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BELLAMY STORER, LL. D.
FOR more than half a century that stately form,
that grand face of human kindness and sympathy, were seen among us. From
his advent here in 1817 till the day of his death, June 1, 1875, Judge
Bellamy Storer was a positive quantity in the business, moral, social,
and political world of Cincinnati. In the pride and strength of his
manhood he had selected the young city on the Ohio as his future home,
and as time sped on, and the place grew into a vast metropolis,
throbbing with the pulsations of commerce, and his personal successes
multiplied, his love increased, and he was heart and soul in favor of
every thing tending to the advancement of our material interests. The
history of this excellent man, able lawyer, and profound jurist, before
his arrival here, can be easily told.
Born in Portland, Maine, March 26, 1796, at the
very early age of thirteen he entered Bowdoin College; after graduating,
studying law in Boston under Chief-justice Parker, being admitted in
1817, and almost immediately afterward coming to Cincinnati. The young
lawyer's success was phenomenal.; people quickly learned to know, like,
and have confidence in him. He was upon one side or the other of almost
every important case, having as legal opponents such men as Tom Corwin,
Bob Schenck, Toni Ewing, Hocking Hunter, Henry Stansbury, James W.
Gazlay, Nathaniel Wright, David K. Este, Timothy Walker, Nicholas
Longworth, N. G. Pendleton, 0. M. Spencer, Rufus King, W. Y. Gholson,
and other distinguished men, and yet Bellamy Storer, either young or
old, was the peer of any of them. He read incessantly, storing his mind
with vast resources of information. Never forgetting a single thing he
had read, he always had his knowledge at his fingers' end, being able
without hesitation to tell the author, book, and even the page of any
authority needed. His memory was simply marvelous, and rare indeed were
the instances when any lawyer would question the correctness of his
statements. So exact in this particular was he known to be, that his
mere assertion was taken as good. law.
Notwithstanding his immense practice, Storer
rendered great service to the Whig and Republican parties, with which he
always affiliated. Although Cincinnati was a strong Democratic city, and
that party had General Robert T. Lytle, one of its ablest and most
popular leaders, as a candidate, yet he was defeated for Congress in
1834 by Bellamy Storer. After his term of service at Washington, Judge
Storer was a Whig elector in 1844; a candidate for Supreme Judge of Ohio
in 1852, but defeated; elected judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati
in 1854, with Oliver M. Spencer and W. Y. Gholson, in which position he
continued by re-election until he resigned in 1872, from which time till
his death he was a counselor-at-law, the latter part of the time having
associated with him his son, Bellamy Storer, Jr.
Storer was an intensely positive man, had full
confidence in his own judgment, and yet could always make allowance for
those who differed with him. He knew that all men could not examine any
question from the same stand-point, and being thus clear in his views,
rarely made enemies of those who by chance found it their duty to be on
the side opposed to him.
Fully appreciating his own superiority, and with a
certain indescribable pride or haughtiness, he was nevertheless the
friend, counselor, and idol of the poorer classes; and such were his
ideas of true manhood, had he been walking with Henry Clay, his idol, he
would have cheerfully left him to speak a kind word to a laborer upon
the street, whom he happened to know.
In personal appearance Bellamy Storer was grand,
tall, and commanding in person, with a large and well-balanced head. The
late Senator George E.. Pugh, and many others, often remarked that
"Judge Storer always reminded them of the portraits of
Washington."
While a great advocate, ever zealous in behalf of
his clients; for whom he made and saved numberless fortunes, he was far
from as attentive to his own financial condition, and we do not believe
that he ever once thought of trying to become wealthy. His heart and
purse were always in his hand, and it would have been a moral
impossibility for him to have refused an appeal for charity. Judge
Storer was for many years a member and officer of 'Christ Episcopal
Church on Fourth Street, in this city, where he was greatly beloved by
all. He also took a very deep interest in educational matters, being one
of the advocates for the passage of the first school law, and was
afterward, for many years, president of the board of education. During
the rebellion, and when nearly seventy years of age, Judge Storer
shouldered his rifle and did duty on the fortifications back of
Covington, at the time General Kirby Smith was attempting to capture
Cincinnati, and during that entire war Judge Storer never faltered for
an instant in his devotion to his country. He has passed away, but his
good deeds and good works will remain
forever. DE
B.
Source: In Memoriam
Cincinnati 1881, Cincinnati, A. E. Jones, Publisher, 1881.
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