Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 136

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006

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ALFRED TRABER GOSHORN was born in Cincinnati, July 15, 1833 ; graduated at Mari- etta, and also at the Cincinnati law school. In the war period he was commissioned Major of the 137th O. V. I., and served until its close. He passed four memorable years in Philadelphia as Director General of the first National exhibition observed by the peo- ple of the United States, in commemoration of the Declaration of American Independ- ence, a position to which he had been called by his extraordinary genius for organizing, illustrated by his experience in the Cincinnati expositions. He retired from that high place covered with honors, thanks, titles and dec- orations from the leading governments of Europe in recognition of his services and courtesies to their representatives while occu- pied on this great occasion of peace and good will. The citizens of Philadelphia also ex-

pressed their gratitude by the present of an elegant library, while his own citizens on his return gave him a banquet. Naturally as a Cincinnati production they felt proud of him,

ALFRED TRABER GOSHORN.

and now having become known of all men and to many nations he is giving its Art Museum the benefit of his great experience, while snowing up for his patriarchal years.

THE GERMAN ELEMENT IN CINCINNATI.

The German element comprises one-third of the population of Cincinnati. It has had a surprising influence upon its art development-as music, painting and sculpture-also upon its politics and business. It has given some highly prominent men to the community.

The first mayor of Cincinnati was Major DAVID ZIEGLER, a German from Heidelburg, elsewhere noticed. Another eminent man was MARTIN BAUM. He was of high Dutch parentage ; his father was from Strasburg, his mother of the Kershner family, but he was born at Hagerstown, Md., June 14, 1765. In 1795, at the age of thirty, he came to Cincin- nati, engaged in merchandising, and became its most wealthy and influential business citizen. In 1804 he married Miss Anna Somerville Wallace. In 1803 he founded the first bank in the West, the Miami Exporting Company. This company at the same time carried on a great transportation business, and became one of the most important promoters and improvers of the navigation of the West. He called into life the first sugar-refinery, the first iron-foundry, the first steam flouring-mill, and started into the West the first stream of influential German emigrants from the ships at Philadelphia-as Zachariah Ernest, the Stablers, Schnetz, Simon Oehler, Schenebergers, Hoffner, etc. Moreover, had the first ornamental garden, the first vineyard, and was active in founding the first public library (1802) ; of the Western Museum (1817); of the literary society (1817) ; the first agricultural society (1818), etc., etc. He was a leader in establishing schools, markets and churches ; personally was one of the main pillars of the first Presbyterian church. He eventually purchased that extensive tract from Pike street to the top of Mount Adams and bounded by Congress and Fifth streets. Here he built the elegant residence, later occupied by Nicholas Longworth, and now by David Sinton. His hospitable home was open to all intellectually great men who visited Cincinnati, and German literary men were especially welcome. This great and useful man died December 14, 1831, of epidemic influenza, now known as "La Grippe."

CHRISTIAN BURKHALTER, formerly secre- tary to Prince Blucher, in 1837 founded a

German Whig newspaper, the Westlicher Merkur. In 1836 be had joined James G.

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Birney in the publication of the Philanthro- pist, an Abolition newspaper, which was de- stroyed by a mob. ALBERT VON STEIN came to Cincinnati in 1817, and gained eminence as a civil engineer. He was builder of the Cincinnati water-works, the first in the coun- try to be worked by pumps ; made drawings for " Wilson's Ornithology ;" built the Ap- pomatox canal, and water-works for Rich- mond, Lynchburg. Petersburg, New Orleans, Nashville and Mobile. He died in 1876, aged 84 years. Dr. FRIEDRICH REESE, a very learned man (in 1825), was the first German Catholic priest in Cincinnati, later was bishop of Detroit ; he was the founder of the Scientific School and of the Athe- næum-the nucleus from which sprang St. Xavier College. Dr. WILHELM NAST, born in 1807, studied theology and philosophy with David Strauss in the celebrated Turbin- gen Institute ; emigrated in 1828; in 1831 and 1832 went over to the Methodist church, and is considered as the father of German Methodism in America. He founded here two German Methodist newspapers. His theological works are very numerous, and he "bas persuaded many to study in German universities, although he must have been aware that they would change their narrow religious views for wider and riper ones." Iu 1826 appeared the first German newspaper, Die Ohio Chronik. In 1834 the Germans formed a German society, that they might aid each other to assure a better future, and to secure generally those charitable ains which are "impossible to the single individ- ual." Among those who formed this was HEINRICH RODTER, journalist and lawyer. He was editor of the Volksblatt, founded in 1836 as the organ of the Democrats. In 1847-48, as a member of the Ohio Legisla- ture, he had passed the law which secures workingmen a lien on houses built by them, and also a law reducing the cost of natural- ization to foreigners. Although a Democrat, he voted against the black laws and was anti- slavery in his sentiments ; at one time was a law partner with the eminent J. B. Stallo. He died in 1857. KARL GUSTAVE REEMELIN WAS born in Wurtemiburg in 1814, and at the age of 18 years arrived in this country. This was on the eve of the election of Andrew Jackson, when he became attached to the Democratic party, to which he has always adhered. "His studies and experience at home had already given him an enthusiasm for free trade and a prejudice against paper money and a banking system ; and he thought he saw in the Whig party an inclination to- ward puritanism which was naturally repug- nant to the genuine German nature. The name Democracy had a certain charm for the Germans ; and as the wealthy classes mostly belonged to the Whig party they classcd them with the European aristocracy. Reem- elin became one of the founders of the Volks- blatt, studied law but never practised, and entered into politics. As a member of the Ohio Legislature he criticised very sharply the then defective method of taxation, and

evinced a thorough study of political econ- omy." He was a leading member of the Constitutional Convention in 1850-51; the article in the constitution is due to his exer- tions which prevents the legislature from making arbitrary divisions in the electoral districts. Through this great abuses had arisen, minorities at times having gained a majority in the legislature. He visited the reform schools in Europe, and guided by his report the legislature established the Reform School at Lancaster. Becoming tired of pol- itics he eventually retired to his beautiful farm and vineyard near Cincinnati, where he has written much for agricultural journals- one upon "The Climate of Ohio." He has published "The Vine Dresser's Manual." .The Wine Maker's Manual." and "Politics as a Science."

The fact that Cincinnati owns the finest zoological garden in the country is due to another German gentleman, Mr. ANDREW ERKENBRECHER, lately deceased. It was his original conception and was pushed to con- summation with characteristic energy. He was born in Bavaria in 1822, and came to this country in his fourteenth year.

EMIL KLAUPRECHT, born at Mainz. in 1815, first carried on lithography in Cincin- nati and then turned to journalism. In 1843 he published the first belles-lettres periodical, the Fliegende Blatter, with lithographic illustrations, the first German illustrated paper in the United States. He was at one time United States consul for Stuttgart. He edited a Whig paper, the Republicaner, which for ten years was the principal organ of his party in the Western States. He wrote several novels and an historical work, "Deutsche Chronik in der Geschichte des Ohio Thales." The Germans have supplied to Cincinnati other literary men of marked ability, as Heinrich Von Martels, Dr. Joseph H. Pulte, founder of the Pulte Homoeopathic College ; Heinrich A. Rattermann, founder of the German Mutual Insurance Company. " Mr. Rattermann has written poetry in both the German and English ; has worked with especial industry in the history of civilization, and has taken upon himself to vindicate a just estimate of German emigration, and showing therein a sharp and critical judg- ment." The names of others connected with editorship or education can be men- tioned, but we have no room for details, as Dr. Friedrich Roelker, August Renz. Joseph Anton Hemann, Stephen Molitor, Nikolaus Hofer, Rev. Geo. Walker, Ludwig Rehfuss, founder of the Lafayette Guard in 1836, the first German military company, Pastor August Kroll, etc.

In art the Germans have been especially prominent, as the names of many Cincinnati artists testify. As early as 1826 Gottfried Schadow founded here an Academy of Fine Arts, and had for a pupil Hiram Powers. He died of cholera and with him perished his academy. He made busts of Governor Morrow and President Harrison, the first of which is now in the State library.

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Even away back to 1823 existed here a German musical society. In 1849 the first great German musical festival of the United States was held in this city. Then was founded the first German Saengerbund of North America, whose musical festivals have now gained a world-wide reputation, and prepared the way for the foundation of the Grand Music Ilall and College of Music.

The great lithographie business of the city is almost entirely the work of Germans, and the largest furniture factory of the world employing 1500 hands, that of Mitchell & Rammelsburg, owes its foundation mainly to Freidrich Rammelsburg, a Hanoverian, who died in 1863. In 1831 Mathias Schwab started here the first organ factory in the west, if not in the Union.

The most remarkable man among the German lawyers of Ohio, "a man of whom all the Germans in the United States should be especially proud is JOHANN BERNHARD STALLO." He came from a race of school- masters, and was born in 1823, in the Grand Dukedom of Oldenburg, and came to Cin- cinnati in 1839, where he was first a teacher in a private school when he compiled a German A, B, C, spelling-book, a great want, the superior merits of which led the directors of the newly founded Catholic St. Xavier's College to appointed him a teacher in that institution. The study of the higher math- ematics led him to German philosophy, and in 1848 appeared his "General Principles of the Philosophy of Nature," and in 1882 his "Concepts and Theories of Modern Physics." Mr. Stallo adopted the profession of law, and from 1853 to 1855 was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Returning to practice he gained a most brilliant repu- tation by an argument before the Superior Court of Cincinnati against the retention of Bible reading and religious instruction in public schools. His argument lasted for several hours. Although the Cincinnati Court decided adversely, the Supreme Court of Ohio reversed their decision and sustained the views of Stallo and the liberals. It was on the ground that religion is wholly a matter of individual freedom, over which the State by its Constitution has no power. This celebrated speech was regarded as a wonderful illustra- tion of striking logic. wealth of philosophical truth and historical illustration. He was appointed minister to Italy in 1885. Mr. Stallo possesses a strikingly refined, scholarly presence, and is of the light hair, blue- eyed German type.

SAMUEL N. PIKE, the builder of the magnificent opera houses in Cincinnati and New York, was of Jewish parentage. The family name was Hecht. the German for Pike. He was born near Heidelberg, and in 1827, when five years of age, came to Amer- ica, and in 1844 to Cincinnati. He gained colossal wealth in the liquor business. and having been a great admirer of Jenny Lind, he built for the Muse of Song a temple which he said should do honor to Cincinnati. On February 22, 1859, theopera house, the largest

and most beautiful in America, was opened with song. It was burnt in 1866, and later rebuilt. He was a silent, calin man, and while it was building none knew his object, and when from the roof of the Burnet House he saw the structure of his pride and am bition vanishing in the flames, he quietly smoked his cigar as unruffled as the most in- different spectator, and while thus standing gazing in this cahu, contemplative attitude, one of the light-fingered gentry as calmly re- lieved him of his watch, of course, a first-class time-keeper.

The Grand Opera House in New York was begun at this time. He sold it to James Fisk, Jr., for $850,000. A gigantic specu- lation in land, reclaiming the Jersey marshes, near New York, brought him immense profits, so that at his death, in 1875, his fortune was well up in the millions. He used to say he "could not sce why he should make money-he never fretted himself-he couldn't help it."

In the war of the rebellion the Germans took a very active part. Familiar with the conflict of arms in the old country they saw sooner than the native Americans that war was inevitable, and were therefore very early in the field. Three general officers of the Union army were supplied by the Germans of Cincinnati. Gen. AUGUST MOOR, born in Leipsic in 1814, who bad been captain in the Mexican war, started as Colonel of the 28th Ohio Volunteer or 2d German regiment ; the 1st German regiment or 9th Ohio was under Robert McCook. Moor gained a high reputation. Gen. AUGUST V. KAUTZ, born in Baden in 1828, was a private in the Mexi- can war, later a lieutenant in the regular army. He is the author of several small military treatises. Gen. GOTTFRIED WEIT- ZEL, born at Winzlen in 1835, came to this country in early childhood, graduated high in his class at West Point, and was assigned to the engineer corps. While in command of a division in the operations against Peters- burg, he greatly distinguished himself, the taking of which led to the fall of Richmond. " He was the first one who, at the head of his command, entered Richmond by the side of President Lincoln. Strange coincidence ! The German General Schimmelpfenning was the first to lead a brigade into Charleston, and another German general was the first to carry the flag of the Union into Vicksburg." The first bayonet charge of the war was made in the Union victory at Mill Spring by the Ist German regiment (9th Ohio), composed mainly of the Cincinnati Turner Society. and commanded by Col. Robert McCook, later murdered by guerillas. A portrait and sketch of him is in Vol. i., page 367.

LEOPOLD MARKBREIT, a native of Vienna, came to Cincinnati with his parents in 1848, when six years of age. He studied law with his half-brother, the talented Fred. Has- saurek ; became a law partner with Ruther- ford B. Hayes; then went into the Union army, where he eventually attained the rank of colonel ; from 1869 to 1873 was U. S.

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Minister to Bolivia and now edits the Volks- blatt.

In the war period he was taken prisoner, and sent to Libby Prison in Richmond. Through the story of his sufferings there he attained a sad celebrity.

"After five months of ordinary imprison- ment, he and three other victims were select- ed as hostages and placed in close confine- ment, to prevent the execution of four rebels, who were charged with recruiting within the Union lines in Kentucky (which charge was of a rather doubtful nature, as that part of Kentucky would be considered as disputed ground), and had been sentenced to death as spies by a military court convened by Gen. Burnside. The four hostages were placed in a subterranean dungeon of the Libby, where they had hardly room enough to lie down at night. For months they were lying buried in this hole, and received only one meal a day. Even this meal was insufficient to appease their hunger, for it consisted gen- erally only of a handful of corn meal (into which the cobs had been ground). a little piece of rotten bacon and some rice or beans. This food was not enough for life, and too much for absolute starvation. The unfortu- nate men were soon reduced to skeletons, and would, doubtless, have died, if the negroes employed in the Libhy prison had not, from time to time, smuggled in some food to them. The rats, which the prisoners killed with pieces of wood in their dungeon, were cooked for them by the kind-hearted negroes, and

taken back to their cells. The sufferings the poor prisoners had to endure were beyond all comprehension ; and only when they were transported to Salisbury, N. C., a change for the better took place. From Salisbury Col. Markbreit was taken to Danville, Va., and from there back to Libby, till at last, in February, 1865, his half-brother, F. Has- saurek, succeeded in having him liberated. He had been imprisoned for more than thir- teen months. His health had been so in- jured by these sufferings that he never fully recovered." Mr. Markbrcit is tall in per- son, and dignified and courteous in manner. In his South American experience he was an eye-witness to several bloody revolutions, and at the risk of his own life often protected the lives of the members of overthrown govern- ments who sought refuge with the United States legation.

Allusion has been made in the foregoing to Mr. Hassanrek. Appleton's "Cyclo- pedia of American Biography" gives this outline of his career : "FRIEDRICH HASSAU- REK, journalist. was born in Vienna, Austria, 9th October, 1832 ; died in Paris, France, Ist October, 1885. He served in the German revolution of 1848, and was twice wounded. He came to the United States in 1848, set- tled in Cincinnati, Ohio, and engaged in jour- nalism, politics, and the practice of law. He was U. S. minister to Ecuador in 1861-5, and during the latter year became editor of the Volksblatt. He published "Four Years among the Spanish Americans."

JOHN CLEVES SYMMES was born on Long Island in 1742. Removed to New Jersey, and was prominent during the Revolution as colonel of a militia regiment in active field service. He was one year Lieutenant-Governor of New Jersey ; six years a member of the Council ; two years a member of the Continental Congress, and twelve years a judge of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. In Angust, 1787, Judge Symmes, encouraged by the success of the Ohio Company, obtained from Congress a grant for a purchase of a tract of land fronting on the Ohio river between the two Miamis, and extending north to. the tenth township. Having been nnable to pay for the whole, after much negotiation, he closed a contract, in 1792, for 1,000,000 acres. The continued rise in government securities made it impossible to pay for this, and in 1794 a patent was granted him for between 300,000 and 400,000 acres, including the front on the Ohio river and extending back to the third township. He was appointed one of the judges of the North- west Territory, 1788. He died, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1814. Judge Symmes was three times married. He left two daughters-one, Maria, married Major Peyton Short ; one, Anna, became the wife of William Henry Harrison, afterward Pres. ident of the United States. (See " McBride's Pioneer Biography.")

The name T BUCHANAN READ is identified with the war period at Cincinnati. He was born in Chester county, Pa., March 12, 1822. His mother, then a widow, apprenticed him to a tailor, but he ran away to Philadelphia, learned to make cigars, and at fifteen years of age came to Cincinnati, found here a home with the sculptor Clevenger, painted signs, and at intervals went to school. Through the liberality of Nicholas Longworth he was enabled to open a studio and painted portraits. Not finding many sitters, after a little he led a wandering life, by turns painting portraits, painting signs and making cigars. At nineteen he went East to New York and Boston, and at the age of twenty-one published several

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lyrie poems. In 1843 he first visited Europe and again in 1853, where he passed five years as a painter in Florence. He afterwards passed much time in Phila- delphia and Cincinnati, but in the last years of his life made Rome his principal residence ; but fie regarded Cincinnati as more especially his home, where he is pleasantly remembered as a gentleman, small in person, delicate and refined in aspect. During the civil war he gave public readings for the benefit of the soldiers, and reeited his war songs. The most famous of these was "Sheri- dan's Ride," which was written in Cin- einnati : the details of its production are given under the head of Perry county. He died in New York city, May 11, 1872, aged fifty years. His "Com- plete Poetical Works " were published in Boston in 1860. Later he wrote his " Wagoner of the Alleghenies," and in 1865-1867 were issued at Philadelphia a quite full edition of his poetical works in three volumes.

"His paintings, most of which deal with allegorical and mythological sub- jects, are full of poetic and graceful fan- eies, but the technical treatment betrays his lack of early training. He possessed a much more thorough mastery in the THOMAS BUCHANAN READ. art of poetry than in painting. His poems express fervent patriotism and artistie power, with a delicate fancy for the scenes of nature." Nothing can be more pathetically sweet than these lines :

THE WAYSIDE SPRING.

Fair dweller by the dusty way, Bright saint within a mossy shrine, The tribute of a heart to-day, Weary and worn, is thine.

And here the wagoner blocks his wheels, To quaff the cool and generous boon : Here, from the sultry harvest fields, The reapers rest at noon.

The earliest blossoms of the year, The sweetbrier and the violet, The pious hand of spring has here Upon thy altar set.

And oft the beggar masked with tan, In rusty garments gray with dust, Here sips and dips his little can, And breaks his scanty crust.

And not to thee alone is given The homage of the pilgrim's knee ; But oft the sweetest birds of heaven Glide down and sing to thee.

And lulled beside thy whispering stream, Oft drops to slumber unawares, And sees the angels of his dream Upon celestial stairs.

Here daily from his beechen cell The hermit squirrel steals to drink ; And flocks, which cluster to their bell, Recline along thy brink.

Dear dweller by the dusty way, Thou saint within a mossy shrine, The tribute of a heart to-day, Weary and worn, is thine.

A prominent and most useful man to Cineinnati and the State in the war-period was Col. LEONARD A. HARRIS, who was born there in 1824 and died there in July, 1890. He was a captain at the first battle of Bull Run, and later was Colonel of the Second Ohio Infantry. At Perrysville he commanded a division, and behaved with singnlar bravery and skill. Breaking down from disease he was obliged to resign and returned to Cincinnati. The year 1863 had troublous times, and the office of mayor required a firm and cool head ; the public eye was

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fixed upon Col. Harris as just the man ; and he was elected. In the fall came on the Vallandigham campaign, and there were several ontbreaks of the riotous ele- ments in the city, which he squelehed with an iron land.

His great distinguishing work was in drafting the famous " hundred day-men " law, Governor Brough having taken him into his counsel for that purpose. By this law Ohio sent 43,000 men, National Guard, into the field as her quota ; and these, uniting with the avalanche from other States under Lincoln's call, led to the overwhelming of the exhausted South.

In 1865 he was re-elected mayor by 8,000 majority, his personal popularity having been great. He was the principal founder of the famed Cuvier Club, and for years, by appointment from Congress, one of the managers of the Soldiers' Homes. His qualities were kindliness, generosity, modesty, courage, power of intellect and executive capacity. Rarely has any public man in the city been so personally popular.

HENRY VAN-NESS BOYNTON-soldier, journalist and anthor-was born in West Stockbridge, Mass., 22d July, 1835. He removed with his father, a dis- tingnished minister, to Ohio, when quite yonng, and graduated at the Woodward High School, Cincinnati, in June, 1855. Wishing to become a civil engineer he entered the Kentucky Military School, and received through its training and in- struction all that could have been given him at West Point. When the late civil war broke out he volunteered, and was elected and commissioned Major of the Thirty-fifth Ohio Infantry, 27th July, 1861. He was promoted Lieut .- Colonel 19th July, 1863, and commanded the regiment during the Tennessee campaigns, and was brevetted Brigadier for gallant conduct at the battles of Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge. At the last-named fight he fell, badly wounded, as he led his regiment up that famous height. General Boynton was regarded by his men, brother and superior officers, as the bravest of the brave. To this courage he added a soldierly turn of mind that would have made him invaluable in an indi- pendent command where such quality is called for. As it is, his fine mind and vast stores of information make him a great critic on war matters. His com- ments on W. T. Sherman's " Memoirs " created a wide excitement and interest in war circles. Of like sort is his valuable contribution to history in his famous papers on the Chickamauga campaign and battle.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 136

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 1006

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006