USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > Centennial history of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Vol. II > Part 18
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in connection with the Ohio Medical University from its organization until 1889, being the first adjunct professor of the practice of medicine and later professor of materia medica. He belongs to the Columbus Academy of Med- icine, Ohio State Medical Association and the American Medical Associa- tion. His study has been carried on along lines of modern research and his efficiency is the secret of constantly increasing success.
In March, 1887. Dr. Dixon was married to Miss Sadie I. MeMaster, of Belmont county, Ohio, who died in 1904, leaving one son, William. In 1906 Dr. Dixon wedded Miss Effie C. Burkline, a native of Chillicothe, Ohio. who was the well known and popular principal of the Spring street school prior to her marriage and is a lady of broad intelligence and innate culture and refinement. Dr. Dixon belongs to Humboldt Lodge, A. F. & A. M., the Knights of Pythias and other fraternal organizations and is in hearty sym- pathy with the principles which underlie those societies. In educational cir- .cles he has demonstrated his ability to impart clearly and readily the knowl- edge he has acquired, while in his practice his careful diagnosis and com- prehensive understanding of the principles of medical science have enabled him to readily and correctly solve the intricate problems which continually confront the physician so that he has become recognized as one of the lead- ing members of the profession here.
JAMES MOSSMAN.
No history of Westerville would be complete without extended mention of James Mossman, whose residence here antedates that of any other citizen of the town. As the years have come and gone he has taken an active and help- ful part in the development of the city and is now giving his attention largely to real-estate interests, whereby the material growth and improvement of Wes- terville is gradually enhanced. Few men of his years continue actively in business, but indolence and idleness have ever been utterly foreign to his na- ture, and although now in the eightieth year of his age Mr. Mossman displays the same keen discernment in business transactions that characterized him in middle life.
A native of New Jersey, he was born in Pumpton township, Essex county, December 9, 1829, his parents being Robert and Anna (Sanford) Mossman, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of New Jersey. Removing west- ward they settled in Delaware county, Ohio, where they spent their remaining days. Their family numbered four sons and five daughters, of whom three are now living, James having been the fifth in order of birth. The youngest son of the family, William B. Mossman, served with the Thirty-second Ohio Regiment during a period of the Civil war and afterward became captain of the company of colored troops at Vicksburg.
James Mossman spent the first seven years of his life in the state of his nativity and then accompanied his parents to Licking county, Ohio, the fam-
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JAMES MOSSMAN
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ily home being established in St. Albans township. Three years later they removed to Harlem township, Delaware county, settling about six miles north- east of Westerville, where Mr. Mossman remained until eighteen years of age. Since 1848 he has resided continuously in Westerville, his residence here cov- ering more than sixty years.
For a long period he devoted his time and energies to farming and has owned and operated two different farms, one of seventy-five acres in Delaware county and another of one hundred and ten acres adjoining the city limits of Westerville. In fact fifty acres of this lies within the corporation limits and Mr. Mossman platted thirty acres in town lots, which he sold, and also in one and two acre tracts. The Mossman Naomi Park addition-for so it is called- is regarded today as one of the best residence portions of the city, being im- proved with modern homes and attractive surroundings. For thirty-five years Mr. Mossman has been engaged in the real-estate business, continuing his efforts in this line since the building of the railroad. He has now sold his farm in Delaware county and has fifty acres of land in this locality. Aside from his agricultural pursuits and real-estate operations Mr. Mossman has also displayed much ability in invention. He invented a single wire fence stretcher, was the first to manufacture the stump puller and has since made improvements upon it. He has also invented, manufactured and sold wind- mills and milk stools and has perfected other important devices.
In 1852 Mr. Mossman was married to Miss Martha Ingalls, a native of Franklin county and sister of the Rev. P. P. Ingalls, a very prominent Meth- odist minister. There were three sons by this marriage: Ira O., now living in Westerville; Joseph P., who died at the age of sixteen years; and Grant James, whose death occurred when he was nineteen years of age. On the 18th of April, 1878, Mr. Mossman was again married, his second union being with Frances Virginia Nicholson, a native of Springfield, Ohio, and a daughter of James Nicholson, who was born in Virginia in 1804 and came to Ohio in 1835 with his wife and four children, settling in Columbus. He did splendid me- chanical iron work for those days and made the first turn lathe used in Co- lumbus. He also did considerable work on the old courthouse and the new state house and forged the big hinges for the heavy doors of the capitol. He also worked on the old courthouse at Dayton and was actively connected with the construction of other public buildings. He went to Delaware when the rail- road shops were established there and followed his trade until he was past the age of eighty years. His death occurred in Westerville at the home of Mr. Mossman when he was ninety-four years of age. Tracing back the aneestral history of Mrs. Mossman we find that she is a granddaughter of Joseph Nich- olson, who resided in Washington, D. C., at the time the British burned the eity. He was the owner of a flourmill at the old chain bridge there. His son James climbed a persimmon tree in that locality and watched the city burn. He was at that time a lad of seven years. His father, Joseph Nicholson. was the owner of the house in which the United States government officials secreted most of their important papers at that time. He was married twice. His son Joseph resided in the house that was the home of Francis Scott Key when he wrote the Star-Spangled Banner.
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Mrs. Mossman has taken a very prominent and influential part in edu- cational and temperance work, having served as county president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She was a delegate to the national convention held in New York city in which she was associated with all the leading temperance workers, and she presided over a great meeting where Mrs. Clara Hoffman was the principal speaker. Mrs. Mossman has been a teacher of music and singing. and has always been called the sweet singer of the W. C. T. U.
Mr. Mossman has ever been known for his fearless defense of his honest convictions, his position being at no time an equivocal one. He became an abolitionist when it was an unpopular thing to do and voted for John P. Hale, the abolition candidate for president. He supported John C. Fremont in 1856, espousing the cause of the republican party which was formed to prevent the further extension of slavery. In 1860 he voted for Abraham Lincoln and again in 1864, and since 1872 he has supported the prohibition party, which embodies his views on the temperance question. He has been a most active and earnest temperance worker all through his life and has never used liquor nor tobacco. He holds membership with the Methodist Episcopal church and has lived in most exemplary manner, his life being actuated by high and hon- orable principles and by steadfast devotion to all that he believes to be right.
JUDGE THOMAS WATKINS POWELL.
Lawyer, jurist, author and statesman, Judge Thomas Watkins Powell left the impress of his individuality upon the legal history of the state. He remains in the memory of those who knew him enshrined in a halo of a gracious presence, of marked intellectuality and of conspicuous devotion to the public good. His life record, which began in south Wales in September, 1797, was closed in Delaware, Ohio, December 12, 1882, when he had reached the advanced age of eighty-five years. He was in his fourth year when his father emigrated with the family to America, settling in Utica, New York. He enjoyed the educational opportunities there afforded him but his ad- vantages in that direction were somewhat limited and throughout his life it remained to him a source of regret that he did not have a college education. However, he was a student of life and of books, and from the school of ex- perience he gleaned many valuable lessons. At the time of the war of 1812 he drove his father's team with the baggage of a regiment to Sacket's Harbor in the spring of 1813, entering that place at the close of the battle. In the year 1814 he was appointed to a post of great trust by the military anthor- ities, being made the bearer of dispatches to General McComb at Plattsburg. He afterward had opportunity to continue his education in an academy for two years, there mastering such branches as were taught in that institution, including higher mathematics, in which he displayed marked ability. On leaving the academy he took up the study of law in the office and under the direction of Charles M. Le. of Utica, being then but twenty years of age.
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In the year 1819 he came to Ohio and for a time was in the law office of Hon. James W. Lathrop of Canton. The following year he was admitted to the Ohio bar by the supreme court on the circuit of Wooster and immediately afterward opened a law office in Perrysburg, on the Maumee river, where he entered upon active law practice. He was soon made prosecuting attorney and afterward county auditor of Wood county. He continued his residence in that county until 1830 when he removed to Delaware, Ohio, where for more than fifty years he was in active practice. He won recognition as a prominent, distinguished lawyer of his day. At that time a representative of the bar must be well versed in every department of practice for it was not common to specialize, as it is at present, and yet his ability in a particular field brought to him an extensive practice in special and equity pleading. He was unwearied in his devotion to his client's interests and while he gave to them the benefit of unfaltering industry and superior ability, he never for- got that he owed a still higher allegiance to the majesty of the law. His as- sociates in practice esteemed him as well for his non-professional as for his professional traits of character and those who enjoyed his friendship found him a genial, courteous and cultured gentleman. No one had more law students than Judge Powell and he liberally gave assistance to young men preparing for the bar. Among those who studied under his direction were Hon. Charles Sweetser, Edward Jones. Hon. Thomas C. Jones, Hon. Royal T. Wheeler, afterward chief justice of Texas, General J. S. Jones and many others.
In every business relation Judge Powell manifested the same spirit of enterprise which he displayed in his. legal career. He was the promoter of the project for the erection of the Mansion House at Sulphur Springs, which, in its early history, was famous as a fashionable resort, but subsequently be- came the property of the Ohio Wesleyan University. He also laid ont and platted one of the largest additions to the city of Delaware and was a factor in its commercial development and industrial prosperity. He built the flax mills and gave his aid and cooperation to many other business concerns of benefit to the city.
The recognized ability of Judge Powell and his well known devotion to publie progress led to his selection for various positions of honor and trust. He was elected to serve as prosecuting attorney of his county and was sent as a representative to the general assembly of Ohio in 1841-42. Later he was elected state senator from the district comprising Delaware and Crawford coun- ties, being seated as a member of the upper house in 1844-45. In 1862 he was chosen by popular suffrage for the office of probate judge and sat upon the bench for eight years. His knowledge of the law and of the limitations imposed upon constitutional authority made him a valued member of the third constitu- tional convention of Ohio which met in Columbus in May, 1873. He left the impress of his individuality upon the organic laws of the state and his care- ful consideration of questions, expressed in language that clearly defined his position and the reasons thereof, made him an influential member of that body. His authorship also entitles him to mention as one of the prominent members of the Ohio bar, whose history reflects credit on the state. He wrote
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and published "Powell's Analysis of American Law" and "Appellate Juris- diction," two volumes which are highly prized by the legal fraternity. His authorship also includes "History of the Ancient Britains" and another volume entitled. "What is Knowledge?" Although his eyesight was greatly impaired during his closing years, he never ceased to write nor ceased to be an untiring worker. The safety of the republic depends not so much upon methods and measures as upon that manhood from whose deep sources all that is precious and permanent in life must at last proceed and it is thus that Judge Powell took his place as a foremost citizen of Ohio, whose life was of genuine worth in shaping the history of the commonwealth.
DANIEL S. WILDER.
Daniel S. Wilder, who for many years has been identified with the bus- iness interests of Columbus and is now a clerk in the auditor's office, was born here, Angust 25, 1844, and is a descendant of a prominent New Eng- land family, the members of which were among the early settlers of the state of Massachusetts. His maternal grandfather, William Yantis, was a lieu- tenant in the army during the war of 1812, while an uncle, a well known religious leader, for many years was a deacon in the Presbyterian church at Leroy, this state. Ile is a son of D. S. and Elizabeth (Yantis) Wilder, both of whom were natives of Ohio, his father having been born in Leroy, where he followed agricultural pursuits until he was twenty-one years of age, and then learned the shoemaker's trade, which he followed until 1849, when he started for California to seek his fortune in the gold fields. There he was successful, but he was drowned in the year 1852 when returning home on a ship, named the Yankee Blade, which went down during a storm. He had one brother, William Wilder, who was one of the five commissioners from Honolulu who came to the United States to intercede for the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands, and who afterward died there. Our subject's mother. whose birth occurred in this state, March 8, 1817, departed this life in 1892.
In the public schools of New Albany, which is about twelve miles from Columbus. Daniel S. Wilder acquired his education, and upon completing his studies went ont into the world for himself and secured employment, finally becoming affiliated with the Gilmore & Segner Book Concern, for which he was a traveling salesman for two years, his territory being Illinois and Pennsylvania. Upon leaving the employ of that firm he drove a stage for two years from Columbus to surrounding towns. this being before the days of railroads. Later he entered the employ of the Kilborne, Jacobs Manufacturing Company. for which he traveled for ten years, and in 1878 became connected with the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Railroad. After he had worked in the ticket office of this company for four years he was made city passenger agent for the Big Four Railroad in this city, and then became division passenger agent for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad here, holding this position until Angust 1. 1906, when he retired from the
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business, Mr. Sayre, the county anditor, tendering him a position in the andi- tor's office, which he accepted.
Although Mr. Wilder was striving hard to make his way in the com- mercial world when the Civil war broke out, his patriotism was such that he laid aside all interests when the call came to take up arms, and he enlisted in Columbus, October 19, 1861, as a soldier in the Eighteenth United States Infantry, serving throughout the entire conflict and receiving an honorable discharge May 9, 1865. He was in many severe and hard fought battles, and at the engagement at Stone River was wounded, from which injury he suffered for many months. But this was not the only misfortune that over- took him during his military career, as he was captured at the battle of Chickamauga, September 19, 1863, and was made a prisoner of war and held for eighteen months, his sufferings during his imprisonment being al- most indescribable. He was handcuffed at the wrists on one occasion and suspended to a beam in a dungeon. where he was left hanging with his feet short of the ground from nine o'clock in the morning until three in the after- noon. Mr. Wilder will not soon forget his experience during prison life and is one among the thousands who risked their lives for the welfare of the coun- try and whom the goverment should hold in sacred and substantial remembrance.
On July 31, 1866, Mr. Wilder was united in marriage to Miss Rnversa L. Landon. a native of this state, and to them were born the following children: Ura N., Edna E., Ruversa L., Grace E., Kilbourne W. and Bliss W. Polit- ically Mr. Wilder is a republican, to which party he has always been loyal in his support. He belongs to Columbus Lodge, No. 30, A. F. & A. M., is a member of Temple Chapter, a comrade of Post No. 451, G. A. R .; secretary of the Franklin County Union Ex-Prisoners of War, and also of the Ohio association of the same organization, and is president of the Regular Brigade, First Division. Fourteenth Corps, Army of the Cumberland. Mr. Wilder is well known throughout the city and is highly respected. not only for his invaluable military career, but also as a citizen and business man.
J. O. HOFFHINE. M. D.
J. O. Hoffhine, engaged in the general practice of medicine and surgery has been located in Columbus for five years and is well known by reason of a progressive citizenship as well as by his professional labors. One of Ohio's native sons he was born September 10, 1853, in Jackson county, where Wellston now stands. His paternal grandfather, William Hoffhine, came to Ohio from Pennsylvania and settled at Big Wahmt on the boundary line between Pickaway and Fairfield counties. He followed the occupation of farming and there on the old family homestead occurred the birth of George Hoffhine, who was reared to farm life and followed that pursuit throughout the period of his manhood. He married Miss Marie Ayers, also a native of Ohio.
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No event of special importance occurred to vary the routine of life for Dr. Hoffhine in the days of his boyhood and youth, his time being divided between the toil of the home farm, the pleasures of the playground and the duties of the school room. He was educated in the public schools of Hamden, Vinton county, Ohio, and afterward engaged in farming and stock raising but at length determined to retire from agricultural pursuits and give his attention to professional duties. In 1874 he took up the study of medicine as a student in the Starling Medical College but afterward continued his course in the Columbus Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1877. He then located for practice at Frankfort, Ross county, Ohio, where he remained for twenty-six years and then seeking a broader scope of labor as offered in a city practice he came to Columbus in 1903 and has here re- mained for a period of more than five years. He has given his entire atten- tion to his professional duties nor would he ever consent to become a candi- date for public office. In his political views he is independent and nothing can swerve him from a course in citizenship which he believes to be right.
In 1888 Dr. Hoffhine was married to Miss Gertrude MeNeil, a native of Ross county, Ohio. They have four children: John, a graduate of Ohio State University and now chemist for the Union Pacific Railroad Company; Charles Il., a graduate of Starling Medical College, now engaged in the practice of medicine; Fanny M., who has completed the high school course and entered the University; and Helen G., the youngest of the family.
Dr. Iloffhine belongs to the Masonic fraternity, his membership being with the Blue lodge at Frankfort, Ohio, and the Chillicothe Commandery. He has reared a family of which he has every reason to be proud and his own life to them is an example well worthy of emulation, for he has always re- garded a promise made or a pledge given as a sacred obligation.
JOHN D. BISHOP.
John D. Bishop, a well known and progressive agriculturist of Madison township, is a native son of this county, having been born on the farm where he still resides. In 1807 John Bishop, an uncle of Jacob Bishop, the father of our subject, located on the farm which was the birthplace of Jacob Bishop and also of John D. Bishop and which is now owned and occupied by the latter. The property comprises one hundred and eighty-seven and a half acres and the deed thereto was signed by Andrew Jackson. Jacob Bishop, whose birth occurred in 1812. passed away in 1883, in the faith of the Baptist church. In polities he was a Jacksonian democrat and took an active inter- est in public affairs, serving as assessor for several years and also as land appraiser for some time. He was recognized throughout the community as a man of sound judgment and keen discrimination and his advice was as freely given as it was sought. His wife, whose natal year was 1822, bore the maiden name of Catharine Ordell. Unto this worthy couple were born the following children: Mary, Henry. John D., Edson, Catharine, Sydney,
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J. D. BISHOP AND FAMILY
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Irene and Minnie, now living; and George and Louisa, who have passed away.
Throughout his business career John D. Bishop has been successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits, cultivating and improving the old home farm which has now been in possession of the family for more than a hun- dred years. He follows progressive and modern methods in the conduct of his farming interests, the fields yielding golden harvests annually as a re- ward for the care and labor he bestows upon them.
In 1878 Mr. Bishop was united in marriage to Miss Harriet Emma Treese, by whom he has the following children: Maud M .; Catharine E .; Octavia; and Jacob Edson, who is a student in the Ohio State University.
Politically Mr. Bishop is a stalwart democrat and has acted in the posi- tion of assessor for fifteen years, his service during ten years of that time being continuous. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Lutheran church and he is well known and highly esteemed throughout the county in which he has spent his entire life.
DAVID BARTON SHARP.
David Barton Sharp, attorney at law, was born in Holmes county, Ohio, February 25, 1871. His father, John Sharp, also a native of that state, was a son of John Sharp, Sr., who represented Holmes county in the state legis- lature for two terms and held other offices there. The latter was a son of Joseph Sharp, who in the closing years of the eighteenth century removed from Pennsylvania to Ohio and became a resident of what is now Harrison county but was then Belmont county. Reared in this state. John Sharp, father of David B. Sharp, followed farming in early manhood and afterward turned his attention to merchandising in Holmes county, Ohio, being thus identified with commercial interests until his retirement from business life some years ago. He served for two terms as treasurer of Holmes county and was also a member of the village council and a member of the school board of Millersburg. He now makes his home in Columbus, where he is enjoying a well earned rest. He married Martha M. Ingram, who was born in Han- cock county, West Virginia, and is a daughter of David and Mary (Barton) Ingram, the former a native of Ireland, while the latter was of Irish parent- age.
In the public schools of Millersburg. David Barton Sharp pursued his preliminary education and was graduated from the high school with the class of 1887. He afterward spent two years in a classical course at Baldwin University at Berea, Ohio, and later entered the Ohio State University, be- ing graduated from the law department in June, 1893, with the Bachelor of Law degree. He was always very active and interested in the work of the literary society, was a member of the Philozetian at Baldwin and of the Alcyone Society in the state university. On his graduation from the high
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