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OF

CASES ARGUED AND DETERMINED

IN THE

SUPREME COURT OF OHIO,

BY

LEVI J. BURGESS,

REPORTER.

NEW SERIES,
VOLUME XLVIII.

NEW YORK AND ALBANY:

BANKS & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS.
1892.

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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1892,

BY LEVI J. BURGESS, FOR THE STATE OF OHIO, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

Rec.

Aug. 8, 1893

JUDGES

OF THE

SUPREME COURT OF OHIO,

For the time commencing January 1, 1891, and ending February 9, 1891.

HON. THAD. A. MINSHALL,
HON. MARSHALL J. WILLIAMS,
HON. WILLIAM T. SPEAR,
HON. JOSEPH P. BRADBURY,
HON. FRANKLIN J. DICKMAN,

CHIEF JUSTICE.

Judges.

JUDGES

OF THE

SUPREME COURT OF OHIO,

For the time commencing February 9, 1891, and ending January 1, 1892.

HON. MARSHALL J. WILLIAMS, CHIEF JUSTICE.
HON. WILLIAM T. SPEAR,
HON. JOSEPH P. BRADBURY,

HON. FRANKLIN J. DICKMAN,
HON. THAD. A. MINSHALL,

Judges.

Attorney-General.

HON. DAVID K. WATSON.

Clerk,

URBAN H. HESTER.

Deputy Clerks,

HORACE M. CROW, HARTZELL CALDWELL.

Law Librarian,

FRANK N. BEEBE.

Assistant Librarian,

EDGAR B. KINKEAD.

Reporter,

LEVI J. BURGESS.

IN MEMORIAM.

OBITUARY SKETCH OF JOHN WELCH.

JOHN WELCH, for some time a member of this Court, having departed this life on the 5th day of August, 1891, the Court appointed William J. Gilmore, C. H. Grosvenor, Wells A. Hutchins, W. B. Loomis and W. W. Boynton, members of the bar of this Court, a committee to prepare and submit a memorial of his life and public services. The committee made the following report, which was approved by the Court, and ordered to be inserted in volume 48, of the Ohio State Reports.

"JOHN WELCH was born on a farm in Harrison county, Ohio, October 28th, 1805. He came with his father's family to Athens county when a mere boy, and in 1833 was admitted to the bar, where he soon acquired a large and lucrative practice, which he retained during his active professional life, notwithstanding that during a portion of this period he divided his time between politics and the law.

He was elected and served as a state senator and also as a member of congress, in which positions he acquitted himself creditably and honorably. He was for many years a trustee of the Ohio University. He was elected and served as one of the common pleas judges in the Athens district; and also served as a member of the Supreme Court of Ohio for thirteen years.

It will throw light on the personal and professional characteristics of Judge Welch, which were of a marked order, to take a brief retrospective view of the circumstances under which his professional life was commenced and developed. When he came to the bar he met in social intercourse, and had to professionally grapple with such eminent lawyers as Ewing, Hunter, Stanberry, Brazee, Vinton and Nye, who were then in the prime of their professional careers. The practice of these lawyers was then very extensive, geographically speaking, embracing business in many counties in the state. It was their custom to follow the president judge of the court of common pleas, and be present at the terms of that court in the counties where they had, or desired to establish a practice. They would also join the Supreme Court on the circuit, and accompany it, on horseback, into all the counties where business required their presence. This custom very frequently threw the leading lawyers of the state and the judges of the courts into the society of each other, where their intercourse, while free from embarrassing formalities, was at the same time courteous and unassumingly dignified and professionally decorous. It was under these circumstances that the social and professional tastes and habits of

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