History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 126

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 126

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of chief engineer in charge of construction, under Mr. Lovett's administration. When the latter gentleman re- signed, in 1877, his place was offered by the trustees of the road to Mr. Bouscaren, whose work had in every way approved itself to them, and was by him accepted. He had, meanwhile, supervised the construction of the great bridges of the road, for which he was first taken into its employ, and they, with other fine structures on this line, are among the monuments of his genius and skill. Soon after his appointment, the duties of superintendent were added to· his already onerous responsibilities, which he carried successfully until the road was completed, when they were properly transferred to another, who took the superintendency solely in charge. Mr. Bouscaren has since remained the consulting engineer of the trustees of the road, joining to his official duties the carrying of a general business in civil and mechanical engineering, especially railway building, at his office at 134 Vine street. He is also consulting engineer for the New Orleans & Northwestern railroad, now in course of construction. His large abilities and superior general and technical education have thus abundant opportunity for practical application in important fields of labor. He is a mem- ber of the American Society of Civil Engineers; of the Institute of Civil Engineers of England, the oldest of the kind in existence; and of the French Societe des Engenieurs Civile. Apart from these professional asso- ciations, he has not cared to multiply his memberships, nor take active part in politics.

HON. JOHN FEHRENBATCH.

This gentleman, at present United States supervising inspector of steam vessels for the Seventh district, is of Gaelic stock, his parents both being French. John Fehrenbatch, his father, was a native of Bordeaux, and came to this country many years ago, locating in Roch- ester, New York, where he still resides. His mother, nee Marie Weaver, was also a native of France, and was married to Mr. Fehrenbatch in 1843. In the city of Rochester the subject of this sketch was born, June 29, 1844. After a single year in the public schools he en- tered a woollen factory at the early age of eight years, running one of the machines therein. He remained in this business, working full hours but attending night- schools, as he had opportunity every winter, until he was strong enough to undertake a more robust business,' when he began his apprenticeship at blacksmithing, and served through his term. He then, at the age of seven- teen, went to Peterborough, Canada, to learn the trade of machinist with Messrs. Mowry & Son. He served a full apprenticeship of three years with them, and then came to Cincinnati. These employments not only fitted him for the subsequent responsible duties laid upon him, but enabled him to find employment readily in a city where mechanical operations are so extensive. He took a temporary engagement as a journeyman machinist with Charles Winchell, who had a machine shop in the city and is still residing here; but as his main object in

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

returning to the States was to assist in the war for the Union, then in progress, and he had come to Cincinnati for the purpose of enlisting, he shortly entered the United States military railroad service. He was stationed at Nashville and kept actively engaged in building locomo- tives for the Federal railways. This service lasted until near the close of the war in March, 1865, when Mr. Fehrenbatch was honorably discharged and went North to Indianapolis, where he took employment with E. T. Sinker & Co. as a machinist. He here entered the Pur- due business college, studying and practicing his lessons of evenings, until he had triumphantly completed his course.

After a brief visit to the old home in Rochester he was recalled to Indianapolis by Messrs. Sinker & Co., and given employment as foreman of the governor de- partment of their works. Here he remained until Sep- tember, 1870, when at a convention held in Cleveland of the association representing the mechanical engineers of the United States and Canada,. which was formed in 1859, he attended as a delegate of the Indianapolis branch, of which he had been president for the preced- ing two years. He was at this session elected president of the International association of North America, being then but twenty-six years old-a very handsome and un- doubtedly well-merited honor. He resigned his fore- manship in consequence of this election, removed to Cleveland, then and now the headquarters of the organi- zation, and devoted himself to its interests. By virtue of his office he was editor of the Mechanical Engineer, a monthly periodical which was the organ of the associa- tion and devoted to topics relating to steam engineering. During his presidency he was called to visit nearly every city in the United States, in which he delivered lectures upon matters interesting to the profession, thus greatly enlarging his experience and fund of information and thought. He was constantly solicitous of the rights and privileges of mechanics and laboring men generally, and had frequent opportunity to render them special service. He was elected president of the Industrial Congress of the United States, which met in Cleveland in July, 1873, and was the largest body of representative workingmen that ever assembled on this continent; delegates from more than five hundred thousand organized working- men of all trades and vocations.

In October, 1875, Mr. Fehrenbatch was elected to the house of representatives in the State legislature, from the Cleveland district, and served through the Sixty- second general assembly. He was chairman of the committee on commerce and manufactures, of that on public works, and of the select committee appointed to investigate the subject of contract convict labor, as car- ried on in the penal institutions of the State, and its effect on manufacturing interests in Ohio, upon free labor and the reformation of the convict. In due time, after a thorough and lengthy inquiry, he reported, on be- half of the committee, against the letting of convict labor out on contract. During his legislative career he also became the creator of the State Bureau Labor of Statis- tics, whereby the interests of the toilers have been

greatly enhanced and information concerning them and their labors have been widened.

By successive reelections for terms of two and four years, at Albany and Louisville, he had been retained at the head of the international body of Mechanical engi- neers but on the first or May, 1877, he resigned the presi- dency to accept the government position he now holds, by appointment of President Hayes, July Ist of that year. The headquarters of the supervising inspector had been at Pittsburgh; but the new appointee succeeded in hav- ing the office removed to Cincinnati, where it has since remained. The importance and responsibility of the post may be inferred from the fact that his" district in cludes the Ohio river and all its tributaries above Carrollton, at the mouth of the Kentucky. The official records of the office demonstrate the fact that during the period of his incumbency, now nearly four years, there have been fewer accidents and less loss of life and steamboat property than during any correspond- ing period in the same region since steamboat navigation was introduced. During 1880 four million five hun- dred thousand persons were transported on steamers within his district, and not one of them was even injured by the casualties of navigation.

Mr. Fehrenbatch has been actively engaged in politics ever since he became of age, and is well known through- out the State as a logical, eloquent and effective Repub- lican speaker, especially to the workingmen. He was one of the founders of the famous Lincoln club, in this city, and is a prominent stockholder in it. He is presi- dent of the Cincinnati branch of the organization of mechanical engineers, an active member of Kilwinning Lodge, No. 356, of Free and Accepted Masons, the Cin- cinnati Chapter No. 3 Royal Arch Masons, and the Cincinnati Commandery No. 2 of Knights Templars. He has advanced to the thirty-second degree in Masonry, of the Ancient, Accepted Scottish Rite-the last except a purely honorary degree. From very humble begin- nings and the severest toils he has advanced to his pres- ent distinguished and highly useful position. Mr. Fehrenbatch was a wdower when married to his pres- ent wife January 8, 1879. She was Miss Mary Jane Kissick, of a Cincinnati family. He has three chil- dren by his successive marriages-two girls and one boy-who are living, and has buried three children.

GEORGE K. DUCKWORTH.

George King Duckworth, one of the best-known young business men of Cincinnati, and a prominent Demo- cratic politician, was born at Lebanon, Warren county, Ohio, June 18, 1847, oldest child and only son of Jesse Corwin and Elizabeth (King) Duckworth. There was but one more child in the family, a daughter, Lizzie Jane, now Mrs. J. F. Trader, of Xenia. The Duckworth stock is English, as also the King family, the first of whom to emigrate to this country was Isaac, grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He was a pioneer settler in Monroe, Butler county, where his daughter, Elizabeth,

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

was married to Jesse Duckworth. Mr. Duckworth's father, George, was an old resident of Lebanon, where a part, at least, of his family were born. His son Jesse, when grown to manhood, became a farmer and promi- nent dealer in stock, to which business, then a large one in the Miami country, he was specially adapted, and in which he accumulated a considerable fortune. He died comparatively young, at the age of thirty-seven; and the mother had died two years before, from exposure and cold, contracted after the birth of the second child. The father married again, and very fortunately, so far as the children, as well as he, were concerned. The name of the second wife was Mrs. Clementine (Van Note) Washington, her first husband having been the Rev. Oswald Washing- ton, a Methodist clergyman, who died a few months after marriage, of cholera, in the dreadful year of 1849. He was a brother of the well-known Cincinnati builder and contractor, George W. Washington, who was killed in this city, in May, 1881, by falling from a coal elevator he was building. The new Mrs. Duckworth proved an excellent mother to her second husband's children, and brought them up with care. She is still living with her step- daughter, Mrs. Trader, at Xenia.

George K. Duckworth's early years were spent alto- gether in Lebanon. He entered the public schools of that place when about seven years old, and passed through all the grades, completing the course in the high school in 1860. He then entered the dry goods store of Messrs. Hardy & Budd, in Lebanon, as a clerk, and served about a year, and after some other clerical services he determined to push his fortunes in a larger field, and in 1862, at the age of fifteen, he came to the Queen City. Here he obtained a position in the great dry goods shop of Messrs. Shillito & Co., as a salesman, and then went rapidly through the grades of promotion, and at the end of about three and one-half years found him- self superintendent of the entire establishment, at a salary widely removed from his humble beginnings in the store. He served in this capacity not far from three years. A few months before leaving it he invested some means received by inheritance from his father, in the business of redistilling and rectifying, with the firm of H. H. Hamilton & Co. Deciding in a short time to em- bark in trade for himself, he formed, with Mr. P. B. Spence, the firm of Duckworth & Spence, in the com- mission business, and dealing in flour, grain and hemp. His truly remarkable losses by fire had already begun, however. In 1870, the house of Hamilton & Co. was completely burned out; and the establishment of Duck- worth, Kebler & Co. (composed of Mr. Duckworth and George P. Kebler), successors to Duckworth & Spence, in 1876, was subsequently a prey to the fire-fiend. The business had, before the dissolution of Duckworth & Spence, been substantially changed to the trade in whole- sale liquors, in which the new firm was carrying a heavy stock, with light insurance. They resumed business at once, however, in new quarters, but merely to wind up the affairs of the firm. It was dissolved the same year of the fire (1877), when Mr. Duckworth devoted himself solely to the business of the old White Mills distillery,

which he had bought some years before, and had run it on his own account. He has since confined himself solely to this business, which has grown upon his hands until now he has perhaps the finest distillery property in the country, with a yearly volume of transactions ex- ceeded by very few other houses of the kind in the city. In July, 1876, he suffered another heavy loss, in the de- struction of his entire works by fire, kindled by a stroke of lightning. Notwithstanding his defeated hopes, although still a young man, his means have very hand- somely accumulated, and have been largely invested in city property. He has expended liberally, however, es- pecially for the benefit of the Democratic party, which has commanded his allegiance from the beginning of his political life. He has long been an active worker in pol- itics, and, when the board of city commissioners was constituted by the legislature, Mr. Duckworth was ap- pointed, by Police Judge Wilson, as the single member for the five-years' term. He was offered the presidency of the board, by vote of a majority of the members, but declined the position.

A high compliment was paid Mr. Duckworth during the last Presidential campaign, in the giving of his name to a large club of the young Democrats of the city, which was a new organization and made a conspicuous figure in the canvass of that year. Its organization has been retained; a beautiful club-house, of two rooms, on Seventh street, has been fitted up for it; its membership has been increased to more than seven hundred, and it promises to become a very powerful factor henceforth in the politics of southwestern Ohio.

Mr. Duckworth was joined in marriage December 9, 1869, to Miss Lucy, daughter of Henry and Lucy L. (Porter) Bishop, and niece of ex-Governor Bishop. They have two children-Lillian Belle, born on the six- teenth day of June, 1872; and Willie Kebler, born on the seventeenth day of November, 1873. The family resides in an elegant mansion, at No. 256 Fourth street, near the Grand hotel.

MORTON MONROE EATON, M. D.,

of No. 120 West Seventh street, Cincinnati, has been a resident of Ohio but four years, but has in that time es- tablished a fine reputation in the treatment of diseases peculiar to women. The doctor's reputation is not con- fined to Cincinnati, but extends all over the United States, and he has patients constantly from other distant cities and States sent him by other physicians, or by those he has treated. The doctor never advertises. This ex- tended reputation is due to his success and to the popu- larity which his work on the Diseases of Women has given him. This large and very complete volume of about eight hundred pages, is fully illustrated with original drawings, and is issued from the press of Boericke & Tafle, New York.

Mr. Eaton is a man in the prime of life, being but forty-one years of age. He was born in Pelham, Massa- chusetts, April 21, 1839. His father was a farmer, who

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was called to occupy many positions of trust in the State of Massachusetts. Morton was educated at Amherst, and went to Illinois in 1855. In Chicago he studied medicine with the late Professor Daniel Brainard, for- merly president of Rush Medical college. Dr. Eaton graduated from this college in 1861. He was appointed resident physician of the city hospital of Chicago, where he remained two years. He then removed to Peoria, Illinois, where he was made surgeon of that post in the time of the war of the Rebellion. At this time he passed his examination as a surgeon, with the rank of major, but did not enter the service on the field, on account of the death of his father just at this time. He, however, made five trips to different parts of the south for the san- itary commission, under the direction of Governor Yates, of Illinois, distributing sanitary stores and assisting the wounded and needy to get home or to suitable hospitals.

Dr. Eaton commenced writing for medical journals while a student, and he was rewarded in 1867 by being made an honorary member of the International Congress of Paris, France. He is now president of the City Ho- mœopathic Medical society, of Cincinnati, a position he has held two years. In 1871 the doctor adopted the ho- mœopathic system of medicine. He was twice elected first vice-president of the State society of Illinois. He is now an honorary member of this society as well as the Indiana institute and the College of Physicians and Sur- geons of Michigan. He is, of course, a member of the American Institute of Homoeopathy. In societies he always takes a leading part, enjoying them better than a party, as he says.

Dr. Eaton has a pleasing, though dignified, address. He might, perhaps, have increased his popularity by greater sociability; but his studious habits have inter- fered with his engaging in the usual round of society life. In religion Dr. Eaton is a Congregationalist, having joined that church in his youth in Chicago.

Dr. Eaton married, at the age of twenty-one, Miss Eliza Payne, of Galesburgh, Illinois, a graduate of Knox college. She died some four years since, and he is now married to Miss Sutherland, of Peoria, Illinois, one of the most charming of women. He expects during this summer (1881) to take his beautiful wife to Europe, and combine business with pleasure in attending the World's Homœopathic convention, in London. Dr. Eaton's book is already used in England and Germany as a text-book in colleges, as well as in all the homœopathic colleges in the United States. Dr. Eaton's health is not the best, but by care he is enabled to enjoy comparative ease. He has been prospered financially, and is, in this respect, in independent circumstances. On coming to Cincinnati he was an equal partner with Professor S. R. Beckwith, and when Professor Bartholow went to Philadelphia, Dr. Eaton took his office, where he still remains. He has an extensive interest with ex-Mayor Davis and others in nine thousand two hundred acres of the Tennessee Valley Coal association, and is also a stockholder in the new Metropolitan bank, of Cincinnati.

The doctor has been a hard student, as the thoughtful countenance and sprinkling of gray hair attest. He

constantly writes for medical journals. In his department of medicine he has made several improvements in surgi- cal instruments and has invented some useful new ones which bear his name. He says he has never been un- kindly treated by his professional brethren of either school. This is doubtless due to the courtesy he has ex- tended to them, as well as their appreciation of his abil- ity and skill.

The doctor's mother is still living and in good health. He has one own brother, F. L. Eaton, of F. L. Eaton & Company, Cincinnati. He has one sister living in Illinois, and one step-brother, Shelby M. Cullom, the present governor of Illinois.

CAMPBELL JOHNSTON AND FAMILY.

The subject of this sketch settled in Cincinnati about the year 1820. He was born in county Derry, Ireland, and, with his younger brother, James (who was for many years city treasurer of Cincinnati,) emigrated to this coun- try during the War of 1812, their young hearts full of sym- pathy for the American flag. After some years spent in Pennsylvania and at St. Louis, trading, the two brothers entered into a wholesale grocery, dry goods, and hardware business on the west side of Main, a few doors below Sec- ond, and carried on a successful business until 1832, when he retired to a large farm near Mt. Carmel, in Clermont county, Ohio. The style of the firm was C. & J. Johnston. He died there in 1843. He was universally esteemed and respected. He never made any enemies, for, whether as merchant or farmer, he was absolutely fair and honest with all with whom he came in contact. In religious faith he was a staunch Presbyterian, and worshipped at the old frame building where now stands the imposing First Presbyterian Church edifice, on Fourth street, near Main, Dr. Joshua Wilson then being pastor. So zealous was he, that, upon his removal to Clermont county, with the as- sistance of his brother James, he organized a society and erected a substantial church building there, which to-day has a numerous and influential congregation. As a merchant he was full of enterprise and adventure, mak- ing many voyages in the keel-boat to New Orleans with produce, returning laden with sugar, molasses, etc., the only motive power being the pole, the paddle, and shore line. Months were consumed in a trip, attended with great labor as well as many dangers. As a farmer he was progressive, expending much in the introduction of fine breeds of horses and cattle. In politics he was an un- flinching Democrat, a great admirer of Andrew Jackson, whom in personal appearance he much resembled. He married Miss Jerusha Sandford, of Bridgehampton, Long Island, New York, meeting her here while she was on a visit to relatives. She survived him, dying in 1854. She was a devoted wife, a kind mother, and lived the life of a true, noble, Christian woman. They sleep sweetly in beautiful Spring Grove. Five children were born of their marriage, all of whom are living-John, James S., and Nancy C. born at Cincinnati, and Hannah H. and Rob- ert A. born at Mt. Carmel, Ohio.

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John is a prominent member of the Cincinnati bar. He was educated at Miami university-served through the Mexican war-read law with General Thomas L. Hamer and Judge Storer, and graduated at the Cincin- nati Law school. He practiced several years at Batavia, Ohio; served one term as prosecuting attorney, and as State senator for Clermont and Brown counties, having been elected on the Democraric ticket. In 1864 he joined his brother Robert in the practice at Cincinnati. It was his form of indictment under the stringent liquor law en- acted under the new constitution that stood the test of the supreme court. It forms part of the syllabus in the case of Miller vs. State (Third Ohio State Reports, page 475), Judge Thurman announcing the opinion of the court. He married Miss Lamira Gregg, of Moscow, Ohio, and now resides on Walnut Hills.

James S. is an extensive farmer and stock and fruit grower in Bond county, Illinois. He married Miss Mal- vina Simkins, of Clermont county, Ohio.

Nancy C. is the wife of our prominent and influential citizen, Thomas Sherlock, residing in the beautiful suburb of Clifton. She has been twice married, her first husband being the late General Panel Turpin, near New- town, this county.

Hannah H., unmarried, resides with her sister, Mrs. Sherlock.

Robert A. resides at Avondale, near Cincinnati; was born in 1835, and educated at Hanover college, Indiana, where he graduated in 1854. He taught school for a time while reading law, and in 1857 graduated at the Cincinnati Law school, and at once entered the practice there. From 1861 to 1863 he was a member of the city council. He served as a private soldier in the one hun- dred days' call, in the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Ohio National guard, Colonel S. S. Fisher, the regiment be_ ing stationed at Fort Spring Hill, on the Appomatox river, near City Point, Virginia. He was for six years mayor of Avondale, and, in 1876, after twenty years of successful practice, was elected upon the Democratic ticket a judge of the court of common pleas, which position he now holds, and is its presiding judge, the bench of the First Judicial district being composed of seven members. He married Miss Elizabeth T. Moore, near Batavia, Ohio.

HENRY VARWIG,

manufacturer of bungs and faucets, at Nos. 421 and 423 West Court street, and member of the board of aldermen from the Fifth district (Twentieth ward), is a native of Hanover, now a province of Prussia. His parents were Joseph Henry and Maria (Brenkmann) Varwig. Both families represented in this union had been agriculturists from time immemorial, and his father pursued the same vocation near the city of Osnabruck, in Hanover. In 1841 he brought his family, with a party of immigrating friends and relatives, to this country, and came to Cin- cinnati at once, where some acquaintances of theirs had preceded them. The elder Varwig went into the brick- making business at the corner of Linn and Findlay

streets, now closely built up, but then open ground for a long distance each way. He did well in this branch of manufacture, but in about three years changed to the re- tail trade in groceries on Findlay street, between Linn and Baymiller, and carried on that business until his death. He left a moderate property and two children, one a half-sister of Henry Varwig, the child of a second wife. Henry's mother died in the fatherland, about 1838, before the emigration of her husband, and his father was remarried after he settled in Cincinnati. His only son, the subject of this notice, was born November 30, 1835. He was in his sixth year when the family came to this city, soon entered the public schools, and took nearly the full course therein, stopping when a member of Woodward college, after about two years' at- tendance. He then took a full course of book-keeping and business instruction in Bacon's commercial college. He was now in his eighteenth year, and secured a po- sition at once as book-keeper in the clothing store of Bernhard Varwig, his uncle, on the corner of Court and Main streets. He remained at this post about three years, and then went into the retail grocery business by himself, on Findlay street. For a few years he followed this vocation, but when the mechanical bakery was started here, in 1857, proposing a "new departure" in the methods of his trade, he became a salesman in the establishment, but left it in a year or two, and, after a year's vacation, started a cracker bakery of his own on Court street, next door to the premises he now occupies, and in a building which he used as a part of his works during the war. At this period he carried on a very large contract business for the Government-perhaps the largest of the kind in the city-making hard bread for the army and navy. He was compelled by his heavy contracts and the energy and success with which he filled them, to enlarge his works until they had the capacity of consuming two hundred barrels of flour per day, or, to put it differently, of turning out nearly eight hundred boxes of "hard tack" in the same period. At one time he held and executed the largest contract of the kind ever given to a western house, amounting to about two hundred and seventy thousand dollars, which paid for three millions of pounds of bread. At the same time his bakery turned out large quantities of crackers, of the dif- ferent varieties, for the city trade, and to fill wholesale orders from many points more or less remote. This business proved very profitable, and left Mr. Varwig in excellent shape to invest in other lines of enterprise. He sustained some heavy losses, at one time twenty- three thousand dollars by the failure of a banking house, but courageously went forward, and, a few years after the close of the war, converted his bakery into what seemed a more hopeful line of manufacturing, the same in which he is now engaged. He has not had, nor has he now, any partners, but has had the ability to manage the var- ious lines of business in which he has been engaged, however extensive, by the energies of his own brain. He manufactures the Varwig self-ventilating beer faucet, a device of his invention, whose patent he solely controls, and of which he is the only manufacturer. It has proved

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 126

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