Ghost Stories: Esquires and congressmen

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s been said that a jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.

George Washington Barrere (1770-1838) had a son who became an attorney, and another son, John Mills Barrere (1800-1880), had a son who also became an attorney.

Both esquires also served terms in Congress.

Nelson Barrere was born April 1, 1808 in a room of the old Barrere Tavern and Inn in New Market, and as a youngster, Nelson attended a log cabin school in New Market and a school in Hillsboro before attending Augusta College, the first Methodist College in Kentucky.

In his early 20s, the son of George Washington and Abigail Mills Barrere graduated from Augusta College with the highest honors in his class and returned to Highland County and began the study of law in the office of Judge John Winston Price in Hillsboro.

Judge Price was born in Hanover County, Virginia and came to Ohio in 1827 and practiced law in Columbus. He moved to Hillsboro in 1831 and practiced law with Gen. Richard Collins until 1834, when he became presiding judge of the common pleas court district of Adams, Brown, Clermont, Highland and Fayette counties and was described as an “honest and faithful judge” who was a “careful and prudent man in business and accumulated a handsome fortune.”

Two days before Christmas of 1833, nearly 182 years ago, Nelson Barrere was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Hillsboro.

Longtime Highland County historian Mrs. Jean Wallis described Nelson Barrere as a “brilliant leader.”

“Such was his strength, skill, literary and legal attainments, that he soon became a most brilliant leader,” Mrs. Wallis said. “His legal methods were original and personal, his mind so evenly balanced and trained that nothing escaped its grasp.”

Mrs. Wallis said that shorthand writing in Nelson Barrere’s day was unknown, yet he had invented a system of unique symbols that represented thoughts, ideas and sometimes facts.

“He never took notes in any case in which he was engaged, but would allow a witness to tell his story in his own way, and with pencil and paper would seem to be drawing ‘pictures’ while others talked, yet every dot and dash, crook or curve was understood by him, and to it he would refer to his plea to the court or jury,” Mrs. Wallis wrote.

“He was familiar with the classics, his scope of words was large and varied, and his understanding of the Greek and Latin languages gave him words for every meaning that he wished to convey.”

In October of 1834, he formed a partnership with Samuel Brush and they opened an office in Adams County. Less than a year after that, Nelson Barrere opened his own office in West Union and practiced law in the county seat of Adams County for a dozen years before returning to Hillsboro.

Nelson Barrere served a term in the Ohio House of Representatives in 1837-38, and later was elected as a Whig to the 32nd U.S. Congress (1851-1853).

“It was said of him that when he was a representative, he was a lawyer without peer in the state,” Historian Elsie Johnson Ayres wrote in her book, “Highland Pioneer Sketches & Family Genealogies.”

“He made himself conspicuous during his term of office by opposing the land swindles at the time being initiated. He defended the action of the committee appointed to investigate the slanders and through his personal efforts was able to clear the name of Sen. Thomas Corwin with reference to what became known as the celebrated ‘Gardner Claims.’”

After his term in the U.S. House of Representatives, Nelson Barrere returned to Hillsboro and ran for governor in 1853.

“Hon. Nelson Barrere had the distinct honor of being the last Whig candidate for Governor of Ohio in 1853,” Mrs. Ayres wrote. “He was defeated by William Medill who was lieutenant governor. Barrere then returned to his lucrative practice in Hillsboro … he was the acknowledged leader of his party at the time.”

Not only was Nelson Barrere the last candidate for governor on the Whig ticket, William Medill would end up being the last Democratic candidate to be elected Ohio governor for the next 20 years.

Nelson Barrere remained a bachelor throughout his long and useful career, and when he was in Hillsboro, he lived with his brother, Benjamin Barrere and his family.

In the 1850s, Nelson Barrere took on yet another project, mentoring his nephew, Granville Barrere, who was born in 1829 and like his uncle, studied at Augusta College in Kentucky before graduating from Marietta College in Ohio.

Young Granville continued his legal studies in Nelson’s law office in Hillsboro, and was admitted to the bar in Chillicothe in 1853. Like his uncle, Granville Barrere would become a top-notch lawyer and would later serve in Congress. But unlike Uncle Nelson, Granville would not call southern Ohio home much longer…

Let’s pause for now and we’ll continue next week.

Steve Roush is a vice president of an international media company and a columnist and contributing writer for The Highland County Press. He can be reached by email at roush_steve@msn.com.