Samuel A Nash

  General Notes:

GEN: Was educated at Amherst College, but, his father being a man of small means, he had to largely earn his own education, though GEN: he received some little financial aid from his brother Such was his love of books that it is related of him that as a boy when GEN: sent to the field to plow, he would frequently be found in a fence corner buried in his book while the plow stood idle, until GEN: he was aroused from his studies. The love of books and studies was the love of a lifetime; as long as his failing strength in GEN: the last months of his life would permit he read constantly. GEN: After graduating he read law at Amherst for a time with Judge Dickison, then went to Gallipolis, Ohio, to make his home with GEN: his older brother, Simeon, with whom he continued his law studies, meanwhile teaching school at Kyger and Gallipolis until he GEN: was admitted to the bar, when he opened an office in Gallipolis, where he practiced his profession until declining health put GEN: an end to his active labors. GEN: He was elected prosecuting attorney of the county in 1855, and married, in 1856, Ruth H. Early of Virginia, sister of Gen. GEN: Jubal Early. Mr. Nash combined in an almost unqualified degree those qualities that make a lawyer and those powers that make GEN: an orator; was one of the few lawyers who were equally ready and able to present a case to the court or jury. As a trial GEN: lawyer he probably never had an equal in that county or section of the state; he was earnest in argument, keen in his analysis GEN: of the law of a case and his presentation of the evidence to the jury, with rare gifts of eloquence that made him an almost GEN: unequalled advocate. He lacked nothing that was necessary to the orator. His sense of humor was as keen as that of Swift: his GEN: wide and continued reading of the English classics had made him a master of English speech. His memory was wonderfully GEN: retentive. Added to these he was by nature a poet in the highest sense of the word: not a rhymster, but one who had the keen GEN: appreciation of the beautiful, the delicacy of touch, the sensitive nature, that makes poets and orators.

Samuel married Ruth S Early.