350 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY conducted. The goal was $850,000.00, again the largest amount ever attempted in Columbus except for War reliefs. The goal was oversubscribed. The new Central Building was completed and dedicated on Sunday, January 13, 1924. The Board of Directors at that time was as follows : G. Edwin Smith, president ; George W. Bright, first vice president ; F. A. Miller, second vice president ; Andrew Timberman, third vice president ; John W. Pontius, secretary ; Theodore E. Glenn, treasurer, Oscar Avery, Foster Copeland, Frederick W. Freeman, Eugene Gray, Wm. Eugene Jones, Fritz A. Lichtenberg, C. A. McCleary, Albert M. Miller, Charles E. Munson, Sinclair B. Nace, C. N. Replogle, J. A. Schoedinger, T. V. Taylor, King G. Thompson, Howard Whitehead, Henry A. Williams. Building Committee of the Board of Directors of the Young Men's Christian Association of Columbus, Ohio, 1921-1924 were as follows : G. Edwin Smith, chairman, Theodore E. Glenn, Frederick A. Miller, Sinclair B. Nace, Dr. Andrew Timberman, King G. Thompson and John W. Pontius, ex officio. Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Young Men's Christian Association of Columbus, Ohio, 1921-1924 were: C. A. McCleary, chairman ; J. Albert Schoedinger, Henry A. Williams, G. Edwin Smith, ex officio and John W. Pontius, ex officio. PHYSICAL DEPARTMENT. The Y. M. C. A. has been the pioneer of physical education in America. The Columbus Association has contributed its part and particularly under the direction of Mr. E. W. Roehm who has been identified with this phase of the program in Columbus since the year 1904. In 1908, he originated and developed the Business Men's Club idea which has now been reproduced in the Y. M. C. A. Movement around the world. This is a program of both active and passive physical health service to the adult man, a self-supporting service which brings men of mature years into contact with the spirit and activities of youth. HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 351 ACADEMIC SCHOOLS OF THE Y. M. C. A. The formal educational work of the Y. M. C. A. was started in 1902, with three courses and less than sixty students. In 1916, Mr. Charles M. Roudebush was called and commissioned to develop recognized and accredited schools. In 1929, these schools included the following: the Trade School the Day School for Boys, the Night High School, the Junior College of Arts, Engineering and Business Administration, and the Columbus College of Law, with a total enrollment of 1,052 different students for the year 1929. These schools are fully recognized and accredited by the Department of Education of the State of Ohio. BOYS' WORK. The Boys' Work of the Columbus Y. M. C. A. dates back to 1893. Upon the completion of the first building at 36 South Third Street in that year, a Juvenile Department was organized for boys eight to twelve years of age. With a vague idea of what should constitute Boys' Work and a lacy of trained leadership, the early experiences were not very satisfactory. At the end of twenty-two years of this service, the Columbus Y. M. C. A. determined to make a larger and better contribution to the character life of boys throughout the city. To this end, Mr. Harry A. Spyker was asked to become Director of Boys' Work and to reorganize it along lines of the modern understanding of boy psychology, boy interest and boy need. This was in the year 1915. There was then a membership of 189 boys in the Boys' Department. Today that membership, including all the divisions of Boys' Work in the Central Building, reaches a total for the year of 2,482 boys in the department. In addition, there is the Boys' Work at Spring Street Branch, in the South Side Branch and in the County Branch, which more than doubles this figure. In other words, the Y. M. C. A. Boys' Work holds a strategic position in relation to boy life cooperating with the homes, the churches and the schools. 352 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY SUMMARY. The Columbus Y. M. C. A., with its six Branches, is a project of conduct education under Christian auspices but with no sectarian purpose. Its immediate aim is the enrichment of life with both formal and informal educational benefits. Its ultimate aim is the building of reliable character of a Christ-like quality. In this service, it is able to enroll in its organized work of the six Branches described in the previous paragraphs more than 20,000 different people annually. WHAT IS THE Y. M. C. A? The Y. M. C. A. is a foundation builder of useful lives. Its method is formal and informal education. Its ultimate purpose is to enrich the character life of its members with Christ-like qualities. The Y. M. C. A. provides schools for all ages ; boy development activities ; youth fellowships and forums ; adult education ; exercise and recreation; residence for young men ; cafeteria for members and friends ; a community center of interests. CHAPTER XXIII MEDICINE AND SURGERY. DR. LINCOLN GOODALE-DR. SAMUEL PARSONS-OTHER PIONEER PHYSICIANS-DR. WILLIAM M. AWL, THE FIRST SURGEON-SCOPE OF THE EARLY PRACTICE-DR. JOHN W. HAMILTON-EARLY SANITARY CONDITIONS- EPIDEMIC OF FEVER IN 1823-CHOLERA EPIDEMICS-INFLUENZA -BOARD OF HEALTH-STARLING MEDICAL COLLEGE-COLUMBUS MEDICAL COLLEGE- OHIO MEDICAL UNIVERSITY- STARLING-OHIO MEDICAL COLLEGE-COLLEGE OF MEDICINE OF OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY-COLUMBUS ACADEMY OF MEDICINE. The first physician to practice medicine in what is now the city of Columbus was Dr. Lincoln Goodale who located at Franklinton in 1805. He had read medicine in the office of Dr. Leonard Jewett at Belpre, Washington County, before coming here. After a few years he opened a drug store which he also conducted for a number of years. During the War of 1812 he volunteered and served as an assistant surgeon. He was the first doctor from Franklin County to enter the medical service of the United States Army. He was successful in business ventures as well as in the practice of his profession and became very well to do, for his time. He was very charitable and gave much financial assistance and medical treatment to the poor. He donated Goodale Park, to the city. Another pioneer physician of Columbus who left his imprint on the community not only as a capable doctor but also as an influential citizen in various walks of life was Dr. Samuel Parsons. He came here from Reading, Connecticut, where he had studied medicine, in 1811 and located in Franklinton, where he practiced about five years. He then moved across the river where he practiced for a number of years. He was president of the Franklin branch of the State Bank of - 353 - 354 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY Ohio and served as representative in the General Assembly. Other early day physicians were Dr. John Ball, Dr. John M. Edmiston and Dr. Peleg Sisson. Among the doctors who practiced here during the first half of the nineteenth century were Dr. William M. Awl, Dr. Robert Thompson, Dr. John B. Thompson, Dr. I. G. Jones, Dr. William Trevitt, Dr. S. M. Smith, Dr. Francis Carter, Dr. R. L. Howard, Dr. Norman Gay, Dr. G. W. Maris, Dr. J. W. Butterfield, and Dr. Leuthstrom, who was the first homeopathist. Drs. Isaac F. Taylor, Horace Lathrop and B. F. Gard died from cholera during an epidemic in 1833. Dr. William M. Awl was perhaps one of the most eminent physicians and surgeons of the early days here. He was the first surgeon west of the Allegheny Mountains to ligate the cartoid artery. Through his efforts the State School for the Blind was established and he devoted a great deal of his time, talent and means to the welfare of the blind as a class. He also served as the first physician to the first poor farm, having been appointed to that position in 1832. The field of the early day practitioner embraced medicine, surgery, obstetrics and dentistry. Dr. Richard L. Howard was the first to practice surgery as a specialty. He was a very successful surgeon and performed many operations. He taught surgery in Starling Medical College during the first years of that institution. He died in 1853. Dr. Francis Carter, Dr. John W. Butterfield, and Dr. Samuel M. Smith were prominent and successful general practitioners. They all became members of the faculty of Starling Medical College, when that school was established. Dr. John W. Hamilton came here shortly after Starling Medical College was founded and taught materia medica in that institution for a time and later occupied the chair of surgery. He attained much eminence in his profession. Dr. Robert Morrison, Dr. Robert Barr and Dr. John A. Little located here in the fifties. The problems of the early day physician were many and varied. The science of sanitary conditions were practically unknown and the use of sanitary measures little practiced. Disease spread rapidly and epidemics frequently swept the community. In the summer and fall of 1823 there was an epidemic of fever in Franklinton and vicinity. Whole families were prostrated and there were many deaths. Among the prominent members of the community who died during the year were Lucas Sullivant, the founder of the town of Franklin- HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 355 ton ; John Kerr, a member of the Columbus Land Syndicate ; John A. McDowell ; David S. Broderick ; Capt. Joseph Brant ; Joseph Culbertson and Brazillai Wright, keeper of the Penitentiary. An epidemic of cholera appeared in 1833. The scourge continued from July to October. About two hundred victims died during that period. Columbus had a population of 3,000 at that time and fully a third of that number fled from the town to escape the plague. Many of the deaths from cholera were quite sudden. A patient apparently well would be dead a few hours after being stricken with the dreaded disease. Doctors were unable to afford any remedy or relief. Cases of cholera appeared from time to time as the early years passed until 1849 when another epidemic broke out. Two hundred died in the town that year and 116 died in the Penitentiary. The scourge recurred in 1850. The population of the city at that time was about 18,000 and fully one-fourth fled to avoid the disease. The number of deaths at that time was 325. This, however, included the number that died from all other causes. The worst epidemic to affect Columbus and the country at large for a period of over fifty years was that of influenza and pneumonia which began seriously to manifest itself in October, 1918. At the end of that month there had been recorded in the city 320 deaths. During the next eight months deaths from influenza and pneumonia were as follows : November 246, December 251, January 67, February 76, March 165, April 57, May 42, June 12. The total number of deaths was 1236. Not until 1887 was there any permanently constituted Board of Health in Columbus. The only public health service rendered in the early days was by temporary boards or committees appointed in emergencies. The chief functions of such bodies seemed to be to procure medical attention and care for the sick and make daily reports of the disease. Later the Police Commission administered a health department. In April, 1887, the city council passed an ordinance creating a Board of Health, the members to be elected annually by the council. The following board was chosen in May, 1887: P. H. Bruck, president ex-officio ; T. F. Guerin, M. D. ; N. S. Townshend, M. D. ; J. M. Dunham, M. D. ; Emerson McMillin and Alexis Keeler. Dr. Frank Gansaulus was chosen health officer. T. P. Vose was appointed milk and meat inspector. The work of the board was made 356 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY efficient from that time. A bacteriological laboratory was provided, and some of the best physicians of the city lent their assistance to the work of the organization. Under the new charter of 1903 the Board of Health was reorganized and the following members were appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the city council: P. D. Shriner, M. D. ; W. E. Edmiston, M. D.; J. W. Clemmer, M. D. ; J. U. Barnhill, M. D. and George Schoedinger. McKendree Smith became health officer. The Board of Health as organized at the present time is an efficient agency for safeguarding the public health. It inspects food, investigates cases of communicable diseases, establishes quarantine when necessary, fumigates houses and rooms, inspects tenements, etc. What was known as Willoughby Medical College of Willoughby, Ohio, moved to Columbus in 1846. After one course of lectures here the college was abandoned. At that time Lyne Starling donated $30,000 to be paid in installments for the founding of a medical college in Columbus, a site to be purchased, and building erected in connection with a hospital. Mr. Starling named as trustees William A. Sullivant, John W. Andrews, Robert W. McCoy, Joseph R. Swan, Francis Carter, William M. Smith and John W. Butterfield. At a meeting on January 2, 1848, Mr. Starling gave $5,000 more to the project and on January 28, 1848 Starling Medical College was incorporated. The trustees elected the following officers : William S. Sullivant, president ; R. W. McCoy, treasurer and Francis Carter, secretary. The following members of the faculty were selected : Dr. Henry H. Childs, Dr. John W. Butterfield, Dr. Richard L. Howard, Dr. Jesse P. Judkins, Dr. Samuel M. Smith, Dr. Francis Carter and Frederick Meirick, A. M. In the winter of 1848 a lot was purchased at the southeast corner of State and Sixth Streets. In the fall of 1850 the building was nearly enough completed that the first course of lectures was given. The first graduating class consisted of thirty-two members. The college was equipped with a chemical laboratory, a museum and all means for instruction in anatomy and medicine. In 1873 the faculty included Drs. S. M. Smith, Francis Carter, J. M. Wheaton, J. W. Hamilton, Starling Loving, Theodore G. Wormely, H. C. Pearce, W. L. Peck, D. N. Kinsman, D. Halderman, and Otto Frankenberg; also Judge J. W. HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 357 Baldwin and H. A. Weber. Later Drs. J. H. Pooley, C. T. Hoover, John M. Dunham, E. B. Fullerton and many other able physicians and surgeons. In 1875 Dr. J. W. Hamilton and others organized the Columbus Medical College. At first it was conducted in the Sessions block at the corner of High and Long Streets. Later a college building was erected at the corner of Long and Third Streets. In 1892 the Columbus Medical College was combined with Starling. On December 31, 1890, the Ohio Medical University was incorporated for the purpose of teaching medicine, surgery, dentistry, pharmacy, obstetrics and nursing, and also to conduct dispensaries and a hospital. The incorporators were George M. Peters, William M. Mutchmore, J. F. Baldwin, John W. Wright, R. Harvey Reed, A. E. Evans, A. F. Emminger, and S. L. McCurdy. The institution was opened in September, 1902, in a residence at 775 Park Street with John W. Wright as dean, Dr. J. F. Baldwin was the first chancellor and Dr. W. J. Means the first registrar. The faculty was large and consisted of many able physicians and surgeons. The institution had a rapid growth and soon outgrew its original quarters and erected a building of its own on Park Street a half block south of its original quarters. In 1898 an effort was made to consolidate Ohio Medical University and Starling Medical College as a college of medicine in Ohio State University. In 1907 the two institutions were consolidated and conducted as Starling-Ohio Medical College until 1914. In that year it became the College of Medicine of Ohio State University with Dr. W. J. Means as dean. It is recognized as one of the leading medical colleges of the country and has the unusual distinction of having built itself up without a dollar of outside money. The Columbus Academy of Medicine was organized in April, 1892. The first officers were : Dr. D. N. Kinsman, president ; Dr. T. W. Rankin, vice president ; Dr. J. C. Graham, secretary ; Dr. F. W. Blake, treasurer. The board of censors were Drs. T. C. Hoover, H. W. Whitaker, H. P. Allen, Frank Warner and J. B. Schueller. CHAPTER XXIV THREE GENERATIONS OF THE BENCH AND BAR. By Andrew Denny Rodgers III. THE FIRST GENERATION-GUSTAVUS SWAN-ON THE CIRCUIT-ORRISH PARRISH-THE SECOND GENERATION-CHANGED JUDICIAL SYSTEM-NOAH H. SWAYNE-EDWARD PIERREPONT-HENRY STANBERRY-OTHER OUTSTANDING LAWYERS-THE FUGITIVE SLAVE CASE-JUDGE SWAYNE ON SUPREME BENCH-THE THIRD GENERATION-RICHARD A. HARRISONROLL OF LEADING LAWYERS-THE FOURTH GENERATION-CONCLUSION -BIBLIOGRAPHY. THE FIRST GENERATION. The year is 1811. Almost two hundred persons are settled in a little borough located on the west bank of the Scioto River in the heart of Ohio, eight years before admitted as the seventeenth state to the United States. A young lawyer, twenty-four years of age and by name, Gustavus Swan, has left the office of Samuel Bell at Concord, New Hampshire, and by "hoof, wheel and keel" come to "the Ohio country." While visiting the towns of Marietta, Cincinnati and Chillicothe he has heard of this little borough to the north—Franklinton, which has been selected as the county seat for the large county of Franklin and may become the capitol of the state. He has, therefore, followed the trails and streams here and opened an office. " When I opened my office," wrote Gustavus later, "there was neither church nor school house nor pleasure carriage in the county, nor was there a bridge over any stream within the compass of an hundred miles. The roads at all seasons of the year were nearly impassable. Goods were imported principally from Philadelphia in wagons ; and our exports, - 358 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 359 consisting of horses, cattle and hogs, carried themselves to market. The mails were brought to us once a week on horseback if not prevented by high water. I feel safe in saying that there was not in the county a chair for every two persons, nor a knife and fork for every four. The proportion of rough population was large. With that class, to say that 'he would fight' was to praise a man ; and it was against him if he refused drink. Aged persons and invalids, however, were respected and protected and could avoid drinking and fighting with impunity ; but even they could not safely interfere to interrupt a fight. There was one virtue, that of hospitality, which was not confined to any class." With it all, the prospects of this rough but friendly settlement have already attracted three young lawyers—John S. Wills, the pioneer practitioner and the first appointed prosecuting attorney of the county, a "master of pleadings and criminal law"—David Scott, whom the records show has the largest civil practice in the county—and Reuben Bonam one of the early prosecuting attorneys but who has left the county after a brief stay. The year 1811 will also witness the arrivals of Thomas Backus, who has been studying with Wyllis Silliman at Marietta, and possibly Oris Parish, who like Gustavus Swan and Thomas Backus, has migrated from the New England states. So also, within a few years, the little legal fraternity will include Colonel John A. MacDowell, later a president judge of the court of common pleas ; Colonel William Doherty, later the speaker of the Ohio Senate ; John R. Parish, a cousin of Orris Parish; Judge David Smith, the copublisher of one of the early newspapers, the Ohio Monitor, and later an associate judge of the court of common pleas ; General Thomas C. Flournoy, who has studied with Henry Clay in Kentucky ; and James K. Cory. There are reasons for these additions to the Franklin County bar—Franklinton has entered upon an era of prosperity—a courthouse has been erected—a new jail has displaced the old log one—a post office has been established—and, while the homes are either crude wooden structures or log cabins, the settlement has a brick meeting house ! Not over ten miles distant is Colonel Kilbourne's thriving settlement of Worthington and although there they have a 360 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY newspaper, Franklinton soon will have one too. Indeed, though crude and uncomfortable, the advantages of Franklinton compare favorably with other towns of Ohio. But, side by side with the advantages are the hardships. And the lawyer does not escape them. Added to the living discomforts of the pioneer, he has the difficulties of the law practice both "on the circuit" and at home. Under the requirements of the constitution of 1802, the three judges of the supreme court hold one term of court annually in each county of the state and for the purposes of the court of common pleas the state is divided into three circuits, the president judge of the court going to the county seats of his circuit to hold the terms of court with the associate judges of each county. As a matter of course, lawyers employed in cases to be heard in "foreign counties" travel with the judges to the courts where and when their cases are to be heard. Thus, the "circuit practice"—"on horseback, over very bad roads, sometimes mid-leg deep in mud or underlaid with the traditional `corduroy bridge'," swimming swollen streams, encountering countless perils from wild animals—encumbered with "personal riding gear, the saddlebag stuffed with a pistol, a few changes of lighter apparel," usually papers, briefs and law books and often a lunch consisting of "bread, butter, cheese, dried venison, and a bottle of whisky"—their "legs protected by spatter-dashes, more commonly called 'leggins' and their persons covered with a camlet, a Scotch plaid cloak"—such was the lot of the legal circuit rider of those early, strenuous days. In this early day of few diversions the trial of a case is an event of great interest to the inhabitants of the county and is attended by large numbers of spectators. The lawyers are "entertainers," and often stimulated to win their cases by the desire to please the "audience" rather than by the "pittances received from their clients." The trial is not long—with no stenographer to "take a record," the lawyers must come quickly to the point before the case is lost in a maize of entanglements. After court, the "brethren" gather at the tavern. Since the law libraries are small and made up chiefly of English authorities, much law is thrashed out in spirited discussions. These "sessions" are HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 361 famous, the participants being men noted for their wit, for their convivial spirits and their knowledge of human nature and the "underlying principles of jurisprudence and of right." At home, causes may be tried to three courts. When the supreme court judges arrive to hold the county's annual term of court, if the facts permit some cases may be submitted immediately to them for they have an original jurisdiction to hear matters of divorce and alimony and controversies involving the title to lands and matters exceeding in value one thousand dollars. This court has also an appellate and a criminal jurisdiction ; a criminal jurisdiction concurrent with the court of common pleas to hear all offenses not cognizable by a justice of the peace, and, unless the accused elects to try his cause to the common pleas court, all capital offenses. It also has an appellate jurisdiction both in common law and chancery in land title cases, civil causes involving more than one hundred dollars in value and where the validity of a will or right of administration is in question. Later this court will also be required to hold one session in bank at Columbus annually. So heavy and burdensome will their work become that although the state be divided into two circuits and two judges be assigned to each circuit, an average of only seven and a half days can be allowed to each county to transact the county's annual business. The lawyer may also avail himself of the court of common pleas for the trial of his cause, if the facts permit. This court has not only a common law and chancery jurisdiction, jurisdiction to review certain proceedings of the justices of the peace of the townships, and take cognizance of all crimes including capital offenses but also complete probate and guardianship jurisdiction exercisable in special sessions. In addition to these judicial functions, it has many non-judicial functions including the appointments of most of the county officers, the opening of new roads and the granting of licenses to keep taverns. While four men compose the court, but one, the president judge, is a lawyer, and he is selected from any of the counties of the circuit ; the three associate judges are laymen chosen from the county for their administrative and not their legal ability. In other words, to this court of common pleas is delegated the work which 362 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY the common pleas court, the probate court and the board of county commissioners do today! Then, too, if the facts permit, the lawyer may plead his cause to the justice of the peace of the township. But the justice's jurisdiction is limited to certain criminal matters, one of the most important being the offense of fighting, and to certain small civil causes limited both as to amount and to territory. Two features of the early practice are particularly interesting. All of the judges are appointed by a joint ballot of both bodies of the legislature. And in 1825, lawyers and doctors will be made the subjects of an annual registration tax of from five to fifty dollars. With the picture before him, Gustavus Swan went to work and, at first, became a "home" lawyer, going upon the circuit very little—a careful, patient, painstaking student of the law—the "brief type," if you please. He remained in Franklinton but three years. "High Bank," on the east side of the river, selected by the commission of the legislature as the site upon which the capital city of the state will be erected and called "Columbus," had captured his imagination. Columbus had been laid out and settled but two years when young Gustavus saw that Franklinton's struggle to retain supremacy was a losing one—the federal courts had been moved to Columbus from Chillicothe—he moved his office across the river. But a few years had elapsed before Mr. Swan began to be employed in the important cases of the county. This brought him into conflict with men such as Philemon Beecher, Thomas Ewing, Michael Baldwin and Frederick Grimke, all leading lawyers of the state. He became skilled in the law of common law pleadings and amassed an erudite knowledge of the intricate and confusing land laws of the period, especially those relating to the lands of the Virginia Military District, laid out on the "crazy quilt" plan to the west of the Scioto River. While yet in Franklinton, he was sent to the legislature as the first representative of solely Franklin County. In 1817 he was returned. So much did he impress the members of the legislature with his abilities as a lawyer that the legislators appointed him president judge of the circuit of the common pleas courts of the counties of HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 363 Adams, Ross, Fairfield, Gallia and Franklin. And, also, during his incumbency in that office, in response to the directions of a resolution of the legislature, he published a book entitled, "Laws, Treaties, Resolutions and Ordinances of the General and State Government which relate to Lands in the State of Ohio, including the Laws adopted by the Governor and the Judges : the Laws of the Territorial Legislature ; and the Laws of the State to the year 1815-16." His reputation as one of the state's foremost jurists became established. The opinion of writers generally and the flyleaf of the 20th Ohio State reports indicate that he was appointed a judge of the supreme court to fill g vacancy. Court records, the flyleaf of the 2nd Ohio State reports and The Ohio Hundred Year Book (p. 469) tend to disprove this. However, since Judge Swan left the common pleas bench at the end of the April term of court, 1829, he may have been appointed to fill the vacancy on the supreme bench created by the death in June of the same year of Judge Charles R. Sherman, whose successor was not elected by the legislature until February 1, 1830. While serving on the common pleas bench, his nephew, Joseph R. Swan, came by horse and wagon from New York state to care for Judge Swan's practice and upon his retirement from the bench, Judge Swan had need of young Joseph's services, for his practice then began to extend on the circuit through Fayette, Madison, Union, Delaware, Pickaway and Fairfield Counties. The growth of the bar kept pace with the growth of the city. The 'thirties added to the lawyers of the city such men as Alfred Kelley, draughtsman of the bill organizing the state bank of Ohio, which was "conceded to be the best banking law then known to American legislation," supervisor of the construction of the Ohio Canal and later president of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad Company, the Columbus and Xenia Railroad Company and the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad Company ; John G. Miller, later mayor of Columbus, postmaster, an organizer of one of the leading banking institutions and lawyer of great ability ; Lyne Starling, Jr., and M. J. Gilbert, who composed the firm of Starling and Gilbert which later became Brush and Gilbert when Mr. Starling, becoming clerk of the supreme and common pleas courts, was succeeded by Major Samuel Brush, one of the leading pleading and 364 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY trial lawyers of the county and president of the Franklin County Agricultural Society and the Columbus and Granville Plank Road Company ; Samuel C. Andrews, a man of literary and poetical temperament as well as an able lawyer ; William Backus, who studied with Gustavus Swan, and Elijah Backus, a leading land and trial lawyer, both sons of Thomas Backus ; Joshua Folson ; Wray Thomas, Mease Smith and John Munford. Thus many local formidable opponents appeared in the local courts. One of the most unusual was Orris Parish, already mentioned as a pioneer lawyer. In 1816 he was married in Circleville and brought his bride by horseback to Columbus where he took up his newly appointed office as president judge of the courts of common pleas, "his circuit reaching to Sandusky." It is interesting to observe that later he will become one of the incorporators of the Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike Company. In contrast to Judge Swan, Mr. Parish early became a great circuit lawyer throughout the state and more "distinguished as a jury lawyer than on a demurrer. In his fervid declamations he would hold in most earnest attention the jury and the audience ; and woe to the party against whom he permitted the freedom of his abuse !" Many stories are told of him. While trying a slander case for a feminine client and before his closing speech to the jury, he privately requested the presiding judge to leave the bench on some excuse "when he got into the warmth of his speech." Mr. Parish was known as one of "Judge Lane's gang." The judge assented and at the proper time, retired. Mr. Parish took from his pocket a small pistol and showing it to the defendant as "evidence of his ability to defend himself for any personal assault," turned from the jury and addressing the defendant, poured down upon his head "with a wonderful degree of recklessness," the most denunciatory anathemas and personal abuse. The judge returning, gave the law of the case to the jury, who after a short deliberation returned a verdict of exemplary damages for the plaintiff. Today, such conduct would undoubtedly constitute prejudicial error. But evidently not in the court of that period. It is related that Gustavus Swan's last appearance in court, in 1843, was in the defense of William Clark for the murder of Cyrus HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 365 Sells, one of the penitentiary guards. The defense was the prisoner's insanity and the prosecution was assisted by the brilliant Noah H. Swayne. In the course of the trial, Judge Swan remarked confidently that "he had never had a client hung and that if Clark was, he never would put his foot in the court house again as a lawyer." Clark was hanged. The case is reported in 12 Ohio reports, page 493, but has been subsequently overruled by a line of Ohio cases. Nevertheless, Judge Swan kept his word and confined the last years of his life to his interests in the historic Franklin bank, of which he was president. When this bank became a branch of the state bank of Ohio, he was made the state bank's first president. Toward the end of his life he published a "Life of Alfred Kelley." Gustavus Swan—the leading lawyer and judge of the first generation of the bench and bar of Columbus ! THE SECOND GENERATION. The scene now shifts. The year is now 1859 and many changes affecting the conditions of the bench and bar have taken place. The judicial system, "modelled to some extent upon the then existing Federal system," is now operating under the new constitution of 1851 and which, together with the legislation authorized thereby, has remedied some of the mistakes of the system under the first constitution. The judges of the courts are no longer appointed by the legislature but elected by the people. The tax on lawyers has been removed. Pleadings, forms, and proceedings of the courts of record have been revised, reformed, simplified and abridged, to the manifest disgust of many of the scholarly common law lawyers. A uniform mode of proceeding without reference to any distinctions between law and equity has been adopted. Distinct forms of actions at law, theretofore in use, have been abolished. The supreme court, consisting now of five judges, has become "for the first time (primarily) a reviewing court of last resort," meeting no longer on the circuit but annually at Columbus, similarly to the in bank sessions of the preceding period. Its original jurisdiction, save in matters of quo warranto, mandamus, habeas corpus and procedendo, is now delegated to the common pleas court. In turn, the non-judicial functions of the common pleas court have been trans- 366 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY ferred to a board of county commissioners, and its probate and guardianship functions have been conferred upon a newly created court, the probate court, which also has jurisdiction in matters of habeas corpus, licenses to marry and land sales by guardians and administrators. A superior court has been established for Franklin County but its life is to extend only eight years. A district court, composed of a judge of the supreme court and three judges of the courts of common pleas of the judicial district, has been provided as an intermediate court with an appellate and an original jurisdiction, much the same as the supreme court—in fact, it is the successor court to the supreme court on the circuit except that its judgments and final orders may be reviewed on error by the supreme court. As for the federal court—Congress has recently divided the state into two districts, the northern and the southern, the latter of which includes Franklin County. To each district a judge has been assigned. Columbus has been incorporated and has grown to a population of over eighteen thousand persons. A mayor's court, clothed with the powers of a justice of the peace, has come into existence. Within a few years Franklinton will be annexed to the city. The new state capitol building, in which the supreme court is meeting, is now completed, although for eight years work had been stopped by the legislature for the reason that Columbus was "putting on metropolitan airs." The famous Neil House boasts of an elevator propelled by steam pressure as the latest wonder of the city. State-wide telegraph systems and railroads are adding transportation and communication facilities to the now extensive turnpike and canal systems throughout the state. The year 1840 had witnessed the removal of the county courts and the county offices from the United States courthouse located on the state capitol grounds to the new courthouse erected on the site of the Indian mound at the corner of Mound and High Streets. What has been called the "second generation" of Columbus lawyers is now at the bar. Nearby, the town of Lancaster has produced a bar composed of such men as Thomas Ewing, Hocking Hunter, Henry Stanbery (now of Columbus as attorney general of Ohio) and HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 367 John T. Brasee, "by common consent * * * the most eminent array of lawyers ever gathered in one Ohio community." The bar of Chillicothe has contributed such men as Allen G. Thurman, who now has moved to Columbus, to become a judge on the Ohio supreme court, Benjamin Leonard, Thomas Scott and William Creighton, who with Philip Doddridge, has successfully defended in the Franklin County court and in the United States supreme court (5 Wheaton (U. S.), 208) the title of the heirs of Lucas Sullivant to survey number 2886, covering the land west of Guilford avenue in the present city of Columbus. Nevertheless, Columbus points with pardonable pride to a bar which has "never been surpassed and seldom equalled :" productive of one associate justice of the supreme court of the United States—Noah H. Swayne ; two attorney generals of the United States—Edwards Pierrepont and Henry Stanbery—one chief justice of the supreme court of the district of Columbia—Edward F. Bingham ; two chief justices of the Ohio supreme court—Allen G. Thurman and Joseph R. Swan ; two associate judges of the supreme court of Ohio—Joseph R. Swan and Robert B. Warden, the latter the youngest man ever to serve on this court; the first attorney-general of Ohio—Henry Stanberry ; one attorney-general of the state of Ohio—Chauncey N. Olds ; two delegates to the constitutional convention of 1850—Joseph R. Swan and Henry Stanbery ; one governor of Ohio—William Dennison ; one United States Senator—Allen G. Thurman ; three reporters of the supreme court—Phineas B. Wilcox, Leander J. Critchfield and Robert B. Warden ; the first judge of the common pleas court for Madison, Pickaway and Franklin counties under the constitution of 1851—James L. Bates ; the first judge of the probate court—William R. Rankin ; two judges of the short lived superior court of Franklin County—Fitch James Matthews and J. William Baldwin. Other able and outstanding lawyers are John W. Andrews, one of the most distinguished lawyers and civic leader of the county and law partner of Joseph R. Swan; George L. Converse, speaker of the Ohio house of representatives, state senator and congressman, who "practiced nearly fifty years and undoubtedly had more cases than any lawyer at the bar ;" Lorenzo English, for eleven years mayor 368 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY of Columbus, county treasurer, city councilman and lawyer "in most of the important cases of the county ;" Samuel Galloway, lawyer, congressman, secretary of the state of Ohio, professor, orator and wit ; Thomas Sparrow, prosecuting attorney, county commissioner, postmaster and law partner of Fitch James Matthews, Edwards Pierrepont, Otto Dressel and James E. Wright; Henry C. Noble, excellent patent lawyer, director and president of the Columbus and Xenia Railroad Company, director of the Columbus and Toledo Railroad Company, director and attorney of the Columbus and Hocking Valley Railroad Company, co-author of the legislative act abolishing the convict contract labor system ; Otto Dressel, picturesque German lawyer, legislator, orator and Maennerchor choir director, who succeeded in fleeing his country after a narrow escape for taking a prominent part in the German revolution of 1848 ; General Joseph H. Geiger, partner of Elijah Backus, state senator, widely known as a political orator, lawyer and humorous lecturer ; Benjamin F. Martin, prosecuting attorney, collector of internal revenue for 7th Ohio District, partner of Lorenzo English and son of William T. Martin, the latter author of the first history of Franklin County ; James E. Wright, author of tales of Indian life and western adventure, civil engineer, county treasurer, an able lawyer who disliked trial work but "whose briefs were scholarly, finished and exhaustive ;" Llewellyn Baber ; John D. Sullivan ; Stacy Taylor ; Walter Thrall ; John M. Pugh ; B. M. Alberry ; Horace Wilson ; Albert B. Buttles ; John G. McGuffey and many others of note. Within a decade will come Edward L. Taylor, John C. Groom, Colonel J. T. Holmes, Gilbert G. Collins, John D. Burnett, Henry Clay, Taylor, John G. Mitchell, Julius C. Richards, Morton C. Brasee, George J. Atkinson and others. Within the same ten years, this generation will feel the need of an association and will form The Franklin County Bar Association on April 20, 1869, with Judge J. William Baldwin as its first president. Phineas B. Wilcox, who, with Noah H. Swayne and Joseph R. Swan, should perhaps have been included in the "first generation" of county lawyers, is now sixty-one years of age. A survey of his unusual life reveals that upon his graduation from Yale in 1821 he has come with his bride, a relative of John W. Andrews, to the town of HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 369 Columbus in the "Ohio country" where his father had purchased land. Upon settling here and commencing the study of law with Orris Parish in a little frame building located on the southwest corner of State and High Streets, he, like Gustavus Swan, by close application to study has become noted as a chancery and "land lawyer," being specially learned in the law relating to the land of the Virginia Military District. And, after twelve years of patient study, he has mastered the systems of common law pleading, including the old English special pleas, so much so that he has produced a book entitled, "Ohio Forms and Practice" which has become the "standard work on law and equity practice and pleadings, both in the state and the United States courts until the adoption of the code of civil procedure in 1853." From 1834 to 1836, he has also served the county as prosecutor, during which he wrote many forms of indictments "long in use by his successors." Though disliking the new code, in 1862 he will revise this book in the form of a new work, "Practical Forms under the Code of Civil Procedure." The supreme court recognized his evident scholarship as a brief and case lawyer and as early as 1840 the judges appointed Mr. Wilcox supreme court reporter, which office he held for two years. It is said that Mr. Wilcox's "note upon assurances of title, in the case of Foote v. Bennet, page 317, of the tenth volume" of the Ohio reports, "has been considered one of the ablest and most perspicuous expositions of that abstruse subject, at that time not well understood by even good lawyers, and received a high encomium from Chancellor Kent." His son, James A. Wilcox, is now practicing and will carry on his remarkable work. Already he has been elected city solicitor of Columbus and, at the request of the city council, has compiled for publication the first work containing the city charter granted to Columbus and the ordinances enacted by the city council to the date of its publication. In 1874, two years after he will become general attorney of the Columbus and Hocking Valley Railroad Company and secretary and treasurer of the Columbus and Toledo Railroad Company, he will compile the "Railroad Laws of Ohio," each law being annotated by the court decisions in respect thereof. 370 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY Mr. Wilcox the elder, lived in part of both the first and the second generations—another of the great lawyers produced up to that time and a most unusual personality. One of his friends said that "he lived upon Coke and the Bible." To Columbus he attracted as a law partner his friend, Edwards Pierrepont, who later left Columbus, became judge of the superior court of New York, United States attorney for New York, attorney general of the United States and ambassador of the United States to the court of St. James. Such lawyers as Matthew J. Gilbert, Lyne Starling, Jr., Thomas Sparrow and Samuel C. Andrews received their early training in his office. His homes, on Vine Street at first and later on Third Street, equipped in early times with one of the finest libraries "in the west," were the scenes of many rare discussions of the "brothers," among whom were numbered the state's leading lawyers. Mr. Wilcox's conscientious resignation as United States commissioner solely because of his inability to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law was characteristic of him—"a man of high character and personal integrity, of great benevolence and charity, a fine type of conscientious and christian lawyer." Franklin County is now also witnessing the close of the careers of Noah H. Swayne as a practicing lawyer, and of Joseph R. Swan, the nephew of Gustavus Swan, as one of two most eminent jurists of the state. Mr. Swayne will be appointed by President Lincoln as associate justice of the supreme court of the United States and Mr. Swan will leave the supreme bench of Ohio. A tradition persists to our day that President Lincoln, confusing the names of Joseph Swan and Noah Swayne, intended to appoint Joseph R. Swan to the supreme court of the United States. Some, but few facts, seem to justify this tradition. Both men had developed as equally strong lawyers in the same city, Judge Swan being particularly noted for his scholarly revision of the Ohio statutes, for his "Treatise on the Law Relating to the Powers and Duties of Justices of the Peace," for his authorship of the wills act and the act relating to the settlement of estates and for his work on the judiciary committee of the constitutional convention—Mr. Swayne, particularly noted for his trial ability and national political affiliations. Both men were senior partners of law firms of state-wide and national prominence, Swan and Andrews and Swayne and Baber—and both men HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 371 are now playing important roles in the dramatic struggle to save Ohio to the Union ! However, the story of events leading to the appointment of Mr. Swayne militates against the authenticity of the tradition. Each previous step in the efforts of the state and national courts to define the respective spheres and relationships of the several branches of government, state and national, had been attended by intense popular feeling. When, in the state supreme court in 1807 chief judge Samuel Huntington and associate judge George Tod, in the case of Rutherford v. McFaddon, had held unconstitutional the statute providing for the trial without a jury of civil causes before justices of the peace involving less than a specified sum, impeachment proceedings evidencing public indignation were instituted in the house of representatives against Judge Tod and Judge Calvin Pease, who had held the same law unconstitutional at a somewhat earlier date. The accusation was that the judicial branch of the government was invading the domain of the all powerful legislature. Again, when some twelve years later the supreme court of the United States in the famous case of National Bank v. Osborn, State Auditor, which had originated in Columbus, held national banks doing business in Ohio entitled to recover money taken under a state law taxing all banks not specifically authorized to do business in this state, the state legislature, again evidencing public feeling, sent to Congress a brief containing a "defiant note" in support of Ohio's position with respect to the rights of the state and enacted a law withdrawing from the national banks the protection of the state laws. And now again, in the year 1859, another case, ex parte Bushnell, 9 Ohio State 198, "surcharged with political excitement," is before the supreme court in Columbus. The famous Dred Scott decision and the Kansas-Nebraska bill have already intensified the inherited feelings of the people of the states of the northwest territory against the spread of slavery. With Samuel Galloway and Llewellyn Baber, as local leaders, "the Ohio movement," largely responsible for the formation of the Republican Party and the nomination of President Lincoln over Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, was having its origin in this fertile soil of protest. And recently the Fugitive Slave Law has been held constitutional. Two persons, by name Bushnell and Langston, 372 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY have been members of a party which has rescued a fugitive slave near Wellington, Ohio. The United States marshall has arrested them for violation of the fugitive slave law and, after trial and conviction, the offenders have been sentenced to a federal prison. To make a test case, writs of habeas corpus for the prisoners have been sued out in the Ohio supreme court. Judge Joseph R. Swan is the chief justice of the court and his term of office is about to expire. Noah H. Swayne, though an active opponent of slavery, and who upon his marriage, has manumitted his wife's slaves, is on the brief with the United States attorney in opposition to the discharge of the prisoners. The situation is tense. The associate judges of the court are divided evenly on the right of the state of Ohio to interfere. The decision must be made by Chief Justice Swan. Governor Chase at a public mass meeting has announced that if the Ohio supreme court should order liberation of the prisoners, the order would be enforced. If this did not mean secession, it was little short of it. For, if the prisoners were released, the federal government had instructed the United States marshall to re-arrest the discharged prisoners and a rumor that a federal steamship was ready to enter the Cleveland harbor was current. Without hesitation and with fortitude seldom if ever equaled in the judicial history of the nation, Judge Swan joined Judge Scott and Judge Peck and ordered the prisoners remanded to prison. Said Judge Peck in his opinion : "If the revolution * * * must come, let it not be precipitated by the courts ! If the arch of our Union is to be broken into fragments, let other heads and other hands than ours inaugurate and complete the Vandal work !" Said Judge Swan in his opinion : "For myself as a member of this court, I disclaim the judicial discretion of distrubing the settled construction of the Constitution of the United States ; and I must refuse the experiment of introducing disorder and governmental collision to establish order and even-handed justice. As a citizen I would not deliberately violate the constitution or the law * * * . But if a weary, frightened slave should appeal to me to protect him from his pursuers, it is possible that I might momentarily forget my allegiance to the law and Constitution and give him a covert from those who were upon his track * * * . And if I did it, and were prosecuted, HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 373 condemned, and imprisoned, and brought by my counsel before this tribunal on a habeas corpus, and were then permitted to pronounce judgment in my own case, I trust I should have the moral courage, before God and the country, as I am now compelled to say, under the solemn duties of a judge bound by my official oath to sustain the supremacy of the Constitution and the law, 'The Prisoner must be remanded'." Perhaps Ohio would have found an expedient to save itself from secession. But in any event, except for Judge Swan's courage, "Ohio by her own rebellion against the general government would have been forever estopped from complaining a year and a half later of South Carolina when she rebelled." At the coming election, Governor Chase, a stout believer in states' rights, succeeded in bringing to an end Judge Swan's brilliant career on the bench, composed of seven years of service on the supreme bench and eleven years in the 'thirties and 'forties as president judge of the courts of common pleas of a circuit consisting of the counties of Franklin, Madison, Clark, Champaign, Logan, Union and Delaware. Although later he was tendered reappointment to and renomination for his position on the supreme court, he refused both offers. Judge Swan never resumed private practice. He became president of the Columbus & Xenia Railroad Company and began the work of compiling additional editions of his general revisions of the statutes of Ohio and of his "Pleadings and Precedents" under the code, in the former of which he received the help of Leander J. Critchfield, then reporter of the supreme court. Later he accepted the position of general solicitor of The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad Company. His reputation as an author of exceptional ability had been established by his works entitled "A Guide for Executors and Administrators," published in 1843 and "A Treatise on the Law Relating to the Powers and Duties of Justices of the Peace," before referred to, familiarly known as "Swan's Treatise" and considered the "most useful law book ever published in Ohio." Swan's "Revised Statutes of Ohio" after the new constitution, remained the standard work until 1880 when a commission again codified the statutes. 374 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY On the other hand, Noah H. Swayne has "united the learning of the books with the eloquence of the advocate" and established himself as a case lawyer and one of the foremost jury lawyers of the state. His famous four days' cross examination of Sydney Burton, the prosecuting witness in the "celebrated" trial of William Rossane, accused of burning the steamship "Martha Washington" to collect the insurance moneys, had been largely instrumental in securing a verdict of acquittal for his client and remains a classic demonstration of his ability. Coming to Columbus as district attorney for the United States government in 1830, he has established connections of a political character destined to give him a national reputation. With Alfred Kelley and Gustavus Swan he has served on the state budget commission and effectively restored to a sound footing the credit of the state of Ohio throughout the country. In Washington he has represented the state in the settlement of the controversy between the states of Ohio and Michigan, of their respective boundary lines. The Legislature was sufficiently impressed with Mr. Swayne's ability to offer him the position of president judge of the courts of common pleas of the local judicial circuit. This, however, he declined. His partners also have political affiliations. James L. Bates, his first partner, is the first judge of the court of common pleas under the new constitution. Llewellyn Baber, his second partner, is a leader of the already mentioned "Ohio movement." And Mr. Swayne himself has left the Jeffersonian Democrats and joined the Republican party in support of Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. On January 22, 1862, President Lincoln will accede to the expressed wishes of Mr. Justice McLean, an Ohio man and Mr. Swayne's personal friend, and to the urging of such men as Governor William Dennison, a former Columbus lawyer, successor to Governor Salmon P. Chase and later postmaster general of the United States, Senator Sherman, Senator Wade and many others, and will appoint Mr. Swayne, then fifty-seven years of age, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, partly in recognition of his political services to Mr. Lincoln but primarily in recognition of his reputation as "one of the ablest lawyers in Ohio."