Cleveland Past and Present: Its Representative Men Part 23

In 1825, he was elected a member of the State Senate, and was twice re-elected to the same position.

In 1830, he was elected President Judge of the Third Judicial Circuit.

In 1833, he was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court, and at the close of his term was re-elected. For the last three years of his second term he was Chief Justice. As a Judge he was noted for sound logic, and the clearness of his decisions.

In 1850, Judge Wood was elected by the Democratic party Governor of the State by eleven thousand majority, and was re-elected Governor in 1851, under the new const.i.tution, by a majority of twenty-six thousand.

In 1853, he was appointed, by the Government, Consul to Valparaiso, South America. While there, he, for some months, at the request of the Government, discharged the duties of a Minister Plenipotentiary to Chili.

On his return from Chili, he returned to his farm in Rockport, near Cleveland, where he died, October 2, 1864, generally esteemed, and highly respected by all who knew him.

John W. Willey.

John W. Willey was a native of New Hampshire, being born in 1797. He pursued a regular course of study at Dartmouth College, under the encouragement of the distinguished President Wheelock, after whom he had been named. He studied law in New York.

In 1822, being then twenty-five years of age, he came West and settled in Cleveland. At that time it had but one tavern, no church, no railroads, no ca.n.a.l, an occasional steamboat only, three or four stores and a few hundred inhabitants; such was the then picture of a settlement now approaching to a city of a hundred thousand people. Small as Cleveland then was, professionally, Mr. Willey had been preceded by men of decided ability. Alfred Kelley, Leonard Case, and the late Gov. Wood, had taken possession of the field four, six and twelve years before him, and were men of far more than ordinary ability. Mr. Willey was peculiarly adapted to such circ.u.mstances as these. Thoroughly versed in legal principles, of a keen and penetrating mind, a logician by nature, fertile and ready of expedient, with a persuasive eloquence, enlivened with wit and humor, he at once rose to prominence at the bar of Northern Ohio. The Cuyahoga bar was for many years considered the strongest in the State, but amongst all of its talented members, each with his own peculiar forte, for the faculty of close and long-continued reasoning, clearness of statement, nice discrimination, and never ending ingenuity, he had no superior.

In 1827, Mr. Willey was partially withdrawn from practice, by being elected to the Legislature, where he served three years as Representative and three as Senator, until 1832.

He was the first Mayor of Cleveland, being elected in 1836, and re-elected in 1837, by large majorities, and prepared the original laws and ordinances for the government of the city.

He was amongst the earliest projectors, prior to the reverses of 1836 and 1837, of the railroads to Columbus and Cincinnati, and to Pittsburgh.

In 1840, he was appointed to the bench, thus restoring him to those studies and subjects of thought from which years of public and of business life had diverted him. No sooner had he a.s.sumed this new position than by common consent it was recognized as the one above all others he was best fitted to adorn. Possessing the power which so few men have, of close, concentrated, continuous thought, he was at the same time prompt in his decisions. His instructions to juries, and his legal judgments, usually p.r.o.nounced at considerable length, were marked by that precision of statement, clearness of a.n.a.lysis, and felicity of language, which made them seem like the flowing of a silver stream.

Judge Willey, at the time of his death, which occurred in June, 1841, was President Judge of the Fourteenth Judicial District. He died deeply regretted by a large circle of professional and other friends, who had become much attached to him for his many virtues, uniform and dignified, yet unostentatious life.

In the Western Law Journal for 1852, we find a judicial anecdote related of Mr. Willey, in ill.u.s.tration of his wit, and immovable self-possession.

The writer says: "At his last term in Cleveland we happened in while he was p.r.o.nouncing sentence upon a number of criminals who had been convicted during the week, of penitentiary offenses. One of them, a stubborn looking fellow, who, to the usual preliminary question of whether he had anything to offer why the sentence of the law should not be p.r.o.nounced upon him, had replied somewhat truculently, that he had 'nothing to say,' but who when the judge was proceeding in a few prefatory remarks to explain to the man how fairly he had been tried, etc., broke in upon the court by exclaiming that 'he did'nt care if the court had convicted him, he wasn't guilty _any_ how.' 'That will be a consolation to you,' rejoined the judge, with unusual benignity, and with a voice full of sympathy and compa.s.sion, 'That will be a consolation to you, in the hour of your confinement, for we read in the good Book that it is better to _suffer_ wrong, than _do_ wrong.' In the irrepressible burst of laughter which followed this unexpected response, all joined except the judge and the culprit."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Truly Yours, S. Andrews]

Sherlock J. Andrews.

Judge Andrews was born November, 1801, in the quiet New England village of Wallingford, Connecticut. His father was a prominent physician at that place, where he spent a long and useful life in the practice of his profession. He lived to a good old age, a Christian gentleman of the old school.

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

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

In 1828, he married Miss Ursula Allen, of Litchfield, Connecticut, daughter of the late John Allen, a member of Congress from that State, who was also the father of Hon. John W. Allen, of this city. The late Samuel Cowles had preceded Mr. Andrews here in the profession and offered him a partnership. Their compet.i.tors were the late Governor Wood and Judge John W. Willey, who were partners, and Judge Starkweather, who still survives.

Considering the limited business of the place, which scarcely numbered five hundred inhabitants, the profession was evidently overstocked then, as it has been ever since. Briefless lawyers had, however, a wide field to cultivate outside this county, embracing at least all the counties of the Reserve; with horse and saddle-bags, they followed the Court in its travels, judges and attorneys splashing through the mud on terms of democratic equality.

Judge Andrews gave immediate promise of celebrity as an advocate. With a sensitive and nervous temperament, he entered sympathetically into the case of his client, making it his own. He possessed a brilliant readiness of manner, full of skillful thrusts, hits, and witticisms. His correct New England morals were not deteriorated by contact with the more loose codes of a new western town. In his clear and earnest voice there was that magnetic influence, which is necessary to complete the style of any orator, and which is a gift solely of nature. As a technical pleader, though he stood high, there were others upon the circuit equally gifted.

But in a cause where his convictions of justice and of legal right were fixed, there was not among his contemporaries, in the courts of this State, an advocate, whose efforts were so nearly irresistible before a jury. He has command of sarcasm and invective, without coa.r.s.eness. He attacks oppression, meanness and fraud as if they were offences not only against the public, but against himself. He has never strayed from the profession to engage in any speculations or occupations to divert his thoughts from pure law, except for two years from 1840, while he held a seat in Congress. In 1848, the Legislature elected him judge of the Superior Court of Cuyahoga county, a place he continued to hold till the Court was abolished. As a judge he was eminently successful, his decisions having been overruled by higher courts only in a single instance, and that owing to a clerical mistake. In politics he was evidently not at home.

After leaving the bench, Judge Andrews returned to the practice, but has been chiefly employed as a.s.sociate counsel, occasionally addressing juries on important cases.

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

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

Yet, highly as Judge Andrews has adorned his profession, it is simply justice to say in conclusion, that his unblemished character in every relation has adorned his manhood. He has been far more than a mere lawyer.

With a keen relish for historical and philosophical inquiry--a wide acquaintance with literature, and an earnest sympathy with the advanced lines of thought in the present age, his life has also been practically subordinated to the faultless morality of Christianity. A community is truly enriched, when it possesses, and can present to its younger members, such shining instances of success in honorable endeavor, and sterling excellence in character and example.

John W. Allen.

Mr. Allen, though not among the first attorneys who settled in Cleveland, was upon the ground early among the second generation. Samuel Huntington was the first lawyer of the place, becoming a resident here in the year 1801. Alfred Kelley was his successor, commencing his legal career as soon as the county courts were organized in 1810. In 1816, Leonard Case was added to the profession and in 1818 the late Governor Wood and Samuel Cowles, and about 1822, John W. Willey About the year 1826, soon after the construction of the Ohio ca.n.a.l was commenced, a troop of young lawyers took possession of the field, some of whom still survive, Sherlock J.

Andrews, Samuel Starkweather and John W. Allen. They were all from Yankee land, in pursuit of fame and fortune. Mr. Allen originated in Litchfield county, Connecticut, a place prolific in prominent characters. His father, John Allen, was a member of Congress from that State.

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

As soon as Cleveland a.s.sumed the position of a city in 1836, the subject of railways became one of the prominent public questions. A portion of the citizens were of the opinion that they had yielded enough to the spirit of modern innovation when the Ohio ca.n.a.l was suffered to enter Cleveland.

This had banished the Dutch wagons entirely, and railroads might complete our ruin entirely, by banishing ca.n.a.l boats. Mr. Allen, and the new comers generally, took the opposite side. While he was rising to a leading public position he labored zealously in the cause of railways in harmony with his political opponents John W. Willey, Richard Hilliard, James S. Clark and others, most of whom are dead. But for his zeal and perseverence the Cleveland & Columbus Railroad Company would not have been organized probably for years after it was and then it was done almost in spite of many of the large property holders of that day, who looked upon the enterprise as chimerical.

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

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: J. W. Allen]

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

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

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

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

Hiram V. Willson.