the volume. The attention of the reader is now called to notices of a few of the earlier members of the Clinton County bar.
"The first lawyer who settled in Clinton County was James Montgomery. He was licensed to practice law at Lebanon in 1803, at the first term of the Supreme Court held in Warren County. The time of his birth, his lineage and race have escaped my researches. He was a bachelor when he came here and when he went away. The precise time of his coming is undated by court re cords and general history. All that I have been able to ascertain with certainty is that he was here as early as the first sale of lots in the county seat, at which sale he purchased Lot No. 131 on Columbus street, now the site of Samuel Darbyshire's dwelling. His name appears on the records of our courts for the first time at the fall term of the Common Pleas October 18, 1810. On that day, the court appointed Mr. Montgomery to the office of Prosecuting Attorney for the county at a salary of $60 per year, payable in three installments at the close of each term of court. Of course he thanked the court for the honor they conferred, and quite as much, as a matter of coarse, he thought, if he did not say, that. the salary was outrageously low for an office involving so much responsibility and requiring so much labor, vigilance and solicitude. During the entire time that Mr. Montgomery resided here he was without a rival, resident of the county; but he seems never to have secured more than a small part of the civil business in the courts, and such business as he did secure was not of the weightiest character. For this, two reasons might be assigned. Mr. Montgomery may not have been a lawyer of great legal talent or skill, while several of the non-resident members of the bar regularly attending the courts here were men of learning and ability. Among these I name John McLean, afterward Judge of the Supreme Court of this State, and still later of the Supreme Court of the United States; Joshua Collett, afterward Judge of the Common Pleas and Supreme Courts; John Alexander, William Ellsberry and Thomas Freeman. Others of less note also attended the courts here, but not so regularly. In May, 1811, Mr. Montgomery sold Town Lot No. 131, heretofore referred to, and Lot No. 130, alongside of it (which last was purchased at the second sale
398 - HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
of lots in the county seat) to George Green. for some small sum. There is evidence to show that Mr. Green did not purchase with a view to make money, but to secure himself for money paid or to be paid by him for Mr. Montgomery. In April, 1812, Mr. Montgomery brought suit for Jesse Lane and Elizabeth, his wife, against Robert Stanley, for slander of the wife, and took a note for his fee. The note was assigned, and it is inferred, assigned in due course of business, that is to pay a board bill. The suit was dismissed June 1, 1812. On the next day, Mr. Montgomery was paid $20 out of the county treasury for his services as Prosecuting Attorney. This was the last money paid him on that account, and in the entry made of it, Mr. Montgomery's name appeared for the last time in connection with his late office. At the next term (October, 1812), William R. Cole's name appeared on the roll of officers of court as Prosecuting Attorney. June 5, 1813, Mr. Lane filed an injunction bill against Mr. Montgomery and his assignee for relief. The bill complains of the action of Mr. Montgomery in the suit and about the note. (None of that, however, has anything to do with my present purpose.) And he stated that Mr. Montgomery, late a citizen of Clinton County, was then, June, 1813, a citizen of Fayette County. Conceding to Mr. Lane the utmost candor and accuracy in statement in regard to the residence at the time of Mr. Montgomery, and in the absence of contradictory evidence, we hold his statement as, properly closing debate upon the subject. The trail left by Mr. Montgomery has been dim from the beginning. Here his last footsteps, as far as discernible by the writer, abruptly end."
A. H. Dunlevy, in the article before quoted, stated that Samuel H. Hale was the second lawyer who came to Wilmington, while Judge Harlan awarded that honor to William R. Cole. The evidence is that both came in the latter part of 1812, Mr. Cole, perhaps, having come a few days or weeks before Mr. Hale's arrival. Mr. Cole and his brother Samuel composed the family of Solomon Cole, which latter person located at Wilmington in 1813. Judge Harlan wrote thus of Mr. Cole:
"William R. Cole was born in the city of New York, in 1780; the precise date not ascertained. While quite a small boy, he was taken to Lexington, Ky., then little more than a cluster of block houses, stockades, and settlers' cabins. There he was brought up and educated. In 1801, Mr. Cole attained full age. Of his history for the next ensuing nine years, there is no account whatever. I infer that he spent about two years of the nine in reading law, as a prerequisite to his admission to the bar. August 13, 1810, at Cleveland, Ohio, be was licensed to practice law by the Supreme Court. Beyond this simple fact the inquirer is left to grope in the dark. Where he studied law, under whose instructions he read, or how he spent the time which he evidently did not employ in legal studies, are matters involved in very great darkness. The next appearance of Mr. Cola is in Greene County, in the region, I believe, of Bellbrook, or rather near where Bellbrook now is. The date was 1812. In that year he married Miss Susannah Elam, of that neighborhood. There is reason to believe that be had resided some time here before the marriage was consummated. If so, how was he employed? My impression is, in school teaching. The fruits of his marriage were two daughters, Sarah Ann and Emeline, and one son, Alfred C., the youngest of the three. Sarah Ann was married to Rev. Aylette Raynes, now of Kentucky, July 4, 1833. Emeline died unmarried several years ago. Alfred died before his sister, also, I believe, unmarried. In October, 1812, Mr. Cole settled in Wilmington. On the 5th day of that month the Court of Common Pleas elected him to the office of Prosecuting Attorney for the county. This position he held until the second Tuesday in October, 1834, when the office became elective by the people.
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY. - 399
Mr. Cole was not a candidate before. the people for the office. His immediate successor was his friend John Taaffe, now the Rev. Joan Taaffe. Mr. Cole's father settled in Wilmington in 1813. On October 14 of that year, Asa H comb, the first merchant in Wilmington, conveyed to Solomon Cole the lot which the first goods in Wilmington were sold. The number of the lot is 11 near the railroad, on which stands the dwelling long the residence of Robert B. Harlan and still occupied as such by members of his family and in which Mr. Cole resided for many years. The lot with other lots afterward purchased by the father were intended for the son, and on the death of the former in 1824, this intention was fully carried out by will. Of Mr. Cole from 1812 to 1818 little is known deserving particular mention. He had, no doubt of it, a large share of the legal business in the courts of the county, much of it important and lucrative, and he seems to have conducted it about in the usual way. In 1818, he was elected to the State Senate, and re-elected in 1820, for the counties of Clinton and Greene. Mr. Cole, in 1826, was a candidate for Representative in Congress in the district composed of the counties of Clinton. Highland, Brown and Adams, but failed of election. His successful competitor w; William Russell, who was re-elected several times, and still later represent( the Scioto District in the Lower House of Congress. In 1837, Mr. Cole lost h wife. On the 18th day of December, in the same year, be was married to Mary McManis, third daughter of Judge George McManis. In the fall of 1829, Mr. Cole united with the Christian Church at Wilmington, having short time before been immersed at Dayton. In the month of April, 1837, he removed from Clinton County to Wilmington, the then county seat of Dear born County. Ind., with the view to the practice of the law at that place. An other object it may be, was to bring his son forward at the bar, he having been reading law for some time with the view to become a professional lawyer How well he succeeded in business there we know nothing; perhaps not a well as he expected. His son died soon after, before attaining any great prominence at the bar. In 1843, Mr. Cole removed again. He left Indiana and settled at Princeton, the county seat of Bureau County, Ill. His object doubtless, was to obtain professional business and to be near the relatives of his wife. He was not there very long. On the 10th day of April, 1847, he died. For this event he seems to have been well prepared. A friend writing to me says: 'He died in the ripeness of his intellect, and fullness of his Christian faith and hope.'"
The following summary of the life and works of Samuel H. Hale is made up from an article published a few years since by Dr. A. Jones: "Mr. Hale was born February 14, 1787, in Randolph County. N. C. His parents were Jacob and Martha Hale, the former being by trade a wagon-maker, in whose shop the son served until he had reached the age of twenty years. Young Hale's time was taken up almost entirely by his work, and very little of it was spent in the schools which then existed in the neighborhood of his home. and which were poor at best. He, however, in the spare moments he had, stored his mind with historical and biographical facts, and, through the many years of his life, retained the knowledge he acquired in his younger days. In the. fall of 1807, the Hale family emigrated to Ohio, and, in December of that year, located on Todd's Fork in Warren County. At their wilderness home Hale worked for two years. In this new and unimproved county, there being but little demand for wagons and carriages, he left home to find employment some other vocation. In 1810, he settled at Lebanon and obtained employment as clerk in the store of one McCray. Here he had not sufficient employment. About this time he made the acquaintance of Hon. John McLean, and commenced the study of law with him." Mr. Hale always held his law in-.
400 - HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
structor in the greatest respect and veneration. In 1811. according to Dr. Jones, and in 1809, according to A. H. Dunlevy, Mr. Hale was associated with McLean in the publication of the Western Star, at Lebanon, and the ability of the firm was unquestioned. Toward the close of 1813, Mr. Hale married Mary Ward, of North Carolina, and located at Lebanon. but before the close of the year removed to Wilmington, for the purpose of engaging in legal practice. Dr. Jones says: "The life of the advocate was too monotonous for his active temperament. Full of impulse and energy, he could not confine himself to the practice of the law. He could not remain quiet, and soon engaged in it multifarious trade. In the latter part of the year 1812, he opened a hotel in Wilmington, and invested capital in goods and groceries. With his industry and untiring devotion he attracted the notice of the pioneers of Clinton County, and they liberally gave to him their patronage. At this period he took an active interest in the administration of the State and General Governments. In 1313, he was elected to the General Assembly of Ohio," and in December of that year, when the Legislature met at Chillicothe, he took his seat as Representative from Clinton County. He gave his vote for the full quota of men and the necessary funds to carry on the war with England, and took great interest in public affairs at that time. In 1815, after the close of the war, he resumed his business connections, and vigorously prosecuted his affairs. He added to his mercantile and hotel business a livery stable, a distillery, and other things, gave employment to a number of men and boys, showed himself possessed of a philanthropic spirit, and became interested in educational matters in his town and county. In 1816, he became a member of a library company which was organized in Wilmington, having at the same time a private library of several hundred volumes, the use of which he freely offered to those in search of information contained in them. Among his young friends and proteges at that time were Messrs. Way, Treusdell and Reynolds, who had worked their way through college at Athens, Ohio, and graduated with honors. Mr. Hale was again sent to the Legislature from Clinton County, and interested himself in the discussions on the banking system in 1822-25. He was an earnest and sound advocate of the value of producing more goods at home than were brought from abroad. As Representative in the Legislature, he donated one-third his wages per diem (only $3 in all) to the fund for building and improving the roads. He served with great credit also in the State Senate, and was always an advocate of internal improvement schemes. He became a warm supporter of Jackson, and on the eve of the latter's first inauguration as President, gave a party in honor of the event. During the evening (March 4. 1829), a fire broke out in the rear of his hotel, and soon consumed the building, together with nearly all its contents, including Mr. Hale's library, maps, globes, mathematical instruments, etc. He retired from public life after serving in the State Senate in 1828-29, and would not allow his name to be again used as that of a candidate for office. After a long period of prosperity, he at last met with reverses, and lost his fortune. His death occurred but a few years since, and, in 1880, his wife followed him to the shadowy "land beyond the river."
The following sketches of a few other of the early lawyers who practiced in the courts of Clinton County are from the notes left by Judge R. B. Harlan, himself for years at the head of this bar
"Daniel Radcliffe was born on the South Branch of the Potomac River, in Maryland. His father was killed by the Indians two months before the birth of Daniel. When about two years of age, he was taken by his mother to Bourbon County, Ky. His mother was married the second time to Mr. Taaffe, one of Gen. Daniel Morgan's celebrated riflemen. By this marriage
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY. - 401
she had a son, John Taaffe, first a lawyer, and afterward a minister of the Gospel for several years in Wilmington. Daniel Radcliffe was licensed to practice law in Kentucky in 1812, and two years later was licensed the second time in Ohio. He followed his profession for several years. He served as County Treasurer of Clinton County eight years, and as Justice of the Peace for Union Township from 1818 to 1829. He removed to Illinois in 1836, where he died at an advanced age.
" David Linton was admitted to the bar in 1841. He afterward removed " to Kansas.
"Franklin Corwin removed to Wilmington from Lebanon in 1840. He was a fine speaker. His county sent him to the Ohio House of Representatives, and the district composed of Clinton, Greene -and Fayette elected him to the Senate. He removed to Illinois, became a member of the Senate of that State, then Speaker of that body, and was subsequently elected to Congress in 1872. Mr. Corwin was the nephew of Hon. Thomas Corwin, of Lebanon.
"Samuel Buck, an early lawyer of Wilmington, was born in Westmoreland County, Penn., March 7, 1780. He came to Kentucky, Fayette County, near Lexington, in 1789. That same year he went into the Quartermaster's Department, and was stationed at the Chickasaw Bluffs, where Memphis now is, for about ten months. In 1799, he came to Ohio, near Chillicothe, which had at that time but three shingled roofed houses in it. Here he studied lad under William Creighton, and was admitted to practice in Lancaster by Judges Irvin and Thomas Scott, in 1813. He located in 1814 at Washington, Fayette County. He was married at Lebanon in 1807, to Sarah Smith, daughter of Abner Smith. At the time of his marriage, he was a school teacher, and he continued teaching for several years. He lived at Hamilton, Butler County, and came from there to Wilmington in 1827. He died in Greene County October 27, 1862, in the eighty-third year of his age, and was buried in the cemetery at Cedarville, beside his wife, who died August 30, 1854.
"Carter B. Harlan was licensed to practice law about 183-. He was. elected to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Benjamin Hinkson as member of the Legislature of Ohio from Clinton County, in 1834, and was afterward re-elected. He was elected Secretary of State for Ohio, and died during his term of office in 1840, while still a young man.
" Griffith Foos was a resident of Wilmington twenty-three years. He was at one time a printer, and in 1826-27 was engaged with W. H. P. Denny and Archibald Haynes as a printer in the office of the Wilmington Argus, published by J. B. Seamans. In 1829. he was at the Wilmington bar, and from 1835 to 1839 was Prosecuting Attorney for the county. At one time Mr. Foos and R. B. Harlan, when in the midst of the trial of a ease, found that the deposition of a person in Augusta, Ky., was necessary to its success. Mr. Foos agreed to hold the attention of the jury while Mr. Harlan went on horseback to Augusta, procured the deposition, and returned. This he did successfully until Mr. Harlan appeared inside the door of the court room on his return, when Mr. Foos said: `With these few remarks I close.' Mr. Foos represented in 1840 and 1841, in the State Senate, the district composed of Clinton, Brown and Clermont Counties. He died in Anamosa, Iowa, September 12, 1857."
The following is a list of lawyers admitted to practice at the Clinton county bar, with dates of admission, from 1810 to 1881. Those marked thus are known to be deceased:
James Montgomery,* 1810; William R. Cole, ;1812; Samuel H. Hale, May term,* 1813; Daniel Radcliff,* May 6, 1814; Benjamin Hinkson,* 1820.; Philip F. Crihfield,* 1827; John Taaffe,* 1828; Samuel Buck,* 1827; Thomas . Armstrong,* 18- John Myer,* 1832 (?); Griffith Foos,* 1829; Carter B.
402 - HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY.
Harlan,* 1834; Michael H. Johnson,* 1838; Noah S. Haines,* 1839, William Fuller,* --; David Linton, now in Kansas, 1811; Franklin Corwin,* 1840; Robert B. Harlan,* admitted to practice at Chillicothe in 1837, and began professional duty at once at Wilmington; Frederick P. Lucas, 1843; Grafton B. White,* 1846; David Harlan, 1847, never practiced law; William H. Baldwin,* 1842 (see history of Marion Township); Isaac S. Wright,* 1845; Rael S. Beeson,* 1844; Jehu Trimble,* 1848; William B. Fisher,* 1847, for many years editor of the Clinton Republican, at Wilmington; James W. Denver, 1844, practices in the Court of Claims at Washington, D. C.; Ethelbert C. Hibben,* 1849; Benajah W. Fuller,* 1851; Chilton A. White, 1849, now of Georgetown, Brown Co., Ohio; William B. Telfair, 1851, now of Wilmington; Azariah W. Doan, 1853; present Judge of Court of Common Pleas; Daniel Collett,* 1855; James I. Collett,* 1856; Joseph McCray, of Clarksville; Christopher C. Harris,* 1855; Charles W. Blair, 1856, now in Kansas; J. O.. Felton, 1850, was from New England and lived a few years at Wilmington; Robert E. Doan, 1857, now of Wilmington; Isaac B. Allen, 1855, now living in south part of county; Alonzo C. Diboll, 1854, now of Wilmington; Joseph H. West,* 1855; Henry S. Doan.* 18-; William T. Pierce, 1854; Jonathan D. Hines, 1858, never practiced; Leroy Pope, 1.858, now of Wilmington, exJudge Court of Common Pleas; William P. Reid, 1861, publisher Wilmington Watchman for a time, not now in county; John M. Kirk, 18-, now of Wilmington; L. F. Austin,* 1861; Lewis C. Walker, 1861, now of Indianapolis, Ind. ; Nathan M, Linton, 1862, now of Wilmington, and Representative in State Legislature; Angus McKay,* 1857; Thomas Thatcher, 1860; Samuel R. Nickerson, 18-, now of Morrow, Warren County, formerly publisher of papers at Blanchester and Sabina; William H. West, 1865, now of New Vienna; Levi Mills, 1868, now of Wilmington; Felix G. Slone, 1865, formerly practiced in Brown County, Ohio, where he was also engaged in mercantile business; John S. Savage, 1866, now of Wilmington; Isaiah W. Qninby, 1860, now of Wilmington; A. H. McVey, 1868, now of Toledo, Ohio; Lewis J. Walker; 1867, now of Wilmington; Calvin B. Walker, 186-, now in Pension Department, Washington, D. C.; Thomas Q. Hildebrant, 1865, now of Cincinnati, Ohio; C. A. Bosworth, 1880, of Wilmington, does not pra-tice; Madison Betts, 1868, Cashier Clinton County National Bank, does not practice law; Melville Hayes, 1869, now of Wilmington; David T. White, 1870, now of Wilmington; Charles S. Jolly, 1871, now of Indiana; William W. Savage, 1871, now of Washington, Fayette Co., Ohio; Charles B. Dwiggins, 1872, now of Wilmington; Edward J. West, 1873, present Prosecuting Attorney for Clinton County; Charles W. Swaim, 1874, now of Wilmington; James E. Fitzhugh, 1871, never practiced here, now in the West; Lucius H. Baldwin, 1873, now of Wilmington; C. Perry Baldwin,* admitted 1870, came to Wilmington in 1874; Andrew J. Harlan, 1877, now of Marion, Ind.; born in Clinton County, practiced here but little: was elected to Congress from Indiana and Missouri, and sat on the bench in those States and Dakota; Alpheus H. Jones, 1870, now of Wilmington; James V. Ellis,* 1878; David B. Van Pelt, 1878, now of Wilmington; C. G. Haworth, 1878, of Wilmington, not iu practice; Peter Clevenger, 1879, of Cuba, Clinton Co., Ohio; Frank B. Mills, 1879, now of Wilmington; A. E. Clevenger, 1879, now of Wilmington; William B. Telfair, Jr., 1879, now of Wilmington.
The following are distinguished members of the bar from other counties who practiced regularly or occasionally in the early courts of Clinton County:
Warren County--Francis Duulavy, first President Judge; Thomas R. Ross, John McLean, Thomas Freeman, Thomas Corwin, Joshua Collett, A.
HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY. - 403
H. Dunlavy, Jacob D. Miller, Jonathan K. Wilds, Phineas Ross, Benjamin Collett, Jacoby Halleck, George J. Smith, J. Milton Williams.
Ross County-Judge Thomas Scott, Benjamin G. Leonard, Richard Douglass, William Creighton.
Highland County--Richard Collins, Moses H. Kirby, John H. Price, James H. Thompson.
Greene County-John Alexander, William Ellsberry, Aaron Harlan.
Clermont County-Judge Owen T. Fishback, Thomas Morris.
Fayette County-Wade Loofborough, Henry Phelps.
An Examining Committee, about 1828 or 1830, was composed of Judge William Irwin; of Lancaster, Judge Gustavus Swan, Judge Thomas Scott, Senator (afterward Governor) William Allen and Henry Stanberry. Mr. Allen was on the committee. which examined Robert B. Harlan at Chillicothe, and the latter stated that the former asked most of the questions which were put to him at that time. It would be a pleasure to write extended sketches of all who have practiced in the Clinton County Courts since 1810, but even if this were possible to accomplish, the limit of this work would not admit of their insertion, for they would form a volume of themselves.