USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio > Part 61
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FRANK E. POWELL.
Frank Everett Powell, who resides in Columbus, is a popular engineer on the Pennsylvania Railroad. He was born in Franklin county, Ohio, May 4, 1858, and is a son of Alfred Powell, who throughout the greater part of his career carried on agricultural pursuits, living upon a farm in this county until 1884, when he put aside business cares and removed to the cap- ital city. Here he died on the 21st of April, 1898, at the age of seventy-six
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years. His wife, Mrs. Sarah Jane Powell, is now living with her son Frank. The other members of the family are Thomas, born in 1854; Annie, who was born in 1856, and died in 1867; Frank E., born May 4, 1858; and Hattie, wife of Frank Hornberger, a switchman in the Pennsylvania yards in Colum- bus, by whom she has one child, Herbert.
Frank E. Powell acquired his education in the public schools. He worked on his father's farm until twenty years of age, but not wishing to spend his entire life in the fields, he became connected with the railway service as an employe of the Pennsylvania road in the fall of 1883, serving in the capacity of fireman. He held that position until January 13, 1887, when he was made an engineer. For seventeen years he has been connected with the same road, and no higher testimony of his ability and fidelity could be given, for large corporations do not tolerate inefficiency on the part of their employes. He is most careful and painstaking, and the only severe personal injury which he ever sustained occurred on the Ioth of November, 1883, when he was a fireman. A passenger train ran into his engine near Newark, Ohio, on the switch, the disaster being the result of negligence on the part of a switchman. Matthews and Kinney, respectively the engineer and fireman on the passenger train, were both killed. The engineer with whom Mr. Powell was working was not seriously hurt, but our subject had his hand and arm badly burned and the other hand was scalded, so that he was unfit for duty for two months.
On the 5th of October, 1885, Mr. Powell was united in marriage to Miss Mary Flautt, of Columbus. Her grandparents were natives of Bel- mont county, Ohio, and her parents were Henry and Catherine Flautt, the former born in March, 1831, and the latter in March, 1841. They are now residing on their farm two miles from Somerset, Ohio. Their children are Martin and Charles, who are residents of Columbus; Augustus, who is living on the old homestead; Mattie, wife of B. Flowers, of Marion, Indiana; Rader and Dora, at home; and Mrs. Powell. By their marriage our subject and his wife have become the parents of three children, namely: Mary Ger- trude, born December 11, 1896; Joseph, born June 11, 1898; and Alfred, born February 22, 1900.
' Mr. Powell has been a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive En- gineers since 1888, having joined the order in Dennison, Ohio. He has resided in Columbus since 1884, and is now occupying a pleasant and attract- ive home at No. 165 Hiawatha avenue. The family are members of the Catholic church.
G. A. WRIGHT, M. D.
Dr. G. A. Wright, who is numbered among the successful medical prac- titioners of Franklin county and makes his home in Brice, was born in Madi- son township on the 9th of February, 1868. His entire life has been passed in this locality, save for the time spent in school. His father, David Wright,
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is a prominent farmer of Madison township, and was born in April, 1842. Throughout his entire life he has occupied the farm on which he yet resides, the place comprising one hundred and four acres of rich land, which is highly cultivated. He married Miss Cynthia A. Stevenson, a daughter of Joshua Stevenson ,who was born near Baltimore, Maryland. Mr and Mrs. Wright are the parents of four children: David A., Jonathan A., George A. and Oliver A. The eldest married Miss Nettie Groves, a daughter of James K. Groves, of Truro township. David A. follows farming in Madison town- ship, and by his marriage has become the father of three children: Roy Alvin, Ethel Olive and Carl K. Jonathan A. Wright resides at Thornville, Ohio. He is a Methodist minister and has charge of a church of his de- nomination at that place. He married Libbie Rathborne. Oliver A. Wright devotes his life to educational work. He acquired his early educational training in the schools of Madison township, and afterward was a student in the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, where he served as sec- retary for President Bashford, of that institution. There he won local honors in an oratorical contest in the college, and also won first honors in the state collegiate contest, in which nine colleges of the state were represented. The winning of the first honors at that time entitled him to the privilege of enter- ing the national contest of colleges which was held at Topeka, Kansas. For two years he was superintendent of the Good Government League at Detroit, and on the expiration of that period he was elected superintendent of schools at Canton, Ohio, where he is now serving most acceptably. Oliver com- pietes the family. He is a young man of twenty-eight years of age.
Dr. Wright obtained his early education in the district schools of his native township and completed his literary training by a course in the Rey- noldsburg Union Academy at Reynoldsburg, Ohio. Subsequently he en- gaged in teaching in Franklin county for five years. During that time he prepared for the practice of medicine. He then entered the Ohio Medical . College, and upon completing the regular course of that institution was graduated in 1898, since which time he has engaged in practice in Brice, and has already won success that many an older member of the profession might well envy. His knowledge is accurate and broad, and with a just apprecia- tion of the responsibilities which rest upon a physician, he carefully manages liis business and his professional efforts have been attended with excellent results.
ALBERTUS C. WOLFE, M. D.
Professional advancement is proverbially slow, for it depends upon mental acquirement. Wealth and influence count for little or naught in winning success in any of the "learned professions." It must come as the result of individual effort and skill, and therefore if one has gained prestige it is an unmistakable evidence of careful preparation and ability. Dr. Wolfe is well known as a worthy representative of the medical fraternity, and as
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he is also popular and well known in social circles the record of his life can not fail to prove of interest to many of our readers. The Doctor was born at Linscott, Athens county, Ohio, in 1859, and when two years of age his parents removed to a farm near Bishopville, Ohio. Soon after this his father, John Wolfe, enlisted in the Civil war, entering Company K, Sixty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he served as orderly sergeant until his death, which occurred at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, November 20, 1863, at the age of thirty-two years. He was born in Athens county, Ohio, and lived there during most of his life. He was the son of George P. Wolfe, who was born in Athens county, Ohio, in 1806, and his entire life was spent there, dying in 1858. The great-grandfather of Dr. Wolfe, George W. Wolfe, who came to the Buckeye state in 1797 from Pennsylvania, was a soldier in the war of 1812, in which he received a wound in the arm, which left him a cripple the remainder of his life. The Doctor's grandmother Wolfe's maiden name was Eliza Wilkins, and his mother's maiden name was Keziah McDonald. She was a daughter of Thomas McDonald, of Athens county, and a representative of one of the pioneer families of the state.
Dr. Wolfe, of this review, was but four years old when his father died. His mother, with him and his sister, two years old, were left on a small farm, for which they were partly in debt. Early in life the Doctor saw the sorrows and strife of this life. The mother, a noble, good woman, thus left, managed through much sorrow and a great struggle to pay off the debt on the farm and keep the children together, saving a part of her and the chil- dren's pension to educate the latter. The Doctor received his preliminary education at a country school near Bishopville, Ohio, and also studied at Athens, Ohio, pursuing a course in the Ohio University at that place. De- termining to make the practice of medicine his life work, he matriculated in the Columbus Medical College, in which institution he was graduated in 1883. Immediately afterward he opened an office for practice in Jackson- ville, Athens county, where he remained until 1891, when he went to New York and took a post-graduate course. He returned to Columbus in Janu- ary, 1892, where he has since built up a creditable business. His knowlege is comprehensive and exact, and he did not put aside his text-books on leaving the school room, but has continued an earnest, discriminating student, con- stantly supplementing his knowledge by reading and investigation. He was professor of the diseases of the nose and throat in the Ohio Medical Uni- versity for six years, from 1892 until 1898. During this time he was rhin- ologist and laryngologist to the Protestant Hospital of this city, which indi- cates the line of his specialty. He is now laryngologist and rhinologist to . Grant Hospital. He is a member of the Columbus Academy of Medicine, of the State Medical Society and of the American Medical Society, and finds in his association with these organizations an incentive and inspiration for further work.
The Doctor was married in Columbus to Miss Fannie Main, a daughter of George Main, now deceased. Her father came to Ohio from Syracuse,
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New York, and was for some time employed in the Big Four freight depart- ment. Her mother, who bore the maiden name of Harriet Powell, was a native of England. When six years of age she came to America, and is still living, at the age of sixty-three years. She has recently returned from a visit to her native land. The Doctor and his wife have a large circle of friends in Columbus and the hospitality of many of the best homes of the city is extended to them. Socially he is connected with Denison Lodge, I. O. O. F. In politics he is a Republican, and in religious belief and con- nection is a Methodist. He has already gained an enviable standing among the medical practitioners of the capital city, and as one of its representatives is worthy of honorable mention in this volume.
VALENTINE FITZPATRICK.
One of the most prominent representatives of labor unions in America is Valentine Fitzpatrick, who is now serving as third vice grand master of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen. He makes his home in Columbus, occupying a beautiful residence at No. 737 Neil avenue. His birth occurred in Steubenville, Ohio, on the 29th of August, 1864. His father, Valentine Fitzpatrick, was a native of Ireland, born in the year 1840, and having crossed the Atlantic to America he resided for some time in Ohio, but after- ward went to Illinois, taking up his abode in Peoria, that state, when the subject of this review was only two years of age. The family afterward went to Pekin, Illinois, but the father spent his last days in Peoria, where he died in 1891, at the age of seventy-six years. His wife, Mrs. Margaret Fitzpatrick, died in Pekin, Illinois, in 1882.
Valentine Fitzpatrick went with his parents to Illinois during his infancy and spent much of his childhood in Pekin, that state, acquiring his educa- tion in the public schools there. In the year 1879 he entered the railroad service as water boy on a section, and afterward became a brakeman, and in the years 1883-4 he served as station baggagemaster and worked in a freight house. He was a brakeman for two years on a passenger train, and served for a similar period as conductor on a freight train, and was then promoted as passenger conductor, in which capacity he served for five years. On the Ist of August, 1895, he resigned in order to accept the position of third vice grand master of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, holding that posi- tion up to the present time. He has been a delegate to the national conven- tions and is constantly engaged in organizing lodges and in investigating and adjusting complaints of employes. His work is of an important and responsible nature, and is conducted with keen discrimination and with fair- ness to all parties concerned. He has thus won the high regard and con- fidence of employers and employes, and well merits the friendship and respect which is accorded him.
Mr. Fitzpatrick was married October 10, 1889, to Miss Clara. A. Vorys, the wedding being celebrated at No. 195 East Rich street, Columbus. Her
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parents were both natives of Lancaster, Ohio. Her father died March 29, 1895, in the city of Columbus, at the age of sixty-nine years, and her mother, Mrs. Mary E. Vorys, is still living. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Fitzpatrick have been born two children: Harold David, born October 1, 1891, and Helen E., born December 5, 1895. Mr. Fitzpatrick and his family are communi- cants of the Episcopal church. In politics he is non-partisan, giving his support to men and measures that he believes will best contribute to the public good. He is a representative of the Masonic fraternity, having taken the Knight Templar degree in Columbus Commandery, No. I, of this city.
GARRY W. MEEKER.
Biography is not simply a matter of names and dates. Another article in this word details the leading incidents in the life of ex-Mayor Meeker, of Columbus, Ohio, and includes genealogical data concerning the ancestors of the subject of this sketch; but no mere mention of the facts that Garry Waldo Meeker was born at Westerville in July, 1859, and other statistical information, would adequately tell the story of his active and useful career, which has been a life of achievement. Minerva Park and the Columbus Central Railway are the products of his originality, as they are monuments to his genius, and no sketch of his career that did not contain their history would be complete or acceptable. to fair and discriminating readers. This son of Columbus's worthy ex-executive is something more than "the son of his father;" and his work in behalf of public utility and convenience cannot be overlooked.
The Columbus Central Railway was brought into being at the instance and largely through the efforts of Garry W. Meeker, in response to a public demand, and Minerva Park was made possible by it; and Mr. Meeker was the first to suggest it and put in action the chain of events which brought it into being. In August, 1891, a public meeting was held in the town hall at Westerville, at which the citizens of Westerville and the surrounding country expressed their indignation aroused by the failure of the Cleveland, Akron & Columbus Railway Company to provide for the transportation of many of their number to the state fair held at Columbus that year. The company had run its regular train through without stopping, leaving four hundred passengers who had purchased tickets with the expectation of attend- ing the fair, but who were compelled to remain about the station for sev- eral hours before any provision was made by the company to carry them to Columbus. The meeting was largely attended, and Mr. Meeker, who was one of its animating spirits, made a speech in which he suggested and urged the building of an electric railway line between Columbus and Westerville, pointing out the advantages such a line would afford to the community and its entire feasibility; and in conclusion he moved that a committee of three be appointed by the chair to take out articles of incorporation for the con- struction of such a line as he had indicated.
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Thus it will be seen that Mr. Meeker was the originator of this great improvement, and he is deeply interested in its progress ; and at the very out- set, in a most public-spirited way, he took upon himself in large measure the responsibility for its success. The company was incorporated under the style of the Columbus & Westerville Railway Company. Stock subscriptions were solicited and decisive steps were taken toward putting the project on a substantial foundation. Other public meetings were held, at which Mr. Meeker was the leading speaker, and most tellingly advocated the electric railway as a great public improvement and an indispensable public conveni- ence. Later on he associated with himself Colonel M. H. Neil, of Colum- bus, and T. A. Simons, an active business man, and they gave their best efforts and energies to the furtherance of the enterprise. As was to be ex- pected, they encountered numerous difficulties. When all things in their con- trol promised a speedy construction of the road, the panic of 1893 came upon. the country. Against great opposition Mr. Meeker and his associates obtained franchises on different avenues and streets of Columbus, the validity of which was tested in the courts of the state. Injunction suits followed, and, after having won in that and other expensive litigation, the promoters of the road were able to begin the work of construction in June, 1894, and the line was finished to Westerville in August, 1895, four years after Mr. Meeker had suggested it.
Mr. Meeker, who had become the secretary and treasurer of the Colum- bus Central Railway Company, had the honor of running the first electric car into Westerville, August 12, 1895, to the delight and applause of his fel- low citizens, who realized fully what a victory he had won over obstruction and discouragement. During the entire period of the promotion and con- struction of the road he was indefatigable in his efforts to make the enter- prise a success. He had appeared frequently before the board of public works in the city council of Columbus and before the board of county com- missioners of Franklin county to urge the granting of a franchise to the company, and wrote argumentative and convincing letters to the public press, denouncing hostile opposition to an enterprise of great public utility which it was possible to accomplish only by a persistent fight against many opposing elements.
To Mr. Meeker more than to any other man is due credit for the con- struction of this new and important street railway system in the city of Columbus. Not only was he its original promoter, but it was through his indomitable energy and perseverance that influences were organized and maintained that brought financial aid to a great undertaking which has proven of incalculable benefit to Columbus, to Westerville, to the country all about Westerville, and to that between the town and the city. In their efforts to obtain financial aid for the enterprise, Mr. Meeker and his associates were fortunate in securing the co-operation of the late John J. Shipherd, of Cleve- land, Ohio, who entered heartily into the spirit of the undertaking and not only made provision for money for the construction of the road, but also 32
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took great pride in the erection of its power house, which is one of the most modern and best equipped in the United States. The road was provided with first-class rolling stock and other material, and experience is proving that the introduction of this first competitive street railway into Columbus has made it one of the foremost and most thoroughly up-to-date street rail- way cities in the world.
Mr. Meeker conceived the idea that a large park for the recreation of the people should be established on the line of the Columbus Central Railway at some point between Columbus and Westerville, and this idea resulted in Minerva Park, which was named in honor of Mrs. Minerva Shipherd, of Cleveland, Ohio, the wife of the first president of the Columbus Central Railway Company. In April, 1892, Mr. Meeker secured from the late Lewis Huffman an option on his farm of two hundred and twenty-seven acres, which he purchased at the expiration of the option, July 27, 1892, paying Mr. Huffman a good price for the land. It is possible that Mr. Huffman did not believe at the time he made a deed of the property that the farm he had tilled and on which he had pastured his sheep and cattle would ever be developed into a beautiful park, with lakes and fountains and all the charms of skillful landscape gardening, in which the people of a big city would seek rest and recreation in all the years to come. The location is an ideal one, however, and it was not long before Mr. Meeker and his associates began work preliminary to the construction of the park by removing stumps, logs, brush and everything else that encumbered the land. They began perma- nent improvements in 1894, and in 1895 the park was completed, with a beautiful casino building, a water-works system and an electric-lighting sys- tem, beds of flowers, fountains, rustic bridges and every improvement and auxiliary necessary to the comfort and pleasure of the people. The casino was burned late in 1895, but through the enterprise of George H. Worth- ington a new casino was erected in 1896, one of the largest in the country, with a seating capacity of two thousand, in which drama, opera and vaude- ville are presented during the summer months to thousands of visitors. An innovation in 1896 was an independent electric plant.
The whole story of Mr. Meeker's work in the way of public improve- ment has not yet been told. In 1895 he bought the old Westerville fair grounds at Westerville, and began at once to improve them after the most modern fashion, constructing a fine race track, introducing a water-works system, erecting a large grand stand and making other improvements, and renaming the place, which has since been known as the Llewellyn Driving Park. The grand stand has since been destroyed by fire. Mr. Meeker is the senior member in the firm of Meeker Brothers, investment bankers and brokers, whose general offices are at Columbus. He has at different times been interested in other enterprises, and has filled public offices of trust and responsibility, but the great public improvements which have been mentioned are of such paramount importance that they constitute a monument to his
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enterprise and public spirit more to be prized than any ordinary business or official triumph.
Mr. Meeker's country seat, just north of Westerville, is one of the most beautiful in central Ohio.
LIEUTENANT H. WARREN PHELPS.
The well-known and prominent citizen of Blendon, Franklin county, Ohio, whose name is above, was born in Blendon township, this county, on the old Phelps homestead, three miles south of Westerville, May 5, 1839. Homer Moore Phelps, his father, was born on the same farm, February 9, 1812, and spent his life there as a farmer and stock dealer. Homer Moore Phelps was a successful business man, who was held in such high esteem for his judgment that he was adviser to his neighbors in many of the practical affairs of life. He was treasurer of the old plank road com- pany, in 1853-4, and was in one way and another connected with other public improvements. He was a respecter of churches, but not a member of any church, and was a leader among local Whigs and later among Republicans. He was for twelve years justice of the peace and for several years town trustee. A self-educated man of wide reading, he was especially well in- formed on all subjects relating to history, ancient or modern. He died June 1, 1883. His home was always a welcome place for ministers of all churches.
Edward and Azubah ( Moore) Phelps were the parents of Homer Moore Phelps and the grandparents in the paternal line of H. Warren Phelps. Edward Phelps was born at Windsor, Connecticut, August 27, 1759. He was brought up to the life of a farmer and pursued that career at Windsor until 1805. He married Azubah Moore May 6, 1789. With Isaac Gris- wold and others he made a horseback journey through the wilderness to Granville, Ohio, in 1805, following an Indian trail to a point on Alum creek four miles and a half east of Worthington, where he bought from Aaron Ogdon five hundred acres of land which is now three miles south of Wester- ville. His ancestry in the paternal line, tracing toward the past, were Tim- othy, Cornelius, Lieutenant Timothy and William Phelps, who was one of the first settlers of Windsor, Connecticut, in 1635, coming from Tewkesbury, England. in 1630, on the ship Mary and John, and settling in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Edward Phelps was the first actual settler in Blendon town- ship. He made some few improvements looking to early residence on the place, and went back to Connecticut for his family. They left their old home June 24, traveling by wagon drawn by oxen, and arrived at their new home August 23, 1806. When Mr. Phelps and his companions had come out the previous year they had blazed trees to serve as guides to future travelers, and in places it was necessary for Mr. Phelps to cut out a road in advance of his wagon. For his five-hundred-acre farm in what is now Blendon town- ship Mr. Phelps paid seven hundred and eighty-seven dollars and fifty cents.
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