350 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. notorious of which was the State of Ohio vs. Charles Hart, indicted for murder in the first degree. The crime of which he was accused—and convicted—was one of the most revolting in cruelty and atrocity which the records of Ohio disclose. The defendant, a boy of eighteen, son of a Paulding county farmer, attempted to commit assault on a little girl, a mere child, and was frustrated by an outcry of the girl's seven-year-old brother. Enraged, he murdered both children, dismembered their bodies and endeavored to conceal his double crime by burning the bodies. His crime was expiated on the gallows. Mr. Corbett is a Republican politically, and has uniformly given his party active support in the field campaigns, while at the same time he has been prominent in the secret councils. He is a member of the Masonic-- fraternity and a Knight of Pythias. He was married in 1892, to Miss Nettie Hildred, a native of Napoleon, and daughter of George Hildred, a prominent citizen and lumber merchant. JOHN P. CAMERON, Defiance. The subject of this sketch is a member of the firm of Harris & Cameron. The Camerons are of Scotch descent. They came to this country in the latter half Of the eighteenth century and located in Pennsylvania. They are a numerous family. The grandfather of our subject, Mordecai Cameron, and Honorable Simon Cameron, who was so prominent in State and national politics during his life, were close relatives. John and Lydia (Stringer) Cameron, parents of John P., were both natives of Pennsylvania, the former of Iycoming county and the latter of Lancaster county, and were born in 1807 and 1809 respectively. The parents of both came to Ohio while they were yet young, about the same time, and settled at Wooster, in Wayne county. Ohio was then considered the far West, and Wayne county was on the border of civilization. The first occupation of the family in Ohio was in hotel keeping at Wooster, Mr. Cameron at the same time being engaged In teaming. This they followed for twenty-seven years. In 1834 the father of our subject went on a tour of observation through northwest Ohio, tramping through the country on foot, the woods through which the established trails led being too dense for even a horse. He selected and entered a tract of land in Defiance county, and in the fall of the same year the entire family removed to it and followed farming from that time forward. The older members of the family spent the rest of their lives there. The grandfather died in 1864, at the age of eighty-seven years, and the father in August, 1875, and the mother in April, 1881. John P. Cameron was born on the Defiance county farm, March 29,1851. His early education was obtained in the public schools of Tiffin, his native township, which .was supplemented by a course at select schools in the neighborhood. In 1868 he entered the academy at Bryan, Ohio, pursuing -his studies there for six years, except a three months' interval each winter, which was spent in. teaching district and village schools. He paid all the expenses of his education by his own efforts. While not classical, it was thoroughly practical. and fitted him well for his chosen profession. In 1S73 he BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 351 entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, remaining two years and taking the full course. He was graduated in the spring of 1875 with the degree of. Bachelor of Laws. The next year he entered the law office of Hill•& Myers, of Defiance, remaining with them during the summer, when he was admitted to the Bar. During the winter of 1874-5 he taught school in order to procure funds to liquidate some small liabilities and to start him in his profession. In the spring of 1876 he came to Defiance and established himself in the practice of law, which he has continued there without interruption with the exception of short intervals spent in public service. He practiced alone until 1877, when he formed a partnership with Hill & Myers, under the firm name of Hill, Myers & Cameron. In the fall of 1879 this association was dissolved by mutual consent, and Mr. Cameron formed a partnership with B. F. Enos, which was continued until Mr. Enos was elected prosecuting attorney in 1881. The present firm of Harris & Cameron was then formed, which has become recognized as a leading one in that section of the State. There was a break of three years in this co-partnership, between 1882 and 1885, during which Mr. Cameron served as clerk of the court of Defiance county. During the past ten years the firm has been engaged on one side or the other of most of the important litigation of the county: In 1889 Mr. Cameron was elected city solicitor of Defiance, to fill an unexpired term, and held the office for two years. In 1880 he was appointed assistant United States district attorney for the northern district of Ohio, with office in Cleveland, and entered upon the discharge of the duties in March of the same year, but resigned at the end of six months for the reason that the duties of the office interfered with his private practice. Among the important cases they have handled was that of Arrowsmith vs. Harminning, in which they represented the defendant and finally won, after contesting .the case through the State courts and through the United States Circuit and Supreme Courts. It was over the title to a piece of realty and is of interest to such contestants. Mr. Cameron has taken an active interest in the development of the industrial enterprises of the city. He is a stockholder and director in the Defiance Box Company and is interested in other enterprises. He is a prominent member of the Masonic order and now holds the position of Eminent Commander of the Defiance Commandery No. 30, Knights Templar, and has filled other important offices in the order. He is a Republican in his, party affiliations, but not an offensive partisan or a politican. The official ballots convey the best idea of his standing in local circles. When he was elected clerk of the court, he and the county treasurer were the only Republicans elected, while the remainder of the Democratic ticket was elected by the usual majority of about 1,400 votes. Again, when he ran for city solicitor he was elected by a majority of 190 against a plurality of 350 for all other candidates on the opposite ticket. Mr. Cameron is a bachelor and an important factor in local society functions. 352 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ENOS, Defiance. Mr. Enos is a native of Ohio, born at Defiance October 1, 1851. His parents were among the early settlers in Defiance county. His father was a native of Scotland and came to America in his youth, locating first in Wisconsin, but late in the thirties settling at Defiance, where he spent the remainder of his life. he died in 1880, at the age of sixty-five. His mother was a native of Vermont and came to Defiance with her parents in 1833. Her ancestors were among the early settlers of New England. Mr. Enos, the subject of this sketch, laid the foundation of his education in the union schools of Defiance, which he attended up to the age of eighteen. He then taught in the district schools of his neighborhood for three years, when he entered the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and took a course in the Medical Department with a view of adopting the medical profession. After leaving the university he abandoned the study of medicine for the law, and entered the office of Honorable William Bill, a prominent attorney and ex-member of Congress, who represented the sixth district in the national House of Representatives for six years. After pursuing his studies for a little over two years he was admitted to the Bar in March, 1873, and at once began the practice of law at Defiance. About one year after opening his law office Mr. Hill was appointed by Governor Allen to the office of insurance commissioner of Ohio, and Mr. Enos was offered the position of chief clerk, which he accepted and retained for four years. He then returned to Defiance and resumed his law practice. In 1879 Mr. Enos was elected prosecuting attorney of Defiance county, and held that office until 1885, having been re-elected in 1882. Subsequently he was appointed city solicitor by the village counsel, and after the village procured a city charter he was repeatedly elected to the office. In 1892 Mr. Enos entered into partnership with N. G. Johnston, under the firm name of Enos & Johnston, an arrangement that has been continued to the present time. Mr. Enos has been connected on one side or the other with a]1 the important litigated cases in the Defiance county courts for the past fifteen years. He has more than a local reputation as a criminal lawyer. There have been very few cases of this nature in Defiance or adjoining counties in recent years in which he has not participated—usually for the defense. He was appointed by the court as special counsel for the State in the prosecution of Saur and Bronson, charged with forgery and embezzlement in getting away with the funds of the Defiance Savings Bank. Both were convicted; one of them is now serving time in the Ohio penitentiary and the other was granted a new trial on a technicality and the case is still pending. Mr. Enos is and always has been identified with the Democratic party, and active in the support of its candidates and principles. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and benevolent and protective Order of Elks. He was married in 1875 to Miss Olive Noll, of Upper Sandusky. She died in 1886, leaving two children, a son and a daughter. In 1889 he was married again, to Miss Laura Wonderly, daughter of John Wonderly, of Defiance. They have one child, a son. BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 353 ELBRIDGE FLAGG GREENOUGH, late of Wauseon. Mr. Greenough was for many years a prominent lawyer of the Fulton county Bar. The Greenoughs are among the very oldest families in New England. They are of English descent and Puritan stock. Robert Greenough, the head of the American branch of the family, came to America when a child, about 1630, or ten years after the landing of the Pilgrims who came over in the Mayflower. He died at Rowley, Massachusetts, in 1718. John Greenough, the father of our subject, was a native of Haverhill, Massachusetts, but removed to Canterbury, New Hampshire, about the beginning of the present century, removing from there to Boscawen, in the same State, in 1812. He spent the remainder of his life there and died in 1862, at the age of eighty-two years. His father was a soldier in the Continental army during the Revolutionary War and served in the army of General Gates. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits and it was doubtless early association and familiarity with the business that gave our subject a predilection for that line of business. Elbridge Flagg Greenough was born January 30, 1808, at Canterbury, New Hampshire. His mother, whose maiden name was Mary Foster, was also of an old colonial family and of English descent. Elbridge received his early education in the schools of Boscawen, later attending the Academy of Salisbury, New Hampshire, where he was prepared for college. He was graduated from Dartmouth College with the class of 1828, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. The same year he entered the office of Ezekiel Webster, a brother of Daniel Webster, and began the study of law. Later he studied in the office of Richard Eletcher, of Boston, completing his studies in the office of his uncle, Ebenezer Greenough, of Sunbury, Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the Bar about the year 1830 and began practice at Danville, Pennsylvania, where he continued for six years. He returned to New Hampshire in 1842, and entered into the mercantile business at Salisbury, following this avocation for eighteen years. In 1860 he came west and resumed the practice of his profession, at Wauseon, then a small country town of some five hundred inhabitants. It soon became the seat of numerous industries and grew to be one of the important towns in that section of the State, and in 1870 was made the county seat of Fulton county. Mr. Greenough continued in active practice until two years before his death, which occurred in 1875. His practice was largely of a commercial nature and he also dealt to a considerable extent in real estate. He was thoroughly well trained in legal studies and his literary taste led him to be a great reader, but the bent of his mind was commercial, owing to his boyhood training and associations. In early manhood Mr. Greenough was a Whig, and after the formation of the Republican party became identified with it. Though strong in his principles, he was not active in politics and was never an aspirant for office. He was elected for one term as mayor of Wauseon, and served from a sense of duty rather than from choice. He was married in 1848 to Miss Elizabeth R. Eastman, daughter of Moses and Elizabeth Eastman, her father being a prominent attorney of Salisbury, New Hampshire. She died at Wauseon October 14, 1892. Although Mr. Greenough had not followed his 354 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. profession closely at all periods of his life, he was a good lawyer, well versed in both statute and common law, a strong advocate and a successful practitioner. He was honorable and straightforward in all his dealings and had the respect and esteem both of his professional brethren and the community at large. His only son, Charles F. Greenough, was born at Salisbury, New Hampshire, July 29, 1849. His education was begun in the public schools of Salisbury and completed in the Wauseon High School, and under the tuition of his father, who was a ripe scholar. In 1870 he took up the study of law in his father's office, was admitted to the Bar in 1872 and succeeded to the practice of his father, who retired from active participation in the business one year later. The practice is a general one, though he devotes considerable attention to the special features of his father's business. In his party affiliations he is a Republican of pronounced views, though not active in politics. He is a member of the Congregational Church of Wauseon, with which his mother in her life was actively connected. JOHN QUINCY FILES, Wauseon. John Q. Files, prosecuting attorney of Fulton county, is a native of Ohio. He was born on his father's farm near Xenia, September 21, 1846. His parents were Sylvanus and Martha (Jewett) Files, his father a native of Rhode Island and his mother of New York State. On his father's side the family is of English descent and on his mother's, English and Scotch. His paternal grandfather was an Englishman and a seafaring man, who brought his family to America and located them on Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. He was lost at sea, while the father of our subject was yet a- child. Sylvanus Files was born in 1793, near Providence, and died at the age of eighty-four years, in Lucas county, Ohio. He came to Ohio on horseback when a young man of twenty and located at Worthington, in Franklin county, while most of the State was yet a wilderness. He engaged first in the manufacture of woolens and later settled near Xenia, where he engaged in the same business, finally removing to Lucas county, where he lived until death. The mother, Martha Jewett Files, died at Swanton, Ohio, in 1831. Colonel Moses Jewett, a brother of the maternal grandfather of our subject, was a soldier of distinction in the War of 1812, and part of the time was in command of the American troops during the siege and battle of Sacket Harbor. John Q. Files received his early education in the public schools of Green county and in private study. At the age of nineteen he engaged in the manufacture of tow from flax and followed this four years. In 1870 he took a course in the Spencerian Business College, at Louisville, Kentucky, after which he went on the road in the capacity of commercial traveler until 1875, when he engaged in farming in Lucas county for two years. He commenced the study of law in the office of B. T. Geer in Swanton, Fulton county, in 1877, and after a period of three years was admitted to the Bar, December 8, 1880. Mr. Files was among the first to be admitted under the new regulation requiring examination before the Supreme Court of the State. He opened an office at once, at BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 355 Swanton, and continued in the practice there until 1891, when he was elected prosecuting attorney of Fulton county for a term of three years. He then removed to Wauseon, which has been his home since. On the expiration of the term he was re-elected. In this position Mr. Files has made an enviable record. During the five years he has prosecuted the pleas of the State, there have been only three acquittals of parties arraigned for trial, and of the indictments he has drawn "not a single one has been set aside or demurred to on account of insufficiency. He is a Republican by inheritance and from principle. His father was a Whig, an abolitionist, an underground railway conductor and a strong Republican on the formation of that party. He is prominent and active in party affairs; has been a member of the Republican county central committee for years, and held the chairmanship of the executive committee. He is a member of the Masonic order, both of the Blue Lodge and the Chapter. He is also a member of the order of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias. He was married in 1877 to Miss Alice Thompson, who died two years later, leaving an infant child that died a few months after its mother. In 1882 he was married to Miss Mary Bowman, of Lucas county. They have two daughters, Kate and Florine. A judge in high standing says: Mr. Files is a good all round lawyer, an honorable gentleman and always has the courage of his convictions. I don't know of any particular branch of the profession in which he especially excels." A prominent lawyer in a neighboring town says: " Briefly, Mr. Files is a careful, hard-working, good lawyer. He is conscientious to a fault, but when the right way is determined upon, he takes that course fearlessly. He has sand without limit. An excellent trial lawyer. You can fully commend him and be just." DAVIS JOSEPH CABLE, Lima. Mr. Cable, one of the younger members of the Allen county Bar, was born in Van Wert county. He is the son of John I. Cable, of English descent, who was a printer by trade and editor of several newspapers during his life. His mother was Angie R. Johnson, daughter of Davis Johnson, one of the earliest settlers of Van Wert county. His grandfather, Joseph Cable, born in Ohio in 1801, was a descendant of the Cable family that emigrated from England at an early date and settled in Pennsylvania. For two terms he represented in Congress the Fifth District, comprising Columbiana, Stark, Jefferson and Carroll counties. This congressional service was in 1849 to 1853, and he was the author and champion of the first " homestead bill" passed by Congress. Davis J., the subject of our sketch, graduated from the public schools of his native county and afterwards attended the University of Michigan in the Literary and Law Departments. While continuing the study of law he taught school in Van Wert county in 1878, and was admitted to practice in 1881, after examination by the Supreme Court at Columbus, and immediately began the practice at Lima. He has been employed in nearly every important cased tried on this circuit during 356 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. the last ten years. Politically he is a Republican, but does not seek office outside of the line of his profession. He was elected city solicitor in 1882 and held the position for two years. In 1882 he was married to Mary A. Harnley, of Van Wert. Five children are the fruit of this union, namely : John L-, Davis A., Ethel R., Chester Morse and Jo Harnley. He attends services with his family in the Methodist Episcopal Church. One of the members of the Bar in Lima says: " Mr. Cable has a splendid reputation as a lawyer. He is a good pleader, logical, keen sighted, and makes a clear, convincing argument. He occupies a most enviable position as an attorney and a counsellor, which he has earned by natural ability, supplemented by close study and hard work. He is one of the most successful members of the Allen county Bar." JOHN FINLEY BROTHERTON, Lima. Mr. Brotherton is of English and Irish extraction, the son of Jasper Brotherton, whose family removed from Pennsylvania and settled in Hamilton county; near Cincinnati, among the pioneers of southern Ohio. He was born July 24, 1844, at Piqua, where his father carried on the business of contractor and builder. He was educated in the common schools at Piqua, and Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, from which he was graduated in 1864. He began 'the study of law while in school and continued reading after his graduation, with J. F. McKinney at Piqua. He was admitted to the Bar in the fall of 1865 and immediately removed to Lima, where he entered upon the practice. "For the past thirty years he has been engaged in a general legal business, practicing in all the courts, as is the custom of lawyers in the smaller cities. In 1869 he formed a partnership with Theodore E. Cunningham, which was terminated in 1880. After that he continued alone until 1893, when his son, Cloyd J., who was admitted to the Bar in that year, was admitted to partnership in the firm of Brotherton & Brotherton. He was at one time editor of the Miami county Democrat and has gratified a taste for literature by general reading and frequent contributions to the public press. In _1867 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Allen county and re-elected in 1869, serving in that office four years. In 1881 he was elected city solicitor and served one term. He has taken an active interest in local affairs as well as politics, and at the present time is a member of the city council, representing his own ward. His political affiliation is with the Democratic party, whose principles he has sedulously promoted by public speech and active membership in club and party organizations. He was married June 3, 1868, to Clara Jacobs, daughter of the late Thomas K. Jacobs, of Lima. He has one son and three daughters : Cloyd J., his partner in law, Marie, Roberta and Clara Louise. He attends services in the Presbyterian Church. BENCH AND BAR OP OHIO - 357 JAMES W. HALFHILL, Lima. James Wood Halfhill is a native of Ohio, born March 1, 1861, at Mercer, in Mercer county, the son of Moses Halfhill, a sturdy farmer of German descent, who knew the value of education, had a fair library of good books and kept well posted on current topics. His mother was Elanor Maria Wood, descended from an old English family, some of whose members emigrated from the mother country and settled in the colony of Massachusetts about the year 1700, and subsequently separated, some of them removing to New Hampshire, .others to New York, in which State she was born at Upper Jay, Essex county ; others went to Canada and settled near Quebec. The fact is historical that the Plains of Abraham, memorable in the war between England and France, for supremacy in the province of Quebec, derived-their name from Abraham Wood, the ancestor of our subject, James Wood Halfhill. Through the strain of his mother he inherited intense patriotism and a taste for military history. His maternal great-great-grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, his great-grandfather in the War of 1812, and his grandfather's only son, Ransom E. Wood, as a Union soldier gave up his life on a battle field of the Civil War. Moreover, through all the dark days of the Civil War his father was a strong supporter of the Union cause. His boyhood was spent in hard' labor on his father's farm. He was prepared for college in the common schools, and completed his literary education in the Ohio University, at Ada, from which he was graduated in 1884, with the honors of his class. He began the study of law the following year at Bellefontaine, Ohio, in the office of Judge William H. West, a distinguished lawyer and a man of remarkable eloquence as well as superior attainments in the profession. This association was most fortunate for the young man, both in respect of his facilities for making progress in his legal studies and also in the opportunity afforded of acquiring a correct literary style and impressive manner in public address. After reading with Judge West he attended the Law School at Cincinnati, sufficiently advanced to enter the Senior class, from which he. was graduated in 1887. He removed to Lima and began the practice of law at once, forming a partnership with Jacob C. Ridenour, who was his associate, classmate and friend in the university at Ada. The firm has acquired a large practice, not only in Allen county, but also in the counties adjacent, as well as in the Federal courts. Mr. Ridenour holds the office of prosecuting attorney at the present time. Mr. Halfhill was associate counsel for the defense in the celebrated Case of William Goins, tried for murder in 1889, which is fully reported in connection with the sketches of Judge Price and Mr. Motter. It is the case in which the verdict was determined by a method as reprehensible as that adopted by the Louisiana Lottery Company, and which caused the Supreme Court of the State to grant a new trial, resulting in acquittal of the prisoner. Mr. Halfhill is a very earnest, enthusiastic man in the prosecution of any undertaking. Politically he is a pronounced Republican, active in pro_ moting the interests of the party. He was a member of the State Central Committee in 1888-9 and '90; has attended every Republican State Convention since he became of age, and usually as a delegate ; has been active in every 358 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. campaign, making public speeches by appointment of the State committee, in all sections of the State. He was elected city solicitor in 1890, and re-elected in 1892, serving in all four years. He has persistently declined to be a candidate for public office which is not related to the legal profession. His literary taste is best satisfied with historical investigation, although he takes care to be correctly and fully informed on current topics and events, and is a charter member of the Lima Philosophical Society. His especial pride and care is the study of the history of the late war between the States; its causes, results and benefits. He is regarded as an authority on all questions connected with this military history and for that reason is frequently invited to address assemblies of the Grand Army. Although born after some of the States had seceded, and little more than a month before the opening gun of the Rebellion, he has been honored by election *to honory membership in several organizations of veterans. He is imbued with the genuine martial spirit of his ancestors, and improves every opportunity to attend the State and National reunions of soldiers and members of. the Grand Army of the Republic. In 1889, at Rockford, Ohio, during the annual reunion of the 46th Regiment Ohio Veteran Infantry, after delivering the oration of the day, he was proposed for honorary membership by the late Colonel I. N. Alexander, of Van Wert, and the proposition was seconded by General Walcott, of Columbus, and unanimously adopted by the regiment. This is the single distinction of its kind conferred upon an outsider by this veteran regiment as an association. Mr. Halfhill is not connected with any church by membership, but is an attendant upon the services and a liberal contributor to all of the churches. He has not yet assumed marital relations and responsibilities, although eminently qualified by a genial disposition and judicial temperament for the most intimate family relationship. He is not only a good lawyer, but a popular orator and a generous man. One of the very capable members of the Bar who has been associated with him professionally says : " Halfhill is an able lawyer, and has been more than ordinarily successful in his practice. He is a brilliant public speaker, quick to grasp an idea and most effective in his manner of addressing a jury. Comparatively a young man, he has already been identified with a number of the most important cases tried in the courts since he became a member of the Bar. Always courteous and sincere, never stooping to do a mean act, he has won a place among the members of the profession at this Bar second to none." ALFRED R. MoINTIRE, Mount Vernon. The subject of this biography has been a resident of Mount Vernon for thirty years. He was born July 14, 1840, and at the age of fourteen removed to Knox county with his parents and settled on a farm near Fredericktown. The nativity of his paternal ancestors was the North of Ireland, while the ancestors of his mother lived in the South of Ireland. His grandfathers emigrated to America and both of his parents were native Americans. He was reared in the country, trained to BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 359 work on the farm and taught in the district schools in winter time. He also attended the neighboring village schools and made use of all the facilities afforded for acquiring an education. He aspired to larger learning and better scholarship than could be gained in the country or village schools and was willing to pay the expenses incident to a college course. In furtherance of this ambition he taught district school two successive winters, beginning at the age of eighteen, and in September, 1860, entered the Freshman class of the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware. Obliged to defray his own expenses, he engaged in teaching a considerable portion of the time, but this diversion was not detrimental to progress in the acquirement of a liberal education. On the contrary, the mental discipline, the self-control, the close application to self-culture, the discriminating study of mental capacity, and the tact required to adapt instruction to the understanding—which are at once the result of teaching and the high qualification of a successful teacher—are invaluable aids to the prosecution of classical studies. Any young man who has managed a public school in a satisfactory manner, as " master" and instructor, has thereby improved his lawyerly qualifications. The allotment of a portion of his time to teaching, while pursuing a course in college, was manifestly advantageous to the collegian also in the utilization of acquired knowledge. His course was interrupted, however, at the close of the second year by his enlistment in the ranks of the Union army. In August, 1862, he enlisted in Company A, Ninety-sixth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served until March, 1863, when he was discharged on account of sickness. In May, 1864, he was again mustered into service as first lieutenant Company H, 142nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served until September following, the term of enlistment being one hundred days. He then resumed his studies in the university, from which he was graduated in June, 1865. For the first year after leaving college he was in charge of the public schools of Fredericktown, Knox county ; for the second he was employed as a solicitor of life insurance at Columbus, Ohio. He then became a student of law in the office of the late Judge Rollin C. Hurd, of Mount Vernon, and was admitted to the Bar in June, 1869. his ability and genius for the law had been observed by his preceptor and found recognition in the offer of a partnership immediately after his admission to practice. His association with Judge Hurd was thus continued without interruption until the death of the latter in 1874; and since that time Mr. McIntire has remained in practice alone, except six years, from 1875 to 1881, when he was associated with Mr. D. B. Kirk. He has not been satisfied with a superficial knowledge of the law, nor has he sought simply to become a case lawyer. His method of study and habits of thought enable him to penetrate the surface and explore the depths, even to the foundations upon which the fabric rests. he has not simply studied the problems, but has become familiar with the principles, the essence, out of which the problems are formulated. His studies have not been restricted to the law alone, but have embraced the whole range of science and classic literature. He has an especial fondness for the ancient languages and mathematics, Ever since he first read Virgil and 360 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO Homer in his college course he has continued to read them and other classics for recreation. Latterly he has found a new incentive for reviewing the classics in following the college course of his sons. One of them was recently graduated from Oberlin College and the other is now a student in the Ohio State University, and the father was ambitious to keep ahead of them, as much for his own gratification as for their advantage. It is a source of great pleasure to be able to read with them in the original text, to instruct them in difficult translations or the occult meaning of obscure passages. He has also found it desirable to freshen his knowledge of the higher mathematics, and keep up with the late scientific discoveries, since his younger son is giving especial attention to the subject of electrical engineering. For many years he has been regarded as the scientist of the local Bar, and cases involving mathematical problems, medical or other scientific evidence are usually entrusted to him ; or if taken by other lawyers the technical and involved questions are referred to him. His appointment as administrator, executor and trustee for the settlement of complicated estates and trusts is frequent. Among the estates settled by him as administrator were those of the late Judge Rollin C. Hurd and later that of the judge's son, Honorable Frank H. Hurd, of Toledo. From the beginning of his practice to the present time he has had the entire law business of the C. & G. Cooper Company, by far the largest manufacturing concern in Knox county, and during that time had the entire law business of the Mount Vernon Bridge Company, the next largest business concern in the county, from its organization in 1879 until it quit business in 1893; and among other things in this line he formulated and organized the Mount Vernon Public Library Association, the Mount Vernon Sanitarium Company. and the Mount Vernon Academy, being retained as counsel for all of them. He is logically the counsellor of clients having such matters in charge, on account of his superior knowledge of the laws relating to them acquired by personal experience. he has a wide reputation for successful management of that class of business and in this branch of the practice has no superior, and perhaps it is not too much to say no equal among his associates at the Bar. Declining to accept a retainer in criminal cases, his practice is otherwise general, both as counselor and trial lawyer. His open, upright life of thirty years in the community has won for him the confidence of all the people. He is courteous in manner, considerate of the rights and feelings of others, honest and just in his dealings, resolute in his purposes, inflexible in his integrity, reliable in his promises, responsible as to business and financial standing. Mr. McIntire is a Republican politically, but independent enough to oppose his party on principle, as he did in 1896 because of his belief in the justice and equity of the free coinage of silver by the United States, regardless of the action of other nations. The only political office he ever held was membership in the school board of Mount Vernon, which he retained fifteen years. He has been a member of the State Bar Association from the date of its organization and is a life member of the Ohio Historical Society. He philosophically resorts to the classics as a sedative. BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 361 When annoyed by any disagreeable incident, or disturbed by unbidden and unwelcome thoughts, he is accustomed to lose himself in the perusal of a few pages of the original text of a favorite Greek or Latin author, until his composure is regained. Mr. McIntire's religion is that of the philosopher and scientist rather than that promulgated in creed and dogma. He believes in purity of morals and his daily life is in accord with the principles of strict morality. He attends the services of the Presbyterian Church, in which his wife has membership. He was married September 28, 1869, to Miss Helen Richards, of Fredericktown, and has two sons : Rollin R., born March 1, 1871, and now a student of law ; and Alfred H., born August 13, 1876, a Junior at the State University in the department of Electrical Engineering. FRANK MOORE, Mount Vernon. Frank Moore, the subject of this sketch, was born April 16, 1852, in Richland county, Ohio. His mother and father, of French and Scotch descent respectively, were both natives of the State of Maine. They were married in the State of Ohio and settled in Richland county. He was educated in the common schools and graduated from the high school of Mt. Vernon in 1871. As a boy he had some aspiration to enter the army, and was twice appointed to the Military Academy at West Point. Each time, however, he was obliged to decline because of the unwillingness of his father that he should become a soldier. After leaving school he joined a corps of engineers who were surveying the Cleveland, Mt. Vernon and Delaware railroad, remaining with them until December, 1873. At that time, having fully decided to become a lawyer, he entered the office of Cooper, Porter & Mitchelh, as a student of law. His relations with this firm as a student were continued until the firm was dissolved, shortly prior to his admission to the Bar. From that time forward he was associated with Colonel William C. Cooper alone. In 1878, and again in 1880, he was elected prosecuting attorney for Knox county. At the close of his second term the firm of Cooper & Moore was formed, which has since been in continuous practice, and is recognized as one of the ablest, as well as most successful law firms in the circuit. They have during the last dozen years been retained as counsel for many large corporations, and at the same time their general practice in litigated business has been extensive. At the opening of his practice Mr. Moore cherished a mild ambition to attain rank among the foremost advocates. He had already made a reputation as a fluent speaker, his manners were pleasant, and he was regarded as quite formidable in debate for a young man. He affirms, however, that he recognized very early the overshadowing ability and reputation of his law partner, Colonel Cooper, as an advocate, and willingly resigned to him the conduct of the trial of cases; gave up his early ambition, and directed all of his efforts and energies to the 'acquirement of a thorough, substantial and practical knowledge of the law. Estimated from the success he has attained in the management of cases, and the reputation established as a pleader, his 362 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. second resolution was wise. He has devoted himself so sedulously to an acquisition of the principles of the law and to becoming acquainted with the authorities that his management of important cases is not only comparatively easy, but usually successful. He has been a close, careful and intelligent student, and has become well versed in the philosophy of the law and its application to the various contentions brought forward in litigation. He is regarded as eminently safe and painstaking in the preparation of pleadings, so that they usually stand the test of the severest examination in settling the issues preliminary to the trial of a case. He is therefore a number one office lawyer, which is perhaps not less important than to have spent the years in building up a reputation as an advocate. Mr. Moore has never been a candidate for office since he really settled down to the practice of law. He served some years as school examiner for the county when quite young, but bad the courage to decline a nomination for judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1896, as well as other offices which he could have secured prior to that time. On the subject of religion his views are broad and liberal. He is not a communicant of any church, nor is his belief interpreted by any confession of faith. He is thoroughly independent himself and tolerant of the views of others. He was married November 6, 1880, to Miss Blanche Struble, only daughter of Dan Struble, a banker of Fredericktown. No children were born of the marriage, and his wife died October 9, 1894. WILLIAM S. HASKELL, Bowling Green. For two hundred and fifty years the ancestors of Mr. Haskell have been prominent and cultured people. he was born in Detroit on the 11th day of April, 1850. His parents, Rev. Samuel and Elizabeth (Granger) Haskell, were both of English descent. The head of the American branch of the Haskell family came to America in 1642 and settled in New England. During the present century the family have scattered widely, and among them are to be found some highly honored citizens. On his mother's side the Grangers were also among the early settlers of New England, the family seat being in Connecticut. The name is familiar to the student of American history. One of the cousins of his mother, Gideon Granger, was postmaster-general for thirteen years, from 1801 to 1814. Another cousin, Francis Granger, was twice a candidate for governor of New York, candidate for vice-president on the Whig ticket with General Harrison, a member of his cabinet and a member of Congress. Her immediate relatives have been prominent both in war and in peace for the past one hundred years. Mr. Haskell's father was a minister of the Baptist Church for over forty years. He is a graduate of the Brown University and of the Hamilton Theological Seminary, now Colgate's University. He was married to Miss E. Granger, and soon after removed to Detroit. The forty-one years he spent in pastoral work were all spent in Detroit, Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo, Michigan. He is now seventy-nine years of age and in the enjoyment of good health, physically, BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 363 and his mind is unimpaired. He has for the past nine years been professor of Biblical Research in Kalamazoo College. He has been an author as well as minister, and his work entitled " Heroes and Hierarchs" attracted considerable attention in church and religious circles. William S. Haskell spent his boyhood days in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and his early education was obtained in the public schools of that town. After passing through the primary and grammar schools he entered the high school, where he spent two years, when he entered the preparatory department of the Kalamazoo College. He completed the first two years of the college course there, when he went to the University of Michigan, and, entering the Junior class, was graduated in 1872 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. After leaving college he took up the avocation of teacher. He was principal of the schools at Three Rivers, Michigan, during the years 1872-3. From 1873 to 1877 he had charge of the schools at Prairie Creek, Indiana. He then came to Bowling Green, Ohio, and took charge of the schools of the town, a position he held for six years, declining a re-election in 1883, in order to fit himself for the practice of law. While superintendent of the city schools he originated the present system under which the schools are operated. He took up the study of law in the office of Cook & Troup, and after a two years' course was admitted to the Bar, in 1885. He at once began practice in Bowling Green, alone the first nine years, when in 1894 he formed a partnership with A. J. Mears, under the firm name of Mears & Haskell, as at the present time. Mr. Haskell has been for several years the legal adviser of the Hankey Lumber Company and a part of the time served as secretary and treasurer. He was a member of the board of education for two terms was also county school examiner for two terms, and a member of the city council for two terms. While serving his last term in the council he was elected mayor by that body, to fill the unexpired term of the incumbent of the office, who had been appointed by the governor to fill another position. In the following spring election, 1894, he was elected to the office by popular vote for a term of three years. In politics he is a Republican, active in support of party measures and prominent in the councils of the party. He has been secretary and treasurer of the county central committee. He is a member of the Masonic order. Mr. Haskell was married in 1875 to Miss Eliza Weeks, daughter of Harvey and Mary (Piety) Weeks, of Terre Haute, Indiana. The Weeks family are old and wealthy citizens of Kentucky, while the Piety family were among the early settlers of Indiana, coming to that State from Virginia. They have four children, two sons and two daughters. JOHN DAWSON CRITCHFIELD, Mount Vernon. John D. Critchfield was born in Howard township, Knox county, Ohio, November 30, 1841. His father, Lewis Critchfield, was born and bred a farmer in the same county. His grandfather was a native of Cumberland county, Maryland, but emigrated westward and settled in Knox county, Ohio, in 1805. The Critchfield family 364 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. is of Scotch descent. His mother's family name was Dawson and her immediate ancestors were English. He attended the country district school during its sessions and worked on the farm in the intervals until he reached the age of eighteen years, after which he made the necessary preparation for a course in college and matriculated at Kenyon. Completing the classical course, he was graduated in 1867 and then engaged in teaching for two years. This was only preliminary to his settled life-work, as the decision to enter the profession of law had been reached long before. He studied two years in the office of Hurd & McIntire, at Mt. Vernon, and was admitted to the Bar in December, 1871, after passing an examination before a special committee appointed by the Supreme Court. For the space of four months afterwards he remained in the office of Hurd & McIntire, and in April, 1872, formed a partnership with J. B. Graham, under the name and style of Critchfield & Graham, which has continued to the present time. Mr. Critchfield was the attorney of the Farmers' Insurance Company of Howard for ten years, and the company's business took him into many of the higher courts of the State. His general and continuous practice has of course always been in Knox county, but his outside business has been considerable for the past twenty years. He has been associated with some of the most eminent lawyers of the time in the management and trial of many cases of great. importance. He is at the present time retained in a case involving some nice legal questions and monetary interests aggregating three hundred thousand dollars. The controversy is between men of very high financial and personal reputation who were associated in a large coal deal and whose relations became strained by complications and implications of the partnership. The case is exceedingly interesting and to a degree sensational, because of the character of the parties and the charges of fraud. Mr. Critchfield is a safe counsellor and very conservative in disposition. He has been a careful student of the philosophy and principles of the law, as well as its text-books and the published reports of decisions. Although a successful trial lawyer, an exact pleader and a safe counsellor, his most marked success is in the preparation and presentation of cases in brief in the Appellate Courts, and especially in the analysis and application of new and intricate questions of law. For many years his printed briefs and arguments have appeared in the Supreme Court of Ohio in error cases with more frequency and in more important cases than those of any other lawyer of Knox county. He is regarded by the local Bar as the leader in that line of practice. His caution and conscientiousness, as well as his knowledge of the law, combine to lend prudence and wisdom to his counsel. When consulted with a view to bringing an action he sifts and weighs a client's statements dispassionately, to determine the justice and equity of his cause, and if these elements are wanting no contention will be carried into court upon his advice. Even when these exist he prefers to exhaust other means of remedy and redress before advising upon final application to a court of law or chancery. He does not engage in legal controversy for the love or glory of it. That he has won public confidence is evidenced by his connection with cases of the greatest BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 365 importance. He is accustomed to inform a client candidly and frankly whether or not there is anything in his case as stated, and then to advise him with equal candor as to his rights and the probability of securing them as party to an action in court. His reliability has been thoroughly tested and the confidence of a client in his integrity is the growth of years, or dependent upon a reputation for honor and integrity which is established and unquestionable. The foundation for his success in the law is inflexible integrity. His high sense of personal honor and his honesty in business affairs are conceded on all hands. He is not inclined to be self-assertive ; on the contrary he is not only unassuming, but even diffident. His generosity and kindness of heart are qualities which bind to him friends who are unwavering in their attachment. His fidelity to truth and justice, his earnestness and devotion to principle, his sincerity in the common, every-day matters and his vigorous prosecution of the undertakings of larger magnitude lend value to his citizenship and strength to his character as a lawyer. He has always been a student of history, philosophy and science, as well as law, and these studies have increased his breadth and power. Mr. Critchfield is a Republican in opinion and sympathy. The principles of that party receive his endorsement and its candidates his support ; but he is by no means a narrow partisan. He has never held political office or accepted a candidacy. He is a believer in the Christian religion, without bigotry or sectarianism. He was married October 6, 1880, to Miss Hattie Henderson, of Cleveland, and has one daughter, Miss Pearl, born August 6, 1881. A. P. LINN COCHRAN, Springfield. Among the prominent and successful attorneys at the Clark county Bar must be named A. P. Linn Cochran, a Pennsylvanian by birth and a Buckeye by adoption. In childhood and youth he enjoyed the advantages of a cultured home and good schools, preparatory to his admission to college. He pursued and completed the classical course at Princeton, from which he was graduated in 1856. The following year he located in Springfield and began the study of law with Rodgers & Cochran, the junior member of the firm being his elder brother. After two years of preliminary reading and study he entered the Cincinnati Law School, and was graduated therefrom the next year. Returning to Springfield, he began the practice of his profession in partnership with his brother, David M. Cochran, under the firm name of Cochran & Cochran. This arrangement continued until the death of his brother, in 1870. The firm had a good practice from its organization, which grew as their reputation for legal ability became better understood, until they took rank with the leaders of the Clark county Bar. After the death of his brother Mr. Cochran continued in practice alone until 1877, when he entered into partnership with Robert C. Rodgers, under the firm name of Cochran & Rodgers, as it exists at present. Mr. Cochran is a thoroughly well read lawyer. Ask any number of well informed citizens of the 366 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. city of Springfield to name half a dozen of the ablest men at the Bar of the city and Mr. Cochran's name will appear on every list. He is conservative and safe, rather than quick and brilliant, and as a practitioner is held in high esteem by the profession. As a citizen he is universally respected for his irreproachable character, his abhorrence of shams, his public spirit and support of what is best in the community. Everybody who knows him is his friend, and it is not flattery to say that he is, worthy the friendships of all. In all his dealings he has been honorable, faithful in the discharge of his duties to his clients, true to his friends and true to himself. His political principles are in accord with the Republican party, .but he takes no active interest in politics. He has devoted himself unreservedly to the practice of law, and has persistently and unequivocally declined to accept a nomination for any public office, either in the line of his. profession or out of it. He is a man of scholarly attainments, acknowledged legal ability and sterling character. He is eminently qualified for judicial honors, but his single ambition to be known as a good lawyer is completely satisfying. to himself. And he has succeeded. Men of this character exert a larger silent influence than is generally suspected. More of them are needed in this generation, when the mania for public office is a menace to public morals and private honor. Mr. Cochran is courteous in bearing and unassuming in manners. His tastes are quiet and intellectual, courting neither notoriety nor publicity. He was married September 17, 1868, to Miss Perlie A. V. Wilbur, of Cincinnati. They have four children. ARTHUR E. KERNS, Findlay. A. E. Kerns, Probate Judge of Hancock county, is a native of Ohio, born on his father's farm near Port Jefferson, May 28, 1861. His parents were Joseph and Sarah McKee Kerns, both of whom were natives of the State. The family on his father's side lived originally in Holland and emigrated to America, settling in Pennsylvania, during the seventeenth century. The family lived for several generations in Pennsylvania, until 1795, when Joseph Kerns, at the age of ten years, came west with his widowed mother and settled near Cincinnati, in Hamilton county. In the early years of the present century, while yet a young man, he removed to Missouri and located on a farm adjoining the one occupied by Daniel Boone, then in his old age, still pursuing the occupation of a hunter and trapper. The State was almost an unbroken wilderness and the business of hunting and trapping was more profitable than farming. Returning to Ohio just prior to the War of 1812, Joseph Kerns enlisted in the army as a volunteer and was assigned to the western division, serving mostly in the Indian country. He served until the close of the war, and then purchased a farm in Miami county near Piqua, on which he lived for sixty-eight years. His death occurred in 1884, when he 'was in his ninety-sixth year. Judge Kerns' father, whose name was also Joseph, was born on the Miami county farm and in later years occupied a farm adjoining the old homestead, on which he still lives. He BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 367 married Sarah McKee, whose parents were early settlers of Ohio and of Scotch-Irish descent. Arthur E. Kerns passed his boyhood on his father's farm and attended the public schools of his district. Later he entered the Piqua high school from which he was graduated in 1881. He remained at home until he had reached his majority, when he took up the study of law, in the fall of 1882, in the office of Major Stephen Johnson, at Piqua, continuing his studies there for one year. In the fall of 1883 he entered the Cincinnati Law School, which he attended for two terms. In the spring of 1885, having passed the required examination, he was admitted at Columbus to practice in the courts of Ohio. He opened an office for practice first at Tippecanoe City, and remained there two years. The last year of his residence there he was elected mayor of the city but after serving one year of his term he resigned the office and removed to Findlay, where he has since lived and pursued the practice of law. He was elected Probate Judge of Hancock county in the fall of 1890 and re-elected in 1893. He is the first attorney-at-law ever elected to that office in the county, and also the first Republican to fill the position. Following in the footsteps of his father, Judge Kerns is a firm believer in the principles of the Republican party, and up to the time of his election to the Bench, he was an active worker for party success. He was chairman of the county executive committee in 1894, when the Republicans carried the county by 1,172 majority, the largest ever obtained by the party in Hancock county. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and in his religious faith is a Presbyterian. He was married in 1886, to Miss Sallie C. Manson, daughter of the late General Mahlon D. Manson and Caroline Mitchell, his wife, of Crawfordsville, Indiana. General Manson was a captain in the Mexican War, the first colonel of the Tenth Indiana Regiment during the late Civil War and a brigadier general before the war closed. He served as a member of Congress and lieutenant governor of the State. He was a brave, generous-hearted, noble minded man, a hero and a patriot, beloved of all. Judge and Mrs. Kerns have two children, a son and a daughter. This opinion is quoted from the highest legal authority in the State, concerning Mr. Kerns: " He has made a good, careful Probate Judge and is of good character and habits. He will surely win success in the practice, with his excellent equipment. He is of good, easy address and makes an agreeable impression on all with whom he comes in contact." Judge Kerns retired from office February 9, 1897, and resumed the practice of law at Findlay. His experience in the judicial office, requiring the investigation and decision of all classes of cases, enlarged his qualifications as a practitioner, and the favorable acquaintance made while on the Bench has tended to enlarge his clientage. He is therefore meeting with very gratifying success. The reputation of a just and upright judge on the Bench is a tower of strength to him at the Bar when he chooses to re-enter the field of active practice. All the benefit to be derived from such a reputation now accrues to Judge Kerns, and clients know their confidence is not misplaced. He is a growing man, both in the amount of business and the ability to manage it. 368 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. HINCHMAN S. PROPHET, Lima. Mr. Prophet was born January 26, 1836, in Evesham, Burlington county, New Jersey, one of a family of eight children. His parents were John Prophet and Catherine Roberts, natives of England, who emigrated to America in 1829, and lived for a time in Philadelphia and New York before settling in New Jersey. The family removed to Ohio in 1838, locating first in Columbiana county and afterwards removing to Morrow county. The subject of this sketch was educated in the common schools of Cardington, Ohio, and began the study of law at the age of twenty under the instruction of Ross Burns. His studies were continued at Mount Gilead under Judge J. A. Beebe, and he was admitted to the Bar in that town February 2, 1860, having spent four years in preliminary studies. He was immediately admitted to partnership with Judge Beebe, with whom he continued practice until the opening of the Rebellion. Under the first call for volunteers he enlisted and was elected second lieutenant of a company ; but as the quota of troops required under the first call was filled before his company was mustered, he re-enlisted as a private in Company C, Fifteenth Ohio Infantry, which had already been accepted by the governor. He served three months in the campaign in West Virginia and, after being mustered out, assisted in recruiting and organizing Company B of the Forty-third Ohio Infantry, in which he served successively as second lieutenant, first lieutenant and captain. He was wounded in the second battle of Corinth in 1862 and resigned in the summer of 1863, on account of ill health. In his official report of the battle of Corinth the commanding general made honorable mention of Captain Prophet, commending him for conspicuous good conduct, bravery and efficiency in the battle. Upon returning to Mount Gilead he was elected colonel of the Second Regiment Ohio Militia, and received a commission from the governor. For five years next ensuing he practiced his profession and at the same time was editor and proprietor of a county newspaper. In 1866 he was appointed postmaster of Mount Gilead by President Johnson, and in the fall of 1869 was elected State senator, serving one term. In the published history of the Fifty-ninth General Assembly we find this paragraph : "Mr. Prophet has never been absent from his seat with or without leave but once, and that was but for one afternoon to visit the Soldiers' Home at Xenia as a member of the committee. He has never missed a single vote on any question during the two sessions of the legislature. He is a fine speaker, only speaking upon such subjects as interest his constituents, and then he is generally successful in carrying his point. Socially he is an excellent fellow and has hosts of friends in both parties." At the close of his service in the Senate he removed to Lima, in 1872, where he has resided continuously and been employed exclusively in the practice of law as senior member of the firm of Prophet & Eastman. His practice has been general in the various State and Federal courts and has included a large proportion of the important litigated cases in the Circuit and Common Pleas Courts. One of these cases, which excited general interest, not only in the county, but throughout the State, was " The State of Ohio on the relation of Henry Morgenthaler vs. C. D. BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 369 Crites, auditor of Allen county, Ohio." This was an action brought by the tax inquisitor for Allen county, praying for a writ of mandamus compelling the auditor to proceed upon the facts and evidence placed before him by said inquisitor and ascertain as far as practicable, and enter for taxation on the tax lists of said county, any personal property, moneys, investments in bonds, stock or otherwise, owned by Calvin S. Brice in any of the five years prior to 1889. It was claimed that Senator Brice had omitted from his tax returns about two million dollars upon which he should have paid taxes. It was also claimed that the auditor, being a personal and partisan friend of the senator, was not willing to do his duty as a public officer, and it was averred in the petition of the inquisitor that the auditor neither desired nor intended to require Mr. Brice to pay any taxes except such as he paid voluntarily. The constitutionality of the tax laws, and of the law authorizing county commissioners to employ tax inquisitors, was involved. The result of the contest was that the writ issued compelling the auditor to put the sequestered property on the tax list. The case is fully reported in 48th Ohio, pages 142 to 176. It was celebrated no less on account of the prominence of the principal party to the suit than on account of the array of eminent lawyers employed in the several branches of the case. The State was represented by William L. Avery, Robb & Leete, Boynton & Hale and ex-Governor J. B. Forayer. The county commissioners were represented by Isaac S. Motter, prosecuting attorney, and Honorable II. S. Prophet. Honorable John McMahon and S. N. Owens, ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio, appeared for Senator Brice. In politics Mr. Prophet is a Democrat. He has held important official positions and discharged his duty with ability and fidelity. He served four years as city solicitor of Lima, beginning in 1874. He was elected prosecuting attorney for Allen county in 1878 and re-elected in 1880, serving four years. He was mayor of the city for a term in 1881 and 1882 and declined renomination. He also served as a member of the board of education of the city for ten years, was president of the board five years and is now serving as treasurer. He has been a member of the Bar Association of Ohio ever since its organization. He is a member of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, also an active member of the National Veteran Union, and was elected Judge Advocate General of Department of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky for the years 1892-93, and elected in August, 1895, Judge Advocate General of the National Command of Union Veteran Union of the United States. He is a member of Mark Armstrong Post No. 202, G. A. R., and also a prominent member of the I. 0. 0. F. He was married December 25, 1867, to Frances A., daughter of Judge J. A. Beebe, his preceptor and first law partner. Five children were the fruit of this union, of whom four are living—Edgar S., Herbert S., Grace Alice and Catherine E. Mrs. Prophet is a lady of unusual ability, scholarship and attainments. The husband, wife and children constitute a happy family and occupy a prominent position in the society of Lima and the membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 372 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. daughter of the late John Meily, who was clerk of the County Court and held other responsible offices in the county for many years. He has one son, Benjamin Snively, born in 1893. Mr. Motter is a member of the Lutheran Church. His disposition to dispense charity and exercise brotherly love, finds its opportunity in membership in the Masonic fraternity and other secret orders. LINDLEY W. MORRIS, Toledo. Judge Morris is a native of Ohio, corn in Columbiana county on his father's farm near Alliance, October 16, 1853. His father, Thomas C. Morris, and his mother, Minerva J. Preston, were both of English descent and belonged to Quaker families. His father was a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania, and his mother's parents removed from Loudoun county, Virginia, to Columbiana county, Ohio, a short time before her birth. Thomas C. Morris entered the volunteer service of the Union army as second sergeant of Company B of the regiment of Benton Cadets (Fremont Guards), in 1861, and served as such until this regiment disbanded in Missouri in the fall of that year. Subsequently he re-recruited Company K of the Eightieth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was appointed captain of this company, and was mustered into the service for three years at Paducah, Kentucky, where he joined his regiment March 22, 1862. He afterwards re-enlisted for service until the end of the war. He served in the western army, under Sherman and Grant, in their campaigns up to the siege of Vicksburg; thence to Tennessee through all the hard fighting which led up to and included the battle of Chickamauga. He was in the Chattanooga and Atlanta campaigns, and marched with Sherman to the sea thence through the Carolinas to Washington. In the meantime, by successive promotions, he had received the commission of colonel and commanded the regiment in which he first served as captain. After the armies of Lee and Johnson had surrendered, and the war was practically over, he was sent with his regiment to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he remained until the fall of 1865, when after a total service of four years and four months he was mustered out. On returning home he resumed the management of his farm and his neglected business, and in the fall of 1869 was elected sheriff of Columbiana county. He was re-elected in 1871, serving in all four years. During the time that he occupied the office of sheriff his son, Lindley W. Morris, the subject of this sketch, served as his chief deputy, a service which continued during part of the succeeding administration of the shrievalty. Upon retiring from public office Thomas C. Morris returned to his farm, which he occupied until his dearth, in 1893. His wife died during the same year. The education of Lindley Morris was begun in the country and village schools, where he was partially prepared for college. The additional and complete preparation was made in private study during the time of his service in the sheriff's office. He entered Oberlin College in 1874, took the full classical course and was graduated. in 1878, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. During the time he was at college he partially defrayed his expenses BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 373 by teaching school during the winter terms. After graduation he continued teaching for a term in Trumbull county, as principal of a normal school attended by a large number of teachers. In January, 1879, he entered upon the study of law in the office of Nichols & Firetone, at New Lisbon, where he remained one year. Upon his admission to the Bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio, in 1880, he settled in Toledo for practice. Since July of that year he has been a resident of Toledo, engaged in practice continuously, until his elevation to the Bench. He never entered into a partnership, but carried on the practice alone. His sympathies politically have always been with the Republican party, and he has been active as well as prominent in the councils of the party. In 1889 he was nominated for judge of the Common Pleas Court, but owing to an adverse majority in the district was defeated. In 1891 he was elected to the common council of Toledo and re-elected in 1893. During the last two years of membership he was president of the board. In the fall of 1893 he was elected judge of the Common Pleas Court for the First Subdivision of the Fourth District, for the term beginning October 28, 1894. Before the opening of his term as judge he resigned the office of councilman. During the two years of his service on the Bench he has given satisfaction to the lawyers and litigants generally. The conscientious discharge of the intricate and trying duties that devolve upon the judge of a nisi Arius court has added to his popularity and reputation as a member of the Bar. He was married December 27, 1894, to Miss Fannie May Darling, a native of Hyde Park, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, and a daughter of Colonel Henry A. and Mary Newcomb Darling. They have one son. One of the old lawyers of Toledo who was associated with Judge Morris for several years has given to the editor a brief estimate of some of his traits, substantially as follows : " I have always found him a very thorough lawyer. He never took a case without making himself thoroughly familiar with every detail. He always knew the strong points of his case and possessed the ability to make the most of them. He was a good advocate and very successful before a jury. At this time numbers of important references were made to him by the courts for finding of the law and the facts and for reporting the same to the court. As a rule his reports were confirmed by the courts, demonstrating his care and knowledge of the law. Since he has occupied the position of judge he has shown to the Bar that he possesses the legal training to grasp the questions that are presented, quickly and intelligently, and whether a litigant is beaten or successful the attorney always feels that he has had his day in court, and that the subject-matter of investigation has been honestly and impartially dealt with. His general training well adapts him to the position he now occupies. He is a student, and gives to subjects sufficient study to arrive at correct conclusions. He knows the law." 374 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. EMERY D. POTTER, JR., Toledo. The subject of this biography is a descendant of Puritan and Quaker lineage, as set forth in the life of his father, the Honorable Emery D. Potter, published in this volume. He was born November 27, 1844, at Willoughby, Ohio. He received his early education in the public schools of Toledo, and was graduated from the high school in 1862, taking the valedictory oration of his class. In May, 1862, he enlisted as a volunteer in the Eighty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which formed part of General Wool's reserve, and was stationed at Cumberland, Maryland. The duties of the regiment were the patrol of the Potomac, the protection of government supplies and picket duty. Upon serving out his term of enlistment he entered the Law School of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and remained there until he was graduated, in 1864. At this time he further prepared himself for the practice of law by entering the office of William Baker and Judge William A. Collins, of Toledo, and supplemented this by continuing his studies in the office of Morrison R. Waite, afterwards Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and Richard Waite. In 1866 he was admitted to the Bar at Columbus, after examination by a committee composed of Allen G. Thurman, Hocking Hunter and L. G. Critchfield. He remained with M. R. & R. Waite until the spring of 1867, when, on the invitation of George R. Haynes, he took a desk in his office and commenced the practice of law. The same year he was appointed assistant prosecuting attorney, and held the office until 1869. He continued to practice alone until 1873, when he entered into a law partnership with Mr. George R. Haynes, which was only dissolved by the election of Mr. Haynes as judge of the Circuit Court, in 1884. He again carried on practice alone until January, 1895, when was formed the present existing partnership with Mr. Thomas Emery. In politics he has been a life-long Democrat, and although never a very active partisan, he has always held himself at the service of that party, and at whatever sacrifice might be necessary, he has always undertaken his full share of the duties involved in party fealty. He was a delegate to the Democratic convention in Cincinnati in 1880, which nominated General Hancock for the Presidency. Mr. Potter has a very extensive general law practice, and in addition he is attorney in the State of Ohio for the Michigan Central Railroad Company, which responsible position he has held for sixteen years. The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway also availed itself of his services for more than twelve years as, local attorney for this jurisdiction, which includes the counties of Lucas, Fulton and Williams. In the profession he takes high rank as a student, deeply versed in the principles of the law, and as a safe and sagacious counselor. In the conduct of a case in court he is impressive, earnest and convincing; his pleadings are always carefully prepared and are sure to cover the most minute details. Nothing is overlooked or forgotten. Care and prudence are exhibited in the preparation of his cases ; firmness, courage and a profound conviction of the absolute justice of his case are clearly evidenced in its presentation to the court and jury. He was one of the most prominent figures in the great legal battle that was waged to definitely decide the rights of street car corporations in cities of BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 375 Ohio, which was recently carried from Toledo through all the courts of the State, and was ultimately decided in favor of the side upon which he was engaged. As a citizen he enjoys the good will, respect and esteem of every one, and is exceedingly popular with both Bench and Bar. September 23, 1868, he was married to Miss Caroline Cheney, of Toledo. They have three children, two sons and one daughter : Paul, Rollin D. and Mary L. HARRY E. KING, Toledo. H. E. King was born near Cumberland, Allegheny county, Maryland, May 12, 1857. He is descended from a historic Virginia family, his grandfather, Alexander King, having been a member of an early legislature in that State, and in those days exercised great influence in its politics and government. The father of the subject of this sketch, Captain Alexander King, made his home in the State of Maryland from the time he was twenty-one years of age, where he married Lavinia McAllister Collins, who was also from the State of Virginia. His sturdy integrity and independence of character were soon recognized in his new surroundings and brought their owner into considerable popularity. He was captain of the local military company, and at one time judge of the Probate Court. During the greater part of his life he was engaged in mercantile business, but passed his later years on his farm in Allegheny county. At the outbreak of the war his sympathies were enlisted upon the Federal side and he strongly espoused the Union cause. Harry E. King commenced his education in the public schools of Maryland, which was followed by a course:in the State Normal School at Milhersville, Pennsylvania, Fort Edward, New York, Collegiate Institute and Eastman's National Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York, completing his studies in the Law Department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor. He had entertained a well defined predilection for the law from his youth, combined with a settled determination to adopt that profession. As a preparation his entire training and study had been carefully directed to acquiring a thoroughly practical knowledge of men and affairs, in addition to the principles, practice and knowledge of the authorities of the law. When he was about sixteen years of age his father died and he was left almost entirely dependent upon his own efforts. With the hardy determination and courage derived from his Scotch-Irish ancestry, adverse circumstances served only to strengthen his character, and develop and mature the self-reliant principles of his nature. Upon leaving the University of Michigan in March, 1882, he settled in Toledo, and at once began to read law in the office of Swayne, Swayne & Hayes. He was admitted to the Bar of Ohio in the early part of 1883, becoming a member of this firm in 1885 and continuing as such until April, 1892. At that time he withdrew and formed the existing law partnership with Thomas H. Tracy, under the firm name of King & Tracy. They have an extensive general practice and are the attorneys for a large number of important corporations and mercantile firms. On June 12, 376 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. 1883, Mr. Harry E. King was married to Miss Mary E. Haring, the eldest daughter of Dr. J. J. Haring, of Tenafly, New Jersey. They have two sons and two daughters : Harry Swayne, twelve years of age ; Margaret Haring, nine years ; James Ernest, five ;years ; and Grace, two years old. In his political affiliations he has always been a Republican and was for seven years secretary of the Toledo board of elections, to which responsible office he was appointed by Governor J. B. Foraker, and which he resigned to accept appointment to a membership in the same board, which he yet retains. He is deeply and earnestly interested in all religious work, responsive to the calls upon both his time and pocket for well-doing, and active in the various organizations of Christian effort. He is one of the trustees of the Central Congregational Church and a member of the board of directors of the Young Men's Christian Association, and interested in Sunday-school work. In the practice of his profession he is quick, careful and accurate, possessing a great faculty for details. He is most industrious in the preparation of his cases and brings to the cause upon which he is engaged, a clear head, a practical, sound common sense and untiring energies. One of the oldest and best known members of the Bar of Toledo says: " I have been intimately acquainted with Harry E. King since he first came to Toledo and have watched his life with unusual interest. He is of a deeply religious nature, upright, honorable and conscientious. In his professional work he is scrupulously exact. He spares himself no pains to acquire the most complete and minute details of any case in which he is interested. Indeed the facility with which he brings every point to light that has any bearing upon the matter in hand, no matter how involved it may be, is quite remarkable. Ile does this apparently without extraordinary effort, and as he is possessed of great energy and vitality it is probably the power of concentrating these faculties that enables him to reach such results. His sterling integrity, honesty and scrupulous care inspire the implicit confidence of all who become associated with him." ISAAC N. HUNTSBERGER, Toledo. The subject of this sketch is a native of Ohio, the son of John Huntsberger and Susan Shriver. His paternal ancestors were German, while the lineage of his mother contained a strain of Scotch blood. His descent may therefore be written German-Scotch. The ancestors of both parents emigrated to America in colonial times. Some of them fought in the Revolutionary War to achieve the independence of the colonies; some fought in the second war with England, to preserve the independence and honor of the Nation ; members of the family fought in the war with Mexico. Franklin Shriver, uncle of our subject, was a captain in the Union army during the Rebellion, serving under General Sherman in the Army of the Cumberland. All of the earlier generations of the family were devoted almost entirely to agricultural pursuits. The parents of Isaac N. Huntsberger, who were natives of Pennsylvania, removed to Ohio in 1852. He was born in East Union township, Wayne county, February 24, 1858, being the third of BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 377 five children. His primary education was received in the schools of Wayne county, and he was a student in Smithville Academy from 1876 to 1879. In 1880 he entered the University of Wooster, whose curriculum in the classical course he completed and from which he was graduated in 1882, as the salutatorian of his class. During the period of his attendance at the academy and the university he employed the intervals in teaching. While in Wooster he was an instructor of the undergraduates in several branches, and after graduation he was superintendent of a summer term of the university. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in course, and three years later the Master's degree was conferred by his Alma Mater. His first employment after graduation was as superintendent of the public schools at Seville, Ohio, and during that time he obtained from the board of State examiners a life certificate to teach in the State. He had marked out for himself, however, a different course, and in 1884 entered the Law Department and school of Political Science of the University of Michigan. Prosecuting the course of science and law simultaneously, he was graduated from the university in 1886 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, having also nearly completed the course for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. He was still further honored in being chosen the orator of his class, numbering one hundred and thirty members. In June, 1885, while attending the university, he was admitted to the Bar in Michigan. Immediately after the completion of his course he removed to Toledo and settled down to the practice of law, after his admission to the Bar of Ohio. His examination before the commission appointed by the Supreme Court of Ohio was perfect in all branches, which was a distinction never attained by any other applicant for a license to practice law in Ohio. The records of the Supreme Court perpetuate this honor, in the report prepared by the examining committee October 7, 1886, from which the following is quoted : " The committee desire to make especial mention of the examination of Mr. Isaac N. Huntsberger, whose answers to the questions propounded evinced such thought and accurate knowledge of the law that the committee unanimously concurred in marking him perfect on both papers. The. committee make this mention, not only in justice to him, but also in the hope of encouraging others." It is respectfully submitted and signed by A. W. Jones, Arnold Green, S. F. Steel, George B. Okey, W. 0. Henderson and W. F. Porter. The clerk of the Supreme Court, J. W. Cruikshank, certifies to the correctness of the foregoing quotation from original papers on file in his office. The Supreme Court declared that to be the first instance of perfection in examination and the first of which especial mention was made in the committee's report. Mr. Huntsberger received the congratulations of all present, from the governor down. It is the custom nowadays to place all the stress upon the importance and consequence of individual character, affecting to disregard the potency of ancestry in the formation of character. This custom is not justified. It is no depreciation of a man's individuality to be fortified by a lineage of which he may be proud. On the contrary, an honorable lineage serves as a stimulus, in this country, to higher achieve- 378 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. ments by the individual. Mr. Huntsberger's great-grandfather, John Shriver, emigrated from Germany and took. part in the Revolution. His great-grandmother was May Hendricks, a member of the same family to which the late Vice-President Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, belonged. At the time of his admission to the Bar he declined the assistant professorship of mathematics in Wooster University, which was tendered. Soon afterwards he accepted the professorship of medical jurisprudence in the Northwestern Ohio College of Medicine, at Toledo, which he held four years and then resigned on account of the pressing demands of his increasing law business. In March, 1887, he formed a partnership with Charles S. Ashley, son of the late Governor James M. Ashley, under the style of Huntsberger & Ashley, and soon afterwards the firm became general counsel of the Toledo, Anti Arbor and North Michigan Railroad. This position was retained until October, 1891, and then resigned by Mr. Hunts-berger, to enable him to devote his entire time to general practice (his partnership with Mr. Ashley having already been dissolved). He has succeeded in building up a lucrative business. His only specialty is admiralty practice, to which he has given very marked attention and careful study. He has acquired almost exclusive control of local admiralty litigation, as no other member of the Toledo bar has devoted himself with such persistency to the mastery of the laws and decisions affecting lake navigation and commerce. Mr. Huntsberger's reputation for scholarship clings 'to him. In 1891 he was elected a member of the board of education of Toledo and in 1892 he was chosen a director and trustee of the Toledo University, of which the manual training school is a department. He has been a director of the Young Men's Christian Association and president of the Lucas county Bible society for several years. In September, 1895, he received the offer of a professorship in the Law Department of the University of Michigan at a salary of $2,500. The offer, which was wholly unsolicited and without his knowledge, he was obliged to decline because its acceptance would require the sacrifice of his lucrative practice in Toledo and the abandonment of his beautiful new home, for which the salary and a residence in Ann Arbor afforded. inadequate compensation. Nevertheless the tender was a high compliment to his ability and learning. Mr. Huntsberger has always been identified with the Republican party and has given it active support in council and campaign,. when such service did not interfere with professional business. He was especially interested and active in the recent campaign resulting in the election of President McKinley. He gives much time to church work in its organized societies, especially the Epworth League. He is a fine parliamentarian and is referred to as an authority on parliamentary laws governing deliberative bodies. He was married March 9, 1884, to Miss Lizzie J. Snyder, daughter of Christian Snyder, of New Philadelphia. They have four living children, two sons and two daughters, named respectively John Paul, Karl E., Maude E. and Ruth I. Huntsberger. Isaac N. Huntsberger has relied mainly on his own efforts for support since he was thirteen years of age. His father died about that time, leaving to him almost no estate, but a valuable inheritance of pluck, versatility, industry and perse- BENCH AND BAR 0D? OHIO - 379 verance, with a hereditary tendency toward those things that are honest and right. He kept himself constantly employed, shifting from one thing to another under stress of circumstances, but mainly as a school teacher and book canvasser, until his education was completed. He was a student from early boyhood and gifted with a genius for work. Thoroughness has been characteristic of his attainments in science, literature and law. In the retention and practical use of his acquirements he has been wonderfully aided by a strong, well-trained memory. The report of his examination before the Supreme Court gave him a standing at the Bar and brought engagements from other lawyers, and his subsequent career has justified the unique record there made. A well-known Toledo judge, responding to an inquiry, says of Mr. Huntsberger : " His moral character is high, his ability as a lawyer, either as a trial lawyer or counsel, is in the first class. He is financially responsible, is an excellent scholar and an all round lawyer." LINN W. HULL, Sandusky. Honorable Linn W. Hull, judge of the Court of Common Pleas at Sandusky, was born on a farm in Perkins township, Erie county, near Sandusky, on the 9th day of April, 1856. His father, John L. Hull, was a farmer and a native of Pennsylvania. He came to Ohio in 1825, when three years old, and settled in Erie county, where he became prominent and held many offices of trust. He was county commissioner for two terms. The Hulls are of English ancestry. The first members of the family to emigrate from the mother country settled in New Jersey and afterwards removed to Pennsylvania. His mother, Angeline Walker, was born in New York State and came to Sandusky, Ohio, with her parents, in 1819. She is of Irish extraction and is still living, in the eightieth year of her age. Young Hull, when old enough, was sent to the country district schools and the public schools of Sandusky, then to the preparatory department at Oberlin and Oberlin College. Later he was a student at Union College, New York, and in 1879 entered Cornell University, where he remained a little over one year. In October, 1881, he entered the Cincinnati Law School, from which he was graduated in 1883. Returning to Sandusky, he was admitted to the Bar and commenced the practice of law alone and continued that way until 1886, when he formed a partnership with Homer. Goodwin, now deceased, and L. H. Goodwin. The style of the firm was Goodwin, Goodwin & Hull. This partnership continued until 1892, when the firm was dissolved and he then formed a partnership with Edmund B. King, under the firm name and style of King & Hull. The relation was maintained until February, 1895, and until Mr. King took his seat on the Bench, pursuant to his election in the fall of 1894, as judge of the Sixth Circuit of Ohio. Mr. Hull then practiced alone until February of the following year, when he formed a copartnership with W. E. Guerin, Jr., under the firm name of Hull & Guerin, which continued until he took his seat on the Common Pleas Bench, on the 9th of February, 1897, to which he had been 380 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. elected in the fall of 1896. As a practitioner few men have attained greater distinction at the Sandusky Bar. Commencing almost immediately after his admission to practice and continuing up to the time of taking his seat on the Bench, he enjoyed a large litigated business. He was engaged on many important cases and always displayed marked ability in the trial of a cause. Judge Hull is a man of strong will, honest purpose and great determination. He is favored by nature with the instinctive sense of fairness and the just mental equipoise which always insists upon an impartial hearing and an unbiased judgment. The assemblage and adjustment of his faculties constitute a legal mind and he has the acquirements of a capable, successful lawyer. His work on the Bench has thus far been most acceptable to the Bar. Judge Hull was a member of the Board of Education of Sandusky for two terms. He is a Republican and has always been active in the councils of the party. He has been many times chairman of the Republican executive committee of Erie county. He was a delegate from the Thirteenth Congressional District to the Republican National Convention in 1896, which met in St. Louis and nominated Mr. McKinley. In 1883 Judge Hull married Emily M. Hall, of Cincinnati, and by this union there are three daughters. Mrs. Hull died in August, 1887. STEPHEN A. COURT, Sandusky. Stephen Arthur Court was born at Marion, Ohio, on the 11th day of May, 1855. His father, Joseph Court, is a farmer, and came to Ohio in 1821, from Virginia, where he was born, and settled in Marion county, where he has since resided. He has always been prominent in affairs and has held many offices of trust in his adopted county and. city. His ancestors were German, and settled in Virginia in the latter part of the seventeenth century. The mother of S. A. Court, Maria Sherman, was a native of Vermont, and came to Ohio in 1828. She was a direct descendant of Roger Sherman. Young Court's early education was in the public schools of his native city. In 1873 he entered Northwestern University at Ada, Ohio, for the completion of his scholastic education. Having at this time fully determined to make the law his profession, he also commenced the study of law with C. H. Norris (now one of the circuit judges) as his instructor. So he pursued both his collegiate and legal education simultaneously, teaching school during the vacations. On the 12th of May, 1876, he was admitted to the Bar, and on the 17th of June following, he took his degree as Bachelor of Arts. In the summer of the same year he began the practice of law alone, and four years later formed his first partnership, with G. D. Copeland, the firm being Court & Copeland. This firm continued until 1892. It was dissolved upon Mr. Court's removal to Sandusky, and since that time he has practiced alone. He enjoys a large general practice, almost entirely in litigated cases. He has the greater part of the criminal practice in Erie county. He is a lawyer of ability and devotes great care to the preparation of his cases is conscientious in the discharge of every duty. He is a fluent speaker and presents a case to BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 381 the court and jury with much force and clearness. Mr. Court was for two terms of three years each city solicitor for the city of Marion. In politics he is an ardent Democrat, always consistent in the support and advocacy of the principles of his party.. Since locating in Sandusky he has refused all offers to take office, preferring to devote himself to the practice of law. Mr. Court is a member of the order of Knights of Pythias, and was in 1887 and 1889 Grand Chancellor of the State of Ohio, and from 1889 to 1893 was the Grand Secretary of the Order in Ohio. In 1877 he married Olive Inskeep, of Delaware, Ohio, who died in 1887. By this union there is a son living. In 1889 he married Mrs. Mazie Day, of Marion. By this marriage there are no children. STEPHEN R. HARRIS, Bucyrus. Honorable Stephen R. Harris, who was born on his father's farm seven miles west of Massillon, Ohio, May 22, 1824, sprang from patriotic stock. His grandfather was John Harris and his paternal grandmother Mary Hamilton. The former was a soldier in the army of Washington and distinguished himself at the battle of Monmouth, where his brother-in-law, John- Hamilton, was killed beside him. The subject of this biography worked on the farm and attended district school until fourteen years of age, when he started out for himself. He was employed as clerk in a store at Canal Fulton, Stark county, about four years, attended a select school at Dalton, taught by John W. Rankin (afterwards a distinguished lawyer and a partner at Keokuk, Iowa, of the late Justice Miller, of the United States Supreme Court). In 1842 he was a student in the preparatory department of Washington College, Pennsylvania, which institution recently conferred upon him the honorary degree of A. M. In 1843 and 1844 he studied in Norwalk Seminary, under the late Ed ward Thompson, bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. For the next two years he was a student in the classical department of Western Reserve College at Hudson. In the winter of 1846-7 he taught a school at Canal Fulton. Having by this time acquired a liberal education through his own unaided and persistent efforts, he entered upon the study of law in the office of his uncle, John Harris, a pioneer lawyer of ability, at Canton. After reading under instruction for two years he was admitted to the Bar in the spring of 1849, and on the 14th day of June in that year opened an office for practice at Bucyrus. From that time to the present, almost half a century, he has continued in practice at the same place. He became the law partner of the late Judge Josiah Scott in 1850, and the partnership was continuous until the death of the latter in 1879, except for the period of Judge Scott's service on the State Supreme Bench. Mr. Harris served as deputy United States marshal and member of the county military committee during the war. He was elected in 1894 to represent his district, which had been strongly Democratic, in the Fifty-fourth Congress of the United States, and was the candidate of his party for re-election in 1896; but the free silver sentiment and fusion of the Populists were sufficiently strong 382 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO to defeat the ticket. Mr. Harris has been a Republican ever since the organization of the party, and prior to that was a Whig. He has, however, given his chief thought and nearly all his time to the duties of his profession, and has for years stood in the forefront of practitioners in Crawford county. His reading is deep and broad he is successful in the trial of cases, and remarkably successful in the argument of cases before the Supreme Court. It has become proverbial in the Bar where he is well known that if Mr. Harris has the slightest ground for appeal on error to the higher courts his adversary may as well give up at once, because he nearly always wins in the Appellate Court. He holds the esteem of his brethren at the Bar and the confidence of courts. His methods are such as commend themselves to the best and most respected members of the profession. He also stands well in the highest political circles, and his personal popularity rests upon merit. He was married September 15, 1853, to Miss Mary Jane Monett, who died in 1888, leaving two sons and two daughters, offspring of the union. He has been very successful as a financier, and as a result is a man of large possessions. He is quite an extended landed proprietor in the States of Ohio and Iowa. As an amateur sportsman he is a frequent contributor to the Turf, Field and Farm and Forest and Stream. Now over seventy-three years of age, he is an excellent shot on the wing, either in the open or from the trap. Mr. Harris was one of the original members of the State Bar Association, and has been an active member from the beginning, serving as president of the association in 1894. He is now chairman of the committee on legal biography. As a public speaker, he is clear, logical and convincing, rather than eloquent. He entertains decided views on all questions of political importance or popular interest. A brief extract from his address as president of the State Bar Association to the members thereof will serve to disclose his views, tersely expressed on some practical questions : " The Ohio State Bar Association had its origin in the long felt want of legal reform. It has already borne fruit in elevating the standard of qualifications for admission to the Bar. It has prompted a more vigorous examination of applicants under the immediate supervision of the Supreme Court, and especially did it influence the recent act of our legislature requiring three years previous study before admission to the Bar. Another important object was, to relieve the Supreme Court from their overcrowded docket, and to secure in our highest court a more speedy decision of important causes, involving, as they often do, large amounts and great property interests which, lingering and undecided, entail disaster and ruin on litigants. A Constitutional convention met in the years 1873 and 1874. After spending much time and great sums of money, the fruits of their labor were deemed to be inadequate to the wants of the people, who were attached to the Constitution of 1851, and the proposed new Constitution of Ohio was rejected at the polls. The Bar of Ohio, appreciating the want of improved and enlarged judicial tribunals, first organized this association, and next set to work zealously and at their own expense to facilitate the prompt administration of justice. The Circuit Court is one of the offsprings of the Ohio State Bar Association. The legislature acted upon it as it came from our hands, and the people ratified it at the polls. While it is true the Supreme Court is still overcrowded with busi- BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 383 ness, yet it is also true that the increased business, commercial, manufacturing, railroad, navigation, mining and other industries, have increased the litigation in our courts. The Supreme Court would evidently be in a worse condition than at present but for the large volume of business that has been finally terminated in the Circuit Court. Law is becoming more of an exact science. We have a greater number of elementary books and reports of adjudicated cases than in times past; and here I will volunteer some advice to the younger members of the Bar, especially to those who, like myself, practice in the country towns, where they do not have access to public law libraries. Do not invest your earnings or your capital in reports beyond that of your own State, and perhaps the reports of the United States Supreme Court. Rather make use of elementary works and text-books of the latest editions; you there find the views of the author and his careful collection of all the reported cases on the subject of your study. With a library of that kind, costing a few hundred dollars, a lawyer derives more ready and practical advantage than from a library of reports that will cost thousands. Formerly lawyers had to argue elementary principles and apply them to the various and complicated phases of business under new and constantly developing branches of trade and commercial relations of men. Now we have either the authority of able law writers or the adjudications of the higher courts for the ready solution of nearly every question that can arise. By the aid of the official stenographer all the evidence and the rulings of the court can be presetved, and with a bill of exceptions or separate findings by the court, of the facts and conclusions of law, causes may be reviewed and errors corrected in the higher courts. It is a matter within the observation and experience of our profession that sometimes in a trial a radical difference will spring up between the attorneys and the court as to the law of the case, in which the court has the best of the lawyer for the time being. The lawyer, however, having made a long, deep and careful study of his case, still maintains an earnest faith in his position, only to find himself stricken down by the trial court. He takes his case on error to the Supreme Court and secures the reversal of the judgment below ; feels himself vindicated, and takes pride in himself and his chosen profession, to which he has conscientiously devoted every energy of his life. In the long years of my own practice I have observed with satisfaction the facilities that have been gradually afforded for the review of cases and the correction of errors by the higher courts. Some objections have been made to the continuance of the Circuit Court. We are sensitive to such remark because the Circuit Court is one of the fruits of the Ohio State Bar Association. The Circuit Court has, on the whole, been beneficial in the judicature of our State, and it is not likely to be abolished. One of the long needed legal reforms in Ohio has been the improvement of our jury system. It is a fact well known that proper care was not always observed in the selection of jurors with respect to their mental and moral qualifications. They have been hastily and inconsiderately selected by the township trustees at the end of election days, as though it were merely a formal matter and of little consequence. The result has been that a lawyer of ability, when he addressed a jury in his best vein, felt that he was shooting over their heads, and when he came down to their capacity he felt that he was engaged in undignified business. A plausible, insignificant word in the mouth of an expert demagogue is a dangerous, and dreadful weapon, in which a dignified lawyer takes no delight. For years the juries in the Federal Courts were far the superiors of the average juries in our County Courts, as every lawyer of experience in both tribunals knows. I have given this subject much thought, and prepared some practical suggestions looking toward reform, when much to my delight, and no doubt to the gratification of the profession 384 - BENCH. AND BAR OF OHIO. generally, an act of the legislature, passed on the 23rd day of April, 1S94, provided for the appointment of a non-partisan jury commission of four suitable persons in each county, whose duty it is to select jurors for the ensuing year. Much may be expected from the improved jury system in the future. It is gratifying also to state that the measure was introduced in the House of Representatives by Honorable Curtis E. McBride, of Mansfield, an active and honored member of our association. After passing the House the bill was concurred in by the Senate without a dissenting vote. * * * " Another topic I approach with diffidence, for the reason that no expression has been uttered on the subject by our association. What the views of our members here assembled may be, is unknown to me, but I cannot refrain from expressing my own feelings and conyictions, whether they be acceptable to this association or not. I allude to the growing state of anarchy to which our beloved Republic is rapidly drifting under the unchecked growth of communism, which takes the specious form and name of so-called strikes. Thousands upon thousands of laborers have had ample employment with good living wages on the railroads, in the mines and manufacturing establishments of our country. On the other hand there are triple the number of honest laborers in miscellaneous pursuits, uncertain in their nature, liable to fluctuate in wages and of uncertain duration, such as the common day laborer. The latter class may well envy the miner, the railroader and the factory hand. They would gladly change places for the same wages, but what state of things confronts them ? They are met and repulsed by strikers who voluntarily go out themselves and refuse to permit other laborers to take their places. Here we see the work of seditious demagogues with political aspirations and a burning desire for notoriety. With incendiary eloquence they seek to embitter labor against capital, when they well know that labor and capital are mutually dependent on each other. They tell the laborers, who are strongest numerically, that they are abused and oppressed by their employers, at times when the laborers are well compensated and contented. They incite discontent and resentments where none existed before. They arouse the dormant passions and cupidity of the laborer. They frame and formulate organizations ahd societies for them, and incite them to strike down and ruin their benefactors. They dupe their followers with the doctrine that capitalists and corporations are powerful and oppressive, but fail to tell the other truth that a host of hostile and unreasonable laborers are also oppressive and dangerous. The result is that they have prevented the running of railroad trains, they have tied the hands of property owners, they have, closed factories, and they have shut up coal mines on which private families, factories, railroads and steamers on our navigable waters, depend for fuel. They have impeded the carrying of mails and have inflicted untold injury either directly or indirectly upon every business pursuit. For the vacant position of every striker there are three equally honest laborers with families in need of their earnings, who are ready and willing to go to work, but the horde of strikers, under the instructions of designing leaders, sullenly and forcibly repulse every non-union laborer who ventures to start the train, to open the mine, or set the idle machinery running in the factory, and that to the extent of assassination if necessary to carry the point. There can be a tyranny of labor as well as a tyranny of capital. Suppose a change of ,places. Imagine an employer who would discharge a laborer and at the same time say to him, I will neither give you employment nor permit you to work for anybody else. The same designing and insidious leader who first inaugurated a strike would be ready to turn round and incite the rich against the poor, if he could thereby obtain political power and notoriety. A demagogue in a republic and a courtier in a mon- BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 385 archy are the same. They both fawn and flatter the governing power for the sake of personal gain and notoriety. The designing orator and demagogue who incites a happy and contented class of well paid laborers, as well as the poor who are out of employment, to mutiny against their employers and benefactors; who makes inflammatory speeches to convince them that the rich have no other design than to crush the poor, and that the poor have no higher mission than to ruin the rich, deserves to be classed with the bloody anarchist, and should like him be stamped out by the government for its own protection. * * * * The legislature of Ohio has enacted laws peculiarly beneficial to the laboring classes. It protects wages against the homestead and other exemptions of the debtor. It gives them priority over all others in case of their employers' failure. It gives them mechanics' and workmen's liens on structures of all kinds, and our courts construe all those laws liberally in the interest of the mechanics and laborers whose work is in the structures. I would go farther ; I would have our legislature and our courts protect the honest laborer, who is seeking employment, finds a vacant place with an employer ready and willing to set him to work, but finds himself met, halted and threatened, not by the owner of the property, but by a striker who has vacated the position, stopped the business, depreciated the property of his former employer, and now forbids a fellow citizen to work when his services are needed and the wages offered are satisfactory. It becomes at this point an issue, not between employer and employee, but it is the oppression of one class of laborers against another class. It is the tyranny of those who abandoned their work and deprive other worthy and needy laborers of employment. It presents the spectacle of an unreasonable and tyrannical class of laborers arrayed against another and less favored class seeking employment. Personally, I am not interested in the conflict between the strikers and their employers. I allude to it without personal feeling for either class. In fact, I have a friendly feeling for the laboring man. I have been there myself. The first money I ever earned for myself was by chopping wood for forty cents a cord. I have a sympathy with the laboring man and especially for one who is out of employment and kept out by another. I have no especial affection for an unreasonable capitalist. * * * * The state of our feelings, however, has little to do with the subject under consideration. It is a question of vital principle and must be met. The Constitution of our own State, as well as the Federal Constitution, is broad enough to support appropriate legislation to remedy these evils; to practically afford equal and exact protection to the poor against the rich ; to protect the property of the rich against mob violence; and what appears to be more needed at the present time, to afford protection to one class of laborers against the tyranny of another class. " In all the Political history of our country, when emergencies have arisen, lawyers were depended on to guide legislation, to frame treaties, and to draft acts of legislatures, so they might be in conformity to law. De Tocqueville, that accurate and sagacious observer of our country, as early as 1835, wrote these remarkable words: cannot believe that a republic could subsist at the present time if the influence of lawyers in public business did not increase in proportion to the Power of the people. Thirty of the fifty-five members of the convention which framed the Federal Constitution were lawyers, and all of those who put it in proper legal shape were lawyers. Of all the United States senators since 1787, two-thirds have been lawyers, and of the entire number of Representatives more than one-half were lawyers. While it is true that men of other vocations have been useful and perhaps indispensable as legislators, because of their knowledge and experience in the various wants, 386 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. industries and business interests of the country, yet upon the lawyers rested and still rests the responsibility of framing laws to meet and protect those wants and business interests, that they may stand when contested in the courts. A lawyer devoted to his profession has little other thought than to study his cases in the interest of his clients. He seldom stops to reflect upon his calling or to view it from an outside standpoint. A Bar association with its periodical meetings has a beneficial tendency to relax his labors for the time being and to afford him an opportunity to exchange views with his fellow members of the legal profession, when they are met together socially and not in the heat of litigation at the Bar. Upon the lawyer rests the responsibility of managing and directing the highest and most important business interests, the rights of person, the rights of property including in many instances the domestic relations. When I speak of lawyers I have no reference to that small class who have crept into our profession, who grovel in the dregs of dishonorable practice, the shysters—a set of turkey buzzards whose touch is pollution and whose breath is pestilence. To such a class drifts dishonest litigation. If a man has a crooked case he naturally hunts a crooked lawyer to manage it. I desire, on the contrary, to bring my tribute to the higher class of our profession. I mean the honorable, conscientious lawyer, who has many important privileges conferred upon him, and who in turn has many important duties to perform. He acts with fidelity to his client and with courtesy to the court, gives all the light and aid he can to honorably advance the interests of his client. He discourages useless and discreditable litigation. He investigates his client's cause and promptly tells him, if it be true that he cannot defend or recover as the case may be, and advises a settlement or compromise. While such a lawyer may forego a fee for the time being, he will build up a reputation for honesty that will ultimately flood him with business of a meritorious character in which he himself will have confidence. On such a lawyer will the business man rely when complications arise and his property is in jeopardy. To him will the testator in contemplation of death, send to write his last will and testament. On him will the widow and orphan depend when designing men seek to deprive them of their patrimony, and the lawyer who would prove false to such a trust and himself become the robber, deserves to be expelled from the Bar in his lifetime 'and after his death go where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched — and that too without any obituary notice by our committee on legal biography. Everything a lawyer acquires in the practice of his profession he deserves, because-he has earned it. Every step that he makes is in the face of tenacious opposition. His progress is contested inch by inch. His life is one of mental conflict. The other learned professions in the acquisitions of which the student burns the midnight oil in school or college, are not so. The pastor's sermon is an ex parte production. The physician prescribes to his patient in secret and without opposition. If he makes a mistake the world is none the wiser, but when the lawyer takes a false position or makes a mistake it is in the glare of the light. He is detected and exposed in public and suffers humiliation and perhaps defeat. "In conclusion, my friends, I propose to you this sentiment : There is no more exalted human character than the man of our profession who has rouhded up a life of industry as an honest and successful lawyer.' ". BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 387 THOMAS BEER, Bucyrus. Honorable Thomas Beer, late judge of the Circuit Court, was born in Wayne county, Ohio, in 1832. His ancestors were of Norman, Scotch and Dutch extraction. He was educated in the primitive log school house common in that part of Ohio sixty-five years ago. At the age of fifteen he was qualified to teach a district school and did engage in teaching ,for a few terms in winter. He read law in Coshocton, but did not immediately take up the practice. He was editor of a newspaper from 1858 to 1862. In the year 1860 he settled in Bucyrus, which has since been his home. In 1863 he was elected representative of Crawford county in the Ohio legislature and was re-elected two years later, serving as a member of that body from 1864 to 1868. During the periods from 1862 to 1874 Mr. Beer engaged in the practice of law and built up a profitable business, establishing for himself a reputation for integrity and legal ability. In 1873 he was elected a member of the Constitutional convention presided over by Morrison R. Waite, afterwards Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and by Rufus King. He was appointed judge of the Common Pleas Court in 1874 by the governor, and was elected his own successor and re-elected five years later, occupying the Bench of that court continuously for eleven years. While still serving on the Bench of the Common Pleas he was elected judge of the Circuit Court in 1884 for the term beginning in February next following, and occupied the Circuit Bench for eight years, until February, 1893. Since he retired from the judicial office Judge Beer has been engaged in the practice of his profession. In 1892 he was a candidate on the Democratic ticket for judge of the Supreme Court, but was defeated with the ticket by a narrow margin. He is quite active in support of his political party and popular with the opposition. Both as a practitioner at the Bar and a judge on the Bench Judge Beer has exhibited much learning in the law and high regard for the obligations and duties appertaining to the profession. He has esteemed the organized court as the best human agency for securing individual rights, the protection of society and justice between man and man. His record on the Bench was admirable, evincing at once deep knowledge of the law, inflexible integrity, an accurate sense of equity, and impartiality which "knows nothing of the parties but their names on the docket," and perennial good temper. He has always preserved the habits of a student and hence has become thoroughly versed in the law. His standing at the Bar as a practitioner is very high and he enjoys to the fullest degree the confidence and esteem of his fellow practitioners as well as the courts. During a service of nearly twenty years on the Bench he maintained an irreproachable character and at the same time rendered decisions which generally withstood the scrutiny of the Supreme Court. He was accustomed to listen with no manifestation of impatience to arguments of counsel, never seeking to anticipate them by an inopportune display of knowledge. Appreciating the dignity of the judicial office, he at the same time respected the rights and privileges of the Bar; so that his court was a model of decorum and his intercourse with lawyers always marked by a due courtesy. It is a recognized fact that tendencies and idiosyncrasies are Trans- 388 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. mitted as certainly as features and physical characteristics. Every man is in a large measure at once the exponent and the resultant of his ancestors. Judge Beer is the descendant of ancestors in whose veins was commingled the blood of three types or nationalities — the Norman, the Scotch and the Dutch. He may therefore naturally be expected to exhibit the enterprise, fortitude and spirit that incites to conquest; a high moral standard for himself and for others; capacity to reason and arrive deliberately at conclusions; a disposition to investigate and prove any matter presented to him before accepting it; conscientiously holding opinions as convictions and not yielding them easily. He has ever manifested a deep, abiding love of home and a due appreciation of the sanctity of the family relations. He is therefore a man who is honored and loved by his family, respected in the community, and one capable of directing affairs whether they relate to his profession or to public business. Judge Beers was married Aprih 23, 1856, to Miss T. M. Dinsmore, of Ashland county, Ohio. He has a family of four boys and three girls, all living : James D. is a practicing physician at Wooster; Robert is reading law with his father; William C. is manager of a surety company ; Thomas is a farmer. THOMAS F. HAM, Wauseon. Thomas F. Ham, judge of the Probate Court of Fulton county and a prominent attorney at law, is a native of Pennsylvania: He was born on his father's farm in Wayne county, December 1,1847. His parents were John C. Ham and Mary A. Keyes, the former a native of Wadebridge, England, the latter a native of Massachusetts. His father came to America at the age of twenty years, in the early thirties. He had been bred to the carpenter's trade in England and engaged in boat building and the heavy carpenter work connected with civil engineering, as well as house building, for several years after settling in the United States. He then purchased a farm in Pennsylvania, on which he resided until he came to Wauseon, in 1873, where he died twelve years later, at the age of seventy-four. The education of Judge Ham was received in the public schools of Bethany, Pennsylvania, not far from his father's home. His attendance was during the winter terms until eighteen years of age, and he was employed at work on the farm during the remainder of the year. At eighteen he commenced teaching terms of winter school and about the same time took up the study of law, which he pursued during evenings and vacations. His recreation in the meantime consisted in helping his father on the farm. His reading of the law was under the instruction of Wallers & Bently, and he was admitted to the Bar in 1869, shortly after coming of age. The following summer, accompanied by his brother, Henry H., who had studied law with him, he came to Ohio and located in Wauseon, where the brothers have been engaged in practice together continuously. In 1892 he was nominated as a candidate on the Republican ticket for the residue of the term of a Probate Judge who had died in office. He was elected, and discharged the judicial duties with such general satisfac- BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 389 tion during the remainder of the term as to be re-nominated and re-elected in the fall of 1893 for a full term. He was re-elected again in the fall of 1896 for a second full term. The announcement of his candidacy on the Republican ticket suggests his politics. He has been an earnest supporter of that party ever since he became old enough to distinguish the difference between the principles advocated by the two leading parties. The only office held by him is the office of judge, which he now occupies. Since Judge Ham assumed the duties of Probate Judge of Fulton county he has practically revolutionized the system of keeping papers and records in the office, by inaugurating method where confusion existed. He found great difficulty at first in ascertaining the condition of estates from the records and papers. In many cases papers belonging to the same estate were scattered and placed in different receptacles without regard to arrangement or convenience. His sense of order made him conscious at once that a system was absolutely necessary to the orderly conduct of the office. He therefore prepared indices and arranged all of the papers belonging to an estate, placing them in a single packet and these packages in appropriately num bered boxes, to which the index was a ready reference. Prior to the election of Judge Ham there was a popular prejudice against placing an attorney in the Probate office, as it was generally regarded the plum of a layman. There was an impression that litigation would be augmented by having a lawyer in the office. Experience, however, has proved the contrary to be true. Judge Ham's legal knowledge enables him to pass upon the law governing settlements with as much carefulness and satisfaction as could be done by the judge of another court. He has demonstrated to the satisfaction of the public his capacity and special fitness to discharge the duties of the office. He was married in January, 1869, to Miss Charlotte A. Scudder, a native of Wayne county, Pennsylvania, and daughter of Isaiah and Margaret Hadsel Scudder, natives of New York, who had previously removed to Pennsylvania. Their family consists of four children : Thomas J., a pharmacist, at Toledo, Ohio ; Frank Scudder, an attorney at law ; Harold Hadsel, a student ; and Mary Alice, the only daughter. HENRY H. HAM, Wauseon, was born at Honesdale, Pennsylvania, August 25, 1845, the son of John C. and Mary A. Keyes Ham. He was educated at Wyoming Seminary, Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, and studied law in the office of S. E. & W. H. Dimmick, prominent and able attorneys of Honesdale. He was admitted to the Bar in 1869 and came to Wauseon the following year with his brother. The two practiced law together and built up a profitable business in Fulton county. He was elected prosecuting attorney for the county after a residence of less than eight years at Wauseon, and served five terms. In 1879 he returned to Pennsylvania and married Miss Kate E. Barnes, daughter of Erastus Barnes, a well known citizen of Warren county, in that State. Their family consists of one child, a daughter. Mr. H. H. Ham has not only made his reputation as an able and successful lawyer, but also as a business 390 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. man. He is connected with and has been the moving spirit of important business enterprises, which he has aided financially and by his personal influence and co-operation. He has manifested a liberal public spirit, which is recognized as essential to the progress and prosperity of any community. He has been the trial lawyer of the firm in most of the cases, and has proven himself capable in the management of litigation. Having no love for technicalities, he goes boldly to the merits of any controversy and conducts it on that line, despising the tricks, subterfuges and hair-splitting sometimes resorted to by lawyers. He is diligent in preparation, applying himself to the mastery of all the law questions involved and to the discovery of all the testimony bearing upon the case entrusted to him. These habits, pursued systematically in the preparation for trial, places him in position not to be easily disconcerted or disturbed by any question that may come up during the progress of litigation. His powers of oratory, coupled with capacity for reasoning, make him influential with a jury. His genial courtesy and affable manner, reinforced by an impressive presence, are also factors which enter into his qualifications as a successful advocate and political orator. His individuality is marked as much by his fine physique and attractive personality as by his well defined methods of conducting a discourse or a controversy. He is powerful whether rated as to mental or physical organism. His personal courage under all circumstances is unquestioned, and he is never timorous in the presence of opponents. Where the battle is hottest he is found at his best. He excels as a jury lawyer. As a man his intercourse is marked by great kindness of heart proceeding from his naturally generous impulses, and he is popular alike with his legal brethren and the people. The legal work of the firm has always been conducted by a division of labor in accordance with the tastes and special qualifications of the two brothers. Judge T. F. Ham was essentially the office lawyer and H. H. Ham the manager of the business in court. The latter is also a good adviser and safe counselor, as well as a careful business and commercial lawyer. FRANK S. HAM, Wauseon, is a son of the judge. He was born in 1872, educated in the schools of Wauseon, read law with his father and uncle, and was admitted to the Bar in June, 1895. He has already made a record as a code pleader. He is unusually careful and thorough in the. preparation of pleadings and in the skillful presentation of the strong points of his cases. He has exhibited critical powers of discrimination and a capacity to make the most out of the material facts and the citation of authorities to sustain a contention. His discernment of whatever is immaterial, and its exclusion from the pleadings tends to give conciseness and strength to his complaints and other legal papers. His beginning is promising. He is now associated with H. H. Ham in the practice of law. BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 391 HENRY B. HARRIS, Defiance. Mr. Harris is of Scotch descent, although born in Ohio. His mother was also a native of this State, but his father's nativity was New Jersey. About one hundred and fifty years ago John Harris, equipped with a patent from King George II.,covering a large tract of land in the colony of New Jersey, emigrated from Scotland and settled in New Jersey on his own domain. He was the great-great-grandfather of the subject of this biography. The family continued to reside in New Jersey for a century, and much of the landed estate was leased to small farmers and settlers for ninety-nine years. These leases expired during the lifetime of Mr. Harris's father, who was too generous to take advantage of the lapses by dispossessing the descendants of the lessees and beneficiaries of the leases. On the contrary he permitted them to remain in peaceable and undisturbed possession of the property to which they were attached, if they had no color of title, by inherited possession and long residence. The grandfather of Henry B. Harris died in New Jersey, and his father, Thomas D. Harris, then a young man, came to Ohio in 1842, bringing with him the other members of the family, settled first in Brown county, where he married Elizabeth Ashton and resided several years. In 1851 the family moved to Defiance county and Thomas D. Harris lived in Defiance over thirty years, and afterwards on his farm near the town of Defiance until his death, in 1891. Henry B. Harris was born in Defiance on the fourth day of November, 1853. His early education was received in the public schools of Defiance, and he completed the high school course at the age of eighteen. After studying for a time under the tutorage of Dr. W. G. Strong he entered the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, in 1871, where he remained three years completing the studies of the regular classical course, and was graduated in 1874. For one year thereafter he filled the position of superintendent of the union schools of Hicksville, and then began the study of law in the office of Henry New begin, at Defiance. His reading and law studies were prosecuted under instruction for two years and a half, and he was admitted to the Bar in December, 1877, after passing the examination required by the Supreme Court. On the first day of January, 1878, he entered into a partnership with his preceptor, Mr. Newbegin, which was maintained a little more than two years. In 1880 he formed a partnership with John P. Cameron, which continued for several years, until Mr: Cameron was elected clerk of the courts of Defiance county. Mr. Harris then became associated with Samuel S.' Ashbaugh in a partnership which continued till Mr. Ashbaugh was obliged by business interests to give up the practice at Defiance. When Mr. Cameron retired from the office of clerk the firm of Harris & Cameron was again formed, and has had a continuous and very active existence since its reorganization. The gentlemen composing it have been retained in nearly all litigation of the first importance in Defiance county. The first case in which they were retained was tried in all of the State courts, having been twice adjudicated and reported by the Supreme Court of Ohio, was then taken to the United States courts and considered twice by the Supreme Court of the United States. After thirteen years of litigation in the State and Federal 392 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. courts, Messrs. Harris & Cameron secured a final judgment in favor of their clients. Mr. Harris was admitted to practice in the United States District and Circuit Courts in 1880, and in the Supreme Court of the United States in 1884. His admission to the Supreme Court was moved by Judge William A. Maury, assistant solicitor general of the United States. He has always been a Republican, but the exacting requirements of his profession have prevented activity in partisan contests. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, of the Knights of Pythias, and the Order of Elks. He has travelled extensively in the United States, either on business matters or for pleasure and recreation. Mr. Harris was married October 14, 1883, to Miss Alice Reese Shaw, daughter of John W. Shaw, a prominent farmer and stock dealer of Fairfield county, Ohio, and his wife, Elizabeth Reese Shaw. They have one son. FLORENCE CRONISE, Tiffin. Miss. Florence Cronise, a member of the Tiffin Bar, is a native of Ohio. She was born in the town of Republic, Seneca county, October 28, 1845. She is of German descent, but her lineage is American for three or four generations. Some of her ancestors settled in Maryland and Virginia prior to the Revolution. The German orthography of the name was preserved long after the transplanting to this country. her great-grandfather, Henry Kronise, served in the Colonial Army during the Revolutionary War, and her grandfather, Henry Cronise, served in the War of 1812. The family removed to Ohio and settled in Seneca county in 1827, among the first settlers in the neighborhood. The early education of Miss Cronise was received at home, and later she attended Heidelberg College (now University) at Tiffin. This is the western educational institution of the Reformed Church. She was a student there five years, completing the regular classical course, and was graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1865. In 1870 the degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon her by reason of continuance in literary and educational pursuits. For six years after graduation Miss Cronise devoted herself to teaching, most of the time at Princeton, Illinois, as teacher of mathematics in the township high school. At the end of that time, having returned to Ohio, she accepted the position of principal of .the high school at Tiffin, with the understanding and agreement on the part of the board of education that she was to receive the same salary as a male teacher for the same grade of work. At the end of the year the board was unwilling to carry out its agreement except on the condition that she would continue in the position five years. She declined to accede to the new condition, and abandoning school work, entered upon the study of the law. Three months later the school board sought ineffectually to re-employ Miss Cronise, offering her the position of principal of the high school at a salary of $1,000 per annum, unconditionally. The offer was declined with thanks. She had deliberately formed the purpose to devote all of her time and talents to the law, which she had already been reading for some time in rather a desultory manner. In the BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 393 furtherance of her resolution she entered the law office of Judge John McCauley in 1872, and pursued her studies under his 'instruction until she was admitted to the Bar, after an examination before the District Court at Kenton, Ohio, in September. 1873. Without any delay she commenced the practice in partnership with her sister, in the firm of N. & F. Cronise. In the course of a year her sister withdrew from the partnership to marry N. B. Lutes, a prominent lawyer of Tiffin, and become one of the firm of Lutes & Lutes. For about eight years thereafter Miss Cronise continued in practice alone and succeeded in building up a profitable business supported by an excellent clientage. In 1882 she admitted to a partnership Miss Edith Sams, who had studied law in her office, forming the firm of Cronise & Sams. This relationship was also-broken by the marriage of the junior partner. Since that time Miss Cronise has continued to conduct a general practice alone. She has devoted herself almost exclusively to civil business, and has managed cases in court with gratifying success. She has displayed real ability in the profession, both in the preparation of pleadings and the conduct of litigation. Calm, dignified, earnest in manner ; clear, dispassionate, logical in style, she makes a strong argument before court or jury. Without any show of pedantry, she chooses from an extensive vocabulary the familiar words which will most clearly express her meaning, most readily be understood by a jury, and hence most effectively impress her argument. There is method in her speech, which is plain and simple rather than ornate. She has a genius for the law and is a good counselor. Miss Cronise was for eight years a member of the county board of school examiners, and for many years a member of the city board of examiners. She was nominated in 1895 as a candidate for membership in the board of education, by the Republican party, of which she is a supporter. Complying with a request of the editor for information, a prominent Tiffin judge contributes the following : " Miss Cronise first obtained a collegiate education, and was really a good scholar. She seemed to have taken most interest in mathematics and languages, and paid less attention to the trifling and effeminate studies in the course. After she left college she taught for a year or two in a high school, and could have continued teaching on very favorable terms. But she gave it up and began the study of law. From the beginning of her studies she showed unusual ability to understand it, and with the mature scholarship she went rapidly through a course of legal study, and when she was admitted to practice she was really a well disciplined and well educated lawyer. She has now had perhaps twenty years of practice, and is very capable to try any case. She is to-day capable to be a very efficient judge of any court in the State. She is not a voluble talker, nor an eloquent one. She makes no effort to talk learnedly; is free from any affectation. She attends mainly to the logic and reason of her case. Her real worth of character amply protects her from the unpleasant things that might be sometimes said by an opponent wanting in delicacy. She is a good lawyer—I think probably there is not a better woman lawyer than she in the whole country." Another judge says : " Miss Cronise entered the profession at a time when women in the -law were not regarded with that favor accorded them in later years ; but by her force of character, ability and close attention to business, 394 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. she made rapid advancement, until to-day her position at the Bar is second to none. All members of the Tiffin Bar recognize the fact that whatever she has to do is done at once; and while courteous to all, professional courtesy is never permitted to interfere with the interests of her clients. She never enters upon the trial of a case without giving the closest attention to the law and the evidence, and she has a clientage and success that place her on a level with the foremost in the profession." FREDERICK L. HAY, Defiance. F. L. Hay, Probate Judge of Defiance county, is a native of Pennsylvania, born at Girard in that State, December 22, 1856, the son of James L. and Emma Bennett Hay. His paternal ancestors came to America in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and settled in Pennsylvania on a farm near Girard, which remained in the possession of the family until recently. On the maternal side his ancestors were among the early Puritan settlers of New England, the family seat being in New Hampshire. The great-grandfather of our subject was a soldier in the American army during the seven years of the Revolutionary War. The grandfather removed from the family homestead in New Hampshire to Oneonta, New York, about fifty years ago, and about ten years later again removed, settling in Pennsylvania, near Girard. Judge Hay's parents are now living in the town of Girard, and in the public and the select schools of that town and at Girard Academy he obtained his education. Leaving school, he went to Cleveland and entered the employ of a mercantile firm as book-keeper, retaining the position for four years, when he went to Cincinnati and followed the same occupation for two years. During that time he took up the study of law, privately. In 1884 he went to Defiance and entered the office of Frank W. Knapp, to continue his legal studies, and in December, 1885, he was admitted to the Bar at Columbus. He at once began the practice of law at Defiance, and continued until he was elected to his present position of Probate Judge of Defiance county, in 1893. He has twice been elected mayor of Defiance, the first time in 1888 and again in 1890. Judge Hay has been the attorney of the Defiance Home Saving and Loan Association since its organization, in May, 1888. He is prominent in fraternal societies ; is a member of the Masonic bodies, the Blue Lodge, Council, Chapter and Commandery. He is also a charter member of the Knights of Pythias, and has been their representative to the Grand Lodge of the State and a member of the committee on laws and supervision, now known as the judiciary committee. He has not traveled abroad, but is familiar with most points of interest in the United States and Canada. In his political affiliations Judge Hay is a Republican and has always been an ardent supporter of the principles of that party, its policies and nominees for office. He was married October 18, 1887, to Miss Margaret C. Daoust, a native of the province of Ontario, Canada. She is of French-Scotch descent, her father being of French and her mother of Scotch extraction. They have three children, two boys and one girl. BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 395 CHARLES H. MASTERS, Bryan. Charles Homer Masters is a native of the State. He was born on his father's farm at Masters' Corners, near West Unity, in Fulton county. His parents were Honorable Ezekiel and Susanna B. Masters ; his father a native of Maryland and of English descent ; his mother a native of Ohio and of English-German descent. Ezekiel Masters came to Ohio with his parents when a boy and was raised on a farm. He settled in Fulton county in 1846, on a tract of timber land which he cleared up and cultivated until 1870. He then removed to Pioneer, in Williams county, where he died in 1887. He had so ordered his life as to gain the respect and esteem of the communities in which he resided. He was for many years one of the justices of his township and represented Fulton county in the legislature for two terms, from 1863 to 1867. He was a public-spirited citizen, and his enterprise occasioned the loss of most of the accumulations of his earlier years. He took a contract to build a section of the Mansfield,'Coldwater and Lake Michigan Railroad, but as it was never completed he lost the money he invested in the enterprise, some $20,000, and lost his health at the same time. His son, the subject of this sketch, was then thrown upon his own resources for obtaining an education. He had in his boyhood attended the public school of his district, and when his father moved to Pioneer in 1870, he attended the high school of that place, and later for one year was a student in the Normal Academy at Bryan. To provide means for prosecuting his studies he began teaching school, which he followed for six terms, during the winter, and worked on a farm in the summer. He pursued advanced studies in his leisure hours. In 1876 he went to Chicago and engaged in collecting, which he followed for two years and then entered the Union College of Law, where he pursued legal studies for two years. After passing an examination before the Appellate Court of Cook county he was admitted to the Bar. He at once returned to Bryan and began the practice of his profession. In connection with his law business he took up stenography and became so expert that the Bar of the county united in recommending him for the position of court stenographer and the appointment was made. He held this position for a period of three years. He was for several years the confidential clerk and assistant for the firm of Pratt & Bently, one of the most prominent and able law firms in northwestern Ohio. In February, 1888, he entered into partnership with Thomas Emery, now one of the attorneys of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, which continued to 1893. Of the important cases he has conducted or participated in, the most prominent are those of Zelzman vs. the L. S. and M. S. R. R. Co., and the State vs. Plummer and Elkins. The former was a suit for damages for personal injuries received on that road. It was tried three times in the Court of Common Pleas of Williams county and a verdict for the plaintiff was obtained at each trial; but the first two were reversed, by the Circuit Court in the first and by the Supreme Court in the secnd trial, and each time remanded for a new trial. In the first trial, which took place in 1887, the verdict was for $6,000, and in the third and final trial, it was for $9,000 and interest, which made almost $10,000. The railroad 396 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. company contested this verdict in both the Circuit and Supreme Courts, but it was sustained by both courts and paid by the company. There were two other attorneys associated with Mr. Masters in this case, Mr. Emory in its earlier stages and the Honorable Frank Hurd, of Toledo, at the final trial. In the two cases of the State against Plummer and Elkins, Mr. Masters rendered the prosecutor very efficient aid. His closing arguments to the jury in these cases were pronounced by the press and the public to be among the most effective ever delivered before a jury in Williams county. They were logical, forceful and eloquent) adding much to his already high reputation as a successful trial lawyer. In June, 1896, he formed a partnership with W. W. Truvelle for the practice of the law, with offices at Toledo, where the firm is building up a lucrative practice. Mr. Masters is prominent in social circles; is a member of the Masonic fraternity; has been and now is master of the Bryan Lodge F. and A. M. 'He has been H. P. of the Chapter, a member of Defiance Commandery K. of P. He is active in support of the Republican party, in whose principles he is a firm believer. He is at present a member of the Republican State central committee. He was married in March, 1880, to Miss Alice Joy, daughter of G. R. and Lucy Joy, prominent and respected citizens of Williams county. They have two children, one son and one daughter. The estimate of a prominent lawyer who knows him well is quoted : " He was,in 1894, associated in behalf of the county of Williams with John M. Killetts, prosecuting attorney of the county, in the trial of certain indictments for murder found by the grand jury of the county against Walter Plummer and William B. Elkins, and in these cases Mr. Masters and Mr. Killetts distinguished themselves as careful, painstaking and able lawyers. The cases both resulted in the conviction of the prisoners and their sentence for life to the Ohio penitentiary. As an attorney at law Mr. Masters is combative, aggressive and unyielding in his efforts to establish the rights of his clients. He has a good knowledge of the law, as good perhaps as will be found in lawyers above the average in general practice. He is a good student, resourceful and self-reliant. He is young in years, in good health and of strong physique, and admirably adapted to stand the hard work of this most exacting profession. Without doubt he will in the future, should he continue in practice, by reason of his mental make-up and habits of study, become one of the able members of the legal fraternity." Another, who has spent seven years in practice with him, says of Mr. Masters : "While I regard him a good all round lawyer and of excellent ability, my impression is that his special forte lies in commercial litigation. He is, besides, a good advocate and skillful in presenting a case to a jury. He has an analytical mind and is well read in legal principles." DENNIS D. DONOVAN, Deshler., While young in active practice, Mr. Donovan has had a thoroughly practical education, a varied experience, and has achieved distinction in the field of politics. He has represented his county in the State legislature and his district in the National Congress, and was re-elected in both instances. He has been a law student for the past fourteen years, but his business engagements and official duties have prevent   BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 397 him from engaging in active practice until his return from Congress in the spring of 1895. He is a native of Ohio and of Henry county, born January 31, 1859. His parents, John and Catherine (Hannan) Donovan, are both natives of Ireland, the former of the County Cork and the latter of Sligo. Both came to America and settled in Canada in early life, and both removed later to Henry county, where they met, were married, made their home, accumulated a competence and gained the respect of the entire community. Mr. Donovan, at the age of eighty, is still living in Deshler, in the enjoyment of fair health and the fruits of the labor of other years. Dennis D. Donovan's early education was obtained in the public school of his district, going to school in winter, and in summer assisting with the work on his father's farm. Later he attended the Northern Indiana Normal School, at Valparaiso, for two years, when he left his class and took up the role of instructor. For three years he followed as an avocation what has been a stepping stone to high places for many prominent citizens. He began his higher education with a view of entering the law profession, and during the years he was at Valparaiso he kept up a course of reading from law text-books, which he continued while teaching. In 1883, without abandoning his cherished idea of the law, he entered into the mercantile business, combining with it the buying and shipping of hard wood lumber, timber, etc. Two years after embarking in business, he was appointed postmaster at Deshler, and held that position, keeping the office at one of his stores, until he was elected to the legislature, in 1887. So well were his constituents satisfied with his services as a law-maker, they re-elected him to the same position in the fall of 1889. Before the expiration of this last term he was nominated on the Democratic ticket to represent the Sixth Congressional District in the Fifty-second Congress, and was elected the following November by a majority of 1,700 votes. By a reorganization of the congressional districts in 1891, Henry county was transferred to the Fifth District and Mr. Donovan was, in 1892, made the candidate of his party to represent the new district in the Fifty-third Congress, and was elected by an increased majority. The last year of his second term in Congress he entered the law department of the Georgetown University at Washington, where he spent two years in study and attending lectures, and was graduated from that institution with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Returning to Deshler, he at once began the practice of his profession in the courts of Henry and adjoining counties. In his political creed Mr. Donovan is a staunch Democrat, a firm believer in the constitutional principles of Jefferson and Jackson, as well as the financial principles enunciated in the platforms of his party. He has always been an active worker for party success, and a prominent figure in partisan councils. He has been highly honored by his party, and it can be said that in every position to which he has been called; he has sustained himself well. He was married in 1891 to Miss Genevra C. Waltimire, daughter of J. C. and Nancy .Stovenour Waltimire, prominent and popular in the society of Deshler, where Mr. Waltimire is a successful merchant. A well known judge says of Mr. Donovan : "He has twice represented this county in the Ohio legislature, and twice represented 398 - BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO. this district in Congress, all of which was with honorable distinction. He is a lawyer, and while somewhat young in the. profession, he has marked ability. He is genial and always courteous, quick at repartee, but kind ; is a scholar and gentleman in the strictest sense." HOMER McKENDREE CARPER, Delaware. Amongst the great lawyers and good men of Ohio was the late Homer M. Carper, who died January 14, 1895. Mr. Carper was born in Licking county, Ohio, July 24, 1826, and therefore had almost rounded out his three score and ten years when called to his reward. He was the son of Rev. Joseph Carper, a minister of prominence and distinction in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and his boyhood was subject to the vicissitudes of the itinerary. He attended the public schools and was for a short time a student in Ohio University at Athens before reaching the age of eighteen years. In November, 1844, he entered Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, and upon completion of its classical course was graduated with honors in 1848. His attachment for the institution formed while a student continued and strengthened after he emerged from the student life within its halls to the broader arena in which he became such a conspicuous figure and recognized force. He served on its board of trustees, and during the later years was the adviser and counsellor of the board. Having decided to enter the profession of law, he enjoyed the exceptional advantages of studying its text-books under those great masters, Thomas Ewing and Hocking Hunter, at Lancaster. He was instructed in. the principles of the law by these most eminent teachers, and his aspirations were quickened by the inspiration of their nobility and their professional achievements. Mr. Carper was possessed of a brilliant intellect and cultivated the habit of close application to his books; and yet for some time after his admission to the Bar, which was in 1850, at Lancaster, he hesitated to take up the practice. Modestly measuring himself by the colossal stature of his preceptors, and comparing his rudimental knowledge with their profound learning and comprehensive acquirements gathered during nearly forty years at the Bar, he was inclined to undervalue himself and his resources. Quietly he fortified himself and gradually he gained the self-confidence which enabled him to publicly announce his readiness to meet clients. He settled in Delaware and commenced the practice with Honorable J. R. Hubble, then a leading member of the. Delaware Bar. At the end of three years this partnership was dissolved and another was formed with T. C. Jones, which lasted until the latter was elected to the Bench. Both of these partners passed over to the unknown before him. In 1862 he became associated with Honorable J. D. Van Deman in a partnership which was maintained for twenty-seven years with great and growing success, and was dissolved in 1889. By that time Mr. Carper had gained a high place in the profession - and built for himself a home, position and sufficient wealth not to be dependent upon the fees of practice. He gradu- BENCH AND BAR OF OHIO - 399 ally retired from the forum and declined to accept new business, yielding only to the importunities of old clients who clung to him and insisted upon his legal services when they needed a counselor or had important litigation. One of these old clients was the C. C. C. & St. L. Railroad Company, which under various names he. had served as counsel more than forty years. Mr. Carper was one of that noble minority of lawyers who find the profession all-satisfying. All of his aspirations toward honor and fame were gratified in the boundless possibilities of the law. He sought no political office. The glitter and tinsel of. public life never tempted him. Through nearly half a century he held on courageously to the course which he marked out in youth, and thus was enabled to attain a position of eminence, above the scandal and calumny which often bring disquietude into the life and home of the politician. When a young lawyer he served two terms as prosecuting attorney of his county, but declined judicial honors offered by his party in a nomination for Common Pleas judge. He was a member of the Republican party, whose clear vision and high character gave him wide influence as an adviser. Mr. Carper possessed much original power of intellect. He was a thinker, as well as a reader. His mind was both analytical and synthetical. He could separate and classify the elements of a case at law and discover the principle upon which it was grounded. Or he was able to construct a symmetrical argument from a known element. In his practice he regarded principles of more importance than statutes. He sought the basis of truth on which to construct his fabric of facts, and the basis of principle on which to construct his theory of the law. He was thoroughly informed in his cases and carried on his contentions with conscientious pertinacity. He reasoned well, as a logician whose mind is thoroughly honest. He was a good man, who studied the sacred scriptures and sought to fashion his life after the pattern of the Divine Teacher and the Sermon on the Mount. He possessed social qualities which drew about him a circle of admirers who delighted in his conversation. His humor was pure, his wit sparkling, his repartee bright and his satire free from malice or anything that could offend. He enjoyed his home, which the wife of his youth, Miss Catherine Welch, of Delaware, to whom he was married in 1849, assisted in making bright and cheerful. The children of this union are Joseph E. Carper, Carrie Carper Mills, of Boston, and George T. Carper, all of whom with their mother survive. Mr. Carper died suddenly and his death occasioned a shock in the community. The Bar in which he had so long been prominent adopted a memorial prepared by Honorable E. F. Poppleton, Judge C. H. McElroy, Honorable F. M. Marriott and Honorable J. D. Van Deman, and the same was spread upon the court records, as an inspiration to high living and noble aims in the profession.