The Territorial Judiciary - 275 seats. The clergyman, Rev. Dr. Cutler, then invoked the divine blessing. The Sheriff, Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, (one of nature's nobles) proclaimed with a solemn " 0 yes, 0 yes, 0 yes," that a Court is opened for the administration of even-handed justice—to the poor as well as the rich, to the guilty and innocent, without respect of persons; none to be punished without a trial by a jury of their peers, and then in pursuance of the laws and evidence in the case." Although this scene was exhibited thus early in the settlement of the State, few ever equaled it in the dignity and exalted character of its principal participators. any of them belong to the history of our country, in the darkeMst, as well as the most splendid periods of the Revolutionary War. To witness this spectacle, a large body of Indians was collected from the most powerful tribes then occupying the almost entire West. They had assembled for the purpose of making a treaty Whether any of them entered the hall of justice, or what were their impressions, we are not informed. JUDGES OF THE NORTHWESTERN TERRITORY AND OF THE SUPREME COURT OF OHIO UNDER THE FIRST CONSTITUTION-1803 TO 1852. In a work of this character it would seem not to be traveling out of the record to notice, briefly, the judiciary of the Territorial era, and also of the State, from the date of its admission into the Union down to the period when the first constitution of the State was superceded by the present one. Upon the establishment of the Northwest Territory in 1787, by ordinance of the Continental Congress, provision was made for the government of the same by an executive officer and three judges—the executive power being in the Governor, the judicial in-the three lodges, and the legislative in both united. As population increased new settlements were formed, and the territorial government proceeded, from time to time, to lay out and Organize other counties, in each of which Courts of Common Pleas and General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, vested with civil and . criminal jurisdiction, were established. The General, or Supreme, Court consisted of the three judges above stated who were appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, each of whom received a salary of eight hundred dollars from the Treasury of the United States. It was 276 - The Territorial Judiciary. the highest judicial tribunal in the territory, and its jurisdiction embraced an empire in area, and was vested with original and appellate Jurisdiction in all civil and criminal cases, and on capital cases; and on questions of divorce and alimony its jurisdiction wai exclusive. It was, however, a Common Law Court merely, without chancery powers, and was the court of derneir resort. It had power to revise and reverse the decisions of all other tribunals in the ter. ritory; yet its own proceedings could not be reversed or set aside, even by the Supreme Court of the United States. Thus were the Governor and judges clothed in almost imperial powers. The court was held in Cincinnati in March, at Marietta in October, at Detroit and in the western counties at such time in each year as the Governor and judges, in their unfortunate wrangles, undertook to designate. As before stated the Governor and judges constituted the legislative body, and were vested with ,power to adopt any law in force in either of the original States, and it was made their duty to report all laws so adopted to the Congress of the United States for their approbation. If they were approved by that body, they became the laws of the territory until repealed by themselves, or by the general assembly, thereafter to be established. This restriction of the ordinance, however, was disregarded, and they proceeded to enact laws at their own discretion—which, of course, could not be approved by Congress. The propriety of this action was frequently contested by the bar and a disposition existed to test its validity. No attempt, however, was made for that purpose, in consequence, probably, of the fuel that CongreSs had merely withheld their assent without expressing an actual dissent, and that as the validity of the laws would be decided by the same men who passed them, the hope of a successy result was too weak to justify the undertaking. The consequence was that all the laws professedly adopted and promulgated by that quasi Legislature were treated as constitutional by the bar and the Courts, and were continued in force till they were confirmed, repealed or amended and adopted by the Legislature of the territory. Congress had appointed Arthur St. Clair, Governor; James M. Varnum, Samuel H. Parsons and John Armstrong, Judges., Clair was from Pennsylvania, Van um from Rhode island, Parsons from Connecticut and Armstrong from Pennsylvania. Each of the appointees had been a General in the army of the revolution. Arm- Attorneys Admitted in 1802 - 277 strong declined accepting the position tendered him. The other with the Governor, accepted. In the place of Armstrong, Congress, on February 19, 1788, chose John Cleve Symms, of New Jersey, a very prominent lawyer of that State who had been a member of Congress in 1786-6. Among the territorial judges subsequently appointed to fill vacancies occasioned by death and resignation were Wm. Barton, of Pennsylvania ; George Turner, of Virginia ; Rufus Putnam, one of the pioneers and founders of Marietta, who had served as a Brigadier General Of Massachusetts troops in the continental service ; Joseph Gillman, a resident of Hamilton county ; Return J. Meigs, of Marietta, (subsequently Governor of Oliio, United States Senator and postmaster General). Governor St. Clair was well fitted for the camp, but not so well for the cabinet, and his arbitrary rule hastened the adoption of measures which secured the admission of Ohio as a State under the Chillicothe constitution of the 29th of November, 1802, and which went into effect the following spring. Arthur St. Clair succeeded John Hancock as President of the Continental Congress. When the State entered the Union, he had nothing to expect at the hands of the people of the new State, and returned to Pennsylvania. His resources, limited at best, were soon exhausted by journeys to Washington to obtain the allowance of unsettled claims against the government. His pecuniary circumstances became worse and worse, and he was finally compelled, as a means of support, to sell whiskey by the gill and chestnuts by the quart to travelers crossing the Allegheny ridge. The first attorney admitted under the constitution of 1802 was Lewis Cass, whose certificate bore date 1803, and whose honored name has since become known to all Americans, and occupies a high place among the diplomatic archives of Europe. Of later names may be mentioned Charles Hammond, William Woodbridge, since United States Senator from Michigan, Thomas Ewing, Judge Francis Dunbary, Judge Luke Foster, Robert B. Parkman, D. K. Este, Elisha Whittlesey, Robert F. Slaughter, Judge John W. Willey, Judge John W. Campbell, Win. Creighton, Joseph H. Crane, Benjamin Ruggles, John Woods, Robert T. Lytle, Elutheros Cooke, Alfred Kelley, Sherlock J. Andrews, Henry Stanberry, Thomas L. Hamer, Samison Mason, Judge B. S. Cowen, A. W. Loomis, Salmon P. Chase, Samuel F. Vinton, Simeon Nash, Eber Newton, Henry B. Payne, Hiram V. Wilson and Humphrey H. Levitt. Among these will 278 - Supreme Bench-1802-1872. be recognized names distinguished in the executive, legislative and judicial departments of the State and federal governments, as well as in the military service. The first official commission was issued .to Samuel Huntingion who was elected Judge of the Supreme Court on the 2d of April, 1803. Governor Tiffin, in his letter to Judge Ii., enclosing his commission as such, refers to it as the very first one issued " in the name of and by the authority of the State of Ohio." The following is a correct list of those who served on the Supreme Bench, under the first Constitution, from 1803 to 1852. The names are given in the order of their election or appointment Samuel Huntington, Return J. Meigs, William Sprigg, George Todd, Daniel Spumes; Thomas Scott, Thomas Morris, William W. Irvin, Ethan Allen Brown, Calvin Pease, John McLean, Jessup N. Couch, Jacob Burnet, Charles R. Sherman, Peter Hitchcock, Elijah Hayward, John M. G-oodenow, Reuben Wood, John C. Wright, Joshua Collett, Ebenezer Lane, Frederick Grimke, Matthew Birchard, Nathaniel C. Reed, Edward Avery, Rufus P. Spalding, William B. Caldwell, and Rufus P. Rauney. Some of these names are also eminent in the civil and military history of the country. The subjoined list embraces the names of the Judges of the Supreme Court under the Constitution of 1851 : William B. Caldwell, Thomas W. Bartley, John A. Corwin, Allen G. Thurman, Rufus P. Ranney, Joseph R. Swan, William Kennon, Jacob Brinkerhoff Ozias Bowen, Josiah Scott, Milton Sutliff, Wm. V. Peck, William Y. Gholson, Charles C. Conyers, Horace Wilder, William White, Hocking H. Hunter, John Walch, Luther Day, and George W. Mcllvaine. Having completed a record of the names of those who occupied places upon the Supreme Bench during the Territorial period, and under the first and existing Constitutions of Ohio, it may here be., mentioned that the first Circuit Judge who presided after th organization of counties in Northwestern Ohio, was George Tod father of the late Governor David Tod, and the second was Ebenezer Lane, who was subsequently elected Supreme Judge. His successor was David Higgins, whose interesting reminiscences are subjoined: Reminiscences of Judge D. Higgins - 279 WASHINGTON, 14th April, 1872. MR. HORACE S. KNAPP : Dear Sir:—In accordance with your request, transmitted to me through my friend, General Morgan, I have written out a few moires of the " Maumee Valley." If they can be made to aid objects, they are furnished with pleasure. I should be glad to hear of your progress in your work and to see it when completed. I say " see," habitually, for I can not see to read a line of the above—my mind follows my pen, instinctively— but I make errors, and am compelled to ask aid to examine and correct them. Yours truly, D. HIGGINS. MEMORIES OF THE MAUMEE VALLEY.—BY D. HIGGINS. 1 was elected by the General Assembly Judge of the Second Judicial Circuit of Ohio in February, 1830. The Circuit lying in the northwest corner of the State, included about one-fifth part of the territory of Ohio. The Indian title to a large portion of that territory had been recently (viz., in 1822) etin- guished by a treaty negotiated by Generals Cass and McArthurx, and was then quite an unsettled wilderness. The counties which composed that Circuit at the time of my appointment were Huron, Richland, Delaware, Sandusky, Seneca, Crawford, Marion, Wood, Hancock, Henry, Williams, Putnam, Paulding and Van Wert. The counties of Henry, Paulding and Van Wert, were unorganized, and attached to adjacent counties. At the expiration of my term, Ozias Bowen was appointed my successor. You inquire about our voyage in the good pirogue " Jurisprudence." There were no very noteworthy incidents in the voyage. We had been attending Court, at Finlay. Our Circuit route from that town was first to Defiance, and from there to Perrysburg. A countryman agreed to take our horses directly through the Black Swamp to Perrysburg, and we purchased a canoe, and taking with US our saddles, bridles and baggage, proposed to descend Blanchard's Fork and the Au Maize rivers to Defiance, and then to Perrysburg. Our company consisted of Rodolphus Dickinson, J. C. SPink, Count Coffinberry, myself and a countryman,. whose name I forget.. The voyage was a dismal one to Defiance, through an unsettled wilderness of some sixty miles. Its loneliness was only broken by the intervening 'Indian settlement at Ottawa village, Where we were hailed and cheered lustily by the Tahwa Indians, 280 - Notes regarding the Boundary Dispute. as would be a foreign war-ship in the port of New York. From Defiance we descended the Maumee to Perrysburg, where we found all well. In descending the Maumee, we came near running into the rapids, where we should probably have been swamped had not been hailed from the shore and warned of our danger. Among the incidents occurring during my Judicial connection with the Second Circuit, was what is commonly called the Toledo war, which was a contest about the northern boundary, dividing the State of Ohio from Michigan. I am not apprised that any history of this contest, has been written, and T propose to give a succinct account of it. In the ordinance of cession, by which the State of Virginia ceded to the United States all the territory northwest of the Ohio river, it was stipulated that not less than three nor more than five new States should be organized in the ceded territory. That there should be three new States organized in that portion of the territory lying upon the river Ohio, and lying south of a line drawn east and west through the southern shore of Lake Michigan. In the subsequent organization of these three States, the principle was clearly recognized that the expression in the Virginia ordinance, "Bounded north by an east and west line drawn through the southern shore of Lake Michigan," was intended, and should be understood to designate a general location of territory, and not to define specifially a State boundary. Accordingly, Ohio claimed that her northern boundary should include all the territory lying north of the Maumee river, and bounded by a line drawn eastwardly from the aforesaid south shore of Lake Michigan, so as to strike the north cape of the Maumee Bay. This line would pass about ten miles north of the Maumee river, at Toledo. This boundary would include a triangle on the north line of the State, ten miles wide at the mouth of the Maumee, and graduated to a point at the north- west corner of the State. Ohio generally exercised jurisdiction without dispute over this territory until the question of the Wabash and Erie Canal location and organizing the State of Michigan was agitated, when Michigan set up claim to extend her boundary south to the due east line from the south shore of Lake Michigan. This line would cross the Maumee above its mouth and throw the town of Toledo and the country ten miles north into the new States Michigan, Notes regarding the Boundary Dispute - 281 The construction of the Virginia act of cession claimed by Ohio had been recognized from the first by Congress ; for on admitting, in 1816, the State of Indiana. into the Union, her northern boundary wis fixed sixteen miles north of the south shore of Lake Michigan. And in like manner the boundary of Illinois was fixed thirty miles north of said south shore of Lake Michigan, thus settling by construction the question of northern boundary. In the year 1835, the county of Lucas was set off from Wood county, including all the territory north of the Maumee and the Court was required to be holden at Toledo on a certain day. This excited anew the opposition of the Michigan people. The Territorial Governor had not entered upon his official term, and the duties of his office devolved upon the Secretary, a young man named Mason, said to have scarcely arrived to years of manhood. Some time before this the Ohio authorities had sent out a party of surveyors, to locate the northern boundary from the northwest corner of the State, when Secretary Mason sent a force, who captured most of the party, and they were imprisoned for a long time in the jail at Monroe. Now, the action of the State, in requiring jurisdiction to be exercised within the territory claimed by Michigan, excited very intensely the belligerent proclivities of the youthful ex-officio Governor. He levied a small army, and on Sunday, the day before that set for holding the Court, he ,invaded the State, and encamped with a force of one thousand two hundred men in the lower part of the town of Toledo. This ill-advised operation Was attended by no particularly serious consequences for the Michiganders found no one to oppose them, and of course they were barely fighting the wind. The Lucas County Court met on Monday morning early, made a record of their session, appointed a Clerk and Sheriff, pro tern, and adjourned without Governor Mason and his forces being aware of their meeting. In consequence, the Court exercised their jurisdiction without being disturbed, and the gallant Governor Mason marched to Toledo with his one thousand two hundred men, flourished his drums and trumpets and then marched back again. This question was settled upon the admission of Michigan into the Union, when the boundary was established by a line running from the northwest corner of the State of Qhio easterly to the north cape of the Maumee Bay, 282. - Indian Murder Trial at Fremont. Upon the extinguishment of the Indian title, there were several tribes of Indians who continued to occupy their former homes, and retained their title ko small reservations of land. Among these Indians was the tribe of Senecas, who held a reserve of ten miles square, on the Sandusky river, a few miles above Fremont. The political relation between these Indians and the United States Gov- ernment were peculiar. The United States claimed and exercised an ultimate sovereignty over all Indian reserves ; and they conceded complete personal independence to the people, and complete municipal jurisdiction to the individual tribes within the bounds of their reservations. Questions requiring decision upon this relation were frequently occurring in the course of my judicial experience. Among others was a case occurring in the Seneca tribe, of peculiar interest. During the session of the Supreme Court at Fremont, in the year 1822, (I may be mistaken in the year,) some person in Fremont (then Lower Sandusky) instituted a complaint before a Justice of Peace against the head chief of the Senecas for murder, and he was arrested and brought before the Justice, accompanied by a number of the principal men of his tribe. The incidents upon which this proceeding; was founded are very interesting as illustrating the Indian life and character. With this head chief (who, among the Americans passed by the appellation of Coonstick) I was somewhat acquainted. He was a noble speciman of a man, a fine form, dignified in manner, and .evincing much good sense in conversation and conduct. Some two years 'before this time, in prospect of his tribe removing to the west of the Mississippi, Coonstick had traveled to the West, and had been absent a year and a half in making his explorations. The chief had a brother who was a very bad Indian, and during the Absence of the chief, had made much disturbance among the tribe ; and among other crimes, he was charged with intriguing with a medicine woman and inducing her to administer drugs to an Indian to whom lie was inimical, which caused his death. When the chief returned home, he held a council of his head men, to try his bad brother ; and upon full investigation, he was condemned to be executed. The performance of that sad act devolved upon the head chief—and Coonstick was required to execute his brother. The time fixed for the execution was the next morning. Accordingly, on the next morning, .Coonstick, accompanied by several of his head men, went to the shanty where the criminal lived. He was sitting on a The old Judicial Circuits - 283 bench before his shanty. The party hailed him, and he approached them, and wrapping blanket over his head, dropped on his knees before the executing party. Immediately Coonstick, raising his tomahawk, buried it in the brains of the criminal, who instantly expored. These facts being presented to the Supreme Court, they decided that the execution of the criminal was an act completely within the jurisdiction of the chief, and that Coonstick was justified in the execution of a judicial sentence, of which be was the proper person to carry into effect. The case was dismissed and Coonstick discharged. At the session of the General Assembly, in 1838-39, an act was passed creating the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit. This Circuit embraced ten counties ; but out of the territory then existing, three counties, namely : Defiance, Auglaize, and Fulton, have since been erected. The following counties embraced the Circuit as then established, namely :.Lucas, Wood, Henry, Williams, Paulding, Putnam, Van Wert, Allen, Hardin, and Hancock. This territory, at the time, formed part of three Circuits—Allen, Putnam, and Van Wert belonging to the Dayton Circuit, presided over by Hon. Wm. L. Helfenstein ; Hardin, belonging to the Columbus Circuit, presided over by Hon. Joseph R. Swan, and Lucas, Wood, Henry,. Williams, Paulding, and Allen, belonging to the Marion Circuit, presided over by Hon. Ozias Bowen. Under the act creating this Circuit, Emery D. Potter was elected in February, 1839, Presiding Judge of the Circuit, and held the office until the winter of 1844, when he resigned, and took the seat in Congress, to which he had been elected in October, the year pre, ceding. He was succeeded on the bench by Hon. Myron H. Tilden, who continued in office about eighteen months, when he also resigned. On the 19th of February, 1845, the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit, embracing the counties of Shelby, Mercer, Allen, Hardin, Hancock, Putnam, Paulding, Van Wert, and Williams, was erected, and Patrick G. Goode, of Sidney, elected Presiding Judge. A law of the 10th or \larch, 1845, attached the then newly erected county of Defiance to this Circuit. The same legislative session reorganized the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, and made it consist of the counties of Henry, Wood, Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky, Huron, and Erie, and elected as Presiding Judge, gas Ebenezer B. Saddler, of Sandusky City. 284 - Common Pleas Judges-1851-1872. The several Judges who served in sub-divisions, embracing oth counties in the Valley, are here appended: COMMON PLEAS JUDGES UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1851, In District No. 3, sub-division 1, composed of the counties of Shelby, Auglaize, Allen, Hardin, Logan, Union, and Madison, Benj. F. Metcalf was elected in October, 1851, and William Lawrence in 1856. This district and sub-division was changed by a legislative act so as to embrace only the counties of Logan, Union, Hardin, Marion, and Shelby, and Judge Lawrence was re-elected in 1861, and resigned in 1864, (having been chosen to a seat in Congress,) and Jacob S. Conklin was appointed his successor, in October, 1864. At the election of the year following, Judge Conklin was elected to fill the unexpired term of Judge Lawrence, and re-elected in 1866 for the full term. An act of the Legislature passed in 1868, transferred the county of Marion to another sub-division, and to the subdivision so changed, Philander B. Cole was elected in October, 1871. In District No. 3, sub division 2, composed originally of the counties of Mercer, Van Wert, Putnam Paulding, Defiance, Williams, Henry, and Fulton, John M. Palmer was elected in October, 1851, and Alexander S. Latty in October, 1856. The sub-division was changed by an act. passed April 8th, 1858, and at the October election of that year, Benjamin F. Metcalf was elected an additional Judge for the sub-division composed of the counties of Auglaize, Allen, Meilcer, Van Wert, and Putnam. Judge Metcalf was elected in October, 1863, and died in February, 1865. 0. W. Rose was appointed March 6th, 1865, to fill, temporarily, the vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Metcalf. James Mackenzie, at the October election of 1865, was chosen to fill the remainder of the unexpired term of Judge Metcalf, and in 1868, was re-elected. In March, 1869, an additional Judge was authorized in this sub-division, and Edwin M. Phelps was elected April 17th, 1869. In District 4, sub-division 1, composed of the counties of Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky, Erie, and Huron, Lucius B. Otis was elected in 1851. An additional Judge being authorized by law, John Fitch, in 1854, was elected, and re-elected in 1859, and again in 1864. SF. Taylor was elected in 1856, and re-elected in 1861. Samuel T. Worcester was elected in 1858, and resigned, and in 1861, John L. Green was elected to fill the vacancy. Walter F. Stone was elected in 1866 and re-elected in 1871; and, (an additional Judge being Common Pleas Judges-1851-1872 - 285 authorized,) Charles E. Pennewell was elected in 1869. At the same election, William A. Collin's was also elected as the successor to Judge Fitch. An act passed March 10th, 1871, authorizing an additional Judge, Joshua R. Seney was elected. In the sub-division composed of the counties of Wood, Seneca, Hancock, Wyandot, and Crawford, Lawrence W. Hall was elected in 1851, and M. C. Whitely in 1856, and re-elected in 1861, in the sub-division then consisting of the counties of Wood, Hancock, and Putnam. George E. Seney, under an act passed April 8th, 1856, was elected an additional Judge for the first mentioned sub-division, in October, 1856; Chester R. Mott, December 12th, 1866; James Pillars, April 18th, 1868, and Abner M. Jackson, in October, 1871. In the subdivision composed of the counties of Paulding, Defiance, Williams, Fulton, Henry, and Wood, Alexander S. Latty was elected in 1856, re-elected in 1861, and again in 1866. Under the act of 1868, the county of Wood was transferred to another subdivision, and Judge Latty, in 1871, was again elected to the subdivision composed of the counties of Paulding, Defiance, Williams, Fulton, and Henry.. THE OLD BAR MEMBERS. The effort is now made to present the names and dates of commencement of professional business, of the early members of the ',Lucas county bar, and they are given, as near as possible to obtain them, in chronological order. Emery D. Potter, whose Judicial service has already been mentioned was the first who opened a law office in Toledo. He is the last of his early professional cotemporaries, and is yet a citizen of Toledo, in full possession of his intellectual and physical powers, but only practices law when it is impossible to avoid it. His home, and an occasional indulgence in the sports of the forests, fields, neighboring bays and river, are his chief source of enjoyment. Having been a prominent actor in many of the important issues that divided the old political parties, some extracts from the February (1850) number of the Democratic Review are appended, which will afford a general view of the estimate placed by the leading organ of his party upon his services and position by a generation now passed away : " Few men have risen to eminence and distinction in our Republic, whose lives more faithfully portray the proneness of all things 286 - Early Members of the Bar. in our great West, to press on rapidly in the safe line of progress, than does that of Emery D. Potter, who represents the Fifth District of Ohio, in the Thirty-first Congress of the United States. He was born in Providence county, Rhode Island, the son of Abraham Potter, a farmer in limited circumstances, of that State, which has furnished so many eminent statesmen. lawyers and merchants to aid the giant strides of our country to its present condition. At two years of age, Mr. P. was taken by his parents to Otsego county, New York, then will nigh a wilderness; and there he remained until after having completed his academical education ; and being prepared to enter college, circumstances interfered which compelled him to commence the study of the law without achieving collegiate honors. He was entered in the office of Hon. Jno. A. Dix and Abner Cook, Jr., at Cooperstown, with whom he diligently pursued his studies until he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the State ; after which he pursued his profession at that point for two years, with much success for one of his age and experience. Finding that field already occupied by men of more mature age and well established reputations, he soon came to the conclusion that the region was " too old " to afford, him the opportunity for which he longed. So, in the fall of 1835, he emigrated to Toledo, in Lucas county, Ohio, his present residence, where he immediately re-commenced the practice of the law, and soon rose to distinction, earning a high reputation as a forensic orator, and for the extent and soundness of his legal attainments. His success at the bar having indicated him as the proper person on whom to bestow the office of Presiding Judge of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, he was accordingly elected, without solicitation, to that post of responsibility and 'honor, in February, 1839. The region embraced in his Circuit (then composing ten large counties, from the territory ot, which several have since been erected) was the last settled part of the State—the northwest—an eighth of the whole vast territory of Ohio. In the discharge of the duties of this office, he was compelled for five years to travel these counties on horse-back, swimming creeks when the waters were high, and at times laying out in the woods, when that might be necessary to enable him to meet his official engagements. Indeed, as in all new countries, the history of his Judicial career was marked with hair-breadth escapes from perils which, though lightly regarded in the Western country, would not be encountered by professional gentlemen of older communities, for many times the meagre-compensation usually accorded to Judges in the great Northwest. In the discharge of these duties, Mr. P., of course, became extensively acquainted with the people of the Circuit, upon whose regard he so won, that in the fall of 1843, he was nominated and elected. to Congress by a handsome majority; the District having been previously represented by a Whig, which party had always been victorious there, by from five to six hundred 4najority. On taking his seat in Congress, though 287 - Early Members of the Bar declining to make of   speeches of a party character, his excellent sense, quickness of apprehension, good temper, and general knowledge of all the great issues between the parties at that era, soon Caused him to be regarded as one of the leaders of the Democracy upon the floor, on all delicate and difficult occasions . . . The records of that Congress are replete with the history of the effect of his mind and character upon his fellow-members. Mr. Potter was placed upon the select committee to consider and report upon the best method for carrying out the will of the philanthropist, Smithson, and after a thorough examination of the subject, he joined Mr. Adams in his famous report, which in fact formed the foundation of all the subsequent legislation of Congress, enacted with the view to render this noble charity available for the purpose designed—to diffuse knowledge among men." In the fall of 1847, Judge Potter, without solicitation, and against his wishes, was elected to a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives. The session to which he was chosen, was regarded as one of unusual importance, and it appeared to be the settled aim of both parties, throughout the State, to secure the nomination and election of their ablest men. It was under the dictation of this policy that Judge Potter was called by his party to occupy a seat in the Representatives Hall of the General Assembly. The Review enumerates and analyzes the character of the leading measures of the session, and justly observes that Judge Potter, by common consent, was placed in the lead as the champion of the Democratic side of the House, and maintained this position very satisfactorily to his political friends, though not so satisfactorily to his opponents. The Review also regards it worthy of note that, from his entrance into the Legislature to the close of his service therein, not a single question was put to the House, upon which he failed to vote. It is questionable whether the same may be said of any other gentleman who has ever served as a Legislator in any State of the Union. The Review thus closes its sketch : " In the following August (1848), without the slightest solicitation on his part, he was a second time nominated for Congress. Indeed, he was a member of the County Convention to select delegates to. that body, and exerted himself therein to secure the selection of gentlemen known to favor the nomination of' another. " On taking his seat in Washington, in the contest over the selection of a presiding officer for the Thirty-first Congress, he received seventy-eight votes for that distinguished position in many of the sixty-two trials occurring before a choice was effected, though he had previously served but a single term in the House, and that 288 - Early Members of the Bar. many years before. In the selection of the committees, lie wa honored with the Chairmanship of the Committee on Post Office: and Post Roads, one of the most important committees of the House. His choice for the position, under the circumstances, eel]: veyed a high compliment to his talents and attainments, and a grateful acknowledgment of the value of his previous public, services." Hon. Hezekiah D. Mason was in Toledo during 1835 ; but, although a well educated lawyer, he did not engage'in practice. Caleb F. Abbott opened an office in the winter of 1835-36; and Richard Cook, during the spring of the same year, commenced practice, forming a law partnership, during the summer, with Geo. B. Way—the last named gentleman having been here previously, but not engaged in his profession. During a portion of the year 1836, Tappan Wright, son of the late John C. Wright, of Cincinnati, was engaged in the practice of law in Toledo. It was also during this year that John Fitch commenced his professional career. In 1837, Daniel O. Morton, John R. Osborn, and Myron H. Tilden—the two last named from Norwalk—opened law offices. Mr. Morton, under the administration of President Pierce, was appointed United States Attorney for the District`of Ohio. He was also one of the commissioners who formed the first code of civil procedure under the present constitution of the State. He established a high reputation as a lawyer, and died in 1862. Win. Baker (having formerly practiced in Norwalk) removed to Toledo in November, 1844, and opened an office, and in 1847, the law firm of Tilden & Baker was formed. Judge Tilden removed to Cincinnati, in 1850, and is in active practice in that city. On the first Monday of December, 1837, Mr. Osborn was elected Clerk of the Ohio Senate, and with Cooper K. Watson, of Tiffin, as assistant, discharged the whole duties of the office, with the exception of a slight additional force employed during the last three weeks of the session. In 1839, he returned to Norwalk, and remained until 1853—representing his district in the State Senate at the session commencing December, 1844. In 1853, he was invited to take charge of the law department of the then projected Wabash Railroad, which position he yet holds, his supervision being limited to the Ohio interests of the company. Among the early lawyers who were students in Toledo, and ad mitted to the bar, were Thomas Dunlap, Daniel McBain. Charles The Old Bench, and Bar - 289 M. Dorr, Charles W. Hill, Hiram Walbridge, James M. Whitney, Charles E. Perigo, Lewis McL. Lambert, Jerome Myers, and Wm. H. Hall. Some of these attained distinction in law practice, and one General Hiram Walbridge—removed to New York City, was elected to Congress, and became prominent as a politician. At Maumee City, at an early period, were David Higgins, John M. May, Nathan Rathbun, Henry C. Stowell, Horace F. W, and Samuel M. Young, Henry S. Commager, Morrison R. Waite Daniel F. Cook. Mr. Commager was successful as a lawyer—was conspicuous as a politician, and possessed the confidence friends, and the respect of his opponents—and during the late held civil conflict, made an honorable record, and at the close of the war the rank of Brigadier General. He died at Galveston, Texas, August 14th, 1867. Mr. Waite in November, 1871, received the appointment as Counsellor for the American members of the Anglo-American Commission, which met at Geneva—a distinction which conferred as much honor upon the administration that made the appointment, as it did upon himself. In the list of lawyers of the olden time, who, occasionally, as they were retained in cases, and others regularly attending the terms, were Joseph R. Swan, Edward Wade, Orris Parrish, Joshua R. Giddings, Noah H. Swayne, Benjamin F. Wade, Chas. Sweetser, and others of equal note. In looking over the Lucas County Court Docket for the terms held in 1836 and 1837, one finds the interests of parties in the hands of Giddings & Osborn, May & Young, J. Stetson, Glasgow & Way, Wheeler & Morton, Stone & Brown, Swayne & Brown, Reed & Hosmer, (Perrysburg lawyers—Henry Reed and Hezekiah L. Hosmer,) Perkins & Osborn, C. L. Boalt, E. E. Evans, Purdy & Morton, G. W. Stanley, Samuel B. Campbell, E. Allen, Wing & Noble ; and in 1839, E. S. Hamlin, W. P. Berry, cock & Wilder, Evans Darling & Lownsbury, and John Wilson. And coming down to 1844,.which is about the date at which this sketch should be terminated, we discover in charge of cases, the names of Stowell & Commager, J. R. Hopkins, B. W. Rouse, Allen & Stetson, McKay Scott, A. & J. M. Coffinberry, W. M. Scott, and Lathrop, Morton & Whitney. At Perrysburg, the county seat of Wood county, which then embraced more than the present area W of both Wood and Lucas Counties, appeared John C. Spink, and Henry Bennett—the former in 1831, the latter in 1833. Thomas W. Powell, who had been a - 19 - 290 - The Old Bench and Bar. practicing lawyer, and resident of Perrysburg since 1820, removed to Delaware, where he now resides. Henry Bennett formed a law partnership with Samuel B. Campbell, the firm name being Bennett & Campbell. In 1843, after ten, years' residence in Perrysburg, Mr. Bennett removed to Toledo, and at once became one of the law firm of Tilden, Hill & Benn. After the election of Mr. Tilden as Judge of the Thirteenth Judett.i cial Circuit, Messrs. Hill & Bennett continued their association until 1850. During that year they separated in business, and Mr. Bennett formed a law partnership with A. C. Harris, a brother-in-law of ex-President Fillmore. The firm was dissolved in 1852, by reason of Mr. Bennett's declining health, which made it necessary that he abandon his profession ; and since that time, with physical powers well recuperated, he devotes his time to the insurance business. General Hill continues in practice with his son, Avery S. Hill. Henry S. Commager had removed from Maumee City to Toledo, and spent several years in practice with R. C. Lemmon. Thus it has been attempted to sketch, with as slight reference to the fair record of the living who continue in active practice, as it was possible to do, the old bench and bar of the lower portion of the Maumee Valley. Although conspicuous in the struggles of a generation that may be regarded as past, the remnant of the old band evince no signs of failing energies. Some one in the future will take up the record where this leaves it at a distance of about thirty years, and will bring it forward to later times. None of the old class occupy places on the bench ; but the survivors, who continue in the profession, maintain a front rank among their brethren throughout the State, and have substantial reason for self-gratulation in contemplating the honorable record they are making up. In numbers, the veteran lawyer corps now constitute only a small body beside their more recently-established competitors for forensic renown; but they are generally well-preserved, albeit some of them, retaining an inflexible hold upon those habits of severe toil which were formed in earlier days, when, perhaps, very close application was a necessity, (but a necessity no longer with most of them,) are gradually receiving upon their features and frames the impress which nature stamps upon those who are so determined in their preference to "wear out, rather than to rust out." [For a list Reminiscences of Mr. Powell - 291 of some of the lawyers in the Maumee Valley engaged in practice in 1872, see appendix marked " A] DELAWARE, Ohio, November 30th, 1871. H. S. KNAPP, Esq. : Dear Sir :—Your kind letter of the 9th instant, was duly received while I was quite busily engaged, and was therefore compelled for the present to delay answering, but did not intend so long a delay, which I hope you will excuse. I first wen to Wood County and atteneded its second court in the fall of 1820 ; and soon afterward settled atits Perrysburg, court whereth I remained until December, 1830. In 1868, at the request of W. V. Way, Esq., of Perrysburg, I wrote an account of my recollections of the Maumee Valley, which was published in the Perrysburg Weekly Journal, March 13th and 20th, 1868; and reprinted in the Defiance Democrat, May 2d, 1868. In both of 'these there were some typographical errors ; but of the two, the Defiance paper was the freest of them. Unaccountably they got the name of Mr. Small instead of Level], as our landlord at Defiance. I hope you may be able to procure a copy of the Defiance paper and if I can give you any further information, I shall be 1:appy to do so. I cannot now recollect whether our first court at Defiance was in the summer of 1824 or 1825, but believe it was the latter. At that time, besides Judge Lane, the presiding Judge of the court, that court was attended. by Eleutheros Cooke, of Sandusky City; Rodolph us Dickinson, of Lower Sandusky, (now Fremont) ; Mr. Gage and myself, from Perrysburg ; Charles and William G. Ewing, from Fort Wayne, and one or two from Dayton. I can not recollect all. There must have been eight or nine lawyers attending that court. J. C. Spink came to Perrysburg a few weeks before I left there, and took my office. Count Coffinberry attended. the court at Perrysburg for a few years before I left there, but did not remove there until a few years afterward.; and subsequently he settled at Findlay. Yours truly, THOS. W. POWELL. REMINISCENCES OF HON. THOMAS W. POWELL. DELAWARE, Ohio, February 9th, 1867. W. V. WAY, Esq. : Dear Sir :—I am in the receipt of your very kind letter of invi- tation, on the behalf of the Pioneer Society of the Maumee Valley, to be with you at your meeting on the 22d instant ; and if not able to attend, to communicate. I find it impossible to be there personally, as I should be exteremely happy to bo with you ; I have there 292 - Reminiscences of Mr. Powell. fore, prepared the following hasty sketch of my reminiscence of the Maumee Valley while I resided there, which you will please present to the Society with my best respects :  I have a cherished memory of the Maumee Valley, and fondly retain a warm recollection of the inhabitants I found and left there. who, from their general intelligence, and high moral character, were fully entitled to it. No better or more deserving people were ever found in a new country. At the close of the war of 1812, the attention of the public was more directed towards the Maumee, on the account of its promis. ing future importance, in the estimation of all intellig pe ent than to any other new country. That war had expelled all the former inhabitants and rendered the country entirely desolate. But on return of peace, settlers began to repossess the valley, and form settlements at prominent points—as the Foot of the Rapids, Roche de Boeuf, Prairie Demasque and Defiance. I came from Utica, in New York, in 1819, to Ohio, and while waiting for my admission to the bar, I spent my quarantine, (as it is called,) of about eighteen months, at Canton, in Stark county. While there, I looked around for some prominent point that put forth promise of natural advantages, where I could settle and grow up with the place, as it was then frequently expressed to me. I then, in my imagination, would draw a line from the Foot of the Rapids to the northwest, and, another to the southwest ; and to that point I concluded the commerce of the country, to the West at some future time, (not far distant,) must converge. I was admitted at the Supreme Court at Wooster, in September, 1820, and went immediately to the Maumee. On seeing the beauty of the valley, with my exalted confidence in its future destiny, I became an enthusiast in hope, and determined to make it my future home. From Wooster I traveled on horse-back, by the way of the place where Ashland now is, New Haven, Lower Sandusky, to the Maumee. The country through which I passed was very new—with here and there a settlement. From Lower Sandusky to the Maumee, it was an entire wilderness, and known as the Black Swamp, through which there was no road except a; mere trail through the woods. I arrived at Perrysburg in the afternoon of a fine day, about the middle of September, and upon arriving on the high bank near Fort Meigs, I was most favorably struck with the magnificent scenery and beauty of the valley. Along the rapids, the intervals from hill to hill were originally prairies, and even these were mostly covered with the finest fields of corn. At that time there was net a single house upon any of the in-lots in Perrysburg—there were a few on some of the out-lots. The Front street badjust been cut open and cleared from the wood and brush. I crossed the river at a ford at the foot of the rapids, and came to the town of Maumee, where I made my home for some time, at a public house kept by Mr. Peter G. Oliver, a brother of Major William Oliver, a gallant Perrysburg and Maiumee in 1820 - 293 young officer who had. distinguished himself by important and meritorious services rendered under General Harrison at the siege me of Fort Meigs. Upon arriving at Maumee, I found there a considerable village, with two good taverns two or three stores, and other objects and appliances necessary for the convenience, comfort and business of such a place. But above all , it was gratifying to me to find there quite a number of intelligent and well informed people, and the society of the place far above that usually found in a new country. Among the men that I then found there, who, on account of their character and intelligence, became my friends, were Dr. H. Conant, Almon Gibbs, Esq., General John E. Hunt, Judge Robert A. Forsythe, Judge Ambrose Rice, John Hollister, and two or three of his brothers. These and others constituted a society there, which would be acceptable any where, and who, on account of their intelligence and enterprise, would be prominent citizens in any place. Settled along the river in various places from Swan Creek to Roche de Boeuf, were found persons who were entitled to our notice, amongst whom were the Heelers, the Hubbells, the Hulls, the Spaffords, the Wilkinsons, the Prays, the Pratts, and the Nearings—all distinguished for their intelligence, enterprise and industry. Finding there was so acceptable society, and commendable population, and being charmed with the beauty of the valley, I soon determined to make it my future home, and to which determination I adhered againsi, every obstacle for ten years. Previous to the war of 1812, the foot of the rapids had been settled by a considerable population engaged in agriculture and in the extensive Indian trade, that the natural advantages of the place afforded. But soon after the commencement of the war, upon the defeat of Hull at Detroit, these first settlers of the Maumee, were all driven off by the British and Indians—their homes burnt down, and their habitations rendered desolate. Soon after the restoration of peace, inhabitants began to return, and settlements were formed. In 1817, the General Government sold the lands in lots within the " twelve miles square at the foot of the rapids," and then permanent settlements were formed, and the improvements made that I found when I arrived there. The interesting events connected with the earliest known history of the valley—the taking possession of the country by the British, at the close of the Revolutionary War, and the building of their fort just below the foot of the rapids—at what subsequently became Fort Miami—the events of 1794, and the battle of General Wayne's campaign—the defence of the country by General Harrison, the defeat and massacre of Colonel Dudley's men, and the siege of Fort Meigs, as well as the treaty held by Generals Cass and McArthur in 1817, are all events highly interesting in the history of the country, and render the valley of the Maumee the classic ground of Northern Ohio. But all these transpired before I came to the country, and I do not further intend to 294 - The Indian Trade, &c allude to them. The county of Wood was organized in the sprin of 1820, and at that time included the whole valley. In May of that year, the first Court of Common Pleas was held at the town of Maumee, Hon. George Tod, of Trumbull county,  whose circuit as presiding judge, included all Northern Ohio , (the Reserve and the New Purchase,) and who continued to hold courts therese for several years. The Clerk was Thomas R. McKnight, Esq., from Wooster, Ohio, and who was continued in that office until his death in 1832. The Prosecuting Attorney was J. C. McCurdy, Esq,, young lawyer who was transiently there, and who I never saw. In October, soon after my arrival at Maumee, was held the second term of the Court of Common Pleas, at which Judge Tod presided, Mr. McKnight was the Clerk, and I was appointed the Prosecuting Attorney—an office I held during the whole ten years I resided there. There were at this term several cases tried, both civil and criminal, of considerable interest and some importance. The Court was then attended by several able lawyers from various-parts of the country. Eleutherus Cooke, Esq., from Huron county—then a brilliant and eloquent lawyer Ebenezer Lane, an able lawyer and fin- ished scholar—a graduate of Harvard; W. Dogherty, Esq., of Columbus; Jonathan Edwards Chaplin, Esq., of Urbana, a good lawyer and scholar, and on his mother's side a descendant of Jonathan Edwards, and a near relative of the celebrated Aaron Burr; Charles I. Lanman, from MicIligan, a brilliant and accomplished gentleman whose father was then Senator in Congress from Connecticut. These distinguished men, as well as a few others, gave the court an interest and standing which the court of Wood county 'always retained. When that court was over, the whole of us—bench and bar—made an excursion up the rapids to Roche de Boeuf, and we were all delighted with the beauty of the country and its future promise. Upon the close of the war of 1812, the foot of the rapids became an important point in the commercial business of the country. In the spring of the succeeding year, large quantities of the produce of the western part of Ohio and Northeastern Indiana was brought down the river in flat-boats and transferred to the shipping of the lake. The Indian trade was large. The quantity of furs and peltries collected here by the Indian traders, and that of the sugar made by the Indians from the sap of the sugar maple, and put up by them in cases made of bark, each weighing sixty or eighty pounds, and called " mococks"—these and other like objects of trade and commerce, made up a considerable business. The fisheries of the river also constituted a large item in the then business of the place. The quantity of corn even then raised on the Maumee, was very large, and was exported in large quantities to Detroit and other parts of the upper lakes—this was so much the case that it was called "coming to Egypt for corn." These objects, and other minor subjects of commerce and traffic, rendered the business of the place far larger than that which would be indicated A Case of Burglary and Grand Larceny - 295 by the population of the place, and the amount of the lake shipping that came up there to meet this commercial demand was quite considerable. The connection of transient persons with these transactions in the various departments, made the business of the place assume a variety and character far superior to what the permanent inhabitants would afford or require. This gave to the law business assume a of the place a variety and interest it could not otherwise attain. It induced a large number of lawyers to attend the courts there, during the time I made the valley my residence. Among those thus attended in subsequent years, (besides those whom I have already mentioned,) were Judge Parish, of Columbus; G. W. Ewing, of Fort Wayne ; Lauman, Lawrence, and Noble, of the River Raisin; Dickinson and Latimore, from Sandusky and Huron counties, and occasionally others, which rendered the bar of Wood county, at court times, large, able and interesting. Soon after I came to the Maumee, a lawyer by the name of Roby came and settled there with his family. He commenced his practice in Albany, New York, and afterwards settled for a while in Southern Ohio. He attended our courts a few terms, when he took the bilious fever of the country and died. About the same time, James Lee Gage, Esq., and Cyrus Lee Gage, Esq., two young lawyers, came and settled in Maumee. They remained and practiced there some years, and then removed to other places. With J. L. Gage, I was longer and better acquainted. He was a man of talent and intelligence, but tinctured with considerable eccentricity. He afterwards settled at McConnellsville, Ohio, where he became distinguished as an able lawyer, and as the husband of Mrs. Fanny D. Gage, distinguished for some literary productions, for her woman's rights advocacy, and for considerable eccentricity. During the time I was there, the law business of the valley furnished the courts of Wood county a number of quite interesting cases. Among them, also, were a few of the more important criminal cases of homicide, burglary and the like, in which a number of the accused were convicted and sent to the penitentiary. In the spring of 1826 there transpired at Perrysburg, a case of more than ordinary interest and excitement. Elijah Huntington, Esc., of Perrysburg, had about that time been collecting his money with a view to be prepared to purchase some lands on the river that Were soon to be resold by the United States, and which had become forfeited for non-payment by the former purchasers. Huntington had in his house some four hundred dollars, which he kept by him, waiting the sale of these lands. Early one morning, Mr. H. came to my housegreatly excited, with a club in his hands, saying that in the night previous some persons had entered his house, broken open his drawers, taken his money, and left in the room that club. Mr. E[. thought himself ruined; for at that time four hundred dollars, with a view to the approaching sales, was an important sum of Money. But who had committed the crime could not be even, 296 - A Case of Burglary and Grand Larceny. guessed at. It for a while baffled all conjecture, and became quite a mystery. A week or two previous, a pocket-book and a small amount of money had been missed from the house of Chas. O'Neil, of Perrysburg, and suspicions after a while began to be placed upon one Stockwell and his wife, who had not long before settled there. The citizens of Perrysburg became greatly excited upon the subject of this robbery ; and for a time it seemed to elude all endeavors to detect the perpetrators. Suspicions having been placed upon Stockwell and his wife in regard to the O'Neil affair (though as yet there was no evidence against them), public attention was directed immediately to Stockwell as a person who might be in some way connected with.the robbery of Mr. Huntington. The club thiit was found in Huntington's house, after the burglary, was for a while handed around as a curiosity.. When tired of its exhibition, Mrs. H. threw it upon the fire for the purpose of making a final disposition of it. Just then, as luck would have it, Judge Ambrose Rice, an old citizen of Maumee, a remarkably shrewd man and close observer, came into the house and immediately snatched the club from the tire, with the observation that it should be preserved, as it might yet be evidence against the perpetrators of the act. The club was a hickory stick, considerably reduced at one end by long chips taken from it with a knife. Judge Rice thought that possibly the chips might be somewhere found and identified with the club, so as to implicate some one with the burglary. Strenuous investigations were made for some days without any result. At length a number of the citizens of Perrysburg determined to make a search of Stockwell's house, and take him and his wife, for a while at least, into custody. For this purpose they went in the night time, when they would be sure to find them at home, took possession of the house, and them into custody, and made diligent search of the house without finding any evidence against them. Stockwell and wife asserted entire ignorance of the whole matter in question. The next morning Judge Rice went to the house with the club, and examined to see if some of the chips taken from the club could not be found there, After some diligent search he found some fresh chips scattered under the floor of the house. These chips upon examination would correspond exactly with the marks of the club, so completely that there could be no question of their identity. This was a crushing answer to Stockwell's assertion of his innocence in the matter. But as yet no further evidence was discovered against them. But becoming alarmed in consequence of the identity of the chips found at his house with the club, and finding that his associates had played a trick upon him in keeping him ignorant of the amount of money that had been taken, and applying the whole of it to their own use, lie became indignant towards them, and determined to disclose the whole. For this purpose he sent for me as the prosecuting attorney, and disclosed to me the whole transaction as far as be knew it. He told me that he and his wife had the O'Neil money, A Case of Burglary and Grand Larceny - 297 and informed me where I could find it ; but as to the Huntington he knew nothing beyond eight or ten dollars of it. He said that a fight or two before Huntington's house was robbed, two men money by the name of Keiser, old cronies of his in crime, came to his house and inequired of them if there were not some plunder to be had in Perrysburg. Stockwell informed them that his wife had discovered Mr. Huntington had a qolutiony uantit to take.of oney on hand in his house. This they soon formed a resolution to take. They kept secreted at his house a day or two making observations and planning how to take the money. On the night that the money was taken, they all three rallied and went to Huntington's house, found them all asleep, and one of the Keisers made his way into the house and soon, returned, saying he had got Hunti ngton's pocket-book, but he feared it was a " water-haul." The club he had taken into the house with him, he had accidentally left there, which gave them some concern, and some time debated upon the subject of returning for it. They did not however, and proceeded to Stockwell's house to examine the pocket-book and divide the spoils. Keiser presented the pocketbook as all that he had taken. Upon examination it was found that it contained only fifteen or twenty dollars, and the Keisers gave Stockw( 11 eight or ten dollars as his share of it. Stockwell was dissatisfied, and suspected fraud ; and so questioned Keiser about it. Keiser declared upon his " honor" that that was all he had taken—it was, he said, only a water-haul; and proposed to Stockwell that he might search him. Stockwell was silenced by the brass and impudence of the Keisers, who immediately left Perrysburg ; and no one except Stockwell and wife knew anything of their having been there, or within a hundred miles. Now, if the club had not been saved by Judge Rice and identified with the chips found in Stockwell's house, and was likely to throw upon him the guilt of the whole transaction, and the conviction on his part that the Keisers had perpetrated upon him what he considered to be a dishonorable and knavish trick, in secreting from him almost the Whole of the spoils they had taken, it is not probable that this most wicked transaction could have been ferreted out. But the ways of Providence are mysterious and the ways of the wicked are hard, and in the best laid schemes of the criminal is found the train of circumstances that leads to his inevitable detection. Stockwell, smarting under the conviction that an infamous trick had been played off on him, finding by sad experience that there was no "honor amongst thieves," and finding that the evidence against him was likely to make him a victim of the knaves who had appropriated, by means of a dishonorable trick, the whole spoils to their own use, was now ready to make a frank and open disclosure of the whole transactions as far as he knew them. He informed us that the Keisers were to be found in a strip of woods on the north cape of Maumee Bay. A committee of the citizens was immediately dispatched for them, and within a few days the Keisers 298 - Odd Cases before the Courts. were in custody of the committee in Perrysburg. They held to for some time before they could be induced to disclose where the money was. But after being put through a pretty severe course of and the wife of one of them, who were then at Perrysburg, north cape of the bay. Two women, the mother of the Keisers, money was to be found. It was buried at the foot of a tree on the discipline, they, in the course of about a week, revealed where the were to show where the money was to be found. These women, Mr. Runt. ington, myself, and a few men to man a boat, went down there to receive the money. When we arrived at the cape, we found a most desolate place—a mere sand bar with a few trees and shrubbery, where we found a miserable log house—the home of the Keisers. The women took us to the tree where the money was buried. After a little search, it was found ; andprincipally in paper money wich had laid there some ten days, it had become so very damp,, thaht it was very near being worthless. Through the means of these various proceedings, Mr. Huntington recovered nearly all of his lest money. Stockwell and the Keisers remained in jail several months after that, waiting their trial. But just before court they broke jail and made their escape to Canada. But in my recollections of the Maumee, I ought not, and cannot forget the courts and their doings. While I was there, the Court of Common Pleas was organized with a president and three associates. The court, as I have already remarked, was, during the whole time I was there, presided over by Judges Tod and Lane. There were frequent changes amongst the associates, and their number became quite large. Their names will appear in the history of the times, and therefore. I will not occupy time in repeating them. But I must say for them, that, after seeing Associate Judges in many and various parts of the State, I have seen no where a body of men, more competent or intelligent than the Associate Judges of Wood county. I would be glad to particularize and commend a number of them ; but that would be invidious. Mr. Gage, a few years since, published in the newspaper of Perrysburg, an interesting account of one case as his " first case." It was an action brought by Gage (under the necessities of circumstances) to replevy some nursery trees. But it has been perversely misrepresented by some of our members of the bar, as a standing joke against Mr. Gage, that he had brought the action to replevy an orchard. Another case has attained some celebrity in the reports of Judge Wright, who never missed an opportunity of perpetrating a joke, or publishing an obscenity. The case is that of Laking vs. Gunn. Laking had been a merchant at Waterville, and some of his good neighbors thought lie was a little too gallant, and they wished to bring him a little down in his gallantry and his estimation of himself. They therefore confederated for that purpose, and procured a girl to tell Laking that she had something important to communicate A Murder Trial - 299 to him, and would that night meet him at a certain, place, and inform him what it was. When poor Laking, as the victim of the conspiracy, had arrived at the place agreed upon, the conspirators had a parcel of boys there secreted, who arose around him, firing guns, blowing horns, etc. creating great noise, and falsely pretend- ing that they had caught Laking there in some unlawful act. Laking claimed that all this was done maliciously, to injure his good name and fame, and ruin him as a merchant. He was anxious to bring a suit, and counseled Judge Parish and myself. Upon the urgent solicitations of our client, we agreed to bring the suit—Judge Parish saying that if I could draw the declaration, we would go it. I promised to draw it ; though in the farther prosecution of the case, Judge P. was unaccountably found on the other side of the case. I drew up the declaration, never dreaming that it was afterwards to be put into print. But there it is, and I rejoice to say that it is a good one. I submit to any lawyer who has intellect enough to know what a declaration should be, whether it is not - a triumph. But Judge Wright was determined that the case should not have a trial upon its merits, and therefore upon demurrer dismissed the case, by imagining that the declaration contained much mom and a far different case from what it did. Judge Wright was an old cock of great worldly experience. He could not keep his imagination from surrounding the case with the result that his experience would throw into it; and which my want of such experience and naivete never permitted me to imagine to be in the case, and what certainly was not in the declaration. The case served Judge Wright's purpose—to show off his wit and perpetrate a joke at the expense of the law ; but certainly was violatipg every principle of law in relation to pleading and demurrer. The most interesting case that transpired in the valley while I was there, was the trial and conviction of Porter for murder. Isaac Richardson, the man whom Porter had killed, had been for many years a citizen of the valley. About the year 1817, he and a Mr. Thompson had purchased a lot of land containing Roche de Boeuf. They had commenced to build mills at those rapids, and progressed at one time, so far as to get the mills in operation. But continued quarrels and difficulties existed between these two men, so that the one of them would one day tear down and destroy what the other had built up tie day before. So that Roche de Boeuf, instead of becoming a prosperous mill locality, as it should have been, became the scene of endless strife and litigation. Without saying anything about Thompson—Richardson was in every sense of the word a bad man. He was a tall man, with a well-proportioned figure, flaxen hair and corresponding features; and it was then remarked that he would make a good model for an ancient Anglo Saxon. If a bad man was needed for such a model, certainly they could scarcely obtain a better one. Porter had labored for Richardson at the mills, as a carpenter