History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 145

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

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Mr. McDougal is a grandson of the late Hugh McDougal, an old and highly esteemed resident of Cincinnati, who passed away at a ripe old age, in 1868. The father of our subject was born in Cincinnati, and after leaving school worked at the blacksmith business. In 1845 he moved to Indianapolis, where he continued to carry on the blacksmith business until his retirement from active life a few years ago. His mother was born in Virginia, and came to Henry county, Ind., when only twelve years of age. Both parents still survive and have their home in Indianapolis. They had born to them six children, two of whom died in infancy; the survivors are: Anna, wife of George Dickler, of Indianapolis; James A .; George H., and Ida, wife of William Wilson, residing in Guernsey, White county, Ind. In his political affilia- tions Mr. McDougal is a Republican.

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FREDERICK PARKER, retired coal and lumber merchant, Cumminsville, was born in Derbyshire, England, in January, 1818, son of John and Susan Parker. In 1839 he came to America, locating near Cincinnati, and subsequently, in 1842, engaged in farming, which he still follows. He established a large coal and lumber yard in Cumminsville, which he managed successfully for many years. Of late years Mr. Parker has lived a retired life. He was married, in 1846, to Margaret Langlands, and to this union seven children have been born; those living are: David, of Cali- fornia, and Alexander, of Cumminsville. The deceased are John, Richard, William, Sarah and Mary. Mr. and Mrs. Parker are members of the Presbyterian Church. Politically he is a Republican; he was a member of the school board of Cumminsville for several years, and for a time treasurer of the board.

JOHN HENRY HERMESCH is a native of Borringhausen, Germany, born December 19, 1833, the youngest of three children born to Henry and Mary Hermesch. His parents were natives of Germany, and his father was a farmer by occupation. Our subject received a common-school education in his native land, and when about twenty years old came to the United States, settling in Cincinnati, where he began working for Cobb, Williams & Company, afterward Cobb, Christie & Company, hay and grain merchants, with whom he learned the business. He remained with them until 1867, when he established the firm of J. H. Hermesch & Company, at Nos. 17 and 19 Water street, where the business was conducted until lack of space compelled him to seek larger quarters. He then removed to Nos. 8 and 10 Water street, where, under his able direction, the business continued to expand. Finally he removed to a commodious five-story brick warehouse, on the corner of Walnut and Water streets. Seeing that the growth of the business would eventually render this inadequate, he constructed, in 1889, the largest track warehouse in the West. It is situated on the Kentucky Central and Louisville & Nashville railways, is fireproof throughout, and has a capacity of one hundred and fifty cars. Last year it was found that still greater storage facilities were required, and another warehouse was erected at Erlanger, Ky., on the Cincinnati Southern, where all delays and expense of transfer are avoided.

The The building is 200 by 35 feet, fire-proof, and modern in construction. firm handles annually very large quantities of hay, as well as thousands of bushels of grain. As a business man Mr. Hermesch ranks with the foremost in the Queen City. His standing in the business world is due to his own efforts and tireless en- deavors. The firm does a heavy business all over the country, and ships largely throughout the South.

CAPTAIN F. R. PHILLIPS, manager of the Walnut Hills District Telegraph Com- pany, was born in Cincinnati, October 24, 1862, a son of Robert A. and Lizzie J. Phillips, the former born in England in 1848, and the latter born in New York City, October 14, 1848. The father, a machinist by occupation, is residing in Har- rison county, Kentucky.

Our subject is the eldest of two boys and three girls. He attended the common schools of Cincinnati until fourteen years of age, when he began to learn the machin- ist trade, and after completing same worked at engineering for some time. Later lie had charge of the engines of the Globe Rolling Mills on Water street, Cin- cinnati, where the present gasworks are now located, and still later had charge of the electric engines at the Edison Light Company, Fourth and Vine streets; while thus employed he invented an automatic counting machine to be used on any kind of machinery-on printing presses to count the number of copies that are run off; on grain elevators to register the amount that runs through the elevators, etc. He also invented an automatic clock used by railroad and telegraph companies. The Captain is at the present time manager of the Walnut Hills District Telegraph Company. He intends to introduce an automatic burglar alarm, which rings a bell the instant a burglar attempts to effect an entrance into any residence connected with his office. As an officer of the law he has a record to be proud of. He knows that there is such

Alleore

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

a word as " fear" in Webster's Unabridged, but that is the extent of his acquaint- ance with it. When the vicinity of Newport was infested with convicts who had es- caped from the stockades in Tennessee, during the miners' strike, he arrested sixteen of them, nine of whom were desperate murderers.

Capt. Phillips was united in marriage, September 26, 1888, to Lizzie G., daughter . of William P. and Julia E. O'Meara, born in Cincinnati, February 28, 1862. Polit- ically he is a Republican.

CAPTAIN SAMUEL BETTS HALLEY was born in Cincinnati, October 29, 1814. His father, David S. Halley, was born in Salisbury, Conn., of English stock, was a mer- chant, and came to Cincinnati in 1800. His mother was Mary Betts, also of Eng- lish stock, born at Newark, New Jersey.

Samuel received his education in private schools, attending first the school taught by the brothers John and David Talbott, and subsequently. was a pupil of the classical academy taught by John Findley, of the old Cincinnati College. From 1830 to 1833 he was at Lane Seminary, which then had an academic depart- ment, and was conducted on the manual labor plan. He was graduated at the Miami University in the class of 1839, and received from this institution the literary degrees A. B. and A. M.

Captain Halley was in the steamboat business for fifteen years, and was a popular commander of important boats. Tiring of the river, he bought a farm in Clark county, Ind., where for twelve years he was a successful farmer. He then resumed commercial business, serving for a number of years as assistant auditor of · the Louisville, Jeffersonville and Madisonville Indianapolis railroad. On November 2, 1841, he was united in marriage with Miss Harriet Hathaway, of Rising Sun, Ind., and to their union were born four daughters and one son. In 1828 Capt. Halley united with the Presbyterian Church, and has maintained a good standing all his life, serving in later years as a ruling elder. He was a member of the court which tried Henry P. Smith, D. D., for heresy. He is connected with the Masonic Order, and also with the Odd Fellows, and in the latter Fraternity has occupied the highest office, past grand patriarch, and has been past grand representative of the Sovereign Grand Lodge of Indiana. He has a wide circle of acquaintances, and keenly enjoys social life.

CHARLES RANDOLPH BROWN was born in Dayton, Ohio, December 28, 1832. Three generations of his ancestors were among the earliest settlers of Hamilton county. His mother, Sarah (Groom) Brown, came to Columbia in 1794, from Chat- ham. N. J., when four years of age. with her parents, John and Susannah Brant Groom. About the same time, perhaps somewhat earlier, came John Brant and wife, parents of Susannah Groom, and great grandparents of Charles R. Brown. His mother was married the second time, in 1824, in Lebanon, Ohio, to the father of our subject, Thomas Brown. Thomas Brown is still living at Dayton, Ohio, at the age of ninety-four years, and is still in business, serving as the president of the S. N. Brown Wheel Company of that place. He suggested and laid the first boulder pavement ever laid west of the Alleghany Mountains, at Dayton, in 1830. The authorities of Cincinnati, hearing of this unusual piece of work, sent a commissioner to examine it, which resulted in bringing Mr. Brown to Cincinnati to introduce bouldered streets. His mother lived to the age of ninety-four.

Charles was educated at Dayton, enjoying the advantages of the academy taught by the well known Milo G. Williams. At the age of sixteen he left the farm adjacent to the city of Dayton, to join an engineering corps under R. M. Shoe- maker, then superintending the building of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton rail- road. He was associated with Mr. E. W. Woodward, the prominent railroad man- ager, who was then doing his first railroad work in Ohio, and went with him to engage in building the Cincinnati, Wilmington & Zanesville railroad. During the war of the Rebellion Charles was a private in the One Hundred and Thirty-first O. V. I.,

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and at the close of the struggle he went South, and took part in the work of develop- ing the business interests of that section. He was the first person to introduce the King Cottonseed Drill and Williams' Cotton Chopper, in raising the cotton crop, and was successful in producing this staple at a lower cost than ever before. Later, as a civil engineer, contractor and dealer in builders' materials, he has been an active and honored member of the Builders Exchange of Cincinnati. Mr. Brown's latest business venture is of a philanthropic character. He is interested in the Tyson Cure for Alcoholism in his city, and has established a resort in Chicago, where he has ex- perienced a marvellous success in the restoration of inebriates. His business career has been a varied one, successful in all respects excepting the accumulation of wealth. In this respect he contrasts himself with his brother, Samuel, who remains at Day- ton, Ohio, where he founded a business in 1845, which now enjoys the unique dis- tinction of a management participated in by the representatives of four generations, and is now, as it has been for many years, a wealth-producing concern. At De- catur, Ala., April 14, 1868, Charles R. Brown was united in marriage with Miss Car- rie T. Lemmon, who was born at Andover, Mass., and two sons, Samuel H. and Roy L., are the fruits of this marriage.

ALFRED FOSTER SCHUYLER was born near Burlington, N. J., April 15, 1818. His mother was Ann Eliza Stewart, of Scotch descent; his father was Aaron Schuyler, of Holland-Dutch blood. His ancestors were among the first settlers of New York, from whom descended Gen. Schuyler, a Revolutionary officer, whose daughter mar- ried Alexander Hamilton.

Mr. Schuyler secured his education in the country school near his home. At the age of fourteen he went to Philadelphia, where he secured an appointment for six years at the brick-laying trade. When he had attained his majority he went to Louisiana, and worked at his trade in St. Mary's Parish, setting sugar kettles and teaching the slaves the trade. In 1841 he came to Cincinnati, and at once found work at his trade with Mr. John Ridgeley, brother of the man with whom he served his apprenticeship. The building on which he laid his first bricks in this city still stands, near the corner of Eighth and Vine streets. In 1846-47 Mr. Schuyler helped build the roundhouse of the Little Miami railroad, which still stands, and was the first structure of the kind built in Ohio. He has been industriously at work all these years and has contributed his full share to the solid structures of the city. Soon after reaching Cincinnati he joined the Rovers, a celebrated independent fire company, in connection with which, for ten years, he was an active participant in the great work done by the company in the protection of property from fire. On the organization of the paid fire department, at the solicitation of Miles Greenwood, he became captain of the "fours," which operated the second steam fire engine used in the city, and held the place for six years, at the nominal salary of $12 per month, aiding in laying the foundation of our present department. Thus, as builder and fireman, Mr. Schuyler has done an honorable and substantial part in founding and forwarding the enterprises of our great city. He was married, in 1843, to Miss Ann Ward, who was born in Washington City, and to them have been born two. sons, William and Algoma; and two daughters, Ida and Fanny. Mr. Schuyler is. an active and honored member of the Builders Exchange. In politics he is a Dem- ocrat, and in religion a liberal. Though advanced in years, he is still active in business.

HENRY TOBIAS, son of Harris and Fannie Weiner Tobias, was born in 1821 in Stenscewo, near Posen, a Polish settlement in Prussia, but was reared in Berlin by his mother's sister, where he was educated until his thirteenth year. Descended on both sides from good old German and Polish stock, he was brought up in what was denominated the Orthodox Mosaic faith. Early in life imbibing a strong love of liberty, he engendered in consequence a dislike to many of the existing customs of his country, among which was the one compelling military duty by the youth; and

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to avoid this, among others, he left his native land in the year 1847, and went to England, where he remained two years. During this time he met the lady who afterward became his wife, Miss Maria Myers, who was a daughter of Morris Myers, born in London, and a government contractor on "Her Majesty's Board of Ord- nance," and Sarah Proctor Fuller, his wife, who was born in Staines, England.

At the end of two years Mr. Tobias left England and came to America to seek his fortune, landing in New York in 1849. He had learned the cap-making trade in Prussia, and being peculiarly fitted for his chosen vocation, his untiring industry and devotion to it insured his success. Here, in New York City, he was united in marriage September 2, 1850, with Miss Maria Myers, who in the meantime had come to America. Two children were born to them while here, and in 1854 they removed to Cincinnati, where he began his business, opening a factory on the west side of Main street, between Seventh and Eighth, doing a retail business. He soon, how- ever, engaged in wholesale trade, removing to the east side of Main, below Fifth street, next door to the " Gothic Arcade," where during the civil war he conducted a successful business, accumulating quite a comfortable fortune. Extreme liberality and large-hearted charity were his main characteristics, and he frequently remarked that he "could not feel himself rich, while suffering and want were rife in the world." His hospitality was proverbial, his home always open. He took a deep interest in the welfare of his employes, many of whom are living and will testify to the kindness and courtesy he extended to all, attracting all toward him. Although not a politician in the accepted sense of the word, he was a Republican and willing to perform a citizen's duty. He was a member of a company of "Hussars" in New York, and also a member of the militia. Soldiering had a different meaning for him in a free country from that of his own. During the existence of martial law in Cincinnati caused by the threatened invasions of Gen. Kirby Smith and Mor- gan, we find him assigned to picket duty in the city of Cincinnati. Believing as he said that "every man is the architect of his own fortune," and that every well edu- cated man has two educations, the scholastic one and the one he acquires himself, he pursued his way. Later in life he became very liberal in Judaism, though con- servative in its main elements. He was an advocate of truth and justice, not as taught by the bigot, but as revealed to him by an enlightened conscience; and while he loved his faith with a love that was half reverence, his love for the human race was greater than his veneration for tradition. He was twice president of the Polish Congregation then worshiping at Seventh and Walnut, and later became a member of Dr. Lilienthal's Temple, Eighth and Mound streets. Interested in all charitable movements, he was a member of the B'nai B'rith, president of "Jerusalem Lodge," Clevelands Orphan Asylum, Jewish Relief, Humane Society and the Bethel. Having broad views of life and duty, his charities knew no creed. Each year of his life from early youth represented a period of unremittent toil, and in the prime of his manhood he succumbed to an attack of pneumonia, superinduced by overwork, dying after a short illness at his residence, No. 409 West Eighth street, January 13, 1874. He left a reputation unblemished and a fine example for his children and grandchildren. Mr. and Mrs. Tobias were the parents of eight children: Sara, married to Simon Drukkerd; Charles, unmarried; Pauline, married to Michael Drukker; Morris, married to Mary Lesinksy; Josephine, married to Leo Ledner, of Cleveland; Ida, married to William Levi; two others that died in infancy. The sons of Henry Tobias succeeded their father in business, and at present conduct an immense factory on Fourth street, west of Central avenue.

SAMUEL GANO STERLING was born in Pittsburgh, May 14, 1819. His father, Joseph Spencer Sterling, died when his son Samuel was but two years old; his mother, Eliza Gano, came with her widowed mother to Cincinnati in 1811, while a girl, and opened a private school on the east side of Main street, between Fifth and Sixth. In 1817 she returned to Pittsburgh and there married Joseph S. Sterling.

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Being left a widow with two sons, Samuel G. and Henry Gano, she returned with them to Cincinnati March 25, 1825, having relatives here already settled. Their first residence was on Gano street, and they afterward, in 1828, removed to Harrison street.

Samuel G., the subject of this sketch, was educated at old Woodward, complet- ing his school days in 1836. He was married in Cincinnati December 11, 1843, to Eliza Smith, daughter of Oliver Comstock and Millie Ann Briggs Smith, natives of western New York, who came to Cincinnati in 1819. Mr Sterling learned the trade of wood turner, and carried on his business at Fifth and Pike streets until the year 1846, when he moved to Mill Creek township, near Spring Grove Cemetery, and there remained until 1866, when he removed to his present residence, near Glenway avenue, Clifton. In 1848 he began teaching school in a building located at the corner of Lafayette and Crescent avenues, erected in 1847 for a general place of worship, and taught there until 1855. Then he taught in Resor Academy until 1867. From 1851 to 1856 he filled the office of clerk to the recorder of the village of Clifton, and again from 1860 to 1866. Then he was elected to the office of clerk and charge of affairs of the village, which position he still holds. A fine testimo- nial from the residents of Clifton, expressing their thanks and gratification at the manner in which the public affairs of the village are and have been handled by Mr. Sterling, hangs framed in the beautiful music room of his comfortable home in Clifton. His family consists of five children: Henry, who is purchasing agent for the Standard Oil Company, of Cincinnati, married; Fannie, secretary to her father; Ida Bell; Robert Riley, mining engineer, Colorado, and Winthrop S., who is pro- fessor in the organ department of the College of Music. Mrs. Eliza Smith Sterling, wife of Samuel Gano Sterling, died at her residence November 23, 1893.

FRANKLIN HEY LAWSON Was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. His grandfather, Thomas Lawson, came to Cincinnati from England in 1816, bringing with him his family, and making the journey from New York by wagon. He entered into business at once, engaging in the manufacture of plumbing and of copper and tin ware. He put in the first grates used in Cincinnati, and made the first gas burned in Cincinnati, the present immense gas-works being the outgrowth of the small, primitive plant. In 1830, Thomas Lawson's sons-Fenton, Robert and Thomas-became members of the firm; the partnership continuing under the firm name of Thomas Lawson & Sons, until the death of its founder, in 1841, when it became that of Fenton Lawson & Brothers, importers of tin plate and metals. After the deatlı of Robert, and the retirement of Thomas, Fenton Lawson conducted the business under his own name.

After his death in 1853, his sons-George, Park, and Franklin Hey-succeeded to the business as F. Lawson's Sons. In 1855, the former retired, and the late William G. Coffin became a partner; the firm taking its present form, F. H. Lawson & Company. Fenton, son of F. H. Lawson, was made a partner in 1880, and another son, William C., in 1886. Mr. Coffin died in 1884. The members of the firm of F. H. Lawson & Company consist of the third and fourth generations of the Lawsons, the business having been in existence since 1816, making it at the present time the oldest business house in Cincinnati. Fenton Lawson, the father of Franklin Hey Lawson, was a man of great business enterprise and prominence. He was a director, and one of the originators of the C. H. & D. R. R., of the Firemen's and the Cincinnati Insurance Companies, and of the Franklin and Lafayette Banks, besides holding many offices.

ALFRED WHITE was born May 16, 1835, in Bradford, England. His parents were Thomas and Martha English (Stobbart) White, both native to the county of Dur- ham, England, the former having been born in Staindrop, in 1810, the latter in Darlington, in 1813. Thomas White followed the business of railroad bridge and viaduct building in England, and upon coming to America was engaged with his son, Alfred, in monumental work in Cincinnati, up to the time of his decease.

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Alfred White was educated at the Darlington grammar school, and afterward became indentured to a civil engineer and architect in the same town, with whom he remained until 1852, when his father came with his entire family and belongings to this country, locating in Memphis, Tenn. In that city, the father established a monumental works, and the son Alfred obtained employment as a topographical engineer on the first survey of the Vicksburg & Shreveport railroad. The southern climate proving objectionable, the family remained less than a year in Memphis, removing in 1853 to Cincinnati, where Thomas White founded, upon its present site, the great monumental works which his son and grandsons are to-day conducting with pronounced success. For a few months prior to entering into business with his father, Alfred was associated with Erasmus Gest in the engineering work upon a proposed short line road to the north and northeast, which, as projected, tunneled some distance into Walnut Hills, when it was abandoned. Our subject's next busi- ness was the drawing of the design for the Cumminsville Orphan Asylum, after which he embarked in the business, which he has ever since been identified with, and from the profits of which he has accumulated a handsome fortune. The old firm of "Thomas White & Son" was the first in this country to import, to any great extent, Scotch granite.

Mr. White has been twice married, first time in Campbell county, Ky., in 1856, to Mary, daughter of Henry C. and Mary Cost, and by this marriage he has five- children living: Walter Thomas and Arthur English, associated with their father in business; Alfred Richard, who is a sculptor with studio in Paris, France, whither he went after prosecuting studies in his art in Florence and Carrara, Italy, in each of which places he received medals from the Royal Academy and Beaux Artes; Clara, now Mrs. Frank McCord, and Bertha, now Mrs. Hiram H. Belding, of Chicago. By his second wife, Florence Claude (Horton), who was born in Cincinnati, Mr. White has two children: David Horton and Elenora. Mr. White is a 32° Mason and Odd Fellow, and a Knight of Honor; in politics he is a Republican. The family are members of the Church of the Advent (Episcopal), Walnut Hills, Mr. White being one of its vestrymen, and he and his wife taking an active interest in its general work. The family reside in a handsome mansion recently erected by Mr. White in Avondale.

G. MOORE PETERS, president of the King Powder Company, and of the Merchants. and Manufacturers Bank of Columbus, Ohio, was born near Circleville, Ohio, August 31, 1843, a son of G. Moore and Miranda (Eaton) Peters, natives, respectively, of Virginia and New York. He is a grandson of Tunnis Peters who emigrated from Holland, and who was a commissioned officer in the Revolutionary war. He is a. grandson of William Eaton, and a descendant of John Eaton who came from Eng- land in 1635. He is also a descendant, on the maternal side, of George Bunker, who owned a farm on Bunker Hill at the time of that memorable battle, and it was from him the " Hill," the "Battle," the "Sword," and the "Monument of Bunker Hill," ever dear to lovers of liberty everywhere, derived their names. The father of our subject came to Columbus, Ohio, in charge of a government survey when that terri- tory was a dense forest, and ever afterward made the Buckeye State his home, remov- ing from Circleville to Columbus in 1845. He served as associate judge in the early days, and passed sentence upon the first two prisoners consigned to the Ohio peni- tentiary. He for a time followed flatboating down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and as was then customary made the return trips through the woods on foot or horseback. He also followed at various times tanning, merchandizing, farming, and pork packing. He died in 1868 at the advanced age of eighty-one years. The family consisted of seven children, four of whom are living: Alma, wife of the Rev. J. B. Tuttle, of the Baptist Church at Clay Center, Kans .; A. L. Peters, who repre- sents the King Powder Company at St. Paul, Minn .; Orin E. Peters, president of the Peters Cartridge Company, and treasurer of the King Powder Company; and

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History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 145

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