History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 127

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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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

a very popular appliance, and makes its way far and wide. Mr. Varwig has agencies in Europe and in all parts of the United States, and his shipments are very large, aggregating an annual amount of about fifty thou- sand dollars.

Ever since he became of age, Mr. Varwig has taken a hearty interest in American politics, and has been a vig- orous worker in the canvasses, clubs, and at the polls, particularly among the electors of his own nationality. For about twenty-five years he trained with the Dem- ocratic party, but recently experienced a change of heart, and transferred his allegiance to Republicanism. In the spring of 1878 he was chosen to the board of aldermen from the Fourth district, and had very creditable assign- ments to committees of the board. Two years after- wards, having meanwhile removed his residence to his present home at No. 553 Court street, he was again placed in nomination and re-elected to the same board, but this time from the Fifth district. His name has often been mentioned in connection with important city and county offices, and he has several times been honored with very flattering votes or with nominations at the hands of the party conventions. He is now a member of the Lincoln club, and is also in connection with the Free and Accepted Masons, the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Honor, and sundry other societies.

Mr. Varwig has for his wife she who was Miss Emily S. Brenner, eldest daughter of John C. and Ida Antoinette (Aehle) Brenner. The date of the wedding was Novem- ber 9, 1858. Their children number two sons and as many daughters-Ida, born November 12, 1859; Emma, born April 29, 1861; Rudolph, born November 12, 1863; and Harry, born April 25, 1866.

CAPTAIN LEWIS VOIGHT.

This gentleman, head of the firm of Lewis Voight & Son, dealers in paper-hangings and decorations, and manufacturers of window-shades, at No. 205 Central Avenue, is a native Cincinnatian, born January 7, 1837. His ancestors on both sides are German. His mother, nee Margaret Helmuth, came to the city in 1830, and was here married to Mr. Henry Voight, father of the subject of this notice. He died in 1839, and Mrs. Voight remarried about two years afterwards, to Christo- pher Stager, also a resident of Cincinnati. Lewis was trained in the schools of the city, but left the day schools at the early age of thirteen, then beginning, in a meas- ure, independent life as an errand-boy in the tailor-shop of Mr. N. Haddox, on Main street, and then as an em- ploye in other establishments, coming by and by to the ticket office of the Little Miami railroad, during its oc- cupancy by Mr. P. W. Strader, and to be collector of the Cincinnati Omnibus line and messenger in the office of Irwin & Foster, steamboat agents. While still a youth he attended the night schools for about two years. At the age of sixteen he began to learn the paper-hanging business with S. Holmes & Son, on Main street near

Fifth, and was not yet twenty when his apprenticeship ended. For about two years longer he worked in the same business as a journeyman. April 28, 1858, he was joined in marriage with Miss Susanna M., eldest daughter of Michael and Mary (Gerlich) Friedel, of Cincinnati. Her mother was then widowed, the father having died of cholera during the terrible year of 1849. She is slso a native of the Queen City.

At the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion, Mr. Voight raised the larger part of a company for the Fed- eral service, which was finally received into a Kentucky regiment-the Twenty-third infantry. He was elected captain by vote of the company, and duly commissioned by Governor Beriah Magoffin early in the summer of 1861. His regiment was assigned to the army of the Cumberland, and marched and fought during his period of service under Generals Buell and Rosecrans. He was made provost marshal at Murfreesborough, Tennessee, in the summer of 1862, was in the subsequent retreat of Buell to the Ohio and in the engagement of the advance guard with Bragg's army at Munfordsville, and the pre- vious action at Woodford, Tennessee, in which his regi- ment was on the skirmish line. He was also with his command in the bloody battle of Perryville, and was afterwards, in the winter of 1862, provost marshal at Glasgow, Kentucky. Shortly after the struggle at Perry- ville, Captain Voight was subjected to a severe attack of rheumatism, which finally so disabled him that he was compelled to resign his commission, in January, 1863. Returning to his home, and measurably recovering from his ailments, he bought out a small business, only four doors above his present place, and re-entered his old trade of paper-hanging. By diligent industry and economy, his wife attending the store while he personally labored in the handicraft here and there about the city, they gradually increased their business, until now the firm of Voight & Son carries one of the largest, most varied, and otherwise superior stocks of paper-hangings and decorations in the State, and commands an extensive business in the ornamentation of the beautiful shops, offices, and homes of the Queen City. In 1866 Mr. Voight, the previous year having removed to his present more spacious quarters, embarked also in the manufac- ture of window-shades, which has become an important branch of the business.

During the engrossing pursuits of his vocation, Mr. Voight has found time to do the city and State some service. In 1872 he was elected to the board of alder- men, the upper branch of the municipal legislature, from the Seventeenth ward. In this body he served six years, or three terms, and was then chosen a councilman from the same ward for two years. In the former body he was a member of the finance committee, the most im- portant one of the board, in which he served three years, and during his second term was vice-president of the board. In the fall of 1878 he was chosen one of the Hamilton county delegation to the house of representa- tives in the State legislature, aud was there again assigned to the important committee on finance, and otherwise faithfully served his constituents and the State.

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Captain Voight has for many years been a prominent Mason in the city; is a member of the historic Lafay- ette lodge No. 81, whose story is related elsewhere in this book, and has reached the highest degrees in the York Rite and the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, and is a member of the Cincinnati Commandery No. 3, Knights Templars. He took his thirty-second degree in Masonry in 1866, when not yet thirty years old. He has also gone through all the degrees and passed all the chairs in the lodge and encampment of Odd Fellowship, and was a representative for two terms to the Grand En- campment of the State. He is in full membership in the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Cincinnati society of ex-army and navy officers. From the beginning of his political life he has been associated with the Republican party and is an active worker within the organization, being often a del- egate to the various conventions of the party. He has from childhood been a member of the First English Evangelical Lutheran church in Cincinnati, to which most of his family belong. The children number four --- Lewis William, twenty-three years old, in business with his father as junior partner, already a Knight Templar, and in other respects a prominent young citizen ; Elmore, fifteen years of age, a student in Hughes high school; Florence Gertrude, now in her twelfth year; and Lewis, aged nine, named from his father. The family resides in a pleasant home at No. 153 Barr street, Cincinnati.

CALVIN W. STARBUCK,

son of John and Sophia (Whipple) Starbuck, was born in Cincinnati on the twentieth of April, 1822, and died November 15, 1870. His father, John Starbuck, was an old Nantucket whaler, who, after following the sea for many years, removed to Cincinnati and purchased a residence on the west side of Vine street, just above Front, where Calvin was born. Like almost all in the west at that early period in the history of the city, his parents were of limited means, though having enough, with industry and frugality, to maintain existence in that "golden mean" so favorable to habits of sobriety and thrift. Young Calvin received such education as his parents could afford, and while yet a boy was obliged to rely on himself. He commenced his career in a print- ing office as an apprentice, and after finishing his trade, having saved some money, he resolved on starting a

newspaper. At the age of nineteen he founded the Cincinnati Evening Times. Being the fastest type-setter in the west, and desiring to economize his funds until his enterprise proved self-supporting, he for years set up a great portion of the paper himself, also assisting in its delivery to subscribers. From this humble beginning the Cincinnati Times grew until it had the largest circu- lation of any newspaper in the west.

On January 1, 1845, Mr. Starbuck was married to Miss Nancy J. Webster, by whom he had twelve chil- dren, nine of whom survived him-three sons, Frank W., Daniel F. M. and Calvin W .; and six daughters,

Clara B., Fanny W., Ella M., Jennie, Jessikate and Sallie W. He was a most kind husband and indulgent father.

While a very assiduous and careful business man, his whole nature seemed to be devoted to the relief of the less fortunate of his fellow-beings. To his generosity and exertions is mainly due the success of the Relief Union, one of the most deserving of our charities. Be- sides his devotion to this institution, his private charities were numerous, no needy person being turned empty- handed away. He was "great in goodness," and that, too, not in the kind which is vapid, sentimental and pretentious, but which is practical and efficient. His nature was a well-spring of benevolent sympathies. They did not need to be pumped by special, pressing ap- peals to give forth occasional and stinted supplies, but they were perennial and fresh, flowing forth in the spon- taneity of their own nature, responding to the magnet- ism of every appeal of suffering, of sorrow, and making for themselves channels in every avenue of life along which the headwaters of his benevolence might flow. Mr. Starbuck also largely interested himself in the founding of the Home of the Friendless and in build- ing up the Bethel institution.

He was foremost in patriotic works when the republic was in peril. When the Government called for funds with doubt as to the liberality of the capitalists, Mr. Starbuck at once stepped forth with his cash as a matter of duty. When in 1864 the final effort was to be made for crushing the Rebellion, and when the governor of Ohio tendered the home guards for one hundred days' service, Mr. Starbuck went as a private, when his busi- ness demanded attention and when a substitute could. easily have been secured. He proved an excellent sol- dier, serving until the expiration of his term of service and receiving an honorable discharge. To the families of those of his employes who enlisted he continued to pay their weekly salaries.

Mr. Starbuck never made a public profession of re- ligion, but he reverenced Christianity and sought to em- body its spirit in his life. Owing, doubtless, to his early training, he did not value the forms of an outward pro- fession, but esteemed the spirit more than the letter and the reality more than the symbols that represented it.

The time may come when the name of Calvin W. Starbuck will fade away from the memories of the citi- zens of Cincinnati, but it will not be until the widows of this generation are dead; it will not be until the poor, beggarly urchin of to-day shall have told his children's children the kindness of this good man to his mother, to his brothers and sisters, and to himself; it will not be until there are no poor in Cincinnati that shall need the benefactions of a relief fund; it will not be until the ex- istence of such an institution itself shall have been for- gotten, and its transactions obliterated from the records of mankind. Till then the name of C. W. Starbuck will be remembered; till then his memory will be blessed, and the people of the community will speak it forth as one of the monuments of their noblest civiliza- tion, the example and inspiration of every worthy deed.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

He may not be remembered as a rich man, an editor or statesman, but far down in the distant future he shall be held in grateful and loving remembrance as a good man and the friend of the poor.

SAMUEL SHERWOOD SMITH,

son of Levi and Hannah (Holland) Smith, was born at Solon, Cortland county, New York, August 30, 1803, being one of a family of eleven brothers, named in the order of their seniority as follows, viz: Wright, Josiah, Silas, Oliver, Holland, Marcus, Martin, Solomon, Orrin and Samuel Sherwood, twins, and Lemuel, who all lived to the age of manhood, and were known as the "sixty- foot" Smiths. Most of the brothers were above the aver- age height, Samuel being the shortest in stature, and was the most delicate in health, but outlived them all. His early educational advantages were meagre, owing to the primitive condition of his native State, no schools be- ing established as yet.

His father, while serving with the American army at Bunker Hill, was wounded by a British bullet, which was never removed and incapacitated him for manual labor. The work of the farm, which consisted of forty acres of bounty land in Cortland county, New York, devolved on the sons, and their early life was that of tillers of the soil. At the age of fifteen, the eldest brother Wright, shipped on the frigate Constitution, at Boston, Massachusetts, serving for three and a half years, and participating in the numerous engagements of the war with Algiers. At the expiration of his term of service he had saved all his allowance for "grog," which fur. nished him with the means to engage in mercantile pur- suits in Boston and subsequently in Albany, New York. From the last-named place, accompanied by his brother Samuel, he proceeded, in 1816, to move west. Their first objective point was Olean, on the headwaters of the Allegany river, which they reached after a laborious journey by wagon in the spring of 1817. Here they constructed a raft, on which was provided a habitation for their use and comfort during the prospective voyage to Cincinnati, where they arrived in due course of time. They secured accommodations for residence in a double frame building situated on the north side of Fourth street, just east of Plum, which property our subject afterwards purchased, and in 1844 erected thereon what was then considered a fine dwelling. In the construc- tion of this building was first introduced in Cincinnati the Dayton limestone which has since become so pop- ular.

At the age of fourteen, and soon after his arrival in Cincinnati, Samuel became interested in the doctrines of the New Church, as taught by Emanuel Swedenborg, and regularly attended the services which were held by the few believers at the residence of Rev. Adam Hurdus, on Sycamore street. The first public worship of the Swedenborgian Society of Cincinnati was held on the thirty-first of August, 1818, in Mr. Wing's school- house, on Lodge street, Rev. Mr. Hurdus officiating.

Mr. Smith has never swerved from his early religious convictions, and has ever been a consistent member of the First New Church society of Cincinnati, contributing to its support as well as to other denominations. From 1817 to 1822 he was employed by his brother Wright in his manufacturing business, and afterwards, for a time, entered the river trade, carrying produce generally to New Orleans by flat-boat. In 1827 he began business on his own account, the capital for which was obtained by discounting a note for three hundred dollars at three months, and endorsed by his brother Wright. In all his subsequent mercantile career he has never had occasion to need an endorser, having rigidly abstained from buy- ing goods on credit or giving a note. With the proceeds of the above-mentioned note he purchased a canal-boat and horses, and engaged in the freight and passenger traffic between Cincinnati and Dayton, to which last- named point the canal had just been opened. In this undertaking he was quite successful and was soon en- abled to pay off his only obligation, and to purchase a lot on the southeast corner of Main and Ninth. On this lot he built a two-story frame store and dwelling, in which he lived and carried on his business of general merchandizing.

The subject of this sketch was married August 17, 1826, to Margery McCormick, who died June 18, 1832, and by whom he had three children, all dead. He was married to Elizabeth Andress (who was of English birth) in Cincinnati November 11, 1832, by whom he has had ten children, six of whom are living, viz: Samuel S., jr., Sarah Elizabeth, Edwin F., Virginia, Fanny, and Charles Stembridge. Mr. Smith was active in his sympathy for the Union cause during the Rebellion, and was repre- sented by one son, who enlisted at the first call for troops, after the firing on Fort Sumter, and who served until incapacitated by physical disability. He was one of the original subscribers to the Spring Grove Cemetery association in 1844, and the Cincinnati Astronomical soci- ety in 1842, and is identified with early history of the Cin- cinnati Horticultural society and Young Men's Mercan- tile Library association. He was elected trustee to the city council April 3, 1843, and was assigned to many important committees during his term of service. He was for many years a director of the Washington Insur- ance company, and has served in that capacity in the Cincinnati Equitable Insurance company for about forty years, being elected president of the last-mentioned com- pany on January 9, 1867, and has since been annually reelected to that position.

WILLIAM BEAL DODSON

was born in Baltimore, Maryland, January 31, 1787. He was the son of John Dodson, of Shrewsbury, England, who emigrated to America in 1771, and landed at An- napolis, Maryland, where he met and married Eleanor Howard March 2, 1778. The Howard family was one of the old and honored families of Maryland. They had seven children born to thein, William being the third son.

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General Wayne and his legion, by their recent victory over the Indians-secured by a treaty at Greenville that year-made it possible for emigrants to settle and culti- vate the arts of peace in the then Northwest Territory. In that year commenced an emigration to Ohio from all parts of the old States, and Maryland sent her portion of citizens to the new El Dorado. "The West" was the word after the glorions peace, and John Dodson was among the first to determine that he would lay a new foundation in a free State, where his children might earn and enjoy their own fortune. Accordingly in the year 1795 he, with his wife and family, started to make a new home in the then far west, travelling over the mountains in wagons. William was then a boy of eight years. In November, 1795, they landed in the village of Cincin- nati, purchasing a farm a short distance out, in Spring- field township. Here a log cabin was erected, and while building a guard of armed men was employed to protect them from the Indians, who were far from peaceable in those days, and it is told as an incident of that time that while attending church the men had to carry their guns for fear of an attack from the Indians.

William remained for some years on the farm with his father, and then came to Cincinnati, where, as a carpen- ter, he was an efficient mechanic, and was active in all that pertained to the workingmen. He afterwards be- came a master-builder and did the carpenter work on the second court house built in Cincinnati. The first one built in the village was on the north part of the square between Fourth and Fifth streets, fronting on Main, but in 1814 this was burned down and the new court house was built farther out, as far up as two squares above Seventh on Wayne street, which, in early days, was the boundary of the in-lots of Cincinnati. The carpenter work of this court house was all done by William Beal Dodson. He was also the builder of the noted Pearl Street house, a very grand hotel in its day, below Third on the east side of Walnut street. He was one of the most active workers of the Episcopal church in Cincinnati, when they held their services in the old Wing school- house, corner Sixth and Vine streets. He served as ves- tryman for several years, and often as a lay-reader when a clergyman could not be found. He was a very earnest politician in his day, and, though never caring to hold any public office, was at one time county commissioner, and during his term of office many of the improvements of the city were made.

Mr. Dodson was married December 7, 1825, to De- borah Starbuck, daughter of John Starbuck, of Nantucket, Massachusetts, to whom nine children were born.

In 1850 Mr. Dodson bought a beautiful home on the hillside overlooking the city near Fairmount, which he improved and named "Cypress Villa," where he retired from the cares of active life. In 1861 he was elected president of the Cincinnati Pioneer association, and to the day of his death took an active interest in the society. Nearly eighty years of his life were spent here. He watched a village grow up into a city, with its boundless influence. William Beal Dodson died January 26, 1875, aged eighty-eight years.

WILLIAM HENRY COOK.

William Henry Cook, A. M., M. D., was born in New York city, January, 1832. His father was abuilder; and soon after moved to Williamsburgh (East Brooklyn), where he was a leading contractor and prominent citizen greatly respected. The family moved to Canada in 1840, and returned in 1847. The son, an early and eager student, received a classic education, the removal in 1847 interrupting his college course. He chose med- icine as his profession by the advice of L. N. Fowler, with whom he travelled several months; and graduated at Syracuse. After some practice in the country, he opened an office in New York city and attended the hospitals there for a year or more. In October, 1854, he took up his residence in Cincinnati. Independent in thought and of great energy, he adopted the Physio- Medical system of practice, believing it to be based on the immutable laws of nature. To him, numbers and mere human authority are nothing; for these, if in error, will be overthrown by the truth, and to find this truth in science is to him the only object worthy of an honest man. He is a tireless worker in his espoused cause, bringing to it a philosophical mind, thorough education, fine literary talents, and the enthusiasm of profound con- viction. He has elevated this system to a very high scientific standard, and is its acknowledged head. Dignified and courteous, he never uses personalities toward opponents, but respects their motives while dif- fering from their opinions and believing that some day all will see medical truth alike in Nature. His opponents bear testimony to his uprightness, sincerity, and high scholarship. He was the mover in organizing the Physio- Medical institute in 1859, and has ever since been its dean and one of its professors, and for eleven years has held the chair of Theory and Practice. He is a superb teacher, and enjoys a wide experience and the culture obtained from one of the largest private medical libraries in the city. His lectures draw students from Maine to Oregon, and he is professionally consulted from every State. He has been eminently successful in several lithotomy operations and other capital surgery. While making a business, he taught some private classes in botany and chemistry. In May, 1861, he saw the coming need for female nurses, organized a Florence Nightingale society of nearly one hundred prominent ladies, and instructed them in nursing and hospital duties. General McClellan warmly approved this work, which was the initiatory movement to the famous Sanitary commission of the war. In 1871 Lawrence university, Wisconsin, con- ferred on him an honorary Master of Arts. In 1872 and subsequently he conspicuously advocated a system of State medical laws, by which a very high standard of professional education would be enforced and corrupt colleges be over- turned, yet the rights of the people and of individual conviction be secured. His articles were very widely copied. He is a rapid writer ; clear, elegant and forcible in style. Few inen surpass him in literary taste and power, or in literary culture. Since January, 1855, he has edited the Cincinnati Medical Gazette and Recorder, and pub- lished the following text-books: Physio-Medical Surgery,

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

octavo; Woman's Book of Health, duodecimo; Physio- Medical Dispensatory, large octavo; Spermatorrhea, duo- decimo; Science and Practice of Medicine, large octavo, two volumes.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 127

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