USA > Ohio > Williams County > Commemorative biographical record of northwestern Ohio : including the counties of Defiance, Henry, Williams and Fulton, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families > Part 15
USA > Ohio > Fulton County > Commemorative biographical record of northwestern Ohio : including the counties of Defiance, Henry, Williams and Fulton, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families > Part 15
USA > Ohio > Henry County > Commemorative biographical record of northwestern Ohio : including the counties of Defiance, Henry, Williams and Fulton, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families > Part 15
USA > Ohio > Defiance County > Commemorative biographical record of northwestern Ohio : including the counties of Defiance, Henry, Williams and Fulton, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families > Part 15
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The Honorable Robert Kingston Scott was born July 8, 1828, a son of John Scott and his wife, Jane Hamilton Scott. John Scott was a son of Robert Scott, a colonel in the Continental army during the Revolutionary war.
Doctor Scott, the father of the late Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, and Gen- eral Winfield Scott were also members of this Scott family, all descending from the Scottish Clan Buch Cleuch.
On the first day of October, 1861, R. K. Scott was commissioned to organize the Sixty-eighth Regiment. Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which duty was done and the regiment mustered into the service on the 29th day of November the same year. The first battle in which the Sixty-eighth par- ticipated was the battle of Fort Donelson, and from that time until the close of the war this regiment helped to make the history of the Second Brigade, Third Division, Seventeenth Army Corps. During the last three years of the war Brigadier-General Scott commanded the Second Brigade; was taken prisoner in front of Atlanta on the 22d day of July, 1864, and was exchanged after sixty-five days of imprisonment, two weeks of which time were spent in the swamps and in Forsyth, Georgia, while attempting to escape.
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After his command was mustered out of the service he was ordered to South Carolina, by the Secretary of War, to relieve General Saxon of the Regular Army in the capacity of Commissioner of the United States to. adjust matters in North and South Carolina, with the rank of Major- General.
General Scott proved equal to the obligations imposed upon him by his noble ancestry, and with the calm and stately bearing of a man born to rule, conscious of his own power, he took his place among the leaders of men, and rapidly rose step by step, until offered the highest office in the gift of his State, South Carolina. Twice he took the oath as Governor of South Carolina, and twice that State enjoyed an administration where the highest good of the people was ever the first consideration. Wise meas- ures wisely executed seems but a just summing up of the two administra- tions when Robert K. Scott sat in the Governor's chair. On December 3, 1872, he retired to private life, and for the next five years devoted himself to the management of his plantation, located just a mile without the city of Columbia, South Carolina. He was the owner of some four thousand acres of land in Henry county, Ohio, and in 1877 he came north that he might the better care for this vast estate. In 1880 he disposed of a great portion of this land, and has since sold other sections, yet owning, how- ever, some two thousand acres.
Governor Scott is a thirty-second degree Mason, and a Knight Tem- plar; he is also an Odd Fellow, having been made a member of that order in Stark county, Ohio, in 1849.
SAINT AUGUSTINE'S CHURCH.
This Church, at Napoleon, Henry county, has been for nearly half a century a center of spiritual inspiration and helpfulness. In 1856 Bishop Rappe, finding eight families of devout and faithful Catholics among the settlers at that point, encouraged them to build a small church in which regular services might be held. The people were all poor, most of them having emi- grated but a few years before from humble homes in Baden, Germany, and as they had large families to support they could do but little for the cause of religion.
However, there was among the settlers a liberal-hearted Frenchman, Augustine Pilliod by name, who was at that time unmarried and, being suc- cessful in his business of milling, he took the matter in hand and erected a small frame building, 24x40, with the assistance of James Brennan, together
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with such aid as could be obtained from the other Catholics and some generous outsiders. Owing to the scarcity of funds the church was not plastered until 1858, and when completed it was found that the cost had been about five hundred dollars. Augustine Pilliod named the parish after his patron saint, and for some time the services were conducted at stated periods by priests from Defiance, Rev. F. Westerholt being the first. From 1859 to 1861 Rev. A. G. Hoeffel officiated, and then the care of the little parish was given to the priests of Providence, Ohio, regular visits being paid by Rev. James P. Molony until July, 1863, and by Rev. John Martin Pütz from that date until September, 1864. By this time the congregation had so increased that Rev. J. P. Carroll was appointed as resident pastor, and under his administration an addition, 24x25 feet, was made to the church, and a tower erected in front, the latter being paid for by John H. Vocke. Later a small frame school house, 26x36, was built, and in 1865 Father Carroll organized a parochial school which he placed under the care of his sister, Miss Ellen Carroll, now a member of a religious order. From that time to the present the town has not been without a Catholic school. In November, 1868, Father Carroll was succeeded by Rev. N. A. Moes, under whose administration the congregations of Napoleon and Providence, which had been attended by one priest for nine years, were separated, each receiving a resident pastor.
On October 18, 1870, the present pastor, Rev. Michael Pütz, took charge of the Napoleon church, which has steadily grown in usefulness and prosperity under his able and judicious management. He found it encumbered with a debt of one thousand one hundred dollars-about two-thirds of the real value of all its property-but he succeeded in clearing off all obligations and in raising about a thousand dollars more for furniture for the church. Later he determined to secure a better site for the church, and on December 21, 1875, a beautiful lot, 165 feet square, in the central part of the town, was purchased for the sum of four thousand dollars. It took the congregation three years to pay for it, and, as by that time the school was in need of better accommodations, it was decided to build a new school house on the lot before erecting a new church edifice. This was accordingly done in 1878, and at the same time the school, which had been previously conducted by lay teachers, was given into the charge of the Sisters of Notre Dame, at Cleveland, Ohio, and a house was built for them upon the same lot. As the congregation had still considerable each on hand, a new church was begun in the following year, the old building being sadly out of repair and in an inconvenient location, which was the more noticeable after the transfer of the school to the new lot. A handsome Gothic structure, 50x117 feet, was erected at a cost of twenty-two
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thousand dollars, and on June 19, 1883, was dedicated to the service of God by Right Rev. Bishop R. Gilmour, of Cleveland. These outward signs of prosperity are but an indication of a gratifying spiritual growth under which many have been added to the church, the congregation comprising about eighty- five families at the present time.
Rev. Michael Pütz, the beloved pastor whose labors have resulted in such signal benefit to the church, is a native of Gilsdorf, Grand Duchy of Luxem- burg, Germany, where he first saw the light December 29, 1845. He studied the classics in Luxemburg, and then, coming to America, took a course in philosophy and theology in St. Mary's Seminary, at Cleveland, Ohio. On March 7, 1869, he was ordained by the Right Rev. Bishop A. Rappe, of that city, and his first charge was at Fostoria, Ohio. Later he officiated for some time in the parishies of Findlay and Millersville, Ohio, until his transfer in 1870 to the church at Napoleon, the appointment being made by the Very Rev. Edward Hannin, then administrator of the diocese of Cleveland.
JAMES D. ARCHER, M. D.
The leading physician and surgeon of Holgate, Henry county, where he has successfully engaged in practice since June, 1885, is Doctor J. D. Archer. He is a native of Ohio, born in North Baltimore, October 30, 1858, a son of Joseph and Nancy J. (Howard) Archer, who still live at that place. They have three children : James D., John R., and Susan M.
Upon his father's farm in Wood county Doctor Archer passed the days of his boyhood and youth, and in the district schools of the locality began his literary education, afterward attending Fostoria Academy for three years. He then engaged in teaching school for five years, and in the meantime, while conducting a school in Henry township, Wood county, commenced the study of medicine. In 1881 he entered Starling Medical College, where he gradu- ated with the degree of M. D. three years later. Having received his diploma, he opened an office in Dundee, Michigan, but at the end of a year he came to Holgate, where he soon succeeded in building up a large and lucrative practice.
In Holgate, Doctor Archer was married June 9, 1892, to Mrs. Sarah Mangus, widow of William Mangus, and daughter of W. P. Youngs, former of Henry county. Politically the Doctor has always been identified with the Democratic party, and in 1894 he was appointed, by President Cleveland, a member of the board of United States pension examiners for Henry county. He belongs to Holgate Lodge, No. 271, Knights of Pythias, and is surgeon for the Clover Leaf and Baltimore & Ohio railroads. He is also an honored
Job Archer MA.
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member of the Northwestern Ohio Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Society, the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Surgeons Association, the Interna- tional Association of Railway Surgeons, and the American Medical Associa- tion. Holding marked precedence among the members of his profession in Henry county, and retaining a patronage of so representative a character as to alone stand in evidence of his professional ability and personal popularity, Doctor Archer must assuredly be accorded an honored place in this volume.
HON. W. D. HILL.
This gentleman holds by right of conquest a place among the ablest and most distinguished sons of the Buckeye State, his influence extending far beyond local limits. As a lawyer, politician and orator he has few equals, and the story of his rise to his present position in life, notwithstanding the disadvantages of early poverty, cannot fail to convey a helpful lesson.
Mr. Hill comes of patriotic stock, his great-grandfathers on both sides having been soldiers in the Revolutionary army, while both his grandfath- ers served in the war of 1812. He was born October 1, 1833, in Nelson county, Virginia, son of Edmund M. and Elizabeth (Hargrave) Hill, who were also natives of the Old Dominion. In 1849 the family came to Ohio, settling upon a farm near Jamestown, Greene county. As the eldest of a family of eleven children, Mr. Hill's early life was calculated to establish habits of industry, and for some years before he attained his majority he had charge of his father's farm. His prospects for an education were most discouraging, but his dauntless will was early shown in the overcoming of obstacles which to a youth of less force of character would have seemed in- surmountable. In 1853 he purchased a scholarship in Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio, and entered as a student, supporting himself while there by sawing wood, tilling gardens, or in any other employment that could be secured. In the winter he taught school, and by using the clos- est economy even in his food, which he cooked for himself, he managed to spend three years at college. In the meantime he became deeply inter- ested in political questions of the day, and being too independent to read a borrowed paper, he obtained the money to subscribe for the "Cincinnati Enquirer" by sawing wood at night. His ability as a public speaker was recognized as early as 1853, when he made an address in support of the principles of the Democratic party, and in 1854 he canvassed Greene county for his party. He was especially active in opposing the "Know-Nothing" movement. His legal studies were begun under the guidance of James
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M. Hunt, of Springfield, Ohio; but journalistic work tempted him aside from his profession, and in 1858 he became the editor of the "Ohio Press," the successor of the "Democratic Expositor." This venture ended in dis- aster, and Mr. Hill not only lost his previous savings but was involved in debt. He continued his preparation for his profession, and in Septem- ber, 1859, was admitted to the Bar at the fall term of the district court at Springfield. From the first Mr. Hill met with a flattering degree of success, and in 1861 the law firm of Hill & Snyder was formed, which won a goodly share of the legal business of the locality. In that year Mr. Hill was elected mayor of Springfield over James L. Torbert, the Republican candidate, and this victory was the more gratifying from the fact that his opponent was a leader of his party and a popular favorite.
In June, 1863. Mr. Hill removed to Defiance, and in the following year he took an active part in the Congressional campaign, making speeches at various points in the district. He made hosts of friends, and, his pow- ers as a leader being recognized, he was nominated in 1865 as a mem- ber of the State Legislature. He was elected against great odds by a ma- jority of two hundred votes, and was re-elected in 1867. So marked was the impression made by his eloquence and logic that in 1869 he was in- vited to speak in behalf of his party in Licking, Muskingum, Coshocton, Tuscarawas and other counties in Ohio, and his effective work in that cam- paign added greatly to his reputation as a debater while contributing to the success of the party. He also aided in the gubernatorial contests of 1871 and 1873, his friend William Allen being elected governor in the latter campaign. In 1875 Mr. Hill was appointed by the governor to the office of superintendent of insurance for the State, without solicitation on his part, and against powerful influences exerted in behalf of other per- sons. He held the position three years, winning the respect of all par- . ties as an honest and capable official, but rather than assume the attitude of an applicant for a second term he retired. On July 4, 1878, he was nominated for Congress in the Sixth District, and elected, his service dur- ing his term adding new laurels to his reputation. In June, 1882, he was again nominated for Congress, and gained the election by a majority of seven hundred and fifty-four, a most flattering vote under the circumstances, his opponent being Colonel J. H. Brigham, an able and popular man, who was then master of the Ohio State Grange. On this occasion Mr. Hill ran five hundred votes ahead of his ticket in the district and more than one hundred votes in his own county. The previous year the Repub- lican majority was nine hundred and eighteen. In 1884 he was elected a third time, having been nominated by the convention held at Ottawa in that year.
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Mr. Hill was a delegate to the National Convention of his party at Cincinnati in 1880, when General Hancock was made the standard bearer, but he warmly supported Allen G. Thurman for the nomination, in ac- cordance with the instructions of his constituents. Other party leaders from Ohio who had been similarly instructed deserted the "Old Roman," and Mr. Hill openly denounced their conduct with his usual force and earn- estness. However, when the choice was once made he supported the ticket with characteristic zeal, making powerful and effective speeches through Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania. In the campaign of 1884 he made one hundred and sixty addresses in support of Cleveland in Ohio, In- diana, Virginia and Michigan, thirty of them being given in Virginia.
On June 3, 1862, Mr. Hill was married to Miss Augusta B. March, who was born June 14, 1839. Her father, Thomas C. March, was a na- tive of Maine; her mother, Anna D. Cureton, was born in Camden, South Carolina, and in 1824 was one of the young girls who strewed flowers be- fore LaFayette on the occasion of his visit to that city. Both parents were prominent adherents of the M. E. Church. Mr. March had gone to Alabama and Mississippi when a youth of nineteen, and was engaged in mercan- tile business there for nearly thirty years; but, as the events which pre- ceded the Civil war gave warning of the impending trouble, he placed his large fortune in available shape and removed to the North. Mr. and Mrs. Hill have an interesting family of four children: Alice L .. born April 5, 1863; Anna E., November 8, 1866; Mary V., June 3, 1870; and Mattie T., October 8, 1873.
In 1891 Mr. Hill, finding his health badly shattered by over work, he removed to Kalispell, Montana, to renew his strength in the invigorating air of that State. He did some important professional work while there, but much of his time was spent in hunting and in camping out with no one but Indians as companions. Living thus "near to Nature's heart," his health was completely restored, and in the fall of 1896 he returned to his home and business in Defiance, and with his old fire and eloquence took part in the memorable campaign of that year.
Mr. Hill is about five feet, nine inches in height, well proportioned, with erect carriage, and is always on the alert in mind and body. As a public speaker he is both eloquent and convincing, his political speeches being unexcelled. His gifts are of no less value in the court room, and he is especially successful in the presentation of a case before a jury. He is regarded as a most skillful examiner of witnesses, his keen and quick per- ceptions enabling him to bring out the truth, however obscured by a tangled web of conflicting testimony. As a student he is methodical and perse-
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vering, his researches covering a wide range. But however he may be admired for his abilities it is as the genial, generous, kindly man, pure in life and straightforward and incorruptible in character that he is best known, and upon these endearing qualities does his fame chiefly rest among his wide circle of friends.
HENRY NEWBEGIN.
The legal profession in this section boasts many names made honor- able by long and brilliant service at the Bar, and the subject of this sketch, a well-known attorney of Defiance, is deserving of special mention in a vol- ume which aims to preserve for future generations a record of the leading men of to-day.
On the paternal side our subject is descended from an old English family, and the first to settle in America was his great-grandfather, who crossed the Atlantic at an early day and located at Parsonsfield, York county, Maine, where his remaining years were spent. He died at a good old age, leaving two sons, George and Jonathan.
Jonathan Newbegin, our subject's grandfather, became a blacksmith by occupation, and in early manhood he settled at Pownal, Cumberland county, Maine. He married Polly Fickett, and had five children: John, George, William, Betsey, and Almira.
John Newbegin, the eldest son, made his home at Pownal, and became a prosperous farmer and blacksmith. During the war of 1812 he served as a soldier, and was stationed for three months at Portland, Maine, when that city was threatened by a British fleet. After his death, which occurred in 1848, at the age of fifty-six, his widow was granted 160 acres of govern- ment land in recognition of his services. Mrs. Newbegin, whose maiden name was Asenath Knight, survived her husband many years, and died in 1873 in her eighty-third year, at the home of her son, John, at Gray Corner, Cumberland county, Maine. There were six children, whose names are as follows: John, David, Jeremiah, Charles, Henry (our subject), and Joseph. As both parents were devout members of the Methodist Church, the family was reared in that faith.
The subject of our sketch was born May 2, 1833, at Pownal, Maine, and grew to manhood on the old farm. After attending the local schools for a time he entered North Yarmouth Academy, and later he prepared for college at Yarmouth Institute. In 1853, at the age of twenty, he entered
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Bowdoin College, where he took a full course, graduating in 1857. The College gave him the degree of A. M. in 1860. In 1858 he came to Ohio, and for four years he was superintendent and principal of the public schools of Bryan, where he organized the union or graded-school system, now in operation. In the meantime he read law, and in the fall of 1862 he spent three months in the law school at Albany, New York. On December 2, 1862, he passed the examination before the Ohio Supreme Court, at Co- lumbus, and was admitted to the Bar. He immediately opened an office at Defiance, and has ever since been engaged in general practice, meet- ing with marked success. For some time he has given especial attention to railroad and corporation law, having been special attorney for the Wa- bash road since 1868, and general counsel for the Baltimore and Ohio road from 1877 to 1889, his duties at first covering the interests of that line in, northern Ohio, but were extended later to all parts of Indiana, as well. In 1889 he resigned his position with the Baltimore and Ohio road; but at times he has done special work for the company. Since 1868 he has been commissioner for the United States court for the Northern District of Ohio, but he has never sought or held any office which was not connected with his profession. Having been reared under Democratic influences, he was naturally inclined to that party in his early years; but at the time of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise he began to favor the movement which resulted in the organization of the Republican party, and from 1858 to 1870 he acted with that party. In 1872 he was a member of the National Liberal Republican Convention at Cincinnati, but since that time he has given his support to the Democratic party on all national issues, although he votes independently on questions relating to State and local affairs. He takes keen interest in all progressive movements, educational, social, and political, and since 1886 he has been a member of the board of overseers of Bowdoin College.
On February 18, 1858, Mr. Newbegin was married to Mrs. Priscilla Alexander, of Richmond, Maine, who died at Defiance, in November, 1864; they had no children. On October 23, 1867, he was married (a second time) at Cumberland, Maine, to Miss Ellen T. Sturdivant, daughter of Cap- tain Ephraim Sturdivant, a prominent resident of that place, who was for many years actively identified with shipping interests. Of the three child- ren of this union, the eldest, Parker Cleaveland, born May 19, 1869, was graduated in 1891 from Bowdoin College, and now resides at Patten, Maine, where he is superintendent of a small railroad and engineer in charge of its extension. Edward Henry, born November 25, 1870, also graduated from
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Bowdoin College in 1891, and is now an Episcopal minister at Ayer, Massa- chusetts. Robert, born August 5, 1874, completed his course at Bowdoin in 1896, and after studying law with his father graduated at Boston University Law School, with the degree of LL. B., in 1898.
The family is prominent socially, and Mr. Newbegin has kept up his ac- quaintance with his old associates in the East, as he has made his home at Cumberland, Maine, nearly every summer since 1878. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, having taken all the degrees in regular course up to and including that of Knight Templar ; and for many years he attended the sessions of the Grand Masonic bodies of Ohio, taking an active part in the work of each.
JOHN M. COOMBS, M. D. :
Among the brave and hardy pioneers who came to the Northwest Territory in the early days, advancing far beyond the then frontier line and establishing homes in the unbroken wilderness, were William Coombs and his wife, Rachel (Bowers), the grandparents of the gentleman whose name opens this sketch.
Previous generations of the Coombs family had come from New Eng- land to settle in Pennsylvania on the banks of the Monongahela river when that region was regarded as the "far West," but the taste for true pioneer life was too strong in William Coombs for him to remain content in the partially settled country which his ancestors had helped to subdue. Be- tween 1800 and 1805 he and his wife located in Clark county, Indiana, fif- teen miles from Louisville, Kentucky, in the woods, although the Indians were numerous and at times hostile and troublesome. They lived only fifteen miles from the scene of the Pigeon Roost massacre, and about that time another settler, Mathias Hester, was attacked by the savages and scalped. Feigning death, he thus escaped that fate; but he was so severely injured that it was a year before he recovered his health.
William and Rachel Coombs reared a family of children, among whom was a son John, our subject's father, born in 1809. He was married in 1830 to Sarah Hester, who was born in 1807, daughter of Mathias Hester, above mentioned, who had settled with his wife, Susan Huckelberry, at the "Old Fort" at Charlestown, Indiana. This was a hewed-log house of two stories, with portholes in the upper story, and was built very substantially. Until 1876 it stood on the old site, but it was then torn down. John Coombs lived to a good old age, his death occurring in 1883, and his wife passed away in 1876.
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