My Genealogy Hound

HON. WILLIAM WHITE. It is maintained by the misanthrope, that at the best human life is but vanity and vexation of spirit; but to him who takes the proper view of life and its responsibilities and that which may be achieved by men and which will live after them, there is nothing nobler than to have faithfully performed its duties and earned the plaudit of “well done.” In reviewing the character of Judge White, who rose from a modest position in life to one of high honor, we have before us a record which is well worthy of preservation, and one of which his descendants may be justly proud. After thirty-three years of unabated and conscientious devotion to arduous public services culminating in his being chosen as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio, he departed this life March 12, 1883. He was born January 28, 1822, and was thus at the time of his decease sixty-one years of age.

Pursuant to a call of the President, the State Bar association and other members of the bar of Ohio, met at 2 o’clock P. M., March 14, 1883, in the Supreme Courtroom, and was called to order by Hon. R. A. Harrison, its President.

On motion of Judge W. W. Boynton, Judge R. P. Ranney was made Chairman of the meeting, and on motion of L. J. Critchfield, E. L. Taylor was chosen Secretary.

Hon. R. A. Harrison moved the appointment of a committee to draft a memorial and resolutions concerning the character and public services of the late William White, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio.

The motion being carried the Chair appointed the following committee: R. A. Harrison, William H. West, W. W. Boynton, Allen G. Thurman, W. J. Gilmore, Henry C. Noble, Durbin Ward, M. A. Daugherty and John W. Herron.

The committee retired, and after consultation, instructed Mr. Harrison to report the following memorial and resolutions:

“William White, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State 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 uprightness of his personal character, and his excellent 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 distinguished men, preserved in the annals and cherished in the recollections of a grateful people, constitute their richest treasure.

The deceased was born in England on the 28th of January, 1822. His parents dying when he was very young, he came to this country in 1831, with an uncle. They settled in Springfield, Ohio. At twelve years of age he was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker for nine years, but after serving out six years of his apprenticeship, he purchased the remainder of his time from his master, giving his notes for the purchase money, and worked at his trade until his indebtedness was liquidated. He was desirous of obtaining an education. To enable him to obtain the necessary means he devoted all his energies to to his trade, working at his business during vacation and such other spare time as he could find. His principal education was received at the old Springfield High School.

On completing his course of study, he was encouraged by William A. Rodgers, an eminent lawyer of Springfield, to commence the study of law under him. He adopted his advice. He earned the necessary expenses by teaching school at certain intervals.

In 1846, he was admitted to the bar, and taken into partnership by his preceptor, and so continued until the latter was elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1851. In 1847, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Clark County, and was thrice re-elected. In 1856, he was elected, by a very large majority, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. The vote of Clark County was cast almost unanimously for him. In 1861 he was re-elected. On the resignation of Hocking H. Hunter, in February, 1864, he was appointed by Gov. Brough, Judge of the Supreme Court, and in October was elected for the unexpired term. He was re-elected in 1868, in 1873 and in 1878.

Judge White was married in October, 1847, to Miss Rachel Stout, whose parents were among the early settlers of Springfield. She, with three of their children survive. The eldest, his son Charles, is a member of the Springfield bar. His daughter Emma married Robert C. Rodgers, who is a member of the same bar. His younger daughter is unmarried. He educated all his children liberally. He was a most affectionate and devoted husband, and a most considerate, kind and indulgent father. His home was one of the happiest of homes.

Judge White’s simple and modest manners, his kindness of nature, his warm social impulses, his unvarying courtesy, his almost unexampled regard for the feelings and rights of others, his charity for human frailities, and his never failing patience toward all men, endeared him to every one who knew him. These characteristics, as well as the manner in which he discharged the duties of his great office, made him a favorite with the bar, as well as with all ranks and conditions of men. Both the bar and the public manifested their admiration, esteem, confidence and gratitude toward him by re-nominating, without opposition, and re-electing him as often as his term of office expired.

He was a wise and honest citizen. His neighbors, without exception, regarding him as a loving friend. He took pleasure in aiding them with his wise counsels, and his charities were bestowed with a free hand. Those who have known him from boyhood affirm that he never had a personal enemy. His personal character was of the highest order. Exemplary rectitude and wise sobriety adorned his whole life. He was the very soul of honor in all the relations of life. He was unpretentious in all his performances, and was another illustration of the trueism that unpretending characters are rarely deficient. He was a man of great industry, a virtue which it is an offense against morality to call humble, in one who is the keeper both of his own talent and not seldom that of others also. It was, however, industry of the highest order — constant action of the intellect practically applied. To say that he was patient, and diligent, and thorough in the investigation of causes, and unswerving in his adherence to his convictions, is simply to state what is attested by his opinions reported in twenty volumes of reports of the judicial decisions of the Supreme Court. These decisions and opinions will constitute, for all time, an enduring monument of his sound, discriminating judgment, and his fidelity and eminence as a jurist. During his nineteen years of service on the Supreme Bench, changes in many matters and things connected with the important business of men in our advancing and great State took place. While he never departed from established and settled legal principles, he wisely adapted them to varying circumstances and conditions. For, while his mind was of a philosophic cast, he was, as a magistrate eminently practical. He aided in solving many constitutional questions of the highest moment. His reported decisions touch almost every branch of the law. They have always been, and will ever be, regarded with the highest respect, because they bear internal evidence that they are the results and products of exhaustive legal research by a strong, logical, penetrating mind, and of a man of the sternest integrity and strictest impartiality. But even this record falls far short of fully exhibiting the many long years of mental toil, and the anxious, conscientious manner in which he discharged the duties and exercised the power of his high trust.

Judge White has left, for all time, an enduring and elevating impression upon the jurisprudence and judicial history of the State, and he has added much to the distinction of her supreme judicial court.

He had a superior mind for the law. He was mentally, morally, and physically adapted to judicial service, and especially to the peculiar service required of a member of a court for the correction of errors. He was extremely fond of investigating and applying general principles. His mind naturally pondered upon any cause or question he was called upon to investigate. He could not decide until he had viewed it on all sides, and in all its aspects and bearings. His methods illustrated the truth of a striking observation of a distinguished philosopher: ‘There is much in this process of pondering and its results which it is impossible to analyze. It is by a kind of inspiration that we rise from the wise and sedulous contemplation of facts to the principles on which they depend. The mind is, as it were, a photographic plate, which is gradually cleansed by the effort to think rightly, and which, when so cleansed, and not before, receives impressions from the light of truth.”

Judge White was not a brilliant, quick-minded man; but he has a strong, solid, logical, honest mind. He had great powers of concentration and discrimination, and unwearied application. He was no respecter of persons in the hearing of causes or in judgment.

A sound point, or a good reason in support of a contention, stated by the feeblest member of the bar, had the same effect upon his mind as if urged by the strongest lawyer. He might be misled by a fallacious proposition or specious argument at first, but before he ceased pondering upon it he would discover its fallacy.

Judge White has left to the profession of the bar from which he was promoted to the highest honor which a lawyer can receive from the State, a lesson and an example worthy of following; and, although he has left but a small estate to his widow and children, he has left them the rich heritage of an unsullied name and the record of a life devoted to the service of his fellow-men.

Although Judge White was nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to be Judge of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio, his illness prevented him from resigning his position on the Supreme Bench of the State and then qualifying as District Judge of the Federal Court. Since he has passed from all earthly courts to his final reward, it seems fitting that he should not have vacated until then, the judicial forum of his beloved State, wherein he labored and established his fame, and that his last judicial act should be one authenticating the enduring records which will perpetuate it for all time.

Resolved, That as an expression of the veneration, admiration and the love of the Bar of the State of Ohio for the memory of William White, the Supreme Court of the State be requested to place upon their records the foregoing minute and these resolutions, and that a copy of the same be sent to the family of the deceased Chief Justice, and furnished to the press for publication.

Resolved, That we tender to his family and relatives our sincere condolence in their terrible and unspeakable affliction.

Resolved, That we attend his funeral in a body. Ordered, That the Attorney General present the proceedings of this meeting to the Supreme Court.

On the motion to adopt the memorial and resolutions, remarks were made touching the life, character and public services of Judge William White, by R. A. Harrison, William J. Gilmore, Allen G. Thurman, Durbin Ward, William H. West, A. Russel, James E. Wright, W. H. Safford, D. K. Watson and M. M. Grander. A telegram from George Hoadly was also read by Mr. Harrison.

The memorial and resolutions were then unanimously adopted.

Judge Safford moved that the Secretary of the meeting be instructed to certify a copy of the memorial and resolutions to the Secretary of the State Bar Association with a request that the same be spread upon the minutes of that association, which motion was carried.

The meeting thereupon adjourned.
R. P. Ranney, President.
E. L. Taylor, Secretary.”

Upon the presentation by the Attorney-General of the foregoing proceedings to the Supreme Court on March 20, 1883, Chief Justice Johnson said: “These proceedings meet with our cordial approval, and they will be entered on record as a permanent tribute to the memory of our late Chief Justice. During the many years that Judge White was a member of this court, his relations with his associates were so intimate, and he was so kind, genial and generous to them, that he was respected and loved by all as a brother. To each he was ever a warm friend and an able judicious counselor. No words of mine can express our sense of personal loss, or our feelings of sorrow caused by his death. He was a man of pure life, who was inspired by that noble ambition which marks an elevated nature. In addition to a thorough knowledge of the law he possessed an overruling sense of justice and right, and that wisdom and discretion in the discharge of his official duties which made him so pre-eminent as a judge. These qualities, with his thorough methods in the examination of all questions submitted for decision made lum our acknowledged leader, and inspired in the public mind a higher degree of confidence in the judgment of the court. By his fidelity to public duty and by his earnest purpose to administer the law, without respect to persons, he commanded the respect and won the confidence of litigants, the bar and the people of the State. His opinions are marked by that accuracy of thought and clearness of expression, by that thorough knowledge of the law, and by that sound judgment which were transcripts of his mind, and which entitle these opinions to the highest rank in jurisprudence. But above all this he possessed qualities of a far nobler character. In the kindness and gentleness of his nature, in his simple mode of life, in his love for his family, in his attachment to his friends, in his devotion to every duty, he exemplified the highest characteristics of human greatness. He was more than a great lawyer or an eminent jurist — he was a good man.”

The funeral obsequies of Judge William White occurred at Springfield on March 15, 1883, and were attended by the Governor of the State with his Staff, the Judges of the Supreme Court of Ohio and the State Bar Association, together with all the Judges of the Courts of Common Pleas within the vicinity and many of the local Bar Associations throughout the State; and both branches of the General Assembly, which adjourned for that purposes.

The services accompanying the removal and burial of the body were simple and impressive. The body lay at his late residence on North Limestone Street, Springfield, from which it was removed to the Second Presbyterian Church, where Dr. William H. Webb, the pastor, delivered the funeral discourse in the presence of a great and imposing assembly. After the discourse the burial took place in beautiful Fern Cliff Cemetery, near Springfield. During these services all business in the city was suspended by a proclamation of the Mayor.