History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 119

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592

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Dr. Rhodes received all his early education in his native town, passing through the public schools and Marietta College. At the close of his Junior year in Colleg he went abroad and spent a year in Europe with a tutor, and on his return entere the first Senior class in Cornell University, graduating in 1869 in the class wit

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

Hon. J. D. Foraker and Judge Buchwalter. After two years study of law, Dr. Rhodes entered the Philadelphia Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal Church, graduated, and was ordained a deacon by Bishop Bedell at Easter, 1874, in St. Luke's Church, Marietta, Ohio, where he had been baptized and confirmed. Coming to Cincinnati at once he took charge of St. Paul's Church, on Fourth street, in which he was ordained a priest by Bishop Talbot, of Indiana, Advent Sunday, 1874. In May, 1876, he took the rectorship of the Church of Our Savior, Mt. Auburn, which had just organized with twenty-nine members, and without any church building or property whatever. Here he has remained ever since, and has now a handsome stone church and rectory worth $60,000, large schools and societies, and three hundred communicants. In 1875 he married Miss Laura Wiggins, daughter of Samuel B. Wiggins, of St. Louis, who died in 1883 leaving two sons, Goodrich Barbour Rhodes, born in 1876, and Frank Ridgely Rhodes, born in 1877. In 1885, he married Jennie, third daughter of Truman R. and Marietta Handy. Their only child, Helen Marietta Rhodes, was born in 1886, and died in her young beauty in 1894.

Dr. Rhodes has been a voluminous writer and popoular lecturer. "Creed and Greed," a volume of lectures on city misgovernment; "Dangers and Duties" [Lip- pincot, 1880], lectures to young men; "Marriage and Divorce," and many essays, ' sermons, poems, etc., have issued from his pen. In 1892 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Marietta College. He was the first clergyman ever elected to the directory of the Young Men's Mercantile Library of Cincinnati, and in 1890 was elected president of the same institution over so strong a competitor as Hon. Charles Fleischman. He has been for ten years a trustee of Kenyon College; for fifteen years the examining chaplain of the Diocese of Southern Ohio, a deputy to the General Convention, chairman of the committee on Canons, and a member of all the important committees of the Diocese. He is also a Son of the Revolution, and chaplain of the Ohio Society.

REV. JOHN M. WALDEN, D.D., LL. D., bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is a native of Ohio, and has spent most of his useful life in Cincinnati, He has, since his graduation from college in 1852, been earnestly engaged in edu- cational, civil and ecclesiastical affairs. As a tutor in his Alma Mater, as a member of the editorial staff of the Cincinnati Commercial, and subsequently as editor, State publisher, member of the Legislature and superintendent of education in Kansas, he accomplished a good work in affairs of state.

In 1858 Bishop Walden returned to Ohio, and devoted himself to the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the Cincinnati Conference. Having been suc- cessively pastor, city missionary, and presiding elder, he was sent to the General Conference in 1864, and by that body was elected to the book agency, in which office he continued until he was chosen bishop, in 1884, by the General Conference at Philadelphia. He has spent the greater part of his life in Cincinnati, where he was formerly a member of the school board, and has taken a commendable interest in the public and theological libraries, as well as in Church work. For many years he has been president of the board of trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1881, he was sent to London as a member of the Methodist Ecumenical Confer- ence where he presented the cause of temperance from the American standpoint, and the cause he serves owes much to his industry and sustained application. While busy in city mission work, he took such interest in the cause of the freedmen that he was chosen secretary of the Western Freedmen's Aid Society, and became active in the organization of the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. As a bishop, he is a good presiding officer and administrator of Church affairs. He is capable of long continued labors, and does his work as Mr. Lincoln did-by careful attention to details. Bishop Walden believes in the force and edu- cational power of statistics, and he makes frequent and forceful use of statistical

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facts. He is an observing traveler, an accurate chronicler of events, and a firm be- liever in the providential origin and mission of Methodism. He has been identified with every General Conference since 1864, either as delegate or president. During the ten years he has filled the episcopal office he has resided almost continuously in Cincinnati, but has traveled extensively over the United States and Europe in the exercise of his Episcopal supervision. He is affectionately regarded by the Method- ist people of Cincinnati as their resident Bishop.

REV. EARL CRANSTON, D.D., who is now at the head of the publishing business of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis and on the Pacific coast, resides at Avondale, Cincinnati, and is another Ohio man who has won distinction for the Commonwealth. The classic city of Athens was his birthplace. Here, amidst the rugged hills that line the shores of the Hocking river, along the valleys of which the Baltimore & Ohio and the Hocking Valley railroads pick their devions ways, Dr. Cranston grew to manhood, developing a vigorous body squarely built and above the average height. In 1861 he graduated with honor from the Ohio University under the presidency of that distinguished Ohio educator, Rev. Sol- omon Howard, D. D., LL.D. Mr. Cranston's daring and patriotic spirit led him into the Union army as a volunteer, and after faithful service he attained the cap- taincy. Rev. William Taylor, now the missionary bishop of Africa, visited Athens and held revival service, in which many students, including Mr. Cranston, were con- verted.

After the close of the war Mr. Cranston studied for business, and was engaged in commercial affairs until 1867, when he entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the Ohio Conference, and became pastor at Portsmouth. He was subsequently settled as pastor at Columbus, Ohio, Winona, Minn., Jacksonville, Ill., Evansville, Ind., Trinity, Cincinnati, and Denver, Colo .; changes being neces- sitated by the health of his family. While at Denver, Dr. Cranston took a promi- nent part in the movement to create and establish the Denver University, having been both secretary of the trustees, and chairman of the finance committee, and later a member of the Faculty. While presiding elder of the southern district of the Colorado Conference, which covered a territory of 70,000 square miles and required 11,000 miles of travel a year, Dr. Cranston, in 1884, was elected book agent, and removed to Cincinnati. As a testimonial of his literary standing the degree of Doc- tor of Divinity was conferred upon him by both Cornell College, Iowa, and Alleghany College, Pennsylvania, simultaneously in 1882. Quick of movement in business as in the pulpit, Dr. Cranston embodies and awakens animations. Celerity has been the characteristic of his life. During the ten years of his administration, the busi- ness of his agency has been largely increased, and the annual sales now amount to a million and a quarter dollars. To accommodate this immense trade new buildings have been erected on West Fourth street at great expense, which are amongst the most substantial and ornamental in Cincinnati. This artistic and commodious structure was dedicated with imposing ceremonies February 13, 1894. Dr. Crans- ton has made himself familiar with all the connectional interests of world-wide Methodism, so that as a churchman his influence is potent and valuable. Besides administering the affairs of this large commercial trust, Dr. Cranston is also the assistant treasurer of the funds of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, the collections and disbursements of which about equal the sales of the Western Methodist Book Concern, $1,250,000 annually. As Dr. Cranston was born in the summer of the Tippecanoe Presidential campaign of the Ohio candidate, he is yet in his prime, and his usefulness, like the Church he represents, is in the ascendant. Mens sana in corpore san spirituelle and earnest. Dr. Cranston is by constitution and habit optimistic. [By Rev. D. J. Starr.

REV. EZRA KELLER BELL, D. D., was born November 14, 1853, near Leitersburg, Washington Co., Md. His parents were George and Mary Ann (Mickley) Bell, of

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

In 1858 Bishop Walden returned to Ohio, and devoted himself to the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the Cincinnati Conference. Having been suc- cessively pastor, city missionary, and presiding elder, he was sent to the General Conference in 1864, and by that body was elected to the book agency, in which office he continued until he was chosen bishop, in 1884, by the General Conference at Philadelphia. He has spent the greater part of his life in Cincinnati, where he was formerly a member of the school board, and has taken a commendable interest in the public and theological libraries, as well as in Church work. For many years be has been president of the board of trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1881, he was sent to London as a member of the Methodist Ecumenical Confer- ence where he presented the cause of temperance from the American standpoint, and the cause he serves owes much to his industry and sustained application. While busy in city mission work, he took such interest in the cause of the freedmen that he was chosen secretary of the Western Freedmen's Aid Society, and became active in the organization of the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. As a bishop, he is a good presiding officer and administrator of Church affairs. He is capable of long continued labors, and does his work as Mr. Lincoln did-by careful attention to details. Bishop Walden believes in the force and edu- cational power of statistics, and he makes frequent and forceful use of statistical

751

HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

REV. EARL CRANSTON, D.D., who is now at the head of the publishing business of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis and on the Pacific coast, resides at Avondale, Cincinnati, and is another Ohio man who has won distinction for the Commonwealth. The classic city of Athens was his birthplace. Here, amidst the rugged hills that line the shores of the Hocking river, along the valleys of which the Baltimore & Ohio and the Hocking Valley railroads pick their devions ways, Dr. Cranston grew to manhood, developing a vigorous body squarely built and above the average height. In 1861 he graduated with honor from the Ohio University under the presidency of that distinguished Ohio educator, Rev. Sol- omon Howard, D. D., LL. D. Mr. Cranston's daring and patriotic spirit led him into the Union army as a volunteer, and after faithful service he attained the cap- taincy. Rev. William Taylor, now the missionary bishop of Africa, visited Athens and held revival service, in which many students, including Mr. Cranston, were con- verted.

REV. EZRA KELLER BELL, D. D., was born November 14, 1853, near Leitersburg, Washington Co., Md. His parents were George and Mary Ann (Mickley) Bell, of

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

German and French Huguenot extraction. He was reared in his native county. In 1872 he entered Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio, graduating in 1877 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In 1879 he graduated from the Theological Depart- ment of that institution, and in September of that year was ordained to the minis- try at Bryan, Ohio, by the Wittenberg Synod of the Lutheran Church. His first pastorate was West Liberty, Ohio. On September 1, 1881, he accepted a call to Findlay, Ohio, and during his incumbency the present handsome church edifice at that place was erected. October 1, 1884, he came to Cincinnati as pastor of the . First English Lutheran Church, situated on Elm street, between Ninth and Court. At that time this congregation numbered one hundred and sixty members and was the only English Lutheran Church in the city. It now numbers four hundred mem- bers, and, largely through Dr. Bell's efforts, three other English Lutheran Churches have been organized in the city and suburbs. His congregation is now preparing to erect a fine church building on a lot which has been secured on Race street, oppo- site Washington Park.

The Doctor has also been responsibly connected with reformatory and evangel- istic movements of a general character. To him was originally due the suggestion of the Committee of Five Hundred which accomplished so much for the purification of municipal politics several years ago. He was prominently identified with the Jones and Mills revivals, and in 1892 he was elected president of the Cincinnati Evangelical Alliance, which position he still holds. In 1891 he received from his Alma Mater the honorary title of Doctor of Divinity. In 1893 he was elected presi- dent of the board of directors of Wittenberg College. During his last year at col- lege he was editor of the " Wittenberger." In 1890 he was editor of the "Luth- eran Evangelist." In addition to his pastoral and pulpit work, he has been editor of the "Lutheran World" since it was founded in 1892. On October 15, 1879, the Doctor married Jennie E., daughter of John McNaull, of Mansfield, Ohio, and they are the parents of three living children: Paul S., Ethel, and Stanley McNaull. Dr. Bell is a Republican in politics.

REV. DAVID JUDSON STARR, M.A., D.D., has been longer connected with the pas- torate of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Cincinnati than any other resident min- ister, having become a pastor here in 1860. The following year he organized the Fairmount Church and took it under his pastoral care. In 1863 he was associated with Bishop Walden in the superintendency of the work of the Ladies' Home Mis- sion Society, which was then in its greatest prosperity, having under its care five chapels, with over 2,000 in its Sunday-school. In 1878 Dr. Starr became pastor of the York Street Methodist Episcopal Church, and five years later, in 1883, he was appointed Presiding Elder of the East Cincinnati District, one of the largest and most important in the Church, embracing thirty ministerial charges, among which were Trinity. Walnut Hills, Wesley, and Asbury charges, of Cincinnati, and First Church and Trinity, of Xenia. Amongst the extra official duties of Dr. Starr while on the district was the supervision of the Epworth Heights Camp Meeting, in which he was assisted by Bishop Peck, Bishop Walden, Bishop Joyce, Rev. Sam Jones, and other ministers. The success of Dr. Starr's administrative work was seen in five new churches built under his leadership, and in the increased payments for the support of the preachers of his district. Dr. Starr has been over twenty years con- nected with the secretarial work of the Cincinnati Conference, and was for six years secretary-in-chief of that body. The degree of M.A. was conferred upon him by Miami University in 1863, and that of D.D. by Mount Union College in 1881. He is a native of Ohio, and spent his boyhood in the City of Dayton. Dr. Starr spent the summer of 1881 in Great Britain and on the Continent, visiting the chief cities, cathedrals, lakes and mountains, preaching in several continental churches. and tarrying for a time in the home of his distinguished and wealthy ancestry at Kent, England, where.in 1631 the records show that Dr. Comfort Starr was warden of

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

St. Mary's Church. This distinguished physician came with his family to Boston, Mass., in 1634, and was the father of Rev. Comfort Starr, charter Fellow of Harvard College. Dr. D. J. Starr was a pastor in Cincinnati at the breaking out of the Rebellion, and rendered valuable support to the Sanitary and Christian Commis- sions in their great work, visiting the soldiers in their camps and hospitals, and preaching and lecturing on patriotic subjects. Dr. Starr is a versatile writer, con- tributes liberally to periodical literature, and is at present pastor of East Pearl Street Congregation, and financial secretary of the Society for the Suppression of Vice.

REV. WILLIAM MCKIBBIN, D. D., theologian and minister, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church on Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, was born May 24, 1850, in Pitts- burgh, Penn. His parents were William Campbell McKibbin and Jane Denny Brackenridge, both natives of Pennsylvania. The former died in 1868, and the lat- ter in 1890. His father, William C. McKibbin, was formerly a dry-goods mer- chant, a member of the firm of Hampton, Smith & Co., Pittsburgh, Penn., and later the proprietor of the " Merchants' Hotel," Philadelphia.

Dr. McKibbin came of the noble ancestry which laid deep and strong the foun- dations of religious, social and political power that has given the "Keystone State" so much influence in national affairs. His great-grandfather, Jeremiah McKibbin, was a native of Hillsborough, Ireland, having come to America during the latter part of the last century, but before the Revolutionary war, in which he served as a corporal in Company-, Pennsylvania State troops. He settled near Newville, Penn., and married Mary Chambers, a member of the famous Chambers family, founders of Chambersburg, Penn. His maternal great-grandfather was Hon. Hugh Henry Brackenridge, of Pittsburgh, an eminent jurist author of " Modern Chivalry," and at the time of his death, in 1816, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. Another maternal grandfather was William Porter, of Pittsburgh, owner of the first "nail mill" west of the Alleghany Mountains. Dr. Mckibbin's grandfather, Chambers McKibbin, illustrated, in his career, the cosmopolitan character of American life; he was a farmer, financier and politician; a prominent Democratic leader, and an: active and influential citizen; he was assistant quartermaster at Pittsburgh, under President Jackson; postmaster under President Polk; naval officer under President Buchanan, at Philadelphia, and treasurer of the Mint and U. S. Assistant Treas- urer under Johnson. Four uncles achieved distinction in the army; all were brevetted for bravery and gallant conduct in battle; one of them, Gen. D. B. Mc- Kibbin, was thus honored five times; another, Col. Joseph C. Mckibbin, after leav- ing the army became a member of Congress from California, and aided Douglas in resisting the admission of Kansas as a slave state; another, Maj. Chambers Mckib- bin, is still in the regular army. Dr. McKibbin's brothers inherited the chivalrous spirit of their ancestry, and all served with credit during the Civil war; one of them, Chambers Mckibbin, is now inspector-general of the National Guard of Pennsyl- vania. The subject of this sketch would have been with his brothers in the army, but for his extreme youth.

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History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 119

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1592

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592