Auglaize County, Ohio - Chapter 16: Courts and Bar of Auglaize County, 1905

The first term of Court of Common Pleas, in Auglaize county was held in the old Methodist church, near where the present church edifice of that denomination stands, in May, 1848 ; Patrick G. Goode, presiding as President Judge, assisted by George W. Holbrook, David Simpson. and John McLean, associates.

Patrick G. Goode was a distinguished citizen of the state. He was born in Prince Edwards county, Virginia, May 10, 1798, and came to Ohio in 1805. He was educated in Professor Espy's school of Philadelphia and studied law under the tutorship of Judge Collett, of Ohio. In 1833, he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives. In 1836 he was elected to Congress from a district extending from Dayton to Toledo, comprising fourteen counties. He was twice elected to that office, but declined a third election. In 1844, the sixteenth judicial district was created, and was composed of Shelby and Williams, with all the intervening counties, ten in number. Judge Goode was elected President Judge of this district by the General Assembly for seven years. His term of office expired in 1851, when he retired from the legal profession, and spent the remainder of his life in the service of the Methodist church. He died at Sidney, Ohio, October 7, 1862.

Under the Constitution of 1851, Allen, Hardin, Shelby, Auglaize, Madison, Union and Logan counties were erected in one Common Pleas District, known as No. 3, Sub-division No. 1, of . which Benjamin F. Metcalf was elected judge in October, 1851. He was succeeded by Judge William Lawrence, who presided over the district as reorganized until 1864, when he resigned to enter Congress.

In 1851, Mercer, Van Wert, Putnam, Paulding, Defiance, Williams, Henry, and Fulton were organized as District No. 3, Subdivision No. 2, and John M. Palmer elected Judge in October, 1851. He was succeeded in 1855-56 by Alexander S. Latty. Under the act of April 8th, 1858, this subdivision was reorganized, and Allen, Auglaize, Mercer, Van Wert and Putnam were made an additional subdivision, of which Benjamin F. Metcalf was elected Judge in October, 1858, re-elected in October, 1863, and occupied the position until his death in February, 1865.

Judge Metcalf, in stature, was not above the medium height, muscular, and commanding in appearance. Few men of his time had a better knowledge of the intricacies of the law, or a keener perception of the salient points of a case. He was endowed with superior conversational powers which rendered him a great favorite with the bar. Many are the stories told of Judge Metcalf's quickness of wit and readiness in the practice of his profession. The following is from an address of J. L. H. Long, delivered before the Putnam County Pioneer Association, September 3d, 1885:

"I remember being present in the court room at one time when he was defending a man who was charged with burglary. The strongest link in the chain of circumstantial evidence against the prisoner was the identification by the prosecuting witness of a piece of silver money, a Prussian Thaler, which was found on the prisoner as a part of the money stolen. Metcalf had managed to procure sixteen or eighteen of these Prussian Thalers, and when the prosecuting witness, after having identified the piece of money was turned over to him for cross-examination, Metcalf picked up the Thaler and presenting it to the witness, asked, 'Are you sure this is the piece of money you lost?' 'Yes, sir,' answered the witness. Metcalf laid it down on the table behind a book, where the witness could not, but the jury could, see it. After another question or so to the witness, during which he got one of his own Thalers ouf of his pocket unobserved by the witness, he handed him another Thaler with the remark, 'Take that piece of money again and see if there is any mark on it by which you can know it.' The witness answered that there was no particular mark, but he knew it was the same, and Metcalf placed that piece by the side of the other, and so with a question or so between them he got the witness to identify each of the sixteen or eighteen Thalers, and finally, removing the book, he called the witness to pick out of the pile the particular Thaler he claimed to have been stolen. The witness, utterly dumbfounded, refused to identify any of them, and the prisoner was acquitted.

county seats practice enough to justify a lawyer in relying on his home practice, and the lawyers were in the habit of going from county seat to county seat as the Court moved, to attend to their cases, this they called 'riding the circuit.' Upon one of these trips Judge Metcalf, in company with the other lawyers, staid all night one night at Pendleton. In the course of the evening he complained of being ill, and insisted upon it that he was going to die, called up one of his brother lawyers, handed him his pocketbook, and requested his friends to give it with his last loving remembrance to his poor wife, and having thus arranged his worldly, affairs, closed his eyes and composed his countenance for death. Under these solemn circumstances it was conceived eminently proper by-his brethren of the bar that his passage to the other world should be eased by sacred harmony, and Judge John M. Palmer was selected as one peculiarly fitted to conduct the services. Palmer with a solemn countenance sat down by the bed and sang - not a hymn as expected - but a fancy little comic song to a queer jerky sort of tune and very pathetic chorus. He had hardly finished the first verse, until Metcalf, whose mouth had commenced to twitch in spite of him, raised up in bed and proceeded forthwith to kick Palmer out of the room, with the remark

Following the death of Judge Metcalf, O. W. Rose of Van Wert, was appointed to fill the vacancy. In October, 1865, James Mackenzie, of Lima, was elected to the Judgeship of Common Pleas for the unexpired term, and re-elected in 1868.

James Mackenzie was born in Scotland, July 14, 1814. His father, William L. Mackenzie, settled in Canada in 1825. Soon afterward he joined the liberal party and established the "Colonial Advocate," in which he advocated the right of the Canadian people to a liberal and free government. At that time, all power was vested in the colonial governor and a junto of office-holders, known as the "Family Compact," who controlled all offices, judicial and political, except members of the lower house of Parliament. In 1837, the liberal party revolted and attempted to establish an independent government. The insurgents were led by William Lyon Mackenzie. The movement received much encouragement in the United States, especially in New York. From that

State a party of seven hundred men, taking arms, seized and fortified Navy Island in the Niagara river. The loyalists of Canada attempted to capture the place, and failed. They succeeded, however in firing the Caroline, the supply ship of the adventurers, cut her moorings, and sent the burning vessel over Niagara. Falls. A sufficient force to dislodge the "patriots" having collected, they withdrew to the other points along the line. A proclamation of neutrality by President Van Buren, forbidding interference with the afifairs of Canada, put an end to the war. After the defeat of the "patriots," William L. Mackenzie and family settled in New York, where he died in 1861.

James Mackenzie, who had become a printer by serving in his father's office, continued to advocate Canadian independence. After various adventures he established a newspaper at Lockport, New York in the interest of the Canadian cause, called the Freeman's Advocate. It had for a time a large circulation on the frontier, but was discontinued after the defeat of General Bierce at Sandwich in 1839. After the discontinuance of the Freeman's Advocate, he was employed as editor of the Workingmen's Advocate, a daily paper published in the interests of workingmen, until it was consolidated with the Advertiser. He then decided to come to Ohio, and located for a time at Cleveland, where he studied law under Messrs. Bishop and Backus. In this city he was admitted to citizenship and to the bar. From Cleveland he moved to Henry county, Ohio, where he engaged in teaching, and while engaged in that vocation was elected township clerk, and afterward, in October, 1844, prosecuting attorney of Henry county. At the close of his term of office he purchased the "Kalida Advertiser," of which he was the publisher for ten years thereafter. It was the Democratic paper of the county, and received support from several other counties that had not then established papers. In October, 1846, and again in 1848, and in 1850, Mr. Mackenzie was elected prosecuting attorney of Putnam county. In 1853 he was elected a member of the Ohio State Legislature from the counties of Putnam and Henry. In 1856 he was again elected prosecuting attorney of Putnam county. At the expiration of his term of office he moved to Allen county, and for two years published the Allen County Democrat. In 1861, and again in 1863, Mr. Mackenzie was elected prosecuting attorney of Allen county, and in 1865, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas to supply the

Judge Mackenzie was a brillant and successful lawyer. As a judge he was quick to comprehend cases and arrive at conclusions, and was exceedingly prompt and able in the dispatch and transaction of the duties of his office.

In his many years of experience as an editor and publisher, he acquired an extensive general information that was always at his command when he had occasion to use it. In sections of the state where he was known, his services as a lecturer on popular subjects were always in demand. During the last few years of his life he lived with his daughters in the city of Lima. He died May 9th, 1901.

Judge Edwin M. Phelps was born in Woodbury, Connecticut, on the 29th day of November, 1813, and died on the 19th day of July, 1883, at the age of almost seventy years. He came to Ohio in early boyhood, having been prepared for college in Derby, Con* necticut. *He entered Kenyon College in 1829, and graduated in 1833, delivering the Latin salutatory. Among his class, that of '33, were Edward M. Stanton, afterward Secretary of War, David Davis of Illinois, and Bishop Wilmer. Immediately upon graduating he began the study of law in the office of Judge Lane, of Norwalk. While pursuing his law studies he also engaged in teaching in the Norwalk Academy, at that time very prosperous and one of the best institutions in the state, Dr. Edward Thompson, afterward Bishop Thompson, being president.

"While studying with Judge Lane I also taught Latin, Greek and the natural sciences to a very large class of young men and women, numbering one hundred and forty. Among them some have risen to distinction and many others are dead.- Among them were the first wife of Bishop Thompson, Rev. George Breckenridge, Rev. Thomas Barkdul, Rev. John Wheeler, since President of Baldwin University, and Bishop Harris. I tried to teach them well and faithfully, and many of them remembered me kindly in after years. I here met my wife who was also engaged in teaching." In 1835 he was admitted to the bar, the Supreme Court the fourth of March, 1835. I reached there on foot, the little sleigh in which I had traveled having given out. I waded the river and came into town about ten o'clock. I found a little town, of about twenty houses, all log. I was too poor to leave and too depressed to stay. How kind and friendly these people were to me, but they have all passed away."

Judge Phelps joined the Methodist church the first Sabbath after reaching St. Marys with his young bride, who was already an earnest Christian. In the act of joining the church he received the witness of the Spirit and very often referred to it in relating his religious experience.

Judge Phelps was twice elected State Senator, and twice elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Of his competency, honesty, and faithfulness, the public whom he served well know. He was one of the oldest residents of the county, and, it is said, the oldest practitioner in the county, having been a practicing attorney for forty-eight years.