USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > Centennial history of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Vol. II > Part 76
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It was said of McGregor that unless you looked at the head of the table you would miss seeing him, and it is also to be said of John C. Battelle, that if you wish to see him as the business parade passes by it is no use to look further to the left of the first file if you expect to see him, and after you find him, he is willing and ready and able to meet you on any proposition, social, business or polemic.
Mr. Battelle is an old Virginian by birth, a West Virginian by divorce, and an Ohioan by preference. That is to say he was born in Clarksburg. Virginia, May 12, 1845, some twenty years before West Virginia ob- tained a divorce from the first mother of presidents, and some thirty years before he took up with the second mother of presidents with whom he re- mains.
The extent of his early education was limited, but as time passed he entered the academy at Fairmount and completed the curriculum of study. ITis first active business experience was in the treasury department at Wash- ington, where he remained six months, but resigned to enter the quarter- master's department, where he remained three years. Afterward he began his career in iron, becoming bookkeeper and finally secretary and general manager of a rolling mill at Wheeling, West Virginia, the company man- ufacturing a general line of rolled-steel goods, including bolts, nuts, etc. It was not long until he took a wider field and conducted a rolling mill at Memphis, Tennessee, for a number of years, then becoming connected with
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the Cincinnati Corrugated Company, at Cincinnati, which corpo moved to Piqua, Ohio, where he was its general manager, remaini position for more than ten years.
Next Mr. Battelle removed to New York city, where he cc handle his fast increasing business interests and at the same tir firm hand on his connections in Columbus. He is the presiden Columbus Iron & Steel Company, whose big plant is one of the features of the south side in this city.
He is connected with a number of orders, including the Loy and is a member of the Columbus Club, Arlington Country Club, Board of Trade, State Board of Commerce, Ohio Society in New the Sons of the American Revolution. During the administrati late Governor Nash, he was an aide on his official staff with th colonel. Mr. Battelle has one son, now attending school in New
W. K. FIELD.
Everywhere in our land are found men who have worked their from humble beginning to leadership in commerce, in great proc dustries, the management of financial affairs and in controlling and arteries of the traffic and the exchanges of the country. It is glories of our nation that it is so. It should be a strong incentiv couragement to the youth of the country that it is so. Promine the self-made men of Columbus is W. K. Field-a man honored, and esteemed wherever known and most of all where he is best kr was born in the capital city September 9, 1865, his parents being and Sarah (Kelsey) Field, who were also natives of Columbus. the early '20s, when Columbus was but a village, that John Field, 1 father, took up his abode here and became one of the engineers of He was numbered among the pioneer residents of this section of where for a long time he continued to follow his profession of civil ing while his activity in public interests made him one of the v representative residents here.
In the public schools W. K. Field pursued his education to 1 fourteen years, when he entered the office of the Scioto Valley R office boy. For ten years he was connected with the company, working his way upward through successive promotions to the p car service agent. In 1892 he connected himself with the Sun Company as city sales agent and went to St. Paul, Minnesota, a president of the St. Paul & Western Coal Company, a subsidiary of day Creek Company, remaining in the northwest until 1902. In he returned to Columbus and accepted the presidency of the New Coal Company, which is a subsidiary of the Pittsburg Coal Com] 1908 he went to Pittsburg as vice president of the latter, which is 1 coal company in the United States. In June, 1908, he returned to
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as president of the Sunday Creek Company also conducting most extensive mining operations with mines located in the coal fields of Ohio and West Virginia. The business has assumed mammoth proportions with extensive annual shipments. Mr. Field, as the president, is spending his energies in constructive efforts and administrative directions, bringing his sound judg- ment to bear in the solution of intricate and complex business problems.
In 1889, Mr. Field was married to Miss Lucy Wampler, of Mankato, Minnesota, and they have one daughter, Catharine. Mr. Field is a mem- ber of the Columbus Club, the Arlington Club and other social organizations. Possessing broad, enlightened and liberal-minded views, faith in himself and in the the vast potentialities for development inherent in his country's vast domain and specific needs along the distinctive lines chosen for his life work, his has been an active career, in which he has accomplished important and far-reaching results, contributing in no small degree to the expansion and material growth of the nation and from which he himself has also de- rived substantial benefits.
JAMES J. SEXTON.
James J. Sexton, vice president and general manager of the Osborne & Sexton Machinery Company, is in this connection actively engaged in the control of one of the largest jobbing houses in Ohio, devoted entirely to the sale of wood and iron working machinery and power plants operated by steam, electricity, gas and gasoline. He has made steady advancement in his business by reason of his tireless energy and intelligent appreciation of opportunities. He was born February 14, 1878, in Manchester, England. and was a youth of ten years when in 1SSS he came to America with his parents, William and Anne (Kennedy) Sexton, both of whom were natives of Ireland, whence they removed to England. The father was a machinist by trade and after making several trips to this country finally brought his family and established his home in the United States. The son's education. begun in his native land, was continued in the schools of Cincinnati, where he completed a high school course with the class of 1892, being at that time but fourteen years of age. He started to school in early life and was con- sidered a prodigy in his studies, showing special aptitude in mastering vari- out branches which he undertook, thus graduating at a period when most boys are just entering high school. Throughout his entire life he has dis- played the same readiness in taking up the ideas in which he is interested and has always remained a student along the line which he has made his life work. Naturally inclined to mechanical pursuits and interested along that line, he read quite extensively books and articles bearing upon the sub- ject. Following his graduation he became identified with The Egan Com- pany, now the J. A. Fay & Egan Company of Cincinnati, in a elerical posi- tion, and remained in that capacity for seven years, during which period his close application. unfaltering diligence and reliability won him promotion
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from time to time. In the year 1899 he was made special trave sentative for the company, which position he held until the lat! 1906, at which time he resigned and started in business for hims- that his capital, saved from his earnings, and his wide experience fied him in this step. He therefore organized the Osborne & Sextc ery Company, of Columbus, and has since been vice president a manager. Success had attended the enterprise from the beginning they control the largest jobbing trade in Ohio devoted entirely t of wood and iron working machinery and power plants operated electricity, gas and gasoline. At the head of the enterprise are you ambitious, alert, enterprising, brooking no obstacles that can be by persistent and determined effort.
On the 20th of January, 1909, Mr. Sexton was married in Ohio, to Miss Florence Mary Rankin, a daughter of Dr. and : Rankin, of Bremen, Ohio, who rank among the best known and er of Fairfield county, this state. In his political beliefs Mr. Sexton advocating, however, clean politics administered in the line of ( progressive business principles. Coming to America as a lad of wide-awake and alert, with a mind receptive and retentive, he wa in becoming acquainted with American manners and customs. M was a reader of papers and books on mechanics but gave little t tion. This qualified him for his start in the business world. ] past ten years he has traveled much and, being especially intere progress of machinery, both wood-working and metal-working, has branch of America's greatest industry a special study and is authority upon this branch. His ability will undoubtedly carry still more important relations and yet he has already achieved # many a business man of twice his age might well envy.
ULRIC SLOANE.
Descended from a noble line of Irish jurists and possessing m strong and sterling characteristics of the Celtic race, Ulric not only one of the most widely known lawyers of the capital eit of the entire state. He is equally strong as an advocate before tl before the jury, possesses a thorough technical knowledge of the la' well a student of the underlying principles upon which the writter is based. Added to these qualifications is a gift of oratory at one argumentative and to the point, so that he has few equals and no s this portion of the legal field. It will thus be seen that Mr. S worthy representative of an honored ancestry. His father, Ju Sloane, for some time occupied the common pleas bench, resid- judicial subdivision including Highland county, in the southwest of the state. Ilis mother, too, was descended from an ancestry not ture and learning and half a century or more ago she was notabl
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circles for her brilliant intellectual powers, poetic temperament and all the beautiful graces of perfeet womanhood.
Ulric Sloane was born in Hillsboro, Highland county, December 18, 1850, and after attending the public schools he engaged in teaching school, although but seventeen years of age when he entered upon the work of the profession. It was his desire, however, to become a member of the bar and in 1867 he went to Decatur, Illinois, where he read law with Judge Emerson. So great was his progress in the study of law that he was admitted to the bar in 1868, when but eighteen years of age. This would not have been possible in Ohio, where the age limit has always been twenty- one years, but in Illinois at that time there was no age limit, a knowledge of the principles of law being the essential requirement.
Following his admission Mr. Sloane went to Chillicothe, Missouri, where he engaged in the practice of his profession through the succeeding six years. Upon the death of his father he returned to Hillsboro, where he was actively connected with the work of the courts until 1898, when he removed to Columbus. His ability as an attorney secured his retention in most of the notable cases tried in the Highland county and adjoining courts. He has been equally successful in the capital eity and is probably the greatest and most successful criminal lawyer in the state.
In his political views and allegiance Mr. Sloane has always been a demoerat, taking an active part in each campaign sinee 1868, save for a brief period. He is always well versed upon the questions which are to the states- man and the man of affairs of vital import and on all important issues keeps in touch with the best thinking men of the age.
Mr. Sloane was married in July. 1891, to the daughter of General C. P. Buckingham, of Zanesville, adjutant general of Ohio under Governors Dennison and Tod.
DR. S. B. HARTMAN.
Sometimes, when a man is at the starting point of his life career, he plans it upon such an extended line of achievement that his friends smile because of its latitude, no less than its longitude, until he himself occasion- ally doubts the easy achievement of what seemed almost within his grasp, and mayhap is ready to abandon the road before him for another, as the short cut to success. Then recalling himself, as if by prophetic intuition, he sets forward along the original survey and possesses himself not only of his original preemptious, but discovers even a wider domain to add to them. This, metaphorically speaking, is a condensation of the achievements, pertain- ing to and constituting the life struggles and history of Dr. Samuel Brubaker Hartman of Columbus.
Some two hundred and sixty years ago, there came to America a burgher from Switzerland of the name of Hartman, and his good wife, who event- ually settled down to agricultural pursuits in what is now Lancaster county,
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S. B. HARTMAN
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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX ANS TILDEN FOUNDATION.
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Pennsylvania, where children were born to them, and to their chil generations, in the order of events. On April 1, 1830, there w Christian and Nancy (Brubaker) Hartman, back there on the Dauphin county farm, a son who was christened Samuel Brubake -now known far and wide, as well as in Columbus, his present ro Dr. S. B. Hartman.
While he was still a child his parents removed from Dauph caster county, Pennsylvania, where he was reared and had fairly § tional opportunities. At the age of fifteen he left home, going rectly to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he later entered the Farmers Cc the city, where he passed successfully through the literary course o tution and thus prepared himself for a still wider field of study ar to enter which all young ambitions prompted him. The medical was the dream and ambition of his boyhood and youth, especial gical branch of the profession, and now he felt that he had pass stage of his ambitions in spite of all discouragements. At that ti living at Medway, Ohio, and began the study of medicine with D ford, and so continued until he was fitted and qualified to enter t University of Cleveland.
Having concluded the regular course in that institution, Dr immediately entered upon the practice at Tippecanoe, Ohio, who tinued to creditably and successfully conduct the practice for two . ambitions, however, were not satiated. To further promote them. special course in orthopedie and the surgical treatment of the eye the city of New York. These branches had deeply interested hit beginning of his medical studies and he utilized the first opportun upon their study. Even then he did not think that his studies and should be abated. mich less omitted, and hence he entered the Jeff ical College, of Philadelphia, under the celebrated Dr. Gross. fron stitution he was graduated with honors, in March, 1857, and goin the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, entered both earnestly and : upon the practice of both medicine and surgery. Possessing. as high order of mechanical skill and genius, not only in perfecting venting surgical instruments and appliances for the most delicate, all other surgical operations, he became known throughout the branch of the profession, as one of the most skillful operators on t ear.
Some twenty years ago Dr. Hartman located in Columbus. A he had probably reached the limit of his earlier ambitions, but c a still wider field along special lines, and that, instead of being at the world of endeavor, he was at the second stage. His special lir tice, treatments, medical and surgical appliance-, as well as rem into such a demand that it resulted in the erection of one aft specially designed edifices, to meet that demand, until The Pe Manufacturing Company was organized, and occupies several o conspicnous blocks in the central portion of the city. His civic taste is reflected in the style of architecture of the great building
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the different branches and accessories of the Drug Manufacturing Company are housed, and which adds to the value of the adjacent blocks rather than de- tracting from them.
His residence at East Town and Washington avenue, is a type of beauty, simplicity and taste, without the slightest attempt at garish display. The Hartman farm, south of the city, with its enormous acreage, connected with the city by good roadways and a private traction line, is perhaps the finest and best equipped stock farm in the Mississippi valley and is not eclipsed by any of the "shown places" east of the Alleghanies. In addition to this great farm, Dr. Hartman has large investments in some of the most valuable coal lands in southeastern Ohio, which have not been invaded by commercial mining.
Samuel Brubaker Hartman and Sallie A. Martzell were married in 1859. Two children were born to them. One, the wife of Mr. F. W. Schumacher, survives, and she presides over a beautiful and artistic home on East Broad. and a household where happiness is never a stranger but always a permanent guest.
GEORGE S. MOON.
George S. Moon was one of the best known and most prominent business men of Columbus, alert, energetic, active and determined. He knew how to use each moment to the best advantage because he made a close study of busi- Hess problems and in all of his dealings his close conformity to a high stand- ard of commercial ethics won him the respect and good will of those with whom he was associated. He figured in industrial circles of Columbus as presi- dent of the Scioto Buggy Company, conducting an extensive manufactory and business. He came to this city in 1885, but Ohio numbered him among her native sons, his birth having occurred in Clinton county, Ohio, in 1847. His parents. Alva and Delilah Moon, were of English de-cent and for many years were residents of Ohio, the father devoting his life to general farming. Both he and his wife died in Buford, this state.
George S. Moon acquired a common-school education in his native con- ty and when not busy with his text-book, worked on his father's farm, assist- ing in the labors of field and meadow until he wa- twenty-one years of age when, believing he would find other pur-uits more congenial than the plowing. planting and harvesting. he went to Wilmington. Ohio, where he began busi- ness on his own account, opening a photographic studio. There he remained for a few years, after which he removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, and turned his attention to manufacturing. He became associated with the old Sechler Buggy Company of that city and was connected with the firm until his removal to Colinbus in 1885. Here he established the Scioto Buggy Company, the plant being located at the corner of Buttles and Michigan avenues. His previous experience in this line well qualified him for the establishment and conduct of such an enterprise and the plant was well equipped with the latest improved machinery and its products found a ready sale on the market, for the output
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was manufactured with regard to durability as well as to style and business methods of the house, too, commend it to the confidence : of the general puble and the trade steadily increased year by year. was president of the company and so continued up to the time of
Mr. Moon was married in Brown county, Ohio, to Miss Ella a native of this state and a daughter of James E. and Arethisa Huggins, the latter a representative of a prominent old Connecti The father was a native of North Carolina and after his marriag with his bride to Ohio, settling on a farm near Ripley. He was r agriculturist but also an attorney, belonging to the bar of southern figured prominently in public affairs there and was a man of Eventually he removed to a farm near Hillsboro. Ohio, where be his wife spent their remaining days amid the quiet of rural su There was one son and one daughter born unto Mr. and Mrs. Moon.
The death of the husband and father occurred May 29, 189 the occasion of deep and widespread regret not only to the mem own household but also to many friends. Mr. Moon was never an of caring nothing for the honors and emoluments of political service, bi ont his entire life gave his allegiance to the republican party. Bu respected him and his friends entertained for him a warm regar family he was a devoted husband and father, counting no effort or : his part too great if it would promote the happiness or enhance the his wife and children. In his business career he made steady progre ing step by step in the path of business rectitude and honor until he reached the goal of prosperity. Mrs. Moon and her children ar. of the Presbyterian church and are quite well known in the city. a commodious and beautiful residence at No. 980 Bryden road, whe her children reside.
ALANSON P. SCOFIELD.
America is the home of self made men. No other country s excellent opportunities for rapid and substantial business advancen often caste or class stand in the way of individual progress, but in th activity and useful labor constitute the key that will unlock the snecess. In the history of Alanson P. Scofield it is a matter wort that he started ont in life on his own account when but eleven ye and by his determination and energy gradually worked his way upy he now occupies a notable position in business circles as secretary an of the Andrus-Scofield Company.
Mr. Scofield was born December 6, 1868, and he represents . old American families founded in this country in colonial days. great-grandfather having been a captain in the Revolutionary grandfather, who also bore the name of Alanson Scofield, became pioneer settlers of Licking county, making his way direct to F
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when he left the state of New York. He established his home in a district in which the work of civilzation and progress seemed scarcely begun, and as the years passed he bore a substantial part in the work of general improve- ment there. His son, Albert Scofield, became a farmer of Licking county, and led a quiet yet useful life, devoting his attention to his farm and his family. He wedded Mary E. Pettit, who was born February 20, 1837, in Perry county, a daughter of Elnathan Pettit who, at the time of his death in 1904, was the oldest master Mason in Franklin county. He came of a family of French origin.
Alanson P. Scofield gained knowledge of the common branches of English learning as a pupil in the district schools of Licking county, but at the age of eleven years started out in life on his own account. His reading, observation, and experience, however, have since greatly broadened his knowledge and, today, he is a well informed business man, whose keen discrimination enables him to readily and correctly solve intricate business problems. His first em- ployment was that of clerk in a general store. He was sixteen years of age when, in 1884, he came to Columbus and entered the employ of the Staley- Morton Company, which finally developed into the Columbus Dry Goods Company. For three years he continued with that house, and then entered the employ of Jones, Witter & Company, wholesale dry goods dealers. In the intervening years he earefully saved his carnings until he felt that his capital and experience justified his embarkation in merchandising on his own account. He established a store at Mechanicsburg, Ohio, and conducted the business until 1903, when he again came to Columbus and entered the Andrus-Scofield Company as secretary and treasurer, becoming at the same time one of the stockholders in the enterprise. His labors have sinee been a valued factor in the success of the company, for he is developing its business along progressive lines.
In 1892 Mr. Scofield was married to Miss Grace Drury a native of Colum- bus, and a daughter of D. M. Drury, who at one time was a partner of Dr. Gay, a pioneer physician of this city, in whose honor Gay street was named. Mr. and Mrs. Scofield now have one son, Alanson Paul, born April 26, 1899. Such in brief is the history of a well known and representative business man of Columbus, and his record should serve to encourage and inspire others, showing what may be accomplished when one has the will to dare and to do.
WILLIAM ARMBRUSTER.
In a review of the successful men of Columbus-men who have con- tributed to her commercial activity and business advancement-mention should be made of William Armbruster, who for many years was a well known dry-goods merchant here. Moreover. his life record contains lessons that may well be followed by those who desire to achieve success in accordance with honorable methods, for in all of his connection with the business in- terests of the city his name remains as a synonym for straightforward and
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