History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 125

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

USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 125

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Mr. White is a man, and as such no doubt has faults, but no one is quicker than he to see and correct them. His naturally good constitution, invigorated by early labors, and not impaired by any excess, promises him a long life

of continued usefulness. Ilowever this may prove, when the inexorable angel of death shall call him, Mr. White will leave a good name and a life filled with good works, and be followed to his grave by the tears of his children and with the sorrow of his professional brethren.

S. F. COVINGTON

was born in Rising Sun, Indiana, November 12, 1819. His father was a native of . Somerset county, Maryland, and came west and settled in Rising Sun in 1816. He was married, January 7, 1819, to Mary Fulton, daughter of Colonel Samuel Fulton, who built the first log house in that section of the country in 1798, on the place where Rising Sun now stands. Colonel Fulton was a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and with his father had served in the war of the Revolution. Upon the restora- tion of peace they removed west, first stopping a couple of years at Newport, Kentucky, then locating where Rising Sun now is. The father, John Fulton, died in 1826. Colonel Fulton, after a residence there of fully fifty years, during which time he held many important positions under both the Territorial and State govern- ments, died January 15, 1849, in the eighty-seventh year of his age.

The subject of this sketch received his education, with the exception of a single year at Miami university, at the schools of his native village, which was famed for its good schools from its earliest history to the present time. At the age of twelve years he entered a country store, and for the next six years took as much time from that employment as his means would allow in attending school. Leaving college in the autumn of 1838, he en- gaged as clerk on a steamboat, where he continued, with intervals in shipping produce to the south by flatboats, until March, 1843, when, at the solicitation of his fellow- citizens, he established and took charge of a newspaper at Rising Sun called the Indiana Blade, the object be- ing to procure a division of Dearborn county and the location of the county seat at Rising Sun. Efforts for the accomplishment of this object had been made at in- tervals for the thirty years preceding. The Blade divided the county, and, in 1844, Rising Sun was made a county seat.

Soon after the establishment of the Blade, on the second of April, 1843, Mr. Covington was married to Miss Mary Hamilton, second daughter of Jonathan Hamilton, then a resident of Rising Sun, but whose family, originally from the same section of Pennsylvania as Colonel Fulton, were among the pioneers of Colum- biana county, Ohio. Five children were born of this union. The eldest, George B., entered the Union army July 4, 1861, having then barely entered upon his seven- teenth year. After serving as quartermaster-sergeant of the Seventeenth Indiana regiment, he was promoted by Governor Morton to the adjutantcy of the same regi- ment, and shared in its many engagements, commencing in Virginia and continuing through Kentucky, Tennes- see and Georgia. He was wounded in battle at Pump-

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

kin Vine Church, Georgia, May 24, 1864, and died June 1, 1864. The second son, John I., graduated at Miami university in 1870, and has since devoted himself to in- surance, being at this time superintendent of the Insur- ance Adjustment company of Cincinnati, an institution of great value to both insurers and insured. The eldest daughter, Harriet, graduated at the Cincinnati Young Ladies' seminary in 1868, and in 1874 was married to Rev. James H. Shields, now pastor of the Presbyterian church of South St. Louis, Missouri. The second daughter, Mary, graduated at Highland institute, Hills- borough, Ohio, in 1874, was married to Joseph Cox, jr., son of Judge Joseph Cox, in 1879, and died July 26, 1880. Florence, the youngest daughter, graduated at Highland institute in 1880, and remains with her parents.

When the new county of Ohio was authorized in 1844 the sheriff appointed by the governor to attend to its organization was called from the State by business. He appointed Mr. Covington his deputy, so that he was the first person to act officially in that county. He was chosen auditor at the first election in the county without opposition. The county was small and there was but little for county officers to do, the fees and emoluments of no one of them being sufficient to devote the hours required by law in attending at the office. The occu- pants of the several offices had a pride in being the first officers of the new county, which was their only motive for accepting the places. This led to the appointment of Mr. Covington as a deputy, and at one time when he was auditor he acted as deputy clerk of the circuit court, deputy county recorder, deputy county treasurer, and deputy school commissioner, really attending to the duties of every county office except those of sheriff and coroner. In the spring of 1846 he was chosen a justice of the peace by an almost unanimous vote. He was well known as a Democrat of the most pronounced type, yet when he came before his fellow-citizens as a candi- date he was supported strongly by the Whigs. Soon after being elected justice of the peace he was appointed postmaster at Rising Sun, and served in both capacities until the autumn of 1847, when, having been elected a member of the State legislature from the district composed of the counties of Ohio and Switzerland, and which was pretty evenly divided between the two parties, by a vote of more than two to one over his Whig competitor, he resigned the office of justice of the peace, because of the constitutional prohibition in relation to the same person holding two offices under the State con- stitution. One legislative term satisfied all his ambition in that direction, and he resolved never again to be a candidate for legislative honors. About this time he made a narrow escape from a considerable loss by being security on an official bond, and he resolved never to accept an office requiring an official bond or go as bonds- man upon one, to which he has ever since adhered. He holds that if the electors select a dishonest or incom- petent man they should be held responsible for his frauds and his errors, and not some innocent bondsman whose family may be forever pecuniarily ruined. While a member of the legislature he purchased the Courier

newspaper at Madison, Indiana, and upon the adjourn- ment of the legislature resigned his office of postmaster and removed to Madison and took charge of that paper. This was the year of the Presidential contest between General Cass and General Taylor. Madison was a strong Whig city, but very few of her merchants or leading men being Democrats. The Banner, a Whig paper, was pub- lished daily and weekly and had a good patronage. The Courier was a weekly paper and had but a limited patronage. The new editor took hold with a determin- ation to make the Courier a success. He was uncom- promising in his politics, yet he advocated the cause of the Democratic party in a way so as to avoid giving per- sonal offense, and soon the business became prosperous. In due time a daily Courier was issued. It gave atten- tion to the business interests of the city, took the tele- graphic news, which the Banner did not, and with all its sins of Democracy soon grew into public favor. The Banner has long since ceased to be published. The Courier has enjoyed prosperity from the day of its first appearance, now thirty-two years ago.

In 1848 Mr. Covington sold the Courier to Colonel M. C. Garber, recently deceased, and returned to Rising Sun and engaged in merchandising, which he continued but a short period. He again turned his attention to shipping produce south in flatboats and to insurance, en- gaging in the latter business in Cincinnati in 1851, and in which business he has ever since, with but slight inter- ruptions, continued, having been associated with the management of companies in all these intervening years, and is at this time president of the Underwriters' asso- ciation. He was one of the incorporators of the Globe Insurance company of this city, in March, 1865, and was its first secretary, having resigned the secretaryship of the Western Insurance company of this city to accept that position. He was chosen vice-president of the company in 1867, and president in January, 1874, which position he now holds. At the spring election in 1870, Mr. Covington was elected from the Seventeenth ward as a member of the first board of aldermen, was ap- pointed chairman of the committee on the fire depart- ment, and thus became, ex-officio, a member of the board of fire commissioners. The next year he was chosen president of the board of aldermen, at the close of which he retired from the board.

The legislature of Ohio at its session of 1875-76 enacted a law providing for a board of police commis- sioners to be appointed by the governor for the city of Cincinnati. Without solicitation on the part of Mr. Covington, or any previous knowledge of the wishes of the governor, R. B. Hayes, the appointment was ten- dered him by telegraph, and accepted. Mr. Covington was chosen president of the board at its first meeting, and served until the duties of the office became such a tax upon his time and so interfered with his business that he was compelled to resign.

As a delegate from the Cincinnati chamber of com- merce, he attended the convention held in February, 1868, at which was organized the National board of trade. He was elected a vice-president of the Cincinnati

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

chamber of commerce in 1868, again in 1869, and again in 1870. In 1872 he was chosen president of the same body, and was reelected in 1873, thus serving two terms. He was elected a representative of the chamber to the National Board at Chicago in 1873, and was then elected a vice-president of the National Board, and was elected a representative annually and continued a vice- president of the National Board up to 1880, when the Cincinnati chamber of commerce withdrew its member- ship from the National Board of Trade.

Mr. Covington was elected president of the Cincinnati board of trade in 1878. In 1879 the board of trade and the board of transportation were consolidated, and in 1881 he was elected president of the consolidated board, being the first instance in which any person had been elected a second time to the presidency of that or- ganization. Mr. Covington has for many years taken an active part in all matters affecting the business inter- ests and commercial prosperity of Cincinnati. His fa- miliarity with transportation and insurance, his knowl- edge of boating and boatmen, and the deep interest he has taken in the improvement of the navigation of our river, have made his services in that direction of great value to the transportation interests of our city. He was for a long time chairman of the committee of the chamber of commerce on the Louisville and Portland canal, and as such contributed largely to the early and successful completion of that important work, by going before the committee on commerce in Congress and pre- senting its claims to their consideration. He also repre- sented the chamber before congressional committees in opposition to bridges across the Ohio river likely to obstruct its navigation. He was, during several years, chairman of the committee on river navigation in the board of trade, and by his reports upon that subject at- tracted public attention to the value of our river or pub- lic highways, and their importance to the manufacturing and commercial interests of the city or routes of transit, and thus secured congressional aid for their improve- ments.

Mr. Covington's whole life has been passed so near the city, and so much of it within the city, that he may during the entire time be classed, with no great impro- priety, as a citizen of Cincinnati. Commencing as far back as 1833, he was familiar with the city and acquain- ted with very many of its citizens. That acquaintance has been so kept alive by almost daily communication when a resident, and by frequent visits when not a resi- dent, that but few persons now living here know more of the city and its inhabitants, during the past fifty years, than he does. He has seen it grow from a population of but little, if any more than thirty thousand, to its present great proportions, and watched its progress in all these years with a deep interest and just pride, feeling closely identified with it in all its material interests, and that its prosperity conduced to his own.

CHARLES McDONALD STEELE.

This gentleman, one of the best known business men and successful stock operators in the Queen City, is of Scotch descent, his father, Thomas Steele, a native of Edinburgh, emigrating to this country in 1815. Three years afterward, in Philadelphia, he was married to Miss Maria Phipps, a native of Pennsylvania. The couple re- moved to Cincinnati with their young family in 1841, where the father died of Asiatic cholera, July 21, 1849; the mother surviving him and remaining a widow for more than thirty years. She died of paralysis, January 21, 1880, and was buried beside her husband in the beauti- ful Sprimg Grove cemetery. Their son Charles was born in Philadelphia, April 24, 1841, six months before the removal to the valley of the Ohio, where, in Cincin- nati and Hartwell, he has since continuously resided. After some training in the public schools, he entered the Western Methodist Book Concern as an employee, and while here met with an accident which has ever since partly deprived him of the use of his left hand. He soon after, in 1854, began active life again as a news agent on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad, which humble position he filled satisfactorily, and with good financial results, for several years. During the last year of the war of the Rebellion he was agent for the Adams Ex- press company at Murfreesborough, Tennessee. Some years afterwards, in 1870, he made a beginning of a career as a city contractor, taking the contract for con- structing the Smith street, Clark street, and Mill street sewers during the next two years. In 1875 he was the builder of a part of McLean avenue, in the city. In the execution of his several contracts he was highly success- ful, realizing a profit in three years of about thirty thou- sand dollars. On the first of April, 1873, Mr. Steele purchased and subdivided a tract of land in the Mill Creek bottom, a venture which his friends confidently predicted would be a financial failure. Within the short space of a fortnight, however, he surprised them, and very likely himself, by selling his subdivision at a net profit of about eleven thousand dollars. Already, in 1872, he had removed his residence from Cincinnati to Hartwell, in which he bought and subdivided a tract equal to about one-fifth of the village plat. From this he has sold more than two hundred lots, and also twenty- five houses, there and elsewhere in the village. It may here be remarked that Mr. Steele has laid out as many as three subdivisions in the county, and has made a suc- cessful operation of each venture. He has, indeed, handled as much real estate to advantage as any opera- tor of his years in the county. At Hartwell he naturally takes an active interest in every enterprise that promises its material, mental, or moral development. He was mainly instrumental in securing the incorporation of the village, after a hard and somewhat protracted struggle; was its first mayor, and was twice reelected to that office; projected and sustained nearly half the cost of the beau- tiful Methodist Episcopal church building at Hartwell, and subscribed liberally to other church enterprises: and has been a member of the Hartwell board of education for six years. He has been liberal with his means in

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

expenditures for all legitimate purposes, but is economi- cal withal, husbanding and managing his large estate with care, and indulging in no expensive personal habits. After the death of his father, during the long survival of his mother, he was her sole support, and took especial pleasure in the performance of all filial duties. He still retains a large block of real estate property in Hartwell, which is one of the prettiest and most interesting sub- urbs of Cincinnati, in which city he has also a valuable estate, and there, at No. 235 West Fourth street, keeps his office. He is now serving as president of the Ross Road Machine company, at a salary of three thousand six hundred dollars per annum. In all his business en- terprises and relations he exhibits indomitable energy and courage, and is considered a remarkably good busi- ness man. Prompt and exact himself in the perform- ance of his contracts, particularly in making payments (no note or other obligation of his has failed of punctual attention at maturity), he cxpects others to be so, and holds them firmly to their agreed stipulations. He is a man of strong affections, and a good hater withal, upon occasion ; but is personally genial, thoroughly social and companionable. Rising from very humble beginnings, he has become one of the leading citizens and marked men of Cincinnati and its suburban towns.

In the fall of 1861 Mr. Steele was married to Miss Mary E. Thompson, daughter of R. P. Thompson, esq., a well known resident of Cincinnati. She is a graduate of the Wesleyan Female college, in the city, and a lady of refinement and culture. They have five children- Thomas M., Stella V., Charles W., Robert T., and Alice M. Steele. Mr. Steele has but one brother living -- the Rev. Thomas A. Steele, a minister of the Presbyterian faith

COLONEL C. B. HUNT

was born in 1833, at Somerset, in the State of Vermont, and soon after, his parents, Manson and Johanna Hunt, moved to Pontiac, Michigan. In the common schools of the neighborhood the son received the first rudiments of a plain education. In the year 1847, when but four- teen years of age, he volunteered in the First Michigan regiment, company C, and went to Mexico. Here he was employed principally in escort and guard duty be- tween Vera Cruz and Cordova, until the cessation of hostilities. For his services the "boy soldier" drew the pay of a private together with a warrant for one hundred and sixty acres of land. In 1850 Private Hunt came to Cincinnati; but there were attractions yet remaining in the Lake State, and returning in 1853 he was married at Royal Oak, to Miss Ann Eliza Durkee, with whom he lived happily twenty-seven years. The short service bc- tween Vera Cruz and Cordova was long enough to fix Mr. Hunt's inclinations, and in 1861 he was one of the first to respond to the call for troops, and with Captain Burdsall got up the Independent cavalry, which was also known as Burdsall's dragoons. Going into camp at Carthage, near Cincinnati, the men paid all expenses, perfected their organization, and in quick time rode

away to Buchanan, Virginia, where General McClellan was in command. After the battle of Rich Mountain, in which he actively participated, Colonel Hunt was des- ignated to scout duty, he having thirty men. He con- tinued in this sort of service until the expiration of his time, when he returned to Cincinnati and, in ten days, made up a cavalry company of a hundred men. These were for the three-years service, and went immediately to St. Louis, where they were made a part of what is known as "Merrill's Horse," or Second Missouri cavalry. While in this department of the west, Colonel Hunt served under Generals Fremont, Sherman and Steele; and having shown a peculiar aptness in scouting, was al- most constantly in the saddle. In 1862 he was specially appointed to select his men, find the rebel Poindexter, and "bushwhack him out of the country." This duty was satisfactorily done, Poindexter being constantly harassed, thrashed unexpectedly and out-scouted and bushwhacked, till nothing remained of him. For seven months Colonel Hunt was in charge of the post at Glas- gow, Missouri, after which he went through the Red River campaign, in which, as he says, he became expe- rienced in the good, bad and indifferent features of the cavalry service.

Colonel Hunt worked his way steadily from a private's place, a lieutenantcy, captaincy, majorship, to the position of lieutenant-colonel. He was mustered out in 1865 at Nashville, Tennessee, his last service being performed. when the "ten thousand rebels " surrendered at King- ston, Georgia. In 1876 he was commissioned as colonel of the First regiment Ohio national guards, which com- mand he has ever since held. In 1877 this regiment was called to Columbus and Newark, where the colonel was on duty for three weeks, while Governor Thomas L. Young was suppressing the railroad strikers. Governor Young and Colonel Hunt were highly commended for their courage and wisdom in so managing the military forces as to protect the property and thoroughly sup- press the rioters.

Colonel C. B. Hunt is now an unmarried man, his wife having died in 1880. He is the well-known propri- etor of Hunt's hotel, on Vine street, and is a popular citizen, easy in address, affable with all who have any business with him, and enjoys a good reputation. The colonel is now forty-eight years of age, trim-built, of dark complexion, and modest in his bearing and con- versation.

LOUIS G. F. BOUSCAREN.

Louis Gustave Frederick Bouscaren, consulting and principal engineer, and ex superintendent of the Cincin- nati Southern railroad, is of French descent, the eldest son of. Gustave and Lise (Segond) Bouscaren, of the island of Guadaloupe, in the West Indies, where the Bouscarens have been prosperous sugar-planters for scv- eral gencrations. Here Louis was born on the twentieth of August, 1840, the third child and first son of a family of cight children, equally divided as to sex. His boy- hood was spent on the ancestral plantation. When ar-

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

rived at suitable age he came under the competent instruction of his mother, who instructed him in the rudi- ments of learning until he was thirteen years old. The family had by this time removed (in 1850) from Guada- loupe to a farm in Kentucky owned by the elder Bous- caren, about half-way between Cincinnati and Lexing- ton. Three years afterwards Louis was sent for a few months to St. Xavier's college, in this city, and then went to the land of " La Belle France," to receive further education, in response to the summons of Napoleon III, as a token of regard to the memory of a paternal uncle, General Henry Bouscaren, of the French army, who had been killed at the head of his division at the siege of Laghouat, in Africa. He entered the Lycee St. Louis, in Paris, one of the great government schools, and remained there six years, engaged in classical and general studies, and then successfully passed an examina- tion for admission to the Central School of Arts and Manufactures, in the same city. He entered this insti- tution in 1859, and at the end of three years was gradu- ated with the diploma of mechanical engineer, the seventh in rank in a class of one hundred and thirty. He returned at once to America, coming on to Cincin- nati, and, after a little delay, caused by his then imperfect knowledge of English, he obtained employment as draughtsman for Messrs. Hannaford & Anderson, the well-known architects, and afterwards became assistant engineer, under Chief Engineers T. D. Lovett and E. C. Rice, of the Ohio & Mississippi railroad, and while there, under Mr. Rice's direction, prepared the plans and specifications for the large iron bridge now in use by that road over the Great Miami river. His next en- gagement was with Lane & Bodley, engine-builders and manufacturers of machinery. Here his practical educa- tion and genius as a designer and engineer had a better field for exercise than with the architects, and he justly deems this an important step in his advancement. After two years with this house he engaged for a few months in the preliminary survey of the southern part of the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis railroad. He then went with Mr. Rice, with whom he had been associated previously, to Illinois, where he superintended the sur- vey and location of the St. Louis, Vandalia & Terre Haute railroad, and as engineer built the western divi- sion, from Greenville to St. Louis. When the road was leased to the Pennsylvania company he went to St. Louis to survey and construct the St. Louis & Southeastern railroad, from that city to Evansville, Indiana, with a branch from McLeansborough to Shawneetown. He was during these operations again in his old position as assistant engineer to Mr. Rice, who was chief engineer of these roads. As such Mr. Bouscaren also took charge of the survey and construction of the railway from Cairo to Vincennes. Completing that he returned to Cincin- nati, where he had an offer from Mr. T. D. Lovett, then consulting engineer of the Cincinnati Southern railroad, to make the necessary surveys and plans for the bridges of that great highway over the Ohio and Kentucky rivers. With the commencement of building opera- tions upon this road, Mr. Bouscaren accepted the post

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 125

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