Daniel Symmes

Who was Daniel Symmes?

Daniel Symmes was a politician in the U.S. State of Ohio in the Ohio State Senate, an Ohio Supreme Court Judge 1805-1808, Mayor of Cincinnati 1808-1809, and register of the Cincinnati land office.

Daniel Symmes was born at Sussex County, New Jersey. He was a nephew of the pioneer land speculator of southwest Ohio John Cleves Symmes. He was educated at Princeton College, and came west with his family, among the first settlers in the Miami Purchase.

In 1794, he was appointed Hamilton County Sheriff by Territorial Governor Arthur St. Clair. Symmes married Elizabeth Oliver on April 10, 1796 in North Bend, Ohio. Symmes practiced law in Cincinnati, and, in June 1803, he was elected to the first Board of Directors of the first bank established in the State of Ohio, the Miami Exporting Company of Cincinnati. In 1803 he was appointed Prosecuting Attorney for several counties.

Just after statehood, Symmes was elected to represent Hamilton County in the Ohio Senate for the first through third General Assemblies, 1803-1805. In 1805 the Ohio Legislature appointed him a judge of the Ohio Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy created when Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr. resigned