Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 07.pdf/309

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
278
The Green Bag.

times thereafter, namely in 1868, 1873 and in 1878. Nearly every branch of the law is touched upon in the reported decisions during the time that Judge White sat on the bench. He was nominated by the Presi dent, and the nomination was confirmed by the Senate, to a place on the bench of the District Court of the United States, but ill ness prevented his acceptance of the office After his death, which occurred at his home in Springfield, March 12, 1882, the State Bar Association passed the following Resolution, which was ordered printed in the Supreme Court Report, by the Court : "William White, Chief Justice of the Su preme Court of Ohio, having departed this life on the 12th instant, after thirty-three years of unabated and conscientious devotion • to arduous public services, the members of the Bar of the State deem it to be their bounden duty to express, in a public and solemn manner, their profound sorrow at his death; and to testify their high esteem for his long, faithful, and eminent services, as well as for the unsullied purity and upright ness of his personal character, and his ex cellent endearing qualities of heart; and to record their affection for his memory, and their appreciation of the inestimable value of his long, useful, and inspiring career, and his unremitting toil, to the detriment of his pecuniary interests, in the service of the State he loved so well. The loss of such a man from the judicial forum is irreparable to the public, as well as to the Bar. "In his hands, as a magistrate, life, liberty, and property were safe. To commemorate, as we now do, the character, and virtues, and usefulness of such a man, is not a mere outward, unmeaning rite, for nothing is truer than that ' the character and virtues, the just sentiments and useful actions of dis tinguished men, preserved in the annals and cherished in the recollections of a grateful people, constitute their richest treasure. LUTHER Day was born in Granville, Wash ington County, New York, July 15, 18 1 3 .

Judge Day attended the common schools until about the age of twelve, at which age he began an academic preparation for col lege and continued for a year, when his father took him back to the farm, where he labored for a year, after which time he re turned to school, but had been there but a few days when word reached him that his father had been killed in a saw-mill which he owned. The untimely death of his father compelled him to abandon the idea of se curing an education. His father's affairs were not in good condition, and it was thought that after a settlement had been made there would be nothing left for the family; but young Luther decided to save them from such a fate, and so went to work on the farm and in the mill, where he continued to labor until reaching the age of twenty. At the end of that time he found that the labors of himself and a younger brother had been the means of saving the home to his mother and the younger children. He now decided to go on with the work of 'securing an education, so abruptly broken off six years before, and again resumed his preparatory studies, and in 1835 entered Middlcbury College, Ver mont; and by teaching and other labors he managed to stay in that institution of learning for two years, but at the end of that time, his mother having removed to Ravenna, Portage County, Ohio, he came on to see her, expecting to return and fin ish his course in college; but his means being limited he gave up the idea, and entered the office of Hon. Rufus P. Spalding, as a student of law. He read for two years, and supported himself in the mean time by do ing clerical work for the County Clerk. He was admitted to the bar in October, 1840. Hon. Darius Lyman tendered him a place in his office as a partner, of which kind offer he at once availed himself, and by that means at once stepped into a busi ness, as Mr. Lyman was an old practitioner at the time. He remained with Mr. Lyman