Hancock County, Ohio - Chapter 22: Our Judicial Associate Counties an Juddges, 1881

IN 1830, the Judicial Circuit to which we belonged, was composed of the counties of Huron, Richland, Delaware? Sandusky, Seneca, Crawford, Wood, Marion, Hancock Henry, Williams, Putnam, Paulding and Van Wert. Ebenezer Lane was the Circuit Judge, but having just been elected to the Supreme Bench of the State, was succeeded by David Higgins.

Knapp, in his " History of the Maumee Valley," says that Judge Higgins, in his '' Memoirs of the Maumee Valley," relates the incident of a voyage from Findley to Perrysburg. by way of Defiance, in the good " Piroque Jurisprudence." " A countryman," says the Judge, " agreed to take our horses to Perrysburg by land. We purchased a canoe, and taking with us our saddles, bridles and baggage, proposed to descend the Blanchard Fork, and the Auglaize Rivers to Defiance, and then to Perrysburg. Our company consisted of Rudolphus Dickenson, J. C. Spink, Count Coffinberry, myself and a country man, whose name I forget- The voyage was a dismal one to Defiance, through an unsettled wilderness of some sixty miles. Its loneliness was only broken by the intervening Indian settlements at Ottawa, where we were cheered lustily by the Tohwa Indians, as would be a foreign ship at New York."

The General Assembly of Ohio, iu 1838-3'.), by enactment, created the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit. This embraced ten counties, but out of that territory the counties of Defiance, Auglaize and Fulton, have since been erected. These ten counties were Seneca, Wood, Henry, Williams, Paulding, Putnam, Van Wert, Allen, Hardin and Hancock.

Judge Higgins was succeeded in the old Circuit by Ozias Bowen. But Emery D. Potter was elected Presiding Judge, and held the office until 1844, when he resigned to take his seat in Congress, He was succeeded as Judge by Myron H. Tilden.

On the 19th of February, 1815, the 16th Judicial Circuit was formed, embracing the counties of Shelby, Mercer, Allen, Hardin, Hancock, Putnam, Paulding, Van Wert and Williams, and Patrick G. Goode, of Sidney, was elected Presiding Judge. This was the last of the Circuit Judges.

Under the Constitution of 1851, the counties of Wood, Seneca, Hancock, Wyandotte and Crawford formed a subdivision of the Second District, and Lawrence W. Hall, of Buc}'Tus, was elected Common Pleas Judge. After one term of five years, he was succeeded by Machias C. Whitely, of Findley. Judge Whitely was re-elected in 1861, the sub-di\ision then being the counties of Wood, Hancock and Putnam. In 1856, Seneca having been placed in the subdivision, George E. Seeney, of Tiffin, was elected an additional Judge.

In December, 1866, Hancock, Seneca and V/ood being joined in one sub-di^dsion, Chester R. Mott, of Upper Sandusky, was elected Judge, and served one term. In 1868,

James Pillars, of Tiffin, was elected, and in 1871, Crawford and Marion Counties having been added to the District, Abner M. Jackson, of Bucyrus, was elected an additional Judge, but after serving a short time, he resigned, and Thomas Beer, also of Bucyrus, was elected to till vacancy. ' At the expiration of Judge Pillars' term, Henry 11. Dodge, of Perrysburg, (present incumbent,) succeeded him, and in 1879, Hardin County having been attached to this District, John McCauley, of Tiffin, was elected an additional Judge.

A brief sketch of these men, or some of them at least, although not residents of the county, will perhaps be appropriate here, as they were actors in the early history of our county.

Hon. Emery D. Potter is said to have been the first lawyer who opened an office in Toledo, and that he is the last of his early professional contemporaries, and is yet a citizen of Toledo.

He was born in Providence County, Rhode Island, the son of a farmer in limited circumstances. At the age of two years. Judge Potter was taken by his parents to Otsego County, New York, then a wilderness. Mr. Potter entered the office of Hon. John A. Dix and Abner Cook, jr., at Cooperstown. After having completed an academic education, and there diligently pursued the study of the law, until he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the State.

In the fall of 1855, he emigrated to Toledo, a place as he then thought, opening a good field for a young practitioner. After a successful practice of four years, he was, in February, 1839, elected Presiding Judge of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit.

In 1843 he was nomiuated and elected to Congress by a handsome majority. In 1847 he was elected to a seat in the Ohio House of Representatives. In 1848 he was again elected to Congress. In 1875, Mr. Potter was elected to the Ohio Senate from the Thirty-third Senatorial District.

In 1845, Patrick Gr. Goode, of Sidney, was elected Presiding Judge of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit. Judge Goode was an honest, upright man, an impartial Judge and a christian gentleman. He was very punctilious in the preservation of the dignity of the court, and the courtesies of the bar. Pettifogging and undignified conduct, and vulgar language were his horrors. After holding court all day, he would not unfrequently preach at night, as he was a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

It is told of Judge Goode, that while holding court in Mercer County, in 1847, he met a juryman who was rather too smart for him. A case had been tried, and just a few minutes before the regular dinner time, had been given to the jury, and the court had adjourned until after dinner. Within a few minutes, one of the jurymen, Cyrenius Elliott by name, entered the room at the hotel, where the Judge was seated. The Judge was surprised, and exclaimed : " What are you doing here ? Have the jury agreed ?" ^' Jury agreed," hissed Elliott, " you must be a simpleton to ask the question. You must understand, Pat Goode, that I don't believe much in the divine right of Kings, or in the infallibility of courts, when run by such men as yourself Your right way would have been to let us have our dinner before sending us to the jury-room, knowing as you must, if you have good sense, that jurors have stomachs and bowels as well as judges and lawyers."

when the late John H, Morrison opened an address to the jury, with this declaration : " May it please the court, by the perjury of witnesses, the ignorance of the jury, and the corruption of the court, I expect to be beaten in this case." The Judge turned to the counsel and inquired : " What is that you say, Mr. Morrison ?" The latter replied: " That is all I have to say on that point," and proceeded with his argument.

At another time, a man of bad repute, made application to the court for license. The court considered the proposition, and Judge Goode announced that the application was refused. Mr. Morrison, much excited, arose and addressed one of the Associate Judges : " Judge Ewing, is that your decision ?" An affirmative answer was given. " Judge Price do you concur in this decision ?" " Yes." Morrison was about to put the same question to the other associate, when Judge Goode inquired : " ]\Ir. Morrison, what are you doing ?" Morrison replied, " Why, I am polling the court, your honor."