My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE S. CLAPP is a son of Silas and Esther (Risley) Clapp, who went from Hartford County, Conn., to the Western Reserve, then often called New Connecticut, in Ohio. In Columbia, in Lorain County, the subject of this sketch was born on the 16th of June, 1834. In 1846 the family moved to Berea, near Cleveland, that the children might have the advantages of education in the then new institution, now known as Baldwin University, and where he received his education. His college society was the “Philozetian,” and he was one of its founders.

Our subject’s choice of the legal profession was made early. He practiced in Justice Courts quite a time before he was admitted, and had the swing in his section of Cuyahoga County, his opponents often being attorneys from Cleveland. He formally entered his name as a student-at-law with Loren Prentiss in Cleveland, but pursued his studies at home, except for a few weeks in 1856 in the office of Hon. Stevenson Burke in Elyria. In 1856 he was admitted by the District Court, sitting in Cleveland, to practice law.

Originally a Democrat, as a consequence of the Kansas-Nebraska struggle, he went with a host more like him into the Republican party. He made speeches for Salmon P. Chase for Governor in 1855 and in 1857, and for Fremont for President in 1856. He relates how in 1857, at a meeting, the audience were all of the opposition except two, and an attempt was made by a veteran Democrat to down the youngster by interruptions. The speaker, however, worked his opponent on to the right ground, and then made his argument so vigorous and conclusive from his opponent’s own oracles, that he completely silenced the opposition and had the floor to himself uninterrupted until he closed in his own good time. In 1872 he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Philadelphia, when Gen, Grant was re-nominated. Eber B. Ward and Hon. William A. Howard were among the other delegates.

In 1860 he moved to Mt. Vernon, Ohio, and was editor of the Knox County Express for a few months. He returned to Berea in 1861, and in 1862 removed to St. Joseph, Mich. He at once entered into active practice and has followed the legitimate profession of the law ever since. From 1870 there have not been many important trials in Berrien County he has not been engaged in. In the judicial campaign just closed, a list of cases removed to the Supreme Court from the Second Judicial Circuit was published; it shows over a hundred cases in which Mr. Clapp was concerned. He says he had fair luck — that he lost only about a quarter of them. Not aspiring to be known as a criminal lawyer, he has probably tried more criminal cases than any other lawyer in the circuit. His particular delight is in real-estate litigations. Of that kind he has had a large share. Among his cases he successfully defended the title of the two leading Protestant churches in St. Joseph to their church property, and that of the city to the magnificent boulevard overlooking the lake.

In 1882 he removed to Niles from St. Joseph, and his position is among the foremost of the attorneys in the Second Judicial Circuit. He is a successful trier of cases, and is considered a successful advocate, but he never depends upon his abilities alone. He carefully prepares every case, is industrious and painstaking, and earns his victories by hard work, and when defeated takes it in good grace, that the case was too much for him. He is jealous for the honor of his profession, spurns tricks and subterfuges, and maintains and acts on the belief that no man is more in honor bound to be honest and a gentleman, than is the lawyer. He has served a pretty good time, but says he expects to stay with the boys about twenty-five years longer, before he will confess being a veteran.

Socially, he is identified with the Masonic orders, including the commandery. He was married to Helen S., daughter of S. W. Perry, of Elyria, Ohio, September 18, 1856. They are the parents of three daughters. Carrie L. is the wife of Dr. S. C. Van Antwerp, of Vicksburgh; Esther R. and Eleanore B. are twins, the former now being the wife of Harvey C. Beeson, a scion of one of the oldest families in Niles.