USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. II, Pt. 1 > Part 11
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Mr. Lewis was identified with many of the most successful and im- portant enterprises of Cincinnati; he was a director of the company which built the first street railroad in Cincinnati, and it is local history how the affairs of the Cincinnati Street Railway Company were managed after the Civil War, whereby Mr. Lewis and his associates placed it on a paying basis. He was one of the promoters and for several years the president of Route 10 Street Railroad extending from Cincinnati to Walnut Hills, via Gilbert avenue, which opened for operation about 1875. This route afterwards, having been sold, was operated by cable and is now an electric road.
Mr. Lewis was also interested in railroads, being for many years a direc- tor in the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton, the Kentucky Central and the Cin- cinnati, Portsmouth & Virginia railroad companies, the last named now being the Cincinnati outlet of the Norfolk & Western system. He was prominent and most urgent in the promotion of the Cincinnati Southern Railway and a member of the Common Carrier Company which inaugurated its operation. He was an incorporator and president of a company formed in Ohio, for the construction of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway bridge at Cincinnati.
Mr. Lewis in 1888 purchased a portion of a railroad between Lebanon and Dayton, Ohio, which had ceased operation in the breaking up of the Toledo, Delphos & Burlington narrow gauge system. The Dayton, Lebanon
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& Cincinnati Railroad Company was organized, of which he became president ; the road was made standard gauge, improved and put under operation, with the intention of consolidating it with the Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern and the Cincinnati, Portsmouth & Virginia railroads, in both of which he was interested, and forming one line .of railroad from Portsmouth, Ohio, to Dayton, Ohio, via Cincinnati. In connection with this plan, he organized the Circular Railroad Company, the intention being to build a belt line around the northern part of Cincinnati, connecting the railroads in the East End with those in the West End. Surveys were made and considerable money expended, but Mr. Lewis' death occurred before his plans could be consum- mated, and thus an improvement of great value to the development of Cin- cinnati and vicinity and profitable to those interested, was frustrated. How- ever, some years later the belt line was built, but on a location somewhat different, necessitated by improvements made and buildings erected in the meantime.
Mr. Lewis also purchased and developed large quarries at Centerville, Ohio, on the Dayton, Lebanon & Cincinnati Railroad, and the product of these quarries is now largely used in Cincinnati and its suburbs. Stone from them was used extensively in the construction of the Corning Fountain at Hart- ford, Connecticut, designed by J. Massey Rhind, and described and il- lustrated in Munsey's Magazine for April, 1900, in an article by Charles Dudley Warner.
Mr. Lewis was a director in the Third National Bank from 1871 until 1880; he then became interested in the Citizens' National Bank, of which he was one of the original organizers and stockholders, and in which he was a director from January 8, 1889, until his death. For many years and until his death, he was an active and important member of the Chamber of Com- merce.
Other interests of Mr. Lewis included the Cincinnati & Baltimore Rail- road, used jointly by the Baltimore & Ohtio Southwestern and Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis railways between Cincinnati and Winton Place, Ohio, and Mr. Lewis was trustee in the disbursement of the proceeds of the sale of this property to the predecessor of the Baltimore & Oliio South- western Railroad. He was also interested in the Union Stock Yards: the Niles Tool Works Company ; Barney & Smith Car Company; Burnet House Hotel Company; the Dessicating Company; and was one of the promoters in
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the erection of the Grand Hotel. In fact there were few projects looking toward the development of the city and surroundings, in which he was not active.
Mr. Lewis was a man of genial disposition and strong personal attach- ments, always a friend of deserving young men, whom he assisted financially and otherwise to advance toward business prosperity, and usually their success confirmed his judgment. His intimacy with Charles W. West, the deceased millionaire and founder of the Art Museum, was that of a brother, and the sad duty of acting as one of the executors of Mr. West's estate devolved upon Mr. Lewis. His charities were many and unostentatious; he contributed liberally to the Art Museum, the Old Men's Home, the Chil- dren's Home, and to orphan asylums and many religious charities, regardless of sect. His friendships, as his business methods, were honest, honorable and sincere, and he will long be recalled as one of Cincinnati's noblest citi- zens.
For many years Mr. Lewis was a vestryman and one of the chief sup- ports of the Church of the Advent, Walnut Hills.
In politics Mr. Lewis was an ardent and outspoken Republican, and he displayed much interest in the integrity and success of the party, regard- less of his own interests. He served from May, 1873, to April, 1874, on the Board of Improvements of the city of Cincinnati. When his friend, Hon. J. B. Foraker, was nominated for Governor, Mr. Lewis worked hard for his election. In 1886 the General Assembly created the Board of Public Affairs and Mr. Lewis was appointed a member, serving about four years, namely from May, 1886, to March, 1890, or until a Democratic Legislature abolished the board. During the life of said board, the principal streets of Cincinnati were repaved and the honesty of the work is evidenced by the condition of the streets to-day.
Mr. Lewis was married on May 19, 1853, to Maria Ann Eastburn, who was a daughter of Samuel and Huldah ( Woolley ) Eastburn, descendants of English Quakers. About 1857 they went to Walnut Hills to reside, and lived there until the death of Mrs. Lewis, which occurred January 17, 1892, a little over a year before Mr. Lewis' demise. For many years they lived on Park avenue and what is now Cross lane, the homestead being now owned and occupied by R. F. Balke. The children were : Anna Kirkbride; Robert Benjamin, who died December 17, 1896; George Woolley; Martha Bullock;
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and Henry Graham, who died October 16, 1891. Anna K., George W. and Martha B. now survive, the last named being the wife of Walter St. John Jones, a prominent citizen of Cincinnati. George W. Lewis is one of the leading citizens of Cincinnati. After his father's death, he assumed the active management of the Dayton, Lebanon & Cincinnati Railroad and be- came president of the Lewis & Talbott Stone Company, which bears his father's name and which the latter had organized to operate the quarries referred to above. In 1902 he advantageously sold the said railroad to- gether with about 20 acres of land adjoining the Union Depot at Dayton. Ohio, which had been acquired for terminals, also the quarries. His office is located in the Swift Building, No. 15 East Third street, and his residence is, at present, The Ortiz, Cincinnati. The surviving sons and Anna K., to- gether with Mr. Jones, his son-in-law, were named as executors of Mr. Lewis' estate.
THOMAS M. STEWART, M. D.
THOMAS M. STEWART, M. D., professor of ophthalmology and oto- laryngology in the Pulte Medical College, Cincinnati, is one of the leading representatives of the medical fraternity of this city. His long years of close research and ample experience in both American and European hospitals have resulted in a very complete knowledge of the conditions and cures for the diseases of the eye, car, nose and throat.
Dr. Stewart is a grandson of Jacob and Lois (Crossley) Stewart, and a son of Henry Crossley and Irene (Roll) Stewart. In Cincinnati our subject was born and here the greater part of his life has been spent. After completing the public school course, and that of Chickering Institute, he entered upon the study of medicine under the tutoring of Dr. Jirah D. Buck, clean of the Pulte Medical College, and Dr. J. M. Crawford. In March, 1887, he was graduated with the highest honors at the Pulte Medical College. following which he took a special course in ophthalmology, a branch which even then possessed attractions for him. His studies in that direction con- tinned to interest him more and more and in August, 1887, he took a post- graduate course in the largest institutions in New York, and was graduated from the New York Ophthalmic Hospital in 1888 with the degree of oculist.
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aurist and chirurgist, receiving again first honors. Upon his return to Cin- cinnati, he was appointed resident physician to the Homeopathic Free Dis- pensary, where he continued until 1889, in the meantime giving lectures on anatomy at his alma mater. In the spring of 1889 he visited Berlin where lie placed himself under those eminent scientists-Schweigger, Schoeller and Hirshberg; at Vienna worked with Dimmer and took part in the clinics at Munich.
In 1889 Dr. Stewart returned to his native city with ripened experience, and since that time has made a specialty of the afflictions of the eye, ear, nose and throat with complete success. His professional connections are with the American Institute of Homeopathy; the Homeopathic Medical So- ciety of Ohio, of which he is ex-president; the Cincinnati Homeopathic Ly- ceum, of which he is ex-president; and the Kentucky and Maryland State Homeopathic societies, of which he is an honorary member. Not only is he professor of ophthalmology and oto-laryngolgy in the Pulte Medical Col- lege, but he is surgeon to the eye and ear department of the Cincinnati Free Dispensary, consulting surgeon to the Protestant Home for the Friendless and Foundlings and consulting surgeon to Bethesda Hospital.
On February 14, 1889, Dr. Stewart was married to Alice Buck, who is a daughter of Jirah D. and Melissa (Clough) Buck of Cincinnati. Both Dr. and Mrs. Buck are natives of Fredonia, New York, where the former was born November 30, 1838. Dr. Buck's parents moved to Belvidere, Il- linois, in 1839, and in 1850 settled in Janesville, Wisconsin, where the father died soon afterward. Jirah D. Buck attended the Belvidere and Janesville academies until his father's death, when he engaged in bookkeeping, and later spent three years in the woods as a lumberman. In 1861 he enlisted in a cavalry company recruited at Battle Creek, Michigan, and went into the service as orderly of his company. The hardships of army life prostrating him, he was for three months confined in a hospital at Camp Benton, Missouri, and was then honorably discharged and sent home. After teaching school for a short time, he began the study of medicine with Dr. Smith Rogers, of Battle Creek, Michigan. The suceeding winter was spent at Hahnemann Medical College, Chicago, and upon his return to Battle Creek he was ad- mitted to partnership with his preceptor. During the subsequent winter, he attended the Homeopathic College of Cleveland, Ohio, and received his medi- cal degree in 1864. In the following spring, he located at Sandusky, Ohio,
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RT. REV. BOYD VINCENT.
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where he practiced until the fall of 1866, when he was called to the chair of physiology and histology in his alma mater at Cleveland. Although absent from Sandusky five days in the week during the college session, he continued to live there, and was successful in his local practice, until August, 1870, when he removed to Cincinnati. He retained his professorship in Cleveland until the close of 1871. The following spring he called together the phy- sicians that met at Dr. Pulte's office in Cincinnati, the direct result of which meeting was the founding of the Pulte Medical College, of which he became register and professor of physiology and histology upon its organization, and so continued until 1880. He was then made dean of the faculty and pro- fessor of the theory and practice of medicine, which position he still holds. Dr. Buck has been an active member for many years of the Homeopathic Medical Society of Ohio, of which he was elected president in 1874; the National Homeopathic Society; and the American Institute of Homeopathy, of which he was unanimously chosen president in 1890.
Dr. Stewart's home is at No. 728 East Ridgeway avenue, in the aristo- cratic suburb of Avondale, while he has private offices down town in the Traction Building. Politically he is a Republican. He is interested in every form of science.
RT. REV. BOYD VINCENT.
RT. REV. BOYD VINCENT, Bishop-coadjutor of the Diocese of Southern Ohio of the Protestant Episcopal Church, a clergyman whose services to his church have made his name a household one throughout his native land, was born May 18, 1845, at Erie, Pennsylvania. His ancestors belonged to that band of Huguenots who fled from France 200 years ago and the family has num- bered in its ranks men of valor, ability and scholarship. His grandfather, Hon. John Vincent, was conspicuous in Erie County, Pennsylvania, and served there as judge of the Court of Common Pleas. The father of Dr. Vincent was a leading citizen of Erie, a manufacturer and banker and a strong and consistent worker for the church. The Bishop's brother, Gen Strong Vincent, was a conspicuous figure in the Civil War, and was killed at the battle of Gettys- burg, while defending Little Round Top, the crucial point in the second day of the battle.
Bishop Vincent was prepared for college at Erie Academy, Erie.
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Pennsylvania, and then entered Yale, where he was graduated with high honors as a member of the class of 1867. From Yale he entered Berkeley Theological School at Middletown, Connecticut, and completed the course in 1871. In the same year he was ordained by Bishop Kerfoot to the diaconate and his ministry began in the capacity of assistant to Rev. J. F. Spaulding. then rector of St. Paul's Church, Erie, but now Bishop of Colorado. Bishop Vincent had previously been interested in the little mission "Cross and Crown," where his labors now centered, as for some time he had been the lay reader and the beloved superintendent of the Sunday-school. In 1872 he was advanced to the priesthood by Bishop Kerfoot, in St. Paul's Protestant Epis- copal Church, and in 1874 he was called to the rectorship of Calvary Protes- tant Episcopal Church at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. With the enthusiasm of a zealous worker, the young clergyman took charge of that neglected parish, with 75 communicants, and in his 14 years rectorship succeeded in so advanc- ing its usefulness that he left it with 615 communicants, four missions and 800 Sunday-school pupils. Three of these missions are now independent and strong parishes, with noble church buildings. Bishop Vincent required two assistants to carry on the work he had organized. He was honored in many ways by the church and many of the most desirable parishes in the various dioceses were tendered him. He was one of the several clergymen who received the majority of votes at the Episcopal election in Delaware; ·was twice selected deputy to the General Convention,-first in 1883 and again in 1889. Bishop Vincent is a member of the committee on canons of the House of Bishops, his judgment being .very highly regarded and his ad- vice sought.
Bishop Vincent was consecrated in St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, Cincinnati, on St. Paul's Day, June 25, 1889. Since that time he has been indefatigable in his Christian labors all over the diocese. He is esteemed not only as the great theologian and churchly administrator, but also with par- ticular gratefulness for the efforts he is constantly making in fighting evil and advancing with his own peculiar methods the cause of education and religion. He occupies a very exalted position but it is not only on account of the honors shown him by his church, but as much for personal attributes, his piety, his philanthrophy, his charity, his unceasing work for his kind. He possesses a level, equable, self-controlled manner, has a winning address and finds a friend in every honest man he meets.
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Bishop Vincent has never married. The family home is one of the stately residences in the beautiful suburb of Avondale, Cincinnati. A portrait of Bishop Vincent accompanies this sketch.
KARL F. BENNDORF.
KARL F. BENNDORF has for many years been prominent in the commer- cial and financial circles of Cincinnati, as vice-president of the Cincinnati National Bank and as president and manager of the Farmers' Insurance Company of this city, and is now engaged in a general fire insurance busi- ness as senior member of K. F. Benndorf & Company, with office at No. 1410 Traction Building. He was born in Altenburg, Saxe-Altenburg, Ger- many, April 9, 1841. His parents were K. F. and Henrietta Benndorf.
Mr. Benndorf was reared with educational advantages and it was the desire of his relatives that he should enter the ministry, this anxiety on their part being the real cause of the lad leaving home at the age of 16 years and coming to America. It was his ambition to study law, but he was in a way molded by circumstances, and in 1857 he applied himself to wood engraving and designing in order to gain a livelihood. It was not until 1860 that he found his opportunity, at New Haven, Connecticut, to begin his legal studies, which were interrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War. With a loyalty to his adopted country, which has never wavered. he enlisted as a private in Company B, ist Reg., Connecticut Vol. Cav .; soon after he was promoted to the rank of corporal, and served with his command in the Shenandoah Valley, participating in a number of battles. In 1862 he was appointed hos- pital steward in the United States Regular Army, was then appointed chief steward to the medical director of the Department of the Ohio and served as such at Cincinnati and Columbus and at Detroit, where he was mustered out at the close of the war in 1865.
In 1867 began an association to which Mr. Benndorf refers much of his success in life, this being his entrance into the bank of Joseph F. Larkin, in the capacity of bookkeeper. With that most estimable financier .Mr. Benn- dorf remained until 1874, enjoying in marked degree the esteem and con- fidence of his employer. Mr. Benndorf was then invited to become one of the incorporators of the German Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Coving- 8
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ton, Kentucky, and served three years as its secretary and manager. His administration was eminently successful and in 1878 resulted in his being called to take charge of the Farmers' Insurance Company of Cincinnati. He entered this corporation as its secretary, and in 1882 became vice-president and manager and president in 1884. When the Cincinnati National Bank was organized, he became one of its directors and later its vice-president. He is interested in other enterprises, and has been for 20 years the treasurer of the Cincinnati Board of Underwriters, to which position he has recently been reelected for another year.
Fraternally Mr. Benndorf is a Knight Templar and past eminent com- mander of Covington Commandery, No. 7, K. T., having entered the Masonic order by joining Magnolia Lodge, F. & A. M., at Columbus, Ohio, in 1864. He also belongs to Garfield Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of Coving- ton, Kentucky. In political sympathy he is a stanch Republican. He is a man of business, well qualified in every way and stands in a conspicuous posi- tion in the insurance business, being also president of the Covington & New- port Fire Underwiters' Association, which position he has held for the last two years and to which he has recently been reelected.
In 1865 Mr. Benndorf married Mrs. Caroline Risser, whose demise in 1898 he still deeply deplores. They resided in a beautiful residence in Covington, Kentucky, in which is still shown the refined taste of Mrs. Benn- dorf, being continued by his only daughter, Mrs. Emily M. Howe, who like her mother is much beloved for her charity, benevolence and sweet, womanly manner. Mrs. Howe's husband, John I. Howe, whose death occurred Oc- tober 25, 1892, was well known in the commercial circles of Cincinnati; the Howes have been one of the most prominent families of Kentucky. Both Mr. Benndorf and his daughter belong to the Presbyterian Church at Cov- ington, of which he is an elder and in which his daughter is the leader of the King's Daughters.
COL. GUSTAV TAFEL.
COL. GUSTAV TAFEL, one of the best known attorneys of the Hamilton County bar, was born in Munich, Germany, October 13, 1830, and is a son of Prof. Leonard and Caroline ( Vayhinger) Tafel.
Prof. Leonard Tafel was a noted linguist, a conversationalist in 21
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different tongues. In Germany he was connected with Wurtemburg Univer- sity and after coming to Ohio with his family was connected with Urbana University and later filled a chair in the University of Pennsylvania in Phila- delphia, where he died in 1880, aged 81 years.
Colonel Tafel obtained his early education in his native locality and later was sent to Ulm, on the Danube, and still later, to a Latin school at Stuttgart. He was 16 years of age when he left Germany and came to America to join his maternal grandparents who had settled at Cincinnati in 1832. He procured a position with the Cincinnati Gasette and remained with that paper eight years, becoming proficient in the business. Later he became a reporter on the old Volksblatt, with which journal he remained three years and then entered the office of Judge Stallo, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1858. When the Civil War broke out, he was instrumental in organizing the 9th Reg., Ohio Vol. Inf., on the first call of President Lincoln, and on April 16, 1861, he enlisted as a private in that regiment, later was made Ist sergeant and in May, 1862, was advanced to the rank of colonel by Governor Tod. In one of the many engagements in which he participated, he was badly wounded in the leg and for several months was confined to the hospital. Colonel Tafel served with distinction through- out the whole war and was mustered out at Nashville, Tennessee, June 29, 1865.
Colonel Tafel is well and favorably known in Cincinnati. For many years he was a great promoter of athletics and was the organizer of the first Turner gymnastic society in this country and for many years remained its president. In 1880 he organized the Turner Society at Corryville and was president of the National Turnfest, held in Cincinnati in 1889, which is conceded to have been the most successful meeting ever held in this coun- try. He was also president of the convention of national delegates of the Turnerbund held in Rochester, New York, in 1860. He has also been promi- nent in politics and in 1866 served one term in the Ohio Legislature. His first vote was cast in 1852 for John P. Hale and he remained a Republican until 1884, when he voted for Grover Cleveland. In 1890 he was appointed a member of the Board of Affairs of Cincinnati by Mayor Mosby. In every position and relation in life, Colonel Tafel has proved a man of principle and high character.
On January 9, 1870, Colonel Tafel was married to Theresa Dorn, of
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Louisville, Kentucky, and nine of their 11 children survive. Fraternally he belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic. Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States and is president of the German Old Men's Home Society.
Colonel Tafel has also made a brilliant record as a lawyer, and ranks with the leading men of the Hamilton County bar. In business, professional and social life he has been an important factor in Cincinnati and represents its very best citizenship.
ASA BRAINERD ISHAM, A. M., M. D.
Among the corps of skilled medical and surgical practitioners who have made Cincinnati a scientific center. is Dr. Asa B. Isham, who has long taken a leading position. Dr. Isham was born at Jackson, Jackson County, Ohio. July 12, 1844, and is a son of Chapman and Mary \. (Faulkner ) Isham.
Chapman Isham was born at Wilbraham, Hampden County, Massachu- setts, February 15, 1814, being a son of Asa and Sarah ( Chapman ) Isham. The mother of Dr. Isham was born at Jackson, Ohio, in 1821. The Isham family emigrated from England and landed at Cape Cod in 1660.
Dr. Isham completed the public school course in his native town and Marietta Academy. During 1860-61-62 he was on the staff of the Lake Superior Journal, at Marquette, Marquette County, Michigan, and in the spring of 1862 he became city editor of the Detroit Tribune. Had not his loyalty responded to the call of his country at that time, there is every rea- son to believe that the medical profession would have lost his services, while the newspaper and journalistic world would have had one more distinguished name on its roll of honor. Be that as it may, the autum of 1862 found hin . an enlisted private in the 7th Reg., Michigan Vol. Cav., in which he served until April 14, 1865, rising to the rank of ist lieutenant on account of gal- lantry in the field. The young officer was severely wounded May 14, 1863. in an action near Warrenton's Junction. Virginia. the effects of which have continued with him through life. He also received a slight wound May 11, 1864, at the battle of Yellow Tavern, Virginia, where he was also cap- tured, being subsequently held a prisoner at various points, and subjected to many hardships. On December 11, 1864, he was paroled for exchange.
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