A look into the past at the Tuscarawas County Courthouse
Who were they? It was a question David Hipp, president of the Tuscarawas County Historical Society, wanted to answer.
A few years ago Hipp observed people looking at the photographs of past judges at the Tuscarawas County Courthouse in New Philadelphia and had an idea.
“They didn’t know who they were beyond having their names there, so I decided it might be nice to have biographies for those existing pictures and produce some pictures and biographies for the Juvenile and Probate judges,” Hipp said.
Probate and Juvenile are separate courts but are served by the same judge in the county. Their portraits are located on the second floor of the courthouse. The Common Pleas Court judge photographs are located on the top floor.
For the project the pictures are all of elected judges from around 1850 to present. Prior to 1850 counties were organized in districts with one president judge, who was an attorney, for each district, and each county had three associate judges, who were not attorneys. There were few attorneys at the time, which led to the arrangement. All were appointed to office, not elected.
Hipp found some information in county history books, although for most of the information Hipp looked through old newspaper articles and obituaries to find out about the judges. The project was funded by the Tuscarawas County Historical Society.
Hipp wrote the biographies, and they were framed and placed directly underneath the photo of each judge.
“The first Probate judge, [James Moffett], was a large wool producer in the county. We have a couple of civil war veterans. One was a colonel, and the other was a prisoner of war for some time,” Hipp said. “A lot of them were teachers and superintendents of local schools, back when we had small school districts.”
Many were mayors or other governmental officials; others were business owners or bankers.
Jasper Mitchell seemed to be the most political of the judges, and he would show up anywhere to give a speech. “He once spoke at the first day of school at the Baltic Elementary School,” Hipp said. “Back then speeches were entertainment.”
Mitchell was a graduate of Mount Union College, where he was a classmate of future President William McKinley and future Secretary of State Philander Knox. Mitchell was elected as Probate judge in 1890 and served until 1893. He also served as Common Pleas judge in the early 1900s.
One of the stories uncovered was that of Tuscarawas County Probate Judge Michael V. Ream, who was a leader in trying to have all books printed in the German language in the county destroyed during World War I after his term ended. Ream also was against having the German language taught in schools.
“At the time he arranged for periodic patriotic rallies, and they were sedate sort of things,” Hipp said. “Then Ream kind of took over one of them, and he whipped up a lot of enthusiasm for the movement."
Ream organized a “march from New Philly High School with their band and car after car to the square. He drove in a hearse, and there was a coffin full of all the German books that could be collected. It was set on fire in the town square,” Hipp said. “Hundreds of grade-school kids, standing on the steps of the courthouse, were singing while this was going on, and he got publicity in papers all over the country including California, Texas and New York.”
Judge John W. Yeagley, who was elected as Probate judge in 1884 and served until 1890, promoted the merging of Dover and New Philadelphia. The idea gained little support at the time, and “it never did catch on,” Hipp said.
The Tuscarawas County Courthouse is located on the square of New Philadelphia and is accessible only from Ashwood Lane Northeast. All visitors must go through a security check before entry is allowed.