Background
George Tod was born on December 11, 1773 in Suffield, Connecticut. He was the son of David and Rachel (Kent) Tod. His father was an emigrant from Perthshire, Scotland. His brother was John Tod and his son David Tod.
George Tod was born on December 11, 1773 in Suffield, Connecticut. He was the son of David and Rachel (Kent) Tod. His father was an emigrant from Perthshire, Scotland. His brother was John Tod and his son David Tod.
Upon graduating from Yale College in 1795 he entered the Litchfield Law School conducted by Tapping Reeve.
Admitted to the bar in 1797, he began practice in New Haven. In 1800, after a preliminary visit, he removed to Youngstown, Ohio, where he lived until his death.
In August 1800 he was appointed prosecuting attorney of Trumbull County in the Northwest Territory. In the contest that ended in Ohio's statehood he was not active, apparently distrusting the "Republicanism" of the "Chillicothe Junto. " He rose rapidly in the esteem of his neighbors and represented them in the state Senate, 1804-06. In January 1807 he was elected judge of the state supreme court by the legislature, a position he had held since the previous April by an interim appointment.
In 1807 he and Samuel Huntington upheld the decision of a district court declaring unconstitutional an act of the legislature to grant jurisdiction to magistrates in civil suits involving as much as fifty dollars. This was held by the court to impair the right of jury trial. The state legislature, dominated by Jeffersonians, regarded the decision as a challenge. An attempt was made to remove Tod by impeachment, which failed in 1809 by the narrow margin of one vote and established the doctrine of judicial review in Ohio. The next year the legislature removed him by a strictly political maneuver, when his enemies were able to interpret the constitutional provision for a term of seven years as meaning that his term should close on the seventh anniversary of statehood, that is in 1810.
During 1810-12 he served two terms in the state Senate. In the War of 1812 he saw active service in northern Ohio as major of the 19th Infantry and later as lieutenant colonel of the 17th Infantry in the regular army.
In February 1816 he was elected by the legislature as presiding judge of the 3rd district circuit court of appeals, a position he filled with distinction until his retirement to private practice at the end of 1829. Such decisions of his as were printed indicate a lucid, well-trained mind.
It remained for his son David to exploit the coal that underlay the farm. His old age was uneventful, his last political activity being in behalf of the candidacy of Harrison in 1840.
He died at his home "Brier Hill, " near Youngstown.
In politics he was nominally a Jeffersonian and later a Whig but had the conservative inclinations that characterized so many transplanted New Englanders. He took an active interest in the improvement of agricultural methods in the state but was unable to make a financial success of his own farm.
He had a well-trained mind.
On September 18, 1797, he was married to Sarah Isaacs, the daughter of Ralph Isaacs, a Yale graduate and merchant of some means.
He was survived by his widow and five children.