Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Hoadley, George

HOADLEY, George, jurist, b. in New Haven, Conn., 31 July, 1826. His father was at one time mayor of New Haven, and at another Cleveland, Ohio : and his grandfather, who was captain in the Revolutionary war, was afterward elected twenty-six times to the Connecticut legislature. He was educated in Cleveland, whither the family had removed in 1830, and the Western Reserve college, where he was graduated in 1844. He studied at Harvard law-school, and in August, 1847, was admitted to the bar. In 1849 he became a partner in the law-firm of Chase and Ball, and in 1851 was elected a judge of the superior court of Cincinnati, and was city solicitor in 1855. In 1858 he succeeded Judge Gholson on the bench of the new superior court. His friend and partner, Gov. Salmon P. Chase, offered him a seat upon the supreme court bench, which he declined, as he did also in 1862 a similar offer made by Gov. Todd. In 1866 he resigned his place on the superior court, and established the law-firm of which he was the head. He was an active member of the Constitutional convention of 1873-'74, and in October, 1883, was elected governor of Ohio, defeating Joseph B. Foraker, by whom he was in turn defeated in 1885. During the civil war he became a Republican, but in 1876 his opposition to the protective tariff led him to affiliate again with the Democratic party. He was one of the counsel that successfully opposed the project of a compulsory reading of the Bible in the public schools, and was the leading counsel for the assignee and creditors in the case of Archbishop Purcell. He was a professor in the Cincinnati law-school in 1864-'67, and was for many years a trustee of the university. In March, 1887, he removed to New York city and became head of a law firm.