A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Part 109

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1156

USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio > Part 109

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institution. After graduation he was admitted to the bar at Columbus, and has since been located in that city. He has since devoted himself closely to the practice of his profession, in which he is achieving a distinct success. He is a strong Republican, but has taken no active part in politics.

DANIEL BONEBRAKE.

There is no man in Franklin county, Ohio, who has lived nearer to the hearts of his neighbors wherever the vicissitudes of life have placed him than the Rev. Daniel Bonebrake, who has been a resident of this county since his twenty-fourth year, and is now living in retirement at Westerville, twelve miles northeast of Columbus. He was born near Eaton, Preble county, Ohio, May 23, 1829, a son of the Rev. Daniel Bonebrake, Sr., who was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, June 16, 1797, and was brought to Athens county by his parents in 1801. His father was DeWalt Bonebrake, a son of another Rev. Daniel Bonebrake, who was the progenitor of the family in America. He was a Prussian by birth and tradition has it that he incurred imperial displeasure by slaying one of the king's deer and fled from his native land to America to avoid trouble that might have ensued had he remained. His son, DeWValt Bonebrake, was a blacksmith and farmer of Germantown, Pennsylvania, and served as a soldier under General Washington in military operations between New York and Philadelphia. He lived in Athens county, Ohio, from 1801 to 1808 and in 1809 removed to Montgomery county, Ohio. He tarried there but a year, however, before he went to Preble county in 1824. He had ten sons' and two daughters, all of whom grew to mature years, and of whom Daniel Bonebrake, Sr., the father of the Rev. Daniel Bonebrake, was the seventh in order of nativity.

Daniel Bonebrake, Sr., became a local and traveling minister of the United Brethren church in 1821, and was employed in the duties of his consecrated office about half the time from his twenty-second year to his forty-ninth year, when he died. He devoted himself to farming during most of his life, but in 1853 he engaged in the grocery trade in Lewisburg, Preble county, Ohio, where his life ended in July, 1856. Five of his brothers served under General Harrison in the war of 1812, in northwestern Ohio,-Frederick, a fifer, Adam, John, Jacob and Peter,-and Daniel also would have served had he not been too young. He married Elizabeth, a daughter of Jeremiah Mills, and a native of Warren county, Ohio. Jeremiah Mills, who was born in the state of New Jersey, saw three years' service as a dragoon on the Allegheny and Monongehala at an early day and went to a point near Cin- cinnati, Ohio, where he bought considerable land, which he soon afterward sold to advantage at three dollars per acre. He then went to Warren county, Ohio, on the Forth Ancient, and secured some Virginia military land, where he made a farm and where he died in September, 1860, at the advanced age of ninety-three years. He was of English extraction. His daughter, the mother of the Rev. Daniel Bonebrake, died in Preble county, Ohio, May 6,

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1830, at the age of twenty-four, when her son was about a year old. The boy grew up amid the disadvantages of a new country, without the aid of fortune and with only limited opportunities for education, but in the common schools and by studying at spare hours he fitted himself to teach school, and thus' earned money to maintain himself at home in Preble county and to secure instruction for himself at Otterbein College, where he was a student in 1851 and 1852. When he entered the school in March, 1851, the only teachers were Professor John Haywood and the lady whom, in 1852, he made his wife. There was an attendance of only fifty-seven scholars at first, but the next year there were seventy-three. After his education he married and settled in Westerville in March, 1853, and there he taught school during the winter months and worked at farm labor in the summer until October, 1860, when at the conference of the United Brethren church he was appointed to preach as a traveling minister in Franklin and Fairfield counties, having twelve appointments in what was known as Winchester circuit. He performed the duties of this appointment for three years, until 1863, when he was ordained. Then for nineteen years he was the secretary of the conference and during a portion of that time was the mission treasurer, and the duties of these offices and his ministerial work kept him traveling for twenty-nine years. During two years of that time he was presiding elder. He was then obliged to retire on account of failing health. He had long before this, in August, 1857, bought six acres of land in Westerville, where he has since made his home. It is probable that he has married more couples and attended more funerals than any other minister in this part of the county.

On the 7th of March, 1853, were married Mr. Bonebrake and Hester Ann Bishop, a native of Blendon township, Franklin county, and the youngest daughter of Captain John Bishop, who was a settler there in 1818. She was educated in Worthington Seminary and soon after her marriage she became a member of the United Brethren church. She died November 1, 1889, hav- ing borne her husband six children : Albert died at the age of eighteen years ; Mary, at the age of twelve years; Frank was educated in Otterbein University and engaged in the grocery trade at Woosterville, but was killed by a fall from a tree July 6, 1895, when he was about thirty-three years old; Lewis Davis is a commissioner of schools for the state of Ohio and his brother, Charles E., is' a clerk in his office; and William is prominent in building and loan circles. Mr. Bonebrake's present wife was Mrs. Eliza (Waagy) Dovel, of Preble county, Ohio. They were married in Franklin county May 21, 1891, and she is a lady who possesses many estimable qualities which have gained for her high regard.

Mr. Bonebrake has been a member of the United Brethren church since his eighteenth year. He was made assistant class-leader in his nineteenth year and in 1853 he became class-leader, acting in that capacity until his membership in and ordination to the ministry, in November, 1863. He is an outspoken temperance man and has done considerable public work for the temperance cause. Politically he was formerly a Whig and has been a Repub-

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lican since the organization of the party. Many years ago he filled the office of constable and he was appraiser for Blendon township in 1890, giving excellent satisfaction in the office. He paid one thousand dollars for his small farm at Westerville and has improved it greatly, giving much attention to fruit-culture for a number of years past.

HORACE W. WHAYMAN.

Horace W. Whayman is a representative of that rare element of modern life, a valuable part of which yet rests upon a basis of something ideal and philosophical. He is a student with profound learning and deep insight into the great, fundamental principles of science ; yet his humanitarianism is broad and deep, bringing him into close touch with the representatives of the race. The evolution of the human race from barbarism to the present advanced civilization has been slow; and the man who in his day and generation has helped to elevate the tastes of those with whom he comes in contact does a work the results of which will be cumulative in generations to come.

We are led to the above train of reflections by contemplating the life work of one of the citizens of Columbus, Horace W. Whayman, a well known personage in the circles where intellectual activity is predominant and is accompanied by an accurate realization of man's duty to his fellow man. He is a native of Suffolk county, England, born November 1, 1869. His father, Horace William Field Sancroft Whayman, Esq., was also a native of that county. Largely as' a pastime he took up the study of bibliography and archaeology, and was widely recognized as an authority on these subjects. The Whayman family is one of the most honored and distinguished of the old families of England, it having been established in Suffolk ( East Anglia) before William the Norman crossed the channel, conquering the Anglo- Saxons, thus infusing the Norman blood into the English race. History tells us that Wimar was a sheriff and county justiciar in 1172, and from him our subject is a direct descendant. During the succeeding centuries the Whay- mans have become allied through marriage with other prominent families, including the Walpoles, Wingfields, Nuns, Maynards and Billings-all East Anglian families. The name has been variously spelled, as Wimar, Wymar, Wyman, Weyman, Wayman and Whayman.

The mother of our subject prior to her marriage was Ellen Jane Bur- wood Billing, of Gressen Hall, county of Norfolk, and of Oxford Suffolk, a daughter of Robert Billing, Esq., and a representative of the Billing family, anciently of the counties of Oxford and Cornwall. The Billings were of the same family as the Rt. Rev. Bishop Robert Claudius Billing, D. D., and were also allied with the Beusley Derehaugh, Cobb, Coke, Copeman and Loftus families. The Coke family numbered among its members the earl of Leicester.

Mr. Whayman, whose name introduces this record, received excellent

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H. W. WHAYMAN.

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educational privileges under private instructors in Colchester and Oxford, and later continued his studies in the theological seminary at Gambier, Ohio. Ill health in his early manhood led him to travel throughout Europe in the hope of improving his physical condition. A man of strong mentality, with a love of scientific research and deep study, he began to acquaint himself with ecclesiology and heraldry, becoming a pupil of Sir Arthur Bloomfield, now deceased. Bloomfield and Dr. George Marshall are considered the standard authorities on those subjects. In England Mr. Whayman was interested in slum work in the parishes of St. Alphege, Southwark and St. Agnes, Kenning- ton Park.

In 1890 Mr. Whayman came to the United States, and, after residing for some time in New York city and in Cincinnati, Ohio, located permanently in Columbus, in 1895. During his residence here he has taken an active part in all that pertains to the welfare and progress of Columbus in material, esthetic, intellectual and moral lines. He is a very active and interested mem- ber of the Old Northwest Genealogical Society, having been one of its founders. He also aided in the organization, and became one of the first members, of the Neighborhood Guild. He is greatly interested in library- extension work and in the collection and preservation of the archives of the state. Also he is especially interested in the work of church decoration. He is a corresponding member of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Montreal, also a life member of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and of the Norfolk Archaeological Society. He was the founder of the Guild at St. James in this country, a society which is doing a great work in church decoration along Anglican lines. An example of the work of the Guild in Ohio was seen in the decoration of St. Stephen at East Liverpool, and at Calvary, in Sandusky.

He holds membership in the church of the Good Shepherd, and is the author of a work entitled Emblems of the Saints,-a manual of instruction and reference for artists and architects. He edited Imago Regia, Thoughts, a philosophical work, and has contributed many articles of merit to historical and genealogical societies. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Antiqua- ries of Ireland and is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity and is also a member of the Humboldt Verein. He is also president of the Columbus Choral Association, an organi- zation founded in a great degree by him, for the purposes of fostering a love of oratorio and larger works of the great masters.

At this point it would be almost tautological to enter into and series of statements showing that Mr. Whayman is a man of broad intelligence and genuine public spirit; for these have been shadowed forth between the lines of this review. Strong in his individuality, he never lacks the courage of his. convictions ; but there are as dominating elements in this individuality a lively human sympathy and an abiding charity which, as taken in connection with the sterling integrity and honor of his character, have naturally gained to him the respect and confidence of men.

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JOHN WILLIAM JONES.

Wales has furnished to Brown township, Franklin county, Ohio, some of its best citizens in present and past generations. Prominent among these is the subject of this sketch. He is a son of John and Bridget (Hughes) Jones and a grandson of William Jones, who was born and married and passed his life in Anglesea. Following is some pertinent information con- cerning the children of John and Bridget ( Hughes) Jones: Their eldest son, Hugh, lives in Liverpool, England. The subject of this sketch was the second in order of birth. Richard, who was a steward on an English vessel, died at Valparaiso, South America. William is a molder and lives at Liver- pool, England. Elizabeth married William Lewis and died in Wales. Ann, of Liverpool, England, is the wife of Charles Shrine, who is captain of a merchant vessel. Catharine married Philip Jones and also lives at Liverpool.

John William Jones was born at Bangor, Carenarvonshire, in northern Wales, September 28, 1842, and attended school until he was eleven years old. His father having died, he was an apprentice for seven years to a ship carpenter at Port Norwick, Carenarvonshire. At the expiration of that time he went as a ship carpenter on board a merchant vessel from Cardiff, South Wales, on a voyage to South American points, which consumed eighteen months. On his return he reshipped at Bristol, England, on board the same vessel for Quebec, Canada. The craft returned to Bristol laden with lumber, and Mr. Jones made another voyage with it to Quebec, and returning to Liver- pool worked for three years in a ship yard at that city. He then shipped for Bombay, India, and returned to London, but almost immediately sailed again for Bombay on board another ship. From Bombay he went to Cochin, China, thence to Callao, South America, by way of Australia, thence to Rotterdam, Holland, next to Shields, England, where he was employed on land for a time. Later he made a voyage to New York city, returning to Liverpool, which was followed by another voyage from Liverpool to New York and return, on board the American liner, Canada.

Mr. Jones was married, in Liverpool, England, to Miss Jane Evans, a sister of Edward Evans, a biographical sketch of whom appears in this work. After his marriage he worked at his trade in Liverpool until 1882, when with his wife he took passage at Liverpool for New York on a steamer of the White Star line. From New York he came direct to Columbus, Ohio, where he was for eighteen months employed as a house carpenter. His wife died at Columbus, and, going to Brown township, he settled there on a farm, where he married Sarah Jerman, who is now deceased. His present wife was Miss Mary Matthews, a daughter of William Matthews, of Colum- bus, Ohio. His first wife left a daughter named Winifred, born April 10, 1880. He is now the owner of eighty-one and a half acres of well improved land, on which there is a fine brick residence and other good buildings.

In politics Mr. Jones is a Republican, and he has proved himself a citi- zen of much enterprise and public spirit. He is a member of the Methodist

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Episcopal church at Colwell and is a liberal supporter of all its interests. He is genial and companionable and fond of reminiscence, especially of the days when sailing on many vessels he visited many ports, and he sometimes recalls an incident of a voyage from Callao to Antwerp when his vessel encountered a severe storm off Cape Horn and would have swamped had he not constructed a windmill, which served as a motor power to keep the pumps in action.

ARTHUR A. THOMAN, M. D.

Among the physicians and surgeons of Columbus is Arthur A. Thoman. The Doctor was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, December 27, 1859, and is the son of Dr. B. K. and Mary (Weist) Thoman. His paternal grandpar- ents were Martin M. and Fanny ( Keller) Thoman, the former a native of Switzerland, while the maternal grandparents were Benjamin and Elizabeth (Bowser ) Weist, and were early settlers of Pennsylvania.

The Doctor spent his early life and school days at Baltimore, Ohio, where his parents still reside and where his father has been engaged for nearly a half-century in the practice of medicine. Entering Fairfield Union Academy, he graduated there at the age of sixteen, and after a few years teaching school while still pursuing his studies he entered the Ohio Wesleyan University. He did not finish his course there, but graduated at the Ohio Medical College, with the class of 1881. After two years with his father in his native town he removed to Columbus and has been engaged in his profession, also man- aging extensive business interests, being identified with the foremost citizens in all public interests.

Among the many patients who were constantly coming under the Doctor's care were hundreds who needed rest and quiet more than medicines, and, with the idea of providing a proper place where these could be secured Dr. Thoman purchased Mac-O-Chee Castle, the famous home and estate of the late Don Piatt, located in Logan county, Ohio, improving this historic and romantic place with conservatories, bath houses and modern offices, embellish- ing the already beautiful grounds with fountains that flowed night and day, flowers and plants from every clime. There were gathered from all the west- ern states both patients and people who were wooed to health and strength without the thought of medicine or treatment, as is ordinarily prescribed. The fame of the sanitarium extended far and wide and it became a noted resort for those seeking recreation with rest and quiet as a cure for mental troubles. Finally the Doctor exchanged the sanitarium for a half interest in the Dennison Hotel, of Columbus. This building is a fine structure, advan- tageously located near the car lines on Dennison avenue, and receives the patronage of those seeking a comfortable home removed from the dust and noise of a more busy thoroughfare. It has handsome apartments, is supplied with every modern convenience, and in addition has a roof garden beautifully fitted up with tropical plants.

Dr. Thoman has the entire building situated at 33 North Third street,

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for offices and an emergency hospital, equipped with electric baths as well as all other modern appliances in electricity for the treatment of rheumatism and nervous diseases. Particular attention is also given to treatment of the nose and throat. Treatment of the diseases of women is most successfully accomplished without operations. Nurses carefully trained are constantly in attendance treating and instructing the patients in self-treatment, that has proved a wonderful success over the old lines of practice.

While the Doctor is a firm believer in depending as much as possible on the forces of nature in the cure of disease, he is also a most skillful operator and does not hesitate a moment when the knife will bring the best results. He has been one of the first of his profession in this country to use "sug- gestive therapeutics" in nervous diseases. An earnest student, he has fol- lowed the teachings of the most advanced thinkers of Europe, and, being wonderfully gifted, has' reached a point in the use of this most wonderful science that places him second to none. His cases have been telegraphed to the New York Journal, and in full column with glaring head lines have been sent out over the whole world as the most remarkable phenomena of the times. The letters from patients and the many newspaper notices which the Doctor has received would certainly make almost any other man vain. How'- ever, the Doctor does not seem to think anything about it and looks after his large practice, manages the Dennison, and at the same time attends as care- fully to his many beautiful plants and flowers as though his living depended upon them.

CHARLES B. GALBREATH.

The apprenhension and subsequent development of the subjective potential must ever figure as the delineation of the maximum of personal success and usefulness in any field of endeavor, and the failure to discover this potential- or line along which lay the greatest possibilities for development in any specific case-can but militate against the ultimate precedence and absolute accomplishments' of the subject. To a greater extent than is usually con- jectured does personal success abide in this element, and thus in the study of biography there is ever a valuable lesson to be gained. To the subject of this review there has come the attainment of a distinguished position in con- nection with the great educational interests of our country --- the schools, the press and the public writings-and his efforts have been so discriminatingly directed along well defined lines that he seems to have reached at any one point of progress the full measure of his capabilities of accomplishment in that line. A man of distinctive and forceful individuality, of broad mentality and most mature judgment, he has left his impress upon the intellectual world. He has been an educator of ability, a writer of profound thought, and to-day is exerting an important influence in mental development through his labors' as state librarian.

Charles Burleigh Galbreath is numbered among Ohio's native sons, his

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birth having occurred in Fairfield township, Columbiana county, on the 25th of February, 1858. He manifested in his life many of the sterling charac- teristics of his Scotch ancestry. The Galbreaths resided for some time in Ireland and on leaving that country for the new world took up their abode in North Carolina, but the liberty-loving spirit of the family was strongly in opposition to the practice of slavery and their free expression of their opinions on the subject soon aroused the antagonism of the people among whom they resided, and they were forced to seek a home in the north. It was thus that in the pioneer days of Ohio the Galbreath family was founded in the eastern portion of the state, their home in Columbiana county being near the birth- place of Edwin Coppock, who was actively concerned in the historic incidents which centered about Harper's Ferry at the breaking out of the Civil war.

At the usual age when mental discipline begins in the schoolroom Charles B. Galbreath entered the primitive district schools near his home, continuing his studies there until thirteen years of age, when on account of the serious ill- ness of his father, he was obliged to put aside his text-books and give his entire attention to the work of the home farm. Endowed by nature with a strong mentality, he, however, mastered all the branches of learning taught in the neighborhood schools, which he found opportunity to attend during the winter months. He was ambitious for intellectual advancement and prepared for further educational privileges by working in a sawmill, and thus obtained the money with which to meet the expenses of a course in the high school of New Lisbon, Ohio. At the age of seventeen he began teaching and later com- pleted the high school course, afterward pursuing a four-years course in Mount Union College, being graduated from that institution with the degree of Master of Arts. The manner in which he obtained his education in the face of obstacles and difficulties shows forth his remarkable strength of char- acter and ability to cope with the difficulties he would meet in the great school of experience. He continued his work as an educator, being elected principal of the schools of Wilmot, Stark county, Ohio, where he remained until 1886, when he resigned to accept the superintendency of the schools of East Palestine, Ohio, where he continued for eight consecutive years. The work which he there accomplished cannot be overestimated. He has particular ability as an organizer and disciplinarian, in addition to his skill of imparting clearly, con- cisely and forcibly to others the knowledge which he has acquired With a full and correct realization of the importance of the public school system of the land, which is one of the strong foundation stones of our national com- monwealth, he labored untiringly and earnestly to advance the work of the schools with which he was personally connected, and it was with the deepest regret on the part of the citizens of Palestine that his association with its educational interests was terminated.

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A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Part 109

Author: Lewis Publishing Company Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1156

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1156