Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio, Part 121

Author: Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, Frederick Schneider, and others
Publication date: 1905
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1149

USA > Ohio > Butler County > Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio > Part 121

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equipment had been entirely supplanted with the latest and most modern presses and typesetting machines, and no paper in a city of one hundred thousand has an equipment superior to that of the Dayton Journal. In that time there has been installed capable men and the paper is today the leading morn- ing Republican paper in the Miami valley.

Socially Mr. Tobey is a member of Washington Lodge, No. 17, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, Hamilton Chapter, No. 21, Royal Arch Masons, Hamilton Council, No. 19. Royal and Select Masters, and Hamilton Commandery, No. 41, Knights Templar, Hamilton Lodge, No. 93, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and Lone Star Lodge, No. 39, Knights of Pythias. He was appointed trustee of Miami University by Governor Mckinley in December, 1895; and in 1901 he was reappointed by Governor Nash. In June, 1903, he was elected vice- president of the board of trustees, which po- sition he still occupies. He was a member of the board of directors of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity for three years, 1893-96. Mr. Tobey is kind and benevolent in disposition and his presence and social ways are a great pleasure to his many friends.

On December 19. 1894, Mr. Tobey was united in marriage with Miss Fannie Doug- las Smith, of Hamilton. ' Their home life is indeed a happy one.

MAJOR JOHN W. RUE.

Major John W. Rue is a native of the old Blue Grass state, having been born in Harrodsburg, Mercer county, Kentucky, June 18, 1828, and is descended from New

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Jersey parentage. He was educated in the common schools of his neighborhood, and for the greater part of his life followed farming, though during his latter years he engaged as a contractor and builder and in the insurance business. The Major's mili- tary career was a most creditable one. In 1846 he enlisted in the Second Kentucky Infantry, with which command he served for one year, and during the war of the Re- bellion he took an active part. He rose to the rank of major in the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry and acquired considerable note as the captor of the famous rebel cavalry leader, General Morgan. The Major be- came a member of Wetzel-Compton Post, No. 96, Grand Army of the Republic. His first wife was Miss Elizabeth Brower, whom he married in 1853, but who died one year later. His second wife was Miss Amanda Kline, of Butler county, Ohio, whom he married in 1855, and to them were born four children, Isaac, Comelia, Mary and George.

BENJAMIN W. BAKER.

One of the ablest members of the bar of Butler county and a leading citizen of Hamilton is he whose name heads this sketch. He is a native of this county, hav- ing been born near Somerville, Milford township, January 2, 1859. He was reared amid the environments of rural life and re- ceived the rudiments of an education in the schools of his township. At the age of fourteen years he entered a classical institu- tion at Oxford, Ohio, taught by Robert Bishop and Professor Lowes and having completed his course of study there he en-

tered the sophomore class at Wabash Col- lege, Crawfordsville, Indiana, in 1877. Sub- sequently he became a student in Wooster University, at Wooster, Ohio, entering the junior class upon examination and gradu- ating from this institution in 1879. In the fall of the same year he carried out a long- treasured purpose and began the study of law in Hamilton under the preceptorship of Hon. Israel Williams and one year later entered the Cincinnati Law School. In 1881 he was admitted to the Butler county bar and has practiced continuously in Ham- ilton ever since. He has also been admitted to practice in the state and federal courts and has acquired a high reputation as a lawyer. During President Harrison's admin- istration Mr. Baker was appointed United States commissioner for the southern dis- trict of Ohio and performed the duties of this office to the eminent satisfaction of both government and people. As a lawyer Mr. Baker evinces a familiarity with legal principles and a ready perception of facts, together with the ability to apply the one to the other, which has won him the reputation of a sound and safe practitioner. By a straight-forward, honorable course he has built up a large and lucrative legal business and in all the important litigations with which he has been connected no one has ever charged him with anything calculated to bring discredit upon himself or caused a reflection upon his character.

On July 3, 1884, Mr. Baker was united in marriage to Miss Jennie L. Mee, to which union has been born three children, namely : John Calvin, aged nineteen years; Isaac Christian, aged sixteen years, and Benjamin W., an infant. Fraternally Mr. Baker is a member of the time-honored order of Free

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and Accepted Masons, belonging to the 1884, aged thirty-five years and six months, local lodge at Camden, this state, and in his daily life has exemplified the beneficent principles of this order.

FREDERICK SCHNEIDER.

Frederick Schneider was born in the city of Hamilton, Butler county, Ohio, on the 20th day of March, 1850. His father was William Schneider and his mother Margaret Dingfelder Schneider. His father died dur- ing the cholera epidemic in Cincinnati in 1849.

Frederick Schneider received a good common-school education, and when he was twelve years of age and had just entered the high school, he went to Cincinnati and worked for seven months in Greenwood's foundry, where his brother-in-law, C. M. Laue, was a foreman. In April, 1863, he entered the printing office of the Hamilton (weekly) Telegraph, owned by Fred Egry, and learned the printing trade, at which he has worked as journeyman and foreman. having held the latter position from his eighteenth year on up. In 1889 he, with Charles Zwick and Albert Dix, purchased from C. M. Campbell the Hamilton Daily News and the Hamilton Telegraph. He sold his interest in this business a few years later. He was married to Miss Anna Chris- tena Sippel, May 9, 1871. She bore him four children, Bertha Wilhelmina Jeannette, born October 25, 1872; Frederick Leroy. born October 10, 1875, who is married and resides in Dayton, Ohio; Edgar Bertram, born July 4, 1877, and Carl Aquila, born October 2. 1881. His wife died October 20.

she having been born February 27, 1849. Her disease was a long and lingering one -- consumption. Mr. Schneider was married again on December 10, 1885, to Miss Louisa Wilhelmina Holle, daughter of Mr. William Holle and Sophia, his wife (now deceased), at Mt. Healthy, Hamilton county, Ohio. She bore him four children, Bertha Louise, who died on the anniversary of her birth, October 6, 1877; Mabel Louisa, born March 4, 1890, and died June 5, 1890; Ruth Mar- guerite, born November 3, 1891, and Holle Herbert, born December 10, 1895. Mr. Schneider joined the German Methodist Episcopal church at the age of eleven years and he has held every office in the gift of the church. He was elected superintendent of the Sunday school at the age of nineteen and has held that office, off and on, for per- haps a quarter of a century. About the same time he was licensed an exhorter, and a few years later licensed to be a local preacher. In the latter capacity he served the church, in the city of his birth as well as in Richmond, Indiana, and at Mt. Healthy, Ohio, when the two places at dif- ferent times were connected with the Hamil- ton charge. In 1884, after the death of his first wife, he received an urgent invitation from a number of very prominent German citizens of Connersville, Indiana, to take charge of the only German Protestant church in that city, but which, after prayer- ful consideration, he felt it his duty to de- cline. Shortly after his appointment as a local preacher he was examined by his pre- siding elder, Rev. Jacob Rothweiler, who intended sending him out to work in the conference. This also he was compelled to decline, owing to the reluctance of Mrs.

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FREDERICK SCHNEIDER.

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Schneider to accept the work of an itiner- ant's wife. He has used the talents given him for the furthering of the interests of his Master's kingdom as far as he was able in his home circle and wherever else he has been asked and privileged to speak for his God's glory. His license as a local preacher has been renewed annually since his first ap- pointment, and almost every time it has been done by a unanimous vote of his brethren who are members of the quarterly confer- ence, which, as one presiding elder put it. was an almost unusual occurrence in other places where he presided.

WILLIAM C. MILLER.

William C. Miller was born in the Schwartzwald (Black Forest) district, in the kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany, July 31, 1847. His father, John Martin Miller, and grandfather, John George Miller, and ancestors for generations before were millwrights. His paternal grand- father, however, was for seven years sheriff of his district and a member of the town council for twenty years. He was a soldier in Napoleon's grand army in 1812 and saw Moscow in flames, and was one of the few survivors of that terrible campaign. The boys of that district for forty years after, of which the subject of this sketch was one, were taught that when a veteran of the Na- poleonic wars passed by they must cease their play, stand erect with hats off until the veteran passed by. Dr. Miller's maternal grandfather was an ally of Napoleon's in his early wars and when the dukedom of Wur- temberg was made a kingdom by Napoleon

Christian Kempf was made one of the coun- sellors of state for life. He was a man of influence and standing in his community, and an adviser and promulgator of all public affairs, and of inflexible recti- tude. Besides his state position, he served his town as magistrate and burgomeister (mayor) for a number of years. He died in 1836. In 1837 Dr. Miller's father entered the army and became first lieutenant in the First Wurtemberg Cavalry, and was honor- ably discharged May 9, 1843. He had, on the 24th of June, 1836, received his degree in the Technical School at Tubingen as fel- low craftsman in the art of millwright and on the 16th of June, 1844, received his di- ploma as master mechanic at the same uni- versity. He married, July 9, 1844, Freder- icka, youngest daughter of Hon. Christian and Maria Dingler Kempf. In 1848 he took an active part in the South German revolution, and when it was crushed left his native land for the asylum of all op- pressed, the United States of America, with his wife and two children, arriving in New York November Ist, and at Hamilton, Ohio, November 4, 1854, after a fifty-days voy- age on the Atlantic. He continued at his trade as millwright until his death, August 18, 1872. Dr. Miller, upon his arrival in Hamilton at seven years of age, at once entered the public schools, and for his edu- cation in German attended the then paro- chial school of St. John's church, held dur- ing the summer months and presided over successively by Revs. Gerwig, Goehring and Heinisch. In May, 1864, he entered the drug store of Peter Jacobs as an apprentice at seventy-five cents a week. He continued in his employ until January, 1870, when Dr. Markt called him at a salary quite in ex-

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cess of what he was then getting. He forty-four years of age, Mrs. Erin Corwin served him until July 31, 1871, when he Miller was called to eternal rest. She was entered business for himself with William a woman of the highest culture and refine- ment; a. teacher in the public schools for twelve years, honored and respected by all; of a gentle disposition; poetically inclined; a lover of her home. her church and her family above all. September 2, 1896, Dr. Miller married Mary Symmes Hunter, youngest daughter of William N. and Esther Symmes Hunter. Mrs. Hunter was a niece of President William H. Harrison, daughter of Judge Symmes, a nephew of John Cleves Symmes, purchaser of the Mi- ami valley in 1788, and closely connected with Benjamin Harrison, late President of the United States. This last union has been a most happy one-as happy as the one be- fore it-to Dr. Miller. At this writing, De- cember, 1904, he is still at his business. He is a man historically and politically inclined; has written many articles for the press on these topics, and is deeply interested in these subjects as well as medicine and religion. B. Falconer, under the firm name of Fal- coner & Miller. In September, 1874, he sold out to Mr. Falconer, determined on the study of medicine. He matriculated at the Miami Medical College October 1. 1874. and graduated therefrom March 27, 1877. His vacations were spent in the meantime in the drug store of A. T. Wittich, Dayton, Ohio, and after graduating he was taken in as partner by William Weusthoff in the same store under the firm name of Weust- hoff & Miller. His desire to return home to his widowed mother caused him to sell out in Dayton and on the 29th of March, 1879. he purchased the drug store of Bar- ton S. James, recently elected clerk of the court. In January. 1867, he became a mem- ber of the United Presbyterian church, the church with which he had been identified since a child of ten years, and this was ac- complished under that most divine and up- right man, the pastor of the congregation, His recent paper read before the Butler County Medical Society on the "Trials and Triumphs of Medicine," was a masterpiece, and his recent deductions as to "Who Cruci- fied Christ?" and "The Republics of the World," have never been excelled. Dr. Wm. Davidson, and his Sabbath school teacher, Mrs. David Crawford. In Febru- ary, 1874, he became a member of the Ma- sonic order, and for five years, from 1893 to 1899, was its treasurer. In 1895 he was chosen deacon of the United Presbyterian church, but resigned the charge in 1898. In 1892 he was elected a member of the trustees of Lane Free Library, and chosen ALBERT SHAW. as its secretary, serving until the board was abolished, in 1899.

September 9, 1880, Dr. Miller married Erin A. Corwin, daughter of Hon. Jesse and Jane H. Corwin. Three children were born of this union, William Corwin, Jesse Blaine and Warren Martin. At just

Albert Shaw was born in Shandon, Morgan township, Butler county, Ohio, July 23. 1857. He is a son of Griffin and Susan Shaw. He was graduated from Iowa Col- lege in 1879. He was part owner of the Grinnell Herald while taking a post-gradu-

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ate course in constitutional history and econ- omic science; took a course in history and political science at Johns Hopkins College, gaining the degree of Ph. D. in 1884. He was married in 1893 to Elizabeth Bacon, of Reading, Pennsylvania. He was an edi- torial writer on the Minneapolis Tribune from 1883 to 1888, and 1889 and 1890; studied in Europe. 1888-89. He established the American Review of Reviews in 1891. and has ever since conducted it, as editor and publisher. He is a member of many learned societies and has lectured in many universities and colleges. He is a member of the Aldine, Ardsley County, Authors, Barnard, Century, City, Congregational, Minnesota (president), National Arts, New York Alumni Association Johns Hopkins University, Nineteenth Century, Ohio and the Quill Clubs. Author of "Icaria-A Chap- ter in the History of Communism," 1884; "Local Government in Illinois," 1883; "Co- operation in the Northwest," 1883; "Mu- nicipal Government in Great Britain," 1895; "Municipal Government in Continen- tal Europe," 1885; Editor of National Rev- enues, 1888; also many articles on political science and economics, and particularly on municipal governments, in magazines, etc. His home is at Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, and his office at 13 Astor Place, New York City.

JAMES EDWIN CAMPBELL.

James Edwin Campbell was born at Middletown, Ohio, July 7, 1843. He is the son of Dr. Andrew Campbell and Laura P. Reynolds, daughter of John P. Reynolds, once a publisher in New York state and

afterwards a leading citizen of Middletown. Mr. Campbell's father was of Scotch ex- traction and his mother of English. The family of Mr. Reynolds was originally set- tled in Devonshire, Jonathan Reynolds emi- grating from Plympton Earl, in that coun- try, in 1645, and on his arrival in Amer- ica taking up his dwelling near Plympton colony, now a part of Massachusetts. Mr. Campbell is sixth in descent from Jonathan Reynolds. By another branch of his ma- ternal family he is descended from John Parker, who commanded the American troops at the heroic struggle at Lexington, which began the Revolutionary war. His paternal great-grandfather, Andrew Small, at the age of eighteen, went with Mont- gomery on the fatal expedition to Quebec, suffering untold miseries on his return through Canada. Both of his grandfathers were soldiers in the war of 1812.

James E. Campbell was educated in the free schools of his native town, and in later years he received instruction from the Rev. John B. Morton, an early and successful teacher, who was for many years the pastor of the Presbyterian church. When ap- proaching maturity he began the reading of law, and taught school. In the summer of 1863 he became a master's mate on the gunboats "Elk" and "Naiad," serving on the Mississippi and Red river flotillas, and tak- ing part in several engagements. The un- healthiness of the climate seriously affected him, and after a year, being surveyed by a board of surgeons, he was discharged, re- turning home a mere skeleton. As soon as he had sufficiently recovered his health he resumed the study of law, being admitted to the bar in 1865. In the spring of 1867 he began the practice of his profession in Ham-

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ilton. During the 'interval he was book- last time receiving a plurality of two votes keeper of the First National Bank of Mid- in a total of more than thirty-two thou- sand. The district was heavily Republican. In congress he was noted for sincere friend- ship to the soldiers, consistent action as a real tariff reformer and was industrious and painstaking in the discharge of his duties. dletown, and was also a deputy collector in the internal revenue service of the third district, under General Ferdinand Van Derveer, collector. He was elected prose- cuting attorney of Butler county in 1875 and 1877, holding that position for four In 1889 he was elected governor of Ohio by a plurality of nearly eleven thousand votes over Joseph B. Foraker. He dis- charged the functions of that office with great ability and credit. In 1891 he was renominated for that office, but was defeated by Hon. William Mckinley. Again, in 1895 he was nominated for governor and was de- feated by Hon. Asa Bushnell. Since retir- ing from active political life he has been re- siding in New York city, where he is in- terested in several commercial enterprises. He retains his legal residence in Hamilton. years, and filling the duties most acceptably. From 1867 to 1869 he was United States commissioner. In 1879 he made a very close race for the Ohio state senate, being defeated by only twelve votes. During the war he was a Republican and so continued until the Greeley campaign, when, in com- mon with thousands of others, he cast off the party yoke and voted for Greeley and Brown. Since that time he has been an un- swerving Democrat. Mr. Campbell is a Knight Templar, a member of the Knights of Pythias, Elks, and the Grand Army of the Republic. He married Miss Libbie Owens, daughter of Job E. Owens and Mary A. Price, on the 4th of January, 1870. Her IRA S. MILLIKIN. father was a native of Wales, and her mother of Welsh descent. They have four Among the pioneer business men and early-established families in Butler county none stand higher in the estimation of the people than the Millikins. Almost from the birth of the state this family has been a prominent factor in the business, profes- sional and social affairs of Hamilton. The name of Millikin in Butler county stands for a high class of citizenship and, among the males, almost invariably for a profes- sional career. The first of the family to take up a residence on Butler county soil was Dr. Dan Millikin, who was the first physician in Hamilton, and his brother Samuel, who was also the first to establish a regular drug store in the embryo city. children. Mr. Campbell is a remarkably hard worker. He attends the Presbyterian church. Socially, no man stands higher. He is courteous in manner, thorough in his acquisition of detail and of the highest in- tegrity of character. As a lawyer he has few superiors at his age, possessing great skill in ascertaining the true points of a case. He is a good, clear, logical speaker, and well informed on all questions. At the Democratic convention, held at Lebanon, August 16, 1882, he was nominated unani- mously for the position of congressman, and elected in October. He was subsequently elected to congress in 1884 and 1886, the

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HON. JAMES E. CAMPBELL.

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These brothers left their parental home in himself closely to his profession for many Washington county, Pennsylvania, and ar- rived in Hamilton on the 7th of May, 1807. Six years later, or in the spring of 1813, they were joined here by their younger brother, Robert B. Millikin, who was the paternal grandfather of Ira S., of this re- view, who was also a physician, and had a drug store on Main street a few doors west of the old bridge. These were sons of James and Dolly (McFarland) Millikin, the former the founder of the family in America, and who came from County An- trim, Ireland, in 1771. He was born on the 5th of January, 1752, and married Miss McFarland, a native of Massachusetts, on the first of March, 1778. They located in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and as far as is known, ended their lives there. They reared a family of nine children, as follows : Daniel, James, John H., Samuel; William S., Robert B., Andrew, Abel and Mary. At the time his brothers Daniel and Samuel left for the West Robert B. was a lad of fourteen years, hence he remained under the parental roof for six years fol- lowing their departure, and joined them here in 1813. He took up his home in the family of Dr. Dan and remained there until his marriage, on the 6th of December, 1816, when he wedded Miss Sarah Gray, a representative of a numerous relationship of early pioneers.

Robert B. Millikin took up the study of medicine under the tutorship of his elder brother and in 1817 was licensed to prac- tice that profession. He thus became one of the very early pioneer doctors, whose only conveyance was a saddle horse and the limit of whose circuit was only bounded by his powers of endurance. He devoted 54

years, and his genial, cheery presence is still remembered by some of the older residents of the county. Dr. R. B. Millikin was suc- cessful in his profession, both in the relief of distress and in the accumulation of prop- erty. But as he approached the age of mid- dle life he relaxed his professional efforts somewhat, though he continued to practice medicine as long as he lived. Being a man of great intelligence and resourceful mind. he readily adapted himself to other lines of human effort, and held many positions of honored trust. He was for years a brig- adier general of the Ohio militia. He served for a time as county treasurer and was a member of the board of trustees of Miami University for many years. He was also one of the commissioners for the selection of canal land belonging to the state, and was a member of the Ohio legis- lature. Dr. Millikin died on the 28th of June, 1860, in his sixty-seventh year. His wife died in young womanhood, and he sub- sequently remarried, his second wife. who survived him, being Mrs. Ann Eliza Yea- man. By his first wife three children were born, who attained years of maturity. The eldest of these was Samuel, who resided in Hamilton for many years, but subse- quently removed to Missouri, where he ended his days. Thomas was the second born and the father of Ira S., of this sketch. Elizabeth, the youngest of this trio, became the wife of William A. Elliott, a prosperous farmer in this county, who died in 1881. His wife survived him until 1887, and died at the age of sixty-eight.

Thomas Millikin, the father of the sub- ject, was born in Rossville, now the first ward in Hamilton, on the 28th of Septem-

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ber, 1819. No man ever lived in Hamilton who contributed more to the growth and progress of the city or who maintained a higher standard of citizenship than Thomas Millikin. He was abreast of the times in everything, and the later years of his long and illustrious life were as fertile as the earlier years. His life career was devoted to professional work, and he never sought, nor would he accept, a purely political of- fice. He was a man of broad culture and liberal education. He began his educational career in the classics under the tutorship of the Rev. Joseph Monfort, in Rossville, in 1832. After two years in this prepar- atory work he entered Miami University, and was graduated with the class of 1838. In the autumn of the same year he became a student in the law office of Judge Elijah Vance, and was admitted to the bar on the 20th of December, 1840. He at once en- gaged in active practice in his native city and so continued for nearly sixty years. In 1843 he was appointed prosecuting attor- ney and served one year under this appoint- ment, but never during his long professional career do we find his name announced as a candidate for any office not purely pro- fessional. But throughout all of these years he held the post of honor at the Butler county bar. He was a lawyer, and desired to be nothing more. He was an orator of ability, and whether it was an appeal to the court and jury in defense of a criminal or an extemporaneous speech at a banquet table, his utterances were always tempered with moderation and were pleasing and convincing in tone and character. Mr. Millikin was always selected as one of the principal orators on occasions of state, and his auditors were never disappointed. He

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Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio, Part 121

Author: Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, Frederick Schneider, and others Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1149

Author: Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, Frederick Schneider, and others
Publication date: 1905
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1149