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 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
·
0 AVID TOD, Ohio's twentieth elect- ed governor, was born in Youngs- town, Mahoning county, February 21, 1805, received a good literary educa- tion, and after studying for the legal profession was admitted to the bar in the year 1827. He practiced about fifteen years at Warren, where his talents soon won him recognition among the leading lawyers of the northeastern part of the state, and while a resident of Warren was elected, in 1838, a member of the state senate. Gov. Tod soon took high rank as a successful politician, made a brilliant canvass for Martin Van Buren in 1840, and in 1844 was nominated for governor, but was defeated by a small ma- jority. One of the issnes of the gubernatorial campaign of 1844 was "hard" and "soft" money, the democrats representing the former and the whigs the latter. In a speech David Tod, the democratic candidate, said that sooner than adopt "soft " or paper money, it would be better to go back to the Spartan idea of finance and coin money from pot-inetal. His opponents seized upon this expression, dubbed hun "pot-metal" Tod, and insisted
that he was really in favor of coining pot-metal into currency. Medallions of Mr. Tod about the size of a silver dollar were struck off by his opponents by the thousands, being composed of pot-metal and circulated throughout the state. The "pot-metal " cry doubtless had inuch to do in bringing about his defeat by a slender margin, showing that sinall things are often effective in political campaigns, if the people happen to be in the humor to be influ- enced by them, which not infrequently hap- pens to be the case. In 1847 he was ap- pointed, by President Polk, minister to Brazil, and represented his government until 1852, when he returned to the United States and took an active part in the campaign which re- sulted in the election of Franklin Pierce to the presidency. In 1860 he was chosen delegate to the Charleston convention, of which he was made vice-president, and after the withdrawal of the southern wing of the democratic party, presided over that body until its adjournment. Upon the breaking out of the Civil war, Gov. Tod was earnest in his advocacy of a compro- mnise between the north and south, but with the commencement of hostilities he became a firm supporter of the Union and did much to aronse enthusiasm in the prosecution of the struggle. In 1861 he was the republican nom- inee for governor, and at the ensuing election defeated his competitor by an overwhelming majority of 55,000 votes. He proved a very popular and capable executive, and during his term of two years, greatly aided the national administration.
J OHN BROUGH, the twenty-first gov- ernor of Ohio elected by the people of the state, was born at Marietta, Ohio, September 17, 1811. His father, John Brough, was a companion and friend of Blennerhassett, both coming to the United
151
GOVERNORS OF OHIO.
States in the same ship in 1806. They re- mained in close friendship for many years, but Mr. Brough was not connected with the unfor- tunate complications between Blennerhassett and Aaron Burr. John Brough died in 1822, leaving his wife with five children, and with but small means of support.
John Brough, who became governor of Ohio, was sent to learn the trade of printer in the office of the Athens Mirror before he was four- teen. After a few months he entered the Ohio university at Athens, reciting with his class in the day time, and setting type mornings and evenings to support himself. He was a good compositor and also a good student, and was distinguished for his skill in athletic games. Having completed his education at the univer- sity he began the study of law, but soon after- ward went to Petersburg, Va., to edit a news- paper. Returning to Marietta, Ohio, in 1831, he became proprietor of the Washington county Republican, a democratic paper, which he con- ducted until 1833, when he sold out, and in partnership with his brother, Charles H., pur- chased the Ohio Eagle, published at Lancas- ter, Ohio, and while he was a strong partisan, yet he had no patience for any kind of under- hand work in either party. In 1835 he was elected clerk of the Ohio senate, and retained this position until 1838. He was chosen rep- resentative from Fairfield and Hocking coun- ties in 1838, and the next year he was chosen by the legislature to fill the office of auditor of state. To this latter office he was again elected and served six years. Many evils then existed in the finances of the state, but, not- withstanding much opposition and many em- , barrassments, he succeeded in finding remedies . therefor, and the pecuniary affairs of the state were placed on a solid foundation. The re- ports he made upon the state's financial sys- tem are among the ablest and most valuable of our state papers.
During his second term as auditor of state he purchased the Phoenix, a newspaper in Cin- cinnati, changed its name to the Enquirer and placed it in charge of his brother, Charles H., and at the close of that terin removed to Cin- cinnati, opened a law office and wrote edi- torials for his paper. He also became a power- ful and effective public speaker, and while he was becoming a distinguished leader in the democratic party he was also becoming with equal rapidity thoroughly disgusted with party politics. In 1848 he retired from partisan strife, sold one-half interest in the Enquirer, and devoted his attention to railroads. Being elected president of the Madison & Indiana Railroad company, he removed to Madison, Ind., but later, at the invitation of one of his friends, Stillman Witt, of Cleveland, Ohio, he accepted the presidency of the Bellefon- taine Railroad company, which, under his man- agement, became one of the leading railroads of the country. In 1861 he removed to Cleve- land, and during the first two years of the war was untiring in his efforts to serve the govern- ment by the prompt transportation of troops to the front.
In 1863, that portion of the democrats of Ohio that was opposed to the further prose- cution of the war nominated C. L. Vallandig- ham for governor of the state, and Stillman Witt, having urged Mr. Brough to take an ac- tive part in politics, generously offering to per- form the duties of the president of the railroad, and permit Mr. Brough to draw the salary, Mr. Brough was at length nominated by the republican party as its candidate in opposition to Vallandigham. The result of the election was that Mr. Brough was elected by a majority of 101,099, the total vote being 471,643. It was at the suggestion of Gov. Brough that an extra force of 100,000 inen was raised to aid Gen. Grant in his arduous campaign of 1864, Ohio's quota of this 100,000 being 30,000.
159
GOVERNORS OF OHIO.
Within ten days Ohio raised 38,000 men, the result being due largely to Gov. Brough's ener- getic action, which called out the warmest commendation from both President Lincoln and Gen. Grant.
While Gov. Brough lived to see the war brought to a successful close, yet he died be- fore the close of his term, on August 29, 1865. He was of the honest men in politics, just in all his motives and acts. Though not a member of any church, yet he took a deep in- terest in religion and died in the hope of an eternal life. Gov. Brough was twice married -- first to Miss Acsah P. Pruden, of Athens, Ohio, who died in 1838 at the age of twenty- five years, and second, to Miss Caroline A. Nelson, of Columbus, Ohio, whom he married in 1843 at Lewiston, Pa. By this latter mar- riage he had two sons and two daughters.
a HARLES ANDERSON was put in nomination as lieutenant-governor of Ohio on the ticket in 1863, with John Brough for governor and elected. The death of the latter transferred Col. Anderson to the office of governor in August of the same year.
Charles Anderson was born June 1, 1814, at the residence of his - father, called Soldiers' Retreat, or Fort Nelson, near the falls of the Ohio, and which locality is about nine miles from the city of Louisville, Ky. His father, Col. Richard Clough Anderson, a gentleman of high character, who was an aid-de-camp to Lafayette, removed to Soldiers' Retreat from Virginia in 1793, and there, in the capacity of surveyor-general of the Virginia military land grant, made his residence three years be- fore Kentucky was recognized as a territory. His mother was a relative of Chief-Justice Marshall, and his eldest brother, Richard Clough Anderson, represented his district in
congress, was the first United States minister to the republic of Columbia and commissioner in congress at Panama. Robert Anderson, another brother of Gov. Anderson, was the Major Anderson commanding Fort Sumter in April, 1861.
Charles Anderson graduated from Miami university at Oxford, Ohio, in 1833, began the study of law in Louisville in his twentieth year in the office of Pirtle & Anderson, and in 1835 was admitted to practice. He then went to Dayton, Ohio, and September 16th married Miss Eliza J. Brown, a young lady of that place. He remained a resident of Dayton, Ohio, varying his professional engagement by working the farm during the following ten years, having in that time been elected prose- cuting attorney of the county, and in 1844 was elected to the state senate. His vote in this body in favor of bills to give to the colored men the privilege of testifying in court caused him the enmity of all the pro-slavery element among his constituency, but of this he took no notice. He resolved that at the close of his teri he would recuperate his health by a protracted sea voyage, and, descending to New Orleans, he took a vessel for Havana, and there took passage on a vessel bound for Europe, and with mnuch advantage to his health returned by the way of Paris and Liverpool. Arriving in Cincinnati, he entered into a law partner- ship with Rufus King, Esq., and for eleven years practiced his profession. Then his original love of farming still influencing his life, he went to Texas in 1859, and found the people greatly excited on account of the polit- ical condition of the country. Demagogues had advocated dissolution of the Union there as elsewhere, and the establishment of a new southern states' government of a monarchical forin, its foundation-stone hinnan slavery, and under the protectorate of Great Britain, to which people their cotton would be exchanged
153
GOVERNORS OF OHIO.
for goods of British manufacture exclusively. He soon saw that this treasonable project had taken deep root among the ignorant masses of the south. There was no term that had been uttered that could be more opprobrious than abolitionist, and his well-known love of free- dom prompting him to boldly address the people, he did so at a great gathering at San Antonio November 20, 1860, advocating, in the most stirring and patriotic language, the perpetuity of the national Union. Though the recipient subsequently of letters threatening his life, he continued to reside in San Antonio in spite of the forty-day resident act passed by the Confederate congress at Montgomery, Ala., and was therefore confined as a political pris- oner in the guard-tent of Maclin's battery of artillery. By the assistance of two persons, who subsequently were maltreated for so assist- ing him, he escaped to the north. It was not reasonable to suppose that Mr. Anderson, born in Kentucky, and from infancy surrounded by and breathing the atmosphere of slavery, could have regarded that institution as it was looked upon by the millions who had not been simi- larly situated. Hence the original idea of the war, restoring the Union as it was, caused him to offer his services to Gov. Tod, and he was appointed colonel of the Ninety-third Ohio regiment, in command of which brave body of men he was seriously wounded in the battle of Stone River. After his term of service as lieutenant-governor and governor of Ohio he removed to a large iron estate on the Cumber- land river, in Lyon county, Ky., where he spent the remainder of his life.
J ACOB DOLSON COX, the twenty-sec- ond governor of Ohio elected by the people, was born in Montreal, Canada, October 27, 1828, to which city his parents, who were natives of the United States,
and who were then residents of New York, had gone for a temporary purpose, Mr. Cox being a master builder, and having in charge in Mon- treal the erection of the frame work, roofing, etc., of the church of Notre Dame. The fol- lowing year they returned to New York, where were spent the childhood days of the subject of this sketch. In 1846 he entered Oberlin college, from which he graduated in 1851, and in 1852 he removed to Warren, Ohio, where for three years he was superintendent of the high school. In the meantime he studied law and was admitted to the bar, and in 1859 he he was elected, from the Trumbull and Mahon- ing district, to the legislature, where throughout his term he was regarded as a "radical," not only on account of the section of the state from which he came, but also on account of his hav- ing married the daughter of President Finney of Oblerlin college. He took his seat in the senate on the first Monday in January, 1860.
After the enactment of the fugitive slave law of 1850 the state of Ohio passed a law providing penalties for carrying free blacks out of the state without first having recourse to judical proceedings. The democrats in the legislature earnestly desired to repeal this law, and Mr. Cox, as chairman of the judiciary com- mittee, made a minority report against its re- peal, to which report the support of the entire republican party was given. While Mr. Cox was not in favor of any unnecessarily harsh measures to grieve the sonthern states, yet he was always uncomprisingly in favor of support- ing the government in its efforts to suppress the Rebellion. Ten days after President Lin- colu's first call for troops, Mr. Cox was com- missioned, by Gov. Dennison, a brigadier-gen- eral of Ohio volunteers for the three months' service, and placed in command of Camp Jackson, which was established for the re- ception of troops. A larger camp being nec- essary, President Lincoln commissioned him
154
GOVERNORS OF OHIO.
brigadier-general of volunteers, and with the assistance of Gen. Rosecrans he laid out Camp Dennison. On the 6th of July, 1861, he was ordered by Gen. McClellan to take a posi- tion at the south of the Great Kanawha, whence he drove the rebels under Gen. Wise out of the valley of that river, and took and repaired the bridge at Gauley, and other bridges; and it is owing to the success of these early military maneuvers that West Virginia became an inde- pendent state. In August, 1862, he was as- signed to the army of Virginia under Gen. Pope, and when Gen. Reno fell succeeded to his command, that of the Ninth corps, which he commanded at the battle of Antietam, in which battle his troops so distinguished them- selves that he was appointed to a full major- generalship. On April 16, 1863, Gen. Cox was in command of the district of Ohio, and also of a division of the Twenty-third army corps, with headquarters at Knoxville, Tenn. In the Atlanta campaign he led the Third di- vision of the Twenty-third army corps, and in the engagement at Columbus had entire com- inand, as he had also at Franklin, November 30, where he felt the full force of Hood's at- tack. On reaching . Nashville Gen. Thomas assumed command of the army, Gen. Scho- field of the Twenty-third corps, and Gen. Cox of his division-his division in this battle cap- turing an important rebel position and eight pieces of cannon. In January, 1865, Gen. Cox, with his division, performed important service in North Carolina, aiding in the cap- ture of Kingston, and then he united his forces with Sherman's army. Gen. Cox had charge of the details connected with the surrender of Gen. Johnston's soldiers. In July, 1865, he was placed in command of the district of Ohio, and while in charge of the discharge of Ohio soldiers was elected governor of the state, and was inaugurated January 15, 1866. Through- out the war Gen. Cox was steadily pro-
moted, and won golden opinions from all pa- triots, but after the close of the struggle he supported President Johnson's " policy, " which gave great dissatisfaction to loyal people. In 1869 President Grant appointed him secretary of the interior, which position he resigned after a few months, and returned to Cincin- nati, where he was appointed receiver of the Toledo, Wabash & Western railroad, and re- sided temporarily at Toledo, where, in 1875, he was elected to congress from the Sixth dis- trict. He was appointed a member of the Potter committee, which investigated the man- ner in which the presidential election of 1876 had been conducted in the " disputed states," South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana. Sub- sequently he removed to Cincinnati, where he died.
B UTHERFORD B. HAYES .- For a sketch of the life of Rutherford B. Hayes, the twenty-third governor of Ohio elected by the people and elec- ed to succeed himself, and also elected to succeed William Allen, the reader is referred to that portion of this work which is devoted to the lives of the presidents of the United States.
DWARD FOLLANSBEE NOYES, twenty-fourth governor of Ohio elect- ed by the people, was born in Hav- erhill, Mass., October 3, 1832. His parents, Theodore and Hannah Noyes, both died before he was three years old, and he was reared by his grandparents, Edward and Han- nah Stevens, who resided at East Kingston, Rockingham county, N. H. His grandfather Stevens having died, he was taken when twelve years of age by his guardian, Joseph Hoyt, of Newton, N. H. For two years he
155
GOVERNORS OF OHIO.
worked on his guardian's farm in summer and attended schools in winter, and at fourteen he was apprenticed to the printer's trade in the office of the Morning Star at Dover, N. II., the organ of the Free Will Baptist church. In this office he remained four years. Though his apprenticeship required him to remain un- til he was twenty-one, yet his employer released him at eighteen, in order that he might secure an education. He prepared himself for college at the academy at Kingston, N. H., and entered Dartmouth college in 1853, graduating at that institution in 1857. In the winter of his senior year he began to read law in the office of Stickney & Tuck at Exeter, N. H., and before leaving Dartmouth he had become really an abolitionist. Being a good speaker, he was appointed by the republican state executive committee of New Hampshire to traverse the state in the interest of Gen. John C. Fremont for the presidency. The next win- ter he entered the law office of Tilden, Raridan & Curwen, and attended lectures on law at the Cincinnati Law school during the winter of 1857-58, being admitted to the bar during the latter year, and not long afterward established himself in a profitable practice. Giving atten- tion to the political crises then impending, he became convinced that secession, if accom- plished, would finally disrupt the Union, and on the 8th of July, 1861, converted his law office into a recruiting station, and was com- missioned major of the Thirty-ninth regiment Ohio volunteer infantry. On August 20, 1861, the Twenty-seventh and the Thirty-ninth regi- inents were transferred from the eastern to the western army, the latter being officered . as follows: John Groesbeck, colonel; A. W. Gilbert, lieut .- colonel, and, as stated above, Edward F. Noyes, major. Early in 1862 this latter regiment joined the army of the Mis- sissippi, then commanded by Gen. Pope, and took part in the capture of New Madrid and
Island No. 10. From that time until Gen. Pope was assigned to the command of the Potomac, Maj. Noyes was on that general's staff, and when the colonel and lieutenant-col- onel of the Thirty-ninth, as named above, re- signed, Maj. Noyes was commissioned colonel, and took command of his regiment in October, 1862. In 1864 his regiment was one of those composing the First division of the Seven- teenth army corps, and on July 4, of that year, took part in the assault on Ruff's Mill, in which he was shot in the leg, which had to be am- putated on the field of battle. The operation not proving successful, the colonel was taken to Cincinnati, and operated on by Dr. W. H. Mussey, and in the following October he re- ported for duty to Gen. Hooker, who assigned him to the command of Camp Dennison. Upon the recommendation of Gen. Sherman he was promoted to the full rank of brigadier.
He was soon afterward elected city solicitor of Cincinnati, and in 1871 was elected gov- ernor of Ohio by a majority of 20,000, while at the election of 1873, when he was again a can- didate, he was defeated by an adverse majority of Soo. In the presidential campaign of 1876 he was an active participant, and was later appointed by his old friend, President Hayes, minister to France. He remained in Paris four years, in the meantime, however, making an extensive tour through the countries along the Mediterranean sea for the purpose of inves- tigating the condition of the laboring classes, making an able report to the government. He resigned in 1881 and resumed his law practice in Cincinnati. He was very enthusiastic and cheerful in his disposition, and kindly in his manner. In February, 1863, on a leave of absence, he married Miss Margaret W. Proc- tor, at Kingston, N. H., with whom he be- came acquainted while in the academy in his youthful days. He died September 4, 1890, nearly fifty-eight years of age.
156
GOVERNORS OF OHIO.
a ILLIAM ALLEN, twenty-fifth gov- ernor of Ohio elected by the peo- ple, was born in Edenton, Chowan county, N. C., in 1807. His par- ents both died within a few months of each other before he was one year old, and he was cared for by an only sister, who soon afterward removed with her husband to Lynchburg, Va., taking young William with her. This sister was the wife of an itinerant Methodist minis- ter and the mother of Hon. Allen G. Thurman. She was a very superior woman, and was well fitted for the task of rearing two of Ohio's dis- tinguished statesmen, whose names are given above. About 1821 Mrs. Thurman, with her husband and family, removed to Chillicothe, Ohio, leaving her brother to attend an acad- emy at Lynchburg, Va., but he rejoined her two years later, and attended the academy in Chillicothe, and later read law in the office of Edward King, the most gifted son of Rufus King, of Revolutionary fame, and a popular statesman for many years. Having been ad- mitted to the bar in his twentieth year, he be- came a partner of his preceptor, and early in his career manifested that forensic ability to which he was mainly indebted for his success. This, together with his tall, commanding fig- ure and powerful, penetrating voice, attracted people to him, the latter giving him the name of the "Ohio Gong," and all together secured his nomination to congress, he being elected by the democrats in 1832, in a whig district, by a majority of one vote. While he was the youngest man in the Twenty-third congress, yet he was recognized as a leading orator, tak- ing part in the most important discussions in that body.
· In January, 1837, on what was called "Saint Jackson's Day," at a supper given in Columbus, Ohio, he made a speech which un- expectedly led to his election to the United States senate, to succeed Hon. Thomas Ewing.
He remained in the senate twelve years, or until 1849, during which time he was at the full measure of his powers.
In 1845 Senator Allen married Mrs. Effic (McArthur) Coons, a daughter of ex-Gov. Mc- Arthur, who had been, in 1830, elected gov- ernor of Ohio. She inherited from her father the old homestead, "Fruit Hill " farin, upon which Gov. Allen resided with his only dangh- ter, Mrs. Scott, his wife having died in Wash- ington soon after the birth of her daughter. In Angust, 1873, Mr. Allen was elected governor of Ohio, being the only man on the demo- cratic ticket not defeated. As governor he recommended the reduction of taxation and economy in state affairs. He was the first demo- cratic governor of Ohio after the war, and though his administration gave general satisfaction, he was defeated with the rest of the democratic ticket in 1875. It has been said of him that he originated the political catch-word, " Fifty- four forty, or fight," in reference to the boundary question between the United States and the British dominions, from which posi- tion the democratic party so ignominiously backed down. Gov. Allen died at Fruit Hill farm in 1879. He was a man of high charac- ter, cordial manners, and above all political chicanery of every kind, and his name will long be an honored one in American history.
HOMAS L. YOUNG, ex-officio gov- ernor of Ohio, succeeding to the office by the election of Gov. R. B. Hayes to the presidency of the United States, taking possession of the office in Feb- ruary, 1877, was born December 14, 1832, on the estate of Lord Dufferin in the north of Ireland. Of Lord Dufferin it may perhaps be permissible, parenthetically, to remark that as governor-general of Canada, in 1874, he made a remarkable report on the loyalty of the peo-
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.