USA > Ohio > Putnam County > A Portrait and biographical record of Allen and Putnam counties, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of many prominent and representative citizens, together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States, and biographies of the governors of Ohio, pt 1 > Part 11
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ORDECAI BARTLEY, who suc- ceeded his son Thomas W. Bartley as governor, was born in Fayette county, Pa., December 16, 1783. He was reared to manhood on his father's farm, attended school at intervals during his minority, and in 1809 moved to Ohio. He
tendered his services to the government in the war of 1812, served as captain and adjutant under Gen. William Henry Harrison, and on leaving the army settled, in 1814, in Richland county, where he remained until his removal to the city of Mansfield in 1834. For some years Mr. Bartley was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Mansfield, but previous to locating there, had served as a member of the Ohio state senate, to which he was elected in 1817. In 1818 he was chosen, by the legislature, registrar of the land office of Virginia Mili- tary school-lands, which position he held until 1823, when he resigned in order to take his seat in the congress of the United States, to which he had been elected in the meantime. He served in congress until March, 1831, and in 1844 was elected, on the whig ticket, gov- ernor of the state, the functions of which office he discharged in a very creditable manner until 1846, declining a renomination and retir- ing to private life. After the nomination by the whigs for governor of Mordecai Bartley, the democrats in their convention, in the same year, came within one or two votes of placing his son Thomas once again in the field as his opponent. Gov. Bartley was very decided in his opposition to the Mexican war, but when the president issued a call for troops, he promptly responded and superintended the organization of the Ohio forces in person. Politically Gov. Bartley affiliated with the whigs until the disruption of that party, after which he espoused the cause of the republican party. He died in the city of Mansfield Oc- tober 10, 1770.
ILLIAM BEBB, lawyer and judge, the fourteenth governor elected by the people of Ohio, was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, in 1804, and died at his home in Rock River county, Ill.,
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October 23, 1873. His father emigrated from Wales, Great Britian, in 1795, and first located in the Keystone state. Traveling across the mountains to the valley of the Miami on foot, he purchased in the neighborhood of North Bend an extensive tract of land, returned to Pennsylvania and married Miss Robert, to whom he had been engaged in Wales, and, with his bride, riding in a suitable conveyance, again crossed the mountains and settled on his land in what was then but a wilderness. He was a man of sound judgment, and, in common with many of his countrymen, of a joyous and ever hopeful disposition. His wife was a lady of culture and refinement, and her home in the valley of the Miami, with few neighbors except the wild, unshorn, and half-naked savages, was a great change from her previous life. There were of course no schools there to send her children to, and this was a matter of grave concern to the parents of our subject, who was in consequence taught to read at home. In those years the Western Spy, then published in Cincinnati, and distributed by a private post- rider, was taken by his father, and William read with avidity its contents, especially the achievements of Napoleon Bonaparte. His education advanced no further until a peripa- tetic schoolmaster, passing that way, stopped and opened a school in the neighborhood, and under him our subject studied English, Latin and mathematics, working in vacation on his father's farm When twenty years old he him- self opened a school at North Bend and resided in the home of Gen. Harrison. In this em- ployment he remained a year, during which he married Miss Shuck, the daughter of a wealthy German resident of the village. Soon after- ward he began the study of law while continu- ing his school, and as a teacher was eminently successful, and his school attracted pupils from the most distinguished families of Cincinnati.
In 1831 he rode to Columbus on horseback,
where the supreme court judges examined him and placed him in the practice of the state. He then removed to Hamilton, Butler county, and opened a law office, where he continued quietly and in successful practice fourteen years. Dur- ing this period he took an active interest in political affairs, and advocated during his first (called the .. Hard Cider ") campaign, the claims of Gen. Harrison, and no less distinguished himself during that " Tippecanoe and Tyler, too, " campaign, in which the persons indicated were successful, and the whigs in 1840, for the first time, succeeded in electing their candi- dates. Six years afterward he was elected governor of the state, and the war with Mexico placed him, as the governor of Ohio, in a very trying position. As a whig he did not person- ally favor that war, and this feeling was greatly entertained by the party who made him their leader in the state, but he felt that the ques- tion was not one of party but of cordial support of the general government, and his earnest recognition of this fact eventually overcame the danger that had followed President Polk's proclamation of war. His term of office (1846-48) was distinguished by good money, free schools, great activity in the construction of railroads and turnpikes; the arts and in- dustry generally were well revived, and high prosperity characterized the whole state.
In 1844 Gov. Bebb purchased 5,000 acres of land in Rock River county, Ill., of which the location was delightful and the soil rich; 500 acres were wooded and constituted a natural park, while the remainder was pasture of the best quality, with a stream of water fed by perpetual springs. No man of moderate ambition could desire the possession of a more magnificent portion of the earth's surface. Three years after making this purchase he re- moved to it, taking with him fine horses, and a number of the choicest breeds of cattle, and entered upon the cultivation of this fine prop-
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erty. Five years afterward he visited Great Britain and the continent of Europe. In the birth-place of his father he found many de- sirous to immigrate to America, and encourag- ing the enterprise a company was formed and a tract of 100,000 acres purchased for them in east Tennessee, where he agreed to preside over their arrangements in the settlement of this land. In 1856 a party of the colonists arrived on the land and Gov. Bebb resided. with them until the war of the Rebellion began, when he left the state with his family. The emigrants, discouraged by the strong pro- slavery sentiment, scattered and settled in va- rious parts of the northern states.
On the inauguration of President Lincoln Gov. Bebb was appointed examiner in the pen- sion. department at Washington, and held this position until 1866, when he returned to his farm in Illinois and the peaceful pursuits of agriculture. His scale of farming was the cul- tivation of 2,000 acres in a season, while an- other 1,000 formed his cattle pasture. He took an active part in the election of Gen. Grant, and the first sickness of any conse- quence he ever experienced was an attack of pneumonia following an exposed ride to his home from Pecatonica, where he had addressed the electors. From this he never recovered, and although he spent the following winter in Washington, occupied mainly as a listener to the debates in the senate, he felt his vital forces declining. Returning home the next summer, and feeling that he was no longer able to su- perintend his farin operations, he resided at Rockford until his death.
EABURY FORD, the fifteenth gov- ernor of Ohio elected by the people, was born in Cheshire, Conn., in 1802. John Ford, his father, was a native of New England, but of Scotch descent, while
his mother, Esther Cook, was of English Puritan ancestry. She was a sister of Nabbie Cook, the wife of Peter Hitchcock, the first chief justice of Ohio. In 1805, John Ford explored the Western Reserve in search of lands and a home in the west, purchasing 2,000 acres in what is now the township of Burton, Geauga county, Ohio, and removing to this land in the fall of 18o7. Seabury was then but five years old, but even then gave in- dications of superior intelligence. He pre- pared for college at the academy in Burton, entering Yale college in 1821, in company with another young Ohioan, named D. Witter, they two being the first young men from Ohio to enter Yale. Graduating from Yale in 1825, he then began the study of the law in the office of Simon W. Phelps, of Painesville, completing his course in the office of his uncle, Judge Peter Hitchcock, in 1827. Being ad- mitted to practice he opened an office in Bur- ton, and grew rapidly in popular favor. He was always interested in military affairs, in ag- ricultural pursuits and in politics, and was in 1835 elected by the whigs to the legislature from Geauga county. Being twice re-elected, he served three terms, during the latter term acting as speaker of the lower house. In 1841 he was elected to the state senate from Cuya- hoga and Geauga counties, and remained a member of that body until 1844, when he was again elected to the lower house. In 1846 he was again elected to the senate and was chosen speaker of that body. In 1848 he waselected governor by a small majority, . retiring at the close of his terin to his home in Burton, much broken in health. On the Sunday after reach- ing his home he was stricken with paralysis, from which he never recovered.
During twenty years of his life he was an honored member of the Congregational church, and was always a highly respected citizen. As a representative of the people he was faithful
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to their interests, and was possessed of the most rigid integrity. A private letter, pub- lished in a Cleveland, Ohio, paper, said of him, in 1839, that he was one of the most useful men in the legislature and that in a few years he had saved the state millions of dollars.
September 10, 1828, he married Miss Har- riet E. Cook, a daughter of John Cook, of Burton, by whom he had five children, three of whom reached mature age, as follows: Seabury C., George H., and Robert N. Gov. Ford died May 8, 1855.
EUBEN WOOD, the successor of Seabury Ford, was born in Rutland county, Vt., in the year 1792. He was reared to manhood in his native state, served with distinction in the war of 1812 as captain of a company of Vermont volun- teers, and afterward studied law and began the practice of his profession in Cleveland, Ohio. From 1825 till 1828 Mr. Wood served in the state senate; in 1830 was appointed president- judge of the Third district, and in 1833 was elected associate judge of the state supreme court, which office he held until 1845.
In 1848 Mr. Wood was the democratic nominee for the governorship, to which office he was elected by a handsome majority, and with such ability and satisfaction did he dis- charge his official functions that in 1850 he was chosen his own successor, being the first governor under the new constitution. Gov. Wood was prominently spoken of in 1852 as an available presidential candidate, but the party, while admitting his fitness for the high position, finally united upon Franklin Pierce. In addition to the honorable positions above mentioned, Gov. Wood served eighteen months as United States consul at Valpa- raiso, Chili, resigning at the end of that time and retiring to private life. The death of this
eminent jurist and statesman occurred in Rock- port, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, October 2nd, 1864, in his seventy-second year.
ILLIAM MEDILL, the seventeenth governor of Ohio elected by the people, was born in New Castle county, Del., in 1801. He gradu- ated from Delaware college in 1825, and stud- ied law with Judge Black, of New Castle city. Removing to Lancaster, Ohio, in 1830, he began there the practice of the law, being regu- larly admitted to the bar by the supreme court
in 1832. In 1835 he was elected to the lower house of the general assembly from Fairfield county, and served several years with great ability. In 1838 he was elected to congress from the counties of Fairfield, Perry, Morgan and Hocking, and was re-elected in 1840, serving to the satisfaction of his constituents. In 1845 he was appointed by President Polk second assistant postmaster-general, perform- ing his duties with marked ability. The same year he was appointed commissioner of Indian affairs, and as such commissioner introduced many needed reforms. Indeed, he was one of the few men holding office under the gov- ernment of the United States who have treated the unfortunate sons of the forest with any semblance of justice. Both these offices he held during President Polk's administration, at its close returning to Ohio and resuming the practice of the law. In 1849 he was elected a member of the constitutional convention that gave us the present constitution of the state of Ohio, serving with impartial ability as presid- ing officer of that body. In 185t he was elected lieutenant-governor, and in 1853 as the second governor under the new constitution. In 1857 he was appointed by President Bu- chanan first controller of the United States treasury, holding that office until March 4, 1861,
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when he retired to private life in Lancaster, Ohio, holding no office afterward.
Gov. Medill was a man of great ability, a true patriot, of spotless character, a faithful friend and an incorruptible public servant. He never married, and died at his residence in Lancaster, Ohio, September 2, 1865.
S ALMON P. CHASE, the eighteenth governor of Ohio elected by the peo- ple, was born at Cornish, N. H., Jan- uary 13, 1808. His father, Ithaman Chase, was descended from English ancestry, while his mother was of Scotch extraction. Ithaman Chase was a farmer, was a brother of the celebrated Bishop Philander Chase, and died when his son, Salmon P., was yet a lad. In 1815 his father removed his family to Keene, Cheshire county, N. H., where young Salmon received a good common-school edu- cation. Bishop Chase, having removed to Ohio, invited his young nephew to the state, and in Worthington, Franklin county, he pur- sued his studies preparatory to entering col- lege, becoming a student at Dartmouth in 1825, and graduating in 1826. He then went to Washington, D. C., where for some time he taught a classical school, which did not prove successful. For this reason he made applica- tion to an uncle of his, in the United States Senate, to secure for him a position in one of the government offices, but was met with the reply from that uncle that he had already ruined two young men in that way, and did not intend to ruin another. Young Chase then secured the patronage of Henry Clay, Samuel L. Southard and William Wirt, who placed their sons under his tuition, and he in the meantime studied law with William Wirt.
In 1830, having been admitted to the bar, he settled down in Cincinnati to the practice of the law, but meeting for some years with
indifferent success, he spent his leisure time in revising the statutes of Ohio, and introduced his compilation with a brief historical sketch of the state. This work, known as Chase's Statutes, in three octavo volumes, proved of great service to the profession, and its sale was so great a success that his reputation as a lawyer of ability was at once established.
In 1834 he became solicitor of the branch bank of the United States in the city of Cin- cinnati, and soon afterward of one of the city banks, and in 1837 he distinguished himself by defending a negro woman who had been brought by her master to Ohio, and who had escaped from his possession. This gave him considerable prominence as an abolitionist, and by some it was thought he had ruined his pros- pects, especially when he enhanced that repu- tation in the defense of James G. Birney, whose newspaper, the Philanthropist, had been de- stroyed by the friends of slavery. Mr. Chase had always looked upon things from the moral standpoint, believed ever in freedom, and that if Christ died for any man he died for all inen, and hence Mr. Chase was always the friend of man. The position he took in the defense of slaves who had escaped to or were brought to free soil, was that by that act alone, even under the constitution of the United States, they obtained their freedom.
In 1846 Mr. Chase, in the supreme court of the United States, defended Van Zandt (who was the original of John Van Trompe, in " Uncle Tom's Cabin "), who was prosecuted for harboring fugitive slaves, taking the ground, as before, that, even though the constitution contained a provision for the return of such fugitives, no legislative power on the subject had been granted to congress, and that there- fore the power to devise legislation thereon was left to the states themselves. The bold statements and forcible arguments of Mr. Chase in his management of such cases,
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alarmed the southern states, and ultimately led to the enactment of the fugitive slave law in 1850, as a portion of the compromise meas- ures of that period.
In 1841 Mr. Chase united with others op- posed to the further extension of slavery, in a convention for which he was the principal writer of the address to the people on that subject. He also wrote the platform for the liberty party when it nominated James G. Birney as its candidate for the presidency. In 1842 he projected a convention of the same party in Cincinnati, the result of which was the passage of a resolution declaring the ur- gent necessity for the organization of a party committed to the denationalization of slavery. In 1848 Mr. Chase presided over the Buffalo free soil convention, which nominated Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams for president and vice-president. On the 22d of February, 1849. Mr. Chase was elected to the United States senate by a coalition of democrats and free soilers, who had declared slavery to be an evil, but when the Baltimore convention in 1852 approved of the compro- mise measures of 1850 he withdrew from their ranks, and advocated the formation of an independent democratic party, which should oppose the extension of slavery. In 1855 Mr. Chase was elected governor of Ohio by the newly organized republican party by a ma- jority of 15,651 over Gov. Medill, and in 1857 he was elected governor, the second time, over Henry B. Payne.
At the national republican convention in 1860 Mr. Chase received on the first ballot forty-nine votes, in a total of 375, and im- ยท mediately withdrew his name. By President Lincoln he was appointed secretary of the treasury of the United States, holding this position until July, 1864, when he resigned. His management of the nation's finance was marked with consummate ability, and con-
tributed largely to the success of the govern- ment in its efforts to suppress the Rebellion. In November, 1864, he was nominated by President Lincoln as chief justice of the United States, to succeed Chief Justice Taney, who had then recently died, and he filled this great office until his death.
In 1868 he permitted his name to go be- fore the democratic national convention as a candidate for the presidency, but received only four votes out of 663, Horatio Seymour of New York securing the nomination. The most valuabe public service rendered the nation by Mr. Chase, as secretary of the treasury, was the origination by him of the bill under which, in 1863, state and private banks became na- tional banks, and under which the govern- ment of the United States became responsible for the circulation of national bank notes, the government being secured by a de- posit of bonds equal in amount to the pro- posed circulation, plus ten per cent. While this law was at first opposed by many public men, yet in time it won its way into their judgment long before Mr. Chase's death, and he had the satisfaction of realizing that its ad- vantages were such that the people of the United States were more greatly benefited by this than by any previous monetary meas- ure, as under it the money of the banks was made equally valuble in all parts of the United States.
Mr. Chase was married three times, and of six children born to him, two accomplished daughters survived him at his death, which occurred of paralysis, May 7, 1873.
a ILLIAM DENNISON, JR., nine- teenth governor of Ohio, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, November 23, 1815. His father and mother emi- grated from New Jersey to Ohio, settled in the
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Miami valley about 1805, gave their son a liberal education, and he graduated from Miami university in 1835 with high honors in political science, belles lettres and history. After his graduation he became a law student in the office of Nathaniel C. Pendleton, father of Hon. George H. Pendleton, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 1840. The same year he married a daughter of William Neil, of Co- lumbus, to which city he removed and applied himself with energy and diligence to the prac- tice of the law. In 1848 he was elected to the Ohio senate as a whig for the district com- posed of Franklin and Delaware counties. At that time the slavery question was a promi- nent one in politics, men taking positive posi- tions on one side or the other, and a desperate struggle was made throughout the state for the control of the general assembly. After failing by a small adverse majority to be elected president of the senate he was appointed to a leading position on a committe having in charge the revisal of the statutes, which had become in the opinion of most of the people a disgrace to the state, especially those laws which pro- hibited black men and mulattoes from gaining a permanent residence within the state, and from testifying in courts against white persons. Mr. Dennison warmly advocated the repeal of these laws, and with complete success. He was equally opposed to the extension of slavery, with its blighting effects, into new territory.
From 1850 to 1852 he was engaged in the practice of the law, and in the latter year, as a presidential elector, he cast his vote for Gen. Winfield Scott. From this time on for some years he took great interest in the sub- , ject of railroads in the west, and was elected . president of the Columbus & Xenia Railroad company, and was very active as a director of all railroads entering Columbus. In 1856 he was a delegate to the republican national con- vention at Pittsburg, and voted for Gen. John
C. Fremont for president. In 1859 he was elected governor of Ohio by the republican party, and in his first message to the general assembly took the position that " The federal Union exists by solemn compact voluntarily entered into by the people of each state and thus they became the United States of Amer- ica, e pluribus unum, and this being so, no state can claim the right to secede from or violate that compact."
When the war was begun he exerted all the authority of his office to aid the general govern- ment to suppress the Rebellion, and as the first war governor of Ohio his name will go down to posterity as one of the most patriotic of men. When Gov. Magoffin, of Kentucky, telegraphed to President Lincoln that Kentucky would fur- nish no troops for such a wicked purpose as the subduing of the sister southern states, Gov. Dennison telegraphed that if Kentucky would not fill her quota, Ohio would fill it for her, and in less than two weeks, under the in- fluence of her patriotic governor, Ohio raised enough soldiers to fill the quota of three states, and it was not long before the attention of the entire country was directed to Ohio as the leading state in the suppression of the Rebel- lion, a position which she proudly maintained all through the war. The people of West Virginia owe to Gov. Dennison the fact of their separate existence as a state, the story of which is well known and too long for publica- tion here.
At first Gov. Dennison opposed Sec. Chase's national banking system, but as its beneficial effects became apparent he gave it his unquali- fied support, and it is well known that Ohio took the lead in the establishment of national banks, a system of banking which, among its other features, has done much to cement the union of the states since the war. After his term of office as governor had expired he be- came a favorite speaker in defense of the Union.
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As a delegate to the national republican con- vention, in 1864, he did much to secure the renomination of Abraham Lincoln, and suc- ceeded Montgomery Blair as postmaster-gen- eral, but resigned his office when President Johnson had defined his " policy." For several years after this Gov. Dennison lived in retire- ment, but was called on by President Grant, in 1875, to act as one of the commissioners of the District of Columbia, a position which he filled until 1878.
By his marriage to Miss Neil he became the father of three children, the first-born dying in infancy, and the others being named Neil and Elizabeth. He died June 15, 1882, respected by all people as an able, patriotic and good man.
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