Preble County, Ohio - Chapter 17: The Preble County Bar., 1881 (part 2 of 2)

It was in tbe conducting of the office of probate judge in which Judge Thompson displayed his good qualities and his philanthropic feelings, for as all well know, the duties of the office are those where the incumbent is called upon to protect and guard the right of widows and orphans. The possessor of a kind heart and just mind, safely can it be said that Judge Thompson at all times guarded with scrupulous fidelity the interests of :he widow and orphan. . His decisions and books speak, however, more eloquently than anything that can be written.

In the later years of his life he was afflicted with "hay fever," which, during certain months in the years caused him much suffering and inconvenience. Toward the last the disease grew more painful until it took the form of something resembling paralysis of the brain. Never of a very robust constitution, the decline of Judge Thompson became plainly perceptible. Having business in Lincoln, Nebraska, and thinking that, perhaps a change of climate would give him surcease from the awful pain he was suffering, he took his departure for the above mentioned town on the eighth of October, 1872.

Fora couple of weeks he kept his family advised of his condition. Then came a silence of two weeks. On the fourth of November a dispatch came from Lincoln, summoning his wife at once to his beside. She took the nexttrain, but a delayed dispatch came the following morning informing the family that the husband and father was no more. He died of typhoid or climatic fever superinduced, no doubt, by the dreaded "hay fever."

During his sickness they tended him with that devotion and tenderness for which this noble order is noted. He was a member of Bolivar Lodge, No. 82, Free and Accepted Masons, which organization published fitting resolutions of respect, as did also the members of the Eaton bar. The funeral services took place from the Methodist Episcopal church, and were conducted by Rev. Mr. Haigh,t assisted by Rev. Mr. Cassatt. The funeral cortege was very lengthy and quite imposing, and was a becoming tribute to the man and his character.

Judge Thompson left a wife, two daughters and a son, who is a young lawyer of considerable ability. The deceased was a kind husband, an indulgent parent and an

JoeL W. Harris was born in Milford township, Butler county, Ohio, on the seventh day of February, 181 5, and died in Eaton, Ohio, on the thirtieth day of March, 1866. His father, Joseph Harris, was a native of Ireland, came to the United States in 1797, and lived for some time in the State of Pennsylvania, then moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and finally settled on a small farm in Butler county, Ohio. He was married three times and was the father of thirteen children, the subject of this sketch being the second son of his second wife, Rachel (Hornaday) Harris. He worked on his father's farm in summer and attended school in winter until he was about seventeen years old, when he was sent by his father to learn the tailor's trade. After finishing his trade he began teaching school and continued in that occupation until 1838, when he entered Miami university, at Oxford, Ohio, and pursued his studies there about three years, when, for want of means, he was compelled to leave college and resume his former occupation, teaching school In 1844, he was engaged in selling dry goods in Darrtown, in his native township, and soon after he was elected justice of the peace. While acting as justice he concluded to read law, and in 185o he sold his stock of goods and began a regular course of reading. In October, 1851, he entered the Cincinnati law school, where he graduated in April, 1852, along with the Hon. O. P. Morton, of Indiana. In the fall of 1852, he opened a law office in Eaton, and in July, 1853, he and George W. Thompson, esq., formed a partnership and the firm of Thompson & Harris soon became one of the leading law firms of the county, commanding a large and lucrative practice, and was interested in nearly all the leading law-suits of the county. In January 1864, Judge Thompson having been elected probate judge, the firm was dissolved and Mr. Harris continued in the practice until his death. His disease was fistula in ano and for months before his death his sufferings were intense, which caused him in a great degree to abandon his office and seek relief in solitude. As a lawyer, he had no superior at the Preble county bar. He was not

.an eloquent speaker, but his arguments either to the court or jury, were always a clear, logical and concise statement of the law and the fact on which he rested his cause. He was one of the best pleaders under the code of any lawyer that practiced ut the bar. He stood high in the estimation of his professional brethren as a man of honor and integrity. He was always fair and generous to his adversary, and would rather lose his case than gain it by unfair and unprofessional means. He was kind and indulgent to the young and inexperienced members of the profession and was always ready to give them a helping hand'and words of encouragement. The following extract taken from the Eaton Register in giving notice of his death may properly be given here as it sets forth in few words the high estimation in which he was held: "In his profession he held a high place among excelled him in legal attainments, being acknowledged as one of the best judges of law in this part of the State. He was a man of extraordinary ability, strictly upright and moral in all his intercourse and dealing with men. He was a man of unobtrusive manners and of the kindest disposition."

BENJAMIN HUBBARD, ESQ., was born in Princeton, New Jersey, September 16, 1809. His father, Benjamin Hubbard, was a native of the same city, and a pioneer to Hamilton county, Ohio, in 1811. In the year 1832 he came to Preble county, where he died in the year 1848, aged seventy-eight years. His mother was Mary McIntyre, born in Philadelphia, and died in Eaton, January 14, 1878, at the advanced age of ninety-nine years and eleven months. Young Hubbard's grandfather was John Hubbard, who was a native of Holland, and came to America previous to the Revolutionary war, and was a soldier in that conflict.

Young Hubbard enjoyed no other opportunities for an education in his youth tban thóse afforded by the common (very common) schools of that early day. By his own energy and efforts to satisfy the innate craving for knowledge, he was enabled to supplement the meagre facilities of the common school and gain an advanced education beyond the general average of his time. At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to the trade of carriage making in Cincinnati, and followed the same until 1840. Whilst plying his trade in the village of Somerville, Butler county, he commenced reading law under the preceptorship of the late Judge A. Haines, of Eaton, and was admitted to the bar as an attorney and counsellor on the thirtieth day of June, 1844. Directly after his admission he removed his family to Eaton, and commenced the practice of his profession; and with the exception of about two years time which he lived in Greenville, he has been here ever since. Every attorney that was living in Eaton at the time Lawyer Hubbard was called to the bar has since died, which leaves him now the oldest practitioner at the Preble county bar - or the "father of the bar."

Mr. Hubbard was formerly connected with the Eaton & Hamilton railroad company (now the Cincinnati, Richmond & Chicago company) as its first secretary. In the year 1853 he was elected to represent Preble county in the legislature of Ohio, serving but a single term of two years, declining a re-election. He also was mayor of the village of Eaton for a time.

On the tenth day of June, 1830, he was married to Miss Minerva Morey, of Butler county, Ohio, and of a family of ten children born to this union only one survives, viz: Albert Edgar Hubbard, now a justice of the peace in Eaton. Mrs. Hubbard died October 24, 1872. Lawyer Hubbard was formerly a Whig, then for many years acted and voted with the Republican party, but of late years has voted independently; but now isa stalwart Prohibitionist.

ville, Butler county Ohio, on the-eighth day of October, A. D. 1822. He was the son of the late Judge William Hall, one of the associate judges of the court of common pleas for Preble county. When Hampton was but six years old his father moved to Camden - then called Dover - án this county, where they resided some seven years, and then went onto a farm immediately south of and adjoining Camden. During the minority of the subject of the present sketch he attended the common schools of the time, during portions of the year, intermitting his school attendance with work on the farm and other occupations, as occasion required. He in this way succeeded in qualifying himself to take charge of a school.

When no more than eighteen years of age he commenced teaching, which he continued for some two or three years. By diligent study at home, and close and careful application at school, and under the instruction of educators at hand, he had attained a higher degree of scholarship than was common at that day, or even at this time, by young men of his age having no greater advantages than he had.

About the time of his attainment of majority Mr. Hall commenced the study of law with the late Judge Haines of Eaton. On his admission to the bar, in the year 1844, he opened an office for the practice of his profession at Celina, Mercer county, Ohio. Here, alternately wrestling with the ague and attending to his professional duties, he continued until the fall of 1845, when he left Celina, and returned to Preble county.

He next opened an officein Eaton, where he continued about three years, and then removed to Camden and engaged in other business, In the fall of 1848 (November 13th), he was married to Miss Mary Jamieson. In the year 1849 he and his father bought the mill property on Seven-mile creek, about five miles below Eaton, built and formerly owned by Caspar Potterf, sr. Mr. Hall now gave up the practice of the law and continued torun and manage the mill until the year 1862, when he removed to Richmond, Indiana, and engaged in the milling business there. In the spring of 1865 he removed to Dayton, Ohio, where he at present resides.

WILLIAM JAMES GILMORE, ESQ., was born in Liberty, Bedford county, Virginia, April 2, A. D. 1821, His parents, both natives of Virginia, were Dr. Eli Gilmore, a physician of distinction in the county of his residence, and Clara Mosby Clayton, a sister of Alexander Clayton, who for many years was presiding judge of the high court of errors and appeals of the State of Mississippi. Dr. Gilmore, with his family, settled in Israel township, Preble county, in the year 1825, and the subject of this sketch, after obtaining such rudimentary education as was at that early day afforded by the pioneer teachers in the log cabin school-house, attended Westfield and Hopewell academies - the latter being then in charge of the Rev. Samuel W. McCracken, who had previously been professor of mathematics in Miami university at Oxford.

Mr. Gilmore commenced the study of law in the office of Thomas Millikin, of Hamilton, and completed his preparatory course in the office of J. S. and A. J. Hawkins, esqs., of Eaton, and was admitted to the bar at

Columbus in the. year 1847. After his admission he formed a partnership with Colonel Thomas Moore, and commenced the practice of his profession in Hamilton, Butler county. A year later, this partnership being dissolved, he removed to Eaton, and there opened an office, and in 1849 formed a partnership with Captain TES: Hawkins, which continued until that gentleman's death in 1852. In that year he was elected prosecuting attorney of Preble county, and was re-elected to the same office in 1854.

In the year 1857, Judge James Clark, of Hamilton, having resigned the office judge of the court of common pleas, for the first subdivision of the second judicial district, Mr. Gilmore was appointed to flll the vacancy. Having served out the term, he resumed the practice of his profession in partnership with Judge J. V. Campbell, which arrangement continued until 1866, when Judge: Gilmore was elected to the common pleas bench, and reelected in 1871. In 1874 he was elected a judge of the supreme court of Ohio. To a clear judgment, quick perception, and great caution, he is mainly indebted for the eminent success which has attended his legal career.

On the seventh of September, 1848, Judge Gilmore was married to Miss Salle A. Rossman, daughter of William Rossman, of Eaton, and two sons have been the issue of this union. Jackson H., the elder of the two, was educated at Miami university, studied law in the university of Virginia under Professor Miner, and graduated at the Cincinnati law school. Upon the certificate of the latter institution he was admitted to the bar in the - district court of Cincinnati in 1875, and commenced practice in that city with Messrs. Jordan,.Jordan & Williams; but owing to failing health he was soon compelled to relinquish business and go to Colorado, where he spent a couple of years, and then returned to his home in Eaton, very much improved in physical health. "The younger son, Clement R. Gilmore, is a student in Wooster university, Ohio.

After the expiration of Judge Gilmore's term of office on the supreme bench he established himself in the city of Columbus, in company with his son Jackson H. Gilmore, in the practice of the law. [Since this was written, the young man has died.]

WiLLIAM A, BLOOMFIELD, esq., was born on the fourteenth day of November, 1820, on a farm about two miles southwest from Eaton. Whilst yet an infant he was taken to Montgomery county, a few miles east of Dayton, where some six years of his childhood were passed. His mother, having married Josiah Grace for her second husband, when our subject was some six or seven years old, the family removed to the, then, village (now city) of Indianapolis. His childhood, under the treatment of his stepfather, was most unhappy, and whilst yet almost a helpless infant, being only between seven and eight years of age, and whilst his mother was sick abed, he was literally driven from home, to become a helpless wanderer, without home or friends. He soon, however, found a kind lady by the name of Hawkins, who gave him food and shelter, and he remained under her protection for a few months, when he was so fortu-

When he was but ten years old, and when he had been in Eaton a couple of years, he commenced to learn the trade of a cabinet-maker, in the shop of his uncle, and continued to work at that business until he had attained his eighteenth year. Meantime, whilst working at the bench, having his book before him, and diligently applying all his leisure time in the pursuit of knowledge, almost without the advantages of schools, he had qualified himself for the business of teaching. For several years he was actively engaged in teaching during the "school season," and occasionally working at his trade of cabinetmaking. Meanwhile, as leisure would permit, he read law, under the preceptorship of Judge Haines, primarily, and subsequently in the office of Felix Marsh, esq.

He was admitted to the bar on the nineteenth day of June, 1848, and soon thereafter opened an office for the practice of his profession. His success in gaining a lucrative business not meeting his expectations or desires, in the spring of 1852 he went to California, by the way of New Orleans, the musquito kingdom, and Nicaragua. 'The trips at that time, and by that route, occupied some three or four months. He remained in California some three years, one year employed in mining, in the northern part of that State, and some two years engaged in the lumber trade, in the southern peninsula.

After returning from California Mr. Bloomfield conducted the cabinet business in Eaton for a number of years. On the first day of January, 1861, he was married to Miss Sarah J. Sherer, of Somers township, this county. He has been engaged in the family grocery trade for several years.

WILLIAM ALLEN, ESQ., was born in Butler county, Ohio, August 13, 1827. His father, John Allen, was born in Treland, January 26, 1800, and came to America in 1812. After residing six years in the State of New York, he came to Ohio in 1818, and located in Butler county. In February, 1838, he removed his family into the sparsely settled forests of Darke county, and there erected for their residence a round-log cabin, with puncheon floor and mud-and-stick chimney. He died on the third day of October, 1858, a very much respected citizen. "He possessed fine conversational powers, and in the latter years of his life was a preacher of the United Brethren persuasion.

The subject of our present sketch was favored with the advantages of the common district school only, yet by earnest personal application he qualified himself to teach the common English branches at the age of fifteen years, and in this way employed his winters for several years. At the age of nineteen he entered the office of

-General Felix Marsh, of Eaton, as a student of law, and was admitted to the bar by the supreme court of Preble county, on the fourteenth day of June, 1849, and in the month of October, following, opened an office at Gréenville for the practice of his profession. In the fall of 1850 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Darke county, and re-elected in 1852..

In the fall of 1858 Mr. Allen was elected a Representative in Congress from the Fourth Congressional district of Ohio, comprising the counties of Darke, Miami, Shelby, Mercer, Auglaize, and Allen, and re-elected in 186o - thus serving in the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Congresses. In the winter of 1865 he was appointed by Governor Cox as judge of the court of common pleas of the first sub-division of the second judicial district of Ohio, composed of the counties of Butler, Preble, and Darke, to fill an unexpired term in the place of Judge David L. Meeker, resigned.

In 1872 Judge Allen was a member of the Grant electoral college, and in 1878 was again nominated as a candidate for Congress on the Republican ticket, from the Fifth Congressional district, but declined on account of ill health.

On the thirtieth day of September, 1851, Mr. Allen was married to Miss Priscilla Wallace, daughter of John Wallace, a native of Pennsylvania, and an early pioneer of Butler county, who had settled in Darke county in 1834, and died in the summer of 1863, at the age of about eighty years - esteemed by all as an upright man and excellent citizen. The issue of this marriage was four sons and as many daughters, of whom but one son Four of these children died of diptheria under the afflicting circumstances, and in the brief space of two months. This occurred in the winter of 1861, when Mr. Allen was summoned home from Washington city to the scene of bereavement.

Of local positions it may be mentioned that Mr. Allen is president of the Greenville Gas company, and vice-president of the Greenville bank, a private enterprise conducted under the firm name of Hufnagle, Allen & Co.

Judge Allen began the world in poverty, was reared ` in a rough log cabin, and enjoyed none of the golden opportunities for social and educational improvement which are so lavishly bestowed on the youth of the present day. His career as a lawyer has been a success, while his record as a statesman was creditable to himself and satisfactory to his constituents.

charitable of men, and his integrity has never been questioned. While his positive character wins him friends true as steel, it also makes bitter enemies; but, even his worst enemies concede to him great ability and unswerving honesty of purpose.

InviN E. FREEMAN, ESQ., was born in Franklin county, Ohio, on the fifteenth of April, A. D. 1821. His parents were natives of western New York, and came from thence to Ohio, settling temporarily in Franklin county, in the year 1820, When the subject of this sketch was about three years old, his parents removed to Preble county, and took up their residence in the vicinity of Lewisburg. Young Freeman.had no advantages for an education, beyond what were afforded by the common schools of the country.

During his minority he learned the carriage and waggon business, and also wrought some time at the millwrighting. After attaining majority he lived for some two ble county since 1824. Mr. Freeman read law under the preceptorship of General Felix Marsh and was admitted to the bar, by the Supreme court for Preble county, on the seventeenth day of | June, 1850, and at once entered upon the practice, in this | and the adjoining counties. After his admission to the bar, he continued his residence at Lewisburg until the year 1858, when he removed to Eaton, where he has remained to the present time. He has been three times elected to the office of prosecuting attorny, and is now, 1880, serving on his third term.

Lawyer Freeman has been twice married - first to Miss Elizabeth Paine, on the sixteenth day of July, A. D. 1842; and to Miss Catharine Staggs on the twenty-first day of January A. D. :864 - -his first wife having died about

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN LamsH was born in Dixon townshipin the year 1825. He wasthe youngest son and child of Colonel Paul Larsh. "When he was about four years old his father's family removed to Wayne county, Indiana, where he passed most of the years of his minority. Being of studious habits and fond of knowledge, he succeeded in gaining a very fair education in the common branches of learning. the business or trade of wood turning, but did not follow it in after life.

In the year 1846 young Larsh returned to Preble county, where he remained the balance of hislife. He was engaged in teaching, and in reading law, alternately, some five years, and was admitted to the bar May 6, 1851. He studied the profession in the office of Judge Haines. He never engaged in the practice of the law as a regular business, or profession. On the first of January, 1852, he went into the clerk's office, as deputy under Lewis B. Ogden, where he was employed, under Ogden, C. W. Larsh, Shauk, and W. D. Quinn, most of the time during the remainder of his lite. His knowledge of the law, and his close attention to the duties of the office, gained him the reputation, with the judges holding our courts, of being the best practical court clerk in the judicial district.

On the twenty-fifth day of January, 1849, Mr. Larsh was married to Miss Matilda G. Mitchell, daughter of Vincit Mitchell, esq. Two children were born of this marriage - Homer LeRoi Larsh and Mary Elizabeth Larsh, now residents of Topeka, Kansas. He served several terms as justice of the peace, and was for some twenty years clerk of the township. He died on the seventh day of May, in the yaar 1877, of paralysis of the heart.

B. F. Larsh, ESQ., was about five feet nine inches high, rather heavy built, weighing a little over two hundred pounds, black hair and eyes, and bilious temperament.

] GEORGE W. Gans was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, March 18, 1823. He was raised on a farm, and obtained his education altogether in the common or district schools of his neighborhood, never having had the advantages of academic or high schools At about the age of eighteen years he took a position in a dry goods store, in the . village of Geneva, in his native county. He continued in this employment for some time, alternating it with teaching school; and in the meantime read law for about one year, reciting to James A. Morris esq. an eminent attorney of Uniontown, Fayette county, Pennsylvania.

On the fifth day of June, 1847, he was married to Miss Helen M. Morris, also a native cf Fayette county ; and in the succeding fall the young couple came to Preble county, locating at Eaton. Here Mr. Gans engaged in the business of teaching, sometimes in town, and sometimes in neighboring districts, which business he followed for several years, very acceptably to employes and pupils. During his vacations from the school-room, he again took up the study of the law, in the office of Messrs. Chadwick & Drayer, which he continued for a period of

Whilst engaged in the profession of teaching, M. Gans took an active interest in everything pertaining to the business of education. He was conspiciously instrumental in the organization and perfection of the teachersinstitute, and other measures for the increased efficiency of our common school system. Having had to struggle he was desirous that the road should be smoothed for the rising generations. After his admission to the bar he quit teaching, but did not abate any of his interest in the progress of school work ; and it may by truly said, that his labors in that direction had much to do in advancing the standard of qualification for the teachers' profession, and in the increased public interest in common school education.

Judge Gans served as mayor of the village, and on the board ofeducation, and in other public trusts, and was an active Republican politician. At the October election, 1857, he was elected to the office of probate judge of the county and was re-elected to the same office in 1860, thus serving six years in that important office. On the breaking out of the Rebellion he took an active part in the enlistment and organization of troops for the army, and his efforts in that behalf only terminated with the

Judge Gans died on the thirtieth day of June, A. D. 1865, of disease of the lungs contracted about one year previously. He was the father of nine children - three sons and six daughters - six of whom, one son and five daughters, with the mother, survive him. He was of medium size, black hair and eyes, bilious temperament, compactly built, active and athletic He was fond of society, of genial disposition, well informed on all subjects of a general interest, and entertaining in conversation.

Jacos H. Foos, EsQ., was born on the twentieth day of December, A. D. 1825, in Monroe township, in this county. His father was a native of Berks county, Pennsylvania, born in the year 1781, and emigrated to the west in the year 1804. About the year 1809, he settled in Warren county, about two miles and a half from Waynesville. He was a miller by trade, and operated a grist-mill on the little Miami river for about ten years. In the year 1819 he removed to a-tract of wild land, which he had previously purchased, in the northern part of Preble county, the country then being an almost unbroken wilderness, Mr. Foos' family being among the very first settlers in Monroe township. There he opened and cultivated a farm, on which he resided until the time of his death in 1842.

Mr. Foos' mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Roberts, and was married to his father in the Redstone country. She survived her husband some five years, dying in the fall of 1847. The subject of this sketch lived and worked on his father's farm until the attainment of his seventeenth year, attending the district schools, taught in the old log school-house of those early days, during the winter seasons. After the death of his father, being desirous of obtaining a better education than the facilities at hand afforded, he apprenticed himself to the cabinet-making and painting business, in which capacity he worked for two and a half years, after which he worked under wages until by industry and economy he had accumulated sufficient means to attend an academy for two years at Waynesville, Warren county, conducted by Professor David S. Burson, a most admirable scholar and teacher, under whose tuition he obtained a very fair English education.

After leaving school Mr. Foos engaged in the business of teaching, in the spring of 1849, at Euphemia, in this county. At the same time he commenced the study of the law, under the tuition of the late Judge Haines, of Eaton. On the twenty-sixth of May, 1851, he was admitted to the bar by the supreme court for Preble. county. Having by this time exhausted all his means, he employed his time during the summer of that year in writing for the clerk of the courts.

At the November term of the court of common pleas, 1851, being the first term of court held in the present court house, Lawyer Foos commenced regularly the practice of his profession, being thus just as old in the practice as the court house has existed years. And as an evidence of his success as*a practitioner, and his diligence and assiduity, it may be stated that he has never missed being present and attending to business at any term of court held in the house to the present time; and it would perhaps be no exaggeration to say that he has assisted in the trial of more doubtful and difficult cases, both civil and criminal, than any other attorney at this bar. Lawyer Foos was married on the sixteenth day of April, A. D. 1857, to Miss Julia A. Morgan, daughter of Thomas Morgan, a pioneer citizen of Eaton, Four children were born to this marriage, two sons and two daughters, one of the latter dying in infancy. The surviving daughter, Minnie V. Foos, is a graduate of the Cincinnati Wesleyan female college.

In politics Mr. Foos has always been a Democrat. In the year 1860 he was the candidate for Presidential elector from this Congressional district on the Douglass ticket. During the war for the suppression of the Rebellion, he took an active part in the organization of troops for the army, and gave efficient aid in furnishing our township's quota of recruits. From the spring of 1869 to that of 1876 he served as mayor of Eaton, and during that period most of the public improvements of any note in the village were constructed, and a general impetus for the improvement and beautifying of the town was brought about. He has uniformly been the advocate of public improvements, and it is to his credit that he has never taken a fee in any controversy or litigation in relation to public improvements, where if his side were successful a needed public work would be dafeated. In former years Mr. Foos was somewhat active in political canvasses, but was never an office seeker. With the above exception of his mayoralty, he has never either held or desired official position. Of late years he has taken but little note or interest in political affairs, but has devoted himself assiduously to his profession and business interests. He has built for himself one among the most sightly and desirable residences in the village, as well as the law office he has occupied for several years past. He also built and owns the banking house occupied by Heistand & Company's bank, and is one of the partners in said bank. In addition to his extensive law library, he has in his home a very extensive library of substantial and standard historical, scientific, biographical and literary works. He has always been a diligent reader, and is consequently well informed on all subjects of solid interest.

Perhaps no present member of the Eaton bar has been the preceptor of as many students of the law as has Mr. Foos. The following list, some of whom have become distinguished professionally and politically, have read law under his tuition, viz: Jesse Ware, Allan May, Lewis Kisling, Vincent Harbaugh, Benton Saylor, B. Frank Van Ausdal, John W. Sater, James C. Elliott, George W. Wilson, Ralph C. Smyer, Warren Fisher, Elam Fisher, Andrew J. Surface, Abel Risinger, Milton Crisler, Charles Ashinger.

In point of ability and standing in his profession, Mr. Foos may be truly said to take rank with the ablest at the Preble county bar. He is especially prominent as an advocate before a jury.

EUGENE B. BOLENS, ESQ., son of James Bolens, for many years a prominent merchant of Lewisburgh, was admitted to the bar by the supreme court for Preble county on the seventeenth day of May, 1852. Mr. Bolens never engaged in the practice of his protession here, but in a short time after his admission to the bar he emigrated to the State of Iowa, where he engaged in the publication of a county newspaper.

ROBERT MILLER, ESQ., was born in Preble county on the sixteenth day of July, 1827. His father, Thomas Miller, was born in Ireland in 1791, and came to the United

States in the year 1818. For six years after his arrival he traveled extensively through this country. He married Miss Martha Mills, of Clinton county, Ohio, whose family came from Ireland in the year 1810. In January, A. D. 1825, Mr. Miller and wife settled in Jefferson township, this county, where they ever afterward lived, and died. Mrs. Miller died August 16, 1851, and Mr. Miller October r5, 1868, at the age of sixty-eight years. He performed a large amount of hard pioneer labor, and was a very useful and much respected citizen.

The subject of our present sketch passed his youth and early manhood on the home farm, attending the common district schools during the winter seasons, and such times as he could be spared from the duties of farm labor. He never enjoyed the advantages of an academic course, but by utilizing his spare moments he prepared himself to assume the charge of a common school, and at the age of nineteen years began to employ his winters in teaching, and so continued forsome ten years. Inthe fall of 1849 he commenced the study of law, under the preceptorship of the late General Felix Marsh, of Eaton, and on the seventeenth day of May, 1852, was admitted to the bar,

In the autumn of 1855 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Preble county, and was twice re-elected, thus serving six years in that responsible office. At the October election, 1863, he was elected a representative in the general assembly of Ohio. He was a member of the county military committee during the war, and during the summer of 1864 served as adjutant of the One Hundred and Fifty-sixth regiment of Ohio national guards. He was elected mayor of Eaton in 1863 and in 1867. From the year 1866 to the first of January, 1876, he was in partnership in the law practice with Colonel L. A. Harris, the present probate judge of Preble county. In the Saylor-Kemp contest for a seat in the State senate, in 1871-2, Mr. Miller, as counsel for Mr. Saylor, presented to the senate a very-exhaustive and able argument on the right of the disabled soldiers of the National asylum to vote, and which contributed much toward securing for Mr. Saylor his seat in the senate.

As a politician Mr. Miller has always been an active worker in the Republican ranks in the county, and equally zealous as an advocate of the cause of temperance. For many years he has been a member of the Eaton board of education, and as such has had much to do, by vote and influence in the board, in increasing the efficiency of our common school system. In May, 1875, he was lay representative from the Dayton presbytery to the general assembly of the Presbyterian church, which met in Cleveland, Ohio.

On the tenth day of March, A. D. 1857, Mr. Miller was married to Miss Margaret Ann McQuiston, daughter of David McQuiston, of Israel township. Three sons have been born to this union, the eldest of whom, Clarence A. Miller, is a student in Wooster university.

May 20, 1853. He was a native of Gratis township, this county. Immediately upon his admission to the bar he went to the northern part of Indiana and engaged in the practice of his profession.

GEORGE W. SLOAN, ESQ., was admitted to the bar May 20, 1853. Previous to his admission to the bar he had been engaged several years teaching school, and had been elected and served three years as county recorder. Within a year or two after his admission to the bar he removed to Olney, Richland county, Illinois, where he engaged in the practice of his profession. He was married on the seventeenth day of March, 1839, to Miss Rachel Banfil, daughter of John Banfil, a pioneer of Preble county.

JOHN Van AUSDAL CAMPBELL, ESQ., son of Captain William Campbell, was born in Preble county, December 27,1815. His father was a native of Virginia, but reared and educated in Kentucky. In the year 1806, two years before Preble county was organized, and while its territory was yet a part of Montgomory county, he came to this State and settled in what is now Lanier township, Preble county. In the year 1809 he was married to Miss Catharine Van Ausdal. Captain Campbell commanded a company of infantry in the War of 1812.

In early life the subject of this sketch received what education was afforded by the schools taught in the roundlog school-houses of that early day, and later acquired such additional training as qualified him to take charge of a school himself, which he did at the early age of sixteen years, near New Lexington, on Twin creek. His brother-in-law, Major F. A. Cunningham, being county clerk, he was, whilst yet a minor, employed as deputy in his office. Whilst there he improved his spare time by studying law in the office of Messrs. McNutt & Hawkins. In the year 1841, under the administration of President Tyler, he was appointed postmaster at Eaton, which position he continued to hold between nine and ten years.

On the twenty-fifth day of July, 1842, Mr. Campbell was married to Miss Ann Eliza Martin, daughter of Judge Robert Martin, of Eaton. To this union were born three sons and eight daughters, all of whom, except four of the latter, have deceased. At the October election in the year 1852 he was elected to the office of probate judge, the first elected under the constitution of 1851. He was subsequently re-elected to the same office, thus serving six years, making for himself an excellent record as a safe and capable business man. On the twenty-second day of May, 1856, he was admitted to the bar. -

In the year 1858 Judge Campbell formed a partnership for the practice of law with William J. Gilmore, esq., but the latter being soon afterward elected to fill a vacancy in the office of common pleas judge, the partnership was dissolved, and in the following November (1858), Judge Campbell formed a partnership with Jacob H. Foos, esq., which continued for three years. At the expiration of this time, his partnership with Judge Gilmore was renewed, which continued until February, 1867, when it was again dissolved by reason of Judge Gilmore's election to the common pleas bench. He then entered into partnership with James A. Gilmore, esq., which continued until the last named partner was elected to the common pleas bench. In the year 1873 he was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney, and served in said office three years.

Judge Campbell has for many years been a member of the Eaton board of education, and connected with all the moral and educational interests of the community. He has been a zealous supporter of all temperance organizations, and his influence and example have been .always exerted upon the side of religion and morality. Since 1841 he has been the secretary and treasurer of the Preble county branch of the American Bible society.

Judge Campbell is regarded as the father of Odd Fellowship in this county, by his brethren. In the year 1842 he became a member of the order himself, and in 1844, assisted by four others, organized the first lodge in Eaton, of which he was the presiding officer. Subsequently twelve other lodges of the order have been organized in the county, as the issue of that one; and for a number of years the order was represented in the grand lodge of the United States, by Judge Campbell.

JupcE Jenu W. KiwG is a native of Warren county, Ohio, and was born at Ridgeville, in that county, on the eleventh day of October, 1829. When Jehu was but two years old his father removed to Pyrmont, in Montgomery county, which was the home of our subject, for some twenty-five years. After receiving a sufficient preparatory education in the common schools of his district, 260 after having exercised the office of teacher himself while yet a minor, he entered Wesleyan university at Delaware, as a student, in the year 1850, about the time he attained majority.

After graduating from college, he again took up the profession of teacher, which he pursued for some eight or ten years, in Montgomery and Preble counties. Judge King has been twice married - first, to Miss Sarah J. Baker, daughter of John Baker, of. Montgomery county, on the first day of May, A. D. 1854; second, to Mrs. Sarah J. Taylor, of Winchester, Preble county, on the tenth day of April, A. D., 186o, his first wife having died in March, 1858.

Judge King commenced the study of the law, principally under the preceptorship of General Felix Marsh, and after about three years preparation he was admitted to the bar in the year 1858, by the district court for Butler county. In the year 1857 he had removed to Camden, in this county, where after his admission he commenced the practice, alternating the practice with teaching school for some years. 'Some little while after his removal to Camden, he was appointed a member of the board of school examiners for Preble county.

In the year 1865 Mr. King was elected to the office of prosecuting attorney, and re-elected. to the same office..in 1867 - thus holding the office two successive terms. In the month of March, 1866, he removed to the village of Eaton. Inthe year 1869 he was elected to the office of probate judge, and re-elected in 1872, serving six years in that responsible office. After the expiration of his term of office he resumed the practice of his profession, and continued to reside in Eaton until the year 1878, when he removed to a farm near Sugar valley, in Dixon township, where he now lives.

As an attorney he stood well at the bar, but his practice has been too often interrupted by official duties to have made a brilliant record. In official duties, his record is ''without spot or blemish." Politically he has always been a Republican, and an earnest and able advocate of the principles of that party, both in conversation and in public speeches and lectures; and his counsels have always had due weight with his political party. His influence has always been on the side of religion, morality, and temperance; and his ability as a lecturer is second to that of but few.

JosEPH T. GANS, ESQ., was admitted to the bar, by the supreme court for Preble county, May 7, 1858. He had been engaged in teaching for some years in this county, and soon after admission to the bar removed to Richmond, Indiana, where he still resides.

RoBERT WILSON QUINN, ESQ., son of General John Quinn, was born on the twenty-eighth day of September, A. D. 1835, at his father's farm in Twin township. His early education was acquired in the country district schools, in which were taught in those days only the common branches of reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and English grammar, with occasionally a teacher who was capable of giving instruction in the elements of algebra. He entered as a pupil in Farmer's college in the fall of 1853, and remained there (with the exception of six months in which he was engaged in teaching) until about the first of July, 1856.

Soon after leaving school, Mr. Quinn commenced the study of law with William J. Gilmore, esq., of Eaton, who afterwards was one of the justices of the supreme court of the State. After studying nearly two years under his tuition, the subject of our sketch entered the law school of the Cincinnati college, and graduated in April, 1858, and was admitted to the bar in Cincinnati. Among his class-mates, and who graduated at the same time, were Hon. Edmund F. Noyes, United States minister to France, Hon. Samuel McKee, of Kentucky, Judges Avery and Moore, of the common pleas bench of Hamilton county. After graduating he studied nearly one year in the law office of Messrs. Bates & Scarborough, in Cincinnati, and practiced there for a short time.

A short time before the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion, Mr. Quinn returned to his father's farm, and did not resume the practice of his profession until after the close of the war. He was married on the twenty-fifth day of January, 1861, to Miss Josephine M. Palmer, of Cincinnati, and has two children now living, both sons. During the war of the Rebellion he served four months in the One Hundred and Fifty-sixth regiment, Ohio volunteer infantry (one of the "hundred days" regiments), and was engaged in one skirmish with the enemy, known as the battle of Fulks' Mill, near the city of Cumberland, Maryland.

In the month of April, 1867, Lawyer Quinn removed to Eaton, and resumed the practice of his profession, which he has continued to the present time. The only public office that he has ever held, was the office of mayor of Eaton, which he held for a short period in 1869, by appointment to fil an unexpired term. In February, 1875, he was admitted to practice in the circuit court of the United States, at Cincinnati. His tastes have led him to devote his attention, almost exclusively, to civil practice, and tbe settlement of estates, partnerships, and trusts; and he has been engaged, either as attorney or referee, in some of the heaviest and most complex cases of these kinds in the county. He has also been a diligent student of general literature, and especially of history; and he has one of the best selected historical libraries in the county, together with the standard poets, and such books of reference as the American Encyclopedia.

James T. MURPHY, ESQ., was admitted to the bar, May 4, 1860. He was born in Ireland, and immigrated to this country when a very young man. He had a quite fair education, and was engaged in the business of teaching for several years, in Monroe township, in this county. After his admission he opened an office in Eldorado, where he remained some time, and then removed to Darke county.

Lewis C. SwERER, ESQ., was born on the fifth day of July, 1831, in Jefferson township, near the village of Gettysburgh. He was raised on a farm, and obtained his education in the district schools of his vicinity. At the age of eighteen years he commenced teaching schoo], which business he followed for several successive years. He read law in the office of General Felix Marsh, in Eaton, and was admitted to the bar, January 13, 186o. He commenced the practice of his, profession the same year, in partnership with his preceptor, but the partnership terminated in a few months, when he returned to his fathers farm, where he remained until September, 1861. From the twenty-first day of September, 1861, until April, 1863, he served as lieutenant of company E, Fifth Ohio volunteer cavalry.

On the first day of April, 1860, Mr. Swerer was married to Miss Terissa O. Jaqua. After his discharge from service in the army, he resided on the farm until some time in the year 1866, when he removed to Huntington, Indiana, and engaged in the practice of the law - subsequently removing to Winchester, Indiana; from which latter place he removed to Mexico, Missouri, in the year 1869. He continued his residence and the practice of his profession in the last named place until the year 1876, when he returned to Ohio, and now resides in New Paris, this county.

Isaac E. CRAIG, ESQ., located at Camden, in this county, is the third child, and oldest son, of Isaac and Hope (Jennings) Craig, and was born on the eleventh day of February, A. D. 1840, in New Boston, Wayne county, Indiana, where his parents resided for a few years. The father and mother of the subject of our sketch had spent the greater part of their time in Warren county, Ohio, and their partiality for the State led them

Young Craig obtained the rudiments of his education at the village schools; supplemented by an attendance at Greenmount academy, at Richmond, Indiana. He entered Miami university as a student in 1858, and graduated in the scientific department of that institution with the class of 1859. He had already decided upon following a professional life, and commenced the study of the law in the office of Judge James Clark, of Hamilton. The more advanced study of the profession was pursued at the Ohio Law college, at Cleveland, from which Mr. Craig graduated-in 1862. In that year he was admitted to practice in the common ,pleas and district courts of Cuyahoga county and in the United States courts, and remained five years in the city of Cleveland in the practice of his chosen profession.

In the year 1867 Mr. Craig returned to Camden, where he has since constantly resided, with the exception of a brief interim when he re-located at Cincinnati with the intention to make that his permanent abode. Very soon after his removalto the city (in 1874), however, he was recalled to Camden by the death of bis father; and being compelled to give so much of his attention to the business which devolved upon him in settling up the estate, he abandoned the purpose of making the city his home, and re-opened his office in Camden, with the intention of remaining permanently He was married in 1861, to Miss Mary Coffin, of Richmond, Indiana.

VICTOR WALDO LAKE, ESQ., was admitted a member of the bar on the twenty-second day of July, 1863. He never engaged in the practice of the law, but is now, and for several years past has been, in the drug and medicine trade in Eaton.

B. FRANK VAN AUSDAL, ESQ., was admitted a member the bar on the twenty-second day of July, 1863, but never engaged in the practice here. On the second day of August, 1865, he was married to Miss Nancy Pottenger, daughter of the late Thomas Pottenger, of Somers township, and after a residence of a few years at Camden he emigrated to Kansas, where he has since been engaged in the improvement of a farm.

COLONEL ANDREW LINTNER HARRIS was born in Butler county, Ohio, on the seventeenth day of November, 1835. His grandfather, Joseph Harris, came from Ireland about 1797; spent a few years in Pennsylvania; then came to Cincinnati, where, on the fourth of March, 1802, he married Jane Kirkpatrick, and finally settled in Butler county soon after the close of the War of 1812.

Benjamin Harris, son of Joseph, and father of Andrew L., was born in Cincinnati on the third day of February, 1803, and married Nancy Lintner, of Butler county, on the third day of April, 1829. A farmer by occupation he was well educated, and was a prominent and very useful member of community.

Colonel Harris had the usual farmer's boyhood; received the rudiments of an education in the district schools of his vicinity, which, by the time that he arrived at school age, had improved very much from their more primitive condition, and completed his education. at Miami university. Whilst he was yet almost an infant, his father had left Bulter county, and purchased the farm in Dixon township that was first settled and improved by Henry Bristow, being the southwest quarter of section number two, of that township.

After completing his studies at the university, Mr. Harris read law in the office of Messrs. Thompson & Harris in Eaton, but the war of the Rebellion caused the postponement of his admission to the bar until the twenty-eighth day of April 1865. In April 1861, he enlisted as a private in the Twentieth Ohio volunteer infantry for three months service, but went out as second lieutenant of company C, and was mustered out as captain of his company in August following. In October he recruited company C, of the Seventy-fifth Ohio volunteer infantry, for three years service, and was commissioned its captain November 9, 1861.

The first engagement participated in by Captain Harris was the battle of McDowell, West Virginia, on the eighth day of May, 1862, where the Union troops bravely held their ground against six times their number of the enemy, and which General Milroy reported as. being the "bloodiest battle of the war for the number engaged." Here Captain Harris was seriously wounded by a gunshot in the right arm, by which he was permanently disabled. Then followed the battles of Cedar Mountain, Virginia, on the eighth of August, and the second tattle of Bull run on the twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth and thirtieth of the same month. Here for a time the fighting was bloody in the extreme, and company C was in the hottest of the fray. As an evidence of the severity of the fire, it was found that over ninety shots took effect 5n the colors of the Seventy-fifth during the battle.

On the twelfth of January, 1863, Captain Harris was promoted to the rank of Major, and in the terrible engagement of Chancellorsville, beginning on May 2, 1863, the Seventy-fifth was distinguished for the bravery of its officers and men. In consequence of the peculiarity of its position, it was compelled frequently to change front under a severe fire, but acquitted itself in a most gallant manner. Colonel Reilly was killed and Major Harris was promoted to the command of his regiment, his rank dating May 3. At the battle of Gettysburgh Colonel Harris had command of the Second brig- 'ade of the First division of the Eleventh corps, and distinguished himself by a daring and successful charge upon the enemy occupying a ledge of rocks. His command was subjected to a galling fire during the three days of the engagement, and was the first to enter Gettysburgh after the battle. The Seventy-fifth lost heavily, and 'Colonel Harris was severely wounded.

On the eighteenth of the following August the Ohio brigade, to which the Seventy-fifth belonged, was placed in the trenches on Morris island, and there remained until after the fall of Forts Wagner and Gregg, on the seventh of September. The heat was intense, and the troops suffered severely. Previous to the proposed attack the brigade was moved back to Folly island, in order that if the attempt on Fort Wagner proved unsuccessful, the troops would not all be sacrificed. On the night of the sixth, Colonel Harris, with nine hundred se- lect men, was detailed to make the assault on the sea front, with instructions to assault the works at daylight in the morning; but the enemy observing the operations abandoned the fort.

In February, 1864, the Seventy-fifth was sent to Jacksonville, Florida, and there mounted; and until its term of service expired performed very efficient cavalry duty; in which may be instanced a very daring raid made by Colonel Harris, in the following May, to the head-waters of the St. John and Kissinnee rivers, on which expedition, besides destroying a large amount of cotton and other Confederate stores, he captured and brought in some five thousand head of fine beef cattle, and that, too without the loss of a man.

On the fourteenth of August Colonel Harris was imprudently sent by General Hatch on an expedition to the rear of the enemy, into the interior of Florida, with a little band of only two hundred mounted men. He obeyed orders, took a few prisoners, but was met by a much superior force, compelling his command to ride day and night to keep out of the enemy's hands. On the morning of the seventeenth he halted at Gainesville to rest, supposing himself temporarily secure, but was soon attacked by a force of about fonrteen hundred men. As retreat was impossible, he fought desperately for two hours and a half, when, his ammunition giving out, no alternative was left but to surrender or cut his way through seven times his number of the enemy. Desperate as was the attempt, he succeeded, taking with him about one-half of his little band, and by swift marches reached Jacksonville.

Colonel Harris was mustered out of service as colonel of the Seventy-fifth on the fifteenth of January, 1865. While distinguished for great prudence and caution, and for the care he took of the men of his command, he never faltered when duty called to action. On the thirteenth of March following, as a compliment for his gallant and meritorious services during the war, he was brevetted brigadier general.

In the fall of 1865, he was elected to a seat in the senate of Ohio from the counties of Preble and Montgomery, and served therein two years, in which position he made a very creditable record. On the seventeenth day of October, 1865, he was married to Miss Caroline Conger, daughter of Eli Conger, esq., and to this union one son has been born. In the spring of 1866, the colonel formed a partnership for the practice of law with Robert Miller, esq., which continued until January I, 1876. At the October electión of 1875 he was elected to the office of probate judge of Preble county, and re-elected to the same office in 1878.

Colonel Harris possesses all the elements that constitute a cultured and polished gentleman, but his most prominent characteristic is a conscientious, unswerving adherence to principle. He has always been a staunch Republican in politics, and an intelligent and efficient worker for the advancement of what he believes to be the true principles for the perpetuity of a republican form of government.

of November, A. D. 1818, in Montgomery county. Like so many others of the leading men of the community, he received all his education in the common district schools, and by diligent use of all his spare time from other avocations in self-study and reading. In the year 1849 he came to this county and located in the village of Winchester, where he prosecuted the cabinet making business, which trade he had previously learned. He was married on the fourth day of July, 1857, to Miss Rachel Saylor, daughter of Martin Saylor (one ofthe pioneer settlers of Gratis township), and sister of Dr. Christian Saylor.

In the year 1851 Mr. Stiver was elected justice of the peace, and with the exception of an interval of six years, has held the office ever since, and is now an incumbent thereof. In the year 1854 he was elected to the office of county commissioner, and served therein but one term of three years, declining a re-election. In the year 1861 he was elected a representative in the general assembly of Ohio, in which office he served but a single term, again declining a re-election. He was admitted to the bar as an attorney and counsellor at law on the twentysixth day of April, A. D. 1866, in the district court for Preble county, and admitted to practice in the United States courts in 1874.

Lawyer Stiver is esteemed as an attorney of fair capacity, having a competent knowledge of the law and of the forms of business, and a man of sound, exemplary morals.

CHARLES M. EMERICK, ESQ., was admitted to the bar by the district court for Preble county, May 9, 1867. He never practiced at the bar in this county.

Tuomas J. Lars, ESQ., was born in Dixon township, Preble county, on the twentieth day of September, A. D. 1809. He was the second son of the late Colonel Paul Larsh, a pioneer settler of this county, a sketch of whose life will be found in another place in this volume. In early life the subject of this notice was subject to all the privations and hardships of frontier pioneer life. The farm on which he was reared was on the verge of a wilderness of some miles in extent, and he was some ten to twelve years of age before there was any improvement, by way of farm or house, within a distance of halfa dozen miles to the west. Nightly, and almost every night the year around, the howling of the wolves could be heard in the family dwelling, the most dismal sound that was ever heard. Sometimes there appeared, from the sound, to be dozens of them in the:pack, and that they were within a few rods of the door.

Up to the age of between nine and ten years our subject had attended two or three short terms of school, taught in the typical log cabin school-house of that day. On the first day of January, 1819, his father having been elected sheriff in October, 1818, the family removed to Eaton, where facilities for schooling were of a somewhat better class. Here he had the benefit, with other members of the family, of the improved advantages in the way of schools. The family remained in Eaton three years to a day, and during that time young Larsh had been in the school-room perhaps two full years. At the time he left school (for he was never afterwards in a school-room until he went in as a teacher) he was a very fair reader, understood the grammar of the English language passably well, and was a fair Latin scholar - could read and construe Virgil and Cicero with reasonable facility.

From the first day of January, 1822, to the month of August, 1824, young Larsh was employed upon his father's farm, assisting in all the labors of that avocation as occasion required. At the time indicated (August, 1824) he went into the printing office of the Eaton Weekly Register, as an apprentice to Hon. Samuel Tizzard to learn the "trade, art, and mystery" (as-his articles of indenture expressed it), of the printing business. In this situation he continued four years. In October of 1828 he went to Montgomery county, Indiana, in company with an uncle who was moving his family to that county, and after remaining there some five or six weeks he went on foot down the Wabash river to Vincennes, and from thence across the country to Louisville, Kentucky, where he remained during the winter, at work in a printing establishment - most of the time at press work on stereotype plates.

In the month of March, 1829, after returning home from Louisville, he went to Piqua, Miami county, where he was employed in the office of the Piqua Register, until August of that year, and then commenced teaching school in the vicinity of that town, and continued at that business one year. In June, 1831, he bought the Richmond Palladium printing office from Nelson Boone (who had started the paper six months before), and commenced the publication of that paper on the first day of July of that year. He continued the publication about two years, and then sold out to Hon. David P. Holloway.

After disposing of the printing business Mr. Larsh engaged in the farming and lumbering business at a farm and water-power about five miles below Richmond, on Whitewater. There he remained about six years, and then sold out and came back to Preble county, and bought a steam saw-mill in Jackson township, which he operated about six years.

Meantime Mr. Larsh was married, on the eleventh day of May, 1831, to Miss Margaret Manning, daughter of John Manning, the original proprietor of the city of Piqua. There were born to this union five children, two daughters and three sons - two of the latter dying in infancy.

At the October election, 1847, Mr. Larsh was elected to the office of county surveyor, and soon after his election removed to the village of Eaton, where he has uninterruptedly resided up to the present time. It may be as well to say here, that by subsequent re-elections, from time to time, and with longer or shorter intervals, he has held the office of county surveyor between fifteen and eighteen years. In the month of April, 7850, he was elected to represent Preble and Montgomery counties in the Constitutional convention that framed the present constitution of the State. That convention met in Columbus on the sixth day of May, 1850, and after a session of about two months, on account of the breaking out of the cholera in that city, it adjourned to meet in

Cincinnati on the first day of the following December. It met accordingly, and having completed its labors adjourned early in the succeeding March.

After the adjournment of the convention, Mr. Larsh was employed for about two years as editor of the Eaton Weekly Register, then published by William B. Tizzard, esq., the son of the original proprietor of the paper. In the year 1857 and again in 1858, he visited the State of Iowa, to prosecute the business of selecting wild lands and locating military bounty land warrants thereon. In pursuit of this occupation he traversed a considerable portion of the newer or western portion of that State on foot, and selected and located some fifteen to twenty thousand acres of land. | In the year 1860 Mr. Larsh was elected to the office of auditor of Preble county, and by two subsequent reelections held the office six years. During his incwmbency the business of the office was largely augmented and complicated by township, and county and State levies for the purpose of. furnishing support for the families of soldiers in the field, and for bounties for volunteers. The business of the office, however, was conducted with such care and skill, that no complaint was ever heard as to the efficiency of its administration. Afterwards, during the incumbency of Mr. Barnhiser in the office, Mr. Larsh served two years as his deputy.

On the tenth day of May, A. D. 1867, our subject was admitted to the bar, as an attorney and counsellor at law, by the district court for Preble county. He has never engaged in the practice of his profession as a regular business, but occasionally takes charge of a case of minor moment, or assists in the settlement of probate business.

On the first Monday of January, 1876, he went into the State treasury as chief clerk, under appointment of Major J. M. Millikin, State treasurer, where he remained two years conducting the business of that office _to the entire satisfaction of his principal, and of every one having business with the office.

On the twenty-fourth day of June, 1836, Mr. Larsh was admitted to membership in the Masonic order in Webb Lodge No. 42, at Richmond, Indiana. In the - year 1844, being then a resident of Jackson township, this county, he transferred his membership to Bolivar Lodge No. 82, Eaton, Ohio. Subsequently he received the royal arch degrees, and has been admitted to membership in Reed Commandery, Dayton, of Knight's Templar. In the year 1851, as worthy master of ` Bolivar Lodge, he attended the grand lodge of Ohio at Cincinnati, and was a regular attendant on the sessions of that body for more than twenty years, and was twice elected to the office of junior grand warden. He also for many years represented his chapter in the grand royal arch chapter of the State, and was twice elected to the office of grand high priest of the grand Chapter. 1 grand children are now alive. His eldest daughter, born in Richmond, Indiana, May 1, 1832, the wife of S. T. Finney, died in Illinois in the year 1857, leaving one daughter, who is now the wife of Walter S. Van Tuyl, of West Alexandria. His only son that survived infancy - Bluejacket Larsh - enlisted in the Seventyfifth Ohio volunteer infantry (Colenel Harris' regiment) in 1854, and was captured by the rebels in Florida, taken to the infamous Andersonville prison, and there he was so reduced by starvation and exposure that when finally sent forward for exchange to Florence, South Carolina, he only lived two days after arriving at that place. Mrs. Margaret Larsh, our subject's wife, died on the twenty-ninth day of August, A. D. 1869. Since his bereavement Mr. Larsh has made his home for the most part with his only surviving daughter, Ollitippa Unger, wife of John H. Unger, who has two children, a son and a daughter.

WILLIAM WALLACE PARDUE, ESQ., was admitted to the bar by the district court for Preble county, on the twentyfifth day of May, 1868. He was not a citizen of this county, nor ever practiced here.

WILLIAM E. CHAMBERS, ESQ., was admitted to the bar, by the district court for Preble county, May 14, 1869. He was the son of James L. Chambers, esq., formerly of Butler county, and who came to this place about 1862, and was connected for some years with the machine-shop and flooring-mill Soon after his admission to the bar, young Chambers removed to Ottumwa, Iowa.

GEORGE W. WILSON, ESQ., son of Jefferson Wilson, is a native of Somers township, this county, and was called to the bar May 14, 1869, at the same time with the two gentlemen last named. After his admission he engaged in the practice in this place for a few months, but soon after was employed in the internal revenue service of the Government, in which he has been engaged up to the present time, residing in Hamilton.

James C. ELLIOTT, ESQ., son of John Elliott, was born in Dixon township, this county; read for the bar in the office of Jacob H. Foos, esq., and was admitted to the practice May 10, 1870. He commenced practicing first in the town of Bradford, Miami county, but subsequently removed to Greenville, Darke county, where he is residing at present.

ALEXANDER F. ANDERSON, ESQ., a citizen of Paulding county, Ohio, was admitted to the bar as an attorney and counsellor at law, by the district court for Preble county, on the tenth of May, 1870.

FREDERICK L., Woop, ESQ., of Montgomery county, was admitted to the bar by the district court for Preble county, on the fourth day of May, A. D. 1871. Nothing is known here of the antecedents or present status of the two gentlemen last named.

ceived an academic education, and at an early age commenced teaching in his native state. In the year 1856 he came to Preble county and taught school for some two years. He read law in the office of the late Judge Haines, and was called to the bar in the year 1859, and at once formed a partnership with his preceptor, which continued some eight years. In 1861 he was elected prosecuting attorney, and in 1863 was re-elected. He was also three times elected mayor of Eaton. In 1879 he removed to Richmond, Indiana, where he now resides and is engaged in the practice of his profession.

WiLLIAM W. AKER was born at New Madison, Darke county, Ohio, October 19, 1833. In addition to the ordinary district school facilities, he had the benefit of an academic course, and was subsequently engaged in teaching for some twelve years in this and adjoining counties. He attended a course of instruction at Smith's Commercial college, and graduated from that institution, After reading law for two years he took a regular course in the law school of Cincinnati college, and graduated in 1872, and was admitted to the Bar in the district court for Hamilton county immediately thereafter. In the year 1862, during the war of the Rebellion, he enlisted in the Ninety-third regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was commissioned second lieutenant of Company H.

After his admission to the bar he established an office for the practice of his profession in West Alexandria, where he has since resided. In the year 1853 he was married to Miss Harriet N. Stevens, of Cincinnati.

JAMES ALEXANDER GILMORE, ESQ., was born on the eleventh day of July, A.D. 1834, in Israel township, Preble county. His father, Dr. Eli Gilmore, was a Virginian, and immigrated to Preble county in the year 1825. During his minority, the subject of this sketch received a passably fair education in the common schools, as good as could be obtained at that time, but had no benefits of an academic training. In the year 1852, when at the age of eighteen years, he went to Eaton, and entered as a student in the law office of his brother, Judge Wm. J. Gilmore. Whilst pursuing his studies there, he worked in the several county offices as occasion and opportunity offered. In the year 1854, he went to the city of Cincinnati, and entered the law school of Cincinnati college, where he graduated in 1855, and was admitted to the bar by the district court of Butler county, on the day after he attained his majority.

After his admission he returned to Eaton and commenced the practice with his brother, where he remained until the year 1858, in which year he went to Indiana and established an office for the practice of his profession in Greencastle, Putnam county. Herehe remained two years, and then returned to Eaton. Previous to his return, however, in the year 1859 he married Miss Lizzie Applegate, at Greencastle. At this time he remained at Eaton but a single year, returning in 1860 with his wife to Greencastle, where her parents resided.

In the fall of 1861, Mr. Gilmore enlisted in the fortythird regiment, Indiana volunteer infantry, for service in the war for the suppression of the rebellion. Pretty soon after his regiment was mustered into service, he was detailed in the quartermaster's department, where he served during the term of his enlistment - three years, His regiment was one of the first that entered Memphis. Afterwards the command went to Helena, Arkansas, thence to Little Rock, Camden, etc., remaining, however, most ofthe time at Little Rock.

Having been in the service the full term of his enlistment, he was honorably discharged in the fall of 1864. His wife having died whilst he was in the service, soon after his discharge he re-enlisted in the ninety-first regiment Ohio volunteer infantry - one of the regiments forming the twenty-third army corps. With this command he went to North Carolina. He was again detailed from his regiment, and served his time principally in the judge advocate's department. A part of the time, however, he was a clerk under Captain Phineas R. Minor, in the commissary department.

After his discharge, in 1865, upon the conclusion of the war, our subject spent a year in the west, and then returned to his old home in Eaton, and formed a partnership for the practice of his profession with Judge J. V. Campbell. On the twelfth day of November, 1869, he was married to Miss Ada M. Hendricks, daughter of General George D. Hendricks. Some time after his marriage he removed to the city of Hamilton and opened an office for the practice of law, where he remained two years and then returned to Eaton, and has resided here ever since. Still retaining his partnership with Judge Campbell, he continued his law practice until the spring of 1879, when he was elected an additional judge of the court of common pleas for this sub-division, which office he now holds.

Jonn M. SHAEFER is a native of this county, and was born April 1820. He commenced reading law with General Felix Marsh in 1854, and discontinued it to engage in other pursuits. About 1860 he resumed his reading, this time with Robert Miller, esq., and was admitted to practice April 24, 1874. The same fall he opened an office in Camden where he has since resided. He was elected justice of the peace in Somers township in 1861, serving until 1870, and was mayor of Camden from 1858 until about 1868. l

FRANK G. THOMPSON, ESQ., was admitted to the bar on the ninth day of May, 1876. He is the only son of the late Judge G. W. Thompson, and is a native of Eaton. He is a young man of fair promise, who has not been engaged in the practice of law long enough to have established a reputation as a practitioner; nor is he old enough to have formed such acquaintance as would command a remunerative line of business in the profession. He has served for some two years as the secretary of the Preble County Agricultural society, in which department he has acquitted himself with credit.

the bar on the ninth day of May, 1876. Young Stephen has been engaged to some extent in the business of teaching school, and since his admission to the bar, and even before, we believe, has been employed as local editor of the Eaton Weekly Register.

Mr. Stephen's education was obtained wholly in the public schools of the village of Eaten, and his erudition will compare favorably with that of many young men who can boast of academic or collegiate polish. His practice of the law has been quite limited as yet, but will doubtless increase as his ability comes to be better known. He is of very retiring disposition, and too modest to push himself into notice.

Marcus L. Hott, ESQ., is a native of Morrow county, Ohio, and was born on the nineteenth day of July, 1841. After the usual preparatory training in the district schools in the place of his nativity, he entered as a student in the Ohio Wesleyan university at Delaware, and in due time graduated, having gone through the classical course of that institution. Then for two years he had charge of the academy at Berkshire, Ohio, in conjunction with his sister. In the year 1864, after having taught some five years, he came to Faton and was employed as principal of the public schools of this place for one year. He then conducted a school in the city of Richmond, Indiana, for one year, after which he returned to Eaton and was engaged in the mercantile business in company with his brother-in-law, William E. Doyle, for two years.

Shortly after closing up his mercantile business, the Excelsior School Furniture Manufacturing company was organized here, in which Mr. Holt was a partner and business manager up to the time the establishment was removed to Indianapolis, and for some time afterwards, we believe.

On the thirty-first day of August, 1865 he was married to Miss Sarah J. Walters, daughter of Mr. Joseph Walters. He read law in the office of Messrs. Campbell & Gilmore, and was called to the bar May 9, 1876. He engaged in the practice of his profession soon after his admission, and is succeeding in building up a practice as rapidly as most young men.

OSCAR SHEPPARD, ESQ. was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, July 15, 1844, and in the year 1857 removed with his father's family to near Newark, Licking county, where he continued to reside until the year 1861. In July of that year he enlisted. in Captain Edwin Nichols' company C, Twenty-seventh Ohio volunteer infantry, in which he served until the close of the war for the suppression of the rebellion. His regiment was a part of the famous "Ohio legion," and he participated in all its battles and engagements. He re-enlisted with his regiment January 1, 1864, "for three years or during the war; was wounded at the battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864; was present at the surrender of Johnson in North Carolina, in 1865; participated in the grand review at Washington, and was mustered out of service as sergeant major of his regiment at Louisville, Kentucky, in the month of August, 1865.

war, having then just attained his majority, he resumed his educational pursuits, first in the public schools of Newark, and then in the national normal school at Lebanon, Ohio. In the year 1869 he came to Preble county, and during nine years thereafter was engaged in teaching - for six years of that time as principal of the public schools in West Alexandria. In the year 1873 he was appointed a member of the board of county school examiners, and has been twice reappointed.

In the year 1872 he commenced the study of law in the office of Jonathan Rees, esq., of Newark, where he remained during three vacations. After a short interval he resumed the study in the office of Messrs. Campbell & Gilmore, in Eaton, where he completed his preparatory course, and was called to tbe bar on the ninth day of May, 1877. In June, 1878, he opened an office in the village of West Alexandria, where he is now engaged in the practice.

On the fourth day of September 1877, Mr. Sheppard was married to Miss Alice C. Gale, daughter of John H. Gale (deceased), of West Alexandria.

Lewis M. DILLMAN, ESQ., son of Joseph Dillman, of the vicinity of Camden, was admitted to the bar on the ninth day of May, 1877. We believe Mr. Dillman is now (1880) travelling in the State of Illinois in the interest of a school book publishing company.

JoHN A. MOORE, ESQ., was admitted to the bar, by the district court for Preble county, April 28, 1879. He is a citizen of New Paris, this county.

JoserpH GIDEON MCNUTT, ESQ., was a native of Eaton, and born October 7, 1833. He was the only son of John M. U. McNutt, esq, and Jane C. Hawkins McNutt. He was admitted to the bar, and practiced in this county, and also in Indiana, but we have not been able to get hold of any records that would enable us to trace his history. His friends in Indiana have been written to on the subject, but no answer obtained. He died at Richmond, Indiana, March 2, 1877, of consumption.

WILLIAM A. NEAL, born February 2, 1853, read law under Winfield Freeman, esq., then of Eaton. He was admitted to the bar before the supreme court of Ohio March 5, 1878, and at once commenced practice in Eaton, where he still resides. He was elected mayor of Eaton April, 1880.

Marcus Brutus CHADWICK, ESQ., son of Samuel R. Chadwick (an emigrant from western New York, and a merchant of New Paris, afterwards of Winchester, in this county), was educated at Miami university, and after being admitted to the bar as an attorney atlaw, came to Eaton in the year 1848, and opened an office for the practice of his profession. In 1849 he was elected prosecuting attorney. In 1853 he quit the practice, and bought a farm and saw-mill in Gasper township. After several years he removed to Shelby county, Indiana, where he at present resides. We have been unable to obtain any further data for a more extended notice. Mr. Chadwick has been written to, but no response received.

1850, and secured a partnership in the law practice with M. B. Chadwick, esq. He was here but a few years, and removed to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where he has been on the bench as circuit judge for a number of years.

Frnix M. MARSH was born in Eaton, Preble county, Ohio, May r5, 1843, and received his education in the public schools of that place and at Miami university. He read law with his father, Felix Marsh, and was admitted to practice in the United States court at Washington city, District of Columbia, in the year 1867, in which city he was residing at the time, being employed in the general post office department. He was appointed to a position in that department December 20, 1864, and remained there until April, 1871, when he resigned and returned to engage in the practice of his profession, associating himself in business with his father. After the death of his father, he and his brother, William, formed a partnership, and are conducting a good business.

WILLIAM B. MARSH was born in Eaton, Preble county, Ohio, July 15, 1845. He received his education at the Eaton public schools. He read law under his father, General Felix Marsh, and was admitted to the bar at Hamilton, Butler county, Ohio, in 1867. He commenced practicing at Camden, this county, and was elected a justice of the peace of Somers township in April, 1867, and re-elected in 1870. He was elected mayor of Camden in 1871. In 1877 he removed to Eaton and has since been engaged in a rapidly growing practice. He has made quite a reputation in the county - for a young attorney - as a successful criminal lawyer.

ELAM FISHER is a native of Preble county, and was born July 26,1846. The education which he received at the public schools of Eaton, was supplemented by an attendance at a commercial school in Dayton and a classical course at Miami university, Oxford, Ohio, from which institution he graduated in 1869. Shortly afterward he commenced the study of law under Jacob H. Foos, esq., of Eaton, and in the fall of 1869 entered the law school of Michigan university, at Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he graduated in 1871. The same year he was married to Miss May Still, of Evansville, Indiana. After his marriage he settled in Indianapolis, where he was admitted to the bar. Being in poor health during his residence in that city, he decided to return to Eaton, and in June, 1872, he formed a partnership with his former preceptor, Mr. Foos, and since then has been in active practice, and has assisted in the conduct of a great many cases. Mr. Fisher possesses a good legal mind, and is a patient, careful investigator.

WALTER SAYLER was born at Winchester, this county, October 3, 1857. After attending the public schools of that village, he went to the National normal school, at Lebanon, Ohio, and graduated in the scientific course in 1876. He commenced studying law under Robert Miller, esq., of Eaton, in 1878, and in the fall of 1878 returned to Lebanon and took a classical course, which included the law course, after which he resumed his studies with Mr. Miller. He has practiced in justices' courts, but at this writing has not been admitted to the bar.