BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 75 of any one ; so in the closing hour of the convention he had occasion to say that after a careful review of the whole instrument, of all its parts, of every line and word, he believed before God and man that it was one of the best, if not the best, of the Constitutions of American States ; and if the people of Ohio were not well governed thereafter, it would be the fault of the people, for the whole responsibility then and thereafter was upon them. He devoted his best thought and labor to the judicial article. His chief objection to it was that it removed the courts of last resort too far from the people. He objected to County Courts with such limited jurisdiction. He objected to the District Courts because they might be held at only one place in the district, and consequently lawyers and witnesses might be compelled to travel a. hundred miles for trial. But most of all he objected to the Supreme Court, because it was to become substantially a Court of Errors. sitting at Columbus. He looked upon the circuit system as absolutely indispensable. In his judgment a mere paper court would become but little better than mere papers themselves, and might as well be filed away in some secure place in the Capitol. It was an insurmountable objection that no judge of the court was ever to participate in a trial, face a jury, see the parties, hear the witnesses, study human nature as exhibited in a trial at court, or mingle with the people. He also wanted the effect of the circuit system upon the people, because he believed that no court could acquire that power, dignity, influence and authority in the eyes of the people, which it ought to have, unless it acts among the people, performs its duties in their sight, and places in their view the practical workings of the system of judicial power which acts upon and protects their interests. He and others who agreed with him were able to secure the abandonment of the County Courts, for which Probate Courts were substituted, and a provision requiring District Courts to be held in every county. This was justly considered a great triumph, but they were unable to secure any substantial change in the duties of the Supreme Court judges, who, as business increased, were gradually withdrawn from District Court duty until they composed simply a Court of Errors sitting at Columbus. The old Supreme Court, under the leadership of Judge Peter Hitchcock, was one of the ablest courts in the United States, and was acknowledged as such where-ever the common law prevailed. It was remarkable for taking certain practical views of the law which were widely accepted and applied to a great variety of cases. Judge Ranney found himself in thorough sympathy with them, as they satisfied at the same time his feeling of veneration for the principles of the common law and his love of justice. One of his first opinions is an illustration of this. The owner of a judgment had accepted payment for about one-third of its amount, and one hundred dollars for attorney's fees, in satisfaction of the whole, and he refused to enter the satisfaction. The court recognized the existence of the rule that the payment of a sum less than the sum due upon a liquidated judgment, although agreed to be received in full satisfaction, could not be insisted upon as such for want of a valuable consideration. Judge Ranney, in giving the opinion, would not set aside this rule ; 76 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. he had too much regard for well settled principles. But he had no hesitation in pronouncing both the reason and the rule purely technical, and said that there was nothing of principle left in the rule itself. He therefore held that the payment of one hundred dollars to the attorney instead of the judgment creditor, was a sufficient consideration to take the case out of the rule. " I am aware," he said, " that this is an exceedingly technical and unsatisfactory `reason, but its justification is found in the fact that the plaintiff seeks to escape from his solemn engagement, by which he has obtained money from the defendant by the aid of a technicality. To prevent the consummation of such a fraud, he is met with technicalities nearly as absurd as that upon which he insists."' A somewhat different illustration of the view which the court took of the force of the English Common Law, which also shows the effect of Judge Ranney's early life upon the formation of his opinions, is found in his opinion of cattle running at large. (C. H. & D. R. R. Co. vs. Watterson, 4 0. S. 424.) After holding that before any statutory inhibition the owner of domestic animals was not in fault in suffering them to run at large, he said : "I am aware that this is flatly opposed to the common law doctrine upon the subject, and if the rule of the common law was enforced in this State it would be entirely inadmissible ; but it is not in force, and it is not in force because, in addition to being utterly inconsistent with our legislation, it lacks all the essential requisites that give vitality to any principle of the comm on law and is opposed to the common understanding, habits and even the necessities of the people of the State. Indeed, with the strict enforcement of such a rule the State could never have settled. The lands were all heavily timbered, and the introduction of domestic animals, from the scarcity of herbage, requiring a wide range for their support, became indispensable before the forests could be removed. It would have been a novel proposition to a sturdy pioneer, when he listened in the morning for the bell that indicated where the oxen that. had hauled his logs together for burning might be found, to have told him that his cattle were trespassers on every other man's unenclosed land upon which they might have fed during the night ; or that he could plant corn without enclosing the ground, and sue his neighbor whose cattle had eaten it up." The tendency of the court in Judge Ranney's time to sustain the title of occupants of land under generally acknowledged titles whether strictly legal or not, as against those who sought to gain possession under technical rights. after the lapse of years, is shown by his opinion in Lessee of Blake vs. Davis (20 Ohio, 231). The title of the plaintiff came from a married woman. The title of the defendant came through an administrator's sale which had no validity. An allotment had been made by the trustees of the district known as the Ohio Company's Purchase, and the plaintiff claimed that the woman who was his grantor was entitled to the benefit of the presumption that a deed had been delivered in pursuance of the allotment. The court conceded that the claim was well founded if the plaintiff was in a position to avail himself of it ; but after a careful review of all the authorities Judge Ranney said that the whole doctrine rested upon the idea that titles and possessions are to be quieted, not disturbed by it ; that right and justice are protected in its applica- BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 77 tion, not injured ; in short, that it is only what ought to be done that can be considered as done. Referring to the plaintiff's grantor, he added : " She has no legal advantage, but now seeks by presumption to get it. To get it she must present an honest, not a technical case. She cannot in honesty take this land from the occupants while her father's estate was relieved by the very money that paid for it, and when she has acquiesced in the action of the administrator for more than half a century. I know it is said that she is a married woman, but I have yet to learn that even a married woman has a right to do a wrong. We take from her none of her rights ; we only prevent her from taking the rights of others." It was Judge Ranney who pronounced the opinion, reviewing all the authorities in England and America, in which the rule was settled for Ohio that the transfer of a negotiable promissory note secured by mortgage on real estate to a bona fide endorsee, does not entitle the holder to foreclose the mortgage when it appears that both note and mortgage were obtained by fraud. (Bailey vs. Smith, 14 O. S, 396.) " Mortgages," he said, " are not necessities of commerce ; they have none of the attributes of money ;' they do not pass in currency in the ordinary course of business, nor do any of the prompt and decisive rules of the law merchant apply to them. They are 'securities' or documents for debts,' used for the purposes of investment, and unavoidably requiring from those who would take them with prudence and safety, an inquiry into the value, condition and title of the property upon which they rest ; nor have we the least apprehension that commerce will be impeded by requiring the further inquiry of the mortgagor, whether he pretends to any defense, before a court will foreclose his right to defend against those which have been obtained by force or fraud." Perhaps the decision of most far-reaching influence and importance in every-day practical affairs which he ever delivered, was in the case of Railroad Company against Keary (3 O. S., 201), which elaborated and made effective a rather weak decision of Judge Caldwell in 20 Ohio, 314. The latter held that when an employer places one person in his employment under the direction of another also in his employment., such employer is liable for injury to the person of the servant placed in the subordinate position caused by the negligence of his superior. Judge Ranney in the case of Keary, with the unanimous concurrence of the court, declared the rule and the principle thus tersely : "No one has the right to put in operation forces calculated to endanger life and property, without placing them under the control of a competent and ever-acting superintending intelligence. Whether he undertakes it, or procures another to represent him, the obligation remains the same, and a failure to comply with it in either case imposes the duty of making reparation for any injury that may ensue." W. S. Kerruish contributes the following from his personal recollections : " I was a law student in the office of Backus & Noble at the time Judge Ranney removed from Warren to Cleveland and became the head of that firm in 1857, after his first resignation from the Supreme Bench. Not long thereafter Mr. Backus was chosen as the Republican candidate for Supreme Judge 78 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. of the State, and the Democratic party selected from the same office as its candidate for the same Bench, Judge Ranney. It was said at the time that these candidates were both alike not only surprised, but also each disappointed, at the result of the subsequent election—Mr. Backus at being defeated, and Judge Ranney at .being elected. My knowledge of him began upon his accession to the above named firm. He was then in his early prime. Though comparatively young, he had already attracted the attention of the Bar of the State for the grasp and vigor of his mind, for the marked ability with which he dealt with constitutional questions, and for his extraordinary judicial force and clearness. Anterior to his elevation to the Bench, as one of the younger members of the constitutional convention and as one of the most active of the committee on judiciary in that body. the marked ability displayed by him in counsel and debate may be said to have first challenged general attention. Judge Peter Hitchcock, himself a member of that body and having for nearly a generation been an occupant of the Supreme Bench of Ohio, in the light of young Ranney's capability, and the constructive character of his talent, then prophesied that his young Democratic colleague would one day be the leader. An examination of the two volumes containing the proceedings and debates of the convention will disclose that although in the first part of those proceedings Ran ney's appearance was unfrequent—he was a modest man—yet before their deliberations were half ended he appears to have found his place, and the convention to have found its man ; and the result is that the admirable judicial system imbedded in our Constitution to-day bears the marks of no other man's genius so visibly as it does that of Rufus P. Ranney. So much by way of introduction, and as the background of a few impressions made on my mind by him when he took his place in the office of Backus & Noble. I was less brought into contact with him, he being the leading member of the firm,. and to some extent a stranger in the city, than a law student under similar circumstances might be at the present time, perhaps. As I remember it he was not especially communicative or effusive. I do not mean that his manner was repellent, or that he was difficult of access or unduly dignified ; but the impression the average young man would get of him in those days could be expressed as follows : ' There's a man who can tell us all about it ; but state your point clearly; avoid all circumlocution, nonsense, and irrelevancy, and he will tell you all about it." There were old friends—friends of his earlier practice, Judge Spaulding, Judge Tilden, Judge R. F. Paine, and others—with whom he delighted to unbend himself, and they often met, and notwithstanding the gravity and dignity of the interlocutors, the wit and banter and merriment and good humored personality, long to be remembered by the listener, would equal the best pages of Noctes Ambrosian, and Judge Ranney was' not behind any of them. I have an experience of his wonderful tact and delicacy in encouraging a beginner. It fell to my lot at the commencement of my practice to defend an old gentleman for a felony in which, if there were pretty strong symptoms of technical guilt, there was at least the mitigating circumstance of ignorance and inexperience ; and my client, becoming alive at last to the gravity of the situation, suggested that I get additional counsel. I selected Judge Ranney. He took the second place at the trial table, and notwithstanding my protest, firmly but courteously declined to take the first place. He omitted nothing, however, by way of suggestion, but clothed every suggestion with such outward circumstances of deference to his young associate as to carefully conceal any consciousness on his part of my inexperience or his superiority. In this his art in concealing art seemed to me perfect. In his-argument, whether to court or jury, in the one respect so many seem to me to BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 79 fail, namely, observance of the due proportions of things, he had no superior. It was not his habit to come into court loaded down with books—one or two authorities, in which the principle was enunciated, generally sufficed him. His reasoning was masterly, and if his premises were admitted it was exceedingly difficult to escape his conclusions. He never indulged in the habit of dwelling on unimportant things. He never wearied the listener with complicated details about irrelevant matter. He saw the real issue at a glance, and dealt with it directly. The most marked characteristic of the man was his wonderful power of perception. I am unable to give instances ; but what otner men attain to by much study and the comparison of many data he appeared to arrive at instinctively and instantaneously. I have seen him come into the court rOOm and, casting a quiet glance around among the persons present, he would seem to have divined in some mysterious fashion not only what had been going on, but what was in contemplation, almost as well as some others could ascertain the same facts by half an hour's cross-examination " In the course of a public address at the " Old Roman" banquet Judge Thurman thus referred to him : For forty years I have been a devoted friend of Rufus P. Ranney, and I firmly believe that he has been mine. It may therefore be permitted to me to say that of all the great lawyers I have ever known, no one ever seemed to me to he so happily constituted for the office of a judge as Rufus P. Ranney. With the quickness of apprehension almost supernatural, with the power of analysis that Pascal might have envied, with an integrity that never for a moment was or could be brought into doubt, with a courage that never permitted him to fear to do what he believed to be right, with an industry that brought all his great qualities into successful operation, and with a mind cultivated beyond the sphere of his profession, he is, in the eyes of those who know him as I know him, a man of whom Ohio is and always will be most justly proud. He is a star in her firmament that will never be blotted out." Judge Ranney never sought to appear learned, but rather to adapt his argument to the comprehension of the weakest member of the profession and of a layman. The course of his reasoning is readily followed to a conclusion which is impregnable. His style is charming, his choice of words felicitous. Clearness of expression is matched by purity of diction. His opinions are not more noteworthy for the soundness of the conclusions reached than for the beautiful simplicity of the language in which they are clothed. His tastes were simple and domestic. His home life, in its affection, confidence and constancy, exhibited the gentler traits of his strong character. His attachments to wife and children were of the tenderest and most enduring quality. He married Adeline W. Warner who at the age of seventy-eight survives and is greatly beloved. Mrs. Ranney was a daughter of Judge Jonathan Warner of Jefferson, Ashtabula county, who was an associate ju ge of the Common Pleas, and one of the pioneers of the State.. 'Their family consisted of six children, four sons and two daughters. Both daughters and two of the sons are dead. One son, John R. Ranney, was educated in the law, but is not now engaged in practice. The other son, Charles P. Ranney, is a successful business man of Cleveland. 80 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. WASHINGTON W. BOYNTON, Cleveland. Honorable W. W. Boynton, ex-judge of the Supreme Court, was born in Russia township, Lorain county, Ohio, on the 27th day of January, 1833. His father, Lewis D. Boynton, a farmer, came to Ohio from Maine in 1826, settling in that township. He cleared a large portion of the land in Russia township. In the early times he was a brigadier general of militia and took an active interest in public affairs. On the paternal side Judge Boynton is a direct descendant from Sir Matthew Boynton, who was created a baronet on the 25th of May, 1618, was a member of the English Parliament in the reign of Charles I. and sided with the Republicans during the civil wars. His second son, Matthew, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Stapleton, came to America about 1632, settling in New England. His mother, Ruth Wellman, was born in the State of Maine. She was of English extraction, her ancestors also settling in New England at an early date. Washington's education was in the common schools and later in the academy, known in those days as the select school. He did not have the advantage of a collegiate education. At the early age of sixteen he commenced teaching school. He taught during the winters at first, and from 1855 to 1857 a select school in Amherst township. During this period and for some time thereafter he was the examiner of teachers for Lorain county. From his earliest boyhood the neighbors used to say he was cut out for a lawyer, and he took to the profession naturally. Thus, having a taste for the law, he commenced its study during the time he was teaching, under the direction of his uncle, Elbridge Gerry Boynton, who was a prominent lawyer. While teaching he was admitted to the Bar, but did not regularly take up the practice of law until 1858, when he moved to Elyria and formed a partnership with General Sheldon. In 1861 General Sheldon went into the army, so this partnership was dissolved. From the spring of 1859 to the fall of 1863 he was prosecuting attorney for Lorain county. During his term of office he formed a partnership with John C. Hale, then a promising young attorney. This partnership also continued but a short time. As the subject of this sketch was in ill health, he was compelled to give up his practice and go west, young Hale becoming prosecuting attorney. His health having become practically restored, he returned home and formed a partnership with L. B. Smith. This partnership continued until February 9, 1869, when Governor R. B. Hayes, afterwards President of the United States, appointed him judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the Fourth Judicial District, comprising the counties of Lorain, Medina and Summit. He remained on the Common Pleas Bench until February 9, 1877, when he took his seat on the Supreme Court Bench, having been elected at the fall election of 1876. He discharged the duties of justice of the Supreme Court for nearly five years when, again, owing to ill health he was forced to resign. He came to Cleveland, but his reputation as a great jurist and lawyer preceded him ; so on opening an office he found plenty of clients. His practice grew so rapidly that he soon realized the necessity of assistance and he invited his former partner, Judge Hale (who had succeeded him on the Common Pleas Bench), to become his partner. After due consideration BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 81 Judge Hale decided to accept, and tendering his resignation as judge of the Fourth District, he came to Cleveland, and the firm of Boynton & Hale was formed. Their practice was a very extensive one. They were interested in many of the most important cases tried in this county. In 1888 the firm became Boynton, Hale & Horr, continuing so until Judge Hale was elected to the Circuit Court Bench, when it continued as Boynton & Horr. January 1, 1897, Judge Boynton retired from the firm and he is now devoting himself to the trial of special cases, and assisting other lawyers in the trial of causes involving important legal questions. Few men at the Ohio Bar are better suited and equipped for this character of practice. His long experience acquired on the Bench and from his active general practice, coupled with an extraordinary legal mind, makes him today an acknowledged leader at the Bar. Judge Boynton has always been a great student, devoted to his profession ; has a wonderful memory, a quick mind, a thorough knowledge of the law, and the faculty of recalling the particular decision applicable to the question at issue. These qualifications make him especially happy in the trial of cases. He is indeed a great advocate. His management of the trial of a cause is superb; like a great general, he is quick to see the weak points and to reinforce them before it is too late. As a man, jurist and lawyer he is free from those fixed prejudices which so frequently keep the brilliant down. Loyal to his friends, just in his dealings, he commands the respect and confidence of all. In politics he is a Republican, always taking an active interest in questions affecting the good and welfare of the people. In 1865, '66 and '67 he was a member of the Ohio legislature and it was he that offered the resolution to strike the word " white" from the provision of the State Constitution regulating the right of elective franchise. The resolution met defeat in the House on the first vote. A similar resolution was afterwards introduced in the Senate, and passed, came back to the House and after a bitter fight was adopted and went before the people at the ensuing State election, and the Democrats on this issue defeated the Republicans by more than 40,000 majority. It was this more than anything else that sent Allen G. Thurman to the United States Senate. Shortly afterwards Congress amended the Constitution, and the question of franchise was settled for all time. Judge Boynton married Betsey A. Terrill, who was born in Ohio, but of an old Connecticut family. They have never had any children. Mrs. Boynton is living. FRANKLIN T. BACKUS, Cleveland. It is a common reflection that the fame of great lawyers is of fleeting duration. Unless elevated to high judicial station or made conspicuous by distinguished political service, the mere lawyer —no matter how learned or accomplished—dies, and the memory of his great deeds and eminent services soon fades away and is forgotten. Ohio has had her proportion of great lawyers, and her most prominent sons have taken their rewards in the highest honors of the nation. We recall a goodly 82 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO assembly of these men : Justice John McLean, a model of judicial dignity and learning; his noble presence, benignant countenance and gracious manners won for him the regard of all who came within his influence. There was Thomas Ewing, towering above all his fellows in height, breadth and intellectual power, the undisputed head of the legal profession in our State. Here was Corwin, that genius whose silver tongue, unrivalled powers as an orator and statesman, made him the idol of the people. Here was the grand and graceful person of Henry Stanbery, tall as a cedar, dignified, courteous in manner, a face remarkable for refinement and manly beauty. From Lancaster came Hocking H. Hunter, a pattern of judicial integrity, beloved and honored by all who knew him, for his abilities and virtues. From Cincinnati, Judge Walker, Judge Storer and Salmon P. Chase, who closed his great and useful career as Chief Justice of the United States. The members of the Bar of Cuyahoga, at the time Mr. Backus came to Cleveland, held high rank with their brethren throughout the State. It is only necessary to name Sherlock J. Andrews, Moses Kelly, Horace Foote, Charles Stetson, Samuel B. Prentiss, Samuel Williamson, Henry B. Payne and Thomas Bolton, to realize how strong was the intellectual and moral force of the Cleveland Bar. These men, with many others worthy to be named with them, were for nearly forty years leaders of the profession. They were men of liberal education, careful training, great industry, and remarkable in any age for talents and varied learning. They all won high distinction as lawyers and citizens. It was in 1836 that Mr. Franklin T. Backus came to Cleveland and began the study of law. He brought his fortune with him in a fine, manly person, a most engaging countenance, a clear, discriminating mind, ambition for success, persistent industry, a stainless character, the best education Yale College could give, inflexible honesty, which, through a long and active life, was never questioned, and talents of superior order. He was born in Lee, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, May 16, 1813. While Mr. Backus was quite young his father removed to Lansing, New York, where he soon died, leaving the widow and several children with but scanty means for support. His parents were of the Puritan race, and young Backus was carefully trained in the religious faith of his ancestors. He early took upon himself the hardy labors of the farm that he might aid his mother in her necessities, and he often spoke of this period of his life, when he laid the foundation of that vigorous constitution which in after years enabled him to bear the greatest mental toil with endurance that seemed to know no limit. But as the youth grew toward manhood his early desire for knowledge became the mastering passion of his life, and he determined to acquire a thorough classical education. In a comparatively brief period he fitted himself for the Junior year and entered this class in Yale College, after a careful examination, in 1834. He graduated two years afterwards with so much distinction that he was at once tendered the position of assistant professor of mathematics in that institution. For a time after his arrival in Cleveland, Mr. Backus supported himself by teaching a classical school, and soon afterwards entered himself law student in the office of Bolton & Kelly. BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 83 He was called to the Bar in 1839, and almost at once attracted the attention of the public, and entered upon that successful practice which became larger and wider until the close of his useful, honorable life. In 1841 he was elected prosecuting attorney of the county, was re-elected and served with special ability, gaining the esteem of the public and the Bar. In 1846 he was elected a Whig member of the Ohio House of Representatives. In 1848 he was elected to the State Senate, where his unusual talents, force of character and fitness for the position, made him prominently named as a suitable candidate for the Senate of the United States. He was afterwards nominated, both for member of Congress and judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, by the Republican party, and failed of election only because of the non-success of his party in those years. In 1840 he made a law partnership with Honorable J. P. Bishop, which continued fifteen years. On the election of the latter to the Bench, Mr. Backus became the partner of Judge Rufus P. Ranney, the eminent lawyer and jurist, and the firm of Ranney, Backus & Noble became widely known and respected as any in the State. Afterwards he was a partner of Mr. Estep, and continued in this relation to the time of his death. The high standing Mr. Backus held in the esteem of the people as a lawyer was indicated by his being chosen once by the Whig party and once by the Republican party as a candidate for Supreme Judge. In 1861 he was appointed by Governor Denison a delegate to the peace conference, which met at Washington on the 4th of February. His associates were Salmon P. Chase, Thomas Ewing, William Groesbeck, Reuben Hitchcock, V. B. Horton and Christopher P. Wolcott, the latter being appointed to take the place of John C. Wright, who died soon after reaching Washington. In 1864 Mr. Backus, who for years had been a distinguished leader of the Republican party, became dissatisfied with the administration in regard to the management of the war, and greatly to the distress of his immediate friends, gave his support to General McClellan for the Presidency. In 1866 he was one of the delegates to the National Convention at Philadelphia to form a new party. In 1868 he was the nominee of the Democratic party for for Congress in the Cuyahoga district, but was of course defeated. Perhaps no higher tribute can be paid to the memory of Mr. Backus, and prove the genuine respect all men had for his integrity of personal character and pure life, than the fact that while Mr. Backus changed his political associates, and gave his great influence to the party he so long had opposed, and at a time when party spirit was the most bitter ever known in modern times, no man was found to doubt his absolute good faith in pursuing the line he regarded as right, and that he was acting from the most conscientious sense of duty and honor. It was evident from the time Mr. Backus came to the Bar that he was destined to achieve success and distinction. He was a man of warm, generous impulses, of pleasing address, quiet, unostentatious manners, persevering application, a man who could wait as well as work. He had an ardent love for his profession, a mind trained to close, patient study and profound reflection. His industry was tireless. He was not a genius, and leaned 84 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. for success on none of the arts or tricks by which popular applause is sometimes gained ; but slowly, logically, with methodical labor and painstaking diligence, pushed himself to the very front rank of the Bar of Ohio. The firmness of his character, love of truth, rigid honesty, and the trust all men had in the purity of his life, gave him vast influence with court juries. The cause of his client was a solemn trust. lie gave to it all he had of learning, influence and power. Neither his health, comfort nor inconvenience was allowed to interfere with what he regarded as his first duty. Courteous, genial and kindly at the Bar, treating his brethren with unaffected friendship of manner ; yet if he felt his client was unjustly treated by Bench or lawyer, the sleeping lion was aroused on the instant. At once the quiet, modest man bristled at all points, like a warrior ready for battle; and his weapons of offense and defense were ready at the moment. In the preparation of his case nothing escaped his scrutiny. The law and facts were fully known to him. If he lacked the faculty of brevity and conciseness in his argument, he never left his case until he had demonstrated every point, answered as far as possible every objection. When he concluded an argument the whole field had been actually explored. The judge had been told the law, the jury the evidence and the facts. Over juries he had great influence, not because he was brilliant, magnetic or eloquent, but from the confidence they placed in the integrity of the man. They thought his love of justice was superior to his desire for success, that he tried to do right, that he never sought to gain his causes by practicing in any manner deceit or art, but always appealed to their sense of justice and fair dealing. Juries are often carried away by the charms of a silver tongue, but the great success Mr. Backus achieved as a jury lawyer came from his sound sense, patient study, real candor, a belief in the worth of a man, his powers of persuasion, indomitable will and exhaustive knowledge of the subject before him. No man could look at Mr. Backus for a moment without realizing that he was a man of great natural intellectual powers. But he owed all his success in life to honest industry and hard work. His memory was tenacious, and in after years the stores of knowledge he had acquired as a student became a mine of useful wealth. That which he knew he knew thoroughly. He was wise in all departments of the law ; as a safe, prudent, sound counsellor he had no superior. All classes of society trusted him alike. As Judge Ranney said of him, " he was more resorted to for advice in important matters than any other member of the Bar in Cleveland." For many years he had the most lucrative practice in the county. In the later years of his life he was the leading lawyer in all special matters where the vast interests of railroads were concerned, and he had much to do in fixing the principles of the law which have since governed the courts in our State in regard to these great corporations. Those who attended the trial many years ago of Brooks, who was prosecuted for murder, for placing obstructions upon a railroad track, whereby a train was wrecked and persons killed, and heard Mr. Backus, in his remarkable speech, sum up the law and the facts against the prisoner, felt that a master of the criminal law was addressing the jury. As BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. - 85 be welded with invincible logic the links in the chain of guilt around the prisoner; as he took circumstance after circumstance, slight and delicate in themselves alone, fitting them together with the highest skill and mathematical certainty, there was a feeling all over the court room that the doom of the prisoner was fixed as fate. The judge was deeply moved and profoundly interested. The jury scarcely stirred, so absorbed was their attention. As the waning day brought almost twilight gloom into the court room, as the crowded audience listened with painful silence to every word that was spoken, as Mr. Backus, solemn, earnest, in the prime of his vigorous powers, crushed the hopes of the prisoner, darkness did indeed seem to settle upon the miserable man, and the hope he had relied on—that no eye had seen his crime and no confidant shared his guilt—faded away, and he saw the awful doom of the outcast and murderer to be his own. The jury found the defendant guilty of murder in the second degree, and he was sentenced to imprisonment for life. He lived to extreme old age, a solitary, aimless, hopeless being, dying years after Mr. Backus had been buried from our sight. This trial gave Mr. Backus special distinction. His wonderful knowledge of the minutest facts, his familiarity with all the criminal law applicable to the case and the evidence, the ability he displayed in tracing the motives, the conduct and the thousand little circumstances that went to make the guilt of the prisoner, won for him deserved commendation. Perhaps never in the history of our courts did an advocate have so grand an opportunity of displaying those high qualities of mind and heart as did Mr. Backus in the trial of the Oberlin rescuers. The slave law then dominated the Republic, and the courts of the United States were specially active in obeying its demands. In these cases the government was pushing with all its mighty power the prosecution of the prisoners, and had given orders to secure their conviction by all means known to the law. These Oberlin prisoners were not of the criminal class—they were men patriotic, educated, humane. They had assisted a panting fugitive to escape his pursuers, and their crime was to be punished with the penalties of the law. We can do no better than to quote from an article written some years ago by the present writer, in regard to these trials : " I well remember when the Oberlin rescue cases were on trial, and the attempt was made by the government to try all the prisoners before the same jury that had just convicted one of the defendants. Then to me Mr. Backus displayed those high qualities of the lawyer and advocate which made the celebrated lawyers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the idols of the down-trodden populace. In these days we can scarcely understand the courage necessary in an advocate, who Was resisting being crushed, and opposed by all the powers of a great and mighty government. But Mr. Backus was equal to the occasion. No more could judge or marshal or prosecutor shake the firmness of that iron-hearted man than kingly power could overwhelm and silence the noble Brougham, when before the parliament of Great Britain he defended, with consummate skill, learning, firmness and ability, the cause of the unfortunate and deeply injured Queen Caroline of England. There he stood, in the prime and vigor of his splendid manhood, almost single-handed, fearless and undismayed—inspiring courage in the 86 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. weakest heart and making the government tremble for the success of its prosecution, betraying great discretion and circumspection, and finally compelling the court to give a new jury and the semblance of a fair trial to the parties." Perhaps the most striking feature in the character of Mr. Backus was the moral courage of the man—the firmness at all times and under all circumstances to act as his convictions of right and duty urged him. He was eminently conservative, and bred a lawyer ; he held " the Constitution and the laws, made in pursuance thereof," as his chart and compass. Hence came differences of opinion with the political party he had so long served, and the severing of almost fraternal ties that had so long bound him to his political associates. But if he felt he was right, neither the applause nor the frowns of men, his dearest interests, his personal happiness nor ambition's hopes, were allowed to stand for a moment in the way of duty. He was of that class of men who in early days preferred the block and the executioner to the sacrifice of principle and dearest convictions. He was outspoken in his views of duty —despised all dissimulation—hut no more loyal heart or sincere lover of his country ever lived or died. The hearty, cordial, upright nature of the man had made him widely honored and beloved in the city where he was best known. Confidence was given him as a matter of course, and his faithfulness and sincerity were never doubted. His word and bond were alike inviolable. There was something grand in the quiet, unobtrusive way lie won the regard and esteem of his fellow men. Simple in all his habits, caring nothing for wealth as a means of personal gratification or display, doing good with a lavish but unseen hand, devoted to his friends, free from guile, and always ready to assist the young and deserving, he had become, at the time of his death, a central figure in the community, and his death was regarded as a great public as well as private calamity. In 1842 Mr. Backus was married to Miss Lucy Mygatt, daughter of the late George Mygatt. Into the home circle, so shattered and destroyed by his early and untimely death, we will not attempt to penetrate. It is enough to say that his sweet and tender nature bloomed in new beauty by his own fireside. There in the peace of domestic life he found his truest and highest happiness, and the richness of his nature, his cultivated intellect, delight in ministering to the happiness of others, made him the idol of the household. His belief in the Christian religion was clear and unclouded and his life testified to the soundness of his faith. He bore with unfaltering patience his last painful illness, and on the 14th day of May, 1870, he departed this life, mourned as few are mourned, crowned with affection of all who knew him. " God's finger touched him and he slept." R. C. PARSONS. BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 87 JOHN C. HALE, Cleveland. Honorable John C. Hale, the presiding judge of the Eighth Circuit of the Circuit Court of Ohio, was born March 3, 1831, in the little town of Orford, New Hampshire. His father, Aaron Hale, a farmer, and his mother, Mary Kent Hale, were of English ancestry. The forefathers of both came to this country in 1638, settling in New England about the time the great reformer, Oliver Cromwell, began to assert himself in shaping the destiny of Great Britain. His ancestors can well be classed among the American pioneers, and it is from these earlier settlers of our country that the best type of American manhood to-day is to be found. The subject of this sketch obtained his early education in the district schools, and at eighteen entered the academy at Orford to prepare for college. In 1853, at the age of twenty-three, he entered Dartmouth College, graduating with honors in 1857. He immediately came west, settling in Cleveland, where he taught in the public schools. While teaching he made up his mind to select law as his profession, and at once commenced his preliminary study. After three years he gave up teaching and entered the law office of S. B. & F. J. Prentiss, at that time one of the leading law firms of Cleveland. One year in this office was sufficient to enable him to be admitted to practice. He immediately removed to Elyria, in this State, where he formed a partnership with W. W. Boynton, then a rising young lawyer. This partnership continued only about one year, when it was dissolved, both partners continuing in the practice. Mr. Hale practiced alone, with the exception of his connection with one or two young men at different times whom he associated with him under a firm name to better facilitate his business, but who in reality were only employed on a salary in his office. In 1863 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Lorain county, holding the office until 1869. During this time he was register in bankruptcy for the congressional district, holding the office until the repeal of the bankruptcy law. He was a member of the Constitutional convention of 1872, presided over by Chief Justice Waite. He enjoyed a large and lucrative business, being retained on one side or the other of almost every important case brought while he was in active practice. In 1868 Judge Boynton was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and from this time Mr. Hale was admitted the leading practitioner at the Bar of Lorain county. In 1877 Judge Boynton was elected to the Bench of the Supreme Court of the State, and the subject of this sketch was elected to the vacancy on the Bench of the Court of Common Pleas. Thus began his judicial work which has made him so famous as a jurist in the Western Reserve. He retired from the Bench in 1883, returned to Cleveland and formed a partnership with his old law partner, Judge Boynton, whose term of office as judge of the Supreme Court had expired. This partnership continued without interruption until he was elected to the Circuit Court Bench in the fall of 1892, taking office as associate judge on the 9th of February, 1893, at which time Judge Hugh J. Caldwell was presiding judge, but as Judge Cald well was re-elected in 1894, Judge Hale became the presiding judge under a provision of the statutes that the judge having the shortest term to serve shall be the presiding judge of the court. Judge Hale was noted 88 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. in college as a man of most unusual common sense, a close and diligent student. He stood well in his class, which was an able one, having many bright and intellectual men, a number of whom have since attained distinction in law, litera ture and politics. At the commencement in 1897 the board of trustees of Dartmouth College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. The rare trait of common sense has been one of Judge Hale's most marked characteristics, which he has always applied, both as a lawyer and jurist, in all of his work. As a lawyer he is strong and forcible in the trial of cases. He is fortified by profound reading, intellectual originality and human sympathy. He is a hard worker as well as a deep thinker, and takes rank with the first lawyers in the State. In point of learning, clearness of insight and ability to grasp and apply the principles of the law he has no superiors. He is, beyond doubt, the acknowledged head of the judiciary in Cleveland. This is the common verdict of the lawyers at the Bar. In politics he has always been a Republican. Judge Hale belongs to that class of good men whose veracity and uprightness make the earth wholesome. His social disposition and geniality of temperament have drawn about him warm friends who find his companionship nutritious. His fondness of children is noteworthy and is also a proof of his lovable nature. Wherever he goes in Cleveland the little ones are round about him and his kindness invites their familiarity. They recognize in him a gentle friend. This love of children may be intensified by the want of any upon whom paternal affection can be centered. He was married in 1859 to Carrie A. Sanborn, who is living, and there has been no issue of the marriage. He has always appreciated the institution of home, with its duties and pleasures, so much as not to require or seek membership in clubs or fraternal societies. SAMUEL B. PRENTISS, Cleveland. Honorable Samuel Blake Prentiss, late of Cleveland, for fifteen years judge of the Fourth Judicial District of the Court of Common Pleas, was born in Montpelier, Vermont, in January, 1807. He was the son of Judge Samuel and Lucretia Houghton Prentiss (his middle name was that of his father's old preceptor in law), and was the oldest of twelve children, of whom eleven were boys. He was the eighth generation in descent from Captain Thomas Prentiss, who won great distinction in some of the early wars, notably that of King Philip in 1676, when he commanded a troop of horse. His father, nearly all his life in public service and faithful and attentive to duty, left the care of the children mainly to his mother, who was indeed a very superior and competent woman, as a housewife at home, as a lady in society. Either in Montpelier or Washington, as a woman of efficiency and judgment, in care of so large a family of sons, she was equally capable. Her mildness and force and good sense were beyond praise, and her sons have deemed her perfect. The ten sons grew to manhood ; all but one practiced law ; that one was clerk in the United States Court, of which his father was judge. Samuel Blake Prentiss had, when a boy, such education as Montpelier BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 89 afforded, and later went to the University of Vermont. The burning of that college ended his academic education. He received, however, an education by heredity—for few men had so much by nature—such mental qualities as usually result from a severe and careful education. He studied with his father and remained in Montpelier in practice until the year 1840. His father in early years was judge and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont, and a few years afterwards was in the United States Senate for two terms, until the year 1840. Samuel B. had not only a fine and accurate early schooling, but an opportunity for responsible practice while his father was in Washington. In 1840 his father was made United States judge for the district in which he lived. A younger brother, Frederick J., still kindly remembered by many old citizens of Cleveland, had come to Cleveland in 1839, and urging the step was joined in 1840 by his brother in a business long and successfully conducted, under the firm name of S. B. & F. J. Prentiss, except during the years 1854 and 1855, when Mr. John T. Newton, now of Toledo, was a partner. This firm was broken in 1861 by the retirement of Mr. F. J. Prentiss, who became clerk of the courts. Mr. S. B. Prentiss then took into partnership Charles Candee Baldwin, formerly a student in his office. The firm continued for six years, until 1867, when Mr. Prentiss was elected to the Bench of the Cuyahoga Common Pleas, and he was twice re-elected, the last election being just before he reached the age of seventy years, and he entered upon his third term of office when past seventy. Judge S. B. Prentiss in 1840 made some polished Whig speeches, but thereafter took little public part in politics. He devoted himself closely and with affection to his profession, taking a hearty interest but very modest part in public affairs. He was a quiet citizen, but always performed very conscientiously the duties of citizenship. He took a great and intelligent interest in the late war. He even expressed, in the early part of the war, a desire to enlist. Being then and generally rather feeble, he modestly said he could not march very well, but he could shoot. He never held public office, except that of judge. His life offers little of adventure or little out of the ordinary save his character, and there, where so many eminent men fail, he was conspicuous. He was remarkably well fitted for his work. His mind was always acute and accurately logical. Apparently his hard work was easily done. He advanced in a difficult or complicated case step by step, each finished ere the next was determined. With him, more than with any other lawyer at the Cleveland Bar, law seemed like logic. He was known as a remarkably safe counsellor and safe in his presentation of cases. Though personally modest and retiring, indeed to yielding his own personal claims, he was most tenacious on the rights of his client and the merits and fate of a law suit—a training, by the way, infrequently gained in the legal profession and a very high praise to deserve. He was much urged to accept a place on the Bench in 1862, but declined. Four years later he accepted and continued in the office until he was seventy-five years old. To the present generation he is chiefly known as a jurist. His mind and disposition were very favorable to his excellence. He inherited mental discipline. His first American ancestor, 90 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. Captain Thomas Prentiss, of King Philip's War had for his service therein " the Pequot County," in Stonington, Connecticut. His descendant, Colonel Samuel Prentiss, was in the Revolution and a man of public affairs. His son Samuel was an educated and skilled physician, who settled in Massachusetts. The third Samuel born in Stonington was the father of Samuel Blake. This formed quite a line of professional men. The characteristics of the father, Judge and Senator Prentiss, were very marked, even to peculiarity. He was a judge remarkable for the accurate logic and solid good sense of his opinions. A few years ago Honorable E. J. Phelps, erstwhile United States Minister to England, delivered in the legislative hall of Vermont a discourse upon Judge Samuel Prentiss, which it is impossible to read without seeing in it a picture of the son. Mr. Phelps said : " Prentiss carried the scales hung on a diamond point, fit to weigh the tenth part of a hair ; so conscientious was he, so patient, so thoughtful, so considerate, so complete in his knowledge of every principle and every detail of the law of the land, when he held up the scales he not only weighed accurately, but everybody felt that he weighed accurately." Judge S. B. Prentiss had also a remarkable faculty of making the losing lawyer feel that the decision was correct. His opinion had the sound of mathematical accuracy. While he was on the Bench, he adorned it both by his learning and by his manners. His patience was perfect under all circumstances. His manner was very dignified, yet gracious and kind, and he was very greatly a favorite with younger members of the Bar for these reasons. While all submitted cases to him with great confidence, there was never any suspicion that he might be swayed even by prejudice, His ruling was marked by great gentleness. Although he never seemed strong, he had great vitality, and at a very advanced age slowly failed, dying at last slowly, and with much less discomfort than he had previously suffered, at one o'clock P. M., on Tuesday, the 27th day of November, 1894. On April 14, 1851, Judge Prentiss married Jane Atwood, daughter of Warren and Janett A. Russell, of East Haddam, Connecticut, and by the union had two daughters, one the wife of J. D. Cox, Jr., son of ex-Governor Cox, and Lucretia J. Prentiss. The following beautiful tribute is from Judge Samuel E. Williamson : "Although Judge Prentiss has been withdrawn from active connection with his profession for several years, his death brings personal grief to every lawyer who knew him on the Bench or at the Bar. I have no very distinct recollection of him as a practicing lawyer, as he became a judge at the request of substantially the whole Bar when I was a student. The first event which attracted my attention to him was his vigorous attempt to secure the resignation of a public officer who, in his judgment, had been false to his professions made when he was elected. I believe he failed to secure the united support of his associates at the Bar, and it is not now important to decide whether the attempt was wise or not, but the incident serves to indicate to those who knew him only in later years not only his patriotism but his intense devotion to duty. Once convinced that duty demanded a certain line of conduct, no personal sacrifice could turn him from it. Indeed it was duty that guided and controlled his life. It inspired him in his work, which was so completely and conscientiously performed that it gave him the relief from pressure so essential BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 91 to every lawyer burdened with the cares of others. He said once that he had, when a cause had been submitted to the court or jury, no further anxiety or uneasiness about it. He had done his duty and that ended his responsibility. It is not strange that such a man should outlive most of his contemporaries, and that the affection of his associates and the respect of the whole community should follow him in his retirement and remain with him to the end. It is as a judge that he is best remembered by the Bar of the present day. If ever legal learning, judicial temperament and absolute integrity were united in a single man it was in Judge Prentiss. He came to the Bench with every advantage that could be given by birth, education and experience. But they would have been of little avail to arouse the tender memories which enshrine him in our hearts to-day without the conspicuous purity which made it impossible for the worst defeated litigant to doubt it, and the kindness which took the sting from the most adverse opinion. I have heard it said that he was born with a hot temper, but if so, no man ever had his temper under such complete control. Those who knew him well were aware that he had strong and clear views upon most subjects of common interest. But no opinion or prejudice ever had the least influence in preventing the calm consideration of every case upon the law and testimony. Wherever these led him he followed. If argument ever worried him he gave no sign of it A full hearing he never denied or avoided. His practice in this respect was probably the result partly of a desire to hear all that could be said, partly of his boundless kindness. I have seen him sit for hours with perfect calmness and listening to a flood of bombastic rhetoric without a thought which could aid him. Lawyers have made propositions in coming before him which would have called out an indignant outburst from any other judge, but he heard them patiently to the end and then in the calmest tone disposed of them by the application of legal principles. The most severe reproof that counsel engaged in a personal altercation ever received, was the statement that court would be adjourned to facilitate a proper trial of the case, but you may be sure that there was no occasion to repeat the reproof. I think it is the memory of this uniform kindness which won them. All else dominates our thought of him to-day, and brings mourning and pain to the hearts of those who have not seen this loved and venerated judge for years." HENRY CLAY RANNEY, Cleveland. The subject of this biography is a native of Ohio, of Massachusetts ancestry on both sides. He sprang from the union of two historic families, distinguished in the annals of New England and Ohio. His father was Elijah W. Ranney, a successful merchant and the oldest of the three brothers, Elijah W., Rufus P., and John L. Ranney. His mother was Levana L. Larcom. He was born June 1, 1829, in Portage county, and bereft of his father when only six years old. At the age of eight he became a member of the family of his uncle, the late Judge Rufus P. Ranney, by whom he was educated. His education was limited to an academic course, because it seemed desirable that he should qualify himself for the profession of law, which he had chosen, and become self-supporting as early as practicable. With that object in view he took up the study of the law in the office and under the instruction of his uncle, who was then one of the judges 92 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. of the Supreme Court of Ohio. He was admitted to the Bar in 1852 and immediately commenced practice at Warren, in the office of Judge Matthew Birchard. He left Warren in the fall of 1855 to enter into a partnership with his uncle, John L. Ranney, at Ravenna, with whom he was associated until the death of the latter in 1866. He continued practice at Ravenna until 1874, when he came to Cleveland and became associated with his uncle, Rufus P. Ranney (the firm later including Judge Ranney's youngest son, John R.). Since the death of Judge R. P. Ranney in 1891, he has continued in practice alone. His education in the law was not restricted to any single branch or division, but was in fact unlimited in scope. This statement is also applicable to the character of his practice, at least during the first twenty-five years of his membership at the Bar. Latterly the legal business of railroad companies and other corporations has commanded most of his time, and he is now seeking to limit or confine his practice to special cases. Richly endowed by the instinctive quality of mind which is the inspiration of a lawyer, and by that happy association of faculties which permits the highest distinction in the profession, Mr. Ranney has not allowed himself to rely upon inspiration or natural endowments. Strong in mental power and resource, he has ever been mindful of the proverb, " Labor omnia vincit." Not only have his intellectual powers been consecrated to the profession, but his time and his energy have been equally and unreservedly devoted to the professional work. He has had the breadth of view to appreciate the immensity, the infinity, of possible achievement in the profession, and the wisdom to understand that perpetual growth is dependent upon perpetual study and investigation. He has given himself with unflagging industry and unfaltering faith to the study and the mastery of all the intricate problems and involved questions presented in the important cases entrusted to him. And in the prosecution of this study he has been actuated quite as much by the purpose to know the real intent and meaning and application of the law, as by the desire to win a particular case. From the year of his admission to the Bar down to the present time, with the exception of a brief period in the army and the time spent in the recuperation of impaired health, he has labored constantly, earnestly and sometimes painfully in his practice of the law. Interests of very great magnitude have received his solicitous care ; but whether the financial consideration was large or small made no difference with his devotion to the interests and the rights of his clients. Principle, in his ethical code, has a value inestimable in the money of the realm. Favored from his youth up by associations which tend to the cultivation of a legal mind and the enthronement of high ideals, Mr. Ranney has given his mind and heart with singular integrity to the law. No allurements have been strong enough to tempt him to turn aside ; nothing has prompted a division of his allegiance. And it may be asserted with candor that he has found quite as gratifying recompense in the love of his profession as in its monetary rewards. He is a master of the art and the law of pleading. His pleadings are rioted for strength, directness and perspicuity. Anything added would be superfluous, anything elimi- BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 93 nated would detract from the force and symmetry of the argument. There is not a word too many or too few. He is unfamiliar with the " tricks" of the trained orator. and the specious arts of the advocate, preferring to convince the court or jury by plainness of speech and the choice of words which will most clearly express his meaning, and the logic which will most powerfully enforce his reasoning. His statements are made in such argumentative form as to seem unanswerable. They are characterized not more by clearness and logic than by candor and earnestness. His own convictions of right and justice are deep and strong, and he has the faculty of impressing others with them. If one seeks for the hiding of his power and the fundamental resources of his remarkable success in the management of great cases, he will find it in the thorough preparation ; the masterful grasp of all the issues and the powerful influence of his own personality. He is gifted in a high degree with the rare faculty of holding .in memory the details, both as to authorities bearing on a given case and the facts essential in proof. The keenness of his insight, the calmness of his demeanor and the equability of his temper are all potential factors in his conduct of a controversy. He understands his cause so thoroughly as not to be surprised by any question which may be sprung during the progress of a trial ; and his self-control is so complete that he is not disconcerted by any interruption. He is permeated with the old-fashioned notion that courts are organized for the purposes of declaring the law and securing the rights of all who appeal to them for redress. In the secret chambers of his private office the substantial triumphs of the great lawyer are wrought out. There he meditates and investigates ; consults the authorities and takes the bearings of his case ; prepares his pleadings and arranges his facts ; presents his motions and arguments ; anticipates the rulings of the court ; even puts himself in the jury box and imagines how the case thus presented would affect his understanding and judgment as a juror. Mr. Ranney is a great lawyer in all the work of preparation. He is a solid lawyer who regards with becoming gravity every interest, every principle and every right involved in a case, and then applies himself sedulously to the law and the evidence. His methods are peculiarly his own and his strong individuality impresses itself upon the organized courts. His reputation as a railroad and corporation lawyer is not excelled by that of any lawyer in the State, and has extended beyond the borders of the State. Whether as counsel or advocate, he prefers that kind of law business. He is no less distinguished as a man than as a lawyer. His citizenship has endeared him to the people of Cleveland in a very marked degree, because of the fine texture of his mind, his unselfishness and magnanimity. Cultured by wide reading and extended foreign travel, his companionship is charming. Successful by industry and the observance of correct principles of economy in accumulating a competence, he is. generous towards the public. Mr. Ranney is at the present time president of the Cleveland, Canton and Southern Railroad, and a director in the Cleveland Pittsburg Railroad and the Belt Line Railroad. He has been a member of the American Bar Association from its organization, and also a 94 - BENCH AND BAR OHIO. member of the Ohio State Bar Association. In 1894 Kenyon College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. He is president of the Western Reserve Historical Society ; a member of the State Board of Charities ; one of the trustees of all the bequests given for the establishment and maintenance of a museum of art for the city of Cleveland, amounting to over $1,500,000. He has always been a patron of the arts, a lover of literature and the legitimate drama. He is a member and junior warden of St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Cleveland, also a patron of Freemasonry and has attained the highest degrees save one known to the order. He has never held political office, or sought the honors that appertain to public station. For a year during the war he held the position of assistant adjutant general, First Brigade, Third Division, Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac, and was in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville ; resigned in the fall of 1863 and returner to his law practice. He was married September 19, 1853, to Helen A. Burgess, of Ravenna, who for more than forty years has contributed to the cheerful and genuine hospitality of his home. Of the seven children born to them three are living. The following brief estimate is from Judge H. C. White, of Cleveland : " Mr. Ranney is profoundly read in the common law—always a e student ; holds first rank among lawyers in the State as a sound lawyer ; is always faithful to a trust. There is a kindliness about the man that is charming. With his clients he is not only their attorney, but their friend. No man ever lived in Cleveland who more fully had the respect of lawyers and the people of all classes. While he commands large fees, he is also the poor man's friend and lawyer, and if necessary will take cases without pay if he feels a wrong is being done. In all his work there is always an innate quality of greatness and goodness that has made him dear to the hearts of the people of Cleveland and all that know him." JOHN L. RANNEY, Ravenna. One of the brightest and most profound lawyers at the Ohio Bar forty years ago was the late John L. Ranney, of Ravenna. He lives in the memory of those who knew him best as a modest yet conspicuous representative of the class of men whose attainments are self-acquired, who achieve intellectual independence through the exercise of self dependence. Mr. Ranney was born at Blanford, Massachusetts, on the 14th day of November, 1815, and died at Ravenna, Ohio, in 1865. His paternal lineage had its origin in Scotland, and the traits of his character were such as to establish kinship with the noblest of that high principled race. His father, Rufus Ranney, was a farmer in Massachusetts, a pioneer farmer and village merchant in Ohio. his mother was Dollie Blair. The family came west and settled in Portage county in 1822, when the practically unbroken forest afforded a refuge for wild animals and a dangerous abode for the few scattered settlers. The white men first to locate in this western wilderness were not adventurers or speculators, moved by the hope of acquiring sudden fortune to BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 95 spend in more luxurious living in New England. They came to subdue the forests and establish permanent homes for themselves and their descendants. They were "settlers," therefore, in the truest and broadest meaning of the word. John L. Ranney was only seven years old when he came with his father's family to the wilds of Portage county ; but he contributed his full share as boy and young man to the hard work of opening and cultivating a farm. The opportunities and advantages were meager indeed, but such as were found he grasped and utilized. The schools of the back woods were not up to the modern standard in system and text-books, but the learning which they imparted appears to have aided in the development of a high standard of manhood, both in morality and intelligence. Mr. Ranney's scholastic education had its limitations in the primitive public schools of the country and a single year in a school at Ravenna. While performing the duties of clerk in his father's country store he employed the spare hours in reading such textbooks of law as he could procure. A little later he took up the study of law regularly at Ashtabula, in the office of his elder brother Judge Rufus P. Ranney, and Benjamin F. Wade, who were associated in partnership. By the application and diligence which characterized his whole professional life, he was enabled to grasp the principles of the law and qualify himself for admission to the Bar in the course of two years. lie passed the examination at Jefferson and was admitted to practice in the courts of the State in 1839. The following year he located at Ravenna and formed a partnership with Daniel R. Tilden, who subsequently removed to Cleveland and served as probate judge of Cuyahoga county for thirty years. Later he was with Ezra B. Taylor. His last partnership was with his nephew, H. C. Ranney, now of Cleveland, and continued until his death. Mr. Ranney was devoted to his profession from the time he began the reading of law books until he was cut down in the noonday of life and the meridian of his powers. He died February 22, 1866, only rounding out the half century, but his remarkable talents had gained for him recognition throughout the State. That recognition was tersely expressed in a single sentence by Benjamin F. Wade : " He knows all the law there is in the books." Mr. Ranney was indeed a distinguished lawyer, and the distinction was due to his vast and exact knowledge of the law, and his skillful use of it in the conduct of litigation. His transcendent ability as a pleader was known to the giants of the profession with whom he was called to measure intellect and skill. It is reported as a historical fact, sustained by the records of the courts, that under the old system of practice no demurrer was ever sustained to any complaint drawn by him. His statements in argument were as clear and concise as his pleadings. He was always above any attempt to mislead the court or befog the jury. His candor and sincerity commended his speech, and being free from any coloring of speciousness it had the quality of absolute reliability. The clearness of his argument arose from his complete knowledge of the subject and his felicitous use of the English language. He was able to instruct the court upon any obscure point or involved construction, and he was one of those high-minded lawyers who 96 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. recognize the duty of aiding rather than embarrassing the trial judge. His style of delivery as an advocate was earnest and forcible rather than impassioned or inflammatory, and he possessed the rare faculty of impressing a listener with the truth of his utterance. He was mentally and morally honest ; his sympathy was large ; his sensibilities were quick ; his sense of justice was innate and intuitive. He was exceedingly learned in the law and excessively modest in his pretensions. Quiet and undemonstrative in manner, upright in deportment, frank and generous in social intercourse, companionable with all who appreciate nobility of character and rectitude of conduct, genuine in the fiber of his manhood, firm and unyielding in his friendships, he was much loved by that inner circle of men admitted to the fullest measure of his confidence and the freest intercourse of his fellowship. He was a good man and a great lawyer. He was at the time of his death president of the First National Bank of Ravenna. Mr. Ranney was married on the 20th day of February, 1836, to Eliza E. Remington, and three sons and three daughters were born of the union. HENRY B. PAYNE, Cleveland. Honorable Henry B. Payne, who died at his home September 9, 1896, was about the last of the " Old Guard " of really eminent lawyers that made the Bar of Cuyahoga county great. He was of English descent through the lineage of his father, while his mother descended from the stock of the great Douglas, Earl of Angus, Scotland. His immediate ancestors dwelt in New England, and his parents were natives of Connecticut. His father, Elisha Payne, a man of remarkable probity, strong character and resolute spirit, left Connecticut in 1795 and settled in Hamilton, Madison county, New York. At this place Henry B. Payne was born, November 30, 1810. lie was carefully and thoroughly educated, graduated from Hamilton College at twenty-two. He possessed in a high degree the innate qualities which are the source of the largest professional success, and his bent was towards the law. His preceptor was John C. Spencer, of Canandaigua, an eminent lawyer and statesman, secretary of war in the cabinet of President Tyler. While a student of law he formed the acquaintance of Stephen A. Douglas, who was at the same time pursuing his studies with another firm of lawyers in the same town. A close and intimate friendship was formed between the two young men, whose recognized abilities even then were prophetic of the exalted station attained and the commanding influence exercised by each of them in later life. The bond which united them in young manhood, based upon good fellowship, mutual confidence and esteem, strengthened by association in the same profession and by political sentiments held in common, grew stronger with the years and was broken only by death. Mr. Payne settled in Cleveland in 1833, confident of his own powers and with astute prevision of the future greatness of the embryo city. He contiftued his law studies for one year in the office and under the wise supervision of Sherlock J. Andrews, whose fame as a lawyer-advocate was at its zenith. Mr. Payne was admitted to the Bar in 1834, and BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 97 in the following year formed a partnership with Judge Hiram V. Wilson, who twenty-five years later occupied the Bench of the United States District Court with such distinguished ability. The success of this firm, Payne & Wilson, was very remarkable. Within ten years its business had grown to proportions unparalleled in the county and unexcelled in the State. The enthusiastic and unremitting application of Mr. Payne to the exacting demands of his profession and the interests of his clients was too severe to be endured long by his delicate physical organism. His health was broken at thirty-six, and he became conscious that the exactions of such a law practice as he had built up were incompatible with a reasonable degree of health. The strain to which he had been subjected and the resultant debility superinduced hemoptysis. Yielding to the inexhorable law of self-preservation, he retired from the practice of law and entered upon a business career which, while affording ample scope for the useful employment of extraordinary abilities, permitted larger freedom and more activity in the open air. The state of his health improved rapidly and he was permitted, after retiring from the Bar, to spend sixty years in great usefulness to his city and State. His marvellous success in the practice of law, during the dozen years of his practice in Cleveland, was matched by his triumphs in commercial business and his achievements in statesmanship. He was the first city solicitor of Cleveland under its municipal charter, and during the whole course of his life the growth, prosperity and good name of the city appealed to his civic pride and found in him a wise promoter. His counsel, prompted by public spirit, was freely given and gratefully accepted long after his retirement from the office of counsellor and the practice of law. He thus rendered vast service to the municipality. He was prominent in the railroad construction of the State, inaugurating and carrying to completion, with two or three associates, the Cleveland and Columbus Railroad, which was opened in 1851. with Mr. Payne as president. He was also in the directory of the Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad, which at length expanded into the Lake Shore. Perhaps no single individual contributed more of thought, energy, enterprise and money to the metropolitan development of the beautiful Forest City. He was a member of the first board of water works commissioners and was the trusted instrumentality in planning and establishing the comprehensive system for supplying the city. From 1862 until the end of his life, a period of thirty-four years, he was president of the board of sinking fund commissioners, and to his admirable executive management the unprecedented increase of that fund was due. He was always liberal, broad-minded, sagacious and conservative in the control of a public trust. Mr. Payne exhibited a remarkable talent for politics while yet a young man. In 1848 he was a candidate for Presidential elector on the Cass ticket. In 1851 he was elected to the State Senate and before the close of the first session displayed rare skill as a parliamentarian and a party leader. He was then the choice of his party caucus for United States senator, but the few Free-soilers in the legislature holding the balance of power secured the election of Ben Wade. In 1857 Mr. Payne was the Democratic candidate for governor and 98 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. came near defeating Governor Chase, who was before the people for re-election. He was a delegate to the National convention of his party in 1856 from the Congressional district, and a delegate from the State at large to the memorable convention at Charleston in 1860. In the latter he was the personal representative of Douglas and repelled the sectional assaults of the Southern leaders — denouncing the spirit of secession disclosed by their inflammatory utterances and warning them of the ruin they were about to bring upon themselves and their section. In that convention his reputation as a political orator, .already established in Ohio, became nationalized. During the civil war which followed he was steadfast in his devotion to the Union, pledging his wealth, to the extent needed, for military equipment, giving his time and the influence of public addresses to promote enlistments. In 1872 he was chairman of the State delegation in the Baltimore convention which nominated Horace Greeley. In 1874 he was nominated and elected to Congress in the Cleveland district, overcoming a very large adverse majority and having 2.500 votes to his credit. As a member of the committee on Banking and Currency he found opportunity for the display of the rare financial ability with which he had long been accredited by his friends. He was the author of a compromise measure, bearing his name, which secured the united support of the extreme gold Democrats of the East and the Green backers of the West, and had for its major purpose the appreciation of all the currency to a gold standard. He proposed the retention of the National Banks and the Greenback currency, paving the way to an easy resumption of specie payments by retiring twenty per cent of the paper money put into circulation by the banks and by the government. The compromise effected an adjustment of differences requiring superior skill in diplomacy, and presented a scheme for maintaining a stable currency of varying volume according to the requirements of trade. In this the keenness of the financier was happily blended with the ability of the .statesman. In the contest following the Presidential election of 1876, to determine the manner of declaring the electoral vote, Mr. Payne with commendable patriotism supported the bill providing for an electoral commission, and was one of the five members of the House elected to membership on the commission. It is a historical fact worthy of mention in this connection that he was supported for President by a large representation of his party in the National convention of 1880, and his nomination could have been effected but for the instructions of the State convention, which bound the Ohio delegates to vote for Senator Thurman. In 1885 Mr. Payne was elected senator of the United States and served six years, retiring permanently from politics at the close of his term in 1891. In 1836 he married Miss Mary Perry, the daughter of Nathan Perry. His home life built upon this union was singularly felicitous. Of the five children born — Nathan P., Oliver H., Flora, Henry W. and Mary — two only survive, viz., Colonel Oliver H. Payne, of New York, and Mrs. C. W. Bingham, of Cleveland. On the occasion of Senator Payne's death, the Bar of Cuyahoga county held a memorial meeting and adopted resolutions expressing appreciation of the noble traits of his character, the worth BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 99 of his private citizenship and the value of his public services. Addresses were delivered by the ablest and oldest members of the profession. An extract from the address of Judge Franklin J. Dickman is selected for the close of this sketch : "No man could be taken from our midst who is so well known to the community, to the people of our State and to the country at large as the Honorable Henry B. Payne. It would be difficult, therefore, for me to add anything to the common knowledge of his varied claims to distinction, of his noble traits of character, of his intellectual attainments, of his eminent abilities displayed at the Bar and in the arena of public life, of his spirit of large nationality, of his patriotism, of his benevolence, of his fidelity to friends, of his genial courtesy and kindness to all who came in contact with him, of the manifold virtues which irradiated the sphere of his private life. Many years have elapsed since he laid aside his armor and retired from the contests of the Bar. When I first came to Cleveland to enter upon the practice of my profession he had just left the Bar, in obedience to a warning of failing health ; but he had retired with a reputation for legal ability and powers of advocacy seldom attained, and attained, too, among rivals whose names will al ways shed luster upon the Bar of this county and State. To many of you his distinguished career as a lawyer is a tradition only — knowing him only as a statesman, in the public eye up to a comparatively recent period. And so it has been with many of the leaders who have illustrated the English and American Bar. In their day and generation their triumphs were on the lips of men—virum volitare per ora—but when their lips were sealed in death the stream of time soon began to wash the dissoluble fabric of their forensic fame. Thus it is that even Alexander Hamilton, of whom it is said that those who heard him at the Bar were lost in admiration at the strength and stretch of the human understanding, is now known and honored rather as the great and constructive statesman, whose genius shines in the papers of the Federalist, and from whose financial system streams of revenue gushed forth to fill an exhausted treasury. Yet it will not be forgotten that the growth of our jurisprudence is, in a large measure, the result of the assistance which the practicing lawyer extends to the judiciary, and, in so doing, may take part in rendering a public service not inferior to the highest achievements of statesmanship. I have often heard the characteristics of Mr. Payne as a lawyer, when he was in the full tide of a large practice, described by contemporaries who knew him well, and who had seen him and heard him before court and jury. He was a logical thinker, skilled in the dialectics of the law, withering in sarcasm when occasion required the use of that weapon, possessing a rich fund of humor, a perfect acquaintance with the English tongue, a familiar knowledge of human nature, courage in every emergency, and the most consummate prudence and address. We may, I think, fitly apply to him the words of Lord Brougham in delineating Erskine when in his prime at the English Bar : His understanding was eminently legal. His memory was accurate and retentive in an extraordinary degree ; nor did he ever, during the trial of a cause, forget any matter, how trifling soever, that belonged to it. His presence of mind was perfect in action ; that is, before the jury, when a line is to be taken up on the instant, and a question risked to a witness, or a topic chosen with the tribunal, on which the whole fate of the cause may turn. No man made fewer mistakes; none left so few advantages unimproved ; before none was it so dangerous for an adversary to slumber and be off his guard, for he was ever broad awake himself, and was as adventurous as he was skillful ; and as apt to take advantage of any, the least opening, as he was cautious to leave