Joshua Collett
was the presiding common pleas judge in Adams County, Ohio, from March 24, 1824, to March 16, 1829.
He was born in Berkley County, Virginia, November 20, 1781. He obtained a good English education and studied law at Martinsburg, Virginia. At the age of twenty-one, he removed to the Northwest Territory. He stopped at Cincinnati where he remained a year. June, 1803, he removed to Lebanon, Ohio. He was modest, diffident and unassuming, so much so that many predicted he would not succeed as a lawyer. He traveled in Hamilton, Butler, Warren, Clermont, Montgomery, Miami, Greene and Champaign counties and practiced law in each of them. His knowledge of the law and sound judgment made him a successful practitioner. In 1807, he was appointed prosecuting attorney in the judicial circuit in which he resided, and held the office for ten years, when he was succeeded by his pupil, Thomas Corwin. The diligence, integrity and ability with which he discharged his office made him widely known and universally respected. In 1817, he was elected presiding judge of the common pleas and served for seven years and was re-elected. In 1824, Adams County was placed in his district and so continued until he resigned in March, 1829, to accept an election to the office of Supreme Judge. He served one term until April, 1836, and then retired to a farm near Lebanon, where he resided until his death.
In 1836 and in 1840, he was on the Whig electoral ticket and voted each time for General Harrison. He was for seventeen years a member of the Board of Trustees of Miami University and in that time manifested a great interest in the welfare of that institution.
In 1808, he was married to Eliza Van Horne. William R. Collett was his only son and child.
Judge Collett was a member of the Baptist Church. He was benevolent and kind hearted. His integrity was the crowning glory of his life. He died August 25, 1855, and is interred at Lebanon, Ohio.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900