A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record, Part 38

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans
Number of Pages: 1612

USA > Ohio > Scioto County > A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record > Part 38

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The Democratic Inquirer was started in Portsmouth by James M. Ashley and Edward Jordan, two prominent Democrats. The first publication of the paper was April 6, 1848. They published another issue April 13th, and then the enterprise broke down. Neither of them had a cent of capital. Captain Francis Cleveland bought them out and continued the Inquirer as a Democratic paper, gotten out ev- ery week until 1849, when it became a daily paper. After the failure of the newspaper, young Ashley began the study of law with Charles O. Tracy and in 1849 he was admitted to the bar. In January 1851,

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he was assessed as a lawyer upon an income of $1,000 but it is doubt- ful if he earned that amount of money. However as the tax was only $5.00, Mr. Ashley, rather than admit that he had not earned it, paid it. On April 7. 1851, our subject was a candidate for Mayor as a Democrat against Benjamin Ramsey as a Whig and he was de- feated. The vote stood: Benjamin Ramsey, Whig, 261, James M. Ashley 201, William Oldfield 97. If Judge Oldfield had kept out of the race Ashley might have been elected and his wonderful career belonged to the Portsmouth instead of the Toledo District. But it was "kismet" that the electors of Portsmouth were to make this mis- take. If the citizens of Portsmouth had known of what greatness and talent Mr. Ashley was possessed, probably this would not have occurred as Ramsey was a man who attained no distinction whatever and he was too lazy to live. But this discouraged young Ashley with Ports- mouth and justly so.

While in Portsmouth he became connected with the "underground railway," and at great risk to himself assisted a number of runaway slaves in their flight to Canada. In those days it was, of course, very necessary to be secretive about this; otherwise, with the state of senti- ment that then prevailed along the Ohio Valley, he would have been sent to the penitentiary. At one time he met a Quaker on the street who said to him, "James, I think thee needs this," at the same time handing him $20.00. Knowing that the Quaker was of anti-slavery sentiments he came to the conclusion that this money was given hin! to aid in the operation of the underground railway, and thinking that if the Quaker knew of his activity in that direction many others must. he decided to leave Portsmouth and in 1851 removed to Toledo, Ohio, where he engaged in the wholesale drug business. From the first he was very active in politics. In 1852 he at first supported Franklin Pierce, but later seeing the pro-slavery drift of the Pierce campaign, he changed his mind and voted for Hale and Julian. In 1854 he par- ticipated in the first Republican Convention of Lucas County held in the Court House at Maumee. During the Fremont-Buchanan cam- paign of 1853 he delivered many speeches of remarkable ability and boldness, declaring among other things, "that there was no escape from a revolution that must end either in the destruction of the Union, or in the abolition of slavery"-thus anticipating Lincoln's celebrated declaration "that a house divided against itself cannot stand."

In 1858 he was elected a representative to Congress from the To- ledo district. being re-elected until 1868. Mr. Ashley made a trip to Illinois and at Alton first met Mr. Lincoln and heard his last speech in the famous Lincoln-Douglas debate. A very warm friendship fol- lowed, which lasted until Mr. Lincoln's death. Mr. Ashley soon became a prominent figure in the Republican ranks, acting with the most radical Abolitionists, many of whom he had long known. Dur-

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ing the first session of Congress, after Mr. Lincoln became president, he introduced a bill for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, which met with no support and was finally replaced by an- other bill, the joint work of Mr. Ashley and Hon. Lot M. Morrill. which was finally passed April 11, 1862. It appropriated $1,000,000; with which to compensate the owners for their slaves, but was sup- ported by Ashley and his friends as the precursor to emancipation. He had no faith in compromises, but from the outbreak of the Civil War believed that the Union would be preserved. To that end his first re-construction bill was prepared in June. 1861, before leaving home to attend the extra session of Congress, convened by President Lin- coln July 4th of that year ; but his colleagues were not prepared for it.

At the regular session, December 23, 1861, he introduced a suc- cessful resolution instructing the Committee on Territories, of which he was chairman. to inquire into the legality and expediency of estab- lishing territorial governments within the limits of disloyal states. On March 12, 1862, a majority of the committee reported his bill, but it was laid on the table. Mr. Ashley introduced a bill for the or- ganization of the Territory of Arizona, and aided in securing a law prohibiting slavery in the territories. On December 14, 1863, he in- troduced a proposition to amend the Constitution of the United States, abolishing slavery, but on June 15, 1864, this proposition was defeated in the house. On his motion to reconsider Mr. Ashley succeeded in converting twenty-four border-state and northern Democrats and secured the passage of the measure. On January 31. 1865, the 13th Constitutional Amendment was passed and of this vote Mr. Ashley said later: "I knew that the hour was at hand when the world would witness the complete triumph of a cause, which at the beginning of my political life I had not hoped to live long enough to see." On his re-election to Congress in 1864. Mr. Ashley was tendered a banquet, at which. Hon. Salmon P. Chase said : "To him, more than to any other man. do we owe the consecration of all the new states to liberty by irrepealable provisions of fundamental law." March 7, 1867. Mr. Ashley introduced the resolution for the impeachment of President Johnson, and on May 29, 1868, a constitu- tional amendment proposing the election of president by direct vote of the people. In 1869 he was appointed territorial governor of Mon- tana, which territory, with Arizona and Idaho, he had organized and named while chairman of the committee on territories, but he re- mained only about a year on account of a difference with President Grant. In the presidential campaign of 1872, Mr. Ashley supported Horace Greeley and favored the restoration of all rights, dignities and privileges forfeited by the rebellion, claiming that by so doing the republic would be elevated toward heights of moral grandeur.

Mr. Ashley has consecrated his life to the cause of a race from whom he could not expect any reward save the gratitude and appre-

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ciation which he received The colored people did everything in their power to honor him while living and to perpetuate his memory when dead, making a souvenir volume of his addresses. He left public life in 1870 with depleted finances, but observing that a railroad extending north from Toledo, across the peninsula of Michigan would furnish an outlet for about 300 miles of country, then largely without such facili- ties, he purchased valuable terminals at Toledo entirely on credit and proceeded to build the road north to Lake Michigan; there, with his eldest son, J. M. Ashley, Jr., constructed a fleet of train-carrying ferry boats, operating them to and from Gladstone, Wis.,-the first vessels to carry trains across so wide a body of water. This made the To- ledo, Ann Arbor and North Michigan an important line. In connec- tion with this great enterprise, Mr. Ashley again indulged his philan- thropic impulses by schemes of industrial profit-sharing.

When the disciples of John Brown, who had encouraged him to make his raid on Harper's Ferry, all deserted him, Mr. Ashley had the courage to go into the midst of the angered south and visit the friendless old man in his prison, procured permission for the wife to visit the husband, and the tragedy over, asked for the body of the (lead martyr and sent it north among the Adirondack hills. Meeting the stricken wife he said, with tears streaming down his face: "Dear Madam, Virginia has hung your husband, but Virginia will, some day, erect a monument to his memory, and his name will live among the martyrs of freedom and the race when all the rest of us are for- gotten." Mr. Ashley was married in 1851 to Emma J. Smith, of Portsmouth, Ohio. They had three sons, James M., Henry W., and Charles S., and one daughter, Mary, wife of Edward Ringwood Hew- itt of New York City. To his family he was remarkably kind and liberal, giving all his children college educations at a time when the fi- nancial strain was hard to bear; and in every other way he was kind and indulgent to an unusual degree. Governor Ashley died Septem- ber 16, 1896.

Gov. Ashley always considered that his want of education was a very great handicap to his success in life. He never learned in school how to spell well or to express himself with perfect grammatical correctness. His mind was so made that while capable of long and in- tense labor on matters that interested him, he found it very difficult to do dry detail work of uninteresting sort, and for this reason he never made up the deficiencies of his early training. This character- istic followed him in business and in politics. His methods of busi- ness, while characterized by great foresight, and a large ability in appreciating the factors of enterprises of magnitude, seriously lacked carefulness of detail. He was extremely good at working out his own ideas, but had small inclination to put much time or study upon the suggestions of others. When putting up buildings he would plan them himself rather than invite the best skill of an architect. When moving

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the impeachment of Andrew Johnson in 1867, he put no time or study upon a precedent. It is quite in accordance with this general trait that he is reported to have been somewhat averse to manual labor when he was a young man, although considered very bright mentally.

Perhaps his most remarkable quality was the extraordinary cour- age with which he would pursue his designs regardless of serious ob- stacles. His railroad enterprise was prosecuted and over $6,000,000 obtained and expended by him on a very slender private capital. This involved him in very heavy liabilities and for fourteen years he was under a continuous financial strain. The failure of the railroad he had built with so much effort, after he had ceased from active con- trol of it, was a very great grief to his last years, although he uttered no word of complaint. In social life he was a delightful reconteur having a very large appreciation of humor and loving to entertain his friends with stories and narratives that interested himself. If these had been preserved they would make no small addition to the history of the period in which he lived.

Joseph Mills Glidden

was born June 1, 1808, near Northfield, New Hampshire. His fath- er Charles Mills Glidden was a successful stock raiser in this state. He moved with his family to Scioto County, Ohio, about 1820; where he followed the same vocation until his death, which occurred a few years later. Joseph Glidden was one of a family of seven sons : John, who died in young manhood, Mills, Jefferson, Obadiah, Galusha and Dan, all of whom were successful iron furnacemen. Our subject graduated with high honors at Dartmouth College in 1829 and wreck- ed his health by hard study in his course. Directly after he graduat- ed, he took a three years voyage in a whaling vessel and came home a well man physically, but his mind was never what it was before his arduous study at college. He studied law at Portsmouth with Judge Peck, was admitted to the bar of Scioto County, but practiced but lit- tle. In 1845, Mr. Glidden was elected Marshal of Portsmouth, but resigned December 5, 1845. He was at one time a Justice of the Peace in Portsmouth. He was married first to Mary Donaldson of Highland County about 1835. She died and left one child, Charles Henry, now living at Lincoln, Illinois. In 1844, he married Eliza Emory Young, daughter of Rev. Dan Young, who was so prominently identified with early Methodism in Scioto County. Eliza Young, his wife, was born near Northfield, New Hampshire, October 3, 1819. and came with her parents, when a babe, to Scioto County, Ohio. She was one of a very numerous family of sons and daughters. At the age of sixteen. she taught a country district school. After that she taught in a private family, the Pogue's in Kentucky. She began teaching in the Portsmouth schools in 1839 at the age of twenty and taught till her marriage in 1844. She began teaching again in 1852

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and taught continuously till June 1878. She taught the colored schools a part of the time. She had the reputation of being one of the best teachers in Portsmouth. Of this last marriage there were three chil- dren : Jefferson, Kate and Flora, now Mrs. John E. Williams, all res- idents of Williamson, West Virginia. Joseph Glidden died May 7, 1865, at Portsmouth. His wife died September 29, 1881, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. John E. Williams, at Syracuse, Meigs County, Ohio.

William H. Reed

was born on the South Branch of the Potomac River in Virginia, about 1810. His father and mother brought their family, a large one to Adams County and they settled near Loudon. There Mr. Reed was educated in the common schools. After he came of age, he went to Sinking Springs and engaged in merchandising. He concluded law was best for him and studied law in West Union under Nelson Barrere. He was admitted to the bar in 1846, and located in Piketon, where he very soon attained distinction in his profession. He was on one side of every case of importance in Pike County for years, even after he left there and located in Portsmouth, which was in 1863. He was most highly esteemed as a lawyer in Pike County. Every one had confidence in him and believed in him. As a lawyer, he was dis- posed to be technical. He could always make a good argument to the Court or jury. While in Pike County, he was a partner in the banking business of T. Sergeant & Co., which failed. He also took an interest in Pioneer Furnace, which turned out badly. May 17, 1849, he married Mrs Catharine Penn, a daughter of Judge Johnson of Hillsboro. They had one child, Charles A., who grew to manhood. graduated at Marietta College and studied law. His health failed and he went to Iowa, where he died August 2, 1878. Mr. Reed never ob- tained the confidence of the people of Scioto County, or Adams, to the extent he had obtained that of the people of Pike County. That was not however, because it was not deserved. Mr. Reed was not of a pushing disposition. He never went after business, but let it come to him. Judge W. W. Johnson of Ironton passed a high compliment on hin :. He told of him that when a certain enterprise he was in failed and the partners were sued and judgments were obtained, others sought to conceal and dispose of their property, but he never tried to avoid the payment of any obligation and let his property be seized and ap- plied to the debts of the concern.

Mr. Reed became addicted to the drink habit in Pike County and it ruined his life. He had enough troubles to drive one to drink. He never told them himself, or talked of them, but his acquaintances did. He died at about the age of 68 and was interred at Loudon in Adams County, where his grave is unmarked. He was an honorable man and a faithful, able and honorable attorney. He was no man's enemy but

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his own. In personal appearance, he was tall and slender, but much stooped in his shoulders. The top of his head was bald and around the sides of his head he had a fringe of brown hair, as fine as silk, and which never turned gray. His voice had a squeak in it, owing to an injury to his palate in middle life. Had he sat for Renan's pen picture of St. Paul in the latter's life of the Great Apostle, the descrip- tion would not have been more true to himself. Mr. Reed was a Whig, while the Whig party was in existence. He afterwards became a Republican. He was never a candidate for any public office. His great strength lay in defending a case. It was customary with him to file a general denial whenever it would lie and to require the plaintiff to make full proof. If he failed to prove any necessary fact, then Reed demanded a non-suit. He was never a member of any Church, at least, not in his latter days. His religion consisted of his honesty and in- tegrity.

William S. Huston

was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, January 21, 1824, the eldest son and child of Captain Samuel J. and Elizabeth ( Leonard) Huston. He was reared in Portsmouth and received his education in its public schools. He was of a precocious mind and early developed a judgment in ad- vance of his years. He was noted for his filial affection. He devel- oped early a faculty for making and saving money. The first hundred dollars he earned and saved he presented to his mother as an evidence of his tender affection for her. He studied law with Mr. George Johnson, and was admitted to the bar.

He was City Treasurer in 1854. He was practicing in 1856 and continued until his death except the period he was Probate Judge. He was elected Probate Judge in 1857 on the Democratic ticket and serv- ed one term, February 9, 1858, to February 9, 1861. He was appoint- ed Regimental Quartermaster of the 56th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Oc- tober 18, 1861, and served until December 17, 1862, when he re- signed. In 1863 and 1864 he was practicing law in Portsmouth. His health was never strong and he died August 27, 1865, at the age of forty-one years. Mr. Huston had great ability as a financier and had he lived he would have acquired a great fortune. The great and overpowering characteristic of his life was his devotion to his family. his father and mother, and their children. He could never do too much for them, and he was entirely devoted to their interest. As a business lawyer he had no superior ; but by natural taste he preferred the quieter walks of the profession.

George Ott Newman

was born in Stanton, Virginia, November 9, 1836, the eldest of six children of his parents, Hon. William Newman and his wife, Cather- ine Ott. In 1839, his parents came to Portsmouth, where he has ever since resided. He attended the public schools of Portsmouth and in

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1853, entered the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, and graduated in 1858. He entered the office of Moore and Johnson as a law student directly after his graduation. On August 1, 1860, he was admitted to the bar by the District Court of Morrow County, Ohio, and began practice in Portsmouth. In April, 1861, he was First Sergeant of Company A, 15th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Militia. This Company responded to the first call for 75,000 troops in the Civil War and became Company G, Ist O. V. I. It served from April 16, 1861, until August 1, 1861. It reached home 3 a. m. August 16. 1861, and every one was out to welcome it. Hon. Wells A. Hutch- ins delivered the welcoming address. Mr. Newman replied for the Company. Mr. Newman was elected in 1861 Prosecuting Attorney on the Democratic ticket, J. J. Harper being the Republican candidate. In 1863, the same two were opposed for the same office and Harper was elected. In 1868, Mr. Newman was the candidate of his party for Common Pleas Judge but was defeated. Mr. Newman was mar- ried September 1, 1866, to Miss Clay B., eldest daughter of Colonel O. F. Moore. Their children are Oscar William, a member of the Portsmouth Bar; Mrs. Kate Alger, wife of Edwin N. Alger of Hun- tington, W. Va .; Mrs. Fannie Shaw, wife of Edward H Shaw, and Charles Russell. Mr. Newman is a good and well read lawyer. He is uniformly correct in preparing all legal instruments, a wise and prudent counsellor, and always takes the safe side. He has been President of the Portsmouth Library Board since its creation and has been a member of the Board of City Elections since 1889, its first organization. In politics, he has always been a Democrat. He is

not a member of any Church, but prefers the Episcopal. He has fine literary tastes, and is popular with all who know him. He carries his years lightly. In 1870, he became a member of the firm of Moore and Johnson and Newman. After the death of Mr. Johnson in 1873, the firm continued Moore and Newman, until the death of Colonel Moore in 1885. Since then Mr. Newman has practised alone. In September, 1901, at the organization of the Portsmouth Bar and Law Library Association, he was made its President.

John Jefferson Glidden

was born September 19, 1840, at Junior Furnace. His father was Jefferson Wadley Glidden and his mother, Catherine Wolfe Young. His grandfather, Charles Glidden, came from New Hampshire in 1820 and his father in 1826. There were ten children in his father's fam- ily, although but three lived to maturity. John, Carlos and Mrs. Anna Houts. His father built the Goddard house at Junior Furnace in 1844. There stands a magnolia tree in the yard which was planted there by our subject's mother in 1844. In 1850, his father removed to Dayton, Ohio, on account of the schools and lived there three years. In 1854, he built the present Peebles residence on the north-east cor-

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ner of Second and Washington streets, in Portsmouth, Ohio. His father lived there until 1858 when his wife died of consumption at the age of 48. In 1858, his father went to Junior Furnace and made his home with Jesse Young until his death in March 1863.

In 1856, our subject attended the Collegiate and Commercial In- stitute at New Haven, Conn., for two or three years. In the fall of 1851, he went into the law office of the Hon. Wells A. Hutchins in the Massie Block, as a law student. He entered the Cincinnati Law School in 1859 and graduated in 1860. As he was not then of age, he took a post-graduate course in 1860 and 1861.

On April 16, 1861, he enlisted in Company "G," Ist Ohio Volun- teer Infantry, three months men. He was made a Corporal April 29, 1861, and mustered out August 1, 1861. He was admitted to the bar in 1861 in Columbus and located in Portsmouth. He formed a partnership with Martin Crain, the firm being known as Crain & Glidden, which continued for two years. After that time he prac- ticed alone. In the Spring of 1869, he was elected City Solicitor of Portsmouth, Ohio. The vote stood, John Glidden, Republican, 787 ; Robert N. Spry, Democrat, 736; majority, 51 votes. In regard to his election Mr. Glidden said that he did not ask anyone to vote for him and did not expect to be elected. In December, 1870, he re- signed his office as City Solicitor and located in La Porte, Indiana, and remained there until March, 1872, when he removed to Cin- cinnati and began the practice of law and has continued it ever since. He is located in the Atlas Bank Building on Walnut Street. He has always been a Republican.

He was married to Mary A. Bell. daughter of Robert Bell, Esq. in October, 1862. They had three children, two of whom died in in- fancy. His son, Bruce, of this marriage, is now a prominent lawyer in Denver, Colorado He was married to Elizabeth Montgomery, and they have one child. Mr. Glidden, our subject, was married a sec- ond time to Miss Ruth Hall Glidden, daughter of Obadiah Glidden, December 20, 1870. The children of this marriage are Ellen, the wife of Walter W. Clippenger, an attorney of Cincinnati, Ohio; Hope S., who graduates this Spring in the Cincinnati Medical College, and Ruth, who resides in Brooklyn and has charge of a kindergarten. Mr. Glidden has had distinguished success in his chosen profession of the law. He has assiduously devoted himself to it and has been con- nected with some of the most important litigation in the courts, and his reputation could safely rest on his conduct of two or more im- portant cases. His ability in these shown has sufficiently fixed and es- tablished his reputation as a most able lawyer.

James Severn Pollitt

was born at Tolesboro, Lewis County, Kentucky, October 14, 1839, son of Alexander and Elenor Pollitt. He had scarcely any educa-

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tion, but always thirsted for one. At the age of twenty, he went to Maysville, Kentucky and studied law with the Hon. Wm. H. Wads- worth for whom he always professed and expressed the greatest ad- miration and friendship. At 22 years of age, he was admitted to the bar and located at Clarksburg, in Lewis County. He afterwards mov- ed to Vanceburg, the County seat, and was elected County Judge, July 3, 1865, to succeed Socrates Holbrook who had resigned. August 24, 1866 he was elected for a term of four years, to the same office. He resigned October 20, 1868 and came to Portsmouth and formed a partnership with William H. Reed which continued until 1871. He was madly fond of politics. Nothing made him happier than to be in a political contest. In 1873, he received the Republican nomination for Mayor. He defeated George W. Flanders in the convention. Flan- ders ran independent and beat him before the people. The vote stood : Flanders 972, Pollitt 867. In 1873, he was a candidate for City So- licitor on the Republican ticket and defeated by Duncan Livingstone. The vote stood, Livingstone 1,061, Pollitt 1,039. In 1881, he was a candidate for Common Pleas Judge and carried the County, but it was taken away from him. In 1883, he was again Republican candi- date for Mayor against John J. McFarlin, Democrat, and was defeat- ed by the following vote : McFarlin 1,361, Pollitt 1, 129, majority 232. These votes in which he was defeated are given to show that he stood well with his own friends and that he was never discouraged or ap- palled by defeat.

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A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record, Part 38

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913 Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans Number of Pages: 1612

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans
Number of Pages: 1612