Jones Geneaology Report 2024.02.18 - Person Sheet
Jones Geneaology Report 2024.02.18 - Person Sheet
NameVirgil Schaeffer
Birth4 Jul 1888
Death11 Jun 1958
BurialWoodland Cemetery And Arboretum, Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio
OccupationLawyer
Misc. Notes
From Find a Grave contributor Angie H:
Virgil Schaeffer was a member of Pickrel, Schaeffer & Ebeling, Dayton’s second largest law firm in 1940 and the largest in the 1950s. Before joining the firm in 1932, he had been a solo practitioner in Dayton since his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1914.
He developed a reputation as an outstanding real estate and probate lawyer. He was a clear and careful writer and a hard office taskmaster who, out of the office, was a genial host at the large farm near Germantown where he spent his leisure time.
The firm used Pickrel’s political base to take advantage of Depression legislation designed to stimulate savings and home construction and ownership. In 1934, before the legislation was public, Schaeffer was putting together Citizen’s Federal Savings & Loan Association, which flourished under his guidance for the rest of his career. He also provided counsel for White-Allen Chevrolet which started in the depths of the Depression.
In 1952 he adopted the concept that would keep traditional legal business of real estate title work and closings in the hands of lawyers by having lawyers own and manage their own title insurance company. When the Ohio Bar Title Insurance Company was chartered in 1955, Virgil Schaeffer was its first president.
In the 1920s the Pickrel firm focused its practice on taxes and collection work and, in its collection department, pioneered the use of non-legal personnel as part of the firm’s staff. In the 1930s, this concept expanded into the insurance defense field when it hired non-lawyer claims adjusters to aid in investigating and adjusting insurance claims as a supplement to the trial lawyers who could take the claims to court.
Schaeffer died in 1958 after being robbed and attacked by an anonymous assailant while attending a meeting in Chicago.
Source:
Sluff of History’s Boot Soles
An Anecdotal History of Dayton’s Bench and Bar
By David C. Greer
Virgil Schaeffer was a member of Pickrel, Schaeffer & Ebeling, Dayton’s second largest law firm in 1940 and the largest in the 1950s. Before joining the firm in 1932, he had been a solo practitioner in Dayton since his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1914.
He developed a reputation as an outstanding real estate and probate lawyer. He was a clear and careful writer and a hard office taskmaster who, out of the office, was a genial host at the large farm near Germantown where he spent his leisure time.
The firm used Pickrel’s political base to take advantage of Depression legislation designed to stimulate savings and home construction and ownership. In 1934, before the legislation was public, Schaeffer was putting together Citizen’s Federal Savings & Loan Association, which flourished under his guidance for the rest of his career. He also provided counsel for White-Allen Chevrolet which started in the depths of the Depression.
In 1952 he adopted the concept that would keep traditional legal business of real estate title work and closings in the hands of lawyers by having lawyers own and manage their own title insurance company. When the Ohio Bar Title Insurance Company was chartered in 1955, Virgil Schaeffer was its first president.
In the 1920s the Pickrel firm focused its practice on taxes and collection work and, in its collection department, pioneered the use of non-legal personnel as part of the firm’s staff. In the 1930s, this concept expanded into the insurance defense field when it hired non-lawyer claims adjusters to aid in investigating and adjusting insurance claims as a supplement to the trial lawyers who could take the claims to court.
Schaeffer died in 1958 after being robbed and attacked by an anonymous assailant while attending a meeting in Chicago.
Source:
Sluff of History’s Boot Soles
An Anecdotal History of Dayton’s Bench and Bar
By David C. Greer
Spouses
Birth22 Mar 1892, Germantown, Montgomery, Ohio
Death26 Nov 1962, Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio
BurialWoodland Cemetery And Arboretum, Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio
FatherHarry A. Stutson (1862-1913)
MotherJessie May Allen (1866-1929)