USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > Centennial history of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Vol. II > Part 44
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torney General John M. Sheets, and later by Attorney General Wade H. Ellis, with whom he served throughout their entire terms. In 1902 he was assigned by Governor Nash to the membership of the governor's committee to draft a municipal code. This committee reported at a special session of the general assembly in 1902 and the code was adopted. Mr. Bennett has tried important cases in all the courts of the state and of the United States on behalf of the commonwealth. One of the most important was the case of Lander, treasurer of Cuyahoga county, versus the Mercantile National Bank of Cleveland, involving the right of the state of Ohio to tax the shares of national banks. This right was fully sustained by the supreme court of the United States. His official service was entirely creditable and satisfactory and through three administrations he continued in office, re- tiring on the 12th of January, 1909, to enter upon the practice of law in partnership with Ralph E. Westfall, their office being located in the Colum- bus Savings & Trust Building.
Mr. Bennett has been an active member of the Ohio State Bar Asso- ciation since his admission to the bar and is widely known to the legal fra- ternity of Ohio. In politics he is a stalwart republican and is a thirty-second degree Mason, also holding membership with Aladdin Temple of the Mystic Shrine. The work that he has done has brought him prominently before the public and in the private practice of law his ability will undoubtedly carry him into important professional relations.
DANIEL HENRY TAFT.
Daniel Henry Taft is the president of the Dunn-Taft Company, owning and controlling what has been termed the most reliable store in Columbus. A native son of the capital city, he was born March 23, 1850. The ancestral history is traced back to 1680 when Robert Taft settled at Uxbridge, Massa- chusetts. He had five sons, the second one, Robert Taft, being a direct an- cestor of our subject, while the fourth son was a direct ancestor of President Taft. For more than two centuries, however, the family has been distinctly American in its lineal and collateral branches. Daniel Henry Taft, Sr., the father of our subject, was a native of Massachusetts and arrived in Columbus in 1840, in which year he established business on Brond and High streets, forming a partnership with D. W. Deshler, the father of William G. Deshler, well known in business circles of this city. For a short time they conducted a dry-goods business, after which the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Taft, however, continuing in business for a long period. About 1875, however, he retired from active connection with mercantile interests on account of his health and died the following year. The business, however, was conducted under his name by his sons for many years. He had an extended acquaint- ance and was a most highly respected man, his commercial integrity and un- daunted enterprise constituting important features in his life record. He was quiet in manner, regular and exemplary in his habits and of becoming
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DANIEL H. TAFT.
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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
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modesty, yet he exerted considerable influence from the fact that his friends -- and they were many-learned to esteem him for his genuine worth, learning that his judgment was sound and his sagacity keen and far-sighted. He mar- ried Sarah E. Conine, a native of New Jersey and a representative of an old colonial family. Her mother was a cousin of the famous Commodore Law- rence. The death of Mrs. Sarah E. Taft ocenrred in 1894.
At the usual age Daniel Henry Taft was sent as a pupil to the public and high schools and afterward attended school to the age of sixteen years. He later went to work in his father's store, entering business life when eigh- teen years of age. As a salesman he became connected with the old and well known firm of J. D. Osborn & Company, dealers in dry goods and carpets, and was associated with them until the firm retired from business in 1882. In January of that year Mr. Taft entered the employ of Green, Joyee & Company as buyer and manager of the dress goods and silk department and for seven years thus represented that house. He was then offered a partner- sluip in the firm of William G. Dunn & Company, the senior partner retiring, at which time the firm became Dunn-Taft & Company. Joseph H. Dunn died in June, 1905, and the business was then under the control of the surviving partners until February, 1908, when it was incorporated under the name of the Dunn-Taft Company with Mr. Taft as president and general manager. When he became connected with this business they occupied a single floor, but now utilize the entire building, the business having increased steadily until it is now one of the most important commercial enterprises of the city. They have a most complete dry-goods store and the business management of the house is most thorough and methodical. There were twenty-five em- ployes in 1889 and today there are over two hundred people. There are no sensational methods of advertising, for they regard satisfied patrons as their best advertisement and cater only to a high-class trade, enjoying a reputation of absolute business integrity. Mr. Taft is also a director of the Columbus Malleable Casting Company and vice president of the Columbus Mutual Life Insurance Company.
In 1882 Mr. Taft was married to Miss Mary Ritson, of Columbus, who died in 1895, leaving a daughter Helen, who is now a senior in Vassar Col- lege, and a son. Lawrence R., who is a sophomore of the Ohio State Uni- versity. In 1897 Mr. Taft wedded Miss Martha B. Hill, of Summit county, Ohio.
In his social relations Mr. Taft is connected with the Columbus Country Club and the Ohio Club. He has taken considerable interest in Masonry, at- taining the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, and has been very active in the First Congregational church, serving as a member of its board of dea- cons and on its board of directors. He is likewise president of the board of control of the West Side Social Center, engaged in settlement work ; is presi- dent of the Congregational Brotherhood of Columbus; and one of the board of directors of the National Congregational Brotherhood. For a number of years he has been active in the council which is the governing board of the Godman Guild. He is likewise a director of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation and a director of Associated Charities, and thus in various lines he
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has taken an active and helpful part in the work for the relief of hard con- ditions of life for the nufortunate and for the development of the race in moral progress. He is active on the Board of Trade, one of its directors and its vice president. With him success has always been a matter secondary to principle. At all times he has enjoyed the respect of intelligent men, who recognize the fact that he is accomplishing his life work, neglectful of no duty or obligation to his fellowmen and at all times using his talents for the uplifting of the race. The publie work that he has done has been of a nature that has brought no pecuniary reward and yet has made extensive demand upon his time, his thought and his energies, Opportunities that others have passed by heedlessly he has improved to the betterment of the city and the state in many ways. Although extremely modest and unostentations in manner, all who know him speak of him in terms of praise. In his life are the elements of greatness because of the use he has made of his powers and his oppor- tunities, because his thought is not self-centered but was given to the mastery of life's problems and the fulfillment of hi- duty a- a man in his relations to his fellowmen and as a citizen in his relations to his city, state and country.
EMERY J. SMITH.
An age of intense commercial activity calle forth the power- of men who can grapple with new conditions and utilize the opportunities that are evolved with change. Development in business has followed the reformation in reli- gion and the progress in science and art. No age ha- chronicled sneh marked advance or such rapid evolution in business method- and productions ns the nineteenth century and the opening years of the twentieth. As the needs of the world have been manifest there have come to the front men capable of meet- ing these needs through the outcome of invention or scientific achievement, and in this connection Emery J. Smith is known, occupying. as he does, a foremost place among the enterprising and successful men of Columbus. As one of the organizers and the president of the Smith Agricultural Chemical Company he was largely responsible for the wonderful growth and prosperity that the corporation enjoyed, and was al-o one of the prominent factors in the organization of the recently formed Independent Fertilizer Company of New Jersey, the largest concern of the kind in the world. This business, utilizing the researches of science and the modern process of manufacture, has become one of the most important industrial concerns not only of Columbus, but of America, and mects a need in agricultural life that is contributing in substan- tial measure to success in farming.
Mr. Smith is one of Ohio's native resident -. his birth having occurred in Sunbury, Delaware county, on the 16th of January, 1862. hi- parents being Marshall and Elvira Abbie (Thrall) Smith. He is descended in the paternal line from David Smith, who was born in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, and at the time of the great Wyoming massacre, when all the other members of his
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father's family were killed, he and David Landon, a boy of about his own age, were carried into captivity by the Indians. After dwelling in the Indian camps for six months, however, they succeeded in making their escape, and eventually reached their old home. After arriving at adult age, David Smith was married to Miss Sarah Murphy, and subsequently removed to Ohio, where he purchased an extensive tract of land bordering on what has since been called Yankee street in Galena, Delaware county. There he carried on agricultural pursuits, and upon his farm reared his family of eight children, namely: David, Daniel, John, Alva, James, Chester, Sarah and Denzura.
Of this family James Smith became the grandfather of E. J. Smith. He married Melinda Black, the eldest daughter of Marshall and Polly Black, of Orange township, Delaware county, and they had two children, Marshall and George. The mother died in 1852, and the father afterward wedded Betsey Blanchard, the widow of Edwin Blanchard and a daughter of Levi and Polly Rose, of Granville, Ohio. The only child of this marriage was Levi R. Smith,
Marshall Smith, the elder son of the first marriage, was born in Sunbury, Delaware county, Ohio. November 5, 1837, and early in life turnod his atten- tion to merchandising in his native town. He also successfully managed a farm, and was thm- connected with varied business interests until 1895, when he became a resident of Westerville and soon afterward succeeded his son, Em- ery J. Smith, as president of the Bank of Westerville. He was one of the organizers of the Smith Agricultural Chemical Company, and was a business man whose keen discernment and intense and well directed activity led him into various fields where his labors were crowned with gratifying snecess. He died October 8, 1900. In Masonry he attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and was also connected with the Eastern Star. On the 14th of February, 1861, at Granville, Ohio, he was married to Elvira Abbie Thrall. Mrs. Smith is a resident of Columbus and a daughter of William Cooley and Mary Chase ( West) Thrall. She was born in Laporte, Indiana, May 4. 1834. Her mother dying when she was thirteen years old, she was sent to Granville, Ohio, to be edneated at the "Seminary there for Young Ladies," and to have a home with her mother's sister and husband, Hugh M. Blanchard. She com- menced this new life November 20, 1851. With this wealthy and childless couple she lived ten years, filling the place of a beloved danghter. In this home she daily received the best cultivation of a mind happily endowed with hereditary capabilities handed down to her from long lines of most excellent ancestors: on her mother's side the West and Chase lines; on her father's, the Woolcott Mather Cooley and Thrall lines. All these are an ancestry accurately kept of both the paternal and maternal parentage leading back to the homes in England and to the landing of the immigrants. Some came in 1630; others in 1635 and 1636. She wished to record and emphasize her regards for her patriotie ancestors by getting and preserving their war records-by becoming a member of the Columbus Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolu- tion, in the year of 1901. three of them having served in that war as officers and soldiers.
William Thrall, the immigrant, with others, were formed into a Congrega- tional church (were Episcopalians) in Plymouth. England. Then with their
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chosen ministers, Reverends John Wareham and John Meveric, sailed on the Mary and John from Plymouth, England, in March, 1630, were put ashore May 3 at Nantucket Point, Massachusetts, and from there went to Mattepan, started a town, calling it Dorchester, which is now Boston's wealthy residence suburb. Two hundred and sixty-eight years have made great changes there. This ancestor was in the Pequod war, and his service was so valued he received a grant of land.
Mrs. Smith's grandfather, Samuel Thrall, Jr., with his family, were among the pioneers to settle Granville, Ohio, in November, 1805. They named the town for the one they came from in Massachusetts. Her father was eight years old at that time. When he was forty-five he removed to Laporte, Indiana, where this daughter was born, who with her children are his only descend- ants. He was a true descendant of a pious and honest ancestry. One ancestor, Rev. Sanmel Mather, and other clergymen, were chosen to be founders of Yale College in 1720. His son, Dr. Samuel Mather, graduated at Harvard in 1698. One especially revered granduncle, Rev. Timothy Mather Cooley, was a trustee of Williams College from 1812 until his death, and at one time its vice president. He was a graduate from Yale. He was pastor of and preached in one pulpit in Granville, Massachusetts, sixty-threee years, and in this church twenty-five members were formed into a Congregational church. They with others (fifty families in all) started as the Licking Land Company to settle and name the new town in Ohio Granville for the loved home they had left. In 1908 Mrs. Smith visited the tomb of Richard Mather, her immigrant ances- tor, in Dorchester, then went to the Boston library and read his life and journal and saw his portrait. He was the father of Increase and Cotton Mather. There he founded the "Mather School for Young Ladies," and there he preached over thirty years, and wrote some (now priceless) books.
On February 14, 1861, Elvira A. Thrall was united in marriage with Mar- shall Smith, of Sunbury, Ohio, at her home in Granville, Ohio, by her pastor, Jacob Little, of the First Presbyterian church. Their children are four sons: Emery J. Smith, Hugh E., William Abbott and Marshall A., all of Columbus. Very early in life Mrs. Smith became a Christian, but did not unite with a church until in 1865, when she was received into the Baptist church at Sun- bury. Her married life of forty years ended in 1900 with the death of her husband. He was widely known and was called one of Delaware county's fine financiers. He was always ready to do for any who needed help.
E. J. Smith is eligible to the Sons American Revolution through his great-great-grandfather, in the maternal line, Captain Samuel Thrall, Sr., and his son, Samuel Thrall, Jr., who enlisted from Granville, Massachusetts, in the Revolution. Another ancestor was Captain William Cooley, whose daughter, Triphosa Cooley, married Samuel Thrall, Jr., above mentioned, and they were great-grandparents of Emery J. Smith.
In this age where education is free to all. so that the majority may have almost equal preparation for life's practical duties, snecess is dependent alnost entirely upon individual merit. The number of avenues of business, too, have so greatly increased that each individual may find work, if he so desires, that is suited to his tastes and his powers, and if failure follows it is the result of a
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lack of close application and of unwillingness to pay for success the price of unremitting industry and careful management. Emery J. Smith in his busi- ness career has made that steady advancement which results from the recogni- tion and utilization of each opportunity, combined with a spirit of thorough- ness that has prompted him to do with all his might whatever his hand has found to do. At the usual age he entered the public schools at Sunbury, and therein pursued his studies until he completed the high-school course. He was afterward a student in the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, but left school while in the senior year to become assistant cashier in the Farmers Bank at Sunbury. Ilis diligence and faithfulness won him promotion to the position of cashier, and eventually he beemme vice president. His knowledge of the banking business led to his organization of the Bank of Westerville, of which he continued as president for twelve consecutive years, making the insti- tution one of the strong financial concerns of the state. Constantly alert for favorable openings in the business world, his careful survey of the field and his study of the entire situation and possibilities of the case prompted him in 1895 to formulate a plan for the organization of an extensive manufacturing estab- lishment to meet the pressing agricultural needs of the great middle west. Science had brought to the world a knowledge of the foods required by differ- ent cereals and the kind of soil demanded for their growth, and to meet the demand where there was any deficiency in the richness of soil, was the work which Mr. Smith undertook when, in conjunction with his father, Marshall Smith, his brothers, William A. and Marshall A., and his uncle, Levi R. Smith, he organized the Ohio Farmers' Fertilizer Company with a capital stock of five hundred thousand dollars. The output of the establishment for the first year was two thousand tons, and the business grew rapidly from the start until it reached the present proportions with a capacity of fifty thousand tons per year. The name of the firm was later changed to the Smith Agricultu- ral Chemical Company, and the capital stock increased to one million dollars. In December, 1908, the corporation became a part of the Independent Fer- tilizer Company. At that time the Smith Agricultural Chemical Company controlled five other agricultural chemical companies, and the business was re- organized as a part of the Independent Fertilizer Company. Mr. Smith was the controlling factor of his own company, being president from the beginning. He possesses marked ability as an organizer, forms his plans readily and is determined in their execution. Aside from the interests already mentioned that he has instituted and controlled, he became one of the organizers, and from the beginning has been the president of the Security Savings Bank. He is also the president of the Sumner Phosphate Company of Gallatin, Tennessee, president of the Monarch Specialty Manufacturing Company, president of the Monarch Fuel Company and president of the Buckeye Phosphate Company. He is a stockholder and officer in many other enterprises, and his cooperation is sought for the furtherance of business concerns, as it is known that his opin- ions are sound and his judgment reliable, while his name carries weight in commercial circles. In financial cireles he is known as a director of the Bank of Westerville, the Groveport Bank, the Bank of Reynoldsburg and the Farm- ers and Merchants Bank of Hilliard.
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On the 2d of June, 1886. Mr. Smith was married to Miss Hannah Jane Hardy, of Westerville, Ohio, but a native of Huntington, Indiana. She was educated at Shepardson College, a school for young ladies at Granville, Ohio. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Smith were born seven children, all being born in Wester- ville save the youngest. The record is as follows: Joy Hardy and Elvira Thrall, twins, born April 8, 1889; Wayland Marshall, whose birth occurred June 4, 1891; Niles Emery, born February 5, 1895; Donald Hugh, who was born November 12. 1898: Ernestine Jane, born July 20, 1900; and Marshall B., born November 29, 1901. The family residence has been maintained in Columbus since 1901. when they removed from Westerville to the capital city. Mrs. E. G. Smith is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Mr. Smith is prominent in the social and fraternal organizations of Column- bus. He is identified with various Masonic bodies, including Blendon Lodge, No. 339. F. & A. M .: Horeb Chapter, No. 3. R. A. M .: Columbus Conneil. R. & S. M .; and Mount Vernon Commandery, K. T. In Scottish Rite masonry he has reached the thirty-second degree, and belongs to Aladdin Temple. Mystic Shrine. He is also connected with the Sons of the American Revolution, with the Board of Trade and with the Columbus and Ohio Clubs. He likewise belongs to the Broad street Presbyterian church. Those who meet Mr. Smith socially find in him a courteous, approachable gentleman, who readily recog- nizes and appreciates the good qualities in others; those who meet him in busi- ness relations find him an alert, enegertie man, who allows no point to escape him that seems to bear upon the possible outcome of his business interests. Never known to take advantage of the necessities of another in any business transaction. he has nevertheless made steady progress in the commercial world. gaining prosperity and an honored name by reason of the fact that marked business enterprise and unquestioned integrity are well balanced forces in his life.
W. WILSON CARLILE.
W. Wilson Carlile, partner of the law firm of Butler & Carlile, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 15, 1865, hi- parents being Justus .1. and Catherine ( Frederick ) Carlile, both of whom were natives of the city of Philadelphia. The paternal grandfather and great-grandfather were also born in that immediate neighborhood. Justns A. Curlile was a manufacturer, beginning his business career with the famous dry goods manufacturing firm of David S. Brown & Company, which was later incorporated under the name of The Gloucester Manufacturing Company. He was a veteran of the Civil war and had manifested his interest in his country's defense by organizing a company of Zouaves, of which he was captain at the time the war broke ont. He was widely known a- a substantial business man and progressive citizen whose gennine worth in all relations of life gained him the honor and respect of those with whom he came in contact. He died in 1897. his wife surviving him.
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W. Wilson Carlile was graduated from the Central high school in Phila- delphia, obtaining the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and later entered the aca- demie department of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was also graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in 1885. He studied at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. in Germany, and subsequently at the University of Berlin in the philosophical faenlty, his chief branches of study being social economy, philosophy, administrative and public law. This con- stituted a preparation for his law studies in Amerca, which he continued at the law school of the University of Pennsylvania and was graduated from there with the class of 1888, attaining the degree of Bachelor of Law. In June of that year he was admitted to the bar and entered upon the active prac- tice of his profession in his native city. He practiced independently from 1888 until 1905 when he formed the partnership with Mr. Butler at Columbus and continues as a partner of the well known and successful law firm of Butler & Carlile in this city. While they engage in general civil practice, they are known chiefly as corporation lawyers, Mr. Carlile specializing in corporation commercial law. His clientage is continuously growing and has long since reached profitable proportions, indicating his prominence as a learned and able member of the capital city bar.
On the 2d of June, 1896, Mr. Carlile was married to Miss Florence Jeffrey, of Columbus, a daughter of J. A. Jeffrey. They have two children living. Dorothea and Janet Jeffrey Carlile. Mr. Carlile is a member of the Arlington Country Club, the Columbus Country Club, the Ohio Club and sev- eral Philadelphia clubs. In politics he is an earnest republican and keeps well informed on political, economical and sociological problems. All questions which are of vital importance to the community are carefully considered by him and his wide general knowledge constitutes an element in his success at the bar, enabling him to understand men and their motives. He keeps abreast with the best thinking men of the age, is a close and discriminating student of his profession and always studies carefully his case, as is evidenced in his clear presentation and cogent reasoning. He is fond of outdoor life and close con- tact with nature and greatly enjoys his country place, Walnut Ford, several miles east of Columbus.
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