USA > Ohio > Butler County > A history and biographical cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio, with illustrations and sketches of its representative men and pioneers. Vol. 2 > Part 5
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The colonel was married in 1845, to Miss Mary C. Caldwell, who was born in Preble County in 1823. Mr. and Mrs. Moore are the parents of seven children, of whom five are living. Wilberforce is a member of the bar, in partnership with his father; E. Everett is a mem- ber of the legal profession, now a teacher and farmer of Missouri; Walter P. is a farmer of Missouri; Thomas Moore, Jr., is our of the local editors of the Hamilton Daily News; and Mamie is still at home. Colonel Moore has long been an active and laborious worker in the
Republican cause, and before that in the Whig. He is a frequent speaker at temperance and Sunday-school meet- ings, and is interested in every thing that concerns this city or locality.
Joseph Garrison, who was sheriff of this county from 1850 to 1860, comes of an old family. His parents were early settlers. He was born in Madison Township on the 29th of November, 1825, and was married August 8, 1854, to Mary Ann Honser, daughter of John and Rachel Houser. She was born in Fairfield Township, January 8, 1834. They had two children. William J., the eldest child, died at the age of nine months. He was born March 24, 1856, and Mary Ann, October 10, 1858. Mr. Garrison was in the Mexican War, where he served as quartermaster's sergeant. His wife's brother, Samuel Houser, was in the late war for over three years. After ceasing to be sheriff, Mr. Garrison engaged in the manufacture of brick. He died December 9, 1865.
ALEXANDER DELORAC.
Captain Alexander Delorac was for many years one of the best known men in town. He settled in Frank- lin in the year 1805, where he was engaged as a trader for many years, making regular trips to New Orleans every Spring with whisky, pork, and flour. Captain Delorac was an officer in the army in 1812, and he was in several brushes with the Indians. In his earlier life he was somewhat celebrated iu sporting circles, and was proclaimed fistic champion on general muster days, and at race courses. He was also noted as a pedestrian. In 1832 he ran a race of six hundred yards at a company master near Palmyra, Warren County, with a bey about six years old astride his back, against a taller man than himself, and he won the race.
He resided for many years in a comfortable dwelling on Prospect Hill, in West Hamilton, a point where the Indiaus in olden time laid in wait to shoot and scalp persons who straggled from the fort. Captain Delorae also once resided in Cincinnat , where he was engaged in trade. Iu his youth he was a clerk for John Suther- land, and then and afterwards acquired a knowledge of boating on the Miami ansurpassed by any other mar. At the time of his death, some ten years ago, he was one of the oldest citizens.
AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
In the early part of 1842 a few colored families felt the need of a Church. They had been worshiping in the white congregation, but on account of prejudice were compelled to sit in pews near the door or in the gallery. A meeting was called at one of the houses, and an organ- ization effected with the following families as members : Andrew Sampson and wife, Stephen Hall and wife, Cam- uel Jones and wife, Robert G. H. Anderson and wife, Julia Samson, Silas Dixon, and Walter C. Young. This little company of believers grew rapidly, and a heutee
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of worship became necessary. A small building was erected, and in August, 1842, it was dedicated, and the Rev. Owen T. B. Vickers, of Cincinnati, preached the dedicatory sermon.
Too feeble to support a regular pastor, the conference made it a circuit station, and sent them a preacher every two weeks. The Rev. Henry Atkinson and the Rev. . M. M. Clark were its first preachers. The latter gentle- man was one of the best educated colored ministers of his day. He was pious and eloquent, and his influence is still felt among this people. There is but one person living who was among the founders in 1842, Mrs. Har- riet Sampson.
A new chapel was erected in 1877. It is a capacious edifice, situated in a desirable part of the city, of brick structure, sixty-two by forty. It will seat three hun- dred persons, and cost about six thousand dollars. At the entrance of the auditorium, against the east wall, there is a marble slab with the following inscription on it :
>>MEMORIAL ...
>X Payne A. FR. F. Chapel, I< Organized August, 1842. Building begun In 1868, by the Rev. A. H. A. Jackson. Finished 1877, by the Rev. 2. Tolliver, Jr.
TRUSTFES-J. S. Lewis, F. Beard, A. J. Evens, B. M. Carson, H. Rimmonds. BUILDING COMMITTEE-Alfred J. Anderson, Ira A. Collins, Clerk.
WORKERS-Mrs. L. A. Anderson, at large ; M. J. Evens, M. Rimmonds, J. Sharp, Andrew Sampson. P. Tolliver, Postor.
WILLIAM ANDERSON.
William Anderson, miller, and vice-president of the Second National Bank of Hamilton, was born in Win- chester, Frederick County, Virginia, January 6, 1812. He is the son of Jacob and Jane (Summerville) Ander- son, both of whom were natives of that State. William Anderson was sent to the schools of his native county, receiving only a meager education. At the age of twenty-four he came to what was then the far West, and settled in Hamilton. He was first occupied in the saddlery business, but in 1844 engaged in the dry goods and grocery trade with his brother-in-law, George Lou- than, which continued till 1847, when he bought out his partner. In 1850, in company with Mr. Soively, he erected and put into operation a tannery, at a cost of 820,000. In counection with the tannery business they also established a boot and shoe factory, employing about thirty hands, which at that time was one of the largest enterprises of the kind in this section of the country. They also opened a retail store, for the sale of their productions.
In 1853 Mr. Anderson, with B. W. Tanquary, en- gaged in the milling business, in what was known as the old Hamilton River Mill, but their facilities not being
large enough for their rapidly increasing business, they erected a new mill soon afterward, at a cost of from eighteen to twenty thousand dollars. After ten years of very successful business, a disastrous fire in the month of April, 1864, swept it all away, involving a loss of thirty- one thousand dollars, on which there was an insurance of eleven thousand. Nothing daunted, Mr. Anderson pur- chased another mill, then owned by Lewis D. Campbell, having made arrangements for the Campbell Mill the very morning the other was destroyed. In June, 1866, Mr. Tanquary withdrew from the business, and since that time the firm has been known as Anderson & Co.
Mr. Anderson is one of the largest stockholders in the Second National Bank of Hamilton, and occupies the po- sition of vice-president. He became a member of the Presbyterian Church, in the year 1862, and has been a ruling elder in that organization for eight years. He was married, on the 29th of March, 1836, in Millwood, Vir- ginia, to Rachel C., daughter of James Carter, who was proprietor of the Red Bird Paper Mills, of Frederick County, Virginia. Mr. Carter was a prominent and in- fluential man of that county, and belonged to one of the oldest families in Virginia. As a result of his marriage with this lady, Mr. Anderson has had two daughters, only one of whom survives. Alberta J., who became the wife of the Rev. H. M. Richardson, a Baptist clergy- man, of Rochester, New York, died in 1864. Virginia C., the daughter now surviving, is the wife of George K. Shaffer, of Hamilton.
John W. Benninghofen, one of the most highly re- spected citizens of Hamilton, and a prominent woolen manufacturer, was born on the 12th of March, 1812, in Wuelfrath, in Prussia. His parents had six children, of whom he was the eldest. Their names were John P. Benninghofen and Wilhelmina Riffeltrath, and the occu- pation they followed was that of weavers of silk. When he had reached fifteen years of age his school education ceased, and he was apprenticed to the dry-goods trade. He remained in this till he was twenty-nine years of age, or the year 1841, and came to the United States in 1848, landing in New Orleans. No sooner had he ar- rived there than he took passage for Cincinnati, coming immediately to Hamilton. Here he peddled for three years, and then acted as clerk for John W. Sohn in his leather and brewery business, staying in this occupation for about seven years. At the expiration of' this time he entered into partnership with Asa Shuler as a woolen manufacturer, and remained in that occupation, under the firm name of Shuler & Benninghofen, until his deatil, which occurred on the 19th of April, 1881. He was then aged sixty-nine years, one month and seven days.
Mr. Benninghofen was twice married. The first mar- riage was to Gertrude Hiss in Germany, in 1832, who bore him two children: Robert, who died in 1872, and William, who died in 1867. His second marriage was to Miss Wilhelmina E. Klein, on the first of October,
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1854, at Cincinnati. She was born in Wirtemberg, Germany, December 14, 1832, but came to America when a child with her parents, John U. and Wilhelmina Klein. The father died in Stark County, in November, 1859, aged seventy-three years, and the mother, whose maiden name was Niss, died in March, 1876, aged eighty-two years. Mr. and Mrs. Benninghofen had five children. Christiana was born September 25, 1855; Wilhelmina, March 29, 1858; Peter, September 29, 1860; Pauline, March 11, 1863, and Caroline, April 8, 1866. In the late war Robert, his son by the first mar- riage, served three years, and Mrs. Benninghofen had a brother Christian iu the hundred-days' service.
Mr. Benninghofen was very highly esteemed. He was a Democrat in politics, and voted first for Franklin Pierce. In appearance he was above the medium size, and somewhat inclined to obesity. He had a large licad and a very prominent forehead.
JOHN CRANE.
Major John Crane was born in the State of New Jer- sey in 1796, and died on the 16th of March, 1864. He came with his family to this county in the first quarter of the century, and first settled in Jacksonburg, where in 1818 a post-office was established, he becoming the first. postmaster. In 1825 he was elected a county commis- sioner, serving in this capacity for three years. In 1828 he was a member of the Ohio Legislature, having as a fellow-member Fergus Anderson, of this county. From 1841 to 1845 he was coroner. Major Crane removed to Hamilton in 1825, keeping for several years a hotel in the frame building on the corner fronting the public square. During his residence in this town he was engaged for several years in the grocery and liquor business, in cem- pany with William B. Van Hook, and was at the same time city inspector. About 1855 he prepared with great labor and expense a useful map of this county, being a loser by it to the amount of five hundred dollars. He. was for several years the commandant of a splendid bat- talion of uniformed light infantry. One of the com- panies, known as the Miami Guards, was composed of the finest young men in Hamilton. Major Crane had taken the lodge, chapter, and encampment degrees of Masonry. He was a Knight Templar, becoming such in the year 1827, in Lebanon. For a few years before his death he resided in Covington, Kentucky, but his re- mains were brought here, and he was buried in Green- wood Cemetery.
GEORGE W. TAPSCOTT.
George W. Tapscott was born in the State of New Jersey, in 1810, and was at his death fifty-one years okl. In 1826 he came to Hamilton with his brother-in-law, Heury S. Earhart, and in the capacity of a clerk he commenced to serve him in the sale of merchandise. A few years after, when he attained bis majority, he became
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a member of the firm of Earhart & Tapscott. His urban- ity, strict attention to business, and exemplary character as a clerk secured for him a high and responsible position. As a member of the firm he continued in business until about the year 1813, when he turned his attention to other pursuits. For more than twenty years he had been prominently, actively, and successfully engaged in the inilling business, aud in the buying and packing of pork. In the conduct of all his business affairs Mr. Tapscott serapulously aimed to be correct.
Colonel William Sheely, one of the oldest residents of Butler County, died in September, 1859, at his resi- denre near this city. Colonel Sheely came to this county at an early day, aud filled several prominent positions, having been an influential citizen. Ile had for some time been afflicted with disease of the heart, and it is supposed that this was the cause of his death, as he died suddenly.
ODD FELLOWS.
In 1812 the Odd Fellows of this town met to estab- lish an organization, and the following persons applied for a charter to the Grand Lodge, which was granted, April 16, 1842: Thomas Robinson, Samnel Shaffer, Alf. Breitenbach, J. M. Spiller, William Anderson, and S. W. Morris. Harmony Lodge, No. 14, I. O. O. F., was instituted by Charles Thomas, grand master, May, 20, 1842. The first officers of the lodge were Samuel Shaffer, N. G .; S. W. Morris, V. G. ; Alf. Breitenbach, secre- tary; J. M. Spiller, treasurer. The following persons were initiated at the first meeting of the I. O. O. F., in Butier County : Ferdinand Creighton, Samuel Millikin, Augustus Breitenbach, George Myers, Charles Snider. Michael L. Delorav, Michael Hoffman, Jacob Ebert, Aaron Reiser, David Taylor, Charles K. Smith, Josiah Breitenbach, and Ephraim Ayres, seven of whom are still living. William Anderson and Samuel Shaffer are the only living members who applied for charter No. 14, J. O. O. F. Mr. Shaffer had served in Lodge No. 4, in Cincinnati, and was initiated in 1837.
Hamilton Lodge, No. 17, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was instituted in the third story of the Lohman building, then owned by Norris Crane, January 21, 1843, by Charles Thomas, M. W. G. M .; Thomas Sherlock, M. W. D. G. M .; David T. Suchbaker, G. W .; Samuel W. Corwin, G. S .; Isaac Hefley, G. T .; Henry M. Bates, G. G .; William conn, G. C.
The chartered members were as follows: John W. Er- win, I. M. Spiller, Wilson Cummins, Charles K. Smith, O. S. Witherby, William Wilson, James B. Cameron, John S. Brown, Jamies Reynolds, Jacob Ebert, Charles Suyder, Samuel Johnson, Henry Richmond, R. H. Lewis, and Thomas Davis.
The first meeting of the organizers was held on Main Street, Rossville, near Perry G. Smith's drugstore. They licht their meetings for some time there, until the | Odd Fellows' Hall was bailt by a stock company. It
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cost ten thousand dollars, and is a large and handson.c building. It was afterward sold by the sheriff, and was bought by Daniel Sortman. It is now owned partly by the Odd Fellows. The only surviving members are John W. Erwin, of this city ; O. S. Witherby, of California ; Samuel Johnson, of Cincinnati ; and Thomas Davis, of Illinois.
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The lodge is now located in their own building, on the south-west corner of High and Third Streets, with a membership of one hundred, and from its organization to this date has been able to furnish relief according to the requirements of the laws of Odd Fellows. There is also a German lodge in this city.
B. W. HAIR.
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Benjamin W. Hair, M. D., discoverer and mannfac- turer of " Dr. Hair's Asthma Cure," was born July 26, 1819, in Washington County, Pennsylvania, being the youngest of thirteen children. His parents, James and Rebecca (McCowen) Hair, were both born in Berkeley County, Virginia. A few years after their marriage (about 1806) they removed to Pennsylvania, where they lived the remainder of their days. Farming was their life vocation, being pursued both in Virginia and Penn- sylvania. Mr. James Hair was also justice of the peace for thirty-four years of his life. At his hands justice was indeed found, for during this long period as a magistrate, both in Virginia and Pennsylvania, there were, out of hundreds of cases, but six that he did not succeed in com- promising, and which finally came to trial. He always used every possible influence to secure an amicable settle- ment between the contestants, in which he was almost in- variably successful. He was a true peace-maker, and for this, and many other excellent traits of his character, he was greatly esteemed and respected by all who knew him. He died while yet holding his office. His wife had pre- ceded him, having died in 1840.
Two brothers of Dr. Hair made themselves widely known in the ministry. They were both Presbyterians. One of them died a few years ago in Chicago, while still laboring in his profession. A circumstance worthy of note, as not having a parallel, perhaps, in the United States, is connected with the family of Dr. Hair's oldest brother. The widow, with four generations, all females, constitut- ing the entire posterity of Mr. Jolin Hair, are still living in Sigourney, Iowa, making in all five generations.
Dr. Hair attended the common schools until he was nineteen years of age, when he entered Washington College, in Washington County, Pennsylvania, then iu charge of the Rev. Dr. McConaba, where he was a school- miate of Hon. James G. Blaine, and joined him in de- bate at college societies, where he graduated in 1842, in high standing. He then began the study of med- icine in the office of the noted Dr. Biddle, of Mo- nongahela City, Pennsylvania, and in the meantime entered the Ohio Medical College, at Cincinnati, where
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he graduated as a doctor of medicine in 1845. A loca- tion for practice was the next question to determine, and finally Fairview, Hancock County. Virginia, was selected, where he remained actively engaged till 1×49. He next removed to Hamilton County, Ohio, remaining in Sharonsville and vicinity till 1853. From that place he moved into Butler County, where, with the exception of four years spent in Princeton, Illinois, and an equal time in Franklin County, Indiana, he has since remained. In 1864, while in Indiana, he went out as assistant sur- geon of the One Hundredth United States Infantry, serving in that capacity until the close of the war. He was with the army of the Tennessee, under General Thomas.
Returning to Butler County, he resumed practice, which was continued till 1879, when a new departure in his professional career took place. While in the army he contracted spasmodic asthma, which developed in a few years into an exceedingly severe case. For cleven years there was not a day or night that he did not ex- perience asthmatic paroxysins, and was finally reduced to a mere skeleton. He had, during all these years, been studying the disease carefully, and had made many experiments to ascertain its true nature, the method to alleviate it, and a rational philosophy of cure. But finally, on the 8th of January, 1876, he began treating his case with a remedy which he compounded upon scientific principles, based upon his own observations, study, and experiments. It relieved him immediately, and since the first forty-eight hours succeeding its first application he has not, in a single instance, experienced a recurrence of his malady.
He then began treating other asthmaties, and fond that in a very large majority of cases a perfect cure was effected. To test the medicinal powers of his discovery thoroughily, he treated many cases gratuitously all over the country, and the result was that in a short time his medicine met with a general demand, so that in the Spring of 1879, he began the manufacturing of " Dr. Hair's Asthma Cure" in Hamilton, which was carried on with great sueeess till August, 1881, when the enter- prise was removed to Cincinnati under the firm name of Hair & Son. Until recently Dr. Hair has supplied his patrons directly, but the demand became so universal that he decided to furnish all druggisis instead, by which means a more general distribution of the cure could be effected. It is now known and used all over America, and has been the means of curing thousands of suffering humanity, its discoverer included. Though established but three years, the enterprise is reputed worth upwards of $300,000, of which Dr. Hair & Son are sole proprie- tors.
Dr. Hair was married September 24, 1844, to Miss Margaretta L. Hamilton, of Florence, Washington County. Pennsylvania, daughter of John and Margaretta Ham- ilton of that place, farmers by occupation. Mrs. Hair
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died March 4, 1882, leaving three daughters and one son. The oldest is the wife of Virgil Gilchrist, of Cin- cinnati, her second husband, and was born Angust 8, 1844. West Anna, wife of the Rev. T. J. McClelland, of Piqua, Ohio, was born January 25, 1847. James W. was born the 10th of May, 1851, and Margaretta R., wife of Robert Cochran, of Millville, Butler County, was born March 4, 1856.
Dr. Hair is a man of great earnestness and enthusi- asm in whatever interests him. In temperance work he has been very active and influential. He has devoted much time and spent much money in organizing and sus- taining teinperance organizations. His work in this di- rection has been followed by great good, and refleets great credit on him. In Church work he is no less prominent, being one of the largest supporters of the Presbyterian Church in Hamilton. His benevolence in these partieu- lars are but symbols of his relation towards all worthy enterprises. As an illastration of his zeal and liberality, his action in the recent efforts to enforec the Sunday laws will show. He, upon the first resistance being offered to the law, eame forward and sustained Mayor Puthoff, and offered to give five hundred dollars, or even one thousand dollars if needed, to enforce the law.
In politics he is an enthusiastic Republican, and never fails to vindicate the principles he espouses. Socially he is genial and hospitable, and with friends self-sacrifieing.
ST. JOHN.
St. John's Church was founded abont the year 1830, and has had the following ministers: Messrs. Rosenfeld, Hardorf, Clements, Gebel, Fischer, Thomen, Richter, Anker, Gremm, Wetterstroem, Gerwig, Poster, Pfaeffen, Heimeeh, Gahring, Herrmann, and Stempel. On the 10th of July, 1867, the corner-stone for a new church was laid, and on the 27th of May, 1868, it was conse- crated. According to the record, the cost of the church amountal to 828,568. The Rev. Philip Stempel, its pastor, has been here since 1875. The serviees are in German.
ZION CHURCH.
In 1844 some members scceded from St. John's Church and organized a new society. Their first meetings were held in a frame building in Rossville, and they also wor- shiped in the Rossville Presbyterian Church. After sev- eral years they began building in Hamilton, diagonally opposite where the church now stands. Some of the walls are still in use. The pastors have been the Rev. Messrs. Hardof, Conradi, G. Grau, F. Groth, from November 14, 1852, to 1861 ; R. Herbst, until 1873; and G. H. Tre- bel. Under Mr. Herbst's pastorate the new church was erreted, at a cost of from twenty-eight to thirty thousand dollars. The denomination is Evangelical Lutheran. At it> organization the society had eighteen members ; it now bas eight hundred and fifty communicants and a voting membership of oue hundre I and fifteen.
REFORMED CHURCH.
The Reformed Church in this city dates back as far as the 15th of April, 1866, when steps were taken towards its organization. Meetings were held at the Ger- man Methodist Episcopal Church every other Sunday until September 30, 1866, and then for two weeks in Rumple's Hall. Serviees were discontinued til! Spring, when they were held for a short time in the Universalist Church. . During the latter part of the season they held meetings in the Christian Church, in West Hamilton. An organization was begun at this period, at which F. B. Tomson, Belle Tomson, Ada Touison, Louisa Bower, Mary M. Wehr, Jesse Jacoby, and John Breitenstein met at the house of Augustus Breidenbach, and consti- tuted the First Reformed Church. F. B. Tomson aud John Breitenstein were elected elders; Jesse Jacoby and George Huber, deacons; and F. B. Tomson, Daniel Bro- sier, and Jesse Jacoby, trustees. The names of those who were not present, but signified their assent, and became members, were Mrs. F. B. Tomson, Mattie Tomson, Maggie Bowerman, Mrs. Sophia Breitenstein, Elizabeth A. Eekert, Mrs. Elizabeth Rothenbush, and George Huber.
On the 11th of September, 1867, the lot on which their house stands was purchased of Thomas Millikin by the pastor, the Rev. G. Z. Meehling, and Jesse Jacoby, on their individual responsibility. It was afterwards deeded to the congregation, and paid for by them. The lot is on the corner of Ross and Third Streets. It is eighty-six and a half feet by one hundred and sixty feet, fronting on Ross, and eost nine hundred dollars. Mr. Mechling at once began canvassing the neighboring Churches for means to ereet a building, and met with grat- ifying success. Fourteen hundred dollars were obtained from Seven-Mile, St. Paul, and Millville. Jesse Jacoby obtained some five hundred dollars in Pennsylvania. The Xenia charge gave one hundred, West Alexandria one hundred and thirty-five, and other Churches contributed liberally. On the 11th of June, 1868, ground was stakec off' and workmen began at the foundation. The corner- stone was laid on the 30th of August. The building was not completed sutheient to occupy until the 19th of September, 1869. The dedicatory sermon was preached by the Rev. T. P. Bucher. The church is sixty feet long, thirty-eight feet wide, side walls eighteen feet high, and center of the ceiling twenty-eight feet. It is a very pretty Gothie edifice, the handsomest in town, and cost about eight thousand dollars.
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