1 ing tanks at Macksburg and laid a two-inch pipe line over the hills to Lowell, on the Muskingum River, through which he forces oil into boats at that place, and floats it to his refinery located at Marietta. The Macksburg field could never boast of such wonderful gushers' as were found in the Thorn Creek and Washington fields of Pennsylvania. The best well in the Macksburg field probably did not produce more than 300 barrels the first 24 hours after it was shot and tubed; the sand is more compact than any of the fields in Pennsylvania, and consequently yields its precious contents more slowly, and the well is not so soon exhausted. Northeast of Macks burg near the edge of the field sev eral large gas-wells have been struck in the search for oil, which would have caused great excitement in any other locality, but which here were only referred to as a failure to find oil. One of these wells visited by the writer three months after the gas CHAPTER XII. THE LEGAL PROFESSION. FIRST TERM OF COMMON PLEAS COURT IN NOBLE COUNTY HELD AT OLIVE IN APRII, 1851--- THE BUSINESS ACCOMPLISHED — OTHER EARLY TERMS OF COURT — ASSOCIATE JUDGES-COURTS AT SARAHSVILLE AND CALDWELL — NOBLE COUNTY BAR - THE LAWYERS PRIOR TO 1851 — LAWYERS OF LATER YEARS HON. ISAAC PARRISH JABEZ BELFORD - EDWARD A. BRATTON AND OTHER SARAHSVILLE LAWYERS WILLIAM PRIESTLY-IRWIN G. DUDLEY-HON. WILLIAM H. FRAZIER - WILLIAM C. OKEY-BIOGRAPHIES AND SKETCHES BENJAMIN F. SPRIGGS -- D. S. SPRIGGS JAMES S. FOREMAN-JUDGE D. S. GIBBS-HON, J. M. DALZELL-WILLIAM CHAMBERS -JOHN M. AMOS-MCGINNIS & WEEMS-C. M. WATSON - YOUNG LAWYERS. THE HE first courts of the county were held at Olive, while the question as to the future location of the seat of justice was still unsettled. The earliest existing journal of the court of common pleas opens as follows: "Minutes of a court of common pleas held at the office of Robert McKee in the town of Olive, in the County of Noble, in the State of Ohio. SS: of April 1851, at the office of Robert McKee, in the Town of Olive in the said County of Noble: present, the Hon. William Smith, Gilman Dudley and Patrick Finley, associate judges of said county. 66 Appointment of Clerk.-It is ordered by the court that Isaac Q Morris be appointed clerk of this court until the next term thereof. Thereupon the said Isaac Q. Morris appeared and gave bond according "The State of Ohio, Noble County, to law, and gave the necessary oath Be it remembered that on the first day of April, A. D. 1851, William Smith, Gilman Dudley and Patrick Finley, Esquires, produced commissions from his excellency, Reuben Wood, governor of Ohio, appointing each of them associate judges of the court of common pleas of Noble County; also certificates on their several commissions that they and each of them had taken the oath of allegiance and office. Whereupon a court of common pleas was holden for the County of Noble on the 1st duties, the office being abolished with the adoption of the constitution of 1851-2. At the second term of court in Noble County, which began at Olive on the 19th of June, 1851, Hon. Archibald G. Brown, a judge of the eighth judicial district presided. There were also present the associate judges Smith, Dudley and Finley; the clerk, Isaac Q. Morris, and the sheriff, Joseph C. Schofield. No grand jury was impaneled at this term. The court of common pleas, prior to the establishment of the probate court in 1852, held jurisdiction in probate matters, and during this session a large amount of probate business was transacted. Elections for justices of the peace were ordered in several of the townships of the county. William Reed, Benjamin L. Mott and Benjamin Spriggs were appointed school examiners for the term of three years; Jabez Belford's bond as prosecuting attorney was accepted, and "thereupon appeared in open court,' the said Jabez Belford, and took the requisite oath of office." David Green was appointed administrator of the estate of Clark Green, deceased; James Best, hitherto a subject of Queen Victoria, came forward and declared his intention of becoming a citizen of the United States; Luke S. Dilley, of Sarahsville, and James McCune, of Olive were appointed county auctioneers; two appealed cases were now suited, the plaintiffs being non-residents of the county. The report of the commission locating the county seat was ordered placed on the minutes of the court, and the protests against the action of the commission were filed. These matters, with some probate business occupied the attention of the court during the first day. Court adjourned on Saturday, the 21st of June, after a brief, but busy session. The prosecuting attorney was allowed $25 for his services during the term, and $50 for the next, or November term. Three cases were disposed of: William S. Burt vs. Levi Rahus — an action of assumpsit to recover $85.90 on a promissory note. The defendant confessed judgment, $87.61 and costs. John Liming vs. Absalom Willey; action on an appeal from the Morgan County common pleas court, September term, 1850; for fraudulence in a horse trade. On this case a special jury, the first in Noble County, was impaneled, who found Willey guilty and awarded the plaintiff $13.33 — the costs to be recovered of the defendant. The jury was composed of Benjamin Tilton, Simeon Blake, Samuel Marquis, Jacob Crow, John Mitchell, William Tracy, William J. Young, David McGarry, John McGarry, Dr. David McGarry, W. F. McIntyre, and Jacob Fogle. George Willey vs. James Hellyer and Benjamin Lyons. This was also an appealed case from the Morgan County common pleas court. The action was for trespass, in cutting wheat on the plaintiff's land. The defendants were adjudged not guilty. On the 20th of June at this term of court a certificate of naturalization was granted to John Miller, formerly |