History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 82

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

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Mr. Morehead was president of the Cincinnati Mercantile Library, and a mem- ber of its board of real estate. He was for many years a director of the Procter & Gamble Company, the Ohio Valley National Bank, and at various times of several of the western railroads. He has been successful in completing many large deals and consolidating and establishing several of the largest concerns in the West, nota- bly: the Procter & Gamble Company, the Barney & Smith Car Company, the Mich- igan Peninsular Car Company, and the J. A. Fay & Egan Company. He is a. member of the Masonic Fraternity, and of the Lincoln, Blaine, Cuvier and Queen City Clubs. Mr. Morehead was married February 10, 1876, to Miss Margaret C. Monfort, daughter of Rev. Joseph G. Monfort, D. D., at the old Beecher, now the Monfort, mansion, Mt. Auburn, Cincinnati. Mr. and Mrs. Morehead reside in the "Ortiz," and attend the Second Presbyterian Church, of which they are generous supporters.

GENERAL ANDREW HICKENLOOPER, president of the Cincinnati Gas, Light and Coke Company, and of the Cincinnati, Brush, Edison and Hause Electric Light. Companies, was born in Hudson, Ohio, August 10, 1837, son of Andrew and Abigail (Cox) Hickenlooper. His great-grandfather, Andrew Hickenlooper, and wife emi- grated from Holland in 1693, and settled in York county, Penn. They had three sons: Andrew, born in 1739, died in 1825, in his eighty-ninth year; Adam and George, and three daughters-Anna, Mary and Margaret.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

Immediately after the close of the Revolutionary war, in which he served first as a lieutenant, and subsequently as captain, Andrew, the grandfather of the sub- ject of this sketch, settled in Westmoreland county, Penn., near Greensburg, where he married Rachel, daughter of John and Rachel Edwards. The former was a Scotchman by birth, the latter a Virginian. They had born unto them seven children: George, John, Jane, Mary, Thomas, Andrew (father of our subject, born July 22, 1795), and William, the youngest. His grandfather on the mother's side was named Edward Cox, who, with his wife, whose maiden name was Sloan, emi- grated from the North of Ireland in 1792, and settled near Chambersburg, Penn., where they had born unto them twelve children. There the mother of our subject was born September 6, 1797, and married at her father's house April 12, 1821, by Rev. James Graham, a Presbyterian minister. Andrew Hickenlooper, the father of our subject, was for many years engaged in the manufacture of salt, then an important industry in the West, and subsequently in coal mining until 1836, when, becoming interested in some public contracts, he moved to Hudson, Ohio, and set- tled. There, as stated, the subject of this notice was born, the youngest of the family. The other members of the family were: Mary Jane, married to Silas Steely, of Lafayette, Ind .; Rachel, married to Dr. Steely, and died in 1873; Cath- erine, married to William McCarthy, of Lafayette, Ind .; Sarah, never married; Edward, who died in January, 1850, and Keziah, who died early in 1837. The survivors, except Andrew, are now living at Lafayette, Ind. The father of the foregoing family died March 28, 1869, and his widow followed him two months later.

Our subject received his early education in the public schools of Circleville, Ohio, after which he attended St. Xavier College two years, and Woodward College for an equal length of time. He was then employed by A. W. Gilbert, city engi- neer of Cincinnati, and at the expiration of his term of office became a partner of his former employer, forming the firm of Gilbert & Hickenlooper, which existed two years, when upon the re-election of Mr. Gilbert to the position of city civil engineer, he continued in business alone, and was soon after appointed city surveyor .. In 1855 he spent six months at Traverse Bay, Mich., in charge of government sur- veys, and after his return he followed the surveying business in Cincinnati until 1861. On August 31, of this year, he entered the service as captain of "Hicken- looper's Cincinnati Battery," which was afterward mustered into the United States service as the Fifth Ohio Battery of Light Artillery, at St. Louis Arsenal, Missouri. On October 11, 1861, he was ordered to Jefferson City, Mo., and there assigned to duty as chief of artillery in charge of the fortifications and defenses of that city, and along the Pacific railroads until March 7, 1862, when he was ordered to resume command of his battery, and with it report to Gen. Grant on the Tennessee river, and to a participation in the battle of Shiloh, of which Gen. Force, in "From Fort Henry to Corinth," says: "After a gallant but short struggle Prentiss' division about nine o'clock gave way and fell back through his camp, leaving behind Pow- ell's guns and caissons and two of Hickenlooper's guns, all the horses of which had been killed." Again he speaks of the battery service later in the day: "Hicken- looper's four guns standing at the salient where Prentiss and Wallace joined, sweep- ing both fronts, had all day long been reaping a bloody harvest among the lines of the assailants that strove to approach. So near, yet so far; in plain view yet out of reach the little battery exasperated the baffled brigades while it extorted their admiration. The Confederate general, Ruggles, sent his staff officers in all direc- tions to sweep in all the guns they could reach. He gives the names of eleven batteries and one section which he planted in a great crescent pouring in a concen- tric fire. From this tornado of missiles Hickenlooper withdrew the remnant of his battery, and, passing to the rear through Hulbert's camp, reported to Sherman for further service." The second day after the battle of Shiloh he was detached

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

from the command of the battery and assigned to duty as chief of artillery, Sixth & Division, the artillery of which consisted of twenty-two guns and 367 men. On September 10, 1862, he was engaged in the battle of Iuka, and October 3 and 4, in the battle of Corinth. Immediately after this he was assigned to duty as chief of artillery of the right wing of the army of the Tennessee, on the staff of Gen. McPherson. On November 4, 1862, he was in the engagement at Lagrange, Tenn-

essee, and on November 12, 1862, he was in the engagement at Lamar. From that date to January 18, 1863, he was engaged in Gen. Grant's North Mississippi cam- paign, and with it transferred to the Mississippi river, and to a participation in the Vicksburg campaign, where he was assigned to duty as chief engineer of the Seven- teenth Army Corps, and, as such, participated in the battles of Port Gibson, Forty Hills, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hills, Big Black River and the siege of Vicks- burg. During September he was engaged in the campaign to Monroe, La .; during October, in the Canton campaign, and in February, 1864, he was engaged in the campaign to Meridian. In April, 1864, Gen. McPherson having been promoted to succeed Gen. Sherman as commander of the Army of the Tennessee, Hickenlooper was assigned to duty as chief of artillery of the army, and thus served in the Atlantic campaign until Gen. McPherson's death, July 22, 1864. During this period he participated in the battles of Snake Creek Gap, Resaca, Kingston, Dallas, Kenesaw, Nickajack Creek, Decatur, Stone Mountain, Ezra Chapel, Utoy Creek, Jonesboro, Lovejoy and Atlanta. After the death of McPherson, Hickenlooper was appointed, by the President, inspector-general of the Seventeenth Corps, and as such participated in the March to the Sea and the capture of Savannah. He was in the Carolina campaigns and the following engagements: Pocotaligo, Salkehatchie, Bannekers Bridge, Orangeburg, Columbia, Cheraw, Fayetteville, Bentonville, Golds- boro, Raleigh, and the surrender of Johnston's army. In the meantime, having been appointed brigadier-general, he was subsequently assigned to the command of the Third Brigade, Fourth Division, Seventeenth Army Corps, and finally mustered out August 31, 1865.

Returning home Gen. Hickenlooper at once entered upon engineering and sur- veying, as partner of R. C. Phillips, the firm being Phillips & Hickenlooper. On July 27, 1866, he was appointed United States marshal for the Southern District of Ohio, in which position he served until January, 1871, when he tendered his resig- nation to accept the appointment of city civil engineer, which office he resigned May 8, 1872, to accept the position of vice-president of the Cincinnati Gas Light and Coke Company. On May 8, 1877, he was elected president, and October 14, 1879, was elected lieutenant-governor of Ohio for two years. On February 13, 1867, Gen. Hickenlooper was married to Maria L., daughter of Adolphus H. and Sarah K. (Bates) Smith, and the fruits of this marriage are five children: Sarah, Amelia, Catherine, Andrew and Smith. The general and his family worship at the Second Presbyterian Church; socially he is a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the I. O. O. F .; politically he is a Republican.

FRANKLIN ALTER, banker and capitalist, Cincinnati, was born at Carlisle, Penn., October 28, 1831, and obtained his education at Harrisburg. He was early thrown on his own resources, and after spending a portion of his young manhood in Mary- land and Virginia, he resolved to seek his fortune in the South, and accordingly in his twentieth year he took passage down the Ohio river from Pittsburgh, his des- tination being New Orleans.

On reaching Cincinnati he stopped with a view of remaining but a short time, but the opinion he formed of the city was so favorable that he concluded to make it his future home. He at once sought a position, and was not long in securing a clerk- ship in the hardware house of R. W. Booth & Company. Assiduous attention to business soon made him a fixture in the establishment, and in three years he became a partner in the firm and general manager of its extensive business, being so con-

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nected until 1862, when he sold out his interest. The firm of Prichard, Alter & Company, manufacturers of boots and shoes, was then organized, and to its affairs Mr. Alter lent his indefatigable energy and admirable business management. Later he purchased Mr. Prichard's interest, and after other changes organized the firm of Alter. Forwood & Company, the latter house conducting the largest business of its kind in Cincinnati. In September, 1892, the Alter & Julien Company was formed, for the manufacture of ladies' fine shoes, and their place of business, on the corner of Eighth and Main streets, is one of the most extensive plants of its kind in the country, its output being one thousand pair of shoes daily. In 1884, a year mem- orable for its dangers to banking interests, Mr. Alter, in recognition of his shrewd business insight and his capacity as a financier, was elected president of the Exchange National Bank, of Cincinnati, of which he has been a director since its organization in 1881. He brought the bank through the perils of that period, and in 1885 was instrumental in effecting its consolidation with the Cincinnati National Bank. Not desiring to devote his time exclusively to banking thereafter, he accepted the vice-presidency of the consolidated concern. Some years ago Mr. Alter was chosen to fill one of the most important offices in Hamilton county, that of member of the board of control, which was created by the Legislature to check frauds on the county, and supervise and regulate the expenditure of public money, . and was elected president of that body. A Democrat in politics, he was strongly supported for this office by leading Republicans, who recognized his paramount fit- ness for the position. His wide experience as a financier, his personal integrity, and his intimate acquaintance with the tax-paying community rendered him pecu- liarly desirable for this office of trust and responsibility. He belongs to that class of civilians who ably serve the public, regardless of party lines, who take part in public affairs for the purpose of making office holding subservient to the peace and well-being of the people. He has been tendered county, city, State and Federal offices, whichi stress of business has compelled him to decline. In January, 1891, he was made president of the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, for the central district of the United States. Mr. Alter is one of Cincinnati's most liberal and pub- lic-spirited citizens, in all things pertaining to the development of her commercial, manufacturing and industrial interests.

His own success in mercantile and financial circles has been phenomenal. Of quiet manners and consistent deportment, he has naturally surrounded himself with a host of personal friends, while his innate strength of character and clear judgment, tempered by a kindly interest in all those with whom he is associated, have won for him a high place in the regard of his fellow-citizens. His beautiful home in Avon- dale, one of the wealthy and picturesque suburbs of Cincinnati, is one of the most hospitable in the city.

GEORGE SLIMER. George Slimer, deceased, long identified so prominently with the Cincinnati stock yards and other important interests, was born in Elsas, France, May 6, 1820, and came to Cincinnati in 1830. He early in life became connected with the stock business in Cincinnati, and was one of the originators and long a director influential in the management of the Cincinnati stock yards. In 1861-63, he faithfully fulfilled an important contract to supply meat to the United States Government for use in the army at the front. For fifteen years he was a member of the firm of Slimer & Dater, pork packers, which in its day did an extensive busi- ness in that line. He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and was in every way in a business sense a prominent and useful citizen.

He was married February 3, 1861, to Louisa Kuhn, who survives him. Their children in the order of their birthi were. Ellen, who married Henry Muhlhauser, Jr. ; George, who succeeds his father in the interest in the stock yards; William C .; Amelia, who married Joseph Adams, and Amanda. Mrs. Slimer was a daughter of George Michael Kuhn, long a respected resident of Cincinnati, who died in 1870.

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Mr. Slimer was a man of strong character and progressive ideas, a man of brain and perseverance, who, coming early to Cincinnati, saw the possibilities of her future- development and gave the best years of a busy and useful life to its advancement. The tributes of respect published immediately after his death were numerous, and of a character which marks him as one of the Queen City's leading capitalists and business men.

SAMUEL DURHAM, the founder of the Durham family in the United States, was born in the city of Durham, County of Durham, England, in the year 1699. He descended from the old Durham family, who trace their lineage back to the seventh or eighth century. They were among the barons who compelled King John to sign the Magna Charta in the thirteenth century. They were always noted for their lib- eral opinions, just and upright lives. In 1722 Samuel Durham set his eyes west- ward and immigrated to the United colonies. He landed at Baltimore, and being a good ship carpenter soon found plenty of work. He was married to Elenor Smissen, who was a very large woman, in later life attaining the weight of 500 pounds. They had nine children, whose descendants are scattered over all parts of the United States. By careful and saving habits he soon owned a large plantation with many slaves.

When at the age of twenty-one, Joshua, the father of Aquila Durham, was given a plantation with slaves to work it, but he declined it, believing that it was not right to own slaves. At this time the Revolutionary war was about drawing to a close. In 1783 he sold his farm, receiving $42,000 in Continental money. He then started westward over the mountains, but being delayed by bad roads and storms he was compelled to winter in the mountains. The Continental money depreciated until it was scarcely of any value. He bought a small place for $2,000 on the Monongahela river, and started to make himself a new home, but found that he had a bad title to his property and lost it all. He moved back to the Susquehanna river, and in 1795 started for the Ohio territory, landing at the mouth of the Little Miami river, on the 13th day of May, 1796. This was the seventeenth birthday of Aquila Durham, the youngest son. He went up the Little Miami river and built a cabin at a place near where the union bridge now stands. Here he remained until the next spring. when he moved up the Little Miami river on a farm now owned by Mrs. Sidney Weaver, but he did not remain long on this farm, as it was in the valley and their health was poor on account of ague, which seemed to shake everybody who lived in the valley. Aquila prevailed upon his father to buy some land on the top of the hills back of Newtown. Here Joshua died in 1829, being ninety-six years of age; his wife died in 1800.

Aquila Durham was born May 13, 1779, in Hartford county, Md. He remained with his father on a farm until 1803, when he was offered a position with Lewis & Clarke's expedition to the Pacific Ocean as a hunter, but being about to be married he thought best to decline the offer. He was married in 1804 to Harriet Thompson, a daughter of Bernard Thompson, a soldier who had served through the Revolution- ary war, and immigrated to Kentucky in about 1785. They spent sixty-four years together as man and wife. They first built a cabin on a portion of a farm on which one of his grandsons resides at present, but owing to the ague and fever they remained here only about three years. He bought a farm adjoining his father's, about one mile from where he had settled. His youngest son, Thompson Durham, still resides on the farm that he lived on for over sixty years. He came to the Cin- cinnati markets for a longer time than any other man that ever attended the mar- kets. He came first on horseback, next in a boat, pushing his flatboat upon the Ohio and up the Miami to Turpin's old mill, on his return, and thence in wagons the balance of the way. He attended the markets regularly twice a week for a space of sixty years, having many customers who would buy of no one else, and they expected to see "Uncle Aquila," as they called him, every Tuesday and Friday.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

No one can say that he ever gave them short weight or measure. His wife died in 1868. After her death he divided the property among his children and lived with them until his death, which occurred in 1870, he being in his ninety-second year. On the farm where he settled in 1807, ten children were born to them, six sons and four daughters, six of whom are living at present, five in this (Hamilton) county. None died under forty-seven years of age. The following children survived: Ala- zanah Burdsal, aged eighty-two; Harriett Webb, seventy-eight; Winfield, seventy- six; Leander, seventy; Warren, sixty-seven, and Thompson, sixty-six. During Gen. Harrison's campaign against the Indians in the Northwest Territory, from 1808 to 1812, Aquila furnished them with cattle and sheep, which he delivered at Vincennes, driving them through the unbroken wilderness, which was often filled with hostile Indians. He had many daring adventures with wild animals and the Indians. On one of these trips a panther stole into the camp, and was about to leap upon him when he discovered its two fiery eyes glaring at him. He was not a man to be frightened under such circumstances, and at once fired at the animal, and in the morning he was surprised to find a dead panther near the camp.

He was an uncompromising Democrat, voted for Jefferson for President, and he never missed an election from that time until 1870, invariably voting a straight ticket. All his sons and grandsons have followed in his footsteps. He was also one of the first Universalists in America, having been a great believer in the doctrines of Hosea Ballou, and it was due to his energies that the Universalist Church in New- town was built. He continued to worship there until his death. In the last few years of bis life, owing to an accident, he had to use crutches, but this did not deter him from going to church and the elections. The Durham family is noted for won- derful longevity. Samuel Durham's family consisted of nine children, several of whom lived to be ninety years old, Joshua having attained the age of ninety-six. His family consisted of eleven children, of whom Aquila, the youngest, lived to the age of ninety-two. Four of his brothers and sisters lived to be over eighty-five, one eighty-three, and one seventy-five. The writer of this sketch has in his boyhood days sat and listened to his tales of hardships, and especially his hunting experiences in the Little Miami valley. Here is one that he remembers: Aquila went hunt- ing with Louis Weitzel, proprietor of the hotel near the Little Miami Depot in 1796; they crossed the Ohio in a canoe, up the Licking, killed a deer apiece, and when they came back found their canoe gone. Believing that an Indian was lurking in the woods and bushes, they went up the river to where Dayton now stands, and Aquila swam the river and carried the deer, while Weitzel carried the guns and kept them dry. On another occasion he attended a society party at Fort Washington, near the corner of Third and Lawrence streets, in which the Virginia reel was the only dance, and he played the fife for the young ladies and gentlemen to dance to.

SAMUEL W. SMITH, one of Cincinnati's oldest and most highly respected business men. was born at Barrington, R. I., January 24, 1816; came to Cincinnati in 1832, and has been fully alive to all of the city's wonderful development since that time. His parents were Samuel and Lucy (Armington) Smith, people of education and pro- gressive ideas, who recognized the benefits of education, and placed before their son . such educational facilities as were available. He received his primary training in the common schools, and later attended two sessions of the Warren Academy, at Warren, R. I. His first employment in Cincinnati, which was prac- tically his beginning in business life, was as clerk and general assistant in the old grocery and boat supply store of Edward T. Martin. In 1833, about a year after his advent here, he made his first trip to New Orleans with a flatboat load of produce, and thereafter he was constantly on the river trading until 1839. In January, of that year, he embarked in business on the south side of Front street, near Walnut, dealing quite extensively in produce with southern connections. In 1841 he removed to Water street, and associated with him Richard G. Hunting, their establishment

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at No. 20 Water street becoming one of the best known in their line in the city, until they retired from business in 1873. Since that time Mr. Smith has been interested in various corporations, notably with the National Insurance Company, the Merchants National Bank and the Royer Wheel Company, in each of which he is a director, and in various real-estate operations in Cincinnati and elsewhere, the magnitude of which may be inferred from the fact that he has erected in Kansas City alone no less than thirty houses.

Mr. Smith was married in 1845, to Miss Mary Caroline Wooley, daughter of the once well-known Dr. John Wooley, of Cincinnati, who died in 1833. Mrs. Smith died in 1885. Mr. Smith has two sons and two daughters living: Edward W. Smith, of the grain commission firm of Davidson & Smith, of Kansas City; Samuel W. Smith, Jr., one of the law firm of Stevens, Lincoln & Smith, of Cincinnati, and Lucy Armington and Lydia Drake Smith, who are members of their father's house- hold. The eldest son, the late lamented Rev. William Armington Smith, of the Bap- tist Church, began his ministerial work in Hamilton, Ohio, and was later stationed at Cleveland, Ohio, and Somerville, Mass., in turn, and died in 1890, in Seattle, Wash., while on a visit to that city. Politically Mr. Smith was originally an Old- line Whig, and his development into a most earnest and consistent Republican was but natural. While taking a lively interest in political questions affecting his country, State and city, he has never been in an active sense a politician, and has invariably refused to accept any political offices at the hands of his fellow citizens. His distinguishing characteristics are liberality of thought and unselfish public spirit, and he is widely known as one of the few remaining men whose success- ful careers span the history of the old Cincinnati and the new.

GEORGE WOOD. One of the best remembered of the former long and prominent residents of Cincinnati is George Wood, who was born in Orange county, N. Y., No- vember 18, 1791. He received the limited education obtainable in his native town at that time, and was early thrown upon his own resources. He followed farming in his native State until 1811, when he migrated to the wilds of the West, settling in Maysville, Ky. It was always very interesting to hear him relate the hardships incident to pioneer life in those days, and recount the perils of the white man in the frontiers. He entered the services of his country during the war of 1812, and par- ticipated in the battles along the Thames river in Canada. He always spoke with feelings of pride in after years about his military career, and related with thrilling interest of the narrow escapes he had made from the whizzing bullets of the British. Although in that period he was constantly suffering from cold exposures, his consti- tution became strengthened thereby to exertion and hardship. At the close of the war he returned to Maysville, where he settled down to commercial business, trans- porting pork and flour by flatboat to New Orleans. On one occasion he was com- pelled to return from New Orleans to Maysville on foot.

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History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 82

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