THE first courts of the county were held at
Olive, while the question as to the future location of the seat of
justice was still unsettled. The earliest existing journal of
the court of common pleas opens as follows:
"Minutes of a court of common pleas held at the office
of Robert McKee in the town of Olive, in the County of Noble,
in the State of Ohio.
"The State of Ohio, Noble County, ss:
Be it remembered that on the first day of April, A. D.
1851, William Smith, Gilman Dudley and Patrick Finley,
Esquires, produced commissions from his excellency, Reuben
Wood, governor of Ohio, appointing each of them associate judges
of the court of common pleas of Noble County; also certificates on
their several commissions that they and each of them had taken the
oath of allegiance and office. Whereupon a court of common
pleas was holden for the County of Noble on the 1st of April 1851,
at the office of Robert McKee, in the Town of Olive in the
said County of Noble: present, the Hon. William Smith, Gilman
Dudley and Patrick Finley, associate judges of said
county.
"Appointment of Clerk. - It is ordered by the
court that Isaac Q. Morris be appointed clerk of this court
until the next term thereof. Thereupon the said Isaac Q.
Morris appeared and gave bond according to law, and gave tne
necessary oath of office.
"Ordered that the court of common pleas and the supreme
court in and for the County of Noble he held at the Methodist
meeting house at Olive in Noble County until the permanent seat of
justice of Noble County he fixed according to law.
"Whereupon the court adjourned sine die.
"WILLIAM SMITH,
"Presiding Associate Judge."
Thus ended the first term of court.
The associate judges above mentioned were soon relieved
of theirPage 171 -
duties, the office being abolished with the adoption of the
constitution of 1851-2. At the second term of court in Noble
County, which began at Olive on the 19th of June, 1851, Hon.
Archibald G. Brown, a judge of the eighth judicial district
presided. There were also present the associate judges
Smith, Dudley and Finley; the clerk, Isaac Q. Morris,
and the sheriff, Joseph c. Schofield. No grand jury was
impaneled at this term. The court of common pleas, prior to
the establishment of the probate court in 1852, held jurisdiction in
probate matters, and during this session a large amount of probate
business was transacted. Elections for justices of the peace
were ordered in several of the townships of the county.
William Reed, Benjamin L. Mott and Benjamin S. Spriggs
were appointed school examiners for the term of three years;
Jabez Belford's bond as prosecuting attorney was accepted, and "
'thereupon appeared in open court,' the said Jabez Belford,
and took the requisite oath of office." David Green
was appointed administrator of the estate of Clark Green,
deceased; James Best hitherto a subject of Queen Victoria,
came forward and declared his intention of becoming a citizen of the
United States; Luke S. Dilley, of Sarahsville, and James
McCune, of Olive were appointed county auctioneers; two appealed
cases were now suited, the plaintiffs being non-residents of the
county. The report of the commission locating the county seat
was ordered placed on the minutes of the court, and the protests
against the action of the commission were filed. These matters
with some probate business occupied the attention of the court
during the first day. Court adjourned on Saturday, the 21st of
June, after a brief, but busy session. The prosecuting
attorney was allowed $25 for his services during the term, and $50
for the next, or November term.
Three cases were disposed of: William S. Burt
vs. Levi Rahus - an action of assumpsit to recover $85.90 on
a promissory note. The defendant confessed judgment, $87.61
and costs.
John Liming vs. Absalom Willey; action on
an appeal from the Morgan County common pleas court, September term,
1850; for fraudulence in a horse trade. On this case a special
jury, the first in Noble County, was impaneled, who found Willey
guilty and awarded the plaintiff $13.33 - the costs to be recovered
of the defendant. The jury was composed of Benjamin Tilton,
Simeon Blake, Samuel Marquis, Jacob Crow, John Mitchell, William
Tracy, William J. Young, David McGarry, John McGarry, Dr. David
McGarry, W. F. McIntyre, and Jacob Fogle.
George Willey vs. James Hellyer and
Benjamin Lyons. This was also an appealed case from the
Morgan County common pleas court. The action was for trespass,
in cutting wheat on the plaintiff's land. The defendants were
adjudged not guilty.
On the 20th of June at this term of court a certificate
of naturalization was granted to John Miller, formerly
Page 172 -
a subject of the government of Hesse Cassel. Several others
filed their intentions to become citizens. A number of tavern
licenses were granted at $2 each.
The November term of court, 1851, began
at Sarahsville on Monday, the 10th lasted until Saturday. The
presiding judge, Hon. A. G. Brown was present only during the
first day, the record for the remainder of the week being signed by
William Smith presiding associate judge. At this term
the following grand jury was impaneled and sworn: William
Parrish, foreman; Timothy Smith, Henry Enochs, George Gibson,
Frederick Spencer, John A. Stevens, James Archer (of Joseph),
John Buckley, William Kirkpatrick, David Delong, Elijah Fesler,
John Onille, John Morrison, Julius Rueker, Amos Hughes.
The grand jury was discharged on Tuesday, having returned five
indictments - two for illegal voting, two for retailing spirituous
liquors, and one for assault and battery.
The following reminiscence of the November term of
court, 1851, was related to the writer by a prominent legal
gentleman:
The associate judges, in the absence of the presiding
judge, found themselves, at times, considerably embarrassed, owing
to their meager knowledge of the law. A "mill dam case" (that
is, a case for damages to land caused by back-water from a mill-dam)
was on trial. The lawyers got into a wrangle over the
admissability of certain testimony, and the dispute waxed warm for
several hours. Finally Patrick Finley, one of the
judges, became impatient; and, on an appeal being made to the bench,
turned to the speaker and shouted, in his rich, Irish brogue:
"Lawyers! whoy don't ye settle the law among yersilves? Yee's
know a dale more about it than we do!" This term of
court was held in the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Sarahsville.
Another session, lasting one day, was held during the
year 1851, on the 27th of December, before the associate judges,
whose official life ended shortly after. Hon. Richard
Stillwell presided at the term which began Apr. 20, 1852.
Sarahsville continued to entertain the court and
lawyers until 1858. On the 8th of June of that year the first
term of the common pleas court began at Caldwell; present.
Hon. L. P. Marsh, judge; William C. Okey, clerk, and
Samuel Danford, sheriff.
Noble is the youngest county in the State. It is
small, both in territory and in population; the people are mainly
farmers of a peaceful disposition and averse to litigation,
consequently there has never been a large amount of legal business.
Yet the county has had, and still has, a bar of more than average
ability. Several Noble County lawyers have distinguished
themselves as legislators, jurists and military officers. In
this chapter the writer has sought to include the name of every
lawyer of prominence that ever resided in the county, giving
biographical sketches wherever such were obtainable.
Page 173 -
Prior to the formation of the county few
representatives of the legal profession had settled within its
limits. The legal business went to the parent Counties of
Morgan, Guernsey, Monroe and Washington and was attended to chiefly
by lawyers located at the respective county seats. Samuel
McGarry and Daniel Pettay, of Sarahsville, and Jabez
Belford, William M. Kain and Isaac Parrish of Sharon were
the only members of the bar resident in the county prior to its
organization.
From 1851 until after the war a large part of the legal
business of the county was attended to by non-resident lawyers.
Prominent among these were Hon. John E. Hanna, Hon. E. E. Evans,
Hon. C. B. Tompkins and Hon. F. W. Wood of
McConnellsville; Ewart & Clarke (Hon. Thomas E. Wart and
Col. Melvin Clarke), of Marietta; the Messrs. Hollister, E.
A. Archibald and others of Woodsfield; Judge Nathan Evans,
Gen. John Ferguson and other prominent attorneys, of Cambridge.
The organization of the county in 1851 had the effect
of inducing a number of young lawyers to come hither to try their
fortunes. The local papers of that date reveal the names of
the following resident lawyers: Edward A. Bratton, John
McIntosh, Samuel W. P. Cochran (in partnership with
McIntosh), Sarahsville; Jabez Belford, William M. Kain,
Sharon; R. H. Taneyhill, Olive; P. M. Merrill,
Summerfield. During the next two years, some of the others
having in the meantime removed, the bar of the county received the
following additions: William Priestly, William C. Okey,
Henry Frazier, William H. Frazier, James K. Casey, J. H. Rothrock,
B. F. Spriggs, M. H. Taneyhill.
HON. ISAAC PARRISH.
Page 174 -
JABEZ BELFORD
Page 175 -
SAMUEL McGARRY
afterwards probate judge,
was a member of one of the early families in the county. He
studied law in McConnelsville and practice there for a time.
He located at Sarahsville, and after the establishment of the
county, was connected with the editorial management of several of
the early newspapers. He never had any great amount of law
practice. He was the first treasurer of Noble County, and from
1857 to 1864 held the office of probate judge. He removed to
the West and died there.
DANIEL PETTAY,
who had been a Methodist preacher, was elected justice of the
peace, and after some years in that office, was admitted to the bar.
He had but little legal business. He was a man of good sense
and fair ability.
WILLIAM MARCUS KAIN was one of the early
lawyers and editors of the county. He read law under Jabez
Belford, and practiced in Sharon form about 1848 until 1854.
Soon after this date we find him at Sarahsville, editing a
Democratic paper. He was self educated and of good ability.
He is now a Presbyterian minister, residing somewhere in
Pennsylvania.
EDWARD
A. BRATTON was perhaps the leader among the resident lawyers
of Sarahsville in 1851 and 1852. He came from Cambridge, where
he had previously practiced several years. He removed to
McArthur, Vinton County in 1853.
SAMUEL W. P. COCHRAN, from Zanesville,
where he had previously been in the tobacco business, after being
admitted to the bar, came to Sarahsville in 1851. He held the
office of prosecuting attorney about two years, resigning in 1853,
when E. A. Bratton was appointed in his stead. John
McIntosh, from the northern part of the State, was his law
partner. Neither remained long.
WILLIAM PRIESTLY
read law in Sarahsville
in the office of E. A. Bratton and began practice in that
Page 176 -
town. He removed to
Caldwell after the latter became the county seat, and
remained until 1862, when he entered the Ninety-second Ohio
Volunteer Infantry as a first lieutenant. He served
through the war and in 1864 was offered a captaincy, but
declined the commission. He did not return to Caldwell
to practice law after the war. Mr. Priestly was
a sound, well-posted man - a good office lawyer, but not a
fluent speaker.
HENRY FRAZIER,
a brother of Hon. W. H. Frazier, was born in Trumbull
County, O., Sept. 9, 1824. He received a collegiate
education; read law with Evans & Scott, Cambridge, O., was
admitted to the bar in the fall of 1851, and began practice
at Sarahsville. He died in August of the following
year. He was a young man possessed of a high order of
talent, and had he lived would doubtless have made his mark
in his profession. The local paper spoke of him in the
highest terms, and the bar passed eulogistic resolutions
after his death.
HON. WILLIAM H. FRAZIER is so well
and favorably known to all the citizens of Noble County,
that an extended sketch of his life and public services is
unnecessary in this chapter. Suffice it to say that no
abler lawyer or more honored citizen has ever lived in the
county; that his talents entitle his name to a prominent
place among the distinguished representatives of the legal
profession in Ohio; and that his eminent merits as a jurist
have received popular recognition in his election to the
honorable position which he now so ably fills.
WILLIAM HUGH FRAZIER
Page 177 - William Hugh Frazier continued
Page 178 -
WILLIAM C. OKEY
Page 179 -
ERWIN G. DUDLEY, son of Judge Gilman Dudley, was born in Olive
Township in 1832. He read law in Sarahsville and was
admitted to the bar about 1853. He practiced in
Sarahsville and Caldwell until the summer of 1862, when he
entered the service as a captain in the Ninety-second Ohio
Volunteer Infantry. He had a good legal mind and was a
successful lawyer. For several years he was the
resident partner in Noble County of Hon. John E. Hanna,
of McConnelsville. After the war he went to Omaha,
where he was elected State senator and afterwards police
judge. He next went to the Black Hills and engaged in
mining. He is now in Dakota, the proprietor of a
sulphur springs resort.
JAMES K. CASEY
came to Sarahsville from Cumberland about 1853
and practiced in that place for about three years. He
removed to Cambridge and thence to Mt. Vernon, Ohio.
He died in the West recently. He was a good lawyer and
a gifted speaker.
RICHARD H. TANEYHILL located
at Olive in 1851, and practiced law and edited a newspaper there for
a time. He afterward practiced his profession in Batesville
for a number of years. He afterward practiced his profession
in Batesville for a number of years. He removed to
Barnesville, where he at present resides. He is now largely
engaged in the culture of strawberries. Mr.
Taneyhill was an able and forcible editorial writer and
possessed legal ability of a high order. His brother,
Mordecai H. Taneyhill, also a lawyer, was located at
Sarahsville a few years prior to the removal of the county
seat to Caldwell.
JAMES H.
ROTHROCK, as is
shown by a card in a local paper, had a law office in Olive
in 1853. He came from West Union and was a young man
of ability. He remained a short time in the county
waiting for the controversy over the county seat to be
settled. Then tiring of this he removed to Iowa.
He has since been one of the judges of the supreme court in
that State.
HON. BENJAMIN F. SPRIGGS, for
many years a prominent lawyer of Noble County, died at his
residence in Sarahsville, Jan. 17, 1879. He was born
in Washington Count, Pa., in 1828, and in 1844 came with his
parents to Guernsey County. AT the formation of Noble
County in 1851, he lived in that part of Guernsey which was
annexed to the new county. Mr. Spriggs taught
school in early life, studying law in his spare time.
In 1851 he served as deputy clerk of courts in Noble County.
He was also one of the school examiners. He was
admitted to the bar in 1851, and soon rose to prominence in
his profession. Starting as an old-school Democrat, he
soon become a leader in the then Democratic party in the
county. For some years he was editor of the
Democratic Courier, published at Sarahsville. In
1858 he was nominated for Congress, and was defeated by only
a few votes. In 1871, he was nominated for
representative to the legislature, David McGarry
being his opponent. A very spirited campaign ensued,
resulting in a tie vote. A new election being ordered,
Mr. Spriggs was elected by a considerable majority.
He took an active part in local and national politics, and
was one of the most effective and earnest workers for his
party in the county. In 1876 he was a delegate to the
St. Louis convention, which nominated Samuel J. Tilden
for the presidency. During the war he was a member of
the military committee of the county. He was a good
lawyer, quick in debate, and a fluent talker. He was
warm in his friendship, and, though always an earnest
partisan, he retained the respect and good will of his
political adversaries, and was esteemed as a citizen.
Page 180 -
DAVID S. SPRIGGS, one of the leading lawyers and prominent
citizens of Noble County, was born in Centerville, Belmont
County, Ohio, January 10, 1835. He passed his boyhood
on a farm, receiving only a good common school education,
which he made useful to himself and others by engaging in
the work of a teacher. He also studied surveying.
While teaching he pursued the study of law in his spare
time, and at the age of twenty-one entered the law office of
his brother, Hon. B. F. Spriggs, of Sarahsville.
He was admitted to the bar in 1859, and from that time until
1866 he was alternately engaged in teaching and the practice
of law, meantime serving three years as school examiner.
In 1866 he removed to Caldwell, where he has since had an
extensive law practice, ranking among the leading
representatives of the profession in this locality. He
served as prosecuting attorney from 1872 to 1876. In
1875 he was a candidate for representative to the
legislature from Noble County. James M. Dalzell,
the Republican nominee, was elected by a majority of five
votes. Mr. Spriggs has at various times been
nominated for other responsible offices, but has been
defeated, his party being greatly in the minority.
Since 1863 he has taken an active interest in politics, and
has been a prominent worker on the Democratic side in
political campaigns. In 1885 he was appointed
postmaster at Caldwell, which position he still holds.
In 1857 he married Nancy Windom, a cousin of Senator
Windom, of Minnesota. She is a native of
Belmont County. Mr. and Mrs. Spriggs have two
sons and one daughter
MICHAEL DANFORD KING was a young
lawyer in Caldwell in 1859. He removed to Barnesville,
went into the army, and was killed in the service.
JOHN W. BELL
was in Caldwell before the war, and attempted to practice law for a
time. He was afterward in the newspaper business, and
succeeded admirably.
JAMES
S. FOREMAN, son of Hiram and Margaret Foreman,
was born near Senecaville, Guernsey County, Ohio, Oct. 2,
1835. He received a common school education, and in
Page 181 -
early life taught school. He read law under the preceptorship of Judge Evans, of Cambridge, and was
admitted to the bar September 8, 1863. October 6,
1874, he was admitted to practice in the United States
Circuit Court. He removed to Caldwell in the fall of
1864, and practiced here until his decease. He died of
paralysis, March 22, 1880. He first practiced in
partnership with Hon. W. H. Frazier, and, after the
latter was elected judge, formed a partnership with
D. S. Spriggs,
which continued until his death. Mr. Foreman
was considered one of the best lawyers in the county.
He served two terms as prosecuting attorney, but never held
any other office of prominence. He took an active part
in politics, and was a good stump-speaker. He married
Anna M. Summers, of Noble County, in 1859, and was
the father of six children, who are living.
JUDGE
DENNIS S. GIBBS is a prominent lawyer and an old resident of
Noble County. He is the son of Dennis Gibbs, one of the
early New England settlers of Olive Township, and was born in that
township, Dec. 25, 1825. He was reared on his father's farm
and shared the rough experiences of pioneer life. He received
such schooling as the inferior subscription schools of the early
days afforded. He was editorially connected with two of the
early news papers of Noble County. He began the study of law
in the office of Hon. Isaac Parrish and finished in the office of
Hon. W. H. Frazier He was admitted to the bar in 1868, but
did not enter upon the practice of the law until 1875. His
early political teachings were such that he became a "free-soiler"
and cast his first vote for the nominees of that party. On the
formation of the Republican party he became an adherent to its
principles and still remains constant to them. He has taken an
active part in politics for many years and is a sound and effective
public speaker. In 1863 Mr. Gibbs was elected to the
office of probate judge and for two terms fulfilled the duties of
that position. In 1870 he went to Kansas where he embarked
largely in the real estate business until 1873 when the panic
brought financial disaster to him. In 1875 he returned to
Noble County and in partnership with William Chambers engaged
in the practice of law. He has since had a large practice and
is a very successful lawyer. Judge Gibbs has
been twice married - first, in 1853 to Rhoda Chamberlain,
of Beverly, O., who died in 1859; and, second, in 1864 to Ada M.
Tuttle. By the first marriage there was one child who died
young. Three children have been borne of the second union -
Mattie L., Dennis C. and Ada M. In religious
belief, Jugde Gibbs is a Universalist."
HON.
JAMES M. DALZELL, now an attorney-at-law in Caldwell,
was born in Allegheny City (opposite Pittsburgh), Penn.,
Sept. 3, 1838.
He attended school in Allegheny, and was quite
proficient in the rudiments of a common English education
before he was nine years old. Then his father,
Robert Dalzell, re-Page 182 -
moved to Brookfield Township, and
there commenced farming. His youth was spent like that
of other boys of that day in the country, working on the
farm in summer, and attending on the farm in summer, and
attending school in winter three months in the year.
At sixteen he had completed the limited curriculum of that
period, and having obtained a certificate set out on foot
for Vinton County in the winter of 1854, and there taught
his first school at $22 per month. With the proceeds
he maintained himself at the Ohio University at Athens for a
term, and when his money was exhausted, again resorted to
"the birch;" and so alternately teaching and attending
college as he could; sometimes at Sharon college, again at
Oberlin, at Athens, and Washington, Pa. The years flew
by, and with such difficulties to encounter and overcome, in
making his own way at college. When the war broke out
it found him a junior at Washington College, Pennsylvania.
He had also graduated from Duff's College, Pittsburgh, but
the dream of his life was to finish a full classical course
in old Washington; but the cherished ambition of his youth
was frustrated by his enlistment as a common soldier in
Company H, One Hundred and Sixteenth Ohio Volunteer
Infantry. Here he served three years without
discredit, and was promoted "Sergeant Major, for gallant and
distinguished service," as his commission reads. At
the close of the war returning home to Noble County, he was
chosen deputy clerk of the court of common pleas, and acted
in that capacity until July, 1866, when he was appointed to
a clerkship in the United States Treasury at Washington
City, which he held for two years, until he had graduated in
Columbia College and was admitted to the bar as attorney at
law in June, 1868. This be achieved by night study
alone, for his days were devoted to the business of his
office Nov. 29, 1867, he married Miss Hettie M. Kelley,
and estimable young lady residing then at her home in
Muskingum County. Together they spent a pleasant and
profitable year at the Capital. But in the fall of
1868 they removed to Caldwell, Ohio, and there have resided
ever since. Their union has been one of the happiest
and blessed with six children, all of whom survive except
James Monroe, the eldest son, a very promising youth,
whose sudden death at the age of fifteen has cast a deep
gloom over the household that mourns his departure.
Mr. Dalzell has always
contributed to the daily newspaper press, and it is probably
not going too far for us to say that no name is better known
than his among newspaper writers. His business for
eighteen years has been that of a lawyer, in which he has
been fairly successful. In 1869 he has elected
prosecuting attorney and served two years; and so vigorous
was his prosecution of liquor sellers that at the end of his
term there was not an open saloon in his county. In
1875 he was elected to the General Assembly of Ohio, and
represented Noble County so wlle
Page 183 -
that in 1877 he was re
elected for two years more. During his entire four
years in the legislature he was a member of the judiciary
committee, the most influential and important of all the
committees, and the one to which lawyers only are eligible.
The entire body of Ohio statutory law passed
through the hands of this committee for the laws were then
being codified and re-enacted. In 1882 he was strongly
supported in the Congressional convention at St. Clairsville
for the nomination to Congress, and was balloted for
unsuccessfully nearly three hundred times in the most
exciting contest for Congress ever witnessed in Ohio.
The convention broke up in confusion, without nominating any
one, and then and there Mr. Dalzell retired from
politics and resumed the practice of law more assiduously
than ever. For many years he was on the "stump" in
various States, and in 1879 was called to Massachusetts and
Pennsylvania and in 1880 to Indiana. He was in
demand everywhere and was regarded one of the best stumpers
in the United States. He was always a Republican.
He advocated the election of every Republican candidate,
both with voice and pen, from Fremont to Garfield. The
confidential friend of Sumner, Frederick Douglass, James
A. Garfield, Rutherford B. Hayes, Gen. W. T. Sherman, Henry
Wilson, John Sherman, O. P. Morton, Thaddeus Stevens,
Schuyler Colfax and a host of their great
contemporaries. Mr. Dalzell confesses to
not a little pride in their letters testifying their high
regard for him. As is elsewhere fully detailed in this
work, Mr. Dalzell was the originator and author of
the popular soldiers' reunions now held annually in all
parts of the country. It is doubtful if there is a
soldier in the United States who does not know "Private
Dalzell" (as he is familiarly called) at least by
reputation, for at the first and other reunions since
established he has addressed most of them in his patriotic
speeches. Besides, he has always taken a pride in all
matters relating to soldiers ever since the war, and devoted
a large portion of his time and means to the furtherance of
their interests not only in this but in almost every other
State.
But since he quits politics and resumed the practice of
the law, he has passed his time very quietly. When not
engaged in the courts of at professional business elsewhere,
he devotes himself to his books. He is regarded as one
of the first forensic orators in Ohio, and on all public
occasions he is in demand. To these calls, however, he
seldom responds, for he finds more pleasure and profit in
the plain, plodding practice of the law and the presence of
his family to whom he is doubly devoted.
GEO. JENNINGS, now of Woodsfield,
studied law with D. S. Spriggs,
Page 184 -
and practiced in Caldwell a year or more.
COLONEL WILBERT T. TETERS
served as clerk of courts in Noble County. He was the only
soldier that went from the county who attained to the rank of
Colonel. He was in the One Hundred and Sixteenth Ohio
Volunteer Infantry. He was admitted to the bar about 1868, but
never practiced. He is now a resident of Bowlder, Colorado,
and is marshal of that city.
WILLIAM CHAMBERS,
a leading lawyer, was born in Calvert County, in Maryland, in 1842.
His father, William Chambers, was a sea-faring man in his
early life, but afterwards became a farmer. The subject of
this notice was reared on a farm. In 1853 he came to Ohio with
his parents. His father settled on a farm in Monroe County
where he died in 1866 at the age of seventy years. William
lived on the farm and followed school teaching a portion of the
time until 1867, when he entered upon the study of the law. In
1869 he was admitted to the bar and in 1871 began the practice of
his profession in Caldwell. In 1872, on the incorporation of
the village, he became its first mayor, holding the office four
years. In 1875 he was elected prosecuting attorney. He
served one term in that office. Mr. chambers is
a Republican and has been an active worker for his party. He
is a man of extensive and varied information and is thoroughly
versed in the law. He was married in 1870 to Martha A.,
daughter of Rev. Jeremiah Phillips, of the Pittsburgh M. E.
Conference. They have four children.
JOHN M. AMOS,
now editor of the Cambridge Jeffersonian, was reared and
educated in Noble County. He taught school in early life,
studied law under Spriggs & Foreman and was admitted to the
bar. After practicing law for a time he engaged in the
newspaper business, building up the Democratic organ of the county
and making it, for almost the first time in its history, a paying
newspaper property. At the same time he practiced law and took
a leading part in politics. He sold out his newspaper in 1884
and removed to Cambridge. Mr. Amos was a Republican
until 1871 but has since acted with the Democrats.
FRED W. MOORE
was born in 1845, and died in April,
1874. He attended college at Washington, Pennsylvania, in
1865-6, and afterward studied law in the office of Hon. F. W.
Wood, in McConnelsville. He was admitted to the bar at
Pomeroy, Ohio, in 1871, and soon after began practice in Caldwell,
in partnership with J. F. Young, Esq. In July, 1873, he
became associated with John M. Amos, Esq., in the publicaton
of the Citizen's Press, but the state of his health soon
compelled him to retire from active labor.
JOHN
F. YOUNG, from St. Clairsville, a graduate of the college at
Washington, Pa., located in Caldwell in1871 and practiced until
1874, a part of the time in partnership with Fred W. Moore.
He went to Bellaire where he practiced law several years.
Page 185 -
NATHAN B. WHARTON,
was born in what is now Marion Township, May 10, 1844. .He
received such advantages for education as were offered by
the district schools of that day. .At the age of eight-teen
he enlisted in Company D. Ninety-second Ohio Volunteer
Infantry. .He was a member of that command until March, 1863,
when he was discharged at Carthage, Tennessee, by reason of
disability contracted in the service.. May 2, 1864, he again
entered the service, this time as a member of Company C, One
Hundred and. Sixty-first Ohio National Guards.. He served in
this company until it was discharged from the service, at
Camp Chase, Sept. 6, 1864. On his return to his home he
began the study of the law in the office of Hon. J. M.
Dalzell, and was admitted to practice by the district court
of Columbia County, April 26, 1871, At the October election
of 1881, he was elected prosecuting attorney of Noble
County, which position he filled creditably for three years.
In July 1885, he was appointed special agent for the General
Land Office with headquarters at St. Cloud, Minnesota.
.He
married Miss Amelia A., daughter of Kinsey and Louisa John,
Apr. 27, 1865, and has a family of ten children.
JOHN
F. YOUNG, from St. Clairsville, a graduate of the college at
Washington, Pa., located in Caldwell in1871 and practiced until
1874, a part of the time in partnership with Fred W. Moore.
He went to Bellaire where he practiced law several years.
NOTE: This is a duplicate.
JAMES W. BARNES
was reared at Summerfield, in this county ; studied law
under Hon. J. M. Dalzell, and was admitted to the bar about
1872. After his admission he practiced in partnership with
his preceptor for a short time. He is now in the government
printing office at Washington, D. C.
JAMES
M. MCGINNIS is a well-informed and prominent lawyer. He was
born in Tuscarawas County in 1847, and came to Summerfield when
young. He' secured on education through his own exertions, attend-in
£ the common schools and Mount Union college. For several years he
was a successful teacher, adopting this profession to obtain means
with which to pursue his studies. In February, 1865, he became a
member of Company D, One Hundred and Eighty-fifth Ohio Volunteer
Infantry, and served until mustered out the following September.
From 1873 to 1878 he was principal of the Summerfield schools. He
read law in the office of Spriggs & Foreman in the meantime,
and was admitted to the bar. He was elected prosecuting attorney in
1877, removed to Caldwell in 1878 to assume the duties of his
office, and has since been in successful practice here. In 1879 he
was re-elected prosecuting attorney, and held the office during
another term. He was in partnership with Hon. J. M. Dalzell
for five years, and is now a member of the law firm of
McGinnis & Weems. Mr. McGinnis is an earnest
Republican. He was married in 1879 to Miss Emma, daughter of
William Peregoy.
Page 186 -
CAPELL L. WEEMS
is an able young lawyer, who is fast earning for himself an
honored place in the ranks of the profession. He was born at
Whigville, Marion Township, July 7, 1860. He attended the
common and normal schools until the age of sixteen, when he
began teaching school, and taught with occasional
interruptions until he began the practice of law. He studied
law under the tuition of Dalzell & McGinnis,
beginning at the age of nineteen, and was admitted to the
bar in October, 1881 He then took a position as
superintendent of schools at Senecaville, Guernsey County,
where he remained until 1883. In the spring of that year he
settled in Caldwell, and entered upon the practice in
partnership with James M. McGinnis, Esq. Mr. Weems
was elected prosecuting attorney in 1884, and has ably
discharged the duties of that position. In November, 1883,
he was married to Mary B. Nay.
CLARK M. WATSON,
was born in Seneca Township, Noble County, June 15,
1847. The Watson family were among the early settlers
of that township. He was educated in the normal schools and
at the Ohio Wesley an University, graduating from the
classical department of that institution in 1874. For the
three years succeeding his graduation he served as
superintendent of schools in Chesterville, Morrow County,
Seville, Medina County, and Frederick-town, Knox County,
meantime reading law in his spare moments. He next entered
the law office of
Hon. L. K. Critchfield. ex-attorney-general of
Ohio, at Cleveland, and in the spring of 1878 was admitted
to the bar in that city. In the fall of the same year he
removed to Caldwell, where he still practices his
profession. Mr. Watson is a Republican and a
Methodist. He was married in 1874 to Miss Lettie A.
Brown, a native of Cuyahoga County, and is the father of
one child.
E. H. ARCHER, now a clerk in
the adjutant-general's office at Columbus, was reared and
educated in Noble County. He read law with Hon. J. M.
Dalzell, was admitted to the bar about 1877, practiced in
Caldwell with success until 1885, when he went to Columbus
to assume the duties of his present position.
ADAM
J. SMITH, from Muskingum County, studied law in
Caldwell, and was admitted to the bar about 1877. He
practiced here for a short time. He then removed to Kansas,
where he now holds the position of prosecuting attorney.
RUSSELL W. SUMMERS, son of Dr. K. P. Summers, was born
near Summerfield in 1854. After receiving an academical
education he began the study of law in the office of Belford
& Okey, and in September, 1878, was admitted to the bar. He
began to practice, in Caldwell, in 1879. He married Miss
Lillie Moore, of Benrock, Noble County.
IRVIN BELFORD,
son of Jabez Belford, served as clerk of courts from
1872 to 1878, and about the close of his second term as
clerk was admitted' to the bar. After a few years he removed
to Toledo, where lie is at present assistant prosecuting
attorney. Page 187 -
CHARLES
T. LEWIS, who served for a time as cashier of the Noble
County Bank, began his legal studies in Marietta and finished them
in Caldwell, where he was admitted to the bar about 1878.
Forming a partnership with Irvin Belford, he practiced with
him in Caldell until 1882, when both removed to Toledo.
D.
A. JENNINGS, editor of the Press, is among the younger
representatives of the legal profession in Caldwell. See
Chapter XIV
CHARLES A. LELAND was born in Sharon, Noble County, in
1860. He is the son of B. M. Leland, a prominent citizen of
this county. He received a common-school education, read law
in the office of Dalzell & McGinnis, and was admitted to the
bar in 1881. Mr. Leland has been a teacher since he was
sixteen years old, and is at present (January, 1887) the teacher of
the Caldwell grammar school.
|