Source:
History of Shelby County, Ohio
and representative citizens
Evansville, Ind. -
1913 - 947 pgs.
.....
Chapter XVIII

BENCH & BAR
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Organization of the Courts - Interesting Cases - Old Time Judges and Lawyers -
The Shelby County Bar of Today

     Following the admission of Ohio into the Union February 19, 1803, the first legislature passed an act organizing the judicial system  Montgomery county, which is as old as the state, was established by an act of the same legislature the same year and embraced what are now the counties of Preble, Darke, Mercer, Allen, Van Wert, Paulding, Williams, Fulton, Henry, Defiance, Putnam, Auglaize, Shelby and Miami.
     In 1807 Miami was separated from Montgomery and formed into a county with Staunton as the county seat.
     In 1819 Shelby county was detached from Miami and erected into a separate organization with jurisdiction extending northward over the present counties of Auglaize and Allen, which formed the original Auglaize and Amanda townships of Shelby county.  It is recalled that at this time the whole county was undeveloped but settlements had been pushed forward with rapid strides from 1812 to 1819 which indicated complete and permanent development.  So it was that on the 17th of May, 1819, we find a court of common pleas in session at Hardin ready to "administer even-handed justice to the rich and poor alike."
     A few licenses were granted and the court adjourned sine die on its initial day.  The next session convened Sept. 13, 1819, with a full staff of judicial, executive and clerical officer and at this time the first grand jury in Dingman, returned the following venire to serve as the first grand jury in the Shelby county courts:  John Frances, foreman; John Manning, James Lenox, Joseph Mellinger, Conrad Ponches, Lebediah Richardson, Joseph Steinberger, Henry Hushan, John Stevens, Archibald Defrees, Cephas Carey, Peter Musselman, John Bryant and Richard Lenox.  One juror not appearing, Abraham Davenport filled out the panel from the bystanders.
     The first case on the criminal docket was that of the State of Ohio vs. Hugh Scott, indicted for assault and battery.  He plead guilty and was fined ten dollars and costs.

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     The next term of court convened at Sidney, Apr. 24, 1820, Hardin having lost the distinction of being a seat of justice.
     It might be interesting to note in this tie of "high cost of living" that Samuel Marshall was allowed $17 and William Cecil $17,38 for services as associate judges from the 4th of June, 1821, to the 4th of June, 1822; the prosecuting attorney, Henry Bacon, was paid $50; the grand jurors, $93; petit jurors, $4; constables, $7.80.
     Court at Hardin convened in an old block house and when Sidney was made the county seat the sessions were held in the humble homes of different citizens until the spring of 1822 when the first court house was built.   The first meeting of court at Sidney was in the log cabin of Abraham Cannon on the south side of a corn field which occupied the center of the town.  About the court stretched the forest rich in the varied garb of nature and abounding in wild game.  The bridgeless Miami flowed unvexed toward the gulf and the craft that cut its waters were the flat boats of the first traders.
     The launching of the first county court must have been an event of supreme importance to the people.  It assured them that a new era had opened and that the new county had taken its place among internal commonwealths.
     In course of time the number of attorneys increased.  There were tedious journeys over poor roads to the county seat and these were performed in all sorts of weather.  Locomotion, therefore, was slow and the early lawyers had ample time to think over their cases.
     In early times court terms were limited to two weeks and consequently the docket was always crowded.  The system of pleading was under the old common law, the complications of which often tried the patience of the early bar.  Divorce cases were few and not many criminal cases were docketed.
     Those were the days of meagre fees; in fact, litigants as a rule were poor in this world's goods and therefore avoided litigation as much as possible.
     The first pleaders before the bench of Shelby county were men of worth and ability and of much erudition.  They knew literature as well as law; they were as familiar with Shakespeare as with Blackstone.  The old bar of the county has disappeared.

     The last of the old practitioners passed with Judge Thompson and the temple of justice which echoed long ego to its wit and eloquence has given place to a new structure but the record left behind by the first lawyers ahs not been lost.  It would be invidious to discriminate but we give a brief summary of the lives of some of the early practitioners.

     The first lawyer of Shelby county of whom we have any record is Judge Samuel Marshall, who was born in Ireland a year before our Declaration of Independence and came to Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1784, with his father.  In 1808 he started westward and settled in Washington township where the Marshalls became one of the oldest and most influential families in the county.  He served as one of the first associate judges of the courts for many years, was county commissioner from 1828 to 1834, and in all official capacities as in the private walks of life was held in high esteem.  He was one of the first contractors of the old Piqua and Fort Defiance mail rout

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from Piqua to Bellefontaine.  His sons Hugh and C. C. Marshall, carried the mail over these routs at a very early day.  Judge Marshall died Feb. 12, 1838.
     The Hon. Patrick Gaines Goode, named after the illustrious Patrick Henry, an intimate friend of his fahter, belonged to the sixteenth generation of the illustrious family of Goode.  They were Huguenots and many emigrated to Virginia at an early day, figured prominently as loyalists in its provincial history, but took a decided stand as patriots in the war of the Revolution.  Many of the family were lawyers, physicians and legislators in the state and in congress.
     Judge Goode was born in Prince Edward county, Virginia, May 10, 798, and came to Ohio near Xenia with his father in 805.  Here he worked on a farm until sixteen when he entered a classical school for three years and later followed the same instructor to Philadelphia where he studied for two years.  He then came back to Ohio and commenced the study of law at Lebanon, Warren county, which boasted of some of the great legal lights of the day.  He was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-three, practiced a little while at Madison and Liberty, Indiana, and in 1831 came to Sidney.  As the county was yet new he devoted a part of his time to teaching and wa a zealous worker for the State Sabbath School Society, organizing schools in Shelby and the counties north of it.  In 1833 he was elected to the Ohio house, reelected, and in 1835 received a certificate of election to the Ohio senate which he refused to claim because some of his opponents' votes were thrown out on technicalities.
     The following year he was sent to congress from a district of fourteen counties extending from Dayton to Toledo, twice reelected and refused a fourth term.  In congress he was an indefatigable worker and labored incessantly for the improvements in the Maumee valley.  When the sixxteenth judicial district was created in 844, composed of Shelby and Williams with the intervening counties, ten in number, he was elected president judge of the district by the general assembly for a term of seven years.  After  his term was out he resumed the practice of law in Sidney but shortly abandoned it to enter the ministry.  In 857 he was granted a regular appointment in the M. E. Conference and so zealous was he that he overtaxed his endurance at a meeting of the conference in 862 at Greenville where he was burdened with responsibilities owing to his knowledge of parliamentary law that he died two weeks later, Oct. 7, 1862.
     He was married July 3, 832, to Miss Mary Whiteman in Green county, and had three children, two of whom survived childhood.
     Handsome in person, easy and gracious in manner lofty in his ideas, he made a deep impression on everybody he met. Eminently religious by nature he set a high moral example in the practice of politics.  Judge Goode was not only a jurist but a man of fine literary taste and was all his life a student.  At the establishment of the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware he was made a member of the college board of trustees and continued in that capacity up to the time of his death.  He was an able advocate and profound lawyer,

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ready and proficient in all matters of evidence and practice and his industry was such that he was always found fully armed and ready for the fray.
     Well may the language of Antony was he applied to Brutus be applied to him:  "His life was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him, that Nature might stand up and say to all the world 'This was the man' "

     Jacob S. Conklin, whose services on the bench and at the bar have justly made his name a distinguished one in Ohio was born in Jackson township, Champaign county, Ohio, Dec. 4, 815.  His early youth was spent there and it was there that the foundation of his education was laid.  After holding a clerkship in two of the county offices at Springfield, Clark county, he came to Sidney in 1836 and commenced the practice of law with Judge Goode.  His practice extended over a large area of territory and in 1844 he was elected prosecuting attorney for this county.  HE declined a reelection and in turn served in the legislature both as a member of the lower and upper house.  In the Fremont and Buchanan campaign of 1856 he was a Fremont elector.  After another term as prosecuting attorney he was appointed by Governor Brough in 1864 to fill a vacancy on the common pleas bench, a position to which he was elected for the full term a year later.  In 1880 he was again made prosecuting attorney in the face of a heavy democratic majority.  Judge Conklin was married in 1841 and had eight children, two of whom are living at the present time.  HE died Oct. 2, 1887.
    His was a brilliant intellect, with a retentive memory enriched with the choicest gems from the classics.  An able and conscientious judge whose written opinions show a mind of choice legal capabilities.  They are clear and comprehensive.  As a lawyer his arguments on the facts of a case were remarkable for their completeness in presenting the whole case, showing a mastery of the facts and an appreciation of the strong and weak points on each side and ability to sift evidence.  His forte was in arguments to the court.  His fund of reminiscences was never ending for the lawyers of the pioneer days were obliged to travel extensive circuits to practice their profession and as they endured the same hardships and privations the warmest personal friendships grew up among them.

     Judge Hugh Thompson was born in a family of high social standing near Uniontown, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, Nov. 30, 1807, of Irish parents, and died in February, 1889.  After some years of farm life at home, he associated with his father in the mercantile trade in Uniontown and in 1831 came to Sidney when it was a village of 637 inhabitants.  He pursued the business of merchandising but in 1834 he was chosen an associate justice for Shelby county to fill the unexpired term of the Hon. Samuel Marshall.  At the end of his term he was continued for the full term by an appointment of the general assembly and continued to hold this position until 841 when he entered the profession of law and remained in practice up to 1875.  He was seven years prosecuting attorney of the county, a member of the State Constitutional Convention of 85, and served in the lower house of the general assembly from 857 to 1859.  He was a stanch democrat in politics and an ardent Presbyterian in religious faith in which church he was for

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many years an elder.  He married in 183 and one daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth T. Mathers, the mother of Judge Hugh T. Mathers, survives.
     He was one of the original incorporators of the First National Bank chartered in 1864, at one time president of the German American and a director in the Citizens Bank.  In social life Judge Thompson was one of hte pleasantest of men.  His humour and repartee were of the highest character and an hour with him in social conference was a joy and a pleasure.  As a lawyer he was patient in hearing facts from his clients, prudent and careful in preparing his cases, terse and logical in his pleadings and successful in his practice.
     One of the cases in which he was engaged when a member of the law firm of Thompson & Mathers attracted general interest at the time because it was the first time that particular principle was enunciated and shows his power of analysis.
     One partner had sued another for alleged slander in charging him with having had a hand in the burglarizing of their store.  Thompson & Mathers were employed to defend and Thompson correctly analyzing the case and applying the legal principles involved demonstrated in court that inasmuch as it was not a crime for a partner to enter his own store room and take away goods he was owner of, no crime charged.  Hence no slander case.
     A retrospective view of many now living can bring to mind a second generation of lawyers which took the places of these early advocates. The names of Mathers, Murray, Smith, Cummins, Burress, Walker, Bailey, Martin, McKercher, Stephenson, McCullough, Conkline, Davies, Marshall, Staley, Hoskins, Hatfield, Wilson and others are brought to mind.

     About the first of this generation was John H. Mathers, born Feb. 25, 1830, in Mifflintown, Juniata county, Penn., of splendid lineage.  His early education was directed by his grandfather, the Rev. John Hutchinson, a Presbyterian divine, and the doctrines of that faith were early instilled in the boy.  He graduated from Jefferson College with a good record, studied law with his father, was made district attorney, came to Sidney in 1856, and formed a partnership with Judge Conklin.  He was three times made prosecuting attorney and in 1863 went into a law firm with his father-in-law, Judge Thompson, whose daughter Elizabeth he had just married.  He had a son Hugh, the present common pleas judge, and two daughters, Jean and Loucretia.  He died Apr. 29, 1875.  A man of culture and learning whose close application to business won him a lucrative practice.

     Perhaps the foremost lawyer of this group was Gen. James Murray, whose parents came to Cincinnati in 1834 from Scotland, where he was born four years before with Scotch Presbyterianism incorporated in every fiber of his being.  The Murrays came to Sidney in 1836, James was educated in Mr. McGookin's academy, studied law with Judge Conklin, was admitted to the bar at nineteen years of age and went into a law firm at Perrysburg.  He served two terms as attorney general of the state, first elected in 1860, and was then made general attorney of the D. &M. railway.
     He moved to Sidney in 1863, established a partnership with Colonel

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Wilson and died June 15, 1879.  He married Miranda Hamilton of Somers, Conn., Aug. 30, 1858, and left two children, James and Kate.  James Murray had a peculiar legal mind; his memory was prodigious; an intense student, he possessed the finest law library in this part of the state; his English was classic, never embellished with rhetorical flights.  In him centered many paradoxes of human nature.  Argumentative and logical as he was his aesthetic tastes were of a high order.  He loved the dry details of the law, yet reveled in the realm of poetry; a warm friend though apparently cold.  A lawyer whose opinions were sought for far and wide, his practice being confined almost entirely to the higher courts.

     Edmund Smith of the law firm of Smith & Cummins dropped dead in Cincinnati, Mar. 13, 1874, during the deliberations of the third constitutional convention.  He represented Shelby county in the convention.  He was a man of positive character with personal magnetism that enabled him to sway a jury, very popular and had established a lucrative practice.  He married a daughter of John Carey who survived him with five children, one of whom, Edmund, is an attorney of Columbus.

     John E. Cummins, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, was born at Mifflintown, Penn., in 1832.  The family settled in Sidney in 1834, and was prominently identified with the history of Sidney.  It was at his father's home that General Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe, was entertained during the famous Harrison and Tyler campaign.  He took a course at Washington and Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Penn., enlisted in the army and was made lieutenant-colonel of the 99th O. V. I., and for meritorious bravery was brevetted brigadier-general by congress at the close of the war.  He was admitted to the bar, a member of the law firm of Smith & Cummins, but died at the beginning of his career in April, 1875.  He was married to Harriet Carey, a daughter of John Carey, who survived him with three sons, Knox, Carey and Frank.

     Nathan Raper Burress was born in Turtle Creek township in 1845.  He received such education as the country schools afforded and studied law with Edmund Smith.  He was admitted to the bar in 1868, and in 1870 and 1872 was elected prosecuting attorney.  He was made state senator in 1875, but declined a renomination and commenced the practice of law with Judge Conklin.  He was married in 1876 to Miss Anna Stipp and had one son.  He died Dec. 15, 1883.  He was a man of refined literary tastes, with a remarkable command of language, vivid imagination, and a mind of choice legal capabilities.

     John E. McCullough was the descendant of sturdy Scotch ancestors who settled in Virginia, and were identified with American history at an early period.  His father, Samuel McCullough, came to Sidney in 1835 and was intimately connected with its interests for nearly sixty years.  A Presbyterian of the blue-stocking type, he would have suffered martyrdom for his religion.
     John was born in Sidney, Sept. 4, 1852, was educated in the public schools, studied law with James McKercher and was admitted to the bar

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in 1884.  He had a clear-cut mind, his powers well in hand, was a positive character and the soul of geniality and generosity.
     He married Miss Anna Duncan Jan. 22, 1874, and had two sons, Ben and Sam.
     He died July 30, 1886, at the beginning of a life of bright promise.

     George A. Marshall, one of the eleven children of Samuel Marshall a pioneer of Turtle Creek township, was born Sept. 14, 1849, and there he attended country school.
     He took a course in the Ohio Wesleyan at Delaware, studied law in the office of Conklin & Burress, and was admitted to the bar in 1876.  In 878 he formed a partnership with Judge Conklin and two years later opened an office alone.  Twice he was elected prosecuting attorney on the democratic ticket, in 877 and again in 882.  In 896 he was elected to congress from the 4th district and served one term.  He died Apr. 2, 1899, leaving a wife and three boys.
     He had considerable native ability and with sound judgment and common sense made a strong jury lawyer.

     John Milton Staley was born in Franklin township Feb. 2, 1847, and died Apr. 4, 19901.  HE secured the best education the country schools afforded, attended the university at Delaware for two years and then graduated from the Lebanon normal school, where he fitted himself especially for the teaching of music.  In a few years he commenced the study of law at the Cincinnati Law School, was admitted to the bar and opened an office in Sidney.  He was made probate judge in 1884 and served two terms.  Always a great lover of music, he conducted for many years one of the best orchestras in this part of the state.

     John G. Stephenson, born July 9, 1823, in Greene county, went to California with the gold seekers in 1852, came to Sidney sometime in the sixties, and in 1869 was made prosecuting attorney for six years.  He was elected mayor in 1876 and in 1881 moved to Kentucky, where he lived until his death, Sept. 7, 1902

     Judge W. D. Davies was born in Iowa, Jan. 2, 1850, of parents who were natives of Wales.  He finished his education with a three-year course at Ohio State University and was admitted to the bar in Iowa City in 1870.  He was in the employ of various railroads until 1875, when he came to Sidney to practice his profession.  He married Miss Belle Mathers of Mifflintown, Penn., Nov. 11, 1880, and raised a daughter, Amelia.
     An active partisan, he was a leader in the republican party and was honored with nominations for various offices and was a delegate to the national republican convention in 1900.  He was appointed judge of the common pleas court to fill the unexpired term of Judge W. T. Mooney, rom February to November, 1901.  He died Mar. 13, 1902.

     John Wilson Conklin, son of Judge Jacob S. Conklin, was born in Sidney, Aug. 7, 1848, and died May 4, 1903.  He studied law after growing to manhood and was admitted to the bar in 1876.  He married Miss Carrie McBeth, of Bellefontaine, Dec. 27, 1877, practiced law in Celina for

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several years and then returned to Sidney.  He was genial, with a brilliant mind, but did not appreciate his native ability, which suffered because it was not cultivated to the limit.

     Judge Emery L. Hoskins was born near Magnetic Springs, Union county, Aug. 4, 1857, was admitted to the practice of law in 1882, and in 1883 settled in Sidney.
      A Stanch democrat, he was elected probate judge in 1899 and served two terms.  He was a member of the school board for fifteen years, prominent in fraternal orders of K. of P. of Odd Fellows, being grand master of the Ohio grand lodge in 1907.  He was a partner of W. D. Davies in the law firm of Davies & Hoskins and died Apr. 4, 1909.  As a man he was kind, attentive and affable, and had a wide acquaintance in the county.

     S. J. Hatfield was born on the Western Reserve in Wayne county, Ohio, Sept. 21, 1845.  He inherited the stern religious and moral virtues of this offshoot of New England which he never forgot in all the activities of his career.  His early life was spent in the public schools until ready for a course at Western Reserve College.  Choosing the law for his life work he fitted himself for its duties in the University of Michigan and in 1875 came to Sidney, where he pursued the profession of which he had the most exalted idea.  He was a stalwart republican, an ingrained Presbyterian and for many years a member of the state board of pardons and a trustee of the children's home.  He loved the true, the beautiful, and the good, reveled in the best literature, and was animated by the loftiest sentiments.  He died Oct. 30, 1911, the oldest member in years of practice of the bar association.

     Col. Harrison Wilson was born near Cadiz, Ohio, Mar. 15, 1841, the youngest in a family of six sons and three daughters.  When a little boy his parents moved to Belmont county and there he got a country school education which moved to Belmont county and there he got a country school education which he supplemented with a college course at the Ohio University in Athens, by great effort and sacrifice.  At the outbreak of the war he was assigned to the 25th O. V. I., and successively held commissions from second lieutenant to colonel when he was mustered out with the regiment July 15, 1865.
     He was in forty-two battles and skirmishes, at the siege of Fort Donelson, Vicksburg and Atlanta,  and went with Sherman "to the sea."  He came of a family conspicuous for its bravery his grandfather, Thomas Wilson, having served in the Revolution and his five brothers in the Civil war.  Colonel Wilson himself was awarded a medal by congress.
     After the war he settled in Sidney for the study of law, was admitted to the bar and went into partnership with General Murray, which continued till Murray's death in 1879.  He took a keen interest in politics and served thirteen years as circuit judge in the 2d judicial district of Ohio from 1895 to 1909.  For the next two years he was identified with a prominent law firm in Columbus, but left for Nordhoff, California, in the spring of 92 to spend the remainder of his days indulging his taste for outdoor life.  He married Mary Caroline, a daughter of J. T. Fry of Sidney, in 1867, and raised a family of nine children, eight of whom are living.
     Wilson took high rank among the lawyers of Ohio.  He had a mind of

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choice legal capabilities.  As a judge his decisions were clear and comprehensive and he now has the confidence of his associates on the bench for his unswerving integrity.  Dignified in manner, in habits simple, and austerely temperate.

THE ARTIS MURDER

 

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