Fairfield County OhArchives Obituaries.....Brasee, John Trafford October 27, 1880
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Lancaster Gazette, 4 Nov. 1880
Obituary of John Trafford Brasee
Lancaster [Fairfield Co., Ohio] Gazette, Nov. 4, 1880:
	Died at his residence in Lancaster, Ohio, at 2 0’clock a.m. October 
27, 1880, John Trafford Brasee, aged seventy nine years, ten months and three 
days.
	The following sketch of his life was, in 1878, written at his 
dictation by one of his grandsons, and it deserves preservation not only for 
the interest it possesses in presenting a picture of the hardships and the 
struggles in early youth, and the final success of a really remarkable man, 
but also for what artists would call the genre pictures he gives of times and 
people not far removed from us, but which yet seem strangely different from 
these our times, and the people in the interior of the States of New York and 
Ohio as we know them.  The sketch also has an interest from its style, easy 
and simple, but also direct and strong, characteristic of the man:
	“I was born in Hillsdale, Columbia county, New York, on the 24th day 
of December, 1800, on the farm then owned by my grandfather, John Trafford.  
My father lived at that place until he moved to a point on the Columbia 
turnpike, a little east of the village of Hillsdale, where I lived till after 
the death of my mother [ed. Note: Magdalena Trafford], which occurred on the 
18th day of February, 1807.  My father [ed note: William Brasee] then hired a 
housekeeper, and kept the family together for a short time.  Being a carpenter 
by trade, he undertook the moving of a large frame house from the old road 
south of the turnpike, to a point on the turnpike near a place called 
Stebbin’s Corner, about one mile from our residence.  The job was a difficult 
one, being on ascending ground.  It required a hundred yoke of oxen three days 
to accomplish the work.  I rode in the second story of that house on the last 
day of the hauling, and until it was placed on its new foundation.  There was 
a temporary structure erected by the side of the house for a blacksmith shop 
for the convenience of repairing chains and other work.
	The result of this job was disastrous to my father. He soon thereafter 
left Hillsdale and his children, and went, I think, to Western New York.  I 
know but little of his parentage.  He was born at Hillsdale, as he afterward 
informed me, and I think he was descended from the Huguenots of France.  My 
mother was the daughter of John Trafford, who was of English descent.  He was 
a man well to do in the world, had a good farm at his death and considerable 
personal property.  My grandmother I never knew. I presume she died before my 
recollection.
	After my father left, my sister Jane and myself went to our 
grandfather Trafford’s where we remained until his death, which occurred on 
the 19th day of October, 1809.  My sister Jane and myself continued to live at 
the old mansion with my uncle Benjamin Snyder until the spring of 1810, when I 
was placed by my guardian with a man named John Lane, who had recently moved 
to that neighborhood from Dutchess county, New York.
	My guardians were Perley Foster, and Aaron Reed, who lived about three 
miles east of my uncle’s and in the village of Hillsdale. 
	Lane was a very ignorant man, high tempered, profane and stupid; and 
his wife was no better.  She would get drink (sic) on cider.
	Here I lived for two years, worked hard and was abused in almost every 
imaginable way.  They gave me the most meager supply of clothing, never seemed 
to be satisfied with the amount of work they could get from me, and did not 
send me to school a day during the time.  I never knew Lane or his family to 
go into a church, although there was one within sight of their residence. I 
was not permitted to visit my uncle, although he lived within a mile; and I 
was frequently sent to bed without supper.  Of this usage I never complained 
to any one, supposing that it would happen to any boy in my condition in the 
hands of any one.
	At the expiration of two years my guardians came and took me away from 
that horrible place.  Mr. Lane was absent from home when they came.  They 
informed Mrs. Lane that they were going to take me home with them and wished 
her to put up my clothes.  I, in fact, had no clothes except what I had on, a 
pair of tow pants and a frock of the same material.  She told them that my 
clothes were not in condition to be packed up and wished them to send me there 
the following Sunday, saying she would then have them ready.  I was 
accordingly sent on that mission, and was told by Lane to say to my guardians 
that he would not give me my clothes because they had taken me away before my 
time was up, it being contemplated that when I went there that I should remain 
until I was fourteen years of age.  I delivered this message on my return and 
my guardians soon after brought suit against Lane to recover the value of my 
clothing.  This suit was tried in the village of Hillsdale and was considered 
a great suit.  Ambrose Jordan, a rising young lawyer of Hudson, was employed 
by my guardians, and Luke Guadinier, of Kinderhook, was employed by Lane who 
in the meantime had moved to the latter place.  During the trial some man 
present kept a memorandum of the number of oaths that Lane swore, and after 
the trial (the final result of which I never knew, for the reason that it was 
in some way taken to a higher court at Hudson), a warrant was issued against 
Lane to recover for the oaths he had sworn, and he was brought back and 
punished for them.
	As stated before, while I lived at Lane’s I had but one suit of 
clothes at a time, and whenever they were washed – which was but seldom – I 
had to go to bed early to give an opportunity for that operation.  It was part 
of my business to cut the firewood at the door, and I was frequently directed 
to do that on Sunday.  Mrs. Lane, while I was so engaged, would watch on the 
porch and call me in from the wood pile whenever she saw any one approaching.  
To induce me to do it she reminded me that I had it all to do anyhow and that 
what I did on Sunday I would be relieved from doing on week days.
	My guardians then placed me to live with Isaac Foster, who was the 
eldest son of my guardian Foster, and lived very near the village of 
Hillsdale.  He was a blacksmith by trade, and was a very clever, humane man.  
He wanted me to live with him principally to take care of his two or three 
children, his wife being a feeble woman.  All the time I lived here, which was 
probably about three years, I was well provided for and kindly treated.  I was 
occasionally called into the blacksmith shop by Mr. Foster to blow and strike 
for him when he had any heavy work on hand.  A growing taste for the 
blacksmith shop induced me voluntarily to spend all my liesure time there, 
doing such little jobs as were apparently necessary and making pen-knife 
blades and skate irons for myself and other boys.  I became very much 
delighted with this mode of life and really thought I was something of a 
blacksmith and even at this day the ring of an anvil has more music for me 
than any other instrument.
	When about fifteen years of age, having a great desire to become a 
proficient in the blacksmith business, I went out to the city of Hudson of my 
own volition, with the view of getting employment where I knew there were more 
skillful men in that line than Mr. Foster.  I went down to the lower part of 
the long street in Hudson and found there a blacksmith shop which was open.  I 
went in and spent an hour in examining the various tools, but found nobody in 
the shop while I remained.  It being Saturday, I turned back on the street and 
stopped at the hotel kept by an old man by the name of Stocking, of which I 
had heard Mr. Foster frequently speak, and applied to him for something to 
do.  But he had nothing that he could give me, and he inquired of me where I 
came from.  He said he knew Mr. Foster very well: that he had frequently 
stayed at his house while he was acting as a juryman; that he was a very 
clever, nice man, and advised me to return to him.  I thereupon took the back 
track and returned to Hillsdale, where I rested on a bench at the hotel kept 
by Jonathan Turner, and his son, a young man, invited me in to breakfast.  I 
soon found that the old man and the son wanted me to remain there, and I 
immediately became identified with the family and continued with them for 
about two years, during which time I became skilled and accustomed to do every 
kind of work that the business required.  I acted as barkeeper, and also when 
Turner and his son were absent, as landlord and hostler.  Turner was 
interested in a large tannery near by, where I ground most of the bark.  I was 
sent frequently with a conveyance to take travelers to different points where 
they wished to go.  In fact, I felt fully competent to manage the whole 
concern, which was large and had a large patronage, and frequently did so in 
the absence of the proprietor and his son.  While I remained with Turner I was 
treated kindly.  I never received a harsh word from any of them, was well 
clothed and went to school in the winter.
	In the spring and summer of 1817 I made an arrangement with a man by 
the name of Zadock Newbury, who was a baker residing in Hudson, to furnish me 
with all the ginger bread that I could sell during that season at the general 
musters in different parts of that county.  I was to pay for it after I sold 
it.  When the proper time arrived I hired a horse and wagon, went to Hudson 
for my first cargo and took it to the muster ground on the farm of General 
McKinstry, about ten or twelve miles north of Hillsdale, where I sold out my 
cargo in a few hours, and I returned to Hudson for a second supply, and 
continued in the business until the general musters of that spring  and fall 
were all over.  At the end of these operations, and after (accounting for all 
expenses), I found I had made $25, the first large sum of money I ever owned.
	These general musters were held in different parts of the county, and 
were attended by all the people in the vicinity, old and young, male and 
female.  They were held in large, level fields, selected for the purpose, and 
commanded by a high officer, who appeared on the ground, with his aids, in 
full military dress, and the officers and men were exercised most of the day 
in military maneuvers, all the officers being attired according to their rank 
and the soldiers well equipped.
	The winter of 1817 I went to school to Arnold Truesdell, a young man, 
but a very competent teacher.  This school was kept at the old red school 
house near a mile from Turners.  I spent my time this winter in improving my 
hand-writing and in completing my knowledge of arithmetic.  While attending 
this school I wrote into a book provided for the purpose the entire contents 
of Imball’s (?) Arithmetic, and worked out every sum there in and copied the 
work in this book.  After this I never had any difficulty in solving any 
arithmetical proposition.  The whole subject became very familiar to me.  The 
arithmetic and copy were brought with me to Ohio, but I have now no knowledge 
of where I left them or what became of them.
	In the month of February, 1818, I went to Canandaigua, in Ontario 
county, New York, without the knowledge of my guardians or any of my friends, 
as a passenger in a sleigh, with a man by the name of Couch.  We crossed the 
North River and Cayuga lake on the ice.  When I arrived at Canandaigua I 
stopped at the Stage House, kept by Mr. Kingsley, who was Deputy Sheriff of 
the county, to whom I made known my wish to get employment as a clerk in some 
establishment there.  After three or four days, John W. Beal, who was a 
manufacturer of tin and copper ware, and who had a store, mixed with articles 
of his manufacture and hardware, called at the hotel to see me, and it was 
agreed between us that I should go into his service and keep his store for a 
few months: and I entered upon that engagement and remained till the September 
following.  I was taken into the family to board.  The family came from 
Boston, included a sister of Mr. Beal’s wife and some apprentices, and it was 
altogether a very nice family.
	While I lived with Turner I was employed by Jesse Squire at Eclesmont, 
Berkshire county, Massachusetts, to go there and attend to his store while he 
went to New York city to replenish his stock of goods, which I did to his 
entire satisfaction; and on his return from New York I went back to Turner in 
Hillsdale, Squire not wishing to have a clerk when he was at home.
	The Beal family were all Episcopalians.  The Rev. Mr. Ouderdonk [sic], 
who afterward became Bishop of Western New York, was rector of the parish 
church which Beal and family attended, and I usually attended that church with 
the family.
	After I had been at Beal’s home store for two or three months, he 
established a branch store in a more business part pf the city, in a house 
owned by Asa Stanley, a tanner, where he had a leather store. (This man 
Stanley bore a remarkable resemblance to General Andrew Jackson.)  I was put 
in charge of this new establishment, including the leather store, where I 
bought all hides and skins for Mr. Stanley that were brought to the 
establishment for sale; and I continued to board with Mr. Beal.  After 
remaining here about six months, I concluded to emigrate to Ohio, of which 
Beal and Stanley were properly advised, and when I left Canandaigua each of 
them gave me $25.  While here I formed the acquaintance of a journeyman tailor 
by the name of Leland and of a tin peddler by the name of Phelps; and we three 
agreed to start for Olean Point together.
	We hired a conveyance, put our trunks aboard and started.  When we 
came to the Allegheny river, it was too low for any kind of navigation, and we 
remained there until our patience was exhausted, when we had a square boat 
made sufficient to hold ourselves and our trunks, in which we embarked for 
Pittsburg [sic], after having put on board our craft a good supply of bread, 
baked beans and salt.  All things being in readiness we went aboard and 
started down stream.  When we came to the first riffle, which was in sight of 
the place we left, one of us had to get out and work the boat over the riffle; 
and this was repeated many times during the day.  At night we hauled up our 
craft at a bend in the river, where there were plenty of dried slabs which we 
carried up the bank for a bed, using dried weeds for pillows, and building a 
fire near the foot of our bed.  The banks of the river was a wilderness, 
having in it many friendly Indians scattered along, from whom we bought meat.  
This mode of navigating and sleeping, we continued for some days and nights, 
when we arrived at the little town of Warren on the north bank of the river, 
where we met some white people, the first we had seen since leaving Olean.  
Being wearied by this mode of travel we put our trunks on board a family boat, 
to be taken to Pittsburg, which occupied us three days.  Upon arriving there 
we took boarding with an Irish family on Wood street, paying one week’s board 
in advance.  After staying there about ten days there came a great freshet in 
the Allegheny and other rivers upon which our trunks came to us, and we then 
took passage on another family boat owned by Roswell and Ora Crane, who were 
going to a point just below Portsmouth where they had bought a farm, and where 
we arrived in quick time.  We then took passage on another family boat for 
Cincinnati, and reached there on the same rise of water.  We had parted 
company with our friend Phelps at Pittsburg.   
	The next day after our arrival at Cincinnati I started on foot for 
Wilmington, in Clinton county, Ohio, the distance being about fifty miles.  To 
this place there was no stage conveyance at that time, and I was attracted 
there by hearing that two men from Hillsdale whom I knew – Arnold Truesdell, 
my old teacher, and Jacob Bosworth --  had established themselves as merchants 
there, and I hoped to obtain employment as a clerk from them.  I arrived at 
Wilmington in good time, and found my friends boarding with a man by the name 
of Adams, a tailor from the State of New York, with whom I also took up 
boarding.  I made known to my two friends  the purpose of my coming there, but 
I learned from them that they had sold out their stock of goods mostly on 
credit, and could make no collections to replenish with, and had nothing 
themselves, and of course they did not wish to employ a clerk.  They said they 
would see the next day what they could do toward getting me a situation 
somewhere in town; and during the next day I called, at their instance, to 
Isaiah Morris, the Clerk of the Court, and it was arranged between him and me 
that I should enter into his service as clerk and receive %15 a month, paying 
my own board, which cost $4 a month.  I remained here that winter and until 
the following mid-summer.  During that time I made up all his records, after 
which he had no further use for me.  I assisted him at the court house during 
the sessions of court, and was very attentive to what transpired there.  
Francis Dunlevy, a member of the convention which formed the first 
constitution of Ohio, his son Howard, and Thomas Corwin, were the lawyers from 
Lebanon.  Francis Dunlevy was said to be a fine equity lawyer.  The two latter 
were young men of great capacity and promise.  William R. Coal and James 
Radcliff were the resident lawyers.  At this time I determined to become a 
lawyer.  Knowing that my education was defective, I inquired for the best 
school in Ohio, and was directed to the Ohio University at Athens as such a 
place.
	Isaiah Morris was a kind, well disposed and intelligent man, and a 
remarkably fine clerk.  He took great pains to instruct me in all the duties 
of the office.
	In order to reach Athens I got conveyance in a carriage owned by a man 
by the name of Cox, who was going to Chillicothe.  When I arrived at 
Chillicothe I stopped at the hotel kept by John Maderia, but found that there 
was no conveyance from there to Athens, sixty miles away, the mail being 
carried on horse back.  The next day I stared on foot for Athens, where I 
arrived at the end of three days, shortly after the Fourth of July, 1819, and 
went to board with General John Brown, with whom I boarded, with slight 
exceptions for seven years.  I immediately entered the Grammar school of the 
College, having about $100 of J. H. Piatt’s money, which was the principal 
currency at that day in that part of Ohio, and this I gave as prepayment on my 
board to General Brown.  I had not been there long before I made the 
acquaintance of Henry Bartlett, the Clerk of the Court, and I agreed to assist 
him in his office whenever I had leisure time, which I did.   
	After I had been there a couple of years I took up a village school at 
the beginning of a long vacation and taught it for one quarter, which ran into 
the following session.
	In January, 1824, Mr. Thomas Ewing was desirous of employing a 
competent teacher to take charge of the academy at Lancaster, and I agreed 
with him to teach the academy for six months for $200.  Having obtained from 
the faculty leave of absence fo that time, I accompanied Mr. Ewing to 
Lancaster, and stopped at John Noble’s hotel.  The evening afterward I was 
invited into the parlor of the hotel to meet the Trustees of the academy, and 
I found there Mr. Ewing, Judge Scofield, John Noble, Samuel F. Maccracken, 
David Reese and others.  Mr. Ewing took from his pocket a pocket edition of 
Horace and turned to one of his odes, which he requested me to read to him.  
This I did with fear and trembling, but when it was done he remarked that that 
was satisfactory.  After informing me about their academy, and what they 
expected of me, the meeting adjourned with the understanding that I was to 
enter upon my uties the next day.  They informed me that their institution had 
two departments, one for classical and advanced scholars; that it was in 
charge of a man by the name of Couger, over whom I was expected to keep 
constant supervision.
	I accordingly entered upon my duties the next day, and continued 
without intermission until my next six months expired, which brought me to 
August, 1824, when the commencement at Athens took place.  I returned there 
and graduated with my class, having declined to be further employed by the 
Trustees.
	Soon after my return to Athens Mr. Bartlett, being an aged man, gave 
me charge of all his clerical business, dividing fees equally, and the 
possession of a room near his office, where I could read law.  I immmediately 
entered upon the reading of law with Joseph Dana, the professor of languages 
in the college.  He came in every Saturday night and examined me in my 
studies; and early in the spring of 1826, my two years of study of the law 
expired, I having entered myself as a law student prior to graduating.  At 
this time I was well qualified for admission to the bar and intended to be 
admitted as soon as the Supreme Court came into that part of the State.    
	The next thing for me to do was to select a place to settle.  I 
selected Gallipolis as a place where I thought I could make some money sooner 
than elsewhere.  Thomas Irvin, who lived there had, during the winter prior, 
been elected President Judge, and Samuel F. Vinton, a very able man was then 
and continued for several years afterward a member of Congress.
	I provided myself with a fine young horse for which I paid $55, and 
other necessary articles, and left Athens for Gallipolis, having paid off all 
my debts except $160 due General Brown, for which I gave him my note.  I went 
to Gallipolis, and remained there until the Supreme Court came to Burlington, 
in Lawrence county (it having failed to stop at Gallipolis) where I went and 
was examined by Judge Peter Hitchcock and Jaob [sic] Burnett, and was admitted 
to the bar.                                          
	Returning to Gallipolis, I opened an office and put out my sign as a 
lawyer.  I attended all the courts regularly in the counties of Gallia, 
Lawrence, Scioto, Pike, Jackson, Athens, Washington and Meigs, and also at 
Point Pleasant, Virginia, four miles above Gallipolos.  I soon got into a good 
practice, far exceeding my expectations.  At the fall term of the Court of 
Common Pleas at Athens that year I took money and paid off my note to General 
Brown.  And by the fall term of 1829 I purchased a fine river lot, paid for it 
and commenced the building of a small two story dwelling house.  In November 
that year, I was married to Mary Jane, daughter of Judge Scofield, at 
Lancaster.  We boarded the first winter with the widow of Edward W. Tupper, 
and in the spring following, as soon as my house was completed, we moved into 
it and commenced housekeeping.
	It became a custom with us to visit Lancaster once a year after my 
courts were over.  When there in 1832, Judge Scofield’s youngest daughter 
having recently married James R. Stanbery, the Judge importuned me to move to 
Lancaster, which I at first declined, saying I had a valuable practice where I 
was; that I would be compelled to sell my property at a sacrifice; that the 
bar at Lancaster was very able and crowded, and that I would have no business 
there for a long time.  He replied that he had more property than I had at 
Gallipolis, and that the time would come soon, if I remained where I was, when 
this property would have to be sacrificed; that the country where I was was 
poor compared with Fairchild county; that he had a large house sufficient for 
his family and mine 9we having only two children, Ellen and John), and that it 
seemed to him, unless one of his daughters was with them, the great purpose of 
their lives was ended; that we could all live together at his house, where he 
had no fears there would be any difficulty between his wife and mine.
	We went home, leaving matters wholly unsettled as to our future 
movements, but the more I thought of it the better I thought of it, and at the 
end of a few weeks I had concluded to move to Lancaster and so advised Judge 
Scofield.  I found a purchaser for my property at Gallipolis, and prior to my 
removal made a public sale, at which I disposed of all my personal property 
except my library and our bedding.
	In the spring of 1833, being ready, we went to Portsmouth on a 
steamer, thence up the canal to Circleville, where I hired a carriage to take 
us to Lancaster, where we arrived to the great joy of Judge Scofield’s family 
and my own.  We continued to live there as one family very harmoniously until 
the death of the Judge and his wife, which occurred in November, 1841.
	Henry Bartlett, of whom I have spoken, was a most excellent man, and 
had in his composition as much of the milk of human kindness as any man I ever 
knew.  He was very kind to me in every way and I cherish and honor his 
memory.  On one occasion, in the fore part of my stay at Athens, I applied to 
John Perkins, who kept a store right across the street from General Brown’s, 
and who is still living, to credit me with the muslin to make a couple of 
shirts, which he declined to do.  The same day I went to another merchant by 
the name of Ebenezer Currier, from whom I readily procured the goods I 
wanted.  I speak of the incident only to show to what extremities a poor young 
man in my condition may be driven.
	In the fall of 1821, I received from my uncle, Benjamin Snyder, the 
executor of my grandfather Trafford, the sum of $100, the amount of a legacy 
left me by him, and I paid it over to General Brown on my board.
	After I moved to Lancaster I traveled parts of my old circuit – 
Gallia, Athens and Jackson counties – and continued to practice there for 
several years until my business at Lancaster required all my attention.
	I have spoken of the disappearance of my father.  While at Beal’s I 
made a journey to Geneva, twenty miles east of Canandaigua, to see my father, 
who I in some way heard was there.  I did not find him then, but heard that he 
was at a little town still farther east about four miles, and I went there.  
He was not there, however, though he had been some weeks before.  At this time 
I found several families of my name who claimed to be cousins of my father.  
Not finding my father, I returned to Canandaigua, and a few weeks afterward my 
father came to the store of Mr. Beal and spent an hour there inquiring about 
our relatives in Hillsdale.  From him I learned that he had been in the war of 
1812, and had spent some time in Canada after the war, and that he had a 
patent from the government for 160 acres of land in Illinois, which he 
intended to divide equally between my brother Morton and myself.  I afterward 
learned from the public record at Washington that he had conveyed this land to 
a man in Philadelphia.
	After this conversation he left me, and the next time I saw him was at 
my law offices at Lancaster in 1841.  When he came there he was very poorly 
clad.  I got him a new suit of clothes and he staid with me the following 
winter.  In the spring when I went to my first court, which was held in 
Jackson, he got onto a spree, got mad with Mrs. Brasee, and, after borrowing 
ten or twelve dollars from Meinunund (?) and Lobenthal which I afterward paid, 
he started for the East.
	Late in the fall of 1842 he came to my farm in Greenfield township, 
which was then in charge of Henry Fry, and stopped there.  I went to see him, 
learned all about our relatives in Hillsdale, where he had been, and requested 
him to come to Lancaster, where he had been and spend the winter there, which 
he declined to do.  I instructed Mr. Fry to treat him kindly, furnish him 
whatever he wanted, except whisky, and to require nothing from him.  He 
remained there until the hay harvest.  Fry came to me one evening saying that 
my father had sent him in to get twelve dollars from me, and that he was going 
to leave the next morning.  I sent him the money, all in half dollars.  The 
next morning he got the hands together after breakfast and made them a 
speech.  He told them that they were all a set of understrappers for me, and 
that he was going to quit the concern.  He thereupon left for Columbus, and I 
have never seen nor heard anything of him since, and I presume that as he was 
then an old man, death has long ago overtaken him.”
	In the death of Mr. Brasee one of the brightest lights of the early 
jurisprudence of Ohio has gone out.
	When he came to Lancaster, in 1833, that beautiful little city was 
well known as a center of culture and refinement above its fellows, but its 
greatest renown was the distinguishing character of its bar, which then 
numbered among its members Ewing, Stanbery and Hunter, who were in the  vigor 
of intellectual manhood, and were known far beyond the limits of the State as 
giants in their profession.  But Mr. Brasee did not come among them without 
some prestige in his profession; for admitted to the bar only in 1826, he had 
already appeared as counsel in the Supreme Court.  He first appears in the 
Ohio Reports in the case of Smith vs. Bing, which was decided in 1827, the 
year after his admission.  And frequently thereafter his name occurs in the 
Reports till he retired from the bar some twenty years ago, and some of the 
most important questions settled by that court were presented and discussed by 
him.  In a case in which he was party as well as counsel (Brasee vs. Lancaster 
Bank) he argued with distinguished ability and success what is known among the 
lawyers of the State as the “triangular question”, in the contest for priority 
of lien between a major judgement without levy, and intervening mortgage and a 
junior judgement levied within the year, establishing the paramount lien of 
the elder judgement, although the statute declares that as between it and the 
junior judgement with levy, the latter should prevail.  And this became and 
remains a leading case, followed in …numerous other cases.
	Without being an orator he was a very effective speaker, and was quite 
successful before juries.  His arguments on the facts of a case were 
remarkable for their completeness in presenting the whole case, showing a 
mastery of the facts and an appreciation of the strong and weak points of each 
side…[illegible].
	Though decided in his political views, he could not be called a 
politician, and he was never voluntarily a candidate for office.  After the 
dissolution of the Whig party, of which he was a member, and before the 
formation of the Republican party, while the opposition to the Democratic 
party was in a transition and somewhat chaotic state, he was, in 1855, elected 
to the State Senate, and he served during the two sessions of 1856 and 1857, 
and took an active and leading part in the legislation of those two sessions, 
and particularly in perfecting the act for the “Bank of Ohio”, which, it is 
generally understood was the joint product of himself and his associate, 
Alfred Kelly, Senator from the Columbus district.  The law was drafted with 
great care, and although it never went into practical effect in Ohio, it had 
the higher distinction of forming, with the law creating the State Bank of 
Ohio, the basis and prototype of the National Bank act, passed by Congress 
some seven years later.
	After he had acquired a high position in his profession he developed a 
strong inclination for agricultural pursuits, and early became the owner of 
large tracts of fertile lands in Fairfield county; and he found time while yet 
in full practice to give personal attention to their improvement and 
cultivation.  And this for the last twenty years of his life formed his chief 
occupation.  Few practical farmers in the State were better posted in all that 
pertains to successful farming, including the rearing and management of live 
stock, and the marketing of all the products of the farm.
	This taste enabled him while yet in the vigor of intellect to withdraw 
from the arduous labors of the profession of law, and to find pleasure and 
profit in the pursuits of the agriculturist, which no doubt contributed to the 
robust health which he enjoyed to a late period before his death.
	The modest autobiography embodied in this sketch of his life shows at 
once the simplicity and the force of character that enabled him to overcome 
the difficulties that surrounded an almost friendless boy, without education 
and without wealth.  More than ordinary capacity and energy were needed to 
accomplish an academic education, professional training, and the establishment 
of himself among the foremost men of his city.  These qualities united with 
sterling integrity, made him what he was, and entitle him to an honorable 
place in American Biography.


Additional Comments:

The preceding obituary was graciously supplied by Sharon Reck of CA, a 
descendant.  It was re-transcribed and edited by Carol Gohari, longtime 
amateur genealogist, and formerly Moderator of the Queens [NY] Genealogy 
Workshop.  Mrs. Gohari has partially researched the Trafford family and their 
place in the Hillsdale, Columbia County, NY, community.  

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