History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 117

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666

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Ludwell G. Gaines, a Presbyterian clergyman and very distinguished educator. Young Cox early became him- self a teacher, at first as an assistant in the academy kept by Mr. Thompson, at Springdale, in Springfield township. He made use of his earnings here to main- tain himself as a student at Miami university, in which he took a partial course. He studied medicine for a time, but eventually determined to become a lawyer, and read the literature of the profession with Thomas J. Strait and Messrs. Cary and Caldwell, all prominent practition- ers in Cincinnati. Admitted to the bar in 1843, he began practice in partnership with Henry Snow, which lasted about five years, His fortunes were cast with the Whig party of that day, by whom he was twice nominated to the office of prosecuting attorney, while still a young practitioner; but the party was then in a hopeless minority in the county, and he could not expect an elec- tion. He was, however, elected to the post in 1855 by a large majority, and had a laborious and eventful, but thoroughly able and reputable term of service, during which he was successful in breaking up a strong gang of counterfeiters and sending ten of them to the State pen- itentiary. Other important public services were rendered by him; and he abundantly earned then, and by subse_ quent fidelity in his more private practice, the promotion which came to him (he being then a Republican) in 1866, in his election as the judge of the common pleas court for the first judicial district. To this post he was reelected in 1871, and again in 1876, and has thus been fifteen years on the bench. In 1867 he was very strongly recommended by the Cincinnati bar for appointment as United States district judge, to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of the Hon. H. H. Leavitt. His judicial, as well as his professional, career, has been marked by eminent and pronounced success. He has also strong literary and antiquarian tastes; has written much for the public press, and delivered numerous lectures, several of which have been published. Indebtedness to certain of them will be found acknowledged in various portions of this history, to which he has also made important contribu- . tions in the course of private conversation. He is one of the most affable and popular of men, while he culti- nates none of the arts of the demagogue. Madisonville, six miles from Cincinnati, the place of his residence, and the Scientific and Literary society of that village, owe not a little to the sympathy and cooperation of Judge Cox in every good word and work. He has also done his party much service by his speeches in advocacy of its principles and policy, as he did to the Union cause in many ways during the bloody years of the Rebellion.

On the ninth of May, 1848, Judge Cox was married to Miss Mary A., daughter of Benjamin R. Curtis, of Rich- mond, Virginia. They have had nine children, of whom six are still living. Three of his sons are graduates of the Cincinnati law school and engaged in the practice of the law-Walter T., Benjamin H., and Joseph, jr .; an- other, Samuel C., is well known in the book-trade.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

B. H. COX.

Benjamin Hiram Cox, lawyer, is the second son of Judge Joseph Cox, and was born in Storrs township (now Cincinnati), Hamilton county, Ohio, March 16, 1851. He received his education at the common and high schools of the township, and in bookkeeping at Gundry's commercial college. He, at a very early age, showed great aptitude for business and was appointed to a posi- tion in the county clerk's office, by T. B. Disney, esq., chief clerk. Here he remained through the different ·successors of the office for nearly ten years, issuing sub- panœs and orders for sale for all the courts, and officiating as clerk for one of the rooms of the supreme court. While thus employed he studied law under his father and graduated at the Cincinnati law college, and in 1875 was admitted to the bar and resigned his position in the clerk's office, and began the practice of law in Cincin- nati, in partnership with Charles W. Cole, esq. After- wards they associated with them his younger brother, Joseph Cox, jr., under the name of Cole, Cox & Cox. Previous to this, in 1871 he was elected a member of the school board, from the ninth ward, and selected from that body as a member of the union board of high school directors. In 1878 he was elected a member of council, from the ninth ward, and was appointed chairman of the committee of law and contracts, in which he served for two years with great intelligence and ability. Removing into the twelfth ward about the close of his term, he was unexpectedly nominated, by an overwhelming majority, to represent that ward, and was elected without opposi- tion. Mr. Cox is a fine specimen of our business young men. Of large, powerful physique and commanding presence, he is polite and affable to all, yet firm and tenacious in his views. He is active and energetic in business, has an unbounded faith in the progress and success of everything in Cincinnati, has, perhaps, bought and sold as much real estate in the city as any other young man of his age, and generally knows a bargain when he sees it. The firm of Cole, Cox & Cox has a flourishing business, being counsel for some of the best business men of the city. In addition to this, Benjamin is a master commissioner of the courts, and, being popu- lar with most of the lawyers, is entrusted with the sale of a great deal of property, under orders of court, of which, by his activity and knowledge of the business, and large acquaintance with capitalists, he has been inarkedly successful in disposing at good prices. In politics he is an ardent Republican and an active worker. His wife is Emma L., daughter of James S. Burdsal, one of the oldest and most prominent druggists of the city. By this marriage he has four children.

Joseph Cox, jr., of the law firm of Cole, Cox & Cox, of Cincinnati, and son of the prominent and well-known citizen, Judge Joseph Cox, of Cincinnati, was born January 11,' 1858, in Storrs township. He received his education in the high schools of Cincinnati, graduat- ing therefrom in 1877. In 1879 he graduated in his law studies in the Cincinnati law school, since which time he has practiced his profession. In September, 1879, he was married to Miss Mary Covington, of Cin-

cinnati, daughter of Mr. S. F. Covington, a leading cit- izen of that place. His wife died in June, 1880.

HON. JOHN F. FOLLETT.

The Hon. John Fassett Follett, named after bis ma- ternal great-uncle, Dr. John Fassett, of Toledo, is a na- tive of Vermont, as were all of his father's family. His father's name was also John F. Follett, likewise a native of Vermont. His grandfather, Eliphalet Follett, great- grandfather of the subject of this memoir, was a pioneer in the Wyoming valley, Pennsylvania, where he owned a very fine farm, but was doomed to lose his life in the massacre of Wyoming, so much celebrated in song and story. A half-brother of this pioneer was attacked in the same affair, stabbed in several places, scalped, and left for dead, but eventually survived and lived to a good old age. After the murder of Eliphalet Follett his widow and children returned to Vermont, whence they had removed to Wyoming, and spent the rest of their lives there. The oldest of the children, Martin D. Follett, was grandfather of John F. Follett, of Cincinnati. His mother, Sarah (Woodworth) Follett, was also a native of Vermont, where she and the elder Follett were married October 10, 1816. In 1837 they removed to the west, settling first in Licking county, with a family of nine children. Mr. Follett here pursued his lifelong vocation as a farmer, and there died in 1863, the mother follow- ing him to the tomb just four weeks afterwards. Eight of the nine children are still living.

Hon. John F. Follett, next to the youngest of the family, was born upon the paternal farm in South Rich- ford, Franklin county, Vermont, February 18, 1833. His rudimentary education was received in the log school- houses of Licking county, but when about eighteen years of age he was permitted to leave home and strike out for himself in pursuit of a higher training. He took a preparatory course at the academy in Granville, Licking county, now no longer in existence, and his collegiate curriculum at Marietta college, being graduated there- from in 1855 with the highest honor, and with the last class going out under the presidency of the Rev. Henry Smith. He had now accumulated a considerable debt, for a young man, in the pursuit of education, but with- in the short space of two years, by teaching, first in the blind asylum at Columbus, and then in the high school of the same place, he secured an honorable discharge from all his obligations. He then began to read law with his brother, Charles Follett, esq., in Newark, and was there admitted to practice in 1858. He began business in the same place as a lawyer, and remained in Newark for about ten years, when, in September, 1868, he re- moved to Cincinnati, opened an office, and in March, 1870, formed a partnership with General H. 1 .. Burnett, ex-Governor Jacob D. Cox also presently joining the firm. Upon the removal of General Burnett to New York. the firm became Cox & Follett, and remained such until the first of January, 1874, when General Cox withdrew. Mr. W. C. Cochrane was afterward received

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

into partnership, the firm name and style now being Follett & Cochrane. This firm was dissolved in 1878. Messrs. J. M. Dawson and David M. Hyman have since successively been taken into partnership, and the firm is now Follett, Dawson & Hyman. It enjoys an exten- sive practice, and ranks high among the legal partner- ships of the Queen City. The senior of the firm has often been solicited to become a candidate for judge in one of the courts, but has uniformly declined, preferring to remain in the more lucrative and stirring pursuits of the bar.

Mr. Follett is a lifelong and hereditary Democrat. His services to the party were recognized in 1865 in an elec- tion from Licking county to the house of representa- tives in the State legislature. He was reelected at the expiration of his two-years' term, and upon the re-as- sembling of the house he was chosen speaker by a unani- mous vote, taken by acclamation, in the caucus of mem- bers of his party-a fact almost, if not quite, without precedent in the legislative history of the State. He was serving in this position with distinguished credit when he decided to remove to Cincinnati, and resigned both it and his membership in the house. Since his re- moval hither he has declined official position or candi- dacies, with the single exception of elector-at-large on the Democratic ticket of the State during the Presidential canvas of 1880. He has froin time to time been solici- ted to run for Congress, and at the present writing (April, 1881) is prominently named by his friends as a Democratic candidate for the gubernatorial chair at the fall election. His abilities as a stump speaker are much in request during the more important campaigns, and of late years he has pretty regularly appeared in most parts of the State, as well as in his own city and county. He is regarded as one of the most eloquent men, either up- on the hustings or in the forum, that Ohio contains, and his services to his party have been inestimable. His political duties are not permitted, however, seriously to interfere with the careful study and practice of the law, in which he ranks among the very foremost in the able ranks of the bar in the Queen City. He is personally popular, and has abundantly reaped the rewards of dili- gence and assiduously cultivated talent.

Mr. Follett was married, July 12, 1866, to Miss Francis M., daughter of Dr. John Dawson, a professor in the Starling Medical college, of Columbus, where they were married. Her mother was a sister of the late Judge Winans, of Xenia, a former member of Congress, and daughter of Dr. Matthias Winans, of Jamestown, Ohio. Mrs. Follett is still living, and in vigorous health. They have three children-John Dawson, W. W. Dawson (a girl), and Charles, the last one named from his uncle at Newark.

In 1879 the scholarship, ability, and public record of Mr. Follett received the handsome recognition from his alma mater at Marietta, of the honorary degree of Doc- tor of Laws.

DR. DAVID D. BRAMBLE.

David Denman Bramble, M. D., a prominent practi- tioner in Cincinnati, is a Buckeye ... da Hamilton county man "to the manor born," and is, physically and other- wise, a type of the very best class of natives of the great State of the Ohio valley. He was born at the village of Montgomery, in Sycamore township, on the eleventh of December, 1839. His parents were of good old Eng- lish stock, and were among the first settlers in the Miami Purchase.

His boyhood was spent in the pure air of the country. As he grew larger and stronger he engaged in various pursuits of manual labor and humble trade, attending from time to time the rather indifferent public schools of that period, until after he had entered upon his four- teenth year. By an industry, economy and intelligence in business quite remarkable in one so young, he had by this time acquired means enough to enable him to begin a course of study in the Farmers' college, at College Hill. The same traits served to carry him triumphantly through an undergraduate course, and to leave the insti- tution with honor and the prestige of success. He began an independent career at once as teacher of the interme- diate school in his native village, from which he was advanced, at the expiration of about a year and a half, to the principalship of the school. He held this post for two years and a half more, when, at the age of twenty, he matriculated as a student at the Ohio Medical college in Cincinnati. He had previously, during a large part of his pedagogic service, been reading medicine under the direction of Dr. William Jones, of Montgomery, with whom he resided. After attendance upon two full courses of lectures, he was graduated from the Ohio Medical college in 1862. His public service and large practice began at once. He was appointed house physi- cian to the old Commercial hospital, then itself almost in articulo mortis, and about to give way to the magnifi- cent structure which now occupies its site, and much more, as is elsewhere related in this history. He served this institution for a single year, and in 1863 opened an office pretty nearly where he now is, at No. 227 Broad- way, for the general practice of his profession. All his offices have since been in this neighborhood on the same street. By September, 1867, he had built the handsome residence and office he now occupies at No. 169 Broad- way, and moved into it.

He was again, about the same time of his beginning private practice, pressed into more public service as dis- trict physician for the Thirteenth ward, and in the autumn of the same year was made physician at the pest-house. The latter post he vacated by resignation at the end of three and a half years, presently accepting instead a much more pleasant and, in some respects, profitable position as professor of anatomy in the Cincinnati Col- lege of Medicine and Surgery, and also treasurer of the college. In 1872 he was advanced to the office of dean of the institution, and at the same time was transferred to the chair of surgery. In these important capacities he is still serving the college. For some time he was a joint editor and proprietor of the Cincinnati Medical

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

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News, a monthly organ of the' profession of no small reputation and utility. He has steadily maintained, withal, a large and « *~* ing private practice, in which his success has corresponucl to the confidence reposed in his professional abilities by those who have appointed him to the several public positions he has held. He is a prominent and influential member of the Cincinnati Academy of Medicine, the Ohio State Medical society, and the American Medical association, and is an original member of the American Surgical association, organized in the city of New York last year. Of this young asso- ciation himself and Dr. W. W. Dawson are the only Cin- cinnati members .. Before one or the other of these societies he has read numerous papers, some of which have been published, and has engaged usefully in various discussions upon medical topics.

Dr. Bramble has found time, in the midst of his busy employments, to take Odd Fellowship through all its degrees, to work entirely through the several ranks of the Knights of Pythias, and to proceed in Masonry to and including the thirty-second degree. He is at present master of the Kilwinning lodge No. 356, and is the third in command (second lieutenant) in the Consistory of the Ancient, Accepted Scottish Rite, of which Colonel Enoch T. Carson is commander-in-chief, and Mr. W. B. Wiltse, also of Cincinnati, is first lieutenant.

Dr. Bramble was married May 15, 1864, to Miss Celestine, oldest daughter of John Rieck, the well-known farmer and land-owner of Sharonville, Sycamore town- ship. They have three children, all daughters, and all living-Emma Ellen, born October 29, 1867; Jessie May, born March 20, 1870; and Mamie Rieck, born January 17, 1876.

DR. A. J. MILES.

Abijah J. Miles, M. D., health officer for the city of Cincinnati, is a native Buckeye, born at Troy, Miami county, Ohio, on the thirty-first of March, 1834. His maternal progenitors in this country were of English stock, their arrival upon western shores being contempo- raneous with that of William Penn. The family name on that side is Coats. He is of long-lived stock, his grandfather on the mother's side living to the age of ninety-six, and reading by second sight without glasses when about ninety years old, and his paternal grandfather living until near the same age. His father is now in his seventy-sixth year. His mother's maiden name was Sarah Coats, born in Dayton December 18, 1804, when it was but a little hamlet. Her parents had removed from Pennsylvania to South Carolina in the latter part of the last century, but being of the Quaker faith, they con- ceived a strong abhorrence to the institution of slavery, and again removed, this time to Ohio, passing through Cincinnati when it had less than nine hundred inhabi- tants, and settling in Dayton when it had made little more than a beginning. His paternal grandfather's fam- ily, the Mileses, came at the same time, with many other Quaker families, who formed the celebrated settlements west of Dayton, in Montgomery and Miami counties.

William, son of Jonathan Miles, the grandfather, was born in 1806, and married Sarah Coates February 18, 1829. She died, more than fifty years afterwards, upon the same place where she began housekeeping, April 28, 1879. The father is still living. Their fourth child and third son was Abijah, who was born at the old homestead, near Troy, as before noted. His elementary education was received in the country schools of the neighborhood, after which he went to the Troy high school, where he was prepared to enter Antioch college. He was a mem- ber of this institution during parts of three years, teaching school in the winter, and getting means to attend the col- lege during the spring and summer terms, during which, .by hard labor, he managed to keep up with his classes. He began to read medicine with Dr. George Keifer, in Troy, and pursued the study with Dr. Sigafoose, of West Milton, in the same county, finishing at the Ohio Medi- cal college, in Cincinnati, in 1858-9 and 1862-3, taking his diploma in March, 1863. Meanwhile, in 1861, he had enlisted in the army as hospital steward in the Fortieth regiment of Ohio infantry, then equipping for the field at Camp Chase. With this command he served through the arduous campaign in eastern Ken- tucky in early January, 1862, during which the victorious battle of Middle Creek was fought by General Garfield's brigade, of which the Fortieth was part. His health was broken down by the hardships of the campaign, and, although offered the post of assistant surgeon upon his graduation subsequently, he had to be permanently dis- charged from the service, to which he never was able to return, and suffers in health to this day on account of that severe war experience. He accepted, however, di- rectly after graduation, the position of interne, or house physician, in the Commercial (now Cincinnati) hospital, an honor only bestowed upon the most meritorious stu- dents of the graduating classes of the college. At the expiration of his year's terni he decided to open an office in Loudon, Madison county, Ohio, but in January, 1866, he returned to Cincinnati, on account of the laborious character of the country practice, and after a few months recommenced business. It was now the cholera season, and a favorable time for a young practitioner in the city. He soon commanded a large practice, which has been successfully maintained and increased to this day. Within the last eight years he has developed special tal- ents in the direction of obstetrical and gynecological practice; and since 1873 has joined to numerous other duties those of the professorship of diseases of women and children in the Cincinnati college of medicine and surgery. Upon topics related to this department of practice he has written much and effectively-as papers before medical societies upon the use of forceps in breech deliveries, in explanation of a new breech forceps devised by him, as also reports of cases of delivery by means of the breech forceps, upon a new vaginal specu- lum, and many reports in the Medical News, of which he was for some time an associate editor and proprietor. Other medical topics have also been treated by him in essays for publication or for reading before societies, as upon wine of tobacco in tetanus, rotheln, and other

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

themes. In 1875 he was made a fellow of the obstetri- cal society of London, England, and is also a member of the Cincinnati Obstetrical society, of which he was elected vice-president in January, 1877, and of the Cin- cinnati Medical society and the Academy of Medicine, of the same city, and of the State Medical society, in which he was chosen vice-president in 1876. In April, 1880, he was appointed, by a union of Republicans and Democrats in the board of health, to the eminent and responsible position of health officer of Cincinnati, which he now holds, and in which his efficient services, and especially his clear and able reports, are giving him fresh name and fame.

In June, 1864, Dr. Miles was married to Mary F., daughter of B. B. and Nancy Stearns, of Cincinnati. His wife died at Mentone, France, in April, 1875, and he was remarried October 11, 1877, to Miss Martha, daugh- ter of Aaron A. Colter, esq., of the same city. They have no children. Dr. and Mrs. Miles are members of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal church, on Ninth street, in Cincinnati.

DR. J. W. UNDERHILL.

Joshua Whittington Underhill, M. D., a leading prac- titioner and public-spirited citizen of Cincinnati, is a na- tive of Maryland, born January 11, 1837, in the settle- ment known as "Quindocque," near Kingston, Somerset county. He is the son of Thomas H. and Eleanor (Whittington) Underhill, and grandson of Thomas Henry Underhill, a sea-captain resident at Snow Hill, Maryland, where he died at the age of eighty-two years. His pa- ternal grandmother's maiden name was Leah Powell; she was from Worcester county, in the same State. Both the Underhill and Whittington families are of English stock, their ancestors immigrating to the colonies long before the Revolution. The latter is a very numerous family, more inhabitants of the eastern shore of Maryland bearing its name than any other patronymic. The younger Thomas H., father of the subject of this memoir, had one brother, William, who lived and died in Merums- co, on the eastern shore; also two sisters, who were mar- ried and reside, respectively, in Snow Hill and Baltimore. He and his wife were both young when married, in 1835, and shortly after the birth of their son Joshua set out for Missouri, then almost a terra incognita in the illimitable west. In the absence of railways, the Alleghanies were crossed in an emigrant wagon, which made a halt with the little family at the village of Hendrysburgh, in Belmont county, Ohio. This region was still half wilderness, but presented so inviting an aspect to the young couple that they concluded to settle then and there. In 1840 a sec- ond child was born, who received the name of Henry Thomas. It lived but a few weeks, however, and soon afterwards the mother died, at the age of twenty-three, when Joshua was but three years old. He was kindly cared for by a childless family, and given as good an ed- ucation as the country schools of Ohio afforded at the time. His father remarried and shipped for South Amer- ica about 1856, where he is supposed to have died, as he

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 117

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co. Number of Pages: 666

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666