Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 81

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

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" Mr. Cowles' success in life has been at- tained under extraordinary disadvantages. From his birth he was affeeted with a defect in hearing, which caused so peculiar an im- pediment of speech that no parallel ease was to be found on record. Until he was twenty- three years of age the peculiarity of this im- pediment was not discovered. At that age

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Prof. Kennedy, a distinguished elocutionist, became interested in his case, and, after a thorough examination, it was found that he never heard the hissing sound of the human voice, and consequently had never made that sound. Many of the consonants sounded alike to him. He never heard the notes of the seventh octave of the piano or organ, never heard the upper notes of a violin, the fife in martial music, never heard a bird sing, and has always supposed that the music of the birds was a poetical fiction. This dis- covery of his physical defect enabled him to act accordingly. After much time spent in practising under Prof. Kennedy's tuition, he was enabled to learn arbitrarily how to make the hissing sound, but he never hears the sound himself, although he could hear ordi- nary low-toned conversation.'

HENRY B. PAYNE, a Senator from Ohio in the National Congress, was born in 1810, in Hamilton, New York, of Connecticut stock ; graduated at Hamilton college, and came to the then village of Cleveland in 1833, and soon entered upon the practice of the law. In 1851 he was the first president of the Cleveland and Columbus railroad, its incep - tion and construction having been mainly due to his efforts in conjunction with Alfred Kelly and Richard Hilliard. He was early interested in manufacturing enterprises, hav- ing been at one time director and stockholder in some eighteen different corporations. In 1851 he was the Democratic candidate for the United States Senate in opposition to Benja- min F. Wade, and defeated by only one ma- jority. In the war period he made speeches advocating enlistments. In 1874 he was elected to Congress, and during the exciting contest in the winter of 1876-77 over the election of President, he was chairman of the committee chosen by the House to unite with one from the Senate in devising a method for settling the difficulty, which resulted in the celebrated Electoral Commission. In 1875 . he was prominently mentioned as the prob- able Democratic nominee for President. "As a lawyer Mr. Payne is distinguished for fidel- ity, thoroughness, and forensic ability ; and as a man, for public spirit, coolness of tem- per, suavity, and genial humor, combined with firmness and strength of will."

JOSEPH PERKINS was born in Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, July 5, 1819, and died at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., August 26, 1885. He was a son of General Simon Per- kins, one of the earliest and most active pio- neers of Ohio, who was extensively engaged in land transactions, and from whom he in- herited a large estate.

At the age of twenty Joseph Perkins grad- uated from Marietta College. He then re- turned to Warren, and, after settling his father's estate, removed to Cleveland in 1852, where the remainder of his life was spent.

He was largely interested in banking, and as a business man showed great financial and executive abilities. The "Historical and Biographical Cyclopedia of Ohio," from which we extraci this sketch, says of him :

"His personal honesty was such that he won the unquestioned trust of every one with whom he came in contact, and in the course of a long life that covered many large transactions,

JOSEPH PERKINS.

involved great sums of money, and touched on many personal interests, no one ever sus- pected him of a dishonest act or assigned to him a base motive. His character shone through all his deeds as the pure crystal." It is not as a business man that Mr. Perkins is best known, but through his great philan- thropy and boundless generosity, his active interest and labor in public and private char- ities, which were not confined within the limits of his own city or State lines, but ex- tended to many institutions in the South as well as the North.

Mr. Perkins' most prominent public work was through his connection with the Ohio Board of State Charities. It is but to repeat the language of all cognizant with the facts to say that his was the master-hand that shaped the work of that Board from the be- ginning. He was appointed by Governor Cox, in 1867, on the formation of the Board, and, by successive reappointments, continued a member until his death. On the occasion of the first meeting, he became impressed with the deplorable condition of many of the county jails.

He gave the matter not only time and thought, but at his own expense travelled all over the Eastern States, inspecting a large number of penal and reformatory institutions, and giving the matter a close and intelligent study. He was an investigator and a phi- losopher as well, and, on secing a defect, could not only discover its cause, but work intelligently toward a remedy. He modeled a plan which was accepted by the Board and made its own, and that has become known and copied the country over as the "jail sys- tem " of the Board of State Charities of Ohio. What he aimed to achieve was a

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model jail, in which prisoners could be held secure and not herded together. This much accomplished, Mr. Perkins next turned his attention to the infirmary system of the State, and made visits to many places, and learned much that showed the need of some direct and practical reform. This he sug- gested in a plan somewhat similar to the one mentioned above, modified to the needs of the class for which it was intended.

One thing Mr. Perkins learned in these investigations, and that he strongly insisted upon in all his official relations and personal discussions with executive officials, and that was that the less restraint placed upon the insane and the more air and outdoor work given them, the better for their physical health and chances of recovery. His infirmary plan has become a model for the country, and the best buildings erected anywhere have been in accordance with its specifications. Always a believer in the theory that crime or want should be prevented where possible, he was ever a strong and earnest friend to any measure suggested in aid of the children. His next step was the making of a plan for a Children's Home, to which he gave the greatest care and attention, and which expert testimony and practical experience have united in showing to be as nearly perfect as anything of the kind can be.

In all these labors, and in the many other things he was enabled to do through his con- nection with this Board, Mr. Perkins kept himself in the background, and gave to the Board and not himself the credit of his thought and labor, while the expenses of his various missions never became a charge upon the State fund, but were met by him person- ally. His official associates appreciated his value to the causes they all held so dear, and in a fitting memorial to his honor declared that "Traces of his long and valuable ser- vice are seen in the annual reports of the Board ; and the plans and estimates for jails and infirmaries therein published, and which we regard as the best in the world, are mainly his work, and were gotten up entirely at his expense."

Another of Cleveland's philanthropic char- acters was MRS. REBECCA ELLIOTT CROM- WELL ROUSE, so well known for her self- sacrificing devotion to the soldiers of the North during the civil war. She was born in Salem, Mass., October 30, 1799. Her childhood was spent in affluence, her educa- tion liberal, and her mind cultured by years of travel in many lands. At the age of eighteen she married Benjamin Rouse ; in 1825 removed to New York city, and five years later, with her husband, left her Eastern home to engage in missionary work on the Western Reserve.

Mrs. Rouse is called "the mother of the Baptist churches and founder of the Woman's Christian work in Cleveland." She was the organizing spirit and the president of the Martha Washington Society of 1842, the outgrowth of which was the Protestant Or- phan Asylum, the oldest of the Protestant

benevolent institutions of Cleveland, of which Mrs. Rouse was for years the managing director.

Many there are "who shall rise up and

MRS. ROUSE.

call her blessed." Not a few of these are the Ohio boys in blue, during the war of the rebellion. They never will forget the con- tinued self-sacrificing labor this great-hearted woman gave for five years, when she was in- strumental in collecting and distributing over $2,000,000 worth of hospital supplies for the gallant sick and wounded lying in military hospitals. The call to arms was sounded on the 15th of April, 1861. Five days later the "Soldiers' Aid Society of Cleveland, Ohio," was formed, and it has the honor, the great and lasting honor, of being the first society of women that met and organ- ized for the noble work of bearing a people's love to the people's army. As president of this famous society, Mrs. Rouse became widely known and much beloved. Fragile and delicate in person, it was astonishing the amount of labor she performed. To her wise administration of its affairs was largely due the success of an enterprise which achieved a national reputation.

Mrs. Rouse has recently passed away after a life nobly spent in ameliorating human woe. Self-sacrifice brought her peace and happi ness, although the labor was great and the body and mind oft weary.

JOHN BROUGH, the last of the three "War Governors of Ohio," as he, Messrs. Tod, and Dennison were termed from having been State executives during the civil war, was born in Marietta in 1811, and died in Cleve- land in 1865, in the midst of labors, worn out by his excessive application in the service of his State and country. He was the son of an Englishman who came over in 1806 with Blennerhasset, and his mother was a Penn- sylvania lady ; it was from her he inherited his strong traits of character. He was bred a printer, and to enjoy the benefit of a course of study in Athens College entered a printing

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office in Athens. In 1831 he was editor and proprietor of a Democratic paper at Marietta -the Gazette; in 1833, with his brother Charles, he purchased and published the Lancaster Eagle, which gained great influence as a Democratic organ. In 1839 he was elected State auditor.

"He entered upon the duties of his office at a time when the whole country still felt the effects of the panic of 1837, and when the State of Ohio was peculiarly burdened with liabilities for which there appeared to be no adequate relief. Mr. Brough devoted him- self to reconstructing the whole financial system of Ohio, and retired from office, in 1846, with a high reputation as a public offi- cer. In partnership with his brother Charles he undertook the management of the Cincin- nati Enquirer, which was soon one of the most powerful Democratic journals in the West. At the same time he opened a law office in Cincinnati. Personally Mr. Brough took an active part in politics, and became the most popular Democratic orator in the State. He retired from active political life in 1848, and in 1853 was elected president of the Madison and Indianapolis railway, then one of the great lines of the West. He re- moved his residence to Cleveland, and, when the civil war began, in 1861, he was urged to become a candidate of the Republican Union party for governor. This honor he declined, although his position as a " war-Democrat" was always distinctly understood. The can- vass of 1863 was held under very different conditions. The civil war was at its height, a large proportion of the loyal voters were in the army, and Southern sympathizers, led by Clement L. Vallandigham, were openly defi- ant. Vallandigham was arrested for disloyal utterances, tried by court-martial, and ban- ished from the United States. He was sent within the Confederate lines, and subse- quently received the regular Democratic nom- ination for governor of Ohio. There was apparently some danger that he would ac- tually be elected by the "peace" faction of the party. At this crisis Mr. Brough made a speech at Marietta, declaring slavery de- stroyed by the act of rebellion, and earnestly appealing to all patriots, of whatever pre- vious political affiliations, to unite against the Southern rebels. He was immediately put before the people by the Republican Union party as a candidate for governor, and the majority that elected him (101,099) was the largest ever given for a governor in any State up to that time. In the discharge of his duties as chief magistrate he was labo- rious, far-sighted, clear in his convictions of duty, firm in their maintenance, and fearless in their execution. He was distinctly the War Governor of Ohio."

Whitelaw Reid says of him : "Gov. Brough was impetuous, strong-willed, indif- ferent to personal considerations, often re- gardless of men's feelings, always disposed to try them by a standard of integrity to which the world is not accustomed. His adminis- tration was constantly embroiled ; now with

the Sanitary Commission, then with the offi- cers in the field, again with the surgeons. But every struggle was begun and ended in the interest of the private soldiers as against the tyranny or neglect of their superiors ; in the interest of subordinate officers as against those who sought to keep them down ; in the interest of the men who fought as against those who shirked ; in the interest of the maimed as against the sound ; in the interest of their families as against all other expendi- tures. Never was a knight of the old chivalry more unselfishly loyal to the defence of the defenceless.

Brough was a statesman. His views of public policy were broad and catholic, and his course was governed by what seemed to be the best interests of the people, without re- gard to party expediency or personal advance- ment. He was honest and incorruptible, rigidly just and plain, even to bluntness. He had not a particle of dissimulation. People thought him ill-natured, rude, and hard- hearted. He was not; he was simply a plain, honest, straightforward man, devoted to business. He had not the suaviter in modo. This was perhaps unfortunate for himself, but the public interests suffered nothing thereby. He was, moreover, a kind- hearted man, easily affected by the sufferings of others, and ready to relieve suffering when he found the genuine article. He, perhaps, mistrusted more than some men, but when he was convinced he did not measure his gifts. He was a good judge of character. He looked a man through and through at first sight. Hence no one hated a rogue more than he ; and, on the other hand, no one had a warmer appreciation of a man of good principles. He was a devoted friend.

As a public speaker Brough had few supe- riors. His style was clear, fluent, and logical, while at times he was impassioned and elo- quent. When the famous joint campaign was being made between Corwin and Shannon for governor the Democratic leaders found it expedient to withdraw Shannon and substi- tute Brough, in order that they might not utterly fail in the canvass. Corwin and Brough were warm friends, and none of Brough's partisans ever had a higher admira- tion for his genius than had Corwin.

In 1832 Mr. Brough married Miss Achsah P. Pruden, of Athens, Ohio. She died Sep- tember 8, 1838, in the twenty-fifth year of her age. In 1843 he married at Lewiston, Pa., Miss Caroline A. Nelson, of Columbus, Ohio, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. Both of the sons have died. So soon as Gov. Brough became aware of the dangerous nature of his disease he made his will, and talked freely to his wife, children, and friends. He sought full preparation for death. Though not a member of a church, nor during the last ten years of his life an active attendant at any place of worship, he stated very calmly, yet with deep feeling, that he was, and always had been, a firm believer in the doctrines of Christianity ; that he had full faith and hope in Jesus Christ, and

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through him hoped for eternal life. He re- marked that he had never been a demon- strative man, but his faith bad, nevertheless, been firmly and deeply grounded."

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, president of the Standard Oil Company, at Cleveland, Ohio, was born, the son of a physician, July 8, 1839, in Central New York. In 1853 he re- moved to Cleveland. In the spring of 1858 he formed a partnership with M. B. Clark in the produce commission business, and the firm having in 1862 become interested in the refining of petroleum, Mr. Rockefeller's en- ergies became so interested that, in 1865, he sold out his share in the commission business and gave his entire attention to the refining of petroleum. He established the firm of Rockefeller & Andrews, and from this begin- ning the Standard Oil Company was devel- oped. This company was organized in 1870 with a capital of a million dollars. From the "Biographical Cyclopædia " of Ohio we take the following account of the gigantic interests controlled by this concern.

"Large tracts of land were purchased and fine warehouses erected for the storage of pe- troleum ; a considerable number of iron cars were procured, and the business of transport- ing oil entered upon ; interests were pur- chased in oil pipes in the producing regions, so that the company and its associates con- trolled about 200 miles of oil pipes and several hundred thousand barrels of oil tank- age. Works were erected for the manu- facture of barrels, paints, and glue, and everything used in the manufacture or ship- ment of oil. The works had a capacity of distilling 29,000 barrels of crude oil per day, and from 3,500 to 4,000 men were employed in the various departments. The cooperage factory, the largest in the world, turned out 9,000 barrels a day, which consumed over 200,000 staves and headings, the product of from fifteen to twenty acres of selected oak. When it is remembered that it was formerly the full labor of one man to manufacture three or four barrels daily, the magnitude of this accessory to the business can be realized. Only about forty per cent. of the company's business was done in Cleveland, the remain- der being widely diffused over the country, stimulating industry and traffic wherever it was established ; but, the business originat- ing in Cleveland, the managers felt a pride in keeping a large proportion of it in that city.

With the exception, perhaps, of the com- bined iron industries of the city, the oil refin- ing interests, almost entirely owned by the Standard Oil Company, made larger additions to the wealth and growth of Cleveland than did any other one branch of trade or manu- facture. The greater part of the product was shipped to Europe, and the market for it was found in all parts of that continent and the British Islands ; in fact, all over the world. Every part of the United States was supplied from the main distilling point (Cleveland). and the company virtually controlled the oil market of this continent, and, in fact, of the world. Besides the president, the principal

active members of the company were Wil- liam Rockefeller, vice-president ; H. M. Flagler, secretary ; Col. O. H. Payne, treas- urer, and S. Andrews, superintendent, who had charge of the manufacturing. The suc- cess of the company was largely due to the energy, foresight, and unremitting labors of its founder and president."

The great responsibilities and labor of such immense enterprises as have engaged the at- tention of Mr. Rockefeller have prevented his taking a leading part in public life. He has, however, always given freely to all patri- otic, benevolent and religious purposes, and many a worthy cause owes success to the private and unostentatious aid from him. The city of Cleveland owes much to him, not alone from the indirect benefit derived from the immense industries he controlled, but also from improvements in real estate within its limits.

He is a member of the Second Baptist church, with which he has been connected for about twenty years-two years as a scholar, twelve or thirteen years as a teacher, and the remainder as superintendent of its Sabbath and Mission schools -- and he has made liberal donations to its fund, as he did also to the Baptist college at Granville.

He is essentially a man of progress, and the rare success which has attended him through life is attributable to his enterpris- ing, ambitious spirit, the confidence his integ- rity and ability inspired in others, a power of concentrating his mind and energies in a special, well-chosen channel, and a systematic, judiciously economical method of engineering and managing great projects. Foremost among those who gave him timely assistance and aid in his early struggles he ever cherished the memory of T. P. Handy, Esq., who has ever been a great power, a promoter of what- ever appertained to the moral and material interests of the city. In 1864 Mr. Rocke- feller married Miss Laura C. Spelman, of Cleveland.

AMASA STONE was born in Charlton, Mas- sachusetts, April 27, 1818, and died in Cleve- land, May 11, 1883. He was a man of re- markable activity of body and mind ; we look over the record of his life with a sense of as- tonishment that one man could have directed and completed so many large enterprises.

His youth was spent in assisting his father on the New England farm, and in gaining his education at intervals between the farm- work. At the age of seventeen he left the farm and with an elder brother was engaged in the trade of building at Worcester. In 1839 he was associated with his brother-in- law, Mr. Howe, inventor of the famous "Howe Truss Bridge," and a year or two later he and Mr. Azariah Boody purchased Mr. Howe's patent for the New England States and formed a company for their con- struction. He made important improvements in the Howe bridge, and while yet a young man became one of the most eminent con- structors of railroads and railroad bridges in New England.

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In 1845 he assumed the duties of superin- tendent of the New Haven, Hartford & Springfield railroad, but shortly resigned to devote his entire time to bridge and railroad construction.

One of his enterprises, which at that day was considered a marvel of dispatch, was the reconstruction in forty days of a bridge on the New Haven, Hartford & Springfield road over the Connecticut river at Enfield Falls, which had been carried away by a storm.

Shortly after this Mr. Stone dissolved the partnership with Mr. Boody and formed another with Mr. D. L. Harris for Massa- chusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, and still another with Mr. Stillman Witt and Mr. Frederick Harbach for the construction of the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati road, from Cleveland to Columbus. The enterprise was carried through so satisfactorily to the owners of the road, that on its completion Mr. Stone was offered and accepted the superintendency and in 1850 made his home at Cleveland.

Immediately thereafter he engaged in the construction of a railroad from Cleveland to Erie, which was successfully accomplished, and he was also offered the superintendence of this road, being for some years superin- tendent of both roads, as well as a director in the companies which owned them.

From a sketch in the "Magazine of Western History " we quote the following : "He was for a long time president of the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula railroad, and in 1858, in company with his partner and life- long friend, Stillman Witt, he contracted to build the Chicago & Milwaukee railroad, of which he became and remained for many years a prominent director. He was also a director of the Jamestown & Franklin and of the Tuscarawas Valley, now the Cleveland, Lorain & Wheeling railroad and of several others.

He was not only one of the most succe s- ful railway contractors and administrators in the United States, but there was not a single department of financial or industrial enterprise in which he did not seem to bear a conspicuous and useful part. He was one of the leading bankers of the State of Ohio- a director in the Merchants' Bank, the Bank of Commerce, the Second National Bank, the Commercial National Bank and the Cleve- land Banking Company, all of the city of Cleveland. He was the president of the Toledo branch of the State Bank of Ohio, and president of the Mercer Iron and Coal Company. He also gave financial aid and wise and sagacious counsel to many manu- facturing enterprises. He constructed iron mills, woollen mills, car works and other mall- ufacturing establishments. He designed and built the Union Passenger Depot at Cleve- land. He was, we believe, the first man to design and build pivot bridges of long span, and he was constantly introducing important improvements in the construction of railway cars, locomotives, and all the appliances of the great transportation system of the country. During the war for the Union Mr. Stone was

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 81

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