History of Carroll and Harrison Counties, Ohio, Part 1

Author: H. J. Eckley, William T. Perry
Publication date: 1921
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 678

USA > Ohio > Harrison County > History of Carroll and Harrison Counties, Ohio > Part 1
USA > Ohio > Carroll County > History of Carroll and Harrison Counties, Ohio > Part 1

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CARROLL AND HARRISON

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History of

Carroll and Harrison Counties, Ohio

Under the Editorial Supervision of JUDGE H. J. ECKLEY, for Carroll County and JUDGE WM. T. PERRY, for Harrison County

Assisted by a Board of Advisory Editors

ILLUSTRATED

VOLUME II

THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1921

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BIOGRAPHICAL

HON. RUPERT BEETHAM, president of the Fourth National Bank of Cadiz, and representa- tive from Harrison County, has been closely identified with the business and civic affairs of Harrison County for twenty years, having lo- cated in Cadiz in September of 1900. He was born at Greensburg, Trumbull County, Ohio, on August 29, 1877, and is the son of the Rev. John and Mary (Rennison) Beetham, natives of northern England, who came to America in 1867.

Rev. John Beetham was a member first of the Erie Conference and later the East Ohio, that finally merged into the North-East Ohio Con- ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He served many pastorates during his more than thirty years of active ministry, namely, North Jackson, Windom, Talmadge, Bedford. Niles, Hopedale, Gnadenhutten, West Lafayette. Lees- ville, Vienna, Jewett, Canton, Thompson and Somerton. He was a strong and vigorous preacher, and in the majority of his appoint- ments he served the time limit for pastors then in vogue. He came of a family of musicians and was himself a noted singer as well as being accomplished on the piano, pipe organ, violin, cello and flute. His "ditties" like "Mary and Martha" and "The Spider and the Fly" were great favorites wherever he resided. Mary Ren- nison Beetham, though the mother of seven children, was always active in church work, and was one of the district officials of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society for many years. She was declared, by one of the prominent Meth- odist ministers to be "a gifted woman, of keen intellect, remarkable memory, and an eloquent speaker."

To Rev. John and Mary Beetham were born the following children: Mrs. Mary W. Mohn, Uhrichsville, Ohio; John S., supervisor of agents, Lake Shore Railroad, Cleveland, Ohio; William N., superintendent of schools, Wellsburg, West Virginia ; Alfred C., a practicing physician of Bellaire, Ohio; R. Emory, pastor of the Oakland Methodist Church, Shenley Park, Pittsburg; Ru- pert Rennison, the subject; Charles S., of Jew- ett, Ohio, traveling salesman for the Twin City Grocery Company. Thus seven members of the family, all born in different towns, chose differ- ent vocations and located in different places. Rev. Beetham died at Jewett in December, 1905, the mother having died at the same place in Oc- tober, 1890. Both are buried at Gnadenhutten Ohio.

Rupert Beetham as a boy attended the various schools where his father was located in his ministry. He completed his high school course at Canton after spending one year at Scio College, and later completed his law course at the Ohio State University, paying his own way from money earned in teaching school in Short Creek Township, this county, during the winters

of 1917-19. In school he was ever an active member-always taking part in the literary societies, the debating teams, the baseball, foot- ball and track teams. He played football two years at Canton High School and one year at Ohio State, and was never on the losing side of a contest in this sport. He received a num- ber of medals for track victories while in high school and there made records of twenty feet for the broad jump and over forty feet for the hop, step and jump. He played baseball for many years and was a member of the Scio College team of 1895 that went through the season with seventeen victories.

He was admitted to the bar in 1900 and immediately entered upon the practice of the profession in Cadiz in partnership with Judge W. T. Perry. In the same month-September- he was married to Crete Mclaughlin, of Short Creek Township. As a candidate for prosecut- ing attorney in 1905 he was defeated by E. S. McNamee. In December, 1905. he was appointed postmaster of Cadiz by President Roosevelt, upon the recommendation of Congressman Weems, though the appointment was withont solicitation on the part of Mr. Beetham. He was re-appointed by President Taft in 1910, and served until April 1, 1914. During his term of office city delivery was established, the postoffice moved into new quarters, and an additional rural route added to the office. In August, 1914, he was nominated for representative by the republicans and elected by a majority of about 600; two years later he was re-elected, and in 1918, elected for a third term, he had a ma- jority of over 1,000, while in 1920, elected for the fourth time, he had a majority of nearly 2,500, woman suffrage increasing the county vote.

It is as a representative that Mr. Beetham is most widely known. Always a hard worker in the Assembly, he became one of the best posted members of that body and few measures were ever before it that he could not give an inquiring member information thereon. In his third term he was elected speaker pro tem and republican floor-leader. The Ohio State Journal, commenting on the caucus, stated : "Mr. Beetham became the almost unanimous choice of his colleagues for speaker pro tem and majority floor-leader, though he was not a candidate for. the position. Many voted against him for speaker because they wanted to see him in the other position. He is the logical man for floor leader, having a good voice, command of language and being a ready debater." His task as floor-leader was a difficult one by reason of the fact that the governor and the Assembly were of different political parties. Many times strife ran high when matters of great import- ance were before the Assembly. and the division of the tax schools added to the party division,

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making the task an unusually hard one. One paper in commenting on the situation stated : "Beetham is a man of action. When the time comes to move he is for going. He is aggres- sive." When the ratification of the dry amend- ment of the Federal Constitution was before the House the wet leaders sought to delay action, but the result is described editorially by the Martins Ferry Times: "Obstructionists methods were squelched under the able leader- ship of Representative Beetham of Cadiz, floor leader of the Republican majority, and long before the sun waned ratification had been formally recorded. Harrison County and the state at large have just cause today to con- gratulate Representative Beetham to whom the public at large owes a debt of gratitude." The Legislative reporter at the close of his stormy Session commented upon Mr. Beetham's work as follows: "Representative Beetham of Harri- sou County is the recipient of unusual praise and favorable comment as the result of his work as Republican floor leader of the House.

. * .* This season closes with Beetham possessing the liking, confidence and esteem of the House, every newspaper man and every employee. He is not a large man physically, but otherwise he is large. He is quiet. cour- teous and square. Beetham was a good floor leader. He would make a good senator, or a good member of Congress." The Steubenville Herald-Star stated : "Mr. Beetham was the re- publican floor leader of the House during the last session and showed himself to be masterly in that capacity."

At the republican party caucus held in Co- lumbus on December 15, 1920, Representative Beetham was, without opposition, chosen the party candidate for speaker of the House, and on January 3d following was elected to fill that .place. The press of the state commended the selection. The Cleveland Leader stated "that .with his selection the party has started to carry out an efficiency program." The Ohio State Journal commended some of the Speaker's proposed innovations in the Assembly, among them being the shifting committee to be estab- lished with a view of eliminating useless, silly and duplicated bills, and editorially stated : ."This committee probably would do the state .more actual service than any other standing .committee * We are for it." The Cleveland Plaindealer stated "that the new Speaker had given his doctrine that the 'way .to be a good republican is to be a good citizen,' .and the way to 'play politics' is to perform the . . task assigned us." The Uhrichsville Chronicle .stated : "He has become so well and favorably known throughout the state that he stands in the front ranks of Ohio republicanism, and it is not all an unreasonable prediction that within the next few years he is likely to be governor of the Buckeye State."

Senator Harding had an early booster in Mr. Beetham. It was while floor leader in January, 1920, that he introduced the resolution inviting Senator Harding to address the Assembly on Roosevelt's birthday. This address was widely distributed. At the early meeting of republi- cans in Steubenville Mr. Beetham declared that "Harding will make a great president. He will

not attempt to do it all, but will gather about him one of the greatest of cabinets." Three times during the campaign he was a visitor at Marion.

Rupert Beetham has been a member of the Cadiz Board of Education since his election in 1904, and has always taken a keen interest in the school management. He has served as a director of the Chautauqua Association since its organization, and been the platform manager since 1914. When the Red Cross was organized in 1917 he was elected the chairman, and in 1919 was chairman of the drive for the Salva- tion Army.

"Methodist born and Methodist bred" Mr. Beetham has been a member of the Official Board of the Cadiz Methodist Church since com- ing to Cadiz. He has served as church treas- urer, Sunday school teacher and superintendent. In 1908 he was an alternate delegate of the East Ohio Conference to the General Conference held in Baltimore, and in 1912 attended the General Conference in Minneapolis as a delegate.

After serving several years as a director of the Fourth National Bank he was in January, 1918, elected president of the institution and has since given his time to this bank, though he still owns and operates his farm in Short Creek Township.

In September of 1900 Mr. Beetham was united in marriage to Miss Crete H. Mclaughlin, daughter of Hon. Samuel K. and Belle (Snyder) Mclaughlin, of Short Creek Township. Mrs. Crete Beetham was educated in the country school near Hurford and the Hopedale Normal College. She was a lady of admirable traits of character, being known among her friends as one unusually kind. She died on August 28, 1918, leaving four children, namely; Mary Isa- belle, now a sophomore at Ohio Wesleyan Uni- versity ; Samuel Mclaughlin, a senior in high school ; Rupert Rennison, Jr., and Charles Jonn.

HON. DAVID ADAMS HOLLINGSWORTH. One of the notable men of Ohio in the present genera- tion is David A. Hollingsworth, lawyer and statesman, of Cadiz, who has won an enviable 'place in the annals of the state and now, after his long, active and useful public career, enjoys the full confidence and esteem of his fellow citi- zens in business and private life.

Mr. Hollingsworth is a native son of Ohio and is descended from a family which has been iden- tifled with the history of the country since pre- Revolutionary days, and through succeeding generations has played useful and ofter impor- tant part in the nation's affairs, and has fur- nished soldiers for every war in which the colo- nies and the United States have been engaged. The family line of descent, briefly, is as follows : (1) Valentine, Sr .; (2) Thomas; (3) Thomas; (4) Thomas; (5) Levi; (6) Elihu; (7) David A.

The original American ancestor, Valentine, Sr., was born in Cheshire, England, of Saxon stock, about 1630 to 1640, and married (first) Catherine, daughter of Henry Cornish, High sheriff of London; his second marriage was with Ann Calvert, a near relative of Cecilius Calvert (Lord Baltimore). Valentine, Sr., came from England with William Penn in the good ship "Welcome" in 1682, and in the same year be

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RESIDENCE OF DAVID A. HOLLINGSWORTH

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established his family-seat on the west side of the Brandywine, in New Castle County, Dela- ware. He was prominent in his county, and was its representative in the Assembly in 1683, 1687 and 1695.

Levi Hollingsworth, son of Thomas (4), was probably the first of the family to settle in Ohio. He was born in April, 1764, and on May 28, 1789, he was married to Mary Harry in Friends Meeting at Kennet, Pennsylvania. He removed to near Flushing, Belmont County, Ohio, in 1804, and died there on June 11, 1829. Elihu Hollingsworth, son of Levi, was born at Flushing, Ohio, on January 12, 1813, and died on November 17, 1897. He married on July 11, 1839, Lydia Ann Fisher, who was born in Vir- ginia and was descended from early American immigrants of a distinguished German family. Her father, Barak Fisher, was born in October, 1766. and died in Virginia on December 3. 1831. He was an influential land owner in Virginia, but was unalterably opposed to the institution of slavery, and always cultivated his plantation with free labor. After his death his widow, Rhoda, removed with her five children to Bel- mont County, Ohio.

David A. Hollingsworth, son of Elihu, was born at Belmont, Ohio, on November 21. 1844. His boyhood days were spent under the parental roof at Flushing, Ohio, dividing his time when old enough between school and assisting in his father's store. In his sixteenth year, though under lawful military age, young Hollingsworth enlisted in 1861 in Company B, Twenty-Fifth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and saw about two years of hard service as a private soldier. He was then honorably discharged on surgeon's certificate of disability and returned home, but soon afterward was commissioned a lieutenant in the Ohio State Militia by Governor Tod, and was for a time engaged in drilling and preparing reserve state forces for active field duty. Later he entered Mount Union College, where he prepared himself to begin reading law. He was admitted to the Ohio bar September 17, 1867, and in March, 1880, was admitted to prac- tice before the Supreme Court of the United States. He entered the practice of law at Flush- ing, of which. town he was soon afterward elected mayor. He located in Cadiz in 1869, and since that time has been engaged in the practice of his profession in Harrison and adjoining counties, a period covering over half a century. He was elected prosecuting attorney in 1873 and re-elected in 1875.

Mr. Hollingsworth entered the domain of state . politics in 1879, in which year he was elected as a Republican to the Ohio State Senate from the Harrison-Belmont County District, and was re-elected in 1881. His record while serving in the State Senate was notable, especially so in committee work. As chairman of the Judiciary committee he rendered invaluable assistance to the Senate in its work, and in so doing distin- guished himself as an able lawyer. Upon the resignation of Atty .- Gen. George K. Nash in 1883, Governor Foster appointed Mr. Hollingsworth to fill the vacancy, and he resigned as senator to accept the office, and served until January 14, 1884, when, declining to be a candidate for the position, he returned to his private practice at

Cadiz. Of his service as a state senator the- book "Biographical Sketches of Prominent Rep- resentative Citizens of Ohio" (1884) presented the following :

"In the Senate he (Mr. Hollingsworth) took a leading part, serving as chairman of the com- mittees on judiciary, on Federal relations, on privileges and elections and on railroads, turn- pikes and telegraphs. In the last mentioned position he was especially vigilant in guarding the interest of the people against the powerful railroad and other corporation influences of the state." A writer at this time in one of the lead- ing newspapers of the state, said: "Senator Hollingsworth's voice and vote are always felt in favor of the common people as against corpo- rate monopolies, and the journals of the Senate will show his active and intelligent support of all measures intended for the benefit of the working class, such as those to provide for the safety and ventilation of mines, to require rail- road companies to construct fences, crossings and cattle-guards at their own expense, to give labor a prior lien for wages in the construction of railroads, to prevent families of railroad em- ployes from being deprived of the benefit of the homestead and exemption laws of Ohio by the attachment of their wages in other states, to prohibit members of the Legislature and other state and county officials from accepting from railroads free passes, to prevent gambling in grain or cornering the provision markets, to pre- serve the purity of elections, and to prevent speculation or graveyard insurance, which has been completely broken up in this state by what is known as the 'Hollingsworth Law,' a meas- ure introduced and successfully championed by him against powerful and determined oppo- sition."

Mr. Hollingsworth was also watchful of the agricultural interests of the people, and he was the first member of the General Assembly to call attention to the threatened reduction of the wool tariff in 1883, which he did by securing the adoption of a joint-resolution opposing the rec- ommendation of the tariff commission on that subject. This resolution was afterward pre- sented to the United States Senate by Senator Tohn Sherman.

While serving as attorney-general of the state. Mr. Hollingsworth demonstrated his ability as a sound judge of law in his handling of the dif- ficult legal questions which claimed his official attention, among which were two of unusual im- portance, involving, as they did, the public revenues of the state. One related to the valid- ity of an act passed by the General Assembly providing for the taxation of monies, credits and personal property converted during the year into "greenbacks," or other nontaxable securities for the time the owner might hold such money, etc .. during the tax year. His opinion in support of the act happened to be the first one he was called to write after his appointment, and it naturally aroused the opposition of a number of the wealthy men of the state who had pre- viously been in the habit of avoiding such taxa- tion by ignoring the law as unconstitutional. Many of the ablest lawyers at the bar also ques- tioned his opinion, and it was promptly taken into court for adjudication. After a number of

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contrary decisions in the lower courts it finally reached the United States Supreme Court, where it was successfully argued by General Hollings- worth and sustained by the court. The other question grew out of the enforcement of what was known as the "Scott Liquor Tax Law." The constitutionality of the law was questioned, saloon keepers resisted the collection of the tax, and the matter was brought before the State Supreme Court. General Hollingsworth pre- sented and argued the case on behalf of the state, and the court sustained the law. How- ever, in 1884, the provisions of the law were nullified by a partisan decision, after the per- sonnel of the court had changed. But this latter decision was never accepted as sound law, either by the people or the bar of the state, and soon afterward the General Assembly substantially re-enacted the law in the form now found on the statute book and known as the "Dow Law," and its validity has long since ceased to be questioned.

Ou the same day upon which Attorney-Gen- eral Hollingsworth completed his term the "Ohio State Journal" said editorially : "Attorney-Gen- eral Hollingsworth, after a busy term of eight months, today retires from office, leaving a clear docket for his successor. Besides attending to the usual number of trial causes in the Supreme and other courts on behalf of the state, he has officially rendered exactly two hundred written opinions and has collected and paid into the state treasury the sum of $40,652.76. He will return to Cadiz and hereafter devote his atten- tion exclusively to private practice." Years afterward these official opinions of General Hol- lingsworth were printed in book form and kept in the attorney general's office as authoritative references on the subject. They substantially cover all the angles of the many-sided temper- ance and prohibition questions in the state dur- ing the last half century, which finally resulted in the recent sweeping prohibition amendments to the State and Federal Constitutions, and it is said by lawyers that not one of these opinions has ever in principle been reversed by the courts.

Always a teetotaler in practice, Mr. Hollings- worth was an early and bold advocate of gen- eral prohibition, but always insisted on opposi- tion being strictly confined to the forms of law, so long as the traffic was recognized as legiti- mate by the state. In 1881, as shown by the journal of the Ohio State Senate of that year, Senator Hollingsworth offered for adoption a joint-resolution proposing an amendment to the State Constitution providing for state wide pro- hibition, probably the first ever offered in the state, but only three senators voted with him on the resolution. Again, as chairman of the State Republican Convention in 1882, Mr. Hol- lingsworth openly declared himself in favor of a plank in the platform calling for prohibition, and in his speech before that convention he urged the adoption of such a plank. And after- ward, in the halls of Congress, Mr. Hollings- worth continued his support of prohibition until nation-wide prohibition came in 1919.

In 1908 Mr Hollingsworth was elected a mem- ber of Congress and thereby attained a long cherished ambition. In that year he was elected a member of the Sixty-first Congress, as a Re

publican from the Sixteenth Ohio District; in 1914 he was elected a member of the Sixty- fourth Congress from the Eighteenth District (the district having been changed in the mean- time), and In 1916 he was returned to Congress, receiving in the latter election a plurality double that of his former election, though the national and state Republican tickets were both defeated that year. After serving three terms, Mr. Hol- lingsworth retired from Congress, having de- clined to receive a re-nomination.

Mr. Hollingsworth's career in Congress was at once a credit to himself and an honor to his constituents, as well as to his state. Even as a new member he gained early recognition, if not prominence, by his stand on the question of abrogating "one man" power in the House, by having the committee appointments made by the House itself instead of by the Speaker. His ae- tion in assisting, if not in really initiating the above movement, stamped him as a member of independent thought, also as a man of much resourcefulness and native ability as a legisla- tor, and soon the attention of the nation was attracted to him. He was in reality an indepen- dent but by no means an insurgent, and gener- ally he supported the measures proposed by his party, but not until after he had pointed out any defects in the proposed measures, if defects there were, as he saw them. He supported by speech and vote a protective tariff ; he supported all just claims of Union soldiers and their de- pendents; he favored neutrality until German aggression forced war upon this country and then voted for a declaration of war and for war measures generally : he favored a volunteer army : he voted and spoke for the "Roosevelt Division" and offered his services to accompany it, and received a personal letter of appreciation from Colonel Roosevelt : he opposed a great in- crease of big battle ships, but favored sub- marines. submarine destroyers and other small naval craft. On many of the above measures Mr Hollingsworth delivered concise. forceful and eloquent addresses, and his speeches won for him a reputation as an orator and a keen and ready debater. For many years Mr. Hol- lingsworth has been in demand as a public speaker, and he has delivered many addresses on state occasions, not alone at home but at different parts of the state.

Mr. Hollingsworth was one of the organizers of the Ohio State Bar Association, and in 1908 acted as its chairman, and delivered the annual . address at the meeting of the association at Put-in-Bay in that year. He is a Methodist. a Mason, an Elk. a Knight of Pythias, and a mem- ber of the Grand Army of the Republic. No man in Harrison County holds higher standing as a lawyer, as a public servant, as a citizen and as a man than does Mr. Hollingsworth. His life has been one of consistent progress from the time he was a struggling young attor- ney until he voluntarily retired from Congress at the Psalmist's age of "three score and ten." and although active in his profession he has well earned the rest and quiet life he is now enjoying.

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History of Carroll and Harrison Counties, Ohio, Part 1

Author: H. J. Eckley, William T. Perry Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Number of Pages: 678

Author: H. J. Eckley, William T. Perry
Publication date: 1921
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 678