BIOGRAPHIES

Source
HISTORY of CITY OF TOLEDO and LUCAS COUNTY, OHIO
Illustrated
Clark Waggoner, Editor
Publ. New York & Toledo:
Munsell & Company, Publishers
1888
 

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George W. Davis

GEORGE W. DAVIS Source:  Story of City of Toledo and Lucas County, Ohio, Illustrated - Clark Waggoner, Editor - Publ. New York & Toledo: Munsell & Company, Publishers - 1888 - Page 502

JOHN H. DOYLE was born in Perry County, Ohio, Apr. 23, 1843.  His parents were married in Providence, Lucas County, in 1831, removed to Perry County in 1842, and returned to Toledo in 1846, where the father died in 1852.  The mother is still living with her son in Toledo.  Judge Doyle was educated in the Public Schools of Toledo, and a short time at Dennison University, Granville, Ohio.  He studied law, first with General H. S. Commager, and afterwards with Edward Bissell, Jr.  He was admitted to the Bar Apr. 23, 1864, on his 21st birthday, and on the same day entered into partnership with Mr. Bissell, thus getting a fair start in his profession at his majority.  His career from that time has been rapid and brilliant.  As a young lawyer,  he soon acquired a reputation for local knowledge and unusual powers as an advocate.  He exhibited great skill and energy in the conduct of various important and difficult cases in which he was counsel.  One of these may be mentioned as an illustration of his peculiar genius in searching out and establishing hidden evidence , upon which a great case often turns.  This was a case involving the title to 160 acres of land in the heart of the City of Toledo, valued at over a million dollars.  The claimants were the heirs of one Ford, a Soldier of the War of 1812, who was then living at Fell's Point, in or near Baltimore, Maryland.  The ease hinged on the legitimacy of a daughter, who, it was alleged, was born while the said Ford was a prisoner of war at Plymouth, England, and was illegitimate.  Mr. Doyle spent a large portion of the Winter and Spring of 1874 and Summer of 1875 in Maryland and in the District of Columbia, taking testimony in this important case.  The final result was, that he established the legitimacy of the child, and hence the title of his clients.  The partnership with Mr. Bissell was continued till 1879, when Mr. Doyle was elected on the Republican ticket as Judge of the Judicial District embracing Lucas, Sandusky, Ottawa, Huron and Erie Counties.  Such was his standing in the profession that his candidacy was unanimously recommended by the Toledo Bar.  He soon distinguished himself on the Bench, and in 1882 was nominated by the Republican State Convention for Judge of the Supreme Court, when he was defeated, with his party, though running ahead of his ticket by several thousand votes in the district of his residence, and by 1,600 in his own County.  In February, 1883, he was appointed by Governor Foster to a seat on the Supreme Bench, to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge Longworth, and served one year.  At the Convention of 1883 the Republicans again nominated him for the full term, but the party was again defeated that year.  Judge Doyle resumed the practice of his profession in Toledo in 1884, and still continues with a large and successful business, being now the senior of the firm of Doyle, Scott & Lewis.  He is in the prime of life, with ample resources derived both from study and experience, and with a vigorous and well-trained intellect, good health and habits of industry, he is able to accomplish much in his profession.  His knowledge of the law of the judicial proceedings places him in the front rank of the jurists of the State.  Besides, he is courteous and genial, a lover of good literature, and highly esteemed both in social and private life.  Politically, he is a Republican, and has been a member of the First Congregational Church of Toledo since 1868.  He was one of the organizers of the Toledo Library Association, now the Free Library of Toledo, and was Chairman of the Lecture Committee of that Association for six years.  In 1865, in connection with Hon. DeWitt Davis, of Milwaukee, he assisted in organizing the Northwestern Lecture Bureau at Chicago, of which he has Secretary for several years.  Judge Doyle was commissioned during the War of the Rebellion as Lieutenant in the Sixty-Seventh Regiment Ohio Volunteers at request of his old preceptor, Judge Commager; but before mustering, was prostrated by severe sickness, which kept him at home and prevented acceptance of the appointment. He was then but 18 years of age.  In the Home work for the Union cause, he was active, as shown in the history of that department of the service elsewhere given.  In 1886, he was appointed by Governor Foraker one of the Trustees of the Toledo Asylum for the Insane, now in course of construction, where the detached cottage plan, which Judge Doyle urged in preference to all others, was adopted.  He was married Oct. 6, 1868, to Miss Alice Fuller Skinner, daughter of Dr. S. W. Skinner, formerly of Windsor, Connecticut, and now of Toledo, who is a descendant of the Wolcott and Ellsworth families of Connecticut, and now of Toledo, who is a descendant of the Wolcott and Ellsworth families of Connecticut, of which Chief Justice Ellsworth and Governor Wolcott were members.  Three daughters - Elizabeth Wolcott, Grace Alice, and Helen Genevieve - have been born of this marriage. Source:  Story of City of Toledo and Lucas County, Ohio, Illustrated - Clark Waggoner, Editor - Publ. New York & Toledo: Munsell & Company, Publishers - 1888 - Page 528