A Biographical history of Preble County, Ohio : compendium of national biography, Part 27

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 622

USA > Ohio > Preble County > A Biographical history of Preble County, Ohio : compendium of national biography > Part 27

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S TEPHEN JOHNSON FIELD, an illus- trious associate justice of the supreme court of the United States, was born at Haddam, Connecticut, November 4, 1816, being one of the noted sons of Rev. D. D. Field. He graduated from Williams College in 1837, took up the study of law with his brother, David Dudley Field, be- coming his partner upon admission to the bar. He went to California in 1849, and at once began to take an active interest in the political affairs of that state. He was elected alcalde of Marysville, in 1850, and in the autumn of the same year was elected to the state legislature. In 1857 he was elected judge of the supreme court of the state, and two years afterwards became its chief justice. In 1863 he was appointed by President Lincoln as associate justice of the supreme court of the United States. During his incumbency, in 1873, he was appointed by the governor of California one of a com- mission to examine the codes of the state and for the preparation of amendments to the same for submission to the legislature.

In 1877 he was one of the famous electoral commission of fifteen members, and voted as one of the seven favoring the election of Tilden to the presidency. In 1880 a large portion of the Democratic party favored his nomination as candidate for the presidency. He retired in the fall of 1897, having served a greater number of years on the supreme bench than any of his associates or predecessors, Chief Justice Marshall coming next in length of service.

JOHN T. MORGAN, whose services in 2 the United States senate brought him into national prominence, was born in Athens, Tennessee, June 20, 1824. At the age of nine years he emigrated to Alabama, where he made his permanent home, and where he received an academic education. He then took up the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1845. He took a leading part in local politics, was a presi- dential elector in 1860, casting his ballot for Breckenridge and Lane, and in 1861 was a delegate to the state convention which passed the ordinance of secession. In May, of the same year, he joined the Confederate army as a private in Company I, Cahawba Rifles, and was soon after made major and thenlieutenant-colonel of the Fifth Regiment. In 1862 he was commissioned colonel, and soon after made brigadier-general and as- signed to the command of a brigade in Vir- ginia. He resigned to join his old regiment whose colonel had been killed. He was soon afterward again made brigadier-gen- eral and given command of the brigade that included his regiment.

After the war he returned to the prac- tice of law, and continued it up to the time of his election to the United States senate, in 1877. He was a presidential elector in 1876, and cast his vote for Tilden and Hendricks.

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COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

He was re-elected to the senate in 1883, and again in 1889, and 1895. His speeches and the measures he introduced, marked as they were by an intense Americanism, brought him into national prominence.

W ILLIAM MCKINLEY, the twenty-fifth president of the United States, was born at Niles, Trumbull county, Ohio, Jan- uary 29, 1844. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and received his early education in a Methodist academy in the small village of Poland, Ohio. At the outbreak of the war Mr. Mckinley was teaching school, earning twenty-five dollars per month. As soon as Fort Sumter was fired upon he en- listed in a company that was formed in Poland, which was inspected and mustered in by General John C. Fremont, who at first objected to Mr. McKinley, as being too young, but upon examination he was finally accepted. Mr. Mckinley was seventeen when the war broke out but did not look his age. He served in the Twenty-third Ohio Infantry throughout the war, was promoted from sergeant to captain, for good conduct on the field, and at the close of the war, for meritorious services, he was brevetted major. After leaving the army Major Mc- Kinley took up the study of law, and was admitted to the bar, and in 1869 he took his initiation into politics, being elected pros- ecuting attorney of his county as a Republi- can, although the district was usually Demo- cratic. In 1876 he was elected to congress, and in a call upon the President-elect, Mr. Hayes, to whom he went for advice upon the way he should shape his career, he was told that to achieve fame and success he must take one special line and stick to it. Mr. Mckinley chose tariff legislation and he became an authority in regard to import dutics. He was a member of congress for

many years, became chairman of the ways and means committee, and later he advo- cated the famous tariff bill that bore his. name, which was passed in 1890. In the next election the Republican party was overwhelmingly defeated through the coun- try, and the Democrats secured more than a two thirds majority in the lower house, and also had control of the senate, Mr. McKinley being defeated in his own district by a small majority. He was elected gov- ernor of Ohio in 1891 by a plurality of twenty-one thousand, five hundred and eleven, and two years later he was re-elected by the still greater plurality of eighty thou- sand, nine hundred and ninety-five. He was a delegate-at-large to the Minneapolis Re- publican convention in 1892, and was in- structed to support the nomination of Mr. Harrison. He was chairman of the con- vention, and was the only man from Ohio to vote for Mr. Harrison upon the roll call. In November, 1892, a number of prominent politicians gathered in New York to discuss the political situation, and decided that the result of the election had put an end to Mc- Kinley and Mckinleyism. But in less than four years from that date Mr. Mckinley was. nominated for the presidency against the combined opposition of half a dozen rival candidates. Much of the credit for his suc- cess was due to Mark A. Hanna, of Cleve- land, afterward chairman of the Republican national committee. At the election which occurred in November, 1896, Mr. Mckinley was elected president of the United States by an enormous majority, on a gold stand- ard and protective tariff platform. He was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1897, and called a special session of congress, to which was submitted a bill for tariff reform, which was passed in the latter part of July of that year.

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COMPENDIUM OF BIOGRAPHY.

C INCINNATUS HEINE MILLER,

known in the literary world as Joaquin Miller, "the poet of the Sierras," was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1841. When only about thirteen years of age he ran away from home and went to the mining regions in California and along the Pacific coast. Some time afterward he was taken prisoner by the Modoc Indians and lived with them for five years. He learned their language and gained great influence with them, fight- ing in their wars, and in all modes of living became as one of them. In 1858 he left the Indians and went to San Francisco,

where he studied law, and in 1860 was ad- mitted to the bar in Oregon. In 1866 he was elected a county judge in Oregon and served four years. Early in the seventies he began devoting a good deal of time to literary pursuits, and about 1874 he settled in Washington, D. C. He wrote many poems and dramas that attracted consider- able attention and won him an extended reputation. Among his productions may be mentioned " Pacific Poems," " Songs of the Sierras," "Songs of the Sun Lands," "Ships in the Desert," " Adrianne, a Dream of Italy," "Danites," "Unwritten History," "First Families of the Sierras " (a novel), " One Fair Woman " (a novel), "Songs of Italy," "Shadows of Shasta," "The Gold- Seekers of the Sierras," and a number of others.

G EORGE FREDERICK ROOT, a noted music publisher and composer, was born in Sheffield, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, on August 30, 1820. While working on his father's farm he found time to learn, unaided, several musical instru- ments, and in his eighteenth year he went to Boston, where he soon found employ- ment as a teacher of music. From 1839

until 1844 he gave instructions in music in the public schools of that city, and was also director of music in two churches. Mr. Root then went to New York and taught music in the various educational institutions of the city. He went to Paris in 1850 and spent one year there in study, and on his re- turn he published his first song, "Hazel Dell." It appeared as the work of " Wur- zel," which was the German equivalent of his name. He was the originator of the normal musical institutions, and when the first one was started in New York he was one of the faculty. He removed to Chicago, Illinois, in 1860, and established the firm of Root & Cady, and engaged in the publication of music. He received, in 1872, the degree of " Doctor of Music" from the University of Chicago. After the war the firm became George F. Root & Co., of Cincinnati and Chicago. Mr .. Root did much to elevate the standard of music in this country by his compositions and work as a teacher. Besides his numerous songs he wrote a great deal of sacred music and pub- lished many collections of vocal and instru- mental music. For many years he was the most popular song writer in America, and was one of the greatest song writers of the war. He is also well-known as an author, and his work in that line comprises: " Meth- ods for the Piano and Organ," " Hand- book on Harmony Teaching, " and innumer- able articles for the musical press. Among his many and most popular songs of the war time are: "Rosalie, the Prairie-flower," " Battle Cry of Freedom," " Just Before the Battle," "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are Marching," "The Old Folks are Gone," "A Hundred Years Ago," "Old Potomac Shore, " and " There's Music in the Air." Mr. Root's cantatas include "The Flower Queen" and "The Haymakers." He died in 1896.

PART II.

A BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

PREBLE COUNTY,

OHIO.

Nevy respectfully

PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO.

JOHN P. CHARLES.

HE paternal ancestry of John P. Charles were of English and Welsh® descent, representatives coming to America in the early colonial days and settling at Nantucket, whence they emigrated to Maryland, where the prin- ciples of religious toleration had been, for the first time, formally proclaimed; and later on they settled in North Carolina, where the father of John P. Charles, Smith Charles, was born in Guilford county, in 1781, within the sound of General Greene's guns in the Revolution. The Charles fam- ily, of the Quaker persuasion, left Massa- chusetts on account of Puritan intolerance for that faith. Smith Charles came from North Carolina in 1806, and stopped tempo- rarily in Warren county, near Springboro. He entered land on Four Mile creek in Dixon township, Preble county, on which he set- tled in 1808, there being, as the saying goes, "not a stick amiss." The land remains in the possession of the family still. Be- fore making his settlement Mr. Charles had married Nancy Kercheval.

On the maternal side, J. P. Charles' an- cestors were of French and English blood, having come to this land in the time of the persecution of the French Huguenots. The French branch were originally called Coeur

de Cheval, meaning "the heart of a horse," which gradually changed until it became Kercheval. They claimed relationship to the French nobility, and one of them yet holds a magnificent chateau in France. They came to America early in the seven- teenth century and settled in Virginia. The earliest record shows them living near the city of Winchester in the Shenandoah valley. The grandfather of the subject of this sketch, James Kercheval, emigrated first to Kentucky, settling near Bardstown. Thence he removed to Ohio, stopping first in Butler county and from there came to Preble coun- ty, settling on Four Mile creek in Dixon township and building the first mill and es- tablishing the first still-house in that section of the country, at the place subsequently known as Niccum's Mill. The maiden name of the wife of James Kercheval was Mary Pottinger, a sister of the Pottinger men who were early settlers near Camden. Mrs. Kercheval was buried near Fair Haven and soon after that event James Kercheval returned to Kentucky, where he died in the early '20s, and his remains were interred not far distant from Newport, Kentucky. The mother of the subject of this sketch was born in Virginia and died on the Charles farm in Dixon township in 1823, being buried beside her mother in the old Cald- well burying-ground near Fair Haven,

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GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

where a considerable number were buried in early times. The spot of interment has no mark and the plow has passed over the graves, a fate that has come to the graves of many of the first deceased of this county, who were buried on private grounds. Smith Charles died in 1868, at the ripe age of eight-seven years, and was laid to rest in the Fair Haven cemetery.

John P. Charles was the fourth son of Smith Charles and Nancy, his wife, who had seven children, all of whom have passed away except him. He was born in Dixon township, Preble county, on the 20th of June, 1815, and was reared on his native heath, working on the farm as was usual in those days, and attending school when there was no work to do in the winter time. By dint of application he obtained in his 'teens a pretty fair elementary education in the "three R's" and also a smattering of geography and grammar. When about seventeen years of age he took offense at the exercise of paren- tal authority and foolishly ran away from a good home and kind parents. He went to Michigan, and, the Black Hawk war break- ing out, he joined a company and served un- til honorably discharged. For that service he now receives a pension. After the close of his service he gladly returned to his home, where he was welcomed by his good father and the family.

Growing tired of farming, he conceived the idea of becoming a lawyer, and in 1836 began the study of law in Eaton, with J. M. U. McNutt, then the leading attorney of the county and one of the first lawyers of the state. Not long after commencing to read law, his esteemed preceptor died. Mr. Charles then left for Tennessee to visit rel- atives living there, and through the influ- ence of his uncle, he entered the office of

Hon. A. V. Brown, who was subsequently the governor of the state and then postmaster general of the United States, with whom he finished his course and was licensed to prac- tice law. Going to Memphis, Tennessee, he entered the office of Brown & Topp for a time, but in 1840 returned to his native coun- ty for a rest and did not return to the south as he had intended doing. In 1841 he ob- tained a law license in Indiana and began his profession at Winchester, Indiana, but not finding the profession congenial to his taste he gave it up, bidding adieu to Bacon, Lyttleton, Coke and Blackstone forever.

Then as a means of support he engaged in teaching school, and while in pedagogy he contracted an itching for journalistic life. In the years 1845-6-7 he was the edi- torial writer of the Eaton Register, and in 1848 purchased the Hamilton Intelligencer, which, after conducting it for some time, he sold. He then went to Minnesota with Charles K. Smith, the newly appointed sec- retary of that territory, as his clerk, in which capacity he wrote up the first records of that state in 1849. It was his privilege to make- the roll call of the popular branch of its first law-making assembly. The next year he re- ceived an appointment at Washington to a. clerkship in the pension bureau, from which position he was removed by President Pierce, being an'"offensive partisan," and no pro- tective civil service existed in those days, to the victors being given the spoils; and his. bureau chief said to him, "Mr. Charles, there is no objection to you, but our friends are clamorous for place and somebody must. be removed." In those days they recognized the fact that parties failing to take care of friends were likely soon to need friends to take care of them.

Following close on his removal, in May,

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GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

1853, he was married to Mrs. Sarah E. Jackson, a most charming and gifted lady, whose maiden name was Copp, a daughter of Joshua Copp, and her mother's maiden name was Pillsbury. His wife was born in New Hampshire, in November, 1822. They lived happily together until July, 1899, when Mrs. Charles died, at Eaton. He moved to Iowa and engaged in a land agency for a time and subsequently was connected for some twelve years with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company as a traveling agent. At the close of that service he removed to Salem, Illinois, and went into the culture of fruits, which was not a success with him, and he returned to his native state, Ohio, set- tling for a time in New Paris. During the most of his time he kept in touch with and continued his journalistic work, being a correspondent of several papers. Again, in 1880, he renewed his editorial con- nection with the Eaton Register, which he now retains. He, however, has spent some part of the last score of years in Washing- ton in the interior department as both a pen- sion and census clerk. Though he has tried many lines of business, not holding very firmly to anything, he has for more than half a century kept up his love for journalistic life and retained a kind of connection with newspapers in all his varied itineracy. It may with truth be said that during all his life he has been something of a newspaper man. It has been truthfully said of him that he excels as a political writer, and being well informed and endowed by nature with a forcible and clear style of writing, is en- titled to no mean place among American journalists. He has always been loyal to the Whig and Republican principles and to- day loves the "G. O. P." principles with al- most an idolatrous devotion. . To this ven-

erable resident of the county, now past eighty-five years of age, there were born two children, a son and daughter. The former sleeps beside his mother in Eaton's beautiful cemetery, and the daughter, Miss Bessie Charles, lives to bless the declining days of her aged father and is a popular and well- known teacher in the Eaton public schools.

RICHARD E. MORROW.

Richard E. Morrow, ex-repesentative of Preble county, Ohio, and one of the prom- inent farmers of the county, was born at the place where he now lives, December 6, 1847. He is a son of Richard and Sarah (Barr) Morrow and one of a family of nine chil- dren, five of whom are living at this writ- ing, namely: Sarah J., a practicing physi- cian and surgeon, of Richmond, Indiana; Delorma B., a practicing physician and sur- geon of St. Louis, Missouri ; James M., who lives with his brother, Richard E., the sub- ject of this sketch; and Horace C., a physi- cian and surgeon of Austin, Texas. Rich- ard Morrow, the father, was born in Waynesville, Warren county, Ohio, January 29, 1807, and was brought by his parents tc Preble county March 29th of the same year. His father, Andrew Morrow, was a native of Orange county, North Carolina, born December 29, 1767, a son of William and Rachel ( Reed) Morrow, both of whom were natives of Edinburg, Scotland, and came to America with his two brothers, Hugh and George, about the year 1750. After a short time spent in Pennsylvania the three brothers went to North Carolina, and! in that state William Morrow, the great- grandfather of our subject, acquired an ex- tensive landed estate. He was a Quaker, and was killed by a roving band of Tories during

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GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the Revolutionary war, while trying to-re- cover a valuable horse and some other prop- erty that had been stolen. After his death his estate, according to the colonial laws, reverted to his eldest son's child, the son being dead. The grandfather of our subject then bought a portion of the old home place and resided there until the fall of 1806, when he sold out and came to Ohio, spend- ing the winter at Waynesville. The follow- ing March he came to the location where the subject of this sketch now lives. Here, in the midst of the forest, he built a tem- porary shelter and later a substantial log house. His original claim was six hundred and forty acres, but he subsequently sold one hundred acres of it to a younger brother; and on this farm he passed the remainder of his life and died, his death occurring in 1847. Like his father he was of Quaker faith and took no part in politics. His wife, whose maiden name was Rebecca Laughlin, was born in Orange county, North Carolina, November 30, 1760, and her death occurred in. 1856.

Richard Morrow, the father of our sub- ject, was reared in Jackson township, where he was married in 1832. While his early educational advantages were limited, he was a great reader and a close observer, and thus acquired a broad knowledge of men and affairs. When a young man he was an Abolitionist, and later was a radical Repub- lican, though he never sought or held pub- lic office. He was a man of unswerving in- tegrity and exerted an influence for good in the district where he lived. In business he was successful, accumulating a comfortable competency. He was a member of the Ma- sonic order, in which he advanced to the Royal Arch degree, and in his life he exem- plified the teachings of that ancient and hon-

ored organization. At the ripe old age of eighty-six years, he passed away May 16, 1893. His worthy companion, nee Sarah Barr, was born in Dauphin county, Penn- sylvania, November 22, 1810. She was the daughter of Alexander and Mary (McEl- heny) Barr. Grandfather Barr, a native of Scotland, came to America early in the nine- teenth century, and settled in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, whence in 1815 he emigrated to Ohio, settling in Jefferson township, Preble county. He was a Presby- terian, a man of broad learning, and for many years was a teacher in the public schools, for a number of years being the only teacher in his district. He also carried on farming operations. Grandmother Barr was born in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania.

Richard E. Morrow spent his youth on his father's farm, receiving his early educa- tion in the common schools and later enter- ing the National Normal University, at Leb- anon, Ohio, where he graduated in 1872. For six years following his graduation he devoted his time to teaching, being succes- sively principal of the schools at Patriot, Indiana, at Clay City, Urbana, and Clinton, Illinois. He then turned his attention to the study of law, in the office of Adams & Michener, of Shelbyville, Indiana, where he spent six months. Before completing his studies, however, he decided to devote his life to agricultural pursuits, and in the year 1879 returned to the home farm, where he and his brother have since carried on opera- tions in partnership, their farm comprising two hundred and twenty acres.

Mr. Morrow has ever shown a public spirit and taken an active interest in every- thing intended to promote the welfare of his country, and especially of the locality in which he lives. In many public capacities

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GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

he has rendered valued service. He was president of the board of education four years. An ardent Republican, he is the ac- knowledged leader of his party in Jackson township, and is as popular as he is well known throughout the county. He has been a delegate to state and county conventions almost continuously since 1889, except two years. He served nine years as justice of the peace. In 1897 he was elected to the state legislature, serving one term, and was one of the seventy-three who voted for Mark Hanna. In 1899 Mr. Morrow was re- nominated by his party for another term in the legislature, but met defeat in the Repub- lican Waterloo of that season.

Mr. Morrow was united in marriage in 1880 to Miss Mattie J. Adams, a native of Shelbyville, Indiana, and a daughter of Thomas B. Adams, the well-known attor- ney of that place. They are the parents of five children, namely: Delorma A., now at the age of nineteen, is a teacher in the district schools of the township and is pre- paring for a college course; Edwina is a graduate of the township high school and now a teacher in New Paris, Ohio; and Richard B., Mary and Ruth complete the family.

JOHN H. GIBBINS.

One of the most prominent educators connected with the public schools of west- ern Ohio is Professor John H. Gibbins, who is now superintendent of the Eaton schools. His marked ability has gained him prestige, for his scholarly attainments are supple- mented by superior ability in imparting clearly and concisely to others the knowl- edge he has acquired. With a just appre- ciation of the importance of his work, he

has given to it the most earnest thought, study and investigation, and his methods are therefore progressive and intensely practical, serving as an excellent prepara- tion for the duties of life.

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A Biographical history of Preble County, Ohio : compendium of national biography, Part 27

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn Publication date: 1900 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 622

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 622