Cleveland Past and Present

M >> Maurice Joblin >> Cleveland Past and Present

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Although Wallingford is but a short day's travel from Yale, even under the
old System of horse and shay, or horse and saddle, young Andrews was sent
out of New England to Union College, at Schenectady, New York, where he
graduated about the year 1821.

Soon after this time the elder Silliman was at Wallingford, and being in
need of an assistant in Chemistry and a private secretary, he offered the
position to Mr. Andrews, which was accepted. It seems to have been
mutually a happy relation. In his diary, Prof. Silliman says, "he was a
young man of a vigorous and active mind, energetic and quick in his
decisions and movements, with a warm heart and a genial temper, of the
best moral and social habits, a quiet and skillful penman, an agreeable
inmate of my family, in which we made him quite at home. We found we had
acquired an interesting and valuable friend as well as a good professional
assistant. It is true he had, when he came, no experience in practical
Chemistry. He had everything to learn, but learned rapidly, as he had real
industry and love of knowledge. Before the end of the first term he proved
that we had made a happy choice. He continued about four years serving
with ability, and the zeal of an affectionate son, without whom I could
scarce have retained my place in the College." During this experience in
the field of sciences, Mr. Andrews had pursued the study of the law at the
Law School of New Haven, with the same ardor, and in 1825, removed to
Cleveland, and established himself as an attorney.

In 1828, he married Miss Ursula Allen, of Litchfield, Connecticut,
daughter of the late John Allen, a member of Congress from that State, who
was also the father of Hon. John W. Allen, of this city. The late Samuel
Cowles had preceded Mr. Andrews here in the profession and offered him a
partnership. Their competitors were the late Governor Wood and Judge John
W. Willey, who were partners, and Judge Starkweather, who still survives.
Considering the limited business of the place, which scarcely numbered
five hundred inhabitants, the profession was evidently overstocked then,
as it has been ever since. Briefless lawyers had, however, a wide field to
cultivate outside this county, embracing at least all the counties of the
Reserve; with horse and saddle-bags, they followed the Court in its
travels, judges and attorneys splashing through the mud on terms of
democratic equality.

Judge Andrews gave immediate promise of celebrity as an advocate. With a
sensitive and nervous temperament, he entered sympathetically into the
case of his client, making it his own. He possessed a brilliant readiness
of manner, full of skillful thrusts, hits, and witticisms. His correct New
England morals were not deteriorated by contact with the more loose codes
of a new western town. In his clear and earnest voice there was that
magnetic influence, which is necessary to complete the style of any
orator, and which is a gift solely of nature. As a technical pleader,
though he stood high, there were others upon the circuit equally gifted.
But in a cause where his convictions of justice and of legal right were
fixed, there was not among his contemporaries, in the courts of this
State, an advocate, whose efforts were so nearly irresistible before a
jury. He has command of sarcasm and invective, without coarseness. He
attacks oppression, meanness and fraud as if they were offences not only
against the public, but against himself. He has never strayed from the
profession to engage in any speculations or occupations to divert his
thoughts from pure law, except for two years from 1840, while he held a
seat in Congress. In 1848, the Legislature elected him judge of the
Superior Court of Cuyahoga county, a place he continued to hold till the
Court was abolished. As a judge he was eminently successful, his decisions
having been overruled by higher courts only in a single instance, and that
owing to a clerical mistake. In politics he was evidently not at home.
After leaving the bench, Judge Andrews returned to the practice, but has
been chiefly employed as associate counsel, occasionally addressing juries
on important cases.

As an advocate, Judge Andrews, during his whole professional career, has
been in the very foremost rank, with a reputation confined neither to
county, or even State lines. Distinguished for clear conceptions of legal
principles, and their varied relations to practical life, he has also
shown rare ability in judging of mixed questions of law and fact. His
legal opinions, therefore, have ever been held in the highest esteem.

But as jury lawyer, Judge Andrews has achieved successes so remarkable as
to have secured a permanent place in the traditions of the bar, and the
history of judicial proceedings in Northern Ohio. The older lawyers have
vivid recollections of a multitude of cases when he was in full practice,
and in his prime, in which his ready insight into character--his power to
sift testimony and bring into clear relief the lines of truth involved in
complicated causes--his ability to state the legal principles so that the
jury could intelligently apply them to the facts--his humor--his pure
wit--his pathos, at times bringing unfeigned tears to the eyes of both
judge and jurors--his burning scorn of fraud--and his appeal on behalf of
what he believed to be right, so impetuous with enthusiasm, so condensed
and incisive in expression, and so felicitous in illustration, as to be
well nigh irresistible.

Yet, highly as Judge Andrews has adorned his profession, it is simply
justice to say in conclusion, that his unblemished character in every
relation has adorned his manhood. He has been far more than a mere lawyer.
With a keen relish for historical and philosophical inquiry--a wide
acquaintance with literature, and an earnest sympathy with the advanced
lines of thought in the present age, his life has also been practically
subordinated to the faultless morality of Christianity. A community is
truly enriched, when it possesses, and can present to its younger members,
such shining instances of success in honorable endeavor, and sterling
excellence in character and example.

John W. Allen.

Mr. Allen, though not among the first attorneys who settled in Cleveland,
was upon the ground early among the second generation. Samuel Huntington
was the first lawyer of the place, becoming a resident here in the year
1801. Alfred Kelley was his successor, commencing his legal career as soon
as the county courts were organized in 1810. In 1816, Leonard Case was
added to the profession and in 1818 the late Governor Wood and Samuel
Cowles, and about 1822, John W. Willey About the year 1826, soon after the
construction of the Ohio canal was commenced, a troop of young lawyers
took possession of the field, some of whom still survive, Sherlock J.
Andrews, Samuel Starkweather and John W. Allen. They were all from Yankee
land, in pursuit of fame and fortune. Mr. Allen originated in Litchfield
county, Connecticut, a place prolific in prominent characters. His father,
John Allen, was a member of Congress from that State.

From 1831 to 1835, inclusive, he was elected annually to be president of
the village corporation of Cleveland, and mayor of the city corporation
of Cleveland 1841. In 1835-7, Mr. Allen represented the district of
which Cuyahoga county was a part, in the Ohio Senate, and in 1836 was
elected to the Congress of the United States, commencing with the famous
extra session of September, 1837, as an old line Clay Whig, and was
re-elected in 1838.

As soon as Cleveland assumed the position of a city in 1836, the subject
of railways became one of the prominent public questions. A portion of the
citizens were of the opinion that they had yielded enough to the spirit of
modern innovation when the Ohio canal was suffered to enter Cleveland.
This had banished the Dutch wagons entirely, and railroads might complete
our ruin entirely, by banishing canal boats. Mr. Allen, and the new comers
generally, took the opposite side. While he was rising to a leading public
position he labored zealously in the cause of railways in harmony with his
political opponents John W. Willey, Richard Hilliard, James S. Clark and
others, most of whom are dead. But for his zeal and perseverence the
Cleveland & Columbus Railroad Company would not have been organized
probably for years after it was and then it was done almost in spite of
many of the large property holders of that day, who looked upon the
enterprise as chimerical.

Mr. Allen's free and generous manner not only rendered him popular among
his political friends, but prevented bitterness and personality on the
part of his opponents. During those years of prosperity he led a
thoroughly active life, not only as an attorney with a large practice,
but as an indefatigable public servant. In fact, through life he has
given to the public the first and best of his efforts. He never became a
finished advocate and speaker, but his enterprise and integrity secured
him a large business, most of which was litigated in the counties of the
Western Reserve.

Not long after Mr. Allen commenced practice in Ohio he married Miss Ann
Maria Perkins of Warren, Trumbull county, an auspicious connection which
was soon terminated by her death. His second wife was Miss Harriet Mather,
of New London county, Connecticut, who is now living, and was the mother
of two sons and two daughters, one son and one daughter now surviving.

[Illustration: J. W. Allen]

The financial storm of 1837-8 did so much damage to Mr. Allen's fortune,
as well as some unsuccessful efforts in the construction of local rail
roads ahead of time, that its effects are not yet gone. Being young and
energetic, with a large property, with few debts of his own, it would have
affected him but little, had he not been too generous towards his friends
in the way of endorsements.

In the winter of 1849-50, he was appointed under a resolution of the
Legislature the Agent of the State to examine into the claims of the State
on the General Government growing out of the grants of land in aid of the
canals and which had been twice settled and receipted for in full, which
occupied him five years at Washington. In this he was eminently successful
and did the State great service, and had the State performed its part of
the bargain as well as Mr. Allen did his, the result would have been a
rich compensation for his labors. His was the only case of repudiation
ever perpetrated by Ohio and he may well charge the State with punic faith
toward him.

When the State Bank of Ohio, consisting of branches scattered throughout
the State under the general management of a board of control, was
authorized by an act of the Legislature about the year 1846, and which was
the soundest system ever devised by any State Government, Mr. Allen was
one of the five Commissioners charged with the duty of putting the
machinery in operation.

Very few of the present generation realize the obligation of this city to
him, and his public spirited coadjutors of thirty years since, for the
solid prosperity it now enjoys.

Hiram V. Willson.

The first judge of the United States District Court for the Northern
District of Ohio, will long be remembered by the bar and public of that
District, for the ability, dignity, and purity with which, for over eleven
years, he administered justice. When at last he lay down to his final
rest, there was no voice raised in censure of any one of his acts, and
tributes of heartfelt praise of his life, and sorrow for his loss, were
laid on his grave by men of all parties and shades of opinion. As lawyer,
judge, citizen, and man, Judge Willson won the respect and confidence of
all with whom he was brought into social or official contact.

Hiram V. Willson was born in April, 1808, in Madison county, New York.
Graduating at Hamilton College in 1832, he commenced the study of law in
the office of the Hon. Jared Willson, of Canandaigua, New York.
Subsequently he visited Virginia, read law in the office of Francis S.
Key, of Washington, and for a time aided his slender pecuniary means by
teaching in a classical school in the Shenandoah Valley. During his early
legal studies he laid the foundations of that legal knowledge for which he
was afterwards distinguished, and acquired that familiarity with the
text-books and reports which made him a safe, prompt, and prudent
counsellor. At school, college, and in the Shenandoah Valley, he
maintained a close intimacy with the Hon. Henry B. Payne, then a young man
of about his own age. In 1833, he removed to Painesville, but soon changed
his residence to Cleveland, where he and his intimate friend, H. B. Payne,
formed a law partnership.

Long after, when at a banquet tendered by the bar of Cleveland in honor of
the organization of the United States Court for the Northern District of
Ohio, Judge Willson referred to the auspices under which the young firm
commenced business. The following toast had been offered:

The First Judge of the Northern District of Ohio: In the history and
eminent success of a twenty years' practice at the Bar, we have the
fullest assurance that whatever industry, talent, and integrity can
achieve for the character of this long sought for court, will be
accomplished by the gentleman who has been appointed to preside over its
deliberations.

In responding to the toast, Judge Willson spoke highly of the character
of the profession, and then made a warm appeal to the young lawyers. He
said that all there had been young lawyers and knew the struggles and
difficulties that hang around the lawyer's early path, and which cloud to
him his future, and nothing is so welcome, so genial to a young lawyer's
heart as to be taken in hand by an older legal brother. He said he could
talk with feeling on the subject, for the memory was yet green of the days
when two penniless young men came to Ohio to take life's start, and when
as discouragements, and almost despair, seemed to lie in wait for them,
there was an older lawyer who held out a friendly hand to aid them, and
who bid them take courage and persevere. Who that friend was he signified
by offering, with much feeling, a toast to the memory of Judge Willey.

But the young firm did not long need friendly counsel to cheer them in the
midst of discouragements. Although they were but young men, and Willey,
Congar, and Andrews were eminent lawyers in full practice, they soon took
place in the front rank of the profession. Business flowed in upon them,
and from 1837 to 1840, the number of suits brought by them in the Court of
Common Pleas averaged two hundred and fifty per year; whilst during the
same time they appeared for the defence in twice that number of cases
annually. Briefs in all those cases were, to a great extent, prepared by
Judge Willson. Upon Mr. Payne's retirement, a partnership was formed with
Hon. Edward Wade and Reuben Hitchcock, and after a while the firm was
changed to Willson, Wade & Wade. Under these partnerships the extensive
business and high reputation of the old firm were preserved and increased.

In 1852, Judge Willson ran for Congress on the Democratic ticket, against
William Case on the Whig and Edward Wade on the Free Soil tickets. Mr.
Wade was elected, but Judge Willson received a very handsome vote.

In the Winter of 1854, a bill was introduced to divide the State of Ohio,
for United States judicial purposes, into two districts. The members of
the Cleveland Bar pressed the matter vigorously, and after a sharp
struggle in Congress, the bill creating the United States Court for the
Northern District of Ohio was passed. During the pendency of the measure,
and when the prospects were unfavorable for its passage, Judge Willson was
chosen by the Cleveland Bar to proceed to Washington and labor in the
interest of the bill. This was done, and the final triumph of the bill was
doubtless owing in great measure to his unwearied industry in its behalf.
In March, 1855, President Pierce appointed Mr. Willson judge of the
District Court just authorized.

The formation of the court and the appointment of Judge Willson as its
presiding officer, gave general satisfaction. A banquet was held by the
lawyers to celebrate the event, and although Judge Willson was a strong
political partizan, the leading lawyers of all parties vied with each
other in testifying their entire confidence in the ability and
impartiality of the new judge. Nor was their confidence misplaced. In
becoming a judge he ceased to be a politician, and no purely political, or
personal, motives swayed his decisions. He was admitted by all to have
been an upright judge.

The new court found plenty to do. In addition to the ordinary criminal
and civil business, the location of the court on the lake border brought
to it a large amount of admiralty cases. In such cases, the extensive
knowledge and critical acumen of Judge Willson were favorably displayed.
Many of his decisions were models of deep research and lucid statement.
One of his earliest decisions of this character was in relation to
maritime liens. The steamboat America had been abandoned and sunk, and
only a part of her tackle and rigging saved. These were attached for debt
for materials, and the question arose on the legality of the claim
against articles no longer a part of the vessel. Judge Willson held that
the maritime lien of men for wages, and material men for supplies, is a
proprietary interest in the vessel itself, and can not be diverted by the
acts of the owner or by any casualty, until the claim is paid, and that
such lien inheres to the ship and all her parts wherever found and
whoever may be the owner. In the case of L. Wick _vs._ the schooner
Samuel Strong, in 1855, Judge Willson reviewed the history and intent of
the common carrier act of Ohio, in an opinion of much interest. A case,
not in admiralty, but in the criminal business of the court, gave the
judge another opportunity for falling back on his inexhaustible stores of
legal and historical knowledge. The question was on the point whether the
action of a grand jury was legal in returning a bill of indictment found
only by fourteen members, the fifteenth member being absent and taking no
part in the proceedings. Judge Willson reviewed the matter at length,
citing precedents of the English and American courts for several
centuries to show that the action was legal.

A very noticeable case was what is known in the legal history of
Cleveland as "The Bridge Case," in which Charles Avery sued the city of
Cleveland, to prevent the construction of a bridge across the Cuyahoga,
at the foot of Lighthouse street. The questions arising were: the
legislative authority of the city to bridge the river, and whether the
bridge would be a nuisance, damaging the complainant's private property.
The decision of Judge Willson, granting a preliminary injunction until
further evidence could be taken, was a thorough review of the law
relating to water highways and their obstructions. In the opinion on the
Parker water-wheel case, he exhibited a clear knowledge of mechanics, and
gave an exhaustive exposition of the law of patents. In the case of Hoag
_vs_ the propeller Cataract, the law of collision was set forth and
numerous precedents cited. In 1860, important decisions were given in
respect to the extent of United States jurisdiction on the Western lakes
and rivers. It was decided, and the decisions supported by voluminous
precedents, that the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction possessed by the
District Courts of the United States, on the Western lakes and rivers,
under the Constitution and Act of 1789, was independent of the Act of
1845, and unaffected thereby; and also that the District Courts of the
United States, having under the Constitution and Acts of Congress,
exclusive original cognizance of all civil causes of admiralty and
maritime jurisdiction, the Courts of Common Law are precluded from
proceeding _in rem_ to enforce such maritime claims.

These are but a very few of the many important cases coming before Judge
Willson's court and decided by him in a manner that made his decisions
important precedents.

The judicial administration of Judge Willson was noticeable also for its
connection with events of national importance. And here it should be again
repeated, that in all his conduct on the bench he divested himself of
personal or party predilections and prejudices. To him it was of no
consequence who were parties to the case, or what the political effect of
a decision would be; he inquired only what were the facts in the matter
and what the law bearing upon them. The keynote of his character in this
respect may be known from an extract taken from his charge to the grand
jury in the Winter term of 1856, in which it was expected a case would
come before that body of alleged impropriety or crime by a Government
officer, growing out of party zeal during a very heated political canvass.
The passions of men were intensely excited at the time of the delivery of
the charge, and that address had the effect of suddenly cooling down the
popular mind, in the city and vicinity at least, and of bringing about a
better state of feeling. After referring impressively to the language of
the oath taken by the grand jury, to present none through malice, and
except none through favouritism, Judge Willson said:

It was but yesterday our ears were deafened by the turmoil and clamour
of political strife, shaking the great national fabric to its centre,
and threatening the stability of the Government itself. In that fearful
conflict for the control of the Executive and Legislative Departments of
the Federal Government, all the evil passions of men seem to have been
aroused. Vituperation and scandal, malice, hatred and ill-will had
blotted out from the land all brotherly love, and swept away those
characteristics which should distinguish us as a nation of Christians.

How important, then, it is for us, coming up here to perform the duties
incident to the courts, to come with minds free from prejudice, free
from passions, and free from the influence of the angry elements around
us. To come with a fixed purpose of administering justice with truth,
according to the laws of the land. A dangerous political contagion has
become rampant in our country, invading the holy sanctuaries of the
"Prince of Peace" and polluting the very fountains of Eternal Truth.

God forbid the time may ever come when the temples of justice in our
land shall be desecrated by this unhallowed and contaminating influence,
or by wanton disregard of the Constitution, or by a perfidious
delinquency on the part of the ministers of the law. Here let passion
and prejudice find no abiding place. Here let equal and exact justice be
meted out to all men--to rich and to the poor--to the high and the low,
and above all things, with you, gentlemen, here preserve with scrupulons
fidelity the sanctity of your oaths, and discharge your whole duty
without fear and without favour. Put justice to the line and truth to
the plummet, and act up fully to the obligations of that oath, and you
will ever enjoy those rich consolations which always flow from a
conscientious discharge of a sworn duty.

To men of your intelligence and probity, these admonitions are, perhaps,
unnecessary. Knowing, however, the reluctance and pain with which the
misconduct of men in office is inquired into, by those who cherish the
same political sentiments, I am confident, gentlemen, that in times like
these, you can not exercise too great caution in excluding from your
minds all considerations, as to whether the party charged before you is
the appointee of this or of that administration, or whether he belongs
to this or that political organization or party.

In 1858, came before the court the historic case of the Oberlin-Wellington
Rescue. The facts of the case were, briefly, that on the first of March,
1857, a negro slave named John, the property of John G. Bacon, of
Kentucky, escaped across the river into Ohio. In October, 1858, the negro
was traced out and arrested within the Northern District of Ohio, by one
Anderson Jennings, holding a power of attorney from Bacon. In company with
an assistant named Love, Jennings took the negro to Wellington, Lorain
county, with the purpose of taking the cars for Cincinnati, and thence
returning the negro to Kentucky and remitting him to slavery. A number of
residents of Oberlin concerted a plan of rescue marched to Wellington,
entered the hotel where John was kept, took him from his captors, placed
him in a buggy, and carried him off. Indictments were found against the
leading rescuers, who comprised among others some of the leading men of
the college and village of Oberlin, and they were brought to trial, fined,
and imprisoned. The trial created great excitement, and, whilst it was
pending, a monster demonstration against the Fugitive Slave Law was held
on the Public Square, midway between the building where the court held its
sessions and the jail in which the accused were confined. At one time
fears were entertained of violence, threats being freely uttered by some
of the more headstrong that the law should be defied and the prisoners
released by force. Cooler counsels prevailed, and the law, odious as it
was felt to be, was allowed to take its course. In this exciting time the
charges and judgments of Judge Willson were calm and dispassionate, wholly
divested of partisanship, and merely pointing out the provisions of the
law and the necessity of obedience to it, however irksome such obedience
might be, until it was repealed.