History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 22

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559

USA > Ohio > Preble County > History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches > Part 22

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

SAMUEL H. QUINN, son of General John Quinn, and brother of Robert W. Quinn, esq., was called to the bar May 14, 1869. Immediately after his admission he went to Cincinnati and commenced the practice of his profession in that city.

GEORGE W. WILSON, ESQ., son of Jefferson Wilson, is a native of Somers township, this county, and was called to the bar May 14, 1869, at the same time with the two gentlemen last named. After his admission he engaged in the practice in this place for a few months, but soon after was employed in the internal revenue service of the Government, in which he has been engaged up to the present time, residing in Hamilton.

JAMES C. ELLIOTT, ESQ., son of John Elliott, was born in Dixon township, this county; read for the bar in the office of Jacob H. Foos, esq., and was admitted to the practice May 10, 1870. He commenced practicing first in the town of Bradford, Miami county, but subse- quently removed to Greenville, Darke county, where he is residing at present.

ALEXANDER F. ANDERSON, ESQ., a citizen of Pauld- ing county, Ohio, was admitted to the bar as an attorney and counsellor at law, by the district court for Preble county, on the tenth of May, 1870.

FREDERICK L. WOOD, ESQ., of Montgomery county, was admitted to the bar by the district court for Preble county, on the fourth day of May, A. D. 1871. Nothing is known here of the antecedents or present status of the two gentlemen last named.

LUTHER C. ABBOTT, ESQ., is a native of Hampshire county, Massachusetts, born in 1831. In youth he re-

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO.

ceived an academic education, and at an early age com- menced teaching in his native state. In the year 1856 he came to Preble county and taught school for some two years. He read law in the office of the late Judge Haines, and was called to the bar in the year 1859, and at once formed a partnership with his preceptor, which continued some eight years. In 1861 he was elected prosecuting attorney, and in 1863 was re-elected. He was also three times elected mayor of Eaton. In 1879 he removed to Richmond, Indiana, where he now resides and is engaged in the practice of his profession.

WILLIAM W. AKER was born at New Madison, Darke county, Ohio, October 19, 1833. In addition to the or- dinary district school facilities, he had the benefit of an academic course, and was subsequently engaged in teach- ing for some twelve years in this and adjoining counties. He attended a course of instruction at Smith's Commer- cial college, and graduated from that institution. After reading law for two years he took a regular course in the law school of Cincinnati college, and graduated in 1872, and was admitted to the Bar in the district court for Hamilton county immediately thereafter. In the year 1862, during the war of the Rebellion, he enlisted in the Ninety-third regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was commissioned second lieutenant of Company H.

After his admission to the bar he established an office for the practice of his profession in West Alexandria, where he has since resided. In the year 1853 he was married to Miss Harriet N. Stevens, of Cincinnati.

JAMES ALEXANDER GILMORE, ESQ., was born on the eleventh day of July, A.D. 1834, in Israel township, Preble county. His father, Dr. Eli Gilmore, was a Virginian, and immigrated to Preble county in the year 1825. During his minority, the subject of this sketch received a passably fair education in the common schools, as good as could be obtained at that time, but had no benefits of an academic training. In the year 1852, when at the age of eighteen years, he went to Eaton, and entered as a student in the law office of his brother, Judge Wm. J. Gilmore. Whilst pursuing his studies there, he worked in the several county offices as occasion and opportunity offered. In the year 1854, he went to the city of Cincinnati, and entered the law school of Cincinnati college, where he graduated in 1855, and was admitted to the bar by the district court of Butler county, on the day after he attained his majority.

After his admission he returned to Eaton and com- menced the practice with his brother, where he remained until the year 1858, in which year he went to Indiana and established an office for the practice of his profession in Greencastle, Putnam county. Herehe remained two years, and then returned to Eaton. Previous to his return, how- ever, in the year 1859 he married Miss Lizzie Applegate, at Greencastle. At this time he remained at Eaton but a single year, returning in 1860 with his wife to Green- castle, where her parents resided.

In the fall of 1861, Mr. Gilmore enlisted in the forty- third regiment, Indiana volunteer infantry, for service in the war for the suppression of the rebellion. Pretty soon after his regiment was mustered into service, he

was detailed in the quartermaster's department, where he served during the term of his enlistment-three years. His regiment was one of the first that entered Memphis. Afterwards the command went to Helena, Arkansas, thence to Little Rock, Camden, etc., remaining, however, most of the time at Little Rock.

Having been in the service the full term of his enlist- ment, he was honorably discharged in the fall of 1864. His wife having died whilst he was in the service, soon after his discharge he re-enlisted in the ninety-first regiment Ohio volunteer infantry-one of the regiments forming the twenty-third army corps. With this com- mand he went to North Carolina. He was again detailed from his regiment, and served his time principally in the judge advocate's department. A part of the time, how- ever, he was a clerk under Captain Phineas R. Minor, in the commissary department.

After his discharge, in 1865, upon the conclusion of the war, our subject spent a year in the west, and then returned to his old home in Eaton, and formed a part- nership for the practice of his profession with Judge J. V. Campbell. On the twelfth day of November, 1869, he was married to Miss Ada M. Hendricks, daughter of General George D. Hendricks. Some time after his marriage he removed to the city of Hamilton and opened an office for the practice of law, where he remained two years and then returned to Eaton, and has resided here ever since. Still retaining his partnership with Judge Campbell, he con- tinued his law practice until the spring of 1879, when he was elected an additional judge of the court of common pleas for this sub-division, which office he now holds.

Judge Gilmore is an able advocate before a jury, logical in presenting his cases before the court, and quite distinguished as a lecturer.

WILLIAM A. WEAVER, ESQ., was admitted to the bar by the district court for Preble county on the fourteenth day of April, A. D., 1874.

JOHN M. SHAEFER is a native of this county, and was born April, 1820. He commenced reading law with General Felix Marsh in 1854, and discontinued it to engage in other pursuits. About 1860 he resumed his reading, this time with Robert Miller, esq., and was admitted to practice April 24, 1874. The same fall he opened an office in Camden where he has since resided. He was elected justice of the peace in Somers township in 1861, serving until 1870, and was mayor of Camden from 1858 until about 1868.

FRANK G. THOMPSON, ESQ., was admitted to the bar on the ninth day of May, 1876. He is the only son of the late Judge G. W. Thompson, and is a native of Eaton. He is a young man of fair promise, who has not been engaged in the practice of law long enough to have established a reputation as a practitioner; nor is he old enough to have formed such acquaintance as would command a remunerative line of business in the profes- sion. He has served for some two years as the secretary of the Preble County Agricultural society, in which de- partment he has acquitted himself with credit.

LEVIN T. STEPHEN, ESQ., son of John R. Stephen, esq., is a native of the village of Eaton, and was admitted to

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO.

the bar on the ninth day of May, 1876. Young Stephen has been engaged to some extent in the business of teach- ing school, and since his admission to the bar, and even before, we believe, has been employed as local editor of the Eaton Weekly Register.

Mr. Stephen's education was obtained wholly in the public schools of the village of Eaton, and his erudition will compare favorably with that of many young men who can boast of academic or collegiate polish. His practice of the law has been quite limited as yet, but will doubtless increase as his ability comes to be better known. He is of very retiring disposition, and too modest to push himself into notice.

MARCUS L. HOLT, ESQ., is a native of Morrow county, Ohio, and was born on the nineteenth day of July, 1841. After the usual preparatory training in the dis- trict schools in the place of his nativity, he entered as a student in the Ohio Wesleyan university at Delaware, and in due time graduated, having gone through the classical course of that institution. Then for two years he had charge of the academy at Berkshire, Ohio, in conjunction with his sister. In the year 1864, after hav- ing taught some five years, he came to Faton and was employed as principal of the public schools of this place for one year. He then conducted a school in the city of Richmond, Indiana, for one year, after which he returned to Eaton and was engaged in the mercantile business in company with his brother-in-law, William E. Doyle, for two years.

Shortly after closing up his mercantile business, the Excelsior School Furniture Manufacturing company was organized here, in which Mr. Holt was a partner and business manager up to the time the establishment was removed to Indianapolis, and for some time afterwards, we believe.

On the thirty-first day of August, 1865 he was married to Miss Sarah J. Walters, daughter of Mr. Joseph Walters. He read law in the office of Messrs. Campbell & Gilmore, and was called to the bar May 9, 1876. He engaged in the practice of his profession soon after his admission, and is succeeding in building up a practice as rapidly as most young men.

OSCAR SHEPPARD, ESQ., was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, July 15, 1844, and in the year 1857 re- moved with his father's family to near Newark, Licking county, where he continued to reside until the year 1861. In July of that year he enlisted in Captain Edwin Nich- ols' company C, Twenty-seventh Ohio volunteer infantry, in which he served until the close of the war for the sup- pression of the rebellion. His regiment was a part of the famous "Ohio legion," and he participated in all its battles and engagements. He re-enlisted with his regi- ment January 1, 1864, "for three years or during the war;" was wounded at the battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864; was present at the surrender of Johnson in North Carolina, in 1865; participated in the grand review at Washington, and was mustered out of service as sergeant major of his regiment at Louisville, Kentucky, in the month of August, 1865.

After his return from the successful termination of the

war, having then just attained his majority, he resumed his educational pursuits, first in the public schools of Newark, and then in the national normal school at Leb- anon, Ohio. In the year 1869 he came to Preble county, and during nine years thereafter was engaged in teaching -for six years of that time as principal of the public schools in West Alexandria. In the year 1873 he was appointed a member of the board of county school ex- aminers, and has been twice reappointed.

In the year 1872 he commenced the study of law in the office of Jonathan Rees, esq., of Newark, where he remained during three vacations. After a short interval he resumed the study in the office of Messrs. Campbell & Gilmore, in Eaton, where he completed his prepara- tory course, and was called to the bar on the ninth day of May, 1877. In June, 1878, he opened an office in the village of West Alexandria, where he is now engaged in the practice.

On the fourth day of September 1877, Mr. Sheppard was married to Miss Alice C. Gale, daughter of John H. Gale (deceased), of West Alexandria.

LEWIS M. DILLMAN, ESQ., son of Joseph Dillman, of the vicinity of Camden, was admitted to the bar on the ninth day of May, 1877. We believe Mr. Dillman is now (1880) travelling in the State of Illinois in the inter- est of a school book publishing company.

JOHN A. MOORE, ESQ., was admitted to the bar, by the district court for Preble county, April 28, 1879. He is a citizen of New Paris, this county.

JOSEPH "GIDEON MCNUTT, ESQ., was a native of Eaton, and born October 7, 1833. He was the only son of John M. U. McNutt, esq., and Jane C. Hawkins McNutt. He was admitted to the bar, and practiced in this county, and also in Indiana, but we have not been able to get hold of any records that would enable us to trace his history. His friends in Indiana have been written to on the subject, but no answer obtained. He died at Rich- mond, Indiana, March 2, 1877, of consumption.

WILLIAM A. NEAL, born February 2, 1853, read law under Winfield Freeman, esq., then of Eaton. He was admitted to the bar before the supreme court of Ohio March 5, 1878, and at once commenced practice in Eaton, where he still resides. He was elected mayor of Eaton April, 1880.

MARCUS BRUTUS CHADWICK, ESQ., son of Samuel R. Chadwick (an emigrant from western New York, and a merchant of New Paris, afterwards of Winchester, in this county), was educated at Miami university, and after be- ing admitted to the bar as an attorney at law, came to Eaton in the year 1848, and opened an office for the practice of his profession. In 1849 he was elected prose- cuting attorney. In 1853 he quit the practice, and bought a farm and saw-mill in Gasper township. After several years he removed to Shelby county, Indiana, where he at present resides. We have been unable to obtain any further data for a more extended notice. Mr. Chadwick has been written to, but no response re- ceived.

JOHN B. DRAYER, ESQ., a native of Butler county, after being called to the bar, came to Eaton in the year

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO.

1850, and secured a partnership in the law practice with M. B. Chadwick, esq. He was here but a few years, and removed to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where he has been on the bench as circuit judge for a number of years.

FELIX M. MARSH was born in Eaton, Preble county, Ohio, May 15, 1843, and received his education in the public schools of that place and at Miami university. He read law with his father, Felix Marsh, and was ad- mitted to practice in the United States court at Wash- ington city, District of Columbia, in the year 1867, in which city he was residing at the time, being employed in the general post office department. He was appointed to a position in that department December 20, 1864, and remained there until April, 1871, when he resigned and returned to engage in the practice of his profession, as- sociating himself in business with his father. After the death of his father, he and his brother, William, formed a partnership, and are conducting a good business.

WILLIAM B. MARSH was born in Eaton, Preble coun- ty, Ohio, July 15, 1845. He received his education at the Eaton public schools. He read law under his father, General Felix Marsh, and was admitted to the bar at Hamilton, Butler county, Ohio, in 1867. He commenced practicing at Camden, this county, and was elected a justice of the peace of Somers township in April, 1867, and re-elected in 1870. He was elected mayor of Camden in 1871. In 1877 he removed to Eaton and has since been engaged in a rapidly growing practice. He has made quite a reputation in the county -for a young attorney-as a successful criminal lawyer.

ELAM FISHER is a native of Preble county, and was born July 26, 1846. The education which he received at the public schools of Eaton, was supplemented by an attendance at a commercial school in Dayton and a classical course at Miami university, Oxford, Ohio, from which institution he graduated in 1869. Shortly after- ward he commenced the study of law under Jacob H. Foos, esq., of Eaton, and in the fall of 1869 entered the law school of Michigan university, at Ann Arbor, Mich- igan, where he graduated in 1871. The same year he was married to Miss May Still, of Evansville, Indiana. After his marriage he settled in Indianapolis, where he was admitted to the bar. Being in poor health during his residence in that city, he decided to return to Eaton, and in June, 1872, he formed a partnership with his for- mer preceptor, Mr. Foos, and since then has been in active practice, and has assisted in the conduct of a" great many cases. Mr. Fisher possesses a good legal mind, and is a patient, careful investigator.

WALTER SAYLER was born at Winchester, this county, October 3, 1857. After attending the public schools of that village, he went to the National normal school, at Lebanon, Ohio, and graduated in the scientific course in 1876. He commenced studying law under Robert Miller, esq., of Eaton, in 1878, and in the fall of 1878 returned to Lebanon and took a classical course, which included the law course, after which he resumed his studies with Mr. Miller. He has practiced in justices' courts, but at this writing has not been admitted to the bar.

CHAPTER XVIII. RAILROADS.

THE EATON AND HAMILTON-CINCINNATI, RICHMOND AND CHICAGO.

The Eaton & Hamilton railroad company was organ- ized under special charter in 1849, and its object was to construct a railroad from Eaton, Preble county, by such route as the directors might select, to Hamilton, Butler county. The late Judge Abner Haines performed very valuable service in securing the charter, and the instru- ment itself was drawn up by Joseph Hawkins. The road was in operation to Eaton in the spring of 1852, and later in the same year the track was laid and rolling stock run over as far as Westville. The incorporators and first directors of the company, who had their residences in Preble county, were Dr. Lurton Dunham, of Camden; Cornelius Vanausdal, Ellis Minshall, and Alfred Denny, of Eaton. Cornelius Vanausdal was the first president of the company, but held that office less than a year. Jesse B. Stephens was secretary, and Josiah Campbell, treasurer. Abner Haines succeeded Vanausdal as pres- ident, and Ezekiel W. McGuire came in as treasurer, and remained in that position of trust for many years. John Woods, of Hamilton, was the third president, and served a little over a year, David Barnett, of Barnett station, succeeding him, and was president of the company for a period of nine years-from 1854 to 1863-when the rail- road passed into the possession of the Cincinnati, Rich- mond & Chicago railroad company. It is a fact worthy of note that the iron originally laid upon the line of the Eaton & Hamilton railroad was purchased in England. Charles Seymour, a civil engineer in the employment of the company, communicated with his brother in England -Sir Digby Seymour, member of Parliament-who sim- ply negotiated the company's promise to pay, and without using any bonds of the corporation secured all of the iron necessary. It was bought in England for about thirty dollars per ton, and when it reached its destination was worth from sixty to sixty-five dollars. It was carried to New Orleans as ballast by cotton vessels, only a mere nominal sum being charged for freight, and from the southern seaport was sent up the river to Cincinnati. The original subscription to the stock of the Eaton & Hamil- ton railroad was sixty-five thousand dollars, of which sum the amount raised in Preble county was about forty thou- sand dollars. Afterwards a much larger amount of money was raised, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars being secured from Cincinnati railroad fund alone.

November 1, 1864, the Eaton & Hamilton company leased for ninety-nine years, renewable forever, that part of the Richmond & Miami railway extending from the point of connection therewith on the State line to the junction or switch about two miles east of Richmond, In- diana; and also the use, in common with the Dayton & Western railroad company, of the remaining portion, ex- tending to the city of Richmond. The company becom- ing financially embarrassed, suit was brought against it in Butler county common pleas court by Joseph B. Var- num and the co-trustees for foreclosure of mortgage and

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO.

sale of road. Pending the proceedings, June 1, 1865, an agreement for a reorganization of the company, and the capitalization of its stock and debt, was submitted to its stockholders and creditors, which was acceded to. In pursuance thereof, the road was sold by order of the court, and was purchased by trustees for the benefit of the parties to the agreement of capitalization. May 3, 1866, the reorganization was perfected by filing certifi- cate thereof with the secretary of State, the new company assuming the name of Cincinnati, Richmond & Chicago railroad company. February 18, 1869, this company leased its road and property in perpetuity, assigning also its lease of the Richmond & Miami railway to the Cin- cinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad company, the lessee paying expenses of operating, maintenance of road and property, payment of interest on bonded debt, etc .; any surplus of earnings to inure to the benefit of the Cincin- nati, Richmond & Chicago railroad company. The line has since that time been operated by the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad company.

The Piqua branch of the Eaton & Hamilton road was projected a number of years ago, and had it been built would, undoubtedly, have proved profitable in it- self, and a great advantage to Eaton and Preble county. The Louisville & Sandusky railroad was one among many of the projects which never reached perfection. Over one hundred thousand dollars worth of work was performed on this line, but the company becoming em- barrassed in the great railroad panic of 1855, abandoned the road. Its line will probably be used some time, and possibly in the near future, by the Evansville, & Belle- fontaine & Lake Erie railroad company.

A chapter might be written upon the several railroad enterprises which have been undertaken in this part of the State, and which have fallen through and failed of success from various causes.

THE DAYTON AND WESTERN RAILROAD

Next to the Eaton & Hamilton or Cincinnati, Ham- ilton & Dayton railroad, the one in which Preble county has the most interest is the Dayton & Western.

This company was chartered February 14, 1846, to construct a road from Dayton to a point on the State line between Ohio and Indiana to be selected by the directors. Construction was commenced in Jnly, 1848, and the road opened for business October 11, 1853, from Dayton to State line, thirty-eight miles. January 14, 1863, the company leased to the Dayton & Union railroad company the permanent use in common of its track from Dayton to Dodson, fifteen miles, subordinate to the necessary use of the same by the lessor, for the sum of eight thousand dollars yearly, payable in monthly installments, to be supplemented, when the gross earn- ings of the Dayton & Union railroad shall exceed one hundred thousand dollars per annum, by ten per cent. on all such excess. Under date of February 4, 1865, the company leased from the Richmond & Miami rail- way company of Indiana, for ninety-nine years from January 1, 1865, renewable forever, the entire control of its road, right of way, buildings, etc., from its western

terminus on the line dividing the States of Ohio and Indiana, to the point of junction or switch where its road diverges and runs to Eaton and Hamilton; also the use of the remaining portion to its western terminus in the city of Richmond, three miles in all, for the semi-annual payment of two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, payable each first of January and July. February 4, 1865, the company entered into an agreement to lease the Little Miami and Columbus & Xenia railroad com- panies, for ninety-nine years from January 1, 1865, renewable forever, its road, property and privileges, ex- cepting certain leased premises and other property in Dayton, the shop, machinery, tools, etc., and providing that a contract between the Dayton & Western and Columbus & Xenia companies of March 12, 1863, be surrendered and settled up to the above date. The lease was made subject to a contract of lease between the Dayton & Western and Dayton & Union railroad companies of January 14, 1863, by which the latter have the use of the Dayton & Western track from Dayton to Dodson. Also of a contract dated May 26, 1864, between the Dayton and Western and Cincinnati, Ham- ilton & Dayton railroad companies, relating to the joint use of tracks of the two companies in Dayton and the bridge over the Great Miami river. The lease of the Richmond & Miami railway was also transferred and assigned, the lessees assuming all the stipulations and conditions of the several named contracts of the Dayton & Western company, and agreeing to carry out its sev- eral provisions. The Dayton & Western company agreed to procure, to be transferred to the lessees, a ma- jority of its capital stock, not less than one hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars in the aggregate. The lease was made subject to a deed of trust, dated November 1, 1864, to secure the payment of seven hundred and thirty- eight thousand dollars, bonds of the Dayton & West- ern railroad company, due and payable January 1, 1895, the lessees assuming payment of the semi-annual interest thereon as rental for said property, and also agreeing to indorse and guarantee the payment of the principal and interest of said bonds, the Dayton & Western company agreeing, upon the full payment thereof and the interest thereon, to convey in fee simple to the said lessees of the railroad and property thereby leased. The Columbus & Xenia company assigned its interest in the foregoing lease to the Little Miami railroad company, to take effect December 1, 1868, and it was transferred by that com- pany, together with its own and other leased lines, to the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis railway company, taking effect December 1, 1869, and the road since that time has been operated by that company, in connection with its own and other leased lines.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 22

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 559

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559