Harrison, Olds and Marsh handled general practice cases and offered Harrison’s expertise on questions of constitutional law. Pictured is the Ohio Supreme Court in session during the 1880s.
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Upon graduation, Harrison immediately settled in London, Ohio. In those days, local attorneys often had their “office” at a desk in the local courthouse.
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HARRISON
ON HORSEBACK
The roads traveled in those days were dirt, usually ungraded, unfenced, and winding between stumps and other obstructions. They were bordered with great forests on both sides. While pleasant to travel during the summertime, such roads were treacherous and almost impassable during the rain and winter.
It was through this terrain that Harrison traveled at the beginning of his legal career. He later recalled:
“In the early history of Ohio, each judicial circuit was composed of many counties, and each county was very large. The lawyers traveled with the president judge of the circuit from county to county, on horse, over wretched roads, a great part of the year, with their papers and books in their ‘saddle-bags’ and some of them not without ‘flasks’ and ‘packs.’ They were often compelled to lodge two-in-a-bed.
A session of a judicial court in a county was of interest to all the inhabitants thereof, and was largely attended by mere spectators. The lawyers were thereby stimulated to do their best, much more than they were by the pittances received from their Clients. There were no stenographers in the times of the early lawyers. Trials were of short duration. The lawyers went straight to the material points in controversy and the fray was soon ended. A trial was not a siege, but a short hand-to-hand contest.”
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