History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
DAVID S. SPRIGGS, one of the leading lawyers and prominent citizens of Noble County, was born in Centerville, Belmont County, Ohio, January 10, 1853. He passed his boyhood on a farm, receiving only a good common school education, which he made useful to himself and others by engaging in the work of a teacher. He also studied surveying. While teaching he pursued the study of law in his spare time, and at the age of twenty-one entered the law office of his brother, Hon. B.F. Spriggs, of Sarahsvile. He was admitted to the bar in 1859, and from that time until 1866 he was alternately engaged in teaching and the practice of law, meantine serving three years as school examiner. In 1866 he removed to Caldwell, where he has since had an extensive law practice, ranking among the leading representatives of the profession in this locality. He served as prosecuting attorney from 1872 to 1876. In 1875 he was a candidate for representative to the legislature from Noble County. James M. Dalzell, the Republican
nominee, was elected by a majority of five votes. Mr. Spriggs has at various times been nominated for other responsible offices, but has been defeated, his party being greatly in the minority. Since 1863 he has taken an active interest in politics, and has been a prominent worker on the Democratic side in political campaigns. In 1885 he was appointed postmaster at Caldwell, which position he still holds. In 1857 he married Nancy Windom, a cousin of Senator Windom, of Minnesota. She is a native of Belmont County. Mr. and Mrs. Spriggs have two sons and one daughter.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
MICHAEL DANFORD KING was a young lawyer in Caldwell in 1859. He removed to Barnesville, went into the army, and was killed in the service.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
JOHN W. BELL was in Caldwell before the war, and attempted to practice law for a time. He was afterward in the newspaper business and succeeded admirably.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
JAMES S. FOREMAN, son of Hiram and Margaret Foreman, was born near Senecaville, Guernsey County, Ohio, October 2, 1835. He received a common school education, and in early life taught school. He read law under the preceptorship of Judge Evans, of Cambridge, and was admitted to the bar September 8, 1863. October 6, 1874, he was admitted to practice in the United States Circuit court. He removed to Caldwell in the fall of 1864, and practiced here until his decease. He died of paralysis, March 22, 1880. He first practiced in partnership with Hon. W. H. Frazier, and, after the latter was elected judge, formed a partnership with D.S. Spriggs, which continued until his death. Mr. Foreman was considered one of the best lawyers in the county. He served two terms as prosecuting attorney, but never held any other office of prominence. He took an active part in politics, and was a good stump-speaker. He married Anna M. Summers, of Noble County, in 1859, and was the father of six children,
who are living.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
JUDGE DENNIS S. GIBBS is a prominent lawyer and an old resident of Noble County. He is the son of Dennis Gibbs, one of the early New England settlers of Olibe Township, and was born in that township, Dec. 25, 1825. He was reared on his father’s farm and shared the rough experiences of pioneer life. He received such schooling as the inferior subscription schools of the early days afforded. He was editorially connected with two of the early newspapers of Noble County. He began the study of law in the office of Hon. Isaac Parrish and finished in the office of Hon. W.H. Frazier. He was admitted to the bar in 1868, but did not enter upon the practice of the law until 1875. His early political teachings were such that he became a “free-soiler” and cast his first vote for the nominees of that party. On the formation of the Republican party he became an adherent to its principles and still remains constant to them. He has taken an active part in politics for many years and is a sound and effective
public speaker. In 1863 Mr. Gibbs was elected to the office of probate judge and for two terms fulfilled the duties of that position. In 1870 he went to Kansas where he embarked largely in the real estate business until 1873 when the panic brought financial disaster to him. In 1875 he returned to Noble County and in partnership with William Chambers engaged in the practice of law. He has since had a large practice and is a very successful lawyer. Judge Gibbs has been twice married - first, in 1853 to Rhoda Chamberlain, of Beverly, O., who died in 1859; and second, in 1864 to Ada M. Tuttle. By the first marriage there was one child who died young. Three children have been borne of the second union - Mattie L., Dennis C. and Ada M. In religious belief, Judge Gibbs is a Universalist.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
HON. JAMES M. DALZELL, now an attorney-at-law in Caldwell, was born in Allegheny County (opposite Pittsburgh), Penn., September 3, 1838.
He attended school in Allegheny, and was quite proficient in the rudiments of a common English education before he was nine years old. Then his father, Robert Dalzell, removed to Brookfield Township, and there commenced farming. His youth was spent like that of other boys of that day in the country, working on the farm in summber, and attending school in winter three months in the year. At sixteen he had completed the limited curriculum of that period, and having obtained a certificate set out on foot for Vinton County in the winter of 1854, and there taught his first school at $22 per month. With the proceeds he maintained himself at the Ohio University at Athens for a term, and when his money was exhausted, again resorted to “the birch”; and so alternately teaching and attending college as he could; sometimes at Sharon college, again at Oberlin,
at Athens, and Washington, Pa. The years flew by, and with such difficulties to encounter and overcome, in making his own way at college. When the war broke out it found him a junior at Washington College, Pennsylvania. He had also graduated from Duff’s College, Pittsburgh, but the dream of his life was to finish a full classical course in old Washington; but the cherished ambition of his youth was frustrated by his enlistment as a common soldier in Company H, One Hundred and Sixteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Here he served three years without discredit, and was promoted “Sergeant Major, for gallant and distinguished service,” as his commission reads. At the close of the war returning home to Noble County, he was chosen deputy clerk of the court of common pleas, and acted in that capacity until July, 1866, when he was appointed to a clerkship in the United States Treasury at Washington City, which he held for two years, until he had graduated in Columbia College and was admitted to the
bar as attorney at law in June, 1868. This he achieved by night study alone, for his days were devoted to the business of his office. Nov. 29, 1867, he married Miss Hettie M. Kelley, an estimable young lady residing then at her home in Muskingum County. Together they spent a pleasant and profitable year at the Capital. But in the fall of 1868 they removed to Caldwell, Ohio, and there have resided ever since. Their union has been one of the happiest and blessed with six children, all of whom survive except James Monroe, the eldest son, a very promising youth, whose sudden death at the age of fifteen has cast a deep gloom over the household that mourns his departure.
Mr. Dalzell has always contributed to the daily newspaper press, and it is probably not going too far for us to say that no name is better known than his among newspaper writers. His business for eighteen years had been that of a lawyer, in which he has been fairly successful. In 1869 he was elected
prosecuting attorney and served two years; and so vigorous was his prosecution of liquor sellers that at the end of his term there was not an open saloon in his county. In 1875 he was elected to the General Assembly of Ohio, and represented Noble County so well that in 1877 he was re-elected for two years more. During his entire four years in the legislature he was a member of the judiciary committee, the most influential and important of all the committees, and the one to which lawyers only are eligible.
The entire body of Ohio statutory law passed through the hands of this committee for the laws were then being codified and re-enacted. In 1882 he was strongly supported in the Congressional convention at St. Clairsville for the nomination to Congress, and was balloted for unsucessfully nearly three hundred times in the most exciting contest for Congress ever witnessed in Ohio. The convention broke up in confusion, without nominating any one, and then and there Mr. Dalzell
retired from politics and resumed the practice of law more assiduously than ever. For many years he was on the “stump” in various States, and in 1879 was called to Massachusetts and Pennsylvania and in 1880 to Indiana. He was in demand everywhere and was regarded one of the best stumpers in the United States. He was always a Republican. He advocated the election of every Republican candidate, both with voice and pen, from Fremont to Garfield. The confidential friend of Sumner, Frederick Douglass, James A. Garfield, Rutherford B. Hayes, Gen. W.T. Sherman, Henry Wilson, John Sherman, O.P. Morton, Thaddeus Stevens, Schuyler Colfax and a host of their great contempories. Mr. Dalzell confesses to not a little pride in their letters testifying their high regard for him. As is elsewhere fully detailed in this work, Mr. Dalzell was the originator and author of the popular soldiers’ reunions now held annually in all parts of the country. It is doubtful if there is a soldier in the
United States who does not know “Private Dalzell” (as he is familiarly called) at least by reputation, for at the first and other reunions since established he has addressed most of them in his patriotic speeches. Besides, he has always taken a pride in all matters relating to soldiers ever since the war, and devoted a large portion of his time and means to the furtherance of their interests not only in this but in almost every other State.
But since he quit politics and resumed the practice of the law, he has passed his time very quietly. When not engaged in the courts or at professional business elsewhere, he devotes himself to his books. He is regarded as one of the first forensic orators in Ohio, and on all public occasions he is in demand. To these calls, however, he seldom responds, for he finds more pleasure and profit in the plain, plodding practice of the law and the presence of his family to whom he is doubly devoted.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
ALLEN MILLER came from Zanesville about the close of the war and opened a law-office in Caldwell. He was a young man and only a brief resident. He has since gained an enviable reputation as a lawyer in Zanesville, Columbus, and elsewhere.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
GEO. JENNINGS, now of Woodsfield, studied law with D.S. Spriggs, and practiced in Caldwell a year or more.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
COLONEL WILBERT B. TETERS served as clerk of courts in Noble County. He was the only soldier that went from the county who attained to the rank of Colonel. He was in the One Hundred and Sixteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was admitted to the bar about 1868, but never practiced. He is now a resident of Bowlder, Colorado, and is marshal of that city.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
WILLIAM CHAMBERS, a leading lawyer, was born in Calvert County, Maryland, in 1842. His father, William Chambers, was a sea-faring man in his early life, but afterwards became a farmer. The subject of this notice was reared on a farm. In 1853 he came to Ohio with is parents. His father settled on a farm in Monroe County where he died in 1866 at the age of seventy years. William lived on the farm and followed school teaching a portion of the time until 1867, when he entered upon the study of the law. In 1869 he was admitted to the bar and in 1871 began the practice of his profession in Caldwell. In 1872, on the incorporation of the village, he became its first mayor, holding the office four years. In 1875 he was elected prosecuting attorney. He served one term in that office. Mr. Chambers is a Republican and has been an active worker for his party. He is a man of extensive and varied information and is thoroughly versed in the law.
He was married in 1870 to Martha A., daughter of Rev. Jeremiah Phillips, of the Pittsburgh M.E. Conference. They have four children.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
JOHN M. AMOS, now editor of the Cambridge Jeffersonian, was reared and educated in Noble County. He taught school in early life, studied law unde Spriggs & Foreman and was admitted to the bar. After practicing law for a time he engaged in the newspaper business, building up the Democratic organ of the county and making it, for almost the first time in its history, a paying newspaper property. At the same time he practiced law and took a leading part in politics. He sold out his newspaper in 1884 and removed to Cambridge. Mr. Amos was a Republican until 1871 but has since acted with the Democrats.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
FRED W. MOORE was born in 1845, and died in April, 1874. He attended college at Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1865-66, and afterward studied lawin the office of Hon. F.W. Wood, in McConnelsville. He was admitted to the bar at Pomeroy, Ohio, in 1871, and soon after began practice in Caldwell, in partnership with J.F. Young, Esq. In July, 1873, he became associated with John M. Amos, Esq., in the publication of the Citizen’s Press, but the state of his health soon compelled him to retire from active labor.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
JOHN F. YOUNG, from St. Clairsville a graduate of the college at Washington, Pennsylvania, located in Caldwell, in 1871, and practiced until 1874; a part of the time in partnership with Fred W. Moore. He went to Bellaire where he practiced law several years.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
NATHAN B. WHARTON, was born in what is now Marion Township, May 10, 1844. He received such advantages for education as were offered by the district schools of that day. At the age of eighteen he enlisted in Company D, Ninety-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was a member of that command until March, 1863, when he was discharged at Carthage, Tennessee, by reason of disability contracted in the service. May 2, 1864, he again entered the service, this time as a member of Company C., One Hundred and Sixty-first Ohio National Guards. He served in this company until it was discharged from the service, at Camp Chase, September 6, 1864. On his return to his home he began the study of the law in the office of Hon. J. M. Dalzell, and was admitted to practice by the district court of Columbia County, April 26, 1871. At the October election of 1881, he was elected prosecuting attorney of Noble County, which position he filled creditably for three
years. in July, 1885, he was appointed special agent for the General Land Office with headquarters at St. Cloud, Minnesota. He married Miss Amelia A., daughter of Kinsey and Louisa John, Spril 27, 1865, and has a family of ten children.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
JAMES W. BARNES was reared at Summerfield, in this county; studied law under Hon. J.M. Dalzell, and was admitted to the bar about 1872. After his admission he practiced in partnership with his preceptor for a short time. He is now in the government printing office at Washington, D.C.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
JAMES M. McGINNIS is a well-informed and prominent lawyer. He was born in Tuscarawas County in 1847, and came to Summerfield when young. He secured an education through his own exertions, attending the common schools and Mount Union college. For several years he was a successful teacher, adopting this profession to obtain means with which to pursue his studies. In February, 1865, he became a member of Company D, One Hundred and Eighty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served until mustered out the following September. From 1873 to 1878 he was principal of the Summerfield schools. He read law in the office of Spriggs & Foreman in the meantime, and was admitted to the bar. He was elected prosecuting attorney in 1877, removed to Caldwell in 1878 to assume the duties of his office, and has since been in successful practice here. In 1879 he was re-elected prosecuting attorney, and held the office during another term. He was in partnership with Hon. J.M. Dalzell for five
years, and is now a member of the law firm of McGinnis & Weems. Mr. McGinnis is an earnest Republican. He was married in 1879 to Miss Emma, daughter of William Peregoy.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
CAPELL L. WEEMS is an able young lawyer, who is fast earning for himself an honored place in the ranks of the profession. He was born at Whigville, Marion Township, July 7, 1860. He attended the common and normal schools until the age of sixteen, when he began teaching school, and taught with occasional interruptions until he began the practice of law. He studied law under the tuition of Dalzell & McGinnis, beginning at the age of nineteen, and was admitted to the bar in October, 1881. He then took a position as superintendent of schools at Senecaville, Guernsey County, where he remained until 1883. In the spring of that year he settled in Caldwell, and entered upon the practice in partnership with James M. McGinnis, Esq. Mr. Weems was elected prosecuting attorney in 1884, and has ably discharged the duties of that position. In November, 1883, he was married to Mary B. Nay.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
CLARK M. WATSON, was born in Seneca Township, Noble County, June 15, 1847. The Watson family were among the early settlers of that township. He was educated in the normal schools and at the Ohio Wesleyan University, graduating from the classical department of that institution in 1874. For the three years succeeding his graduation he served as superintendent of schools in Chesterville, Morrow County, Seville, Medina County, and Fredericktown, Knox County, meantime reading law in his spare moments. He next entered the law office of Hon. L.R. Critchfield, ex-attorney-general of Ohio, at Cleveland, and in the spring of 1878 was admitted to the bar in that city. In the fall of the same year he removed to Caldwell, where he still practices his profession. Mr. Watson is a Republican and a Methodist. He was married in 1874 to Miss Lettie A. Brown, a native of Cuyhoga County, and is the father of one child.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
E.H. ARCHER, now a clerk in the adjutant-general’s office at Columbus, was reared and educated in Noble County. He read law with Hon. J. M. Dalzell, was admitted to the bar about 1877, practiced in Caldwell with success until 1885, when he went to Columbus to assume the duties of his present position.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
ADAM J. SMITH, from Muskingum County, studied law in Caldwell, and was admitted to the bar about 1877. He practiced here for a short time. He then removed to Kansas, where he now holds the position of prosecuting attorney.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
RUSSELL W. SUMMERS, son of Dr. R.P. Summers, was born near Summerfield in 1854. After receiving an academical education he began the study of law in the office of Belford & Okey, and in September, 1878, was admitted to the bar. He began to practice, in Caldwell, in 1879. He married Miss Lillie Moore, of Renrock, Noble County.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
IRVIN BELFORD, son of Jabez Belford, served as clerk of courts from 1872 to 1878, and about the close of his second term as clerk was admitted to the bar. After a few years he removed to Toledo, where he is at present assistant prosecuting attorney.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
CHARLES T. LEWIS, who served for a time as cashier of the Noble County Bank, began his legal studies in Marietta and finished them in Caldwell, where he was admitted to the bar about 1878. Forming a partnership with Irvin Belford, he practiced with him in Caldwell until 1882, when both removed to Toledo.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
D.A. JENNINGS, editor of the Press, is among the younger representatives of the legal profession in Caldwell.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
CHARLES A. LELAND was born in Sharon, Noble County, in 1860. He is the son of B.M. Leland, a prominent citizen of this county. He received a common-school education, red law in the office of Dalzell & McGinnis, and was admitted to the bar in 1881. Mr. Leland has been a teacher since he was sixteen years old, and is at present (January, 1887) the teacher of the Caldwell grammar school.
History of Noble County, Ohio Published by L.H. Watkins & Co. of Chicago 1887
The Legal Profession
Additional bio information:
This is from a manuscript The Leland Family of Virginia, 1740-1940, by John Augustin Charles Leland II, Berkely, CA 1953.
Charles Asbury Leland (134) b. Nov. 23, 1859, d. Feb. 18, 1901. Married Cora McKee, Dec. 21, 1889. She was born Aug. 30, 1866. One daughter, Madge Leland (135) was born March 20th, 1891. She married William Harold Cochran, May 21st, 1919, Their son, Charles Leland Cochran, was born Dec. 24, 1923. He was 6 ft. 2" at the age of 17. Charles Leland Cochran served three years in the Navy. Went through the Iwo Jima and Okinawa Campaigns. Is now (1948) completing his course in Mineralogy at Muskingum College.
Charles Asbury Leland (134) was the most distinguished of the Lelands of Ohio. He taught school until 1887 when he was elected prosecuting attorney of Noble County, Ohio, serving 6 years in that capacity. In 1895 to 1897 he was State Representative. In 1898 he was appointed by President McKinley Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and Judge of the Fifth District
of New Mexico. They were in New Mexico two years and three months. His failing health caused them to return to Ohio in Sept. 1900 where he passed away, Feb. 18, 1901 at the age of 41. His prospects of being one of the first Senators when New Mexico received Statehood, were very bright as he was a favorite of both parties.
Submitted by: Rick Leland
The Leland Family of Virginia
The Leland Family