CHAPTER XI.

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BENCH AND BAR.

THE bar of Chillicothe from the earliest days has been famous for the ability of the lawyers that composed it. Marietta, of course, has the distinction of being the place where court was first held in Ohio, where Fearing and the younger Meigs and their contemporaries began the practice. Cincinnati, almost as old as Marietta, and for many years the Queen City of the West, drew to itself brilliant talent and soon outstripped its Scioto valley rival in numbers at least of practitioners of law. Lancaster was the seat of a remarkable group of jurists, and when Columbus became the capital of the State there was an inevitable gravitation of lawyers to that center. But Chillicothe had some notable lawyers at the founding of the State and she has ever since been the home of men distinguished in this field of professional effort. Settled largely by Virginians and North Carolinians, she partook in some degree of that tendency in the South that. impels young men to law and politics--a tendency that present industrial conditions favor, but, which was much stronger at the beginning of the last century.

It. does not. appear that there were any lawyers among the party of first settlers of Chillicothe, though the doctors and preachers were represented ; but some of these first comers served upon the bench as justices in the first courts, and the lawyers were not long in following the advance guard.

Upon the organization of new counties Governor St. Clair appointed, under the provisions of the Territorial laws, a number of justices of the peace, five of whom should constitute a quorum for holding court. This body of justices was required to meet three times a year, and hence received the name of the Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace.

"The first court held in this county convened at Chillicothe on the fourth Tuesday of December, 1798. It was called the court of common pleas for the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, and was presided over by `gentlemen justices' commissioned by Gov. Arthur

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St. Clair. Thomas Worthington, James Scott, Samuel Finley, William Patton, Elias Langham, James Ferguson, John Guthrey, James Dunlap, Robert Gregg, Isaac Davis and Reuben Abrams, were appointed justices by commissions which bore date, October 11, 1798. James Scott, Samuel Finley and James Ferguson soon resigned; but the others served until the judiciary was reorganized under the State constitution, and even after that event, Patton and Abrams, with Felix Renick, Isaac Cook, and others, served the State long and well as associate judges of the court of common pleas.*

"At the opening of the first term of this court, there were present of these justices, Worthington, Scott, Finley, Patton and Langham. Edward Tiffin was the prothonotary, or clerk, and Jeremiah McLene (afterwards secretary of state) was sheriff. So far as we can ascertain, the only licensed attorneys present at this first court were John S. Will and Levin Belt. The licenses to practice law, granted by this territorial court, were as follows: Robert F. Slaughter in March, 1799, William Creighton and James Montgomery in June, 1799, Michael Baldwin in November, 1799, and Thomas Scott in June, 1801. The first cause docketed was: `Blair vs. Blair. In case. Damages thirty dollars. Daniel Rotruck, special bail.'

"The first jury was empaneled in the case of Kennett vs. Hamilton, and the entry upon the journal is as follows: `A jury was returned by the sheriff, to-wit : Isaac Davis, Jas. Hays, Joseph Tiffin, William McLinahan, Isaac Owens, Jno. Wilkinson, Robert W. Finley, Elias Bootman, Jno. Bishong, Jno. Patton, Benj. Miller and Jas. Kilgore, who, being duly elected, tried and sworn, found a verdict for the defendant.' Truly a model entry for conciseness and simplicity. Failure to agree upon a verdict was rare in those good old times when `rogues were hung that jurymen might dine ;' and the, modern practitioner is often tempted to wish for a, return to the old practice.

"Nearly all the entries in `order book A' are in the neat and correct handwriting of Edward Tiffin ; but at the September term, 1799, the prothonotary tried a deputy, and that deputy, evidently an Irishman who wrote a good hand, but spelled with a brogue, for he always wrote Justice Ferguson's name `Faugorson' and Guthrey's `Gutery,' and closed the daily records of the courts 'adJournments.' His record, however, only fills six pages, when Tiffin resumed the pen, and continued them until the January term, 1803, when, says the record, `Thomas Scott, esq., produced a commission from Charles Willing Byrd, Esq., acting governor, appointing him prothonotary of the county,' after which, having taken the required oath, he assumed the

*This and other paragraphs quoted in this chapter are taken, by permission of Col. William E. Gilmore, from his sketch of the Bench and Bar of Ross county.

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office, and kept it until the State organization went into effect, in April of that year.

"At the first term of court, 17'98, it. was `Ordered, that Thomas Worthington and Samuel Smith, esqrs., do superintend the building of a court house, jail, jailor's house, stocks and pillory.' And a few days later it was further 'Ordered. that one hundred and twenty dollars be appropriated out of the treasury for the purpose of assisting toward the expenses of building the court house, jail, jailor's house, stocks and pillory.'

"On the fifth day of February, 1803, the records of the territorial common pleas end with the words `Adjourned until court in due course."

Within this period the high tribunal was the Territorial court of three judges, appointed by Congress, but nine of these were Ross county men. The list includes Samuel II. Parsons, James M. Varntun, John Cleves Symmes, George Turner, Joseph Gilman, Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., Rufus Putnam, William Barton, John Armstrong, all from the Muskingum and Miami valleys, the people of which regions were dominant during the administration of Governor St. Clair. Court was doubtless held at Chillicothe by some of these judges in the period 1798 to 1803, the judges and attendant lawyers coming in cavalcades from Marietta or Cincinnati, swimming swollen streams, camping out in the woods on their way, and living at times from the wild game of the forest. A successful judge or attorney in that time necessarily united some knowledge of wood craft with his other accomplishments, and if he was not fitted to endure great hardships he could not survive the fatigues of riding the circuit. Such conditions continued for a long time after the admission of the State.

Of the Ross county lawyers introduced to our attention by the records quoted, some interesting facts have been preserved.

John S. Will was a native of Virginia (1773), where he was admitted to the bar in 1794. On coming west he first. went to Cincinnati, and thence came to Chillicothe, in 1798, to become the first lawyer in Ross county. He remained at Chillicothe for about ten years, serving in 1807-8 as public prosecutor, but it does not appear that he was a remarkably prominent or successful lawyer. In 1809 he removed to Franklinton, the forerunner of the city of Columbus, and while he was a resident at that town, which was military head-quarters during the war of 1812, gossip blamed alleged delays on the part of Gen. William Henry Harrison to the attractions of Mrs. Will, who was a lady of great beauty and, from all that. appears, of unquestioned modesty and discretion. The army gossip was undoubtedly unjust to both her and the general, but it is not improbable that pleasant society and comfortable quarters might make the general more determined to wait for pleasant weather before venturing into

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the Black Swamp. Another interesting reminiscence concerning Will is that he was deeply interested in the discussion of the discoveries regarding galvanism, a new thing while he was at Chillicothe, and much talked of as a possible means of prolonging life and defeating death.

Levin Belt was a native of England, and was the first prosecutor before the Chillicothe court. More will be said of him as a judge. Robert F. Slaughter was another who was upon the bench for a short time. The most famous figures of this earliest Chillicothe bar were, however, William Creighton, Michael Baldwin and Thomas Scott.

William Creighton, who came from Berkeley county, Va., in 1799, at the age of twenty-two years, was properly part of that Shenandoah valley colony, embracing Worthington and Tiffin, that was dominant in Ross county and the State for many years. He does not appear to have been deeply read in principles or precedents, but, it is said, "held that the law was simply good sense and sound judgment crystallized into certain forms and rules, and he trusted greatly to evolving from his own sense and judgment what those rules were or ought to be, iii any given case." Neither was he an orator, though a fluent talker in the conversational style and ready with wit and humor, and possessing a valuable fund of good stories. He is described as a man six feet in height, with gray eyes shadowed by bushy brows, a gravely good-humored countenance, and the slightly drooping head of a student. In the social life of the old town he was one of the most conspicuous figures. Henry Clay and DeWitt Clinton were among those that enjoyed his hospitality. His wife, a sister of Charles Willing Byrd, was a lady whose "sprightly enjoyment of social entertainments seemed never to tire,' and their daughters, Sarah and Susan (the latter becoming the wife of Jesse L. Williams, a famous railroad engineer and financier in later days) were among the Chillicothe beauties. Creighton was a Jeffersonian in politics and active in the movement for the establishment of what was then called the Republican party. When the Chillicothe party took the reins of government he was elected in 1803 the first secretary of state of Ohio, and in 1806 he was re-elected, but he resigned the honor in 1808. Two years later he was elected to Congress, where he served in 1809-11. Then, when Duncan McArthur resigned his seat in Congress to become a general in the war of 1812, Creighton was elected to succeed him in 1813, but .he resigned in December, 1814, and in 1814 he was again elected. In 1815 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States senate. In later years he was identified with the party of Henry Clay, was again elected to Congress in 1826; was nominated by President

* "Chelecothe, Glimpses of yesterday."

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Adams for judge of the United States district court, but not confirmed by the senate, and in 1828 and 1830 was again elected to Congress. These facts testify to his prominence in public affairs. He died at Chillicothe, October 8, 1851.

Michael Baldwin was of a Connecticut family. One brother, Henry, was a justice of the supreme court of the United States; another was a wealthy planter in Tennessee. Baldwin was one of the most brilliant men at the bar and very conspicuous as a politician, but like many other bright men of the frontier settlements, he yielded to the seductions of strong drink, and while he might not have consumed much more than Daniel Webster, he did not regulate his potations with as much discretion. Besides, he was a man of gay spirit and loved the company of reckless carousers. At a time when most people gambled, lie was second to no one in his infatuation for games of chance. For these reasons it was impossible for him to attain those official honors that his talents made him worthy of, though early in his career he was made a member of the first constitutional convention, and is credited traditionally with having been the author of a large part of it. He was also speaker of the first house of representatives, and had the same honor in the third session, and filled the professional office of prosecuting attorney. When Harmon Blennerhassett was expecting to be tried at Chillicothe on account of the "Burr conspiracy," he engaged, upon the advice of Aaron Burr, Judge Burnet of Cincinnati, and Michael Baldwin, of Chillicothe, as counsel. After he had secured these attorneys, Blennerhassett wrote that Burnet would be a host with the staid inhabitants, and that Baldwin would be a "giant of influence with the rabble, whom he properly styles his `bloodhounds.' " These organized "Blood Hounds" were faithful to their leader, even to the extent of forcibly delivering him from imprisonment, for debt. The life this famous character led could not last long. He died about 1811, at the age of about thirty-five years.

Most distinguished of all the first lawyers was Thomas Scott, the first man to represent the Chillicothe party on the supreme bench of the State. Before describing his career, we may at this point make mention of the history of the supreme court of Ohio, so far as it is connected with the annals of Ross county.

The supreme court had its origin in the constitution of 1802, which provided for three members, with permission to the legislature to add another. This court was required to meet once a year in each county; a regulation that in the year 1902 would be preposterous, but in 1802, with a few widely scattered counties, was obviously the most convenient way of serving the people and the ends of justice. Until 1851 this custom of an annual session of the supreme court continued, and the records show that some of the greatest lawyers of Ohio have presided at Chillicothe, such as William W. Irwin,

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Ethan Allen Brown, Calvin Pease, John McLean, Peter Hitchcock, Jacob Burnet, Charles R. Sherman, John C. Wright, William B. Caldwell, and Rufus P. Ranney.

This supreme court had both original and appellate jurisdiction, and had complete criminal jurisdiction. One of the earliest records of a sitting of the supreme court in Ross county, is taken up with a trial for murder.

"At a term of the supreme court, Monday, May 14, 1804, at which Return Jonathan Meigs. Jr., chief justice of the State, presided, and Samuel Huntington and William Spriggs, judges, were present, a grand jury was sworn and charged, and upon the same day returned into court with an indictment, which charged one, "Edward Stalcupp, laborer, of Pee Pee township (now Pike county), with the murder of Asa Mounts. The accused man had, on the twenty-seventh of December, 1803, in a fit of anger, born of jealousy, shot his victim dead, with a rifle. On the next day the prisoner was put upon his trial, and upon the following day the jury found a verdict in these words : "We, the jury, find the criminal guilty. Isaac Brink, foreman." On Wednesday, the twenty-third of May, he was sentenced, by Judge Meigs, to be hung by the neck until dead, on Friday, the third day of August, 1804, between the hours of nine o'clock in the morning and twelve at noon--and he was executed accordingly. Levin Belt prosecuted the case for the State, and Michael Baldwin and William Creighton, Jr., defended the prisoner. After the conviction, Baldwin made earnest, but ineffectual, appeal to Governor Tiffin for commutation of punishment, and after the execution he procured the dead body, to be buried on a lot directly in the rear of the governor's residence, swearing he would keep Tiffin in mind of Stalcupp, anyhow. The indictment was unskilfully drawn, and is not a good presentment of the crime of murder in the first degree. Nor, so far as we can now judge of it, (lid the facts make a case which warranted the infliction of the death penalty. But, perhaps, `an example was wanted.' "

Forty years later there was another murder trial before the supreme court, sitting at Chillicothe.

"On the night of November 19, 1844, Frederick Edwards, an old, well known, and much liked merchant of this county, was murdered in a store-room, in the village of Bourneville, by burglars, after an evidently desperate struggle for self-preservation. His body exhibited no less than nineteen stabs, and of these wounds, twelve were of such a character that, in the opinion of surgeons who examined them, either one would have been, of itself, mortal. Soon afterward Leroy J. Maxon was arrested at McConnellsville, Ohio, and Henry Thomas (alias Thomas Dean) at Lancaster, Pa., and committed for the crime. At the April term, 1845, they were indicted for murder in the first degree, and elected--under the law as it then

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was--to be tried by the supreme court. In the following May, Maxon succeeded in escaping from the jail; and, although many reports of his having been seen at different places were circulated at intervals, no reliable information was ever obtained, in regard to him, afterwards.

"On the twenty-fourth day of December, 1845, the supreme court began a term for Ross county, with Nathaniel Reed and Peter Hitchcock, judges, presiding; and the trial of Thomas was the first business of the term. The prosecuting attorney, Joseph Miller, was assisted by Hon. Thomas Ewing and John L. Green, and the defense was conducted by Henry Stanberry and Hocking H. Hunter. The trial of the case occupied two days. The evidence was conclusive against the prisoner, and the jury promptly returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. On the twenty-eighth Judge Reed sentenced Henry Thomas to death, by hanging, and designated Friday, the sixth of March, 1846, as the day upon which the execution should take place. A few days before the time so fixed for the execution, Thomas endeavored to commit suicide by cutting his throat with a penknife, which he had contrived to obtain or conceal. The sentence of the law was duly carried out, at the proper time, by Charles Martin, the sheriff."

The supreme court, as has been noted, was at first entirely a circuit court. In 1808, however, it was enlarged to four judges, and provision made for extraordinary sessions once a year in four counties, one of which was Ross, for the purpose of hearing cases reserved while the court was in circuit. This was the beginning of the supreme court "in bank." That law was repealed two years later; but in 1823 the court was required to have an annual session at Columbus at the close of the circuit work. In 1831 another act created the court "in bank," to meet annually at Columbus. But until 1851 the supreme judges were peripatetic, holding court in all the counties.

No citizen of Chillicothe had a seat in the supreme court until the legislative session of December, 1808, when Judge Samuel Huntington became governor, and Judge Meigs was elected to the United States senate. Then the legislature, after a close contest, in which Richard S. Thomas, Thomas Morris, Thomas Worthington, Lewis Cass, Ethan Allen Brown and others were among the candidates, chose Thomas Scott, of Chillicothe, for one of the vacancies.

Judge Scott was, like many other of the leading settlers of the Scioto valley, of Scotch-Irish descent, the family first settling after their immigration, in Berks county, Pa. His parents made their home on the upper Potomac, where he was born, in Alleghany county, Md., October 31, 1772 . When only seventeen years old he was licensed as a preacher by Bishop Asbury, the famous pioneer of Methodism in America, and in 1793 he was put in charge of the Ohio

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circuit. In the following year he was sent as a delegate to the church conference at Lexington, Ky., and not long afterward he seems to have made his home at that place and begun the study of law under James Brown. He had qualified himself to make a living as a tailor, and as he worked at his bench, his wife, Catherine Wood, a well-educated lady, sat beside him and read to him from the pages of Blackstone and Coke. Laboring thus, and preaching Sundays, doubtless, he prepared himself for the practice of law, which he began in Fleming county, Ky. Coming to Chillicothe early in 1801, he was soon admitted to the bar, in the following winter was clerk of the territorial legislature, and in 1802 was secretary of the constitutional convention. He was prothonotary of common pleas before the constitution went into effect, afterward was defeated for clerk of the common pleas court by John McDougal, and for three or four years was justice of the peace, then a more important office than it is now. He was prosecuting attorney in 1804-5, clerk of the State senate in 1805, and was retained in that office until elected to the supreme bench. He served in this high capacity until 1815 and made a good record. Afterward he was a member, in 1822, of a commission of three lawyers to revise the statutes of Ohio. From President John Quincy Adams he had the promise of appointment as United States district judge, but failing to receive that honor through the opposition of Henry Clay, Judge Scott was a warm supporter of Andrew Jackson and VanBuren until the Harrison campaign of 1840, when he joined the Whigs. Jackson appointed him register of public lands, an office he held at Cincinnati from 1829 to 1845. As a lawyer he enjoyed a reputation for wide learning and thorough research. Throughout his life he also welcomed every opportunity to preach the gospel, and it may be imagined that he was an active force for the promotion of the nobler life that was often forgotten on the frontier. When he died, February 13, 1850, at the age of eighty-three years, he had been longer in the practice than any other living lawyer of Ohio.

Judge Scott's successor upon the supreme bench was Jesup N. Couch, who became a justice at the same time as John McLean, and had for his other associates Ethan Allen Brown and Calvin Pease at first, and later, Peter Hitchcock, Jacob Burnet, and Charles R.. Sherman, during the six years of his service. Ohio never had a greater supreme court than it had then. Judge Conch was a native of Connecticut who came to Chillicothe in 1808 or 1809, and he must have shown himself worthy of the honor, to be elected after such a short residence in the State. He is remembered as an elegant gentleman, and not very popular with the wilder spirits. He died of consumption while yet upon the supreme bench.

Ross county's next contribution to the supreme court was Henry Brush. He came to Chillicothe from the state of New York and

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did not rapidly acquire prominence, though he was prosecuting attorney in 1808-09. In 1810-11 he was a representative in the legislature, and when the war came on with Great Britain he held the rank of colonel in the militia. His name is conspicuous in the history of the war of 1812 on account of his commanding the convoy of supplies sent from Chillicothe for General Hull at Detroit. Colonel Brush could get no further than the River Raisin, on account of the Indians, and several parties sent by Mull to open up the way for him met with defeat. On this account, mainly, Hull's famous surrender was made. Brush and his men were included in this surrender, though they were never in the hands of the enemy, and for some months they were under parole. In I814-15 Colonel Brush was a member of the State senate, in 1819-21 a member of Congress, and in 1828 he was elected to the supreme court of Ohio. About ten years later he abandoned law for farming, and his later years were passed in Madison county, where he died about 1860.

Ross county had no citizen on the supreme court after Brush, until the legislature of 1835-36 elected Fredrick Grimke, who served until 1848. Grimke was born at Charleston, S. C., September 1, 1791, of Huguenot descent. son of an eminent jurist who was an officer of the Revolution and a member of the convention that adopted the federal constitution. The two sisters of Judge Grimke were compelled to leave South Carolina because of their active opposition to slavery, and one of them, Angelica, married the famous professor and anti-slavery lecturer, Theodore D. Weld. Judge Grimke was educated at Yale college, and came to Chilicothe to make his home about 1818. Before making this change of residence he and his sisters freed their slaves. Being an exceedingly quiet and reticent man, a bachelor, and with many peculiarities, he became one of the famous figures of the old town, and no picture of Chillicothe in the old days would be complete without him. Elizabeth Waddle Renick has described him in "Glimpses of Yesterday," in these words: "An elderly gentleman, of stiff and stately mien, his immobile face most granite and sphinx like, striding along, looking neither to the right nor to the left, taking no apparent pleasure in the stroll, but since he had elected to walk, walking solemnly and slowly, until the proper amount of exercise had been taken. His nearly white hair was brushed smoothly back around his head ; his face, long, thin and sallow, with pronounced features and eyes that looked always straight ahead, was clean shaven. A stiff, white neckcloth encircled his throat in voluminous folds, the ends tied in a precise little bow. The swallow-tailed coat, the gloved hands held stiffly straight to his sides, the strapped pantaloons guiltless of crease or wrinkles, and his whole appearance was so stiff, so mechanical, so wooden, as to resemble one of those figures whose jerky motions are governed by machinery." In the winter of 1829-30 the legislature elected him presi-

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dent judge of the Sixth circuit, and he held this position until elevated to the supreme court, where he showed himself an able and upright jurist. He gave much time to philosophical and literary studies, and published two works, an "Essay on Ancient and Modern Literature," and a volume on "The Nature and Tendency of Free Institutions." After his retirement from the supreme court, in 1848, he lived at the Madeira hotel and Valley house, giving his time to study, until his death on January 8, 1863.

From 1848 Ross county was not represented on the supreme bench until, by the constitution of 1851, a supreme court of five members, to sit at Columbus, was provided for, to be elected by the people. One of the most eminent. of the first five men honored by election was Allen Granbery Thurman, of Chillicothe, and his associates were Thomas W. Bartley, John A. Corwin, Rufus P. Ranney and William B. Caldwell. Judge Thurman, most famous of all the citizens of Chillicothe, was brought to Chillicothe, before he was five years old, from his birthplace at Lynchburg, Va. His father, the Rev. Pleasant. Thurman, was a well-remembered figure in the religious history of Chillicothe from his coming in 1818, and his mother, a talented woman, for some time taught a school for girls. A few months later Mrs. Thurman's brother, William Allen, came from Virginia, from his birthplace at Edenton, N. C., and made his home with her, and with this uncle, six years his senior, young Thurman, born November 13, 1813, began the reacting of law after he had followed the curriculum of the "Old Academy." He was very industrious and much of his youth and early manhood were spent in teaching and engineering as a means of livelihood. Being appointed private secretary to Governor Lucas, he continued his law reading with Noah H. Swayne, and in 1835 he was admitted to practice. He rapidly attained prominence at the bar, and took some interest in politics, winning an election to Congress in 1844, where he was then the youngest member, but declining re-election. In 1844 he was married to a daughter of Walter Dun. After his election to the supreme court, leading his ticket by 2,000 votes, he served in that body one term of five years, in the last two holding the position of chief justice, In 1853 he removed to Columbus, which was his home until his death, December 12, 1895, but throughout his life the people of Ross county followed his career with affectionate interest. He was the Democratic candidate for governor in 1867, and failing to win against Rutherford B. Hayes, was elected United States senator in January, 1868. Being re-elected in 1874, he represented Ohio in the senate for twelve years, and was the leader of his party. Three times he was voted for by the Democrats of Ohio unsuccessfully for the same office, and three times he was supported by the Ohio delegates for nomination for president of the United States. In 1881 he was one of the three commissioners of the United States in the

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International monetary conference. In 1888 he was the Democratic nominee for vice president, but it was a year in which defeat overcame his party. When he represented Ross county in Congress, he supported the Wilmot proviso, in the interests of the restriction of slavery, and during the war, he was a friend of the Union. On his seventy-seventh birthday, he was the guest of honor at a banquet at Columbus, attended by a thousand prominent men from all parts of the United States and presided over by President Cleveland.

From February, 1886, until February, 1902, Ross county was represented in the supreme court by Thaddeus A. Minshall, who ex-officio was honored with the position of chief justice for four years.

Under the constitution of 1802 the State was divided into three circuits, by act of April 16, 1803, for each of which the legislature elected a president judge. For each county the legislature also elected two or three associate judges, and these, sitting with the president judge, constituted the court of common pleas. The second district included ,Adams, Scioto, Ross, Franklin, Fairfield, and Gallia comities, all of much greater extent than at present, so that the district included all of the central part of the region of the State between Steubenville and Cincinnati. The districts were changed from year to year, and increased in number, but Ross remained a part of the Second circuit until 1824, when the other counties in the district were Hocking, Fayette, Highland, Adams and Brown. The difficulties of riding such a circuit on horseback may be imagined. Wyllys Silliman, of Zanesville, was the first president judge for the Second district, and for the county, Reuben Abrams, William Patton and Felix Renick were elected associate judges. The court, thus constituted, began its first term on April 26, 1803, when the associate justices met, produced their commissions and ordered the opening of the court.

"On the next day, Judge Wyllys Silliman appeared, and, having produced his commission, took the oath, and entered upon his duties. Thomas Scott was clerk pro tempore, and Jeremiah McLene, sheriff. On this second day of the term, the first grand jury was empaneled, sworn and charged, and retired to make inquiry of crimes and misdemeanors committed within the body of Ross county ; and, after some time,' says the journal, 'returned into court and made presentment of for selling liquor without license ; and were discharged. The culprit was afterward duly convicted, fined twenty dollars and costs, and committed to jail until his fine and costs were paid.

"The next business of the judges was the choice of a permanent clerk of the court. Levin Belt, Thomas Scott, William R. Dickenson and John McDougal were the candidates, and each produced a certificate of competency, etc., signed by Hons William Sprigg and

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Samuel Huntington, judges of the supreme court of Ohio. John McDougal was the successful candidate, and was at once sworn into his official position. Clerk McDougal, in the pride of his citizenship of the newly admitted State, always wrote its name 'OHIO,' all capitals, and big ones, too.

"The earliest licenses to practice law, by the State courts here, were issued as follows : To Richard Henry Yansey, in April, 1803 to Lewis Cass, in April, 1803 to William H. Irwin, in April, 1803 to Henry Brush, in December, 1803 ; to Abraham J. Williams, in June, 1804; to Wyllys Silliman, in June, 1804; to James Scott, in June, 1804. Neither Yansey, Cass, Irwin or Silliman ever resided in Ross county. The first cause docketed in this first term was `Joseph Tiffin vs. James Wallace--debt. Judgments confessed; and execution stayed, by consent of plaintiff, for six months.'

"The third cause tried was Robert Campbell vs. Samuel Smith; in case, damages, four hundred dollars. It had been twice tried in the territorial court. At the first trial the jury had rendered a verdict for plaintiff for six hundred and twenty dollars, being two hundred and twenty dollars more than the plaintiff asked for. This verdict was set aside, and, on leave had, the plaintiff amended his declaration by asking eight hundred dollars' damages ; so as to be prepared for another liberal jury, if he could get such. But the second jury found a verdict for defendant! This was also set aside, and upon this, the third trial, the jury again found for the defendant, and the court entered judgment thereon as follows: It is, therefore, considered by the court that the plaintiff take nothing by his bill; but, for his false clamor, he together with his pledges, &c., be in mercy, &e., &c., and the defendant go hence without day, and recover against the plaintiff his costs by him in and about his defence, in this behalf expended. We give this as a specimen of the quaint forms and language of the law proceedings of that day. The '&c.'s' of the original record stand as given above, and, as Lord Coke said of the `&c.' and 'etc.' of Littleton, they are pregnant of meaning.'

"It will not be unwelcome to the reader to notice here the humor with which the old time lawyers christened the mythical `lessors' and `casual ejectors' in the artificial forms of the common-law action of ejectment--forms now obsolete forever and everywhere. We copy one notice from the `casual ejector' to his `tenant in possession.' The case is styled `Joseph Saveall, on the demise of Joseph Tiffin, versus Simpleton Spendall, Elias Langham, tenant in possession,' and is as follows:

" `Fourth of December, 1802.

" 'Mr. ELIAS LANGHAM, DEAR. SIR.:--I am informed that you are in possession of and claim title to the premises mentioned in this declaration of ejectment; and I being sued therein as casual

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ejector, and claiming no title to the same, I give you notice to appear before the justices of the court of common pleas, at the next term for Ross county, and then, by a rule of the court, cause yourself to be made defendant in my stead, and make your defences. Otherwise, I shall suffer judgment to be had against me by default, and you will be turned out of possession. So much from your loving friend.

"'SIMPLETON SPENDALL.'

"We also find notices in the records from `Peter Notitle,' `John Bankrupt,' etc., but generally John Doe and Richard Roe maintain their eminence as litigators of the titles to real estate.

"Simon Kenton, the famous Indian fighter, figures as defendant in a snit for debt in 1805. Imprisonment for debt was usual. Indeed, most suits upon contract demands for money, were commenced by the issue of capiases. Women were not exempt from this hardship. The journal for 1804 recites, for instance, that 'Hefty McCann, a poor person imprisoned for debt in the jail of the county, is ordered to be admitted to the benefit of the insolvent act, she having taken the oath prescribed by law,' etc. And again, we notice that `Mary Mealhouse^' was the subject of a similar order.

"The stocks and pillory erected in 1798 had not been built in vain. Sentences, to be publicly whipped, were ordinarily only dealt out to negroes convicted of misdemeanors, and white people convicted of theft. The reader will notice the difference made in the matter of punishments between the two races. We give a single specimen of a `Sentence to the Post,' as it was commonly called. One John Cummins had been duly convicted of horse-stealing at the November term, 1808. The sentence (by Judge Levin Belt) was `that said Cummins receive fifty lashes well laid on his bare back, pay a fine of one hundred dollars to the State of Ohio, restore to Israel Jennings the property stolen, and also eighty dollars, the value thereof ; be confined in the common jail twenty-five days, and pay the costs of prosecution. And it was further ordered that said John Cummins stand committed until this order be fully carried out.' `Black Betty, a negro woman,' was also whipped to the extent of ten lashes, also to be 'well laid on her bare back,' on conviction for petty larceny; and so far as we have noticed this is the only instance in which the common pleas sentenced a woman to the post. But the reader must remember that justices of the peace had also power to sentence to the whipping post for petty offences, over which they had final jurisdiction, and no doubt, many such penalties were imposed by them upon both males and females if 'negroes.' It would be cruel in the last degree to detail all the sentences to the whipping post, which have attracted our attention while examining these old records. Let the above suffice.

"In many instances when convicted criminals were unable to pay

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the fines and costs assessed against them, they were, by order of the court, `bound out to labor for not exceeding seven years,' and the money bid for their labor was applied to the payment of such fines and costs - costs first, of course. Branding with red hot irons, too, was occasionally resorted to. In 1804 one John Brandy was tried for murder, but the jury found him guilty of manslaughter, only. He was sentenced to be burned in the palm of the left hand, with a hot iron, so that the letters MS shall be plainly marked thereon, and pay the costs of prosecution.'

The most common cause of litigation in the early days of Ross county was the disputes arising over land titles and land boundaries, and growing out of the systems of land entries and land surveys, which were irregular, complicated and confusing. Many of the prominent early citizens, notably General McArthur, were frequently involved in expensive and protracted litigation, which were not productive of good feeling, to say the least. It was the business of attorneys, of course, to straighten out these matters, or at any rate, to represent the interests of their clients, and where a client had an unjust cause, it was no more difficult to find legal assistance than it is today.

Some of the attorneys became experts in the land matters of the Virginia military reserve. An instance is Robert Douglas, of whom it is told by Colonel Gilmore : "It is reported that some timid ones would not purchase any land unless the conveyances contained a quit claim deed from Douglas ! He played upon the nervous by having bundles of carefully sealed papers in the pigeon holes of his office desk, the visible ends of which were labeled, for instance : `Papers to be opened after the death of John A. Fulton,' or `after the death of Cadwallader Wallace.' Men whose names appeared on such mysterious documents would have given their ears to know what they contained but Douglas was deaf as a post to all questions regarding them." Judge Clark deserves to be named as one of those who had a mastery of the intricacies of the land practice, in later days.

During the period of the old constitution the plan of having two citizens act as associate judges, theoretically supporting the legal subtleties of the president judge with their native shrewdness and knowledge of human nature, continued in operation. After the first associate judges already named, the following gentlemen served: Reuben Abrams, 1804 to 1810; Isaac Cook, 1804 to 1824; John Hutt, 1804 to 1805; James Armstrong, 1805 to 1824; Thomas Hicks, 1805 to 1817; Joseph Gardner, 1817 to 1825; Presley Morris, 1824 to 1831; James McClintick, 1824 to 1845 ; John Bailhache, 1825 to 1S30; Samuel Swearingen, 1830 to 1833; Presley Morris, 1831, May to July; Isaac Cook, 1831 to 1838; Isaac McCracken, 1833 to 1840; Jacob Bonser, 1838 to 1845 ; Tilghman Rittenhouse, 1840 to 1847 ; Owen T. Reeves, 1845 to 1852 ; Thomas

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Orr, 1845 to 1852: Joseph Blacker, 1847 to 1850; John Foster, 1850 to 1851; Joshua Robinson, 1851 to 1852.

Isaac Cook, it will be noticed, was associate judge for twenty-eight years. He was of Connecticut birth, came to Ohio in 1795 and was present at Wayne's treaty, and also served as a legislator. His son, Matthew Scott Cook, married Eleanor, daughter of Edward Tiffin, and founded the beautiful rural home known as Buena Vista.

Wyllys Silliman, first president judge of the Second circuit, was born in Connecticut. in 1777, came west and edited a Federalist paper in Western Virginia in 1800-01, and then moved to Ohio. In 1802 he married a sister of Gem Lewis Cass. He was elected judge in 1803, but soon tired of the office, and resigning in 1804, became the first lawyer at the new town of Zanesville. There he was register of the land office in 1805-11. He was a great natural orator and eloquent pleader before a jury, and though not much of a student, was in general demand in the famous eases of popular interest. In politics as well as law he was one of the most distinguished men of his day. He represented the opposition to the Jeffersonian party for many years, and iii 1824 was the candidate for United States senator against General Harrison, and again in 1827 he ran against Benjamin Ruggles. He was in the legislature of 1828-29, and solicitor of the United States treasury under Andrew Jackson.

He was succeeded as judge in June, 1804, by Levin Belt, of Chillicothe. Levin Belt. was a native of England who had sought the land of promise, coming from the city of Washington to Chillicothe, and as already mentioned was one of the first lawyers to be admitted to practice before the court at Chillicothe in Territorial days. Afterward he acted as prosecutor for the State, at. a time when prosecutors were appointed by the court and allowed for the services of a term at least fifteen dollars, and, when their duties were particularly arduous, as much as fifty. Upon the resignation of Judge Silliman he was appointed to the vacancy by Governor Tiffin in June, 1804, and held the office until the following March, when he was succeeded by Robert F. Slaughter, elected by the legislature in February, 1805. Judge Belt was a very tall, broad-shouldered, muscular man, with ruddy complexion, gray eyes and brown hair, and while not a great lawyer, was a respectable one, a good citizen and an honest and able judge. Slaughter continued as judge until January, 1807, when he was removed, and the legislature elected Judge Belt, who was judge under this authority until succeeded by John Thompson, elected in December, 1809. After this, Judge Belt. became the first mayor of Chillicothe, and for a considerable number of years he continued to be mayor and justice of the peace, the functions for which he is best remembered. It is recalled that he made, as justice, an ingenious construction of one of the remarkable laws of the legislature in that period. This decree was to the effect that lawyers must not practice

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before a justice of the peace. So, when Richard Douglas had the temerity to appear before him, Judge Belt cried out : "Dick ! Dick ! Don't you know the law ? You mustn't appear before me ! Get behind me, Dick, and make your speech !" which the lawyer did, as in the statutes of Ohio made and provided. The judge was one of the founders of St. Paul's Episcopal church at Chillicothe, and it is told that when Bishop Philander Chase officiated in the courthouse, the judge held a large bandanna handkerchief before the bishop as a screen while he donned the episcopal robes, there being nothing available as a vestry room. Says a charming writer in "Glimpses of Yesterday" : "He lived on Second street, where Mrs. Waddle's residence now stands. His house was a two-story frame building surrounded by a fine lawn, and on the eastern side of it there was a large weeping-willow tree. Mrs. Belt was of French extraction and charming and graceful in society. Judge Belt long continued to wear knee breeches, silk stockings and low shoes with large silver buckles. Miss Baskerville sometimes held her watermelon parties on their lawn under the great willow tree. In early clays the festive lawyers had their Sunday dinner parties at the homes of Judge Belt, Mr. Creighton, Mr. James and Colonel Brush, alternately." About the year 1828 Judge Belt removed to Washington, where he died a few years later.

Judge Robert F. Slaughter, whose service has already been mentioned, was admitted to the bar at Chillicothe in 1799, but removed to Lancaster in 1800. He was a fairly successful lawyer, an effective orator, and seems, as judge, to have been a terror to evil doers. It was he who sentenced Black Betty to the whipping post. The fact that he was removed from office should not, in itself, be considered seriously against him, for removals and impeachments were common in those times, when the legislature was attempting to maintain a control of the judiciary somewhat resembling that of a factory boss over his "hands." He was impeached before the State senate January 8, 1807, for failure to attend court, or tardiness of arrival, fifteen eases of such dereliction being alleged. His answer is very interesting, as it reveals some of the hardships of a judge in that period. To explain a failure to attend court in Scioto county, he said he had been compelled to go to Kentucky on business after the Adams county session, and on returning to the Ohio river, could not cross. Going two miles to find a ferry, he was compelled to hunt the ferryman in the fields, and so was delayed one day, and when he reached his destination he found the associate judges, having nothing to try, had adjourned. On another occasion, going from Lancaster to Highland county, his horse foundered on the Pickaway plains, and his funds and salary did not warrant him in buying another. He borrowed one, however, to ride to Adams county, and then, having to

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return the horse, he could not get to the Scioto court. He could not attend the spring court in Gallia one spring because the rivers and creeks were flooded and, being afflicted with pleurisy, he dared not swim the streams. On another occasion, being in Highland, his horse broke out of pasture and could not be found, and he bought a horse conditionally of Joseph Kerr, to ride to the next court, but the animal could not carry him "if it had been a case of life or death," and he traded it for another that took him the rest of the circuit. All of these mitigating circumstances were solemnly presented, but Henry Brush, Jessup M. Conch, William Creighton, Lewis Cass, Joseph Foos and James Kilbourne testified against the judge and the senate found him guilty and removed him from office, doubtless to the entire satisfaction of Judge Slaughter.

Judge John Thompson, who was elected in December, 1809, was impeached in the legislature in the winter of 1811-12, and tried before the senate in January, on the charges of "high crimes and misdemeanors in this, to-wit : oppression in office, violent language and conduct, and expressing contempt for the government of the United States and the people." In detail some of the charges were as follows: In it larceny case he allowed the attorneys but ten minutes each for argument to the jury, and when they objected said they must get along with that or he would cut them to five minutes. He refused to allow an attorney to testify for his client in a case of usurpation of office. On one occasion he ordered the court constables to knock down certain bystanders with their staves. He declared in an assault and battery case that the attorneys had no right to argue the facts to the jury except with the permission of the court, and when he was overruled by the associate judges, he told the jury it could go. Then again, he refused a jury the remarkable request that it might come back after the case had been closed and re-examine witnesses. Another time, he allowed an attorney but twenty-five minutes for argument, and when the time was up told him to sit down and the jury would do justice to the ease. At Circleville, it was alleged, he told the grand jury our government was the most corrupt and perfidious in the world, and the people were their own worst enemies. On such charges Judge Thompson was tried for nine days before the senate, with witnesses from all over the vast circuit. But he was ably defended by Lewis Cass, John McLean and Samuel Herrick, and acquitted by a vote of eighteen to five, and in 1817 the legislature re-elected him. Doubtless the animus of the impeachment was politics. Perhaps the judge was not an ardent supporter of "Madison's war" of 1812. Judge Thompson was upon the district bench from 1810 to the end of 1824, and consequently male more of an impress upon judicial affairs in the Scioto valley than any other judge in the early days. He heard some of the proceedings in the famous United States bank case, and tried the Mounts murder case.

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Judge Thompson came to Chillicothe from Chambersburg, Pa., in 1806, and went after business with such energy and success that he was soon at the head of the bar. His mental faculties were acute, he was firm almost to stubbornness, somewhat subject to prejudices; if we may believe the articles of impeachment, not afraid to express his opinions, and had the unusual advantage in the struggle for success in the west of being a strictly temperate man in the use of strong drink, if indeed, he drank at all. He was a Presbyterian also, and devoted to his church. After he left the bench judge Thompson removed to eastern Louisiana, where he bought a plantation and made it his home until his death about 1832.

From 1824 to 1830 the president judge of the Sixth circuit, including Ross county, was Gustavus Swan, of Franklinton. Judge Swan was succeeded by Judge Fredrick Grimke, to whom we have already introduced the reader as one of the most famous men of the Chillicothe bar. He presided until 1835, and by the legislature of 1835-36 John H. Keith was elected as his successor. Keith was a native of Delaware, born in 1804, and had been reared from childhood at Zanesville, where he was fitted to enter Ohio university at Athens, an institution where his abilities as a student are not quite forgotten. After graduation he read law with Judge Stilwell, at Zanesville, and became so prominent early in his career that he was elected to the legislature, and in the session of 1833-34 was speaker of the house. While yet a citizen of Zanesville he was made president judge of the district. including Ross county, and he soon made his home at Chillicothe, where he was a prominent figure throughout his long service on the bench, until 1848, and until his death, May 4, 1875. When he first came to Chillicothe as judge much attention was attracted by his good figure, fine head with abundant blond and curly hair, and his fastidious dress, which, in accordance with the fashion of that day, included a blue swallow-tail dress coat and enormous ruffles on his shirt bosoms. His kindly, genial, enthusiastic nature made him very popular. No one was m( re often the center of sidewalk congresses, and there was hardly any subject upon which he could not talk entertainingly and instructively. Many people looked to him for advice and direction in political matters, and it is said that he was "Sir Oracle," in particular, to Huntington and Harrison townships. As a practitioner before the courts, it is related that, his audacity was unequalled, and no one could more successfully make the worse appear the better reason. Each case he took up as attorney he lost himself in, representing completely his client, and when the judgment was entered he was quite ready to entirely reverse his arguments, and make as persuasive a plea in the opposite. His record as a judge was quite creditable, and he deserves prominent remembrance among the jurists of the county.

In the two or three years between the close of Judge Keith's serv-

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ice and the going into effect of the constitution of 1851, the common pleas bench for the Sixth district was occupied by Henry C. Whitman, of Lancaster, who is chiefly remembered for his striking personal appearance. His hair, which was jet black, was allowed to grow to a great length and hung loosely over his shoulders, reaching nearly to the waist.

The constitution adopted in 1851 provided, as has already been noticed, for a supreme court such as the people are now familiar with, its duties confined to hearing appeals from lower courts. The State was divided into nine common pleas districts, and associate judges were abolished. Each district was subdivided into three parts, in each of which the people should elect a judge of the court of common pleas. Thus there were three common pleas judges to each of the nine districts. One or more of the judges held a common pleas court in each county, and the three judges of the district together constituted a district court, that succeeded to the functions of the old supreme court in their respective counties, and the new common pleas court succeeded to the old common pleas court, except in probate jurisdiction, for which probate judges were provided, to be elected one in each county. Tinder this new system Ross county was a part of the Second subdivision of the Fifth circuit, and it has continued in that classification. But the subdivision, at first composed of Highland, Ross and Fayette, now includes Fayette, Highland, Madison, Pickaway and Ross.

The first three judges of the Fifth district, beginning in February, 1852, were James L. Bates, of Franklin county; Shepherd F. Norris, of Clermont, and John L. Green, of Ross. Judge Green, a native of Virginia, had removed to Cincinnati from his native state about 1830, and thence to Chillicothe in 1838, becoming a law partner of William Creighton. He was a delegate from Ross county to the constitutional convention of 1851, and was elected one of the first judges under the new system. He was an able judge, and after his removal to Columbus in 1860 was elected to the common pleas bench of another district.

Judge Green was succeeded in 1857 by James Sloan, of Highland, and he in 1858 by Alfred S. Dickey, of Ross, an eminent jurist who sat upon the district bench until 1872. Judge Dickey was born in Tennessee in 1812, of a sturdy Scotch--Irish anti-slavery family, and when four years old was brought by his parents to South Salem, Ross county. There he grew to manhood, accustomed to the log cabin life of the pioneer, obtaining his education in the pioneer schools, and teaching in early manhood. When he was of Iegal age he entered upon the practice of law, and being appointed prosecuting attorney of Ross county in 1838 he soon established a handsome practice. In 1847 he removed to Greenfield, but after his appointment as common pleas judge by Governor Chase in 1858 he resided in a

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beautiful home at Lyndon, Ross county. He died not long after his retirement, August 22, 1873. Judge Dickey was pronounced by Judge Chase an eminent judge and worthy of the great esteem in which he was held. Personally he was kind, tolerant, genial, and with rare powers of social entertainment. While upon the bench he also practiced in some eases. The last case he argued was the noted "Ross county railroad case," before the supreme court, and he was successful in securing a ruling that the "Boesel act" was unconstitutional.

Judge William H. Safford, who was elected for the Fifth circuit in 1868 and served one term, February, 1869, to February, 1874, declining re-election, is a native of Virginia, born in Parkersburg, February 19, 1821, son of Dr. Eliel Todd Safford, of New England descent, whose wife was a Harrison of Virginia. Judge Safford was a teacher at the age of sixteen years, in 1840 made speeches for "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," while he was a. law student, and in 1841 was admitted to the bar. He came to Chillicothe in 1848. In 1857 he was elected state senator, and in 1859 he ran for lieutenant-governor on the ticket with Judge Ranney, a fact testifying to the honorable prominence he had attained in the Democratic party. In addition to the practice of law he gave much attention to literature and historical research, and published in 1850 a biography of Harman Blennerhassett, and in 1861 "The Blennerhassett Papers."

The next Ross county lawyer to hold the office of judge was John M. Vanmeter, who served January to October, 1876, by appointment of the governor. Judge Vanmeter has since then given his attention largely to agriculture. His father, John I. Vanmeter, born in 179S of New York colonial Dutch descent, graduated at Princeton, practiced law in New Jersey and Virginia, but after removing to Pike county in 1826, engaged in farming. He followed the same vocation in Ross county, living at Chillicothe from 1855 to his death in 1875, and was one of the most prosperous landowners of the county. He married Mary Harness, in Virginia. In 1836-39 he represented Ross and other counties in the legislature. He was one of the "Silver Gray" Whigs, and when that party died joined no other. Judge Vanmeter was succeeded by Judge Minshall.

Judge Thaddeus Armstrong Minshall, who was elected judge of the common pleas court for the Ross-Highland-Fayette subdivision of the Fifth circuit, in 1876, and re-elected in 1878 and 1883, was born in Colerain township, Ross county, January 19, 1834. He is a grandson of William G. Minshall, of Pennsylvania Quaker descent, and son of Ellis M. Minshall, who came to Ohio from Virginia and served as a soldier in the war of 1812. Judge Minshall was educated in the common schools and Mt. Pleasant academy, taught

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school and studied law, and soon after he was admitted to the bar went into the military service of the United States as a volunteer with the three months' men of 1861. At the end of this service he was sergeant-major of the Twenty-second regiment. Afterward he raised Company H of Thirty-third regiment, re-entered the service as captain in October, 1861, and served three years with Buell, Grant and Sherman, at one time in the Atlanta campaign commanding his regiment. In the fall of 1864 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Ross county, and in 1876 judge. In 1885 he was elected to the supreme court of the State, and in 1890 and 1896 he was re-elected. During the years 1889, 1890, 1895 and 1901, he held the high office of chief justice of the court. Judge Minshall is one of the ablest jurists Ross county has produced, and is an honor to the State. During his term on the common pleas bench Judge Minshall presided at the trial of Perry Bowsher, who, on the night of October 26, 1877, murdered E. S. McVey and his wife, an old couple who lived in the toll-house on the Columbus pike, four miles north of town. His trial took place in 1878 and lasted two weeks. Albert Douglas was prosecuting attorney, assisted by W. E. Safford. Bowsher was defended by Archibald Mayo and W. E. Gilmore. He was found guilty and was hung, this being the third execution in Ross county.

Judge Minshall was succeeded as judge of common pleas by William Edgar Evans of Chillicothe, who served from January, 1886, to February, 18'94. Judge Evans was born at Clarksburg, Ross county, July 16, 1847, was graduated at Salem Academy in 1867 and at Miami university iii 1869, studied law with Judge Safford and was admitted to the bar in 1871. He served as prosecuting attorney, by election, in 1875-77. Upon Judge Minshall's election to the supreme bench he was appointed by Governor Foraker to fill the vacancy, was elected to the position in 1886 and re-elected in 1888. Governor McKinley appointed him trustee of Miami University in 1891, and he served as such until his death, which occurred October 3, 1901. He was a scholarly man, mentally well qualified for the office of judge.

James Clifford Douglas, the successor of Judge Evans, and the present incumbent, is the son of Dr. Albert Douglas, and grandson of the eminent early lawyer, Richard Douglas. Through his mother he is a grandson also of Joseph Sill, remembered as a lawyer of high standing, and father of General Sill. Judge Douglas was born at Chillicothe, September 11, 1855, was educated in his native city and at Blake's preparatory school at Gambier, Ohio, and read law with Judge Minshall. After graduating at the Cincinnati law school in 1581 he practiced in Chillicothe until his elevation to the common pleas bench in February, 1894. In 1898 he was re-elected. He is one of the best lawyers the county has produced, a thorough

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student and strong logician, and his decisions have met with a remarkable degree of support in the higher courts.

Mention has now been made of all the Ross county citizens who served upon the common pleas bench, but all the judges of the Fifth district have had some part in the judicial history of the county. These we may barely name, and it is with pleasure that we print the names of all the judges from a list written for this work by Judge William H Safford, as follows:

James L. Bates, Franklin county ; Robert M. Briggs, Highland ; Alfred S. Dickey, Ross ; John L. Green, Ross ; Shepherd F. Norris, Clermont ; James Sloan, Highland ; Thomas Q. Ashbern, Clermont; Joseph Olds, Pickawav ; William H. Safford, Ross; Isaac N. Abernathy, Pickaway ; Edward I. Bingham, Franklin ; William E. Evans, Ross; Ace Gregg, Fayette; Minch Gray, Fayette; Frank Steel, highland ; David Tarbell, Brown ; Henry H. Huggins, Highland ; D). W. C. London, Brown ; David F. Pugh, Franklin ; DeWitt C. Badger, Franklin ; L. C. Douglas, Ross ; George Lincoln, Madison; Thaddeus A. Minshall, Ross; Jno. M. Vanmeter, Ross ; H. B. .Maynard, Fayette; Cyrus Newby, Highland; Festus Walters, Pickaway; Joseph Hidy, Fayette.

In 1852 an act of the legislature divided the State into five circuits for the district court, and a judge of the supreme court was required to preside, and the district court was made a court of appeals from the common pleas court. This practice continued until the supreme judges were relieved of this duty in 1865, after which the common pleas judges of the district, sitting as a district. court, were authorized to consider appeals from their own judgments. This undesirable condition of things was removed in 1883, by the adoption of an amendment to the constitution, authorizing the creation of a circuit court, and abolishing the district court, but leaving the common pleas judges and courts undisturbed. Three circuit judges were chosen at the next election in each circuit, and for the Fourth circuit, which included Ross county, Milton Lee Clark was one of those elected. Judge Clark was a native of Ross county, born at Clarksburg, April 21, 1817, son of Col. William Clark, the pioneer owner of the town that bears his name, and an officer of militia in the war of 1812. Judge Clark was educated in the country, and in youth was occupied as a clerk in the store of his brother at Clarksburg, also at Williamsport and Chillicothe, and for a few years after 1838 was a bookkeeper in a wholesale house at Louisville. He was drawn to a career in the law by the distinction of his uncle, James B. Clark, of Alabama, and returning to Ross county he began reading law with Col. Jonathan F. Woodside, whose daughter he married in 1849. He was admitted to the bar in 1844, elected prosecuting attorney by the Whigs in 1845 and 1847, and to the legislature in 1849. Afterward he became prominent as a trial lawyer, defending in several

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famous murder trials, and taking a prominent part in the famous Blackburn case at Chillicothe, the trial of which consumed twenty-two days. In 1870 he was a candidate for supreme judge in the Republican state convention, and in 1873 he was a distinguished member of the state constitutional convention. His service as judge of the circuit court extended from February 9, 1885, to February 9, 1897, and in the years 1895 and 1896 he was chief justice of the circuit court judges of the State, in their annual sessions at Columbus. In his candidacy for a third term he was defeated in the convention of his party, and he did not long survive this event, dying June 11, 1897. He was one of the best and ablest judges of the State.

Of the famous lawyers of the past a few words should be said to keep their memory green. Notable among them was Richard Douglas, a native of New London, Conn., who came to Ohio in the winter of 1808-09, at the age of twenty-three years, intending to proceed to New Orleans. But stopping in Chillicothe, he decided to remain, and after continuing his reading of law with Colonel Brush, lie published a card in the Scioto Gazette in December, 1809, as follows : "Douglas--Intends practicing law in Chillicothe, if he can get anything to do. He intends to be honest, likewise." Such an introduction promised a life something out of the ordinary, and such Richard Douglas' certainly was. In stature he was short and rotund, and his eyes were always suggestive of good humor and jollity. People sometimes doubted whether he had spent much time in college, but he possessed such an extraordinary gift of seeming to know everything, that no mortal man was able to gauge his real attainments." It is certain that his remarkable memory was stored with the old precepts of the law, and that he had read widely in literature. Once, it. is recalled, he delivered a temperance address to a hilltop audience composed of a dozen men, fifty women and twenty squalling infants, and as a prefatory text, quoted a page and a half of the seventh book of Paradise Lost. If perchance he found himself momentarily wanting in memory for a citation from literature, he was able to improvise some high sounding phrase, in any desired language, or apparently in that language, that he would impose upon his hearers with the utmost earnestness and solemnity. "His `poetry,' original and quoted, in the Gallia county witchcraft case, Benny Kern's jackass warranty case, and the slander suit of Jane Fardin against. Daniel Hearne," was long remembered and repeated among the fun loving people of Chillicothe. Douglas was in the military service in 1812-13 under Colonel McArthur, and was quartermaster and chaplain of the First Ohio regiment ; was a member of the legislature, and in 1831 was nominated for Congress, but withdrew in favor of Governor McArthur, who was defeated by William Allen by one vote. He was also one of the founders of the Episcopal church at Chillicothe. In fact the meeting looking toward

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organization in 1817 was held at his house, and both he and his estimable wife were among the most prominent members. He died in February, 1852, after a career of distinction in the law and a life of good deeds.

William Key Bond, who frustrated the ambition of Mr. Douglas to go to Congress by a contest that induced his withdrawal, was a native of Maryland, born in 1792, was educated in Connecticut and came to Chillicothe in 1812. As he could not be admitted to the bar until he had one year's residence, he busied himself in the intervening time by taking a fleet of flatboats to New Orleans for John Waddle, reaching the port in time to have his boats and cargo appropriated by General Jackson for the use of the United States army. On his return Mr. Bond began the practice and continued in it at Chillicothe for twenty-five years as a partner of William Creighton, until his removal to Cincinnati in 1841. He was elected to Congress in 1834 and reelected in 1836 and 1838, and was a man of such force that he took high rank at Washington. After the expiration of his congressional service he removed to Cincinnati, where he became interested in railroad development, and in 1850 to 1853 he was collector of the port by appointment of President Fillmore. Mr. Bond was one of the most prominent lawyers of Ohio, practicing in all the courts of the State and the United States supreme court, and in the work of promoting internal improvements he was no less conspicuous. He died at Cincinnati, February 17, 1864.

Joseph Sill, one of the most scholarly men of the Chillicothe bar, came to Ross county in 1810. He was born at Granville, N. Y., in 1784, graduated at Middleburg college, Vt., and the Philadelphia law school, and throughout his life kept up the reading of Greek and Latin classics, and the study of the higher mathematics. He was more of a student than a fighter of battles for clients, and consequently did not attain as great prominence as he might have had in his profession. But his brilliancy was appreciated among his professional brethren and others competent to judge. He served several times as prosecutor under the old constitution and was once elected to the same office after 1850. In 1818 he was elected to the legislature and in 1819 he offered the resolutions which were the initiative of the legislation that founded the canal system. Without acquiring wealth or appearing to desire it, he lived an honorable life, and died in 1875, at the age of ninety-one years. For many years he was "Father Sill" to all the lawyers of Chillicothe. His son, Gen. Joshua W. Sill, of whom a sketch is given in this volume, was the most famous representative of Chillicothe in the war of the Rebel-lion.

Edward King, a lawyer at Chillicothe from 1815 to 1831, was the fourth son of Hon. Rufus King, a congressman from New York at the time of the Ordinance of 1787, minister to England, and three

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times a candidate for president. He was born at Albany, N. Y., March 13, 1795, was graduated at Columbia college and Litchfield law school, and came to Chillicothe in 1815 to practice his profession. In the following year he married Sarah Ann, second daughter of Governor Worthington, by whom he had two sons, Hon. Rufus King, of Cincinnati, and Thomas King, of Columbus. He was one of the most popular men of the Scioto valley during his residence, for he was gentle and polished in manner, unassuming and cordial, and eloquent in language. After his removal to Cincinnati he participated in the organization of a law school, in which he was a professor, but he was taken sick in 1834, and died February 6, 1836.

William Sumter Murphy, born in South Carolina about 1796, and a resident of Chillicothe after 1818, was not a deeply read lawyer, it is said, but one of the most remarkable pleaders before a jury in the entire annals of the bar of Ohio. He was, because of his eloquence, which gave him the name of the "Patrick Henry of the West," a power in politics, first as a Democrat, but after his defeat for congressional nomination by William Allen, as a supporter of General Harrison in 1836 and 1840. Subsequently, adhering to the policies of President Tyler, he was appointed in 1843 minister extra-ordinary to Central America and charge d'affaires to the Republic of Texas. After going to Honduras, he proceeded to Texas, and engaged in the negotiations for annexation, but Congress rejected the treaty, and in the spring of 1844, refused to confirm his appointment. He was recalled, but before he could leave the country he fell a victim to yellow fever, dying at Galveston, July 13, 1844. His body was afterward brought back to Chillicothe. Mr. Murphy was also prominent in the military affairs of the State, holding the rank of brigadier-general of militia; he was greatly interested in the boundary troubles with Michigan, and one of the commission that remarked the line at the time of hostilities. His wife was Lucinda, daughter of William Sterrett, one of the ladies active in the social life of Chillicothe of that day.

Benjamin Greene Leonard was the leader of the bar at Chillicothe for a number of years, and hardly less distinguished for general breadth of attainment than for his mastery of the law. He was born at. Windsor, Vt., in 1793, graduated at Dartmouth college, and came to Chillicothe when about twenty-seven years of age to continue in the profession he had begun at Canandaigua. He was an intense student, generally locking himself in his office, which was remote from the center of business, and receiving clients with no particular good will. But this (lid not seem to injure his practice, and he was able to ask fees largely in excess of those to which the bar was accustomed. In 1840 he went to Washington to present a case to the supreme court, and on his return symptoms of mental derangement that had been partially revealed by previous eccentricities, were

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more marked, and it soon became necessary to remove him to Columbus, where he was under the care of the celebrated alienist, Dr. Awl, until his death in January, 1845.

Jonathan F. Woodside, between 1830 and 1840 one of the ablest lawyers and most eloquent men of the Chillicothe bar, was born in 1799 in Somerset county, Pa., son of a soldier of the Revolution. Coming to Chillicothe in his youth he was for a few years occupied here and at Portsmouth in mercantile business, but lost so heavily by the sinking of a flatboat on the Ohio that he came back to Chillicothe, and read law under Edward King, with William Allen as his fellow student, and though pinched by poverty, gained admission to practice in 1827. He was a successful lawyer and public man. "Next to William S. Murphy he was," says Colonel Gilmore, "the most eloquent man at the Ross county bar between 1829 and 1835." In 1835 he was elected to the legislature as a Democrat, and it was probably a famous speech he made against. the United State bank that earned his appointment by President Jackson to a diplomatic post in Denmark, which he held until 1841. On his return he was able to make fluent speeches in the German language, and he continued to be prominent in the political field until he was defeated for nomination to Congress in 1844 by Allen G. Thurman. He was greatly depressed by the defeat, and died in June, 1845. It is worthy of note that in a Fourth of July oration in 1830, he made a strong argument in favor of the emancipation of negro slaves.

Allen Latham, a native of New Hampshire, was a resident of Chillicothe from about 1815 to 1854, and was nominally a lawyer, but gave more time to land speculation, iii which he amassed a fortune, and to polities, in which he was very active as Democrat. His partner, Samuel Atkinson, from Connecticut, was a good lawyer, but left Chillicothe in 1826. Allison C. Looker was a young lawyer, who came from Cincinnati in 1816, after serving with credit in the war of 1812. He married a (laughter of Benjamin Hough. He was principally noted in the Chillicothe life of his time as the handsome captain of the Chillicothe Independent Blues, which was commanded at other times by Edward King, William Allen and Allen G. Thurman. He died in 1824, before he had time to demonstrate his abilities as a lawyer. Henry Massie, youngest child of Nathaniel Massie, was well known as a business lawyer from 1830 until the latter part of his life, which came to an end in 1862.

William Allen, whose career is noted elsewhere, studied law with Thomas Scott and Edward King, and was for a time a partner of King. It is told in "Glimpses of Yesterday," that "his first argument in court was in defense of himself, James T. Worthington and Allen McArthur, who had been arrested on the complaint of an elder of the Methodist church for standing at the ladies' entrance, after

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church, waiting for the young ladies they had taken there." Mr. Allen did not practice many years, going into the field of politics.

John L. Taylor, born in Virginia in 1805, made his home at Chillicothe in 1829, and for many years had considerable success as a lawyer, but his highest attainments were as a politician of the Whig party. He was four times elected to Congress, and served from 1847 to 1855, and while it does not appear that he was particularly distinguished, he was a tireless worker, both in legislation and party organization. Upon the issue of the Wilmot proviso he was loyal to the dominant. sentiment in Virginia, rather than that of Ohio, but in 1861-65 he supported the war party and the Union. After his retirement from Congress he could not regain a law practice. In 1870 he was compelled to secure a clerkship at Washington under General Cox, secretary of the interior, and he died there soon afterward. In 1844 and for a number of years after that he was major-general of militia for his region of Ohio, and this rank and his political prominence made him for a long time one of the notable figures of the Scioto valley.

One of the Democratic candidates for Congress who was defeated by Taylor was Theodore Sherer. a native of Chillicothe, October 10, 1818. He was the partner of Allen & Thurman, and afterward of Mr. Thurman until 1852, when Thurman went to the supreme bench and he ran for Congress hut was defeated. Four years later he was appointed receiver of public moneys in the Chillicothe land office, and from 1862 to 1866 he was postmaster, having had no success in law practice independently. He was a candidate for state senator in 1870 and for delegate to the constitutional convention in 1872, but was defeated. His death occurred in 1877.

Joseph Miller, born at Chillicothe in 1810, admitted to the bar in 1841, and prosecuting attorney in 1845-46, was the first man born in Ross county to he elected to Congress as a representative of the Ross county district. His election was as a Democrat in 1856. Supporting the southern side of the Kansas-Nebraska dispute he was defeated for re-election, and in 1860 President Buchanan made him chief-justice of Nebraska territory. But the change in administration compelled his retirement a year later, and returning to Ohio, Judge Miller died in 1862. Samuel Logan Wallace, another notable lawyer who was a native of the county, was born in Green township in 1824, passed his youth in farm work and teaching, and after reading with M. L Clark, was admitted to the bar in 1851. He was a very hard worker, and after a laborious practice of twenty years, his mind yielded to the strain in 1872 and his death followed in 1876.

Alfred Yaple. in later years a distinguished lawyer at Cincinnati, was horn in Colerain township, Ross county, July 16, 1830, was educated by his father, a school teacher, taught school himself

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and pursued his studies at the South Salem academy, and devoting his leisure to reading law, was admitted to the bar at Chillicothe in 1852. He was elected to the legislature in 1855, and afterward continued in the practice at Chillicothe until April, 1867, when he removed to Cincinnati, where he succeeded Alphonzo Taft as judge of the superior court in 1872.

Charles E. Brown, a native of Cincinnati (1834), and a graduate of Miami university, came to Chillicothe in 1859 to begin the practice of law, and in 1861 enlisted in the Twenty-second regiment, afterward merged in the Sixty-third, in which he rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1863, commanded the regiment in the Georgia campaign, lost a leg at Atlanta, and was honored afterward with the brevet of brigadier-general. He was postmaster at Chillicothe from 1866 to 1872, and United States pension agent at Cincinnati, 1872-77, after which he resumed the practice of law at Cincinnati.

William Trimble McClintick, a native of Chillicothe and son of a pioneer, was a member of the bar for nearly fifty years, and equally prominent in finance and railroad affairs. More is said of him in another place. His partner for thirty-six years from 1852 was Amos Smith, a native of Lancaster (1827), who was particularly strong as a corporation lawyer. He retired from the law in 1884 to become president of the First National bank, of which he had been one of the incorporators and for some time attorney.

Samuel Galloway, a famous lawyer and patriot, was admitted to the bar at Chillicothe about 1835, and became the partner of Nathaniel Massie, but in 1843 removed to Columbus, upon being elected secretary of state.

Col. William Edward Gilmore, born at Chillicothe in 1824 and educated at Ohio university and Cincinnati law school, has been a conspicuous figure among the lawyers of Chillicothe since his admission to the bar in 1848. He also had a distinguished career in 1861--65 as colonel of the Twenty-second and lieutenant-colonel of the Sixty-third regiment. This mention is brief because a more extended sketch is given on another page.

Lawrence Talbot Neal, a native of Parkersburg, W. Va., and great-grandson of the first settler there, came to Chillicothe at the age of twenty years, in 1864, studied law with Judge Safford, was admitted to practice in 1866, and for a long time was one of the most active attorneys, as well as prominent in the political field as a Democrat. He was a member of the legislature in 1868-69, prosecuting attorney in 1871-72, and in 1872 and 1874 was elected to Congress. His ability as a lawyer and statesman was so generally recognized, and he was so prominent in advocacy of the principles of tariff revision represented by President Cleveland, that he was the candidate of his party for governor in 1893, against William McKin-

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ley. For more than twenty years he has been a prominent figure in the national conventions of his party. Of late he has made his home at the state capital.

PROSECUTING ATTORNEYS.

Attorneys were appointed by the court to prosecute actions in behalf of the State in the early days until 1835 ; since then they have been elected. Following is a list of those who, since 1811, have held this office, which is often the beginning of a distinguished career in the law: 1811, Richard Douglas ; 1815, Levin Belt ; 1817, Joseph Sill; 1819, Edward King; 1820, Thomas Scott and Samuel Atkinson; 1821, William S. Murphy; 1824, James McDowell; 1825, Edward King; 1827, William Allen; 1829, Joseph Sill; 1831, Edward King; 1836, Gustavus Scott; 1835, Thomas T. Scott; 1840, James D. Caldwell; 1842, Robert Bethel; 1844, Joseph Miller; 1848, Milton L. Clark ; 1851, William T. McClintick; 1854, John H. Ware ; 1856, Edward Lewis ; 1858, Charles W. Gilmore; 1866, Thaddeus A. Minshall; 1867, Charles W. Gilmore ; 1871, Lawrence T. Neal; 1873, Archibald Mayo ; 1875, William E. Evans; 1877, Albert Douglas ; 1850, George B. Bitzer; 1883, Reuben F. Freeman ; 1886, Marcus Evans; 1S92, Paul Cook ; 1898, Edward U. Wiedler, who died in the volunteer military service of the United States, and was succeeded by Archibald Mayo. Henry C. Claypool was elected in 1899 and 1901.

Some of these names have already been mentioned biographically among the sketches that accompany this chapter. James McDowell was a son of Dr. William McDowell, one of the pioneers ; was born about 1800, and practiced law at Chillicothe from 1824 to 1828, removing to Columbus and finally to Illinois. James D. Caldwell came to Chillicothe from Circleville and had a good practice for several years. One of the streets of the city bears his name. Robert Bethel was a Philadelphia lawyer who came to Ross county about 1836, and was quite active as a Whig politician. He returned to his former home after his defeat for a second term by Joseph Miller. Edward Lewis was a native of Chillicothe (1826) and a graduate of Princeton, was admitted to the bar in 1547, and gave promise of a brilliant career, but died in 1856. Charles W. Gilmore, son of William Young Gilmore, one of the Chillicothe pioneers, and grandson of Governor Tiffin, was born at Chillicothe in 1827, graduated at Miami university and was admitted to practice in 1849. He held the office twelve years, was the most successful prosecutor the county ever had, and a man of remarkable intellectual attainments. He died suddenly in 1873. Archibald Mayo is a native of Oxford, Ohio, and a graduate of the college there. Before his election in Ross county he had been legislator and prosecutor for Vinton county.

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Albert Douglas was born at Chillicothe in 1852, graduated at Kenyon college and Harvard law school and was admitted to the bar in 1874. He is now prominently mentioned for the honor of the Republican nomination for governor. George Beaman Bitzer has also served the county as probate judge. Reuben F. Freeman was born in Boone county, Ky., in 1843, graduated at Lebanon academy, and was admitted to practice in 1872. Marcus Gaston Evans, born at Frankfort in 1853, was graduated at Wooster in 1877 and admitted to the bar in 1879. Paul Cook was a native of Chillicothe, educated in the city schools, read law with his father,. served two terms as prosecutor, and soon after removed to another field. Edward Ulrich Wiedler was born in Chillicothe, the son of Gottlieb Wiedler, a prominent dry goods merchant. He was educated in the city schools and in the Cincinnati law school. Before election, as prosecuting attorney, he had served two terms as city solicitor, with marked success. Prior to the Spanish war he had been, since 1892, first lieutenant and then captain of Company H, Seventeenth Ohio National Guard, making that company one of the best in the State. On volunteering for the war he stated, in a public speech, that he would go at the call of his country even though he knew that he should die by a bullet or by fever. His words were too sadly prophetic, for while serving as major of the Seventh Ohio Volunteers, at Camp Alger, Va., he contracted typhoid fever and died at home July 14, 1898. He was a promising attorney, a good officer, an honest. and public-minded citizen. Horatio C. Claypool, elected in 1898 and 1901, was born at McArthur, Ohio, in 1857, and educated there and at the National Normal at Lebanon prior to his study of law, which he pursued while teaching school. He was admitted to the bar in 1883 and practiced at Bainbridge until his election.

THE PROBATE COURT.

This court was created by the constitution of 1851, with the provision that one judge of the same should be elected in each county. It is an office peculiarly local and intimately associated with the affairs of all the people, and has been filled by some of our best citizens. Samuel F. McCoy, the first judge elected, was a native of Chillicothe (March 5, 1820), son of John McCoy, a pioneer merchant, was graduated at Miami university in 1839, and was admitted to the bar in 1843. He served ably as probate judge from 1852 to 1861. His successor, Samuel H. Hurst, resigned to enlist in the Union army, where he earned the brevet of brigadier-general. General Hurst was born September 22, 1831, the son of Hooper and Elizabeth (James) Hurst, both of old pioneer families. He became the senior captain of the Seventy-third regiment; and with that regiment went through the war, coming out as its colonel. From 1869

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to 1875 he was collector of internal revenue for this district. In the spring of 1886 he was made state dairy and food commissioner, but resigned this office, after eighteen months, to become director general of the Ohio centennial. After that he served on the State Board of Equalization, and was for six years a member of the State Board of Agriculture. In 1899-1900 he was commander of the Department of Ohio, G. A. R. In February, 1900, he became postmaster of this city.

After the resignation of General Hurst, William F. Hurst filled the vacancy until the fall election of 1862, when Sylvester Bacon was elected, for the unexpired term. At the fall election of 1863, Nicholas Throckmorton was elected, who served one term. He was born in Colerain township in 1805, taught school and served as justice of the peace, prior to his election as probate judge. He was succeeded in 1867 by Thomas Walke, a native of Chillicothe, son of Anthony Walke, a pioneer of 1811; and brother of Admiral Walke. Judge Walke was a graduate of Jefferson college, and was admitted to the bar in 1839. e held the office until 1876, three terms.

The judge of probate in 1870-85 was Benjamin F. Stone, who was born near Marietta in 1831, grandson of Israel Stone, one of the Ohio company pioneers. In the war of the Rebellion he made a good record and had the rank of adjutant-general of his brigade. He was elected judge in 1875 and held the office for nine years. He was appointed consul at Huddersfield, England, by President McKinley, and still holds that position.

Jonathan Lloyd Throckmorton, born in Colerain township in 1830, and admitted to the bar in 1867, served as judge during the next term of three years, 1885-88, and was succeeded by George Beaman Bitzer, who was born at Adelphi in 1852, son of a native of Colerain township, and grandson of a Pennsylvania-German pioneer. He was elected prosecuting attorney in 1858, and probate judge in 1887 and 1890. He held the judgeship for two terms, and after him James M. Thomas served two terms, 1894-1900. Judge Thomas was born near Clarksburg in 1858, son of Archibald Thomas, a native of Virginia, who came to Ohio in 1818. He became, after his term of office, president of the Horne Telephone company, and afterward president of the United States Independent Telephone association, and is one of the foremost "independent telephone" men of the country. e now resides in Cleveland. The present incumbent is Huston T. Robins, of whom a notice appears in the following pages.

CLERKS OF TILE COURTS.

Edward Tiffin, as noted previously, was the first clerk of the court of justices in 1798, and continued in the office until January, 1803,.

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when Thomas Scott succeeded him, but held office no longer than the first term of court under the constitution, April, 1803, when John McDougall was chosen by the supreme court, and began a term that continued until 1811. John McDougall, also, was a very prominent man in the early days of Chillicothe, but his field of activity was mainly commercial. He was born on the east side of the Blue Ridge, in Virginia, in the Scotch-Irish settlements, about 1777, and when nineteen years old came into Ohio territory, settling at Chillicothe as a "trapper and licensed trader." He advertised in the Wheeling paper, before Chillicothe had an "engine of enlightenment," that he was "prepared to furnish the very best whiskey and all other things required," as was the universal custom of dealers. Clerk McDougall's experience with the courts qualified and provoked him to publish a little volume, entitled "Every Man His Own Lawyer," which he said was designed "to protect his friends and the farming community of this and the surrounding counties from the rapacity of land sharks, otherwise called lawyers." John McDougall died in 1821. One of his sons was Rear-Admiral David Stockton McDougall, of the United States navy, another was a surgeon in the Florida war, John was the second governor of California, and George wandered from California south until he became the chief of a tribe in Patagonia.

The successors of Tiffin, Scott and McDougall have been the following, all men of ability and prominence :

1811, Humphrey Fullerton; 1845, Angus L. Fullerton; 1855, A. Hanson; 1862, James D. Miller; 1864, E. Carson; 1867, P. G. Griffin ; 1874, Samuel Miller; 1876, Frank E. Esker; 1877, E. W. Pearson, who died June 18, 1879, and P. G. Griffin was appointed to fill the vacancy until the election, at which time Samuel J. Briggs was elected and served until 1886; 1886, Charles H. Reed; 1892, Tiffin Gilmore ; 1898, Isaac M. Jordan.

SHERIFFS.

The first executive officer of the courts in Ross county was Jeremiah McLene, one of the prominent men of Ohio during the first third century of the State. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1767, removed to Tennessee in early life and became a warm friend of Andrew Jackson, and thence came to Ohio, settling at Chillicothe. After serving as sheriff he was elected in 1807 to represent Ross, Franklin and Highland in the general assembly. He was also active in the organization of the militia and was appointed major-general, commanding one of the four divisions. In 1808 he was elected secretary of state, to which he was re-elected seven times in succession, holding the office in all, twenty-three years. In 1832 he

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was an elector on the Jackson presidential ticket and was elected to Congress for the district comprising Franklin county, whither he had moved from Chillicothe. In 1834 he was re-elected to Congress, and just after the expiration of this term (March, 1837) he died at Washington of a cold contracted while attending the inauguration of President Van Buren.

The successors to McLene, with the years of their accession to office, are as follows :

1806, David Shepherd; 1808, William Creighton; 1812, James McClintick ; 1814, Thomas Steel ; 1816, James McClintick ; 1820, Josephus Collett; 1822, James Clifford ; 1825, John Tarlton; 1830, Charles Martin; 1841, James McClintick; 1850, William K. McMillin; 1853, John R. Anderson; 1855, Thomas Miller; 1856, T. Ghormley; 1862, Edward Adams; 1866, D. G. Dunnuck; 1867, John C. McDonald; 1869, John S. Mace; 1873, Felix B. Mace; 1877, Thomas L. Mackey; 1881, William L. Tulleys; 1885, W. Scott Clark; 1889, Joshua R. Wisehart; 1891, John H. Blacker; 1895, Hugh Warner; 1891, Alonzo Swepston ; 1901, James A. Devine, present incumbent.

James A. Wood was sheriff, by appointment, for two weeks in January, 1899, to fill in the interim created by legislative extension of the term. But the law was declared unconstitutional, and the regularly elected sheriff took possession of the office.

During Mackey's term as sheriff he executed the sentence of the law on Perry Bowsher, whose crime is told of elsewhere. Colonel Mackey commanded the Eleventh Ohio cavalry as lieutenant-colonel during the war between the states. His command was stationed at Fort Laramie, then on the frontier, and he made a fine record against the Indians. On one occasion, being asked by a general inspecting the post, how he managed to keep the Indians so quiet, Col. Mackey led him to a window and pointed to where three bodies swung from a rude gallows outside the wall. They were those of three Indian murderers and leaders in an uprising. "There," said the Colonel, "that is the way to keep them quiet and peaceable," an opinion in which all old frontiersmen will concur.