Wilbur Conover was born on 10. May. 1821 at Ohio. He was the son of
Obadiah Burlew Conover and
Sarah Miller. Wilbur Conover married
Elizabeth Walker Dickson, daughter of
John W. Dickson and
Lucretia (Unknown), on 11. Sep. 1849.
Wilbur Conover appeared on the census of 13. Jul. 1870 at Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio; real estate value 15,000.00 personal property 2,000.00. He was an attorney at law on 13. Jul. 1870. He was a lawyer on 5. Jun. 1880.
Wilbur Conover appeared on the census of 5. Jun. 1880 at Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio; a widower. He died on 3. Oct. 1881 at Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio, at age 60. WILBUR CONOVER, late a member of the Montgomery county, Ohio, bar, was born in Dayton, Ohio, May 10, 1821, and died October 3, 1881.
He was the son of Obadiah B. and Sarah (Miller) Conover, and was of Dutch extraction, his paternal ancestors having come from Holland to this country in the seventeenth century.
Mr. Conover was married in 1849 to Miss Elizabeth Walker Dickson, a daughter of John W. and Lucretia Dickson, born in Philadelphia in 1828, and who died at Dayton September 27, 1868. The children of this marriage were as follows : Mary, the eldest, who in 1883 married Dr. W. H. Grundy, of Dayton, and died in 1887, leaving one child, a daughter, Suzette K. Grundy ; Frank ; John Dickson, who died in 1859, at the age of two years ; Hugh Dickson, who died in 1891 in his thirty-second year ; and Hiram Strong, who died in 1868 in his second year.
Wilbur Conover grew to manhood in his native town, and in 1837, after a course for preparation for college under the tuition of E. E. Barney, at the Dayton academy, he entered the sophomore class at the Miami university, Oxford, Ohio, and graduated from that institution in 1840. He at once entered upon the study of law with the firm of Odlin & Schenck, and was admitted to the bar in 1842. From 1844 to 1850 :se practiced law in partnership with Robert C. Schenck, his former preceptor. Almost immediately upon the termination of this partnership by reason of the entrance of General Schenck into public life, Mr. Conover formed a partnership with Samuel Craighead in 1857, and this firm continued until 1877, when it was dissolved by the retirement of Mr. Conover, caused by broken health.
The firm of Conover & Craighead was, at the date of its termination, the oldest law firm in continuous existence in Ohio. It had become prominent at the Ohio bar, having established a large and important practice. Mr. Conover was peculiarly adapted to the laborious work of the office, involving the preparation of cases and the determination of legal questions; while Mr. Craighead was one of the most eloquent and successful trial advocates ever known at the local bar. The union of the differing qualities and professional gifts of the two men resulted in a harmonious and successful association.
Mr. Conover was devoted to his profession, steadily refusing to enter public office, excepting that for a number of years he served upon the board of education of Dayton and gave especial attention to the upbuilding of the public library, which was during that period under the control of the board. This work had a peculiar attraction for him, his interest in the library having been early manifested through his connection with the Dayton Library association, the forerunner of the public library, and of which he was one of the founders and an active officer from its inception until it was merged into the public institution.
Mr. Conover's mental endowments and his personal characteristics cannot better be described than by repeating here a part of the tribute to his name adopted by the members of his profession at the time of his death. The memorial of the Dayton bar said in part:
"Mr. Conover possessed all the qualifications of an excellent lawyer, and was peculiarly fitted for the high office of judge. He was diligent, painstaking and strictly conscientious, accurate and clear in his perceptive faculties. He was too independent and candid, and, one may add, too modest, to be a successful aspirant for popular favor. He never concealed his honest convictions on any subject, and never sacrificed or compromised them for the sake of popularity. His opinions as a lawyer were regarded with deserved confidence, as well by the community as by the profession; and his business life seemed to illustrate the lofty sense of duty united with a sincere devotion to his profession. So long as he lived he never tarnished the achievement of professional success by personal self-seeking, or that unworthy rivalry that finds its own advancement in the depreciation of others. He esteemed that professional eminence only as worthy of attainment which is deserved by an honorable, judicious, intelligent, truthful devotion to the interests and cause of a client.''
From the appreciative analysis of Mr. Conover's character contributed to the press at the time of his death, by his life-long friend, Robert W. Steele, we quote the following as an expression of the estimation in which he was held by one who knew him intimately from early boyhood until his death. Mr. Steele says:
"Mr. Conover was endowed with an unusually clear, analytical mind, which, with his love of study and industry, made him the best scholar in his class. So great was his proficiency in Greek, that the professor of that language, in justice to him, used to read with him, privately, additional Greek authors which the majority of the class were unwilling or unable to master. Thoroughness was his distinguishing quality as a student, and he never left a subject until he reached the bottom of it. Truthfulness and purity characterized him throughout his college course, and in all of my intercourse with him, I never heard him utter an unworthy or impure word.
"His later life was a fitting fulfillment of the bright promise .of his college days. He occupied no official positions, because he never sought nor would accept them. He devoted himself wholly to his profession and worthily won the high position he attained as a lawyer."
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