History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 84

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

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. Immediately after his release from captivity, Col. Markbreit was elected by his fellow citizens in Cincinnati to a responsible city office which he held for two years. Governors Cox and Hayes made him co-member of their staff with the rank of colonel. In April, 1869, he was appointed United States minister to Bolivia. During his stay there he visited all parts of that country, and as there are but a few roads in it for vehicles, he made extensive trips on horseback to Cochabamba, Sucre, Potosi, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, etc. The headquarters of the United States min- ister were generally at the capital, La Paz, where he was an eye witness to several bloody revolutions. On such occasions he protected, often at the risk of his own life, the lives and property of the members of the overthrown governments who sought refuge with the United States Legation. In 1871 he saved the life of Mariano Donato Munoz, the prime minister of the overthrown government. President Mel- garejo Munoz had fled to the house of the United States minister, and succeeded in escaping from there to Peru. Munoz was especially odious to the victorious party, and would have been torn to pieces had he fallen into the hands of the mob. In 1873 Col. Markbreit was recalled on account of the political course of the Volksblatt in the presidential elections of 1872, although the State departments had before that time given him the most flattering approval of his course. He returned to Cincinnati, but went in July of that year to London, and from there on a business

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mission to the governments of Brazil and Bolivia, for the second time to South America. He represented an American steamship and railroad company, who intended to establish an important connection between Bolivia and the Atlantic. His mission was successful in every respect. During the journey he visited not only the two countries mentioned, but also Uruguay, Chili, Peru, and Ecuador, and made a long and dangerous voyage through the Straits of Magellan. The trip through the Straits generally lasts but thirty hours, but the steamer on which he had taken passage had to brave such violent storms, and was in such constant danger of getting among the breakers, that the passage occupied seven and one-half days. At last, however, the Pacific was reached in safety and Col. Markbreit landed at Jacna, a Peruvian port. From there he traveled 600 miles on horseback, in ten days, over mountains to Sucre, then the seat of the Bolivian government. During this second passage of the lofty and cold Andes he suffered from an attack of the sorroche, a disease very prevalent in those regions, from which he had already suffered during

his first passage. After a successful termination of his mission he went by way of Lima, Panama, Curacoa and St. Thomas to Europe; visited England, France, Ger- many, Austria, Belgium and Holland, and returned in January, 1875, to Cincinnati. In March of the same year he became a stockholder of the Volksblatt Company of that city, and was elected secretary and business manager of that company. In 1879 he visited old Mexico, Havana and other cities south of the United States, and in 1880 he made his third visit to Europe. In February, 1882, he was appointed treasurer of the United States at Cincinnati, which position he held until 1886, since which time he has been connected with the Volksblatt. Col. Markbreit was married July 19, 1887, to Miss Bertha Fiebach. He is a member of the Loyal Legion, and the G. A. R., and is a Republican in his political views.

JOSEPH KINSEY. At his home on Kinsey avenue, Mount Auburn, Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 12th day of December, 1889, the earthly career of Joseph Kinsey closed, at the age of sixty-one. Measured by years, he was not an old man, but. measured by the activity with which he lived, and by the results which he accom- plished, his life extended far beyond the average age of his fellows. He was born near Baltimore, Md., January 18, 1828, next to the youngest of nine children-five sons and four daughters-all of whom, with the exception of one son, reached maturity. His father, Oliver Kinsey (one of eleven children of Joseph, who was a son of Edmund Kinsey), was born November 24, 1780, and died October 4, 1855; his mother, Sarah (Griffith) Kinsey, born November 3, 1791, died December 6, 1831.

Mr. Kinsey's ancestry, on both sides, was American and Quaker for more than two hundred years. John Kinsey (1), a Quaker, from London, England, and one of the commissioners for the settlement of New Jersey, under the purchase by Edward Byllinge, arrived at New Castle on the Delaware, in the ship "Kent," on the 16th of June, 1677. Settlement was first made by the voyagers in this vessel, at what is now known as Burlingham, N. J. John Kinsey, however, made a selection and bar- gain for purchase of 300 acres of land from Peter Cock, a Swede, on the west side of the Delaware, above the mouth of the Schuylkill and near the locality which after- ward became famous as Penn's Treaty Tree and the City of Philadelphia. John Kinsey died before the settlement was fully completed, and, at a court held at Upland (now Chester), November 12, 1678, Peter Cock appeared before the justices and made formal acknowledgement of his deed of conveyance to Elizabeth Kinsey (widow of John) of the land described. John Kinsey (2), then a young man, and son of John Kinsey, Sr., did not accompany his parents in 1677, but came out the next year and assumed the management of his mother's affairs. He afterward became distinguished in his public services, and his son, John Kinsey (3), likewise a Quaker, became chief justice of Pennsylvania. Edmund Kinsey, the great-grand- father of the subject of the present sketch, was the son of John Kinsey (2). In 1715,

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he removed with his family to the untried wilderness, now Buckingham township, " Bucks Co., Penn., friendly Indians being their guides to the new home. Edmund Kinsey was earnestly interested in the spiritual welfare of the people, and was one of the founders of Buckingham Meeting, in 1720. He was also one of the foremost and most skillful mechanics of his time, and had a scythe and axe factory in Buck- ingham, in which he had a trip hammer operated by water power, a great improve- ment in those days.

When Joseph was five years old, the family removed from Baltimore to Wayne county, and located upon a farm, now within the city limits of Richmond, Ind. His father was a liberal patron of schools, and gave his children such advantages of edu- cation as those early times afforded, which were necessarily somewhat limited. Living on a farm, Joseph found constant employment when out of school, for it was his father's maxim that, while there should be ample time for innocent recreation, there must be no idleness. This idea was thoroughly and persistently instilled into the minds of his children, and was, no doubt, the cause of the busy and intense life which his son Joseph always lived. At the early age of fourteen, he was employed in the retail country store kept by William Owens, in Richmond, Ind., where lie remained two years. After one more year in school he came to Cincinnati, in 1845, and at the age of seventeen engaged with the firm of J. K. Ogden & Company, wholesale and retail dealers in hardware, at No. 118 Main street. This was the beginning of his life as a merchant, and notwithstanding the success which he achieved during the later years of his life as a manufacturer and promoter of rail- roads, Mr. Kinsey always regarded himself a merchant, and it was as a merchant that he laid the foundation of his fortune.

After a diligent service of two years with this firm, he changed to the larger house of Clark & Booth (afterward Clark & Groesbeck), in the same line of business, where he remained several years. It was about this time that the excitement caused by the discovery of gold in California was taking hundreds of our active young men from the regular course of business. Young Mr. Kinsey did not altogether escape the gold fever, and had actually made all arrangements for the overland trip to Cali- fornia; but he changed his plans, having received a flattering offer from the old- established house of Tyler Davidson & Company, who were then just moving into their fine new store, at No. 140 Main street. This change, when made, was regarded as a step beyond the requirements of the times, and, in fact, their stock of hardware made but a sorry show upon the extended shelving of the seven stories of the new building. In a short time, however, their large house was not sufficient to hold the stock of hardware required to meet their rapidly expanding business, and it, there- fore, became necessary to have several large warehouses, in addition, in which to store their goods. To no small degree was the successful career of this well-known house due to the business sagacity and tireless energy of Joseph Kinsey. His patient and efficient services as a salesman were rewarded by the offer of an interest in the business, which was accepted, and Mr. Kinsey continued as a partner, until he had completed eight years of steady work in this old and famous house. It was during this service that he obtained an insight into the growing importance of domestic manufactures, especially in our own city; and by liberal patronage of skilled labor at home, many articles that had theretofore been imported from abroad and from eastern cities were produced here. At the beginning, these goods were not quite as cheap as they might have been bought for abroad; but soon the preference for goods made at home, where the maker and consumer could by being near together suggest changes and improvements, gave such encouragement to home manufactures that many of those articles have become famous throughout the country as the very best and cheapest that can be found anywhere. Upon severing his connection with the firm of Tyler Davidson & Company, Mr. Kinsey bought into the rolling-mill property which had been for many years conducted by Lewis Worthington, W. W. Worthington and

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James Tranter, under the style of Worthington & Co. This branch of industry, in which two or more articles of raw material are put together to make a better and more useful one, had all the charm and fascination that called out the utmost dili- gence and energy of Mr. Kinsey who labored without rest, until the beginning of the year 1866, when the co-partnership expired by limitation, and the firm property was put into the Globe Rolling Mill Company, a joint-stock company whose stock- holders combined the original owners and others who had long been connected with the successful management of the business.

In the spring of 1866, he gave up all active business, and spent two years with his family in Southbridge, Mass., occupying the old Ammidown homestead in that city, which was endeared to his wife by the early associations of her girlhood, and which Mr. Kinsey bought and presented to her. He also purchased a large holding in the stock of the Central Mills Company, manufacturers of cotton cloth and twine, an enterprise which had been established by Mrs. Kinsey's father, during his life- time. On his return to Cincinnati in 1868, he was elected to the city council as a member from the old Eleventh Ward. He did not find this position particularly pleasing, but performed its duties faithfully, and was not sorry to retire at the close of his term of service. With the taste for manufacturing still unsatisfied, Mr. Kin- sey bought a controlling interest in Post & Company, manufacturers of railway sup- plies and machinery, and. up to the time of his death, he continued as president of both concerns, Post & Company and The Globe Rolling Mill Company.

In politics, Mr. Kinsey was a Republican of the " straightest sect," and a firm believer in the doctrine of a protective tariff; in religion, he was a member of the Society of Friends, but a liberal thinker, believing in the exercise of religious charity in its broadest sense. He was also a member of the Masonic Fraternity.

Mr. Kinsey was naturally ardent, energetic and generous. He entered with remarkable energy and success into the important branches of business adverted to, and took a profound interest in American industries, not only as a manufacturer, but as an American citizen. He was one of the most influential members and vice-presi- dent of the Board of Trade, and was also a leading member of the Industrial League of Cincinnati and the United States. Nor was he a laggard in the support of any public enterprise or charitable institution, for to all of them he contributed liberally of both time and means. In fine, Mr. Kinsey was one of those liberal and public- spirited men who are of the highest advantage to any society, and whose personal welfare tend to the advancement of the whole community. While he did not dis- criminate against any organization whose purpose was clearly for the good of man, yet he seemed most delighted to aid those which were apparently the least aristo- cratic and had the fewest friends, as for example the Home of the Friendless, and the Colored Orphan Asylum. Probably his greatest work of a public character was in connection with the building of the Cincinnati Southern railway, an enterprise which is, without doubt, the greatest in the history of the city, and, indeed, the most important strictly municipal undertaking in the history of any city in this country. If a full and impartial account of that enterprise is ever written, it will appear that to Joseph Kinsey, in a degree surpassing that of any one man, is Cincinnati indebted for its having been undertaken, and especially that it was carried to completion in the manner originally designed, namely: that the city should be the sole owner of a railroad from Cincinnati to Chattanooga. When the "promised land " was in sight, and many of the old friends of the measure faltered, because it would be necessary to call upon the city for an issue of two millions of bonds more, and fearing lest the approval of the people could not be obtained, were ready to lease the unfinished road to a company which would furnish the necessary capital to complete it, Mr. Kinsey stepped forward and secured responsible contractors, R. G. Huston & Co., who agreed to complete the road within the limit of two millions of dollars and, further, by going upon their bond, he placed his entire private fortune in jeopardy;

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but rather than have the city embarrassed by being forced to lease an unfinished 3 road, he took the risk. And, if Mr. Kinsey's advice had been followed from the beginning, instead of the city carrying the burden of bonds at seven per cent. inter- est with no privilege of redemption, she would long since have refunded those bonds at four per cent., or less. Mr. Kinsey was also one of the active promoters of the Marietta & North Georgia railroad from Marietta, Georgia, to Murphy, North Carolina.

During the war he was loyal to the core, and was active in the recruiting of troops, and faithful in looking after the wants of the wives and children of soldiers that they should not suffer while the husbands and fathers were at the front. He served as a member of the Home Guards in the defense of Cincinnati at the time of the Kirby Smith raid.

Two of his brothers still (1894) survive: Isaac Kinsey, farmer and capitalist of Milton, Wayne Co., Ind., and Abram G. Kinsey, who is engaged in the marble quarry business in North Carolina.

Mr. Kinsey was married December 15, 1851, to Miss Ann Frances Ammidown, daughter of Ebenezer Davis and Rebekah (Fisher) Ammidown, of Southbridge, Mass. This union was blessed with thirteen children, five of whom are living: Rebekah Fisher Cole, wife of Mr. C. W. Cole, attorney at law, Cincinnati; Oliver, president of the Post-Glover Electric Company, Cincinnati; Isaac, president of the Coving- ton Brass Manufacturing Company, Covington, Ky .; Ebenezer Ammidown, pro- prietor of E. A. Kinsey & Company, Cincinnati, dealers in machinery, railway and mill supplies; and (the youngest) Miss Sara Genevieve Kinsey.

EBENEZER AMMIDOWN KINSEY, proprietor of E. A. Kinsey & Co., dealers in machinery and railway supplies, was born in Mt. Auburn, December 18, 1865, and is a son of Joseph Kinsey, whose portrait and biographical sketch appear in this work. He was educated in the public schools of Cincinnati, graduating from the Woodward High School in 1883. He immediately entered the office of Post & Com- pany, and was, successively, office boy, shipping clerk, bill clerk, secretary and vice-president of that concern until December, 1890, when he purchased the mer- cantile department. Under Mr. Kinsey's wise management the business has grown rapidly, until it is now one of the largest establishments of its kind in the West.

Mr. Kinsey was married April 24, 1889, to Miss Susannah Miles, daughter of John DeBray and Lucy (Davis) Miles, both of American nativity and of French and English ancestry, respectively. This happy union has been blessed with two bright children, Ruth and Helen. In their religious views the family, like Mr. Kinsey's ancestors, are Orthodox Quakers. Politically Mr. Kinsey is very strongly affiliated with the principles of the Republican party.

HON. WILLIAM SLOCUM GROESBECK, one of the most eminent lawyers of the United States, and one of the oldest, most prominent and wealthiest citizens of Cincinnati, was born on the fourth day of July, 1816, near Schenectady, N. Y. His father, John H. Groesbeck, who was born in New York in 1790, was one of the most pros- perous merchants in the early history of the city, and was, in the later years of his life, the president of the Franklin Bank. Our subject's mother, Mary (Slocum), daughter of William Slocum, was of New England birth.

William S. Groesbeck was educated at Augusta College, Kentucky, Oxford Col- lege, Ohio, and graduated from the Miami University in 1834. He was the vale- dictorian of his class in both of the last-named institutions. In 1836 he was admit- ted to the Bar, and was actively engaged in the practice of his profession until 1857, when he was elected to Congress. His last case was as one of counsel for President Johnson in his impeachment trial in 1868, in which he distinguished himself for his legal acumen and forensic ability. Mr. Groesbeck has served the city of Cincinnati, the county of Hamilton, the State of Ohio, and the United States of America, in numerous high trusts with distinguished ability, that has marked every epoch in

Joseph Kinsey

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his life's history. In 1851 he was a member of the State Constitutional Convention; in 1852 he was one of the commission to codify the laws of the State; in 1857-59 he was a member of Congress, serving on the Foreign Affairs Committee; in 1861 lie was a member of the Peace Congress, and in 1862, of the Ohio Senate. He was a delegate to the National Union Convention in 1866. In 1872 he was the Presi- dential candidate of the Liberal Republicans in opposition to Horace Greeley, and received one electoral vote for Vice-President, for which office he had not been nomi- nated. In 1878 he was a delegate to the International Monetary Congress held in Paris. It has been conceded, by his most bitter political opponents, that there is no eminent position of political preferment within the gift of the American people, or within the appointment of its Chief Executive, that this talented gentleman of the old school of statesmen is not, by scope of intellectual endowment, education, force of character, and habit of thoughit, well qualified to fill.

Mr. Groesbeck was married, in 1837, to Elizabeth, daughter of Judge Jacob Burnet, a distinguished jurist, a biographical sketch of whom is contained in this volume. Mrs. Groesbeck died April 6, 1889. Five children, all of whom survive, are married. They are: Telford Groesbeck, an attorney of Cincinnati: Dr. Herman Groesbeck, also of Cincinnati; Mrs. Robert Ludlow Fowler, of New York City; Mrs. R. H. I. Goddard, of Providence, R. I., and Mrs. Kenelm T. Digby, of W. Worthing, England. Mr. Groesbeck is a member of the Second Presbyterian Church. Through his munificent endowment of $50,000, free open-air concerts are given weekly, throughout the summer season, in Burnet Woods Park. He resides at Elmhurst, Torrence road, Walnut Hills.

HON. HUMPHREY HOWE LEAVITT was born in Suffield, Conn., in 1796. His family came to America from England in the year 1628. In 1799 his parents migrated from Suffield, Conn., to Warren, Ohio. He served in the war of 1812, studied law, and was admitted to the Bar in 1816.

Mr. Leavitt commenced the practice of his profession at Cadiz, Harrison Co., Ohio, and in the second year of his residence there was elected justice of the peace for the township. He afterward removed to Steubenville, Ohio, where he was later given the appointment of prosecuting attorney, which position he held for ten years. In 1825, during Jackson's administration, he was elected member of the House of Representatives of Ohio from Jefferson county. After serving his term, he became. a candidate for the Senate in 1827, and was elected. In 1829 he was appointed clerk of the Court of Common Pleas and Supreme Court of the county, which posi- tion he held only a short time, leaving it in 1830 for a seat in Congress, to which he had been elected. Having served his term, he was re-elected. He was elected for a third term of Congress, but before taking his seat he accepted from President. Jackson, on June 30, 1834, the appointment of United States District Judge of Ohio. About twenty years after his appointment the State was divided into two Districts, and he became the judge of the Southern District. The following deci- sions are well known: First in importance, that one pertaining to the "Bankrupt. Law;" also his decisions growing out of the "Fugitive Slave Law" of 1850. The most important of all was that of the "Vallandigham Habeas Corpus Case;" his decision in the "Fenian Movement;" the "Methodist Church Case," decided in 1852.

It was in March of 1855, when the State of Ohio was divided into two Districts, that he came to Cincinnati. In 1869 he was honored by his friends at the Bar, who had a full-length portrait of him painted and placed in the United States Courtroom, where it hangs to-day in the new Custom House. At the same time these friends: presented him with a handsomely bound book containing the names of those who contributed to the cost of the portrait. In March, 1871, being seventy-five years old, he resigned his office, after serving thirty-seven years as United States District and Circuit Judge of Ohio. Upon his retirement the principal members at. the Bar tendered him a banquet at the "St. Nicholas," at which the chief toast-

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master was Hon. Henry Stanbery. In 1872 he was appointed a representative to the Prison Reform Congress at London, England. He was highly honored while abroad by invitations to numerous receptions given by the nobility, where he met the different members of the Royal Family of England, among whom he often con- versed with and was charmed with the Prince and Princess of Wales. He died in 1872 at the age of seventy-six years.

HON. GEORGE HUNT PENDLETON Was born in Cincinnati, July 19, 1825, and died at Brussels, Belgium, November 24, 1889. If it would add anything to his fame, his ancestry might be traced far back into the period of the struggles of the English people against the tyranny of kings and the encroachment of arbitrary power. The name of Pendleton is intimately associated with our Revolutionary war and with the patriots who shared in its hardships and its glory. Among the most distinguished of these was Nathaniel Pendleton, the grandfather of George H. Pendleton, who served through the Revolutionary struggle on the staff of Gen. Greene, and was present at the battles of Trenton, Brandywine, Monmouth, Cowpens, Guilford Court House and Eutaw Springs. He was the friend and enjoyed the confidence of Washington, and was appointed by him judge of the United States District Court of Georgia. Nathaniel Greene Pendleton, the father of George H. Pendleton, was a famous Whig politician, an intimate friend of Gen. Harrison, and one of the most distin- guished men of his day. He was elected a member of Congress in 1840. Mr. Pen- dleton's mother, a daughter of Jesse Hunt, one of the earliest pioneers of the west- ern country, was a woman of strong character and extraordinary will, combined with great loveliness of disposition, and was beloved by all who knew her.

The future of a youth of shining and winning abilities descended from such an- cestry could not be a matter of doubt. He was untrammelled by poverty, and was given every advantage which the educational facilities of the time afforded. From his earliest consciousness he was associated with the brightest minds of the age, and he was ambitious and precocious beyond most of his boyish comrades. For eleven years, two of which were spent in Woodward High School, six years under Prof. O. M. Mitchell and at the old Cincinnati College, and three years under private instruc- tion at home, he prosecuted his studies in this city with the greatest zeal and indus- try, and gained a thorough and complete classical education. Finding his health

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History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 84

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