150 - CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY with the members of the bar. During nearly all of the time of his work on the bench and at the bar, he was professor at the Cincinnati Law School, and it has been said that some of his most valuable work was done in that institution. His manner was so frankly genial, his sympathy so quick, his words so ready, his wit so nimble, and his humor so contagious, that he was a delightful companion, and on the rare occasions when he put aside his work and permitted himself to indulge in social recreation, he at once became the center of an interested and admiring group. While Judge Hoadly rarely took an active part in political management, he was al ways deeply interested in public affairs, and frequently spoke out about them in a way that was influential. Generally holding to the principles of the Democratic party, he was a strong opponent of the institution of slavery, and for that reason he was one of those who assisted at the original organization of the Republican party in Ohio. He attended the first national convention of that party in 1856, in part to promote the nomination of his preceptor and life long friend, Salmon P. Chase, but the nomination went to Fremont, a result with which he was a good deal dissatisfied. He voted with the Republican party until about 1872, when he assisted in organizing the movement which led to the nomination of Horace Greely, another miscarriage of well meant endeavor. After that he returned to the Democratic party, with which he continued to act during the remainder of his life. In the year 1883 he was nominated and elected governor of Ohio, and served out his term with such satisfaction to his party that he was renominated against his own wishes, but the opposite party was in the' ascendency that year and the whole ticket was defeated. It was during his term of office as governor that the great riot and burning of the courthouse occurred in this city, and it was due to his promptness and energy that the state militia arrived in Cincinnati in time to suppress the riot while the courthouse was still in flames. In 1887 he removed to New York City, where he immediately took rank with the foremost leaders of the bar, and practiced there with great success for some fifteen years, dying August 26, 1902. Two causes in which Judge Hoadly was engaged may be cited as evidence of .his standing at the bar. He represented Mr. Tilden and the Democratic party before the electoral commission in the great contest which arose out of the presidential election of r876, and he was subsequently appointed counsel for the United States in the cases against the Pacific railroads to enforce the lien of the government' upon those roads for monies loaned in aid of their construction. In the latter case he was eminently successful, as he collected the entire amount due, with interest, amounting to more than sixty millions of dollars. The labor oft this great case, with its long, history and many details, is said to have been one of the causes of the impairment of health which led to his death. His practice in New York was very successful and lucrative. It is said, however, that his heart was ever in Ohio ; aria he always greeted any of his old Cincinnati friends with affectionate enthusiasm when he happened to meet them in New York.   Among the men of this' era who adorned the Cincinnati bar was Alphonso Taft, a native of Vermont and a graduate of Yale college, who settled in Cincinnati in. 1839 and soon acquired a lucrative practice. During his long career at the barhe had, at different times, as partners, Thomas M. Key, William M. Dickson, Patrick Mallon, Aaron F. Perry, George R. Sage and H. P. Lloyd, as well as his   CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY - 151   sons, Charles P., Peter R., and William H. Taft. He was concerned in many important litigations, one of them being the case involving the validity of the bequest by Charles McMicken of a large quantity of property to the city of Cincinnati for educational purposes, and which forms the basis of the University of Cincinnati. The case went to the supreme court of the United States, and was argued there by Thomas Ewing on behalf of the contestants, but Judge Taft was uniformly successful in maintaining the bequest. He served as judge of the superior court from 1865 to 1873, when he resigned and reentered the practice. At various times in his life Judge Taft took a prominent part in politics. At one time he contested the first Ohio district against George H. Pendleton for congress, but was defeated. Subsequently he was supported by a large section of his party in the state convention for governor of Ohio, but was not nominated. In 1876 he was appointed to the office of secretary of war in the cabinet of President Grant, from which position he was removed to that of attorney general in the same cabinet, where he continued until the end of Grant's administration. In 1882 he was appointed by President Arthur, minister to Austria, from which he was subsequently promoted to the position of minister to Russia. He remained in St. Petersburg until the end of his term of office in 1885. Judge Taft was always active in charitable works and in movements of a public nature intended to be beneficial to the community at large. He died on May 30, 1891, in his eighty-first year. Judge Taft was the father of five sons and a daughter, who reached years of maturity, but one of his sons, Peter R. Taft, died in 1889. The other four, Charles P., William H., Henry W., and Horace V., and his daughter, Fanny Louise (now Mrs. William Edwards, of San Diego, California), survive him.   Of all of the men of the Cincinnati bar of ante bellum era, perhaps the man who produced the most profound impresssion as a lawyer was Stanley Matthews. As an advocate in cases involving consideration of complicated circumstances or important principles of law, he has had few superiors. He had a logical power which enabled him to follow out a chain of reasoning with perfect accuracy to its conclusion, and at the same time a breadth of imagination which enabled him to delineate and place in relation all of the facts and personages connected with the case, each in his or its true perspective. He had a ready command of a great vocabulary, so that the precise word needed to express any shade of meaning was always at his command. Judge Matthews was born in Cincinnati in the year 1824. He was the son of a professor of Woodward high school. He graduated from Kenyon college in the year 1840 and was noted for his excellence in classical scholarship. He was admitted to the bar in the year 1845 and afterwards held sundry minor offices, including that of assistant prosecuting attorney of Hamilton county and clerk of the Ohio house of representatives, in 1850 and 1851, and was elected a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, which position he held for a year or two and then returned to the practice in partnership with Vachel Worthington. In 1855 he was elected to the state senate, and from 1858 to 1861 he served as district attorney by the appointment of President Buchanan. At the beginning of the Civil war, he entered the army and was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Twenty-third regiment of Ohio Volunteers. In April, 1863, while serving in the army, he was elected judge of the superior court of Cincinnati, and   152 - CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY   resigned his position in the army to take that of the judgeship, but in 1865 he resigned his position as judge and returned to the bar, where he met with great success, for he was then at the height of his powers and he represented many of the greatest. interests in this part of the country. He was chairman of the national convention which nominated Horace Greely as a candidate to the presidency of the United States, with which result he was so much disgusted that as soon as it occurred he took his hat and with great deliberation walked out of the convention, and subsequently supported General Grant at the election. Later he was one of the counsel for Hayes before the electoral commission which decided the dis-puted presidential election of 1876, and is said to have furnished the argument which carried the majority of the commission for Hayes, and enabled them to avoid the dilemna which was presented by counsel for Tilden, and upon which it was supposed the republican cause would be necessarily impaled. In May of 1881 Judge Matthews was nominated and confirmed an associate justice of- the supreme court of the United States, a position which he held until his death in 1889, and in which he rendered most distinguished service. His opinions are noted for clearness of statement and for rigid adherence to the rules of law carefully stated and applied. His firm, vigorous style is a pleasure to the reader, and while some of his opinions went counter to the views of many, none of his judgments have ever been seriously questioned or reversed.   In a paper read before the State Bar Association some years since, Governor Harmon gave an account of the life and character of Aaron F. Perry, which was heard with great pleasure by that body and subsequently much admired. The subject of his paper was worthy of such an effort. A brief abstract of that paper hardly suffices to give a just idea of its merits. Mr. Perry was a native of Vermont, of Puritan stock. "He had," said Governor, Harmon, "the inheritance which such descent implies—health and vigor of mind and body, love of justice, and a spirit inclined upward. He had not much advantage of early education through the medium of schools, but he was a rare instance of self-improvement. The love of knowledge inherent in him was such that he became a man of wide and varied learning. His position and reputation were due to distinction at the bar alone. He was plain Mr. Perry to the end. The cases in which he was chiefly engaged were of great importance, some of them involving questions concern-ing the result of the Civil war. He probably made a wider reputation as chief counsel of General Burnside upon the application of Mr. Vallandigham for writ of habeas corpus. It. took a strong man to maintain a debate with George E. Pugh, who was counsel for Mr. Vallandigham. It required a wise, sage, cautious and learned man, with ingenuity tempered with broad sagacity, to sustain Mr. Lincoln in the arrest of this distinguished prisoner, without rudely pulling down the pillars of the Temple of Liberty. Without passing judgment on the merits of the case, it may be justly said that Mr. Perry's argument, which was reported in full, gives a good display, of the extent of his learning and the clearness and versatility of his thought, his logical faculty, the force and nicety of his doctrine, his power of analysis, and play of his fancy and his humor, which gave spice without bitterness to his discourse. To. his great talents he added a high character and crowned a successful professional career with a pure and unselfish life, and to talents and character he joined manners of a kind and courteous gentleman who never 'knowingly gave offense and was slow to take it; who   CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY - 153   respected the dignity of others and seldom had occasion to defend his own. He had what might be called the saving sense of humor. He had also a keen and lively wit, but delighted in its wings rather than its sting."   It has been said of Rufus King that the most remarkable circumstance of his life was that it was chiefly spent in laboring for the good of others. He began to practice in Cincinnati in 1840. In 1846 he was a member of the convention to form the city charter. Subsequently he was a member of the city council, and later of the school board, where he served for fourteen years. From 1852 to 1867 he was president of the board. He was the first president of the united board of the Woodward and Hughes High schools, a position which he held until the close of his life. He was president of the directors of the McMicken University, now the University of Cincinnati, from 1859 to 1877. He was the author of the law which founded the public library of Cincinnati, and was also president of the board of directors of that institution. In 1871 he was a member of the constitutional convention of the state, and was made president of the convention after the resignation of Chief Justice Waite. He was connected with the Cincinnati Law school as dean and professor from 1875 until 1891, the time of his death. He took a special part in the organization of the Cincinnati Law library and was president of its board of trustees for thirty-six years, and remembered it by a bequest of twenty thousand dollars in his will. He was an active- sup-porter of the college of music and the art museum. It will be seen that there was not much compensation to be derived from any of the positions held by him; and it is obvious that he cared nothing for that feature. He was one of those who derived more pleasure from giving than from receiving. His was a noble life and reflects great credit upon the bar of which he was a member. Descended from illustrious ancestors, he was in every way worthy of them.   Another member of the Cincinnati bar whose work and whose fame were mainly outside of professional lines, was William Haines Lytle, born in Cincin-nati of distinguished parentage. He early acquired a reputation for eloquence. His manner is said to have been distinguished and his bearing chivalrous. He served in the Mexican war, at the close of which he returned as commander of his company, to which position he had been promoted. In 185o he was a member of the state legislature. When the Civil war began, he was made colonel of the Tenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and he seems to have been wounded in nearly every action in which he took part, due, it is said, to the reckless manner in which he exposed himself. He was first wounded at Carnifex Ferry, West Virginia, one of the earliest affairs of the war. His horse was killed and he was thrown from him with a bullet through his leg. Participating in that same conflict with Colonel Lytle, were Colonel Robert L. McCook and Major Rutherford B. Hayes, all of them of the county bar. Colonel Lytle was again wounded at Perryville. The wound was a very severe one and Lytle did not expect to recover. When he was lifted up by one of his men, he said : "You may do some good work yet, I can do no more. I et me die here." He was captured by the enemy and subsequently paroled and returned to Cincinnati, and was restored to health. He finally received his death wound at Chickamauga. Looking over the battle ground years afterwards, General Rosecrans stopped at a certain point and said : "I was standing here with my staff when Lytle came up at the head of his brigade.   154 - CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY   He saluted as he rode by, and in less than fifteen minutes his horse came galloping back without a rider." Brilliant as was his career as a soldier, Lytle is probably now best remembered as a poet. His verses entitled "Antony and Cleopatra," have gone around the world with the English language and are still recited in the schools. He left a number of other poems, some of which have been published and others which have never seen the light, but there is in all of them that indefinable touch which marks the work of a true poet. He took no pains about them and 'never published them in any way.   GEORGE E. PUGH   Any discussion of the lawyers of Cincinnati that leaves out of consideration the name of George E. Pugh is incomplete. Although his fame is national as a politician, as a lawyer he achieved even greater distinction. Many citizens of Cin-cinnati have occupied prominent positions in the public mind, but at the bar there has been but one George E. Pugh. He was born in this city in 1822 and graduated at Miami university in 1840. He immediately took up the practice of the law, in which he was very successful. At the beginning of the Mexican war he became a captain of the Fourth Ohio regiment and also served as aide to Gen. Joseph Lane. In 1848 he was elected to the legislature. In 1850 he became city solicitor of Cincinnati. In 1851 at the age of 29 attorney general of the state. He was elected to the United States senate as a democrat in 1855, his term extending from December of that year to March of 1861. His career in that body is a part of the history of the nation. He was very active and soon became a leader of the northern democrats. He was a delegate to the national convention held in Charleston in 1860 and made the reply to the celebrated speech of Yancey, pointing out that the northern democracy would not follow the South in its extreme measures. At the outbreak of the war he joined with William S. Groesbeck, Rutherford B. Hayes and others in telegraphing the president the suggestion that General McClellan be placed in charge at Cincinnati. He made the principal speech in the Vallandigham habeas corpus case in 1863, and in that year was a candidate for lieutenant governor on the ticket with Vallandigham. He was defeated, as he was the following year for congress. He was elected delegate to the state constitu-tional convention in 1873 but declined to act. As an advocate and as an orator he was regarded as without a rival. His intellectual powers matured early in life and for some years his wonderful memory, little short of marvelous, and his power of collecting and using his materials even under the most adverse circum-stances, made him almost invincible. In an argument before the court he was able even without preparation to cite with verbal accuracy decision after decision pertaining to the question in point. He was never at loss for an authority and was equally forcible in his presentation of it. He died July 19, 1876.   The foregoing from Greves Centennial History of Cincinnati states in a brief and forcible way the facts concerning this remarkable man. He had a genius for law and advocacy. His blows to his opponents were lightning like in their quickness and destructive effect, yet he was of a genial and friendly disposition and much loved as well as admired by those who knew him best.   CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY - 155   Edward Alexander Ferguson was a native of New York, born November 6, 1826. In 1830 he came with his parents and an elder brother, William Gribbon Ferguson, to Cincinnati. He received his preliminary education in the public schools and at Talbot's Academy, later entering Woodward College front which he was graduated in the English department in June, 1843. He was admitted to the bar by the supreme court of Ohio in May, 1848, and began practice in the following December, having for the previous eighteen months taught in the public schools of Cincinnati. From the beginning of his work as a lawyer it was evident that he was destined for leadership and he soon gained recognition as one of the brightest members of the Cincinnati bar. In April, 1852, being then twenty-six years of age, he was elected by the city council of Cincinnati as city solicitor. His first duty was to go to Columbus, Ohio, where the first general assembly under the constitution of 1851 was in session and there he assisted Judge Gholson in drawing up a bill which became the municipal code of Ohio. His term as city solicitor expired in May, 1853, and soon afterwards he was appointed by the commissioners of Hamilton county as their legal adviser, which position he filled for about eight years. In October, 1859, he was elected as a member of the state senate and while in that body drew bills which became laws relating to the city and county government and street railways, and many others. He specialized in corporation law and became recognized as one of the leading corporation attorneys of Cincinnati. He served as general counsel for the Cincinnati Gas Light and Coke Company for about thirty-three years and was retained as attorney by the Spring Grove Avenue Company, the Stock Yards Company, the Incline Plane Railway Company, the Steam Stoker Company, and also for some years general counsel for the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway Company. He was an indefatigable worker, possessing extraordinary powers of physical and mental endurance which for many years were taxed almost to their limit.   It was his connection with the Cincinnati Southern railway, the only railway owned by a municipality in the United States, which brought Mr. Ferguson most prominently before the public and in the discharge of duties pertaining to this project he found a field for the exercise of his rare talents that could scarcely have been presented elsewhere. He was a member of the original board of trustees of the Cincinnati Southern railway and continued a leading member of1 the board during the remainder of his life—a period of nearly thirty-seven years. He devised the plan upon which the railway was built, being the author of the act passed by the Ohio legislature May 4, 1869, known as the "Ferguson Act," which provided for its construction by the city, which was completed in December, 1879. He was closely identified with the actual construction and ultimate disposition of the railway, and but few details in its history fail to reveal the impress of his ac-tivity. Material interests, political preferment were sacrificed, and a life of high possibilities devoted with rare unselfishness to this one end.   On the 17th of September, 1851, Mr. Ferguson was married to Miss Agnes Moore, a granddaughter of Adam Moore, an early pioneer and a leading merchant of Cincinnati, and they became the parents of sons and daughters in whom they took just pride and who live to perpetuate his work and his memory. He died April 20, 1966, in the eightieth year of his life.   156 - CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY   William S. Groesbeck was born in the state of New York on the 4th day of July, 1815, of Dutch and English ancestry. The Groesbeck family are said to have come originally from Amsterdam and were people of much "consequence there. The family removed to Cincinnati in 1816 and William graduated at Miami University in 1835, in a class containing a number of men ,'who afterwards distinguished themselves in public life. Then and afterwards he was known as a painstaking and close student. He studied law with Vachel Worthington, and was admitted to the bar in Cincinnati in 1836, where he entered into practice with Charles L. Telford and afterwards with Samuel J. Thompson, with such success that in 1857 he was able to give up the active practice, but he continued to take a lively interest in public affairs and matters relating to his profession. He was a member of the convention which framed the constitution of 1851 and took a large part in the deliberations of that body. He afterwards 'served as a member of the commission to prepare the code of civil procedure, and the work as it came from the commission has been generally regarded as one of the most perfect specimens of legislation ever produced in Ohio. He was elected by the Democrats in 1856 and in 1858 he was reelected to represent the second district of Ohio in congress. In 1861 he was appointed, with Chief Justice Chase and Thomas Ewing, to represent the state of Ohio at the peace convention which assembled at Washington on the invitation of the state of Virginia, to devise measures to avert the approaching war. He was an opponent of slavery and a supporter of the union before and after the commencement of the Civil war. After the war he said in one of his speeches, "War legislates, and with the legislation of the war we are satisfied." And later, in speaking of the constitutional amendments, he said : "Amendments have been made and they will stand." Gradually he had become known to the people of his city as an orator of great power, but he remained so strictly in retirement, and usually took so little part in official life, that his qualifications in that respect were not much known in other communities. But in the year 1868 he startled the whole country by his speech in defense of Andrew Johnson upon the trial of his impeachment before the United States senate. It was everywhere regarded as the ablest 61 the great speeches made on that occasion and had much to do. with the failure of the attempt to impeach the president. It has been spoken of by historical writers as "a masterly argument on the legal questions in the case ;" "a clear and forceful presentation of the grounds of defense;" that Mr. Groesbeck was "the most successful in presenting with enormous vehemence of logic and eloquence, the defense of the impeached president." Mr. Justice B. R. Curtis, who was of counsel in the case, spoke of it as "the most finished and complete of all the arguments:" It was the speech of a great man and worthy of a great occasion, and ranks high among the greatest speeches ever delivered in the United States senate. As a result, Mr. Groesbeck was frequently spoken of as a proper person for the presidency and for the office of chief justice, and other great offices, none of which were sought him. He subsequently made occasional speeches of great beauty and power. One of the latest was at the banquet tendered by members of the bar to Mr. Aaron F: Perry upon the occasion of his retirement from practice in the year 1891, in the course of which Mr. Groesbeck rendered a tribute to the memory   CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY - 157   of Abraham Lincoln which was considered something remarkable. He served as a member in the National Monetary Commission, representing the United States in that body, at Paris, and made strong addresses in favor of an agreement among the nations as to a uniform coinage of gold and silver. He died July 7, 1897. A man of great dignity and magnificent presence, he was such a figure as one would imagine proper to appear in the senate in its greatest days.   George H. Pendleton was born of distinguished ancestry in Cincinnati in the year 1825, was educated there and at Heidelberg, Germany, and was admitted to the bar in the year 1846; represented the First District in congress from 1857 to 1865. He was nominated as a candidate for the vice presidency on the ticket with General McClellan in the year 1864 and in 1868 was defeated for the presidential nomination by but a few votes in the convention. He was chosen and served as senator from Ohio from 1878 to 1884. During his term in that office he greatly distinguished himself as the author and advocate of the first civil service act passed by congress. He was appointed by President Cleveland as ambassador to Germany in 1885 and died abroad in the year 1889. Few men of higher ideals have served in the legislative bodies of our country. He was popular with all classes and parties, although an unswerving Democrat. His appearance and manners were such that he became known as "Gentleman George," and the soubriquet clung to him throughout life.   THE SUPERIOR COURT OF CINCINNATI.   A court consisting of a single judge and called the Superior court of Cincinnati was created in the year 1838 and continued to exist down to the time of the adoption of the constitution of Ohio of 1851. The judges who successively occupied the bench of that court were : David K. Este, Charles D. Coffin, William Johnston, Charles P. James and George Hoadly.   After the adoption of the constitution of 1851 the same feeling which had brought the old Superior court into existence led to the creation of the present Superior court of Cincinnati, the act providing for which is dated April 7, 1854. The territorial jurisdiction of the court was confined to the city boundaries, and its jurisdiction in other respects was limited so as to exclude criminal, divorce, and other similar business, as well as minor cases coming up on appeal from justices of the peace. The object for which the court was created was to dispose of civil controversies of the larger sort concerning rights of person and property, and, on the whole, after an active existence of more than fifty years, it seems to have justified the expectations of its founders.   The first election of judges was held on the first Monday of May, 1854, and resulted in the choice of William Y. Gholson, Oliver M. Spencer and Bellamy Storer. Their terms of office were determined by lot and Judge Gholson received a commission for a full term of five years, Judge Spencer for a term of four years, and Judge Storer for three years. The first term of the court began under auspicious circumstances. The three judges who then qualified and took their seats on the bench were lawyers of much more than ordinary reputation and capacity. An event rare in the history of the American judiciary occurred : the leaders of the bar gave up practice anti took seats upon the bench: The firm of Storer &   158 - CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY   Spencer had long occupied a leading place and enjoyed a lucrative practice at.the Cincinnati bar, and William Y. Gholson .had achieved a professional reputation hardly second to any lawyer in the state. A Virginian by birth and a graduate of Princeton, Judge Gholson had practiced for a time in the state of Mississippi, but came to Cincinnati while yet a young man. His keen logical intellect, joined to his power of accurate statement, soon made his influence felt at the bar, and it was not long before he had gathered round him a profitable clientage.   judge Spencer has been said to have had a genius for the law, and especially for the judicial field. All his contemporaries speak of him in terms of admiration. He is said to have been especially broadminded, equitable and considerate, as well as deeply read in the law, and possessed of acute powers of discrimination. He was a native of Cincinnati, his ancestors having been among the first settlers, and one of them is said to have been scalped by the Indians in one of their raids upon the infant settlement. Judge Spencer was reelected a judge of the Superior court in the year 1859 and died in office in 1861.   Perhaps no man ever sat on the bench in Hamilton county who made a deeper impression than Bellamy Storer. His long term of service on the bench, nearly eighteen years, combined with his mental and physical vigor, made him known to the people and the bar as few other judges have been. Judge Storer graduated at Bowdoin college and came to Cincinnati in the year 1817: Coming to the bench in the maturity of his powers, and after a long and varied experience at the bar, he was prepared to and did render great service, especially in the disposition of the miscellaneous questions that arise in a busy nisi prius court.. He was four times elected to the position, and, resigning his office January 1, 1872, died soon a afterwards.   The first of the three original judges to leave the bench was Judge Gholson, who took his departure at the end of his term of five years. He afterwards served a term as a judge of the Supreme court of Ohio, and it is but just to say that his reported decisions rank with the best opinions published by that court. Judge Gholson afterwards returned to the practice, in which he continued with much success to the time of his death.   He was immediately succeeded by another famous lawyer, George Hoadly, who, after serving out his term of office in 1864, returned to the bar and achieved great success.   In 1864 Alphonso Taft was chosen by the people to succeed Judge Hoadly on the bench of the Superior court, and he too brought to the discharge of his duties qualities of the highest order. He seemed to have been formed by nature to fill a judicial position. Of broad, clear comprehension, deeply learned, painstaking and accurate, kindly and charitable, deliberate in speech and action, yet as firm as his native granite hills, he seemed to lack no quality necessary to the discharge of his duties in the most successful manner, and his career on the bench justified this opinion. He served for about nine years in such a manner as to elicit only good words from the bar and the public,. and resigned January 1, 1872, at the same time as Judge Storer.   J. Bryant Walker, son of a distinguished father, Timothy Walker, and a junior member of the bar, of great promise, whose early death has been much lamented, was appointed to fill the vacancy occasioned by Judge Taft's resignation, and held   CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY - 159   the place until the ensuing election, when Alfred Yaple was chosen by the people to the position.   Judge Yaple had the profound respect of the community, which was shown in a striking manner in the year 1874, when he was reelected without opposition. The republican party, to which he was opposed, paid him the compliment of declining to nominate a candidate against him, At the end of his term in 1879 he returned to the bar, where he continued in practice until his death in the year 1893.   The regular election in 1879 designated as the successor of Judge Yaple a rising young man who has since acquired a national reputation. Joseph B. Foraker took his seat upon the bench in that year and began the performance of duties with characteristic energy. A graduate of Cornell, with a good deal of varied experience acquired during his practice at the bar, he brought to the bench a strong sense of right, quick and clear perceptions, and strong reasoning powers. While in good health his service was very satisfactory to the bar; but the confinement of judicial life soon began to wear upon him and his health failed, so that he resigned his position in 1882 and returned to the more active life at the bar, where he was speedily restored to health and strength.   The vacancy caused by Judge Foraker's resignation was filled by the appointment of William Worthington, who served very acceptably until the ensuing election.   Hiram D. Peck was chosen in 1883 for the residue of Judge Foraker's term, and took his seat upon the bench. He was reelected in 1884 and served out his term, ending in 1889, when, declining a renomination, he returned to the practice in which he met with much success. Judge Peck was succeeded by Governor Edward F. Noyes, who served until the following summer, when he suddenly died and John Riner Sayler was appointed to fill the vacancy until the next election (1891), when Judge Rufus B. Smith, was chosen by the people and ably filled the position until the year 1904 when he (reclined a reelection and was succeeded by the present incumbent Judge Hoffheimer.   The second vacancy on the bench of the superior court was caused by the death of Judge Spencer in the year 1861, and it was filled by no less a personage than Stanley Matthews, of whom it is said that he was elected while serving in the army as a colonel of Ohio volunteers, and that he returned home to take his seat on the bench. The short period which he served as a judge of the superior court was sufficient to indicate the high class of judicial work of which he was capable and his early resignation was a matter of general regret.   Charles Fox, a practitioner of many years' experience and much respected, succeeded Judge Matthews and served out the term, which expired in 1869. He afterwards returned to the bar, and lived to be its senior member.   Judge M. B. Hagans was in 1869 elected to the position vacated by Judge Fox, and served until 1873, when he resigned to return to practice, from which he retired some years since.   The successor of Judge Hagans was Myron H. Tilden, celebrated for profound learning and for many years a professor in the Cincinnati Law School. He was especially noted for his knowledge of equity jurisprudence and procedure. He served until the year 1878, when he retired in broken health.   160 - CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY   Judson Harmon, then in the flush of young manhood, succeeded to the office and continued on the bench, rendering valuable service, until 1887, when he resigned to become the head of the firm which had theretofore been led by Judge Hoadly, who removed to New York. Judge Harmon was as successful at the bar as on the bench, and was appointed attorney-general of the United States by President Cleveland during the latter's second term. He was subsequently elected and reelected governor of the state under circumstances which served to show his great popularity.   William H. Taft was the successor of Judge Harmon on the bench of the superior court, and continued thereon until the year 1890, when he resigned to accept the position of solicitor-general of the United States, from which he was further promoted to that of judge of the United States circuit court for the sixth circuit. His great subsequent career is a part of our. national history of which his native city is very proud.   The vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Taft was filled by the election of Samuel F. Hunt, whose popularity was further attested by his reelection in 1893. He was succeeded in 1898 by Edward J. Dempsey, who served with great success and was afterwards elected mayor of the city. The last of the three original judges of the superior court to leave the bench was Judge Storer, who resigned January 1, 1872, after a continuous service of nearly eighteen years.   John L. Miner, an old and well known member of the bar, and a former partner in practice with Judge Gholson, was appointed to and filled the vacancy until the next election, when Timothy A. O'Connor was elected by the people and took his seat upon the bench, where he remained until 1877, the expiration of his term. During a large part of his term of office Judge O'Connor was troubled by ill health.   Manning F. Force succeeded Judge O'Connor. He brought to the bench a capacity, training and experience rarely combined in one person. A graduate of Harvard, he came to Cincinnati soon after leaving college and began the practice of law. At the outbreak of the Civil war he entered the army and rapidly' rose in rank until he attained that of major-general. He participated in the Vicksburg and Atlanta campaigns and led his division on Sherman's march to the sea, besides seeing a good deal of other hard service. He was severely wounded at Atlanta, but returned to the army as soon as he recovered, and remained with it until the close of the war. Soon after his return home he was elected a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Hamilton county, and continued on the bench of that court for a period of ten years. After a brief interval Judge Force was elected to the superior court where he remained for two terms. He received the compliment of a unanimous reelection in 1882, the Democratic party declining to nominate a candidate against him. To the regret of the entire profession Judge Force left the bench in 1887 because of failing health. A few months at the bar served to restore him to good condition, but he was not permitted to remain long in practice: At the earnest request of the board of trustees, of Governor Foraker, and many friends, he accepted the position of commandant of the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, to which he was appointed in the year 1888 and where he afterwards died.   CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY - 161   Frederick W. Moore was elected to take the place vacated by Judge Force in 1887. He, too, had been a distinguished officer in the army during the Civil war, rising to the position of colonel of the Eighty-first Ohio volunteers, and after the war was appointed to a position in the regular army, which he subsequently resigned to return to the bar. Prior to his election to the superior court he had served two terms as judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He was reelected to the superior court in 1892, and retired at the end of his term in the year 1897, to be succeeded by William H. Jackson, son of the late Justice Jackson, of Tennessee, who served until the expiration of his term in 1902 when he was succeeded by the present incumbent, Frederick S. Spiegel.   JUDGES OF THE SUPERIOR COURT OF CINCINNATI. FROM ITS ORGANIZATION TO THE PRESENT TIME.   William Y. Gholson, 1854-1859; George- Hoadly, 1859-1864; Alphonso Taft, 1864-1872; J. Bryant Walker, 1872 ; Alfred Yaple, 1872-1879; Joseph B. Foraker, 1879-1882; William Worthington, 1882-1883; Hiram D. Peck, 1883-1889; Edward F. Noyes, 1889-1890; John Riner Sayler, 189o-1891 ; Rufus B. Smith, 18911904 ; Harry M. Hoffheimer, 1904—.   Oliver M. Spencer, 1854-1861; Charles D. Coffin, 1861-1862; Stanley Matthews, 1862-1863; Charles Fox, 1863-1868; Marcellus B. Hagans, 1868-1873; Myron H. Tilden, 1873-1878; Judson Harmon, 1878-1887; William H. Taft, 1887-189o; Samuel F. Hunt, 1890-1898; Edward J. Dempsey, 1898-1903; Lewis M. Hosea, 1903-1908 ; Alberto C. Shattuc, 1908—.   Bellamy Storer, 1854-1872; John L. Miner, 1872; Timothy A. O'Connor, 1872-1877; Manning F. Force, 1877-1887; Frederick W. Moore, 1887-1897; William H. Jackson, 1897-1902; Frederick S. Spiegel, 1902-.   THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS.   The popular court with the people of Ohio has always been the court of Common Pleas. By reason of its great jurisdiction covering every sort of case, civil and criminal, its popular organization and close contact with the people generally, it has always maintained a strong position and has been regarded with affection by the people of the state.   Under the first constitution of Ohio the court of Common Pleas consisted of a presiding judge and three associate judges, who sitting together performed the duties of the court. The presiding judge was chosen from the bar and presumptively learned in the law, but the other judges were chosen from the community at large and might or might not have any special knowledge of the law. They were usually men of solid worth and perhaps with some experience in administration of other offices and public affairs generally. Their presence as members of the court was supposed to bring an element of common sense and equity which served to modify the severe technical rules of the law. However, it did not seem to be satisfactory and the system was abolished by the constitution of 1851 and the present system, with a single judge, almost invariably chosen from the bar, was substituted and has proved satisfactory.   Vol. II-11     162 - CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY   Among the judges of the old regime, were George P. Torrence, who served as presiding judge for some twenty years in the early days of the city's history, and later William B. Caldwell, who served so satisfactorily that he was subsequently elected to the supreme bench from which he retired to conduct a successful practice of law for a long time and became one of the leaders of the bar especially noted for his power of advocacy. He had a great sense of humor and a turn of wit which made him a very acceptable speaker and a very formidable antagonist in the trial of causes. His good natured kindliness and friendly disposition toward all men were as well known as his legal capacity.   Among the men who served as judges in the court of Common Pleas of Hamilton county since the adoption of the present constitution, a number have especially distinguished themselves. Among these was M. W. Oliver, a graduate of Miami university, much distinguished for learning and uprightness. Another was Patrick Mallon, one of the best loved men of his time, a native of Ireland who came to Cincinnati in 1845, studied law with Judge Alphonso Taft, and afterwards practiced in partnership with him. Later he served as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, where he was distinguished for his love of justice and his discrimination in administering it, his clear perception of legal principles, and his benevolence and kindliness. At the end of his term of office he resumed the practice of the law, which he carried on with much success to the time of his death. He was especially distinguished as an advocate in jury trials, where his candor, wit and eloquence combined to win him many a verdict. Many of his happiest hours were passed at the Literary club, where he often revelled in the poetry and humor of his native as well as his adopted land.   William L. Avery, served as judge from 1872 to 1882 in a most acceptable manner. He had a great knowledge of the law, excelled in analysis and the power of applying legal principles to the facts of a case. He had a general soundness of judgment which led to great results. Few men have left the bench with greater regard of the legal profession than did Judge Avery. His name was a synonym of courage, honesty and ability.   Manning F. Force, who also served as a judge of the superior court and a short notice of whose life is given in that connection. It should be said here, however, that Judge Force first demonstrated his judicial capacity as a judge of the Common Pleas court.   Charles C. Murdock, who served several successive terms and was renowned for his application of common sense to the solution of legal questions.   Moses F. Wilson, a graduate of Miami, was a student of law with Aaron F. Peary. He was successively elected prosecuting attorney of the police court, judge of the police court and judge of the court of common pleas, under such circumstances as to demonstrate his great popularity and he discharged the duties of all those offices in such a way as to add to the regard in which he was held by the bar and the people. He was widely read in the law and with a great knowl-edge of human nature. His judgments largely consisted of his application of legal principles to the facts before him illuminated by any kindly and charitable con-siderations which could legitimately be brought to bear. No one could deal out swift punishment to the willful criminal more promptly- than he and no one had More consideration for erring and fallen humanity. A wide reader of   CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY - 163   general literature in various languages, Judge Wilson is known as a man of extraordinary culture and his judgment in literary matters as well as of men and matters in general is highly regarded by all who know him.   As a speaker on social occasions, he is famous by reason of the wit and humor which he infuses into his efforts and is always in demand on such occasions. After his retirement from the bench, Judge Wilson suffered the loss of his eyesight so as to be compelled to give up practice, but he now very acceptably fills a chair at the law school.   John Riner Sayler was a graduate of Miami and subsequently a student in Heidelberg, Germany, and at the Sorbonne. He came to the bar unusually well prepared for the practice of his profession. In the year 1890, he was appointed judge of the superior court in Cincinnati by the governor of Ohio to fill a vacancy created by the death of Ex-Governor Noyes and held the position for about one year until the next election. Soon afterwards he was elected a judge of the court of common pleas and served a term in that position to the great acceptance of the bar and to the people. He then returned to the practice of law which he has conducted with great success. He occupies a chair at the law school where his popularity is great and is also one of the trustees of the Cincinnati & Southern Ry., which is a position of great responsibility, the duties of which he discharges with such fidelity and success as to constitute his efforts an example to others.   Judge Sayler is a man of great learning, profoundly read in the classics. He has continued the study of them throughout his life as also of modern literature so that few men can be found who are more cultured than he. It does not come within the scope of this work to speak of the present incumbents of the bench but it is sufficient to say that there are among them, men quite competent to carry forward the great tradition of the court of common pleas.   The judges of the court of common pleas now are : John A. Caldwell, James R. Swing, D. D. Woodmansee, Jacob Bromwell, John G. O'Connell, William L. Dickson, Charles J. Hunt, Frank M. Gorman, Wade Cushing.   THE CINCINNATI LAW LIBRARY.   The need of a law library seems to have been experienced at an early date in Cincinnati, for a special charter was obtained in the year 1834 for the incorporation of the Cincinnati Law library, but with that effort the energies of the promoters seem to have been exhausted, for no organization was ever ef-fected under the charter and nothing was done until the year 1846, when a meeting of the bar was called in the courtroom of the old Superior court, and a resolution adopted that efforts should be made to create a library. A committee of five, consisting of William R. Morris, Daniel Van Matre, W. M. Corry, Alphonso Taft and George E. Pugh was appointed to devise a plan of procedure and raise money for the purpose. A subscription paper was circulated among the members of the bar, each of whom pledged himself to the payment of twenty-five dollars. It was signed by one hundred and seven members of the bar, a very large proportion of the then membership. The first purchase of books was made in January, 1847, and Bernhard Bradley was appointed librarian. A large bookcase was procured and placed at the right of the entrance to the court of common   164 - CINCINNATI-THE QUEEN CITY   pleas, and in this case was placed the entire library so obtained. In 1847, another act of incorporation was taken out, and under it trustees were elected and a permanent organization effected. William R. Morris was made president, Oliver M. Spencer, vice president, and Daniel Van Matre, treasurer. In 1848, A. A. Pruden was appointed librarian to succeed Bernhard Bradley, who held the office until the burning of the courthouse in 1849. Immediately after that, Joseph Macdougall became librarian and held office for one year. On the first of December, 185o, John Bradley was appointed librarian and continued in the position until 1861, when he died. Maurice William Meyers was then appointed librarian and continued in office and in active discharge of his duties until his death in the year 1899. It is not probable that any official connected with the courts made such an impression on the bar as did Mr. Meyers. Always active and vigorous, always pressing the interests of the library, his wit and humor, as well as his efficiency, made him a. marked man. In a report published in the year 1875, it was said of him.: "The good condition and orderly arrangement. of our books and our slight loss of books, the decorum and scrupulous neatness, and the extension and constant improvement of our rooms have been largely owing to his intelligent, watchful and conscientious care of our interests." No book went out of the library without Mr. Meyer's knowledge, and he was always insistent upon the maintenance of quiet and decorum. Any loud talking in the library was sure to call for a remonstrance from him. and many a member can recall instances where the librarian has requested members seated at the tables to re-move their hats. As a result of his insistence, the library was always as neat as a well kept drawing room and as decorous, nor is it any less so under the prescript incumbent. At the death of Mr. Meyers, Mr. Edwin Gholson was appointed, and has ever since discharged the duties of the office to the great satisfaction of the bench and bar. In the meantime the library has grown to large proportions although it twice suffered from the destruction of the courthouse by fire. In 1849 the burning of the "old" courthouse caused a loss of all the furniture, but the books were saved, mainly due to the efforts of Bernhard Bradley. In 1884 the library was considered one of the most complete law libraries then existing in this country. It was totally destroyed by the burning of the courthouse at the time of the great riot in that year. But a single volume of the more, than twenty-five thousand in it remained after that event. The officers and members were at first stunned by the completeness of the destruction, but they soon rallied, and at a meeting held shortly afterwards, each member agreed to an assessment of one hundred dollars, all of which was subsequently paid, and as there were then some two hundred and fifty members, the fund was sufficient to found the library anew upon a broad basis. The insurance companies paid some insurance which had been taken out on the library destroyed and donations were received, so that in a surprisingly short time there was an excellent working library in the courthouse, and it has gone on increasing since that time until it is now much larger than ever before.   As the federal courtrooms were far from the county courthouse, it was determined by the federal judges' sitting at Cincinnati to establish a library for the use of themselves and the bar of those courts. It was ordered that the fees received from admissions to the bar and certain other funds be expended for the   CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY - 165   purchase and care of books, a large room in the federal building was set aside for the purpose and a competent lady secured as librarian. The result to date is a fine collection of well kept books including a full set of American reports, the principal English reports and a large number of text-books, statutes, and miscellaneous works—so that the Cincinnati bar now has access to two good law libraries.   THE LAW SCHOOL OF CINCINNATI COLLEGE.   One of the agencies which contributed to maintain the high standard to which the Hamilton county bar long since attained, has undoubtedly been the law school. It has the good fortune to number among its faculty some lawyers of great learning who are also painstaking instructors.   In its seventy-eight years of existence it has turned out nearly four thousand lawyers, many of whom have doubtless passed away, but a large number of them are scattered over the country and are still in active practice.   In the year 1819, an act of the general assembly incorporated "the president, trustees and faculty of the Cincinnati College" and in 1834-5 by the efforts of Dr. Drake and others, two departments, a medical school and a law school were established. The medical school soon passed away from want of support, but the law school continued and flourished from that day to this. The first professors were, Judge John C. Wright, Edward King and Judge Timothy Walker. To the latter a large part of the success of the school is attributed. He continued his connection with it until his death in 1856 and at times it is said he was the only instructor present.   Many distinguished men have since held places in its faculty, among them were B. Storer, Geo. Hoadly, John W. Stephenson of Kentucky, Judge James, M. H. Tilden, Judge Manning, F. Force, Ex-Governor Jacob D. Cox, Hiram D. Peck, Rufus King, G. H. Wald and Harlan Cleveland.   In the year 188o, Governor Cox became dean of the faculty, a position which he held for the ensuing seventeen years and during that time the school attained the highest degree of prosperity ever reached by it. During the last eleven years of his administration the graduating classes numbered an average of about one hundred. The character and instruction given is shown by the large number of successful graduates now engaged in practice.   In the year 1897 Governor Cox resigned his position and the school was con-solidated with a school which a year or two before had been founded by the University of Cincinnati and of which Wm. H. Taft was made dean. A faculty larger in number and a very high class was secured and the system of instruction somewhat changed. The school started upon a new career and it seems to be increasing in strength and popularity.   The services of Wm. H. Taft, were soon lost. By reason of his being called to other eminent positions he necessarily laid down the active work of the deanship and the late Gustavus H. Wald was appointed in his place and served some two or three years when he suddenly died, to the great regret of the bar generally and especially that portion of it connected with the law school.   Mr. Wm. Rogers, a learned lawyer and a gentleman skilled as an instructor and manager of institutions devoted to instruction, was secured to take the place   166 - CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY   of dean and has since occupied the same, to the satisfaction of the friends of the school.   Among the faculty at this time are, Henry A. Morrill, Judson Harmon, John R. Sayler, Lawrence Maxwell and Robt. C. Pugh, all men of much distinction at the bar and devoted to the work of instruction.   There is no doubt that the old school will go on turning out generations of lawyers as heretofore and so elevating the standard of the law at Cincinnati and throughout the country generally. The list of its alumni contains many illustrious names.   It is not the purpose of the writer of this chapter to include memoirs of living persons among those appearing in it. There are so many men young and old of more or less distinction at the Cincinnati bar that an attempt to write a biographic sketch of each would probably result in a long series of papers of such general resemblance as to be uninteresting; and the attempt to select and distinguish between them, would be difficult and probably unsatisfactory. Three exceptions to this rule appear to be desirable, because the men to be named have been placed in public positions such as to make it improbable that any of them will ever again appear at the bar as active practitioners, or have voluntarily retired from active practice. The most prominent of the three is William Howard Taft, now president of the United States. The salient facts of his life are so well known that it is hardly necessary to repeat them here. His life has been so fully occupied by the performance of the public duties of the great offices to which he has been called that his time for practice at the bar has been brief and his career as an advocate not fully developed. But what he did while in practice was such as to give evidence of great possibilities for the future. As solicitor general of the United States he had charge of some great causes and presented them in such a way as to win the approbation of the supreme and other courts before which he appeared. His career in Cincinnati was mainly judicial, consisting of some three years on the bench of the superior court and seven or eight in that of the U. S. circuit court for the sixth circuit. The work performed by him is fairly represented by his published opinions and was such as to give him a high place among the judges of the country and to cause his name to be frequently discussed as that of one fitted for the Supreme court of the United States.   His career after leaving the bench exhibited to the public another side of his character and rendered it probable that his executive abilities exceed his judicial qualities, great as are the latter. His successes in the Phillippines, in Cuba and as secretary of war were such as to show that he is capable of dealing with difficult and complicated situations in a decisive and satisfactory way. His fellow members of the bar at Cincinnati take a just pride in his great success.   The next of the three exceptions referred to is Judson Harmon, born at Newton, Hamilton county, 1846, graduated at Dennison University and the Cincinnati Law School and admitted to the bar in 1870. In 1876 he was elected a judge of the court of common pleas by the -votes of a majority of the electors of Hamilton county but deprived of the office by a partisan legislature upon a contest of the election. He was elected a judge of the Superior court of Cincinnati in 1878 and was reelected in 1883, and served until 1887, when he resigned to succeed Governor Hoadly in the famous partnership of which he was then the leader.   CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY - 167   Governor Harmon was as great a success at the bar as on the bench and for years conducted a very extensive practice with distinguished success until he was suddenly interrupted by an unexpected appointment as attorney-general of the United States, conferred upon him by President Cleveland in 1895, which office he accepted and filled with his usual ability until the close of Mr. Cleveland's administration. Among other cases successfully conducted by him was the first of the great "trust" prosecutions in which he succeeded in establishing the proposition that the Sherman act prohibiting monopolies and monopolistic combinations applies to combinations of railway companies, and compelled the dissolution of the Trans-Missouri association, the defendant in that case. After the expiration of his term as attorney general Governor Harmon returned to the practice and continued in it until 1905 when he was appointed by the United States circuit court of the sixth circuit receiver of the Cincinnati Hamilton & Dayton and the Pere Marquette railways. He continued to operate and control these roads until he was elected governor in 1908 and conducted their affairs with such success that foreclosures were avoided and they were restored to their respective companies with credit so far reestablished that they have ever since been operating as solvent concerns.   In the year 1908 William H. Taft was a candidate for president on the republican ticket, and Judson Harmon was a candidate for governor of Ohio on the democratic ticket at the same election. Under such circumstances the chances of Harmon's election seemed slender indeed, not much better than a forlorn hope in the eyes of the average politician. But when the votes were counted, it appeared that although Taft had carried Ohio by a great majority, Harmon had also carried it by one of equal magnitude. Governor Harmon was reelected by an immense majority in the year 1910 and is now everywhere regarded by the people of his state as the proper standard bearer for the democratic party at the next presidential election.   Another of the exceptions above referred to is John W. Warrington, appointed a judge of the United States circuit court of the sixth circuit in the year 1910, to succeed Judge Richards. By reason of the promotion of Judge Luston and the retirement of Judge Severens, Judge Warrington soon became the presiding judge of the Sixth Circuit, a position which he now adorns. Prior to his appointment Judge Warrington had spent many years at the bar in very active practice. It is doubtful if any man ever appeared in a greater number of cases at the Hamilton county bar than he participated in and his cases were usually among the most important before the court. His success with them was so great that his practice continually grew until he withdrew from it to ascend the bench. He was counsel for many corporations, firms and individuals, and represented many leading interests in and about Cincinnati. He has all the intellectual and moral qualities that go to make up a great lawyer, combined with such a sweetness of temper and engaging manner that he is universally popular with members of the bar and the people generally. He held but a single office prior to his appointment as judge, that of city solicitor of Cincinnati, 1873-1875 and discharged its duties in such a manner as to attract the attention and approbation of every one interested in the subject. It will be noted that the office was   168 - CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY   one which did not withdraw him from practice at the bar but only confined him to municipal cases while he continued in it.   Judge Warrington was born July 26, 1846, in Clark county, Ohio, the son of a clergyman, of English origin and a lady of Virginia descent. He enlisted in the army in the year 1862 and saw much hard service, participating in many battles including the Wilderness and Petersburg campaigns. He was severely wounded in the final assault on Petersburg and was very near to losing a leg, which was only saved to him by his persistent refusal to permit its amputation, notwith-standing the surgeon advised it. His injury was such as to compel his retirement from the army. He graduated from the law school of the Cincinnati college in 1869 and was immediately admitted to the bar.   His friends anticipate years of distinguished and useful service from him, on the bench of the circuit court and perhaps in a still higher position.   EDMUND W. KITTREDGE.   If the average member of the bar of Cincinnati were asked, who is the leader of this bar, he would almost certainly answer, "Mr. Kittredge." By reason of his years, his long and continuous devotion to the law and extensive practice, his high character and lofty ideals, he has gradually attained a position as high, and in the opinion of many, somewhat higher than that of any of his contemporaries.   Born in New Hampshire in 1833 and admitted to the bar in 1856, he has ever since that time been devoted to the law without permitting himself to be diverted to any other occupation of public or private character. He was always thorough in preparation and earnest in the conduct of any case entrusted to him, and as a result his practice attained great proportions.   A distinguished gentleman of the judiciary has heretofore said of him "Mr. Kittredge possesses unusual endurance and apparently starting with careful and early mental training, he has ever since augmented his knowledge and has espe-cially devoted himself to scientific study of the law, indeed his originality and attainments gave him wide range and always rendered him instructive. His honesty and character are superlative, as an advocate he is remarkably equipped both in attributes and culture and as a man, he is an exemplar."   Mr. Kittredge has never taken any part in politics, not from any lack of in-terest in public affairs, but because his time and attention were mainly directed elsewhere. He has, frequently spoken out concerning men and events in a way to attract attention and to carry conviction. Being independent in partisan matters, his opinion carries great weight and he is looked upon with reverence by all the younger members of the bar.   THE BAR ASSOCIATION.   Many members of the bar, desirous of closer association and more opportunity for friendly intercourse than is afforded by the casual meetings incident to the transaction of ordinary business, in the year 1872 joined themselves together in the formation of a bar association and secured a charter for that purpose.   CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY - 169   The association was organized by the election of Alphonso Taft as president and a full corps of officers and has ever since existed, increasing with the growth of the bar and has in the main fulfilled the expectations of its founders.   Its principal purpose was, of course, social, and in that respect it has been a great success for each of its quarterly as well as its great annual meeting is much enjoyed by the members as an occasion for friendly talk where the good things of the table are disposed of amid a flow of wit, humor and general kindliness. The existence of the association has also been beneficial to the tone of the bar as a profession, elevating and broadening the views of its members. On a few occasions it has taken part in practical affairs, legislative and judicial in the matters relating to practice of the law.   On one occasion the association undertook the prosecution of a member of the bar accused of acts unbecoming a lawyer. After a famous and much imbittered controversy, he escaped punishment but the fact of the prosecution and the class of men connected with it had a wholesome effect on the bar and the community in general:   It may be here noted that the tendency of the bar from a very early time has been towards higher things. Education, training and culture have had a great deal to do with this progress and the bar association which brings the younger and humbler members into association with the noblest and ablest minds in it has contributed much to the same effect, so that while we say the principal benefits of the bar association have been social, yet its existence and conduct have had a very beneficial indirect effect on the profession.   The list of presidents of the bar association from the date of its organization to the present time is as follows : Alphonso Taft, 1872 ; Henry Stanbery, 18726; Isaac C. Collins, 1876-8; George Hoadly, 1878-80;. Joshua H. Bates, 188o82; Aaron F. Perry, 1882-3; Rufus King, 1883-6; Edmund W. Kittredge, 18869 ; Patrick Mallon, 1889-92 ; Channing Richards, 1892-3 ; Thornton M. Hinkle, 1893-5; Wm. Worthington, 1895-7; John R. Sayler, 1897-9; Frank M. Coppoch, 1899-1901; Moses F. Wilson, 1901-03; Alfred B. Benedict, 1903-04; Charles B. Wilby, 1904-5 ; Judson Harmon, 1905-6; Charles H. Stephens, 1906-7; Albert Bettinger, 1907-8; Rufus B. Smith, 1908-11.   The officers of the bar association for the years 1910-11 are : Rufus B. Smith, president; vice presidents, Frank 0. Suire, Thomas H. Darby, Robert Ramsey, Oliver B. Jones, Max B. May ; recording secretary, Ben. B. Nelson; corresponding secretary, Stanley W. Merrell; treasurer, William G. Hosea.   The total membership of the association in 1911 is 415. Something more than one-third of the nominal membership of the bar of the county, but probably a majority of those in active practice.   THE BAR OF TODAY.   The Cincinnati bar of the 20th century shows no signs of weakness or decay, but on the contrary seems to hold more firmly than ever its high place among the institutions of the country. It is still prolific of statesmen as well as lawyers. It has recently provided a president for the United States and has at least one other who is under consideration for that high office and the list of those who   170 - CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY   have distinguished themselves professionally is as brilliant as ever while the younger men who are pressing forward are of such quality as to give great hopes of the future.   We have seen that at the time of the completion of the "old" courthouse in 1819 there were twenty-seven members of the bar. The city directory for 1911 gives a list of about one thousand "Attorneys at Law" practicing in Cincinnati. The bar has grown with the growth of the city and has done its full share to promote its prosperity and maintain its prestige as a leading community of the Union.   Cincinnati, October 20. 1911. HIRAM D. PECK.   CHAPTER XII.   BANKS AND BANKERS.   BANKS ESTABLISHED IN CINCINNATI OVER A CENTURY AGO-SOME OF THE FIRST FINANCIAL CONCERNS-BRANCH OF THE UNITED STATES BANK-SCARCITY OF COIN AND SUSPENSIONS OF SPECIE PAYMENT-WILDCAT AND NECESSITY MONEY -THE CITY'S MANY BANKS AND THEIR BEAUTIFUL HOMES-NOTED MEN OF THE MONEY WORLD.   BY JOHN J. ROWE.   A history of the financial institutions in Cincinnati, and a review of financial conditions here, from the early settlement days to the present time, is interesting both as a record of this city, and as an example of banking and monetary conditions which, in a greater or less degree, prevailed over the whole United States. As Cincinnati has had banks for over a century, a record of the monetary and banking changes here covers all the periods from before the war of 1812 to the present time; also as the various panics and periods of monetary stringency, which swept over the whole country at each time of stress, affected the different centers of trade and population in proportionate degrees, this city has furnished a fair sample of the national evolution of banking, during the past century.   Fur traders, chiefly from the colony of Pennsylvania, were the first whites to use the Ohio country, exchanging cloth, blankets, spirits, beads, etc., with the Indians for skins and furs, at the time when the ownership of the country washed by the waters of the Ohio river was a matter of dispute between England and France.   The pioneers of Cincinnati brought very little with them in the shape of money, accordingly most of their transactions were in the form of barter. But little trading was done among the settlers themselves, at first, being, as they were, a community with common interests, working together, building each others' cabins, turn and turn about. Trading with the Indians brought in skins, and furs of all kinds ; peltries soon became the standards of value, a rabbit skin being a five penny bit, or 6¼ cents, a coon skin, an eleven penny bit, or 12½ cents, a fox skin 25 cents, a deer skin, 50 cents, and so on.   Even in the eastern part of the country the amount of currency in use was very limited ; the money of the mother countries brought in by the settlers was the only currency at first, followed by the small coin of the different colonies, the "pine tree shilling," etc., then the colonial paper money appeared, although the foreign silver money was most in demand. The silver coins of Spain, the Spanish dollar especially, called a "piece of eight," or piastre, worth about eight York shillings, became the first United States legal tender.   When the troops arrived at Ft. Washington, the men were paid in Spanish silver at first, thus bringing a little more actual coin into the community. Soon   - 171 -   172 - CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY   these dollars were cut into four quarters, and even into eighths, to make change. and were called "sharp-shins." A little later the troops were paid with three dollar bills, issued by the Continental Congress in that denomination especially to pay troops, the pay being three dollars a month. These three dollar bills were called "oblongs."   Travel overland to. and from Cincinnati was extremely difficult and hazardous, the trading being carried on by the river, with flatboats, which floated down the stream and were abandoned at their destination, and with pirogues and keel-boats, which could go up the river, being operated by oars and poles.   In 1801 Samuel Highway and John Pool raised some capital to build a boat to be propelled by elastic vapour, or steam, and after considerable delay started actual construction. The two firms which were handling most of the river trade, Baum & Perry, and Riddle, Bechtle & Co., were desirous of facilitating navigation of the river, and when Jesse Hunt, a merchant of considerable prominence, suggested the formation of a large company to handle the river trade and engage in shipbuilding, the plan was quickly adopted.   Accordingly, in 1803, a charter for 40 years was granted by the first General Assembly of the new state of Ohio, for the Miami Exporting Co. The charter was made a liberal one, including permission to engage in banking, in addition to ship-building and trading, because of the thought that if the shipping business should not be successful, the capital could then be employed in banking. The first directorate was elected on June 16th, as follows: Martin Baum, Christian Waldsmith, Jesse Hunt, John Biggers, Daniel Symmes, William C. Schenck, Daniel Mayo, Israel Ludlow, Samuel C. Vance, Matthew Hueston, William Lytle.   When the board of directors organized, they elected Martin Baum as president.   The capital of the company was paid in slowly, partly in money, but largely in produce, and merchandise. Funds for the company were hard to obtain, and work was delayed. The company purchased from Highway and Pool, the boat then in process of building, but finally from lack of funds the company put the boat into operation as a "broad-horn," and it made the trip to and from New Orleans, propelled by sail, oar, and the current.   Trading under these conditions was a slow process—the round trip to New Orleans and back, taking about six months, and. finally the Miami Exporting Company decided to abandon the shipping business, and take up banking.,   Accordingly in March, 1807, the Miami Exporting Company opened a bank-ing office at the foot of Sycamore street, opposite the commons, or public quay, with Martin Baum as president, and the Rev. Oliver M. Spencer, as cashier. Capital was more easily obtained for a bank than for a shipping company, and soon the paid in capital amounted to $150,000, paid partly in cash, and partly by credit. The bank had 190 stockholders, and its notes, soon in circulation, were accepted readily, helping to facilitate trade and business in the community, which had been greatly hampered by the lack of sufficent actual money or circulating medium. "The fame of the bank spread through the western country," accord-ing to the historian Daniel Drake, and dividends from 10 to 15 per cent per annum were paid.   CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY - 173   As the Miami Bank, as it was popularly called, became more and more successful, the population of the town increasing above twenty-five hundred people by the end of 1810, the need for another bank was felt ; so in October 1811, a public meeting was held, at which it was resolved to establish another bank. Nicholas Longworth was elected secretary of the commissioners to establish the bank, and to obtain the charter. Accordingly, a charter was obtained for five years, for the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank. The authorized capital was $200,000 and about half of it was quickly paid in. The board of directors was to Consist of one third practical farmers, a like number of mechanics, and the others were representative men ; the first board was chosen, consisting of : Wm. Irwin, Stephen McFarland, Cave Johnson, Jacob Wheeler, Thomas D. Carneal, John Cranmer, Richard Williams, Wm. Woodward, James C. Morris, Nicholas Longworth, Jacob Baymiller.   Wm. Irwin was elected president, Samuel C. Vance, cashier ; the banking office was opened at 45 Main street. The bank soon had its capital employed, and its paper in circulation, which was readily accepted. The dividends ranged from 8 to 14 per cent for the first few years.   In the spring of 1814, the Bank of Cincinnati opened for business, not in-corporating, however, until 1816. It distributed its shares widely, having three hundred and forty-five shareholders, in 1815, and a paid in capital of $140,000. Ethan Stone was elected president, Lot Pugh cashier, and the following were the directors : Ethan Stone, Hezekiah Saunders, Joshua Gibson, Jr., Thomas Graham, Joshua Reynolds, Nathaniel Reeder, Levi James, Elijah Pearson, James Glenn, Oliver Martin, John S. Wallace.   Its first issue of notes appeared in June 1814, and the bank did well, in spite of the general depression throughout the country, occasioned by the War of 1812. The new bank paid a 3 per cent dividend the first six months, and 4 per cent for the next half year.   In the fall of this year Martin Baum resigned as president of the Miami Exporting Company, and O. M. Spencer was made president, Samuel C. Vance became cashier of the Miami bank, and Samuel W. Davies became cashier of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank.   By December, 1814, the three banks had issued a good many notes, the population had more than doubled in five years, being now over 5,000 people, and the actual specie in the district was extremely scarce. Accordingly on December 26th, a notice signed by the three bank presidents, O. M. Spencer, Wm. Irwin, and Ethan Stone, appeared in the Liberty Hall to the effect that the banks would dis-continue the payment of their notes in specie, because of the existing conditions, reciting the fact that specie commanded a premium of about 10 per cent in the east, etc.   This action of the banks caused a great deal of discussion, and on January 27, 1815, a citizens' meeting was held to protest against it. Major General John S. Gano presided at the meeting, Daniel Drake acted as secretary, and the following committee was selected to investigate the matter: Rev. J. L. Wilson, General Wm. Lytle, Major W. Ruffin, Major W. C. Anderson, Arthur St. Clair, Jr., William Corry, W. S. Keys, Davis Embree, Daniel Drake, Solomon Langdon, William Greene, Jeremiah Reeder, and Levi James. The report of this com-   174 - CINCINNATI—THE QUEEN CITY   mittee, which was a long and careful one, was favorable to the banks. It recited that actual specie was very scarce, that it was being drained from the west by the importation of goods from the east, and that it was a measure of self defense, to suspend the payment of specie.   In 1816 the first private bank started, John H. Piatt and Company taking up banking, partially giving up the general merchandise business which they had been carrying on, in addition to which Mr. Piatt had been supplying food and supplies to the U. S. army, under contract, during the War of 1812. Philip Grandin, brother-in-law of Mr. Piatt, was the silent partner in the bank of John H. Piatt & Co.; the banking office was on the south side of lower Market street, east of Main—John Armstrong was the first cashier. The firm's notes were soon in general circulation, in addition to those of the three incorporated banks, and some scrip of the corporation of Cincinnati, and some of their wage tickets, which passed as currency.   On January 27, 1817, the Cincinnati branch of the Second Bank of the United States, chartered by the United States in 1816 for twenty years, with a capital of $37,000,000, was established, Gorham A. Worth being sent out from the home office in Philadelphia, to act as cashier. Jacob Burnet was appointed president, with the following as the local directorate : Judge Jacob Burnet, John H. Piatt, Thomas Sloe, Jr., Col. William Piatt, Gen'l Wm. H. Harrison, Martin Baum, Hugh Glenn, Wm. M. Worthington, Joseph Perry, General James Findlay, James Keys, Andrew Mack, Daniel Drake.   The office of discount and deposit was opened in April, on the east side of Main between Third and Fourth streets. This branch of the U. S. bank brought some actual specie into the community, most of the capital, assigned to this branch being from the east, and in July of this year the other banks in Cincinnati resumed specie payments. The established banking hours were from 0 o'clock to 1. It was usual to leave all notes for discount the day before the funds were needed, except at the branch bank, which only discounted on Tuesdays.   Early in 1818 the Cincinnati banks found that the paper in circulation included all the banks except the U. S. bank notes, that the notes of the local banks flowed into the branch bank, through the deposits made there by the land office, and that soon after the issuance of a note, it came back for redemption. The capital assigned to the Cincinnati branch in May of this year amounted to $2,401,000, and their loans in June were $1,825,000.   During this year almost $900p00 of paper money issued by the banks of Cincinnati, and vicinity, was sent out to the branch from the home office, for redemption. Cincinnati bank paper had been widely distributed by this time, was quoted at 6 per cent discount in Philadelphia, and Piatt's bank notes at 472 per cent discount. Thus the large amount of paper which had been accumulating at the offices of the various branches for some time, was finally sent to Cincinnati for redemption, and could not be immediately redeemed.   From this time on, it was a struggle between the U. S. branch bank and the local banks in regard to the redemption of their paper. The land office would only accept such paper as would be accepted by the branch ; this excluded several Ohio banks which were not paying specie on their notes, but made all the Cincinnati bank paper acceptable.   CINCINNATI-THE QUEEN CITY - 175   On the 5th of November the Cincinnati banks suspended specie payments. The following is the account given in the Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette of Nov. 10, 1818:   "On Thursday last, the banks of the town came to the resolution to suspend the payment of specie. This policy was forced upon them by the hostile attitude assumed by the Bank of the United States. The cashier of the office here received orders last week to require immediate payment in specie or U. S. notes of the whole amount due from these banks to that institution, and not to receive in future in deposit or in payments to be made for lands in the receiver's office, which it seems is thus far under the control of this institution. . . .”   The great question of the day was now specie, and specie payments : Thus, when later in the month $120,000 specie was shipped, two wagon-loads of it overland, from the branch at Chillicothe to the home office of the U. S. bank at Philadelphia, the newspapers bristled with the "further draining of Ohio of specie," and "so the specie goes from our western country ! Such are the blessed effects of our mammoth bank."   The local committee, which had been chosen to investigate the question of specie payments, reported that it seemed to it a necessary step, for the banks of Cincinnati to suspend specie payments, under the existing conditions, and that they agreed with the action.   Below will be seen statements of the five Cincinnati banks, from 1819 to 1821, which show the local conditions of note issue and specie on hand, at the given dates. In January, 1819, several Ohio banks made a report of their condition to the auditor of state, in accordance with the new law, which appeared in the papers. From these figures, the total circulation almost equalled the total capital, the deposits were one-seventh of the capital, and the actual specie on hand was but one-quarter of the circulation.