Aaron A. Ferris
Aaron A. Ferris, for thirty-eight years a member of the Hamilton County Bar and long since accorded a position of distinction as a practitioner before the courts in Cincinnati, was born in Delaware, Ohio, November 8, 1845. He is descended in both the paternal and maternal lines from early families of Connecticut, the Ferris family being represented in that colony in 1697. Closely associated with colonial affairs, representatives of the name afterward held official rank in the Revolutionary war. The grandfather, Aaron G. Ferris, was an adjutant of the Second Vermont Regiment by appointment of Govern Isaac Tichenor in 1806. The great-grandfather of Mr. Ferris on the maternal side was Rev. Thomas Brockway, a native of Connecticut, and a graduate of Yale College of the class of 1768, who afterward served as a chaplain in the Revolutionary army. The father, Heman Ferris, a native of Sandgate, Vermont, engaged in teaching school in early manhood in Geneseo and Lima, New York, and at the time of his death was proprietor of a book store in Delaware, Ohio, having removed westward to this state about 1834. He was a leading abolitionist previous to the Civil war and also bore the reputation of being an expert mathematician. He married Maria E. Skinner, who was born in Geneseo, New York and was there married. Her father, a native of Connecticut, was a captain in the war of 1812.
Aaron A. Ferris supplemented his early education by study in Marietta College, from which he was graduated with salutatorian honors in 1871, and later his alma mater conferred upon him the Master of the Arts degree in recognition of successful work done in professional lines. As a lad he had learned the printer’s trade in the office of the Tribune at Marysville, Ohio, and for six months following his graduation from college engaged in teaching school. He regards this, however, merely as an initial step to other professional labor an after successfully preparing for the bar was admitted to practice in 1873 by the district court of Hamilton county. He has since been active in practice in Cincinnati, devoting almost undivided attention to his profession in which he has won honor and success. As a lawyer he is sound, clear-minded and well trained. He is at home in all departments of the law from the minutiae in practice to the greater topics wherein is involved the consideration of the ethics and the philosophy of jurisprudence and the higher concerns of public policy. Felicitous and clear in argument, thoroughly in earnest, full of vigor of conviction, never abusive of his adversaries and imbued with the highest courtesy, he is yet a foe worthy of the steel of the most able opponent. His clientage is now of an extensive and important character, indicating his high position at the bar.
On the 7th of March 1894, in Cincinnati, Mr. Ferris was married to Miss Sarah E. Guthrie, a daughter of William W. and Elizabeth (Ivester) Guthrie. Her ancestors in the paternal line were distinguished soldiers of the Revolutionary war and she had four brothers who served with credit and honor in the Civil war and a nephew who defended the American interests in the Spanish-American war. Mr. and Mrs. Ferris hold membership in Christ Episcopal church in Cincinnati in which he is serving as vestryman. He is also a member of the Episcopal Church Club and of various other organizations for intellectual stimulus or social intercourse. His name is on the membership rolls of the Literary Club, The Cincinnati Bar Association, the State Bar Association and the American Bar Association, and in college he became a member of a Greek letter fraternity and he belongs to the Phil Beta Kappa. He is a life member of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society. He has written frequently for the newspaper press, for law magazines and different associations and clubs, on topics and questions of the day. An article contributed to the North American Review, which appeared in the December number, 1880, of that magazine, defending the constitutionality of the emancipation proclamation attracted wide attention and comment at the time and was characteristic of the writer. His political allegiance is given to the republican party in national politics but he is not in full sympathy with the organization on the tariff questions. Moreover he is opposed most emphatically to modern-day methods of boss domination and has taken an active part from time to time in reform movements in this city, standing with that progressive element which is seeking to bring about the wholesome improvements in the political as well as intellectual and moral fabric of the commonwealth. In this he combines the intensely practical with high ideality.
From Cincinnati, The Queen City, Volume III, by Rev. Charles Frederic Goss, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912