Edmond Stafford Young

As printed in 1909

EDMOND STAFFORD YOUNG.

Edmond Stafford Young, for many years a leading and distinguished member of the Dayton bar, was the eldest son of George Murray Young, (a sketch of whose life precedes) and of Sibel Green, his wife, and was born at Lyme, Grafton county, New Hampshire, February 27, 1827. At the early age of eight he came west with his parents, who had removed from New Hampshire to become residents of Newark, Licking county, Ohio.

While a resident of Newark Mr. Young attended Granville College, (now Denison University) near that city, where he completed his sophomore year in 1845, but his parents having removed to Cincinnati, lie subsequently entered Farmers’ (now Belmont) College at College Hill, from which he was graduated in 1847. This institution, though comparatively small in size, has had among its alumni not a few men of distinguished ability and reputation, and among them Mr. Young was associated as a schoolmate with President Benjamin Harrison, Murat

Halstead and John W. Herron, of Cincinnati, and Hon. L. B. Gunckel and Judge Henderson Elliot, of Dayton.

Soon after leaving college lie began the study of law in the office of Hon. William J. McKinney of Dayton, and subsequently was graduated at the Cincinnati Law School in the year 1853, after which he served for a term as head deputy in the office of the clerk of the courts of Montgomery county, Ohio, an experience which he always considered of great value to him as a lawyer. After entering the practice of the law he became associated successively with George W. Brown, Hon. David A. Honk and Oscar M. Gottschall, his relation with the latter continuing from 1866 to 1879. In the spring of 1878 Mr. Young’s eldest son, George R. Young, was admitted to the firm, which, under the name of Young, Gottschall & Young, continued for a year, at the end of which period Mr. Gottschall retired. Mr. Young and his son subsequently remained together in the practice under the name of Young & Young until his death in the year 1888.

In September, 1856, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Mr. Young married Sarah B. Dechert, a daughter of Elijah Dechert, a leading lawyer of Reading, Pennsylvania, who was a son of Captain Peter Dechert, a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Young’s mother, Mary Porter Dechert, was a daughter of Judge Robert Porter, also of Reading, Pennsylvania, who sat for more than twenty years on the bench in that city and who was descended from Robert Porter, a native of Ireland, who emigrated to Londonderry, New Hampshire, and afterward removed to Montgomery county, Philadelphia, where he resided until his death. His most prominent and successful son, Mrs. Young’s great-great-grandfather, was General Andrew Porter, who was a prominent Revolutionary officer and a close personal friend and associate of Washington. After the close of the war he was commissioned major-general of militia of Pennsylvania, and he was subsequently tendered the position of secretary of war by President Madison, but declined the honor. His son, Judge Robert Porter, while still a mere youth but eleven years of age, served with his father in the army and having been commissioned lieutenant of artillery was probably the youngest soldier and officer in the colonial service. Both General Andrew Porter and his son, Judge Robert Porter, were members of the Order of the Cincinnati, an honor which has passed to their descendants and a detailed sketch of their lives is published in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. IV, No. 3, published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Young is now one of the oldest members of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

When the Civil war broke out Edmond Stafford Young firmly espoused the Union cause and became a stanch supporter of President Lincoln’s administration. On October 16, 1861, a military committee was appointed by the governor of Ohio, to which was given charge and control of all recruiting and organization and of military matters generally in Montgomery county. Mr. Young served as chairman of this committee, and he was thus closely identified with the organization and enlistment of practically all the regiments raised in Dayton and its vicinity. In the fall of 1861 he was one of the “Squirrel Hunters" so called, who rallied to the defense of Cincinnati when that city was threatened by the Confederates under General Kirby Smith, and later he was appointed by Governor Brough commissioner of the draft for Montgomery county and made the largest draft in the state.

As printed in History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio (1909). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.