USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of Dayton, Ohio. With portraits and biographical sketches of some of its pioneer and prominent citizens Vol. 2 > Part 36
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As he was quick at his books, so he was quick to learn all the details of the trade he set out to learn, and before the term of his apprenticeship expired be purchased his time, and was free to go into business for himself. He relates with interest many incidents of his life in Phila- delphia. Among other things, he tells of the part he took in throwing up defenses west of the Schuylkill, at the time the British had taken Washington, were marching to Baltimore, and threatening Philadelphia.
In 1820, Thomas Brown, with a friend near his own age, started west to join his two brothers, who were in Lebanon, Ohio. They expected to find some conveyance, but failed to do so, and walked on to Pittsburg, thinking there to obtain transportation on some boat going down the Ohio; but the river was low, and no boats were going down, so on the young men tramped, and reached Lebanon, Ohio, after two weeks, having walked all the way from Philadelphia. In Lebanon he pursued his business of builder.
In 1825, the subject of this sketch moved to Xenia, having a number of contracts there for the building of dwellings, business houses, and a
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chureb. In 1828, Mr. Brown made another move, this time to Dayton. which has since been his home, with the exception of a couple of years spent in Indiana.
Mr. Brown was a member of the first school board organized nuder the free-school law; he was a member of the general assembly for two terms; was a director of the State prison from 1848 to 1851; and was one of the lessees of the public works, under the law of 1801. Prior to 1851 he was a contractor and builder, and erected many buildings, both public and private, in Montgomery County and elsewhere in the State. From 1851 to 1866 he was engaged in various enterprises, and in the latter year purchased an interest in the firm of S. N. Brown & Company. of which his son, S. N. Brown, is the leading member. Shortly afterward the firm became a corporation, and Thomas Brown was chosen president, a position which he retains to the present time. In politics, Mr. Brown was first a Federalist, then a National Republican, then a Whig, and last a Republican. He east his sixteenth vote for President of the United States for James G. Blaine, and his seventeenth for Benjamin Harrison. He has always been known for his unselfish life, for the sterling worth of his character, and for his Christian integrity. He has also always been a man of public spirit, fully up with the times, and at the front in all public enterprises. In manner, he appears a gentleman of the old school, and in conversation, always entertaining, accurate, and dignified.
In 1824, Mr. Brown married Sarah Groome Brown, widow of his brother James. Sarah Groome was the daughter of John Groome and Susanna Brant, the former of London, England, afterward of Chatham, New Jersey. She was born in 1790 in Chatham, New Jersey, and came West with her parents in 1794, to Columbia, Hamilton County, Ohio. In 1816, she married James Brown, in Lebanon, Ohio, who died in 1820, leaving her with two children. After the death of his brother James, Thomas Brown devoted himself to the care and comfort of his sister-in-law and her children, and formed an attachment for her that resulted in a married life full of happiness. In 1874, Mr. and Mrs. Brown celebrated in a delightful manner their golden wedding. Mrs. Brown lived to the advanced age of ninety-four years and one month, dying August 24, 1884. She retained her physical strength and mental faculties to a most remarkable degree. Of artistic tastes and untiring industry her own home and those of her friends were beantified by the works of her hands, dainty and deft after four score years of activity. Of bright and gentle ways, she was a social favorite with young and old. She was an unswerving Christian, a devoted Methodist from childhood, and until near her death a regular attendant upon the church services.
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The children of Thomas and Sarah Groome Brown are Ellen, Samuel Nixon, Charles Randolph, and Caroline. Samuel Nixon Brown married, in 1850, Elcanor Dans Holden, and had the following children : Charles Haywood, Miles Randolph, Harvey Blanchard, Persis Louise. Marlay, Whitney, Sarah Belle, Paul, and Eleanor Nixon. Of these, Miles Randolph, Harvey Blanchard, Persis Louise, and Marlay died in childhood. Charles Haywood married, in December, 1875, Ada Lillie Bennett, and had children as follows: Maria, Haywood, Charlotte, Thirza Cutler, Persis Estabrook, and Lucretia Embly. Of these, Persis E. died in infancy. Sarah Belle, daughter of Samuel, married, in October, 1888, Frank Fowler. Charles Randolph, son of Thomas and Sarah Brown, married, in 1868, Garaphilia Thorndyke Lemon, and had children as follows: Samuel Herbert and Roy. All the descendants of Thomas Brown live in Dayton, excepting Charles R. and family.
JOUN R. BROWNELL was born in Fulton County, New York, July 7, 1839. His father was Frederick Brownell, and his mother Mrs. Aun ( Dolly) Brownell, both natives of Fulton County, New York. Frederick Brownell was a tanner and currier by trade, and served as a soldier in the war of 1812, and was stationed at Sackett's Harbor with General Brown; and six uncles of Mrs. Brownell also served their country in that war. Mr. Brownell moved with his family to Lower Sandusky, near Fremont, Ohio, in 1842, and there worked at his trade until his death, August 7, 1851. Mrs. Brownell died in 1882. They were the parents of eleven children, the eldest of whom died in infancy, and seven of whom are living. The sons living are Charles P., Elijah II., Frederick, and John R. Brownell, and the daughters living are Mrs. Phebe Ann Vannatter, Mrs. Jane Phelps, and Mrs. Samantha M. Smith, all of Fulton County, New York. Mrs. Elizabeth Zimmerman died in 1886, and Mrs. Berintha C. Tracy died in 1865. James II. Brownell died in 1876. The subject of this sketch was the youngest of the family. After his father removed to Fremont he attended schools in the winter time for several years, and the first year after his father's death worked at Green Springs one winter for his board, at the same time attending school. Further educational ad- vantages were denied him, and from that time on he was thrown npon his own resources for his own livelihood and success in life. During the year 1853 he served as a clerk in the store of W. T. and A. K. West, at Sandusky City. The next two years he spent on the steamer Northern Indiana on Lake Erie, and in the fall of 1856 he came to Dayton and went to work for his brother, Elijah HI. Brownell, at boiler making, re- maining at this work until the fall of 1857. He then went to California, and worked at his trade in San Francisco for some time, and then went
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to work in the mines. He returned to Dayton in January, 1861, and worked at his trade until August of that year, when he enlisted in the Twenty-second Olio Volunteer Regiment as a private soldier, serving as such until 1863, when he was commissioned second lieutenant of Com- pany K, commanding the company most of the time, and was mustered out as second lieutenant at the close of the war. He then returned to Dayton and went to work at the boiler making, machine and foundry business as a member of the firm of Brownell & Company, a history of which firm and its various changes may be found in the chapter devoted to the manufacturing interests of the city. Mr. Brownell has continued in the manufacture of boilers ever since, and has met with more than ordinary success. In 1871, he was elected a county commissioner of Montgomery and served three years. During the years 1881 and 1882 he was a member of the city council of Dayton, and in 1882 he was elected State senator and served one session. He has always been a Republican in politics, and is a member of Old Guard Post, Grand Army of the Republic.
Mr. Brownell has been twice married, first in June, 1866, to Melvira J. Humphreys, daughter of Thomas Humphreys, of Urbana, Ohio. By his first wife he had one daughter, Anna, who at the age of six years, died in 1872, and Mrs. Brownell died during the same year. Mr. Brownell was married in the fall of 1875 to Miss Harriet Alice Smith, daughter of Abraham Smith, of Maryland. By this marriage he has four children, three daughters and one son. The daughters names are Carrie J., Alice J., and Mary L., and the son is named John R. Brown- ell, Jr.
WILLIAM DICKEY was born August 10, 1805, near Middletown, Butler County, Ohio. He was the seventh in a family of eleven children, of whom ouly one, R. R. Dickey, whose sketch appears elsewhere, survives. Like the rest of the family, his facilities for the acquisition of a literary or scientific education were extremely meager; but also like them, be was carly brought into contact with the world and inared to a life of labor, which taught him self-reliance, and gave him that practical knowl- edge, without which few men can make a success of life. Upon arriving at his majority, he took a contraet for work on the Miami Canal, and he was subsequently engaged for several years in a similar capacity on the Ohio Canal. On April 19, 1882, he married Miss Sarah Van Cleve, daughter of Benjamin Van Cleve, of Butler County, and for some years was employed in farming, having a short time previous, in connection with his brother, purchased the homestead of his father. In April, 1839; he removed to Dayton, and became engaged successively in the man-
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ufacture of brick, in contracts on the Miami Canal, and in quarrying limestone in the vicinity of the city. For a number of years he conducted a line of packet canal boats on the canal, between Cineimati and Toledo, and between Toledo and Terre Haute, Indiana. During these years of business industry and activity, he amassed considerable capital, and in 1850, in company with Joseph Clegg and Daniel Beckel, he became a private banker. Subsequently he was one of the organizers of the Miami Valley Bank. He was one of the incorporators of the Dayton Gaslight and Coke Company, and was for about twenty years its president. He was also one of the organizers of the Ohio Insurance Company, in 1865, and was its president until his death. Mr. Dickey was a man of sound judgment, and was characterized by great kindness of heart, modest manners, and a quiet benevolence that never obtrudes itself upon the notice of the world. He was also distinguished by a sterling integrity; great caution and prudence, which combined with untiring industry, rendered his business career a gratifying success, and which also during his whole life made the transaction of business with him a pleasure to all. His death occurred July 15, 1880, leaving a wife, a son and two daughters. The daughters are Mrs. Heury C. Graves, of Dayton, and Mrs. Charles B. Oglesby, of Middletown, Ohio. The son, Samuel A. Diekey, was born in Dayton, March 16, 1840. He was one of Dayton's successful young business men, being for about seventeen years engaged in the wholesale and retail coal business. He was married October 12, 1865, to Miss Sarah E. Hayner, daughter of Lewis Hayner, of Troy, and died August 9, 1880.
ROBERT R. DICKEY was born near Middletown, Ohio, October 26, 1816. He is the son of Adam and Mary ( MeKee) Diekey. Adam Dickey was born in County Antrim, Ireland, in 1768, and came to the United States about 1784 and lived in or near MeConnellstown, Pennsyl- vania, until 1799. Miss Mary McKee, who became Mrs. Adam Dickey, was born in Pennsylvania, and was a second cousin to General George Washington. Mr. and Mrs. Dickey removed from MeConnellstown, Pennsylvania, to Cincinnati, then Fort Washington, Ohio, in 1799, with an unele whose name was Doyle, in two flat boats built by Mr. Dickey, on which he brought down the Ohio River two four-horse teams and two wagons. He lived in Cincinnati four years, and while there was engaged in making brick, making the brick for the first brick house erected in that place. In 1803, he removed to Butler County, Ohio, and settled near Middletown, where he was engaged in farming, milling, and distilling, building his own flat boats and shipping his produce to New Orleans. He continued in this business until his death, which occurred
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in 1828. Mrs. Dickey died in 1844. Adam and Mary Dickey were the parents of eleven children- Sarah, Samuel, James, Elizabeth, John, Mary, William, Joseph, Adam, Alexander, and Robert R.
Robert R Diekey was the youngest of these eleven children. At the age of eleven years, through the death of his father, he was thrown on his own resources. At this age he became employed in a brick vard, working fourteen hours a day, at four dollars and eighty-seven cents per month. Afterward he worked upon a farm at five dollars per month. Under these circumstances his educational advantages were somewhat limited, but from contact with the world he acquired an accurate knowl- edge of men and the world in general which is invaluable in business, and which no amount of contact with books, literature, and science, can give. Hle began work upon the public works of Chio and Indiana in 1830 with his brothers, and at the age of seventeen was made superinten- dent of a large gang of men. In 1842. he became a resident of Dayton, and in connection with his brothers, John and William, was engaged in quarrying stone until 1853. In 1847, he was connected with the firm of Dickey, Doyle & Diekey, in placing a line of packet boats on the Wabash & Erie Canal, and under the firm name of Doyle & Dickey built the reservoir lock at St. Mary's and the locks at Delphos. In 1845, he was one of the organizers of the Dayton Bank, and was for several years one of its directors. In 1852, he became a partner in the Exchange Bank with Messrs. Jonathan Harshinan, Valentine Winters, and J. R. Young. In 1853, he became one of the largest stockholders in the Dayton Gas Light and Coke Company, and has been a director in the company ever since. He served as president of the company from 1855 to 1858, retiring on account of ill-health, but at the election of 1880 was again elected president and holds the position at the present time. He was president of the Dayton & Western Railroad Company from 1854 to 1856, both years inclusive. He was one of the organizers of the Dayton National Bank in 1865, and since 1868 has been one of its directors.
Mr. Diekey was married June 27, 1850, to Miss Martha J. Winters, daughter of Valentine Winters, of Dayton. Mr. and Mrs. Dickey are the parents of three children, all sons. The two older ones were for several years engaged in the cattle business in Colorado. William W. Dickey, the elder son, died July 15, 1886, and since that time the second son, Valentine B. Dickey, has been largely engaged in the cattle business near Fort Worth, Texas, where he owns a large ranch, himself residing, however, in Chicago. Robert R. Dickey. Jr., the youngest son, is at the present time residing at home with his parents, having but recently graduated from Yale College, as a member of the class of 1888.
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WILLIAM P. HUFFMAN was a native of Dayton, having been born here October 18, 1813. His grandfather, William, was of German descent, and his grandmother of English descent. They came to the United States from Holland, somewhere between 1730 and 1740, and settled in Monmouth County, New Jersey, where William Inffinan, their son, was born, May 24, 1769. William Inffman was married June 14, 1801, to Miss Lydia Knott, who was also a native of Monmouth County, New Jersey, having been born there January 19, 1779. Mr. and Mrs. Huffman had five children, one son and four daughters, the son being William P. Huffman, the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Huffman died March 21, 1865, and Mr. Huffman January 23, 1866. They had settled / in Dayton several years before the birth of their son, William P. Huff- man, to whom they gave a good English education. After completing this English course of study, Mr. Huffinan read law with Warren Munger, Sr., not, however, with the view of adopting the law as a profession, but as a means of being more thoroughly equipped for a successful business career. Early in 1837 he left the city and spent teu years in farming. At the close of this period, in the spring of 1848, he left the farm and was for the remainder of his life engaged in the banking, real estate business, and in extensive building operations. Among the local enterprises with which he was prominently connected were the Third Street Railway, Dayton and Springfield Turnpike, Cooper Hydraulic, and the Second National Bank. Of this bank he was one of the organizers and was afterward its president, as appears in the chapter on banking. Politically, Mr. Huffman was a War Democrat, but was not a strict partisan, principles being of more concern to him than any party. He was connected with the First Baptist Church until 1878, when he became a constituent member of the Linden Avenue Baptist Church. . He was a trustee of Dennison University from 1867 until his death, which occurred July 2, 1888.
Mr. Hutliman was of clear and sound judgment, careful and reliable in business transactions. Ile was of sterling integrity and of moral worth. His influence was widely recognized in molding the Christian sentiment of the community and in forming a correct public opinion as to the value of morality and honesty in all dealings with our fellow man.
Mr. and Mrs. Huffman were the parents of ten children, as follows: William Hoffman, extensive stone dealer, of Dayton; Martha Belle, wife of E. J. Barney, of Dayton; Lydia II, wife of James R. Hedges, of New York City; Charles T., who died at the age of thirty-four; Lizzie II., wife of Charles E. Drury, cashier of the Third National Bank; Samnel, who died in infancy; Torreuce, vice-president of the Fourth National Bank
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and president of the Union Safe Deposit and Trust Company; Frank T., county treasurer; George P., a sketch of whom is added hereto; and Anna M., unmarried and living at home.
GEORGE P. HUFFMAN, son of. William P. Huffman, was born Septem- ber 6, 1862, at Dayton. His English and classical education was obtained at the Cooper Academy, in which he spent eleven years. He then studied law in the office of Gunckel & Rowe from the same motive with which his father had pursued the same course, a more certainly successful business career, and with the same object in view engaged in banking for six months. For some five years subsequently he was engaged in the real estate business, and in 1887 he purchased the Kratochwill Flouring Mills, and almost immediately afterward procured the incorporation of the Kra- tochwill Milling Company, and became its president. This position he still retains, and is also president of the National Improvement Company, recently organized; of the Monitor Publishing Company, and of the Miami Valley Elevator Company; vice-president of the Crume & Sefton Manufacturing Company, treasurer of the Cooper Hydraulic Company, director in the Third National Bank, in the Homestead Aid Association, in the Consolidated Coal and Coke Company of Cincinnati, of the Young Men's Christian Association, and is a deacon in the Linden Avenue Bap- tist Church. Mr. Huffman was married October 30, 1884, to Miss Maude C. McKee. They have two children, Horace and George P., Jr.
STEPHEN J. PATTERSON was born at the old Rubicon farm, just south of Dayton, December 20, 1842. The first ancestor on his father's side, of whom there is any record, came from Ireland, but his Christian name has not been preserved. From his family name, however, it is evident that he was originally of Scotch ancestry. The son of this Irish emigrant was Colonel Robert Patterson, a celebrated pioneer and Indian fighter, who was born near Cove Mountain, Pennsylvania, March 15, 1753. In 1774, he served six months with the Rangers against the Indians on the frontiers of Pennsylvania. In October, 1775, in company with John MeLelland and family and six other young men, he left Pennsylvania for Kentucky, the party taking their moveable property in canoes and driving their cattle on land. At the mouth of Salt Lick Creek, he, with three of the young men, left the Ohio River, intending to meet the rest of the party at Leestown. This they finally did, and afterward went to Royal Spring, now Georgetown, and made that their home until April, 1776. The young men of the party then built two cabins, where Lexing- ton now stands, and thus became the original proprietors of the town site. Colonel Patterson also owned one third of Cincinnati when it was first laid out. In 1778, he was with General George Rogers Clarke in his
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Illinois expedition, and in 1779 he was with Bowman's expedition against Chillicothe. In 1780, he was captain under General Clarke against the Shawnees on the Little Miami and Mad rivers. He was second in com- mand at the battle of Lower Blue Licks, under Colonel Boone, August 19, 1782. On the second expedition of General Clarke into the Miami country, he held the office of colonel, and had the same office in 1786 under Colonel Logan in his expedition against the Shawnees. He served in the Kentucky senate, and was appointed by the governor of that State a judge of the court of quarter sessions in 1800.
During this latter year he purchased a farm of D. C. Cooper at . Dayton, which farm received the name of the Rubicon Farm from the creek of that name which was so named by Colonel Patterson. He died August 5, 1827.
He was married March 29, 1781, to Elizabeth Lindsay, who was born at Fallen Springs, Pennsylvania, in September, 1760, and who died Octo- ber 22, 1833. They were the parents of nine children, the youngest of whom was Jefferson Patterson, born May 27, 1801, at Kexington, Kentucky. Ile lived an unostentatious, useful and honored life, dying March 23, 1863, while serving as a member of the Ohio legislature. He was married February 26, 1833, to Miss Julia Johnston, daughter of Colonel John Johnston. Miss Johnston was born August 16, 1811. Colonel Johnston was born in Ireland March 25, 1775; came to the United States in 1786; to Cincinnati in February, 1793, and died February 18, 1861. He was married to Rachel Robinson in 1801. Miss Robinson was a daughter of Abraham Robinson, of Philadelphia; was born in 1786 and died August 14, 1840. Colonel and Mrs. Johnston were the parents of fifteen children, of whom Julia ( Juliana Hamilton, as she was christened ) was the fifth. Early in the century Colonel Johnston went to Fort Wayne, Indiana, as assistant surgeon and factor, remaining there until 1811, when he removed to Piqua, Ohio, and served there as Indian agent until 1833. The Indian tribes, of which he acted as agent, were the Shawnees, Wyandots, Senecas, Miamis, and Delawares, and during his residence among them at Piqua they were removed tribe by tribe to the westward of the Mis- sissippi. From 1833 to the end of his life he devoted his attention to his own business affairs, and in 1861 went to Washington to secure a claim against the government, but the War of the Rebellion broke out almost immediately, and his claim was never seeured.
Stephen J. Patterson remained on the farm until he was nineteen years old, attending school during the winters and working the rest of the year. He then went to the Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, remaining one year. In 1862, he joined the Eighty-sixth Ohio Regi-
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ment, remaining in that until the regiment was mustered out in October, 1862. He then returned to the farm, remaining there until 1868, when he came to the city and engaged in the coal business with his brother, John II. Patterson, under the firm name of S. J. Patterson & Company. This company lasted until 1878, when it was dissolved, since which time Mr. Patterson has been engaged in the coal business on his own account. When S. J. Patterson went into the business their trade was very small, the firm owning neither horse nor cart. At first they handled soft coal mostly, but in 1871 they commenced handling the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's coal, and since then the trade of the firm, and of Mr. Patter- son since he has been alone, has grown to very large proportions. He is now the sole agent for that company's coal in Ohio, a large part of Michigan, Southern Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. His trade, as may be inferred from this fact, has become very extensive. Mr. Patterson has the controlling interest in two large mines in Jackson County, Ohio, one of which, the Tom Corwin Coal Company's mine, is one of the best equipped mines in the State. The business is carried at the old estab- lished office, Number 235 South Ludlow Street. Mr. Patterson has been for many years prominently identified with the coal trade of this section of the country, has always stood high in commercial circles, and has done much to build up the material interests of the city of Dayton. He was married June 12, 1879, to Miss Luey A. Dun, a daughter of R. G. Dun, . and a niece of Hon. Allen G. Thurman. Mr. and Mrs. Patterson have three children, Robert Dun, born January 21, 1881; Julia J., born June 21, 1883; and Annie L., born July 21, 1886.
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