USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > Centennial history of Cincinnati and representative citizens, Vol. II, Pt. 2 > Part 29
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MEYER WEIL.
MEYER WEIL, deceased, was one of the early commission men of Cin- cinnati, where his entire business career was spent. He reached a high posi- tion in business circles and amassed a comfortable fortune. He was a very able man, a tireless worker, and possessed a keen, discriminating mind which enabled him to succeed where others failed. Withal his character was above reproach, his thorough honesty and fairness in all transactions gaining him new friends at every step in his long and active career. He possessed a pleasing personality which impressed all who came in contact with him, and his death was sadly mourned as a loss to the city, and a personal loss to his many friends and relatives.
Meyer Weil was born in Surbourg, Alsatia, June 7, 1843, and was one of a family of five children born to Gabriel and Rosaline C. (Hiep) Weil, who came to this country and moved in the best Jewish circles of Cincin- nati, and were well known and respected citizens.
Meyer Weil was six years of age when brought to this country by his parents, who landed at New Orleans, Louisana, and thence came up the river to Cincinnati. Here our subject was reared and educated, and about 1868 started in business with his nephew, Samuel Weil, Jr., the well known
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member of the present Board of Public Service, and I. J. Cannon, under the firm name of Weil, Cannon & Company, commission merchants. This be- came one of the largest and most reliable firms of Cincinnati, and continued in existence until after the retirement of both of Mr. Weil's partners. He then conducted the business alone from 1900 until the time of his death. During this long period of activity, Mr. Weil became widely known throughout the entire Ohio Valley. He died at his home in Avondale, April II, 1903, after a serious illness of two months, his death resulting from cancer of the stomach. The news of his demise brought regret to many, especially to the members of the Chamber of Commerce, in which he had so long been prominent. A meeting of local commission men, numbering 100, met at the Grand Hotel and several addresses eulogistic of his character and life were made. Appropriate resolutions were adopted and pall-bearers selected from among his old friends in business. The commission men at- tended the funeral in a body, to pay their last tokens of respect.
Mr. Weil was united in marriage with Betsy Loeb, a daughter of the well known and highly respected Lazarus Loeb, one of the city's prominent Jewish citizens. To this union were born the following children: Gabriel M., of the firm of Weil, Brockman & Company; Charles M .; Henry M; Samuel M .; and Rose, wife of Emanuel Bakrow, one of the largest and foremost cigar manufacturers of Louisville, Kentucky. For many years Mr. Weil was a member of the Jewish Synagogue, and was noted for his liber- ality to all charitable enterprises. He was one who loved his home above all else, and all the time not devoted to his business interests was spent with his family.
HENRY PETER, SR.
HENRY PETER, SR., who has been a resident of Cincinnati for more than. a half century, was for many years engaged in the wholesale grocery business, but is now living a retired life in the enjoyment of the fruits of a successful career.
Henry Peter was one of a family of seven children born to Herman and Elizabeth (Oelklaus) Peter, and is the only surviving member of that family. He was born November 24, 1824, in Westphalia, Germany, where his father was engaged in agricultural pursuits. There Henry was reared
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and received a limited education. He remained in his native land until he reached the age of 28 years, when he embarked for America. He landed . in the city of New York on the 6th day of October, 1852, and just seven . days later located in Cincinnati, Ohio, of which city he has since. been a resident. He had no means and for some years worked at odd jobs and with small remuneration, being employed at one time in the slaughter houses. He finally obtained a small job with a large wholesale grocery house, and soon after engaged in draying for the same concern. He con- tinued at that occupation until 1869, working industriously and faithfully, and being of an economical nature he laid by considerable means. At the end of that time he formed a partnership with J. H. Ferdwisch and en- gaged in the wholesale grocery business. This marked the beginning of his great and continued successes. This partnership existed until 1876, when Mr. Peter purchased his partner's interest in the business, and then conducted it alone with unvaried success until 1885. In that year his two sons, Henry and William, were taken into the business and the firm con- tinued unchanged for eight years, at which time William Peter died, his death occurring on March 2, 1893. Theodore Plettner, a son-in-law of our subject, was then admitted to the firm and the business was conducted by them without change until 1901, when they sold out to good advantage. Since that time Henry Peter, Sr., has lived a retired life in comfort, ease and domestic happiness. A thorough and keen business men, he has at times wisely invested his surplus in real estate, from which fortunate in- vestments he is now reaping the harvest.
Mr. Peter was married on December 1, 1852, to Frederika Kremer, a daughter of William Kremer, who was extensively engaged in coopering, and to them were born six children, of whom four are now living, namely : Henry ; Emma; Rica; and Mary, who married Theodore Plettner and lives at No. 1406 Sycamore street, Cincinnati. The Peter family belong to the Philippus German Evangelical Protestant Church, whose church edifice, located at the corner of Ohio and McMicken avenues, Mr. Peter was one of those most active in erecting; he has always been a liberal contributor to the support of the church. In appreciation of their membership in this church, Mr. and Mrs. Peter received, in honor of their 50th wedding anni- versary, a beautiful card, framed in an exceedingly large horseshoe made of exquisite natural flowers. The anniversary event was celebrated in ele- 46
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gant style on December 1, 1902, at their beautiful home at No. 306 Web- ster street. Politically, Mr. Peter is a stanch supporter of the principles advocated by the Republican party.
LEWIS MAYER.
LEWIS MAYER, whose death occurred at the home of his son-in-law, D. J. Workum, Crescent avenue, Avondale, on July 15, 1898, was at that time senior member of the great clothing house of Mayer, Scheuer, Offner & Company. He was born March 17, 1838, at Ungstein, Rheinpfalz, Ba- varia, and was a perfect type of the product formed by the sterling virtues of his sturdy ancestry, supplemented by the liberal education and the influ- ences of American environment. He was one of five children born to Lud- wig and Mary Ann (Kuhn) Mayer.
Mr. Mayer came to the United States in boyhood, and with the excep- tion of a short period spent at Lafayette, Indiana, passed the remainder of his life in Cincinnati, where he engaged extensively in business and con- scientiously worked for the advancement of the city while building up his own fortune. He centered his interests in the clothing business and during his long career was successively a member of the firms of Kuhn, Netter & Company, Stern, Mayer & Company, and Mayer, Scheuer, Offner & Com- pany, each being the leader in its line in the city during his association with it. The basis of all business with Mr. Mayer was integrity, and his long and successful career was one which reflected only credit and honor upon him.
Mr. Mayer was an active member of the Plum Street Temple, serving as one of its trustees and as president and vice-president of its board for some years. His support of its charities and benevolent enterprises was ever of a most generous character, while his liberality toward all religious bodies was continued and disinterested. He was a member of Standard Lodge, No. 215, Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, and was a valued mem- ber of the Chamber of Commerce.
On March 27, 1867, Mr. Mayer was joined in marriage with Pauline Leopold, a daughter of M. L. Leopold, who was a well known citizen of Cin- cinnati, living at No. 101 West Eighth street. As a result of this union the
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following . children were born: Theresa, who was married June 6, 1893, to D. J. Workum, an attorney-at-law of Cincinnati, and has four children,- Pauline M., Hannah E., Levi Jeptha and Theresa M .; Carrie, who was married December 29, 1891, to Gustav Blumenthal of New York City, and has two children,-Claire S. and Robert G .; and Estelle B., who was mar- ried October 17, 1897, to Hugo Blumenthal of New York City, and has two children,-H. Walter and Louis M.
For some two years prior to his death, Mr. Mayer had been in failing health. He was laid to rest in the beautiful United Jewish Cemetery, and the impressive ceremonies were under the care of the distinguished rabbis, Isaac M. Wise and Charles S. Levi, both his warm personal friends.
REV. JOHN M. WALDEN, D. D., LL. D.
REV. JOHN M. WALDEN, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, was born at Lebanon, Warren County, Ohio, February II, 1831. He is a son of Jesse and Matilda (Morgan) Walden, who removed to Hamilton County, Ohio, the year after his birth. His great-grandfather Walden migrated from Culpeper County, Virginia, to Boone's Station, Kentucky, in 1770, and in 1802, his grandfather, Benjamin Walden, re- moved to a farm in Hamilton County, Ohio.
The distinguished subject of this sketch was reared on this farm in Hamilton County and attended the common school until he was 13 years old, proving himself a lad of unusual activity of mind, for we learn that before the age of II years he was mastering "Comstock's Philosophy" and was one of two pupils to essay "Davies' Legendre." Between the ages of 13 and 18 he spent his time alternating between a carpenter shop and a country store clerkship, but he continued to improve his mind by constant reading, his favorite books at that period being the poetical works of Scott, Cowper, Pope and Byron. With his earnings he was enabled in the fall of 1849 to enter Farmers' College, on College Hill, where he remained, add- ing to his resources by sessions of teaching, until 1852, when he graduated, bearing off high honors. Until 1854 he was engaged as an instructor in the preparatory department of this college, and left to take charge of the Independent Press in Fairfield, Illinois, a journal in which he boldly attacked
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the liquor traffic and opposed the Kansas-Nebraska measures of Congress. He was, in his views, ahead of his times and like other precursors met with . undeserved neglect. In 1855 he returned to Cincinnati and became reporter and correspondent for the Cincinnati Daily Commercial and in 1857 began the publication of the Quindaro Chindowan, a Free-State paper, at Quindaro, Kansas, and later was elected to the Topeka Free-State Legislature. This was followed by membership in the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention and he was the author of the address of that body to the American people, a document widely published throughout the then Free States. In 1858 he was elected on the Free-State ticket, superintendent of public instruction of Kansas. Under appointment of the Free-State Committee, he canvassed about one-half of the Territory against the Lecompton Pro-Slavery Con- stitution and in August, 1858, after its defeat at the polls, which settled beyond question that Kansas would be a Free State, he returned to Ohio.
In September, 1858, John M. Walden, then a young man of 27 years. was received on trial in the Cincinnati Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 1861, at the outbreak of the Civil War, while pastor of one of the Cincinnati churches, he was appointed chaplain of the Ist Kentucky Regiment. Although prevented from accompanying this regi- ment, he was active in enlisting recruits for the army, and was commis- sioned lieutenant-colonel of the 5th Cincinnati Regiment of Home Guards raised to resist the Kirby Smith raid, and also commanded a regiment dur- ing the John Morgan raid. On January 1, 1863, he became the correspond- ing secretary of the Western Freedmen's Aid Commission and sent the first duly commissioned teachers to the freedmen in the Mississippi Valley. In August. 1866, he became the corresponding secretary of the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was elected by the General Conference of 1868, one of the managers of the Western Metliodist Book Concern of Cincinnati, an office he held for 16 years. In May, 1884, his eminent qualifications made him the choice of the General Conference for bishop.
From 1865 to 1869 Bishop Walden was a member of the Cincinnati Board of Education and was chairman of the committee on library, which inaugurated the movement resulting in the establishment of one of the largest libraries of any city in the land; he served as president of the first library board; for years he was a trustee of the Cincinnati Wesleyan Col-
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lege and of Belmont ( formerly Farmers') College and of the Ohio Wes- leyan University, and has been chosen for representative positions in other educational and uplifting movements. As president of the Freedmen's Aid Society, he is directly connected with more than 40 schools and colleges throughout the South. He was a delegate to the First Ecumenical Con- ference of the Methodist body at London, England, in 1881, and traveled through Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy. In prosecuting his episcopal duties, he has visited Japan, China, India, Mexico and South America ; has spent three years among the conferences in Europe, and has held conferences in every State and Territory of the Union except Alaska.
Bishop Walden is a man of settled personal and political convictions: He is an ardent Republican and is an uncompromising advocate of personal temperance and legal prohibition. For more than a half century he has been a Mason, having entered the fraternity on December 25, 1852. On June 23, 1863, he was made a Knight Templar; he took the 32nd degree, Scottish Rite, May 17, 1862, and was elected to the 33rd degree, Scottish Rite, in 1890. The Bishop is also an encampment member of the Odd Fellows.
On July 3, 1859, Bishop Walden was married to Martha Y. Young, a daughter of E. P. Young, a highly respected citizen of Knox County, Ohio. They have two sons and three daughters. The venerable ecclesiastic resides with his family, in Cincinnati, the family home having been located in the Queen City or its immediate suburbs since 1860, except five years.
In all the varied positions of trust that Bishop Walden has filled, he has invariably had the confidence of all, both as to his sterling integrity and his great worth. In all these years he has steadily grown in the love and honor of those who have been most intimately associated with him.
CHARLES H. STEPHENS.
CHARLES H. STEPHENS, senior member of the prominent law firm of Stephens & Lincoln, of Cincinnati, was born in this city, October 2, 1841, and is a son of James K. and Elizabeth F. (Guysi) Stephens. His grand- father, Henry Stephens, in early life was commissioned lieutenant in the United States Navy by President Madison, and later became a distinguished
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member of the bar in the State of Indiana. Charles H. Stephens' father, James K. Stephens, was born in Indiana and became a manufacturer of harness. He married. Elizabeth F. Guysi, who was born in Washington, D. C., and was a daughter of Swiss parents. Her father and mother were both born in Switzerland, where their ancestors were prominent in the struggle that country passed through for a more republican form of gov- ernment. They came to America before marriage, and early in married life settled in Cincinnati.
Charles H. Stephens received his early education in the schools of Cincinnati, graduating from Hughes High School in June, 1858. He then took a course of law lectures in the Cincinnati Law School, from which institution he was graduated. He began the study of the law in 1858 in the office of Lincoln, Smith & Warnock, and for a period of 32 years thereafter he was associated with Hon. Timothy D. Lincoln. After his admission to the bar in 1864, he became a partner in the firm in whose office he had studied. After the death of James Warnock, one of the part- ners, the firm became Lincoln, Smith & Stephens, and later Lincoln, Stephens & Lincoln. After the death of his long associate, Hon. Timothy D. Lin- coln, in April, 1890, the firm name was changed to Stephens, Lincoln & Smith, Mr. Stephens' partners being John Ledyard Lincoln, son of his former partner, and Samuel W. Smith, Jr .; the firm later became Stephens & Lincoln, upon the elevation of Judge Smith to the Common Pleas bench. The firm has a very large general practice, but if they specialize in one branch more than another it is in admiralty and insurance law. Mr. Stephens com- bines all the elements of a successful lawyer. He is a man of tireless energy, a close student with a keen, discriminating mind, and has the happy faculty of being able to present facts in a most lucid manner, carrying great weight with judge or jury. A lawyer whom he opposes with fierce on- slaughts in court one day, he meets with extended hand and cordial greet- ing the next. He is quick to take advantage of an opening or weakness of the opposing side, but always treats his opponents with the considera- tion due them, never overreaching the bounds of professional etiquette. He is exceedingly popular with the members of the bar and the citizens of Cincinnati, to whom he is well known. He served six years as a member of the Board of Education of Cincinnati, at the end of which time he de- clined a reappointment. He was a member of the Board of Aldermen four
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years and president two successive terms, holding that office when the body passed out of existence. For nearly 30 years he has been a trustee of the Hughes Fund and a member of the Union Board of Cincinnati High Schools.
Mr. Stephens was married in 1873 to Alice Bard, a daughter of Syl- vester W. and Louise (Mayhew) Bard. They reside with their three sons in Avondale.
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WILLIAM SHERWOOD, M. D.
WILLIAM SHERWOOD, M. D., who was engaged in the practice of medi- cine in Cincinnati for many years, was born in New York City July 1, 1812, and died in this city November 19, 1871. While he was yet a child, his parents removed to Warren County, Ohio, where he attended school until the age of 13 years, at which time his father met with an accident that shortly afterward caused his death. As the subject of this sketch was the eldest of the six children born to his parents, the care of the family de- volved upon him. He worked in a shoemaker's shop and at odd jobs until he was old enough to teach school. Being very studious, he early began to prepare for his future profession. In 1846 he was elected auditor of Warren County, and served nearly two years. He was appointed, in 1847, to a position in the office of the auditor of the State, at Columbus, to which city he removed his family. There he continued the study of medicine under the guidance of Dr. I. G. Jones, whose work upon the practice of medicine he afterward revised and published as "Jones and Sherwood's American Eclectic Practice." After attending medical lectures at the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, he received his degree in 1852, and after a short service as demonstrator of anatomy was appointed the same year professor of special, surgical and pathological anatomy, which position he held until 1856. He then became involved in the college embroglio which led to the division of the faculty and the formation of the Eclectic College of Medicine and Surgery. Dr. Sherwood was active in the establishment of that institution, and as a member of its faculty held the chair of theory and practice of medicine, being associated with Drs. Buchanan, King, Hoyt and others. Upon the union of the two schools, Dr. Sherwood was made, in 1860, emeritus professor of practice and pathology. He was a contributor
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to the Eclectic Medical Journal and, while with the rival college, he was one of the editors of the College Journal of Medical Science. In his last days, Dr. Sherwood is said to have repudiated Eclecticism. He had a good pri- vate practice and, in addition to this and his college duties, was a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, preaching every Sunday, either in the city or country. As a practitioner, teacher and writer, he commanded the respect and esteem of those who knew him well. He was a man of consci- entious impulses and of more than average capacities. His type of mind was more argumentative than perceptive.
In 1836, while a resident of Warren County, he was married to Eliza- beth Osborn, who died in 1849. In 1851 he was married to Miss R. R. Stephens, a school teacher. Of their children, two sons are now living : James E., principal of the Windsor Public School in Cincinnati; and Edwin, a member of the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
JAMES T. GRIFFITH.
With the passing away of James T. Griffith, on January 3, 1904, at his home on South Ingleside place, Walnut Hills, Cincinnati lost one more of the links that has bound her to a past that was full of energetic endeavor and successful accomplishment and a pioneer citizen who was particularly identified with her material growth. Mr. Griffith was born in Wales in 1820, and came to Cincinnati at the age of 21 years, making the trip from the Atlantic Coast to the Queen City of the West almost entirely by water.
At the time of his death, Mr. Griffith was the oldest building contractor in Cincinnati, having founded in 1840 what is now known as the firm of James Griffith & Sons, operating the Enterprise Planing & Flooring Mills and conducting a large business in contracting and building. From a small beginning, he built up an extensive and prosperous business and owned and operated the lumber yards which extend hundreds of feet on Hunt street (Reading road), occupying both sides of the thoroughfare. He rapidly advanced, both on account of his mechanical ability and business progres- siveness, as well as his entire reliability, to be the leading contractor in the city, and a large number of the best and most substantial buildings here were put up by his firm. Even when the infirmities incident to his ad-
HON. CARL LOUIS NIPPERT.
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vanced years crept slowly upon him, he still insisted on continuing his active duties, and never relaxed until within four days of his decease. This was a wish he had long cherished and which was mercifully granted him. His word was as good as his bond, his hand was extended in the heartiest friendship to a man, who was a man, regardless of his coat, and such were his habits through life.
In 1844 Mr. Griffith married Jane Rees, and six children were born to them, viz: William, John, Walter and Milton, who now form the busi- ness firm of James Griffith & Sons, and two daughters, Esther and Sue.
Although the death of Mr. Griffith was at the close of a long and useful life, and had been preceded by those of the early business friends with whom he was associated, he left many outside his domestic circle to feel deep regret. Probably no employer in the city had a more devoted set of employes than had Mr. Griffith; to them his attitude was always that of a friend and benefactor. His name belongs with the noted list of the city's pioneer men of business, and to none can be attached more truthful records, of untiring industry as well as personal integrity, than to that which he insisted should always remain, plain James T. Griffith, refusing all offers of political preferment. His generosity was abundant, but entirely un- ostentatious, as he had no inclination to pose for public adulation.
HON. CARL LOUIS NIPPERT.
The Nippert family emigrated from Obernsdorf near Woerth in Alsace to America in 1830 and settled in Monroe County, Ohio. The father of Carl L. Nippert, when still a young man, came to Cincinnati, where he became a minister of the Gospel under the guidance and super- vision of Dr. Wilhelm Nast, the founder of the German Methodist Episcopal Chuch in this city. Later he returned to Germany and worked in the inter- est of that church as minister and principal of the theological seminary in Frankfort-on-the-Main.
While the family was residing in Cincinnati, Carl Louis Nippert was born, in 1852. He was the oldest of 13 children, seven of whom were boys. During the time the family was living in Germany, Carl enjoyed to the greatest possible extent the advantages of a thorough German educa-
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