Judge William B. Crew was born at Chesterfield, Morgan County, Ohio, April 1, 1852; educated in public schools and at Westtown College, Penna. (a college under the management of the Society of Friends); admitted to the bar by Supreme Court of Ohio, 1873; graduated from the Ohio State and Union Law College, Cleveland, Ohio, in 1874; elected Prosecuting Attorney of Morgan County, 1876; elected member of Ohio legislature, 1889; elected Judge of Court of Common Pleas for the 1st Subdivision of the 8th judicial district of Ohio 1891; re-elected 1896 and again re-elected 1901; nominated for Judge of Supreme Court of Ohio by Republican state convention held at Cleveland in May, 1902; appointed by Republican state convention held at Cleveland in May, 1902; appointed by Governor Nash July 19, 1902, to fill vacancy on Supreme Court bench caused by death of Judge Marshall J. Williams. He was elected both for the long and short terms, in November, 1902, and will complete his present term of service in February, 1909.

Augustus Neander Summers was born in Shelby, Richland County, Ohio, June 13, 1856. He is one of nine children born to the Rev. Daniel Summers and Louisa Hine, his wife. He graduated from Wittenberg College, at Springfield, in 1879; was admitted to the bar in 1881; elected city solicitor of Spring field in 1885, and re-elected in 1887 and 1889; was elected one of the judges of the Circuit Court for the Second Circuit, in 1894, and re-elected in 1900; was elected one of the judges of the Supreme Court in 1903 and entered upon the discharge of the duties of the office February 9, 1904. Judge Summers was mar ried to Miss Nellie Thomas, daughter of the Hon. John H. Thomas, of Springfield, in 1887. They have three children, two sons and a daughter.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE SUPREME COURT.

PRELIMINARY ORGANIZATION.

THE JUDGES OF THE TERRITORIAL COURTS OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. (1787-1802.)

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HE first judicial system to be inaugurated in that part of the United States which is now known as the State of Ohio was that put in operation by the "Ordinance of 1787" by which the "territory northwest of the River Ohio" was set apart as a separate governmental unit, and a form of local government provided for it by the Congress. By a reference to Section 4 of the ordinance, which is printed in Part One of this volume, it will be seen that it was provided that there should be “appointed a court, to consist of three judges, any two of whom to form a court, who shall have a common law jurisdiction, and reside in the district, and have therein a freehold estate, in five hundred acres of land, while in the exercise of their offices; and their commission shall continue in force during good behavior." These judges, with the governor, were to select from the civil and criminal laws of the original states such laws as they deemed suitable for the territory, and were given the power to promulgate such laws, and to enforce them, until they should be amended or repealed by a general assembly to be later organized according to the provisions of the ordinance under which they were appointed.

In accordance with this provision of the Ordinance, Congress did, on the 16th day of October, 1787, elect as judges for the Northwest Territory: Samuel Holden Parsons, John Armstrong, and James Mitchell Varnum.

In the place or Mr. Armstrong, who declined the appointment, Congress appointed on the 19th day of February, 1788, Mr. John Cleves Symmes.

The first Territorial Judges (in 1787-8) were therefore, Samuel Holden Parsons, James Mitchell Varnum, John Cleves Symmes.

The salaries of the judges were fixed by Congress in an act bearing the date October 8, 1787, at $800 per annum.

President George Washington, in a message to the Senate of the United States, bearing the date of New York, August 18, 1789, nominates

Historical Sketch of the Judges of the Supreme Court.

to be judges of the Northwest Territory "in accordance with the law reestablishing the government of the Northwest Territory," Samuel Holden Parsons, John Cleves Symmes, and William Barton.

Mr. Barton, who was appointed vice Judge Varnum, who had died the preceding February, himself declined the appointment, and on the 8th of September the Senate completed the reorganization of the court by confirming the nomination of George Turner, an associate justice. The court thus constituted in 1789, and acting under the Constitution of the United States, consisted of the Honorable Judges Samuel Holden Parsons, John Cleves Symmes, George Turner.

Judge Parsons, then Chief Justice, was drowned in November, 1789, while returning from a treaty with the Indians of the Western Reserve, and the President nominated as his successor on the bench, Rufus Putnam, of Marietta, whose nomination was promptly confirmed.

The court as thus organized with Judges John Cleves Symmes, George Turner, Rufus Putnam, served from 1790 to 1796, when Judge Putnam was appointed to the office of Surveyor General by President Washington, who, in the same message to the Senate, nominated Joseph Gilman to the Judgeship thus made vacant. The nominations were con

firmed.

In 1798 Judge Turner resigned and was succeeded by Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., whose appointment was confirmed February 12, 1798. The court as thus constituted, consisting of Judges John Cleves Symmes, Joseph Gilman and Return J. Meigs, Jr., continued to serve until the admission of the state into the Union in 1803, and therefore, until the organization of the Supreme Court of Ohio. This Court (of the Northwest Territory) held its session alternately at Detroit, Vincennes, Cincinnati and Marietta.

NOTE. 1.-It is worthy of notice in this connection that the Territorial Government was set up by Congress in October, 1787, but that the first settlement in Ohio occurred on the site of the city of Marietta in the following April (1788). In the absence of the Governor, and Judges, who were to form the law-giving power, and until their arrival, Col. Return J. Meigs, Sr., drafted a code of regulations on common foolscap, which he tacked to the blazed trunk of a large oak, where it was read and endorsed by all the settlers. History does not record a single infraction of those rules. The Governor, with a majority of the court, arrived at Marietta two months later, and set up the official government of the Territory.

NOTE 2.-Upon the admission of the state into the Union in 1803, and the dissolution of the Territorial Court, Congress by an act passed in February, 1803, provided that a District Court for the District of Ohio, to consist of one judge, should be established at Chillicothe.

NOTE 3.-By an act of May, 1800, the original Northwest Territory had been divided into eastern and western divisions, and an additional court created for the Indiana or western division, at Saint Vincennes, the court for the eastern

JUDGES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF OHIO UNDER THE

FIRST CONSTITUTION (1802-1851).

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NDER the Constitution of 1802 the number of Supreme Court Judges was the same as under the Territorial form of government, three, with the power vested in the general assembly to authorize the selection of an additional judge at its discretion. The tenure of office was fixed at seven years, or such part thereof as the judge was well behaved. The salaries of the judges were fixed at not to exceed one thousand dollars per annum.

Under these provisions of the constitution and the laws, the General Assembly elected on April 2, 1803, as the First Supreme Court of the State of Ohio, Samuel Huntington (then the Senator from Trumbull County), Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., (then a member of the Territorial Court), and William Spriggs (of Jefferson County).

With this establishment of a Supreme Cout in Ohio, a search of official records discloses the following to have been the personnel of that court which has reflected a lasting honor on the judiciary whose representatives they were, and on the state to whom they paid affectionate fealty.

1803-Samuel Huntington, Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., William

Spriggs.

1804-Samuel Huntington, Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., William

Spriggs.

Judge Meigs resigned December, 1804, to accept commission in the U. S. Army as Colonel and Commander of the Department of the Missouri.

1805-Samuel Huntington, Daniel Symmes (vice Meigs), William

Spriggs.

1806 Samuel Huntington, Daniel Symmes, William Spriggs (to April).

Judge Sprigg resigned in April and was succeeded by Senator George Tod, of Trumbull County, who was appointed to the vacancy by Governor Tiffin-and was afterward elected to the seat by the General Assembly, January 1, 1807.

In 1807 the Supreme Court consisted of Judges Samuel Huntington, Daniel Symmes and George Tod.

In 1808 Judge Symmes resigned (January 9) and was succeeded by William Spriggs (February 13). Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr., having