A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Part 13

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

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As the years passed by there came to the pioneer home to bless the mar- riage of Mr. and Mrs. Merion several children. Their first child was born February 10, 1810, and to her they gave the name of Elmira, but she lived only a short time, passing away on the 15th of February, of the same year. William, the second child, was born September 10, 1811, and died in Colum- bus at the age of eighty-two years. Nathaniel, who was born February 16, 1814, died June 17, 1877. Eveline, who was born April 11, 1816, died Novem-

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ber 1, 1885. Sarah A., born December 19, 1818, was married, December 17, 1835, to George W. Peters, and died in Columbus December 30, 1893, at the age of seventy-five. Emily was born August 19, 1822; became Mrs. Stewart, and is now in her seventy-ninth year. To her we are indebted for this his- tory of an honored pioneer family. The youngest of the family, George, was born March 4, 1829, and died February 19, 1866.

NATHAN ALVIN McCOY.

Among the prominent members of the Ohio National Guard who have an honorable military record to their credit is Nathan Alvin McCoy, the sub- ject of this sketch, now holding the position of captain of Company F, Fourth Ohio National Guard. He is a native of Columbus, Ohio, born here in 1871, a son of Alfred and Elizabeth ( Rhodes) McCoy. The grandfather of our subject was a native of Ireland, but Alfred McCoy came to Columbus from near Springfield, Illinois, in 1865. He entered the army and served through two enlistments, being twice wounded, and received promotion from corporal to sergeant. Three of his brothers also served through the Civil war. The mother of Captain McCoy was born in Washington township, a daughter of Henry Rhodes, who came to Ohio from Pennsylvania. The parents are still living. The military instinct is no doubt inherited by our subject, as his grandfather also was a soldier. He was in the war of 1812, acting as the lieutenant of a company which did good service.

Captain McCoy attended the public schools in Columbus and took a course in a commercial college, and has ever since been engaged in business. In 1891 he enlisted in Company F, Fourteenth Ohio National Guard, and was honorably discharged in 1893, but re-enlisted at the reorganization of the guard in 1898, and was elected the second lieutenant of Company F, Four- teenth Regiment of Infantry, Ohio National Guard, and May 9th entered the United States Volunteer Infantry. He served with honor through the Spanish war. In Porto Rico Company F was detailed as a dynamite battery and attached to the brigade of General Haines. In the battles of Guayama and the skirmish at Las Pamas, where immortality was won for many, his was one of the gallant companies that bore the brunt of the attack. He was detailed as a quartermaster and commissary officer, at Caney, of the distribu- tion department, and served in this position for one month, being mustered out on the 20th of January.

Captain McCoy immediately rejoined the National Guard, and in June, 1899, he was elected captain, and is still holding that position, being now the ranking captain in the regiment. During his service in Porto Rico the cap- tain was subjected to many dangers and some exciting experiences. Upon one occasion it became his duty to close a store, and this so enraged the keeper that he hired three natives to kill Captain McCoy, which they came near

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accomplishing. They set upon him and beat him with clubs, badly wounding him in the head. The men were each sentenced to twenty years imprisonment.

The marriage of Captain McCoy took place in 1897, when he was united to Miss Grace Abblichon, of Columbus, whose father came to this city many years ago from Switzerland. One son has been born and bears the name of Nathaniel Alfred Leo. The Captain is a member of the Porto Rico Expe- dition and Spanish War Veteran Association, and for six years was the cap- tain of the Sons of Veteran Guard, of the First Ohio Regiment. Personally, Captain McCoy is very popular and enjoys the esteem not only of his com- panions-in-arms but also of the residents of the city in which his home has always been.

WILLIAM DAVID BRICKELL.

The subject of this review is one of the best known business men of the city of Columbus, Ohio, being the proprietor of the Columbus weekly, daily and Sunday Dispatch, one of the leading newspapers in the state. He was born in Steubenville, Ohio, November 19, 1852, and is the son of Captain David Z. Brickell, a native of Pennsylvania, and now a resident of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, who was a son of John Brickell, one of the founders of that city. John Brickell married, in the Keystone state, a Miss Zelhart, a daughter of old settlers who had located in Pittsburg.

William David Brickell passed his boyhood and early school days in Pittsburg, completing his education in the Western University in that city. His inclinations then led him to enter the office of the Pittsburg Daily Post, and there he learned the trade of printer, continuing in that office five years, spending one year of the time in the press room and four more in the com- posing room, thus becoming thoroughly instructed in every branch. His leanings were all in the direction of newspaper work and it is not surprising that soon he became a reporter, on the St. Louis Democrat, at that time owned and published by Mr. Houser .. In 1876 he came to Columbus, having resigned the other position, and in January of that year purchased the Colum- bus Dispatch, succeeding Putnam & Doren, continuing the proprietor of this paper ever since. He has managed it to the satisfaction of his public, testi- monial to which is in the increased circulation and constantly growing busi- ness. Mr. Brickell has made a number of important changes, all of which have resulted in benefit to the patrons. The latest important undertaking in connection with his paper by Mr. Brickell has been the issuing of a Sunday edition, which progressive move was made in December, 1898. This has proven a very gratifying success, the paper meeting a recognized want and succeeding almost beyond expectation. Mr. Brickell has purchased the six- story building at the corner of Gay and High streets known as the Dispatch building, for cash, making him the envied owner of a fine paper and the build- ing where it is published. Almost without means he started out in life and

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his success has been the result of his own endeavors. Occupying the promi- nent position he does, other enterprises have come under his control. He is a director in the State Savings Bank and Trust Company; the East End Savings Bank, and the City Deposit Bank, being one of the founders of all three.

Mr. Brickell married Miss Cora Ross, a daughter of Samuel Ross, who is an old and much esteemed resident of Columbus, who is spending his last days at his comfortable home in this city.

In the political field Mr. Brickell has chosen a conservative course, and, despite almost constant solicitation, has never consented to hold office. He is a busy man, his great publications requiring much tact and judgment, while his other interests claim considerable attention; but he is popular with his fellow craftsmen in his profession.

MRS. EMILY STEWART.

Among the prominent pioneer families of Franklin county is the one to which this worthy lady belongs. She was born here and is the sixth child and third daughter in the family of William and Sally (Wait) Merion, whose sketch appears on another page of this volume. She began her educa- tion in a primitive log schoolhouse so common during her girlhood, her teacher being Parson Jeffries, who had one hundred and seven pupils. The building stood on Wall street, between Mound and Main streets. Later she attended a private school at the corner of Third and Rich streets, Columbus. For a time she pursued her studies in a private school known as the Columbus Institute.

On the 12th of May, 1840, Miss Emily Merion gave her hand in mar- riage to Edmond Stewart, who was born on High street, Columbus, Decem- ber II, 18II. His father, William Stewart, was a son of John Stewart, who came from York, Pennsylvania, in 1804, and became a large land-owner of Franklin county. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Stewart located on the farm in Marion township, where he died in 1858. By that union were born three daughters, but only one is now living,-Sallie M., the wife of H. R. Dering, assistant general passenger agent for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, at Chicago, by whom she has two daughters,-Charlotte Ray and Emily Stewart. Ellen A., the oldest daughter of Mrs. Stewart, married John H. Smith, and died November 3, 1892, leaving three sons, namely : Edmond S., of Groveport, this county ; Frank H., of Columbus, Indiana; and Walstein G., teller in the Clinton Haden Bank, of Columbus, Ohio. Martha E., the second daughter of Mrs. Stewart, died November 5, 1875, at the age of twen- ty-six years. Mrs. Stewart has seven great-grandchildren. For forty-two years she has resided at her present home, No. 382 Oak street, Columbus. She is well known and has a host of warm friends who esteem her highly. for her sterling worth.

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GEORGE L. CONVERSE.

George L. Converse was born in Georgeville, Franklin county, Ohio, June 14, 1827, a son of Dr. George W. and Cassandra (Cook) Converse. His father was a physician and a son of Sanford Converse, who served as a soldier in the war of 1812. Jeremiah Converse, the great-grandfather of the subject of this review, was one of the heroes of the Revolutionary war, and the ancestry of the family may be traced back to the French Huguenots, the first of the American line coming to this country with Winthrop.

Dr. Converse died when his son George L. was a babe of only four months. The mother was a woman of strong character and attainment and supported herself and child by teaching school. Mr. Converse obtained the foundation of his education in the public schools and afterward entered Cen- tral College, where he pursued his studies for seven years, later being gradu- ated at Dennison University, in Granville, Ohio, with the class of 1849. In 1851 he was admitted to the bar, having studied law with General J. W. Wilson, at Tiffin, Ohio. He began the practice of his chosen profession in Napoleon, Ohio, but removed to Columbus in 1852. Two years later he was elected prosecuting attorney, and after serving one term declined a re-election. He served for two terms, however, in the legislature, being chosen to that office in 1859 and re-elected in 1861. In 1863 he was elected to the state senate and became the Democratic leader in that body. In 1873 he was again chosen by popular ballot to the lower house and became its speaker, his ability as a parlimentarian attracting the attention of the entire country. In 1875 he was once more elected and was again the Democratic leader. In 1877 he was recognized as a strong candidate for gubernatorial honor, General Durbin Ward and R. M. Bishop being his competitors, the last named receiving the nomination.

In 1878 Mr. Converse was elected to congress. He was made chairman of a committee on public lands, and that appointment to one of the most im- portant committees was an honor seldom conferred on new members. He was re-elected to congress in 1880 and was elected for a third term. His position upon the tariff question and his marked ability made him a conspicuous speaker in national politics. Mr. Converse and Mr. Randall were in entire sympathy and accord and advocated the principle that a tariff should be made that would protect home industries against foreign competition. Mr. Converse moved to strike out the enacting clause of the Morrison horizontal reduction tariff bill, when, in committee of the whole, the bill was under discussion. After the defeat of the bill its friends and those opposed agreed that the question should be settled at Chicago by the Democratic national convention. Mr. Morrison was to be the representative of those who supported the bill and Mr. Randall of those opposed. The latter was detained from attending the convention on the first day, and Mr. Converse, though not a delegate, sought a place in the Ohio delegation and membership on the committee on resolutions

So Slowvers

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when the control was to be reached by an attempt to make Mr. Morrison its chairman. The opponents of the bill were successful, but Mr. Converse, as a favor to Mr. Morrison, requested, although entitled to the victory gained, that Mr. Morrison be made chairman. The subject of this review then made the first speech in reply to Benjamin F. Butler and addressed the meeting, speak- ing against the report of the committee.

He contributed largely to the presidential success in 1884 and with Mr. Randall canvassed the state of New York. On 1892 he was appointed by Governor Mckinley a delegate to the Nicaragua canal convention, held in St. Louis, was made chairman of that body and also of a subsequent convention held in New Orleans, called by him under the authority of the St. Louis con- vention. Mr. Converse took the view that the Nicaraguan canal should be constructed by the government as a national safe-guard and protection and in the interests of commerce. He delivered many addresses in different cities, sustaining these patriotic views in regard to the canal. In 1896 he was urged to allow his name to be used in connection with the candidacy to congress in the seventeenth district. Although he appreciated the honor fully, he de- clined. For many years he was prominently associated with the National Wool Growers' Association, and at one time he was the law partner of Hon. S. S. Cox.

In 1852 Mr. Converse married Miss Sarah E., daughter of Nathaniel and Mary (Walker) Patterson. Four children of this union are living: Mrs. Mary Follett, Wade and Captain George L. Converse, both of Columbus, and Howard P., who is living in Boston, Massachusetts. Mrs. Converse died in 1883, and in 1889 Mr. Converse again married, his second wife being Eloise, a daughter of Dr. Chauncey P. Landon, an eminent physician, of Columbus, Ohio. Four children were born of this marriage, one of whom died in infancy, while three are still living: Helen, Samuel Randall and Eloise, the son being named for Mr. Converse's old-time friend, the Hon. Samuel J. Randall. At his home in Columbus, Ohio, Mr. Converse died, March 30, 1897.

LORENZO ENGLISH.

It is the sacred duty of every generation to keep a faithful memorial of the character and life of its distinguished men. The maxims, motives and destinies of prominent men, as exemplified from age to age in the moral drama of our race, constitute the elements of historic philosophy and impart to the annals of mankind their only practical utility. The life of every individual exerts an influence more or less strong upon those around him and the career of the prominent citizen is studied by those with whom he comes in contact and by coming generations through the medium of history, furnishing its lessons of incentive and inspiration. Occupying a proud and honorable posi- tion among the foremost attorneys of Columbus in early days was Lorenzo

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English, who was prominently identified with public affairs in both city and state.

Mr. English was born May 22, 1819, in Herkimer county, New York, a son of John English, also a native of that county. He was reared on his father's farm until eighteen years of age and received only the advantages of such an education as the common schools of his native county afforded. In 1837 the family removed by wagon, then the usual mode of traveling by those seeking homes in the west, to Ohio, and located in Mount Vernon, Knox county. Later the father came to Columbus, where he died in 1863.

In the fall of 1839 our subject entered Oberlin College as a student and was graduated with honor in August, 1843. In September of the same year he came to Columbus and commenced the study of law under Edwards Pierre- pont, afterward attorney general of the United States. Completing his studies in 1845, he was admitted to the bar in that year, and embarked in the practice of law at Columbus. He possessed much patience and integrity, was very conscientious as well as industrious and attained great popularity. His professional career was a success from the beginning, and he became one of the most distinguished lawyers of Franklin county.

In 1859 Mr. English was united in marriage with Miss Mary Keene, a daughter of William H and Mary Keene, of Haverstraw, New York. Her father died in that state when she was very young, and later she came to Columbus with the family. Mr. and Mrs. English were the parents of five children, namely : William Henry, born in Columbus, in 1860, was educated in the public and high schools of that city, and studied law with his father and the late Judge William Baldwin. Being admitted to the bar in 1883, he has since successfully engaged in practice here. He is a thirty-second-degree Mason and a stanch supporter of the Republican party. He married Miss Ida Neal, daughter of A. C. Neal, of Greene county, Ohio, and they have one son. Mathew Keene, the next of the family, was also engaged in the public schools of Columbus, and is now engaged in the real-estate business in that city. Fraternally he is connected with the Knights of Pythias. He married Miss Louie Ford, of Columbus, and they have one daughter, Mary. Walter, who is a graduate of the Columbus high school, and is now connected with the Hayden Clinton National Bank. He married Miss Ada L. Phaler, of Columbus, and is a thirty-second-degree Mason. Lorenzo is a graduate of the pharmaceutical department of the Ohio Medical University and is now with the Columbus Pharmacy Company. He resides at home. Laura is the widow of Charles W. Young, of Columbus.

In 1850 Mr. English was the choice of the Whig party as their candidate for mayor of Columbus, and was elected over a Democratic nominee by a handsome majority. So creditably and acceptably did he fill that office that he was several times re-elected, serving eleven consecutive years. He was chosen to many other positions of honor and trust, and discharged his various duties with a promptness and fidelity worthy, of the highest commendation.

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As mayor the city government was never in more capable hands, for he was progressive and pre-eminently public-spirited, and in point of time no person, before or since, has been able to equal his long occupancy of that office. He was elected on the Republican ticket as county treasurer, by a majority of twenty-five hundred, and filled that office one term. In 1880 he was the candidate of his party for congress. In February, 1888, Mr. English received a hard fall on an icy pavement which resulted in his death on the 14th of March, the same year. He was a charter member of Capital Lodge, No. 334, I. O. O. F. His influence was great and always for good. His duties were performed with the greatest care, and throughout his life his personal honor and integrity were without blemish. Religiously the family hold membership in the Broad Street Methodist Episcopal church.

JONATHAN F. LINTON.

Jonathan F. Linton was born December 16, 1831, on a farm six miles southeast of Springfield, Clark county, Ohio, in a locality known as Green Plains. He was the oldest of three children. His father, Samuel S. Linton, was born in 1809, near Wilmington, Clinton county, Ohio. The Linton family came from Scotland in the days of William Penn and settled in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where Nathan Linton, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born about the year 1773. Nathan Linton, accompanied by his father, Samuel Linton, two brothers and two sisters, settled on Todd's Fork in Clinton county, Ohio, in 1802, where he continued to reside up to the date of his death in 1856. He served as the agent to subdivide and sell the lands granted to General Horatio Gates by the government for services in the Revolutionary war.

The family of Jonathan F. Linton's mother, Mary Fallis Linton, came to America from England, also in the days of William Penn, and were living in the vicinity of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, at the time of the Revolution. They afterward moved to the Shenandoah valley, locating near Winchester. They settled in Clinton county, Ohio, about the year 1805. The whole con- nection on both sides were members of the Quaker church down to a com- paratively late period.

Jonathan F. Linton's father and mother moved to Miami county, Indi- ana, in 1833, and settled on Eel river five miles back of Peru and opposite where was at that time located the chief village of the Pottawottomy Indians, and where is now situated the town of Denver. His father died there in 1836, and the family, now consisting of the widow and three children, returned to Ohio and settled near the village of Clifton on the Little Miami river in Greene county. In 1840 they moved to Harveysburg in Warren county.

. Our subject obtained his education in the common schools of that vicinity, in the academies of Harveysburg and Waynesville, and at the old Woodard College in Cincinnati. During his school years he clerked a year in a general

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store and postoffice in Waynesville, and spent a year in the printing office of the Springfield Republic. The year 1849 he worked at the printing trade in Lafayette, Indiana, and in New Orleans and Mobile. During 1850 lie cleared land and surveyed on Eel river in Indiana. During 1851 he was engaged in assisting to make the preliminary surveys and estimates for a division of the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad, between Ottawa and Indiantown, along the bluffs of the Illinois river. In 1852 he improved a farm near where Mendota, Illinois, now stands. In February, 1853, he bought the Peru ( Illinois) Dem- ocrat, changed its name and politics, and printed a daily and weekly Whig paper during the succeeding two years.

In the spring of 1855 he bought one thousand and forty acres of land in Lee county, Illinois, on its eastern border, where now stands the village of Lee Station on the northwestern branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. In 1857 he harvested six thousand bushels of wheat and sold it at an agerage price of fifty cents per bushel. Not having money enough to meet the demands of his creditors, he retired from the farming business for a season and put in the time publishing a Republican paper at Peru, Illinois. He returned to the farm in 1858, and continued there until the breaking out of the war. In September, 1855, he married Eliza J. Sapp, a resident and native of Peru, Illinois, with whom he has lived ever since. They have seven children, now all grown.

Mr. Linton entered the army in July, 1861, as the first lieutenant of Com- pany D, Thirty-ninth Illinois Infantry, known as the Yates Phalanx. It was a Chicago regiment and went into camp on the lake shore at about where is now Twenty-second street. The regiment first went to St. Louis, then to the upper Potomac, and spent the first winter with Lander and Shields between Williamsport and New Creek. The following summer it was up and down the Shenandoah valley with Shields and Banks, till in June, when it joined the Army of the Potomac on the James river at Harrison's Landing. The winter of 1862-3 was put in at Suffolk, Virginia, Newbern, North Carolina, and Hilton Head, South Carolina. The summer of 1863 was spent on Folly and Sullivan islands, in front of Charleston, South Carolina. The winter of 1863-4 the regiment returned to Chicago and veteranized. In February of 1864 it joined Grant's army, then in camp around Washington preparing for the march to Richmond. Our subject was made the quartermaster of his regiment in March, 1862, and served the greater part of his term of service on detached duty as brigade quartermaster on the staffs of Generals Howell, Osborn and Vogdes.

He returned to his farm in Illinois in the summer of 1864. During 1867-8 he was in the milling business at Gardner, Illinois. 1869, 1870 and 1871 were spent in the milling business at South Toledo, Ohio. In March, 1872, he bought the Ohio Statesman at Columbus, Ohio, and published it for four years. In March. 1874, he bought his farm just south of the city, where he has resided nearly ever since. In 1878 he established the Legal

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Record and sold it out in 1880. He laid out the suburb now known as Milo in January, 1888. The subdivision known as West Park Place he bought in 1891. He has resided in the city since the fall of 1898 at 54 West Second avenue, and is still engaged in the real-estate business, mixed with a little farming.

Thus we have endeavored to condense, as it were in a "nut-shell," an out- line of an eventful and interesting career, a full account of which would fill a large volume.

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A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Part 13

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