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426 HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
We cannot omit from our consideration of the bench of Erie County
the justices of the peace that have at various times dignified the ermine
and furnished amusement to the bar.
Who can forget the resplendent proboscis of old Jacob Schnell, AVIIO
on one occasion in a democratic convention, Avhile slightly under the
weather, moved to make a certain nomination '' umonious;" or the once
justice of the peace AVIIO on reading a replevin affidavit to a soiled dove
who Avas trying to replevin her trunk from her landlady, on reading
the affidavit and coining to the election that the property Avas not taken
from her by mesne or final process, read the word mesne '' menses.'' Or
old Justice J. B. Keyes, who on one occasion refused to follow the unanimous
decision of the Supreme Court on the theory that they were men
like himself and liable to be mistaken as to the law. There was a certainty
to the law in those days. There Avere three justices of the peace
in Sandusky, and if you kneAv the justice of the peace before whom the
case came and the lawyers on either side, you could predict the result
with unerring certainty, Avithout knowing anything of the facts of the
case.
One of the characters of the Erie County bar in the '70s and '80s
Avas Gottleib Strobel, who was at one time justice of the peace and performed
several more or less amusing stunts, perhaps the most amusing
one of which Avas his granting a divorce Avhen he Avas justice of the peace
for a period of three months to a man named William Frederick Scheuttenhelm,
a full account of which is set forth in the Register for April
24, 1874. On one occasion, after he ceased being justice of the peace,
he defended some petty criminal before Lloyd DeWitt, AVTIO was then
mayor and Avhose office Avas then on the second floor of the Cooke Block.
Strobel demanded a jury for his client, and for a couple of hours
carried laAV books until he had a long table covered with legal literature.
After the case Avas called and the jury empaneled the prisoner arose, and
with tears in his eyes, besought the court not to let Strobel try* his case,
as he had employed another laAA'yer and believed that if Strobel defended
him he Avould surely be convicted. The other lawyer forthwith appeared
and proceeded to try the case, and Chief Justice Strobel proceeded to
rend the air Avith nine-syllable German oaths for a long period of time.
Eleutheros Cooke Avas the first lawyer that ever came to Sandusky,
Avhere he resided from 1820 to 1864. He did not hold the record for
long-distance talking but on one occasion before a justice he talked sixteen
hours. He had considerable reputation for oratory, and some Avit.
In the course of his dealings he once sold a buijding lot deficient in
depth from front to rear. The purchaser complained and demanded a
revocation of the bargain. "Not deep enough?" said Cooke. "Why,
my dear sir, you have a clear title from the center of the earth to the
highest heaven." He must have had considerable library for that day,
Avhen it is considered that there AA'as only one volume of the Ohio Rcports%
published, for he advertises in an early issue of the Clarion that people
around toAvn have fifty-three of his laAV books, and he Avants them