Warren County, Ohio - Chapter 8: The Distinguished Dead, 1882 (part 2 of 2)

he was elected Sheriff of Warren County, and, at the commencement of hie term of office, took up his residence at Lebanon. This office he held for two consecutive terms. After the expiration of his term of office, he purchased a farm about three miles north of Lebanon, to which he removed. In 1830, he was elected a Representatvie from Warren County in the Legislature, and was re-elected to the same position in 1831, and in 1832, and again in 1834, serving in tha^ office, in all, four years. During his last term of service in the House of Representatives, he was elected Treasurer of State, and was three times re-elected, and held this office for four consecutive terms of three years each. Upon the commencement of his term of office as Treasurer of State, he removed to Columbus, where he ever afterward resided. Mr. Whitehill was never married. His eldest sister, Jane Whitehill, who also remained unmarried, resided with him. He acquired quite a large estate, but., by the failure of several institutions in which he hal invested largely, toward the close of his life the greater part of his property was swept away. His death occurred at Columbus, Ohio, on November 4, 1861, when he had nearly completed his seventy-fifth year.

Mr. Whitehill was not a man of much knowledge of the sort that is derived from books, he having had but little time for the acquisition of that kind of knowledge in his early life, which was one of labor and activity, rendered necessary by reason of the responsibilities imposed upon him, and to which reference has been made. But he was a man of strong sense and sound judgment His disposition was frank and generous, and his manners were popular.

He was the son of Rev. John Probasco, a Baptist preacher of Huguenot extraction, who moved with his family to Lebanon, Ohio, in 1823. The removal was effected in wagons, and the family were on their journey just one month. His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Olden. She belonged to a family long settled in New Jersey, and died at Lebanon in 1881, in her eighty-eighth year, having survived her distinguished son more than twenty-three years. Young John Probasco received a good English and classical education at Lebanon.

He entered the Junior class at Miami University and remained one year, not waiting to graduate. Returning to Lebanon, he commenced the study of law, under the instruction of Hon. Thomas Corwin, then a Member of Congress.

For the four years subsequent to his admission to the bar, Mr. Probasco devoted himself unremittingly to the study and practice of his profession. This was called for by his limited circumstances, for he did not inherit wealth.

One of the earliest cases in which the extent of his talents and the vigor of % his character were displayed was in a State prosecution against a man of influence and talents. The defendant was a lawyer of ability and considerable practice - a member of the Lebanon bar; but he was violent and reckless in his temper, and unforgiving and vindictive in his character. While under a paroxysm of anger, he shot at a man who had given him some offense, and was recognized to the Court of Common Pleas to answer the charge of shooting with intent to kill. The offense was punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary. The Prosecuting Attorney happened to be distantly related to the defendant, and was excused from appearing against him. Many of the bar were retained in his defense; others were unwilling to appear against him, a a they had practiced at the same bar. The court appointed Mr. Probasco, the youngest member of the bar, as special prosecutor. He accepted the appointment and conducted the prosecution with masterly energy. Every effort of the able counsel of the defendant was unavailing, and he was found guilty.

On the 13th of February, 1838, Mr. Probasco was married to Miss Susan Jane Freeman. She was the daughter of Thomas Freeman, Esq., who died in 1818, and who practiced law at the same bar with such lawyers as Judge Mc- Lean and' Judge Collett, with great success.

In 1840, Mr. Probasco was first called into public life. During that memorable period of political excitement which aroused the whole country, he was too ardent to remain inactive. A Whig from conviction and principle, he had ever been faithful to his party attachments, but he was too much devoted to his profession to mingle in the ordinary conflicts of politics. But when, in 1840, he was, though little more than eligible, invited by his party to take a seat in the Legislature of his State, he accepted the place. In the Lower House, to which he belonged, his party was largely in the ascendant, but the Democrats had a majority in the Senate. The most exciting question which divided the two parties was the banking system; and the Whig Speaker showed his appreciation of Mr. Probasco's abilities by placing him on the Standing Committee on Banks and Currency. This was posting him in the van of the battle, and he sustained himself triumphantly, though he was then in a legislative body for the first time, and though among the Democratic members was a large number of their able leaders, who have since been Governors, and Supreme Judges, and Members of Congress. His legal attainments were thus early very strikingly displayed in a protest which he put upon the journal against the passage of a bill whose provisions he alleged to be unconstitutional. He was re-elected in 1841, and was now in a minority. The same stormy conflicts were renewed, and he was still one of the leaders in shaping both the course of debate and the course of business. It was the intention of Mr. Probasco, at the close of *his second term of service, to decline a re-election; but this design was changed by the events of an extra session held in July and August, 1842. Congress had delayed so long the passage of a law to apportion the members of the House of Representatives among the several States under the census of 1840, that the regular session of the State Legislature was ended before that apportionment was made. An extra session was therefore called to divide the State into districts for Congressional elections. That session proved to be the stormiest which had, up to that time, occurred in the annals of Ohio. The parties were almost equally balanced in both Houses, although the Democrats had a slight ascendancy. The Whigs, under the lead of Seabury Ford, Robert C. Schenck and John Probasco, in order to prevent the Democrats from redistricting the State in a manner that would have left the Whigs almost without representation in Congress, adopted the bold, but questionable, policy of dissolving the General Assembly by tendering their resignations in a body, and thereby leaving both Houses without a quorum of two-thirds. The movement succeeded, and the two Houses were compelled to dissolve and go home without districting the State for Congressional purposes.

However impolitic and revolutionary this movement may seem, since the excitement which produced it is past, it serves strongly to indicate the extent of party feelings at that period, and as strongly illustrates the energy and courage of men who could venture all their future prospects and hopes by leading in so daring a movement to defeat the tyranny of a majority.

In the Legislature, Mr. Probascowas always .an active and laborious member, and introduced a number of important measures of legislation. He did not speak frequently, considering the excitement of the times, but he was always listened to with great interest and attention, for he always spoke to the point. The solidity of his judgment and the determined energy of his character gave him his influence. He showed himself in debate rather a forcible and impressive speaker than a brilliant declaimer. He derived great improvement from the intellectual conflicts of his legislative life, and returned to the bar more fully prepared for the successful prosecution of his profession.

From 1843, when he retired from the Legislature, for the subsequent period of seven years, Mr. Probasco devoted himself to the practice of the law with eminent success. This period of his life, quiet as it seemed to be, he spent so as to lay deeper and broader the foundations for a life of future usefulness.

In February, 1850, though he had not been a candidate, he was elected, by the Legislature a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He remained upon the bench two years, when his term of service was cut off by the adoption of the new constitution.

Having declined a re-election to the Common Pleas bench under the new constitution, he resumed the practice of law at Lebanon in 1852. He soon afterward, in partnership with Gov. Corwin, opened an office at Cincinnati. As a member of the Cincinnati bar, he at once took high rank, and was regarded as one of the ablest lawyers in the city.

But he was not long permitted to engage in the contests and achieve the victories of his profession in this new field < f labor. A sickness, brought on by labor in the harvest-field of his farm in Illinois, cut off his life in the prime of his manhood and the midst of his usefulness. He died at his residence in Lebanon, September 18, 1857, in the forty -fourth year of his age.

Judge Probasco was nearly six feet high, large and well proportioned, of robust health and vigorous constitution. Though not corpulent, he was of full habit His hair was black, his eye quick, sparkling and black, and his features and head well formed. His voice was sonorous, clear and distinct. Though warm-hearted and social, he was quiet and reserved in his manners. In company, he was rather a listener than a leading talker. He always evinced the tenderest attachment for his family, and spared no pains in the proper nurture and education of his children. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a man of the purest and most exemplary morals.

J. Milton Williams

This distinguished member of the bar was bom at Lebanon December 17, 1807. His father, Enos Williams, was an early teacher of Warren County, and held several important civil offices, and among others, that of County Recorder for a period of fourteen years. John Milton received a good English education. In his boyhood, he assisted his father in the Recorder's office, and also wrote in the office of the Clerk of Court. His handwriting was legible, bold and rapid, and the training he received as a copyist at the court house was of benefit to him in his future profession. He studied law with Judge George J. Smith, and, before he had reached the age of twenty-four years, on the 7th of June, 1831, was admitted to the bar at a term of the Supreme Court held at Lebanon, with Judges Peter Hitchcock and Charles R. Sherman on the bench. Gen. Robert C. Schenck, who had completed his legal studies under Thomas Corwin, was admitted at the same time and place.

Yoong Williams was poor, and was compelled to rely wholly on his own exertions. In after years, he wrote: "When I went out into the wide, wide world in business, on my own hook, I had two dilapidated shirts and a poor suit of clothes to match them. I opened my office in a cellar, with three musty old Ohio statutes, given me by my old father, which he had held as a public officer. This was my entire stock in trade." He soon acquired distinction at the bar. Not long after he began practice, he became Prosecuting Attorney - a position he held for twelve consecutive years. He was candid with his clients, and never misrepresented a case in consultation to encourage litigation. He charged lower fees for his services than other lawyers of the same rank. His popularity and personal influence with the masses were very great. For several years, he had a larger number of cases on the dockets of the courts than any other lawyer of the county, and was the attorney on one side of almost every important case. He could readily sway the minds of jurymen, and in the examination of witnesses he exhibited consummate skill. In 1850, he was elected a member of the convention which framed the second constitution of Ohio, and in 1857 he was elected Representative in the General Assembly of Ohio as an independent candidate over the regular Republican nominee. He was Major of the militia, and was uniformly known as Maj. Williams. In politics, he was a Whig, and afterward a Republican.

The last years of the life of Maj. Williams are a sad history, over the details of which it is best that the mantle of oblivion should be drawn. Habits of intemperance separated him from his wife and family, and brought him to misery and want before he was yet old. He saw the extremes of life. He rose from poverty and obscurity to wealth and distinction; he sank again to obscurity and poverty. When possessed of considerable means, accumulated by his own energy and ability, he erected for his residence one of the finest mansions which had, up to that time, been constructed in the county; he died without a home. When the legal proceedings were commenced which took from him the ownership and control of his property, he wrote and read in the court in which he had practiced with eminent success: " Godhelp me! I am a miserable and ruined man! Let the curtains of oblivion rest over the whole affair until that great day when all things shall be brought into judgment" He died July 21, 1871, aged sixty-four years, and was buried in the Lebanon Cemetery.

George Kesling

The subject of this sketch was a native of Virginia, and in 1797, when fourteen years of age, came with his father, Teter Keeling, to Warren County, which was his home until his death. Having only the limited opportunities for an education afforded in a new country, George acquired a fondness for reading and study, and the ability to express his thoughts on paper. He delighted to participate in the local debating clubs, and the native vigor of his mind soon attracted the attention of his neighbors. In 1812, he was elected Sheriff of Warren County. This position he left to become a Captain in the war with England. In 1815, after the close of the war, he became a merchant in Lebanon, and continued in this business for many years. In 1819, he was elected a Representative in the Legislature, and served one year. In 1824, he was appointed by the Legislature as Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas - a position he held for about ten years.

Judge Kesling was a leading spirit in public improvements. Early in 1825, soon after the canal from Dayton to Cincinnati was projected, and before work had yet been commenced upon it, he was at the head of a party engaged in leveling and surveying routes to determine the practicability of a canal from

He was an early admirer and supporter of Andrew Jackson, and a stanch Democrat in politics until his death. In 1828, he became the editor of the Democrat , a Jackson paper at Lebanon, which he afterward removed to Columbus, Ohio, and published there for a short time. At one time, he was before the Democratic convention as a candidate for the nomination for Governor, and was defeated by only a few votes. He was appointed, by President Jackson, Postmaster at Lebanon in 1831 - a position he held for ten years. In 1840, he was appointed, by Gov. Shannon, a member of the State Board of Equalization.

Judge Kesling was never married. He was a strong-minded man, with decided opinions, and a useful member of society.* In his last years, his mental powers failed, and he died, after a protracted illness, at Lebanon, December 18, 1860, aged seventy-seven years.

Ephraim Kibby

This pioneer surveyor and soldier was bora in New Jersey, midway between Trenton and Newark. Reaching his majority about the commencement of the Revolutionary war, he became a soldier in the struggle for independence, and continued in active service until it ended. Being a land surveyor, he was induced to seek his fortunes in the Miami Purchase. He was one of the colony led by Maj. Benjamin Stites, which made the first settlement in Symmes' Purchase, and laid out the town of Columbia. Kibby was in the boat which brought the party which made the first improvement at Columbia, and which landed near the mouth of the Little Miami in November, 1788. On tho 7th of January, 1789, he was one of thirty persons who drew each one outlot and one inlot in the town of Losanteville, now Cincinnati. For several years, he was engaged as one of the surveyors in Symmes' Purchase, and was exposed to imminent dangers from the hostile Indians until Wayne's treaty of peace. He served in the campaigns against the Indians, and in Gen. Wayne's army he was Captain of the rangers. Gen. Wayne, profiting by the experience of St Clair and Harmar, determined to use the utmost caution in his movements to guard against being surprised. To secure his army against the possibility of being ambuscaded, he employed a number of the best woodmen the country afforded to act as scouts or rangers. Capt. Ephraim Kibby commanded the principal part of this corps, and was commended in McDonald's Sketches as " a bold and intrepid soldier. n

On the restoration of peace, he resumed the business of surveying. It is known that in 1799 he laid out a road from Vincennes to the Great Miami River, and a published statement gave its length, on his authority, as 155 miles and 48 poles. The Western Spy of July 23, 1799, contained the following:

M Capt. E. Kibby, who, some time since, undertook to cut a road from Fort Vincennes to this place, returned on Monday reduced to a perfect skeleton. He had cut the road seventy miles, when, by some means he was separated from his men. After hunting them several days without success, he steered his course this way. He has undergone great hardships, and was obliged to subsist on roots, etc. , which he picked up in the woods. Thus far report "

Capt. Kibby resided for some time in Columbia, in which place he is said to have built the first stone house. On the formation of Columbia Township, in 1791 - the oldest township between the Miami s, and originally embracing parts of Hamilton, Butler and Warren Counties - he was appointed, by the Court of Quarter Sessions, the first Clerk of the township. He also for a time resided in the village of Cincinnati. About the commencement of this century, he removed with his family to Deerfield or its vicinity.

VJ During the storm of excitement which followed Aaron Burr's attempted expedition down the Mississippi, rumor, fear, partisan feeling and prejudice endangered the reputation of every man who had even an acquaintance with Burr. The storm was nowhere greater than in Ohio, and Capt. Kibby, who had known Col. Burr as an officer in the Revolutionary war, and had probably met him several times in Cincinnati, in order to protect his reputation, published, in the Western Spy, an affidavit denying all connection with any scheme against the welfare of the Government. The published report of Burr's trial shows that Kibby was subpoenaed as a witness on the part of the Government, but he did not testify. His name is mentioned in the testimony of Gen. William Eaton, from which it appeared that Burr, in order to win Eaton over to his Mexican scheme, had indulged in loose talk to the effect that a majority of the people about Cincinnati were ready to embark in his expedition, and that " a Mr. Ephraim Kibby, late Captain of the rangers in Wayne's army, and a Brigade Major in the vicinity of Cincinnati, who had much influence with the militia, had already engaged the majority of his brigade, who were ready to march at Mr. Burr's signal. "

In 1802, Capt. Kibby was elected a member of the Legislature of the Northwest Territory, but the formation of a State Government prevented the Legislature to which he was elected from meeting. He was elected a member of the first Legislature of the State of Ohio, and served two terms. He had a large family, and his descendants in Warren County are numerous. Judge John F. Kibby, of Richmond, Ind., who is a native of Warren County, is his grandson. Capt Kibby died April 22, 1809, aged fifty-five years, and was buried at Deerfield.

John Bigger

This prominent legislator was a native of Pennsylvania and an early pioneer in the Miami Purchase. He contracted with Judge Symmes for the purchase of lands in the fourth range, northwest of the present site of Lebanon, and settled thereon, His purchase falling outside of the tract patented to Symmes, he was unable to obtain a deed for his lands until the passage of an act of Congress for the relief of persons who had made written contracts with Symmes, and whose lands were not comprehended in his patent. In 1802, he was elected a member of the Territorial Legislature, but the Legislature to which he was elected never assembled, on account of the formation of a State Government. He was more frequently elected to represent Warren County in the Legislature than any other citizen of the county in its whole history. He was a Representative in the first State Legislature, and from 1803 to 1833, he was twenty times elected either a Representative or Senator in that body. In the session of 1821-22, he was Speaker of the House. He was a member of the first Board of Trustees of Miami University. In 1825, he was elected by the Legislature a member of the first State Board of Equalization, and became the President of that body. In 1824, he was elected a Presidential Elector on the Clay Electoral ticket, and in 1826, he was one of three unsuccessful candidates for Governor against Allen Trimble.

Col. Bigger possessed powers of mind which enabled him to discharge the duties of the offices to which he was chosen with credit to himself and the entire satisfaction of the community. He was known to be an honest man. He was esteemed for his integrity and uprightness of character, as well as his stability and sound judgment. He was an influential and useful member of the Dick's Creek Presbyterian Church, and served as Ruling Elder in that church from its organization until his death. An obituary notice of Col. Bigger says that u if any trait was exhibited more conspicuously than another, it was that which, in a very eminent degree, entitled him to the character of a peace- maker." He was the father of Gov. Samuel Bigger, of Indiana After an illness of about ten days, he died on his farm north of Union Village, June 18, 1840.

William C. Schenck

William C. Schenck was bom in New Jersey in 1773, and was the son of Rev. William Schenck, a Presbyterian clergyman, and Anna Cummings, his wife. He was a surveyor by profession, and came to Marietta in 1793, and to Cincinnati in 1795. In the winter of 1795-96, in connection with Daniel C. Cooper, he laid out the town of Franklin, and in 1801, with two associates, laid out the town of Newark, Licking Co., Ohio. In 1798, he was married to Betsey Rogers, of Long Island, and, with his wife, reached Cincinnati January 1, 1799, where they resided until about 1803, when they became residents of Franklin. He was elected Secretary of the Council in the first Legislature of the Northwest Territory in 1799. His name appears in the court records as Foreman of a Grand Jury of Hamilton County in 1799, and as Foreman of the first Grand Jury of Warren County in 1803. He served as a State Senator from Warren County in 1803, 1804 and 1805, and Representative in the Legislature in 1821. In 1814, he was appointed by the Legislature a Commissioner for the perpetuation of the evidence of the original field notes of the survey of the Miami Purchase, the original notes having been lost in a fire, which destroyed the house of Judge J. C. Symmes. He died at Columbus, Ohio, while serving as a member of the Legislature, on his forty-eighth birthday, January 12, 1821.

Gen. William C. Schenck left a large family, of whom the sole survivors, in 1881, were Gen. Robert C. Schenck and Admiral James F. Schenck, both of whom were bom in Warren County.

Michael H. Johnson

Judge Johnson was bora in Virginia November 10, 1769. Having received a better English education than was common at that time, he went, when a young man, to Kentucky, where he taught school. He soon afterward moved to the north side of the Ohio, and served as Quartermaster Sergeant under Gen. Wayne, and thus formed an intimate acquaintance with William Henry Harrison, an Ensign, a few years younger than himself. This acquaintance ripened into an ardent friendship. Their last meeting was at the Williamson House, in Lebanon, while Gen. Harrison was a candidate for the Presidency. Johnson was one of the first settlers at Deerfield, being there as early as 1797. According to the manuscript notes of Judge R. B. Harlan, M. H. Johnson sold goods at Deerfield for Mr. Hinkson, and was the first store-keeper in Warren County. About 1801, he moved to the high ground immediately north of Hopkinsville, where he resided until his death. He was appointed Assessor of Deerfield Township, Hamilton County, Northwest Territory, and afterward, Auditor of Supervisors' accounts for the same large Township, embracing the greater part of Warren County. He received a commission from Gov. St. Clair as a Lieutenant in the Territorial militia. After the organization of Warren County, he was, in 1803, elected and commissioned one of the first Justices of the Peace of Hamilton Township, and discharged the duties of this office at intervals for about twelve years. He was the first Recorder of Warren County, and, after the creation of the office of Auditor, in 1820, he was the firet person to hold that position in the county. In 1809, he was elected a member of the Senate of the General Assembly, and, in 1812, a Representative, serving, in all, seven terms in the Legislature between 1809 and 1819. In the last-named year, he was commissioned by Gov. Brown Collector of Taxes for the Second District. In 1825, he was elected by the Legislature an Associate Judge, and served in that position for about ten years.

In politics, Judge Johnson was a Jeffersonian, or anti -Federalist, and afterward an active and ardent Whig.* On election days, he was always to be found at the polls. He died at his home, near Hopkinsville, in the seventyseventh year of his age.

Thomas B. Van Horne

The subject of this sketch was bora in New Jersey June 1, 1783, and came to Warren County in 1807. He was the son of Rev. William Yan Horae, a Baptist clergyman, who served as Chaplain in the Revolutionary war, and died in 1807, at Pittsburgh, on his journey to Ohio. His remote ancestors were emigrants from the Netherlands. Thomas B. settled on a farm one mile east of Lebanon in December, 1807, where he engaged in the arduous labors of opening a farm in the forests. He was among the earliest volunteers in the war of 1812, and was placed in command of a battalion in Col. Findley's regiment, with the rank of Major, and was surrendered with Hull's army at Detroit. He was soon exchanged, and received a commission as Lieutenant Colonel in the regular army, in which capacity he continued until the close of the war, being for a long time in command of Fort Erie. At the close of the war, he returned to agricultural pursuits. He was elected a Senator in the Legislature of Ohio in 1812, 1818 and 1817, and was afterward appointed, by President Monroe, a Register of the Land Office in the northwestern part of Ohio, which position he held until 1837. On returning from this position, he again established himself on his farm near Lebanon, where he remained until his death, a quiet and sober, but industrious and useful, citizen. He died September 21, 1841, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, and was buried at Lebanon.