USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > Centennial history of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Vol. II > Part 55
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As indicated, the one interruption to his professional career prior to 1903 came through his two years' service as mayor of Columbus. A stalwart demo- crat, he was elected as the party's candidate to the position of chief executive of the city and during his incumbency in the office instituted and encouraged many improvements, including the building of the big storage dam that was formally dedicated December 5, 1905. This great work inaugurated under his administration was steadily carried forward to completion and no interior city on the continent is today more seenrely safeguarded from a water famine than is Columbus. In his official capacity, in 1898, he delivered an address of welcome to President Mckinley at the Goodale Street Auditorium, when the chief executive returned for the last time, after participation in the exer- cises of the Chicago Peace Jubilee. Judge Black's address on that occasion has never been excelled for good taste and warm greeting.
On the 9th of February, 1903, Judge Black took the oath of office as probate judge of Franklin county and in November, 1905, was elected for a second term. But a few years ago neither the legal profession nor the laymen considered the criminal side of the court in any other light than as a strictly punitive institution, which provided by legal sanction and edict for the pun- ishment of crime, withont much regard to age or nntoward conditions leading to its commission. The idea of preventing crime through reasoning and humane methods, if it existed at all, was merely latent. Today it is wide- spread. many cities of the country having taken up the work, while in Co- Inmbus among the foremost in this direction was Judge Samuel L. Black of the probate court, who at once entered into active work for the establishment of a juvenile conrt seeking to prevent further crime by placing around the delinquent all the possible aids for stimulating and developing the seeds of good that are in the nature of each individual. Under the guidance of Judge Black the court is not only showing tangible results at the present time but its work will be more manifest in the future, as there will be seen a correspond- ing and proportional decline of grave crimes in the following decade. Judge Black's labors in this connection alone would entitle him to stand as one of the foremost citizens of Columbus, his work being a splendid exemplification
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of the statement of Lincoln: "There is something better than making a liv- ing-making a life." Judge Black's work in this connection found sub- stantial endorsement in his reelection to office in November, 1905, by a ma- jority of over five thousand votes, and again in 1908 for a third time, being the only democrat on the county ticket elected.
Pleasantly situated in his home life, Judge Black was married to Miss Carrie Nelson, a representative of one of the most respected and honored fam- ilies of this city. With their three children they reside on Bryden Road and Mrs. Black is known as one of the most energetic and untiring workers in behalf of intelligently directed charity in this city.
MAJOR ROBERT W. CALDWELL.
Robert W. Caldwell has for twenty years been a resident of Columbus, where he is now engaged in the real-estate business and in this connection has contributed to the improvements of the city. He is numbered among the native sons of Ross county, Ohio, his birth having there occurred on the 5th of March, 1832. His father, John Caldwell, was in early life a resident of Pennsylvania, and removed to Ross county, Ohio, during an early period in its settlement and development. He became prominent and active in the locality and for eighteen or nineteen years served as justice of the peace, his long continuance in the office indicating clearly that his duties were dis- charged with promptness and fidelity, and that his decisions were strictly fair and impartial. He wedded Sarah McFarland, a daughter of Archibald MeFarland, who came to Chillicothe, Ohio, from AAugusta. Kentucky, and who was one of the first men to proceed to Fort Wayne, Indiana, under General Anthony Wayne, "Mad Anthony," taking part in the battle at Fallen Timber, where the Indians were subdued and sued for peace.
Robert W. Caldwell spent his youthful days in the county of his nativity, and acquired his education in the district schools. Early in business life he engaged in farming and also devoted a portion of his time, to teaching school in early manhood. He was ambitious to achieve success, and as the years passed on he advantageously used his opportunities for business progress. Thinking to find other pursuits more congenial and profitable than the work of the field or of the schoolroom, he turned his attention to the real-estate busi- ness, and since coming to this city has been numbered among its successful real-estate dealers. He has not only managed much property, but has also done speculative building and in this way has transformed unsightly vacancies into attractive residence properties and contributed in substantial measure to the upbuilding of the city. He has lived here for two decades, coming to Co- lumbus from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, but for some years previously had been a resident of Zanesville, Ohio.
Mr. Caldwell had been married in that city to Miss Maggie Irwin, a daughter of Dr. J. B. Irwin, of Zanesville. A few years later her death oc-
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curred and Mr. Caldwell seven years later was again married in Pittsburg, his second union being with Miss Mary G. Gunning.
Major Caldwell, at the outbreak of the Civil war, was one of the first men to spring into action. He assisted in raising the first company in the Nine- ty-first Ohio Infantry in the spring of 1861, and was tendered the captaincy, which he declined. In 1862 he raised a company and joined the One Hun- died and Seventeenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry which, in 1863, was changed to the First Ohio Heavy Artillery and Captain Caldwell was made a major. He had charge of the recruiting in Jackson, Vinton, Scioto, Gallia and Ross counties when the regiment was enlarged. He secured over four hundred recruits and was ordered to report to the mustering and disbursing officer, Captain P. W. Stanhope of Cincinnati. Major Caldwell, after returning to the regiment, found that Captain Stanhope, acting in collusion with a German boarding house keeper, was swindling the government over his and other of- ficers' certificates. The major fearlessly charged Stanhope with this. Both branches of congress exonerated Mr. Caldwell, for he had positive proofs. At different times during his term of service in the army he was on different details, being at one time in command of the scouts following the confederate cavalry leader. General John Morgan. He assisted in driving Humphrey Marshall out of the state of Kentucky and at one time was engaged in building twelve miles of fortifications near Covington and Newport, Kentucky, together with numerous forts, a one-hundred pound battery and other military defenses. He was always loyal to the interests of his country during the progress of the Civil war and in days of peace has been equally faithful to the stars and stripes. He is vice president of the First Heavy Artillery Association and is a member of Sion S. Bass Post, G. A. R., at Fort Wayne, Indiana.
During the years of his residence in Columbus he has made an excellent record in business life. His persistence for precision and thoroughness in small affairs, as well as in complex things, is pronounced. He is forceful, de- termined and progressive in business lines, and finds happiness as well as prosperity in his work.
WILLIAM H. CONKLIN.
The heating and plumbing industry of Columbus is very closely associated with the name of William H. Conklin, who is one of the most prominent heat- ing and plumbing contractors, being present manager of the firm known as The William H. Conklin Company, with offices and show rooms at 43-45 North Fourth street. His birth occurred in Delaware county, Ohio, in 1875, his par- ents being Henry Corvin and Lydia (Lecklicter) Conklin. His father was also born in this state about the year 1849 and has been interested in the car- penter contracting business for several years. His mother, who was also a native of Ohio, taught school several years in early life and has been associated more or less with church work during her later years.
The public schools of this city afforded William H. Conklin his prelim- inary education and subsequently he was given the advantage of a course of
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study under a private tutor, and a practical course in one of the leading cor- respondence schools. After acquiring his education, he served his appren- ticeship in different industrial shops of Columbus, at the expiration of which time he worked for three years as a journeyman mechanic before entering into the general contracting business of heating and plumbing, in which enterprise he has been actively engaged for the past twelve years. His first location was at 1414 North High street, for five years was associated with the Huffman- Conklin Company of this city, and about two years ago he incorporated the present company. Mr. Conklin is an expert mechanic and plumbing engineer, and being thoroughly versed in every phase of the occupation, he has become very popular in his line of work throughout the city and his business is wit- nessing a stendy growth. His reputation is not confined to the immediate vicinity but he is also well known throughout this and adjoining states, in all of which he has a liberal patronage and secures many large contracts.
In Columbus, in 1885, Mr. Conklin was united in marriage to Jennie E. Patterson, a native of Licking county, whose father is a veteran of the Civil war, she being a member of the auxiliary to the Sons of Veterans. To this union has been born two children. one living-Leona C. Mr. Conklin belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Ohio Club and others, and has served three years in the Ohio National Guards. For diversion he resorts to outdoor sports, of which he is very fond and in which he finds both pleasure and recreation. He is a man of excellent qualities of character, enterprising and aggressive, and is a worthy representative of the younger business element of Columbus.
FRED LAZARUS.
No matter to what extent one may theorize as to the secret of success, it will always be found. on careful analysis, that it is the outcome of persistent energy, well formulated plans and indefatigable perseverance. This truth finds verification in the life-record of Fred Lazarus, one of the best known merchants of Columbus, now the president of the F. & R. Lazarus & Com- pany, owners of the large men's and boys' outfitters establishment at the southwest corner of Town and High streets.
Mr. Lazarus was born in 1850 and has been a resident of Columbus for fifty-eight years. His father. Simon Lazarus, believing that he might have better business opportunities in the new world, crossed the Atlantic with his family in 1851 and established his home in Columbus, where he figured prom- inently in business circles during the middle portion of the nineteenth cen- tury. He was the founder of the concern now known as The F. & R. Lazarus & Company.
Fred Lazarus was sent to the public schools where he gained the prelim- inary training which qualified him for life's practical duties. He is a grad- nate of the public schools of Columbus and after completing his duties there, pursued a business course in the old Lutheran College, and the Bush &
FRED LAZARUS
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ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
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Marshall Business College, specializing in the study of mathematics. While he participated in the pleasures common to the youth of the age, he had com- paratively little leisure in his boyhood, for he was the eldest of six children and devoted much of his time in his father's store. The lessons of industry and diligence which he there learned served as the foundation upon which he built his later success. He was still in his youth, however, when he en- tere his father's store to remain permanently, and the following year his brother, Ralph Lazarus, also became a factor in the management of the es- tablishment. The brothers applied themselves to the work of thoroughly familiarizing themselves with the details of the business, and, inspired by the example of their father, they concentrated their energies toward the upbuilding of the concern, the gradual and continuous expansion of which has made it a commercial enterprise second to none in importance and extent in this city. To the wide experience and sound judgment of the father were added the hopeful spirit and undaunted enterprise of the young men who, upon their father's death in 1877, became sole owners of the business, the partnership be- tween them continuing uninterrupted until the death of Ralph Lazarus in 1903. This left Mr. Lazarus as sole owner of the business. In 1906 it was incorporated with Mr. Lazarus as president of the Company.
For fifty-eight years the business has been carried on at the corner of Town and High streets. In its infancy the store covered a space of only fourteen by seventy feet. As this publication goes to press their new home on the northwest corner of Town and High Streets, just opposite the old store, is nearing completion. It has a frontage of one hundred and one feet and a depth of one hundred and eighty-seven and one-half feet, and is a colossal five-story building, covering one hundred and thirty thousand square feet of floor space.
Mr. Lazarus is, moreover, prominently known in financial as well as commercial circles. His cooperation has been sought in the management of many important financial concerns and he is now vice president of the Central National Bank, as well as director of the Ohio National Bank, the Ohio Trust Company and the Lincoln Savings Bank. From an early period in his bus- iness career he has ever been watchful of opportunities foreign to his business. His success in this direction has been marked. He has been conservative, how- ever, in placing his capital; looking ahead to the upbuilding of Columbus, seeing in its future a great and prosperous city. As his son reach the age of twenty-one years he gives them a fifth interest in the business and sees that they have a careful and thorough training that will make them resourceful, enter- prising business men. His own example should inspire and encourage them and should prove an object lesson to others, showing what can be accomplished by careful control, executive ability and, above all, unfaltering industry.
A little incident is told of the Lazarus store which is very interesting. About the time of the Civil War when the soldiers were returning with their back pay they eagerly discarded the blue uniform for civilian's dress. There were at that time two hundred clothing stores in the city. all seeking for the trade of the soldiers. On one occasion Mr. Lazarus noticed a crowd of old soldiers with their pension vouchers in front of the Deshler Bank. They had
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arrived too late to get their vouchers cashed and it was a very hot Fourth of July. After noticing the look of disappointment on their faces, Mr. Lazarus talked the matter over with his brother and sent word that his store would cash pensjon vouchers free. This practice has been carried on ever since and today the store has the most extensive trade among the veterans of the Civil War of any clothing establishment in the city.
To have achieved what Mr. Lazarns has, would be regarded as a creditable life work by many, and yet his efforts have not terminated with snecessful conduct of his business affairs alone. On the contrary various charitable and benevolent enterprises have benefited by his effective work as well as his gen- erous contributions. He is given to unostentatious charities and at the same time is actively allied with several charitable institutions, in the management and operation of which his practical knowledge of affairs is valuable. He is a trustee of the Children's Hospital. the Humane Society, the Cleveland Or- phan Asylnin, and is president of the Old Folks Home. He is particularly interested in all movements for the benefit of the helpless little ones whom fate has thrown upon a cold, uncharitable world, his sympathies being readily en- listed in any movement toward bettering their conditions.
In his life-record great business capacity, benevolence and public-spirited citizenship have been well balanced forces.
ELLIOT HOWARD GILKEY.
Elliot Howard Gilkey, who since 1903 has been law librarian and mar- shal of the supreme court, in which connection he has become widely and prominently known to the officials and others whose business interests bring them frequently to the state hon-e, was born in Warren. Trumbull county. Ohio, February 8, 1857, his parents being Sheldon Elliot and Emma ( Robert-) Gilkey, both representatives of old New England families. The father entered the I'nion army at the time of the Civil war and was killed in the battle of the Wilderness in May. 1864. leaving the son an orphan at the age of seven years. From 1864 until 1868 the boy lived among relatives and was then placed with a family of the name of Pierce in West Farmington, with whom he continued until the opening of the Ohio Soldiers Orphans Home at Xenia in the winter of 1869-70, when he was sent to that institution. During his school days at the orphans' home, on the recommendation of the superintendent of the institution, he was selected for duty as one of the pages of the Ohio senate in Columbus and for four winters, by successive reappoint- ments, continued in that position. The law fixes the limit of attendance at the orphans' home at the age of seventeen years, and having reached that limit, in June. 1874. Mr. Gilkey was honorably discharged from that institu- tion and made his home temporarily with his mother in Cleveland, and while devoting the -necceding -nummer to private study. In 1875 he engaged in newspaper work. In 1876. at the age of nineteen years. he was elected jour- nal clerk of the Ohio sonate, being enthusiastically supported by the senators
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who had become acquainted with him during his service as page in that body. This brought him again to Colmubus and fixed that city as his future resi- dence. He has lived in Franklin county ahnost continuously since that time.
In 1877 he was connected with the construction department of the Co- lumbus. MeArthur & Gallipoli- Railroad. and ou its absorption by the Hock- ing Valley in 1877, entered the employ of Wilson 1 .. Gill in the hardware business on High street. In 1882 he became connected with the Columbus Hollow Ware Company, in charge of its sales department. In 1885 he was tendered the position of financial officer of The Soldiers Orphans Home at Xenia, from which he had graduated eleven years previously with honors, and in the two years of his service in that institution made a record for economical management and close buying that has never been equaled. During the last year of his service the per capita cost of maintenance per child was. net. less than one hundred and twenty dollars, per child, not in- cluding salaries. with no reduction in the accommodations or comforts pro- vided for the children. In 1888 he was appointed chief bookkeeper in the office of the auditor of state as a result of his record at Xenia. On retirement from that office with Auditor Poe in 1896, Mr. Gilkey entered private life and devoted himself to private business affairs until his election as assistant clerk of the Ohio senate in 1900. except a term of service in Camp Bushucl during the Spanish-American war (1898), where he was assigned to duty in the de- partment of the commissary general. He was at that time the lieutenant colonel of a waiting regiment of Ohio Sons of Veterans, which missed seeing service only by the sudden termination of the war. While serving as assistant clerk of the senate in 1900. he prepared a revised and consolidated manual of legislative practice for the general assembly of Ohio, which was approved by the joint committee on rules and adopted by both branches of the assembly. as the rules of that body. On the adjournment of the general assembly he was selected by the clerk of the senate to prepare wholly new manuscript for a centennial edition of the Hundred Year Book of Ohio and to supervise its publication. This occupied his attention for eighteen months, which were devoted to the examination of the old legislative and official records of the state, and the preparation of new and original manuscript of the official his- tory of Ohio. The Hundred Year Book appeared in print in the fall of 1901. Its contents were afterward reprinted in succeeding issues of the Biographical Annals of Ohio, which appeared from 1902-1908 as a state publication.
In July, 1901, Mr. Gilkey was elected by the supreme court to be first assistant law librarian. on the recommendation of Frank N. Beebe, librarian, who expressed a desire for his services and requested his appointment. Two years later, Mr. Beebe was confined to his residence by what proved to be a fatal illness and confided his personal as well as his official affairs to Mr. Gilkey during that time. Mr. Beebe died in the latter part of September, and on October 3 Mr. Gilkey was elected for the unexpired term as marshal of the supreme court and law librarian to succeed him. He was reelected in June, 1904. for the regular term of appointment and now serves at the pleas- ure of the court as is the custom in his department. Since his connection with the library, Mr. Gilkey has prepared the manuscript for and brought out a
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catalog of the library (1907), which has been warmly commended by the bench and bar of Ohio, and by library authorities throughout the legal world. He also (1905) completed the manuscript for and supervised the publication of Stewart's Citation Digest of Ohio Reports. He has also engaged in other literary matters which have brought him much pleasure and some little com- mendation. He possesses a fine private library and is a lover of books and bookmaking.
Mr. Gilkey was married in January. 1884, to Miss Florence Virginia Reed, of Springfield, Ohio, and has a family of two daughters and one son, all ont of their teens and on the threshold of active life. The family residence is in East Lane avenue, Columbus.
Mr. Gilkey is today widely known among the prominent lawyers and legislators of Ohio and his substantial personal qualities as well as his busi- ness capacity and intellectual achievements have gained for him the warm regard and respect of many with whom he has been thus associated.
M. SULLIVANT HOPKINS.
M. Sullivant Hopkins was born in Henderson, Kentucky, May 21, 1872, and is a representative of one of the old and prominent families of that state that was founded there during the epoch of its pioneer history and when Kentucky was largely a "dark and bloody ground." The family comes orig- inally of English origin. The grandfather was Tindall Hopkins and the father was William Allison Hopkins. The latter was born in Kentucky and for many years carried on merchandising in Henderson. He married Lucy Sullivant, a daughter of Michael Sullivant and a granddaughter of Lucas Sul- livant. the founder of the city of Columbus.
The public schools of his native town afforded M. Sullivant Hopkins the «neational privileges which he enjoyed and in 1888, when a youth of fifteen years, he became connected with civil engineering enterprises and in his prac- tical service gained broad and comprehensive knowledge of the business. In 1889 he removed to Columbus and became connected with the railway inter- este as an apprentice under Thompson, Houston & Company, being sent here on electrical railway installation work. This connection continued until the electric system was installed superseding the old horse power formerly consti- tuting the motor power of the street railway lines. When this task had been completed Mr. Hopkins became chief engineer of the consolidated street rail- way companies and was later appointed general superintendent. continuing in that position until 1905. He is still retained, however, in a consulting ca- pacity and is likewise managing engineer for the varions railway and lighting enterprises throughout the United States, in which the banking firm of E. W. Clark & Company of Philadelphia is interested. In his chosen profession he has made steady progress, for he possesses a nature that could never be content with mediocrity and thus he has steadily advanced. long since reaching the ranks of its successful and capable representatives.
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