416 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY CHAPTER XXXV THE BENCH AND BAR THE BAR OF ERIE COUNTY By E. B. King Erie County, though small in area and formed from Huron County in 1837, has since that time possessed a number of able and notable lawyers, among those best known who were not in active practice in 1875, when I moved to Sandusky, were John F. Campbell, blind in his later life and for many years a partner of L. S. Beecher, also blind; Ebenezer Andrews and Philip R. Hopkins of Milan ; William H. Hunter, who was a member of Congress in 1837-39 ; Eleutheros Cooke, also in Congress in John Wheeler ; Cuyler Leonard; John W. Sloane ; James M. Root, a member of Congress 1846-52; Bernard Miner; Pitt Cooke, son of Eleutheros Cooke, and at one time a partner of L. S. Beecher; O. C. McLouth ; Frank D. Parish; Rush R. Sloane and Waldo F. Converse. The five last named were not in practice, but all of them living here except Parish, who then lived in Oberlin. Beside the foregoing, Ebenezer Lane was a district judge from 1824 to 1830 and judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio from 1830 to 1845, who took high rank among the judiciary of Ohio; and Walter F. Stone, who was a Common Pleas judge from February, 1867 to 1871, and Supreme Court judge from then till 1874, when a short period after his resignation he died in December, 1874. In his less than three years service in the Court of Last Resort he had given promise of becoming one of the ablest of his contemporaries. As one looks back over only four decades, it is to emphasize what changes may occur in so brief a space. In October, 1875, I took up my permanent residence in Sandusky, and found among my fellow lawyers the following, none of whom but C. W. Sadler and C. C. Bitner, long since retired from practice, and myself are now among the living: Homer Goodwin and Lewis H. Goodwin, as H. & L. Goodwin; Lucas S. Beecher and John T. Beecher, as firm of L. S. & J. T. Beecher ; S. F. Taylor and Arthur Phinney, as the firm of Taylor & Phinncy ; Walter W. Bowen and Edmund B. King, who then formed the firm of Bowen & King; Cooper K. Watson and B. F. Lee, as the firm of Watson & Lee; John Mackey ; E. B. Sadler and Charles W. Sadler, as the firm of E, B. & C. W. Sadler ; A. W. Hendry; Frederick W. Cogswell; Horatio Wildman; James M. Root ; Jabez G. Bigelow ; Samuel C. Wheeler; Charles L. Hubbard; E. C. Boyd ; C. C. Bitner ; James Lloyd DeWitt ; William G. Lane, Common Pleas judge ; Elisha M. Colver, Probate judge. HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 417 William G. Lane, the Common Pleas judge, was a son of Judge Ebenezer Lane. On his retirement from the bench in 1876 he was followed in immediate succession by Cooper K. Watson, John Mackey and JamesL. DeWitt in the order named. Of this active list E. B. Sadler had been a judge under the first constitution in 1845 to 1851, and S. F. Taylor, a Common Pleas judge from 1853 to 1867. Among this list Homer Goodwin, Cooper K. Watson, E. B. Sadler, S. F. Taylor and John Mackey were the leaders; Lucas S. Beecher had been a shining light, but in 1875 was failing, though he appeared in the trial of cases for some time after 1875. Mr. Beecher was a commanding figure, a fluent talker and a versatile reasoner. Of those who dug among the precedents of the past for legal ammunition Homer Goodwin was far and away the ablest lawyer at this bar and held a leading position from before 1850 to his death in 1895. He was a graduate of Western Reserve University, then located at Hudson, Ohio. He came here as a teacher in the public schools, read law while teaching, and was soon admitted and began practice and devoted himself wholly to his profession to the hour of his death. His manner in the trial of cases provoked antagonisms with opposing counsel and the bench, but he was able, fearless, untiring and honorable. Among all the lawyers of Ohio whom I have known in the last forty-five years none had a higher standard of professional ethics. The men named above, Judges Sadler, Taylor, Watson and Mackey, as colleagues or opponents were worthy of his or any lawyer's best efforts; all were upstanding men of the highest character. The notable difference between them and Homer Goodwin was in his habit and disposition for work. It is easier to say who were the lawyers at a fixed date, as in 1875, than to say who have come to our bar in the forty years since that time. Grayson Mills came to the bar in 1878, served two terms as prosecuting attorney, and in 1891 was appointed and served a little more than one year as Common Pleas judge, in which position he succeeded James Lloyd DeWitt, accidentally killed. In December, 1892, Malcolm Kelly of Port Clinton succeeded Judge Mills by an election and served until February, 1897, since which time Judge Kelly has lived in Sandusky, a respected citizen and able and successful lawyer. Lynn W. Hull came to the bar about 1883 and immediately succeeded to a good practice. In 1896 he was elected Common Pleas judge and served from February, 1897, to October, 1899, when he resigned to accept the appointment as judge of the Circuit Court, which latter position he ably filled until his death in November, 1905. Upon the resignation of Judge Hull, Hon. Charles S. Reed, who came to Sandusky from Kansas in 1897, was appointed Common Pleas judge. He served under this appointment and two successive elections to October, 1911, when he resigned, moved to Cleveland, and is now successfully engaged in professional work in that city. Judge Reed was succeeded by Hon. Scott Stahl of Port Clinton, who served until February, 1914, when he resigned to enter the practice at Port Clinton and Toledo, and was succeeded by John Duff of Oak Harbor, and in the Vol. I —27 418 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY change of districts and by the election in 1914 in Erie County, alone, he was succeeded by Hon. Roy H. Williams, who began his term of six years on January 1, 1915. Judge Williams was born in Milan, admitted to the bar in , practiced and had his home in Sandusky, was prosecuting attorney two terms, and possesses the vigor, character and ability to qualify him for a successful judicial career. During this period it should be mentioned that Edmund B. King (the writer of this sketch) was in 1894 elected a judge of the Circuit Court and served from February 9, 1895, to October 9, 1899, when he resigned to resume professional practice. He entered the firm of King & Guerrin. Mr. W. E. Guerrin, Jr., came to Sandusky in 1894, and on the retirement of Judge King from the firm of King & Hull, in 1895, Mr. Guerrin came with Judge Hull ; in 1897 he associated himself with Judge Wickham of Norwalk until Judge King came back to the practice. In January, 1913, Mr. Guerrin moved to Cleveland, where he is now actively engaged in practice. Judge Elisha M. Colver was Probate judge in 1875, served in that office nine years and was succeeded by Judge Albert E. Merrill, "a country doctor ;" he administered the office so well that he was kept there four terms, or twelve years, and while in office was admitted to the bar and began active practice on leaving it. About twelve years ago he moved to Los Angeles, California, and is now successfully engaged in the law. Judge Merrill was succeeded in office by George C. Beis, who had been two terms city solicitor and who served three years, and is now practicing law with success. Judge Beis was succeeded as Probate judge by Lewis H. Goodwin in February, 1894. He served until 1900 and shortly after his retirement from office died. Ulysses Curran was the superintendent of Sandusky schools in 1875 and while teaching was admitted to the bar. Leaving the teaching profession about 1880 he practiced law in Sandusky until 1900, when he became probate judge and served two terms. He died in February, 1914. He was followed in the office of Probate judge in 1906 by Judge Thomas M. Sloane, who is still faithfully filling that important office. Beside these who have been honored in judicial positions Hon. Cyrus B. Winters, now practicing here, was two terms prosecuting attorney and four terms a member .of the General Assembly of Ohio. John Ray, who began practicing law in Sandusky in 1883, was two terms prosecuting attorney. Edward S. Stephens was two terms prosecuting attorney and was succeeded by Henry Hart, and he by James Flynn, Jr. Of the other members of the present bar John F. McCrystal, W. L. Fiesinger, George C. Steinemann, Henry Schoepfle have served the city as solicitors and that office is now filled by W. B. Starbird. John F. Hertlein was two terms clerk of the courts and C. M. Ray, attorney, residing at Huron, was a member from Erie County in the Seventy-sixth General Assembly of Ohio. Roscoe B. Fisher, Ed. S. Stephens and Claude B. DeWitt have been HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 419 at different times the referee in bankruptcy for Erie and Ottawa counties. In addition to those above mentioned and still actively carrying on their legal work are : Charles H. Cramer, Hewson L. Peeke, George E. Reiter, Thomas B. Hoxsey, Russell K. Ramsey, Henry J. Schiller, Edmund H. Savord, Claude J. Minor, Earl C. Krueger and Joseph G. Pyle, all of Sandusky, and H. R. Williams of Vermillion and George F. Eschenroeder of Milan. There are thirty practicing lawyers at the bar in this county, not counting the resident judges. Philip C. Scherkle came to the bar in 1878 and was from 1882 to his death in 1887 associated with E. M. Colver in the practice. The present roll of attorneys of Erie County compares favorably in legal ability with the honored ones who have passed from earthly scenes. Because the business organizations have become more complicated and are conducted by corporations to a far greater extent than by individual owners, so lawyers must know more of the methods of modern business and there is less demand for forensic efforts on their part. The lawyer in order to be useful in his community must be a practical business man as well as educated and skilled in professional knowledge and legal acumen. In the year 1883 I (Hewson L. Peeke) went to the territory of Dakota, as it then was before the state was divided, for my health, being the only man in the community who was there for his health. The other inhabitants unanimously told me that they were not there for their health 'and I believed them at that time and have never had any reason to doubt their statement since. While in Dakota I was admitted to the bar at Huron on March 16, 1883. The requirements for admission to the bar at that time were extremely liberal, being largely dependent on pull and the temper of the examining committee. A man named Harris and myself constituted the entire class admitted to the bar at that time. As I read law in the office of A. B. Melville he was appointed by the judge as one of the committee, while a lawyer named Sturgis with whom Harris read was appointed the other member of the committee. Harris had the foresight to provide a half dozen bottles of wine and a box of cigars which lubricated the process considerably. After a few cigars had been smoked and a few drinks had been taken by the committee the oral examination began in the evening. Out of forty questions Harris answered none except the last, when Melville said to him, "Now Harris we will ask you something that you know something about, `what is rape ?"' The next morning after a very uncomfortable half hour before Judge Edgerton, who was then judge of the District Court, who asked us how we would sue a promissory note, on which subject we showed abysmal ignorance, we were admitted to the bar. The judge remarked that we were no more ignorant than many that he had known. I arrived in Sandusky December 31, 1883, and because I had not 420 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY practiced two years, was required under the Ohio statute, to read law a year, which I did in the office of Homer Goodwin, who had what was then the largest library in Sandusky. I had neither idea nor instruction what to read, and for several months at a time Mr. Goodwin did not even say "Good morning." I read pretty steadily and when admitted knew more about the law books than I do now. I went to Columbus to be examined in December, 1884, but was not permitted to enter the examination because my Dakota papers did not show I had read two years. I was admitted to the bar on the 7th of January, 1885, and sworn in by Chief Justice Johnson. The examination was a written one occupying two days, conducted in the old Supreme Court room, which is now the relic room, and was one of those held monthly through the court year at that period. There were 100 questions, and the last one was, "Suppose a man left his property to found a hospital for the benefit of disabled Confederate soldiers, would the court sustain the law ?" Having in mind the fact that the court was democratic, as well as the committee, I wrote down as my answer, "The time for waving the bloody shirt is past." I had been informed that the oral examination on Blackstone followed the written examination for the purpose of helping the lame ducks through, and that any member of the class was asked one question and then the second time round the person who passed the best examination was dropped, and so on until the few lame ducks were tested orally as to their knowledge of the law. When the second round of questions began I was omitted, and old Judge Gilmore, the author on the work of probate practice, who had been a staunch democrat during the war, stepped up and congratulated me on the able examination I had passed, and especially on my answer to the one hundredth question, so I knew I was through. My acquaintance with the Ohio bar, therefore, dates from December 31, 1883. The State of Ohio is made up of eighty-eight counties, and in the more than a century of its existence has had seventy-eight judges of its Supreme Court. Erie County is one of the smallest and youngest counties of the state, but has furnished the state's most exalted tribunal two judges—Ebenezer R. Lane and Walter F. Stone. The Circuit Court (recently known as the Court of Appeals) was instituted in 1885, and in the Sixth Circuit has had twelve judges, of which Erie County has furnished two—Edmund B. King and Linn W, Hull. This circuit has nine counties, one of which.is Lucas County, which furnishes more than half the business of the court. Of the nine judges of the Court of Appeals since its inception, Erie County has furnished two. Under the old constitution of 1801, Judge Ebenezer B. Sadler was the only president judge in the old days when a lawyer sat on the bench with two associate judges who were not lawyers. After the adoption of the new constitution the first Common Pleas judge from Erie County was Judge Sebastian P. Taylor, who served ten years, and was succeeded by Judge Walter F. Stone, who remained on the bench until he was advanced to the Supreme Bench. Judge William G. Lane succeeded Judge Stone, HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 421 and Judge Cooper K. Watson followed Judge Lane. Since that time the common pleas judgeship has been held by the following Erie County lawyers: John Mackey, J. Lloyd DeWitt, Grayson Mills, Malcolm Kelly, Linn W. Hull, Charles S. Reed, Roy H. Williams. Judge Walter F. Stone was judge in the days when the court journal, was read by the court every day, and he was a great stickler for the proposition that the journal should be an actual record of the exact daily work of the court. On one occasion a perpetual litigant, at the conclusion of a case after an adverse verdict had been rendered against him, smote the table with his fist and cried out, "Hell, peel her up by G- !" A lawyer at the bar procured one of the ordinary printed forms of a journal entry on a verdict and proceeded to fill it in : "This day came the parties, and thereupon came the following jurors, to-wit (leaving a blank for their names) and being duly sworn and having heard the evidence, arguments and the charge of the court, retired for deliberation, and after due deliberation, returned the following verdict : 'We, the jury being: duly sworn, find the issues of this case in favor of the plaintiff, and assess the amount due from the defendant to the plaintiff at the sum of $ _.' And thereupon the defendant in open court smote the table with his fist and cried in a loud voice, "Hell, peel her up, by G-!" This entry, so prepared, was presented to Judge Stone for his approval, which was refused. Judge Cooper K. Watson was one of characters of the bench of Northern Ohio in the late '70s. He was a man of considerable legal knowledge, but addicted to the use of liquor, and of strong prejudices. He was a terror to criminals, so much so that in the last part of his service juries would not convict except in a clear case. On one occasion a jury tried, the experiment of convicting a prisoner and recommending him to the mercy of the court. On receiving the recommendation, it is said that Judge 'Watson fairly glared. In his high, shrill voice he said : "Mercy ! They have brought you to the right shop for mercy. Ten years in the penitentiary in solitary confinement at hard labor, and I wish to God could give you more." The story is told that he was once sitting, somewhat intoxicated, in a crowd which was discussing the subject of water. When Judge Watson grasped the idea, he said : "Water ! Who in hell wants water ? The voice of history is against it. The voice of nature is against it. Even the word of God is against it. There is not but one man in all the Bible that wanted water, and he was in hell, where he ought to be." The Register of November 24, 1874, contains the following item : "The bell of the old court house is to be taken down and placed over the common pleas court room in the new building. The old bell has hung in the court house for 30 years and has done excellent service. It has for years been the only recognized fire alarm in the city and at every conflagration for the past three decades it has rung out warning notes." After the erection of the water works the whistle of the water works became the recognized fire alarm, and the bell has since passed into innocuous desuetude. 422 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY THE ONLY MURDERER EVER LEGALLY EXECUTED 1N ERIE COUNTY John Ritter (father of Miss Mina Ritter, for many years stamp clerk in the Sandusky postoffice) before 1914 lived in a small house near the west end of the present West House. Edward Evans worked in a tailor shop next to a grocery and saloon kept by Ritter on an alley running from West Washington Row north to Water Street, which was a continuation of the present alley west of the Sloane House. Evans was a one-legged man and hobbled in May 5, 1840, and demanded a drink, and on being refused, stabbed Ritter to the heart. Evans was tried and executed for the murder September 30, 1840. His trial took place in the old courthouse. Parish & Sadler were special prosecutors, and L. S. Beecher and George Reber defended Evans. He was hung in an old mile race track that then existed about 15 rods south of the brick house, No. 324, on the south side of Jefferson Street, the third house east of the southeast corner of Jefferson and Franklin streets and east of the railroad, according to the testimony of John Holland, who saw him hung on the gallows erected for that purpose. Evans was tried under the old practice before three judges—Moors Farwell, Nathan Strong and Harvey Fowler and a jury of the following men : James Belden, Samuel H. Smith, Nathaniel Byington, David Barber, James Cleveland, Joseph Stansbery, Moses I. Morsman, Royal P. Lock, Andrew Prout, Harvey Wood, William D. Lindsley and William Smith. There was not much delay in the law in those days. The record begins on page 474 of volume 1 of the court record, and the whole record does not cover four pages, including the bill of exceptions on which error was never prosecuted. But the hanging seems as complete as if it had all the modern improvements. Zalmuna Phillips was the sheriff who hung him, and the confession of the murderer is preserved in the Carnegie Library. The Register of December 3, 1885, contains a summary of the Evans case, and states : "The execution took place south of Jefferson street and east of the present B. & O. track, in the presence of a large crowd. The murderer's body was buried near the track, and probably later carried off by body snatchers. Evans had no relatives or friends in this section. Then the city had two thousand population and the county 12,599." THE LYNCHING OF WILLIAM TAYLOR A generation has passed since the only lynching in the history of Erie County. On September 4, 1878, William Taylor, a negro, was lynched for the murder of Alice O'Donnell, who had mysteriously disappeared on September 2d. It was suspected that Taylor knew what had become of the girl and he was arrested and on September 3d made a partial confession of guilt. He said the girl had been killed and her body taken to McCartney's woods near Venice. Taylor claimed he was not her murderer, but another negro had committed the crime. He admitted hiding HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 423 the body in the woods, however. He was taken to the spot and the remains were found on the spot he indicated. The body was removed to Ruff & Son's undertaking establishment and Taylor was taken to jail. The report that Taylor had confessed and that the body had been. found spread around the town like wildfire, and a mob at once gathered at the jail and demanded the prisoner. Unknown to the mob he was removed from the jail by a back way, but the matter was so bungled by Sheriff Starr that the mob learned of it and started in pursuit. Starr stopped with Taylor at the infirmary and the mob caught up and bulldozed Starr into surrendering Taylor. As soon as they got Taylor they took him to a pagoda then standing in East Washington Park, where a mob had gathered, and a rope was procured and placed around Taylor's neck and he was jerked out of the pagoda head first and dragged across the park down Columbus Avenue to Market Street, where he was hung to a lamp post in front of the building now occupied by the American Bank. The disposal of his body is unknown. The cornerstone of the present courthouse was laid August 15, 1873, and a copper casket was placed therein containing the following articles : Copies of the constitutions of the United States and State of Ohio ; copy of the specifications of labor and material for the building ; copy of the premium list for the Erie County Agricultural Fair of 1872 ; list of county officers with mayors of Vermillion, Huron, Milan and Sandusky ; list of city officers and council of Sandusky ; list of Sandusky customs officers and internal revenue officers ; list of postoffice employees ; name of courthouse architect and contractors ; first seal used by Erie County recorder, date 1838 ; various United States coins ; Sandusky Second National Bank. $1 note ; copies of Daily and Weekly Register ; report of secretary of state ; list of common pleas judges of Fourth Judicial District; seventeenth report of state school commissioner ; list of Milan council members, churches and population ; Masonic documents. The Register of December 25, 1874, contains a picture of the new courthouse and a five-column account of its completion at a cost of $154,222.98. The Common Pleas Court room is described as having in the rear of the judges' seat a fresco of the Goddess of Justice, and directly above it the portrait of Judge E. Lane, and on the right the portrait of Peter Hitchcock, former supreme judges of Ohio. Next are the portraits of Jefferson and Jackson, and in the south end of the room the portrait of George Washington. At the present writing all these pictures have been removed and been replaced by various seals. The first court was held on February 2, 1875. THE CIRCUIT COURT After the constitution of 1851 took effect and the old Supreme Court ceased to travel the circuit, a new intermediate Appellate Court was created, called the District Court, which was composed of three common pleas judges, and visited the counties as the old Supreme Court had done. The District Court had some peculiar features of its jurisdiction, one 424 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY of which was a provision that a will contest could be appealed from the common pleas to the District Court and, tried there before the three judges and a jury of twelve men. The District Court became unsatisfactory for several reasons, one of which was that it took the common pleas judges away from their work when they were needed in their own THE BAR OF ERIE COUNTY ABOUT 1875 The judge on the bench is William G. Lane. At his left is the clerk, 0. C. McLouth and his deputy, William J. Affleck. In the sheriff's box is D. S. Worthington. In front of him is Merrill Starr, the sheriff. On the left of Starr is Waldo Converse. Behind Waldo Converse is B. F. Lee, and behind Lee, Cooper K. Watson. The man reading a book in front of the judge's desk is Judge E. B. Sadler. At the left of. Cooper K. Watson is Judge S. F. Taylor. At the left of Judge Taylor is Homer Goodwin. At the left of Homer Goodwin is J. G. Bigelow. Directly behind Bigelow is John T. Beecher. Immediately left of Bigelow is Herman Ohly, and just in front of Ohly, near the rail, is L. H. Goodwin. Directly behind L. H. Goodwin is Fred. Reinheimer. The others are unidentified. court, and the District Court was succeeded in 1885 by the Circuit Court, which was provided for by an amendment to the constitution and came into existence on the 1st of January, 1885. The state was divided into eight circuits finally, and the Sixth Circuit, of which Erie County forms a part, at the inception of the Circuit Court was distinguished for the HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 425 high class of its judges, Charles H. Scribner, the author of Scribner on Dower ; George R. Haynes, and C. S. Bentley. Judge Scribner came to the Circuit Bench as the culmination of a successful career at the bar, and remained there till his death. He was deeply learned in the law and received the compliment of being twice elected as a democrat in a heavily republican district. Even when he lost the use of his eyes he would sit on the bench and in opinions perhaps too lengthy quote from memory successive cases in an attempt to satisfy the defeated party of tile correctness of the decision he was rendering. He possessed a dry wit. On one occasion the author was counsel in a case on an injunction bond, where one fisherman had attempted to enjoin another from fishing in a parr of Lake Erie. On the trial in the Circuit Court the plaintiff testified that immediately after the injunction was issued by the Probate Court the catch of fish fell off one-half. Judge Scribner leaned over the beach and requested the author, who was cross-examining the plaintiff; to ask the witness what in his opinion would have been the effect if the injunction had originally issued from the Circuit Court. Judge George R. Haynes was justly proud of the fact that his career as a circuit judge began with the creation of the court and continued nearly 'a quarter of a century till his death while he was still on the bench. The playful remark of Rufus Choate in regard to Chief Justice Shaw, "That he worshipped him for the same reason the Hindoo worshipped his idol, because while he was ugly he was venerable," was singularly applicable to Judge Haynes. He was not, however, as homely as the painting in the Court of Appeals room at Toledo would indicate, which is defective in several particulars, and especially too narrow between he eyes. He was a large man about 6 feet high, weighing between 250 and 300 pounds, with a kindly face, the honesty of which was the first impression conveyed to the beholder. At the age of eighty-four he had a better memory than any of his younger associates on the bench. He was one of the very few judges before whom I have appeared who never looked over the bench to ascertain who were the clients or their attorneys. He paid no attention to anything but the facts and the law as he believed it to be. One case was a singular instance of this. A defendant had been fined $100 and costs by the Common Pleas Court for, violating an injunction against circulating an obscene and libelous pamphlet. In the author's hearing Judge Haynes, some time before the suit began, had condemned the pamphlet in unmeasured terms. The defendant desired a stay of execution, and under the statute had the right to apply to all three judges or any one of them. He chose to apply to Judge Haynes. On the argument, as soon as Judge Haynes learned that the fine included the costs he granted the stay, and argument was of no use, He was one of the few men who successfully mixed religion and law. He was a sincere believer in Christianity and a judge who delivered the poor when he cried and the fatherless who had none to help him. Judge C. S. Bentley is still alive and it is sufficient to say that he was not unworthy to sit in the company of two of the greatest judges before whom the author has appeared. 426 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY We cannot omit from our Consideration of the bench of Erie County the justices of the peace that have at various times dignified the ermine and furnished amusement to the bar. Who can forget the resplendent proboscis of old Jacob Schnell, who on one occasion in a democratic convention, while slightly under the weather, moved to make a certain nomination "umonious ;" or the once justice of the peace who on reading a replevin- affidavit to a soiled dove who was trying to replevin her trunk from her landlady, on reading the affidavit and coming to the election that the property was not taken from her by mesne or final process, read the word mesne "menses." Or old Justice J. B. Keyes, who on one occasion refused to follow the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court on the theory that they were men like himself and liable to be mistaken as to the law. There was a certainty to the law in those days. There were three justices of the peace in Sandusky, and if you knew the justice of the peace before whom the case came and the lawyers on either side, you could predict the result with unerring certainty, without knowing anything of the facts of the case. One of the characters of the Erie County bar in the '70s and '80s was Gottleib Strobel, who was at one time justice of the peace and performed several more or less amusing stunts, perhaps the most amusing one of which was his granting a divorce when he was justice of the peace for a period of three months to a man named William Frederick Scheuttenhelm, a full account of which is set forth in the Register for April 24, 1874. On one occasion, after he ceased being justice of the peace, he defended some petty criminal before Lloyd DeWitt, who was then mayor and whose office was then on the second floor of the Cooke Block. Strobel demanded a jury for his client, and for a couple of hours carried law books until he had a long table covered with legal literature, After the case was called and the jury empaneled the prisoner arose, and with tears in his eyes, besought the court not to let Strobel try his case, as he had employed another lawyer and believed that if Strobel defended him he would surely be convicted. The other lawyer forthwith appeared and proceeded to try the case, and Chief Justice Strobel proceeded to rend the air with nine-syllable German oaths for a long period of time. Eleutheros Cooke was the first lawyer that ever came to Sandusky, where he resided from 1820 to 1864. He did not hold the record for long-distance talking but on one occasion before a justice he talked sixteen hours. He had considerable reputation for oratory, and some wit. In the course of his dealings he once sold a building lot deficient in depth from front to rear. The purchaser complained and demanded a. revocation of the bargain. "Not deep enough?" said Cooke. "Why, my dear sir, you have a clear title from the center of the earth to the highest heaven." He must have had considerable library for that day, when it is considered that there was only one volume of the Ohio Reports published, for he advertises in an early issue of the Clarion that people around town have fifty-three of his law books, and he wants them HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 427 returned. The following advertisement from the first issue of the Clarion April 24, 1822, is indicative of the character of the man : TO THE PUBLIC "Having observed from the random and indefinite applications that have frequently been made to me for professional aid and counsel that very common and mistaken opinions prevail in regard to what I deem the essential qualities of a retainer : and having sometimes found myself in a disagreeable dilemma arising from the misconstruction among suitors of their commonplace conversations which result from such unwarranted applications equivocal in themselves and unseasoned by the virtues of a quid pro quo' I deem it my duty in order as far as possible to prevent future misunderstandings in similar cases publicly to repeat what I have ever uniformly declared in private that I will pay no attention to the body of such pretended retainers without the soul—to the shadow without the substance : and that I will never consider myself bound to render my professional services in any case (except when they may be dictated by charity or friendship) without being first specially and effectively engaged—specially by a written retainer signed by a client and effectively by salving that retainer with * * * * * * CASH or its equivalent. ELEUTHEROS COOKE "Attorney and Counsellor at Law "and Solicitor in Chancery" It would not have been a half bad notion if his successors at the bar had adhered to the same rule. The second lawyer who came to Sandusky was Frank D. Parish, who came to Sandusky in May, 1822, which was his place of residence for more than half a -century. He died in April, 1886, at the age of nearly ninety years, in Oberlin, where he lived at the time of his death. When he first came to Sandusky his office was in the Portland Hotel for nearly seven years. He had no library except the statutes, and had as competitors Eleutheros Cooke and Ebenezer Lane, later judge of the Supreme Court. Francis Drake Parish was born in Naples, then Middletown, New York, December 20, 1796. He was the second son of Elisha and Lois Wilder Parish. During his early infancy his parents removed to a new farm in the central part of South Bristol, the town next north of Naples, in the same county. Upon this farm he grew to manhood, assisting in its improvement and cultivation. In the spring of 1820 he emigrated to Columbus, Ohio, and entered the law office of a near relative, in which he read law for two years. In May, 1822, he was admitted to the bar, and in the same month he settled and opened a law office in Sandusky, then in Huron, but now in Erie County. Sandusky was his place of residence for more than half a century, during the greater portion of which time he was engaged in the practice of his profession. In 1852 he retired from practice on account 428 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY of a growing disease of the throat, though it did not prove to be as serious as was at first apprehended. After that date he passed most of his time upon a farm near the city and upon which he resided from 1866 to 1875. In the fall of that year, having rented his farm, he removed to Oberlin, Lorain County, Ohio. Though the throat complaint was not entirely healed, it was greatly relieved and benefited by his exercise in the open air, and doubtless he prolonged his life for many years by leaving the profession and by his outdoor exercise. Mr. Parish was the leader and pioneer in the first temperance movement in Sandusky, where temperance societies and prohibition laws have never been popular, owing to the fact that a large proportion of the population are or have been directly interested in catering to the liquor trade. The first temperance meeting was held on the evening of January 1, 1831. A constitution and pledge of abstinence from ardent spirits were adopted and signed by Isaac Darling, Rev. William Runnells, Samuel Pennewell, R. J. Jennings, John Beatty, Isaac Booram, Moors Farwell, F. D. Parish, John M. Sloane, John Davis and James Forman. The officers elected were F. D. Parish, president ; Farwell, Sloane and Darling, vice presidents ; Samuel Pennewell, secretary. Other names were soon added. Other societies were afterward formed that excluded all liquors that produce intoxication. He early became a member of the liberty party, which he helped to organize in Erie County and was one of the three men who voted the abolition ticket at an early election. His house was a depot for the underground railroad where the fugitive slave never looked in vain for aid. After the abolition fight was ended he again turned his attention to the liquor question, and with the logic of the true reformer became a member of the prohibition party. It is given to very few men to select the right side on great questions as well as Judge Parish did. He rests from his labors and his works follow him. The third volume of the Western Law Journal on page 83 reports the case of Cohlan vs. Cohlan, a divorce case filed at the April term, 1845, of the Erie Common Pleas Court, the report being made by Judge E. B. Sadler : "Messrs. Editors. I send you a report of this case, not because I suppose it will be very beneficial to the professional generally, but because I think it may amuse many of the readers of your Journal. And should there be any anxious to make a display of rhetorical grandiloquence-, the bill in this case will furnish a precedent worthy of imitation; while the answer will sufficiently ridicule the folly of sacrificing sense and substance to the vain desire of making a display. The parties to this case were among the most illiterate of the Irish. The bill was drawn up by a lawyer in whose family the petitioner had been residing as a servant, and the answer by some wag-incognite." The petition. "The said Catherine Cohlan, of said Erie County, represents unto your Honors : that about nine years ago, she was married to the said Thomas, in Ireland, that for about two years after her said marriage, the said Thomas well behaved himself toward her, and HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 429 in most respects discharged ;the various obligations devolving upon a husband, with fidelity. During said period, said Thomas conceived the project of migrating to the United States of America. And by many arguments, and highly embellished pictures, drawn by said Thomas, protraying the rich advantages, offered in the United States, to poor people ; your oratress, was thereby induced to leave her native land, kindred, friends, acquaintances, and all the associations of her childhood, and wend her way with said Thomas, to a land of strangers. That, soon after our arrival in this paradise of lords and ladies, silver balls, and gold spoons, perpetual health and eternal youth said Thomas began to contract vicious habits ; those habits became more and more permanent, until he became the loathing and offensive drunkard. The first fruits of said change, in the life and habits of said Thomas, reaped by your oratress, was coldness, neglect and abuse, which soon ripened into personal violence, too revolting to be mentioned. Your oratress represents that said Thomas has often beat and pounded her, with different kinds of weapons, and his fists, until she considered her life to be in danger ; that said Thomas has frequently turned her out of his most inhospitable doors, and even out of her bed, in the dead and silent hours of the night, in the cold and inclement season, when all were wrapped in sleep and repose, save the Bachanalian and Maniack! when the elements of heaven were in motion; the rain descending in torrents, when the winds were lashing the waves against the shore, and sending back their echoes, resembling the sound of the distant tornado; and compelled her to seek a shelter, for herself and infant, wheresoever a shelter could be found. That said Thomas mal-treatment, personal and violent abuse, and inhuman conduct toward your oratress, became so frequent, constant and alarming that she considered her life in danger, and that it would be suicidal in her to live and cohabit any longer with said Thomas. Your oratress therefore charges upon said Thomas habitual drunkenness, a total neglect of all those social and domestic obligations which devolve upon a husband, and personal abuse to such an extent as to render both her life and limb in danger and unsafe for her longer to live bed and board with the said Thomas." Then follows a prayer for divorce. Answer : "May it plase your Honor's worship! Its meself, Tommy Cohlan. , (Me name is Thomas, your Honors, but I write it Tommy for shortness) that will answer a long tale that's tould for Katie-that's me Wife, your Honor.—by Lawyer Stilts, because to tell the rael truth of the mather, I have more love for Katy, nor many for the lawyers, the spelpeens! "And now to tell the thruth agin yer Honours, we was married, (that's me and Katy) by the praste in Ould Ireland, which is joost the best counthry in the world your Honours, barrin the laws and the rints. And among us we have got three childers, the last big enough to cranch his own praty, if he can get it. I forgot to tell yer Honours, that we coom to this counthry—that's Ameriky-where lawing is as asy as lying, and they take their pay in women's work. We niver had any 430 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY throoble, at all, at all, to spake of, til Katy made a client of herself, which is something I niver heard of in Ould Ireland ;-divil a word or lie in that inny way. 0 Katy! Katy ! wasn't yer mather an honest woman, and didn't Father Phalen, that's dead now, (rist his sowl) lay his own blessed hand on yer head when you was a baby? and now yer a client, and I live to see it! Its all Lawyer Stilt's doings, yer Honours- bad luck to him. "As to the matther of drink, yer Honours,—I spake it in shame— may be I have sometimes taken a leetle too much of the crathur; but didn't I confess for it? And didn't Katy too ! Sure and we did yer Honours. But its not my mather's son, will spake even the thruth, to harm a woman, and she me wife too, and childers' mather. But is it my fault, yer Honours, that at every strate corner in your leetle toon here, some lazy loon stands all the day long—and night too, as for that matther—with whisky to sell! and the way them divils (I beg yer Honours pardon for swearin—which is a sin) will tempt a poor man that's tired, to drink, is more than ye know yer Honours, or ye would make dog's mate of ivory mother's son of em. I'm, thinking yer Honours will not be afther knowing all about the leetle troobles between Katy and me. May be we've both done wrong; but is that a rason why yer Honours should be bothered wid the leetle fault finding of two silly people, done into blarny be Lawyer Stilts? "Its a cruel thing, yer Honours, whin ye are in a far-off counthry wid a wife and childer, to have the wife enticed away from ye, joost for nothing at all, at all, and the childer left widout a mother, and yer hearthstone grow could, and the grass spring up in yer door path— Why, it makes a woman of me to spake of it. "Now, yer Honours, plaze do not be too hard on a poor man, who has seen such troobles as ye know leetle of, (and may yer Honours niver know more). Keep yer eyes on that long-tongued lawyer, Stilts, who has had more kind words joost back from Katy, nor I have. Tell Katy to lave the lawyers and come home, and the childer will weep for joy; and may be I can stand by and not do that same, but my name is not Tommy Cohlan if I do: I will forgit and forgive ; (Katy knows what I mane) if she will promise one thing—niver be a client agin. That's all yer Honours. his TOMMY X COHLAN " mark. At the last April term of the court a motion was made to strike the papers in the case from the files for scandal and impertinence. The bill and answer were read amidst much merriment. The answer was stricken from the files, and the petitioner's counsel, on motion for that purpose had leave to amend the petition, and the cause was continued. At the June term Katy, under the influence of Tommy's passionate appeal, to "come home and lave the lawyers" and to "niver be a client agin" and doubting the propriety of appealing to the secular arm or civil tribunal to dissolve her from her marriage vows, turned preacher and told her lawyer, "Whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 431 "Ye may dismiss the soot soon as yer plaze, for I'll have nothing to do with it." The petition was of course 'dismissed. Stilts is not the real name of Katy's lawyer. The father of Judge Lewis Goodwin and Homer Goodwin was Dr. Erastus Goodwin, whose first wife was Miss Dotia Gilbert, who was the first woman who ever taught school in Milan Township and who met Dr. Goodwin first while he was in the vicinity of Sandusky as a soldier of the War of 1812. The following picture of the last days of a prominent lawyer is taken from the Register of October 25, 1879: "The 'Root property,' the last remnant of the estate of Joseph M. Root is to be sold at auction November 12th. It is a large three story building built of stone at the corner of Hancock and Adams Street close by East Washington Park. When built in 1854 it was one of the finest residences in the city and is now used in 1915 as a Guild House by the Episcopal Church. In 1854 Mr. Root was at the height of his political and professional fame. He had been a member of Congress and had a large family of daughters and one of the notable social events was the party when the house was opened. For his daughter Millie he had an idolatrous affection and when she died a few years later her father never rallied from the blow. His wife died later and his daughters married and moved away and the closing years of the old man's life were spent alone either in his great house or in cheap boarding houses. Many a time has the writer known him after the shadows of imbecility began to steal over his brain, to sit for hours in a chair placed on the roof of his house, warming himself in the sunshine and looking vacantly over the waters of Sandusky Bay. Finally he rented it for a boarding house and the writer met him as he was coming out of the gate down town. Why it was we never knew but we were one of the few acquaintances he never snubbed. This morning he carried a small basket on his arm and as we approached he mournfully said 'Well I am leaving the old home not to go back any more. I have rented it to Charley Botsford for a boarding house and he is going to move in today.' " 'But surely Mr. Root you have reserved a room for yourself. You are too old to turn yourself out of house and home.' `No,' he said, `Charley wants all the room for boarders and I will sleep in my office and live on crackers and herring among the groceries.' As his imbecility became worse it assumed a form of cynicism and obstinacy which repelled the proffered care and kindness of his relatives and friends. The last time we saw him was perhaps a year before his death, when he came into the office of a hotel with a small pail of water from a well that had taken his fancy and asking those present to drink and attest the quality of the water. Later he passed yet more rapidly into the later stages of imbecility and second childhood and in the spring he died. He never had a son so that with his death the name of Joseph Root will pass from the minds of men. But in the memories of the older men, in the records of the courts, in the early history of the anti-slavery struggle, 432 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY and to some extent in later political history his name will not be forgotten." In the past twenty years Erie County has had no more conspicuous figure in democratic politics than George C. Beis. For the past seven years he has been the acknowledged leader of his party in this county and has been sustained in his position by frequent test votes within the party. Both as a lawyer and as a political leader Judge Beis is recognized as a hard fighter, but his most virulent opponents have been forced to admit that he is a fair one. His greatest pride is in his unswerving democracy. Soon after coming to Toledo in 1883, Judge Beis was elected city solicitor two terms and later served one term of three years as probate judge of Erie County. With these exceptions he has held no public office. He was a candidate for presidential elector in 1888 and in 1910 consented to the use of his name as a candidate for lieutenant governor. He declined the nomination for this office in 1912 when it was practically tendered him and he also declined a seat on the Common Pleas bench offered him by Governor Harmon when Judge Charles S. Reed resigned, about a year ago. He was chairman of the County Central Committee in 1888 and was again elected in 1905 and has held his party position ever since. He has also, during the latter period, served as chairman of the County Executive Committee. Judge Beis was born at Waterville, Lucas County, September 12, 1861, and received his early education in the schools of that village, taking the full course. He then read law in the office of Scribner, Hurd & Scribner, then the leading firm of attorneys in Toledo and finished his law course at the University of Michigan graduating in 1883. In July of that year he was admitted to the bar and came to Sandusky to practice. Judge Beis married a daughter of the late Andrew Zerbe and has three children. He has an extensive law practice and is admitted to all state and federal courts. Judge Beis has always been known as a good trial lawyer and is well equipped in his knowledge of the law. It is a peculiarity of the bar of Erie County that its lawyers who are oldest in practice are not the oldest in point of years. Judge Beis at fifty-three years of age is the third oldest lawyer in active practice at the bar, while still in the prime of life looking forward to many years of professional usefulness. While he has been an active politician he has won a great deal of his professional reputation on the merits, and is entitled to the success he has attained. Charles H. Cramer is one of the oldest attorneys of the Erie County bar. He was born in Seneca County, Ohio, and obtained his early education at White Hall in that county. He attended college one year at Tiffin. He was admitted to the bar at Mansfield, Ohio, but in 1881 began.' the practice of law at Sandusky. He has never been a member of any law firm and has avoided trial work. He is of a quiet and studious disposition and naturally of a judicial turn of mind. The holding of such an office as Probate judge would give him great enjoyment and be one HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 433 for which he is peculiarly fitted. He is known as a well-read lawyer and safe adviser. Claude B. DeWitt is an Erie County product who has passed his life in this county. He has served several years as referee in bankruptcy with success and the approval of the local bar until the removal of this court's business to the referee in charge at Toledo. He has received credit from the attorneys of Erie County for his careful decisions and his creditable record. He is the senior member of the firm of DeWitt & Savord. George F. Eshenroeder is a native of Erie County, having been born near Kimball, Oxford Township. He attended the township schools and afterwards took a course at the Milan Normal School, in its day one of the best educational institutions in this section of the state. He studied law for a time with W. W. Bowen at Sandusky and then took the advanced law course at Northern Ohio University at Ada. He was admitted to the bar in 1893 and established himself in practice at Milan. He built up an excellent practice and for many years was the only attorney in that historic village. Five years ago Mr. Eshenroeder opened an office in Sandusky and recently took up his residence in Sandusky. In 1912 he was a candidate for election to the Probate judgeship, but was defeated. His acquaintance in Milan and its vicinity has aided him in, establishing himself at Sandusky, where he is located on Market Street. Probably no man in Sandusky knows as much about the financial standing of its citizens as Roscoe B. Fisher—and no man tells as little of what he knows. For many years Mr. Fisher has been the representative of the Bradstreet Commercial Agency in this territory and his knowledge has been acquired in the way of business. Mr. Fisher devotes his entire time to commercial law and has built up an extensive practice. He also deals extensively in real estate and owns a farm on which he spends as much time as possible. He was referee in bankruptcy for two years and for a like period president of the Erie County Law Library Association. He is attorney for the Citizens Bank & Trust Company and for a number of the large industrial corporations of the city. Mr. Fisher was born February 2, 1862, at Oxford, Ohio, and came to Erie County when a child. He attended the North Monroeville schools and Oberlin College for three years. Then he went to Hillsdale, Michigan, College, where he graduated in 1887. He read law with Judge Wickham of Norwalk and with Phinney & Curran of Sandusky and graduated from the Cincinnati Law School in 1890. He was admitted to the liar in June of the latter year and came to Sandusky to practice. He at once limited his practice to commercial law and soon was retained by a number of the leading mercantile and manufacturing concerns of the city. , He was secretary of the White Line Street Railway Company until its lines were taken over by the Lake Shore Electric Company which now operates them. Mr. Fisher is a republican but has not taken an active part in politics Vol. 1-28 434 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY during the past few years. He was a candidate for delegate to the constitutional convention and was defeated by a very narrow margin. He is a member of the Masonic bodies and of the Maccabees. Mr. Fisher has always been a strong friend and a fairly good enemy without being malicious. The property he owns has been accumulated by his own efforts as the result of his industry, joined to a commercial instinct probably stronger in his case than in any other lawyer at the bar. Wm. L. Fiesinger came to this county from Huron County about ten years ago and has served two terms as city solicitor, and while an ardent democrat has succeeded in achieving considerable professional success. He has a pleasant personality and his professional standing is unquestioned among his brethren at the bar. James Flynn, Jr., is an Erie County boy, recently come to the bar and seemingly well grounded in the principles of his profession. He has recently been elected prosecuting attorney, which gives him an opportunity to show his talents which his friends believe he will improve. Thos. B. Hoxsey was originally a resident of Williamstown, Massachusetts, and partially completed the course at Williams College in the class of 1870, being compelled to leave college on account of ill health. He has been a resident of Sandusky for about twenty years and was connected originally with the firm of Mackey, Mackey & Hoxsey, of which firm he is the sole remaining member. Naturally of a studious disposition, he has been averse to the active trial work of the court room which has handicapped him considerably in a city the size of Sandusky. Notwithstanding this fact he has maintained a good standing among his brethren at the bar. Mr. Henry Hart has been engaged in the practice of law in Sandusky for the past nineteen years and has taken a prominent part in the affairs of the city and of his political party during all of that time. For six years he served as solicitor for the city. It was during Mr. Hart's term of office that investigations were made which revealed several defalcations on the part of officials. He took a leading part in uncovering these irregularities and was instrumental in bringing the offenders to justice. Recognizing the value of his services to the public, the democrats of Erie County nominated Mr. Hart for prosecuting attorney in 1900 and the confidence the people had in him was evidenced by the fact that he was defeated by only sixty-nine_ votes, while the republican county ticket, aside from this office, was elected by majorities running up into the hundreds. On finishing his third term as solicitor, Mr. Hart engaged again in the practice of law and later served three terms as prosecuting attorney of Erie County. He is now engaged in the practice of law in an office next to the Third National Exchange Bank. He is an instance of what may be accomplished by a country boy developing an ambition for an education with a determination to carry out that ambition. Mr. Hart was born in Huron Township, Erie County, December 1, HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 435 PICTURE OF TABLE OF FEES 436 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 1868, and received his early education in the public schools of Milan. After graduation there he attended Northwestern University at Ada, Ohio, from 1888 to 1893. He was admitted to the bar in 1893 and at once began the practice of his profession in Sandusky. John F. Hertlein is a representative of the solid German element of Erie County, where he was born. For many years he taught school and fitted himself for his profession in the law office of King & Ramsey. His service as clerk of the courts made him more familiar with the records than any other lawyer at the bar, and by his industry and ability he commands a clientage creditable to any lawyer in a small city. Malcolm Kelly is the oldest lawyer of our bar in point of years. He practiced at Port Clinton before serving a term as common pleas judge, after which he removed to Sandusky. There is probably no lawyer in Sandusky who knows more about the Ohio Reports than Judge Kelly. His opinion on technical questions of law is therefore valuable. Judge Edmund B. King, senior member of the law firm of King & Ramsey, is recognized as one of the leading attorneys not only of Sandusky but of the State of Ohio. Judge King has been in active practice of the law in Sandusky since 1875, except for a few years when he served with distinction as one of the three judges of the Circuit Court in this circuit, and for a very short period when he lived in Portland, Oregon. During his career he has been a most active worker for the success and welfare of the republican party, and to this day has not swerved in his loyalty to that political association. He has for many years been an .intimate friend of former Senator Joseph B. Foraker, and was always one of the senator's most trusted advisers when the latter was in political life. Judge King was born at Medina, Ohio, July 4, 1850, and spent most of the first twenty years of his life on a farm, attending school in winter until he was eighteen, and afterwards for five years teaching in country schools. He attended Oberlin Academy for about two years and Baldwin College for another two years. He studied law in an office and was admitted to the bar in August, 1873. He began practice at once in his home county and was elected prosecuting attorney in 1874, serving two years. In 1875 he moved to Sandusky and has lived here practically all of the time since. Judge King was a presidential elector in 1888 and was elected to the circuit bench in 1894, resigning in 18.99 to resume the practice of his profession. In 1911 he was elected a member of the fourth constitutional convention, in whose deliberations the took a leading part. Judge King is a member of all of the Masonic bodies and has been accorded the thirty-third degree. He has been a leader among Ohio Masons for a great many years. Judge King possesses an unerring instinct for the salient point of a case, and a power of clear and concise statement seldom equalled. He has done considerable reading and spent a great deal of his leisure with books. If his lot in life had been cast in a different community he would HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 437 very probably have attained much higher political and professional honors than his career in Erie County has afforded. Earl C. Krueger is a young lawyer born in Berlin Township, who has recently entered the office of George C. Steineman. His friends in the east end of the county speak well of him, and he has already won his first common pleas case. John F. McCrystal was born June 22, 1863, at Kelley's Island. His parents moved to Sandusky in 1864, and his education was received in the Catholic schools of Sandusky. He was appointed deputy clerk of courts, and while holding that office began the study of law in the office of Arthur Phinney, and was admitted June 18, 1889. He has not been an office holder, except that he served two terms as city solicitor of Sandusky. While an ardent Catholic, he is liberal in his respect for the opinions of others. He has devoted most of his energies to personal injury suits, in which he has been successful. He has always been a hard fighter for his clients and has a high standing at the bar. Claude J. Minor is a young lawyer who has recently been admitted to the bar and has already won his first case in the common pleas and court of appeals, for which he deserves considerable credit. He has not furnished the author with any biographical facts, which will account for the meagerness of this sketch. The following sketch was written by Hon. Curtis T. Johnson, of Toledo : Mr, Hewson L. Peeke, of Sandusky, presents one of Erie County's most intellectual, rugged and forceful citizens. His father. came from Dutch colonial stock in New York State, and his mother from the well-known family of Benedicts, from which have sprung generations of men eminent in that state. Mr. Peeke has for years been a leader at the bar, noted as well for wide and accomplished scholarship as for resourcefulness and success in the practice of his profession, being ever ready to reinforce and enliven his discussion by quotation and incident, always at command in inexhaustible variety. Mr. Peeke was born April 20, 1861, at South Bend, Indiana. He 'graduated from a high school in Chicago in 1878, and received his degree at graduation from Williams College in 1882. Some traditions which still linger in that institution of learning tend to the belief that his career at alma mater was not altogether devoid of lively incidents not laid down in the curriculum. After leaving college he was admitted to the bar in South Dakota in 1883, but soon moved to Ohio, where in 1885 he was admitted to the bar of that state. From that time he has lived in Sandusky and has become a familiar figure in the state and federal courts. In politics for more than a generation Mr. Peeke has been a prohibitionist. In 1891 and 1914 he was a candidate for the Supreme Bench of Ohio. In 1902 he ran on the prohibition ticket for Congress. He is a member of the state and national committees of the prohibition party, being now chairman of the state executive committee. In public and private life for the entire time of his residence in Ohio he has aggressively and consistently advocated the cause of prohibition. He took this posi- 438 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY tion when the public showed far less sympathy with restrictive legislation than at the present time, and his opponents recognize now the sincerity and earnestness of his opinions. Mr. Peeke lives at home, a bachelor, but in the midst of his books from his own well-stocked library he is ever ready to receive his friends, and in his spacious house he maintains an atmosphere of independent thought and action, together with cordial hospitality, which accords with the fine traditions of the American lawyer. Joseph Gilpin Pyle, born March 4, 1890, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Educated, 1901 to 1907, Charlotte Hall Military Academy, St. Mary's County, Maryland ; February, 1908, to June, 1912, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. Graduated : Academic, with Bachelor of Arts degree, June, 1910 ; law, with Bachelor of Laws degree, June, 1912. Admitted to the Virginia bar in the fall of 1912. Entered offices of King & Ramsey, September, 1913, and admitted to the Ohio bar, December, 1914. Probably no resident of the Village of Huron has done more to develop the resources of that thriving community than Christian M. Ray. Born in the township in which the village is located, Mr. Ray decided early in life to reject the opportunities offered in other locations and stick to the old home. He became a resident of the village as soon as he was admitted to the bar, and has for a good many years enjoyed the distinction of being the only lawyer in the village. In addition to taking care of his practice he has worked unceasingly for the development of the fine natural harbor which the Huron River affords and to attract capital to the community. His initial efforts have borne fruit in the splendid docks built by the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad some years ago, over which pass tonnages of ore and coal running into the millions every year. Mr. Ray is the best type of the self-made man—that is, he is also well made. He attended school as a boy and devoted several winters to study at the Milan Seminary, then one of the best small colleges in the state. This was followed by a course at Northern Ohio College at Ada and admission to the bar. For five years he was township assessor. Afterwards he served several terms as mayor of Huron Village. In 1903 he served as representative of Erie County in the General Assembly. Since then Mr. Ray has continued the practice of law in Huron. He built the first telephone exchange in Huron and is still the chief stockholder and manager. Mr. Ray was married, September 23, 1896, to Miss Lutie J. Squier, daughter of John F. Squier, who at one time was a vessel builder of note in the lake region and who built the first four-masted schooner that ever plied the inland seas. He is a life-long republican and has always been active in the councils of the party, though he has seldom asked any honors at its hands. Mr. Ray has always owned himself and been more independent in politics than the average politician. He has advocated the dry side recently and has made speeches on that side of the question. He has HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 439 been highly esteemed by the citizens of the village in which he has spent• his life, and deserves credit for the record he has made. John Ray is another successful lawyer who has been produced by Erie County. He has never held office except to serve two terms as prosecuting attorney, in which he made a more than ordinary good record. His personal honesty has been unquestioned, as well as his zeal and pugnacity in behalf of his clients. No young man coming to Sandusky to engage in a business or professional career has met with more pronounced success than Russell K. Ramsey, of the firm of King & Ramsey. Mr. Ramsey came to Sandusky in July, 1900, very soon after being admitted to the bar, and in a very short time took a leading place among the lawyers of Erie County. The firm of which he is a member has an extensive practice in commercial and corporation law. While never a candidate for office, Mr. Ramsey has always taken an active interest in politics and has been a consistent republican. Mr. Ramsey was born in Columbus, Ohio, May 27, 1878, and attended the public schools of that city. He graduated from Ohio State University in 1898, and in 1900 from the law school of that institution. He also studied law in the office of Arnold & Martin, of Columbus. He entered the office of King & Guerin upon arrival in Sandusky, and a little over a year later was admitted to a partnership in the firm. Upon the retirement of Mr. Guerin, the firm became King & Ramsey. He is a member of all of the Masonic bodies, including the thirty-second degree, and is now junior warden of Erie Commandery, Knights Templar. He is also past thrice illustrious master of Sandusky Council, No. 26. When the Sandusky Business Men's Association was formed Mr. Ramsey actively aided Mr. John J. Dauch in the work of organization and is now a director of the organization. He is also president of the Sunyendeand Club and a member of the Sandusky Commercial Federation. In 1901 Mr. Ramsey was married to Miss Florence Louise Samuel, of Columbus, and one son, Russell Archibald Ramsey, has been born to them. He has recently suffered the loss of his wife, which, together with the delicate condition of his own health, has affected his professional usefulness in the recent past. He now seems once more able to resume his professional industry and to give to his clients the same careful attention that he has always given to their interests in the past. He is one of the few college graduates at the Erie County bar, and the culture of a college education has ornamented his professional attainment. George E. Reiter has never tried to hold political office. For several years, he was handicapped by poor health ; in spite of this, his strong religious faith and industry and zeal for his clients have given him professional success, while making him many enemies. His inability to understand how a preacher or church member can be willing to loaf on the job has caused him constant trouble. He has been concerned in much important litigation, representing important interests with great success, and 440 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY has tried harder and with better success to keep a clear conscience than any other lawyer at the bar. Ed H. Savord, like the senior partner of his firm, was born and brought up in Erie County. While he is still a young lawyer, he has thus far preserved the high ideals with which he began his practice. He is now city solicitor of the City of Sandusky, with bright professional prospects. Henry J. Schiller acquired his education as a lawyer while earning his living as a street car conductor, and studying nights. Since his admission to the bar he has paid more attention to other matters than to his law practice, with the result that he has done little trial work. There is no reason why, if he devotes his attention to the practice of law, he should not make his mark as well as any of the younger members of the bar. Henry Schoepfle was born of German parentage February 12, 1867, at Sandusky, Ohio. After attending the city schools one year he removed with his parents to a farm, where he worked summers and attended school until 1886, after which time he attended the Ohio Normal University at Ada, Ohio, from 1886 until 1889, and taught school the following two years. He read law with Goodwin, Goodwin & Hull, and then graduated from the Cincinnati Law School in May, 1892. He served one term as city solicitor, and is at present associated with Henry Hart in the practice of law. He has had the benefit of a wide acquaintance among the German element of Erie County, and has been successful in procuring a considerable amount of legal business from them, as well as from other sources. The people of Erie County have thrice shown their confidence in Probate Judge Thomas M. Sloane by electing him to the important office he now holds. For a trifle less than ten years Judge Sloane has administered his office. Judge Sloane was born in Sandusky July 28, 1854, and received his earliest education in the public schools of the city. He prepared for college at Exeter Academy and afterwards attended Harvard University, from which he graduated in 1877 with the degree of A. B. He graduated from Ann Arbor Law School in 1880 and was admitted to the Ohio bar in May of that year. He practiced his profession until 1905. when he was elected to the office he now holds. During his entire professional life in Sandusky, Judge Sloane has taken an interest in public affairs. He was especially active in any movement which had for its object the betterment of the industrial or commercial interests of the city. He served as a member and president of the city council for two years and was a member of the board of education for some time prior to his election to the bench, resigning after his election. Judge Sloane has always been interested in religious work and is a leading member of Grace Episcopal Church. He is also chancellor of the Diocese of Ohio of the Protestant Episcopal Church. A slight acquaintance with Judge Sloane discloses the marks of culture due to the eastern education. His natural disposition is to care- HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 441 fully investigate the questions submitted to him for decision, into which investigation he probably goes deeper and more thoroughly than is necessary in most cases. In at least one of his decisions, which has been published, he established a guide for the probate judges of the state, which should stand as a monument long after he has ceased to hold office and has passed from earth. Wendell Burnett Starbird was born at Ithaca, New York, June 11, 1857. He came to Ohio in 1862 with his parents, who settled on a farm in Huron County, until 1866 when the family removed to Milan Township and engaged in raising small fruit on a little farm about a mile east of the village. As the boy grew older he worked on the farm summers and went to school winters, including a few terms at the old Milan Normal School. In the winter of 1877 he began teaching school and studying law. He was admitted to the bar October 2, 1882, and opened an office in Milan. In connection with his law practice, and beginning in the fall of 1844, he was local editor of the Milan Advertiser for about five years. In 1891 he removed to Sandusky and entered into partnership with Judge Grayson Mills, since deceased. After the dissolution of this partnership he was for a brief time a member of the firm of Wickham, Guerin & Starbird, and with that exception has practiced law alone. Mr. Starbird is a well-informed lawyer and has devoted a large part of his time to the defense of criminal cases. George C. Steinemann was born in Auglaize County, but has been a resident of Erie County for more than ten years. Originally in the office of King & Ramsey, he later formed a partnership with Roy H. Williams, the present Common Pleas judge, and a little later became city solicitor of Sandusky, which office he held for two years with credit to himself. As successor of the firm of Williams & Steinemann he has retained the business of the firm. Edward S. Stephens is another Erie County boy who has attained professional success by his own unaided efforts. He is the product of old Scotch-Irish stock and has received from it the high ideals of professional honesty that have always been credited to that nationality. He made a creditable record as referee in bankruptcy of Erie County preceding Claude DeWitt ; then served two terms as prosecuting attorney also with credit. He has never allowed his notion of duty to be influenced by political pull of any kind. H. R. Williams has practiced law in Vermillion for about twenty years. During that time he has served several terms as mayor of that thriving little village. He has brought up and educated a family on his professional earnings, which is a financial feat hard to perform in a small town, and strong proof of the confidence that the community has in him. Roy H. Williams, the present Common Pleas judge, is still a young man who was born at Milan and received a part of his education at that place and later received his legal education at Ann Arbor. While the author has no desire to take back one single word of the position taken by him in the campaign which resulted in Mr. Williams' election, he 442 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY considers it fair to say that the popular election of judges would have more to defend it if the judges had done as well as Judge Williams has done since his election to the bench. He is possessed of a high sense of honor and has shown a desire to dispose of the business of the court with some degree of promptness which is a new sensation to the lawyers of this bar. He has shown courtesy and consideration to clients and their attorneys and there is no reason now apparent why his career as judge should not be equally as high as that of any of the judges who have sat on the bench during the residence of the author in this county. No Sanduskian is more widely known the state over than Hon. Cyrus B. Winters, since 1906 Erie County 's representative in the Lower House of the General Assembly of Ohio. Judge Winters has been a member of the Ohio bar for thirty-three years and has lived and practiced in Erie County for thirty-one years. He was educated in the common schools and at the normal school at Milan, where he studied under Prof. Samuel F. Newman. Representative Winters was first nominated for this office as a democrat in 1905. During his second term he was the democratic floor leader of the House and distinguished himself by supporting all of the progressive measures proposed, many of which were enacted into laws. For this attitude on labor measures he received the voluntary endorsement of the Ohio Federation of Labor and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. Two years ago Representative Winters was again nominated and elected representative. He became the author of the public utilities bill which passed. Under this measure all public utilities are regulated and controlled by a state commission. Representative Winters is the author of many other measures which have since been enacted into laws. On his arrival in Erie County Mr. Winters was almost immediately elected prosecuting attorney and served two terms. He later served the people of Sandusky to their satisfaction as justice of the peace. He has never received the popular credit for legal ability to which he is entitled. In this respect his turning aside from law into politics has undoubtedly injured him. He is still young and if he devotes his attention to his profession may repair the injuries to his practice due to his absence from the county while in the Legislature for four terms. 443 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY CHAPTER XXXVI GOSSIP The earliest mention of Sandusky is in the autobiography of Rev. Jacob Young, an early Methodist preacher, who tells of paying a man $96 in 1820 to carry twenty barrels of flour from Zanesville to Sandusky.  The Clarion of August 21, 1833, advertises the Sandusky Jockey Club races on the 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th of September on the old race track which was located south of Jefferson Street. The next year the races were held on October 20th, 21st and 22d, and the committee advertised that the charge for roulette wheels will be $10 and for sweat cloths $5, which is some evidence that they began to skin the farmer at an early day. In 1832 the Clarion first mentions the cholera scare. On July 4th of that year the lot sale in Sandusky took place and was advertised by Zalmon Wildman ; and the Clarion also advertised that no boat should land unless inspected by the board of health on account of the cholera.  The board of health consisted of F. D. Parish, G. Anderson, D. H. Tuttle and Moors Farwell.  The first milliners that came to Sandusky, according to the Clarion, were two sisters, Jane Ann and Elizabeth Davis, who advertised their goods on June 22, 1831.  In 1833 Barney Farrell had a grocery store on the West House corner.  Lester Hubbard, Rollin Hubbard and E. Hubbard had a store in the Hubbard Block, and Dr. Henry Converse had a store on Water Street.  The only tailor shop in town was kept by a man named William Smith.  In 1840 General Harrison, then running for president, came to Sandusky and the ladies of Sandusky made for him an elegant banner which is now on exhibition in the historical room in the Carnegie Library. It was presented to him on the front stoop of the house occupied for many years by Eugene Stroud, 412 Columbus Avenue, and old Judge E. B. Sadler made the presentation speech.  The Clarion of February 22, 1845, mentions Wm. T. & A. H. West  as keeping a grocery store on Water Street.  On January 9, 1846, there was a county election on the question of building a poorhouse. Ben Turner, B. Wood and Ezra Sprague were commissioners.  The first barber shop in the city is advertised on March 10, 1846, by A. & J. Winfield, opposite Colt's Exchange. 444 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY The first photographer to come here was on June 1, 1849, when A. L. Rockwood advertises himself as a daguerreotyper. On April 18, 1849, Miss Humphrey advertised her millinery. On October 26, 1847, D. Campbell & Son advertised for sale black blotting sand, which was then used instead of blotting paper. On January 27, 1848, the Clarion published the rates of postage, which for a letter was 5 cents for two ounces for 300 miles and 10 cents for a distance over 300 miles. The postoffice was then where the Commercial Bank is now, in a small building, and Perry Walker was deputy postmaster. The Sandusky Clarion of June 6, 1849, announces that the play, "The Lady of Lyons," will be presented with Mr. Powell as Claude Melnotte and Mrs. Powell as Pauline. In these days of the high cost of living it is pleasing to observe that the tickets were 25 cents to all parts of the house. In 1850 Water Street was three or four feet lower than now and the bowsprits of the vessels projected nearly to the curb where the Wells Fargo Express Company now has its place of business. The streets were not lighted at night and when anyone went out in the evening they carried lanterns. In 1850 the mayor's office of John Brown was in a frame shanty where Ritters cigar store is now situated. The old square brick house which stood until about 1912 on the premises at the corner of Jackson and Madison Street, where the two houses now owned by W. L. Lewis are situated was formerly a depot of the underground railroad, and was occupied by a colored man named McReynolds. There was a book case in one of the rooms that swung out from the wall uncovering a door to a room where he concealed runaway slaves. On April 27, 1850, the postoffice was removed to West's new store block, the south room. The Register of March 15, 1852, discusses the destruction by Geo. Reber at that time of the Old White Store, in order to build the Reber Block. It states that this was one of the first stores erected in Northern Ohio of any pretensions to respectability of size and finish and for many years it gave character and name to the place. In the good old times people spoke of going to the White Store when about to visit Sandusky. The fire of the 18th of January destroyed another of the ancients, The block known as the Clarion Building then destroyed was one of the oldest in the city, having been built in 1818, and was for many years known as the Portland House, by which name it was kept as a hotel by Col. C. F. Drake, the popular host of the Verandah Hotel. The collection of Fred Frey, Jr., which together with that of his father is the most complete of antiques relating to Sandusky now known to the writer, contains a copy of the annual report made to the stockholders of the Mad River Road in October, 1847, from which it appears that the road from Sandusky to Bellefontaine was 134 miles long and HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 445 cost $709,263.96 for construction ; that the road then operated 10 locomotives, 5 passenger cars, 3 baggage cars, 145 freight cars; that it carried 22,036 passengers that year without injuring a passenger, receiving for their transportation $338,180.58 ; that it carried freight amounting to $79,587.98, with a total income of $117,848.61 ; that part of the freight was 849,897 bushels of wheat. On November 20, 1850, there was a ball at the Townsend House attended by eighty couples and the tickets were $3.00 apiece. In the early '50s the collector of the port skipped the town with the wife of his deputy and $30,000 which had been collected on the rails of the Mad River Railroad. His bondsmen were indemnified before he skipped and he never was caught. On September 28, 1851, Salmon P. Chase spoke at the old courthouse for the free soil party and was roundly abused by the Register for doing it. On May 19, 1899, the corner stone of the Odd Fellows' Temple was laid and in it were placed a ritual, the constitution, local papers, list of officers and members, etc. Previous to the erection of the West House its present site was covered by a row of old frame shanties that were all saloons. It took fire in the cholera year of 1852, and the fire department stood by and allowed them to burn down without making an effort to extinguish the fire with the general approval of the community. On October 18, 1852, Gen. Winfield Scott, then a candidate for the presidency, visited Sandusky and made a speech and was welcomed by a large crowd with a procession of militia, aid was honored with a banquet at the Exchange Hotel. The toastmaster was Pitt Cooke, and there was a large triumphal arch at the foot of Columbus Avenue. The Sandusky Gas Light Company was organized May 26, 1854. On July 8th of that year the Register mentions that the Hubbard Block was nearly finished, as well as the residence of Gen. W. H. Mills, on Washington Row, which stood about half way through the block and the walls of which were utilized in building the Mahala Block. On December 8, 1854, the present postoffice was finished. It was built on a lot belonging to George Reber, who made most of his fortune out of the old suit between Wildman and Mills over the town site of Sandusky, and who also wrote a book of an infidel nature entitled "Therapeutae," which was an attempt to prove that St. John was never in Asia Minor where the Book of Revelations was supposed to be written. On December 13, 1853, the Register records the fact that the courthouse bell was rung at 6 A. M., at noon, and at 9 P. M., which was probably the origin of the "curfew" ordinance. The Register of July 25, 1853, shows the cost of living with granulated sugar at 9 1/2 cents a pound and whiskey at 19 cents a gallon. On July 26, 1854, Wetherell & Co. built four passenger cars for the old Junction road between Cleveland and Sandusky. The Register of January 12, 1885, contains a description of the State Fair which was held at Sandusky in 1858. It was held on Hancock Street, this side of the property of Conrad Spaith and the Schoepfle 446 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY quarries, on the farm known as the "May Farm." W. T. West finished his hotel so as to be ready to entertain the visitors to the fair. The State Fair did not pay. The Presbyterian Church was finished September 25, 1854. The Clarion of October 21, 1854, advertises for sale the pictures of Sandusky at $6.00, which were lithographs colored to show the actual color of the buildings. On April 23, 1863, the Moss National Bank was organized. During the war the town clock was put in the tower of the Congregational Church, which then stood on the northeast corner of the courthouse square. It was taken down and removed in the '70s at the time of the erection of the present courthouse, and the Register made a great protest at that time against selling the old clock for $75.00. What was finally done with the clock no one seems to know at the present time. The old town pump used to stand at the intersection of Market and Columbus Avenue and was not taken down and the well filled in until during the war. There was also a well at the foot of Columbus Avenue which was filled up about the 13th of June, 1863, according to the Register. On March 16, 1864, Fred Douglass lectured at Norman Hall. He was one of the most remarkable colored men of his time. On September 13, 1864, Gen. Robert Schenck lectured at Norman Hall. On October 2, 1864, Governor Brough spoke on the public square. In regard to the high cost of living the Register of June 2, 1864, says editorially the new copper cent was not much needed since prices advanced that they cannot now think of anything which costs less than half a dime. On November 27, 1866, the corner state of the high school was laid and in the corner stone was placed the school laws of that time, the record of the Board of Education, the list of the teachers and pupils and copies of the local papers. FOURTH OF JULY The Clarion of June 26, 1822, contains the program of the first Fourth of July celebration in Sandusky. The Declaration of Independence was read by Col. S. M. Lockwood and Eleutheros Cooke was the orator. The committee was S. M. Lockwood, C. F. Drake, F. Graham, W. Anderson, W. Hartshorn and A. Root. The Clarion of July, 12. 1828, contains a description of the celebration of the Fourth of July with a public dinner at the Steamboat Hotel with toasts responded to by various citizens and one by A. Root, "The proprietors of our village. May the liberal policy they pursue conduce to the rapid growth of Sandusky." The Sandusky Light Guards drilled. In 1851, J. W. Taylor was the orator at the Fourth of July celebration. HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 447 In 1854, there was a German celebration with Herman Ruess as the orator. HOW SANDUSKIANS CELEBRATED THE FOURTH OF JULY IN 1876 There was a Centennial celebration on the Fourth of July, 1876, and the following was the program of the day: National salute at sunrise. The grand procession formed at 10 o'clock, and moved in the following order : Detachment of police. Chief Marshal—J. E. Gregg. Aids—O. H. Rosenbaum, Charles E. Bouton, R. W. Foster, William Lisle, W. H. Harris, Mozart Gallup, Jesse Gregg, Charles Miller, F. W. Cogswell, S. C. Wheeler, S. C. Ferris, W. H. Brinson, Charles M. Chapman, John L. Moore, John C. Zollinger, James N. Nugent, William Berrigan, A. J. Dewald, W. A. Graham, S. M. White, H. W. Converse. Color Bearer—Patrick Hinchey. Erie Commandery Knights Templar-John R. Miner, eminent commander. President and orator of the day in carriage. FIRST DIVISION Marshal—E. M. Colver. Aids—Hiram Dewey, Wm. C. Zollinger, Wm. Koch, C. P. McEnnelly, Charles Rockwell, M. W. Howard. Sandusky Light Guard Band. Sandusky Light Guard, Captain Dehnel. Centennial Guards, Capt. W. A. Till. Young American Continentals, Capt. Clark H. Gregg. Science Lodge, No. 50, F. & A. M. Ancient Order of Hibernians, Pres. Daniel McCarthy. Young Men's Turn Verein. Ogontz Lodge, I. O. O. F., Fred Reutier, N. G. St. Aloysius Cadet Society. St. Peter and St. Paul's Total Abstinence Society. Young Men's Catholic Benevolent and Library Society. Guttenburg Grove Druids, No. 9, V. A. O. D. Forward Turners. Bluecher Lodge, No. 109, D. O. H., Jacob Hoerner, O. B. Arbeiter Association, Frank Pietschman, president. St. Joseph's Benevolent Society, John Benner, president. Sandusky Light Artillery, Lieutenant Siegling. SECOND DIVISION Marshal-James Douglass. Aids—H. H. Crane, A. H. Pearl. Berlin Marshal Band. 448 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY Delegations from Kelley's Island, Margaretta, Oxford, Groton, Perkins, Huron, Milan, Vermilion, Florence and all points outside of Erie County. THIRD DIVISION Marshal—I. F. Mack. Aids—F. W. Alvord, E. W. Fitzhugh, C. M. Keyes, Jacob Rush. Great Western Band. Sandusky Fire Department. Trades and Industries. The program at the fair grounds was as follows: 1. Music. Ye Olden Times. Grand Centennial Fantasia—Great Western Band. 2. Hail Columbia—Full Chorus. 3. Prayer by Rev. Mr. Stroup, chaplain of the day. 4. Star-Spangled Banner—Full Chorus. 5. Address of Welcome by A. H. Moss, Esq., president of the day. 6. America—Full Chorus. 7. Reading of Declaration of Independence by F. W. Alvord, Esq. 8. What Is It ?—Great Western Light Guard Band. 9. Oration by Hon. Samuel F. Hunt, of Cincinnati. 10. Red, White and Blue-Full Chorus. 11. Marseilles Hymn-Full Chorus. 12. Old Hundred—Full Chorus. In 1878 suit was begun in the English courts for Hector Jennings against the estate of Lord Howe for $40,000,000, and the old man lived and died in the belief that he would win that case, which he died without achieving. The Register of June 23, 1879, contains a statement from F. D. Parish that Washington Street was never intended to run through the square. He says that when the square was fenced he and D. K. Campbell were the only residents of the square east of Columbus Avenue and he was asked to consent to the fencing and did not object. On July 13, 1879, occurred the heaviest tornado ever known here when the wind reached a velocity of seventy-five miles an hour and blew for five minutes at that rate. It tore away part of the roof of the Tool Company and 2.30 inches of rain fell in half an hour. The storm blew in the windows of the West House and damaged ceilings and carpets. It unroofed many buildings, blew down fences and gave the vessels on the bay and lake a lively shaking up. On December 3, 1866, the Post Lewis & Radcliff Block at the foot of Columbus Avenue was finished. The first mention of baseball is in 1868, when the Bay City team heat the Milan team 39 to 5. The telephone project is first mentioned on the 28th of April, 1880, by the Register. The present jail was completed on August 1, 1883. HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 449 On December 19, 1889, natural gas was first turned on in the City of Sandusky. On December 26, 1887, the Circuit Court decided the Baptist Church case against the city, giving the church the right to build an addition to this building, which was then located south of the Episcopal Church. On December 1, 1886, the Nes Silicon Steel Company was sold for scrap for $11,000. This was one of the costly experiments which cost the City of Sandusky over $200,000. They quit doing business November 16, 1882. The Register of May 7, 1888, gives the death of James Hollister at Buffalo. He was a commission merchant in Sandusky in 1827 in the Marsh Block, where the Wells, Fargo & Co. now have their express office. On February 3 and 4, 1883, occurred the most disastrous 'storm of rain and sleet ever known up to that time. On Market Street, west of Columbus Avenue, it prostrated all the telephone poles for four blocks. It swept away Abbott's bridge, near Milan, made the railway bridge at Huron unsafe, and caused the Sandusky River at Fremont to overflow to at least two miles in width. The Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1915 says of Dickens' visit : "A local reader sends us this : 'I have read in "Forster's Life of Charles Dickens" this letter of the great novelist : "Tuesday, April 26, 1842 : We lay all Sunday night at a town (and a beautiful town, too) called Cleveland, on Lake Erie. The people poured on board in crowds by 6 . on Monday morning to see me, and a party of gentlemen actually planted themselves before our little cabin and stared in at the doors and windows while I was washing and Kate lay in bed. I was so incensed at this and at a certain newspaper published in that town which I had accidentally seen in Sandusky, advocating war with England to the death, saying that Britain must be whipped again, and promising all true Americans that within the year they should sing 'Yankee Doodle' within Hyde Park and 'Hail Columbia' in the courts of Westminster, that when the mayor came on board to present himself to me according to custom, I refused to see him and bade M. Q. tell him why and wherefore. His honor took it very coolly, and retired to the top of the wharf, with a big stick and a whittling knife, with which he worked so lustily (staring at the closed door of our cabin all the time) that long before the boat left the big stick was no bigger than a cribbage peg." ' "The mayor of Cleveland at the time mentioned in the Dickens letter was pr. Joshua Mills, a practicing physician and partner of Dr. J. M. Ackley, who was looked upon as the head of his profession in the young city. It was Dr. Mills' second term in the mayor's office. He had been chosen to succeed George W. Willey, and after the administrations of Nicholas Dockstader and John W. Allen, had been chosen again, a strong proof of the confidence of the public in his integrity and fitness for the office. "It is quite possible that Dickens, who seems on that famous tour to have persisted in regarding everything American with a jaundiced eye, Vol. I-29 450 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY entirely misunderstood the mayor's well meant attentions, and with his inborn love of caricature exaggerated all the details of the incident. The attention he received in the little city of 6,000 souls, a city just emerging from the wilderness, should have gratified the young author. The fact that his fame as a writer—a fame largely based at that time on the `Pickwick Papers'—should have penetrated to the remote settlement on the Cuyahoga, might have been expected to gratify him. On the contrary, he saw in the attentions given him—awkward, perhaps, and yet flattering—nothing except the grotesque side. "When Dickens came back to Cleveland twenty-five years later, the little group on the steamboat dock had grown to an audience that overcrowded the city's largest hall. "The newspaper referred to by our correspondent was the Cleveland Plain Dealer, published by A. N. and J. W. Gray, then entering on its second year. It was a common thing at that time for Democratic editors to twist the British lion's tail. The Democrats charged that the Whigs were in full sympathy with the British leaders, and attacks on the allies of the Whig was a part of the bitter partisan campaign. Gray excelled in satire and anathema and his favorite editorial pastime was badgering the Whigs. No doubt the article that incensed the British author was designedly a piece of sublimaTed buncombe. "Editor Gray began his local story of the visit of the novelist in this fashion : ' There was the Dickens of a time in town yesterday.' " On March 22, 1880, Daniel Putnam died at Nevada, Iowa. In July, 1811, he helped build the first cabin in Sandusky. In the early '80s John McSweeney, then a leading jury lawyer of Ohio, came here to try three cases. The first was the malpractice case of the heirs of Edward Rice against Doctor Donahue for malpractice which went to the Supreme Court on a question of practice and was then settled. The second was the contest over the will of Casper Bough, where J. McSweeney obtained a verdict sustaining the will. The third case was the case in which Doctor Fan, then living at Kelleys Island, was indicted for rape and was defended by Mr. McSweeney and acquitted. The Erie County Humane Society was organized in 1882 with George Marsh as president ; I. F. Mack, A. E. Merrill, J. C. Hauser and John C. Zollinger as directors. In the presidential campaign of 1884 James G. Blaine visited Sandusky and he and William C. Windom both made speeches from the pagoda in the east park on Columbus Avenue. On May 9, 1890, John M. Boalt died. He was a man of sterling integrity with some prominent faults. He went through bankruptcy in 1873 and paid only a small amount to apply on his debts. He succeeded commercially and many years afterward, when the legal liability for any part of his debts had long ceased, he invited his former creditors to dinner and under the plate of each was a check for the full amount of the balance he owed them and interest to that time. The American Crayon Company was incorporated in 1890 with $550,- HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 451 000 capital, with L. L. Curtis as vice president and A. M. Spore as secretary. The first street paved in Sandusky was Market Street, between Jackson and Wayne, for which the ordinance was passed June 6, 1892, and the property was assessed on December 3, 1894. On January 27, 1911, J. 0. Moss died. He became president of the Sandusky, Mansfield & Newark Railroad in the early '70s, and in his later years was president of the Moss National Bank. He died possessed of a large fortune accumulated by his own sagacity and was naturally possessed of the brightest mind that the author ever met during his residence in Sandusky. On May 7, 1887, the Market House was opened on the west square, which was later burned and afterward torn down. In 1877 the signal service was established in Sandusky and had its station on top of the West House, but was moved, to its present location April 1, 1888. On July 2, 1875, ground was broken for the present waterworks. On September 1, 1875, the Whiskey Run sewer was finished by Vincent Kerber. The Register of August 8, 1878, first discusses a plan for a street railroad to run from the Big Four Railroad, past the Baltimore & Ohio, to the cemetery. On October 2d the Register mentions that $2,000 out of $10,000 required had been raised. On September 21, 1890, a man who was known as Spot Barker died in Sandusky. He was a democrat of the fierce and unterrifying kind. When Lincoln was elected in 1860 he painted his house black and it remained black for some years after his death because of his vow that he would not paint it any other color until a democratic president was elected, and he died before that result was accomplished. On May 7, 1885, the Sandusky Railway, which ran from the West House out to the Lake Shore Depot by the way of Hayes Avenue, was bought by J. 0. Moss. Its superintendent was L. D. Alcott, who built it, and this was the first street railroad in Sandusky. On April 29, 1890, a company to run a street railroad to the Soldiers' Home was organized and was sold on May 23 to C. E. Cook of Chicago, C. W. Foot and Christy Brothers of Cleveland. On August 8, 1890, the Register mentions that there are four street railroads in Sandusky. On September 7, 1890, the street railway was bought to make an electric line. J. 0. Moss was its president, C. H. Moss its vice president, Clark Rude its manager, and its directors were J. 0. Moss, A. J. Stoll, James Flynn and George H. DeWitt. On January 2, 1892, the electric line was built from the Soldiers' Home to the cemetery. On May 24, 1893, the first car ran from Sandusky to Norwalk. On January 23, 1897, Clark Rude was made receiver of the Sandusky Street Railway Company, which was sold on July 9, 1898, to a syndicate managed by Thomas Wood for $60,024. 452 - HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY On December 2,8, 1900, the Sandusky, Norwalk & Southern Railway bought the White Line to Norwalk and the Sandusky, Mansfield & Norwalk Railroad Company, all of which were later purchased by Samuel Bullock, who later went broke. In 1902 the Everett Moore syndicate made an assignment, who had purchased the street railways, and later their rights were acquired by the Lake Shore Electric, the present owners. On September 25, 1890, the Big Four bought the old Cleveland, Sandusky & Cincinnati Railroad. On October 10th the police and fire station was finished. On March 18, 1890, the Odd Fellows Temple was dedicated. On June 25th the Masonic Temple was dedicated. On January 9, 1894, the remaining tombstones were taken from the old cholera cemetery, much to the indignation of many of the people, and the, proceeding was condemned by the Register. On the 27th day of April, 1892, the contest over the will of J. C. Lockwood, of Milan, was concluded. The estate ,involved $1,000,000 ; the case occupied eight weeks and required a special act of the Legislature to extend the winter term so it could be finished before the end of the term. On May 3, 1891, the dedication of the monument to the Moore sisters, representing a large book which now stands at the left of the entrance of Oakland Cemetery, took place. They were two sisters who taught in the old unclassified school that stood on the courthouse square. On June 15, 1894, the local organization of Elks was perfected. On June 13, 1895, the grand Army of the Republic had its encampment at Sandusky. On July 21, 1895, the corner stone of the Congregational Church was laid. In it was placed a Bible, a list of the members, the year book of 1895 and copies of local papers. The Milan bank robbery took place on February 5, 1895, when the robbers secured $20,000 by exploding the safe. On July 16, 1894, Johnson's Island was first opened as a pleasure resort. Labor Day was first celebrated in Sandusky on September 2, 1890. On May 21, 1897, the Conference of the Congregational Church assembled here. On June 21, 1904, the Booth Fish Co. fire took place with a loss of $150,000. On July 27th the Schoepfle & Sloane fire took place with a $20,000 loss. On January 26, 1905, the Woolsey Wheel Company burned with a $110,000 loss, and incidentally threw 200 men out of work. In March, 1901, the historic elm of Sandusky was removed. It stood a couple of rods south of the Columbus Avenue entrance to the courthouse. It was planted by M. F. Cowdry to commemorate the passage of a law favoring free schools some time in the early '50s, and shortly after the erection of the old blue stone high school, which stood facing Columbus Avenue directly across the present walk to the courthouse. The building HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY - 453 was two stories high and 60 feet front by 40 deep, and had a school room on each story. There was a board sidewalk from the elm to the rear stairway of the high school. In the winter of 1909 the greenhouses of the city on Monroe Street were finished, which were begun in September, 1908. On February 14, 1909, occurred the greatest storm in the history of the city. It broke down trees and telephone poles and telegraph poles by the weight of ice and put business out of commission for a week and obstructed streets with wreckage. On November 18, 1909, the Mahala Block was burned. On September 8, 1913, the Perry celebration began, and on September. 9, 1913, Admiral Dewey, Ex-President Taft and General Keifer made speeches at the foot of Jackson Street. On September 15, 1912, the Oliver revival meetings opened and were preceded on the 7th of September by the first dry Sunday under the license law. On December 17, 1914, the Bender Woodward Company had a loss by fire of about $100,000.