Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Almost without warning death came to United State District Judge Howard C. Hollister.


Cincinnati Enquirer
25 September 1919

In the library of his home, Baker place, on Madison road, at Walnut Hills, a few minutes after 7 o'clock last night. Although not feeling well since his return September 8 from an extended trip with Mrs. Hollister to the Northwest. Judge Hollister did not regard his condition, to b at all serious. He contracted a cold while away, and complained of a difficulty m breathing. Yesterday morning Judge Hollister went to his courtroom and remained until 2:55 o'clock yesterday afternoon. He told his private secretary. Miss Bessie Colling, to phone to Dr. Emmanuel Schwab to make an appointment to see him.

On his way home Judge Hollister saw Dr. Schwab, who gave him a prescription and reassured him. Just before sitting down to dinner with Mrs. Hollister their daughter Evelyn, wife of William Perry, an Indianapolis railroad man, and two sons, John B. and George, Judge Hollister was taken violently. Dr. Schwab was summoned and Dr. Allen Ramsey also was called in. They did all possible, but Judge Hollister did not rally. He was fully conscious when he died. The cause of his death, Dr. Schwab said, was pulmonary oedema, superinduced by heart disease.

Transacts Court Business.
In spite of feeling badly in the morning, Judge Hollister attended to great deal of Count business. His last official act was to postpone the hearing from Saturday to Monday of the cases of Thomas Hammerschraidt and 12 associates, recently convicted of conspiracy to defeat the draft act, and who were seeking a new trial.

Howard K. Hollister, the only one of his children not at home when his father died, is in New York. Howard Clark Hollister was born on Southern avenue, Mt. Auburn, September 11, 1856. His father, George I Hollister, came to Cincinnati from Vermont, and for several years Judge Hollister represented that state on the Board of Governor of the New England Society. The mother of Judge Hollister, Laura Strait Hollister, was a daughter of Thomas J. Strait, one of the most successful of the early lawyers at the Cincinnati bar. He began practice in this city in 1826. On both sides Judge Hollister was of colonial and revolutionary stock. He had three great-grandfathers who were soldiers in the Revolutionary War. In his boyhood Judge Hollister attended the district Intermediate and High schools, he later took a course of preparation for Yale at Orelock Institute, Williamson. Mass., and, after entering Yale, was graduated from that institution in 1878, in the same class with William H. Taft, afterward President of the United States, and the late Judge William L. Dickson, who were friends of his days in the primary schools of Cincinnati. Another close friend was former Judge Rufus B. Smith.

Admitted To Bar in 1880. After studying law in his father's office Judge Hollister went to the Cincinnati Law School and in the spring of 1880 was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of Ohio. He served as Assistant Prosecuting Attorney or Hamilton County In 1881 and 1882. He was elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1893 and re-elected for a second term, serving in all ten years on the Hamilton County Common Pleas bench. At the end of his judicial term Judge Hollister resumed practice of the law with his two brothers, Thomas and Burton P. Hollister. In March, 1910, his lifelong friend, President Taft, appointed Judge Hollister to be United States District Judge to succeed the late Judge Albert Thompson. During his nearly 10 years on the United State bench, Judge Hollister tried many cases, which attracted national attention. He presided at the trial and conviction of President John H. Patterson and other officials of the National Cash Register Company, accused of violation of the provisions of the Sherman anti-trust act. Later the verdict of the jury and rulings of Judge Hollister were reversed and the defendants acquitted. More recently was the Van Tress case. In which Roy Van Tress and his associates of the McAlester Real Estate Exchange, were tried and convicted of conspiracy to misuse the mails to defraud in connection with the sale of Oklahoma lands. Van Tress and his co-defendants were sentenced, but are awaiting the decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals on a new trial.

Fought County Organisation.
Judge Hollister was a strong Republican In national affairs, but (fought the Hamilton County Republican Organisation bitterly at times after his retirement from the Common Pleas bench. He was an elder in Walnut Hills Presbyterian Church and a devout member of that congregation.
Judge Hollister was married June 2 1887 to Miss Alice Keys, daughter of Samuel B. and Julia Baker Keys. The three sons of Judge Hollister entered the military service to their country during the recent war.

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