John Jay McKelvey, First Editor of the Harvard Law Review

John Jay McKelvey was born in 1863 to John McKelvey and his wife the former Jane Huntington. The elder John McKelvey and his wife were pioneer residents of Sandusky. McKelvey and Huntington Streets in Sandusky were named after his ancestors. John Jay McKelvey graduated with high honors from Sandusky High School in 1880, from Oberlin College in 1884, and he earned his law degree from Harvard University in 1887; he was one of the co-founders of the Harvard Law Review, serving as its first editor.

In an article which appeared in the Sandusky Star Journal of April 23, 1937, J.J. McKelvey answered those who thought the Harvard Law Review to be “dry, uninteresting, and unleavened with humor.” He said to the critics, “Who would be likely to resort to a legal periodical for its humor? Certainly not a lawyer or judge…the Law Review is the vehicle of thought between legal scholars and the practitioners and judges.”

McKelvey wrote several books on the law, including the Handbook of the Law of Evidence (West Publishing Co., 1907).

As an attorney, his work was in corporate law. He was counsel for the National Wholesale Lumber Dealers Association and the Columbus and Sandusky Short Line, which later merged into the Columbus, Sandusky and Hocking Railroad.

John Jay McKelvey died on October 14, 1947. Here is a portion of an article reporting on his death, from the November 3, 1947 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News:

In April 2022, Mr. McKelvey was honored for his preservation efforts in the Spuyten Duyvil section of The Bronx.

Samuel C. Wheeler, Sandusky Attorney

 

When Samuel C. Wheeler died at age 79 on February 21, 1908, he was the oldest member of the Erie County Bar Association. For many years, he practiced law in the Cooke Block in downtown Sandusky.

Before the Civil War, Mr. Wheeler was a member of Bay City Guards, a local militia company. During the Civil War, he enlisted in Company E of the 7^th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and he rose to the rank of Sergeant. 

On the occasion of Mr. Wheeler’s seventy-seventh birthday, several of his friends had a celebration. Cyrus B. Winters gave a speech, and a special poster was presented to him. On a large piece of cardboard was a picture of Samuel C. Wheeler and on each side of the poster was a numeral seven, made from the tags of Battle Ax plug tobacco.  

Mr. Wheeler suffered an injury when he fell on the icy sidewalk as he left his office two months prior to his death, and his health failed after the accident. Funeral services were held at his home on Madison Street in Sandusky, under the auspices of Science Lodge, No. 50, F. & A.M. He was buried in Oakland Cemetery. In an obituary which appeared in the February 22, 1908 issue of the Sandusky Register, it was reported that no man “was better known throughout the city and county than he was.”

Alonzo W. and Jane Hendry

 

According to the book History of Erie County, Ohio, edited by Lewis Cass Aldrich (Mason & Co., 1889), Alonzo W. Hendry was born in Erie County, New York. He moved to Lorain County, Ohio in 1834, and he was admitted to the bar in 1842. Mr. Hendry moved to Sandusky in 1843. He married Jane Penfield in Lorain County on August 4, 1848. Jane Penfield had been born in Penfield Township of Lorain County. The township was named for her father’s family, who had been early settlers there. She was a graduate of the Ladies Course of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute in 1847. 

Alonzo Hendry was vehemently opposed to slavery. In an article in the abolitionist newspaper, the Michigan Liberty Press, on April 21, 1848, Alonzo W. Hendry was on a committee that prepared several proclamations relating to keeping “free soil.”  The second resolution read in part:

“As free sons of a free soil and a free Government, we make the cause our own, and in the majesty and strength of justice, of truth, and right, proclaim to the world our unalterable opposition to extending the blighting curse of slavery over one foot of soil now free.”

In 1878, Mr. Hendry published an article in the Firelands Pioneer about the settlement of "Africa," on the edge of Sandusky, where free African Americans resided in the 1830s and 1840s (before the advent of the Fugitive Slave Act). 

A.W. Hendry’s name appeared in the listings of attorneys in Sandusky in the Daily Sanduskian of October 27, 1849. His office was in the upper level of the West block in downtown Sandusky.

The first child born to Mr. and Mrs. Hendry was a daughter, Maria, who was born on July 11, 1849, while Sandusky was in the midst of a deadly cholera epidemic. They had a total of seven children, including a set of twins. 

Alonzo’s recollections of Sandusky during the cholera epidemic of 1849 appeared in Hewson Peeke’s History of Erie County, Ohio (Lewis, 1916), in the chapter, “The Three Cholera Years.”  His description of Sandusky at that time read:

 "The railroad connection between Sandusky and Cincinnati had just been completed and the large amount of travel and traffic over its line was unprecedented in the West.  Large shops, docks and warehouses at Sandusky became a necessity, laborers with their families were crowded into small buildings with insufficient accommodations and it often happened that several families would occupy a small building hardly sufficient in size for one.  Temporary cabins and boarding houses were hastily erected and soon crowded to overflowing.  When the visitation of cholera came the city was wholly unprepared.  There were no hospital accommodations and the force of local physicians was wholly insufficient for the emergency.  Hospitals had to be improvised and physicians like the good Samaritan of old came in from the neighboring cities.  The first death from the cholera was Mrs. Allen, July second.  Three prominent ministers of the gospel passed away - Rev. N. W. Fisher, pastor of the Congregational Church; Rev. H. P. Ward, of the Methodist Church and Rev. T. C. Cooper in charge of the Bethel Church.  They are buried side by side in Oakland Cemetery near the city.  A single marble shaft bearing the names of each was erected by kind friends as a monument to mark their last resting place.  The cholera again visited Sandusky in 1852 and 1854 but in a mild form compared with 1849."

From 1848 to 1852, Mr. Hendry served as the Erie County Prosecuting Attorney. He served as Erie County Probate Judge from 1863 to 1869. After the death of his wife in 1881, he moved to Shawnee, Oklahoma. 

Alonzo W. Hendry died in Oklahoma on April 15, 1901. His remains were returned to Sandusky, for burial in Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. An obituary for Mr. Hendry, which appeared in the April 19, 1901 issue of the Sandusky Star reported that he had been a “prominent and highly respected resident of Sandusky.”  To read more about former Judge Hendry and many other of Erie County’s elected officials, see the book, Elected to Serve, by Patty Pascoe.

Rush R. Sloane

Rush Richard Sloane was born in Sandusky in 1828, the son of John Sloane and Cynthia Strong Sloane. (Cynthia’s father Abner Strong was said to be a leader in the Underground Railroad in Ohio.) When he was only 16 years of age, Rush R. Sloane studied law under prominent Sandusky attorney F. D. Parish. Sloane practiced law until 1857. 

Below is a circular from 1853 which announces that Rush Sloane would practice law in Supreme, Federal, District, and Common Pleas Courts throughout Northern and Central Ohio. His list of references included Jay Cooke, as well as many leading men of Sandusky, Buffalo, and several other locations.

During the 1850’s Rush Sloane was a leading abolitionist in Ohio. In 1852, he defended seven men escaping slavery. The men were released, but one of the former slaveowners, Louis Weimer, sued Sloane in the U.S. District Court in Columbus. Sloane was fined $3000 ($104,000 in 2021 dollars) and court costs. In appreciation of his support, several African American residents of Sandusky presented Rush Sloane with a silver headed cane. 

This cane is on display at The Follett House Museum in Sandusky.

In 1856 he attended conventions held in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia that laid the foundation of the Republican Party. On June 2, 1900, he was invited to the 1900 Republican Convention on June 19, though by that time Sloane had become a member of the Democratic Party.

Rush Sloane served as city clerk of Sandusky from 1855 to 1857, and was elected Erie County Probate Judge in 1857. In the early 1860s, he briefly moved to Chicago to be a special agent of the Post Office Department. By 1867 he had become president of the Sandusky, Dayton and Cincinnati Railroad, successor to the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad. Because of several financial disputes, a challenge to his leadership of the railroad, and a charge of embezzlement from the company, Sloane fled to Europe for three years. By 1876, he had returned to Sandusky, and eventually cleared of the charges (although there may have been a paid settlement). 

After his return to Sandusky, Sloane ran for mayor of Sandusky on the Democratic ticket. He served as mayor of Sandusky in 1879 and 1880. He had the Sloane House hotel built in 1880, and later built the Sloane block (aka Sloane Annex) which housed several businesses. 

Rush Sloane died on December 21, 1908. He was survived by his third wife, the former Helen F. Hall, two sons, and two daughters. From 1899 until the time of his death, Rush Sloane served as president of the Firelands Historical Society.

There is a wealth of historical information about Rush R. Sloane at the Sandusky Library and the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. Charles E. Frohman, in his index to the Sandusky Register, features over 50 index cards with newspaper citations relating to Rush R. Sloane. A large portion of the biography of I.F. Mack, entitled Sandusky's Editor, by Charles E. Frohman, is devoted to Sloane. I.F. Mack was very vocal in his criticisms of Sloane, and as editor of the Sandusky Register he voiced his opinions often.

I.F. Mack (1837-1912)

Residents of Sandusky may have had mixed feelings about attorney, businessman, former Mayor, and abolitionist Rush R. Sloane, but there is no doubt that Rush Sloane was an important figure in the history of Sandusky.

Frederick W. Cogswell, Prosecuting Attorney for Erie County

Frederick Whittlesey Cogswell was the oldest child of Mr. and Mrs. William Cogswell, born in Connecticut in 1823. He graduated from Yale University in 1849. After briefly studying law in Connecticut, F. W. Cogswell became ill, and he moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he sought treatment at the Cleveland Water Cure with Dr. T. T. Seele. By the early 1850s, Mr. Cogswell began practicing law in Sandusky, Ohio. He served as Sandusky’s City Clerk for a number of years, and he was Erie County’s Prosecuting Attorney from 1860 through 1873. During the Civil War, he achieved the rank of Second Lieutenant while serving in the 145th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

In 1871, Frederick W. Cogswell married Julia Radcliffe. They had a family of four children, but two of the daughters died in early childhood. In the late 1880s, Mr. Cogswell suffered injuries from a fall, from which he never fully recovered. He died on January 4, 1893. Below is a portion of the lengthy obituary for Mr. Cogswell appeared in the January 5, 1893 issue of the Sandusky Register.

The following resolution from the McMeens Post, Grand Army of the Republic, was published in the January 21, 1893 issue of the Sandusky Register.

Frederick W. Cogswell

Another comrade has answered the last roll call,

Another soldier has gone the way of all.

WHEREAS, By the order of the Grand Commander of all the armies, our respected comrade Frederick W. Cogswell, late of Co. D 145th Regiment O.V.I. has been ordered to answer the last muster and roll call to meet the comrades who have gone before, therefore be it 

Resolved, That while we regret his loss and extend our heartfelt sympathy to his bereaved family, we hope and trust that our loss is his gain, that as he answered the last roll call on January 4, 1893, and his ashes now rest with those who preceded him, we hope and trust that in the spirit he has been duly mustered in as an honorable and worthy soldier, in that Grand Army above, where there is no more warring and dying in battle, where the tents are all set in the eternal camping ground, where the banners are never furled, and the sound of the surgeon’s call, the long roll and taps are never heard, where songs of joy do never cease, where the flowers of life do ever bloom, and eternal sun of everlasting day never sets, and when we are called may we meet and rejoice with him forever where a thousand years are but as a day. That a copy hereof be sent to his widow and bereaved children.

Frederick W. Cogswell’s final resting place was in the family lot at Oakland Cemetery. He was survived by his wife, a son, and a daughter. A silk bonnet, which once belonged to Mrs. Julia Radcliffe Cogswell, is now in the collections of the Follett House Museum.

Cyrus B. Winters, Ohio Legislator

According to an early twentieth century issue of Ohio Legislative History, Cyrus B. Winters was one of the oldest members in 80th General Assembly of Ohio (convened 1913). He was elected four times to represent Erie County in the Ohio House of Representatives as a Democrat. 

Cyrus Bertrand Winters was born in Townsend Township, Sandusky County, Ohio, and he lived on the family farm for several years. He attended the Milan Normal School, and after reaching adulthood he became a deputy clerk in the Clerk of Courts office. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1874. From 1882 to 1888, Mr. Winters served as the Erie County Prosecutor. The listing for C.B. Winters in the 1884-1885 Sandusky City Directory stated that C.B. Winters was an attorney at law, and Erie County Prosecuting Attorney, with his office in the Erie County Courthouse. He also served for a time on the Sandusky Board of Education.

While in the General Assembly of Ohio, Mr. Winters served as chairman of the Committee of Cities, Ways and Means. He was considered an authority of matters pertaining to legal affairs, and is well known as the author of the Public Utility Law. 

In 1874, Cyrus B. Winters married Helen E. Clason, a native of Logan County, Ohio, and had six children. On June 9, 1916, he died in Castalia, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Howard Brown, at the age of 68. Funeral services for Mr. Winter were held at the Brown residence in Castalia, with the Reverends Ross W. Sanderson and J. W. Overmyer officiating. Burial was in the Castalia Cemetery. Mr. Winters was survived by his wife, two sons, three daughters, a sister and a brother. To read more about this former Ohio legislator, see Elected to Serve, by Patty Pascoe (Sandusky, Ohio, 2003) and A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio, by Hewson L. Peeke (Lewis Publishing Company, 1916.)

Arthur Phinney, Educator and Lawyer

Arthur Phinney was born in Gorham, Maine on March 28, 1837 to James and Cynthia (Mosher) Phinney. He was educated at Dartmouth and Yale, graduating from Yale in 1864. His first job after graduation was with the statistical division of the U.S. Sanitary Commission. From 1867 to 1870, Mr. Phinney was the principal of Sandusky High School. It was while he was at Sandusky High School as principal that the original high school building (later Adams Junior High School) was constructed. This building served as the main high school building for Sandusky City Schools until 1957.

In Sandusky, Mr. Phinney studied law in the office of Homer Goodwin, later entering the law department of the University of Michigan. In December of 1872, he was admitted to the Ohio Bar. During his long career as a lawyer in Sandusky, Mr. Phinney was associated with several different law partners, including Judge S.F. Taylor, Judge E.B. King, U.T. Curran, and Judge A.E. Merrill.

On July 15, 1868, he married Sara E. Bell. Mr. and Mrs. Phinney had three daughters. Mrs. Sara Bell Phinney died on January 7, 1898. After the death of his wife, his health failed, and he passed away on May 21, 1899. Lengthy obituaries were carried in the Sandusky Register on May 22 and May 25, 1899. Several members of the Erie County Bar Association gave eulogies at the May 23, 1899 meeting of the Erie County Bar. Judge Linn Hull said about Mr. Phinney, “He was a man of the highest character. No one can say that Arthur Phinney ever did a dishonorable act as a man or as a lawyer. He was honorable to his brethren of the profession and always honest and sincere with the court. And what higher tribute can be paid to him than to say that in the evening of a life of 62 years – as a New England boy, as a college student, a college graduate, a teacher, a citizen and a lawyer – there is not a spot upon his character and the reputation that he has left behind.” John F. McCrystal also spoke highly of Mr. Phinney. He said in part, “Whatever he undertook her performed with all his might. He put his whole soul into whatever it was.” Arthur Phinney’s funeral took place at the family residence on May 23, 1899. He was buried at Oakland Cemetery next to his beloved wife.

Law Partnership of F.D. Parish and E.B. Sadler

Two of Sandusky's most prominent early lawyers, F.D. Parish and E.B. Sadler were partners in a legal office in Sandusky, Ohio. Hewson Peeke wrote in A Standard History of Erie County, Ohio (Lewis Publishing Company, 1916), that F.D. Parish was the second lawyer in Erie County, following Eleutheros Cooke. In 1836 F.D. Parish went into a legal partnership with E.B. Sadler. Their office was on Public Square in Sandusky, near the old Courthouse, often known as the Academy because it once served as a school.

It appears that F.D. Parish was the senior partner, because his name always appeared first in the listing.

The partnership continued until 1847, when Mr. Sadler left to take the position of presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the 13th Judicial Circuit, which then included the counties of Erie, Huron, Sandusky, Ottawa, Lucas, Wood and Henry. On February 15, 1847, the partnership between F.D. Parish and E.B. Sadler was dissolved.

A copy of the dissolution notice is found in the historical files of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. Though the partnership ended, it appears that E.B. Sadler was trying to tie up loose ends. In the letter below from Mr. Sadler to a “Brother Norman,” E.B. Sadler requested that fees owed in some recent legal matters were to be paid.

F.D. Parish went to become well known as an abolitionist who took an active part in the Underground Railroad. E.B. Sadler served as Mayor of Sandusky from 1844 to 1845.

Getting to Know Horatio Wildman, Former Mayor of Sandusky

Horatio Wildman was born in 1828 in Fairfield County, Connecticut, to Frederick Seymour Wildman, and his wife the former Julia Ann Starr. Horatio’s grandfather was Zalmon Wildman, one of the proprietors of the city of Sandusky. When addressing the Firelands Historical Society at its fall meeting on October 10, 1895, Horatio Wildman recalled his grandfather’s connection to the city of Sandusky. He said about Sandusky, that “Zalmon Wildman said the Almighty meant this location for a town. As a natural location it is unsurpassed by any in Northern Ohio.”  

Horatio Wildman was a graduate of Yale University. After studying law in Connecticut, he moved to Sandusky in 1848. By 1851, Mr. Wildman was the Mayor of Sandusky. In the 1870s, he served as the city solicitor. 

In the 1860 Sandusky City Directory listed Horatio Wildman and his wife Emma (sometimes listed as Emily) as boarding at the Townsend House, along with their two young sons Horatio and Augustus. Soon a third son, Seymour was born.

Eventually the family moved to a home at the northwest corner of Washington and Lawrence Streets in Sandusky. 

After suffering serious health issues, Horatio Wildman died on May 16, 1909. An obituary appeared in the Obituary Record of the Graduates of Yale University.

A lengthy obituary also appeared in the Sandusky Register of May 20, 1909. The article reported that the funeral was held at the family residence at the corner of Lawrence and Washington Streets, with the Ref. W. Ashton Thompson of Grace Church officiating. Members of the Erie County Bar Association attended as a body. Honorary pallbearers included Judge Thomas M. Sloane, E.B. King, Malcom Kelly, U.T. Curran, C. Webb Sadler, T.B. Hoxey, and Hewson L. Peeke. John T. Beecher, an honorary pallbearer, could not be present. Active pallbearers were George C. Beis, W.J. Feisinger, C.H. Cramer and R.B. Fisher. There were numerous floral tributes. A circular wreath was given by the Bar Association. The B and O Railway Office sent a star and crescent tribute. Horatio Wildman was buried in Block 57 of Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. Mrs. Wildman passed away in 1915, and she too is buried at Oakland.

Earl Dean Alexander, Lawyer and Educator

Earl Dean Alexander (spelled Earle in the 1916 Fram) was born in Sandusky, Ohio in 1898 to Mr. and Mrs. William Alexander. Earl graduated from Sandusky High School in 1916. While in high school, Earl was a member of the debate team. He attended college at Ohio State University, where he was a member of the OSU debating team.

In 1918, he served in the Students Army Training Corps, a program similar to ROTC. He received an honorable discharge after only a few months service. He earned his law degree from the Western Reserve University Law School. In 1922, he married Catherine Thompson. Mr. Alexander worked as a lawyer in Cleveland, Ohio for two years, then he and his wife moved to New York City. 

An article which appeared in the  Sandusky Star Journal of January 26, 1924,  discussed three young African American men from Sandusky who were on their way to becoming a lawyer, a doctor, and a dentist. Earl Alexander was the Sandusky High School graduate who was determined to become a lawyer.

In 1938, Earl Dean Alexander earned a Master’s Degree in Education from the College of the City of New York. He taught at Seward Park High School, the alma mater of several celebrities, including Tony Curtis, Walter Matthau, and Estelle Getty. 

On April 15, 1983, Earl Dean Alexander, Sr. passed away in the state of New York.  He was buried at the Long Island National Cemetery. An obituary for Mr. Alexander was carried in the April 27, 1983 issue of the Sandusky Register.

Charles Livingston Hubbard, Yale 1873

This tintype portrait of Charles Livingston Hubbard was taken when he was a young man. Charles was born in 1851 to Lester S. Hubbard and his wife, the former Jane Patterson Livingston. When Charles was still an infant, his family moved into an impressive large home at the southwest corner of Wayne and Adams Streets, which still stands today.

Charles was educated at Kenyon College and Yale College, graduating from Yale in 1873. After being associated with an iron manufacturing plant in Chicago for a brief time, he returned to his hometown of Sandusky to practice law. In 1876 he lived with his mother, who was by then a widow, in his childhood home. His law office was in the Hubbard Block. You can see the Law Office sign in this stereographic image, taken at Sandusky’s Centennial Fourth of July Celebration in 1876.

When Charles L. Hubbard married Jennie West in 1877, it was reported as “grandest wedding of the season” in the October 20, 1877 issue of the Sandusky Register. Both the bride and groom were the children of pioneer residents of Sandusky. The marriage produced four daughters: Eleanor (who died in early childhood), Millicent, Marion, and Jenna. 

Charles Livingston Hubbard died unexpectedly after suffering a stroke on May 20, 1904. He was only 53 at the time of his sudden death. The Sandusky Register of June 2, 1904, published a lengthy memorial article which featured numerous tributes from members of the Erie County Bar. A Resolution read, in part:

 Resolved, that in the death of Charles Livingston Hubbard, late a member of this Bar, having assembled at the court house to express in some manner their sorrow at his death and their appreciation of him as a man and a lawyer duly adopt the following resolutions:

Resolved, that in the death of Charles Livingston Hubbard the community has lost a valuable and high minded citizen who has for years been identified with the best interests of this city in which he was brought up.

The Resolutions continued, and pointed out that Mr. Hubbard was an avid reader, an agreeable companion, and a friend to many. C.W. Sadler noted that he was “pure in word and deed.” Several other local attorneys offered high praise of  the deceased, and noted that he had helped tutor high school students in Latin, Greek and mathematics. 

Mr. Hubbard was buried in the family plot at Oakland Cemetery. Though Charles L. Hubbard died as a relatively young man, his wife Jennie lived to be 103 years of age. Daughters Marion and Jennie lived until their nineties. 

Pitt Cooke

Pitt Cooke was the son of Sandusky’s first lawyer, Eleutheros Cooke, and his wife, the former Martha Carswell. He was born on July 23, 1819 in Bloomingville, Ohio, in a building that had formerly served as the Bank of Sandusky Bay.  (The bank was never chartered.)

Pitt Cooke was educated at the Norwalk Academy, and he attended college at Kenyon College, where he studied law. After passing the bar, he practiced law in Sandusky, Ohio with Lucas Beecher. Later he was in the forwarding and commission business with William Townsend, until 1849 when Mr. Townsend died in the cholera epidemic. After the Civil War began, he moved east to assist his brother Jay Cooke a banker was a significant financier of the financier of the Union military effort during the Civil War. Pitt continued to work at the banking house of Jay Cooke and Company in New York until 1873, when he moved back to Sandusky, Ohio. An article in volume 17 of the Firelands Pioneer stated about Pitt Cooke, “Few men were more competent or active in business than Mr. Cooke, and as a companion and friend he was always genial and pleasant. He was a man of large heart and warm, generous impulses, and ever ready to assist to the extent of his ability those who were in need.”    After the death of both Mr. and Mrs. William Townsend in 1849, Mr. and Mrs. Pitt Cooke took in their orphaned children, who were the younger siblings of Mrs. Cooke, the former Mary Townsend.

On December 13, 1879, Pitt Cooke died at his residence on West Washington Street in Sandusky. He left behind his wife and six children. Funeral services for Pitt Cooke were held at the family residence with several members of the Episcopal clergy present, including Rev. L. S. Osborn and Rev. A. Nicholas of Sandusky; Dr. S.A. Bronson of Mansfield; and Rev. Samuel Marks of Huron. Pallbearers were: Judge E.B. Sadler, Judge Rush Sloane, R.B. Hubbard, A.H. Moss, C.C. Keech, W.T. West, W.A. Simpson, and S.S. Hosmer. He was buried in the family lot at Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery. 

Judge Lewis H. Goodwin

Judge Lewis H. Goodwin was one of the most honored members of the Erie County Bar. He was born in Geauga County, Ohio, to Dr. and Mrs. Erastus Goodwin on December 29, 1833. Judge Goodwin started his education at Western Reserve University, but he completed his studies in law at Marietta in 1854. He practiced law in Ohio for two years, but moved in Wabash, Indiana in 1858. When the Civil War broke out, Goodwin enlisted as a private in Company B of the 47th Indiana Infantry. In October, 1862 he was elected Captain of his company, and later was promoted to the rank of Major. During the war he took an active part in the campaign around New Madrid, and he also took part in the Vicksburg campaign with General Grant and in the Red River campaign with General Banks. At the battle of Champion’s Hill he was severely wounded. After being furloughed for a time, he rejoined his command at New Orleans. Major Goodwin mustered out in January, 1865. At the close of the Civil War, he returned to Wabash, Indiana where he practiced law for ten years. In 1874 he entered into partnership with his brother Homer Goodwin. By 1892 Mr. Lewis H. Goodwin went into practice for himself. He was elected Probate Judge of Erie County in November 1893, an office he held for two terms. Lewis H. Goodwin is the fourth individual from the right in the row of men standing at the back of the courtroom at the Erie County Courthouse in the 1874 stereographic image created by A.C. Platt.

On March 5, 1906, Judge Lewis H. Goodwin died at his home on South Columbus Avenue, after a lengthy illness. He was survived by his widow, the former Hattie Smith, a daughter Nina, and a son, Walter. Two daughters had preceded him in death. A lengthy obituary appeared in the March 6, 1906 issue of the Sandusky Register. The article read, in part: “Judge Goodwin’s army record was excellent. Twice he received promotion for bravery and merit. In his many years of service at the Erie County Bar he had formed a vast circle of friends who deeply mourn their loss.” Members of the McMeens Post of the G.A.R. attended his funeral. Burial was at the North Ridge section of Sandusky’s Oakland Cemetery.

Homer Goodwin, Attorney and Conductor on the Underground Railroad

In 1896, Homer Goodwin was the oldest practicing attorney of the Erie County Bar. He was born on October 15, 1819 in Burton, Ohio in Geauga County, the son of Doctor Erastus Goodwin. Before entering the practice of law, Homer Goodwin was a teacher in the public schools of Sandusky, and was an 1844 graduate of the Western Reserve College. He married Marietta Cowles on October 3, 1849, in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

Rush Sloane wrote in the July 1888 issue of the Firelands Pioneer that Homer Goodwin was a conductor on the Underground Railroad in Sandusky. He was among a group of individuals who gave money and personal aid to help fugitive slaves escape to freedom. A brochure which gives details about the Underground Railroad in Sandusky, available from the Lake Erie Shores & Islands Visitors Center, lists the former home of Homer Goodwin, at 327 Hancock Street, as a “safe house” for those individuals seeking freedom via the Underground Railway.

On July 6, 1896, Homer Goodwin died suddenly at his home on Columbus Avenue in Sandusky. A physician was called to his assistance, but nothing could be done, and he died at 6:15 a.m. The funeral for Home Goodwin was held at his residence on July 8, 1896. Burial was in Oakland Cemetery. Mr. Goodwin was survived by his brother Lewis H. Goodwin, a judge of Erie County Probate Court; a sister, Mrs. Ross of Wabash, Indiana, and a daughter, Mrs. Denver J. Mackey.

The Follett House Museum owns a suit that once belonged to Homer Goodwin.