250 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. recognized, but for his social and business qualifications. He is a director of the Citizens Loan and Savings Association, was once president of the German-American Savings Bank Company, trustee of the Kelley Fund for the Art Gallery and School in Cleveland, and for considerable time was the president of the Cleveland Bar Association. In 1894 he secured the passage of a law doing away with jury trials in a certain class of commercial cases. Judge Jones has been singularly blessed and made happy in his domestic relations. In 1860 he married the most excellent and accomplished Miss Ermina Barrows. Three bright, lovely and accomplished daughters, the fruit of this union, lend charm and grace to their lovely home. ALPHONSO TAFT, Cincinnati. Honorable Alphonso Taft was born at Townsend, Vermont, November 5, 1810, the only son of Peter Rawson Taft and Sylvia Howard Taft. His grand parents, both on his father's and his mother's side, emigrated from Vermont to Worcester county, Massachusetts, the families being originally from England. One of his ancestors, Edward Rawson came to Newbury, Massachusetts in 1636. He was a man of very high standing, holding for thirty-five years the position of secretary of the province of Massachusetts. Judge Taft's father was reared as a farmer, but subsequently studied and practiced law. He served a number of years in the Vermont legislature, and also as judge of the Probate and Circuit Court of Windham county, Vermont. Alphonso Taft was brought up as a farmer, and attended the neighboring country schools until he was sixteen years of age. He taught school during the winter and earned money to pay his tuition at Amherst Academy. His summers were largely spent at work upon his father's farm. After several years of hard work he entered Yale College in his nineteenth year, and graduated with high honor from that institution in the class of 1837. After graduating he taught for two years in the high schools at Ellington, and for two years later held the position of tutor at Yale. He attended the Yale law school, from which he graduated in 1838, being admitted to the Bar in the State of Connecticut at that time. After visiting a number of the western States, he finally settled in Cincinnati in 1839, where he began the practice of the law. His first associate was Judge Thomas Key, who entered his office in 1842, and became judge of the Commercial Court in 1849. Subsequently, .Mr. Taft was associated with Judge Patrick Mallon, Honorable William M. Dickson, Honorable Aaron F. Perry and Honorable George R. Sage. Later he was associated with Major H. P. Lloyd, and with his sons, Judge William H., Charles P., Peter R. and Horace D. Taft. Although Judge Taft was an entire stranger at the time he entered upon the practice of his profession in Cincinnati, he eventually obtained a very large practice, appearing in some of the largest cases brought in the State. A well-known case was one involving the will of Charles McMicken, by which property valued at over one-half million of dollars was devised to the city of Cin- BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 251 cinnati to found a uniyersity for the free education of the youth of the city. Mr. Taft was of counsel defending the will. The case was tried before Justice McLean, of the Circuit Court, and the will was sustained. Subsequently, the case was carried to the Supreme Court of the United States where again the will was sustained. The justice in deliyering the opinion of the court paid a very high compliment to the brief of Mr. Taft, which was a complete compendium of the law on the subject of religious and eleemosynary trusts in wills. Another important case in which Judge Taft appeared as counsel, was a suit involving the issue of two million dollars in bonds for the completion of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, in which Judge Taft was retained by the trustees of the railroad to defend the constitutionality of the bill. fie was also successful in this suit, which was carried to the Supreme Court of Ohio. During his earlier residence in Cincinnati he was a member of the city council, where he favored the extending of the city limits north from Liberty street to what is now known as McMillan street. He was one of the incorporators of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, and acted as its counsel for many years. He was also a member of the first board of trustees of the Cincinnati & Marietta Railroad, as well as a director for many years of the Little Miami Railroad. He was strongly interested in the subject of railroads, and delivered before the Mercantile Library Association an address on railroads, in which he showed the importance to the city of having a large number of railroads. He believed that Cincinnati, Baltimore and St. Louis should be joined by railroads, which should form the main avenue of communication between the East and the West, very much as is now accomplished by the Baltimore and Ohio system. He favored strongly the building of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad. As one of the judges of the Superior Court the question of the validity of the Act authorizing the first issue of bonds was before him. He delivered the opinion of the court sustaining the constitutionality of the act. He was one of the court at the time of the appointment by the court of the first board of trustees of the Southern Railroad, and upon his retirement from the Bench he was himself appointed a trustee in 1875. This office he resigned upon being called into the cabinet, but upon his return to the practice of the law he was retained as counsel to defend the two-million dollar issue of bonds which enabled the final completion of the road. He was first president of the Mount Auburn Street Railway, which was the pioneer in the way of street railways connecting the city with the suburbs. He took a great interest in the founding of the House of Refuge, and delivered the opening address upon the completion of that institution. Mr. Taft during his whole life was much interested in politics, but took no prominent part until 1856, when he was a member of the convention which nominated John C. Fremont for President. In that year he was a candidate for Congress in the First Ohio District against George H. Pendleton, by whom he was defeated. In 1864 he was tendered an appointment to fill a vacancy in the judgeship of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, but declined the honor. In 1865, however, he accepted the position made vacant by the resignation of Judge 252 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. George Hoadly, and the following year was elected to the position for the full term, and again in 1869, receiving at that time the unusual honor of the unanimous vote of both political parties. He resigned in 1873 and resumed the practice of the law in partnership with his two sons, Charles and Peter. During his term on the Bench he delivered a great number of opinions, which are considered among the very best among the records of the court. The best known case perhaps which came before him was the so-called Bible case, in which suit was brought to enjoin the school board of Cincinnati from striking out of the rules governing the public schools the provision for the reading of the Bible in the opening exercises of the school: Judges Storer and Hagans, constituting a majority of the court, granted the injunction, but Judge Taft dissented. The case was taken to the Supreme Court, which unanimously reversed the decision of the court below and sustained the opinion of Judge Taft. In 1875 Judge Taft was a candidate before the Republican convention which nominated Rutherford B. Hayes for governor, and again in 1879 he was a candidate against Charles Foster and was defeated, in the latter instance, by but seven votes. One of the arguments used against him in each of these cases was the Bible decision, which, though affirmed unanimously by the Supreme Court, prejudiced him in the minds of those of his party who differed with him upon that question. On March 7, 1876, President Grant appointed Judge Taft secretary of war to succeed General Belknap. After three months in this position he was appointed attorney-general of the United States, succeeding Edwards Pierpont, which position he held until the close of President Grant's administration. At that time he returned to Cincinnati to the practice of the law, and associated with Major H. P. Lloyd. In April, 1882, President Arthur appointed Judge Taft United States minister to Austria, where he resided for several years at Vienna with his wife and daughter. In the summer of 1884 he was appointed by President Arthur United States minister to Russia. He remained in St. Petersburg until the fall of 1885, when he returned to Cincinnati, and resumed once more the practice of the law. In 1889 his health became so poor that he was obliged to go to San Diego, California, where he remained for two years, dying May 30, 1891, in the eighty-first year of his age. Judge Taft during his fife-time took a great interest in the cause of education, and was one of the original trustees of the Woodward fund, and for more than twenty years a member of the Union Board of High Schools. His sons he caused to be educated at Yale College, from which he himself received the degree of LL. D. in 1867. In 1873 he was elected one of the corporation of Yale College, and was re-elected for a subsequent term of six years, at the end of which time he refused another election, for the reason of his appointment to Austria. He married for his first wife Miss Fannie Phelps, of Townsend, Vermont, in the year 1841, who died in 1852, leaving two sons, Charles Phelps and Peter Rawson. In 1854 he married Miss Louise M. Torrey, of Millbury, Massachusetts, who, with four children, William Howard, Henry W., Horace D. and Fannie Louise, survives him. BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 253 WILLIAM H. TAFT, Cincinnati. William Howard Taft was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September, 15, 1857. He was a son of Alphonso Taft and Louise M. Torrey, of Millbury, Massachusetts. He prepared himself for college in the public schools of Cincinnati, graduating from Woodward High School. He entered Yale University in 1874 and graduated from that institution in 1878, the second in his class. He delivered the salutatory oration at commencement, and was selected by his class to deliver the class oration during commencement week. Upon his return to Cincinnati be studied law in his father's office and in the Law School of the Cincinnati College, from which he graduated in 1880, securing first prize for the year. He was admitted to the Bar at Columbus in 1880 and became the law reporter of the Cincinnati Commercial, which position he held until January 1881, when he was appointed assistant prosecutor of Hamilton county, Ohio. This position he held until March, 1882, when President Arthur appointed him collector of internal revenue at Cincinnati. He resigned this position in the same year and in January of the following year became a law partner of Major II. P. Lloyd. In March, 1887, he was appointed by Governor Foraker to fill a vacancy in the position of judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, caused by the resignation of the Honorable Judson Harmon. During the time he was engaged in the practice of law with Major Lloyd he also held the position of assistant county solicitor under Honorable Rufus B. Smith. At the expiration of the term for which Judge Taft had been appointed by Governor Foraker in 1888, he was elected judge of the Superior Court for the full term of five years. In January, 1890, while holding this position, he was appointed by President Harrison to be solicitor general of the United States, and he entered upon his new position in February, 1890. During his three years' occupancy of the Superior Court Bench, Judge Taft heard and decided a number of cases which, in importance, ranked• among the highest tried by that famous court. At Washington he represented the United States government before the Supreme Court in a great number of important cases. His briefs were always carefully prepared and one of them which related to one of the Behring Sea cases won high commendation from tile court. After a little more than two years' service as solicitor general he resigned to accept the appointment of the position of United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit, which was tendered him by President Harrison. He took the oath of office as a judge March 17, 1890. His associate at that time on the Bench of the newly created court was Howell E. Jackson, and upon the appointment of Judge Jackson to be Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Judge Taft became the senior judge of the Circuit and presiding judge of the Circuit Court of Appeals. This circuit includes four States—Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. The business of the court since its establishment has been of very great importance and has included many cases of interest to the public at large. Judge Taft's decisions have made him a reputation as a judge of the first rank throughout the country. In the fall of 1896 Judge Taft with others organized the Law School of the Cincinnati University with which was incorporated, the follow- 254 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. ing year, the Law School of the old Cincinnati College. Of this institution Judge Taft has been the dean since its organization. In June, 1897, he received the honorary degree of LL. D. from Yale University. In June, 1886, he married Miss Helen Herron, daughter of Honorable John W. Herron, of Cincinnati. CHANNING RICHARDS, Cincinnati. Honorable Channing Richards, a leading member of the Cincinnati Bar, is descended from patriotic ancestry through both his paternal and maternal lineage. He is of the eighth genera. tion from John Richards, who emigrated from Wales and settled at Plymouth before 1637. His grandfather, Guy Richards, was a brother of Captain Peter Richards, one of the patriots killed at Fort Griswold, near New London, when it was captured by the English under the leadership of Benedict Arnold in 1781. His father, a native of New London, Connecticut, located in Cincinnati about 1832 and engaged in merchandising ; was at one time secretary of the chamber of commerce, and lived until 1869. His mother, Lydia Williamson before her marriage, the granddaughter of General Elias Dayton, an officer on General Washington's staff, was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and died in her Ohio home in 1850. Channing Richards, the lawyer, was born in Cincinnati February 21, 1838. He was prepared for college in Brooks Academy, entered Yale in 1854 and was graduated in 1858. He was graduated from the Cincinnati Law School the following year and began the practice, which was soon interrupted by his entrance into the military service. He enlisted under the first call for volunteers, April, 1861, in the Sixth Ohio Infantry ; served in the West Virginia campaign six months, when he returned home and accepted appointment as second lieutenant on the staff of General M. S. Wade, commandant at Camp Dennison. In January, 1862, he went to the front as first lieutenant in the Twenty-second Ohio Infantry, and a month later was promoted to the captaincy of the company. His service thenceforward was in the Army of the Tennessee until the close of the war, with the rank of captain. He participated with his command in numerous battles, among which were the early engagements at Laurel Hill and Carrick's Ford in West Virginia, Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh and Corinth and Vicksburg. After the surrender of that western stronghold to the Union forces, Captain Richards was asssgned to duty at Memphis, Tennessee, serving as provost marshal, judge advocate and military mayor of the city until the rebellion was finally suppressed. He remained there engaged in the practice of law until 1871, when he returned to Cincinnati and formed a partner: hip with William Stanton. This was continued until October, 1872, when he was appointed assistant United States district attorney. In 1877 he was appointed United States district attorney by President Grant, and reappointed to the same office in 1881 by President Hayes. After service of five years as the assistant he was well qualified for the larger responsibility of chief. For eight years succeeding 1877 he conducted the legal controversies in behalf of the BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 255 United States for southern Ohio with ability and zeal, protected the interests of the goyernment and rendered complete satisfaction to the several administrations with which he was officially connected, as well as individuals whose interests were involved. After the expiration of his second term, in 1885, Mr. Richards formed a partnership with the late Rufus King and Mr. Samuel J. Thompson, which was dissolved by the death of Mr. King. The firm as now constituted is Thompson, Richards & Richards. Since 1888 he has been the professor of commercial law and contracts in the law school of the Cincinnati College. His practice has been confined almost exclusively to civil business, and very largely to commercial cases. His distinctive ability is recognized by his most eminent and successful associates, who unhesitatingly accord to him high rank at the Bar. He possesses large mental capacity with a genius for analysis and the orderly arrangement of details. His argument is always clear, concise, logical and scholarly, without evasion or sophistry ; not only a very thorough exposition of the law applicable -to the case under consideration, but impressed and re-enforced by his integrity of character, probity and uprightness of conduct, in the profession and in society. To the studious care with which his cases are prepared is added perfect loyalty to clients. An old practitioner in the State and Federal courts of Ohio, who knows Mr. Richards intimately, remarks : "As an associate or an adyersary I always found him courteous and strong. Against him I knew that I could not rely for success upon any oversight or neglect of preparation on his part. I do not regard him as inferior in mental vigor to any member of our Bar." He is Republican in politics, rendering yaluable support to the party by public speaking and actiye membership in the leading club of the city. His religious belief finds expression in the forms of the Episcopal Church, in which he has held membership since 1857. He has also been a member of the standing committee of the Diocese of Southern Ohio since its organization in 1875, and in 1895 was appointed chancellor of the diocese. Mr. Richards has cause to thank the military authority Of the government for his assignment to duty at Memphis, as it resulted in a most fortunate partnership. He was married April 11, 1865, to Miss Hattie, daughter of P. P. Learned, a prominent business man of Memphis for many years. Seven children have been born of this union : Hattie L., born in 1866, died in 1872; Channing, born in 1870, now an attorney in Cincinnati ; Paschal, born in 1872 ; Brayton, born in 1874 ; James, born in 1876; Bessie, born in 1878, died in 1891; and Virginia, born in 1887. Mr. Richards died September 12, 1896. RUFUS B. SMITH. Rufus B. Smith, on the Bench of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, is a native of that city, born October 24, 1854. His father, Henry R. Smith, was for many years a prominent citizen and successful business man of the city ; a man capable in affairs, as evidenced, not only by the management of his own private business, but also by his administration of the trustee- 256 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. ship of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad. ,Rufus B. obtained his primary education in the excellent public schools of his native city, continuing until he had reached the senior year of the high school course, when he prepared for the examination at Yale College under a private tutor. He was graduated from Yale in 1876 upon completion of the full classical course. Immediately thereafter he entered the Cincinnati Law School and pursued its regular course of study. He was fortunate in being received into the law office of the late Alphonso Taft, where he began the practice of the law. In 1880 he was appointed first assistant to the prosecuting attorney of the county, serving as such for almost a year. In 1885 he was elected to the office of county solicitor, and served a term of three years. In 1891 he was elected judge of the Superior Court for the unexpired portion of the term of Judge Noyes who died in office, and discharged his official duties so acceptably that he was re-elected in 1894 for the full term of five years. One of the best of the older lawyers of Southern Ohio says of him : "Rufus B. Smith, as a judge of the. Superior Court of Cincinnati, has acquired the respect of the profession for his sterling integrity, industry and fidelity in the discharge of his official duties. He has a clear, logical mind and that satisfaction in the work in which he is engaged that secures thoroughness of investigation and justifies the conclusion which he reaches. His opinions are characterized by their sound argument rather than their rhetorical finish. His judgments inspire confidence in their correctness ; and the Supreme Court of Ohio has frequently affirmed them by referring to and adopting the reasoning of his opinions. As an illustration I would refer to his opinion in the case of the city of Cintinnati vs. the Cincinnati Inclined Plane Railway Company in the thirtieth Weekly Law Bulletin, page 321. The high estimation in which he is held by the legal profession, in view of his comparatively brief career at the Bar and upon the Bench, gives assurance that his ultimate place will be in the foremost rank of the lawyers of the State." Another leading member of the Bar whose reputation is both State and National, says : " Judge Rufus B. Smith, of the Superior Court is one of the strongest men intellecually on the Bench in Ohio. He is a close, careful student, always at work and he never fails to do good work. He is not only able but thorough, and has the confidence and esteem of all who know him, not only as a lawyer and a judge but also as a gentleman and a citizen." He was married in 1886 to Miss Edith Harrison, daughter of L. B. Harrison, president of the First National Bank of Cincinnati. To them have been born four children. For a man who has not yet reached the meridian of life Judge Smith has attained unusual eminence in the profession and unusual distinction as a lawyer. His elevation is due in some degree to that combination of talents with which nature endows a man intended for the .law ; but it has not come without a struggle. His success has been achieved. Every contest has been earned. He was a hard student in school and his studious habit has accentuated every step in his progress as a lawyer. The power which he displays in mastering a new question is not due alone to superior intellectual force, but dependent in some degree upon his method of study and his capacity for the BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 257 concentration of his mental faculties in the investigation. He considers the question from different points of view as an entity, and by the skillful use of analysis and logic determines its relations to the known. DAVID K. WATSON, Columbus. David Kemper Watson was born on a farm in Range township, near London, Madison county, Ohio, June 18, 1849. He was the youngest of seven children of Jesse and Margaret (Jones) Watson. David Watson, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a Virginian by birth, and in early life was a sailor and afterward a surveyor, in which latter occupation, while employed by the government, he selected for settlement lands in Madison county,. Ohio. This property still remains in the possession of the Watson family. Mr. Watson's father was a successful farmer and later a banker at London. He died in 1871. He was a man of great energy and executive ability, a friend of progress and education, a loyal patriot, and uncompromising adherent to the cause of the Union in the War of the Rebel_ lion. He contributed not only generously of his means to the cause of the Union, but four sons, all that were old enough to enter the army. He thoroughly appreciated the advantages of education, and his five sons were given every opportunity that schools and colleges could afford. The subject of this sketch attended the country schools of his district, and then prepared for college under the private tutorage of Rev. C. W. Findley, at London. In 1867, he entered Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, from which institution he graduated in 1871. The fall of the same year he began the study of law, and in 1872 entered the Law School of Boston University, graduating in 1873 with the degree of LL. B. He was awarded the first prize for a thesis on the subject of "Caveat Emptor." He immediately began the practice of his profession at London, Ohio, where he remained for two years, when he sought a broader field of opportunity in the courts of Columbus, which has since been his residence. He has never formed any partnership alliances, but from his admission to the Bar (1873), equipped with superior education and mental training, and with natural ability and great fondness for his profession, he has been eminently successful. In 1881, he 'was appointed by President Arthur assistant United States district attorney for the southern district of Ohio, serving under Hon. Channing Richards. This position he held for four years. In 1887, the Republicans of the State recognrzing Mr. Watson's qualifications for the office, nominated him at the Republican State Convention at Toledo, on the first ballot, against seven other candidates, for the affice of attorney general. He took an active part in the campaign and contributed much to the election of the entire ticket. So ably and faithfully did he discharge the duties of his high office that at the close of his term he was renominated by the Republican State Convention by acclamation, and was again elected, receiving the largest vote cast for any candidate. He displayed marked ability and integrity and fearlessness in the discharge of his official 258 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. duties, being engaged in defending the State in many of the most important cases ever brought before the 'Supreme Court. Particularly was this true in the famous suit he brought against the Standard. Oil Company, in which he petitioned the court to declare the charter of that company forfeited, on the ground that it had entered into and was a party to an illegal trust or combine, to prohibit competition in the production and sale of oil, and consequently to create a monopoly against law and public policy. This suit resulted in one of the greatest legal battles ever fought in the .courts of Ohio, the Standard Oil Company having employed the best legal talent of the country to defend its interests. Mr. Watson won a conspicuous victory, the court dissolying the trust. It was the most important if not the first blow struck by the courts of this country at illegally organized and conducted corporate power. The case is fully reported in 49 Ohio St., 137. In 1893, Mr. Watson was appointed by President Harrison special counsel to conduct the suits brought by the United States government against the Pacific railroads. In 1894, he was nominated by acclamation by the Republicans of. the Twelfth District of Ohio as their candidate for Congress. His opponent was Hon. Joseph H. Outhwaite, who for ten years had been the representative of the Democratic party in Congress from that district. Mr. Watson was elected by a handsome majority, being the first Republican elected to the National House of Representatives from his district for more than thirty years. In 1896 he was renominated by acclamation, and although. the majority in the district against him, by reason of the fusion of the Populist and Democrat parties, was more than four thousand, he came within forty-nine votes of being elected. Mr. Watson's course in Congress was one of wise but unqualified support of the great measures of his party. He is a close and careful student of the great public questions of the day, thoroughly informed, and a. clear and forceful debater. His thorough legal education and persistent application to his profession have won for him a reputation as a general practitioner which is not confined to his own State. He ranks as one of the best orators of the country, and in political campaigns is in general demand in his own and other States. Mr., Watson is a man of fine literary tastes and broad culture. He finds especial delight in the field.of history. At the Centennial anniversary of Gallipolis (October, 1890), he delivered an address on "The Early Judiciary of Ohio," which is one of the most interesting and valuable articles ever contributed to the legal history of Ohio. It is published in full in Vol. In. of the Reports of the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society. His public life has been conspicuous for strict integrity- in office, while simplicity and purity characterize his private life. In 1873, Mr. Watson was married .to Miss Louise M. Harrison, daughter of Hon. R. A. Harrison, of Columbus. He has two children—a daughter, Marie, and a son, James. BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO 259 THOMAS E. POWELL, Columbus. Thomas E. Powell was born at Delaware, Ohio, on the 20th of February, 1842. His father, Thomas W. Powell, was a lawyer and for many years a recognized leader at the Delaware Bar. The latter was born in South Wales, and when a child was brought to this country by his parents who settled in New York, and was educated in that State. Thomas W. Powell removed to Ohio about the time he was admitted to the Bar. He was in active practice for about forty years and a judge of the court for some ten years. The mother of Thomas E. Powell, Elizabeth Gordon, was a native of Ohio and of Scotch ancestry. Her parents settled in Pennsylvania and afterwards removed to Franklin county, Ohio. Thomas E. obtained his early education in the common schools of Delaware. At the age of thirteen he entered the Ohio University and, graduated in 1863, at the age of nineteen. He then enlisted in the Eighty-Fourth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was afterwards transferred to the 145th. In the fall of 1864 he was mustered out of the service as a lieutenant. He at once entered his father's office at 'Delaware and continued the study of law, having commenced his studies while in the army. In 1865 he was. admitted to practice and formed his first partnership with W. P. Reid. The firm of Reid & Powell continued twelve years. In 1879, upon the death of Mr. Reid, he associated with himself Judge J. S. Gill. The firm of Powell & Gill lasted until Mr.. Powell's removal to Columbus, in 1887. He then became the senior member of the firm of Powell, Owen, Ricketts & Plack. This firm was dissolved in 1895, and he then formed a co-partnership with T. B. Minahan, under the firm name of Powell & Minahan. Mr. Powell is a lawyer of recognized ability and standing in the profession. He is especially quick and a master of legal procedure, and he is to-day acknowledged to be one of the ablest orators at the Columbus Bar. His practice has always been of a general character. He has been identified with much of the important litigation in this part of the State, always conducting his cases with great skill and remarkable success. He was counsel against the will of M. Louise Deshler, and counsel in the Church divorce case. He was counsel for the defense in the noted Inskip murder case, and, to the great surprise of all who had followed the evidence, he saved the life of the accused. He has had much to do with the litigation growing out of the lease of the Hocking Canal, touching the title of the canal lands and the right of the State to donate lands. Many of the large corpora-. tions in the State have been reorganized under his direction and advice. He. is counsel for the Ohio and Western Coal and Iron Company, Ohio Southern Railroad Company, and the C. S. and H. R. R. Company. In 1872 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention which nominated Horace Greeley, and was a candidate for presidential elector for his district on the Greeley ticket. In 1875 he received the Democratic nomination for attorney general on the ticket with Governor William Allen. In 1879 he placed General Thomas Ewing in nomination for governor in the State convention. In 1882 he did the same for James W. Newman. In 1882 he was the Democratic nominee for Congress in the old Ninth District, and though defeated 260 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. ran 1,500 ahead of his ticket, carrying his native county, which no Democratic congressional candidate has ever done before or since. In 1883 that old Democratic war horse, Durbin Ward, selected Mr. Powell to present his name to the State convention. In 1884 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and, at the request of Governor George Hoadly, placed that gentleman's name in nomination for the presidency. He was also a candidate for elector at large on the Democratic ticket. In 1885 he was chairman of the State executive committee. In 1887 he was nominated by the Democrats for governor, and though defeated at the polls he ran about ten thousand votes ahead of his ticket. In 1888 he placed in nomination at the St. Louis convention the Honorable Allen G. Thurman for President of the United States. In 1896 he was at the head of the Democratic presidential electoral ticket in this State. Mr. Powell has always taken a most active interest in educational matters. He has been for a number of years one of the trustees of the Ohio Wesleyan University. He is the professor of medical jurisprudence in the Ohio Medical College. In 1872 Mr. Powell married Eliza, daughter of Bishop Thomson, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and by this union there have been born six children who are living, four sons and two daughters. One son Ed wald T., is now a practicing attorney in his father's office. JOHN H. DOYLE, Toledo. Honorable John H. Doyle, ex-judge of the Supreme Court, was born in Perry county, Ohio, April 23, 1843. When three years of age he was brought by his parents to Toledo, where the father died in 1852. He was thus left at the age of nine years to the care and training of his mother, who lived to see the seal of approval on her work by the people of Ohio. He was educated in the public schools of Toledo, and Dennison University at Granville, where he spent a short time. He began the study of law with General H. S. Commager, and continued it with Edward Bissell, Jr. On the twenty-first anniversary of his birth he was admitted to the Bar, and into partnership with Mr. Bissell. He was well qualified for practice, and thus had a fair start in his profession at the threshold of manhood. Apt, energetic and ambitious he made rapid progress. It required only a short time for him to gain a reputation for the possession of legal knowledge and powers of advocacy unusual in a young man. He was skillful and successful in the management of numerous important and difficult cases entrusted to him. Very early in his practice he was employed in a case involving the title to one hundred and sixy acres of land within the corporate limits of the city of Toledo, whose estimated value was more than a million dollars. He was counsel for the claimants, who were heirs of a man named Ford, a soldier of the war of 1812, who was at the time of beginning this action living near Baltimore, Maryland. The title of Mr. Doyle's clients was contingent upon the legitimacy of a daughter of Ford, who was born while the latter was a prisoner of war at Plymouth, England, and alleged to be illegitimate. A considerable portion of BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 261 the winter and spring of 1874, and the summer of 1875, was spent in Maryland and the District of Columbia by Mr. Doyle, taking testimony in the case. He was successful in establishing the legitimacy of the child, and the validity of the title of his clients. It was rather a remarkable triumph for a lawyer of so little experience in practice, and was illustrative of the keenness and the energy which have characterized his entire professional life.. In 1879 Mr. Doyle was elected, as a candidate of the Republican party, judge of the Common Pleas Court for the district embracing the counties of Lucas, Sandusky, Ottawa, Huron and Erie. The election terminated the partnership between himself and Mr. Bissell. The Bar of Toledo, without distinction of party, unanimously endorsed his candidacy. He soon became distinguished on the Bench of the nisi prius court for his fine discrimination as to' the relevancy of testimony, the acuteness of his perception as to the law and its application, the dignity with which he presided, and his remarkable faculty for the dispatch of business. In 1882 he was nominated by the State convention of his party for judge of the Supreme Court, but the Republican ticket was defeated by a majority so large that the several thousand votes cast for him in excess of the party vote were not sufficient to elect. In February, 1883, Ridge Doyle was appointed by Governor Foster to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Bench caused by the resignation of Judge Longworth, and served until the next succeeding election. His intellectual, physical and professional qualifications for appellate judicial duties were superb. He possessed natural abilites of a high order. He was just forty years of age, in the prime of vigorous middle life, and in full command of his best powers. He was also fresh from the experiences of a trial judge, in which his career had been a continuous and unqualified. triumph. His record on the Supreme Bench was short, but unexceptionable. At the convention of 1883 the Republicans again nominated him for the full term, but the party was defeated that year. The game of battledoor and shuttlecock in Ohio politics relieved him of further judicial service when the verdict of the November election was recorded. Judge Doyle then resumed practice in Toledo, and has continued to the present time. He is the senior member of one of the strongest firms in Lucas county. His ample resources derived from profound study and varied experience, and reinforced by habits of industry, good health and physical powers, make him powerful at the Bar. Both as a jurist and a practitioner he occupies the front rank in the profession of his State. Judge Doyle is quick, active and earnest in his work. He has a vast, supply of nervous energy, and prodigious capacity for endurance. He has long been not only an active but alSo an advisory member of the Republican party. He is identified in belief and active relations with Christianity, and has for thirty years been a member of the First Congregational Church of Toledo. He has, in spite of an immense law practice, found some time for the study of literature, and connection with such educational work as tends to improve the minds and cultivate the society in his city. He was one of the organizers of the Toledo Library Association; now the Free Library of Toledo, and was chairman of the lecture committee for Six years. In 1865 he assisted in organ- 262 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. izing the Northwestern Lecture Bureau at Chicago, and served as its secretary for several years. Judge Doyle was commissioned a lieutenant in the Sixty-Seventh Regiment Ohio Volunteers during the war, but was prevented from accepting the commission by a severe and protracted illness. At the time of this appointment he was but eighteen years of age. In 1886 he was appointed by Governor Foraker one of the trustees of the Toledo Asylum for the Insane. Judge Doyle was married October 6, 1868, to Miss Alice Fuller Skinner, daughter of Dr. S. W. Skinner, formerly of Windsor, Connecticut, who is a descendant of the Wolcott and Ellsworth families, of which Chief Justice Ellsworth and Governor Wolcott were members. Three daughters born of this marriage are Elizabeth Wolcott, Grace Alice and Hellen Genevieve. Judge Doyle is a very courteous gentleman, whose popularity has fairly been won by his genial disposition, kindness of heart, high moral character and estimable .social traits. MANNING F. FORCE, Sandusky. General Manning F. Force was born at Washington, District of Columbia, December 17, 1824. His paternal ancestors were French Hugenots. His grandfather, William Force, was a soldier in the Revolutionary army. His father, Peter Force, a native of New Jersey, was the well-known compiler of the " American Archives," in the preparation of which he gathered the most complete collection of books and phamphlets upon American history eyer made (except that of the British Museum), which was purchased for the Congressional Library a few months before his death, January 23, 1868. Manning prepared himself for West Point, at Alexandria, Virginia, but changing his purpose entered Harvard University ; was graduated from the college in 1845 and from the law school in 1848. In January, 1849, he went to Cincinnati, and studied law for one year in the office of Walker & Kebler. In January, 1850, he was admitted to the Bar ; afterward became one of the firm of Walker, Kebler & Force ; remained in partnership with Mr. Kebler after the death of Judge Walker, until the commencement of the war of the Rebellion. He then entered the army as major and was soon promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Twentieth Ohio Volunteers ; and, having taken part in the capture of Fort Donelson and the battle of Pittsburg Landing, was soon after promoted to its colonelcy. Colonel Force was active in the advance to Corinth, and in the movements connected with the battles of Iuke and the Hatchie, or Pocahontas. He was engaged the entire day in Colonel Leggett's desperate fight near Bolivar. In the advance on to Vicksburg he was hotly engaged in the battles of Raymond and Champion Hills, and participated in those of Port Gibson and Jackson. During the siege of Vicksburg his regiment was taken from the trenches and sent with General Blair's expedition up the Yazoo. On his return in June, 1863, he was placed in command of the Second brigade, Third division, Seventeenth corps, which was detached to form a part of General Sherman's army, watching the movements of General Johnson. After the capture of Jackson by General Sherman, General Force re- BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 263 ceived the Seventeenth corps gold medal of honor, by award of a board of officers. In the latter part of August he was in General Stevenson's expedition to Monroe, Louisiana, on returning from which he received his appointment as brigadier general, and in October took part in General McPherson's demonstration toward Canton. On November 15th, he was transferred to the command of the First brigade, and was, during the winter, in command of the outpost at the crossing of the Big Black. In February, 1864, General Force went with General Sherman to Meridian. On the 4th the Seventeenth corps advanced, skirmishing eleven miles when the enemy gave way, and General Force's brigade, volunteering to push on, entered Jackson in the night. On the 14th General Force's brigade, detached to destroy the railroad bridge at Chunkey, came upon the rear of two brigades of cavalry, Stark's and Wirt Adams's, charged into their camp, drove them across the river, destroyed the bridge, and rejoined the army at Meridian, after an absence of two days. When the Seventeenth corps returned from veteran furlough and found General Sherman at Ack worth, Georgia, Force's brigade formed the extreme left of Sherman's army. In June, Leggett's division, including Force's brigade, carried and occupied Bushy Mountain at the foot of Kenesaw. On July 3rd his brigade constituted the extreme right flank of the army. On the 4th General McPherson directed General Blair to have General Leggett send General Force with two regiments to beat up a cavalry camp understood to be somewhere in front, and to find a certain crossing on Nicajack creek. He drove the cavalry from their camp and across the creek, and in pursuance of additional orders penetrated to the main line of the enemy, and remained there almost surrounded, till recalled in the night. The army having crossed the Chattahoochee, he was again transferred to the extreme left flank, on the 14th, and on the 21st his brigade attacked and carried a fortified hill in full view of Atlanta, defended by General Cleburne's division. In the terrible battle next day, when General Hood endeavored in vain to recapture this hill, General Force was shot through the upper portion of his face; was supposed to be mortally wounded, and sent home. He was able, however, on October 22nd, to report for duty to General Sherman at Galesville, Alabama, where the latter had paused in his pursuit of General Hood. General Force was brevetted major-general for " especial gallantry before Atlanta," and subsequently received the congressional medal of honor. He commanded his brigade on the march from Atlanta to Savannah and commanded the Third division across South Carolina. He 'forced the crossing at Orangeburg, and was promoted at Goldsborough to command the First division Seventeenth corps. While General Force had but four staff officers, besides a quartermaster, in the seven months from June, 1864, to January 1865, three of his staff were killed in the field, one mortally wounded, one taken prisoner, and two sent to the hospital broken down with exhaustion. After the general muster out of the army of the Tennessee, in the summer of 1865, General Force was appointed to the command of a district of Mississippi, where he 264 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO was mustered out in January, 1866. Upon returning to Cincinnati he was appointed colonel of the Thirty-second regular infantry, but declined. Of General Force's record as a soldier it may be said that he was at the front during the whole war, that he lost neither acannon nor a caisson nor a wagon, and his command, though always in the extreme front, was never taken by surprise, and never gave way under fire. Having resumed the practice of his profession in Cincinnati, he was elected in the fall of 1866 a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and at the expiration of his term in 1871, was re-elected. In the autumn of 1876 he was nominated for Congress on the Republican ticket, but being on the Bench took no part in the canyass. He was defeated by a majority of nearly seven hundred by Milton Sayler, an able and popular member of Congress, who had previously been elected by majorities of three and four thousand. In the spring of 1877 Judge Force was elected judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, and in April, 1882, was re-elected without opposition, being unanimously nominated by the conventions of both political parties. He was able, patient, industrious and impartial ; a diligent student of the older law as well as of later decisions ; adept in hearing jury trials. He disposed of many important cases and some new questions and was seldom reyersed by the Supreme Court. Both the Common Pleas and the Superior Court being vested by law with authority to appoint trustees of many public institutions, he always insisted on the appointment of the best men who could be found. But when the legislature required the Superior Court of Cincinnati to appoint a large portion of the municipal goyernment of Cincinnati, he concurred with the other judges in holding that was not a judicial function and in declining to make such appointment. He was for twelve years professor of equity and criminal law in the Cincinnati Law College, and for twenty years president of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio. He is fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, member of the Archaeological Institute of America, American Historical Association, Anthropological Society of Washington, National. Geographic Society, Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, and Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society ; and corresponding member of Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, and of the Historical Societies of Massachusetts, Virginia, Wisconsin, Buffalo and Western Reserve. He wrote notes to two editions of Walker's American Law, and two editions of Harrison's Criminal Law ; "From Fort Henry to Corinth" and pamphlets, " Pre-Historic Man," " Darwinism and Deity," " The Mound Builders," " Observations on the Letters of Amerigo Vespucci," " Early Notices of Indians in Ohio," " To What Race Did the Mound Builders Belong," "Scholar and Man." " Marching Across the Carolinas," " Personal Reminiscences of the Vicksburg Campaign," " Address Before the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio," "Biographical Sketches of Justice John McLean and General John Pope. The State of his health compelled him to give up judicial work in January, 1887, and to decline re-election. His health being partially BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 265 restored, he resumed the practice of his profession for a short time, but as open air work was necessary for him, he accepted the appointment as commandant of the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Home at Sandusky, which was tendered him by Governor Foraker, on the opening of that institution in 1888. He is still serving the State in that position. He married Frances Dabney Horton, of Pomeroy, Ohio, May 13, 1874, and has one son. Judge Force is a gentleman of 'deep and wide culture, a lawyer of great ability a judge of acute discriminating quality of mind, and a man in whom all the gentler traits predominate. The fiber of his intellect is fine and its texture strong; his nature is compassionate, and his human sympathy easily touched. Kindness, courtesy, gentleness and sincerity characterize his social intercourse. ASAHEL W. JONES, Youngstown. Honorable Asahel Wellington" Jones was born September 8, 1838, at Johnstonville, Trumbull county, Ohio. The earliest record of the family in America is at Barkhamstead, Connecticut, when Benjamin Jones, of Welsh origin, and probably the founder of the family in this country, moved there from Enfield in the same colony in 1635. His grandson, Captain Isreal Jones, also moved from Enfield and became the second settler in the township of which Barkhamstead is the center. The latter established his home in East Mountain and his farm still remains the property of his descendants. His son, William C. Jones, a veteran of the Revolution, conspicuous in the battles of Bunker Hill and Saratoga, emigrated with his son William to Herkimer county, New York, and thence to Hartford, Ohio, in 1802. William was the father of William P. Jones, who was the father of our subject and a native of Hartford, Ohio, born July 11, 1814. William P. Jones married Mary J. Bond who was born at Avon Springs, New York, February 26, 1816 and came to Hartford, Ohio, in 1833. She died at Youngstown in March, 1882, leaving only one child, Asahel W. Jones. He was born and raised on a small farm, and in 1849 removed with his father's family to Farmington, Trumbull county, and there he attended the common school, afterwards taking an academic course at the Western Reserve Academy at Farmington. In those days he went through the routine that so many of our prominent men have experienced—worked on the farm in summer and attended school during the fall and winter months. This continued until the spring of 1857, when he commenced reading law with Curtis & Smith, of Warren, and was admitted to the Bar September 27, 1859. He practiced alone there until 1861, when the oil excitement broke out at Mecca, when he at once opened an office there, which he continued until July 5, 1864. He then removed to Youngstown, where he has remained. He was the first in this section of the country to make a strong move for the protection of the public and the laboring classes by instituting suits for damages against railroads and large corporations for personal injury. In one year he recovered judgments aggregating $100,000, and by his vigorous action gave large employers and transportation 266 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO companies an object lesson in the necessity of exercising care and vigilance in the protection of their employes and the public. His practice has been confined almost entirely to civil cases. He does not like criminal practice, and for the past twenty years has absolutely declined to appear in criminal trials. He is an authority on corporation law, and although at the commencement of his career he was in a position somewhat antagonistic to corporations, he has since become a great corporation counsel. His advice is always based upon a full consideration of the public welfare and interests. He considers that it is the duty of corporations to give due weight and thought to the public good, and is not content to confine action to the narrow ground of the public rights. He advocates a fair and honest policy in all matters affecting the people. For the past twenty years he has been general counsel for the Pittsburg and Western Railroad, attorney for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He has been conspicuous in the reorganization of many smaller railroad corporations, among others the Pittsburg, Akron and Western Railroad. It has become a fixed principle with him to keep his clients out of court if possible, and no matter if it is a large corporation or an individual client he is equally earnest in bringing about a settlement and avoiding litigation if it can be accomplished with equity and justice. He is broad-minded and of an equable temperament. After exhausting every effort to settle outside of court he assumes a very different attitude, becomes firm, determined and aggressive. The kid glove is exchanged for the mailed hand, and the opposing parties find their vigilance and legal acumen tested to the utmost. Re possesses all the qualities that make up a great lawyer is industrious and cautious, a sound reasoner and thinker and a gifted adyocate. In politics he is a Republican. It is his conviction that the tenets of that party comprise the essence of sound government and the highest moral princrples. He is thoroughly consistent in his life, words and actions, and although a strong partisan there is no bitterness in his political attitude. He has neyer sought or desired office, but in 1895, in the Republican convention at Zanesville, he was unanimously chosen for lieutenant governor of Ohio, and although he protested most emphatically he was induced by his numerous friends to accept the nomination, and was afterwards elected by a large majority. Probably one of the most powerful influences that determined him ultimately to accept this nomination was his great esteem for Governor Bushnell, who headed the ticket. They had been warm personal friends since the time they were both members of Governor Foraker's staff, when Governor Jones was judge advocate general of the State. He is very close to the hearts of the people of Ohio, and is universally esteemed for his sincerity, integrity and courage. He was the principal factor in the organization of the Second National Bank of Youngstown, in which institution he is a director and large stockholder. Another important enterprise that was suggested and brought into being by.his energy is the Dollar Savings and Trust Company of Youngs- town, in which he is also a director. Outside of law, business and politics, his recreation is a magnificent model farm of six hundred acres, within easy dist- BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 267 ance of the city, which is perfectly equipped- with buildings and implements, and in addition is stocked with a superb herd of short-horn cattle and Oxford sheep. A few years ago he found it advisable to discontinue the breeding of sheep, but under the present more favorable auspices has resumed. His cattle are famous throughout the country, and although he has lavished large sums of money upon the breeding of cattle and in perfecting the farm, it has been done with judgment and sagacity,, and instead of being an expensive luxury it has, not proved unprofitable. An eminent member of the Ohio Bar who has been closely associated with Governor Jones for more than twenty years, and who speaks of him from intimate personal knowledge, writes as follows: " Nature has been generous to Mr. Jones. She bestowed upon him a magnificent presence. He is large and commanding in person ; his features are strong and impressive. He is well known in every part of the State ; for once seen, no one would forget him. His mind operates with quickness and precision, taking in and holding a broad view upon all subjects. He has a natural talent for investigation, and whatever he undertakes to investigate it seems impossible for him to stop until be has gone over the entire field. He is a great reader on all subjects; particularly history and biography, and for the last thirty years has been a great 'student upon a variety of subjects. One peculiarity of his mind is that he possesses a wonderful memory. Having chosen the law early in his life, with his wonderful ability to investigate, it is not at all surprising that in this field he is best known, and to which he has devoted most of his great abilities.. In a very short time he showed great ability in the handling of large and important causes, and he has always been remarkably successful in the outcome of causes in which he took special interest. 'Once enlisted in a case there is no labor too great for him to perform that seemed necessary to bring it to a successful termination. He does not always rise to his full capacity in an argument of a cause, either to the court or jury, but when he does it is little short of terrific. His great common sense and his quickness to discern the strong points in his own case, and the weak points in his adversary's, has rarely been excelled, and equalled by but few lawyers in this country. When investigating a legal proposition it is his habit to put himself as near as possible in the position of a judge, and he has a remarkable felicity in disrobing himself, of all partisan interest, and when he arrives at a conclusion his presentation of the same becomes a profound thesis upon that branch of the law. In politics Mr. Jones has always been a Republican of the staunchest sort, and has always found some time to devote to furthering the interests of the party. For one period of twenty years the writer has known him never to miss attending a State convention of the party in Ohio. He was never a candidate but once before his nomination for lieutenant governor, and that was when he was a candidate for governor, at which he would in all probability have been nominated, but for the fact that there was a general call for the nomination of Senator Foraker for a third term. His great, rugged common sense and ideas of justness and propriety in politics have often led him to express himself in a way which the ordinary politician would pronounce as impolitic, but once committed to a cause he had always the courage of his convictions. He believes that politics should be conducted as squarely and honestly as any business transaction. In a division of the honors of the. party, he has eminently preferred others to himself, and the convention over, always found him devoting all the time at his command to the success of the ticket. As a campaign speaker he has been much sought for, and there is scarcely any corner of the State that has not heard him, and 268 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. where once heard he is always again a welcome visitor. On all political questions he has been a most thorough investigator. Government has been his most favored theme of investigation. All forms of government, and the weakness and strength of each, have been well considered by him, and few are so well equipped to sustain ideas of government and governmental policy as he. He is not a mere politician. He brings to his ideas of statesmanship the history of all governments of the past. His study of governments has been not as a politician but as a statesman.". In his domestic relations Mr. Jones has been most happy. On September 24, 1861, he was married to Miss Jeanette Palmer, whom he met while attending the same seminary. There were born to them two children, a daughter and a son, the latter having died just after having arrived at the age of twenty-three. His daughter is the wife of Professor Robert King, of Wabash College, and inherits, in a great degree, the ability of her father. Mr. Jones is of a genial and kind disposition, as his hosts of friends all oyer the State are glad to acknowledge. Every position of trust which was ever committed to him has been performed with the utmost fidelity. One of the cardinal virtues of the life of Mr. Jones has been that whenever he made a promise it was willingly fulfilled. DAVID M. WILSON, Youngstown. The late David M. Wilson was born in 1823, in Medina county, Ohio. He was educated in the schools of his native county, studied law there, and was admitted to the Bar in 1844. He continued to reside and practice his profession in Medina until 1862, when he removed to Canfield, the county seat of Mahoning county, and afterwards to Youngstown when the county seat was removed there. Here he established himself in the practice of the law and from the commencement, aided by his ability, experience and success elsewhere, took a conspicuous place among the leaders of the profession. Northeastern Ohio has produced some of the most profound students and most eloquent exponents of the law that are to be found in the history of the State, and it is amongst these that the Honorable D. M. Wilson belonged and won his place at the Bar. He was strong as a man and as a lawyer, holding high rank with very able contemporaries. He was a. brilliant advocate, deep thinker, and was gifted with a clear judicial mind, a penetrative and incisive wit and an intelligent grasp that has rarely been excelled. He was a forcible, vigorous and convincing speaker, and whether the subject was a case on trial or the principles of a political party, his hearers were equally impressed with his complete knowledge of the subject and his eyident sincerity of expression. He was deeply earnest in all he undertook. His manner was winning and cordial and made for him hosts of friends. A strong Democrat, residing in an overwhelmingly Republican district, he was nominated by his party for attorney general of the State in;1863, and in 1874 as candidate for representative in Congress, and by hiS personal popularity effected a change of more than thirty-five hundred votes. He was one of the BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 269 most active and prominent members of the Constitutional convention of 1873) where he gave valuable aid to every suggestion that he believed to be for the best interest of the State. President McKinley at one time studied law in the office of Mr. Wilson, and, the acquaintance thus formed ripened into esteem and" friendship that was only terminated by his death. The late President Garfield was another intimate friend, and so close were their relations that a law partnership was at one time under serious contemplation by them. Some of the personal letters of Mr. Garfield submitted to the editor evidence very clearly the confidence and the intimacy existing between the two friends. In one of them, dated January 27, 1874, the writer, doubtless. for the first time, expressed the beautiful sentiment given to the public, with a variation of language, six years later in his speech accepting the high office of United States Senator as the successor of Judge Thurman : " On the vines that grow over the walls of party politics are found the sweetest flowers that bloom in the garden of friendship." (The later rendering is quoted in Judge Thurman's sketch in Vol. I of this work.) Mr. Wilson died February 11, 1882. He was married in 1871 to Miss Griselda E. Campbell, daughter of Thomas Campbell, of Old Town, Trumbull county. They had one son, Francis Service Wilson, who is now a prominent member of the legal profession in Chicago. The widow also resides in Chicago. She is an earnest, devout member of the Presbyterian Church, to which she has always given her faithful support and adherence. During the last five years of his life Honorable D. M. Wilson was associated in practice with his nephew, James P. Wilson, of Youngstown. JAMES P. WILSON, Youngstown. J. P. Wilson was born in Lyons, Iowa, February 6, 1857. His parents were James T. and Harriet (Hawes) Wilson, both of them natives of Ohio. The father was admitted to the Bar in Cuyahoga county in 1850 and practiced law at Cleveland five years. Subsequently he became engaged in manufacturing and mercantile pursuits in Lyons, Iowa, afterwards returning to Cleveland, where he died in 1887, at the age of fifty-eight. While in Lyons he was mayor of the place, and afterwards held several important elective positions in the municipality of Cleveland. He left three sons, James P. being the only one who has followed the legal profession. The widow still resides in Cleveland, where she has been prominently identified with some of the more important charitable movements of that city. She is a broad-minded, religious woman of great moral worth, exceedingly liberal and emphatic in her religious views and most highly esteemed by all who en joy the privilege of her acquaintance. James P. Wilson received his early education in the public schools of Cleveland, graduating from the central high school in 1875. He then studied law for a year with Rufus P. Ranney and afterwards took a course at Columbia, and a two years' course at the Law School of Columbia College in New York City. He was admitted to the New York Bar in 1878, and to the Bar of Ohio in the same year. He immediately 270 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO, entered upon the practice of law at Youngstown, becoming associated with his uncle, Honorable David M. Wilson, which partnership continued until the death of his uncle in 1882. He then associated himself with ex-mayor W. J. Lawsher in a partnership which 'terminated in 1895. He has since practiced alone. Mr. Wilson is a lover of the profession of the law. He is a wide reader and an earnest student both of the law and of literature of the better sort, and possesses the necessary industry and keen analysis that enable him to acquire full acquaintance with all questions of fact and every point of law applying to the. same. ' He is never satisfied with less than an exhaustive examination of details. As a consequence he is always thoroughly prepared. In handling his cases in court he is equally patient. He is conspicuous throughout a trial in which he is engaged for his quiet, earnest attention. Nothing escapes his observation and he is quick and ready to avail himself of the slightest opportunity to makea point. As an advocate he is earnest, clear and' logical he never wearies the court or the jury, and displays great tact in emphasizing his strong points without unduly dwelling upon them or reiterating them.. His more pronounced success has been gained in the higher courts of Ohio. He has given especial attention to the laws affecting railroad -corporations and has represented the Pittsburg and Lake Erie Railroad in Ohio for the past eight years. During this period many important questions have arisen in which his intimate knowledge on the points involved have been of invaluable service. He has in writing an easy; graceful, literary style and has done not a little creditable work with the pen in essays, briefs and as collaborateur in a number of successful plays. In 1896 he presented a paper before the Ohio State Bar Association, which was very favorably received. In pOliticS he is a Democrat, but has no political aspirations. He is consistent in his principles and earnest in advocating them. His devotion to the law precludes his entering into politics.. He feels that his profession is exacting and that its highest awards are not won by anything less than complete devotion. He was married in 1887 to Miss Frances E. Patton, daughter of Thomas Patton, of Newark, Ohio,, the former editor and proprietor of the Youngstown Vindicator. They have three children, Richard Hartley, named for his maternal great-grandfather, the ex-governor and ex-senator, who afterwards became judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio ; James Taylor and Harold Leslie. LOUIS W. KING, Youngstown. Honorable Louis W. King was born November 24, 1854, at Unity, Columbiana county, Ohio. The family are descended from Scotch-Irish ancestry. In 1805 his grandfather settled in Ohio. His mother's family came from Baden Baden, Germany, although she was born in Ohio. His father was and still is a farmer on a very large scale in Columbiana county; and has achieved a wide renown and popularity as a breeder of thoroughbred horses. His name is familiar to all lovers of fine horses throughout the United States, among whom he is highly regarded as a man of high busi- BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 271 ness principles and sterling integrity. His son, Louis W. King, was born on the farm, and secured his earlier education in the public schools, after which for three years he attended the academy at New Lisbon. At the time there resided in his neighborhood a teacher of German nationality, Andrew Harter, a man of profound learning, a scholar and a tutor of wide experience. He was under considerable personal obligations to the father of our subject, and being honorable and sensitive and entertaining a strong affection for both father and son, he took deep interest in the education of the young man. Indeed, he became private tutor to the boy, and it was his ambition to impart to him the knowledge he had acquired in a life of study and teaching. He was untiring in his efforts, and his pupil made rapid progress under his instruction. When Louis was sixteen years old he attended an examination of applicants to teach in the public school, and not only secured his teacher's certificate but obtained the grade of one hundred in every branch of study. His old tutor expressed no surprise, simply remarking that " the boy knew more on every subject than the examiners." Upon the completion of his education he taught in the public schools four years, giving instruction to the high school classes. He then spent a year with his brother, a physician, in the study of medicine, acquiring a thorough acquaintance with physiology, anatomy and the neryous system. He then devoted himself to the study of the law, which had long been his purpose. In 1874 he began, reading in the office of W. T. Anderson and Judge Van Hyning at Canfield, and was admitted to the Bar in March, 187g. Whilst studying law he was deputy clerk of Mahoning County Court, and continued to hold the office until February, 1877. He then formed a partnership with W. S. Anderson, which lasted until February, 1882. In the fall of 1881 he had been nominated on the 'Republican ticket as judge of the Probate Court, was elected, and took his seat on the Bench in February, 1882. In 1884 he Was re-elected, serving six years, and retiring in 1888. He then formed a law partnership with John E. McVey, which continued until 1894, when H. M. Robinson was taken into the firm. Their practice is to a large extent corporation business. They represent all the electric street railroads of the Mahoning Valley, Mineral Ridge and Youngstown companies, as well as a large number of the manufacturing corporations in Youngstown. These corporations and the railroad companies are the constant mark for vexatious damage suits, which form a goodly proportion of the court trials in Mahoning county, and more than half of them are defended by the law firm of which Judge King is the senior partner. One of the highest officials in what is probably the most important, manufacturing corporation in Youngstown in speaking of him said : "Judge King possesses a remarkable faculty for handling bodies of men—legislative assemblies, city councils, etc. His methods are invariably straightforward and honorable ; he never uses money, but attains his ends on strictly legitimate business principles. In preparing for the construction of our works it was necessary to secure the consent of the city to the vacating of streets and highways, and such matters as often lead to contentions, and not infrequently assume such magnitude as to become impediments to the locating of large 272 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. enterprises. In our case this was avoided by the skill and tact with which Judge King handled the details of every measure and action. I consider him a very able man, and one of the most prominent trial lawyers in northern. Ohio. He is an orator, a forceful speaker either in a court of law or at a political convention. He can always secure the attention of an audience. I have known him to quiet a noisy convention with apparent ease, when others of far greater public fame had utterly failed to make themselves heard. If he ever permits the people to send him to Congress he will make a conspicuous member of the Ohio delegation. He is as learned in the law as he is eloquent in expounding it, and he is equally sagacious and safe in his advice and counsel." In politics Judge King has always been a strong Republican, and has made from twenty to fifty speeches in each State campaign since he was twenty years old. He has been twice chairman of the Republican State central committee, and has served for six or seven years as an active member of the State executive committee. In 1892 he was a candidate for Congress before the district convention, and has since then been pressed by the strongest element in his party to accept the congressional nomination, but has declined. He has always been devoted to the law, and the demands upon by his extensive practice have compelled him to withhold his consent. It is, however, quite within the probabilities that his strong partisan zeal will yet lead him into public life. ROBERT B. MURRAY, Youngstown. Robert Barclay Murray was born March 6, 1843, at Youngstown, Ohio. The family are of Scotch-Irish descent, and emigrated to this country in the colonial days, those on the father's side settling in New England, and those on the mother's side in Virginia. The New England branch of the family were in the Revolutionary War, and were conspicuous for their loyalty and courage, bearing their full share of its privations, responsibilities and dangers. In the early part of this century the father of our subject moved from New England to New York, and in 1816 moved from New York to Ashtabula county, Ohio, eventually settling in Youngstown. Here he established himself in business, and was married, and here his son was born and received his early education. He acquired the rudiments of his education in the public schools, then attended the Allegheny College, at Meadville, Pennsylvania, and still later studied law at the Law School of the University of Michigan. He returned to Youngstown where he commenced teaching school, shortly afterwards accepting the position of principal of the public schools at Mercer, Pennsylvania, still later, upon his graduating at Allegheny College, in 1867, taking charge of the Academy at Meadville, as principal. During these years he was a devoted student of both law and medicine. In the latter science, anatomy, physiology, nervous diseases and even dissection interested him keenly, and his experiments in these lines were endless and his researches deep. His labor was well rewarded, for he acquired a profound knowledge of these subjects, which has proved of inestimable value in later life. The law was, however, his chosen profession, and the acquirement of BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 273 other knowledge was always with a view to its practical bearings in the practice of the law. He was admitted to the Bar in 1868, and at once commenced work alone. In 1870, he entered into a partnership with Honorable A. W. Jones, which became one of the strongest law film's in northeastern Ohio. After a continuance of sixteen years, this partnership was dissolved by mutual consent, each member retaining the regard, esteem and good will of the other indeed their socia! and political relations are of the most intimate character. Mr. Murray has never formed any other partnership, but has continued in practice alone. He possesses a wonderful capacity in all matters of law pertaining to real estate, and to personal in jury cases. In the latter he has probably done more than any other individual to impress upon the corporations operating in this part of the State the necessity of adopting all means at their command to insure the safety of employes and the public and to awaken them to the responsibilities they incur by any negligence or inattention. His great ability and profound knowledge of real estate law were demonstrated in the well-known case of the Pittsburg, Shenango & Allegheny Railroad, which was a foreclosure case for the bondholders. A number of prominent indiyiduals and great financial institutions were holders of second mortgage bonds when the holders of the first mortgage bonds attempted the foreclosure. They were holding the second mortgage bonds as collateral security for money advanced, and were dismayed to find that they would be rendered valueless by the sale of the road under the first mortgage bonds, and that they could exercise no influence at the reorganization. Under these circumstances they placed the matter in the hands of Mr. Murray for the purpose, as one of them expressed it, " not with a hope of saving anything, we know we have lost the money, but to find out how it has been done." Mr. Murray undertook the task and entered upon it with that quiet diligence and persistence that is so characteristic of the man. He caused the abandonment of foreclosure proceedings, and as representing his clients he became a member of the reorganization committee, and in the courts and in committee for five years he contested point by point, and step by step, until he had secured a full and complete recognition of the interests he represented. He had conducted this remarkable contest with such consummate skill and ability that at its close the committee appointed him chairman of the sub-committee that should pass upon the securities, which amounted to some six millions of dollars. His tact, sagacity, skill and knowledge of the numerous points of law involved were recognized and commended by all parties, and won for him the respect and confidence even of the men whom he had opposed. As a lawyer Mr. Murray is exceedingly cautious and more than industrious. He prepares every important case upon a written brief which is kept on file in his office, the various clauses of which contain specific answers covering every point that his mind can suggest, and the authorities bearing upon such points. He is thorough and methodical in all his habits and arrangements. In preparing his case he goes to work with the greatest deliberation, and exhausts every detail of evidence, getting its exact and definite bearing upon the case. He eliminates all rubbish 274 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. surrounding the essential points and brings out his facts with force and distinctness. In handling his case in court, the same pronounced characteristics of decision, determination and confidence are always distinctly in evidence. He is clear, logical and strong, and it is apparent to every hearer that he is in full possession of every detail of his case. He might not be considered eloquent, but he is impressive ; the quietness of sincerity and a deep earnestness pervade his utterances. It is difficult to say if he carries greater weight with the court or the jury. His polished style and scholarly attainments insure the respectful attention of the court, whilst his earnestness, confidence and evident acquaintance with all the facts are equally impressive with the jury. In the examination and cross-examination of witnesses he is especially strong, and it is here, in the case of expert medical testimony, that his intimate knowledge of physiology and kindred sciences has proved of great value. This is particularly the case where damages for personal injury are sought, as in such suits the medical testimony offered is usually of their own physicians in behalf of the defendant. It has been no uncommon thing for Mr. Murray to expose the weakness and fallacies of the testimony by a scientifically technical cross-examination, which frequently forces from the unwilling witness admissions and evidence that help the cause he was seeking to damage. Mr. Murray has a striking personality. His face indicates power and intellectuality. In manner he is reserved, unassuming and thoughtful. A man of the highest integrity, of a genial, cordial nature, charitable in all things, he has made hosts of friends who are strongly bound to him. In politics he is a Republican, and while not a politician he is quite prominent in his political views, and gives all the assistance to his party that he can consistently with the heavy demands made upon him by his professional duties. He married, on December 28, 1872, Miss Sophia Bond, of Geneseo, New York, who died in 1885. On June 30, 1897, he was married to Miss Weltha Darby, of Meadville, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Murray is a lady of exquisite taste and culture. Her delight is in artistic surroundings. She derives constant pleasure from the cultivation of her genius for painting both in oils and water colors. She is also an excellent musician. She is endowed with a charming personality, refined and accomplished, and is a great social favorite. CHARLES P. WICKHAM, Norwalk. Charles Preston Wickham, judge of the Common Pleas Court, was born in Norwalk September 15, 1836, and has kept his residence there continuously to the present time. His father, Frederick Wickham, who was for a number of years editor and publisher of a newspaper at Norwalk, is a native of New York State and his ancestors were among the early English settlers of New England. His mother is Eliza B. Preston born in New Hampshire and also of English descent. Air. Vickham's education was in the Norwalk Academy and his father's printing office until he was eighteen years of age. He then devoted all his time for two years to newspaper work. In 1836 he entered the Cincinnati Law School and graduated in