USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > Centennial history of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Vol. II > Part 15
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tion, therefore, of the men who have conferred honor and dignity upon Co- lumbus would be incomplete without extended mention of George W. Meeker.
His birth occurred on High street opposite the site of the present court- house. in 1834, and he represents one of the old families of Ohio, while from the earliest epoch in the history of the colonization of America the family has been known on this side of the water. The first of the name in America arrived in 1638 with a large company from the city of London, under the leadership of Theophilus Eaton and the Rev. John Davenport, disembarking at New Haven, Connecticut. Later new settlements were formed and the Meekers joined the colonists who went to Wyoming county, Pennsylvania, where occurred the birth of Joshua Meeker, father of George W. Meeker. In the meantime settlements had been made on Manhattan Island and in New Jersey by members of the family and on the roster of Revolutionary soldiers in the latter place appear the names of many of the Meeker family. Joshna Mecker was among those who aided in the pioneer development of Franklin county. Ohio, assisted in laying broad and deep the foundations upon which has been built the structure of her present prosperity and progress. In speak- ing of his ance-try at a family reunion, George W. Mecker said: "A free government and a new country are great levelers of class and distinctions, and no family is accorded precedence in a new settlement except that conceded by reason of superior intelligence, virtue and honor. Therefore the Mecker and Van Brinner families have held the even tenor of their way since their advent in the new world, bearing the burdens, braving the dangers of flood and field and accepting the sorrows and disappointments incident to life in common with their fellows. They were cheered with the belief that if they did not rise very high they would not have very far to fall, and that there was inherently no difference among people except that which is due to external influences. They believed in the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man-a re- ligion as old as the immortal hills and as fresh as the dawn."
In the maternal line George W. Mecker was descended from one of the Knickerbocker families prominent in the founding of New Amsterdam. Ilis mother was Hannah Van Brimmer, n daughter of Thomas Van Brimmer. who wedded Mary Le Van, whose ancestors were residents of the French province of Lorraine. Christian Van Brimmer was one of the officers on the Half Moon. a vessel sent ont by the East India Company to explore the new world. In 1623 the Dutch made extensive settlements on Manhattan Island and there the Van Brinner home was established. while representatives of the family in later generations became residents of Delaware and Marion counties. Ohio. Thomas Van Brimmer, an uncle of Mrs. Mecker, established the first distillery and mill in this part of the state.
Following the marriage of Joshua Meeker and Hannah Van Brimmer they began their domestic life upon a new farm which he developed in the midst of the green wood -. He died during the early boyhoed of his son George. however, but the mother reached the advanced age of eighty years, passing away about 1880. Their sons have been active in public life in many ways and their record is an honor to the name. Albert P. Mecker, one of the sons. who lived in Delaware county. Ohio, was prominent in the local ranks of the
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democracy and called to various positions of honor and trust. He was a man of versatility and a popular gentleman, whose ability and personal worth gained him many friends, his death occurring in 1905. Another brother, Thomas V. Meeker, joined the Union army in response to President Lincoln's call for troops in 1861, becoming a member of an Illinois regiment. He par- ticipated in many hotly contested engagements and his unfaltering fidelity as well as military skill won him an officer's commission, but he did not have the opportunity of serving under it for he was captured and sent to a southern prison, where his death occurred. He had hoped to reach home and had sent the message to his brother, "Meet me in New York," but death came and his remains were interred in Jacksonville, Florida.
George W. Mecker, whose name introduces this review, added new laurels to the family record. The employment of his opportunities and the use which he made of his talents led him from humble surroundings to a position of prominence and influence. He supplemented his public-school training by study in Otterbein University, at Westerville, where he was graduated, and later became a student in Bryant & Stratton Business College, at Buffalo New York. His early professional service was that of a school teacher and he also acted as bookkeeper for a time. Well qualified for leadership he rendered faithful service in community affairs while filling the office of justice of the peace, his decisions being strictly fair and impartial. From early manhood he figured prominently in democratic circles and for a period divided his time be- tween political work and his labors as a member of the bar. Having studied law he was admitted to practice in the state and federal courts and displayed marked ability in handling intricate and involved litigated interests. His fel- low townsmen, however, demanded his services in positions of political pre- ferment and in 1869 he was elected mayor of Columbus, serving from 1870 until 1872. His administration was businesslike and progressive and during that period he instituted various needed reforms and improvements.
On his retirement from office of chief executive of the capital city Mr. Meeker was appointed land commissioner of the Midland Pacific Railroad and removed to Nebraska City. Nebraska, where he became the leading spirit in numerons public enterprises. He was the promoter of the first gas work- there, was also a part director, owned an interest in a daily paper and was proprietor of a general store. He likewise made extensive investments in realty. In 1876, however, he returned to Columbus and throughout his re- maining days was prominently known in connection with the political and journalistic interests of this city. A contemporary biographer has said of him: "He was an ardent lover of literature, an omnivorous and thoughtful reader and a forceful writer of most attractive style. His exhaustive and able papers published npon the constitutional relations of the Mormon religion and the power of the government to subvert them attracted attention among the learned and scholarly men, and particularly among the eminent lawyers of the country, and extracts were copiously published in the leading magazines and newspapers. For many years he was extensively engaged in newspaper work as proprietor and editor and later in legislative correspondence for lead- ing journals. Hi- history of the advent of the Dutch and Huguenots in
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Africa. the commingling of the two people who are known in history as the Bers and their protracted struggle for independence, is said to be more com- prehensive, accurate and thorough than anything yet published on the subject. His labors upon that immense work, The Portrait Gallery aud Cyclopedia of the Distinguished Men of Ohio, is said by critics to be a splendid monument to his memory."
In his discussion of political problems Mr. Mecker always displayed a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the subject and his opinions al- ways carried weight in the councils of his party. He was connected for most of the time during a period of thirty years with the county and state commit- tees of his party and for more than two decades served as an officer and was intimately associated with the democratic state executive committee which de- fine- the policy and directs the campaigns of that party. He had the rare ability to coordinate forces and bring various interests into a uniform whole and this made him the valued associate and colaborer of many of the most distinguished demoertic leaders of the state and country. He was serving as secretary of the democratic state central committee at the time of his death.
Happy in his home life Mr. Meeker was marreid to Miss Harriet Hatch, of Westerville, Ohio, and to them were born two sons, Garry Waldo and Claude Loraine. Mr. Meeker was always devoted to the welfare of his family, finding his greatest happiness in promoting their interests. He held friend- chip iuviolable and such was his known integrity of purpose that many of his warmest friends were those who differed from him politically. He stood as a strong man-strong in his honor and his good name, in his intellectual prowess and in his accomplishment of what he undertook. He possessed pre- eminently the qualities of leadership and thus he became a factor in shaping the policy and molding the destiny of his state.
ROBERT G. DUN.
Robert G. Dun was a resident of Summerford township, Madison county. Ohio, and was well known throughout the state and the country as a breeder of Durham cattle. He was a native of Kentucky and in his boyhood accon- panied his mother to Chillicothe, Ohio, after the death of his father. Walter Dun. of Lexington, Kentucky. In his father's family were five children : John: Mary, wife of Allen G. Thurman ; James; Walter; and Robert G.
The last named was educated in the public schools of Chillicothe and at Oxford, after which he started in business life on his own account, settling on a traet of three thousand acres of wild land, which his father had located iu Summerford township, Madison county. He devoted his entire life to agri- cultural pursuits and to the breeding and raising of thoroughbred Durham cat- tle, and was recognized as one of the leading American breeders.
In 1852 Mr. Dun was married to Miss Annie L. Franklin, who was born in Virginia and came with her parents, William and Mary Ann (Scott) Franklin, to Ohio. Her mother was a native of Virginia. Six children were
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born to Mr. and Mrs. Dun: Mary S., wife of Edward Demnead; Lucy, wife of Stephen J. Patterson; Walter; Harriet; Nancy; and Katherine. The son. who became a practicing physician of Cincinnati, Ohio, died in the year 1877. Mr. Dun died at Asheville, North Carolina, September 13, 1891, aged -isty- five years. Ile was a man of strong and estimable character and highly re- spected by those who knew him.
JONATHAN FALLIS LINTON.
Jonathan Fallis Linton, one of the honored residents of Columnbn -. re- mains an active factor in its business life at the age of seventy-seven years. be- ing now closely connected with its real-estate operations. The years have chronicled for him much successful accomplishment and influential labor. His efforts have been felt as a molding force in the political history of the localities in which he has lived, and at all times he has stood for a progressive citizenship, holding to high ideals concerning the country's welfare and ad- vancement.
During the period of pioneer development in Ohio the Linton family wa- founded in this state, although at that time Ohio was still under territorial government. It was in 1802 that Nathan Linton, the grandfather, came to the then far west as the authorized agent to survey. subdivide and sell the lands granted by the government to General Horatio Gates in consideration of the services which he rendered during the Revolutionary war. These lands were all located in Clinton county, Ohio. For the performance of his official dutie- Nathan Linton settled in that locality and became a prominent factor in its subsequent development and upbuilding. He took an active and helpful part in fashioning the civilization of that region and for a half century held the office of county surveyor. Upon the farm which he owned and occupied, about three miles west of Wilmington, in Clinton county, the birth of Sanmel Smith Linton occurred in the year 1806. The ancestors of the family, so far as known, were all members of the Friends or Quakers church, and were among the early colonists who, following the leadership of William Penn, settled along the banks of the Delaware.
Samuel S. Linton was reared amid the wild scenes and environments of pioneer life, and after arriving at years of maturity was married to Miss Mary Fallis, who was born in the year 1808 on her father's farm in the neighbor- hood of the Linton family. The Fallis family. also of Quaker stock, had settled in that locality in 1804 and built the first tlouring mill in the county. For some time Samuel S. Linton owned and cultivated a farm at Green Plains: Clark county. Ohio, but in 1833 sold that property and removed to Miami county, Indiana, where he secured a tract of land of three hundred and sixty acres lying on the left bank of the Eel river, five miles from Pern and directly opposite the chief village of the Pottawattamie Indians, where now stands the town of Denver. It was a new and unsettled district in which the inhabitants suffered largely from malarial fever, that disease can-ing the death of Mr. Lin-
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J. F. LINTON
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1 TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
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ton in 1836. The family, numbering the mother and three sons, Jonathan F., Nathan and Samuel, returned to Ohio the same year.
The birth of Jonathan F. Linton had occurred December 16, 1831, on his father's farm, six miles southeast of Springfield, Ohio, in the locality known as Green Plains. He was in his fifth year at the time of the return to Ohio, and in the district schools and acadamies of Warren county he largely acquired his education, with the addition of a short course at Woodard College in Cin- einnati, pursued with a view to becoming a civil engineer. He afterward served a short apprenticeship at the printer's trade in the office of the Spring- field Republic under John M. Gallagher and in the office of the Wilmington Republican under David Fisher, then a member of congress. He spent the year 1849 in work at his trade in Lafayette, Indiana, and New Orleans, Louisi- ana. The year 1850 he devoted to making some improvements on the three hundred and sixty acres of land which his father had secured on the Eel river in Indiana, and in surveying. In March, 1851, he traveled on horseback from his home in Warren county, Ohio, to Peru. Illinois, all of five hundred miles by the route he took, to accept a position on an engineering corps which was being organized there to make the preliminary surveys and estimates for one division of the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad. Five months were consnmed in the completion of this work and later, in company with a relative, Jolm F. Grable, Mr. Linton returned to Ohio, where they attended the fairs and bought a small herd of shorthorn cattle and twenty-five Electoral Saxony bucks, which they shipped by rail to Cleveland, by lake to Detroit, by rail to Grand Haven on Lake Michigan and thence across the lake to Chicago and by canal to Peru, Illinois. In this venture as live-stock dealers they were reasonably successful. The following winter Mr. Linton engaged in teaching school and in the spring of 1852, as there was still some uncertainty concerning the building of the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad, he put in the season by improving one hun- dred and sixty acres of prairie that he had purchased near the present site of the town of Mendota.
On the 1st of January, 1853, Mr. Linton became connected with journal- istic interests through his purchase of the Peru Weekly Democrat, which he published as a whig organ. He soon afterward began the issue of a daily edi- tion, a six-column folio. one of the first dailies established in the state north of Springfield and outside of Chicago. Two bound volumes, still in existence, present much the appearance of the papers of today, being printed in brevier and nonpareil, with a good showing of advertising, set up solid in about the manner that classified advertising now appears. The paper was printed on a cylinder press. There were five presses in the establishment and connected with it was a fairly well equipped bookbindery, including a ruling machine. Many of the counties in that section of the state were then without a paper or printing office, and he did a good business in furnishing them with their legal blanks and in doing their general jobwork.
Mr. Linton became an influential factor in molding the political history of that period. He advocated the coalition of the whig and freesoil parties and was one of the three secretaries of the state convention held at Ottawa, Illinois, in Angust, 1854, that brought about this alliance and gave rise to the
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republican party. In 1904 he was the only survivor of all those whose names were mentioned in the reports of the proceedings. He was a delegate to the first congressional nominating convention held in his district, which consisted of thirteen counties and which convened at Bloomington, September 12. 1854. It was during the evening following the close of this convention that he first met Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln did not appear in either the Ottawa state convention held a month previous or in the district convention, but he ad- dressed a large audience in the evening after the adjournment of the conven- tion and discussed the question of slavery in the territories-a paramount issue at that time. Mr. Linton afterward met Mr. Lincoln on several occasions be- tween that time and his last meeting with him, which was in May, 1864.
In the meantime, in March, 1855. Mr. Linton sold his newspaper and bindery for seventy-four hundred dollars and invested in ten hundred and forty acres of land in the northeast corner of Lee county, seventy miles west of Chicago, and the first year thereafter placed three hundred and twenty acres under cultivation. Wheat sold at the country elevators in 1855 and 1856 at from a dollar to a dollar and a half per bushel, but in the fall of 1857 dropped as low as forty cents. In that year Mr. Linton raised seven thousand bushels. paid two dollars and a half a day for help in the harvest fields and sold his crop at from forty to fifty cents per bushel. The financial panie, which caused a widespread business depression that year. made it impossible for him to con- tinue his farming operations. He then returned to Peru, purchased a small newspaper plant and conducted the paper until the spring of 1859, when, hav- ing reached an understanding with his creditors, he returned to the farm. In the year 1858 he attended the Lincoln and Douglas debates at Ottawa and Freeport and had the good fortune to be one of a dozen guests who were in- vited by Mayor Glover of Ottawa to meet Mr. Lincoln at dinner, while Mr. Cushman, the richest man of the town, entertained Mr. Douglas.
Mr. Linton had been married in the meantime, having on the 22d of Sep- tember, 1855, at Peru, Illinois, wedded Miss Eliza Jane Sapp, a daughter of Noah Sapp, a pioneer citizen there, who removed from Mount Vernon, Knox county, Ohio, to Illinois in 1830 and erected one of the first mills in La Salle county. Mr. and Mrs. Linton became parents of four sons and four daughters, all of whom are still living except their eldest child, Mary, who died at the age of three years. Robert Linton and Mrs. Elizabeth Elston live in St. Paul, Min- nesota: while Alfred. Edward. Paul. Mrs. Harriet Mettal and Mrs. Rachel Go- down are all of Colummms. Mr. and Mrs. Linton are both still in the enjoy- ment of robust health.
In July, 1861, Mr. Linton entered the military service of the government, becoming first lieutenant of Company D, Thirty-ninth Illinois Infantry-the Yates Phalanx. Not long afterward he was made the quartermaster of the regiment and subsequently served in that capacity on the staffs of Generals Howells, Osborn and Vogdes. He saw service with Lander on the upper Poto- mac, with Shields and Banks in the Shenandoah valley and with Terry and others along the sea islands from Hiltonhead to Charleston, South Carolina. In May, 1864. Mr. Linton resigned and returned to his home in Lee county, Illinois, where he engaged in farming for the succeeding three years. Ilis
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next business venture connected him with milling interests at Gardner, Illi- nois, and Toledo, Ohio, between the years 1867 and 1872.
In March of the latter year Mr. Linton purchased the plant of the Ohio Statesman from Nevins, Medary & Company and devoted two years to the publication of the paper, after which he sold out to J. H. Putnam. A year later, however, he again became proprietor and published the Statesman through the succeeding two years, when he sold it to a syndicate of prominent politicians, the name being then changed to the Press and finally to the Press- Post. Mr. Linton's further connection with journalistic interests came through his establishing and publishing the Legal Record in 1878, but at the end of the second year he sold it.
In the spring of 1873 he purchased what was known as the Henderson farm of ninety acres, which he still owns, it being located on High street about one hundred rods south of the city limits. It remained his place of residence until the fall of 1898, since which time he has lived at No. 54 West Second avenue. In 1888 he platted and sold the suburban town of Milo and has since engaged extensively in laying out and selling subdivisions in different parts of the city, thus disposing of over one thousand lots. He still remains an active factor in the world's work, although he has passed the seventy-seventh milestone on life's journey.
Mr. Linton has been influential in fashioning public thought and mold- ing public opinion and in promoting the political as well as business progress of the localities in which he has lived. He has ever been recognized as a man firm in support of his honest convictions, his position never being an equivo- cal one. On the contrary, he has fearlessly announced his views when occa- sion has demanded, supporting the abolition movement when it was an unpop- ular thing to do. He cast his first vote in 1852 for the whig candidates when General Winfield Scott was the presidential nominee. He voted with the whig and republican parties until 1870, and has since usually given his political support to the democracy, but has never at any time felt bound by party ties.
THE PONTIFICAL COLLEGE JOSEPHINUM.
The visitor to the city of Columbus will find on Main and Seventeenth streets the Josephinum, an establishment unique among ecclesiastical institu- tions. In the following we shall give a brief sketch of this remarkable institu- tion, its purposes and history.
The founder, Joseph Jessing, a native of Munster, Germany, after a bril- liant career in the Prussian army, came to America and exchanged the soldier's uniform for the humble robes of an ecclesiastic. From childhood he devoted his leisure hours to study. As a soldier he found time and opportunity to visit the military academy, but his immediate preparation for the priesthood was made in our own country and state at Mount St. Mary's Seminary, Cincinnati. At this institution he completed his theological studies and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood. His first charge was the Sacred Heart parish of
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Pomeroy, Ohio. Here he founded the Ohio Waisenfreund. a weekly paper for the support of orphan boys.
The success with which he met soon enabled him to open the St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum. Two years later, in 1877, the entire establishment, news- paper and orphanage, was transferred to its present site in Columbus. Here the boys received not only a good Catholic education but also a thorough train- ing in various technical branches, to-wit: wood-carving, printing, tailoring. shoemaking, farming, etc. The orphanage accordingly was the first fruit of the Ohio Waisenfreund, that peerless champion of what is right and just, noble and true. Though the orphanage cannot rank in importance with later crea- tions of Father Jessing, it has done much good in the thirty-three years of its existence and will continue to do so as long as the Josephinum exists.
In 1888 Father Jessing. finding that the orphanage did not entirely ex- haust his resources, conceived the idea of aiding a few young men wishing to enter the sacred ministry but who lacked the means to pursue the necessary studies. Over fifty responded to the invitation inserted in the Ohio Waisen- freund. Of the fifty he chose about twenty. This was the beginning of the college, Father Jessing being the sole professor, his private apartments serving as classrooms. Being successful the first year, he repeated the experiment, and year after year added new classes until the college was completely equipped for its purpose. The seminary was opened in the fall of 1894.
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