Century Chest Item

John Ludlow Pendery, Attorney - Biography My name is John Ludlow Pendery, born on the 20th day of December 1823, in a log cabin, then situated in Springfield Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, eight miles from Cincinnati, on the banks of Mill Creek. My father's name was Alexandre Pendery, born in 1871 [sic! actually 1781], at Shepardstown, Virginia. Died in 1866 at the ripe old age of 85 years. My mother's name was Mary Ludlow, daughter of William Ludlow. Born on the banks of Mill Creek, in Hamilton County, Ohio, between Carthage and Cincinnati. Her mother came from the Sate of Jersey, in the early days of Cincinnati. William Ludlow my mother's father, was a brother of Israel Ludlow the first Surveyor General of Ohio. His remains were buried in the Presbyterian Church yard situated on the corner of 4th and Main St. Cincinnati, where it still remains. I quote the following from a book published by H.B. Teetor, entitled "Past and Present of Mill Creek Valley." It embraces the Valley between Hamilton and Cincinnati. "The Pendery Family" Among the earliest of these families who followed the pioneers and settled permanently in our neighborhood was the well-known one of Pendery. Their grandfather and father immigrated to the tract still owned by their descendants, in 1805, coming down the Ohio in keelboats lashed together with log-chains. It is worthy of mention that Mrs. Pendery, mother of Israel and Goodloe, was the first female white child born in the present limits of Cincinnati. They settled on a farm of 140 acres of which 40 acres were given to Mr. Thomas Wilmuth." My father was appointed Captain of the first Light Horse Troop in Ohio, by Gov. Morrow, in 1806. My son H.R. Pendery, now attorney at law residing in Leadville, Colo. has the original commission in his possession. My father accumulated 200 acres in all, as constituting the old Pendery homestead. My brothers and sisters were as follows: Ludlow Pendery, Goodloe Pendery, William Pendery, Alexandre Pendery, Findley Pendery, Ralph Pendery, Myself, John L. Pendery, Israel H. Pendery, Martha Pendery, Belle Pendery. Israel H. Pendery, younger than Bell and myself the youngest member of the family and myself are the only ones living. Israel still resides with his family of 6 children on the old homestead, now embraced in the little town of Wyoming. My sister lives at Morrow, Ohio; her name is Mrs. Belle Geopper. I worked upon the farm till I was 18 years of age. At that time my uncle Jas. C. Ludlow, of Cummingsville, Ohio, near Cincinnati, requested my father to allow me to come and live with their family and go to Carey's Academy, on College Hill in the same county. After graduating at Carey's Academy, my uncle Israel Ludlow who lived opposite the foot of 5th St. in Cincinnati on the Kentucky shore of the Ohio River, he being in delicate health and owning 1,000 acres reaching up to Covington, Ky. gave his attention simply to looking after his 1,000 acres and tenants thereon. Whilst I was living with him he advised me to go into the law office of Fox & Lincoln, the leading attorneys of Cincinnati, and study law, going back and forward across on the ferry from our home on that side, I did so daily. After 2 years I went before Judge Noah Swain, afterward one of the Supreme Judges of the United States, who was then one of the Supreme Judges of Ohio, and was examined by him and admitted to the Bar. Subsequent to that I was admitted to the Supreme Court of the United States, and had my certificate as a lawyer from that Court. I remained with Fox & Lincoln on a salary for one year. I then opened an office for myself on 3rd St. between Walnut and Vine in Cincinnati. Judge McClean afterwards on of the Supreme Judges of the United States, who then held Courts on the Circuit, was allotted among other states to Ohio. He married a cousin of mine (A. Ludlow), a widow by the name of Garrard. Her first husband was a distinguished lawyer of Ohio in the early days. About that time he appointed me United States Commissioner. About that time I married Catherine Rockey, I had one child by her, the only child I have living, whose name is Henry Rockey Pendery. He went to Exeter, New Hampshire, which is a preparatory school for Harvard University. He graduated at Harvard in the class of 1873. He now resides at Leadville, and is a lawyer of the firm of Phelps & Pendery. He having 2 children, John M. Pendery and Catherine Pendery. John is a graduate of the School of Mines at Golden in this State, is 25 years of age, was made President of his class, the largest class ever graduated at the School of Mines. I left Ohio in 1857, and came to Leavenworth, Kansas, on a Steamer called D.A. January, owned by a gentleman of that name in St. Louis. I came all the way from Cincinnati to Kansas by river, down the Ohio, up the Mississippi and then up the Missouri… My oldest brother frequently engaged in transporting by flat boats all kinds of produce raised in the North that was used in the South. "The Rosetta Slave Case." During the time that I held the position of United States Commissioner some very interesting cases were brought before me. The Rev. Mr. Dennison was in charge of the Episcopal Church in Louisville at that time. He was a son-in-law of President Tyler. His wife died in Louisville, leaving a little girl about 6 years old. The Rev. Mr. Dennison undertook a trip back to Virginia with his little daughter and a slave servant whose name was Rosetta, about 16 years of age, as nurse. He came by steamer to Cincinnati, took "The Little Miami Railroad" on a Saturday afternoon and arrived at the Neil House in Columbus, Ohio, when he concluded not to travel on the Sabbath day, and remained over until Monday morning, and while at the hotel the friends of the colored people found out that Rosetta was held as a slave, and informed her that she was free unless she concluded to go on into a slave State. In the meantime a Guardian was appointed by her friends, and when Monday morning came and Mr. Dennison proceeded to go on to Virginia he was informed that Rosetta could not go; that a Guardian was appointed for her and that she must remain there. The result was she was arrested by the United States Marshal Sy Robinson, then Editor and owner of the Cincinnati Enquirer, and brought before me asking that she be remanded to her master in Kentucky. Upon a full hearing of the matter under what was known and is known, as the Fugitive Slave Law, which provides "That if a slave should escape from one State into another and the fact be established, they should be returned to their master." After a careful and prolonged hearing with able counsel on both sides, Chase & Jolliff leading attorneys, appeared for Rosetta. Col. Carpenter and other leading attorneys of Ky. appeared for the Master. I decided that a slave held to service and labor in a slave State escaped into a free State, upon proof of the fact, should be remanded to her master, but in this case the master brought her voluntarily into Ohio and it did not come within the Fugitive Slave Law, and as there was no law in Ohio could be invoked to return her, she was therefore free and "Once free forever free." What effect would have taken place if she had returned voluntarily with her master into a slave State, was a question which was held by many distinguished attorneys as a voluntary return into slavery, but not being an escape under the Fugitive Slave Law she therefore could not be returned, and I dismissed the proceedings and let her go free. "The Garner Case" Another important fugitive slave case occurred about that time as follows: Major Gaines, Paymaster in the United States Army was a Kentuckian, lived about 20 miles back from Covington in Kentucky, was the owner of slaves, their name was Garner consisting of himself, wife, 2 children and a sister. Upon a cold winter night with snow on the ground about one foot deep, the slave Garner hitched up his master's 2 horses to a sleigh took himself, wife, sister and children and came to Covington, tied the horses on the bank of the Ohio river which was upon the ice. They were received by their colored friends and secreted by them. The next day Major Gaines pursued them, found the horses on the bank of the river and drove across to Cincinnati, secured a warrant under the Fugitive Slave Law and placed it in the hands of the Marshal who proceeded to execute the writ, and made the arrest in the out-skirts of Cincinnati. In the meantime the wife and mother was advised by friends of the fugitives that if there was an attempt to arrest them and return them to slavery, the best thing she could do was to murder her own child, the little girl, which she did; it created a great excitement. They were all confined in the Hamilton County jail in Cincinnati. The next morning they were brought before me as United States Commissioner to determine the question whether they should be remanded under the Fugitive Slave Law.

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