Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 07.pdf/307

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The Green Bag.

1807, in Virginia; graduated at Nassau Hall, Princeton, New Jersey, and died near Cincinnati, on the twenty-first day of Sep tember, 1870. On November 8, 1859, he was appointed judge of the Supreme Court for the unexpired term of Judge Swan, and was thereafter elected for a full term of five years, but failing health compelled him to resign. He had previously served on the bench of the Superior Court of Cincinnati from 1854 to 1859. Judge Gholson was one of the most able jurists that ever oc cupied a seat upon the Supreme Bench. A biographer says of him : " As a man of great intellectual power, cultivated to a high degree by incessant activity, and fur nished with all that laborious study could impart; of a well-balanced temperament, uniting in just proportion the qualities of a sound judgment with an active and subtle perception; cautious in conclusions; inge nious in reasoning; he was remarkable, not more for the depth and reach of his abilities, than for his intellectual integrity and the courage of his convictions. At the bar, his superiority was never felt as an oppression. On the bench, he was kind, patient, free from prejudice and partiality, respecting not persons, regarding only law, justice and rea son. His diligent and well directed indus try was unexcelled. He amused his hours of leisure with the labors of authorship. His judicial opinions rank high for learning and accuracy. He lived a life of useful ac tivity, admired and loved by all who knew him; but by those who knew him best, his memory is not only a fragrance, but a treas ure." Horace Wilder was born in West Hartland, Connecticut, on August 20, 1802, and died at Red Wing, Ohio, Dec. 26, 1889, aged eighty-seven years. He graduated from Yale College in 1823. He was admitted to the bar in Virginia in 1826, coming to Ohio in 1827, taking up his home in Geauga County. After a year's residence in Ohio, he was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1828, com

mencing his practice at East Ashtabula, Ashtabula County. He was elected prosecut ing attorney in 1833, and in 1834 a member of the Legislature of the State. In 1855 he was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas in the third subdivision of the ninth judicial district, to fill a vacancy, and re elected for a full term in 1856. December 12, 1863, Governor Tod ap pointed him to fill the vacancy in the Su preme Court caused by the resignation of Judge Gholson, being elected in 1864 for the balance of the term. It was said of Judge Wilder that " he was the friend, counsellor and hope of the younger members of the bar, and was loved and almost idolized by them." Hocking H. Hunter was born on the spot where now stands the city of Lancas ter, Ohio, August 23, 1801, and departed this life at his home in that city February 4, 1872. He was a son of Captain Joseph and Dorothea Hunter; his father was a native of Virginia, his mother of Maryland. Cap tain Hunter served in the Revolutionary War, and at its close went to Kentucky; in 1 798 he moved to Fairfield County, Ohio, be ing the first settler of that county. Judge Hocking H. Hunter grew up on the farm, working at times on a saw-mill. He mar ried Miss Ann Matlock, November 30, 1823. He attended the country schools in the neighborhood, where he acquired some of the rudiments of an education. Afterward he spent some time at the Lancaster acad emy, his first tutor being Professor Ste phen Whittlesey, a graduate of Yale; later Professor John Whittlesey, another grad uate of Yale, had charge of young Hun ter's education. Reading law under the Hon. Wm. W. Irvin, at one time a judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, proving him self a good student, he was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1824, and at once en tered into the practice of law, and continued so to practice while he lived. In 1825, he was made prosecuting attorney for Fairfield