The Champaign County Historical Museum starts a new historical series that takes the perspective of looking forward from the past to the present at locations in Champaign County.
Accompanying this article is a 2020 photo of the house at 302 W. Reynolds St., Urbana, which is located at the northwest corner of South High and West Reynolds streets. This “look forward” is from the perspective of Judge Evan P. Middleton, who was a long-time resident here. He died in this house in 1945 at the age of 91.
Judge Middleton was born on a farm in Wayne Township, Champaign County in 1854. As a young man he was determined to make the law his profession. To that end he and his younger brother Arthur studied the law under the tutelage of General John H. Young. They were admitted to the bar in 1878, and the following year they opened a law office in Urbana.
In 1900 their law office was located at 109 1/2 W. Court St. in Urbana. In 1901 he became Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Second Judicial District of Ohio. He wrote a comprehensive two-volume history of Champaign County that was published in 1917.
