Decius Spear Wade (1835-1905), Decius Hunt Wilcox (1828-1919)

From the Magazine of Western History, Volume 14, published in 1891.

   Tucked away in a small corner of the Oakdale Cemetery in Jefferson, Ohio lay the remains of a towering figure in the history of Montana legal circles, Mr. Decius Spear Wade. As the longest-serving Chief Justice of the Montana Territorial Supreme Court, Wade has justly been referred to as the "father of Montana jurisprudence", not only due to his service on the court but as the man who headed the committee to codify Montana's laws over three years from 1889-1892. How did this man who devoted a good majority of his public career to the development of the legal system in Montana come to rest in an out-of-the-way cemetery in Ohio? Read on to find out more!

   Born into a family influential in Buckeye State politics, Decius Spear Wade's story begins on January 23, 1835, in Andover, Ashtabula County, Ohio. The second-born son of Charles and Juliet Spear Wade, Decius Wade was also the nephew of Benjamin Franklin Wade (1800-1878), U.S. Senator from Ohio (1851-1869) and President Pro Tempore of the Senate who was one of a number of Radical Republican senators who led the charge in the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. Decius Wade began his education in schools native to his home county of Ashtabula and was later enrolled at the Kingsville Academy, "one of the best educational institutions of Ashtabula County." The Magazine of Western History Volume 14 also notes that Wade began "teaching a district school at age sixteen" during the winter time. He began pursuing the study of law in the office of his famous uncle and after being admitted to the Ohio bar in 1857 began a law practice. Just three years later the twenty-five-year-old Wade was appointed as a probate judge for Ashtabula County, serving on the bench until 1867. 

   At the dawn of the Civil War Wade did his patriotic duty and signed on for service. He was eventually elected as a first lieutenant of his company and later participated in the defense of Cincinnati against Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith and his troops. Wade married in Ohio on June 3, 1863, to British native Bernice Galpin (1843-1912) with whom he had three children, Alice (died aged one month in 1864), Clare Lyon (1868-1966), and Charles (died aged three months in 1872). Clare Lyon Wade was the only one of the Wade children to live to adulthood and went on to graduate from Wellesley College in 1890. She would later marry in 1904 to William Edward Safford (1859-1926), a noted botanist and ethnologist in the employ of the U.S. Government. Safford would go on to further distinction as the first Lieutenant Governor of Guam, serving in this position from 1899-1900.

   Following his marriage, Wade continued in his role as probate judge until 1868, when he was elected to the Ohio State Senate from Ashtabula County. Taking his seat the following year, he served in the Senate until 1871. While still a sitting senator, Wade was appointed by President Grant to succeed Henry L. Warren as the Chief Justice of the Montana Territorial Supreme Court. In Grant's choice of selecting fellow Ohioan Wade for the post, the Magazine of Western History Volume 14 acknowledged that "the appointment was recognized as one of the best that had been made anywhere in the West. The new official was not only trained in the law, but a man of the highest character, and a member of a family that had already furnished many sons who had been an honor to the state."

   Decius Wade's appointment as Chief Justice was confirmed by the Senate in March 1871 and his service as Montana's chief jurist lasted for a record four terms (sixteen years), the longest tenure for any Chief Justice in the history of the territory. During his tenure on the bench, Wade is remarked as authoring  a number of court opinions, so many in fact that it was said that "his opinions fill more than one-half of the first six volumes of Montana Supreme Court Reports." Wade also served as a trial judge during his Supreme Court service, and in this capacity sentenced twelve men to hang. As past executions were usually reserved for Friday (hence the term "Hangman's Day"), Wade decided to break with this rather macabre tradition and sentenced a condemned man to be executed on a Thursday. As Wade later related, "I could not see but the fellow enjoyed it just as well as though Friday had been the day appointed, and I thought that poor abused Friday looked a little brighter the next morning."  This interesting side note on Wade's judgeship later received mention in a Friday the 13th article in the Blacksburg, Virginia Free-Lance Star and is shown below.

The Free Lance Star, Friday, April 13, 1990.

   While Wade's reputation as one of the territory's foremost jurists earned him wide repute, he also found time to author a law-themed novel entitled Clare Lincoln in 1875. Set during the Civil War period, Clare Lincoln was completed by Wade during his "leisure hours while seeking rest from the arduous labors on the bench" and proved to be quite popular, receiving a substantial review in the November 16, 1876 edition of The Nation.

   Decius Wade's tenure as Chief Justice concluded in May 1887 and shortly thereafter he returned to his residence in Helena where he became a partner in a local law firm. He was called back to public service in 1889 when he was appointed by then Montana Governor Preston H. Leslie as the chairman of a commission to "codify the criminal and civil law and procedure and to, revise, compile and arrange the statute laws of Montana." Also tasked with this seemingly impossible job were former Montana territorial Governor Benjamin Platt Carpenter  (1837-1921) and prominent state attorney and judge Frederick W. Cole (1837-1895), who died shortly before the Montana legislature adopted the commission's report in July 1895. Wade had earlier spoken before the Helena Bar Association on the commission's work in 1894, and his speech before that body was later reworked into a pamphlet entitled  Necessity for Codification.

From "Montana, Its Story and Biography, Vol. I, published 1921.

   In 1895 Wade returned to his home county of Ashtabula, Ohio, and retired to his family's ancestral home "Little Medford" in the town of Andover. During his twilight years, Wade is noted as being a "frequent contributor" to law magazines of the time and died on August 4, 1905, at age 70 at his home. He was memorialized in a resolution of the Montana Supreme Court, which notes that "we also cherish the memory of Chief Justice Wade for his manly personal character, his uniform courtesy to all with whom he sustained official relations, his dignity and bearing while on the bench, his kind and noble disposition  incapable of entertaining malice, and his attractive social qualities."
  Following his death, Decius Wade was interred at the Oakdale Cemetery in Jefferson, Ohio. His uncle Benjamin F. Wade is also interred here, as is Bernice Galpin Wade, who died in November 1912 at age 79. On July 17, 2013, I was able to visit and photograph Wade's gravesite at Oakdale, and some photos from the trip are posted below.

  Located behind a large grove of poppies is Decius Wade's headstone, indicating his birth in Andover, Ohio. Curiously, no mention is given as to his service in the Ohio Senate or his numerous contributions to the Montana legal system.

  Decius Wade's headstone is located on the right side of the family plot. Also interred here are his children Alice and Charles Wade, both of whom died in infancy. Their headstones are similar in shape and size to those of their father and mother. Clare Lyon Wade, Decius' second-born child, died in Washington D.C. in 1966 at age 97. A burial location for her is unknown at this time.

  Buried a few feet in the back of Decius Wade's family plot is the gravestone of his famous uncle, Senator Benjamin Franklin Wade. Imposing in its size, it is an impressive monument to a very prominent 19th-century public official--a man who came within a hair's breadth of becoming the 18th President of the United States (had Andrew Johnson been convicted during his impeachment trial in 1868!) Also interred near both of these plots is the gravesite of Congressman Joshua Reed Giddings (1795-1864), who represented Ashtabula County in the U.S. House of Representatives for over two decades. A former law partner of Benjamin Wade, Giddings later served as U.S. Consul General to Canada, where he died in 1864. 

Decius Hunt Wilcox, courtesy of www.legis.state.pa.us

  Another "Decius" who was elected to public office was Decius Hunt Wilcox, a one-term member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly from Schuylkill County. Born in Harpersfield, New York in September 1828, Decius Wilcox was the son of Aaron and Electa (Barnum) Wilcox. He removed to Dauphin County, Pennsylvania at an early age and in 1841 settled with his family in Schuylkill County. A farmer for the majority of his life, Wilcox was also a teacher in the Donaldson and Tremont, Pennsylvania areas.

   In 1863 Wilcox relocated to Llewellyn, Pennsylvania, where he took over ownership of the American Hotel. He remained there until 1865 and afterward continued in hotel management at the United States Hotel in Tamaqua (residing here from 1865-67), at Uniontown (1867-69), and at the American House at Mechanicsburg (from 1869-70.) He returned to Llewellyn sometime later and was still residing here when he was elected to the Pennsylvanian State House of Representatives in 1876. Serving in the session of 1877-78, Wilcox held seats on the committees on the Bureau of Statistics, Mines and Mining, Iron and Coal, and the Military. 

   Decius Wilcox retired from the hotel business in 1889 and continued to reside in Llewellyn, Pennsylvania until his death at age 90 on April 19, 1919. He was survived by his wife Angeline (1835-1931), who, following her death at age 96, was interred alongside him at the Llewellyn Cemetery. 

Turhand Grenville Hart (1842-1924), Turhand Kirtland (1755-1844)

From the Record of Proceedings of the Ohio State Board of Equalization, 1900.

   A distinguished attorney, two-term legislator, and member of the Ohio State Board of Equalization, Turhand Grenville Hart was a native son of Mentor, Ohio, and may have received his unusual first name in honor of another highly regarded Buckeye State political figure, Judge Turhand Kirtland (1755-1844) of Poland, Ohio. Although little in the way of information could be found on Turhand G. Hart, an Ohio State Manual giving a brief overview of his public career was located that helped out significantly in terms of pertinent facts. On July 17, 2013, I was able to pay a visit to Hart's gravesite at the Mentor Municipal Cemetery and some photos from that excursion will provide a fitting conclusion to the following article.

   A lifelong resident of Lake County, Ohio, Turhand G. Hart was born there on April 9, 1842, the third of six children born to Stephen Horatio (1809-1885) and Lucretia Ring Hart (1817-1879). His education took place in schools local to the Lake County area and married on December 25, 1863, to Eliza C. Robinson (1837-1888) with whom he had four sons, Charles M. (1865-1954), Frederick, Richard, and Ralph. Hart decided upon a career in law when he was in his late twenties and began the study of his profession in 1870, being admitted to the Ohio State Bar two years later. The 1893 Biographical History of Northeastern, Ohio: Embracing the Counties of Ashtabula, Geauga, and Lake gives notice to Hart's law practice, stating that "He has had much to do with the settlement of estates, having been an administrator a number of times."

   In 1873 Hart was elected to his first public office, that of Treasurer for Lake County, Ohio. During the succeeding years, Hart would also be engaged in farming and served as a justice of the peace, notary public, Deputy Supervisor of Elections, and Mentor Township Trustee in addition to practicing law. In 1888 Eliza Robinson Hart died after twenty-five years of marriage and in 1890 Turhand remarried to Sarah Simpson (1863-1949), a former resident of Erie County. 

   In the 1892 election year, Hart won a seat in the Ohio State House of Representatives (representing Lake and Geauga County) and during the 1893-95 term served on the committees on Elections, Insurance, and Public Printing. He was later elected to a second term in the legislature and served from 1895-1897. Three years after leaving the legislature Turhand Hart was elected to the Ohio State Board of Equalization and in December 1900 was "unanimously elected" as President Pro Tempore. In addition to this position, Hart chaired that board's committees on Rules and Claims. While his tenure on this board is of unknown length, Hart's service as a legislator and board member was acknowledged by a Record of Proceedings in the following quotation: "In all of these positions he has won the untinted and unfeigned regard of each of his associates."

Turhand G. Hart is the third man in the middle row in this picture of the Ohio Bd. of Equalization.

  Following his service on the Board of Equalization Hart was appointed by Ohio Governor Andrew Harris to a vacancy on the Cleveland State Hospital Board of Trustees, holding this position from April 1908 to April 1913. After many decades of public service, Turhand G. Hart died in Mentor on May 9, 1924, one month after celebrating his 82nd birthday. He was later interred at the Municipal Cemetery in Mentor and was survived by his second wife Sarah, who died in 1949 at age 86. 

  The Turhand G. Hart family plot in Mentor was visited by me on July 17, 2013, and pictures from the trip are shown below. 

  The Hart family plot consists of Turhand's son Charles, his first wife Eliza, Turhand himself, and his second wife Sarah, all neatly arranged in front of a large family headstone. Also interred at the Mentor Municipal Cemetery are the remains of James Rudolph Garfield (1865-1950), son of President James A. Garfield and later U.S. Secretary of the Interior under Theodore Roosevelt from 1907-1909.

   Justly referred to as an Ohio pioneer, Turhand Kirtland was a prominent figure in the early days of the Ohio territory, being a founding father of what is now Poland, Ohio. During a long life that extended nearly nine decades, Kirtland was involved in many different aspects of the development of the burgeoning counties of Trumbull and Mahoning. Kirtland was originally born in Wallingford, Connecticut on November 16, 1755, a son of Constant and Rachel Kirtland. Turhand was a Revolutionary War veteran, and is remarked by the National DAR Society Lineage Book, Vol. 32 as "having been engaged on the boats, transporting the retreating army at Long Island in 1776 where he contracted camp fever, and was honorably discharged." Following his stint in the Continental Army, Kirtland returned to Wallingford where he worked as a carriage manufacturer for several years.

   Kirtland married twice during his life, his first wife being Mary Beach, who died in 1792. He remarried in the year following her death to Polly Potter (1772-1850), who eventually gave birth to six children, who are listed as follows: Jared Potter (1793-1877), Henry Turhand (born 1795-1874), Mary Beech (1798-1825), Nancy (born 1801), Charles Dutton (died in infancy in 1814), Billious (1807-1891) and George (1809-1890). Of the Kirtland children, Jared Potter Kirtland is the most notable, as he was for many years a distinguished physician judge, and naturalist, and was honored by having a type of snake (the Kirtland's Water snake) named after him.

   Turhand Kirtland was connected for many years with the Connecticut Land Company, being employed as a general land agent whilst also being one of the company's stockholders. He first visited the Ohio territory in 1798 and with wealth accumulated from his carriage manufacturing business began to purchase numerous lots of land throughout the area known as the Western Reserve. Portions of this three million acres of land throughout Northeastern Ohio were surveyed and examined by Kirtland for the Connecticut Land Company, and around 1799 relocated from Connecticut to the Ohio territory, settling in an area then known as Burton. In 1800 then territorial Governor Arthur St. Clair (1737-181) appointed Kirtland as Judge for the newly established county of Trumbull. 

   After leaving Trumbull County in April 1803, the Kirtland family moved to Mahoning County, settling in the village of Poland. Kirtland had surveyed and mapped out the Poland vicinity some years previously, and in the same year as his resettlement was named as the first master of the Erie Lodge #47 of Masons, the first masonic lodge to be built in the Western Reserve. Kirtland continued to make a name for himself in the still-young community of  Poland, becoming moderator of the first Episcopal church in Mahoning County and later aided in establishing the local Library Association and Poland Reading Room.

   In 1814 Turhand Kirtland was elected as a member of the Ohio State Senate, representing Trumbull County. He served here until 1815 and was later elected as a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, serving on the bench for nearly a decade. Following his tenure as judge, Kirtland was a justice of the peace in Poland for over twenty years and died on August 16, 1844, a few months before his 89th birthday. He was interred at the Poland Presbyterian Cemetery, also the resting place of Polly Kirtland and the couple's infant son Charles Dutton.

Colostin DeKalb Myers (1847-1920)

   This mustachioed man is Colostin DeKalb Myers, an Ohio native who gained prominence as a Circuit Court judge for Illinois's 11th judicial district. I first discovered Myers's unusual name in a 1915 Illinois Blue Book two years ago and since that time have been searching for a portrait of him. Fortune has smiled upon me once again, as a picture of Judge Myers has been found, courtesy of a McLean County Historical Society bulletin that was originally published in 1899. 
  Colostin D. Myers received a brief mention in yesterday's profile on Sain Welty (1853-1920), another Illinois lawmaker whom Myers appointed to the position of Master of Chancery for McLean County, Illinois. It's interesting to note that both of these oddly named judicial figures were born in the same state (Ohio) within a few years of one another and both ended up settling in the same city (Bloomington, Illinois) years later. In an even more amazing connection, both men went on to serve as judges in the same district and died within a few months of one another in the early part of 1920. 
   Colostin D. Myers was born in Racine, Meigs County, Ohio on May 7, 1847, the son of Benjamin and Serena Elliott Myers. At age four Myers suffered the death of his father and following his death, Serena Myers remarried William Swearingen. Colostin Myers moved with his family to Palatine, Virginia at a young age and during his youth worked the family farm and also at a local tannery. 

  At age 16 Myers left home and moved back to Ohio, and after a brief residence at his old home at Racine, continued travel to Pomeroy, then the county seat of Meigs County. In early 1864 he took work as a clerk in a local dry goods store, and two months later enlisted in the Union Army. Myers took rank as a private in Co. K., 140th Reg. of the Ohio National Guard, and served with that regiment for three months. He subsequently re-enlisted in Co. B.,  32nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and continued with that regiment until the conclusion of the Civil War. 

  After returning to his mother's home in Virginia, Myers worked on the family farm while also pursuing his education at the National Normal University in Lebanon, Ohio. His stay at the latter institution was intermittent, as he would leave Ohio to teach school in West Virginia for an unspecified amount of time. Myers returned to his home state of Ohio in 1869 and reentered the National Normal University, graduating from there in 1872. That same year he began pursuing a law degree at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He married in Michigan in 1872 to Dora Yager (1851-1941) and graduated with his law degree in 1874 after nearly two years of study.

From the Historical Sketch of the Illinois Wesleyan University, 1895.

   Colostin D. Myers and his wife moved to Bloomington, Illinois in 1874, where he was admitted to the bar in June of that year. He established a law partnership with local lawyer Albert Bushnell in 1874, which continued until the latter's removal to Kansas City. In 1879 Myers established another practice with Isaac Stroud, which lasted until ill health compelled Stroud's retirement in 1881. Beginning in 1880 Myers entered into a position at Illinois Wesleyan University, being a professor on contract law well into the 1890s.
   In 1886 Colostin Myers was elected to the first of three terms as McLean County judge, the last of which concluded in 1897. In the last-named year, he was elected to the Illinois Circuit Court (11th circuit) and served in this position until his retirement in June of 1915. In addition to his circuit court service, Myers was named to the Illinois Appellate Court's 4th district in 1903 and served a six-year term.
  Shortly after retiring from the bench, Myers was called to public service once more when he was named by Illinois Governor Edward Fitzsimmons Dunn to the McLean County Examining Board at the beginning of America's involvement in WWI. He served on this board until the war's conclusion and died on January 12, 1920, at age 72. Myers was survived by his wife Dora by over 20 years and both are buried in the Evergreen Memorial Cemetery in Bloomington. Myers was subsequently memorialized by the Illinois State Bar as having been "gentle and kind and lovable. He was patient almost beyond measure." Further character assessments were given by his fellow bar members, who noted:

"Retiring, not given to parade or ostentation, he lived a simple, quiet, life. He kept himself aloof from business or social enterprises which he though might in any way tend to affect his judicial duties."

Zerubbabel Snow (1809-1888), Zerubbabel Wightman (1743-1835)

   Receiving an unusual first name in honor of an obscure biblical figure (Zerubbabel, head of the tribe of Judah), Zerubbabel Snow went on to find his political and business fortunes in the Utah Territory. He was originally born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont on March 29, 1809, a son of Levi and Lucina Streeter Snow. Snow joined the newly established Mormon Church in 1832 and was ordained into the priesthood by church founder Joseph Smith, Jr. in Portage County, Ohio.
  Snow married in Vermont in 1833 to his first wife Susanna Slater, who died shortly after giving birth to a daughter Suzanne Lizette in March 1841. Following her death, Zerubabbel Snow went on to marry two more women and later sired a total of six children over twenty years' time. During his Ohio residency Snow earned a law degree and in 1835 migrated (along with his church) to Iowa. The early 1840s found Snow living in Canton, Ohio and in 1845 was elected as Mayor of Canton for a one year term. His name (abbreviated as "Z. Snow") was featured on a 1916 roster of former Canton mayors and is shown below. 

   In 1850 Snow and his family relocated to the Utah Territory and within a few years of his resettlement had gained distinction as an LDS missionary and church apostle. Snow was appointed by then-President Millard Fillmore to the Utah Territorial Supreme Court in 1850, becoming one of the first federal judges in the territory. Serving on the bench until 1854, Snow later resigned his seat and went on a church mission to Australia in 1856 and was stationed in the "land down under" for two years, returning to Utah in 1858.

   After his return stateside, Snow won election as a probate judge for Iron County and in 1865 was elected as the Prosecuting Attorney for Salt Lake City. He was later appointed as Attorney General of the Territory of Utah in 1869 and was still the incumbent in that office when the post was abolished in 1874. Snow's later life was spent in the practice of law, and from 1878-1884 served another term as Prosecuting Attorney for Salt Lake. 
  Zerubbabel Snow died in Salt Lake City on March 29, 1888, at age 79 and was later interred in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. He was later memorialized in the Salt Lake Herald as having lead "a life of usefulness in his sphere prolonged beyond the term usually allotted to man." Coincidentally, the Salt Lake City Cemetery is also the resting place of two other oddly named Utah political figures, Wehrli Douglas Pack (1889-1975, a state representative) and Sunday Cardall Anderson (1893-1987), a state representative and prominent leader in Utah Democratic Party circles.

This memorial notice to Zerubbabel Snow appeared in the Salt Lake Herald on September 30, 1888.

  In an addendum to this article, on December 15, 2011, another politician was discovered that also has the first name Zerubbabel. He is Zerubbabel Wightman of Bozrah, Connecticut, who was born on December 2, 1743. Virtually nothing is known of his life, with the exception of his service in the Connecticut State House of Representatives in 1805. Wightman died at the advanced age of 91 on November 1, 1835, in his native village of Bozrah. You'll notice the variation in the spelling of Wightman's first name, but research indicates it is actually spelled with a double "b."