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THE FIRST COURT

SEPTEMBER TERM, 1803

     Messrs, Wills, Baldwin, Beecher, Irwin, and Reddick, were already regularly admitted attorneys under the territorial organization, but, on the transition from the territorial to the state government, were required not only to take the attorneys' oath over again, but to swear fidelity to the state government, were required not only to take the attorneys' oath over again, but to swear fidelity to the State especially, which indicates that the jurists of that day universally admitted that the states and the general government were each supreme within their own sphere, repudiating, as equally heretical, both the extremes of centralization and secession.

     JOHN S. WILLS

     REUBEN BONAM

     THOMAS BACKUS

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     GUSTAVUS SWAN

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     DAVID SCOTT

     WILLIAM DOHERTY

     ORRIS PARISH

     JOHN A. McDOWELL

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     JOHN R. PARISH

     PHINEHAS BACON WILCOX,  was the only son of Seth Wilcox and his wife, Molly Bacon, and was born Sept. 26, 1798, at Westfield, Connecticut, about ten miles west of the town of Middletown, on the Connecticut river, where his father, a substantial farmer, resided on his farm at "Forty Rod Hill."
     His ancestors were of Saxon origin, located at Bury St. Edmnds, Suffolk county, England, one of whom emigrated to America and settled in Boston, Massachusetts, two of whose sons settled in the north part of Middletown - quaintly styled "Middletown Upper Housen" - in 1675, from one of whom his father, Seth, was descended.
     He assisted his father in the usual duties of  New England farmer's son, until about the age of sixteen, when he attended Cheshire academy, Connecticut, and Middlebury academy, Vermont, to be fitted for Yale college.
     He entered Yale, and was graduated in the class of 1821, at the age of twenty-three, and soon after married Sarah D. Andrews, of Wallingford, Connecticut, who was a sister of the late Samuel C. Andrews, of Columbus, and also a relative of John W. Andrews, and of the wife of Judge J. R. Swan, of that city.  The new couple started for their bridal trip to the then unknown and far distant wilderness of the "Ohio country," not fully determined where they would settle, but making for the new town of Columbus, on the "waters of the Scioto," where his father owned lands, and where they arrived, after a long and somewhat perilous journey,  in the fall of 1821.
     Pleased with the prospects of Columbus, he concluded to make it his home, and commenced the study of the law with Judge Orris Parish, whose office was a small frame building on the southwest corner of High and State streets, where the National Exchange bank now stands.
     He was a close and diligent student, entering very little into the convivialities so prevalent in the new settlement, and so destructive of many of the bright intellects of his day.
     He was admitted to the bar in 1824, and commenced practice in the old court house in Franklinton, where he entered the lists against the "old lawyers,"  David Scott, Joshua Folsom, Gustavus Swan and Orris and John Parish, and very soon, by close study, diligent attention to business, and unswerving integrity, he took rank with them and secured a large practice in Franklin, Madison, and Delaware counties, through which the bench and bar of that day rode circuit on horseback, with saddlebags and leggings.
     He soon became eminent as a "land lawyer," having mastered all the intricacies of the Virginia military land titles, that perpetual source of litigation for so many years.  He was also distinguished as a chancery lawyer, which practice he preferred.  Nothing afforded him higher gratification, or more aroused his powers, than to track out some high-toned scoundrel who was attempting to oppress the widow and the fatherless, or defraud confiding creditors, and "sift his conscience" by means of a good old bill in chancery, with its charges and searching interrogatives.  He was master of common law pleading, being familiar with all the learning and subtleties of the old English special pleas, and a constant student of English common law.
     In 1833 he published his work - "Ohio Forms and Practice," and an enlarged edition of it in 1848.  This book was the standard on law and equity practice and pleading, both in the State and the United States courts, until the adoption of the code of civil procedure in 1853, and was in universal use by judges, lawyers and clerks, in this and other States, under the old practice.
     In 1849, when the matter of a new constitution and code was in agitation, he published a pamphlet, entitled "Tracts on Law Reform," with a view of moulding public opinion as to the proposed changes in our law system.  The following motto, which he adopted for the tract, from an ancient author, indicates the conservative char-

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acter of the work - "We know already the worst of what is - we know not the worst of what may be."
     Like many lawyers of the old school, he could not abide the new code; but, upon its adoption, accepted the situation, and, in 1862, published his "Practical Forms, Under the Code of Civil Procedure," intending, eventually, to enlarge it into a work similar to his "Ohio Forms and Practise," under the old system.
     He was prosecuting attorney for Franklin county from 1834 to 1836, and wrote out numerous forms for indictments, etc., which were long in use by his successors, as it required considerable skill to draft such instruments under the technicalities of the criminal law at that time.  He was reporter of the supreme court of Ohio in 1842, reporting the tenth volume of Ohio reports, where his knowledge of law, and remarkable accuracy and terseness of statement, are conspicuous.  It not unfrequently happened that the court, after deciding some difficult questions, would remark to the reporter: "We have decided so-and-so in this case, and depend upon you to give the reason."
     His note upon assurances of title, in the case of Foote vs. Bennet, page 317, of the tenth volume, has been considered one of the ablest and most perspicuous expositions of that abstruse subject, at that time not well understood by even good lawyers, and received a high enconium from Chancellor Kent.
     He  START ON PAGE 67 FIRST COLUMN

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     JOSEPH R. SWAN

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     SAMUEL C. ANDREWS

     LYNE STARLING , son of William Starling and Mary (McDowell) Starling, was born Mar. 3, 1806, in Mercer county, Kentucky; came to Columbus, Ohio, in 1830, entered the clerk's office, studied law with P. B. Wilcox, esq., and entered upon the practice, and in 1838 was appointed clerk of the court of common pleas, supreme court, and court in bankruptcy; was re-appointed March 15, 1845, and resigned in February, 1846.  Having secured a competency by successful business operations, he went to New York and became a wholesale merchant, and afterwards removed to Illinois, where he had purchased a large body of land, then returned to Kentucky, joined the Union army, and was appointed chief, on the staff of General Crittenden, his personal friend; served with distinction throughout the war, and was noted for his courage and capacity in battle, and was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, Mar. 25, 1835.  He was married to Maria A. Hemley, of Frankfort, Kentucky, and became a cotton planter in Arkansas, and died in 1877.
SHARON WICK'S NOTE:  See biography, CLICK HERE.

     NOAH H. SWAYNE

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     HENRY STANBERY was born in the city of New York, on the twentieth of February, 1803.  His father was

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     SAMUEL BRUSH

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     MATTHEW J. GILBERT

     WILLIAM W. BACKUS

     ELIJAH BACKUS

     Thomas Sparrow

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     EDWARDS PIERREPONT

     J. WILLIAM BALDWIN

     OTTO DRESSEL

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     SAMUEL GALLOWAY

     JAMES A. WILCOX

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     HERMAN B. ALBERY

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     JOHN M. PUGH

     JAMES L. BATES

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     LORENZO ENGLISH

     STACY TAYLOR

     WILLIAM DENNISON

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     JOSEPH H. GEIGER

     LLEWELLYN BABER

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     HENRY C. NOBLE

     FITCH JAMES MATHEWS

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     JAMES OVERTON REAMEY

     CHAUNCEY N. OLDS

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     WRAY THOMAS

     KENDALL THOMAS

     M. A. DOUGHERTY

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     LEANDER J. CRITCHFIELD

     GEORGE L. CONVERSE

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     ALLEN G. THURMAN

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     RICHARD A. HARRISON

     EDWARD F. BINGHAM

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     ELI P. EVANS

     WALTER THRALL

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     JOHN C. GROOM

     FREDERICK W. WOOD

     JOHN D. BURNETT

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     GILBERT C. COLLINS

     GEORGE J. ATKINSON

     W. T. WALLACE

     JOSEPH H. OUTHWAITE

     JULIUS C. RICHARDS

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     H. J. BOOTH

     JOHN D. SULLIVAN

     DEWITT C. JONES

     J. T. HOLMES

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     JOHN G. MITCHELL

     HAWLEY J. WYLIE

     EDWARD LIVINGSTON TAYLOR

     CHARLES O. HUNTER

     GILBERT H. STEWART

     SYLVESTER ANDREWS

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     E. L. DEWITT

     THOMAS J. DUNCAN

     FRANK F. HOFFMAN

     JAMES F. HOFFMAN

     JOHN C. I. PUGH

     WILLIAM J. CLARKE

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     GEORGE K. NASH

     PHILANDER B. CASE

     GEORGE S. PETERS

     HENRY C. TAYLOR

     IVOR HUGHES

     C. E. BRIGGS

     E. P. JEWETT

     GEORGE DUDLEY JONES

     GEORGE O. HAMILTON

     R. B. MONTGOMERY, son of John and Mary S. Montgomery, was born Apr. 27, 1852, in Delaware, Ohio; was educated at Kenyon college; read law with Hon. Geo. L. Converse; was admitted to the bar, Ma.r 12, 1879, and has practiced in Columbus ever since.

     WILLIAM O. HENDERSON

     J. W. MOONEY

     SAMUEL HAMBLETON

     ROBERT C. FULTON

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     WILLIAM NEIL DENNISON

     G. F. CASTLE

     JAMES WATSON

     CHARLES E. BURR, JR.

     TALFOURD P. LINN

     GEORGE LINCOLN ARTZ

     G. J. MARRIOTT

     R. B. SMITH

     RIPLEY C. HOFFMAN

     ALEXANDER W. KRUMM

     DAVID C. WELLING

     JOSEPH V. LEE

     W. E. GUERIN

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     WALTER B. PAGE

     ALEXANDER H. FRITCHEY

     J. H. HEITMANN

     HENRY M. BUTLER

     FAXON F. D. ALBERY

     RICHARD P. WOODRUFF

     LUKE G. BYME

     P. E. FLECK

     THOMAS J. KEATING

     JAMES A. MILES

     BENJAMIN WOODBURY

     WILLIAM C. STEWART

     APPLETON J. IDE

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     FRANK W. ARNOLD

     DAVID K. WATSON

     MARTIN L. NOLEN

     W. H. DUNNICK

     CHARLES TAPPAN

     EDWARD L. McCUNE

     JASON W. FIRESTONE

     LORENZO D. HAGERTY

     IRA H. CRUM

     GEORGE B. OKEY

     DAVID E. WILLIAMS

     GEROGE W. MEEKER

     THOMAS L. JONES

     H. P. ANDREWS

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     THOS. C FLOURNOY

---NOTES:

     * This sketch should have followd that of James K. Corey on the 66th page
     † ERRATA. - Page 63, second column, next to last line from bottom, read "Kaskaskie" instead of Ruskin. - Page 64, first column, third paragraph, read "Massey" for Murrey; in the tenth line, same paragraph, read "physicians" for surveyors; second column, fourth line of second paragraph, read "cooper's adze" for cooper's axe' and in the sixth line, same paragraph, read "twelfth" for eighth; in the twelfth line, same paragraph, read "cross examinating the medical experts offered for the defence," & c. - Page 65, fourth line from top of first column, for Charles read "Albert"; and in next line read "practice"

LOTS MORE CORRECTIONS TO COME