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FREDERICK L. GEDDES,
lawyer, of Toledo, was born Nov. 10, 1850, at Adrian, Mich.
His father, Norman Geddes(1823-99), lawyer, was for nine
years probate judge of Lenawee county, Michigan. His family is
an ancient one. The tradition is that in Brittany, in the
Seventh century, a powerful family (whose original name ahs been
lost), having adopted as its crest three heads of the pike-fish,
with the Latin motto, "Capta Majora" (Employed in Greater Things),
became known as Gadois - the plural of "gad" - the Celtic name of
the pike. Towards the close of the Ninth century, some members
of the family, under the leadership of Roland Gadois, settled
in Normandy and in time became baronial knights. When, in
1066, William, Duke of Normandy, summoned the Norman knights
to his aid, two brothers Gadois, bearing the distinguishing
crest and motto of the family, responded with their attendants.
For their valor, some years later, they were granted lands on the
borders of Banff and Elginshire, in the north of Scotland, and there
founded the Scottish Geddes family, the name of the pike
being, in Highland Gaelic, "Ged," and the crest still determining
the family name. Early in the Seventeenth century, many
members of the family immigrated to the North of Ireland, whence, in
1752, James (1704-64), son of Paul (1732-1814), was
the maternal grandfather, and Samuel (1739-88), was the
paternal grandfather of Judge Geddes. This Paul
was a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, and, during the
Revolutionary war, was a member of the Pennsylvania Committee of
Safety. Laura (Casey) Geddes (1821-51), wife of
Judge Geddes, died less than a year after the birth of
Frederick Lyman, her only child. She was a descendant of
Thomas Casey (1637-1711), who came to Newport, R. I., in
1658, and who, traditionally, was the sole survivor of his family,
all other members of which were destroyed in Cromwell's massacre, at
Drogheda, in 1649. His great-grandson Edward
(1757-1817), who was Laura Casey's grandfather, was, in
1779-80, a private in Col. Archibald Crary's Rhode Island
regiment in the Continental army. Frederick Lyman Geddes
graduated in the Adrian High School, in 1868, and in the University
of Michigan, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, in 1872. He
received the degree of Master of Arts, in 1875. For two years
after graduation he was in Lee county, Illinois, the first year
being spent in Amboy, where he was employed for a time in an
abstract office and later as private secretary of the president of
the Chicago & Rock River railroad, now a part of the Burlington
system. During the second year, he read law in the office of
M. H. Williams, at Dixon. During the winter of 1874-5,
he attended the Law Department of the University of Michigan.
Having been admitted to the bar, in Michigan, Mar. 10, 1875, and in
Ohio, a month later, he located at Toledo, forming, with Barton
Smith,, a classmate, a law partnership which continued six
years. In 1882 he formed with Clarence Brown, Geddes,
Schmettau (Charles A.) & Williams (Lloyd T.).
During recent years he has been exclusively engaged in the
organization and conduct of corporations. He attends the
Unitarian church, and is a Republican, but decidedly in favor of a
tariff for revenue only. He is a member of the Lucas
County, Ohio State and American Bar associations, the American
Society of International Law, and the International Law Association,
and of the Toledo, Country, Middle Bass, and Transportation clubs; a
trustee of the Toledo Museum of Art, and a director of many
corporations. He was Commander of Toledo Commandery, Knights
Templar, in 1898, and Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery of
Ohio, in 1906. He received the thirty-third degree of the
Masonic Scottish Rite, at Boston, in 1900, and, since 1907, has been
First Lieutenant Commander of Toledo Consistory. He married,
Dec. 24, 1879, Kate Rosebrugh, born Sept. 18, 1853, daughter
of James (1821-87), and Sarah Lucretia (1822 --)
(Bottum) Rosebrugh, of Amboy, Ill. Mrs.
Geddes is a great-great-granddaughter of Rev. John Rosbrugh,
whose family immigrated to Northern Ireland from Scotland, about the
time of his birth, 1714, and who, while still in his early youth,
came with an older brother to America. He graduated from the
College of New Jersey and became pastor of Allen Township Church,
Northampton county, Pennsylvania. The militia of Northampton
county was called out by General Washington upon author
granted, Dec. 17, 1776, by the Pennsylvania Council of Safety.
On the following Sunday, the Rev. Mr. Rosbrugh concluded an
intensely patriotic sermon by offering to go, as chaplain, with his
congregation, to the field of battle. His people responded
that they would go if he would be their commander. He
accepted, and, Dec. 23, 1776, he and his parishioners, as a military
company, marched, ready for action. Three days later, he
received a commission as chaplain, and, only a week thereafter -
Jan. 2, 1777 - was killed by the Hessians i the second battle of
Trenton. His son, Judge James Rosbrugh (1767-1850),
great-grandfather of Mrs. Geddes, in 1812, while a member of
the New York legislature, went from Albany to his home (now
Groveland, Livingston county), raised, among his neighbors, a
military company, was elected its captain, and marched with them to
the frontier under proclamation of General Smith, who has
proposed an immediate invasion of Canada. Mr. and Mrs.
Geddes have five children: Paul Rosbrugh, for five
years a student of music at Florence, Italy, now residing in Boston;
Laura Casey, A. B. Smith College, 1907; Katherine
Rachel, some time a student of Granger Place School,
Canandaigua, N. Y., and later at Burnham School, Northampton, Mass.;
Florence Dority, graduated, in 1909, at MacDuffie School,
Springfield, Mass., and now a member of Smith College, class of
1913; and Donald Frederick now a student in Hackley Upper
School, Tarrytown, N. Y.
Source: Memoirs of Lucas County & City of Toledo - Vol. II - Publ.
1910 - Page 150 |
