The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1, Part 1

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, pub
Publication date: 1876
Publisher: Cincinnati, Galaxy publishing company
Number of Pages: 802

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563

THE

BIOGRAPHICAL

ENCYCLOPÆDIA

OHIO

19th THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

pt. 1

PRINTERS

OTYPERS FIFE

CINCINNATI AND PHILADELPHIA: GALAXY PUBLISHING COMPANY. 1876.

1932144

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by CHARLES ROBSON, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

THE

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF

OHIO.

IIASE, SALMON PORTLAND, late Chief-Jus- tice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was born in Cornish, New Hampshire, January 13th, 1808, descending from an ancestry dis- tinguished in civil and official life during the colonial career of this nation. In 1815, when he was seven years old, his father removed to Keene, where two years after he died. In this town Salmon was first placed under instruction, remaining in the common school until he was twelve, when he was sent to Worthing- ton, Ohio, where his studies were supervised by an uncle, Philander Chase, at that time Bishop of the Diocese of Ohio. lle then entered Cincinnati College, of which that distinguished churchman had become President, and by application and the display of an unusually bright talent was soon promoted to the sophomore class. After residing in Cincinnati a year he returned to his mother's home in New Hampshire, and in 1824 became a member of the junior class of Dartmouth College, from which institution he graduated in 1826, being then in his eighteenth year. In the ensuing winter he established a school for boys in Washington, and among his pupils were the sons of William Wirt, Ilenry Clay, Samuel L. Southard and other men, eminent as lawyers and statesmen at that time. In 1829 he closed the school, and having studied law while teaching was soon after admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia. Ilis legal preceptor was Mr. Wirt, and under his instruction obtained a thorough knowledge of the science of law. Early in 1830 he went to Cincinnati, where he established his permanent residence, which was, however, often interrupted by the necessities of his profes- sion and by his elevation to office, which called him from that city. His entrance into successful professional life was

hampered by many embarrassments, but against all he struggled manfully. Ilis first important labor was the prep- aration of an edition of the "Statutes of Ohio," with an- notations, introducing that compilation with an historical sketch of the State. This work appeared in three volumes Svo, and was so generally accepted as an authority on the subject that it superseded all other editions, and established the reputation of its compiler and annotator as a man of keen research, of thorough legal training and of fine literary culture. This first great success, after so many difficulties had beset him, was the augury of future dis- tinction. It dated the commencement of his career as a successful practitioner, and he very soon sceured a valuable and lucrative patronage. In 1834 he became Solicitor of the Bank of the United States, in Cincinnati, and within a short time of one of the city banks also. Three years after he was retained to defend a colored woman, claimed as a fugitive slave, and in his argument in her behalf he con- tended that Congress had no authority to impose any duties or confer any powers in fugitive slave cases on State magis- trates, and held that the act of 1793 relative to fugitives from service was void, because unwarranted by the Constitution of the United States. This argument was extensively pub- lished, and established his reputation as one of the ablest constitutional lawyers. During the same year he appeared in the Supreme Court of Ohio to defend James G. Birney, who had been indicted under a State law for harboring a negro slave, and distinctly enunciated in his argument the doctrine " that slavery was local and dependent on State law for existence and continuance," and insisted that " the person alleged to have been harbored, having been brought within the territorial limits of Ohio by the individual claim- ing her as master, was thenceforth in fact and by right

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

hee." He was associated with the Hon. William 11. | maintained by uncompromising war against the usurpations Seward, in 1846, in the defence of Van Zandt, before the of the slave power, and are therefore resolved to " use all constitutional and honorable means to effect the extinction of slavery withun their respective States, and its reduction to its constitutional limit in the United States," Ile was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, and in an address to the people, which he prepared, he gave a history of slavery, the relative positions of the Democratic and Whig parties towards it, and declared the urgent ne- cessity for the organization of a party which should be wholly and heartily committed to the complete denational- ization of the slave power. A second national Liberty convention was held in 1847, and in that body he argued against making any national nomination at that time, since it was highly probable that a more general anti-slavery sentiment would be created in the agitation of the Wilmot Proviso, the action of Congress and that of the two other political organizations. In the following year, anticipating the non-action of the Whig and Democratic parties on the question of slavery extension, he issued a call for a " Free Territory " State Convention at Columbus, and obtained for it the signatures of more than three thousand voters of all political creeds. This meeting was both large and enthu- siastic, and resulted in the holding of a national convention at Buffalo, New York, in August of the same year, over which Mr. Chase presided. The standard-bearers nomi- nated by this body were Hon. Martin Van Buren for Presi- dent, and Hon. Charles Francis Adams for Vice-President. The election of United States Senator from Ohio was appointed for February 22d, 1849, and by a combination of the Democratic members of the Legislature, who gave him their united vote, and some of the Free-Soil members, who favored their views, Mr. Chase was elected by a hand- some majority. It should be remembered that the Demo- cratic party of that State had just previously declared by resolution of its State convention that slavery was an evil. Mr. Chase sympathized with them in their general views of State policy, and supported their nominees for State offices; giving them distinctly to understand, however, that he would sever his connection with them should they, in State or national conventions, abandon their anti-slavery position. In 1852 this point was reached, in his opinion. At the Baltimore Convention of the Democratic party a platform was adopted approving the compromise acts of 1850 and denouncing the further discussion of the slavery. question. Upon this platform Mr. Pierce was nominated for the Presidency. The party in Ohio gave in their ad- herence to this departure, and Mr. Chase withdrew. Ile directly urged the organization of an Independent Demo- cratic party, and drew up a declaration of principles, which was substantially ratified by the Pittsburgh Convention of the Independent Democracy in the same year. With this party he remained identified until the development of a new and powerful organization, indoctrinated with the Supreme Court of the United States, and delivered an argu- ment, much more in detail than the others, based upon the doctrine to which he had so often given eloquent emphasis, that under the act of 1787 no fugitive from service could be reclaimed in Ohio, " unless there had been an escape from one of the original States : that it was the clear under- standing of the framers of the Constitution that slavery was to be left exclusively to the disposal of the several States, without sanction or support from the national government," and further " that the clause in the Constitution relative to persons held in service was one of compact between the States, conferred no power of legislation upon Congress, and was never understood to confer any." Mr. Chase's practice, which embraced, as may be readily inferred from these instances, some of the most important civil actions brought to the attention of the State and Federal courts, had up to the year 1841 wholly engrossed his attention, and he had kept aloof from polities except in the exercise of his right of citizenship. Ile had been an independent voter, sometimes supporting Democrats, but more commonly Whigs. He had acquired an abhorrence of the institution of slavery, and this feeling was greatly stimulated by his personal contact with it in the courts. It was impossible for one of his energy and force of character to remain a passive witness of the efforts for the extension of slavery in the States. Ile gave his support to the Whig party of the North, which at that time seemed more favorable to an organized resistance to the growing institution, but even the doctrine of this party failed to satisfy him. In 1841, there- fore, he united in a call for a convention of those opposed to slavery and its further extension. This convention was held at Columbus, Ohio, in December of that year, and it resulted in the organization of the Liberty party of Ohio, and placed in the field a gubernatorial candidate. Mr. C'hase wrote an address to the people, defending the doe- trine and purposes of the new political organization. The anti slavery clement in other sections of the North indorsed the movement, and in 1843 a national convention of the Liberty party met at Buffalo, New York. The Committee on Resolutions, of which Mr. Chase was, perhaps, the most distinguished member, had referred to it a resolution which proposed " to regard and treat the Third Clause of the Con- stitution, whenever applied to the case of a fugitive slave, as null and void, and consequently as forming no part of the Constitution of the United States, whenever we are called upon or sworn to support it," Mr. Chase opposed it, and it was negatived in the committee, but its author moved its adoption in the body of the convention, and this was done. In June, 1845, a convention of the southern and western Liberty people, which had been projected by Mr. Chase, met in Cincinnati. In his call for that meeting he said that it was designed to embrace all who believe that whatever is worth preserving in republicanism can only be principles he had so long avowed, and which was one

Gallary Pub de Pulada

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA.

of the outgrowths of the agitation of the Nebraska bill. |tion, which was accepted. During the great rebellion he In March, 1850, he delivered on the floor of the Senate an shaped and controlled the financial pohey of the nation, the chief characteristics of which were the issue of United States legal tenders, the borrowing of money on bonds and the present national banking system, which completely super- seded the old system of State banks. The bonds upon which the government obtained money were made to mature at va- rious dates, and with such an interval of time between each series as to render their liquidation as easy as possible with- out forcing too great a tax upon the people. By act of Congress the banking system was framed to grant to each bank a circulation of national bank notes based upon a deposit of United States bonds as a guarantee, in the ratio of $100 in bonds for every $90 of notes issued to the bank. Upon his retirement from the head of the finances of the government the national debt aggregated $1,740,690,489. From this position he went to one in many respects more exalted. In October of 1864 Chief- Justice Taney, of the Su- preme Court of the United States, died, and Mr. Chase was appointed his successor. He presided over the trial of Presi- dent Johnson, who, in March, 1868, was impeached before the bar of the Senate by the House of Representatives, and on two occasions, when the constitutionality of the legal tender act was at issue; the first decision, pronounced by the Chief Justice himself, was unfavorable; the second, after two vacancies on the bench had been filled, affirmed its constitutionality by a bare majority. Dissatisfied with the action of the Republican leaders, he permitted his name to be used for the Presidential nomination in the National Convention of the Democratic party, held in New York, July, 1868, but received only 4 out of the 663 votes in that body. He retired then from public affairs, and subse- quently took no action of any political significance beyond an acknowledgment of his adhesion to the organization which opposed the re-election of President Grant, in 1872. He died in New York, on May 7th, 1873. eloquent and convincing argument against the Compromise bill originated by Henry Clay " for an amicable arrange- ment of all questions in controversy between the Free and the Slave States growing out of the subject of slavery," and forcibly reviewed all the questions which were involved in it. He moved an amendment, in the shape of a proviso against the introduction of slavery in the Territories to which this bill applied. This amendment, however, was defeated by a vote of twenty-five to thirty. With the same unfortunate result he moved an amendment to the Fugitive Slave bill, which would secure a jury trial for alleged fugitive slaves; and another, with the same success, Cx- cluding from its operation persons escaping from States to Territories, and vice versa. Early in 1854, npon the in- troduction of a bill for the repeal of the Missouri Com- promise, or Nebraska-Kansas bill, he published an appeal to the people against such action, and on February 3d, in the Senate, made an elaborate exposure of that measure from the standpoint of the opposition. In the discussion which ensued he took a conspicuous part, and did not per- mit its passage until he had uttered an carnest and eloquent protest against it, the effect of which, so far as their action speaks, was lost on the majority in the Senate. Ilis entire course in his Senatorial career was to divorce the Federal government from all connection with slavery, to secure the rights of the States and of individuals, and to promote economy in the administration of the finances of the nation. Ile was one of the first to urge a liberal support on the part of the government to the trans-continental railway project, between the Atlantic and Pacific, and gave no small share of his attention to rendering more secure the navigation of the great lakes. lle at all times favored cheap postage and the free homestead movement. Ilis energetic and un- varying course in the Senate increased his constituency, and in 1855 he was nominated and elected Governor of Ohio by the opponents of the Pierce administration and the Nebraska bill. He was inaugurated in the following year, and advocated in his address, on the occasion of his instal- URCELL, MOST REV. JOHN B., Archbishop of Cincinnati, Ohio, son of Edmund and Jo- hanna Purcell, was born at Mallon, in the county of Cork, Ireland, February 26th, 1Soo. His parents, highly respectable and pious people, bestowed upon their children as sound an edu- cation as could be had in the schools of their native place. Like Samuel of old, little John was dedicated, even before his birth, to the service of God. Already he experienced the greatest joy when first allowed to serve at the altar, and his integrity gained such confidence with the priest that he was intrusted with the task of distributing the Sunday contributions among the needy. Deceived in his expect .- tion to receive from well-to-do relatives the necessary means for completing his studies at Maynooth, and resolved not to be a burden to his parents, he emigrated to the United lation in the highest office of the Commonwealth, an econ- omical administration of public affairs, an ample educational fund, single legislative districts, and annual instead of bi- ennial legislative sessions. An effort was made by his supporters in Ohio to permit the use of his name as a can- didate for the Republican nomination for President, which was to be made that year, but at his request it was with- chawn. He was re-elected Governor in 1857 by the largest vote that had hitherto been polled for any candidate in that State, and in May, 1860, at the National Republican Convention held at Chicago, he was a candidate for nomi- nation, receiving 49 out of 465 votes on the first ballot. In 1861 President Lincoln called him to his Cabinet, with the portfolio of Secretary of the Treasury, and this office he filled until July 30th, 1864, when he tendered his resigna-

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

States at the age of eightcen years. Having received a certificate of qualification from the faculty of Asbury Col- lege, at Baltimore, he was engaged as a private teacher by a family on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. After serving in this capacity for two years he was received as student and teacher in Mount St. Mary's College, near Emmits- burg, in the same State, and in 1823 Archbishop Marechal, of Baltimore, conferred on him the four minor orders. On the Ist of March, 1824, in company with the Rev. Brute, afterwards first Bishop of Vincennes, he went to Paris to complete his studies in the Seminary of St. Sulpice, and in 1826 was ordained priest by Archbishop de Quelen, in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris. On his return to America he filled the Professorial chair of Philosophy in Mount St. Mary's College, and besides attending to his regular duties of the confessional and pulpit he also assisted the aged and venerable Father Brute in the teaching of theology. In 1832 the cholera, then raging as an epidemic, bereaved the city of Cincinnati of her first bishop, the Right Rev. Edward Fenwick, consecrated in 1822, when the diocese was first established ; and in 1833 the Pope chose as his successor the Rev. John B. Purcell. In the same year, on October 13th, he was consecrated Bishop by Arch- bishop R. Whitfield, in the Cathedral of Baltimore, in presence of Bishops Dr. Kenrick, of Philadelphia, and Dr. Du Bois, of New York ; Rev. Dr. Eccleston delivering the festal sermon on the occasion. Ardent and zealous to per- form the duties now imposed upon him, the young bishop, during the week following his consecration, took part in the Second Provincial Council of Baltimore, after which he set out for Cincinnati, the seat of his appointed bishopric. On his arrival he in no ways found things in a flourishing condition, the Catholics only possessing one church at the time. Knowing, however, that the field laid out for his labors was of fertile and productive soil, he applied to the work his erudite and persisting mind, deeply imbued with the importance of its task. Soon experiencing that the German element promised to constitute a strong and highly influential portion of the Catholic population, he at once set about building a separate church for them ; and to carry out this project be sacrificed a valuable piece of real estate left to him by his predecessor. Going from house to house he gathered contributions for his holy and praiseworthy design, and in one year he had the consolation of conse- crating the first German Catholic church in Cincinnati, the Church of the Iloly Trinity. The entire diocese, em- bracing the State of Ohio, then comprised sixteen so-called churches, few of which, however, deserved the name, as they were mostly bloek-houses, now long since disappeared, having given place to more modern edifices. Owing to the rapid growth of Catholicism it soon became necessary to erect a second diocese for the northern half of the State, and on the 10th of October, 1847, the Rev. Amadeus Rappe was conseerated its first bishop in the Cathedral of Cincin- nati. The year 1868 witnessed the erection of the Diocese

of Columbus, under Bishop S. II. Rosecrans. In 1850 Bishop Purcell was appointed Archbishop, and in the year following, being in Rome, he received the Pallium from the Pope's own hands. The former Diocese of Cincinnati, embracing the present archdiocese, the Diocese of Cleve- land and that of Columbus, now contains, instead of sixteen churches, over 460, and nearly 100 chapels. Its Catholie population amounts to 450,000, of which the Archdiocese of Cincinnati comprises at present 240,000, more than 85,000 being in Cincinnati alone. Where once he beheld but one Catholic church he now counts more than 30 splendid and imposing edifices. Furthermore, thesc three dioceses enjoy the services of more than 375 clergymen, and contain 51 re- ligious communities, 3 theological seminaries, 3 colleges, 23 literary institutions for girls, 22 orphan asylums, one protec- tory for boys, 6 hospitals, 10 charitable institutions and 266 parochial schools. The statistics of 1876 compared with those of 1832 are highly flattering, and, as must be con- ceded by all, can only be the accomplishment of so undaunted a spirit as that of his Grace the Most Rev. John B. Purcell; for under his direct administration were established the following institutions, viz. : The Theological Seminary at Mount St. Mary's of the West; St. Xavier College; the Passionist Monastery, Mount Adams; the Catholic Gymnasium of St. Francis Assisium; St. Joseph's Academy; St. Mary's Institute; six literary institutes for young ladies, three of which are conducted by the Sisters of Notre Dame, the others by the Ladies of the Sacred Ileart, Sisters of Charity and Ursulinc Nuns; six convents, the Foundling Asylum and Lying-in Hospital of St. Vin- cent of Paul ; the Protectory for Boys; St. Mary's Hospital; the Hospital of the Good Samaritan; St. Peter's, St. Joseph's and St. Aloysius' Orphan Asylum, and more than thirty parochial schools, with over 15,000 children in attendance. Among the many incidents of the Archbishop's life the fol- lowing are of interest and worthy of note: About the timc when religious excitement was at its height, there took place the celebrated dehate between Alexander Campbell, the founder of a new sect of his name (who now call them- selves Christian Disciples), and the Archbishop. It lasted over a week, and the five judges, representing as many different denominations, awarded the victory to the Arch- bishop, which caused the greatest enthusiasm among the Catholics and a large number of Protestants. Of the many conversions which occurred at this time may be mentioned that of the eminent jurist and thinker, Judge Burnet, for- merly Governor of California, who dedicated to the Arch- bishop his excellent work entitled " The Path which led a Protestant Lawyer to the Catholic Church." Not only at home, but also abroad, were witnessed the glorious results of the Archbishop's labors. When in Rome, in the year 1851, the European newspapers gave the details of a mur- der said to have been committed by Count Hippolyte Bocarme, and who had been for several ycars with his father in Arkansas. This, singularly enough, awakened in

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

the heart of the good Archbishop a presentiment that it | named Ashe with a French alias. The doctor was very would be his lot to assist the murderer in his last moments. After a six months' journey through Europe he arrived just two days before the count's escention, in Pournay, Belgium. The count had steadily refused the assistance of any priest connected with the government, but he was ready to listen to a missionary. On seeing the Archbishop his first question was : " Ilave you been sent by the king, or by the Pope ?" " By neither," was the reply ; " I come by the providence of God." " You are the man I want," he said, kissing the cross and the Archbishop's hand with emotion, and begged him to leave him no more. Ile complied with his request, and on the 19th of September, 1851, he accompanied him to the scaffold. In 1862, on the invitation of the IIoly Father, the Archbishop visited Rome for the fourth time, in order to be present at the canonization of the Japanese martyrs. In 1867 Archbishop Purcell repaired once more to Rome, and again, in 1869, to take part in the great General Council of the Vatican. The fiftieth anniversary of his priesthood was celebrated on the 21st of May of the present year ( 1876). Such is in short a synopsis of the life of the Most Rev. Archbishop John B. Purcell, whose spirit will live forever with the public he has so greatly benefited.

SOFORTII, WILLIAM, M. D., was born in the city of New York, in 1766. Ilis preparatory education was tolerably good. In medicine his private preceptor was Dr. Joseph Young, a phy- sician of some eminence. He also enjoyed the more substantial teachings of Dr. Charles Mc- Knight, then a publie lecturer in New York. In their midst, however, he and other students of the forming school were dispersed by a mob raised against the pro- moters of anatomical investigation. This was in the winter of 1787-88. Ile at once resolved to go West, and landed at Maysville, Kentucky, then called Limestone, on the 10th of June, 1788. Eventually settling in Washington, four miles from the river, he soon acquired popularity and a large practice. Ile remained at this place eleven years, and then determined to go to Cincinnati, being very fond of change. In the spring of 1800 he reached his destina- tion, in the meantime having tarried several months at his father's home in Columbia. ITis father was Judge Goforth, one of the earliest settlers of the State. IIe occupied the Peach Grove House, formerly the residence of Dr. Allison, who had left the city, and succeeded to his practice. Ilis high reputation and good family connections brought him a large practice. In 1801 he introduced vaccination in Cin- cinnati, the infection having been brought from Europe to Eastern cities the year previous. In 1803, at great ex- pense, he dug up a mass of huge fossil bones at Bigbone Lick, Kentucky, but was imposed upon by an Englishman

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The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 1, Part 1

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, pub Publication date: 1876 Publisher: Cincinnati, Galaxy publishing company Number of Pages: 802

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, pub
Publication date: 1876
Publisher: Cincinnati, Galaxy publishing company
Number of Pages: 802