1	25	50	75
100	125	150	175
200	225	250	275
300	325	350	375
400	425	450	475
500	525	550	575
600	625	650	675
700

THERE is perennial interest in stories of the achievements of jurists and members of the Bar. This is true because both are engaged in the transaction of matters that are more .or less of a public nature. One can not read the history of the various constitutional conventions without coming upon stories of the members of the Bench and Bar. No other profession has contributed so many of its members to offices of trust and honor in state and nation as has the Bar. Lawyers have written some of the most brilliant pages of our country's history. They are peculiarly qualified by education and experience for public service, and it is but natural that politics should have an attraction and appeal for members of the profession. A history of the Bench and Bar of Northern Ohio is closely interwoven with the history of the development of that half of our glorious commonwealth. The pioneer lawyer and the pioneer judge were busy in the difficult task of establishing a system of jurisprudence, while the pioneer laymen were clearing the forests, tilling the soil and laying foundations for the erection of the structure of business. The lawyer's task was just as difficult and just as necessary as that of the pioneer, and it might well be argued that the task .of establishing a system of jurisprudence was the more important, for the law is the cornerstone on which is reared the structure of civilization. Without law and order men can not congregate and live in villages and cities, and so it was that while the great Northwest Territory—of which our state was a part—was still a primeval country, with 'savages making up the majority of population—an all-wise body in Washington, provided the great Ordinance of 1787, for the government of the territory embracing the- present middle west. The ordinance was one of the forerunners to the rapid settlement of the country to the west of the Alleghenies. Up to the passage of that measure, it had been the tendency to discourage immigration to the west and to encourage the whites to live along the eastern coast, where they were more accessible. Under the ordinance a simple but effective system of jurisprudence was established, and the people of the East feeling the security it granted, and further prompted by the advantages to be gained by taking up residence in a new country, flocked across the Alleghenies alto Ohio. The establishment of a system of laws for the new territory' alone exerted a great influence toward populating it. That first organic law of the new territory to the west of Pennsylvania was written by a Congress, in which members of the legal profession held commanding positions. The present day lawyer can not imagine the struggles that the pioneer lawyer endured. He frequently was before courts that were 4 - The Bench and Bar of Northern Ohio without law books, and the early day lawyer was indeed fortunate if he had a library. The lawyer of those days was a circuit rider. The population was not sufficient to keep the member of the Bar engaged throughout the year in a single court, and so he rode about from court to court with the judges. He carried his briefs in his saddle bags and was careful to purchase a saddle horse that could swim streams, for there were no bridges. The judges of the state supreme court, in the early days of the state, went about from county to county holding court—a task that required a prodigioys amount of travel and broke into the home life of the jurists. The annual compensation in those days for a jurist of the Ohio supreme court was but $800. There were no specialists in the law. Every member of the Bar was a general practitioner, and woe be to the man who entered the court room without full possession of his wits, and without a clear knowledge of the law. The jurists allowed more latitude to the lawyer and he used the limit of the court's patience to expose slowness of thought or lack of knowledge of law by the counsel across the trial table. The lawyer developed an individuality and he was known far and wide on account of it. There are many other facts that could be set forth in a summary of a history of this sort, but the reader is kindly referred to the more detailed account that follows. In the task of chronicling the development of the Bench and Bar of Northern Ohio, the editor acknowledges with appreciation, contributions from the pens of Hon. John M. Killits, Judge of the District Court of the 'United States, Northern District of Ohio; Ben W. Johnson, Esq., of the Toledo Bar ; James H. Robertson, Esq., of the Stark county Bar ; A. V. Abernethy, Esq., of the Cleveland Bar Joseph B. Doyle, Esq., of the Jefferson county Bar ; and those others whose co-operation has been of great value.