A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Part 41

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 41

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In 1890 he entered into partnership with F. H. Nichol, under the firm name of Nichol & Carr, general contractors. Both partners are skilled mechanics, and the firm is known as one of the most responsible and reliable in the city. They are very prompt in the execution of a contract, faithfully living up to its terms, and enjoy in a large measure the public confidence and therefore the public support. In 1900 Mr. Carr erected on West Broad street, at No. 949, a handsome flat building, which has a seventy-five-foot front and is one hundred and forty feet deep. It is two stories in height and accommodates eleven families. The front is built of pressed and tile brick of fine finish and the building is supplied with all modern improvements and conveniences. The rental therefrom adds largely to the income of Mr. Carr.

In 1878 was celebrated the marriage of our subject and Miss Emma B. Talhelm, of Greencastle, Pennsylvania, in which city she was born and reared, her parents being Jacob and Catherine (De Walt) Talhelm. Mr. Carr is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Mystic Chain, the Knights of Honor and the Builders and Traders' Exchange. He started out upon his business career with moderate means, but his industry and frugality, coupled with good judgment, have enabled him to accumulate a handsome competence for his declining years. He is a thorough exemplifica- tion of a typical American business man and gentleman.

JOSEPH PEGG.

At an early period in the development of Franklin county Joseph Pegg, now deceased, became one of its residents, and through many consecutive years he not only witnessed the progress and upbuilding of this portion of the state, but ever bore his part in the work of development. He arrived in Clinton township in the year 1833 and located upon a tract of wild land which he purchased. Thereon had been previously built a primitive round-

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log cabin containing one room. In it was a puncheon floor and on the out- · side a mud and stick chimney. Into this pioneer home he removed with his wife and three children. In his early youth he acquired a good education, partly in school and partly through reading and study in leisure hours. He followed teaching during the greater part of his life, beginning at a time when there was no public money to pay for a teacher's services, and accept- ing in return for his educational labors the products of the farm,-meat, flour, and even fruit trees,-and these he would have to exchange with those who wished such commodities in order to get money to defray his expenses. He was a very studious man, who loved books, and was always carrying forward his work of investigation along some line of research. He was a very close observer and in that way added not a little to his knowledge. He read law in connection with Reuben Beers, L. H. Webster and James Gal- braith. They rented a room in Columbus and there they carried on their studies without the aid of a teacher, in this manner qualifying for admission to the bar. Mr. Pegg later opened an office in Columbus, and subsequently he went to Bloomington, Illinois, with the intention of practicing law there, but instead he took up teaching as a means of obtaining a livelihood, remain- ing, however, in the Prairie state but a short time.

Returning to Columbus, Mr. Pegg resumed teaching and the practice of law. In the former profession he was exceptionally successful. He had a clear, strong mind, which enabled him to give forcible and pleasing expres- sion to his thoughts and to impress them strongly upon the minds of his pupils. He served his townsmen in the capacity of justice of the peace and was ever fair and impartial in the discharge of his duties. He also served as clerk of the township for several years and was active in politics, doing all in his power to promote the growth and insure the success of the Democ- racy, with which political organization he was allied. He was also a man of strong religious convictions, and his early aspirations were for an educa- tion that would fit him for ministerial work, but later became attracted by the law and changed his plan of life.

Mr. Pegg was married in Franklin township, Franklin county, to Miss Matilda Crawford. Her father was a pioneer farmer and honored repre- sentative of the community at an early day. Eleven children were born unto Mr. and Mrs. Pegg, of whom ten are yet living, the eldest, Margaret, having been killed by a falling tree when a child. The others are: Orville R., a resident of Logan county, Ohio; Elias W. and George F., who are residents of Clinton township; Emma M., the wife of Alexander B. McGrew, a resident of St. Louis, Missouri; Mary, the wife of William Heverlo, who amakes his home in Morrow county, Ohio; Jane, the deceased wife of John Kissinger, a resident of Pass Christian, Mississippi; Louis L., who is located in Clinton township; Melissa, the widow of Erwin Maize, of Clinton town- ship; Monroe J., who is living in the same township; and Thomas B., who resides in South America.

The father of this family died in 1853, at the age of forty-five years,

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and the mother passed away in 1873, at the age of sixty-five years. The ex- ample which he left to his children was one well worthy of emulation. Although his educational privileges were limited, he acquainted himself with the higher branches of learning, mastering botany, natural philosophy, physics, metaphysics and higher mathematics. He thus became a man of high schol- arly attainments, of broad general information, and his studious nature dom- inated his entire life. During the days of his early residence in Franklin county he was the only strong educational factor in the settlement. He interested his neighbors in the erection of a school house and he had no diffi- culty in gaining the interest of his children or in maintaining discipline, nor tvas he forced to resort to harsh measures, such as were employed by other teachers of the time. He had exceptional conversational powers, was a fluent speaker, had a ready command of the English language, and always managed to hold the attention of his auditors and both entertain and instruct them when he occupied a position upon the public platform. His services were in great demand as a Fourth of July orator and upon other occasions when the public was addressed upon patriotic measures. He was extremely public spirited and championed every measure for the public good. He was recognized as a leader in local politics, and his influence along that line was strongly manifest. He was a man of fine personal appearance and winsome personality, and he left the world better for his having lived. His wife was a lady of sterling domestic qualities, devoted to her husband, to her children and to her home. She also possessed business qualifications of a high order, and contributed her full share to the support of their large family. Of a deeply religious nature, she held membership in the Methodist Episcopal church and was a consistent Christian woman in all that she said or did. She was left a widow when six of her children were small, but she bravely took up the burden thus devolving upon her, kept her children together, provided for their necessities, gave them good educational privileges and prepared them for life's practical and responsible duties by the advantages which she afforded them and by her own teaching and example. No one well acquainted with both Mr. and Mrs. Pegg should have anything but the highest regard for them on account of their many splendid characteristics, and the children certainly have every reason to honor their name and memory.

Elias W. Pegg, their second son and third child, was born in Frank- linton, June 17, 1833. His early educational privileges were such as the schools of that day afforded, the school year comprising from two to three months during the winter season. During that brief period he continued his studies and at the age of sixteen years he left home, assuming the responsi- bility of providing for his own support." He won his father's consent to this move, and his first undertaking was to drive stock eastward across the Alle- ghanies, making the journey on foot, a distance of about five hundred miles. He received forty cents per day for the time consumed in making the round trip. On the return trip he walked forty miles per day, the remuneration being on an average of about a cent per mile. He afterward began working

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on a farm at ten dollars per month, which he followed for three years. He then entered Westerville College, being about twenty years of age at that time. There he prosecuted his studies until he had prepared himself for teach- ing. His first and last school was taught in a little log school house in the woods in Norwich township, Franklin county. He received twenty-four dollars per month for his services and boarded around among the parents whose children were students under his instruction. When his first term was ended he rented a farm in Clinton township and operated it for five years.

On the 8th of August, 1858, Elias W. Pegg was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Kissinger, a daughter of John and Catherine (DeNune) Kissinger, of Mifflin township. He then purchased a farm of ninety acres, which he afterward exchanged for the land upon which he now resides, taking up his abode there March 22, 1862. Farming has since been his principal occupation, and it has been the means of bringing to him a desira- ble prosperity. By purchase he has added to his possessions from time to time until he now owns two hundred and seventy acres of very valuable land, for some of which he has paid as high as three hundred dollars per acre. Beginning in 1862, for many years he supplied the government with army horses, and he has also been engaged quite extensively in buying and ship- ping stock.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Pegg has been born one child, Elmer Ellsworth, who resides upon his father's farm. He is a graduate of the Ada (Ohio) College, where he pursued an engineering course, and is also a graduate of Bryant's Commercial College, of Columbus. He possesses superior mathe- matical attainments and engineering skill. He was married to Miss Ruth Wilcox, and has two children,-Florence W. and Mary.

Mr. Pegg gives earnest support to the Republican party, and has served his township as justice of the peace and as trustee, filling both offices for many years. For thirty-five years he has been a member of Capital . Lodge, No. 334, I. O. O. F., also of Capital Encampment. His long business career has resulted in large financial gains which have been acquired along legitimate business lines, and he is now regarded as one of the sound and substantial men of Franklin county. He is well preserved. both physically and mentally, having the vigor of a man many years his junior.

MONROE J. PEGG.

Monroe J. Pegg, the tenth child of Joseph Pegg. deceased, was born in Clinton township, Franklin county, on the old family homestead, Janu- ary 7. 1848. He received a good common-school education and was thus fitted for the teacher's profession. He experienced all the trials and hard- ships of pioneer life on a farm in a new locality, having assisted his father in clearing and improving the land which was transformed into the home farm. Not content with the early educational privileges which he had re- ceived, he entered Otterbein College, of Westerville, Ohio, where he remained

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for a year and a half. Subsequently he engaged in teaching in the schools of Franklin county through the winter months and in the summer he worked upon the home farm. After his father's death he remained at home with his widowed mother until she, too, was called away, relieving her of the care of her farm and adding to her happiness in her last days by his filial care and devotion.

Mr. Pegg was united in marriage to Miss Emma, daughter of J. O. Amos. They began their domestic life on the old family homestead, where they resided until 1882, when they removed to an adjoining farm belonging to his brother, and there they have since resided. Mr. Pegg's landed pos- sessions constituted a tract of sixty acres. Unto our subject and his wife have been born five children, three of whom are living, namely: Kate, Mar- guerite and Mary H. The deceased are Violet and one who died unnamed. The mother is a member of the McKendree church. In politics Mr. Pegg is a Democrat, but has never sought or desired office, preferring to devote his time and energies' to his business affairs, in which he is meeting with creditable success, being an energetic farmer.

WILLIAM WALLACE BICKETT, M. D.

Dr. Bickett, who is spending the closing years of a useful life free from business cares at his pleasant home in Perry township, was for many years one of the leading physicians of Franklin county, practicing most of the time in Worthington. He was born on the Richards farm, on the Scioto, in Perry township, November 4, 1835, and is now the only representative of the family living in this county.

The Doctor is a twin brother of Ebenezer Erskine Bickett, and a son of James Bickett, who was born in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, Sep- tember 8, 1805. The paternal grandfather, William Bickett, was a native of the north of Ireland and a Protestant in religious belief. He was twice married, James being a son by the first union. In his native county the latter was reared to agricultural pursuits, and on coming to Franklin county, Ohio, in 1833, he purchased an unimproved farm of eighty acres in Perry town- ship, which he at once began to improve, erecting first a primitive log cabin. This place becoming his permanent home, he dying here April 28, 1865. In 1834 he married Miss Sarah Richards ( familiarly known as Sallie), who was born in Perry township, this county, May 14, 1814, and belonged to one of the honored pioneer families of Ohio. Her father, Ebenezer Rich- ards, was born in Massachusetts, May 24, 1773, of Welsh ancestry, and at an early day moved with his family to Pennsylvania, where he was married March 22, 1802, to Lois Taylor, who was born February 24, 1784, of English parentage. In 1807 they came to this state and took up their residence on Big Walnut creek, south of Columbus. The following year Mr. Richards bought two hundred acres of land two miles north of Marble Cliff, which has ever since been the homestead of his family. He died October 4, 1839,

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and his wife passed away June 8, 1822. They had seven children : Esther, Zipporah, Lydia, Hiram, Sallie, Nancy and Julius, two of whom died in childhood. Dr. Bickett's father departed this life April 28, 1865, and the mother subsequently made her home with the Doctor in Worthington, where she died February 25, 1887. As an affectionate and faithful son, he ten- derly cared for her during the last twenty-two years of her life. Both par- ents were devout and active members of the Presbyterian church of Worth- ington.

To this worthy couple were born nine children, seven sons and two daugh- ters, including three pairs of twins. William W. and Ebenezer E. were born November 4, 1835. The latter enlisted in 1861 as a private in Company H, Forty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and for meritorious conduct was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant. He was later transferred to Com- pany G, the same regiment, with which he served until his death. He par- ticipated in many hard-fought engagements, and was wounded at the battle of Resaca, Georgia, May 14, 1864, dying from the effects of his injuries at Chattanooga, Tennessee, on the 27th of June. His remains were brought home and interred in the Ebenezer Richards cemetery. Hiram and John, twins, died in infancy. Andrew J. and Thomas J. were born November 22, 1840, and are veterans of the Civil war. The former, who is now a resi- dent of Bureau county, Illinois, enlisted as a private in Company D, Ninety- fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in July, 1862, and was captured with his regiment at Richmond, Kentucky. After being exchanged he returned to the service in January, 1863, but in June, 1864, he was again captured at Guntown, Mississippi. This time he was incarcerated in Andersonville prison, where he remained until the following December, when he was paroled on account of illness and exchanged. He was mustered out with his regiment at Camp Chase in 1865. At Richmond, Kentucky, he had his right fore finger shot off, and now receives a pension of ten dollars per month. Thomas J., a resident of Barton county, Missouri, entered the service in 1861, also as a private in Company H, Forty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. and took part in all of the engagements in which his regiment participated, being honorably discharged at Louisville, Kentucky, in July, 1865. He was wounded in the shoulder at Pittsburg Landing, and now receives a pension of twelve dollars per month. Julius D., born January 22, 1846, is in the railroad service and resides at Cincinnati. Nancy J., born in 1850, died in May, 1865, at the age of fifteen years. Lois R., born in 1855, was married in 1880 to Frank L. Davies, a railroad man residing in Danville, Illinois.

Dr. Bickett, of this review, passed his early life upon the home farm, and attended the district schools of the neighborhood. At the age of twenty- two he entered the Capital University at Columbus, where he was a student for two years, and then engaged in teaching and working on the farm until 1860. The following year he entered the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, remaining there until 1861, when he was made steward at the county infirmary and held that position for two years, at the same time

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attending Starling College. He commenced the study of medicine with Dr. John Dawson, and was graduated from J. W. Hamilton's office March I, 1864. On the 15th and 16th of that month he passed the required exami- nation before the state board of examiners for the army, and was commis- sioned assistant surgeon, being assigned to the Third Ohio Volunteer Cav- alry. He joined his regiment at Nashville, Tennessee, April 7, 1864, and was with Sherman in the Atlanta campaign. After the fall of that city the regiment returned with General Thomas's army to oppose General Hood, then operating in Tennessee. After participating in the battles of Nash- ville and Franklin they were assigned to General Wilson's cavalry corps and took part in the celebrated Wilson raid, which ended at Macon, Georgia, April 21, 1865. There they remained until mustered out the following Sep- tember. The Doctor's horse was shot under him in the Kilpatrick charge near Lovejoy Station, Georgia, August 20, 1864, and he was twice struck by bullets in the same engagement, but not disabled. He was mustered out at Nashville, Tennessee, September 14, 1865.

Upon his return to civil life Dr. Bickett took a trip through the west, and then, in May, 1866, opened an office in Columbus, remaining there until December, when he formed a partnership with Dr. E. M. Pinney, of Dublin, with whom he was connected for one year. In May, 1868, he located at Worthington, where he was successfully engaged in general practice for twenty-one years. In the fall of 1871 he entered the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York city, and taking the full course he received a diploma March I, 1872. He is still a member of the Central Ohio Medical Society and the Delaware County Medical Society, though he discontinued practice in 1889, when he sold his property in Worthington and moved to his farm in Perry township. He takes yearly trips through different sec- tions of the country, and in 1890 traveled through southern California and Mexico.

On the 16th of October, 1866, the Doctor was initiated into the mys- teries of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Capital Lodge, No. 334, of Columbus, and in June, 1869, transferred his membership to Ark Lodge, No. 270, of Worthington, from which he took a card in 1892 to become a charter member of Lincoln Lodge, No. 801, of Columbus. He is also a member of Olentangy Encampment, No. 149, and has represented his district in the grand lodge of Ohio three terms of two years each. He has served as assessor of Perry township several times, and in 1900 took the govern- ment census there. He is widely and favorably known throughout his native county, and is justly deserving the high regard in which he is held.

JULIUS ZIRKEL.

Among the farmers and gardeners of Marion township, Franklin county, Ohio, the late Julius Zirkel achieved the distinction of having been one of the first growers of strawberries for the Columbus market. Mr. Zirkel was

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born January 18, 1836, on the farm on section 32, Marion township, which is now the home of his widow.

He was a son of Otto Zirkel, a native of Prussia, who came when a comparatively young man to Franklin county and settled on the Zirkel farm above referred to. He was later married to Eliza Simmons, who bore him a daughter and a son. The latter, Julius Zirkel, at the age of seventeen, began the cultivation of strawberries and developed this enterprise into a successful business, which he continued until his death, November 10, 1896. Ile became well known in his line of business, the "Zirkel berry" having achieved an enviable reputation on the market He enlisted in the army of the north, in the fall of 1864, and served as a soldier until the close of the war of the Rebellion. July 30, 1872, he married Julia D. Frankenberg, who was born within the limits of section 22, Marion township. September 17, 1845, a daughter of Ernest Frankenberg, a native of Hanover, Germany. He came to the United States in 1835 and located in Marion township, where lie became known as a farmer and dairyman. His death occurred in 1863, in his seventieth year.

He was married in his native land to Amelia Bethje, who lived to be ninety-three years old, and they had three sons and a daughter: Ernest, who is deceased; Adolph W. and Albert H., the latter residing in Columbus. Mrs. Zirkel, the daughter, was the third child in order of birth, and was educated by private teachers. In 1863 Mr. and Mrs. Frankenberg removed to Mc- Lean county, Illinois, where Mr. Frankenberg died in 1864, and his wife remained there until 1868, when she returned to Franklin county and located at Columbus. Otto Zirkel, Julius Zirkel's father, was at one time a colonel in the German army. He commanded a company in the Mexican war, and offered his services to the United States government in 1861, but they were declined because of his age. Otto Zirkel was best known as a physician. He was a graduate of Starling Medical College, and his familiar figure was known far and wide, as he rode on horseback many miles in each direction in his daily visits to his numerous patients.

Julius and Julia D. (Frankenberg) Zirkel have had a son and a daugh- ter, Raymond H. and Edna E. Their son is a teller for the Market Exchange Bank at Columbus, Ohio, and their daughter, a graduate of the Columbus high school and the Ohio State Normal School, is a special teacher of Ger- man at the Ohio Avenue School, of Columbus. Mrs. Zirkel's farm consists of about forty acres of land, and is considered a productive and valuable property.

ALEXANDER NEIL, M. D.

In the subject of this review we have one who attained distinction in the line of his profession, who was an earnest and discriminating student, and who held a position of due relative precedence among the medical prac- titioners of Columbus.

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Dr. Neil was born in Delaware county, Ohio, December 21, 1838, a son of Charles and Elizabeth ( Walker) Neil, both of whom were natives of Virginia. The father died in 1882, and the mother October 19, 1894. She was a daughter of John Walker, who served as captain in the Revolu- tionary war, and died in 1858, at the very advanced age of one hundred and two years. He married Miss Mary Rollins. The ancestors of the Neil family came from England and were among the early settlers along the Atlantic seaboard. The representatives of the family have taken an active part in things pertaining to the political, religious and material development of the section of the country in which they have resided.

Dr. Neil, whose name introduces this record, began his education in a private school and there prepared for college, after which he entered the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, where he completed the course, winning the degree of bachelor of arts in 1858, while later his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of master of arts. Upon his graduation he began reading medicine under the direction of George C. Blackman, a professor of surgery in the Medical College of Ohio and a fellow in the Royal College of Surgeons of London, England. Subsequently our subject attended a course of lectures in the Ohio Medical College, and afterward in the College of Medicine and Surgery in Cincinnati, receiving from the latter institution the degree of doctor of medicine in 1861. The country becoming involved in civil war, he joined the Union army at the beginning of the struggle and served as a surgeon until hostilities had ceased and the "boys in blue" no longer needed his services to repair the ravages of war. Dur- ing the latter part of the sanguinary trouble between the north and the south he was on the staff of General P. H. Sheridan as medical purveyor of the valley department.

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A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Part 41

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