History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 81

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

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While residing in western Pennsylvania Mr. Stow was closely connected with the organization of the Presbyterian Church of Tionesta, giving largely of his means for that purpose. It was through his efforts the Sunday-school was started; through his untiring devotion the prayer meeting was sustained, and only by his generous lib- erality was the erection of the first church made possible. He was not satisfied with having made a beginning, but up to the time of his removal manifested the same He was zeal and energy, in the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ.

married in 1829 to Betsey Munsell, daughter of James and Doris (Hayes) Munsell, and to them were born three children, all of whom are dead. Mrs. Stow died and Mr. Stow was again married in 1836 to Mrs. Sallie (Munsell) Thatcher, a sister of his first wife, to which union were born five children, three of whom survive and are named as follows: Hamilton Hobart, who is a prominent oil operator of Toledo; Edgar D., residing in Philadelphia, and largely interested in the oil and banking business, and Ida S., wife of Henry Garlick, dealer in naval stores in Cincinnati. The second son George was in command of Company G, Eighty-third Pennsylvania Regiment, served in the war of the Rebellion and was killed in the battle of the Wilderness. Mrs. Stow died several years ago. She and her husband were moving spirits in the erection of Emmanuel Episcopal church, located near their home on Eastern avenue, the financial interest of which was greatly benefited by their rela- tionship. Soon after her death Mr. Stow contributed a rectory to that organization, in memory of her who had always been one of the most devout members.

The grandfather of our subject was a major in the Revolutionary war, and both grandfather and great-grandfather attained the ripe old age of eighty-seven before- they passed away.

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There is probably no man whose name is so widely known and so intimately con- nected with the great lumbering industry of this country as that of Hamilton Stow, who was not only one of the earliest pioneers in the business, but who continued to prosecute it up to his retirement from private life, and no one has contributed more to the development of this great industry. He has attained this eminence, not by any caprice of fortune, but by energy and perseverance, and above all by his sterling qualities of character, and his upright and honorable dealing throughout a busy and an active life. [Since the foregoing was written Mr. Stow has died. - Ed.

JONATHAN OGDEN was born June 12, 1807, in Elizabethtown, N. J., and died June 4, 1888, at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. P. D. Armour, No. 2115 Prairie avenue, Chicago, Ill. He was a descendant of John Ogden, one of two brothers who came from England and settled in New England, where they were engaged as architects and builders, and in 1642 erected the first stone church on Manhattan Island. Jonathan Ogden came to Cincinnati in 1828, was for a number of years one of the leading clothing merchants, and on his retirement from that business dealt extensively in real estate, and was also associated with lumber dealers. He finally retired from all business in 1868, and continued to reside in Cincinnati till within a few years of his death.

On December 21, 1834, he was married to Mary Elizabeth Gorham, daughter of Parsons Gorham, wholesale grocer, of Hartford, Conn., and four children were born of this marriage, viz. : Parsons Gorham, Malvina Belle, Clara Meader, and Frank M. Of this family Parsons Gorham Ogden died at No. 195 W. Fourth street, Cin- cinnati, December 11, 1892. Malvina Belle Ogden was married October 16, 1862, to Philip D. Armour, of Chicago, and they are the parents of three children: Jona- than Ogden Armour; Joseph F. Armour, who died quite young, and P. D. Armour, Jr. Jonathan Ogden Armour married Miss Letitia Hughes Sheldon, of New York City, and they are living in Chicago; P. D. Armour, Jr., married Miss May Leslie, of Chicago; the sons are at present in business with their father in Chicago under the firm name of Armour & Co. Clara Meader Ogden died in infancy December 12, 1843. Frank M. Ogden is in the real-estate business, with office at No. 30 W. Fourth street; he was married August 14, 1889, to Miss Gussie D., daughter of the late Sebastian Debenath, a merchant of Cernay, Alsace, France; they reside in Cincinnati, and are members of the Presbyterian Church.

JOHN W. DAVY, one of the most prominent business men in the West, and one of the leading shoe manufacturers of the country, is a thorough-going American of English extraction. He was born March 29, 1844, in Somerset county, Md., the eldest of the eight children of George and Ann (Ballard) Davy, natives, respectively, of Virginia and Maryland, the former of whom died in November, 1883; the latter still survives, and is now a resident of Maryland. During his early life George Davy was a sea-faring man, interested in ocean trade, and owner, wholly or in part, of several vessels, of one of which he was captain. His father and grandfather, the grandfather and great-grandfather of the immediate subject of this sketch, were likewise vessel-owners and commanders, and like him interested actively and finan- cially in international trade, sailing from Brighton, England, where the family lived for many generations. Of the children born to George and Ann (Ballard) Davy, one son, Dr. R. B. Davy, is a prominent physician of San Francisco, Cal., and three 'other sons are successful and honored farmers in Maryland.

John W. Davy, like his brothers, was educated in his native State, attending school principally at Princess Anne, the seat of justice of Somerset county, and in 1865, at the age of twenty-one, began his active business career as salesman for the well-known shoe manufacturers, Tucker & Smith, of Baltimore. This engagement, and the knowledge of the shoe trade which he gained in fulfilling it, in a measure determined his after career, though for a time after leaving the service of Tucker & Smith he was in the employ of the United States & West India Fresh Meat and

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Fruit Company, a corporation which built and controlled ships that were practical ,3 refrigerators, and used them in the transportation of meats from Texas, via Gulf of Mexico, to New York and Philadelphia, and fruit from the West Indies to the sea- board markets of the United States. In 1871 Mr. Davy again engaged in the shoe trade, traveling until 1873 as the representative of a Philadelphia house, and after that for one of the celebrated shoe manufactories of Lynn, Mass., until 1876, when he entered the service of the Cincinnati Shoe Manufacturing Company in the same capacity. Later he engaged with Stribley & Company, with which house be was connected during the long period of thirteen years, until the organization in May, 1892, of the Alter & Julien Company, in which he became a partner, and of which he is vice-president. In the management of this concern he has taken a prominent part, and its extensive trade is due in no small measure to the popularity which he obtained in the trade during his long years' experience as a commercial traveler. He was married January 6, 1880, to Florida Lewis, a native of Madison county, Ohio, who has borne him one son, Lewis. Mr. Davy has been a member of the Masonic Fraternity since 1885, and is otherwise identified with important local or- ganizations. As a citizen, he is public-spirited and helpful, and in all the relations of life he has ever followed a consistent course, which has made him deservedly popular and influential.

LEE R. KECK, president of the Memphis & Cincinnati Packet Company, and largely identified with other river and financial interests in Cincinnati, was born in 1843 in Milford, Ohio, son of Leonidas and Hannalı (Pedrick) Keck, who were natives of eastern Pennsylvania, of English-German and French nationality. Leoni- das Keck came to Ohio over fifty years ago, and became a substantial and success- ful farmer. He moved his family to Cincinnati when Lee was about six years of age, and the lad passed through the various grades in the city schools, and had spent about a year in high school when the Civil war broke out. Though not yet fully eighteen years of age, young Keck enlisted in a company organized for service in the Fifth Ohio Regiment, being among the first to volunteer in the city. The company, however, was, at the request of its captain, incorporated with the Tenth Ohio, under Col. (afterward Gen.) W. H. Lytle, and, together with its gallant com- mander, earned undying fame in the great struggle. After his first term of enlist- ment expired the young soldier was promoted to a position in the quartermaster's department under Col. C. W. Moulton, and served for two years and a half. Re- turning home at the end of that period, he had been here but a short time when the second call for one hundred days' men was made, whereupon he entered the service for the third time as a volunteer and served until the struggle was over. After the war Mr. Keck's principal work until 1881 was that of bookkeeper for M. & L. Glenn, a position he held for twelve years. In 1881 he became connected with the Big Sandy Packet Company in the same capacity, and at the end of his first year was elected secretary and treasurer of this company, an office he still holds. He also occupies a similar position in the United States Mail Line, and the Memphis & Cincinnati Packet Company. Mr. Keck is also president and treasurer of the Cincinnati Marine Railway Company, and is secretary of the Consolidated Boat Store Company. Mr. Keck was married in 1864 to Miss Eveline Glenn, daughter of Lewis Glenn, Esq., of Cincinnati, and they are the parents of two children: Lewis Glenn, who married Ida Hoefinghoff, and Coralie, married to Harry Hoefing- hoff; Ida and Harry are son and daughter of Charles Hoefinghoff.

SAMUEL J. HALE, a director of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, and for many years past a leading merchant and insurance man of Cincinnati, was born at Madison, Maine, April 27, 1827. His people were of Massachusetts stock, and followed milling, mercantile pursuits and farming. His grandfather, Col. James Hale, gained his title early in this century and was one of the justices of his county. His maternal grandfather, Samuel Jones, after whom he was named, also attained

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the rank of colonel. Young Hale completed his education at Bloomfield Academy and in 1843 came West with his parents and brother. The journey was made by steamer from Maine to Boston, thence by railroad to Albany, thence by canal packet to Buffalo, thence by the steamer " General Wayne " via Detroit and Mackinaw to Mil- waukee, in what was then Wisconsin Territory. After a month's stay in Milwaukee- the family went to Chicago, which in 1843 was a very insignificant place. Acres of ground in the heart of the Chicago of to-day were then purchasable for a smaller price than a front foot of ground in the same locality commands to-day. From Chi- cago the family journeyed in a two-horse wagon to Ripley county, Ind., finally settling in Sunman, where they remained for nearly a year.

During the winter of this year young Hale was engaged in school teaching. In 1844 the family returned to Lowell, Mass., returning to Indiana, however, after a. short interval, with the exception of Samuel, who had become engaged in a West India goods and ship store establishment in Boston, where he remained until he had attained his majority. He was then offered an interest in the business, but preferred to rejoin his people in Indiana. For a time he read law, but soon abandoned that to engage in the drug business in Aurora, Ind. In 1851 he was elected city clerk of Aurora, and the same year became secretary of the Aurora Insurance and Trust Company. In 1853 he came to Cincinnati, and in connection with Thompson Dean established the general commission and steamboat firm of Dean & Hale, with which he was identified for many years. Shortly after the establishment of this business he became a member of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Mercantile Library Association, and was vice-president of the former, and one of the directory of the latter, for many years. In 1874 he helped to establish the wholesale drug firm of Hale, Justis & Company, which is still in existence. In 1865 he assisted in organ- izing the Globe Insurance Company, of which he was an officer from its inception, and of which he became president in 1888 upon the retirement of Samuel F. Cov- ington. This office Mr. Hale still holds. In 1868 Mr. Hale removed to Avondale, where he still resides. He served as a member of the Avondale school board for twenty-one years, and for fifteen years of that time was its presiding officer. He has been mayor of Avondale for the whole of two terms, and a portion of the third.

Mr. Hale was married in 1852 to Lucinda W. Owen, a descendant of one of the early New England families, and daughter of Ambrose Owen, of Vermont. They have three children, the eldest of whom, William S. Hale, is connected with the wholesale drug firm of Hale & Justice; he is married to Carrie, daughter of Burkhardt, a Louisville merchant, and they have two children, Dean Burkhardt and Caroline. The second child is Mrs. Sarah Agnes, wife of Dr. J. F. Lemmon, of Los Angeles, Cal. The third, Samuel Ambrose, is a chemist of Los Angeles, Cal. ; he is unmarried. Mr. Samuel J. Hale is a member of the Masonic Order, and of the I. O. O. F. The family are members of the Presbyterian Church of Avondale, and reside in Linden avenue, Avondale.

MAJOR A. J. WHIPPS. There is much of interest in every human life, and no man ever lived and died whose career did not furnish an example or a warning to man- kind. Those whose lives have made the world better for their having lived are thrice blessed. Such an edifying and beneficent life was that of the late Andrew Jackson Whipps, known widely as one of the leading tobacco merchants of this part of the country, and affectionately to the tobacco trade as "Uncle Jack"-a man whose career spanned almost seventy-seven years, and whose example during all his active years was resplendent with a never-wavering influence for good.

Mr. Whipps was born on a farm between Minerva and Washington, in Mason county, Ky., the first hour of the first day of the first month of the year 1815, a son of Col. William and Cecil (Finch) Whipps. His father was for many years a very prominent citizen of that part of Kentucky. His mother was born in the early historic days of the "Dark and bloody ground" in the blockhouse at Lexington.

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By intermarriage of the Whipps and Finches with other families, Mr. Whipps was, in \ one degree or another, connected with most of the families prominent in the history of the State. He acquired a good practical business education and considerable valu- able business experience, and in 1863, when he took up his residence in Covington, was a man of affairs of recognized ability. Here he engaged actively in the tobacco business, with which he had been identified since 1846, and in time came to be known as one of Cincinnati's foremost "tobacco men." He it was who first suggested the first tobacco fair held in this city. Mr. Whipps was married, May 20, 1839, to Miss Elizabeth Adamson, a daughter of Col. Joseph Adamson, of Mason county, Ky. Though never blessed with children, they lived a domestic life singular for its long unbroken happiness, and celebrated their golden wedding in 1889. This event of rare occurrence was the occasion of the gathering together of a very large number of loving and rejoicing friends and relatives to congratulate these aged companions and almost lifelong friends upon their fifty years' journey hand in hand down the pathway of earthly existence. Shortly after their marriage, in 1840, Mr. and Mrs. Whipps confessed the Savior, were baptized, and joined the Christian Church in Germantown, Ky., during a meeting held by the venerable Rev. J. J. Moss and Rev. John T. Johnson of sainted memory, and they were from the very outset of their Christian career active and earnest workers in the cause of salvation. Upon their removal to Covington they united with the old Third Street Church, and in 1866 removed with it to its new edifice on Fifth street, which they assisted very generously in erecting. At the time of the unfortunate dissension which rent the Church asunder they remained loyal to the parent organization, of which Mr. Whipps was a member during the balance of his life, and with which Mrs. Whipps is still identified. By his death, the First Christian Church of Covington lost a steadfast and devoted friend, Cincinnati and Covington one of the foremost citizens of his generation, and his wife a tender and loving husband. He enjoyed the respect and confidence of all, and was everywhere regarded as the soul of lionor and truth. In his business rela- tions he was not only just and honorable, but generous, often suffering wrong in preference to insisting upon his rights in instances when to yield them to him would entail hardship upon those with whom he dealt. He was especially generous to young men whom he thought ambitious and deserving. The number he assisted was not few, and there are many to-day who give to "Uncle Jack," as Mr. Whipps was familiarly known, full credit for their first substantial start upon a successful busi- ness career. As an instance of his kindly offices in this direction, it may be stated that while largely engaged in handling tobacco at Walton, Ky., he became acquainted with three orphan boys of tender years, upon whose meager earnings their widowed mother was dependent for support, gave them employment, trusted them more and more as he found them worthy of his confidence, eventually gave them an interest in his business, and upon his retirement, a few years ago, turned over the enterprise to them, leaving them successful, well-established and well-to-do business men, honored citizens and consistent Christians. He was a man of strong convictions and very independent mind, and of a sunny and most jovial temperament. He sel- dom spoke to the disadvantage of any man, and then only when thoroughly convinced of the justice of his statement. He was temperate in the extreme, indulging in no vices, living in the sight of God and man an upright, pure life. As a Christian he was humble but very earnest, appreciated and beloved by his brethren and always ready to extend most liberal aid to the Church in her enterprises for the furtherance of the Gospel work. In his home he was affectionate and indulgent. His life was such as one might well desire to live, and his passing away was calm and peaceful, his only regret, seemingly, having been that he must leave his aged wife, who had depended upon him so long and so implicitly, to continue life's journey alone. He died at his beautiful residence, No. 318 Garrard street, Covington, December 19, 1891, and was interred two days later in Highland Cemetery, Covington's beautiful "City of the Dead."

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CHARLES BODMAN, formerly senior member of the tobacco warehouse company, which still bears his name, died at the Bodman homestead, Mt. Auburn, May 10, 1875. He was born in Hagerstown, Md., February 18, 1827, and was a son of Fer- dinand Bodman, who was born July 16, 1801, in a small principality near Frank- fort. on-the-Main. The latter possessed and embraced many opportunities of acquiring a liberal education. He was graduated from Bamberg College in 1817, and then fully fitted for a business career in a large banking house, where he had charge of the French correspondence. Owing to the political disquietude of Europe at that time, the family, consisting of Davis C. Bodman and three sons, the mother having died eleven years previous, immigrated to America, and located at Hagerstown, Md., where Ferdinand engaged in mercantile pursuits until the death of his father, six years later. He then removed to Cincinnati, built a large warehouse on Main between Sixth and Seventh streets, and founded the leaf tobacco trade which he lived to see reach great proportions. In pursuance of advice given to him by his father, he also originated the cash system which is still universally observed in the leaf tobacco market of Cincinnati. By constant application to business and good management he accumulated a handsome fortune. He died July 29, 1874. He always took a lively interest in everything pertaining to the growth and welfare of the city, and was a liberal contributor to all worthy public and charitable enter- prises. During the Civil war, though not in the service, he gave the government much valuable aid, and took a lively part in providing relief for the sick and wounded. Mr. Bodman was married, December 14, 1825, to Miss Kate Poplem, of Baltimore, Md., by whom he had six children, two of whom are living: George, a successful merchant in Brussels, Belgium, and Lauretta Louisa, widow of the late Joseph Reichart, who lives with her mother at the old homestead, Mt. Auburn.

In 1852 Charles Bodman established the well known warehouse on West Front street, which at the time of his death did an annual business of nearly two million dollars. He was never married, and traveled very extensively on both hemispheres. He was a good correspondent, and during his trips in various parts of the world many interesting letters from his eloquent pen, signed "Cincinnatian," appeared in the papers of his adopted city. Like his father, it may well be said of him that he was a generous disburser of the ample fortune which he possessed. During his absence, traveling or otherwise, the business was conducted by Mr. H. H. Hoff- man, whom he admitted as partner September 1. 1870, when the firm became Charles Bodman & Co., and who is now sole proprietor.

HENKY BLACKBURN MOREHEAD. The subject of this sketch has been for the greater part of his life a citizen of Cincinnati. His father, Governor James Turner Morehead, one of Kentucky's most honored citizens, was serving his term as a senator of the United States at the time of his son's birth, and in consequence of his long yearly sojourn in Washington, his wife often spent her winters at her father's home in Columbus, Ohio; and thus it was that Henry Blackburn Morehead first saw the light of day in the capital of Ohio at the house of his grandfather, Josiah M. Espy, on April 7, 1847.

Governor Morehead had removed from Frankfort to Covington shortly after his election to the Senate, intending to abandon politics after his term had expired and return to his lucrative practice at the bar, hence it was that Henry Blackburn More- head became a resident of the prosperous city across the Ohio, but at the age of eight years, having lost his father-he dying in the prime of his life-his mother removed with her four orphan boys to Urbana, Ohio, where in educating them for a useful life she could have the assistance of her brother, Henry P. Espy, and of her uncle, Dr. William M. Murdock, an active citizen of the town where Mr. Morehead's happiest days were passed, and where he was fitted for his active life by a thorough preparatory education until his fourteenth year at the Urbana University, a small but finely organized school established by the New Church. Urbana is an ideal

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spot for a boy's school days; such joyous holiday sports can be entered into after study hours with the zest that youth gives; there is the walk to the dashing Mad river for an afternoon's fishing, and the freshwater ponds surrounding the town, fed by the never-failing clear springs, afford such opportunities for swimming and for skating frolics. A perfect picture of the life led by the boys in those long-ago days can be found in the late novel of W. D. Howells, called "In a Boys' Town." Mr. Morehead was an active boy in those days, and a bright scholar. One of his old comrades who was present at a dinner given him in Cincinnati previous to his late trip to Europe, summed up his character in these words: "When a boy at. school I can say of Henry Blackburn Morehead that he worked hard, played hard, and always kept his word."

At the breaking out of the Civil war so many pupils were withdrawn from the Urbana school (all those from Canada and the Southern States) that the institution was compelled, for lack of support, to close for several years, which put an end to Mr. Morehead's career as a schoolboy, and he then removed, temporarily, as it was hoped, to Cincinnati to learn the art of type setting. Two years afterward be took a position in the office of the Frankfort Commonwealth, for many years the organ of the old Whig party of the State of Kentucky. After two years spent in Frankfort, H. B. Morehead returned to Cincinnati where he was given a situation as clerk to Maj. Bannister, a paymaster in the army. His duties in that employment called him to Montgomery, Ala., where he spent several months. In 1865 he returned to Cincin- nati and entered the office of Evans & Co., bankers, after which he became clerk for Geo. Eustis & Co., the leading brokers of Third street, where in a few years he graduated as a broker, and formed a partnership with Lyneas Norton in the profes- sion in which he has met with the success his fidelity and energy deserved. In 1882 the firm of H. B. Morehead & Co. was formed, the principal partner being William Fairley. This partnership was dissolved in 1889 by the withdrawal of Mr. Fairley. The firm of Morehead, Irwin & Co. was then formed, and continued in existence till October, 1891, when Mr. Morehead withdrew to assume the control and man- agement of the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. The young men of Cincinnati may well take encouragement in the success that has followed a life of persistent energy and probity, as shown in this sketch, of a truly loyal citizen, a faithful friend, a bright and genial companion, and whose charity is unbounded, for all who truly needed help never appealed to him in vain.

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History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 81

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